《48 Hours a Day》


 Chapter 1: Extra Twenty-four Hours

    <h4>Chapter 1: Extra Twenty-four Hours</h4>


    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion


    It was a month ago when Zhang Heng first found out that he had twenty-four hours more than others.


    It all started with his watch��a Swiss Tissot Automatic III analog timepiece, which was a gift from his parents who were away in d for his eighteenth birthday.


    It had been purchased in the most perfunctory manner from Taobao1, and then delivered by the seller. To boot, it was addressed to the wrong ss.


    Zhang Heng no longer had it in him to grumble about these two people��before he even graduated from primary school, the two immortals1 had already packed their bags and made haste for Europe to get started with a whole new life.


    His parents who had met in an academic exchange conference, were both theologians��who specialized in religious and mythological studies. Naturally, in their materialism1 oriented homnd, theirs was not a popr field.


    However, unlike deceitful shenguns1, Zhang Heng��s parents were the real deal: one had graduated from the University of Oxford majoring in Nordic and Greek mythology whereas the other was a Durham University graduate who had published several papers Christian mythology, proving to be quite an influence in this field.


    In the end, they found themselves having trouble fitting in back home in China.


    By chance, his father��s academic advisor took over arge project and was short-staffed. After a brief dialogue between the couple, Zhang Heng��s parents handed their son over to his maternal grandfather, and then left in a hurry to begin a hectic life of research that moved them all around the world.


    They return home to visit only once a year, which meant that Zhang Heng spent his entire childhood with his grandfather.


    Maybe because they felt guilty about it, these two immortals never deprived the old man and their young in expenses.


    Excluding school fees or boarding fees, Zhang Heng��s one-year college allowance was about thirty-thousand yuan. Although not as much as what the sports-car-driving fuerdais1 get, it was considered pretty decent among the average students.


    Alright, back to the main subject.


    The whole thing with the watch was pretty weird. Zhang Heng had just woken up from a night��s sleep to look at the time when he noticed that the marking at the top of the dial had changed from 12 to 24.


    Zhang Heng nked out for a moment, then very calmly returned the watch to its ce before drawing up his covers and continued to sleep.


    An hour and a halfter, his friend that slept opposite him sent him a text message to inform him regrettably, that the attendance for Further Mathematics ss was taken.


    It was not a dream?


    After a ten minutes shower, Zhang Heng sat down at the desk at the foot of his bed and switched on hisputer.


    The first thing he did was to check into Taobao and lookup ��24-hour-dial watch prank��. The search results read��Sorry, we cannot find you��re looking for.


    Zhang Heng deleted the word ��prank��; still, nothing matched his search.


    Was this not a prank?


    Zhang Heng rubbed his chin pensively. If he turned a blind eye on the twelve extra dials that appeared out of nowhere, the time on his watch was consistent with the one on his desktop. Upon a closer look, Zhang Heng also confirmed that this twenty-four-dialed timepiece was the same one he had been wearing.


    Even the scratches on the case back and creases on the strap were consistent��little details, that no one else, other than he as the owner of the watch, knew.


    Of course, there were those hardcore pranksters who would make sure the lookalikes were undifferentiable from the real thing, but who would have so much time to spare to pull such an borate prank? They might as well spend such skills and zeal restoring relics in the Forbidden City.


    To sum it up, Zhang Heng knew that someone was messing with him.


    The average person would have had a fit encountering such a supernatural event. Zhang Heng, though, was not your average joe, thanks to his immortal parents.


    Most parents would coax their children to sleep with fairytales starring the little rabbit or baby squirrel. Zhang Heng��s parents, on the other hand, put their professional knowledge to use, so that that young Zhang Heng went to bed with Nordic mythologies and Bible stories.


    Even though he did not waste away the nine years ofpulsory education, and became a materialist, the foundation that had been established in him when he was younger remained.


    He was better at epting situations like this much better than most.


    To exin using the concept of the trending boardgame ��The Call of the Cthulhu��, his character��s Sanity points depletion was slow.


    Instead of feeling fearful, he found whatever that was happening to him to be very interesting.


    The normal watch had twelve dials and after the hour-handpleted two rotations, a day would have passed. Now, his limited-edition watch with twenty-four dials only needed toplete one rotation to indicate the passing of one full day.


    Looking at it that way did not make it seem like a big deal at all. Once he had gotten used to it, it would feel almost natural.


    But Zhang Heng believed that whoever did this would not have been satisfied with just simply changing the clock face.


    His instinct told him that whatever that was supposed to happen would most probably happen when the needlepletes one round.


    It was about fifteen hours before the end of the day, and Zhang Heng did not n to remain idle during this period of time.


    There was no need to attend the Further Mathematics ss since the attendance had already been taken. The lecturer that had warned the ss that an absence would mean a deduction of five points in their final examination.


    The damage had already been done.


    So, he decided to go down to the park and make up for the morning run he had missed.


    To his ssmates, Zhang Heng was actually quite unique. Ever since they began attending university, the student became even wearier of getting out of bed early. This ssmate of theirs was the only one insisting on waking up to go for morning runs. But for all that, he had never signed up for anypetition during sports day, and rarely participated in group activities. He especially disliked gatherings. But once you have talked to him, you would find that he was not the arrogant person he appeared to be; in fact, you might even find this person to be quite interesting.


    A rumor about Zhang Heng being multi-talented had been circting among the girls. Apparently, someone had returned to university before the holiday ended and saw him alone in the piano room ying Paganini��s No. 3 Etude, La Campane (The Bell), cleverly adapted by Franz Liszt from the Italian violinist��s ��The Violin Concerto No. 2 in B minor�� to a piano solo. Written using the cyclic form, the piece was notoriously difficult to y with various new technical methods cropping up every now and then, testing the pianist��s dexterity and prowess.


    Some people remarked that they had seen Zhang Heng training in the archery range, and ording to his roommate, he was also a member of a certain rock-climbing club.


    These were true yet also false.


    Zhang Heng was not as extreme as the stories described him to be. The morning runs was a habit imposed upon him by his grandfather��he was simply used to the routine. He might be slightly faster and tougher than most people but was not nearly as good as the specially recruited student athletes.


    Archery was something he had only recently decided to try on a whim. With only three lessons under his belt, he was scarcely a novice. Rock climbing, on the other hand, was one of those things you enthusiastically sign up for and then forget about almost instantly.


    The piano was the only thing that he had grown up ying, but his level was only at about eighth or ninth grade. That La Campane piece was just a recording in his phone that he had yed when he was alone in the piano room. He never thought that it would get him famous.


    Wherefore, the unordinary Zhang Heng was actually not that unordinary.


    He was interested in many things but like it or not time is fair to everyone.


    Regardless of whether you value it, whether you decide to spend every minute productively or y as a useless person spending most of the time in bed, every person only has twenty-four hours at their disposal��not a second more, not a second less.

 Chapter 2: Selecting The Right Book To Read

    <h4>Chapter 2: Selecting The Right Book To Read</h4>


    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion


    He ran sevenps around the field��2,800 meters.


    After that, he showered in the public bathroom, changed into a clean white T-shirt and a pair of jeans, enjoyed his breakfast at a leisurely pace in the canteen and then finally walked to the library with the book ��Xiao Shan Wanhua Mirror�� he had finished reading.


    Like the morning run, reading was also one of Zhang Heng��s routine which he kept at the speed of one book per week.


    But unlike the run, reading brought him many pleasures. It was more like a pastime for him��one that he had always enjoyed.


    As a matter of fact, if it were not for the limitation of time, he would be reading more than just one book every week.


    After he returned the book at the service desk, Zhang Heng pulled out the phone in his pocket and opened an applet called Random Number Generator. With the setting adjusted to eight digits, he eagerly rolled the virtual dice.


    Admittedly, it was not without ground that people thought that this guy was a genius.


    The regr person would never have thought to use this dice-rolling method to choose a book to read.


    But there was merit or perhaps entricity to Zhang Heng��s reading style. Perhaps it was because he had gone through too many books since he was child, Zhang Heng could read any kind of books. From world-famous works to Dragon Proud Sky*1, Xiaobai Wen2*, and even the Perfect Man from Jin Jiang, Zhang Heng would soak them up like a sponge. And he got worse after that. He would stillplete vapid books like Compendium of Medical Herbs and Scientific Swine Raising Handbook.


    To avoid the trouble of having to select a book and to experience the pure joy of having chanced upon a good book, he developed a normal distribution applet to help him pick his weekly reading material.


    It was such a pity that the appeal for campus research grant had fallen through, where hecked the funding to market his invention.


    Zhang Heng concluded it was because the capital marketcked vision.


    ...


    Using thest two digits of the randomly generated number as a guide, Zhang Heng found himself in the management section.


    Although not literature like thest time, he considered it to be quite a stroke of luck. At least it was much better than the ��Bill of Quantitates for Water Drainage, Heating, and Gas Engineering�� he gotst month.


    Stretching out a finger, Zhang Heng pulled out the title for this week��Adam Smith��s ��The Wealth of Nations��.


    This was going to be a very pleasant afternoon.


    Zhang Heng found himself a seat by the window and began to engross himself in the book.


    Some of you might be scoffing right now. Really? He��s not going to fuss over that recently turned-faerie watch of his?


    Well, as evident by Zhang Heng��s attitude, he really could not care less about it.


    Addressing the issue proactively was the appropriate response, but only if it was within your capability. But in the face of a supernatural phenomenon like this, where there is ack of information, perhaps not doing anything about it is the better option. Have you not seen those ssic horror films where the ghosts touch the person and the person would die? The actors or actresses had to pack their bags and go home since they were no longer part of the horror film.


    On the contrary, you have to pretend that it did not exist at all, keeping a cool andposed mind, and keep moving. Who knows, it might just be a frightening but harmless haunted house tour.


    Which is exactly why, many a times, staying calm and collected is the most important thing.


    Right now, Zhang Heng was exactly that. No one would be able to tell that this guy had just experienced paranormal encounter; he missed ss and use the time to go for a morning run, spent a whole afternoon poring over ��The Wealth of Nations��, and then attended his elective Critical Thinking ss. Come night, he even honored his promise to his roommates and went to the restaurant opposite for barbeque skewers1 and ended the evening watching American TV-series back in their dorm.


    At eleven-thirty, it was lights-off in the dormitory.


    Zhang Heng��sptop had another three to four hours of battery life but he did not want to disturb his roommate��s sleep, so he powered it down.


    There was still another half an hour before the day ended, and while other people��s watch hand had circled twice, Zhang Heng��s familiar yet alien analog was only about toplete one cycle.


    Was anything going to happen? He did not know.


    All he could do was wait.


    Earphones plugged into the MP3 and into his ears, Zhang Heng spent thest thirty minutes of the day waiting quietly on his bed.


    00:00


    All three hands converged pointing upwards. There was a split-second pause before the seconds hand continued to travel.


    Zhang Heng did not notice anything unusual.


    Was his guess wrong?


    He pulled out his earphones and immediately��he could sense that something was off.


    The surroundings��it was too quiet.


    Summer nights were especially full with activities: the small electrical fan above the door groaning and squeaking as it swiveled from side to side, the mosquitos droning tiresomely at people��s ears, the water tap next door dripping onto the sink, the stray cat mewing as it hurried across the nt beds downstairs, the snoring of his roommate in the bed opposite...


    Tonight, all of it was gone.


    The whole world suddenly lost its sounds, and became unprecedentedly, and eerily silent.


    If it were not for the faint music ying in his earphone, Zhang Heng might have presumed that he had lost his hearing.


    Borrowing the dim lighting from the screen of the MP3, Zhang Heng peered at the time on his watch.


    It was now 00:01.


    Usually, the people in the dorm opposite theirs would still be up ying League of Legends and their loud hurrahs at theirpletion of a brilliant kill or narrow escape were perceptible through the thin walls separating the rooms.


    Zhang Heng also noticed something else unusual��the date disy on the right side of the watch face, instead of changing along with the time, remained the same as yesterday.


    An idea popped into his mind, and he jumped off his bed��he had gone to bed fully-clothed.


    Hisptop lit up in the dark, and in less than seven seconds, the QQ login interface popped up. But Zhang Heng��s attention was not on the main portion of the screen. His gaze was on the toolbar at the bottom.


    00:00


    2017/9/20


    Wasn��t it thest moment of yesterday?


    Zhang Heng waited for a moment, and then pressed his fingertips against his wrist, and counted to 200. That was seventy-two beats per minute. Two minutes had passed yet the time on his monitor remained at 00.00.


    Zhang Heng��s raised an eyebrow at this, but made no hasty conclusions.


    He walked to the bed opposite his and shook the sleeping Chen Huadong who was the lightest sleeper in the dorm. Normally, someone getting off their bed to get a drink of water would have startled him but this time, no matter how hard Zhang Heng shook him, he remained unresponsive.


    ��I��m sorry, bro. Although I don��t have a girlfriend, I��m not the kind of person you may think I am.��


    Zhang Heng put his finger under his friend��s nostrils and tried to have fun in such a weird atmosphere.


    This guy��s mental state was rather excellent.


    After five minutes, Zhang Heng still could not detect any breath.


    If this was part of the prank, then Chen Huadong��s breath-holding ability was out of this world. He could even break the Guinness World Record.


    So, Zhang Heng did the same, testing his two other roommates�� breath.


    The results were the same as Chen Huadong��s.


    Zhang Heng could say for certain that he really was facing a scientifically unexinable otherworldly phenomenon.


    He was in a time zone that should not exist.


    An example would be like the river of time had purposely branched out another stream just for him.

 Chapter 3: Still World

    <h4>Chapter 3: Still World</h4>


    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion


    Zhang Heng pushed the door of his dorm opened. The hallway was quiet, it felt like he walking in one of those hospital morgues, with only the sound of his footsteps echoing.


    The door to the opposite dorm was left ajar and there was a bright light pouring from it. Zhang Heng stuck his head in to take a look and saw four people engrossed in aputer game.


    On the screen, their characters were pursuing a low health point Annie1. The skills emitted were suspended in mid-air, and the excited expressions on their faces were unmoving like four very life-like statues.


    Zhang Heng noticed an rm clock on of their desks��the time showed 00.00.


    After that, he went around to all the other dorms on the same floor.


    Some of them were locked before their tenants went to bed, so he could not enter them. The ones he did enter were all the same, all frozen at the veryst moment of the day.


    In the bathroom, someone was huffing away while hiding from the dormitory caretaker. The sparks from the cigarette butt were clear as stars but they were not spreading, and the smoke the person exhaled from the corner of his mouth was suspended in the air.


    Zhang Heng could not help but take out his phone and took a picture of this magical scene.


    When he was clicking on the camera shutter, he made another interesting discovery��in this world where the time had stopped moving, it was not only the people who were on pause, the things all around also remained in the state it was in at the veryst second of the day.


    Just like that skill in mid-air, the electric fan in standstill, and now, this cigarette that never burns out.


    But there were also exceptions.


    To test his theory, Zhang Heng plucked the cigarette out from between the person��s fingers.


    When the tab was tucked in between his fingers, it began to continue burning.


    So that was how it was.


    In this space of time, where he was the only one who could move about, anything that he touches would continue to function as usual, just like this cigarette, and his cell phone,puter, and MP3 yer. The only thing was that the time disyed on the screens remained unchanged.


    However, this trick did not seem to work on humans. Earlier on, he had shaken Chen Huadong to wake him but his friend had remained unresponsive.


    Then what about all the other living creatures other than humans?


    Intrigued, Zhang Heng returned to his room, turned on the torchlight on his phone and went near his roommates. After two minutes, using his 20MP soft-light dual camera in the pitch-ck room, he finally found his what he was looking for��the mostmonly seen, most detested creature in the summer��mosquito.


    Once this insect enters your room, you can forget about having a peaceful night.


    Zhang Heng��s dorm was on the third floor, which was considered quite close to the ground. At this height, the mosquito did not need to take the lift to move into their room. To keep those pests away, people resorted to all kinds of repellents: lighting up mosquito-repellent incense, applying repellent sprays, hand mosquitos, et cetera. But there were always one or two fugitives.


    This particr mosquito was lurking next to Dorm Leader Wei Jiangyan��s pillow, waiting for its chance to enjoy a full meal.


    Unfortunately for the insect, its dream was about to be crushed tonight.


    Zhang Heng reached out a hand, plucked the mosquito from the air by its wings, and then ce it on his palm.


    The insect maintained its mid-flying posture like a most dedicated actor��ignoring the target that was near to it.


    ��It looks like it doesn��t work on animals either.��


    Once the experiment was over, Zhang Heng crushed the mosquito and sessfully eliminated the pest.


    s, now that he had explored the building, it was time to go out and take a look.


    He went to the bathroom and washed away tall traces of the crushed insect, and then continued his walk downstairs.


    The caretakerdy on duty was standing by the door holding arge U-shaped locked. She was probably locking up.


    Now, this was another distinguishing feature of higher education institutions, although some other universities had very different managerial styles on dormitory.


    Zhang Heng��s school had a twelve o��clock curfew. But if the students for some reason had to returnte, they could always wake the caretaker by tapping on her window.


    They would be allowed to return to their rooms once their details were taken down. Nheless, if this happened frequently, the student would be reprimanded and punished.


    Zhang Heng walked past the caretaker without so much as breaking a sweat. On a normal day, she would have stopped and questioned him.


    But right now, she seemed to have suddenly developed the ability to see through things. Her eyes were focused on the handle of the door, past Zhang Heng��s body, as if a living person had not just walked past in front of her.


    That was how Zhang Heng strolled out of the dormitory building. He raised his head to take a look at the night sky as he walked through the empty campus, and finally came to the school gate.


    It was much busier here.


    While the campus was not very big, it was in a pretty good location, sitting on the edge of the third ring road, facing the main road.


    Nights in the city were especially long.


    The fried pancake stall on the overpass was packed with customers. Many of the white-cor workers who had just left their offices stopped by for supper on their way home. Not far away, a street cleaner was quietly sweeping the walkway. Under the tform, two bald uncles in suits and leather shoes were talking into their phones as they waited for the veryte night-bus. Behind them, in a twenty-four-hour convenience store, a girl with a bear hairclip sitting at the counter yawned...


    At precisely 00:00, they froze synchronically.


    It was like pressing the pause button while watching a movie.


    The cars speeding on the road had all went still.


    Zhang Heng had seen what this city looked like at midnight the one time he went to the train station to pick up a friend.


    But this was the first time he was able to observe it up close.


    He could see the green onions that the pancake hawker was sprinkling onto the dish, the street cleaner��s calloused hands and darkenedplexion, the bald uncle��s oily nose and the picture of his one-month-old baby on the screen of his phone, the idol poster that the girl behind the counter hid under the cash register...


    All these little details that were overlooked every day now stood out to Zhang Heng.


    It was as if he was getting to know the city all over again.


    Zhang Heng used his WeChat to unlock a mobike. While riding through the city, he also tested his presumptions.


    Before the hour hand on his watch hadpleted its second rotation, he hurried back to his dorm before the caretakerdy could lock the door.


    At 00:00, Zhang Heng was not wearing any earphones.


    The next second, sounds and noises poured into his ears like water.


    ��Nice! I��m going to kill that person! I can finally use my Infinite de!��


    ��Push tower! They don��t dare to go against us!��


    ��I can��t! I have to go back and replenish my hp!��


    ...


    The electric fan above the door creaked as it oscited. Outside the window, a feral cat wailed. In the hallway outside, slippers pped the floor as someone ran past. Zhang Heng who had not closed his night for more than a day was finally ovee exhaustion. After plugging in his phone to the charger, he threw himself onto his bed and entered dreand.

 Chapter 4: A Small Test

    <h4>Chapter 4: A Small Test</h4>


    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion


    ��Hey, did you girls hear? A media senior girl lied to a freshman about an internship opportunity but when she arrived at the ce, she found out that she had been tricked into drinking with other men. They even took naked pictures of her. Yesterday night, that senior��s dormmate suddenly disappeared. Her roommate said that she saw her go to bed. But she vanished just like that.��


    ��I heard that too! All the girls in Block Two are freaking out. They searched the entire campus but didn��t find her. Then the police called the school and asked the head of the university to go to the station. Apparently, someone sent all her dirt to the authorities. Among them were two pictures that had close shots on her. But, it seemed like the person in the picture did not realize that there was a camera in front of her. This is just weird.��


    ��Speaking of weird, isn��t the Wumart twelve o��clock legend even scarier?��


    ��What twelve o��clock legend?��


    ��How can you not know about that? It has been spreading around the campus like a wildfire! Every Monday, exactly at midnight, a bottle of Nescafe coffee would go missing at that Wumart near the library, and every time, there would be exactly 4.50 yuan in the cash register. The two cashiers who work there are scared to death! When they looked at the surveince videos, the coffee just vanished in split seconds. There was no one in the videos.��


    ��Wow! Just hearing the story gives me the chills.��


    A group of girls chatted as they passed by Zhang Heng who was fussing with a newly acquired Sonypact camera.


    For a month now, since he found out that he had extra twenty-four hours, he had been experimenting and got the hang of this newfound ability.


    That media senior incident was just something he came across. He was just merely trying his hand.


    If he prepared well, he could incite World War III1 if he wanted to.


    Of course, doing that would not benefit him in any way.


    Other than that, he could also walk down the street with a fire axe and hack away at all the ATMs. He could be a Top 100 millionaire overnight! He could also just steal one yuan from every person��s wallet, and earn twenty million while inflicting the smallest impact.


    But for the time being, he had no need in this regard.


    To a sophomore, thirty-thousand yuan allowance was more than enough. He would not know where to spend the extra money.


    His family did not need financial support from him��forget about his parents that were focusing on their research in another country; his grandfather was the first batch of university students during the reintroduction of gaokao1 in 77. After graduation, he became a senior engineer of a water conservatory project. Now that he was retired, he had a pension and a retirement home with a courtyard where he nted his own crops and y chess. He was currently very contented with his life.


    As a matter of fact, now that he was familiar with his abilities, Zhang Heng did not need to break thew to earn money.


    Take his recent participation in the photography club, for example. Next month, a major photographypetition with the theme ��city impression�� was taking ce. The senior in charge managed to find pretty good sponsorships, so the first ce winner would be getting five thousand yuan and a Canon EF 17-40mm f/4L wide-angle zoom lens, and the second and third ce winner would be getting three thousand yuan each along with some prizes.


    Having joined the clubte, Zhang Heng had only been to two sses and one seminar. He was still heavily reliant on the inte to learn. His progress was currently only atposition and exposure. During Zhang Heng��s private twenty-four hours, everyone would be standing still for him to take pictures of them. To an ordinary photographer, it was a golden opportunity. Without any editing, the pictures of all those frozen moments were enough to touch someone��s heart.


    Since his skills were still insubstantial��he was still perplexed by color warmth and depth of field. But through his lens, the city had a certain unusual charm about it.


    Zhang Heng had picked out two of the more satisfactory photos from the shots he tookst night and signed up for thepetition.


    He was not necessarily eyeing the prizes, but to that he could to gauge his own progress.


    Ever since he found out about the extra time he had, instead of slowing down, Zhang Heng became even busier.


    In the beginning, it was mainly because he was testing and experimenting. For example, would the objects that he touched break away fromplete stillness? Would it resume its stillness after he had stopped being in contact with the object? How much area did this stop-in-time cover? Was it limited only to this city? He bought a ne ticket to fly to a ce one thousand miles away on a Saturday...


    Through these experiments, he was able to find the answers to most of these questions. For now, he had no way of verifying the more difficult ones.


    After that, he had to figure out what to do with the extra twenty-four hours.


    First was sleep, which was necessary. He used to sleep at midnight.


    Early on, his curiosity would bring him all over the city for the entire day. But once he got used to it, he could not do it anymore.


    In the twenty-four hours when everyone was motionless, and the time on his wrist continued to move, his physical needs were still present and he still experienced hunger, thirst, difort, and exhaustion from a full day of activity.


    ��Hmm, does this mean that I would age faster than normal?�� Zhang Heng stared at his own reflection in the mirror. Unfortunately, this was a question he would not be able to answer in the short term.


    After all the time he spent eating and sleeping, he had about fourteen hours left. His remaining period of time was enough for him to do plenty of things like reading. Perhaps it was his theologian parents�� influence that caused him to be interested in all kinds of bizarre knowledge. Previously, because of time limitations, he could only read a book a week. Now, he had made a new arrangement and was dedicating six hours every Monday and Wednesday to reading.


    The bright and spacious library had be exclusively his. He did not need to book a ce in advance or sit next to a strange person��he could even visit the library in his pajamas and flip flops.


    An interesting book, paired with a cup of cold coffee was enough to pass some meaningful time.


    Other than that, Zhang Heng even picked up the rock-climbing hobby he had abandoned and added a new one, photography to his list of hobbies. He continued to attend sses as usual, and then practice and consolidate what he had learned in his own time.


    He had continued to practice in the shooting range and his coach was constantly surprised by his incredible progress every week. He was even encouraged to seriously consider the possibility of expanding in this area.


    Of course, Zhang Heng��s favorite activity was his nightly city roams. Every day, he would spend at least two hours walking around town.


    The big city at midnight held many secrets.


    Zhang Heng took advantage of the frozen time and his camera, quietly observing every corner of the city, as if he was watching a stop-motion film. Most of the time he was just a silent observer, but on asion, he would take action to change some of the circumstances that he did not like very much.


    These changes had nothing to do with good or evil. He had no interest in ying God or the devil. He was simply enjoying the time that belonged only to him.

 Chapter 5: Covenant

    <h4>Chapter 5: Covenant</h4>


    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion


    Thursday afternoons were set aside for staring into space.


    This time every week, he would normally refrain from being involved in any work or activities. Instead he would burrow in a ce of his liking and waste his time away to his heart��s content.


    These ces could be the park, the temple, the museum... and, of course, it could also be a maid caf�� like the one he was in right now.


    Just the eye-candies in that ce alone made it Zhang Heng��s favorite ce��which was also why this was the ce he went to daydream most frequently.


    ��A cup of Forbidden Love, and a te of Gege1 Can��t Do It Today, thanks.�� Zhang Heng tried to keep a straight face and not give away the fact that he had no idea what he was ordering.


    ��Yes, Master. Please hold on.�� The maid with cat ears answered subserviently, hugging the tray she was holding to her chest.


    Professional! Zhang Heng gave her a big mental thumbs up. The maids working in the caf�� were mostly part-time university students��a major topic of discussion among the neetmunity.


    Inparison, the owner of that maid caf�� down Chun Xi Road was less sincere in his efforts. He employed a whole bunch ofdies in their thirties and forties to make up for the number. It was even said that the owner himself would pitch in when they were short-staffed, torturing his customers�� mental wellbeing with his thick bush of leg hair. Dining there was more like volunteering for torture.


    While he waited for his orders to arrive, Zhang Heng picked out a copy of ��Shokugeki no Soma1�� from the rack nearby. He was flipping through the pages when someone said, ��What a pity. I prefer his former works.��


    Zhang Heng looked up and found a stranger in the form of a small old man in a Tang suit1 paired with a tie and a homburg sitting across the table. His unremarkable, half eastern-half western dressing gave him an uncanny appearance.


    All eyes in the caf�� were drawn to this strange little man.


    Zhang Heng��s eyebrows rose to his forehead. ��Shun Saeki1? He used to be a Bilibili mangaka.��


    ��Then it looks like my memory does not fool me.�� The old man grinned, revealing a row of yellowed teeth. ��So, how has this month been, Zhang Heng? Are you pleased with my little gift? Don��t worry. That thing that you��re worried about won��t happen. The extra twenty-four hours is a gift. It won��t deduct your lifespan.��


    ��Did you do something to me?��


    ��That��s not easy for me to do. But you are the one that I choose, it is only right for me to give you a gift. Isn��t that right?��


    The old man reached out and picked up the cup of Forbidden Love from the serving tray a maid walking past was carrying, startling the waitress.


    Zhang Heng smiled at the girl apologetically. ��Thank you. We won��t be needing anything for the time being.��


    ��I won��t take advantage of you. After we��ve finished our conversation, you��ll still be able to drink your beverage.�� The old man mumbled something unintelligible and then said, ��Now, let��s get down to business. I��m quite pleased with your performance this month. Now, since the trial period is over, let��s discuss the conditions of transfer.��


    ��Conditions of transfer?��


    ��Yes, simply put, I need you to help me win the next round of game. This game will bring you a generous return. Other than that, you can still continue to use that little gift I gave you.��


    When the old man saw Zhang Heng open his mouth to speak, the old man waved him off. ��I know your family��s situation. Money is not very attractive to you. Not to mention, with this ability, it��s going to be effortless for you to acquire money. But trust me, the things that this game can bring you is beyond your imagination.��


    ��What game?�� Zhang Heng asked.


    ��In the distant past, we used to employ war to solve conflicts. It��s simple and effective. My god, how I miss those good ol�� bloody days. But the times continued to develop and change, and a civilized society shouldn��t be using those barbaric, primitive means, right?�� The old man paused, and proceeded to gulp down the entire cup of Forbidden Love. ��Which is why nowadays, we use games to decide the winnings or losses. The person sitting on the throne right now is that despicable bloke; because of the ancient pledge, I cannot reveal the content of the game in advance. Strictly speaking, this meeting is also prohibited. But don��t worry. I can handle this little problem.��


    ��If this game is so important, why don��t you participate in it yourself?��


    ��Like I said, I��m restricted by some ancient pledge, we cannot participate in the games ourselves. You are like my representative. I��m betting all my chips on you. When you win, I win; but if you lose, I lose too. The both of us are like locusts tied to the same rope. We��re on the same boat. But I don��t have very good luck. My rankings in the game have been pretty bad recently.�� The old man sighed. ��As you can see, I am growing weaker. So, this time, I��ve decided to limit my bets earlier even though it��s a big risk, and you might be eliminated halfway.��


    ��Who are you?�� Zhang Heng studied the man.


    ��For the time being, you can think of me as your investor and partner. As for the future, I can only tell you one thing��the longer you persist in this game, the closer you will be to the truth about this world. Alright, we don��t have much time. Now, tell me your answer.��


    Zhang Heng looked at the old man in the eye. He has just been given a long speech that sounded very absurd with the maid caf����s atmosphere. But the fact that the old man knew his name and had good insight into what had happened to him, thisically dressed old man was not joking.


    Zhang Heng thought about it for a moment before answering, ��Sounds interesting. How do I join?��


    ��It��s very simple. Let me find the checkpoint closest to your school...�� The old man took out a Xiaomi cell phone from his pocket and opened the Baidu Maps app. ��Sex and the City bar, checkpoint 137, eleven o��clock tonight. You don��t regret this decision. Oh, I almost forgot.�� The old man reached out a hand. ��Thest step: concluding the contract. Once we shake hands, you belong to me.��


    Zhang Heng put out his right hand. ��Please refrain from using these terrible, ambiguous statements. I��m already starting to regret it.��


    When they shook hands, Zhang Heng felt as if he was holding onto a hard, icy rock.


    The old man was in good spirits. ��Be careful of other representatives. You probably won��t meet at the initial stage of the game. But no matter what happens, you have to prioritize survival.�� (Editor Note: Omg why does this remind me of Mirai Nikki?)


    ��Wait a minute. You can die in this game?��


    ��No, just dead in the game. To be precise, it��s more like disappear. Your physical body will disappear and all the memory rted to you will disappear as if none of it ever existed. I happen to know a guy who��s an expert in this.�� The old man said in the most casual manner.


    ��...��


    Zhang Heng was about to say something when his eyes dimmed for a moment, and the old man suddenly vanished right in front of him.


    A maid walked up to his table with a deep red beverage, her smile revealing to cute pointy little fangs.


    ��Master, your Forbidden Love. Please enjoy.��

 Chapter 6: The Games Begins

    <h4>Chapter 6: The Games Begins</h4>


    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion


    ��You��re going out now?�� Dorm Leader Wei Jiangyang had just returned from a movie date, reeking of love. It was 9:45 when he pushed the door open to see Zhang Heng in sportswear, bending down to tie his shoces. ��


    ��Yeah, there��s an activity tonight.��


    ��Activity? Is it a date?�� Wei Jiangyang shot his roommate a knowing smile.


    Chen Huadong who was enjoying a bottle of coke with his movie gasped. ��What? Young Master Zhang, am I not the person you like?��


    Ma Wei, the oldest among the roommates, put down the English book he was reading. ��Zhang Heng, you have such good qualities, it should be really easy for you to get a girlfriend, yet you��ve remained single. If we��re not roommates, I would��ve thought that you��re actually gay.��


    Ma Wei��sment was not unjustified. Among the four roommates, his family��s circumstance was the least favorable��with his parents being only simple-minded farmers.


    There was a girl back in high school whom he secretly liked. He never told anyone about until the one time this group of roommates took him out to celebrate his birthday and he drank too much. That was when his roommates found out that that girl Ma Wei liked was studying in a university in the same city. They urged him to confess his feelings for her, and he was rejected.


    They all knew of Ma Wei��s family��s circumstances, and that he had to rely on the China National Schrship to pay for his tuition fee and to lighten his family��s financial burden. He buried himself in his studies, spending all his free hours either in the library or giving private tuition to earn money. He had no time for dating.


    These were things that other people could not help him with. Ma Wei had very strong self-esteem. He would always refuse his dormmates�� offer to pay for him whenever they went out.


    Zhang Heng patted Ma Wei on the shoulder and said, ��Stop teasing me. There��s no date tonight, and I��m not gay. I just haven��t met a girl that I like yet.��


    Chen Huadong raised the bottle of coke as if he was giving a toast. ��When you finally meet her, you must bring her to meet us. We want to see what kind of subus can capture our Young Master Zhang��s heart.��


    ...


    It took Zhang Heng quite a while to wrestle his nosy friends off his back. By the time he walked out of the school gate, it was already 10:05.


    If he had not found the string of numbers on his right arm while he was in the shower, Zhang Heng might have suspected that incident at the maid caf�� to be a delusion.


    The cute little maid with the cat ears had confirmed that from the moment he walked into the store up until the moment he left, he had been alone, and the handsomedy in charge of making the drinks revealed that she had only made a cup of Forbidden Love during that short period of time.


    ��Never ever doubt a bartender because every cup is filled with the thing called love. People never forget the things they love,�� thetter had said.


    ��...��


    To everyone in the caf��, his conversation with the old man had never happened.


    That Tang suit and homburg wearing guy did mention that their meeting was forbidden and that he could take care of the problem.


    Zhang Heng postted that this could very well be the solution he was talking about.


    Zhang Heng was growing more and more curious by this guy. All his abilities seemed to be rted to time. But this was not the time to think about this; right now, what he needed to was to get through that game that was about to begin.


    Once he was outside of school, he followed the navigation on Baidu and took the subway to an industrial area outside 5th Ring Road, then jogged the rest of the way to warm up.


    He arrived at the bar called ��Sex and the City�� at 10:45.


    It was in a remote area, and on the way there, Zhang Heng walked past a couple of people who looked like trouble with their cigarettes hanging on the corner of their mouth and their eyes seizing him up. There were even a few scantily-d, drunk girls throwing up on the side of the road.


    Zhang Heng wanted no trouble so he pulled his hood up over hid head, and kept a steady but swift pace as he jogged past them.


    The bar was even more crowded than he imagined it to be. It was converted from an abandoned factory, so it was huge. The rusty fa?ade was painted with all kinds and styles of strange graffiti, and the front of the building was parked full of luxury cars and racecars.


    This was the peak business hour for the bar��the young people from all over the city had gathered here.


    Before he even stepped into the building, Zhang Heng could hear deafening music booming from inside, as if it could rip his soul apart. Zhang Heng frowned. Even though hispanion at the caf�� had stressed that he could not reveal anything to Zhang Heng and that he would find out everything once he was deep into the game, there was a vague message in between the lines.


    Whatever it was, the organization that old man was involved in must be ancient and very well hidden. This was not their first time coordinating a game like this yet the world did not even know that they existed.


    This indicated that they were doing a good job covering their tracks.


    However, there were at least seven to eight hundred people here. There were thighs and buttocks everywhere he turned. Coolser lights were blinking and pulsing along with the deejay��s mix. If that supposedly dangerous gamemenced here, Zhang Heng was willing to bet that it would all over TikTok and YouTube.


    Could the address he was given be wrong?


    This was amon mistake, especially considering that old man��s age. It really would not be surprising.


    Just then, Zhang Heng��s attention was suddenly drawn to a dark shadow above him on the right.


    Technically speaking, that was not considered a second floor. It was just a giant container fastened with steel structures to the west wall. At the bottom of thedder that led up to it stood two brawny men in suits and ck sunsses.


    A couple of gin-soaked boys and girls made an attempt to climb thedder but was turned away by the two men.


    One of them, probably a fuerdai from a wealthy family, threw a handful of banknotes at the face of one of the guards. When the other around him realized that they were hundred-dor American bills, they began snatching at the scattered papers.


    But neither of the buff men reacted.


    The fuerdai appeared to be provoked by this and threw contents of the ss in his hands at both men. He was probably so used to getting his way that he bolted for thedders. Whatever happened next was a blur. He was suddenly sent flying across the room, knocking over a few people and some tables. Hended on the ground with his face covered in blood and dirt, barely alive.


    His drunkpanions were shocked into sobriety. Some of the guys wanted to throw in a few hostile words but when they saw one of the guards methodically cleaning his sunsses, their balls shrank and they fled to the parking lot carrying their unconscious fuerdai friend.


    As themotion subsided, the people in the bar cast wary nces at the two strapping men, keeping a good distance from them.


    Zhang Heng waited for another five minutes, and when he was sure that no one was paying attention, he took in a deep breath and walked towards thedder.


    The two men in suits watched him with from behind their sses. Their stony faces gave off a cial vibe. Zhang Heng felt as if he was the victim of two lions on the prowl. He rolled up his sleeves, and revealed the numbers on his arm.


    He was a little worried remembering what happened to that fuerdai. Even though he had an inkling that the numbers on his arm was the entrance ticket to the game, he could not rule out other possibilities.


    Luckily, nothing bad happened. He did not end up like that fuerdai as a human bowling ball.


    The two towering giants stepped aside and revealed the path behind.

 Chapter 7: Desert Island Survival

    <h4>Chapter 7: Desert Ind Survival</h4>


    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion


    Zhang Heng climbed up the stairs and pushed the blue steel door open.


    Considering everything he had seen on his way to the bar and the group of young men and women swaying their bodies downstairs, he thought that while the style might be different, it was not going to be that much different in the dance room either.


    However, in reality, this ce was more like VIP lounges at international airports.


    When he pushed the door open, Zhang Heng felt as if he had stepped into another world. Soft lights, red Persian rug, leather sofa, silverwares on the side table, light refreshments and fruitsid out on the buffet table, and a small bar counter on the right. When the door closed behind him, a gentle and soothing piano music entered his ears.


    The pounding music downstairs had probably exceeded 100 decibels. Even though he was not a professional, Zhang Heng knew that material of a container had next to none soundproofing property.


    But the truth was right in front of him��when the door shut behind him, the noise outside waspletely cut off.


    Perhaps it was because Zhang Heng had recently experienced something even more inconceivable than this, he seemed to have developed a certain immunity to simr events. He quickly regained hisposure and continued forwards after only a brief moment of doubt.


    ��Wee,�� the woman in a red evening gown standing behind the bar greeted.


    Zhang Heng looked around the room, and saw that other than himself, there were about another dozen of people in the lounge. Some were seated in banquettes not far from where he was standing, chatting away while others sat alone. But what puzzled him was that even though the person nearest to him was only about a few meters away, he could not see their faces clearly.


    It was a very strange experience. He could sense that there was nothing wrong with his eyesight, and his retinas were able to form a clear image but there was something that was preventing the signal from reaching his brain.


    Zhang Heng refused to believe in this nonsense, and tried very hard to concentrate. He was feeling like he was about to break through the invisible barrier when a nauseous feeling suddenly surged from his stomach. He had to hold onto the bar to keep himself from falling.


    Right on cue, a ss of lemon water was ced in front of him.


    ��Rx. This is something all the new yers who had just arrived here experiences. Unless the other party allows it, the faces of the yers are, by default, in incognito mode. As a matter of fact, your voices have also undergone a special process. What you hear is not the actual voice. This is to protect you to the greatest extent.��


    ��But I can see your face.�� Zhang Heng picked up the water and thanked the bartender. Because of the dim lights and the fact that he was distracted by the others, he only just realized that the bartender looked very familiar. She was wearing lipstick and a different outfit. She looked as different as night and day but Zhang Heng recognized her. ��You are... the bartender from the maid caf��?��


    ��Not bad. Your observation skills are sharper than I expected.�� The bartender was wiping a ss cup. She was still as frosty as she was earlier today. ��No one stipted that one person can only work one job, right? By the way, I��m just a receptionist here. I don��t need to conceal my face like yers do.��


    ��I��m sorry. Since I walked in, you kept mentioning words like ��yers ��and ��receptionist��. Forgive me for being forthright but I have no clue what game it is that I��m joining. ckjack? Texas Hold��em? Legends of the Three Kingdoms? E-sports?�� Zhang Heng asked as he settled down on the stool in front of the bar.


    ��I normally don��t like to brag about my employer in front of the customers, actually, I don��t like bragging about that at any time, but this time, I have to say��congrattions, Mr. Zhang Heng. You��re very lucky to be a part of the greatest game in the history of mankind. I can promise you that all the other games that you��ve ever yed before this are weak and pathetic. This game willpletely change your life.��


    ��That is a rather high evaluation.��


    ��Oh, quite the contrary. Nopliment canpare to the game itself. Now, it��s your turn to answer one of my questions. What do you think makes a person truly himself?��


    The bartender put down the now sparkling ss. Her expression was solemn.


    Zhang Heng took a sip of the lemon water and then answered, ��DNA?��


    ��That��s not wrong. Each of us has a unique set of DNA, and some parts of our bodies have been coded since birth. Your looks, family, family history of illness... But fortunately, even then we still have a lot of choices��you can go to university, work, build a career, be a primary school teacher or astronaut or something.��


    There was a strange sh of light in the bartender��s eyes, and she was speaking faster. ��Put aside all those things that had already been determined... Let me phrase my question more urately��What do you think makes a person who he is today? For example, how is it that astronauts could walk in space? How could a boxer knock his opponent down on stage? What is it that makes a teacher pick up teaching aids?��


    ��Experience? You��re talking about experience and learning that makes us who we are today?�� Zhang Heng quickly understood what the bartender was trying to convey. Cocking his brows, Zhang Hengmented, ��But I still don��t get what this has to do with me joining the game.��


    This time, however, he did not get any answers.


    ��No amount of words can describe what you can witness yourself. Mr. Zhang Heng, your first round has begun. Please cherish this hard-toe-by experience. I look forward to meeting you again.�� The bartender winked knowingly at him.


    The hour hand on the clock on the wall was pointed at eleven.


    The next thing he knew was a strong dizzy feeling rushed to his head and caused his vision to blur again.


    Had he fallen into a trap?!


    Zhang Heng��s first reaction was to suspect that the lemon water. That was the only thing he had tasted. From the moment he set foot into the bar, he had been on high alert. He never expected to see a familiar face��and that caused him to let his guard down a little. He did not know when it happened, or what powerful anesthetics was added that one little sip could have such a powerful effect. He could feel his head getting heavier and heavier until he could not resist anymore, and allowed himself to copse onto the bar until he waspletely unconscious.


    He did not know how much time had passed in between, was it days, hours or seconds?


    A stranger��s voice rang in his ear.


    [Verifying yer��s identity...]


    [Identity confirmed. Random extraction of neer��s quest for yer number 07958...]


    [Extractionplete��Current quest is Desert Ind Survival]


    You were on a cruise and encountered a terrible storm as you were traveling near the equator. The ship deviated from its course and the radar and sonar on the ship, the GPS and satellite phones on the ship were, oddly, not working. Without direction, you��ve traveled aimlessly on the seas for a month. Unfortunately, you encountered another even bigger storm. At the time of the incident you were standing on the deck and a giant wave swept you into the ocean. When you finally opened your eyes again, you found yourself lying on an unfamiliar beach.


    [Mission target: Survive for 40 days on this ind]


    [Mode: Single yer]


    [Time flow rate: 480] (One hour in the real world is equivalent to 20 days in this game. After 40 days, the yer will be forcefully returned to the real world)


    A friendly reminder, the game will begin in 5 seconds. yers, please get ready.

 Chapter 8: Desert Island Survival II

    <h4>Chapter 8: Desert Ind Survival II</h4>


    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion


    Zhang Heng��s eyes fluttered open and he found himself lying face down on a foreign beach.


    The saline waters bathing him was soaking into his clothes, as a hermit shell in a conch shell scurried past in front of him.


    Zhang Heng was in a terrible condition. Upon regaining his consciousness, he was gripped by an intense thirst and hunger, ovee with exhaustion. It felt like he had been drifting in the ocean for days.


    He found a dry spot and plopped down against arge rock facing the direction where he was washed ashore��all he could see was a vast, boundless ocean.


    What is this? Some survival reality TV-show film set?


    Maybe it was the after-effects of that lemon water, or maybe because he had not eaten for too long, Zhang Heng��s head felt heavy and groggy. Forcing himself to calm down, he began to mull over everything that had happened to him.


    He had done as that strange fellow in Tang suit had requested, and hade to this Sex and the City bar as the old man��s representative to participate in some obscure game. When he finally found the person, he was drugged, and then cast on this desert ind.


    But the question was��how would doing this benefit them? And that mysterious voice he heard in his head just now, the one that sounded like a game login, did he imagine it? If that was not the case then what did it mean?


    His body was still his, but the sports attire he was wearing had been reced with a pair of beach shorts and a floral T-shirt. The swiss knife he was carrying in his pocket for emergencies was nowhere to be found either.


    The only item that had not gone missing from his person was that watch on his right wrist.


    Zhang Heng looked down at his watch and froze momentarily.


    The date on the analog face had not changed��it remained on Thursday, the same night he visited the bar, and it had only been a minute since he had cked out.


    Zhang Heng looked at his watch again and noticed that the seconds hand was not moving.


    Was it broken?


    That was a surprise. He had done one too many experiments on the watch and found that it could never be adjusted and that the time on the watch was always urate. He was the only one who could see the extra twelve hours on the watch face and no matter what he did��subjecting it to fire or soaking it in water��the watch could not be damaged or destroyed. It was so durable it was unlike anything from this world.


    Once, he even threw the watch from the top of a building down onto the concrete pavement 200 meters down below. In the end, the watch survived the fall without a scratch, and even made a dent in the hard, concrete surface.


    He was convinced that the watch would outlive him and continue ticking until the end of the world. He never thought that there woulde a day that it would ever stop functioning...


    But in his panic, he was suddenly struck by a thought. Again, his mind returned to that mysterious voice in his head. The person had mentioned that the time flow rate was 480.


    Zhang Heng raised his eyebrows. Could the person have meant it literally?


    If anyone else wanted to verify this, they may have to wait for the forty days to be up. But Zhang Heng had his own way to do that.


    He pressed his fingers against the inside of his wrist and, after twenty minutes, confirmed a frightening thing��his watch was not broken. It was just moving ording to the real-world time. When converted to the time here, one second was now eight minutes.


    So... this really was just a game?


    Zhang Heng was stumped. The scenery before him was so realistic��the golden sand, the coconut trees swaying in the wind, the drenched T-shirt clinging to his body, the uneven rock surface that was causing his back to ache, the hunger and enervation that shrouded him so that he feels the passing of life so clearly it was almost tangible.


    In any case, his priority right now was to find a way to recover some physical strength.


    Right now, thinking alone required a whole lot of effort.


    He knew he needed to eat and rehydrate. But although he was mentally stronger than most people, he was still just an ordinary university student. A modern man like him had no clue how to live on a desert ind; he could not distinguish which nt was edible and which one was not, he did not even know how to hunt, or look for water source, how to build a shelter...


    Thank god, though, that at least he recognized the coconut tree.


    There were some twenty meters to his left, with a couple of the fruits hanging from the trees still green. The water inside could quench his parched tongue and throat, and the flesh could provide him with much-needed energy and vitamins.


    Zhang Heng picked up a small rock the size of his palm at his feet and aimed it at a leaning coconut tree that may have been swept sideways by a typhoon.


    He managed to dislodge the coconuts with the rock.


    There were seven of them, about three to four meters above the ground.


    Normally, a task like this would not have been difficult at all, but considering his current physical condition, it took Zhang Heng a lot of effort to knock those coconuts down.


    By the time he cracked these green coconuts open, one by one, on the rock to get to the water inside, half an hour had already passed. After he had drained the fruit, Zhang Heng scraped the meat of the coconut with a rock and scarfed them down. When he was done, some of his energy returned, allowing him to consider his current plight.


    He could no longer tell if he was in a game or in the real world.


    If this was all make-believe, it did not exin realness of the senses he was experiencing and his physical state, nor the strange flow rate on his watch; but if he was in the real world, then how could whoever who got him here get him from his dorm to this deserted ind in a blink of an eye?


    Zhang Heng shook his head to clear his mind. He would just do it the old way��set the unsolvable questions aside first.


    Like what the old man in the caf�� said, whether this was a game or reality, he needed to figure out a way to survive.


    He was just an average modern person who lived on his own in the city. Could he really be able to ovee this enigmatic natural world veiled in mystery?


    Zhang Heng��s lips drew upwards into a bitter smile. He had always been a ss-half-full kind of guy but in his current circumstance, Zhang Heng was not convinced that he could hold out for forty-days on this remote little ind behind him.


    As a matter of fact, even four days would be a stretch.


    Hecked the knowledge and skills to survive out here in the wild, he was in a poor physical state, and he was all alone. Right now, Zhang Heng kind of hoped that he was in a game. Because, normally, an outstanding game should not have sure-death circumstance, especially since this was just the beginning of a novice checkpoint.


    As if in response to his expectation, three little ck dots appeared in the distant waves.


    Zhang Heng tossed the coconut shell in his hand aside and got to his feet. Shielding the top of his head from the hot sun, he sprinted towards the beach as fast as he could. He squinted his eyes to focus on the dots, who were actually three people floating in the waters.


    They were all foreigners��male.


    One of them was dressed, from head to toe, in Gore-Tex and hiking boots, and he had what looked like a dagger hanging from his waist. The wind and waves were too big for Zhang Heng to be sure. Among the three of them, he was the one who seemed the calmest. The other two were an expressionlessddie in shorts, and a stark-naked bald uncle.


    The three of them were in a precarious situation, as they struggled to get ashore. For some mysterious reason, the only thing they could do was float, as the current pulled them back.


    Zhang Heng knew that he had to make a decision. Although the coconut had helped his body recover some energy, saving three people in one breath was not realistic. Right now, his strength only allowed him to attempt to rescue one of the three people.


    In the end, he decided to save the naked fe for a very simple reason��he was nearest to the shore.

 Chapter 9: Desert Island Survival III

    <h4>Chapter 9: Desert Ind Survival III</h4>


    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion


    When Zhang Heng dragged the buck-naked man to the beach, both of them were ready to drop.


    Zhang Heng did not even know how he even managed to swim the final stretch of water. It was only when he knew near the man that he found out that the man��s lumbar spine was injured, and there was a tear on his thigh where a coral had pierced him. The man could barely move; no wonder he had to drift along with the wave like a stic bottle.


    Getting him back to the beach was not going to be an easy task.


    On the way back, Zhang Heng considered giving up several times, but the man was surprisingly optimistic and even cheered him on.


    So, Zhang Heng gritted his teeth and dragged the man to shore.


    For a while, the both of them slumped on the sand. Zhang Heng did not want to move at all, not even to lift a finger. If he could, he would have shut his eyes and dozed off.


    But after about two minutes, the man in the buff spoke. ��Hey, bro. We can��t stay like this. We��re not far from the equator. At midday, the temperature could go up to as high as 35 degrees. We��ll lose a lot of water if we keep this up.��


    Zhang Heng said nothing a minute before replying, ��I��ll bring you to a shady area now.�� Then he took in two deep breaths, gathered up all the strength in his body and pulled the man to the bottom of a cliff where he used his own t-shirt to bandage the man��s wound.


    After that, Zhang Heng waspletely drained of energy��he could barely even throw a stone. Fortunately, not far from where they were, he picked up a couple of coconuts that had fallen to the ground.


    When the bald man saw Zhang Heng about to break the coconut, he opened his mouth to speak, but then stopped himself.


    ��Oh?��


    ��I don��t want to seem like I��m ungrateful or anything but if you can, please give me only green coconuts? The ones that have fallen from the tree are old. The milk-white water inside can cause diarrhea when consumed. On a resourceless ind like this, it could be fatal.��


    ��You seem to know a lot about survival in the wilderness.��


    ��I served in the military for a while. I once spent more than two years crossing the Amazon forest, so, yes, I suppose I can be considered an expert in terms of surviving in the wilderness.��


    Zhang Heng realized that he had made the right bet. There was no way that a well-made game would leave the yers in a sure-death circumstance. The man in front of him was his hope of surviving on this ind.


    However, he could not help but wonder what the other two people could do.


    After all, in terms of difficulty, saving this bald man was the easiest. Based on a game designers�� usual train of thought, the more effort you put in, the better the reward.


    But Zhang Heng did not regret his decision at all. He understood that in his physical state, saving the naked man was already pushing the limits. Even if he could reach either of the two men who were further away, he would not have the energy to return to shore.


    Moreover, so far, this man with a severely receding hairline seemed to be pretty easy-going.


    Sometimes attitude is much more important than ability.


    Sure enough, shortly after, his newpanion said, ��My friend, can you please find a green coconut for me? My throat is really dry. I will teach you how to find waterter.��


    ��No problem.�� Zhang Heng had taken the opportunity to rest for a moment, and had recovered some strength to be able to fulfill hispanion��s request.


    This time, he took down fourteen coconuts in one sitting, five for the man and three for himself. The remaining six were set aside as provisions.


    After the naked gentleman had drunk from the coconut, his condition seemed to have improved a lot. He reached out a hand to Zhang Heng. ��I haven��t introduced myself. My name is Ed Wilson, a British national, and formerly the captain of the British army in Afghanistan. You can just call me Ed. Thank you for saving my life.��


    ��Zhang Heng, Chinese. University sophomore. You��re wee.��


    Zhang Heng and the former captain of the British army in Afghanistan exchanged a friendly handshake.


    Immediately after, however, the captain��s tone grew solemn. ��Those two poor guys. Other than this little ind, there��s no othernd nearby. Not being able to get to shore means that it��s not going to end well for them.��


    The Ed guy, however, seemed to be able to adjust his mental state pretty well. After only a brief moment of good, he recovered his cheerfulness. ��Alright. As per our agreement, I shall fulfill my part and teach you how to find water. When I was at sea, I was able to visually estimate that this ind is about 120 hectares. I noticed some animal tracks nearby the bushes which means that there may be a stream on the ind. Follow the tracks and you��ll be able to find it. But that��s also bad news because it means that there may be predators. Night ising soon��exploring the ind without some sort of light like a torch would not be a wise move; you could get lost or be attacked by wild beasts...��


    Ed patiently imparted his knowledge of survival in the wilderness to Zhang Heng, and even deliberately slowed down his speech so that Zhang Heng understood each word.


    Even so, every now and then, Zhang Heng would interrupt Ed to inquire the meaning of certain words. Even though his parents worked abroad, the time that those two spent at home was too short to have seen to the improvement of Zhang Heng��s foreignnguage proficiency.


    As a result, Zhang Heng��s Englishnguage level was only a standard Band 6. It was not too much of a problem for the everyday conversation but once jargons were added to the mix, Ed would have to exin the meaning of the words.


    With one teaching and the other listening, twenty-minutester, Zhang Heng finally learned how to find fresh water in the wilderness. Heeding Ed��s suggestion, for the time being, the both of them would be using coconuts as their main source of water. At the same time, they also searched the cliff nearby and managed to find a few small water holes, and a cave.


    The cavity was about ten square meters big and full bird droppings. The smell was unpleasant but the ground was higher, so they would not have to worry about being carried away by the tide when they sleep. Most importantly, the cave was sheltered against the wind, yet remained cool throughout the day and night.


    As the sun set in the west, Zhang Heng used thest of the daylight to pick up a few more coconuts to add to the ones they had for dinner. After that, the two bid each other good night in the cave.


    Growing up in the city, this was the first time Zhang Heng had ever slept out in the open. Even though his body and mind had been stretched to the limit and was in urgent need to rest, for a long time, he was still unable to close his eyes. Be it the stink of the bird doo-doo, or the hard rock he was resting on, the unidentified insect that was crawling up his arm in the darkness... everything seemed to be tormenting his mind, causing him to feel uneasy.


    Ed suddenly spoke, ��Zhang, did I tell you what the most important thing you need to survive the wilderness is?��


    ��What is it?�� Zhang Heng had not heard any movement behind him and assumed that hispanion had fallen asleep.


    ��Survival skills are very important��there is no doubt about it��but the most important thing is to always keep an optimistic outlook. When you feel like you��re suffering, think about happy things, tell yourself that perhaps tomorrow, a boat will pass by and bring me back to the civilized world.�� Ed really was as optimistic as ever.


    Zhang Heng sighed inwardly. If this really was a game, within forty days, there would be no boat passing by. But Ed��s words did help him feel much better. More importantly, he realized that he was not alone in this.


    Zhang Heng had never been one to grumble andin. He only needed to persevere on this ind for forty days. With someone guiding him, he believed that he could do it. Zhang Heng pushed the negative thoughts and emotions out of this mind, and very soon, exhaustion kicked in, and he closed his eyes.

 Chapter 10: Desert Island Survival IV

    <h4>Chapter 10: Desert Ind Survival IV</h4>


    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion


    The sun rose just above the horizon, a new day hade.


    In the cave, Zhang Heng opened his eyes and saw that Ed was up, sitting. ��Good morning, Zhang.��


    ��Morning,�� Zhang Heng yawned


    ��My goodness. How I wish to have a cup of coffee, fried egg, sausage, and toast right now,�� The former captainmented, ��But given our current situation, we can��t ask for too much, can we? Too bad the coconuts are giving us too little calories. One of those green ones can only provide 200 calories worth of energy. Even if don��t exercise, we��ll be burning at least 2,000 calories a day. Also, we need to expand our menu in order to obtain a richer source of nutrients. Well, since we��re by the sea, I think we can take advantage of that.��


    ��What do I need to do?�� Zhang Heng asked.


    ��Hold your horses. Your life in the city has caused your digestive system to be very fragile. Even if I told you how to catch food from the sea, with no way to cook it, one crab can cause you to the runs so bad it��ll lead to dehydration. We need fire. The water that you found earlier will need to heat before drinking. It only needs to be cooked for three minutes to kill most of the bacteria in it. Right now, I��ll teach you how to start a fire first.�� Ed paused for a moment before beginning to exin, ��The most important thing you��ll need to start a fire is to find the right wood. Fast-growing softwoods are the best kind. The drill [stick] and the base can be taken from the same tree. Tear off a tree bark and dry it under the sun...��


    Zhang Heng listened to the instructions intently, but when it came to actually performing the task, it was not as easy as he imagined it to be.


    He spent the whole morning trying to start a fire.


    s, it was one failure after another. The action of twirling the drill-stick alone rubbed away a whole chunk of skin from his hand. It hurt so bad that he grimaced. At the same time, because they did not have time to search for food, he and Ed ate all their reserve-coconuts which barely filled their stomachs.


    What was even more frustrating was that even after all the effort they put in, they had nothing to show for it.


    ��Zhang, you cannot go from a rookie to an expert in one day,�� Edforted. ��The beginning is always the hardest.��


    Zhang Heng tossed the broken stick on the ground in contempt. ��That is true but failure is still agonizing.��


    ��Failure is also a valuable experience. Tens of thousands of years ago, our ancestors have continued to evolve from failures.�� Ed empathized. ��You are a smart student, Zhang. Don��t worry. There��s still time for you to learn and grow. Now, tell me what have learned from this failure?��


    ��The wood is still no good. The skin on my hands are yed and there��re still no sparks. I have to try using other woods.��


    Nevertheless, fortune is as unpredictable as the weather. At sundown, a gust of wind blew, and a mass of dark cloud gathered above their heads. It happened so quickly that Zhang Heng did not have enough time to gather the things. The tree bark that had been drying on the rock was soaked in rainwater.


    His entire day of work was wasted.


    Disheartened, Zhang Hengy on the cavern floor with his arms and legs spread out like an ��X�� staring at the ceiling of the cave. ��Ed, I don��t think your chicken soup for the soul is going to work anymore.��


    ��Give up then,�� Ed said in a quiet voice.


    ��Huh?��


    ��But it��s limited to only before the rain stops. It��s only after you��ve vented all your negative emotions can you better devote yourself to work.��


    ��Are you always this optimistic, Ed?��


    ��It could be that I��ve encountered situations than this in my travels across the Amazon forest. Thinking about how I��ve managed pulled through inspires me not to give up.��


    ��Does experiences make us who we are?�� Zhang Heng muttered under to himself, remembering what the bartender told him, feeling as if he had on to something.


    ��It looks like the rain is not going to stop before dark. You should go to bed. There is still a lot of work to do tomorrow,�� Ed said and as hey down to sleep.


    The two went to bed on the second night with an empty stomach.


    ...


    The next morning, Zhang Heng got up before first light��mainly because he was starving. The first thing he did was to run to the coconut tree to quench his thirst and hunger with a few fruits. The coconut tree at lower ground was nearly picked clean. The remaining trees were taller, and knocking the fruits down with rocks was going to be very difficult. Zhang Heng was aware that he had not much time left, he had to get that fire going, or else he would not be able to continue with the rest of the tasks.


    On that ount, he decided to take a little bit of risk. After bringing breakfast back for Ed, he ventured a little deeper into the native forest behind the beach.


    The end result was gratifying. Not only did he find suitable wood for the fire, he also found an animal that he suspected was a fowl. Unfortunately for him, the little thing was very agile; before Zhang Heng could even approach it, the creature pped its wings and disappeared. There was nothing Zhang Heng could have done about that.


    He broke a tree branch and returned to the beach. Using the same method he used the day before, at noon, a tendril of smoke finally rose from the wood shavings. Employing the knowledge that Ed had passed on to him, Zhang Heng sprinkled the sawdust onto the leaves of the candlenut tree, and then carefully blowing until the sawdust glowed and ignited the tinder underneath.


    After a short while, the two people on the ind finally had a long-awaited fire.


    ��Well done! Now we can avoid the danger of infection!�� Ed eximed.


    Zhang Heng never thought that he would ever be so excited to see fire. He was about to say something when a third person��s voice sounded in his ear.


    ��Started a fire sessfully. A new skill is obtained��Wildlife Survival: Level 0; Game Points: +3; character panel has also been activated; you may view your personal status.��


    The voice sounded very familiar. Zhang Heng thought about it for a moment before realizing that it was the same voice that had heard earlier when he was unconscious.


    Zhang Heng looked at Ed. ��Ed, did you hear something?��


    Hispanion looked taken aback and then concerned. ��Should I be hearing anything? Zhang, are you experiencing hallucinations due to dehydration?��


    ��...��


    Zhang Heng, too, wondered if he was suffering from heatstroke because something that resembled a character card appeared before his eyes.


    Name: Zhang Heng


    Gender: Male


    Age: 19


    yer ID: 07958


    Game rounds experienced: 0


    Current game points: 3


    Skills: Piano: level 1; Language Proficiency: level 1 (bothnguages at generalmunication skills level)


    Assessment: The yer is unremarkable with no quality worthmending, has no special skills and is not expected to be able tost longer than the first three rounds.


    Zhang Heng was speechless. The harsh evaluation at the bottom aside, how was it that he only had two skills?


    Okay, he could see a line of words in small prints under skills��Level 0 skill cannot be disyed.


    His amateur grade nine piano ying level was passed off for a pathetic Level 1?!


    This game��s definition of skills was too harsh! Not everyone out of a hundred people could start a fire using their bare hands, yet it barely even made Level 0 on his list of skills!


    It would seem that this game was more difficult than he imagined it to be.

 Chapter 11: Desert Island Survival V

    <h4>Chapter 11: Desert Ind Survival V</h4>


    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion


    Zhang Heng finally started a fire.


    That meant that his menu was no longer limited to just coconuts. Shortly after, following Ed��s instructions, Zhang Heng found conches on the rocks by the beach, even lucked out and found crabs and oysters.


    Thetter especially, was fresh and sweet, rich in nutrients��calcium, iron, phosphorus, and vitamin B2��reputed as the milk of the sea. It was pity, however, that the calories they provide were not high; each of them containing only 70 calories. For chowhounds, this was a good thing but on a deserted ind, Zhang Heng preferred something with higher-calorie content to provide him with the necessary energy.


    He did not need to worry about exceeding his calorie count and getting out of shape seeing that he had been starving these few days.


    Thank goodness, they just might able to enjoy a decent meal tonight.


    Zhang Heng collected about seventy over little conches, six oysters, and four hermit crabs which were sadly, rather small. Ed had told him that the hermits were edible but tasted average. Nevertheless, the two of them were not dining in a Michelin star restaurant so taste was no longer an important factor.


    Zhang Heng even spotted some fishes by the coast but without the right tools, he could only watch them swim about from afar.


    To boot, they also had the small puddles of water that he had found two days ago. With the shells of the mollusks he picked up, Zhang Heng was able to scoop and transport the water. But for all that, the pair found themselves having problems with the tools for boiling the water. They did not have bowls and the shells they were using were too well insted that even under direct heat, the water refused to boil.


    Ed thought for a moment and then said, ��Go find some pebbles��not the ones with a lot of holes or stratification.��


    Zhang Heng nodded and did as Ed instructed. They spent twenty minutes cooking the pebbles until they were burning red, and fastened them to the ms using small branches. Soon, the water inside began to boil.


    ��There��s not a lot of water in here. Two should suffice.�� Ed said.


    The water inside the shells boiled for around a minute, enough to get rid of most of the bacteria.


    Zhang Heng put these little outdoor survival skills to memory.


    Ed was a good teacher. With the injury to his waist, he could not move about freely. But Zhang Heng was able to benefit from hispanion��sprehensive survival know-how, so he had noints about having to take on full responsibility of collecting food and water for the both of them.


    At the same time, Zhang Heng was careful not to be too reliant on Ed; he hoped that he could make all the knowledge he had picked up from Ed into his own practical skills��not so that he could get rid of Edter on, of course. As a matter of fact, he was so grateful to Ed that if there was only one morsel of food left, Zhang Heng was willing to give half of it to Ed.


    Having said that, Zhang Heng could not shake off this ominous feeling; he had noticed that Ed appeared to be worse than the first day he came to shore. This period of rest had not improved his condition. Since thest time Zhang Heng bandaged the fatal wound on Ed��s thigh, and stopped the bleeding, there was nothing else he could do to tend to the injury.


    There were no antibiotics so readily avable in the hospitals in the city. Once the wound was infected, it would be untreatable.


    Zhang Heng believed that the former captain knew this better than him��yet, Ed never raised the subject in the past few days.


    This seemed to confirm the foreboding hunch that Zhang Heng had been feeling. Not knowing what he could do for hispanion, Zhang Heng looked after Ed as best as he could.


    For the rest of the days, Ed taught Zhang Heng how to make simple stone tools, use wood charcoal to clean his teeth, collect rainwater, make ropes out of tree barks, build a basic raft out of wood, use corals to trap fish...


    Compared to the time when the both of them had just arrived on the ind, the pair had moved past the most dangerous period, and now had extra reserves. The leftover dried fish was hung from the ceiling of the cave so that should they encounter terrible weather and were unable to go out to scavenge for food, they would not go hungry.


    Things seemed to be going uphill, and the forty days no longer seemed like an unattainable goal.


    Just when this notion appeared in Zhang Heng��s mind, doom showed up.


    On the sixteenth night, Ed suddenly developed a high fever. Zhang Heng devoted his time and energy to care for hispanion, and gradually, their supply of food and water gradually depleted. Their search range was also greatly reduced. The food they had set aside for a rainy day was immediately put to use in this crisis.


    What even more worrying was that Ed��s condition did not improve at all.


    When Zhang Heng undid the makeshift T-shirt bandage on Ed��s thigh, he discovered that the gash that was so deep you could see the bone had festered.


    Since yesterday, the former captain of the British Army had been in aatose state.


    What little food they had in the cave was slowly diminishing. Very soon, they were on the brink of running out of food.


    Finally, on the neenth night, Ed��s eyes suddenly flew open. He turned to his side, and murmured to Zhang Heng, half-conscious, ��Do you know what��s the most important thing to survive the wilderness? It��s never being satisfied with what you��ve achieved yesterday. Live each day better than thest. You have to find a way to conquer nature.��


    Zhang Heng rubbed his eyes, and smiled sadly, ��Ed, that��s not what you told me thest time.��


    But Ed made no response.


    Zhang Heng put a finger under Ed��s nose and discovered that his friend was no longer breathing.


    Even though he had been mentally preparing himself for Ed��s passing, he was still sad. While the two of them had not spent a lot of time with each other, Zhang Heng��s ability to navigate in this wilderness was all thanks to Ed��s teaching.


    The shared a student-teacher rtionship, but they were also friends.


    Zhang Heng dug a hole in the forest near the cave, and buried Ed. To prevent wild beasts from damaging the grave, he outlined the grave with some sharpened twigs.


    Only when he had done all that did he drag his starving body to the beach to search for food.


    The good news was that he was already halfway into the forty-day goal. Even though he was alone again, Zhang Heng was confident that he could survive the ind.


    On the noon of the twentieth day, Zhang Heng��s coral trap caught him arge two catty1 fish. This meant he could go to bed tonight with a full stomach.


    But just when Zhang Heng thought that his bad luck had finally passed, he suddenly received a voice prompt in his ear.


    [Alert! Alert! An anomaly had been discovered in the quest! Critical time error]


    [Reporting error]


    [Second level authority enabled, verification approved, report canceled...]


    [Remove the error permanently from the decision-making sequence]


    [Assignment objective remains unchanged; the return time has been changed from 40 days to 520 days. Please pay attention!]


    Zhang Heng��s head nearly blew up at the series of messages. When he finally registered the drastic, unanticipated changes, his eyes flitted to his right hand.


    All three hands were pointed upwards.


    No way. He had been so preupied learning how to survive in the wilderness, and having experienced all kinds of situations, he had forgotten about that twenty-four-dial watch on his wrist.


    On the first few nights when he first arrived on the ind, he was not able to enter that still world and had thought that it did not apply to this game. He did not think that the game would actually be holding back!


    The first thing that came to Zhang Heng��s mind was where did the 520 dayse from. The extra twenty-four hours he had every day, after being multiplied by 480, left him with the most frightening string of numbers.

 Chapter 12: Desert Island Survival VI

    <h4>Chapter 12: Desert Ind Survival VI</h4>


    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion


    So, this really was all just a game?


    In reality, once watch hands pointed to twelve midnight, Zhang Heng would enter Still Time. But here, the wind continued to whistle in his ears, and the coconuts trees swayed along, except for that voice that appeared suddenly not long ago, nothing else had changed.


    Zhang Heng had tried ying severalputer games during Still Time.


    Following the contact-recover principle, as long as he was not in contact with other people, everything would continue to work.


    But now was not the time to talk about such things.


    Just as victory was within reach, the difficulty of the game was raised to a hellish level.


    Realizing that he had another five hundred days and not twenty days left on the godforsaken ind, Zhang Heng did not even have the strength to draw a bitter smile.


    Instead, he sat by the beach, staring at the horizon, doing nothing else until sundown. This was the first time he felt like life was full of spite.


    But at this point, griping was meaningless.


    Even if he wanted to settle scores with whoever, he would have to wait until five hundred dayster.


    Before dark, Zhang Heng finally roused. He was never the kind of person who was easily knocked down by difficulties. He did as Ed had taught him in between the lessons, to let go, to vent out all his negative emotions first, and then regain hisposure.


    With the fish and crabs he caught, Zhang Heng enjoyed a full meal, and then early the next morning, devoted himself fighting against nature.


    Fire can be used to cook food and boil water, and keep him warm at night. Simultaneously, keeping the fire burning had be Zhang Heng��s responsibility.


    Every day, not only did he have to go out to collect food and freshwater, he also needed to find firewood that would burn easily��this task was especially tough after a shower of rain.


    He had wanted to collect more firewood and store them in the cave to cope with the rainy weather, but earlier on, he had to focus his energy on scavenging for food; now that Ed was gone, the amount of food he needed to find was halved, leaving with ample time to do other things.


    Other than collecting firewood, Zhang Heng also attempted at fashioning a couple of stone axes. Ed was not very good at making tools, and had only imparted the rough idea of how to put together a stone axe. Before this, Zhang Heng had used the sharper edge of the ms to hack at the trees but it did not work very well��it took him at least two to three hours to cut down a small tree.


    That got him thinking about trying out the stone tools so highly favored by the primitive man. But for some unknown reasons, the axes he made either crack after only two chops, or the heads would be separated from the handle at a swing.


    Zhang Heng could onlyfort himself that failure is the mother of sess.


    In a blink of an eye, another twenty days had passed.


    That familiar voice, again, sounded in Zhang Heng��s ears.


    [Taskplete...]


    [To return after 480 days...]


    The sentences were fine on their own but when put together like that, it sounded like a bit of a joke.


    Zhang Heng ignored the voice. He had just finished his lunch, and was looking for some shells to carry water. The one he had used was burnt. He was picking up goods from the ��free market�� when he suddenly noticed two ck dots from afar.


    Huh? This was a rather familiar scenario.


    What was more familiar were the two people struggling in the water.


    Were those option B adventure man and option Cddie in shorts?


    Zhang Heng found himself speechless. What kind of humans were they? That was some powerful will and tenacity to live. It had not been easy for him to have survived on this ind and yet those two were still living and kicking after drifting in the water for forty days.


    Zhang Heng��s thoughts immediately went back to thete Ed. Before he breathed hisst breath, Ed had thanked Zhang Heng for saving him, and being able to die onnd, unlike the two other people who would be swept into a watery grave.


    Instead, right now, Zhang Heng felt sorry for Ed.


    If he had not ��saved�� Ed, Ed might still be alive, floating on the waters with the other two.


    This was not the first day Zhang Heng yed games. He knew that this situation meant that he was encountering a bug.


    The root cause of that was probably that extra twenty-four hours he had that disrupted the quest.


    Theoretically speaking, the game should cease to exist after forty days. The other yers had probably all returned to reality. He was the only was still stuck in the game��still suffering.


    Most games would have crashed or broken down. Yet, this game continued to run. This fact alone was enough to prove that this was no ordinary game.


    The bartenderdy had said that this was the greatest game in the history of mankind. Right now, Zhang Heng found himself a little convinced of that. Ever since he arrived in this ��world��, everything he had seen was extremely realistic, from the nts to the animals on the ind, everything was true to the real world. Even Ed did not appear any different from a real person.


    Right now, however, a w had finally appeared in this impable world.


    ��Is it because the plot has ended, it has no choice but to repeat?��


    However, unlike mechanical loops, the Ed whom he had buried in the little forest did not reappear, meaning that the repeat followed a logical sequence.


    Zhang Heng peeled off his clothes as quickly as he could; of course, he was not going to miss such a good opportunity.


    Unlike the physically weak and feeble person he was forty days ago, Zhang Heng was well-fed, and was even able to perform some training exercising outside ofbor.


    His body had nearly recovered to its most optimal state.


    Having gauged the distance between himself and the two people in the water, Zhang Heng decided to save theddie in shorts, who was further away. Because ording to game designers�� logic, the more effort you put in, the better the reward.


    With Ed��s help, he had basically ovee the problem of finding food; now, he wanted to know what kind of changes would saving that young man bring to his life.


    ...


    Ten dayster, Zhang Heng found himself marveling at the brick kiln and tile-roofed house.


    There were actually people in this world who could build a house with their bare hands! All throughout, Zhang Heng trailed behind thed in shorts from finding y, to constructing beams, firing the bricks in a kiln, to finally building the half a meter tall bricked house. In addition to that, thed even showed him how to make a proper stone axe, set up a wooden shed, make ceramics, prawn traps, and sandals, and use the fibers from tree barks to weave, make bow and arrows, and slings.


    Not having to worry about food, Zhang Heng was able to spend his time taking it all in.


    It was a pity, however, that the short pantsd never spoke. He merely did as Zhang Heng requested and quietly demonstrated all the techniques.


    Then on the neenth day, he identally ingested poisonous mushrooms and died in the forest.


    Killed by the plot?


    Now Zhang Heng understood that the game was designed in a way that the yer would have to spend theter half of the game alone. So, no matter what they did, the already injured Ed and thed in shorts would notst until the twentieth day.


    Zhang Heng buried thed in shorts next to Ed��s grave.


    Unlike Ed, thisd never spoke a word; so, they did not share very strong ties. In addition, after knowing that it was all just a game, Zhang Heng was not terribly upset.


    But, at the end of the day, they were teacher and student. Zhang Heng felt obliged to give him a proper burial.


    After that, Zhang Heng digested and began to put everything thed in shorts had thought him throughout their neen days together. In between, the adventurer drifted past twice, but Zhang did not ��save�� him.


    He woulde back again some other time.


    If Zhang Heng saved him, he would have only neen days left to live.


    On the 130th day on the ind, an announcement rang in Zhang Heng��s ear.


    [Tiled-roof house sessfully constructed; Wilderness Survival Skill has increased from level 0 to level 1; Game Points +5; you may view the character panel...]

 Chapter 13: Desert Island Survival VII

    <h4>Chapter 13: Desert Ind Survival VII</h4>


    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion


    Zhang Heng looked at his character panel, and found that his skills had increased from two to three. But the mean evaluation at the bottom remained unchanged.


    Since thed in the shorts taught him how to make bow and arrows, Zhang Heng had another activity added to his days. He had carved out an area on the beach just for archery practice.


    Using the knowledge imparted to him by Ed and thed in shorts, Zhang Heng managed to ovee his plight finding food and water, and moved out of that bird-droppings filled cave into the y house he had built with his worn hands.


    Just as his life was improving, a new crisis soon emerged.


    Ed had told him that the biggest enemy of a person who had mastered the skill of surviving the wilderness was not the ever-changing and unpredictable nature, but yourself.


    Once a person��s survival needs have been fulfilled, chances are, the person would fall into a vacant state; having lost all direction and motivation, being the only person on the ind would soon bring on an overwhelming sense of loneliness.


    Zhang Heng must find tasks to keep his mind and body constantly upied so that he would not have the time to think about the fact that he was all alone on a deserted ind.


    When he was with thed, Zhang Heng took into consideration that he needed to survive for another four hundred days and more, and set a new target for himself.


    He decided to explore the heart of the ind.


    So far, his area of activity had been limited to the periphery of the ind. The furthest he has been was to the virgin forest to look for firewood where he saw the fowl and some animal bones, which confirmed the presence of predators.


    From then on, he had been very careful to limit his area of activity, staying away from that stretch of forest. After all, the resources on the beach were enough to keep him alive.


    But now, in order to battle this terrible sense of loneliness, Zhang Heng needed a goal that would keep him going��exploring the center of the ind and see what was there.


    With this end in mind, Zhang Heng began to allow himself to be invested in it, and work hard towards the goal.


    Taking into ount that there were predators in the forest, he would first need to learn to protect himself.


    His secondpanion had taught him to make two long-ranged weapons��the bow and arrows, and the sling.


    Thetter was easier, but the most difficult to use. The angle and timing at which the stone was flung had to be precise. If the sling was released a little too early or a little toote, you would find that the stone was miles away from hitting the target.


    Hitting the target four or five times out of a hundred was not going to be easy.


    On the other hand, bow and arrows are much more urate and easier to control. With Zhang Heng already equipped with the basics of archery��the tips about posture, strength, and breathing technique that his coach had taught him, the only thing that hecked was practice.


    This was not something that could be doneckadaisically; it required the grind of time. In the real world, even though Zhang Heng had forty-eight hours a day, there was so much to do that he could not spend too much time on a pastime. Now, on this ind where he was the only human being, the thing he did notck most was time.


    Going from the recurve bow he bought in the market to the handmade primitive bow was not considered a drop in expenditure.


    Compared to the store-bought bow, the handmade bow��s uracy, and durability of the was a bit troubling. Drawing the bow also required much more strength and the tree bark that he used had a risk of breaking after being used more than a hundred times. The average lifespan was about 150 arrows.


    The target he had set for himself was 300 arrows per day, which meant that he needed to change the bow strings twice.


    By day 172 since he arrived on the ind, Zhang Heng achieved his goal of hitting a still target within ten meters without fail, and a sess rate of 70% at thirty meters. The threat of his arrow was greatly reduced if he aimed for anything beyond this distance.


    After that, he was notified that his archery skill was raised from Level 0 to Level 1.


    Zhang Heng was still not satisfied.


    His goal was to reach Level 2 before entering the forest for his expedition. That way at least he would be able to protect himself.


    Outside practicing his archery skills, Zhang Heng did not idle. He had moved from the cave into the y house which sat on the border of the forest, and after moving all of his belongings, made another batch of y tools. Today, he was finally able to eat out of a bowl.


    With his Level 1 archery skills, Zhang Heng went deeper into the forest, close to where he had found firewood the first time. Again, he encountered that fowl-like creature.


    The animal made some strange sounds upon their meeting, as if mocking Zhang Heng��s failure to capture it, and then speed its feet and disappeared into the bushes.


    But the very next moment, a wooden arrow came down from the sky and pierced its body.


    Concurrently, the voice in Zhang Heng��s ear made another announcement.


    [Sessful hunt, Game Point +3, you may view information on the character panel...]


    Zhang Heng��s palm was drenched in sweat. The distance between him and the fowl creature was only about seven meters��a distance he wasfortable with but once his target moved, his shots would not be as urate.


    This shot was much more urgent than usual, and his breath was slightly ragged when the arrow left his bow. Good thing, his many hours of practice came into y. It also did not hurt that the bird was on the plump side.


    The creature struggled for a while, and then finally gave up reluctantly.


    Zhang Heng walked over, collected his arrow and then bend down to examine his game.


    The creature had a strange appearance. Zhang Heng had thought that it was a fowl but upon closer look, he realized that its beak resembled a duck��s but with a curve at the tip; its body was muchrger a fowl and had blue-gray feathers, short and small wings, and a pair of rather thick legs.


    This thing looked a little ugly...


    Zhang Heng hade across a bird as once, and this thing was not in the book. But since it ate fruits and seeds, then theoretically, probably, maybe, it should be... edible.


    This whole time, on the ind, Zhang Heng had eaten some meat. But the vor of seafood like fish, prawns, and crabs couldpare to meat that lived onnd.


    Zhang Heng had been thinking about this fowl-like creature since the first time he saw it. Unfortunately, that time, he had no idea how to capture this nimble thing. Today, having honed his archery skills, Zhang Heng reached out his ws to grab this innocent little creature without a moment��s hesitation.


    Zhang Heng returned from his hunt fully loaded. Other than the 15 catty ��fowl��, he also stumbled across some wild potatoes on his way back.


    The thing was rich in starch, and could be used as a staple food. At the same time, potatoes are also high in calories. Zhang Heng did not eat much of it, he set two of thergest ones aside to be eaten with the meat tonight, and then ced the rest carefully into his basket. He nned to grow a vegetable garden by the house when he got back.


    Potatoes grow very quickly. Once he got them into the ground, he would have an endless supply of potatoes.

 Chapter 14: Desert Island Survival VIII

    <h4>Chapter 14: Desert Ind Survival VIII</h4>


    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion


    That nameless giant fowl was so ugly it was off-putting tasted surprisingly good.


    Zhang Heng had been seafood for so long he had almost forgotten what chicken tasted like. The ��chicken�� soup he boiled for dinner brought back memories.


    Actually, strictly speaking, the meat of this creature was much tougher than chicken meat. Its texture was actually closer to that of pigeons.


    But to Zhang Heng who nearly went crazy thinking about meat, this was the most delicious chicken he had ever tasted. Unable to finish the entire 15 catty ��chicken�� at one meal, Zhang Heng removed the internal organs, soaked the flesh in seawater and then smoked it. The ��chicken�� jerky now hung under the eaves of his house.


    Behind the house, Zhang Heng found a plot ofnd that received a good amount of sunlight and nted the potatoes he saved. He also burnt some grass and wood, sprinkling them over his crops as fertilizer. Finally, he fenced up the plot ofnd, looking forward to see the surprise it would bring him after about half a month.


    Early on, Zhang Heng had recorded the time on the wall of the cave but he could not move the wall to his new dwelling so he relied on the watch on his wrist.


    With the watch��s scientifically unexinable toughness, Zhang Heng had used it to whet stones in the earlier days on the ind. By looking at the positions of the hour hand and the seconds hand, he could use a simple calction to determine the date. Today, it had been 201 days since he was ��washed ashore��.


    The clothes he was wearing was the first to crumble, then his shoes acquired arge hole. He was lucky to have been in the tropics, he did not need to worry about temperature even if it was winter. Zhang Heng even settled on going about the daypletely nude.


    His skin was now a tan shade of bronze, his beard unkempt and his hair a frizzy mess. He looked a little scruffy.


    Today afternoon, Zhang Heng put down whatever he was doing, and climbed onto a cliff by the beach. He sat down with his legs crossed, staring into the distance.


    After about half an hour, the old friend he had been waiting for appeared.


    The adventurer was struggling against the waves, looking as if he could drown at any time.


    Zhang Heng looked at the silhouette rising and falling with the tide, conflicted.


    The great philosopher, mathematician and historian Russel1 once said that his life was governed by three pure yet overwhelmingly strong passions: the longing for love, the search for knowledge and the unbearable pity for the suffering of mankind.


    Thing for Zhang Heng, right now, was much simpler.


    There were only two things that was going to keep him alive for these five-hundred days��exploring the center of the ind, and seeing the man in the water who would appear every forty days. The former kept him busy and kept his mind from wandering; thetter reminded him that he was not alone.


    So many time, Zhang Heng had been tempted to save the adventurer.


    Saving him meant having someone with him for neen days, providing him with the much-needed interaction,pany and warmth from a creature of the same kind.


    But Zhang Heng had never taken any action.


    He thought about a movie he had seen called ��Cast Away��. The ne that the protagonist boarded had crashed and he was washed ashore with a heap of packages. To survive, he opened up all the packages leaving only one because it symbolized hope to him.


    Seeing the adventurer every forty days held the same meaning to Zhang Heng.


    He had been on this ind for more than two hundred days. That would be the equivalent of five rounds of game time for the average yer. He was still very far from the day of return to reality.


    If he recurred the man now, the man would die after neen days, and he would be truly andpletely alone for the rest of his days on the ind.


    Even after his Wildlife Survival Skills had reached Level 1, he was stillcking in many ways (for example, he really wanted a game console, even if it was just Tetris or Snake). Still, levelling up was not as pressing as it was when he had first arrived on the ind.


    In contrast, he needed a helper to explore the ind. He could it alone, of course. But it would definitely be much safer when there are two people.


    Zhang Heng had nned to bring the adventurer with him into the forest after he had rescued him.


    He was able to confirm from his encounter with Ed and thed in shorts that while both of them were wilderness survival experts, the areas of their knowledge differed. The skills and knowledge that Ed had imparted were basic survival skills, whereas thed in shorts was more inclined towards construction and creation. Having observed the adventurer��s dressing, Zhang Heng surmised that he was probably an expert in exploration. It would be awkward for him to save the person now.


    Zhang Heng had to suppress the burning desire to save the man as he watched the waves swallow his for the fourth time.


    With onest look at the spot where the explorer had disappeared, Zhang Heng jumped down from the cliff and continued his archery practice.


    It took him three months to get his uracy up to 90% at thirty meters.


    As a result, there was no notification of any skill upgrade. But this did not discouraged Zhang Heng. He had already expected it. This game was very demanding benchmark for skills. English, which he had learnt for fourteen years, and his nativenguage, was only graded only as Level 1. But considering how manynguages there are in the world, this ssification seemed fair enough.


    The same applied to surviving the wilderness. Zhang Heng felt that it everyone in the world was thrown to this ind, even if he was not thest person alive, he would at least be on of the top ten survivors. But again, his skills were severely skewed. If he was ced in another type of harsh environment, he might not have done that well, take the pr regions or a desert. He would barely be able to survive. That was the biggest difference between him and experts.


    Therefore, Zhang Heng was in no hurry to level up his archery skills.


    Once he had mastered his thirty meters shooting, he began practicing on moving targets.


    At first, he used the fishes swimming near the coral reefs as practice but after two shots, he was reminded that what he could see above the water was actually a deflected. If he continued to practice like that, his archery skills would go crooked.


    Then he turned to practicing on crabs. But these crustaceans were the kind of prey that does not move if the enemy remains still. They proved to be terrible practice targets. Zhang Heng never even considered practicing on birds mainly because they mostly stood on tree tops. If he missed, it would be very difficult for him to retrieve his arrows.


    In the end, Zhang Heng settled on the broken pottery pieces, stringing them up on branches so that when the wind blows, they would sway.


    This made it very difficult to shoot.


    It took Zhang Heng two months of practice to learn the ropes. During this period of time, he caught another hideous looking ��fowl�� in perfect condition. Somehow that creature had gotten into Zhang Heng��s vegetable plot, probably to munch on some free breakfast, but got its head caught in the fences instead.


    Zhang Heng thought about and decided that he was in no hurry to eat it, so he tied the creature��s leg to a wooden pole. Now he had an upgraded moving target.


    Zhang Heng wrapped the head of his carbonized arrows and then began an inhumane attack on the ��fowl��.

 Chapter 15: Desert Island Survival IX

    <h4>Chapter 15: Desert Ind Survival IX</h4>


    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion


    In the beginning, Zhang Heng counted the days until the day he would return to reality.


    Butter on, he found that doing that did nothing else but frustrated him. The more you keep an eye on time, the slower it seemed to pass.


    So, Zhang Heng no longer kept a record. During the fourth harvest of the potatoes he had nted, he received an alert.


    [Archery Skill has progressed from level 1 to level 2. You may review the information on the character panel]


    Zhang Heng dashed into his house and dug out the Tissot buried in the corner. After putting the watch on, he saw that he had been on the ind for a total of 385 days��it had been more than a year.


    Even though he could notpare to Robinson Crusoe, it was considered pretty incredible for a city person.


    In fact, Zhang Heng had already gotten used to life in the wilderness. To make life morefortable, his y house and vegetable plot had undergone two stages of expansion. The house had transformed from a single-room building to three rooms and one living room. Zhang Heng even added floor heating. The vegetable plot, on the other hand, was producing more potatoes than he could consume. Zhang Heng sliced the excess tubers into thin shreds using his stone knife and left them out to dry under the sun. Thus, began the birth of his 100% organic baked potato chips.


    In addition to that, he also found some onions in the forest and transnted them in his vegetable garden. After that, he spent a good portion of his time setting up a fish pond, an outdoor bath, and a breeding garden next to his little hut. In the pond, he kept the fish and crabs he did not eat, and that ��fowl�� which had its head stuck in the fences became the first tenant of the breeding garden.


    After shooting at it for a month and a half, the creature went from ��I��m not afraid of anything, I challenge you toe and try me�� to a nked-eye, spiritless empty-nester.


    Zhang Heng felt sorry for it and resisted the urge to eat it. On a whim, he decided to keep the ��fowl�� as livestock, in hopes that he might be able to harvest eggs someday. But the dream was destroyed when he found out that the creature was a male.


    Forget it. Zhang Heng decided to keep it as a pet and named it ��Mickey Mouse��.


    Compared to the fish, birds, and crabs, the creature had a slightly higher IQ. After a while, some interaction was established between master and pet.


    For 80% of the time, Zhang Heng was able to hit a moving target within a ten meters distance, and 50% at thirty meters. When his archery skills had advanced to Level 2, he knew that it was time to make a move.


    So, he spent ten days putting together food and supplies for two people, and preparing one month��s worth of ration for Mickey Mouse. Then he chose the toughest wood he could find and fashioned them into spears to be used as melee weapons.


    On the 401st day, when he went to save the drifting adventurer, Zhang Heng was paddling on a wooden raft that he had made.


    ��Thank you, friend. Are you an indigenous person on this ind? A typhoon sank the ship that I was on. I was the only one who swam here. I��m exhausted. If it weren��t for you, it would not have ended well for me.��


    Zhang Heng was dumbstruck. ��In what way do I resemble an indigenous person?��


    He consulted his reflection in the seawater. Fine, this face does look aboriginal. He had been on the ind for too long. Other than the watch, everything that he had with him when he first arrived was all either broken and unusable.


    Nheless, it was still a pleasure to be able to see someone of the same species. It had been almost a year since Zhang Heng had spoken to another person. He could barely contain his excitement as he handed a wooden pail filled with fresh water to the man.


    ��My name is Zhang Heng. I��m not a native. I was in a shipwreck like you, but that was a year ago.��


    After the adventurer drank the water, hisplexion improved tremendously. At first, he was worried that this aboriginal man had saved him so that he could have him for dinner, but was relieved and delighted to find that the other was a civilized man.


    ��My name is Bell Butre, and I served in the United Kingdom Special Forces Reserve 21 Special Air Service (21 SAS), climbed Mount Everest and then decided to be a host, explorer, and author... You said that you��ve been living on the ind for a year? That��s really quite incredible.��


    ��More precisely, I used to have twopanions. But neither one of them made it.�� Zhang Heng paused for a moment and then asked. ��Do you remember the two people who fell into the sea with you?��


    ��What two people who fell into the sea with me?�� Bell appeared genuinely puzzled. ��When it happened, I wanted to save people but a huge tide knocked me unconscious. When I opened my eyes, I saw this little ind.��


    Zhang Heng was not surprised by his answer but felt that it was a great pity that Bell had no memory of Ed or that guy in shorts. He most probably did not recall that he had been drifting in the ocean for a year either.


    Zhang Heng decided to y along even though he really wanted to know why the game repeatedly brought this bug back.


    They paddled back to shore, and Zhang Heng brought Bell to his little hut.


    ��Did you make all of these yourself?�� Seeing the y house with a 180-degree sea view, the thriving vegetable garden, and the pond brimming with fishes and prawns, Bell eximed, ��I don��t think there��s anything I could teach you. Even I could not have done better.��


    As he was speaking, Bell��s eyes fell upon Mickey Mouse that was howling in the breeding garden, and he let out a shriek.


    Zhang Heng thought that Mickey Mouse��s hideous looks had managed to bring a grown man to tears, and was about to introduce them to each other when Bell suddenly cried, ��My god! What am I seeing?! Dodo bird! There��s still a living and breathing Dodo bird on this earth!��


    This time, it was Zhang Heng��s turn to be stunned.


    He was no stranger to the name of the Dodo bird. ording to the records, this bird livedfortably on the ind of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean until the arrival of a group of European colonizers. A cmity fell upon this species and in a short period of 200 years, the birds werepletely wiped out. Until now, not a singleplete specimen had been found.


    Zhang Heng could not believe that he had so casually eaten the national bird of Mauritius.


    But since it was a game, nothing was too surprising.


    Seeing how confident Zhang Heng was, Bell was a little troubled. So, he decided to give his new friend a scientific exnation. ��Dodo birds werepletely extinct in 1681. Opinion differ about how that happened��some people say that the Europeans ate them all, some say that the animals that the colonizers brought with them brought about a biological invasion, there are also theories that it��s because of the environmental changes... whatever it is, they havepletely vanished from earth. Sixteen years ago, the bones of the Dodo bird were sold at an auction for 500 thousand pounds. Your discovery on this ind will shock the whole world!��


    ��Unfortunately, this was just a virtual game world. The plot outside of the ind was a whole lot of nothing...�� Zhang Heng thought to himself.


    Instead of telling this to Bell, Zhang Heng decided to use a different, more easily eptable method to convey the message to him. ��Bell, if this really is a Dodo bird, we have to find a way to leave this ind and show it to the world.��


    ��You��re right.�� Bell agreed. ��The fact that Dodo birds exist on this ind is not good news for us. It means that no one has evere across this ce. I��m afraid this ce is not in any of the ships�� courses.��


    ��I��ve been on this ind for more than a year. I��m already very familiar with the outer regions of the ind, and I was thinking of going into the heart of the ind to explore... Hmm, who knows, I might be able to find a way that could get us out of this ce.��


    ��Then let mee with you. I think I could be of help when ites to exploration.�� Bell said excitedly. ��When are we leaving? Tomorrow?��


    ��No, no... Let��s wait for two more days so that your body can recover fully, and in the meantime... have a chat with me.�� Zhang Heng looked at the explorer with eager eyes.


    ��???��

 Chapter 16: Desert Island Survival X

    <h4>Chapter 16: Desert Ind Survival X</h4>


    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion


    Bell was in excellent physical shape. Even though he had drifted for so long in the ocean, exhausted and on the brink of dehydration, when given enough food and drink, proper rest and favorable environment, he bounced back to full strength in less than two days�� time.


    Even so, Zhang Heng was in no hurry to leave. The ind��s acreage was neitherrge nor small; walking around the ind��s entire periphery only took Zhang Heng about eight hours. Going into the virgin forest would take a longer time, but even then, it would only take about three days to get from the hut to the center of the ind.


    If his assumptions were right, Bell had neen days to live, which meant that they still had more than enough time to prepare.


    After being in each other��spany for two days, Zhang Heng had a basic understanding of his newpanion��s abilities.


    Bell��s survival expertise was indeed different from Ed��s and thed in shorts��; his leaned towards hunting and self-preservation��precisely the kind of skills necessary for exploring the virgin forest.


    At the present time, Zhang Heng was capable of making arge variety of tools, equipped to seek out a ce to stay, water, and many other basic survival skills.


    From the simple variety of vegetable in his garden and the bareness of the breeding garden except for Micky Mouse, it was obvious that Zhang Heng did not understand too much about the nature that he was living in.


    This was especially true in species identification��a weakness that Zhang Heng and most city-living modern people possessed.


    There were many types of nts in the forest, but not knowing which ones or which parts were edible, and afraid of falling victim to food poisoning, Zhang Heng had only taken the potatoes and onions��which were the only things that he recognized.


    It was pretty much the same with animals. All this while, he had thought that Mickey Mouse was ugly as sin; never once did it cross his mind that it was actually the extinct national bird of Mauritius.


    This explorer that he rescued could finally help him make up for this shoring of his.


    Seeing that there was not a lot of time left, Zhang Heng decided to bring Bell on a tour around the ind.


    Bell taught him how to identify and obtain a variety of resources from the forest.


    Zhang Heng could not help but be surprised. For the past one year, he had been recklessly wasting natural resources��he had been sitting on a pile of treasure-trove and he waspletely clueless as to how to use them.


    But the more Zhang Heng listened to hispanion, the more uneasy he felt because it seemed that Bell was deeming practically everything that heid eyes on to be ��edible once the head is removed��.


    On the afternoon of the tenth day, both men returned to the house. Zhang Heng was very pleased with the yield of this short little trip. Even if there was nothing in the heart of the ind, he had learnt a lot in the past ten days.


    Beyond that, Bell was also very good listener and conversational partner.


    After taking a day��s rest, Zhang Heng nted the seed they had collected from the trip in the vegetable garden. As he was doing so, he suddenly received another message.


    [Sessfully collected more than ten varieties of vegetables. Wilderness Survival Skills advance from level 1 to level 2. Game Points +5. You may refer to the character panel to view the information...]


    Until now, Zhang Heng still had no idea how the game points were used in the game. Including what he had umted previously, he now had a total of 16 points, which was disyed on his character panel.


    It seemed to him that this was a sort of reward system. Once certain criteria were met, points would be rewarded, just like previous 11 points which came from starting a fire, building a house and hunting.


    Anyway, Zhang Heng was not too caught up in these sorts of things. He had always been the kind of yer who let things run its course as long as hepleted a level; definitely not the hardcore-bigot kind who had to attainplete dominance of the game. This time, it was only because he had yed this game on his own for too long, he had to attain those achievements even if he did not want to.


    In addition to that, he also noticed that some changes had been made to the evaluation portion on the panel.


    It read,


    [Evaluation: The yer is unremarkable with no quality worthmending, but has some wilderness survival skills and archery skills. He is not expected to be able tost longer than the first five rounds.]


    Zhang Heng found this rather puzzling. He thought that his archery skills were pretty good, and he had enough knowledge to survive harsh environment��how could he notst longer than five rounds? What about the other yers?


    The thought merely shed through his mind. After that, Zhang Heng focused his attention on matters that needed to be done.


    After a night��s rest, the pair had almostpletely recovered from the fatigue of their little expedition, and the conditions of their physiques were at optimal level.


    Next, it was finally time for the main event.


    Zhang Heng slung the longbow and quiver over his shoulder. The night before their departure he had already prepared two persons�� worth of rations and water. He and Bell each carried their own. If they were frugal, these provisions could very wellst them for a week in the forest.


    With Bell the human hunting machine next to him, there was no need to worry about running out of supply anyway.


    When Zhang Heng handed the two spears he had prepared to his partner, Bell shook his head and then showed him the knife on his waist. ��This is enough for me.��


    Zhang Heng felt a twinge of envy. Seeing the knife brought back memories about that Swiss army knife that he had... Ever since he was thrown to this ind, he never saw that piece of ironware again. He thought about how he, when he was with Ed, hadpleted the feat of sawing a tree using a shell. The tip of the spear he was holding had to be carbonized and then sharpened.


    While it was a pretty effective weapon, it was still not nearly as good as the real deal.


    Moreover, the workmanship on the knife appeared to be exquisite. Bell��s name was even carved on it.


    ��If you like it so much, I can give it to you once we��re safe. You can alsoe to my house to visit. I��ll introduce you to my wife and son.��


    Even though he knew that that day would nevere, Zhang Heng thanked the explorer politely.


    Once they were ready, the pair began their journey into the virgin forest. On the first night alone, Zhang Heng realized how lucky he was to have Bell with him.


    Even though he had made ample preparations, he had clearly underestimated the dangers in the forest.


    One person could not be on constant alert for twenty-four hours, especially at night when the forest was not particrly quiet. There always seemed to bushes rustling in the dark.


    For the first half of the night, Zhang Heng was constantly on his toes, tightening his grip on the spear at every sound or movement. Eventually he realized that he could not go on like this. One sleepless night meant that his mind would suffer and his response slow.


    Eventually, Zhang Heng had to force himself to close his eyes.


    It took a while for him to ignore the suspicious sounds all around him and enter the half-asleep state. But it was then, he suddenly felt something rubbing against his midriff.


    This was also the time when Zhang Heng was most lethargic, so he did not bother to open his eyes until whatever it was tangled around his body and began to squeeze. It was when he suddenly felt suffocated that his eyes flew opened and he saw the thing stacked around his body.


    It was a python, about three meters long and a body that was thicker than Zhang Heng��s forearm. Its belly was white and its back was covered in brown cloud-like spots.


    Zhang Heng attempted to free himself from its grasp but realized that he could raise his arm at all. The thing was tightening around him and it felt as if all the bones in his body were broken.


    Luckily, his struggling woke Bell from his sleep.


    ��Burmese rock python, a subspecies of the Indian python��one of six of thergest snake species in the world. Commonly seen in tropical rain forests. They have great strength and few enemies, but they are not without weaknesses.�� Bell reached to touch the giant serpent��s tail and very lightly jabbed at a spot, and the Burmese rock python actually loosened its grip.


    When Zhang Heng finally freed himself, Bell exined, ��Anus��they are python��s most vulnerable spot. Attacking this body part will allow you to have time to escape.�� And then he plunged the knife into the snake��s head.


    ��Not such bad luck at all. Our breakfast for tomorrow morning has fallen into ourp.��

 Chapter 17: Desert Island Survival XI

    <h4>Chapter 17: Desert Ind Survival XI</h4>


    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion


    Zhang Heng woke up from his sleep and saw Bell roasting the python that nearly swallowed him the night before.


    ��Zhang, you��re awake just in time for breakfast.�� The explorer stirred the bonfire with a stick to adjust the mes, and then pointed at the thing next to him that was still dripping with blood. ��Snake skin. I just peeled it. After I wash it, we can use it to make a water bag of some sort, it��ll be much more impervious than pails; or we could use it to make clothes. It can keep us cool��very useful in hot weather.��


    ��Thank you forst night.�� Zhang Heng found a ce to sit on the ground. The red marks around his arm were still visible.


    ��Oh, don��t worry about it. You saved me from the sea. If we want to survive in the wilderness, we have to help each other, right?�� Bell said as he passed a roasted snake skewer to Zhang Heng.


    He was about to refuse when a thought struck him��this might be the only chance in his life that he got to eat a python without being thrown into jail. So, he epted it.


    He took a curious bite and found that it tasted pretty good. It did not have a strong smell and tasted a bit like chicken, only chewier.


    When he thought about how this creature nearly took his lifest night, Zhang Heng decided to have a second helping.


    ...


    After breakfast, the two set off again.


    Bell continued to y the role of a capable guide, clearing the path in the front with his knife and exining the various organisms they encounter to Zhang Heng along the way.


    ��The python we ran intost night is not the only predator in this forest. When pythons eat, they normally swallow their prey head-first. Because of their poor eyesight, they sometimes eat prey that are too big for their stomachs to handle and their belly would explode. But snakes have very good digestion. They could digest bones and flesh all together without a problem. The animal bones we saw back there, some of them are still in perfect condition. It didn��t look like they were the python��s victims.��


    Zhang Heng quietly noted down this trivia. Many things seemed to be of little use but you never know when the time woulde that you would actuallye to use it.


    For example, Ed and the guy in shorts never taught him how to salt out of seawater; it was something he had seen from a video on some bullet screen website. Using heat, crystallization and repeated filtration process, you could obtain rtively pure food-grade salt and make food much more appetizing.


    Speaking of which, when Zhang Heng was in primary school, he had visited Xishuangbanna with his grandfather. The forest park there left a deep impression on him.


    But that ce was developed by man, and only a small portion of it was opened to the public for safety reasons. This was the first time Zhang Heng had been in an all-natural forest like this. Like Bell said, the colony in this ce was rich and it really opened Zhang Heng��s eyes.


    For instance, along the way, he spotted a little amphibian with a semi-transparent belly that gave Zhang Heng a view into its heart, liver and digestive system. What was more incredible was that the frog��s body was only about 1-2milliliter.


    ��ss frogs generally reside in the tropical rainforests of Central and South America. To date, 134 types of ss frogs have been identified. Among which, sixty of them are on the verge of extinction,�� said the explorer as he carefully ced the tiny creature back onto the leaf.


    ��What about this?�� Zhang Heng pointed at a bump growing on a Banyan tree like a tumor. There was a new shoot growing out of it.


    ��Oh, staghorn fern. A type of epiphyte. They are tender green when they are young, and turn light brown when they mature. They mostly live on the trunks and branches of other trees. It��smonly found in tropical rain forests.��


    Other than that, Zhang Heng also saw: a colugo. This thing was neither cat nor monkey with wings like a bat��s that enclosed its neck, limbs, and tail. Spreading them allowed the mammal to glide in the air. It looked rather yful; a Bagheera kiplingi, a species of jumping spider and the only species of spiders with a herbivorous diet��they eat nubs at the tip of leaves. The name was too difficult to pronounce. Zhang Heng had Bell repeat it three times and was still doubtful; bird-of-paradise whose cries sounded like gunshots. When Zhang Heng first heard it, he nearly jumped out of his skin. But the bird was very beautiful, especially its feathers that changes colors...


    Even Bell could not help but exim, ��This ce is a biological paradise! This is the first time I��ve seen so many tropical nts and animals from different regions gathered in one ce! This is unbelievable! Biologists would love this piece ofnd.��


    Just then, Zhang Heng felt something underneath his feet. He bent down to pick it up and saw that it was the tooth of some animal with a circr hole at the bottom.


    ��This thing looks man-made. Naturally formed holes are generally not that regr.�� Bell took the tooth from hispanion and examined it. ��I know that some aboriginals would wear the teeth of the animals they hunted around their neck to show off their strength. The more powerful their game is, the more powerful they are deemed to be. That way, when ites to choosing their partners, it would be easier for them to pick their desired mate. I have a friend, who went hunting a lion alone so that he could marry the most beautiful girl in their tribe. He never came back. ��


    There was indeed a reason for the smaller poption of foreigners. Zhang Heng made noment about this. Instead, he asked a question that he was more concerned about, ��Are there aboriginals living on this ind? Could they be cannibals?��


    Bell shook his head. ��The chances are small. The ind is not very big. You said that you��ve been living on this ind for more than a year now. If there were other people on this ind, there��s no reason that you haven��t met them yet... Also, this thing looks like it��s quite old.��


    ��So, you��re saying that there were aboriginals living here?�� Zhang Heng could feel sweat dripping down his back. If those aboriginals were still alive, they could have captured him and Ed to make soup on the first day they arrive on the ind.


    ��Mm, let��s keep going further.�� Bell was also interested to find out. The possibility of a lost civilization appealed to the explorer in him. He nearly forgot that they hade to search for a way to leave the ind.


    The two continued towards the heart of the ind.


    As of now, they were already nearly halfway into their journey, and the deeper they went, the more evidence of human civilization they found.


    Bell took a look at thepletely eroded little huts, and the moss-covered stone wares and tools, and could tell that a long time ago, an aboriginal tribe had once lived here in the forest of this ind.


    What happened to them? Why have they all disappeared? The explorer was getting more intrigued by the minute.

 Chapter 18: Desert Island Survival XII

    <h4>Chapter 18: Desert Ind Survival XII</h4>


    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion


    Zhang Heng was not surprised mainly because he was aware that this was just a game and he would not have been surprised if they had found Winnie the Pooh in the forest.


    But, at the moment, Zhang Heng could not deny that everything around him right now was so realistic. If it had not been for his extra twenty-four hours causing a majorplication and lengthening the span of the game, he would not have detected any bug at all.


    Other than the huts and stone tools, the pair also found a small, almost 1-hectareke nearby. Bell tasted the water and said, ��It��s drinkable. This is a freshwaterke. No wonder they built their vige nearby.��


    Zhang Heng��s eye, however, was drawn to something half-buried in the mud by theke.


    ��This tribe... Did they already possess the skills to smelt metal?��


    Zhang Heng pulled out the item and found that it was a piece of very rusty ironware. It appeared to have been attached to a piece of wood but the handle was beyond recognition.


    Upon inspection, Zhang Heng found himself clueless as to what that item was.


    Bell was not all-knowing: he did not know what the thing was used for either. So, he could only analyze. ��From the look of the craftmanship, they are most probably still in the stone age era. This piece of metal may not have belonged to them.��


    It was gettingte so they did not continue further but found a ce nearby and started a fire for cooking.


    The closer they were to their destination, Zhang Feng found himself in a tangle of emotions.


    For the past one year, he had relied on the objective of exploring the center of the ind to keep himself working hard on improving his archery skills, and exercising to keep in shape until it became essentially almost like second nature to him. But to say that he was concerned about what was in there was not entirely true either.


    In light of this, Zhang Heng often envied Ed, Bell and the guy in shorts. They couldfort themselves that perhaps tomorrow a ship would dock at the ind, or perhaps there was something on the ind that could bring them home. On the contrary, yer Zhang Heng knew very well that unless the time was up, he was not going anywhere.


    When he thought about how they were going to solve the mystery tomorrow, he was both emotional and excited��he had been thinking about this day for the past one year, after all��but most of all, he was at a loss.


    Once this was over, what was he going to rely on to survive?


    Thank goodness four-fifths of the time had already passed, leaving only another hundred over days to go. Even if he did not have a goal to work towards, he should be able to bite the bullet and pull through.


    On the third morning of the expedition, Zhang Heng rose early but when he opened his eyes, he saw that Bell was already up.


    ��Morning, Zhang,�� the explorer greeted him excitedly. ��I just took a walk around theke again. Guess what I found?��


    ��Er... new breakfast?��


    ��That��s actually true. I caught a catfish so that we can have a change of vors. But other than that, I also found something else.�� Bell ced two rusty little balls on Zhang Heng��s palm.


    ��What is this? Marbles?��


    ��This is a bullet.��


    ��How are solid bullets fired?�� Zhang Heng asked. He was not a fan of weapons but he had some basic knowledge about them. Modern weapons relied on the ignition of gunpower in the bullets to be fired. Without gunpowder, the bullet could not prate anything.


    ��Remember that thing you found by theke? I know what it is.�� The explorer was beaming in excitement. ��It��s a matchlock��widely used in the fifteenth, sixteenth century Europe. The gunpower and cartridge for this type of weapon are filled separately, and then the match cord is lit up... At that time, the ve trade was booming, and the aboriginals here must have been attacked and captured by the ve traders and then sold off to farmers.��


    The spection seemed reasonable and in ordance with what they had seen. Zhang Heng decided to ept this friend��s statement as the truth. However,ter on that day, when they finally arrived at the heart of the ind, they came across a structure that resembled an altar with a mountain of bones stacked up on top of it.


    Zhang Heng turned to hispanion. ��Were your fifteenth, sixteenth century European ve traders this ruthless?��


    ��... This is not the work of the ve traders. This was a dark and bloody period. As far as I know, ve traders do, in fact, kill those who try to resist captive in order to scare the others. Sometimes, they would also kill the ones who were too old or too young, those too inconvenient to transport.�� Bell walked up to the altar and picked up a skull. ��But this... this is not their practice.��


    ��If it��s not the ve traders who killed aboriginals of the ind, then who did? Could they have done it themselves?��


    Zhang Heng��s question stumped the both of them.


    The architectural style of the altar was very simr to the ruins they had stumbled on by theke.


    ��Alright, say the ve traders arrived on the ind, and these aboriginals saw that they could were no match for the enemy so they came to the altar and ended their own lives... It��s a little far-fetched.��


    Bell walked to the center of the mound of bones, bent down and wiped away the dust on the stone floor. ��This is something else. It��s a totem depicting a half-human, half-snake creature. It looks like it could be the gods that these aboriginals worshipped.��


    Zhang Heng was a little disappointed. Although he did not care too much for whatever was in the heart of the ind, finding the indigenous ruins that had no use to him caused him to feel dispirited.


    He had prepared for this for one an entire year, and it was a dangerous journeying here. He was even nearly swallowed by a python. In the end, all they found was just a bunch of bones and some altar.


    But seeing how excited Bell was by all that, Zhang Heng kept this opinion to himself.


    The pair had plenty of food and water. There was still more than half of the food they had brought with them, and then on the way Bell killed quite a number of ��games��, which might have looked like things that most people would be reluctant to put in their mouths, were actually surprisingly okay.


    Zhang Heng was contemting whether or not to cut directly through the forest to the other end of the ind then travel along the coastline to return to their dwelling when a dark shadow suddenly emerged from behind the altar and sprung for the explorer.


    Zhang Heng jumped. He did not need Bell��s scientific exnations to recognize what that thing was��jaguar, the king of the rainforest, with a likeness to a tiger, armed with sharp teeth and ws that could tear into a caiman. It was thatrge predator at the top of the food chain.


    Bell��s reflex was very quick. The explorer rolled across the floor and evaded the beast��s lightning attack, then drew the knife at his waist.


    Zhang Heng quickly drew his bow and arrow, but another jaguar appeared.


    This time, Bell��s face fell.


    What?! Zhang Heng felt a wave of nauseae over him. By right, the explorer��s death was still four days away. Why had these cats showed up so early? Did they get the wrong script?


    But there was no time for him to think about these things right now. Bell was in grave danger. No matter how good he was there was no way he could fight off two jaguars alone. Zhang Heng raised his bow and shot at the second jaguar.


    The cat dodged the arrow swiftly. Zhang Heng had already expected that. They were both now about 27 or 28 meters away from each other. If he had shot at Mickey Mouse from this distance, his uracy rate was about 50��60%. But the jaguar was much nimbler and lither than the Dodo bird.

 Chapter 19: Desert Island Survival XIII

    <h4>Chapter 19: Desert Ind Survival XIII</h4>


    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion


    Zhang Heng��s missed shot caught the attention of the jaguar. Thetter quickly turned its attention to him.


    Bell was still wrestling the other jaguar, which meant that Zhang Heng would have to face this king of the rainforest on his own. If he had this encounter when he first came to the ind, he would have been dead meat.


    He probably would not even be able to fight a goose, much less a jaguar.


    But was not his entire year of archery practice for this moment?


    Quickly, Zhang Heng drew another arrow, and ced it on the bowstring. He was not in a hurry to shoot because he and the beast were still quite far from each other.


    At this distance, he did not have the full confidence to be able to hit the target. So, he had to rein in the fear he was experiencing and wait for the jaguar to attack first.


    This might sound simple but actually doing it was not easy.


    Because for a long-range profession, the further the range, the safer it would be. Every shooter should know the kiting [1] technique.


    All the same, reality is cruel. Zhang Heng knew for a fact that in terms of agility and speed, his own two legs could never outrun the creature with four. He could kite but what if the jaguar chooses to join its partner and attack the explorer instead?


    Then when the two jaguars had him surrounded, Zhang Heng would never be able to leave this forest.


    So, both man and cat came into a confrontational stance. Zhang Heng maintained his aim and an upright position as his instructor had taught him, regting his breathing.


    Opposite him, the jaguar��s patience finally ran out, so it arced its body and prepared to pounce.


    Panic rose inside of Zhang Heng. This was apletely different situation from hunting a Dodo bird. Even if he missed his target, the consequence would just be not being able to eat meat. But if his arrow misses, with the jaguar��s fleet-foot, he would not even have another chance to reload his bow.


    The one who would be eaten was him.


    Zhang Heng quickly chased all this jumble of thoughts away, and anchored his emotions. In that split second, the jaguar made a move. It was much faster than Zhang Heng had imagined it to be. Kicking the ground with its hindlegs provided the creature with a frighteningly explosive force.


    The distance between them was rapidly shrinking. At less than seven meters, finally came the sound of bowstrings being released.


    You could say that this shot was Zhang Heng��s most satisfactory shot so far. After an extended period of preparing and gauging, his mind went into a sort of Zen state, where the world before him seemed to be moving in slow-motion and he could see the motion of the jaguar��s whiskers.


    Be it strength, angle or calction��everything was perfect.


    As soon as the arrow left his hand, Zhang Heng knew that it would hit the target.


    And he was right.


    At such a close distance, and running at a full sprint, the jaguar was unable to elude and could only watch as the iing wood arrow hit its head.


    But what happened next waspletely out of Zhang Heng��s expectation. He did not know if it was because the carbonized arrowhead was not lethal enough because he had terrible luck, the arrow hit the cat��s skull but did not go any deeper.


    The jaguar let out a shrill cry of pain but the injury to its head was not enough to kill. Instead, it provoked the beast which then proceeded to charge towards Zhang Heng, knocking him to the ground.


    Zhang Heng pushed the bow up against the jaguar��s neck to keep it from ripping his throat out but the jaguar was pinning the lower half of his body to the ground and was wing madly at his shoulder, boring bloody holes into it.


    But the harrowing pain provided Zhang Heng with a surge of strength that he had never experienced before.


    With death just around the corner, he momentarily forgot his fears. He knew that no one could save him at this time. If he wanted to live, he would have to rely on himself.


    Keeping one hand on the bow, Zhang Heng allowed his free hand to il about the ground. Sensing the pressure against its neck weakening, the look in the jaguar��s turned savage. The beast stretched out its neck to reach Zhang Heng��s neck, the saliva from its razor-sharp teeth dripping down onto his victim��s face. The stench nearly knocked Zhang Heng unconscious.


    He was now in much more danger than before.


    But at that very moment, Zhang Heng��s free hand managed to reach the spear he had dropped on the ground.


    The putrid, hungry mouth was about to tear down on his neck when he plunged the spear into the jaguar��s neck. The creature��s eyes went nk. But Zhang Heng did not let go; instead he pushed harder, twisting the weapon deeper into the cat��s neck.


    He had tossed his wooden bow aside, and reached for the arrow that was lodged in the jaguar and thrust both hands with all his might.


    All that whirlwind adrenaline had him forget about the pain all over his body. This was battle of life and death. There was no such thing as mercy here. Zhang Heng did everything he could to inflict damage on the wild beast before him until a voice announced in his ear:


    [Sessfully exterminated an adult jaguar single-handedly. Game Points +10. You may view your character panel for further information...]


    Only then, could Zhang Heng confirm that he was the winner of this bloodbath.


    Pushing the breathless piece of dead meat off of himself, Zhang Heng saw that Bell��s fight with the other jaguar was also drawing to an end.


    The explorer had punctured the jaguar��s lower abdomen with his knife, and the creature was losing a lot of blood. Its movement was also morebored and leaden. It looked like it was going to follow after its partner��s footsteps.


    ��Heh, you alright, Zhang?�� Bell asked, concerned. He had seen that Zhang Heng was in danger but had been unable to help.


    ��... I��ve always wanted to own a piece of tiger-skin skirt, but I guess jaguar skin works too,�� Zhang Heng huffed, and then dropped to the ground with his arms and legs spread out. Having verified that he was absolutely safe, all the energy in his body suddenly drained away. He did not even want to lift a single finger.


    When he thought about how insane everything that had just happened was, his beating heart could not seem to calm down.


    He had never thought that one day he would have to fight such arge beast up close and personal. ording to the time count back in reality, just an hour ago, he had just been drinking lemon water at the bar.


    But now, he was a man who had just killed a jaguar.


    It was pretty cool if you think about it. But it was still better if something like this never happens again.


    ��The stone on the altar broke during the struggle, and I found this.�� The explorer walked up to hispanion once he had taken care of his opponent.


    ��What is that?�� Zhang Heng looked at the furry thing in Bell��s hand. It looked like some sort of tail. The strange thing was if the aboriginals did hide this thing under the stone, it would not be in such a good condition after such a long time.


    He was about to tell Bell to keep then changed his mind thest minute and asked the explorer, ��Can I have it?��


    ��Of course, you saved me. Twice now.�� Bell was just a generous guy.


    ��Thank you. This thing might just be useful for me.��


    Zhang Heng changed his mind because when he picked up the furry thing, a voice notified him,


    [Found game item��Rabbit��s foot (unidentified)]

 Chapter 20: Desert Island Survival XIV

    <h4>Chapter 20: Desert Ind Survival XIV</h4>


    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion


    Zhang Heng had been on the ind for more than a year now, but this was the first game item he hade across.


    But other than the voice in his voice, there was nothing else.


    He did not know what this thing was used for, or what it does. It seemed as if the voice did not intend to inform him either. After it had notified him about the item, it just disappeared.


    Zhang Heng surveyed the rabbit��s foot but found nothing special about it. He would just have to keep it in his waist pouch for the moment.


    After Bell looked at the wound on Zhang Heng��s shoulder, he decided not to take any risk and sterilized the wound with saline. ��The wound is too deep. The ws of beasts that live in the wild like this are normally full of germs. There��s a chance it could be infected.��


    Zhang Heng understood the horrible consequence of infection. In the city, this would have just been a matter of an antibiotic injection. But on this barren ind, the chances of surviving an infection was next to none. It was because of the injury on his leg that Ed contracted high fever and passed away. Even though his death was premeditated by the game; that would mean the game designers could be trying to inform the yers of such dangers.


    But there are some things, that even if made known in advance, could never be helped.


    What should he do in that situation?


    Being able to fight back and kill his attacker had already exceeded his limit. It was impossible to think that he could havee out unscathed.


    The explorerforted, ��It may not be infected, for sure. Maybe nothing would happen.��


    Zhang Heng smiled bitterly. He could only hope for that right now.


    After they had rested for a day, since they had already made it here to the center of the ind, Zhang Heng suggested that they go straight to the other side of the ind. Ed did not express any opinion against the idea, of course.


    So, they spent another two days or so to pass through the forest.


    When they were finally greeted by the sight of the beach and the ocean, Zhang Heng was rewarded for his achievement ��toured ind�� and had another 3 points added to his game points.


    But this was none of his concern right now.


    There were two things that were giving him a headache right now, was the possibility of being infected and that time for Bell��s death was approaching.


    The first matter was purely dependent on luck��there was nothing he could do; the second matter was having stayed together for such a long time, and that Bell saved him from the bing python food, Zhang Heng regarded him as a friend. In the end, he decided to give his friends a heads up.


    Of course, he would not mention that they were in a game and that Bell was a non-yer character (NPC) with a buff that set him up to die after neen days. The discussion of whether this would yield some unpredictable reaction aside, Bell would have found this exnation difficult to believe. Chances are, he would conclude that because Zhang Heng had been alone on the ind for too long, his mind was in a state of confusion.


    Which was why Zhang Heng only told Bell to be extra careful tomorrow.


    The explorer did seem to mind it too much. After all, the both of them did just massacre a jaguar each. Now that they had left the forest, they had moved past the most dangerous portion of the journey. Whatever happened next could not possibly be as severe as this.


    Zhang Heng thought that it made sense, but after what happened with the guy in shorts and the poisoned mushroom, Zhang Heng knew that anything could happen tomorrow. He persuaded Bell not to hunt the next morning and kept his eye the explorer for the entire span of twenty-four hours.


    Zhang Heng also wanted to see to what extent this death could be done and if it could be changed.


    ...


    Nothing happened in the morning.


    Zhang Heng trailed behind the explorer the entire day like an idiot, giving his friend the chills. In the afternoon, Bell suggested that they go outside the forest to pick some wild vegetables and mushrooms to make a seafood soup but was sternly refused by Zhang Heng.


    What kind of joke is it? Were they seriously using the same trick again?


    Zhang Heng was thoroughly traumatized by mushrooms. Besides, even if he really wanted to eat them, today was not going to be the day.


    Unable to do anything, Bell had wanted to go for a walk by the beach but seeing how resolute Zhang Heng was, he decided not to ask for fear that it would only give trouble to his friend.


    In the end, they settled on walking toward the direction they lived in quietly.


    Throughout the entire journey, neither one of them spoke. Bell was not a man with a temper but he did feel that Zhang Heng was making a big deal out of nothing.


    Then as they were passing by a shallow beach, the cliff on his right suddenly came crashing down without warning. Caught off guard, Bell watched in horror as the falling rocks wereing down at his head. But right at that very moment, someone pounced on him and they rolled away together sideways.


    The crumbled rocks smashed against the coral reef next to them, giving the explorer the shock of his life.


    After that, he saw blood in the sea and a motionless Zhang Heng lying face down. ��Zhang, are you alright?��


    Zhang Heng replied only after a while, ��... I��m fine, Bell. I just jumped at you too forcefully��my nose is bleeding from the impact.�� Zhang Heng sat up, hands cradling his nose.


    The situation was fraught with danger but it was no match for the vignt Zhang Heng. When he heard the rumbling noise above him, his first instinct was to throw himself at Bell, and managed to get his friend out of harm��s way.


    Upon remembering the warning yesterday, the explorer eximed, ��My god. Are you an oracle? You could foresee the future! This is incredible!��


    ��Don��t celebrate so soon. It��s not over yet.�� Zhang Heng reminded him.


    The truth was, he did not know when this was going to end��when today was over? Or until Bell dies? If it was thetter then no gods nor ghosts could save the explorer.


    Zhang Heng could not guarantee for sure that he would be as keen-eyed as he was today for the next hundred days.


    But fortunately, this incident earned him some credibility, and Bell was now taking his ��prophecy�� much more seriously.


    To be safe, neither one of them slept a wink the entire night. When the sun peeked out from the horizon, Zhang Heng was lost for words. He did not think he would be able to help the explorer live past twenty days.


    Bell yawned. ��So? Am I safe?��


    ��I don��t know.�� Zhang Heng shook his head. ��But you can move about freely.��


    Having passed the most dangerous neenth day, who knows what would happen in the future. But like the wound on Zhang Heng��s shoulder, he would only know only after the infection set in.


    However, whether it was Bell or Zhang Heng, their luck seemed to be pretty good. Neither one of them encountered any life-threatening danger, and a scab had already begun to form on Zhang Heng��s wound. There had been no swelling or puss.


    A weekter, the pair finally arrived at the hut. Seeing Mickey Mouse sunbathing in the garden brought a feeling of familiarity to Zhang Heng. He even thought that the bird did not look as ugly as before.


    This little trip, although short, was filled with danger. Fortunately, the payoff was also good.


    Not only did Zhang Heng earn another 13 points, he also took home a prop that he did not know how to use; most importantly, though, was that Bell was alive and breathing.


    This meant that for the rest of the 100 days, Zhang Heng was finally not alone on this ind.


    While he was clearing out a house to be turned into the explorer��s room, Zhang Heng asked, ��Bell, can you be my teacher?��


    ��Sure, what would you like to learn?��


    ��English. I have a grade six exam in December.��


    ��...��

 Chapter 21: Desert Island Survival (End)

    <h4>Chapter 21: Desert Ind Survival (End)</h4>


    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion


    Bell��s English was excellent, probably because he was English.


    ...


    The first thing they di upon their return from their expedition to the center of the ind was to nt the seeds they collected in the vegetable garden. Zhang Heng went back and forth, eventually deciding on giving up on the idea of making a skirt. It was mostly because he still would not be able to cosy as Monkey King without the staff.


    In the end, Bell conjoined the two pieces of jaguar pelt into carpets. Not long after, the breeding garden was full of animals the explorer brought back from his hunts.


    Mickey Mouse seemed slightly taken aback by the sudden increase of neighbors. Zhang Heng even found the dodo bird��s wife allowing the two people on the ind to enjoy some eggs atst.


    Finally, Zhang Heng had this feeling that he had conquered nature. He had eaten more than 20 varieties of vegetables, added two more seasonings to his pantry, owned a pond full of seafood, which he could take from whenever he liked and ate meat every day. Most importantly, he eventually found someone he could talk with.


    That feeling was just like when Robinson met Friday.


    Well... alright. From the student-teacher perspective, probably more like Friday.


    For 4 hours every day, Zhang Heng would be learning English from Bell, which included listening, speaking, reading, and writing. On top of that, he continued his archery practices, although he��d already achieved his goal. Over the course of the year, it had now be a habit. The only thing was, that he no longer spent as much time on it as he used to. As an added bonus, Bell taught him some defensive moves.


    His time on the ind wasing to an end. On the 520th morning, a rescue vessel passing by spotted the signal fire by the beach and sent a lifeboat to the ind. Before the boat could even reach the shore, a woman jumped off the vessel and came running towards the men in tears.


    ��My wife, Kaya!�� The explorer dropped the homemade fishing rod in his hand and stood up abruptly.


    The relieved couple embraced each other.


    Bell then removed the de he stowed across his waist and ced it in Zhang Heng��s hand.


    ��As per our agreement previously, this belongs to you now. I��ve been to many dangerous ces all over the world... the pr regions, deserts, hignds... but this was the first time I��ve been marooned on a desert ind. It has been an incredibly unforgettable and valuable experience. You are my forever friend. Of all our days here, it��s not just you who was the one learning. I��ve also learned a lot from you �C I learned for the first time that there��s such a thing as grammar in the Englishnguage.��


    ��...��


    ��Let��s go, my friend. We should go home.��


    Zhang Heng followed the Butre couple onto the lifeboat, surprised to see that there were reporters from several TV stations on board. Everyone roared into ps and apuse the moment they caught a glimpse of the explorer who had returned safely.


    On the ship, Zhang Heng took a long, hot bath and changed into clothes the sailors had provided. Finally, that feeling of returning to a civilized society dawned upon him. Instead of joining the celebration, however, Zhang Heng found himself a secluded and quiet corner on the ship that no one would take notice of. He was almost two hours away from leaving this virtual world.


    It felt like the longest two hours of his life.


    Zhang Heng was wondering what the return process was going to be like when suddenly, darkness enveloped everything around him, and a familiar voice spoke in his ear.


    [Arrived at the return deadline. Taskpletion confirmed...]


    [Beginner��s edition of Desert Ind Survival sessfullypleted. The first round of the game is over. Returning to reality...]


    ...


    When Zhang Heng��s vision had been restored, he found himself sitting by the bar holding the cup of water and lime he��d taken a sip from.


    The first thing he did was to reach out and touch his face. That thick stubbled and coarse skin weathered by the wind, and the sun was gone.


    The bartenderdy, obviously considerate, took out apact mirror from her purse and passed it to him.


    With the help of the little mirror, Zhang Heng was able to confirm that he looked no different from when he first walked into the bar. He was still dressed in his sports attire and running shoes. His swiss army knife was still safely tucked away in his pocket.


    ��So, what was that? A strange dream?��


    ��No, you did disappear for two hours... not just from this building or this bar �C you could not be found in every corner of this world.�� The bartender took back herpact. ��Now, you must have a lot of questions, but unfortunately, I cannot answer most of them. You will have to find that out for yourself in the game.��


    Zhang Heng listened, speechless.


    ��What I can tell you is that this game takes ce once every month. You can pick whatever time you like toe to the checkpoint and join the game. It won��t always be the Sex and the City bar, though. There is more than one checkpoint in every city. If you can��t find them, you can always give customer service a call and use the special login service after paying a sum. Failure to log in on time will result in your disqualification. Also, game participants, by default, must ept a strict non-disclosure agreement. You��re forbidden to disclose anything rted to anyone other than the yers and staff. Mm, I think that about sums up the basic restrictions. Don��t hold on to your fluke mind.��


    The bartender rubbed her chin. ��What else is there. Let me think... oh, other than log-ins, the game venues also provide other services. You can consult customer service for more details.��


    Peeled off a sticky note and scribbling down some numbers, she continued, ��This is the number. Don��t call for nothing because I am your customer service.��


    ��You have an awful lot of jobs.�� Zhang Heng noted in surprise.


    ��It��s not like I have a choice. Houses in big cities are so expensive.�� The bartender sighed. ��Alright. Is there anything else?��


    Zhang Heng searched his pocket and took out a furry item. ��Tell me. The services you mentioned. Do they also include item identification?��


    Everything from the game, not excluding even the beard and the scar on his shoulder, the collection of stoneware he made, and the knife that Bell gifted him, did not make it back with him to reality.


    Everything had just been sitting quietly in his pocket


    ��Game item?�� The bartender gasped. ��It looks like you��ve got yourself quite the bounty this time. These kinds of things are very umon. Most people can��t even find one after several rounds of the game. I do provide an identification service here, but it��s going to cost you five game-points. Do you have it?��


    ��How do I pay?��


    The bartender took out a tablet and after a few taps, brought up a payment interface. ��Just enter your yer ID number. No need to worry about other people using your number, though �C you have to be present for the payment to be effective.��


    Probably because he had seen too much since he set foot in the bar, Zhang Heng had already turned a little numb.


    He had already memorized the set of numbers and quickly regurgitated them. After keying them in, the bartender slid on a pair of gloves before cing the rabbit��s foot into a small wooden box.


    ��This will take some time, about two to three days. I��ll text you when it��s done.��


    Drawn to her movements, Zhang Heng had a sudden ominous feeling. ��Wait. Now, why are you bring so careful?��

 Chapter 22: A Precious Pearl

    <h4>Chapter 22: A Precious Pearl</h4>


    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion


    ��Fine. Considering you��ve just made a transaction with me, I��ll reveal something useful to you.�� The bartender took off her gloves. ��Do you know why game items are so valuable?��


    ��Err... I think you��ve mentioned that there are very few of them.��


    ��Rarity does not equate to value. The term ��game item�� is used to correspond with the theme, and it��s not urate at all. In reality, this is a very magical item. It contains inconceivable supernatural forces. They work in both games and reality. If you use it well, it will be beneficial to you. But sometimes, it could create problems for you. No one can guarantee that this force will bring positive effects, so you have to be extra careful when handling game items. Just because it has not been identified yet does not mean that the results are not present. Speaking of which, did anything strange happen to you after you picked it up?��


    ��No.�� Zhang Heng thought back to the time after the rabbit��s foot was given to him. His life went on without incident.


    ��Then, this is probably not the type with negative effects, or perhaps it could be triggered under specific conditions.�� For some reason, the bartender��s tone wasced with pity. ��When these negative effect game items are used well, they can do wonders. A wooden box made of tulewood can iste its supernatural powers �C the best option to store the items. If there��s a need, you can always buy them from me. Oh, and also, if you have any game items that you do not need, you can choose to leave it here so I can help you sell it. There��s always arge-scale auction at the end of every year. Keep an eye on your mailbox. An e-mail will be sent to you before the event. If there��s nothing else, we��ll meet again next time.��


    ...


    The bartender��s service was terrible. That initial excitement after earning his five game-points had dwindled and suddenly lost all interest to exin anything else to her.


    Zhang Heng asked her what services were avable at the game site, and she said that she would send him a pdf to him through WeChat.


    Upon exiting the metal room, Zhang Heng was bombarded with loud thumping music, which he no longer thought was raucous. After spending a year and a half on that ind, hearing the symphonies of a civilized society made him feel a little warm and fuzzy inside.


    Zhang Heng descended the irondder and quickly disappeared amongst the crowd of people.


    Although it was already one in the morning, the number of cars parked outside the bar seemed to have increased.


    Zhang Heng did not return to school because one, it was quitete already, and two, too much information had been dumped on him for the past two hours. He needed to go somece quiet to sort through and digest them. Besides that, there was something else he needed to verify.


    So, Zhang Heng checked into a room in the express hotel by the road and asked the receptionist for a pen and some paper. Tired as he was, he did not feel like sleeping right now. He turned on the tablemp and promptly listed down every important detail that had happened today and his theories.


    When dawn broke, he reread the stack of lists he had written and rewritten, tore them up, and flushed them down the toilet.


    After that, he checked out of the room before heading straight to the archery range across the road, the very ce he��d beening to train.


    As soon as it opened at 8 am, Zhang Heng went in, took out the SF recurve bow he deposited there, and selected a 30-meter archery range.


    He drew his bow and released an arrow.


    6th Ring.


    Zhang Heng was not at all surprised. He had been using a primitive homemade bow and was not used to this modern bow yet. The first shot was just a test. Of course, it was not the least bit startling that the results weren��t satisfactory. Adjusting his angle, he released the bowstring once more.


    The second one was much better.


    8th Ring.


    That very moment, Zhang Heng��s coach walked in. He was just about to greet his student but decided not to bother him when he saw how absorbed Zhang Heng was. He stood silently at the back with his thermos cup, ready to correct Zhang Heng��s posture and movement.


    Then the next arrow pierced the ninth ring.


    Not bad. That was a good shot; the instructor thought to himself. Most of the time, when neers first started, they would have kinds of problems ranging from not holding the bow firmly enough to the wrong posture, thus deviating from their center of gravity.


    Zhang Heng had only just begun to pick up the sport, but his posture was spot-on as if he had done it many times before. It was solid as a mountain.


    If that was not talent, then what was that?


    Zhang Heng��s coach was a former member of the city��s archery team. s, his talent was limited. No matter how hard he trained, he could not seem to improve. Soon after, he was defeated by an amateur who had only trained for less than half a year. Disappointed in himself, he left the professional circle and was invited by the archery range��s owner to coach there.


    Seeing how well the sport had been doing these two years, he could not help but feel a stirring inside him. But he was too old for this �C he had no more potential left to discover. Even if he returned to the game, he would end up nowhere.


    Thus, he decided to focus his attention on the young people training in the range. He wanted to see if he could develop a keen eye for scouting able yers and take talented apprentices under his wing.


    Who would know that perhaps one day, one might be able topete at the national level and fulfill his dream on his behalf?


    With that thought, he began to keep an eye out for potential candidates. Initially, he focused mainly on eight to fourteen-year-olds, the best age forying a foundation. Any older and it would be toote, which was why he never paid too much attention to Zhang Heng.


    In the three previous sessions, this young man did not show any special skills and was no different from amateur hobbyists who yed just for sport.


    Zhang Heng��s progress gave him quite a shock.


    He had not even started training but yet, he was surprisingly good. He had risen so quickly above his peers from the same batch.


    At the same time, however, the instructor felt sorry for Zhang Heng. The boy had gotten in touch with the sport toote in the game. Even if he had the talent, without sufficient practice, it would be extremely challenging for him to go any further.


    While these thoughts were running through the instructor��s mind, Zhang Heng drew in a deep breath. When he was done with the adjustment, he released five arrows in session.


    Each shot was less than 2 seconds apart.


    Out of the five arrows, the 4th hit the 10th ring, and a slightly faulty onended on the 9th ring.


    Zhang Heng knew that this had to do with his coordination. He was used to that body back on the desert ind. A year and a half ago, his strength and response had already deviated by a little. However, from these few shots, he had already found out what he needed to know.


    The skills he had gained while training retained in his muscle memory. Now, he just needed two weeks of practice to return to his level back on the ind.


    In fact, with a more powerful and more urate modern bow, his shots would have much higher uracy and a greater range.


    It appeared that the skills acquired in the game could be brought back to reality.


    This was actually not too surprising since those skills did not fall from the sky �C he had actually trained hard for them.


    Zhang Heng also noticed that unlike traditional games, this game did not utilize the four attributes system. The body he ��used�� in the game was his own. When he was in trouble, he had to use his knowledge and abilities to solve them. Therefore, the skills each person developed were essential. Thinking about it now, those extra 24 hours did not seem so bad after all.


    This meant that he would have more game-timepared to the other yers, and could better improve himself. The critical thing here was that these in-game improvements were just as applicable in reality.


    Zhang Heng groaned, utterly unaware of how much his five shots had affected his instructor.


    Thetter nearly dropped his mug.


    A hardworking amateur hobbyist could hit 49 points with five arrows. However, considering how recent Zhang Heng had started learning, which were only three sessions and that quick session of shots �C only a precious handful of hobbyists would be able to do that.


    He was a prodigy! A prodigy for sure! What other exnations could there be? The coach was now seeing Zhang Heng in apletely different light. He looked at Zhang Heng as if he was looking at an inimitable jade. The longer he looked, the more he liked what he saw.


    How could I not have noticed such a brilliant treasure?

 Chapter 23: Warning Sign

    <h4>Chapter 23: Warning Sign</h4>


    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion


    Within half a minute, the coach envisioned how, under his guidance, Zhang would Heng advance by leaps and bounds. He would shock the judges in his firstpetition and then return defeated from the nationals, but just as he was about to give up, he would rise from the ashes under his coach��s counsel. He would finally join the national team and win the Olympic gold medal. The instructor even thought about the interviews that would take ce after that.


    In the end, before this youngblood��s story could even begin, it died a premature death at the young man��s tactful decline.


    Archery was just a hobby for Zhang Heng. He had no ns to make a living out of it.


    In fact, he knew better than anyone else that his archery skills were simply a culmination of time. He did not possess any unique talents. He might perhaps be able to be master among the amateurs, but if he had gotten involved in the professional circle, it would be challenging, to say the least, for him to rise to the top.


    On top of that, this was the second time Zhang Heng had rejected his instructor. Thetter finally recognized that the young man before him had no intention of mixing in this circle and could not help but feel that it was such a shame.


    You can lead a horse to water, but you can��t make him drink. He could not put a gun to Zhang Heng��s head and force him to make him his coach.


    After a few more shots, and Zhang Heng got his answers and stopped training.


    The morning had sses in store for him. Thank goodness it was at 9.45. Depositing his bow, he promptly returned to school.


    The moment his peers spotted him in the ssroom, they shot him knowing, sassy smiles. Zhang Heng did not know how to exin himself, so he blurted that he had actually spent a year and a half stranded on a deserted ind, before finally finding another man.


    The lesson was underway when Wei Jiangyang snuck up to the seat next to him and tried to make him confess. In spite of that, Zhang Heng did not appear to be lying, nor did he blush or react suspiciously.


    When he finally epted that nothing of the amorous sort had befallen his friend the night before, Wei Jiangyang quickly changed the subject.


    ��Xiao Xiao and her roommates are thinking of going camping next week, but I��m concerned about their safety. I��m looking for some guys to join. Chen Huadong has already agreed toe. Not so for Ma Wei. How about you?��


    Xiao Xiao was Wei Jiangyang��s girlfriend. If Xiao Xiao wanted to go camping, it was without question that Wei Jiangyang would want to join her. One lone male, however, was not strong enough. Also, wherever the couple went, they would always attract k �C his girlfriend��s roommate and the other girls would definitely make fun of them. Instead, Xiao Xiao gave her boyfriend the task of recruiting more people to join them.


    Wei Jiangyang was not very hopeful. Zhang Heng was the kind of person who stayed away fromrge groups and rarely joined group activities. This guy had his own rhythm in life.


    However, to Wei Jiangyang��s surprise, Zhang Heng agreed!


    Previously, Zhang Heng would never be caught red-handed participating in activities like this. But after spending such a long time away from society, he needed lively environments to ��heal�� himself. Although Ma Wei had opted out, he was most likely to spend his entire day in the library, only returning to the room at lights out �C like he did every day. So, if Zhang Heng were to stay, he would have to spend the whole weekend alone in the dorm.


    ��That��s great!�� Wei Jiangyang chirped. ��Other than Xiao Xiao, all her other roommates are still single. Don��t say I never gave you the heads up. The Shen Xixi performing in this year��s weing party tonight is also from their dorm. Oh, I forgot you��re not going. Anyway, what you need to know is that whenever she sings, the boys would fall head over heels for her. She��s the most popr girl in her department.��


    It was obvious Zhang Heng bore no interest in these departmental celebrities. With so many things happening one after the other, he was not inclined to think about romance. He agreed to the camping purely for the fun of it.


    Considering he did not have any sses scheduled on Friday afternoons, Zhang Heng decided to prepare ahead of time for the game next month. Back at the express hotel, he had alreadypleted preliminary nning and made adjustments to his schedule.


    After lunch, he found a 24-hour gym nearby, and immediately signed up for a membership card.


    On top of that, he had also increased his rock-climbing and running hours. Since he did not know what he would be facing next, the safest option would be to improve his physical fitness.


    Also, in every game, he would be using his own body. In other words, different levels of physical fitness could bringpletely different gaming experiences.


    For example, during the Desert Ind Survival game, where the yers were given the option to save the people drowning in the ocean, the person with an average fitness would be able to save Ed, whereas those who were stronger could save the guy in shorts and Bell who were further away. Of course, the most pitiful ones were those who did not know how to swim at all. As a result, they could only watch from the safety of the shore.


    For the most part, Zhang Heng��s fitness was considered average among the students of the university as he had never undergone any targeted science-based training. But he did have his own advantage, having double the preparation timepared to the other yers. They only had a month between each game, but he had two.


    If the two months were used well, he could improve his fitness by a lot. The thought of joining Taekwondo or boxing sses did cross his mind, but one couldn��t rush these kinds of things. He would have to tackle them one by one, starting by working on his foundation first. After all, those skills could be practiced in the game as well.


    The following week was spent with a full schedule.


    He had begun training the strength of his waist, back, arms, and legs. He even took up flexibility training in the gym. On top of his endurance-training long runs, he included sprints that tested his explosive-force in his training n.


    He also made time to visit the Sex and the City bar during still time1.


    That ce was filled with secrets. Having been inside the game himself, Zhang Heng was naturally intrigued and wanted to know more about it. Since he got only scarce information out of the bartenderdy, he decided to take matters into his own hands.


    He should at least be able to uncover some clues from the furnishing and decoration of the sheet-metal room and the collection behind the bar. Also, he really wanted to find out if the rule about not seeing the other yers still applied during still time.


    However, when Zhang Heng arrived at the bar, an inexplicable feeling of panic overcame him, which only grew more intense the moment he ced his hand on the handle of the metal door.


    Zhang Heng hesitated for a moment when he suddenly decided to let go of the handle.


    He did not know where this warning came from, but the message it conveyed was very clear �C do not attempt to enter the game venue at siesta.


    Even though he was burning with curiosity, Zhang Heng decided to y it safe; after all, whatever he was facing could not be exined with logic.


    That was how Zhang Heng��s first secret exploration was brought to an end, not managing to gather much useful information.


    It was already Monday when during ss, his phone suddenly vibrated. ncing at the message, it turned out to be from customer service.


    ��Your item has been delivered to your desk in your room. This is a notification message. Please do not reply.��


    Zhang Heng put his phone under the table and typed as stealthily as he could, ��What about my game checkpoint service list?��


    He tapped on send and after a while, the bartender replied, ��Oops! I forgot. I��ll send it to you once I��m done dealing with the matter at hand.��


    ��...��

 Chapter 24: Different Person

    <h4>Chapter 24: Different Person</h4>


    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion


    [Name: Lucky Rabbit��s Foot]


    [Quality: E]


    [Usage: Increases luck for the wearer by a small margin]


    Back in the real world, that mysterious voice and the so-called character panel were absent. Zhang Heng stared at the card with the bartender��s handwriting, speechless.


    Such short and simple words cost him five game-points?


    Even though he had a decent amount of points, he could tell that it was not cheap having seen how excited the bartender was when she��d received the points.


    Zhang Heng was not the least bit surprised by the results of the identification. A rabbit��s foot was an amulet believed to bring good luck in many cultures. This item was probably responsible for how his wound remained uninfected back on the ind.


    His doubled time aside, this was the first supernatural item he possessed.


    Taking into ount its positive effects, Zhang Heng decided to wear it as a keychain.


    Who would know how much that little bit of luck actually was?


    Since he had nothing else to do, Zhang Heng decided to experiment with something. He went to the Wumart next to the library and bought two scratch cards costing him 20 yuan. One of them won him 10 yuan and the other 5 yuan.


    After subtracting the principal, he sustained a 5 yuan loss.


    After that, Zhang Heng went to another supermarket. Out of the two he bought, one said, ��Thanks for your patronage�� and the other one won him 20 yuan.


    He had broken-even.


    Now, Zhang Heng had now somewhat understood the lucky rabbit��s effectiveness. He had initially hoped that his earnings would be higher than average, but s, he still sustained a loss. Although his luck did improve, it was nothing to rave about. Any intentions of using this little bit of luck to earn money would prove to be quite the challenge.


    As he was leaving the supermarket afterpleting the experiment, Zhang Heng spotted a young couple under a tree nearby. The guy was trying hard to exin something, but the girl kept shaking her head. When the guy reached out to pull the girl in, she sidestepped him instead.


    Zhang Heng looked away. He was not about to meddle in other people��s business. Things like that practically happened every day in school. The university was the gathering of a cesspool of hormones, where all kinds of drama urred all the time.


    That being said, Zhang Heng did not have to worry about the guy doing anything beyond the pale because it was broad daylight, and they were within school grounds. Any scream whatsoever would draw the scents of overzealous young men, pouncing to save the damsel in distress.


    So off to the library, Zhang Heng went.


    At noon on Friday, Zhang Heng bought some snacks and outdoor supplies, its contents some mosquito repellent spray, towels, and band-aids. Wei Jiang Heng had already rented the camping gear and car; its cost split evenly among those who were going. It was 300 yuan a piece. Any overpayment was refunded, and imperfections reimbursed.


    Zhang Heng was checking his camera to make sure the batteries were full when Chen Huadong and Wei Jiangyang walked into the room carryingrge and small bags.


    ��The girls bought these. It��s tonight��s dinner. Help us load them into the carter.��


    ��Sure! Thanks,�� eximed Zhang Heng, who was pretty much all packed up.


    Wei Jiangyang deposited the bag he was carrying onto the table. He guzzled down the ss of water on the table, then heaved a long sigh. ��I��ve been so busy these two days, running around all day working myself to the ground like a horse. You guys are the wiser ones. Come to think of it, being single isn��t all that bad.��


    ��No, please, Childe Wei. Thanks to you, I am only beginning to see a ray of light. Don��t pour cold water on me so soon.�� Chen Huadong said with a twinkle in his eyes.


    ��You��re going after Shen Xixi?�� Wei Jiangyang red at his friend from the corner of his eyes.


    ��No, no. Brother, I know my limits, alright. She��s like the Public Rtions Departments�� number one wholesaler of the ��good person card1.�� Just too many guys are falling into unrequited love for her. I��m not going to be part of that madness. I don��t mind give up this treasure that is Shen Xixi for our Childe Zhang to conquer. Personally, I much prefer Xu Jing,�� Chen Huadong grinned.


    ��The hell. I knew you liked that kind, you pervert. Xu Jing is a legit Loli, a popr one at that. The only thing��s that she��s quite poor at managing herself �C she only learned how to take the subway when she came to university. In fact, until now, she would at times go in the wrong direction, or even miss a stop. Also, she washes her clothes and socks in a washing machine.��


    ��That��s not a problem. Not a problem at all. Adorkable-ness is justice1! You know me, brother. I��ve been a loyal Love Develops2 fan for so many years.�� Chen Huadong pushed his sparkling sses up the bridge of his nose.


    ��How inhumane and immoral! Where is the one-one-zero1 when you need them?�� Wei Jiangyang eximed in distress before turning to Zhang Heng. ��Shen Xixi is pretty good, though. You won��t even consider it? Most girls despise those who are popr with the guys, but Shen Xixi is an exception. In fact, Xiao Xiao said the girl she admires most is Shen Xixi �C she��s pretty, is an ace at studies, sings well, and is quite genuine with people. She may have rejected many guys, but she has never kept them as ��spare tires2.�� It��s always a clean rejection.��


    ��That��s why she��s been given the nickname ��Kill em�� all1.���� Chen Huadong chuckled.


    ��...��


    ��But after getting to know her a little, I find her not too bad. She has been the one among the girls who��s been taking care of the trip. When we went to get the stuff for the camp just now, she tried talking to us, and we even enjoyed a fewughs �� not the slightest bit of arrogance. Hmm, I guess you can neverpletely trust spreading rumors,�� added Chen Huadong, inly singing a different tune this time.


    ��Are you guys done talking?�� Zhang Heng chipped in.


    ��Almost. Don��t worry. Our rtionship hase to an end. I have always known that this day woulde,�� Chen Huadong stubbornly retorted.


    ��...��


    ��Why don��t the both of you spend your free time by paying some attention to current international affairs instead? Why are you always so concerned about my love life?��


    Wei Jiangyang and Chen Huadong looked at each other. They whispered in a grave tone, ��Zhang Heng, we��re a little worried for you.��


    ��Huh?��


    ��I always thought that you��re the kind of person who ys by his own rhythm,pletely unaffected by the outside world. But sincest week, we��ve felt this new inexplicable edginess out of you.��


    Chen Huadong joined in, ��Mm, I know this sounds a little melodramatic, but right now, you give off this vibe of loneliness that seems toe from deep within your bones. Do you how many recluses there are on Zhongnan Mountains1? That��s the kind of feeling you��re giving me. Be honest with us, brother. Has something happened to you? Why are you suddenly so withdrawn?��


    The words struck a chord in Zhang Heng��s heart. Of course, he knew what had happened to him. No one was as withdrawn from the world as he was. Spending over a year all alone on a deserted ind where even his toothbrush was self-made left him with a tremendous feeling of loneliness.


    Even though he had returned to the real world, physically unchanged, that period spent in istion had left him an entirely different person.


    Had experience and learning shaped us into who we are today?


    Drifting along with his thoughts, Zhang Heng recalled the bartender��s words and was suddenly intrigued. If he continued ying this game for many years toe, what would he be like when it ended?


    Would he apletely different person from who he was today?

 Chapter 25: Shen Xixi

    <h4>Chapter 25: Shen Xixi</h4>


    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion


    The minibus Wei Jiangyang booked had just arrived downstairs. The three boys loaded the vehicle with the camping equipment and food they had prepared.


    Zhang Heng checked out his sf recurve bow from the shooting range the day before.


    After about a week of practice, his skills were almost fully recovered. With the help of modern technology, he was able to hit ring 9 at 50-meters. But Zhang Heng��s specialty at was shooting moving targets, although it all depended on the target��s speed and the trajectory.


    One particr thing bugged him. He kept feeling that a pair of resentful eyes were gazing at him, which made him a little hesitant to unleash his full potential. By andrge, he had to wait for still time to find a ce for practice. Now that an opportunity to traverse the wilderness had presented itself, he could find a serene ce to practice his archery skills.


    ��Childe Zhang, if anything dangerous happens, you have to protect me first,�� Chen Huadong trilled jokingly. Zhang Heng did not keep his archery lessons a secret from his roommates. All of them knew that he��d just started. In fact, only a week ago and had even searched the for tutorial videos. How much progress could he have made?


    ��Alright, don��t forget to fall into my arms when it happens.��


    They chatted andughed as they repeated up and down the stairs. Finally, after loading everything into the back of the van, the three girls made their way to them.


    Chen Huadong gave Zhang Heng a nudge with his elbow and said, ��The one on the left is Shen Xixi.��


    Zhang Heng looked in the direction his friend pointed at and saw a tall girl. Wei Jiangyang sure wasn��t lying when he said that her physical condition was good �C she had the body of a model, and was easy on the eyes. Not to mention that, unlike the coquettish superstars on the television and magazines, there was purity in her eyes. There was none of that pretentious, deliberate ��girl shyness�� on her. It was no wonder that she was the girl of so many boys�� dreams; the Public Rtions Departments�� number one ��good person card�� wholesaler.


    Shen Xixi flipped out three bottles of water from her bag and handed them to the three boys. She piped excitedly, ��Thank you for the hard work, guys!��


    Zhang Heng epted the bottle and thanked her.


    It was the little things that told a lot about a person��s upbringing. It was apparent that Shen Xixi did not consider the three boys as freebor and personal bodyguards, nor did she think that just because she was a girl, letting the boys do the heavy lifting was by default. Such qualities on a woman, especially a beautiful one, was more than hard toe by.


    Chen Huadong continued to y the role of an inept, fumbling advisor, He whispered into Zhang Heng��s ear, ��It��s been said that Shen Xixi��s father is a university lecturer and her mother is a novel trantor. Seems like a good family. So... what do you think? Childe Zhang, I believe your families are well-matched.��


    The person that Wei Jiangyang was waiting for was missing. He could not help but ask himself, ��Where��s Xiaoxiao? Why isn��t she here yet?��


    ��Hahaha! Each time we go out, that woman is the most troublesome of all. Putting her makeup on takes forever! Wei Jiangyang, you will suffer when you marry her!��ughed the shortest girl among the three. Standing between the two other girls, she attained a humble 1.5 meters give or take. Needless to say, she was the legal loli, Xu Jing, that Chen Huadong had eyes for.


    She had only just finished when someone smacked her over the head.


    ��Ugh. I��m sorry you had to hear that! I will make sure to discipline this child!�� Shen Xixi told Wei Jiangyang, keeping a straight face.


    The atmosphere was just starting to feel a little warmer when they suddenly heard a voice call out, ��Xixi.��


    It was then that the girl��s expressions immediately changed.


    ��Xixi, are you and your roommates going out to have fun? Why didn��t you tell me? I could send you there.�� A shy chili red BMW 5 Series sports sedan pulled to a stop next to the group.


    The guy driving the car pulled the handbrake and stepped out.


    Zhang Heng��s eyebrows raised. He was wondering why Shen Xixi looked so familiar �C apparently, they had met earlier on when he was leaving the supermarket after buying the scratch cards. Now, he recognized the couple he saw. It was Shen Xixi, and this guy d in a Supreme t-shirt.


    ��Cheng Cheng. Why are you here again?! Xixi has already rejected you so many times! Why haven��t you taken a hike already?�� Unlike her name, Xu Jing1 was a straightforward girl who did not keep her thoughts to herself.


    This tant announcement that exposed his rejection had put a dent to Cheng Cheng��s dignity and cut his ��face��, but because Xu Jing was a girl, it would be embarrassing if he threw any tantrums. Instead, the fuerdai swallowed his anger.


    ��Xixi, can I talk to you for a moment? It��ll just be nearby. I know a coffee shop with excellent Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee,�� said Cheng Cheng.


    Shen Xixi frowned. Even the ordinarily good-tempered girl was starting to lose her patience. She and Cheng Cheng had been strangers until that weing party for freshmen.


    That very night, after performing a song, Cheng Cheng approached her and had been coaxing and pestering her for more than half a month since.


    From flowers, snacks, and fruits, to an iPhone and concert tickets, Cheng Cheng would entrust some girl to leave them at Shen Xixi��s dormitory door.


    But this modus operandi that had worked so well on every other girl failed miserably on Shen Xixi.


    The gifts that he had given her were always returned to him untouched, and Shen Xixi also made it very clear to him that she was not interested in being in a rtionship right now.


    This rejection, though, seemed to only fuel Cheng Cheng��s zeal. He even toned down his lordly attitude. Shen Xixi��s parents had always taught her to be polite and respectful. Now, when she found herself in an exasperating situation, she found it difficult to be abrasive, ergo, causing her to continuously be the recipient of Cheng Cheng��s persistent badgering.


    There were even rumors about the both of them going around the school, which gave Shen Xixi a massive headache.


    What��s more, she seemed to be running into Cheng Cheng a lot recently. How did he find out about their ns to go camping? Was it not too much of a coincidence that he showed up just as they were about to depart?


    Shen Xixi nced at the girl called Wang Huan who was standing behind Xu Jing. The girl shot an embarrassed smile back at her. Wang Huan hailed from a middle-ss family but a few days ago, a stick of YSL lipstick magically appeared in her drawer. The aspiring detective of a Xu Jing looked the up the price of the lipstick and found that to own one, a princely sum 700 �C 800 yuan would have to be forked out.


    Owing to that, everyone jeered at Wang Huan, asking her if she was a mistress to some wealthy merchant. But now, it seems that her lipstick hade from somewhere else.


    Against the odds, Shen Xixi had no intention to pursue this issue. When she saw that Xiaoxiao had left the dormitory and was approaching them, she turned to Cheng Cheng and stated sternly, ��Cheng Cheng, haven��t we already talked on Monday? I don��t really drink coffee, and we��re leaving right about now.��


    ��Never mind, they can go first. I��ll send you thereter. Don��t worry, I won��t take up too much of your time,�� retorted a relentless Cheng Cheng.


    Chen Huadong could not hold it back any longer and was about to speak up when Wei Jiangyang shot him a sharp look.


    ��Don��t provoke this guy,�� Ao Jiangyang said under his breath.


    Chen Huadong pursed his lips. ��Why? Isn��t he just a fuerdai? Look at our Childe Zhang �C now that��s the model fuerdai.��


    Zhang Heng shook his head. ��Nonsense. I��m not a fuerdai.��


    Zhang Heng came from simr financial circumstances as Shen Xixi �C both intellectual types,fortable enough to not worry about what they ate or wore. They were considered pretty well-offpared to the average person, but they were not in the same league as those ultra-rich tycoons.


    Wei Jiangyang smiled acridly. ��This Cheng Cheng is not an easy person to deal with; he��s a troublemaker. He��s our senior by a year. When he first came to university, he got into a fight with a senior. His family appears to be in the hotel business. He spendsvishly and has quite a following. The student union is a disorganized mess of a pestilence thanks to him. Xiao Xiao was so averse to his ways that she quit the student union.��

 Chapter 26: Journey

    <h4>Chapter 26: Journey</h4>


    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion


    Fuerdai is just abel.


    On its own, it carried no derogatory connotations. For people who were either good or bad, they were further ssified into superior and inferior. Objectively speaking,pared to the average person, these children of the nouveau riche had the privilege of enjoying better educational resources, therefore turning most of them into the superior kind.


    But why do fuerdais have such a bad reputation?


    It was only a simple exnation, though. The average person��s vice was smaller, perhaps only affecting those around the individual. Byparison, due to the fuerdai having control over more resources, the repercussions would often be more severe once theymitted any wrongdoing, descending into an entire series of problems for the society.


    Take Cheng Cheng, for example. Although his sins were not that grave, many people in school condemned him. When he joined the student union in his freshman year, he quickly turned the school into his territory. In a matter of months, he had already dominated all elections causing the old council members who disapproved of him to withdraw from the union.


    By his sophomore year, he became the president, and all the newly promoted council members were all his people. He basically dictated the entire student union. Birds of a feather flocked together.


    When he was recruiting people, he would continuously pay extra attention to the prettier girls. Once they joined the union, he would covertly appoint his subordinates to deliberately make things difficult for the girl. Then, he would use his position in the student union to settle this matter, making him the hero nobody had asked for.


    One thing led to another, and many of the innocent freshmen took the bait. Eventually, while they were discussing matters of the school, they would somehow or rather end up in his bed.


    There was a rumor going around that by the time Cheng Cheng was in his second year, that more than five girls had undergone abortion because of him.


    One even threatened tomit suicide, but the matter was eventually resolved with an undisclosed sum. Of course, it was a sensational amount. At the end of the day, plenty of people disapproved of Cheng Cheng.


    After hearing about all these, Chen Huadong, who had initially nned to speak his mind, found himself on the horns of a dilemma. He did not work at Cheng Cheng��s family hotel and, it did not matter to him whether or not Cheng Cheng was a fuerdai.


    However, after finding out about how Cheng Cheng dominated the student union, he could not reconsider his decision. As there was no student league in their school, club funds had to be first approved by the student union before it was reported to the teachers.


    On top of that, the student union was also in charge of the periodic assessment of each club.


    During their freshman year, Chen Hua Dong and few guys set up an anime club called Tiger Shark, which had been doing pretty well so far.


    Although their club had only a few girl members, a group of pansy guysing together to exchange mysterious codes and indecent material was good fun. If he were to offend Cheng Cheng, Chen Huadong had to think about the problems Tiger Shark would be facing.


    To top it all off, the school had a rule that required everyone to participate in morning exercises for a set number of times. No surprises there as the ones in charge of taking attendance was the student union as well.


    In summary, the student union was the kind you would usually not notice, but if you rub them the wrong way, it would be problematic, to say the least. Cheng Cheng had quite a substantial number of followers, to begin with.


    Chen Huadong finally decided to pursue a rtionship with Xu Jing because he did not want to have to walk around on eggshells every day, always on the lookout for anyone who might want to beat him up.


    Shen Xixi was looking kind of helpless. She had already said everything she could say. Most people would have given up already, but Cheng Cheng did not have the slightest intention of letting go.


    Next to them, it appeared that the Wang Huan girl realized she had done something wrong, and kept her head down saying nothing.


    In the end, Zhang Heng broke the awkward silence, ��Excuse me, your fly is open.��


    ��...��


    Cheng Cheng looked down and saw the gap in his pants on his groin. Even though his underwear was not visible, it was still somewhat indecent.


    Zhang Heng would have been better off not mentioning it at all. He could have pretended not to notice it. Now that it was pointed out, he did not know if he should pull up his zip in front of everyone. It was the most awkward of situations.


    Cheng Cheng stared at Zhang Heng for a while before telling Shen Xixi, ��Xixi, someday I will make you understand how I feel about you.��


    At that, he quickly hurried back into the safety of his BMW. If you pay attention to the way he was walking, you could see how unnatural his movement was, as if he dared not stretch his legs.


    ��Hurry! Hurry! Let��s go!�� Xiao Xiao implored. ��Once he gets his zipper up, he��lle back to intrude.��


    Like bats scurrying out of hell, everyone piled into the minibus, hastening the driver to scoot as they mmed the door shut.


    Xu Jing was in fits ofughter. ��Hahaha! Did you see that guy��s face??! Oh, it��s too funny!��


    When she finally caught her breath, she imitated Cheng Cheng��s tone, ��Xi Xi, someday I will make you understand how I feel about you...��


    The legal-loli made sheep��s eyes at Shen Xixi as she spoke.


    Everyone exploded intoughter.


    Xiao Xiao covered her mouth. ��Enough. Stop talking. It��s so disgusting. He��s a bastard who specializes in deceiving freshman girls. What the hell was all that innocent love act.��


    Shen Xixi looked at Zhang Heng apologetically. ��I��m sorry. You got involved because of me.��


    Zhang Heng shook his head. ��It��s no problem. I��m not part of any student clubs.��


    Because of her boyfriend, out of the four girls, Xiao Xiao was the most familiar with Zhang Heng and the others in her boyfriend��s dorm. Last semester, they even hung out a couple of times over skewered barbeque meat.


    Somehow, someway, she seemed to be influenced by Wei Jiangyang and became very interested in her roommate��s love life. She turned to Shen Xixi and said, ��Xixi, didn��t you want a band? You should consider Zhang Heng. He��s really good at the piano. You know Paganini��s La Campane, right. This guy could y it with his eyes closed.��


    Zhang Heng was getting tired of the rumor, having constantly heard it around his extremities.


    But before he could deny the gossip, Wei Jiangyang carried on, ��Yeah! Yeah! Zhang Heng loves working out. He runs 10 kilometers every morning, and he��s part of the rock-climbing society and is aiming for the K2 1peak now. Oh, and he has also learned archery since he was five. The bow never leaves his side. His skills surpass all. People call him the Zhang Sun2 from Water Margin3.��


    ��Ahem, it��s actually Little Li Guang Hua Rong1!�� Xiao Xiao buried her face in her hands.


    The legal-loli, another a mischief-maker, chipped in chirping, ��I did say that when I firstid eyes on Zhang Heng, I could tell that he��s a gant and intelligent person. He��s so much better than that Cheng Cheng who can��t even zip his pants.��


    Chen Huadong was a little slow on the uptake. Whatever that had to be said had already been said. It took him the better part of the day toe up with something. Eventually, he said, ��Zhang Heng loves small animals too. Frequently, after dining in the canteen, he would always keep the fish bones and then bury them in a nice, quiet ce.��


    ��...��


    ��Hey, that��s enough! If you want to make up stories, you should at least be thoughtful about it!��


    Everyoneughed. The glumness apanying Cheng Cheng��s appearance was suddenly gone, and everyone was in a chatty mood again.


    In this age, when guys and girlse together, there was constant teasing and goofing, instinctively unleashing their youthfulness without much care or thought.


    After Shen Xixi had heard everyone��s presentation of Zhang Heng, she found herself a little intrigued by him. But that was it. She gave him a friendly nod, and then turned to the despondent Wang Huan and began chatting with her.


    Likewise, Zhang Heng thought nothing else of Shen Xixi. She seemed like a pleasant girl who made people feelfortable around her. He, however, did not harbor any romantic feelings towards her.


    Dark shadows flitted past as he looked out the window.


    Sometimes, he also wondered��what kind of girl did he like? Chen Huadong had always been legal loli-phile, and Wei Jiangyang preferred girls like Xiao Xiao who appeared to be tough on the outside but, at the same time, also gentle deep down inside.


    It seemed like everyone knew for sure what they wanted. Yet, he could not even begin to describe his type.


    But for all that, Zhang Heng somehow believed that he would be able to tell when he meets the right person.

 Chapter 27: Camping

    <h4>Chapter 27: Camping</h4>


    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion


    At five in the evening, the minibus arrived at the camping destination.


    Everyone unloaded their stuff from the trunk and bid the driver a cheerful goodbye.


    When these city-bred students saw the foothill nearby covered in lush greenery, sheltered by the blue skies and white clouds, they were estactic.


    Xu Jing was especially eager. ��Wow! This ce is not bad at all. We shoulde here every weekend.��


    Xiao Xiao retorted, ��Does your family��s money fall from the skies? 300 yuan?! I can��t affording here every week!��


    ��Knock it off! It��s going to be dark soon. We need to find a ce to set up tents and cook.�� Shen Xixi chided.


    Xu Jing giggled. ��I don��t know how to cook. I��m only responsible for the eating.��


    ��Fine. Exchange your cuteness for food then!��


    The group chatted as the chortling continued; the mood light and cheerful. The girls were the ones who had chosen the camping location �C mainly Xiao Xiao idea �C situated in a less popr and crowded area.


    She had a backpack traveler uncle who enjoyed traveling on foot and was familiar with the uncultivated mountains nearby. The girl had badgered her uncle into providing her a list of unspoilt locations with breathtaking views.


    Even better, the visitors there were few and far between; there was none of that hubbub and chaos.


    Sad to say, except for Xiao Xiao who had gone camping with her uncle once or twice when she was younger, all the others did not have any camping experience whatsoever. To make matters worse, Xiao Xiao was only upied with ying at that age; her unclepletely handling the bonfire-building and cooking business.


    As a result, even choosing a ce to set up the tents proved to be a challenge for the group of coddled university students.


    Everyone seemed to be in disagreement �C one said that it should be at the top of the mountain, the other that it should be somewhere sheltered from the wind. Then someone also added that they had to watch out for falling rocks.


    In the end, Zhang Heng could not stand watching the conversation going nowhere, so he said, ��Err... this ce nearby is not dangerous. It��s summer now, so we don��t worry about keeping warm. We can choose whichever ce to set up camp and it��ll be fine for sure.��


    Predictably, everyone ignored him.


    ...


    Immersed in the excitement of ying house in the open air, they found Zhang Heng��s make-do attitude to be uneptable.


    It was almost sundown and after careful and borate deliberation, they finally settled for an open space by the foot of the hill.


    To say the least, the spot they had chosen was pretty good �C it had an expansive view, and other than being a little further from the water, it had no other faults.


    However, the problem was that the sky was starting to turn dark, and their tents were still unbuilt.


    Such a task must not be undermined. For a novice, setting up a tent was extremely technically challenging: inserting the tent poles into the sleeves, stringing the ropes, staking the pegs into the ground, and then guying out the tent to stabilize it.


    Without any experience, it would take the novice a long time to figure out single step.


    Fortunately, this did not prove to be a problem for the Zhang Heng, as he had buit a house with his bare hands before. He nearly built up the three tents entirely all by himself. Even up to thest one, he was made up the steps as he went along.


    Xu Jing pped her hands. ��Alright, Zhang Heng! The next time I��m stranded on a desert ind and can only choose one person toe with me, I will choose you!��


    ��You��re so bad! Even on a deserted ind, you��re going to make someone your scapegoat?!�� Chen Huadong clicked his tongue.


    ��I��ve seen a few wilderness survival shows! It would still be useless even if it were the whole group of us on that ind.�� Wei Jiangyang shook his head.


    Zhang Heng merely smiled and said nothing.


    No one took this kind of idle chatter to heart.


    Just then, an idea popped into Xu Jing��s mind. ��It��s already dark now. Let��s have a campfire party!��


    It was like this girl never worried a day in her life.


    ��Campfire, my ass. Let��s eat first. I��m starving to death.�� Xiao Xiao grumbled.


    Only Shen Xixi was able to lend Zhang Heng some help when he was setting up the tent. As the others simply could not get the mechanics of pitching a tent, they took the initiative to prepare dinner on the other side instead.


    In the civilized world, there was no need to start a fire using the bow and drill method, not even in the wilderness. Only a portable cassette furnace for outdoor use would be needed. It was ready for use once the gas cartridge was inserted; a very convenient alternative.


    Naturally, Zhang Heng was d to see that thing. He came to have fun not to show off his skills. Any survival skills he possessed were to be used to protect lives in the event of emergencies. If only he had a lighter on the ind, he would not have to chaff off the skin on his hands to get fire.


    Dinner that night was hotpot �C the most convenient outdoors menu forrge, noisy, hormone enraged students. First, the base ingredients. Then chuck in washed vegetables and meat all together. There. Done.


    When Zhang Heng had finished building the tent, the group sat around the hotpot in a circle with single-use stic bowls in their hands, watching and waiting for bubbles to form.


    To many of them, it was a refreshing feeling.


    In the summer, the temperature in the mountains was just right; not too hot and not too cold. It was much morefortable than the stuffy, unair-conditioned dorm room. The only thing that seemed to takefort there were the hordes of blood-sucking vampiric mosquitoes.


    Zhang Heng and Shen Xixi took out mosquito repellents from their bags almost simultaneously. Seeing this, they smiled at each other


    ��Why isn��t the meat done yet?�� Xu Jing muttered pitifully. Just a while ago, she was still demanding a campfire party, and now she was more concerned about the meat in the pot than anyone else.


    A mischevious Chen Huadong was about to make fun of her when a rustling noise came from the woods nearby.


    That alone had pushed timid Xu Jing into a panicked frenzy. ��My god!!! Are there wild beasts in these mountains?!��


    ��No. There are none,�� said a startled Xiao Xiao. Although the ce was not a tourist attraction, it was close to the city. In the autumn, many photography enthusiasts woulde here to visit. They also spotted other campers not far from where they were earlier on. If there were wild beasts here, it made no sense that no one had ever seen them before.


    As soon as she had spoken, something scurried out of the woods.


    The beast turned out to be not an animal but just a person. However, before they could breathe a sigh of relief, the outward appearance of the trespasser unsettled them.


    His was a rowdy-looking youth lined with tattoos on his arm. The young man smiled mischievously at the group and said, ��Oh, I knew I smelt something fragranting from somewhere. Turns out there��s something tasty here! Count me in! It just so happens that I haven��t had dinner yet.��


    When the trespasser had finished talking, Zhang Heng got up, turned around, and went into his tent.


    The youth smiled at that. ��Okay, okay. Smart. Now that I have a ce to sit, I��ll just help myself then.��


    Everyone could see that thisd had ill-intentions. Wei Jiangyang and Chen Huadong shared a look. This was the perfect time for the guys to step-up their game.


    Wei Jiangyang spoke first. ��Dude, we��re not used to eating with strangers.��


    ��No problem. I can introduce myself first. We can all be friends. A little chat, and we��ll get to know each other,�� the youth grinned as he reached into his pocket and took out a folding knife.


    Wei Jiangyang��s and Chen Huadong��s face fell, and Xu Jing looked like she had just seen a ghost. They were all university students. They had never been in a situation like this before. Fights were rare back in campus. Even if a quarrel did get physical, no one had ever used a knife.


    Everyone��s heart sank at the next announcement as the young man dered, ��I have three other friends who hadn��t eaten too. They��ll be here soon, but it looks like there��s not enough space.�� He looked around and then pointed at Wei Jiangyang, Chen Huadong, and Wanghuan. ��Why don��t the three of you give up your spots to them eh?��

 Chapter 28: Two Arrows

    <h4>Chapter 28: Two Arrows</h4>


    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion


    Wei Jiangyang and Chen Huadong trembled n the presence of the folding knife. It would have been fine if they were just being robbed. At most, they would have to give up their possessions, and no one would be harmed but from the way the young man was acting, they could tell that he had other intentions for the girls.


    The girls in Xiao Xiao��s dorm, except for Wang Huan, were not bad looking, not to mention, Shen Xixi who was generally acknowledged as the prettiest girl in the public rtions department. Xiao Xiao was in the school��s volleyball team and had always maintained a perfect physique. Needless to say, Xu Jin, the legal-loli, was a ma for perverts.


    Normally, neither of them had to worry about their safety in school. But this was the wilderness, the outward-bounds. Even though there were other campers in the area, they were too far from them. Even if they cried for help, there was a good chance no one would be able to get here in time.


    The girls were beginning to regreting out here. They had already done their research and found that there were viges nearby, leading them to presume that it was quite safe. Why were they so unlucky this time?


    Wei Jiangyang could feel his forehead growing damp. His girlfriend was behind him �C he could not retreat. But being afraid when in such scary situations like this was a normal reaction. As the youth moved towards him, Wei Jiangyang froze, and his throat went dry.


    The very next moment, however, something sliced through the darkness.


    The youth paused. In front was an arrow with its tip buried deep into the ground, its fletching still quivering. It was a shot at an ungodly speed.


    Zhang Heng was standing in front of the tent with his recurve bow. He did not stop after the first shot. Swiftly, he drew the second arrow. Before Wei Jiangyang and the others could cheer for him, the second arrow overshot by ten thousand meters, hitting a small tree far away.


    Zhang Heng��s friends were dismayed, thinking to themselves that it was over. They had hoped that the shot would frighten the intruder away. They did not expect Zhang Heng give away the game so quickly.


    The young man was also taken aback by the first arrow. The country had strict firearms control, so in the general run of things, bows and crossbows were the most powerful long-range weapons people had ess to. He did think there would be a bowman in this group.


    But that second shot missed him by at least a few meters.


    Was the first one a lucky shot?


    The youth subconsciously turned around to see where thest arrow hadnded and was immediately alerted because his mates were hiding behind that tree.


    ��These first two shots are just a warning. If you don��t leave, the third arrow will draw blood,�� Zhang Heng said calmly.


    The expression on the youth��s face changed. Everyone else was bowled over.


    The youth was about 3 �C 4 meters away from Wei Jiangyang and Chen Huadong. He wasputing in his head if he could grab either one of them as hostages. He had second thoughts, not sure if Zhang Heng would actually do it.


    In the end, he chose to put away his knife and raised his hands. ��I apologize for interrupting. It looks like my friends and I will have to go elsewhere to make friends.��


    He red at Zhang Heng as he spoke and then slowly backed away until he disappeared between the darkness of the trees.


    ...


    The incident was over, but everyone had lost their appetite. They quickly packed up their things and wanted to leave the ce, but there was no taxi in this suburbia. Xiao Xiao was still worried that the strange guy would harass the other campers, so one of them called the police while the others went around to inform other vacationers.


    Shen Xixi opened her mouth to say something but decided to keep it to herself.


    After the danger was over, the other girls gathered around Zhang Heng.


    Xu Jing stuck out her tongue and said, ��That��s impressive, fellow student Zhang. I thought you ran away because you were scared. Turns out Iron Man was summoning his armor.��


    Chen Huadong joined the conversation. ��Big brother, I must say I��m impressed! The second shot was way off course, yet you could still stand there and threaten him so boldly. Respect, respect.��


    ��Apparently those degenerates are easily frightened. They saw you holding a bow and off they went running for their lives! But, really, thank you for that! I was so scared I almost died,�� continued a very relieved Xiao Xiao.


    ��To thank your hero, I have made the executive decision to betroth the prettiest girl in our dorm to you!�� Xu Jing concluded. Suddenly, she received another smack across the head! But after that, Shen Xixi also thanked Zhang Heng.


    After informing the others scattered all over the campgrounds, the group gathered again, feeling a lot safer by the numbers.


    Zhang Heng put down his bow and opened up his backpack, distributing a bunch of snacks that did not require cooking to everyone.


    While taking a bite out of her custard pie, Xu Jing mumbled, ��What a day full of action! It��s my first time camping, and it may very well be myst!��


    With food filling their stomachs, the group was feeling much better, and they began discussing the precarious situation they were in just a while ago.


    It was then that out of the blue, Shen Xixi said, ��Zhang Heng, can I talk to you?��


    ��Mmm.��


    The pair stepped away from their friends�� bemused gazes.


    Shen Xixi thanked Zhang Heng again for the night, saying, ��Did you notice?��


    ��Notice what?��


    ��That guy didn��t look like he��s from the viges around here. He��s probably from the city like us.��


    ��You��re saying that the guy came here tonight just to look for women to assault?��


    ��No, if he was prepared, he wouldn��t be dressed like that. The shoes on his feet were an Adidas Coconut 500. It��s at least 2000 yuan and above for the authentic one! He would not have willingly worn those here and risked having his sneakers scraped by twigs and branches. Also, when he was talking, he kept scratching at his neck. He must have gotten bitten by a lot of mosquitos! If this was premeditated and he did not even prevent that, that would just too careless. So, chances are, he came here at thest minute.��


    ��That��s a very detailed observation!�� Zhang Heng looked surprised. ��Most people would not have noticed so many fine details in that situation!��


    ��Aren��t you the same?�� Shen Xixi answered softly.


    ��I didn��t notice any of that.�� Zhang Heng shook his head. ��I don��t know much about shoes. I was busy paying attention to his friends in the woods. I didn��t notice his little movements. If you didn��t mention it, I really would not have known.��


    Shen Xixi was taken aback slightly. ��Then why have you been keeping an eye on Wang Huan?��


    ��Because when the guy appeared, her reaction was a little too intense. Everyone was paralyzed by shock and fear but she was very, very frightened. After the guy left, everyone was so relieved, but she seemed even more rmed instead.��


    Shen Xixi smiled bitterly. ��That is why I didn��t agree with them calling the police.��


    ��Even though she put everyone in danger tonight?��


    ��Wang Huan has her share of problems. Cheng Cheng threatened her, telling her that if she refused to help, he wants her to reimburse him for the lipstick. Her parents wereid off a while ago, and she has a younger brother at home. And just like you said, she didn��t expect this to happen. She only sent our location to Cheng Cheng. All she thought was that he wanted to join us. She never expected the person someone like that to pop out. She was terrified... worried that police would find out.��


    ��You decide then.�� Zhang Heng declined toment. They were all adults. They have to be responsible for their own actions. Circumstances and her family��s situation may have induced her to behave that way, but it��s no excuse for her wrongdoing! One straightforward justification: society may not be just to you but you can��t go kill people in a kindergarten or set public transportation on fire just like that!


    However, Shen Xixi was the target here. Whatever she would decide to do was entirely up to her. Zhang Heng had no opinion on that.


    As for Cheng Cheng, he had an idea of what kind of game the guy was ying at, sort of... In light of the declining favorable impression between him and Shen Xixi, he probably wanted to y the hero and save the damsel in distress in this self-directed drama to make up for it. It, however, appeared that this guy had underestimated Shen Xixi��s intelligence.


    At the moment, it did not look like they were on the same level.


    Shen Xixi let out a breath of relief. ��I am not a person who keeps forgiving �C Wang Huan promised to move out of our dorms when we get back. We won��t have any social interactions with each other. So, that��s how it��s gonna be. You, on the other hand, will have to be very careful. Cheng Cheng wouldn��t dare break thew, but he has no problem crossing the line. Mm, it��s best if you don��t leave the campus for the time being. I��ll help you figure a way out of this!��

 Chapter 29: Test of Friendship

    <h4>Chapter 29: Test of Friendship</h4>


    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion


    Patrol cars sent the group was back to the city. Their statements were taken down, but unsurprisingly, the police could do very little about it.


    That was a small crime that did not result in anything serious, so they merely entertained them and warned other campers. Unless a simr incident were to happen again, they were not going to invest resources in conducting an investigation.


    An unavoidable situation, the officers already had plenty of cases piled up. Sorting the cases by priority was an essential skill of every officer.


    And just like that, the outing was ruined. By the time the group reached the campus, it was already close to midnight. They bid each other goodbye and returned to their respective rooms.


    Chen Huadong was in luck! Thanks to his heroic performance of standing his ground when the trespasser threatened him, he sessfully obtained Xu Jing��s phone number!


    With him setting the ball rolling, everyone else started to exchange contacts with each other. As soon as they returned to their room, the seats on their chairs still cold, the pair had already started hooking up.


    Shen Xixi sent Zhang Heng a text to remind him to be extra careful.


    Zhang Heng thought about it and then politely replied thanks.


    He had only just sent the text when the world around him suddenly went eerily quiet. After more than a month, Zhang Heng was no stranger to this phenomenon.


    Setting the rm on his phone to 7 hours, he climbed into bed.


    When he opened his eyes, the world was still steeped in darkness. Zhang Heng turned off his rm and rolled out of bed. After making himself a cup of oats, he walked down the stairs with the cup.


    The caretakerdy arrived a little earlier than usual, already locking the main door the moment the clock struck twelve.


    Zhang Heng went straight into the control room and very deftly fished out a set of keys. He proceeded to unlock the door.


    He dropped by Wumart first, grabbed a pineapple bun1 from the rack and them left the change on the cashier. It had actually been a long time since he��d done anything like this. Not since a terrified grandmother ran all the way home with her grandchild after hearing about the 12 o��clock rumor. He switched to stocking up his food before bed.


    This time was an exception due to an unforeseen circumstance. If Cheng Cheng had not interfered, he would still be out there camping. After he had finished his oats and bun, he left his cup on the supermarket��s rack, then jogged to the 24-hour gym. By that time, the contents in his stomach were almost fully digested.


    He began his training with the water resistance rowing machine. Three hours went by quickly. After that, he took a quick shower before checking himself into the rock-climbing club... Finally, he wandered around the city on his daily tour with his camera.


    He was passing by a small hotel when a red BMW caught his eye. Zhang Heng stopped cycling as he slowly nced at the license te. It was Cheng Cheng��s car.


    Zhang Heng was for all intents and purposes, not bothered by this son of some wealthy tycoon. Like he had told Shen Xixi, he was not involved in any clubs or group activities and had very little interaction with the student union. If Cheng Cheng wanted to take down Zheng Heng, it would require quite a lot of effort on the former��s part.


    Cheng Cheng might be famous in school, but he was no fool. It was because of money that they were willing to be his aplices in tricking na?ve young girls. But if they had to give up their certificate of graduation for him, or even break thew, sorry. No one would do it.


    Outside school, on the other hand, even though that young man was not a member of any society. After Shen Xixi��s cue, however, Zhang Heng realized that he was also another bored fuerdai with nothing to do like Cheng Cheng.


    That was just purely asking a friend for a favor, but these people were sometimes even more of a nuisance than thugs. They were willing to do almost anything for their face.


    Zhang Heng figured that since he had so fortuitouslye upon him, it was best to get rid of this trojan horse once and for all.


    He parked the shared bicycle by the building and walked into the hotel. He did not know where Cheng Cheng was, but that was not a problem as he easily essed all customer information on theputer at the front desk.


    He found Cheng Cheng��s name quickly, took down the room number and borrowed a set of spare keys. Two minutester, he pushed opened the door into room 305.


    There was steam all over the ss door of the bathroom but there was no sound of water.


    Zhang Heng could make out the silhouette of a girl but he was not the kind to take advantage of situations like this. He immediately looked away and then continued into the room. There were clothes strewn everywhere.


    There was even a brassiere handing from the television.


    On the bed, Cheng Cheng was naked except for an underwear, smoking while texting on WeChat.


    Zhang Heng plucked the phone from his hand and saw that the person he was chatting with was a guy called Wu Fan with a picture of a tattoo as his profile picture. Zhang Heng tried to recall to the intruder��s tattoo but failed to realize anything significant. That was alright, though. Zhang Heng clicked on the contacts, scrolled down, and found the same picture.


    The owner of the WeChat ount had taken a full body picture with his wardrobe, with a caption underneath��Can��t put the shoes down. What should I do?


    The face on the picture belonged to the guy with the folding knife.


    Zhang Heng went back to the conversation page, and then looked through the messages. It was almost exactly as he had guessed. Cheng Cheng was indeed the one who came up with the idea! He was nearby when it happened, ready to show up once he got the signal!


    He did not expect his ns to be disrupted by Zhang Heng. Forced home with a belly full of anger he couldn��t vent, Cheng Cheng invited a junior he had wooed to go out on a date with him.


    Wu Fan asked Cheng Cheng if he wanted to try and push the bowman around for a bit.


    Out of caution and not kindness of the heart, Chen Cheng replied that he would have to look into Zhang Heng first.


    After that, the conversation grew boring, delving into what club had awesome girls, which limited edition shoes were worth collecting, who managed to get the girl, or whose boobs were bigger��that kind of subject. Other than that, Zhang Heng also found out that Cheng Cheng was dabbling with recreational drugs and had tricked the girls he was with into doing them.


    Zhang Heng shook his head reprovingly. This guy had caused so much harm to other people. When Zhang Heng was done reading the dialogue, he created a new chat group which included Wu Fan and all the other contacts in the list which looked like fuerdais, and then began typing...


    ��Wu Fan that dumb fuck! I just need to bring up our friendship and loyalty to get him to do whatever I want. He will do anything I ask him to do. Now, he��s as obedient as my dog.��


    When he was finishedposing the text, Zhang Heng even added an emoji with a coquettish smile and shades at the end, then hit the send button.


    He could foresee that after zero o��clock tonight, a solid friendship was about to face a brutal test.


    This, however, may not humble Cheng Cheng. So, Zhang Heng decided to give him a warning.


    He did not do anything too inhumane��he was not a monster. He only gave Cheng Cheng some water to drink.


    After forcing down two bottles of water down Cheng Cheng��s esophagus, Zhang Heng was worried that Cheng Cheng would not be satisfied so he took another two from the front desk. Then, to prevent permanent damage to his nervous system from water intoxication, he took another three bottles of Pocari Sweat.


    In the end, though there was a bottle, Cheng Cheng��s stomach had already grown a sizerger and when shaken, Zheng Heng could hear water slushing inside.


    To top it all off, Zhang Heng deleted all the apps in Cheng Cheng��s phone before setting a Bride of Chucky picture as wallpaper. Finally, he left a grave message in the memo��Think about what you��ve done.


    When it was all done, Zhang Heng jumped onto his little yellow bike, leaving the hotel behind to continue exploring the artistic path.

 Chapter 30: Round 2

    <h4>Chapter 30: Round 2</h4>


    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion


    Cheng Cheng was absent from school for two days. Word was that he was sent to the emergency ward in an ambnce. The doctor��s final diagnosis was ��drowning��. The strange thing was that Cheng Cheng imed that he had been lying in bed in the hotel room and had no contact with any water at all.


    What was worse than his physical condition, however, was his mental state. He appeared to be suffering from severe psychological trauma and was advised by the doctor to seek psychiatric help after his treatment. As a result, his parents spent arge sum of money to hire a world-famous expert, and after two sessions, he was finally stabilized.


    He was finally able to return to school a monthter. A few close acquaintances even arranged a wee-back reception in his honor. They were going to invite his side-girl, but Cheng Cheng was too terrified after everything that had taken ce that night. Although they had proven that he did not have any sexual contact with the girl who was in the shower, Cheng Cheng would rather have a small-time modele over than anyone from that day.


    That night, after a couple of beers and thepany��s admiration, Cheng Cheng��s mood improved considerably and was willing to practice what the expert said, which turned out to be convincing himself that that was just a bad dream.


    Upon his return to university, he decided to restore his former glory and figure out a way to win Shen Xixi over. Humans were like that. They thought the harder it is to achieve something, the more valuable it must be.


    In the beginning, during the weing party, he thought that she was good looking singe, and had wanted to woo her just for the fun of it. But Shen Xixi would have none of it. She did not even give him a chance, which only made him even more obstinate in going after her.


    This matter quickly gued him. As he was humping the small-time model, Cheng Cheng covered the poor girl��s face with a pillow cover and imagined that she was Shen Xixi. This got him even more excited than usual.


    He kept at it for another three minutes beforeying down, whereupon a rush of exhaustion flooded his head, and the tired Cheng Cheng closed his eyes and fell asleep immediately. He was jolted awake in the middle of the night and he felt something resting on his face.


    When he opened his eyes, he saw the Bride of Chucky��s face resting against him! Goosebumps sprouted all over his terrified body!


    His screams not only waken the model sleeping next to him, but had also startled the guests in the rooms downstairs. Cheng Cheng did not even bother to dress properly and left the room running and screaming for his life in his underwear!


    s, misery lovespany. He was only a short distance away from the hotel when a minivan suddenly screeched to a halt in front of him! The door opened and the tattooed youth grinned at him from the inside. ��Brother Cheng, your little pug hase to bring you home!��


    Then, the passengers inside the van dragged the horrified Cheng Cheng into the vehicle!


    Following this, a 15-minute video of Cheng Cheng in a dog cor barking and scoffing down dog treats appeared on the university forum. Although it was quickly taken down by the school authorities, it had already left its severe, unerasable mark. The whole school was in a frenzy!


    Cheng Cheng��s reputation was already on eggshells. Pretended indignance from the varmints in the student union aside, the reactions were mostly schadenfreude1 from themon folk.


    A weekter, Cheng Cheng��s parents came to the school and after applying leave for their son, left in a hurry. A rumor quickly spread around that they had sent their son overseas for treatment.


    ...


    Everything that happened after that no longer concerned Zhang Heng. In fact, after he had taken the time out to leave a warning for Cheng Cheng, he continued with his busy schedule. He simply threw in the doll in-passing to keep Cheng Cheng busy from his boredom! Zhang Heng never in the slightest expected that the oue would be so severe.


    Later on, Zhang Heng did go back, intentionally this time, to stick the haunted doll��s face in the dark hotel room. The situation was undeniably quite scary. Cheng Cheng had already been frightened once before, and in his extremely fragile state, all it would take was one more scare and aplete mental breakdown would be no surprise. As for Wu Fan��s appearance after that, Zhang Heng knew nothing of that.


    In short, this matter was considered closed. Zhang Heng did not actually spend much time and energy on Cheng Cheng. The harassment was done out of convenience. During this period, he had employed a new n of action��attend sses and prepare for the next round of games.


    The results of his workout were a little more evident now. He was not seeking to have one of those muscr bodies, being more concerned about being pliable than being strong. He had now passed a beginner��s level in rock climbing as well.


    The second game was drawing near. In theory, he could actually wait until thest day to join the game but Zhang Heng did not want to cut it too close. What if he fell sick or sprained his ankle? That was a fun thought.


    So, 5 days before the end of November, Zhang Heng returned to the Sex and the City bar.


    This time, he did not need to sh the number on his arm for the two burly men guarding the steps to let him pass.


    Zhang Heng thanked the gentlemen and pushed the metal door open. The lounge was no different from thest time he visited, except the music had changed to jazz.


    The bartender looked to be in a pretty good mood. She was mixing some strange drink when she spotted Zhang Heng and greeted him, ��How has this month been? What would you like to drink?��


    ��Not bad. I won��t be having any drinks.��


    Then as reading his mind, she pushed the freshly-made masterpiece in front of him. ��You don��t think it��s this lemon water that you passed out thest time, do you? Even if you did nothing, you would still enter the game the same way.��


    ��Last time, you said the time was fixed only for the first game. I have the freedom to choose after that, right?��


    The bartender pointed at something nearby. ��Do you see that booth? Each one of them has an rm clock. Take a seat at one of them and adjust the time to your liking. When it��s time, the game will start.��


    ��Thank you. But I won��t need the booze. The game starts soon, so it��s better for me to stay sober!��


    ��This is not a cocktail, just a mix of fruit juices.�� The bartender raised a brow at him; her patience obviously pushed a notch further.


    Zhang Heng had the good sense to pick up the ss filled with the unknown liquid. From its appearance, this thing perfectly replicated Maid caf����s style. In all honesty, it looked suspicious. Speaking of which, Zhang Heng had visited that coffee shop a couple of times before, but the bartenderdy acted as if she did not know him, sticking to that cold, indifferent front.


    ��Oh, right! You��ve also mentionedst time that the wooden box made of Tulewood that could iste supernatural powers is sold here. How much is it?�� Zhang Heng tasted the drink in his hand. It had a peculiar taste to it, a little like durian and a little like mango. There was probably soursop and avocado in there. It was as strange a mix as it could get. So, Zhang Heng resolved to changing the subject, slowly and stealthily put the drink back down.


    From all the previous information he had gathered, there were two precious things in the game. The first one was a very realistic atmosphere and settings that allowed people to gain a lot of experience and skills in a short few hours. The second was the so-called game items.


    Needless to say, having a supernatural item that continued to have effects in the real world was very advantageous! The lucky rabbit��s foot had been with Zhang Heng for more than a month now. He even found money on the road twice now, although only 2 yuan. The rabbit��s foot was E-ss, indicative that there were also other sses��A, B, C, and D��above it.


    But because the game items�� effects were unidentifiable, carrying them around uninformed would be very dangerous. It was possible for him to have such good luck all the time, so he needed a better way to contain it.


    Thest time, after the bartender told him about the Tule tree, he went back and looked it up on Baidu and discovered that this tree only grew in Mexico��s Oaxaca state, revered dearly by the locals. It was practically impossible to take a piece from the tree to make a box.


    That being the case, he had no other choice but to buy it from the bartender. It felt a bit like he was forced to do it even though he knew the oue was bad.

 Chapter 31: Tokyo Drift I

    <h4>Chapter 31: Tokyo Drift I</h4>


    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion


    Zhang Heng was preparing himself up to the sacrificialmb, but the bartender answered nonchntly, ��Since you��ve had a taste of my masterpiece, I��ll give you a tip��if you want to use the box to store the game items, I suggest that you forget about it.��


    ��Huh?!��


    ��Didn��t I tell you thest time? Only game items can travel freely between the game and real world. To ensure fairness for everyone, you��re forbidden to bring things from the game back to reality, nor can you bring anything from the real world into the game. So, the only thing the Tule box can do is to contain game items for you here in the real world. You��ll have to figure out a way to do that yourself on the other side.��


    ��The wooden Tule box is not a game item?��


    The bartender shook her head. ��There are very few things that can be called a game item, even the lowest F-grade ones. But there are game items that function almost like the Tule box. That��ll all depend on your luck. You can also wait till the year-end auction. There��ll be a lot of goodies there! Of course, provided that your pockets are not empty!��


    ...


    For now, there was nothing Zhang Heng could do to get a suitable object to store game items. It was not an urgent matter, so he would have no choice but to heed the bartender��s words, noting to himself that most game items became effective upon direct contact.


    All he had to do was to be careful and perhaps put on a glove or something to minimize risk.


    If he stayed on, he might be coerced into tasting some other strange drinks, so Zhang Heng left the bar.


    He picked an empty booth and found a small rm clock under the seat.


    Even though that extra 24 hours had prolonged his hardship on the ind, he had to admit that the rewards were not insignificant either.


    His time he spent in the game was 12 times longer than other yers, which gave him a better opportunity to explore the ind. Considering the dire consequences that game over could bring, he would have to rely on this ability of his for the rest of it.


    He only hoped that it was not some remote and humanless ce again this time.


    He set the time on the clock to 23:55 before leaning back onto the padded seat and rested his eyes.


    After about half an hour, a dizziness filled his head, and he felt weak. It was as if he��d been swallowed by a night hag, having none of the energy to even lift a finger.


    Then that familiar voice rang in his ear again.


    [Verifying yer��s identity...]


    [Identity confirmed. Random extraction of neer��s quest for yer number 07958...]


    [Extractionplete��Current quest is Tokyo Drift!]


    ��Tokyo��an international metropolis with a poption of 37 million, deserving of its reputation as the center of Japan��s politics, economy, and culture. During the day, this ce is the vanity fair for financiers and politicians, but the grand opening of the truly entertaining stories only take ce against the backdrop of the night... Will you, an exchange student from China, be able to leave your mark and be a legend here?


    [Mission objective: Win first ce in an underground drifting championship.]


    [Mode: Single yer.]


    [Time flow rate: 360] (One hour in the real world is equivalent to 15 days in this game. After 60 days, the yer will be extracted and returned to the real world.]


    A friendly reminder: the game will begin in 5 seconds. yers, please get ready!


    ...


    Zhang Heng opened his eyes and found himself standing right in the middle of a crossroad.


    Perhaps his prayers had been heard by someone. This ce was the exact opposite or his first game on the desert ind!��he was surrounded by colorful neon lights and advertisement boards, a seemingly endless number of people strolled past him, speaking an unfamiliarnguage that he only heard on tv and games before.


    A phone rang somewhere ring a tune alike Mika Nakashima��s ��The Reason Why I Thought I��d Die��. There were a few youths zipping through the crowd on skateboards.


    Hot young girls sported miniskirts, and middle-aged srymen in suits clutched onto their briefcases as they hailed for cabs. Zhang Heng even spotted arge number of western faces. It was night, yet it appeared to be livelier than during the day!


    Tsk-tsk! This was indeed the world��srgest hotpot of urbanization!


    After Zhang Heng was sure of signs of danger in his surroundings, he checked his personal profile.


    Name: Zhang Heng


    Gender: Male


    Age: 19


    yer ID: 07958


    Rounds yed:1


    Current game points: 24


    Skills: Piano, Level 1; Language proficiency: Level 1 (bothnguages at generalmunication skills level); Archery skills: Level 2; Wilderness survival skills: Level 2


    Item in possession: Lucky Rabbit��s Foot (E)


    Assessment: The yer has slightly better luck than the average person, but otherwise, do not possess qualities that are worthmending. Has minimal wilderness survival and archery skills. Not expected tost longer than the first five rounds.


    Although Heng had been practicing rock climbing and photography for the past month, it appeared that neither of these skills even made it to level 0, which was why they were not disyed in the skills section.


    Other than that, the biggest change was the addition of an ��item in possession�� category and the rabbit foot��s effects. His assessment was now slightly different too. At least he had gotten rid of thatment about him being unremarkable. Still, he might not be able to make it far enough.


    Once he had reviewed his current status, Zhang Heng took in his surroundings again. The ce was thriving. Right opposite him was an emporium with a giant outdoor LED screen ying a SONY earbudsmercial. Bustling shops and bright neon signs crowded the entire skyline. It was quite crowded, indeed.


    This ce... looked a lot like Shibuya!


    Zhang Heng had tagged along with his mum on a trip to Tokyo to attend an academic conference when he was much younger. But his memory of that time was little fuzzy now because the conference was lengthy and he spent most of the time cooped up in hotel rooms. It was only on thest day, that his mother had brought him out shopping in Shibuya. She got him a PSP before they left, which was why he had some sort of impression at all of this ce.


    Getting to y the game in a thriving civilization was a good thing, but the situation was still slightly delicate.


    For the most part, Zhang Heng did not understand Japanese at all. Even though there were Chinese characters in the words which allowed him to guess the approximate meaning on the signboards, at this rate, he would not be able to carry out his mission. How could they just leave him here?


    He yed the role of an exchange student in the game. This meant that he would not have to worry about his amodation at the very least. There was no mention, however, the name of his school. There were dozens of universities in Tokyo �C national, public, and private. He could not possibly go around asking each one of them.


    In a time as such, Zhang Heng decided he might as well find out what he was carrying on his character.


    He began searching his pockets when a girl in a short skirt suddenly ran towards him, huffing and puffing, carrying two ice cream cones in her hands! ��Zhang Heng! Thank God you��re here! I was scared to death! I thought I lost you on your first day here!��


    The girl exhaled in relief when she saw him.


    The traffic light on the opposite lit up green.


    ��Ah, crap. We��re running out of time! Let��s go!�� The girl said, pulling his hand.

 Chapter 32: Tokyo Drift II

    <h4>Chapter 32: Tokyo Drift II</h4>


    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion


    Ten minutester, Zhang Heng was standing in front of the door into ITS��DEMO 1with an ice cream cone that had magically appeared in his hand.


    ��I��m sorry, Zhang-san1! I had a sudden craving for ice cream while we were walking and left you wandering on the road on your road,�� the girl bowed apologetically.


    ��No, it��s my own fault. I was so busy looking around that I didn��t follow you closely, fellow ssmate Ameko!�� Zhang Heng had just finished searching all his pockets.


    Its contents were simple: a passport, student ID, wallet (with 30,000 Japanese Yen and a transportation card), keys, and cell phone. Among these things, Zhang Heng��s priority was the phone. ording to the girl, this was his first day here.


    Then, chances were that she could be a friendly schoolmate who had taken the time taking him around to admire Tokyo��s night view. In most situations like these, both parties were most likely to have exchanged phone numbers. Zhang Heng checked a recent missed call and typed in Ameko��s name.


    Of course, he could have asked the girl directly, making up an excuse that he did not know how to spell her name, but it seemed a little rude to him.


    When he looked up and saw the girl��s expression, he knew that he had guessed correctly.


    Ameko looked adorable whenever she smiled, revealing her two snaggleteeth. ��Zhang-san, Shibuya is a fashion center! There are a lot of very interesting storeS and ces of interest here! But asionally, hanky-panky business goes on around here. So, you better stay close!��


    ...


    Zhang Heng had no objections to that. Ameko had been so warmhearted by being his tour guide, introducing Tokyo as they walked the streets. Up until now, the both of them had been conversing in Mandarin, and she was pretty proficient. She majored in Chinese at the university and nned to apply as an exchange student to China next year, furthering her studies.


    But her understanding of China only came from what she saw on the TV and her teachers, so, in order to deepen her knowledge, she made it a point to be friends with this term��s exchange student.


    ��Ah, actually, my home is in Shinagawa. I��ve studied in Tokyo since high school. I��ve never been away from home before. Talking about going to a ce far away makes me excited, yet a little worried at the same time!�� Ameko rubbed her nose shyly. ��My parents back home was always worried if I could care for myself in the future! So, I want to take this opportunity to train myself! Err... Is that very childish of me?��


    ��No, it��s terrific!��


    This time, the quest title was ��Tokyo Drift��. From the name itself, Zhang Heng could tell that the primary purpose of this game was to test the yer��s driving skills��also confirmed by the mission target.


    Although it seemed like the rate of time flow was reduced whenpared to the previous game, which onlysted for two hours, this mission was actually going to take twice as long toplete. 60 days to be precise.


    It might sound generous, but unless the yer was already apetitive race driver or a hardcore car tuner, being good enough to win an underground street race, even the easiest one in a mere 60 days, was a practically impossible task.


    What more, the problems the yers would face in this version of the game were not as simple as merely improving their driving skills.


    Right now, in Zhang Heng��s wallet, there was only 30,000 yen. How should I put this into perspective? Well, take the ice cream Ameko bought for example, which cost 300 yen each. From the flyer the ramen shop had given them when they passed by, Zhang Heng found out that a bowl of ramen cost between 800 to 1,200 yen.


    Of course, the food in the campus should be slightly more affordable, or if need be, he could consider cooking for himself. He might be able tost 60 days but he was not really here to be an exchange student.


    In this period of time, he would need to get his hands on a car, find out the location of the race, figure a way to improve his driving skills and sign up for a race. And to do all that, he would need to have the most basic ofmunication skills to support himself.


    If it were other yers in his shoes, they might not have listened to Ameko exining her personal growth journey and jump right into the main issue.


    But Zhang Heng was different��he had enough patience. Apart from his own great character, he also knew that everything happened for a reason.


    Human beings have continued to progress because they are consistently reflected on themselves and draw inferences��and this had always been Zhang Heng��s strength.


    The first game had not only gave him twenty-over points and a prop��Zhang Heng had analyzed his experience many times and came to a very important conclusion��whoever the game creator was, it was evident that he always encouraged the yers to explore the world they were put in.


    The lucky rabbit��s foot was a good testament to that. The really good things did not appear in the main mission. If his only purpose was to survive, there was no need to travel to the center of the ind at all. Yet, it was this side mission that had earned him the greatest reward. On top of that, the things that he did to improve his quality of life often earned him bonus points and rewards.


    Not to imply that the other yer did not understand this, but having to think of a way toplete the mission under the pressure of the return deadline, none of them would be in the mood to enjoy the luscious views around them.


    However, Zhang Heng did not have any problems here because time was always on his side.


    For this game, he had a good 420 days��seven times more than the average ce. Other than that, he had also developed a personal interest in the various worlds the game presented. During his first-round back on the ind, everything felt very real to him. If it were not for the time-bug that had caused a loop, there was no way of him finding a w.


    Compared to this megacity with a poption of 37 million people, that was nothing.


    Everyone here seemed to have self-awareness and responded spontaneously to external stimuli. If all these were expressed through programming, it would take a frightening amount of calctions! In fact, no amount of coding could achieve this level of sophistication. This was not so much a game as a wless work of art!


    Unfortunately, the yers were just rushing sojourners in this world, no time to stop and admire. Zhang Heng might very well be the only exception.


    Ameko stuck out her tongue. ��Am I talking a little too much? I��m supposed to be introducing Tokyo but then I somehow began talking about myself. You must be really bored! Why don��t I buy you a taiyaki1 to make up for it?��


    ��... I feel like you��re just looking for an excuse to eat it.��


    ��Hehe!�� Amiko shed her signature snaggleteeth after exposing her love for food.


    ��But let me pay this time! You��ve already treated me ice cream. I should thank you��if you hadn��t volunteered to be my guide, I��m afraid I would not have left campus at all!�� Zhang Heng pulled out his wallet. He could not keep taking advantage of this girl��s generosity.


    He bought four taiyaki from the stall by the road. A ubiquitous snack in Japan, it was an affordable preposition. Even though the name taiyaki literally meant ��baked seabream��, it was actually a cake with fillings like red beans. Four of them only cost Zhang Heng 640 yen.


    ��Zhang-san... you really are a good person,�� Ameko mumbled as she bit into a steaming hot taiyaki. ��We��re not too far from Yoyogi park, but too bad it��s already sote. Otherwise, I could bring you there for a walk.��

 Chapter 33: Tokyo Drift III

    <h4>Chapter 33: Tokyo Drift III</h4>


    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion


    Ameko had proven herself to be a verypetent tour guide. This was especially true after eating Zhang Heng��s taiyaki, turning her even more zealous. She showed Zhang Heng around before reluctantly sending him back to school around nine at night. Then, she took the tram back to her apartment.


    Becausend was so expensive in Tokyo, only a few universities had dormitories. Owing to that, most students had to rent rooms outside of campus like Ameko. Although her home was within the city, she chose to rent an apartment unit with other university students because it was nearer to campus.


    However, the school treated exchange students pretty well. They had an international house, which provided amodation for students from abroad. What more, they were all single rooms.


    Zhang Heng found his room number on his phone and unlocked the door with the key he was carrying in one of his pockets.


    The room was mediocre in size, only about 15 square meters. It was, however, furnished with a bed, wardrobe, study table, air conditioner, and even a full-sized bathroom.


    Zhang Heng took a quick shower before finding some clean clothes in the closet to change into. There was a half packet of biscuits on the table, a bank card, a notebook, and a bunch of photocopied papers. It all made him look like a real exchange student who had just moved in that day.


    He picked up the notebook and found a list of his expenditures. The handwriting was a one to one copy of his. On the second page, a timetable with only one subject was scribbled down, which was Japanese.


    Under normal circumstances, universities would never arrange pure lingual sses for exchange students.


    Generally, when enrolling exchange students, the university would specify Japanese as a requirement the students must meet. Of course, some did not, but only because most majors were taught English.


    That must have been the hidden benefit that this game version gave its yers, a sort of tutorial for those who spoke nor read Japanese.


    But it was not possible to fluently learn anguage in 60 days. For the time being, he would still have to rely on Ameko, the trusty human tranting machine, tomunicate with others.


    He was musing on that thought when he received a text message from her.


    Zhang-san. I��ve reached home safely. Damn it! Momo1 went to drink from the toilet again while I was out. She left pawprints everywhere!


    Ameko had told Zhang Heng about Momo, a Japanese paddy cat she adopted, to which, Zhang Heng replied: Cook it in a stew.


    ��(�Ѩ���)��


    Ameko sent him a shocked face!


    Zhang Heng typed back: I��m just joking! Oh, by the way, Ameka, do you know where the nearest ATM to school is?


    He flipped to the third page in his notebook. There was a list of things to do��one of which was signing up for a bank card. The fee for the months toe would be deducted from the card.


    Of course. I��ll bring you there tomorrow. If there��s anything else that you don��t know, you can always ask me! I��m very familiar with the area!


    Ameko was still as earnest as the first time they met.


    Thank you for letting me trouble you.


    Zhang Heng bid the girl good night. He then went online to look up some information. Soon after, he flipped the lights off and climbed into bed. And that was how he spent his first night in a foreign country.


    ...


    The night passed without incident.


    The very next morning, Zhang Heng attended thenguage ss. At an entry-level, the learning was rtively simple��to master the goujon* or fifty-sounds chart, which mainly tests the student��s memory. Then, in the afternoon, he and Ameko proceeded to apply for a bank card. The process would take about a week.


    Once they stepped out of the bank, Zhang Heng asked hispanion, ��If I want to find work, is there a ce you would rmend?��


    The 30,000 yen he had was far from enough. The two-month estimate he made previously was simply too optimistic. Rental for the room alone was already 20,000 yen! Luckily, the first month��s rent had already been paid for. Realizing that he was going to spend another 14 months or so here, Zhang Heng decided that he had to find a way to earn some money.


    He did not know how the other yers were going to resolve this financial problem. They would probably opt for some high-risk solutions, but Zhang Heng preferred to opt for working. While the money may note as quickly, it would allow him to familiarize and affiliate himself with this city.


    ��Hmm, most people work in restaurants, supermarkets or convenience stores, but being able to speak Japanese is a requirement.�� Ameko paused for a moment to think. ��Or do you have any skills?��


    ��Skills?�� Zhang Heng cocked his brow. ��Does archery and ying the piano count?��


    ��Ah? Archery and piano! That��s incredible! If that��s the case, you can work at the kyudo practice hall or western restaurants. Mm, but Japanese archery (ky��d��) is slightly different from western archery, emphasizing on the cultivation of the spirit and the mind. Also, there��s no way you could avoid talking to people in the practice hall. It looks like your best option is to y at a western restaurant.�� Ameko carefully broke down the pros and cons of each option for Zhang Heng.


    This girl was through-and-through an executive��she immediately dragged Zhang Heng to an Italian restaurant to apply for a job. Unfortunately, they already had a pianist. Next, the pair tried the Spanish and French restaurants next door. Eventually, a western restaurant owned by a local Tokyolite was willing to give Zhang Heng a chance after hearing him y. Even so, the owner was still bothered by the fact that Zhang Heng did not know how to speak Japanese.


    Ameko pointed at the job advertisement outside the shop and said, ��You��re still short on servers, right? I used to work in Roast Beef Ohno. How about this��I��ll work here too! If there are anynguage problems, I can help him trante.��


    ��Then we don��t have a problem anymore!�� The restaurateur nodded. ��We pay 1,200 yen an hour, three days a week, 4��5 hours a day. There will be day and night shifts. You can choose toe on the days you don��t have sses. I will try to put you two in the same shift.��


    ��Thank you for your trouble!�� Ameko bowed.


    Only when they stepped out of the door did Zhang Heng find out what the two had been talking about. When Ameko sensed a protest on the way, she quickly exined, ��The trip yesterday night was really fun! Everyone is normally so busy with their own lives that very few people would be willing to listen to what other people��s opinions! Zhang-san... is a very gentle person. Also, it��s not all because of you. I just quit myst job and have been looking for one. The environment and pay here are pretty good as well! Also, isn��t it much safer with you around?�� Ameko shed her snaggleteeth.


    Could this be the perks of a good first impression? Zhang Heng said nothing. When he saw that it was already evening, he treated Ameko to dinner at a restaurant nearby.


    The two were chatting about school when a spray-painted Subaru BRZ and a green Volkswagen Golf R pulled up in front of the shop. Young boys and girls with colorful hair stepped out of the cars. One of them, a guy with a bandanna, shouted at the owner to bring beers the minute he stepped in.


    From the looks of most of them, it was apparent they had a round of drinks before this. They were already somewhat drunk.


    Ameko whispered, ��Don��t keep staring at them! That guy is a recent bosozoku1. Quite a few of them are from our school. They hang out with good-for-nothing worthless punks all day long! They do nothing good from morning to night.��

 Chapter 34: Tokyo Drift IV

    <h4>Chapter 34: Tokyo Drift IV</h4>


    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion


    Zhang Heng did not avert his gaze immediately. He was thinking of a way into the primary mission when voil��!��the cue was right in front of his eyes!


    This group of so-called bosozoku were markedly car-tuning enthusiasts. If he could somehow be involved in their circle, he should be able to be acquainted with all sorts of underground street races. Building a good rtionship with one or two people, he might just get the person to teach him some racing skills.


    But there was one problem��he could sense Ameko��s discrimination of these people. Without her to help him trante, he had no way ofmunicating with them.


    Should he try convince Ameko to help or should he just drag her in?


    Zhang Heng did not have a lot of time to dilly-dally. The moment the headbanded guy nced over, he lowered his head and avoided eye-contact. The other customers pretty much reacted the same. The group of bosozoku appeared to have a sense of superiority over the average person, whistling andughing loudly as they sauntered to an unupied table at the back.


    At thest minute, Zhang Heng decided to go against breaking friendship with Ameko, purely because this bunch of people was too dim-witted. If he were going to associate himself with them, he would have to lower his intelligence to match theirs.


    Zhang Heng did not have any masochistic tendencies and decided to abandon that decision instead. He knew that this wasn��t the only way to get involved in street racing, not to mention learning nothing at all from this bunch of goons.


    For the next two weeks, Zhang Heng spent his time learning Japanese and working at the western restaurant. There were no developments on the racing front, but his rtionship with Ameko was getting better. The pair worked together, with Zhang Heng helping correct Ameko��s Mandarin pronunciation, and in return, Ameko tutored his Japanese. On top of that, Zhang Heng started to realize Ameko��s growing fondness of exchanging text messages with him.


    After getting to know her more, he realized that Ameko was the kind of girl who could really talk. From Momo the cat, the stray dog on the road, to the supermarket bento discounts��everything she saw, she would send him a text telling him about them!


    During his Japanese ss, he would receive Aemko��s text:


    Ah! Today, the Chinesenguage teacher is wearing an extremely adorable floral skirt that does not suit her age at all! Everyone is shocked.


    While he was having his meal, he would get:


    Big news! This is a disaster! Did you know that the school��s dog Matsuko is actually male?!


    Or before going to bed:


    Zhang-san, don��t you think that the world would be a horrible ce if cats don��t exist?


    The one that he received nearly every day:


    Oh no, am I too keen on sending messages? Do you hate me? Yes? No?


    Zhang Heng put down the rollerball pen he was using and rubbed his eyes.


    ��No. I was revising today��s lesson.��


    He had not been loafing about even though he was unable to find out about the covert night street race. It felt like he had gone back in time to his senior year in high school. For the sake of picking up Japanese as soon as possible, or at least be able to understand the dullest everyday conversation, he went all out��paring down his sleeping time to just 5 hours to tirelessly practice hisnguage skills. He even kept a book of Japanese basics next to the piano in the restaurant.


    The whole thing undoubtedly was like attending extracurricr sses instead of ying a game!


    ��Zhang-san, you��re too industrious. Compared to you, I feel like I��m wasting time,�� Ameko said admiringly.


    ��I��m just doing what I have to.�� Zhang Heng smiled bitterly. Truth be told, he was not very interested in learningnguages. But on the second evening here, he received a prompt from that mysterious voice again.


    It confirmed that his return time had been extended to 420 days. Some things could be nned in advance, though. He could not possibly rely on Ameko to be his trantor for such a long period. Moreover, she had already applied to be an exchange student in China and may not be around for the next school year. Zhang Heng decided that he needed to be independent.


    A fourteen-month long study tour like this was hard toe by. If he did take advantage of it and pick up the localnguage, it would be a waste of opportunity.


    Zhang Heng had a sneaking suspicion that if this game continued, he would have to learn all mainstreamnguages of the world first.


    Ameko still kept up with her prattling messages about trivial things, and after one week of bombardment, Zhang Heng could read between the lines of her message today that she was in low spirits.


    So, he typed:


    What happened to you?


    But before he clicked send, he erased the message and then dialed her number. ��Ameko, have you been in some sort of trouble recently?��


    The girl was shocked to hear from him! Her voice was a little hoarse as if she had just cried not a while ago, and she was sniffling. ��Zhang-san. I��m sorry for worrying you. It��s nothing actually. It��s just a family affair, no, not really a family affair��that person left us six years ago.��


    ��You��ll feel better if you talk about it. If you��re want to, you can tell me. I can keep it a secret for you. After all, other than you, no one else here understands what I say.��


    The upset Ameko chuckled and then proceeded to tell her story to Zhang Heng. It turned out when she was younger, her father became addicted to betting on horseracing. He lost the entire family��s fortune. When her mum could not stand it anymore, they got divorced.


    After they had broken all rtions, her mother married her stepfather and had Ameko��s younger brother. Their lives had been very harmonious until she started university. Somehow her father found her and reached out.


    The first time they met, he asked her to lend him money. At first, he said that it was because his business was trouble and needed some turnover money. But if there was one time, there would be a second. After a few more, Ameko grew suspicious. She found out that not only was he still gambling, he also picked up a terrible drinking habit. f


    The father and daughter broke into a fight and stopped contacting each other for a few months. Then during the afternoon an hour ago, Ameko received a call from her father saying that he had been beaten up by debt collectors and did not have any money to see a doctor. Having learned her lesson, though, Ameko did not send her hard-earned money right away. Her father called her ungrateful and even said that he did not have a daughter like her!


    Ameko broke into tears, and asked Zhang Heng who was on the other line, ��Zhang-san, am I very cold-blooded?��


    ��Err, I think your father is extremely unreasonable. From the looks of it, he��s most likely lying. But if you��re worried about him, I can go with you tomorrow.��


    ��Really? Isn��t it unbing of me to trouble you for my family��s problem?�� Ameko felt abashed.


    ��No! Recently, I feel like I��m nearing my limits as well. If I��m not learning Japanese, I would be ying piano at the restaurant. It just so happens I need to a breather.�� Zhang Heng blurted all these from the heart. If he had to look at another one of those kana1 sybles again, he might just throw up.


    ��It��s Saturday tomorrow. Let��s go after work then!��


    ��Okay!��


    ��Thank you so much, Zhang-san!��


    ��Don��t worry about it.��


    Ameko��s problem was just a brief interlude. Zhang Heng did not mind it at all.


    After he hung up, he began thinking about how to improve his driving skills again. It was already 15 days into the second game and had still not started on the main mission yet. If another yer were in his shoes, they would be panicking already!


    But because he had fourteen months, Zhang Heng was not in too much of a hurry. But he could not continue to squander time away so rampantly. It would be better for him to set a deadline for himself��if he were still unable to find a way to improve his driving skills, Zhang Heng would have no choice but to try getting involved with this bosozoku.

 Chapter 35: Tokyo Drift V

    <h4>Chapter 35: Tokyo Drift V</h4>


    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion


    After getting off the bus, they took a fifteen-minute walk, and after crossing an intersection, they finally arrived at the destination.


    Zhang Heng looked at the small shop called Kurahara Seafood and asked, ��Your father lives here?��


    ��Yeah. It doesn��t smell so good inside... so you can wait for me outside.�� The closer they were, the more perturbed Ameko looked but she was ever so considerate.


    ��Since I��m already here, I might as well go in with you.�� Zhang Heng, on the other hand, was not reluctant.


    The both of them passed roll-up banner stands and an abandoned old freezer as they walked into the seafood supply shop. A pungent fishy stench immediately assaulted Their noses as they took in the overpowering smell of fishes and prawns��all sorts of seafood��everywhere. But there was no one in the shop��all but a Moray eel struggling inside a polystyrene box.


    ��Father! Father!�� Ameko called out, but no one replied. ��Could he really have gone to the hospital?�� The girl muttered and hesitantly walked up the stairs with Zhang Heng following closely behind.


    The wooden stairs had not been mended for a long time, leaving cracks and chips everywhere. Every time they took a step, the stairs would groan and creak under pressure threatening to give up the load they could barely bear.


    If Zhang Heng thought the ground floor was packed like sardines, there was barely any space to walk on the first floor. There was dirtyundry, beer bottles, and even porn magazines scattered all over the ce. An unshaven, half-naked man was lying on the ground, snoring away.


    ��I��m such an idiot! I believed the same lies over and over again!�� Ameko held her forehead in her palm.


    ��In some way, this is also good news, right? It��s better than lying on a hospital bed.��


    ��This is even worse, so much worse! Why do men who lie to their own daughters exist in this world?�� Ameko pulled the man by both hands and tried to get him onto the tatami on the side.


    When he saw that Ameko seemed to be struggling, Zhang Heng offered to help. ��Come, let me help.��


    As they were dragging the man, something fell out of his pocket. Ameko picked it up to examine it. It was a brown wallet. She was stunned and appeared to be lost in thought when the man suddenly sat upright on the tatami! He lunged for Ameko, shouting at her furiously!


    In an emergency, Zhang Heng instinctively employed the defensive move that Bell had taught him and threw the man onto the floor with an over-shoulder throw. The man fell to the ground with a loud hard thud; his eyes rolled to the back of his head as he slumped to the ground, unconscious.


    Only then did Ameko react and shouted, ��No! Is he dead?!�� The girl jumped backward in shock.


    ��Err, no! But it will be a while before he wakes up. What is he screaming at you about?��


    ��Give me back my wallet...�� Ameko mumbled.


    ��I will go back and continue learning Japanese.�� Zhang Heng answered sheepishly.


    After that, the both of them carried the drunk and unconscious man back onto the tatami.


    Zhang Heng saw that Ameko was still holding onto the worn wallet and asked, ��Why? Is there a lot of money inside?��


    Ameko shook her head. ��No, this wallet was a birthday gift from my mum twelve years ago. I can��t believe he��s still carrying it.�� She opened the wallet and found an old, yellowed picture through the semi-transparent film on the right p. It was a family picture.


    Ameko pointed at the one-year-old baby and said, ��This is probably me, and that��s my mum and dad at the back. Mum said that wasn��t a gambler back then. We were all very happy!��


    Zhang Heng��s gaze fell on the very eye-catching Nissan behind the man. ��You never told me that your father was into car tuning.��


    ��Car tuning? No, no. How is that possible? Don��t see him for what he is right now. He was a great role model when I was younger. When the seafood supply shop first opened, business was not very good. It couldn��tpete with the localpetition. To increase the shop��s ie, he began learning English, scouted for overseas clients, calling them one by one, and sometimes even showing up at their doorstep! At the store��s peak, he even sold seafood to London, Los Angeles, and even Peru! Such a serious man wouldn��t have ever been involved with the bosozoku... and since I can remember, he has never driven a car. The goods have always been delivered by hired hands.�� Ameko recalled and then took another look at the picture. ��This car must have belonged to someone else. They probably parked it there when the picture was taken.��


    ��Oh, is that so...�� Zhang Heng did not ask any more questions but said, ��I��m quite interested in cars. This car is probably a relic now, huh. Can I take a picture of that?��


    ��Sure, but keep me out of the picture. I was an ugly child.�� Ameko blocked out her one-year-old face with a finger as Zhang Heng took a picture.


    After that, she rinsed two teacups and boiled some water with the electric kettle on the table. She rummaged through a cupboard and found a packet of ck tea leaves.


    Ameko brought it up to her nose and sniffed. ��This... is probably oolong tea.��


    The pair chatted as they enjoyed the tea. But the conversation was mostly Ameka talking about her childhood. After about half an hour, the stubbled man on the tatami opened his eyes and rubbed his throbbing shoulders. When he saw Zhang Heng, his eyes widened with caution.


    Ameko quickly exined their rtionship.


    Only then did the stubbled man rx a little. The animosity quickly turned into disregard, and then father and daughter spoke in native Japanese.


    Finally, Ameko took out 15,000 yen from her bag and ced them on the table, but the man did not look very happy. His speech became even more impassioned, and he got up from the mat angrily.


    Zhang Heng stood protectively in front of Ameko, his forehead creased! The results of his workout had been pretty evidenttely. Although he was not super muscr, there was not an ounce of extra flesh hanging from his body. On top of that, after that shoulder throw Zhang Heng had given the man, the man��s manner softened a little at the sight of him.


    Ameko pushed herself off the floor, looking crestfallen and the rims of her eyes red and raw. ��Let��s go!��


    All the way back on the tram, Ameko only stared out the window. Zhang Heng was careful not to interrupt her. After a while, he took out a packet of mixed-vored gum and said in broken Japanese, ��Don��t eat. I��ll eat strawberries.��


    ��It��s ��if you don��t eat one, I��ll eat all of the strawberry-vored ones,�� Ameko corrected as she picked one. The crease in her brows slowly disappeared, and she switched to Mandarin. ��I��m sorry, Zhang-san, that you had to see all those unhappy things.��


    ��Not at all! You have always been helping me; letting me help you once in a while makes me feel pretty good! So. What happened? Did the two of you end up in good terms?��


    ��No. My dad��s employee is returning to his hometown this month. He couldn��t find anyone suitable to help him deliver the goods. The store is not going to survive for much longer. He always finds all kinds of excuses, anyway! I couldn��t be bothered to differentiate the truth from lies, so I gave him all my allowance for his month. That should be enough to keep things peaceful for now.�� Ameko said helplessly.

 Chapter 36: Tokyo Drift VI

    <h4>Chapter 36: Tokyo Drift VI</h4>


    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion


    Every time the girl sent him back to his ce, Zhang Heng would feel very self-conscious. He had navigation on his phone and could actually find his way again, but Ameko always insisted on sending him regardless.


    To thank her, Zhang Heng bought her dinner in the canteen. Ever since he started working at the restaurant, he was able to work out his pressing financial problem. Now, his monthly ie was around 70,000 yen.


    This sum of money was enough to sustain him in the city, but that was just about it. Using this method to save up for a car was just too unrealistic. Presently, Zhang Heng still had not found a solution to this setback, but he had at least found a prospect in regards to brushing up his driving skills.


    On their way back, Zhang Heng asked Ameko for his father��s name. He keyed in Kurahara Tetsuya1 on his phone along, and the search results that came up were all rted to Kurahara Seafood.


    Everything appeared as healthy as it could be.


    After that, he used the editing tool to crop the man��s face from the picture, magnify it, then upload it to Facesaerch, an image search engine created by Google application programming interface (API) that allowed its users to track down simr pictures on the web.


    The search results varied inuracy, and could sometimes be very inconsistent. You could upload Bai Baihe��s picture and get Wang Luodan, and a search for Takeshi Kaneshiro would get you Zhao Benshan!


    Looking at the masses of pictures that popped up on his screen, Zhang Heng knew that he was going to have a lot of work to do tonight.


    ...


    The second morning, Zhang Heng slept in, which was something he rarely did. Since he did not need to work or attend sses that afternoon, hey in bed until 10 am before rolling out of bed, not forgetting to make up for his morning run.


    After brunch, Zhang Heng checked his phone and saw that he had two messages from Ameko.


    One was:


    Thank you so much for yesterday.


    And the other:


    Momo drank too much toilet water and is having diarrhea! I��m taking him to the vet!


    Zhang Heng employed his recently upgraded Japanese and typed:


    Be careful!


    After that, he set Kurahara Seafood as his destination on his phone.


    This was the first time he traveled so far without Ameko apanying him. Fortunately, he had a map at hand and recollection for the ce. After an hour and a half, he finally made it to the ce they had been to yesterday.


    This time, the stubbled man was awake but still looked like he had just got out of bed. Garbed in pair of boxers, slippers, and a sleeping robe, he examined a batch of scallops in front of the store.


    He was startled when he turned around and saw Zhang Heng, then rambled on and on about something unintelligible as he kept retreating into the store, his hands searching his surroundings for any defensive weapons. When he saw that Zhang Heng had no intention of withdrawing, he fished out his phone and indicated that he was going to call 110.


    ��Uncle, I heard from Ameko that you understand English?�� asked Zhang Heng in English.


    ��So what?!�� The stubbled man found a mop and held on like his life depended on it! ��Hey, kid! I��m warning you! Even if you��re Ameko��s boyfriend, you have no right to get involved in our family��s business! If you don��t leave, I��ll call the police!��


    ��I��m not here about yesterday.�� Zhang Heng shook his head. ��Can we please talk inside?��


    ��Don��t! Don��t move! Don��t think that you can use this trick to get near me! The same move won��t even work on Saint Seiya!�� The stubbled man barked, raising his voice. It seemed that yesterday��s shoulder throw had somewhat scarred him.


    They spoke in English anyway, so Zhang Heng did not have to worry about any eavesdroppers. Zhang Heng did not push it any further and simply said, ��Then I��ll just say it��I was hoping you could teach me how to race cars.��


    ��....�� The man was stumped for a short minute. ��You want a seafood supply storeowner to teach you how to drag race? Is your English bad or is there a problem with my hearing? What is this? Some cold Easter Sunday joke?!��


    The man paused for a moment and then continued, ��Didn��t Ameko tell you? I don��t know how to drive at all. Why do you think I have so much backlog ever since my delivery man quit?�� He gestured towards the pile of boxes miserably.


    Zhang Heng did not budge. ��Isn��t your English too good to be a self-taught learner? Takeda Tetsuya, or should I call you Yosuke Tsuchiya? The famous racing prodigy who left for Europe immediately after graduating from high school. Your excellent driving skills attracted the attention of sponsors, which led to your participation in the FIA GT Grand Prix! Your biggest sess was winning second-runner up in New, York but because you offended the racing team manager, you were forced to return home. Seventeen years ago, you won the Tokyo D1 GRAND PRIX, then in the same year, set out to challenge the Drift King (DK) title! You beat all the street racers from 22 wards out of Tokyo��s 23 special wards. But you suddenly gave up and vanished at the final juncture.�� Zhang Heng said unhurriedly.


    ��I don��t know who the hell you��re talking about!�� The man said, keeping a straight face. ��Kid, if you want to go race cars, don��t stand in front of my shop and disturb my business!��


    No matter how hard he pretended to remain calm and unaffected, Zhang Heng, who had been staring at his face, noticed that when he mentioned the name Yosuke Tsuchiya, the man��s pupils contracted. Zhang Heng was 90% sure that he had found the guy.


    ��Why did you quit, and why change your name to Takeda Tetsuya? Is it because you don��t want to be found?��


    The stubbled man��s poker face finally thawed. ��Kid, are you threatening me?��


    ��Are you finally admitting to it, Mr. Yosuke?��


    ��I��m not admitting to anything!�� The man answered cautiously.


    Zhang Heng did not continue to twist the man��s arm since he only wanted to confirm his identity. This guy reeked of deceit, but lucky for him, Zhang Heng was not going to threaten to expose the man for Ameko��s sake.


    But the man never explicitly denied Zhang Heng��s usation either.


    ��Aren��t you short on a delivery man? What about me? I��ll help you deliver goods. I don��t need to be paid. You just have to teach me how to race.��


    The man��s eyes lit up at the mention of not having to pay but began quickly weighing the advantages and disadvantages. It mostly revolved around the consequences of refusing the young man��s offer. After a moment, he looked at the Chinese boy, and Zhang Heng could tell that the man was tempted. But the profiteer in him saw Takeda Tetsuya asked, ��How about I teach you to race cars, and other than helping me deliver goods, you pay me a fee as well?��


    ��...��


    When he saw the expression on Zhang Heng��s face, he quickly changed his tone. ��That was a bit too grant of me. Alright! Forget about the fee. But let me get this straight��we need to set some rules. First, don��t ever mention the name Yosuke Tsuchiya ever again! There is no such person. Second, you and I are not master and apprentice! I am your boss, and you are my delivery guy. I��m just worried that you might be too slow in delivering, and slow down business, so I��m just giving you a few pointers. How much you can learn will depend on you. Third, Ameko cannot know about this.��


    ��Add one more to it��don��t ask Ameko for money ever again,�� Zhang Heng added.


    The stubbled man thought about it and then agreed reluctantly. ��... Fine!��

 Chapter 37: Tokyo Drift VII

    <h4>Chapter 37: Tokyo Drift VII</h4>


    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion


    ��Your job is simple��Get here by one every morning, drive me to the Tsukiji Fish Market, wait for me while I purchase the stocks, and then you��ll bring me back here. After I��ve sorted the goods, you��ll deliver them to the ces they need to go. That��s all the work for the day. Understand, kid?��


    ��One in the morning?! Then do I still have time to sleep after all that?�� Zhang Heng asked, his brows furrowed.


    Takeda Tetsuya grinned, revealing a mouthful of yellowed teeth. ��That will depend on how fast you deliver the goods! Alright, do you have any other questions?��


    ��I have onest question.��


    ��Hm?��


    ��You will help me get a driver��s license first, right?��


    Takeda Tetsuya��s face froze. ��Repeat what you just said?!��


    ��I don��t have a driver��s license. If I��m going to deliver goods for you, I will need to get a license first, right?�� Zhang Heng answered honestly.


    ��.... You don��t even have a driver��s license, and you want me to teach you how to race?!�� Takeda Tetsuya looked defeated. ��Are you messing with me? Why would someone who hasn��t touched a steering wheel in his life be interested in underground drift racing?!��


    ��Actually, I��m not interested in drift racing at all, but because of reasons I��m disinclined to share, I have to join the race.��


    Takeda Tetsuya red at Zhang Heng, only speaking after a minute through his teeth. ��Then, you will have to pray that you can drive faster than the cops.��


    ...


    Tokyo at midnight and Tokyo in the morning were like chalk and cheese.


    In the dead of night at midnight, most people were already asleep at home. Only residential buildings by the streets would asionally still have a light on. Zhang Heng left the campus and took thest train. It was almost empty except for a few exhausted srymen and a couple of geisha with heavily painted faces.


    He disembarked at thest station, walked a very long way before finally arriving at the seafood supply store at the agreed time.


    Takeda Tetsuya had somehow pulled himself together. Instead of snoring away upstairs, he was squatting in the store, sorting the order forms.


    When he heard the footsteps behind him, he did not even bother to look up. ��Give me 5 more minutes.��


    After exactly 5 minutes, he got up and picked up two freshly dead crabs and tied them up with a straw rope. He tossed a set of keys to Zhang Heng and then snorted, ��Come with me!��


    Zhang Heng followed the man to a small open-air carpark nearby. Takeda Tetsuya gave the metal gate a shake, and after a while, the lights were turned on. Then, a hunched elderly man slipped on a shirt as he came and unlocked the gate.


    Takeda Tetsuya smiled at the old man, telling him something in Japanese as he handed the crabs over while pointing at Zhang Heng.


    The elderly man looked delighted receiving the crabs��his smile stretching out the wrinkles on his face. He nced at Zhang Heng and gave the young man a friendly nod.


    ��Mr. Crab��to be honest, I don��t know what his real name is. It doesn��t matter. Nobody cares about these kinds of things anyway. His old partner passed away a long time ago, and after his children went overseas, they never contacted him anymore. He makes a living for himself with this carpark, and this is also where he lives. We��re old friends. I give him dead crabs that can��t be sold, and he lets me park here for free. Also, I��ve already introduced you to him. From now onward, you can juste here to pick up and return the car.��


    ��Which one is it?�� Zhang Heng looked around at the car park, and finally, his gaze settled on a mustard yellow van parked in the corner.


    ��Isn��t it beautiful? Mitsubishi��s second-generation L300 (Delica),unched in 1982. It��s the first four-wheel-drive van in Japan!�� When talking about cars, it was like Takeda Tetsuya had be a whole different person! That dejected uncle seemed to have vanished. He lit a cigarette and ran his hand along the body of the car. ��It runs a 4D56 diesel 2.5 engine and the same chassis as the Pajero, powerful enough to cope with bad weather and terrible road conditions. This van has the performance of an off-road vehicle...��


    ��1982? Are you sure it still runs?�� Zhang Heng asked uncertainly.


    ��Don��t worry, I found it in a scrapyard, and I��ve refurbished the interior. This 4-wheel-drive is now a 2-wheel-drive. In terms of stability, it��s much better than before. 4-wheel-drive adds to the weight of the car, but a car that is too heavy is not very good for the driver... it uses too much petrol... Most importantly, I fixed the cassette yer!�� Takeda Tetsuya opened the codriver seat, climbed into the car, and picked a cassette tape.


    Zhang Heng climbed into the driver��s seat. After getting home yesterday morning, he quickly looked up on some driving knowledge, especially videos and pictures on the web. On top of that, he even downloaded a driving simtion game on his phone and yed it on the subway on his way to the store, which was why right now, he... still had zero confidence.


    Zhang Heng pushed the key that Takeda Tetsuya had given to him into the ignition. It took him three tries to get the car going.


    Takeda Tetsuyapletely ignored him. He waited until the vehicle roared to life and then slipped the Chage and Aska cassette into the yer on the dashboard. But before the car could even move 5 meters, the car suddenly jerked and came to a stop. Takeda Tetsuya lurched forward hard, hitting his head on the glovepartment in front of the passenger seat!


    Zhang Heng said tly, ��Sorry. Wrong gear!��


    As he spoke, he shifted to 5th gear.


    ��Please inform me when you sign up for a race. I will buy insurance for you. I will be the benefactor, of course. You win!�� Takeda Tetsuya stopped the tape yer. ��Start with the first gear. Press the clutch with your left foot. Push it down all the way. Then slowly, with your right feet, step on the gas pedal as you depress the clutch...��


    After about three minutes, the L300 finally wobbled out of the parking lot, and under Mr. Crab��s supervision, it slowly bumped into a fire hydrant.


    Luckily, it was very early in the morning, and the road was still quite deserted.


    Zhang Heng drove the van onto the open road, lurching every now and then. When he looked over at his passenger, he saw that Takeda Tetsuya had fastened the seat belt like an honest man.


    The fifteen-minute journey took Zhang Heng twenty-five minutes. On the way, the engine stalled five more times, and he ran two red lights. He even drove over the curbs! Fortunately, though, they arrived at their destination in one piece.


    Tsukiji Fish Market was the biggest seafood market, not only in Tokyo but in the world. Fishermen from all over Japan would deliver all the produce they caught to be sold here. In its heyday, they could sell 3,200 tons of seafood a day worth 3 billion yen. Every single day, over 60,000 wholesalers woulde to select and bid for the products they want. To them, this was not just a marketce, it was a battlefield.


    Zhang Heng pulled the handbrake.


    Takeda Tetsuya was about to say something, but he nked out. Finally, all he said was, ��Wait here.�� Then he jumped out of the van and greeted someone he appeared to know. The man produced a packet of cigarettes, and the pair walked into the market, puffing away.


    By the time Takeda Tetsuya returned, it had already been an hour. Following him was a forklift carrying the boxes of seafood he had selected. To the man��s surprise, instead of taking a nap while waiting for him to return, Zhang Heng was practicing his driving skills! Compared to his jerky driving this morning, his skills had now improved noticeably.


    Takeda Tetsuya, however, did notment but instead, grumbled grumpily, ��Get down and load the van!��

 Chapter 38: Tokyo Drift VIII

    <h4>Chapter 38: Tokyo Drift VIII</h4>


    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion


    Zhang Heng realized that he underestimated the extent of Takeda Tetsuya, his new boss�� ruthlessness.


    He sent the man back to the shop at 3.15 in the morning. Then after spending ten minutes unloading and packing the seafood, Zhang Heng left the shop at 3.35. By 6.30, he was still driving with about half of the undelivered goods at the back of the van.


    By then, the street was growing busy��all the office workers who lived far from their workces were already out the door, spilling into the underground subway and bus stations. The number of cars on the road were also gradually increasing. Zhang Heng went to two other ces, and when he left an izakaya1, he encountered two traffic policemen who were just starting their shifts. As a result, he decided not to risk continuing the delivery.


    Driving without a license in Japan would be a severe offense. Not only would the offending driver have to serve less than 3 years of jail time and pay a 500,000 yen fine, all passengers and owners of the vehicle would also be convicted and fined. It was almost at peak hours. If Zhang Heng did not leave, chances were, he would be stuck in a jam.


    Zhang Heng brought the L300 back to the store to an unsurprised Takeda Tetsuya. Thetter picked up the phone and contacted the former delivery man, before turning to Zhang Heng and said, ��You have one more week. After that, Takahashi Koichi will be back in his hometown. If you still can��tplete the delivery by then and I suffer a loss, would you pay me back?��


    ��Alright.�� Zhang Heng answered.


    Zhang Heng��s unwavering answer was not quite what Takeda Takashi had expected. This situation was, in all honesty, quite a tragedy for the store owner��not only was he unable to contend with the young man, but he was also in a vulnerable position that the young man could capitalize on. He could do nothing about Zhang Heng notpleting the job, so he could only grumble and make a fuss. He really hadn��t expected the young man to actually agree so breezily.


    Takeda Takashi said cunningly, ��Hey, kid, you better don��t lie. If you can��t do it, then you can��t! The sooner you tell me, the sooner I can figure out a way to hire another driver. I worked hard to get each and every one of these customers! Don��t make empty promises. If you still cannotplete your task, the one at stake is my shop!��


    ��If I fail toplete the deliveries, I will pay you back whatever you lose!�� Zhang Heng hopped down the van and stretched his shoulders and wrists. His first delivery was unsessful, and after driving from the wee hours of the morning, his body and mind were exhausted. But he found that somehow, this pressure had drastically improved his driving. It would appear that this nonstop driving around was much more useful than if he were to practice the entire day.


    Of course, he could always tell Takeda Takashi to reduce his cargo, but if he was not even willing to ept a small challenge like this, then why bother to participate in thepetition? He might as well just give up then.


    Zhang Heng took the bus back to campus and was only able to wash his face and quickly gobble down a few pieces of bread before he had to rush for another Japanese lesson.


    Only in the evening did he get the chance to make up for being awake the whole morning. He had set the rm for four hours. Later, he had dinner. He then visited the bookstore nearby to buy a map of Tokyo.


    As mentioned previously, self-reflection and deduction were Zhang Heng��s strengths. On his way back to campus that morning, he had already started mulling over reasons he was unable toplete his task that day. Other than his unpolished driving skills and the L300��s poor performance, his unfamiliarity with the roads andck of route nning were also crucial factors.


    No matter how good a driver was, it would be challenging for him to be able to perform to be at fullest capacity if he was unfamiliar with the location of thepetition.


    At 1.20 in the morning, Zhang Heng arrived at the parking lot, gave Mr. Crab two onigiri1, who gleefully opened the gate for him. He returned to the store at 7.34 am. Unfortunately, his performance today was worse than the day before, delivering only about 40% of the goods.


    Takeda Takashi was cleaning the sink in his pajamas when he saw the young man return. ��Young people should not be too confident. It��s not toote for you to give up now. Otherwise, in six days, you will have to sell yourself to me as a ve and work for free your whole life.��


    Zhang Heng said nothing in reply. He had only himself to me, taking too much time nning the route and unfamiliarity with the names of the ces causing him to arrive at the wrong location a couple of times. He even nearly drove all the way to Okinawa to see bikinis!


    Zhang Heng added another item to his to-do list��Get familiar with Tokyo��s streets.


    Takashi Seafood Products�� customers could be divided into two main types: regr customers and new customers. The former received their goods at the same locations while thetter was more spontaneous, which, at the moment, Zhang Heng could do nothing about. For the regr clientele, on the other hand, Zhang Heng could mark their location on the map, then use a pen to connect the dots and find the best route for delivery.


    After that, he simply had to slot in the new customers�� locations that were en route. That way, he could save arge portion of his time.


    So, on the third day, Zhang Heng delivered 70% of the goods, and for the first time, when the L300 pulled up the in front of the shop, Takeda Takashi did not make fun of him.


    On the fourth day, only 20% of the goods did not make it to the clients. On the fifth day, however, Zhang Heng found himself at a bottleneck.


    Although he had done his best to make every minute count, he still had 15% of undelivered goods. It was only thanks to the careful nning that he was able to send them to nearby clients. The remaining ones were located further from town or in more secluded areaspletely overlooking them.


    If he were to deliver them now, it would take him an exhaustingly long time to reach. While his driving skills still had room for improvement, he only had two more days before the ��deadline���C not delivering all of the remaining goods was out of the question. Once again, Zhang Heng found himself deep in thought.


    Takeda Takashi, who had his head buried in an adult magazine, looked up suddenly. ��To a racer, his car is more important than his wife. So, how could a person who doesn��t even understand his own wife manage the rtionship? Tsk, tsk! Young people nowadays are so foolhardy.��


    ��Do you have the blueprint of the car?�� Zhang Heng asked the man poring over an ocean of cigarette butts.


    ��A great racecar driver simply needs to listen to be able to tell the horsepower of an engine, but I can��t be so harsh to a rookie like yourself, right?�� Takeda Takashi answered in a patronizing tone. It was like this guy had to aplish something, however small, or he would die. ��I have the drawing of the modification on myputer. Take a look at it yourself. Don��tpete against it. Get to know its temper, then you��ll be able to control it well.��


    Zhang Heng turned on theputer and was immediately greeted by Takeda Takashi��s ��hidden files.�� Among the mountain of porn, Zhang Heng found what he wanted. To his surprise, there was not only the blueprint for the L300 but also blueprints for other cars as well. They were all earlier models, though. It seemed like they had all been modified by a certain Mr. Takeda Takashi.


    On top of that, there was also a copy of a manual.


    Takeda Takashi called out from downstairs, ��Focus on studying the L300. Ignore everything else. You��re not at that level yet. Don��t try to run before you can even crawl!��

 Chapter 39: Tokyo Drift IX

    <h4>Chapter 39: Tokyo Drift IX</h4>


    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion


    The next day, after the former delivery guy returned to his hometown. Zhang Heng was now able to deliver all the goods before the traffic police showed up for the first time. The moment he achieved that, that familiar voice spoke in his ears:


    [Acquired new skill��Driving skills: Level 0]


    Zhang Heng took in a deep breath. This period of nocturnality finally paid off, not knowing what the benchmark for skill levels was until now. About instances when his survival skills were recognized in the previous game, Zhang Heng knew that Level 0 meant that he had stepped over the threshold, at the very least.


    When it came to time, this wasn��t considered fast, but it was definitely not slow either. It had only been a week since he first touched the steering wheel. Now, even the Takeda Tetsuya, who had been waiting for Zhang Heng to screw up, could only murmur to himself, ��Did he throw all the undelivered stuff on the side of the road?��


    Zhang Heng simply ignored the remark, returned the keys, and silently took the bus back to school.


    He was starting to get used to this kind of life now: go to ss, then work, and then to deliver goods for an unkind employer. Whenever he had the time, he would reply to Ameko��s strange everyday messages.


    The days went on like this, and in a blink of an eye, two months had passed. It was now drawing close to three months since he��d started this game. At this time, other yers would have been removed from the game and had returned to reality, but for Zhang Heng, he wasn��t even a fourth of the journey in.


    He was in no hurry toplete the primary mission, and as he was working towards achieving his goal, he unexpectedlypleted two small achievements.


    One was for visiting ten ces of interest in Tokyo, and the other was for tasting thirty Japanese delicacies. Each achievement earned him 3 game points.


    These weren��t actually tricky things to do at all. As long as you were willing, you could visit ten of any of Tokyo��s tourist attractions. The only thing to consider was the limited time given toplete the tasks. An exceptionally few people would be willing to spare a few days just to visit non-mission-rted ces.


    Zhang Heng, on the other hand, had Ameko dragging him around ces like Skytree, Ghibli Museum in Mitaka, Sensoji Temple, and many other sites. He never refused to go on these outings since he had plenty of time, and his daily schedule was so packed that it was nice to take a break and rx every now and then.


    Having a cute, snaggleteeth tour guide bringing him around the city was a rare opportunity that somehow earned him 6 points.


    Other than that, having learned from his previous games, Zhang Heng kept an eye out to see if anything would be refreshed once the 60-day time limit was up. Lo and behold, he discovered a bug!


    Japanese Universities typically had new intakes during March or April every year. Also, with the increasing number of foreign exchange students, the other peak period for club and society recruitments were in September. When Zhang Heng first arrived at the university campus, there were posters and flyers everywhere, but because he was so busy learning Japanese, he did not join any of them.


    So, when the 60 days reached its end, these associations began recruiting again. When Zhang Heng asked Ameko about it, she too replied that she had no idea either and that it was probably because they did not have enough club members.


    But ever since that unresolved inconsistency with Bell, Zhang Heng became very sensitive about these anomalies. He was almost sure that he knew what secrets these organizations were hiding.


    So, Zhang Heng came up with a solution��to collect every club and society��s recruitment flyers. They included the typical football club, swimming club, baseball club, taekwondo club, shogi1 club, and hanafuda club2. The hanafuda club was hugely popr, notably when their brochures featured their president and co-president, both of whom stunningly beautiful girls.


    But just to be clear, Zhang Heng��s attention was not on all these. His focus was on car-rted clubs. So far, he had found a 4WD club, a racers workshop, and an Autoshow model photography club. After he inquired about the 4WD club, though, he found out that it was not the four-wheel-drive that he thought it was.


    This group of people were not racing 4WD cars but instead, the mini 4WD toy cars from ��Dash! Yonkuro1�� developed by Tamiya Incorporated��Audley, which was also popr once upon a time, was China��s knockoff version. It was, however, yesterday��s news among today��s generation. Zhang Heng was pleasantly surprised that a group of hardcore fans still existed in the university!


    At the moment, Zhang Heng did not feel like collecting dust behind some toy cars while cheering for Shooting Star, Cannonball, Burning Sun1... that would be quite a sight to behold! On the other hand, he thought that the name ��Autoshow model photography club�� sounded rather dubious. So, in the end, Zhang Heng decided to join the racers workshop.


    This one sounded the most legit out of the three.


    To his delight, he really did learn quite a lot from this group, which was founded by a senior who started as a racecar fan. He and a group of like-minded friends decided to start this society, and after much self-teaching and practice, he was able to obtain specialized skills. Eventually, a team signed him when he was in his fourth year in university to be a professional racecar driver driving for the GT300 race season.


    Three years ago, he put all the discoveries from his training down on paper and shared them with the members of the club. He even shot daily tutorial videos and recorded his experience and opinions in a blog, which he kept up-to-date.


    He was extremely generous whenpared to Takeda Tetsuya, who only gave Zhang Heng minimal pointers on their way back to the shop whenever they went to the fish market together. Still and all, both of them had very different training and driving styles.


    The senior was a feistier, go-all-in kind ofpetitor who believed in momentum, flooring the pedal all the way, whereas the owner of the seafood store was a positively technical driver. Zhang Heng had found old videos of Takeda Tetsuya��s racing days, and came to learn that this guy was cunning when it came topetitions. His style was to draft, always tailing other cars closely and then only punching it to full-speed in the final twops.


    A line he often repeated was, ��Racing is a tactical game. It��s not just apetition of skills, but it is also a battle of the mind. An average driver only sees the road ahead, but a great driver must never be fettered by the limitation of the eyes but look at the bigger picture.


    But every time after he said this, he would add insultingly, ��Sigh, but a green boy like you will never understand this world! You better stick to delivering the seafood first. Thanks to you, business has been pretty goodtely. The orders have increased by another 20%! The same rule applies��you will pay me back for whatever you fail to deliver!��


    Zhang Heng had already gotten his driver��s license but eventually found out that it was pointless because he had to rush back to school for ss before Tokyo was awake anyway. To add, the L300 that Takeda Tetsuya had apparently dug up from the rubbish pile was not insured and nor inspected. To top it all off, the number te was a fake!


    It now made sense why Takeda Tetsuya had turned a blind eye when Zhang Heng broke traffic rules in the earlier days. The police would not be able to catch them anyway, so it did not matter how badly Zhang Heng was driving. Of course, if they were stopped by the police, they would be seriously screwed��they could be thrown into jail.


    Owing to that, Zhang Heng could only continue to keep a fast driving pace andy low whenever he was on the road.


    Having said that, he found the notes and tutorial videos provided by the racecar workshop��s founder to be very enlightening��his approach towards racing was the exact opposite of what Zhang Heng had been learning from the seafood store owner.


    Eventually, only after three arduous months, did Takeda Tetsuya impart his car tuning knowledge to Zhang Heng.

 Chapter 40: Tokyo Drift X

    <h4>Chapter 40: Tokyo Drift X</h4>


    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion


    ��4WD racecars rarely have oversteer problems, but to drift around corners with rear-wheel drive, you��ll have to upgrade the suspension system of the front and rear axle. At the same time, you have to calcte the factors that help maintain trackability when turning in,�� informed Takeda Tetsuya as he blew a cloud of smoke from the passenger seat.


    ��This problem can be easily solved��you just need to adjust the spring and the damping coefficient. Soften the rear suspension, reduce thepression rate of the shock absorber��s damping force, increase the ductility, reduce the rigidity of the rear anti-roll bar, and perhaps, even increase the rear track width. Officialpetitions typically have rear track width restrictions, but underground tournaments are not particr about that.


    ��Also, if you notice any turbulence after the configuration, you can consider increasing the rake angle of the spoiler. Doing that will increase downforce on the rear of the vehicle. Of course, that will mean sacrificing your top speed. All things considered, there is no such thing as the perfect racecar; tuning a racecar is finding the right bnce between performance parameters...��


    Zhang Hengmitted everything to memory as he drove in silence, and as slowly as he could so that they would only arrive at Tsukiji Market ten minutester.


    Once the L300 pulled up in front of the seafood market, Takeda Tetsuya��s mouth mped shut instinctively. This guy was really sticking to their agreement��not saying another word as he pushed the door open and exited the van.


    He took two steps forward and then halted abruptly. He turned around and said, ��Come earlier this Sunday.��


    Zhang Heng stared after the man quizzically for a moment, and then it dawned on him��he might have triggered a new storyline as he just received a new update 4 seconds ago that his driving skills had gone from level 0 to level 1. At the same time, after a month of learning, he even attained another skill��car tuning and maintenance (level 0).


    So, on the third night, after his taking a stroll around Shinjuku with Ameko, Zhang Heng took the bus to the seafood store, three hours earlier than usual. When Takeda Tetsuya saw himing, he turned around and locked the door behind him and then tossed the key to Zhang Heng. ��The shop��s having a day off today.��


    ��Where are we going?��


    ��The beach. Starting from today, I will be teaching you how to drift.��


    Zhang Heng was a little taken aback by this short announcement.


    Even though Takeda Tetsuya had been instructing him on how to race, and had taught him quite a few techniques, he had never once revealed his best secrets. Zhang Heng had asked a few times before, but he was always dismissed with ��You��re not qualified yet!��, which was a clear and direct way of telling him that he needed to meet a certain standard.


    Under normal circumstances, this would have been unattainable for an inexperienced fledgling with zero foundation like Zhang Heng. He had been learning how to drive for four months now, which was already way past the deadline. He managed to fulfill the criteria only yesterday.


    It went without saying that Zhang Heng was not going to let this precious opportunity slip away. Who knew why Takeda Tetsuya, the scrooge, suddenly had a change of mind? If it were not because he had been the champion of D1 Grand Prix tsuisou format in Tokyo or the man who nearly bagged the Drift King title, Zhang Heng would already have looked for someone else to consult, like that racer workshop senior.


    Not only did he have the right attitude, but to benefit the next generation, and to pave the way for those who desire to be a racing driver like him, he shared his views and experience generously with the members of his group.


    Zhang Heng believed that if he continued to work hard, he might be able to set himself to the path of sess. After all,pared to Takeda Tetsuya, the seafood store owner, this senior guy was the more authentic racing driver. After much deliberation, Zhang Heng decided to give up that n.


    The GT300 was a sanctioned racingpetition. The race track and the driving skills requirements are very different from underground drift racing. As the name GT300 implies, the maximum horsepower output is capped at 300ps. On the other end of the spectrum, the only rules in underground racing were that there were no rules. No one cared what kind of cars you drove, or what type of technique you used. Whoever crossed the finishing line first was the winner. In fact, if you were ballsy enough, you could even use nitrous oxide.


    Zhang Heng had already read through all the workshop guy��s notes and videos more than once. His vigorous and hawkish driving style was more suited to professional track facing. In aplicated environment, he would be no match for Takeda Tetsuya, the former champion of D1 Grand Prix.


    The seafood store owner brought Zhang Heng to a private pier that was close to being abandoned and created a drift course with tires and cardboard boxes lined as the apexes.


    ��Drifting is a driving technique by deliberately oversteering the car, forcing it to slide sideways through a turn. Young people nowadays love to show off their skills by drifting, but in reality, drifting on the normal road would only slow the car down and wear out the tires. This technique was designed to cope withplex road conditions.��


    Zhang Heng looked at the massive pile of tightly packed boxes and tires. ��Isn��t... a little tooplex?��


    ��As long as someone can do it, it��s notplex!�� Takeda Tetsuya retorted imposingly.


    Zhang Heng thought after that uttering such heroic statements; the guy would at least give him some sort of live demonstration. To his disappointment, however, Tetsuya only showed him a video, and from the looks of which looked like a really old one. After that, the guy removed a folding stool and a fishing rod from the back of the van.


    ��...��


    ��Don��t look at me. I swore that I would never touch another steering wheel in this life. But, don��t you worry. The obstacles I��ve set up for you is not impossible toplete.�� said Takeda Tetsuya as he baited the hook. Zhang Heng skimmed through the video and quickly realized that he had misjudged the guy. He was probably trying to make up for the fact that he could not show Zhang Heng the technique himself, but instead, with the surprisingly de4tailed tutorial. Except for the demonstration at the beginning, the rest of the video contained new materials that Takeda Tetsuya had recorded.


    Zhang Heng yed the video over and over again nearly seven times. In between, he even yed the video in slow motion twice.


    Once he was satisfied, he tucked his phone away into his pocket and began his practice.


    The result... as expected, was a tragic sight. The ear-piercing screeching sounds of tires scraping the ground echoed on the pier. The cardboard boxes and tires were strewn about and had all been knocked over! Zhang Heng initially thought his driving skills had improved so much that he even thought about acquiring a car andpleting the primary mission.


    But this new training felt like someone had just poured ice-cold water on him. Even though Takeda Tetsuya had not been very reliable all this while, he would not lie to him about such a trivial matter. Since he said thatpleting the training was attainable, it meant that Zhang Heng was the problem.


    On that ount, the boy wrestled with the heap of tires and boxes until the next morning until the sun had started peering out from the horizon. The seafood store owner packed his fishing rod, stretched his body and then looked at Zhang Heng. ��You��ll continue to deliver the goods after today. When you have free time, you cane here to practice drifting. So, how soon youplete your training is up entirely up to you. You can start modifying the L300. I will give you suggestions, but you will have to take care of the parts yourself!��

 Chapter 41: Tokyo Drift XI

    <h4>Chapter 41: Tokyo Drift XI</h4>


    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion


    At 3.00 am somewhere in Tokyo.


    The rumble of engines broke the silence of the night.


    More than a dozen modified cars in eye-catching colorsy silently in front of a shop that had gone out of business a long time ago. A group of street racers in punk clothing with their provocatively dressed arm candies were rambling away as they waited for someone.


    Five minutester, the person in question appeared.


    A blue Subaru Impreza WRX stopped in front of the dumpster. The driver swung the door open and got down off the car, walking towards the group.


    The group immediately stopped in their tracks as if they were startled. None of them dared look at him straight in the eye! Half a minuteter, someone finally shouted, ��The f*ck! It�� Ken! What the hell is with the high-beam?!��


    ��Sorry! Sorry!�� The one called It�� Ken apologized as he turned back to his car and turned off the headlights so that everyone could see the face of this neer.


    The guy had a head full of unruly green hair and a cial expression. Out of all the people in front of him, his eyes fixed on only one person. ��Kentaro Inoue! Why the hell did you ask me toe at this hour? It��s realte!��


    ��Oh, nothing urgent, except the title Kosoku Ryusei has a new master,�� said the guy in a jacket while lying on the roof of a car with his eyes closed. A girl next to him seductively fed him grapes.


    ��Whatever! You��re just the guy I defeated.�� It�� Ken scoffed.


    ��Asshole! Who are you to look down at me?! I��m not the same person I used to be!�� The jacketed guy opened his eyes like a tiger who had just awakened, angry, confrontational. ��This time, I bet on all the dignity of men that I will not lose to you again!��


    As if he sensed the sentiment the other guy was imparting, It�� Ken��s coolness thawed a little. He was silent for a little while and then said, ��I understand, Inoue-kun. Then let��s talk with our speed.��


    At that, both guys entered their cars. The girl who was with Kentaro Inoue walked to the front of the vehicles, and as the crowd cheered and whistled, pulled out her bra and threw it into the air.


    When the brassiere touched the ground, both vehicles charged forward simultaneously.


    It�� Ken and Kentaro Inoue were old rivals. Both of them were from pretty good families��their fathers had business dealings with each other, with both the boys were best friends who grew up ying together since childhood. As a matter of fact, it was Kentaro Inoue who had pulled It�� Ken into this circle. As It�� Ken��s skills continued to grow, he soon surpassed his close friend, Kentaro Inoue, making him feel as if his reputation was threatened.


    To cut the long story short, their friendship did not survive this test, and they gradually drifted apart.


    Throughout the years, Kentaro Inoue had challenged It�� Ken but had lost more races than he had won. It�� Ken had never once looked down on his friend as Kentaro Inoue would frequentlye up with improvements, whether in racing or technique. This posed a threat to him.


    For these reasons, It�� Ken had to stay on edge and give 100% of his effort.


    ��Come on. Let me see what you have learned this time!��


    It�� Ken thought to himself as he stepped on the gas pedal.


    Both cars alternatively overtook each other, gaining the lead.


    All of a sudden, his eyes widened! Out of nowhere, a mustard van appeared at the crossroad in front like a ghost in the dark!


    Shit! Why was there a car at this hour of the morning?!


    It�� Ken could feel cold sweat beading on his forehead. It was too close, too fast for him to react! At once, he realized that this was going to end tragically in a fatal crash and that the Kentaro Inoue driving next to him must be just as shocked and devastated.


    But what he witnessed next was something that he would remember his entire life. The crappy van did not seem to want to slow down, but charged towards him like an angry bull!


    The cars were less than 500 meters apart when he L300 suddenly pulled a strange drift. The van did a sideways slide at the inertia!


    Their doors were less than 1 cm from bushing each other!


    The hairs on It�� Ken��s entire body raised on its ends. But from the corner of his eyes, he could see the L300 driver piloting the vehicle with only one hand on the steering; the other one busy fumbling for something.


    As they passed each other, It�� Ken was able to get a better view of what the driver was holding.


    Chewing gum?!


    He felt his mind went nk.


    ��What the hell?!�� It�� Ken cried out involuntarily.


    How could he be rummaging for a piece of chewing gum at a time like this? But what happened next was more unbelievable, as the L300 elerated and shot part his WRX! They had almost run out of road, but the run-down van did not look like it was going to turn around!


    Instead, the L300 tunneled and disappeared into a narrow valley about the width of the van, leaving the two cars in the dust! The cars slowed down until they finally stopped. It�� Ken and Kentaro Inoue got down from their cars and looked at each other in dismay.


    ��Do you still want to continue?�� It�� Ken asked after a while.


    ��We can��t even beat a delivery van. What��s the point of continuing?�� said a defeated Kentaro Inoue. ��Keep the Kosoku Ryusei 1 title. I��m nning to quit this group, go back, and carry on the family��s business.��


    ��... Actually, I was also getting ready to study in Europe after I��m done with this race,�� It�� Ken confessed.


    ��Really?�� Kentaro Inoue had not seen thising and immediately felt embarrassed. ��Speaking of which, it��s been a while since we��ve talked about things like that.��


    The boys shared a look before asking each other in unison, ��Do you want to go get a drink?��


    Unbeknownst to him, Zhang Heng had caused a man to let go of his car racing dreams, nor was he aware that because of him, two friends rekindled their friendship.


    To him, it was just a repetition of the daily routine of delivering goods. Tokyo was reputed as the capital of drifting, with the most significant number of car tuning enthusiasts in the world. And like the game��s background introduction said, these guys are mostly active at night! Whenever Zhang Heng went out on his rounds, he would often encounter these street racers.


    Most of them, like It�� Ken and Kentaro Inoue, were hobbyists always looking for an excuse to participate in some ��manly showdown.�� Zhang Heng did not have time to snap at their heels. He only overtook them because he was in a rush.


    This was already the ninth month since he started learning to drive. He had only justpleted the drifting practice that Takeda Tetsuya had set up a month ago. His driving skills had advanced from level 1 to level 2. Besides that, his car tuning and maintenance skills had progressed to level 1. This car waspletely different from when he first drove it. The core configuration inside had beenpletely revamped. Only the shell of the L300 remained untouched.


    Unlike the other drivers who were so afraid that no one would know that their cars had been modified, Zhang Heng did not paint the exterior of his vehicle in bright, ring colors. For all intents and purposes, it was also because of his limited funds.


    To buy essories alone, he had to take up a second job. Takeda Tetsuya introduced him to a small junkyard owner, where he purchased all the parts he needed for cheap. But even then, it took him four months to get the L300 to what it was now.


    The Zhang Heng today was not the same as he was nine months ago. He was now able to deliver all the goods one hour in advance.


    He was returning to Kurahara Seafood when he spotted thick tolls of smoke from across the street.


    Realizing that something had happened, he stopped the car by the road and called the fire department as he picked up the recurve bow he kept with him for self-defense.

 Chapter 42: Tokyo Drift XII

    <h4>Chapter 42: Tokyo Drift XII</h4>


    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion


    Zhang Heng knew that Takeda Tetsuya was hiding something. Why else would he had given up when he was so close to gaining the Drift King title? Why was he divorced? Why swear that he would never touch another steering wheel? And why contact his daughter again after so many years?


    The gambling addiction excuse might have fooled Ameko, his unworldly daughter. Still, having spent so many sleepless nights with the seafood trader, Zhang Heng somehow knew that this seemingly weak-willed man was stronger than anyone else deep inside. Even though he betted on horses, it was purely recreational.


    Every time he ced bets, he would always stop, no matter if he won or lost. A real gambling addict would not have been so reasonable.


    Indeed, not everyone who left their mark on the world stage lived the rest of their lives aimlessly.


    Talent and hard work are indispensable to distinguish yourself from the masses of gifted people. There was no way someone with no self-control would be able to be a top racing driver.


    Even so, Zhang Heng never asked Takeda Tetsuya to tell his story, not because he did not care, but because he was worried he might not be influential enough to meddle with this matter.


    At that time, his driving skills were just average; he was still absorbing knowledge like a sponge, still unable toplete Takeda Tetsuya��s hellish drifting practices. Then, Zhang Heng came up with a simple idea to y the single-yer game Form Drag.


    He relied on his exceedingly long time in the game��avoiding from triggering the plot, and then burying himself in practice��finally brushing his driving skills up to level two andplete the modification of the L300.


    In fact, he had already made ns to talk to Takeda Tetsuya even if tonight didn��t happen. Although they did not identify themselves as master and apprentice, they were, in fact, master and apprentice. The seafood store owner was too proud, always saying one thing but meant another.


    Zhang Heng found it suspicious that this guy would have so many orders, not to mention each location always more remote than the one before.


    He secretly opened a foam box once and found out that the boxbeled ��lobsters�� was actually filled with pebbles.


    So, it turned out the supposed increase in orders was Takeda Tetsuya��s way of increasing pressure in ordance with Zhang Heng��s improvement.


    ... Hopefully, it was not toote.


    With the bow slung on his arm, Zhang Heng ran to the front of the shop and spotted Ameko, who was supposed to be asleep at this hour. What was she doing here?


    She had taken a taxi here, arriving only minutes before Zhang Heng. Before the car even came to a stop, she had already jumped down the vehicle. Dropping to the ground wearily, she watched the fire devour her father��s shop.


    Zhang Heng was about to approach her when two tattooed men wearing ck gloves and shades jumped down a dark blue Toyota Voxy parked nearby and dragged Ameko from the floor into the car!


    The girl screamed and struggled. When the concerned taxi driver saw this, he got down his vehicle to help the poor girl but found a muzzle pointed at his head instead.


    The taxi diver��s bravery evaporated immediately; he ran back to his car and fled as far and as fast as he could.


    The person who hade down the Toyota Voxy did not have to worry about the driver calling the police because he only needed two minutes to take his target away.


    Unfortunately, things did not always turn out the way we wanted them to, and in a split second, something pierced the dark skies!


    The person holding the gun heard a swishing sound before a sudden stabbing pain shot up his right arm, forcing him to release the weapon!


    An arrow that came out of nowhere had pierced his palm.


    His staggered partner was about to release Ameko and run for his life, but Zhang Heng, who had taken shelter behind the bus did not give him a chance! Zhang Heng narrowed his eyes and released the taut bowstring! The second arrow hit the guy in the calf.


    But their other partner in the Toyota Voxy, who was able to pinpoint Zhang Heng��s location from the first two arrows, acted quickly, blocking Zhang Heng with the car.


    At that very moment, Zhang Heng knew that he needed to seize the opportunity! He pulled his hoodie over and then jumped out from behind the advertisement board, shooting continuously at the window of the car. To avoid the enemy��s shots, he quickly searched for a safe route back to the car.


    Doing this, however, put a distance between him and the Toyota Voxy. By the time he was half-turned, the two injured men had already knocked Ameko unconscious and were struggling to drag her up the car.


    Zhang Heng��sst arrow flew into the car past the driver��s seat before finally nting itself on the dashboard. The driver froze for a second, and the door was quickly shut!


    The Voxy made a move, racing towards the main road.


    Zhang Heng was strangely calm. He moved in this direction to not only get on the other side of the Voxy but to also get near to the L300 he had parked by the road.


    When he saw the kidnappers making a run for it, he put his bow and arrows away and jumped into his delivery van! He had left the door unlocked and keys in the ignition in case of unexpected events.


    It was this attention to detail that saved him precious time.


    Before he fired up the L300, he looked up at the rearview mirror and saw that the Voxy had disappeared.


    Most people would have given up a situation like this, but not Zhang Heng. For the past nine months, he had been delivering goods all over the city for the harsh store owner �C he now knew the area like the back of his hand. It was as vivid as a 3D map that was right inside his head.


    He knew precisely that about 300meters in the direction that the Voxy was headed to was a fork. Two secondster, he heard the sound of tires screeching through his open window. He knew exactly which direction they were headed to.


    So, without wasting any time, he started the van, turned his car around, and in less than 4 seconds, elerated to 100km/h! He arrived at the intersection in a literal blink of an eye. Without slowing down, he did a lift-off oversteer! The L300��s tail drew a stunning arc thatpletely mismatched its boxy body, changing its direction. Zhang Heng then stepped on the gas all the way to the floor!


    The motor transnted from a racecar let out a low growl.


    It took Zhang Heng only 45 seconds to reach the second intersection, but there was still no sign of the Voxy. Zhang Heng changed direction again without a second thought.


    This was the most challenging part. Being a minute and a half behind the Voxy, he had to rely on his judgment for the first part of the chase. One wrong turn and he would lose Amekopletely.


    But Zhang Heng did not have any other choice. He had to trust himself, trust the old friend chugging beneath him! Ahead of him was a 3 km long, straight road. Unless the Voxy was unbelievably fast, there was no reason he couldn��t spot its taimp. So, Zhang Heng decided to switch directions. He did a second drift; then, from the corner of his eyes, he caught a nce of the Voxy, which was making another turn.


    Got you!


    This time, Zhang Heng did not continue to pursue the minivan. He took the L300 500 meters forward before abruptly turning towards a closed coffee shop. The quick turn resulted in him breaking through the ss door, toppling over two tables, before charging out the back door and barraging directly into a shopping mall!

 Chapter 43: Tokyo Drift XIII

    <h4>Chapter 43: Tokyo Drift XIII</h4>


    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion


    As Christmas was approaching, the stores were already making preparations for the season.


    Colorful lights had been hung up with the season��s buntings, and borately decorated Christmas trees adorned with tiny little presents could be seen in stores.


    Suddenly, the faux firtree shuddered violently, shaking the little ornaments off its branches, sending them flying all over the ce!


    A mustard minivan hurtled past the esctor. Zhang Heng turned on the wiper, swiping away the two greeting cards that had found their way on to his windshield! The tail of the L300 whipped past a shelf filled with expensive skincare products, the rush of wind causing the Shiseido bottles to totter.


    ...


    The driver of the Toyota Voxy was very sly and abruptly turned at every intersection. After making a big round, he was going to sneak back to the road, but the ss door of the mall to his right suddenly shattered! A yellow minivan with Christmas decorations dangling from it burst through the entrance!


    What the hell?! Did Santae early this year? And since when did he exchange his sleigh for a car?


    The startled Voxy driver had been continually monitoring his rearview mirror. He did not see anyone tailing them �C so where did this guye from? And what a dramatic entrance that was!


    They were now only 6 to 7 meters apart. That got the Voxy driver��s dander up; he stepped down on the gas pedal, trying to shake off the tailing car with his speed.


    But to his surprise, the beat-up L300 was actually catching up to the Voxy!


    Both drivers stepped on it, drawing closer to each other. Zhang Heng used the front bumper to clip the left rear end of the Voxy. The Toyota began to lose control, and in a panic, its driver tightened his grip around the steering. No matter how fast he drove, though, he could not seem to shake off the tailing van.


    Seeing that they were on the verge of turning-turtle, the Voxy was forced to slow down. Then as if choreographed, the L300 behind also decelerated! Zhang Heng could have knocked the other van on its side but decided to go gentle when he remembered that Ameko was inside the vehicle. In the end, both cars stopped by the roadside.


    Realizing that he could not escape the other van with his skills, the Voxy driver opened the car door and tossed an unconscious Ameko out! Zhang Heng watched the dark blue Toyota disappear into the night before loosening his grip on the bow and arrow.


    He did not continue the pursuit because one, he could not just leave Ameko on the side of the road, and two, the kidnappers had guns. Even if they had refrained from shooting the weapons earlier, who knew what they would do if they were backed into a corner.


    Hence, this brief skirmish between the two ended with both sides stepping down.


    In a way, the appearance of those kidnappers put Zhang Heng at ease. When he first saw the fire at the shop, his shared Ameko��s assumption that Takeda Tetsuya had been murdered and his killer had burned the corpse to get rid of the evidence. But when the emergence of the Voxy told him otherwise �C the seafood store owner was still alive!


    Otherwise, they would not have tricked Ameko to the ship and kidnapped her. The girl lived a very ordinary life, no different from most Japanese university students. Those goons probably took her intending to ckmail Takeda Tetsuya.


    But who the hell were those people in the Voxy? Causing trouble and starting fires. They even had guns! In a country with such strict regtions on weapons, getting their hands on firearms meant that they worked for someone influential.


    Zhang Heng shot the tattooed man in the calf intending to keep him for questioning, but their other associate appeared so unexpectedly. Thank goodness they did not manage to get away with Ameko.


    Zhang Heng carried his friend into the van and did a quick assessment of her condition. Other than a few scratches on her elbow and calf, the different parts of her body werepletely unharmed.


    That was a relief.


    Shortly after, the loud wailing of firetrucks filled the air. The firefighters renowned for their efficiency came pretty quickly. Judging by the severity of the situation, they responded immediately and only took a couple of minutes to arrive at the scene.


    Zhang Heng took off his jacket and ced it on Ameko. She had invited him over to her little rented apartment a few times for hotpot, so he knew where she lived. But it did not seem like a good idea to send her back right now. She was clearly involved in some kind of problem here. If whoever it was could trick her once, they would surely trick her the second time.


    It was imperative that he figured out exactly what was happening beforeing up with countermeasures.


    The Voxy people might have escaped, but Zhang Heng knew that there was one person who could give him the answers.


    Everything that had happened tonight was because of Takeda Tetsuya or Yosuke Tsuchiya. It was time for the guy to tell his story.


    But before that, Zhang Heng had to find him first.


    That was not too difficult a thing to figure out. Zhang Heng drove to Takeda Tetsuya��s favorite f��zoku 1, a karaoke cum izakaya, but eventually found him in the abandoned port where they had trained.


    The sun wasing up by then. The seafood store owner was wearing arge floppy hat that covered his face, fishing with a group of elderly fishing hobbyists.


    When Tetsuya heard the sound of tires squealing, he immediately knew who it was. Getting up, he saw Ameko in the passenger seat and froze!


    ��Why is she here?��


    ��That question is for you to answer.�� Zhang Heng jumped down the van. ��I found her at your shop. A bunch of guys were going to kidnap her, but don��t worry; she was just knocked unconscious. Nothing big.��


    ��Someone kidnapped her?! What do they look like?�� Takeda Tetsuya looked nervous, which was umon.


    ��There were three of them. They were well disguised with sunsses and masks, though, I don��t know why they didn��t bother to cover up the tattoos on their necks.��


    ��What are the tattoos like?�� Takeda Tetsuya appeared to be only interested in that little detail.


    Zhang Heng thought for a minute and then said, ��He was too far. I can��t bepletely sure, but I think it was an eye.��


    Takeda Tetsuya��s pupils contracted, allowing himself to drop to the ground as if he waspletely drained of energy, muttering to himself, ��So, they��vee?��


    ��Who hase?��


    ��It��s nothing to do with the both of you. They only want my life!�� Takeda Tetsuya smiled distressingly. ��I thought that changing my name andying low could help me escape them. I didn��t think they would still hold on to me. But never mind, I will go confront them! The both of you won��t be in danger anymore.��


    This was not what Zhang Heng had imagined would happen. The seafood shop owner was not interested in discussing his past.


    While Zhang Heng was pummeling his brains on how to make him talk, a voice from behind him said, ��So, is this the reason why you divorced mum?��


    No one knew when Ameko had woken up and gotten off the car, but she had obviously heard the conversation between Zhang Heng and her father.

 Chapter 44: Tokyo Drift XIV

    <h4>Chapter 44: Tokyo Drift XIV</h4>


    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion


    The waitress at the breakfast eatery set the food on the table. There was sumptuous tamagoyaki 1, rice, grilled fish, and miso soup.


    But none of them picked up their chopsticks. Takeda Tetsuya heaved a heavy sigh under Ameko��s resolute gaze.


    He lit a cigarette and said, ��What for? You��ll be going to China in two months! Why would you involve yourself in all of this?��


    ��I want to know the truth about what happened back then. A part of you that still loves mum, right?��


    ��Feelings are not that important anymore at our age,�� Takeda Tetsuya answered hesitantly while taking a drag. ��When I was young, I also thought that I could love a woman forever. But the truth is, after so many years, I��ve almostpletely forgotten what she looks like.��


    There was a pause before he continued, ��But whatever it is. I owe the both of you. How is Nanako? Is she well?��


    ��Mum is doing great, but she still hasn��t forgotten what happened back then. But she told me before that she doesn��t hate you anymore. You just... owe us the truth.��


    Takeda Tetsuya grew quiet. He obviously did not want to revisit his past, but he also knew that he couldn��t keep avoiding him forever.


    An awkward pause ensued, and just as the cigarette was about to burn his fingers, Takeda Tetsuya finally spoke. ��This is all because of a mistake. A mistake that I have regretted, and will regret the rest of my entire life.��


    He went on to tell the story he had kept a secret for so many years.


    In the 70s and 80s, Japan��s economy was booming. It was in that period that Yosuke Tsuchiya was born into a happy family. Like most people back then, Yosuke Tsuchiya was full of youthful vigor, proud, and opinionated. When the za ord was signed, the American dor depreciated against the Japanese yen, and Japanese spending power reached its peak. However, that was followed by a devastating blow to the export industry, propagating Japan��s ��Lost Decade.�� This massive change sent that generation of people down a very different path.


    The immense pressure of being in debt overwhelmed Yosuke Tsuchiya��s parents. After the bank seized their home, the Yosuke couple, in their desperation, decided to end their own life. They suffocated to death by burning charcoal. Soon after receiving the news of their children��s death, Tsuchiya��s grandparents too died of illness. However, these life-changing events did not undo Yosuke Tsuchiya; instead, they forged his fearless character, and in the words of the team manager whoter discovered him �C was born a fighter.


    The word ��afraid�� was never in his vocabry.


    ��Whatever does not kill me makes me stronger.��


    Yosuke Tsuchiya weed his prime in his twenties, reaping repeated sess in Europeanpetition, winning second ce in the FIA GT Grand Prix in New York. He, however, was sent home after a fallout with his racing team. Not long after, he won first ce in the Tokyo D1 Grand Prix. He was a legend in Japan��s drifting world.


    At that time, he was already at the top of his game but was never satisfied, always looking out for new challenges. Eventually, he decided to take on the Drift King title, taking him less than a year to unseat the top street racers from 22 wards. This included all special wards in Tokyo except for one: Nerima.


    ��Nerima��s strongest racer was a guy named Asano Naoto. That guy��s crazy! He invented a death-racing format �C he would choose a section of a highway, destroy the guardrails and set up the exit and entrance. At the agreed time, thepeting racers would drive against the traffic on the other side of the highwayne. Whoever reaches the finishing line first, and alive, is the winner. Sometimes, to make thepetition more exciting, he would even involve the police in the game!��


    ��That... That��s basically suicide!�� Ameko was utterly gobsmacked.


    ��Asano Naoto believed that only the bravest racer is worthy of victory, and whoever challenges him must ept all of his rules. Even though it seems stupid now, I was young back then �C I was only one race away from winning the Drift King title. I was not about to give it up.��


    Takeda Tetsuya lit up another cigarette, took in a deep breath, and continued, ��We agreed on a time �C apart from the two of us, my best friend also joined thepetition. He was the best racing driver in Shinjuku �C and we chose the course together, 40 kilometers long, threenes wide. On normal days, there��s moderate traffic. No one would have thought that it would suddenly be covered in fog.��


    ��Kobayashi suggested we give up the race and choose another time. I could tell that Asano Naoto was going to agree to it. After all, he was just a ruffian who loved to live on the edge. Despite all that, he didn��t really n to die. Considering the road conditions, the level of danger was way out of hisfort zone. But that asshole didn��t want to give up the chance to taunt us. He knew that I would agree too, so he decided to cast the opposing vote by calling us cowards.��


    ��I was a very spirited young man. So, in my anger, I voted against dying the race too. In the end, it was two against one, which meant thepetition would go on as nned. I could see Asano Naoto��s face change, but I took no pleasure in that retaliation because the three of us were already up in the gum tree.��


    ��Everything that happened after that only confirmed how stupid my decision was. That day, the visibility on the highway was only 4-5 meters. We were forced to drive slower than usual, but even then, we were shrouded by the shadow of death. This was no longer apetition about skills anymore, luck seemed to be of the essence.


    ��We drove like that for 10 minutes, constantly fearing for our lives. On a normal day, we would have alreadypleted the course by then, but we were only a third of the way. I kept honking all the way! Fortunately, the highway was closed off, and there were not a lot of carsing towards us. Even then, I had to swerve madly to avoid running into oing cars a couple of times, not seeing them till the veryst second! It felt like I was rubbing shoulders with the grim reaper!��


    When the seafood store owner recalled that dangerous time in his life, it was apparent the lingering terror of those moments still haunted him.


    ��In situations like this, even the most tenacious mind would not be able to keep going. So, Kobayashi and I took turns leading, giving each other time to rest. Asano Naoto, on the other hand, was already out of the game �C the supposedly bravest racer in all of Tokyo��s willpower had beenpletely destroyed, and he was shivering behind us. But then, suddenly, an ident that no one expected took ce!


    ��As we were approaching the halfway point of the course, I heard the sound of a truck��s horn ring from the road ahead. I was about to changenes when Asano Naoto��s GT-R suddenly overtook me, forcing me to stay on the leftne. I tried to increase speed, but he kept staying on my right! I could sort of guess what he was thinking at that time �C his performance today was horrible; if he loses this race, all that reputation he had built for himself throughout the years would be destroyed, so he had an evil thought...


    Asano Naoto was determined to get me killed. He left me with very little time, and I was devastated! I thought that my time was over. Kobayashi rammed his Lexus hard into Asano Naoto��s GT-R! I didn��t see iting. The next moment, both their cars lost control, and Asano Naoto��s GT-R went under the truck��s chassis, ramming the truck sideways! It then fell on Kobayashi��s Lexus! It was the most gruesome... I didn��t dare look at it. The top of the Lexus had caved inpletely, and there was ck smoke billowing out the front of the car.��

 Chapter 45: Tokyo Drift XV

    <h4>Chapter 45: Tokyo Drift XV</h4>


    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion


    ��What did you do after that?�� Zhang Heng asked.


    ��I... did nothing.�� There was a look of remorse in Takeda Tetsuya��s eyes. ��I should not have left him there. I wanted to... get down the car to check on him, but I heard police sirensing from the opposite. I was scared, so I didn��t stay. I turned the car around and left the highway.��


    ��What happened to the two of them?�� Ameko asked, disturbed.


    ��I only found out about what happened to them in the news. The reporter said that two juvenile delinquents were racing against the traffic on the highway and hit an oing truck. One died, and the other was injured. The wounded driver was receiving first aid in the emergency room... but he passed away three dayster.��


    ��Was the wounded person Kobayashi or...��


    ��It was Asano Naoto. Other than being known for being the best racing driver Nerima, he also had another identity��his uncle was the vice president of Tokyo��srgest yakuza n, Oni Hitomi 1.��


    ��Oh, no wonder! Is that why you quit the racing world and changed your name?��


    ��Yes. That was not a public race. No one else other than the three of us knew about it. Even though there were other eye-witnesses on that highway, the visibility was abysmal, and we were driving against traffic. With all that fuzzy testimonies, the police were unable to determine if there was a third vehicle. Afraid that I would be imprisoned and that Oni Hitomi would take revenge, I... chose to keep quiet again.


    ��There was no joy in my heart to escape punishment. Every day after that day, I have been living in guilt for Kobayashi. If I hadn��t let my emotions affect my decision, and stick to my decision that the race that should never have started in the first ce, all these would not have happened! I was the one who had one foot in the grave! But the irony is that the first person to die among the three of us was the only person who voted against having the race... I went to his home secretly after that. His father passed away when he was younger, and he only had his mother and a sister. After what happened, they moved away from Tokyo.��


    ��You met mum after that, right? If that��s the case, why didn��t you stay?�� Ameko asked.


    ��I was always anxious after that ident; I couldn��t even sleep at all, and I also kept a suicide note by my pillow. But as time passed, when I realized that neither the police nor the Oni Hitomi found me, I thought that it was all over. So, I resumed my healthy life. It was then that I met the woman I loved. We were like every other happy couple��we became a family. A year and a halfter, we had you. I swore that I would never drive again and opened a seafood shop.


    ��After initial struggles, the shop did pretty well. At first, it seemed like I was heading on the right path; it had been 6 years since the incident, enough time to forget many things. I never thought that one day, that year, my nightmare would find me again.��


    ��What do you mean?�� Ameko asked.


    ��One night, while I was sorting out the orders alone in the shop, a stone suddenly flew in through the window, shattering the ss! I thought it was some prankster, but when I ran out to chase him away, I didn��t see anyone. When I returned to the shop after that, I realized that the stone was wrapped in old newspapers. The front-page article was about the highway ident that year. Next to the headline, there were words written in blood��Did you really think you could escape?��


    Takeda Tetsuya flicked off the ashes on his cigarette. ��No one else other than the three of us knew what actually happened that day. Kobayashi... died at the scene that day. Asano Naoto was in the ICU for three days. His injuries were severe. The papers said that he was unconscious, but that did not eliminate the possibility that he might have woken up for some time... Anyway, from the moment the newspaper article appeared, my life was over.��


    ��So, you weren��t actually addicted to gambling��you just wanted to make mum divorce you?��


    ��I made a mistake 6 years ago, involving Kobayashi in the race. I will not make the same mistake again.�� Takeda Tetsuya said quietly. ��I��m not afraid of death��it��s the ending that I deserve! The real Yosuke Tsuchiya died with Kobayashi on that road. The Takeda Tetsuya that lived on was just his guilt and weakness.��


    ��I��m actually more curious about how you were able to escape Oni Hitomi again and again,�� said Zhang Heng.


    ��If you were asking about that time many years ago, maybe they were hoping to see me miserable, or perhaps they wanted to prolong my torment. The thing was, they did note looking for me until nine months ago when I received a mysterious phone call saying that the Oni Hitomi would being for me soon. He told me to get ready, also telling me about what happenedst night.�� Takeda Tetsuya paused. ��Alright. I��ve finished telling my story. As I��ve said, this has nothing to do with any of you! That tragedy happened because of me, so it��s only right that I end it myself.��


    ��You don��t even believe that,�� Zhang Heng noted. ��Or else, you wouldn��t have pretended to be a gambler again and force Ameko to cut off everything with you.��


    Takeda Tetsuya kept quiet. Then after a moment, he smiled, ��I have to, at the very least, try. I can��t just do nothing, right?��


    The seafood shop owner looked like he had already made up his mind. Ameko began to panic. She opened her mouth to say something but blushed instead.


    Zhang Heng got up and picked up the coat next to him. ��You were the one who taught me how to drive. No matter what kind of person you were, at least let me send you off.��


    Takeda Tetsuya thought about it, not refusing the offer. Instead, he looked at Zhang Heng in the eye and said, ��Take good care of Ameko for me.��


    The three left the eatery with Takeda Tetsuya walking in front. He had just opened the door to the minivan when his eyes suddenly rolled to the back of his head, and he copsed into the carriage.


    Zhang Heng retracted the soup bowl he was holding and told the dumbstruck Ameko, ��His guilt over what happened in the past is overshadowing his judgment. He��s not thinking of managing the situation. He only has a deathwish. I��m sorry. This is the only way to keep him calm for a while.��


    ��Ah? Ah...Oh.�� It took Ameko a minute toe to her senses. She was puzzled about why Zhang Heng had pinched her hand so flippantly when she was just about to speak. Apparently, she had misunderstood him.


    But the strange thing was... Ameko came to the realization that she wasn��t repulsed by these things. Not as she initially imagined.


    Ameko was still deep in her thoughts when she heard Zhang Heng saying, ��This car does not have insurance and has not been inspected. We better leave this ce first.��


    ��Mm.�� She climbed into the van and shut the door.


    Zhang Heng started the car, then deliberately took the same route twice to make sure no one was following them. Fifteen minutester, he parked the L300 in the parking lot of a supermarket. He opened the door and stretched out his right hand.


    ��There��re a few problems with Takeda... your father��s story.��

 Chapter 46: Tokyo Drift XVI

    <h4>Chapter 46: Tokyo Drift XVI</h4>


    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion


    Ameko ced a tattered nket she found at the back of the van over her sleeping father. She thanked Zhang Heng and jumped down.


    ��You��re saying that he was lying?��


    ��No. I just think that there are some parts of his story that need deliberating.�� Zhang Heng locked the car doors and then took the lift up to the supermarket. ��The thing I find most curious the Oni Hitomi��s attitude towards him. If it��s really as he said, and Asano Naoto did wake up in the hospital and told his own uncle about the race, it made no sense that the Oni Hitomi did not go looking for him. The need for revenge is the strongest when there��s been a recent death in the family.��


    ��Hmm, maybe they couldn��t find him? Didn��t he live incognito right after that ident?��


    ��If that is the case, then how do you exin the stone that was thrown into his window six yearster?�� Zhang Heng said. ��Especially that warning written in blood��forgive me for being frank, but that did not sound likenguage that a strict organization like the gokudo 1would use.��


    Ameko pondered on what her friend was saying. ��It does sound like you��re right, but I��m sure that the people who burned the shop and kidnapped me were the Oni Hitomi.��


    Zhang Heng shook his head. ��Again, the timing of their appearance is just weird. It��s been over 20 years since that ident on the highway. Why would they suddenly choose to take revenge now? And who was that mystery guy who called him? Someone from Oni Hitomi? Why help your father? Your father��s not stupid. He should be able to notice these problems, but his brain is refusing to think! That��s why we need to investigate this.��


    ��But we don��t have any connection with those people from back then,�� Ameko anxiously said.


    ��No, right now we��re close to a breakthrough. If Asano Naoto woke up from hisa, the attending nurses and doctors who attended would know who visited him. We just need to track down the team that rescued him to find out who he came into contact with during that period.�� Zhang Heng pushed the shopping cart to the rack disying tapes. ��But before we do that, we need to keep your father quiet.��


    ...


    They bought 10 rolls of ck tape and 2 bundles of climbing rope. Taking them back to the minivan, they bound Takeda Takashi. Under Ameko��s instructions, Zhang Heng drove the L300 to an apartment.


    ��This is my cousin��s ce. She��s an air stewardess. International flights. She��s rarely ever home. She gave me the keys so I could help water her nts on the terrace whenever I��m free. No one would find this ce,�� said Ameko as she pushed the door open.


    The apartment was small but well-equipped and furnished, tidy, and well-kept.


    Zhang Heng dragged the Takeda Tetsuya, who was wrapped in the nket onto the bed. The buffer they had since the soup bowl was now over. The man was now half-awake to the apartment, eyes wide open, and gagging through the tape trying to speak.


    ��Even if you��re really going to seek your death, you need to give us some time. At least don��t just die so dubiously, or else Kobayashi��s sacrifice would have been for nothing.��


    Zhang Heng did not care if the seafood store owner heeded his advice or not. As long as he was still wrapped up like a dumpling, there was nothing he could do even if he disagreed.


    Ameko apologized to her father and, with Zhang Heng��s help, used the remaining rope to secure Takeda Tetsuya onto the bed so that he would not roll-off. When they were done, they drove to the Tokyo Metropolitan Library, a public library located in Minami-Azabu of Minato City. Constructed in 1973 with a total holding of approximately 1.8 million volumes, it was free and open to the public.


    Zhang Heng and Ameko hade to look up newspaper articles about the ident on the highway racing that caused the death of two young men, a brutal incident at any given time.


    Practically all major newspapers covered that ident. So, they just needed to find the exact date to locate the corresponding articles.


    Ameko was only on the second paper when she found Kurobe Saburo, the doctor in charge of treating Asano Naoto. Asahi Shimbun 1 had conducted an interview with him.


    Zhang Heng looked up the name on the inte and found that Dr. Kurobe Saburo had left his position in the public hospital to be the vice president of a private hospital��this was going to be a bit of a problem. People at this level were very busy and vignt, not exactly approachable.


    Ameko looked through another dozen of newspapers with the same date and even found scanned articles in the library��s system. Eventually, she came across a new finding from a local tabloid that had already been discontinued. ��Zhang-san, do you think this is useful?��


    She stepped aside to let herpanion look at the screen. These past nine months, Zhang Heng had not only honed his driving skills but had also worked on hisnguage. Other than attending sses, he also spent every free minute strengthening his vocabry. His hard work was finally paying off. He could nowmunicate in Japanese, and as long as the words the newspapers used were not too technical, he was able to understand most of it.


    ��Hayami Rinko. Is she the nurse?�� Zhang Heng was drawn to a stern-looking elderlydy.


    ��Yes. She has been working in the hospital for 32 years. It said that Asano Naoto was in a critical condition when he was admitted. Since she was the most experienced nurse in the hospital, she was assigned to his case, not sleeping for 2 days and 2 nights. Unfortunately, in the end, they were unable to save him. If we look at her age... She��s probably retired by now.��


    ��Let��s find Dr. Kurobe Saburo first. If not, we��ll have to find Hayami Rinko.�� Zhang Heng decided.


    As they had expected, it was not easy getting Kurobe Saburo. As an expert surgeon in Tokyo, his many different numbers were published online, but the person answering the phone was his female assistant.


    Even though the person on the other end was polite, she was firm and unyielding about not being able to set up an appointment for them. President Kurobe Saburo��s timetable was fully booked until the end of the month. Zhang Heng and Ameko decided to wait for the doctor in front of the hospital building he was working in. After two hours of waiting, they finally spotted him.


    Meeting him for only a few minutes, Kurobe Saburo imed that he did not remember much about what happened that year. After one or two questions, he already appeared irritated. Opening the door to his ck Mercedes, he snapped, ��If there��s anything else, you can look for my assistant. I have an appointment with a few friends from the Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare.��


    Zhang Heng did not press the man for more information. Kurobe Saburo was not a small potato, the likes of Takeda Tetsuya. If he were to go missing or be forced into confession, it would draw a lot of attention. Also, this guy might genuinely not recall the incident. A specialist like him sometimes would have to perform more than a dozen operations in a day. After leaving the operating table, he would be so tired that he might even forget his name.


    Ameko watched the Mercedes leave and then turned to Zhang Heng. ��So, what now?


    ��Let��s try Hayami Rinko. She worked for the hospital for decades. Someone must surely know where she went after her retirement.��

 Chapter 47: Tokyo Drift XVII

    <h4>Chapter 47: Tokyo Drift XVII</h4>


    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion


    Even though they had already expected it, Ameko could not help but feel a little disappointed that Kurobe Saburo refused to budge. She and Zhang Heng found a ce to have a quick lunch, then hurried to the public hospital that Asano Naoto was sent to.


    After making an inquiry at the visitor registration counter, they received confirmation that Hiromi Rinko no longer worked there. But when a passing nurse heard the name, she stopped to tell them, ��She used to work here, but she has retired. When I first came here, I was not doing well. She encouraged me and gave me guidance! Why are you looking for her?��


    Zhang Heng lifted the fruit basket in his hand and said, ��My father was involved in a horrific car ident a long time ago��it was Hiromi Rinko��s aunt who helped him recover. We just want to thank her.��


    This was quitemon in hospitals around here. Arge number of patients and their family members would continuously return to thank the doctors and nurses. There was no reason for the head nurse to suspect these two young people.


    She tore a piece of paper and scribbled an address on it. ��Thank goodness we met. Rinko senpai 1 lives here now.��


    ��Taihaku Nursing Home?�� Ameko read the address on the paper.


    ��Yes... Senpai never got married and didn��t have any children. Ever since she retired, she volunteered to do charity work there. She wanted to keep making contributions in her sunset years, and also find herself a resting ce for the future,�� the nurse said, brimming with admiration.


    Zhang Heng gratefully thanked her and took the subway with Ameko to the nursing home in the suburb. With the help of caretakers there, they were able to quickly locate Hiromi Rinko.


    The former nurse was teaching an elderly who had lost most of his hearing how to arrange flowers. When she saw the two young people approaching her, there was a hint of suspicion in her eyes, but she still nodded at them.


    Five minutester, Hiromi Rinko helped the elderly man settle down before walking over to Ameko and Zhang Heng. ��Who are you?��


    Perhaps it was the nature of her upation; the Hiromi Rinko in the picture carried a stern appearance, with a military rigidness about her. Zhang Heng was worried that she would not be easy tomunicate with, but upon meeting her in person, he realized that she was much more easygoing than he had imagined her to be.


    Zhang Heng passed the fruit basket to her as they seated themselves on the sofa.


    ��We��re here to find out about something. Do you still remember that horrible ident 22 years ago? Two young men were racing cars against traffic when one of them ran into a truck. One died instantly, and the other was severely wounded. His name was...��


    ��Asano Naoto,�� Hiromi Rinko cut in. ��I remember that. But not because it was all over the news, but because that boy was so young. He was battling the Shinigami, and you could see that he really did not want to leave this world! Unfortunately, I couldn��t help him.��


    Zhang Heng and Ameko shared a look between them. ��We heard that you were with him the whole time. We... we are his family. We just want to know if anyone visited him or if he asked to see anyone when he was awake.


    ��No, you��re not his family.�� Hiromi Rinko shook her head. It was as if she could see through them.


    Ameko��s face grew hot under the old nurse��s steely gaze.


    Zhang Heng, on the other hand, was calm. ��Distant family.��


    Hiromi Rinko smiled and did not question them anymore about this question. ��If you were asking about other people, without their consent or the family��s consent, I��m not at liberty to tell you. But he... people other apart from the media are rarely concerned about him.��


    ��What do you mean?��


    ��Asano Naoto, that��s a very lonely child. In the three days he spent in the hospital, his grandfather only came to see him once. I heard that his parents had already cut off all rtions with him by then... oh, and uhh... I think he had an uncle who sent two men to guard the door. He never actually went in.��


    ��So, no one cared at all?�� Zhang Heng and Ameko were a little taken aback by the nurse��s answer.


    Hiromi Rinko sighed. ��In our line of work, it��s normal to see deaths. But it was a real heartbreak to see such a young boy leave this world in such a lonely way. In the end, he lost all the will to recover. I don��t know if you can call that lucky.��


    ______


    Ameko left Taihaku Nursing Home with a nk look on her face. Not a single part of it had been like what she��d imagined. After seeing Hiromi Rinko, everything became even murkier instead of clearing, as if a thick fog had emerged in front of them.


    Apparently, Asano Naoto��s uncle did not care that much for his nephew. He did not even bother to take time out to visit his dying family��now why would he suddenly think about avenging him after so many years?


    If it wasn��t Oni Hitomi who set the seafood shop on fire, then who was it? Why would theye after Takeda Tetsuya, who had long since disappeared from the racing scene? Why pretend to be Oni Hitomi?


    ��No, this does not make sense at all,�� Zhang Heng said. ��From the looks of things, this person is trying to push your father into Oni Hitomi��s snare! But if he knew about that, he could have just informed the Oni Hitomi and let them confront your father instead.��


    They were now at a dead end. At the moment, they did not have any other leads. It was gettingte, and the both of them were walking around on an empty stomach, considering they missed lunch. Ameko bought two family buckets from KFC, and then they returned to her cousin��s cramped apartment.


    Once they got off the elevator, Ameko fumbled for the keys in her bag, but the expression on Zhang Heng��s face caused her to look up.


    The door was ajar! It was only a small opening, but Zhang Heng remembered very clearly that they made sure to lock the door before leaving. Ameko might have normally been a little absent-minded, but she would never make a mistake like this.


    Ameko began to panic a little. She was worried that her father had been snatched into the jaws of Oni Hitomi. While Asano Naoto��s uncle may not have been too upset about his nephew��s death, but if the murderer did show up, he would never let him off the hook to save his own face as the organization��s leader.


    Ameko was getting ready to barge into the room when Zhang Heng grabbed her by the arm!


    There was a siren going off in his mind. In the condition they left him in, there was no way Takeda Tetsuya could have freed himself from the ropes. He must have had help. Moreover, it was bizarre that the door had been left ajar as if inviting outsiders toe in and take a look.


    Before examining the situation in detail, Zhang Heng decided to take Ameko away from this ce. The people inside the house, however, had heard their footsteps. In the next moment, someone burst through the door! From his clothes, it was apparent that he was an associate of the guys in the dark blue Voxy back at the seafood store.


    Zhang Heng never learned taekwondo before, but had been training in the gym and was much stronger than the average person. By the time the guy reached into his pockets, Zhang Heng was already standing in front of Ameko, throwing a punch at the man��s face! The guy staggered and stumbled backward into the house, disoriented.


    Ever since he graduated from elementary school, Zhang Heng had never hit anyone. So, he too was stunned by the punch he had just thrown. This, however, was not the time to think about how strong he��d be. It was imperative that he exploited this temporary win and find out if the perpetrator was carrying a gun. He was about to pounce on the man and continued to fight him when suddenly, the cold and unmistakable nozzle of a gun pressed against the back of his head!

 Chapter 48: Tokyo Drift XVIII

    <h4>Chapter 48: Tokyo Drift XVIII</h4>


    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion


    Someone had tied Zhang Heng to a chair��he had no idea for how long. When someone finally peeled the blindfold off his eyes, he saw that they had brought him to an abandoned factory.


    Zhang Heng��s head was still a little foggy. After subdued outside the apartment, he was forced into a vehicle and then blindfolded. He could not tell what was happening around him except by the amount of time it took for them to travel in the car, they were still in Tokyo, but probably somewhere in the suburbs.


    He was careless, he knew that. In reality, no matter how calm and how watchful he was, this was the first time he was involved in something like this and was bound to make mistakes. The person who took them clearly pulled some dirty tricks to find the apartment.


    As if he read Zhang Heng��s mind, a guy with a crew cut pulled out a ck tracking device the size of a bubble-gum from Ameko��s bag.


    They probably put that in there when they kidnapped her with the blue Toyota. As Ameko was unconscious then, she would not have known what they did. On top of that, the tracking device was well hidden. Unless she had searched every inch of her bag, it would have been difficult to notice.


    Zhang Heng cocked his brows. ��Where is Ameko?��


    The people who took them split them up at the apartment. They were probably transported in different cars too. Zhang Heng had not seen her since then.


    ��Think about your own plight first!�� The crew cut gut snarled, giving Zhang Heng the stink eye.


    Zhang Heng recognized the guy.


    It was the guy he punched at the door��no wonder he was showing Zhang Heng the attitude.


    ��Heh, now we can settle our ount!�� The crew cut guy put down the tracking device and rolled up his sleeves eagerly.


    Just then, a deep, sonorous voice said from behind, ��Alright! That��s enough for now. Let me talk to him.��


    ��Yes, Boss.�� The crew cut guy��s demeanor quickly changed. He bowed to the man who had just walked in and promptly disappeared.


    A short man stepped in front of Zhang Heng, grabbed the nearest stool and plopped himself down. ��It was never our organization��s idea to involve you and Ms. Ameko in this. I apologize on behalf of our organization.��


    Zhang Heng simply kept quiet.


    ��22 years ago, our Executive Vice President, he... and Tsuchiya Yosuke, er, which is also Mr. Takeda Tetsuya, had a little grudge. He sent me here to take care of things. The n was to throw Tsuchiya Yosuke into the sea and feed him to the sharks, but Mr. Executive vice president had a sudden change of mind and decided to give him a chance. The executive v.p��s exact words were ��The grievances between racing drivers should be resolved in the ways of a racing driver,�� the squat man said.


    ��So, I��ve painstakingly set up a stage for Tsuchiya Yosuke. I��ll still need one more person to y the supporting role, though. It was giving a headache because Mr. Tsuchiya Yosuke is not exactly everybody��s favorite, and even after so many years, he didn��t make any friends at all. I heard that for nearly half a year, you have been delivering goods for him. So? Are you interested in joining the fun?��


    ��Are there any other options apart from me?�� Zhang Heng asked calmly. Even though the guy looked gentler than his associate, Zhang Heng understood that the man did not really want to know his opinion.


    ��I like talking to smart people��it saves me a lot of time.�� The man took out a dagger, walked behind Zhang Heng and cut off the rope binding his hands. ��The game is simple. Whichever one of you wins thispetition, I will let the three of you go. But if you lose... trust me, you don��t want to know what happens.��


    Zhang Heng stretched his arms. He considered attacking the man, grabbing the knife, and make him a hostage, but when he spotted the two towering men guarding the door, he gave up the idea. There was no way out of this situation.


    ��How many will be racing? Where is it? What are the rules?��


    ��Don��t worry, you��ll know when the timees. First, rx, and choose your car!�� The man said, pping loudly.


    The guards at the door walked to the center of the factory to a covered mound. The men removed the covering and revealed the cars underneath. There were 5 in total: a red Nissan 180SX, a silver BMW M5, a gray Mercedes AMG GT, a yellow Dodge Viper, and a blue Ford F-150 Raptor.


    ��These cars have been modified with some performance enhancements. You can choose to drive the one you like best. If you��re not happy with it, you can retune it yourself. We can provide you with the parts. Thepetition is tonight at midnight. So, do any of these cars catch your eye?�� The man asked. He did not leave right after, though, as if curious about what decision Zhang Heng was going to make.


    To his surprise, the boy took only one look at the cars and then looked away. ��I��m sorry, can I drive my own car?��


    ��Your own car? What is it? Porsche 911? Aston Martin? Ferrari?��


    ��A 1982 second-generation Mitsubishi L300,�� Zhang Heng answered. ��It��s parked just downstairs of the apartment where your men took me.��


    ��A civilian van?!�� The man��s eyes widened.


    Zhang Heng nodded. After the substantial modification he had done to the L300, the van waspletely unrecognizable. Sure its performance had soared, but it was in no wayparable to a racecar. The man was not only generous��the five cars that he offered Zhang Heng were undoubtedly good. In fact, he was even willing to allow Zhang Heng to tune it up to his liking to prove that he did not sabotage them.


    Zhang Heng knew that no matter how good the cars were, the best car for him was the car he was most familiar with.


    ��That��s a reasonable request that I can fulfill, but are you sure?�� The man asked again.


    Zhang Heng nodded.


    The short man signaled to his men, and a few more walked in to bring the cars away. Then he looked Zhang Heng in the eye and said, ��We shall see each other tonight, then.��


    This time, Zhang Heng was left alone in the abandoned factory. There was water and food on the table, probably for replenishing his energy. Other than that, there was a gaming console in the corner of the room for him to pass the time. This was too good a treatment for a kidnap victim, and because of that, Zhang Heng was increasingly convinced that this race was not an impromptu,st-minute attempt.


    This guy had clearly nned all of this for a very long time now. Those associates of his probably did not have any professional training, but because they came in numbers, it would be an unrealistic proposition even if the seafood store owner and Ameko were to force their way out. Moreover, his phone had been taken away, and he had no way of contacting the world outside.


    For now, all he could do now was just eat a little something and wait for thepetition to start.

 Chapter 49: Tokyo Drift XIX

    <h4>Chapter 49: Tokyo Drift XIX</h4>


    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion


    Zhang Heng finally saw Takeda Tetsuya ten minutes before the race started.


    He was standing next to the short man on the side of the highway, looking grim. Zhang Heng also saw Ameko in the blue Toyota Voxy, her wrists and legs bound and her mouth sealed with tape. When she saw him, she began to struggle but the doors were quickly mmed shut!


    ��Mr. Yosuke, I��ve allowed you to see your daughter as you have requested. We can start now, can we?�� The short man asked.


    Yosuke Tsuchiya said nothing as he entered the Dodge Viper.


    The short man broke into a smile at this. After that, he came up to Zhang Heng and said, ��You asked me how many people will be joining the race tonight, where it��s held and what the rules are��I��ll tell you now��tonight, the three of us will be racing here on this highway! Death racing rules! Considering you may be unfamiliar with what happened 22 years ago, I will give you a brief exnation. The three of us will be driving against traffic on this highway. The person who reaches the finishing point first wins. Of course, it would be boring if it was just that, so I��ve decided to add a small restriction. The windshields on all three cars have been frosted, and the windows cannot be wound down.��


    The short man took out a wrench and smashed the front of the Nissan 180SX!


    ��I��ve always thought that the lights on cars are useless. Better just get rid of it!�� As soon as he said that, his men broke the lights on the L300 and the Viper as well. Then, the short man opened the car door and grinned at Zhang Heng. ��Onest thing... if you want to use the toilet, you better go now. The doors will be welded shut, and it��ll only be opened when you reach the destination.��


    Zhang Heng had already figured out back in the factory, that something like that was going to happen. Now that it was in front of him, he could not help but think that the man had lost his mind��especially when he sat in the driver��s seat of the L300 and saw the blurry windshield in front of him. He could not even make out a silhouette from 2 meters away.


    Outside, people were already working on welding the car doors shut, even on the Nissan 180SX that the short man was driving. His voice spoke from the inte in front of the passenger seat. ��So? Does it bring back happy memories, Mr. Yosuke?��


    Yosuke Tsuchiya did not answer. But from the sound of his breathing, Zhang Heng could tell that he was not as calm as he appeared to be. After a while, Takeda Tetsuya spoke, ��Follow closely behind me.��


    Zhang Heng knew that that was meant for him. In a situation like this, the person driving in front was at the highest risk. On top of that, the set-up now was even scarier than it was 22 years ago. Takeda Tetsuya had not touched the steering wheel for over 20 years��he was not in the best shape.


    In fact, at only 3 minutes into the race, Takeda Tetsuya nearly ran into an oing Buick! Good thing he had a firm handle on the steering wheel, which kept the Viper from toppling over. Less than half a minuteter, however, he nearly hit the divider at a curve!


    The short man��sughter crackled over the inte. ��What is it, Mr. Yosuke? That��s the best you can do? We��re not even a tenth of the way into the race yet!��


    Takeda Tetsuya kept quiet. Right now, he could barely even talk. Beads of sweat were dripping down the tip of his nose onto his jeans.


    The visibility was abysmal, to say the least. It was in the middle of the night, their cars had no headlights, and the view through the frosted windows was all but a murky blur. Owing to this, they could only use the lights from oing cars to determine their position. It was extremely exhausting, and his eyes and mind were already stretched to their limit.


    Takeda Tetsuya did not know how much longer he could keep this up. Just as his breathing became more frenzied, the L300 that was behind him suddenly elerated and overtook him.


    Zhang Heng��s voice came from the inte, ��My turn to take the lead! You rest for a little while. We��ll swap ces after 4 minutes.��


    Takeda Tetsuya wanted to refuse the offer, but he was already overexerting himself, and Zhang Heng��s calm voice sounded particrly trustworthy in this loony race.


    The boy was not trying to show off by stepping up. Such a race tested observational skills and the ability to react appropriately. A younger person, undoubtedly, had the edge in this regard.


    More importantly, luck should be on his side tonight.


    Zhang Heng took out the lucky rabbit��s foot from his pocket and hung it on the rear-view mirror.


    He may be the least skilled driver among the three, but with the mechanics of the race today, luck was the decisive factor that actually had the absolute power.


    For a whole two minutes, Zhang Heng did note across a single car.


    Then the short man spoke again, ��That year during the race��did Mr. Yosuke hide behind his team members like this?��


    A look of embarrassment shed across Takeda Tetsuya��s face. Zhang Heng could see from his rear-view mirror that the yellow Dodge was beginning to sway, which meant that Takeda Tetsuya was getting unnerved.


    The seafood store owner smiled sadly. ��If you want to avenge Asano Naoto, you should just settle it with me! Why did you have to drag other people into this?!��


    The short man sniffed. ��Wasn��t your enmity with Asano Naoto embroiled because of someone else?��


    Zhang Heng��s eyes widened. His suspicions were finally confirmed!


    ��You... You��re not taking revenge for Asano Naoto, but Kobayashi?��


    There was a heavy silence on the other end of the inte.


    A minuteter, the short man said, ��Not bad! You were able to guess my intention.��


    ��You pretended to be Oni Hitomi to kidnap Ameko so you could force him to join this race! It was not just the three people who knew about thatpetition��Kobayashi told this to his mother? No, that��s impossible! No one would ever tell things like that to their mothers. So... his sister... what��s your rtionship with his sister?��


    The three modified vehicles sped across the highway~


    Precisely 2 minutes and 42 secondster, Zhang Heng spotted the first oing car! He flicked the steering, letting loose the tail of the van with the L300 narrowly drifting past!


    Even then, Zhang Heng was unusuallyposed. He suddenly thought about somethingpletely absurd. ��Wait a minute��you��re... Kobayashi��s sister?��


    When he first met the man, Zhang Heng had noticed that his movement was a little awkward. Other than the fact that his height and dimensions were closer to a woman��s, he was also the only one who did not reveal his tattoos. This ��guy�� spent so much effort pretending to be Oni Hitomi. But unlike the other guys, this short man never showed off his tattoo��maybe because he feared people would notice the absence of Adam��s apple.


    To disguise his voice, on the other hand, was simple. Every one of them wore masks, so it was only a matter of using a voice changer.

 Chapter 50: Tokyo Drift XX

    <h4>Chapter 50: Tokyo Drift XX</h4>


    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion


    ��There were three people in that race, but only you survived. I examined the remains... of my brother��s car. I noticed not only was the roof that was caved in, but there were also marks on the body of the car from the impact. Its tires were severely damaged. But even until his final moment, he was gripping the steering wheel firmly, trying to steer his car. With his skills, except for external interference, there��s no way he could��ve lost control that way,�� the short ��man�� hissed. ��You were his best friend, one of the three people involved in the race! Then you disappeared! How dare you say that day had nothing to do with you at all?��


    There was a pained look in Takeda Tetsuya��s eyes as he said, ��You��re right. Your brother died all because of me. It was my fault.��


    ��That being the case, tonight, you��ll pay for his life!�� The short ��man�� announced before cutting off the walkie talkie.


    Zhang Heng kept quiet.


    He pointed out the ��man��s�� identity so that both of them couldmunicate and resolve their dissent. From a third party��s view, Takeda Tetsuya did share part of the me. Kobayashi, however, had also decided to save his friend, which eventually led to his death.


    ming his death entirely on Takeda Tetsuya was just ludicrous. Even ming everything on Asano Naoto was not wholly fair either, because the person he was attacking was actually Takeda Tetsuya. Perhaps unpleasant to hear, but the thing that killed Kobayashi was loyalty to his friend.


    Zhang Heng did not wish for Takeda Tetsuya to make up some moving touching story��he simply needed to tell the whole truth. At least, that could have removed a portion of misunderstanding between them. Zhang Heng underestimated how much that ident affected the seafood store owner. Kobayashi��s death was his greatest regret.


    All these years, Tetsuya had been like a prisoner to his past, waiting for this long-overdue judgment day. To add, from the way he saw it, Kobayashi��s sister was a punishment by the gods. If it were not for saving his daughter, he would have given up long ago.


    Even so, Zhang Heng could sense that Takeda Tetusya��s fighting spirit was steadily declining at a rate visible to the naked eye.


    In contrast, the short ��man�� at the back who had been following quietly behind them was burning with spite after thatst conversation.


    The red Nissan 180SX picked up speed and was head to head with the Dodge Viper!��history always had a way of repeating itself.


    The short ��man�� forced Takeda Tetsuya to the far-rightne on the highway. Even though she had never seen the race that took ce 22 years ago, she was making the exact same decision as Asano Naoto.


    Coincidentally, a car was alsoing towards them, but it was on the thirdne, so it merely went past the three cars.


    Zhang Heng knew that they could not go on like this. Right now, they were almost a third of the way. Takeda Tetsuya was not getting any luckier, and his mental state was deteriorating. Sooner orter, he was going to make a mistake. So, Zhang Heng switchednes and deliberately slowed down.


    The short ��man�� did not pay much attention to the third car��s maneuver��Tonight was about settling her grudge against Takeda Tetsuya, and Zhang Heng was only a supporting actor in the grand scheme of things.


    But when the supposedly braking L300 suddenly elerated and upied thene on her left, her attention was roused!


    In a sense, boxing-out was also a very dangerous move.


    Whether it was the Asano Naoto 22 years ago or the short ��man�� today, using their cars to block Takeda Tetsuya also put them at risk of running into an oing vehicle. Compared to Takeda Tetsuya, who could neither move to the left nor the right, they had at least one vacant side.


    If there was any approaching danger, the short ��man�� could swerve to the leftne, but since Zhang Heng had gotten involved, the situation was even more chaotic!��the three of them were all stuck on their respective paths.


    In other words, it meant that if a car were to approach, one of them would inevitably be involved in the collision.


    Zhang Heng had intended to use this strategy to force the short ��man�� to give up. As long as she kept decelerating and elerating, Takeda Tetsuya would not lean in on her. s, the short ��man�� was even more stubborn than Zhang Heng expected her to be.


    Even in a situation like this, she was still determined to drive the Viper into the corner as if to pressure Zhang Heng to give up first.


    This move might have worked on other people, but not Zhang Heng with his lucky rabbit��s foot. Out of three people, his chances of crashing into another car was very low.


    Then as if to prove this point, a bright light shed from the middlene! Takeda Tetsuya took this opportunity to slow his car down to giving Nissan 180SX space to dodge the iing vehicle. However, all this only caused the short ��man�� to hesitate for a while.


    She had orchestrated all of this to take revenge on Takeda Tetsuya. But instead, if she were to be saved by him, how could she bring justice to what happened 22 years ago?


    As she weighed her options, the caring from the opposite direction was already in front of her! Takeda Tetsuya did not have much time to think. Kobayashi died saving him, so no matter what, he could not let anything happen, his best friend��s only sister!


    Takeda Tetsuya seemed to have awakened from hisnguid, enervate state; his eyes shone brightly, and in a fleeting 2 seconds, transformed back into that D1 champion who took over the European racing scene!


    The Dodge driver quickly dropped gears, picked up speed, and leaned resolutely towards the Nissan 180SX��s tail!


    Takeda Tetsuya used just the right amount of force to push the 180SX out of the way so that it missed the oing heavy-duty truck by a hair!


    The short ��man�� proved to be an excellent driver as well. She immediately took control of her car, and while the body of the car grazed the divider creating bright sparks, the vehicle did not flip onto its side, even managing to avoid the heavy-duty truck!


    Takeda Tetsuya, on the other hand, was not as lucky. By forcing the Nissan to the side, the Viper took over the middlene and was heading towards the truck in ce of the short ��man��!


    The next moment, however, a beat-up L300 appeared suddenly like a ghost, tumbling into the Dodge!


    In the minivan, Zhang Heng took a deep breath and pulled the handbrake.


    At that split second, it felt as if time was standing still.


    With the front of the heavy-duty truck as the center, both the Viper and the L300 sliced a beautiful arc from the inertia! The L300 drifted from the right to the leftne, while Takeda��s Dodge Viper went under the heavy-duty truck on its side!


    Was this the end?


    The short ��man�� looked startled! Watching the retribution that she had nned for over 20 years unfolding before her eyes, she neither felt relieved nor gratified.


    She was still reying the scene in her mind when the Viper struck the back of her car.


    Suddenly, she understood why her brother had died in that race that never should have taken ce. The same guilt that Takeda Tetsuya experienced back then now filled her.


    If she could, she would exchange everything she had to go back to the time before everything happened!


    ...


    As if in response to her wish, the Dodge Viper miraculously scuttled from under the heavy-duty truck. Except for scratches on the roof, it was mostly unscathed!


    ��You��re wee!�� Zhang Heng��s voice sounded over the inte.


    ��I didn��t n to thank you!�� Takeda Tetsuya snapped! ��You got your angles all wrong. If I hadn��t corrected the speed, I would have ended up under the wheel!��


    The short ��man�� opened her mouth to say something but caught herself when Zhang Heng said over the inte, ��No matter how much the both of you have to talk about, let��s finish this race first. I really need to pee!��

 Chapter 51: Tokyo Drift XXI

    <h4>Chapter 51: Tokyo Drift XXI</h4>


    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion


    Zhang Heng had to admit that the older the ginger, the spicier it gets 1. Even though he had been training in Tokyo for 9 months, his driving skills were still nowhere nearly as excellent as the professional racing driver Takeda Tetsuya, the man who was only one race away from the Drift King title.


    This became even more apparent during the second half of the journey when Takeda Tetsuya had gotten the hang of the mechanics of the car and began to rediscover the form he was in back in the day.


    Putting his life on the line for Kobayashi��s little sister did not cancel out the guilt he felt over his best friend��s death. After that near-death experience, he had, at least, redeemed himself, and redressed a good portion of his self-condemnation.


    Zhang Heng would not be able to triumph over Takeda Tetsuya, who was in this state.


    On top of that, there was Kobayashi��s sister, who had been nning this for 22 years, and whose driving skills were just aspetent as her brother��s. Not only did she possess that meticulous quality a woman possessed, but she also inherited Kobayashi��s intrepidity.


    However, someone once said, ��Having a good opponent would bring out the best in you.��


    Encouraged by his twopetitors, Zhang Heng gave 150% of his ability. The L300 turned into a mustard phantom zipping in the darkness.


    In the end, however, he was still one step behind.


    But when they were drawing near the finishing line, the Nissan 180SX and the Viper suddenly slowed down and as if on cue, giving each other deference. Zhang Heng did not care about any of that, so the minivan zoomed past Takeda Tetsuya and Kobayashi Yu, taking first ce.


    When he reached the finish, a series of notification rang in his ears.


    [You have won an underground street race!��Missionplete!]


    [To return after 134 days]


    [Sessfully defeated a professional racecar driver: +15 game points. You may refer to the character panel to view the corresponding information]


    [Sessfully defeated the best racing driver in this edition, Yosuke Tsuchiya: +25 game points. You may refer to the character panel to view the corresponding information]


    [Sessfullypleted one death racing mode: +10 game points. You may refer to the character panel to view the corresponding information]


    ...


    Yosuke Tsuchiya was the best driver in the Tokyo Drift edition. That came as no surprise to Zhang Heng. The fact that Kobayashi Yu was a professional racing driver, on the other hand, bewildered him as female professional racing drivers were as rare as phoenix feathers and unicorn horns.


    It was no wonder, though, that she dared take on a one-versus-two challenge. Her skills may have been slightly weaker than Takeda Tetsuya��s. Considering how disheartened thetter was before the near-ident, and if Zhang Heng was out of the picture, it would have been had to say which one would win.


    In reality, whenpared side-to-side ording to their skills, it would be out of the question for Zang Heng to win. But after everything that had happened along the way, the atmosphere of hostility was extinguished. There was a silver lining amidst all theplications, helping Zhang Heng toplete his primary mission.


    The rewards that came along with it were so much more generous than he had expected. The race alone earned him 50 game points. Combined with the 6 points he gained throughout the game, a total of 56 game points had now been collected.


    Kobayashi Yu and Takeda Tetsuya talked to each other through the night. No one knew what they were talking about, but on the second day, the two of them visited Kobayashi Ryo��s grave to pay their respects.


    Two days after, Kobayashi Yu and her racing friends who had helped her left Tokyo.


    Two monthster, Ameko��s exchange student application was approved.


    Zhang Heng had driven her to the airport himself. She was about to embark on a one-year learning trip in China.


    There was still some time before departure, so Ameko requested for coffee. Zhang Heng bought two cups of coffee from the Starbucks nearby. As he was handing it over to the girl, something soft nudged his lips.


    Ameko was clearly very nervous. This was her first time doing something like this, so she was a little clumsy and timid; their lips only touching for a brief second.


    ��Come find me when you get back to China,�� Ameko whispered softly.


    That kiss had spent all of her courage, so instead of waiting for Zhang Heng to reply, she picked up her luggage and quickly made her way to the check-in counter.


    Zhang Heng watched the girl disappear into the crowd, suddenly feeling that having the extra hours might not be a good thing��the initially subtle feelings, with the passing of time, had slowly blossomed...


    This was destined to be a promise that could never be fulfilled.


    Zhang Heng sat on one of the seats in the airport alone, deep in thought, and finished the two cups of coffee quietly.


    In whatever country, airports and train stations were always ces brimming with a sea of emotions.


    The wobbling elderly grandmother sending off her grandchild who was studying abroad, fussing over his backpack; the four-year-old holding onto his mother��s hand, waving goodbye to his father going overseas for work, not knowing that the next time they would meet again would be the following year; the girl who had just stepped down the ne running to her boyfriend��s embrace in her heels.


    Then, at the same time, there were people rushing home, while the others leaving somewhere far away.


    After swallowingst drops of the warm coffee, Zhang Heng got up, pulled up the zip on his jacket, and stepped outside into the snow.


    ...


    After that race, Zhang Heng had basically stepped into leisure mode. He was getting pretty good at Japanese and even scored full marks for his first monthly exam, which earned him 3 game points. BHis most significant achievement, though, was that woodcarving, the second game item he found a month before.


    The one thing that had been bothering him was other than the racer workshop, it wasmon for societies to recruit new members every two months��especially the two rted to cars. The 4WD club and the auto show model photography club, which, like their names suggested, were a gathering of a group of ch��niby�� 1 and gentries.


    Zhang Heng had joined, patiently remaining in the clubs for two months only to learn how to scream ��Shooting Star and Cannonball�� at his own 4WD, and to determine by eye the model of a car from a picture, deduce bra sizes, and many other random strange skills.


    But Zhang Heng was still reluctant to give up because, ording to his first game, whenever a cycle took ce, he should have more than one valid option. After that, he decided to alter his thinking pattern, to stop focusing on organizations rted to cars, but to broaden his search instead. So, he began paying attention to some of the more unusual groups.


    He thought about the altar that he hade across on the ind and opted to join a club that studied mysterious happenings, and another that researched popr paranormal activity. Eventually, he discovered that his membership in thetter really did pleasantly surprise him.


    The woodcarving was a collection that belonged to the vice president of the club, who had imed to have found it in Rakuten for only 500 Japanese Yen. There was nothing special about the carving��it did not even have a face. But just like the rabbit��s foot, when Zhang Heng picked it up, he heard the same announcement in his head: [Found a game item].


    He decided to buy it from the vice president, who was so happy that she presented it to Zhang Heng immediately, mainly because there were only three members in the club and the vice president valuing new members a lot. The woodcarving was not worth much anyway, so she was more than happy to give it away.


    So, that was how Zhang Heng got his hands on another game item, without having put in much effort.


    Although it was not difficult to get the game item, it was buried deep within the game. For other gamers who did have as much leisure time in the game like him, it would be tough for them to find hidden items like this.

 Chapter 52: Tokyo Drift (End)

    <h4>Chapter 52: Tokyo Drift (End)</h4>


    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion


    With Ameko��s departure, Zhang Heng��s life as an exchange student also came to an end. He moved out of the dormitory of the International Exchange Hall and rented a small apartment outside the university.


    Takeda Tetsuya also taught him nearly everything he knew. Now, to improve his skills and technique, there was only continuous practice and relying on his talent. Improving his driving skills from level 2 to level 3 in a short period was quite impossible, so Zhang Heng did not invest too much effort into it.


    He participated in a couple of underground driftingpetitions with his L300, earning him quite a bit of money. He even won an 80%-new Mazda. Unfortunately, no game points were credited for that.


    The money he made was enough to sustain him for the rest of his time in Tokyo, and since he would not be able to take it away with him, it was kind of pointless making more, so Zhang Heng did not continue racing. That mysterious mustard color van that appeared and vanished so suddenly eventually became a legend in the Tokyo underground racing world...


    But that was a story for another day.


    Now that he no longer had to work or attend sses, Zhang Heng found himself with plenty of time. One day, while he was out traveling, he came across a gym, and he suddenly remembered that karate originated from Japan, derived from thebination of Japan��s indigenous martial arts and Tang Shou Dao.


    Last time, when he fought the men who worked for Kobayashi Yu, he was able to confirm the effectiveness of his training in the gym. But the person he had fought was only amoner. While Zhang Heng had the advantage of speed and strength, he was simply throwing punches without any proper technique. It dawned on him that he could use this opportunity to learn a little bit of karate.


    So, Zhang Heng spent the final two months achieving Level 0 in Karate skills.


    On the 420th day, he stood on the Sky Tower overlooking Tokyo, enjoying the night view for onest time. Then that familiar voice rung:


    [Return deadline arrived. Missionpleted.]


    [Tokyo Drift edition cleared! The second round has ended. Returning to reality...]


    ...


    When Zhang Heng opened his eyes, he found himself back in the lounge booth. This time, the Tokyo Drift mission did not send him into some challenging situation isted and far away from civilization. Still, after spending 14 months as an exchange student in another country, Zhang Heng found himself feeling an indescribablefort and warmth hearing thenguage he was ustomed to.


    ��A ss of lemon water��no��give me something more vorful,�� Zhang Heng walked up to the bar and had a brief shback of the Tokyo girl with the snaggletooth smile.


    ��Congrattions on making it through the second round!�� The bartenderdy masterfully mixed a ss of cocktail and pushed it in front of Zhang Heng. ��It looks like you��ve justpleted a very unusual journey!��


    ��Mm. Hey, I��d like you to help me identify something.�� Zhang Heng took out the woodcarving. After his first experience with the rabbit��s foot, he made sure toe prepared with a pair of gloves to handle the woodcarving, be it inside or outside the game.


    The bartender��s eyebrows rose at the sight of the game item. ��Another one? Aren��t you a little too lucky?��


    She picked up the woodcarving carefully and ced it inside a tulewood box, not forgetting to take 5 points from Zhang Heng.


    Zhang Heng sat at the bar as he finished his drink. When he was about to leave, the bartender called out to him, ��Do you still remember the year-end auction I told you about?��


    ��Mmhmm?��


    ��As usual, it will be held on thest day of the year. If you n to participate in the auction, you better prepare in advance. Remember not to set the third game on that day,�� she reminded him.


    Zhang Heng thanked her and then left the lounge.


    ...


    The next day, Zhang Heng skipped English ss in the morning. The second game had ended a little toote that by the time he left Sex and The City, already 4.30 am by then. He needed to make up for all the sleep he had lost.


    Then in the afternoon, as he was having lunch, Ma Wei and Chen Huadong gave him the same sympathetic look.


    ��You��re screwed. Today, Old Zhang gave a random test in ss. When he found out that 5 papers were missing from the stack, he threw a fit! The College English Test (CET) 1is only two weeks away��he said that those who don��t know what hard work is cannot be saved. The people who didn��t take the test won��t get any marks for their continuous assessment.��


    In most universities, exams were usually separated into two parts: continuous assessment and a final exam. Thetter made up 70% of the final score, while the former made up the other 30%. These twobined, made up the final grade.


    This 30% shouldn��t be underestimated. It regrly determined if someone passed or failed a subject, either saving the person from failing or dooming a supposed pass to failure. Of course, thetter scenario was rtively rare. After all, there were no ongoing grudges between lecturers and students, so crackdowns on the students during the continuous assessments were umon.


    But if a person did not have any continuous assessment marks at all, it would be a severe problem. A student would have to score 86 out of 100 to get a credit, and English was a slightly more special subject, whereby the final results were graded based on the CET-4 and CET-6.


    ��710 is the full marks��which means that to get a credit, you will need to score 609 points in the final exam.�� Ma Wei frowned. The passing mark for the CET-6 is 425 marks. For a non-English major, 600 points and above was usually considered a high score. Even a nerd like him did not have the full confidence to be able to achieve that, especially not English, which was a subject that Ma Wei was slightly struggling with.


    Zhang Heng was speechless. If he had known about it, he would have fought his sleepiness and gone to ss. But it was toote for him now. He simply had to find a way to get a score of 609 and above. In fact, if he was previously presented with this problem, he would have thought that it was impossible. But having learned English from Bell back on the ind, Zhang Heng felt that the situation was salvageable.


    It was about 20 days away from the College English Test. To him, that amounted to 40 days. When it came to his listening skills, there was nothing to worry about. The essay and grammar portions, though, still required some reinforcement.


    Zhang Heng did not expect to have to tackle English right after having to grapple with Japanese in Tokyo. Perhaps, taking up a job as a simultaneous trantor after graduation was a good idea.


    ...


    Later that afternoon, Zhang Heng ran to the library to borrow some books to get cracking on English when he suddenly ran into Shen Xixi.


    Without Cheng Cheng harassing her all the time, peace had been restored to her life. Although they had exchanged numbers after the camping incident, neither of them made the first move to contact each other.


    They would often meet on campus, and Shen Xixi would greet him liberally, but they were only friends. On the contrary, Chen Huadong and Xu Jing quickly became close friends after that day. Even though there was still no confirmation that they romantically involved, but they had been hanging out together a lottely, and it looked like sess was on the horizon.


    Nowadays, Chen Huadong had forgone his games and no longer attended his anime club. Instead, he would spend his days shopping and walking around the streets with Xu Jing, betraying his club, Tiger Shark��some loyal members even thought of burning him at stake...


    Since they were both there by chance, Zhang Heng figured that he might as well go up to her and say hi.

 Chapter 53: Moresby

    <h4>Chapter 53: Moresby</h4>


    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion


    Shen Xixi was sitting on her own by the window, reading intently. The warm sun rays lit up a side of her face, making her glow to the point that some guys sitting nearby were unable to focus on what they were doing.


    Zhang Heng forcefully quickened his pace, hoping Shen Xixi would look up to see him waving at her.


    Seeing him, Shen Xixi put down the book in her hand and smiled. Since they were in the library, they had to be quiet. As they were not allowed to talk, they did not say anything else to each other.


    Zhang Heng found the book that he wanted, so he waved at her to say goodbye, but before he walked out of the library, his eyes fell on the half-opened book in Shen Xixi��s hand, catching a glimpse of the title, ��The Criminal Personality.��


    Of course, as someone who had read ��Bill of Quantitates for Water Drainage, Heating, and Gas Engineering,�� he was not qualified to question others�� personal reading preferences.


    But Zhang Heng had to admit that this girl��s hobby was somewhat unique, especially with her incredible observational skills and reasoning skills. Did she n to work in the criminal investigation field? But then again, she was studying public rtions.


    He had simply acquainted with Shen Xixi and was not about to interfere with others�� life choices, so Zhang Heng went to another floor to study. He was simply surprised to discover Shen Xixi��s interest in topics of criminal investigation.


    In between, he dropped by the canteen to have dinner, then in the library until its closing. Since he was going to return in an hour, he did not take the grammar book with him but left it on the shelf.


    Done with the washing up and brushing teeth, Zhang Heng checked his inbox and found an email from the photography society informing him that his work was shortlisted for the ��urban impression theme��petition, which would be entered into the judge selection section. He would know the results in about a week.


    He had been so busy recently that he had nearly forgotten all about this��joining thepetition to see how much he had discovered. Making it through the intermediary contest was already meeting his expectations. As for getting the price money and rewards, it would be great if he got them, but even if he did not, he would have no problem with it.


    Zhang Heng browsed forums and posts on his phone to pass the time. Midnight came quickly, and silence filled the whole town. He got dressed and was about to continue his revision in the library when he noticed that someone had sent him a text.


    It was an arbitrary message from an unfamiliar number:


    ��I need your help! Meet me at the ce we first met.��


    This was the first text message he had ever received in still time. For countless nights, he had been the only one who could roam around the sleeping city while everyone froze in time. Right away, a figure in a Tang suit and fedora popped into Zhang Heng��s mind. Everything supernatural that had happened to him so far had to do with the strange old man. If there was someone who could enter this world, it would be that guy. From the looks of the message, it seemed that he was in some sort of trouble as well.


    Zhang Heng changed into his sports attire and went to retrieve his sf recurve bow from the archery range, then bought a small knife from the outdoor sporting goods store next door and strapped it to his waist. After he was done, he jumped on a yellow public bike and cycled to the maid��s caf��.


    The door into the mall was uncharacteristically unlocked and half-open, a lighting from within. Zhang Heng unstrapped his bow and armed it with an arrow, treading as carefully and quietly as he could.


    ��I really liked that milk tea shop on the second floor, but there��s always a long line! It��s seldom empty like it is now, but then again, at least there��s one to make a cup of milk tea for me. Perhaps this is life��it��s difficult to find the best of both worlds.�� The old man in the Tang suit sighed. Sitting on the handle of the stationary esctor, he was dressed in the same way as they first met two months ago. This time, however, he wore a baseball cap instead of that formal hat. Other than that, everything else was nondescript.


    The old man was holding a bag of M&Ms, which he tore open before emptying half of its content into his mouth.


    Zhang Heng put down his bow and said, ��Forgive me for being indiscreet, but you don��t look like you need any help.��


    ��Trust me, I care more for your privacypared to all the employers you��ll find out there. I wouldn��te to you unless something dire happened,�� said the old man as he chewed on the M&Ms.


    ��Serious?��


    ��We��ll talk about it on the way. We don��t have much time.�� The old man poured the rest of the chocte-coated candies into his mouth and then got up. ��Let me as you a question: you��ve probably yed two rounds of the game now, what kind of skills have you acquired?��


    ��Wilderness survival skills, archery skills, and driving skills,�� Zhang Heng listed all of his level 2 skills.


    ��That a pretty good start. You��ll be able to use them soon. Right now, find us a mount first��oh, sorry, old habits die hard��go get the car.�� The old man tossed a set of car keys to Zhang Heng. ��ck Audi A6. Carpark B34, one level down. I promise I��ll tell you everything in the car.��


    Zhang Heng took the elevator down to the parking lot and was able to locate the car pretty quickly. When he opened the glovepartment, however, he spotted a driver��s license belonging to a heavily-set guy called Wang Jianguo. It was obviously not the old man��s. The guy in the picture looked at least 20 years younger.


    The old man was waiting for Zhang Heng at the mall��s front entrance carrying a piece of broken luggage looking like he had just escaped from a nursing home. Zhang Heng drove to the front, where the old man climbed into the back seat.


    ��Don��t mind these small little details. You have probably done some things in the game that you would never have in the real world, right? Considering the enemy we��re going to face, you wouldn��t make me sit in the front on our way to battle.��


    ��What enemy?�� Zhang Heng asked.


    ��There��s a tribe called Alkiz in Papua New Guinea. Their ancestors traveled to that ce early in the days and fought a few battles with the ind��s overlord Huli tribe. Both sides won and lost. Even though the Alkiz soldiers were very mighty and brave, each of them as powerful as ten menbined, an underpoption problem developed as the war continued. FOr every Alkiz, there was twenty Huli. If they continued to deplete in numbers, they would soon be wiped out. In desperation, the Alkiz offered prayers to a monster called Moresby.


    ��They offered the old, weak andme, as sacrifices to Moresby. In return, the monster aged the Alkiz babies into able-bodied young men in the span of a few months so that they could have one batch of soldiers after another. Thankfully, in the end, the tribe was snuffed out by the Huli tribe. Everything rted to the Moresby, it��s totems, the altars all destroyed. In most circumstances, this meant that the monster was also exterminated.


    ��But, by the way��I really hate this phrase��but... Moresby is a monster with time attributes, making it very difficult topletely eradicate it. In thest moment, it somehow found a way to seal itself into a small stretch of time, escaping death. Of course, in a way, you can say that it��s dead, trapped inside for over 20,000 years, dragging out its feeble existence until... err, the equilibrium was broken.�� The old man suddenly became really quiet as his gaze fell on Zhang Heng.


    Zhang Heng was suddenly filled with a sense of foreboding. ��You��re kidding, right?!��


    The old man sighed again. ��Unfortunately, when I gave you the gift, I identally broke the time bnce and released the creature.��

 Chapter 54: Go After It!

    <h4>Chapter 54: Go After It!</h4>


    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion


    ��What you��re saying is that in the real world, the city I��m living in, there��s a monster?�� Even though Zhang Heng had experienced supernatural phenomenons these past months, he still found the old man��s story inconceivable.


    ��Mm... Not exactly, the specifics are notpletely urate, but the essence about it is about right.�� The old man pulled out a packet of Wangzi QQ soft candy. It would seem his mouth would just not stop. ��But don��t worry, after losing the Alkiz��s worship, it��s in the weakest it has ever been. In my heyday, dealing with this kind of low-life pest is just a matter of snapping my fingers.��


    ��What about now?��


    ��Now... I just found someone to help me, didn��t I?��


    Zhang Heng turned to a street per the old man��s instruction. ��...that sounds very reassuring.��


    ��Rx. Even though my strength has depleted quite a bit, there are two of us and one of them. In terms of numbers, we are at an advantage.�� The old man said encouragingly, as he wolfed down the candies in his hand. At the rate he ate, it would be a miracle if he survived diabetes.


    ��I still don��t understand why a Papua New Guinean monstere all the way here?��


    ��Its original believers, the Alkiz, are all dead. If wepare it to an economy, while it has escaped from the prison of time, the Papua New Guinean market has now split up. Unable to mingle inside but desperate to recover its strength, it needed to find new believers. And so it was forced to leave and eventually followed a couple to China.


    ��I was in Shanghai��s Hongqiao International Airport when I came across the monster. That dumbass had been locked up for too long and waspletely out of touch with society. Thinking that since there were so many people there, he would try his luck. But 99% of the people who went to the airport never stayed long, and while it may have been able to fool the indigenous 20,000 years ago, it wouldn��t work now. The monster spent half a month there, managing to convince two cleaners �C they were elderly women, where one of them offered the remainder of her time to the monster as a sacrifice. The other one remained undecided. Then, when it saw me, it ran away!��


    The old man shifted in his seat, settling in a morefortable position. ��Ever since west met, I have been busy taking care of this matter. I��ve been going after it for nearly two months now. Tonight, with your help, we can probably solve this problem. Otherwise, I��m afraid sooner orter, this guy will find you.��


    ��Why?��


    ��Because the ��Time Anomaly�� you have on you poses a fatal attraction to it, and because you are my representative. We had friendly rtions for these past two months. I��m 100% sure that that thing wants to get even with me.�� The old man answered. ��Turn left at the intersection in front, take the side road, but don��t take the overpass.��


    Zhang Heng was quiet as he tried to process the old man��s words. After a while, he said, ��Did this world go crazy after you found me, or has it always been this insane?��


    The old man gave his driver a meaningful smile. ��You are a smart guy. You already know what the answer is. You just need to continue to y the game to find the answer. There are some things in this world that unless you see them with them your own eyes, it would be very hard to believe... Stop the car over there, I can feel it nearby.��


    Zhang Heng stepped on the brake and the Audi A6 slowed down until it came to a halt in a damp looking tunnel.


    About 2.8 km long, it was located in the center of the city. The construction site had been sealed off to reduce noise to its surrounding areas. There were few cars in the tunnel at this hour, and Zhang Heng had not spotted anything suspicious so far. He was just about to speak when he saw the old man cing a finger on his lips.


    Zhang Heng turned off the engine, and the whole world was once again immersed inplete stillness. After about half a minute, loud ttering footsteps came from the roof of the tunnel. It was getting closer and closer, then stopped abruptly!


    Just like that, 5 minutes had passed. The two people in the car wereposed and silent. Just when Zhang Heng thought that the thing had disappeared, something hefty suddenlynded on the roof of the car! There were dents in the steel the shape of two footprints above Zhang Heng��s head.


    And then, the next minute, a strange face peeped down from the windshield!


    It was a creature that looked very much like a monkey, but with unusuallyrge eyes that took up nearly a third of its face. Like the primate, its face was hairless, covered only in wrinkles like an old man.


    Zhang Heng could see the greed in its yellow pupils. But when the creature noticed someone else sitting at the back of the car, it quickly turned around and scrambled towards the other end of the tunnel!


    ��Go after it!�� The old man in the Tang suit finally broke the silence.


    Since there was no time for questions, Zhang Heng got the car running and floored the gas pedal. The metal beast roared as it barreled forward.


    Zhang Heng turned on the high beam, and under the luminosity, he could see that Moresby creature running on the wall of the tunnel. Its movement was swift, as ifpletely unaffected by gravity.


    If he had not seen it with his own two eyes, he really would not have believed that such a being existed on earth, and at least now he knew why the old man had been chasing this creature for two months and had yet to seed.


    With his level 2 driving skills, he was barely able to tread on the creature��s heels, and that too was thanks to his car��s light that flooded the tunnel. Once they were outside of the area sealed in both directions, it would be able to burrow its way into a building nearby with this creature��s agility.


    If that were to happen, even if Zhang Heng��s driving skills were 10 times better, he would never be able to catch up to it.


    Fortunately, the old man in the backseat finally made a move. He opened the broken luggage he had been hugging to his chest, and took out a metal piece speckled with rust and assembled them into a rusty spear.


    From its appearance, it did not look like a weapon but a cultural relic that had just been unearthed.


    ��I borrowed this thing from a friend of mine,�� the old man exined as he opened the window and stood up on the seat with the spear in hand.


    He was not very tall, but at that very moment, he appeared like an imposing god as if bing one with heaven and earth.


    Zhang Heng did his best to keep the Audi stable, keeping the car from swaying side to side as the old man threw the spear without even aiming.


    When the spear left his hand, it exploded into a burst of light, flitting across the sky like a bolt of lightning!


    As it sensed the iing danger, the Moresby creature gathered even more speed, and began to jump frantically! But no matter how hard it tried to avoid it, the spear remained firmly locked onto it as if it was equipped with a tracking device.


    Finally, the creature pushed itself to its limits, and just when it was about to escape the tunnel, the spear punctured it from the back into its heart and out through its chest!


    Moresby dropped as if he had been drained of all strength and fell motionless onto the asphalt road.

 Chapter 55: Reward

    <h4>Chapter 55: Reward</h4>


    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion


    Everything happened so quickly from the moment the creature started fleeing to the moment it was hit��Zhang Heng did not expect the battle to end so soon. As the small-ish was falling mid-air, he decelerated and stopped right at the tunnel opening!


    The old man in the Tang suit stepped out of the vehicle, bent down, and checked the creature��s breathing.


    ��Is it over?�� Zhang Heng pulled the handbrake and exited the vehicle.


    ��I wish I could say yes, that it��s over and that the both of us could go wherever we want, do whatever we want, but something seems off about this. The whole was just too easy.�� The old frowned. ��I��ve been going after the creature for 2 months. If it were this easy to kill, it wouldn��t havested until today.��


    ��From your understanding of this creature, think it still has some tricks up its sleeve?�� Zhang Heng stepped closer. The thing had appeared on the windshield, but he did not get a good look at the creature. Now, he could finally see it upfront and personal.


    The creature was slightly bigger than a monkey, about the size of a six or seven-year-old child with small, short limbs. Other than its hairless face, its body was covered in gold hair, which was why Zhang Heng��s first impression of it was that it resembled a monkey. But the one thing that caught his eye most was the reproductive organ in between the creature��s legs��it was three times the size of a grown man��s.


    Zhang Heng was sure that this thing did not belong to any known species on earth.


    ��Reproduction worship. Many of the indigenous people have simr preferences. Also, you seemed to have misunderstood something. I may look old, but I��m not as old as you think I am. Moresby is a 20,000-year-old monster. Like you, I don��t know anything about it. So, thanks to Google and Wikipedia, I was able to find some information about it on the inte.�� The old man pushed himself off the ground and pulled out the spear from the corpse. ��We...��


    He was about to say something when he suddenly froze. There was a transparent, sticky substance dripping from the spear.


    ��This is great!�� The old man eximed.


    But then, a silhouette jumped down from above!


    Who would have thought that there was another Moresby?!


    It was fast, pouncing on the old man so hard he fell to the ground. Then, it opened its mouth to bite the old man��s neck, only to be stopped by something.


    The old man was in terrible condition. His baseball cap had fallen off his head, and his hair and clothes were disheveled, desperately holding onto the spear to defend himself.


    The old man was not as strong as the Moresby creature. The horizontal spear was getting closer to his chest by the moment


    Zhang Heng thought that the old man would use that trick he used back in the maid��s caf��, but he did not realize that the old man��s strength had weakened to this extent, or maybe he just could not rewind time when in still time��whatever it was, he looked like he was in deep trouble.


    Zhang Heng knew what he had to do. So, he ran back to the car as fast as he could and grabbed his sf recurve bow and arrows, tightly aiming at the creature.


    There was no way he could miss at such a short distance.


    Thwack!!!


    The arrow pierced the skin of the creature as expected but did not prate any further.


    Zhang Heng was taken aback. He had just witnessed that rusted spear puncture the Moresby��s chest effortlessly. He thought that the creature was not that strong, but now, it looked like the creature��s muscles were so robust it was akin to a small tree.


    The Moresby turned around to re at its attacker, but it did not do anything else. It could obviously tell who was a bigger threat to it and decided to get rid of the old man first, then taking care of Zhang Heng.


    Zhang Heng shot it twice again, and when he realized that it was useless, he tossed his bow and arrow aside and ran to the back!


    The old man thought Zhang Heng was going to take the car and leave. That would be extremely stupid because if the old man died, he would not be able to outrun the Moresby alone.


    But 7 secondster, the old man could see that the ck Audi had not left but wasing towards him at full speed! The ring highbeam blinded his eyes and also affected the creature��s vision!


    Wham!!!


    The creature was knocked over, and the Audi��s hood caved in! In thest second, Zhang Heng mmed on the brakes, its impact violently throwing his head forward into the inted airbag.


    The tire of the car was less than 1cm away from the old man��s left arm! This was the deadliest attack Zhang Heng could think of. With the hardness of the monster��s body, only a 2-ton block of metal could do any damage to it.


    But that made the Moresby really angry. After it was knocked by the car, it stumbled once, then sprang back onto its feet again! Its eyes were fixed on Zhang Heng in the driver seat the whole time. It then squatted its tiny legs, getting ready to leap.


    The next moment, a bolt of lightning shed from under the Audi and pierced its bald forehead and out through the back, pinning the Moresby onto the wall of the tunnel!


    The creature twitched twice before going into a limp like a piece of cured meat.


    The old man in the Tang suit crawled out from under the Audi, face covered in dust and dirt, and stumbled towards the wall, cursing. After making real sure that the thing was dead as a doornail, he turned around and gave Zhang Heng a big thumbs-up. ��Beautifully done!��


    Zhang Heng unbuckled his seat belt and leaned back onto the seat. After that almost too-close-to-call brush with death, he was mentally exhausted. Slightly anyway. ��Didn��t you say that it��s two against one tonight? What was that just now?��


    ��It is supposed to be two against one tonight. I did not know that it would have two bodies.�� The old man shrugged innocently. ��Previously, when I was hunting it down, it did not show this side! I think it was nning to use it against me. Thank goodness I have had help tonight!��


    ��Alright, stop being so upset. I was not going to make you help me for free.�� The old man pulled out the spear from the wall, disassembled it before returning it into the luggage. Rolling up his sleeves, he plunged his hand into the Moresby��s pierced head. He dug around for a bit, and finally pulled out a piece of bone covered in greyish-white brain matter and tossed it to Zhang Heng.


    ��Your reward.��


    Zhang Heng let the thing fall to the ground, not intending to pick it up.


    ��Don��t be fooled by its appearance! This is the game��s equivalent of a C-grade item! You can use it yourself or sell it at the year-end auction. But as you already have the gift I gave you, this ain��t going to be that useful.��

 Chapter 56: The Dispute on Food Street

    <h4>Chapter 56: The Dispute on Food Street</h4>


    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion


    Zhang Heng helped the old man load the carcasses into the trunk.


    After mming the door shut, thetter pped, ��Typically, I should be bringing you somewhere and buy you a drink to thank you, but unfortunately, we won��t be able to find any bar that is still open at this time, so let��s part here... You can just leave the rest to me. ��


    The old man offered his hand, and Zhang Heng shook it.


    ��Something��s up in the north. I better go return the weapon and see a few of my old friends. I will be out of the country, so we won��t be seeing each other for a while �C we were not supposed to meet so soon anyway. Thank goodness this is during still time, so it��s not that big of a problem. Finally, I wish you sess in the uing CET-6 exam!��


    The old man climbed into the driver��s seat and cut away the deted airbag with a small knife. Just as he was about to start the car, Zhang Heng called out and asked the question that concerned him the most, ��Wait! Are there many types of these... monsters here on earth?��


    The old man chuckled. ��A very long long long time ago, there were actually quite a few of them. But now...�� He pointed at the lucky rabbit��s foot hanging from Zhang Heng��s keys, and then the bloody bone wrapped in tissue. ��I��m very sure that most of them are very safe.��


    ��You mean that all of those game items that we found are their remains?��


    The old man mmed up. ��I��ve already said too many things I shouldn��t have. This meeting never happened! You should get back to school and continue to the next game. You��re already one step closer to the truth!��


    Zhang Heng watched the ck Audi disappear from the tunnel��s exit. Discounting the hole in the wall, the road of the tunnel, and also the small missing parts on the car, it was as if nothing had happened.


    ...


    That night left a deep impression on Zhang Heng. After that incident, he looked up Moresby and Alkiz, and he found several records. Clicking onto one of the research articles on Alkiz culture, he was immediately drawn to a picture of a recently exhumed stone relic with a carving of a creature. It looked exactly like the Moresby creature from the tunnel!


    Other than that, there was also a picture of the spear the old man in the Tang suit had used. The more Zhang Heng thought about the fight that night, the more he realized that the spear was very simr to one he heard in a story when he was still a child.


    Zhang Heng suddenly discovered that he was not as unfamiliar with this world as he thought he was.


    s, no matter how much he searched, he could not find any other evidence to support his theory and had to leave that night on the back burner as time passed.


    After a week, his work ��Late night fried pancake stall and night bus�� had won second ce in the urban impression themed photographypetition. Thement the judges gave was, ��Although its technical skills were a little crude, the details were outstanding! The picture is full of emotion!��


    Owing to this, Zhang Heng went to the society to collect his 3,000 yuan prize money. A tripod and a camera bag were also included. After taking a picture of him with the other winners and their prizes, it was posted in an article on the school website that afternoon.


    ��That��s not real! You��ve only just started learning!�� Wei Jiangyang said when he saw the names on the list of winners, popping a hard-boiled egg whole into his gaping mouth.


    On the other side of the room, Chen Huadong had grown rather numb to all these surprises. Last time, his friend had only started practicing archery and could already ��identally�� scare the trespasser away. This time, he had only just bought the camera for two months and was already winning prizes.


    On the other hand, Chen Huadong had been working double shifts trying to promote the development of his Anime, Comic, and Games (ACG) career, looking up resources for everyone for free. Despite that, he had yet to receive a single constion prize.


    ��Sigh, life is getting more stressful thanks to those Europeans who are everywhere.��


    ��Let me treat all of you to dinner!�� Zhang Heng volunteered as he ced the tripod and the camera bag on his table. He had missed his three dorm mates ever so often during the one year he spent in Japan. This was the perfect opportunity for a gathering.


    ��Sure. Sure!�� The expression on Chen Huadong��s face changed instantly as he broke into a smile. ��Europeans may be hateful but they are not all that bad...��


    Wei Jiangyang informed Ma Wei, who was still studying in the library, and when it was time to eat, the four of them gathered in front of the campus gate and headed straight for the food street nearby that they usually frequented.


    Lined with popr stalls and restaurants, it was always packed with students from universities and schools nearby enjoying their meals or having supper �C not only because the food there was particrly good or affordable, but it was a great spot to gaze at pretty girls from other schools as you ate.


    Zhang Heng ordered 50 skewers ofmb, 1 grilled fish, 8 oysters, some goat liver, vegetables, and baked bread slices.


    When the food was served, Chen Huadong picked up the beer bottle from the table and said, ��May Africans never be servants 1!��


    His friends all dissolved intoughter as they clinked their bottles together!


    After a few skewers of meat, even the usually quiet Ma Wei was yakking away. When boys chatted, they either talked about sports or girls. After hovering over several subjects, the topic finally came to rtionships.


    Wei Jiangyang asked Chen Huadong, ��How are you and Xu Jing? Have you decided on your rtionship yet?��


    Thetter shook his head. ��We��ve gone out a few times, but each time, she would ask for us to go AA 1. I don��t really understand what it means. Was it the same when you were wooing your girlfriend?��


    Wei Jiangyang was quiet for a moment, then answered cheekily, ��I��m sorry. Xiao Xiao was the one who pursued me!��


    ��Tsk! Tsk!�� Everyone gave him the middle finger.


    Ma Wei, the honest guy,mented, ��Old Wei, you are you lying to? Whenever you��re next to Han Xiaoxiao, you be more docile than an Angora rabbit!��


    ��I don��t know how, but it just happened. It��s true, she was the one who saw me ying ball and asked for my WeChat.�� Wei Jiangyang grinned.


    As they were talking, there was a suddenmotion not far away from where they were.


    Two ck men were tugging aggressively at a petite girl. Thetter looked rmed, the rims of her eyes red, and she was repeating something over and over again. The men looked on with amused smiles on their faces.


    This had caught quite a few people��s attention, and eyes were drawn to the spectacle.


    One of the ck men addressed the onlookers and said in broken mandarin, ��My friend and his girlfriend have a disagreement! I��m really sorry for the disruption!��


    The crowd looked uncertain. The two men looked like exchange students from one of the universities nearby. When someone asked the girl if she needed help, she said nothing and kept shaking her head.


    That seemed to confirm the ck man��s statement.


    Was this just a false rm?


    When they realized that it was simply a misunderstanding, the crowd gradually dispersed. Despite that, the girl��s face grew redder. She looked extremely troubled. A few times, she made attempts to grab the ck man��s shirt, but the guy evaded her effortlessly.


    Just when she was about to give up, a voice spoke from behind her!


    ��D��shitandesuka 1?��

 Chapter 57: Welcome to China!

    <h4>Chapter 57: Wee to China!</h4>


    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion


    Zhang Heng noticed his housemates craning their necks at something, so he too turned around to look.


    His eyes fell on the Maneki-neko 1bracelet around the girl��s wrist and were immediately taken aback!


    Back when he was in Tokyo, he had visited the Sens��-ji temple with Ameko, who gave him a teru teru b��zu 1; in return, Zhang Heng bought her a bracelet that was exactly like the one this girl was wearing.


    So, Zhang Heng approached the girl and said something in Japanese. The girl��s eyes lit up at that as if he had just thrown her the lifesaver, quickly exining to him in fleeting Japanese that she was in trouble!


    Her name was Hayase Asuka, an exchange student at a university nearby who had only just arrived in China and was curious about everything here. So, before she could even learn enough Mandarin, she snuck out and wandered around on her own.


    She did not know who the two other ck men were. While she was out that night, taking pictures, they grabbed her phone! No matter how much she begged them, they refused to return it to her, and she panicked. Her Mandarin was terrible, and she could not understand what the people around were saying. If she went to the police for help, she was afraid that by then, the men would have been long gone with her phone.


    Worse still, she had a profound sense of direction. Without her phone, she did not even know how to get back to school.


    Zhang Heng felt that this girl must have been too humble when she said her Mandarin was awful��she had been here for almost three months already, yet she still did not know how to ask for help. She clearly paid no attention in ss at all.


    But as he hade to know about the situation, he felt that he could still be managed.


    Zhang Heng turned to the two ck men and said, ��Give her phone back to her.��


    Both of the men yed dumb, shaking their heads like rattle drums, repeating, ��I don��t know�� over and over again. Hayase Asuka was so mad, she wanted to lunge at them only to be held back by Zhang Heng! Yet, he patiently repeated what he said earlier in English.


    More and more eyes were drawn to themotion, and the ck men were starting to get ticked off while hissing at Zhang Heng, ��Mind your own business, chink!��


    ��There will always be idiots who won��t remember until they��ve been taught a lesson, right?�� Zhang Heng muttered to himself. He had heard that derogative word the ck man uttered, but instead of arguing with them, he threw a punch right at the man��s face!


    He held nothing back, letting his fist break the man��s nose, which also sent a slight, sharp pain up his knuckles!


    When the other guy saw his friend getting attacked, he was furious. His angry eyes and muscr physique looked menacing in the dark of the night.


    Hayase Asuka took two steps backward, but Zhang Heng remained where he was.


    The ck guy raised a curled first, but before he could even swing it, all the customers sitting at the tables nearby got up.


    The food street was mostly popted with university students, generally hot-blooded and unafraid, unlike the old and the middle-aged, who were more concerned about international rtions. Most of the guys were already agitated when they saw Hayase Asuka��s eyes redden, and after hearing the conversation between Zhang Heng and the ck men, especially that vilifying term the ck men had used, they were even more outraged.


    Ma Wei and the others got up from their seats to support Zhang Heng. They did think that their actions would lead to a chain reaction��when the other students saw that someone had taken the lead, they followed suit and stood up as well.


    The outburst was so big that it drew even more people��s attention. It had everyone jabbering, trying to find out what was happening. More and more people joined in until the entire half of the alley was standing up!


    Having never seen such a show of force before, the ck exchange students were beside themselves.


    The pressure of standing in the middle, surrounded by a mass of people, was unimaginable. Tonight, even if it were Tyson who was in this situation, he would have been terror-stricken too. The ck man finally realized what a big mistake he and his friend had made.


    Many of these exchange students were not exactly model citizens in their own countries. Only when they were no longer wee there, did they escaped to this ancient, Eastern country, choosing whichever school they wanted, free amodation, and could even apply for subsidies! With their pride and glory being part of the face-saving culture, whenever they had any sort of conflict with other students, the school would always stand by them for the sake of the bigger picture. So, eventually, after a while in this foreign country, they began to lose their bearings and became conceited.


    Tonight, the both of them were out looking for fun, and when they spotted the Japanese girl, they thought of a heinous idea��grabbing the girl��s phone was not their real motive; what they really wanted to do was to use the phone to trick her into getting a room with them! They never expected there to be any impending problems, at least not running into Zhang Heng, who spoke fluent Japanese.


    In their anger, they used an expression they often used back in their country.


    Outraged by their slur, Zhang Heng had taken the first move and knocked one of them down. He could easily take down the other one even if they had to fight mano y mano.


    He did not expect his roommates to get up from their seats and also the rest of the people who were eating along the streets to join in as well. Comingpletely as a surprise, it was the first time he had seen something like this! He could only presume that because these assholes had been kept unchecked for too long, many people were wary of them.


    In the end, Zhang Heng said to the other ck man who was now petrified, ��Wee to China!��


    The culprit then quickly returned the phone to Hayase Asuka, then ran away from the scene with his bloody-nosed friend.


    Someone started to cheer, and the rest of the street followed.


    Wei Jiangyang ran to his roommate, exhrated. ��That was incredible! We will be bragging about tonight ten years down the road! Did you see how, when everyone stood up together, that ck men nearly wet his pants?!��


    Ma Wei stuck out a thumb and said, ��Virtuous macho men!��


    The ecstatic one was Chen Huadong. He fumbled excitedly, ��Since when did you learn how to speak Japanese? When did you learn Japanese?!! My god! Is that even natural? Is that even natural?! Is there anything you don��t know? Damn! That punch to his face was really cool! You have to teach me how to do it!��


    Hayase Asuka did not understand a word of it, but she caught on to the atmosphere and was grinning ear to ear.


    Zhang Heng said to her, ��You better go back while it��s still early, and don��te out ale at night. But if you have to, at least learn some Mandarin.��


    Hayase Asuka��s face flushed red as she answered in a small voice, ��I have a few ssmates from Japan. Their Mandarin is pretty good, and we usually hang out together. Are you an exchange student from Japan as well? Your Mandarin is so good, and you even know how to speak English as well.��


    When Zhang Heng realized that she was mistaken, she shook his head, ��I��m Chinese, but I��ve spent some time in Tokyo before.��

 Chapter 58: Shadow Moment

    <h4>Chapter 58: Shadow Moment</h4>


    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion


    Hayase Asuka was intrigued by Zhang Heng. For the most part, having been in China for so long, this was the first time she hade across a Chinese who was so fluent in Japanese, one who even spoke with an authentic Tokyo ent, which she had found veryforting.


    Perhaps this poor child had been ignored for too long, not leaving the moment she got her phone back, but stayed by Zhang Heng instead, bombarding him with questions.


    Chen Huadong nudged Wei Jiangyang on the shoulder and gave him a look.


    Thetter understood immediately and quickly said, ��Xiaoxiao needs my help with something urgent. I have to go first!��


    Chen Huadong chimed in, ��I��lle with you. I should be chatting on QQ 1with Xujing too.��


    Ma Wei was the only one a little clueless, still caught up in that moment of furor. Based on his understanding, this was the moment to order two morerge bottles of beer! Why did everyone have to leave suddenly?


    Wei Jiangyang coughed twice and said, ��Hey, Old Ma, you haven��t memorized the TOEFL words yet, right?��


    Only then did Ma Wei suddenly get the message. They were all so focused on the two ck exchange students that they did not pay much attention to Hayase Asuka. Now that they did, he realized that this girl was quite a looker with an exotic appeal so dissimr to the likes of Chinese girls with a small face, delicate features, and short chestnut hair.


    Brothers needed to create opportunities for each other!


    Ma Wei nodded, ��Yes, yes! I have to go back and memorize all the words. CET-6 ising soon.��


    After that, the three boys vanished without so much as a goodbye, leaving in such a hurry that the owner of the food stall thought they were trying to avoid paying for the meal!


    ...


    Zhang Heng paid for the food, then sent Hayase Asuka back to her school. Coincidentally, the foreign university she was studying in was right next to Zhang Heng��s campus.


    Hayase Asuka looked rather happy as they stood outside of the student dorm. ��Can Ie hang out with you for fun next time?��


    Zhang Heng found this request hard to refuse, and so, the both of them exchanged phone numbers before saying goodbye. When he returned to his dorm, the atmosphere in the room seemed a little strange. All three of his housemates were there. Chen Huadong even borrowed a mahjong table from next door and set it in the center of the room with a 30,000 yuan banknote on the table. ��The Court is in session! Someone! Bring me the suspect!��


    ��...��


    ��Come, Childe Zhang. You either take the initiative to confess first, or we can do it for you!�� Chen Huadong wore this jealous look on his face. ��Oh, how wicked of you! I��ve always asked why you never date, and it turns out you��ve been learning Japanese secretly so that you could woo Japanese girls, huh? So, has she given herself to you? Where do the both of you n to stay in the future? China or Japan? Do you want to have a son or a daughter?��


    Wei Jiangyang was also very keen. ��Are all Japanese girls very gentle?��


    ��You guys are overthinking! We were just making friends,�� Zhang Heng said.


    ��Ask your conscience! You think what you did is worthy of Shen Xixi waiting for you for years?�� asked Chen Huadong.


    When Shen Xixi��s name was mentioned, Wei Jiangyang suddenly had this strange expression on his face. He thought about it before deciding to ask Zhang Heng, ��Have you been in contact with Shen Xixi recently?��


    Zhang Heng raised an eyebrow at that question. ��Why?��


    ��There��s been a not-so-good rumor about her recently ...�� Wei Jiangyang answered hesitantly. ��Apparently, some time ago, someone saw her get into a ck Mercedes after curfew.��


    ��No way. She doesn��t look like that kind of person. Shees from a pretty good family and probably shouldn��t be short on money to spend.�� Gossip really was the most irresistible. Chen Huadong��s attention quickly turned away from Zhang Heng and his new Japanese friend. ��Wasn��t she very cool towards Chen Cheng?��


    Ma Wei turned around from his books to say, ��I heard about that too! Some people say she was just pretending, ying hard to get.�� Although he always focused on his studies, he was not a lone wolf like Zhang Heng. Shen Xixi was the prettiest girl in the Public Rtions department, the dream lover of many boys, so naturally, rumors about her would spread really quickly.


    ��It��s probably a rtive or friend.�� Zhang Heng did not know Shen Xixi that well and was not in the position toment. But ever since that camping trip, she left quite an impression on him��she was a brilliant girl. He did not quite believe this rumor.


    ��Who knows?�� When Chen Huadong saw that he was not going to squeeze any valuable information out of Zhang Heng, he returned the mahjong table to their neighbor and returned to ying games on hisputer, sulking. The others also returned to their respective areas in the room.


    Zhang Heng decided to take shower. When he opened his closet, a wooden carving sitting in the corner caught his eye. This thing was returned to him 4 days ago, also sent by post.


    [Name: Shadow Moment]


    [Grade: D]


    [Usage: Could ce the user in shadow form,sting for 3 minutes. Can only be used under conditions where shadows can be manifested. Number of uses: 3]


    This was the second supernatural item that Zhang Heng had found. In reality, it could only be used 2 more times. He had no choice, at least needing to try it out once.


    Unlike the lucky rabbit��s foot, the Shadow Moment was the kind of item that needed to be first activated. He had to carve his name at the bottom of the statue and focus his mind on visualizing a crow for the thing to take effect. ording to Zhang Heng��s experiment, this transition into shadow form actually made the person��s physical body disappear, leaving only a shadow.


    As for the conditions stated at the end, it merely meant that it could only be used when he had a shadow.


    The way to get out of shadow form was also very simple. He just needed to turn off the lights, and he would reappear again. Or, he could also install spotlights on all four corners of the room to stop the effect.


    Even though there were a lot of restrictions, its effects were also pretty pronounced. In shadow form, it would be difficult for anyone to inflict damage on him. Characteristically, shadows could reach ces that were not usually easily essible and could be used to avoid notice.


    So, Zhang Heng decided to keep it for himself. Other than that, he also had a piece of Moresby bone. Unable to reveal its source, he could not ask the bartenderdy to identify it for the time being.


    Mid-December came quickly. Zhang Heng thought that he had done pretty well in his CET-6. The listening test at this level was pretty easy for him, alsopleting the reading, understanding, and trantion part pretty quickly. The only part he needed to spend a little more time and effort was filling in the nks andposition��these were also the areas in which he focused on these two weeks.


    After he penned down thest word, he looked at the time. There was still an hour left. Not wanting to make such a dramatic exit or adding too much pressure to his fellowrades in the battlefield of exams, he remained in his seat for another half an hour and checked his paper twice.


    Even so, when he got up from his seat, the frustrated Xujing, who was sitting behind him inhaled nervously.


    She had only just shaded in the answer sheets, not even writing a single word for the essay.

 Chapter 59 - The Mannerheim Line Welcomes You I

    <strong>Chapter 59: The Mannerheim Line Wees You I</strong>


    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion


    The college entrance exam was over, and Zhang Heng received an unexpected mail.


    It was from the gamemittee reminding the yers that the annual auction was about to begin and that those interested in attending the event could register at any game checkpoint before the deadline on the 25th.


    Zhang Heng did not want to wait, and was quite interested in the auction��buying and selling game items were secondary. The auction��s main appeal was that he had been ying the game on his own and had only superficial knowledge about the rules. Since he did not know what old yers felt about newbies, Zhang Heng did not approach others in the lounge before and after the first two games. Now that a rare opportunity had presented itself, he did not want to miss it.


    So, upon receiving the main mission, Zhang Heng went to register with the bartenderdy at once. Filing in the necessary personal information, he had to pay an entrance fee of 1 game point.


    While there were still 2 weeks until the end of the month, Zhang Heng decided he did not want to make another trip to the bar, immediately settling down in a booth the moment he was done with the registration. Deftly, he set the rm at 23.55 with the intention ofpleting the third round of game ahead of time.


    He was slowly bing ustomed to the game��s format and would move his sleeping hours forward to the day. Furthermore, he would make sure to warm up before getting to the bar in order to keep his body and mind in tip-top condition. With the many skills and game items he had banked in thest two rounds of games, Zhang Heng was confident in the face of uing challenges.


    Having said that, he would seem to have once again underestimated the challenges he was about to encounter.


    23:55.


    Once again, that familiar vertigo engulfed him. But because he was prepared this time, it was not as awful as it was the first two.


    [Verifying yer��s identity...]


    [Identity confirmed. Random extraction of the third edition for yer number 07958...]


    [Extractionplete��Current quest is ��The Mannerheim Line Wees You��]


    ��Please explore the game��s background on your own.��


    [Mission objective: Survive within the Find territory for 20 days]


    [Mode: Single yer]


    [Time flow rate: 120] (One hour in the real world is equivalent to 5 days in this game. After


    20 days, the yer will be extracted and returned to the real world)


    A friendly reminder. The game will begin in 5 seconds. yers, please get ready!


    ...


    The moment the countdown ended, the first thing that Zhang Heng felt was frigid cold! He opened his eyes and saw that he was standing in a snow-covered forest. Whenever exhaling, his breath would quickly condense into ice crystals! This was the first time he had ever experienced a situation like this��the game did not provide any backstory at the beginning of the game, instructing him to explore it himself instead.


    From the mission objective, he could confirm that he was in Find. The Nordic pine trees all around him verified that fact as well. Zhang Heng��s knowledge of Find was that it was a country with little human interference. Lush green forests took up 75% percent of thend area, and a third of its territoryy within the Arctic Circle.


    But this country... Zhang Heng had never really heard of any perils within it. Why was this mission��s objective to survive like the first game?


    Despite the fact that he was once again faced with amunication problem (Find��s primarynguages are Finnish and Swedish) which would make it impossible for Zhang Heng to be employed, he could simply roam around the forest and quickly make it through 20 days with his Level 2 wilderness survival skills.


    Even so, Zhang Heng was not careless. The timing of the game this time was very anomalous��the exchange ratio between the real world and the game world was very low, and the overall gaming period was also the shortest out of the three so far, an indication of the degree of danger in this game. Other than that, the title of this edition ��Mannerheim Line Wees You�� sounded very familiar. But he could not, for the life of him, remember where he had heard it.


    Routinely, Zhang Heng checked his current status.


    Name: Zhang Heng


    Gender: Male


    Age: 19


    yer ID: 07958


    Rounds of game yed: 2


    Current game points: 77


    Item in possession: Lucky rabbit��s foot (E), Shadow Moment (D��


    Skills:


    Piano: Level 1


    Language proficiency: Level 1 (threenguages at generalmunication��s level)


    Car tuning and repairing skills: Level 1


    Archery skills: Level 2


    Wilderness survival skills: Level 2


    driving skills: Level 2.


    Assessment: The yer has slightly better luck than the average person. Shielded by shadow, he has some wilderness survival skills and archery skills. If lucky, he will be able to survive six rounds of the game.


    After two rounds, Zhang Heng had managed to umte 77 game points. However, other than identifying game items, he had no idea what other uses they had��yet to receive the detailed service statement that the bartenderdy had promised to send. However, it no longer mattered anymore as he could just ask the other yers during the auction.


    In terms of skills, the report was not too far from his projections. The one thing that he did not foresee was that hisnguage skills level did not increase even though he had mastered Japanese. But considering that there were over 5,000nguages in the world, it was an eptably fair verdict. The other one was the addition of the Shadow Moment��s protection in the assessment section, which raised his survival expectancy to six rounds.


    After inspecting his character profile, he checked the belongings he carried. Perhaps due to an absence of background introduction, he was actually wearing his own clothes this time, which consisted of his Asics autumn-winter runners, a ck Lee down jacket, and jeans.


    Even though he was also wearing a set of thermal underwear underneath, one should know that winters in Find could reach a toe-biting -20 degrees Celsius, which meant he was still feeling really, really cold.


    His first priority would be to locate a store and procure warmer clothing.


    Zhang Heng rubbed his hands together to keep them from freezing. He had his wallet and phone with him, but there was not much of a signal out here. The electronicpass could still be used, but without GPS, he had no idea where he was. The only thing he could do was trust his instincts and pick a direction.


    After walking for around half an hour, Zhang Heng spotted something in the snowy pasture. He picked it up and found that it was a metal helmet. The style was a little strange with a big hat and outward protective ear covering and a raised metal ridge sitting on top. Evident by the bullet hole and the bloodstains on the inside, it now seemed that this object failed to protect its owner��s life.


    Looking down at the object in his hand, Zhang Heng was filled with uneasiness. But before he could even examine this premonition, he heard a series of gunshots!


    He instinctively ducked to the ground, but after a while, he could ascertain that shots were not fired in his direction. They were a distance away, probably two people firing at each other, where one was in pursuit of another.


    As they were not heading toward his hiding ce, Zhang Heng waited patiently for the gunshots to move further away before standing up and emerging from behind the tree.


    Although he could still be in danger, Zhang Heng decided to explore the location where the shots were fired, needing to verify some things before deciding his next move.

 Chapter 60 - The Mannerheim Line Welcomes You II

    <strong>Chapter 60: The Mannerheim Line Wees You II</strong>


    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion


    Zhang Heng knew that he was in deep trouble the moment he saw the two bodies on the ground.


    The Soviet military uniform was too easily identifiable��its field uniform with red edges, the boat-shaped grey and green barret, the red five-pointed star on the cuffs. Combined with the ��Mannerheim Line Wees You�� title, Zhang Heng��s premonition radar hit its peak.


    He was in Find for sure��not modern-day Find, but Find during the Winter War.


    His cumtive reading proved to be very useful this round��being able to retrieve information from his memory about the Winter War.


    On the fringes of World War II, the Soviet Union and Germany signed the infamous German-Soviet Nonaggression Pact in Moscow, delimiting both parties�� sphere of influence in Europe. In August, Germany invaded Pnd. Unwilling to be outdone, the Soviets upied three Baltic States, then proceeded to set its sights on Find, who had just proimed independence.


    In order to safeguard its capital Leningrad, only 32 kilometers from the Finnish border from potential German attack, the Soviet Union proposed a very harsh treaty that involved the Finish ceding theirnd, leasing their ports, and removing their lines of defense. After Find��s rejection of the proposal, the doctored November 30th artillery bombardment of Main ignited a war. Considering the military strengths of both parties, the general global opinion at the time was that the war would end in two weeks.


    But in reality, this battlested until February of the following year when the Soviets finally broke through the Mannerheim defense line. In March, due to the artillery and massive ammunition shortages, Find signed the Moscow Peace Treaty with the Soviet Union, in which they were forced to surrender 10% of their national territory including Karelia, Find��s secondrgest city Vyborg, one-fifth of their industrial output, and 30% of their pre-war economic assets. Some 220,000 upants were repatriated, where only a handful chose to stay and join the Soviet Union. As it turned out, this war alsoid the groundwork to Find joining the Axis.


    ...


    Zhang Heng did not care much about who was standing on the side of justice in this war��after all, world war two had already ended more than 70 years ago, and this was merely a game. He only needed to figure out how to survive and live through this ruthless war.


    Because of his additional 24 hours, the game was extended to 140 days, which made it extremely disadvantageous for him. There was nothing he could do about it��being unable to predict what the next game was, nor did he know how long the duration of each would be.


    Since he had enjoyed the additional benefit of an extended period, it was only reasonable that he would have to bear an equal amount of risk involved.


    Fortunately, the Winter War onlysted for 105 days. From the looks of it, they were probably at war for some time now. So, strictly speaking, not all of his 140 days here would involve battle.


    Now, logically, whenever there were two opposing camps in a game, the yer would have to choose one side. Based on the denouement of the actual war, the winners were decidedly the Soviets. Whether in terms of equipment superiority, number of troops, tanks, and fighters, Find was at an absolute disadvantage. From the moment the war was waged, the brutal epilogue had already been decided.


    Regrettably, though, this ��reaping the fruits of the winner��sbor�� gamey was not suitable for this peculiar Finnish Winter War.


    Zhang Heng knew precisely how brilliant the Sovietmander��s performance was during this war: The Soviets invested nearly 1 million troops and dispatched more than 6,000 tanks to fight the Finns, who only had 32,000 standing armies and 32 tanks. The Soviets, who had dominance over the airspace fought the Finnish gueris. The results were a shocking 30 to 1 in terms of losses; thetter having only lost 900 soldiers against the Soviets who lost over 27,000 men.


    On the battlefield, the Soviets did not gain any advantage over their enemy. The Soviet body count was piling up in the Main defense line, exhausting Find��s ammunition with their own flesh and blood. The total Finnish casualties from the war were 70,000 people, while the Soviet Union��s total death count went up to a tragic 600,000.


    Even though the Soviets won the war in the end, they actually gained nothing from their victory. On the contrary, it exposed their weaknesses to the West, and this pyrrhic victory procured at such a great cost encouraged Little Mustache 1 to attack themter on.


    From this perspective, Zhang Heng might as well join the vanquished Finns.


    Still and all, reality was harsh��Zhang Heng could neither speak Russian nor understand Finnish; his yellow skin and modern clothes making him stand out like a sore thumb in this war. He would not be able to exin why he was there, and even if he was willing to surrender himself to either side, no one would be willing to take the risk of epting him.


    The best idea Zhang Heng coulde up with so far was to allow himself to be captured as a prisoner of war, but he was more likely to end up being shot by some mentally traumatized soldier that way.


    ...


    Zhang Heng smiled bitterly. While able very quickly to make sense of the environment he was in, he had already forgotten the many details about the Winter War. Even if he did remember them, it was still useless. He was neither familiar with Find, nor was he themander of a troop. All that information would have been useless anyway.


    Right now, he would just have to take it one step at a time.


    Not knowing when the Soviets woulde to collect the remains of their fallenrades, Zhang Heng peeled a coat off a corpse and put it on himself as quickly as he could. That khaki uniform clearly had not been washed for a long time. It was stained with stale blood and sweat that gave it a putrid stench.


    For the sake of keeping warm, though, Zhang Heng could not afford to be picky. There was also a pistol and what looked like a machine gun on the ground. Thetter looked strange to him with a giant mosquito coil at the top. Zhang Heng could not tell which model that thing was since he had little knowledge much about guns. Especially not World War II firearms.


    But whatever it was, it looked like it had much better firepower than the pistol lying next to it.


    In the end, however, after much deliberation, Zhang Heng chose to go with the pistolrgely because the machine gun was too heavy. He tried carrying it and felt it was at least 10 kilograms. The gunfire he heard earlier had already stopped. It was evident that both sides had stopped engaging, and chances were the Soviets woulde back. Upon discovering that theirrades�� body had been moved, it was very likely they would begin searching the area.


    Zhang Heng was worried that he might not be able to get away fast enough if he carried that hefty thing. Other than the pistol, he also lugged around a canteen and a bag pack. He did not have time to look at the contents of the bag, for he could hear footsteps approaching.


    In his haste, Zhang Heng had not taken into ount that those guys might have split up. The ce where the firing had only just stopped was still a distance away, and already, someone was returning.


    It was impossible for him to set an ambush. Although the Soviets�� performance in the Winter War had beenmbasted by various military forums every once in a while, they were still trained professionals and were a collective. Zhang Heng was on his own, and this was his first time handling a firearm.


    In times like this, a head-on confrontation would be a real bovine move.


    There was no need for him to dilly-dally, so he carried his loot and ran for his life!

 Chapter 61 - The Mannerheim Line Welcomes You

    <strong>Chapter 61: The Mannerheim Line Wees You III</strong>


    Many a time, one��s ns could never catch to the constant changes life would throw at them. Zhang Heng had to wait for the gunshots to stop before returning to where the first gunshot was fired. Doing that lowered his risk of getting killed significantly.


    Unfortunately, something unexpected happened. The first batch of Soviet conscripts had returned, a lot earlier than he initially expected!


    It was pointless toin and wallow in regret right now, and all he could do was to crouch as low as possible and run for his life. There was no time to wait. He bolted!


    At the sign of the slightest movement, the soldiers quickly spotted him! It was in times like these that one had to appreciate the perks of the Soviet army. Considering they had all been given bright khaki uniforms, hence, standing out like golden scarecrows on the snow-coverednd. Havingrge targets painted on their bodies by default, it was hard for enemies not to notice them. Hence, the fatality rate of the Soviets was rmingly high.


    With his back turned, Zhang Heng somehow knew that the troops had their guns loaded. Luckily, the rigorous marathon training finally paid off, where he managed to keep a good distance between him and the soldiers while he ran. There were also tall trees all around him. Though he could hear guns being fired at him, the shots missed him, mostly going astray andnding far away.


    Still, Zhang Heng would not dare to let his guard down. He kept running until his stamina was almost depleted. Having to lean on a tree to catch some breath, he knew that by now, he should be safe. The soldiers wouldn��t have any stamina left after the long fights they had been through before this. If they wanted to see another day before dying of fatigue, they would be smart not to pursue him for this period.


    Immediately, Zhang Heng took the opportunity to check out the canvas backpack that he just acquired. There were personal hygiene items, a spare foot wrap, utensils, and a few packs of MRE. Foot wraps were unique to the Soviet army, regrly used to keep the soldier warm and reduce friction on the feet. As for the MRE, it seemed like their staple was ck bread. Thankfully for him, dehydrated sausage and a packet of red tea came inserted as well.


    He then came across two cans of beef, and a lighter, a delightful discovery as these items were a rarity in the USSR. Their industry infamously prowessgged far behind other more developed nations. When Zhang Heng thought of the two dead bodies that he saw earlier, he remembered that they both wore different attire.


    One of the dead Sovietscked the distinct five red stars on his sleeve, which could mean this canvas backpack should have belonged to an officer. Unfortunately, bullets discriminated against no soul on the battlefield. Even more so, the high-ranking officers, usually bing the primary target of enemies. There were at least three to four bullet holes riddling the officer��s face. It seemed that someone wanted to make damn sure that he was truly dead. As Zhang Heng frisked him, he tried his best not to stare directly at the officer��s bloody face.


    Despite his close brush with death, he was rather pleased with his yield today. At least, he could now protect himself from the brutal cold of the Siberian tundra and keep his stomach filled.


    His attention soon turned to the pistol in his hand. China��s notoriously draconian gun controlws had enabled only a few from elite professions to set their hands on a real firearm. Most of the regr public only got their ideas of guns from the movies. Zhang Heng was no exception, having no idea what model of gun he was holding. All he knew was this gun was a revolver, and there were seven chambers in a revolving barrel. It had been shot two times, still containing five bullets.


    It was at that time that Zhang Heng realized that he left too quickly earlier. He had taken the gun but had wholly forgotten the extra ammo. However, having five bullets was definitely better than none. The movies clearly showed the actors pulling triggers and coolly reloading their rounds, but never once their inner workings. Of course, the real deal here was way moreplicated than a prop pea-shooter. After fumbling with it for a while, he still could not figure out how to remove the two spent shells from the chamber. He had to put it away for now.


    After taking in a few sips of water, his stamina recovered, and he was refreshed. Having regained some strength, he quickly left the ce, worried that the spirits of the dead soldiers woulde back to haunt him.


    He continued walking into the deeper parts of the forest, only stopping after the sky had turned dark. At the very least, he knew that he was no longer in danger.


    Vision at night was a challenge; it was almost impossible to make anything out clearly. Since the forest was unfamiliar to the Soviets, it was almost certain now that they wouldn��t continue their pursuit of him. Besides, they risked getting ambushed by Finnish gueris who had overrun the surrounding borders. With his mind put at ease, Zhang Heng finally stopped moving forward and decided that it was time to fix his hunger.


    He opened up his backpack, and out came the ck bread. Having its origins in Germany, the recipe was then spread on to Eastern Europe and subsequently to Russia. For name��s sake only, the bread itself was actually not ck, it��s color caused by the overbaking process unique to it.


    Never underestimate the prowess of such basic food. During the height of the Second World War, German and Soviet troops primarily relied on it for survival. ording to war records, this humble meal saved at least 4 million people from starvation in the USSR and had kept the war going for at least 10 million German troops. As for its taste, it had a unique touch to it.


    Zhang Heng used his knife to cut a slice, trying it out. Immediately, a light saltiness with a tinge of sour hit his tongue. It came with a rough texture, much like burnt toast making it really hard for Zhang Heng to swallow. Thankfully, Zhang Heng had experienced extreme hunger before while he was venturing on the lone ind. With war taken out of the equation, his current circumstance was actually a lot better thanst time.


    Only one thing troubled him, though. He was unable to build a campfire to warm himself up. Not that he did not know how to do it, for even without the lighter in his backpack, he had the capability of building a campfire with only the things around him. His concern mainly focussed on attracting any enemies, knowing that the fire would burn far and bright into the dark of night. Unfamiliar with his surroundings, he knew nothing of where the Soviet and Finnish troops were ced and wanted to take no chances.


    Zhang Heng had no idea where his enemies mighte from. He also didn��t know where the skirmishes constantly broke out between those troops, only hanging on the hope that he wouldn��t end up in the crossfire. It was at that moment that he realized how cruel reality could be. Struggling to stay alive, all alone in the forest and in a time of war, was no easy feat.


    Luckily, he still had his trump card, and that was his Shadow Moment. Turning into shadow-form for three minutes could save his life during a life-threatening moment. Unfortunately, he could only use it two times, which was why he was sparing in its usage.


    Unable to bear the cold, he attempted to look for a spot that could shield him from the freezing winds. Covered by the military jacket, he tried to sleep. Throughout the entire night, he was rudely awakened by the chill at least three times. The winter of 1939 in Find was brutal, ranked among the top 10 harshest winters the entire human history had seen. Without fire, saying that it would be a challenge to stay alive was an understatement.


    If it were not for the Soviet goatskin military jacket, Zhang Heng knew that the extreme blizzard would eventually freeze him to death. After a long, frigid night, Zhang Heng finally saw the sun rising. With his frostbitten hands trembling, he picked a few twigs and used the lighter, fumbling around a few times before he got a me. His hands were stiff and unresponsive. He had left half a kettle of water in front of him before he slept. Now, the water waspletely frozen.


    Zhang Heng had no choice but to ce the kettle as close as possible, the fire to melt the ice. In the meantime, he took the sausage from his backpack and roasted it over the mes. Ten minutester, everything that he set out to do had been done. He then stood up and used the ice around him to extinguish the mes, making sure to stub out all the cinders.


    Putting a fire out in these ces was surely more straightforward than starting it up. At the same time, he ate the sausage that was just ready. It didn��t taste as bad as he initially expected, probably because he paired it with the ck bread. Who knew what it was made of. One thing for sure, it was meat but wasn��t pork, beef, ormb. Still, it was edible.


    As he ate, Zhang Heng wasted no time and nned his next move though, after long and hard deliberation, he was still unable toe up with anything to make his current circumstance better.

 Chapter 62 - The Mannerheim Line Welcomes You

    <strong>Chapter 62: The Mannerheim Line Wees You IV</strong>


    Breakfast. That was it. Putting on the backpack, Zhang Heng randomly chose a direction and headed towards it. From where he lived, numerous war enthusiasts were extremely knowledgeable about World War II. They had an in-depth understanding of various war and deployment tactics and regrly debated the multiple strategies of famed generals.


    As for Zhang Heng, he had zero knowledge about warfare. Unless the spirit of Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim or Kliment Voroshilov himself possessed him, there wasn��t much he could do to improve his current predicament.


    There are eventually no heroes in war, said an inconvenient truth. Whether it was a person who achieved great feats or a soldier with masterful shooting skills, a stray could take away their lives within a matter of seconds. To increase his chances of survival, Zhang Heng set a principle for himself, and that was to stay as far away as possible from any crossfire. ces like Vyborg, Summa Vige, and Kael were a no-no, and he had to refrain from going there. As for the replica Ouvrage Schoenenbourg �C Mannerheim, that would be thest ce on earth that Zhang Heng would go.


    His biggest problem was that he didn��t know where the hell he was right now. Though he wanted to make sure to stay far away from the heat of battle, he had no idea where the safe zone was either. After traveling on foot for about half a day, Zhang Heng came across a toon of Soviet soldiers. Thankfully, he spotted them first and quickly went into hiding. It seemed like the soldiers were in a rush, huffing their way while dragging a couple of cannons behind them. Amid the confusion, none of them realized Zhang Heng��s presence, although he was right under their noses. It was so close a call, a deep chill ran up his spine.


    The trees in the forest were the perfect spot to conceal himself from the enemy. Protection, on the one hand, the trees also blocked him from seeing what was in front of him. Being in a situation out of his control made him extremely ufortable. After all, no one in this world was always lucky. It would be impossible that Zhang Heng would spot his enemies first before they spotted him every single time.


    In all honesty, he was on the disadvantageous side during this quest. There were few skills he possessed that could help him to survive in the wild. ying the piano, modifying cars, and racing was basically useless in these circumstances.


    As for his Level 2 archery skills, it turned out to be more practical than the gun that he was holding right now. Sadly though, he had still not found the right bark to carve out his bowstring. Besides, using cold, passive weapons against hot firearms was definitely a bad idea.


    After experiencing the frosty winter in Find, Zhang Heng started to doubt if he might even wake from his sleep the next time. It had only been three days since his arrival, with a grueling 137 days to go.


    Zhang Heng felt despair sinking in, and it hit him hard.


    He knew that he wouldn��t survive much longer if he kept this up. He could choose to side with Find��s troops or the Soviet Union��s troops, but he had no idea what they would do to him. In the end, Zhang Heng still could not make up his mind. Until the morning of the fourth day, Zhang Heng heard gunshots once again. And this time, the thunderous sound of cannons resounded in the forest as well. Sensing imminent danger, Zhang Heng decided that he would head in a different direction.


    It seemed as if he had used up thest bits of his luck this time. After paying so much attention to the sound of gunfire, hepletely forgot to notice t what was in front of him. This time, he encountered a scout team! There were only 11 well-equipped soldiers in the group and should be returning to the base since they heard the gunfire. The encounter with Zhang Heng was totally a coincidence to them. Clearly, nobody expected this to happen.


    Unfortunately, Zhang Heng did not have his Shadow Moment at hand, as he wanted to avoid triggering it while he traveled. He also did not expect to encounter enemies from such a close distance. He initially thought he would have a little time to search for the statue that was located in the pocket of his coat. The scout team stood by with their guns loaded. If they wanted to, they could open fire at Zhang Heng anytime now.


    In the end, Zhang Heng owed his life to the military coat. Obviously, they would never shoot somebody wearing their own colors. However, they soon realized that Zhang Heng��s attire was way different aspared to what they were wearing. They also noticed that he was of Asian descent.


    The soldier that stood in front was swinging his machine gun as he shouted at the same time. Unfortunately, Zhang Heng was not familiar with Russian, thus, unable to understand what they were talking about. For now, he had to give up the idea of getting Shadow Moment out of his pocket. Left with no other options, Zhang Heng was forced to put both hands up.


    Seemingly, his continued silence had annoyed the soldier. The Soviet soldier��s looked more and more ferocious by the second as he repeated the same words to Zhang Heng with his finger ced on the trigger, each time with greater intensity.


    This was probably the most perilous moment Zhang Heng had ever encountered. In a situation like this, he did know what he could do anymore. This was war. Killing and being killed were extremelymon in an era like this. With every passing second, multitudes of civilians, enemies, and even allies died on the battlefield. The war had put everyone on edge most of the time, and no one would have qualms killing an unknown foreigner. Even Zhang Heng himself expected that the soldier would surely pull the trigger on him.


    Suddenly, the soldier that was pointing his gun fell to the ground with a loud thud!


    A bullet that came from nowhere prated his cranium. Blood sttered everywhere; his ferocious looks now stered on his face forever.


    Sniper!!!


    Immediately, the scout team realized they were being ambushed by the Finnish gueris. In a panic, they ignored Zhang Heng, pointed their machine guns at the direction the bullet came from, and shouted frantically to take cover. This one soldier put his life on the line to pick up a machine gun on the road. Unfortunately, the shell traveled faster than him. The moment his handsnded on the machine gun, he too was shot dead. He copsed and joined his dead ally.


    The second shot allowed the others to have a more unobstructed view of where the bullet came from. Without thinking twice, they started opening fire with full force at the sniper! Zhang Heng wasted no time and took the opportunity to run to a fallen tree that had been struck by lightning.


    The sniper who had hidden in the dark managed to kill another two soldiers that failed to look for a safe spot to hide. After that, the gunshots abruptly stopped.


    Was the sniper hit?


    The Soviets were extraordinarily jumpy and nervous, pulling the trigger and firing another barrage of bullets into the dark!


    Half a minuteter, someone cautiously lifted his head to check his surroundings. There were no more gunshots. The remaining soldiers arched backward, bearing the weight of their machine guns while slowly approaching the sniper��s location. At the same time, two soldiers walked towards Zhang Heng.


    Zhang Heng was already holding his Shadow Moment in his hand.

 Chapter 63 - The Mannerheim Line Welcomes You

    <strong>Chapter 63: The Mannerheim Line Wees You V</strong>


    Zhang Heng readied himself to enter his Shadow Moment form. Then, as luck would have it, something unexpected happened again. The deafening bang of the sniper rifle firing could be heard loud and clear. The first soldier that walked towards sniper was hit, subsequently dropping to the ground, dead. Secondster, the second soldier was also greeted with the same fate. Immediately, the remaining five soldiersy on the ground and started blindly shooting in all directions! The two soldiers who had walked towards Zhang Heng quickly turned around and joined their allies in support.


    Unfortunately, their retaliation did not stop death from harvesting their lives. The sniper hiding in the dark had already switched his nest. In other words, the Soviets were shooting at a ghost! Subsequently, another three soldiers were hit. The remaining two soldiers could not handle the pressure of suspense any longer, throwing their weapons to the ground and ran into the forest for their lives while the sniper was reloading his gun.


    One of them ran for a bit when a deafening gunshot rang through the air. Apparently, 150 meters was not nearly enough to save his life from a long-range rifle. The soldier slipped on his tracks and fell down, very dead indeed. Blood gushed from the back of his head, painting the white snow around him in an ominous pool of red.


    In about four minutes, a total of 11 Soviet soldiers were killed mercilessly in this cold, aliennd. The sniper that hid in the dark did not even waste a single bullet. For the shooter, it was all about the one shot-one skill thing.


    Immediately, Zhang Fan poured out everything from his backpack and picked up a tree branch beside him. He attempted to raise the twig with the bag to signal the sniper that he was willing to surrender. Just as he was about to wave the white g, the backpack was hit by the bullet! This was a clear sign that the sniper had no intention to let anyone leave the forest alive.


    Zhang Heng presumed the coat he had put on caused the sniper to mistake him for a Soviet soldier. Unfortunately, Zhang Heng did not speak theirnguage, making it impossible to exin himself. It became evident that the sniper didn��t shoot the Soviets to save him. As the soldiers were focussed on Zhang Heng, it made them easy targets for the sniper!


    This particr sniper was brazenly confident and scary at the same time. From the way he eliminated his enemies, he had made sure to first kill the soldier that posed the biggest threat. After that, he shot the one attempting to pick up the machine gun on the ground. His sess in the killings had managed to instill great fear in the remaining soldiers, confusing them and lowering morale.


    After that, all he needed to do was to change his shooting spot and kill the rest of the Soviets.


    Though the remaining two soldiers had lost their will to fight, the sniper was no less determined that he was going to kill each and every enemy that appeared through his scope. Instead of choosing the nearest target, he chose to kill the target furthest away from him. Then, it was all textbook, as the shooter just needed to tackle the poor sod that was running at the back.


    As for Zhang Heng, the sniper decided that he posed no threat. Hence, he had decided to kill himst. While he was shooting down his enemies, he had presented with deadly uracy, his aplished shooting skills and how he stayed calm while being meticulous all at once.


    It was at that moment that Zhang Heng realized his situation was no better than before. He was still being pushed to the edge of a cliff. The only thing that had changed was the enemy. It changed not for the better but from the Soviet soldiers to Finnish gueri fighters. The 11 dead bodies on the ground had proven that Find was way better at their craft than good ol�� Soviet Union.


    The longer he waited, the more dangerous the situation would be. It became apparent that the sniper was extremely familiar with this forest. That would mean he could walk up and shoot Zhang Heng right behind him before he realized it. Hence, Zhang Heng made a quick resolve to do something about it. He held the wooden statue in one hand and held the revolver in the other. In his mind��s eye, he was thinking about the crow.


    Secondster, the crow in the dark slowly opened its eyes, and Zhang Heng stared right into them. He could feel his soul gradually being absorbed into an endless dark vortex, free-falling in a ck void that was formless. The magical part about it was his body getting lighter, almost like a feather floating in the wind. When hended, he opened his eyes, and he saw the white birch and snow above him. Though he had experienced all of this before, he would never get used to this strange, out of body experience. He became disorientated and unhinged as he entered Shadow Moment form.


    Zhang Heng��s body was nowpletely disappeared. All that was left was his shadow on the ground. In this form, he would not be able to use his senses, neither would he be able to talk or listen to sounds around him. His vision was limited to a patch of sky above him. He had, however, discovered a solution to ovee this problem. All he needed to do was attach his shadow to a tree, and he would able to scan his surroundings.


    His speed was greatly reduced when he entered shadow form, but he felt more energetic than ever. Fatigue was a thing of the past. The good thing here was that he did not need to worry about the barrier that blocked his way. With all things considered, his movement speed was not bad at all.


    He took 50 seconds to travel to the location where thest gunshot came from and used another 20 seconds to look for the shooting point. The ground had a slight elevation to it and had two giant rocks to protect the sniper. Clear marks on the ground signified that someoney there only a moment ago.


    Clearly, the sniper had abandoned the hideout and shifted to another location. This time, a series of footprints marked the ground. Zhang Heng was now the hunter instead of the hunted. Half a minute went by, and Zhang Heng saw a being shuffling slowly on the snow-covered ground. It was near impossible to spot it if one did not pay attention.


    The sniper was wearing a white ghillie suit with a mask on him. His entire body was fully covered except for his eyes, a perfect blend with the whited-out forest. One of his hands clutched the sniper, and another held a snowboard.


    It was just as Zhang Heng had guessed! The sniper was nning to sneak him up and kill him from behind. He would never have guessed that his target was the one actually standing right behind him.


    All these gueri techniques had given the Soviets an endless nightmare, continually messing around with the worn-out vs. They relied heavily on their effective camouge and the knowledge of the area to choose a perfect spot to take out their enemies. This time, their expertise was about to be challenged by Zhang Heng.


    In shadow form, Zhang Heng could tail the sniper without making any noise. Long, overbearing shadows of the huge trees around him also added an extrayer of cover. Zhang Heng lifted up the revolver and aimed at the sniper��s head.


    There were only ten seconds left before the shadow form expired. Once the time was up, he would be able to pull the trigger and kill the sniper. As this was his first time killing a person, he naturally hesitated for a bit. Unfortunately, there was no other way around it if he wanted to live to see another day. The sniper��s shooting prowess and innate knowledge of the terrain would make it impossible for Zhang Heng to get away even if he had a three-minute head start!

 Chapter 64 - The Mannerheim Line Welcomes You

    <strong>Chapter 64: The Mannerheim Line Wees You VI</strong>


    Zhang Heng and the sniper were patient, both adamant at waiting for the other to first make his move. Of course, the sniper whichy on the ground waiting for his victim to pop his head was definitely a cut above Zhang Heng. He had read before that most of the gueris in Find were once hunter-gatherers. They knew these grounds they stepped on with their very souls, spending their entire childhood in a forest like this to hunt down small animals. Even though their targets had since changed from animals to humans, it was no doubt that the same methods still applied. This made them very, very good at what they did.


    Unfortunately, this was no fair game. When the crow appeared in the dark again, everything woulde to an end. Zhang Heng had his finger ced steadily on the trigger as he prepared himself mentally to vanquish the target in front of him.


    Suddenly, the sniper rolled to his side! Zhang Heng was taken aback in a jump-scare, knowing there was no noise from his surroundings. Finish! His worst fears hade to pass! s, his shadow form had been found out by the sniper.


    It was then that he saw the bulletnding on the snow-caked ground. With his lightning-fast reflexes, the sniper managed to dodge the first round of attack!


    Immediately, he pointed his weapon in a different direction and pulled the trigger. Zhang Heng then realized another weakness of the shadow form. The sunlight shining from a particr side would mean Zhang Heng��s shadow was also fixed in a certain direction. Though he could attach his shadow on a tree to observe his surroundings, he could only look to the right, left, and front. There was, however, no way that he could look at his back. Even if he turned around, he would only see the tree bark.


    The only thing he knew right now was that the deafening gunshot would have undoubtedly drawn the attention of Soviet soldiers nearby. However, he had no idea what their strength was and how far they were. The thing that troubled him the most was that his shadow form was about to expire. He had around ten seconds left before he would be ultimately revealed!


    Right now, Zhang Heng wasn��t bothered to kill the sniper anymore. The only thing on his mind was making sure that he wouldn��t be caught between the impending exchange of fire. Without wasting any time, he swiftly left the trees and bolted away from the sniper as fast as possible! Then, he attached his shadow to another tree.


    Zhang Heng wished that he could run further away from the snipe,r but his time was running out. He knew for a fact that if the Soviets won the fight, he would still be spared the chance to get away safely. However, if the sniper won the fight, this would be thest day he breathed on this earth.


    Rather than be killed like helpless prey, Zhang Heng resolved that he would fight for his life. The ce that he chose to hide was only a meter away from the sniper. At such close proximity, it would be hard for the sharp-shooter to kill effectively. Besides, there was a high chance that Zhang Heng would not miss his target when shooting at point-nk even though he was still new to guns.


    In about four seconds, he would reappear again. Nevertheless, the battle on the other side heated up pretty fast. A hailstorm of bulletsnded on the tree that Zhang Heng was attached to, and he clearly saw shards of wood flying all over! Clearly, the soldiers that had just arrived were more ferocious than the scout team, which seemed docile at this point.


    Having seen what the sniper was capable of doing, Zhang Heng believed that he wouldn��t allow the soldiers shooting so wildly at him to live too long. Judging by the sound of continuous gunfire from the machine gun, the number of soldiers that came to kill the sniper was hell lot more than he expected. Once the soldiers on the frontline were killed by the sniper, they would simply send another batch of conscripts to attack him.


    However, it seemed like the sniper had found a perfect nest to return fire. He waited for a short while before firing. The miraculous part about all of it was that he was about to kill an enemy each time he fired his gun.


    In the meantime, Zhang Heng had to control his breathing, not making a single move to avoid being detected. After a round of violent shooting, the Soviet side seemed weakened��the constant stato of guns firing reduced to intermittent bursts. In contrast, the sniper still had the upper hand. From the start to the end, he was like a killing machine, mauling every living being in front of him without any mercy.


    Suddenly, the ��killing machine�� fell silent. Zhang Heng knew that he was running out of bullets. This sniper had just been through two fierce battles and had probably been assigned a different target before he got here. Logically, he should be running out of ammunition by now.


    This hadplicated the whole situation. Of course, he had never hoped for such a terrifying sniper to roam the forests, looking for someone to kill. Initially, he thought that there were only two oues from this standoff. If the sniper was killed by the Soviets, he would run as fast as possible to get away from them. If the sniper managed to kill all those soldiers, then he would sneak behind the sniper and pull the trigger on him.


    The only oue that he did not think of was the depletion of ammunition. Since the sniper had run out of bullets, the soldiers would know this and attempt to approach the sniper.


    The ce that Zhang Heng was hiding at was really close to the sniper. When they shot at each other, they would definitely not notice his presence. However, once the fight was over, either the soldiers or the sniper would definitely see something escaping.


    ......


    The sniper leaned on arge rock. He must have realized how improbable it would be to get out of this alive. He took out the dagger strapped to his waist and prepared to fight for his life. Suddenly, a stone rolled by his feet! In an instant, he spotted a Soviet soldier creeping up from behind the tree prompting the sniper to pick up his weapon unconsciously!


    To his surprise, the soldier signaled him to stay quiet. Half a minute ago, Zhang Heng assumed that this could be a golden opportunity for him to save himself. After spending four days all alone in the forest, he quickly realized it would be impossible for him to live here for hundreds of days. Be it the Finnish or the Soviets, Zhang Heng had no quarrel with them, really.


    Based on experience, these people would never give him the chance to exin himself. They would usually point their guns at him before he could say anything. And the worst part was, Zhang Heng did not know how to speak theirnguage. Now that the sniper had run out of ammunition, Zhang Heng felt that this was the perfect moment to make a move!


    He first pointed at the red stars on his coat, then at himself, then waved his hands. He was trying to tell the sniper that he had nothing to do with the Soviets. Unfortunately, the gestures did not promt a response from the sniper. Zhang Heng then took off the coat to show him his ck turtleneck and jeans. In the end, the sniper��s attention was caught by the revolver that Zhang Heng had with him.


    Zhang Heng knew that there was no time for this kind of back and forth with the shooter. He could hear that the boots of the Soviets approaching them. Clearly, there was more than one of them. He couldn��t possibly deal with them alone. In a critical moment such as this, a leap of faith was a necessity.


    Once again, Zhang Heng clutched the wooden statue in his hand to prepare for any unforeseen circumstances. He then drew the revolver and tossed it to the sniper. This time, the shooter actually responded by picking the weapon! He pointed at Zhang Heng aggressively, threatening to let out a shot.


    After a second, he lowered the pistol.


    Zhang Heng let out a massive sigh of relief. It seemed that his leap of faith had finally borne fruit! He removed his phone from his pocket. For the past few days, he had tried his best to conserve battery, only using it sparingly to get his bearings. Otherwise, he would turn it off. Right now, it was the best time for him to use it to distract his enemies. He set a quick rm and tossed it far away from him.


    Like a grenade, three secondster, the cellphone red on the snowy ground, instantly drawing the soldiers�� attention! The sniper then popped half of his head out, aiming for the Soviets!


    The first shot was a nk. Zhang Heng had to prioritize his own safety. He had to consider the possibility of the sniper killing him when he gave him his gun. That was why he swapped the first bullet with a nk. Not about to take any more chances, he would instantly change into shadow form if the sniper did pull the trigger on him.


    Shocked by the nk shot, he immediately fired the second shot, bursting a soldier��s head open with a stter of bright blood!

 Chapter 65 - The Mannerheim Line Welcomes You

    <strong>Chapter 65: The Mannerheim Line Wees You VII</strong>


    Zhang Heng had done everything that could be done, knowing he won��t be much help in the battle. So, he squatted behind a tree and waited for it to be all over. The skirmish ended faster than expected. Once the skilled sniper had a gun in his hand, he killed three Soviet soldiers within a swift 40 seconds.


    Once the barrage of gunshots were over, Zhang Heng stealthily emerged from his hiding spot. The sniper still clutched the revolver in his hand tightly, albeit, seemingly a little more rxed now as he did not aim the gun at Zhang Heng.


    When Zhang Heng walked towards the sniper, he noticed that there was blood on his shirt. It was apparent now that in the heat of the shootout, he didn��t manage to dodge all the bullets. Zhang Heng came to realize that indeed, it was not easy for him to meet someone without hostile intentions. He had to figure out a way to bring him back to his base, no matter what. All his effort would have gone to waste if he let him die here.


    Zhang Heng picked up his cellphone and turned off the rm, noticing a sea of empty shells strewn all over the ground. Remarkably, and thankfully so, his cellphone was perfectly fine. He then proceeded to collect the backpacks of the dead soldiers. As his current supplies were almost depleted, he had to stock up well to stay alive in this inhospitablend. He had his eyes fixed on the sniper, who nodded his head at him. He was staring at the bullet case that was strapped to the dead soldier��s waist.


    Immediately, Zhang Heng grabbed two magazines and passed it to him. Without a second thought, he reloaded his machine gun. Putting pressure on his wound with one hand, he mustered all his strength to stand up with the other. Two fierce battles had just taken ce here, and the sound of continuous gunshots had probably attracted more enemies. They had to leave this ce as soon as possible, or this time, they would surely die.


    Zhang Heng picked a backpack and brought it with him. He, too didn��t let up on the chance to pick up a machine gun. Seeing that the sniper was having a hard time walking, Zhang Heng instinctively walked over in an attempt to assist him. However, it seemed like he wanted no help, shaking his head and pushing away Zhang Heng��s hand.


    Zhang Heng was displeased by the response, knowing well enough it wasn��t the best time to y Rambo. Zhang Heng needed him to point him in the right direction if they wanted to survive this forest. Also, without Zhang Heng��s help, it would be tough for the severely wounded sniper to walk out of the woods alive. Both of them were in a tight spot now and had no choice but to rely on each other to get through this.


    After a while, the sniper started to understand Zhang Heng��s intention. This time, he allowed Zhang Heng to prop him up. With an arm supporting his body, they both took the slow walk towards the direction that the sniper pointed to.


    On the way, Zhang Heng saw countless bodies of Soviet troops. An armored personnel carriery in pieces beside the road, still burning with fury. There were also bodies of a few Finnish gueris with their winter camouge thrown all over on the ground as well. One could only see how much hatred the Soviets must have harbored toward the Finnish gueris. Zhang Heng needed a change of coat, but sadly, most of the ones on the bodies were riddled with bullet holes. Some even had powder burns on them, leaving huge, smoldering holes.


    Anybody passing them now would have found it extremely peculiar to see a duo made up of an Asian and a Finnish. To make matters worse, they lookedpletely out of ce, like they didn��t belong to his forest.


    For the forting days, they would constantly see dead bodies on the ground and incessant gunfire from afar. This time the gunfire did notst long. Again, it didn��t look too safe anymore. The gunfire could have been a signal for the Soviets to help their allies. Then, in turn, the Finnish gueri snipers would use the opportunity to clear all their enemies.


    Their snowboards had allowed them to move effectively in the forest, and they were not about to stop unless absolutely necessary. As they cruised through the snow-caked forest, they sawrge numbers of Soviet soldiers killed in many different ways. However realistic an award-winning film would shamefully fade inparison to the unimaginable horrors thaty before them.


    Zhang Heng had mentally prepared himself to witness all the dead. Despite that, he felt awfully unwell after witnessing so much death in one go. The horrifying scene was a violent assault on one��s senses, where war represented the worst of humanity. It also represented what would be of the frail-minded human after civilization had been so carelessly tossed away. Soldiers had regressed to their carnal instincts, to kill and protect in its most basic of forms. Looking at the sniper beside him, Zhang Heng instantly knew that the purgatory around them had almost no effect on him. He was simply used to it.


    As they traveled on, they came across two Soviet troops. They managed to evade them, only lucky that they were not spotted first. They even encountered a Soviet soldier that moved alone. His allies were most likely killed in action and he was lucky to flee the battlefield alive. His spirit seemed broken, his face emotionless, lifeless even from all he had gone through. Having no weapons and trudging barefooted, there was a high chance he would end up dead in this forest if his allies failed to find him.


    Zhang Heng saw that he was getting further and further away from him, hence deciding to just let him be. Secondster, he heard a gunshot! The sniper��s hand was on the trigger of the machine gun and was no longer covering the wound! He had shot the soldier in cold blood.


    When the sound of gunfire reverberating in the air, the Soviet soldier slowly stopped moving and copsed beside a pine tree. Zhang Heng then looked the sniper in the eyes, searching for answers. He did the same as well, not batting an eyelid. His eyes were dead, with not an ounce of emotion left in them.


    ��........��


    Zhang Heng was left speechless. If he was a soldier during the invasion of Japan, he would have shot any Japanese soldier if he ever encountered one. All these Finnish gueris only had one goal in mind,, and that was to protect their people and country. For these reasons, Zhang Heng felt he had no right to criticize him.


    The gunshot, however, would have again attracted more enemies to them, thest thing Zhang Heng wanted. It wasn��t time to y the me game here. Besides, the sniper wouldn��t understand a word even if he scolded him. It would be more beneficial for them to figure out a way to get out of this sticky situation.


    Zhang Hengnded his eyes on the snowboard behind the sniper��s back. Vo!


    Five minutester, they tied all their goods on the snowboard, and Zhang Heng tied a rope at the end of it for the sniper to pull on itter. He then squatted down in front of him. Strangely, it seemed as if the sniper understood what he was trying to do. Immediately, he jumped on Zhang Heng��s back and let him carry him.


    When Zhang Heng stood up, he was surprised that the sniper was a lot lighter than he��d expected, probably weighing a tiny 100 pounds. They could finally move faster now. The only downside about this idea was that Zhang Heng��s stamina, and strength depleted a lot more quickly than he hoped it would. He could only do this for around 20 minutes.


    Thank goodness they were out of the danger zone.

 Chapter 66 - The Mannerheim Line Welcomes You

    <strong>Chapter 66: The Mannerheim Line Wees You VIII</strong>


    Zhang Heng still couldn��t figure out where he was, only knowing that he was heading towards a northeasterly direction. He was well-rested, having caught quite a few naps throughout the entire journey. The good news was he did not encounter any Soviets while they traveled. It seemed he had finally escaped the warzone.


    After some time, the sniper tapped his shoulder, signifying him to stop. So, he stopped walking, looked for a clean stone, and carefully set the wounded man down. Though he could not see his face, Zhang Heng knew that he was in great pain just by looking at his saddened eyes. The patch of blood on his stomach was getting bigger by the minute. Although he had no problems moving around when Zhang Heng carried him earlier, the bumpy ride had aggravated his condition. And here he was, again, choosing to say nothing about it.


    Suddenly, Zhang Heng had a bad feeling!


    Immediately, he took a look at his surroundings and realized that they were still in the middle of nowhere. Initially, he thought the sniper would lead them back to his base. They should have at least came across one of his allies, but judging by his current condition, he could die bleeding out any second now if he did not get any medical help.


    If he died here right now, it would be useless for Zhang Heng to locate the gueri base. They would definitely shoot him on sight if they saw him alone. This wasn��t the time to worry about what might happen next. Right now, he needed to make sure the sniper was kept alive.


    Realizing the gravity of the situation the sniper was in, he wasted no time and looked for fallen branches hoping to start a campfire. It would help ensure the cold wouldn��t get to the wounded man. Luckily, twigs were aplenty, and the fire was started, much to the relief of the freezing men. Zhang Heng melted some snow in a canteen, quenching their badly scorched throats.


    They soon settled down, under the warmth of the mes. The sniper groaned in pain but looked slightly morefortable. Phew! After a short moment of doubt, the sniper had finally decided that it was safe to take off his white face mask, which he had worn all the while.


    What Zhang Heng saw left him startled in shock. The sniper was actually a girl with a golden lock of hair. Judging by her appearance, it seemed she had only just reached adulthood! It was mind-boggling for Zhang Heng to imagine such a young-looking girl was capable of so efficiently harvesting the lives of battle-hardened soldiers, reaping away every soul she wished dead!


    Suddenly, he remembered that during the winter war, Find had conscripted three million of their people to fight off the Soviet Union. The number of soldiers that were willing to fight and protect their county was more than that of Japan and Germanybined, ready to do whatever it took to chase out the invaders from their country.


    Of the many definitions of bravery one could find in a book, this, in my opinion, was its highest form. Zhang Heng stared at the sniper as she slowly sipped the warm water in her hands. Without saying a word, he then took out two sausages from his bag and ced it over the fire. However, the sniper simply shook her head, indicating that she d. It was an awkward moment for them.


    Right now, Zhang Heng was left in a dilemma. It was now virtually impossible for the sniper to continue the journey. This was no action movie, but rather cruel reality. In the movies, soldiers would usually extract the bullet from their wounds after they were shot. On a real battlefield, on the other hand, no one would attempt such a dangerous feat. Festering wounds and infections were a major concern. The biggest problem that one could encounter while attempting a bullet extraction from an open wound was the bleeding problem. Seeing that she had lost a huge amount of blood on the way here, it was definitely not the brightest idea to extract the bullet out of her right now.


    Zhang Heng had to re-assess the current situation. Should he stay here to take care of her or leave her alone? Right now, was both of them were like different species, unable tomunicate with each other. All they could do was use simple signnguage to tell each other their intentions. Right now, he had no idea how far still the gueri base camp was, not even knowing whether they were heading in the right direction.


    Despite her grave wounds, the female sniper looked really calm. Zhang Heng guessed that she must havee up with a solution to ovee this problem or she was prepared to die here. Of course, he secretly hoped that she had an idea to get them out of this sticky situation. However, judging by the way things were turning out, it was more likely that she was ready to die here.


    ........


    The night was arriving, as the sun shone itsst light. Zhang Heng chose not to leave her side in the end. After dinner, he went picking more tree branches to keep the campfire burning through the night. He then poured out half of his backpack out and ced it under the female sniper��s head to act as a pillow.


    After all that was done, Zhang Heng took out his machine gun, attempting to study it. He tried to reload it and aim for a couple of inanimate objects lying around.


    To be honest, Zhang Heng was never a fan of killing. Unfortunately, he needed to learn how to protect himself in such an environment. Although he knew he would probably be unable to pull the trigger even fo he encountered the Soviets, this wasn��t enough of an excuse to simply just give up.


    At the same time, the female sniper eyed him intently. At times, Zhang Heng felt that this could not have been a person but a log. This was because only a log could forever keep its calm. She had been through a whole lot but had never once unveiled a single ounce of emotion.


    Under the twinkling night sky, the mes of the campfire danced with the wind. After ying with his machine gun for a bit, he suddenly noticed something amiss about the sniper. Her skin had grown much paler, and all her lips were white, devoid of color. Her forehead was wet with beads of cold sweat, and her body was shaking nonstop. Zhang Heng instantly felt her feet and hands, discovering that they were like pieces of frozen meat. Her body was losing temperature, descending into hypothermia.


    Bloodloss had caused most of the heat in her body to slip away, especially her red blood cells. Hemoglobin��s main function was the vehicle transferring oxygen to the entire body. Once their count had dropped drastically, one��s body would fail to function normally. If such a situation were to ur, no amount of warm clothes could keep her alive.


    Surely, she could be saved if she was admitted to a hospital right now, getting a crucial blood transfusion. Unfortunately, they were now in the depths of a forest. There was nothing Zhang Heng could do to save her. Left with no other options, Zhang Heng removed his clothes and hugged her, hoping to share body heat and revitalize the dying girl.


    The female sniper simply looked at him, not knowing what to think or how to react. She didn��t push him away, though. Perhaps she knew her time was near and was the verge of dying. As for Zhang Heng, he did not harbor any sexual desires towards her. After all, the both of them had not showered for several days. The body odor and the stench of blood were enough to put off the strongest of libidinous innuendo. Besides, a piece of cloth wrapped around her chest.


    Their skin rubbed on each other, sharing no distance and seemingly more intimate than certain rambunctious lovers. Despite all that, they did now know each other��s names. Due to thenguage barrier, the two of them could still notmunicate with each other using words. All they could do was to remain silent.


    .......


    Zhang Heng had managed to maintain her body temperature but could not give her back the lost blood. As time passed, the female sniper��s condition worsened. Her shallow breathing became rapid, and her pulse was erratic. Zhang Heng knew deep down that she might not be able to survive the night.


    Then, all of a sudden, he heard a crunch!


    Bell had taught Zhang Heng to scatter some dried tree branches around him as an rm when it was night time. It seemed like someone had stepped on the loose twigs. He instantly jumped up and wanted to grab his machine gun. To his surprise, the person was already squatting down beside the campfire, pointing a machine gun at him.

 Chapter 67 - The Mannerheim Line Welcomes You

    <strong>Chapter 67: The Mannerheim Line Wees You IX</strong>


    [Found a Finnish gueri base. Game points: +5. For more information, check out the character panel...]


    Zhang Heng had only heard the sound of the notification when he spotted the little wooden cottages in the forest. Before he could take a good look at it, someone had already pointed a gun at his back!


    Zhang Heng was pretty sure that whoever it was, the trigger would be inevitably pulled this time. Just before he could, however, the sniper shouted at him! Startled, the shooter flinched, preventing the killing from happening. However, he did not take him sights off Zhang Heng.


    The calvary finally had finally arrived!


    It was the Finnish, allies of the sniper! Soon after that, a few more came over to help her. One of them stayed back to look after her while the rest proceeded to chop some wood to make a simple stretcher to carry her back to the base.


    The man with the machine gun picked up the Soviet clothes on the floor and tossed them to Zhang Heng. However, the soldier had taken away the inner coat, only leaving him the outer jacket made out of goatskin. Zhang Heng said nothing and simply put it on.


    He could see that the members of the gueri resistance did not trust him at all. If it were not for the female sniper, they would have killed him without even thinking twice. Fortunately for Zhang Heng, they took care of their own first, realizing the sniper needed immediate medical attention. Knowing that there was no time to waste, they carried her back to their camp right away, even with Zhang Heng, the stranger, following behind.


    After walking through thick snow and ice for an hour and a half, they finally arrived at base camp. Two fighters carried the stretcher and entered the small wooden house on the left. As for Zhang Heng, he was being locked inside another cottage. As Zhang Heng��s eyes adjusted to the dark confinement space, he saw the entire ce filled with lumber. He realized he must be in a wood storage house.


    His captors locked the room right away after they made him go inside. They even frisked him and confiscated everything they deemed a threat. His inner coat, machine gun, backpack, cellphone, and wallet were all taken from him. Through the cracks of the wooden walls, Zhang Heng saw that few of the fighters were checking out his Huawei cellphone.


    In this era, cellphones had not been invented yet. After curiously ying with it for a long time, none of them could figure out how to turn the curious device on. One of them even hit it on a tree. Compared to the somewhat unpopr cellphone, everyone wanted to own the wallet.


    Even the most ordinary of wallets from the modern era would be considered a masterpiece in 1944. Besides, Zhang Heng��s wallet cost a few hundred Yuan. And for the inner coat, the soldier that pointed the machine gun at Zhang Heng was already wearing it. His burly and muscr body turned the tiny garment into a skin-tight shirt.


    The weirdest part was, no oneid their hands on the analog watch. Logically, watches like that should worth quite a bit in this era. As if invisible, it seemed like none of them noticed it.


    Zhang Heng soon learned that this was a ratherrge base camp. Originally a lumber mill, the gueris had converted it into their base of operations. Hidden deep within the secluded forest, they became almost undetectable by their enemies. Through the tiny gap, Zhang Heng saw that there were seven of them. It waste at night, and most of them were asleep in the other cottages.


    The gueris were infamously most active at night. They wouldunch surprise attacks at their Soviet counterparts while they were fast asleep. Zhang Heng once watched a documentary, where an ex-guerri shared his experiences. They imed that the Soviets would lose their will to fight once the gueris hit them in the dark. The few Soviet soldiers sitting around the campfire watched their allies being killed right before their eyes and did nothing about it.


    Judging by the size of this camp, there were at least 40 to 50 souls living here. In order to prevent another gross misunderstanding, Zhang Heng decided that he should stop peeking at them. He then looked for a corner,y on the ground, and closed his eyes.


    Around 20 minutester, two gueris opened the door and entered the storage. This time, they weren��t pointing their guns at Zhang Heng. After what seemed like an instruction to him in Finnish, they moved him to another unit. Of course, Zhang Heng would not be so dumb as to incriminate himself, so, he simply did what they asked him to do.


    The wooden house that he entered this time was different than the storage unit. This cottage looked more like a real living space, equipped with a wooden bed, chairs, tables, and a cozy looking firece. A man with thick mustache sat behind the table.


    He put away the map on the table as he saw Zhang Heng entering the room. He then used his hand as a signal for him to sit down.


    Zhang Heng guessed that this man probably was themander of the gueri armies. There was also another person standing at the window and smoking. Zhang Heng could not clearly see who this person was since the back was turned. All he knew was that the person was a woman in her thirties or forties.


    Once Zhang Heng sat down, the mustached man demanded him to talk.


    ��I must apologize. I don��t know how to speak in yournguage.��


    For good measure, Zhang Heng repeated the sentence in Mandarin, English, and Japanese. Still, the man could not understand what he was trying to say. After some time, he grew impatient. Suddenly, the woman that was smoking broke her silence.


    ��Are you a spy from the Soviet Union?�� asked the woman in English.


    She was the first person that couldmunicate with him ever since he took this quest! He finally could let out a sigh of relief. The thing that worried him the most was themunication barrier he had suffered since apparating here. Without efficientmunication, he would be unable to take control of his current situation. At least, he could now defend himself.


    ��Kliment Voroshilov might be stupid, but I don��t think he is dumb enough to send us a Chinese spy that doesn��t speak Finnish.��


    ��I��m not too sure about that. After all, some people can��t even differentiate between a loaf of bread and a bomb,�� said the woman as she stubbed out the cigarette.


    This time, she turned around and looked at Zhang Feng. This woman must have been incredibly gorgeous when she was younger. Or, should I say, still rather dazzling for her age. Some simply had the power to defy the physics of the chronometer. After that, she looked at the man with the mustache. The man only smiled and left the house after.


    ��Ah Ji is not a bad person. This is a very critical period. He��s responsible for all those under him.��


    ��I can understand that,�� said Zhang Heng.


    ��No. You can��t, and I can��t either. His country is being invaded by enemies right now. To protect his mothend, he is willing to do whatever it takes, even if it means going to hell itself. What you see is what you get, ��guv. I��m a volunteer from Ennd. I should inform you that I am different from these people. I don��t wish to see bloodshed. For me to help you, I will need you to tell me the truth,�� said the woman while drawing another stick of Craven A.


    As she bent down, Zhang Heng took a glimpse at her cleavage. He had to say; this woman was really something. If he was indeed a spy of the Soviet Union, he would have definitely spilled all the beans. Unfortunately, the truth was concealed within the most ridiculous of answers. In this war, Zhang Heng was indeed an outsider who had nothing to do with it.

 Chapter 68 - The Mannerheim Line Welcomes You

    <strong>Chapter 68: The Mannerheim Line Wees You X</strong>


    The woman sitting across him asked him a few other questions. Questions liked why he was here, was there someone else with him, was he amunist... Zhang Heng answered all her questions honestly. For the past few days, he did not just loiter in the forest. While traveling, he had been carefully nning how he could handle a situation like this if he ever got into one.


    Hence, the woman could not fault him. Throughout the conversation, Zhang Heng managed to acquire some information about her as well. Her name was Maji, a surgeon. After the feminist movement, women��s status in society greatly improved. Despite all that, it was a rarity for a woman to be a surgeon in this era. After graduation, Maji had to leave her mothend for Switzend, spending some time there before moving back to Find to work in a hospital.


    When the war broke out, she did not leave Find, instead, choosing to stay behind as a volunteer. She was the only doctor for the entire base camp. And the man with the mustache, Ah Ji, was the second lieutenant in this camp. His job was tomand the gueri troops.


    As she was finished with her questioning, Maji squinted and stared hard at Zhang Heng.


    ��I know what you want now. However, I can��t make the decision right now. Go back to where youe from. I will ry everything that you told me to Ah Ji.��


    ��How is she doing?�� asked Zhang Heng before leaving the cottage.


    ��About her... real lucky she was.. brought back in the nick of time. The surgery was a huge sess. I have given her a good few pints of blood. Two days ago, we received a batch of anti-inmmatories from Switzend. She should be fine. I think she should regain consciousness by tomorrow morning,�� Maji replied while staring nkly.


    Zhang Heng could sense that her mind was elsewhere when she answered his question. She might have been thinking about personal business or about the gueris. Whatever it was, he knew that this was not the right time to ask. Simply nodding his head, he headed back to the storeroom.


    This time, he waited for a long time before someone knocked at his door. When dawn had broken, a gueri fighter came into the storeroom and delivered the first meal of the day. His breakfast included a bowl of venison soup, half a loaf of bread, and blueberry jam.


    The food they served here was way better than the Soviet rations he was forced to live on. This was the advantage of fighting as Find��s warriors. Though the gueris had to continually hide deep in the mountains, they would constantly receive supplies from the viges nearby them. These vigers were unyielding, often informing them of the Soviet��s positions in the forest.


    For the past few days, Zhang Heng had been hiding here and there. It had been a long time since he had a proper meal. As he had done everything he was capable of, it was useless to worry about things he couldn��t control. He might as well sit down and enjoy the great food in front of him.


    It wasn��t until the afternoon before Maji visited again.


    ��I��m really sorry we can��t send you to the back of the battle line. This is a pivotal moment for the war right now. We don��t have enough people to escort you to the back of the line.��


    ��Just point me in the right direction and give me some supplies. I think I can travel there by myself.��


    Maji simply smiled.


    It then dawned on Zhang Heng, as he finally knew the reason behind it.


    ��Your identity is suspicious and we don��t even know where youe from. Though we can��t fault anything that you��ve told us, it is basically impossible for us to verify your information as well. Besides, now you know where the gueri base came is, there��s no way that we will let you go just like that,�� said the doctor.


    Zhang Heng was speechless.


    ��Ah Ji is the kind of person that dislikes trouble and it might not be fair to you. Since we have no way to rule out that you are not a Soviet spy, killing you would be the easiest solution for us. There are dead bodies everywhere around here. All we need to do is kill you and toss your body at an obscure spot on the battlefield. No one would ever know that we were the ones who killed you!��


    Maji then paused her speech, seeming as if she was hoping to see fear ooze out from Zhang Heng��s face. Unfortunately, the way he acted left her in disappointment. He knew that if they wanted to kill him, they would not have sent the doctor all the way here and spend all this time talking to him. It was totally pointless for a bunch of mercenaries to put on such an borate show.


    ��Good news is, the sniper that you rescued is returning the favor. From the first day I��ve known her until now, I have never seen her talk so much in one day! Since she can vouch for you, Ah Ji is willing to give you an opportunity to prove if you are a friend or an enemy of Find.��


    ��Well. What do you mean by that?��


    ��Congrattions! You��ve passed the test and are one of us now. That female sniper iscking a partner. Both of you will go on a mission together once she has fully recovered!��


    Zhang Heng realized that this was the best offer he could get for now. Though a lot different from what he expected, he knew that he had no right to reject the offer. Rejecting the proposal would mean certain death for him.


    This could be either a good or bad change to Zhang Heng��s current situation. The good, was that he could take his mind off the supply problem since the logistics from the gueri base camp would have that covered. He also had a powerful partner with him right now, where Zhang Heng had witnessed first hand the exceptional marksmanship of the sniper. He would never need to worry that she would miss her target.


    Then there was the bad part. Zhang Heng was now forced into a war he never intended to fight. He had been switched from an observer to a solider. Everything he would face from now on was going to be a risk to his life. He had never received any military training before and was very sure that the man with mustache knew all about it. Despite knowing the boy couldn��t fight, he had put forward such a proposal.


    ��I have not shot out of a firearm before. Can you at least allow me to get some training first?��


    ��Of course! That is a perfectly reasonable request. Before that kid recovers, you can do whatever you want as long as you don��t leave this ce.��


    Maji was shocked to see Zhang Heng acting so calmly, despite being thrown around and coerced into a war. She suddenly realized that she could not read this young man. His level of maturity did not match his current age at all. It was rare for a such a young man to maintain hisposure in the situation he was forced into. Zhang Heng had managed to pique her interest.


    ��What kind of weapon do you wish to use? M28 machine gun? Suomi KP submachine gun? Hmm... that one might be hard for you to get your hands on. We also have the Degtyaryov machine gun that we confiscated from the Soviets in our armory...��


    ��If possible, I want to train on a machine gun and a handgun first.��


    Zhang Heng would prioritize protecting himself over anything else. Though machine guns and submachine guns were really powerful, they were also very, very loud. That meant the enemy would instantly pinpoint the shooter��s position. It was best for him not to attract the attention of the enemies. Kill counts were pointless to him. He already knew how this war would end.


    ��Shooting aside, I think you should train your snowboarding skills as well. The snow is thick here. It would be more effective for you to slide around with a snowboard rather than walking your way through the ice. It might evene in handy one day, saving your life and all that,�� said Maji while lighting up a fag.


    For once, a practical suggestion. The snowboard was the signature item of the Finnish gueri forces, allowing them to move around freely at a ridiculous speed. They were the infamous ghosts of the war, whizzing their invisible way through the darkness. They were legends, never to be surrounded by their enemies.

 Chapter 69 - The Mannerheim Line Welcomes You

    <strong>Chapter 69: The Mannerheim Line Wees You XI</strong>


    Maji brought Zhang Heng to meet the logistics guy responsible for the firearms. He was an old hunter with a pronounced limp. At the same time, he doubled as the resident chef for the base camp as well. The breakfast that Zhang Heng had earlier? Yeah, that was him too.


    Maji gave the old man a quick hug and spoke in Finnish, telling him about the neer. As they talked, Maji passed him half a pack of cigarettes. The older man then stared at Zhang Heng and nodded his head, albeit somewhat unwillingly. He flipped his remuneration into his pocket, turned around, and entered the house behind him.


    ��Oher will show youter how to use the machine gun. He��s one of the most aplished hunters over here. His tens of years of experience are more than good enough to teach you everything you need to know about a machine gun. Don��t worry about thenguage barrier. I��ll be your trantor. If you have any questions, feel free to voice it out,�� said Maji.


    Zhang Heng was surprised at how Maji was so helpful all of a sudden. She did not seem like the kind of person to stick her nose in the business of others.


    ��The girl requested me to help you. My hands are tied. She��s the reason why I can still continue to smoke. So, it��s hard for me to say no to her. I consider this favor as repaying her back.��


    It was apparent that Maji was in no intention to hide the truth. She then paused and stared at Zhang Heng in a suspiciously.


    ��Sebor told me that you and the female sniper were...��


    ��.....��


    Zhang Heng blushed, not knowing what to answer. During that perilous time, Zhang Heng was left with no other option if he was to keep her alive. Considering the nature of how it ��happened�� though, it would be hard for anybody to believe him even if he was telling the truth.


    Luckily, good old Oher saved the day,ing out from the house in the nick of time right after Maji asked the question. He then handed a machine gun to Zhang Heng.


    ��This machine gun that you are holding is an M28. It is an improved version of the M1891 Mosin-Nagant and is way more urate when it fires. Weapons are scarce here. You better not lose it!��


    Maji tranted everything to Zhang Heng, and he was thankful he could finally findmon ground with these people.


    ��Besides the gun, Oher has given you 70 rounds as well. You need to know that these bullets are not just for shooting practice. You will need them when you go on your first mission. I would advise you to use ��em wisely.��


    Maji paused for a while before continuing, ��Now... you can im 40 rounds here before you go on a mission. If you run out of ammo, you can get it from the dead Soviets that you killed. Alternatively, you can exchange something valuable for bullets. I��ll give you an example. Guns and medicines are precious at the base camp. Bring home some if you can. And if you manage to get your hands on a T26 tank and drive it back to the base camp, you will have my heartiest congrattions. That is because it will grant you full ess to your arsenal!��


    While Maji was talking, a few guerris brought over a Maxim Heavy Machine Gun, looking like they had just got back to the base camp not too long ago. And they had won the battle. Some of them were even bold enough to whistle at Maji when they saw her. Seeing the colossal cannon-like weapon rolling by, Zhang Heng jumped aside and let them move the lumbering gun into the armory. Then, Oher jotted something down on his notebook.


    Only after did the excited guerris leave the armory did Oher finally started exining how a machine gun was used. Zhang Heng made sure as well to pay proper attention to every single word he said. After all, Maji would not be there every single time to trante for him. Not like she would be in such an elegant mood every single day anyway.


    The next day, Maji brought Zhang Heng to visit a guerri that was really good at snowboarding. The small favor she asked had cost her half a pack of cigarettes, buying Zhang Heng one snowboarding lesson for half a day. Zhang Heng had gone snowboarding a couple of times back home. With the added guidance, he managed to perform a lot better than yesterday.


    After two days, Maji finally grew impatient and left Zhang Heng to do whatever he wanted to do. Luckily, Zhang Heng had learned everything that he needed to learn to keep himself alive while he was out on a mission.


    So, he searched for a secluded ce and started practicing everything he learned for the past two days. Snowboarding shouldn��t be too tall of an order for Zhang Heng since he had done it before. Shooting, on the other hand, was a totally different story. When it came to the theory, he knew almost everything about weapons. All he needed to do right now was to familiarize himself with it.


    He needed to make sure that his fingers would be ustomed to pulling the trigger at living enemies. Right now, he had only 70 bullets with him, and though he tried to spare as many as possible, he still spent 40 bullets in two days. If he was shooting in real life, going through 40 bullets would take him a mere two minutes.


    After the shooting practice, Zhang Heng was bbergasted, realizing that his shooting skills barely scraped the level of zero. And Zhang Heng did not know what to do anymore. He now had to conserve the bullets for his next mission. To survive in his uing mission, he expected that he would need to have 30 rounds with him. At most, he could only afford to spend another 10 bullets. Any more than that and he would turn into a corpse on the battlefield.


    Quite frankly, ten bullets wouldn��t make much of a difference.


    There was nothing Zhang Heng could do about it, and since he could not leave base camp to look for more ammo, he could only exchange for them with Oher. Unfortunately, his valuables had been confiscated by the other gueris. On top of that, Zhang Heng had no intention to get it back from them because he knew that it was pointless. Those weren��t the types to return something they came into possession of. Finders keepers.


    With that being said, his shooting practice hade to an end.


    On the third day, Zhang Heng went back to where he first practiced shooting. To his pleasant surprise, he found three boxes of bullets under the white birch, a total of 45 rounds! Now, who could it be? Zhang Heng was the one who picked the location for the shooting practice, and no one else knew about it.


    This was located some distance away from the base camp. Until now, he still had no idea why the gunner that he met in the forest was still acted hostile towards him, suspecting that the others might have felt ufortable as well. He realized he was now stuck here for some time. In the interest of avoiding prying eyes and to stay out of trouble, he thought it best to look for a more covert spot.


    He was delighted, never expecting to find so many bullets here. Admittedly, that solved the huge problem of theck of ammunition. He wondered who had the generosity to leave him such handsome bounty.


    In truth, it was not that difficult to figure out who left it here. There was only one person in the base camp fond of Zhang Heng.


    As it had been left there, finders keepers, he thought and used all of it for the shooting practice.


    The next day, three boxes of rounds were being left under the trees again. This time, his cellphone, wallet, wooden sculpture, and Rabbit��s Foot wereid beside as well. Except for his inner coat, all of his personal belongings had returned to him!


    Instead of carrying on with his shooting practice, he knocked on the Maji��s door.


    ��What��s going on?�� groaned Maji with a yawn. Her sleepy voice proof that she had just woken up.


    ��Good morning, Ms. Maji. I��m here to look for someone.��


    Zhang Heng knew that the female sniper stayed together with Maji in the same wooden cottage.


    ��Oy! Your bloke��s here to look for you! Should I tell him that you are here?��


    Chilly winds were starting to close in, causing a shivering Maji to tighten the neckline of her nightgown.


    ��.......��


    Half a minuteter, Maji stood aside and allowed Zhang Heng to enter. The sniper was lying on the bed and had her back facing the entrance with a nket wrapped like a burrito around her. Zhang Heng could only make out half her head. It seemed like she was still sleeping.


    Maji then walked over to her bed and pulled the nket away. The neatly-dressed blond-haired sniper was presented before Zhang Heng.


    ��Simone! You can��t avoid your partner forever, right?��

 Chapter 70 - The Mannerheim Line Welcomes You

    <strong>Chapter 70: The Mannerheim Line Wees You XII</strong>


    Knowing that she had been busted, she couldn��t pretend to sleep anymore. So, she reluctantly got up and sat on her bed. After getting a good couple of days�� rest, she definitely looked a lot better than before. However, Zhang Heng realized that she did not dare look him in the eye.


    ��Can you please trante for us again?�� Zhang Heng politely asked Maji.


    ��Just say what you want to say.��


    Maji took out another cigarette in anticipation as she smiled at Zhang Heng.


    ��Thank you for much for vouching for me. I came here once to visit you before, but Dr. Maji said that you needed more rest. So, I did not get to see you.��


    Simone looked at him and blinked. Despite attempting to put on her best poker face, Zhang Heng could see a pang of deep-seated guilt hidden behind those dreamy blue eyes. Not knowing if it was the wrong thing to say, Zhang Heng omitted the part about getting back his personal belongings and the extra bullets under the tree.


    ��My home is in and far away. Due to some reason, I��m stranded here. Once the war is over, I will return to the ce I came from,�� said Zhang Heng.


    Simone seemed disappointed after hearing what Zhang Heng had to say.


    Zhang Heng knew that she had grown fond of him after what happened to them in the woods. From what he saw, it seemed like Simone was a high ranking gueri in this base camp. He could have easily taken advantage of her fondness toward him and have a better life right here. If he did that, however, he would definitely bring great sorrow to Simone when the day to leave finally arrived.


    Sometimes, Zhang Heng had doubts if this was really just a game. His entire experience so far had proven too realistic for him to handle. Everything was so real it became hard to consider those around him like a bunch of programmed NPC. Zhang Heng also wondered what would happen to this virtual world once he left. What would happen to the ��people�� around here?


    Would the tale soldier on without him?


    Despite it all, he knew that it was hard to lie to the only girl fond of him in the entire camp. Eventually, Zhang Heng decided that he would tell her the in old truth. It might seem unwise in the current climate, but he was willing to risk it and stick on to his principles.


    Simone looked lost after the conversation. She was just sat mum on the bed, unable to utter a single word.


    .....


    Noticing tension in the atmosphere, Maji closed the door behind her and talked to Zhang Heng.


    ��I thought you looked smart for a man. You really should never say such cruel words to a girl! However, I think I kinda like you right now. Simone might be a masterful marksman, but she is extremely innocent. She has never been in a rtionship in her entire life. Before the war, she lived with her great-grandfather deep in the forest, and all she did growing up was hunting. Ah Ji and I initially thought that you harbored ill intentions towards her. It seems that I have misunderstood you.


    Maji then paused, lighting up another cigarette.


    I havee across many men in this life. Most of the ones I know have a dick in ce of their brains. Although they would instantly fall for women who showed fondness towards them, the ending is usually the same. Waking up in the morning, feeling an empty space beside you, finding out that you have been left all alone in the bedroom. Such is the nature of men, right?��


    ��So, you guys have finally agreed to send me to the back of the battlefield?�� asked Zhang Heng as he ignored her rambling.


    ��About that... I must apologize. It��s simply not possible. I didn��t exactly lie about everything thest time we talked. Compared to the Soviet military, we severelyck skilled fighters. Since you are all dandy and healthy, you turn up as a perfect add-on to the force!��


    ��....��


    ��Don��t worry,�� Maji assured him. ��I will help you solve your gun problem. Later on, I will see who has remained at the base camp. Weller and his team just came back yesterday, so I don��t think they are heading out today. They should have plenty of time to give you a few shooting lessonster. However, I feel they don��t like you too much. How about Mike? I wonder if he��s here right now.��


    Suddenly, the door was pushed open. Simone was barged in and whispered something in Finnish to Maji, leaving her startled. She then turned around, rying to Zhang Heng what Simone just told her.


    ��Simone told me that she wants to be the one that teaches you how to shoot better!�� Maji whispered while smiling slyly.


    This amazed him. Considering how he had just let his tongue slip, her heart would have been broken, much less willing to teach him anything.


    ��Is she even okay?��


    ��Are you doubting my medical skills? This is the fifth day. She��ll be fine as long as she does not overexert herself,�� grumbled Maji with one of her eyebrows twitched.


    Of course, Zhang Heng would not reject the offer. He knew that it was challenging to find someone good to teach him. Earlier, all Oher did was summarize the entire course of shooting better. When he was practicing, he encountered a new problem. He did not approach Oher to ask about it, though.


    And this was not the 21st century. He couldn��t just simply get on Baidu or watch a bunch of online tutorials to help to shoot better.


    It was undeniably that Simone shot as good as she looked. Zhang Heng personally witnessed her exterminating two Soviet scout teams on her own, never once needing a second bullet to kill her target. It was all a one shot one kill business. It was hard to believe that she acquired such great skills, even at such a young age. Zhang Heng grew more and more curious about the girl��s origins, of how she got so bloody good at what she did.


    Simone was the kind of girl that took her own sweet time. Since she happened to be dressed and he had a rifle with him, they all proceeded to his secret shooting range.


    ��Both of you. Spare my life, please. I haven��t even had my breakfast yet,��mented Maji.


    ...


    Zhang Heng was shocked to see Oher giving Simone bullets every single time she asked for it. She must have contributed a great deal to the war effort. Simone was known to continually empty the already limited armory of ammo. Poor Oher had to hide somece whenever she came asking for more.


    Unfortunately, the base camp was more like small confinement. Oher had to cook for everyone every day, so it wasn��t hard for Simone to find him. In the end, due to the shortage, he had to increase its price. Right now, ammunition had turned into the most valuable loot for all the gueri members.


    This week alone, Zhang Heng had lost count of how many bullets he had fired. This was the first time he experienced the joy of unlimited rounds.


    Right now, he was lying low on the snow-covered ground as he controlled his breathing. He had his rifle loaded and aimed for the target 30 meters away from him.


    Without hesitation, he pulled the trigger! Secondster, there was a loud thunk as the metal cup on the wooden block was sent flying. Zhang Heng then heard a notification.


    [Acquired new skill �C shooting: LV 0]


    This was the very first time he managed to learn an entirely new skill set in such a short period of time. All in all, it had only taken him the better half of a week. However, it seemed like Simone was displeased with his progress. She took out her rifle, cocked it, and pulled the trigger. The bulletnded on the tiny matchbox located 120 meters away from them! The best part, it took her only two seconds to hit her target.


    ��....��


    Zhang Heng was left tongue-tied. There was still a gaping gap between them. Without a scope, it was hard for Zhang Heng tond a shot on his target. He had no idea how Simone managed tond an urate shot that was so far away from them.


    Her dexterity and speed were simply too impressive. When a sniper went against another sniper, speed was the factor that decided who lived or died. If Simone was his enemy, Zhang Heng knew that she would have killed him before he even picked up his gun.

 Chapter 71 - The Mannerheim Line Welcomes You

    <strong>Chapter 71: The Mannerheim Line Wees You XIII</strong>


    Though Zhang Heng spent most of his time brushing up his shooting, he made sure that he would not neglect snowboarding as well. Unfortunately, training on the snowboard didn��t go as smoothly as the shooting practice. Simone��s snowboarding skill was decent, but it didn��te close to her shooting skills. Besides, as she was still recovering from her injuries, it was a terrible idea for her to do such vigorous exercise. Hence, she sat it out most of the time and watched Zhang Heng practice instead.


    Maji stayed with them for only two days. After that, she grew impatient and bored with the trantor job. Before they even realized it, Maji had already made a quick escape, running to deal with other more pressing matters.


    Luckily, Zhang Heng and Simone only needed tomunicate with each other during training. Though they did not share amonnguage, hand signals were sufficient for Zhang Heng to understand most of her instructions. Most of the time, there was an awkward silence between them.


    Simone would watch Zhang Heng from the side when he practiced shooting. It was almost always freezing, up here in the north. As a snowkended on her nose tip, she could not help but sneeze.


    .....


    Along with that, Zhang Heng found out that Simone had started to learn English from Maji. Ironically, the first sentence that she learned was, ��can you kiss me?��.


    So, the next morning, as Zhang Heng was brushing his teeth, he suddenly heard Simone��s first English words.


    Shocked and taken aback, he almost swallowed the toothpaste in his mouth when he heard Simone asking him to kiss her! Later on, he discovered that Simone actually intended to say ��good morning�� to him. Undoubtedly, only Maji could fool around with her in such a silly way.


    Zhang Heng himself wanted to learn Finnish as well. After all, it was never a bad idea to learn a newnguage. Besides, he couldmunicate with the people around him.


    However, there were very few consonants in Finnish. Instead, it had long words, rich vowels, and veryplicated grammar, little wonder why it was considered as one of the hardestnguages to master. With all things considered, this seemed to be the wrong time to learn a newnguage, a very hard one at that. In order to survive the war, he first had to improve his shooting and snowboarding prowess.


    Of course, it wasn��t impossible for him to learn if he put his heart into it. He soon realized that there were some crucial words that had to be acquired instantly. Words like ��open fire, ceasefire, retreat, and, cover�� were critical on the battlefield.


    So here he was, trying to learn some words that were frequently used daily. Although such a short time would prove impossible for him toe up with full sentences, a single word would surely help a lot to express what he was trying to say. Maji naturally became the busiest person in the base camp, having to teach Simone English and Zhang Heng Finnish at the same time while being the doctor as well.


    The good thing here was that Zhang Heng was very productive by nature. He transformed from a man who had never held a gun in his life to a lethal mercenary that could shoot urately. At the same time, he snowboarded well now, swiftly sliding through the icynds like a white phantom.


    He had undoubtedly improved by leaps and bounds during this period. Though he still couldn��t bepared to a full-blown Finnish gueri, most members, including Maji, were secretly impressed by his rapid improvement.


    Simone��s good teaching contributed most to his improvement. As Zhang Heng had previously spent a great deal of time honing his archery skills, he had a good grasp of the basics of aiming. Regretfully, his goal of getting his shooting and snowboarding to Level 1 seemed impossible to achieve.


    On his 13th day here, something that was bound to happen finally took ce.


    Simone had almost fully recovered from her wounds. If it was not for Zhang Heng, she would have left the base camp three days ago. In order to make sure he received the best training, she elected to stay behind for a few more days.


    Today was the day that the gueri troops received a message from the vigers nearby, informing them that a toon of Soviet soldiers rushing somewhere had been spotted. Immediately, Ah Ji summoned all the avable gueris to discuss taking out the troops. Predictably, every single one of them concurred. Simone, too, had asked for approval to join this mission.


    Zhang Heng did not attend the meeting but sensed that the gueri members were filled with excitement. All of them were cleaning their weapons, checking their backpacks, and discussing strategies. Clearly, the atmosphere at the base camp had changed. Even lunch was a lot better than the usual.


    Simone then told Zhang Heng in English that they were about to go on a mission. In turn, Zhang Heng replied to her in Finnish. Both of them looked for Oher, managing to im four days�� worth of ammunition and supplies. As a bonus, Zhang Heng was presented with a set of camouged attire as well. He no longer needed to wear that rather unsightly khaki-colored Soviet uniform.


    It would be a lie to say that Zhang Heng was not nervous. After all, he was about to enter an active warzone.


    He was different from all those gueris, having nothing against the Soviets. Whether he wanted it or not, though, he would soon be dipping his hands into ake filled with Soviet blood. Wars were merciless. Everyone involved in such brutal acts against each other would eventually be forced to do something they never intended to.


    Zhang Heng stuffed the toiletries and a roll of bandage into his backpack. These items were separated from the dried meat and vegetables. Simone was worried about his mental state. While packing, she kept peeping at him, worried that the rookie would somehow break down and desert the for.


    However, it seemed that Zhang Heng was strangely serene; his mood no different from going for a training session. Her worries slowly subsided.


    .....


    This ce was no cozy study room.


    This ce was not a quiet library that was flooded with sunlight.


    Zhang Heng wished he couldfortably sprawl on a sofa in some quiet ce to prepare his mind for the rigors of war. Unless he shared the same fate with Desmond Doss, most people would only get one of two endings on a battlefield.


    To kill or be killed.


    This had nothing to do with moral codes. Survival was the priority here.


    Zhang Heng slung his snowboard and the M28 at his back. Simone was waiting at the entrance when he opened the door. As she saw him, she hesitated before mustering enough courage to give him a one-second hug.


    ��Don��t worry. I will protect you,�� said Simone.


    A strange sensation overwhelmed Zhang Heng, this being the first time a girl had said such a thing to him. And the weirdest part was, he found it really hard to refuse her. In the end, he nodded his head and replied, ��me too.��


    Both of them did not leave for the mission when the other gueris did. This was only because Simone was used to acting alone. In her younger days, she was trained to hunt by herself. Even after joining the gueris, she never wanted to partner with others as well. To ensure Zhang Heng would survive till the end of this war, she broke her lone-shooter chastity for the first time and requested him as her partner.


    Still, she was not used to being with someone else. While they were on the road, Simone walked briskly and was ahead of Zhang Heng. Soon, a one-meter distance drew between the two of them.


    Night had fallen, and the temperature had fallen by tens of degrees.


    Before long, Zhang Heng notified Simone that it was time for dinner. After living dested on an ind for a year and a half, Zhang Heng��s cooking had improved a lot. When it came to the simple ingredients that they had, he could transform them into something delicious. Hence, he volunteered to start the fire to cook for the two of them.


    As she stared at the hynotizing mes, Simone zoned out. Suddenly, she thought of something and her face turned red. Initially, she had just sat there quietly, but right now, she found it really hard to sit still. Fumbling, she showed Zhang Heng a hand signal, indicating that she should check out their surroundings first.


    Clearly, it didn��t seem like a valid excuse as they had just left the base camp not too long ago. There was still some distance between them and the Soviets. Other than trees and deer around them, there were no other living beings along a ten-mile radius. Perhaps this strange silence was the reason Simone felt so uneasy.

 Chapter 72 - The Mannerheim Line Welcomes You

    <strong>Chapter 72: The Mannerheim Line Wees You XV</strong>


    The night went by peacefully.


    On the afternoon of the second day, Simone found the footprints of Soviet soldiers. It seemed like they just passed here yesterday. ording to the prints, there should be around 100 to 200 people. There were also tracks all over the ground left behind by wheels of some kind. It was a high possibility that they dragged along heavy machine guns with them..


    After snowboarding for the entire afternoon, they finally got close to their targets just before sundown. It seemed that the Soviets moved at a snail��s pace. Considering that the snow on the ground was half a meter thick, it was extremely hard for soldiers and horses to move around as they pleased.


    When the terrain got too tough, the soldiers would be forced to free the stuck carts, heaving and pushing with whatever little strength they had left. Thebination of poor weather and bad news from the frontlines took a big hit on the soldiers�� morale. They were supposed to carry out the attack in 16 days, but had failed miserably in doing so. If Zhang Heng remembered correctly, most of the Soviet troops would be eventually eliminated by the Finnish gueris.


    Every single frontline soldier sent to Find by the Soviets had been overwhelmed by fear. Typically, soldiers that left their homnd to fight a war abroad would be left with very low morale . Despite the Soviets�� best attempts to boost their spirits, the results turned out a lot worse than expected. After the purge, some experienced mid and high-ranking officers were either executed on the spot or sent to Siberian ggs.


    Most of the young officers that were promoted had just graduated from military college. Their loyalty toward their homnd was unquestionable. Like brainwashed zombies, they had only one purpose, and that was to follow orders. These were perfect for battles that required cannon fodder, or ones that required little thinking but rather, a mass horde of killing machines. Right now, they were facing problems from all directions, with their young officers not knowing how to handle their dejected subordinates.


    After checking the soldiers out with a pair of binocrs, Simone passed it to Zhang Heng. What she saw was a ssic Soviet military formation. There were around 150 people in total, where the frontline was made up of three rows of foot soldiers equipped with 12 light machine guns, two heavy machine guns, and then, some grenade dischargers that looked like spades. Most were using the M1891 Mosin-Nagant. For a long time, this rifle was a signature weapon of the Soviets.


    In terms of firepower, it was rather potent, especially the Maxim heavy machine gun. In theory, it could shoot up to 600 rounds per minute, powerful enough to shoot down flying airnes.


    Zhang Heng was worried that the reflection of the binocrs might give away their location, only taking short nces in between. Both him and the sniper decided it was best to retreat for now, only returningter that night. Simone had already started to bury herself with the snow around her. She then signaled him with her hand asking him to retreat first.


    For the past week, they had been training together, and he thought that he knew how excellent her shooting skills were. He could not help but take a deep breath when he found out about her intentions. Seven hundred metersy between them and the targets. If one used the sight bead to aim at a target three hundred meters away, the red dot in the scope would berger than the target. Five hundred meters was considered the maximum distance a shooter could urately discern it. It was practically impossible to take out a person that was 700 meters away! Zhang Heng had no idea what kind of sniper could achieve such a great feat.


    The one thing he knew was that he had to trust his partner with everything he had,e what may. As he mulled over those thoughts in amazement, Zhang Heng carried both of their snowboards one mile from where Simone hid.


    He heard a gunshot the moment hey down. Right after that, loud chaos broke out among the Soviets! Although he could not see what had happened from his distance, he could imagine how terrifying a situation they must be in.


    The first thing they would do was to lie t on the ground and attempt to locate the sniper. Unfortunately, no one would have expected that shot actually came from 700 meters away! After a short back and forth of crossfire, the Soviets had enough. They loaded their Maxim heavy machine guns and grenadeunchers at the same time. As the powerful cannon started its assault, the sound of the M28 was utterly drowned out. They would never be able to locate where Simone was.


    This kind of battle had a significant impact on a soldier��s morale. Simone could only kill one person each time she fired, and the overpowered Soviets were enough to destroy the entire Milky Way. Despite having the big guns, despair eventually subjugated them. Their firepower was deemed useless when they faced an invisible sniper that was a good 700 meters away from them.


    Like a rampant gue, fear had started to spread among the ranks of the Soviets.


    The shooting finally came to a stop five minutester. Some soldiers were still holding up their rifles, cautiously scanning their surroundings. The fear of dying at any moment began to fester in them. From the beginning till the end, they had not located the lone sniper. However, some stray bullets stillnded at Simone��s hideout. Zhang Heng was incredibly worried that she might have been shot.


    Thankfully, he soon saw Simone approaching him and was filled with relief.


    Nothing had changed on Simone, except for her rapid breathing. She then spat out some snow from her mouth and drew the number ��12�� in the air with her finger. In total, Simone used 30 bullets, and she managed to kill one with every three shots. The kill count might not be impressive, but if one considered the fact that she killed enemies that were 700 meters away from her, it was nothing less than a miraculous feat. Her main target were the ones on the heavy machine guns, killing almost 7 out of the 14 gunners. She even managed to kill an officer right before he threw a grenade at her!


    While the Soviets were blinded by chaos, Zhang Heng and Simone managed to increase the distance between them. And this was how Zhang Heng��s shootout ended. Throughout the entire stint, he did not fire a single bullet. He was just an observer, witnessing his partner killing their enemies. Simone, on the other hand, did not look too excited about her recent achievement.


    ..........


    There was still half an hour left before the sky turned dark. Simone had no ns to waste any second, so they quickly switched to another spot. She then carried on with the unfinished business, ticking off the rest of the enemies one after another. There was nothing the Soviets could do about her. They had the numbers, but if they deployed all 100 soldiers to search the forest, it would only be easier for Simone to pick them off one by one. Only a sniper could kill a sniper. A heavy machine gun was basically useless right now.


    This was the problem that the Sovietmanders could never solve throughout the duration of the winter war. Unfortunately, they did not realize how valuable a sniper would be during that period. Thus, they paid the hefty price of hundreds of thousands of souls before they established their own sniper brigade.


    Many yearster, though, the Soviet Union would eventually be the country with the most snipers. In the battle with the Nazis, they had snipers deployed at every single, crevasse, rooftop, and ruin in the city.

 Chapter 73 - The Mannerheim Line Welcomes You

    <h4>Chapter 73: The Mannerheim Line Wees You XV</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    The surprise attack threw the entire Soviet troops into a disorganized chaos. However, this was not the end of it. Their nightmare was officially set to begin that night. During the nighttime, visibility had significantly reduced, making it a lot harder for the troops to spot the gueri members hiding in the forest. Without a visible target, they would not know where to fire.


    After an entire day of traveling on foot, most of the soldiers were famished and fatigued. Usually, during this hour, they would start to prepare and cook their dinner. Nothing was usual about this time as there was a sharp-shooting reaper hiding in the dark �C getting ready to harvest their souls, one bullet at a time. There were many dead bodies lying beside them, courtesy of the sniper, discouraging them from starting a fire to cook.


    Moments like these disyed the weakness of the young and inexperiencedmanding officer. He did not know if he should fortify the ce in anticipation of backup, or simply take off and never look back. Sadly for them, another force of gueris soon arrived, surrounding them. Then, with a merciless blow,unched the second wave of attacks on this unlucky Soviet brigade.


    The gueris with their submachine guns snowboarded their way in the dark forest right to the heart of the enemy base camp. The moment they saw the Soviets, they started to open fire! Though there were only 20 of them, their courage and blitz attack had caught the Soviets off-guard. Besides, Simone had taken care of two teams of their machine gunners. It was soon apparent that the reaction of the rest of the soldiers was a lot slower. In their mess and confusion, the gueris had already finished shooting. By that time, the gueris had left with their snowboards and turned to other locations to strike other brigades.


    Still, two gueris got hit, where one of them was shot in the head, falling off from his snowboard. Another one was shot in the shoulder, but he managed to escape in the end. As for Simone, she had her rifle locked and loaded. Usually, she would start opening fire at single targets when the other guerisunched their attacks. Once the surprise attack was over, she had killed another eight enemies. Thebination of an invisible super-shooter and the Baltic ferociousness of the Finnish had managed topletely devastate the morale among the Soviet ranks.


    Within three minutes, another 20 dead bodies piled up on the ground, and 30 soldiers were severely wounded. Amongst these, seven were critical, choking, and bleeding out. It seemed they would not pull through the night. As for the rest, there was no way they would make their way to any battlefield without receiving medical attention. However, they would best forget their intentions, considering the agonized wails and screams of the decapitated conscripts.


    The Soviets were already in extreme distress when the gueri attacked earlier. In order to save ammo and avoid friendly fire, they retreated, for now, halting the attack and hiding out in the forest to wait for the perfect moment to strike again.


    They were like predators stalking their prey from agar. Though the Soviets greatly outnumbered and had a lot more firepower than the gueris, it did little to affect them. To them, the Soviets were simply dead mean on the chopping board. Since Find was located far up north near the Artic, they had very long nights and only a few hours of daylight. They were ustomed to the dark, having honed their skills in the nights. This proved a great advantage to them when overpowering the uninitiated vs.


    Zhang Heng and Simone too retreated to a safe ce. They even found a little time to have dinner. Of course, in order to stay hidden, there was no fire. Perhaps the food was undercooked, hence its rather unsavory nature. After a short while, they saw someone gliding towards them on a snowboard. The man passed, creating a cloud trail of snow and frost behind him.


    Zhang Heng recognized the man. He was the same one who had brought him back to base camp with a submachine gun pointed at him. After spending some time at the base camp, Zhang Heng got to know his name as well. He was called Weller and was the one most hostile towards Zhang Heng.


    He must have followed the signs Simone had left on the path when she moved here. Zhang Heng could roughly guess that he was here to discuss the time for the next round of attacks. The ssh of snow and ice was an attempt to show off his skills to Zhang Heng, raising his eyebrows in intimidation, as if courting a challenge. He even cocked his machine gun, swung it around, and tauntingly red at Zhang Heng.


    Just as Zhang Heng was about to react to that, Simone quickly stood up with her M28. She seemed akin to a lioness protecting her cub, which was Zhang Heng. Naturally, Zhang Heng was not pleased by her response. He muttered a few words and left with his snowboard.


    ��...........��


    Zhang Heng felt that there was something terribly wrong about all this. The longer he stayed with Simone, the stronger this bad feeling got. Actually, it was not that hard to deal with a simple-minded brute like Weller. He was the same kind as Cheng Cheng �C a man-child.


    Though Weller had a strong dislike towards Zhang Heng, he had not done anything overboard so far. At most, he wouldugh at him with his friends when Zhang Heng passed him by. Sometimes, he would even wear Zhang Heng��s undercoat and deliberately walk in front of him. He had repeatedly done this, hoping to encourage a response. From time to time, he would re at Zhang Heng with hatred, even spitting on the ground as a sign of disgust. With Zhang Heng looking away, he would often chuckle in satisfaction.


    After that, Zhang Heng got to know that Weller was married with two kids. His affection for Simone was more of admiration, an infatuation. He was green with jealousy when his crush hung out with Zhang Heng all the time. The best way to deal with these types was to do nothing at all about it. As time passed, he would have to ept that this was something that he could not change.


    The way Simone red at him just now would definitely trigger his rebellious personality.


    Of course, Zhang Heng did not me her for that. After all, nobody forced her, and she did it all out of good intentions. As long as she could remember, she had been staying with her great grandfather. Undoubtedly, more straightforward than Weller. As for a woman like Maji, Zhang Heng could never know what went through her mind. She had a natural ir for stage ys. Sometimes, she even acted so well that Zhang Heng could not help but believe whatever she said. She was a true femme fatale, and that was why Zhang Heng still did not trust her wholeheartedly.


    ......


    40 minutester, the guerisunched their third wave of attacks.


    This time, the employed different tactics, not striking at them directly. Instead, they had two snipers picking them off from afar. This allowed them to draw fire away from the rest of the gueris. While the Soviets were busy shooting at the sniper, the other gueri members would appear out of nowhere and strike the distracted soldiers.


    Simone had her priority on the heavy machine gunners. At the same time, Zhang Heng had also let off a couple of shots as well. These targets were a lot further away than the ones in his training sessions. He did not know if he had made any kills before suddenly...


    A notification!


    [Sessfully killed an enemy. Game Points: +5. For more information, please check your character panel]


    Was that a lucky shot, or did he really kill the one he aimed for?

 Chapter 74 - The Mannerheim Line Welcomes You

    <h4>Chapter 74: The Mannerheim Line Wees You XVI</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    After killing over 20 people and amander, the Soviets hadpletely lost the will to fight. Some of them surrendered their weapons and begged for their lives, and some tried to run away. The gueris left a couple of fighters around to keep an eye on the deserters, while some others went into the forest to look for the runaways.


    Zhang Heng was not interested in these things that spilled blood. However, he knew that his first fight was the only time to prove his loyalty to the gueri force. The way he acted upon the Soviets today would determine how the Finnish would treat him tomorrow. So, Zhang Heng followed right behind them and shot those who were on the run. It looked like good target practice as well, trying to strike moving runners and all.


    A gun-powdery half an hourter, the fight was finally over. All in all, a total of seven soldiers managed to escape. As for the rest of them, they were either captured or killed. This meant that an entire Soviet brigade had been eliminated. As for the gueris, there were a total of two dead. One suffered substantial injuries, and four had flesh wounds, but nothing too serious.


    As for the fallen Finnish, one got shot directly in the head during the first wave of attack, and the second was killed while in pursuit of the enemy. Though the gueris eventually killed their killers in revenge, it was impossible to bring their dead allies back to life.


    After that, Weller led a few of his people to scout the battlefield and make an inventory of the spoils the had looted from the Soviets. A few of the gueri even looked excited, as if kids on a demented treasure hunt, looking ever excited at their new possessions. To the captured Soviets, each second that passed was hell, growing more anxious and panic-stricken. They had no idea what was going to happen to them.


    The Geneva Convention saw a way to treat prisoners of war with humanity. Unsurprisingly, the Soviets wanted no part of it in World War II. With that being said, Zhang Heng had never seen prisoners of war back at the base camp. It was simply not economically viable for gueris to keep them alive, not to mention not having the numbers to control a riot if a huge fight broke out.


    This time, they captured a total of 40 prisoners, and at least four to five gueris would be needed to escort them back to the base. Considering that they needed to deal with those that were injured, the possibility of crossing paths with other Soviets, and the possibility of the prisoners escaping, it still seemed unwise to bring them home.


    In an attempt to exert superiority, some of the gueris had brought over two Maxim Heavy Machine Guns and pointed them at the prisoners, leaving them writhing and trembling. Some even wet their pants and started to cry in fear. All their weapons had been confiscated, and it seemed all but toote for these unfortunate souls.


    Zhang Heng had no intention to witness all the killing, not forgetting to leave the confiscated guns and valuable items as well. All he did was pick up ammunition. After filling his backpack, he left the ce with Simone.


    As they were leaving, the loud rattle of heavy machine guns filled the air. Horrible screams of men doomed to their fate echoed painfully, leaving the forests engulfed in a veil of death and blood. It didn��tst too long, though, as before long, silence embraced the dark woods once again.


    ........


    Before meeting Simone, Zhang Heng had experienced two fights. Hence, this was not his first time seeing bodies and parts scattered all around the floor. His calm reaction had left many befuddled. Throughout the entire battle, Zhang Heng did not drag anyone��s feet and made no mistakes as well.


    This had caused many gueris to change the way they looked at him, their impressions greatly improving. They no longer treated him like he was invisible. A lot of them remembered that they, too, performed poorly in their early days of battle. Except for Weller and gang of best friends, the rest of the gueri members had gradually epted Zhang Heng as one of their own.


    With only two casualties, the gueris had managed to decimate an entire brigade of Soviets. It was to be considered a stunning victory. At the same time, the spoils of battle this time was a lot better than expected. In total, they had raked in a dozen light machine guns, two heavy machine guns, significant numbers of rifles, and together with them, the all-too-precious bullets.


    With all the new injection of weapons, Oher��s problem was partially solved.


    Morale in the base camp ran high. Weller was locked in a noisy arm-wrestling battle with a few young men, no surprise there for the brutish Finn. There was a carnival atmosphere of sorts, with many drinking heartily and wagering bets on card games at the same time.


    When Zhang Heng entered the storeroom, he saw a new wooden bed, with a handsome pile of daily supplies beside it.


    ��Aren��t you going to join them?��


    Maji suddenly materialized at the door like a specter. She leaned her curvy hips on the wooden door as she lit up a cigarette. She had just stitched up a 5-inch gash in the leg of a wounded gueri, leaving her cor with the cliche bloodstains of a war doctor.


    ��No,�� answered Zhang Heng politely.


    ��Do you think that they will all die on the battlefield soon?�� she asked, looking at him with soulful but emotionless eyes.


    ��...��


    Zhang Heng did not know how to answer her. He knew he had to be cautious when she talked to the crafty Maji. She could read him like an open children��s book.


    ��What is it that you��re afraid of? Doesn��t the entire Europe think the same bloody way? Even an idiot will know who the winner of this war will be. But that��s all in the future anyway. Right now, enjoy each day as if it��s yourst!��


    Zhang Heng did not say anything else after that, probably because he was the only one that knew that ending of this war. Having the knowledge of how a movie ended was like a spoiler, and this one didn��t have the best of endings. He knew how this one ended. After all, a man out of time like him didn��t share those deep-set goas, which defined the cause of the gueris. He just wanted to survive in this cruel environment.


    ��Anyway, Ah Ji wants to tell you something. He said you did a good job. We treat our own well, and since you are part of us now, we will not allow you to suffer. Initially, we wanted to house you with the others, but it seems you prefer to be alone.��


    ��This ce is good enough. No need for any changes.��


    For him, it was pointless staying with the others as he could not speak in Finnish. Silence would suit him better for now. Besides, as a rookie, he needed to wake up early to catch up with what the others new. Shooting near a horde of sleeping Finns didn��t sound like the brightest idea.


    Sighing, Maji nodded her head, encouraged him, and left after that.


    Zhang Heng ced his snowboard at the corner of the wall before opening up his backpack. The loot of bullets fell to the ground as he unzipped the bag. In total, he had received 513 rounds from the fight, enough for many many sessions of shooting practice. After witnessing Simone��s incredible aiming,


    Zhang Heng was filled with a strong desire to improve himself. To a sniper, distance meant safety.

 Chapter 75 - The Mannerheim Line Welcomes You

    <h4>Chapter 75: The Mannerheim Line Wees You XVII</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    Zhang Hengy on the snow-covered ground for half an hour. He was holding his M28 and had its stock resting on his shoulder. The weather today was so cold that his fingers were frozen. Though he managed to stay calm, throughout most of the bad days here, he started to doubt if he couldplete today��s training.


    This was this 79th day in this world. The mission��s dateline had passed, but the extra 24 hours he had each day graciously extended his mission to a total of 140 days. The good news was that the war was about to end soon.


    Basically, the winter war between the Soviet Union and Find had two different phases. The first phase began on the 30th of November, 1939. The Soviets were divided into four teams and attacked Find from all four directions. Undeniably, the attack ended badly for the Soviet Union, for after a long and hard battle, they only managed to conquer the northern tip of Find. As for the other three directions, they suffered high losses. In the end, they were forced to retreat, returning to their homnd to conscript new soldiers.


    It was during that time that Find had managed to devastate the great Soviet Union. This was notably evident at the battle at Karelian Isthmus, where the Soviets failed to break through the Mannerheim Line that Find had maintained for a couple of decades. No matter how hard they tried, the Soviets were unable to figure out the foxy defense of Finnish. After paying the terrible price of thousands of lives, they only managed to prate 20km into their defensive line.


    That January, things started to get a lot worse. The Red Army came up with the Northwestern Front, a Soviet military formation at Karelian Isthmus, assigning a Marshall called Semyon Timoshenko as themander. In total, there were field armies made up of the 21st infantry division and six tank brigades. The entire force was ordered to focus their fire on the Mannerheim Line. During that time, Find��s military was sorelycking, having shortages of personnel, heavy weapons, and ammunition. Soon, these problems were exposed.


    Recently, the frontline sent arge number of emergency reports to the gueri base camp. For now, they had nothing to do with Zhang Heng. He had been through around 20 battles throughout his time here. Every single day, he had to put his life on the line.


    The battles gradually got harder aspared to his first mission. There were a few times he almost got himself killed even though trying his best to be extra cautious of his surroundings. The closest call he had was when a grenadended right in front of him! One wouldn��t doubt the luck a Rabbit Foot could grant, as, in the end, the grenade did not explode, and Zhang Heng got to live to see another day.


    Many surprises and unforeseen circumstances urred on a battlefield. Being extra careful did not guarantee that you got to keep your life. The tremendous stress that he was put under recently had driven him to improve his snowboarding and shooting skills faster than he could have before this.


    This was especially true for thetter. Within a month, Zhang Heng��s shooting skill had climbed, and he was now at LV 1. If he kept going at this rate, he might just be able to scrape LV 2 next month. Right now, he had an 80% chance tond a critical shot at a target 200 meters away from him. And shooting distance was not his only improvement.


    All the while, Simone had been trying to help Zhang Heng improve the quality of his snipership on the whole and a heightened warzone awareness that he had to have. Indeed, he was getting a lot better with each passing day, thanks to her dedication and perseverance.


    At the moment, Simone was attempting to sharpen Zhang Heng��s observation skills. Earlier, she had deployed traps and managed to capture five weasels. After that, Simone made a mark on them before releasing them back to the wild. Zhang Heng was supposed to capture three out of five toplete the task.


    Sporting white fur, they were extremely difficult to spot on the snow-covered ground. To make things worse, the rodents were usually cautious of their surroundings. After searching for a continuous half an hour, Zhang Heng finally found one and put a bullet in it! There were still four to go, with Zhang Heng having a hunch that they had probably escaped by now.


    Ten minutester, he spotted another weasel on a ridge. However, Zhang Heng was quite some distance away from his target, but he knew that if he waited any longer, he would surely lose the elusive animal. Immediately, he pulled the trigger! Unfortunately, the freezing cold had diminished his uracy. Instead of hitting it, he simply scared it away.


    Zhang Heng shook his head and put away his rifle in frustration, feeling like giving up. He then saw Simone sitting beside the fire, deep in thought. For the entire week, the gueris were all on a sabbatical, having no war to fight. They had to wait until the Karelian Isthmus war ended before they resumed what they usually did. To be precise, Find had to wait it out until other nations came to their rescue.


    Ennd and France had promised that they would send their forces to help Find defends against the Soviets. As for Switzend and Norway, they had made it clear that they wouldn��t be involved. Germany, too, mentioned that they had no intention to get involved in this war. Judging the current circumstances, they wouldn��t be able to hold on until help arrived.


    At the same time, Finish foreign affairs had been engaging with the Soviets. Unfortunately, Soviet demands were often unreasonable and outrageous, often making small ransoms for an even lower request.


    February soon arrived. The longer the war dragged, the worse the weather became. As Zhang Heng wasn��t involved in the war, and as an outsider, he had no concern about the oue. To Simone, however, her country was about to be conquered. He could feel how down she must have gotten, knowing that a foreign force was about to colonize the homnd she knew all her life. Things would never be the same again.


    Sadly, even if he became as good a sniper as Simone, there was no way Zhang Heng could change the results of the war.


    The only thing that he could do right now was to cheer her up, perhaps offer a shoulder or two. It was the best he could offer.


    SPLAT!


    A snowball suddenlynded on Simone��s back. Immediately, she turned around to see what was going on. At the same time, the second snowballnded on her arm! yfully, she rolled up her snowball in retaliation!


    A perfectly round snowballnded perfectly on Zhang Heng��s chest. Such was the deadly uracy of a masterful sniper. Zhang Heng then tossed two snowballs at Simone, who managed to dodge one with the othernding on her neck. She could not help but shiver as the snow fell under her clothes. This snowball fight had triggered the gods of rivalry within her!


    Snowballs flew everywhere, with hints ofughter, bringing Simone a much-needed reprieve from the bitter horrors of human war. Everyone, no matter who won or lost, was a casualty.


    ......


    It wasn��t before the night that the two of them returned to base camp. As Zhang Heng was about to boil some water to shower, he saw Maji when he walked towards his cottage.


    ��The two of you came back quitete today,�� she teased.


    ��Is there something I can help you with?��


    ��Things are getting really bad at Karelian Isthmus. The Soviets managed to break through the first line of defense. Rumor is that the higher authorities are about to fulfill the demands of the Soviet Union! The war will being to an end soon. Ah Ji wants to talk to you about it. Are you avable now?��

 Chapter 76 - The Mannerheim Line Welcomes You

    <h4>Chapter 76: The Mannerheim Line Wees You XVIII</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    Zhang Heng put on his clothes and followed the doctor to where Ah Ji��s residence. When he opened the door, Ah Ji was sitting on the table with a small knife while trimming the tip of a cigar.


    ��Wee! Friend of Find! Freedom fighter! My yellow-skinned friend!�� he eximed with his arms open.


    Zhang Heng was invited to sit in front of Ah Ji. He had little contact with the guerimander for the past two months. Thest time he walked into this cottage was during his first arrival. He still remembered that themander left after speaking a few sentences, and Maji was the one who talked to him after that. Zhang Heng had no idea why themander would want to talk to him now.


    Ah Ji put his cigar aside and produced a bottle of vodka under his table. It had been confiscated from one of the Soviet troops with only half a bottle left. Maji then took out three sses and filled them up.


    ��Actually, I want to thank you for what you have done for us. Thank you for everything that you have done for the past two months. During our darkest, most harrowing moments, you have graciously picked up arms, and fought by our side. I want you to know that you have helped us protect our country. It��s just too bad you��re not Finnish, or our country would have decorated you with medals.��


    Zhang Heng simply nodded as he bottomed up the cup of vodka, allowing themander to finish.


    ��You should know that the war ising to an end soon. What do you n to do when the war is over?��


    Zhang Heng calcted that he had about a month left before the war ended. Right until now, he had umted a total of 23 points. These were all the result of spotting a gueri base camp, killing an enemy, using a Molotov cocktail to destroy a tank, sessfully killing amander, and acquiring ten bullet-shaped lighters. Indeed, some of these milestones were a bit on the weird side.


    Based on his primary mission, all he needed to do was to survive Find for 20 days. Technically speaking, he wasn��t required to stay here any longer. If possible, Zhang Heng wanted to travel to Ennd or America. These two countries were considered some of the safest countries to be in during World War II.


    Although they did send throngs of troops to fight in other countries, their homnds were free from attacks. For Zhang Heng to be travel to these two countries, the guerimander had to first release him. Besides, the war wasing to an end. It was pointless keeping a foreigner here.


    Zhang Heng had been telling everyone how much he wanted to return to his hometown but had never told anyone about his intentions of going to Ennd or America.


    Themander and Maji looked at each other, cing down their sses at the same time.


    ��We pointed our guns at the same enemy. I��m going to be honest with you here. We will always believe in you no matter what happens since you are one of us. However, some of them do not think in the same way.��


    ��What do you mean by that?��


    ��You were spotted by the soldier that provides our ammunition. They are worried you might leak out information about us to others.��


    ��For example?��


    ��For example, the way we deal with our war prisoners. You know... we do what we have to do. However, when such matters spread, I��m afraid it might affect us in a bad way. Considering that foreign affairs are negotiating with the Soviet Union, this is a very sensitive time. Such information must be top-secret, by hook or by crook,�� answered Maji while taking over the cigar handed by themander.


    In a surprising turn of events, themander then drew a pistol from his pocket and pointed at Zhang Heng!


    Immediately, the atmosphere in the room tensed. After a short while, themander put down the gun on the table.


    ��Good news is we know what kind of person you are. For me, I know in my heart that you will not leak such intel to others. What we are about to do next is going to be very simple. We just need to figure out a way to change the minds of those who distrust you.��


    ��What do you guys want me to do, huh? Assassinate Semyon Timoshenko?��


    Zhang Heng��s steady control of his emotions managed to impress Maji and Ah Ji. Considering that a gun had just been pointed to him point-nk, they expected him to have an outburst by now.


    He had contributed a lot to the gueri base camp with Simone, undeniably presenting impable performance through the trenches of war. Right now, themander had just turned on him, and Zhang Heng could still control his anger. His character was truly impressive.


    In actual fact, Zhang Heng wasn��t as calm as he looked. He just realized that he had made a huge mistake.


    It was not as simple as a video game. The moment he chose to be part of the gueri force, he knew that no one would fully trust him, mainly because of his ethnicity and their inability to check his background. The gueri team had simply made use of him to deal with the Soviets. However, during that critical period, he was forced to join a side to survive the war. Technically speaking, both sides were taking advantage of each other.


    As the circumstances changed, the rtionship between him and the gueri troops changed as well. At first, he was needed by the base camp to defeat their enemies. Now, they had turned around and made him a threat. Deep inside his heart, he knew that they would not let him off the hook so easily even though helped in eliminating tons of enemies, also spending some good, quality time with them.


    It seemed like everything had reached a moot point.


    ��Don��t worry. We are all reasonable folks. We will not send you to do a suicide mission. What I want you to do is fairly simple. Once youplete it, all debt between us will be no more. When that timees, you are free to go wherever you want,�� said Ah Ji.


    Maji blew out a smoke circle; her eyes gave out a certain hesitation in her. After some time, Maji barged in.


    ��Did you know that the girl wasn��t originally called Simone?��


    Zhang Heng frowned, having no idea why she would bring out Simone all of a sudden.


    ��The country is not in a critical state, but we will need a hero to unite everyone. We can wait for the hero to appear, or we can create on!.��


    Maji��s expression was slightly weird. She looked like she was taunting him, but with respect.


    ��The real Simone came from a small town called Rautjarvi. No one cared about that ce, and no one cares what he did there as well. All we know is that he��s just a farmer, and he would hunt asionally. He is the most ordinary bloke that you will ever meet. That means you can alter his past to your liking!��

 Chapter 77 - The Mannerheim Line Welcomes You XIX

    <h4>Chapter 77: The Mannerheim Line Wees You XIX</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    ��I don��t understand the idea behind it. There��s one Simone right here. Why do we need to create another one? With her shooting skills, she is more than qualified enough to be a national hero. Why do you want to turn some random hunter into a national hero?��


    ��Not one,�� replied the doctor, cigar in mouth.


    ��What?��


    ��There is more than one Simone. In total, we have four Simones. All are professional fighters. Three of them are snipers, and another one is a natural on the submachine gun. All four have their faces covered when they go on a mission, so their identities are secure. Together, they be the best sniper the entire human history has known �C the legendary Simone!


    Basically, Simone is everywhere. He is a phantom on the battlefield, your most reliable ally, the white death to the Soviet soldiers, and an undefeatable legend on the battlefield. The Simones have managed to boost morale for all Finnish countrymen and our soldiers greatly. To be more precise, there are only three Simones left. One was tragically killed when the Soviets started the war. We don��t even have much information on him.��


    ��How about the real Simone? Does he know about this?�� Zhang Heng asked, hoping for a straight answer for once


    That is not important. The real Simone joined the armyst October, and during training, he protected one of his allies from an exploding grenade. If that incident did not happen, this project would not have even been born. But then again... the war ising to an end soon, and there are two Simones left in this world,�� said Maji while spinning the lighter in her hand impatiently.


    ��The person that started this project did not expect this oue, right?��


    ��Yes. Initially, a fair chance was to be given to all Simones that survived the war. At least... they could use the gun in their hands to decide their final fate. Unfortunately, an unforeseen circumstance has emerged.��


    ��What kind of unforeseen circumstances?��


    ��The two Simones that survived was the female sniper and the man with the submachine gun. Thetter one was hit by a stray bullet during one of the raids a few days ago. Miraculously, he survived after surgery. Then, someone must have leaked the news to the media. Reporters from different countries rushed to him, and it was during that time that he revealed his identity. Actually, I can understand why he would do something like this. That kid with the submachine gun is the strongest Simone whenpared to the other three. Considering he is now severely injured, there is no way can defeat the sniper in a gunfight.��


    ��What now? Are you guys nning to abandon her?�� asked Zhang Heng as he stared into their eyes.


    ��We don��t have many options left. We have to y his game, and we need to make up stories for him as well.��


    Zhang Heng was unable to speak. He stared right into Maji��s eyes for half a minute, not knowing what they were thinking.


    ��If you want me to believe you, you have to tell me how an English volunteer has her hands in so many top-secrets?�� he continued.


    ��I lied. The truth is, I did grow up in Ennd, but my father is from Find, and he is a powerful man in the Finnish military. I��m the one who proposed the Simone n and personally recruited all the Simones. I simply want my father to witness the birth of a legend. That is why I��m here right now. Ah Ji was sent by the military to protect me.��


    Maji looked very troubled. She stood in front of the window with both arms crossed in the exact same way when she and Zhang Heng first met. Suddenly, it dawned on him, as he knew what was troubling her.


    She realized that it was almost impossible for her to treat all four Simones fairly since she spent most of her time with the current Simone living in this base camp. Due to that, she could not maintain objectivity when it came to picking out the best of the lot.


    ��After all, we are all humans, and I care about the girl a lot. Before this, I had a thought amid the war, to get an assassin to kill the rest of Simones and let her live. I had no idea if she was tough enough to survive the war. With my position, I simply couldn��t risk killing all the other Simones. So, the moment I heard that the second Simone was dead, I knew that the chances she would live after the war had just increased exponentially. What��s happening right now came totally unexpected.��


    ��So, now you found out that you can��t beat her, and you want me to take care of your problem? Why don��t you just let her go? You know her well enough! She doesn��t mind not being a national hero whatsoever!�� snapped Zhang Heng while staring at the gun on the table.


    ��I��m the one who proposed the project, not the one in charge of executing it. I have some rights in this project, but not all of it. My job is technically over once all four Simones have been recruited.


    Whatever I did after that is all my own doing. The military and higher authorities have nothing to do with them. I can��t change what had happened, and I can��t change the mind of the top brass as well.


    That kid Simone trusts you fully, and that is why I��m telling you all this stuff. Asking you to send her to the end of the road is the kindest thing I can do. I heard that there is a beautifulke northwest of here. Perhaps we can fish there when everything is over.��


    Finally, Maji was done with everything she wanted to say.


    ��I don��t get a choice either, right?��


    Looking down and without hesitation, Zhang Heng grabbed the gun on the table.


    ........


    Maji had her back facing him and did not say a single word. Zhang Heng left the wooden house as well since he had asked all that he wanted. He then walked towards Simone��s cottage. For all it was worth, he made sure to thank Maji before he left.


    The gueri base camp was extra quiet tonight. Usually, Oher would lean at the door and gaze to the sky, looking for shooting stars. Not tonight, though. The entire base camp was flooded with light, with a kerosenemp illuminating the doors of each cottage of the base camp.


    Zhang Heng did not turn around to look at the jungle. He put the gun into his pocket and used another hand to knock on the door. Since Maji did not like to bring her key around, Simone was unsurprised when someone knocked on her door at this hour. However, she was startled when she saw Zhang Heng standing outside the door.


    The moment he caught sight of her, he grabbed her cor and pushed her to the ground! Surprisingly, Simone did not retaliate. All she did was lie on the floor and stare at Zhang Heng. Her face was flushing. Just like what Maji told him, Simone trusted Zhang Heng with all her heart, no matter the situation.


    Zhang Heng sighed. All he needed to right now was to take out the gun from his pocket and end it all. Looking into her eyes, he saw that they were heartbroken, confused, but submissive. He hesitated.


    In the end, he couldn��t make himself do it. Instead, he tried his best to look through the Finnish dictionary in his mind, saying, ��Trust me.��


    After that, Zhang Heng started to look around to check out the room. With Maji��s wittiness, Zhang Heng was confident that she had made preparations well before she signaled him earlier. He then looked at Maji��s bed. That and the cab were the only ces where Maji could hide her stuff.

 Chapter 78 - The Mannerheim Line Welcomes You XX

    <h4>Chapter 78: The Mannerheim Line Wees You XX</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    Gunshots sting at the wooden house broke the silence of the night!


    After a short while, a strange rustling sound came from the forest where few masked men with submachine guns charged at where Zhang Heng and Simone were! There wore in winter camouge with no insignia bearing their unit or identity.


    Little did they know that Zhang Heng was about to wee them with a Maxim Heavy Machine Gun. Good thing Maji was crazier than he expected, a trait that proved useful in time like this. With a bit of patience, Zhang Heng waited until all the unknown assants were close to the cottage before opening fire at full force!


    Shells flew out from the chamber in a continuous stream like an angry fire-spitting dragon.


    Clearly, those five men had prepared to deal with surprises like this. However, they had not ounted for Zhang Heng to use a Maxim Heavy Machine Gun to go against them. The gun��s destructive firepower had crushed any possibility of retaliation. Before they could do anything, their bodies were shredded into pieces, their flesh exploding into tiny bits as the bullets ravaged through without mercy. Though the gun was potent, it consumed ammo at an obscene speed as well.


    In that short skirmish, Zhang Heng had consumed all the ammunition prepared by Maji. Due to the gun��s weight, it was not possible for him to carry it around. After killing the first wave of enemies, he abandoned the cumbersome machine and took out his handgun to shoot the kerosenemp that was still alit.


    The moment the mes went out, the second wave of enemies arrived! In senseless insanity, thousands of bullets started spraying out of the forest toward the base camp. It was so powerful it shredded the thin wooden walls of the cottage!


    Luckily, Simone had pushed over the bed, serving as a barrier. Still, she could not figure out why enemies would appear in the base camp all of a sudden. Knowing that the two of them were in a life-threatening situation, she quickly picked up Zhang Heng��s M28 and loaded the weapon.


    After three minutes of continuous shooting, the firing came to a stop. Bullets had wholly decimated the wooden house; tes and bowls on the table had been shattered into pieces. They were only alive thanks to the bed. Otherwise, they would have been instantly killed by the merciless rain of fire.


    Zhang Heng could see that these masked men were determined to eliminate Simone. They hade well prepared.


    Three people attempted to approach the cottage from the forest but were greeted in kind by three bullets. Simone had managed to kill them. Zhang Heng did fire twice as well. Unfortunately, he was not used to using a handgun and missed.


    Then, the shooting started up again. Gunshots rang out from all directions, and shells began to flood the house like there was no tomorrow!


    Judging by the intensity of the ambush, they should be about 20 or 30 people shooting at the same time. Sooner orter, the bed would surely give in to the onught. Unfortunately, there was nothing they could do right now. It seemed practically impossible to bring Simone out of the snare they were cornered into.


    In a crude manner of speech, Zhang Heng had indeed been fooled by Maji. Out of kindness, Maji wasntpletely honest about Simone with him. Surrounded by continuous fire, Maji knew that it was improbable they would survive. She believed that with Zhang Heng��s cunning, he would surely figure out the consequences of knowing top-secrets. Even if he chose to kill Simone, there was no way that she would let him leave the base camp alive. Zhang Heng had said earlier that he had no options when it came to this. It turned out he was right.


    Still, Zhang Heng was grateful for Maji because he knew that it would hard for him to stay away and out of it. He knew that he would never leave Simone and ran away alone. Besides, he still had his trump card with him. The wooden sculpture was lying there quietly inside his pocket. He could transform himself into a shadow and flee the demolished cottage in an instant. However, the night was moonless, meaning he was limited to only moving where the kerosenemps were. This was a big problem, and it was going to be really difficult for him to enter the forest behind the line of heavily armed soldiers.If you like readingics please visit Read.live


    Unfortunately, he knew he had to do it if the situation got any worse. Just when Zhang Heng wanted to reach into his pocket to grab the wooden sculpture, he heard there were more gunshots. This time, however, the gunshots did note from the forest but from the base camp!


    Zhang Heng saw a single Weller shooting at the forest with his light machine gun. At the same time, the limping Oher kicked down a table, ced his rifle on top of it, and started to shoot at the forest like a madman! All hell had broken loose, and the other gueris quickly followed suit as well.


    Of course, Zhang Heng would not let this golden opportunity slip away from him. Immediately, he kicked down the tattered wall behind him and dragged Simone out of the wooden house. Suddenly, he heard someone whistling as they were running. From afar, a gueri tossed a submachine gun to him and signaled him to join the battle!


    From the beginning of the war until now, the gueris had decreased from over 40 members to only about a dozen left. More than half had been killed in action. This reduction in number made them more united than before, and although they were ordered not to leave their rooms tonight, all of them chose to go against the order when they saw Simone��s cottage being shot at. Such unexpected results surprised those on both sides of the divide.


    The truth was, enemies greatly outnumbered them. However, the gueri��s strong teamwork had managed to hold back the enemies. But soon, the enemies started to reorganize and started another retaliation. Until now, the enemies had been hiding out in the forest, giving the gueris the upper hand during the first wave of attack. On the second wave of attack, the enemies started to work together, and the gueris were beginning to sustain injuries during the shootout.


    Simone wanted to head back to help her friends but Zhang Heng knew that they were targeting her. The longer she stayed there, the more dangerous it was going to be for the others. Zhang Heng tapped on her shoulder.


    Gunshots were everywhere around the base camp, and amid the confusion, nobody knew where to head to. However, this was not a problem for Zhang Heng.


    Maji had actually signaled Zhang Heng secretly when they were talking in themander��s cottage. Northwest was where they should head to if they wanted to live to see tomorrow.

 Chapter 79 - The Mannerheim Line Welcomes You XXI

    <h4>Chapter 79: The Mannerheim Line Wees You XXI</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    Zhang Heng and Simone worked together, swiftly blowing out all the kerosenemps that were hanging around the base.


    With that, the entire camp was now pitch ck. It was as dark as a cave, with only the stars to light the way. All they could see was a silhouette from far. Zhang Heng and Simone were about 70 meters away from the forest that was located northwest of them. However, they were only 40 meters away from the west, and there was a storeroom along their path. That made Zhang Heng was keener to first head west before running northwest to enter the forest.


    The only thing that he needed to do right now was to eliminate the gunner that was hiding west. Rifle in hand, Zhang Heng tossed away the handgun that he was holding earlier. Then, they bothy on the snow-covered ground on the their left and right.


    Just as expected, the enemy that had remained hidden for some time could not bear the boredom anymore. He drew out his gun and started shooting at Weller! The moment he fired, he fatally exposed his current position.


    Instantly, Zhang Heng and Simone took the opportunity tond a critical shot on him!


    Along with the loud gunshots, one of the enemies fell to the ground lifelessly. Simone did not stop there, using her excellent photographic memory and sharp observation skills to fire at another. Unfortunately, Weller got shot. It seemed like the enemies in the forest had no intention to kill, only shooting him in the leg. Zhang Heng knew that he could not afford to wait any longer. Immediately, he dragged Simone into the storeroom. One of the enemies noticed them and quickly sprayed some bullets their way in an attempt to block them off.


    At that very moment, Simone signaled to Zhang Heng that she would draw away the enemies to let Zhang Heng flee from the trapped position. Without thinking twice, Zhang Heng shook his head, rejecting her proposal. He knew that all those people were actually here to kill Simone, and there was no way he was about to leave her here to the wolves and vultures. Rather than being sitting ducks, Zhang Heng decided to return fire.


    That was thest resort anyway. The chance of them winning seemed slim. Even if they could both eliminate all the enemies, most gueris would die in vain. Seeing that the two of them were trapped, Weller mustered up his strength and courage and stood up, battling the pain in his shot leg. He did not retreat to a safe spot but instead, pulled one of the corpses on the ground and used the body to shield him from the iing bullets. With one hand, he picked up the submachine gun and started to shoot at the enemies!


    Having the covering fire, Zhang Heng and Simone ran into the forest as fast as their legs could carry them. The enemies gave chase, opening fire at the same time! Those three seconds that they experienced were like three centuries to them, as they gouged out everyst bit of strength and ran without looking back.


    Right before they entered the forest, something unexpected happened. They remembered there were only three people shooting at them from the west side of the forest. Nobody would have expected that the forth enemy awaited them in the woods. A lot of had happened out there, and his mates had all scattered, but he was determined to stay hidden to wait for Zhang Heng��s and Simone��s arrival.


    At such proximity, it was almost impossible for the enemy to miss his shot. The man in the mask lifted the submachine gun in his hand. Not to be outdone, Simone had her rifle held in her hands as well. She had no time to aim, adjust her breath, or stabilize her shooting position. All she could do was run and shoot at the same time.


    The shot was fired. Secondster, the masked man��s pupils contracted. He froze, then copsed to the ground with a sickening thud! Simone had managed to kill him without aiming. Unfortunately, there was no time to catch a breath. Soon after that, more people starteding after them.


    Zhang Heng swiftly picked up the submachine gun and a few boxes of ammunition before he started to run again. If Maji was telling the truth, then northwest should be the most vulnerable spot for the enemies. That did not mean that once they were there, they would bepletely safe. There could be an ambush lurking for them in the dark. After what they experienced earlier, they were much more cautious this time.


    It was easy for one to hide in the forest, but at the same time, it was also easy to be ambushed. Until now, Simone had no idea what was going on. She was left stunned when she saw that the man who ambushed them was actually one of the gueris.


    Suddenly, Zhang Heng felt that it wasn��t too bad a thing they had thisnguage barrier. He was unable to tell Simone that her own country had betrayed her even if he wanted to do so. The two of them did not stay at the same ce for too long, and after collecting some weapons and picked most of the ammunition, they continued to run towards the forest.


    While they were running, they encountered a few enemies. Fortunately, these were either alone or walked in pairs. Simone��s had superior hearing ability and vision whenpared to most of her counterparts. In most cases, she was able to spot enemies first before they spotted her. That was why most of her battles ended really fast.


    The deeper they went, the fewer enemies they encountered. It turned out Maji wasn��t lying to them. Soon, they would be able to break through the defense line.


    As they walked on, they suddenly heard someone shouting in the forest. Zhang Heng couldn��t understand what they were talking about but sensed that Simone��s emotions had drastically changed. She just stood there frozen and had stopped moving.


    Zhang Heng guessed that they were pulling some dirty tricks to draw her out. They must be telling her that their target was actually Zhang Heng and wanted her to help them to capture him. This situation was the double-cross of crosses. Her country had already betrayed her, but here, they were still lying to her, taking advantage of her loyalty. If he could ever speak in Finnish, Zhang Heng would definitely tell her the whole truth. It seemed that the enemies knew that he could not converse in Finnish.


    Alright. Zhang Heng did know how to speak in Finnish if only a couple of words. He could try to squeeze out something to exin himself. However, knowing that his broken Finnish was going to make him seem more suspicious, he decided to stay mum. He had said everything that he needed to say back at the cottage. Right now, it was all up to Simone. The longer they stayed here, the more dangerous the situation was going to be. Still, Zhang Heng did not rush her.


    Both of them just stood in the dark until someone approached them. Simone lifted up her head and looked at Zhang Heng, looking as serene as usual. Right now, Zhang Heng was at a massive disadvantage. If Simone started to fall for their lies, he would have to drag her away by force. To his surprise, she lifted up her rifle and pulled the trigger! A man standing beside the tree was hit.


    Simone had just used actions to say what she had to say. Rather than trusting the words of some strangers, she chose to put her faith in those who had genuinely spent time with her.


    Sometimes, women trusted their hunches more than theories. And this soon proved to be true.

 Chapter 80 - The Mannerheim Line Welcomes You XXII

    <h4>Chapter 80: The Mannerheim Line Wees You XXII</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    The sound of gunshots and shouting faded into the distance. Two hourster, it was all butplete silence. Zhang Heng deduced that they must have sessfully broken through the enemies�� defensive lines.


    Both of them had now reached theke that Maji mentioned earlier, finding a boat tied to its banks. With that tiny rowboat, they would be able to shake off all the enemies that were chasing them, no longer having to worry about their scent being tracked down by hounds.


    Just as Zhang Heng was about to get on the boat, Simone copsed suddenly! A muzzle sh came from the darkness followed by a speeding bullet whizzing by. The round lodged itself in her shoulder and was embedded deep in her flesh.


    There was an active shooter nearby!


    Simone didn��t wait and reacted with lightning-fast reflexes. After going through several battles with Zhang Heng, both of them knew what to do by now. Instinctively, she rolled over to the side, quickly looking for a nearby tree nearby and took cover behind it. The second shot whizzed by Zhang Heng��s ear. This time, it was so close it left him paralyzed in shock!


    Without a doubt, they had encountered a pro this time. The earlier battles might have looked dangerous as the enemies had the upper hand since they outnumbered them. However, both of them had the advantage when it came to fighting with a small group. It seemed like these new enemies had pretty good teamwork and strict discipline. They were, however, vulnerable when they were alone.


    It was safe to say that although they were as skillful as the gueris, they could never be as good as Simone.


    However, the sniper that they just encountered was on a different level altogether. Judging by the uracy of his shots, he must at least be as good as Simone. This guy would prove a painful headache to deal with. With such skills, he could easily be the poster boy of every task force that he joined.


    If this were to be a normal situation, of course, they would have figured out a solution. Unfortunately, the enemy managed tond a shot on the shoulder that she used to hold her gun. Though she trained to shoot with her left hand, its speed and uracy could neverpare to her right. Frankly, this seemed the moment the grim reaper had finally arrived. They could seriously lose their lives at any moment now.


    Zhang Heng realized that they were in a life-threatening situation. The visibility in the forest was so poor that he could not use his ace in the hole �C Shadow Moment. The enemy might even call for backup if they continued to linger.


    To their greatest surprise, the enemy who hid in the dark did not do so. After the two gunshots, silence once again embraced the forest. It was as if nothing happened. The wind passed them by, and the wooden boat still bobbed gently on thekeside. Zhang Heng then saw blood dripping from her fingertips. Simone frowned but did not say a single word about it. She was unable to feel it, her arm bing paralyzed in some way by the gunshot wound.


    Zhang Heng drew in a deep breath and used his hand to signal Simone to rx. Usually, she would be the one protecting him in a situation like this. This time, Zhang Heng knew he needed to be the one that protected Simone. He then took out the wooden sculpture from his pocket and extended his arm with it. Secondster, the sniper fired squarely at it without doubts! Zhang Heng held on to it as tightly he could to avoid it from flying out of his hand.


    After that, he studied the wooden sculpture. By judging how deep the bullet had prated the wooden statue, Zhang Heng could calcte how far the sniper was. If Simone was not wounded, she could have surely returned fire. However, even without her assistance, Zhang Heng could still estimate where the sniper was. It would prove impossible for him to defeat the sniper if he charged out right now.


    The sniper��s shooting skills clearly bettered Zhang Heng��s. The only way for him to win this fight was to pinpoint the sniper��s exact location. So, Zhang Heng took out the bullet-shaped lighter that he acquired earlier and used the same way to check out the sniper��s position. He struck the flint, and just as expected, the snipernded a shot on the lighter. This time, the lighter was sent flying away from Zhang Heng��s hand.


    Calmly, he took out the third item. This time, the sniper was smart enough to know Zhang Heng��s intention. No matter what Zhang Heng did, he stopped firing at the item that he saw. Two minutester, Zhang Heng took out his cellphone. Ever since he joined the gueris, he had stopped using it. Initially, its battery was at 50%. After putting it to sleep for two months, it was now left with a lethargic 10%. It was just enough to help him to gain the upper hand.


    No one in this era had seen a cellphone before. The two items that Zhang Heng sent out were just decoys. As the third item that he sent out was his cell, he used it to record his surroundings for two minutes. Lastly, he turned on his sh function to illuminate he ce a total of four times.


    And that was how Zhang Heng located where the sniper was. The sniper was well prepared, wearing a ghillie suit of sorts. Not only was he equipped with camouge, but he enhanced it with snow, mud, and branches. He was now one with his surroundings, almost invisible if one did not look hard enough.


    Unfortunately, he could not escape the sharpness of a modern 12-megapixel camera. The real danger had only begun.


    Zhang Heng��s advantage was that he came in a pair. Therefore, it was impossible for the sniper to know who was going to attack first. In other words, he had to split his attention between two different persons, continually shifting from side to side. When Zhang Heng erged the photo that he took, he saw that the sniper expression, an excited, gleeful sneer across his face. He was beaming with some sort of glorious purpose in his eyes.


    Was he relishing the joys of hunting?


    Zhang Heng finally understood why the sniper didn��t call for his allies. This was his hunting grounds and would never allow anyone to encroach his territory. Zhang Heng knew that ultimately, he wasn��t the target.


    His target was the girl known as the White Death �C Simone.


    It seemed like the reason why he fired the shot earlier was to eliminate Zhang Heng. With that, he would be able to have a head-to-head face-off with Simone.


    Zhang Heng signaled Simone to rx her injured shoulder and hold the rifle in her other hand. Though he could not see what was going on, he could guess that the sniper must be really nervous right now.


    The final showdown was nigh!


    Secondster, a ck shadow charged from the back of a tree! The sniper cowering behind the trees had an adrenalin rush the moment he saw something shig in front of him.


    Prey?!


    No. It couldn��t be.


    It was a trap!


    The astute sniper took a swift 0.01 seconds to deduce that the ck shadow was simply a jacket! Though he had his rifle aimed at it, he managed to stop himself from pulling the trigger. At the same time, he got even more excited. Simone must have been ready to return fire since she pulled a trick like this.


    Secondster, his heart skipped a beat. That was because it wasn��t Simone that had appeared from the tree, but instead, Zhang Heng was the one who had emerged from another direction!


    It was at that moment that the sniper realized he had made a fatal mistake.


    He expected that Simone woulde out to take the shot. The jacket and Zhang Heng were just illusions and distractions! Hence, he did not shift his aim.


    Besides, he was initially confident enough that they were unable to pinpoint the exact spot he was hiding in such a short amount of time. That was why he hesitated. At the same time, Zhang Heng lifted up his rifle as fast as possible. Utilizing the shortest amount of time, he took aim and fixed his posture fo the shot.


    Zhang Heng now knew exactly where he was hiding.


    He knelt on the ground and prepared to pull his trigger at the sniper. However, the enemy soon realized that someone was aiming at him from another direction and immediately changed his aim. Zhang Heng heard something but in his deep concentration, he couldn��t identify the sound.


    Both of them then pulled the trigger at the same time.


    One bullet grazed someone��s face. The other had prated someone��s skull.

 Chapter 81 - The Mannerheim Line Welcomes You (End)

    <h4>Chapter 81: The Mannerheim Line Wees You (End)</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    Two monthster.


    At a random farm on the border of Find and Switzend.


    Zhang Heng wiped away the sweat from his forehead and put down the ax in his hand. He moved all the chopped wood back to the storeroom and arranged them neatly among the piles. A loaf of fresh bread and some fish soup was on the table when Zhang Heng entered the house.


    The owner of this farm was a 67-year-olddy called Greta. Her husband and only son were tragically killed on the battlefield. She had a daughter as well but had since been married off to a man in the United States. A month ago, she took in Zhang Heng and Simone out of kindness, besides needing help with the farm work as well. Hence, the two of them decided they would put up here for some time.


    When anyone asked about the two neers, Greta would tell them they were the rtives of her daughter��s husband. Zhang Heng��s fluent English was enough proof. As for Simone, she was a quiet girl and disliked socializing. As time passed, people around started to ept who she was. For good measure, both tossed away their weapons on their way here. Simone��s gunshot wound was treated by a doctor who lived in a small town. The sad truth was, Simone had no family left in this world, with her great-grandfather passing away two years ago. In other words, there was nothing to hold her back and tie her down in this world.


    Once the battle at theke was over, Zhang Heng initially wanted to settle down in America with Simone only to realizeter on that his n was less than ideal. First, America was located too far away from Find. Traveling all the way there would take a long time. Secondly, Simone��s English wasn��t the best. She would have a hard timemunicating with the locals if she stayed there.


    In the end, Zhang Heng thought it best to stay at the border between Find and Switzend. Find was one of the dukedoms of Switzend, which was why most Finnish could also speak Swedish. As for the people who stayed in the viges near the border, it wasmon that they would converse in twonguages, Greta being one of them. At least Simone could freelymunicate with the people here.


    Through the window, Zhang Heng could see that Simone was returning from hunting. She had her sniper slung at her back and had a rabbit and a fox with her. As she entered the house, she ced today��s catch in the kitchen, stored her hunting rifle in the attic, and washed her hands before settling in the dining room to have her meal.


    Grandma Greta scooped a bowlful of fish soup for everyone with Zhang Heng thanking her in Finnish. This was an ordinary night for them, peaceful and joyful. After dinner, they bid each other their goodnights before retreating to their respective rooms.


    Greta was already up in the early hours of the morning, preparing Zhang Heng and Simone��s breakfast. She then put it in a basket Today, Simone wasn��t wearing the hunting outfit that she��d put on each morning. Instead, she had put on a dress with a floral design. Since this was a dress that had been made initially for Greta��s daughter, it seemed a little too small for Simone, looking slightly ufortable and squirmy.


    ��Have fun today,�� said Greta while passing the food basket to them.


    ��Bye, Greta!�� Zhang Heng replied as he gave Greta a hug.


    ��Goodbye, children!��


    Greta waved at them from afar. They sure looked very much like a couple going for an outing. Zhang Heng hopped on a bicycle, and Simone sat on the back. They soon passed the paddy field, and then a square in a small town, where their tiny hospital was stered with blood donation posters. They enjoyed the serenity of the atmosphere as they passed all of it.


    The war in Find had ended, but the war in Europe had only just begun. Switzend was considered a neutral nation. Hence, they did not need to suffer the pains that came along with war, making it a paradise during the era of the Second World War.


    Shortly after that, Zhang Heng parked his bicycle on a grass field located on the outskirts of the hamlet. As they alighted the bike, they both carried the food basket down, seeing a field of flowers around them. Zhang Heng had no idea what species they were, but he heard that the national flower of Find was called lily-of-the-valley. Unfortunately, this was not the right time to watch them fully bloom.


    This was hisst day of the quest. Earlier, Zhang Heng had told Simone that this day would arrive, to which she had said nothing. All she wanted was to spend time and have fun with him during hisst day in Find.


    After taking a pleasant walk along the streets of the town, they fished at a pond and even managed to y some poker. In the end, they settled on a small hill to enjoy the fish sandwiches prepared by Greta. Still, they spoke little to each other.


    Their silence did not mean they were awkward, but rather, this was simply their way of spending time with each other. Simone��s hair and dress fluttered in the wind. Atst, shey her head on Zhang Heng��sp, and she closed her eyes. Zhang Heng then took a look at his watch, took off his jacket, and covered Simone with it. Her eyebrows twitched while she was asleep. Secondster, he heard a familiar voice.


    [Time to return. Questpleted...]


    [You havepleted ��The Mannerheim Line Wees You�� quest. The game��s third round has beenpleted. You will now be sent back to the real world...]


    .......


    Zhang Heng opened his eyes, finding himself sitting on a chair. It was unreal. Amongst the three quests that he��dpleted, this was the shortest. However, he was always on edge throughout the entire mission, having to face the possibility of being killed by enemies every single day. Thrown all the way from World War II back into the current world, Zhang Heng felt that he had just traveled through time. The one single thing that he could rely on was no longer there.


    ........


    This time, Zhang Heng sat dazed for half an hour before he finally stood up. Something fell out of his pocket, and when he saw it, he was shocked. It was a ne with a pendant made of an animal bone, the ne that Simone had worn all the while! The bone used here was smaller than the ones given by the old man in Chinese attire. This one was as tiny as a fingernail.


    What seemed to be a tall red pine with thick branches and aplicated root system was engraved on it. Zhang Heng hadn��t the slightest of when Simone slipped it into his pocket. Since he could carry it back, that meant it was a game item. After spending 140 days, Zhang Heng thought that he would not acquire a game item in this round. To his surprise, the ne had actually been with him for a long time.


    He did not look for the bartenderdy to identify the item, knowing that it shouldn��t carry any side effects as Simone had been wearing it for a long time.


    Right now, another item needed to be identified urgently. It was the Moresby bone. Zhang Heng had taken the old man��s advice, trying his best to not let others know about their rtionship. So, he had to wait until the quest ended before allowing the bartender to identify the item.


    ��I know that you possess a Lucky Rabbit Foot. Another game item?! Three rounds of quests, and you acquired three game items? Are you the son of the Lucky Goddess?�� asked the bartender while staring at him with gaping eyes.

 Chapter 82 - PTSD

    <h4>Chapter 82: PTSD</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    This time, the game ended in the early hours of the morning. Only a few people were still partying in the bar downstairs when Zhang Heng stepped out of the lounge.


    Instead of summarizing his experience right away as he did in the past, he returned to the university, showered, and went straight to bed. Right now, all he wanted was to clear his mind of any thoughts. He genuinely did not want to think about anything.


    In the middle of his slumber, the door suddenly creaked open, rousing him from his sleep. Zhang Heng instantly rolled off his bed and reached for a gun, but obviously, there was nothing for him to grab.


    Wei Jiangyang who had just walked into the room was startled at his friend��s reaction. He stood at the door, too stunned to react for a moment before muttering, ��Bro... brother, are you alright?��


    Zhang Heng cringed at the slightly awkward situation. Even though his body was physically the same, that two month war experience had scarred him in a whole different way.


    Compared to before, he was a much lighter sleeper �C even the slightest of movements would wake him. This was his body��s self-defense mechanism kicking into high gear, in response to theplex and harsh environment he had been put into. Now and then, whenever he was walking down the street, he would subconsciously look around, keeping an eye out for bunkers.


    Zhang Heng knew very well about a mental condition called PTSD, which stood for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. It wasmon among veterans who had fought in wars. Mostly, symptoms varied from aplete reeenaction of the battle experience, reclusiveness, and hypervignce.


    Currently, Zhang Heng was more prone to the third symptom. Although able to recover from most of the war��s trauma in his final month in Sweden, it was going to be really difficult for him to return to the mental state he was in prior to the war.


    Since he was already awake, Zhang Heng decided to not continue sleeping. He found himself something to eat in the cafeteria, then proceeded to the library with hisptop.


    After spending an entire afternoonpleting the game��s summary, Zhang Heng found himself thinking about the ne in his pocket, so he looked up Finnish folklores on the inte.


    Finnish and Ugrian folklore were around even before the 10th Century and were very simr to those of the Samoyedic people and the Altai tribe. As time passed, the neighboring tribes had slowly influenced their lore.


    Iranian myths, Turkic myths, and Baltic myths had, in their own way, been incorporated into Finnish folklore. Later on, influence of Imic and Christian cultures was apparent as well. It was a veryplicated subject, involving numerous deities. Considering these tales were not the most popr, only few records were left of them.


    Zhang Heng had no choice but to breach the Great Firewall of China to ess Google for the information he wanted. He had beenbing through the web until 10 pm that night when he finally found a picture of a ne that looked identical to the one he had.


    Zhang Heng��s drowsiness suddenly vanished! He clicked onto the webpage and found the deity in the picture�CTapio, the god of the forest. He was an ancient Finnish God, depicted as a fir tree. It was said that he could help in making hunts more fruitful for those who worshiped him. Religious reformist leader Mikael Agric had preserved precious genealogical materials in a ��list of gods�� which he had written in 1551. This included Tapio.


    Simone was born into a family of hunters and had grown up in the mountains with her grandfather. So, it was no surprise that she too worshipped Tapio.


    Except for the wood carving he obtained from Tokyo Drift, which he still found no information about, the Lucky Rabbit��s Foot, Moresby, and the ne from this round all had their connections to folklore. This was especially true for Moresby��s appearance in the real world. Zhang Heng realized that things might not be as simple as they seemed.


    Unfortunately, the old man in the Tang suit had already left for Europe, and Zhang Heng had no one else he could ask about these things . Apparently, it was because of some old covenant that he could not reveal too much information to him. At least that was what the old man said before he left.


    Zhang Heng closed hisptop and remained seated for a while as he tried to piece the puzzle in his mind. However, not long after that, he heard the sounds of people giggling.


    Three girls had upied the table to his left. Two hours ago, Zhang Heng noticed that one of them, anky girl with sses, had been stealing nces at him. He thought that there was something on his face. Now, there were another two girls giggling too as they peeked at him in secrecy.


    When they saw that Zhang Heng was looking over to them, the two girls nudged thenky girl. Thetter got up from her seat and walked towards Zhang Heng, eyes on the ground. She stuttered, ��Fri... friend... Can I ask you a question?��


    Zhang Heng was a little surprised, but he knew why she had approached him. Even then, he still took the Advanced Mathematics workbook from her. Then, he very patiently wrote down a derivation process in great detail. After that, he looked at his mobile phone and told her, ��I��m sorry. My girlfriend is looking for me.��


    A sh of disappointment flickered in the girl��s eyes. She forced a smile, fumbled a thank you, before plodding back to her seat, crestfallen.


    Now that he had sown the seed, he had to see this lie he fabricated out of kindness to the end. Zhang Heng packed up his things and left.


    To his greatest surprise, however, it turned out that he really did receive a message on his phone. It was the bartenderdy.


    Zhang Heng opened the pdf file she sent him as he walked towards the elevator with his bag. It turned out to be the long-overdue game-points service form that he had asked her ages ago.


    He briefly scanned the document. In addition to an identification service, there was also a list of items for sale �C these were not game items, but a collection of bizarre things. Whenpared to these items, the tulewood box that contained them would easily be considered as ordinary.


    These peculiar objects included blood from a cow��s first birth and the 45th feather of a crow, a bunch of things that made no sense. Amongst these were other normal items but seemed unusual because of their inclusion in the list.


    Zhang Heng texted the bartenderdy just to be sure.


    [Penguin?]


    She replied after a moment.


    [Why? Are you trying to hit on me?]


    Zhang Heng continued,


    [No, I��m not talking about QQ. I just saw that ��penguin�� is on the list of things for sale!]


    Business must have been slow because the bartenderdy replied to him almost instantly.


    [Oh, why? Do you n on buying one? They��re rtively cheap. One game point for two. You��ll even get a freezer for free!]


    [No need for that. Thanks.]


    Zhang Heng just wanted confirmation. There was no point in keeping two penguins in the dorm, having no knowledge whatsoever about the creatures. Besides, the school had refused to install air conditioners for the dorms even after everyone had repeatedly demanded for them. The dorms were like furnaces during the summer. Not everyone could take the stifling heat, let alone the poor penguins.


    He continued to scroll down the list before something caught his eye.


    [What does ��extra game�� mean?]


    [It means precisely what it says it is, but you��ll need to have 500 game points, and you can only choose from the previous game script. Its duration is also fixed at 60 days.]

 Chapter 83 - Wall

    <h4>Chapter 83: Wall</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    The extra game was actually very straightforward. Unlike Zhang Heng, not everyone would spend a year and a half in the game. Most would simply use that time to pick up new skills as their ranks were still not that high. So, the extra game was a good opportunity for them to continue improving their skills.


    But then again, 500 game points were simply too costly. Zhang Heng had gone through three rounds of games, yet he had only just broken through the hundred points ceiling. That meant that it would take him at least ten rounds to gather that many. If there was no other way to acquire those game points, very few people would be able to afford this product.


    However, that wasn��t even the most expensive thing on the list. Zhang Heng kept scrolling and spotted an item that cost 800 game points �C a Mission Failure Exemption Card.


    As its name suggested, this little card allowed its holder to escape punishment if they failed a mission.


    Presently, Zhang Heng had sessfully passed all three games. The first and third game��s main mission was survival. If he failed, he would die �C a mission failure exemption card would be useless in such a situation. But for games like Tokyo Drift, Zhang Heng had no clue as to what kind of punishment the yers would receive if they did notplete the mission.


    If he had enough points, getting one of those cards sounded like a good idea.


    Zhang Heng also saw something called the ��No.137 Permanent Game Point Membership Card�� at the bottom of the page. This one was priced at an eye-watering 999 game points, an item that seemed particrly suspicious.


    ording to the bartenderdy, yers with the membership card could enjoy a 20% discount when they spent their game points at checkpoints. Whether this was a good bargain or not, was all up to the yers themselves to determine.


    Zhang Heng did not see a single game item in this long list. Other than the Extra Game and Mission Failure Exemption Card, the items on the list were real tangible things that existed in the physical world. The penguins, for example, were hard to acquire for most people living on earth. It required only one game point and even included free shipping, which was frankly a fantastic bargain.


    Of course, whether anyone would actually buy them in the first ce was another question altogether.


    ...


    A week passed in a blink of an eye, and the end of the term was drawing near. The whole school was filled with students who only studied at thest minute. Hence, the library had recently be a hive of activity, brimming with students every day. The queue to the library had now extended to the entrance of the canteen, and this forced Zhang Heng to alter his routine.


    He would go to the gym and the archery range during the day, then wait it out until midnight. When the world hade to a halt, only would he make himself a cup of coffee and study in the empty library.


    Zhang Heng rarely skipped sses. Except for that time when he missed roll call for English ss, he was mostly a diligent student, putting him out of danger of failing his subjects. However, since he had spent such a long time in the game, he had forgotten many things and it was necessary for him to review them.


    In the eyes of others, however, his behavior seemed a bit odd. Everyone was bustling around, trying to cram as much as possible in what little time they had to prepare for the term��s final examination. Zhang Heng was the only one wandering around indifferently. Even his roommate, Chen Huadong, had managed to drag himself out of bed early every morning to study. With his head buried in books, Chen Huadong could not help but roll his eyes whenever Zhang Heng left the room with his bow.


    Worse still, Zhang Heng would always return veryte in the night �C almost always just before lights-out. Chen Huadong wondered how his friend would be able to find any time to prepare for the exam.


    ...


    Zhang Heng felt great today, sessfully hitting a moving target 50 meters away. All ten arrows hit the bullseye. He ignored the coach��s resentful looks and took a drink of water. Since he had justpleted the third game, there was still plenty of time before the fourth and did not pack his schedule with all the training. After his practice, he headed to the park to feed the pigeons there instead of going to the gym. When night fell, he spectated a game of football in the stadium.


    It was ten by the time the match ended. Rather than taking the train, Zhang Heng opted to jog back to school. As he jogged, he passed by an alley and quickly noticed two drifters searching for food in a dumpster.


    They appeared to be a bedraggled grandparent and her grandchild, both wearing tattered and soiled clothing. The older one fished out a piece of half-eaten fried chicken and two packets of takeaways. She called her grandson to her and they crouched by the wall to eat. When she looked up, she saw Zhang Heng suddenly racing toward them!


    The pair had probably been bullied by other homeless for the moment they saw Zhang Henging towards them; they looked extremely terrified. The olddy dropped the stic bag in her hand and reached to pull her grandchild closer.


    Suddenly, something fell on her shoulder. From his angle, Zhang Heng was able to see everything. The brick wall behind the olddy melted like hot cheese, and some sort of ck liquid crawled onto her shoulder. When her grandson, about seven years old, saw this happening, he froze in his tracks.


    Zhang Heng ran quickly towards the elderlydy and grabbed her hand, but the ck liquid was a hell lot stronger than he thought. That thing seemed to be able to shift between a liquid and solid form. Zhang Heng��s pulling did nothing to free the olddy of its shackles.


    Although he was conservative on strength, it would have been useless even if he used all of it. If he exerted too much force, the olddy��s body might be unable to take it. As Zhang Heng was racking his brain for a solution, the ck liquid had already engulfed half of the elderly woman��s body.


    Then as, if having a mind of its own, it crawled onto the olddy��s arm towards Zhang Heng as if not satisfied with the prey that it already had.


    Zhang Heng reacted quickly, withdrawing his hand at the veryst second! Then, he grabbed the motionless child �C the sudden movement shook him from his daze, and in panic, he started struggling. He wanted to save his grandmother but the ck liquid moved so quickly that, in less than a minute, it hadpletely engulfed the woman. It then slowly pulled her into the back.


    Half a minuteter, Zhang Heng and the little vagrant were the only ones left in the alley.


    A sharp pain shot up Zhang Heng��s right arm. The kid had bitten him and struggled himself free. He rushed to the wall and fell, knees to the ground. No matter how hard he thumped and punched the wall, the bricks remained unchanged, as if everything that had just happened was a bad dream.

 Chapter 84 - An Encounter

    <h4>Chapter 84: An Encounter</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    ��Name?��


    ��Zhang Heng.��


    ��Qualification?��


    ��Currently studying at a university.��


    ��ce of birth and ID, please.��


    ��.......��


    A person had just disappeared right in front of Zhang Heng. He had to report it to the police no matter what. Soon, police officers arrived at the crime scene. However, it was toote. As there was no one else witness the incident except Zhang Heng and no CCTV cameas around them as well, they had to check the pharmacy��s CCTV that was located beside the alley. Still, the footage exined nothing about what just happened.


    The police had to escort the two of them to the station first. Upon reaching, Zhang heng was seated down before someone summoned him to take his statement. Before him, the police officers were dealing with a domestic problem involving a married couple that was having a heated argument.


    Once Zhang Heng faced the police officer, she started to ask him about his personal information. When the questions headed in the direction of how the person disappeared, Zhang Heng decided that he would give honest answers.


    ��It was quite dark over there, and I didn��t manage to see the whole thing clearly. I think she was devoured by the wall.��


    ��What? Is that a metaphor? Did the wall copse and buried her alive?��


    ��No. Literally. I mean, she was literally devoured by the wall!��


    ��Being a university student, you should know that it��s illegal to lie to the police, right?! Do you want me to contact your university��s chancellor?�� the female police officer angrily shouted while mming her pen on the table.


    Zhang Heng was speechless though he did not me the police officer for getting pissed. She might have just pulled an all-nighter at the station. Obviously, no one spending a night at the station would be too joyous after listening to Zhang Heng��s ludicrous statement. However, being a matter of life and death, Zhang Heng had no reason to make up a story and mislead the police officer.


    ��Maybe I saw it wrongly as it was a really dark ce. From my angle, all I saw was the woman disappearing into the wall.��


    The officer frowned once again, albeit, this time, she managed to control her anger a little better. When she stared at Zhang Heng, she noticed that he did not flinch, with him gazing at her calmly. Judging from the way he behaved, she concluded that he wasn��t fooling around. Zhang Heng had also mentioned that the ce was too dark, and he failed to see anything clearly. So, she decided that she would not dwell on this question. Instead, she turned to asking questions about the rtionship between him and the woman that disappeared.


    .......


    The police officer took a total of 20 minutes to record Zhang Heng��s statement. Throughout the entire process, he was very cooperative. After the smallmotion, the female police officer turned out to be very polite as well.


    ��So... there is no sign of infringement. You didn��t exactly provide us with reliable evidence, and that kid refuses to talk as well. I can��t form a basis for a case from what you told me. Anyway, I would like to offer my thanks for reporting a homeless kid to us. We will try to identify him as soon as possible and contact his parents toe and pick him up.��


    For now, Zhang Heng had done everything he could do. This ended precisely as he��d expected. He was sad, but that matter was out of his control, knowing that it was impossible to save the woman. There were many people like her in a busy city. Usually, the busy pedestrians that walked the streets would simply pass them by. Whatever that slimy thing was, Zhang Heng knew that it was extremely cunning. It knew that such a target would not draw any attention even if it were brazen enough to devour her on the street. If Zhang Heng did not pass by the alley, no one would have noticed the disappearance of two homeless people in this city.


    Zhang Heng stood up and shook hands with the police officer. He then stole a nce at the kid that sat on the bench. He was still holding the fried chicken that he picked up from the bin, and seemed to be in great shock.


    Taking pity on the child, Zhang Heng took out 300 yuan from his wallet and handed it to the police officer.


    ��Can you buy some food for him? He hasn��t had dinner.��


    ��You are actually quite nice. Alright. Don��t worry about it. Now that he is at our station, we will buy him some foodter.��


    Zhang Heng was still rather upset after leaving the police station. The creature that he encountered this evening was definitely supernatural, and he had no idea who would do something like this. It could have been a monster like Moresby or even other yers who possessed game items like him.


    Whatever the answer was, this was definitely not a good thing. ording to the old man, ��things�� like that had existed in this world for hundreds of thousands of years, peacefully co-existing alongside the humans. Clearly, the mysterious game had destroyed the bnce.


    Suddenly, Zhang Heng realized that Moresby would appear at Hongqiao International Airport. The old man told Zhang Heng that it had chosen the two Chinese tourists randomly. Zhang Heng, however, did not agree. There must be a better reason why it had appeared on this foreign soil.


    The most troublesome part was the existence of other yers. If those they survived the game, they must have acquired game items as well. Zhang Heng could not figure out the system that the game��s creator used to select yers. Not everyone had the intention toy low like him. When someone came into possession of such great power, they would start to think of how to utilize their newfound abilities fully. Death in the game was the one factor that pushed everyone to take extreme measures. However, Zhang Heng had no intention to be a hero, nor did he want others to make a mess of where he lived.


    ........


    It was almost twelve when Zhang Heng arrived back at the university. He did not go through the main entrance, choosing instead to enter from the side door located west. This door was further away from the MRT station, and few elected to use this entrance. At times, some teachers would still use it because it was nearer to their residence.


    As Zhang Heng came up upon the entrance, he saw a shiny ck Mercedes-Benz parked on his right-hand side. Shen Xixi quickly shuffled off the car! An awkward situation emerged between them when sheid her eyes on Zhang Heng.


    Suddenly, Zhang Heng remembered a rumor that he had heard earlier. Unfortunately, the ck Mercedes had already left, and he was unable to take a good look at the driver. Shen Xixi quickly put the ck pouch into her bag as she attempted to make herself look as calm as possible.


    ��It seems like we always meet at the wrong time,��mented Shen Xixi with a bitter smile.


    ��You don��t have to exin anything to me,�� Zhang Heng replied.


    Both of them were nothing more than friends. No matter what Shen Xixi did, she had no obligation to tell him about it. Besides, Zhang Heng did not believe in the rumors he heard. He knew she was smart enough to stop the Mercedes away from the front entrance, lest the things said about her would be truth. The only question he had was why Shen Xixi did not defend herself when the allegations were thrown at her.


    ��We��ll talk soon. My dorm will be locked in a bit. I have to hurry!�� said Shen Xixi after ncing at the time.


    The female dorm was further away from the western entrance, and the dormitories would be locked in five minutes. Both of them waved each other a swift farewell before retreating to their respective rooms.

 Chapter 85 - Christmas Eve

    <h4>Chapter 85: Christmas Eve</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    It had been two days since Zhang Heng reported the supernatural case to the police. After that, he did note across any cases involving the unknown. Earlier, he was surprised when he received a message from Hayase Asuka. She wanted to invite him to an amusement park on Christmas Eve, where a few of her friends would tag along as well. This was not the first time she asked Zhang Heng out. She was the kind of that could not stay indoors for too long, heading out whenever the opportunity presented itself.


    The one thing that surprised Zhang Heng the most was her academic results. Although she always hung out, she still managed to pass her exams with flying colors, never having failed any subjects before. He even saw her fooling around on the eve of the finals.


    The way she behaved was actually very simr to someone Zhang Heng knew. Someone he had previously rejected a few times. He had never expected Hayase Asuka to be the persistent kind of girl. This time, he felt terrible that he had always dismissed her invitations, and so, went ahead and asked his friends to join him if they had nothing better to do. Ma Wei was passionate about doing well in his studies. As for Wei Jiangyang and Chen Huadong, they had been attempting to memorize everything that they studied so far. Both of them were dying for some entertainment outside the confines of the dorm room.


    ��Are you talking about the Japanese girl that you saved at Food Street? The thing is, we don��t speak Japanese.��


    ��Erm... she��ll be there with a few of her friends. It seems they are from China, Japan, and one of them is actually from Ukraine,�� replied Zhang Heng while reading Hayase Asuka��s text.


    ��Never mind. I don��t think I will join you.��


    Though Wei Jiangyang was interested in being friends with girls from different countries, he still thought that his life was his priority. He was not bold enough to abandon his girlfriend and instead have fun with others. As for Chen Huadong, he was devastated that histest attempt in wooing Xu Jing had once again failed miserably. It would be a nice change for him to go out and distract himself from all the sorrow. Hence, he volunteered to go with Zhang Heng. Lastly, Ma Wei, the genius, was done with studying. He, too, decided to tag along with Zhang Heng.


    After that, Zhang Heng told Hayase Asuka that he would bring a couple of friends with him. It was all in good faith, and she was totally fine with it. Both sides had agreed that they would meet at the entrance of the amusement park. Seeing that there was still some time left before they headed there, Zhang Heng yed a few rounds of basketball with Chen Huadong on hisputer.


    After the game, they proceeded to the cafeteria for some food before departing. As the three of them had arrived ten minutes early, they purchased the entrance tickets first. When they came out, they spotted Hayase Asuke and her group of friends walking towards them.


    On her head was a beanie with two fur balls hanging from it. They swung around as she ran towards them. She quickly waved her hands at Zhang Heng the moment she saw him. Two boys and five girls were here with her. The handsome blonde bloke should be the exchange student from Ukraine. He might have looked all imposing and cool from the outside, but once they had gotten to know him, he turned out to be actually somewhat timid.


    All of them did a simple introduction about themselves. Hayase Asuka even spelled out her name in Chinese. They got to know how good the exchange students�� mandarin was the moment they started the introductions. Amongst them, the guy from Ukraine had the highest proficiency in Mandarin, his great grandmother being from China. So, he named himself Zhang Wei.


    As for the rest of the Japanese girls, only one of them could speak good Mandarin. That being said, they could allmunicate with each other without problems. The only thing was that they had to say the words slowly, considering it wasn��t their nativenguage. Thest Japanese girl had already started using some of the moreplex Chinese phrases. Amongst them, Hayase Asuka had the lowest proficiency in Mandarin. Right after she introduced herself, she instantly reverted to Japanese again when she talked with the two girls. Apart from those two, the other two who could understand her were Zhang Heng and another boy that was currently taking Japanese sses.


    Seeing that everyone was here, Zhang Heng distributed the entrance tickets to each of them. The amusement park was packed with crowds of thousands because it was Christmas Eve, with most of the visitors being couples. There were even a few Santa usus standing at the entrance to give presents to those that were about to enter the amusement park, giving out gifts to the entering visitors.


    The group got their presents too, and when they opened theirs, they found out that they had all received different items. Zhang Heng got a nail clipper, and Ma Wei found a key chain. However, Chen Huadong was the luckiest amongst them, receiving aplimentary pass from the amusement park��s management. The moment Hayase Asuke opened her present, her face immediately turned red! She quickly hid it in her bag before anyone saw it.


    One of the guys persuaded her to show everyone what she got, though, Zhang Heng could roughly guess the item that she received. Immediately, he looked for a topic to distract everyone. At his quick thinking, Hayase Asuka looked at Zhang Heng gratefully. To be honest, the amusement park wasn��t as entertaining during the night. For safety reasons, rides like rollercoasters and other thrills were shut down. Fortunately, the park made up for it with spectacr live performances.


    Zhang Heng and his friends queued up to try some of the games offered at the booths nearby. Seeing that the live show was about to start, some of the girls suggested that they should watch it first.


    ��You guys go ahead. I will keep herpany,�� said Zhang Heng when he saw that Hayase Asuka was more interested in the games she was ying.


    ��I will keep herpany as well,�� said the other guy that spoke Japanese.


    Zhang Heng did not brush him off, noticing that was trying to woo Hayase Asuka. In the direction of giving them more alone time, Zhang Heng volunteered to help hold on to their personal belongings. Hayase Asuka was so excited that she did not suspect anything was amiss. Secretly though, the guy was extremely grateful for what Zhang Heng did.


    While Hayase and the guy visited the haunted house, Zhang Heng settled on a bench to answer a call. The call came from Irnd and was his parents. They both wished him a happy Christmas. At the same time, they kept teasing him and asking him to take a picture of the girl that was close to him. Zhang Heng then took a picture of the couple on his left.


    ��That��s pathetic...��


    Now, his parents were nagging him,menting about their life in university. Judging from the background noise, Zhang Heng deduced that his parents were probably standing in front of a theater or stadium of some sort. As they were running out of time because the event they were about to attend was about to start, they had toe back to a more serious topic. They informed Zhang Heng that they would return to celebrate the new year with him. They even prepared a surprise for him as well.


    Zhang Heng did not entirely trust everything they said. It had been two years that his parents had not celebrated the new year with him. Last year, they were both on holiday but had chosen to travel to Africa instead of celebrating Chinese New Year with their son. Initially, Zhang Heng wanted to ask them about Moresby, Tapio, and the crows that appeared in his mind when he used the wooden sculpture.


    Though they most probably wouldn��t qualify as parents of the year, they were still experts in all these mystical stuff. Considering they wereing back in about a month, Zhang Heng decided that he would only ask when they came home. Talking about matters like these on the phone might just turn out to be more confusing.


    After hanging up the call, Zhang Heng sat on the bench for a little longer. Suddenly, he saw someone familiar in the crowd. He frowned, when he looked again, the person had disappeared.

 Chapter 86 - Arcade Center

    <h4>Chapter 86: Arcade Center</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    Zhang Heng didn��t know if he had been mistaken. Just when he stood up from the bench and wanted to investigate, Hayase Asuka and the guy hade out from the haunted house.


    ��I was so scared! A face appeared out of nowhere when I was walking around just now. The creature even stuck out its tongue to scare me! My only thought after that was to get out of this haunted house as fast as possible. I should have just listened to you about not getting in. You are the smartest one here!��


    Zhang Heng then nced at the guy beside her. He simply shrugged, looking somewhat disappointed. Visiting the haunted house was actually a good idea for a guy where usually, a girl would typically stay closer to him when she got scared. Hayase Asuka, however, was no ordinary girl, running as fast as her legs could take her when she was spooked. In the end, the guy had to go after her, and there was nothing very romantic about it.


    Zhang Heng gave up the idea of going after the mysterious person after the two of them interrupted him. The good thing was, he did not dwell on it. There were a lot of people that looked simr to each other in this world. After getting only a quick nce, the person he saw could have been anyone.


    ��What are we going to y next?�� asked Zhang Heng.


    ��Do I get to pick?!�� asked Hayase Asuka while pointing at the big teddy bear not far away from her.


    ��Can I have that teddy bear?��


    Offering various types of games, these were a bunch of arcade booths managed by the amusement park itself. Soon, the three approached one of the staff in a Santa suit. The employee told them that the teddy bear was the prize for the mini-games.


    ��Let me give it a try then,�� said the guy.


    Since he was interested in Hayase Asuka, he aspired to prove himself in front of her. He then turned around and took a look at his options. In the end, hended his attention on a shooting game. It wasmon for most guys to y FPS games. Shooting was a subject that they were definitely familiar with.


    After observing others y and reading the rules, he decided to give it a go. The guy tossed a token into the machine and picked up theser gun. He then took a deep breath before pushing the ��start�� button.


    The game itself was pretty simple, where all he needed to do was to hit as many balloons on the screen as possible. Different colors carried different scores. The yer was given two minutes to collect as many points as possible. In the beginning, it was rtively simple, where the guynded all his shots on the balloons that carried the most points. He even had the time to shoot the red and yellow balloons that carried lesser points. Soon, his score umted really fast. At the rate he was going, he would be able to im the teddy bear in less than two minutes.


    As time passed, the balloons fell faster and faster, and ck balloons started to pop up as well. The scores would be deducted if the yer shot ck balloons. The game was getting harder by the second. When the time was almost over, he started to panic and inadvertently hit another ck balloon right before the time ended. In the end, his only reward was a sticker saying Merry Christmas.


    This pathetic result had deeply embarrassed him. So, he decided to go for another round. Perhaps it was due to his nervousness or his desperation for better results, he fared worse in this second round. This time, he identally hit a total of four ck balloons. The people behind him were literallyughing at him. Judging by their buff physique and attire, they were most likely students from a university nearby here. Though the guy was very unhappy that they wereughing at him, there was nothing he could do about it.


    A fight almost broke out when one of them called him a ��weak-ass.�� Though the person simply muttered it out, it was clear enough for the people around him to hear everything. In the end, theyughed at him even harder. Hayase Asuka could not understand the conversation, but she could sense that something was not right. So, she quickly told the guy that she did not want the teddy bear anymore. It was better for them to look for fun elsewhere.


    Zhang Heng was fine with that. When the guy saw that the group of boys whoughed at him were strong and muscr and that there were only three of them, he knew that things could take a worse turn for them if he decided to confront them. None the wiser, he decided to swallow all the frustration that was burning within him.


    The three of them ignored the rowdy gang and proceeded to the dart-throwing booth next door. On the other hand, the group of guys thatughed at him tried the shooting game. Hayase Asuka was overloaded with luck tonight.


    Although she had never undergone professional training, she still managed to hit the bullseye thrice! Though herst dart missed the target, she still managed to get the fourth prize. The attendee then handed her a mug, which instantly lightened up her mood. Her admirer standing beside her was clearly distracted. He still had his attention focussed on the group of guys thatughed at him earlier. After ying two rounds, they only managed to win a constion prize.


    ��I thought you guys are supposed to be really good,�� the guy jeered at the group sarcastically.


    One of the boys that looked like a basketball yer overheard what he said. He turned around and looked at him with a smile.


    ��Hey! It��s you guys again. Why are you still here? Come y one round with me then.��


    He did not expect his soft whisper to be heard by them. Nevertheless, the was forced to ept the challenge knowing that this was the worst time for him to act like a coward.


    ��What do you want to y?��


    ��Let��s all y a round of the shooting game then since we all look down on each other. I��m not going to make your life difficult, don��t worry. All you need to do is call yourself a weak-ass if you lose.��


    The guy was furious when he heard the degrading slur again. As he looked at their score, he felt that he should be able to beat his opponent if he yed carefully this time.


    ��Fine! Let��s do it then!��


    The group guys were clearly excited when he epted their challenge. All of them started to look at him as if he was a clown that was ready to perform in front of them.


    ��Wang Bin, you are so mean! Why are you bullying a retard?�� asked one of the group members while blowing a whistle.


    ��I have to do it. He is calling us weak. He wants to teach us a lesson and brag in front of his girlfriend,�� said Wang Bin with both hands wide open.


    ��You first or us first?�� asked the guy who spoke Japanese.


    Suddenly, he felt that something was not right. Their shooting was not as good, but they acted really confident in front of him. Was that simply mind games?


    Although he knew in his heart that it probably was, he still couldn��t muster up enough courage to face them confidently. He even started to regret epting the challenge.


    Truth be told, Hayase Asuka did not actually understand the word ��weak-ass��, and he was the one who was feeling embarrassed. In one way or another, Wang Bin was right about him. Without a doubt, he did have the intention to show-off in front of Hayase Asuka.

 Chapter 87 - Can I Borrow Two Tokens?

    <h4>Chapter 87: Can I Borrow Two Tokens?</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    Going first had its good and bad sides. If he performed well, he could exert tremendous pressure on his opponent, putting him under a lot of stress. At the same time, that would also mean his trump card would be revealed. The guy speaking fluent Japanese hesitated for a while before choosing to go after his opponent, suspecting that his nemesis was ying tricks on him.


    After they made their choices, everyone from the opposing team had their eyes on a plump guy standing amongst them. Whenpared to others of the same age, he looked like an ordinary, unassuming guy that no one would notice. The outdated Bosideng down jacket that he wore would surely pass unperceived. Earlier, when his friends were ying the shooting game, he just stood there silently without saying a word.


    ��Why did you guys bring me trouble again?�� he asked, then smiled when he realized that everyone was looking at him.


    ��We are all just hanging out since its Christmas Eve. I will buy everyone supper when this is over,�� Wang Bin proimed while handing theser gun to the plump guy.


    ��This will be thest time I��ll be doing something like this. Teacher Guo advised us to stay out of trouble while we are here.��


    The moment he picked up the gun, his temperament switched entirely, as if transforming into another person. One could instantly tell that he was no amateur from the way he held theser gun. Immediately, the guy fluent in Japanese could feel that something was not right. Still, he was left with a tiny bit of hope that he could beat the plump guy.


    The moment the game started, the plump guy��s performancepletely annihted whatever little hope he had. He might have looked ordinary, but his shooting skills were definitely something out of this world. At the early stages of the game, his superb skills weren��t apparent as the game was still easy. When the balloons started appearing faster and faster on the screen, he could stillnd his shots on the balloons that carried the most points.


    His scores were rising steadily. Left in shock, the guy who spoke fluent Japanese realized that his opponent had surpassed his best score, and he still had half a minute left toplete the game. Right until the end, the balloons appearing on the screen became so fast that it almost faded into a blur. It was at that moment that the plump guy started to miss.


    It was no longer relevant, however, as his score was high enough for the top prize. Upon seeing the win, the attendant of the arcade carried the giant teddy bear and approached him.


    ��I don��t need this giant teddy bear,�� said the plump guy while putting down theser gun.


    ��What now? Do you still want topete with us?�� asked Wang Bin while tapping on the shoulder of the guy who spoke fluent Japanese.


    At that very moment, he realized that he had walked into a trap. The plump guy was no ordinary man. There was a reason why he was in the same school as Wang Bin. His forte was clearly not physical sports. From the way he performed just now, everyone realized that he must be a professional Esportspetitor.


    ��You should honor the bet you made since you��ve lost the game.��


    Wang Bin then took out his cellphone from his pocket and turned on the camera, switching it to record. The guy speaking fluent Japanese was deeply embarrassed in front of everyone. He knew that Wang Bin had intended all the while to make him look like a fool in public. What he did not expect was his opponent recording anything on video. His reputation would be eternally tainted if the clip were uploaded to the inte.


    The worst thing here was that his impulsive decision had also dragged Hayase Asuka and Zhang Heng in with him. Despite all that, however, he did not hear Wang Bin saying anything about the loser having to do whatever he was asked to do.


    He was so distracted that he did not realize the two persons beside him were gone. The plump guy harrumphed and saw that a crowd had started to gather around the arcade machine. He pinned the Eastern Tree Leaf drink he was holding under his armpit and picked up theser gun.


    ��Can I borrow two tokens from you?��


    Suddenly, Zhang Heng voiced out, asking Wang Bin for the coins.


    ��Not about to give up, huh? Fine.��


    Wang Bin then took two tokens from his pocket and tossed it to Zhang Heng, who inserted one of them into the machine and ced the other under the screen.


    ��This token is for you to challenge my scoreter,�� Zhang Heng told the plump guy.


    Immediately, the crowd fell into a hushed silence. Even the guy fluent in Japanese thought that Zhang Heng had gone insane. Everyone saw that the plump guy dominated the shooting game. ording to the arcade��s employee, the giant teddy bear had been sitting there for two months, with nobody managing to im it as their own. This was the first time that someone had won it fair and square.


    The plump guy was surprised that Zhang Heng wanted to challenge him. The crowd had started booing, but Zhang Heng chose to ignore them, starting the game instead. Somehow, he held the gun in a rather amateurish way. There was nothing particrly skillful about that.


    Then, the tables started turning.


    The moment he started firing a few shots, the plump guy quickly suspected that Zhang Heng might actually be better than him.


    Outsiders were just there to watch thempete, but a real pro like the plump guy could instantly tell that Zhang Heng was a truly skilled marksman. In the game��s early stages, most yers gained points at a predictable rate. Although the balloons had gradually appeared faster and faster on the screen, the plump guy observed that Zhang Heng still maintained his calm, and his performance had remained steady.


    Zhang Heng yed the game differently from the plump guy. Zhang Heng��s score increased bits by bits. After all the in-game battle-hardened training he got, his observational skills had grown better than most. Unlike the others, he did not impulsively focus only on the highest-scoring balloons while missing out on the rest.


    After observing for a while, the plump guy noticed that Zhang Heng would arrange the balloons on the screen based on their value in the shortest time possible. He would not necessarily always shoot the ones with the highest value. Instead, he made sure to take out the rest of the valuable balloons before they left the screen as well. That meant Zhang Heng had to continually change his shooting sequence.


    The plump guy had no idea how Zhang Heng managed such an incredible, striking great fear in him. Two minutes soon passed.


    When Zhang Heng finally put down theser gun, he realized that half of the crowd from the arcade center was watching him. Finally, his points on the screen stopped increasing. His final score was 2,765, 636 points higher than the plump guy��s. Hayase Asuka was filled with excitement when shepared the scores.


    This time, the group that bullied them was left speechless. Wang Bin quickly turned around and looked at the plump guy hoping that he would start another challenge. The plump guy, however, could only gaze at the coin on the machine with a bitter smile.


    ��I don��t think I can surpass his final score.��


    Wang Bin and the rest of them became deeply embarrassed. Never in their minds did they imagine that he would lose to Zhang Heng. They were at a loss, not knowing what they should do now.

 Chapter 88 - Auction

    <h4>Chapter 88: Auction</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    The employee was left in a dilemma. Although it was true that Zhang Heng surpassed the score required for the first prize, no one would have expected that two yers would be good enough to im first prize. It was definitely a rare situation. The arcade��s management, too, had no idea what to do next. As the victors were already present, going to get a second giant teddy bear now was out of the question.


    In an attempt to ease the predicament, the employee suggested that they could choose other prizes in exchange for the bear.


    Zhang Heng turned around to look at the group that bullied them earlier. It seemed this Wang Bin guy was the leader of the group. He appeared somewhat happy with the oue and chose to stick to the bet.


    ��We have lost, and we will call ourselves weakasses.��


    Zhang Heng was taken aback hearing that they would stick to their promise. Since they came in bigger numbers, they could actually leave the ce without honoring the deal. It would be embarrassing if they did so, but still, it was better than calling themselves weakasses. As for Asuka��s admirer, Zhang Heng was truly disappointed in him. Although having knowledge that he lost the bet and had even dragged both of his friends into his trouble, he didn��t even have the courtesy to tell his opponent that he would bear all responsibility.


    ��You don��t have to call yourself that in public. I know you guys don��t really want the giant teddy bear. Why not just give it to us? Then, we can put this matter to rest,�� Zhang Heng offered.


    Wang Bin was taken aback by the methods Zhang Heng had used to deal with this matter. A few seconds ago, he saw the guy who spoke fluent Japanese taking out his cellphone and was prepared to put them on the record. They thought that they would surely be humiliated to death by the three of them.


    Now, they were pleasantly surprised when they heard Zhang Heng��s suggestion to call this off peacefully. Everyone initially thought that he was extremely arrogant when he left the coin under the screen if the plump guy asked for a rematch. His prior actions contrasted greatly with the merciful decision that he just made.


    Zhang Heng and Wang Bin were no enemies, having simply undergone a small conflict. Earlier, Wang Bin was bullying the guy that spoke fluent Japanese because he knew that he had the plump guy behind him, which was why Zhang Heng used the same method to let him taste his own medicine.


    The token just sat there under the screen, but none of them dared to touch it. This tiny gesture trumped over whatever word that woulde out from one��s mouth.


    Since they had learned their lesson, Zhang Heng had no intention to humiliate them in front of everyone. Immediately, the plump guy handed the giant teddy bear to Hayase Asuka.


    ��This is great! True men like us should not y with teddy bears anyway. It��s a good thing you guys want it from us.��


    The other members of the groupughed and smiled, seeking to make the whole affair a little less awkward. Before this incident, they had always go around and mess with other people solely in the name of proving that they would be the winner. This was their first time tasting the bitterness of what it was like to lose. Seeing that Zhang Heng was willing to let them off the hook, they were all relieved. Having no intention of lingering around any longer, they left the arcade the moment everything was settled.


    Wang Bin was thest to leave. Zhang Heng frowned when he saw him walking towards them. He believed that he was a sore loser and wanted toe back for revenge.


    ��I owe you a favor this time. Save my number on your cellphone. You can call me anytime you need my help. Let me be frank. We are not going to get ourselves in any sort of fights. Our school is really strict about these things.��


    Zhang Heng was astonished that Wang Bin did not throw a tantrum in front of them. In return, he nodded and took down his number.


    .........


    Hayase Asuka hugged the teddy bear tightly as they walked away. She felt as if she was living in a dream.


    ��Woah! I didn��t know you��re such a good shooter! Were you a secret agent or something?!��


    Hayase Asuka was so happy that she jumped around and pretended to shoot with her finger.


    Zhang Heng could only think of the first excuse that came to his mind.


    ��I y a lot of shooting games,�� he said.


    Since Hayase Asuka had never yed an FPS game before, she did not suspect anything wrong with Zhang Heng��s statement. All she knew was that he was really good at video games.


    On the other hand, the guy who spoke fluent Japanese was now embarrassed by what he did earlier. He knew that he would never be able to get Hayase Asuka to like him. Besides, Zhang Heng had overshot him by miles after sessfully handling the matter. In the end, he made up an excuse for himself before hurriedly retreating to his dorm.


    Zhang Heng wanted to convince him to stay, but he was determined to leave. That meant only two of them were left. After that, they both decided to try out the bumper cars while waiting for the live performance to be over. Soon, they met up with the rest of them at the Ferris wheel.


    It waste, and the exam was at hand. So, they eventually decided it was time to head back to the hostel.


    Of course, if someone could win an award for the most fruitful trip, it had to be Hayase Asuka. She hugged the giant teddy bear with one hand, and her other held the mug, bing the envy of many girls. While chatting with the other two Japanese girls on the MRT, she told them she had singlehandedly won those two items by herself!


    Of course, Zhang Heng had no intention to expose her. To be honest, if Wang Bin and his group of friends did not bully them in the first ce, Zhang Heng would have never showcased his marksmanship.


    If Chen Huadong and Ma Wei were there with him, they would never believe that he improved his shooting skills all by ying FPS games. A month ago, Zhang Heng yed CS:GO with Chen Huadong and Jiang Weiyang. Zhang Heng��s shooting skills only slightly bettered Chen Huadong. He would never ept Zhang Heng��s reason.


    All the skills he possessed right now were better than most of his counterparts. Considering that he was still really young, few people got to experience what he went through in the game.


    As his skills would only improve the longer he spent ying the game, it would surely be harder for him to exin the things that he could do when the time came. Simply put, Hayase Asuka had actually saved him a lot of trouble by iming all the credit.


    .......


    It was Christmas today and thest day to join the auction as well. Two days ago, Zhang Heng received an invitation from the gamingmittee.


    He had been invited to join an auction for game items.


    Zhang Heng took a look at the auction��s date and time written at the bottom left of the invitation and saw that is was to be held tomorrow night. He was always curious about how other yers looked like, so naturally, he would not miss this opportunity. Of course, the main attraction was obtaining items that could assist him in-game.


    Shadow Moment had yed a significant role in Zhang Hengpleting the third round of the game. Without it, Simone would have definitely killed him in the game��s early stage. Though he could not see it, the Lucky Rabbit��s Foot helped him a lot as well.


    The chance of discovering these miraculous items were the reason why Zhang Heng looked forward to the auction.

 Chapter 89 - Fu Lou and Professor

    <h4>Chapter 89: Fu Lou and Professor</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    [Verifying yer...]


    [Verified. yer 07958 has the invitation card. Connecting yer to the quest...]


    [Quest connected sessfully. Current quest is Auction (Special)]


    [Current quest has no story background and is not considered a round of the game.]


    [Quest goal: None]


    [Mode: Multiyer]


    [Time flow rate: 2]


    (1 hour in the real world is equivalent to 4 hours in the game. yers would be sent back to the real world after an hour.)


    [Friendly reminder. The game will begin in five seconds. yers, please get ready.]


    ..........


    When Zhang Heng opened his eyes, he found himself standing on the deck of a cruise ship. He was wearing a ck tuxedo perfectly tailored to his body, and there was a tag hanging in front of his chest. His yer ID and ce of registration were printed on it.


    Zhang Heng then nced at his watch and realized that it was ten at night. That would mean the auction would end at eleven. This time, he did not need to worry about the bug created by the extra time he had.


    This round of the game was different from all the other quests that Zhang Hengpleted. It was safe to say that he would not encounter any danger in this one, finally being able to rx.


    After checking out his surroundings, he discovered that this ce was simr to checkpoints that he had to go through before entering any game. He could see other yers around him, but their faces had been blurred out.


    One could not deny that the game��s developers did an excellent job of protecting everyone��s privacy. However, that did not mean that the yers were always at peace with each other.


    ��Is this your first time attending an auction?��


    Suddenly, Zhang Heng heard a voice from behind. Turning around, he saw a rather short man who immediately handed him his business card. His name was Ding Si, but Zhang Heng knew that it was fake.


    ��The world is not as safe as we thought it is! Some lunatics don��t know how to stick to the rules. We all have to be careful,�� blurted the short man while shrugging.


    ��What is that supposed to mean?��


    ��You should be a new yer, right? Before this, every yer knew how to treat others with respect. Everyone was willing to help each other out whenever the going got tough. Unfortunately, some of the psychotic yers came across the identities of others. They then hunted them down in cold blood! Most yers are now in fear after the incident. That��s why everyone cares so much about their privacy nowadays. ording to what I know, the number of people attending this auction is way lesser thanst year.��


    ��Hunted?��


    Zhang Heng looked at the card again and saw the words ��North China Fu Lou Chamber of Commerce�� along with the person��s contact number.


    ��Yes. Arge number of yers are being hunted down. One of them found out that killing other yers would allow them to rob them of their game items and game points. After that, this whole killing business went out of hand, turning into a full-blown catastrophe to all other yers.��


    ��Are the developers going to do something about it?��


    ��As long as the yers don��t reveal any information about the game to other yers, they would not stick their noses in the business of other yers. It seems like they have something more important to deal with....��


    Ding Si had no intention toplete his sentence. Clearly, he did not want to dwell on it.


    ��You attended this auction to purchase some game items for yourself, right? Let me know if you don��t have enough game points, eh? Perhaps you can consider epting our assistance.��


    ��What do you mean? Your chamber ofmerce is selling game points?��


    ��You sure are a newbie, just as I expected. Not only the Fu Lou... many other chambers ofmerce provide simr services as well. You can always purchase game points from us, though I wouldn��t rmend it. The exchange rate is really high right now. You will need 4.2 million yuan to exchange for 1 game point. Usually, you would only need 3.7 million. The best thing for you to do right now is to pawn your game items to us. Once we have appraised it, we will instantly transfer the game points to you.��


    ��Thank you so much. I will think about it.��


    Ding Si was a professional salesperson. He knew the secrets of sessfully closing a deal, patiently holding back and not pushing Zhang Heng into taking it.


    ��The auction only begins in an hour and a half. You can go explore, walk around the ce a little. There are some interesting spots on this cruise. The first deck has a casino, cinema, and a game room. The second deck houses a theater for live performances and a ce for you to rx. The third deck is a public space for people to socialize. I��d advise you to check out the first deck before you proceed... if you want to.��


    Zhang Heng thanked Ding Si. This was his first time entering a social circle that was filled with yers. In order to prevent more killings, Ding Si had told Zhang Heng that most of the yers�� real identities were strictly protected.


    This was the only time Zhang Heng could see so many yers all at once in the same ce. Other than bidding for game items, they would also seize the opportunity to enjoy the pleasantly entertaining facilities offered here.


    A good example was the Fu Lou Chamber of Commerce, where they provided the yers with different services. Among these included bartering items for game points and providing loans. Otherwise, they would also help with the sale of game items and customize certain items ording to the yers�� wishes. Custom-made items were usually cheaper than the regr by 20% to 30%. It was apparent that they were taking advantage of the auction to promote their services.


    Amongst the three, Zhang Heng was most interested in the third deck. However, he did not go there right away. Instead, he took Ding Si��s advice and visited the lower deck first, managing to collect a few more business cards from different chambers ofmerce. The services they provided slightly differed from each other, but they mostly charged simr prices. The one thing that they shared inmon was that their game points were cheap. Of course, a particr risk presented itself when trading with them.


    Compared to all the other chambers, Fu Lou had the best reputation as it had been around since the very beginning.


    After that, Zhang Heng tucked all the business cards away into his pocket and rode the elevator to the third deck. This was the most crowded ce on the entire ship. Someone was giving a briefing on a podium about the most effective way to umte game points. Zhang Heng then looked for a seat and listened to what he had to say. Soon though, he felt that the person would always change topics the moment he reached the key point of his speech.


    ��He is telling us useless stuff! The form for acquiring game points is the top secret of the chambers. No one would simply let it out. He��s just trying to recruit others to join him.��


    The middle-aged man extended his hand while talking to Zhang Heng.


    ��You can call me professor. I hope you don��t misunderstand. This is just my nickname. I think it��s rude to address someone by a number. You either get a fake name or a nickname for others to address you.��


    ��You can call me Simone.��


    Zhang Heng shook his hand.


    ��Wee to the game, Simone. Where are your teammates?��


    ��Teammates?��


    ��I think you should be a newbie, huh. The invitation said that every quest has its specific challenges. It is rmended for the yers to form a team first before entering the quest!��

 Chapter 90 - Dreamland of Death

    <h4>Chapter 90: Dreand of Death</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    ��Everyone has their strengths limited in some way. We alle from different circumstances, and we have different forte as well. Some people love using their fists to solve their problems. Some prefer to use their brains to ovee their difficulties. Forming a team with others would allow you to ovee your weaknesses! After all, we are not superhumans. Your character panel should remind you of this as well. The previous quests that you havepleted were probably designed to bepleted alone. However, you will be in deep trouble if youe across a quest that cannot bepleted alone!


    Of course, solo-quests have their benefits. The yield for each quest is fixed, and you get everything that you earned. Being in a team, however, would mean that you��ll have to distribute your loot equally. Usually, people would only go solo after they have be stronger. Still, the risk of failure is very high. You can make all kinds of mistakes when you go solo on a quest.��


    Zhang Heng was dumbfounded. The old man with the Chinese attire was the one who had invited him to join this quest. It seemed that the other yers entered the game differently. He did not receive the invitation that the professor mentioned earlier. Until now, he had also not met other yers at the game stop. It was no wonder that he was still ying the game alone.


    Technically speaking, the old man did not actually put his life in danger. The extra 24 hours that he had was for him to solo the quest. This bonus time he had substantially lowered the risks of all the quests that he yed.


    ��Unfortunately, my team is full now. Otherwise, I would have given you a test before allowing you to join my team. My advice is to go to the city that you live in and look for a team to join. This is going to be a long game. Your mental and physical state will undergo great stress, and you will eventually need someone to share it with. After all, we can never share these things with our friends and family. Your team members will be your pir of support.��


    Zhang Heng knew that the professor was right about everything. Unfortunately, he also knew that he was meant to keep those secrets to himself and not share it with others. Considering that he spent two years alone marooned on a dested ind, he had no problems with staying and ying alone.


    ��I heard someone mentioning something about a guild. What is that?��


    ��Guilds and chambers ofmerce are formed by yers, with both providing different services. Though you are still a newbie, I��m pretty sure that you��ve heard that the real world is actually not as safe as we thought it is. That is why certain yers band together and form a guild to look after each other��s backs. Some of them even volunteered to deal with the supernatural stuff that happens around them.��


    ��Sounds good to me. Why are you so against the idea of joining a guild?��


    Earlier, the professor had criticized the guild member that speaking on the stage. Zhang Heng could sense hostility between his words.


    ��Guilds are supposed to exist to serve the greater good. As time passed, the definition of ��guild�� changed. In a guild, everyone was supposed to take care of each other. Sadly, when certain members be more and more powerful, they wanted more than just taking care of each other. Due to this, some guilds have be unstable, the contributors to the chaos right now. We all have different opinions about guilds. Right now, I��m happy with my own team, and I have no interest in joining any other guilds.��


    After chatting for a while, the professor descended to the first deck for a round of cards, and Zhang Heng stayed on the third to listen to speeches from different guilds. An hour and a halfter, everyone stopped what they were doing and gathered at the ballroom.


    Zhang Heng came up with a rough estimate that there were around 4000 to 5000 people here. There were more than 500 items to be auctioned off today. Among these were 12 valuable items that required the bidder to raise their number if they wanted to bid for the item. As for the rest of the 488 items, yers could only bid for them online. The system would then determine the highest bidder.


    While walking around, Zhang Heng crossed paths with Ding Si once again. It seemed like he had just closed in on a deal as he was smiling from ear-to-ear. He even greeted Zhang Heng first.


    He whispered, ��ording to a rumor I heard just now, I was told that a B-grade game item would on auctionter. And there are a few unique C-grade game items as well.��


    ��Are B-grade game items rare?��


    ��Of course! There are less than 200 B-grade game items within the entire circle of yers right now. Most of the yers I know would never sell these off. If I��m not mistaken, it was a B-grade item that left everyone in shockst year!��


    Ding Si was really excited as he described the game item. As a businessman, he was always infatuated by objects that carried extreme value.


    ��Dreand of Death! It��s an item that can be used to curse others,�� Ding Si eximed. ��


    Everyone was afraid of this thing a few months ago. It can kill someone in their sleep when they are dreaming. The way to trigger this item is unknown. How the curse is lifted is unknown as well. A few elites in the yer base have been cursed. The guild leader of Silver Wing was the owner of an A-grade game item and managed to survive the curse. In the end, a few guilds had to work together to eliminate the previous owner of the item. Since there��s only one, it has been decided that they would auction it off.��


    ��It��s basically impossible for anybody to bid for it. Leaders of these powerful guilds would never allow such a powerful item tond in the hands of an unknown stranger. I��m pretty sure that one of the guilds would eventually get it, and, the rest would take the game points instead. Anyway, their financial strength is unparalleled amongst all guilds and yers,�� he continued.


    While they were talking, the auction finally began.


    The auctioneer was a 60-year-old man who looked really serious. The wrinkles on his face resembled the bark of an old tree. He had no intention to hide his face. Just like the bartenderdy, he should be one of the employees of themittee as well.


    He waited until everyone was seated before presenting his five-minute-long wee speech. Then, he introduced the first item to be auctioned.


    ��Escape Dagger. Grade-C. It can be used to teleport within a small area. Remaining uses: 3. You can check out its description after you bid for the item. The starting bid is 1,200 game points. Every additional bid costs 50 game points. The bidding ends when the hammer drops three times. Let��s begin.��


    ��Damn. That��s a good item!�� said Ding Si.


    ��Are you going to bid for it?��


    ��It is a good item. Items that can be used to improve in-game survival are usually extremely costly! I��m here to looking for treasure for Fu Lou. It��s not for myself. Items that are undervalued are my target tonight,�� answered an excited Ding Si while switching on his tablet.

 Chapter 91 - Silent Bidding

    <h4>Chapter 91: Silent Bidding</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    While everyone else started bidding for the Escape Dagger, Zhang Heng and Ding Si unlocked the tablets that were ced in front of them. This was his first time seeing so many game items all at once. There was a total of 80 pages, where a photo of each game item was disyed followed by its name, grade, and a short description.


    By showing all the items on tabs, the buyers would at least have some knowledge about what they were about to pay for. Of course, the auction house would not reveal every single detail. The value of Dreand of Death, for example, would significantly drop if anyone knew the way to trigger it and killing someone with it. It was a risky business after all when one bid for items in an auction.


    When it came to risks, the Escape Dagger, for instance, was an item that came to scrutiny. It��s description mentioned everything except for the distance it could teleport. The buyers had to make an educated guess by themselves and would have to ept that it was all fair game if eventually, the Escape Dagger did not live up to their expectations.


    Zhang Heng noticed that Ding Si did not look at the merchandise that was listed on the first few pages of the catalog. Instead, he went all the way to thest page. Ding Si put on a smile when he realized Zhang Heng peeking at his tab.


    ��There are around 200 unidentified game items in this auction. Astute observation is required when checking out the stuff listed at the end of the catalog. Take a look if you��re interested. These items are all set at a minimum reserve of 100 game points. However, most of them are F-grade, where only a small portion of them are of E-grade. And if you are extremely lucky, you might be able to spot a C or even B-grade item or two. Two years ago, a guy bought an unidentified game item. To his shock, it was a B-grade item when he identified it! That is what I call by a one-in-a-million exception! Usually, yers would make a loss when purchasing unidentified items. It��s all a gamble, you know. The yers who have listed their items here in this category have done a lot of research themselves. They have to be very sure that the items that they sell here actually cost less than 100 game points each!��


    Zhang Heng then flipped to thest page,ing to a list of items with serial numbers written beside them. yers had put down their bidding prices beside some, but most were still avable, having nobody bidding on them yet.


    ��For some people, they have a real hard time deciding on which item to bid on. So, they would usually bid for items that others had bid for. To be honest, this is definitely an unwise move. The bidder wouldn��t know when to stop since they have no prior knowledge whatsoever about the item. Say you manage to find the item you really wanted, there is still the option to wait up until thest second and bid on it right before the system closes.��


    Zhang Heng then thanked Ding Si for sharing all these tips with him. Though information like this was hardly a trade secret, it showed that Ding Si had lots of experience in maximizing profit during an auction. It was kind of him to share all those pointers with Zhang Heng, although it wasn��t necessary for him to do so.


    ��Don��t sweat it. Consider it as my long-term investment in you. Next time, if you wish to purchase a game item, you won��t have to wait until the end of the year to do so. You can alwayse to Fu Lou and look for us. Our prices are always reasonable!��


    Zhang Heng did not impulsively scan through the unidentified items, instead, checking out the game items that were already identified first. He wanted to know how they priced all those items. Basically, an E-grade item would cost around 80 to 100 game points. D-grade items were around 300 to 600 game points. The gap grew wider when it came to C-grade items, usually costing thousands. Of course, prices of C-grade items varied depending on function. If it was an extremely useful item, the prices could go way beyond thousands.


    In the end, the Escape Dagger was sold at 2,050 game points.


    ��That��s overpriced. No doubt, the item is useful, but it definitely does not cost 2,050 game points. I think 1,500 is a more reasonable price. I suppose items that could save lives are usually in high demand. Maybe the person bidding for it needs it urgently.��


    After that, the auctioneer presented the second item. He opened up a box made out of Tule wood and disyed the piece of bone inside for everyone to see.


    ��Moresby Bone. Grade: C. It can be used to cycle time. Remaining use: 2. You can get more information about it after you receive the item. The starting price is at 1,900 game points. Every bid increases the item��s price by 50. The deal will be sealed when the hammer knocks three times. Let the bidding begin.��


    There was total silence, where not a single soul ced a bid for at least half a minute. The Moresby Bone was different from the Escape Dagger. Judging by the provided description, it was hard figuring out what it could be used for, and besides, a 1,900 starting price was undoubtedly a princely one.


    However, the starting prices of all these items sent to auction house tonight were actually determined by professional appraisers from themittee. That was why no one doubted its value. Their only concern, however, was that they would be unable to fully utilize the item after purchase. After all, these items all cost billions after a yuan conversion. To make matters worse, it was only left with two remaining uses. Even the wealthiest person here would think twice before purchasing it.


    ��This item is actually quite interesting...�� muttered Ding Si while rubbing his chin.


    ��You mean?�� asked Zhang Heng.


    Amongst all present here tonight, Zhang Heng was the only one who knew how to fully utilize the bone because he was the one who had asked the bartenderdy to identify it. He was also the one who entrusted her to auction it off. Although sifting through the entire catalog, he didn��t see the item listed anywhere. So, he suspected that this must be of the 12 valuable items which required other yers to bid on it with their paddles.


    ��Time-series items are extremely rare, though their starting prices can still be reasonable. However, the phrase ��cycling time�� does not carry too much information.��


    ��Are you trying to say that there might be no bids?��


    ��No. No. No. That is impossible. The rarity of this item itself ensures that someone will eventually bid for it. Right now, nobody is raising their number paddles because they are trying to estimate its value!��


    Right after Ding Si finished talking, someone raised their paddle. Soon, there was a second and then, a third person bid for it. However, the atmosphere this time was was different from the Escape Dagger bid. Only a few people ced their wagers, dragging on until a few moments before the hammer came down for the third time before bidding on it.


    The situation gradually turned awkward as the bidding went on and on, seeming to be a never-ending process.


    Ten minutester, the auctioneer frowned and made a new announcement.


    ��From now on, every bid costs 100 game points!��


    All the bidders had to think twice now. As time went on, fewer and fewer people ced their bids, though the bidding speed had increased. Notably, there were only three people bidding for it right now.


    It appeared that the three were determined to get their hands on this item,e what may. When the price had reached a staggering 2,600 game points, one of them decided to quit. Then, when it reached the 2,900 game point mark, another hesitated for a moment before he threw in the towel.


    In the end, the hammer price for the Moresby Bone was 2,900 game points.


    ��This sure is an excellent price for a C-grade item,�� Ding Si eximed.


    This time, he did not give an estimated price for the Moresby Bone. Even a professional like him could not determine its value without looking at its full report. However, Zhang Heng knew that whoever bought the Moresby Bone made no losses.


    This item was actually an extremely handy one, being able to create a continuous 60-second time-loop. Within this 60 seconds, no matter what the user did, this 60-second time frame could be rolled back! Technically, its user could stay in a 60-second time-loop forever until somebody deliberately broke it.

 Chapter 92 - Paris Arrow

    <h4>Chapter 92: Paris Arrow</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    Zhang Heng was really interested in the effect of Moresby Bone. The bartenderdy identified it for him and he��d also tested it out for himself. Unlike his other game items, it was actually extremely difficult to trigger the Moresby Bone��s effect. In fact, a very particr ritual needed to be performed before one could utilize it. Thankfully, it was not that hard to get the materials for this ritual. Around nine hours was needed for the entire ritual to bepleted.


    If performed sessfully, the user would enter the time loop. The realm within this loop was a world of nothingness. Not even death would happen in the realm of the time loop. This was actually the perfect ce for one to master their skills. Archery would be a good example. In this realm, the user would not feel hungry, thirsty, or tired. With determination, one could actually train until their archery skills maxed out. However, no one would be able to withstand such a boring routine for too long. Zhang Heng estimated that even a person with a strong mental fortitude would not be able to stay within the time loop��s realm for more than half a month.


    That was a ce void of anything. Zhang Heng wondered how the monster called Moresby stayed inside for tens of thousands of years. Just like entering the realm of the time loop, if the user wished to exit the realm, someone would need to prepare the ritual again. This was why the Alkiz were stuck inside the realm after they exterminated Moresby.


    If the old man in the Chinese attire did not break the bnce of time, that monster would have probably been stuck inside the time loop for eternity. Despite this, the item kept its value. The premise of being able to live forever inside the time loop itself was attractive enough for someone to bid for it.


    Zhang Heng let this item go because he had an extra 24 hours every day. Besides, he was new to the game, and he had justpleted three quests. Sure, he could earn game points pretty quickly, but the reward was simply not good enough.


    After deducting the 5% processing fee, Zhang Heng received a total of 2,755 game points. With this amount, he was now officially a bidder at the auction house. As he flipped through the catalog again, something captured his attention on page four.


    [Paris Arrow. Grade: D. Description: Once the arrow isunched, it would automaticallynd on the target��s weak point. Current price: 410.]


    The name of this arrow reminded Zhang Heng about a story he heard when he was still a kid.


    It went like this:


    During the Trojan War, Achilles was the strongest hero from Greece. Legend said that he was the son of one of the heroes from the Argonauts, namely Peleus, and the Ocean Queen, Thetis. There were many versions of his story. One of them was that his mother, Thetis, was told by the Queen of Fate that she would be killed on the battlefield. So, she soaked her son, Achilles, in the River Styx to turn him into an indestructible hero. As she was holding his heel as she dipped him, his heelter became his only weakness.


    When he grew up, he turned into a war hero killing countless enemies during the Trojan War. He was the one who had eliminated Hector, the most powerful warrior from Troy. After that, he was involved in a fight between Apollo, the God of the Sun. ording to Gustav Schwab, the author of Gods and Heroes of Ancient Greece, Achilles was killed when Apollo shot an arrow at his heel. The name and description of this game item matched the arrow that was mentioned in the Greek epic poem, Odyssey.


    After knowing that yers would face unknown danger in the real world, Zhang Heng wanted to arm himself well to make sure that he could protect him and others. The Paris Arrow matched perfectly with his Lv2 Archery Skill. As long as he could aim andunch the arrow at his target, it would automatically aim for the target��s weak spots.


    This was actually a niche game item, where only yers with an archery skill would be attracted by it. That would mean only a few yers would fight for it. So, half an hourter, the price of the Paris Arrow had increased by only 65 game points. Aspared to other game items, the Paris Arrow was evidently not as popr.


    Amid the auction, Ding Si��s cellphone rang nonstop, seeming as if he was getting more business by the minute. Zhang Heng was not surprised, as those participating in the auction were here to look for items that could help them in the game. If what they wanted to buy was in high demand, and theycked game points, they would frequently look toward the chamber ofmerce for help. Some would even sell off game items that they possessed in exchange for more game points.


    In that one hour, Ding Si��s fingers never left his cellphone, closing one deal after another. However, after leaving the auction house for a short while, he seemed to receive fewer messages when he returned.


    ��I just closed a big deal. I��m left with very few game points. That would mean my job for today is done,�� Ding Si sighed in euphoria.


    ��Congrats!��


    The auction was about to end soon and Zhang Heng checked on the Paris Arrow again only to find out that the price had increased to 445. So, he subsequently bid another 20 game points on it.


    In the end, he managed to obtain the Paris Arrow for a total of 465 game points.


    Other than that, a pair of earrings captured Zhang Heng��s attention as well. It allowed the user to gain 100% fire resistance. However, its price had started climbing higher and higher, and in the end, he had to give the item up. As he looked at all the unidentified items in the catalog again, he noticed all kinds of items. A Samsung cellphone and Gi handbag were listed as well. With only pictures to guide him, it was hard to determine their function.


    It was not necessary, though, for him to try his luck on all these items.


    However, just as he was about to close the catalog, a picture captured his attention. It was a key. The engraving on its end was extremely familiar to him. Suddenly, Zhang Heng remembered where he had seen the pattern. Earlier, when he activated the Shadow Moment, he stared right into the crow��s eyes, and though the picture was a little blurry, he still managed to recognize the crow engraved on it.


    Amongst all the game items he possessed, Shadow Moment was the only item with an unknown origin. Who knows, he might just find more information about his Shadow Moment through this key. The Shadow Moment was a D-grade item. That would mean this key was probably a D-grade item as well. Right now, no one had ced bids for it. That would mean Zhang Heng would be able to acquire this item with only 100 game points.


    As luck would have it, he managed to obtain the key at its base price.


    After the final purchase, he was now left with 2,292 game points. He then closed the catalog having no further intention to purchase any more game items.


    The auction wasing to an end and the auctioneer announced thest valuable item.

 Chapter 93 - Showstopper

    <h4>Chapter 93: Showstopper</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    Many of the guests already knew what thest item for auction was, but when the auctioneer took it out from the tule box and presented it before the guests, it caused quite the stir.


    ��Dreand of Death. Grade: B. Causes the target to enter a lethal dreand. Its remaining number of uses is a secret. More details will only be revealed after the auction. The starting bid is 60,000 game points, where additional bids will cost 500 points. After threest calls, the hammer will fall, and the sale is concluded. Get ready to ce your bids.��


    The elderly auctioneer conducted the auction professionally, maintaining a serious expression on his bony face as he made the introduction in a calm andposed manner.


    Right after he had spoken, a voice called out, ��Let��s not waste time and just start from 70,000.��


    The auditorium broke into an uproar. That was merely the first bid, and the price had already been raised by 10,000 points. This opening was borderline farcical.


    Considering Ding Si had alreadypleted his work for the day, he turned himself into a spectator for this bid.


    ��Currently, there are three most powerful guilds with more than 2,000 yers between them. After years of massive expansion and having made arge fortune, they are the only ones who can afford to make such an exorbitant bid. They are probably the ones performing at tonight��s final round of auction.��


    Ding Si paused for a moment and then continued, ��No one would feel safe knowing that this deadly weapon is in someone else��s hand. The three guild leaders of Silver Wing is the prime example of this case, so this is going to be a very fierce bid.��


    The way the events unfolded did not surprise Ding Si at all.


    The 70,000 point starting price did not seem to scare away the potentialpetitors. In less than ten seconds, someone swiftly followed up with a bid, and then another one from the other side. Among the many bidders tonight, no more than three were qualified to raise their paddles. Needless to say, these were the representatives of their respective guilds.


    On their own, Grade-B game items were already very rare. On top of that, Dreand of Death��s usage outshone those of the same grade. During such times, the three major guilds would not show courtesy to each other. In a matter of ten minutes, the price had shot up to a whopping 87,500 points.


    At this point, all three guilds began to show a little more caution, and the rate of the bidding gradually slowed. When it reached 89,000, one of the guilds backed out notifying that they were unable topete. The two bidders who were left, apparently rejuvenated by theirpetitor��s exit, were in full spirits to soldier on.


    Very quickly, the price of the Dreand of Death escted, breaking through the 90,000 point barrier. The party with the lower bid suddenly grew silent.


    There were many ways to kill that cost far less than 90,000 points, and even if taken from a purely defensive perspective, that price was still too expensive.


    Just as the winner of this chess game was about to be revealed, someone sitting in a corner at the back of the auditorium suddenly raised their paddle and said, ��100,000 points.��


    A furor broke out in the hall.


    Many were interested in the Dreand of Death. Still, everybody knew that it would eventually fall into the hands of one of the major guilds because it required not just desire but also bottomless pockets to be able to win the bid.


    Despite the odds, right before the high-stakes show came to a close, a fourth person entered the picture out of thin air, raising the bid price by another 10,000 points!


    At this point, coughing up 100,000 points for a B-grade game item was pure madness.


    All eyes immediately turned to the showstopper. Due to the stipted rules, no one was able to see the face of the person. One could only make out that it was a tall woman in ck sunsses. After calling out her bid, she kept quiet and went back to chewing her gum.


    Hushed waves of whispers began echoing throughout the auditorium. The yers were all discussing the girl, wondering who she was, and where she came from. In the end, it was apparent that nobody knew her identity.


    None of the three major guilds were prepared for this unprecedented turn of events, leaving their representatives stumped.


    Zhang Heng noticed the strange expression on Ding Si��s face and asked, ��What is it? Do you know her?��


    Ding Si shook his head. ��No, I don��t. But forty minutes ago, she came to me and exchanged three C-grade game items for a loan of 4,500 game points. That��s basically all the credits I have.��


    Zhang Heng raised his brow. He remembered seeing how Ding Si was in a good mood, saying that he hadpleted his work in advance.


    ��Could it be possible that she has also loaned from other chambers ofmerce before she could gather a total of 100,000 game points?��


    ��Theoretically speaking, it��s possible. Quite a few chambers ofmerce roam the ship, all ready to do business. They probably carry around quite a few points on them. If she made contact with them, she could have gathered this amount. But in practice, it��s unusible. There��s no way a person could have so many game items for coteral in the first ce.��


    Ding Si frowned. ��This is going to be a big problem for the three major guilds. They wouldn��t havee for this auction with more than 100,000 points on them. Dreand of Death may be great and all, but it��s not worth the price. The only problem is that if this thing falls into the hands of someone with ill-intentions, all the effort they went through to get here would have been for nothing.��


    As he was speaking, Ding Si��s phone vibrated and he picked it up.


    When the call ended, he looked up, astonished. ��This is impossible... all the chambers ofmerce have run out of game points. Is she really going to win the bid on her own? This woman is incredible!��


    On the other side, the three representatives of the guilds were in panic mode. For them, having the Dreand of Death in their possession was the most secure and ideal situation. Anything less than that, and they would definitely be unable to ept the oue. Although they were not on good terms with each other, they would still act per the rules.


    The worst-case scenario would be for the game item to fall into the hands of some psycho �C the tragic incident involving the guild leader of Silver Wing could very well repeat itself.


    ��The only way to solve this is for one of them to borrow from the other. Then they could defeat that woman. 100,000 points is a steep price. No one wants to be seen as an imprudent idiot,�� Ding Si exined. He appeared to be somewhat distracted, stroking the ck briefcase on his knees as his eyes stared nkly.


    This was the first time Zhang Heng had ever seen him so nervous. The auctioneer had dropped the hammer for the second time and was about to proceed to the countdown.


    The three guilds were still negotiating and had note to an agreement, attempting to request for the auction to be suspended, only to be ignored by the old auctioneer.


    The girl in the shades was chewing her gum more rapidly. Three secondster, the hammer dropped, and the auctioneer announced the results of the auction��s final round.


    Shortly, the steward standing at the side carried the tule box to the woman. She had just spent 100,000 points on a game item she did not even bother to inspect. She simply took the thing and tossed it into her little handbag.


    After that, she disappeared from her seat into the darkness.


    Just as she was about to leave, Ding Si jumped up from his seat and yelled, ��Hurry! Hurry! Catch her!!!��

 Chapter 94 - Storm

    <h4>Chapter 94: Storm</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    Ding Si was a step toote. In fact, even he had shouted a little earlier, it would have still been pointless. In this exclusive auction transcript, yers were not restricted and could leave at any time they wanted. Ding Si knew that it was useless to do that, merely reacting instinctively out of desperation.


    The moment the woman in sunsses disappeared before his eyes, Ding Si grabbed his hair in frustration.


    He was not the only one regretting. Someone else on the other side yelled as well, and a young man fainted on his seat. Many disgruntled groans and boos from the crowd quickly ensued.


    As Zhang Heng was sitting right next to Ding Si, he too saw very clearly when the woman was about to leave. The high-strung Ding Si opened his ck briefcase and pulled out the three tule wood boxes.


    To his dismay, all the game items inside were gone! Instead, in their ce were three smiley faces made out of y, mockingly grinning away as ifughing at his gullibility.


    After the outburst, Ding Si deted, drained of all energy, eventually slumping onto his seat. Tonight, Fu Lou wasn��t the only one deceived, for nearly all chambers ofmerce who carried points with them had been swindled by that woman. One by one, tule boxes were opened, and within them, the mocking smiling piece of y, a sight that stung the eyes of its bearer.


    Zhang Heng��s stomach sank, and he was flummoxed. Logically, Ding Si��s keen eyes and years of experience should prevented him from falling for such a cheap trick. Moreover, since they were all in the transcript, the yers should be have been able to ess the information of the game items on their personal screens. Nheless, that woman managed to fool everyone��s eyes with a few pieces of cheap y.


    When all was said and done, she had managed to plunder the coveted Dreand of Death from the three major guilds without having to pay a single point.


    Surely, all this sounded asing from a myth of legends, but here, it happened right before his eyes.


    In the entire hall, the only person unaffected by the event was probably the auctioneer on the stage. After he had sold thest item, his job was done. He gave a simple closing speech, before taking off his gloves and leaving,pletely ignoring themotion brewing among the guests.


    By the time they realized what had just happened, the representatives of the chambers ofmerce had already left. The losses they had suffered this time had to be reported back to their respective handlers. At the same time, they would alsounch a hunt for the woman back in the real world.


    Ding Si disappeared without even saying goodbye. The other yers, on the other hand, were either having heated discussion amongst themselves or had left with theirpanions. Zhang Heng collected the Paris Arrow and the unidentified key from themittee. When he saw that there was not much time left, he decided to leave.


    And so, he returned to the lounge.


    The light music had been reced by ssy jazz, and the bartender seemed to be a pretty good mood, humming along with the melody as she fussed over her new project �C stirring durian pulp into rum.


    ��This is a night worth celebrating! You should have a drink �C a small self-appreciation for entering the ranks of the rich.��


    She was the one who sent the Moresby bones to the auction. She knew all too well of its value, of course. Zhang Heng looked at the durian vored rum and was disheartened, politely refusing her offer of the pungent brew and handed her the unidentified key and ne from Simone instead.


    ��Please help me identify these items,�� he asked of her, then paused.


    ��Also, hand me another membership card and a Mission Failure Exemption Card.��


    He had always wanted to buy the Mission Failure Exemption Card since a while ago but was a little hesitant about the membership card. But after considering the fact that he would be here for a while, and the possibility of anything going wrong at any moment, he decided it was best to purchase it as soon as possible.


    ��I admire guys who know how to splurge,�� the bartendermended him as she took out a calctor. ��The total for this item is 1,407 points.��


    With the deal sealed, Zhang Heng��s game points were reduced from 2,292 to 785. After he had made the payment, he thought of a question and decided to ask while she was still in a good mood. ��Did you know that the screen disys wrong information sometimes?��


    The bartender raised her brows, clearly taken aback by the question.


    Quickly, she blurted out something in response. ��That��s impossible. The information disyed on the panels is more urate than your nightly news.��


    However, having said that, she seemed to be hesitant and added, ��But there��s a catch. If you have a special game prop, the possibility of that happening can��t bepeltely ruled out. That said, I��m afraid only A-grade game props can pull off such a thing. Why? Did you encounter it or something?��


    The incident at the auction tonight was no secret, where Zhang Heng believed that the news of the heist would have swiftly spread like wildfire within the circle of yers. Having no need to hide anything, Zhang Heng directly told her, ��Someone used y to fool all the chambers ofmerce present on the ship, then used that money to buy the final auction item, in turn snatching it away from the three major guilds.��


    ��This method... sounds very much like that guy��s modus operandi. Tsk! He finally showed his face. Guess he couldn��t stand the loneliness anymore,�� the bartenderdy muttered, evidently not intending to provide any further exnation. ��From now onwards, you have to be very careful when dealing with other yers. There have been more and more problems surfacing recently. It looks like another storm is brewing and I��m sure itsing soon.��


    ...


    This time, Zhang Heng left Desire City much earlier than before. It was only 23:16 when he walked out of the gate. There was still some time left before time stopped, so he decided to take a look at Paris Arrow.


    Although he had an arrow, he had been keeping his sf-recurve bow in schooltely and so, he had to go back to retrieve it.


    Zhang Heng hired a yellow bicycle and rode to the nearest station. At this hour, especially here in the industrial area, the bus stops were practically empty and deserted.


    He parked the bicycle by the road, lowering his head and discreetly locking his ride. At that very moment, he heard a loud rustlinging from the green zone by the street. Zhang Heng immediately went into high alert. Quickly, he turned around, clutching the Paris Arrow in his hand as he took two steps backward.


    Both Ding Si and the professor repetedly warned him that it was never safe being in the circle of yers. That shocking scam at the end of the auction was like a vivid lesson to him. As a result, he now became a lot more cautious of his surroundings.


    ��Who is it?!��


    The rustling stopped the moment he spoke. Whoever was behind the green zone must have been startled.


    After 5 seconds, a shadow emerged from the bush �C it was a ck stray cat, fleeing into the darkness with its tail tucked between its legs!


    Was it all a false rm?


    Before he could investigate, the bus arrived at the station. Zhang Heng put away his Paris Arrow and nced at the bush onest time before boarding.

 Chapter 95 - Exam Week and the Gathering

    <h4>Chapter 95: Exam Week and the Gathering</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    The problem could have all been in his position. Anyhow, Zhang Heng attempted to shoot his Paris Arrow a few times, only to find that this arrow that cost him 465 game points was no different from any conventional arrow. Perhaps, it was something to do with his chosen target. Theoretically, boards, apples, and cups had no weak points, all being inanimate objects. Zhang Heng deduced that the Paris Arrow might only work on living organisms. Right now, however, no suitable target was avable for him to test his theory.


    Three dayster, the ne and key were identified. Zhang Heng received an express delivery from the bartender, immediately opening it up and taking out one of the cards from it.


    [Name: Hunter��s Blessing]


    [Grade: F]


    [Effect: Increases the chance of encountering certain types of prey.]


    This item was simr to the ne that Simone gave him and the Lucky Rabbit Foot that he owned. It was hard to determine if increasing the chances of encountering prey was a good or bad thing. To a hunter, this item would allow them to improve their yield. However, if hunting weren��t in the books, bringing this around would cause unnecessary trouble.


    After that, Zhang Heng ced the ne inside the tule wood box that he bought from the bartender. Then, he looked at the identification report of the key.


    [Name: Shadow Key]


    [Grade: E]


    [Effect: Can be used to transform your target into Shadow Form. Lasts three minutes. Remaining uses: 3]


    The price of an E-grade item usually ranged between 80 to 100 points. Earlier, Zhang Heng had spent a total of 100 game points to purchase this item. Albeit a little bit overpriced, this was all very normal. Typically, unidentified items belonged in the F-grade category. E-grade were umon. D and C-grades were even rarer. As for B-grade items, it had only happened once so far.


    What Zhang Heng was interested in the most was the connection between the Shadow Key and Shadow Moment. Each time Zhang Heng activated his Shadow Moment, he could sense that the crow was trying to tell him something. He had a hunch that if he managed to check out the background of the crow, he would gain a better understanding of this supernatural item.


    Right now, though, he had a more pressing matter to deal with.


    The issue in question was his final exam. The exam week would officially begin right after the New Year. From the 3rd to the 7th, he was to attend the public course exam. When that ended, it was then a professional course exam next. It was definitely an intense period where every night, there would be a power cut at Zhang Heng��s hostel. Anticipating the time it would happen, he had to finish studying everything before it happened. Otherwise, he would just wring it out in the corridor and study there for the rest of the night.


    Even before the new year, the corridors were packed with zealous students. When Zhang Heng went out at 12 a.m, he could always see a group of students cramming hard on their books. Amongst these were Wei Jiangyang and Chen Huadong, where they stole a little time in between their busy schedule to read some manga. In this challenging time, they seemed to have found happiness amid suffering.


    Zhang Heng met Shen Xixi twice while he was studying in the study room, but after crossing paths with each other that night, they did not talk much after that. All they did was nod to each other when they met again. On the other hand, Xu Jing, the Loli, had always considered Zhang Heng her best friend. Ever since he used a bow and arrow to scare away bad guys from harassing her, she started to call Zhang Heng her Ironman. And she was not afraid to tell everyone about it.


    There was this once when Zhang Heng met her at the canteen. He was around five meters away from her when all of a sudden, she started to shout ��Ironman�� at him ever so passionately. Immediately, half of the students in the canteen turned around to stare at her.


    After some days, Zhang Heng finally finished hisst paper for this term. s, his second year in the university wasing to an end. Chen Huadong went as far as taking out his entire pile of photocopied study material and tore them into pieces before throwing them away in the water house. While returning to them, Chen Huadong realized that he left his cup there. Naturally, he turned back to go and get it.


    On the other hand, Jiang Weiyang was just as happy. He spent the entire night attempting to memorize notes that were written down with Chen Huadong. Coffee was the pir they relied on to stay awake throughout the exam. When the exam was over, though, all the sleepiness miraculously disappeared. They both suggested that everyone should go to Food Street to grab some good food and have fun. Since everyone was cool with the idea, Jiang Weiyang proceeded to call his girlfriend to join along.


    It seemed like Han Xiaxiao��s dorm wanted to celebrate the end of the exams too. So, Wei Jiangyang had to inform them about the rendezvous point.


    However, the atmosphere quickly really awkward when all of them gathered at the same spot. Ma Wei was not the kind of guy that had a smooth mouth with thedies, nor did he spend much time with them. Basically, he was here simply to eat his food and drink his beer, not intending on sharing a single word to the others. As for Chen Huadong and Xu Jing, they were usually the stimulus of the group. With the chattery duo present, they should be able to get everyone to mingle. Unfortunately, tonight had to be the night where they were both quiet.


    During Christmas Eve, Zhang Heng sensed something wrong between Chen Huadong and Xu Jing when he agreed to go to the amusement park with him. After the camping trip, both were always seen together as if connected by glue. Then, all of a sudden, they stopped talking. Right now, they behaved like strangers who had never met.


    When it came to the love matters of others, it was inappropriate for an outsider toment about it. Amongst them, Shen Xixi had the highest EQ. She was typically the go to girl when it came to matters like this. However, it seemed that she was terribly distracted, popping out her cellphone from time to time and checking for messages.


    And that marked the end of the first term of the second year in university.


    The most awkward incident of the night happened right after the meal. When everyone walked out of the restaurant, they saw a ck Mercedes parked at the entrance. This time Zhang Heng took a good look at the driver.


    Unlike the rumor about her hanging out with a bald old man, the driver was a young stallion. Judging by his demeanor, he should still be studying as well. Having a somewhat fit physique, it seemed that he spent a reasonable amount of time working out every day. Seeing the whole bunch walking out of the restaurant, the young man stepped down from the car and graciously opened the car door for Shen Xixi.


    ��There��s something I need to do. I��ll take my leave first,�� said Shen Xixi.


    She entered the car after the. Han Xiaoxiao wanted to say something, but she stopped midway, only sighing as the car silently rolled away.


    ��I have asked her in private before. She told me that she has no intention of getting a boyfriend. She told me that she wanted to do something meaningful. I have never seen her defending herself against all those horrible rumors. Initially, I wanted to believe her. Right now, I��m not sure if I should.��


    ��I will always support her no matter what,�� Xu Jing interrupted.


    ��That is because you are just like her,�� said Chen Huadong with a smile.


    Seeing that the two of them had their horns locked, they quickly stopped them from doing so.


    ��Both of you... the winter holidays areing soon. We won��t be seeing each other for a month. Can we just end this gathering peacefully? Right? Zhang Heng...�� said Wei Jiangyang.


    He wanted Zhang Heng to support his notion, but he looked distracted by the fact that Shen Xixi left them. Wei Jiang��s heart dropped immediately. The matter between Chen Huadong and Xu Jing was still unresolved, and he saw that something unpleasant was ying in Zhang Heng��s mind. Rumor had it that Shen Xixi and Zhang Heng used to flirt with each other.


    But then again, that was just a rumor. He wanted to know what Zhang Heng really thought about it.


    When Zhang Heng realized that Wei Jiangyang was staring at him, he quickly turned around and gave everyone a quick nod.


    ��See you guys next year.��

 Chapter 96 - Black Sail I

    <h4>Chapter 96: ck Sail I</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    After the exams, the winter holidays were finally here. From today until the 4th of March, the entire university would go on break. Most of the students left their hostels the very next day the exams were over. Wei Jiangyang was the first to leave from Zhang Heng��s dorm.


    He had nned for a vacation to Qingdao with Han Xiaoxiao, his girlfriend, before heading back to his hometown. After that, Chen Huadong was the second to leave. He brought almost nothing with him except for two hard drives that had tonnes of anime in them.


    As for Ma Wei, he wanted to earn some money first before heading back to his hometown and nned to work till the eve of Chinese New Year. As of today, he had taken up a job as a home tutor for four families. He rested for one night before quickly reading up some high-school physics and chemistry.


    Zhang Heng, Chen Huadong, and Wei Jiangyang had always respected Ma Wei a lot. From the first day he enrolled in this university, he had never hidden his family��s conditions from them. Though they weren��t doing well, he never used it as an excuse to exploit anyone. All the while, he worked part-time while studying at to help out his family. If ced in the same situation, Zhang Heng knew that he would never be able to do better. He then gave Ma Wei an encouraging pat on the shoulder.


    Zhang Heng bought a train ticket and was supposed to head back to his hometown next week. There was, however, something essential for him to do before he left the ce.


    At 23:37, Zhang Heng opened up the doors that led to the bar��s lounge on the second floor. After greeting the bartender, he looked for an empty seat and set the rm that was under it to 23:55.


    As he closed his eyes, a new journey began.


    [Verifying yer��s identity...]


    [Verificationplete. Randomly drawing the fourth quest for yer 07958]


    [Drawpleted. Your new quest is ck Sail]


    ��Pirates from New Providence have threatened all trades that are carried out in this area. Every civilized country in this world considers pirates as a public enemy!��


    [Quest goal: You are on a ship. Set anchor at Nassau and build your own force.]


    [Quest mode: Solo]


    [Time flow rate: 3600]


    (1 hour in the real world is equivalent to 150 days in the game. The yer will be sent back to the real world after 300 in-game days.)


    [Friendly reminder: The game will begin in five seconds. Please get ready.]


    ....


    Just as Zhang Heng was cracking his brain to figure out where in the world this New Providence was, he heard a deafening boom right beside him!


    The wall of his cabin had been prated by a flying cannonball, crushing the table inside it as well! This was the very first time Zhang Heng experienced such an intense opening. During hisst quest in Find, he was provided with a short grace period of safety right after entering the quest. It allowed him to familiarize himself with his surroundings.


    As for this round of the game, he was greeted in kind by a cannonball.


    The worst part was, this was just the beginning of his quest. After that, he could hear multiple cannons being fired and people running around frantically along the corridor outside the cabin. Immediately, he took a good look at his surroundings. Earlier, he guessed that this quest wouldn��t be set in the modern world the moment he heard the word pirate.


    The cabin��s furnishing and the clothes he wore looked ancient. From all that, Zhang Heng could deduce that he was on a vessel in old Europe. However, he was oblivious as to what the exact date was. The rise of pirates could be traced back to the Lucan from 14th century B.C. The Ancient Egyptians recorded a fight between them in Cyprus. After that, Viking Pirates who ruled the sea from the 8th to the 11th century became extremely famous as well. Although numbering only a few, their ruthlessness at sea made the pirates an infamous menace. They were definitely not afraid of death.


    Back in the modern world, a gamingpany even designed a ss called the ��berserker,�� inspired by the Viking Pirates. In the 17th century, Fujian and Guangdong of China were invaded by pirates as well.


    The golden age of piracy took ce during thest stages of the Renaissance. More sea routes had been added, and colonies were constantly expanding. This had made it possible for trading at sea to get better. Merchants and traders regrly encountered pirates when they sailed the high seas. Some powerful pirates would even go up against the navy and attack colonies. After that, the navies gradually became stronger, and piracy slowly died down. In the modern world, some small-time pirates still loitered around the waters of Somalia.


    After reminding himself of the grim history involving pirates, Zhang Heng did not continue staying in the cabin. Judging by the direction of where the cannonball was from, he deduced he was still in the heat of a battle. Right now, the first thing he had to do was to leave this ce. Who knew, a second cannonball mighte crashing down on him, and he wouldn��t be so lucky this time.


    Zhang Heng quickly opened the door, only to bump into a sailor that was holding a box of ammunition. The navy sailor was still rtively young, looking to be in his teens. Fear and anxiety were written all over his face. Immediately, he got up and ran to the deck with the box in hand, not saying a single word to Zhang Heng as he sprinted along.


    Then, there was a whistle from afar!


    Another cannonball had beenunched,nding right on the sailor��s chest! Zhang Heng quickly ran over to check on him. Unfortunately, his lungs had copsed; there was no way he would survive his severe injuries. Before he took in hisst breath, he held on to Zhang Heng��s hand, eyes filled with a strong reluctance to leave this world.


    After going through the war in Find, Zhang Heng knew precisely how to deal with a situation like this. All he could do right now was repeatedly tell the man that he was going to be fine. Half a minuteter, the young navy sailor passed away, his eyes still wide open. Zhang Heng used his hand and closed them gently, then quickly ran to the deck with a box of ammunition. He needed to know what was going on right now. Right at that moment, a man from the upper deck looked down and saw Zhang Heng.


    The man was around 40 to 50 years old. His skin appeared tanned, and he seemed to have spent many years out at sea.


    ��I have told you guys repeatedly not to leave your cabins! This ship doesn��t have enough firepower! It��s impossible for us to assign personnel to protect each and every one of you,�� yelled the middle-aged man who appeared furious.


    Zhang Heng was relieved when he heard the man speaking English. He was worried that he might be on a Spanish or Portuguese vessel, and in times like these, things could get messy if he couldn��tmunicate with them.


    Turning around, he showed the middle-aged man the box of ammunition he had. The dead boy��s body was not too far away from him.


    ��Your man was hit by a cannonball! I��m here to help.��


    The old sailor was surprised by Zhang Heng��s actions. However, this was not the right time for a chat. Ammunition was running out fast!


    ��Quick! Hand me the box!��


    Immediately, Zhang Heng climbed to the upper deck. It was then that he saw how bad the situation was. The entire ce had been severely damaged by enemy fire, and bodies were strewn all around as well.


    He looked to his left and saw the mast of the enemy ship. Right at its top flew the g of the ck Sail.

 Chapter 97 - Black Sail II

    <h4>Chapter 97: ck Sail II</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    Sporting a tricorne above of his head, the plump man should be the captain of the ship. He stood on the bridge, observing the enemies with a pair of bronze binocrs. Knowing that his ship was on the losing side, he could not help but feel nervous.


    ��Father, I think we should surrender. Our ship simply can��t go as fast as them. We don��t even have a third of their cannons, and we have only 15 guns on board! There��s no way we can win this fight. We should surrender while we...�� muttered the young man that stood beside the captain.


    The captain then red at his son and shouted at the sailor behind him.


    ��Where is the ammunition? I need it right now!!��


    ��We are awaiting your orders, captain,�� replied one of the old sailors.


    ��Cannoneers! Light your fuses!��


    The moment he gave the order, the enemy opened fire, and a cannonballnded directly on a cannon that was currently bring reloaded. The heavy barrel fell off its base and crushed the two cannoneers behind it. Everyone could hear their agonizing screams. Then, the whole ship fell silent. It seemed that they did not survive. At the same time, the barque flying the ck Sail g wasing full speed ahead!


    ��Everyone! Hang in there! All we need to do right now is to damage them! We need to wreak fear into the hearts of those bastards! Let��s hope that they would give up attacking us and look for somebody weaker instead!!! I will reward every single man here with six pounds each when we arrive in Bostonter!��


    The sailors�� low morale was once again ignited with renewed mes of passion. When the enemies entered their shooting range, all 15 guns were fired at them at the same time. Zhang Heng could clearly see that the sailorscked shooting practice. Most of their leadnded on the enemy vessel��s gunwale. With an attack like that, it would surely be impossible to put fear into their enemies, let alone damage them. Instead, they were hammered with a vengeance following a more powerful retaliation.


    Soon, another nine sailors were killed, and the rest of the shipmates lost their will to fight. No amount of reward money couldpel them to further risk their lives in fighting off their enemies. Just as expected, every single sailor on the ship started to drop their weapons. Thus, the captain knew that the battle was lost. There was nothing he could do now except to stare at his nemesis in despair. As he turned around to check on his people, he realized that his son was lying on the deck as well.


    The boy was clutching his chest, frantically trying to plug a deep gash, of which blood gushed out like a swollen river. The captain then took off his tricorne, knelt on the ground, and held his dying son to his chest. At the same time, Zhang Heng quickly ran to the captain��s room. The moment he spotted the barque flying the ck Sail g, he knew they were going to lose the battle. There was nothing he could do even if he decided to join the battle right now.


    The ship that he was on right now was just an ordinary merchant vessel from Ennd. In order to make sure that they could haul as much cargo as possible, the vessel was scantily equipped with eight nine-pounder light cannons. Ack of ammunition gued them as well. As for the enemies, they had at least 30 cannons on their ship. If their goal wasn��t capturing the ship and its cargo on board, they would have destroyed them a long time ago.


    Instead of making the pointless move of defending the ship, Zhang Heng ran to the captain��s quarters the moment chaos hit the boat. Usually, this was the most heavily guarded part on a ship. Right now, there wasn��t a single soul in the room. There were some valuable decorations around, but Zhang Heng did not bother taking them. He wasn��t sure if he would get to keep anything when the pirates boarded them. He then saw a wooden table on his right and quickly opened all the drawers.


    Then, he found what he was looking for.


    It was the ship��s logbook, apulsory record for every vessel to have. It was used to record dates, the direction of the wind, weather, and major incidents. The only thing that mattered to him right now, though, was to find out the era he was in and some basic information of this ship.


    Opening up the logbook, he started to read through its records. Three minutester, he heard a loud boom, followed by the ship violently shaking. It was so intense that it almost caused him to fall to the ground. When it had finally calmed down, he opened the curtains and took a peek outside. The first thing he saw was a giant cannon.


    Immediately, he shut the curtains! He knew that he did not have much time here. With both ships getting closer to each other, that would mean a close standoff between two was about to happen soon.


    Judging by the merchant ship��s lethargic firepower, the battle would surely end faster than expected.


    Luckily, Zhang Heng had scanned through most of the important information recorded in the logbook. It was the year 1712. If he remembered correctly, the 1701 war of session in Spain had caused the entire country to fall apart. Through a series of treaties, Ennd managed to im several colonies that had originally belonged to the Spanish. And with that, Ennd became the new king of the sea as time went on. At the same time, piracy saw its most active period as well.


    This merchant ship carrying an entire shipload of woolen goods was supposed to travel to Boston. After unloading the goods for sale, they were scheduled to ferry a shipment of tobo back home. As bad luck would have it, they crossed paths with a band of pirates just as they were about to arrive in Boston. Knowing that they had a slim chance of escaping, the captain decided to fight and protect his ship. After all, he was an ex-navy officer.


    Zhang Heng could hear the sailors screaming in agony from the captain��s cabin. It seemed like the captain��s n had failed miserably. Zhang Heng soon managed to locate the location of New Providence from the map on the table. It was located in the central north of the Bahamas. Nassau, one of its small towns, was located in the north of New Providence. Zhang Heng wanted to study the map in better detail, but there was no time left. The pirates could enter the captain��s room anytime now. Quickly, he returned the logbook back into the drawer and left.


    Initially, he wanted to return to where he came from. However, he changed his mind halfway and went to the galley instead. He then took out his Lucky Rabbit Foot, Hunter��s Blessing, and Paris Arrow and hid them under a nk. As he was leaving, he bumped into two men. One of them was running away from the other.


    The one running for his life crashed into Zhang Heng, and both of them fell on the ground! The person giving chase was clearly not a crew of the ship. He wielded a bloody ax and red at the plump guy that was crying and crawling on the ground. He was ready to execute him. The moment he saw Zhang Heng, he became even more excited.


    Having no room for hesitation, Zhang Heng rushed toward him and disarmed the pirate with a hard sidekick. Immediately, the pirate extended his arm, and a fistnded on Zhang Heng. In that split second, he instinctively extended his arms to protect himself. The blow was so powerful that it temporarily paralyzed his arm. As for the pirate, he suffered no injuries. Seeing that he was unscathed, he grinned and drew his dagger from his waist.


    Zhang Heng instantly realized that he was in big trouble. Close-quartersbat was never his forte. Judging from the pirate��s attack, Zhang Heng knew that it was impossible for him to defeat him from such a close distance.

 Chapter 98 - Black Sail III

    <h4>Chapter 98: ck Sail III</h4>


    Zhang Heng was forced to retreat back to the galley. As he attempted to dodge the attack, the dagger inadvertently shed his left arm. Though it was just a flesh wound, Zhang Heng knew that he had to do something quickly before it before the pirate killed him. Another three steps back, and he woulde up to a wall. As for the plump guy, he sat where he was, absolutely ovee by fear. It seemed as if he had lost his mind.


    In a life and death situation such as this, a gushing river of thoughts raced through Zhang Heng��s mind. However, he soon regained his calm. After all, he had just gone through a vicious war in Find. Right now, he had the Shadow Moment in his pocket, but it only had one usage left. Zhang Heng did not use it at the beginning of his quest. There was still a long journey ahead of him.


    Suddenly, Zhang Heng remembered the time when he went bear hunting with Simone in Sweden. He then spotted a chopping board with a small knife that was used to peel potatoes. Unfortunately, the pirate noticed Zhang Heng eyeballing the weapon.


    The very second Zhang Heng was about to move over to grab the knife, the pirate quickly charged at him with his dagger, causing him to move in the opposite direction where he managed to dodge the attack. Immediately, the pirate reacted and changed his course as well.


    He aimed his dagger directly at Zhang Heng��s chest, but to his surprise, Zhang Heng managed to evade him once again. Instead of hitting its target, the daggernded on a piece of smoked meat that hung behind him!


    This time, the pirate ran out of patience. An extreme frustration boiled within him as Zhang heng avoided his attack over and over again. He had enough of it. With rage clouding his mind, he pushed aside the smoked meat in an attempt to go for Zhang Heng again.


    However, he was greeted with a harpoon this time.


    Zhang Heng had long awaited this golden opportunity. Though the both of them had only gotten on the ship recently, Zhang Heng had taken time to explore the galley and look for a good spot to hide his items. Hence, he knew the ce better than the pirate. When he was forced to retreat to the galley, the thought of using the harpoon to attack the pirate already lingered in his mind. He simply needed to figure out how to lure the pirate to where the spear was.


    Simone once told him that a smarter way to hunt bigger prey was to make them believe that they were the hunters in this hunting game. When the time was right, Zhang Heng would not hesitate to use his weapon to kill his prey.


    In that split second, the harpoon prated the pirate��s neck. The strike was so blindingly fast that the pirate had no time to respond to it. He was killed on the spot instantly. The ��bear�� had finally been skewered by the hunter��s snare.


    With a grunt, Zhang Heng retrieved the harpoon. The pirate took a few steps backward as he staggered and fell. Then he stopped breathing.


    Zhang Heng slumped to the ground after he killed the pirate. At the same time, the plump guy who was paralyzed with fear snapped out of his stunned state by the loud noise from the galley. It was then that he found out that the situation turned out very differently than what he��d expected.


    ��You... won?��


    ��You do realize that you are still sitting there asking me useless questions, right? The answer is yes. I killed him.��


    The plump guy realized that he had just behaved like a coward. When Zhang Heng desperately needed his assistance, he was no better than a petrified dummy.


    ��I��m really sorry. I was terrified just now. Earlier, I wanted to open the door to see what the racket was outside, but I didn��t expect some pirate toe charging at me. I thought today would be the day I die. Oh right, my name is Marvin. I��m the son of a farm owner in a colony. I��m nning to go back to help my dad in the fields. I think I met you on the ship earlier. You are the Asian traveler, right? Your name is Zhang... Zhang...��


    ��Marvin, I don��t think this is a good time for a chat. Pirates have now overrun this ship. We will be in deep shit if they find their dead brother here!��


    Inevitably, this had turned out far from the desired scenario. Being all alone, Zhang Heng was hardly powerful enough to turn the situation around. Initially, he only wanted to hide his stuff and prepare to surrender. He did not expect that he would encounter a pirate the moment he stepped out the door. To make matters worse, he was left with no other option but to eliminate a pirate.


    Leaving the pirate to kill the plump man in cold blood would only encourage the pirate to go after him in a worse way. However, killing the pirate had just stuck a giant bullseye on Zhang Heng��s back. Now, he was in grave danger.


    ��Huh? What.... what should I do now? I did not kill him... I... I did nothing to him! I just sat there and kept still.��


    Zhang Heng was clearly unhappy with what he just heard. He had not expected that the first thing Marvin would do was to exclude himself from the incident. Though Zhang Heng��s primary intention was not to rescue him, it was still a fact that Marvin got to live to see tomorrow thanks to him.


    Before Zhang Heng could say anything, however, he heard the sound of footsteps from afar. Half a minuteter, two men appeared in the galley. One of them clutched a gun while the other held a British cuss. Judging from their ragged looks, they were definitely not the ship��s crew.


    ��I found another two alive! Be good ya��ll! Your captain is dead! Everything on this ship belongs to us now! Ain��t no point ying the hero in front of us!�� barked one of the pirates while brandishing his weapon.


    Immediately, Marvin nodded his head like a madman. The extras on his body jiggled nonstop as he bobbed around nervously. Sweat dripped off his face like a leaky tap.


    ��What the hell is going on?!�� asked the pirate with the cuss.


    At that, he quickly made a round of the galley and found nothing suspicious. Suddenly, he spotted a giant barrel behind them. The pirate shoved Marvin away and opened the barrel.


    All they found was a pile of smoked fish.


    ��Are you done yet? We are going to miss the celebration if you stay here any longer! Speaking of which, where is Victor? I saw hime this way earlier,�� asked the other pirate.


    ��Honestly, I don��t wish to see him at all. He��s a raving lunatic! Whenever we board a ship, he��ll turn the whole ce into his killing field for sure! If it was not for his bravery, he would have been kicked off the ship a bloody long time ago. Let��s go! Time to go gather on the deck!�� replied the pirate while sliding his cuss back into its sheath.


    As Zhang Heng and Marvin were escorted to the deck, they saw the other survivors. Amongst the group were thest seven sailors. All of them were shell shocked, dreading the unknown that fate would bestow upon them.

 Chapter 99 - Black Sail IV

    <h4>Chapter 99: ck Sail IV</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    Both pirates walked towards Zhang Heng and Marvin and proceeded to search them from top to bottom. That included their pockets and shoes. They wanted to make sure that they would not miss out on a single valuable item.


    After that, Zhang Heng and Marvin were being pushed into the crowd. Marvin fell into a state of panic when he saw the dead sailors beside him. Out of fear, his body shook uncontrobly once again. At that, the pirates startedughing at him hysterically.


    Zhang Heng��s wallet and snuff bottle were confiscated by the pirates. However, his Shadow Key and Shadow Moment were still with him. These two items were his trump cards to protect him from life-threatening circumstances. In order to make sure that the pirates wouldn��t get to them, he had to trigger the Shadow Key��s effect to turn both items into shadow form.


    His current situation right now was different from the other quests he hadpleted. At the moment, he was somewhere out at sea. That meant there were only so many ces he could run to even if he triggered the Shadow Moment��s effects. An option was to move his shadow on the sea, but he would surely drown once its effects expire. There was a slim chance that he would be saved by passing boats. However, getting devoured by sharks or drying out in dehydration seemed like a stronger possibility.


    The passengers on the ship were merely ordinary folk looking forward to a new life in the colonies that they headed to. Instead of a fresh start, they had now be prisoners of the pirates.


    Most of them did not behave as pathetically as Marvin, though, Zhang Heng could sense that woe and despair were slowly festering amongst the crowd like a deadly virus. Then, around a minuteter, loud sounds of people brawling and gunshots were hearding from the lower deck. When themotion died down, a man slowly strolled towards the crowd.


    ��I must apologize. Some idiots failed to do what they should have done. I needed some time to convince them. Well, the problem is solved now. Let me introduce myself. I��m the helmsman of the Sea Lion. You can call me Mr. Orff.��


    Mr. Orff appeared to be about 40 to 50 years old. Apart from a slight bald, he looked to be in remarkably good health. Unlike all the merciless pirates, he seemed to be a more reasonable man.


    For that matter, the helmsman was a position that required excellentmunication skills. It was the second most important position on a pirate vessel. He had to continuously maintain a good rtionship with the entire crew, where, for the most part, he would act as the representative of the pirates�� interests, serving as an essential link to bridge the gap between crew and captain.


    Through the helmsman, the crew felt like they had been given a voice to question the captain if they thought they had been mistreated.


    Due to that, many saw a glimmer of hope when they saw the helmsman.


    ��Please! Sir... please let us live! We are just rankless civilians. My wife and kids are still waiting for me to get home,�� begged one of the passengers.


    At that, Orff nodded his head in empathy and drew the gun from his waist. Aiming at a sailor who had given up his arms, he pulled the trigger!


    The lead ball prated the sailor��s head, and he instantly copsed. Blood sttered all over the helmsman��s linen shirt. After witnessing this raw disy of brutality, the prisoners were left panicked and distraught. Suddenly, they remembered that pirates would never show empathy to those they captured.


    These were a group of bloodthirsty monsters that would not hesitate to kill anyone they saw as unfit to live. That would mean they were capable of killing off every soul aboard this merchant vessel just because they were pissed off by someone.


    The gunshot was definitely not a good omen. Marvin was so terrified that he started to pee himself.


    ��I��m really sorry. I had to do it. This guy killed two of my brothers when we boarded your ship just now. I will never let a person like him off the hook. I might be old, but I don��t forget. My creed in life is blood for blood. This is how we work,�� said an emotionless Orff while putting away his gun.


    Every single pirate roared into a loud cheer after he finished talking. At the same time, the captured prisoners were a little less worried. No doubt the killing was carried out so brutally, it was in one way or another eptable if he did it out of vengeance.


    The passengers had forgotten, though, that the sailors were the ones who had protected them from the pirates in the first ce. The remaining six sailors surrendered to the pirates earlier than most of the people. Now, to stay alive in this scenario, everyone chose to staypletely silent. Many thoughts ran through their minds. They were ashamed of their cowardice but also d that they did not participate in the fight earlier.


    ��Now that the debt is paid, it��s time to talk about what matters the most to all of you. As it stands, this ship now officially belongs to us. This includes every single item on the vessel, your wallets, and all your valuables. Now, folks, we are a reasonable bunch...


    We will prepare a small boat for you, and you��ll head back tond. Other than that, you can have two buckets of drinking water, some biscuits, and some smoked meat to keep you alive on your journey. Consider yourself lucky as we are within a trade route right now. I heard the weather should be fine for the next two days. If the gods find favor in you, some vessel might just pass along ande to your rescue.��


    Orff��s little speech did little to extend the calm. Instead, new chaos arose. One small boat, two buckets of drinking water, some biscuits, and smoked meat were definitely not enough for 30 passengers! A brief storm would definitely blow everyone to meet their maker. The chances of them dying out at sea were exponentially higher than being rescued by some random passing ship.


    Some passengers even started to beg the pirates for mercy. Unfortunately, Orff had made up his mind and was not about to change his decision.


    ��I know this is a huge risk for you to take, but you have to remember that we are pirates, not phnthropists! If you want to live, figure that out yourself!��


    Once Orff was done talking, the pirate beside himunched the small boat on the water. However, the lifeboat was literally a raft of sorts, only able to fit a maximum of 20 souls with zero extra space for food and water.


    Suddenly, a muscr pirate walked towards them and made an announcement.


    ��Are there any cooks or carpenters here? We need two carpenters and one cook. Join our ranks if you are interested in the positions.��


    Instead of getting on the small boat, people figured they would have a better chance of surviving if they joined the pirates.


    ��Me! I��m the ship��s carpenter. I��m willing to join you,�� said one of the captured sailors.


    ��It��s my first time out at sea before, but I have made furniture for the people in town. Do you think I can join you guys?�� asked another passenger.


    ��Sure. For now, you will have to be his assistant first.��


    Seeing the incident before them, the passengers fell into a cloud of jealousy. Many were professionals, and even the most ruthless of pirates would have respected them if they were given a chance too.


    ��One more spot left! Don��t miss out on the opportunity. Anyone else willing toe with us?��


    ��I am.��


    To everyone��s surprise, Marvin was the one who spoke up.

 Chapter 100 - Black Sail V

    <h4>Chapter 100: ck Sail V</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    ��You are the cook?�� asked the pirate while looking at Marvin.


    It was no wonder the pirate was suspicious. Marvin��s attire was far from what a cook would wear. The son of a farm owner could actually be quite fashionable. The plump man had put on a wig, and his cor and sleeves had floral stitching on them as well. On top of it, he had also adorned a custom-made jacket. As for his feet, only a pair of socks could be seen as his beautiful boots had been confiscated by the pirates earlier.


    ��My.... my mother has a motel in Canterbury. I help up with the cooking whenever there are not enough people in the kitchen.��


    Still, the muscr pirate was in doubt ashe looked at the pants that Marvin just wet. Immediately, he realized that he had just screwed up the pirate��s first impression of him.


    ��I make delicious food. Sometimes the cook on this ship would even ask for my opinions and help. You can ask your friend if you don��t believe me. I was in the kitchen when they found me.


    ��That is correct,�� confirmed both of the pirates who had found Marvin and Zhang Heng.


    Marvin then turned around, grinning at the muscr pirate with sensitive and sheepish eyes.


    ��Give it a try then. But here��s a fair warning. If your food tastes bad or our stomach acts funny after we try it, the rest of my brothers will not forgive you even if I��m willing to do so,�� warned the muscr pirate while pointing at his fellow crew.


    At that, Marvin quickly thanked the pirate for taking him in.


    ��Alright! Everyone! All positions have been filled! The recruitment is done. I wish you all a pleasant journeyter,�� the muscr pirate continued.


    Then, a voice came from his back.


    ��Hold on.��


    Immediately, the muscr pirate halted in his steps. He did not notice that Marvin had be extremely nervous after hearing the voice.


    Zhang Heng ignored Marvin��s signal and proceeded to speak his mind.


    ��I wish to join the crew too.��


    It was too high a risk to get on the small boat and wait for a rescue that might nevere. He would have chosen to get on it if he was the only one, though. That said, he knew that things would beplicated with that many people on the same boat. Besides, his game items were still on the ship. He would not be able to retrieve them if he left with the rest of the passengers now.


    ��I admire your passion. Like I said earlier, all we need is three people, and all positions have been filled,�� the muscr pirate shrugged.


    ��Hand me the gun,�� said Zhang Heng calmly.


    Perhaps it was Zhang Heng��s confidence that hadpelled him or the encouragement from his friends to hand him the gun. Anyhow, the muscr pirate picked up the weapon and handed it to Zhang Heng, who immediately did a quick check the moment he got his hands it. After going through the war in Find, he had be quite knowledgeable about guns.


    What he was holding right now was a gun with a flintlock mechanism. Aspared to a matchlock, it��s shooting process was much more straightforward. For this gun, the user would use flint to light up the gunpowder. Featuring better range and a smaller recoil, that meant that it was more urate overall.


    The gun with the flintlock mechanism was invented during the 16th century. In the 17th century, it was widely distributed amongst armies in Europe. After that, it yed an essential role in the American War of Independence.


    However, this weapon was severely outdated for its time and could neverpare to the M28 that he used during the Finnish war. Gunpowder and bullets had to be loaded separately, requiring a long time for the user to reload after ammunition had depleted. To make matters worse, it could only shoot up to 80 meters.


    Zhang Heng took a good minute to study the gun. Every single pirate, including the muscr one, was starting to get impatient. It was at that moment that Zhang Heng raised the weapon, and without any warning, he pointed it at Marvin.


    Left in a shock, Marvin thought Zhang Heng was about to kill him.


    BANG!


    The gun was fired, and the bullet whizzed by Marvin,nding on an apple that a pirate was holding at the end of the ship.


    At the unbelievable shot, the pirates were all awestruck by Zhang Heng��s excellent marksmanship. After a while, everyone began cheering for him. Zhang Heng and the apple were more than 40 meters apart, not to mention the ship steadily bobbing up and down in the rough sea. Considering his less than ideal circumstances, it should have been almost impossible to hit any target urately. Zhang Heng had learned how to operate the gun from Simone and his movements were so fluid that it seemed as if he did not take any aim before firing the shot.


    Most of the pirates here were just ordinary people with no particr set of skills. Armed with the sole concept of the strong preying on the weak, they would always respect those who were better than them. Suddenly, one of them shouted out aloud, ��Take him in! Take him in!��


    Soon after that, everyone else followed suit. The muscr pirate frowned, knowing that he couldn��t disappoint everyone just like that.


    ��Fine. You are a great shooter. No one will be able to say no to you. I don��t mind adding one more to our crew. Come with me.��


    The four of them then followed the pirate to the lower deck.


    ��They call me Owen, leader of the pirates on the Sea Lion. I don��t care what you have done before, or where youe from. You are now part of the Sea Lion. Of course, we can��t trust all of you yet, but it��s okay. Time will tell. There are some things you need to know before youe aborad. There will be no gambling, no stealing, and no random brawls. That is unless you have somebody to witness your fight. And most importantly, fleeing a battle is punishable by death!��


    Owen paused for a moment and took a look at Marvin, who wiped away his sweat as he tried to crack a smile.


    ��When we plunder other vessels, keeping any loot you found is a big no-no. Unless you have personally killed an enemy, you will get to choose one item from your kill. Otherwise, everything we rob will be pooled up and distributed equally to everyone aboard. The captain and our helmsman will get double the loot. After that, the doctor, carpenter, cannoneer, and pirate leader will get one and a half times the booty a regr crewman gets. Those who perform well during battles will be rewarded afterward. And if you are injured during a battle, you will also receive a certain amount ofpensation. The amount you get will depend on how long you have been on the ship.


    Oh. One more important thing. Every single matter on this ship, including the appointment and removal of the captain and helmsman, is to be decided by everyone. Everyone on this ship has the right to say something and vote. That��ll be all for now. Any questions?�� Owen asked as he looked around.


    ��I have a question. I��m not trying to avoid responsibility, but does the cook need to join battles as well?��


    ��Typically, no. However, if things do go south, every crewman has to pick up a weapon and defend the ship! Speaking of which, I need you to look for Dufreer. He will hand you a gun. I will inform him about your talents,�� said the pirate to Zhang Heng.


    ��The rest of you, you all can all go and get your weapons from Dufresne as well. Consider this our weing gift. In the future, you will have to pay up if you damage the weapon. We will deduct its cost from your loot during our next raid.��

 Chapter 101 - Black Sail VI

    <h4>Chapter 101: ck Sail VI</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    As the merchant ship was attacked by the pirates, it sustained some damage. Though nothing severe, it was also a bad idea to ignore them. Quickly, the two newly recruited carpenters were asked to fix the ship.


    Once Owen was gone, Marvin could finally breathe a sigh of relief. Wiping away the sweat on his forehead, he said, ��That was so close. It��s so scary. I really thought that they would have forced me on that small boat. I don��t wish to die there. Luckily, the two of us get to remain on board. On the bright side, though we are now part of a pirate ship, we can at least get to live to see tomorrow.��


    ��You looked really nervous on the deck just now. Why? Worried that I might rece you?��


    ��Huh? No. No. No. I was worried that they might hurt you. All of them are merciless monsters who would kill in a blink! I have to apud your bravery just now. I don��t even dare to look ��em in the eye when I talk.��


    ��Marvin, I��m really curious. What would you have done if I reced you just now? Will you tell them everything that happened in the galley?��


    ��What?! How is that even possible? You saved my life. I will never betray you, no matter what!��


    ��Good. That��s what I want to hear because I can assure you that if you tell them what really happened there, that won��t be a responsibility you can just shake off like that��


    Marvin faked a smile, seeming like he did not believe a single thing Zhang Heng told him.


    ��Do you know why I stabbed the pirate three times with that small potato knife after I killed him?��


    ��You�� you!��


    Marvin finally disyed a different reaction this time. Earlier, he could not figure out why Zhang Heng would keep stabbing a dead horse. Right now, he had finally figured out the intention behind his ��pointless move.��


    ��It is challenging to wound somebody from their front and back at the same time. However, this double injury could easily be achieved if a second person attacked as well. If you are going to betray me, you can go ahead and tell your story while I tell them my version of the story as well. In the end, the corpse will decide whose story is more believable.��


    As they were talking, they suddenly heard somebody shouting.


    ��Victor! Victor! Where the f*ck are you? You ain��t getting your loot if you don��te out right now!��


    A few pirates were in the corridor and were trying to look for Victor. Zhang Heng quickly stood up and fixed his gaze on Marvin.


    ��It��s gettingte. I should be off to im my gun right now, and you should go and cook. We��ll deal with the body when everyone is asleep tonight. All we need to do is to toss the barrel into the sea, and that��ll be the end of our troubles.��


    After putting Marvin��s mind to ease, Zhang Heng looked for Dufresne, the one in charge of the armory. Upon meeting him, he received a gun and a dagger with a crack on it. He had been entrusted to a new mission even before he could examine the weapons he just got.


    And this critical mission was to��


    Clean the deck.


    On regr days like these, pirates were not very different from ordinary sailors. Frankly, most pirates on this ship had been, in fact, regr sailors before they became what they were. Some of them could not stand their ex-captains, whereas some wanted to go on an adventure. Of course, all some wanted was to get rich fast. Everyone had their own reasons for why they chose the pirate��s life.


    Naturally, nobody in their right mind loved to stay in filthy ces. Even the sloppy and messy pirates were no exception, and this had nothing to do with the love for cleanliness. There were simply too many things on the high seas that could kill a man. A pleasant and clean environment would surely help to improve morale on board. Besides, a clean ship would surely lower the risk of contracting diseases.


    That was why the pirates would clean the ship thoroughly from time to time. This was especially true after a raid, where blood and bodies were everywhere. Zhang Heng and the other five pirates spent a good two hours scrubbing down the deck to make sure every drop of blood had been washed off.


    Before sunset, Marvin managed to cook a good meal for everyone as well. The food was surprisingly delicious. It was at that time that Zhang Heng knew Marvin had passed the test. They would allow him to stay on and cook for them.


    The value of a ship��s cook was never to be underestimated. The long, endless days out at sea caused unbearable boredom to gue the men. Whey they were bored, they could cause unnecessary problems. An excellent cook could usually soothe the angsty pirates by feeding them delicious food. Often, nobody wouldin when the cook received the same reward as cannoneer even though they did not contribute to any battle.


    Soon, nightfall. The captain and helmsman returned to the Sea Lion with two-thirds of the pirates. The remaining ones had been asked to stay on the merchant ship under themand of Owen. In other words, Owen had be the temporary captain of this ship.


    Almost all the pirates were feeling extremely excited tonight. It was a total victory. Inparison, they shed only a small amount of blood to take possession of the entire merchant ship. In total, there were three dead, and five pirates suffered light injuries.


    This achievement had called for a grand celebration.


    The ce was alive with the roar of loud chatter. sses clinked, and bagpipes skirled. The name, Victor, arose amongst them, where most were saying that he had secretly returned to the Sea Lion during the battle.


    Some even said that Victor still owed them money, and he might have fled the ship in fear. Everyone kept bursting intoughter at the mention of his name.


    Suddenly, Owen entered the galley, causing themotion to die down a little.


    ��The Sea Lion has just informed me that they have not seen Victor for some time. Who here saw himst?��


    Every pirate looked at each other in bewilderment when Owen asked the question. Victor either had to be alive or killed in action. They had never heard of someone disappearing during a fight.


    ��Could he have fallen overboard?��


    ��Not possible. I made sure to check the surrounding waters before I hoisted the sails.��


    ��He is right. I saw him running to the lower decks. He was amongst the first to go down there. After that, I did not see him anymore.��


    No one could give a straight answer. That was when Owen turned around to look at his new recruits. When he was still in the kitchen, he saw that there was nothing wrong with them. They behaved entirely differently from the pirates, but it was totally understandable since they were the victims.


    ��Alright! Who��s managing the booty this afternoon? Meet me in the captain��s quarters in five minutes,�� said Owen.

 Chapter 102 - Black Sail VII

    <h4>Chapter 102: ck Sail VII</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    Having settled his dinner, Zhang Heng checked on his character panel. He noticed that it had been updated.


    Name: Zhang Heng


    Gender: Male


    Age: 19


    yer ID: 07958


    Gamespleted: 3


    Current game points: 777


    Items in possession: Shadow Key (E), Shadow Moment (D)


    Skills: Piano LV 1. Language proficiency LV 1 (able tomunicate in threenguages). Modifying and repairing LV 1. Skiing LV 1. Rock climbing LV 1. Archery LV 2. Outdoor survival skills LV 2. Driving LV 2. Shooting LV 2.


    Evaluation: yer is protected by a shadow. He knows how to drive, shoot a gun, proficient in archery, and can survive in the wilderness. yer has the ability to protect himself. No other outstanding issues. He is estimated to be able toplete at least seven rounds of the game.


    .......


    After three months of practice, coupled with the extra 24 hours he had in the real world, Zhang Heng had increased his rock climbing level from LV 0 to LV 1. Right now, scaling most man-made rock walls wasn��t much of an issue for him. As for natural rock walls, however, there were different angles to worry about, and thepound of the rock greatly affected its climbing difficulty.


    Shooting and skiing were the two new skills that he learned during his quest. Until now, his shooting was the best skill amongst all the others he possessed, spending only a month to improve it to LV 1. During the night he escaped the base camp with Simone, his hidden potential was showcased as he went up against the mysterious shooter that was almost invisible in the woods. Not only did he win the shootout, but he even managed to increase his shooting skills to LV 2 as well.


    That was not the end of it, though. When he was with Simone in Sweden, they would both constantly head to the woods to hunt, where Simone would teach him everything she knew. In other words, Zhang Heng��s shooting skill was actually higher than LV 2. The only thing he was unsure of was how far off he was from LV 3.


    Besides, he noticed that upgrading from LV 2 to LV 3 was a tall order to say the least. Being at LV 2 meant Zhang Heng could perform those skills better than the benchmark.


    For example, Zhang Heng felt that no matter what he did, he could no longer improve his archery skill from LV 2 to LV 3. He would need the assistance of external factors and move above and beyond his capabilities if he wanted to stimte his archery prowess.


    The shootout at the Finnishkeside was an example of an external stimnt��however, it was merely a chance encounter, and if possible, Zhang Heng wished that he would never have to risk his life like that ever again.


    After reading all the information on his character panel, he turned it off. The ocean turned out to increase in ferocity during the night, violently rocking the vessel as high waves crashed into the boat with no respite.


    His dinner churned in his stomach, and he felt queasy. This, however, wasnt his first experience on a ship. That said, his journey onlysted half a day, and seasickness didn��t present itself in such a short period.


    It was a whole new ball game now, having being stuffed inside a tiny room,ing in contact with sweaty pirates who had not bathed in a long time. The foul air in the cramped space soon turned his stomach upside down. The rocking of the boat was no luby either.


    In the end, Zhang Heng could not hold back and wrenched his guts out, puking out everything he had eaten in a matter of seconds.


    ��What a joke?! Is this your first time at sea?��


    ��I��m starting to regret that he joined us.��


    Since they had nothing better to do, it was basic instinct for them to look for something to entertain themselves with. Fortunately, there was still kindness amongst them. A pirate of African origin handed Zhang Heng a barrel, asking him to throw up into it. He even brought a ss of water.


    ��Thank you.��


    After turning his stomach inside out, Zhang Heng felt much better. He gave his mouth a quick wash with the drinking water as he thanked the pirate.


    ��You are wee. Don��t mind them. They may have a mean mouth, but they have good hearts. You will know I��m telling the truth after you stay with us for some time. My name is Goodwin, the Sea Lion��s cannoneer,�� he continued while extending his hand to Zhang Heng.


    ��Zhang Heng.��


    With one hand holding the barrel, Zhang Heng quickly put out his other arm to shake the ck man��s hand.


    ��I saw your performance on the deck earlier. Awe-inspiring stuff, I must say. What did you do before this? A soldier?��


    ��Yes. Something along those lines. I fought in a war before.��


    ��Did you win?��


    ��Not really, but at least the person I cared about survived the war.��


    ��You are one lucky guy. I was in a war before this, but unfortunately, we lost the battle in the end.��


    Goodwin pulled his cor aside, disying a badly burnt scar on his left chest to Zhang Heng.


    ��My tribe was defeated by another tribe. They killed my father, mother, and all the elderly during the war. After that, they captured me, my brother, and my little six-year-old sister. They then sold us to a gang of ve traders. We were being shoved into a ship. I don��t remember how long I was down the deep, dark hole. All I can remember was that we were all shackled and we were packed in the worst unsanitary conditions you could think of. I could hardly move and breathe inside the hold. When we arrived at the ce they called the New World, there were less than 80 of us still breathing out of the 300 that came. Oh, and my little brother died in my arms.��


    ��I��m so sorry you had to go through that.��


    The trading of ck ves started in the 15th century, reaching its peak in the 17th and 18th centuries. To carry out their massive expansion ns, the colonial powers needed a tremendous amount of manpower. Clearly, immigrants from Europe weren��t enough, so, the crafty powers that be turned their sights to Africa.


    Europe and several other countriespeted against each other to build trade centers or fortresses over there. Their goal was to mess up tribal rtions. When they fought, they would incite trouble by suggesting that the winning side capture the losers. They then would buy the ves from the winners. Some would even go as far as to hunt the natives on their own.


    The era that Zhang Heng was in right now was the era where a triangr trade thrived. Arge number of business people would travel from Europe to Africa to purchase ck ves, consecutively selling torge ntations in America. After that, they would purchase gold, coffee, and cotton from America and send them back to Europe, a venture which raked in massive profits for the prospective merchants.


    This culturested until the end of the beginning of the 19th century. Ennd, America, and other countries started to ban the ve trade. Although such culture no longer gained the support of the governments, certain quarters still did it in secret. The trading of ck ves officially ended by the 19th century.


    ��I was working on a coffee ntation in Charleston for eight years. After that, the owner sold me to a ship, and I became a sailor. I was forced to work nonstop and was fed with the least food amongst all the sailors until she found us.��


    COMMENT


    ��Who found you?��


    ��The Sea Lion. She gives me freedom and epts me for who I am. The people here see me as their partner and brother. During our battles, we would watch out for each other��s backs. There��s no such thing as very here. Everyone is equal, and all of us here are from the same ce.��


    ��Where?��


    ��Nassau.��

 Chapter 103 - Black Sail VIII

    <h4>Chapter 103: ck Sail VIII</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    That was the first time Zhang Heng heard the pirates mentioning the word ��Nassau.�� He recalled that his main goal for this quest was to set up base at Nassau and establish his own kingdom there. Naturally, Zhang Heng was curious to know more about the ce.


    Just before he could find out more details about Nassau, he felt like vomiting again. Once again, he held the barrel tightly and belched whatever that was left in his stomach.


    ��Rest well. You will be fine after a good sleep. I shall take my leave now.��


    Zhang Heng realized that he wasnt doing well both physically and mentally. Right now, he wasn��t even thinking straight anymore. Initially, he had made ns with Marvin to take care of the body tonight.


    In his current state, it would be impossible for him to see the mission through. He felt worse with every passing second as if being tossed into a washing machine. Yet again, something came up to his throat, and he belched once more into the barrel. This whole vomiting businesssted untilte that night. Finally, he passed out of fatigue. When he opened his eyes again, he saw a familiar face looking at him.


    ��You are finally awake! I have made you some fish soup. The fish was captured this morning, freshness guaranteed. Drink it to sustain your body,�� said Marvin while cing the piping hot bowl of fish soup next to him.


    Marvin seemed to be genuine, looking at him like he sincerely wanted him to recover as soon as possible. Zhang Heng turned to his side, looking at the bowl of fish soup and the biscuits beside it. Instead of gobbling them up, he asked Marvin a question.


    ��Why are you here?��


    ��Oh. Goodwin told Mr. Owen that you were gravely ill. So, Mr. Owen asked around to see if anyone was willing to take care of you. Immediately, I volunteered since my schedule is free after I had served meals for two pirates.��


    Marvin realized that Zhang Heng had a hard time trusting him. So, he went ahead and took a sip of the fish soup and took a bite of the biscuits to prove that it wasn��t poisoned.


    ��Actually, you don��t have to tread so lightly around me. We are literally in the same boat right now. Bruce, Kenny, you, and I are the only ones still alive. Times like these call for us to work together to face whatever storming our way.��


    Marvin paused suddenly, cautiously scanning his surroundings with wide eyes. He only resumed the conversation after he made sure there were no eavesdroppers.


    ��This morning, the pirates searched the ship from top to bottom again. They were looking for Victor, their buddy. Thankfully they missed a few spots in the galley. What��s our next move? Will they question us regarding this?��


    Zhang Heng gulped down the fish soup and looked at Marvin. Perhaps he was mistaken, but he felt that Marvin��s acting skills had gotten a lot better. Before this, it was hard for honest Marvin to hide anything from anyone. Now, Zhang Heng could no longer read Marvin��s mind from his facial expressions. Could the harsh circumstances have forced Marvin to improve in such a short time?


    Zhang Heng clearly knew that Marvin was an unreliable man. Everything that had happened before this led Zhang Heng to believe that Marvin was, in fact, an incredibly selfish person. It was going to be impossible to so quickly change a nature so deeply rooted in him. He cared only about himself. Once a golden opportunity was presented before him, he would definitely not hesitate to betray those who had ced their faith in him.


    For now, they both faced equal risks and opportunities.


    The dead body inside the barrel was theirmon problem, with Marvin having to rely on Zhang Heng to get rid of it. With the corpse still on the ship, Marvin would definitely not do anything to harm Zhang Heng.


    Unfortunately, things got even worse for Zhang Heng, as he started vomiting again after drinking the fish soup. This time, itsted a week.


    When the week ended, Zhang Heng had lost almost a quarter of his body weight. Some of the crew even believed he wouldn��t make it out alive.


    Things like this happened all too often when one was out at sea for extended periods. Due to poor hygiene on the ship, the chances of contracting various diseases increased exponentially for those on board. With the current era��s questionable medical knowledge and equipment, the poor patient would most probably die even if there was a doctor on the ship.


    Nobody expected Zhang Heng to be resilient enough to defeat his illness. When he was finally healthy enough to walk around on the ship, he was left with a 100-pound skeleton of a body.


    ��Oh my god! You look like someone who��s never been out to sea! How is that even possible? I thought you were out at sea for at least a month and a half?�� asked a perplexed Goodwin.


    ��That��s a long story.��


    With Goodwin��s assistance, Zhang Heng got off his bed and walked to the deck. He could finally breathe in the fresh salty air that he had been craving for over a week now. It was a good feeling, making a recovery from the awful illness. Never in his life had it urred to him that standing under the sun could be such luxury. For the past week, he had beenpletely stuck inside his cabin, resting up.


    He almost forgot what the world looked like.


    ��Anyway, wee back, my friend.��


    Suddenly, Goodwin saw that Marvin was staring at them.


    ��I just remembered that I hadn��t serviced my weapon. We��ll talkter.��


    Once Goodwin was gone, Marvin quickly strolled towards Zhang Heng, seeming worried and unsettled.


    ��Thank god you��ve recovered. I have no idea how I managed to survive the past week. My heart would skip a couple of beats whenever someonees by the galley. That thing we put inside the barrel is long overdue... I can��t even begin to describe the stench anymore. If it wasn��t for the smell of smoked fish, they would have turned the galley inside out. Just now, I heard one pirate saying that we will reachnd in about three days. We are both dead meat if someone finds out about this.��


    ��I understand your concerns. You have been holding out for so many days. Can you just wait for one more day? With my current condition, I am unable to do anything. Let��s do it tomorrow night. I promise we will deal with it.��


    Though Marvin had started to get terribly anxious, he knew that Zhang Heng was telling the truth. The body should have been dealt with ten days ago. Who would have thought that Zhang Heng would be seasick for an entire week! Right now, there was nothing much that Marvin could do.


    If only he were brave enough, it wasnt impossible to dump the barrel into the sea on his own. Unfortunately, he allowed fear to ovee his mind, not to mention his unhappiness of having to bear the responsibility even though Zhang Heng was the one who killed the pirate.

 Chapter 104 - Black Sail IX

    <h4>Chapter 104: ck Sail IX</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    Afterward, Zhang Heng used the two days he had to do some training. His stamina and strength soon recovered thanks to Marvin��s nutritious menus. On the second night, he regained enough strength to walk around on the ship on his own. That said, he still wasn��t running on all cylinders, having just recovered from his harrowing illness.


    He and Marvin needed to deal with the body tonight since they were about to set anchor at Nassau tomorrow morning. After the meal, Owen visited Zhang Heng to have a little chat. He wanted Zhang Heng to rest further and told him not to worry about the ship��s tasks.


    Goodwin was next to visit Zhang Heng, rambling away about his previous job on a supply vessel.


    After that, Zhang Heng remained in his cabin until midnight. Every single pirate on the ship was on their hammock, settling in for the night. Zhang Heng then waited another hour for good measure, ensuring the pirates were sound asleep before he sneaked out of bed. He tiptoed past the snoring pirates and headed toward the galley.


    Marvin had been anxiously waiting for Zhang Heng in the galley, holding a potato, pretending to skin it. The candle above the table had already burnt halfway. At that moment, all he could think of was to get rid of the body as soon as possible. Suddenly, he heard the sound of footsteps approaching him from outside.


    Marvin blurted without thinking twice, ��Mr. Dufresne. I��m almost done. I��m sleeping once I wrap up here...��


    Midsentence, he lifted his head and saw that the person wasn��t Dusfresne but Zhang Heng.


    ��God damnit! Why are you sote?! Many people havee by asking me why I��m working at such an hour. They will soon get suspicious if I don��t go to sleep soon,�� whispered Marvin as he breathed a sigh of relief.


    ��Which one do you think is more dangerous? Giving excuses about you being in the kitchen or getting rid of the body while everyone is awake?�� Zhang Heng retorted.


    ��I��m not ming you foringte. I just think that there might be better ways to solve this problem...��


    ��The earlier we settle this problem, the lesser the risk of us getting killed by them. Be it you or me; if you are so concerned about your safety, we should really get rid of the damn body right now.��


    This time, Marvin said nothing and lifted the barrel with Zhang Heng. The two of them hauled it past the corridor and the storeroom. Finally, they arrived in front of the pirates�� cabin. Marvin then took a deep breath before he continued forward.


    However, Zhang Heng stopped him from doing so. He had just spotted a pirate getting out from his hammock as he rubbed his eyes. Perhaps he had too much rum at dinner and must have been woken up by the need to empty his dder. Running out of the cabin, he returned shortly after while holding on to his pants. Without a care in the world, he slumped heavily in his hammock and fell back to sleep within seconds.


    As they stood silently as possible for a couple of minutes, Marvin felt his heart thumping so fast; it was about to jump out his throat. He had no idea where he found the courage to haul the barrel all the way to the staircase near the cabins. Each time there was the slightest twitch or mumble from a sleeping pirate, he would suffer a small heart attack, where he gasped and stopped breathing.


    Once they were away from the cabin and arrived on the floor above it, Marvin could finally breathe again.


    ��What should we do now? Should we go to the upper deck?��


    ��No. There are people patrolling the spot, and the helmsman is maneuvering the ship. They will definitely see us if we get up there. This floor is supposed to reserved for passengers, and I see cabins with windows that are definitely big enough for us to get rid of the body. Did you go find out what I asked you to before this?��


    ��Yes. The room that we were in is currently upied by the pirates, but two rooms have been left empty because the damage there is too severe. The crew doesn��t have enough wood to fix it. Hence, since it doesn��t affect the ship��s operations, they have decided to leave them as it is for now.��


    ��Great. Lead the way.��


    The two caught their breath for half a minute before they moved again with the heavy barrel, with Marvin walking in front of Zhang Heng. After struggling a short distance, they arrived at the secondst room in the corridor. They then nced at each other before Marvin knocked on the door.


    And... there was no response. Immediately, Marvin pushed the door open. Just as expected, there wasn��t a soul to be seen. This particr room had been battered by cannonballs during the previous raid. The wall waspletely destroyed, leaving it with a gaping hole. The crew had only used a few nks to plug the wall, knowing that there was still some distance between them and the water below.


    Zhang Heng and Marvin could feel the cold sea breeze entering the room the moment they stepped into it.


    ��This has to be the right spot. Let��s toss the body into the sea right now!��


    Marvin closed the door right after he put the barrel on the floor.


    ��Not now. I don��t see any high waves tonight. The pirates on the upper decks could hear the ssh if we toss the barrel into the sea right now,�� Zhang Heng murmured as he walked towards the broken wall and examined whaty below.


    ��What should we do then? We can��t wait any longer! This is thest night for us to deal with the body. If we fail to do it, we might...��


    ��I did not say we aren��t getting rid of it tonight. It will not benefit me if I dy again. Go and look for some rope and tie it around the body. We just need to lower it down slowly to the sea.��


    ��Great idea! You are a genius! A traveler thinks so differently whenpared to people like me. Let look for a rope now,�� replied an excited Marvin.


    The smile on his face slowly disappeared as the door creaked open. Fear had caused the bones in his body to shudder involuntarily.


    ��I��m sorry. Am I disturbing your date?�� asked the person standing outside the door.


    It was an old pirate with a long beard. He was wearing a broken hat, and Marvin could see a row of rotten teeth as he smiled. The old pirate thennded his attention on the barrel.


    ��So, all the while, our poor Victor has been inside this barrel, huh?��


    Immediately, Zhang Heng unleashed his gun and pointed at the old pirate. To his surprise, he seemed unaffected by the threat.


    ��Trust me, kid. People have pointed their guns at me more times than I could count. Let me tell you what is going to happen next. I will be killed if you pull the trigger. That is a fact. After that, your gunshot will alert the pirates next to this room. If you��re lucky, both of you might get an easy death. Alternatively, they could also capture and drop you both a death sentence. Now... I don��t know which one is worse. Taking our age difference into consideration, young men, I don��t think that is a wise trade.��


    Zhang Heng was left speechless. That very moment, he realized that the old pirate��s sudden appearance was no coincidence. It appeared he had been tracking them for some time and only decided to confront them tonight. On the bright side, it seemed like the old pirate had no intention to side with Victor. Otherwise, they would have been long confronted by a mob of angry pirates by now.


    Cornered and left with no other option, Zhang Heng decided to hear the old pirate out.

 Chapter 105 - Black Sail X

    <h4>Chapter 105: ck Sail X</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    Zhang Heng slowly lowered his gun.


    ��Wise move.��


    Next, the old pirate turned around and looked at Marvin.


    ��Well, I don��t mind standing here for a little chat with you guys. What excuse are you going toe up with if someone passes by?��


    Paralyzed by fear, Marvin lost the ability to think logically. So, he turned to look at Zhang Heng. Seeing Zhang Heng nodding, he moved aside and allowed the old pirate to enter the room.


    ��Thank you so much. To ensure the smoothness of our conversation, I would first like to inform you that the person in the barrel is not my friend. To be honest, I personally disliked what he did when he was still alive. But then again, we are all here to be pirates and not make friends. It��s impossible for us to like everyone on the ship, right?�� the old pirate said while taking his hat off.


    ��How did you find us out?�� asked Zhang Heng.


    ��I have noticed that you usually stayed calm in most circumstances. You are still young, but it looks like you have been through much hardship. In my entire life, I have only encountered two people who can stay this calm in any kind of situation. One of them is you, and the other is...��


    The old pirate paused suddenly, having no intention to borate.


    ��Your friend right here is not as calm as you. When you were sick, it was nice of him to take care of you and all, but things started getting weird when he visited you seven to eight times a day. I also noticed that he is on edge all the time. I always ask myself: what could make a cook, a man who has no other task but to prepare food, be so skittish. Could it be tomorrow��s menu?��


    Suddenly, Marvin��s face turned pale, looking to be on the verge of breaking down. He stumbled to the ground on his knees and started to tremble.


    ��Don��t believe him! I have nothing to do with this! He was the one who forced me to be part of it. The truth is... I have neverid my fingers on Victor. He inflicted the wound on Victor��s back, not me!��


    The old pirate was taken aback by what Marvin told him. He then saw Zhang Heng just standing there, staring at Marvin without the slightest expression on his face.


    Marvin grabbed the old pirate��s pants and started to wail like a child. After a while, he realized that something wasn��t right and lifted up his head in an awkward manner.


    ��Don��t worry. Do you think I would havee here alone if I wanted to avenge Victor?�� asked the old pirate while patting Marvin��s back.


    ��What do you want then?��


    Zhang Heng was disgusted by Marvin��s awful acting. So, he attempted to steer the conversation back to the supposed topic.


    ��It��s simple. I just need some of your kindness and a few small favors. As you can see, I��m getting really old. I don��t n toe back again when we reachndter. It��s time for me to settle down and prepare for retirement. That is why I need someone to help me retrieve some money that someone owes me.��


    ��That��s it?��


    ��I dislike taking advantage of others. The person that you just killed is someone I really hate. So, yes. It is that simple.��


    ��You should have many acquaintances on this ship, right? Why didn��t you ask for their help instead?��


    ��You need to understand that things have a nick of getting reallyplicated when money is involved. However, new guys like you are different. If you dare take my money, I have all the ways to make you spit it out. Besides, I like the fact that you can shoot really well. I think this will be a fine deal between us.��


    ��Seems like you leave me no choice.��


    ��You are smart, and I like talking to smart guys like you. Please understand that I have to protect myself in this deal as well. Anyway, I can see that you need help getting rid of the body. You can actually hand over the problem to me. I can help you dispose of it.��


    ��What do you mean by that?��


    ��I know what your concerns are. We will arrive in Nassau tomorrow, and when we set foot onnd, there will be people tasked to manage all the ship��s items. That includes the food and raw ingredients in the galley. Your secret will be exposed if you don��t deal with your problem tonight. Unless... you know a person who knows the person tasked to manage the stuff on board. That person will inform the men to leave the galley alone. He will also look for an opportunity to dispose of the body. There are only a few on this ship who can pull off such tricks. You guys are in luck. That person happens to be standing right in front of you.��


    ��After you get your hands on the body, you will turn around and bite us from our backs, right?��


    ��Just like what I said, I��m nning on retirement. This will be a one-off deal. When all is done, I will be staying out of your life for good. I think you should ce your trust in a harmless old man like me than some other stranger.��


    ��For example?��


    ��Like our friend, Goodwin. Isn��t he friendly and nice? He has had a sad past, but he still manages to put on a smile every day. Positive vibes have a way of spreading around the ship, and somehow, he appears right when you need someone to encourage you. I don��t like to add fuel to the fire, but I did hear some rumors about him. The friendly cannoneer, Goodwin, wants to rece Orff as the new helmsman.


    So far, he has managed to recruit a group of followers. If this matter makes it to the voting session, you will be required to cast your votes as well. There are three other survivors from this merchant ship as well. They will most likely vote for Goodwin.


    That would mean he would get another four voters to side with him. And all he needs to do is tell you nice stuff that goes down well with you. I think he got himself a damn good deal.��


    ��Why are you telling me all this?��


    This time, Zhang Heng was surprised by what he heard.


    ��Before the deal is done, it��s my responsibility to ensure your safety on this ship. Let me give you a piece of advice. Do not get involved in this matter. Our captain is capable of many things. Hence, arge number thinks that Orff��s existence is a useless one, and he has done nothing good enough to impress anyone for the past few years. Frankly, that couldn��t be further from the truth. Orff is a wise man, one that would fulfill all his responsibilities if put under a good captain. Anyone who looks down on him will pay the price ultimately.��


    ��Who the hell are you?�� asked Marvin.


    ��That��s no secret. Right now, I��m just an old man that is getting ready to retire. But, before all this...��


    The old pirate put on his broken hat before he finished his sentence.


    Looking up, he continued with gleaming eyes,


    ��I was the captain of the Sea Lion. That ship over there, she originally belonged to me.��

 Chapter 106 - Black Sail XI

    <h4>Chapter 106: ck Sail XI</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    The next morning, there was a noisymotion among the pirates as they cleaned themselves up.


    ��Land ho!�� shouted one of the pirates loudly as he came running down from the upper deck.


    The pirates fell silent for a few seconds, followed by roaring cheers as they ran to get the first glimpse ofnd. Zhang Heng and Marvin were being pushed out of the cabin along with the happy mob, where they saw the harbor appearing on the horizon.


    Throughout their time on the ship, this wasn��t the first time they heard the pirates mentioning the ce.


    There were those who praised thisnd, cursed thisnd, paid tribute to thisnd, and forsake thend. One magical thing about this ce was that it seemed to have a curious maism, causing those who set foot on it never to stray too far, always yearning to return.


    Behold, the city of Nassau, the capital of The Bahamas.


    Located in the northernmost part of New Providence, the best harbor in the entire country could be found here. The indigenous people of the ind were called the Lucayan, a fishingmunity that depended on their catch for ie. In the year 1492, Christopher Columbus discovered the ce, before the first Europeans set foot on the ind in 1647. They then started to develop it, subsequently making it their home.


    ��I��m sure all of you here will love this ce, especially if you like freedom and adventure! There��s no way you will say no to this paradise. The ce used to be colonized by Spain, and after that, the English came along,�� exined Goodwin.


    ��What about now?�� asked Marvin.


    ��Right now, it belongs to us, the pirates! Wee to Nassau, the mothend of pirates. This is thend of freedom!��


    Soon after that, the merchant ship and the Sea Lion approached the harbor at the same time. From the ships, the pirates dropped several wooden canoes to the ocean and started to sail towards theirnd of freedom. Now that they were here, all they could think of was to enjoy themselves to the fullest. Only pirates who had been given tasks remained on the ship to finish up their work.


    Dufresne ordered Zhang Heng and a dozen pirates to help with the unloading of the ship��s goods. Marvin could not help but feel nervous, turning around to steal nces at the galley from time to time.


    ��Don��t worry about that barrel. Just do what you need to do right now. Come look for me at the tavern once you are done with everything,�� the old pirate reassured Marvin as he patted his back once again.


    With that, he climbed aboard the wooden boat and headed to the ind. Zhang Heng and Marvin had to move all the items from the ships to the trade center of Nassau. It wasn��t before that afternoon that they finally finished their strenuous job. To their surprise, the pirate tasked with managing the ship��s items did not even go into the galley. The barrel was gone when Marvin proceeded to check it out.


    ��As a matter of fact, the raid we conducted this time had nothing to do with the two of you. However, it is not right of we just let you off with empty pockets, so, here are 50 silver pesos. It should be enough to cover your expenses for a few days in Nassau. Feel free to look for jobs around. Remember, do not sign any long-term contracts. One of us will inform you before we set sail again.��


    Zhang Heng and Marvin left the trade center after thanking Dufresne. The moment they were some distance from him, Marvin urged Zhang Heng to pass him his share of the money. It wasn��t hard to read what was in his mind.


    When they were walking away from the trade center, Marvin was peeking at the boats parked at the dock. Nassau was, in fact, located close to the American colony. Getting to Boston was just a short journey away, and he knew that being home was way better than cooking for a band of pirates.


    The thing was, Marvin had no idea that it would be impossible to make a run from pirates. Unwilling to let the two off the hook, they must have had eyes everywhere since they allowed them to roam around Nassau so freely. Zhang Heng had no intention to remind Marvin about it.


    Seeing that Marvin wanted to embark on a separate path, Zhang Heng was more than willing to give him his share of the money �C a total of 25 silver pesos.


    It appeared that Marvin wasn��t about to honor the deal with the old pirate. Now that he had the money for a ticket home, he would not hesitate to do so.


    Having no baggage to tie him down, Zhang Heng went to check out the small town on the ind. During the 18th century, Europe did a great job of maximizing their production rates. Since the Renaissance had juste to an end, aesthetics of buildings and their decorations had found favor among the elites and nobles.


    Unfortunately, this ce was in stark contrast to other parts of Europe, where Zhang Heng��s first impression of Nassau was that it was argely disorganized city. There were no theaters, churches, or bell towers, nor did he see any well-dressed folk moving around to attend dance parties as well.


    All he could see were rotting wooden huts and dpidated stone cottages. Nassau was a ce filled with palm trees as well. This ce increasingly looked like a massive slum to him.


    Scantily dressed hookers roamed the streets in search of prospective clients, deliberately revealing more skin whenever a man passed them by. There were urchins running barefoot on the unpaved roads, and it was in ces like these that a traveler had to pay close attention to their wallets. Armed pirates terrorized the streets in groups. A few of them were seen exiting their taverns heading for the local gambling den.


    There were also the local fishermen and hawkers, lining up along the busy street to sell their produce. Lastly, Zhang Heng saw a young priest talking about his god on a pedestal by the road, relentlessly preaching about how their sins could be washed away.


    Though the ce might seem impoverished at first nce, there were traces of prosperity and vitality streaming beneath the crowded chaos. The current quest was the longest amongst all the other quests that he hadpleted. He was required to stay in this world for 300 days.


    Combined with the extra 24 hours that he had every day, it meant he would need to stay here for a whopping 3,900 days, more than the all the days in his previous questsbined.


    This was going to be a long journey, and he had no idea what challengesy beyond him. He could only continue moving forward since the game had already begun.


    .......


    Zhang Heng organized his belongings and took out the items he had hidden under the wooden nk in the galley. Other than that, he had been given a gun with the words FH engraved on its stock. Its previous owner had probably been reunited with his maker. Besides that, he was given a dagger as well. Judging by its appearance, it should only be able to yield a few pennies if it were to be sold. Then, there were the 25 silver pesos from his reward. This was themon currency of Spain, and was widely used among its colonies.


    That was basically all the wealth he had for now, and he even had a debt waiting to be settled. After entering a few taverns, Zhang Heng finally found the old pirate in the fourth one. This tavern was located on the west side of the city, near the giant reef.


    The old pirate was watching an exotic dancer as she bounced her curvy body across the stage.


    ��If I��m not mistaken, I remember that I made a deal with two persons. Where is your friend? When will hee?��


    ��He��s noting anymore.��


    ��Haha... that is unwise, my friend. I think he doesn��t know what big troubles lie ahead of him. I hope Owen captures him and not Phoebe. Otherwise, the word suffering would be an understatement for him.��


    ��When can I start work?��


    ��You start now. See that shirtless muscr guy on your right? He��s Knight Errant��s gunsmith. Last year, he borrowed 200 silver pesos from me. With interest, he now owes me 300 silver pesos. Ask him to return the money to me.��

 Chapter 107 - Black Sail XII

    <h4>Chapter 107: ck Sail XII</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    Without so much as a warning, Zhang Heng��s feet flew across the tavern, beforending hard on a table! The violentnding had knocked him out for a bit, and he was on the ground for a while before mustering enough strength to stand up again.


    With his head spinning, came loud cheering in the air and sses clinking.


    In contrast, the strapping man grabbed a ss of beer from the hooker who walked by with a tray.


    ��I��m sorry, what did you just say? I can��t hear you! Speak up, you rodent,�� growled the muscr man with a loud burp after bottoming up his frothy pint.


    Zhang Heng could do nothing about it, having lost quite a bit of weight after his recovery from the illness on the ship. Though fully recovered, his strength was still limited, requiring more time to build it back up. The muscr man notwithstanding, Zhang Heng was way stronger than his current self when he just entered this world.


    Gasping and screaming for air, Zhang Heng stole a nce at the old pirate, who sat silently while watching the drama unfold before him. With a te of barbequed pork and a ss of wine ced in front of him, he chewed thoughtfully, sipping his drink andvishing ay the sight of the boy getting thrashed by the pirate. The 300 silver pesos seemed like thest thing on his mind now.


    When Zhang Heng finally mustered enough strength to stand on his feet, a fist came flying at him again. Fortunately, Zhang Heng was quick enough to respond, dodging the attack by inches. Knowing that he had missed, the buff man wiggled his finger with a grunt, taunting Zhang Heng to retaliate.


    Without so much as an ounce of hesitation, Zhang Heng drew his gun and pointed it squarely at the chest of his opponent.


    No one expected that Zhang Heng would use a gun in this fight, their dissent made apparent by the loud boos of disgruntlement the moment they spotted him drawing his weapon. With the gun cocked and loaded, he squinted, not about to make any sudden moves. No matter how many fists he could block, how many heads he could smash, one puny bullet was enough to send him to the afterlife.


    ��Despicable!��


    Many took the muscr man��s side, and the entire tavern roared in support of him. Zhang Heng was unbothered by this. He wasn��t here to please the crowd. Since there was a quick and effective alternative, why should he hesitate using the firearm? If he knew the muscr guy would so abruptly toss him aside without so much as a word, he would have pointed the gun point-nk at the brute��s head from the very beginning.


    Seeing the murderous ze in Zhang Heng��s unremorseful eyes, the muscr man knew his life was really on the line. He took out his wallet unwillingly, still eyeballing the gun, and handed the money to the old pirate.


    ��Where is the other half,�� asked the old pirate.


    ��That��s all I have for now. I will return the rest in three months�� time.��


    ��Fine! By that time, that��s an extra 50 for the interest.��


    ��Frazer... you old goddamned blood-sucking vampire!��


    ��Whoa... that wasn��t thenguage you used when you wanted to borrow my money.��


    Frazer then waved to Zhang Heng, signaling him over to the table.


    ��Job well done, med! C��mon over and have something to eat. We��re moving on to the next one after this!��


    Right until sunset, Frazer dragged Zhang Heng around hunting the other four pirates who owed him money. Three were willing to return a portion of what they owed. As for thest person, he was with around 20 pirates. Obviously, Zhang Heng wouldn��t make it out alive if he confronted the lot. After assessing the situation, Frazer decided it was an unworthy risk, thus, letting him go. For now.


    In total, Zhang Heng assisted Frazer in retrieving 429 silver pesos and even a piece of oil painting that was used as coteral. The oil canvas was Leonardo da Vinci��s infamous Last Supper. Without needing a second take, Zhang Heng instantly saw the tellings of a counterfeit painting, with a ring mistake a kid would notice. There were only seven disciples instead of the supposed twelve. Nevertheless, Frazer was adequately satisfied, deciding in the end that it should be valued at 20 silver pesos.


    ��Not bad. Better than what I expected. I have to say, you��re terrible at close-quartersbat. That guy in the tavern, how did you lose to someone like him? You have a lot to improve, and you have very little time. The real troubleester.��


    ��I��m sorry, but I thought this is a one-time deal. You said you��d leave us alone after this.��


    ��Hey, kid. I don��t wish to lengthen our deal as well, but I see you are unable to collect all the money in one go. So, it looks like we are stuck to each other now.��


    ��How much more?��


    ��Soon. You will know when the time is right.��


    Frazer grinned as he tossed the smallest coin bag to Zhang Heng.


    ��This is remuneration for what you��ve done for me today. A total of 42 silver pesos. As I have said, I��m no miser. As long as you can get me back all the money that others owe me, I don��t mind giving you a tenth of what I got. This rule will not change. Don��t worry. I��m not going anywhere. Juste and look for me at the tavern every time you return from the sea.��


    Frazer did not bother looking at Zhang Heng��s after that, merely picking up his newly obtained forgery of the Last Supper and left the ce while humming a tune. Zhang Heng was surprised that Frazer even paid him for today.


    The art of debt collection was both a simple and aplicated one at the same time. At first, he thought Frazer refused to do it just because he was aging. With that amount of money, hiring muscles to help him collect his debts was a no brainer. Though there was a possibility of him losing all that money to the thugs he hired, Zhang Heng believed that a man the likes of Frazer should be witty enough to avoid it from happening.


    Up until now, Zhang Heng had already guessed that asking him to turn into an overnight debt collector was just an excuse for something else. There must be a reason why Frazer had chosen him. Zhang Heng wasnt one to wait for answers, so after doing some thinking, he decided to look for someone that could tell him more about Frazer. It wasnt that he did not enquire anybody before this. Apparently, everyone, even the friendly Goodwin, was not willing to divulge about old Frazer.


    This time, Zhang Heng changed his target. He returned to the tavern where Frazer dined at. As luck would have it, the muscr guy from Knight Errant was still there. Sitting on a chair, he slowly enjoyed his pint of beer.


    ��You again! Shameless bastard! You have emptied my pockets! What else do you want?! You better get lost before I change my mind!! I might just break your head this time...��


    Before the muscr guy could finish his sentence, Zhang Heng drew his gun again, this time, cing ten silver pesos in front of him.


    ��Tell me everything you know about Frazer, and these coins are yours.��


    ��You��ve got to be kidding me right? I thought you are with him?!��


    Beggers were no choosers and considering he was left with nothing, he wanted to take the deal badly. Nheless, he was still suspicious of Zhang Heng��s intention.


    ��To be really honest with you, we are actually not that close,�� replied Zhang Heng, who did not bother to exin more to him because he was the one who first asked the questions.

 Chapter 108 - Black Sail XIII

    <h4>Chapter 108: ck Sail XIII</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    ��Frazer is the most experienced pirate on this ind. I heard of his name even before Ie to Nassau. Someone told me that he used to work alongside Henry Morgan to raid a Spanish settlement. After stealing all they could, they managed to loot a total of two million pounds in theirst raid. After that, the rich bastard, Henry Morgan, was summoned by the queen, banished to jail the moment he returned to his country. As for Frazer, he left Jamaica and came to Nassau. He remained here to recruit potential pirates to join his creed. At his peak, he had 11 pirate ships, hundreds of cannons, and around 700 to 800 pirates under hismand.��


    ��What happened after that?��


    ��I have no idea. Rumor says he wanted to ept the queen��s pardon secretly. When his band knew about it, everything changed. He was stripped of his title as captain of 11 pirate ships, and all his crew was dismissed. Right now, that old bastard is norger than an ordinary pirate,�� said the muscr man with a grin on his face.


    ��But, you still owe him money.��


    ��Alright! I have told you everything you need to know. It��s your turn to keep your end of the bargain, you...��


    The muscr pirate suddenly stopped smiling and spat an expletive into Zhang Heng��s face.


    ��Last question. Where do I rent a house around here?��


    After Zhang Heng��s question was answered, the ten silver pesos were ced on the table, and the deal wasplete.


    ...


    Right now, he was left with 58 silver pesos. Of course, getting a room at an inn was an option. However, the fact that he had to spend over a decade on this ind had him thinking that it might be wiser to just look for a proper ce to settle down.


    The ce he chose was a little further from the harbor but closer to the center of the ind. The property in question was located near the farming plots, where its perks were serenity and a rental fee that was dirt cheap. Believe it or not, the entire house cost only 160 silver pesos, and it was 17 silver pesos for a two-year rent.


    It was no better than a wooden cottage, with rotting wooden boards masking up a potential for copse. Here in Nassau, ces in such a state were everywhere. At a time where piracy was rampant in Nassau, Spain and France would send their military there to ensure things were in order.


    Often, this led torge scale skirmishes with the pirates, eventually causing massive coteral involving lives and property left irreparable.


    Unsurprisingly, the battle-rattled houses here were worthless.


    After Zhang Heng paid thendlord, he proceeded to purchase some essentials for his new nest. The very next morning, he was already up before the sun rose, starting repairs and modifications to the wobbly structure. His long time alone on that ind had taught him how to build a wooden framed house with a tiled roof. Armed with the experience, he should be more than capable of mending and fortifying the home.


    The subtropical climate of The Bahamas had it at a steady all-year-round temperature of 23 to 24 degrees Celcius. Though it was now spring, it wasn��t as cold as expected. Taking off his shirt, he climbed to the roof, subsequently fixing every hole with a hammer and some nails.


    A little girl from the house next to his house kept peeking from behind a palm tree. Zhang Heng spotted her and shed a smile. Startled, the barefooted little girl instantly scooted back home.


    Not too long after that, another familiar face appeared in Zhang Heng��s sights. It was Marvin. Although only separated for less than a day, he had undergone a tremendous change.


    A sleeve had been torn out of his shirt, and he was left with one boot. His face wasn��t too awful, just a few cuts on his cheek, dark blood flowing down his lips. It was his body that told a different tale, the festering purple bruises smothering what used to be yellowish skin. He seemed to have been through some very harsh retribution.


    ��That... can I have something to eat? I��ve been starving sincest night,�� asked Marvin with a smile on his face, his bloody lips quivering as he spoke.


    ��Where are your 25 silver pesos?��


    ��They... they��re gone...��


    Marvin had initially nned to hop onto one of the boats fleeing this ce. Clearly, his n had failed miserably, with him being beaten to a pulp and all his money robbed off him. He was so embarrassed that he chose to stay silent, refraining from begging for help. Left with no other options, he had to ask around about Zhang Heng��s whereabouts.


    After living with Marvin for some time, Zhang Heng reaffirmed what a selfish prick, coward, and hypocrite he could be. As they parted again at the trade center, Zhang Heng decided that he would not care about Marvin from now on.


    This quest had a different goal aspared to the previous ones that hepleted. This time, he was asked to form his own force. Having no knowledge whatsoever about this force that he was supposed to build, at least he was sure of one thing. It would be impossible for him to do it alone.


    He needed a team. Since the pirates here valued democracy more than anything, numbers meant everything on a pirate ship. Even a legendary pirate, the likes of Frazer, could lose his title after losing the support of his underlings.


    In other words, even a useless prick like Marvin had the right to vote as well. He would most likely be rejected by everyone on the ship since he attempted to flee the ind, so he was left with no option but to rely on Zhang Heng. Marvin might be despicable, but Zhang Heng was sure that he woulde useful to him someday. Instead of exposing him, he decided to help him out.


    ��There is some cheese and bread on the table. Help yourself.��


    Though sounding impossible, Zhang Heng did indeed hope that Marvin would change for the better after this. Marvin only knew a few souls on this ind. In other words, no one would help a stranger like him. Considering that he had betrayed Zhang Heng several times, he should have thanked his lucky stars that he didn��t get beaten and kicked out of the house. Zhang Heng��s willingness to share his food took Marvin by surprise.


    As Marvin hungrily gobbled down his chow, the tremendous hardship he had to face so far shed through his mind. Tears started to gush out of his red-rimmed eyes like no tomorrow.


    ��I��m really sorry! This is all my fault! I have wronged you! I promise you that I will change for the better. From today onward, my life belongs to you. I will never betray you again even if someone threatens to slit my throat open!�� wept Marvin, who seemed to be deep in regret.


    Did the little disy of penance manage to move Zhang Heng��s heart?


    For now, at least, he believed that Marvin must have been genuinely grateful to him. At the same time, he knew that this wouldst no more than two days. In two days, all the promises he uttered would be excreted from his body like feces. Indeed, he would eventually betray him again when his life was threatened. That was just who he was, from his mouth to his intestines.


    Fortunately, Zhang Heng wasn��t bothered by it, having never relied on Marvin in the first ce.


    The moment the barrel was free from the ship, it no longer bounded their fate together.


    ��Enjoy the food, I��m heading out for a while,�� said Zhang Heng while wiping his hands.


    Marvin appeared terribly nervous when he heard Zhang Heng was heading out, seeming worried that the truth about what happened to himst night would be exposed.


    ��Don��t worry. This is not about you.��

 Chapter 109 - Black Sail XIV

    <h4>Chapter 109: ck Sail XIV</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    Since Zhang Heng was scheduled to settle down here for at least ten years, so it was crucial for him to understand his surroundings better. To do that, he toured the entire Nassau for a few days, conversing with everybody. This included fishmongers in the market to drunkards from the taverns, the prostitutes on the street, shrewd businessmen in the trade center, and pirates that roamed the streets. The conversations could be either constructive or unpleasurable.


    Nevertheless, throughout the entire process, Zhang Heng spent a total of 19 silver pesos. It waspletely worth it, as it enabled him to peer into the window of life in Nassau.


    To the eyes of many, pirates were a band ofwless thugs poised tomit all sorts of heinous crimes. Technically speaking, they weren��t wrong, were those who chose the life of pirates were not exactly ��clean�� in the first ce. This was a reason why outsiders automatically assumed that a city managed by pirates must be made up of sin and chaos.


    After digging his feet and feeling the sands around the ce for some time, Zhang Heng no longer agreed with this conservative view. With thousands of hot-headed pirates in town ready to pick a drunken fight with anybody, nobody expected the city to be peaceful. This had turned Nassau into a disorderly mess. However, if one was willing to look beyond all the street fighting, there was actually order amongst chaos.


    Around 63 years ago, the first batch of European migrants settled on Nassau, soon turning the ce into a city and even building a castle for their king. Inmemoration of King Charles, the town was christened as Charles Town. Not too long after that, the ind��s residents realized that city expansion and catching fish was far less lucrative than luring ships to the reef. When these vessels ran aground, they would plunder everything they came across. With the venture raking in massive profit, most men on the ind began to turn to piracy. Soon, when that wasn��t enough, they headed out to hunt for ships instead of waiting for them.


    At the same time, the geographical advantage of The Bahamas attracted other pirates here, where its maze of inds became the perfect camouge from the navy��s prying eyes. It also proved a perfect stop for pirates from the Caribbean to stock up their vessels and in turn, disposing of all their stolen goods as well.


    That was how the ce called Nassau was born, a name inspired by an English prince. Ironically, it had now turned into a pirate sanctuary.


    After years of development, Nassau came up with a unique trading system. Every pirate captain that docked in Nassau would sell their stolen goods to ck-market merchants, who in turnundered the goods and sent them to Charleston, New York, and Boston. Such an operation provided them an obscene amount of profit without them having to risk their lives.


    And that was the main source of ie for Nassau. Its brothel, casino, and taverns were mostly frequented by pirates. There were also professional appraisers setting shop on the ind, responsible for evaluating the value of the plundered goods. Other than that, tipsters on the ind would sell whatever information they had about merchant ships to the resident pirates. The fishermen on the ind were mostly there to feed the pirates. Lastly, prospective arm dealers and ve traders were active on this ind as well, if you knew where to find them.


    When it came to the ruler of Nassau, there was none.


    However, one organization on the ind was responsible for maintaining itsw an order. It consisted of ck market merchants, pirate captains, and ultra-richndowners.


    Zhang Heng suspected that he had to be part of the organization if he ever wanted to build his own force. Unfortunately, this would prove difficult, to say the least. Excluding thendowners, the rest of the organization��s members were considered the pioneers of Nassau, owning swathes of ntations, workforce, and armory.


    All he had right now was 20 silver pesos.


    The same rules applied when bing a ck market merchant, where one needed deep political connections to smuggle goods abroad. Most ck market merchants came with very impressive backgrounds, often using their family��s influence to mingle with the colony��s governor. A significant amount of money was also needed to bribe the officers manning the harbor. Achieving any one of those things would prove to be a tall order.


    That said, bing a pirate captain was definitely a more viable option. That, however, did not mean that it was going to be an easy task. Legendary pirate captains notwithstanding, a captain with the ability to convince pirates to join their ships would usually require an impressive set of skills.


    Zhang Heng knew that it was going to be a long journey ahead of him. He decided not to rush it as he had plenty of time to learn everything he wanted to learn.


    Four dayster. The Sea Lion gathered its crew and prepared to set sail. This was Zhang Heng��s first time setting foot on a real pirate ship.


    The barque he was on this time belonged to Frazer once, and it was one of Nassau harbor��s best vessels. It carried a proudplement of 30 cannons. 24 were 9-pound cannons while the rest were 12-pounders, powerful enough to defeat most who dared cross their bow.


    For this voyage, the Sea Lion was on a mission to plunder a Dutch supply vessel and a Spanish merchant ship. Thanks to Zhang Heng��s prompt use of his gun during the raid, he managed to save three of his allies. This move had earned him the respect of many who were aboard. He could have run away to safety like what Marvin did, but had instead rented a house in Nassau.


    All signs pointed to him bing a full-fledged pirate! He was ready.


    His heroic stint of saving his mates made him quite the star of the ship, continually receiving nods of approval from the crew. Seeing the opportunity at hand, he requested that Owen help him improve his close-quartersbat skills. Through other pirates, he found out that Owen had the best skills among all when it came to the dagger.


    Owen was used to be a navy officer with a bright future. Due to an incident, however, he happened to offend a superior. In retaliation, he was sent to a hostile environment toplete an impossible mission. Out of frustration, Owen killed his superior. He was hunted down like prey, and in the end, forced to leave his hometown, eventually ending up in Nassau as a pirate.


    Unlike his counterparts, Owen had the tendencies to be a little too upright at times, a remnant from his days in the navy. As a consequence, he found it really hard to fit in with the piratemunity in the beginning. Once the pirates knew him better, however, they were more than willing to be friends.


    In everybat, he was always first to charge at his enemies. His valiant ruthlessness was unrelenting, gaining him the highest respect of the pirates. When the previous pirate chief was killed in battle, everyone on the ship unanimously voted him as their new chief.

 Chapter 110 - Black Sail XV

    <h4>Chapter 110: ck Sail XV</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    ��You wish to learn the art of wielding the dagger?�� Owen asked, surprised. Considering the extreme dangers pirates faced each time they went out to sea, they were mostly hedonists, living from each day to the next. Few made any ns for tomorrow, which was why Owen made it a point to remind Zhang Heng of what he was about to face.


    ��It��s not something you can pick up in two shakes. It would take at least a good month or two before you see any results at all, not to mention that the drills are very monotonous. Aren��t you already good with guns? Why learn how to use a dagger?��


    ��I��m terrible at closebat, and the flintlock can only fire one bullet at a time. Reloading is a pain. I don��t want to stand by and watch from the sides each time I��ve fired a shot. In any event, I can defend myself if I learn some fencing.��


    ��Mm, that��s true.��


    The muskets in this era differed greatly from their newer counterparts. Although flintlock pistols were an improvement from matchlock muskets, reloading it was still aplicated process �C the shooter had to refill the barrel with gunpowder before shoving down the charge with a long rod. The chances of it misfiring was also terrifyingly high. For that reason, whenever there was a battle, both sides would usually engage in a shootout first before moving on to the more physical sword fights.


    However, the vast majority depended on sheer adrenalin and brute strength to get throughbat, utilizing neither skill nor talent. Hence, those who had undergone official military training like Owen always had an edge in battle.


    ��Err, well then... be at the deck at sunrise tomorrow. I��ll teach you some basic moves like swinging,�� said Owen. ��You can practice your swordsmanship, but don��t you neglect your duties.��


    ��Thank you. I won��t,�� Zhang Heng replied with sincerity. It was not without reason that Owen won the favor and support of the other pirates; he was generous but also upright. Rather than keeping his excellent swordsmanship to himself, he was ready to impart what he knew to Zhang Heng.


    The same, however, could not be said of the others. Zhang Heng found the bosun of the ship, an old man named Rothko. ording to the crew, he had been out at sea longer than living onnd. Wind reading, weather forecasting, and sailing were three skills that he took pride in.


    Having such expertise earned him the respect of the captain and the crew, even if he did not participate or contribute much in battles. He dearly valued and treasured his own skills, keeping his knowledge close to his chest lest others might learn from him and subsequently overtake his job. Zhang Heng wasn��t the first to approach him, and like all the others before him, his request was tly rejected.


    Zhang Heng attempted to offer a handsome 500 silver pesos to him, which would be paid within the year, but Rothko still insisted that he would impart his skills only after retirement.


    Taking into ount the present circumstances, it appeared that Zhang Heng would have to wait a very long time for that to happen. The old man was one tough son of a gun. Even at his age, he had an appetite healthier than most who were younger, and he was not a picky eater either�Cable to swallow anything given to him. At this rate, Zhang Heng suspected Rothko would continue to linger around long after he��d left the game.


    After disembarking the ship for the third time, Zhang Heng looked for old Pirate Frazer in the tavern.


    ��How are your close-quartersbat skillsing along? Are you ready to be my debt collector?�� asked Frazer as he tossed a chunk of peanuts into his mouth.


    ��No,�� Zhang Heng answered truthfully.


    After two months on the sea, his swordsmanship still remained at level 0. Like Owen had said, it was a lengthy process that required consistent practice and perseverance. The results would only show itself once he was able to integrate his basic moves withbative instincts. At the moment, he was still miles away from his goal.


    Thankfully, Owen had already begun sparring sessions with him.


    On top of that, the good news was that after such a long period of recuperation, Zhang Heng finally regained his weight, and his strength even exceeded his level when he first entered the quest.


    Although no match to those born with divine power, he was already considered a prodigy among the regr crowd.


    ��Why did youe see me then?�� the old pirate asked.


    ��The Sea Lion was originally yours. Rothko is the oldest crew member on the ship. You must know him pretty well, right?��


    ��Oh, that old fox? He may not be a man of many principles, but his sailing skills are pretty good, I must say. You��ll never find a better bosun in the whole of Nassau,�� proimed a thoughtful Frazer.


    ��Ah, I really miss those times. There was this once, we came across pirate hunters and we were forced to head into a storm as we were a lot slower than them. Had it been someone else manning the sails, the ship would��ve been wrecked, and we would all have been dead. But no! Rothko and I worked together to secure the main mast, and, by a stroke of luck, we miraculously returned to Nassau in one piece. I only admire a few people in my entire life, and Rothko is, by the narrowest of margins, one of them. You must drink to that guy��s excellent skills.��


    The old pirate picked the ss of beer in front of him.


    Zhang Heng did not beat around the bush and jumped straight to the point. ��What do I need to do to make him teach me those skills?��


    The pirate looked amused. ��You want to learn how to sail? Why?��


    ��One should always learn as much as he can while he��s young, right?��


    Frazer grinned. ��So, you��re going to persuade me with all this nonsense?�� He lowered the knife and fork and stared at Zhang Heng with hollow eyes. Only after a while did he continue.


    ��It would seem you��re in luck today. I��ve found myself in a bit of trouble recently. If you can help me solve my problem, I wouldn��t mind telling you how to make Rothko morepliant.��


    ��What is it?��


    ��There��s a fool called Jacob in the city. He just stole a bag of ck pearls from me this afternoon. If you can, find him in half a day and get my pearls back. I will meet your requirements then.��


    ��Sounds fair to me,�� Zhang Heng said as he stood up.


    ��Oh, I almost forgot to mention that I hired another guy. He started an hour earlier than you, so I can only wish you the best of luck.��


    ...


    Zhang Heng left the tavern.


    As he stepped outside, he saw a group of kids frolicking by the side of the road. When a food peddler passed them by, a couple of them pretended to have a row. The peddler had his attention diverted while the smallest one among them slipped his tiny hand into the peddler��s pockets. As soon as their ruse was a sess, they dispersed into oblivion.


    This was Nassau, and petty theft was not an umon urrence. Ever since Zhang Heng began renting the hut, he had never left anything valuable inside. Whenever he returned from a voyage at sea, he often caught the urchins sleeping in his ce, god knows how they got in anyway. He would eventually rough them up and throw them out every time.


    It was not going to be easy to find a pearl thief amongst a jungle of viins, not when all he had was a name for a clue.

 Chapter 111 - Black Sail XVI

    <h4>Chapter 111</h4>


    <h4>: ck Sail XVI</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    ��The names of all the appraisers in Nassau are on the list you asked for.��


    Marvin presented a piece of paper. ��Two of them are on vacation, and one has been in the trade center since morning. So, these two are the ones you should focus on,�� said Marvin as he pointed at two circled names on the list.


    ��Thank you. You��ve done pretty good this time.��


    Zhang Heng��spliment had put a smile on Marvin��s face.


    Since time was of the essence, Zhang Heng needed external help. Apart from Marvin, two pirates he had saved also volunteered to help, and before long, all four gathered in front of the tavern.


    With a hushed voice, Zhang Heng pulled everyone together.


    ��Well, so this is the n. That Jacob guy will definitely find ways to determine how much the bag of pearls can fetch before he charges the buyers. To do that, he will need to find an appraiser...��


    ��Wait, you said that the pearls have been lost since morning. What if he��s already found someone to appraise them?�� asked Marvin while raising his hand.


    ��The appraisers on the ind are very busy. He would need to make an appointment at least half a day in advance. Of course, if you��re willing to pay more and offer them a price they can��t refuse, they would even blow you on the spot. But trust me, someone who has been poor their whole life, getting by on theft, won��t be able to afford such arge sum of money,�� one of the pirates named Hilford exined.


    Being a descendent of the first wave of immigrants, and spent his entire youth in Nassau, he was very familiar with the ce.


    ��If that��s the case, then anyone on the list could be the one. But there��s only four of us. There��s simply not enough of us to keep an eye on every one of them.��


    ��Forget about the others. We just need to focus on the two appraisers who are having a holiday at home,�� replied Zhang Heng after mulling over the facts.


    ��If that guy has any brains on him, he probably knows that someone might try to trace him through the appraisers. The best option is not to meet the appraisers at a rendezvous point but to pay them a visit. Even appraisers on holiday would find it difficult to refuse money that delivers itself to their doorstep.��


    ��I think this idea will work,�� another pirate piped up.


    Seeing that no were no objections, the four split up into two pairs, each going their way to the residences of the two appraisers.


    Zhang Heng paired up with Marvin, and their target was a twenty-nine-year-old named guy called Randall. He was young for an appraiser but had managed to build quite a reputation for himself, being excellent at urately determining the value of all sorts of things. Each day, there was always an appointment after appointment. That said, he made sure to spare a day each week for his family. He lived right next to the Nassau market, one of the most prosperous areas in the city.


    Zhang Heng and Marvin squatted under a shed with a grass roof opposite his residence, casuallyying down conches and pretended to sell them. Marvin peeked out from the shed. He looked at the sun in the sky and tugged on Zhang Heng��s shirt. Whispering in a cautious voice, he said, ��Err, if a fight breaks outter...��


    ��Don��t worry, if that happens, I will take care of it. You can stay away and watch by the side.��


    Marvin looked embarrassed. ��I was just about to ask how I might be of assistance...��


    ��That guy is more than likely armed. Going up against him will be your own suicide. Believe me, you staying here is the biggest help you can give me,�� Zhang Heng answered.


    Marvin was indeed aware that hisbat skills were terrible, but at the bluntment, his face had turned a beet red.


    Zhang Heng quickly added, ��Everyone has their own strengths and weaknesses. Acknowledging your own weakness is nothing to be ashamed of.��


    Marvin��s eyes lit up at the remark, remembering that his cowardly performance during a previous battle turned him into theughing stock among the ship��s crew. Upon hearing Zhang Heng��s kind words, he felt as if he had found his confidant.


    The two chatted away, and time passed quickly.


    At noon, Randall received two guests, both arriving separately. One was the ind��s ck market merchant, and the other was Randall��s sister-inw. Clearly, neither was Jacob and as the sun was beginning to set, the deadline loomed closer. Yet there was no progress. There was no news from Hilford, either.


    Soon, Zhang Heng found himself doubting his own judgment.


    Could it be that the Jacob guy wasn��t as smart as he thought him to be? Did he make an appointment with one of the three appraisers who were working? Or perhaps was he right, but the thief was worried that he would be apprehended, waiting until things settled before selling the pearls? If that was the case, there would be no way he could catch the target before the designated time.


    No, that couldn��t be right. Based on that guy��s financial situation, he could not afford to wait that long. The sooner he got rid of the stolen goods, the sooner he could get away with it. Even if the owner of the missing pearls were to find him, there was nothing he could do.


    As Zhang Heng was beginning to be clouded by doubt, he saw Randall��s sister-inw walking out of the house with a basket, cautiously scanning her surroundings like a little mouse before hurriedly heading towards the other side of the road.


    At that moment, Zhang Heng knew he had to make a choice. In fact, thinking about the other possibilities now was a senseless act. If he was wrong, he would have no time left to correct his mistake. Rather than cracking his head over whether he made the right call, it would be better to stick to his initial n and see it through, all the way to the end.


    Zhang Heng removed a dagger and a pistol from under the straw mat, telling Marvin, ��Take care of the stall. If after I��m gone, and someone suspicious appears, go find the others.��


    Marvin caught on quickly. ��So... you think that the cunning dude is afraid to show himself but insteadmissioned Randall��s sister-inw to bring the pearls to her brother-inw to be appraised?��


    ��I don��t know. So far, that seems like the most usible deduction. Also, this is the only way I can find the pearls before sunset.��


    After that, Zhang Heng got up and begun tailing the young woman from a distance.


    Though unable to ascertain the situation even after following Randall��s sister-inw for some distance, Zhang Heng was convinced he was right. The woman was obviously more vignt than the average pedestrian, pausing every now and then, turning around and looking out with caution. With his excellent observational skills, Zhang Heng did not have to follow her too closely and keeping a good distance, he kept his cover from being blown.


    Meanwhile, Zhang Heng also considered the possibility of attacking the person. However, if he was mistaken, or whatever she carried was not the bag of pearls he was looking for, it would be a massive headache for him.


    If his intelligence was right though, then his opponent was probably just a lowlife in the city �C there was nothing for him to worry about when it came tobat.


    Still, the safest option was to wait until the two met and made the exchange.

 Chapter 112 - Black Sail XVII

    <h4>Chapter 112: ck Sail XVII</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    Zhang Heng followed the youngdy for about 15 minutes.


    Then, without warning, she abruptly turned around and rushed into an alley. Without hesitation, he increased his pace and went after her. But just as he was about to reach the alley, a shadowy figure appeared from it. He was a redhead, as if a raging fire burned atop his head. Zhang Heng noticed a rapier in his hands, with clear stains of blood on it.


    Suddenly, Zhang Heng remembered Frazer saying that he had hired another person to help him. Instantly, he felt that something must have gone horribly wrong. Immediately, he broke cover and ran to the alley. The first thing he saw was Randall��s wife lying there unconscious, looking as if she had been knocked out by someone.


    Looking to be unscathed, she should turn out fine. Right beside her, a man was lying in a pool of his own blood, leaving him to suspect that this must be Jacob. His chest had been prated by something sharp. His eyes were wide open, frozen in time as he took hisst breath.


    Not wasting any time, Zhang Heng went after the man holding the rapier. It seemed like the man noticed that Zhang Heng was after him. His first instinct was to sprint as fast as possible, attempting to lose himself among the crowd. He was a man of small stature. This meant he was extremly agile, choosing always to run head-on in the direction of people.


    Unfortunately, his crimson hair shone like a beacon amongst the crowd, and there was no way he was about to go unnoticed just like that. Besides, he had chosen the wrong strategy of shaking off Zhang Heng, assuming that his excellent stamina was sufficient and Zhang Heng would tire out eventually.


    15 minutester, the man was already gasping for breath. Zhang Heng, on the other hand, hadn��t even broken a sweat. His persistent training for all those long runs had finally paid off. Seeing that the man was willing to use up his energy, Zhang Heng had no intention to stop him. Although he knew there was an opportunity to catch up, he chose to tail him with at least ten steps between them.


    The man with crimson hair soon realized that running towards crowded ces wasn��t the best idea and hence, turned toward more sparse areas. In the end, he stopped at a beach. It appeared to be a good ce for confrontation, seeing that was no one else around.


    ��What is your rtionship with that thief? Are you his aplice?�� asked the man when he turned around and looked at Zhang Heng.


    To his greatest surprise, Zhang Heng saw that the ��man�� he went after was actually a girl. Judging by her appearance, she should be around 16 to 17 years old. She was, however, dressed simrly to teenage boys on the street and even carried a personality to match. In fact, she was actually more decisive than some men. Though it was a simple confrontation, her rapier was tight in her grip �C ready to strike. Left with no other option, Zhang Heng had to draw his gun to protect himself.


    ��I��m really sorry. It��s Frazer. He asked me to retrieve a bag of pearls.��


    ��So, that old bastard looked for someone else to help him right after he hired me, huh! What are you going to do now? Snatch them from me?��


    The crimson-haired girl suddenly went on high alert.


    ��Actually, I��ve figured out how we can both benefit from this.��


    ........


    Frazer was having dinner at the tavern. Hisvish meal consisted of a rack ofmb paired with lemon juice. All of a sudden, a blue bag was tossed on the table as he was enjoying his meal. ck pearls scattered all around the table.


    ��I must be dreaming? Since when the two of you work together?�� asked a startled Frazer.


    ��We have retrieved whatever you��ve asked us to find. Is there a problem?�� furiously asked the girl.


    Frazer had entrusted her withpleting this task. It came as a shock to her that he would look for Zhang Heng to help him as well. Clearly, this indicated that he did not trust she could retrieve the ck pearls sessfully. This had her feeling betrayed and extremely angry, where one of her hands was already ced on the rapier. She would not hesitate to attack Frazer if things went south.


    ��Anger might not be a bad thing, after all. Using anger wisely to fuel yourself will make you stronger and more powerful. If you really want me to help you to be a proper pirate, it��s better if you learn how to control your anger first lest you might just get yourself killed someday.��


    ��I would rather die a warrior than to cower under a girl��s skirt like a coward.��


    ��That��s a great speech! I might not fully agree with you, but I believe that what you��ve just said deserves a toast!��


    ��What about our reward?�� asked Zhang Heng with a straight face, unwilling to raise the ss in front of him.


    Frazer then waved at him and whispered something.


    ��Did you not tell him about it?��


    ��It��s for his own good. Look. He��s doing really well now.��


    ��No. I bet you refused to tell him because you don��t want to lose your boatswain, right?��


    ��Hmm... well, that was part of the reason, but right now, I don��t have to worry about it anymore.��


    Frazer then took out a wooden horse and ced it on the table.


    ��Show him this wooden horse. He will believe whatever you have to say. However, you have to make sure that you learn everything from him first before telling him the final destination. Sticking to his promise is never his forte. You will never be able to look for someone better than him to teach you how to control mainsail if he manages to run away from you.��


    ........


    After that, Zhang Heng left the tavern with the crimson-haired girl. She looked to be in an excellent mood, having just received a rmendation from Frazer to be a pirate on the Golden Swallow. Most pirate ships forbode women on their vessels. It was a rare moment that a girl was given the opportunity to join the ranks as an ordinary pirate on the vessel.


    As for a band of sultry, female-only pirates, those existed only in movies or manga. Undeniably, although there were women strong enough to do what most men could do, it was also true that mostcked behind men in terms of strength and stamina. The difference was clear if a fight broke out between two ships. Worse, things could get really awkward if their aunties visited them at the wrong time.


    Now that everything was settled, Zhang Heng wanted to bid the girl farewell. To his surprise, she spoke to him first.


    ��Hey! Man from the east. Do you have a ce to stay?��


    ��Huh?��


    ��As you can see, I just moved here not too long ago. This morning, an argument broke out between a friend and me, and now the friendship is over. I don��t have anywhere to go right now. Initially, I wanted to borrow some money from that old bastard but, everyone told me that he is a blood-sucking vampire. If you are willing to let me stay at your ce, I��m willing to give you half my loot when I return from sea. What do you say about this deal? Oh right! I haven��t officially introduced myself to you. Me�� name is Anne. I��m from Cork, Irnd.��

 Chapter 113 - Black Sail XVIII

    <h4>Chapter 113: ck Sail XVIII</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    ��You��re back! I used the unsold sea snails and oysters to make a pot of seafood soup. It��s still hot!��


    Marvin heard someoneing from outside. Immediately, he ran out of the kitchen with a leather apron to wee Zhang Heng. To his surprise, he saw a crimson-haired girl standing beside him.


    ��Anne, this is Marvin from the Sea Lion. Marvin, this is Anne of the Golden Swallow. She will stay with us for some time until... erm... until she finds her own ce to stay on this ind.��


    ��Seafood soup? Can I have a bowl?��


    Anne took a deep breath.


    ��Sure. I made enough for three, but...��


    Before Marvin could finish, Anne was already in the kitchen. She looked for thergest bowl and scooped the soup, sieving up as many oysters that she could scoop. It appeared she had been starving for some time.


    ��But what?�� asked Anne.


    ��I was thinking of adding some salt into the soup,�� muttered Marvin softly.


    Marvin was startled by Anne��s dominating presence.


    ��It��s just food. I don��t really care how it tastes as long as my hunger is curbed,�� replied Anne as she carried her warm soup to the dining table.


    ��I... I can��t agree with such a ridiculous saying.��


    Marvin finally managed to muster enough courage to express his opinion. However, his voice was still as soft as a mosquito pping its wings.


    ording to Anne, she was actually born into a very wealthy family ofwyers, and her dad owned a huge orchard. He also had his hands in other businesses as well. As for her mother, she was simply a servant of the house. Anne was their illegitimate daughter. The moment Anne was born to this world, she and her mother were quickly shuffled into a mansion nearby. Luckily, her father was a responsible man, making sure not to let them suffer. When Anne grew up, he even hired a teacher hoping that she would learn how to behave like a realdy.


    Unfortunately, Anne was very different from all the other girls, having no interest in studying or dancing. Instead, she gravitated towards messing with various weapons. Due to everything she went through in her childhood, she desired freedom more than anything else in the world. Her ears would instantly perk up whenever she heard her mother telling pirate stories.


    In the end, she eloped with a pirate who passed by the mansion. The moment she was free from her father��s control, she immediately traveled to Nassau with the pirate. There was only one way she could achieve her dream, and that was to get to the legendary pirate kingdom.


    Unfortunately, things didn��t go well for her, and she was jobless for a long period. Even though she managed to beat all the pirates the tavern recruited, there was still no pirate ship willing to take her in. All this because she was female.


    After staying in Nassau for some time, the pirate, Jaime Bonny, told her he wasn��t about to feed her and give her free lodging anymore unless she would be his wife. Anne was so angry that shended a kick on his crotch before leaving him.


    But that was all in the past, anyway.


    She would join the Golden Swallow really soon. She even found a ce to stay, as well. A new dawn for her seemed on the horizon, with a chance for a brighter future.


    .....


    Anne was just a small interlude in Zhang Heng��s quest. He stopped bothering her after getting to know her a little better. The best thing about his rented shack was its size, where it remained rather spacious even after Zhang Heng gave her one of the rooms. Strangers would sometimes trespass the house when Zhang Heng and Marvin left for the sea. Instead of letting some rough sleepers mess up the ce, Zhang Heng was more than happy to let Anne bunk in instead.


    Meanwhile, Zhang Heng focussed on the next most crucial thing. Knowing that he had ample time for this quest, he had no intention to recruit many people in these early stages, having something the other yers did not have, and that was time. He could make use of 1 to 2 years to master his skillsets before working on the main goal of this quest.


    Anyhow, he was lucky enough tond himself on the Sea Lion, a vessel containing one of the most influential pirate groups around here.


    That meant he would be granted with countless opportunities to learn different skills from those around him. For one, mastering the art of taming the mainsail something he really wanted to learn.


    Soon, he would need to head out to sea for the fourth time. One night, before setting sail, he looked for Sea Lion��s boatswain. Many pirates left their hometown for a few years hoping to make some money for their families. Rothko was different, being previously a captain of a cargo ship.


    One fine day, he was pulled over by a Royal Navy warship for no reason. Without so much as a warning or an exnation, they attacked his vessel, sinking it eventually.


    Tragically, he lost his wife and five-year-old daughter during the skirmish.


    Though Rothko managed to survive, he had lost everything. To make matters worse, no one would believe his story. With shoulders anchored down by debts, he decided to leave the civilized world and join the pirates. As he had no family or property on the ind to turn to, the brothel was his venue of choice each time he disembarked his ship. Considering that he was not that old, he managed to be quite an energeticd on the bed.


    That said, he was left with only two desired endings for his tragic life. He either wanted to die at sea or on a bed in a brothel. In order to make sure that nobody would profit from his death, he spent all the money he earned with not a cent left in his savings.


    .......


    Rothko was role-ying ��king and criminal�� with a prostitute when Zhang Heng found him. The moment he saw the rumblings taking ce inside, he instantly closed the door and exited the room. Half a minuteter, the fuming prostitute ran out of the room with only a nket for cover. No one would be too happy having somebody interrupting the court that was in ��session.��


    ��How many times have I told you: you will learn nothing until I retire from the ship. This is non-negotiable! You have until three to leave the room. Otherwise, you will not learn...��


    ��Rothko... your daughter... she floated on the sea for three days after your cargo ship sank. Luckily a Spanish civilian vessel passed and saved her life. After that, someone from Ennd adopted her. You were no longer a part of that world when it happened. She is married to a mill-owner, and they both have three sons and two daughters. Right now, she is a grandma!��


    ��That��s not possible! You are lying, you despicable liar! Where did you hear such a tall tale? Are you using some cheap lies in an attempt to trick me into teaching you stuff? I can assure you: you will never get what you want!��


    Zhang Heng then ced the wooden horse in front of him without saying a word.


    ��I made this toy for Koror on my ship! Where did you get it?!�� asked Rothko with eyes as wide as grapefruits.

 Chapter 114 - Black Sail XIX

    <h4>Chapter 114: ck Sail XIX</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    ��Waves inbound! Waves hitting our port side!!!�� shouted the pirate who was on the lookout. Secondster, his voice was stopped when a six-meter high wave hit the deck, rudely throwing the pirates down to the floor. Zhang Heng grabbed onto a nearby rope, which saved him from being swept away.


    Though Marvin was in the cabin, he wasn��t doing too good as well. He was peeling a potato when the giant wave hit the ship, almost costing him his finger. The entire boat rocked violently, and when Marvin looked up, he saw the smoked meat that he hung up earlier was swinging left and right from their hooks, sttering into each other with loud thuds.


    Whenever the ship was struck by the restless waves, it sounded like the world wasing to an end. Indeed, one would start to doubt if this wooden ship could withstand the wrath of mother nature.


    Immediately, Marvin jumped to the nearest corner and started to pray with all his might. These were the true colors of the ocean. They could be gentle and balmy, but temperamental and merciless as well �C much like a teenage girl. One moment, the sea could be smiling a sweet tune, and another, it could be wrathful enough to destroy an entire ship.


    Aspared to others on board, Rothko was exceptionally calm. Having weathered countless storms throughout his entire life, a small stter like that was not enough to shake him.


    ��Hmm. I want you to feel her. This as fast as the Sea Lion goes. If the winds get any wilder, I��m afraid her mainsail will be destroyed. You��ll have to loosen the rope that is tied around the truss and tuck away the mainsail and headsail. Otherwise, the mast will break in half in no time!��


    Rothko��s treatment of Zhang Heng had changedpletely. So, instead of threatening him, Zhang Heng took a different approach and went against Frazer��s advice. Of course, by threatening Rothko, Zhang Heng could easily force him to stay on the ship.


    However, it was worth noting that when one decided to impart his skills to another, there was a big difference between giving his all and halfheartedly imparting knowledge.


    No doubt, although Rothko was one of the best boatswains amongst his peers, Zhang Heng could still learn how to maneuver the mainsail even if he lost him. And if Rothko was forced, he might as well just look for another teacher. What was the point when he wasn��t doing it willingly but rather, driven to teach under duress.


    That was why Zhang Heng was prepared to make a bet. On the night he confronted Rothko, he decided to tell him the location of his daughter. Immediately, Rothko left the brothel to look for her. At first, Zhang Heng thought that it was all but wasted effort. To his greatest surprise, Rothko returned to the Sea Lion the next morning.


    ��I told the captain that I want you to work under me. To be honest with you, I will only stay in Nassau for another three months, no longer. In these three months, you must learn everything I have to teach you. If you fail, you have no one to me but yourself.��


    At first, Zhang Heng thought that conscience had made him return to the Sea Lion. One night, Zhang Heng found out the truth from a very drunk Rothko. He apparently spent everything he earned so far, and without any savings, it was impossible for him to travel to Ennd. Besides, he had not seen his daughter for many years. It would be embarrassing for him to visit her empty-handed. That was why he came back here, attempting to earn a more before leaving for Ennd.


    Regardless, Zhang Heng now gained another mentor. Rothko changed the way he treated him after the two of them spent some time together. Whether a captain of a cargo ship or a pirate, Rothko had never seen someone as disciplined as Zhang Heng. Every day, Zhang Heng would wake up two hours earlier than others, starting his day with some movement training. An hourter, Owen would join him, and both of them would spar with each other.


    When the rest of the crew had just woken up and were having their breakfast, Zhang Heng was already with Rothko, observing the weather and maneuvering the mainsail. Other than that, he would work with Marvin, employing the help of good food and some money to build solid rtionships with the other pirates. Through them, Zhang Heng quickly learned how to maneuver a ship, shoot a cannon, and read a nautical chart.


    ��I heard that your only daughter is still alive! Congrattions! What do you think? Do you think he will be a threat to us?��


    Out of nowhere, Orff appeared behind Rothko. He stared at Zhang Heng, who was high above the mast, attempting to fold away the mainsail.


    ��I don��t think so. Aren��t you supposed to be worried about Goodwin? I heard he has more than half the crew on his side. Soon, he will start challenging your authority.��


    ��He��s just a clown. Let��s talk about something else. Do you know that a disciple of yours is kind of close to Frazer? I heard he was his debt collector.��


    ��So?��


    ��Did you really think that Frazer quit the pirate��s life and simply retired? If I remember correctly, you were the one who suggested that he should be killed.��


    ��And I remember that you were the one who defended him.��


    ��You know I was left with no other options. You have to admit that he was a great influence during that time. Though we forged an immunity letter from the queen, arge number of pirates were still on his side. Out safety would be greatly threatened if we killed him in front of everyone.��


    ��It doesn��t matter anymore. The past is the past. I��m getting ready to retire as well.��


    ��We will miss you. I will tell my kids when they grow up, that I was granted the opportunity to sail alongside the best boatswain of the fleet!��


    ��I will also tell my granddaughter that I used to sail with the most boring helmsman. All he did was talk bullshit beside me.��


    ��Oh, and send my regards to Koror.��


    After that, Orff gave Rothko a pat on the back and left him alone.


    ....


    Three months passed.


    The raids were longer this time, and so was their voyage, and when they finally returned to Nassau, Rothko had been teaching Zhang Heng everything he knew for a good four months. Rothko saved up enough to travel to Ennd and buy a gift for his daughter. Before leaving the grounds of Nassau, he informed the captain that he wished to retire.


    Zhang Heng checked on his character panel and found that the skill, maneuvering sails, was not listed. Everything that he learned so far was all categorized under sailing. It was now LV 1. Other than that, his knife skills had also increased to LV 1. At this rate, he was most definitely better than most of the pirates on his vessel. Although beating Owen was still out of the question, he was good enough to have a sparing session with him if he was willing to shave some points.


    Nevertheless, Zhang Heng was content with everything that he achieved so far. On the other hand, the same couldn��t be said for Anne.

 Chapter 115 - Black Sail XX

    <h4>Chapter 115: ck Sail XX</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    ��Can you imagine that? Ten versus seven. I ran to the upper deck and killed two enemies! I turned around and saw three of my allies getting beaten up. Six of my allies ran back to the ship without offering any help to those in need! This is not the first time it��s happened! I��m about to go crazy soon! The Golden Swallow might sound powerful, but the truth is, this god-forsaken ship is no different than a fishing trawler! I��m afraid we��ll all drown soon if a terrible storm hits us! Our captain didn��t dare to stray too far from the harbor. In fact, the first thing he does when he sees a merchant ship bigger than ours is to run away! A coward is what he is! I won��t be surprised if people think we are the ones being robbed by the merchant ship instead,�� seethed an unamused Anne.


    Zhang Heng was at a loss for words after hearing Anne��s rant. There were arge number of pirates in Nassau, but most of them were only small-time thugs. They would set sail as long as they had a dozen people with them. Whenever a merchant ship was ready for plunder, they would raise the ck g. Of course, the bunch would return to Nassau with a great haul if their target happened to be afraid of them. If a real fight broke, however, they would also be the first to run away. Technically, these were no pirates but a bunch of opportunists flying the ck g.


    ��I��m really jealous of your ship. She has around 30 cannons, right? And you have an awesome captain as well. I heard that he constantly targets merchant ships with valuable cargo. He even dares to fight with a navy vessel. This is the definition of a real pirate, and this is the life that I want! Damn it; I would have been able to get myself on a better ship if I��m a man. I even saw some fatsos joining a great crew. With my current abilities, it��s impossible that I can��t join a decent pirate group.��


    The more Anne thought about it, the angrier she became. In a moment of rage, she pped the chair beside her as hard as possible. Her abrupt action caused her wound to reopen, with the shirt covering her body flying off as well. She seemed unbothered by the fact that she was now topless.


    ��Oi! Fatty, you once told me that you have many friends on the Sea Lion, right? Can you rmend me to your captain?�� asked Anne while looking at Marvin.


    ��How many times have I told you that the Sea Lion has no intention to recruit any female pirate. No one can change the captain��s mind. You are also not allowed to take off your shirt in my house! You have to follow my rules since you are staying in my house!�� snapped Zhang Heng while picking up the shirt on the floor before tossing it to Anne.


    ��What are you afraid of? Why can men go topless, but women can��t?!��


    Due to the rampant discrimination she experienced while attempting to join a pirate ship, she had now turned into an avid feminist.


    ��What are you guys talking about?�� asked Marvin.


    He was holding a bowl of crushed herbs, which he had collected earlier.


    ��We are talking about how easy it is for all the men on the ind to get whatever f*cking job they like. Then, women are forced to stay at home to take care of the house and children. Women can only be housewives or prostitutes on this damn ind! The three of us can actually form a pirate group and venture out into the oceans. Just the three of us! If we encounter any fights, well... I can fight three enemies at the same time! Zhang Heng can fight two, and fatty can at least take on an enemy and a half, right? Ourbined force is way better than that stupid Golden Swallow pirate group!��


    ��What the hell is one and a half enemies?�� asked Marvin.


    ��Why not just go back to where you��vee from? I don��t think you should be a pirate. Though you don��t like your father, your mother must worry about you. I can provide you with some travel funds if you need some,�� Zhang Heng barged in.


    ��No way! I will not go back! I swore to myself before I left my house that I will not return unless I be richer than that man! Besides, I prefer the pirate��s life because I get to enjoy all the freedom in this world. There is something in my blood that will never change, which is my love for this ind. Every mouthful of air that I breathe in is filled with freedom!��


    .......


    Zhang Heng knew that changing her mind required a lot more than that. Then, someone knocked at the door. Marvin ced the bowl of crushed medicine on Anne��s table and went downstairs to open the door with Zhang Heng. They were greeted by someone they knew.


    The person turned out to be the friendly Goodwin.


    ��Nice ce but it��s kind of far from the town. I like the serenity here, and it looks like the two of you have settled down nicely. How is it going, y��all? Encountered any problems so far?��


    Zhang Heng and Marvin ushered Goodwin into their house and made some tea. As they sat down, Goodwin started the conversation. ��Rothko has retired. He wants to travel to Ennd to visit his daughter. I think you already know that, right? The boatswain��s position is currently empty. Are you interested in filling it up?��


    ��Me?!��


    Zhang Heng was surprised that Goodwin would offer him this position, one that was usually not offered to young men. For the past four months, Rothko thought everything that he knew to Zhang Heng. Despite that, knowing all the theories did not mean Zhang Heng could execute them wlessly. If one wanted to master this job, the person would need to umte years of experience. With Rothko leaving, Zhang Heng wasn��t he best boatswain on the Sea Lion by a long shot. Rithko��s men were more qualified to take the position.


    ��Be confident. We all trust you. You are the only disciple of Rothko. Logically, you should take over his ce once he is gone. Trust me, more than one person on this ship thinks that you are more than qualified for this position.��


    ��Is that right?!��


    Marvin became the most excited person in the house. Considering that he fully relied on Zhang Heng now, he sincerely hoped that he would be an influential pirate on the ship. Boatswain was an important position on any vessel. As the two of them had just joined the crew for seven months, this job offer was definitely a giant leap for Zhang Heng.


    Zhang Heng did not respond to Goodwin, patiently waiting for him to finish what he wanted to say.


    ��It��s time for a change. What do you think about our helmsman, Orff? Many on the ship think he��s too weak when he talks to our captain. He has failed to cater to the welfare of every single pirate on the ship. This is especially true for new ones like you and Marvin. I think you guys didn��t receive the appreciation you deserve. In every battle, we always charge at our enemies first. On a normal day, we do most of the work as well. And what do we get for that? The privilege to choose our reward first? All the important positions on the ship have been taken up by a bunch of old men. It��s hard for newbies to shine in an environment like that.��


    ��I��m not saying that they��re not doing a good job. As it stands, our demand is straightforward. We just want to work in a fairer environment. New people should be given more rights on the ship. What do you think?��


    ��Who should represent the new people then?��


    ��I��m not an ambitious man, but I��m willing to take up the responsibility since everyone believes in me.��


    Goodwin stood up and smiled at them.

 Chapter 116 - Black Sail XXI

    <h4>Chapter 116: ck Sail XXI</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    ��I��m ready to challenge Orff once we set sail again. By that time, many would have taken my side. To be honest, I have more than half the ship supporting me. In other words, that would make me the most likely winner. That said, I don��t want to im I��m the winner because the final results are not here yet. You might think that I��m arrogant, but you have to know that the Orff era is over. Join us. The future belongs to us!��


    Marvin was greatly ted after listening to Goodwin��s little motivational speech. He wanted to run to him badly and shake his hands. On the other hand, Zhang Heng was still sitting on his chair, not uttering a single word. As Goodwin left his hand hanging in the air for a few seconds, the look on his face changed.


    ��I��m good. I don��t think I will change my mind,�� replied Zhang Heng politely.


    ��I can understand that. You are still new on the ship, and you don��t want to offend the older generation. You are afraid that they might do something bad to you, right? You should also know that nobody likes indecisive individuals amid a war.��


    Goodwin attempted to convince Zhang Heng onest time. Those words might have been spoken tactfully, but he was also implying that he too could make them pay the price if they chose to side with Orff. It was a threat.


    At that moment, Marvin wished he could take Zhang Heng��s ce and just shake Goodwin��s hand. After a moment of silence, Zhang Heng finally extended his hand. Goodwin put on a smile, thinking that Zhang Heng must have had finallye to his senses and join him.


    ��I��m so sorry to disappoint you. I��m sticking to my guns. I don��t want to get involved in this.��


    Goodwin��s smile instantly disappeared from his face.


    ��You are going to regret your choice today.��


    He then turned around to look at Marvin.


    ��What about you?��


    Marvin was afraid, but considering the ample time he had around Zhang Heng, an empty threat like that was not enough to persuade him to betray his benefactor. One thing he could not figure out was why Zhang Heng rejected Goodwin��s goodwill. If Goodwin was not lying, that should mean that he could beat Orff to be the new helmsman.


    Goodwin was displeased by their rejection, and this instantly took a toll on their friendship. Goodwin was no longer friendly to them. ording to his n, Zhang Heng and Marvin were supposed to side and vote for him. When they first got on the ship, Goodwin had made sure to treat them well. From his perspective, he could not understand why the two would so tantly reject him after he promised them a great future.


    This was surely not the result that Goodwin desired. Seeing that Zhang Heng and Marvin were not going to take his side, Goodwin left the house without saying a word. The moment he left, Marvin started to worry about their future. Meanwhile, Anne was ted by their exchange of words.


    ��Come and form a team with me if you think you don��t belong to the Sea Lion!��


    ��.......��


    ��Apply this medicine to your wounds right now. Make sure you protect it from getting infected,�� said Zhang Heng.


    ��Do... do you think that he will fail?�� asked Marvin.


    ��What are you afraid of? Just make sure that you always do your job well. Win or lose, it wouldn��t affect you. Do you really think they will fire the only cook on bard?��


    ��It��s not about me. I just feel sorry for you. If Goodwin can rece Mr. Orff, you will be assigned as the boatswain of this ship. Your dream shattered the moment you rejected him. No matter who the winner is, you will not be able toy your hands on this position anymore.


    The truth was, Zhang Heng did not mind it at all. He knew that he wouldn��t sail with the Sea Lion forever, and positions meant nothing to him. All he ever cared about was to learn as much as he could. Even if Frazer did not warn him beforehand, he would never choose to side with Goodwin. He would rather stick with the older generation and, in turn, learn more skills from them.


    Of course, he would never expose these thoughts to anyone. This time, the Sea Lion��s crew had a brief downtime as in less than three days, she was to set sail again. Goodwin wasn��t nervous at all. On the contrary, he was rather confident about beating Orff.


    There could be only one possibility. Orff was in a panic, desperately hoping he could stop Goodwin and convince the others to side with him. However, Goodwin wasn��t even slightly bothered. Though Zhang Heng and Marvin were not going to take his side, he knew that he should have enough pirates supporting him as the new helmsman.


    That very night, Goodwin summoned everyone to the upper deck, ready to give a speech.


    ��My brothers! Have you noticed that we had fought long and hard during previous battles, but our yield has dropped. Now that is a fact! Aren��t you curious about why something so terrible could happen to us?��


    The record keeper, Griffin, barged into the storeroom to look for Orff who was counting the supplies and drinking water for the current trip.


    ��Something bad is going on, Mr. Orff! Goodwin is trying to convince everyone to rece you with him!��


    ��So?��


    Orff seemed unbothered once again, continuing with his inventory checking.


    ��So... aren��t you supposed to do something? He might just rece you as the new helmsman if you don��t stop him now.��


    ��Why would you say that?��


    ��I have reason to believe that Goodwin is well prepared this time. I heard that he has visited many people. The neers on the ships would be his primary target. In the span of five years, neers outnumber the veterans by a ratio of 2:1. This means he can get at least two-thirds of the votes.��


    ��Excellent work. The numbers add up. Well done,�� replied Orff with a nod while passing the ount ledger to the Griffin.


    Griffin was left speechless.


    ��Okay. My work here is done. It��s time to end the clown show!��


    Goodwin��s speech wasing to an end when Orff suddenly walked out of the cabin.


    ��Having those reasons in mind, we believe that Mr. Orff is no longer suitable as our helmsman. He has failed to look out for our well-being.��


    There were no cheers when Goodwin finished his speech. All the pirates silently opened up a way to let Orff through when they saw him. Though rivals, Goodwin still decided to greet him politely.


    ��Mr. Orff.��


    Orff ignored him, continuing his gaze toward the other pirates. He was surprised that the person he expected to be here was, in fact, not here. This, however, did not affect what he was about to do.


    ��I have to admit that I have neglected many of you recently. I have heardints about me; about the rewards getting lesser. Some of you even suspect that I��ve banded with the captain to take your share. I can understand why you all feel this way. It��spletely normal. Some of you here might think that I��m too old to handle this position well. I must admit that I don��t fight as well as our Mr. Goodwin here. As for the conflict between the neers and veterans on the ship, it��s amon thing on every vessel. No matter what I do, one party would always feel that they have been taken advantage of. I saw the problem, but I didn��t deal with it in time. This is all my fault.��


    Everyone thought that Orff would defend himself from Goodwin��s usation. Nobody expected him to admit all his mistakes.

 Chapter 117 - Black Sail XXII

    <h4>Chapter 117: ck Sail XXII</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    The air on the deck grew ufortable. The contentious scene everyone expected to happen when Orff showed up did note to pass. Instead, like an apathetic old man, Orff kept retreating as the gunman advanced towards him, as if he was about to fall off the cliff.


    Even though Goodwin believed that he was going to win since the beginning, he had not expected things to go so smoothly, and it was making him feel uneasy.


    Orff turned to the crew and said, ��That��s right. All of you have reasons to feel disgruntled. It has been a really difficult time, both for all of you and for me. But what I want to say is that from today onwards, these difficult days will be behind us. You��ve been wondering what I��m up to recently, and I think it��s time I tell you.��


    The gunner shifted uneasily. That ufortable feeling was growing stronger. Logic told him that he should not let Orff continue his speech, but right now, he could not find a reason good enough to interrupt the old helmsman. Orff had the right and freewill to deliver a speech before the votes were cast. It could not just be one-sided whereby the old man was not allowed to defend and exin himself after being denounced by Goodman. Goodman tookfort in the fact that the situation was already set in stone��he had won over each and every one of those people. Many among them were benefiting mutually with him. He was confident that none of them would betray him.


    When he saw that he finally had everyone��s attention, Orff continued, ��Most of you and I have known each other for a long time. You should know what kind of person I am. My past is not kept hidden from you. Yes, before I joined Sea Lion, I sailed with the greatest captain in the Caribbean, Captain Kidd until he was captured, and then hung in London. His house was searched from top to bottom, but all they found was a little bit of gold and silver.


    ��I know you must have heard rumors that he had hidden his loot in a secret ce��I can tell you, right now, that the rumor is true.��


    Immediately, the crew erupted in chatter. Practically everyone knew about Kidd��s story. He was the most powerful pirate in the entire Caribbean from 1695 to 1699. His ship, the Quedagh Merchant had fifty cannons on board. That magnitude of firepower was enough to make many seaport colonies cower in fear. Legend has it that in a short five-year period, he managed to pige a shocking fortune.


    After his death, the whereabouts of his treasures remained a mystery and the Quedagh Merchant vanished.


    ��I��ve been searching for that treasure ever since Kidd had cashed in his chips. Now, there��s finally some headway, and I have reason to believe that we��re very close to that treasure.��


    Orff had to wait until his audience��s chatter quieten down before continuing, ��Forgive me for keeping this from you. It��s not that I don��t trust you��I was just worried that the other pirates might hear of it. But now, I have no choice but to be honest with you.��


    When he was done, Orff nced at Goodwin. Thetter was drenched in nervous sweat and his face was as pale as a sheet. Just three minutes ago, he thought that he had everything done and dusted. He had not anticipated that Orff would employ such an unreasonable method to turn the tables. As a pirate himself, he understood just how tempting Kidd��s treasure was.


    In fact, even he could not suppress the feeling of excitement at that prospect. What more the others, and all his allies? How many more of them would be willing to stand by him, and take the risk of deposing Orff and miss out on such a big treasure?


    He had nned this for so long, and even yed the good guy for such a long time just for this��always greeting the new crews warmly, putting up with his allies�� peculiar characteristics and habits. Now all of that had gone down the toilet. Goodwin felt like a drowning man grasping at straws. He reminded his rival, ��Vote. They still haven��t voted... I haven��t lost yet.��


    But Orff��s final sentence shattered whateverst trace of hope Goodwin had left.


    ��Now, who is willing to sail with me, to go after that legendary treasure?!��


    All of the pirates on board were silent for a minute and then they exploded into a loud, enraptured cheer. ��Treasure! Treasure! Treasure!��


    The look on every single one of their faces were one of zeal and anticipation. None of them bothered to even look at the despondent gunman who felt as if the whole world had abandoned him.


    ...


    ��It��s out!�� Marvin rushed down from the deck, calling out to Zhang Heng who was doing push-ups in the cabin. ��The result is out! Goodwin was winning but Mr. Orff turned the whole situation around with just a few words. You should��ve seen Goodwin��s face. I feel a little bad for him.��


    Marvin paused and then continued, excited again, ��Also, we are going to be rich! Do you know that Kidd guy? That big pirate? I heard that when he was sentenced to death by hanging, nearly half of London went to watch his execution��and now we��re going to search for the treasures he left behind!��


    Marvin looked around and then lowered his voice, ��To be honest, ever since I was tied up by that group of pirates, the days have been feeling like years. But now, I��m starting to feel like perhaps it was not such a bad thing after all. It��s destiny that we boarded this ship.��


    ��Heh.��


    Marvin��s eyes widened. ��What does ��heh�� mean? Think about it. The treasure left behind by the legendary pirate king! Aren��t you even the least bit excited? Just now on the deck, I was already thinking about how I��m going to spend the money. I��m going to buy two ntations in Boston, and a group of ck ves, and then I will spend the rest of the money drinking all day long. Do you know that there��s a woman called Daisy at the whorehouse who always look down on me? She wouldn��t even pay attention to me on the bed. When I get the money...��


    ��Marvin.�� Zhang Heng finished hisst push up and dried the sweat on his neck. Then he opened his mouth to put a break on Marvin��s dream. ��You haven��t even seen the treasure yet. It��s not toote to think about what you��re going to do with it when you actually see it.��


    ��Sorry.�� The farmer��s son realized that he forgotten himself. He had caught onto all that fiery excitement on the deck��everyone was stirred by the words ��Kidd��s treasure��, and they were all in high spirits.


    Zhang Heng, however, was weary at this. Although he did not support Goodwin, it did not mean that he thought that Goodwin��s concern was ungrounded��Orff was indeed too close to the Captain, and this was not a good thing for the rest of the crew, especially after this time, Zhang Heng finally saw just how the experienced helmsman manipted the crew��s emotions.


    A powerful captain and an experienced helmsman��theirbined control over the ship was far greater than most people could imagine.


    Compared to them, Goodwin was like a toddler who had just learn to walk. Both sides were not on the same level. From the moment Goodwin decided to challenge Orff��s position, his fate was already decided.

 Chapter 118 - Black Sail XXIII

    <h4>Chapter 118: ck Sail XXIII</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    Zhang Heng transferred the saber from his injured right hand to his left, and then blocked his opponent��s two consecutivences while taking two steps backwards. When the sailor fighting Zhang Heng saw that his enemy was weary from the prolonged scrimmage, he was very pleased. He stopped advancing and plunged his sword towards Zhang Heng��s chest. It was straightforward attack, without any chicanery, purely relying on strength as an advantage.


    Now, instead of dodging the sword, Zhang Heng weed it. Both weapons shed, and the sailor of the navy ship felt a massive forcee at him, forcing his arm to swing open. As shock registered on the man��s face, Zhang Heng��s saber found the sailor��s neck.


    Zhang Heng muttered under his breath, ��It��s over.��


    The terrified sailor dropped his weapon and surrendered.


    Zhang Heng looked around him and saw that the battle on the deck wasing to an end. A few stubborn guards who were still putting up a fight were forced into a corner��their defeat was only a matter of time. Only the captain of the ship was holding fort in the captain��s cabin. However, his subduing was only a matter of time as well.


    This was already their third battle over a short period of two months. While they had won each of them, they had also suffered serious losses. Owen had even started to replenish the workforce with prisoners.


    During this era, naval sailors were treated poorly. Take the Royal Navy for example, whose one month��s sry was only around one pound, which was also equivalent to half of the pay of river gate guards, and only about a quarter of that of a carpenter��s wages. To boot, before the money even reached the sailors�� pocket, the paymaster general and navy officer of the ship would take a portion from it. To make matters worse, the sries were not paid out on a regr basis. One of the most bizarre incidents was of a cruiser in the Far East waters��the crew was only paid once in twenty-two years. In the end, the navy even refused to pay the sum that was owed.


    Even when they were ashore, these sailors had it hard. When the warship returned to the port for repairs, the officers were only paid half their sry whereas the lower level sailors were not paid at all, leaving them high and dry. But that was not the worst part. Sometimes, worried that their men would run away, the navy would even forbid the sailors from getting back to shore. Before arriving at the port, the sailors would be transferred to other battleships, and their wages would put on hold.


    Compared to them, the treatment that the pirates received was heaven. When there was money, they ��earned�� it together, and when there was meat, they ate together. There were rarely any incidents of the captain deducting the crew members�� ie.


    Zhang Heng had been in this game for almost nine months now. In the beginning, he had joined Sea Lion for the sole reason of survival. Later on, however, because of the main mission, he was forced to join the pirate world. Now he had a deeper understanding of the Nassau and the pirates living above. Many of the things had to perceive through the historical background of that time. It was not for no reason that the pirates in the 17th and 18th century were rampant.


    At the beginning of the age of exploration, it was difficult to distinguish between explorers, colonists, and pirates, and as Europe became entangled in war in a bid topete for sea power, the notorious looting permit was born��which also opened Pandora��s box. All these thing��a modern-day person would find inconceivable.


    Suppose, in this era, you were a businessman transporting goods to be sold in the colonies and was robbed during the journey by people from another country. There would be no legal, diplomatic means for you to return to your country. Generally, most countries would issue you a looting permit, encouraging you to take back what you had lost from others.


    On top of that, many wealthy businessmen and nobles would also sponsor skilled captains by helping them get private looting permits which allowed them to loot on the sea, so that they could have a share of the stolen goods. The advantage of doing this was that they were able to severely damage the sea power of other countries. At the same time, they could have an unofficial navy added to their fleet without having to increase their national budget. Should the war start, these private looting ships would also join the battle.


    If you plunder enough, you may even be summoned to the pce, or be knighted, redited as the country��s hero. Henry Morgan was the best example. He was the Pirate King of the Caribbean from 1665 to 1670, andter on moved on to be the governor of Jamaica.


    In fact, it was not just themon folks. In order to earn extra money, to make up for the wages they were not paid, sailors of the royal fleet would often go out looting. There were even managers in charge of cashing out spoils at the port. Of course, at the end of the day, most of the money they make would, eventually, still end up in the officer��s pocket. The low-ranked sailors would only get a meager portion of it.


    Frazer once told Zhang Hen, back in the tavern: ��Do you know what��s the difference between us and those guys? They have looting permit and we don��t. That��s why we are pirates who are despised and they are the heroes. This is how the world works.��


    ...


    Zhang Heng put away his saber. A loud explosion rippled under his feet, signaling that the final territory of the ship had been breached. The captain of the navy supply ship was dead, and the remaining sailors surrendered their weapons and themselves. The doctor on board busied himself tending to injured men, while the record keeper made an inventory of the cargo in the cabin.


    The pirates had also suffered many casualties, which was also why no one wanted to lock horns with the navy. Even though it was just a supply ship, her firepower was impressive. The price they had paid to rob a navy supply ship was far greater than the profit they gained. In fact, it was pitiful.


    The Sea Lion lost a total of seventeen men in that battle, and many were wounded. Miraculously, however, that did not thwart the crew��s morale��especially when the helmsman Orff presented a piece of blood-stained map before them. The pirates responded in excitement and cheer.


    ��Gentlemen, there is no doubt that we are finally another step closer to our ultimate goal!�� The helmsman shouted triumphantly.


    ording to him, Kidd��s treasure was hidden on a no man��s ind in the Caribbean. He had supposedly drawn a treasure map before he died, which was eventually divided into six parts and had fallen into the hands of those who participated in the arrest and trial. Now, the Sea Lion was on a mission to collect all the pieces of the treasure map. Counting today��s piece, they had already gotten four of them.


    Owen walked up to the helmsman and said, ��Mr. Orff, may I speak with you for a moment?��


    Thetter nodded and the both of them walked to the back of the ship.


    The pirate leader had a worried look on his face. ��I don��t know if you��ve noticed, but we��ve lost quite a few men.��


    Orff nodded. ��So, how did the recruitment go?��


    ��You know we can��t keep using these guys to fill up the vacancies, right? They are the navy, after all. If we recruit too many of them at one time, they might slit our throats when we��re sleeping.��


    ��What do you suggest then?��


    ��We��re been out here for two and a half months. I suggest that we go back to Nassau to replenish our supplies,�� Owen answered.


    Orff looked at Owen in the eyes, and then after a while, said, ��I don��t want to keep this from you. But if word gets out about us finding the treasure, it��ll stir up a lot of unnecessary troubles. But I will make sure to ry your suggestion to the captain.��

 Chapter 119 - Black Sail XXIV

    <h4>Chapter 119: ck Sail XXIV</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    One monthter, Sea Lion had eventually decided to head back to Nassau. Other than theck of pirates and supplied on board, they need to fix the damaged mast. The ship would travel in extremely slow speed as long as the mast was not fixed. Initially, Orff did not want to allow the pirates to get down from the ship. Everyone on the ship was really mad when they received the order. Asking all these men to stay on the ship after they spent three months travelling on the ship was basically impossible.


    In the end Orff had to take back what he had said and let everyone leave the ship temporary. Orff made sure to let everyone know that it was crucial to not tell anyone that they were looking for Kidd��s treasure. Just as expected, one hour after the first batch of pirates left the ship, the news of them looking for Kidd��s treasure was spread to the entire ind.


    Every single person in Nassau was talking about this matter. This did not necessarily have to be a bad thing. The recruitment process went way smoother than they expected. Usually, when a pirate ship loses more than 40% of the people in one trip, people would tend to think about the odds of them not being killed by the enemies if they were asked to join the particr pirate ship.


    Things were different this time. There were many who wanted to join the Sea Lion. Some of the smaller pirate groups were even proposing to join forces with Sea Lion. In the end, Owen had to summon a dozen pirates to maintain the order of people that were applying to join Sea Lion. Anne was ted when she heard that Sea Lion was recruiting. She even med Zhang Heng and Marvin for not telling her about it.


    Immediately, she ran to apply to join Sea Lion. In the evening, she returned home in a saddened state. She did not even manage to put down her name on paper, let alone taking the test. As usual, she came into conflict with others when she was lining up. Undeniably, she was exceptionally brave even though she had four pirates going against her. Instead of running away, Anne used both her fists to fight with them. In the end, two of them were knocked unconscious and the other two quickly fled the scene while carrying their injured friends.


    Zhang Heng saw Anne with bruises all over her face and arm when he opened the door. He could sense that she was different than usual.


    ��Dinner is ready. Come and eat with us,�� said Zhang Heng.


    Anne��s appetite was not as good as usual. She used her hand to pick up a potato and held it in her hand for some time. It seemed like she was deep in thought.


    ��What if I tell you that I want to be your wife?�� asked Anne.


    Marvin almost swallowed his spoon while drinking soup after he heard Anne��s proposal.


    ��Don��t misunderstand my intention. I��m not defeated by the fact that I can��t join Sea Lion. And, I don��t want to be a housewife as well. I feel bad for letting you provide a ce for me to stay and food to eat for free. Initially, I thought that I could earn enough money to pay for the amodation and food. It seems like I have overestimated myself.��


    She felt really embarrassed. Earlier, she promised Zhang Heng that she would give half of the loot that she received to Zhang Heng. Unfortunately, all she got during her very first raid was only a pot. It was worthless. Hence, she did not give it to Zhang Heng. She was now jobless again after she got into a huge argument with Golden Swallow. All she did right now was eat, sleep, and fight with someone every day.


    She did not know how to cook or do simple housework. Fighting with others had always been her forte. Every time when Zhang Heng and Marvin set sail for raiding other ships, they would always leave some food and pocket money for her. Every time when they came home, they would find out that the house was turned upside down. Zhang Heng had found her bra under his bed more than once. Her dream was to get rich as soon as possible. That was why she felt so excited when she heard that the Sea Lion was looking for Kidd��s treasure. She thought that this was her golden opportunity to make her dreame true. Sadly, things did not go her way.


    Though Zhang Heng had never stopped convincing her to go home and enjoyed what she had, he had to admit that Anne had invested her entire life to improve her fighting skills. Technically speaking, she was born to be a pirate. Judging from her personality, it was impossible to ask her to stay in one ce for too long. The problem was no pirate group in Nassau would ept a female to join their crew.


    ��What do you n to do after I marry you?�� asked Zhang Heng.


    ��Hmm... I don��t know... At least I will not stay and eat for free at your ce,�� Anne replied in a disappointed manner.


    ��I have a proposal. If you can control your anger and not fight with others, I will let youe aboard my ship.��


    ��Your ship? Hold on. Since when do you own a ship? Are you nning to leave Sea Lion soon?��


    ��Yes.��


    This was the very first time Zhang Heng had told others about his n. He wanted to form his pirate crew. Marvin was left in great shock as well.


    ��Are you nning to do it after we get our share of Kidd�� treasure? With that kind of money, you can easily recruit potential pirates to join you. But, why would you be a pirate if you are super rich?��


    ��I don��t n to do it after we find the treasure. I have asked Owen about the rights of new recruits like us. He told me that we can choose to leave after a year if we want to. I will apply to leave the ship once time is up.��


    ��What if we fail to locate the Kidd��s treasure by then? You should know that there are still two more parts of the treasure map waiting to be found, right? Didn��t you see what happened at the beach this afternoon? Everyone from Nassau is trying to join the Sea Lion. Why would leave them right now?��


    ��Though I really want to be a pirate, there��s no need to rush. I have waited for a long time. I don��t mind waiting for a little longer,�� said Anne.


    Zhang Heng did not reply to them. The reason why he wanted to leave Sea Lion had nothing to do with the treasure. He had a hunch that thing would go terribly wrong for him If he chose to stay with the Sea Lion. Recently, he could feel that the way Orff treated him had changed. They had not talked much ever since Zhang Heng joined Sea Lion. Until recently, Zhang Heng could feel that someone was staring at him all the time. Especially during the previous few fights. Not a lot of people could pull something like this. Orff was one of them.

 Chapter 120 - Black Sail XXV

    <h4>Chapter 120: ck Sail XXV</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    To say that Zhang Heng was not interested in Kidd��s treasure was simply not true. Just like what Marvin said just now, it would easy for Zhang Heng to form his own private crew if he got his share of Kidd��s treasure. Pirates were not a scarcity in Nassau. However, pirates with a specific set of skills were something that every pirate ships were looking for. And the most important thing that Zhang Heng need to acquire before forming his own pirate crew was a ship with sufficient firepower.


    Most of the pirates at Nassau were using ordinary fisherman boat with no weapons being mounted on them. When a fight happened, they would not be able to fight back. All they could do was to pray that they could get on the enemies�� ship before the enemies sunk their boats.


    The first thing that Zhang Heng wanted to do right now was to look for a ship. Ever since he joined the Sea Lion to raid and loot other merchant ships, he had managed to save up quite a bit of money. In addition to that, he was helping Frazer to collect debt as well and Frazer would give him a good amount ofmission every time. Still, there was a long way to go for him to purchase a decent ship. With the money that he had right now, he could not even afford to purchase an ordinary sloop.


    It was no doubt that Kidd��s treasure could help him to solve the problem that he had right now. However, the problem he had right now was such a scary coincidence. It happened right when Goodwin wanted to challenge Orff and Orff somehow managed to win the trust of all the pirates on board again. The thing that was going to happen next was what Zhang Heng worried right now.


    Everyone one the ship was so excited when Orff had announced that they were going to look for Kidd��s treasure. Without putting in any effort, Orff had managed to defeat Goodwin and fortify his position as helmsman. And the weird part was Orff did not stop right here. He had gone and promoted Kidd��s treasure to everyone to keep their fire burning.


    Recently, Zhang Heng noticed that Goodwin was never Orff��s threat. It seemed like he had his own agenda. Kidd��s treasure was just a tool for him to deal with the tiny problem that he had. Right now, everyone on the Sea Lion was hyped about the treasure and they were not going to stop until they located the treasure. The previous raids that they had were the best example to exin the whole thing. Usually, the pirates on ship would refuse to do raids that give them small amount of loot. After Orff told them about Kidd��s treasure, none of them said no Orff anymore. They would say yes to Orff even if he wanted to set sail to hell.


    In other words, if Orff did not like one of the crew, the person would be ced in a very dangerous circumstance. That was why Zhang Heng had chosen toy low ever since he found out that Orff was watching him from the dark. In order to prevent to make unnecessary mistake, Zhang Heng had purposely avoided contact with others.


    Sometimes, trouble woulde looking for you even if you avoid it.


    It was past midnight. Zhang Heng was woken up by the noise that came from outside. He saw a horse carriage parked outside his house.


    ��Who is that?�� asked Anne while yawning.


    ��It has nothing to do with you. Go back to sleep.��


    Zhang Heng recognized that horse carriage. Immediately, he put on his shirt, went downstairs, and opened the door. On the other hand, Marvin was in deep slumber. Usually, he would be able to sleep well and snore even if he was in a noisy environment. Instead of bringing the saber with him, Zhang Heng took his gun with him. The coachman then opened the door for him.


    ��I don��t wish you disturb you at a time like this. I think you wouldn��t want me toe during the day time, right?��


    Zhang Heng sat opposite Frazer. The horse carriage was on move again when the door was closed.


    ��I��m sorry to disappoint you if you are here for Kidd��s treasure. Orff is being really cautious. No one knows when he hid the treasure map. As long as I still work for Sea Lion, I will never tell you the location of the treasure map even if I know about it.��


    ��Kidd��s treasure? No. No. No. That��s just a fairy tale for dumbasses. I don��t think you believe in it right? You have to admit that Orff has a talent at lying to others. I had fallen for his liest time. I will not make the same mistake twice.��


    ��Why are you here tonight?��


    ��Ie bearing gifts and news.��


    Frazer then tossed a coin bag to Zhang Heng. There were some coins, leather ring, and some worthless small items.


    ��I want to thank you for what you have done for me so far. This is my gratitude. We should give our mutual friend Victor some final peace. This is the thing that he has left in this world. You and your friends don��t have to worry that someone mighte and threaten you again.��


    ��Why would you do that for us?��


    ��I think there��s some misunderstanding between you and me. I was never your enemy. You have known me for quite some time now and I have never forced you to do something that you don��t want to do right? Even when I ask you to collect debt for me, I would always make sure to pay you a 10%mission after that. When you want to ask Rothko to teach you how to maneuver the mainsail, I told you his secret as well, right? You can never find someone as kind as me here in Nassau.��


    Zhang Heng was left speechless. This was the question that he had all this time. For the past nine months, Frazer could actually use Victor to threaten him. When he saw the horse carriage parked in front of his house, Zhang Heng thought that he was going to use Victor to coerce him into something against his will. To his surprise, Frazer handed Victor��s personal belongings to him. In other words, he did not have to worry about others knowing that he was the one that killed Victor.


    ��I know how others talk about me. I��m pretty sure you heard the history between me and Orff. The reason why you are cautious of me is because you worry that I might use you to mess with Orff. To be frank I��ve not retired. Whatever that happened in the past, I have chosen to let it slide. Throughout history, there are very few pirates who get to enjoy the life of retirement. I��m pretty happy with what I have right now. Unfortunately, I know there are still some people on the ship who can��t let the past slide.��


    ��What do you mean by that?��


    ��I��m so sorry for what happened to you. Orff doesn��t like me. That��s why he��s watching your every move. And I have just received bad news. Orff is nning to eliminate everyone that gets in his way. Anyway, I��m the reason why you are in this mess. I can��t just watch you suffer. I have little to no power on the ship right now. If you really need help on the ship, you can look for a carpenter named Kent.

 Chapter 121 - Black Sail XXVI

    <h4>Chapter 121: ck Sail XXVI</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    Zhang Heng stood outside his house and watched the ck carriage disappear into the night. He then turned around and noticed the door was secretly opened.


    ��Didn��t I ask you to go to sleep?��


    Zhang Heng knew who was standing behind the door without even looking at it.


    ��Whenever I think that you went out in the middle of the night, I just can��t sleep. I need to know what is going on,�� said Anne.


    ��Instead of peeking at me, you should help me to figure out a way to recruit more pirates to join my ship. We will set sail in two months. I will figure out a way to purchase a sloop before that. We need at least ten pirates to operate the sloop, especially a cannoneer. Do you have any potential recruits in mind so far?��


    ��No.��


    ��....��


    ��When I make friends with others, I prioritize their loyalty and fighting prowess more than anything else. I don��t usually ask about their background information!�� Anne said proudly.


    When she saw that Zhang Heng was disappointed by her answer, she immediately made him a promise.


    ��I will go and ask around tomorrow. I will do it.��


    After a short pause, Anne took out a dagger from her back. She then put on a bashful look. It was a rare sight! This was Zhang Heng��s very first time witnessing such a feminine emotion on her. All these while, she acted more manly than some of the men he knew. Most of the time, she would walk around the house with only her bra. Sometimes, she would even hold a beer bottle and red at whoever that walked into the house. In this era, a girl that behaved like her was extremely rare.


    ��About that. I want to thank you for inviting me to join your crew. I saw the dagger that you have is broken. I got this dagger from the fight that I won two days ago. I have no use of it. So... So, I have decided to give it to you. You can use it to protect yourself.��


    Zhang Heng was very surprised by her gratitude. He took the dagger and did not say a single word to her. All he did was caress Anne��s messy crimson hair.


    ......


    Though Orff and the rest of the pirates could not wait to set sail again, the damage on Sea Lion was so severe that they had to hire the best carpenters to fix the entire ship. It took a total of fifteen days for them to fix it. In these fifteen days, Zhang Heng had made sure to not do something that would draw others�� attention.


    Basically, he had been staying in his house for the past fifteen days. He even went ahead and utilized the emptynd behind his house and nted some vegetables on it. During his time on the ind, Zhang Heng had nted quite a number of vegetables and was pretty good at it.


    As for Frazer, Zhang Heng did not ce his trust in him fully. Though he had acted really sincere that night, Zhang Heng could see that he was getting impatient. That was his first timeing to visit Zhang Heng after so many months. It was not necessary for him toe all the way to Zhang Heng��s house to show his gratitude to him.


    People like Frazer and Orff were extremely cunning and they were born to be leaders. They had this certain charm where they could make use of it toplete their goal. Also, they could make you believe that everything they do, was for your own good. Underneath their kind-hearted move was actually maniption. They would continue to use you as a tool to achieve their goal if you trust in them fully.


    For example, Kidd��s treasure was just a game designed by Orff. With Frazer joining the game, the whole thing would be even more dangerous. The best thing for Zhang Heng to do right was to stay calm and do nothing about it. After he was warned by Frazer, he did not go and look for the Kent, the carpenter. Instead, he did some preparations secretly.


    A man that wore a wig with ace scarf with flower designs around his neck came and looked for Zhang Heng. His name was Baal and he was a famous arms dealer in Nassau. Once he entered the house, he ced one short and one long object that were covered with tarpaulin on the table.


    ��This is the thing that you want. Check it,�� said Baal after he took the cup of tea that Marvin had handed to him.


    Zhang Heng then opened the tarpaulin and saw that it was a gun. In this era that Zhang Heng was in, guns with the flintlock mechanic were dominating Europe. Actually, rifles were invested in, in the 15th century. However, it was not asmon and famous as the flintlock gun. The reason was because it was extremely troublesome to reload a rifle. While a flintlock gun could fire three shots, a rifle could only fire one shot. And, people with weaker arms might not be able to slide a bullet into a rifle. The only good thing about the rifle was its shooting range and uracy were far better than the flintlock gun.


    All these while, Zhang Heng wanted to buy one rifle as backup. During the critical moment, his LV 2 shooting skill and the rifle might help him to solve his problem. Other than that, the arms dealer brought him three blunderbusses as well. Taking into ount the one that he owned right now, he now possessed a total of four blunderbusses. In other words, he would be able to fire four times at once. All the guns in this era would require to reload after they fired once. The only way for him to increase his firepower was to buy more guns.


    Zhang Heng was wearing a ck jacket. He ced two blunderbusses at his waist and the other two at his gun holsters in front of his chest.


    ��Hmph! I have to say that you look quite good right now. I wonder how you will perform in a real fight!��


    Zhang Heng ignored Anne and proceed to pay the arms dealer 140 silver peso.


    Baal checked the coin bag and he was pleased that Zhang Heng paid him the right amount.


    ��Come and look for me if you need to buy more guns.��


    Secondster, Zhang Heng heard a notification came from the system.


    [You now have more than three guns. Game points +3. You can check for more information from the character panel...]


    The way Zhang Heng yed the game had not changed since day one. He would never go andplete those achievements on purpose. He had gained a total of seventeen game points ever since he entered this world. Eight game points were from raiding other ships. Six points were from voyaging at sea. And, the three points that he just gained were from collecting weapons. With this speed, Zhang Heng could easily collect 200 fame points by the end of the game. It might sound a lot but Zhang Heng knew that his estimation was not urate. Usually, it was easy for the yers toplete different kinds of achievement during the early game. When it came tote game, the requirement toplete those achievements would be extremely high. Technically speaking, he should be able to collect more game points than all the yers. And the price that he had to pay was to stay in this world longer.


    This ce, Nassau would probably be part of him when this quest was over. Three days after Zhang Heng acquired his weapons, he was informed that the Sea Lion was fixed and it was ready to set sail again.


    ��I think everyone should know the final destination of this trip, right? I��m not going to repeat the same thing all over again,�� said Orff while standing at the ship��s bow.


    Everyone started tough after they heard Orff��s announcement.


    ��This time, we have a lot of new people joining us. I think it��s better for me to exin everything. I don��t care about your background and your past mistake. Once you board this ship, you are now one of us. All of you have to obey our rules. Especially during critical moment. Teamwork will allow us to ovee all kinds of difficulties that we will face in the future. If there��s someone who tries to sabotage us or do something despicable behind our back, you will be themon enemy of this ship! And, we show no mercy to our enemies!��


    ��Not too long ago, I��ve received news. I was told that there��s a traitor among us right now. Considering that I have fought with him in a few raids, I��m willing to offer him a chance to redeem himself. Come forward and confess your crime against the ship. If not, I can��t guarantee that the person will live to see tomorrow.��

 Chapter 122 - Black Sail XXVII

    <h4>Chapter 122: ck Sail XXVII</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    The look on all the pirates�� changed right after Orff was done with his speech. All the new recruits that had just joined Sea Lion knew this had nothing to do with them. Besides, Orff did mention that the traitor used to fight with him on this ship. They just sat there, grabbed a bucket popcorn, and watched the drama unfold before them. On the other hand, all the old crew members were panicking.


    Some of them chose not to say a single word.


    Some of them berated Orff.


    Some of them told Orff that he had no right to use others if he did not have evidence.


    Everyone started to grow suspicious of each other. After Orff made the announcement, he did not say a single word after that. He started to look at everyone on the deck. When his gaze fixed on Zhang Heng, he felt that Orff had stared at him at least two seconds longer than the others.


    ��Unfortunately, the traitor doesn��t have the courage to admit his mistake. I think I have to give him a hand,�� said Orff.


    He then started to walk towards Zhang Heng while taking out his gun. Immediately, everyonended their attention on him. At that moment, there were a lot of things went through Zhang Heng��s mind. One of his hands was holding his Shadow Moment in his pocket.


    ��Excuse me. Mind letting me through?�� Orff said while standing in front of Zhang Heng.


    ��Orff, you are abusing your power! You are trying to make me pay back for challenging you, right? Are you guys going to just stand there and let him use me? He would do the same thing to you if you allow him to do such a thing to me! In the end, he can whatever he wants on this ship!��


    The thing that Goodwin had just said managed to make everyone rethink the whole thing. Some of the pirates started to look at Orff in suspicion. Fighting for power was a verymon thing on a pirate ship. However, it was rare that the winner would kill the loser. If Orff killed him, all the other pirates on the ship would feel that it was not safe for them to stay on the ship. That was why the winner would usually try his best to deal with the situation as peaceful as possible. It seemed like Orff held a huge grudge against Goodwin. That would mean the whole thing might turn ugly. As for now, Orff was saved from being attacked by the pirates on the ship because he was holding the map to locate Kidd��s treasure. Once the pirates on the ship had their eyesid on the treasure, they would not hesitate to dethrone Orff. The thing that Goodwin said to the pirates had made them wanted to disobey Orff.


    ��If I��m not mistaken, you were the first batch of people that left the ship and went to Nassau, right? One hourter, almost everyone on the ind knew that we are looking for Kidd��s treasure. Please don��t tell me that is just a coincidence,�� said Orff in a calmed manner.


    Goodwin had gone through a lot of hardship throughout his life. He was not panicked when Orff confronted him.


    ��There were around twenty people from the first batch of people that got down from the ship. How sure are you that I��m the one that leaked the news?��


    ��I asked Owen to interview everyone after that. Every single one of them could provide me with an alibi except you. You told us that you went and take a nap after you got down from the ship. Unfortunately, you have no eyewitnesses to support your im.��


    ��What? I need eyewitnesses to prove that I was sleeping?!��


    ��Of course not. The thing is someone saw youe out from Marshall��s house. How do you exin that? Some of you might now know who Marshall is. He is the biggest loan shark in Nassau. The way he collects debt from people that owe him money is absolutely terrifying.��


    Orff then took a good at Goodwin again. His forehead was dripping with sweat.


    ��While you were plotting to take my ce, I know that you have used a lot of money to bribe quite a number of people. I��m really curious. Where did you get that money? You need to pay a huge price if you borrow money from Marshall. No wonder you looked so disappointed when you lost to me. The news of you failing to be a helmsman on Sea Lion was spread to everyone on the ind the moment you got down from the ship, right? You had no money to return to Marshall when he came knocking at your door. That��s why you told Marshall about Kidd��s treasure. Am I right?��


    Goodwin was sweating all over now. At this moment, he decided to make hisst struggle by telling everyone that Orff was falsely using him. But, his words were not as trustworthy anymore. Goodwin had to admit that he borrowed money from Marshall. He told everyone that the reason why he went and looked for Marshall was because he wanted to ask Marshall to give him more time toe up with the money that he owed him. He denied the fact that he sold the treasure map news to Marshall and he told everyone that he would never betray Sea Lion. It was toote for him to defend himself. The pirates that had stood beside him started to distance themselves from him. Despair had finally hit Goodwin.


    Suddenly, he started to run towards the gunwale. The Sea Lion had just left Nassau��s harbor. He could swim back to the harbor if he managed to jump into the water right now. Before he could do so, Orff pulled the trigger. The bullet was nted deep inside Goodwin��s calf. Immediately, all the pirates jumped at him and pressed him to the ground.


    ��Killing him right now is no different from showing him mercy. I think we should tie him up at the mast and let the heat from the sun torture him,�� said Orff.


    ��Orff, you are one lying motherf*cker! Someday, you will be damned to hell!! I will wait for you there...��


    He wanted to say more but his mouth was sealed by the pirates around him. The new pirates that had just joined Sea Lion used a rope to tie him up on the mast. It seemed like they had no intention of treating his gun wound.


    ��All those that know me know that I��m not a violent person. I don��t like to punish or torture people. However, it is my job to make sure that everyone��s yield is protected. I also have to try my best to make sure that you get to return to Nassau in one piece. I��m not punishing Mr. Goodwin out of a personal grudge. I want to set him as an example. If you dare to betray this ship and your friends, I will make sure that you end up like him. Let��s continue the journey looking for Kidd��s treasure. ��


    After that, Orff swung his hands to signal all the pirates on board to return to their position. When Zhang Heng was checking on the Starboard, Orff walked towards him.


    ��Is everything okay?��


    ��All is well.��


    ��That��s good. Rothko thinks very highly of you. He told me that you will be the best boatswain if you are given enough time to gain the experience that you need. Earlier, when everyone voted for boatswain, your vote count and old Michael��s vote count were really close. Don��t be disappointed by it. Just work harder. Sooner orter, you will get the position.��

 Chapter 123 - Ambush

    <h4>Chapter 123: Ambush</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    On the boundless blue sea, the Royal Scarborough patrolled its territory like a lion.


    This second-ss battleship belonging to the British Navy had a discement of 2,000 tons with 90 cannons and nearly 700 sailors��the giant of the Caribbean Sea.


    Every now and then, the Scarborough would in ordance with the orders of the Admiralty, go out on scheduled patrol to maintain the order of the nearby maritime trade routes. Pirates passing by this area would flee. In fact, just hearing the name Scarborough was enough to send unnerve even the most powerful pirate.


    Whence, whenever the Scarborough left the port, she would rarely be involved in any battle��unless you count one-sided attacks where the enemy fled hell for leather.


    At the moment, Captain Elmer was sitting on deck, enjoying his wine and a violin performance. He was only starting to immerse himself in the music when someone suddenly interrupted him. The lookout shouted from above, ��An armed merchant ship is spotted in the southwest direction!��


    Elmer��s brows furrowed, the expression on his face unpleasant.


    The first lieutenant quickly marched to the side of the ship and took the copper telescope that was handed to him. After a while, he said, ��The g on the mast is French, very deep draught, traveling at around three knots. They must be carrying a lot of cargo.��


    Captain Elmer finally put down the ss in his hand and strolled over.


    During this time, the War of the Spanish Session was taking ce. In order to prevent the Bourbon kings from annexing Spain, the new Grand Alliance, which included the United Kingdom, united against France and its allies, and the two sides were in a state of war.


    The French merchant ship could only me its terrible luck to have crossed the Scarborough��s path.


    Elmer looked at the sailors on the deck below, and saw their eyes were filled with anticipation.


    The captain broke into a smile and said, ��If this is a gift from God to us, how can we refuse it?��


    The sailors cheered. If they wait until their wages were paid, they would have starved to death. The one thing that motivated them to go out into the sea was extracurricr plunders like this. Even if most of it would end up in Elmer��s and the navy marshal��s pockets, they were satisfied just to be able to drink a little bit of soup. The sailors were already used to it.


    With the captain��s permission, the Scarborough began to change its course towards the ��unfortunate�� ship. The gun port��s lid was opened, revealing the dense rows of ck cannon muzzles inside, like a shark shing its razor teeth.


    Although war was about to begin, the atmosphere on the deck was unusually rxed. The violinist who was performing continued to y his instrument.


    The disparity of firepower between the two parties cannot be starker. Had they met each other face to face, the other side would have quickly surrendered and handed their cargo over, so that if Elmer was in a good mood, he might just spare the lives of everyone on the ship.


    The sailors of the Scarborough were rejoicing at the prospect of the extra ie. Only one officer on board appeared to be slightly uneasy. He said to Elmer, ��Captain, isn��t it a little too simple? Our route is not so much a secret��why would a French merchant ship show up now?��


    Before he received an answer, his colleague interrupted, ��When there��s absolute power, no conspiracy can take effect. Rx, But, we are on the Scarborough; here in the sea, we are invincible.��


    ...


    The atmosphere in the Sea Lion waspletely unlike the one in Scarborough��the pirates were unusually mum because they were about to face the fiercest battle in their lives.


    It had been half a month since they left Nassau. Thanks to Goodwin��s betrayal, Orff��s standing on the ship had skyrocketed. Right now, even if there was someone who was dissatisfied with him, they dared not reveal it.


    Yet, it was in this particr circumstance that when Orff announced that the fifth piece of the map required them strike the Scarborough, even the most zealous treasure-hunting pirates found it hard to continue to stand by the helmsman.


    Because this had nothing to do with courage at all. It was justplete madness.


    All the pirates in the Caribbean knew that the Scarborough was untouchable, and although there was no official ban, all piracy activity would make sure to steer clear of the navy. That attack on the navy��s supply ship earlier was already a very risky move. Moreover, the Sea Lion paid a very heavy price for it.


    For the sake of Kidd��s treasure, and because the supply ship��s firepower was almost the same as that of the Sea Lion, the crew had reluctantly epted the decision. As long as themand was expedient, it was possible to win the battle heroically. The Scarborough on the other hand... That was an entirely different topic.


    The most experienced gunner was the first to speak up, ��The Scarborough has three times the number of cannons we do and are way more powerful. They also have a longer range than we do. We cannot fight this battle. Needless to say, our ship��s hull is not as sturdy as the warship��s. One volley of firing and we��ll fall to pieces. Mr. Orff, I��ve always believed in your leadership abilities, but this time, I really have to voice my opposition, because this is going to get all of us killed.��


    The majority of the other pirates backed him up.


    Orff had to raise his voice to be heard, ��Gentlemen, Ipletely agree with what you��re saying. We are indeed at a disadvantage in terms of firepower. If we were to fight them head on, we really wouldn��t stand a chance at all, which is why our only option is to connect the bridge.��


    ��Connect the bridge? I know that we have recruited some really good hands, but even if we include the cook, the doctor��the technical staff��at most, we have only 173 men. How are we supposed to fight 7000 people? Besides, the most rming thing is the Scarborough��s firepower. I��m afraid we��d sink before we could even draw close to her.�� Owen, too, raised his concern.


    ��Yes, you are all right. That would be exactly the case under normal circumstances.�� Orff paused for a moment before continuing, ��Except we don��t have to go to the Scarborough��she wille to us.��


    ��How is that possible?��


    ��That��s impossible, of course, if we raise our ck g. Once the Scarborough finds out that we��re pirates, they would definitely fire their cannons at us. But if we let them think that we are just a cargo ship, the whole situation would bepletely different. No one would rob a boat of chinaware, right?��


    Orff pushed everything off the table and spread the map of the ocean on top of it. ��Back on the ind, I heard that a Dutch ship was carrying porcin and is on its way to selling them at New York. We��ll take the ship halfway there and then move the porcin to our ship. Then we��ll raise the French g and wait at Scarborough��s route.��

 Chapter 124 - Ambush II

    <h4>Chapter 124: Ambush II</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    ��Is this why you wanted me to recruit ten French-speaking men back on the ind?��


    ��Yes. We will keep thirty men on deck, pretending to be sailors of a merchant ship. Mm, try to pick those who don��t look aggressive and appear thinner and weaker. The rest will wait in the secret mezzanine. Oh, right, the cannons. We have too many cannons on board, get rid of half of them.��


    ��Are you serious? Keep only sixteen cannons to battle against the most powerful English warship on the Caribbean?��


    ��Trust me, it wouldn��t make a difference even if we had thirty-two cannons��not when you��re up against the Scarborough.�� Orff shrugged. He nced around and asked, ��Anymore questions?��


    ��Even if we do as you say and are lucky enough to be able to trick the people on the Scarborough into believing that we are a French merchant ship, and sessfully connect the bridge, we are still at a disadvantage in terms of manpower.�� Zhang Heng who had been quiet all along also spoke up.


    ��Good question. We all know that there are 700 men on the Scarborough. But the number is actually pretty diluted. Captain Elmer is of noble birth and lives in luxury. This is true even on the Scarborough. He spends his money on musicians, private chefs, and stewards... all kinds of people to ease his boredom, people who are not equipped to fight. Then there��s also the logistics on board. The actual number should be only around 600 men.��


    ��Like you said, I don��t see how 600 people is any different from 700,�� Owen said.


    ��I��m not done yet. The situation in Marbe is very tense. At the beginning of this year, the navy hired a group of experienced sailors from the New World. Right now, about two-thirds of the Scarborough are new recruits. Most of them are fishermen and farmers from the colony who had undergone only two months of training. Theirbat skills are average. As long as we stun them with our first attack, they will very likely break ranks after that. So, our real enemy is only the 200 veterans; everyone on this are real men. One-on-one, I don��t believe that you will lose to anyone. ��


    Orff��sstment sessfully stirred the crew, but only a few of them responded.


    That was mainly because of the Scarborough��s reputation. She had always been every Caribbean pirate��s nightmare. Just the thought of challenging this behemoth extinguished whatever morale that was roused.


    Orff pped his hands. ��Gentlemen, I know what you��re worried about. I��ve already said since the beginning��this is not going to be an easy journey. The treasure will note looking for us. There is no doubt that on this voyage, we will ego through trails, face challenges, but as long as we work together...��


    Owen could not help but interrupt him. ��Challenging the Scarborough is not just any kind of trial. This is too dangerous. Even if nothing goes wrong, we don��t know if we��ll really be able to take her. You said that we have to keep the treasure map a secret, and for so long we��ve been obeying your instructions unquestioningly. I��m afraid not this time. If you want us to agree to this, at least tell us why we should do it.��


    Owen��s resonated with the other pirates.


    When Orff saw that that was the general opinion, he nodded. ��Alright. Since we��re so near to the target already, I should tell you guys that I��ve received confirmation that the fifth piece of the map is in the hands of Bellomonte.��


    ��Bellomonte? The earl of New York, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire?��


    At first, some of the pirates did not understand what the name meant. But when they heard this question, they inhaled sharply. If there was a list of the most powerful people in the New World, then Belmonte would be among the top few. It was nearly impossible to take the treasure map from a man of such standing.


    ��Yes. He was also the one who sent Kidd to the gallows. After Kidd��s death, arge portion of the relics fell into Belmonte��s hands��not just the fifth piece of the treasure map, but also the clues rted to the sixth piece of the map.�� Then Orff threw out the final card. ��What��s more, his worth is no less than a piece of treasure. If we manage to capture him, we could, at the very least, get 400,000 pounds for his ransom.��


    The number had everyone holding their breaths. Kidd��s treasure was still far away, but the ransom money was right before their eyes.


    But it was Orff��s final statement that really yed a decisive role. ��Belmonte will leave his territory after a month and a half and go to Charleston to attend his youngest daughter��s wedding. That is our best chance. After we take the Scarborough, we can seal off the Port of Charleston and go ashore to capture our man.��


    ...


    ��I must have lost my mind when I voted in favor.�� Marvin��s hand trembled as he picked up the potato peeler. ��We��re dead, right? Scarborough��s cannons will rip us to shreds, or the sailors would rush aboard and ughter all of us. My god, I should��ve listened to you and voted against.��


    ��It��s useless. Even if you vote against it, they would still carry out the operation.�� Zhang Heng said, holding a spoon and as calm as ever. If he could decide the direction of things, he would not have chosen this. Orff was the one who wore the pants on Sea Lion. Even though he had voted against, other than Marvin, he did not try to dissuade anyone else.


    Now that things had gotten to this point, there was no useining. The only way out of this was to take down the entire the Scarborough together.


    Since Zhang Heng��s and Marvin��s ��less menacing face��, they were chosen to be part of the group acting as the crew of the merchant ship. They were now the cooks of the ��French merchant ship��.


    Zhang Heng took off his ck clothes and handed all the weapons he had on him to the ambush group for safekeeping in the mezzanine. But as insurance, he kept a dagger in case he needed to defend himself; and that dagger was hidden under the pile of potato skins by Marvin��s feet.


    After a while, they heard footsteps approaching the door. It was the record keeper Griffining down from the deck. ��The Scarborough has taken the bait. They are approaching. Mr. Orff asked me to inform you to get ready. Don��t give anything away.��


    Clearly, the poor man had not done anything like this before. He was so nervous he was stuttering a little. But given the circumstance, that they are about to encounter the British warship, it was expected.

 Chapter 125 - Where Have I Seen Him Before?

    <h4>Chapter 125: Where Have I Seen Him Before?</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    The Scarborough opened fire once as a warning, and the French merchant shippliantly slowed down until it came to a stop.


    Seeing how courteous the French merchants were, Elmer��s mood improved, and he returned to the table and tied a napkin around his neck.


    The chief officer directed the Scarborough to draw near the side of the Sea Lion, and the officer who had spoken up earlier said, ��Sir, we should have our gunners on standby and send someone to assess the situation first.��


    The chief officer frowned. He was not some rookie who had never been out on the sea before; of course, he knew what he had to do. It irked him to have a subordinate exhorting him and giving him directions. Had it not been because of But��s lineage, he would have flipped already. It was really no wonder why this man was ostracized by his colleagues.


    ��Do your own job, But.�� The chief officer warned. He had originally wanted to instruct the gunners to wait for orders but he felt terrible after being instructed by his subordinate.; however, having been in the navy for so many years, he managed to ovee his emotions with logical reasoning, and issued orders in an orderly manner ording to n.


    But stood aside, unspeaking but with his chest forward and head raised as if he had just won a major battle.


    He just wanted to chop him into pieces right now. Fortunately, the first team of 24 men were boarding the French merchant ship, and helped distract his attention.


    The captain of the merchant ship was a French man with slightly curly hair. Standing with him, ill at eased, on the deck were his sailors. Obviously, he understood what it meant to encounter the Scarborough. In the face of such overwhelming firepower, even if he was unwilling, he still had to hand over the ship��s inventory.


    The officer in charge pointed his musket at the men on the deck who had surrendered, then sent a few subordinates to search the storage room. After a while, Zhang Heng and Marvin were being led up the deck from the kitchen.


    Thetter��s legs trembled, especially when he saw on the giant warship with its galore of cannons and the mass of men��s silhouettes; he was instantly filled with despair.


    His frightened appearance amused the British sailors��some of them whistled and the others sneered. Only one man frowned at the sight of him.


    ��What��s wrong, Lanny?��


    ��I don��t know. It��s just that this guy looks very familiar. I can��t seem to figure out where I��ve seen him before,�� said the sailor named Lanny.


    ��Now that you mention it, he does look familiar...�� The other guy agreed.


    The air on the deck was suddenly very tense.


    But suddenly the other guy continued, ��He looks a little like your wife. Aw... Poor little Lanny. Can��t wait to let it out already, huh? Maybe our tubby friend here won��t mind.��


    ��Go *bleep* yourself, Stephen!��


    This little interruption loosened the tension and things were back to the rxed and jovial state. The task was easy and no one paid too much attention to it. After a while, the people who went down to search the cargo returned.


    ��All clear. It��s all porcin crockery down there. They look pretty good. We��re going to earn good money this time, guys!��


    The English sailors looked ecstatic.


    The officer in charge nodded. ��Keep an eye on these men. I��ll go report to the chief officer and the captain.��


    He returned immediately, with the inventory, to the Scarborough. A few minutester, the sailors on the Scarborough were mobilized.


    In order to facilitate the moving process, the chief officer ordered for more gangnks to beid. About sixty new recruits tasked to move the porcin crockery put down their weapons and got to work.


    When the pirates hiding in the mezzanine heard footsteps above them, they gulped nervously. So far, the n was going better than they imagined. They were almost halfway there. For Sea Lion and Scarborough to sessfully connect, they just had to wait for the group of unarmed British sailors to board their ship, and then attack.


    But they were growing even more anxious by the minute, fearful that some ident on the deck might reveal the secrets underneath��their whole n would be ruined.


    Only one among them was an exception. He sat in the corner with his eyes closed as if he was asleep. His huge body was like a mountain in the dark; his ck beard rising and falling as he breathed. It was very crowded in the mezzanine, they were practically squashed against each other, yet no one stood within a foot from him. Most people who chose the life of a pirate were unruly but whenever they were in the same room with him, they would all turn into well-behaved little kittens.


    The crew looked at him in awe as if they were looking at a lord demon.


    The n to attack the Scarborough was a dangerous one. Even if the sess rate of Orff��s n was 50/50, the majority of the crew had voted for it. Apart from the allure of money and treasure, the man before them also had a big part in in��the only thing that could vanquish fear was another kind of fear.


    ...


    One by one, the sailors of the Scarborough jumped onto the Sea Lion, eagerly entering the storage room. The men in charge of watching Zhang Heng and the others were also in repose. Only the one called Lanny kept his eyes glued on Marvin, wearing a contemtive look on his face.


    The farmer��s son was very troubled. Other than his own father, he knew no one else in the New World, and was captured by pirates on his way there. He was certain that he had never met the bloke before, and could not understand why that Scarborough sailor would not stop staring at him. Marvin could not help but wonder if he really did resemble the man��s wife.


    Just as the other British sailors were discussing amongst themselves about where they would go after they got the money, the Lanny guy suddenly shouted, ��I know��they are pirates!��


    Lanny quickly raised his musket and pointed at Marvin.


    Marvin was both horrified and disconcerted. What had he done to give the game away? In fact, he was not the only one. Lanny��s associates were just as bbergasted. Instead of raising their weapons, they asked Lanny, ��Are you out of your mind?!��


    Lanny quickly answered, ��I remember where I saw him now! I saw a sketch of him at the port! About ten months ago, a merchant ship was robbed by pirates. They killed the captain and most of the sailors on the ship. They only gave the remaining passengers a small boat, a bucket and a little food. Fortunately, the survivors wereter rescued by a passing ship. ording to them, four of the people on board joined the pirate��one of them is this fatty. His features stood out the most which is why I remember him very clearly. Oh, they also mentioned that there was an oriental. He��s probably the one next to the fatty.��

 Chapter 126 - Fierce Battle

    <h4>Chapter 126: Fierce Battle</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    As Lanny was speaking, Marvin��s forehead began to sweat, and by the time Lanny finished his exnation, the farmer��s son was as white as a sheet.


    He never expected that to be a problem. No matter how he looked at it, the chances of the people on the tiny boat surviving were marginal��it was because of that that he chose to join the pirates, and became a cook on the Sea Lion in exchange for a chance to survive.


    Who would have thought that they would miraculously be rescued? Had he known, he would have stayed on the boat, and would probably be basking in the sun on his farmer��s farm.


    Worse still, the survival of those people brought on a whole series of trouble. The ount of the four joining the pirates was circted, and thus, destroyed all possibility of the four of them ever returning to the civilized world. Unless they were pardoned by the queen, they would forever be identified as pirates.


    Of course, these were all things they had to worry about in the future. Right now, there was a more urgent, more terrible thing awaiting him.


    Once Lanny was done speaking, the sailors guarding the ��merchants�� sobered up. They raised their weapons and the whole atmosphere quickly turned hostile.


    Someone pulled the trigger��no one knew who. At the loud bang of the gunshot, Marvin��s heart contracted and his mind went nk. He thought that he was going to be dead for sure this time, but when he opened his eyes, there was no wound on his body.


    Rather, it was Lanny, the sailor who exposed him who gawked at the bloodstain on his chest with a look of disbelief.


    The beast had awakened from its sleep.


    No one knew when, but the man with the ck beard opened his eyes fierce as a lion, his entire person exuding a formidable force. He withdrew the still smoking gun and said in an unusually low voice, ��The war has begun. Let��s go hunt together!��


    The guards on the deck could hardly believe what had just happened. They had taken control of the entire boat and confiscated all of the weapons found on the crew. Where did this bullete from?


    It was not until two secondster that someone realized what was happening. But it was toote. The deck under their feet suddenly opened up and a few sailors standing on it fell down into the hole. Before they even hit the ground, their throats were slit. Then a cluster after another of pirates, armed to the teeth, appeared from under the deck. The heads of the rest of the sailors were chopped off before they could even pivot their gun��s muzzle.


    Because of the unexpected Marvin ident, the battle started half a minute earlier.


    Most of the unarmed sailors who were transferring the porcin crockery were already on board the Sea Lion. Only about ten of them were still standing on the deck. Upon realizing that something went wrong, they immediately fled back to the Scarborough.


    The others, however, were not as lucky. The twenty over armed British officers were the first to be killed. All of them were either injured or terminated during that one confrontation.


    After Owen took down a British sailor, he returned Zhang Heng��s clothes and weapon to Zhang Heng. The other pirates had ignited the hand grenades; the ones used in the 17th and 18th century was very different from the one in the modern-day. They were shaped like pomegranates, which was also where its name was derived from. During that time, the grenades were basically an iron shell filled with gunpowder-filled lead pellets or metal pieces, and could cause serious damage when thrown into a crowd. The sailors on Scarborough wanted to crossover to help, but were severely wounded by the explosion.


    1Some of the new recruits who were fleeing panicked, and in a split moment of terror, pushed and shoved each other as they were crossing the gangnk so that the unlucky ones fell into the water.


    The gunner on Scarborough asked the chief officer, ��Sir, should we fire? We can sink the entire ship in a matter of minutes.��


    However, thetter appeared to be somewhat hesitant. For the most part, he was thinking about the china on the other ship. But before he could open his mouth to speak, But who was next to him beat him to it. ��No! Our men have not returned! How can we shoot now?! If we do that, how can you expect these people to fight for us in the future?��


    His argument was not unreasonable. Already, they had a big problem with the rock-bottom morale of the sailors because the Admiralty owed them their wages. Scarborough was no exception to this matter. If they had fired at the ��merchant ship��, while only a small portion of their men were sacrificed, the real damage would be the breach of trust with the remaining crew.


    More importantly, there were over six hundred men on the Scarborough. They were at an advantage in terms of numbers, and although the pirates hadunched a wave of sneak attack, the damage they suffered was not really that severe. Should a battle really take ce, there was no way Scarborough would lose.


    However, as a result of his hesitation, the pirates had breached their ship.


    Today, Elmer the captain, also experienced embarrassment like never before. Despite the fact that he was unharmed, he was so startled by the sound of the explosion that he spilled the red wine all over his uniform. By the time he came around, he was blind with rage. As he reached down to pull out his saber, he spat, ��What the hell are you still doing standing there? Go and get rid of thosewless pirates and bring back all our porcin!��


    Since the captain had spoken, no one protested. The chief officer immediately dispatched a gunner to counter the enemy��s attack. But the pirates were more cunning than they expected. And even instead of killing the sailors who boarded the ship, they were mixed among them rushed together. Instead of ughtering all of the sailors on the ship, they stood among the sailors, using them as shields.


    The gunner spent an awfully long time aiming without even an opportunity to open fire. Not after, their enemy and his own men were right before him��and that was when the difference between a rookie and an old timer was significantly evident.


    Under tremendous pressure, a rookie would panic and randomly fire so that the bullets were everywhere; most of it would end up nowhere while a small portion would hit his own men, and the pirates would be barely harmed.


    The man with the ck beard took the lead, beheading a sailor in front of him, then using the body as a shield as he made his way to the musketeers. With incredible speed, he pulled out the saber at his waist and plunged it into the chest of his enemy. The tip of the knife protruded from the back of the poor musketeer. He twisted the de twice and blood came spewing out of the sailor��s mouth onto his clothes. Now he really looked like the king of hell.


    Those nearby who witnessed the whole scene were so terror-stricken that they ran for their lives.


    This time, it was a battle of life and death. Zhang Heng did not hold back as he swung his saber at the iing enemies; his movements, unlike the bearded the man��s, were much nimbler and more graceful. His previous attempt to integrate karate into his sword fights and was finally seeing some sess. He focused on sidestepping his enemy��s attack, and when the right opportunity presented itself, disarm the enemy. But just as the tip of his saber was about to slit his target��s throat, someone drew a knife at him.


    ��Your opponent is me,�� But said, his voice thick with confidence. He was very sure of his sword skills��back in London, through his family��s connections, he had studied under numerous prestigious mentors, and was convinced that no one would be able to beat him.


    Zhang Heng took one look at the sailor from the corner of his eyes, pulled out the pistol at his waist and pulled the trigger, unhesitating.

 Chapter 127 - Compromise

    <h4>Chapter 127: Compromise</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    Even after he had taken care of the young officer whose name he did not know, Zhang Heng did not have to rx, because almost immediately after, two other men came charging at him. He only had time to take a few breaths before having to jump into the fight again.


    The pirates�� first wave of attack was very fierce. They followed the group of scattered British sailors onto the Scarborough so that the ny cannons of the Scarborough werepletely useless. Soon, however, they were left in a bitter fight.


    No matter how you put it, there were nearly 700 men on the Scarborough, whereas the pirates only had less than 200 men. Because they were so short-handed, even Marvin, a cook, had to participate in the battle. Marvin, still trembling, armed with a boarding axe, and charged with the group of pirates. But only halfway forward, he was already regretting it. Bullets were flying everywhere, and there was smoke all around him. The cries of pain, and the bodies sprawled all over the floor, the gushing blood��it was all a torture to his mind.


    He wanted to turn around and bolt but there were people all everywhere. He was so overwhelmed with fear that his mind froze. By the time he snapped back to reality, he was already standing on the deck of the Scarborough. Once on the ship, the pirates around him dispersed, searching for a prey. A moment after, something grabbed his leg and when he looked down, the farmer��s son realized that the hand belonged to a British sailor with a bullet in his chest. The man��s hand was covered in his own blood, and he was muttering something. Marvin fell to the ground, his boarding axended right next to him. He rolled and crawled to escape the hand; the only thought in his mind was to escape this purgatory.


    All around him people were fighting. Less than five feet away from him, a pirate who was shot six times, refused to go down. He waved the cuss in his hand, an angry determination in his eyes, until someone stabbed him in the abdomen. On the other side, an overwrought attempting to reload his gun had his hand cut off as he was reaching for the gunpower.


    Marvin could not look anymore. He lowered his head and continued to move on his hands and knees. He had only crawled a few steps when a hand grabbed him by the throat and lifted him off the ground. It was an extremely Herculean sailor. From the bloodstains on his uniform, Marvin could tell that he had fought pretty well today. The sailor looked up and grinned at the Marvin who was desperately trying to kick his way out with his short, chubby legs.


    The sailor pointed his saber at Marvin��s back, ready to go for the kill when blood suddenly exploded from his forehead. His towering body swayed and then finally dropped to the ground with a loud thud, motionless.


    Zhang Heng withdrew his pistol. He had just gotten rid of two enemies when he turned around and saw that Marvin was in trouble. He rescued the farmer��s son, and then quickly moved on to another side.


    The pirates had the absolute upper hand in the first round of meleebat. The musketeers had barely performed their duties when the enemies rushed in and ughtered them. The new recruits�� performance was especially terrible. They held the fort for only a while and already they began to flee, breaking the formation.


    Of course, the pirates took this opportunity to advance and butcher the enemy. In five minutes, the navy had suffered over a hundred casualties. But Zhang Heng knew that this was just a veneer. With Scarborough��s number, once they were able to secure their positions, it was only a matter of time before the pirates were defeated.


    Winning this uphill battle was going to be very difficult. The only way to do it was to kill themander of the ship.


    The morale of low-level sailors, especially the new recruits, were very unstable. Without someone directing them, they would easily crumble in the face of death.


    The person who shared Zhang Heng��s view was the man with a ck beard, who also happened to be the pirate who terrified the British sailors the most. The way he fought them, one too many, throwing himself into the enemy cluster to ughter them, spilling blood everywhere. Most impressive yet, all that killing did not seem to tire him at all. Later on, before he even made move, the sailors would flee at the sight of him. Many of them were so petrified by his violent demeanor that they abandoned their weapons and ran for their lives.


    Both Zhang Heng and ck Beard had their eyes on Elmer who was standing not far away, urging his men to bring him his saber. When the captain saw how bad the situation was, he said no more about rushing into the battle to fight the enemy but began to survey his surroundings, looking for a way to retreat to the level below and give up the deck.


    However, that would be an embarrassing to say aloud, and he had not made up his mind.


    The chief officer next to him who had been his partner for so long knew what he was thinking, of course. Elmer was hoping that the chief officer would take the initiative to make the proposal so that he could then reluctantly agree to the n. Frankly, the chief officer was just as shocked by the pirate��s performance. But, he was an experienced old man in Admiralty who had participated in the Battle of Vigo Bay and had fought hand-to-hand against the French��he was not going to be that easily frightened by a bunch of ferocious pirates.


    To him, even though the current situation did not look good for them, it was not exactly detrimental. He had already sent some men down to deploy the staff. They just had to hold out for a little while longer until the fresh troopes. Conversely, if they were to lose the deck before that, it was not going to be easy to get it back.


    In the end, he decided to say nothing.


    Next to him, Elmer was growing increasingly anxious. When he saw piratesing in their direction, he gave up saving his face, and said, ��I have to admit that we really underestimated the barbarians this time. We have a lot of casualties��we cannot continue like that. Does anyone have any ideas?��


    He said this while looking at the chief officer next to him. Thetter felt bitter inside but since the captain had spoken, he could not remain silent.


    This Lord Elmer before him might not be best person for his current position, and wasvish in his lifestyle. He was born of a distinguished family, and had good connections and resources. He was promoted quickly in the navy and was married to an even more powerful wife who was said to have friendly rtions with many powerful people��it would be no better to offend him than to be killed by a pirate.


    The chief mate weighed his options and decided that topromise. ��The situation is unfavorable to us. We need more manpower. We need someone down there to regte the navy...��


    Before he could even finish speaking, Elmer interrupted him. ��You��re right. Let��s not dy the matter. I��ll go down. You hold down the fort. I��ll bringe back with reinforcements as soon as possible.��


    With that, he hurried to the gangway with a team escorting him. Just as that was happening, a group of pirates came running towards them. Fortunately, the officers guarding Elmer were very experienced sailors. They reacted quickly, raised their guns and perforated the bodies of the two pirates in the front of the group with bullets. But it was during this dy that the most vicious killer caught up with Elmer and his men.

 Chapter 128 - Put Down Your Weapons!

    <h4>Chapter 128: Put Down Your Weapons!</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    This time, Elmer was really panicking��especially when after that man with a ck beard killed his two escorts, he cut off one of their heads. The blood-filled ball of flesh rolled up to Elmer��s feet. The Lord Elmer who had lived like a prince his whole life nearly threw up at the sight of the decapitated head. His remaining escorts, on the other hand, were beside themselves.


    Fortunately, the chief officer who immediately worked out the pirates were intent, responded quickly by sending a team of sailors to help. At the same time, the people on the lower level finally climbed up the gangnk.


    All at once, several sabers were pointed at the bearded man. Although ck Beard was bold and fierce, he was still human. In a circumstance as such, he could only carry on the fight while beating a retreat.


    The pirates had finally reached the most precarious juncture of the battle. If they let Elmer retreat to the second level, then their hope of ever winning this battle would be very slim. By this time, everyone was boosted with adrenaline shots��not just the navy, even the pirates came to support their allies. They somehow managed to force the enemies to retreat by fighting fiercely.


    Both sides engaged in a fierce battle toplete for the gangway exit. The bearded man took advantage of this opportunity, turning his attention Elmer who was standing on the other side, and led his men to push their forward a few times. In the end, however, the attempts were unsessful and he had more wounds added to his body.


    When the British sailor realized that the frightening figure was not invulnerable, their morale soared. The pirates guarding the exit of the ramp were taking on more and more damage.


    The scales were tipping.


    Zhang Heng used thest short musket on the enemy in front of him, and then took out the rifle gun from the oilcloth. Initially, he aimed his weapon at Elmer. From what he had observed since the beginning this guy was the captain of the ship. But just as he was about to pull the trigger, he hesitated.


    The situation they were in right now was not exactly what they had expected. Although Elmer was the highest-ranking person on the Scarborough, the person who had been directing the battle all the while was the chief officer on board. Getting rid of Elmer now might not mean that he had eliminated the head of the snake. The chief officer would take over themand of the battle and that was clearly not an ending that Zhang Heng wanted.


    There was not much time left for him to think. Hisrades could very well lose their position at the ramp. In the shortest time avable to him, Zhang Heng made a decision and shifted the muzzle.


    At first, the chief officer was also under protection. But when Elmer was in danger, he had to send nearly all of his armed men over to help, leaving himself with only three men. When he saw that Elmer was safe for the time being, he rxed a little. They just needed to hang in there for another two minutes, then the pirates blocking the ramp would all be killed, and the whole situation would turn around.


    The chief officer turned his attention to the ongoing battle on the other side,pletely unaware that he had be the target. And although the three sailors guarding were monitoring the surrounding, they were unsuspecting of the possibilities of dangersing from farther away.


    Having undergone Simone��s special training, the gun now felt like an extension of Zhang Heng��s own body. Once he was in the zone, his mind would automatically shield itself from any distractions. His whole person would bepletely still and calm like a reef by the shore. Zhang Heng took a deep breath and gently pulled the trigger with his forefinger.


    The guards had no idea what had just happened. All they knew was that the chief officer��s head suddenly snapped backwards and he fell to the ground. It was not until they saw the blood gushing from his head that they began to panic.


    Simultaneously, the voice of the system prompt spoke in his ear.


    [Sessfully killed a seniormander of the Royal Navy, +15 game points. You can refer to the character panel for more information.]


    The man with the ck beard was keenly aware of the fleeting chance for an attack, and swiftly led the six remaining pirates towards Elmer, ignoring his bleeding shoulder.


    The short muskets in their hands roared like thunders in the night.


    Now that they had lost theirmander, the British navy was inplete disorder. But the pirates themselves were also spent. The tug-of-war at the exit of the gangway was finally resolved and the British sailors on the second floor broke through the blockade and rushed to the deck.


    The addition of this new force was disastrous for the exhausted pirate. A look of relief and excitement washed over Elmer��s face but one minuteter the smile froze his lips.


    Thest escort who was standing in front of him fell to the ground, and he looking into a pair of wild, beast-like eyes.


    The moment the eyes looked back at him, Elmer felt as if he had fallen into an endless abyss and his blood and soul had beenpletely frozen.


    The owner of those eyes pressed a cuss at Elmer��s throat and said in a deep voice, ��Tell your men to surrender.��


    Lord Elmer was extremely unwilling. All they had to do was endure a little longer, maybe just another half a minute, and the whole situation would have been entirely different. The screams of the pirates ringing in his ears gave him so much pleasure.


    Elmer thought about his lineage and his family, and wanted to show some moral integrity. But when the de cut his skin, Elmer abandoned all courage and quickly gave orders to the sailors on the deck. ��Put down your weapons!��


    The sailors hesitated to obey the order. Elmer was furious. ��What do you think you��re doing? Are you going to disobey your captain��s orders?��


    The sailors exchanged looked. Unfortunately, the highest-ranking officer at the time was the captain alone, not enough to convince the crew. Finally, however, under Elmer��s influence, someone finally put down their weapon.


    And once someone started to do it, a few more followed.


    The man with the ck beard spoke, ��Your captain has already surrendered to me. I am willing to swear on my name that I will spare the lives of those who surrender.��


    Immediately, more people dropped their weapons. When the rest saw that they were on their own, they also gave in.


    In the end, the Sea Lion miraculously won the battle at the cost of 47 pirates�� lives, and 29 injured. Nearly everyone who survived were wounded. When they returned to their ship to be patched up after the battle, they found out that the doctor on board had died in the battle.


    Fortunately, the Scarborough also had doctors on board. The one with the best medical skills was forced to join the Sea Lion. Zhang Heng searched the faces around him, thinking that there was no way the farmer��s son could have survived this vicious battle, but when they were clearing up the battlefield, he found the guy behind a cannon, bleeding at the mouth and shaking like a leaf. Next to him was the body of a British sailor, the flesh on his throat bloody and mangled.

 Chapter 129 - Queen Anne’s Revenge

    <h4>Chapter 129: Queen Anne��s Revenge</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    The pirates pushed Zhang Heng to the military restaurant. During the war, Zhang Heng��s incredible shooting skill had managed to impress many, especially thest shot. It was enough to turn the tide around. That was why every single pirate now had massive respect for him. When the war was over, they wanted to head to the bar with him and drink with him. Even Marvin was asked to drink with them as well. They wanted to know how did he use his teeth to kill the soldier that attempted to kill him. All these while, Marvin was not a popr guy on the ship. After the war, the pirates on the Sea Lion changed the way they treated him. Marvin was ted when two pirates put their hands on his shoulders.


    While they were on their way to the restaurant, they crossed paths with Orff. For a moment, all of them were worried that Orff might reprimand them. After all, there were still a lot of things to do after the battle was over. Every pirate was tasked with a different task. Logically speaking, it was not the right time to head to the restaurant to have a drink to celebrate victory.


    To everyone��s surprise, Orff did not scold anyone. Instead, he nodded at Zhang Heng and said, ��Good job!��


    They then cheered for him and continued to head towards the restaurant. Orff told them to finish their task after the celebration. Unfortunately, no one paid attention to him. Few of those that heard him pretended they did not hear him. Orff shook his head and knocked at the captain��s door.


    ��Come in.��


    ��The prisoners are being transferred to the Sea Lion batch by batch with small boats. Owen is there helping with recruiting potential men that are willing to join us. Right now, we need someone that knows how to use the cannon on board. Considering that we now have 90 cannons. And, the guy is locked inside the carpenter��s room. To be honest with you, I thought you would kill him just now.��


    ��Do you really think that I��m the kind of person that can��t see the bigger picture?��


    The man with a ck beard was still wearing the coat that was tainted by blood during the war just now. His arm was bleeding, but he did not look for the doctor to treat his wound. It seemed like he did not mind blood wasing from the injury. He then took out two sses from the drawer and poured some red wine into them.


    ��The culprit of that incident is still alive. Aspared to him, Elmer is a nobody. We cannot stop just yet. Knowing Elmer is an aplice, I will make sure to make him pay for what he has done. I promise you.��


    Orff took the wine and continued the conversation.


    ��It��s been 14 years, and we are finally here. To be honest with you, I was thinking of giving up the whole thing for a few years. I thought all hope was lost. Right now, Belmont is thest person on the list. Our mission ising to an end soon. I��m not that young anymore. Once this thing is over, I��m nning to retire. I want to look for a ce with no people around me. I would love to do some fishing and gardening after I retire. How about you? What��s your n? Does Miss Agnes still write to you?��


    The man with a ck beard was left speechless.


    ��You and I should know better. Once we choose this patch, there��s no way for us to turn back. Isn��t that right? Orff. If civilization fails to bring me justice, I will use brute force to destroy it.��


    ��Haha. This is what you would say. Let me walk this final journey with you.��


    Orff lifted the ss, bottomed up the wine, and stood up.


    ��For now, the morale on our ship is quite good. The Frazer that I know is not going to give up this easily. That old bastard is like a venomous snake. He is now hiding from us. Once we show our weaknesses, he would not hesitate to bite us.��


    ��You are the helmsman of this ship. I��m pretty sure that you will help us to deal with this threat, right?��


    ��I will try my best. Just like before, you are in charge ofbat, and I will deal with the pirates on our ship. I can��t imagine what will happen to you if I leave this ship.��


    Orff shrugged and walked toward the door, and thought of something suddenly.


    ��Oh, right! I almost forgot an important matter. We should give this ship a new since it now belongs to us!��


    ��A name? Let��s call her Queen Anne��s Revenge.��


    1The ck beard man��s eyes were burning with passion, but his tone was extremely calm.


    ��Sounds good. I like the game. Enjoy the victory for now, Teach. I will deal with the rest of the matter.��


    1After that, Orff left the captain��s room and closed the door before him.


    .....


    Zhang Heng had lost count of how many sses of beer he had drunk. Luckily the alcohol content in that beer that he had drunk was not that high. Every single pirate was celebrating the miraculous victory. A total of 170 pirates had miraculously taken down a battleship with 700 hundred people on it. After the battle, they had captured a total of 400 people. No one would believe in it if they did not see it with their own eyes. A tale like this was enough to talk about it over and over again in a tavern. With this battleship, they could now dominate the sea. In other words, they could rob whoever they want with a 100% sess rate.


    Usually, pirates could never sit still. After they finished their drink, most of them wanted to check out this battleship. Through voting, they had decided to let Elmer��s band stay here. These poor musicians were forced to walk with the pirates and y the song of victory at the same time. Before this, they would y popr songs from the aristocrats. Unfortunately, all those pirates did not like those popr songs. This was not their first time being forced to y something fun and exciting. It was hard for the musicians to watch their works of art being tainted. However, when they saw the pirates waving their sabers in front of them, they knew that they had to put down their egos and do what they asked.


    ��I can��t imagine that we did it!��


    A cannoneer was touching a 24-pound cannon that was located on the second deck.


    ��With this thing, I can destroy everything thates in our way.��


    ��Be careful, Bill. Only a real man can handle such a big thing,�� said an old cannoneer.


    Immediately, everyoneughed at Bill.


    ��I can��t wait to shoot some ships with this cannon! Imagine the reaction of those merchant ships that cross paths with us. I��m starting to feel sorry for them.��


    ��Why did you guys stop ying the music? Did I ask you guys to stop?��


    ��I��m the one that asked them to stop.��


    Orff strolled towards the crowd slowly.

 Chapter 130 - Target

    <h4>Chapter 130: Target</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    ��I��m sorry. Did I interrupt your celebration?�� asked Orff.


    He then took a look around at all the pirates. A few pirates that stood close to Orff wanted to sneak away secretly.


    ��Don��t worry. I��m not here to reprimand you guys for not doing your job. After all, we have just won a huge battle. I just want to tell everyone that it��s my honor to fight alongside all of you. I think this is a good time for all of us to rx a while. Am I right?��


    Immediately, all the pirates let out a sigh of relief. The celebration carried on right after that. Some of them started to tease Orff about a young sailor that almostnded a shot at his private part.


    ��Just now I heard that someone mention wanting to do something big,�� said Orff with a smile on his face.


    ��Mr. Orff. All of us here want to know that when can we do something big enough to shake the whole world. With this ship, we can defeat all kinds of ships that go against us!��


    Owning a battleship like the Scarborough was every men��s dream. Some of the pirates were still injured, but the excitement that they had right now made them want to rob another ship right away.


    ��Great. Let��s test the firepower of the giant cannon,�� said Orff.


    ��Right now?��


    All the pirates around Orff were left baffled. The battle was over, and there was no target around them. How was he going to test the firepower of the cannon? Was he going to shoot it in the air?


    ��Who told you that we don��t have a target? Isn��t that our target?�� said Orff while pointing at the Sea Lion.


    All the captured British navy soldiers were transferred to Sea Lion earlier. Most of them were upset and felt lost. They still could not figure out how they lost the battle. It killed them for not knowing what was going to happen to them. Not only they lose the possession of the Scarborough, but many of the navy soldiers were also killed during the battle as well. Even their captain was being held hostage by their enemies. And, the enemies were just a group of pirates but not navy soldiers from other countries. Usually, they were the ones who went after them. This incident was one of the most embarrassing moments for the royal navy.


    Looking at the Scarborough, many of them started crying.


    On the other hand, the pirates that stood on the second deck of Queen Anne��s Revenge was left in silence. The world saw them as monsters and viins. They did not deny the saying. On the contrary, they were happy that this was how the world saw them because one had to be strong enough to survive on the sea. The storm was theirpanion whenever they set sail to loot other ships. Not only that, but they also had to face navy soldiers, reefs that were hidden under the sea, bounty hunters, and pirates. The weaker one would always be eliminated. Those that survived on the sea for a long time considered themselves as fearless warriors. Queen andws meant nothing to them. However, that did not mean that they do not have a principle.


    As men, they valued promises a lot. Earlier, their captain told the enemies that they would not kill them as long as they surrendered their weapon. Right now, Orff was trying to break the promise. He wanted to kill arge group of people that could no longer fight back. It was hard for the pirates to execute such a heartless decision.


    ��We have never done this before. Is this order directly from the captain?��


    ��Why would I fake an order?��


    ��ording to the rule, we are required to follow the captain��s orders 100% during the battle. Now that the battle is over, I think we should vote.��


    ��You are so damn na?ve! Do you know what they will do to us if we let them live? They will tell everyone that the Scarborough is in pirates�� possession. By that time, they would call for more people to attack us with more cannons! Once Bellomonte knows about this, he would definitely not travel to Charleston to attend her daughter��s wedding. If we miss the golden opportunity, it��s not going to be easy for us to capture such a high-value target anymore. This is the risk that we cannot take. The captain said that he would spare their lives because he wanted to stabilize the whole situation. Don��t you forget that. Our enemies outnumber us, and we are at a disadvantage. There were only 100 of us left just now, and we were exhausted. A strategy was what we need to force 400 armed navy soldiers to surrender to us. Everyone, please remember the end goal of this voyage. Without the treasure, why would we risk our lives to take over this battleship?!��


    Orff��s final sentence had managed to make every single pirate rethink their goal. In order to look for Kidd��s treasure, they had sacrificed a lot of things to get to where they are today. Right now, there was only one-third of them left. No one would be happy if the whole n went south.


    .......


    The small boat made ast trip to send the captured prisoners to Sea Lion. The pirates on the Sea Lion tossed down stairs that were made of rope to allow the prisoners to get on Sea Lion. All the captured prisoners felt extremely lucky that they were still alive. Though they had lost the battle, they knew that hope was always there as long as they were still breathing. In a circumstance like this, the hierarchy system in the navy did not really matter anymore. The quartermaster was distributing the biscuits with worm to all the captured prisoners. And the captain room was reserved for those that suffered severe injuries during the battle. Suddenly, the crowd was left in a panic. They saw the cannon from the Scarborough aimed at them��like a sea monster ready to devour them.


    ��Oh, god!��


    The basket in the quartermaster��s hand dropped on the floor, and the biscuits were scattered everywhere. His mouth was wide opened, and his eyes were filled with despair. At the same time, panic and fear spread to everyone on Sea Lion like a deadly virus. Their survival instinct told them to run, but there was no ce for them to run. Those that could still stay calm went to release the mainsail, but it was all toote. They knew precisely how far the cannon could shoot.


    Edward Teach was standing in the captain��s quarter and witnessed the Sea Lion being engulfed by fire. After five minutes of continuous shooting, the Sea Lion ceased to exist, and the sea was covered in mes. Only a broken mast could be seen, and it was carried away by the wave.


    ��Too bad. Your god is not with you today.��

 Chapter 131 - Revenge Trip

    <h4>Chapter 131: Revenge Trip</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    Zhang Heng stood on the deck, watching the fire burning on the sea. Though he had been through wars, he still found it hard to watch someonemit a massacre. Using cannons to execute a group of surrendered navy personnel and killing them amid battle were twopletely different things.


    Considering that this vessel was under the leadership of Orff and Teach and that this matter had everything to do with everyone��s money, Zhang Heng knew that he was powerless to change anything even if he voiced out his opinion.


    When he was in Find, Simone was there to keep himpany. Right now, all he had was Marvin. This time, Marvin did not panic as he used to. On the contrary, he was d that every single enemy was dead.


    ��It��s pointless for you even though they are all dead. You do realize that your pictures are all over the harbor, right? Everyone knows you��re a pirate.��


    ��I��m so done. I heard there is a simr punishment for every pirate in every country except for Nassau. The crime is punishable by death once they confirm that you are a pirate. I won��t be able to inherit my father��s farm if I��m dead! Am I destined to be the chef on a pirate ship forever and ever?�� eximed an upset Marvin.


    Be that as it may, he was all cheery again after a while.


    ��Luckily, I still have Kidd��s treasure. As long as I can get my hands on it, I could have a good life in Nassau, even though I can��t return to the civilized part of the world. I don��t have to risk my life at sea ever again! Perhaps I could even marry a couple of beautiful wives too.��


    Zhang Heng did not want to shatter his dream, saying nothing after that. Looking at the sunken ship, Zhang Heng slowly figured out an answer to one of his questions. He realized that Kidd��s treasure might simply be a tool that Orff used to manipte the pirates. He had his own agenda. What Zhang Heng still could not figure out was the reason behind Orff convincing the pirates to go against the navy. He would not benefit from such a reckless venture.


    The story of Orff ughtering 400 navy sailors might be for the purpose of building confidence in his abilities. Zhang Heng could see Vengeance in Orff��s gaze when he pulled the trigger. He finally understood that Orff and the captain��s target had always been the navy. Under normal circumstances, pirates stayed away from the navy, where none would be stupid enough to take on such a risky endeavor.


    The six separate pieces of treasure map had be the trojan horse that Orff used in convincing the pirates to attack whichever enemy he desired. Unfortunately, no one on board realized that the captain and helmsman were not bringing them for a treasure hunt, but rather, a trip of vengeance and personal vendetta.


    Nevertheless, these were all deductions. For now, Zhang Heng could not find substantial evidence to support his stand. Everyone Queen Anne��s Revenge was like Marvin; they were excited about getting a share of the treasure that they were about to find. Considering they had sacrificed a lot to get to where they were today, nothing could move them even if they suspected something was off. One had to say that Orff was really good at what he did.


    As for now, everything was under his control. He was so close topleting his agenda.


    He was on the victoryp, and his senses were on high alert right now. At this crucial point, he would never allow anyone to spoil his n. When the smoke and mes finally cleared, the sun had disappeared below the horizon as well. Standing beside the gunwale, Zhang Heng could feel somethinging. He then turned around and looked at the boatswain standing beside the mast. Both of them exchanged nces, with Orff nodding to them as well.


    ��A storm ising. Can you please check the mainsail?��


    ��Alright.��


    Zhang Heng agreed without any hesitation. Swiftly, he passed all the weapons in his possession to Marvin. As Orff stared at him, he climbed up the mast. Within minutes, Zhang Heng had already reached the top.


    ��Everything is fine,�� said Zhang Heng to the boatswain.


    Initially, Orff thought Zhang Heng knew his secret, which exined why he was cautious about him. Since Zhang Heng was in charge of maneuvering the mainsail, it was easy for Orff to make his death seem like an ident. He just needed to mess around with the ropes on top of the mast, and Zhang Heng would surely fall to his death.


    However, Orff did not know that Zhang Heng had Shadow Moment. Zhang Heng figured that if he could enter his shadow state the moment he fell, he should be able to be spared from injuries.


    With that in mind, he was not worried that Orff might kill him as he ascended the tall structure. When Orff dealt with Goodwin, Zhang Heng noticed that he would always create a high-stress environment to observe the reaction of his target. Zhang Heng could also confirm that his response managed to baffle Orff.


    ��Thank you for your hard work. I��m pretty sure Rothko is proud of you.��


    Orff did not notice anything out of the ordinary with Zhang Heng. So, he thanked him and went to check other ces. As for Marvin, he saw that there was nothing wrong with the two of them.


    Zhang Heng did not rush down from the mast. At first, he wanted to learn to control the mainsail from Rothko because he predicted it would be an essential skill as a captain. After a while, though, he learned how to like this job. When he was at the top of the mast, he would enjoy the spectacr view mother nature presented in front of him.


    It had been 11 months now since Zhang Heng entered this world. Apart from the game points he earned and the new skills he learned, his skin was now a bronze tan due to the constant exposure under the sun. His palms had grown calluses, having to climb up the rough wooden mast every day using a rope. Most importantly, he had gotten used to this lifestyle.


    He noticed that the ocean in the 18th century was way more mysterious and magnificent whenpared to the ones in the modern world. New adventures and impossible challenges awaited Zhang Heng in this world, although itcked in many areas. Right now, he was ready to be a captain. Before that, he had to stay at the Queen Anne��s Revenge for at least another month.


    And indeed, this month was not going to be peaceful and calm.


    Orff��s revenge n wasing to its final stage. On the other hand, Frazer still did nothing about it. That did not mean people on this ship had forgotten about him, as Zhang Heng knew that there was more than one eye on this ship besides Kent the carpenter.


    In the end, they would cross paths at Charleston to end the whole thing. In times like these, it was dangerous for Zhang Heng to be stuck in the middle. On the bright side, it could be a golden opportunity for him.

 Chapter 132 - Burial at Sea

    <h4>Chapter 132: Burial at Sea</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    On the second morning, every pirate was asked to gather on the deck. Those who were injured and tasked with assignments were exceptions. That included the captain, Edward Teach, and the helmsman, Orff. A solemn expression adorned the faces of all present. In total, 47 pirates had been killed in battle, with 29 suffering severe injuries, and seven diedst night. There was a good chance the remaining 22 wouldn��t it till tomorrow.


    All the pirates on deck knew too well that the path that they chose would be smothered by blood and flesh. Though they were well prepared, they still grieved for their mates who left them. Marvin��s eyes welled with tears as well. They were not shed for the dead pirates but he was simply sad that someday, he too might end up like them. The wind traversing the ocean battered the mainsail with distinct ps. Everyone on deck remained silent.


    ��Let��s begin,�� proimed Edward Teach as he nodded his head.


    Four pirates moved the dead who were covered in white cloth to the gunwale. Orff then started to spell out the names of the dead pirates. Once a name was spoken, their body would be tossed into the ocean. The dead spent years out at sea, and naturally, their final resting ce would be the ocean. When thest body wasmitted to the sea, Orff closed the name list.


    ��I pray that Thetis, Goddess of Ocean, would guide your souls forever. Farewell, my brave friends.��


    After that, Orff tossed a bag of salt into the ocean toplete the ritual, with Edward Teach returning to the captain��s quarters once the bag sank down. The moment the captain was gone, the pirates on the deck finally let out a sigh of relief.


    Most pirates had mixed feelings towards the captain. No doubt, he was fearless when he was in battle, the worst nightmare for his enemies. On the other hand, they also felt tremendous pressure each time they were in the same room with him. They were afraid of him but respected him a great deal at the same time. Luckily, he didn��t usually join them. Most of the time, he hunkered down in his own quarters, away from the crew. Orff was the one who ryed his messages to the pirates.


    ��We have lost countless of our own during thest battle. Some positions on the ship are now vacant. I��m sorry for what happened to our old Michael. We need a leader for the boatswain position. Since we are all here now, let��s vote!��


    ��Zhang Heng! Zhang Heng! Zhang Heng!��


    Before Orff could even finish his sentence, the pirates started to shout the name out loud.


    ��It appears we all agree that Zhang Heng is best suited for this position.��


    Orff then nodded at Zhang Heng and said, ��Congrattions, you are now the leader of the boatswains on this ship. Lead us to the treasure! Next, we need some frontliners! 20 positions are avable...��


    Zhang Heng wasn��t surprised by the oue as well. The previous boatswain��s leader had worked only two months before a bullet hit him. Zhang Heng��s vote count came only second to Michael, and he had performed exceptionally well during the previous battle as well. Naturally, the pirates on board would vote for him again. Thoughbat power had nothing do with the boatswain��s leader, that was just the way pirates thought. Usually, there were two types who could win over their votes. The first kind got voted because they truly deserved it. As for the second type, they voted for them because they wanted to. Most of the time, the second scenario would win the person more votes.


    If they could think logically, none of them would abandon their life to be a pirate. Besides, Zhang Heng was Rothko��s only disciple, and he was good at what he did. All things considered, Zhang Heng truly deserved the vote.


    After he was appointed the boatswain��s leader, the system awarded him with another five game-points, though he had no idea if this was a good or bad thing. He would be leaving the ship in a month and didn��t mind if he didn��t be a leader of any position. Noticing that the election went so smoothly, it proved that he had quite an influence on the vessel. Sadly, this could have been the very reason why Orff saw him as a significant threat on this ship.


    To Zhang Heng��s surprise, another person had looked for him before Orff. During lunchtime, a limp old pirate sat right opposite him.


    ��Are you a man of faith?��


    ��What do you mean by that?��


    ��Don��t misunderstand my intention. I��m just trying to give you a good reminder. Under the leadership of Teach and Orff, whatever happened this morning will continue to happen. Eventually, we will all die on this ship. I��m right, am I not? The residents of Nassau would usually use the Thetis ritual to send away the dead. They believe that their souls would travel the deeper parts of the ocean. If you have somece you wish to go, I think you should tell Frazer. After all, all these things have something to do with personal freedom. Of course, that includes the freedom of religion.��


    ��There had been only one exception since I joined this ship. That kid was an va from Saint Vincent. ording to the culture of their tribe, they would usually devour their dead. va believes that the ritual allows them to stay with their loved ones forever and ever. We feared that he would die someday. Unfortunately, his right leg was shot during one of the raids, leading to its amputation. In the end, he did not survive the surgery. So, we are all voting to break his tradition. We chose not to devour him. Oh, right. Let me introduce myself to you. I��m Kent, cannoneer of this ship.��


    ��Cannoneer?��


    ��I know that everyone prefers to call me the carpenter. I would use a saw to slice an enemy into half during a battle. That��s how I got this nickname.��


    Suddenly, Kent lowered his voice and looked around cautiously.


    ��This is not a good ce to talk. Orff is watching us. We need to talk. Come look for in the carpenter��s quarters on the second floor.��


    Zhang Heng did not say a single word after that.


    ��Did you know, a lot of pirates on this ship are rted to Frazer? Why is Orff so cautious of you? Frazer will never simply get a debt collector without a good reason. Throughout the many years, Frazer had only two debt collectors working for him. You and the only other being our captain. In other words, both of you are his disciples.��


    ��Edward Teach used to collect debts for Frazer?!��


    ��Yes. Frazer groomed him to be captain, hoping that he would take his ce someday. Unfortunately, Teach conspired with Orff to betray him in the end. Right now, you are in grave danger, and I��m the only one who can help you!��

 Chapter 133 - I Have a Question

    <h4>Chapter 133: I Have a Question</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    ��What did he say?��


    Orff poured a ss of rum for the old pirate sitting in front of the wooden table.


    ��He told me that he��s pretty satisfied with the current situation. He also said that he did not sense any danger,�� said the old pirate as he stared at the tall figure standing in front of him.


    ��Does he know that you work for Frazer?��


    ��Before we set sail, Frazer dide and look for me. He told me about Zhang Heng, and he said that Zhang Heng would talk to me on the ship. Considering that we��ve left the harbor for some time now, he still hasn��t looked for me yet. So, I did what you asked me to do. I looked for him and talked to him instead. It seems like... he doesn��t care about a single thing in this world.��


    ��How about the others?��


    ��Billy and y are unhappy with how you treat Goodwin. Clifton and a few other pirates are disappointed that the captain went back on his word and killing all the captured prisoners. All of them do no work for Frazer.��


    ��Don��t worry. I won��t harm them in any way. I just want to have a better understanding of the ship��s current situation. You did a good job. Keep it up, and don��t ever allow Frazer to grow suspicious of you.��


    Once the old pirate left, the person sitting in the shadows finally spoke.


    ��What makes you think that Frazer has another disciple?��


    ��I got to know him really well after working as a helmsman under his leadership for a long time. Undeniably, he is getting older and older, so he wouldn��t have the courage even if he wants his revenge. He also knows that I have been keeping my eye on him all these years. He��s running out of options. That��s why he waspelled to ce his hopes on someone else.��


    ��Are you talking about the young man named Zhang Heng?��


    ��I can see the younger you in him. Even if things don��t go his way, he remains resolute and courageous. It seems like Frazer has put in a lot of effort into grooming him. Judging by Frazer��s personality, I��m pretty sure he will not make any pointless investments. I can tell you that he is the key person in Frazer��s n. Right now, I still can��t figure out his role in it. At our current speed, I believe we should reach Charleston in around two weeks. There is not much time left for us...��


    ��Orff, you are the best helmsman in the entire Caribbean, but you have a terrible habit. You tend to overthink. Right now, this ship is under our control. You don��t need to figure out Frazer��s n. If someone causes problems for you on this ship, write down their names. We will deal with them before we reach Charleston.��


    .......


    Zhang Heng was getting two pirates to fix the broken mainsail. It had been more than ten days since Kent talked to him in secret. Everything sailed smoothly so far. Orff and Frazer had not done anything out of the ordinary yet. The most recent incident of interest on the ship was a pirate trying to have sex with a goat. In the end, he was caught red-handed by the patrol team and was given a whipping as punishment. This incident had be the talk of the vessel ofte.


    Still, the one thing that everyone cared about was Kidd��s treasure. Soon, Charleston and Queen Anne��s Revenge drew closer, and so did the 5th and 6th piece of the treasure map. Tomorrow��s operation had most of the pirates in an excited frenzy. Considering that they had only robbed merchant ships before, this was their very first time leading an entire battleship to a trade port and looting the whole colony. The 90 cannons on the Queen Anne��s Revenge was their trump card in a raid like that.


    That evening, Orff gathered everyone together and announced the n for tomorrow.


    ��First, we will disguise as Scarborough to enter the trading port. After that, I will send someone to sneak into the town. Regarding this matter, I think Elmer, the one currently in prison, is more than happy to help us. After that, I will bring 30 men with me to head to the governor general��s house. That��s where the wedding will take ce. Our target, Bellomonte, will be waiting for us over there. The rest of the 20 people will follow Owen to the prison in town. The others will stay on board and await further instructions.


    ��We will all attack together at eight tomorrow. First, we deal with the cannons mounted on the city wall. After that, we will aim at the city center. During that time, Owen will lead his people to the prison. He will then release all the prisoners to create chaos. This will distract the guards, and they will try to deal with it. Lastly, the captain will lead the attack on the governor general��s house. Once we capture Bellomonte, we will need to return to the ship immediately. All clear? Any questions?


    ��I have a question. Two nights ago, I saw Billy returning, and he looked extremely nervous. During that time, I was lying on my bed, so I believe he didn��t notice me. I saw him hiding something under the wooden floor,�� reported one of the pirates.


    Zhang Heng knew that the drama he had awaited was about to unfold in front of him. At first, they did not pay too much attention to it, thinking Billy simply stole some food and hid them under the wooden floor. Though thievery was strictly prohibited on the ship, many pirates would often raid the kitchen in search of ate-night ck. That was why theyughed it off when it came to him.


    Soon, they noticed that Billy was up to no good. So, Owen brought a few pirates with him to unveil the stuff he was hiding. It was a piece of paper with some words written on it.


    ��Yes. That paper belongs to me. We suspect that the captain and helmsman are trying to use the treasure as an excuse to convince us to help them to achieve their agenda. So...��


    Billy seemed to struggle at first, but in the end, he decided to tell them everything.


    ��Is that why you looked for Elmer when everyone was asleep? You wanted to let him go in exchange for immunity, right,�� scoffed Orff.


    ��What? What the hell are you talking about? That paper contains the questions that we want to ask you face to face!��


    ��This means either one of us is lying here.��


    Orff then passed the paper to Owen.


    ��Tell me, am I reading those words wrong?��


    ��...I, Elmer Anderson, am the captain of the Scarborough. We came across a group of savage pirates on the sea, and they took over our battleship. Luckily, I was helped by someone on the ship. I��m willing to use my family��s influence to provide immunity...��


    Everyone was left in shock after hearing what was on the paper. Treason was something that no pirate would forgive. Billy was shaking in fear. At that moment, he realized that he��d been led into a snare. The worst part was that he admitted that the paper belonged to him. Though he tried his best to defend himself, it was toote. After that, Owen ced the paper beside him to let everyone take a look. Most had no idea how to read, and of course, they would rather believe Owen than Billy.


    Suddenly, Zhang Heng heard someone mentioning his name. He had to keep calm in moments like this. He had done everything he could in such a situation. It was time for him to put on a good show. If everything went smoothly, this would turn out to be his most fruitful journey ever.

 Chapter 134 - Massive Fire

    <h4>Chapter 134: Massive Fire</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    There were a total of seven names on the list. Other than Zhang Heng, the rest of them were the old pirates that used toin to Kent about the captain and helmsman.


    All of them used to work under Frazer. There were basically two parties on the ship when Oven announced their names. While one party wanted them executed, the other said that they should be exiled. Amid the argument, Billy insisted that the paper had been swapped out by someone. Unfortunately, the war was nigh, and they had no time to investigate the case. In the end, Orff decided to lock them up in the ship��s brig. An investigation would be carried out tomorrow when the war was over.


    When Oven mentioned the name, Zhang Heng, Marvin started to move away from Zhang Heng slowly. Zhang Heng, however, was not angry knowing that this was who he is. At the moment, a total of 17 pirates were being held in the ship��s brig.


    On the afternoon of the second day, all the pirates on the ship changed into the navy��s uniform. Elmer, the original captain of the Scarborough, was brought out of solitary confinement. After being locked away all alone in the dark for a month, Elmer had deteriorated, and had rly be frail and thin. His beard was unkempt, and his uniform torn and dirty. He could not help but squint when he caught a glimpse of the sunlight.


    ��Do you remember everything that I taught you?�� asked Orff.


    ��I��m the captain of the Scarborough. My name is Elmer Anderson. Our vessel braved a mighty storm a month after we left the port. So, I decided to return here for repairs. I��ve also heard that the daughter of the general governor of New York, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire is going to have her wedding here. So, I bought my people along to celebrate the happy event.��


    After a short pause, Elmer added, ��You know, listening to me will save you a lot of trouble. In the New World, everyone knows the Scarborough. No one dares question us. Plus, I have known Bellomonte for a long time.��


    ��I know the two of you have known each other for a long time. Don��t worry. You can be with him soon.��


    Elmer thought that Orff was trying to tell him that they would capture Bellomonte and put the two of them together. It turned into a rather awkward moment. After all, Elmer was about to betray Bellomonte. Friendship became nothing when his life was at stake. Besides, Orff did promise him that he would let him go if he was willing to cooperate.


    ��Bring him down and shower him. I want him in a new and clean uniform. After all, he is the captain of the Scarborough.


    ��It��s time.��


    Orff opened the door of the captain��s quarters and looked at the man behind the table. Teach lookedpletely different now. A ck tricorne was on his head. He also wore a red jacket, a leather belt, and he had even shaved away his signature ck beard. A terrifying pirate had now turned into a respectable navy captain.


    ��How many years has it been? I thought I would never get to see you wear this uniform.��


    ��It��s all in the name of forgetting bad things,�� said Edward Teach while grabbing his sword and gun.


    ��Until now, I��m still doubtful whether we are doing the right thing or not. If he is still alive, I don��t think he wants to see what you have be.��


    ��You better reminisce now if you want to. I��m about to clear all the old debts.��


    ...


    50 pirates gathered at the deck. Owen was shocked when he saw Teach exiting the captain��s quarters.


    ��I have chosen the right people for the task. These are our best men!��


    Teach lifted his gaze to the sun that was setting below the horizon. Turning to Elmer, he said, ��Let��s go.��


    Orff stood at the dock and watched the 50 pirates disembark the ship. Just like what Elmer said, nobody was inspecting them when they came off the Scarborough. Soon, they managed to slip into town without raising suspicion.


    When they were finally gone, Orff left the deck. He knew that the war had now officially begun, and it was time for him to y his role well.


    It was in thete of night. Orff was in the captain��s quarters alone, looking at the clock in front of him. There was still half an hour to go before he would do what was needed to be done. As usual, he meticulously reyed the n in his mind over and over again to ensure nothing would go wrongter. Still, there was an unsettling feeling rumbling within his chest.


    Secondster, he could see a massive fire burning in Charleston. Orff was terrified, instantly realizing that something had gone wrong. The fire was not supposed to happen now. ording to the n, he should have first fired the Queen Anne��s cannons at the center of the town to create panic and chaos. Had something forced them to act thirty minutes early? The pirates standing on the deck saw the raging fires as well.


    ��Mr. Orff. What should we do now? Should we open fire to support them?��


    Orff was trying to figure out what to do as well. If this fire had nothing to do with them, firing the cannons right now would cause the 50 pirates a lot of unnecessary trouble.


    ��Everyone. Await my orders!��


    Suddenly, an observant pirate saw a few navy personnel running towards the boats docked at the port. They then started to row towards the Queen Anne��s Revenge as fast as their arms could swing the oars.


    ��They are with us!��


    When they saw the signal given out by them, some pirates immediately dropped thedder for them to board the ship. Owen was leading the group of returning pirates. There were only 12 left, and they were covered in blood. Owen��s stomach was wrapped in bandages as well.


    ��We have failed! Elder has somehowmunicated with the garrison troops in the city! We were ambushed! That��s why we had to disperse and run for our lives.��


    ��Where is the captain?��


    ��The captain... he is the first who noticed something had gone wrong. He shot Elder to death, but he was hit by six bullets after that. I��m sorry I failed to retrieve his body,�� said Owen, his voice filled with mncholy.


    All 11 pirates behind him instantly became somber as they were reminded of what had just taken ce.


    ��Mr. Off, I think you should take charge since the captain is not here. We can��t drag this on any longer. The garrison troops in the city know that we have the Scarborough. They will fire their cannons on us mighty soon. Capturing Bellomonta has be a big failure. There��s no reason for us to fight with them. We should flee now!��

 Chapter 135 - I’d Like to Hear the Details.

    <h4>Chapter 135: I��d Like to Hear the Details.</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    In the darkness of the night, a wave of uncertainty bathed over Orff. This was not how he imagined it to be.


    He had been plotting revenge for fourteen years. After all the sacrifices he made... for it to end so abruptly like this... it was like a cruel joke. If Teach was still around, he might even consider abandoning this expedition and simply wait for the next opportunity.


    Now that he was the only one left, Orff was uncertain if he was still able to continue down this road. He was way past his prime and getting older every day. His skills were deteriorating, and while time brought with it experience and wisdom, it could not make up for his lost youth. These days, every night, his back and legs would ache in his sleep. Every fight of his was getting more and more strenuous, and his wounds took a much longer time to heal as well.


    He did not know if or when he would be presented with a chance like this ever again �C tonight was as best of an opportunity as he could get.


    Although Teach had lost, the battle was not over yet. He still had the Queen Anne��s Revenge, loaded to the brim with 90 cannons and aplement of nearly 70 sailors. If managed well, they might still have a chance.


    The problem was that once the news about what happened on the shore spread throughout the ship, the pirates on board would surely unanimously demand that they set sail immediately.


    Fortunately, the only ones who knew about the matter were Owen and the eleven men he brought back. As per Orff��s instructions, most of the pirates were on the ready by the cannons on the second deck. The few pirates on the first deck were some of Orff��s most trusted men.


    The helmsman was silent for some time. Then he said to one of the pirates, ��Go and tell the people down there that everything is as usual, and tell them to get prepared as per the original n, and then, to wait patiently.��


    Owen, who was still pressing a hand against his abdomen, looked to be startled. ��Mr. Orff, as the boatswain of this ship, I cannot turn a blind eye to you trying to deceive the crew.��


    Orff looked around at the others and said, ��Will you give us a minute?�� He then turned to Owen, reached out, and said, ��How are you doing? Can you get up? Let��s go talk in the captain��s cabin. I need to know the details of what happened before we can make a final decision.��


    Owen hesitated for a second but eventually got to his feet with the help of the old helmsman.


    The two men arrived at the captain��s cabin. Orff closed the door and moved a chair over for Owen to sit. Once they were both settled down, he said, ��When and where were you attacked?��


    ��What��s the point of discussing this now?�� Owen smiled bitterly, but he answered the old helmsman��s question. ��The battle started about twenty minutes ago. We were only a street away from the governor general��s House Inn. We were basically retreating as we fought. To escape, we even set a guest house on fire!��


    ��You said that Elmer was killed instantly, which meant no one else knew what your actual purpose was,�� Orff muttered as he was deep in thought. ��The wedding ceremony will surely be postponed because of this, and Bellomonte wouldn��t have escaped. The garrison will attack us soon enough. We should fight back first, give them a taste of something sweet, and once we have the attention of all the defending troops, we��ll send twenty men�Cno, fifteen should be enough�Cto the city to search for Bellomonte.��


    ��I��m afraid you��re a little irrational right now. We��ve already lost. We don��t have enough manpower on this ship to carry out that n. Also, even if, under the premise that we��re able to attract the defending troops, and if we can gather 15 people, there��s still no one suitable to lead them,�� said Owen as he shook his head.


    ��I��ll do it.��


    ��What?��


    ��I said that I��ll lead them,�� dered Orff with confidence. ��Why? You think I��m too old to get back on the battlefield?��


    ��I hope that you will be as wise as you were, and not act out of impulse and adrenaline, lest you might drag the ship into more dangerous situations,�� Owen said. ��What we need to do now is to ept defeat and leave this ce, not continue to raise our stakes in a hopeless situation.��


    ��Interesting,�� Orff suddenlymented. ��This is the third time in five minutes that you��re saying we have lost.��


    The boatswain��s brows furrowed. ��Isn��t that typical? If you didn��t keep throwing caution to the wind, pestering me to go along with your crazy n, I wouldn��t keep repeating that.��


    Orff ignored the remark and continued, ��From the moment you set foot inside the room, you��ve nced at the clock at least four times. Why? Are you in a hurry?��


    Owen answered feebly, ��I can understand how you��re feeling after tonight��s failure. I saw the captain being shot with my own eyes. Right now, I am just as grief-stricken as you are, but suspicion is not going to help us get through the difficulties we��re facing. The sooner we leave this ce, the smaller the loss we��ll suffer.��


    ��Perhaps you��ll allow me to guess why you��re in such a hurry,�� Orff answered squarely. ��Could it be that if we wait a little longer, we��ll find out that there are actually no troops chasing you? Or should I say that you��re worried that the captain mighte back soon and expose your deceitfulness?��


    The helpless smile on Owen��s lips faded away. This time, he said nothing.


    ��I��ve known you for so long, but this is the first time I��m noticing your excellent acting skills,�� Orff jibed. ��I have to admit�CI nearly fell for it. Would you like to know how you gave yourself away?��


    Owen raised an eyebrow. ��Sure, let��s hear it.��


    ��I��ve seen that name list that youpiled for the advance team. You said you were with Teach when the battle started, but the eleven men you came back with were all from your own team. None of them were from Teach��s team. That��s just too much of a coincidence.��


    Orff paused for a moment to let it sink in before continuing, ��Your n for tonight is almost perfect. When the advance team arrived on the shore, they werepletely disconnected from the ship. After your team and Teach��s split up, you immediately faked evidence of a battle, killed the men who didn��t belong to your group, thene back covered in blood with the sad-sob story about how our mission has failed. Most people would believe you without question. You knew how the crew would react if they heard this�Cthey would choose to leave this ce. That way, you can easily get rid of the ship��s biggest threat, like blowing off a cloud of dust.��


    ��But with Teach gone, you are the most popr candidate for captain. Why would I go through all that effort so that you can rece Teach as Captain? That��s not very worth my while, isn��t it?�� retorted Owen.


    ��Me? No, no. I��ve never been a threat to you. The failure of tonight��s mission will lead to a series of events. With so many casualties, someone must be held responsible. If you��re not stupid, you will use this to challenge me. When that happens, I won��t even be a helmsman, let alone be the captain.��

 Chapter 136 - Working together

    <h4>Chapter 136: Working together</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    ��No wonder Frazer kept saying that you��re the most difficult person to deal with on the ship,�� Owen growled. ��But you still lost this one.�� He suddenly straightened his body, no longer in the injured state he so desperately yed. ��What a pity. If it were not for the situation deteriorating to such a new low... you must know, I did not intend to use this approach.��


    Owen stomped his feet, and immediately, noises of people fighting could be heard outside the captain��s cabin.


    The boatswain grinned. ��You really thought that I didn��t have a backup n, huh? Edward Teach is not here right now. When he left the boat, he brought with him the majority of the people who pledged their loyalty to the two of you. Even though there are only a few men left on the boat, the only ones willing to obey your orders unconditionally are the five men on the deck. I have eleven men. After we��ve gotten rid of them, we��ll kill you too. My story will still work. It just needs a little tweaking here and there, and I will need to add an ending. What do you think about this version: Orff wanted to keep the bad news about what happened on the shore to protect his position, so he tried to kill us but was tragically killed instead?��


    The fighting outside ended sooner than expected, fizzling out while the two were talking.


    As soon as Owen had spoken, the door to the captain��s cabin swung open. His two men were standing at the doorway, but there was not a trace of triumph on their faces. Instead, a mixture of fear and disbelief were clearly disyed.


    That was thanks to the two blunderbusses pointed at the back of their heads.


    This time, it was Owen��s face that showed a tint of despair. He knew thebat abilities of his men very well. It was eleven against five, and it all happened all of a sudden. There was no way they could lose.


    It was Orff��s turn to speak up this time. ��You are brilliant... one of the smartest I��ve seen in this lifetime of mine. All these years on the ship, you��ve never once let it slip. In fact, you even studied the strengths and weaknesses of our close associates. You waited until Teach left the ship, and only acted when we were at our weakest. You almost won. Unfortunately, you forgot someone.��


    Zhang Heng stepped through the door and reced the saber at his waist. The men who came in with him were the group of sailors that were the prisoners of the ship. Together, they detained Owen and eleven of his men.


    ��It��s you! How is this possible?!�� gasped Owen in disbelief. ��You guys are Orff��s people? Wait, everything that happenedst night�Cwas that all just an act? There was really no note?��


    ��No, but there was actually a piece of paper that drew us together,�� replied Zhang Heng replied.


    ��Billy and the others were anxious about Orff��s and Teach��s leadership on this ship�Cthat includes the handling of Goodwin, all the casualties, and the extreme obsession over Kidd��s treasure. They wrote down every question they wanted to ask Orff on a note and signed their names on it. They were getting ready to confront the captain and the helmsman, but before they could do anything, someone betrayed them. Kent, one of the organizers, is very close to Frazer but had, in fact, sided with Orff.


    ��On the surface, Kent followed Frazer��s instructions and united all who opposed Orff and Teach. He encouraged them to challenge the authority of the captain and the helmsman. But behind the scenes, Kent reported all the activities of Billy��s group to Orff. After I discovered the role that Kent has been ying, I understood the conundrum that had been bugging me. Back in Nassau, Frazer came to visit me and gave me Kent��s name. That was when I knew that Kent was not one his people...��


    Owen��s eyebrows rose. ��Oh?��


    ��Frazer wanted to expose Orff. The truth is, it was not only Orff who didn��t realize my role in this matter. In the beginning, even I myself couldn��t guess what Frazer had nned for me. He invested a lot in me but had never asked for anything in return. It made me really curious. If I didn��t y ording to his script, wouldn��t that be a waste of all his resources? However, I figured it outter on that Frazer did not care how I yed his game. He simply needed someone to catch Orff��s attention.��


    ��In a way, Billy and the others, and I serve the same purpose�Cto divert attention, lower Orff��s guard, and create an opportunity for you. The only thing was, my rtionship with Frazer was more conspicuous. So, to take Orff and Teach down, Frazer took in another student. Too bad that person was you, not me.��


    Zhang Heng took in a deep breath before continuing. ��Let��s talk about the note. That actually happened three days ago. Under Kent��s persuasion, Bill and the others wrote that note. When Orff found out about it, he made Elmer write that thank-you letter that you read to frame Billy and the others. If things had gone ordingly, this should��ve spilled over three days ago.��


    ��Why didn��t it then?��


    ��Because I stopped it,�� Zhang Heng answered without hesitation. ��To tell you the truth, I really didn��t want any part of this enmity between you, and Orff and Teach. But Frazer crossed the line. Not only did he use me, but he even made me the scapegoat! I had no choice but set a trap for him.��


    ��So, you decided to join forces with Orff at that time?��


    ��Taking into ount the distrust between us, it was not an easy task, but we still made an effort to have an open and honest discourse. Although the process was somewhat difficult, we were still able to reach a consensus in the end.��


    ��What do you want, eh? Maybe I can give it to you too.�� Owen had not given up yet and was trying to extend an olive branch.


    Zhang Heng shook his head. My request is very simple. Since Billy and the others are so disappointed with this ship, and Orff is notfortable with them on board, why not just get them off the boat?��


    ��I still don��t understand. Why did Orff trust you and allow you to move freely tonight? Isn��t he worried that you are a student of Frazer��s?��


    Orff who had been standing aside chipped in. ��Because of that note. Last night was not just a show for you. That note is a stain on them. The only way out for them is to leave the ship. Unless they kill all of the remaining sixty-over men on the ship, there��s no way they would be able to cause a mutiny. We have an agreement between us�Cafter tonight, I will redress them and restore their reputation.��


    Billy snorted as he pushed Owen��s men out to the corridor. ��Remember your promise. From today onward, we don��t owe each other anything.�� Then, he turned to Zhang Heng, saying, ��Captain, we��ll be waiting for you in the boat.��


    Zhang Heng nodded. ��Thank you.��


    Everyone vacated the room, leaving only Orff, Owen, and Zhang Heng. When they had all left, Owen broke into a smile. ��Captain? Incredible. You��re the biggest winner tonight, it would seem. I knew that you nned to leave the ship after one year, but I never expected you to have a team on the ready. Bill and the others are some of the most experienced sailors on this ship. Now that you��ve rescued them from Orff, they will follow you to the ends of the earth, I��m sure.��

 Chapter 137 - We Finally Meet

    <h4>Chapter 137: We Finally Meet</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    Tonight, Charleston was not destined to be peaceful. Half an hour ago, an inn caught fire all of a sudden. The residents staying around the ce had to work together to put out the fire. Before they could celebrate, though, they heard the thunderous boom of cannons being fired.


    A cannonball flew past the wall andnded on one of the houses. And that was just a start. Seconds after that, more and more cannonballs wereunched toward the city, leaving all its residents running around and screaming in a frenzied panic. They assumed that French battleships were attacking them. What they did not know was that the pride of the navy, the Scarborough was still docked at port.


    Why did the enemy attack the cannons on the wall instead of the Scarborough, which posed a more significant threat? They would indeed have to pay a hefty price for doing that. Not too long after that, the residents of the city received the shocking news. The party that attacked them was not the French but it was the Scarborough at the port.


    It was at that moment that the pirates disguised as navy officers revealed their true colors. Without any warning whatsoever, they destroyed the cannons that were mounted on the city wall. During the first attack, half of them were wiped out. The garrison troops quickly realized that their city had been infiltrated by enemies. Immediately, they gathered and nned a retaliation. Before they could do that, however, the second wave wasunched, and the garrison troops were once again defeated.


    Foreign enemies had never attacked Charleston before. Usually, the garrison troops would alert everyone in the city once they spotted enemy ships. In turn, the people of the town would have sufficient time to retreat to a safe ce. The current attack was so sudden that it messed up the strategy of the garrison troops. Even themander could not figure out why the Scarborough went rogue and attacked its own allies.


    The firing of the cannons managed to light up the sky with bright shes. After five rounds of relentless shelling, a third of the city��s wall located in the southeast of Charleston had copsed. Unfortunately, the cannons protecting the city didn��t have enough range tond a hit on the Queen Anne��s Revenge. Every cannonball that wasunched at them fell short of their target, flying straight into the ocean instead.


    After that, the Queen Anne��s Revenge stopped for a moment to cool their cannons. At that time, Charleston��s line of defense was shattered beyond repair. They were no longer a threat to the pirates. Ten minutester, the pirates followed the n and started to attack the city.


    One of the cannonballs flew past the destroyed walls andnded on a street. Immediately, the residents in that area dispersed and ran for their lives.


    As there was some distance between the governor general��s house and the coastline, they were safe from the attack for now. Many nobles and merchants were unhappy with the happenings in Charleston. They were considered highly reputable individuals of the New World and were shocked that the town coulde under attack while they were here to attend a wedding ceremony.


    20 minutes went by. Still, no one could figure out why the Scarborough attacked Charleston. The guests were worried about their mansions and shops around the town. Of course, they yearned to head back and ensure that their properties were fine but reckoned it was still too dangerous at the moment. Right now, the town was left in utter chaos. The governor general��s mansion had around 40 guards protecting it and was considered the safest ce in the city right now.


    Watt, the governor-general, was directing the defensive effort on the second floor of hismand center. He just received the news that all the defensive cannons on the wall had been entirely destroyed. Strangely though, the enemies did not muster up and invade the city. Perhaps theycked the personnel for that. However, Watt knew that it would be a huge mistake if he underestimated his enemies right now.


    He could care less about the guests downstairs, knowing that his family and Bellomonte were upstairs right now. If something terrible happened to them at his ce, Whitehall would definitely not let him off the hook that easily. Exercising the utmost precaution, he contacted the garrison troops and requested another 20 troopers to protect his ce.


    Knowing that he had done everything he could do for now, he finally let out a sigh of relief.


    ��Don��t worry. Some of the biggest orchard owners from this ce are my friends. They have arge number of armed personnel. I have just sent someone to search for them. I believe they can lend us at least 200 hundred people to help us to ovee this sticky situation,�� said Bellomonte calmly.


    ��That��s great! I have just moved to the New World not too long ago. There are still many things that I��m unfamiliar with. I might need your help again in the future. I heard that Boston is enjoying rapid growth under your care; especially when ites to the piracy menace, your methods of dealing with them have gained high praise from the military. When I left London, your glorious moment was the talk of the town.��


    Bellomonte smiled as he held a cup of tea. Indeed, it was something that he was really proud of. However, just before the Watt could say something about it, a trooper knocked on the door.


    ��Governor-general, the reinforcements that you��ve asked for have arrived. They are now waiting downstairs. That was fast. Let me go take a look.��


    He went downstairs and saw 20 troopers standing there with an unfamiliar officer leading them.


    ��What is your name? Who is yourmanding officer? Why have I never seen you before?�� asked Watt, his tone reeking with suspicion.


    ��I think you should hear of the name of ourmanding officer. His name is Edward Teach, but most prefer to call him ckbeard,�� said the army officer.


    He then pulled out a gun and fired at Watt point-nk. The deafening ring of the gunshot startled everyone in the main hall. When one of the female guests saw the body of the governor-general lying on the staircase, she couldn��t hold herself back and screamed out loud.


    Considering they were here to attend a wedding ceremony, none of the male guests carried weapons. They could only feel fear and panic paralyze them as they saw the armed pirates standing before them.


    Concurrently, the real calvary that Watt summoned was finally here. Noticing the situation, they instantly drew arms and shed with the fake troopers! While they fired at each other with gusto, the doors to the second-floor study room were pushed open. Two fake navy officers walked in and talked to Bellomonte.


    ��ording to the governor-general��s investigation, we can confirm that pirates have hijacked the Scarborough! They are dressed in navy uniforms and were the ones who attacked Charleston. You are their main target.��


    ��Me?!��


    Bellomonte was surprised that the target was him.


    ��The situation is getting worse now. The enemies are downstairs, but anytime now, they��ll be up here to capture you. The governor-general has ordered us to escort you to a safe ce.��


    After that, the two fake navy officers approached Bellomonte and clutched his arms.


    ��Hold on. My daughter!��


    ��The sooner you leave, the sooner the people here would feel safer. There��s a horse cart waiting for you. We have to leave through the backdoor.��


    Subsequently, they quickly dragged Bellomonte downstairs. When he saw the broken horse cart, he quickly realized that something was amiss. He broke into a struggle, but it was toote. The two pirates employed their brute force and stuffed him into the horse cart.


    Bellomonte instantly knew that his life was in danger. So, he attempted to jump out of the cart. Before he could do so, however, a sharp sword touched the skin of his neck.


    ��Mr. Bellomonte, we finally meet.��

 Chapter 138 - The Truth

    <h4>Chapter 138: The Truth</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    Bellomonte did not expect to meet someone familiar here. The ex-captain of the Scarborough, Elmer, was sitting right beside him. An awkward situation arose when their eyes met. They both wanted to say something, but the words were somehow stuck in their throats. A man in a set of clean and neat formal navy attire sat in front of them.


    ��Who are you people? Why did you kidnap me?�� asked Bellomonte while trying to keep himself as calm as possible.


    ��My name is Edward Teach. I��m sure you��ve heard my name before.��


    Bellomonte��s face changed when he got to know his name. Everyone from the New World heard about the horrific things that Captain ��ckbeard�� Teach had done. Bellomonte had been trying to eliminate piracy for a long time and, of course, knew the name of the most notorious pirate of the Caribbean. Bellomonte had tried several times to eliminate ckbeard��s crew, but sadly, none of those attempts bore fruit. Not only did he fail to capture them, but he had inadvertently made ckbeard more famous than before.


    He had always dreamed of capturing Edward Teach. Right now, although he was just sitting right across him, he was not happy at all. Bellomonte had been through a lot, and a situation like this did not make him flinch. There was a shocked look on his face, but less than two secondster, he managed topose himself. Elmer looked guilty when Bellomote turned and looked at him.


    ��Mr. Teach, I have been looking forward to meeting you. Finally, I get to see you in person.��


    ��Unfortunately, this is not the first time we��ve met.��


    ��Have we met before? When was that?��


    ��I think we were in the navy academy when we first met. I can still remember that day as clear as daylight. You and him, walking to ss together.��


    ��Him?��


    ��It appears you have a poor memory. My earl, let me give you a hint. Does 1695 remind you of anything?��


    ��Who the hell are you?!��


    This time, Bellomonte lost allposure.


    ��He was the hero of the navy. He was the most reputable adventurer in the whole of Scond. He even got the queen��spliments. At that time, you had just gotten your job as governor-general. Your first task was to figure out a way to end the piracy and restore peace to the trade port. To deal with the two most notorious pirates, Henry Every and Thomas Tew, you asked for his help. At first, he did not agree because he was tired of going to war. But, you did not give up. You kept convincing him that you did it for the prosperity of the New World. In the end, he was bought by your sincerity. Also, as your friend, he had decided to take on the task. It was at that time that I was assigned as the quartermaster on his ship.


    ��That was literally my happiest day. Being able to go on a sail with my idol is like a dream. When I was told that I��m doing this for a bigger cause, I was ted. I wanted to do my best to build a better New World. However, things weren��t smooth from the very beginning. Before we could leave the port, we were stopped by the navy. They told us the war in Spain had gotten really intense. So, they wanted us to recruit a new batch of sailors. Left with no other options, we went ahead and hired all the sailors that we needed in the shortest time possible. After that, we spent six months at sea. Still, we failed to track Henry Every and Thomas Tew down.


    ��It was then that the atmosphere on the ship was really intense. The batch of sailors we recruited were mostly thugs and gangsters, where their main goal was to always search for more money. Since we did not manage to capture the two most wanted pirates, they didn��t mind resorting to other options.


    ��There were only three people on the ship who went to navy school before��me, him, and the chief mate. The three of us were not powerful enough to control the situation on the ship. I was tied up when I tried to console the others. They beat me up and tossed me in a goat ranch. They threatened to kill me in three days! To save my own life, I had toply with the requests of those thugs.


    ��That was the darkest moment in my life. I didn��t know what I did wrong. Why would God allow something like this to happen to me? He was the one who consoled me and gave me confidence. He made me believe that we would be able to clear our names once we got back to civilization. I want to live, to live and tell the truth to the whole world! That was my motivation to stay alive. However, I never thought that it would take aeons before I could achieve that. Four yearster, we crossed paths with another group of pirates. Our sailors decided to join them and they set us free. In the end, 13 of us, including me, traveled back to the colony.��


    ��We decided that we would dock in New York and contact the navy. We wanted to tell the whole world about it. During that time, you made a name for yourself by eliminating a lot of pirates. You were a famous governor-general, and you didn��t want to rte to us, worried that we might affect your reputation. So, you looked for someone to talk to us. You told us that you sympathized with everything that we had been through, and you are more than willing to help us to clear our name.��


    ��I did remind him about it, but he insisted that he wanted to trust you. Without any hesitation, we handed you everything that those thugs robbed and documents to prove that we left the port. We trusted that you would go to your allies in White Hall to help us. You know exactly what kind of person he is, right? He was always a positive one. He believed that kindness still existed in this world.��


    Bellomonte got more and more nervous after hearing what Teach had to say.


    ��You betrayed him. You tricked him to Boston, and the authorities arrested him once he touched down. You burned all the documents that he gave you and sold off all the dirty stuff from us. And our Mr. Elmer here was the one who escorted him to London��s court! To ensure that he would not badmouth you while they were on their way there, you told Elmer to take ��good care�� of him while he was on the road.��


    ��I heard that he lost his mind before he got to London��s courthouse. Your people hung him to death at River Thames. His body hung there for two years! They called him the most notorious pirate of the New World. Again, you were praised by White Hall for eliminating him.��


    Elmer was now trembling in fear. He did not know that this incident was rted to him.


    ��I... I didn��t know what was going on. I was just a man following orders. I couldn��t say no to Mr. Bellomonte.


    Before he could finish, Edward Teach took out his gun, and in a swift second, shot him at point-nk. He would never expect to meet his death in this way.


    Edward Teach ignored the dead body and looked at Bellomonte.


    ��I told the pirates that I��m here for Kidd��s treasure. But, I know better than anyone that there��s no such thing as Kidd��s treasure. I��m here for revenge.��


    Bellomonte was shuddering in terror, sitting in a fetal position, and curled up like a ball.


    ��What do you want?! I can give you everything! I can give you immunity! I can give you boundless wealth that will never run out!��


    ��Save the trouble. I will get them myself if that��s what I want.��


    Edward Teach uttered his final sentence and lifted his sword. All the anger on his face was all gone, reced by sadness and grief.

 Chapter 139 - Jackdaw

    <h4>Chapter 139: Jackdaw</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    Zhang Heng could hear the thunderous boom of cannons after he left the Queen Anne��s Revenge. Charleston was bathed in bright mes.


    When he saw that, Zhang Heng knew that Orff��s and Teach��s n for revenge had begun. Everything that happened after that had nothing to do with him. His life on the Queen Anne��s Revenge was finally over. After tonight, Teach, and the Queen Anne��s Revenge would disappear for some time. Zhang Heng would only meet them again four yearster, but that��s a story for another time.


    All 16 people on the ship made use of what little time that they had and picked a helmsman.


    ��I just took scanned our surroundings just now. Around twenty boats are docked by the harbor right now. Between them, there are twelve small boats, eight medium boats, and two big boats. They are basically empty right now. It should be an easy task for us to snatch them.��


    Charleston and Nassau were at least hundreds of kilometers apart. It would be impossible for them to sail all the way to Nassau with the tiny vessels that they were on right now. Besides, a golden opportunity had presented itself right before them. While the Queen Anne��s Revenge was drawing the attention of the enemies, it would be the best time for them to hijack those boats.


    ��You guys should have made your choices by now, right?��


    Zhang Heng took a look around and knew that the group of people with him would be his crewter on. Owen was right. It was a fact that these were the most experienced group of pirates the Queen Anne��s Revenge had seen.


    They were extremely skillful and had years of experience between them. Most importantly, they had a squeaky clean background. They neither belonged to Orff nor Frazer. If Zhang Heng did not step in, they would have indeed met a horrible ending since the powerful people on the ship were trying to fight for the throne.


    Billy and the rest of the old pirates took a look around. There was excitement in the air.


    ��The Royal Navy has a corvette here. It��s a medium-sized vessel equipped with around 30 cannons. Although this corvette is simr to the Sea Lion, it��s definitely more powerful. She should sail a lot faster, as well. Right now, we are powerful enough to take her and sail back to Nassau. We just need to recruit more people from Nassau, and we should be good to set sail,�� said Billy.


    ��Actually the Queen Anne��s Revenge is not suitable for raiding other boats. She��s too big, and will surely be slower than the others. Besides, she would need a huge crew of pirates to manage her. Of course, if they only targeted merchant ships, they would not need all that crazy firepower. Everyone would eventually receive a minimal amount of loot each time since there are so many pirates on board. And it��s not exactly easy to hide this massive battleship as well,��mented an old pirate.


    ��Let��s not wait anymore. Let��s do it,�� said Zhang Heng.


    Fifteen minutester, 17 of them climbed up the corvette using a rope. Since the ship wasn��t assigned anywhere, only a total of 10 navy officers guarded the ship. Zhang Heng ambushed them, tied them up, and stowed them into one of the tiny boats that they were in before.


    After that, all started to work in unison to release the mainsail and to cast-off the anchor. Suddenly, they saw two boats filled with navy personnel rowing towards them as fast they could.


    However, it was all toote.


    As the wind began catching the sails, the corvette started to budge slowly. Zhang Heng stood on the bow of the vessel, leading his people. He had no intention to interfere with the Queen Anne��s Revenge��s battle. Soon, Zhang Heng was already leading the corvette far away from the enemies. The moment the corvette left the harbor, everyone on board erupted into a mighty cheer.


    ��I just did a quick check. The food and water on board are more than enough for us. At this speed, I think we should be able to reach Nassau sooner than expected. Captain, the only thing you need to do right now is to name the ship,�� said Billy.


    Without him realizing it, it had been a year since Zhang Heng entered this world. Throughout this period, Zhang Heng had tried his best to blend into his surroundings. He ate, slept, and fought alongside pirates the entire time and even invested a lot of effort to learn different skills from them. Still, he did not forget his origins.


    ��I shall christen her the Jackdaw!��


    3None of them understood the meaning behind the name, thinking that Zhang Heng must have chosen it because it sounded catchy. Hence, no one was against it.


    Zhang Heng gazed to the stars glittering in the sky above him, and said, ��Now, let��s go home.��


    .....


    Anne was now in a dormant state. When Zhang Heng was in the house, she could at least talk to him about her life. Once he was gone, she had no one to talk to. Before she met him, she would go around the ind, roughing up those who offended her. Ever since he promised her that he would let her join his crew, Anne pledged that she would learn how to control her anger. Undeniably, she had plenty of ws, but breaking promises was not one of them. When Zhang Heng was not home, she tried to stay indoors as much as possible. Still, trouble came looking for her.


    One day, while Anney on the bench enjoying the morning sunlight, someone she loathed came looking for her.


    ��So, have you thought about it? We can go to Massachusetts. I have an uncle over there, and he is in the tobo farming business. He can help us to settle down. He promised me that he would grant me a stable job. The money I earn should be enough for us to live afortable life in the New World. We do not have to worry about food and shelter anymore.��


    Anne merely stared at him with no response.


    ��You need to ept reality, Anne. You have been here for more than a year, and no ships would take you in. Being a pirate is no joke. You should be grateful that I wasn��t mad at you for what happenedst time. My promise is still valid. Just marry me, and I will forget everything that you��ve done to me.��


    ��James, just save it. From Irnd to Nassau, whose money did you use, huh? We sold all our silverware just to fund our journey. I didn��t expect that you would kick me away like a ball the moment we arrived in Nassau. Since you want to settle the score, let��s count from the beginning then!��


    Seeing that Anne started responding to him, James was ted.


    ��We did agree that we would settle the score once we got off the ship. Don��t forget that you��ve agreed to it as well. I even let you stay and eat at no cost for half a year. You promised me that you would return me the money once you be a pirate. It seems like that won��te to pass now.��


    Anne became extremely agitated. It wasn��t the first time they had this conversation. If not for Anne being stronger than James, he would have sexually assaulted her a long time ago. Just when Anne was considering breaking the rules and beating him up, a kid shouted at her from afar.


    ��Boss Anne! Boss Anne! There is a new pirate ship approaching Nassau. It��s a navy battleship! Our fortress defender and the cannoneer, Honig was shocked when he saw it. Luckily, the battleship raised their ck g right before we attacked them!��


    ��Huh? Another battleship? These new pirates are getting bolder and bolder!��


    Anne recognized the kid. After defeating him a few times, he was determined to address her as his boss. He was running barefooted with a forehead dripping with sweat, and appeared to be in a great rush.


    ��Their captain asks me to inform the crew to gather at the dock.��


    ��Go ahead then. Why are you here?��


    ��I was freaked out by it too, but there��s only one Anne with red hair on this ind.��


    ��Huh?��

 Chapter 140 - Boatswain

    <h4>Chapter 140: Boatswain</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    Anne was baffled. Ever since she came to this ind, nothing had gone her way. She had been turned down from so many jobs that even the kids on the streets knew about it.


    A while ago, she came across Harry and his other bratty friends betting on her getting a job before Nassau was destroyed. In a rage, she pinned him to the ground and began to hit him, not stopping until the boy cried out for his parents. Walking away, she kept thinking about it, making her even angrier. So, she turned around, stormed back, and gave Harry another round of beating.


    That was how Harry came to be the first person in Nassau who got bashed twice in three minutes. Since then though, he had be utterly enlightened�Che finally recognized whose fist was bigger and who was wearing the pants. Beaten to submission, he threw himself at Anne��s feet and became her first disciple.


    Anne suspected that this could be another game from some bored idiot to amuse her. She was already in a fit, thanks to Jamie, and now that she was going to explode, the promise she made was thest thing on her mind. Anne started to storm towards the pier, rolling up her sleeves as she went along, but suddenly stopped in her tracks as if she thought of something.


    James, having clearly never heard of Harry��s tragic story, followed closely behind the red-haired maiden to see what was going on. But the next thing he knew, he received a heavy blow to his lower abdomen as Harry watched on sympathetically. Anne��s flying kick sent him tumbling down into the field. It hurt so bad that he curled up into a ball, rocking back and forth.


    Anne withdrew her leg, with all the weight of depression falling off her shoulders. Now, she felt better and more alive. She stretched her wrists and ankles before telling Harry who had been watching with awe, ��Lead the way!��


    The two of them rushed to the pier, and from afar, Anne could see the naval frigate that Harry had just told her about. Since it docked, it garnered the interest of a curious many who came to the pier to steal a nce.


    Anne had to admit that the ship looked quite handsome. She must have only been recentlypleted by the Royal Navy. Having spent only a short time afloat, she was already stolen. The ship had a very elegant and streamlined hull, and the vital parts were wrapped in metal tes providing it with extra protection duringbat. Of course, the most eye-catching feature of the frigate were the rows of cannons lining its sides.


    Although Nassau was known for its wealthy pirates, most had outdated equipment, like the famous Edward Teach for example. His Sea Lion was just a modified merchant ship that had been armed with 9 and 12-pounder artillery. Byparison, this warship before her eyes was equipped with 24-pound artillery!


    Harry, who was just as awestruck, wiped the drool off the corners of his lips. ��This is so cool... it��s every man��s fantasy!��


    Anne was about to agree with him but instantly changed her tune when she thought about how the captain of this ship might take too much pleasure in thepliment. ��Hmph, if I could go out to sea, I could easily steal a ship that��s even greater than this.��


    ��No way.��


    For the first time, Harry did not sumb to the possibility of him getting beaten up. He simply shook his head and said, ��She��s simply too perfect. It would so awesome if I could be on her too. I don��t mind even if I have to scrub her down everyday. It��s enough for me to brag for the rest of my life.��


    Unlike Anne, this was not his first time seeing the ship, but he still found himself mesmerized by it. ��How did these guys manage to do it? There��s not a single scratch on her. It��s weird. This is a naval frigate! Maybe the entire crew died from a gue or something.��


    This time, Anne did not answer. This frigate may be great, but it had nothing to do with her. After kicking James, she was now ready to beat others up. She had been holding herself back for so many days; she urgently needed to vent her ongoing anger. Anne looked at Harry and asked, ��Where are they?��


    Harry came along, excited to see Anne beating the pirates up. Now, he had second thoughts. ��Boss Anne, just forget it. It��s all just a huge joke. If they managed to steal this ship, they are probably not people we want to offend.��


    Anne replied, ��Then, all the more for us to show them that they shouldn��t mess with the inders!�� She paused for a moment and said earnestly to herpanion, ��Harry, you must remember that bullying the weak and fearing the strong is the ssic behavior of the genuinely weak. Only those who constantly challenge the strong can be considered as truly strong!��


    ��That sounds remarkably reasonable,�� Harry said admiringly. After a while, he asked her again, almost in a whisper this time, ��Boss Anne, then what about hitting me, somebody whose only twelve years old?��


    ��Oh, that. I hit you purely because you need a good beating. That has nothing to do with you being strong or weak.��


    ��...��


    As Anne patiently answered Harry��s questions, she also found her target. Not far away on the beach, were a group of people standing in a circle. Although it was not as crowded as when the Sea Lion was recruiting, it was still bustling and teeming with people. It would appear that this group of people were busy hiring for help.


    It looked like good news. That meant they were shorthanded.


    Anne licked her lips, a cunning smile ying on her lips. She turned to Harry and said, ��Wait here. I��ll go teach them a lesson they will never forget!��


    Harry never nned to go there anyway, having already found himself a ce to hide. Before he could even answer her, he saw a hand rest on the top of her red hair. Harry groaned silently, thinking that surely, it was over for that person. Last time, he was only just making bets on her for three pieces of copper and she gave him two consecutive beatings. It was so brutal that just thinking about him sent shivers down his spine.


    The person who had just touched her was going to be dead meat.


    Unsurprisingly, Anne blew a fuse, raising her arm in anticipation for a fight. But when she turned around, her first stopped dead midair. ��Ah, it��s you. When did you get back?! Why didn��t you tell me?��


    ��I told the kid to go find you once I��ve docked. Why? Didn��t you two meet?�� asked Zhang Heng.


    Harry��s mouth hung wide open. He recognized the man now. He was the one who sent him to get Anne. What he did not understand was Anne��s reaction. She suddenly appeared flushed and panicked, much like the times when he had done wrong and his parents caught him.


    Zhang Heng asked her, ��If you didn��t meet the person I sent to find you, why are you here then?��


    ��I... I was just going for a walk...�� she said, her voice thick with guilt.


    ��Then why are your sleeves rolled up like that?�� Zhang Heng asked. Thank goodness he did not dwell on it. ��Anyway, it��s good that you��re here so I won��t have to look for you. Come onboard the ship and meet the others.��


    ��Ship... others?�� Anne looked puzzled.


    ��Yeah, aren��t you the Jackdaw��s boatswain? We can��t have you not knowing anyone, can we?��

 Chapter 141 - A New Beginning

    <h4>Chapter 141: A New Beginning</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    ��What?! That... that... ship over there is yours?!�� Anne��s jaw nearly fell to the ground. ��Don��t tell me that you��ve really found Kidd��s treasure? But that can��t be right. Even if you had money, you still wouldn��t be able to afford an entire frigate, right?��


    ��That��s a long story. I��ll exin to you some other time. Right now, tell me, how did the cannoneer recruitment go?��


    .....


    Although the Jackdaw was a rather spacious vessel, Zhang Heng did not n to recruit too many crew for their first voyage. Including Anne, he now had a core team of eighteen members. He nned to recruit another fifteen at the beach, including skilled seafarers such as cooks and carpenters. Then he would have Anne rmend seven to eight more people, mainly gunners, so the organizational structure would be rtively stable.


    After several trips, and only after the wheels had been oiled, would they hire more. Even though doing it this way meant that it would take a longer time toplete the fullplement of crew, it also meant that he did not worry about other small-time groups muddling along. Besides, time wasn��t of the essence for Zhang Heng.


    As for the appointment of Anne as their boatswain, Zhang Heng had already approached Billy and the others about it. Women were considered to bring bad luck to a vessel. Unsurprisingly, female pirates, in the 18th century, was still somewhat of an anomaly. Generally, everyone had their concerns but Zhang Heng was resolute about this matter.


    Since it was the captain��s first order, no one refused, nor did they ask for a vote.


    In the end, after a lengthy discussion, Billy and the others decided to ept the appointment, but only on one condition�CAnne��s fighting skills had to be tested first.


    The reason behind this request was well-grounded. After all, in addition to managing and assigning tasks to the crew, the boatswain must also lead by example during a battle. If the boatswain was taken down by the enemy in a fight, forget about the crew having the morale to fight after that.


    Zhang Heng had no objection to this requirement. He could instantly designate Anne as the boatswain of the Jackdaw, but to convince everyone on the ship would have to be of her own effort. Fortunately for her, although Zhang Heng might be worried about many things, he wasn��t concerned about her fighting abilities.


    Looking up the two opponents who were easily a head taller than her, the redhead did not even flinch, nor did she show any signs of fear. On the contrary, she seemed excited.


    The rest of the pirates started to gather instinctively to watch the battle unfold. The acting referee, Billy, said to Anne, ��This is just a test. You��re not allowed to be heavy-handed. You are also allowed to surrender at any given time. So, there��s nothing to worry about. Next, you can choose one opponent from these two. As long as you can defeat any one of them, we will ept you as our fellow...��


    Before he could even finish his sentence, the girl cut him off by picking up the saber on the sand. She swung it around to get a feel of it and shed Billy a smile. ��Let��s notplicate things. The both of you can fight me together. Otherwise, it would be meaningless if the fight ends too soon.��


    When the other pirates heard this arrogant deration, a massive uproar broke out among them.


    Zhang Heng did not have to see the fight, already knowing how it would end. Besides, there were more important matters that needed his attention.


    Since bing a captain, he had a constant nudging at the back of his mind that there were always more things to do. Back on the Sea Lion, his main focus was to learn, observe more, and to speak less. To avoid rming Orff, he was rarely involved in the affairs onboard. Instead, all he had to do was manage his own time every day. Now, however, he was responsible for an entire ship, and there were a million things bogging his mind down.


    The first thing he did was to instruct Dufresne to buy a batch of green lemons before setting out to sea.


    During the age of the great sailboats, there was danger lurking at every corner. Among them, scurvy was one of the many things that couldn��t be overlooked.


    Due to technical restrictions, most of the fresh produce could not be kept on the ship for the long-term. Whether navy or pirate, their staple consisted mainly of biscuits and dried meat, supplemented by a small portion of seafood. In the short term, this was not a problem. But in the long run, if they were unable to get onnd, theck of essential vitamins would lead to a series of health problems.


    The least severe of consequences would be fatigue, agomphiasis, aching bones. In more severe cases, however, it often lead to death. When Columbus explored the New World, most of his crew died of scurvy, and during Magen��s circumnavigation of the globe, two-thirds of the crew also died of the same condition.


    Theter generations woulde to learn that this was caused by vitamin deficiency, specifically theck of vitamin-C. Still, in the era that Zhang Heng was in right now, effective remedies weren��t discovered yet. Except for prayer, of course.


    When he was on the Sea Lion, Zhang Heng had seen people suffering from scurvy. They were weak and sapped, and could only exert half of their strength during battles. That was a strong reminder to him that when it was his turn to lead the crew, the first thing he needed to do was to prepare lemons.


    Since the fruit was easy to store�Cstill good for consumption even after a month under normal temperature, it was one of the best sources for vitamin-C. On top of that, Zhang Heng also instructed the new cook to prepare a batch of dried vegetables and fruits to double down on preventing scurvy.


    The onlyment was that soybeans from China only entered European waters a few decadester. It would have be the easiest source of fresh vegetables that they could find on the ship. Bean sprouts did not need soil to grow. All it needed was a ssh of fresh water, and the little nt would sprout like mad. Not only that, but soybean sprouts were also rich in protein and vitamins. Having that in mind, Zhang Heng entrusted several businessmen on the ind with a connection to the East India Company to help him acquire it, but it would take, even at the very least, a year.


    With the food problem taken care of, Zhang Heng proceeded to the ck-market merchants on the ind to discuss matters regarding the splitting of the sales of loot. Generally. Therger pirate gangs on the ind would have exclusive partnerships with certain ck-market merchants as partners, an established mutually beneficial, win-win rtionship.


    When the piratese back with loot, they would hand them over to their respective ck-market partners, and thetter would offer them a higher-than-market price. Zhang Heng thought that once he had the Jackdaw, he would earn the favor of many of the ck-market merchants. Unfortunately, the actual situation was far from what he��d envisioned.


    He visited some of therger merchants on the ind, and although they didn��t seem too polite on the surface, it was actually more of an act of courtesy. In fact, the prices they quoted were less than favorable. ording to Dufresne, the offers given were only slightly little better than the average neer who had only just ventured out to the sea and paled inparison to the original Sea Lion.


    The merchants�� answers were basically the same, all sharing the same opinion of the excellent condition of the Jackdaw herself, but expressed concerns over Captain Zhang Heng��s young age. Some of them heard about the incident on the beach and felt that hiring a woman to be the boatswain was both immature and sacrilegious on his part, which only confirmed their previous concern.


    So, across the board, the consensus was that they wished first to see Zhang Heng and his Jackdaw prove their ability at sea, hoping that he coulde back for a renegotiation only after several sessful plunders.


    Once they were out the door, Dufresne frowned. ��Something is not right. In the past, these guys showed great enthusiasm whenever potential pirate gangs showed up on the ind. It looks like the rumors might be true.��


    ��What rumor?��


    ��Because selling stolen goods is such a lucrative business, there are many ck-market merchants on the ind. That means fiercepetition would be rife among them. Sometimes, they would have malicious fallout. To win over thepetitors�� pirate ships, some of them would go as far as to secretly contribute funds to support wildcard ships with hidden agendas, inciting them to mutiny. If they seed, they will choose their sponsors as new partners in return. But recently, I heard that the ind��s ck market merchants are negotiating to end this chaotic situation, and they intend to form an alliance.��

 Chapter 142 - An Intruder

    <h4>Chapter 142: An Intruder</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    Businessmen abhorredpetitors, where havingpetition was equivalent to earning less profit. Whether it was about getting more customers by increasing the buying price or funding ambitious pirates to help them with their quest for the throne, it was undeniable that these things were going to cost them arge sum of money. ording to Frazer, they had thought about setting up a business alliance, but they could not solve the problem of sharing its profits. Without getting a unanimous decision on the profit-sharing proposal, the n of setting up a business alliance was deemed to fail.


    For those unhappy with the proposal, they did what they would usually do. As usual, they increased their buying prices to attract more potential customers in the hopes that they��d deal with them instead. Soon, other ck market merchants that stuck to the rules could stand it no more after seeing their business partners leaving them for hical ck market merchants instead.


    1In the end, everyone realized that the rules did not benefit them at all. Thus, the business alliance that had been set up for only three months fell apart. This incident happened three years ago, still fresh in the memory of the ck market merchants. It made no sense for them to try their luck right now. There must be something that they still had not figured out.


    ��I will go and investigate the incident tomorrow. We need to know what is going on,�� said Dufresne.


    Zhang Heng then nodded, knowing that there was nothing he could do before he could figure out the whole thing. After that, the two of them went to visit the arms dealers on the ind. The firearms on the corvette that Zhang Heng took possession of recently was equipped with a shipload of weapons. In total, the vessel carried 50 guns and 60 sabers. For now, they did not need to purchase any more. However, Zhang Heng knew for sure that the ammunition they used would definitely deplete in no time. It was crucial that he stocked the corvette with extra ammunition.


    For that, Zhang Heng went to Baal, the arms dealer who sold four blunderbusses and one rifle to Zhang Heng earlier. Aspared to other ck market merchants, Baal was much friendlier. Not only did he invite the two to enter his house, but he even instructed his maid to make them some coffee. First, he congratted Zhang Heng for bing the captain of the Jackdaw. After that, he went straight down to business.


    ��I can easily get all the other stuff that you want. However, it is quite difficult to acquire ammunition for the 24-pound cannon. Most of our cannons here are six-pounders and nine-pounders. A 12-pound cannon is rare. And then, only the navy would use a 24-pound cannon.��


    Zhang Heng knew that Baal telling him the truth and wasn��t trying to deliberately increase its price. This was a massive problem for him, where his corvette��s primary weapon was the 12-pound cannon. However, he had eight 24-pounders equipped on the ship as well. This kind of firepower far outgunned any ordinary merchant ships. All these powerful cannons brought Zhang Heng another big problem. It was not going to be easy for him to buy ammunition for all these. Nevertheless, it seemed that Baal might just be able to figure out a way to acquire them.


    ��I have some connections in the navy. I might just be able to get you the ammunition you want. That said, I must tell you that I cannot guarantee you that I��ll get them. Also, please understand that it��s going to cost you a lot.��


    Zhang Heng agreed with Baal. As for now, the ammunition on the Jackdaw was still sufficient, and he wasn��t too concerned. After that, Dufresne started to check out the price of the shells that Baal offered to them. Before bing a pirate, Dufresne was a quartermaster on a navy vessel, which exined why he knew the market quite well. The conversation between Baal and Dufresne went as smooth as silk considering none of them had any intention to cheat the other.


    This was the reason why every single pirate crew wanted to hire someone with useful skills. If it was not for the power y that happened on the Sea Lion, it would have been almost impossible for Zhang Heng to recruit people like Dufresne and Billy.


    Arms dealers on the ind were a lot fewer than ck-market merchants. Hence,petition among them wasn��t as fierce. Baal was happy enough to get a regr customer like Zhang Heng. Soon, it had gottente. Baal wanted to make Zhang Heng and Dufresne stay for a meal, but they rejected him in kind.


    Dufresne��s wife and kids were living on this ind. He could still make it back home for dinner after he got down from the ship. Considering that all their affairs were settled, for now, both of them had no intention to stay any longer.


    Zhang Heng assumed that Anne must still be loitering outside and hadn��t eaten yet. So, he decided that he should look for her. Once Zhang Heng arrived at the beach, he heard that a crimson-haired girl had defeated a few men who challenged her. In the end, all of them proceeded to the tavern to enjoy some drinks together.


    The results did not surprise Zhang Heng at all. This was precisely the kind stunt that Anne would pull, and the only thing she could do to earn the crew��s respect. She would have achieved a lot by now if she was not a female. With the events that had happened today, everyone on the ship should agree that Anne was more than qualified as the boatswain of the vessel.


    In the end, Zhang Heng decided to leave her alone. Anne had stayed on this ind for a long time and caused a lot of trouble as well. She should be fine even though she went for drinks with a group of men.


    Zhang Heng then returned to his home through the harbor. Upon arrival at his home, he suddenly stopped in his tracks. He could not help but notice that the door was slightly ajar. Judging by Anne��s personality, she would either shut it tight or leave it open as wide as possible. Moreover, he saw that the curtains were drawn as well. Clearly, these weren��t the kinds of things that Anne would do as well. Immediately, Zhang Heng drew out his gun. If he remembered correctly, he should not have any enemies in Nassau. At most, Frazer might hold a grudge against him because of Owen. But then again, the Queen Anne��s Revenge was not even back in Nassau. There was no way Frazer could suddenly appear out of the blue.


    Even if he did know about it, the one he should be worried about was ckbeard. Even Orff came looking for him first. It did not make sense that he would mess with Zhang Heng, now that he owned a corvette. That was why Zhang Heng could not figure out who the mysterious person in his house was. Perhaps it was just a petty thief?


    Zhang Heng didn��t let his guard down, unsure if the intruder still lurked in his house. He first used his saber to nudge the door gently. Instantaneously, he jumped into the house through one of the windows.


    When he took over the house, Zhang Heng tried his best to fix everything after noticing that one of the windows was extremely loose. Seeing that it could still be used, Zhang Heng decided that he would leave it there for now.


    He would have never thought that he could enter his house through this broken window.

 Chapter 143 - Alliance

    <h4>Chapter 143: Alliance</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    Zhang Heng��s was in great luck, managing to spot the intruder��s shadow the moment he entered the house. It appeared that the person was sitting right by the table. The sound of the front door opening managed to capture the person��s attention, who turned around to nce at the door quickly. However, it was toote, for, at the same time, Zhang Heng came in from the window. Before the person could turn around, Zhang Heng used his gun and knocked the intruder out cold.


    The night was bathed in a pale glow from the full moon, and Zhang Heng used the light to check his surroundings ensuring that there were no more enemies lurking around. Next, he stealthily tiptoed to the first floor, checking all the rooms. Once he was sure that the house was clear of intruders, Zhang Heng lit up the oilmp.


    ..........


    Anne was now back from the tavern. She noticed ady in her twenties lying on the table, and Zhang Heng was frisking her.


    1��Oh, gosh! Did Ie back too early? I��m so sorry for interrupting your session!��


    Immediately, Anne turned around and was about to leave the house.


    ��Stop fooling around. Come back here! Do you know this woman?��


    After Zhang Heng searched her, he found no weapons or dangerous items on her. He was shocked to see that the intruder was a woman. Though she entered the house without permission, she didn��t touch anything apart from the cup of tea on the table. Judging from her skin tone and attire, Zhang Heng guessed she hailed from a wealthy family. Usually, ady like her would note to a ce as rough as Nassau, let alone breaking into a house. That was why Zhang Heng could only guess that she was Anne��s friend.


    ��I don��t know her,�� replied Anne with a burp.


    ��You didn��t even look at her properly!��


    ��That is because I don��t have a single female friend ever since I was born to this world,�� said Anne while shaking her hands.


    Under the influence of alcohol, Anne��s face flushed bright red.


    ��There��s only one way left now.��


    ��What?��


    ��Let��s ask her about it when shees to.��


    Zhang Heng did not hit her too hard because he did not know what her intention was. In less than two hours, thedy regained consciousness. Zhang Heng made use of the time to finish up supper. As for Anne, she was fondling with the makeup mirror that she found on thedy.


    ��I thought you don��t like things like this.��


    ��You are right. I don��t like these kinds of things but I remember that my father giving me a mirror when I was 14 years old. This mirror looks quite expensive, actually. I believe that it can be sold for a handsome amount of money.��


    ��You can have it if you want it,�� said the mysteriousdy suddenly.


    Once she woke up, she found out that her hands and legs were bound. Still, she managed to stay calm. Her behavior did not match her age and family background. Unfortunately, she expressed her kindness to Anne in the wrong way.


    ��I don��t need someone to give me something I like. I will take it from the person myself!�� eximed Anne with a burst ofughter as she ced both of her legs on the table with her chair leaned back.


    Noticing that Zhang Heng was ring at her, she instantly removed her legs from the table.


    ��I believe that you are the captain of the Jackdaw, Mr. Zhang. I have to admit: you are way younger than I thought.��


    The mysteriousdy then took a good hard look at Zhang Heng.


    ��Who are you? Why are you in my house?��


    ��I��m so sorry. Forgive me for breaking into your house without permission. I bear no ill intention. I just want to discuss some business proposals with you. I��m left with no other option because this is a special period for me.��


    ��Special period?��


    ��My name is Carina Portman. I��m a businesswoman. I think the people of Nassau prefer to call me a ck-market merchant. Anyway, I do business on this ind, and I have worked with many pirate ships before. Captain Fuller from the pirate vessel Archer and Captain Randall from the Duke are my customers. Oh, and Elwin from the Flying Fish too. They are all my good partners.��


    While talking, Carina was observing the reaction on Zhang Heng��s face. Unfortunately, she did not manage to read anything from him.


    ��I heard that you had spent a lot of time at sea, and you just got back today. You might not know the ind as well as you think. Four months ago, all the ck-market merchants were talking about forming a trade alliance to solve the chaotic way of trading on this ind. This alliance ising to an end soon, and so they havee up with a few unanimous decisions. That includes lowering the share ships led by new captains. I believe that you looked for a few back market merchants this afternoon, right? And you are not happy with the oue.��


    ��A simr thing happened three years ago, right? I heard that the alliance did not end well.��


    ��I know what you are thinking. I��m afraid that the alliance won��t be dismissed that easily this time. The old alliance was formed by a couple of powerful ck market merchants. So, they were the ones that made the rules. It��s different this time because pirates are invited to join the alliance as well.��


    ��Huh?��


    ��I��m not sure if you have heard of the name, Frazer. They say he was highly respected amongst the pirates, being the person to convince other pirate groups to join the alliance. The merchants have increased their buying price in exchange for a long-term partnership. The value that the ck market merchants generate can buy up 70% of the loot that all pirates bring back to Nassau. With that being said, the merchants that are not part of the alliance will be unable to buy any valuable loot. All those who initially refused to join the alliance will now change their minds. Right now, there are only a couple of merchants left in Nassau that refuse to join the alliance.��


    Finally, Zhang Heng understood the reason why the other ck market merchants treated him in such a cold manner earlier. If Carina was telling the truth, then the alliance would have absolute power over the market once it was officially put in ce though they would need to pay to buy off the pirates�� loot. One should know that being a pirate wasn��t precisely the most stable and safest of jobs. As time passed, pirates who were promised with a high price became lesser and lesser and, young pirates like Zhang Heng would emerge.


    The merchants would then design a new contract for them where they could buy off their loot at a lower price. In other words, the profit they gained would only increase over time. By that time, the alliance would have dominated the entire market, and the pirates would have no choice but to ept the price offered by the alliance.

 Chapter 144 - Business

    <h4>Chapter 144: Business</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    ��I heard that they are nning to set the price at five different tiers. The powerful and big crews will be ced at first-tier if they are willing to sign the contract with them. As for those medium-sized crews, they would be ced at the third or fourth-tier. A new pirate group like you can only start from the bottom.


    ��Of course, if you manage to acquire a huge amount of loot and sell everything to them, they would surely increase their buying price. Perhaps you could get to fourth-tier pricing in three years if you��re lucky. I assume that would be the shortest time for you the get there. Surely, this is not fair to your crew,�� said Carina as she tried to nudge her slightly swollen wrists that was still tied up.


    Upon seeing that, Zhang Heng drew his dagger and cut off the ropes tied around Carina��s wrists and legs.


    ��What do you mean by business?��


    ��I want to work with you for the long term. I��m willing to buy all the loot that you acquired from the merchant ships. Don��t worry. My buying price is definitely higher than the price that the alliance can offer you. I can offer you a fourth-tier price right away.��


    Carina was confident that Zhang Heng would surely take the deal. To her surprise, Zhang Heng rejected her without even thinking twice.


    ��I��m sorry. I��m not interested.��


    ��Why not? Right now, you need a stable partner to trade with you. The price that I offered you is at least 40% higher than the alliance��s price. My offer is only valid for a captain like you. epting this deal will help you to secure your position as a captain. Also, there��s nothing for you to lose if you ept the deal.��


    ��You calcted the money that I��m going to get if I sell my loot to you but you didn��t calcte the risk I will face. Surely, my actions would anger the entire trade alliance if I work with you. In other words, if something bad happens to you, no ck market merchants on this ind will do business with me.��


    ��You don��t have to worry about that. I��ve stayed in Nassau for a very long time. Nothing bad has happened to me so far.��


    ��Is that right? Why didn��t you join the alliance then? ording to your description, you should have had countless trading partners before they set up the alliance, right? What about now? How many captains are still willing to sell their loot to you?��


    This was the question that Carina could not avoid. While she was on the way to Zhang Heng��s house, she had made up several versions of the story in her mind. To her, Zhang Heng was just a lucky bloke that happened to get his hands on a navy battleship, thinking that convincing Zhang Heng to work with her would be easy. The moment the two started talking, however, Carina started to realize that she was too na?ve in thinking that Zhang Heng would agree to work with her. To her surprise, Zhang Heng��s thought process and how he managed to stay calm did not match his age at all. He was scarier than all the pirates that she dealt with before.


    It was at that moment that Carina realized the story she had made up sounded absolutely ridiculous. She was left speechless. The atmosphere in themon area suddenly turned into an awkward silence. All that could be heard was Anne��s loud snoring, obviously uninterested in Zhang Heng and Carina��s conversation.


    Zhang Heng then stood up and draped his jacket over Anne.


    ��There��s no way that I will work with you if you don��t tell me the truth.��


    ��Well, I��m afraid that you will not work with me if I tell you the truth.��


    ��Try me.��


    Zhang Heng poured two sses of tea and handed one to Carina.


    ��Actually... I��m not a ck market merchant on this ind,�� said Carina after hesitating for quite some time.


    While she was telling the truth, she took the opportunity to observe Zhang Heng on how he would react to the thing that she was about to say to him. Again, she found out that Zhang Heng was not surprised by her truth at all.


    ��You know that I��m not a ck market merchant? Do I look like a clown in front of you?��


    ��Not really. How long have you stayed on this ind?��


    ��Two months.��


    ��It��s not easy to do what you are doing right now since you have stayed here for only a short period. Your attire and behavior were very convincing. Most importantly, you seem to know your way around this ind quite well. You wouldn��t have raised my suspicions if your skin color was darker. The ck market merchants on this ind are required to check their items under the hot sun. That is why they are more tanned than most. Here, you look like someone who hasn��t stepped out from the house much.��


    ��That��s the reason? Before this, I stayed in New Hampshire. My father was a ck market merchant here in Nassau. When I was a kid, he would tell me stories about this ind. He would say that this is thend of money, where only the fearless could survive on this ind. Of course, I wasn��t interested in what he had to tell me.��


    ��So, why are you here now?��


    ��It��s because of my father. Six months ago, he was arrested at New Hampshire, convicted of working with pirates. They threw him in jail and confiscated his ship. Ironically, the port chief and customs officer took a huge bribe from him a week ago.��


    ��My mother took over his work the moment she knew that he was sentenced. She offended a powerful local businessman by selling a batch of simr products. I did ask someone to help me to bail him out from prison. Unfortunately, the guy demanded an astronomical figure. I can��t even match his number even if I sold everything valuable in my house. That is why I��m thinking of taking over his business to earn more money to bail him out.��


    ��The moment you came here, the alliance had just been set up.��


    ��Yes. I couldn��t join the alliance because I��m simply not qualified. I did try to look for several captains who used to work with my father with the hopes of working with them. Unfortunately, his previous contracts are void as my father hasn��t shown up for a very long time. His old friends told me that they couldn��t help even if they wanted to. I was left with no option until I saw your ship this afternoon. All I thought was to try my luck and convince you to work with me.��


    ��My father left me a ship to move his product. After working as a ck market merchant for years, he had established quite a few connections. He told me all those names when I visited him in prison. Besides, he has a permit that allows him free passage through the customs of most of the colonies. Though I can��t ess New Jersey right now, I can still sell my stuff at other ports that he used to frequent.��

 Chapter 145 - Answer

    <h4>Chapter 145: Answer</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    ��What do you guys think?��


    Zhang Heng looked for Billy and Dufresne and told them about Carina, believing that it was unnecessary to this matter from his crew.


    ��The ck market alliance is no secret. I talked to a few of my friends this morning, and they verified everything that Carina told you. She��s right about the alliance taking advantage of us. Before the ck market alliance was established, the Sea Lion could usually sell their loot at a third-tier price. Right now, although we aren��t as capable as the old Sea Lion, I know in my heart that we have a huge potential to be one of the strongest pirate crews on this ind. In the future, it won��t be a problem for us to sell our loot at a third-tier price. Right now, however, we can only sell them at the lowest price possible. I��m afraid our crew isn��t going to be too happy about this,�� said Dufresne.


    ��First, let��s not talk about old pirates like us. All our recruits chose to join us because we have a corvette, and they saw an opportunity to earn more for themselves. When they find out about selling the loot that they��d they risked their lives to get for a low price; I��m afraid we might not be able to handle them. If we want to grow bigger and stronger, we will need to start thinking about recruiting better pirates from other more powerful crews. But before we can do that, we must make sure that money is not an issue on our ship,�� said Billy in the most straightforward way.


    ��The other pirate crews have started to contact our members. All of them assume that we will not do well in our first voyage and they are trying to convince them to leave us and join them. How much we sell out loot for doesn��t seem to be the only problem we face...��


    ��...and, I look too young for a captain. Ick experience. To make matters worse, the first thing I did after I became a captain was to recruit a female pirate. Everyone must surely think that I��m just another short-term captain,�� said Zhang Heng, filling in what Billy had to say.


    ��That��s about it. You have to know we all trust you 100%. Not only have you saved our lives, but you also managed to stay calm whenever we are greeted with danger. The journey from Charleston to Nassau was enough to prove that you are more than qualified to be our captain. However, as for others who have not sailed with you before, you can��t me them for not giving you their full trust. What��s happening right now is unfair to you. Usually, new captains would have more time to prepare for the next voyage and bond with his crew members.��


    ��Having a battleship ced us in a position of great advantage. At the same time, it has also dragged us into a great deal of pressure as well. On this ind, many are simply waiting for us to turn into a joke. If we fail to acquire a good amount of loot during our first sail, we will start facing the problem of people quitting our ship. Not to mention the difficulty of recruiting new crew after that.��


    ......


    After an hour and a half, Billy and Dufresne left Zhang Heng��s room, nodding to greet Anne and Carina before they left the house. Carina was still shaken up, having told Zhang Heng everythingst night. However, Zhang Heng informed her that he wanted to discuss the matter with his crew members before giving her an answer.


    Instead of returning to the hotel, Carina decided that she would stay for the night to get the answers she wanted. That said, Zhang Heng was genuinely impressed by what she had achieved. Since her youth, she was carefree and worried not about her life. Before her father was sentenced to prison, she was no different from the nobles anddies hailing from the upper-ss. She would attend proms, operas, and constantly had hi-tea with her friends.


    Last night, she looked for three stools, put them together, and simply slept on it for the whole night. When she woke up the next morning, her neck was sore to say the least. Eventually, she had to spend the entire morning tending to her painful neck. Once Billy and Dufresne left, Carina instantly ran to the first floor, tidying up her messy attire before knocking at Zhang Heng��s door.


    ��Come in.��


    Carina took a deep breath and entered the room.


    Zhang Heng��s study was sparsely decorated. Besides a table, a couple of stools, and a newly made bookshelf, there wasn��t much else. There wasn��t even a single book on the shelf yet. When sunlight poured into the room through the window, itnded on Zhang Heng��s shoulder and colored his hair a bright gold. Zhang Heng was using a parallel ruler on his nautical chart when Carina entered the room. He looked no different from the time when he studied in the library.


    Carina was shocked upon entering the room. She had seen countless pirates throughout her stay in Nassau and discovered that most of them were rude and uncultured. Sometimes, it was hard for her tomunicate with them properly, but to her greatest surprise, Zhang Heng was unlike the conventional pirate. Through the conversation that they hadst night, she noticed that Zhang Heng could be reasoned with and was also extremely observant.


    If it were not for the gun that was strapped his chest and the scar from a knife on his arm, Carina found it hard to associate him with the typical pirate.


    ��The time is set. We will set sail in three days.��


    Zhang Heng��s voice tugged her back to reality. Immediately, Carina��s heart started to thump faster. This ind was different than before. There were only a handful of powerful pirate groups left that had not joined the alliance. Most groups on the ind were poorly equipped and severelycked the workforce to match. In other words, it was unlikely that they would be able to acquire anything valuable. If Zhang Heng rejected her offer, her trip to Nassau would be all but wasted. Not only would she stand a chance to lose her father, but her family might be broke as well.


    ��My helmsman and quartermaster suggested that I should negotiate with the alliance to increase their prices. They don��t believe that you can carry out your promises. They might say yes to you if your father is with your right now, but you have to know that youck experience. This is something that you have never done before.��


    Zhang Heng��s reply was like a bouldernding on Carina��s heart. Though she had prepared for the worst, she still found it hard to ept that she was seen as a miserable failure. She then slouched on the chair and started to cry her heart out. Two months of effort had brought her nowhere. She thought that the Jackdaw might be able to help her to solve her problem, but it seemed that she was wrong. All she could feel right now was despair.


    Of course, Zhang Heng felt sorry for her, though he was left with few other options. Choosing a reliable trading partner was a very delicate decision among all captains. Since Billy and Dufresne ced little hope on Carine, he had to find out for himself if she was really worth his time. To his surprise, though, Carina stopped crying after a minute and lifted her head. There were still tears in her eyes, but the helpless look on her face was gone.


    ��There must be a way. Is there something else I can do?��


    ��Yes. If you can prove yourself to my crew, you might be able to get yourself a deal.��


    Zhang Heng then pointed to a mark on his nautical chart.


    ��Do you know what this ce is?��

 Chapter 146 - Setting Sail

    <h4>Chapter 146: Setting Sail</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    It was a beautiful day when the Jackdaw unmoored and left port.


    The skies were painted a light blue hue; the sea calm and its breeze gentle. Flocks of seagulls hovered above the masts.


    A crowd had gathered at the port to watch the ship��s departure, a rarity for a new pirate gang.


    In the past few days, Zhang Heng overheard about the happenings on the ind. Some of the gambling houses had apparently set up a pool specifically for the Jackdaw��s maiden voyage, betting on how much he could loot during his first sail. Most had put their bets on himing back empty-handed, meaning that many were less-than optimistic about his debut.


    After all, a ship��s performance and firepower did not represent everything. An excellent captain could win a headwind battle regardless of his equipment at hand, and the probability of an inexperienced neer like Zhang Heng losing even in the best of situations was very high.


    Today, Billy arrived before anyone else. As the helmsman of the Jackdaw, he was done delegating the ship��s tasks to everyone and hadpleted the necessary preparations for their maiden voyage.


    Being the captain, Zhang Heng wasst to arrive. Anne came with him as well.


    Quite a few gave out wolf calls at the sight of the two walking down the pier together. Discounting the time that Anne was on the Golden Swallow, there had never been a female pirate in Nassau, what more, one that held the important position of the boatswain. Today was to be considered a historical day for Nassau.


    Considering that the girl had been living in the same house as Zhang Heng, people could not help but let their imagination run wild.


    So, when Zhang Heng and Anne showed up together, all kinds of lewd remarks were spewed. Such was the nature of the human creature. The fact was, the girl had given many of the inders a sound beating; they knew all too well of how extraordinarily strong she was. Be it as it may, the obscene tendencies of the human mind led them to believe that she must have used her body in exchange for the position on the ship.


    James stood among the crowd with raging and envious eyes. He was the first person to be acquainted with Anne, and at that time, she was just the daughter of a wealthy family living with her mother, ass with whimsical fantasies of bing a pirate. It was he who had lured and encouraged Anne to run away with him to Nassau. Of course, he knew what the actual situation here was like. He waited until all of Anne��s money was spent, to the point that they were driven from pir to post. He hoped that she would find no way out and eventually marry him.


    He had coveted Anne for the longest time, not just her body but also her father��s fortune. Although father and daughter were not on speaking terms, James simply needed to wait until things fell into ce. When Anne was pregnant with his child, her father would surely be indisposed to ignore his own grandchild.


    The first half of this n had gone smoothly. Even though Anne kicked James in the crotch and ran away from him, he was very confident that like the vast majority of rebellious teenage girls, she would still have to face reality at the end of the day no matter where she ran to. When the penniless red-haired girl could no longer stand the hunger or find shelter from the rain, she woulde back to him indefinitely.


    Never would he have imagined that halfway through his n, one Zhang Heng would appear. Not only did the boy let her stay in his ce, but he even took care of her meals and living expenses. James did not believe that there would be anyone that kind on this ind�Cunless Zhang Heng had the same motive as he did.


    When James found out that he had apetitor, he was both shocked and pissed, naturally wanting to confront Zhang Heng. But when he found out that the boy was a seaman on the Sea Lion, he quickly abandoned the idea. Everyone in Nassau knew the name, ckbeard. James had to think twice if he could actually endure ckbeard��s anger for harassing his crew.


    2Eventually, he decided to wait until Zhang Heng went out to the sea before he would sneak up on Anne. He advised her to leave the house and return to him, but the girl did not show any signs that she wanted to. After a few times asking her, James could very clearly feel Anne��s resentment toward him, building up, getting stronger with each passing day. The truth was: if not for the fact that both of them had beenpanions for a long time and had arrived at Nassau together, Anne��s kick would havee even earlier.


    That afternoon, James had to lie on the footpath for half an hour before he was well enough to get himself up. Although he still had not given his intentions, he knew that in the short term, he didn��t stand a chance.


    Right now, seeing Zhang Heng and Anne together, James became the loudest among the crowd. But unlike the joyous few who hade to watch, he was so mad he began swearing, which only yielded angry nces from the people around him.


    ��I already warned you,�� Zhang Hengmented to Anne, ��that these kinds of things would happen if you walk with me.��


    Anne could not care less, though. ��What��s there to be afraid of. If I have the balls to be your boatswain, then why should I care about what other people think? Besides, these guys are only brave enough to run their mouths. None of them can fight worth a damn. When wee back with a full load, their mouths will be sewed shut for sure.��


    ��Are you that confident in me?��


    ��That��s because you have the strongest boatswain on the ind.��


    ��...��


    Billy and Dufresne were worried that Zhang Heng and Anne would be affected by the jeering of the people on the shore, but when the moment they saw the expressions on the pair, they realized that they had nothing to worry about.


    With the anchor cast-off and the sails propped, the Jackdaw slowly departed the port in the gentle breeze. Billy was at the center of the deck when he nced at Zhang Heng, who was standing at the bow. Thetter nodded, before the Jackdaw��s helmsman pped his hands to draw the crew��s attention. ��I received news from the shore that there a Spanish merchant ship with a load of perfume is on her way to New York. We all know how popr these things are in the New World�Cwhich is why we came out to sea immediately. That ship is not far from us. If everything goes well, it will take us less than a week to catch up to her. If we seed in our quest, every one of us will get at least 100 silver coins. Let��s work hard together to take our first victory!��


    Upon hearing this, the rest of the crew grinned in eagerness. Nothing could motivate them more than a fat, juicy prey. They could not wait to get the battle started.


    Billy was very satisfied with the morale and enthusiasm disyed by the crew. But having been out at sea on so many voyages, he clearly knew that this was only because they were just at the beginning of their journey. As time went by, the endless monotony a seafarer would face out in the high seas would cause many to be restless. As a result, morale on board would fall�Cespecially when they could not locate their target for days on end. Anxiety would begin to set in, and that would mark the beginning of their troubles.


    Billy��s only hope was that the Jackdaw��s first voyage would go well.


    Zhang Heng returned to the captain��s quarters after setting the course. He took out the ne that Simon gave him from the drawer.


    [Name: Hunter��s Blessing]


    [Grade: F]


    [Function: Increases the chance of encountering prey]


    This thing could finally be put to use.

 Chapter 147 - Switching Targets

    <h4>Chapter 147: Switching Targets</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    The Hunter��s Blessing differed from the Lucky��s Rabbit��s Foot by having a more unusual function, which was why Zhang Heng didn��t get a chance to use it yet.


    It wasn��t before the fourth quest, entering the pirate world and bringing the Jackdaw to begin his own hunting journey that he had any use for this item again.


    The ne was useful to him now, increasing their chances of encountering a target every time they got out to sea. On top of that, the Lucky Rabbit��s Foot should also be able to enhance the ne��s effect. However, probability-based game props such as these generally took effect only after some time.


    In fact, in the past ten days, the Jackdaw did not encounter any prey worth capturing, and the Spanish merchant ship that Billy talked about did not appear.


    The morale on the ship had diminished to a new low,pared to when they first left the dock. Although the crew continued to carry out their duties each day, they were not as enthusiastic as before. There was even some cking amongst the men. Nevertheless, as long as everything was kept in check, Billy and the crew said nothing. No matter how outstanding the helmsman or captain was, it was impossible to keep the crew at an excited state forever; unless they had some sort of driving force such as Kidd��s treasure.


    On top of that, the newly recruited cook and carpenter seemed a little unreliable, where the chef��s unimaginative cooking caused ack of appetite among the sailors. Fortunately, the batch of dried vegetables and fruits that Zhang Heng prepared came in handy. The pirates knew how rare those things were out at sea, and the lemonade was a source of relief that greatly subdued theints on the ship.


    There were also many problems with the resident carpenter. Here was a guy that imed a wless resume and excellent theoretical knowledge, but after boarding the ship, he could not even do the simplest of repairs on a barrel. His skills were far from what he had described during the interview.


    Of course, Zhang Heng was mentally prepared for this. There were bound to be all kinds of problems with the new recruits. However, having older men from the Sea Lion was much better than building the team up from nothing. In fact, just two days ago, Billy worked with Zhang Heng to disperse a fight among the crew. Because the experienced seamen quickly found out about the brawl, it was resolved before things got worse. Neither party in the dispute used weapons, and thankfully, the damage it incurred was minimum. In the end, they were only punished to two weeks of deck cleaning.


    In general, the atmosphere on the ship was manageable, but on the eleventh day, Billy knocked on the door of the captain��s cabin.


    ��It looks like we��ll need to change targets.��


    The helmsman appeared a little troubled. Situations like this were not umon. Most of the information about merchant ships came from the ind��s information dealers, who collected their intelligence mainly from the boats docked in Nassau. Along the lines of transmission, packets of information would be either lost or mistranted. To make matters worse,st-minute route changes often urred. Thus, obtaining information did not necessarily mean that they would surely find the target.


    To be able to survive the high seas, neither merchants nor pirates had a definite route. Every so often, when the captains found out that their travel ns were disclosed, they would immediately set up a backup n and divert course.


    ��I have one more lead. It��s the Duffy, a tobo carrier. But then again, tobo is everywhere in the New World; it��s price can��t match up to perfume. There��s good news, though. The Duffy is also on this route, so we won��t have to change course. We just need to continue chasing.�� Billy paused for a moment, attempting to avoid adding more pressure on Zhang Heng. He tried to encourage his captain, adding, ��We have only been at sea for ten days. We still have time. Our food and water on board are enough tost us for a month and a half. We will definitely return fully loaded.��


    Still, perhaps it was due to the helmsman��s recent raising of the g that the Jackdaw��s gains in the following week were few and far between. They did not even catch a glimpse of the Duffy��s shadow. They did, however,e across two other merchant ships that didn��t even put up a fight. The moment they caught sight of the Jackdaw��s ck g, they immediately surrendered.


    The pirates�� excitement were short-lived, though. The ships turned out to be transporting a less than lucrative cargo. One carried potatoes while the other hauled copper ore. There was plenty of it, but they were worth very little even in the colony. Also, if they moved those things back to the Jackdaw, her speed would be significantly reduced. As a result, the heavy vessel might fail to catch up to her main target.


    After much deliberation, the crew decided to give up robbing the two ships. Unfortunately, the failure to plunder anything had turned the seamen anxious. Billy, the representative of the crew, felt it the most and started to me himself.


    He had purchased the two pieces of information from dealers that he was familiar with. He was also the one who rmended this route to Zhang Heng. Ultimately, this caused them to be in the predicament that they were in now. The Jackdaw had powerful guns, but she couldn��t find a target worthy of her firepower. Factoring in the time it would take for them to return, they were desperately running out of time to hunt.


    So, on the neenth day, Billy went to meet Zhang Heng. ��This is all my mistake. We shouldn��t have chosen this unpopr route. You reminded me of the risks, but I let that perfume ship get to my head. If we had chosen a more popr route from the beginning, we would��ve made a lot of money by now.��


    ��Billy, this is not your fault. We discussed this together and even had the crew��s consent. You��re not responsible for our situation right now,�� Zhang Heng said. ��Anyone getting such information back on the ind would surely give it a try.��


    ��But this is our maiden voyage; that��s the problem,��mented the helmsman who smiled bitterly. ��Right now, we don��t have a lot of room to make mistakes. I thought the intelligence was good since there is little pirate activity in the vicinity. I really don��t know why we still haven��t seen the two ships�Cwhich is why I��m suggesting that we change course immediately and try our luck on a more popr route. The nearest one from here only takes about five days. If we are lucky, we can still hunt for about a week.��


    ��But that route is also frequented by pirate hunters and the navy,�� Zhang Heng said. ��If you had told me that you wanted to go there when we left port, I wouldn��t have said anything against it. But with the low morale on the ship right now, what do you think our chances of winning are?��


    Billy fell silent. He knew what Zhang Heng said was true. The helmsman sighed, ��We should have taken that copper ship. At least, we could hand out some money to everyone.��


    Zhang Heng shook his head. ��Those things are useless. We are a warship, and our cargo hold is limited. If we want to take anything, it would have to be valuable. Besides, this is our first voyage. Only a big win can boost our reputation.��


    Billy looked a little confused. Naturally, Zhang Heng, the captain, should have been most anxious. If they returned from their first voyage empty-handed, it would mean that the captain would likely be removed from his position. Right now, however, Zhang Heng did not seem worried at all.


    Zhang Heng pointed to a small ind on the map. ��Based on our course and speed, we should arrive at this spot tonight.��

 Chapter 148 - Fresh Water Island

    <h4>Chapter 148: Fresh Water Ind</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    Zhang Heng knew better than anyone that the maiden voyage was extremely important for a new captain. Besides, many from Nassau were hoping that Zhang Heng would fail his first sail. He had to prove them wrong. The moment he returned to Nassau, he noticed that a lot of people were paying attention to him. Thebination of a mighty battleship and the overly young captain seemed like vulnerable prey to a lot of people.


    Once the Jackdaw pulled into shore, Zhang Heng had to consider his worst-case scenario. He did not doubt that Billy and the rest of the old crew members were loyal to him, and after the Kidd��s treasure incident, Zhang Heng knew that all 16 of them would not betray him�Cfor now, at least. That said, he had to consider the possibility of them being manipted by others.


    When they were told that the ship that carried perfume and the Daffy would cross an unpopr shipping line, Zhang Feng felt that it was simply too much of a coincidence. When he thought of how stern the ck market alliance was, he realized that his first sail had gone too smoothly to be true. Luckily, he still had a trump card with him. He and Carina were considered as outsiders on the ind. Since she hoped to earn little more money to rescue her father from prison, she was devastated when she found out that a ck market alliance was being set up on the ind. Right now, she needed the Jackdaw to supply her with loot so she could sell them elsewhere. At the same time, Zhang Heng needed someone like Carina to get rid of his plunder as well.


    Zhang Heng thought differently from Billy and the rest of the pirates. From the very beginning, he had no intention to work together with the ck market alliance. Frazer was not the only problem. A lot of people did not realize how dangerous the ck market alliance was. Once these people dominated the market in Nassau, every pirate would lose their rights to negotiate the buying price.


    Undoubtedly, it was not that easy to be a captain of a pirate ship. One had to be courageous, valiant, and filled with experience to master the position. The crew believed that their captains would lead them to wealth and glory all around the world. Loot that could not be sold out wasn��t wealth to them. In other words, if the ck market alliance dominated the market in Nassau, they were capable of refusing the loot from the captains that they wanted to eliminate. With such power at hand, the ck market merchants would continuously have a grip over the fate of the pirates.


    This was a situation that Zhang Heng dreaded. Other captains might have already figured this out, but it was hard for them to reject the ck market alliance��s offer. Not only would the alliance increase their buying price, they even told the captains that the proposal was only valid as long as they remained captains. That would mean their crew had to think twice before they betrayed their captains as it could cost them tremendous loss.


    Undeniably, this could help fortify the captain��s position on the ship. Of course, there were risks to be considered if they decided to take part in the ck market alliance, but they figured that they��d only cross the bridge when they came to it. Fundamentally, being a pirate was always a high-risk upation; most of them did not care about what happened tomorrow.


    Zhang Heng was different from them, though. The existence of the ck market alliance interfered with his growth as a captain and here, Carina was offering him another way out. Billy and Dufresne might consider her inexperienced, but Zhang Heng begged to differ. He yearned for a trade partner that allowed him to preserve his rights when trading took ce. He needed to know that the loot his pirates acquired could be turned into cold hard cash. Carina was perfect for him, but of course, he still wanted her to prove her worth.


    The Jackdaw reached Freshwater Ind before sunset, an uninhabited blotch of sand with andmass of fewer than 20 acres. There were thousands of inds like this in the Caribbean, and most didn��t even have a name. The ind was named Freshwater Ind when Magennded here as he traveled around the world. For years, many were confused by the name of this ind, as the ce was, in fact, devoid of fresh water. Magen named it Freshwater Ind because of a mighty storm that swept through the ind. The arrival of the storm enabled his crew to collect enough fresh water for drinking.


    After the conditions on the ind were made known to many, it became even more deste. Zhang Heng moored his ship close to the ind before rowing to it in a small boat with Anne and Billy. To their surprise, they quickly discovered that someone was here before them. As a result, they did not continue forward. Instead, Zhang Heng made a signal by whistling. Soon, someone emerged from the forest. Zhang Heng was left in shock when he saw who it was. Earlier, Carina told him that she would send a messenger to deliver news to him. He did not expect to see her here in person here.


    She did not look too good. Zhang Heng figured she might have been alone on this ind at least for a day or two. Even though the boat that dropped her here left her with enough food and water, it was still no less of an impressive feat that she was here all alone. Carina was bursting with excitement the moment she saw Zhang Heng. Considering that the area wasn��t a popr shipping route, she could have easily died if Zhang Heng hadn��te to pick her up.


    ��I have checked everything you��ve asked me to check. I think you��ll be interested in one of the ships. Half a month ago, it departed North Carolina, and it��s hauling a full load of spice.��


    ��Spice?


    ��Yes. Nutmegs from the Maluku Inds! Surprisingly, they appeared in a New World colony as they are nning to return to Europe. I heard that in London, the price of nutmeg isparable to gold!��


    ��How far are we from the ship?��


    ��I just consulted my ship��s captain, and he said that we should be able to catch up to them in about ten days if we continue at our current speed�Cprovided that the wind is at our back.��


    ��Come on then. Follow me to my ship.��


    Zhang Heng walked towards the boat lying on the beach. Billy was still rather startled after hearing what Carina said.


    ��I asked Ms. Carina to do us a favor. She used her connections in Boston to tell her if there any ships that are worth our time.��


    ��But... wasn��t she in Nassau?!��


    ��After we were done talking that day, she traveled back to Boston immediately. I chose to stop at Freshwater Ind because this is the ind closet to Boston. But, I have to admit that Ms. Carina is really good at what she does. I told her that our time is limited, which means she was only in Boston for less than a day since she managed to meet us here.��

 Chapter 149 - Limits and Doubts

    <h4>Chapter 149: Limits and Doubts</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    Two pirates were working together at the gunwale. One of them tossed a wood nk with a rope around it into the sea while the other counted the time. Once the time was up, the pirate stopped the rope and calcted the length of rope that was being released into the sea.


    ��Current speed is 10 knots!��


    Most ships from western countries in the 18th century used this method to calcte their speed. Of course, it was not 100% urate because the sea itself was fluid and was constantly flowing all the time. However, it was more than adequate. A more precise method to calcte speed wouldn��t invented until the 20th century.


    Zhang Heng stood on the deck in a ck shirt, guiding his pirates in adjusting the mainsail ording to the wind��s direction. The Jackdaw had just raised the sails on her mainmast and secondary mast. This allowed them to steam ahead at full speed. However, pushingthe vessel to her limits also caused the masts to be under a lot of pressure. Knowing that they were at breaking point, Zhang Heng instantly instructed the pirates to pull back the ropes and tie them at the stern. As for Zhang Heng, he acted as the helmsman to ensure that the draft was perfectly adjusted.


    After a short moment of creaks and violent vibrations, the ship finally adapted to its current speed. Once everything had smoothened out, Zhang Heng passed the ship��s wheel back to the original helmsman. He then instructed the watcher to continue to observe the draft.


    Carina was standing at the side and silently observed every move of Zhang Heng. Of course, her mind was in a raging storm as opposed to her calm looks. When she was in Nassau, she had went around asking about Zhang Heng. She got to know that he was initially a passenger on a merchant ship. After that, his masterful marksmanship earned him a ce as one of the Sea Lion��s pirates. They told her that Zhang Heng was not used to living out at sea, suffering severe seasickness on the way back to Nassau. It was during that time that he almost lost his life.


    In a year, Zhang Heng worked his way from an ordinary pirate to the boatswain of the Sea Lion. Not too long after that, he led a group of old pirates to leave the Queen Anne��s Revenge. By the time he arrived in Nassau, he was already the captain of a battleship with arge pirate crew under his watch. The swift intensity of his growth cast doubt upon the inders on whether he had enough experience or wisdom to lead a ship full of pirates.


    Before all these, Carina thought the same as well. However, her opinion of himpletely changed after the two of them exchanged words. The man standing before her waspletely different from the pirates that she had encountered before. He wasn��t supposed to possess such a high level of charm and maturity at this age. This was what she thought about him anyway. That said, it did not mean others would feel the same way.


    She finally got to see how Zhang Heng led his people now that she was aboard his ship. His behavior did not make him look like a new captain at all. When he was greeted with various challenges, he would somehow look for a way to solve them one by one. After spending a few days with Zhang Heng on the ship, Carina was no longer as surprised as she was, knowing that it would be hard for a man with such discipline not to seed.


    Carina used to see Zhang Heng sparring with Anne before the sun came up. She also noticed that he would always seek guidance from a more experienced crewman on the ship. Whenever he had the time, he would head to the captain��s quarters and go through a bunch of books left by the ship��s previous owner. Before this, the Jackdaw was a corvette, and there were tons of books about warfare lying in the study. Between these books were also manuscripts holding a wealth of descriptions about different ces of the world.


    He looked at this world with a view from the future, and that helped him to ept that he was not actually in the real world. Though there were still heaps of things that he could not understand, reading those books would definitely help him to blend into this era better. To him, it was fun to learn about foreign cultures and exciting events that happened during this time in history.


    On the other hand, Zhang Heng had re-evaluated Carina as well. He found out that she was more decisive than he��d initially expected. He realized why she changed her mind and chose to deliver the news to him personally. She simply wanted to ensure that nothing would go wrong. It also showed that she was serious about this deal. Though ck market merchants were a part of Nassau, they lived very different from the pirates. Most of them had families and thrived among the upper society. Their job was simply to buy, sell, deliver and they typically did not participate in raids.


    This was to ensure that they could easily cut off all ties with the pirates if things went south. Undoubtedly, it was unwise for Carina to get aboard a pirate ship. Now, that her fate was tied with Zhang Heng, even he had to admit that she had gone all out to win his trust. Carina was born to be a risk-taker. Maybe she would be able to outy the ck market alliance and carve her own path. This, however, wasn��t the time for her to think about something that was so far ahead. When she saw there was nothing on the sea apart from the Jackdaw, she started to grow more and more anxious.


    This was the 32nd day that the Jackdaw left Nassau��s harbor. Half the ship��s food and water supply had already been consumed, and there were only some vegetables and dried fruits left. This was Zhang Heng��s first time setting out to sea, and it was impossible for him to anticipate every possibility that might happen. The humidity from the sea had caused the vegetables and fruits to go moldy. Left with no other food, everyone on the ship had to go back to eating dried, smoked fish. Still, that would onlyst about 20 days. In other words, Zhang Heng had to turn his ship back to Nassau soon, or his crew would starve.


    Zhang Heng was frustrated, but there was nothing he could do. He had tried his best to have a backup n for everything, but still faced all sorts of unexpected events. Even the best captain of the Caribbean could not guarantee that he would be able to return with a ship filled with loot every time. No matter what, Zhang Heng needed to win this war.


    As time passed, Zhang Heng could feel the changes in everyone��s emotions. Not only was it evident among the new recruits, but old pirates like Billy and Dufresne also started to lose hope as well. Carine was no exception. Last night, she knocked at the door of the captain��s quarters, telling Zhang Heng that she suspected that everyone from the colony might know about her father getting into jail. There was a possibility that her friend from the customs had betrayed her. The ship that carried nutmeg could be nothing more than a high tale made up by them. In the worst-case scenario, this could even be a trap set by the navy.


    ��I��ve thought about it over and over again. It��s impossible that our target would have sailed all the way to the New World. There��s something fishy going on here. I remember my father telling me that he has two enemies from Boston,�� said Carina in a nervous manner.


    ��Now, if this is a trap, why would they make up something that is so ridiculous then?��


    Zhang Heng proceeded to the galley and poured Carina a ss of rum.

 Chapter 150 - Leadership

    <h4>Chapter 150: Leadership</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    After Carina emptied down an entire bottle of rum, Zhang Heng finally managed to divert her attention from the ship that carried spices. After a short moment of silence, she eventually switched topics, beginning to spiral into a rant about her childhood. She spoke of an absent father, a mother that was addicted to partying, her mother��s lover, an older sister that liked to take her stuff, and a dog named Parker. Everything that she said was in pieces, but it was indubitably filled with emotion.


    ��I thought that we didn��t like each other that much. I thought that my mother would have gone away with her lover when my father was sent to jail. I thought that my sister would have gone to London to learn how to paint better. My family was born broken. I��ve realized it when I was only six. Everyone, including me... we just bloody mind our own business. The strange thing was that no one left the family when we received the bad news.��


    ��This doesn��t make sense to me. We spend our entire lives trying to get out of this hellhole. Why did everyone stay when we had the opportunity to run from it?��


    While Zhang Heng was waiting for her answer, she suddenly changed topics again and was now rambling on about the salon. She startedining about how terrible the dessert was and how the guests around her behaved like hypocrites. After that, she began an iprehensible mumble before falling into a deep sleep on the table. Zhang Heng decided that he would not wake her and left her to sleep it off in his room. He then left the captain��s quarters. Zhang Heng wasn��t worried about Carina finding out his secret as the captain��s quarters only contained books and nothing else.


    There was no one in the corridor when Zhang Heng left the room. He walked for a while but stumbled all of a sudden. Leaning on the wall for support, he closed his eyes. This time, he could feel exhaustion and fatigue engulfing him. The ship was now in apletely different atmosphere from when they just left the harbor. The entire Jackdaw was surrounded by hopelessness.


    After the perfume ship and the Duffy incident, almost everyone started to be suspicious about the intel provided by Carina. Even after Zhang Heng told them about the boat that was loaded with spices, none of them seemed too enthusiastic. As time passed, more and more crew started to groan andin. Even Zhang Heng himself wasn��t as calm as before. If his first voyage ended a failure, things would surely get worse for the Jackdaw. As the captain of the ship, Zhang Heng would be held responsible for every single thing that took ce on his vessel. His situation would turn even more dangerous if he returned to Nassau with no loot on the ship.


    Everyone on the Jackdaw had the right toin and be cynical about the voyage, except for Zhang Heng. He couldn��t afford to show his crew any negativity. The only person that they could rely on in their helplessness was their captain. No matter what, they would always turn to Zhang Heng, hoping that he would somehow solve their current predicament and guide them to the path of sess. His confidence and calmness were the only things that could put everyone��s mind at ease.


    This crisis had a silver lining, though. If Zhang Heng managed to lead them out of the rut, he would be able to gain massive respect from the new recruits and the old members alike. His position would be legitimized, and they would see him as the true leader of the Jackdaw.


    But would he be able to do it?


    Zhang Heng did not know the answer to this question. For the few quests that hepleted earlier, he just needed to take good care of himself andplete whatever tasks that were given to him. When he was in school, he always preferred to be alone than to mingle around. It was not that he was bad at socializing; he just did not fancy it.


    His main goal for this quest was to build his force, a challenge that he had never faced before. From the very beginning, he was involved with Frazer and Orff. Not only did he spend a great deal of time learning different skills from different pirates that served on the Sea Lion, but he also considered a lot about the way Orff and Teach led their people. When it came to this, Frazer undoubtedly provided him with lots of guidance, teaching him that not all captains shared the same characteristics. The only trait they shared was to utilize the people that they led fully.


    Just like Edward Teach, he rarely got involved in the things that happened on the ship. However, he still managed to earn a lot of respect from his crew. For three years, no one on the ship had the guts to challenge his authority. One legendary pirate such as Sam, the ck Prince, was known as the best captain in the entire Nassau. Everyone on his ship remained loyal to him to the ends of the earth. And pirates like Honneg was known for his generosity, having a huge following even after he had retired.


    1Zhang Heng woke up early in the morning and started to think about his signature trait. He could not use fear to rule his people as Teach had, and neither was he a social butterfly like ck Prince as well. Also, he was not as generous as Honneg. In the end, Zhang Heng decided that trust could be his signature trait. He hoped that the people on the Jackdaw would continue to trust him no matter what, especially during a crisis like this. So far, his people would execute all hismands even if they did not know the reason behind his decision. This was made possible by the deep trust they had in him.


    Zhang Heng knew that this was not going to be an easy path, realizing that he could not gain their trust just like that. He had to endure several massive crises with his crew to gain their absolute trust. If he managed to seed, his pirates would be equipped with an excellent ability to execute orders and possess a strong will. It would be hard for their enemies to break them down. Right now, Zhang Heng had to lead them out of this crisis to kickstart his n.


    ........


    ��You look tired.��


    Zhang Heng heard someone talking to him from the dark. He then opened his eyes and saw Anne standing in front of him with an oilmp. Because of the eerie atmosphere around them, Anne looked like a ghost poised to haunt Zhang Heng.


    ��The two of you...��


    Anne grew slightly suspicious when she saw the door that was closed behind him.


    ��Erm... she��s here to talk about the n for tomorrow.��


    ��n for tomorrow? Aren��t we supposed to go after that ship carrying spices.��


    ��........��


    Zhang Heng was left speechless. Of the entire ship, Anne was the only one that had never doubted his ns. He was relieved when he saw that she wasn��t that worried. Before he could reply to her, the watcher suddenly shouted at Zhang Heng.


    ��Ship spotted!!! There��s a ship in front of us!��

 Chapter 151 - Let’s Begin

    <h4>Chapter 151: Let��s Begin</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    The loud shouts of the watcher alerted most of the pirates who were fast asleep. Most of them scooted out of their cabins to the deck in a frenzy. Some of them were even undressed. Zhang Heng and Anne were already out on the deck. With a pair of binocrs in hand, the captain watched the approaching ship from afar.


    ��So? What about it?�� asked Billy.


    ��We��ve got abysmal visibility tonight. I can��t see it. I��m not sure if that��s the ship that we are going after,�� said Zhang Heng while handing the binocrs to his helmsman.


    The weather today didn��t seem to cooperate. It was a dark, foggy, moonless night. The stars that usually lit up the night sky were nowhere to be seen as well. It was actually a miracle that the watcher even managed to spot the ship. That said, that was all they knew about the approaching vessel. There were only four hours left till dawn, and Zhang Heng had no intention to take any risks.


    Firing his cannons now was equivalent to a gamble, where even the best cannoneer would find it hard tond one hit in ten shots. It was unecessary to waste ammunition just like that. Every failed shot that they fired would cost them a lot more money to replenish the armory, and even if the cannoneer was somehow lucky enough to hit the ship, they might not be able to move all the spices back since their surroundings were pitch ck.


    ��Let��s follow him for now. Be careful not to get within its sights.��


    Billy and the rest of the pirates were fine with Zhang Heng��s decision. If Carina was right about this ship, their target had at least a dozen six and nine-pound cannons. Although the Jackdaw far outgunned them, it was still unjustified in attacking at night. It would be a safer and wiser decision for them to wait it out till day broke.


    Soon, Zhang Heng assigned more watchers to keep an eye on the ship, grouping two into a team to ensure that they would their target wouldn��t slip away. As for the rest of the crew, Zhang Heng instructed them to return and to rest to prepare for tomorrow��s raid.


    However, most of the pirates were not sleepy anymore. Most were ready to return to Nassau after spending an entire month on this ship empty-handed. Just as they were about to give up on the operation, they saw hope again. For those that couldn��t sleep, they harnessed their weapons and began to sharpen them.


    15 minutester, it appeared that the watcher from the other ship had discovered that the Jackdaw was tailing them. Immediately, they sped up to attempt to escape the Jackdaw. Billy and the rest of the pirates were lit with excitement when they saw their prey trying to shake them off. Until now, the ck g of the Jackdaw hadn��t yet been flown. Besides, considering that the visibility around the area was extremely low, there was no way they would figure out that a pirate ship was tailing them.


    That could only mean one thing. The merchant vessel was carrying something precious. Even if it wasn��t spices, it could be something else that was equally valuable. After trying to get away from the Jackdaw for a while, they realized that they couldn��t shake them off. Instead, the two vessels had now crept up to each other.


    By then, the merchant vessel discovered that a navy battleship was the one after them. Considering that they were armed and heavily loaded with cargo, they could only move at a modest four to five knots at the fastest. There was no way that they could outrun the speeding Jackdaw. So, in desperation, they decided to slow down and arm all their cannons, preparing to open fire.


    Under normal circumstances, they were no match to the battleship. However, the night had be their best cover, and besides, luck was the critical factor in this fight. If they managed tond their cannonballs on the Jackdaw��s armory, they might just be able to turn the tide around.


    The crew of the merchant ship knew that this was theirst chance to attack their pursuer. Once the sun was up, there was no way that they could beat them anymore. To their surprise, Zhang Heng slowed down the Jackdaw as well. She still followed them closely but kept outside their shooting range. Despair hit the merchant crew when they realized that time was quickly drifting away from them. There was nothing else they could do about the Jackdaw, as they could not fire, nor could they flee.


    At the same time, the Jackdaw made her final preparations for the uing war. The helmsman carefully executed every order given by Zhang Heng, ensuring that there was at least a nautical mile between them and their prey. Simrly, the merchant ship attempted to fire, but s, it failed miserably. Eventually, they gave up and decided to stop the pointless attacks.


    When the sun came up, Zhang Heng confirmed through his binocrs that the merchant ship was hauling a grand load of nutmeg. From the size of the ship, their g, and the number of cannons, it almost precisely matched the information provided by Carina. All of a sudden, the sorrow and despair of the Jackdaw��s crew was reced by an ted sense of happiness. Finally, they got to reap what they had sowed. This boosted the pirates�� spirits in an unprecedented manner. Zhang Heng was at the bow with Anne and Billy to discuss the final battle n.


    ��First, we will fire at them twice. Our primary targets are their masts and main deck. We need to make sure that they lose their mobility and kill as many as their crew as possible. We do not want to damage the structure of the ship. The spices will be worthless if water floods into the hull. Once they surrender, we��ll close in and start organizing our people to plunder them.��


    It was at that time that Carina finally woke up. With a terrible hangover looming over her head, she remembered bits and pieces of what she told Zhang Hengst night and was worried that Zhang Heng��s impression toward her had changed for the worse.


    ��Your identity is somewhat sensitive around here. You should head to the captain��s quarters and stay there. Remember to close the windows. You don��t want anyone from the merchant ship to spot you.��


    Zhang Heng needed her help to sell off all the spices that he was about to lootter. It was risky enough for her to get on the Jackdaw and chase down the merchant ship. She was sincere enough about sealing the deal, and Zhang Heng had no doubts about it. There was no reason for her to reveal herself to the merchants on the shipter. If she was exposed to the customs officers, she would be left with no other options but to be a pirate. Carina did not insist on lingering on, clearly understanding the decision Zhang Heng made. She quickly thanked him and left the deck.


    ��Ask the cannoneers to get ready. It��s time to fight,�� proimed Zhang Heng to Billy.

 Chapter 152 - First Battle At Sea

    <h4>Chapter 152: First Battle At Sea</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    The moment the sun rose, the boom of cannons firing broke the ocean��s silence. The one that fired first was the merchant vessel called the Happiness. However, they lost whatever hope they had when they saw the Jackdaw raising its ck g. To make sure that the cargo on their ship was safe from plunder, they had deliberately chosen a less popr shipping line to travel on and was mum about their route so far.


    Their voyage was smooth for about a month, with no encounters of any pirates whatsoever. Just when they thought that they were out of the red, the Jackdaw spotted them. s, their effort was all but wasted.


    With help from the sunlight, they could finally see the true form of the Jackdaw. Some of the crew instantly knew that they were going to lose the battle, losing theirst straw of hope once they confirmed that the ship in pursuit of them was indeed a battleship. The unfortunate incident in Charleston was now widespread amongst the colonies. Two governor-generals and a high-ranking officer were killed on that night. At the same time, the entire Charleston suffered the relentless attacks from cannons. This could be one of the most severe incidents happening in the New World. There were even hushed whispers that the navy lost a corvette that night as well.


    Aspared to what happened in Charleston, few paid much attention to the corvette. When the merchant ship��s crew saw the Jackdaw, they started to realize that this ship could actually be the lost navy corvette. Undoubtedly, thebination of pirates and a heavily armed corvette had the merchant ship��s crew believing that this might genuinely be the end of thier road.


    That said, those who decided tomit their careers to the ocean were no cowards. Though they knew that they could not outgun the Jackdaw, they would instead take their chances and try to defeat it regardless. After all, the ship��s cargo was valuable enough for them to protect it with their lives.


    Unfortunately, most of their shots missed their targets with only one cannonball managing to fly pass the gunwale. Pumped up with adrenalin, the newly recruited cannoneers were eager to return fire.


    ��Captain, do we attack now?!��


    ��Hold your horses for a little while more.��


    Now that Jackdaw had entered the Happiness�� effective range, they should be able to return fire. However, uracy wouldn��t be that great, where the cannons would lose their effectivity once they were too far away from their targets. If the distance was right, though, the Jackdaw could easily destroy a merchant ship with one volley of shots. This could prevent them from turning the battle into an endless exchange of fire. Before getting closer to them, the Jackdaw had to endure the attacks from their enemy. The good thing was that it should be strong enough to do so.


    Soon, the Happiness was poised tounch the second wave of attacks. This time, their experienced cannoneers managed tond a few urate shots on the Jackdaw. Three cannonballsnded on the gunwale, and anothernded on the mainsail. Fortunately, this did little to damage the vessel, allowing her pirates a little room for relief.


    The third wave of cannonballs were iing. This time, the Jackdaw had gotten really close to the Happiness. Their offense had managed to put a few holes on Jackdaw��s deck, however, with a cannonball managing to find its way to a spot unprotected by iron tes. Secondster, seawater started to gush into a cabin that was located at the lowest deck of the Jackdaw. Immediately, the carpenter grabbed his tools and started to fix the leak.


    At that moment, more and more of the Jackdaw��s crew urged Zhang Heng to return fire. Even Billy could not help but stare at his captain. Still, he did not say a single word. Zhang Heng had participated in quite several battles while he was serving on the Sea Lion. This was his very first time orchestrating his own battle. Back then, he simply needed to protect himself and eliminate all enemies that got close to him, and once his nks were clear, he could lend a hand to his allies as well.


    He was only required to pay attention to the continually changing circumstances when he helped to take down the Scarborough. Also, in an ordinary battle, all he needed to do was to pay small attention to a number of things that happened around him, simr to his battles in the Soviet Union.


    Right now, he wasmanding an entire battleship. He needed to figure out how to win the battle at the lowest possible cost. Undeniably, the Jackdaw had way more potent firepower than the Happiness. However, the Happiness had more experienced cannoneers. If only he could pull closer to his enemy, it would be hard for the Jackdaw��s cannoneers to miss their target.


    That was why Zheng Heng took the risk of getting closer to the Happiness. During the fourth wave of attack, some of the pirates on the deck were injured. Even Zhang Heng��s arm was sliced by a ricocheting splinter. Still, he remained his calm, continuing to observe the enemy through a pair of binocrs. He could see that their cannons were being reloaded at an incredible speed and were now about tounch their fifth wave.


    Finally, Zhang Heng broke the silence and gave his crew a newmand.


    ��Slow down the ship! Hard to starboard!��


    The crew had been anxiously waiting for Zhang Heng��smand, and the moment they got the order, they used the shortest time possible to retract the sails to cut some speed. As a result, the maneuver managed to dodge the fifth wave of cannonballs. At the same time, the Jackdaw pulled up to the Happiness�� side.


    In this era, chase guns were mounted on the bow and stern of some sailing ships and would only be used in an emergency. Side cannons were still their primary weapons. That was why the sailors from Happiness had to make sure that their hull faced the target before they couldunch an attack. Once they were locked in a state of battle, it would be hard for them to maneuver the ship.


    As of now, the pirates on the Jackdaw held massive grudges against the Happiness after enduring four waves of consecutive attacks. The moment Zhang Heng permitted them to open fire, the pirates mercilessly lit their cannons and fired with everything that they had. Though half their shots missed their mark, the other half of the cannonballs were more than sufficient to cause massive damage to the Happiness.


    One of the 24-pound cannonballs managed to hit their secondary mast. Two sailors were crushed to death by the falling pir. After witnessing the Jackdaw��s overwhelming firepower, the sailors on the Happiness were in a state of panic. However, some were still adamant about returning fire. Unironically, they were overwhelmed by the constant onught of cannonballs that wereunched at them.


    Even so, if Zhang Heng hadn��t ordered his pirates to adjust the cannons to a higher trajectory, they would have destroyed the Happiness during the second wave of attack. Just as expected, the sailors on Happiness finally epted that they could never defeat the Jackdaw. More of their crew would die if the battle were prolonged.


    In the end, they chose to surrender.


    Zhang Heng was not as excited as the pirates on his ship because he knew that they were just about to encounter the real danger. ording to the intel given by Carina, there were about 30 sailors on the Happiness. The worst part was, there were also 20 young navy officers on board as well. Clearly, the crew on the Jackdaw were outnumbered.

 Chapter 153 - The Return

    <h4>Chapter 153: The Return</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    It had been 55 days since the Jackdaw left the harbor, and all kinds of rumors were being spread around Nassau. Some said that they encountered a great storm, causing them to lose their way. Others talked about how they saw the navy capturing them, destroying their ship, and killing her entire crew. Some even imed that they had crossed paths with mermaids, whose songs had bewitched the poor sailors in jumping into the sea.


    All these rumors shared amon theme: the Jackdaw was never going to return to Nassau. The amount of food and water that Zhang Heng loaded was no secret. A month and a half had already passed, and even if they did not encounter any mishaps, they would have run out of food and water by now.


    Situations like this weremon among newly formed pirate crews. The reason Zhang Heng managed to capture so much attention was that he owned a corvette, and had the audacity to recruit a female pirate. Those who gambled on the Jackdaw not returning to Nassau were filled with excitement. As for the bystanders, they were disappointed by the Jackdaw��s fate. They would rather have the ship return empty-handed and see Zhang Heng getting stripped of the captain title by his own crew.


    On the other hand, James remained true to himself. He proceeded to the tavern to have a drink once he received the news that the Jackdaw was gone forever. Somehow, he felt joyous that Zhang Heng was killed as he had taken his Anne away from him. However, when he thought about her, the smile on his face disappeared. He had used a great deal of effort to convince Anne toe to the New World and even spent a ton of money on her as well. Unfortunately, everything had gone to waste. Suddenly, James felt that the rum he was drinking had be devoid of taste.


    The only person on the entire ind who felt sad for the Jackdaw was Harry. He was drowning in sorrow for the past few days. Without Anne around, he soon dominated the few streets that were around him. Although kids were giving him money, he still felt that life had be pointless since Anne was no longer here. With hands in his pockets, Harry kicked around the pebbles on the road while he walked. He could not help but miss the moments when he got beaten up by Anne.


    Anne��s fists were filled with power and fury when she beat Harry up. ording to Harry, every single punch that Anne delivered carried a particr message for him. He imed that he could feel his chest burning with passion each time she stuck him. Unfortunately, he would never get to see her again. He let out a long, exasperated sigh, one that did not match his age. The two kids that followed him started to suspect that their boss had gone insane.


    1It was at that moment that the three saw someone running from the harbor to the casino.


    ��The Jackdaw is back! They are back! Hahaha! I didn��t lose my bet!�� screamed the person in excitement while running.


    Of course, the three were shocked when they heard that the Jackdaw was back in Nassau. Everyone around here had epted the fact that the Jackdaw was never going to return forever. Naturally, they should havee back a long time ago. Thus, ording to some experienced pirates, this was a clear sign that they were dead as they had failed to return on the expected date. None of them thought that the Jackdaw would be able to defy all logic and made it back in one piece.


    Immediately, Harry ran to the harbor as fast as his legs could carry him. There was already a crowd gathering at the pier, eager to see what was going on. Due to his small size, Harry managed to squeeze through the crowd and was soon in front of everyone. He saw a boat approaching the harbor. However, his heart fell when he saw that the person standing on the deck wasn��t Anne but a woman that he had never seen before.


    The people gathering around had probably grown numb of seeing so many females popping out of the Jackdaw. Nevertheless, nobody really cared about Zhang Heng��s personal life. They were more concerned about the loot acquired from this trip. The few pirates who sent the woman to the harbor returned to the Jackdaw without saying a word. The first thing Carina did was to look for the captain of her ship. She told him something, and right after that, they quickly gathered all their sailors to their boat. They said nothing even though the crowd erupted into a bombardment of questions.


    Their unusual behavior only drew more questions. Finally, someone in the crowd recognized the woman as Carina, the ck-market merchant. Before the Jackdaw set sail, she had attempted to strike a deal with certain captains and ck-market merchants from Nassau. In the end, she chose not to join the ck-market alliance. Many thought that she had left Nassau for good after the failures. Nobody expected her to strike a deal with the Jackdaw.


    After that, the crowd saw that the Gentle Breeze, a merchant ship, had moved closer to the Jackdaw. Once a wooden nk connected both ships, the pirates started to move hundreds of crates to the Gentle Breeze. There was some distance between the harbor and the Jackdaw; hence the crowd could not see their contents. All they knew was that they were moving a great number of items to the Gentle Breeze. Soon, they discovered that Carina previously sought a merchant in Nassau who provided loans. She remained in his house for about an hour, with the merchant personally sending her out as she left his ce.


    In the evening, Carina boarded the Gentle Wind and left Nassau. As for the pirates on the Jackdaw, they remained on the ship. Zhang Heng sent a few old pirates, ones who knew how to keep secrets well, to purchase some alcohol and food for the Jackdaw��s crew. He hoped that the food and drink would calm them down as they were not allowed to leave the ship for now. There was an unwritten rule in Nassau; pirates were not supposed to touch the ships of ck-market merchants. Besides, the loot that they acquired this time was too valuable. Zhang Heng did not want to risk having his pirates telling others about it.


    Though anything that happened after the trade had nothing to with the Jackdaw, Carina was definitely not wealthy enough to buy all those items from the Jackdaw. She was forced to use two of her properties in New Hampshire and the Gentle Breeze itself as coteral to get a loan from the businessman, where half of the money would be paid to the pirates on the Jackdaw. Zhang Heng, on the other hand, would have to wait until she sold all the goods before he could receive the other half of the money from her. This would be entered into the Jackdaw��s public fund.


    That was why Zhang Heng had to continue to ensure the Gentle Breeze��s safety. Zhang Heng and Carina were now considered allies, and indeed, this wasn��t going to be a one-time deal. Zhang Heng would need her to continuously help him sell all his plunder. He had learned his lesson from the Kidd��s treasure incident where if he were to let his pirates return to the ind, everyone would soon know that the Gentle Breeze was carrying arge number of valuable spices.

 Chapter 154 - Who Wants to Try?!

    <h4>Chapter 154: Who Wants to Try?!</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    Though Anne did not mind sleeping with others, Zhang Heng insisted that she sleep in a separate room. The room initially belonged to the quartermaster of this ship and was around six square meters, a space that was more than ample for a person to sleep in it.


    Anne unbuttoned her shirt andy on the bed, allowing Zhang Heng to change the bandages on her back. As of now, there were no doctors on the Jackdaw, and there was nothing the captain could do about the situation. The truth was, all the pirate ships in Nassaucked doctors on board. Many who were not even in the medical profession were forced on pirate boats just because they had a slightly bettermon sense than the regr peasant. Out of desperation, some pirate crews would travel to other ces to kidnap doctors.


    Still, at least half of the pirate fleet did not have a doctor on board. To make matters worse, the doctors in this era were not equipped with proper medical knowledge. Though surgeons were one too many in this era, they had no idea about the concept of disinfection, which was why Zhang Heng preferred to carry out the procedure himself. Anne sat up after Zhang Heng helped her to change into a new set of bandages. Unsurprisingly, she was unabashed of undressing in front of Zhang Heng.


    ��You��ve done well!��


    Zhang Heng was referring to what happened on the Happiness earlier. Worried that the enemies would find out that they outnumbered them, Zhang Heng brought those who were still battle-worthy to board the Happiness. He even went as far as arming his cook and carpenter and asked them to stand guard on the Jackdaw��s deck.


    When he led 30 pirates aboard the Happiness, he could somehow feel their hesitation and unwillingness. When they were asked to hand over their weapons, every single one of them attempted to stall for time. They had a feeling that the captain was up to something no good.


    Once the pirates disarmed their enemies, Anne volunteered to bring some people with her to check out the goods inside the hold. Unfortunately, there was an ambush awaiting them over there. The young navy officers on board were extremely unhappy that pirates attacked them and had exchanged their clothes with the sailors on board. They hid inside the cargo hold.


    Anne led a total of six pirates. Naturally, they did not expect an ambush, and that they would have to fight for their lives. Thanks to her lightning-quick reflexes, Anne quickly ducked to the ground the moment she realized that they were about to be ambushed. The pirate that was right behind her was not as lucky. The navy sailor pointed a gun at him and pulled the trigger! In a blink of an eye, Anne swiftly sprung up and shed her sword to slice one of the men standing in front of her. At the same time, she pulled out her dagger and stabbed another the chest of another one.


    Still, that did not mean she was out of danger. They were outnumbered, and the ambush had caused the pirates to panic. Anne was now in a death trap. Though she managed to eliminate two navies in the shortest time possible, the rest of them quickly regrouped and started to attack her. Seeing someone aiming at her, Anne promptly lowered her head, managing to dodge the speeding bullet by the skin of her teeth. Unfortunately, she felt a bright hot pain on her back. Somebody had shed her from behind. The sneak attack did not bring her down, though. Instead, it angered her further, causing her to turn around, and with a shriek, she killed her attacker with no mercy.


    Within half a minute, she managed to wipe out another two navy officers and injured another without so much as batting an eyelid. The young navy cadets who were still in training had never seen someone as ferocious as Anne. After witnessing her raw brutality, none of them dared to attack her anymore. It was then that the five pirates who came with Anne charged into the cargo hold. Though they still outnumbered the pirates, the navies were was left with no option but to surrender all weapons. Anne hadpletely annihted their morale.


    1The sailors on the deck heard gunshots ringing from the cargo hold. As everyone here wanted to make use of whatever opportunity they had to fight for their lives, Zhang Heng knew that this was not the time to talk about the intricacies of humanity. Worried over Anne��s safety, he immediately drew his gun, ran to the captain of the Happiness, and pulled the trigger on him. Zhang Heng��s quick decision managed to silence every captured sailor.


    Initially, they thought that Zhang Heng was too young to make the tough decisions, expecting him to panic during a critical moment like this. When they saw Zhang Heng killing the captain without any hesitation, they immediately gave up any thoughts of fighting back.


    Right after Zhang Heng gained control of the deck, he ordered five pirates to assist Anne. However, before they could even get to the hold, Anne came back up to the deck with her back drenched in blood. She tossed 12 decapitated heads on the deck and said, ��Who wants to challenge me?!��


    The siege had ended.


    Ultimately, this was the final nail in the coffin, and the entire crew of the Happiness gave up all hope of retaliation. None of them dared to move an inch while the pirates moved all their goods to the Jackdaw. After that, Zhang Heng ordered them to take enough food and drinking water from the Happiness to ensure that they could return to Nassau in one piece.


    This battle had ensured that the pirates on the Jackdaw would stay loyal to Zhang Henge what may. They changed their impression Anne had changed as well, especially the five pirates who went to the cargo hold with her. They now looked up to her in fear and admiration at the same time. As they were returning to Nassau, the five pirates told everyone about what actually happened in the cargo hold. Of course, bits and pieces were added to make it sound a tad juicier and more dramatic. Most pirates on board were simple-minded fools. Before their departure, arge number of them had told Zhang Heng that they were unhappy about Anne��s appointment as the boatswain. After this incident, however, none dared toin about Anne anymore. In other words, everyone thought that Anne was more than qualified to be their boatswain. The price for that recognition? She was bedridden for three full days.


    The wound on her back was very severe, and she had wholly severed her back muscles. Luckily, the battle was short, and Zhang Heng treated her wounds the moment she got back on the deck. Thanks to the proper medical treatment, her speedy recovery enabled her to walk around the boat right before they arrived in Nassau.


    ��Since when have you be so polite? I��m here to help you, not to give you trouble. I need to act like a boatswain since you granted me this position,�� said Anne while putting on her clothes.


    ��I know that you are good at fighting. You should have retreated to the deck when you realized that you��ve been ambushed.��


    ��It would be hard for us to take control of the hold if we let them have the slightest taste of sess. Also, the captured sailors on the deck would surely retaliate.��


    Zhang Heng was surprised that Anne could see a bigger picture.


    ��Did that run through your mind at that time?��


    ��No. I just thought that it would be deeply embarrassing to flee a battle on my first day as a boatswain.��


    ��.......��

 Chapter 155 - First Come, First Serve

    <h4>Chapter 155: First Come, First Serve</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    The Jackdaw had been moored at the harbor for three days. During that period, many pirates requested to get off the ship but Zhang Heng denied all of them. If a simr thing were to have happened back then, the crew would have definitely ganged up and force the captain to let them get off the ship.


    Everyone was silent when Dufresne came over to hand everyone their profits. All the new recruits were d that they made the decision to join the Jackdaw. None of them would be stupid enough to disobey Zhang Heng and lose their right to be part of this ship. However, this whole staying-on-the-ship thing couldst only three days.


    After three days of curfew, the pirates were at their wits�� end and decided that they had enough. Even if someone pointed a gun at their heads, it would not stop them from leaving. None of them would listen to Zhang Heng and Billy, where some pirates started tounch lifeboats and rowed to Nassau. Out of desperation, some even jumped into the ocean, attempting to swim ashore. After all, the Jackdaw wasn��t anchored too far fromnd.


    Based on Zhang Heng��s calctions, the Gentle Wind should be safe by now. So, he did not stop his pirates from leaving the ship. Sensing freedom, they squeezed every bit of strength possible and rowed as fast as they could to get to Nassau��s harbor. The bystanders were excited to see that the Jackdaw��s crew was finally allowed to leave their ship. Everyone was eager to know how well their first voyage went.


    Instead of stopping at the harbor once theynded on Nassau, all the pirates ran to where Gatsby, the moneylender stayed. Noticing a group of pirates running to his ce, Gatsby quickly asked his guard to move a table in front of his house. He also carried a gunny sack with him.


    When they arrived at Gatsby��s ce, Dufresne handed him a paper containing the signatures of Zhang Heng and Carina. He then read and checked it three times before cing it into his pocket. This was the most exciting moment for all the pirates as they were about to receive their share of the money. Each pirate on the Jackdaw stood to get at least 40 Spanish gold coins, an amount equivalent to 320 silver pesos. It was way more than what they had expected. For the ones with specific tasks on the ship like the cook and the cannoneers, they were given an extra 160 pesos each.


    Zhang Heng received a total of 120 gold coins. As the captain of the ship, he was eligible to receive double the profit. Also, he was one of the seventeen who took over this ship in Charleston. Hence, all seventeen of them received another 40 gold coins.


    Technically speaking, this ship was the first thing that they plundered from the navy. However, it would be unwise for them to sell this battleship for cash. So, Zhang Heng came up with a unique way topensate all seventeen of them. For three years, they were entitled to an extra share of the loot. This rule would not change even if Zhang Heng wasn��t the captain of the Jackdaw in the future. However, if the elders decided to leave the ship or were killed during a battle, they would no longer be able to receive the extra share.


    As the boatswain and bravest pirate on the Jackdaw, Anne received a total of 80 gold coins. Since she was now wealthy enough to purchase her own property, she did not need to rely on anyone anymore. After that, she handed out 40 golden coins to Zhang Heng.


    ��Just like what I��ve promised you. I��m going to give half of my share to you since this is my very first yield.��


    This was the promise that Anne made when she first met Zhang Heng, one that he had already long forgotten. He was surprised that she still remembered it. Throughout her stay with Zhang Heng, she hadn��t cost him too much money, and considering that the rent for the house had been paid, all he bought for her was a set of utensils. Truth be told, Zhang Heng probably spent a total of two gold coins on her. It was not a big deal for him.


    When he looked into Anne��s eyes, he realized how much it meant to her for him to take it. Left with no other option, Zhang Heng took the coins from her.


    2........


    Soon, the news of the Jackdaw returning to Nassau with a ship full of valuable goods spread throughout the entire city like wildfire. Naturally, arge number of people were shocked by this. A mere two months ago, most of the ind��s residents looked down on the crew. Most thought that the captain was too young to lead a pirate group. Even those interested in joining the crew decided to wait for them to return from their first voyage before officially joining them. The same people were now regretting their decision.


    When a pirate from the Jackdaw lost 20 gold coins in a night during a gambling session, it motivated the people of Nassau to form their own pirate crews. However, most of them did not have a proper ship, a reliable crew, and even their captains were randomly chosen. Naturally, they wanted to set sail to earn their fortune. Unfortunately, most of them would not end well. There was nothing to worry about if they returned to Nassau empty-handed but for those managing to return with loot on their ships, they would have to worry about pressure from the ck-market alliance. By that time, they would quickly realize that earning good money was no easy task.


    Nevertheless, Zhang Heng allowed his crew to take a month��s break. If there were one word to describe the Jackdaw��s first sail, it would be ��perfect.�� That said, the pirates on board had earned a considerable amount of money. The bad thing was that they were no longer motivated to set sail again in search for more fortunes. The only thing that ran through their minds right now was to look for a way to spend whatever money they had in their pockets.


    So, the Jackdaw��s pirates literally poured into the brothels and casinos in Nassau. Expecting them to improve themselves at a time like this was close to impossible. On the other hand, Zhang Heng made use of the time to deal with something that he had in mind.


    That evening, Zhang Heng, Anne, and Billy visited a restaurant called the Mermaid. They saw a couple of pirates from the Jackdaw in there. Most of them were very drunk, and a few attractivedies were keeping thempany. When they saw Zhang Heng, Billy, and Anne, they erupted into loud cheers and urged the trio to join them for drinks. In the end, Billy talked them out of it and made them go home.


    After that, the three of them executed their n. Anne and Billy entered the restaurant from the front and Zhang Heng walked to the alley behind the restaurant. He then took out the watch that he bought yesterday and took a look at it. Two minutester, a slender man with a mustache pushed the waitresses aside and scooted out of the restaurant��s backdoor, constantly turning behind him as he ran.


    Unexpectedly, something tripped him, causing him to lose his bnce and he fell into someone��s vomit. As he turned around, he was greeted with a gun on his nose. Not too long after that, a middle-aged man stormed out of the restaurant angrily. They both crashed into each other, causing the middle-aged man to drop his ss of liquor. He hade out of the restaurant to teach the man a lesson.


    2The slender man was excited when he saw the man running out of the restaurant, seeming as if he recognized the personing at him. Unfortunately, his excitement onlysted for a short while because Zhang Heng pulled out his second gun and pointed it at the man.


    ��I��m sorry. Firste, first serve.��


    1

 Chapter 156 - Information Broker

    <h4>Chapter 156: Information Broker</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    The little bearded man��s name was Hank, an information broker who had something of a reputation on the ind. He was well acquainted with quite a few captains who frequented Nassau and, therefore, was able to amass a lot of information. Many pirates had bought tip-offs from him.


    When Billy was on the Sea Lion, he had gone along with Orff to see the guy. It was also then that he came to know Hank. They even shared a few drinks together. Having a good rtionship between them, Billy had elected to employ Hank��s services for the Jackdaw��s first voyage.


    Although Hank may look unremarkable, he had his particr specialty, having done business on the ind for such a long time.


    He would assess the value of the prey, the information��s level of detail and credibility, thenbine them to estimate the overall quality of the intelligence.


    It was very much like the tip-off about the ship carrying perfume, which scored high in terms of value and source credibility. The information onlycked in minor details but was enough to be regarded as a high-quality tip-off.


    COMMENT


    This was also why Hank demanded such a high price�Ctwo Spanish gold coins. To ensure that the information would be reserved exclusively for the Jackdaw, Billy spent ten Spanish gold coins to buy out the information. The transaction meant that other than the Jackdaw, Hank could not sell the information to any other pirates.


    After that, Hank confirmed that the Duffy, the tobo ship, was also on the same route, which put Billy at ease. Having secured two leads, he was very confident about the Jackdaw��s first voyage.


    However, everything that happened after went utterly unexpected. If it wasn��t for the female merchant Karina boarding the ship halfway, providing crucial information about the perfume vessel, what would have awaited Jackdaw would be the cruel reality of returning empty-handed.


    While Bill was no wily old fox like Orff, he was no fool either. When the perfume ship was nowhere in sight, he was already suspicious. But then again, these things happened all too often. Even so, he could not immediately dismiss the second tip-off simply because the first one was fruitless. What would be the point of buying the backup piece of information then?


    The direction in which the events developed confirmed his misgivings. With two tip-offs consecutively falling through, Billy realized that he had been duped. What he could not understand was that he had a pretty amicable rtionship with Hank all these years, and the Jackdaw had no quarrel with him either. Why would the information broker do this to him then?


    Today, the three hade to the Mermaid Restaurant to get to the bottom of this.


    Hank immediately knew who was behind the door. Recently, Zhang Heng had be the most famous person on the whole ind. When the Jackdaw first appeared on the banks of Nassau, Hank came running out to join the crowd too. As an information broker, expanding hiswork was an essential part of the job. So, he was no stranger to the Jackdaw or her new captain.


    The information broker scrambled to his feet, not even bothering to wipe off the dirt on his shirt. The man d in ck stood in front of him, and smiled thinly.


    Hank nervously blurted, ��I was very clear when I sold the information to you. I cannot guarantee that every lead is absolutely valid. Even the most credible information could suffer unexpected oues. The target could divert its course halfway, encounters with other pirates, then there��s the weather... look, if you don��t believe me, you can ask your helmsman. I did reiterate about these risks, you know...��


    Hank took in a deep breath and then continued, ��Of course, I deeply regret your experience, but fortunately, you suffered no losses in the end, right? How about this. Let��s all take a step back; I��ll return your money, and this whole thing will just be water under the bridge, eh?��


    Zhang Heng said nothing in reply. Just then, Anne and Billy came in from the back door of the tavern and cornered Hank in.


    Seeing that the situation was not in his favor, the information broker quickly added, ��Err... also, the next time you go out to sea, I can give you some valuable tip-offs for free. I guarantee that there will be no more idents this time.��


    Hank leaned against the cold stone wall, trying his best to remain calm. In the past, people had hounded him down because the information he provided was inurate, but he had always been shrewd enough to deal with the situation. While there were only a handful of information brokers on the ind, and they usuallypeted against each other, they would also stick together if the need arose. Once, an information broker was killed, and when they discovered the murderer, no one sold any information to the pirate ship the murderer belonged to. In the end, the pirate ship was forced to change their captain.


    Hank looked at Billy. He had been on the ind for a long time, so there was no way he had never heard of that incident. As a helmsman by profession, he should be informing his own captain of the possible consequences of harming information brokers.


    However, Billy did not respond, still staring daggers at him.


    Then Hank saw the female redhead pirate drawing out the dagger on her waist. She smiled at him slyly.


    The next thing he felt was a sharp coldness in his chest. When he looked down, he saw that his linen shirt had been torn open, and the dagger was deep inside his flesh, missing his heart by only two centimeters. The redhead only needed to push the de a little deeper, and it would be the end of him.


    Hank was really rmed this time. He never expected this bunch topletely disregard the rules. The information broker��s voice cracked as he mumbled in pain, ��You... how much do you want aspensation? At least give me a number.��


    ��We don��t want anypensation,�� Zhang Heng finally spoke. ��But we need you to answer a few questions. Truthfully, of course.��


    ��What do you want to know?�� Hank asked wearily, his eyes squinting as blood dripped down his shirt.


    ...


    An hourter, Zhang Heng and hispanions left through the alley.


    Anne sheathed her dagger as she frowned. ��Malcolm. Anyone of you knows who this guy is? What��s his problem with us?��


    ��Malcolm is the second-best trader of the ck-market alliance. This manes from a rather powerful family in the New World,�� exined Billy, who had a better knowledge of the ind than the other two. ��Do not underestimate him simply because of his background. Malcolm arrived in Nassau about four years ago. When he first came to the ind, he had nothing, save a cargo ship. His family located far away in New York could only provide him easy passage through the customs, but when it came to the matters in Nassau, he was on his own. He practically started from scratch. Today, he has established good rtions with at least a dozen pirate ships. Last year, ck Prince Sam even started to work with him, making him one of the more closely followed characters of the ck-market alliance.��

 Chapter 157 - Invitation

    <h4>Chapter 157: Invitation</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    ��So, how does our failed voyage benefit Malcolm?�� asked the redhead.


    ��Not everyone on this ind supports the establishment of the ck-market alliance, especially the smaller, less powerful pirate gangs. But because of their size, no one would pay attention to what they have to say. We are the only ones on the ind left who are strong enough but have not joined the alliance�Cmany are watching our every move, which was why we had such a hard time negotiating the price. The ck-market alliance doesn��t mind increasing the buying price for a single pirate group. Still, if they were to do that, they��d be viting their own rules, and it would also set a precedent for others to ask for higher prices. So if our first voyage turned out badly, I��m sure that there would be no such trouble.��


    Anne was absolutely bewildered and distressed by this scheme. When she was done listening, she said, ��So, very simply, if we work with Carina now, then we��ll have nothing to do with the ck-market alliance, right? This means that there won��t be any more of this sabotaging bullshit in the future, right?��


    Zhang Heng piped in, ��I��m afraid that may not be the case. This is exactly the situation that the ck-market alliance doesn��t want to see. We returned with a full load, yet chose to sell our loot through a channel outside of theirs. They watched a batch of precious goods leave the ind but did not profit from it�Cthe thing they can��t tolerate the most especially since they offered us a much higher price than they normally would for the older pirate groups. All the more, they need to make up for this loss from the new pirate group. There��s a good chance that they won��t turn a blind eye to our misdemeanor.��


    ��Huh? How despicable! We decide for ourselves how we want to deal with the loot we earn. What does that have anything to do with them? Speaking of which, ever since this stupid alliance was established, Nassau has been under a dark cloud. There��s been an awful atmosphere around here. Why don��t we just go over there now and kill them all?!�� the redhead growled, obviously irritated.


    ��That��s not a good idea,�� said a familiar voice from behind them. ��They have the support of some of the most powerful pirate gangs. You are at a disadvantage. It��s not wise to make a move in a time like this.��


    The three of them turned around, only to see an old pirate walking out of the bakery next door. He was wearing a new outfit and looked rather cheerful, except for the same old grey tricorn on his head. He also carried with him a bag of freshly baked toast.


    ��Well, well. If it ain��t Frazer. How dare you show up in front of us?�� Billy��s tone turned icy as soon as he heard the voice.


    Back on the Sea Lion, Frazer constantly went against the group of old seadogs, nearly costing their lives. As soon as they came ashore, they ran to the tavern that their captain often frequented, only to find nobody there. Billy never thought that the old captain would make such a grand appearance now.


    ��Billy, you know that this is nothing personal. We both share the same goal�Cto liberate the crew of the Sea Lion from Orff��s and Kid��s lies and barbaric rule. Forgive me for being straightforward, but that little trick you guys pulled was simply not good enough. Thus, I had no choice but to solve the problem in my own way.��


    The old pirate shrugged and admitted, ��Yes, I did make use of you. Of course, you have every reason to be angry, but if things go ording to my n, I can ensure that you guys won��t be in troubleter. I know you don��t trust me, but, at the very least, you trust Owen, right? That kid��s performance on the ship was ster. He really did care for you guys. It was genuine. When he bes captain, he will make sure that justice will be served for you.��


    Billy sneered. ��You��re right, but that��s provided we can live to see that day. If Zhang Heng hadn��te to an agreement with Orff, we would��ve been gone even before we arrived at Charleston. I won��t believe your lies anymore, Frazer. Not another bloody word of yours. Your eyes are only on the profit. When ites to that, there��s no too big of a sacrifice, right?��


    ��In reality, I��m not as cold-blooded as you think. I know you have your grievances against me. So, take this as me making up to you for all the harm that I��ve caused you.�� Frazer then reached into his shirt pocket.


    Seeing that, Billy and Anne instinctively drew their weapons. Seeing the situation heating up, he used his other hand that was holding the bread to gesture at them to calm down. With the other, he pulled out an invitation card and handed it to Zhang Heng.


    ��I admit that there was an oversight on my part. I knew that you were good, but I never thought that you��d perform better than expected. If I can choose again, I would surely recruit you instead of using you as bait. Unfortunately, we can��t change what��s happened, right?�� The old pirate sighed deeply. ��You��re no less talented than Kidd, and have a group of fine seamen with you. The only thing stopping you from bing the most powerful pirate gang is time. That��s where Ie in. I can help you acquire the time you need.��


    The old pirate paused for a minute before continuing. ��After much persuasion, Malcolm realized that the way he dealt with you before this was a mistake. He is willing to apologize for what happened, and, at the same time, renegotiate the terms of the deal with you. There will be a dinner party at Terrance��s mansion in seven days. Malcolm hopes to meet you there.��


    ��So, you were the one behind the ck-market alliance all along, huh,�� Billy hissed.


    ��You people overestimate me,�� Frazer replied gingerly. ��Redmond and Malcolm��s men have learned their lesson from the failure of the first alliance. Now, they��ve set out to explore and establish a new alliance, or to be more precise, the previous alliance was premature; nothing more but a guinea pig. By using that, they were able to practice and umte experience while testing and observing the reactions of each party on the ind. That��s why the new alliance seemed to be so well established. Now, they��ve prepared for three whole years. When the news was spread a few months ago, they were very near to itspletion.


    ��As for me, it was all just a coincidence. Even without my help, they could still look for others to help them contact those pirates. At most, it would cost them more time.�� Frazer suddenly turned dead serious. ��You guys have never met Malcolm before, and do not know how scary he can be. He is the most dangerous person I��ve met in my entire lifetime. I suggest that you take this opportunity to mend your rtionship with the ck-market alliance. The Jackdaw��s hunting ground is on the ocean, and the ck-market alliance is in control of thend. There is no conflict of interest between the two of you. If you could just sit down and talk things through like gentlemen, I��m sure there��s no reason to go against each other.��

 Chapter 158 - Anne’s House

    <h4>Chapter 158: Anne��s House</h4>


    Zhang Heng was unsurprised that the ck-market alliance started to panic after knowing that the Jackdaw��s first voyage was a victory. When they found out that Zhang Heng had been working alongside Carina to sell off all his loot, they instantly knew that they had lost the right to negotiate with him. Naturally, they would want to look for a way to solve their problem.


    Frazer was right about the Jackdaw needing time to grow. At the same time, this applied to the newly born ck-market alliance as well. Redmond and Malcolm were both ck-market merchants that wanted to make the maximum profit they could from the pirates. All these while, they were hoping to establish some sort of order in Nassau to end the chaotic trading era. Through a series of carefully executed ns, they managed to convince enough people to support them. Right now, most of the influential pirate crews were on their side. At the same time, some went against them.


    What they were doing right now had gone against a long-standing principle of Nassau, one that its people held dearly to their hearts. This principle was the spirit of adventure. Many small-time pirates were unhappy with the current proposal offered by the ck-market alliance. Aspared to the organized ck-market alliance, these were considered a leaderless group of weaklings with no sense of camaraderie, and therefore, were no threat to the alliance. Once the ck-market alliance crossed the unstable period, these small-time pirates would be left with no option but to ept whatever deal that the alliance threw at them.


    With Zhang Heng��s sess, all of them saw a ray of new hope. The Jackdaw was the only pirate crew that had elected to not partner up with the ck-market alliance. Things were no longer just a problem between the Jackdaw and the ck-market alliance.


    This was both a good and bad thing for Zhang Heng. Whether he liked it or not, he and the Jackdaw had be the center of attention in Nassau. They had eyes on them at any given time of the day. Hence, both parties could only solve this problem through legal channels. Undeniably, Zhang Heng would benefit more than the ck-market alliance if they managed to solve their grievances. As long as the Jackdaw was growing, the ck-market alliance would continue to be under enormous pressure. To Zhang Heng��s surprise, Malcolm from the ck-market alliance looked for him sooner than he expected.


    ��I just did a quick check. A banquet will be held at Terrance��s mansion in six days. Malcolm has invited some of the most powerful individuals on this ind. That would include celebrated captains and wealthyndowners. Malcolm apparently organized the banquet as a thank-you for their continuous support of the ck-market alliance. This banquet should be safe for you to go.��


    As the helmsman of the Jackdaw, Billy did everything he could to make sure that the ship and her captain wouldn��t be taken advantage of. Once Zhang Heng received the invitation, Billy proceeded to investigate the matter, telling him about his findings the next morning.


    ��Thank you for everything you��ve done,�� said Zhang Heng,


    Anne yawned as she sleepily came downstairs after Billy left the house.


    ��Are you nning to attend the banquet?��


    ��Yes. Malcolm wants to know what kind of person I am. At the same time, I want to know what exactly the ck-market alliance is nning as well.��


    ��Ah... I have seriously no idea what goes on in that mind of yours. If it were to be me, I would just kill all the enemies that stand in my way. Why waste time and reason with them


    As she went on, Anne walked to the dining table and spread some jam on a piece of bread.


    ��I wish it was that simple. Hey, let��s not talk about this. Did you manage to find a house that you like?��


    ��Harry scouted the area for me, and guess what? I��ve finally found a house that perfectly matches what I want! It��s very near to the harbor, and two restaurants located on the next street are only a 15-minute walk away. They are even open at night. There��s even an empty plot ofnd behind the house where I can practice my fencing skills. The house costs only 200 silver pesos. Harry said he can help me lower the price even more. I��m nning to buy the house this very afternoon if the price is right.��


    ��Congrats!��


    Zhang Heng knew that buying her own property meant a lot to her. The reason why she ran away from her wealthy family was that she wanted to pursue freedom. Throughout her childhood, she had always witnessed her mother slogging like a maid for her father. After that, she swore to never rely on the mercy others like her mother had done her whole life. That was also why she was adamant about giving half of her loot to Zhang Heng, not wanting to owe him anything.


    From the very beginning, Anne told Zhang Heng that she was only going to stay at his ce temporarily and promised to move out as soon as she earned enough money. The moment she received her share of the money, she quickly searched for her own ce on the ind. Her dream finally came true.


    ��From today onwards, no one can stop me from putting my legs on the dining table! And no one can force me to finish my soup as well!��


    ��........��


    Initially, Zhang Heng wanted to help Anne to move over to her new house. Unfortunately, he was told that some of his pirates had started a brawl in one of the brothels. As the captain of the Jackdaw, it was Zhang Heng��s duty to head there and solve the problem. Luckily, it was not as serious as he thought it would be. There was indeed a fight, but there was no loss of life, albeit an unlucky pirate who got stabbed in the thigh. When Zhang Heng arrived at the brothel, the man��s wound was already wrapped up in bandages.


    It turned out that both parties were fighting over the same woman. Initially, the woman had been booked by a group of pirates from a ship called the Hunter, but when the Jackdaw��s pirates doubled their price, the prostitute changed her mind and decided to serve them instead. Due to bruised egos on the side of the Hunter��s pirates, both parties ended up bludgeoning each other.


    Incidents like this were prevalent in brothels. The solution was equally simple, where all they needed to do was to pay them a small amount of money to prevent conflict from happening. However, the pirates from the Hunter knew that the Jackdaw had returned with a windfall. Hence, greed had motivated them to demand a huge ransom from the Jackdaw��s pirates. When they refused to pay up, the Hunter��s pirates stopped them from leaving the brothel since they outnumbered them.


    The Hunter��s captain stood up and adjusted his cor. It seemed like he was about to say something to Zhang Heng. However, Zhang Heng could not bother to listen to what he had to say.


    ��Let my people go!��


    ��No problem! I��ll let them go after you pay 20 gold coins aspensation for my men��s medical fees.��


    ��It seems that peacefully resolving this matter is out of the question. Old rules it is then.��


    Immediately, Zhang Heng drew his saber from his sheath. The Hunter��s captain was taken aback, seeing how ruthless the Jackdaw��s skipper was. If both sides failed to resolve a matter peacefully, the captain from one party could either choose to duel with another captain or allow their pirates to battle each other in groups. Those were the old rules that Zhang Heng mentioned earlier. It would seem that Zhang Heng chose to mano-y-mano with the captain. If it were 20 years ago, the Hunter��s captain would have epted the duel. Unfortunately, he was now an old man and was unfit to fight anymore. There was no way that he could defeat Zhang Heng.


    ��We outnumber you! Why should I fight with you?�� snapped the captain of the Hunter.


    At that statement, he noticed his pirates ring at him in the most condescending of ways. Usually, a fearless pirate would never reject another pirate��s request for a duel. He had just turned himself into a coward in front of everyone.


    ��Group fight? Are you sure?��


    Calmly, Zhang Heng put away his saber and looked at the goons that stood around them.


    ��I will pay three silver coins to anyone able to defeat a pirate from the Hunter. Who��s with me?��


    Immediately, everyone in the brothel stood up.

 Chapter 159 - Happy That You Stayed

    <h4>Chapter 159: Happy That You Stayed</h4>


    The conflict ended with the pirates from the Hunter leaving the brothel without a single coin. To thank the brothel��s patrons, Zhang Heng bought them all a round of drinks. He left the ce, earning praises and respect for his generosity. Once this matter was settled, Dufresne asked Zhang Heng to head to the arms dealer��s house. It seemed that the arms dealer had managed to get his hands on the ammunition for the Jackdaw��s 24-pound cannons. Dufresne wanted to discuss the number of cannonballs that they would need with Zhang Heng. He also wanted to talk about recruiting a new cook for the ship as well.


    It was now sunset, and Zhang Heng finally returned home. Anne was no longer there when he opened the door. He then went to her room to look for her, but she was nowhere to be found as well. After the incident in Charleston, Marvin had decided to stay on the Queen Anne��s Revenge. No one knew where they were at the moment. Now that Anne had moved out too, Zhang Heng was left alone in this empty space.


    Suddenly, Zhang Heng felt something missing in the house. On a typical day, Anne wouldin that she was hungry at this hour. Right now, there was all but silence. Unconsciously, Zhang Heng had gotten used to Anne��s voice around the house.


    He missed her tough masculine antics.


    He missed hering home to him after fighting with someone outside.


    He missed her long rants about other pirates looking down on her.


    The truth was, Zhang Heng wasn��t prepared for her eventual departure. Buying a house had always been Anne��s dream. As she was one step closer to her goal, she gradually lost the reason to continue staying in Zhang Heng��s house. Just this morning, the two of them were talking about how she could do whatever she wanted when she had her room. And Zhang Heng was genuinely happy for her. Somehow, the two avoided the topic of their separation.


    ...


    Zhang Heng finished his dinner alone that night. Before he went to bed, he read the journal that he took from the Jackdaw. Suddenly, in the middle of the night, he was woken by a curious rustling in the house. Immediately, his eyes popped open, and he grabbed the saber lying next to him. In all possibility, it was an intruder breaking in. Considering the Jackdaw and the ck-market alliance were not on good terms, Zhang Heng knew that he had the potential to make enemies. Logically, Malcolm wouldn��t have sent someone to kill him since the ck-market alliance hadn��t officially considered him as their enemy. Besides, a man of Malcolm��s stature would surely not resort to using such a despicable method to eliminate Zhang Heng.


    To prevent himself from bing a gunshot victim, Zhang Heng swiftly lit the oilmps in his house. He theny t in front of the door and attempted to listen to the footsteps outside his room. When the sounds in the hallway stopped, Zhang Heng instantly stood up and opened the door. He was hoping to surprise the intruder with his saber. However, the shadowy figure in front of him was quick enough to dodge his attack. Instead of retreating, the intruder��s fist was raised and was poised to attack.


    The intruder was bolder than Zhang Heng expected. He wanted to dodge the intruder��s attack, but quickly realized that it was toote to do so. The intrudernded a hard punch on his chin. He was thinking of shing the intruder at the same time but held back. Soon, the conflict turned into an intense fight in the dark. After a while, Zhang Heng noticed that the intruder��s moves were too familiar. He had sparred a couple of times with Anne and was familiar with her movements. He was also pretty sure that Anne knew that she was fighting him. However, she had no intention to stop her brawls anytime soon. He could feel her getting more excited with every breath.


    The moment Zhang Heng hesitated for a short while, he was hit in the chest twice and was forced to recollect himself to handle Anne��s relentless attacks. The battle abruptly ended when Anne jumped on him and pinned him to the ground. To Zhang Heng��s surprise, his sword skill had been promoted to LV 2 once the fight was over. He was left speechless when he received the notification. On the other hand, Anne was gasping for air, and her face was flushing as well.


    ��You lost!��


    ��........��


    ��Why are you not talking?��


    ��You came back in the middle of the bloody night just to fight with me?!��


    ��Of course not. I��m here to inform you that I��m not buying the house.��


    Anne let go of Zhang Heng��s arm, slid her butt across his belly, and got off from him.


    ��Why? Wasn��t that your lifelong dream?��


    ��I thought it was. When I was young, my father was the one who provided me with food and a ce to stay. On the contrary, my mom had to constantly please his whims and demands. At that time, I thought I could freely live the way I wanted if I had my own house. So, that became my main goal when I came to Nassau. Completing my goal meant that I was finally independent.��


    ��You have done some awe-inspiring things in this era.��


    At that point in history, women were perceived as the weaker of the sexes. Hence, their social status was way lowerpared to men. Though Zhang Heng had helped her a lot in Nassau, the fact that she managed to gain the respect of the men around her was indeed unprecedented.


    ��I don��t want to leave this ce. Buying the house means that I can finally live freely. However, if I can��t live the life that I want even after buying the house, it would be pointless. That��s not freedom to me. I mean, it��s good to have my own house and all, and I would very much enjoy putting my legs on the dining table and not being forced to finish my soup. But, my true freedom has nothing to do with all that. I want to be able to choose the life that I wish to lead.��


    Once she was done talking, she pushed Zhang Heng to the floor, ripped off her top, and climbed on him.


    ��I like you! I don��t care whether you like me or you have your eye on others. I don��t care if or when you��ll leave me. Maybe this love that I have for you will disappear someday. By that time, I will reserve the right to leave you.��


    In the dark, Zhang Heng could see her eyes alight with the mes of passion. After hesitating for a short while, Zhang Heng caressed her body with his hands. He gently ran over the scars littering her soft skin.


    ��Are they ugly?�� asked a bashful Anne.


    ��No. They are beautiful.��


    Zhang Heng was dying to tell her, to be not so cavalier about her life and so blindly charge at every enemy that came at her. Nevertheless, he chose to stay mum in the end. Knowing her personality through and through, Zhang Heng knew that it was pointless telling her things like that.


    ��I��m d that you��ve decided to stay.��

 Chapter 160 - Terrance’s Mansion

    <h4>Chapter 160: Terrance��s Mansion</h4>


    Zhang Heng finally got a few days off for himself. It appeared that news about the brothel incident had spread throughout Nassau. Whenever anyone wanted to mess with the Jackdaw��s pirates, they would have to first consider if they could beat Zhang Heng��s wealth. From then on, his conflicts lessened dramatically, and he didn��t need to waste more time dealing with troubles like that.


    These days, Zhang Heng would spend most of his time sparring with Anne. He would also tend to a vegetable farm that he had started as well.


    Zhang Heng was d that he was now living in a tropical country. All the tomatoes, carrots, and cabbages that he nted in the ground were all ready for harvest when he returned from his voyages. Proper care wasn��t even required as the weather here would take good care of his vegetables while he was gone for a month or two.


    Aspared to training forbat, Anne was not interested in farming. Most of the time, she would sprawlzily on the chair outside the house and watch Zhang Heng tend to his crops. The incident that night was akin to a rock dropping into ake. There were ripples at first, but calm quickly returned after a little while.


    Anne did not change the way she treated Zhang Heng, not to mention that she did not look as if she was in love as well. The only thing that changed was the frequency of Anne��s sparring requests. Perhaps it was her very own way of showing her love to him.


    ....


    Five dayster, Zhang Heng visited Terrance��s mansion with Anne and Billy. Although it would seem that he faced no potential threats there, it would still be inappropriate for the captain of the Jackdaw to go there alone. Malcolm didn��t organize his banquet in the town of Nassau. Instead, it was located on a ntation somewhere near the center of the ind. Thend belonged to him, and that was his ce of residence as well.


    Unlike the wooden houses on the northern shores, Malcolm��s mansion was made out of stone, and it was designed with an adaptation of Baroque architecture. However, stones were not avable on New Providence Ind. Malcolm had to import those stones from somewhere else. One could only imagine how much a single stone would cost. He even went as far as hiring two Italian architects, taking three long years to build the mansion. This was his first time exposing his mysterious abode to outsiders.


    ��Well... it appears that this guy has done very well for himself over the years!�� eximed Anne while staring at the giant statues of Apollo and Daphne in front of the mansion.


    ��This is exactly why he organized this banquet. He wants to let everyone know that they too can earn big bucks if they work with him.��


    Zhang Heng had Malcolm all figured out in his mind.


    ��I think he��s managed to achieve his agenda,�� said Billy.


    He turned around, only to see every guest standing with their mouths wide open as they stared in awe at therge statues. A man appearing to be a butler stood at the entrance at the mansion and checked the invitation that Zhang Heng brought with him.


    ��Wee to the Terrance mansion. I wish the three of you a pleasant time.��


    After that, he rang the bell that he was holding. At the ring, three maids d in ck approached them. They seemed really young, about 16 to 17 years of age.


    ��Hello. My name is Daisy. I will be serving you tonight, and I will do my best to fulfill everything that you need.��


    ��I don��t think I need a servant. Besides, I don��t like people following me around.��


    The maid looked taken aback by Anne��s snappyment. There was still a smile on her face, but it was evident that it was forced. Once the butler noticed the smallmotion, he walked towards Zhang Heng right after he checked the person��s invitation in front of him. He saw that Daisy had started panicking.


    ��Greetings. May I know what is going on here? Are you dissatisfied with Daisy��spany? I can get you someone else right away.��


    Just when Anne wanted to say something, Zhang Heng interrupted her.


    ��Everything is good. We are thinking of asking Daisy to show us around the mansion.��


    ��I believe that you will definitely like this ce. However, I don��t think you can finish exploring in a day because this ce is massive. Besides, our special performance is about to begin. I would like to rmend that you enter the banquet hall first. There will be free time for you to walk around after the banquet is over. Feel free to tell your maid if you wish to stay here for the night.��


    Zhang Heng then nodded his head and thanked the butler. He started to walk towards the brightest building that was not too far away from him. Anne was smart enough to know why Zhang Heng interrupted her just now. Once they were away from the entrance, Anne talked to the servant.


    ��Will you be punished if we rejected your services just now?��


    Daisy did not respond to Anne��s question. Instead, she undid the back of her dress, and shockingly, it was scarred from top to bottom, probably the result of continuous whipping. Seeing what the maid had to endure, Anne became so furious that she was about to draw her dagger and kill the person responsible for the torture.


    ��Better not try anything stupid here. I don��t like this too. Once the women are sold to the household, they are being treated as property. No one can say a word, no matter what Malcolm does to them. You are going to make them suffer even more if you insist on avenging them. We are simply guests, and we will leave this mansion after tonight. They are the ones who would have to remain here,�� said Billy in a hushed tone.


    Daisy was grateful for Billy��s exnation. Left in fumes of frustration, Anne put away her dagger. Soon, the three arrived at the ballroom, and Daisy opened the doors for them. If the outer part of the building was luxurious, the structure��s interior could only be described as resplendent and magnificent. A vast chandelier hung from the center of a massive dome with more than a hundred candles alight on it. The candlelight was as bright as day, disying an intricately decorated wall that was covered with ribbons. A soft Persian carpet lined the entire floor.


    ��How nostalgic! I feel like I��m back in Scond,�� cooed andowner who was behind them.


    Throngs of guests were invited to the banquet. However, there were two kinds of people here. One was the conventional businessmen. They were deeply impressed by thevish decorations and sculptures inside the ballroom. They only stood there and observed without touching anything. On the other hand, there were pirates. This lot had their hands all over the valuables in the ballroom. Of course, the thought of looting these items came across their minds. They knew that it would earn them a handsome fortune if they could sell them off.

 Chapter 161 - Order

    <h4>Chapter 161: Order</h4>


    Before the banquet began, Billy introduced some of the captains and businessmen that he knew to Zhang Heng. Pirates usually preferred to keep everything to themselves, but that didn��t mean that they weren��t social animals. All too often, they would employ the assistance of trusted pirate crews if they encountered targets that they could not handle alone. No harm would be done by getting to know more people.


    All the pirates attending the banquet were part of the ck-market alliance. They were just trading partners and had nothing against the Jackdaw. As long as Zhang Heng did not stop them from getting rich, they didn��t care who he worked with. Half an hourter, almost all the guests had arrived. Still, Malcolm, the host, was not here.


    After a while, the butler from the entrance came onto the stage.


    ��Before the banquet begins, Mr. Ma has prepared you a simple performance. I hope you will enjoy it.��


    The butler then rang his bell once again. This time, two men were being sent out to the stage. Instantly, the atmosphere grew tense. Both of them were topless, with only a pair of boxers on them. Their hands and feet were cuffed, and they had bulging muscles as hard as steel. They gave off the impression of wild animals that had juste out of the forest. A few female audiences could not help but let out screams of fear. A group of guards escorted these men and were shoved onto the stage at gunpoint. After that, the guards uncuffed them, with the others closely watching and ready to open fire if something went wrong.


    ��This is not your first stint. You should know the rules better than anyone else. I��m not going to waste my breath here. Kill your opponents in the given time, and you will live to see tomorrow. Otherwise...��


    The butler then drew his gun and shot a ck servant that was pouring wine for the audience. Her blood sttered all over the ce, and she soon stopped breathing. The butler then calmly kept away his gun as if nothing had happened. Two other ck servants trembled in fear when they saw the butler, signaling them to move the body out and clean the blood on the floor.


    ��I don��t wish for that to happen to either of you. After all, Mr. Ma spent a lot of money to purchase you two. You are warriors; beasts! I don��t think your dignity would allow you to be put down by a gun, right? So, I need the two of you to bring some happiness to our guests down there!��


    After that, the butler left the stage. The two ck muscr men red at each other before pouncing on each other without hesitation. The guests were lit with excitement, with the pirates noisily nking the dinnerware to hype up the atmosphere. Even the plump businessmen were eager to watch the fight from the front row with their women. Many centuries had passed, but humans still had a liking for diator fights like this. In the modern world, such barbarism had be a rarity. In the 18th century, the cks were often forced to participate in these brutal genocides to entertain the whites.


    In the era, ck people were nothing more butmodities. The moment a person��s humanity was reduced to such lows, it was evident that people enjoyed such a degree of barbarism, all the more without the pressure of the standards of modern society.


    ��Order. Isn��t that a good thing?��


    Suddenly, Zhang heard someone talking behind him.


    ��Without order, those men on the stage would still be living in some tiny vige in Africa. They would be fighting with spears over some worthless women. There would be no audience to witness that. Right now, they can put their muscr bodies and fighting skills to good use by entertaining us.��


    The person talking Zhang Heng was a slender andnky middle-aged man wearing a suit. He stared at the stage, serious and unmoving.


    ��Everything I said applies to other ck ves as well. Before ve traders captured them, they were living in utter chaos. Their only purpose in life was to fight for food and territory. They were no different than wild, senseless beasts from the jungle. One should never let such masculinity go to waste.��


    ��As for now, the ves are sold to the New World. We have designed a reward and punishment system for them. We even assigned them different jobs based on their capabilities. Some are assigned to the fields and some to the mines. And then some... are assigned to entertain us. We have freed them from the agony of looking for food. We have found a true purpose for their bodies. In return, they help us to earn quite a bit of money. Isn��t that the true meaning of order?��


    ��You are talking about your wealth, right? I think they would prefer to look for food than living like this,�� scoffed Anne.


    As they talked, the fight on the stage had reached its climax. The ck ve with a scar on his face was dominating the fight. He jumped up and pushed his opponent to the ground without mercy. After that, he started to punch his head nonstop. The audience had be bored with the sound of cracking bones. However, when blood was finally spilled, the spectators roared into a round of apuse.


    ��They are just items to me. I��m using my property to bring me more wealth. There��s nothing wrong with that. But, the ck-market alliance is different. It��s all about partnership. We need you guys to bring me more loot, and you guys need me to sell them for you. You see. Our rtionship is a mutual one.


    ��Even the pirates that dislike us can��t deny this fact as well. The existence of a ck-market alliance has created a stable ie for many of them. This is what order can bring to Nassau.


    ��I know what you are about to say. In every situation that has an order, the rules always favor the stronger side. Like in Nassau, for instance, the ck-market alliance is willing to offer a higher price to the captains because they are dominant enough to bring home more loot to their flock.


    ��Before the ck-market alliance, the ck-market merchants had been doing the same thing. They would offer bigger bonuses to the more powerful captains. This was an unwritten rule. We simply made it official in Nassau. As for our previous negotiation, you must know that we weren��t trying to make your life difficult.��

 Chapter 162 - Hole

    <h4>Chapter 162: Hole</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    No one was allowed to surrender in the fight. Though the loser was now unconscious, the scar-faced man had no intention to stop bludgeoning his opponent up, knowing that he had to put on a good show by crushing him to oblivion. He finally stopped when his opponent��s face was covered in blood and torn flesh. The cheers from the audience got louder and louder, fueled by the ever-increasing violence and gore.


    It seemed like scarface, the winner, was getting tired as well. Seeing that his time was almost up, he stood up, walked to the side of the stage, and lifted a heavy bronze statue, intending to use it to deal a final blow to his opponent. Suddenly, the audience screamed. It was toote when scarface realized that something wasn��t right. From the back, his opponent suddenly dealt a massive blow to the end of his head! This caused him to lose all strength and as he dropped the statue in shock. Itnded directly on his feet!


    The bronze statue weighed around 100 pounds, crushing both his feet under its weight. Before he could even scream in agony, someone grabbed his arm. Nobody expected his opponent to be still strong enough to continue fighting. Without hesitation, he came up with every bit of strength he had and snapped his opponent��s arm.


    Scarface was now sweating bullets, shuddering in excruciating pain from his crushed arm and feet. The audience cheered even louder in delight as they witnessed the unexpected plot twist. Seeing the opportunity at hand, he instantly grabbed the other arm and broke it as well. Naturally, he wasn��t about to let scarface attack him anymore. As a final hurrah, he wrapped his arm around his opponent��s neck and attempted to squeeze as hard as he could.


    Scarface made some unintelligible grunts as he tried his best to free himself from the choke. s, his final struggle was pointless because both his arms were broken. It was apparent that the scarface would soon get to meet his maker.


    Instead of watching the brutal fight, the middle-aged man chose to focus his gaze on Zhang Heng, seeming as if he could read his mind and peek into his soul. After a short pause, he continued,


    ��I have to admit that I had made a mistake when I negotiated with you earlier. We have underestimated your capabilities. My employee has also been rude to you without my consent. I��m sorry that you��ve encountered so many problems during your first voyage. I actually invited you here to apologize to you personally. I hope that you can reconsider partnering with the ck-market alliance again.��


    ��Be partners with your lot?��


    ��You have proven your capabilities to all of Nassau. I��m willing to talk to the alliance to adjust the initial price that we proposed. We might even offer you the highest price that we could, as long as you stop working with the woman called Carina.��


    ��Do you really think that a new merchant like her is powerful enough to go against the entire alliance? Carina��s father used to be a ck-market merchant in Nassau, and many from the alliance knew him personally. It was only because of her father that we decided not to make her life difficult. I have topliment her for keeping the secret so well. We were only informed that she was working with you when the Jackdaw returned from her first voyage. Our grace was the only reason why she couldplete her tasks without facing any obstacles. If the alliance did decide to do something about her, I promise you that there would be no way that she could survive in Nassau.��


    ��If that��s the case, Mr. Ma, why the rush to renegotiate with us then?��


    ��Although I believe that order makes this a beautiful world for us to stay in, I know that things are always difficult in the beginning. Three months ago, the alliance set up a new set of purchasing rules for Nassau��s captains. We spent a great deal of effort ining up with a system for the trades urring on this ind. It��s no easy task to keep it going, but I believe we will eventually conquer all challenges. It��s always a good thing if the whole process can be sped up.��


    Malcolm grabbed a ss of wine from a passing butler.


    ��Recently, there have been many small-time pirates who consider you their anti-alliance leader. They have all been motivated by your brazenness, and this is a problem for us. By the way, have you yed poker before, Captain Zhang Heng?��


    ��Of course.��


    ��To me, good timing is needed to win a poker game. The moment you have a good hand, you should instantly ce your bet. If you miss the golden opportunity, you��ll be unable to win any money. Now would be your golden opportunity to win the game. Once Carine is out of the picture, the ck-market alliance will regain its stability, and the small-time pirates will be left with no other option but to ept the new reality. By that time, whatever ace up your sleeve would be useless. You will regret it if you don��t ept my offer today.��


    ��Is that a threat?��


    ��No. It��s just a friendly reminder. I admire everything that you��ve achieved thus far. Thest person managing to make his name known in the entire Nassau was William Kidd. You should know that you have a bright future ahead of you, but you need to select your trading partners with the utmost care. I don��t wish to be your enemy someday.��


    On the stage, scarface finally stopped struggling as he breathed hisst. One of his legs still twitched and convulsed. On the other hand, his opponent had finally used up all his strength and had copsed to the ground. The back of his head was still bleeding profusely, covering the stage in blotches of red. As the gruesome battle came to an end, the audience cheered loudly and pped for them.


    The butler then ordered the servants to clean up the stage.


    ��Please. Excuse me for now,�� said Malcolm.


    Holding the ss of wine in his hands, he walked onto the stage as he trampled over the blood. Clearing his throat, Malcolm then gave a short opening speech. He thanked everyone who had supported the ck-market alliance. The end of his speech marked the official beginning of the banquet. There was a violinist who had waited backstage for some time to begin his performance. Then, in a long line of servants, the food was finally served.


    As for the scarface and his opponent, they were carried out of the ballroom. Malcolm did not stay at the banquet for too long though seeming as if he had something urgent to deal with. He left right after he finished his speech.


    Zhang Heng, Anne, and Billy had no intention to stay overnight at the mansion as well. They were ready to leave once they finished their food. As they were leaving, Zhang Heng suddenly stopped walking when he arrived at the gate. He saw two people who were under an apple tree digging the ground with shovels.

 Chapter 163 - Conflict

    <h4>Chapter 163: Conflict</h4>


    The two ck ves had been digging the ground for some time and werepletely drenched in sweat. Zhang Heng noticed that hey had dug a very deep hole. Quickly, they tossed in two bodies into it. Immediately, Zhang Heng recognized the two bodies were the fighters that performed on the stage earlier. One had a scar on his left face and was dead, and the other, his opponent, was still breathing.


    After tossing the bodies into the pit, they filled it up again with dirt. Suddenly, a man seeming to be their supervisor noticed Zhang Heng watching his men. So, he decided to approach him.


    ��Can I help you?��


    ��I think that man is still breathing.��


    ��Oh. His nose is broken, and he��s blind in one eye. He can no longer perform on stage. Keeping him alive is a waste of energy and food. Considering his severe injuries, we would have to spend a great deal of money treating him. So, Mr. Ma has ordered me to bury him alive with the other dead ve.��


    ��Can I have him since you guys don��t want him anymore?��


    Seeing the supervisor hesitating for a moment, Zhang Heng tossed him a small bag of coins. He opened it up, counted, and found out that there were 20 silver coins inside it.


    ��He now belongs to you, mister!��


    Turning to his workers, he snapped, ��Why are you still standing there?! Move the injured man to this gentleman��s carriage.��


    This time, the two ves looked at each other and refused to follow the order. In the act of intimidation, the supervisor lifted the whip in his hand. Left with no options, they quickly carried the ve who was alive from the hole and moved him to the horse carriage that Billy rented.


    Anne and Billy did not think too much about it, believing that Zhang Heng rescued the ck man out of kindness. Billy, however, was worried about what Malcolm told them earlier.


    ��I think the ck-market alliance is about to do something to Carina. What should we do?��


    ��What do you think?��


    ��I don��t like them at all. I guess his theories about ��order�� and all might make him famous in other colonies, but this is Nassau, the city of freedom! He can��t be ordering us around like his ves in his mansion.��


    ��You are right about that, but the ck-market alliance has grown really powerful in Nassau. All the great pirate crews have joined forces with them. The ones supporting us are just small-time pirates. I know them quite well. Though there are many of them, they can��t provide us with much help during critical moments. Once Carina loses her foothold in Nassau, we will lose the channel to sell our loot as well. When that timees, we would be forced to partner up with the ck-market alliance.��


    ��This is the very reason why we can��t ditch her and partner up with the ck-market alliance. Malcolm has bigger ambitions that you think, and he��s not that simple. Setting up an alliance to increase his wealth is just one of his goals. He wanted to make use of the alliance to take control of the Nassau��s pirates. If he seeds, he would be powerful enough to assign captains that he likes for every pirate crew. And no one will be able to go against him.��


    Then, Zhang Heng finally voiced out his opinion.


    ��Actually, the ck-market alliance has a weakness as well. The are formidable when we look at them as an alliance but the truth is, their inner structure is not as tough as we think it is. The core members of the alliance are Redmond and Malcolm. Redmond is the wealthiest and most experienced ck-market merchant in Nassau.


    ��For his sake, all the ck-market merchants of Nassau gathered and came up with a proposal that everyone could agree on. Sadly, Redmond is getting older. Even though he��s the leader of the alliance, his job is limited to stabilizing the structure of the alliance and resolving conflicts. Malcolm is the real guy running the whole thing. He rose to power too quickly in Nassau, and in his quest for ultimate control, he��s offended many people. This is why he needs Redmond��s good reputation to help him set up the ck-market alliance.


    ��Are there any conflicts between the two of them?��


    ��I have no idea.��


    ��Huh?��


    ��Both of them are powerful individuals in the alliance. I know that they would have to put on a show that they are good partners. However, I don��t think outsiders know the true nature of their rtionship. A few days ago, I got to know that Redmond already knew Malcolm before Malcolm came to Nassau.��


    ��That should mean that they are in good terms, right?�� replied Billy.


    ��No. I don��t think so. Malcolm and Redmond are both sessful businessmen, and I believe that they are professional enough not to allow emotions to ruin their work. Meeting Malcolm tonight confirmed my spections. He is very confident. Though he dislikes us and knew that we have potential to bring massive trouble to the ck-market alliance, he remained calm and put only said positive things. To eliminate any future problems, he��s willing to put the past behind him. Likewise, he��s not one to allow friendship to determine his decisions. After working with Redmond for so many years, it��s impossible that there are no problems between them. We just need to dig them out.��


    ��You��re talking about driving a wedge between Malcolm and Redmond?��


    ��It hard to go up against a huge alliance like this from the outside. Like I said earlier, their inner workings aren��t as stable as we think it is. Once the rtionship between Redmond and Malcolm bes sour, the ck-market alliance will lose its stability. But even that��s not enough. We need to make sure that we can attack them from the outside as well, and speeding up the process of destroying them is essential. I will talk to Carina about this once she returns to Nassau. Right now, we need to figure out how to ruin their rtionship.��


    ��If there are conflicts between them, I don��t think outsides would know anyway since the top is very secretive. Perhaps we can create some friction between them.��


    ��That��s a good idea as well. However, I will only do that as ast resort. Redmond and Malcolm are sharp enough to spot any engineered conflicts. Things might be worse for us if they find out.��

 Chapter 164 - Escape Plan

    <h4>Chapter 164: Escape n</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    The horse carriage entered Nassau at night, eventually stopping in front of Zhang Heng��s house. Zhang Heng and Billy then carried the ve into the house and ced him in Marvin��s empty room. As for Anne, she quickly went to look for a doctor.


    Billy chatted with Zhang Heng for a while before he took his leave as it was gettingte. After that, Zhang Heng went back to Marvin��s room. The ve��s eyes remained closed, and he was as still as a sske on a windless night. If not for his shallow breathing, most would have thought that he was dead. The blood smeared over his face had caked up, making him look even scarier than before.


    ��I have to say. You sure are good at pretending to be unconscious,�� said Zhang Heng as he moved a chair to the side of the bed.


    Unsurprisingly, he got no response. The man was still lying on the bed in the same position, unconscious.


    ��Aren��t you curious about how I knew you were still alive? When we were in the ballroom earlier, everyone had their attention focused on your fight. I was the only one looking around and observing the others. In the end, I noticed something really interesting. Whenever your opponent attacked you, I could see some of the female ves cringing in fear. At first, I thought that they were worried about you. I also saw that they were relieved when you attacked your opponent.


    ��So, I figured that their concern for you must have been genuine. One interesting point, though. I noticed how happy they were when you managed to beat scarface. At the same time, it seemed as if they were expecting something as well. This reaction puzzled me. Until the very end, just when everyone thought that you were done for, you stood up and delivered a heavy blow to your opponent. To my surprise, they didn��t seem too shocked by your epic victory. This made me think of one thing. Maybe, just maybe, they knew exactly what would happen on the stage.


    ��Everything that happened tonight was directed by you. You wanted to escape the mansion, and so, you concealed your true ability on the stage. After suffering such severe injuries, you knew all too well that they would never hire a doctor to treat you. Instead, they were going to bury you alive. And the two ves digging your grave were your people as well. That was why they panicked when I offered to buy you. They never expected this to happen.��


    When Zhang Heng was done talking, the ve suddenly sprung from the bed and attempted to strangle him! All too soon, he stopped in his tracks as he saw a Zhang Heng pointing a gun at him.


    ��I have no ill intention towards you. On the contrary, you should feel lucky that you met me tonight. if you followed your original n, you might be able to get away without your supervisor noticing you. However, you still can��t bypass the guards that are at the front entrance. Say you somehow managed to evade the guards without notice, you would still be surrounded by acres of ntations. You can��t possibly escape the area.��


    ��Is this what you mean by harboring no ill intention toward me? Here you are, pointing your gun.��


    Zhang Heng was relieved when the ve talked to him in English. Compared to their female counterparts who were maids, ck male fighters were not required to know too many English words. The less they knew, the better as all their masters needed them to do was to fight like wild beasts on the stage.


    Almost every tribe in Africa had their own specifguage. Most of the time, it was hard for one tribe tomunicate with another due to thenguage barrier.


    ��I have seen what your arms can do. I don��t want to be strangled to death. Whether you believe it or not, me saving you tonight was just a coincidence. I don��t want anything from you. I��m nning to hire a doctor to treat your wounds, and you are allowed to leave whenever you want after you recover. I��m only worried that you might try to break the doctor��s neck. That��s why I thought of talking to you first.��


    ��Our country might be poor, but we are no beasts.��


    The ve appeared to rx a little and was no longer hostile towards Zhang Heng.


    ��I��m sorry. Anyway, you have been freed. You can choose to let the doctor treat your wounds, or you can leave right now. My door is always open.��


    Zhang Heng wasn��t lying when he said that it was merely a coincidence that he rescued the ve tonight. Though he knew that the ve was plotting to leave the mansion, this incident had nothing to do with him. Initially, he had no intention to interrupt his n and only decided to act on it when he saw that a man was about to be buried alive.


    Somehow, the ve was still doubtful of Zhang Heng. He stood up and walked to the doors. Naturally, Zhang Heng didn��t say a word and just watched him leave. A few minutester, however, the ck man returned to Zhang Heng��s house.


    ��Rakutua.��


    ��Oh? Is that your name?��


    ��No. That��s the name of the man that I killed today. He is the bravest warrior in my tribe, and he is my best friend as well.��


    1��Was he supposed to escape with you?��


    Zhang Heng was bewildered.


    ��Yes. The hardest part of the n is to control your strength. He has to make sure that my injuries are severe but not to the point that it would kill me. It��s tough to achieve that. If my opponent were not Rakutua, I would have surely died tonight. There��s no way that I can turn the tide around just like that.��


    ��Just who the heck are you?��


    Zhang Heng was curious about his background. He had managed to make the ves worry about him and even convinced a warrior from his tribe to die for him. Every ck ve around him was practically helping him to escape.


    ��My name is Laeli. Ie from a big tribe, and my father is the chief. Those evil ve traders invaded my hometown and turned our lives upside down!��

 Chapter 165 - Argument

    <h4>Chapter 165: Argument</h4>


    ��The ve traders sold weapons to an enemy tribe which started a war against us. The surprise attack from the enemy tribe had caused many of us to be captured by the ve traders. Almost half of our tribe was eliminated. To survive, we had to keep on moving. But, no matter where we ran, the traders would always locate us. They even met my father as well, telling him that they were willing to arm him in exchange for the prisoners that we captured. Of course, my father was resolute and strongly rejected their offer.��


    ��After that, our living conditions worsened. A few of our neighboring tribes attacked us after incitement by the ve traders. The conflict had unfortunately caused the lives of my father and brother. They killed all the tribe��s elderly and sold the younger ones to the ve traders. I happen to be one of them.��


    ��So, all the female servants and Lakutua came from your tribe? Do they know who you are? How is that even possible? ording to what I know, ve traders would usually sell ves from different tribes to buyers. This is to prevent the ves from working together and retaliate against their master.��


    ��The master of the mansion bought six ves from my tribe, including me. One of them fell ill and died not too long after working there. Another one was killed by a whip for attempting to escape the mansion. Now, there are only four of us left. Honestly, I never thought that I would be able to meet up with Nevasa and the rest of them here. They were among the first batch of ck ves that were captured by the ve traders. Most of them were women. Perhaps they thought that women wouldn��t pose a threat to them, and thus, the ve trader didn��t separate them. As for Rakutua and me, we were both captured at the same time, but sold to different buyers. Malcolm has always loved to watch a good fight. He��s been collecting diators from different people. After hearing about Rakutua��s great fighting skills, he instantly bought him up. That was about a month ago.��


    ��I heard just now that you guys were nning to go up against Malcolm?


    ��There have been some conflicts between my Jackdaw and the ck-market alliance that he��s in. This is no secret. The entire Nassau knows about it. He invited me to attend his banquet for the reason of making peace with me.��


    ��And you won��t ept his proposal? Why?��


    ��I dislike having to ce my fate in the hands of others. Malcolm and I don��t hold a grudge against each other. However, I have a problem with the ck-market alliance that he��s set up. Once the alliance bes stable, it��s not going to be good news to the people of Nassau that enjoy freedom.��


    Laeli could not understand Zhang Heng��sst sentence, but he knew that he was telling the truth. At least, no matter what his reason was, Zhang Heng was against Malcolm. After a short pause, Laeli continued,


    ��After my father and brother were killed in the war, we had to elect a new chief per the tribe��sw. It��s my responsibility to rescue my tribe members. I have to return them the freedom that they once had. That��s why I had to escape from the mansion no matter what.��


    ��I admire your zeal, but unfortunately, I don��t think I can help you with that.��


    Being a decent human being in the future, Zhang Heng was disgusted by the prospect of very. It was one of the worst things that a human could ever do to another human being. He was fine with rescuing Laeli from the mansion, but setting free every ve from the ce would be a matter that needed extensive nning. This was a critical moment in time for the Jackdaw and Carina. Zhang Heng had to focus solely on Malcolm and his ck-market alliance. He was indisposed to help Laeli even if he wanted to.


    ��I��m not asking for your help. I simply want to work with you,�� said Laeli as he shook his head.


    ��Work with me?��


    ��Yes. You want to know the problems between Malcolm and Redmond, right? I think I can help you with that. It��s heartbreaking to know that so many ck men were sold here and turned into diators. We were forced to fight and kill each other for the sake of our master��s entertainment. Now, let��s talk about the servants, who are always close to their masters. There are times when they will be able to eavesdrop on their secrets.��


    ��To the white people, we are merely goods and a means ofbor. They see us as their property, and they do not care about what we think and feel. Without their permission, there��s no way that we can leave the mansion. Many a time, they would discuss many sensitive topics in front of us. From the first day that I was sold to the Terrance mansion, I��ve been nning my escape. Other than learning more than a few words, I actually collected lots of information as well.��


    ��Around eight months ago, Malcolm and Redmond had a meeting with each other. Malcolm ordered me to fight another ck man in front of him. However, I could see that they were not watching the fight. They even had an argument about whatever they were discussing.


    Upon hearing that, Zhang Heng was bing more and more interested in Laeli��s story.


    ��They were arguing about some merchant. Since it had nothing to do with my escape n, I don��t quite remember his name. All I know is that he is one of the merchants from the ck market. He is doing the same thing with Malcolm and Redmond, and is quite famous as well. There was this once when Redmond tried to talk about setting up the ck-market alliance with him, but, the person rejected his idea without even thinking twice.��


    ��He told Redmond that the ck-market alliance would bring him a lot of trouble, adding that Redmond��s ambition is getting out of hand. After that, Redmond talked to Malcolm about it. Both of them agreed that it would be a problem if the person refused to work with them. Although he wasn��t the wealthiest merchant on the ind, he had lots of experience and a good reputation. Redmond suggested that they should take their time to convince him. Not too long after that, the person was captured at a colony. Redmond suspected that Malcolm was behind it. However, Malcolm said that it had nothing to do with him. They both then broke into an argument about this.


    Immediately, Zhang Heng thought of Carina��s father. It would seem that the person in the story referred to him. Zhang Heng did not expect that the capturing of Carina��s father in New Jersey had something to do with the ck-market alliance. This incident wasn��t as simple as he thought it was.

 Chapter 166 - Carina’s Yield

    <h4>Chapter 166: Carina��s Yield</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    ��What do you think about my intel? Did it help?��


    ��What would it cost me?��


    Laeli did not rush to answer the question.


    ��Even though I��ve left Terrance��s mansion, there are still quite a few of my people stuck there. You want to kick Malcolm out of the game and know more of his secrets, right? I can contact my people to help you.��


    ��You should know that even if the ck-market alliance is dismissed and Malcolm chased out of Nassau, you still can��t change the fate of the ves inside that mansion.��


    ��I will change my fate with my own hands.��


    Laeli looked determined. Different individuals acted differently when faced with critical situations like this. Some would simply give up all hope and let despair rule their lives while some would choose to embrace hardship and ept their fate. Once the predicament was over, the person in question would usually be stronger than before.


    Laeli definitely belonged to thetter. He had endured the deaths of his brother, father, and his tribe. The marks of a ve had already been engraved onto his body. To escape the mansion, he broke his nose and lost an eye. He was also forced to kill his best friend. Not only did Laeli not allow despair to run him down him, but he was also grooming himself to be a worthy chief of his tribe.


    ��We didn��t get to enjoy freedom from where we came from. We didn��t get to enjoy freedom in the colonies. And we don��t get freedom in this city as well. So, we must leave this ce. I heard there are several uninhabited inds around this area. Some of them are located along the shipping lines. There is freshwater for drinking and emptynd where we can fish, hunt, and cultivate crops. It might be difficult in the beginning, but I believe that we will survive just like how our ancestors did.��


    ��I have a ship and a crew. I can help you to look out for a suitable ind when we set sail the next time. We are capable of bringing you and your people over to the ind as well. The problem is, how are you going to rescue your people from the mansion? I deeply sympathize with your current situation. You can��t just barge into the mansion and release them. That would surely anger many powerful people on this ind. Currently, the Jackdaw is proliferating in Nassau. Most of our crew��s families are living here. It��s my responsibility to take care of them. I hope you can understand my decision. The most I can do is to bring you and your people to the ind that you wish to settle down on.��


    ��I will solve the problem of rescuing my people out of the mansion, but I will need some weapons. I don��t need much. In order to bring those weapons into the mansion without detection, they would have to be small. I��d say daggers would be perfect. Besides that, I��ll need at least five blunderbusses. One thing, though. I don��t need them right now. You can pass them to me after you settle your problem.��


    ��I have no problem with supplying you with the weapons that you need. Let��s work together, and I hope that your n will be a sess.��


    At that, Zhang Heng then extended his hand as a gesture of goodwill. Laeli was surprised that Zhang Heng was willing to shake his hand. It was his first time encountering such a polite act. It was at that moment when he knew that Zhang Heng did not look at him as if he was property or a wild beast. He was treating him like a fellow human with equal rights. Half a secondter, Laeli took Zhang Heng��s hand and shook it. Suddenly, the two of them heard someoneing into the house. It was Anne and the doctor.


    ��You take a few days of rest to allow your wounds to recover. My partner will return here in a while. I need you to tell him everything that you have just told me.��


    ....


    A weekter, Carina returned to Nassau after leading a ship full of nutmegs all the way to New York. New York harbor was one of the best ports that Carina��s father managed, where he had continuously bribed all the officers there. Hence, no one gave her a hard time when she passed their customs. They did not even check the goods that she��d brought into New York. This saved her a tremendous amount of time, enabling her to look for more potential buyers.


    Currently, New York did not require nutmeg, and though they were valuable spices, Carina figured she might have to sell them all in Europe instead. There were a couple of merchants interested in buying them, but Carina wasn��t pleased with the price that they offered. After looking for around ten days, a merchant that specialized in the spice trade came for Carina. Both of them spent a long while haggling, trying toe with a price that could please both parties.


    That was the very first deal that Carina made ever since she became a ck-market merchant. After paying off the Jackdaw, her loans, and her transportation fare, she was left with 500 gold coins. Getting suchrge amounts of money greatly motivated her to work harder and rescue her father from prison. Unfortunately,ing across such valuable targets was a one in a million urrence. Otherwise, her father could be released from jail within two years.


    The first thing that Carina did was to send 100 gold coins to her mother. All the family��s savings had gone to bailing her father out of jail. With the 100 gold coins, her family could at least breathe right now. Left with 400 gold coins, Carina was going to use a portion of it to maintain a good rtionship with the officers at various ports. The rest of the gold coins would be saved for her next job. With the savings, she could at least reduce some of the interest. Without taking any breaks, Carina returned to Nassau immediately after everything was settled.


    Carina, however, was most concerned right now about her rtionship with the Jackdaw while she was not in Nassau. She would have never left if she was not tasked to sell all those spices. Carina thought that Zhang Heng had only agreed to work with her due to pressure from the ck-market alliance. There was a possibility that Zhang Heng would kick her away once the deal was sealed. Right now, she had no right to ask him to continue trading with her in the future. Although understanding the risks, she still chose to partner up with Zhang Heng. At least she could earn some money from this deal.


    She didn��t know why, but somehow, she had faith that Zhang Heng would not just kick her away like that. Whenever she talked to him, she tended to forget that she was talking to the captain of the Jackdaw. Zhang Heng was different from the pirates that she��d encountered before.


    As she returned to Nassau, she was relieved when she found out that the Jackdaw hadn��t yet partnered up with the ck-market alliance. Also. The small-time pirates still considered the Jackdaw the symbol of the anti-ck-market alliance.


    When she finally caught up to Zhang Heng, she heard something unbelievable.

 Chapter 167 - A Well-Protected Flower

    <h4>Chapter 167: A Well-Protected Flower</h4>


    ��Malcolm��s the reason my father is in prison?��


    Carina was left in aplete shock, not knowing what to do when she heard the news for the first time. She also felt ufortable when she saw a half-blind and broken nosed ck man standing in front of her.


    ��For now, we don��t have any solid evidence.��


    Zhang Heng then poured a cup of wine for Carina to calm her down.


    ��I have to say, the timing of your father getting captured and put in jail was just too much of a coincidence. Redmond��s suspicion makes perfect sense. Your father was one of the ck-market alliance��s biggest obstacles when they were being set up. Once your father is out of the game, Malcolm will benefit the most. Billy asked a couple of ck-market merchants about your father and discovered that arge number of them believe that somebody must have gotten your father in jail through means of foul y. You must have visited him at least once, right? Did he say anything about this?��


    ��Before we were allowed to visit him, we had to pay a huge sum of money to the prison guards. To make things worse, we were only allowed to see him for a tiny amount of time, so my mother and sister used up most of it. I only had a few minutes to talk to him. At that time, I told him that I would take over his business. We didn��t discuss anything else apart from business. Even though my father handed me his ship and his connections, he didn��t agree on meing to Nassau. In the end, he told me that the most dangerous people in Nassau are not pirates and asked me not to trust anyone just like that.��


    Carina paused for a moment before continuing.


    ��Actually, Malcolm treated me well when I first arrived in Nassau. He told me that the ck merchants not working on any pirate ships were not allowed to join the ck-market alliance and get their share of profit. He also said that he couldn��t convince the other ck-market merchants to give up on dealing with my father��s ex-pirate partners. During that time, there were a couple of powerful pirate groups who had still not join the ck-market alliance. Malcolm gave me a list and asked me to convince them.��


    ��The fact that I��m a woman didn��t make this task easier. I only knew a few people when I came to Nassau, and there was nothing I could offer when I tried to convince them to join the ck-market alliance. Of course, I didn��t have enough money to bribe the important personnel on their ships. In the end, I failed to convince them to join the ck-market alliance. At that time, I was truly grateful for Malcolm helping me to settle down in Nassau. He was one of the few people willing to help me. I won��t go against the ck-market alliance if I have other options to solve my problem. I simply couldn��t have ever imagined that he had something to do with my father being sent to jail.��


    Carina took a sip of the wine, but it did little to calm her down. Suddenly, she stood up and said, ��No way. I have to confront him right now and ask him to release my father!��


    ��Are you nning to make him admit that he was the one who got your father in jail?��


    ��If he doesn��t set my father free, I will let this matter be known to everyone in the alliance. He could easily pull off the same stunt to others if he could this to my father.��


    ��What you are about to do may get him into some small problems. But, as I said, we have no solid evidence to prove that Malcolm is responsible for putting your father in jail. Besides...��


    Zhang Heng then turned around to look at Laeli.


    ��Your only witness was a ve. Technically speaking, all I did was overhear the conversation between Redmond and Malcolm,�� said Laeli.


    ��I have another piece of bad news. Your very existence has brought a negative impact on the ck-market alliance. Malcolm is about to do something about you,�� said Zhang Heng to Carina.


    Carina was shocked. She somehow expected that the ck-market alliance would eliminate her the moment she decided to work with the Jackdaw. Still, there was a lot for her to swallow as she tried digesting what Zhang Heng said. If her father could be sent to jail because he went against Malcolm, she wondered what the ck-market alliance would do to her since she followed in her father��s footsteps.


    From the first day she arrived in Nassau, she knew that this was a path of no return. At first, her only intention was to earn enough money to free her father from jail. After making a tremendous amount of money from selling the spices, Carina found out that she actually loved being a ck-market merchant. Indeed, this sounded crazy. Only a few months ago, she was a richdy frequenting salons and balls, mingling with the upper-ss society. She had no inkling on what the other part of the world looked like.


    Until she came to Nassau, wanting to take over her father��s business, she had face a lot of obstacles along her path. She had tasted hardship that she never experienced before in the past 20 years. To join the ck-market alliance, she chose to give up her dignity. She went around the ind, looking for her father��s friends for help. She even negotiated with the pirates that she despise, reluctantly givubg in to their demands as she did her best to convince them to work with her.


    Entering a man��s house in the middle of the night was something that the old her would never do. Carina was wondering how was managed to keep her sanity. She used to be a well-protected flower that grew up in a safe environment. Now that she had thrown herself in the wilderness, she finally matured up after going through all those hardships. This was the kind of life that she would never get to experience if she still lived in an upper-ss society. The wilderness was filled with countless threats, betrayal, and challenges.


    Carina could feel a surge of passion bursting through her heart, something that she never experienced before. Before all this, the thought of returning to where she came from after her father��s rescue constantly gued her mind. However, after tasting the satisfying reward of surviving the hardship, she decided that she would never return to herfortable life.


    ��I will be ready. I will not be trampled on no matter who my enemy is.��


    ��I��m afraid that it��s not enough. After this, I hope that you will work even harder. You need to exert more pressure on the ck-market alliance. At the same time, I will make use of your father��s incident to divide Malcolm and Redmond. However, I must tell you that you may face more threats in the future if we do this. Right now, the conflict that we have with the ck-market alliance is minimal, but if we decide to treat them as our enemy, I��m afraid that Malcolm might employ some despicable methods to deal with you. You have to remember that we are racing against time. Between you and Malcolm, let��s see who will win the race.��


    ��I have no other options, right? No point dwelling on it then.��

 Chapter 168 - Marine Product and Loot

    <h4>Chapter 168: Marine Product and Loot</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    A month had passed. After the Jackdaw��s pirates had more than enough fun in Nassau, most had spent off arge portion of their earnings. Some were even in debt. It baffled Zhang Heng as to how they managed to spend all their money, considering that they were each given at least 40 gold coins before they left the ship. That amount was enough for an ordinary person to livefortably for two to three years. On the bright side, though, they were starting to miss life out at sea.


    Coincidently, Carina provided Zhang Heng with some valuable intel. After getting a minor refit and going though a recruitment drive, the Jackdaw was ready to set sail again. At the same time, Carina and Laeli started to work on their Nassau operation as well. Before the ck-market alliance began to deal with Carina, she had decided that she would do whatever it would take for her n to seed. First, she rented a storage facility near the pier. Then, she spread the news to Nassau��s small-time pirates, telling them that she was willing to offer them a higher price than the ck-market alliance.


    Upon hearing the news, arge number of pirates on the ind started to pay attention. Though Carina was a woman, the fact that she managed to help the Jackdaw earn a huge amount of money had spread around the entire Nassau. Her reputation soon skyrocketed. It was great news to the small-time pirates that someone was willing to buy their loot at a higher price. If that was so, they wouldn��t need to rely on the ck-market alliance anymore. After all, the alliance wasn��t as friendly to them as they were to the powerful pirate crews because it was hard for them to valuable loot. The alliance would only offer them a meager price for whatever they had.


    Since they did not sign any contracts with the alliance, they could choose to stop selling to them anytime they wished. With the opportunity for better prospects, they would naturally choose to sell their plunder to Carina. The captain of the Gentle Breeze was left speechless when he saw a group of pirate-wannabes lining up in front of the storeroom that Carina rented.


    Their clothes were in tatters and they wielded all sorts of non-lethal weapons, which made them look more like beggars and thugs instead of pirates. One could only imagine the quality of the items sold to Carina.


    An elderly pirate slowly approached the table. Malone suspected that he must be older than his great grandfather that he buried some time ago. The old pirate then put a basket of crabs on the table as Jim, the records keeper stared at him in a confused manner. Immediately, he pointed at the signboard behind him.


    ��I��m sorry, sir. We do not ept any marine products here,�� said the records keeper politely.


    ��Watch what you say to me, kid. Everyone knew me when I was your age. Even Henry Morgan had to pay his respects to me when he came to Nassau. This is what I acquired when I sailed out earlier.��


    ��Still.... it does not change the fact that your loot is a marine product, sir.��


    Malone had personally recruited Jimst year. It was not easy hiring someone who knew how to count and read in this era. Not too long ago, almost half of the sailors from the Gentle Breeze left the ship when they heard that Mr. Fegan had been sent to jail. To Malone��s surprise, Jim had chosen to stay with the ship. A better job would have awaited him if he��d left.


    After selling off all the spices, Malone suggested to Carina that she should increase the pay of the kid hailing from North Carolina. There was nothing Malone could do when he saw Jim trying to exin the difference between marine products and loot to the old pirate.


    ��I robbed this basket of crabs from a fisherman. So it��s considered loot, not a marine product. Your boss told us that you are buying the loot that we got, right? This is my loot. What��s your problem?!��


    ��Sir, I think there��s been a misunderstanding.��


    Carina could not bear to see them argue anymore. The pirates that were waiting in line were starting to get impatient as well.


    ��Pay him five copper coins to buy off his loot. We need to serve the next seller,�� Carine informed Jim.


    Jim was instantly relieved when he was told to pay off the old pirate. Surprisingly, the old pirate was still unhappy even after Jim paid him the five copper coins. The pirate after him took out two marbles from his pocket and attempted to sell it to them.


    ��This is a disaster. You know that we won��t be able to sell all these useless stuff that we bought from these wannabes, right? We talked about this when you first arrived in Nassau. It��s impossible to earn a single dime from them. I thought we��ve agreed on not buying anything from these people. Why are you wasting your time and money on them right now?�� asked an irritated Malone. He then continued,


    ��Forgive my candor, but I feel that whatever we are doing right now is aplete waste of time. I would rather spend the money to let a hardworking boy like him to enjoy himself at s brothel in town. Look at the poor guy. I bet he��s still a virgin.��


    ��Thank you for your reminder. I know how the value of those items. If you can find me a second Jackdaw on this ind, I��m more than happy to chase all of them away. If you can��t do it, you��d better shut your mouth. If you are bored, go find a hooker and let her f*ck you. Alternatively, you can juste and help me.��


    ��I think I will choose the first option.��


    Malone folded his arms and stormed away. After taking a few steps, however, he stopped.


    ��Did you just ask a hooker to f*ck me? Or, is there something wrong with my hearing?��


    ��What��s wrong with that?��


    ��I remember when Mr. Fegan brought you on the Gentle Breeze for the first time. You were only eight or nine. Like a porcin doll, you held up your dress so high; it would not touch the ship��s deck. You were so unhappy that your father brought you aboard the ship. I can��t imagine that the demuredy that you once were became a boss that has taken over the ship. Ms. Carina, you��ve done it. You blended in with this ce faster than anyone could have imagined. Your father would be so proud of you.��


    ��It��s still too early to say that. It��s not easy to survive in this ce. Considering that we are facing a powerful enemy, we have to figure out a way to catch a breath from time to time.��


    ��Uncle Malone, I have to thank you for not leaving us even after my father was put in jail.��


    ��Mr. Fegan was the one who offered me this job when I was lost. I will never forget what he��s done for me. For now, I��m not going to waste my energy on pointless matters. So, I��m going to the brothel right now to look for a prostitute, and ask her to f*ck me.��


    1

 Chapter 169 - Rubbish

    <h4>Chapter 169: Rubbish</h4>


    Two weeks had passed since the Jackdaw set out to the oceans. At the same time, the farce in front of the warehouse also continued for two whole weeks.


    Unable to cope with the vast number of people lining up, Carina went on to spend around forty gold coins in exchange for what Malone called ��a pile of rubbish.��


    The only thing in the entire heap that had any value at all was probably the twelve boxes of potatoes. Even these were not going yield much in the colonies. The Gentle Breeze making a trip for those items was clearly more of a loss than gain.


    No one understood what the tradeswoman intended to achieve by doing this. Even so, the ck-market alliance immediately responded by issuing a statement. It said that all pirates found working with Carina would forever get the lowest price from them.


    This meant that the ck-market alliance was stonewalling Carina on arge scale. Malcolm��s counterattack was simple and straightforward. As soon as the statement was out, the quality of the items that the tradeswoman received worsened. Now, Carina had to inspect the loot twice when dealing with those pirate-wannabes.


    Of course, those who were desperate were unaffected by this. Never having the habit of thinking ahead, they would just go wherever the money was. These, however, were never the ck-market alliance��s target group anyway. Malcolm felt that he would ultimately be at an advantage, having these guys eventually wearing out and discouraging Carina to go on.


    The people on the ind gave the tradeswoman��s secondhand business the undesirable moniker of a ��rubbish collection station,�� and many merchants from the ck-market alliance were simply waiting for her to make a fool of herself.


    During this period, Malone had also be very dispirited. Whenever he met anyone on the ind he knew, they would always ask him when he was going to sell off all the Colony��s trash. Eventually, under the pressure of the constant mocking, he hid within the brothel, refusing to emerge until Carina sent a messenger to look for him.


    ��Set sail tonight?�� chuckled Malone bitterly as he rolled out of bed and put on his clothes. ��Stop joking. Are you really going to listen to those guys and transport all that stuff to Boston, New York? To whom should we sell them to? How much would the journey cost us? How much profit are we going to make?��


    ��I��ve already arranged for workers in advance. You��ll just need to ferry the goods to their destination, and someone over there will handle it. Then you can return to Nassau,�� the messenger replied.


    Just then, Carina walked into the room, catching the Gentle Breeze��s captainpletely off-guard. Thank goodness his pants were already on.


    Carina red at the stark-naked prostitute and said, ��Can you please excuse us?��


    The girl smiled, blowing a kiss at her before picking up her garments on the bench. She sultrily walked out of the room, swaying her hips.


    Carina asked the messenger she sent for Malone to guard the door. Then, she poured herself a ss of whiskey. ��Can you load everything on the ship in one afternoon?��


    Malone shrugged. ��I have to gather the crew, buy supplies for the trip, replenish water on board, check the sails... so, I guess... it should be alright. If you insist, we can leave this ce before sundown.��


    ��Very good. There��s no need to rush. We leave after dark.��


    Malone frowned, ��Leaving in such a mighty rush? Ah... you��re worried that your potatoes would start sprouting, eh?��


    Sensing sarcasm in the captain��s tone, Carina leaned back and rubbed her temples wearily. ��Do you know how much money we��ve lost during this period?��


    ��I know you may not want to hear this, but I��ve already told you earlier on that if we could actually make any money off of those guys, you wouldn��t have had to beg the captains who worked with your father to deal with you.��


    ��I never expected to earn any money off them. Not now, at least,�� groaned Carina. ��I just needed them to help me spread the word, to let all the pirates on the ind know that working with me is more profitable than working with the ck-market alliance.��


    ��I��m very sure Malcolm received your message too. That��s why he had the ck-market alliance issue a statement. Now, the powerful pirate gangs on the ind are even more disinclined to seek us.��


    ��No, on the surface, they won��te to us.��


    ��What do you mean?��


    ��When I was tiny, my father told me stories about this ce, about how brave and fearless the people are. They would chase after richespletely unrestricted by rules whatsoever. Many people thought that the pirate captains sided with the ck-market alliance because of a contract with them, but that wasn��t the case. In fact, most of them couldn��t care less about what��s written on a contract. They only chose the ck-market alliance because it provided them with a higher ie. All they care is feeding their men, avoiding a mutiny, and securing their positions as captain.��


    ��That may be true, but because of this, they would surely never leave the ck-market alliance to work with us,�� Malone sighed. ��Do you know what I��ve been hearing... what other people have been saying about us?��


    The tradeswoman raised a brow.


    ��Those bastards think that we won��tst. They believe that the Jackdaw continues to work with us only because...�� The captain paused for a moment.


    ��I��ve discovered a woman��s talents?��


    ��Something like that. Everyone here thinks that, sooner orter, Malcolm and his ck-market alliance will be chased out of Nassau. Forgive me for being blunt, but under such circumstances, no one would want to work with us.��


    ��Right now, I��m not trying to strive for a long-term partnership with anyone,�� said Carina. ��I��m just providing them with a means for some extra ie.��


    ��Extra ie?�� Malone couldn��t understand what the tradeswoman was saying.


    ��My target is not the few top-tier pirate groups. The ck-market alliance has been feeding them well. To be honest, there��s not much hope working with the guys from the third and fourth categories, either. But some of the first and second category pirates are actually not bad. It��s just that they were established a littlete, just like the Jackdaw. The ck-market alliance lowered their prices, but I can offer them nearly 20% more, which should be pretty attractive to them�Con the premise that the ck-market alliance doesn��t know about the transactions between us.��


    ��How is that possible? Once the Gentle Breeze sets sail, everyone will know...�� Malone began but suddenly stopped. Then, his eyes widened. ��The rubbish that you��ve been buying for the past two weeks�Cyou��ve actually been preparing for this?��


    Carina nodded. ��About five days ago, a helmsman from one of the ships contacted me in secret. He wanted to sell a bolt of cotton fabric�Cvery high-quality stuff. They have always been rather unhappy with the price that the ck-market alliance offered them, so they came looking for me. Right now, that bolt is in our warehouse. I need you to help me move it to Boston. Jim is already there and will liaise with a local merchant.��

 Chapter 170 - Target: The Goddess’ Spear

    <h4>Chapter 170: Target: The Goddess�� Spear</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    Following a piece of intel given by Carina, the Jackdaw was chasing down a ship called the Goddess�� Spear, a whaling vessel plying the waters around this area. Their patience finally paid off this time, after being at sea for over a year. Recently, some ships which returned to Nassau told everyone that the Goddess�� Spear had managed to hunt down a 70-foot giant sperm whale. It was so smart that the Goddess�� Spear circled the same spot for three months just to capture it.


    It was time for them to reap the rewards of their hard work. Getting a sperm whale was a giant treasure in itself. Its fat could be refined into blubber. The oil from its brain could be used to make whale-wax. And then, the most valuable treasure, ambergris,y within the whale��s intestines.


    Ambergris either came in a hue of ck or grey. When first extracted from the whale��s stomach, it would be in wax form, not to mention that it smelled terrible. Once dried, it would turn amber, and the foul smell would be reced by a unique fragrance. It was typically used as a fixative for very premium perfumes. As a result of its rarity, ambergris was more expensive than gold. This was undoubtedly the reason why Zhang Heng set his sights on the Goddess�� Spear.


    The previous pirate ship that attempted to plunder the Goddess�� Spear did not end up well. In this era, whale hunting was to be considered a job with extremely high-risks, and only true men dared to venture in this field. Having such brazenness, they didn��t even flinch when they saw a pirate ship. At that time, they did not have enough firepower to take on it. Nevertheless, their captain instructed them to take on the pirates the moment they boarded the ship. At the end of the day, they used tridents and fishings to defeat the pirates that came with guns and sabers.


    The entire ship of pirates ended up being prisoners of the Goddess�� Spear. The sailors took possession of their weapons and ammunition. Once the situation was under control, the sailors were instructed to slit the throats of the pirates and toss their bodies over the deck. It was a clear warning to any other potential pirates that this would happen to them too.


    Their brutal method worked way better than expected. Whenever the weaker pirate vessels saw a pile of bodies on the deck, lying on their own blood, they would turn around and leave the Goddess�� Spear alone. As for the more powerful pirate groups, the sight of the bodies only got them more excited. This could only mean that the ship must be hauling some precious cargo.


    The Jackdaw did not retreat as well. After his first victory, Zhang Heng managed to recruit even more pirates to join him. Right now, he had a total of 62 pirates on board. The newly hired pirates were of better quality than the first group of pirates who joined them. This was especially true for the cannoneer. Billy managed to convince the most skillful cannoneer from another experienced pirate group to join the Jackdaw.


    Dufresne, too, had managed to recruit a very talented chef. Initially, the chef worked for a hotel on the ind. After joining the Jackdaw for about half a month, every single pirate on board took turns toplement his food. It seemed that life on the high seas wasn��t as bad as it was anymore.


    Most importantly were the newly recruited pirates. The old pirates had their absolute faith in Zhang Heng. Due to their previous sess, Zhang Heng did not need to give them another morale-boosting speech. No one on the Jackdaw feared the piles of bodies on the Goddess�� Spear, which gave Zhang Heng the confidence to continue pursuing them. The fierce battle that they were about to face would only increase thebat experience of his pirates.


    Previously, the fight between the Happiness and the Jackdaw proved too easy for them. It was evident that the Happiness was a lot weaker than the Jackdaw in terms of firepower. In fact, it did not even look like a battle at all, being more like target practice. In the beginning, the Jackdaw took a few hits from them, but soon after that, the Jackdaw dominated the rest of the battle. The only dangerous thing that happened on the Happiness was Anne getting ambushed by the navies that hid in the cargo hold.


    This time, taking down the Goddess�� Spear wasn��t going to be that easy. Although the whaling vessel proved a formidable foe, Zhang Heng was more worried about hispetitors. One week after they left port, they crossed paths with a pirate ship. Not too long after that, they met another one. Both ships raised their ck gs at almost the same time. Thankfully, after a short conversation and exchange of information, the Jackdaw and the other pirate ship came to an agreement that they would leave each other alone.


    They were actually not being friendly but were simply afraid of the Jackdaw��s overwhelming firepower. As nobody had any loot on their ships during that time, they chose to settle the matter peacefully.


    Zhang Heng��s mind drifted elsewhere as he had his gaze fixed on the pirate ship that slowly sailed away from them. He was wondering how Carina was managing her situation back in Nassau. Before he left, she discussed her n with him, and Zhang Heng decided to invest 100 gold coins in her. The money could be used to solve some of her problems besides fortifying the partnership between Zhang Heng and her.


    Zhang Heng also promised that he would invest another 800 gold coins in the future. Carina would no longer need to worry that Zhang Heng would kick her out of the game. By bing her partner, he would be entitled to 20% of her yield. If Carina did manage to convince more pirate ships to partner up with her, and if they returned to Nassau with a ship full of loot, Zhang Heng would also be able to profit from that as well.


    Billy was tempted to invest in this venture as well but was forced to reconsider as he needed to provide for his family. In the end, he invested only 30 gold coins. As for Anne, she spent a total of 40 gold coins since there was no more need to purchase a house. And just like that, the two of them became small shareholders of the business.


    At the same time, Laeli began to contact his people at the mansion.


    After a short moment of distraction, Zhang Heng snapped back to reality. He realized that it was pointless for him to worry about Carina. It was entirely out of his control since he was out at sea. All he could do was to have faith in his partner. As captain of a pirate ship, he should focus more on the sea. If not for the conundrum of the ck-market alliance, there would be no need for him to care about what happened on the ind.


    The Jackdaw needed to grow a lot stronger. Once his vessel was categorized as a top-tier pirate crew, it would easier for him to control his fate. That was why every voyage was important to Zhang Heng. This time, he was confident that he would be able to bring something valuable back to Nassau.


    Aspared to other pirates, he had his Hunter��s Blessing and Lucky Rabbit Foot with him. If everything went right, these two items should help him in pursuing the Goddess�� Spear. Besides that, he received a notification from the game to inform him that his sailing skills had increased to LV 2.


    With everything set in stone, it was time for the Jackdaw to shine.

 Chapter 171 - The Carrack

    <h4>Chapter 171: The Carrack</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    After sailing for 21 days, Zhang Heng could feel that they were getting closer and closer to their target. A few days ago, a pirate ship attempted to plunder the Goddess�� Spear. Unfortunately, the pirates were defeated, and the Goddess�� Spear managed to seize all their weapons. It was going to be hard for the Jackdaw to loot their ship since they were now more robust. After a short exchange of fire, both parties sustained some damage on their boat. In the end, the pirate ship was forced to flee the Goddess�� Spear when their secondary mast was destroyed. Once again, the Goddess�� Spear managed to survive yet another battle against pirates.


    After that, the Jackdaw crossed paths with the pirate ship that fought the Goddess�� Spear. Billy knew their helmsman, so, they were willing to tell the Jackdaw what they knew about the Goddess�� Spear.


    There were about 50 sailors on Goddess�� Spear. Their ship was equipped with 17 cannons. 9 of them were acquired from the pirate ship that they defeated earlier. Otherwise, they had keen sailors who knew how to fight well. The only drawback about the whaling ship was their speed. Having a hold filled with blubber and wax, they could go no faster than a humble 5 knots.


    If everything went well, the Jackdaw was set to catch up with Goddess�� Spear in about half a day. Unfortunately, the weather on that day changed all of a sudden. They could see menacing dark clouds billowing above the Jackdaw. Immediately, Merck, the person that in charge of maneuvering mainsail, instructed his people to climb to the top of the mast to tuck away the mainsail as the wind grew stronger. Some pirates started praying to the goddess Thetis to keep them safe.


    As for Zhang Heng, he stayed within the captain��s quarters and studied the nautical charts, not forgetting his promise to Laeli. Whenever he passed an inhabited ind, he would put a mark on the chart. First, he would eliminate the inds that were too small. Inds thatcked essential resources and inds that were too exposed were also crossed off the list. He also made sure to exclude inds that were too close to the busy shippingnes.


    In the end, there were three inds left for Zhang Heng to pick. He nned to pay them a visit after plundering the Goddess�� Spear. As he put away the charts, the ship suddenly shook violently.


    When he first entered this world, he would stumble around whenever the ship encountered a great storm. As of now, he became a lot more steady, as long as the storm wasn��t too severe. This was the result of his continuous fencing practice on the ship. To prevent himself from falling, all he needed to do was to adjust his center of gravity ording to the way the ship moved in the storm.


    Zhang Heng opened the door of the rocky ship and walked to the gunwale. Large raindrops, coupled with salty mists, hit his face with a fury. On the deck, Billy was talking to the watchers.


    ��Is everything okay?�� asked Zhang Heng.


    ��I was about to look for you. Everything is fine so far, except for a small problem to our northeast.


    ��The Goddess�� Spear?��


    ��I��m not too sure as well. I��ve been watching them for a while now. It seems like they have stopped moving. I think we��ll find out soon enough. We should be able to catch up to her in about thirty minutes.


    ��Be careful. We need to avoid pulling up to its side. After knowing what the Pelican had to go through, they might use the same trick to defeat us. They would deliberately make their ship look deserted to bait us. Technically, we shouldn��t cross paths with them this early. Again, something might just happen to them in this period. After all, Goddess�� Spear isn��t the only threat around here.��


    ��Hold on. I will bring a team of scouts,�� said Anne.


    At that, Zhang Heng simply nodded his head. All he could do right now was wait. At the same time, the entire Jackdaw prepared itself to go into fullbat mode. Unfortunately, due to strong headwinds, they spent 40 minutes before they could catch up with the ship in front of them. Before they pulled up to it, Zhang Heng used his binocrs to check on it.


    Unlike the ordinary ships that passed by the Caribbean Sea, the ship in front of them seemed to be uniquely designed. The stern was round in shape, and it had four thick masts as well. However, her mainsail was broken. Its tall citadel and poop deck had it looking like arge ��U�� from is side. Zhang Heng even noticed that the ship��s hull was covered in barnacles.


    Having determined its characteristics, Zhang Heng knew that this vessel wasn��t the Goddess�� Spear that they were looking for.


    ��That��s... a carrack?��


    Billy was too sure as well. After all, the carrack, a type of vessel hailing from Spain, had gone extinct in the 17th century. Widely used in the 15th and 16th centuries, its unique design enabled it to carry more goods on board. The carrack��srge number of masts allowed it to move faster than its counterparts and was usually plyed the long-haul routes. When Magen traveled around the world, four out of five of his ships were carracks.


    However, it usually costs so much to build that few actually owned the type. Besides, maneuvering the vessel was no easy task as well. When it went against the wind, its unnaturally tall forecastle and poop deck would be continuously battered by the winds. The carrack was used right until the Elizabeth Era, where it slowly went into retirement. Not too long after that, carracks were gradually reced by galleons. Even an old experienced pirate, the likes of Billy had never seen a carrack before.


    ��She sure has aged well,�� said Billy.


    Although he saw what looked to be words engraved on the stern, it had been well eroded by time and the rigors of the ocean, and was no longer legible.


    ��I don��t think there��s anyone on board. I��ll go with you.��


    Zhang Heng shouted out loud to Anne, who was getting ready tounch a small boat. Other than Zhang Heng and Anne, Billy brought another four pirates with him as well. They had five oilmps with them. The carrack was merely a stone��s throw away, but the rough sea kicked up by the storm caused the seven to have a tough time getting to it. When they finally got to the ship, they saw that the gunwale��s rope had already rotted away. Luckily, Billy brought a grappling hook with him.


    Once the hook was set in ce, Anne volunteered to climb onto the ship first. Zhang Heng, Billy, and the other four pirates followed right behind her.


    ��The deck is fine!��


    Anne used the oilmp to look around the ship. Now, Zhang Heng could finally confirm his spection. This ship did not belong to this era. Though it had cannons, they were too old and outdated to protect it from the weapons of the day. Aspared to the Jackdaw, the carrack��s guns were like toys.


    ��Let��s move in pairs. Search the ship. Safety is our priority.��


    As Billy got on the ship, Zhang Heng started to delegate tasks, where each pair would search a different part of the ship. Then, Zhang Heng entered the captain��s quarters.

 Chapter 172 - Sailors That Disappeared

    <h4>Chapter 172: Sailors That Disappeared</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    The stench in the cabin was awful. Zhang Heng saw that everything was covered in ayer of green, slimy algae. He had to tear off a part of his shirt to mask his mouth and nose. As he made his way to the captain��s quarters, he noticed that the doors of all the cabins were ajar, and the ce was inplete disarray. Tables and chairs were all over the floor, with a couple of old rags strewn around the ce as well.


    Considering that the ship had been adrift for a long while, everything he just witnessed wasn��t surprising. He noticed something peculiar, though. It looked as if the crew had left in a hurry. Let alone people that were still alive, he saw no rotting corpses or bones. He also noticed that all the windows had been boarded up by wooden nks.


    That exined why the ship��s interior was so stuffy. Zhang Heng drew his sword and punched holes into the boards, allowing fresh air to flood into the ship. Thankfully, the putrid stench soon became more bearable. As he continued on, he found three gold coins stuck between the boards on the floor. It puzzled him as to why the owner would leave such valuable items there.


    Zhang Heng did not linger around for too long. Soon, he arrived at the captain��s quarters located at the end of the hallway. It was the only cabin along the corridor that had its doors closed. Zhang Heng attempted to push the door. To his surprise, it didn��t budge, seeming as if something was jamming the door from the inside. So, Zhang Heng took a few steps back and gave the door a kick. After three continuous bootings, the door finally flew open. At the same time, he saw what was blocking the door. It was a chair, now broken, thanks to Zhang Heng��s brute force.


    Instantly, he proceeded to explore the room. The captain��s quarters were less humid than the other parts of the ship as it was sealed off well��moldy books sprawled all over the floor. Surprisingly, the table was still in its original position. Just like the other cabins, there was no one here as well, and the windows were tightly sealed. After going ahead to hang his oilmp on the hook, he carried on looking around the room. He found a pearl ne, a ring, and some coins in the drawer.


    With the gold coins that he found earlier, Zhang Heng could confirm that this ship hadn��t been looted by any pirates. Something else must have happened to them. He then found a couple of the captain��s diaries on the table, but they were illegible to him. Based on all thenguages that he knew, he could confirm that it was neither English nor French. There were a ton ofnguages spoken in the continent of Europe, and Zhang Heng couldn��t figure thenguage that the captain used. In the end, he decided to bring all the diaries with him, telling himself that he would look into themter.


    After that, he spent another 15 minutes searching the quarters but found nothing worthy of taking. Just as he was about to leave, he noticed something and stopped in his tracks. For the previous cabins that he visited, Zhang Heng could see evidence of people fleeing in a hurry. However, the captain��s quarters were in apletely different state. The windows were sealed, and there was a chair blocking the door as well. How did the person leave this room considering it was locked from the inside?


    A chill ran down Zhang Heng��s spine. Knowing that this ship had been adrift for a very long time, there was a small chance that the chair was sent to the door by the rocking boat. Still, he could not exin why they would seal the windows. The valuable ne, ring, and gold coins were strong evidence that the crew left without even looking back. Were they trying to hide from something?


    Suddenly, Zhang Heng heard someone walking towards him. Immediately, he turned around and drew out his saber, only to find that it was Anne.


    ��Why are you here?��


    ��I just checked out the cargo hold. I quickly came up after I heard someone kicking the doors. This is so weird! I don��t see anyone on this ship. In fact, the goods are still intact in the cargo hold. Unfortunately, the humidity had damaged the entire stock of nylon. It��s impossible to sell them off. By the way, why do you look so nervous?��


    1��There��s something very wrong with this ship. Let��s leave since we can��t find anything valuable. Where��s Billy and the rest?��


    ��He��s gone to check the lowest deck with Monte. Should I inform them that we are leaving?��


    ��Let��s go together.��


    Zhang Heng had a bad feeling about Anne walking alone on this ship. He quickly collected the diaries and unhooked his oilmp. As usual, Anne led the way. Soon, the two arrived at the stairs that led to the lower decks. Strangely, the guardrails were gone. It looked as if someone destroyed them on purpose.


    ��Billy said that this ship is about 100 years old. Is that true?��


    ��Judging by its fitting and structure, she sure doesn��t look like something that belongs to this era.��


    ��Where are all the people?��


    ��I would love to know the answer to this question as well. I��m pretty sure that no pirates looted this vessel. I found no trace of fighting in the captain��s quarters as well. The possibility of the sailors retaliating against something are rtively low as well. We should have seen some skeletons lying around if a deadly disease hit them. Something horrifying must have forced the entire crew to abandon ship.��


    Suddenly, Zhang Heng heard Billy��s voice.


    ��Both of you bettere here! I found something interesting.��


    At that, Zhang Heng and Anne sped up and descended to the lowest deck. Billy and the two pirates with him lifted their heads and looked at the ceiling. Everything else around them seemed normal.


    ��What��s going on?��


    Billy lifted his oilmp, and a series of w marks were presented to Zhang Heng and Anne.


    ��Are those... caused by rats?�� asked Anne.


    ��I have never seen any rat capable of inflicting such damage to a ship. How about you guys? Have you found anything interesting?�� asked Billy.


    ��Everything looks normal in the cargo hold,�� replied Anne.


    ��There is arge amount of smoked meat left in the kitchen. I don��t think there was a food shortage around. We also found two boxes of silverware.��


    Only thest pair of pirates brought them some good news. Still, none of them could figure out how the sailors disappeared from this ship. At least, they did not return empty-handed.


    They soon left the derelict vessel after moving the silverware to their boats; rowing back to the Jackdaw. As the small boats were approaching the Jackdaw, Zhang Heng turned around and gave the mysterious ship another look. He thought he saw a line of ghostly ck shadows standing at the gunwale watching over them. When he took another good look, all he could see were the shadows of the masts.

 Chapter 173 - Poetry Book

    <h4>Chapter 173: Poetry Book</h4>


    Zhang Heng returned to the captain��s quarters. He was drenched by the rain and got a towel to wipe himself down. Anne quickly got out of her wet clothes as well. As they were both shivering in the cold, Zhang Heng poured themselves a ss of rum to warm up. Rum was the signature drink of pirates. It didn��t have a decent taste, and though fermented from sugar cane, it was very bitter. Aspared to wine and brandy, rum wasn��t as smooth. Its only upside was its low price. Not only was it cheap, but it could also be preserved longer than drinking water.


    After a month, the drinking water on the ship would start tasting awful as various kinds of nkton would start growing in it. Rum, however, could be preserved for at least a year. That made it an essential item for every pirate ship. Zhang Heng could feel a warmness radiating in his belly after he bottomed a ss of rum. Suddenly, someone knocked at his door.


    Billy hade for Zhang Heng with a group of youngsters with him.


    ��This is Mr. Vincent. I passed the diaries that you gave me earlier to our crew, hoping that someone could read them. I think we are in luck. Mr. Vincent here knows how to read thatnguage!��


    Zhang Heng instantly recognized him. He was the Jackdaw��s doctor and had been personally recruited by Billy. Passionate in the field of botany, he was supposed to carry out some research somewhere, but along the way, pirates had unfortunately plundered his ship. Thus, he was forced to be their doctor. A yearter, the pirate group that he was in joined forces with another pirate group. Finally, Vincent regained his freedom. However, he feared that others would find out that he once worked for pirates, choosing to stay on the ind in the end.


    In Nassau, he stayed right beside Billy. They were neighbors. He typically made a living by keeping ounts for the taverns and brothels. Greatly influenced by Billy, he eventually decided that he would join the Jackdaw.


    ��This is a list of goods on the ship. It��s written in Polish. It records everything they were supposed to transport. These are just everyday items��cotton, nylon, and wood.


    This was the very first time Vincent spoke to the Jackdaw��s captain, and he seemed to be nervous. Naturally, he was worried that Zhang Heng might not believe him.


    ��My father is from Scond, and my mother is from Pnd. When I was young, I stayed in Pnd for some time. That��s why I know how to read Polish.��


    ��How about these two books?��


    Zhang Heng then handed the other two diaries to Vincent. Initially, Anne was about to leave but decided to stay. She, too, was curious about the sudden disappearance of sailors on that ship.


    ��I think... this is a poetry book,�� replied Vincent after he opened up the book and nced through its contents.


    ��A poetry book?��


    ��Yes. A book filled with romantic poems. Most of them were dedicated to a woman called Betty. I must say that the contents are mediocre at best. This is my first time seeing someone using a storm to describe someone he loved. His descriptions are pretty... sensual.��


    Vincent blushed as he read through those poems.


    ��Can you read them aloud to us?��


    ��Okay. No... no problem.��


    Immediately, Vincent nced at Anne, quickly realizing that she was okay with it. He then started to look for a poem to read to them.


    ��Betty my love, I praise you, I adore you, You are my storm, I��m your master, Your breasts are like the fruits of a crooked branch, Your... erm... Your legs are like a river flowing with honey....��


    Vincent began sweating profusely as he read the sultry literature. He couldn��t help but loosen his cor.


    ��Do you want me to continue?�� asked Vincent while looking at Zhang Heng.


    ��Since you are halfway through...��


    ��Okay. You wrap me with your body, Whisper in my ear, You allow me to fly, I love you so much, Regardless of everything, I love you more than my soul, I��m willing to stay by your side for the rest of my life.... that��s it. You know, I can find you better Polish poems if you like these things.��


    Suddenly, Vincent realized that the three other people in the room were staring at him. Immediately, he picked up the third book.


    ��It seems like this is a record of where they got their supplies from. The names of different ports, dates, and amounts of goods are recorded here.��


    ��So, the captain��s journal is not here?��


    ��I don��t see it here.��


    ��Did you forget to take it?�� asked Anne.


    ��I don��t think so. I searched everywhere in the captain��s quarters. I even checked the books that were scattered all over the floor. There are three handwritten books in the room. The rest of them were published books.��


    ��All three books have the same handwriting?�� Zhang Heng asked Vincent.


    ��Two have the same handwriting. These are the list of goods and supply records. The romantic poetry book has different handwriting.��


    ��Writing down the list of goods and supplies is the job of the records keeper. Unfortunately, we couldn��t find the captain��s diary. There��s no way that we will ever know what happened to the ship,�� said Billy, who looked a little disappointed.


    ��Hold on. This is weird,�� Vincent chipped in.


    ��I know these two ports. They are far apart from each other. My brother and I spent a month sailing from one port to the next. Their supply records show that they only spent 15 days traveling between these two ports. That would mean the ship must have exceeded nine knots. I don��t think they had a ship that sailed that fast in that era,�� continued a perplexed Vincent.


    ��Theoretically, they might be able to achieve that if they sailed at full speed. In reality, it��s impossible... unless the winds were at their backs for all 15 days and they managed to find a way to prevent the mast from breaking into half. The possibility of these two things happening would be like a bag with 1,000 gold coins suddenly dropping from the sky,�� said Billy while shaking his head.


    ��It seems like the captain of that ship had different ideas. They loaded their vessel with 16-days worth of supplies before they departed. That��s cutting it real close. It��s only a day and a half away from theirst voyage.��


    ��Ha! No wonder they met with an ident! We found arge number of supplies lying around when we got on board. Clearly, the captain��s ego wasn��t the cause of their mishap. I remember that there was aplete nautical chart on their ship. Let��s look for it and ask Vincent to take a look. I want to see if we can mark down all the ports that they stopped at. Then, we will be able to calcte their average speed. With that, we will know if they met with an ident or not.��

 Chapter 174 - Tripartite Battle

    <h4>Chapter 174: Tripartite Battle</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    ��How... how is that even possible? How did that ship manage to maintain full speed the entire journey?�� asked Vincent.


    ��If the book��s records were true, it would mean that the ship was at least one and a half times faster than ships of this era. That is just insane,�� said Billy.


    Among them, Billy was most experienced when it came to sailing. Having spent the better half of his life out in the oceans, he knew all the factors that could affect a ship��s speed. Even if the helmsman and boatswain were extremely good at what they did, environmental factors were something out of their hands.


    ��So, right now, we have no idea how the ship��s crew suddenly vanished. Then, there��s the other problem. How did the ship move at such incredible speed?�� said Anne.


    ��I think these two questions have the same answers to them. I need you to trante everything that is written in these three books,�� Zhang Heng instructed Vincent.


    ��Sure thing. I don��t have many things to do anyway.��


    ��Great! For now, we need to focus on Goddess�� Spear first. I think we have almost caught up with them. Let��s hoist the mainsail when the weather improves,�� said Zhang Heng to Billy.


    ��Understood...��


    .....


    The mysterious carrack appeared during the storm, and when it was over, she was nowhere to be found again. The watchers looked high and low for any clues around the area, yielded no results.


    It was like a phantom that appeared and disappeared without a trace. If it were not for the silverware they got from the carrack, the whole incident would have quickly been passed off as a dream. After that, Zhang Heng inspected the two boxes of silverware. Just like the ring and ne, he didn��t receive any notifications about acquiring any game items. It was all expected, though. After all, it seemed that the crew of the phantom ship had encountered some kind of supernatural incident. The Jackdaw could be in significant trouble if a cursed object were among the silverware. Still, he did not expect such an oue.


    Zhang Heng��s curiosity wasn��t the only thing that motivated him to investigate the carrack. He still remembered what the old man in the Tang suit told him. He would eventually unveil the truth that was hidden in the real world through the game. Ever since he participated in the game and was given the extra 24 hours, his life had changed entirely. At first, he thought that the real world had changed, but after the appearance of Moresby and witnessing a wall devouring someone alive, Zhang Heng realized that the world was still the same. The only thing that changed was the way he perceived it.


    The truth was always there, only people rarely paid attention to them. Except for the Shadow Moment and Shadow Key, information about the game items that he possessed could easily be found on Google or Baidu. This might not be a coincidence as, during his previous quest, Zhang Heng came across some supernatural items but rarely got the chance to know their background information. If only he could find out what actually happened to the carrack, he might gain a better understanding of the real world. It was essential that he knew where they came from and what their purpose was.


    Though the two boxes of silverware were somewhat valuable, it wasn��t quite enough to distribute amongst 62 people. Everyone on the ship had high expectations after the Jackdaw��s first huge sess, and Zhang Heng knew that his priority right now was to take down the Goddess�� Spear. Twenty-two days had passed since the Jackdaw left Nassau. It would seem that they were in luck this time. While pursuing the Goddess�� Spear, they came across a couple of merchant ships. Due to time constraints, Zhang Heng did not attack them. On the afternoon of the 22nd day, the Jackdaw finally found her target.


    However, the situation was a rather delicate one.


    ��That��s ck Prince Sam��s ship, the Quidah. This is going to be a problem. I bet they know about Goddess�� Spear as well,�� said Billy.


    The Quidah was as famous as ck Beard��s Sea Lion in Nassau. They were one of the most powerful pirate groups and was a better vessel than the Sea Lion. The Quidah first entered service two years ago in London. Her name came from a trading city in West Africa, Quidah, and she was the best ship in the fleet to transport ck ves to other countries. The type was known as a galley, and it could travel at breakneck speed. Even during a windless day or heavy headwinds, they could make use of the paddles at the ship��s hull to propel it forward. To make matters worse, they were equipped with massive firepower as well.


    Rnd, their ex-captain, once told the investors that they would be able to earn an unimaginable amount of money if they invested on the ship. To everyone��s surprise, however, the ship was captured by ck Prince during her first voyage. In the end, the captain was forced to surrender. Though he got to keep his life, the Quidah fell into ck Prince��s possession.


    After Billy saw that the Quidah was in the vicinity, he frantically scanned the other directions using his bronze binocrs. Ironically, he saw another pirate ship located northwest of the Goddess�� Spear. That exined why the Quidah did notunch any attacks. The ck g of the foreign pirate ship was something Billy had never seen before.


    ��That pirate ship... it doesn��t belong to Nassau.��


    The port of Nassau was the most famous pirate-infested harbor in the entire Caribbean. However, that did not mean that all the pirates would make Nassau their home. There were arge number of pirates outside New Providence as well. From time to time, they woulde across pirate ships from other ces.


    The Quidah and the other pirate ship were now in the hunting zone. Still, the Goddess�� Spear did not do anything about it. The number of pirate ships in the vicinity did not matter to them. After being told how mighty Goddess�� Spear was, none of the pirate ships thought that it would go down without fighting. They were simply waiting for the right moment. The more chaotic the situation was, the better it would turn in their favor.


    Three pirate ships surrounded the Goddess�� Spear from three different directions. At the same time, they had to watch out for each other as well. The unknown pirate ship was apparently way weaker than the Quidah, and almost lost when it tried to fight earlier. The Quidah��s only concern was that the Goddess�� Spear might escape if it attacked the unknown pirate ship right now. Initially relieved when seeing a third pirate vessel joining the party, they realized that things were about to be moreplicated as theirpetitors had increased as well.

 Chapter 175 - Distribution Plan

    <h4>Chapter 175: Distribution n</h4>


    It was rare for pirates to be seeing their prey but yet, unable to attack.


    At the moment, the Quidah was the strongest vessel, followed by the Jackdaw, and at the very bottom of the list was the anonymous pirate ship. But those were just dryparisons. In reality, the vessel and firepower of the unnamed pirate ship were actually not that bad. Unfortunately, they came across two vessels that were way more powerful. That said, neither one of the three ships could take down the prey by themselves.


    Should one of them attack first, the other two would surely team-up. What��s more, the seamen on the Goddess�� Spear would not just stay still and wait for the enemy to attack. In the end, the Quidah was the first to signal the other two captains, inviting them for a pay over the loot��s distribution.


    As the first pirate ship to discover the Goddess�� Spear, the Quidah clearly did not want the situation to drag on. No matter how valuable the cargo on the Goddess�� Spear was, once it was divided between the three ships, it would surely be a lot less abundant. Should another pirate ship join in, only scraps would be left for the three of them. They might as well just try their luck on robbing other passing merchant ships.


    ��ck Sam has a pretty good reputation in Nassau, and he��s known for his loyalty, solid reasons on why his men are so willing to follow him,�� said Billy. ��Even though he sides with the ck-market alliance now, he��s not one to double-cross us for something like that. At the moment, it looks like other than a negotiation, there are no better ways to go about this situation. We should discuss it first.��


    Zhang Heng nodded, indicating that he agreed with Billy. ��Send a message to the Quidah. I��ll go over.��


    On the other side, the unnamed pirate ship found themselves in a bit of a dilemma. Even though they had heard so much of the famous ck Sam, this was their first-time making contact. They did not know how much of what they had heard about the guy was true. Now, seeing that Zhang Heng��s ship had deployed a small boat, they were worried that the two parties would form an alliance to kill them first, so in the end, they too sent a boat out.


    Since it was just a negotiation, Zhang Heng brought only a few men with him�Conly Dufresne and another pirate. In case of any untoward incidents, Bill and Anne remained on the Jackdaw.


    The reason Zhang Heng agreed to it so readily, apart from ck Sam��s reputation, was that he had his Shadow Moment on him. Should something unfortunate really happen, he could at least escape to somewhere nearby even if he could not return to the Jackdaw.


    The captain of the other ship, on the other hand, was very much on edge. He brought eight men with him, all armed to the teeth, seeming as if ready to face some sort of confrontation.


    For some reason, ck Sam did not show up at the Terrance Mansion��s dinner party, so it was the first time Zhang Heng would be meeting him.


    To Zhang Heng��s surprise, the captain who equally notorious as ckbeard looked to be no older than him, probably around twenty-six or twenty-seven years of age. He sported bright blue eyes and long ck hair neatly tied into a ponytail. If Teach��s presence was like a looming mountain in the night, then Sam��s was like the first rays of the morning light.


    He had an easy-going, infectious smile that made people forget about all their troubles�Cit was no wonder that his other nickname was ��The Prince of Pirates.�� While utterly unrted to his attire, upation, or activities he was engaged in, some were just born as natural ��princes�� of whom people were drawn to ever so willingly.


    The pirate group led by Sam was also the most stable in Nassau. No one had ever challenged his position since he became the captain. The idea of his recement was never even raised.


    Naturally, rumors about him were also rife. It was said that he often used his own portion of loot topensate those who wounded or those who died in battle, and since he didn��t possess his private residence on the shore, he often woke up in different ces every day. Furthermore, he was extremely generous to his prisoners. In his early days as a pirate, after taking over a ship, he would give his old ship to the poor people they robbed so that they could escape, sometimes going as far as to distribute the proceeds to the poor on the ind. His crew even dubbed themselves ��the merry men of Robin Hood.��


    As Zhang Heng was studying ck Sam, thetter��s gaze also fell on him. It could have been merely his imagination, but Zhang Heng felt that Sam seemed to be usually friendly toward him.


    ��Captain Zhang Heng, I have been looking forward to meeting you for a long time. There has been a lot of talk about you and your Jackdaw in the streets of Nassau recently. I should��ve met you earlier, but thankfully, it��s still not toote,�� smirked Sam as he offered a hand coupled with a wide grin on his face.


    The third group of pirates that boarded grew even more ufortable upon learning that Zhang Heng and Sam hade from the same ce. When they noticed that the two nned to continue their conversation, the one appearing to be the captain quickly interrupted the conversation. ��Time is precious. I believe none of us here wants anyone else to interrupt us. If that��s the case, let��s start the negotiations then.


    ck Prince Sam nodded and said politely, ��How should I address you?��


    ��I am Hutcheson, the captain of the Blizzard. My crew and I have been chasing this whaling ship for more than a month. Frankly, she��s ours. If both of you are willing to return her to me, then you have earned yourself the Blizzard��s friendship,�� said Hutcheson.


    The Quidah��s helmsman, a ck man, sniggered, ��There has never been such a thing as ��firste-first-serve�� on the high seas.��


    ��Based on each of our strengths, I think that forty, forty, thirty sounds like a reasonable n.�� ck Sam did not want to beat around the bush and instantlyid out what he thought to be a sensible division for the loot.


    ��I have no problem with you guys taking forty percent of the portion since I��ve heard of the famous Quidah before. But forgive me for my frankness: why should this guy get a thirty? Is it because the two of youe from the same ce? I��ve been at sea for so long, but I��ve never heard of the Jackdaw.��


    ��The other forty percent is actually for him, not you, and the reason is simple�Che has a warship.��


    Hutcheson��s eyes widened. ��Hah! Since when the quality of a vessel became a measure of a pirate gang��s prowess? If that is so, then no one will have to do anything anymore. We might as well justpare our ships every time we meet.��


    ck Prince Sam frowned. ��Watch what you say, Captain Hutcheson. We called you over to pay because we respect you. If you don��t know how to respect others, then this negotiation cannot go on.��


    ��Fine. Thirty percent it is then. But I want to pick out two things first. Only then will we split the rest of the goods ording to your proportion.��


    ��We all know that the most valuable item onboard is the ambergris. If you take them right away, then what else would be left for our taking?�� the Quidah��s helmsman spoke up.


    ��I��m sorry, I thought this is just a discussion among the Captains,�� grumbled the captain of the Blizzard.


    ��Erik.�� ck Prince Sam red at his helmsman.


    Eric simply shrugged. ��I��ll go check on the guys on the second deck to make sure they are not loafing around,��

 Chapter 176 - Pincer Movement

    <h4>Chapter 176: Pincer Movement</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    Once the helmsman was gone, Hutcheson spoke again.


    ��I��m afraid I can��t ept this deal. What am I supposed to tell my crewter? Am I supposed to tell them that the other two ships received the same amount of loot, but we are the only one receiving less?��


    ��This has nothing to do with the captain��s prowess? Amongst the three ships, you guys are the weakest one amongst the three pirate ships. If your crew is wise enough, they should know that this deal makes perfect sense,�� said ck Prince Sam.


    ��Hmph! If thye were wise enough in the first ce, they would never have chosen the pirate��s life then. Please, the two of you are captains as well. You know that these shoes are hard to fill as well. I��m fine with the deal, but I can��t ept it just like that. Otherwise, my crew would think I��m weak. They��d kick me off the ship even before I return home!��


    ��There��s nothing we can do,�� said ck Prince Sam. ��I��m not asking you to change the terms, but isn��t there anything you can do to make it seem a little less obvious?��


    ��Eh?��


    ��I��m willing to give my privilege of selecting the loot first, and yes, I��ll ept the deal. The least you could do is make me look good in front of my crew.��


    ��What do you have in mind? How are we going to take down the Goddess�� Spearter?�� asked Hutcheson.


    ��As usual, we attack them with our cannons first. Once they surrender, we��ll send a boarding party. All their sailors are real men. I believe you��ve heard about the Pelican incident, right? We have to make sure that we are well prepared before we attack them. Let��s each send 20 pirates to board the Goddess�� Spearter.��


    ��What if I choose not to join the fight? With that, I��ll be able to convince my crew that we got lesser loots because we didn��t join the fight.��


    ��So, you want a share of the loot without participating in the fight?!��


    ��Technically, I��m saying that I��m only joining the fight that happens on the ship. Of course, we, too, will fire on them during our coordinated attackter. After that, I will help you to secure the perimeter when you send your men to board their ship. I will stand guard and make sure no other external forces interrupt us. This is so that I can calm my crew after they find out they��re getting a lesser portion. Though the Goddess�� Spear is fearless, they not no idiots. They know that there is no way they can defeat three pirate ships at the same time. In other words, it is imusible that they��ll set up an ambush when we board them. Am I right?��


    ck Prince Sam then took a look at Zhang Heng. He instantly realized that ck Prince Sam had epted Hutcheson��s proposal. It was out of courtesy, that he asked for Zhang Heng��s opinion first.


    ��I��m fine with it.��


    ��Then, we will each send 30 men to board them. Let��s all attack at the same time in about 15 minutes,�� said ck Prince Sam.


    Zhang Heng and Hutcheson were fine with his idea. All three sides wanted to attack the Goddess�� Spear as soon as possible knowing that that otherpetitors plied the waters, and their loot could easily be hijacked by any opportunistic pirate vessels. Once the n was set in stone, Zhang Heng and Hutcheson returned to their ship to discuss the battle n with their respective crews.


    Back on the Jackdaw, Anne cleaned her saber with a smile on her face. She was excited to join the fightter.


    ��You stay on the ship this time,�� said Zhang Heng.


    ��Huh? Why?! Aren��t the crew of the Goddess�� Spear known to be good fighters? This is when you��ll need me the most! Before this, didn��t you use the Pelican as an example to warn us about the crew of the Goddess�� Spear?��


    ��I��m not worried about the Goddess�� Spear. The Quidah will send their best to attack them. Combine with our pirates; it should be more than enough to deal with the sailors on their ship. Once I leave with my boarding party, the Jackdaw will be extremely vulnerable. Aspared to the other two pirate ships, we have the least people. Since Hutcheson is not joining the fight, I have to bring at least half of our people to join the fight. I don��t n to bring our best men with me. I��ll take some of the experienced fighters, and I��ll leave the rest with you to guard our ship. If everything works as nned, the Goddess�� Spear should go down without much of a fight.��


    ��You��re the captain. I willply.��


    15 minutes quickly passed, and the Quidah gave the signal to attack. The Jackdaw and the Blizzard followed right behind the Quidah. Three pirate vessels had sessfully surrounded the Goddess�� Spear. Just as expected, they had no intention to go down without putting up a fight, knowing it would be impossible to attack all three pirate ships at the same time. So, they decided to pick one as their main target. They hoped to put some fear into the other two pirate ships by focusing all their fire on one. The Goddess�� Spear didn��t have many options anyway, knowing that the Quidah was thergest ship here, and it was protected by thick armor. As for the Jackdaw, the Goddess�� Spear knew that it was a bad idea to attack a battleship as well. In the end, they decided to focus all fire on the Blizzard.


    Hutcheson was furious at this. Not only was he given the least of the share of loos, and now, they were now taking heavy fire from Goddess�� Spear as well. However, he was smart enough by slowing down his ship to dodge the Goddess�� Spear��s attacks. Being a qualified captain of the Blizzard, he must have possessed a particrly good skillset. In fact, he was excellent at maneuvering his ship, managing to evade half of the Goddess�� Spear��s attacks. The Blizzard might have looked like it was in a tight spot, but eventually, they didn��t sustain too much damage.


    With the Blizzard drawing the Goddess�� Spear��s attention, the Quidah and the Jackdaw managed to close into their target really quickly. Zhang Heng fired first, and the Quidah followed suit. The Goddess�� Spear wasn��t prepared when two powerful pirate ships attacked at the same time. Their crew started to panic. Still, they didn��t surrender, believing that they could defeat them like how they beat the Pelican.


    Unfortunately, it was a pointless struggle trying to beat two powerful pirate ships. Five minutester, the Goddess�� Spear finally raised a white g. Zhang Heng led 30 of his men to the gunwale. Once they got closer to the Goddess�� Spear, theyunched anding craft and rowed towards Goddess�� Spear.


    The overpowering scent of gunpowder still lingered in the air when they boarded the Goddess�� Spear. The sailors were ring at all the pirates that boarded their ship in anger and frustration. Zhang Heng didn��t go straight to the goods. Instead, he waited for ck Prince Sam to board the ship. He then handed the list of goods to him.


    ��We are in luck. This ship hauls a lot more than we initially thought. It looks like we can still earn a lot even if the goods are evenly distributed amongst the three pirate ships,�� said ck Prince Sam.


    The pirates erupted into cheers after hearing what he said. On the other hand, the dejected sailors of the Goddess�� Spear could simply re at the pirates with a murderous stare.

 Chapter 177 - Blizzard Is Good At Running Away

    <h4>Chapter 177: Blizzard Is Good At Running Away</h4>


    Shortly after Zhang Heng left the ship with his men, Anne received a warning from the watchman that a ship had appeareding from the southwest.


    She took over the bronze telescope and saw a 3-masted vessel. It, too, had apparently also taken notice of the Jackdaw. Instead of turning back in fear, she was steaming towards them at full speed with their ck g raised.


    ��That looks like someone wants a piece of the loot too,�� scowled Dufresne while frowning.


    As agreed, the Blizzard had already gone ahead to intercept the iing pirate ship. Hutcheson even signaled to Anne with a thumbs up, telling her not to worry and to just leave the matter to him.


    However, the skirmish between the two pirate ships ended quickly with the Blizzard retreating. Anne knew that the Blizzard was inadequate, but she didn��t expect them to be that useless. They hadn��t even begun buying time for the rest of them before they started cowering and fleeing for their lives.


    All in all, the Blizzard only managed to buy them ten minutes. Now they were already on their way back.


    ck Sam, who was on the Goddess�� Spear, looked on disapprovingly at their ally. How could he have made a pact with such a poor excuse of a pirate? His crew had only just started seizing the weapons and cross-checking the goods ording to the list. However, this was not the time to hold anyone ountable. He had no choice but to order his crew toe to the Blizzard��s aid.


    The neer��s firepower was simr to that of the Blizzard, and it shouldn��t be too tricky for the Quidah to fight against them. With the help of the Blizzard, they should both be able to take down the enemy.


    The moment the Whydah Gall��s helmsman received the order, he immediately rushed to the scene of the battle. Since he did not see eye to eye with Hutcheson, he deliberately made a detour so that thetter would suffer just a little longer or better yet, let the neer sink the Blizzard, so they didn��t have to worry about Hutcheson��s portion of the loot.


    Unfortunately, although the Blizzard was an ipetent fighter, she sure was very good at running. Once again, Hutcheson demonstrated his excellent skills at the helm, maneuvering the Blizzard so that she dodged every cannonball fired at her.


    When Hutcheson saw the Quidah in the vicinity, he immediately fled toward her direction.


    The Whydah Gall��s helmsman was so irritated by the cat and mouse game that he thought of getting rid of the Blizzard first. In the end, however, he managed to resist that desire and ordered the gunmen to be at their battle stations.


    Although he was reluctant to admit it, the Blizzard did do one thing useful�Cleading the target straight into the Quidah��s arms. However, perhaps due to panic or some other reason, the Blizzard blocked the Quidah��s cannons, and thetter could not fire. In contrast, the pirate ship behind them was able to fire freely at their target.


    Erik, the Quidah��s helmsman, cursed loudly as he instructed his crew to signal to Blizzard, telling them to move as far away as possible.


    Thank goodness the Blizzard got the message, as their crew immediately circled around and made her way behind the Quidah. Erik wasn��t bothered to find faults with Hutcheson right now, nor did he pay attention to where the Blizzard was heading. After all, even without the Blizzard��s help, he was confident that they could defeat the enemy ship on their own.


    Erik ordered his crew to return fire. With that first counterattack, the Quidah exhibited its legendary Caribbean reputation. The pirate ship that had just kicked Blizzard��s butt a minute ago was overwhelmed by the Quidah. Whether in terms of firepower or the quality of their personnel, the difference between them was so clear that you practically see it with your naked eye. It was only a matter of time before the neer would be subdued.


    Erik wasposed, just like all the other battles he had fought before. Once the Quidah opened fire, it was clear who the victorious one would be. The helmsman even had the opportunity around and spectate the Blizzard��s embarrassment. As soon as he saw the Blizzard��s opening the shutters of the cannons, however, the smile on his face was wiped away.


    The helmsman sensed that something was amiss. He immediately shouted to the pirate who was manning the helm, screaming, ��Hard to port! Double-time!!!��


    It was toote, though, for in a split second, the Blizzard��s weak countenance took a 180-degree turn. Hutcheson��s incredible performance had everyone fooled. He was now in the best offensive position. With their ships so close together, his cannons would tear through the Quidah with ease.


    This unexpected turn of events was a disaster for the Quidah. With their starboard side taking a hit from the devastating blow, everything on the ship tumbled and collided, and they were forced to stop their attack on the other pirate ship. This gave thetter an opportunity to counterattack.


    The sudden change in circumstance caught everyone off guard, including the Jackdaw. Little did they know, however, that danger was quietly inching towards them.


    The pirate on the crow��s nest had not forgotten Zhang Heng��s instructions and kept a watchful eye on the sea. All he could see though, was a vast expanse of ocean and the other ships. Even he himself started believing that he was a little too edgy. If another enemy did show up, it would take them at least half an hour to enter their firing range, more than enough time to prepare themselves for battle.


    So, when the first enemy appeared and slit the throat of an unlucky pirate when everyone was still unaware, the first person to react was the pirate on the crow��s nest. Although distracted by the Blizzard��s sudden betrayal, he was first to notice any unusual activities down below, being way up high. He shouted at the top of his lungs, warning his crew that they were under attack. As soon as he did that, an arrow flew into his throat, and the poor guy dropped to the ground without saying another word.


    Thanks to his warning, the pirates on deck were now aware of intruders on their ship. One look at the attacker��s wet clothes, and Anne knew right away where they came from. When the Blizzard went to intercept the pirate ship that arrivedter, they passed the Jackdaw. These men must have jumped into the water then. They waited until the Quidah was under siege before attacking the Jackdaw.


    The redhead was ecstatic. She was justmenting about staying on the boat, not having anything to do. Now that a battle had presented itself at her doorstep, Anne licked her lips, drew her dagger, and weed it with open arms.


    Led by the boatswain, the pirates on the Jackdaw quickly snapped out of their initial panic and jumped right into battle.


    Dufresne was secretly grateful that Zhang Heng left all the good fighters on the ship. The thirty men that Zhang Heng had brought with him included the cook, carpenter, and doctor. Thanks to early detection by the pirate on the crow��s nest, the enemy only managed to kill around four men and did not cause any widespread panic.


    After that, Anne quickly stabilized the situation. There were not many in this group of attackers, only around twenty or more of them. This was not because Hutcheson was reluctant to send more, but rather, he was worried that the more of them there were, the easier they would be discovered. Above all, he still had to fight the Quidah�Cthe enemy that mattered most to him. Byparison, he did not care much for Zhang Heng or his Jackdaw.

 Chapter 178 - Naval Ram

    <h4>Chapter 178: Naval Ram</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    The sailors of Goddess�� Spear were ted to see the pirates fighting among themselves. Some even started thinking about fighting back since the whole thing had fallen apart. To their surprise, ck Prince Sam and Zhang Heng were calmer than the thought. Zhang Heng did not expect Hutcheson to pull such a dirty trick. Thankfully, he had asked Anne to stay with the Jackdaw. The ship��s real strengthy not in her pirates but her cannons.


    Most of the pirates that stayed behind on the Jackdaw were cannoneers. These were young men in their twenties or thirties and were definitely more than capable of handling close-quartersbat. With Anne by their side, they soon managed to take control of the situation. At the same time, Zhang Heng realized that Hutcheson had no intention to take over the Jackdaw but was attempting to stop the Jackdaw from joining the other fight that was raging on.


    Though the Quidah was ck Prince Sam��s real target, he wasn��t the least worried. As of now, the Quidah was under attack by two ships. Still, ck Prince Sam managed to keep his calm and instructed his people clearly on how to deal with the critical situation. He even smiled when he saw Zhang Heng looking at him.


    ��Many peoplepare me to Honigg and ckbeard and say I��m the best captain of the Caribbean. I think they overestimate me. I started to work on the ocean four years ago, and I only came to Nassau about a year ago. At that time, I was just a small-time pirate that nobody knew. After that, I met a helmsman called Eric at a tavern. His captain was caught red-handed stealing their share of the loot. During that time, I didn��t have a job, and they needed a captain to lead them. We were so drunk that night, and the next thing I knew, I became the new captain of their ship when I woke up the following day.


    ��Even though I became their captain, I told myself to push on harder to earn my keep. I made many preparations for my first plunder. Unfortunately, I got drunk again the night before it happened. When I opened my eyes the next morning, I found that the ship was already loaded with loot.��


    ��....��


    ��Until today, few know that I actually suck at maneuvering a ship, shooting a cannon, and fighting at the frontlines. Despite all my weaknesses, my crew has be the most powerful pirate gang in the entire Nassau. All these within three years. It��s all because of my reliable crew. They are willing to ce their trust in me, and I fully trust them. This is why we dominate the oceans. They will surely pay with their lives if they think that they can underestimate the Quidah when I��m not on the ship.��


    The main mast of the Quidah was struck by a cannonball, and it down it came, tumbling on the ship. It thennded on a group of pirates. Usually, most of the pirates would start panicking in a time like this. Even worse, their captain was not with them. To everyone��s surprise, though, the Quidah��s pirates used the shortest time possible to reorganize themselves were quickly back to what they were supposed to do.


    The cannoneer continued to load the cannons with gusto.


    The doctor continued treating wounded pirates.


    The carpenters were busy fixing the leaks.


    Even the cook was helping to clean up the deck.


    The helmsman got up from the deck, brushed away the woodchips on him, and continued to direct the Quidah��s maneuvers. Seeing that this was a golden opportunity, the other two pirate ships attacked the Quidah with everything they had. Miraculously, the Quidah��s iron-ted hull managed to nullify all the attacks. The few carpenters on board were working frantically, trying their best to patch up the leaks as fast as possible. After that, the Quidah quickly took down their secondary mast.


    Hutcheson could not figure out what the Quidah was trying to do. Right now, they faced the Quidah��s bow. In other words, they would be able to return fire with their side cannons. The only weapons that were still functioning were the bow and stern cannons. Still, it was not powerful enough to deal with the two pirate ships that attacked them.


    No captains with a logical mind would decide this. Suddenly, the Quidah��s hull was opened, and two rows of paddles were presented in front of everyone. She then started to row towards the other pirate ship. Hutcheson was left paralyzed in shock. He had heard that the Quidah was one of the most potent pirate ships in the Caribbean, but he didn��t expect it to move around with paddles. After all, he did note from Nassau, and whatever information he had about the Quidah was minimal at best.


    After noticing that the wind was against them, the ck helmsman quickly decided to keep the mainsail and used the paddles to maneuver the ship instead. The other pirate ship did not expect that the Quidah would make such a bold move, seeming as if they were willing to go down with the pirate ship that they targeted. Now, it was toote for them to move away. All they could do was to continue firing their cannons. They hoped to sink the Quidah before it could get close to them. Unsurprisingly, their n failed.


    ��Go down with you? What a na?ve thought!�� said the helmsman with a smile when he saw that both ships were about to ram each other.


    The pirate ship started to shake violently even before the Quidah came into contact with them. To their horror, they saw a giant gaping hole at the bottom part of the hull! Seawater mercilessly gushed into the ship. The hole was also too big for the carpenters to fix. In other words, the pirate ship was slowly sinking. Their crew desperately looked for ces to run, with the captain still paralyzed in shock. None of them knew what happened to their fine ship.


    From afar, Hutcheson could not believe what he saw as well. Suddenly, a thought crossed his mind.


    ��Naval ram?!��


    A naval ram is an object that was used to destroy the hull of an enemy��s ship and was usually hidden under the waterline. These were widely used by ancient Phoenicia, Greece, and Rome until the invention of cannons in the 18th century. It wasn��t before the 19th century, where the naval ram was once again installed on armored ships.


    Hutcheson did not expect the Quidah to be equipped with an outdated weapon. He wished he knew about it earlier. In retrospect, Hutcheson figured that the naval ram was no threat to him. He just needed to make sure that he steered clear of the Quidah.


    It was toote for Hutcheson to regret, as there was nothing he could do to help the other pirate ship. He watched it slowly taking on water and sinking. Their crew was forced to jump overboard since there was nowhere to run. At the same time, the Quidah had turned in a different direction.

 Chapter 179 - Turning The Tide Around

    <h4>Chapter 179: Turning The Tide Around</h4>


    ��Captain, what should we do now?�� asked the pirates on the Blizzard.


    Hutcheson was in a dilemma as well. The Quidah��s hull had been severely damaged by another pirate ship earlier. It seemed like they were on the verge of breaking up. Not only did they not stop for repairs, but they continued charging at the Blizzard, carrying out a suicide attack.


    On the other hand, the Jackdaw had managed to deal with the intrudersing from the gunwale, ready to assist the Quidah. After a long bout of hesitation, Hutcheson decided that he would retreat for now. Immediately, the Jackdaw went after them. They attempted to fire on the Blizzard, but unfortunately, Hutcheson managed to dodge every attack with his masterful maneuvering skills.


    Anne, too wasn��t happy when she saw the Blizzard trying to make a run for it and wanted to continue pursuing them. However, she was stopped short by Dufresne. Though the Jackdaw outgunned the Blizzard, they had fewer pirates with them now. With only 20 people on board, the Jackdaw couldn��t utilize her firepower to its fullest.


    The Blizzard might even retaliate if the Jackdaw continued the chase. So after a short pursuit, the Jackdaw decided to turn back to Goddess�� Spear. Seeing that the Jackdaw was no longer on their tail, Hutcheson became incredibly frustrated. This was indeed a significant loss to him. Initially, he intended to attack and plunder the Quidah and the Goddess�� Spear with two pirate ships. If he managed to pull it off, he would be the most powerful pirate of the area.


    Not only did his n fail, but it also cost him a ship and half his crew. Fortunately, his Blizzard did not suffer any damage. In the end, he wanted to take out the Jackdaw as a constion prize. Sadly, the Jackdaw did not continue their pursuit. Left with no other options, the Blizzard had to flee the scene as fast as possible. Though the battle was thrilling and tumultuous, itsted for only 20 minutes from beginning to end.


    Currently, the Quidah��s condition was worse than Hutcheson estimated. Seawater was gushing into the bottom of the ship. Even though their carpenters were trying their hardest to plug up the hole, the seawater had flooded the cabin and was now up to the pirates�� knees. It would be impossible for them to participate in another battle.


    Before the Blizzard fled the scene, the Quidah had already begun repairing their ship. The helmsman, Eric, and everyone else aboard chipped in to help. They looked for everything around them that could be used to close up the hole. At the same time, some pirates activated a pump, hoping to flush out the entering seawater. With theirbined effort, they managed to get the water out faster than it coulde in.


    At the same time, ck Prince Sam was done with counting the loot on the Goddess�� Spear. With the Blizzard out of the game, it was now easier for them to divide the spoils.


    ��I want to thank you for helping us. Honestly, you guys deserve arger share than us. However, the Quidah suffered a great deal of damage from the battle with the Blizzard. We��ll need a lot of money to repair our ship. Consider that I owe you guys a favor for what you have done for us,�� said a remorseful ck Prince Sam.


    ��Captain Sam, you are most wee. If the Quidah wasn��t here, they would have surely targeted us instead. It��s a miracle than your ship managed to retaliate and sink the enemy. Only your crew can pull off an insane move like this.��


    ck Prince Sam simply shrugged. It was indeed not an easy task for the Quidah to turn the tide around after their ship was severely damaged by the enemy. ck Prince Sam weed all thepliments poured at him and his crew with a big heart.


    ��Eric is good at coordinating battles. With his sharp skills, he is more than capable of bing a captain. I have talked to him a lot regarding this matter. However, it seems like he��s not interested at all.��


    While they discussed, their pirates were done dividing the loot. ck Prince Sam was probably the most reasonable captain around the entire Nassau. He had this certain charm that could draw people closer to him. Always behaving humbly, he told everyone that his crew was the reason for his sess. However, almost everyone from the Quidah could be reced except for ck Prince Sam. Without his charm, it would be impossible for the entire pirate crew to band up and work toward the same goal.


    Influential people usually came with a mighty temper, something that would never change over the course of time. ck Prince Sam might look like an easy-going captain, but the truth was, he was the only one on the ship that could make everyone obey his orders without being questioned.


    ........


    The Jackdaw was getting closer to the Goddess�� Spear. They rescued a couple of pirates that had jumped off the enemy ship earlier. After a series of interrogations, they finally discovered their background. Hutcheson��s pirate crew had only been formed recently. They were initially a band of raiders. Not too long ago, they encountered a merchant ship flying a British g. Technically, they were not supposed to plunder them, but when they found out that they were hauling a considerable amount of silk, Hutcheson decided to break the rules and attacked them. To make sure that no one knew about it, he ordered his men to kill everyone on the merchant ship. Unfortunately, someone on his boat sold him out in the end.


    Once he knew about it, he had to flee the port with the rest of his men. Before they left, they didn��t look for information about their next target, eventually wandering the high seas for two weeks. One fine day, Hutcheson came across two pirate vessels that were fighting against each other. He then helped one to eliminate the other. Not only did he receive a portion of the loot, but the winning captain even thanked him for his assistance. However, Hutcheson, being Hutcheson, quickly decided that he should destroy the other ship as well. The other vessel, on the other hand, was unprepared to face Hutcheson��s surprise attack. In the end, he destroyed them and took all their loot into his possession.


    After this incident, Hutcheson felt that it wasn��t such a bad idea to conduct a ��dog-eat-dog�� style of business. So, he ced some of his men on the pirate ship that he captured, recruited a small batch of pirates, and ordered them to loiter around pirate-infested waters. They would plunder merchant ships and other pirates that were heavy with loot. He was smart enough to make sure that both his ships would not get too close to each other, with only a mirror tomunicate with each other. When one of his ships attacked its target, Hutcheson would pretend that he was passing by. He would ��help�� the target to ��attack�� his pirate ship. When the right moment arose, he would turn around and attack the ship that he ��helped.��


    That was the time when Hutcheson mastered the skill of dodging cannonballs. Many powerful pirate crews around the area lost out to his tactics. This time, though, Hutcheson changed strategy, but his goal remained the same. Loot wasn��t the only reason that motivated Hutcheson to attack the Quidah. After several victories, Hutcheson��s ambitions got more demanding as well. Money could no longer satisfy his desire, and now, he yearned for his name to be known in the entire area. If he managed to defeat the legendary Quidah, he would surely be able to make a name for himself.


    Unfortunately, his wish wasn��t granted this time. Captain Sam had brought a group of elite pirates with him to board the Goddess�� Spear, and he managed to trick everyone with his realistic acting as well. The best part was, he managed to make the Quidah suffer severe damage. Still, the Quidah somehow managed to destroy one of his ships and pushed him to a corner.

 Chapter 180 - Weather Changes

    <h4>Chapter 180: Weather Changes</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    ck Prince Sam was just as the rumors said he was. He did not kill or torture the sailors on the Goddess�� Spear after he took all their stuff. All he did was take half of their cannons and made sure that they could not retaliate. After that, he took some of their wood to fix the Quidah before he let them go. However, the Goddess�� Spear��s sailors less than grateful that ck Prince Sam spared them. All their hard work on the sea was now reced by disappointment and void. Vengeance and anger started manifesting in their hearts when they saw the pirates sailing away from them.


    ��Well, we are all pirates here. It��s totally normal that our victims hate us. I don��t expect any gratitude when I give their freedom back to them. I have no intention of killing them, as well. One day, if some of them were to quit their jobs to be pirate hunters, I wee them to hunt me down. Life is too short, and I value happiness more than anything else in this world. It��s pointless to keep worrying about the future,�� said Sam.


    ck Prince Sam was slightly older than Zhang Heng, who didn��t expect that he could live his life so freely. Maybe this was why he was so well-liked. In the very beginning, Zhang Heng was cautious about ck Prince Sam because of the ck-market alliance. Now that he had the chance to work with him, Zhang Heng found out that he was worthy of bing a friend.


    The pirate��s world was filled with cruelty, and it was nothing short of a miracle that Sam could live like this. When Zhang Heng was on the Quidah, ck Prince Sam was friendly toward him. He didn��t behave as if they were meeting for the first time. Zhang Heng was naturally a bit apprehensive. Since everything had settled down, Zhang Heng took the opportunity to ask a question that he always wanted to ask.


    ��Have we met before?��


    ��Oh. About this. Anne, the redhead, did me a favor before. Do you remember Frazer asking you to catch a thief? And the thief was killed in the end? I have been looking for the same thief for quite a long time now.��


    ��Eh?��


    ��I have a friend. He��s not from my ship, but he was a good friend of mine. During that time, he was promoted as the helmsman on another ship. I remember that he drank quite a lot on that night as a celebration, but he quickly realized that his pouch was gone when he left the tavern. It was filled with pearls that he exchanged earlier. These pearls belonged to the ship that he worked on. The pirates on his ship trusted him and asked him to exchange the money that they earned with something small and portable. The next day, his dead body was found on the beach.


    ��The person that you guys killed was a regr thief, and he only steals jewelry that are made of pearls. Usually, he would loiter around where the pearl merchants stayed and follow his targets when they came out from their houses. I only knew about this wayter. My friend wasn��t as smart, and he couldn��t figure out a way to prove that he didn��t steal those pearls. In the end, he chose the stupidest way to prove his innocence.


    ��I don��t hate that thief. He was just like us, doing what he needed to do to survive. However, I still wished to avenge my friend. As it was a personal matter, I did not ask my crew to help me to hunt down the guy. To my surprise, the thief was more cunning than I thought. I found it hard to track him down and capture him. During that time, I had to go on another voyage and couldn��t spend too much time onnd. When I returned from my trip, I heard that he had been killed by someone.


    ��Frazer told me the names of his killers. Anyway, it��s all over now. My friend can finally rest in peace.��


    Finally, all of Zhang Heng��s questions were answered. To prevent Hutcheson from attacking the Quidah, Zhang Heng suggested that the Jackdaw escort the Quidah back to Nassau. Of course, ck Prince Sam would not say no. After this incident, Zhang Heng and Sam had gotten closer than before. While they were on the way back to Nassau, Sam would regrly board the Jackdaw with a small boat to have a chat with Zhang Heng. Through him, Zhang Heng learned about the numerous hardships that only captain could endure.


    Today, they talked about the distribution of forces on the ind.


    ��You��re interested in joining the meeting in Nassau?�� asked Sam, who seemed surprised.


    Zhang Heng nodded his head. This meeting had a lot to do with his main goal in this game. When he first entered the game, he had no ship and wasn��t famous enough on the ind either. Hence, he had never thought about digging his fingers in pies like this. As of now, the Jackdaw and his name were well known throughout the entire Nassau. Part of the reason why they became so famous was due to Zhang Heng��s conflict with the ck-market alliance. Threats and opportunities coexisted with one another. The fact that he did not sumb to the pressure made it possible for him to lead the Jackdaw to the path of sess. His fame was enough for him to qualify for the meeting.


    ��Actually, that meeting is pointless. The ck-market alliance ims that they want to help with maintaining the market��s order. Truth is, only a couple of meetings were held ever since the alliance had been set up. Nassau is and with no master. No one on the ind enjoys the feeling of being controlled by others. For the powerfulndowners, they care about theirnd more than anything in this world. As for the pirates, we have our own ways and rules to deal with our business. Undoubtedly, the ck-market merchants have their unwritten rules as well. Once the ck-market alliance is formed, they would not resolve any conflict through meetings.��


    ��Thest time they sat together and had a meeting was two years ago. During that time, someone there spread the word that Spain was about to attack the ind. It left all the ind��s residents in a panic. In the end, the rumor did note true. Ever since the incident, there were fewer and fewer people wanting to join the alliance. When someone joins the alliance, they are required to take an oath that they would protect Nassau. Back then, no one cared about this whole oath thing. When they found out that they needed to fight to protect Nassau, even fewer people volunteered to join the alliance since they would receive no benefit from the alliance other than a formal title.


    ��What are the requirements to join the meeting?��


    ��Nothing too difficult. Typically, the person would need to be an influential or famous individual on the ind. Contributions to the ind��s development are one of the requirements as well. The only difficult one is to get seven members from the meeting to vouch for the person. The brothel��s boss, y, has served the ind well with his girls. That��s a huge contribution to the ind. He was among the first batch that was chosen to join the meeting. Are you interested in joining the meeting as well? I can help you with getting the seven persons needed to vouch for you. Consider it a reward for helping me kill Jacob.��


    ��Thank you, Captain Sam.��


    ck Prince Sam did not mind helping Zhang Heng at all. He was interested in hearing Zhang Heng telling him about the battle in Charleston. Just as he was about to ask Zhang Heng about it, he noticed that it had gone dark outside the window. Both of them lifted their heads at the same time and saw that the sky was covered in dark clouds.


    ��The weather changed? That was fast. The weather was fine earlier. This damn weather is more unpredictable than a woman!��

 Chapter 181 - A Sudden Storm

    Chapter 181: A Sudden Storm


    The torrential rain fell faster than everyone��s expectations. Worried about the Quidah��s newly repaired hull, ck Sam didn��t stay too long on the Jackdaw. However, as soon as he got into the boat that was supposed to bring him back to his ship, rain started pouring from the skies with a fury, and the sea started to swell.


    Bright, menacing whips of lightning shed across the dark sky, followed by deafening ps of thunder. The sights and sounds were nothing less of apocalyptic, and seemed as if the world wasing to an end.


    Both ships were less than 30 meters apart, but it took ck Sam a solid ten minutes of hard rowing against before he got to his ship. As they were climbing up the vessel, one of his men fell overboard and was swept away by a massive wave.


    There was nothing that the other pirates on the Quidah could do; all they could do was watch as theirpanion disappeared into the depths of the turbulent ocean. It was impossible to rescue anyone in such unforgiving weather.


    On the other ship, Zhang Heng did not retreat to the captain��s quarters. He stood at the bow of the Jackdaw next to Billy, who was busy directing the crew to prepare for the storm.


    A frown hung above Zhang Heng��s eyes. His opinions about the weather differed from ck Sam, who probably thought nothing more about the weather other than its sudden emergence. Zhang Heng had some knowledge about gybing, something he learned from Roscoe, who had also taught him how to read the winds and predict the weather.


    Whilst not as urate as the old pirate in terms of forecasting weather, his conjecture about this abrupt meteorological change was at least eighty percent right. The storm had emerged so abruptly and without warning. Just a minute ago, the sky was still clear and cloudless. Based on the experience Roscoe had ryed to him, the sea should have been calm until the night.


    In a matter of ten minutes, however, the weather changed drastically. Zhang Heng had only encountered this situation once, and that was when the carrack appeared. However, the wind and waves were not as wild as it was right now, Today, the sea was like an outraged monster, battering one giant wave after another against the ship.


    Zhang Heng held onto a rope with one hand to steady himself, and with the other, he pulled out the bronze telescope he carried. First, he looked toward ck Sam��s direction. The Quidah was bustling, with their sailors running frantically to hunker everything down. However, everything seemed under control for now, so Zhang Heng looked further out.


    To his greatest surprise, he did not see the ghost ship from a century ago. On the contrary, as fast as it appeared, the terrifying storm began to subside. The waves gradually became smaller, and the raindrops slowed to a drizzle. In a mere five minutes, the sun peered from the clouds, and the waters resumed their earlier calm. The dark clouds that had hung over their heads like an ominous veil had all but disappeared.


    JAnd just like that, the ordealsted a short twenty minutes. Even the absent-minded Anne found it incredulous. When the rain finally stopped, she shook the rain off her drenched hair and said, ��What is this? Some kind of joke?��


    Zhang Heng was just as baffled, but as a precaution, the first thing he did was to examine the two boxes of silverware in the storeroom. However, he found nothing unusual. He then picked up the ring and the ne from the drawer. Again, he did not get any prompts from the system.


    Was it merely a coincidence?


    There was no way to be certain. He kept having his nagging feeling that he��d missed something about that carrack, but he had nothing to go on. He would just have to wait for Vincent toplete the trantion of the notebooks to see if he could get more information from them.


    For most people, this sudden storm burst was just a brief interlude in a lengthy voyage. Very soon, the pirates on the ship turned their attention to other things, such as the person who always slipped into the kitchen at night stealing bread, or where they should go once they docked.


    The Jackdaw was drawing closer and closer to Nassau, and Zhang Heng had no inkling that another storm awaited him on the shore.


    Carina��s secondhand business was blooming on the ind. There was never a shortage of pirates at the warehouse��s doorstep. On top of that, she possessed an uncanny boldness and willfulness that was umon for her gender at that time. She never turned away used goods. As long as they weren��tpletely worthless, the tradeswoman was willing to purchase it. This won her the favor of the smaller pirate gangs.


    Captain Malone bid goodbye to his time in the brothel and resumed his busy life. The Gentle Breeze started to travel back and forth from Nassau to the colony��s port, exchanging covertly acquired goods for bags of gold coins. Although most of the ie was used to subsidize the secondhand business, Carina offered a very high price, and it turned out to be ideal in terms of profit. This was nothing like the time when her father, Fegan, was on the ind.


    Nevertheless, they were all still profitable. At least everyone was not bored out of their minds when the Jackdaw went out to sea.


    However, nothingsted forever; for all good things, at least. Not long after that, the secret about Carina using the secondhand business to cover-up the under table trade was soon exposed. In a single night, the news was made known throughout the entire ind.


    It was followed by the news about her father being detained in the colony. This wasn��t a secret among the ck-market merchants, though. Some of the more well-informed people on the ind heard about it too, but the fact that it was so suddenly made public told of a malicious intention behind it.


    The captains who traded with Carina were getting overwrought, having only wanted to earn some extra money. Of course, they did not want to be tied to this sinking ship that was Carina. Every one of them insisted that it wasn��t their men who had exposed the secrets. They even suspected that Carina herself was the one who did it. They believed that if their rtionship with the ck-market alliance was ruined, the one benefiting from it at the end of the day was Carina.


    Carina had to personally go up to each of them, attempting to convince them that their ck-market alliance wouldn��t fulfill the sanctions on the statement. Doing that would just be pushing the pirates to her side. In the end, however, only two captains agreed that if Carina could solve the problem of the leak, they would continue doing business with her.


    Malone shook his head. ��There��s no way to solve this problem. We��ve already done a fine job here. We had people guard the warehouse, and even our sailors didn��t know what cargo we hauled on each trip. There��s no way the leak came from our side. The other pirates, on the other hand, are mouthy. As the saying goes, never trust pirates to keep secrets�Cespecially when they are drunk.��


    Carina shook her head in protest. ��Most of their men didn��t know that they sold the goods to us. This must be the work of our trusted aides. Everyone else only cares about the money that they would get in the end. The ck-market alliance might have caught wind of it, but they couldn��t have investigated it that quickly.��

 Chapter 182 - Smoked Fish Alley

    <h4>Chapter 182: Smoked Fish Alley</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    Carina walked toward the horse carriage, with Malone opening the door for her. Suddenly, she stopped and did not enter the carriage. Looking at the coffee shop opposite her, she spotted Malcolm having his lunch. He invited her to join him by signaling her with his hand.


    After a short moment of hesitation, Carina walked towards the coffee shop. Malone wanted to follow her but was stopped by two muscr men that seemed to be guarding the shop. Malone was worried about her, but she simply nodded at him, indicating that everything was fine.


    ��What do you want to eat?�� asked Malcolm while cutting his fried egg with a knife.


    ��I rmend the coffee and tuna sandwich. They are quite good.��


    ��I will order whatever you ordered.��


    ��Those who know me well know that I dislike those who say no to my suggestions. I want to have another cup of coffee, a fried egg, and a tuna sandwich,�� said Malcolm to the waiter.


    Carina only responded with a smile.


    ��I have stayed in Nassau for quite some time now, but I��ve never really walked around town. I had no idea that there��s a coffee shop here.��


    ��I don��t me you. On normal days, this coffee shop remains closed. It��s only open for business when I��m here. Sitting here makes me feel like I��m back in the modern world.��


    ��I would have fallen in love with you if you were ten years younger.��


    ��I have known your father Fegan for some time, but I didn��t know he��s got such an excellent daughter. When you first appeared in front of me, I thought that you were some kind of scammer. Now, I believe that you are your father��s daughter. Both of you share the same qualities. Once you have a goal in mind, you will never give up until you achieve it.��


    Malcolm ced some fried egg into his mouth and sipped his coffee.


    ��Perhaps it��s because we don��t have the right to give up on life.��


    Carina thanked the waiter that brought her coffee.


    ��Are you still angry at me for what happened when you first came to this ind?��


    ��Should I be angry at you?��


    ��Even a man like me isn��t allowed to do whatever I want to do.��


    Malcolm put down the cutlery and cleaned his hand with a napkin.


    ��To be precise, this position that I��m in doesn��t allow me to do whatever I want. Outsiders might see that the ck-market alliance is mighty, but nobody knows that it was no easy task forming this alliance. We had to face all kinds of threats from outside and within the alliance. We had topromise so much.��


    ��I��m sorry, but what does this have to do with me? I have acquired what you people have refused to give me. Right now, I don��t need anyone��s pity. I don��t care about the effort that you put in to form the alliance. I don��t care how much it means to you. I would ask you to stop wasting your time if you n to take advantage of my emotions! I��m not as free as you. I have other things to deal with. Goodbye.��


    After that, Carina was about to leave the coffee shop.


    ��Do you not care about your father as well?��


    Carina stopped walking and was instantly filled with anger. However, she managed to control her emotions when she thought about what Laeli was doing right now. She turned around and tried her best to sound as calm as possible.


    ��My father?��


    ��I��m so sorry for what happened to him. An uncle of mine is close to Count ughter. Maybe I can ask him to release your father as early as possible. I think you want him to be free, right?�� asked Malcolm while looking straight into Carina��s eyes.


    ��What��s will it cost me?��


    ��Leave Nassau right now. I think you had earned quite enough from selling those spices. This amount of money is enough for you and your father to start afresh elsewhere. And the money that you will earn from your new business should be able to feed your family.��


    Just when Carina was about to react, Malcolm put up his finger.


    ��This is not a trade. Because of your father, I��m willing to grant you a final chance to redeem yourself. I want to resolve this matter peacefully. You should know that better than anyone else. Whatever you��re doing right now, it won��tst long. And my patience has a limit.��


    ��What if I say no?�� asked Carina after a short moment of silence.


    ��Maybe I have underestimated you. All the while, I thought you��vee to Nassau to earn enough money to set your father free. You are now treating this whole thing as your business, right? Unfortunately, this is not the right time for you to do something like this. I have changed my mind, and I don��t want to keep dragging this matter. The time of games and chatting with you are over. Bad things are going to happen to you if you refuse to leave Nassau.��


    ........


    15 minutester, Carina came out of the coffee shop.


    ��How��s everything? Did he do anything to you?�� asked Malone.


    ��Same old same old. Malcolm thought that I��m still a little girl. He thought that he could threaten me to leave Nassau. Let��s ignore him. The Jackdaw should be back soon as well. We need to do what we need to do before theye back. There are still some items in the storage. I will need you to sell all it as soon as possible.��


    ��I have restocked the ship with new supplies. I think I can move all those things to our ship and leave Nassau before the sky turns dark.��


    ��Great. You can prepare to set sail right now. I have to make a trip to Smoked Fish Alley. Let��s part ways here,�� said Carina as she sat in the carriage.


    ��Should we go together? I don��t need the whole afternoon to do what I need to do. Smoked Fish Alley is awless hellhole with thugs, and thieves are everywhere. I don��t think a young woman like you should travel there alone.��


    ��Don��t worry. I have a friend over there. Please be careful, Uncle Malone.��


    After that, Carina closed the door and left the ce.


    ��I should be the one telling you to be careful,�� said Malone.


    Half an hourter, the carriage stopped in an alley, and Carina stepped out. A couple of thugs immediately whistled at her. Although she looked calm when she talked to Malone earlier, she was actually worried about her safety. When she thought about the way she handled Malcolm��s threats, there was no way she would be scared off by a couple of low-life thugs.


    So, Carina took in a deep breath and walked into the alley. After walking a short distance, she crossed paths with some kids. This time, they deliberately spilled some squid ink on her shirt. Left in frustration, Carina took out her handkerchief, attempting to wipe off the ink, but to no avail. It was at that time when she realized that the thugs she encountered earlier were following her.

 Chapter 183 - Slaughterhouse’s Owner

    <h4>Chapter 183: ughterhouse��s Owner</h4>


    Carina started to get nervous when she saw a couple of people staring at her with sly smiles on their faces. Unconsciously, she took two steps back. There were others too in this small alley, but none of them had the intention to help as they were used to these things happening around them. Poverty had made them numb with their surroundings.


    Before the leader of the thugs could say anything to Carina, a ck shadow covered him, and his smile froze.


    ��Cauchy?��


    ��She��s my guest, Andy,�� said the ck man that looked as strong as a bull.


    The other young thugs looked at each other, and their leader named Andy quickly put both his arms up.


    ��This is all just a misunderstanding, Cauchy. We��ll never harm your guests,�� said Andy with a wide grin on his freckled face.


    After that, the young thugs quickly fled the scene.


    ��Thank you.��


    ��Don��t thank me first. Check if your pouch is still with you.��


    Immediately, Carina checked her pockets and was unable to locate her pouch.


    ��That bunch of kids!!!�� eximed a shocked Carina.


    ��Don��t worry. I know where they are. I will help you get your money back. Let��s go. He��s waiting for you.��


    Andy then brought Carina to the ughterhouse. Several workers were busy ughtering pigs in front of them. None of them seemed to care about Andy and Carina entering the ughterhouse. After that, Carina followed Cauchy to go to the basement, and she finally met up with Laeli. Thest time they both met was about a month ago. Zhang Heng had given Carina some money and asked her to pass it to Laeli. Laeli went dark after that, right up until two days ago. He was the one who had taken the initiative to contact Carina.


    ��Thank you, Cauchy.��


    The boss of the ughterhouse nodded at Laeli and left the basement.


    ��Cauchy is not from my tribe, but he is someone I can trust. No one dares mess with him in this street. He��s helped me out a lot recently. I��m so sorry that we have to meet here in this basement. Malcolm is a very cautious person, but he has a weakness as well. He usually focuses on the enemies that could affect him more. He would spend hours studying your behavior, pattern, background, and even your childhood. He is determined to look for the most effective ways to crush you, people. Captain Zhang Heng and you seem to have be worthy enemies for him.


    ��However, there��s only so much he can do. When Malcolm focuses on one thing, he will not care about all the other unimportant enemies around him. For example, the ves and me from Terrance��s Mansion; we��ve be no different from the trees around us. He no longer cares about me the moment I was dragged out from the banquet hall. The supervisor would also never tell him that he sold me to Zhang Heng. However, if he finds out that I��ve been talking to you, he will realize that I��m still alive. From there, he will start to assess all the possible threats that I can bring to him. This could cause me a lot of trouble.��


    ��I can understand that.��


    ��Let��s talk about your father.��


    Laeli was back to the topic that he wanted to discuss with Carina after exining to her why he chose to meet up with her in this basement.


    ��I have used my methods to contact my people in the mansion. Just like what I told you earlier, my people do not matter to Malcolm. To be honest, there��s nothing they can help me with. All the young muscles are stuck at the farms and orchards, and most female servants are tasked with the cleaning and reception work. It��s not possible that they woulde across anything valuable. However, there��s one exception. Her name is Leah.��


    ��Leah?��


    ��She��s one special kid. She managed to differentiate herself from the others even when she was still in the tribe. Malcolm must have found out about how special she was as well. So, he focused on grooming her. He didn��t ask her to entertain the guests like the other female ves. Not only did he teach her to speak othernguages, but he even hired someone to teach her how to read. After that, she was tasked with settling Malcolm��s paperwork. For example, she would be asked to write some greeting letters and invitation letters. Every Saturday, Leah was asked to clean his study. No one is allowed to enter the room except for him and Leah.��


    ��Anyway, I have managed to contact Leah. She��s agreed to help us search for evidence that Malcolm was behind your father getting into jail. However, she��s only allowed to clean Malcolm��s study for no longer than 15 minutes. So, she has to finish her task first before searching the room. She has to make sure that the guards won��t notice anything fishy as well. That��s why she needed a long time to find something useful for you.��


    Laeli then produced a letter.


    ��I don��t know what��s written in this, but Leah told me that it could help you guys.��


    Carina took the letter, and her face changed the moment she read it. It��s contents were rtively simple. Sent from Malcolm��s family, everything that was written on it sounded somewhat vague. It invited Count ughter to dine at his ce, and that the problem had been dealt with. The letter was sent precisely half a month after Carina��s father was put in jail. After connecting with what Laeli heard from Malcolm, Carina confirmed that Malcolm did indeed have something do with her father��s imprisonment.


    ��Can this letter help you bring them down?�� asked Laeli.


    Carina had to try her best to ovee her blinding rage.


    ��This letter might be able to bring him some trouble, but it��s not enough. We need more solid evidence to prove that he was the one who had put my father in jail.��


    After a short moment of hesitation, Carina returned the letter to Laeli.


    ��Put this letter back to where it belongs. I don��t want Leah to get into trouble.��


    ��Don��t worry. We are close. I will ask Leah to continue searching for more solid evidence. Once I find something useful, I will contact you again,�� said Laeli.


    ��Please ask her to be careful. By the way, is the money enough? Do you still need more?��


    ��I still have more than half of it, miss.��


    ��Come and look for me if you need more money.��


    At that, Cauchy returned her pouch to her before she left the ughterhouse. He even escorted her out of Smoked Fish Alley. After thanking him, Carina went to look for Malone in her horse carriage. When she saw boxes of items being moved to the Gentle Breeze, she felt a sense of uneasiness looming over her.

 Chapter 184 - Give Me A Price

    <h4>Chapter 184: Give Me A Price</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    Seven days had passed since Malcolm threatened Carina to leave Nassau. Even though she seemed calm andposed in front of others, she was actually terribly distraught. That said, nothing wrong happened to her for the past few days.


    There was still a line in front of the storage that Carina rented, with throngs of people forming long lines to sell their secondhand goods to her. The captains that secretly traded with her received no warning from the ck-market alliance as well. This had woken them up from their dormant state, and they started to believe everything Carina told them. It seemed that Malcolm had no intention to deal with this matter. Carina was now officially the enemy of the ck-market alliance. As a result, the captains from different pirate ships started to visit Carina secretly again.


    Just when everything seemed to be looking up, something awful was about to happen to Carina.


    One night, Carina woke up from a dream. She did not even have the time to wear something proper, hurriedly donning on her pajamas, and running to the port barefooted. It waste at night, but arge number of people had gathered around the beach. Honegg, the person tasked with defending the ind, and his people, were confronting a group of new pirates that had just entered Nassau.


    However, the crowd wasn��t paying any attention to them. They were looking at the two ships that were docked at the harbor, never having seen these two barques in Nassau before. The pirates that disembarked were new around this area as well. The vessels�� sturdy hulls, massive cannons, and ck gs were proof that they were indeed pirates. And they were powerful.


    Previously, some new piratesnded in Nassau. As it became increasingly famous, more and more pirates visited Nassau to purchase supplies for their ships. Technically, the constant arrival of new pirates shouldn��t have been too surprising to residents of Nassau. However, this group acted differently than all the other new pirates that they encountered before. This bunch was so arrogant that they fired their cannons twice on the empty beach before docking their ships at the harbor! Luckily, no one was on the beach when the shotsnded. Still, many were shocked by the audacity of the new bunch.


    ��Who��s the captain?�� asked Honegg.


    A man sporting a mermaid tattoo on his arms was instructing two of his men to nt two wooden logs on the beach. Once he heard Honegg was looking for the captain, he walked up toward him.


    ��How should I address you?��


    ��Captain Wilton. You can call me Wilton. However, merchants that I��ve robbed before prefer to call me the Executioner.��


    At that, Wilton drew his dagger from his waist. Immediately, Honegg��s men pulled out their guns as well. Wilton simply smiled, took out an apple, and used the de to peel off the skin of the fruit.


    ��The Executioner? I have never heard of this title before,�� answered Honegg.


    ��Well, I don��t me you. That��s because I kill everyone on the ships I plunder. All those who know my name happens to be dead.��


    He bragged about carrying out his ruthless and brutal endeavors in an extremely casual way. By the look on his face, it seemed that he enjoyed what he did. Even experienced pirates felt sick to the stomach after hearing what he said. Honegg was once the elder of Nassau and gained fame when ckbeard and ck Prince Sam made a name for themselves. It surely wasn��t easy to put fear in a man the likes of him.


    ��I don��t care who you are and where you came from. If you dare fire your cannons on my ind again, I will make sure your story ends here!��


    To everyone��s surprise, Wilton put down his dagger and began acting more politely.


    ��This is our first time here. Forgive us if we failed to acknowledge the rules of the ce. I��m willing to apologize if I have offended you in any way. I have always heard people talking about Nassau. The truth is, we are just here to check out this ce known as the hometown of pirates.��


    Seeing that Wilton was willing to y nice, Honegg asked his men to stand down immediately.


    ��Nassau is and of freedom. As long as you don��t cause any trouble here, you are wee to stay.��


    Just when Honegg was about to leave the port, someone called out to his name.


    ��Captain Honegg, I remember there��s a rule here stating that pirates are now allowed to plunder the ships of the ck-market merchants, right?�� asked Carina.


    Now, she was worried about the Gentle Breeze. Supposedly, the vessel should be in North Carolina right now, but instead, it was in between the two new pirate ships that justnded in Nassau. Previously, she had been informed that the Gentle Breeze returned to Nassau with two unfamiliar pirate ships. There could be only one possibility if the Gentle Breeze returned to Nassau before the expected time. They must have been plundered by other pirates. That exined why she was so anxious. The ship��s goods were not as important. She cared more about the safety of Malone and his sailors.


    Honegg then stopped in his tracks. He, too, noticed that the Gentle Breeze was between the two new pirate ships.


    ��Did you guys rob her ship?��


    ��Well, we are pirates. It��s only right that we plunder other ships, right?��


    ��You better return the ship to her,�� scowled Honegg while looking at Carina.


    ��What if we refuse to return it to her?��


    ��Then, you guys won��t be able to sell your loot to her.��


    ��Thank you for your gentle reminder. I think we can figure out a way to solve this problem.��


    After that, Honegg did not say a single word. Carina ran up to him immediately and stopped him from leaving.


    ��Just like that?�� whispered a shocked Carina.


    ��The ck-market merchants are part of the ck-market alliance, right? This isn��t under my jurisdiction. You should go ask for the help of your alliance. Technically, they didn��t break any rules. They weren��t considered pirates of Nassau when they plundered your ship.��


    Honegg lifted Carina��s hand that was tightly grabbing his sleeve.


    ��I��m sorry. My only responsibility is to make sure that the ind is safe. Your problem is not part of that responsibility.��


    Seeing Honegg walking away, Carina felt helpless. She then took a look at everyone around her. Most who were present here had sold items to her before. They quickly looked away when they saw that she was trying to look for help, knowing that it was probably a bad idea to mess with men, the likes of Wilton, and his cohorts. Although ignoring her pleas would impede any opportunity for future business, it was better than dying right now.


    Carina did not expect Wilton to be the first to talk after she looking at the crowd.


    ��Is that your ship?��


    ��I never thought that the second-inmand of the ck-market alliance would y such dirty tricks to force me off Nassau. Let me warn you. If anything happens to my men, I will...��


    She was interrupted before she could finish her sentence.


    ��I don��t know what the hell the ck-market alliance is. I don��t care about your quarrels with that alliance as well. I��m simply d I found the owner of the ship. Let��s talk business.��


    ��Hold on. You plundered my ship, and you dare talk business with me?�� replied Carina with a burst ofughter.


    ��Why not? We have to sell the loot that we acquired anyway. I have a batch of special items with me. I think you might be interested in purchasing them.��


    Wilton pped his hands, and the pirates behind him quickly rowed to the Gentle Breeze. This time, they returned with another four men. Carina instantly recognized that the captives were indeed the crew of the Gentle Breeze. Their hands and feet were bound tightly. Seeing that they were alive and well, Carina was slightly relieved. However, what Wilton told her next almost caused her to flip in anger.


    ��Ah... my loot is here. What would you offer me for these?��

 Chapter 185 - Not For Sale

    <h4>Chapter 185: Not For Sale</h4>


    Wilton looked at Carina. ��What is it? Don��t you want them?��


    Carina simply bit her lip, not saying anything.


    ��It��s no problem. We��re all civilized people�Cwe don��t force anyone to do business with us, miss.�� Wilton waved his hand, and immediately, one of his men grabbed a Gentle Breeze sailor, dragged him to a wooden pole, and tied the helpless man to it.


    Wilton took onest bite from the apple and threw the core on the ground. He wiped his hand on his clothes before taking out his dagger again.


    ��What are you doing?�� gasped Carina as she felt a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach.


    ��Did you know, ever since I was a kid, I��ve always been curious about the inner workings of the human body?�� Wilton pried the sailor��s shirt open with his knife.


    The poor freckled boy was only around sixteen to seventeen years of age. Carina remembered him. He was called Booker, and her uncle had rmended him some time go. The two worked together on the Gentle Breeze. Booker was a cheerfuld who always wore a pleasant smile on his face. Right now, however, he looked terrified, more so when the knife slithered down his chest.


    ��What do you want?!�� Carina hissed.


    Wilton smiled slyly, letting the de linger on the boy��s abdomen. ��As I said, I just want to make a deal that��s mutually consented.��


    Carina��s eyes looked like they were about to burst into mes, but there was nothing she could do�CWilton had two pirate ships and around 200 men while she was all alone. There was this one guy who reported this to her, but he was just a docker at the exchange of secondhand goods. Carina had no other choice but to agree to Wilton��s terms.


    ��How much do you want?�� sighed Carina, eventually giving in.


    ��That��s more like it. If only you said this earlier, then there wouldn��t have been any problems, eh?�� Wilton kept smiling as he put his knife away. Just when everyone thought that the danger had passed, Wilton suddenly swung around, and something in his hands shed. Before anyone could react, he plunged the de into Booker��s stomach!


    Booker howled in pain, and a look of wild excitement shed across Wilton��s demented face. Instead of pulling away, he shoved the knife upwards until finally, the boy��s stomach was sliced open, his guts spilling out like a crushed snail.


    Never in her entire life had Carina ever witnessed such barbaric savagery. She instinctively covered her mouth, mind saturated with fear.


    When she was younger, Carina had her fair share of pirate-rted horror stories. The civilized world regarded these men who roamed the seas as beasts and thugs. When she came to Nassau, however, she realized that the truth couldn��t be further from the tales she heard. Pirates were humans too, and of course, they had feelings. In fact, most of them were very reasonable, where some were even smart and polished like Zhang Heng.


    So, her impression of pirates was reversed entirely; that was until Wilton showed up and reignited the terrifying impression of pirates buried deep in her mind.


    Fresh, warm blood dripped from the knife and Wilton��s right arm. He stepped backward and tilted his head as if admiring his handiwork. ��It��s fascinating. Did you know that even if a person��s stomach is cut open, they won��t die immediately?��


    When Carina looked at him again, her demeanor hadpletely changed. She asked in a shaky voice, ��Haven��t I already agreed?��


    ��Yeah, except for this one,�� Wilton answered as he wiped the blood off the de with a handkerchief. ��This is not for sale. After all, other than making money, I have to find some way to have my fun, right?��


    Wilton shed his teeth at Carina. Next to him, Booker��s cries were getting weaker and weaker. Wilton��s soulless smile would make anyone��s blood run cold.


    ��Don��t worry. I won��t ask for an unreasonable price. Right now, a strapping ck ve is worth five gold coins. I��ll sell these very experienced sailors to you for only ten gold coins. The captain is worth twofold. I think that��s a very fair price. Apart from the four of these here, there are also twenty-eight men on the ship. That makes thirty-two people in total. Oops... it��s now thirty-one. So, that��s a total of three hundred and twenty gold coins.��


    Carina tried to calm herself, but she could hear her voice trembling whenever she spoke. ��I don��t have that much money on me right now.��


    ��That��s going to be a problem,�� smirked Wilton with a cocked eyebrow. ��Tsk, tsk. I��ve given you an excellent price. I��m afraid I cannot do any better. But, if you really don��t have enough, you can consider buying half of them. I can present the goods to you for you to pick whichever you like. What do you think? It all sounds pretty good, right? You get to decide their fate, and the ones you select will be eternally grateful to you. As for those who remain...��


    Wilton paused for a second. ��They will hate you, of course. But nevermind that. I will help you solve this problem. Consider it a value-added service for the transaction.��


    ��No, I want them all�Cnot one less,�� Carina insisted.


    ��Didn��t I make myself clear? Depending on how many coins you give me, that��s how many people you��ll get. There��s no room for bargaining here,�� Wilton shook his head.


    ��I may not have that much money, but I have a piece of property in the colony. Give me some time; I will get you your money.��


    Carina felt wholly dejected and humiliated. Not only had her ship been so rudely snatched away from her, but one of her crew had been tortured and mauled before her eyes. Right now, she was forced to agree to the trade, and even begged Wilton to give her time to amass the ransom.


    Wilton rubbed his chin as he considered Carina��s offer. After a while, he walked up to her, used his knife to pick up a lock of her hair, and leaned in to sniff it.


    Carina felt goosebumps all over her body. After what he did to Booker, who knew what the madman would do next. Carina stayed as still as she could, eyes closed and praying that the ordeal would be over soon.


    After half a minute, his demonish voice echoed in her ears, ��It��s our first time here, and we are not very familiar with this ce. It just so happens that we need a guide. How about this, you be our guide, and I will agree to your request.��


    ��Who do you think I am?!�� Carina��s eyes flew open, shocked, and outraged. ��A prostitute from one of those brothels?!!��


    ��It doesn��t matter. A virgines with its own advantage. If you serve us well enough, who knows, I might even return that cargo ship of yours.��


    Carina was shaking even more violently now, unable to tell if it was from her anger or fear.


    Just as she was about to give up all hope, a familiar came from behind Wilton.


    ��I don��t think she likes having strangers being so close to her.��

 Chapter 186 - Ceasefire

    <h4>Chapter 186: Ceasefire</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    While everyone was attracted to the drama on the beach, none of them noticed that the Jackdaw and the Quidah were back in Nassau. Standing on the deck, Zhang Heng saw the lights and therge crowd that had gathered. At first, he didn��t pay too much attention, but after he moored his Jackdaw, he rowed to the port with Anne, Billy, and the other two pirates. He quickly noticed the Gentle Breeze��s odd position and the two unfamiliar barques docked there.


    Zhang Heng started to realize that something must have gone very wrong. Even before the small boat reached the port, he saw the captured sailors from the Gentle Breeze and the dead Booker. He frowned as he whispered something to Billy, who then nodded and returned to the Jackdaw with the other two pirates after dropping off Zhang Heng and Anne at the port.


    Stepping on the soft sand, Zhang Heng stepped up toward Carina as the crowd parted automatically, opening a way for him.


    ��I��m sorry but who the hell are you?�� asked Wilton.


    ��I��m Zhang Heng, captain of the Jackdaw.��


    ��So? Does this have anything to do with you?��


    ��Miss Carina is my trading partner on this ind, and she is my friend as well.��


    ��Oh. I understand now. I��m afraid that you will have to look for a new trading partner. That��s because she doesn��t own a ship now and she has lost her people. Plus! She owes me a huge amount of money! I��m asking her to be our guide on this ind. I might consider sparing the life of her men if she can... well... please me.��


    Carina could no longer hold back her rage,nding a hard p on Wilton��s face. Wilton touched his face and stared at Carina. As she nced at his lewd gawks, she unconsciously took two steps back. Wilton was also smiling. Instead of calming her down, she grew even more apprehensive of him.


    ��It seems like Miss Carina is still living in a dream. It��s time to wake her up,�� said Wilton to his pirates.


    Immediately, his pirates took down Booker��s bloody corpse from the wooden pole and strapped the second sailor to it. Carina��s started breathing rapidly. She gave Zhang Heng a quick nce hoping that he could somehow figure out a way to help her. However, she had no idea how he would do that considering Anne and him were the only two that came down from the Jackdaw. Wilton, on the other hand, had more than half of his people on the beach.


    Zhang Heng was clearly outnumbered. Any sane person would know that nothing else could be done to salvage the situation. Wilton grabbed his dagger and walked towards his second target, looking at Zhang Heng in disdain at the same time. As expected, Wilton could only remain silent in this situation. This time, he wanted to nt his dagger straight into the sailor��s chest, using its sharp tip to run through the sailor��s body, taunting him and enjoying the look of fear on his face. Just when he was about to kill his target, he heard the sound of two cannons firing.


    ��Who the f*ck fired the cannons again? We are here to do business! We don��t want any trouble, eh? There are still some powerful pirates over here. We cannot afford to mess with Honegg, ck Prince, and ckbeard. Let��s y nice in thend of others,�� said Wilton.


    ��Captain, our ship didn��t fire the cannons. It... it seems as if our ship is under attack!�� said one of the pirates who was starting to panic.


    Wilton��s face changed immediately. When he turned to the port, he saw that his ship, the Skeleton, was under attack! Though he left quite a few of his men on board, he never expected anyone to be brazen enough to attack it. The ambush caused the Skeleton��s crew to run around like headless chickens. They didn��t even get the opportunity to open their cannon��s hatches after the first round of attacks.


    ��Return the Gentle Breeze and the goods into Carina. I want you to release all her sailors as well. Do that, and I will stop the attack,�� said Zhang Heng.


    ��What if I say no?��


    ��I will sink your ship then.��


    ��No one had ever threatened me before since I became a pirate!��


    ��Congrattions! You have one now. You can continue taking your time to think about it, but I cannot guarantee that your ship still floats in about... five minutes.��


    ��Aren��t you afraid of the consequences of breaking thews of this ind? Attacking any ships that are docked at the harbor is forbidden!��


    ��You are not a pirate of this ind. I don��t see any problem attacking an alien ship.��


    Wilton tapped the handle of his dagger faster and faster. It appeared he was deep in thought.


    ��By the way, if you are thinking of stalling me and asking your second ship to attack us, I suggest you give up on the idea. That��s because I can guarantee that your second ship will be paralyzed as well.��


    At first, Wilton did not believe Zhang Heng. However, when he saw that the Quidah had their cannons pointed directly at his second ship. It was then that he realized Zhang Heng wasn��t in a mood for empty threats.


    ��Are you sure you want to make an enemy out of me?�� asked Wilton as he red at Zhang Heng with an icy stare.


    ��What about you?��


    Zhang Heng looked into Wilton��s eyes without the slightest bit of fear. Eventually, Wilton caved in and decided to do what Zhang Heng asked him to do.


    ��Release them!��


    Wilton��s pirates cut the ropes that tied the sailors of the Gentle Breeze. The two ran to Carina and embraced her the moment they regained their freedom. Another middle-aged sailor staggered towards the lifeless Booker and started to weep uncontrobly as he held his body in his arms. He was Booker��s uncle and was the one that asked him to work for the Gentle Breeze. Never would have expected that this job would cause him to lose his nephew just like that.


    Wilton then red at Zhang Heng, but received no response.


    ��Inform our brothers on the ship to let the rest of the captured sailors go. Return their goods to them as well! Are you happy now?�� growled Wilton with gritted teeth.


    This time, Zhang Heng finally responded. He signaled the Jackdaw��s watcher, who quickly updated Billy about their captain��s decision. Half a minuteter, the Jackdaw finally stopped firing. Unfortunately, the Skeleton was already severely damaged by then. Though it was still afloat, it had lost all ability to retaliate.


    The Jackdaw was more potent than most of the ordinary pirate ships. After all, it was a corvette, and they did not miss a single shot since the Skeleton was parked so close to them. Once Wilton��s knew about the extent of his ship��s damage, he led his men back to Skeleton without uttering a single word to Zhang Heng. All he did was re at him.


    ��Are we really going to let them go? I don��t think they will let us off the hook,�� said Anne.


    ��They have a lot more people than us. I��m afraid he will kill us all if we pressure him too much. But you are right. He will begin attacking us once he fixes his ship. We will have to deal with this problem tonight. Inform our men to prepare for the next battle!��


    1

 Chapter 187 - Preparation

    <h4>Chapter 187: Preparation</h4>


    ��So you��re just going to this slide?�� asked the Skeleton��s crew to Wilton.


    ��Let it slide? I have been venturing the seas for 20 years now. No one has ever had the guts to talk to me like that! He threatened me and forced me to spit out our plunder, our rightful loot! If I let this matter slide, no one in this city will respect us anymore. No one will fear us when we ply the oceans!�� Wilton growled with a murderous stare.


    ��Will we be breaking the ind��s rules if we attack them right here? Aren��t you the one who told us that there are many powerful pirates here? I believe the ship that paralyzed us is ck Prince Sam��s Quidah. I heard that they have arge number of pirates as well, not to mention that they seemed to be fearless.


    ��Don��t get our priorities wrong, Rhodes. This is not our territory. It was only due to someone asking us to take care of the woman that we came all the way to Nassau. We weren��t even supposed to be here for too long. I don��t care what you��re going to do. I need you to help fix the ship as soon as possible. The day the Skeleton sails again will be the day I kill that bloody guy and everyone he knows! I will cut off their heads and toss them around the city center! May that serve as a fine warning to whoever that messes around with me! After it is done, we will leave the ind right away.��


    ��Roger that, captain.��


    ........


    On the other side, Carina looked at Zhang Heng in excitement, never expecting him to make it back to Nassau in time anding to her rescue. The moment he appeared in front of her, she knew that all her problems were solved. Not only did he save the entire crew of the Gentle Breeze, but he also managed to return her the ship and all its cargo.


    It was at that time that Carina realized how much the Jackdaw meant to her. Though she managed to do her job well when Zhang Heng was away, she was in constant fear. However, all that insecurity disappeared the moment he came back. She had faith that the man standing before her could solve every problem she faced.


    Ever since she came to Nassau, she felt like she was living amongst a pack of hyenas and was forced and was forced to be vignt at all times to survive. Only when Zhang Heng was around her could she finally take a breather. Although they had not known each other for a long time, Carina felt she could fully trust Zhang Heng no matter what the situation would be.


    She bounced excitedly in front of Zhang Heng, staring at him with sparkling eyes.


    ��We can talkter if you have something to tell me. Right now, I need you to send some of your men to watch over Wilton. Come update me immediately if you think something��s not right,�� Zhang Heng told her.


    Meanwhile, Honegg returned to the beach after hearing cannons being fired. Earlier, Wilton promised him that he would never fire them in Nassau. At first, Honegg thought that Wilton must have broken his promise. He instantly stormed back to the beach with his people, also instructing one of them to bring more of his men to the beach.


    When he was halfway there, Honegg realized that, in fact, the Skeleton was the victim here.


    ��Did you fire at the Skeleton?�� Honegg demanded when he met Zhang Heng.


    ��I don��t think we broke any rules, right? All I did was help Ms. Carina get back whatever belonged to her.��


    ��You guys attacked a ship docked at Nassau��s without permission! I don��t think I need to tell you how serious this matter is. If I don��t punish you right here, right now, I��m afraid that the ships at our port would no longer be safe!��


    ��We attacked an unidentified ship docked at our port. They also robbed our ck-market merchant, not to mention directly firing at Nassau only 15 minutes ago. Technically speaking, we are helping to defend the ind.��


    ��Do you really think I can��t tell the two apart?!��


    ��Well. We really did help the ind eliminate a threat. Erm. That was actually my idea. I didn��t like the neers, being so arrogant and all the moment they set foot on ournds. That��s why Captain Zhang and I decided to teach them a lesson. We simply want them to learn how to obey the rules. We even saved you from the incident repeating itself if they were toe again,�� ck Prince Sam chipped in after tying his small boat to a pole on the beach.


    ��I��m just curious. Is there anything that you are not involved in on this ind? Should I propose that you take over my position during our next meeting? You can help with the defense and maintaining the order of this ind. I might as well go back to sea and be a captain again. Speaking of which, I have haven��t set sail for almost seven years now. You know, I��m actually starting to miss the life out there. Although the food on a ship ain��t that good, at least I don��t have to deal with shit like this every single day!��


    ��I don��t think anyone on this ind can rece you. People here respect you, Mr. Honegg. Your reputation alone is enough to make everyone on this ind bow down to your wishes.��


    ��I highly doubt that.��


    Honegg harrumphed and red at Zhang Heng again. For the sake of ck Prince Sam, Honegg did not pursue the matter any further. Before he left, he gave Zhang Heng a warning.


    ��I don��t care about whatever quarrel you have with the ck-market alliance. I hope that both parties can practice some self-control. Resolve the matter while abiding by everyw of the ind. I do not wish to see this ever happening again!��


    Zhang Heng nodded and watched Honegg walking away. Before ck Prince Sam could say anything, Zhang Heng interrupted him.


    ��Leave this matter to me. Your Quidah has helped enough. I��m afraid that your rtionship with the ck-market alliance might be affected if you continue associating with me.��


    ��I merely trade with them. I do not work for Malcolm. But, it seems like you have a n in mind anyway. If that is so, I will not disturb you anymore. You can look for me any time you need my help. My men will tell you where I am.��


    Zhang Heng thanked him with a warm handshake. After ck Prince Sam left, Zhang Heng and Anne started to work on what they would do next. First, they visited one of their old friends, Baal, an arms dealer in Nassau. Half an hourter, Zhang Heng purchased everything that he needed, and Carina��s most trusted worker delivered the items to the reef. Another hour soon passed, and Anne covertly arrived with another 40 pirates from the Jackdaw.

 Chapter 188 - Massacre

    <h4>Chapter 188: Massacre</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    It was midnight when the Skeleton arrived at Nassau. After enduring a series of events, most of its crew were exhausted when they returned to their ship. Typically, there was no need to patrol the ship at night since it was docked at the port, but ever since the Jackdaw attacked the Skeleton, Wilton decided that he wasn��t taking any chances. He specially formed four teams of pirates to take turns and spy on the Jackdaw, informing Wilton if they saw it attempting to make a move on them.


    After that, Wilton locked himself in the captain��s quarters and started drinking liquor. As he sipped on the rum, he could not help but think about the incident that happened on the beach. It made him so angry that he took out his dagger and stabbed it on the table. It was at that moment that he changed his mind about killing Zhang Heng. Now, he was hellbent on torturing him to the point he regretted he was born into this world.


    Most of the pirates were already asleep when Wilton was having his 6th ss of rum. None of them realized the imminent threat they were about to face. After taking a look at the time, Zhang Heng stood up and nodded to Anne.


    ��It��s time. Let��s do it.��


    After that, Zhang Heng hid his pocket watch and gun under a rock. He entered the water first with Anne following right behind him. The rest of the Jackdaw��s pirates had all changed into ck suits and held a dagger between their teeth. All of them were swimming towards the Skeleton. Hutcheson actually inspired this strategy, and although he didn��t manage to take the Jackdaw down with this method, the 20 enemies that boarded the Jackdaw hadpleted what Hutcheson wanted. Their job was to stall Anne and the remaining pirates on the Jackdaw, and they actually did it.


    If the watchers hadn��t spotted them, the Jackdaw might have suffered an even greater loss. This time, the situation was way different. Hutcheson attacked the Jackdaw in daylight, and their pirates were all armed since they were already in the middle of a fight. This time, Zhang Heng chose to attack the Skeleton at night because it was surely harder for their enemies to spot them. Most of the pirates on the Skeleton were also asleep right now, with only a couple of them guarding the ship. In other words, the ship was at its most vulnerable state.


    They would have never expected Zhang Heng to attack again right after the Jackdaw attacked their ships a few hours ago. And, this time, they came well-prepared, electing to bring along silent and stealthy arms. The dagger was their primary weapon of choice. Only a a couple of grenades were carried in case of an emergency. Other than that, Zhang Heng also bought a hunting bow from Baal.


    Anne and Zhang Heng were the first ones to board the Skeleton. He immediately crouched down, looked for a corner, and opened up his tarpaulin bag. He then took out the hunting bow and arrows. As for Anne, she silently analyzed and observed the enemies that were standing on the deck.


    Wilton formed a group consisting of three pirates to spy on the Jackdaw. One stood on the watchtower, another at the bow, and thest person was constantly on the move. Anne hid behind the rudder as she counted the footsteps that she could hear. The moment she counted until seven, she jumped out and slit the throat of a passing pirate! Then she instantly moved to the pirate at the bow. As luck would have it, he was sound asleep and didn��t realize her approaching him.


    The pirate that stood at the watchtower finally spotted Zhang Heng and his pirates. Before he could even sound the rm, Zhang Heng shot an arrow directly into his heart. At the same time, Anne managed to eliminate thest pirate as well. As of now, all existing threats on the deck were eliminated. Zhang Heng quickly headed back to the gunwale to signal all his pirates to board the ship. After that, all of them stormed into the cabins as fast as they could. Zhang Heng��s orders were reasonably straightforward. Kill everyone on this ship that breathed.


    A brutal massacre was about to unfold on the Skeleton. With a team of two, one would cover the enemy��s mouth, while the other would slit their throats, slowly moving from one side of the ship to another. With this method, they made sure that no one was left alive. Soon, the stench of blood wafted across the room. It would seem that Zhang Heng conducted his operation when the pirates of the Skeleton were in deep sleep.


    However, an ident was bound to happen since so many people were being killed at the same time. Three minutester, one of Zhang Heng��s teams failed to inflict a lethal wound on their target. The pirate started to struggle, and themotion quickly woke the rest of the pirates that were still alive. Unfortunately, it was all but toote as two-third of the Skeleton��s crew had been killed in their cabins.


    Before they could even wield any weapons to retaliate, the Jackdaw��s pirates nted daggers into their hearts. Only a dozen managed to get a hold of their weapons and started to fight back, but again, it was all toote. The n turned out better than Zhang Heng expected, and the whole conundrumsted for only 15 minutes.


    In the end, Zhang Heng and his men had eliminated more than a hundred pirates. When it whole thing was almost done, none bothered to count the enemies that they��d killed. The grenades they carried with them remained unused throughout the entire battle.


    When Zhang Heng entered the captain��s quarters, he found no one inside, but the windows were ajar. Zhang Heng quickly peered outside only to see Wilton attempting to swim to his second ship. Calmly, he ced an arrow on his hunting bow and released it.


    Thwack!!!


    Wilton��s shoulder was hit! Knowing that his life was on the line, he could do nothing but swim as fast as he could. Suddenly, he took in a deep breath and dived below the water. Zhang Heng frowned as his second shot missed its target. Tonight��s n was only half-sessful. Though all the pirates on the Skeleton were all dead, there were still around 60 pirates on the second ship. If Wilton managed to get there, he might be able to flee Nassau. He might even decide to destroy the Jackdaw since it was almost empty now. Zhang Heng and the rest of the pirates would surely not make it back in time if Wiltonunched an attack on the Jackdaw.


    Without the slightest bit of hesitation, Zhang Heng took out his Paris Arrow and aimed it at Wilton. This item cost him around 400 game points. Previously, he was worried that the waves might carry the arrow away if he used it. That would be a significant loss for him. However, this wasn��t the time to worry about this problem.


    Once Wilton emerged from the water to catch a breath, Zhang Heng took a shot with his Paris Arrow. As there was no time for a good aim, he simply fired at will. The arrow flew into the water with a loud whizz!


    Momentster, Wilton��s body floated to the surface of the ocean.

 Chapter 189 - Protest

    <h4>Chapter 189: Protest</h4>


    Honegg was getting old. By the time he dealt with all the things at hand, it was alreadyte into the night. He retreated to bed, only to wake up again not too long after he closed his eyes. Perhaps he knew that he did not have much time left. It wasmon for older people to greatly appreciate the remaining days that they had.


    Honegg put on his clothes and tricorne. His mood had greatly improved after gorging on the warm breakfast delivered by one of his men. ording to his daily routine, he would head to the city walls after breakfast, looking down over the entire Nassau from where he stood. This was the point where he could feel the joy in his heart. Nassau didn��t have an official governor-general assigned by Scond. The closest person to that was Honegg. He was given the unenviable task of defending Nassau.


    It would seem that ck Prince Sam had somehow ignited his anger. In reality, he was quite happy with his current condition. A very long time ago, when he was still a legendary captain, he had started nning for his retirement. He and Frazer were known to be the two most powerful captains on the ind of Nassau. Now, age had taken a toll on him, and he wasn��t as healthy and strong as before. He did, however, umte massive wealth after being a pirate for decades. At the same time, he fell prey to certain illnesses as well. Rheumatism was one of the diseases that had been torturing his knee for a long time now.


    Eight years ago, Honegg decided that he would quit being a seafarer and, instead, lead his men to take over Nassau. It was then that he embarked on a new life. ording to the agreement, he would protect and maintain order in Nassau with his men. In return, the merchants of the isle would pay him a certain amount of money each month as the protection fee.


    The fee wasn��t too expensive, and the merchants of Nassau could easilye up with whatever Honegg asked for since they earned considerable profit from their trade. Though it faded inparison with whatever he made when he was still a pirate, the difference wasn��t much at the end of the day. The most important thing for him, though, was the safety of his pirates. Now, he did not have to put their lives at risk anymore.


    Although they livedfortably at the moment, it dide with its disadvantages. They were forced to stay inside the fortress for a long time every single day. The boredom that resulted from it constantly tormented their minds. Since they no longer needed to fight, their bodies started to shrivel as well. Most importantly, theycked an injection of new blood. When he was still a captain, he would lose his men in battle from time to time. After that, he would recruit eager younglings to join his ship. It was an effective method to rece the older crew no longer suited for the pirate��s life.


    Since they didn��t live onnd, most of the men that stuck with Honegg were thest batch of pirates that conquered Nassau with him. Over time, his men started bingzy. Nevertheless, Honegg would never fire them since they all shared a profound rtionship with him. Of course, he could use the money he collected to recruit a new batch of young fighters, but he realized that he would never trust them the way he trusted his old allies.


    Fortunately, his name preceded his reputation, and nobody in Nassau realized that he��d lost his edge. Honegg knew better than anyone that he and his men were now way weaker in terms ofbat abilitypared to the time when they first arrived here. If he could take down this fortress with his men years ago, other pirate crews could also do the same right now.


    In a time like this, he needed to show that he was still as tough as before. That was why Honegg brought his men to the beach when he heard that the Skeleton had opened fire there. As he confronted the young and dominant Wilton, he managed to put on a good show and concealed his weaknesses well. Still, he felt extremely exhausted after dealing with a matter like this.


    Luckily, Wilton was willing to take a step back and promised that he would never cause further trouble in Nassau. Since Honegg got what he wanted, he decided that he would not hold Wilton responsible for his deeds. As for Carina��s business, it wasn��t under his jurisdiction. Everyone knew that her career wasing to an end in Nassau. At first, Honegg thought that all problems had been solved. He did not expect that Zhang Heng would return and assist Carina by attacking Wilton��s ships.


    The matter started to head in the direction where Honegg least desired, especially when ck Prince got involved. Once the conflict became more significant and he failed to contain it, people would quickly realize that he must have grown weak. That was why he gave Zhang Heng a stern warning.


    Honegg could see that Wilton and his crew were only passer-bys and would probably leave once they settled their business. The best-case scenario would be everyone going through this period together peacefully. Sadly, things didn��t turn out the way he wanted it.


    He was sitting on his favorite chair, one that was taken from a governor-general��s room during one of his piges. It was one of the few items that he cared about. When he sat on it, he would start to reminisce about his good-old-days, the days that were filled with pomp and glory. As he enjoyed his peace and quiet, he suddenly noticed a huge group of people gathering at the beach. This time, it appeared that the crowd wasrger than yesterday.


    ��Now... what the hell is going on again?��


    A bald plump guy who was behind him simply shrugged. He was the helmsman of Honegg��s ship. During the old days, he was considered one of the smartest men in the area. Now, he had been reduced to a sorry drunkard. He would usually drink until the early hours of the morning to the point of unconsciousness.


    ��No idea. Perhaps some fishermen havee to sell their catch,�� replied the helmsman while burping.


    ��I have seen fishermen here before, Domingo. I��m pretty f*cking sure that they aren��t selling seafood. Send some people to check them out. This is a delicate time. I don��t wish to see any more idents happening.��


    ��As you wish.��


    Domingo left the ce, stumbling around wonkily. Honegg could not help but sigh as he looked at him. Oh, how the great have fallen. Half an hourter, the person tasked to check the beach came back to Honegg.


    ��Wilton!! Wilton!!!��


    ��Ah, crap! What did he do this time?��


    ��No. Wilton is dead!�� said the investigator.


    Honegg was shocked, unable to believe that the captain of two ships and 200 men had been killed in one night. Above all, he heard something even more ridiculous.


    ��It��s not only Wilton; all of his men are dead as well! Most had their throats slit. As for Wilton, someone tossed his body on the beach in the exact spot where he executed the sailors. His stomach had been cut open!��

 Chapter 190 - Changes That Come With It

    <h4>Chapter 190: Changes That Come With It</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    Honegg ran to the beach with his men, and that was when he saw Wilton��s body. Tied around two wooden nks, he seemed to have died in a simr fasion to the sailor he killed earlier. Even the wound on his stomach was identical as well. It was genuinely an ironic situation. However, the cut on his stomach appeared to be added post-mortem. The lethal wound was actually a small hole on his chest. He must have been killed by an arrow.


    Just like the dead pirates on both of Wilton��s ships, the perpetrator left no clues around the crime scene. However, even a blind person would know who the culprit was. The Skeleton was here for less than a day, and the only person they had friction with was Zhang Heng. Both of them argued at the port, with Zhang Heng attacking Wilton��s ship in the end. Since his ship was severely damaged, he had no choice but to release the sailors from the Gentle Breeze. Admittedly, that was how they became enemies.


    Many who gathered there knew that this matter wasn��t about to be settled just like that, but nobody expected Zhang Heng to make the first move as well. All the while, he had the upper hand, so everyone was shocked when they saw how he tackled this problem. It was both ruthless and brutal.


    1Wilton was one of the bloodthirstiest pirates Nassau had ever witnessed. He sliced open the stomach of a living man in front of everyone and even smiled while he was at it. That was enough to send chills down everyone��s spines. He was indeed a lunatic. Three hours after the incident, Zhang Heng used the simplest way to avenge the sailor.


    A total of 200 pirates were brutally killed. When dawn arrived, the fishermen had first spotted Wilton��s body, and the entire tragedy was unfolded before the people of Nassau. Conflicts were rather frequent amongst the pirates of Nassau. Typically, they would only argue over their dispute. Rarely, some resorted to physical fights. Even the most severe incident that they witnessed were two captains brawling with each other. None had ever seen an entire gang of pirates being annihted, what more, by their fellow pirates.


    Of course, anything could happen at sea with witnesses few and far between. Right now, this incident urred at a busy port. Honegg was natuarally displeased. In the period of a night, the event had escted and was blown out of proportion into something out of his control. After Honegg warned Zhang Heng, it seemed that he was willing to make peace with Wilton. With the help of ck Prince Sam, the incident was supposed to end right there.��


    Aspared to Zhang Heng and Jackdaw, Honegg was more worried about the Skeleton, especially Wilton, whose absolute merciless personality was a rarity amongst the pirates. Birds of the same feather flocked together, and now, Zhang Heng disyed simr brutality. Honegg began to worry that they would cause more trouble to Nassau. He then took another look at Wilton��s body. It appeared that Wilton had severely underestimated Zhang Heng. If he knew that Zhang Heng wasing at him, he would have killed Zhang Heng first even if it meant losing his g.


    ��Where is he right now?!�� asked Honegg furiously.


    The moment Zhang Heng annihted the entire Wilton��s pirate group, it meant that he was directly challenging Honegg��s authority. It appeared that yesterday��s warning was all but wasted breath. It was indeed an embarrassing moment for him.


    Honegg��s man hesitated to answer his question. However, when he saw his boss getting angrier, he finally spoke up.


    ��Someone saw the Jackdaw��s pirates near Carina��s trading center. It appears they got a good yield during theirst voyage. I think they are getting their share of money now.��


    Honegg harrumphed and stormed to the trade center without saying a word. His men looked at each other, and a smart-alec ran to tell Domingo about it. The rest were forced to follow Honegg as he looked for Zhang Heng. Soon, Honegg spotted Carina talking to Zhang Heng from afar and increased his pace. Zhang Heng instantly noticed Honegging at him in a mighty fury.


    Honegg was one of the most experienced pirates in Nassau. He was a generous man when he was still a captain, even going as far as to give a ship that he��d robbed to his men. Rumour had it that half of the captains of Nassau were involved with him one way or another. It might sound like an exaggeration, but it proved that he had connections all over the ind.


    ��Captain Honegg, how can I help you?��


    Zhang Heng approached Honegg first and greeted him politely. At first, Honegg wanted to confront him about Wilton��s death but became speechless the moment they met. After witnessing Wilton��s body and all the dead on the two ships, Honegg felt that Zhang Heng had changed. The Jackdaw had gotten famous in Nassau recently. The reason of their sess had everything to do with their conflict with the ck-market alliance. Since theycked experience, old sea legs like Honegg didn��t pay too much attention to him.


    Afterst night��s incident, Honegg unconsciously saw Zhang Heng as someone on the same level as him. Apart from that, Honegg also realized that many pirates were lining up, waiting to receive their share of gold coins. Judging by the weight of their money bags, it seemed Zhang Heng had another excellent yield. The prospect of getting rich made the pirates in line drool like little babies.


    Zhang Heng��s capability of leading his men to good money had been proven once again. The Jackdaw was close to bing a top-tier crew in Nassau. All they needed right now was some fame to make their name known. Attention from the conflict that they had with the ck-market alliance wasn��t something they wanted, but rather, they wished to be known as the most sessful pirate group of Nassau. Usually, there were no shortcuts around matters like this. After Wilton��s death, however, they had inadvertently made their name known throughout the entire Nassau.


    Not only did Zhang Heng manage to deal with Wilton��s threats, but he also managed to instill the word that no one should mess with him. The name, the Jackdaw, had be a bit of a hush-hush matter. This could be seen from the reaction of Honegg��s men. When they heard that Honegg wanted to confront Zhang Heng, they started trembling in fear. This fear and respect he earned came at the cost of 200 lives. Other than ckbeard who had attacked Charleston and killed two governor-generals, Zhang Heng was now the most highly respected individual of Nassau.


    1

 Chapter 191 - Double Victory

    <h4>Chapter 191: Double Victory</h4>


    ��Are you going to exin what the hell happened on the beach?�� Honegg enquired in a displeased manner.


    ��The beach? What��s going on?�� asked Zhang Heng.


    Honegg cursed Zhang Heng in his heart for being so shameless. It was no secret that Zhang Heng was the one who had massacred Wilton and his pirates, but nobody could find any substantial evidence to pin this crime on him. Most importantly, Wilton and his pirates were all dead. In other words, there were no witnesses alive to prove that Zhang Heng was guilty of the allegations.


    ��Attacking a docked ship with cannons and massacring the entire gang?! Aren��t you afraid of the public��s wrath?��


    ��Who would be angry at me?��


    Honegg was speechless again when he heard the question. He was so focused on Zhang Heng��s crime that he��d forgotten to rethink the whole incident carefully. The two events that Honegg mentioned earlier were rather severe. Almost everyone on this ind had one or two enemies in their lifetime and nobody wished that their throats were slit while they were fast asleep.


    However, the Skeleton and her crew weren��t originally from this ind. They were outsiders. Also, the way they made their presence felt had angered many of Nassau��s folks. Judging by the reaction of the crowd this morning, nobody sympathized with Wilton��s death. They were, however, shocked that Zhang Heng woulde up with such a dramatic solution. They became more cautious of him, but their feelings weren��t as intense.


    ��Captain Honegg, I know that you have sacrificed a lot to protect and maintain order on this ind. The existence of you and your men have made it possible for Nassau to stay peaceful. Just like others on this ind, I��m grateful for that. Please know that I��m not trying to destroy everything that you have built. You have talked to Wilton before, and you know what kind of person he is. Forgive me for being honest; you should know better than anyone that your wish will nevere true. Wilton and his pirates are not about to stay here without causing any trouble.��


    ��Are you saying that I should thank you for solving my problem?��


    ��Let me ask you a question. Do you wish to see my body lying on the beach or Wilton��s?��


    Honegg didn��t know what to answer Zhang Heng, and although he was still mad, he had to admit that Wilton was never going to reason with him like a respectable human. He and his gang were more like wild beasts. Still, he felt troubled that Zhang Heng killed them even after he attempted to bargain with Wilton.


    Honegg didn��t seem as angry as before, and he had calmed down a little. After all, Zhang Heng did not go all the way to push the button. Though the entire Nassau knew that he was responsible for the Wilton gang massacre, at least Zhang Heng didn��t admit that he was the one who did it.


    Right now, Honegg had weigh the consequences that resulted from this incident. If it was in the old days, he could simply hold Zhang Heng ountable for his actions, or he could exert his influence and exile Zhang Heng from Nassau. With Zhang Heng��s current reputation, he surely couldn��t pull off something like that. On the other hand, if he took a step back and let it slide, it would show everyone that he was losing his edge. They would then doubt if he still had the capability to hold the fortress. Honegg had gotten used to life onnd. He was never going to go back to sea.


    Just when he had reached a crossroads, Zhang Heng spoke to him.


    ��Many on this ind do not know how important you are. We can set sail with peace of mind knowing that nothing would happen to Nassau. All these because we know that you are here with your men. Let me tell you this, defending Nassau shouldn��t be the responsibility of a single person.��


    Honegg twitched his eyebrows and waited for Zhang Heng to finish. Thankfully, what he was about to say did not disappoint him.


    ��I��m willing to make an official announcement that I��m willing to protect Nassau with you. Of course, you and your men still hold absolute authority. I��ll only be there when you need me to deal with the utmost of dangerous situations. Anyone messing with you is equivalent to messing with the Jackdaw.��


    Right after Zhang Heng finished talking, a group of people walked toward him furiously. The man leading the group was Domingo. Through the fog of his drunkenness, he was still shocked when he heard that Honegg had gone ahead to confront Zhang Heng. The news of Zhang Heng��s actions had spread throughout Nassau like a raging wildfire. Although the Jackdaw didn��t have many pirates, no one dared belittle them anymore. Domingo was worried about Honegg��s safety and brought everyone from the fortress as a backup.


    They were at the ready to fight with Zhang Heng. Although nowhere as good as their young selves, they possessed undying loyalty towards Honegg. To their surprise, they saw Honegg calmly chatting with Zhang Heng. Domingo couldn��t figure out what was going on. However, when he saw that Honegg was alright, he was relieved and stood down.


    ��I��m old. This is an era for the young now. Yoy and Sam are the future of Nassau. Old men like me with a busted leg can only stay with a pile of useless rocks. But, you guys don��t have to worry. As long as I still live in the fortress, I will make sure that I��ll protect Nassau with my life. With that, you can always set sail knowing that our home will be safe.��


    ........


    The reason why Zhang Heng decided to kill Wilton was a straightforward one. The moment they crossed paths, Zhang Heng knew that Wilton would be his arch-enemy. If he didn��t kill everyone on the Skeleton, it would have been him who was lying dead on the beach. Wilton definitely wouldn��t hesitate to destroy Zhang Heng once he fixed his ship, which was why Zhang Heng chose to attack the Skeleton at a time least when everyone least expected it. At the same time, he intended to send a message through Wilton��s body as well. Anyone that dared mess with Carina��s ship would end up like Wilton.


    Since Zhang Heng was done with the ck-market alliance, Carina was essential to the Jackdaw. One might even say that Carina couldn��t live without the Jackdaw. The truth was, the Jackdaw couldn��t live without Carina either. On the one hand, she was the only one who could help Zhang Heng sell all his loot. On the other, Zhang Heng had to make sure that his partner would be safe all the time. As for Honegg, Zhang Heng knew that Wilton and his pirates didn��t really matter to him. All he cared about was his authority in the fortress. And this wasn��t a hard problem to solve. After thinking for a bit, Zhang Heng figured out that partnering up with Honegg was the best solution to the problem.


    Amongst the two respectable elders in the world of pirates, Zhang Heng��s rtionship with Frazer had turned sour. This indicated that Honegg��s support was now vital. Honegg��s reputation was enough to make everyone obey him, and partnering up with the Jackdaw would only fortify his authority on this ind and the fortress. Zhang Heng had no interest in controlling the fortress. At his age, he would never want to sit in a stone wall and do nothing like Honegg. However, it was good to have an ally that had Honegg��s authority.


    This was a win-win situation. Hence, Honegg decided that he wouldn��t go up against Zhang Heng.

 Chapter 192 - Expansion and Suspicion

    <h4>Chapter 192: Expansion and Suspicion</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    ��Thank you.��


    Once Honegg left, and after the pirates of the Jackdaw got their share of gold coins, Carina quietly approached Zhang Heng and thanked him. She couldn��t imagine what would happen to her if Zhang Heng did note back in time.


    All the while, she tried her hardest topete better in the world of business, constantly figuring out how to get more captains to work with her, save Malcolm, of course. Also, she made sure that her prices were always high enough to attract as many prospective sellers as possible. As a result of her efforts, she managed to outdo the ck-market alliance by arge margin. After what happened to her father, she also made sure to avoid a fewrge ports controlled by the Malcolm Family. Little did she expect that they would send a gang of pirates to hunt down the Gentle Breeze.


    An incident like that hadn��t happened in Nassau for a very long time now. The pirates that Malcolm hired weren��t originally from Nassau and hence, weren��t worried about breaking the rules of the ind. Last night was the first time that Carina brushed with the darker corners of the world. After living in Nassau for some time, she had gone through significant changes. At first, she was too shy to talk to men. Right now, astonishedwas bold enough to bargain with a group of fierce captains. As she receivedpliments from Malone and others, she was d that she��d officially blended into this world to the point that she could face a group of pirates used to killing for a living.


    Last night, Wilton managed to reignite the fear that she once had. The dagger in his hand was only two centimeters away from her neck. It was the very first time she came so close to death.


    ��I��m responsible for the Skeleton��s attack on the Gentle Breeze. I was the one who told you to remain aggressive on this ind. To be honest, I underestimated the magnitude of the threat to you. I��m astounded that Malcolm decided to deal with us a lot quicker than expected,�� said Zhang Heng.


    He then took a look at his surroundings. Since that morning, arge crowd of people had already been lining up to sell their stuff to Carina.


    ��You have done a spectacr job so far. I believe that you��ve managed to pressure the ck-market alliance.��


    ��It might seem that there are many people selling their stuff to me, but honestly, I don��t earn much from it. At the end of the day, I still have to rely on the Jackdaw.��


    ��How many captains looked for you while I was gone?��


    ��Four captains were working with me, and there were a few interested in selling their stuff as well. I was trying to negotiate and bargain with them. After that, Malcolm suddenly announced that all captains should only trade with the ck-market alliance and not random ck-market merchants. In the end, only two captains were still willing to work with me. I think things will get better, now that you��ve eliminated Wilton and his goons. Many will start to think that our business might just survive on this ind. Just now, a few captains told me that they are willing to stop trading with the ck-market alliance and would trade with me instead. Though they are not from some powerful pirate group, they are definitely more influential than these people lining up to sell their useless stuff to me.��


    At the same time, Carina red at a pirate who demanded that he should have been paid two extra bronze pesos.


    ��Right now, we have a problem. If we are going to expand, I don��t think one cargo ship is enough.��


    ��Wilton had two ships. His Skeleton can be entered into service after we fix it, and his second ship is totally fine. Though that ship isn��t as well-armed as the Skeleton, it sure is more spacious. I think it��s the perfect vessel for a cargo ship conversion. The only problem is that it was once a pirate ship. I��m afraid the port��s workers might recognize it.��


    ��I don��t think that��s going to be a problem. Wilton told us that he never left anyone alive when he plundered their ships. I��m pretty sure that very few hadid their eyesy their eyes on that ship before. Before I use it, I��ll hire someone to carry out a refit and some modifications. Then, we can be sure that nobody would recognize it even if they have seen it before.��


    ��As for manpower, I believe that we can source most of that from this ind itself. There are a lot of young people here, and since they can��t earn much by bing a pirate, I don��t think they��d mind working on a cargo ship as long as their pockets are filled. They are also not asking for much. Most importantly, their family members and friends are living here. Ifst night��s incident were to happen again, I don��t think they��ll just sit still and do nothing.��


    ��If any emergency were to happen when I��m not around, you can look for ck Prince Sam or Honegg. They will help you. Alternatively, you can hire private security for your protection. I would say four to five people should be enough to help you to tackle any untoward incidents.


    Zhang Heng saw that Carina was about to say something, but held back.


    ��What��s wrong?��


    ��There��s one thing bothering me. I might be overthinking, but I did work with a couple of pirate ships previously. I never thought that I would be able to keep this a secret from the ck-market alliance forever. Still, I did something to make sure that Malcolm wouldn��t find out so soon. Something smells fishy. The moment I started to work with the other captains, I instantly received a warning from him.��


    ��At first, I thought that perhaps one of the pirate groups had tipped Malcolm off. You know how hard it is for pirates to keep secrets; a ss of rum and a hooker would make them spill all their beans. But, I did notice a problem, though. If they really did tell Malcolm about me, he shouldn��t have known my ns in such great detail. I didn��t expose anything at all when I met up with him, but I felt that he knew every single move that I was about to make.��


    ��Could there be a mole among us?��


    ��I don��t know what to think anymore. Everyone who works for me is a trusted ally of mine. I even made sure that only a handful knows about my n. Most of the sailors on the Gentle Breeze don��t even know what they��re transporting.��


    ��Do you have any suspects in mind?��


    ��Jim, for one. He��s young, and he knows how to read. He was initially the records keeper of the Gentle Breeze, and Malone was the one who rmended that I hire him. Right after my father was put in jail, half of the experienced pirates left the ship. They were the ones who my father paid highly. However, Jim chose to stay on. He only joined our shipst year. Technically, he shouldn��t have a strong attachment to it. With his capabilities, it shouldn��t be hard to look for a better job too.��


    ��I don��t know much about him, but he chose to stick with us during our most trying times. I have to say; he��s helped me a lot for sure. That��s why Malone and I trust him fully. He seems to be serious about his job as well. So, I brought him off the Gentle Breeze and asked him to work with me here. He��s supposed to keep track of all the loot that we buy. He knows where every itemes from. At the same time, he is also one of the few who knows which route the Gentle Breeze takes.��

 Chapter 193 - Baiting a Mole

    <h4>Chapter 193: Baiting a Mole</h4>


    Malone waszing on the bed in a brothel as an attractive prostitute helped him to spread some medicine on his wound.


    Previously, when the Skeleton pursued the Gentle Breeze, Malone insisted that they were ck-market merchants, but the pirates from the Skeleton ignored the ims. As captain of his ship, Malone tried his hardest to fight off the pirates bravely with his crew. Unfortunately, the Skeleton was way more potent than the Gentle Breeze, and within three minutes, every single one of the Gentle Breeze��s sailors was defeated by the Skeleton��s pirates.


    After that, they started to kick and punch Malone. He fell to the ground the moment one of the piratesnded a heavy blow on his stomach. The searing pain from the bludgeoning caused him to drop the dagger in his hand. When the pirates were done bashing him up, Malone was dragged and locked up in the depths of the ship��s hold. When he was finally alone, he quickly checked his body and realized that it was bruised and bleeding from top to bottom. Not one part of him was left unscathed.


    Just like the entire crew of the Gentle Breeze, Malone thought that those pirates would surely kill him. While they sailed back to Nassau, the Skeleton took the opportunity and plundered another merchant ship. Malone witnessed first hand on how Wilton gleefully tormented the Gentle Breeze��s sailors for sport. Even after all the experience gained from working at sea for decades, Malone still trembled at the sight of the inhumane pirates that plundered his ship. He became so hopeless to the point where he wanted to kill himself.


    Right until when his freedom was granted back to him, he couldn��t believe that he had to endure such unspeakable horrors. When he was sure that he was no longer in danger, the first thing he did was run the tavern and drink as much as he could stomach. Having his fill of alcohol, he proceeded to the brothel he visited regrly. Finally, he found some peace and quiet that he craved for so long in a familiar ce he wasfortable with. When he woke up the next afternoon, he was met by Carina.


    ��Hold on. You suspect that Jim is working for Malcolm?��


    The prostitute left the room half a minute ago. Malone blinked, shaking his head as he tried to clear the awful hangover that was pounded his mind. Through his daze, he was shocked to hear Carina suspecting that Jim was a mole. He quickly fumbled around, eventually finding his shirt before putting it on.


    ��To be honest with you, I won��t believe such usations if I don��t see solid evidence. Jim is a good kid. I dug around, asking about him when I thought of recruiting him to the Gentle Breeze. Everyone said that he��s a terrific kid. He��s one hardworkingd, never allowing the slightest bit ofziness to get the better of him. Though he could be boring at times and has no sense of humor whatsoever, that didn��t stop me from putting him on my list of favorite persons. Have I told you about his sister?��


    ��What sister?��


    ��Jim has an adopted little sister who is two years younger than him. During that time, his family was doing well, and he was taught how to read and write. Unfortunately, the happiness was short-lived. Shortly after that, both his parents were tragically killed in an ident, leaving the two of them alone. Of course, they needed money to support themselves. So, some people suggested that he send his stepsister to an orphanage or a monastery. Jim rejected all of them with a resounding no. In the end, he had to sell off everything valuable in his house. It was then that he started to look around for a job that could support him and his sister. He was only 14 years old.��


    Suddenly, Malone paused.


    ��What��s wrong?��


    ��Speaking of his sister, I heard that she had just recovered from a severe illness. Jim spent quite a huge sum of money, looking for a doctor to cure her. I did ask him earlier if he needed my help, but he told me that he had settled his debts. Apparently, he has a distant uncle who sent him some money to deal with his crisis.��


    ��Could this man be Malcolm?��


    ��I have never thought about it from that angle. I still don��t think that Jim will sell us out and let Wilton know which route the Gentle Breeze took.��


    Malone shook his head, and he had put on his clothes. He then moved his shoulder, and the pain from his wounds caused him to wince and grit his teeth.


    ��Have you talked to him about it?��


    ��Not yet. I don��t want to be rash and alert the enemy. Right now, we don��t have any solid evidence about him selling us out. Once he notices that we are on him, it would be extremely hard for us to catch him red-handed. This matter is of the utmost importance to us. Even though Wilton and his pirates are dead, our next journey would be perilous if we fail to catch the mole. The worst thing would be that Malcolm will know all of our moves.��


    ��Whoa, whoa, hang on. Wilton and his pirates are dead?! How is that even possible? Is this supposed to be a joke?��


    Malone had no idea about the entire incident on the ind since he slept through the day.


    ��If you didn��t get drunkst night and unleash your inner beast at the brothel, you should have heard of the big news. Right now, you are probably thest person on this ind that finds out.��


    ��Haha... this has to be the best news I��ve heard in a long time.��


    Malone pretended that he didn��t hear the undertone of sarcasm in Carina��s voice.


    ��While I was on my way back to Nassau, I cursed Wilton, hoping that his pirates would be somehow engulfed by the ocean. I didn��t even mind being a casualty alongside them as long as they��re dead. Anyway, I��m cool with this ending as well. How did they die, eh? Who killed them? How did they get killed? How many survivors are left? To be honest, I find it hard to believe that anybody could kill them. Wilton had over 200 pirates with him, and they were bloody good at what they did. How did this person kill him under the protection of his men?��


    ��You should go look for the answer yourself. Back to our little Jim, then. Is there anything you wish to add?��


    ��Let me think... well... I think that should be it, I suppose. I have known him for some time now, and he is a good worker, a good brother, and a good neighbor. I reiterate. I don��t think he is the mole.��


    ��Regarding yourst point, we will make sure to get to the bottom of it.��


    ��What are you nning to do? Send someone to spy on him?��


    Malone gulped a mouthful of water and rinsed his mouth. With that, he was done cleaning himself for the day.


    ��No. I want to give him a reason to sell us out.��


    ��Huh?��


    ��Just now, I ��identally�� spilled some top-secret news to him; deliberately of course. I said that two powerful pirate ships are nning to leave the ck-market alliance, choosing to work with us instead. If he is indeed the mole, he will surely tell Malcolm about it.��


    ��After that?��


    ��Malcolm will surely do something. Aspared to the small traders we deal with, he won��t just stand aside and watch us snatch away his powerful clients and will definitely try to stop it from happening. Judging by his personality, he would approach the two captains and convince them not to leave the alliance. All we need to do right now is to watch them closely. Once he meets the captains, we can go ahead and apprehend Jim.��

 Chapter 194 - Sleeping Position

    <h4>Chapter 194: Sleeping Position</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    With that, Zhang Heng tasked Carina with finding the mole. Ever since the Jackdaw returned to Nassau, Zhang Heng hadn��t managed to get any sleep. As promised, he made the announcement to Nassau��s residents that he would defend the fortress with Honegg. When that was done, he retreated home to get some well-deserved rest.


    It waste in the evening when he opened his eyes. Zhang Heng took a look at Anne, who was sleeping next to him. She had a questionable sleeping position, with an arm and a leg ced on Zhang Heng��s body. She was drooling like a baby as well. The most ironic part was that Anne had her leg ced on Zhang Heng��s chest while her hand was on his thigh.


    Zhang Heng had no idea how she managed to turn herself upside down while she was sleeping. The reason why he suddenly woke up suddenly because Anne kicked his chin identally. Trying his best not to wake her up, he spent quite a bit of effort to remove her contorted limbs from his body. However, it seemed like he overthought it. Once Anne was asleep, waking her up was a challenge, to say the least.


    On the flip side, she had this feral instinct when it came to threats. Even when she was in a deep sleep, she would automatically wake up if something dangerous happened around her. Zhang Heng had no idea how to exin a phenomenon like this. He guessed that it had everything to do with her personality, a beast-like nature that automatically allowed her to detect any iing threat.


    What she told him that night reminded him of the little fox of Little Prince. Due to the little fox taking a liking toward Little Prince and it knew that goodbye wasing, it was willing to be domesticated. The little fox did that because it wanted to remember the color of Little Prince��s hair when it gazed upon the wheat field.


    Zhang Heng took a jacket from a nearby chair and covered Anne with it. He went proceeded downstairs to his little farm, where he plucked the vegetables that were ripe and dug up a few potatoes. While he was tending to his garden, he saw the little girl living next to him and gave her a barbary fig. Before entering the game, Zhang Heng had never tried Barbary figs before.


    It was the fruit of a cactus and was native to the north and south of America. It could typically be found above the cactus nt. Like the main tree, the fruit was also covered in thorns. One had to cut off its tail and remove its skin before it could be eaten. It was essential that the octagonal thorn within the fruit was picked out as well. As for its taste, there was a tinge of sweetness coupled with sour parts. Zhang Heng was weirded out when he first ate this fruit. He had once heard that Indians favored the fruit a lot, regrly using it as medicine.


    As usual, the little girl ran away the moment Zhang Heng approached her. He wasn��t too bothered by this, knowing that the parents of kids her age would usually advise them to steer clear of strangers. When he was done with the harvest, he brought the Barbary figs and vegetables back in. Instead of eating the fruit just like that, Zhang Heng preferred to scoop out its flesh and add a little honey with it.


    When Anne finally woke from her slumber, Zhang Heng was already done preparing dinner for the two of them. He sprinkled some salt on the fishes that he��d just grilled over a me. The 18th century wasn��t as exciting as the modern world where there were no cellphones orputers. Even books were a rarity. Each time they returned from a voyage, they would be distraught from the harsh life out at sea. Hence, different people had different ways to relieve their stress.


    For Anne, she preferred picking fights as a stress relief method. As for Billy, he preferred to spend his time with his family. Zhang Heng, on the other hand, liked to cook and tend to his little farm. It helped him to take his mind off things when he wasn��t on the raging oceans. Farming was a hobby he acquired when he entered his very first quest. When he was on the ind alone, he needed to survive. Thus, he looked for something to do to keep him going. Not only did farming bring him game points, but it also provided him with satisfaction and joy.


    To see the seeds he sowed finally bear fruit was a great healing process. Cooking had the same effects as well. Unfortunately, the pace of life in modern society had gotten a lot faster, and a good amount of devotion would be needed for these things to seed. It was possible to reap happiness if the person involved managed to calm their heart down. Unfortunately, fewer and fewer individuals from the modern world chose to embark andmit to these kinds of activities.


    After bing a pirate of the Caribbean, Zhang Heng realized that he had more time for activities like this. Now, he was required to stay in the game for an unprecedented amount of time. After reaching LV2 on his saber and sailing skills, Zhang Heng was thinking of learning other skillsets. Learning othernguages had be a priority. Afterpleting a few rounds of the game, Zhang Heng realized that it was vital for him to speak variousnguages. After all,munication was the most important skill a human could master. During the Mannerheim Line quest, many people took advantage of him as he didn��t know how to speak theirnguage.


    Though he now spoke two foreignnguages (plus a couple of Finnish words), he was better than most around him. However, every quest was unpredictable, and knowing only twonguages wasn��t quite enough. Zhang Heng quickly realized the advantage of the formation of teams, where each member could choose to learn a differentnguage. If there were six people in a team, they would be able tomunicate in sixnguages.


    However, a single-yer like Zhang Heng could only rely on himself. Fortunately, he had ample time to learn othernguages. Now, he nned to learn French, Spanish, Italian, Polish, and Latin throughout the ten-year tenure in this game. He wanted to be able to understand basic speech at the very least.


    If his memory served him right, Zhang Heng remembered that Latin was only used up until the early 18th century. As the officialnguage of Rome, Latin was widely spoken throughout Europe during the 1st century BC. French, Italian, and Spanish were considered as local dialects. Along with the fall of the Roman Empire and the rise of the Renaissance Era, Latin started to lose its ce as the essentialnguage of Europe. In the end, the Vatican was the only country that remained using Latin in their day-to-day business. Althoughnguages of this era andnguages of the modern world varied slightly, Zhang Heng figured it shouldn��t be a problem for him to master some simple ways ofmunication.


    ...........


    Zhang Heng was still waiting for ck Prince Sam to vouch for him so he could join the meeting that was to be on this ind. The next morning, he received an unexpected notification telling him that his main quest of the game had beenpleted. After eliminating a few possibilities, Zhang Heng figured that Billy must have recruited a new batch of pirates. There were at least 70 pirates on the Jackdaw right now. Thus, when the game instructed him to build his own force, it meant that he had to recruit a certain number of people to work under him.


    It seemed that his quest wasplete. After living in this world for one year, it was only logical that his main quest waspleted. Zhang Heng had no intention to give up on anything after achieving so much in this game. After all, he had to stay here for another ten years. Everything that he did right now was preparation for a bigger goal. Be it joining the meeting, helping Carina fight the ck-market alliance, bing Honneg��s ally, or helping Laeli, Zhang Heng was building a strong foundation for himself.

 Chapter 195 - Monster From the Depths of the Sea

    <h4>Chapter 195: Monster From the Depths of the Sea</h4>


    ��You said someone intruded into your cest night. What did you mean by that?��


    Vincent was sitting across Zhang Heng, and seemed to be very ufortable and nervous.


    ��To be honest, I don��t know what happened as well. I slept earlyst night, and I was half-asleep when I woke up in the middle of the night all of a sudden. I saw that the windows were open, and a shadowy figure was standing beside it. His back faced me, and it appeared that he was searching for something in my drawer.��


    ��What made you think that he was looking for something?�� asked Zhang Heng while pointing at the poetry book that he found on the carrack.


    ��That��s because he turned my bedroom upside down! Strangely, he didn��ty a finger on the 33 gold coins that I hid inside my drawer. There was some change on the table as well, and the amount was intact when I checked on them. All he took were the supply records and the list of goods that we acquired from the carrack. As for this poetry book, I ced it under my pillow, so it was untouched.��


    ��Hang on. Now, why would you ce a poetry book under your pillow?�� asked Anne with a cocked eyebrow.


    The young doctor��s face begun to flush, and he was left speechless. Zhang Heng could feel how embarrassed and awkward he became, and hence, quickly changed the topic.


    ��Did you manage to see his face?��


    ��I��m sure he��s not human. His shirt was wet, looking as if he just emerged from the sea. I could smell an overpowering stench of fish and a saltiness in the air when he was in my room. Water dripped down from his sleeves and pants. Apart from that, I noticed corals and seashells hanging on his shirt and hair.��


    Vincent trembled in fear as he tried to remember the details of what happenedst night.


    ��I remember that I pretended to sleep. Out of curiosity, I cracked open my eyes. That was when I saw his hand and the side of his face. It was covered in scales! Then, he somehow discovered that I was peeking at him, and he turned around and smiled. I was so terrified that I fainted! It was early in the morning when I opened up my eyes again. Immediately, I ran outside the house.��


    Once Vincent was done talking, he took out three notebooks.


    ��I am almost done tranting these three notebooks. I didn��t manage to trante thest few pages of the supply records, though. I would like to apologize for not being able to protect them.��


    ��It��s fine. You have done a good job. Thank you so much for your service. I have another favor to ask of you. Would you mind if I took a look around your ce?��


    ��Of course not! Both of you are always wee at my house.��


    After that, Zhang Heng and Anne followed Vincent back to where he stayed. He lived in a small wooden house,rge enough for a single person. There were various types of nts around his home. Amongst them were rare species of nts that only grew on the ind of Nassau. Zhang Heng remembered Billy saying that Vincent fancied botany when they were introduced to each other. His house was covered in lush vines and looked gorgeous from the outside. Billy lived right next to Vincent, as well.


    During that time, Billy was holding his two-year-old daughter and was taking a slow walk in his garden. He quickly waved he saw the three. Passing his daughter to his wife, he strolled towards them.


    ��You guys are here for the bizarre incident, right?�� asked Billy.


    ��Can you give me a moment?��


    Vincent opened the door and looked at Anne in an embarrassed manner.


    ��This is your house. You can do whatever you want to,�� said Zhang Heng.


    Vincent was grateful that Zhang Heng allowed him to do as he wished. Immediately, he ran into his house and closed the door after him as fast as he could. Soon, they heard a curious nkinging from inside the house.


    While Vincent was at it, Zhang Heng took the opportunity to ask Billy some questions.


    ��Did you notice anything strangest night considering you live right next to him?��


    ��I fell asleep immediately when I returned homest night. This morning, he knocked at my door in his pajamas and told me what happened to himst night. I could see that he was scared to death. It was my first time seeing him so afraid.��


    ��Do you think this incident has something to do with the mysterious ship that we found?��


    ��Hmm... I��m not sure.��


    Zhang Heng suddenly remembered that a bizarre storm hit them when they were returning to Nassau. Every unexinable thing that urred to them indicated that they had indeed encountered something supernatural. It seemed the owner of the carrack was trying to retrieve the items that belonged to him. Still, Zhang Heng felt that things didn��t quite add up, which was why he wanted to check out Vincent��s house.


    After a while, Vincent opened the door and invited the three of them toe in. He had hurriedly tidied up his messy ce when he entered earlier and had even made a pot of tea for them. However, Zhang Heng wasn��t interested to have any tea.


    The first thing the three did was to check out Vincent��s bedroom. Upon entering, they saw a series of herbariums and sketches on the wall. They also noticed shoes and clothes scattered all over the floor. Vincent became embarrassed when he saw that the three were looking around his messy room. He had no time to tidy it up after cleaning themon area. As a single man, though, his room��s condition was actually not too bad. Zhang Heng had seen way worse than this when he was in his hostel.


    Ignoring the unkempt mess, Zhang Heng squatted and used his finger to touch the floor. There were a few wet spots, and it seemed that the mysterious person must have been standing there for some time. The wet spots led to where the drawer and bed were.


    Besides that, he also picked up two pieces of small seashells and a scale on the floor. The story that Vincent told them must be true. As for the fishy stench that he mentioned, it was gone, perhaps because the windows were open. After that, Zhang Heng walked towards the window. This was the spot where the mysterious man apparently entered and left the room. There were supposed to be two potted nts ced on the window sill, but one of them had been knocked down. Outside of the window, Vincent��s small garden could be seen.


    ��May I?��


    Zhang Heng nced at a nodding Vincent before climbing on the window sill and jumping into the garden.


    ��How often do you water your nts?�� asked Zhang Heng after he deliberately stepped on the soil twice.


    ��Erm. Once a week. I usually ask for Netti��s help to water my nts when I go on a voyage. It should have been five days since shest watered them.��


    Netti was Billy��s wife. She helped Vincent a lot after he moved into the neighborhood, a reason why Vincent was willing to be a doctor on the Jackdaw after Billy persuaded him. Zhang Heng then walked around the garden and saw that there were a few houses around. So, he proceeded to visit them one by one with Anne. Unfortunately, they didn��t manage to acquire any useful information from the residents. It waste at night when the mysterious thing broke into Vincent��s house. Hence, there were no witnesses.


    That afternoon, all of them stopped at Billy��s house for lunch. Vincent was still shaken byst night��s bizarre incident. He was extremely grateful after getting Billy��s permission to stay at his house for a couple of days; his spirits slightly lifted.

 Chapter 196 - Something Left Behind

    <h4>Chapter 196: Something Left Behind</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    ��Do you really think that a monster broke into Vincent��s house?�� asked Anne the moment they left Billy��s house.


    ��At first, I thought some supernatural entity from the carrack came for him after hearing what he described. However, I changed my mind after I checked out of his house.��


    At that, Zhang Heng passed the seashell to Anne.


    ��What��s wrong with this?��


    Anne took a look at it but saw nothing out of the ordinary.


    ��This shell is a foreigner, in the sense that it came from outside of Nassau. You won��t normally find this type of shell here.��


    ��Hmm... that reminds me of something. Harry picked a bunch of seashells exactly like this one. I don��t think I can ever understand his hobby.��


    ��And the scale. This a scale of a great barracuda, one of the mostmon fish often caught by the fishermen around this area.��


    ��How on earth do you know stuff like this?��


    Anne was shocked and slightly impressed by Zhang Heng��s broad knowledge.


    ��I have done extensive studies on fishes. Anyway, that��s not important.��


    In his first round of the game, Bell taught Zhang Heng how to tell apart edible sea fishes. Upon returning to the real world, he had also looked up about fishes online. Now, he could recognize more than 200 types of ocean fish.


    ��But, that carrack sailed around oceans of the world, right? It��s entirely possible that it ended up around the waters of Nassau at some point.��


    ��You are right, which is why I investigated Vincent��s garden earlier. He told me that he watered his nts once a week, and Netti helped him to water them five days ago. She also told me that the ind hadn��t received any raintely. The dry, dusty soil in his garden verified her ims. However, I found an exception in one of the spots of the garden.��


    ��Huh?��


    ��After I checked out Vincent��s house, I��ve been thinking about what he told me earlier. He mentioned that the mysterious man looked as if he just came out of the water. His shirt was dripping all the time. However, the problem here is that Vincent��s house is quite far from the sea. If that creature came from the ocean, he would have had to take a huge risk by walking all the way to Vincent��s house even under cover of the dark. Most importantly, most of the seawater on him should have dried up after taking such a long walk.��


    ��I don��t thinkmon sense can be used to solve this matter. Perhaps the mysterious man is cursed and is always drenched in seawater? I��ve heard a simr story when I was a kid.��


    ��I did think about that possibility. If that��s the case, then the water dripping from his clothes should have been constant. However, I found a spot in the garden that was way wetter than all the other spots.��


    ��Are you suspecting that someone deliberately wet himself and stuck seashells and scales all over his body? Why would he make himself look like a monster if all he wanted was to break into Vincent��s room to look for the three notebooks?��


    ��Are you asking about the purpose of him acquiring the three notebooks or the purpose of making himself look like a monster? I can��t figure out why he wanted the three notebooks as well. As for making himself look like a monster, I believe he did that so others couldn��t recognize him. I should��ve thought about it earlier. I��ve checked everything that we removed from the carrack, and I can assure you that there��s nothing wrong with them. We did, however,e across a storm on our way home, though. Now, I finally remember the items that I forgot to take.��


    ��What are they?��


    ��it appears that crate of silverware, ring, and the ne isn��t everything that we brought back. There were seven people on the carrack, including you and me. Someone must have gone behind our backs and secretly took something else from the ship. He should be the same person that broke into Vincent��s room.��


    ��Is that why you didn��t share your theory when we were at Billy��s house?��


    Zhang Heng nodded in reply.


    ��We were all togetherst night, so that proves our alibi. That leaves us with five people. I don��t doubt their loyalty, but I do think that the notebook thief didn��t realize the severity of this matter. Not a single person was on the carrack, and there��s a good chance that it has something to do with this. Alright. Since the area is small enough for us to conduct a proper investigation, all we need to do right now is to investigate them one by one.��


    ��I don��t think we need to do that. I think I know who the person is.��


    ��Eh?��


    ��Basically, two in a group when we were tasked to check out the carrack. It��s not easy to hide something when your partner is watching you. I remember that I was checking the cargo hold with Seth. When I heard you kicking down the door, I thought that you came across something dangerous, and I quickly ran to you. Seth was left there alone. If there��s anyone who had an opportunity to hide something from us, it has to be him. He was already on the deck when we regrouped. At that time, I remember that he looked as if he was in a trance. I didn��t think much about it because all of us didn��t look too well, either.��


    ��What was he doing when the storm hit us?��


    ��I didn��t see him. He was supposed to be resting at that time. I didn��t see him on the deck as well. Now that you��ve mentioned it, I remember something. I saw a bruise on his face when we met during dinner. He simply told me that he fell somewhere when I asked about it.��


    Anne continued,


    ��Fighting on the ship is strictly prohibited. Still, I heard that some had broken this rule. After all, they are new recruits on our ship, and a few of them already know each other on the ind. I wouldn��t be surprised that they had unresolved issues while they were still on the ind. Seth... Seth is one of the new pirates from our first batch of recruits. He married not too long ago, and his wife was one of the prostitutes from a brothel. He spent a great deal of money to set her free from her pimp. I heard that they both share an intimate rtionship. Still, it��s hard to stop people from gossiping about them.��


    ��Do you know where he lives?��


    ��No idea. But, I know someone who knows where he stays.��


    Anne looked for a pirate called Sean, one of the cannoneers on the Jackdaw. He and Seth were close friends and had been working on the same ship before the two joined the Jackdaw. They would usually hang out together when they were back in Nassau. Of course, Sean would know where Seth lived. Upon the request of Zhang Heng and Anne, he led them to Seth��s house. The moment they arrived at his ce, they saw arge amount of furniture ced at the front of his house.


    Seth peeked out from behind a closet he was rummaging through and was caught off-guard when he saw the three of them. However, he became extra nervous when he saw Zhang Heng, swiftly concealing his emotions after that.


    ��I��m sorry. I��m just about to move,�� said Seth.


    ��Not bad. You just got married, and now, you��re moving. Why didn��t you ask for my help?�� asked Sean.


    ��I don��t have many things, and anyway, I didn��t want to trouble you.��


    Seth then nced at Zhang Heng and Anne.


    ��I��m afraid that this might be a bad time, captain. Can youe again tomorrow?��

 Chapter 197 - Betty

    <h4>Chapter 197: Betty</h4>


    ��It��s okay. We��ve got nothing to do anyway. Let us help you,�� said Zhang Heng.


    Seth forced a smile when he heard Zhang Heng had offered to help.


    ��What��s going on? Seth, do we have guests?��


    ��It��s Sean and... erm... two more friends.��


    ��Aren��t you going to invite them in?��


    ��Oh... I almost forgot! My house is kind of messy now, and I hope you guys won��t mind.��


    Seeing that he was about to have visitors, Seth moved the chairs back into the house. Zhang Heng, Anne, and Sean followed him from behind.


    ��Tracy, go make our guests some coffee, will you?��


    Seth was talking to a voluptuousdy. This should be the woman that Seth married not too long ago. Tracy nodded and headed into the kitchen. After a short while, she talked to Seth again.


    ��Seth, where are the coffee beans that Beth gave us?��


    ��Ah! I know where they are. Let me go get them.��


    As he talked to Tracy, Seth went upstairs. Half a minuteter, Tracy emerged from the kitchen with a te of fruit in her hands.


    ��I��m so sorry. Seth kept away all the utensils and there are only some fruits left in the kitchen,�� said Tracy.


    Zhang Heng took the te of fruit and thanked Tracy and started a conversation with her. Talkative by nature, she answered every question he asked with no misgivings. Obviously, she wasn��t the cautious type. When he was done talking, he knew then that Seth didn��t tell her anything about the carrack. It also seemed that she knew nothing about what happenedst night.


    Zhang Heng looked at Anne. Both of them knew that Seth was the person that they were looking for. They decided that it was time to confront him once he came down.


    ��What��s taking him so long? All he needs to do is to get the coffee beans,�� said Sean while looking at the stairs.


    ��Let me go get him,�� replied an embarrassed Tracy.


    She proceeded to the storeroom beside them.


    ��Ahem... Seth is upstairs,�� Sean reminded Tracy.


    ��Huh? But the first floor is empty. There��s nobody there.��


    Immediately, Zhang Heng ran upstairs and found out that there was indeed no one there. All he saw was an open window. Through the window, he spotted Seth running away from his house as fast as his legs could carry him. He even looked back a few times!


    ��Let��s spread out and go after him!��


    Zhang Heng wasn��t to be med for not being more cautious. After all, he came with the sole intention of talking to Seth and had no ns to rough him up to extract information out from him. Other than breaking into Vincent��s house and almost scaring him to death, Seth didn��t do anything that harmed anyone. Logically, there was no reason for him to be running from them.


    Anne quickly ran out of the house. As for Zhang Heng, he exited through the window and climbed onto the roof. That said, he was in no way trying to be like Ezio Auditore from Assassin��s Creed. The area Seth lived in was simr to the Smoked Fish Alley and was one of the more famous slums in Nassau. The only difference was that it was a lot more crowded, with squatters literally stacked on each other. The entire area was also extremely disorganized.


    Seth had an advantage here since he had stayed here for a long time. To make sure that he could keep track of him, Zhang Heng had to continually find high vantage points. As for Anne, her job was simple. All she needed to do was trail Zhang Heng.


    It was at that moment when Seth noticed that someone wasing after him. Not only did he continue running, but he ran even faster than before. At the same time, he kept switching directions erratically, hoping to take advantage of the familiar terrain to lose Anne. Unfortunately, he didn��t manage to shake off Zhang Heng, and that made him more nervous by the second.


    Running along the rooftops allowed Zhang Heng to disregard the slum��s haphazardness. All he needed to do was to move in a straight line. His bnce had gotten a lot better after living at sea for almost a year. Though the rooftops of each house were at different heights, he still managed to maintain an excellent bnce.


    Seeing that he was getting closer to Seth, Zhang Heng estimated that he could jump off from the roof after another ten steps. Unfortunately, all his calctions and effort went to waste during the most critical moment. The roof that he just jumped on caved in all of a sudden due to its dpidated condition. Immediately, he grabbed on to a wooden support pir, but even that broke into half as well.


    Seth was delighted when he saw Zhang Heng falling into one of the houses. Suddenly, a shadowy figure appeared from the left of the alley. Before Seth could react, the personnded a kick on his chest, sending him flying to a wooden rack beside him. Seth ignored the pain on his back. He hurriedly got up and started to limp away. However, before he could make any headway, he found a sharp dagger on his neck.


    After a while, Zhang Heng came out of the house he fell into with a dust-covered face. Hepensated the owner with two gold coins, an old man that was sunbathing at that time, before heading to Seth.


    ��Why did you run from us?��


    Seth merely remained silent.


    ��Give it all up now. We already know. You were the ��monster�� that broke into Vincent��s room, right?�� asked Zhang Heng. ��How did you pull it off when the storm hit us back then? Did it have something do with the thing that you found on the carrack?��


    This time, Seth finally lost his calm. He was hoping that Zhang Heng was here for some other issue. After all, he was all alone when it happened. No one should have seen what he did. Any ordinary person would definitely not connect the matter to the storm. Hence, Seth had no idea how Zhang Heng could grow suspicious of him. After two sessful voyages, Zhang Heng��s reputation had skyrocketed amongst his pirates.


    After a short moment of hesitation, Seth finally spilled everything out.


    ��I��m sorry, captain. I... it wasn��t me who found the thing. She was the one who found me.��


    ��Her?�� asked Anne.


    ��Right after we separated, I heard a woman��s voice. She called herself Betty. I searched the entire cargo hold, but I couldn��t find her.��


    ��Betty?��


    It was a familiar name to Zhang Heng, having being mentioned numerous times in the poetry book that he read. At first, Zhang Heng thought that Betty must have been the captain��s wife or lover. Now, it seemed that the identity of this Betty was moreplicated than he initially thought.


    ��Why didn��t you tell us about it?�� asked Anne.


    ��I thought there was something wrong with me. The woman, Betty, gave me a warning. She said if I told anyone about this, they would consider me a lunatic and maroon me on that carrack!��

 Chapter 198 - Ancient Celtic God

    <h4>Chapter 198: Ancient Celtic God</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    ��We went to the cargo hold after that, but we didn��t see you there until everyone gathered on the deck. What were you doing when you were alone?�� asked Anne.


    ��Betty brought me to the stern. She told me that she had something to show me.��


    ��And what would that be?�� asked Zhang Heng.


    ��A gift.��


    ��A gift?��


    ��She told me that she��s an ancient Celtic god. She also told me that she has the power to control the weather on the ocean! Apparently, I would be granted a portion of her divine powers if I chose to worship her!��


    Seth hesitated and took out a seashell from his pocket. Zhang Heng took it from Seth and started to examine it. Judging by its exterior, it was no different than the white shell that he saw on the beach. Suddenly, he received a notification from the system. Zhang Heng instantly knew then that he must be holding a supernatural game item.


    [Betty��s Shell (Unidentified)]


    After knowing the item��s name, Zhang Heng still couldn��t figure out what its effect was. Seth had mentioned about an ancient Celtic god. Celtic mythology was one of the three major European mythological systems, juxtaposed to Greek and Northern European mythology. In the ancient days, the Celtics were not a single race but rather, a band made up of different ethnicities. ording to history, these various groups were bought together by simr cultures andnguages. They were also one of the earlier civilizations that had expertise in the use of iron tools. Other than that, most were equipped with the knowledge to build their own houses.


    The Seine in eastern France, the upper streams of Loire, the Rhine in southeastern Germany, and the upper stream of the Danube River were the birthces of the Celtics. They prated Europe and expanded swiftly, forming a tribe. They could be even found across the Alps. During that period, they were known as warriors, merchants, cksmiths, poets, and artists. It was said that they could be seen modern France, Spain, Portugal, and other European countries.


    When the Roman Empire rose, Caesar seized Gaul, the Celtic��s cultural center, and in the process, killed over a million of them. That was the reason why Celtic culture started to disappear across entire Europe. Many of their legendary tales were lost, exining why Celtic mythology wasn��t as popr as Greek and Northern European mythology.


    The only legendary tale of the Celtics that was passed from generation to generation was the story of Arthur, the king, and his sword that was stuck in a stone. Zhang Heng wasn��t familiar with Celtic mythology as well. His father had studied Greek and Northern European mythologies in college, and his mother studied Christian mythology. When he was still a kid, his parents had told him many tales of Greek, Northern European, and Christian mythologies. Hence, Zhang Heng was unfamiliar with the name, Betty, that was mentioned in the poetry book.


    ��She told you to worship her, right? How are you supposed to do that?��


    ��I... I have no idea. Supposedly, I would first need to pass a test. She told me to look for the three notebooks before letting me know the next step.��


    ��Hmph! Are you still trying to lie to us?!��


    Anne was extremely displeased about Seth��s attempt to tell them another tall tale. In frustration, she pushed her dagger closer to his throat.


    ��The storm that we faced earlier had something to do with you, right?�� asked Anne.


    ��As the captain of the Jackdaw, I��m willing to put aside all everything that you have done but I need you to be honest with me. You have to tell me what you have done to our ship. You saw what happened to the carrack, right? I don��t think you want to see every single pirate from the Jackdaw disappearing without a trace, right?��


    Seth could feel chills running down his spine. This time, he didn��t dare mess with Zhang Heng and Anne anymore.


    ��ording to her instructions, I��m supposed to engrave her Celtic name above the Jackdaw��s mast. Once it is done, the ship will be under her protection. I did ask her about the carrack, and she told me that it was an ident.��


    ��An ident?��


    ��The carrack��s crew was too greedy. All those years, they used her power to summon storms that enabled their ship to sail faster than any other merchant ships. By utilizing the supernatural force, they managed to amass an obscene amount of wealth. However, there was a price to pay for doing something like that. These storms were fueled by their rage. The angrier they were, the more powerful the storms were. In the end, they were lost in a storm that wouldn��t seem to blow away. After knowing that they would be stuck for eternity in a storm of their own making, the sailors sealed all the windows and doors. However, although the entire ship was boarded up, the sound of wind and thunder haunted their ship, and slowly drove the crew to insanity. Having lost all hope, they had were left with no option but to jump overboard.��


    ��Last question. How did you contact her? Have you seen her true form?��


    ��I have no way to contact her. All I can do is to pray to her. It��s up to her if she wants to respond to me or not. She answered my prayers once after we left the carrack. As usual, I only heard her voice, but I have never seen her true form.��


    Sean and Tracy caught up to them once Seth was done exining. Seeing Seth leaving the house in a mighty rush and being chased down by Zhang Heng and Anne had baffled them. When they saw that Seth was being forced into a corner, they began feeling ufortable and worried. Immediately, Zhang Heng red at Anne, who promptly kept away her dagger.


    ��Don��t you ever gamble on by ship anymore. I��m willing to forgive you since this is the first time you��re doing this. Your share of the loot will be reduced by half the next time.��


    ......


    To avoid spreading unnecessary panic amongst the crew, Zhang Heng had no intention of telling them about this supernatural incident. He was also not worried that Seth would tell others about it. Not only did he hide Betty��s seashell from them, but he even engraved her Celtic name on the mast of the Jackdaw. He could have brought grave danger to the pirates on Jackdaw. If he were smart enough, he would never tell a living soul about this. Just like Zhang Heng expected, he admitted to Tracy and Sean that had indeed put the ship and the lives of her crew on the guillotine.


    ��You look like you don��tpletely trust him. Do you think that he lied to you?�� asked Anne after the three of them left.


    ��In this case, the possibility of him lying is slim. However, this doesn��t apply to that deity whatsoever.��


    ��Are you talking about Betty?��


    ��Clearly, she lied to Seth about what happened to the carrack. All those sailors that disappeared did not jump overboard andmit suicide. At least not all of them. The captain quarters that were locked from the inside and the w marks in the cargo hold make her story a little more than doubtful.��


    ��Even ancient gods lie?��


    ��It all depends on which tribe the ancient god belongs to.��


    Zhang Heng wasn��t familiar with Celtic mythology, but he knew Greek and Northern European mythologies well. Instead of calling them gods, Zhang Heng saw them as regr humans who possessed supernatural powers. Just take a look at Zeus, for instance. A supposed ��god,�� he used his private parts more than his brain. All these gods did whatever they fancied on Earth and its residents with little care of its consequences.


    However, Betty was an exception. It appeared that she was very cautious. Seven people boarded the carrack, but she only chose to whisper to Seth. It could have simply been her nature, or was she, perhaps, trying to hide something from the rest of them?

 Chapter 199 - Confrontation

    <h4>Chapter 199: Confrontation</h4>


    Zhang Heng and Anne finally figured out the reason behind the storm that battered them. As for the tragic incident that happened on the Jackdaw, only Betty, the ancient goddess, had the answer to that.


    After Zhang Heng acquired the seashell from Seth, Betty did not attempt to contact him. He figured that it probably had something to do with him being onnd. However, he did not underestimate her. The first thing that he did was to return to the Jackdaw and scrape away her name that was engraved on top of the mast with his dagger. After that, he looked for Carina, instructing her to get someone to look for a Tule tree among other colonies.


    ording to the bartender, a box made from the wood of a Tule tree could be used to ward off all kinds of supernatural forces. Tule trees were typically found in the Mexican state of Oaxaca. If memory served him right, Zhang Heng remembered that Oaxaca was a colony of Spain.


    If everything went smoothly on his next voyage, he would be ever closer to acquiring a box made out of Tulewood. Unfortunately, this thing wasn��t a game item. Otherwise, Zhang Heng would have loved to bring a box like that to the real world, where he wouldn��t have to worry about where to store his game items.


    To prevent others from being tempted by Betty, Zhang Heng decided that he would keep the shell close to him before he got his hands on the box. At the same time, Carina��s investigation of pinpointing the mole hade to an end as well. The person she assigned to watch Malcolm told her that he had just quietly left his mansion with the intention of visiting Captain Baal.


    Now, Captain Baal was part of a disinformation campagin coined up by Carina. That said, Malcolm remained cautious, leaving Baal��s house ten minutester. Instead of looking for the next person on his list, he went to visit an irrelevant person, an attempt to misdirect and confuse whoever that was targeting him.


    However, Carina had locked on her target. Surprisingly, Malone wasn��tzing at the brothel when Carina found him, and this time, he was all prepared. He took out a military sword and a gun that he kept inside a box for a long time. Carina took a deep breath as she took the gun from Malone.


    ��Are you sure the two of us are enough? Should we get a couple of sailors toe with us?�� asked Carina as she loaded the pistol with gunpowder and bullets.


    ��If you are right about him doing all these for his sister, I don��t want others on the ship to know. We will let him walk free after I��ve asked him whatever I want to ask. Jim is simply a records keeper, and he doesn��t know how to fight. The two of us are more than enough to handle him.��


    ��That would be the best-case scenario. Don��t you worry, I��m not that old yet. I��m confident that I wouldn��t lose a one-to-one fight.��


    ��You would sound more convincing if you could make that belly smaller.��


    Once Carine was done loading the weapon, she tucked it in a concealed holster on her back. No one could see that she was carrying a gun from the front.


    ��How do I look now, eh?�� asked Carina.


    ��You look like you are going for a walk in the park.��


    ��Let��s go. Malcolm might send someone to warn him if we are slow.��


    Carina took the lead and proceeded down the stairs, not wasting a single second once they received the news. Jim was tasked with checking their new storage location. Ever since Carina��s business bloomed, her old warehouse had run out of space. It was filled to the brim with all the items she bought. As a result, she had been scouting around for potential new storage spaces to keep her business going. When she asked for Jim��s assistance, he did not suspect a single thing.


    The storage space that she found wasn��t too far away from the port. It consisted of two buildings with a vast and emptynd between them. It was perfect as her new storeroom. Be that as it may, Malone��s and Carina��s faces changed the moment they arrived at the ce.


    They saw a pool of fresh blood on the ground between the two buildings. A series of bloody footprints led to the building at the back.


    ��Shit! Did Malcolm and his men arrive here before us?�� asked Malone.


    Immediately, he drew his sword and ran to the building. Using his body to ram the door, he managed to open it but found no one inside the building. The floor was covered with a thickyer of dust, and there were no visible footprints. Suddenly, Malone��s eye twitched. He could sense that something terrible was about to happen to him.


    When he turned around, Carina was pointing her gun at him!


    ��What are you trying to do?�� asked Malone with a smile on his face.


    ��You tell me, Uncle Malone. You��ve known my father for 20 years. You��ve been around since I was a kid. You are like family to me. I never thought you would betray me just like that.��


    ��What are you talking about?! Wasn��t Jim the one who spread the news to Malcolm?��


    As he spoke, Malone attempted to inch forward slowly. When Carina noticed that he was approaching, she ced her finger on the trigger. That made Malone stop in his steps.


    ��You know, I actually told him a different name. In fact, I told different names to all the people that I suspected. Little did I think that you were the one who betrayed me.��


    ��How dare you... how dare you set me up?!��


    ��I just... I had to consider every possibility. This is what you taught me, Uncle Malone.��


    ��Should I be relieved? You��ve grown at an incredible rate during your tenure in Nassau. No wonder Malcolm saw you as a threat. I��m afraid your own father won��t be able to recognize you if he were to be here.��


    The moment Malone was done talking, a few men came down the stairs. That included a very confused Jim, four pirates from the Jackdaw, and a man with both hands tied. This man was an assassin sent by Malcolm to kill Jim. If Jim had indeed been murdered here, Carina would have thought that Jim was the mole. No one would ever suspect Malone anymore. Fortunately, the assassin was promptly apprehended by the pirates.


    ��I have lots of questions to ask you, but there��s only one thing I care about. Did you have anything to do with my father being jailed, Uncle Malone?��


    ��I will never betray Fegan matter what, as long as he��s still around. Once we came to Nassau, Malcolm��s men approached me. At that time, I got cheated and lost a huge amount of money in the casino. They told me that they were willing to help pay off my debts. In return, I would have to deliver useful information to them from time to time. It was already was toote when I realized how wrong that was. Betraying you was never my intention. I thought that you��d leave this ind after a short while, just like the others. That��s why I couldn��t find a valid reason to say no to him.��

 Chapter 200 - Carina’s Determination

    <h4>Chapter 200: Carina��s Determination</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    Malone��s betrayal hit Carina real hard. In all of Nassau, he was the person she trusted the most. In fact, it wasn��t too much to say that he was the only person she trusted. He was thest person she would expect to be bought over. ording to Malone, although he had only sent Malcolm a total of three messages, she felt a wave of nausea wash over her whenever she thought about how someone close to her had been watching her the entire time.


    Perhaps the only fortunate thing was that the information Malone had ess to were mostly trade-rted. However, she was always on her own when she met with the ck diator. Malone had asked to go with her several times in the name of safety, but he had always been turned down. Of course, at that time, she never suspected Malone��s intention, refusing simply because she feared that bringing an escort along might offend Laeli. Had that not been the case, Malcolm would have found out that his study had been invaded.


    Carina did her best to keep her emotions under control. She questioned Malone a little bit more before handing him over to the four Jackdaw sailors. She would let them investigate the authenticity of his statement, then transfer him to a ship heading back to Ennd. Malone mentioned before that he had a sister in Kent, so this was actually the best oue for him. Even if he wanted to return, he could only do it next year. By that time, the strife between Carina and Malcolm should have been settled.


    When it was all over, a drained and exhausted Carina tossed her short musket to the side of the road. Today, she finally understood what her father meant by never trusting anyone on the ind.


    The rtionship she shared with Malone went beyond friendship. He was more like family and a mentor. To her, losing him meant far more than just losing a seasoned captain who could get through port authorities. If Wilton��s tant threat on the beach made her feel fear for the first time, then Malone��s betrayal caused her to experience another kind of pain.


    There was even a moment when she considered giving up. She was no longer sure what waited for her on the other side if she continued down this path. How high of a price would she have to pay to win this fight against the ck-market alliance?


    Carina stopped in front of the horse carriage sporting a nk look in her eyes, wondering where she was supposed to be going. She stood there for some time until suddenly, the driver coughed, ��Ahem. Ms. Carina?��


    ��I��m sorry. Head to Captain Zhang Heng��s residence.��


    Carina opened the door and climbed into the carriage, not bothered to look back. She had made a decision�Clet the past remain where it was. From the time her father was sent to prison until now, there would be no turning back for her. As that was the case, she could only continue walking down this path.


    About half an hourter, the carriage came to a stop. Carina had also regained herposure.


    Zhang Heng was in the living room, taking Dutch lessons from Vincent. When he looked up and saw Carina outside the door, he nodded to the young doctor and said, ��That will be all for today.��


    Vincent immediately collected the books and left. Anne had gone to meet Harry that afternoon, so when Vincent left, Zhang Heng and Carina were alone.


    Zhang Heng picked up the teapot on the table and poured his visitor a cup of tea. Perhaps it was because of his Oriental lineage that he preferred tea over coffee.


    ��How are things on your side?��


    ��We found the spy�Cit was Malone.�� Carina paused for a moment, her expressions stoic as if it was something insignificant. ��The problem wasn��t that serious. I suppose we can call it solved. It shouldn��t affect us any further. However, the Gentle Breeze is devoid of a captain, and once the other cargo ship is repaired, she��ll need a captain too.��


    ��Do you have anyone in mind?��


    ��For the Gentle Breeze, I n to let the first officer take over the role of captain. To prevent something like this from happening again, I will test him regrly. As for the other ship... it��s going to be difficult, as I n to recruit sailors from Nassau on the spot. Thus, I will need someone who has the authority to control them. At the same time, this person cannot be a pirate. It will be a great advantage if he��s familiar with the authorities of the colonial ports, as well.��


    ��Hmm. These requirements won��t be easy to meet.��


    ��I know. Good captains are a scarcity everywhere. On top of that, practically all the outstanding captains of this ce have now be pirates. Of course, I��ll be generous with the wages�CI can pay twice the average captain��s sry to our prospective captain.��


    Zhang Heng thought about what the tradeswoman was saying before he answered, ��A few cargo captains lost their vessels and goods to robbers. Out of desperation, they had no choice but toe to Nassau to look for wealth here. There should be someone among them who meets your criteria. That said, all the other pirate ships thatck captains also have their eyes on them. How about this? I��ll find Billy tomorrow and see if he can rmend me anyone suitable.��


    Carina nodded. ��I thought about what you said before�Cwe arepeting against the ck-market alliance, and it won��t be enough just having the support of small and medium pirate gangs. I��ve decided to approach the biggestndowner of the ind to see if we can offer to ship their yield without charge, all these in exchange for their support, of course. Also, everything we got from the exchange of the secondhand goods are just bits and pieces of misceneous trinkets. No one in the colony will buy them. It��ll be treated like garbage. But it would be a pity to throw them away too. After all, there��s still some value in them, I��m sure.��


    ��What do you want to do with them?��


    ��I n to open a grocery store here and another in the colony where the knick-knacks can be sold. It doesn��t have to make a profit. I simply want to recoup my losses. That would be enough. Then we won��t have to keep bleeding money by holding on to these things,�� Carina exined.


    Zhang Heng raised his eyebrows.


    ��What is it?��


    ��I thought that your debacle with Malone would be a big blow to you, but from the way you talk, it seems that I have misced my worries.


    ��In the beginning, I was furious and disappointed, but on the way here, I thought through many things, and my angst dissipated. I haven��t done well in many aspects as well. I was so used to asking for his help, and it has always been one-sided�Con my part, I never paid attention to the difficulties he faced. Although he owed the gambling den arge sum of money and has borrowed from many people, he never wanted to trouble me, and would rather ept Malcolm��s offer. He probably didn��t think I could help him anyway,�� Carina chuckled to herself before quickly moving to another topic.


    She looked squarely into Zhang Heng��s eyes and seriously told him, ��I want to defeat Malcolm, not just to keep the secondhand business going, but topletely destroy him! I will drive him out of Nassau and take his ce as the most powerful ck-market merchant on the ind. No matter the cost, no matter what danger awaits me, I will not falter. I won��t stop until it��s done.��

 Chapter 201 - Late Night Talk and Visitors

    <h4>Chapter 201: Late Night Talk and Visitors</h4>


    In the dead of night at Terrance�� Mansion.


    Malcolm kept a regr schedule of work and rest. It was his secret form to maintain his energy and momentum, especially during the early days of the ck-market alliance. A slew of unexpected events and situations had taken ce, yet Malcolm was able to systematically solve each of them without showing any sign of fatigue. Even in his forties, his body behaved as if he was a twenty-year-old.


    At this hour, he would usually be already in bed. Tonight, however, he decided to remain in his study, which was a rarity.


    Malcolm plucked a book from the shelf and flipped through its pages.


    The maids in the hallway hardly dared to breathe, knowing that Malcolm��s mood was usually foul at this hour.


    With an aloof and stern demeanor, he wore a face of austerity and rigidity from the old days. When he heard of the news about the incident on the beach, his expression grew even more solemn. Even from afar, one could instantly sense the formidable aura oozing out of him.


    Once, during breakfast, one of the newly hired maids was so intimidated when she caught sight of him that she dropped the te she was carrying. As a result, the chambein had someone drag her out of the house to be whipped. After that incident, every servant of Terrance�� Mansion would do well to keep their heads down.


    When they saw that Malcolm had been in the study for nearly an hour past his usual bedtime, nobody could muster enough courage to approach their master. At the same time, they were also afraid that they might be punished for not doing so.


    The maids really didn��t know what to do. Finally, they all turned to a petite maid named Leah, Malcolm��s favorite of all the maids. He treated her differently and never punished her, even when she made the gravest of mistakes. Due to the preferential treatment, some of the other servants greatly ostracized her.


    Leah said nothing, merely turning around and proceeded downstairs to the kitchen. When she returned, she held a ss of warm milk with her. As she was about to enter the study, she adjusted her uniform and knocked gingerly on the door.


    Malcolm answered from inside, ��Come in.��


    The maid pushed the door open. Malcolm, who was sitting on the velvet couch, didn��t look up until Leah ced the ss on the table in front of him.


    Malcolm snorted, ��That��s sweet. I��m waiting for a guest. I��ll be sleeping a littleter tonight.��


    ��Yes, Mr. Malcolm.�� Leah smiled as she picked up the tray. Just before she was about to exit the room, Malcolm spoke again.


    ��Has anyone entered my study recently?��


    Leah started to panic, thinking that Malcolm must have discovered that someone had rummaged through his letters. She had only taken one and made sure to return it the next day. How could Malcolm have noticed it?


    Could her luck be really that bad, so much so that Malcolm decided to reexamine those old letters on the very day and notice that one had gone missing? But then again, there was a whole bunch of them. How could he have remembered each and every one of them? Right now, however, the most crucial question was: what would she do now?


    Should she make up a story of a non-existent thief? She could divert Malcolm��s suspicions to the phantom so that he would focus on it instead of her. Or perhaps, she should put the me on someone else?


    A jumble of thoughts shed across Leah��s mind, but itsted only a moment. When she turned around, the expressions on her face disyed just the right amount of confusion. ��Is something missing, sir? As per your instructions, Mr. Malcolm, I am the only person whoes in every day to clean the room.��


    ��Oh, I��m just asking. Things haven��t been peaceful recently. It��s always better to be extra careful.�� Malcolm pointed to the chair in front of him and said, ��Since you��re already here, don��t leave in a hurry. Stay for a while, and have a chat with me.��


    Leah breathed a sigh of relief, knowing that she had made the right bet. Malcolm didn��t notice the missing letter. She gathered up her long dress and sat down with a smile. ��What would you like to talk about, Mr. Malcolm?��


    Malcolm put down the book in his hand. ��Let��s talk about books. What have you been readingtely?��


    ��I��ve been reading the Bible because I noticed many reading it when I came here.��


    ��Well, the fastest way to integrate into a culture is to understand its religion. Have you read the book of Exodus? What are your thoughts about it? The Israelites were enved by the Egyptians, and under the guidance of God, they escaped Egypt and followed their prophet, Moses. After a period of suffering, they finally reached a ce they called the Promised Land, and overflowing with milk and honey. Has this book enlightened you in any way?��


    Leah��s smile faded a little, bing a little less confident.


    ��Do you know what I like most about you? You rarely say anything that contradicts your conviction. If I were to ask the other servants, they would quickly tell me that they are pleased with their lives now and would never try to escape or leave.�� Malcolm shifted in his seat to make himself morefortable. ��But the reality is that no one likes to be enved,�� he continued.


    Leah stayed silent for a long while before answering, ��Will God end the suffering of my people then?��


    ��What do you think?�� Malcolm retorted. ��Thousands of years ago, the Israelites had faith in the Lord their God, so He liberated them from the evil rule of the pagans. But now, since you and I believe in the same creator, do you think he will liberate you from us?��


    ��Then where would our path lead us? Will our children and grandchildren continue to be enved like us?��


    ��That would have to depend on when you can truly integrate into our world.��


    The maid opened her mouth to speak, but Malcolm raised a finger to stop her. ��The integration I speak of doesn��t simply encapste the subjects ofnguage, food, clothing, etiquette, or even religion�Cnot just these kinds of things. Although they are all important, there is something more essential.�� Malcolm pointed to his head. ��You need to think like us. Only then will you really be epted by our kind.��


    ��But when that day arrives, will we still be who we are?�� Leah asked.


    ��Good question. Civilization is the cruelest thing the world has ever seen. It has only one main motive, and that is subjugation,�� replied Malcolm. ��Before itpletes its destiny, it will never stop. If your kind refuses to assimte with us, then the only way forward isplete destruction.��


    As soon as Malcolm finished, there was a knock on the door, and the chambein��s voice could be heard from the other side.


    ��Mr. Malcolm. The guest has arrived.��


    ��Alright. Let��s end out little chat here for today. Go on ahead,�� Malcolm shooed her off.


    The maid bowed subserviently and left. Not long after, a man draped in a cloak came in from outside where a drizzle had started, carrying with him the scent of the outdoor humidity.


    When the door to the study was shut again, the man uncloaked himself, revealing the face of Frazer.

 Chapter 202 - Opportunity

    <h4>Chapter 202: Opportunity</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    ��You gave me your assurance that there will be no more surprises this time,�� Malcolm groaned.


    Frazer hung his cloak on the coat rack and shrugged.


    ��If I remember correctly, we agreed to sink the ship, kill everyone on board, then leave quietly.��


    ��That is right.��


    ��Tell me then, what happened on the beach four days ago? Why did the Gentle Breeze and her crew return to Nassau? And why did that Wilton guy use the crew to threaten Carina?��


    ��I did as you asked and found the most brutal pirate outside the ind. It seems that even I have underestimated his ruthlessness.�� Frazer appeared frustrated. ��Things got out of hand. Wilton was a lot greedier than expected. He took our deposit, but I suppose that wasn��t enough for him because he tried to milk more money by using the Gentle Breeze��s sailors. He flouted our agreement. I nned to see him the next day but, on that very morning, I found out about what happened after... look, the good news is that we don��t have to pay them the rest of the money,�� said Frazer as he picked up the ss on the table.


    Malcolm pointed at the brandy on the shelf. ��So, after spending so much energy and effort, not only did we achieve the undesired result, we even gave her another cargo ship?! On top of that, the whole incident inadvertently helped the Jackdaw be ever more popr on the ind. In fact, they are about to surpass the fame of ck Sam��s Robin Hood of the Sea!��


    Frazer walked to the shelf and poured himself a ss. ��Although I��m considered his teacher, I��ve never really seen through him. He��s different from ck Prince Sam, but they do have one thing inmon�Cthey both clearly know what they are doing. When I heard that the Jackdaw returned to port, I had a bad feeling. I should��ve warned Wilton ahead of time. I didn��t think he would be so rash in his actions. But in retrospect, it was his best chance to make a move.��


    1The old pirate took a sip of brandy and continued, ��In fact, I just received some bad news.��


    ��Huh?��


    ��ck Prince Sam is making allies with several captains with parliamentary seats on the ind. He intends to induct Zhang Heng into the parliament. With his influence and connections, he managed to get seven parliamentary members to support him, so the prospects of Zhang Heng joining the parliament is pretty much set in stone. I hate to admit it, but the Jackdaw��s influence on the ind is growing bigger and bigger. Are you still not nning to consider my proposal?��


    Malcolm gave Frazer a cold look. ��I am a businessman, Frazer, not Julius Caesar. I came to this ind to make money. These few years, Nassau has undergone rapid development. The volume of goods we get is increasing every year, but the quality has been dropping. There are fewer top pirates, and since ckbeard Teach attacked Charleston, he��s disappeared. Now, Sam is the only top pirate left on the ind. The Jackdaw might be the one to fill in this void. Carina is relying solely on one pirate ship to survive. This just shows how strong the earning power of the Jackdaw is.��


    ��Only on the premise that he is willing to cooperate with the ck-market alliance,�� Malcolm replied. ��If we can cut off his channel for transporting the goods out of the ind, he will be forced to turn around and work with us. If it hadn��t been for that small error on your part, he would already be negotiating with us.


    1Frazer sipped up thest drops of brandy in his ss. ��What should we do now then? Should I find someone else to rob her cargo ship? Our spy has been exposed. They will be even more cautious now. It��s not going to be easy to get our hands on their nned route again. Besides, they have two cargo ships now. If we sink one, there will still be another left. I heard that some captains are already meeting with Ms. Carina to explore the possibility of a long-term partnership. Opinions of her are also changing�Cmore people are beginning to believe that she��s no longer just a passerby in this ce.��


    ��Let��s set the robbery idea aside first. Although this is the simplest and most effective method, it also brings many negative effects along with it. The ck-market alliance is still young; I haven��t been able topletely take control of it. There are still voices of dissent within it. This situation cannot be allowed to repeat itself. If we can��t solve it in the shortest time possible, then we��ll have to seek other ways.��


    Malcolm continued, ��I met her not long ago. I thought that she was going to be exactly like her father�Cthe basis of my previous arrangement. But I soon found out that there was an error in my judgment of her. She is nothing like him. On the contrary, she is very much like me in my younger days, only more ambitious and radical. I can probably guess what she��s thinking right now.��


    ��Oh?��


    ��After she found out that Malone had been bought over by me, she must be filled with anger and resentment. These emotions, however, will quickly turn into hunger. She will yearn to beat me more than ever. This hunger will motivate her even more, but it will also make her more willing to take risks. So, I will give her a chance.��


    Frazer cocked his eyebrows. ��What chance?��


    ��A chance to beat me,�� Malcolm answered.


    ...


    This time around, the Jackdaw��s repair only took a short while, in the span of a little less than a week. Because the Gentle Breeze was robbed on its way out, they were unable to bring back new information from the port. However, ck Prince Sam came looking for Zhang Heng two days ago, inviting him to join a hunt.


    ��A Spanish treasure ship?�� Billy repeated himself to make sure he heard the guy correctly. ��Did you say a Spanish treasure ship? The type that has three decks full of cannons, and over 200 heavily armed sailors? Spanish galleons are usually apanied by frigates. As far as I know, the only person who has ever sessfully plundered a treasure ship and managed to transport its loot back to China is Peter Hein, and he had to deploy the entire navy fleet to do that!��


    ��Really? I don��t know this story, but I heard that back when you were with ckbeard Teach, you sessfully took over the proud Scarborough with a little more than a hundred men against the Royal Navy��s 700 sailors,�� Sam said.


    ��Whoever told you this certainly didn��t mention that we were just simply at the right ce and the right time. Orff��s scheme worked, and it took a lot for us to get on the deck. Captain Teach alone fought against ten men, and everyone else gave everything they got. But even then, if it weren��t for Zhang Heng��s shots at the end, and their captain��s fear of death, we would��ve fallen short of our goal.��


    ��So, you don��t wish to experience that same excitement again?�� ck Prince Sam blinked.


    2

 Chapter 203 - Letter of Recommendation

    <h4>Chapter 203: Letter of Rmendation</h4>


    ��Thanks, but no thanks. After that battle, I swore that I would never go through such an experience again,�� Billy said.


    ��Apart from us, I also intend to recruit another four experienced captains from the ind. With the six of us working together, we have a good chance of a victory,�� said ck Prince Sam. ��After it��s done, we��ll split the loot equally among us. It��s a lot of money�Cenough money to pay everyone��s wages for an entire year. This means that if you want to, you can take a year-long vacation after that.��


    ��If the whole point is just to make money, you can probably a more suitable prey, right? What draws you to this Spanish treasure ship anyway?�� Zhang Heng asked.


    It was undeniable that Spanish ships carried the most valuable treasures. Other than tobo, they would also haul silk, silver, and most importantly, gold. When ck Sam said that it was enough to pay off a year��s wages, he wasn��t exaggerating. Even if the money were to be divided equally among the six pirate ships, they would definitely each get a handsome share.


    However, the stakes were also very high. Unless the motive were revenge, like ckbeard��s battle, most avoided getting involved with military forces under normal circumstances.


    What more, Spanish ships were notoriously tricky to plunder. Even the most valiant of pirates avoided robbing the Spaniards because they rarely surrendered. Many a time, when the Spaniards were at a disadvantage, they would rather go down with their ship than to suffer any financial loss. Robbing them not only meant having to face a fierce battle but also a good chance that they would simply return battered, bruised and empty-handed in the end.


    ��The main reason we should try is that it��s a rare opportunity. Generally, Spanish treasure fleet travel in a convoy of at least a dozen ships, which make them practically impregnable. This is one rare asion that a Spanish ship will be moving alone. Even with two naval frigates escorting her, it��s still considered a golden opportunity,�� ck Prince Sam harrumphed with great enthusiasm. ��I acquired the route they would take from a trusted intelligence dealer for arge sum of money. So? Are you interested in doing this together? If we seed, we will be the first group of pirates to ever sessfully to rob a treasure ship!��


    ��That��s all you really care about, right?��


    Unsurprisingly, ck Prince Sam did not deny it. Instead, he shed his signature smile at hispanions. ��We always need a little challenge in life. If ckbeard Teach can take the Scarborough, then it makes no sense that so many of us cannot take on a Spanish treasure vessel.��


    Zhang Heng looked at Billy and asked, ��What do you think?��


    The Jackdaw��s helmsman looked a little troubled. ��I still prefer the safer route of robbing merchant ships, but we haven��t had any tipoffs recently, and I know those bastards on our ship won��t refuse an opportunity like this to make big money. Their ravenous appetite for wealth can never be satisfied, much like a bottomless pit. But since our target has only three ships and we have six, I think perhaps... perhaps we should give it a try.��


    ��How��s recruitment going? Can we set sail in two days?�� Zhang Heng asked. When he received the prompt from the system earlier, the number of crew on the Jackdaw had reached 70, and they hadn��t stopped recruiting since. Zhang Heng and Billy agreed that the goal was to reach 90 sailors this time.


    Once they hit the number, sideboard battles would no longer be the Jackdaw��s Achilles heel. Even though this meant that they were still far behind therger pirate gangs, they would end up faring a lot better should someone attack them from below the waterline again.


    ��So far, we��ve recruited a total of 26 men. In ourst battle, we lost four, and the two severely injured men left the ship after taking their severance pay. Now, we have 82 sailors on board. Our main problem would be finding experienced gunners and carpenters. For now, though, our workforce is nearly enough,�� Billy answered. ��Two days shouldn��t be a problem. Replenishing supplies won��t take long as well. I will arrange for a few people to haul our men out of the brothels and taverns.��


    ��Sounds good to me. I��ll need to inform a few more people. Let��s meet up here again after two days,�� ck Sam said hurriedly. As he was about to leave, he suddenly stopped in his tracks and reached into his coat. ��Oh, I almost forgot. This is for you.��


    ��Huh?��


    ��A joint letter signed by seven influential people rmending you to be part of the parliament on the ind. I must apologize�Cthere was a dy in the process. Two of them were in dispute because of a problem in the distribution of a batch of loot. Each of them insisted that if the other signs the letter, they will not be a part of it. I could��ve simply found someone else to rece them, but the conflict between them wouldn��t have been resolved through this matter.��


    ��Thank you,�� replied Zhang Heng, who gratefully epted the rmendation letter.


    ��You just have to hand this letter to Mr. y, the Speaker of the House. Then the parliament will organize a vote for its members. As long as the votes in favor of you exceed a third of them, you can join the parliament.


    ��y? Which y? Kim y, owner of the brothel?!��


    ��Urm... don��t take it to heart. The position of the Speaker in the parliament is more of a formality. Anyway, everything has been going well the past two years, and the Speaker simply reviews the memberships. When ites to huge decisions, however, everyone is involved. y��s poprity in the parliament... well, you know, there is no one on the ind dislikes him. On top of that, he��s willing to give a 30% discount to all members of the parliament, so it��s a challenge, to say the least, to not support his Speakership.��


    ��Heh...�� Zhang Heng chuckled.


    After that, Zhang Heng did as ck Prince Sam instructed and went to the brothel. Before he even said a word, he was given a grand wee when he arrived.


    This was mainly thanks to the Jackdaw��s sailors who had recently been the top whales at the brothel, spending an obscene amount of gold coins at the establishment. After remembering her employer��s instructions, the bawd lit up the moment she saw Zhang Heng from a distance. She quickly gathered all her avable girls and offered Zhang Heng with aplimentary service as an expression of gratitude for his contribution to their business. However, Zhang Heng turned down the proposal.


    As they conversed, a scraggy elderly man hurried out of the building with a cigarette in one hand.


    He was Kim y, the owner of the brothel who also happened one of the most well-informedds on the ind. Having ears everywhere, he had already heard of Zhang Heng��s preparations to join the parliament.


    The old man epted the letter of rmendation with a smile and said, ��Wee to the Parliament. Even if you hadn��t seen me, I would��vee to you sometimeter. Your name, Captain Zhang Heng, has recently be notorious on this small ind. We sure need an outstanding man like yourself if we want to build up Nassau.��


    ��You��re too kind, Mr. y. Isn��t it too early to wee me? Doesn��t the parliament need to vote on this?�� Zhang Heng asked.


    ��Don��t worry about the vote. The one-third ruling is simply a preventive measure to stop anyone from causing trouble. In fact, there are a handful of members there who didn��t pass through the votes since the parliament was established,�� y said. ��Above it all, no one would dare refuse a rmendation letter with the signature of Captain Sam on it.��

 Chapter 204 - Rat Infestation’

    <h4>Chapter 204: ��Rat Infestation��</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    Kim y took the rmendation letter.


    ��I might need some time to find all the required people for the vote. It��s easier to look for those living on the ind. However, as for captains like you, some of them are currently not on the ind. They should be back in about a month. By that time, you should be able to join the meeting officially.��


    ��Thank you, Mr. y.��


    ��What do you think about a celebration in my brothel when you are allowed to be part of the meeting, eh? My girls have heard a lot about you. They are all very curious, to say the least. I sincerely hope you��ll be able to make it to the party.��


    Before he could finish, a girl looking to be about 17 or 18 asked curiously, ��Word is that you can summon a dolphin during a battle and go after your enemies riding them. Is that true?��


    ��No. From what I heard, I was told that the ropes on their ship have some sort of magical power. They can fly on their own and tie up their enemies!. One of the pirates on the Jackdaw told me about it!�� a voluptuous woman chipped in.


    ��When are you going to tell us about your battle with the skeletons? I heard that you encountered a skeletal ship on one of your voyages, and there were 300 skeletons on it! You and your band of pirates defeated them fearlessly...��


    The girls chattered nonstop until a pimp came and chased them all away.


    ��Wow... I didn��t know there were so many stories about me.��


    ��Don��t mind them. Every rising captain will have their own legendary tale. When Sam took the Quidah into his possession, people believed that he was the heir of Arthur the King,�� said Kim y while putting a pipe to his mouth.


    .......


    So, before Zhang Heng set sail again, he went to the secondhand trading center to look for Carina. However, she wasn��t there, and he was greeted by Jim instead. After Jim��s name was cleared of any treason, Carina increased his sry. He was even appointed person in charge of the trade center. At least, he got something good out of his misfortune.


    After asking Jim a few questions, Zhang Heng got to know that Carina had been performing some incredible feats in Nassau. Previously, she mentioned to Zhang Heng about opening a grocery store. Now, he heard that she found a suitable location for it, a visible, bustling spot just right beside the market. Carina nned for its officialunching tomorrow, so, on second thought, Zhang Heng decided that it was best not to bother her at this time.


    The next day, a vast crowd had gathered at the port before Zhang Heng set sail to the sea. This was one of the most significant joint-operations in Nassau in the past few years. All the ships that took part were incredibly famous, the Quidah being one of them. Ever since the disappearance of Teach, ck Prince Sam and his pirates had be the most powerful gang in the waters around the area. This time, every pirate ship that joined him was undeniably powerful.


    The least experienced in the convoy was Zhang Heng and his Jackdaw. However, they were now the most famous pirate group in the entire Nassau, and it was the dream of all single men on the ind of joining the Jackdaw. The vessel brought a tremendous amount of loot three consecutive times, even managing to defeat a pirate gang three times their size. Though the Jackdaw hadn��t been established too long ago, every step they had taken was genuinely awe-inspiring.


    Nobody would ignore their existence now even if they tried to. All the captains of legendary pirate gangs came to greet Zhang Heng, bidding him well wishes for his uing journey. Aside from that, Zhang Heng spotted Malcolm as well. This was the first time after the banquet that heid his eyes on Malcolm. He simply looked the same. Malcolm didn��t linger at the port for too long and wished ck Prince Sam a safe and fruitful voyage before he left the port.


    From afar, Malcolm saw Zhang Heng and nodded. Zhang Heng reciprocated with a nod as a sign of courtesy. Outsiders would never know that they were actually enemies.


    On the other hand, ck Prince Sam saw that the pirates from six different ships were getting excited about the treasure hunt. Being the bigger man, Sam revealed the route of the Spanish galleon to the five captains. There was no need to keep it a secret from them. With the firepower of the Spaniards, attacking them alone was no different from going on a suicide mission.


    ��Let��s begin. If we seed this time, even the Queen of Ennd will hear of our name. When that day arrives, every merchant ship that passes us would automatically lower their gs!��


    ........


    ��There are rats on the ship?��


    In the captain��s quarters, Zhang Heng put down the notebook that he used to write new Dutch words he learned. He was conversing with the quartermaster and the cook of the Jackdaw.


    ��I will let Mr. Ramsay exin the situation to you,�� said Dufresne.


    ��Technically, I have neverid my eyes on those tiny goblins, but there is food missing in the kitchen! And it��s getting more and more serious,�� the plump cookmented.


    Rats were one of the most hated creatures on a ship. Not only did they speed up the consumption of food and water, but they also gnawed through the ropes and deck of the vessel. All these problems, though, were not as severe as the horrific gue that they would spread around the ship.


    The bubonic gue is a highly contagious disease. Early symptoms would have the infected person experiencing headaches and fever. Soon, they would feel nauseous, and hymosis would start to appear on the person��s skin. Then, the person��s lymph nodes would generate pus to the point of rupture. In about three to five days, the person would either suffer severe toxemia, pneumonia, or sepsis. If not treated in time, the person would eventually die from it.


    Quarantine was the best way to stop the bubonic gue from spreading, having no known cure for the disease in this era. Zhang Heng knew better than anyone that the condition came with a high fatality rate. During the 14th century, the ck Death imed a whopping 25 million lives, a third of Europe��s poption. The most recent pandemic happened in London 40 years ago, spreading widespread panic amongst its residents


    ��No one bothered checking the ship before this?��


    ��It��s my mistake. The day before we set sail, I did check the ship. However, when our new supplies were loaded, I didn��t recheck it. The rats probably came along with the wood and food.��


    ��I can��t me you. There was barely any time for us to check everything. I heard that you went aroundst night gathering our people. Fortunately, we discovered the rats now. Let��s use whatever time we have now to deal with this problem,�� Said Zhang Heng.


    ��I bought a cat when I disembarked thest time. I think it should be capable of tackling the rats. I��ll let it search the ship now.��


    ��Dufresne and the cook left the captain��s quarters after that. Still, the cat could not locate the rats that have been eating their food. Left with no other option, Zhang Heng had to deploy everyone on the Jackdaw for a rat-hunt. Finally, they found something in the room that they stored their wood supply. Zhang Heng didn��t know whether to cry or tough when he saw the results. This was true, especially for Anne. Her face had changedpletely.

 Chapter 205 - This Suggestion Is Perfect For Me, I Think

    <h4>Chapter 205: This Suggestion Is Perfect For Me, I Think</h4>


    ��How did you get on this ship?�� asked Anne.


    Harry was in total shock when he was found in the cabin used to store wood. There was a piece of stale bread and a half-eaten sausage beside him. Other than that, there were two wooden buckets nearby him. One of them was used to store clean water and the other for his excrement.


    Harry scratched his head, not knowing what to say in a situation like this.


    ��No wonder you kept begging me to bring you on the ship recently! You have been nning all along to sneak onboard, right?


    Anne grabbed Harry and lifted him by the cor.


    ��Not bad. You knew how to scout the ce and make good use of me, huh? I can see that your guts are getting bigger and bigger,�� she growled.


    Harry started trembling in fear as Anne confronted him.


    ��Calm down, boss. I have begged you so many times to let me set sail with you. You tell me each time that you��ll ask Captain Zhang Heng about it. However, I know that you��ve never asked him even though you promised me again and again, which is why I had to find a way to get on board. It��s always been my wish to work on this ship.��


    ��You are only seven, kid! You need to know that you are not old enough to work on a ship!��


    ��Boss, I��m twelve. Look at my body. It��s impossible that I look like a seven-year-old kid, right?��


    ��Is that right? Now, why do I feel that your brain stopped growing at seven? Captain, ording to the rules on this ship, what do we normally do to intruders?�� asked Anne while turning around to look at Zhang Heng, who was standing nearby.


    ��Oh. To save us from unnecessary trouble, we usually kill them.��


    ��Well then, it seems that would be the only way to solve this problem.��


    While she spoke, Anne drew her saber from her waist with a sly smile.


    ��I think you know what happened to the Skeleton, right?��


    Harry was bewildered by their rough treatment. When Anne ced her saber on his neck, Harry felt that he was a step closer to death. Finally, thest line of defense in his heart crumbled, and he broke down, starting to cry hysterically with streams of snot flowing out of his nose.


    ��Boss, save me, please! This is all my fault. I swear I��ll never do something like this again.��


    ��Hmm. If that��s the case, then, what other ways can we punish him?��


    Anne turned around and looked at Zhang Heng; saber still glued on Harry��s throat. Harry was so terrified he couldn��t move a single muscle on his body.


    ��We shall see how much he��s worth. We can stow him as a prisoner first. After that, we can exchange him for something more valuable, ��smirked Zhang Heng, who was ying along with Anne.


    ��You heard that? Do you think you are valuable to us?�� asked Anne while kicking Harry.


    ��No. I have no value at all! I��m currently staying with my aunt. She won��t pay you guys a single dime even if you kill me in front of her!��


    ��Don��t me me for not giving you a chance to redeem yourself then.��


    ��Hang on... hang on... actually, I��m valuable in my own way. I don��t eat much, and I��m extremely agile. And I��m also hardworking. I will do whatever you ask me to do! I��m willing to clean the deck, climb the mast, and learn how to be a good helmsman. I can do all kinds of things you ask me to,�� said Harry while tapping his chest.


    ��Fine. You can stay on this ship.��


    Harry was ted the moment he heard that. After that, he saw Anneughing at him.


    ��Isn��t that what you wanted to hear the most? There is no punishment for you. Your wish has juste true.��


    Knowing he had been duped, Harry scratched his head in embarrassment.


    ��You will clean the toilet and help out in the kitchen. I will make sure you get off the ship when we are back in Nassau,�� Anne went on.


    ��Hey!!! That��s not fair! I��ve always kept youpany when you couldn��t find a job. I have never abandoned you. Now, I...��


    However, before he could continue, Harry saw Anne cracking her knuckles and instantly changed what he wanted to say.


    ��...I think your suggestion for me is perfect.��


    ��........��


    Once Harry kneeled to Anne��s absolute dominance, the ��rat problem�� on the ship was finally solved. After that, Anne brought Harry around the boat and introduced him to the other pirates. She emphasized to all that Harry was just a temporary sailor. Nevertheless, the crew was unhappy when they saw the boy. For the past two days, they had been searching high and low for the rat, and it had been a chaotic and tiring situation. It was a miracle that they did not bludgeon Harry up when they saw him.


    Anne had no intention to side with him either. She wanted to let Harry experience the reality of life on a pirate ship. By doing that, she hoped to change his mind about staying on. Anne mentioned to Zhang Heng before about Harry wishing to work on Jackdaw, but after much consideration, he didn��t agree to it. It was too A twelve-year-old boy was simply too young to work on a ship. If this was the modern world, Harry should have been attending primary school.


    Despite all that, Zhang Heng didn��t mind the extra stowaway on his ship. All of them were pirates after all and risked their lives every single day onboard. Once an attack against themmenced, the enemies would not care if Harry was still a kid or not. They would kill him, regardless. He wanted to make Harry wait for another two years or so before letting him join his ship. Unfortunately, Harry thought differently.


    Anne returned to the deck after arranging for a cabin for Harry to sleep in. It was at that time that the Quidah raised her g to signal all the other ships, a sign that summoned all five captains to gather together. Upon receiving the indication, Zhang Heng brought two pirates with him and rowed to the Quidah. Erik, the helmsman, was a good friend of his, and he automatically greeted Zhang Heng when he saw him.


    ��Captain Zhang Heng, how have you been? Sam is in the captain��s quarters. Everyone else is already here. You are thest to arrive.��


    A young sailor led Zhang Heng to Quidah��s captain quarters. Other than Sam, another four captains from four different ships surrounded the table, looking at a nautical chart. Zhang Heng closed the door upon entering the cabin.


    ��Let me exin the n since everyone is here. For now, we know that two corvettes are protecting the Spanish ship. Each corvette should be armed with at least 50 cannons. Now, the Spanish ship is even more powerful than the corvettes. If we all attack all three at the same time, we can onlyst two rounds, give or take. We will lose a lot of people even if we win the battle.


    ��However, they have their weaknesses as well. Although their hull is tough enough to withstand our cannons and protect its cargo, it��s challenging for them to maneuver their ship. If we can dodge attacks from their side cannons and instead, fire at their bow and stern, I think we should yield some good results.��


    ��How are we supposed to do that?�� asked the Warrior��s captain.


    ��They are not nearly as agile as us, and the sea is vast. When they see us charging at them from afar, they still have enough time to change direction unless we split up and surround it from all directions. Still, don��t forget the two corvettes guarding it. They could sink our ships one by one if we were to do that.��


    ��Good insight. Parrot Ind is only three days away. If I��m not mistaken, the galleon should cross it in about five days. We can ambush them from there,�� said Sam while pointing to an ind on the nautical chart.

 Chapter 206 - Draw Lots

    <h4>Chapter 206: Draw Lots</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    ��How are we supposed to ambush them? For now, their nned route is the only information we have. We can all hide behind the ind, but how are we supposed to know how far they are away from us? Anything more than half a nautical mile, and it would be impossible for us to ambush them,�� said the bald captain.


    Most of the captains nodded, echoing his concerns.


    ��That��s why we to bait them. We can��t all be hiding behind the ind. One of us will need to initiate the attack and draw them toward the ind,�� Sam continued.


    ��What if the treasure ship doesn��t follow us, but the two corvettes follow us instead? You mentioned that two corvettes are escorting the treasure ship, right?�� said the Warrior��s captain.


    ��We need to take out the corvettes first. Once we disable them, we will turn around to take out the treasure ship. I believe we can surround it easily without the interference of the two corvettes. For that, we will need two ships to bait it. If we use only one, there��s a high chance that only one corvette wille after us. Two pirate ships will force both corvettes toe after us at the same time. We need to make sure that everything goes ording to n. There��s a high chance that the treasure ship will follow the corvettes and attack us,�� Said Sam.


    None of the captains went against Sam��s idea. However, everyone became quiet when Sam mentioned about bait. Undeniably, this was the most dangerous part of this operation. The two pirate ships that were deployed would have to face the brunt of two heavily armed corvettes and the Spanish ship. Before they reach the ambush point, no one would be able to help them. In other words, they would have to brave the attacks alone.


    ��I wish that I can take part in this operation, but my Quidah��s only advantages are a tough hull and the naval ram. When ites to speed, my ship falls far short of the others. Though the treasure ship is slow, the two corvettes around it are extremely agile. This is why we need two ships that can travel fast. At the same time, we also need experienced captains to lead this operation. Considering that our ships have to face various uncertainties and risks, I suggest changing the ratio of the loot. The two ships acting as bait will get 50% more loot than the other four ships. Everyone agree?��


    After a short hesitation, all six captains, including Sam, raised their hands in agreement.


    ��Great. So, volunteers?��


    ��Count me in!��


    A man with a bony face and sunken eyes spoke up. From the moment Zhang Heng entered the captain��s quarters, he remained there like a log. Other than speaking up during voting, he did not speak a single word during the entire discussion. However, he wasn; surprised when the man volunteered to be bait.


    He was known as Full Speed Brook, the fastest pirate in the entire Nassau. His ship, the Swordfish, was a heavily modified vessel. To be the fastest pirate ship in the whole Nassau, he had sacrificed some of his ship��s firepower and armor. The one incident that made him famous was the time when he plundered four different merchant ships at four different locations on the same day.


    That was how he got his name. Besides, he was extremely good at steering his vessel, on par with Hutcheson��s talents. Amongst all the captains, he was best suited as bait. However, one pirate ship wasn��t enough. There were only 31 nine-pound cannons on the Swordfish. Drawing the attention of two heavily armed corvettes was going to take a lot more than his streamlined speedster.


    ��We need one more volunteer. Anyone?�� asked Sam.


    No one said a word even after an entire minute. One thing was for sure, nobody in this room were cowards, but it didn��t mean they would take unnecessary risks just to prove their bravery either. All these captains had led their pirates through countless battles on the high seas and had made a name for themselves. From the outside, they might look fearsome. However, they had the uncanny ability to remain absolutely calm andposed during critical moments like this. When Sam offered 50% more of the loot to whoever that volunteered to be bait, everyone in the room instantly started weighing the consequences and benefits if they were to participate.


    To Brook, the gains outweighed the risks considering he had the fastest barque in the entire Caribbean. To the others, though, the extra 50% of loot wasn��t worth the risk.


    ��Let��s use the old way to decide who��s will be the second bait.��


    Sam took out five silver coins from his coin bag.


    ��Let draw lots. I will mark one of these coins. The one that receives the coin with a mark on it will join Brook.��


    By utilizing this method, the chosen one might not have the fastest vessel in the fleet, but this was the fairest way to select the second bait since no one wanted to volunteer. Silver coins that were minted in this era looked almost the same whenpared. However, due to limited technology in the minting process, each coin had minute defects and differences. Knowing this, Sam asked everyone to turn around when he marked one of the coins. He then tossed it into a bag, shook it, before inviting everyone to pick one. He would be thest one to choose.


    Once everyone was done with picking a coin, Sam spoke again.


    ��Who got the coin with two scratches on it?��


    Immediately, everyone checked the coins that they picked. At the same time, Sam picked thest one from the bag. Everyone looked at each other. However, Zhang Heng��s face twitched as he tossed a coin with scratch marks on it back to Sam.


    ��The second bait is going to be the Jackdaw. Any other questions?��


    ��We will discuss the rest when we arrive on Parrot Ind.��


    After finding out that the Jackdaw had be the second bait, the captains found no reason to stay on the Quidah anymore, leaving the ship soon after. However, Sam halted Zhang Heng after rolling up the nautical chart.


    ��What do you think? Is this going to be too hard for you?��


    Zhang Heng shook his head. His Jackdaw was a corvette, a battleship intended to engage in war. Undoubtedly, it could sail faster than most of its counterparts, and his sailing skill had also reached LV2 recently. Besides Brook��s Swordfish, Zhang Heng��s ship was the second-best ship for the role of bait. Although he felt that the risk wasn��t worth an extra 50% of the loot, he didn��t say no since he had been basically chosen by fate.


    If he rejected the task, his reputation would surely be diminished once he returned to Nassau. No one would ever work with him anymore.


    ��Great. See you there on Parrot Ind.��


    ........


    Four days had passed, and Zhang Heng regrouped with the rest of the five captains on Parrot Ind. There, they finalized the final n for the operation. After that, Zhang Heng and Brook left the ind with their crew and sailed to their designated spots. They were both separated by around half a mile. They then lowered their mainsails and waited for their prey to arrive.

 Chapter 207 - Battle Prelude

    <h4>Chapter 207: Battle Prelude</h4>


    Waiting for something to happen was always a dry and dull affair. Except for the watchers tasked with scanning the surroundings, there was nothing else the pirates on the ship could do. Somey on hammocks, dreaming away, some chatted with their mates, and some cleaned their weapons. There were those who even sought to kill time with prayer.


    Harry was known as the ��little king�� on the street where he lived. On a normal day, he would lead a band of kids to fight with another group from the next street. That said, this was the very first time he faced a real battle. At first, Anne thought that Harry would havepletely freaked out since he was always one to bully the weak. To her surprise, she noticed that Harry wasn��t actually nervous, but instead felt excited about the uing conflict.


    While everyone was waiting for their target to show up, Harry started bothering the quartermaster, begging him for a weapon to defend himself.


    ��Mr. Dufresne. I can fight too! Captain Zhang Heng said that once a battlemences, there would be no escape for all those on board.��


    ��What kind of weapon do you want?��


    ��A gun would be nice. I don��t think I can handle hand-to-handbat since I��m the smallest here. I think I should be able to aim and shoot at our enemies from a distance.��


    ��Have you shot out of a gun before?��


    ��No. As the saying goes, there��s a first time for everyone. Even Captain Zhang Heng didn��t shoot too well when he first started using a firearm.��


    ��Actually, Captain Zhang Heng was quite the marksman when he fired a gun for the first time.��


    Dufresne paused before continuing.


    ��I don��t think I will give you a gun. I don��t want you to shoot my people in the heat of battle identally.��


    ��Come on, man! Don��t be such a miser. I promise I will not shoot our people by ident.��


    ��I highly doubt that.��


    Harry wanted to continue convincing Dufresne to give him a gun, but when he saw Anneing from a distance, he immediately tried to make a run for it, as if he had just encountered his arch-nemesis. Before he could make any headway, Anne stopped him.


    ��Mr. Dufresne, did Harry give you trouble again?��


    ��No. Quite the opposite actually. Our young Mr. Harry here helped me a lot this morning. He counted our weapons stockpile with me.��


    Harry��s sour face started to brightly shine when he heard Dufresne��spliments.


    ��I see.��


    Seeing Anne��s less than enthusiastic response, Harry was rendered speechless.


    ��What kind of tone is that? Are you disappointed by the fact that you can��t find a good reason to beat me up?!��


    Harry wished he could say that out loud, though, he would never dare speak to Anne like this. All he could do was to curse in his heart silently.


    ��Come with me,�� Anne continued.


    At that, Harry followed Anne, and they both headed towards the galley. It was a familiar ce for Harry, considering he had been tasked with peeling potatoes for hours on end each day.


    ��When the battle begins after this, I need you to stay here with Mr. Ramsay. Come out only after the battle is over.��


    ��Huh?��


    ��Huh?��


    ��Before I say anything, I need to tell you that I��m happy with everything so far. Ever since I started working on the ship, I��ve been cleaning the toilet and peeling potatoes every single day. I have done everything you��ve asked of me. I think it��s time for me to take up bigger responsibilities.


    ��It makes sense, I guess. When the battle starts, I��ll need you to stay here and protect Mr. Ramsay,�� said Anne while passing her dagger to Harry.


    ��It��s no different from what you asked me to do just now,�� Harrymented.


    ��What kind of difference are you asking for?��


    ��For example... let me stay on the deck? This will be my first sea battle! I beg of you, Boss Anne. What am I supposed to tell the others when I return to Nassau? Am I supposed to tell them that I hid in the galley like a coward while the rest are busy fighting on the deck?��


    Suddenly, Harry realized that he had overstepped the border. Immediately, he turned around and apologized to Ramsay.


    ��Don��t worry about that. You��re not the first, and you won��t be thest to something like this to me.��


    ��Battles between pirates are very different from your little street fights. I have no problem with you joining us, but you have to wait at least two years before I can allow you to do that.��


    ......


    Zhang Heng was in the captain��s quarters, fiddling with the seashell. He had been carrying it for three weeks, and up until now, nothing special happened to it. At first, he thought that it must have something to do with him being onnd. Now that he was out at sea, Betty, the ancient god, still hadn��t contacted him.


    He had also instructed Anne to arrange for someone to keep an eye on Seth. As the first person on the ship that came in contact with Betty, Zhang Heng was worried that she would somehow affect him in some way. Many days passed, and Seth acted like how he typically behaved. He no longer acted suspiciously, seeming as if he was truly liberated from the supernatural incident.


    Having said that, Zhang Heng was in no rush to study the seashell. For now, he knew that Betty would grant the power to summon storms to whoever that worshipped her. Hence, he suspected that Betty might have even more supernatural forces up her sleeve. In the end, he decided that the best time to study the shell was when he got his hands on the wooden box that was made of a Tule tree.


    The next morning, the sun shone brightly, and the sea was calm. So far, nothing out of the ordinary had taken ce. The Spanish treasure ship was still nowhere to be found. It wasn��t until the afternoon before the watchers finally spotted something. At the same time, Zhang Heng extended his bronze monocr and gazed out to the ocean as well. At first, he saw three ck dots approaching from afar. He could not identify what these dots were.


    After a while, Zhang Heng finally saw a Spanish g flying above the mast. The pirates on Parrot Ind signaled Zhang Heng and Brook using a mirror, indicating that their targets were approaching them.


    ��Our targets have arrived! On the ready!�� said Zhang Heng as he put away his monocr.


    Billy quickly ordered the pirates to hurry back to their designated positions. At the same time, the Jackdaw raised her ck g. Suddenly, Zhang Heng and a couple of old pirates raised their heads after noticing a change in the wind direction. It wasing from the southeast but was now blowing from the southwest. In other words, they would need more time to approach the treasure ship. Naturally, Billy wasn��t too happy about this. Now, fighting the enemy would take a longer time, exposing them to more damage.


    Whether they wanted it or not, the Spanish convoy was already too close for them to make any adjustments. Zhang Heng stood at the bow of the Jackdaw with one hand holding a rope and a cuss in the other.


    ��Adjust the mainsails! Let��s charge at the enemy; full speed ahead!��


    After the briefing, everyone on board discovered that they were just bait in this battle, learning how they were supposed to lure the target to the rear of the ind. The damage they could inflict did not matter in this operation. The most important thing here was to ensure the survival of their ship after being attacked by their enemies. Other than the helmsman, the next stressful position had to be the carpenters. They were already prepared, ready with all the nks and tools that they would need to fix the ship.

 Chapter 208 - Contest

    <h4>Chapter 208: Contest</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    Both the Jackdaw and Swordfish raised their ck gs at the same time, racing to the Spanish treasure ship as fast as their sails could carry them. Although the Jackdaw was closer to the Spanish ship, the Swordfish caught up to the Jackdaw in no time. The moment their ships were aligned, Brook slowed down and moved at the Jackdaw��s speed. He did this knowing that the enemies will focus their fire on the Swordfish if Brook overtook the Jackdaw.


    There was a 200-meter gap between the Jackdaw and the Swordfish. Being this close to each other, they could quickly help the other if necessary. At the same time, they hadn��t gotten too close to the point where they would lose their agility as well.


    The Spanish convoy finally saw their enemies. Immediately, they slowed down and maneuvered their ship so that their side cannons pointed at the enemies. They were at the ready to get into a battle with Zhang Heng and Brook.


    On the other side of things, Billy and Anne were standing on the deck, having their eyes fixed on their prey. They couldn��t help but feel a little worried. The intel that ck Prince Sam acquired earlier was extremely urate. However, as opposed to what he heard, things were different when he saw the vessel with his own eyes. This was Zhang Heng��s second encounter with such a massive ship, its size only slightly smaller inparison with the pride of the Royal Navy and the king of the Caribbean Sea, the Scarborough.


    Originally, the Jackdaw was a corvette. When put beside an ordinary merchant ship, the Jackdaw wasrge enough to terrify most of them. However, whenpared to the Spanish treasure ship, the Jackdaw appeared to be on the losing side.


    ��Are we going to fight this monsterter?�� asked a newly recruited cannoneer.


    ��We are not going to fight them. All we need to do is to draw their attention. We��ll need to lure them to the back of Parrot Ind. Once they get there, the other four pirate ships will fire at them simultaneously,�� exined Dufresne.


    Unfortunately, the exnation did little to calm the nerves of all the pirates on board. After looking at the tremendous number of cannons on the Spanish ship, they began second-guessing their own capabilities. Thankfully, they were calmer in a situation like this whenpared to the older pirates that participated in taking down the Scarborough. Fifteen minutester, the Jackdaw had officially entered the shooting range of their enemies. Surprisingly, they weren��t greeted by the enemy��s cannons.


    Zhang Heng and Billy had a bad feeling, anxious that things might not go ording to n. This could only mean one thing. This wasn��t going to be an easy enemy. Usually, amateurs would attack the moment their enemies entered their range of fire, believing that they would be able to drop in a couple of rounds before their enemies got close. Sadly, they didn��t consider the fact that the cannons would overheat from the continuous shooting. Once the cannons overheated, the crew would have to cool them down before they could use it again. This meant they would be sitting ducks.


    During the initial rounds of shooting, it was usually tough to uratelynd cannonballs on the enemies. Even if they did somehow manage tond a couple of lucky shots, the damage to their ship would be minimal. Truly experiencedmanders would wait for the enemies to enter their effecting shooting range before firing their cannons at them. In other words, there was a greater chance of inflicting serious damage if they fired all their cannons on a target close enough.


    ��Are we going forward?�� asked Billy.


    Every step that the Jackdaw took would only increase their risk of being annihted. A calcted approach was essential in this situation.


    ��Not yet. They can��t damage us effectively with this distance. At the same time, it��s going to be hard for us to create problems for them as well. Once they fire their cannons at us, it would be impossible for us to get close to them again. Now that they are allowing us to get closer to them, we should do that.��


    Brook shared the same thoughts with Zhang Heng and hence, didn��t slow his vessel down. Seeing two pirate ships charging at them, the three Spanish boats still refused to fire their cannons. However, once the two pirate vessels were close enough to the point where the Spanish sailors could be seen with the naked eye, Zhang Heng and Brook quickly turned their ships in different directions and, at the same time, ordered their pirates to prepare for battle.


    Themanders of the three Spanish ships were taken by surprise, frustrated by the fact that the two pirate ships did not get closer to them. Though both parties hadn��t fired at each other yet, apetition of strategies had nowmenced. The Spanishmander controlled his urge to fire at them, hoping to trick the two pirate ships intoing closer. His n would be sessful if they were just a hundred yards closer. Themander was also confident that he would be able to sink the Jackdaw and Swordfish with three consecutive attacks.


    However, Zhang Heng and Brook sensed that something wasn��t right. Hence, they instantly stopped their ships at a critical moment, causing the Spanishmander to miss the perfect window of attack. Seeing that the two pirate ships were in the process of turning to different directions again, he was done with ying games and ordered his sailors to fire at them.


    ��Fire all cannons!��


    At themand, the three Spanish ships fired everything they had at the same time. The boom it produced was so deafening, it was as if thunder had stuck that very spot. Some pirates were so terrified that they lost their bnce and fell onto the deck.


    ��Iing!!! Everyone! Brace yourselves!�� shouted Zhang Heng.


    The moment he gave the order, flying cannonballs rained down on them. At least a quarternded on the Jackdaw and the Swordfish. Even without firing a test round to gauge the uracy of their shots, they still managed to inflict considerable damage. This proved that the cannoneers on the Spanish ships were exceptionally skillful.


    Aspared to the sailors on Scarborough, the sailors on the three Spanish ships were more a lot more experienced. At least seven or eight cannonballsnded on the Jackdaw��s deck. It was not a pretty scene to behold, as the unlucky pirate acting as the helmsman had a piece of wood prating his neck and killing him instantly. Without the helmsman, the Jackdaw began free sailing and was now headed toward the Spanish ships. Luckily, Zhang Heng was right beside the dead helmsman. He quickly pushed the body away and attempted to turn the ship around.


    The second round of attacks came right after the first ended. This time, the Jackdaw was hit by even more cannonballs. Not only was their deck severely damaged, but their hull began to suffer as well from the continuous onught. Immediately, the carpenters jumped into action, fixing the damage as fast and as best as they could. Zhang Heng swept the dust off himself, breathed a sigh, and continued to maneuver the ship. At the same time, he turned around to check the condition of the deck.


    It appeared that the firepower of the Spanish vessels wasn��t as powerful as Zhang Heng thought it would be. The scary thing about them, however, was their pinpoint uracy. If this went on, he might have to consider expediting their retreat. When the third round of attacksmenced, only a few cannonballsnded on the Jackdaw. This wasn��t the result that Billy and the rest of the pirates expected. Their uracy couldn��t have dropped so dramatically after witnessing their first two rounds of sharp firing.


    Nevertheless, their faces changed when they saw what had be of the Swordfish. The Spaniards were focusing their fire on them. Thanks to Brook��s excellent maneuvering skills, he managed to dodge several attacks. However, flying cannonballs from three ships were one too many to emerge unscathed. Besides, the Swordfish had been modified for optimum speed, significantly sacrificing their defensive abilities. When the third round of attack was over, two of their masts had fallen, and their bow was severely damaged.

 Chapter 209 - Paralysis

    <h4>Chapter 209: Paralysis</h4>


    Thest volley of attacks severely damaged the Swordfish. However, it gave the Jackdaw an opportunity to change directions. This avoided the Swordfish from being attacked continuously.


    The cannon��s shutters on one side of the Jackdaw were ajar. With their gunners in position, and upon Zhang Heng��s orders, they finally began returning fire.


    After two sessful looting trips, the Jackdaw shot to fame in Nassau after killing Wilton��s two hundred men in one night�Can opportune moment for their recruitment drive.


    If Zhang Heng wanted to, he could have quickly recruited two hundred men, the entire ship��splement, in half a day. However, that wouldn��t have been too sensible a move. With each addition, the share of the loot that each person would receive would decrease. As opposed to the merits of the quantity he could amass, Zhang Heng cared more about the quality of the sailors they recruited.


    For that reason, each time they returned to the ind, the Jackdaw��s recruitment threshold would be significantly higher than thest. The standard of the ship��s gunners was nowpletely different from those of the first voyage. On top of that, the Jackdaw was one battleship with outstanding firepower. The moment they began firing, it instantly caught the attention of the three Spanish ships.


    However, at this time, the Spanish fleetmander was still focused on the Swordfish. Thetter��s hull now wrecked, and it seemed like the fabulous time to sink them with one blow. It would be a real pity if the Spaniards chose to give up right now and let the Swordfish get away. Not only would that mean changing targets, but it also meant having to realign the sights of the heavy cannons.


    Realizing the consequences of the aforementioned actions, all three Spanish vessels ignored the Jackdaw and concentrated their firepower on the Swordfish instead.


    Upon realizing the enemy��s tactical maneuvering, Brook decided to abandon the original n. Although the Swordfish had its sideboard facing the Spanish treasure ship, she didn��t fire but instead did a left full rudder, preparing to escape!


    The Swordfish was severely battered during the attack, and the damage to its hull caused it to lose some mobility. Fortunately, their main mast was still intact, and Brook��s well-timed reactions were enough for the Swordfish toplete the U-turn sessfully. This allowed them to retreat before the next round of firing could begin.


    Brook��s excellent seamanship was on full disy. The three Spanish vesselsunched another two cannonball volleys, and despite their damage, the Swordfish dodged most of the shells effortlessly. Not to be outdone, the Spanishmander was just as quick to react! Realizing that his opponent was a crafty one, the Spanish quickly changed tactics and fired on them with all their cannons, all at the same time!


    This time, even Brook��s superior rudder skills were useless, as the Swordfish��s stern was hit four times! Even then, the Swordfish stayed afloat. Instead, at the cost of the enemy, they were able to put a good distance between them and the three Spanish ships.


    On the other side, the Jackdaw��s attacks were growing fiercer. Zhang Heng had chosen to target a frigate. This time, he did not hold back. After being fired at for such a long time, the Jackdaw��s gunners had enough. Fueled by anger, the gunners got into the action with a fury the moment they received their orders.


    The main gunner took aim, then lit the fuse! As the cannonballsunched in a staggered stato of sts, the assistant gunners packed gunpowder into the barrel with rapid clockwork uracy. In seconds, cannon smoke fogged the surface of the sea with a cloud of thick smog.


    After two rounds of intense bombardment, the frigate��s deck was a mess. Her hull, after being hit by gargantuan 24-pound shells, was perforated withrge, gaping holes. Fortunately for them, they were all above the waterline. For now, they were not in danger of sinking, at least not yet.


    However, the frigate wasn��t holding up any longer, as the captain had already started sending desperate signals for help to themander of their mothership.


    The Spanishmander looked at the swaying Swordfish in the distance with a bitter look in his eyes. That ship was at the very end of her tether. Two more volleys and she would be done for. After that, they could go on and attack the other pirate ship, thuspletely wiping out this gang of wicked robbers, once and for all.


    There was nothing wrong with the n itself, except that the Spanishmander did not expect the Jackdaw to be so potent. If this went on, and even if he exterminated the two pirate ships, it might just cost him an entire frigate, a price he wasn��t willing to pay. In frustration, he signaled to the other two in his fleet, instructing them to switch targets. He would have them give up on the Swordfish and take it all out on the Jackdaw instead.


    Despite everything, Zhang Heng��s objective had been achieved, and he was already turning around to leave the battlefield. Then, out of the blue, at the veryst minute, he decided to change direction abruptly. Now, they weren��t heading to Parrot Ind as initially nned!


    ��Captain?�� asked a very puzzled Billy.


    ��Our opponent��smander is no slouch. We only have two ships, and yet, we had the nerve to attack them. If we head for Parrot Ind, wouldn��t he grow suspicious?��


    ��But what if they all decide toe after us?��


    ��The probability of that happening is minuscule. The Swordfish is practically in a critical condition, and with two of her masts gone, she��s now very slow. If you were to be them, which ship would you choose to go after?��


    As if confirmation of Zhang Heng��s conjecture, all three Spanish ships gave up chasing the Jackdaw and turned around to pursue Swordfish again.


    The Spanishmander, looking down with indignant disgruntlement. He had been in charge of this route for ten years, and through that period, never once had pirates dared provoke them. If he��d allow those infernal pirates to get away without paying a hefty price, it would be too good to be true for them.


    The Swordfish was once the fastest three-masted vessel in all of the oceans. However, at the current state of her hull, she was half as fast as what she used to be. Moreover, they were still some distance away from Parrot Ind. In the past, such a small distance would not have bothered Brook, but right now, every minute felt like an hour.


    Seeing how close the three Spanish ships hade, and having no way getting rid of them, Brook��s forehead broke out with streams of cold sweat. All too soon, the bow of a Spanish frigate was almost touching the stern of the crippled Swordfish! But then, the Jackdaw, well on her way to the other side, turned around again! With their chief gunner manning the ship��s main cannon, they began harassing the warship dead ahead of the Swordfish, giving Brook and his battered ship a much-needed chance for a breather.


    Brook had his men tried desperately to lighten their ailing boat, throwing away every heavy object they did not need. The weight-loss exercise helped it inch faster by half a knot. Nheless, it was this half a knot that saved the Swordfish in this pivotal moment.


    The Spanishmander became inconsbly outraged by his opponent��s constant outmaneuvering. Zhang Heng��s earlier escape in the other direction had debilitated him. In the past, whenever he encountered inds or terrain that hindered his field of vision, he would instinctively be on high alert. Right now, though, he was ovee by a crazed urge. Seeing that he was so very close to sinking the Swordfish, he had lost all means to think clearly.

 Chapter 210 - The Decisive Battle and Finale

    <h4>Chapter 210: The Decisive Battle and Finale</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    Parrot Ind stretched long and narrow across the ocean. North of the isles sat a natural U-shaped gulf. A broad ridge ran through it, tall enough to conceal whaty beyond, which was why ck Prince Sam and the others chose this ce as the ambush site.


    The Swordfish desperately tried to flee, having the three Spanish hot on her tail. No one noticed that the Jackdaw was gradually slowing down and keeping a distance from the three Spanish boats.


    The Swordfish was in terrible shape, and water poured into the flooding ship through every gaping hole of the battered and tattered hull. There was no longer any point for the carpenters to fix anything now. Everything that could be thrown overboard had been gotten rid of. Not even the food and water was spared.


    Brook couldn��t care less about any of that, though, so long they could get out of this predicament alive. In any case, they could always get those things from other pirate ships.


    The Spanishmander knew that the Swordfish was at an impasse and that they shouldn��t be giving up the chase right now. So, when the experiencedmander saw the Swordfish disappear behind the ridge, warning horns started ring in his head. But there wasn��t the time to think it over.


    It was all toote, though. When the three Spanish ships came around the ridge, they came face to face with the four other pirate ships, armed to the teeth and ready for battle!


    The second the target emerged, the cannons on all four pirate ships blew up to life! Sam went above and beyond, making all the necessary preparations. He had borrowed 25 twelve-pound guns and set them up on the shoreline for this exact moment.


    The three Spanish ships were caught off-guard by this sudden attack, not expecting to be ambushed at such a close range. As they were so fixated on chasing the Swordfish, they paid no attention to keeping their own distance. Now, they were too close to each other to turn around.


    As luck would have it, one of the frigates�� luck was so bad, a shell came out of nowhere and hit its gunpowder storage!


    The probability of something like that happening was very low, perhaps not even once in a hundred battles. When it did happen, however, the event would result in theplete annihtion of the ship. The violent explosion ruptured the keel of the frigate. The sailors closest to it were killed on the spot, while the rest were thrown into the water.


    The Jackdaw had turned up from behind and joined the battle!


    With all the pirate ships together and with assistance from the on-shore artillery, they fired their cannons with no mercy. Except for the severely damaged Swordfish, which was forced to throw all of its ammunition overboard, they instantly got the upper hand.


    The tables turned, and of a sudden, things were going downhill for the remaining two Spanish ships.


    When the Spanishmander arrived, he was still unaware that they had fallen into a trap. Either way, it was toote for them. They were at a disadvantage when it came to firepower, and the treasure ship wouldn��t be able to outrun all the pirate ships.


    So, the Spanishmander gave up trying to make a run for it and issued an order to the remaining two ships to turn around retaliate.


    Even though they were enemies, Zhang Heng could not help butud his opponent��s courage. The position the Spaniards were in left them at a disadvantage. Choosing to face the battle basically meant that they had given up any hope of survival.


    On the deck, Sam frowned at the sight. He had revealed the strength of his firepower, hoping to intimidate their opponent into thinking that there was no way they could win and that they would be forced to surrender anyhow. Right now, however, it looked like the Spaniards were not nning on doing that.


    ��These barmy, dogged Spaniards,�� the ck helmsman muttered. He was standing on the deck without a shirt. A row of human teeth was fastened to a string around his neck, and he had a hideous mask on his face. This persona was his favorite incarnation when fighting in a battle.


    This was especially true during one-on-one battles. The cannibal costume was so intimidating that more than once, the enemy would simply concede without putting up a fight. The truth was, the blood on the mask was, in fact, the sap of a particr fruit, and the human teeth had been purchased from a dentist on the ind.


    ��If this battle continues, we��ll have more casualties than them,�� said the helmsman.


    ��Take down the remaining frigate to give them a warning,�� said Sam. He hade for the precious cargo of the treasure ship, not to witness a massacre. Under such circumstances, however, it appeared he had no other choice.


    Hence, five minutester, thest remaining frigate sank, leaving only the Spanish treasure ship. On the pirates�� side, one severely wrecked vessel also decided to withdraw.


    The battle was getting fiery. One Spanish treasure ship was battling four other ships clearly put it at a disadvantage, but its thick, solid hull was able to endure one blow after weathering another. Though the Spanish ship might have taken a beating, the Spaniards simply refused to give in. In the meantime, Sam sent out a group of men, attempting to board the Spanish ship. But halfway to their destination, a shell sank one of the tinynding crafts.


    As the other boats were drawing near to the ship, the Spanish musketeers shot at them from behind the portholes, killing more than a dozen pirates. When those who survived finally made it to the hull, they were chased back into the water by the stubbornly unyielding Spaniards.


    Owing to that, the pirates decided to resort to tougher measures. Due to their concerns about the cargo in the hold, they focused their attacks on the deck, hoping to destroy the enemy��s masts and rudder. However, the Spanish didn��t seem to mind that. Amid their rising number of causalities, their resolve only grew stronger. The remaining sailors gave up on saving the first deck, retreating down to the second deck to continue the fight.


    Having no other options, Sam ordered for a full-on attack on the Spanish treasure ship.


    Under the savage and unmerciful bombardment of four pirate ships, the Spanish treasure ship was soon riddled with holes. Yet again, their crew had no ns to surrender. The carpenters gave up trying to patch the holes, allowing the raging waters of the sea to gush into the cabins.


    The cannons on the Spanish vessel were still thundering even until the veryst of her breath. Sam thought about getting another group to board the ship again, but he knew that none of the boats were able to approach the target. In the end, the pirates could only watch as the Spanish treasure ship sank slowly to the bottom of the ocean.


    When the battle was over, Zhang Heng received a notification that he had earned 20 game points.


    After that, he docked the Jackdaw by the bay and brought his men to Parrot Ind. Down by the beach, he looked for Sam, who was bandaging his arm.


    Sam called out, ��I received information about the cargo from some Spaniards that were thrown overboard by the sts. It appears that there are 5,000 pounds of gold on the ship! Thank goodness they sank here, right in front of the gulf. I��ve already sent some men ahead to search for it.��

 Chapter 211 - Celebration

    <h4>Chapter 211: Celebration</h4>


    ck Prince Sam assigned a dozen pirates that could swim well to dive to the spot where the Spanish treasure ship sank. Soon, the divers managed to discover where they stored the gold bars. The next problem that needed solving was how they could salvage the ingots from the bottom of the sea. The crates were located half a nautical mile from the coastline at a depth of about 20 meters.


    Such depths were close to the limits a human could dive. It wasn��t just the oxygen starvation, but the water pressure would increase every ten meters. If they continued venturing deeper, the pressure would cause them to suffer from nitrogen narcosis and oxygen poisoning, which could be fatal.


    Zhang Heng vaguely remembered that the deepest a human ever attempted to dive without the assistance of equipment was about 40 meters. He was puzzled as to how the person managed to achieve such a superhuman feat. People like ck Prince Sam and his allies all grew up right next to the sea. Most of them were sons of fishermen, and from a young age, they were already natural swimmers and divers.


    Having said that, the divers were forced to resurface the moment theyid their eyes on the crates that contained the gold bars. Only one person amongst them managed to dive to where the boxes were and retrieved a dislodged gold bar.


    ��It appears that we��re going to be on this ind for some time,�� said ck Prince Sam.


    Despite the losses the pirates sustained, their hunting trip was considered an enormous sess. A total of 5,000 pounds of gold divided among six ships would see every single pirate returning to Nassau with a tremendous amount of wealth.


    Apart from the gold, the Spanish ship was hauling a shipment of tobo as well. Unfortunately, the dried leaves became useless the moment they hit the water. Despite Brook suffering the most damage in this battle, he was happy with the results. The extra 50% of the loot he would receive meant he could fix his ship and evenpensate those who were wounded during the battle. And even after everything was settled, he would still walk away pocketing arge sum of money.


    Everyone was envious of Zhang Heng and the Jackdaw��s luck. Although he and Brook were both chosen as bait, the enemies, unfortunately, decided to focus fire on the Swordfish instead of the Jackdaw. It was all because the Swordfish looked to be the weaker of the two. After two rounds of bombardment, the Jackdaw received no further damage. When the Spanish convoy of three fell into their trap, Zhang Heng waited until the four pirate ships attacked them before joining the battle. Amid the cacophony of artillery, the three Spanish vessels weren��t bothered to deal with the Jackdaw anymore.


    When the Jackdaw yed the bait, Zhang Heng made the right decision by taking every random opportunity that came to avoid taking as much damage as possible. Not only did he manage to confuse the enemies, but it also allowed the Swordfish to retreat. If Zhang Heng didn��t stall the Spanish, Brook and his men would have ended up at the bottom of the ocean.


    Brook was extremely grateful for Zhang Heng��s assistance, going up to him and thanking him personally when they were all on Parrot Ind. Before this, Zhang Heng had spoken little to Brook, though, having heard of his name before. Other than his notorious reputation in Nassau, he was one of the captains that vouched for Zhang Heng to join the meeting. To Zhang Heng��s surprise, he discovered that Brook wasn��t as aloof as he seemed to be after talking to him. He was actually quite talkative.


    During the meeting for the battle, Brook barely said a word. Zhang Heng thought that it must be Brook��s nature to stay quiet, but as it turned out, he was wrong about him.


    ��I��m sorry. I��m not trying to offend anyone here, but I have some beef with Dynamite Jarvis.��


    Dynamite Jarvis, captain of the Warrior, was also one of the captains that vouched for Zhang Heng. Sam had once told him about wanting to utilize this trip to solve a longstanding conflict between his two friends. It was now apparent that Sam referred to Brook and Jarvis. None would have thought that they would both sh again amid a critical operation.


    ��I have been friends with Jarvis for decades. I knew him long before I knew Sam. About two months ago, I received a precious lead. A ve-trading ship departed Africa and was heading towards Boston, carrying a decent amount of cargo. Most of the ves on board were teenagers no older than 18 or 19. They were of good health and had all their teeth intact. I brought someone with me to check on the route this ship would take.


    ��Just as I was close to my target, a group of unknown people came out of nowhere and disrupted my n! So, I sent someone to talk to them. Unfortunately, they were in no mood to talk. In the end, they killed the people I sent to negotiate with them! As if that weren��t enough, they wanted to attack my ship as well! Luckily, we were fast enough to flee.


    ��When I think about it again, I believe the group of people had been waiting to ambush me. That was how I knew that it was no coincidence. Someone wasn��t happy with me. However, I only talked to Jarvis before I set sail. So, I confronted him when I returned to Nassau. Unsurprisingly, he strongly denied all my usations. He was furious, and he told me that I should never doubt him. At that time, I felt guilty that perhaps, I could have wronged him. After that, I assigned someone to dig deeper into this matter, and I found out that he had secretly left Nassau the night before I set sail! He also didn��t leave with his own ship.��


    ��So, this is the conflict, huh?��


    ��I just don��t understand why he would do something like this to me. We have been friends for a long time. It doesn��t matter anymore... I��m done thinking about it. I promised Sam that I won��t harm him in any way. It��s just that... from today onward; he is just another stranger to me.��


    ��Ah. You guys are here. Our luck just gets better! Ball found some wild goat, rabbits, and other animals on the ind. I think we are going to have a feast tonight! There��s quite a bit of rum left on the ship as well. Sam suggested that we should start a bonfire to celebrate our sess. We are now the first pirates to rob a Spanish treasure ship!�� Eric eximed with enthusiasm.


    ��Celebrate? Now? The gold bars are still at the bottom of the sea,�� Zhang Heng replied.


    ��Yes, but it��s not like they��ll run away, eh? Don��t worry. We will find a way to bring them all up. Do you have any food on your ship? You can contribute to the celebration as well,�� said Eric while patting Zhang Heng��s shoulder.


    ��I can provide 30 barrels of rum and some fresh lemons.��


    ��Great. I will ask someone to go fishing. We can use your lemons for the garnish. Sinks the stench, I say.��


    ��All of you can see that I have nothing left on the ship,�� said Brook.


    ��It��s ok. Captain Sam has solved the problem. Maybe you can thank Jarvister. I heard that he��s willing to give you a third of his supplies.��


    ��Did he volunteer, or did Captain Sam make him?��


    ��Would there be a difference? Be the bigger man here, Brook. That incident is ancient history! Are you still going to dwell on it? You��ll recoup all your losses the moment we get our hands on the gold.��


    Brook harrumphed and didn��t say a word after that.

 Chapter 212 - Missing Harry

    <h4>Chapter 212: Missing Harry</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    ��Just great! I hid with a pile of potatoes during my very first sea battle. All I heard was a couple of cannons being fired, and everything was over before I knew it. Now that everyone is celebrating the victory by having a feast, I have to stay here to cook for them.��


    Harryined while roasting the skewered whole goat over a me.


    ��Didn��t you just eat two pieces of baked fish to stop your hunger?�� said Ramsay while rubbing spices onto the roastingmb.


    1��That��s different. Eating alone and celebrating with them are two different things. Damn it! I want to celebrate the victory with them too.��


    Harry watched the pirates having fun, and he became envious of them. He heard Ramsay��s reminder when he turned around.


    ��Turn it over!��


    Harry snapped out of it and turned themb around. Beside him, Ramsay was taking his time, dutifully sprinkling spices all over the meat.


    ��Mr. Ramsay, did you hear that the gold bars are at the bottom of the sea now? I think it��s not too far away from us.��


    ��So what?��


    ��Don��t you want to check it out? I have never seen so many gold bars in my entire life! It would be nice if I can get at least two of them.��


    ��Better scrap that idea, mate. There are patrols around the area all the time. The captains have agreed that they would assign someone to guard the spot every two hours to prevent the gold bars from being stolen. Didn��t you wish to stay on and be an official pirate? IF you are serious about that, there are tough rules aboard every pirate ship. Stealing and hiding loot is strictly prohibited. Grab its leg; I want to apply some honey.��


    ��I don��t think it matters anymore. That woman wants me off the ship the moment we are back in Nassau! I know that for a fact. She assigned me to wash the toilet and to help out in the kitchen, knowing that I hate these things. She is trying to force me to leave the ship. I��ve been calling her boss for a very long time. I have always been on her side when she got into fights,�� Harry grumbled, his lips pursed while ring at Anne.


    ��I think she is doing this for your own good. Okay. Turn it over. I��ll need the other leg.��


    ��Yea... yea. Everyone says that.��


    Harry was distracted. Suddenly, he rolled his eyes and pressed on his stomach.


    ��Ah, shit! I think I ate something wrong. My stomach is going crazy on me. I don��t think I can hold on any longer. I have to go and clear it out first.��


    Immediately, Harry let go of the goat and ran away. He did not wait for Ramsay��s permission. This had Ramsay in a fit. However, he also knew that Harry was distraught tonight. The heartyughter from afar probably triggered him, probably why he wanted to run as far as possible from the area. Understanding the young boy, Ramsay decided he would leave Harry alone for now.


    Harry wasn��t heading towards the Spanish shipwreck. It was out of anger that he told Ramsay about stealing those gold bars. In fact, he had no intention to do something like this. Even without pirates guarding the ce, Harry figured he couldn��t possibly dive that deep to pick up those gold bars. Besides, there was no ce for him to hide on the open beach as well. If he attempted to steal the gold bars, everyone would be able to see him even from a distance.


    Having no heading in mind, Harry walked on, just wanting to get away from the crowd. Before he knew it, he had no idea where he was and how far he��d wandered away. There were tall trees on Parrot Ind, and every path he took looked precisely the same. At that moment, Harry began worrying that he might be lost. So, he randomly chose a heading and continued walking along with it. An hourter, he finally saw the sea. He sighed, breathing deeply, taking in the smell of the salty sea. It appeared his mood was finally getting better. Without him even realizing it, he had gotten to the other side of Parrot Ind.


    Following the coastline, he walked for at least two hours before he got back to where he started. It would be midnight by the time he rejoined the Jackdaw��s crew. His own hastiness had led him to go for wool ande home shorn. The more he thought about it, the angrier he felt. The pirates were feasting on the barbequedmb and chugging rum as if it was seawater. No one even noticed that he was gone. Harry was at the age where he yearned for recognition, unhappy that he was being treated like an insignificant little man. In angst, he kicked a stone, watching as it flew away from him.


    That was when he saw something shocking.


    It was a little boat. Harry rubbed his eyes to make sure it wasn��t an illusion. There were about seven people on it, and they were rowing towards the beach as fast as they could. Harry instantly realized that something wasn��t right. Other than the pirates patrolling the sea in their small boat, the rest were celebrating on the beach. This wasn��t the area where the Spanish treasure ship sank, and it didn��t make sense for the patrols toe all the way here. Where did theye from? Were there other people on this ind? Why were they in a mighty rush?


    Logic told him that he should inform Anne about what he saw. Just when he was about to go get a better look, someone pushed him from behind! Harry fell down the cliff he was on, screaming for dear life.


    .......


    On the other side of things, Anne was drunk, and someone wanted to challenge her. As she turned around, she saw that Harry was not with Ramsay. Immediately, she quickly walked to him and asked him where the boy was.


    Ramsay was extremely busy, having just finished roasting two whole goats. Now he needed to cook a dozen rabbits.


    ��Why are you alone? Where is Harry? Is he gettingzy again?��


    ��He told me that his stomach was acting up earlier. I think he went to relieve himself. Speaking of which, he��s been gone for some time. Now I��m starting to worry.��


    ��There��s nothing to worry. I��m pretty sure thezy thing was just looking for an excuse and cked off somewhere. I asked my men just now. They told me the ind is free from ferocious beasts. He should be safe.��


    ��You��re right, but night has fallen. What if he��s lost?��


    ��Hmm. At his level of intelligence, that might actually happen to him.��


    ��What happened?�� asked Zhang Heng who was walking toward them.


    ��Harry is missing. I��m nning to go into the woods to look for him.��


    Anne cracked her knuckles loudly as she talked, garnering stares from everyone around her.


    ��He better pray he doesn��t cross paths with me!��


    ��I will go with you. After all, he is a pirate of the Jackdaw,�� said Zhang Heng.


    ��This is exactly why I refused to bring him on our voyages. He gives me nothing but a shitload of trouble.��


    Not wasting any time, Zhang Heng and Anne began looking for Billy. At the same time, a dozen sober pirates were alsomissioned to search the entire ind.

 Chapter 213 - Incoming Threat

    <h4>Chapter 213: Iing Threat</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    Zhang Heng and Anne led the group, searching almost half the ind. Still, they couldn��t locate Harry.


    ��How could I not know how good Harry was at running?!��


    Anne was surprised by the search result. It left her perplexed, knowing that it would only be logical for someone lost to stay as close as possible to the beach. The further away they were, the smaller the chance they��d be rescued.


    ��It seems he��s lost his way.��


    After hearing what happened to Harry, Dufresne joined the search party as well. Staying at least two meters apart from each other, the search party called out for Harry as they scouted around the ind. However, it yielded no result.


    Suddenly, Zhang Heng��s team on the left found something. It was a barrel and two liquor bottles on the ground.


    ��Did the watchers leave all these stuff behind?�� Zhang Heng asked as he lifted the barrel��s lid with his saber.


    ��When we asked our men to observe the Spanish treasure ship, we set up three observation posts on this ind. From what I remember, I don��t think this area is one of it.��


    ��Maybe Ball��s men left these during their hunting trip,�� said Dufresne.


    ��Ball and his men hunted at the west side of this ind. That��s where the wild goats are. Besides, they wouldn��t have carried a barrel with them,�� replied Zhang Heng.


    Immediately, everyone looked at Dufresne, who simply shrugged.


    ��I asked them about it earlier because I want to bring back a few roasted goats to the ship.��


    ��Maybe it was left by whoever that was here previously,�� Said Anne.


    Though Parrot Ind wasn��t known to have been upied before, it was still on the nautical chart. It shouldn��te as a surprise that people did live here.


    Zhang Heng agreed as well, as he squatted down, tipped the water with his thumb, and tasted it.


    ��The water inside the barrel is clean and safe to drink. It doesn��t seem like it��s been here long.��


    Next, he went on to check the two liquor bottles.


    ��Are you trying to say that there are others on this ind? That��s not possible. Webed the ind thoroughly the moment we set foot on its sands! There is no one here except for us.��


    ��How would you exin this barrel of drinking water then?��


    ��Maybe they left right before we got on this ind...��


    Dufresne paused before he could finish. If that were the case, they would have found the barrel of water when they were searching the entire ind.


    ��It��s our people,�� Zhang Heng replied while passing one of the liquor bottles to Anne.


    ��The rum that we drank came from a brewery in North Carolina. Their bottle��s design is unique. Usually, they would send a shipment to Nassau. Even though their rum is sold in other colonies as well, the probability of us finding it here on this ind is extremely small.��


    ��Hold on, why would our peoplee here? Captain Sam��s orders?�� asked Anne.


    ��Highly unlikely. This is a bad location. The Spanish treasure ship didn��t even pass this area. Setting up an observation point here would be a waste of time. He would have also informed others if he did something like that. I want everyone to be extra careful. Something doesn��t smell right.��


    The moment Zhang Heng was done talking, the sound of footsteps came from in the dark woods. Immediately, he drew his gun, and Anne charged to the source of the sound. Just as she was about tond a sh, she paused midair!


    ��Harry?��


    ��Boss Anne!��


    She saw Harry in an awful state. His whole body was soaking wet, looking as if he��d just been fished from the sea. Anne also noticed that Harry was limping, and had a hand of his covering a wound on his arm. Evidently, Harry was extremely relieved to meet Zhang Heng and the rest of them.


    ��I have something important to tell all of you!!!��


    ��Something important? Maybe you can start by telling us what the zes happened to you?��


    ��What I��m about to tell you is extremely urgent! Someone betrayed us. Jarvis and his men have been pardoned, and they��d stopped being pirates for months! He��s only still in Nassau because of an agreement he made with the new governor-general from Charleston. He promised the govener that he��d help capture all the famous pirates of Nassau!��


    ��Jarvis, the Dynamite Jarvis? Are you sure you want to use him of such a grave crime? He is one of the oldest pirates in Nassau. He even arrived in Nassau before ckbeard Teach did!�� said Dufresne.


    ��I heard them talking about it earlier when I waszing away. Oh no... I mean, I came here when I had my stomachache. Not too far from the cliff, Jarvis and his men hid a small boat over there. I saw it with my own eyes! When I tried to take a closer look at them, someone pushed me from the back, and I fell down the cliff!��


    It was visible that Harry was still in shock as he described what happened to him.


    ��There were sharp rocks everywhere. I was lucky enough to fall between two of them. Thanks to that, I wasn��t hurt much. After that, I didn��t dare to swim back to the shore, so I swam to a giant rock and hid behind it. After a while, the one who pushed me down came to see if I was alive. After searching the entire ce, they found no one. Perhaps they thought that the fall had killed me. That was when they let their guard down. They were close to where I hid, and I managed to hear what they said.


    ��One said that they were supposed to be in Nassau for a little longer. Right now, it would save them a ton of trouble since all the famous pirates are here, all at once, on Parrot Ind. They said that their job would be done once they captured all of us. By doing that, the governor-general will pardon all their previous crimes, and he would add an additional 20 pounds to each of them. I��m afraid they��ve been nning this for a very long time. Before we left Nassau, they leaked our n to the authorities!��


    Harry was getting very nervous and started talking faster and faster.


    ��A fleet made up of the navy and pirate hunters have been secretly following us from the very start. They used the small boat I saw to make contact with them. Tonight��s grand party is Jarvis�� idea! He was hoping to create a perfect window to attack all of you!��


    Suddenly, Zhang Heng remembered the incident that Brook told him. A group of mysterious people had ambushed Brook and he was sure that they were unfamiliar pirates. The question was now answered. They were pirate-hunters working with Jarvis.

 Chapter 214 - Time is of the Essence

    <h4>Chapter 214: Time is of the Essence</h4>


    Previously, considering that there was no need to keep this operation a secret, ck Prince Sam revealed the travel ns of the Spanish treasure ship to all five captains. If Jarvis did betray all of them, he must have had many opportunities to contact to the navy. From what they remembered, the Warrior was always the one at the back of the line. By doing that, Jarvis would be able tomunicate with the navy without anybody noticing. After hearing what Harry��s story, they were sure that Jarvis must have indeed betrayed them. Now, the only question that loomed over their minds was if they had enough time to flee the ind.


    Under normal circumstances, the naked eye could only spot ships that were about ten nautical miles away. Any prospective enemies should be located at least twenty nautical miles away if they wanted to remain invisible. If someone from the ind instructed them to attack the pirates, they would need at least 5 hours to get there and back. In other words, the navy should be arrive when dawn was near.


    ��I don��t think we have that much time left. It��s dark, which means our visibility is down to a mile or two. This means they won��t need to stay too far from us. If they are fast, they should be able to reach the ind within an hour. However, this is only the worst-case scenario. When did you see the little boat leaving?��


    ��I��m not sure. I was so nervous earlier that I didn��t pay attention to the time. From the moment I fell off the cliff until they left the ind, it should be half an hour or so,�� stammered Harry.


    Harry started shivering the moment a gust of wind blew.


    ��That means the enemy can appear in front of us any time now!�� said Anne.


    ��We have to quickly inform the people on the beach. Otherwise, we��ll lose this battle! The first thing the enemy will do is to sink our ships. And they can do it from afar. Then, they won��t even need to get on the ind. They��ll leave us all here to starve!�� eximed a distressed Dufresne.


    ��We spent about an houring to this spot. Even if we are fast, it��ll take no less than forty minutes to get back,�� Anne added.


    ��Not everyone here needs to go back to the beach. I��ll go with you first. The others can head backter,�� said Zhang Heng while taking off his jacket and draping it on a frozen Harry.


    He then handed three of his four guns to Dufresne, keeping one for himself in case he needed itter. He even discarded his sword as well. Zhang Heng realized that he needed to take drastic measures to lighten up if he wished to return to the beach in the shortest time possible. Anne also did the same, stripping off everything that weighed her down. The only weapon she kept on her was a dagger.


    After shedding off the heavy iron, the two started running to the beach as fast as their legs could carry them.


    When they were living together, Anne spent most of her timeying on a chair like a piece of dead meat. Zhang Heng rarely saw her working on her physique. Somehow, she managed to keep her body fit, where every single muscle on her body was firm and tight. She could sprint better than most men. Apart from her small chest, her body was close to perfection. In her defense, even she paid no attention to the size of her chest, as well.


    Her swift moves and light-footedness were like an agile deer in the woods. Anne��s weak stamina had always been her Achilles heel, and although better than most people, her endurance still fell short of Zhang Heng��s marathon prowess. During the first ten minutes, Anne was way ahead of Zhang Heng. However, like an overheating cheetah, she gradually fell behind him. They were not even halfway to the beach at this point.


    ��You should go first. Don��t worry about me. I��ll catch up with you.��


    Anne huffed and puffed, as she stopped to catch some breath.


    Zhang Heng nodded in reply. This wasn��t the time to act like a gentleman. The earlier he got to the beach to tell the pirates about Jarvis, the more time they had to prepare for battle. As he swept away the branches that blocked his way, Zhang Heng managed to maintain the rhythm of his breathing, thus, giving his running a constant speed.


    Suddenly, out of nowhere, he heard the whizz of a bullet flying past him followed by the unmistakable bang of a gunshot!


    Fortunately, the shooter had shot from a great distance, and since Zhang Heng was on the move, even the best snipers would find it challenging to him. The bullet meant for himnded on the small tree on his right. The first thing that he did when the moment he heard the gunshot was to immediately drop on the ground,ying as low as he could.


    Then, he remembered the two persons that pushed Harry down the cliff. Whoever that was shooting at him must be Jarvis�� trusted ally. Zhang Heng didn��t expect them to hide in the woods and ambush him. They must have heard his search party shouting out Harry��s name loduly. That was how they discovered his location and ambushed him on his way back to the beach.


    Seeing that Zhang Heng had started running, they would have figured that their n must have been exposed. Hence, they decided to kill him, effectively stopping him from sounding the rm. Zhang Heng roughly knew the location of the two shooters, catching a glimpse of them when he lifted his head.


    They were about twenty meters away from him. One was aiming at him from behind a tree, while the other was frantically reloading gunpowder and bullets into this gun. Without hesitation, Zhang Heng pointed and pulled the trigger on the one aiming at him!


    Then, he stood up and charged at the other shooter! Seeing Zhang Henging at him, the shooter was so nervous he spilled all his gunpowder. Left with no options, he dropped his gun and pulled out his cuss to fight. Just as Zhang Heng reached his target, he tossed his gun at the assant. Instantly, he shielded himself with his saber. Seeing the opportunity, Zhang Hengnded a kick on his wrist, causing him to drop what was in his hands! Within seconds, he alsonded an uppercut on the shooter��s chin.


    After taking on Zhang Heng��s surprise blows, the man was disoriented. He took a few steps back before he fell to the ground. Zhang Heng quickly jumped at him to continue punching. Before he could do so, somebody jumped down from the tree, intending to sh his back! Zhang Heng did not expect a third enemy in the woods. Harry told him that there were only two of them. Now, Zhang Heng knew that Harry was telling the truth when he said that they were attempting to kill him.


    Though he managed to dodge the attack, the third enemy still managed to cut his back. Luckily, it was just a flesh wound. Right now, he had to deal with two enemies at the same time with no weapons whatsoever. He knew some karate, but swordsmanship was the melee skill he trained the longest on. Besides, the enemy ship might arrive on the beach any time now. He couldn��t afford to waste precious seconds on a brawl.


    Suddenly, Zhang Heng saw Anne running towards him.


    ��Go to the beach! Let me deal with them.��


    Anne took out her dagger and licked her lips.


    ��I didn��t have the chance to fight during the previous battle. I hope you��ll allow me a good workout!��

 Chapter 215 - End of the Party

    <h4>Chapter 215: End of the Party</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    Zhang Heng entrusted Anne with the two other enemies while he took off his inner shirt and bandaged the wound on his back. After that, he continued running towards the beach.


    All in all, his entire trip back to the bonfire party took him less than twenty-five minutes.


    Things weren��t looking good right now. The party had been going on for quite a while, and most of the pirates were already gin-soaked. No other pirates sessfully robbed a Spanish treasure ship ever before. Everyone, including Sam, was in an extraordinarily cheery mood.


    In the past, although there had been joint-operations between Nassau��s pirates before, this was the first time six influential pirates coborated with each other. Since the partnership was off to a good start, many thought about joining forces again. They also intended to use this as an opportunity to cultivate stronger bonds amongst themselves.


    The gold was just a few hundred yards from them, almost within grasp, and the fact that so many were gathered together gave them a strong sense of security.


    One had to admit that Jarvis had chosen a good time, a time when the pirates were at their most gullible and susceptible. Other than six people guarding the gold, even the men in charge of patrolling the area couldn��t help but join the celebration.


    The sailors were so drunken on rum that they lost the ability to determine one��s own keep. Pirates from different ships had their arms slung around each other��s shoulders, and they were all mixed up. No thanks to all the intermingling, Zhang Heng couldn��t locate Sam.


    When someone saw that Zhang Heng had returned, they stumbled over to him and urged him to have a drink.


    Instead of epting the bottle, Zhang Heng grabbed a musket from the pirate and fired a shot into the air!


    The camp ran silent for a moment. Then, in all bewilderment, the pirates exploded into roars ofughter, thinking it was a sideshow that Zhang Heng prepared. Some found it so amusing that even they joined in, firing their guns into the sky!


    All at once, gunshots rang all over the ind, along with the pirates�� loud cheers.


    Zhang Heng knew immediately that with the condition they were in, confronting the men wasn��t the brightest option. It was simply unrealistic to expect this group of dazed men to pick up weapons and fight the navy, of all people.


    The only viable option was to inform the captains and have them evacuate their people. As he was looking for Harry, Zhang Heng found a dozen men who were not as sozzled. These men should be reliable enough to navigate the Jackdaw. As for whether the other ships could find enough sober men for their helms, Zhang Heng didn��t know for sure. He couldn��t do anything about it either.


    Zhang Heng found Billy first in the crowd. Unsurprisingly, he was as drunk as a skunk and was sprawled on the ground, snoring away. Zhang Heng shook Billy hard, hoping to wake him up, but the man seemed to be out like a light. It took a good while before he finally responded. Billy opened his mouth but appeared topletely clueless �C like apletely different person from the usually calm and reliable helmsman he was.


    Realizing he couldn��t possibly rely on Billy tonight, Zhang Heng searched for a few more sailors. Most, however, were in bad condition. The Warrior��s crew had been coaxing the others to drink the whole time. Now, the people on the beach were no different than Billy, having drowned themselves in rum for a good two hours. Many of them were worse for wear.


    Zhang Heng looked everywhere, and after a lot of dragging and hustling, was finally able to put together a group of sober sailors. With Ramsay being the main chef of the bonfire, he and his helpers were so busy roasting that they didn��t drink much.


    Zhang Heng pulled Ramsay aside and told him, ��Hurry and find all of our crew. Tell them to gather and tell them... forget it. Tell them I��m about to give out extra money, and those who arete won��t get any. As for those who can��t walk straight, have the others carry them. Remember, you have ten minutes. In ten minutes, I want to see at least fifty people here. Do well, and you��ll get double your portion the next time we distribute the loot.��


    ��Alright,�� Ramsay nodded vigorously. He immediately put down themb he was cutting, wiped his hands on his apron, and hurried off to find his fellow sailors.


    Knowing that the kitchen staff must be sober, Zhang Heng quickly found the cooks of the other ships, including the Warrior��s chef. He asked them to bring their captains here, telling them that he had figured a way to get the gold out.


    The situation was worse than Zhang Heng imagined it to be. He knew that the people on the beach would be drunk, but he never thought that they would be this bloody drunk. Strangely, the Warrior��s men were in the best condition. So, even though the other ships had the numbers, it would be challenging to overpower Jarvis and his men, at least in the short-term. At this rate, it would be easier if everybody just surrendered to the navy.


    Zhang Heng��s only advantage now was that Jarvis didn��t know Zhang Heng knew about his betrayal. The three assants in the woods only made a move because they saw someone sprinting. So, Zhang Heng decided to change tactics and take the opportunity to ovee Jarvis lest it would be difficult to board the ships from the beach.


    Every second that passed was painful, especially when he had no way of knowing when the navy fleet would arrive.


    In the meantime, Zhang Heng used Billy��s clothes as a tourniquet for his wound, even taking his cuss and short musket.


    The person who appeared first was Brook from the Swordfish. He appeared to be in pretty good shape, probably because he was still outraged. Having lost so many of his men, he didn��t have the appetite for drinks and merry food. Because the Warrior and Swordfish were also enemies, Jarvis�� men did not coerce Brook to drink.


    When he came over to see Zhang Heng, he looked somewhat surprised. ��So, you��ve figured out how to get the gold, huh? That��s great! I won��t have to see Jarvis�� annoying face again.��


    Zhang Heng shook his head. ��No, it��s something else.��


    Brook looked at Zhang Heng with raised eyebrows. He was about to ask more when the second captain arrived. It was Captain Kemp of the Shark. He had to be carried all the way to the rendezvous point, and on his way there, he thought removing his trousers would be a good idea. Luckily, the ship��s cook could stop him before he did. The third captain soon arrived in no better condition.


    ck Sam and Jarvis arrivedst. The two chatted andughed away. Sam looked sober for the most part, except for a little stumbling. When he saw Zhang Heng, he shed him his signature smile.


    ��We were just talking about you! Where��d you go? You disappeared when the party started, so we had to ply your helmsman with liquor. To be honest, I like the man. Had you not returned, I would��ve been tempted to recruit him over to my ship.��


    However, Sam suddenly stopped in his tracks as Zhang Heng pulled out a short musket and pointed it at Jarvis. ��I��m sorry to interrupt the fun, but I��m afraid we��ll have to end the party early.��

 Chapter 216 - Patience

    <h4>Chapter 216: Patience</h4>


    ��What��s the meaning of this, Captain Zhang Heng?��


    Jarvis looked at the gun pointed at him, and the smile on his face instantly vanished. He was baffled by Zhang Heng��s actions. A few other captains that stood beside him were equally shocked. However, what Zhang Heng said next shocked them even more.


    ��A fleet of navy battleships and pirate hunters have been following us since we departed Nassau. They are nning to attack us tonight. Our enemies are on their way to this ind as we speak. I believe they would appear anytime now.��


    ��How is that even possible? We��ve sailed for many days, and we would have seen a tail. Unless...�� said ck Prince Sam.


    ��Unless someone betrayed us. The traitor has provided our itinerary to our enemies. With that, they would be able to follow us without being noticed. It was no wonder that someone randomly attacked my ship. I see that you have sold your soul to the nobles. What do you think? You like licking their butts, right, Jarvis?�� said Brook.


    Jarvis was one of the most experienced pirates amongst them and remained calm even after he was used.


    ��I can understand your anger. All the time, you suspected that the ambush had something to do with me. Of course, it is human nature to believe someone the moment they point out a traitor. Luckily, there are more sensible people here,�� replied Jarvis as he turned around and looked at Zhang Heng without waiting for Brook to respond to him.


    ��Captain Zhang. You have made grave usations towards me. I would like to ask if you have any evidence to prove your ims. For all we know, you could have been the one who betrayed us. Or, perhaps, you��re trying to use a dirty trick to make us leave the ind so you can take possession of all that gold!��


    Jarvis�� statement sounded logical, and most of the captains on the beach agreed with him. Especially thest sentence, powerful enough to make everyone suspect Zhang Heng as the traitor. Even Brook started leaning towards Jarvis. Aspared to Zhang Heng, they knew Jarvis longer than him, being one of the longest-serving pirates in Nassau. Amongst the old-timers, Zhang Heng was just a newbie, only arriving in Nassau not too long ago. Technically speaking, this was their first time working with Zhang Heng. When it came to credibility, they had every reason to lean towards Jarvis. No one could say for sure that Zhang Heng wasn��t lying.


    Jarvis was sure good at what he did. Previously, he was confident no one would find out about his rtionship with the navy. He did not expect his n to be eventually exposed by Zhang Heng. After doing some thinking, he figured that the people assigned to guard the little boat must have been captured by Zhang Heng. Since those were his men, he knew that they would never admit to the usation. However, there was still a possibility that they would spill the truth under a death threat.


    With a knife on their throats, they could have been forced to admit to crimes they didn��tmit as long as they got to keep their lives. Jarvis figured that he could convince everyone that the captured men were interrogated under duress. Although doing that would not exonerate himpletely, it was enough to stall them until his allies came to his rescue.


    However, he had to admit that Zhang Heng��s usation had brought with it significant trouble. Initially, he nned to pretend to fight the attacking navy. Now that Sam and the rest of the captains started to suspect him of treason, that n was officially over. With Zhang Heng��s warning in mind, the other captains and pirates would definitely watch out for him. He needed to figure out a way to protect himself when the navy arrived hereter. As of now, he managed to deflect the threat away from him.


    After Jarvis was done defending himself, he looked at Zhang Heng calmly.


    ��We need to investigate this matter first. I have a proposal. Since I am not used of anything, I can ask my men to watch the bay...�� Sam added, but before he could finish, Zhang Heng interrupted him.


    ��All of you have misunderstood my intention. I��m not here to use Captain Jarvis. I��m only here to break the news to you. I don��t care if you guys believe me or not, but I��m leaving with my men right now.��


    ��You want to leave? Now? How about the gold at the bottom of the ocean? And are your men sober enough to even climb on board?�� asked a shocked Brook.


    It was just then that Anne, Dufresne, and the rest of their party emerged from the woods. Anne still held onto her bloody dagger. As for Harry, a few strong pirates took turns carrying him back to the beach. Ramsay, on the other hand, had put in his best efforts to earn the double-reward he would get. He gathered all the Jackdaw��s pirates in the shortest time possible. Most of them were drunk, going on endlessly about how they��d be rich once they sold off the gold.


    ��You guys can keep the gold bars,�� said Zhang Heng while pointing his gun at Jarvis.


    ��I��m sorry, Captain Jarvis. Please ask your men to lower their weapons. I will lower mine once my men are safely back on our ship.��


    Jarvis did not expect Zhang Heng to be so decisive in a critical moment like this. He had no intention to reason at all. Technically, Jarvis had more pirates than Zhang Heng. Should the worst happen, he could order his men to force Zhang Heng to remain on the beach. By doing that, however, everyone would know that he was indeed the traitor. The other captains and pirates would not hesitate to fight him then. Although it was possible that Jarvis wouldn��t take such risks, Zhang Heng took no chances, ensuring that he made his men stand down.


    It had been almost an hour since the little boat that Harry saw left Parrot Ind. The more time passed, the more dangerous it was to remain there. Besides, Zhang Heng had spent an extra fifteen minutes on the beach.


    He knew that it was time to leave this ind immediately. Seeing that Anne and the rest of his men were back, Zhang Heng quickly asked Dufresne to send them back to the Jackdaw. The cramped boat could only fit around ten people, and they would need seven to eight minutes from the beach to the Jackdaw. In other words, a total of thirty minutes were required to take the entire crew back to the ship.


    Thirty minutes was simply too long, and Zhang Heng knew they didn��t have the time. Suddenly, the Warrior��s ferry caught his attention.


    ��I��m going to borrow your ferry,�� Zhang Heng suddenly said.


    Without waiting for Jarvis�� reply, Zhang Heng instructed Anne to approach the boat. Immediately, a group of pirates from the Warrior jumped up and tried to stop her. Though outnumbered, she had no intention to retreat, quickly drawing her saber to resist. On the contrary, Zhang Heng had acted faster. He pointed his gun at Jarvis��s feet and pulled the trigger! The bullet prated his boot, causing him to scream in agony. Next, Zhang Heng took another gun from his men and aimed at Jarvis��s head.


    ��Do not test my patience.��

 Chapter 217 - A Decent… Human Being

    <h4>Chapter 217: A Decent... Human Being</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    Right until Zhang Heng fired his gun, the incident that happened in Nassau not too long ago wasn��t of the minds of the crowd. Zhang Heng eliminated Wilton and his men of two hundred pirates, leaving unscathed. Those who were on the ship after the massacre described the cabin as a ughterhouse. The entire floor was awash with blood.


    Throughout the entire hunting trip, Zhang Heng had been inconspicuous to the point that most forgot he was a man of his word. In a life-threatening situation like this, Zhang Heng had no interest in ying the Werewolves of Miller Hollow with Jarvis. He had done his part by informing Sam and the rest of the captains about this incident. Having them believe what he said was out of his control altogether.


    From the gunshot, Jarvis saw Zhang Heng��s determination, which was why he wasted no time asking his pirates to make way for Anne. He only epted the pardon after he figured out that he made enough wealth as a pirate. However, he would not be able to return to civilian life since he was a wanted criminal in all the colonies. Hiding from the authorities like a scared kitten, his heart was filled with fear whenever he returned to his hometown.


    Now that he finally had the opportunity to clear his name by eliminating all of Nassau��s famous pirates, he could eventually return to his hometown with pride and glory. Before he could do that, though, he had to stay alive until the navy came to rescue him.


    Jarvis never once doubted Zhang Heng��s determination. From the beginning, Zhang Heng��s gun stayed glued to Jarvis�� head. Even though Sam and the other captains tried to talk Zhang Heng out of it, he failed to change his mind. Such determination caused rm bells to ring among the others about what was to happen next. Sam nned to send his people to set up an observation point in the woods, wanting to monitor the ships that sailed toward this ind. At the same time, Brook was left in a profound dilemma. Due to previous bad experiences, Jarvis was one that Brook could never ever trust. For this reason, Zhang Heng trusted him most right now.


    If Brook chose to leave, he wouldn��t get his hands on the gold bars. Throughout the entire trip, the Swordfish suffered the most damagepared to the rest of the pirate ships. His ship��s hull was in a wreck, and repairing the broken masts wasn��t easy as well. It was hard for him to ept he wouldn��t get a single penny out of an operation that cost him so dearly.


    In the end, Brook decided that the value of gold didn��t outweigh the value of his life. Immediately, he sent someone to inform his men about the impending attack. That said, he didn��t n to stray too far from the ind. He would linger nearby and observe the situation. The remaining two captains were still in a dilemma, this especially true for the one getting drunk at the earlier celebrations. Even the wave of a gold bar in front of him wouldn��t make him budge.


    Time passed swiftly, and soon, every captain had their own ns. To prevent further chaos, they decided to refrain from telling their men the details of the impending attack. Sam did best, having done a shipload of things with the limited time they had. He first retrieved the cannons he set on the beach before handpicking a few sober pirates to set up an observation post in the woods.


    Although setting up a post at this time would be pointless, it was better than sitting there doing nothing nheless. The spotters would be able to spot a ship from a distance if it was day, giving enough time to inform the captains about an impending attack. Unfortunately, it was in the dark of night, and visibility was extremely low. The fleet would be too close once spotted, and it would all be toote.


    The terrain on Parrot Ind granted countless advantages when they ambushed the Spanish treasure ship. Now, it had be their biggest inconvenience. The tall ridge blocked them from viewing the port.


    Sam actually sided more with Zhang Heng, having worked with him before, after all. Between Zhang Heng and Jarvis, one of them had to be lying. If Zhang Heng was the one, all they needed to do was to keep an eye on the Jackdaw, and the gold would be safe. However, if Jarvis was the one that betrayed them all, then they were in serious trouble.


    Less than half the pirates were in any condition to fight, and those who could, couldn��t think straight. After the massive battle, all their ships suffered a certain extent of damage, not to mention out of ammunition as well. They would lose almost instantly if the navy appeared in front of them right now. Zhang Heng knew that they were in bad shape. That was why he wanted to leave the ind as soon as possible.


    Sam did not me Zhang Heng for abandoning them and fleeing on his own. Judging the Jackdaw��s current condition, Zhang Heng barely had enough people to operate the ship, let alone sparing some of his men to fight off the enemies. He was left with no other option but to leave the ind.


    Meanwhile, all the Jackdaw��s pirates had boarded their ship. Harry and Ramsay did a fantastic job, managing to gather most of the ship��splement in ten minutes amid the chaos. Unfortunately, two pirates from Jackdaw remained missing.


    Zhang Heng couldn��t afford to wait any longer. He was thest to leave the ind. Seeing that the ferry was here, he pushed Jarvis onto it before he got on.


    Anne and a few other pirates rowed the boat with all their might. As for Dufresne, he had temporarily relieved Billy��s position at the helm and tookmand of pirates still sober enough to understand a sentence. Releasing the mainsail with a whoosh, they retrieved the anchor and prepared to leave the ind. Every second counted if they wanted to stay alive. Once the ferry was well on her way, Jarvis finally dropped the act.


    ��How did you find my men in the woods?��


    ��No. Technically, your people found my people in the woods.��


    ��What an interesting coincidence. You do know you can��t be running forever, right? Even if you manage to escape this time, there will always be a next time. It��s extremely rare that pirates have good endings. Take a look at Honegg, for instance. He now has power over the cannons set up to protect the ind! He said he��s done with risking his life as a pirate. If the Red Coat from Scond sniffs him out, he would have no ce to run.��


    ��I agree with you to a certain extent. But, this can��t be the only reason you betrayed the people on the beach. Many saw you as their friend, your brother.��


    ��You will need some courage to begin a new life, young man. I shall cut off every garotting of my turbulent past. Only by doing that will I be able to live a better life in the new world. You have not seen the way those people look at us, Zhang Heng! We are like savages, ferocious beasts to them! You see, the letter of pardon isn��t of importance. I have to wipe my te clean and leave everything behind here. If I do that, then I will be able to be a de... a decent human being.��


    ��I hope you get what you want.��


    The ferry finally arrived at the Jackdaw. Zhang Heng kept away his gun and grabbed the rope beside him. Just as the Jackdaw was about to leave, a ck shadow appeared near the ind.

 Chapter 218 - I Will Take You Home

    <h4>Chapter 218: I Will Take You Home</h4>


    Dufresne started getting nervous the moment he saw the ck shadow.


    ��What should we do? Are we going to attack them?��


    ��How many sober cannoneers do we have?��


    Zhang Heng and Anne were probably the only ones that could remain calm in a critical situation like this. They disyed uncanny fearlessness even as the fleet of battleships charged towards the ind furiously.


    ��Four. I was a cannoneerst time. I can take up the position if you need me...��


    ��It��s pointless to fight with them with sticks and stones. Release the mainsail. Let��s get to them before they get into formation.��


    ��They have seven battleships! How are we going to fight?��


    ��We don��t have many choices here. It��s do or die right now. They will sink us if we stay on. We will also lose our window to attack if they get into their battle formation and seal off the port. As long as we are fast enough to charge into the middle of their formation, I��m pretty sure that only two or three ships would attack us since they need to be careful and not shoot their allies. I believe the Jackdaw is tough enough to withstand the onught.��


    When all was said and done, Zhang Heng took a glimpse of the beach. The pirates had realized that a fleet of navy battleships was moving fast towards them. Immediately, chaos and panic broke among the crowd. These the best pirates Nassau had ever seen, gathered here for amon goal, doing something that no one had done before. If only they��d not gotten drunk and prepare respective ships, they might have a chance to defeat the navy. Unfortunately, just a singlepse of judgment sealed their fate. The celebrated pirates were reduced to running and screaming headless flies.


    The only pirate that hadn��t given up was ck Prince Sam, mustering up his people as he attempted to aim the cannons at their enemies. The fact that he was the only one who retaliated made him seem a little lonely. On the other hand, Jarvis boarded a small boat and was ordered to row back to the ind. However, he changed his mind the moment he saw the navy fleet dawning on Parrot Ind. He quickly changed direction and rowed towards the navy, waving his hands and screaming out to them.


    At this point, Zhang Heng wasn��t bothered about his allies anymore. He turned around and looked at his men. Panic and despair had hit the crew hard. Helpless and afraid, they didn��t know what they should do if they wished to live to see another day. Suddenly, Zhang Heng heard a deep,manding voice in the dark.


    ��Don��t worry. I will take you home.��


    ...


    The fleet of battleships moved faster than expected. Even though the Swordfish decided to leave Parrot Ind, they were still attempting to gather all their men. It was toote for them to escape. Brook��s face had turned pale with the Jackdaw being his onlyfort. Although Zhang Heng and his men got on the ship earlier than them, it seemed like it was toote for them to get away as well.


    To everyone surprise, not only did the Jackdaw not retreat, but they now charged at the navy without respite. Such a suicidal move shocked everyone.


    Worden, the navy fleetmander, stood on the deck, watching the Jackdaw calmly.


    ��Is that the corvette we lost earlier?��


    ��Her exterior seems different. I believe the pirates modified it. But yes, sir. This was indeed the Glory, a corvette we lost during the battle of Charleston,�� replied the chief officer after taking a good look at the Jackdaw.


    Worden kept shaking his head as he replied emotionlessly, ��This corvette no longer deserves her name of the Glory. Elmer, the idiot, has chucked the glory of the navy to a bunch of bandits! Now, I have to clean up his mess. Open fire at them right away. I want them all dead tonight.��


    ��Erm...��


    ��What��s wrong? Is there a problem?��


    ��Captain Jarvis�� boat is still close to them. If we open fire now...��


    ��Have you just graduated from navy school? Didn��t you hear my orders?! I told you to kill everyone! Everyone! That includes Jarvis and his barbaric beasts.��


    ��But... I thought they were ours? Captain Jarvis provided us with all the information that we need. I heard he has an agreement with Count Lambert. After we eliminate the pirates, Count Lambert is supposed to grant him and his men immunity! After that, they will serve the queen...��


    The chief officer was interrupted by Worden.


    ��Open your eyes and have a good look, Chris! Look hard and long! Those creatures on the beach aren��t humans. They are a herd of wild beasts! Do you know what they did to Count Bellomonte and governor-general Watt in Charleston? Oh right, and the idiot Elmer. Let me tell you! They took over the Scarborough and killed every single man on board. I��m talking about seven hundred navy sailors! That excludes the coteral of innocent citizens killed during the senseless raid.��


    ��Do you know why Count Lambert asked for me specifically to deal with sea-threats, kid?��


    ��Because you are the best at dealing with pirates?��


    ��No. Because I never negotiate with wild beasts. I know a few aristocrats who said that we should deal with them in the most humane way possible. I can guarantee you; I��m not the kind of person to be merciful to such a lot. What makes you think I��ll allow a bunch of thugs immunity, let alone returning them to civilized society? After all the blood on their hands, all the pain and suffering they��ve caused, we grant them a good life as punishment?! Let��s just pretend nothing happen then!


    ��So, no. I will never allow such good to happen to them. Over my dead body! So, do me a favor and kill everything that moves out there! No one will know what happens tonight except for us. Our mission will beplete, and Count Lambert will get to keep his reputation. Now, are my orders clear?��


    ��Yes, sir.��


    Chris gulped.


    ��Excellent! Let��s begin.��


    By now, everyone knew that Jarvis was the traitor in question. The pirates from the Warrior started fighting the other pirates as well. It came as no surprise that they were all still sober. Knowing a fight wasing, they had kept their weapons close to them. From the very start, they had the upper hand in the situation.


    However, they were outnumbered not too long after that. As time passed, Sam and the other captains managed to hold the line, albeit barely. They started to turn from being defensive to offensive. The pirates from the Warrior began to panic as Jarvis, their leader, wasn��t with them. Besides, whatever they were to their fellow pirates doing was uncouth, nothing to be proud of. Soon, their morale diminished, and they were defeated. Jarvis wouldn��t risk his life by heading to the beach to help his men to fight back all the other pirates.


    His only option left was to row to the navy as fast as his arms could muscle the oars.

 Chapter 219 - Assault

    <h4>Chapter 219: Assault</h4>


    Jarvis felt safer the further away he was from the beach. Since he was now away from the ind, there was nothing Sam and the other captains could do to him. His boat was getting closer and closer to the navy ship, and once he got on, he would shake off all threats and bid his troubled past farewell. He had been just granted a new lease of life. Just when he was sure that nothing could touch him anymore, he saw the cannons of the navy creaking out of their shutters!


    That shocked Jarvis and without thinking, he quickly turned away from the navy ship. At the same time, he saw the Jackdaw on a collision course with the navy ship. He never thought that Zhang Heng and his men were bold enough to attack the navy even after knowing that it would be pointless. Jarvis med the Jackdaw for condemning him to such a dangerous situation, and so, wasn��t slightly bothered if Zhang Heng decided to fight or retreat.


    The navy would unquestionably fire on the Jackdaw if they saw it on a ramming course. Jarvis was now in an awkward position. Caught in the middle of two raging behemoths, he continued to row to the navy, making sure that he stayed as far as possible from the Jackdaw.


    Minutester, the cannons of the navy ship were in position. Without hesitating, they fired first, having the Jackdaw bracing themselves from the iing cannonballs. Worden did not ask all the ships to fire at once knowing it was a bad idea. In this operation, there were only two navy ships. The rest of the five armored ones belonged to the pirate hunters. When it came to pure discipline, the navy was no match. Luckily, the battle would prove easy this time. Although having the numbers, the pirates had just undergone a fierce battle, and most were drunk silly as well. Sprawled on the beach, they were all but target practice on easy mode. All they needed to do right now was to sink the ships of the pirates, and they would bepletely incapacitated.


    The only surprise element in this battle was the Jackdaw, and the navy was thrilled to arrive in the nick of time. Seeing that the Jackdaw was still nearby parrot Parrot Ind, Worden wasn��t one to let them just leave like that.


    Soon, the second navy ship fired their guns. Zhang Heng was ultra-focused right now, electing not to sail in a straight line. Though it would allow him to reach his destination in the shortest time possible, his ship would be severely damaged. Right now, there were no avable cannoneers on the Jackdaw and they were in no position to retaliate either. All they could do was break the defense of their enemies and leave before they sank their ship.


    This battle would put the Jackdaw��s defensive capabilities to the ultimate test. It was important that it dodged as many cannonballs as possible. Zhang Heng knew that he couldn��t possibly avoid all of them. What he could do, though, was to take on the lighter attacks and avoid the ones that could cause critical damage to the Jackdaw. The helmsman yed an essential role at this moment where life hung by a thread.


    So far, the best helmsman that Zhang Heng encountered had to be Hutcheson. Brook came in only second to him. As for Zhang Heng, his LV2 sailing skills were only considered above average whenpared to the rest of Nassau��s pirates. That said, he was left with little choice. Amongst the sober pirates here, his seamanship was the best. Besides, he was known to handle such stressful moments with finesse and calm.


    Without Zhang Heng saying a word, the crew of the Jackdaw was all ready to brace for their enemies. Anne was the only one who chose to stay beside Zhang Heng. He wanted her to hunker down somewhere safe, but he was only responded by a smile on her face.


    Without the slightest warning whatsoever, the first cannonballnded on the deck with a boom! The massive impact blew a gaping hole, sending shards of wood flying all over the ce. The impact had shaken the Jackdaw to her core, and as a result, her keel started to take damage as well. This was just the beginning of a long and unforgiving survival game. As more ships joined the battle, the Jackdaw was now under an immeasurable amount of pressure and stress.


    Though the navy��s cannons were not as powerful as the Spanish treasure ship, they had the advantage in numbers. During the previous battle, they had the Swordfish to draw the enemies�� attention. This left them to suffer the brunt of the Spanish treasure ship. Right now, the Jackdaw was left alone to face the navy. With their firepower expanding by the minute, the Jackdaw was in an even more precarious state than it had been previously.


    Therger the threat was, the calmer Zhang Heng was required to behave. While the Jackdaw was under fire, Zhang Heng tried his best to look for a window out of this sticky situation. He even ignored notifications sent by the system. The chosen escape point wasn��t just a random ce. It was a spot that the wind blew at. That wasn��t something people would usually do while battling at sea. Under normal circumstances, both ships in the fight would position themselves into the wind. By doing that, it made their attacks more potent.


    However, the Jackdaw couldn��t attack right now and it was pointless doing that. On the contrary, thick smoke from the enemies�� cannons would help conceal it since Zhang Heng elected to sail with a tailwind. Now that the Jackdaw was in bad shape, capitalizing on every environmental advantage that presented itself was essential in surviving the fight.


    Meanwhile, Sam fired his cannons from the beach. Technically, it was a bad time to attack the navy vessels. Having just approachingnd, some distance stilly between them and the beach. In other words, Sam��s attack wouldn��t be that effective and their ammunition was limited as well. He hadunched his attack now, intending to assist the Jackdaw. Zhang Heng was the one who told them about Jarvis�� betrayal. Although it was toote, and the majority doubted Zhang Heng, he was still the one who warned them about Jarvis. It was only thanks to him that they avoided getting stabbed in the back.


    Right now, Sam tried to repay Zhang Heng for his good deeds. The least he could do was distract the navy. He knew that saving ammunition and waiting until the navy arrived on the beach was useless. All who were there would probably be killed by the navy tonight. Nevertheless, it wasn��t Sam��s style to just sit there and wait for death to descend upon him. After emptying all the ammunition he had on the enemies, Sam drew his cuss and cried,


    ��My brothers, are we willing to fight like warriors and be buried under the sea, or do you fancy a public hanging by the colony��s port? Would you allow your dposing body to rot in the sun and be devoured by flies? Do you want to be rejected eternally by the people of the colony?!��


    ��F*ck the navy! F*ck Jarvis!�� chanted a pirate.


    Secondster, the pirate��s head was hit by a bullet; his body falling to the ground with a thud and his rage-filled eyes open wide. More and more started to shout in anger, where even the drunk pirates did their best to get up and grab whatever weapons they could find. After a while, everyone gathered around Sam. They knew they were all going to die tonight, but they were unwilling to die as cowards.


    ��Kill the traitors first and take back our ship. We shall let the navy taste our wrath!��


    The moment Sam finished, his men started charging towards the Warrior��s crew like ravenous lions.

 Chapter 220 - Perhaps, I Could Try?

    <h4>Chapter 220: Perhaps, I Could Try?</h4>


    The Jackdaw had never been attacked by so many cannons before, and within a matter of minutes, her hull was riddled with holes. Throughout the entire battle, Zhang Heng managed to outperform himself, dodging most of the lethal shots. Right now, they were only a quarter of a mile from the navy. The attacks grew fiercer as The Jackdaw drew closer to them, with cannonballs raining down on them like hailstones.


    ��Captain! Captain! We can��t go on like this! The Jackdaw will be in pieces before we can get close!�� shouted a desperate Dufresne.


    ��Repair the damage! It��s toote to back down now! Do you really think they will let us turn around and flee?�� asked Zhang Heng as he guided the ship through choppy waters.


    A few moments ago, a cannonball flew past Zhang heng��s elbow, the shockwave it produced stunned him silly. He and Anne were at the most dangerous spot on the ship. All his men could hunker down except him, having to make sure that his hands were always dancing with the wheel. The only thing he could do was pray that the Lucky Rabbit Foot was in effect.


    ��Even if we manage to break through their defensive lines, the Jackdaw can��t get far. Look at her state, Captain! We��ve lost a topsail and a mainsail!��


    ��We will discuss this problem after we get through their defensive line.��


    Soon after that, his voice was ovee by the sound of deafening cannons firing at them. Dufresne realized that this would be the ship��s most precarious moment. He ran out instantly, pulling pirates that were still sober to fix every damage he could see. Even Ramsay turned acting carpenter, looking for everything around him to patch up the ailing boat. Unfortunately, the crack-team of workmen couldn��t keep up against the ever-increasing holes no matter how quick they worked. Helplessness began setting in.


    It was then when Zhang Heng��s strategy finally worked. After a few volleys of continuous firing, the entire area was covered in thick smoke. It was time for the Jackdaw to enter the smokescreen. Now, the navy would be staring into a grey mist, let alone aim at anything. Naturally, Worden wasn��t very pleased. They were now in perfect alignment to deal a fatal blow to Jackdaw, now that they were close enough. If they waited until the Jackdaw exited the smokescreen, it would be impossible for some of the ships to attack as they would emerge misaligned to their cannons.


    Wanting none of it, Worden ordered his men to continue firing into the thick fog. That said, the Jackdaw could rx a little for now.


    At the same time, the battle on the beach was reaching its climax. Since Jarvis�� betrayal had been exposed earlier than expected, pirates from the Warrior were well prepared to face the inevitable battle. Still, they didn��t manage to hold the upper hand for too long, soon to be rendered passive. Under themand of ck Prince Sam, every pirate fearlessly charged at their enemies like stampeding rhinos. Since they were severely outnumbered, the Warrior��s pirates were in deep trouble. They could only hope that the navy woulde for them after dealing with the Jackdaw. Unfortunately for them, that wish didn��te true.


    ��Sir, the battle on the beach is wrapping up! I think the Warrior��s men are about to lose. The remaining pirates might bring us a lot of trouble if we let them get back to their ships.�� said the chief officer after he put down his monocr.


    ��Inform the Miranda and Warrior. Let them deal with the corvette we lost in the smoke. We have damaged them severely just now. A few hits, and that��ll be the end of her. The rest of us will prioritize attacking the pirates on the beach. The first thing we need to do is destroy all their ships,�� Worden muttered while rubbing his chin.


    ��Aye, sir!��


    Although the Jackdaw was concealed in the smoke, Zhang Heng was sharp enough to detect that their enemies had been significantly weakened. However, he could hear their cannons firing again. Zhang Heng guessed that something must have happened to the beach. The navy must have turned some of their fire and focussed it there. It would seem this was the best time for the Jackdaw to flee the ce.


    Right now, they were extremely close to the enemy. At such close proximity, it would be impossible that he could escape detection. All of a sudden, the fog cleared just enough for Zhang Heng to see his enemy pointing their cannons at him. The enemy, too, had noticed the Jackdaw, and without hesitation, opened fire! In such moments where life hung by a thread, all of Zhang Heng��s sailing skills were rendered useless. There were no dodging attacks when both ships were so close to each other.


    All he could do right now was to point the Jackdaw to the beach and sail there full speed ahead. Dufresne led a few men to fix a massive hole in a cabin under the main deck. Without warning, the spot that they just patched blew up in their faces, and a cannonball squashed one of the pirates�� heads. Before they could react, more and more cannonballs wereunched at them. The hole started to let seawater in.


    The flooding water into the cabin gushed at everyone with mighty force. It threw Dufresne off bnce, and his head hit a barrel beside him. He went unconscious, only to wake up a momentter after he almost drowned. Dufresne got up and touched his forehead. It was bleeding profusely, stinging from the salty seawater. Dazed and confused, he vaguely saw broken pieces of wood floating everywhere around him. With the water up to their knees, his injured meny sitting at a corner, crying for help. He then looked to his left and saw a hole that was as big as a basin, filling up the ship fast with seawater. He shook off the pain in his throbbing head and quickly grabbed a floating board to fix it.


    With Dufresne��s initiative, the pirates that weren��t too injured jumped in to help. They managed to plug the leak in the shortest time possible, but the water level still didn��t go down.


    ��There��s one more hole at the end of the ship. I think it��s behind a wine cab, and my hands can��t reach it,�� said one of the pirates.


    ��Let��s work together then. We will have to first move the cab.��


    Instantly, a few pirates went into action, trying to pick up the fallen cab. Unfortunately, it wouldn��t budge, lodged securely in the hole it fell in. The water had now reached their waists, and if nothing was done, the Jackdaw would sink indefinitely.


    ��Can we cut it into half?��


    Dufresne asked a bald pirate standing beside him, the only qualified carpenter on this ship.


    ��Yes, we can, but it will take some time. I don��t think we have enough,�� replied the carpenter after a short moment of hesitation.


    Just when thest drops of hope were almost dried up, a young man spoke up.


    ��About that... perhaps, I could give it a try?��

 Chapter 221 - No Where To Run, Jarvis

    <h4>Chapter 221: No Where To Run, Jarvis</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    ��You?�� asked a skeptical Dufresne.


    ��I��m small enough to squeeze in, which means I can fix the hole without moving the cab,�� Harry replied.


    Dufresne looked at the carpenter, who then turned to Harry for a good look. Then he nodded.


    ��It��s possible... theoretically.��


    ��Mr. Dufresne, please let me try. Otherwise, we��re all going to die here!��


    ��How about the wound on your arm?��


    ��It��s no big deal. I hurt it earlier while running because I was too afraid. Don��t worry about it,�� Harry chucked while swinging his arms to prove that he was fine.


    ��Quick! Take off your shirt.��


    After Harry took off his shirt, Dufresne tore a sleeve off and wrapped it around a cork. He then passed it to Harry.


    ��Use this to plug the hole. If you think it��s not big enough, wrap some more cloth around the cork.��


    ��Understood!��


    ��You want to be a part of the Jackdaw, right? Finish this task, and I will suggest that the captain take you in as an official crew. Now, be careful.��


    Harry was ted when he heard that.


    ��Leave it to me!��


    Immediately, he took a deep breath and dived into the water.


    ......


    On another note, Jarvis had invested a lot of time making sure he got as far as he could from the Jackdaw. After a long while, he finally managed to get close to the navy ship. From his little boat, Jarvis could see Worden and Chris on the main deck. This was his first time meeting Worden. All this time, he had been contacting Chris. Throughout the entire operation, Jarvis had been leaking the pirates�� ns to Chris, knowing he was a high-ranking officer of the navy. When Jarvis came under the shadow of the hull, he put down the oars and waved to Chris, who strangely avoided eye contact.


    ��Are you ashamed?!�� Worden harrumphed.


    ��No, sir.��


    Though Chris��s face burned hot, he still managed to hold himself most confidently.


    ��Remember, they are a herd of primitive beasts. There��s no shame in fooling them. Think about the people they killed. You shouldn��t feel the slightest bit of guilt! I want you to lift your head and look him in the eyes.��


    Chris longed to disobey the order, but he did it anyway. Jarvis was still waving his hands at him, d to have finally caught their attention. It wasn��t too long before Jarvis realized the ice-cold stareing out of Chris�� eyes. He quickly caught on, sensing that something wasn��t right. Being a legendary pirate of Nassau, of course he could read Chris��s mind. Whether he wanted it or not, he had thrown in everything get to where he was today. There was no turning back now.


    The moment he betrayed ck Prince Sam and the rest of the captains, he knew that he could no longer return as a captain. Besides, most of his men were killed in the battle. Now, he was all alone in the vast ocean. Jarvis initially thought that he could get his immunity documents, thereby severing his past for good. But even if he managed to leave his life behind him, the door to the new world seemed to be permanently shut as well. Right now, he had nowhere else to go.


    ��Great! Now, I want you to kill him. Tell Count Lambert that Captain Jarvis was killed in battle. We shall honor our word and allow him to return to a civilized society. That only applies to his dead body, of course.��


    1Jarvis then saw the cannons on the main deck aiming at him. If he wanted to, there was still enough time to abandon the boat and swim away. After all, the navy was focusing on the Jackdaw and the beach. If he jumped into the water, he could probably dodge the cannonballs. Despite everything that could be said about him, Jarvis valiantly stayed on little boat. He knew that he would never be able to live in this world anymore, even if he managed to survive.


    The cannoneer lit up the fuse once Chris gave the order to fire. The first projectile missed its target. So, the cannoneer readjusted the cannon and retook aim. As luck would have it, the second shot missed as well. The little boat rocked and shuddered violently as the massive cannonballs flew past at supersonic speed! Still, Jarvis sat like a statue, unwilling to yield. The third time around, the cannoneer took half a minute to aim at Jarvis. Finally, he fired!


    The flying cannonballnded directly on Jarvis. Seconds after that, his body surfaced, but no one seemed to care about the man. The death of Captain Jarvis was just a tiny interlude in the long symphony of battle.


    After that, the navy and pirate-hunters started firing on the pirate ships docked onshore. ck Prince Sam used the swiftest way in dealing with the remaining pirates from the Warrior, gathering whatever of his men were left and rushing back his own ship. Casualties were mounting, and right now, they severelycked men to fight off the navy and the pirate hunters. The cannoneers they had were enough for only two ships, so after a short discussion, they decided to gather all that could still fight into one vessel.


    Just when they alighted a small boat and were about to row to the nearest ship, the navy and pirate huntersunched a massive volley of artillery at them. This time around, they received their reckoning.


    They were forced to watch mes engulf their ships. The first one that sank was Brook��s Swordfish. Having been severely damaged by the Spanish treasure ship, the carpenters had only fixed half of the damage. As Jarvis had personally ryed this piece of information to the navy, the Swordfish would naturally be their first target. Brook knew all too well that his ship would be first to go. Still, he could not help but feel upset. After all, they had been through countless battles together, and his heart was like an anchor.


    The next toe under siege was the Tigershark. Its strength was only second to the Quidah and was initially one of the ships that ck Prince Sam and the pirates intended to board. Before they could even get there, the enemies had started bombarding it with cannonballs. Luckily, its hull was tougher than the Swordfish. Itsted longer than the former, managing to buy the pirates some valuable time.


    In the end, ck Prince Sam decided that he would give up boarding the Quidah because it was simply too far away from them. Immediately, he asked his men to turn around. Now, their new heading was to the Warrior. Previously, their crew were thinkong of leaving the ce after their betrayal had been found out. They were parked closest to the beach. Unfortunately, things had gone south, and now, they were unable to board. This gave ck Prince Sam and the rest a fighting chance instead of running away.


    Though the oue of this battle was no rocket science, they insisted on fighting for honor, till life��s very end.

 Chapter 222 - Fury

    <h4>Chapter 222: Fury</h4>


    ��Are we safe now?��


    By some miracle, the Jackdaw didn��t sink even after two rounds of intense shelling. Instead, she limped clumsily out of the harbor.


    Anne dislodged arge splinter stuck in her shoulder and asked, ��Are we safe?��


    When the armored ship opened fire, Zhang Heng had to stay by his post, so Anne shielded him. Although fortunate enough to steer clear of the explosion, the shrapnel from the sts was an even more significant threat. Thus, the red-haired girl bore the brunt of all the flying debris.


    It wasn��t just her busted shoulder. Her arm, calves, and cheeks also had varying degrees of chaffs and lesions. Yet, despite the pain, she didn��t whine orin.


    Zhang Heng did thank her �C with the rtionship they shared; there was no need for verbal expression. Instead, without saying a word, he took off his shirt and bandaged her wound with it.


    ��I don��t think so. If they didn��t have the upper hand, they wouldn��t have just let us off like that. However, they won��t need so many ships to fight the people on the beach, so I believe they will split up and send some after us.��


    As if a demented prophecy, the silhouette of two armored ships emerged amid the thick fog of war!


    They must have just turned around since they were pretty far away from the Jackdaw. Nevertheless, they caught up to ailing ship pretty quickly.


    Zhang Heng wouldn��t typically worry about having a tail. With the Jackdaw��s imposing firepower and a crew to match, he could easily win a fight against two pursuing enemies. Even if the situation did go south, they could just turn away and escape.


    Right now, the Jackdaw was in terrible condition. They were understaffed, having practically no gunners on board. At least three masts were damaged, and the leak in the hull was getting worse. The flood had quickly risen by three feet and was already at the danger line.


    Under such circumstances, it would take a miracle for them to make it back to Nassau. They couldn��t fire, and they couldn��t flee. How were they supposed to fight? This was the same situation that hit Dufresne. Even if the Jackdaw could break through the naval blockade, she wouldn��t go any further in such a hamstrung state.


    Zhang Heng couldn��t see the light at the end of the tunnel, but since he had put everything he had on this mission, he wouldn��t havee unprepared. He put Anne in charge of the rudder after borrowing her dagger. Then, he went up to the mainmast. Back when he was on the Sea Lion, he was Roscoe��s apprentice for some time and was no stranger to climbing high structures.


    Even though he hadn��t done anything of that sort since he became captain, he wasn��t wholly rusty yet. mping his dagger between his teeth, he scaled the rickety ropedder as quickly as he could. Once he was on the top at the crow��s nest, he saw the scratched surface where an ancient Celtic name was once engraved.


    Zhang Heng took the dagger out of his mouth. Ironically, being the one who crossed out the name, he was the one to carve it back on again.


    Initially, the n was tomunicate with the so-called ��ancient Celtic god�� only after he got the Tulewood box, the safest method he could think of. Now he had no other choice.


    Zhang Heng had quite a few game props in his possession, but the only thing that could be of assistance in this situation was the yet to be identified seashell.


    However, nothing out of the ordinary happened after he finished engraving the name, and the two armored ships drew even closer to the Jackdaw, their gunners ready to light the fuses.


    Time was running out fo Zhang Heng. That said, he wasn��t inclined to think that Betty, the ancient Celtic god, must have abandoned him. In fact, he had always suspected that the god��s objective back on the ghost ship wasn��t Seth, but him, the captain himself.


    Anne��s sudden presence interrupted the god��s appearance. As a result, it had to give up on Zhang Heng and targeted Seth instead since he was all alone. From the beginning, her goal had never changed. There was a reason why she instructed Seth to steal the three notebooks. She intended to use him as bait for Zhang Heng, knowing it would draw his attention.


    But if that was the case, then why didn��t she look for him again the moment he got the shell?


    Zhang Heng quickly reevaluated his earlier conversation with Seth. He recalled the abrupt storm they encountered on their way back to Nassau, and he remembered Seth saying that anger was needed to control it.


    Zhang Heng��s brows furrowed. Perhaps it was because his parents were never around, and he was part of the grow-up-real-fast group, that he ended up more emotionally stable.


    There were times when he got mad, of course, but ever since he realized that anger only solved nothing, he rarely med up at every other matter that annoyed him.


    When Wei Jiangyang got cheated on his first job, his friends brought him for a night out. After having a little too much to drink, he told Zhang Heng, ��Zhang Heng, I think that the most incredible thing about you is that: you see this cruel world for what it is, yet you��re not disappointed by it. How do you do it? You��re just like a bystander... you are good at everything. It��s just that sometimes, you��re just too calm that it gets boring.


    Zhang Heng also knew that his SAN value fell slower sometimes, but he never thought that it would be a problem for him someday.


    He looked back at his life, finding that no particr baggage weighed him down, nor was there the taste of bitterness in his heart. He harbored no hate towards anybody, hence the cavalier disposition.


    This was going to be tricky.


    Based on his deductions, not only did he need anger to summon the storms, but it would require continual waves of rage to keep the storm going. Seth��s anger came and went quickly, which was why the storm onlysted for a short while.


    So, if Zhang Heng wanted to break away from the two ships, he would need a storm that couldst at least thirty minutes.


    Zhang Heng had to find another way. He took in a deep breath and squeezed his eyes shut.


    Half a minuteter, the bows of the armored ships had almoste up to the stern of the Jackdaw. Suddenly, a sh of lightning as bright as the sun shed across the night sky, striking a mast of one of the armored ships! Although no one was standing near it, the crew was shaken, terrified by the incident.


    However, that was only just the beginning. Thunder rumbled along the horizon, and the wind started billowing from all directions. At the same time, the purple bolts of lightning grew more frequent akin to a discharging power grid. The calm seas became blustery, battering the wooden hulls with fury. Seeing that their target was mere feet away, the armored ship��s captain gave the order to open fire.


    However, a massive wave suddenly came crashing onto the side of their ship, knocking the cannoneers off their posts with a mighty force!

 Chapter 223 - Successful Escape

    <h4>Chapter 223: Sessful Escape</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    The Jackdaw��s pirates waited patiently in the cabin, staring at the fallen cab. Harry had been under the water for a minute and a half. An ordinary person could only hold their breath underwater for about thirty to forty seconds. For those who lived by the sea from a very young age, they could stay submerged for two to three minutes. Considering that Harry needed to fix the hole while holding his breath, his oxygen consumption would increase and should be reaching his limit now.


    There was no still response from below. Then, the pirates saw that the water had stopped rising. In other words, Harry must have sessfully blocked the hole. The pirates started cheering and patting each other��s backs. Soon, the cheers faded off as they realized that Harry hadn��t emerged. Immediately, Dufresne took off his shirt and jumped into the water.


    Harry didn��t disappoint, managing to fix the hole as promised. Unfortunately, when he was about to head back, his leg was caught a fishing. Desperate to flee himself, Harry did everything he could, but only got entangled more. Despite his best efforts, he couldn��t get rid of the. Soon, he started choking for breath, and strength slowly sapped away from his muscles.


    Due to theck of oxygen, Harry��s mind went nk.


    ��Is this where I die? I should have told them that I couldn��t do the job. But then again...e to think about it, I think I��m the only one capable of fixing the hole. If I didn��t do it, the Jackdaw would have sunk...��


    Harry��s lungs burned and could see his world turning darker and darker. His hands and legs stopped moving. That was all he remembered.


    He regained consciousness after feeling someone pping his face and pumping his chest. Immediately, Harry vomited a mouthful of seawater as he sputtered and gasped for dear air. The next thing he remembered was somebody lifting him onto their shoulders, and pirates chanting his name.


    ��Is this what it feels like to be a hero? Hmm... I think I like this feeling a lot,�� thought Harry as he scratched his head in a daze.


    Before he could relish the fame, there was a violent jolt, and he was thrown back into the water! The pirates around him were shocked as well. Suddenly, the Jackdaw started shaking and vibrating. It was so bad that nobody could stand on their feet. The roof started to crumble, and the holes and cracks they just fixed started to tear open again.


    Dufresne quickly ordered two men to pump all the seawater from the cabin. As for the rest, they were instructed to get down to fixing the holes and cracks again. Everyone in the cabin was tasked with something to do. Soon, the situation stabilized, and when Dufresne was sure that they were out of danger, he ran up to the main deck in a hurry.


    The moment he got outside, he was dumbfounded by what he saw. After he spent twenty minutes in the cabin, the ocean had changed entirely. Giant waves rocked the seas, and a gale with terrifying howls blew at them with ungodly force. With the storm came bright shes of lightning. The wheelhouse was only a few steps away, but Dufresne spent half a minute to reach it. He even slipped and fell twice.


    ��Where��s the captain?!��


    Anne was unable to hear Dufresne over the deafening wind and thunder. Now, Dufresne had to shout to get his question across. Anne pointed at the mainmast behind her. It was all blurry, but Dufresne could see a shadowy figure right atop of the mast. Of course, he didn��t connect the sudden storm to Zhang Heng, thinking he must have gone up to keep the mainsail.


    ��Where is the navy?��


    It was about then when a cannonball suddenlynded ten meters away from the Jackdaw. An armored ship was hot on her tail, closing in fast from the left! The captain of the enemy vessel had ordered his men to attack it. Fortunately, the wild storm would stop even the most experienced cannoneer fromnding an urate shot. Every time their cannoneer adjusted their sights, a mysterious wave would hit them, and the cannons would be misaligned.


    As for the other enemy that was further away from the Jackdaw, they were less fortunate. The storm came so suddenly that their sailors failed to keep their mainsail in time. The unrelenting gusts caught the sails and broke their mainmast along with it. Left with no options, the captain turned around and returned to Parrot Ind. With one enemy less, the Jackdaw could breathe a small sigh of relief.


    The same couldn��t be said for Dufresne��s mood. Though they managed to solve part of the problem, he knew that it would be a great challenge for the severely crippled Jackdaw to survive such weather. As for Anne, she was busy wrestling the ship. Throughout this time, she had managed to employ brute strength to convince everyone that she was worthy of staying onboard.


    However, Dufresne and a few on the ship knew all about her background. Before she came to Nassau, she had never been to sea before. In other words, she didn��t know how to handle a ship. From the start, all she did was to hang on the wheel for dear life! Zhang Heng told her that all she needed to do was to make sure that they traveled in a straight line.


    Dufresne was getting more worried that Anne might actually mess this up. What amazed him the most was the waves hitting the bow, literally like an undting magic carpet ride. He didn��t see a single wave hit the Jackdaw��s side. However, Dufresne wasn��t one to risk sinking the ship, and after witnessing Anne��s less than ster skills, he immediately took over the wheel. The enemy was still on their left. Soon, the storm only grew bigger, and the enemies started to question their rationale for continuing the pursuit.


    The enemies knew that the Jackdaw was reaching the end of its line. All they needed to do was to strike them with some cannonballs, and they would see her on her merry way down to the bottom of the ocean. They were so close to their goal, and giving up now would be a waste.


    However, these were pirate hunters and not the navy. Though Worden told his men to eliminate the Jackdaw at all costs, they wouldn��t just put down their lives for some order. Under such dire circumstances, it was simply too risky for them to continue on. The storm too didn��t look like it was about to let up anytime soon. There was a good chance that it would destroy their ship even if they managed to sink the Jackdaw.


    Frustrated by the futile effort, the pirate hunters were forced to turn back after a few minutes. The Jackdaw was finally free of enemy pursuit. Right now, they had onest enemy left to fight �C the storm. That was what bothered Dusfrene in the first ce. They would be forced to endure the raging sea for a little longer. Half an hourter, the wind gradually subsided, and like sorcery, the sea returned to its former calm.


    Things seemed to be looking up for the Jackdaw once again. Throughout their tumultuous voyage, they managed to ovee every single threat that was hurled at them.

 Chapter 224 - New Crisis

    <h4>Chapter 224 New Crisis</h4>


    After the wind and waves died down, only the Jackdaw remained on the vast ocean.


    ��I can��t believe we actually escaped!��


    Dufresne surveyed the surrounding waters until he was sure that the enemy was nowhere to be seen. Only when he was convinced that they were alone did he plop down on the deck, breathing a long sigh of relief.


    After finding Harry and hearing of Jarvis��s betrayal, he had been extremely anxious and tense. He held it all in until the danger was over. Now, he waspletely drained and weak.


    In a case where the navy had absolute firepower andpletely blockaded the seaport, twelve pirates miraculously got the Jackdaw through the blockade, shook off their pursuers, and even sessfully made it through the terrible storm. All this in a ship that was less than seaworthy at that time.


    Every step of the way was a perilous affair, and everyone contributed by doing their absolute best. Even so, a lot of luck was involved, especially with the urrence of the storm. It started brewing at the perfect moment. Had it struck them a minuteter, and the two armored ships would have sunk the Jackdaw. What was even more incredible was that even in her condition, the Jackdaw was able to survive the fierce storm and stille out in one piece.


    As the skies brightened, a souffl�� of pink clouds lined the horizon. The drunk sailors finally woke from their slumber. Soon, the main deck began filling up with a hushed murmur audible amongst the pirates, most merely happy to be alive. Dufresne looked around until his gaze finally fell upon a silent figure standing at the stern.


    When that man said that he was going to take everyone home, Dufresne thought that he was only saying it to appease the sailors. After all, as captain of the ship, it was only his duty to stabilize the situation first. What Dufresne never expected was that Zhang Heng would actually fulfill his promise, and lead the Jackdaw in an astonishing escape from a desperate situation that seemed hopeless.


    Whatever he had donest night, no one else could have done it in his ce.


    His achievements overshadowed the sphere of what an ordinary human could do. The Jackdaw��s incredible night was nothing short of a miracle, clearly reflected in the expressions of awe and admiration on the sailors�� faces. Zhang Heng, however, didn��t look particrly cheery.


    Having recuperated his strength after resting for a bit, Dufresne walked up to the captain and looked in at the direction he was looking at. It was probably toward Parrot Ind. Nevertheless, they couldn��t spot anything from so far away.


    ��Do they... still have a chance?����


    Zhang Heng shook his head. ��The navy came very well prepared this time. And then there��s Jarvis, their spy. We��ve lost a lot this time around. If ck Sam and the others wish to live, they would have to retreat to the heart of the ind. But that is exactly what the navy hopes for. They won��t even have to do anything. All they need to do is to wait for two weeks, and when they get on the ind, they��ll find themselves a gang of famished, diseased pirates who are on the verge of death.��


    Dufresne fell silent. He, too, had already guessed it. This was the very reason why Zhang Heng did everything in his power to get the Jackdaw away from the ind. This battle was doomed long before it even started.


    Although both sides were on equal footing when it came to firepower, it wasn��t a fair contest at all. The pirates on the ind were attacked while celebrating, caughtpletely unaware. They were separated from their ships and their weapons weren��t loaded. On top of that, their brains were gin-soaked �C in no condition to fight, yet, forced to do so. One could only imagine what the oue of that would be.


    While Dufresne and Zhang Heng were in the middle of the conversation, the recently hired bookkeeper hurried over to them.


    ��Captain, Mr. Dufresne, you bettere see this,�� said the man while panting.


    Zhang Heng and Dufresne quickly followed the bookkeeper to the hold. Nearly all the seawater had been pumped out, and except for the dampness, it was mostly back to its normal state. However, the sailors inside looked grim, as they stood looking at a bucket of clean water.


    Dufresne reached in and scooped some into his hands. He took a sip, but its saltiness made him spit it out instantly. He asked, ��How much?��


    ��We��re out of luck, sir. Two shells hit the area where we stored our fresh water. It destroyed around seven or eight barrels of them. It was fine at first, but when the flood came in, seawater mixed with it. There��s also not much rum left on the ship because we took out thirty barrels for the party!��


    ��Anything else?�� the quartermaster asked when he saw the bookkeeper gulp.


    ��The biscuits stored in here are soaked in seawater as well. We managed to save some of it, but the rest of it can��t be eaten.��


    ��So, how long can our reservesst us?��


    ��We have enough food. Even without the biscuits, we still have the dried meat and potatoes. We can also have our men go fishing. If we carefully ration our food, it should be enough tost us till Nassau. But...�� the bookkeeper paused. ��...there��s only enough water for four days.��


    ��Four days?!��


    ��At our rate of current consumption, yes.��


    Dufresne immediately recognized the direness of the situation. It took the Jackdaw almost two weeks to get from Nassau to Parrot Ind, and that was with the wind on their tail.


    The Jackdaw had just endured a major battle. As luck would have it, the masts were not seriously damaged, and the sails had been patched up by the crew. Now, of all things, the wind wasn��t in their favor. It would take them much longer to return to Nassau.


    ��Are there any inds nearby where we can replenish our water supply?�� Zhang Heng asked.


    ��There is one near us... a small ind, only a quarter of the size of Parrot Ind, but there��s no water there, sir,�� a sailor answered.


    ��Then, from now on, we��ll start restricting the water on board. Everyone will receive an allotted amount every day,�� Dufresne said.


    Zhang Heng made noments. Instead, he turned to Harry and said, ��Go get my chart from my quarters.��


    Thetter had been eavesdropping on the conversation, wondering when Dufresne would tell Zhang Heng about his contribution. When Zhang Heng spoke directly to him, he was taken aback, but for whatever reason, a look of excitement suddenly washed over his face, and he made haste to the captain��s quarters.


    However, once inside, he was distressed. Unfamiliar with the room, it took him amost half a day of rummaging around to find the chart tucked away at the top of the bookshelf.


    ....


    Zhang Heng spread out the chart, and the first thing he did was to locate Parrot Ind and tried to look for the nearby ind. He seemed to be calcting something in his head.


    Dufresne was puzzled. ��There��s no fresh water on the ind. What is the use of us going there?��


    ��We��ve been hounded and pursued by these guys for the longest time now. We��d be letting them off the hook too easily if we just leave without asking for any rpense. Also, the water that we need wille from them,�� Zhang Heng exined.

 Chapter 225 - Coral Island

    <h4>Chapter 225 Coral Ind</h4>


    Jackdaw no longer suffered theck of staff after all the pirates sobered up. The ship��s cannons could finally be put to good use. As for its condition, most of the cracks and holes had been hastily patched up, and she could move normally again. Although not the best option, restoring it to its mint state would take ages, not to mention needing a dry dock. Right now, there weren��t any materials left to fix it. Any further repairs would have to wait until they returned to Nassau.


    In the jerry-rigged state that the Jackdaw was in, they would certainly meet their end if they engaged in another battle. This time around, Harry was asked to attend the pre-battle meeting. Back then, when discussing the attack on the Spanish treasure ship back, Ramsay and Harry were asked to stay out of it. Later, it was discovered that Harry became very upset due to this. So he was pleasantly surprised when Zhang Heng allowed him to be a part of the coveted discussion, a closed-door meeting typically attended by the higher ranking staff of the ship. Naturally, this got Harry really excited, and though the captain forbode him from talking during the meeting, he was so happy that a silly grin couldn��t leave his face.


    On the other spectrum of emotions, Billy was deeply guilty about what happenedst night. He had gotten so drunk that he couldn��t help protect the ship and was genuinely disappointed in himself. Feeling dishonored, he insisted on giving up his helmsman post. However, after some persuasion, Zhang Heng and the rest of the crew managed to talk him out of it.


    No doubt, Billy was the best candidate to be the helmsman on the whole of Jackdaw. Dufresne, although no slouch, preferred to work as quartermaster of the ship. Beforest night��s incident, Billy had been always been a trustworthy crewman, taking his duties very seriously.


    The crew wouldn��t simply deny all his contributions because of one identalpse of judgment. Of course, he would be punished ordingly for overindulging to the point where the ship��s security waspromised. For the next three voyages, his regr portion of loot would be cut in half. However, he was still allowed his bonus. Fortunately, after all the deductions and subtractions, he would still receive the same amount as the others, more or less. Even as they were talking, Billy was already well into his tasks again.


    ��Are you sure they wille after us?�� asked Billy.


    ��I��m bloody sure they will. Previously, they sent two ships because they wanted to defeat us in one go. We only managed to shake them off because of the sudden storm. I have every reason to believe that the navy sank all pirate ships on Parrot Indst night. In other words, they would only need a ship or two to keep an eye on the remaining pirates there. This leaves the rest of them free to pursue us. After all, we have suffered a considerable amount of damage, and we are only half a day from Parrot Ind. They can easily catch up to us if they depart now.��


    ��What if they decide toe after us all of their ships? If that��s the case, we would be willingly walking into their trap,�� said Dufresne.


    ��The possibility of it happening is extremely tiny. After crossing paths with the enemy, I see that theirmander is extremely good at what he does. I think he should figure out that we would take the longer route back to Nassau if we wish to avoid them. So, the best option for them would be splitting up to cover more water. Our hull is severely damaged. We won��tst long if we engage in battle with them again. They know that one ship of theirs is enough to defeat us even if they all split up. I believe that themander is willing to risk it to finish us off.��


    ��Coral Ind is two hundred nautical miles east of Parrot Ind. It is in the same direction as Nassau. However, it is slightly to the north. We should stop here and wait a day. If my deductions are wrong and our enemies choose to stick together instead, they would head straight to Nassau. If that��s the case, they will pass by without noticing us, and our threat would be nullified. If I��m right, then one of their ships would definitely cross paths with us. By that time, we could take to take their ship and solve our water problem.��


    ��What should we do? The hull is in real bad shape. I don��t think we will survive another high-intensity battle,�� said Billy.


    ��This is why we need a small ind. It��s simr to the strategy we used for the Spanish treasure ship. First, we dismount the cannons and move them to the ind. After that, Jackdaw will lure the ship into the firing range of the on-shore cannons. We will attack them with everything that we��ve got! By luck, we can prevent our ship from taking further damage.��


    Zhang Heng had so much faith in his strategy only because he heard the game��s notification earlier. He leveled up his sailing skills from two to three, but in the heat of battle, he was so focused that hepletely ignored it. Once the storm was over, he noticed that his level on his character panel had changed.


    When he rammed his ship into the navy��s defensive line, the tremendous amount of pressure he was put under inadvertently awakened his potential. Thanks to that, his sailing skills received a massive boost. After he realized that it had been upgraded to Lv3, he found that maneuvering the Jackdaw was as easy as a swing of the arm. He was confident about using his ship to lure the enemy into his trap without receiving any damage.


    The key to sess for this n was to make sure that Jackdaw could lure its target within their shooting range. Then, the cannoneers had to make sure that it was eliminated. It had to be done there and then. Once the enemy was out of range, it would be impossible for the crew to move the cannons back to the ship and continue pursuing them.


    ��Let survey the terrain first. We should figure out a way to solve this problem,�� said Zhang Heng.


    The nautical charts of the 18th century weren��t as urate as their modern counterparts. Without the existence of the Global Positioning System, it would be an arduous task to urately map out the entire terrain of the ind. Everything was drawn by hand, and other than its name and a roughly estimated size, they got nothing useful out of it. Luckily, Jackdaw was very close to the ind, and after half a day, they finally arrived. Zhang Heng, Anne, and the ship��s senior crew proceeded to explore the ce.


    ��I finally know why they called this ce Coral Ind,�� said Anne.


    ��The reef made up most of the ind, more than itsndmass,�� Billy continued.


    While on their way here, they noticed the most diverse coral reef they had everid eyes on under the water. With brilliant and kaleidoscopic colors, they nketed the ocean floor. However, there were shallow reefs hidden around the area as well. This had Zhang Heng interested.


    ��Perhaps we have a way to make the target stay within our firing range after all,�� Zhang Heng muttered.


    ��Are you nning to use the shallow reefs to force them into a particr spot? Sounds like it could work. That said, if we do that, our ship will be in danger as well. I don��t think we have the time to locate every shallow point.��


    ��For that, we will have to rely on the draft of both ships. Our ship and our enemy��s ship are simr in size. However, once we dismount the cannons, our ship will be significantly lighter. But no. I want it even lighter! We will move all our food, drinking water, and anything heavy to the ind. With that, Jackdaw will run well above the shoals, and we will cross safely!��

 Chapter 226 - Crossing Paths

    <h4>Chapter 226 Crossing Paths</h4>


    The previous battle ended less than a day ago, and now, Jackdaw was already preparing for the next fight. None of the the crewined, though. The pirates were in deep frustration about the previous battle. Most were drunk silly, and they didn��t know what happened to them. All they knew was that the navy suddenly appeared and started attacking nonstop. Having so many pirates around, the navy and pirate hunters should have had a challenging enemy, but unfortunately, the obscene amount alcohol the pirates consumed rendered them useless.


    No one could ept losing such a lopsided battle. That was why everyone snapped out from their misery the moment Zhang Heng said he wanted to attack one of the enemy ships. They were reignited by the prospect of taking all their food and water before returning to Nassau. After witnessing what Zhang Heng had done for them and the ship, Jackdaw��s pirates now had absolute trust and faith in him. They would forge a path ahead even if it meant death awaited them.


    Without wasting any time, the pirates doubled their efforts and dismounted all the cannons from the ship in the shortest time possible. Only the chase gun was left on board. Other than the artillery, they moved their entire supply of food and water to the ind as well. Some even went around the cabins to dismount everything that could lighten the ship. When everything was done, Zhang Heng kept twenty men with him to operate the vessel.


    There was practically nothing left on board, save for some food rations that couldst them half a day. In exchange for amenities, the ship��s draft had reduced significantly and was now literally sitting on the very surface of the water.


    ........


    The target came into sight faster than anticipated. Jackdaw had only departed the ind for less than two hours, and already, the watchers spotted a ship from afar heading for them full speed ahead. Zhang Heng��s deductions were right. The navy would leave no stone unturned, making sure that not a single pirate would leave this ce alive. Destroying five ships wasn��t enough for Worden. Though they had the upper hand, Jackdaw still managed to escape. Such a humiliating oue was uneptable for the likes of Worden.


    When the storm was over, Worden instantly sent some men to pursue Jackdaw. Zhang Heng knew these people. They were the two armored ships that came after him earlier, one of them being Miranda. It was the ship that persevered till the very end, not letting up until they were forced to turn around after the storm got worse.


    Although Worden didn��t say anything about losing the target, Ford found this an uneptable oue as captain. This was his first time letting his prey slip away ever since bing a pirate hunter. ordingly, he quickly volunteered to join the hunting team. Ford intended to sink Jackdaw as proof that he was the best pirate hunter around these waters.


    However, when he was told that every ship had to choose a different direction, Ford didn��t have much hope that he would cross paths with Jackdaw again. To his surprise, the goddess Fortuna had once again showered her blessings upon him. They had stumbled upon the one that got away. The moment Ford spotted Jackdaw, he quickly ordered his men into abat-ready status. This time, he swore he would never let his prey escape his sight anymore.


    At the same time, Zhang Heng also saw Miranda charging towards them. Putting down his monocr in hand, he dered with confidence, ��Let��s stick to the n.��


    After the chase ensued fo a while, Ford noticed that Jackdaw had released their topsail to increase speed. However, that seemed ineffective as there were holes in the fabric. Ford figured their topsail might have been damaged during their previous battle, and wondered why they didn��t fix it. Anyhow, this exined why Miranda caught up with Jackdaw a lot faster than expected. ording to Ford��s calctions, he estimated that he would need at least a full day to catch up with them.


    This early encounter gave Ford a pleasant surprise. He wasn��t interested in knowing what had happened to Jackdaw. All he wanted to do right now was to destroy them. Since Ford became captain, his Miranda was one of the fastest ships around this area, almost as fast as Jackdaw. Now that it was in a bad shape, it was time for Miranda to shine.


    The invincible Jackdaw was now running away from it, and they had be the hunted. Ford instantly noticed the prowess of Jackdaw��s helmsman when they escaped the navy earlier. Just like that time, Jackdaw didn��t disappoint. Only that now, there was a huge difference in speed. Soon, Miranda would catch up with Jackdaw.


    Standing at the bow, he could spot Jackdaw��s pirates working nonstop with the naked eye. His blood started boiling with excitement. Like most pirate hunters, Ford used to be in the navy. Not too long after joining the force, he was hired as captain for a merchant ship. Through that, he managed to earn himself a handsome amount of money. Most pirate hunters who chose that line of work had been robbed by pirates before. Their resentment and grudges towards the sea bandits turned them to pirate hunting. They hoped to end the menace for good. Ford was different, though. He had never been plundered by pirates before.


    Ford chose the life of a pirate hunter simply because he craved adventure. Other than the bountiful reward and glory that came along with the job, bing a pirate hunter reminded him of hunting with his father in the woods when he was still a kid. He always enjoyed a good fight with his prey. Words could never descibe the satisfaction gained after killing his victim. All that money aside, this wasn��t something he could experience being a merchant ship captain.


    ��Captain Ford, there��s an ind dead ahead!�� said the chief officer.


    ��Eh?��


    ��ording to the charts, it��s Coral Ind.��


    The chief officer then paused before continuing.


    ��Do you think they fled here on purpose?��


    ��For what?��


    The chief officer didn��t know the answer to the question. After the pirates used Parrot Ind to ambush the Spanish treasure ship, the chief officer became cautious whenever he saw an ind. However, after putting some thought into it, the he realized that Jackdaw couldn��t afford to ambush them. Five out of six pirate ships were destroyed in this operation, with Jackdaw the only survivor. Even if they wanted to ambush them, they had no allies for support.


    ��On the charts, I see that this area has been marked high-risk. There are many shallow reefs around the entire pleace. Could they, perhaps, intend to lure us there, and run us aground? We��ll be stranded if we hit the shoals.��


    ��Regarding this... well, I don��t think they had time to explore this area. Unless someone on their ship is familiar with this ce, it will be even riskier for them if they run into those reefs. However, it appears we won��t have to test our luck. Have the helmsman follow them closely. We will move directly behind, following their path. If there��s anything to hit, they��ll hit it before us.��


    Ford paused a while then harrumphed,


    ��Previously, they tried to use the storm to make us retreat. This time, they use hidden reefs to scare us off! Do they really think that we are a bunch of cowards? I will quit pirate hunting if they manage to flee from us again!��

 Chapter 227 - Victory

    <h4>Chapter 227 Victory</h4>


    A cannonball aiming for Jackdaw flew past the gunwale andnded onto the water. The cannoneer on Miranda was so frustrated that he pped the bow chaser. This was the fifth time he missed his target. It had never happened to him before. Not only did Jackdaw manage to dodge the attack, but as if taunting them, they also sessfully hit Miranda with their chase gun.


    Ford could feel that it was going to be a big challenge to deal with them this time. They were like mudskippers that always slipped away from their hands, no matter how hard they tried to grasp it. It was no wonder they were known as one of the best pirate crews in Nassau. They were bloody good at what they did. Even in this critical situation, they were still alive and kicking. However, certain things couldn��t be solved by courage alone��things like Jackdaw��s damage. They were also a lot faster, and the moment Miranda pulled up to them, they would be able to fire their side cannons.


    By that time, Jackdaw would be greeted by death, whether they wanted it or not. That was why Ford wasn��t too worried when his cannoneer missed their target. The sailors on Miranda started to loosen up as well. Coral Ind was different from Parrot Ind. It was smaller, and there wasn��t a tall ridge running through it. Thend was unobstructed except for a small forest in the middle. After circling half the ind, the chief officer was confident that no other pirate ships were hiding there.


    It appeared that Jackdaw and her crew had run out of options, and they were forced to sail into a hidden reef zone. Just like what Ford said, their ship would be safe from scraping the reefs as long as they followed right behind them. A couple of old and experienced sailors were on Miranda, and they had been through many battles with countless pirates. These were cunning and crafty old sea dogs. Defeating so many pirates was enough to prove that they were no ordinary folk. Their experience taught them to be extremely sensitive to any threats that approached them.


    Until now, they didn��t notice anything fishy. Victory against Jackdaw was within their grasp. Just as Ford started drowning himself in joy, he felt his ship shudder violently. Many sailors were caught off guard and fell off bnce.


    ��What��s going on?!�� asked Ford.


    ��Captain, I think our ship hit a reef,�� said the chief officer.


    ��Of course, I know we hit something! You don��t need to tell me that. I��m asking, how is it possible that we hit the hidden reef?!��


    Ford lost all calm and had started shouting furiously. He then pointed at Jackdaw.


    ��They just passed this ce as well! Why didn��t they hit the reef?!��


    ��About that...��


    The chief officer was left speechless. The ship had started taking in water as they were arguing. Having hit a rather high shoal, it scraped open arge gash under the hull. The hole was too big to be fixed, and soon, Miranda started to list before finally stopping at 30 degrees. Just before they could do anything, they heard cannons being fired at them.


    The pirates asked to stay on the ind had been waiting for this moment for far too long. Miranda colliding with the reef was their signal to open fire.


    Lady Fortuna must have missed her mark, and Ford wasn��t in luck today. Cannonballs rained on Miranda during the first round of attack. Their sailors stumbled again as their ship was pattered by the relentless firing from the shore. The chief officer was shouting orders, attempting to gather all avable cannoneers to return fire. Unfortunately, Miranda was at an angle where the beach was out of reach of its cannons. At most, their shells could only reach the beach. They simply didn��t have the range to attack the enemies that were hiding in the woods, no matter how hard they tried.


    At the same time, Ford shouted and ordered his men to adjust the mainsail with the hope of getting his ship away from the ce. Unfortunately, it yielded no result. His bulging eyes were bloodshot, and the veins on his neck popped out. No matter how hard he screamed, he couldn��t stop Miranda from sinking.


    ��Captain. It��s time to abandon ship!�� cried the chief officer desperately with tears in his eyes as he embraced Ford.


    Ford was unable to ept that this was happening to him. The whole thing was puzzling. Only a few minutes ago, Miranda was ted for a sure win in this battle. Within the blink of an eye, everything changed dramatically. This was the second time Ford dealt with Zhang Heng. Supposedly, Jackdaw had lost all her advantage. However, today��s oue was worse than in the previous battle. At that time, Ford had to retreat due to the weather, something he didn��t have control over. Now, he had no excuse. The haggard man was embarrassed and disgraced. They hadn��t even touched Jackdaw, and they had already started sinking.


    How did Jackdaw pass the hidden reefs undamaged?


    Where did the attacke from?


    Who was working together with Jackdaw to attack them?


    These were questions Ford couldn��t answer. It was indeed a peculiar battle. Disgraced and demoralized, the crew could take it no more, hence jumping into the sea one after another.


    .....


    Ford had no recollection of being dragged down the ship by his chief officer all the way to the beach. By the time he regained consciousness, he was greeted by guns pointed at him. The survivors from Miranda were huddled together on the beach, trying to tell each other that everything was going to be okay. With their heads bowed, they were waiting for fate��s judgment.


    Once the battle was over, Zhang Heng rowed to Coral Ind on a small boat. Billy was so excited that he ran up to Zhang Heng when he spotted him.


    ��This is a tremendous victory for us! Other than a pirate getting hurt while capturing the sailors, everyone else is fine. However, we spent a lot of ammunition toplete this mission. I tried my best to ask our men to conserve it, but it seems many grudges are buried within their hearts. Luckily, they managed to stop in time. The Miranda is still intact. I have sent someone of our men to see what they have on board.��


    ��Great.��


    Looking at a dejected Ford, Zhang Heng wasn��t surprised by the oue. The Miranda��s fate was sealed the moment she took the bait and decided to pursue Jackdaw. The fighting part wasn��t thatplicated. Theplicated part was getting Miranda to take the bait. Now that victory was imed, Jackdaw��s food and water problem were solved.


    Zhang Heng was also surprised that he managed to capture Miranda��s captain and chief officer. In other words, he could extract valuable information about Worden��s n, the number of ships they had, the direction they were heading, and the rendezvous point. This could greatly help in their safe return to Nassau.


    ��Look for a quiet ce. I want to interrogate them.��


    ��Understood.��

 Chapter 228 - A Bold Plan

    <strong>Chapter 228 A Bold n</strong>


    Zhang Heng interrogated the captain, chief officer, and the sailors separately. This was to prevent them from working with each other and fool him with some story. He thenpared all the information he collected to verify the authenticity of their stories. Half an hourter, he was about to unveil some shocking news. He quickly gathered Billy, Anne, and the rest of the ship��s senior staff. He even looked for the chief carpenter to join the meeting.


    ��You wish to return to Parrot Ind?!��


    Billy was taken aback by Zhang Heng��s decision.


    ��ording to the information from our prisoners, there is one navy battleship, the Kent, docked at Parrot Ind. Their defense is at their weakest right now. Perhaps we can take this opportunity to rescue everyone from the ind. It��s a double-edged sword. We can also retrieve the gold bars at the bottom of the sea!��


    ��How do you n to do that? Judging by Jackdaw��s current condition, I don��t think we can survive another battle. If our ship is fine, we wouldn��t have needed Coral Ind to eliminate Miranda in the first ce. Once we arrive at Parrot Ind, we can��t use its terrain to aid our battles anymore. This time, we can��t just beat them bying up with another n to outsmart them.��


    Though Billy was interested in rescuing all the pirates stuck on Parrot Ind and retrieving the gold bars, he figured the risks were simply too great. Zhang Heng didn��t respond to Billy��s concerns, and instead, turned to Gale, the chief carpenter.


    ��With enough materials, how long would it take to fix the ship till she��sbat ready?��


    ��If I have all the materials and manpower I need... six days. No. I canplete the task in five days.��


    ��Where are we going to get the materials we need?�� asked Dufresne.


    Zhang Heng then pointed at Miranda.


    ��Cannibalize her, and we will have enough parts.��


    ��That is a good idea! If that��s the case, two days would do it, captain,�� replied Gale.


    ��Time is not a problem. The navy sent five ships to pursue us. We managed to eliminate one. Now, they have four ships. They��d all agreed to return to Parrot Ind in two weeks to kill the remaining pirates. One day has passed now. Let��s say we take a week to fix the ship. I believe we should have enough time to return to Parrot Ind and fight them.��


    Zhang Heng��s n convinced Billy. Truth be told, the navy didn��t just carelessly leave only one ship to guard Parrot Ind. With Jackdaw��s current condition, it would be a miracle if they returned to Nassau. The prospect of Jackdaw returning to Parrot Ind simply didn��t cross their minds. One navy vessel was more than enough to keep an eye on the marooned pirates. Zhang Heng��s n might sound ridiculous, but it was doable. The pirates of Jackdaw were ted when they defeated Miranda and even had even stocked up enough rations to carry on with the voyage. This, of course, didn��t make up for the losses that they sustained.


    This time, the entire pirate entourage had almost been entirely defeated by the navy. Not only did they lose their ships, but the gold they worked so hard to get were also about to fall in navy hands. However, if they managed to save all the pirates and take back all the gold bars, it could be a huge turning point for them.


    ��I think this n could work. We can start preparing for the next battle.��


    .......


    Soon, everyone on the ship had gotten wind that Zhang Heng was to return to Parrot Ind. Just as expected, no one went against his decision. This n for retribution had everything to do with the pirates�� honor and 5,000 pounds of gold bars. Very quickly, everyone gave up resting and began all the necessary preparations for their next battle.


    Since he had all the men he needed, Gale decided to clean up the entire ship. It was littered with all manner of filth, and the hull was smothered by a thickyer of barnacles and seaweed. By clearing them off, Jackdaw could at least speed up by half a knot, a crucial increase in facing their next fight.


    While everyone was working hard to patch up the ship, Zhang Heng was nowhere to be found. When Anne finally found him, he was sitting on a rock, gazing at the sunset. His mind was 200 lightyears away from the beach. From afar, he looked like someone from another world. Anne looked for an empty spot and sat beside, passing a bottle of wine to him.


    ��The repairs are going well. We should be able toplete the whole thing by morning. Gale says the ship will be even sturdier after the repairs.��


    ��Great. We��ve spent a little too long on this ind. It��s time to leave.��


    Zhang Heng sipped a little wine and passed the bottle back to Anne. The calm sea breeze blew in their hair as they silently gazed at the setting sun.


    ��How about you? Are you doing okay?��


    ��Hmm?��


    ��Aren��t you going to talk about the storm? Everyone said that it was a miracle. They said the Goddess of Ocean, Thetis, must have blessed us. We both know that��s not true. We all heard Seth��s story. I know you engraved the name of the Celtic god on our mast during the storm, right? What��s her name again? Betty, was it?��


    ��Yes. Look. Don��t worry. I won��t let our Jackdaw end up like the carrack. I just... I don��t remember thest time I sat down quietly to enjoy the sunset.��


    During those critical moments, Zhang Heng did indeed use the shell. He did not have a bitter past, and he was no angry teenager as well. In the end, he had to immerse himself into the world of literature to trigger his anger. He chose the novel, Les Mis��rables. The main character, Jean Valjean, was jailed for neen years just because he stole some bread to help his sister feed her seven hungry children. Before meeting Bishop Myriel, he had been through unspeakable torment, and it made him hate the world and all that was in it.


    The method was very effective. Not only did Zhang Heng manage to summon the storm, but he even led Jackdaw to escape their enemies. That was the very first time Zhang Heng came in touch with Betty. He finally knew the reason why the goddess didn��t look for him. She wasn��t trying to be mysterious, nor was it bad timing. It was because she was in a weakened state. After convincing Seth on the carrack, she did not have enough strength to show herself anymore. It wasn��t until Zhang Heng took the shell and engraved her name on the mast that she finally managed to recover some of her power.


    ording to her, she was way weaker than she used to be. One didn��t have to go as far back as a thousand years when she was at the top of her prowess. Just a hundred years ago, she was even stronger than her current self. That was why Zhang Heng couldn��t control the storm to speed up the ship. The most he could do was to ensure that Jackdaw got out of the storm in one piece.

 Chapter 229 - Crocodile and Plover Bird

    <h4>Chapter 229 Crocodile and Plover Bird</h4>


    Zhang Heng managed to talk to Betty for a short while during the storm. She told him the simr story she told Seth. Betty imed she was an ancient Celtic God, and had the power to protect all sailors out at sea. She would grant her followers the power of controlling storms. This power, however, was limited for now, and Zhang Heng could only use it once a month.


    ording to Betty, the world had almost forgotten her name. If Zhang Heng could recruit more disciples for her, she would eventually be powerful enough to grant Zhang Heng more abilities. Once she was restored to her pinnacle, she would be able to make Zhang Heng the lord of the ocean. In order for it toe true, the goddess would need millions of disciples. This was why she targeted Zhang Heng all the while after noticing his extraordinary leadership skills.


    However, Zhang Heng didn��t answer her on the spot. He knew that he would only be only in this world for another decade. It would be pointless even if he became king of the ocean. Aside from that, what Betty said reminded him about the Moresby, the monster that escaped from Papua New Guinea.


    ording to that older man, that thing was a sacred totem worshipped by one of the Papuan tribes. Along with the extinction of the Alkiz tribe, Moresby had to stick himself into a short time loop. When it emerged, it had significantly weakened.


    After talking to Betty, Zhang Heng discovered that all supernatural entities were actually facing the survival problem as well. Aspared to humans, their situation was on the verge of copse.


    Thanks to that, he didn��t wholeheartedly believe what Betty told him. Since she would cease to exist real soon, the promises she made were questionable. Besides, Zhang Heng still couldn��t figure out what happened to the carrack. In no way would he ce all his faith in this mysterious being. Be it as it may, he still managed to extract useful information from their conversation.


    Whether it was Moresby or Betty, their powers had everything to do with the number of disciples they had. It seemed as if they were afraid of being forgotten by the world. When Zhang Heng was a kid, he heard countless stories about gods. Regardless of where the mythology originated from, gods were always perceived as mighty and powerful beings. They created the world and humans, and they could do anything they want. Right now, Zhang Heng understood that gods and humans actually shared a mutual rtionship. Just like the crocodile and the plover bird, the sea anemone and hermit crab.


    Zhang Heng wasn��t sure if his metaphor was suitable to describe the ancient gods�� current state of affairs. This evening, he could watch the sunset on the beach. It had nothing to do with any previous urrence whatsoever. In retrospect, he realized that he had been in this world for almost two years now, and was getting increasinglyfortable with his current life. Memories of his real-life strayed further and further away from him.


    As he gazed at the crimson sunset, faint wisps of memories from the real world drifted through Zhang Heng��s mind. Perhaps that was the only thing that remained unchanged throughout three hundred years. Nheless, despite being homesick, he didn��t dwell too long in his nostalgia and longingness. He pulled himself back to where he was and finished the wine with Anne. As the sun descended into the horizons, the two strolled back to base camp.


    ��I��m not sure if Anne��s told you about the progress of our repairs. We are nearingpletion! If it all works out, I think we can set sail tomorrow afternoon,�� Billy said as he ran towards Zhang Heng.


    ��Everyone has worked very hard for this. Let��s take half a day off after it��s done. We need to rest well and prepare for our next battle. We will depart to Parrot Ind day after tomorrow.��


    Billy was cool with the idea. After he left, it was Dufresne��s turn to look for Zhang Heng. He gave the situation report to the captain.


    ��The food and water problem is solved for now. We have enough for another month and a half. However, since we are heading to Parrot Ind to get the rest of the pirates, I��ve hidden the rest of the rations inside a cave west of the beach. By leaving the extra bulk here, our ship will sail faster during critical situations. We can alwayse back if we need them urgently. After all, it��s only a day from Parrot Ind.��


    ��Good job.�� said the captain.


    Dusfresne wasnt finished and continued,


    ��As for our ammunition, we have been through several fierce battles, and we have spent a lot. We still have some for our twenty-four-pound cannons. We got some from Miranda as well.��


    ��Worste to worst, we can always rece the twenty-four-pound cannons with the twelve-pound cannons.��


    ��Actually, I��m not worried about the number of cannonballs we have. I��m worried about the gunpowder. Miranda didn��t do a good job of keeping their gunpowder away from getting wet. When we fought with them, most of their gunpowder barrels were opened. We managed to salvage some of it. I opened up two to see if they were any good. After I looked at it twice, I found it badly affected by moisture.��


    ��Do you think our gunpowder is enough for the next battle?��


    ��It��s enough for seven or eight rounds, sir.��


    These figures were eptable for Zhang Heng. Seven shots should be enough to end a battle. However, that meant they couldn��t afford to make a single error. Everything was ready, and they had no reason to give up on the mission. Once Jackdaw was wholly fixed, it would be strong enough to handle a battle. Even if the enemy was more robust than them, Zhang Heng could still choose to run away. Ever since his sailing skill had increased to Lv.3, he felt confident about his seamanship.


    Whether it was for the five thousand pounds of gold bars, or to save the pirates marooned on the ind, or even for vengeance, this battle was inevitable.


    ��Don��t worry. We will defeat them with seven rounds,�� said Zhang Heng while patting Dufresne��s shoulder.


    ��Yes, captain.��


    Dufresne didn��t want to return to Nassau empty-handed as well. His job was done, and he reported the current situation to Zhang Heng. Now, he would wait for the captain to make the call.


    The night went by peacefully.


    On the second day, the pirates were done fixing Jackdaw,unching it back to sea over a bed of rolling logs. The moment she hit the water, cheers erupted when they saw the vessel bestowed to her former glory. All that effort hadn��t been wasted after all. Not only had all the holes and cracks been fixed, but they even employed extra materials cannibalized from Miranda��s wreck. Blending hard work with a bit of scrap, they managed to greatly fortify the ship.


    Jackdaw was now ready for the next battle.

 Chapter 230 - Black Flag

    <h4>Chapter 230 ck g</h4>


    Nine days had passed since the battle began.


    The navy fleet��s sudden appearance caused the celebrating pirates to suffer massive losses. It wasplete chaos on the beach. Under ck Prince Sam��s persuasion, Brooke and some pirates not too sloshed from the drinkingunched a bold counterattack against the navy.


    However, their valiant efforts were not enough to alter the final oue. Brooke and ck Prince Sam each lead their men to not only sessfully board a pirate ship but also to employ its artillery against the navy. s, their attacks onlysted two rounds before the enemy sank their ships.


    Some sailors lost their lives to the sea, and some, like Brook, swam to the shore and escaped into the woods. Not long after, they came across the second group of pirates who also managed to escape. They had brought along with them their other drunk men from the beach as well. Owing to time constraints and with gunfire and explosives raining on them, they only managed to bring less than a fifth of them.


    Brook looked around him. Including those who died battle, fewer than a hundred men were left from six pirate ships that sailed together. After nine days of starvation and exposure, the one hundred men were frail and on the verge of death.


    Due to the hasty retreat, they brought almost nothing with them. Most of the food and water were on the ship which was now at the bottom of the sea, no thanks to the enemy. Brooke knew very well what the navy nned to do �C very soon, they would return, and the final battle will ensue. There was nothing he could do, though. He had lost his ship and was stuck indefinitely on the ind.


    Despite Parrot Ind being ratherrge, it was devoid of freshwater. For the past few days, the pirates could only quench their thirst by licking off condensation on the rocks, much like mountain goats, or sucking on wet earth. The moisture tasted like mud, and there wasn��t much of it either. Brook��s lips were dry and cracked.


    Thankfully, they sessfully captured a goatst night. Not only did each of them have a piece ofmb, but they also had a drink of its blood. Though enough to relieve their hunger and thirst by a little, the goat was shared among nearly a hundred people. There was barely enough to go around.


    To make matters worse, there were not many goats on the ind to start with. Most had already been hunted for the party, and now it was bing more and more difficult to find any of them. The goat they managed to capture was the only one they came across in two days.


    Along with theck of food and water, they were also short on medicine and ammunition.


    They had nearly one hundred men but only twenty long muskets and eight blunderbusses. Even ded weapons such as daggers and scimitars weren��t enough for every man. Whatever remaining bullets they had were used for hunting, and with no medical supplies, the wounded had to get by with simple tourniquets. It was safe to say that they had reached the absolute point of exhaustion.


    Of course, the worst part of it all was the devastating blow to their morale. At this point, none could see the light at the end of the tunnel. In the dark of the night, agonized howls of their woundedrades could be heard, many of them near the brink of mental breakdown. Some, unable to put up with the terrible conditions, threw themselves into the sea. Nearly every day, someone chose to end their life.


    Brook got up from the ground and passed thest piece ofmb to Eric, the Quidah��s helmsman. The man had eaten practically nothing for the past eight days. Sitting motionless under arge, shady tree, there was an emptiness in his eyes, as if his soul had been ripped out of his body.


    As he knelt beside ck Prince Sam, the most fearless pirate in all of the Caribbean, he broke down and cried like a child. He hugged his captain��s lifeless body, seemingly forgetting that he was still on the battlefield, reluctant to let go until the Warrior submerged under the water.


    Thank goodness, one of the Quidah��s men managed to rescue him just as he was about to drown. When Eric came to, the first thing he did was look for ck Prince Sam��s body. When he realized that the captain��s body had been washed away, hepletely shut down.


    ......


    Brook pressed the food onto Eric��s lips, but the helmsman did not respond.


    In a hoarse, cracked voice Brook said, ��If you don��t try to live now, then you will never be able to avenge him.��


    When the helmsman heard those words, something shed across his pale, grey face. He finally opened his mouth and whispered in a weak, almost inaudible voice, ��Revenge... how will we do it?��


    ��I don��t know, but if you give up now, then it��s over for all of us, for sure.��


    ��You haven��tforted many people, have you?��


    ��I��m doing my best, but you insist on dying, I have no problem with that too. After all, in the situation we��re in right now, having one less mouth to feed isn��tpletely a bad thing,�� Brook shrugged.


    ��Is there only one ship out there?�� asked Eric as he took two bites of themb. It wasn��t long before recovered some strength, finally turning his attention to the situation at hand.


    ��Yes. It seems that Jackdaw managed to get away that night, so the navy sent the others to pursue them.��


    ��It��s unbelievable how they could break through the blockade.��


    ��I guess it should be considered good news... which is rare these days. Unfortunately, it��s no use for us,�� Brook smiled bitterly. ��It would be great if we had a boat �C whatever kind �C at least we��d have some hope.��


    While both of them were talking, the pirate on scout duty suddenly shouted, ��There��s a ship over there!��


    Brook and Eric looked at each other, knowing right away that when the ships sent out to pursue Jackdaw returned, their reckoning hade.


    This meant that there wasn��t much time left. The pirates, however, were surprisingly calm even after knowing they were practically doomed. Their time on the ind was only getting harder each day. Compared to the endless torment of waiting for death, they would rather die in battle.


    But just as Brook and Eric were rounding up the men for the final battle, the spotter suddenly shouted with a look of disbelief on his face, ��Jackdaw! It��s the Jackdaw! She��s back!��


    ��What??? I thought they were gone?!�� Brook could hardly believe that Jackdaw had returned. Being able to escape was already a miracle on its own. Had he been in Zhang Heng��s shoes, he would never have returned to Parrot Ind, especially since they had no clue about the situation there. There was no way Brook would��ve returned knowing that they riskeding under siege.


    Then, as if to thwart his doubt, Jackdaw��s ck g rose to the top of its mast.

 Chapter 231

    The pirates were greatly moved when they saw the ck g of Jackdaw pping in the wind. It had been nine days since they witnessed their bitter defeat right before their very eyes. The navy was happily trampling and burning the ck gs they were once so proud of.


    The saddest thing of it all was the death of ck Sam, one of the greatest pirates ever known. Swordfish, Quidah, and Warrior had been sunk by the navy-pirate-hunter coboration, and those still breathing were now screaming and crying out for help. However, the navy had no intention to grant them any mercy. The pirates on the beach were forced to watch as their enemies brutally ughtered their helpless allies. This whole incident left the pirates a deep scar, a memory that would remain with them till the very ends of their lives.


    This was one of thergest defeats that Nassau��s pirates ever suffered. For that reason, the atmosphere on the ind was one filled with despair and anxiety. Those tough men who braved countless battles had now lost all hope. Whenever they saw anybody wearing red, they would drown in fear, hiding for dear life. Until they saw Jackdaw again, the ck g on her mast was sending the navy a message. The great oceans belonged to no country or person. It would take the side of warriors bold enough to seek freedom.


    Worden and his men surrounded the pirates, killing them one by one. Of course, he wouldn��t repeat the same mistake, which was why he docked his ship outside the harbor. The spot was sufficient to monitor the pirates�� movements and, at the same time, a good one to defend themselves from iing threats. The moment Jackdaw appeared near Parrot Ind, the sailors quickly informed their captain of their sighting.


    Chris put down his monocr and found it hard to believe that Jackdaw had the nerve to return to Parrot Ind. She just wouldn��t quit.


    ��How... how is this even possible? Why would theye back here?!��


    In fact, Chris wasn��t supportive of this whole pirate-hunting n. He didn��t mind staying alone on Parrot Ind to keep an eye on the pirates, confident that no threat woulde to him. Thanks to the awful weather that greeted them, Chris figured that it must have brought Jackdaw down to an underwater grave. However, Worden wanted to make sure that all pirates were dead. This was his stand, and nothing could make him change his mind.


    Since they had literally nothing to do during their stay on Parrot Ind, they figured that it would have been a better use of time to search for Jackdaw. Even if all they found were the ship��s remains, they would still be awarded merits. That was why no one went against the idea in the end.


    Chris was baffled, wondering how Jackdaw could actually survive the storm and dodge the ships searching for them. He also noticed that it looked differentpared to when it left the ind. It appeared that they had it all in for a good fight.


    ��They got lucky and managed to run thest time. Since they are here now, let��s make sure that they never get to leave this ce! Raise the mainsails! It��s time to go and greet them,�� growled Worden in a deep voice.


    ��Yes, sir.��


    Chris was ashamed of himself as he felt panic grip him the moment he saw Jackdawing for Parrot Ind. Being part of the Royal Navy, this wasn��t the time for them to step back. Though Jackdaw was also a battleship with equal firepower, the navy wasn��t supposed to be afraid of a band of pirates. At the same time, Billy kept his eyes glued at the enemy��s movement. He spoke up when he saw that Kent was on the move.


    ��The Ford guy wasn��t lying. He was right about theirmander��s arrogance.��


    ��Considering the feats he achieved in battle, I would say he has all the right in the world to be haughty. I heard that pirates are almost nonexistent in the ces he swore to protect.��


    ��Why?�� asked Harry.


    ��Because he hung all of them,�� replied Zhang Heng.


    When Harry heard that, he was frozen in shock and fear. Despite that, he still did his best and squeezed out a smile to show he wasn��t afraid of themander. Anne knew Harry very well, and no matter how good his acting was, she knew he was almost scared to death. She couldn��t help but roll her eyes at him. Whenever a battle was near, he would pester her to allow hin to join. Now that his wish hade true, fear had gotten the better out of him. Anne was annoyed by his immature antics, and she wasn��t bothered to entertain him.


    ��Let��s prepare for battle. Remember, we don��t have as much ammunition as them. We will only fire our cannons when we are very, very close to the enemy.��


    ��Understood,�� nodded Billy.


    ��How are the cannoneers? Are they ready to put up a hard fight?��


    ��They are in position. We can begin out attack any time now.��


    Through Ford��s descriptions of his Worden, Zhang Heng understood themander better now. He wanted to learn the man��s routines and tactics.


    Worden was considered one of the most hardened navy officers in the fleet; his strategies just as ruthless as his character was. He enjoyed engaging his enemies at close quarters, where ording to him, was the rawest method to test someone��s courage in battle. No fancy outmaneuvering here; only one true warrior would prevail at the end, with the other meeting their demise.


    This was precisely what Zhang Heng nned to do. Right now, Kent had more ammunition than Jackdaw. If Worden decided to test them with a few rounds, Zhang Heng would be at a disadvantage since they couldn��t fire in return. Nevertheless, his problem seemed to have sorted itself with Worden wanting to get up close and personal.


    Worden had his reasons for would choosing such a risky tactic. Other than his skillful brigade of cannoneers, his gunmen were all well-trained marksmen as well. They would join the battle once their adversary was around forty meters away. With the overwhelming firepower, he would usually be able to pressure their enemies into submission or submersion. After dealing enough damage and taking charge of the situation, he would then dere victory. That exined his extremely high win rate.


    Throughout his long and eventful navy career, Worden had only lost two battles before. One was to a French battleship that had almost double the number of his cannons. The other was because of an enemy ambush. This time, he knew that Jackdaw was once a corvette that belonged to the navy. He also knew that it was all alone. ordingly, both ships held on from firing until they were fifty meters from each other. Then, they turned at the same time and took aim with their side cannons.


    Zhang Heng was the first to act. He instantly found the right window and ordered his cannoneers to fire. The swift and powerful assault dealt some good damage to Kent. In times like these, the exceptional quality of Kent��s sailors was on disy. Not only did they remain calm, but the first thing they did was to get their wounded to sickbay. The rest continued working the cannons without so much as a flinch. Like a well-oiled machine, the crew ticked like clockwork.


    At the same time, Worden��s trusted gunmen could finally be put to good use. Along with Chris��s order, the gunmen in red fired at Jackdaw! To their surprise, the pirates were ready for them. Having brought a shipment of nks salvaged from Miranda, they used it as a makeshift armor to repel the bullets.


    Once the gunfire died down, the pirates emerged from their shield and started to fire back. It didn��t matter who took the helm right now. Zhang Heng relieved himself as helmsman and passed the position to one of the pirates. Then, he pulled out his weapon and jumped into battle! This was the best time to showcase his Lv.2 shooting skill. For this fight, he had prepared a total of six guns for himself. There were also three people standing behind him, helping him to reload those guns.


    Within a matter of three minutes, Zhang Heng managed to exterminate all the gunmen on the watchtower. Apart from that, he killed two officers as well. Unfortunately, Worden was cautious enough not to show up after noticing that his men were getting picked off, one after the other.

 Chapter 232 - Follow My Order

    <h4>Chapter 232 Follow My Order</h4>


    ��Stay calm! Hold your ground! Where��s the ammunition? When is the next batch going to be here?�� shouted Billy as he shuffled around the deck.


    ��It��s on the way. It will be here soon, Mr. Billy.��


    A short-looking sailor dragged two crates of ammunition while trying his fastest to get to Billy.


    ��Mr. Billy. Two of our cannons were destroyed, and three of our cannoneers are wounded.��


    ��Quickly! Get someone to rece them.��


    Just as Billy turned around, a cannonball suddenlynded half a meter away from him, prating the ship��s hull! The short sailor had taken most of the brunt of the attack. His arm waspletely shattered, crushed beyond redemption. The pain he was in caused him to fall to the ground, screaming hysterically for help.


    ��Quickly send him to Vincent. The rest of us continue with the attack!��


    Instantly, two men came over and carried the injured pirate to the doctor. The crew had seen an incident like this far too many times, and thus, none were distracted by it. After all, most of Jackdaw��s recruits were experienced pirates. All that was in addition to the recent violent skirmishes they went through. Even if there was someone new onboard, they should be all grown up by now.


    ��Damn it! These guys outgun us by arge margin. It would be nice if we had our twenty-four-pound cannons here,�� gasped one of the cannoneers while wiping the blood off his face.


    ��Everyone! Hang in there! We will defeat them and take back our gold!��


    The busiest person on Jackdaw right now had to be Vincent. He had once dreamt of bing a botanist. Right now, he yed an essential role on the ship. There were injured lying everywhere in the sickbay. Due to theck of beds, some had to make do with the tables and the floor. Blood could be seen on every surface of the infirmary, only to be made worse by the screams and howls of decapitated men.


    Luckily, Vincent was well-prepared for such a situation. Before they departed to Parrot Ind, he had collected some fine sand from the beach and scattered them all over the floor. By doing that, he solved the problem of the bloody, slippery floor. Right after he was done extracting a bullet from a pirate��s arm, the short pirate was carried into the infirmary. Vincent quickly examined his wounds and discovered that the bones in his arm had beenpletely shattered. Not to mention the flesh hanging off it, the mangled mess was a lost cause. It would have to be amputated right away.


    He took out a wooden stick and asked the short pirate to bite on it. Then, he instructed his assistants to hold the man��s limbs down. Vincent then brought out a hacksaw and prepared himself to sever the poor pirate��s arm. Suddenly, he remembered what Zhang Heng told him earlier. It was crucial for him to apply heat to the tools that he used on his patients. Before he carried on, he retrieved the stick from the man��s mouth and fed him some rum.


    ��Are you ready? I will begin if you are ready.��


    On another note, the n that Zhang Heng, Billy, and the senior officers coined was finally working. The strategy Worden was so proud of was ineffective against Jackdaw. Instead, Jackdaw was the one constantly putting them under the limelight. Until now, Worden still didn��t dare show his face. However, despite the chaos, he remained very calm. Though half of his men were either injured or had died in battle, he had no intention to retreat. That was because Kent��s cannons still had the upper hand in this battle.


    This had nothing to do with the courage and skill of his cannoneers. It was simply because Kent had greater firepower than Jackdaw. Jackdaw and Kent were battleships of the same type. Technically, they should be equal in firepower as well. However, Jackdaw now sorelycked ammunition. Left with no other options, Zhang Heng had to rece all the twenty-four-pound cannons with the twelve-pounders. Thanks to that, they were now significantly weaker than Kent.


    In reality, Jackdaw��s cannoneers actually exceeded Worden��s expectations. It wasn��t an exaggeration to say that they were equally as potent as the formally-trained Royal Navy.


    ��If this goes on, we won��t be able to hold up for much longer,�� said Billy who sounded very worried.


    Zhang Heng managed to kill another red-uniformed gunner before he replied.


    ��Time to use our backup n,�� Zhang Heng replied while looking at Anne.


    ��Is... is that doable?�� asked Billy.


    ��We have killed two-thirds of the enemy��s gunmen. I would say our sess rate has gone up, but I will need someone to cover me,�� Zhang Heng said.


    ��Are six men enough?��


    ��Two is more than enough. It��s pointless to have so many cover me.��


    While he talked, Zhang Heng sent his men to the captain��s quarters to get his weapons bag. There were four rifles in it. Ever since Zhang Heng bought them from Baal, he realized that they were of great help when taking over Scarborough. From that day onwards, Zhang Heng realized that rifles were an invaluable piece of weaponry in any battle. However, he was still under ckbeard at that time and hence, wasn��t allowed to get three more rifles for himself. Right until he set sail to plunder the Spanish treasure ship, did he purchase three more of it from Baal.


    This was their moment to shine. Zhang Heng crouched and crept to the gunwale. He then lifted one of his rifles. At such close proximity, the smoothbore gun would be an excellent choice as well. However, a rifle was definitely more reliable since it allowed the shooter to administer a lethal shot to his enemy. He then took aim at Kent��s helmsman.


    ��Follow my orders. Get Jackdaw closer to Kent.��


    Jackdaw��s maneuvers couldn��t fool Worden��s eyes. Though he was ready to fight if the pirates boarded his ship, he had no reason to give up the advantage he had right now. So, he quickly ordered his helmsman to stay as far as possible from Jackdaw. Before Worden could even finish exining, Kent��s helmsman suddenly dropped to the ground, dead as a doornail.


    Worden frowned in frustration. idents like this happened all the time during a battle. Although unsettling, he was used to it. Immediately, Chris looked for someone to rece the dead helmsman. Right after the new helmsman took over the wheel, Zhang Heng killed him as well.


    ��Captain, someone is targeting our helmsmen!�� shouted Chris.


    ��What are you afraid of?! They are just aiming for one person. Use whoever we have to block him from the bullets. Our human wall should suffice for now. Just hang in there. Soon, we will sink them indefinitely.��


    Right after Chris received the order, he ordered some men to form up and block all iing bullets. Of course, all those chosen were extremely unhappy with the decision. However, they had worked for Worden for some time now and knew about the consequences they would suffer if they disobeyed him. They might just be able to live if they followed the order. However, if they left right now, they would be ensured an ending worse than a crumbling wall.


    Leaving with no other choice, they were forced to barricade the new helmsman to protect him. With no qualms whatsoever, Zhang Heng killed all who formed the human shield first before again. taking out the helmsman. Faced by Zhang Heng��s masterful marksmanship, everyone was soon too afraid to step up again. Chris had to keep on repeating himself, screaming for sailors to step up, and man up. However, no matter how desperate his orders were, no sailor would budge from where they were.


    Unfortunately, Zhang Heng��s position was exposed. Due to the overwhelming firepower of the enemy, the pirates that covered him and reloaded his guns were hit. No thanks to that, they managed to buy Jackdaw enough time to get closer to Kent. They were now only ten meters from each other.


    In the chaos of raining bullets and thunderous cannons, Zhang Heng took the opportunity to change position. He then continued to reload his rifles and kept firing at his enemy nonstop. Once both ships were side by side, Anne and the rest of the piratesunched their signature grappling hooks over Kent��s gunwale, bridging the two vessels together. Then, under heavy fire, she led a group of pirates to board Kent, the gship of the Royal Navy.

 Chapter 233 - End of The Ken

    <h4>Chapter 233 End of The Ken</h4>


    The entire battlested around twenty minutes. Zhang Heng managed to deal a massive blow to the enemy by taking out their entire gunmen brigade. As it was, Jackdaw��s pirates were determined to avenge their dead. Still, invading another ship had its costs. A bullet grazed Billy amid the battle, hitting his arm and causing a chunk of flesh to tear off. Thankfully, he was alive.


    Once both ships were connected, Zhang Heng instantly joined the fight. The first thing he did after boarding Kent was to look for theirmander. However, Worden was hidden securely behind an army of heavily armed navy sailors. At the same time, the men were looking for Zhang Heng as well, intending to kill Jackdaw��s captain and demoralize their crew.


    As the two sides shed, everyone began treading lightly. Zhang Heng relied on his masterful marksmanship to open a path for himself. Worden, on the other hand, had more men than Jackdaw, not to mention that they were extremely well-trained as well. It soon appeared that neither side was gaining the upper hand in the battle.


    However, little by little, Jackdaw��s men managed to overwhelm Kent��s crew. It would seem that the navy had lost their edge, and was actually losing to the pirates. Worden had no other choice. He got a few men and hastily retreated to the lower decks. Both sides exchanged fire on the stairs, where a heavy gunfight ensued. In the end, after a good ten minutes, Anne and her team managed to take control of Kent, most of it anyway.


    Worden and his men retreated to the ship��s belly, where the captain��s quarters were. Knowing that they had no ce to hide, they became like mice in a trap and were extremely sharp at the moment. Naturally, Billy and his men would go after the remaining sailors. However, they were no match for the desperate navy and some were instantly gunned down. Having lost a few good men today, Billy felt dejected and sorrowful.


    Nevertheless, Jackdaw managed to take over Kent. In raising the white g, all their sailors had put down their weapons and began surrendering to the pirates. All that was left was Worden and his merry men, still hiding out in the captain��s quarters.


    Billy shouted at them from the outside and urged them to surrender, telling them that it was all over. Unironically, the navy replied in kind by shooting at him. Billy ducked as bullets whizzed past his head. He had already been shot once. Luckily, he wasn��t too close to the entrance. This deadlock had the pirates very impatient. Thankfully, not too long after that, Zhang Heng appeared.


    ��So. What��s the situation?��


    ��Initially, I wanted to deplete their ammunition and rush into the quarters. However, it seems like they are holding up real good in there,�� said Billy.


    Zhang Heng waved his hand, and a young and terrified navy officer was brought to him.


    ��I want you to talk to him.��


    ��Captain Worden asked me to drag twelve barrels of gunpowder to the captain��s quarters when they went in just now. He told me that the gunpowder is only to be used for the worst-case scenario,�� stuttered the young man, obviously scared out of his living daylights.


    ��Why does he need so much gunpowder?!�� asked Billy.


    ��Isn��t it obvious? Although he lost the battle, he has no intention to give us the ship!�� said a frowning Zhang Heng.


    ��Worden is waiting for the rest of our men from Jackdaw. Once everyone is here, he will blow everyone to hell. It appears he is about to destroy his Kent and kill most of our men. I think we should give up on taking their ship. Call all of our men to retreat! Only leave a few here to deal with them. Before all of you get off, go to the cargo hold and take everything they have, especially the food and water.


    ��Once we rescue the pirates from Parrot Ind, all these will be essential on the ship. We need to move everything back before this ship sinks. Don��t leave behind their gunpowder and ammunition as well. These are the things we need most right now. We have fifteen minutes to do it.


    ��Once the fifteen minutes are up, I want everyone back on Jackdaw, even if we fail to move everything. Drop whatever you have in your hands and return to our ship. I also want all our cannons aimed at the captain��s quarters. Once everybody is back on Jackdaw, we will fire at them immediately. Since Worden wants to go down with his ship, we shall grant him some assistance!��


    The pirates followed Zhang Heng��s orders by the dot, returning to Jackdaw once the fifteen minutes were up. The moment everyone on board, they swiftly retrieved the grappling hooks and started pulling away from Kent.


    Once they were far enough, Jackdaw fired all their cannons at them. The captain��s quarters exploded with a massive boom, breaking Kent into half. The st instantly disintegrated Worden and his men, with nothing left of them except burnt flesh and cinders. Putting aside the fact that they were enemies, Zhang Heng was actually impressed by Worden��s spirit. Both sides knew that this was the battle that would determine their fate. From the start till the end, Worden had brilliantly strategized his attacks, barely making any mistakes as he went along.


    He was simply unfortunate that Zhang Heng knew him well enough to win this fight. Earlier, Zhang Heng squeezed out everyst drop of information he could about Worden. Armed with new knowledge about his adversary, Zhang Heng came up with an effective n to defeat him. As for Worden, he never expected that to fight Jackdaw again. Hence, he spent no effort whatsoever to delve into Zhang Heng. Other than that, his previous victories and vastbat experience had turned him arrogant. Such costly errors eventually drove him to lose the battle, eventually paying the ultimate price with his life.


    ........


    Though the battle was over, Zhang Heng and his men had a shipload of things to deal with, no pun intended. Doctor Vincent faithfully treated the wounded in the infirmary. Gale, the carpenter, was scurrying about the decks with his other carpenters trying to fix all the damage they could find. As for Dufresne, he was counting the goods that they plundered from Kent, and, at the same time, figuring out a way to move all the gold bars from the bottom of the ocean. As the crew busied themselves with their seemingly neverending tasks, Zhang Heng brought some food and drinking water to the Parrot Ind survivors.


    While Jackdaw was fighting Kent, Erik and Brook had gathered the remaining pirates on the beach. Unfortunately, their guns wouldn��t shoot that far, and they could only stand ashore and watch the battle unfold before them.


    They burst into loud cheers the moment they saw Jackdaw iming the final victory. Zhang Heng figured there would be a handful of survivors on the ind but didn��t expect to see so few actually survived. As he passed the rations to the famished pirates, he got to know that ck Prince Sam was killed in action.


    ��My deepest condolences. So, what��s your n after this, Eric?��


    ��Initially, I wanted to destroy Kent to avenge him. Destroying Kent... this is what kept me alive on this ind. But then again, I didn��t expect you guys to solve my problem so quickly. Luckily, they have six more ships for me to destroy!��


    ��Erm... technically, there are only five ships left. We destroyed the Miranda a few days ago.��


    ��Thank you so much. We are only alive now thanks to you and your Jackdaw. I n to look for a ship to avenge Sam when I return to Nassau. I will make everyone involved in this scheme pay dearly!�� Erik roared furiously.


    ��However, I won��t force anybody to ride my path of revenge. The Quidah is gone, so is Sam. My life as a pirate is over. If possible, I��m hoping that you can take in the rest who are still alive.��


    ��No problem. You can alwayse back when you��ve settled your unfinished business.��


    Zhang Heng shook Eric��s hand warmly.


    There were less than twenty survivors from Quidah. Half of them wanted to avenge Sam with Eric. The other half wanted to join Jackdaw. Whichever ship they chose to board, though, these men were all experienced pirates, an invaluable asset to any pirate ship of this era.


    Most importantly, Zhang Heng was willing to absorb those wanting to join Jackdaw. Now that a wide range of talents was part of his crew, Zhang Heng was d to know that the next challenge would certainly be met with a little more tenacity and valor. Owing to the unexpected ��enlistment,�� pirates from the other two pirate vessels were quickly interested to join Jackdaw as well.


    As for Swordfish, Brook was still alive. Hence, nobody there was interested to hop over.

 Chapter 234 - Return to Nassau

    <h4>Chapter 234 Return to Nassau</h4>


    After distributing the food and water to the survivors, Zhang Heng shifted his attention to getting the gold bars from the bottom of the ocean. There wasn��t much time left, as the navy agreed that they would regroup on Parrot Ind in two weeks. More than a week had passed, and now, only five days were left. However, knowing the navy, they wouldn��t stick to their agreed time and would usually arrive a day or two earlier.


    That would mean Jackdaw had only around three days to retrieve all the gold bars. After that, Zhang Heng would need to think about how to escape and avoid the navy en route back to Nassau. He would need a good day for nning. In other words, excluding tonight, Zhang Heng and his men had only two days to retrieve all the gold bars.


    Amid all the bad news, a silver lining appeared. Earlier, Kent had thought about getting those gold bards as well, ordering their carpenters to make a set of salvaging tools. They were of crude design, where all they did to use a modified grappling hook. The carpenters added two more hooks to the w and tied the ropes at the front part of the hook. This helped to make the contraption more sturdy and would allow them to lift the sunken crates. Even with the device, they would still need to send divers to attach the hooks to these crates. Initially, Worden wanted to force the captured pirates to get it done. Of course, Zhang Heng wasn��t one to force his men to do it, so he decided to consult Gale.


    ��What do you think? Is it doable?��


    ��It��s not hard to make the tools they made. They havee up with the right thing for this task. We just need to copy it. We have a ton of grappling hooks on the ship. I believe I can make ten of them before sundown.��


    ��I have picked the most qualified men for this task as well. They are the best divers on Jackdaw. That said, we can��t possibly ask them to stay underwater for too long. By that time, they would have to resurface before they even reach the crates,�� Dufresne added.


    ��Hmm, they��ll run out of oxygen by the time they reach the gold. Tell the divers to hug heavy rocks on the way down. They would automatically start submerging, and no energy would be needed. Besides that, tie a rope around their waists and set a time limit. Once the time is up, we will pull them out. If everything goes smoothly, they should have enough time to install the grappling hooks on the crates.��


    As for the water pressure, Zhang Heng couldn��t find any solutions. The divers simply had to ovee it themselves. Twenty meters depth should be bearable for a human body. Although it would leave them with the bends, it wasn��t lethal. Considering the risks they would be taking, the divers would receive extra rewards if theypleted the task sessfully. This was a much-needed boost of motivation for these men.


    Zhang Heng left the matter for Dufresne and Billy to decide. Dufresne nodded and instantly sent someone to test their theory. Once the first crate was out of the water, he would know right away that Zhang Heng��s method worked well. All he needed to do after that was refine the technique until all the crates were out of the water. At the end of the second night, Jackdaw had managed to retrieve more than half of the sunken gold.


    After that, the salvage operation slowed down tremendously. The Spanish treasure ship was exceptionally well built, and the pirates had to hammer her with cannonballs until she sank. Unavoidably, the cargo hold was hit as well. Jackdaw had retrieved all the crates that were still intact, but there were still many gold bars that were scattered all over the ce.


    It was going to be a troublesome and arduous task to pick them up one by one. The contraptions that they made earlier weren��t going to help in a situation like this. It had to be manually done. In other words, they would need a longer time toplete the entire salvage operation. Other than that, the divers could only dive for a limited number of times a day. The depth and pressure would take a toll on them, and they would end up exhausted.


    Luckily, the survivors on the ind had mostly recovered. To show their gratitude to Jackdaw, not only did they give up their right to the gold bars, but they were even willing to help retrieve them without asking for anything in return.


    It was the third night, and with the help of the survivors, Jackdaw managed to recover a total of 3,200 pounds of gold ingots. There were 1,800 pounds left on the ocean floor, but most of them were scattered around, and many were buried under the wreck. Of course, they could retrieve all of them if they wanted to, but that would take a longer time.


    Zhang Heng had no intention to wait any longer. For the past few days, Jackdaw had been through nonstopbat. When they fled Parrot Ind, every single pirate on Jackdaw began to hold a massive grudge towards the navy. When they destroyed Kent, the resentment was settled. Now, most of Jackdaw��s crewy spent and exhausted. Even though some ammunition was acquired from Kent, most of them had lost the vigor for another fight.


    That was why Zhang Heng decided not to continue staying on Parrot Ind. Once he picked up Brook, he set for home. Everyone was more than eager to head back to Nassau. Running heavy, Jackdaw spent double the time they needed to return to Nassau. Having so much gold and the extrapliment on board, they were a lot slower than they usually were. They had to avoid the other five enemy ships as well. Luckily, they did note across any threats. It wasn��t until the stone walls, and Nassau��s castle was spotted that they could finally breathe a sigh of relief.


    Everyone on board had mixed feelings when they saw Nassau. To Jackdaw��s pirates, they prevailed once again and imed victory even although it was a hard-fought battle. As the captain of Jackdaw, Zhang Heng got to carry on being the legend of Nassau. In a dire, hopeless circumstance, Jackdaw was the only ship that survived and escaped the navy. They miraculously turned the tide around by destroying Miranda and Kent. In the end, they salvaged most of the gold bars and saved the pirates that were still alive on Parrot Ind.


    On the other hand, the other five pirate ships were not as lucky as Jackdaw. They lost everything this time. They failed to get anything out of the hunting trip, and to make matters worse, their ships were also destroyed as well. However, they were simply grateful to be alive and got to return to Nassau. Once Jackdaw arrived at the harbor, Brook and the other captain quickly got off the ship. They had a lot of things to deal with, having needed to recruit new pirates and look for a new boat as well. After that, Eric bid Zhang Heng farewell too.


    Zhang Heng sent them off to shore in a small boat. Once they were gone, Zhang Heng ordered his men to unload the gold bars from Jackdaw. Although there were still 1,800 pounds of gold bars lying on the bottom, the other five pirate ships gave up their share. Thus, they were delighted and contented by their yield this time. The remaining scraps would most probably be snatched up by the navy and pirate hunters.


    After this voyage, Jackdaw��s pirates were wealthy enough to quit being a pirate. Most of them had never even seen so many gold bars before. As they unloaded their gold bars, the entire Nassau was left in shock.

 Chapter 235 - Capital Woes

    <h4>Chapter 235 Capital Woes</h4>


    The pile of gold bars was a monument on its own, creating a stunning sight as it shone and shimmered in the sun. Except for the pirates tasked with moving the gold bars, Zhang Heng gathered everyone from his ship and distributed weapons to them. They needed them to maintain order at the harbor in case of untoward incidents. That said, after Zhang Heng annihted the Skeleton, everyone knew it best not to mess with Jackdaw. Unsurprisingly, no one lost their minds when they saw the gold barsing out from the ship.


    Afterward, Zhang Heng sent someone to contact Carina, asking her to empty one of her warehouses. He would use it as temporary storage for the gold. The Jackdaw had an overwhelming yield this trip, and if Zhang Heng distributed the gold to his men right now, safety would be a primary concern. On the surface, no one seemed to dare go against Jackdaw��s pirates but in actual fact, multitudes of thieves and robbers were waiting to get their hands on all those precious gold bars.


    Other than that, the group of pirates who had previously gambled away twenty gold coins in a single night received a stark warning from Zhang Heng. Though the captain had no intention to poke around everyone��s spending habits, he knew his men would be moving targets the moment he gave them their share of the money.


    So, he decided to only give them a portion of their share first. He would help them to keep the rest for now. He came up with a ledger to keep track of all the gold that he gave his men. Anyone could ask for more whenever they needed it. After a while, Carina and her men came to the pier.


    It was then Zhang Heng noticed that Carina didn��t look too good. Since there were outsiders around him, he figured it was a bad time to talk about it. Only after reaching the warehouse and seeing that all the gold bars were safe did he talk to her in a quiet ce.


    ��How��s everything? Has it all been good throughout my absence?��


    ��The situation... is not looking good,�� replied Carina as she tried squeezing a smile.


    ��Huh?��


    When Zhang Heng left Nassau two months ago, Carina��s problem was solved because the Skeleton was no longer a threat to her. Along with the rise of Jackdaw, her trading business flourished in Nassau as well. Not only did she enjoy repeat business with the captains she used to deal with, but some pirate ships even left the ck market alliance hoping to build a long term partnership with her. All the while, Malcolm had been trying to dominate the ck markets of Nassau. Naturally, Carina��s growth had be a huge threat to him. More and more traders were increasingly interested in trading with Carina instead of the ck market alliance.


    This was indeed great news for Carina since the ck market alliance had been retarding her growth for a very long time. When she saw hope in defeating Malcolm and the ck-market alliance, she instantly signed every contract of the captains who wished to trade with her. To take control of a broader market share, she purchased another ship to help her move the increasing amount of items moving through her warehouse. Right now, she was the proud owner of three cargo ships. Of course, the expansion required an increase in hiring as well. With therge acquisitions, she literally invested everything that she earned back into her business.


    Unfortunately, whatever happened after that was out of her control. Carina��s biggest problem was herck of shrewdness as a ck-market merchant. The ck market alliance was newly formed when she first came to Nassau. All her father��s trading partners had left to work with them when he got incarcerated. In the end, Jackdaw was the first and only ship willing to trade with her. Owing to that, she managed to survive in Nassau. However, although sleeping on a bed of roses, sharp thorns were present as well. She had to face perpetual harassment and pressure by the ck-market alliance, which just wouldn��t let her off the hook.


    That was why Carina differed from all the other ck-market merchants. She never trusted anyone aside from Zhang Heng. Of course, she traded with many different captains under the radar of the alliance, but those were just one-off trades. The real situation, however, was way moreplicated than that. Although Carina had a natural ir for business, she sorelycked experience, not to mention needing a lot more time. All that in a ce she was unfamiliar with. If Malcolm wasn��t after her, she would have had sufficient space to grow like a potato seedling. Right now, Malcolm was akin to a giant stone pinning her down. She had waste precious energy to squirm and crawl underneath its weight. In other words, he had severely stunted her growth.


    Malone��s betrayal had also slowly affected Carina. After all, he used to be her father��s most trusted partner. He was also the only one familiar with his trading techniques. Without Malone��s guidance, Carina had to rely on herself to do business in a world filled with hounds and sharks. From that time on, one problem after another began to gue her.


    For instance, she had supposedly set her buying price at 5% higher than the ck market alliance, a rate Carina and the captains both agreed with. However, the ck-market alliance offered different prices to captains from different tiers. Some pirates eventually discovered that they had been offered different ratespared to some others although the items they sold were simr.


    It was hardly surprising then, how some pirates felt increasingly displeased with the double-standards. During that time, Carina was busy discussing partnerships with the merchants, worried that the bad reputation of the alliance would spill over to her. Ultimately, she was forced to cap her prices at the highest possible rate. That would mean she would be getting significantly less profit from all her trades.


    The low-profit margins were just the beginning. Along with the increase in her cargo volume, the customs officers demanded an increase in bribes as well. This would all trante to higher costs, and subsequently, the retail price for the items would increase as well. Such a situation would only spell fewer buyers in the end. Initially, Carina thought that Malcolm must have been messing with her. Shockingly, she attempted a different port but found the same thing happening to her again. It was then when she realized that this was an unspoken rule for all ck market merchants.


    As if to worsen the situation, she had troubles at her business spot as well. The local traders were unhappy after seeing Carina dealing on arge scale on their turf. Twowsuits were filed against her thanks to the jealous and disgruntled lot. The matter had to be settled regardless, and she was forced to spend a considerable sum to settle the case outside court. The detour eventually incurred huge losses for her.


    All the above led to only one conclusion: the financial pit, the worst of her woes. Before Zhang Heng left, he gave Carina the Skeleton. Although it was supposed to be her third cargo ship, she would still need to pay for its refit and the manpower required. During that time, she had just spent arge sum of money to expand her warehouse by opening a grocery store. When the time came for her to purchase loot, she was so cash strapped that she was forced to mortgage her father��s property just to have enough.


    The entire process of purchasing the goods from the pirate ships, finding prospective buyers, and shipping them to various colonies usually required a set amount of time. It was a well-established system that most traders were familiar with. Unfortunately, the situation didn��t always go as nned. The time the ships would return to port remained an uncontroble factor. At times, a few pirate ships would all return to Nassau at once, and she would need a tremendous amount of money at hand to purchase their loot.


    A week before Zhang Heng��s return to Nassau, Carina was already on the verge of financial copse. As of now, she still owed two captains arge sum of money. Then, this morning, she was trying her hardest to calm her increasingly disguntled partners who had not received their payment on time.


    Unfortunately, the heightened emotions caused some pirates to lose all patience and they proceeded to ransack her grocery store.

 Chapter 236 - Malcolm’s Dilemma

    <h4>Chapter 236 Malcolm��s Dilemma</h4>


    Competition in business was akin to the cruelty of an actual war.


    Malcolm knew Carina��s weakness and quickly changed tactics from aggression to concession. This time, he threw a bait the businesswoman could never refuse.


    If Carina wanted to expand her business, she couldn��t sorely rely on Jackdaw alone. It didn��t matter if it was flourishing her second-hand dealership or the private transactions with pirates from the ck-market alliance �C they were all retaliation to the obstacles Malcolm threw at her. Thus, there was no reason for her to turn down an opportunityid before her feet.


    Had Carina been given another six months, and being a quick learner at that, she would have solved her current predicament and turned her rags into riches. However, for obvious reasons, Malcolm was never going to allow her to do that.


    ��How much money do you have right now?�� Zhang Heng asked.


    ��To get the business running again, I would need to throw in at least 700 gold coins. But then again, what��s the point of continuing anyway? We are bleeding money by the barrel. Before this, the business was slow, but now... now, we lose money every day, every hour, every minute,�� she replied. There was a hint of frustration and exhaustion in her raspy voice, a rarity for her.


    She hade across the most challenging time for her business. Strangely, no matter how hard she worked, she couldn��t seem to turn the situation around. An endless string of problems simply kept ramming into her.


    Because they were expanding at an exponential rate, her capital reserves would not keep up with her expenditure. To make matters worse, the current market had reached a saturation point, with too much stock lying around and no buyers to take them. Then there was the problem of increased customs bribes and the local business�� boycotts �C significant impediments that simply couldn��t be solved in such a short period.


    ��I can give you an additional 800 gold coins as a follow-up to my investment. On top of that, I can lend you 200 gold coins,�� Zhang Heng said. During theirst voyage, Jackdaw came back fully loaded. He made a simple calction �C as the captain, he and the founding members of Jackdaw would each get around 1200 gold coins �C an indubitably tremendous amount of money.


    With the newfound wealth, he could simply retire now, buy two plots ofnd, and live afortable life on the ind. Nheless, Zhang Heng thought about how Roger Woode and his fleet woulde back in a few years to recapture Nassau and how he refused to put his life at the mercy of others.


    Roger Woode, the first governor in the history of Nassau, upied the ind with his fleet and pardoned most of the pirates there. However, Zhang Heng found it hard to believe that things would go that well for himself, especially given what he had done �C including Scarborough, he had now attacked two navy fleets. Jackdaw, the pirate ship he now captained, had also been taken from the navy, not to mention that he was part of Queen Anne��s Revenge�� bombing of Charleston. Then, not long ago, he killed Worden, the highest-ranking navymander of the British Caribbean.


    With ckbeard Teach missing, ck Sam dead, and Honegg retiring, Zhang Heng and his sailors were now the de facto top group of pirates on the whole ind.


    Should Roger Woode manage to take Nassau, many others would still have a chance to keep their lives, considering the fact that Nassau required a ton of youngborers to help develop the ind. But not Zhang Heng. He would be among the first to be gotten rid of. So long Roger Woode��s head was attached to him, he would kill the chickens to scare the monkeys (to punish an individual as an example to others).


    On that ount, even though Zhang Heng had alreadypleted his primary mission, he couldn��t go on a vacation. Moreover, it was no longer just him alone. As the captain of Jackdaw, he was now responsible for the welfare of his sailors, all depending on him for stipends. And then there was Anne, of whom he looked after. Without his support, thepetition between Carina and Malcolm would instantly be over, with Malcolmpletely crushing her.


    At this point, it was hard to think of himself or resign at the height of his prosperity.


    ��But in return, my share of the business must increase by 10%,�� Zhang Heng said.


    ��That won��t be a problem. But are you sure you want to continue? At least in the short term, there won��t be much hope of making a profit.��


    ��What if the Malcolm were to be resolved?�� Zhang Heng asked.


    Considering the windfall they got from their most recent expedition, Jackdaw��s sailors would most likely withdraw into a lengthy sabbatical, and it would probably be a while before they put to sea again. On top of that, the legendary battle of the Jackdaw had basically entrenched her dominance in the entire ind of Nassau.


    This meant Zhang Heng had enough time and energy to deal with the final opponents �C Malcolm and his ck-market alliance.


    Although Carina��s business seemed to be bleak for now, she had made a strategic move that unwittingly pressured the ck-market alliance. Regardless of whether Malcolm��s concessions were voluntary or not, his moves had indisputably caused thisrge-scale expansion of the used goods business.


    The ck-market alliance did not voice their doubts. Only Malcolm was assertive enough, foreseeing that he could afford it, whereas Carina couldn��t.


    But when Zhang Heng returned with all that gold, it had be a whole total different ballgame altogether. One the other side, though, the ck-market alliance lost five powerful pirate ships, the loss of ck Prince Sam and his Quidah, an especially big blow to them.


    It appeared that Malcolm��s current situation might not be better than that of Karina.


    In the early days of the ck-market alliance��s establishment, they offered very favorable prices to the pirates, meaning that it also a time when their profits were at their lowest. Now that the number of powerful pirate ships was on a rapid decline, it was foreseeable that the amount of valuable loot would also decrease �C aggravating an internal conflict that had been brewing within the ck-market alliance.


    Later that day, Zhang Heng secretly met up with Laeli behind Smoked Fish Alley.


    During this period, the diator had also made a lot of progress. With Leah on the inside, Malcolm��s study could practically hide no secrets. She took the opportunity to go through his letters quietly each time she cleaned the room. To avoid being discovered by Malcolm, Leah did not take any of them but simply memorized any useful information she came across. Then, she would put them into writing, and have someone take the notes to Laeli.


    Zhang Heng flipped through the notes, spotting some interesting messages. Along with the summary of the letters, Leah had also jotted down her impressions and analysis of Malcolm��s antics, which helped paint a moreprehensive picture of the man��s character. However, news regarding Carina��s father, Fegan, was only found in one letter.


    Although it confirmed that Malcolm��s family had indeed contacted Count ughter, the man who framed Fegan, it wasn��t enough evidence to charge him for it. There was also a letter stating that Malcolm secretly invested in a parliament member of Whitehall and that he and Raymond��s son-inw were political enemies.

 Chapter 237 - Interrogation

    <h4>Chapter 237 Interrogation</h4>


    ��Let��s not talk about your father��s imprisonment first. Financially aiding political enemies should start a new conflict between Redmond and Malcolm. We need to investigate the Normand matter first.��


    ��Normand, who is that?��


    ��The ck-market alliance that you know right now is actually not the first in existence.


    ��I heard my father mentioning it before. Three years ago, another ck-market alliance was established in Nassau. However, it did not end well. It existed only for a short period of time, and it was dismissed soon that.��


    ��The leader of that alliance was Normand. We all know Redmond as the most experienced ck-market merchant in Nassau. When Normand was still around, he was the most respected ck-market merchant on this ind, which was why he was chosen as the alliance�� leader. During that time, Redmond was second inmand. Not too long after that, the whole thing was managed poorly, and Normand��s reputation was destroyed thanks to that. He left many angry and resentful. After that alliance was dismissed, Normand secretly left Nassau. In the end, I heard he died of some illness in his home.��


    ��Does this incident have anything to do with Malcolm? He��s been only on the ind for a year, right?��


    ��He made a name for himself during that time. Of course, it fades inparison to what he��s achieved today. He yed a big part in the establishment of the ck-market alliance, but he chose toy low instead. I believe he is not a good man.��


    Zhang Heng then passed the notebooks to Carina.


    ��Malcolm incited the ck-market merchants against Normand. Why would he do that? Isn��t he one of the supporters of the ck-market alliance?�� he asked.


    ��He is one of the supporters of the ck-market alliance, but he wants to be the one in charge of it all. It was too soon for Malcolm to do anything when Normand formed the alliance, having only been in Nassau for a year. His position and growth were limited, and it wouldn��t be good for him if the alliance managed to fortify their territory on the ind. If he wanted to grow and expand further, he had to put a stop to the ck-market alliance. To achieve that, it was done in great secrecy. I heard that he used a courier called Eugene.��


    ��Eugene? The intelligence trader who lived on our ind?��


    ��Well, he was once a ck-market merchant as well. Once the alliance was dismissed, he switched jobs as an intelligence dealer. We need to talk to him. Amongst the merchants, Normand��s reputation was unparalleled. Though the ck-market alliance incident had cost him his good reputation, he still holds the respect of many. For years now, his best friend was always Raymond.


    ��After Normand passed away, Redmond took care of his funeral and buried him. If we can get Eugene to testify against Malcolm, we could deepen the conflict between Malcolm and Redmond. With the letters that the two have, I believe it would hit Malcolm harder than exposing your father��s issue. Considering that the ck-market alliance isn��t doing well, I believe that we cannd him a critical hit if we expose this old incident about him.��


    Just as Zhang Heng finished, someone ran into the cer. It was Cauchy.


    ��Something bad is happening at the mansion! You guys better head to the central za and take a look.��


    Fifteen minutester, Zhang Heng and Carina arrived at the central za with their faces covered. Arge number of people had already gathered. At the center of it all, a naked ck man was being tied to a wooden stake. There were whip marks and open wounds all over his body, and he seemed to be not long for this world. The butler that Zhang Heng met before at Terrance Mansion, Wace, stood there calmly.


    ��I��m going to give you onest chance. Who have you been contacting outside the mansion? Who did he ask you to pass the message to? Tell me his name, and I will let you go! I��ll give your freedom back to you! What do you think, eh? Isn��t that what you��ve always wanted? To be a free man.��


    The ck man��s mouth remained shut, causing Wace to instinctively pick the whip before shing the man again. The poor soul howled in pain when a big chunk of flesh on his back was torn off by the whip. Soon, he could no longer stand the pain, and he lost consciousness.


    After that, Wace lifted a bucket of water and sshed it on the man. It did it��s work, waking him up with his face all twisted.


    ��You lot won��t stop begging me to be more merciful! Alright! Right now, I will show you mercy! You have my promise, and the people around you shall bear witness to my words. As long as you give me the name, I will release you immediately. Before you leave, I will even throw in a doctor to treat your injuries. As a bonus, you will be given a new set of clothes so you can leave this ce with honor. Honestly, I can��t think of a better deal than this. All I want are the names. Just give me the two damn names, and we can end this bloody farce!��


    The ck man started panting rapidly. Nheless, after a short while, he decided that he would not say a word to the butler.


    ��This is why I hate your kind. The kind that will never learn how to put themselves in the shoes of others. Why do you have to turn this into an ugly scene?�� growled Wace in a disappointed tone.


    After that, Wace stood up and took two steps back. The supervisor behind him moved to the front again. The ck man was trembling, dreading terrible things would befall him soon. Laeli could bear it no more, and was about to punch Wace in the face. However, someone grabbed his arm before he could go.


    ��Calm down. The reason why Wace chose this cewas to make sure that you get to see all of it. If you show yourself right now, you are walking right into their trap. The man on the pir... is that your contact?��


    Laeli nodded as he clenched his jaws, trying his best to suppress his anger.


    ��His name is Nadya, a kitchen helper in the mansion. In the morning, he would usually visit the market with the chef to get the day��s supplies. We would secretly meet up and I��ll pass him the messages for Leah.��


    ��How did Wacee to know about it?��


    ��We always met behind the cook��s back. I��m pretty sure that another kitchen helper sold him out, and the traitor is apparently not from my tribe. However, Nadya told me that he had been dealt with. I tried my best to meet up with him only when he was alone. Then, I realized that another kitchen helper would always stand close by whenever we talked. All the ves who have been granted permission to step out of the mansion are usually very obedient. Still, he is worried that some of them might escape when they are out. That is why he would never let his ves stray too far. Just so you know, I made sure to always cover my face when I talked to Nadya. No one should recognize me unless they know me well!��

 Chapter 238 - Eugene’s Secre

    Chapter 238 Eugene��s Secre


    Carina was heartbroken as she looked at the ck man��s horrendous condition. Unfortunately, there was nothing the three could do to help him. In this era, cks were treated no differently than livestock. Even if Malcolm ordered all the ck folk in his mansion to be killed, nobody would do anything about it. Besides, Wace ordered his men to hide around the central za to see who would emerge to rescue Nadya.


    In the end, they were forced to watch Nadya getting brutally whipped by the supervisor to the point where he fainted again. Despite his disy of total dominance, Wace wasn��t happy with the oue. The moment he was told that Nadya was dealing with someone outside, he quickly nned this fracas to lure out the man behind all this. Unfortunately, the main character didn��t show up in the end. If he beat Nadia to death, his only clue would cease to exist.


    Seeing that Nadya had stopped screaming, he was left with no other option but to stop the supervisor from whipping.


    ��Look for a doctor to treat his wounds. Let��s head back to the mansion,�� said a dark-faced Wace.


    Since the scene was over, the crowd gathered at the central za slowly dispersed as well.


    ��What do you n to do?�� asked Zhang Heng.


    ��Though Nadya is not a warrior from my tribe, I can say that his willpower is stronger than most warriors. He will never betray us,�� Laeli replied, his eyes redded by the horrendous barbarism inflicted upon his kind.


    ��This has nothing to do with loyalty. People rarely survive such continuous torture. Say he could withstand the agony this time. What about next time and the time after that? Sooner orter, Wace will figure out a way to make him talk.��


    ��What should I do then?��


    ��It��s time for you to consider leaving this ce. You have given us so much useful information all this time. It is enough for us to figure out how to deal with Malcolm. My earlier promise to you still holds ground. During myst voyage, I scouted some inds for you, and I managed to find a suitable one. There is a ready supply of drinking water and a thick forest on the ind. It��s is a perfect hideaway for your tribe. And if you need weapons, I can give them to you. Don��t worry about your daily essentials. I��ll send you a batch as well.��


    Zhang Heng paused for a while before continuing.


    ��Just as I said. My ship and men will be waiting for you at a designated location. I can��t get involved in your ve war. Otherwise, the ntations on the ind will make an enemy out of me.��


    ��I can understand that. When I leave, I will ask Leah to bring all the letters you need and pass them to you.��


    Once Zhang Heng was finished with Laeli, he looked for Carina to discuss Eugene. They quickly realized that it was going to be an uphill battle getting Eugene to work with them and stand up against Malcolm.


    ��Sounds easy enough to me. We just need to tie him up and give him a good beating,�� grinned Anne.


    ��This time, we are not allowed to use any violence. Otherwise, we could lose all credibility. We need to make sure that Eugene is willing to speak out the truth. His words will be proof that Malcolm has always ced his own interests above the ck-market alliance. Eugene also needs to tell everyone that Malcolm is not suitable as a leader. Anyway, we��ll need to check him out first.��


    Billy wanted to be a part of this operation as well, and on the third day in the morning, the four of them gathered at Zhang Heng��s ce.


    ��I will speak first. Eugene became an intelligence dealer three years after the first ck-market alliance copsed. After the first alliance was formed, he managed to convince a group of people to bring Norman down by bing hispetitor. From what I know, he seeded in snatching away a few important deals from the ck-market alliance. The situation was still salvageable at that time. After all, Normand��s reputation was soaring in Nassau. Arge number of people were willing to trust and follow him. That was until something happened...�� said Carina.


    ��What happened?��


    ��Normand was caught secretly dealing with two pirate ships. He was used of misusing his power to gouge for higher prices. In return, the two pirate ships gave half of their earnings to Normand. This was the incident that caused him to lose all his reputation. It all seems so wrong to me. The captains of the two pirate ships were close to Eugene. One of them even used to work with him.��


    ��Can you locate those two pirate ships?��


    ��I��m afraid not. My investigation stops here. From what I know, one ship set off and didn��t return after that. I��m guessing that they were plundered and subsequently sank. The other ship was forced out of business bypeting pirates. One year ago, their captain was stabbed to death over an argument in a tavern. After that, the entire crew underwent major changes. All the old pirates were reced by new ones. Even if we could find the original crew of that ship, it would be pointless. After all, there��s only so much an ordinary pirate would know about the captain,�� said Billy.


    ��Anyway, the ck-market alliance was disbanded because of this incident. Normand has a lot of friends, though, and Eugene wasn��t wee in the ck-market merchant circle after what happened to Normand. That was why he was forced to quit to be an intelligence dealer instead. With his strong connections with the customs, he has be quite sessful now. Of course, it��s nothingpared to what he achieved when he was still a ck-market merchant. Now, here��s the problem. In the end, Eugene got nothing from this incident. Why would he do what Malcolm asked?��


    ��Are you trying to say that perhaps Malcolm rewarded Eugene secretly?�� asked Billy.


    ��On the contrary, I think there��s a big possibility that Malcolm threatened Eugene to submission. I��ve studied Malcolm��s character, and he seems to be a before very cautious person. If he can make Eugene use Normand of something he didn��t do, he definitely held something against Eugene. However, judging by Eugene��s personality �C if he was willing to frame Normand for money, he could do the same to Malcolm as well.��


    ��So, right now, we need to find out what Malcolm��s beef with Eugene is?��


    ��I think I might know the answer to that question.��


    No one expected Anne to voice up in a moment like this. Immediately, everyone turned their attention to her. At that, she simply shrugged.


    ��What��s wrong? I have my own methods of investigation. Harry is very close to the kids around this area. Though all they do is mess around every day, they are actually quite useful when I need help. Due to their young age, no one really pays attention to them. From time to time, they would overhear secrets from the adults and spill them out. Very few people actually know that Eugene has an illegitimate son.��


    ��Illegitimate son? How old is he? Where is he right now?��


    ��A prostitute bore his child when he first arrived on this ind. ording to what the kids heard, Eugene got the prostitute out once he knew that she was pregnant. He even bought her a house in Nassau. Unfortunately, the house was burned down. Eugene managed to get out in time but not the woman. Miraculously, the child survived the fire. This incident caused him and his son to be at odds. He left Nassau alone when he was only ten.��

 Chapter 239 - Hesitation

    <h4>Chapter 239 Hesitation</h4>


    ��Was Eugene married?��


    ��As far as I know, he��s got a wife in the colony, but they couldn��t have kids. If that��s true, then the illegitimate son is probably his only child,�� Billy said.


    ��This child must be of great importance to him. Eugene must have felt very guilty, especially about that fire,�� Carina reasoned.


    ��So, Malcolm used the child to make Eugene do his bidding?�� Anne quizzed.


    ��No, that��s not Malcolm��s style,�� Carina shook her head. ��At times, he��d use the simplest and most straightforward way to solve a problem, much like the Skull issue. However, keeping someone captive like that is crossing the line �C there��s no way he would imprison a living person for that long.��


    ��So, Malcolm��s hold over Eugene is not his son,�� Billy said, stroking his chin. ��Then we��re back to square one. Is there anything else that Eugene really cares about?��


    ��I��m sorry. I couldn��t find anything other than his son. He leads a pretty simple life right now. Spending most of his time each day in the same tavern, he buys and sells news to the captains. Other than this, he rarely does anything else. He��s one man with a bloody rigid life. Apart from work purposes, he never interacts with people, and only does things that rarely put him in conflict with others,�� said Carina.


    ��I still think that Malcolm is using Eugene��s son,�� said Zhang Heng, who hadn��t spoken a word since the start. ��But he didn��t resort to lowly means such as holding the child in custody. I believe Malcolm showed Eugene that he would always have a way to get to his son, which is why Eugene did as he was told automatically. I know someone we can ask.��


    ��Who is it?��


    ��I��ve been investigating Eugene��s interpersonal rtionships mainly because I was curious �C he��s only in his early forties, meaning that his physique hasn��t suffered significant deterioration yet. Men of this age still have their basic physiological needs. But like you said, after the fire, he had no rtionships with women, and he never visited the brothel either. How did he manage to maintain his chastity for more than ten years?��


    ��Did you find the answer?��


    ��Mmhmm. Eugene suffers from severe backache. He��s tried various methods but hasn��t found a cure. Then someone rmended him to try the remedy of the Guanahatabey people. He would go to a small manor on the ind every other week, where a woman named Carmen owns the ce. I believe both of them share some kind of intimate rtionship... no, more like a very, very intimate rtionship. The treatment has continued for nearly ten years now. They are not simply ordinary friends or lovers. Carmen probably knows quite a bit of Eugene��s secrets, and it��s highly likely that she knows how Malcolm controls Eugene.��


    ��So, all we have to do is find this Carmen to tell us what Malcolm has on Eugene. Right! then what are we waiting for?�� Anne raised her chin.


    ��We��re waiting for a friend. Carmen will be easier to handle than Eugene, but like I said, she and Eugene have been in a rtionship for nearly a decade now. We need to be prepared. Carina and I will go. If there��s too many of us, she may feel ufortable.��


    Just as Zhang Heng finished, the sound of a carriageing to a halt could be heard downstairs.


    Zhang Heng grabbed his coat and went downstairs with Carina. This was a rtively safe undertaking �C Carmen was not much of a fighter �C so, to minimize the chances of hostility, Zhang Heng left his knife behind. He only brought a short musket for self-defense.


    He opened the door of the carriage for Carina as she picked up her dress and entered it.


    Once Zhang Heng was inside, he told the driver, ��Go to Hyman Mansion.��


    ��What about your friend?�� Carina asked when she noticed that the third person wasn��t in the carriage with them.


    ��We��ve arranged a time to meet. He will be there when he��s needed. Let��s just hope that it won��t get to that point.��


    Only until the carriage door was shut did Carina finally rx as if stripping off a masquerade. Gone was her stern, unrelenting stance. She leaned back against the seat, rubbing her temples in exasperation. Then, she suddenly remembered that she wasn��t alone and was immediately embarrassed. She did not know what to say to Zhang Heng.


    ��It looks like you��ve been having a tough time.��


    ��Not really. Thanks to the money you provided, I was able to pay off all our debts. The rest are just small problems. Speaking of which, whatever you��re doing now... isn��t that even more dangerous? I heard that you came across the navy this time! Six pirate ships went out, but only you made it home. Not only that, you even brought back most of the gold. I don��t think I��ve even congratted you. It must have been an interesting story,�� Carina straightened herself.


    ��There was also a lot of luck at y.��


    ��It may be blind luck the first time, but after the second and third, it��s not luck anymore. Now that ck Sam is gone, you and your men are the most powerful pirates on this ind. I knew that this day woulde when I first met you, but I didn��t expect it toe so soon.��


    ��You did pretty well yourself. Even though you have Malcolm and the ck-market alliance breathing on your neck, you are still able to grow your business into what it is today. When you first came to the ind, I��m sure no one believed that you could get to where you are now, not to mention that you were a neer.��


    Carina smiled thinly. ��But I��ve never even won once against Malcolm. If it weren��t for you, my bags would��ve probably been packed, and I would��ve and left Nassau a long time ago.��


    ��Malcolm has been operating on this ind for so long, and now, he even has the ck-market alliance under his grasp. You wouldn��t have stood a chance. Now that we��ve identified his weak point, it��s our turn to forge the path ahead.��


    At Zhang Heng��s calming suggestions, Carina rested for the remainder of the journey. When she closed her eyes, her mind drifted to the first time she boarded Jackdaw. That night, after having one ss too many of whiskey in the captain��s cabin, she began rambling about her childhood and turbulent past.


    That night alone, she revealed her entire life��s story, but ironically, whatever she really wanted to say simply couldn��t leave her lips. After that, when she found out about Zhang Heng and Anne, a woman whose bravery she admired, she had to admit that she must have hesitated at some point.


    Concerned that she was merely attracted to his air of mystery, and troubled by Zhang Heng��s pirate identity, she didn��t despise Anne for getting him first. The truth was, what caused people to lose out had nothing to do with timing, but rather, their own hesitation, hesitating at the point of a crucial decision.

 Chapter 240 - Carmen

    <h4>Chapter 240 Carmen</h4>


    The horse carriage had parked outside Hyman Manor when Carina opened her eyes again. Carina was the kind of woman that could move on once she realized that her goal was a lost cause. Although she felt upset for some time after she knew that rtionship between Zhang Heng and Annem, she snapped out of it and focused solely on her business. Time had washed off the sadness that she had within her heart.


    She was reminded of some of the memories that she had since she was in a small space with Zhang Heng. After taking a short nap, she felt that her energy was rejuvenated. Once Carina got down from the horse carriage, she stretched her back and looked around the ce. This ce was different from Malcolm��s Terrance Manor. Carmen��s Hyman Manor was not as huge as Terrance Manor. Its size was only one-tenth of Terrance Manor��s size. There were no ntations around the mansion. The mansion was surrounded by a huge garden and grasnd. Carmen had inherited this ce from herte husband, Smith. Only one year after they were married, Smith fell from the horse carriage and died.


    ��How can I help you both?��


    A ck man was cutting grass in the garden. He put down the scissors and walked toward them when he saw them standing in front of the mansion.


    ��I heard the master of this mansion is an expert at Guanahatabey��s healing skill. I��m here to ask for her help,�� Zhang Heng said after he got down from the horse carriage.


    ��You are right about that. Mrs. Smith is very talented at Guanahatabey��s healing skills. I can say that her healing is better than all the Guanahatabeys on this ind. However, you will need to make an appointment if you need her help. We need time to prepare herbs and the right medical tools for you. Other than that, Mrs. Smith will need to go into meditation one night before she uses this healing skill on others.��


    ��Is that right. But we are here right now. Can we at least experience her healing skill a little?��


    ��About that...�� The ck man looked sheepish. ��You came at the wrong time. In half an hour, a patient wille and meet up with Mrs. Smith. So...��


    Before he could finish his sentence, he was interrupted by a woman.


    ��That��s alright. Drew, let theme in.��


    ��As you wish.��


    Drew then moved aside and wee Zhang Heng and his people into the mansion. Zhang Heng and Carina followed behind him, and they passed by a small garden before then entered the main entrance. After that, Drew went to the kitchen to make tea for them. About five minutester, the woman that talked to Drew earlier finally came down from the second floor. Before that, she was standing in front of the window on the second floor. Zhang Heng managed to take a quick look at her. Finally, he had the chance to meet her officially.


    ording to the information that Zhang Heng gathered about Carmen, her age should be simr to Eugene��s��around forty years old. However, it was hard to guess her age from the way she looked. It seemed like she had a great method of taking care of her skin, as her entire being was emanating an aura that was mixed with maturity and innocence. Zhang Heng could finally understand why Eugene was so attracted by her.


    ��Drew, did you know who you stopped from entering my mansion?��


    ��Forgive me for not knowing, madam.��


    ��Who is the most famous person on this ind recently?��


    ��Mr. Ma that formed the ck-market alliance. ck Prince Sam bes the pirate king of Nassau. And the most recent famous person on Nassau is the captain of Jackdaw, Zhang Heng.��


    It was at that time that Drew realized the person sitting in front of him was Zhang Heng. After all, the characteristics of Easterners stood out amongst all the people in this mansion. At the same time, he was astonished by this realization.


    ��No matter what, you can��t ask the most famous captain in Nassau to leave this mansion right now. Drew, I need you to cancel my next appointment. Tell Mr. Buffon that his treatment has changed to tomorrow night.��


    Drew nodded his head and served the tea to Zhang Heng and his people before he left the house.


    ��I hope that my man didn��t offend you.��


    Carmen extended her hand. All these while, Zhang Heng did not like European��s hand-kissing gesture. This was a tradition passed down from the Vikings. It spread to Europe, and it became a polite gesture used by the aristocrats. Usually, this gesture was used by men to show their respect to married women. In modern society, it was stillmonly used amongst the royalties in Europe. Still, it did not hide the fact that it was an unhygienic move. Considering the people that lived in this era showered only once every week, there were surely a lot of bacteria on their hands. So, Zhang Heng extended his hand and chose to shake her hand instead of kissing it.


    Carmen was embarrassed by it, but she managed to conceal her emotion before anyone realized it. She then turned around and smiled at Carina.


    ��Let me guess. Since the captain, I��m pretty sure you are Anne. No, Miss Anne has red hair that everyone is envious of. You are Miss Carina. Though the things that you��ve done are not as famous as Captain Zhang, your name had spread across the entire Nassau. Especially the women on this ind. A lot of them are always talking about you and Miss Anne. The two of you have proven that women can still rule in the world that is dominated by men.��


    ��You think too highly of me. I��m just a businesswoman that wants to earn more money.��


    After a while, the three of them were done withplimenting each other.


    ��I have never thought that Captain Zhang Heng knows me. How can I help you?��


    ��There is something I need your help urgently, Madam Smith.��


    ��That would be my honor. Might I know which part of your body is unwell?��


    Carina lifted the cup of tea in front of her and asked.


    ��Madam Smith, I heard that you are very close to Mister Eugene.��


    ��I beg your pardon?��


    ��We have no ill intention towards Mister Eugene. Actually, we know that he is being stuck in a helpless situation for many years. We wish to help him to solve his problem. But I need you to tell me the things that are threatening him right now.��


    ��I don��t know what you are talking about. I��m just a doctor that knows Guanahatabey healing skill...��


    ��We know the rtionship between you and Eugene. He alwayses here to look for you in the middle of the night, and he would leave the next morning. His wife is not on this ind, and you have remained a widow for so many years,�� Carina interrupted.


    ��Forgive me for being straightforward. You know nothing about being a widow. If you are here for this matter, I��m afraid I have to end the conversation here. Drew, the guests want to leave.��


    Carina��s tone had changed. She was no longer as polite as before. Drew came into the mansion, but Zhang Heng and Carina did not get up


    ��I heard that you are not in a good rtionship with yourte husband��s family after he passed away. They want to reim all the properties that he owned, especially this mansion. I think we can provide you with some assistance.��


    Carmen was moved by it, but she still rejected them in the end.


    ��I don��t know what you are talking about. I can��t help you even if I want to. Whether you want to believe in what I say or not, Mister Eugene is just a patient to me. If you are here to seek my healing skill, I wee you. As for all the things that you have just mentioned, forgive me for not being able to help you.��

 Chapter 241 - The Threat Against Eugene

    <h4>Chapter 241 The Threat Against Eugene</h4>


    Neither persuasion nor bribe were effective, and there was no way to employ direct force. Carina looked at Zhang Heng who was next to her, wondering if he had any idea about what else they could do.


    Zhang Heng sat very still, not saying a word, sitting as silently as a rock on the couch.


    After a while, another carriage arrived at the door.


    Drew looked puzzled. ��Mister Buffon has arrived earlier than usual this time.��


    However, when the vehicle stopped, it was a pale-faced young man who alighted. Blinded by the sunlight, he reached out a hand to shield his face.


    Drew��s expression changed abruptly upon seeing the man and he rushed to close the door to the house. But the young man quickly recovered and when he saw Drew and Carmen, he quickly moved towards the door. But his body moved as if it was hollow, his footsteps faint-he had only taken two steps forwards and already he was gasping for air.


    Carmen said to Drew, looking rather annoyed, ��Drew, go help him.��


    Drew was reluctant but it was his master��s instruction so had no other choice but to walk up to the man and put on a smile. ��Mister Gary...��


    But before he could say any more, thetter pushed him away and spat impatiently. ��Don��t block my way.��


    As the young man walked into the house, he said to Carmen, ��I��ve been tight on moneytely. Give me another sum of money.��


    Even though Carina was unhappy with Carmen��s reluctance to cooperate, this young man��s haughtiness was just too much. She had never seen anyone ask for money so righteously. And from his appearance, Carina could tell that he had been smoking way too much opium.


    Carmen��s smile was visibly forced. ��Wait a minute, Gary. Let me deal with the matter here, and send these guests away first, then we��ll talk.��


    ��Why? Am I keeping you from making money?��


    As soon as the young man had finished talking, he received a hard p across the face. Carmen could not hold back the anger bubbling inside her anymore. Her chest rose and fell violently in tempo with her fury.


    Carina��s eyes widened in surprise. She turned to Zhang Heng and whispered, ��This is the friend you found. Who is he?��


    ��Carmen��ste husband��s younger brother. He has no purpose other than to cause trouble. Carmen��ste husband had asked her to take care of his little brother. Contrary to what most people believe, Carmen had a very good rtionship with her husband. If her husband had not passed away too soon, she would not have chosen to make money this way. By the way, he is not my friend. My friend is behind him.��


    An elderly gentleman with a pipe wedged between his fingers walked into the house. He took off his hat and greeted Carmen, then turned to nod at Zhang Heng.


    ��You are?��


    ��y King. Owner of a brothel,�� said the old man, smiling.


    Carmen could sense that something was amiss. ��What is the reason for your visit, Mister y?��


    ��Oh, Miss Carmen, please take care of Mister Gary��s recent expenditures for him.��


    ��How much?��


    ��That��s a total of 720 gold coins.��


    ��How is this possible?�� Carmenughed in frustration. ��How long did he stay in your brothel? Even if he was there for three months, it wouldn��t have cost that many gold coins.��


    ��Of course, I��m just a representative. The 720 gold coins not only includes Mister Gary��s spending at my ce, but also at the gambling house and tobo house... Oh, and this is bill signed by Mister Gary. Mister Gary here can verify them,�� y said, offering the bill.


    Carmen took the paper and quickly nced through it. Then she turned to Zhang Heng and asked, ��Is this your doing?��


    Zhang Heng made no attempt to deny it. ��The day of repayment is today. If it is overdue, Mister Gary will be sold to the mines where he will work to pay off the debt. The decision is yours, Mrs. Smith.��


    The Zhang Heng today was very different from the one who had just arrived on the ind. Jackdaw was now the most powerful pirate gang in Nassau. Zhang Heng no longer had to fight on his own as he did, and hiswork had also expanded; although only he and Billy, and a few others could be trusted to handle crucial matters such as dealing with Malcolm, in small matters such as dealing with Carmen, y and some others were more than happy to assist.


    Carmen shook with rage. There was no way she could pay up such arge sum of money immediately; not to mention that she never liked Gary much. She was tempted to use this opportunity to solve the trouble that was her brother-inw, but when she thought about herte husband��s request, her heart softened again. She and Smith never had children, and this was Smith��s only dying request.


    No matter how much she despised Gary, she could not bear the thought of seeing him being sold to the mines.


    Zhang Heng repeated, ��There is no rivalry between Mister Eugene and I. On the contrary, we also want to help him solve his long-standing troubles. You probably have heard about the situation between the ck-market alliance and me, and know my position.��


    Carmen fell silent. After a while, she heaved a deep sigh. ��I know what you want to know. But if I tell you, will you release Gary?��


    Zhang Heng nodded. ��You have my word.��


    Not wanting to be involved in the rivalry between Jackdaw and the ck-market alliance, y did not stay to listen to the conversation. He patted Gary on the shoulder and smiled. ��Let��s go. There��s an interesting new program back at the shop. Don��t you want to give it a try?��


    ��Really?�� Gary looked surprised. ��Is it specially prepared for me?��


    ��Yeah. The girls miss you a lot.��


    Gary rubbed his palm together. ��Then what are we waiting for? Let��s go!��


    Since Carmen had agreed to deal with his debts, hepletely lost interest in her. He did not even thank her on his way out.


    But that was not surprising to Carmen at all. After she had Drew brew a fresh pot of tea for her two guests, she said, ��Eugene has an illegitimate child. Did you know that?��


    Carina replied, ��We heard that his rtionship with Eugene is not great, and that he left Nassau when he was very young.��


    ��Eugene still cares a lot about the child. He spent a lot of money hiring people to search for that child.��


    ��Did they find him?��


    Carina nodded. ��They did. The child entered the navy academy and graduated four years ago. He was a very young officer. When he saw that his son was doing well, Eugene kept his distance, not wanting to bother him. Until one day, Malcolm found Eugene and used that child to threaten him.��


    ��How did Malcolm do it?��


    ��Before the child left Nassau, he found work on a pirate ship very briefly-only about two weeks. But during that period of time, they robbed a cargo ship carrying cotton. The group of pirates killed the captain, the first officer and some sailors who resisted. Only five or six people were spared. Among them, two were rescued by a passing merchant ship and survived. Now, they are working under Malcolm.��

 Chapter 242 - Eighty Percent Chance

    <h4>Chapter 242</h4>


    <h4>Eighty Percent Chance</h4>


    ��Malcolm controlled Eugene and made him frame Normand, not because he had leverage over him but his son?�� asked Anne as she returned the weapon to Zhang Heng.


    ��Yes. Many of the colony��s residents have a zero-tolerance policy toward pirates. If that incident was made public, not only would Eugene��s son be booted from the navy, but he would even face the death penalty,�� Zhang Heng confirmed.


    ��No wonder Eugene was sopliant to Malcolm. Before we can ask Eugene to expose Malcolm, we would have to solve his problem first. Did Carmen tell you who the two survivors were?�� asked Billy.


    Carina shook her head.


    ��Eugene didn��t tell her the names of the two survivors, but I think I might have a way to find out. The customs have a record of the names of pirate attack survivors. I can write in and have someone look it up.��


    ��So, our next step is to look for the names of the two survivors. We have to find a way to either kill them or abduct them.��


    ��I don��t think it��ll be that easy... if it was, Eugene would have done that already. There��s no way he would let Malcolm hold sway over him for the rest of his life. Even if he didn��t do it himself, he could have hired someone to do it for him,�� said Carina.


    Zhang Heng simply kept quiet.


    ��What��s wrong?�� asked Carina.


    ��Nothing. I suddenly thought of something, but I��m not sure if it��s the right way to achieve our goal. Can I borrow two men from you? I want them to travel to the colony and check something for me.��


    Zhang Heng and his men were on the wanted list of several ports and though he had spent a long time at sea and was now tanned, his oriental appearance still made him stand out like a sore thumb. That said, the Northern American colonies of this era had always fascinated Zhang Heng, and given the opportunity, he would have loved to traverse thends on a sightseeing tour. All that, of course, on the premise that his core mission had beenpleted and had earned enough money. He could even pay the retired Roscoe a visit. The old man had taught him so much, not to mention controlling the sails and reading the winds. It wasn��t hyperbole to say he was Zhang Heng��s enlightenment guru. However, those wisps of sentimentality lingered in his mind only briefly �C it was simply too risky. It was a shame knowing that with his current identity, he was destined to never reintegrate into civilized society.


    ��Of course,�� Carina nodded, adding, ��Pick whoever you want.��


    Zhang Heng selected two somewhatpetent-looking men and briefed them on the matter they were to investigate. Then, he gave them forty silver coins for their expenses, which had the two pleasantly surprised and pleased. That very night itself, they embarked on a journey back to the colony.


    As usual, Zhang Heng didn��t waste any time. After digging around for a bit, he quickly found the pirate gang that Eugene��s son had been a part of.


    As a matter of fact, that pirate group had long since ceased to exist. Like most pirate gangs on the ind, it existed only for a short time before disbanding in less than a year. It wasn��t even arge group to start with. At their peak, the time when Eugene��s estranged son joined in, there were fewer than thirty individuals. There wasn��t much to gloat either; their most significant achievement being robbing a merchant ship hauling cotton, and that was nine years ago.


    After the gang��s dismantling, The small portion who were left joined other pirate gangs, and one after another, they were subsequently buried at sea. There were even a few who returned to their life as fishermen. So, after about a week, and with Brook��s help, Zhang Heng found a guy who used to work on the ship. After asking the man a few questions, Zhang Heng thanked him and went on his way.


    Coincidentally, the results of Carina��s investigation were out �C she finally understood why Eugene submitted to vicious humiliation all these years and was unable to get rid of Malcolm��s control over him.


    Malcolm had sent one of the two survivors to the naval fleet, and the other to the governor��s mansion as a bodyguard. This meant that Billy��s n wouldn��t work. Unless resolving to a mass bombing akin to Queen��s Anne Revenge��s bombardment of Charleston, it was unrealistic that they could kidnap or kill the two men.


    Carina felt a strong wave of frustration ramming into her. They thought they had identified Malcolm��s weakness, but after all that bloody effort, they found themselves at another dead end. Malcolm was like a juggernaut without a w. Carina couldn��t help but wonder who was going to win this war. After all, even Normand, the leader of the first generation ck-Market Alliance, lost to a fledgling Malcolm. Compared to him, she was nothing but a dabbling rookie in the industry.


    Four days had passed, and Carina still found no solution. She grew more anxious by the day, generally uneasy and edgy. That was until Zhang Heng knocked at her door and said, ��Let��s go. The men you��ve lent me are back. We should pay Eugene a visit too.��


    ��Now? Are you sure you can convince him to give up his only son��s life to be on our side?��


    ��At least an eighty percent chance,�� Zhang Heng answered.


    ��How is that even remotely possible?�� Carina replied with wide beady eyes.


    ��It��s actually not asplicated as you think. I��ll exinter.��


    So that night, the pair arrived at Hayman Manor by carriage. Drew was already waiting at the door. He led them upstairs to the study, where Carmen and Eugene were present. After thetter finished reading the letter in his hand, he grew emotional. He asked with a sniffle, ��How do I know what you��re saying is


    true?��


    ��If you��ve read the letter, you would know that your son never boarded any pirate ship before he left Nassau. He paid for his journey with what he earned doing odd jobs around the ind,�� Zhang Heng said. ��When Mrs. Smith mentioned you and your son, she said that you both grew apart after the fire, and you haven��t been in contact ever since. And this is why Malcolm��s scheme worked.��


    ��Do you think that I didn��t look into it at that time? I found a pirate from that ship, and he verified that my son was indeed there! I even had customs check the records of the two survivors. They really were survivors of a plundered vessel! Are you about to tell me that Malcolm nned years ahead just so he could threaten me?��


    ��No, Malcolm is not God. He couldn��t have nned this so far ahead of time. So, the survivors are real, that pirate ship is real, and the robbery is real too, except for one thing. The person on the ship wasn��t your son. Malcolm must have found out by chance that you and your son were estranged. When he realized that he could use it against you, he only had to buy off one person, the helmsman of that pirate ship.��


    Zhang Heng paused, then continued, ��I found an old sailor from that ship. It was all very close to what I anticipated. At that time, the ship experienced a very high turnover rate �C amon problem among the underdog pirate gangs. If their loot wasn��t nearly enough, it was difficult to retain people. In reality, most either fished or grew crops for a living. They would only rush over if they heard a ship is hiring. Most of them don��t even know each other or would be acquainted for a short while beforepletely forgetting each other. There happened to be a teenager around your son��s age at that time. Malcolm saw it as the perfect tool to be used against you!��

 Chapter 243 - Two Sets of Arguments

    <h4>Chapter 243 Two Sets of Arguments</h4>


    ��The helmsman is the person responsible for recruiting manpower. Only he knows where everyonees from.�� Zhang Heng said to Eugene, ��You can find someone to verify this matter and you will definitely find the helmsman of the ship. He will tell you that your son is on that boat. As for the others, because so much time has passed, they will only remember that there was indeed a teenager who worked on the ship. However, this seems to further affirm what the helmsman has said and make you believe that your son is indeed on that boat.��


    Carina looked as astonished as Eugene. ��You mean, Malcolm actually has no leverage at all, he just created an illusion of having one?��


    ��That��s right.��


    ��Wait, but what about the two survivors? Why did one join the navy and the other the governor��s residence? If they had nothing to do with this matter, why is Malcolm protecting them ...��


    ��No, you still don��t understand that it wasn��t Malcolm who sent them to join the navy and governor��s residence. It was after they had joined, and Malcolm discovered it that he chose them, which put the entire n in his favor and makes it more believable. Zhang Heng turned to Eugene and asked, ��When you first heard the news, were they already in the navy and the governor��s residence?��


    Eugene was silent for a moment, then nodded. ��After all, seven years have passed since that incident. I went back to the colony myself and learnt about it. I confirmed that they had entered the navy and the general-governor��s residence two years ago and realized that I stood no chance. At that time, I naturally thought that Malcolm had done this, and I felt that he was too terrifying a force to contend with. The thought that he nned it all two years in advance, left me discouraged and in despair.��


    ��So Malcolm knows that the state of your rtionship with your son, and how important your son is to you. So, he used a real event to fake your son��s pirate experience in order to control you.�� The businesswoman felt chills run down her spine. She did not know which version of Malcolm was more terrifying �C the invulnerable one with no apparent weaknesses or the one who had his opponents in the palm of his hand.


    In contrast to her, Eugene had calmed down after the initial rush of emotions. The ropes that had been around his neck for many years showed signs of loosening. In his chair, he seemed to be different from than before. He straightened his back and his gaze grew sharper, as looked up at Zhang Heng who was seated opposite.


    ��I must admit you��re really close to persuading me, but so far, these are just your inferences. Except for that letter from my son, you have no concrete evidence. I haven��t seen my son in ten years so I don��t recognize his handwriting anymore. How would I know that the one who��s deceiving me is not you?��


    Eugene paused. ��I��ve heard of the conflict between you and the ck-trade alliance. The two of you have worked so hard to resolve my problem as a stranger. I��m guessing you must need my help to deal with Malcolm. I can agree to your request, but I need more evidence to be certain that my son is safe if I am to be going up against Malcolm. That��s not too much to ask, is it?


    ��Actually, the simplest way is for you to look for your son and speak to him face-to-face,�� Zhang Heng said.


    Eugene fell into silence again. It was noticeably longer this time. None of the four people in the room spoke. The atmosphere seemed to have frozen over before the intelligence dealer spoke again with a sad smile, ��I��m not sure if I still have the right to be his father. When the fire broke out, I was cowardly and ran out of the house. At that moment, I had lost them forever. I don��t deserve his forgiveness.��


    ��Perhaps it��s because you��ve never tried asking him for his forgiveness.�� Zhang Heng stopped talking and got up from his chair. He opened the wooden door behind him which led to a balcony, where a young man who looked like Eugene stood, with aplicated expression on his face.


    Carmen, who had not uttered a word before this, said softly, ��Sorry, I didn��t tell you about this in advance. I was worried that you would be unwilling to meet him. But now that you��re both here, we��ll give you both some time alone.��


    After she finished talking, she got up and left the house first, followed by Zhang Heng and Carina, and closed the door behind her.


    The three went down to the living room downstairs, and Carmen went to get wine for the two. There were too many surprises tonight. Carina was still recovering from the shock.


    After a while, she asked, ��It was you who found his son?��


    Zhang Heng nodded. ��Eugene is a very cautious person. Without enough evidence, it was impossible for him to help us deal with Malcolm. However, it was not an easy task bringing his son back. The enmity between them runs deep. Under normal circumstances, they would have only met again at Eugene��s funeral.��


    ��So how did you manage to persuade him to return?��


    ��I had prepared two sets of arguments in advance. One from his mother��s perspective, and the other regarding his blood ties to Eugene.��


    ��Which one convinced him?��


    ��Neither. Fortunately I still had a card to y. I let the dispatcher inform him that if he wants to go back to Nassau, I can pay him forty gold coins,�� Zhang Heng exined. ��Although room and board are included in the navy, low-ranking officers like him have a low ie. If he wants to climb up thedder, he would need funds but he��s unwilling to receive support from his father. Of course, considering my identity, this money will eventually need to be paid through Miss Carmen.��


    Carina took a moment to digest all this then said, ��So now we have already won Eugene over.��


    ��If all goes well, yes. Laeli��s preparations are nearly done. Tomorrow night I��ll have Billy take twenty crew members to wait for him on the west side of the ind, which is the coast closest to Terrance Manor. There is nothing but shells and sand in that area, so people rarely go there. The Jackdaw can take them away from Nassau by night.


    ��Once you get those letters, and Eugene��s usations, Malcolm��s reputation will fall fast, and the other ck-market merchants will not allow a person tied to so many misdeeds to continue controlling the ck-market alliance. Considering Redmond and Normand��s rtionship, he can��t just ignore what happened three years ago. So Malcolm will have a hard time making aeback this time.��

 Chapter 244 - New Contact

    <h4>Chapter 244 New Contact</h4>


    Ofte, a dark cloud had been hanging over the heads of Terrance Manor��s residents.


    Leah was in the kitchen, making Malcolm his breakfast when she subconsciously nced at an empty corner. Just three weeks ago, a familiar face had stood there. Shest saw Nadya when he got dragged out of the kitchen by the supervisor after he was reported.


    By the time she saw him again, he had already been whipped to oblivion. The supervisor lifted the mangled Nadya and dragged him out of the house. Leah��s heart dropped as she trembled with fear at the awful sight of the now unrecognizable man. Thankfully she managed to put up a calm front.


    The constant anxiety she had been subjected to caused her to have vivid and revolting nightmares each night. She started dreaming that the supervisors hade to get her too.


    During that trying period, everyone who had been in contact with Nadya was brought in for questioning. Many didn��t make it back, and yet, she had somehow escaped it by serving Malcolm breakfast each day. As a result, no one thought of approaching her so far.


    Ever since she was sold to Terrance Manor, Malcolm saw her in a different light. The same went for the other members of the household, who unexpectedly treated her with the utmost respect. Leah was certain, though, that this special treatment wasn��t because of how important she was. Once she lost this ��viewed-in-a different-light�� status, she would be demoted to the fate of the other ves in the manor; their survival at the mercy of Malcolm��s whimsical temper. Despite the confusion and the mess in it all, she saw the whole situation crystal clear.


    After Nadya��s apprehension, Laeli��s lifeline to the Terrance Manor was severed, turningmunications into a daunting task. With tensions running high, the ves were strictly prohibited from contacting outsiders. They went as far as to rece those tasked to buy food with the supervisors.


    Seeing how challenging the situation had be, Laeli put in extra effort to look for a new messenger. Who he found happened not to be a ck ve but a missionary who woulde to preach at the manor every day. He hailed from the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts. (Founded by Thomas Bray in 1701, it was approved by the British Royal Family to preach the gospel to Native Americans, cks, and whites, albeit with limited sess.)


    Laeli attempted to bribe the priest with the gold coins Zhang Heng gave him, hoping that he could pass his words on to Leah. To protect Leah, he told the priest not to talk to her directly, but instead, to a girl from his tribe. This girl would pass his words to Leah after that.


    So, as it was, Laeli was set to leave the ce in two days. On that day, Leah was supposed to clean Malcolm��s study. This time, she was asked to slip Normand and Redmond��s letters out of the manor. By choosing this day, Laeli could lower Leah��s risks when she stole the letters. All she needed to do was to hold out until the night, and she would be able to leave the manor. A day before the n��s execution, Laeli asked the clergy to smuggle in a pile of daggers, guns, and weapons into Terrance Manor.


    Unsurprisingly, the straight-as-a-fiddle priest rejected him. Initially, he sympathized with the ves and yearned to earn a quick buck as well. Never in his mind did it ur to him that Laeli would blow the whole thing out of proportion. The moment he caught sight of the weapons, he was terrified to death.


    It was toote for Laeli to step back right now. He had no idea how long Nadya wouldst inside the manor. He wanted to wait no longer, seeing that he had run out of time to look for a new insider. Once he missed this window of opportunity, he would need to wait another week before he could act again.


    In an attempt of encouragement, Laeli kidnapped the priest��s brother after apologizing, intending to use him as a means of leverage. Unbeknownst to the priest, his sympathy would eventually put his life at risk. Suddenly, he realized that Laeli wasn��t the simple man he thought he was. He was a dangerous wild beast that would do anything it took to achieve his goals. Besides, cks like Laeli were naturally hostile towards the whites since they enved them for centuries. It drove him harder to save his people from the manor even if he was to pass the gates of hell and diminished all thought of the consequences that his actions might bring.


    man


    There was no turning back for the priest too. He had no choice but to carry out Laeli��s demands if he wanted to save his brother. He came up with an excuse that he was to distribute food to the ves. Seeking to appear as inconspicuous as he could, he rode on his horse carriage piled with bread back to the manor. At the sight of the heavilyden wagon, the mansion��s butler felt it strange, recalling that the churches didn��t typically help ves since they all had their masters. If they started distributing alms, it would send a distasteful message to everyone that their masters were not feeding the ves enough.


    However, the priest once said that everyone walking this earth was god��s children, and the status of their wealth did not categorize them. The butler failed toe up with anything that could rebuke those words. After all, everyone in the manor, Malcolm included, respected these missionaries highly. Many of these priests had willingly given up their lives in Scond to serve the people of the more impoverished regions. Such a sacrifice was deemed admirable, one that almost always gained reverence.


    Adding to that, the priest was a regr visitor to Terrance Manor, and the butler felt it wasn��t necessary to inspect his carriage. Thanks to the constant patronage, he was allowed in almost immediately. He was so nervous at that time that he almost bit his tongue.


    Once in thepound, the priest parked his carriage at a space where he usually gave his sermons. Once the supervisor saw the man getting down, the ves were swiftly gathered. The time to eat had almost arrived, and in order not to hold up work, the priest would usually use this time to preach to them.


    However, considering the man he was, the priest was too nervous to think straight. All that came out of his mouth were a jumble of unintelligible sentences as his mind reeled with nkness. Luckily for him, the supervisors weren��t the least interested in his sermons. As usual, they would indulge in poker as the words of the priest floated them by. Ironically, none of them noticed the priest acting strangely. As for the ves, they had always been the priest��s most faithful listeners, daring not toin or say a word although they noticed that he wasn��t quite himself today. Although seemingly drowned in his words, most ves actually drifted away as the sermon droned on and on, unconcerned by what the preacher had to tell them.


    Ten long minutester, the priest finally ended the sermon and began distributing the bread around. After making sure everyone had a piece in hand, he took four baskets of bread that were stored under the horse carriage and walked toward the manor. However, the guards blocked him the moment he arrived at the entrance.


    The priest knew that his most crucial moment was upon him. Whatever he did next would determine if the n was a failure or sess.


    ��I��m here to deliver the bread. The female ves are inside, right?��


    ��I��m sorry. You are not allowed in the manor without permission.��


    ��I am burdened by my duty bestowed by the Queen herself to spread the gospel across thisnd. I have the liberty to travel anywhere I want on this ind.��


    The priest did his best to sound convincing, but unfortunately, the two guards seemed unmoved by his effective promation. Just when the priest was figuring out another way to enter the manor, he heard Wace scoffing.


    ��You guys can��t stop him. Father Tim is one of the bravest men that I��ve had the fine pleasure of meeting. I heard that he once walked three days and three nights around North Carolina preaching the gospel! Let the man in.��

 Chapter 245 - Are You Planning To Run?

    <h4>Chapter 245 Are You nning To Run?</h4>


    Priest Tim steadied his breath as he entered the manor with the baskets of bread in hand. Wace then signaled over a ve to take them from him. Suddenly, Priest Tim spoke up.


    ��Is Daisy around?��


    ��Why? Do you need her for something?��


    Wace raised an eyebrow, surprised that Priest Tim would specifically ask for Daisy.


    ��She asked a question about myst sermon, and I didn��t get to answer her right away. For the past two days, I��ve been praying for God to guide me. Now that He has finally graced with an answer, I must let her know.��


    ��You can tell me the answer. I will ry your message to her,�� smiled the ve who was with Wace.


    ��I��m sorry, but I think it would be more appropriate if I tell her personally. This is, after all, my job.��


    Priest Tim stood his ground, insistent and adamant. The ve then turned around to look at Wace for an answer, but he simply shrugged.


    ��It��s hard to say no to a priest. Call Daisy here.��


    After that, Wace turned to Priest Tim again.


    ��Priest Tim, are you feeling warm? This is the second time I see you wiping your sweat in five minutes.��


    ��Indeed. The weather is extra hot today.��


    Priest Tim��s heart thumped violently in his chest when he heard Wace��s remarks. Instinctively, he wanted to wipe off the sweat on his brow again, but quickly put down his trembling arm. Wace noticed that something wasn��t right, but just as he was about to say something, Daisy arrived. Out of courtesy, Wace stepped aside and allowed the vicar and ve to talk. Graciousness notwithstanding, he actually intended to eavesdrop on their conversation, and hence, lingered around the vicinity, hoping to pick up on something


    Henceforth, Priest Tim spent a good five minutes exining Daisy��s engaging question: who God would listen to first if the cks and whites prayed together at the same time.


    ��Very impressive exnation, Priest Tim. I was wondering. Is there anything else that you need to do here?�� asked Wace right after the vicar was done talking.


    Priest Tim shook his head and passed the baskets of bread to Daisy.


    ��Please help me distribute the bread to the rest of the children.��


    ��Allow me to send you off then,�� said Wace with a stare as he gestured at the door with his hand.


    Once Priest Tim left the mansion, Wace quickly talked to two of his supervisors.


    ��Fetch Daisy to the torture room. Give her a healthy dose of whipping. I��ll be there in ten minutes.��


    ��What about Priest Tim?��


    ��Leave him be. We shouldn��t mess with priests if there��s no solid evidence. It could get us into a lot of unnecessary trouble.��


    At that, the two supervisors ran to Daisy��s room, grabbed her by her hair, and dragged the struggling girl of the room. Wace then walked in and kicked the four baskets of bread, expecting to find something. Lo and behold, whatever was in the baskets, was indeed nothing but good ol�� bread. Wace then stepped on all the loaves, crushing them to verify their contents. However, he found nothing within, as well.


    Wace wasn��t the least satisfied. He went on, turning over the sheets and flipping her bed, going as far as to dismantle every single nk that held it together. Still, despite ransacking almost everything, he found nothing unusual. Wace frowned in frustration. For good measure, he tossed her entire wardrobe before walking out of her room. The few ves who had gathered at the door to see what themotion was all about quickly opened up a way for the storming Wace.


    In a blinding rage, Wace suddenly targeted one of them and asked, ��Have you seen Daisy leave the room?��


    The ve quickly shook her head, only making Wace ever the madder. He growled in a low, menacing tone,


    ��You know the consequences of lying to me,


    right?!��


    The ve was so fearful of Wace that she started crying loudly. Wace shoved the terrified girl away and looked at the rest of the ves.


    ��How about you guys? Did you see Daisy leaving her room?��


    All of them shook their heads together. Although it could happen, the possibility of so many ves lying to him all at once was tiny, and Wace began to doubt himself. Perhaps he was mistaken after all. When he thought about the strange way Priest Tim behaved, he was almost sure that there was something wrong with him. This was a critical period for Malcolm, and Wace wasn��t taking any risks. Since he failed to find anything in Daisy��s room, he would have to resort to interrogating Daisy personally.


    Wace wasted no time and rushed to the torture room with long strides.


    Leah��s room was right beside Daisy��s. When she heard Daisy screaming, she quickly hopped over to see why. Whatever she saw next terrified her. Daisy had be Laeli��s new insider from Terrance Manor after Nadia��s apprehension. She didn��t expect her to be caught just days before her escape.


    This time, Leah started to panic. It wasn��t because Daisy might tell Wace that she had a part in it, but once Daisy was captured, Laeli��s link to the manor would once again be severed. Right now, she had no idea what Laeli was up, and she didn��t know what to do next as well. What worried her most was Laeli thinking that she must have received his message, and he��d jump into action when the time wasn��t right. Not only would he fail to save his people, but he would also get himself into big trouble.


    Suddenly, someone tapped Leah��s shoulder. When she turned around, she saw L. The woman wasn��t from her tribe, and they weren��t in good terms with each other. L had been envious of Leah getting special treatment from Malcolm and would usually ostracise Leah in front of the other ves. At such a critical juncture, Leah didn��t want L to see her panic. What L said next, however, left her in shock.


    ��Are you people nning to escape this ce?��


    ��What... what are you talking about?��


    Leah��s heart instantly fell in dread, and her teeth started chattering.


    ��Hey, listen. Now, don��t you be afraid, little kitty. Daisy asked me toe for you. Follow me. I have something to show you.��


    After that, L led her to the hut used to store the cleaning equipment. Leah hesitated for a while but decided to follow her anyway. The thoughts of L using this method to sell her out to Wace swiftly crossed her mind. After all, the two weren��t exactly friends, and L wasn��t from her tribe either. She had no obligation to help her at a time like this. Either way, Leah was left with no other option. As long as a slim chance to turn the tide around existed, she didn��t mind the self-sacrifice.


    Once Leah entered the hut, L lit up an oilmp and lifted the canvas lying at the corner of the room. Two guns and eight daggers were presented before her.


    ��These are the weapons your allies brought for you. I also have one more thing to pass to you,�� said L as she produced a letter.


    Leah was about to take it, but L suddenly pulled it back.


    ��Did you really think I��ll give it to you just like that? I have taken a massive risk hiding these weapons for you. If I weren��t there to clean up the ce, Daisy would have been caught in possession of those weapons.��


    ��What do you want?�� asked Leah. She had finally calmed down.


    ��I want whatever you guys want. I want to leave this hellhole as well. I want to take a huge whiff of the air of freedom! You can either let me join you, or we can all rot here for eternity in this god-forsaken manor.��

 Chapter 246 - True Enemy

    <h4>Chapter 246 True Enemy</h4>


    Right after Zhang Heng and Carina left Hyman Manor, they met up with Billy to improve and calibrate the n that was to be carried out when they received Laeli��s letter. That included the partnership with Eugene. They needed to spread the news as soon as possible within the ck-market alliance, badly needing all the support they could find on the ind. In this operation, Redmond��s approach was the key to their sess. As the leader of the ck-market alliance and a highly-reputed ck-market merchant, his decision would affect the fate of all the other ck-market merchants in Nassau.


    However, it wasn��t easy convincing Redmond to go against Malcolm. After all, Redmond was old, and it was getting hard for him to deal with all these managerial nonsense. With Malcolm leaving the alliance, it would be almost impossible for him to keep it running. The good news was that Redmond was from his counterpart and was not quite as ambitious as him. When it came to Carina��s trading business, Redmond actually wasn��t that harsh on it.


    As of now, Zhang Heng had two trump cards with him. One was the friendship between Redmond and Normand. Almost the entire ind knew that Redmond was Normand��s only supporter in the ck-market alliance. If Redmond knew what Malcolm did to Normand, he would definitely not sit still.


    The second trump card in Zhang Heng��s hand was Malcolm funding the political enemy of Redmond��s son-inw behind his back. With the heated argument that had broken between them, there was a high chance that Zhang Heng could pull Redmond to his side.


    The sun was almost up when the discussion came to an end. Carina returned home, where she cleaned up and prepared to take a short nap. Just as her head hit the pillow, a horse carriage pulled up in front of her house. She heard a knock at the door and an ensuingmotion. Immediately, she put on some proper attire and went to open the door. The sight of her newly hired bodyguards with loaded guns in their hands greeted her. There were in a confrontation with the visitor, and a fierce fight seemed to be imminent.


    ��I think I��m not very wee here,�� said the man as he pulled off his ck gloves.


    Carina was in shock when she saw the unexpected visitor.


    ��You��ve got some nerve, showing up in front of my house after what you did to me. I should order them to shoot you right now!�� she replied.


    ��Why don��t you do it then?��


    At that, Carina was rendered speechless.


    ��It seems like you��re still thinking straight. You know you��ll never set foot in Nassau again if you kill me. Great. I love dealing with those who can think logically. Since you are not going to shoot me, aren��t you going to invite me in?��


    Carina didn��t like what she was feeling right now. It was just like the feeling she had at the coffee shop, the very essence of herself being overshadowed by an oppressive aura. Right now, Malcolm held absolute power over her, and she found it hard to argue with him. Technically, there there wasn��t much the two could talk about right now. After tonight, the winner would be disclosed.


    Be that as it may, Carina moved aside and allowed Malcolm to enter.


    Malcolm was cool and calm when he entered Carina��s house. He appeared to befortable as if he was in his own home. Carina��s two bodyguards, on the other hand, were on high alert and stuck as close as they could to her. After hesitating a short while, she ordered her bodyguards to stand down. Carina and Malcolm were now alone in her house. Malcolm pulled out a chair, sat down, and went straight to business.


    ��I want to suggest a truce between us.��


    ��Why? It��s because you can��t hold up any longer?��


    To her surprise, Malcolm didn��t disagree.


    ��I have to admit that I made many mistakes. I thought of two possibilities when Sam set to plunder the Spanish treasure ship. The first would be them sessfully getting the 5000 pounds of gold. The second would be failure, and they would be forced to return to Nassau. None of these possibilities would solve your current problem. However, I��m astonished that it was Jackdaw who took into possession more than half the gold. The navy attack was unexpected, though. After learning a few lessons, do you really think I lost this time by coincidence?��


    ��Isn��t that right?��


    ��If my n had been perfectly executed, in no way would I have allowed you to survive until Jackdaw returned.��


    ��I see now. The omnipresent leader of the ck-market alliance has to resort to parlor tricks to drive fear into me.��


    ��You don��t know who your real enemy is, do


    you?��


    Malcolm ced his gloves on the dining table and leaned back on the chair.


    ��No. I��m entirely clear about the matter. You ordered pirates to plunder my ship and asked that asshole of a Wilton to threaten me and kill my sailors. You also nted a mole in mypany to monitor me. The entire ck-market alliance locked me out, and I was bullied for myck of experience. You��re also the one who lured me into over-expanding my business...��


    ��This is whatpetition is in business! You��re doing the same thing to me as well, are you not? All the while, you��ve been snatching away tons of captains from me. Do you know what trouble you��ve caused me? It seems you��ve been enjoying this, huh?��


    ��Enjoying this?! You used dirty tricks to incarcerate my father and destroy my family. Now, you are telling me we are supposed to be friends?! This has to be themest joke I��ve heard in my entire life.��


    ��So it��s your father. I finally know where your angeres from.��


    Malcolm raised his eyebrows and paused before continuing,


    ��What if I tell you that I have nothing to do with your father getting jailed? What would you think of me then?��


    ��C��mon, Mr. Malcolm, I still respect you as apetitor. Please do not lose whatever little respect I still have for you.��


    ��I��m sorry to disappoint you, but I wasn��t joking. From the beginning, I��ve always respected your father a lot. We have a different view on things, and as apetitor myself, I won��t hesitate to defeat him and drive him out of Nassau. Rest assured, I will never resort to such lowly methods to eliminate him. The moment he was in jail, I contacted my family for help in investigating this matter. Unfortunately, concrete proof in such matters is usually hard to find, and in the end, I made them contact Count ughter with their connections. We invited him over for a meal and gifted him with two pieces of top-notch ceramics in exchange for telling us what he knew. Eventually, he told us who put your father in jail.��


    ��And who might that be?��


    ��You wouldn��t believe what I��m about to tell you. This man was a dear friend of your father. No, he was a friend to every ck-market merchant on this ind. His name is Redmond, the current leader of the ck-market alliance. It��s not the first time he��s done something like this. Have you heard of a man called Normand? He used to be Redmond��s close acquaintance as well. The first-generation ck market alliance�� dismissal had everything to do with Redmond!��

 Chapter 247 - Don’t Do Anything

    <h4>Chapter 247 Don��t Do Anything</h4>


    ��Mr. Ma, do you really think I��m that stupid? Let��s not talk about my father��s case first. Redmond was the vice leader of the first ck-market alliance. Why would he be against Normand? It��s not like he would gain anything out of it. ording to what I know, Redmond stayed on to support Normand during his most difficult time. As for you, you just arrived on this ind at that time. If the first generation of the ck-market alliance was stable, you would have had a tough time getting to where you are today, right?��


    Malcolm��s expressions stayed the same, even after hearing what Carina said to him.


    ��I don��t me you. Even I missed the real target. Redmond has bigger ambitions than anyone could imagine. As one of the pioneering ck-market merchants on this ind, he was never worried about his wealth and fame from the beginning until now. However, he was forced to live under Normand��s shadow. If he didn��t do what he did back then, he couldn��t have gotten to where he is today. He is now the leader of the ck-market alliance.


    ��As for me, it��s true that I secretly wished the first alliance wouldn��tst long, all because of profits, of course. I did ask a merchant called Eugene to sabotage the ck-market alliance, but the impact was minimal. With Normand��s reputation, it was hard to shake him off from his position.��


    ��So, you asked Eugene to coin up a story that Normand had been secretly working with two captains, right? Since you had the guts to do something like this, why should I believe that it wasn��t you who sent my father to jail?��


    ��It seems like you are well-informed of the past. Whatever Eugene did after had nothing to do with me. I didn��t ask him to frame Normand of something he didn��t do. After your father was jailed, I started my own investigations, and I found out that Redmond had something to do with this incident.��


    ��Why would you do that? You are not even that close to Normand, aren��t you? So, why are you investigating this matter?��


    ��Because I don��t want to be the second Normand. All this time, Redmond had always resented the setting up of the alliance, hoped that it never existed in the first ce. He only supported the first alliance to get rid of Normand. This time, he believes that I��m a huge threat. I have to say, he��s one brilliant old man. Though he��s now the leader, and I��m just the vice leader, he knew that I would eventually get to his position within three years. By that time, he would be forgotten everyone around him.��


    ��If what you say is true. Why would Redmond agree to form the alliance with you?��


    ��Why would he support Normand to form the first alliance in the first ce?�� asked Malcolm.


    Before Carina could answer, Malcolm, continued,


    ��That��s because he couldn��t figure out an effective way to get rid of Normand. If Normand weren��t the leader of the alliance, it would be hard for Redmond to turn everyone against Normand since he��s a rather reputed person here. Things were different when Normand was elected leader. The alliance��s members automatically went against him when they were told that he had been receiving bribes from the captains. The profits of the members were severely affected, causing them to revolt.


    ��I knew that he would use the same strategy to fight me. Your problem isn��t the only one I��ve had to deal withtely. I have to admit that your business did give me some problems, and if Redmond��s men didn��t stir up trouble, would I have been so passive? Most importantly, Frazer betrayed me. He told me earlier that he had a beef with Zhang Heng, and he was willing to dispose of you and your people for me. However, I started to be suspicious of him after what happened to the Skeleton.


    ��Don��t you think that Zhang Heng and his Jackdaw arriving that night was too much of a coincidence? Wilton��s Skeleton arrived first, and Jackdaw came right after that. That wasn��t a coincidence. Frazer calcted everything. ording to our agreement, the Skeleton was supposed to sink your ship and kill everyone on it. After that, they were supposed to leave Nassau. However, Frazer told me that Wilton was out of control. Not only did he take your money, but he also wanted to use your sailors to rip you off. Can��t you see that he��s fooled us here?


    ��Frazer is considered to be Zhang Heng��s mentor, more or less. He knows Zhang Heng better than anyone else on this ind. In that situation, he knew exactly what decisions Zhang Heng would make. Frazer had already anticipated that Wilton and his men would live past that night. I have to admit that he had it all hidden so well. Though I suspected him before, I couldn��t find anything solid to pin him. So, I decided to trust him once more. When he contacted the captains on the ind to leave the alliance and deal with you instead, I realized that I made a huge mistake.


    ��It was supposed to be a ��kill-two-birds-with-one-stone�� strategy. If everything went smoothly, I would use the opportunity to destroy you and your business. Once you��re gone, the other captains on this ind would have no option but to rely on the ck-market alliance even though they don��t like us. The person that destroyed this n wasn��t Zhang Heng. It was Frazer.


    ��We all know his conflict with Zhang Heng on this ind. I only chose to believe him previously because I thought his target was always Zhang Heng and not me. After this incident, I can tell that he works for Redmond. However, it would be naive for Redmond to think that he can get rid of me so easily. If he can look for Frazer��s help, then I can work with you to get rid of him as well. You get to keep your twelve pirate ships, and I won��t interfere with your business anymore. I can even provide you with assistance to get through certain customs and local markets. Once this whole thing is over, I will help you to get your father out of jail.��


    ��What would this cost me?��


    ��You don��t have to do anything. I just want us to stop fighting each other. I will solve my problem while you just sit quietly and watch the drama unfold. As for your father��s case, I��ll make the person responsible pay the price. Take your time and think over my offer. I��ll give you three days to think about it. We will meet again at the coffee shop in three days.��

 Chapter 248 - Tempted

    <h4>Chapter 248 Tempted</h4>


    After Malcolm left, Carina sat silently at the table for a full hour, staring nkly without even taking a sip of water.


    Her well-heeled upbringing and theforts that came with it sheltered her from actual malignant adversaries. Her most serious incident was simply caused by jealousy among little girls, literally child��s y at this point whenpared to Malcolm. He was the first ��proper enemy�� she ever encountered.


    He had ruined her life, slowlyying out it��s bare, harsh realities before her eyes.


    It was the first time Carina experienced such powerful sensations of fear and abhorrence. Throughout her days on the ind, she would dream of diminishing Malcolm in her sleep, making him pay for every single horrible thing he��d done to her.


    However, when the day actually came, a time when the opportunity was ripe, and victory was nigh, Malcolm simply strolled into her room, looked her in the eye, and told her that she had the wrong man all along. The man who had destroyed her family, and locked away her father, was, in fact, someone else.


    Carina considered the possibility of Malcolm lying, and that it was just another deceitful narrative he conjured out of desperation to throw her off. Although she hated to admit it, she knew deep down inside that Malcolm��s rationalization actually made sense.


    Ofte, she had been in a state of continuous disillusion, unsure of herself and where she was actually headed.


    Everything seemed a little too smooth this time around. Although Carina was forced through dire situations before, to the verge of bankruptcy at one point, Malcolm and the ck-market alliance didn��t take drastic measures to defeat her in her most trying times �C very unlike Malcolm. On top of that, they even located Eugene without much hassle. While it took significant effort to persuade him, Eugene��s resistance wasn��t as vehement as expected.


    Compared to previous shes, Malcolm��s standards seemed to have fallen short this time. It would all make sense if Redmond had secretly intervened, though.


    Carina simply found it hard to ept that after all this while of chasing him down, Malcolm wasn��t the perpetrator. It was as if she had been traversing an arid desert for an eternity, heading in one direction, and just when an oasis was in sight, it suddenly disappeared like a mirage.


    Nheless, wherever the truthy, Malcolm��s offer was indeed, very tantalizing. Not only would the ck-market alliance officially recognize her pawn business, but they would even agree to a whole list of favorable terms. The most important thing was that they promised to set her father free and help her exact revenge. Now that they shared amon enemy, she didn��t have to worry about Malcolm and his bothersome antics anymore.


    Carina was slightly tempted.


    ��Is this your escape n?�� L asked, looking baffled. ��We have first to take out the two guards at the gate, then avoid the night patrols to sneak into the torture chamber and rescue Daisy and Nadya? Then, we pray hard that we didn��t alert anyone, right? After that, we just have to run to the gate, kill a whole team of highly trained guards, and finally, make our way to the beach? Forgive me for being blunt, but this is not an escape n, this is suicide!��


    Leah tried to exin, ��No, Laeli will eventually bring in more people, and we��ll take care of the guards at the gate together. And he��s already prepared a carriage that will send us to the beach.��


    ��But it still doesn��t change the immeasurable danger we have to face before all that. You can��t just pray for the guards to go blind, or for the guard at the chamber to magically disappear. There��s no way we can fight so many with just two blunderbusses and eight daggers.


    ��We will kill the two guards outside the gate, and that itself is a huge risk. After that, we go straight to the main entrance. You��ve seen how the ves sent to the chamber were treated. Come tomorrow; Daisy would��ve been in there for a day, and more than twenty days for that Nadya guy. Even if we manage to get them out, could they even walk in that state? I don��t need to be dragging along two deadweights while trying to escape!��


    ��They are not deadweights; they are mypanions,�� Leah insisted firmly. ��Without them, we would have never contacted the people outside. It if hadn��t been for Nadya and Daisy��s perseverance, we would��ve ended up in there with them. So we either leave together, or no one leaves at all!��


    ��Your stubbornness will only kill us all!�� L bemoaned with wide eyes. ��You are like a tiny canary that Malcolm caged up for too long. You have no idea how cruel the world is outside this ce.��


    ��So, it seems this is all about your personal resentments. What about you, then? Do you know how cruel it is?�� Leah retorted.


    ��Of course, I do!�� L stripped off her dress and pointed at the thick scars pockmarking her chest. ��At least I��ve actually tried escaping before. How else do you think these came about?��


    Leah stared in stunned silence. After a while, she blurted, ��I��m sorry. I didn��t know about this.��


    ��Of course, you don��t. You weren��t even here yet.�� L slipped her dress back on and said earnestly, ��I have attempted escape before, and I��ve seen many others do the same. I know better than anyone just how dangerous it is to do so. You have to do all you can to lower the risks involved. Perhaps you��ll have a chance to seed then. I know that they are very important to you and I also know that you don��t want to disappoint them. But sometimes, Leah, someone needs to make the difficult decisions.��


    For a minute, Leah stared silently at the floor. Then, she looked up and replied, ��I��m sorry. We either go together, or none of us leaves.��


    L felt deep frustration coursing through her veins, and in a rage, she erupted in curses. 1*^!#! I��m so stupid! I should never have gotten involved in this!��


    ��I��ll understand if you want to back out now. But no matter what, I will always be grateful to you. Without you, we couldn��t have gotten the weapons, and we wouldn��t havemunicated with our allies outside the manor,�� replied Leah, sincerity brimming in her eyes.


    ��Do you still not understand?! I have nowhere else to go! If you fail, you will be tortured until you confess and sell me out!�� L punched the shelf next to her before taking in a deep breath andposing herself.


    ��Alright, you win. I give in. We can go save your friends, but we cannot rush it.��


    ��Any ideas you can think of?�� Leah asked humbly.


    ��There��s no way around being noisy if we break into the torture chamber. Since that��s the case, we just make a louder noise. We��ll distract the patrols by setting fire to the granary east of the manor, as well as the firewood store. That way, we��ll have enough time to save your friends.��


    ��But with so few with us... it can��t be done, right?�� Leah wondered out loud.


    ��Yes, which is why we have to convince more to join us!�� L answered resolutely.

 Chapter 249 - Special Leah

    <h4>Chapter 249 Special Leah</h4>


    Leah��s insistence on saving her friends significantly lowered the chance of a quiet escape.


    Since they were throwing in everything, L went all out to encourage everyone she could to join the daring escape, albeit remaining extremely conservative on who she told. She didn��t inform everyone about the n, revealing it to only a trusted few at lunch the next day. Those who were part of the n would be alerted, and they would start preparing themselves without leaking any information.


    Leah was set for an important task herself. Her job was to steal any letters rted to Normand and Raymond. Since she cleaned Malcolm��s study every week, it wasn��t tooplicated, provided the room was empty.


    Leah��s biggest worry was that Malcolm would be there while she cleaned. The good news was, Malcolm had something important to do and left the manor early that morning.


    Thus, when noon came around, Leah entered the study as usual. After greeting the guard with a smile, she closed the door behind her, letting out a massive sigh of relief as he steadied herself. Instantly, she went about the chore of cleaning the room. She was extra swift this time, but once she was done, there wasn��t much time left for her original mission. Leah hastily stormed to the bookcase and pulled the drawer open.


    There was nothing inside.


    It waspletely empty! She swore the letters were still there when she cleaned the roomst week.


    Could the recent tensions and sessive incidents of Nadia and Daisy have prompted Malcolm to move away everything important? But then again, from the haphazard way those letters were piled up, she could tell that Malcolm didn��t care about them much.


    She forced herself to stop panicking as she went through the various possibilities in her mind. At the same time, her hands didn��t stop, searching the entire study as she went along. However, despite her best efforts, there was still no trace of the letters.


    Leah grew more anxious by the second as every drawer she opened turned up empty. In her haste, she made a blunder. As she shifted backward, she identally knocked a low cab, sending the binaural vase on it toe crashing down!


    She turned around to try to catch it, but it was already toote. The vase had already fallen onto the floor. Fortunately for carpets, it didn��t shatter, although one of its handles had broken off.


    Leah was horrified, her heart falling even harder the vase. This was Malcolm��s favorite piece of porcin. An adventurer brought it from a distant and mysteriousnd of the far east, and no doubt. It was a priceless artifact, worth hundreds of times of what she was sold for. She had always been extra careful whenever she cleaned, but this time, her mind was so preupied with finding the letters that she discounted her surroundings.


    Before she could even think up a n to salvage the situation, she heard footsteps from the outside of the study.


    They were the sound of Malcolm��s unique stride, swifter than most men, but with a pace firm and confident. The interval between each step was almost always the same too. It was just as he was, efficient, solemn, and calm.


    The guard pushed the door open, and Malcolm entered. The moment he saw Leah clutching the vase with one hand and cleaning the counter with the other, she thought she was done for. However, he simply cocked an eyebrow and didn��t seem to notice anything out of the ordinary.


    In fact, he seemed to be in a good mood today. ��Stop cleaning. Go tell the kitchen to put some steak on the grill,�� he instructed Leah.


    ��Alright. Haven��t you had your lunch yet?�� Leah turned around, hiding the damaged vase behind her back and trying her hardest to maintain a smile.


    ��Mm. I had two bites of apple pie on the way back. Average tasting stuff.��


    Thank goodness Malcolm wasn��t looking at her. In an attempt to shift the man��s attention, she picked up a wine bottle and hurried over to pour him a ss.


    Malcolm cleared his throat.


    ��I heard that you and Daisy are quite close.��


    Leah froze, and a feeling of dread overwhelmed her. Malcolm must have turned his suspicions to her. To her relief, he said, ��Do you happen to know who she��s close to?��


    ��That...�� Leah started but was hesitant.


    ��What��s wrong? Are you afraid that the others would shun you if you tell me? But haven��t you always been getting the cold shoulder anyway?��


    Leah was surprised that Malcolm knew about it.


    ��Are you surprised? I��ve been giving you preferential treatment, so naturally, the others will be unhappy. They are too afraid to hate me, so they turned to the person closest to me. That happens to be you. But because of that, I get to sniff out the rogues. Don��t worry, I won��t let them hurt you. Haven��t you realized it yet? Those who have mistreated you have all but disappeared?�� Malcolm paused. He finished up his wine as he stared at the girl with a cocked head. ��With you helping me, I don��t have to worry about anything,�� he went on.


    Leah wasn��t the least pleased the creepy undetone in her master��s voice. When those words hit her, her blood ran cold, and a frigid chill ran down her spine.


    Truth be told, she actually felt guilty that she had seen Malcolm��s letters. No matter what the other ves thought about him, he treated her well, at the very least. And after all these years of Malcolm��s influence, her mindset was actually closer to that of a white woman.


    That also made her different from her own people. At times, she even felt that Malcolm understood her better than her ownpatriots. He yed a simr role as her father and mentor, and undeniably, she felt some warmth from it. However, as it turned out, it was all an illusion. Malcolm treated her differently, not because of how special she was, but because he needed her to seem ��special.��


    ��Alright, I��m hungry. Go hurry the chef up,�� Malcolm said. ��And oh, it��s been quite humid recently, so I had someone sun the letters this morning. Collect themter in the evening, will you?��


    ��Yes, sir.��


    Leah nodded and left the study.


    It was destined to be a sleepless night.


    When the hands of the clock in the living room struck twelve, L woke the maid in the bed next to her and told about their escape ns. At the same time, the same thing was happening in all the other rooms until eventually, almost twenty maids were gathered in Leah��s quarters.


    These were almost half of all the maids in the manor. Except for Laeli��s people, the rest of the colored women wishing to escape were now practically together. L tied up the ones afraid of getting caught, gagging them to keep them from blowing the whistle. Most of all, it was done for their own good. If they were caught with any information, they would be punished severely once Leah and the others escaped.


    As for the male ves living in another building, they were led by someone else.


    Leah nced at the faces of the women before her. In their eyes, she saw anxiety, fear, and a powerful yearning for freedom. Without hesitation, she dered, ��Sisters, let us together, break the shackles that bind our necks!��

 Chapter 250 - Riot

    <h4>Chapter 250</h4>


    <h4>Riot</h4>


    Malcolm couldn��t remember thest time he got some proper sleep. Once he realized that Redmond was the enemy, he wasted no timeing up with a n to deal with him. However, that wasn��t Malcolm��s biggest problem right now, as he would need to stabilize the increasingly vtile ck-market alliance once Redmond was out of the game.


    Most outsiders viewed the ck-market alliance as an invincible and imprable force. As one of it��s founding fathers, Malcolm secretly knew that its foundations were weak and crumbling. No matter how robust the system was, solving every internal conflict that arose within its core would be impossible. This was where Redmond��s influence came in handy, something the system couldn��t do.


    Every ck-market merchant had their own cliques and factions, and naturally, some were hostile to each other. Malcolm wasn��t the right person to bnce power and resolve their conflicts since held only been in Nassau for a few years. When it came to matters like this, he still had to rely on Redmond. After all, Redmond was one of the eldest and most experienced ck-market merchants in Nassau.


    This was why Malcolm was in charge of the alliance��s operations while Redmond became its leader. Within two or three years, Malcolm would have built a strong reputation within the alliance, and Redmond would be kicked out of the game. He was even confident that he could take over all his tasks within a year. Owing to that, he was surprised that Redmond would turn against him a lot earlier than expected.


    At this point, the two could never go back to how they were before. Redmond knew that the longer he dragged things on, the more unfavorable his situation would be. To him, Carina, Malcolm��s rival, was the wildcard in this game, and it would be unsurprising if he decided to secretly take action on her. That said, Redmond failed to keep it a secret from Malcolm


    Malcolm��s priority, as of now, was to find a way to kick Redmond out of Nassau, and at the same time, ensure that the operation would cause minimal effects on the alliance.


    Malcolm wrote down the names of a few influential ck-market merchants on a piece of paper, supposed candidates for Redmond��s recement. It wasn��t untilte that night that he went to bed. Not too long after he fell asleep, he was awakened by some loud shouting and rapid thumps of footsteps outside his room. Such actions were typically forbidden inside the manor. Instantly, Malcolm��s eyes popped open as he jumped out of bed. At that time, someone knocked at his door.


    ��Come in!��


    Wace pushed the door open and stormed into the room.


    ��What��s going on outside? What��s with that loud noise?�� asked a frowning Malcolm while hastily changing his attire.


    ��The ves are rioting! They��ve set fire to the barn and our wood and cotton warehouses!��


    ��How many of them?!��


    ��I can��te up with a number right now, but I believe more than half of our ves are in it. They are all armed mainly with stones they picked, and knives from the kitchen. But there are some with daggers and guns. On the bright side, they have at most, two or three guns with them. I��ve sent for a team to protect you, and I��ve also rushed a messenger to get help from other ntations. Once their men arrive, we should be more secure.��


    Once Malcolm put on his proper attire and shoes, he walked out to the balcony and instantly saw the fires that were raging nearby. It seemed that a new fight had just broken out at another spot. It was just like what Wace said, the ck ves had the numbers, but the guards were better equipped. As of now, the guards were holding up well. Not too long after that, the supervisors joined the brawl as well.


    Getting assistance in crushing the dissent should be a breeze too. Managing the ves had been a constant headache forndowners like Malcolm, and as he shared a good rapport with a few ntations, they would inevitably run to his aid in a time like this. Malcolm��s confidence was boosted, and he wasn��t too worried about the ever-growing riots around his manor. Even when Wace told about the massive losses they had suffered, he seemed unconcerned.


    Malcolm was trying to figure if the riots had something to do with Redmond. If it did, what was he hoping to achieve? How did he convince so many to work for him?


    A handful of ves had attempted to escape Terrance Manor before, but a riot of this scale was unprecedented. It would have been a massive undertaking, not to mention that with so many being involved, the secret was bound to be spilled somehow. Most ves weren��t petite as well, and they could be easily spotted. There was no ce they could hide even if they escaped sessfully. Malcolm was also baffled by how the ves got their hands on the daggers and guns. All these questions could only be answered after the riots were over. He knew one thing for sure, though. Daisy wasn��t the snitch.


    Soon, they received updates that the ves were moving toward the ranches, a spot that was poorly defended. If that were to be the case, the guards might actually be on the losing end. Once the horses were set free, the situation would only be more chaotic and eventually get out of hand. So with Malcolm��s permission, Wace and his men scrambled to the ranch hoping to stop a horse stampede.


    Wace was running when he suddenly stopped in his tracks. It dawned on him that fierce fighting was happening at three different locations around the manor. One ce, however, had been unusually quiet tonight. It was in the fields where the torture chamber was.


    ��Cunning little pieces of shit!��


    Wace reloaded his rifle, and with a scowl, turned to the ntation. From afar, the body of the supervisor guarding the room could be seen lying on the ground. Several knives were sticking out of his back like bristles. Meanwhile, a ck man was dragging Nadya out of the room.


    Wace pulled the trigger, the bullet missing its target andnding on a nearby barrel instead.


    Startled, the ck man fell to the ground as he dropped Nadya. Wace��s men had also started shooting as well. Desperate to save his own life, he left Nadya and ran back to the torture room. At the same time, Leah heard gunshots as well. She was right behind the ck man. As for L, she was carrying Daisy and was behind Leah. They were joined by four women and two men who had previously been ves at the ntation.


    Earlier, a few ves were in a fight with a supervisor, and one woman survived with light injuries. Those were their only people left still capable of fighting. As for Wace, he had five guards with him, and four were armed with guns. Creeping slowly and quietly to the torture room, they hoped to take their targets by surprise. Just as they were about to reach, they were greeted by a loud gunshot, followed by the loud thud of a guard dropping to the ground. Wace and the rest quickly crouched as low as possible; the casualty only turning them more cautious. What they didn��t know was that Leah only had one gun, and she had just shot herst round.

 Chapter 251 - Correspondence

    <strong>Chapter 251 Correspondence</strong>


    Short on weapons and personnel, they had no idea if Nadya was dead or alive. Now, they faced the risk of Wace and his men barging in at any moment �C Leah had never met with such a dangerous situation before.


    That very moment, thoughts flooded her mind, and she recalled what L told her. Despite it all, she didn��t have the slightest bit of regret saving Daisy and Nadya. Instead, she felt guilty that her insistence had plunged L into the precarious situation she was in.


    L��s jaws were clenched, and with indignance written all over her face, she knew there was no pointining now. She squeezed the dagger in her hand and hissed, ��Don��t say I didn��t warn you. You don��t want to know what will be of you if you��re caught. The best thing for us now is to die together! Dying beats getting caught.��


    Leah felt a chill run down her spine, but she nodded anyway. With trembling hands, she shoved some gunpowder into the sh pan.


    Another loud gunshot rang outside the door; everyone inside the torture chamber held their breaths for what was toe. Nevertheless, Wace and his guards didn��t force their way in.


    Leah realized that the guards must havee across someone else. Before the whole thing started, the entire team split up �C this meant the group in charge of causing amotion had returned. Among them were the remaining maids and a good number of well-built male ves who had joined in halfway. When they saw Wace and his guards surrounding the torture room, they immediately stormed into action.


    Leah and the others in the room didn��t let the opportunity slide. As the chaos brewed, they made their way out of the room, led by a male ve with a pitchfork in hand. She rushed to where Nadya had fallen and found his chest smothered in blood, and he was no longer breathing


    Her chest tightened with grief. Fewer and fewer of her brothers and sisters were still alive and breathing. Even so, there was no time to grieve. In a few minutes, another two ves were shot dead. Wace and his men reloaded their guns. Leah knew that they had to leave right now, but L, the one leading the pack, suddenly stopped. She stood where she was, frozen in ce. Then, when the others caught up, she handed Daisy over to another maid.


    Leah followed L��s gaze and saw that she was staring at Wace. There were mes raging in her burning eyes. Other than the sole instance where she showed her scars, L never talked about how she got them or who did it to her, but by how she red at Wace right now, Leah had a good idea.


    ��Don��t do anything stupid. They have five guns with them. Even if you kill them, you��ll probably get killed yourself!�� Leah pleaded.


    The others were way ahead of them now. L hesitated for a moment. Suddenly, without so much as a warning, she grabbed the gun in Leah��s hand, aimed at Wace, and pulled the trigger. With over meters between them and no training, L naturally missed. The bullet deviated from her target and hit the arm of another guard.


    Grimacing with frustration, L understood that was no time to ponder over anything. Just as they were about to leave, Wace was done reloading, and he began shooting again. Leah watched in horror as a bullet tore through the cheek of a maid running toward the both of them. Then, the group hastily retreated with the wounded, and Wace stopped pushing forward since there were only five of them. One of his men was also shot in the arm. They wouldn��t stand a chance against a mob of famished and tormented ves.


    As a result, Wace had to let them go, watching on in vexation as the ves disappeared into the night.


    Meanwhile, Laeli was already the gate of the manor with the carriage. Cauchy and the few colored men had all hailed from different ces �C there was a sailor, a fisherman, and even a ughterhouse owner �C they all had one thing inmon �C all ex-ves that either escaped or joined pirates, subsequently regaining their freedom.


    The simr horrors they all shared caused them to sympathize with their own people, where they were all brought to the ntations against their will. Cauchy even established a secret organization to grant assistance to the ntation escapees. So, when Laeli approached this organization with the n in mind, they readily expressed their willingness to help. Since they were all employed and had proper jobs on the ind, their faces were covered tonight to avoid retaliation.


    With Cauchy taking point, they swiftly eliminated the guards at the gate.


    Then, as if on cue, Leah and the others arrived. Laeli was taken aback by the number of people with her. When the chaos broke out, he knew that a massive riot was about to happen, but upon seeing the group, he realized that there were a lot more people than initially nned.


    Thankfully, they prepared two extra carriages in the event of such a situation. For good measure, the ves in the stables also sneaked out two of Malcolm��s carriages amid the chaos.


    However, the guards were catching up to them. Cauchy and his men jumped down the carriage and shouted to Laeli as they took cover, ��You go first. I��ll buy you some time. I��m not a ve of this manor. We��ll just get to somewhere secluded, and once we get rid of our cover, then they won��t be able to recognize


    us.��


    Another ve, a sailor on a pirate ship, eximed, ��I am a crew of the Lion. If they touch a single strand of hair on me, they will face my brothers�� revenge!��


    This wasn��t a time for formalities. It wasn��t just the manor��s guards, but their reinforcements were also approaching fast. Laeli nodded at Cauchy and his people as a gesture of thanks. The appointed time was here, and although some had still not arrived, Laeli could wait no longer. He pulled the reins with all his might, and all six carriages carrying the ves broke through the night toward the direction of hope and freedom.


    Zhang Heng didn��t go to the beach. Instead, he chose to stay with Anne and Carina and waited for news of the operation. He had done everything he could. Now, the rest would have to depend on Laeli. Of course, Zhang Heng didn��t bet everything on the diator and was prepared in the case of failure on Laeli��s end. This, however, made things slightlyplicated. Apart from that, Zhang Heng also noticed that Carina seemed a little absent tonight.


    ��Didn��t you rest up in the day?��


    ��I... I couldn��t really sleep,�� Carina stammered as she managed a smile.


    Zhang Heng handed a cup of coffee to her. She thanked him and epted the drink. Just as she was about to say something, the messenger came running in.


    ��Captain! Mr. Billy has received the group! Jackdaw is already leaving the port! They also wanted me to give you this,�� the man panted as he took out five letters from his coat.

 Chapter 252 - The Dust Settles

    <strong>Chapter 252 The Dust Settles</strong>


    Lately, one after another major incident kept uring in Nassau. Six of the ind��s most potent ships were led by ck Prince Sam to plunder the invincible Spanish treasure vessel. After a long and arduous fight, they finally managed to sink it. However, the navy ambushed them after that and eventually, only Jackdaw survived the battle, hauling home more than half the gold bars back to Nassau.


    Not too long after that, a riot erupted at Malcolm��s Terrance Manor. It was a rough night to say the least. The ntations around the mansion sent their men as well, hoping to assist Malcolm in dealing with the dissent. Some ves were killed in the battle, and a few were recaptured. Just when spections about Terrance Manor suffering great losses began to gain traction, news of Malcolm framing Normand started spreading throughout the entire ind.


    After three years, Eugene finally mustered enough courage to tell everyone that Malcolm made him frame Normand. He admitted working with a few captains to use Normand of taking bribes, the main reason why the first ck-market alliance was disbanded. After that, Normand left Nassau quietly. Eugene even made public the letters between him and Malcolm.


    This shocking news impacted the ck-market merchants of Nassau significantly. Though Normand had left Nassau for a couple of years, he was still quite influential amongst the merchants, with more than half of the alliance attending his funeral when he died. However, once Malcolm��s secret was exposed, enormous pressure fell upon his shoulders. The next afternoon, Redmond made an official announcement on behalf of the ck-market alliance. On the surface, it seemed as if he was trying to calm everyone down, but whether he wanted it or not, his true intentions were soon revealed. He told everyone that he was going to investigate this incident.


    Of course, Malcolm knew Redmond��s ultimate goal, and if he was the one investigating this incident, he already had the oue in mind. However, Malcolm made no excuses to stop Redmond from immersing himself into this matter; his influence helping him to open up a desirable path. Considering the fact that Redmond was Normand��s close friend and leader of the ck-market alliance, he was the best person to dig into this matter.


    Until now, Malcolm still couldn��t find a way to dismiss the usation. On the other hand, three days were almost up, and he was ted to meet up with Carina. Malcolm had high hopes for the meeting, seeing that his situation was deteriorating by the minute. He also needed new allies to ovee this crisis. The terms he offered Carina were still negotiable, and he was prepared to sacrifice some things on his part in convincing her to take his side.


    The day eventually arrived, but Carina was nowhere to be seen in the coffee shop. He waited at his favorite table for the entire afternoon until the sun went down. Then, just as he was about to leave, he finally heard someone walking into the restaurant. It was Wace.


    ��Something happened again?��


    Malcolm set the cup of cold coffee down. He lifted his head and frowned.


    ��Rumors about you spreading all over the ind like wildfire! They say that you have something to do with Mr. Fegan��s incarceration. Many knew that he disagreed forming of the ck-market alliance before he went to jail. Ms. Carina is with Redmond right now, hoping that he would help her uphold justice,�� said Wace.


    To his surprise, Malcolm��s face remained stoic and unmoved. It appeared as if he��d expected Carina to side with Redmond.


    ��I got it,�� Malcolm replied calmly.


    ��The investigation regarding the riot at your manor hase to an end. Leah started the whole thing. She led arge number of ves to the beach, boarded a ship, and left Nassau. I have checked all the ships leaving port yesterday and the day before that, and guess what I found. Jackdaw set off early this morning with a ship full of supplies. It��s possible they returned to port when it was dark. So...��


    ��So what?��


    ��I believe the riot has something to do with them. There��s a high possibility that Leah was the one who stole all those letters. Regarding this, we should inform all the other powerfulndlords on this ind. I��m certain they don��t want the same thing happening to them someday. We��ll also need to force Jackdaw to surrender the ves to us.��


    Malcolm did not respond to that. Instead, he pointed at the seat in front of him.


    ��I remember that we messed around every day when we were kids. You used to steal baked potatoes for me. After I went to school, we no longer had meals together. In fact, you��re the one who hired this restaurant��s chef.��


    ��Yes, you��re right. He��s called Alfonzo, a Spaniard. He has a terrible temper, and he hates pirates to the core. I had to spend an entire week and two times the usual sry just to convince him to work here. I remembered that after he hung arge ��NO PIRATES ALLOWED�� sign outside the restaurant, someone almost strangled him to death that night.��


    ��I see. I have to admit that his coffee and fried eggs are pretty darn good. Anyway, we should eat. Let��s have a meal together since you��re here. After that, can you ask Alfonzo and see if he is willing to leave Nassau with us.��


    ��Mmm...��


    Wace was worried about Malcolm.


    ��Don��t worry about me. I came here four years ago, empty-handed. Within that period, I have made more money than most can make in a lifetime. The wealth is still mine even if I leave this ce, but I have lost this fight. That said, I��m not the kind of person that won��t admit my mistakes. I can always move somewhere else and start all over again. There are tons of ways to make money. Remember that I came with nothing and now, I leave with everything in my hands. With all this money, I believe that I��ll be able to forge a new path. Besides, Redmond��s not going tost long in Nassau. The moment he underestimated Carina, he was doomed from the start.��


    ��You appear to have high hopes for her.��


    ��I��m the one who opened Pandora��s box and released her inner demons. Now, she can finally inspect her own ambitions and desires. I know she��s a good student, but how fast she grew exceeded my expectations. Just not too long ago, she med me for destroying her whole life. Now, she can take stock of her emotions and make decisions that only benefit her, even going as far as teaming up with the person responsible for putting her father in jail. This is starting to get really interesting. I made her who she is today, and yet, she had to be the one to destroy my career on this indpletely. I guess we are even now.��


    ��Her rtionship with Redmond is very fragile. We can always tell Redmond that she knows who really put her father in jail.��


    ��No, we are not going to do anything about it. Redmond is no idiot, and I won��t turn my back against Carina before I leave Nassau, either. At this age, I won��t allow emotions to govern my decisions anymore. Why would I do something that won��t benefit me? I��m guessing that Redmond is drowning in victorious joy right now. However, he doesn��t know that he has a ticking time-bomb by his side. It��s best to leave her with him. Consider it a parting gift for my old friend.��

 Chapter 253 - A Walk

    <strong>Chapter 253 A Walk</strong>


    Zhang Heng looked at Billy, not expecting to see another person on board Jackdaw when he returned.


    The helmsman shrugged. ��It wasn��t my idea. She wanted toe back. It was her decision.��


    Leah held her luggage with both hands, and requested politely, ��Can you please take me in? I can do lots of things.��


    ��I could do that, but why didn��t you leave with your people? You fought so hard to escape that manor. Wasn��t it so you could live a life of freedom?��


    ��I... I respected Laeli very much. He united us in our most difficult time and led us out of a miserable life. He��s surely a better chief than his father but I don��t agree with him on some things. I don��t think the deserted inds are a way out for my people.��


    ��Hmm?�� Zhang Heng cocked his eyebrow.


    ��We may be able to live a peaceful life on that ind for a while, but sooner orter the ve traders will find us again. Just like what happened back home, they��ll kill the old and the weak first, then separate the mothers from their children. If we can��t find a secure way out, it will happen again and again until every ck man and woman will be a ve.��


    Zhang Heng was astounded by how someone of Leah��s age would consider such things. Although she was simply a teen at this point, she saw further into the future than Laeli when it came to certain things.


    Zhang Heng looked earnestly at her and asked, ��What do think should be the way out then?��


    ��I really don��t know,�� Leah shook her head. ��I��m still searching for it. One thing for sure, I know my talents and skills won��t be very useful on the inds, which is why I want to live in the civilized world and fully utilize my potential.��


    ��This isn��t a very civilized ce. I��ve already recruited enough sailors, and you��re not even a sailor and you��re a girl...�� Zhang Heng trailed off, thinking hard. Then he looked at Carina. ��Do you need anyone on your side?��.


    Carina nodded and turned to Leah, ��I heard that you know how to read. It just so happens that I have a grocery store in Boston that is about to open. You can go there to help me keep the ounts, and I will provide you with lodging. You will be paid a pound each month. Once the business picks up, I will increase your sry ordingly.��


    Leah beamed at the prospect.


    After Leah��s issue was settled, Carina continued their interrupted conversation. She gave Zhang Heng a brief ount of her private encounters with Redmond and the agreement between them. When they were done, she suggested that they take a walk. Zhang Heng nodded and followed Carina out of the house to the field.


    It was a fine day; the sun ring down its bright rays and a gentle sea-breeze was blowing �C an excellent day for a walk. Carina had no destination in mind, so she just walked in a random direction. Zhang Heng simply followed her. All the way, neither Carina nor Zhang Heng spoke a word.


    <b>are</b>


    It wasn��t because they had nothing to say to each other; they were simply enjoying the rare calm. It had been three weeks since the riot broke out at Terence Manor, and so many things happened during this brief period of time. Nheless, for the time being, the situation had stabilized itself, and Malcolm��s defeat was imminent.


    Malcolm reacted to the situation ordingly, immediately listing and selling various assets on the ind. Without Malcolm��s specialty, Redmond, on the other hand, was unable to continue managing operations of the ck-market alliance. Although no formal statement had been issued, everyone knew that the dissolution of the ck Market Alliance was inevitable.


    Soon, there would be a major reshuffle of powers among the ck-market merchants on the ind. The situation would return to what it was when thepetition was fierce. Recently, the ck-market merchants had been the move again, contacting the pirates they previously worked with and looking for anybody to spy on theirpetitors prices.��


    While this meant a loss of ie for some, it also meant opportunities for others. In the past, Malcolm used the first ck-market��s dissolution to quickly climb up thedder, and now, many were eager to reproduce his sess. In a case like this, Malcolm was clearly on the losing end. Even though Redmond lost the position as the president of the ck-market alliance, his reputation rose to a whole new level thanks to him seeking justice for Normand and Fegan. As a result, he had almost caught up to Normand.��


    With a good reputation and strong connections, many powerful pirate gangs in Nassau had already expressed their willingness to continue working with Redmond even after the ck-market alliance was dissolved. However, as long as he sat on the throne, he couldn��t respond to those rumors. Nheless, everyone believed that Redmond would have more pirate ships than before after the disbanding.


    The next beneficiary of this was Carina. Despite being fairly new on the ind, she responded well to the enormous pressure that Malcolm and the ck-market alliance imposed on her and at the same time, letting her extraordinary ir for business shine. Her pawnshop also won the praises of the smaller pirate gangs. On top of that, Malcolm had deliberately sent a wave of powerful pirate ships to her. If she could handle it sessfully, she would be the second most sessful ck-market merchant after the alliance��s dissolution. But that was still a long way to go. Right now, she wouldn��t think too far ahead, wanting to savor her victory first. The pair eventually ended up on the beach.


    After the long silence, Carina decided to speak. ��I��m sorry. I��ve been actually hiding something from you.��


    ��Are you referring to the time Malcolm talked to you in private?�� Zhang Heng asked.


    Carina��s eyes widened in surprise.


    ��Please don��t misunderstand me. I didn��t send anyone to monitor you, but it was the day of the operation and I was keeping tabs on Malcolm��s movements. In fact, I can guess what he said to you,�� confessed Zhang Heng. ��When I thought about it, there were just too many coincidences in Eugene��s case, and he was simply too cooperative. I did have my doubts on Redmond, and afterward, when I saw how distracted you were, my theory was confirmed in some way.��


    ��Since Eugene��s case was rted to Redmond, then there��s a good chance Redmond also yed a part in your father��s case. We were prejudiced at first. When we saw the letter Leah stole, we believed that Malcolm had framed your father, but the truth was, from the contents of those letters, Malcolm was obviously investigating the matter. You didn��t tell me because you feared that I wouldn��t have given you a choice in this matter. From my point of view, I would have suggested that you use the opportunity to get rid of our biggest threat: Malcolm. Then you would lose the chance of joining forces with him to avenge your father.��


    ��Why? Why didn��t you warn me if you knew?��


    ��Because the choice is yours to make,�� said Zhang Heng. ��Even though I have a share in your pawnshop, this is your enterprise at the end of the day, and it was your father who got framed and subsequently imprisoned. You and you alone must make the choice.��


    ��Then do you think that I��m cold-blooded for not avenging my father and instead, sleeping with the enemy?�� Carina asked.


    This time, Zhang Heng did not answer her directly. He simply said, ��One day, you will defeat Redmond and be the most powerful merchant in the ck market, just like how you defeated Malcolm.��


    ��But when that dayes, would I have changed so much that I won��t even recognize myself anymore?�� Carina smiled bitterly.


    ��Perhaps, you��ve never really known yourself, in the first ce.��

 Chapter 254 - The End

    <strong>Chapter 254 The End</strong>


    ��Have you heard of his story?��


    ��Whose story?�� asked the aristocrat with a silver wig to the man sitting across him. The nobleman seemed increasingly nervous as he talked.


    ��The story of the Caribbean King.��


    ��This part of the ocean belongs to Scond, and there��s only one king in Ennd. King George is his name.��


    The aristocrat valiantly defended his country, but the bearded man opposite him knew that he wasn��t too confident. Ignoring the aristocrat, and like a graceful whale cruising the oceans, he said,


    ��He goes by many names. The ves from the New World call him the Freedom Fighter. That��s because he attacks ve ships, and sets the ves free. When he plunders merchant ships, he would only take their possessions but not hurt a single soul. Some merchants evenplimented his ways. The Royal Navy deems him their worst nightmare. In these ten years alone, he��s sunken at least a dozen navy battleships, and he��s even managed to evade a coordinated attack between the navy and pirate-hunters. Oh, before I forget, the pirate hunters call him the Pirate-Hunter Killer. Whenever they see his ck g, even the bravest pirate-hunter goes into hiding.��


    The man then paused for a while.


    ��Do we have any liquor here?��


    The aristocrat was ungratified that the bearded man had dominated the conversation. Even though four muscr bodyguards were behind him, he still felt as if he was trapped in a cage with a ferocious beast. After a while, the aristocrat loosened his cor, his face looking pale and nervous. He wanted to remind the bearded man that he was merely a criminal here. However, he quickly changed his mind.


    ��Get him a ss of tawny port.��


    ��Seven years ago, he led his men in an attack against Nassau��s Roger Wood. During that battle, he managed to destroy Roger Wood��s ship and turn Nassau into and of the free.��


    ��Land of the free? We reimed the ce three years ago.��


    The aristocrat smirked, finally finding something to gain the upper hand in the conversation.


    ��You are right. The navy provided immunity to all the pirates of Nassau except for him. You guys even tried to convince a mighty ck-market merchant, which was also his most trusted ally to betray him. I must say, the real reason why the navy won the battle was because the man gave up in the end.��


    The aristocrat was speechless. Roger Wood was a good friend of the royalty, and even though he was rescued from a battle seven years ago, his life had turned for the worse since then. Whenever the name of the person was mentioned in front of him, he would start shivering in fear. Three years ago, Roger Wood was asked to be the navy��s consultant for a reconquest of Nassau. However, he had a grim outlook about the future. He once told the royalty that even if the navy managed to reim Nassau, they would have pay a hefty price for it.


    However, Jackdaw left Nassau the night before the battle broke out. With Carina��s help, the navy managed to reim Nassau without shedding a single drop of blood. Roger Wood was appointed the new governor-general of Nassau, and Carina became his special consultant.


    ��I heard his achievements have spread as far as London, Paris, and even all the way to Lisbon. he has be the talk of town. King George even hired someone to learn more about this legendary figure. What about you? What kind of person do you think he is?��


    The bearded man lifted his head and looked at the aristocrat seriously, who quickly looked away, trying not to make any eye-contact. In that split second, the aristocrat realized that his actions only indicated that he was the weaker one here. To protect the royalty��s honor, he quickly looked back into the bearded man��s eyes.


    ��Only fools and plebeians will address him at the Caribbean King. Some are even dumb enough to believe that he��s under the protection of Thetis herself, the Goddess of the Ocean! They also say he has the ability to control storms, and that he��s actually immortal. To me, he��s just another rotten pirate. When he��s sent to the gallows, I will watch him struggle for dear life. By that time, I will know if he is truly immortal or not.��


    After the aristocrat was done talking, his face turned grave all of a sudden.


    ��Captain Zhang Heng! I now officially arrest you for crimes not limited to piracy, murder, plunder, assaulting the navy, and contempt of the King of Scond. You will be tried in London. You will not be represented in any way whatsoever.��


    After that, the aristocrat stood up and waved his men over to apprehend Zhang Heng.


    ��I don��t think I can wait that long.��


    Zhang Heng calmly nced at his watch. The hour hand hadpleted 102 cycles, which meant he had been in this world for 3,900 days. After all these years in the game, he could no longer differentiate between the real world and the constructed one.


    ��I have asked many people about you. Everyone said that you��re from the most powerful family in the New World. Good. I��ll need you to tell everyone what you��re about to witness. My request is very simple. I would like you to drop all charges against Anne and Jackdaw��s pirates. You��ll also have to promise me that the navy will no longer deem Jackdaw as a target. Otherwise, I might just enter your bedroom at night without you realizing it.��


    ��Do you the slightest idea of what you are talking about? How dare you threaten me when I��m about to arrest you?! I was only so polite because of my good upbringing, but it doesn��t mean I can��t y the bad guy too.��


    Once the royalty was finished, he signaled his two guards with the eye. Like mindless androids, they put their guns away at the same time and walked towards Zhang Heng with curled fists. On the other hand, Zhang Heng was still sitting calmly on their chair. However, right before the guards couldnd their punches on him, he disappeared into thin air.


    Zhang Heng��s vision ckened, and he heard an echo. It was the sound of a familiar voice.


    (Your time to return hase. The mission isplete...]


    (You havepleted ck Sail, your fourth round of the game. You will now be sent back to the real world...]


    ....


    ��Hehe! You look like shit. Just like the other yer.��


    The bartender poured a ss of whiskey with her masterful hands and pushed the drink over to Zhang Heng.


    ��I like what you are right now. It looks like you have lots of stories to tell me. I must say that it��s hard for a woman to resist a man like you.��


    Zhang Heng grabbed the ss, gulped down its contents, and asked, ��What time is it now?��


    His current voice and younger body took him by surprise, and he wasn��t used to it.


    ��Wee back to 21st of January, the year 2018. You can check your phone if you don��t believe me. Or, tomorrow morning��s news will tell you anyway.��

 Chapter 255 - Dinosaur that Trespassed the Chicken Coop

    <strong>Chapter 255 Dinosaur that Trespassed the Chicken Coop</strong>


    Zhang Heng checked his phone and found that the date disyed matched the bartender��s statements. If it was right, Zhang Heng had spent a total of 3,900 days in an 18th-century Caribbean. However, he had only been gone for two hours in the real world.


    ��It seems you��ve taken a long trip this time.��


    The bartenderdy leaned over the wine cab and stared at Zhang Heng with a sparkle in her eyes. As he sipped his whiskey, he unconsciously tried to wipe away the foam on his beard. Suddenly, he realized that he no longer had a beard. All he had was his bare, smooth chin. After a short pause, he asked the bartender a few questions.


    ��What��s the longest a yer has ever stayed in the game?��


    ��No one knows. I heard of a yer who stayed in his quest for a total of six years. This is the longest known time a yer has spent inside the game. Also, the world he was in wasn��t much different from the real world. After his quest waspleted, he had to spend a long time telling apart real and fictional events that he had gone through.��


    ��So, this is just a game?��


    ��Why? Why would you ask something like that?��


    ��I have a solid foundation in world history, and I have done extensive research about it as well. So far, every event that I��ve experienced in the game is no different from real history. Of course, with my involvement, the game��s history differs slightly to the real world.��


    Zhang Heng then took out his cellphone, clicked on his Baidu browser, and typed in the keyword, Nassau. He discovered that Nassau��s history didn��t change at all. In the year 1718, Roger Wood had been appointed by George I of Great Britain to be the governor-general of Nassau. He also led the navy to New Providence and reinstated order there after driving out all the pirates in the area. Not long after ckbeard Teach assaulted Charleston, he was killed by the navy. They also captured Anne, causing her father a great deal of money just to give her back her freedom. She died of old age in the colony.


    He realized that everything about him had been wiped out of history. Logically speaking, this was impossible. After the Mannerheim quest, Zhang Heng had a n inside his head. During the ck Sail quest, he deliberately made his name known in as many countries as he could during hisst few years in the game. Once he left the quest, he wanted to verify his spection and eventually found the answer that he wanted.


    ��During my second quest, I was wondering if I had traveled through time, but the possibility was simply too slight.��


    ��Hmm?�� The bartender cocked her head.


    ��Because in a dynamic system, even the smallest change can spur a long-term chain reaction in the system.��


    ��It��s called the butterfly effect,�� the bartender snapped her fingers.


    ��Yes. If all the yers are really being sent back to the past, our world history would have turned into a mess. During thest auction, around four to five thousand yers were present, and I can say for certain that there are at least tens of thousands of yers in the system. With so many wings pping, the changes it would bring to history would be unimaginable.��


    ��Perhaps, those living in their countries don��t even know that their nation��s borders have changed,�� shrugged the bartender.


    ��That is a possibility, but I��ve left many marks on the script this time. It��s impossible that the real world had remained the same, and I clearly remember two different periods of history.��


    ��Wow. It seems like you��ve done many great things this time,�� eximed the bartender.


    ��So, I��m now leaning toward the theory that you��ve integrated a historical timeline in each quest and made it a game. My question is, why do it? Why did you choose actual human history? What��s the message you��re trying to convey? And what happens to the people inside the quest when I leave?��


    Now that the thought crossed his mind, Zhang Heng told the bartender, ��Give me an extra round of the game.��


    Having spent over ten years in the ck Sail quest, he had umted a shocking 342 game points, a whole 100 points more than he had expected. Whether it battling against the proud Scarborough of the Royal Navy while he was on Sea Lion, or when he and ck Sam and the others robbed the Spanish treasure ship, or even fighting against Roger Woode to keep him from capturing Nassau��s fleet, eventually earning himself great fortune and reputation �C all these earned him many points.


    Including the remaining 700 game points from the sale of the Moresby Bones, he now had more than 1000 game points. Spending 400 points to buy a chance at an extra game wasn��t extravagance on his part.


    That said, he had just ended a long episode and was in no hurry to begin a new journey.


    So, Zhang Heng spent 400 game points on an extra round of the game, but he wouldn��t be using it any time soon. Shortly after, he passed ��Betty��s Shell,�� the game item, to the bartender and left the bar.


    Upon stepping out of the lounge, he was greeted by the deafening thump of electronic dance music, with folk bobbing their heads and iling their arms in the rhythm.


    The nights here were always so lively, an actual city that never slept.


    Zhang Heng walked down the steel staircase. With his figure, he would soon be swallowed by the manic crowd. This time though, when the hormone-filled youths saw him walking down the steps, they automatically stepped aside to make way for him. Even the showoffs, rebellious thugs who loved to exhibit masculinity before their female counterparts dared not strong-arm him.


    They had no inkling of why they would unconsciously step backward when they saw the man who looked no different from a university student. Those who frequented the establishment knew better than to mess with the two brawny men standing at the bottom of the staircase. Whenpared to Zhang Heng, however, the bouncers in suits and sunsses seemed like harmless sheep.


    Zhang Heng frowned. He could guess what was going on, sort of. He had been an 18th century pirate for more than a decade in the Caribbean Sea, and he became a horrible nightmare in all of Great Britain, and even Europe, putting the fear of God in them. Even if he didn��t enjoy killing people, he spilled a lot of blood to survive in the cruel and harsh environment �C so much he could not even remember how many people he must have killed, or how many had died because of him. Without him realizing it, his temperament had undergone tremendous changes.


    In the eyes of these intoxicated youths, born and raised in peacetime and dancing the night away in a nightclub, Zhang Heng was like a dinosaur that trespassed the chicken coop.

 Chapter 256 - Let’s Us Bring You For Some Fun

    <h4>Chapter 256 Let��s Us Bring You For Some Fun</h4>


    Zhang Heng didn��t stay at the bar for long. He pulled his hoodie over his head and walked out of the with his head lowered.


    Instead of going back to school, he went to a nearby public restroom.


    Since it was a little over two in the morning, no one else was around. But the lights were on, and the air smelt of cheap disinfectant. Zhang Heng walked up to the sink in the men��s toilet. The leaky faucet on his right dripped with a steady plop.


    However, his eyes were on the mirror above the sink.


    Back in Sex City, he did feel like his younger self again, but only now did he have a chance to examine his reflection. The beard on his face was gone, and the weathered hue on his skin had lost it��s bronze tone. The callouses and scars on his body had disappeared too.


    His face was ten years younger than his time in Nassau, a sight he found a little unfamiliar.


    Most importantly, he understood what the bartender meant when she said that he looked like apletely different person. Physically, he might look the same, but he had retained the temperament of an 18th-century pirate.


    This was actually going to be troublesome. Most wouldn��t notice it, but those who were close to him would be able to tell from a nce that he had changed a lot, especially since the Spring Festival was approaching, and he would have to return home soon. His parents, who had been having the time of their lives in Europe, may not sense the change in him, especially considering the fact that they never once remembered his birthday correctly. He could even send someone else of the same height and age back, and they probably couldn��t even tell the difference. Nheless, his grandad, who had raised him since he was a child, would definitely sense something.


    More importantly, with his current demeanor, he would inevitably be asked to have his ID checked whenever he was out on the street.


    While he was still deep thought, a group of young men with colorful hair swarmed into the restroom, each with a cigarette between their fingers. They gave off the appearance of the neighborhood��s small-time ruffians. Zhang Heng saw them outside of the bar a few times before; many of these the children of relocated vigers. Initially, there were two rtivelyrge viges here. As the city continued developing rapidly, expanding further into the wilderness one ring after another, many small hamlets turned into either industrial or residential areas.


    This was something worthy of celebrating �C the vigers receivedpensation and were relocated from their small wooden huts to chic and modern high-rise apartments. Many of them switched from farming to ying mahjong all day and collecting rent. Along with the sudden influx of wealth came its own set of problems, where the once simple vigers started to lose purpose in life, and their children lost the motivation to be diligent.


    After all, all they needed to get by was to collect rent. As a result, most of the vige��s youth turned into neighborhood thugs after high school. Of course, to themon man, there was a certain light-heartedness within the cacophony even though it was a nuisance.


    Every day, these youths who dressed like gangsters from old Hong Kong films did nothing all day but patron the arcade, cyber cafes, or roughing up hawkers operating nearby �C nothing but indulging in their own folly and fantasies.


    Come night, their favorite hangout spot was in front of the nightclub or the bar. In addition to helping the owner solve inconvenient security issues, they also picked up drunk girls from the side of the road. Unlike hustling for money on the streets, this brought them great excitement and pleasure. Nheless, since it was illegal to do so, they tended to get into trouble. Not to be outdone were certain quarters who took advantage of men��s phndering desires. They nted young, scantily dressed women on the street pretending to be drunk. When an unsuspecting victim picked thedies up, he would have to choose between getting ckmailed or serving jail time.


    However, these local thugs weren��t worried about anything this sort happening to them. They shared a pretty good rapport with these conniving groups, and they were gutsy and familiar with the ce. Once they were done with their business, they would leave hastily. That way, they rarely ran into any trouble.


    Hence, this group of rowdy young men entered the public restroom with a young, unconscious girl, jeering loudly among themselves. Much to their surprise, they weren��t alone. While the toilet wasn��t too far from the bar, it was definitely not close to it either. Between the buildings was another restroom, so most of the bar��s patrons wouldn��te all the way here.


    By the time the youths entered the building, Zhang Heng��s hood was over his face so his identity could be concealed. He didn��t react to the situation, though, feeling that he had be more cold-blooded in character. He wondered if it was because of the ten years he spent as a pirate.


    Moreover, this sitaution waspletely different from when the wall engulfed the scavenger. At that time, he had hurried over to help the elderlydy and the child because they were innocent, genuine victims who were simply at the wrong ce and time. Since it was within his ability to help, he was willing to lend a hand.


    In essence, single men and women patroned nightclubs so they could unleash the raging hormones burning within them. All were adults, though, capable of taking care of themselves. Since women were the fairer gender, they should have known better what might be of them if they got sloshed at the bar at two in the morning. Every night, many young women would be so hammered they often copsed by the side of the road outside Sex City. From the way Zhang Heng saw it, such matters were out of his control, and he wasn��t interested in barging in.


    Every sentient being had the right to live the way they wished, and at the same time, they too were responsible for the consequences of their own choices.


    So, Zhang Heng merely nced at the group and left with his bowed low.


    However, someone reached an arm out to block his path.


    ��Dude, it��s your lucky day today,�� a boy in a leather jacket grinned. ��What do you think, eh?�� he pushed the unconscious girl��s head up by her chin. ��See here, this is what we call by fine quality �C an absolute beauty. On a normal day, when you ask girls like this for their WeChat contact, they would ignore you unless you drive a BMW. We are all brothers here, and we must have met by fate. We��ll bring you for some fun if she refuses!��


    Zhang Heng knew what the guy was thinking. All that destiny crap was bullshit. The youth didn��t expect to run into anyone and was worried that the stranger would report them. Thus, they decided to cut Zhang Heng a deal and turn him their aplice. At the same time, an extra man would make it an even more exciting state of affairs.


    There was no point trying to exin anything in this situation. Even if Zhang Heng wouldn��t call the cops, these thugs would never believe him. So, Zhang Heng stuffed his phone into his pocket and threw a punch at the guy��s face without warning.


    He had been training hard in the gym recently. With his forty-eight hour day, his strength had exceeded that of the average person. So, when Zhang Heng��s fist made contact with the youth��s face, the kid subsequently fell to the ground with a sickening thud.

 Chapter 257 - Superpowers of Ordinary People

    <h4>Chapter 257 Superpowers of Ordinary People</h4>


    The gangsters held sway over this area, relying on theirrge numbers. They had always been the ones doing the bullying, and this was the first time the tables turned against them.


    Zhang Heng��s punch was too sudden,ing entirely without warning. The leather-jacketed boy had invited him to join their little party, and his friends were all grinning from ear-to-ear, excited by this new gamey. Lo and behold, something even more stimting happened. The leather-jacketed youth crashed onto the floor, head first. His vision went dark, and before he could scream in pain, he was already out cold.


    His friends were all disconcerted. They simply stood there, forgetting to fight back for a split second. However, real-life was no turn-based game, and Zhang Heng wasn��t going to go easy on them. After taking one down, he immediately grabbed another by the cor and threw him down. This one was even unluckier. As he fell, his forehead hit the sink, and bright red blood gushed out. There was no fight left in him.


    Having lived in the Caribbean for more than a decade, Zhang Heng didn��t just upgrade his knife skills to level 3; even without a weapon on him now, his melee skills were just as impressive. Anne was the one who taught him that shoulder throw, and he managed to learn everything from her when they sparred. Coupled with his extensivebat experience, it would be challenging to find a match for his skills.


    In just five seconds, Zhang Heng had taken down two opponents.


    After taking a moment to register what was happening, the remaining three thugs finally snapped out of their stupor. They set the girl down as they screamed a cheer for themselves, armed with switchdes and slicing the air as a gesture of intimidation.


    This scare tactic usually worked on ordinary people. Unfortunately, they ran into Zhang Heng today. By simply observing their posture and gait, Zhang Heng could tell that these small-time thugs weren��t formally trained, and in fact, had already made all sorts of mistakes. They seemed formidable standing still, but once they moved, their weak points were ring


    But a sharp weapon like the switchde still posed a degree of danger, especially in a scuffle. That was also why Zhang Heng opted to take down two thugs first, making it easier for him to tackle the other three.


    The whole fightsted less than a minute. Zhang Heng actually held himself back. Two out of the five thugs were out cold, and the other three were conscious but bruised. The most miserable one was the one who charged at Zhang Heng with the de but missed and had his head pushed down the urinal. Zhang Heng even finished him off with a kick on his back.


    Such petty street fights were no match for all the battles Zhang Heng had fought all throughout his pirate career. He did not even break a sweat. Upon their defeat, the other three thugs, having some life left in them, dragged their unconscious friends out of the toilet while shooting their mouths off, making empty threats as they made a hasty retreat.


    Zhang Heng pretended to chase them. The thugs were so scared they tripped over the sidewalk and fell onto the tall grass. Having learned their lesson, they kept their mouths shut and ran desperately for their lives.


    Zhang Heng had no interest in pursuing them. So, he returned to the toilet. Once inside, he couldn��t help but furrow his brows at the sorry sight.


    There were traces of the fight everyone, with obvious trails of blood on the floor left by that unlucky bastard who hit his head on the sink, and vomit from the leather jacketed guy. There was even a random sneaker, three switchdes, and a small dent in the stainless-steel handrail of the urinal.


    Everything else was the same as when he had left two minutes ago. The only difference was that the unconscious girl had disappeared.


    Had she run off on her own?


    Zhang Heng had been so focused on the group of thugs that he did not pay attention to what was happening behind him. The girl might have taken the opportunity to escape. The toilet had two exits, one at the front and the other at the back. Zhang Heng had chased the thugs out of the front entrance, but the one at the back led to a small, open park with lush vegetation. It would take less than two minutes to get from the toilet to the park.


    Although the girl appeared to be unconscious when she was brought in by the group of thugs, Zhang Heng wasn��t sure how drunk the girl actually was. The fight was a messy and loud affair, and she could have woken up in the middle of it. Upon realizing that she recognized nobody around her, she might have pretended to be drunk until everyone left before escaping into the park.


    Having made a satisfactory deduction of what happened, Zhang Heng left the matter as it was. He had no other intentions for the girl, and it wasn��t important if she thanked him or not.


    His fight had nothing to do with the girl, but rather because he was stopped from leaving. Since the girl escaped on her own, it saved him the trouble of having to contact her family or friends toe for her.


    To avoid unnecessary trouble, Zhang Heng cleaned the blood on the floor and pocketed the switchdes before he left.


    At this hour, the main door leading to the dormitory was already locked. Not wanting to trouble the caretaker, Zhang Heng checked himself into a single room at a hotel like he did thest time.


    Since most modern hotels were equipped with face recognition equipment, Zhang Heng had to unsheath his hood to peer into the camera. Unsurprisingly, his appearance gave the receptionist a good scare. Unconvinced, the receptionist swiped his identity card twice. No match to any fugitive was found in the system, and although good news for her and the hotel, the receptionist seemed reluctant to believe it.


    In the end, Zhang Heng had to show her his student ID and his campus card. The receptionist, in turn, was very surprised.


    When she returned it to him and gave him the room card, she could not help but ask, ��Are you really neen?��


    Zhang Heng took the room card from her and answered, ��Err, there��s still some time before the new year, so, yes. I��m still considered neen.��


    Until he got on the elevator, thedy at the front desk downstairs still seemed to be in a daze. She had held her position for two years, and during the tenure, she had seen all kinds of people. To pass the time during her tedious, monotonous job, she had invented some games to entertain herself. One of her favorites was guessing her guest��s profession.


    Whenever a guest walked into the hotel, the receptionist��s mind would begin conjuring theories of the upation of the person. Then upon issuing an invoice or during checkout, she would ask them to confirm.


    She had always enjoyed this game. After two years, she could now urately guess eight out of ten professions, and she considered that a superpower of an ordinary person. But this time, the superpower she was so proud of provedpletely ineffective.


    Student? How��s that possible. That kind of temperament, to be frank, was more like a pirate from the movies, who killed their victims without remorse.


    The receptionist was greatly amused.


    It was the twenty-first century China. How could such inexplicable things even exist?

 Chapter 258 - Peeking

    <strong>Chapter 258 Peeking</strong>


    Thefort of the budget hotel chains was only averagelyfortable, but way better than sleeping on some woven fabric or straw on a hard wooden floor. It had been the longest time since Zhang Heng slept on a proper bed. During the ck Sail quest, he spent more than half of his time out at sea and usually slept on a hammock on Jackdaw. Only after returning to Nassau would he be able to sleep on a bed. That said, it was a bed made out of two nkets and a cotton cloth.


    ording to history, European royalties would typically sleep on feather mattresses. As for pirates, they didn��t have many options to choose from. When Zhang Heng��s first entered the quest, he did experience a few sleepless nights.


    This was Zhang Heng��s first night returning to the real world. After doing some simple cleaning, he turned off the lights and went to bed. By the time he opened his eyes again, it was already afternoon, with bright rays piercing through the curtains flooding the room. When he got up from the bed, he felt warm sunlight caressing his face. Thirst hit him hard, and immediately, grabbed theplimentary water bottle from the table and gulped its contents down. Fragments ofst night��s dream still lingered in his mind.


    The ferocious ocean, salty sea breeze, and crimson hair... all these memories were like a longspun dream to him. Everything disappeared the moment he opened his eyes. After that, Zhang Heng grabbed his cellphone and saw there were two unread WeChat messages. One came from Wei Jiangyang. He informed Zhang Heng that he��d arrived in Qingdao with his girlfriend and nned to stay there for two to three days. Before leaving, he intended to head to the wholesale market to buy some raw seafood and asked if Zhang Heng wanted anything, also offering to send it to him by express delivery.


    The other message was from Hayase Asuka. She told Zhang Heng that she had bought a return ticket to Japan and was set to fly on the 1st of next month. Before she went home, she wanted to ask if he could apany her to buy some souvenirs for her family.


    Zhang Heng replied Wei Jiangyang first. After that, he changed his keyboardnguage to Japanese and replied Hayase Asuka. She texted back within a second, seeming as if she had been anxiously waiting for his reply. Zhang Heng replied to her, and once again, she texted back almost instantly.


    ��I haven��t thanked you properly for helping me win the giant doll! You haven��t had lunch, right? Can we meet after one hour at Xidan? My treat!��


    She even inserted a smiling bear emoji at the end of her message. In his current state, Zhang Heng didn��t want to walk around the streets. It wasn��t the first time he experienced such a sensation, though, for when he returned from the Mannerheim quest, his character and temperament had changed. Some small habits from the battlefield had stuck with him, and even his friends from the hostel could sense that he was different. However, he was slowly recovering after reintegrating himself into the daily life of the natural world.


    To neutralize the memories and habits of his ten-year piracy tenure, Zhang Heng knew that he had to socialize with as many people as possible. After a brief consideration, he replied Hayase Asuka with a ��yes.�� He then set his phone down and headed for a shower. After checking out at the front desk, Zhang Heng proceeded the pharmacy to purchase a 3M face mask. With the industrial boom of the era, developing cities would usually be engulfed by a thickyer of noxious haze, especially true for the cities up north. For obvious reasons, many had taken to putting on masks, and the way Zhang Heng presented himself was nothing out of the ordinary.


    However, a mysterious sensation hit him as he paid his items with his Alipay, feeling that someone was staring at him from the back. When he turned around, he saw an old grandma searching for some over-the-counter flu remedies for her grandchildren. She had to put on her sses to read the description that was printed on the packaging. The pharmacy was rather small, and other than the pharmacist, cashier, and the elderly grandma, there wasn��t anyone else around. Zhang Heng could finally rule out that an enemy was lurking around the corner.


    It was almost time for Zhang Heng to meet up with Hayase Asuka, and hence, did not dwell further on the matter. After boarding the metro, Zhang Heng arrived in Xidan on time. On the other hand, Hayasa Asuka took full advantage of studying abroad and traveled to as many ces around her as she could. After feeling that taking pictures with the phone was simply not engaging enough, she bought an instant camera, voraciously capturing photos of life on the subway and streets. Those around her must have had the impression that she had all the money in the world to buy the unlimited rolls of films to feed her proid.


    ��Ah! I��m d that you are here!��


    Hayase Asuka tucked the camera and photos into her bag. With a sniffle, she rubbed her demure nose and said, ��This morning, I was thinking about what to buy for my family. My mom asked me to buy her fermented tofu soaked in red oil and tea leaves, and my father wants white wine. Sigh... this is so troublesome. They should know how to shop online, right? They told me that only the locals would sell me the original stuff. But, then again, I��ve never bought those things before. Luckily, you��re here to help me. Before that, let��s get some food. Do you have anything in mind?��


    ��Nothing in particr. What about you telling me what you feel like eating, and I��ll take you to the best restaurants where they serve it.��


    ��Really?! But... is this appropriate? After all, you��re the guest here.��


    As she talked, Hayase Asuka pulled out a flyer from her bag.


    ��What is this? It looks so yummy!��


    ��Ah! This is a hotpot. Follow me. I know of a ce that serves delicious hotpot.��


    However, right after saying that, Zhang Heng couldn��t take a step forward. Only half a month ago, he was here to purchase something, but right now, everything felt so foreign and awfully disorientating to him. He had no idea how to go to the restaurant that served the famous hotpot. In confusion, he had to use his cellphone to search for it.


    This was one of the drawbacks of staying in a quest for too long. There were limitations to how much a human could retain memories, and upon absorbing new sets of knowledge, the person would gradually forget the past. Zhang Heng was lucky enough to enter the ck Sail quest right after his final exam, or he would have failed by now.


    There was only a short line outside the restaurant when Zhang Heng and Hayasa Asuke arrived at the ce. After all, it wasn��t lunchtime. He then took a number from the reception. That was when the feeling of being watched hit him again. What happened at the pharmacy was perhaps, an ident, but having the same feeling twice was enough to alert him. With his current skills, he wasn��t afraid of thugs or gangsters. He recalled that when he attended the auction, the professor and Ding Si warned him that the circle of yers wasn��t always peaceful and pleasant.


    Humans were the mostplicated creatures to step this, and once its poption reached a specific number, a variety of people and characters could be found in society. Ding Si once told Zhang Heng that there were crazy yers that would hunt down other yers for game items. Until now, he had been ying the game alone, making sure that heid low and as inconspicuous as possible. He hadn��t even revealed his identity to any yers in the system. It wasn��t logical that anybody would target him.

 Chapter 259 - Kumamon

    <strong>Chapter 259 Kumamon</strong>


    Zhang Heng started observing the crowd after collecting his number. This time, the situation was way moreplicated than the pharmacy. There were students, couples, families, sons and daughters, and office workers waiting to enter the restaurant. In total, 20 to 30 people were queuing up. Zhang Heng even saw a gay couple in the line, with the slightly plump one donning Hello-Kitty hair clip on the left of his head.


    On the surface, it was hard to find out the person who peeped at him. Even though a couple of high-school students were looking at his direction, Zhang Heng knew that they were actually staring at Hayase Asuka. She was standing close to them before they queued in front of the restaurant. In other words, they weren��t the ones who peeped at him.


    Besides, the mall was an open space, and many different people regrly passed him. Technically, it was entirely possible that the person staring at him wasn��t in the line at all. Zhang Heng could feel something about to happen to him. However, he couldn��t figure out what exactly, and it frustrated him.


    Suddenly, someone tapped his shoulder. Zhang Heng then heard Hayase Asuka screaming in excitement. When he turned around, he saw a Kumamon mascot. Many shopping malls would hire people in costumes to walk around, a marketing strategy to attract more customers. Usually, children and girls adored Kumamon a lot.


    Just as expected, Hayasa Akuma was ted when she saw the mascot.


    ��Ah! So cute! I didn��t expect to see Kumamon in China!��


    As Hayase Asuka spoke, she took out her instant camera.


    ��Can the three of us take a picture together?��


    Zhang Heng nodded, and momentarily gave up looking for the peeping tom. A couple was standing near them, and he politely requested their assistance in taking a picture. When that was done, the Kumamon didn��t leave but instead, stood in front of Hayase Asuka and extended its hands. With a broad smile stered on her face, she quickly gave the mascot a tight hug.


    A rose appeared in Kumamon��s hand the moment she let it go. It then pointed at Zhang Heng and Hayase Asuka. She instantly blushed, probably feeling shy, or that she wasn��t well versed in Mandarin. After taking the rose, she didn��t utter a single word.


    The Kumamon then used its hands to draw a heart before leaving them alone to search for the next couple. Hayase Asuka��s mind was filled with all kinds of thoughts after that. A minuteter, her instant camera printed the picture, and she quickly stuffed it in her bag without looking at it. Just as she was about to put the picture in, she paused.


    ��What��s wrong?��


    ��Huh? Where��s my wallet? I remember it was in my bag before we took the picture!��


    She then searched her bag all over again, but to no avail. She frantically searched her pockets as well. Yet, there was still no trace of her wallet. It was at that time that panic began gripping her. Not only was there cash, but her Chinese and Japanese bank cards and student ID were in there as well. To make matters worse, she soon discovered that her passport had vanished too. She was ted to celebrate the New Year with her family and even purchased a flight ticket earlier. Without the passport, it would be impossible to board the airne.


    If she remembered correctly, before taking out the instant camera, her wallet was still in her bag, and the only person that got close enough to her was that Kumamon. The mascot had left for less than three minutes.


    ��Wait for me here. Do not leave this ce. I wille back to you in a while,�� said Zhang Heng sternly.


    Hayase Asuke was on the verge of crying. Immediately, Zhang Heng started to go after the Kumamon mascot. However, after searching for a bit, he failed to spot it even after reaching the end of the hallway. Logically, the mascot shouldn��t outrun Zhang Heng since the person was in a giant, clumsy suit. Zhang Heng asked around to see if they had seen a Kumamon suit, deliberately picking thoseing from different directions. Unfortunately, not a single person said that they saw arge Kumamon passing them. It was as if the massive thing had simply disappeared out of thin air. Perplexed, Zhang Heng approached the concierge counter and asked the person operating it about the Kumamon.


    ��I��m sorry, Sir. We cannot divulge personal information of our mall��s employees,�� the guide replied nervously, feeling that Zhang Heng looked more like a criminal than anything else.


    ��Do you think I should call the police and reporters here to investigate this for me? Do you want everyone to hear about this? Perhaps you wish to be seen in the newspapers and the inte? Next time, the first thing your customers will do is to protect their wallets whenever theye here. Or, should we look for the thief now and retrieve my friend��s wallet. We can choose not to call the police, or we can call the police but not the reporters. Which option do you think would benefit the mall more? Don��t me me for not reminding you; the thief got away only a few minutes ago. There��s a high chance that he��s still in this mall.��


    The guide was startled by Zhang Heng��s dominant approach.


    ��Please hold on, sir. I��ll consult my supervisor regarding this,�� replied the guide while gulping hard.


    Half a minuteter, the guide was done talking with her supervisor.


    ��Sir, I just asked my colleague about this matter, and he told me that our mall didn��t hire any Kumamon today.��


    ��How about the tenants in the mall? Did they hire any mascots?��


    ��I can��t be too sure about that.��


    The guide paused for a while before continuing


    ��One thing is for sure; the shop owners would have informed us if they were to hire anyone to put on a show...��


    Before she could go on any further, Zhang Heng scooted to another esctor. As the guide was talking to him, he saw the Kumamon on the second floor from the corner of his eye. It appeared that it had no intention to run away and was ying with a young girl in front of a shop. After giving a hug, it handed a lollipop. Before leaving, it brushed the little girl��s head.


    At the same time, everyone was left in shock and awe when they saw Zhang Heng jumping down from the esctor. He spent only ten seconds getting from the fifth to the second floor! Twodies that were having their milk tea were about to record his fantastic feat with their phones. However, Zhang Heng was too fast for them. The Kumamon was on the second floor, and he had to go after it as quickly as he could.


    They weren��t very far apart from each other, but an atrium divided them. Zhang Heng had to run along the corridor before he could get to the Kumamon. It seemed that the mascot had noticed him too, but instead of feeling nervous, it stood in front of the shop with both hands on its hips, waiting for Zhang Heng toe at it. Thebination of a gaping mouth and two red cheeks made it look like it could use a beating.

 Chapter 260 - Gratitude From An International Friend

    <strong>Chapter 260 Gratitude From An International Friend</strong>


    The Kumamon waited until Zhang Heng ran pass seven to eight stores, and when he was about 30 meters away from him, it turned around and ran into a women��s apparel store called Only. Unfortunately, there was no escaping this time, for there wasn��t another exit. In other words, the bear was bound to be captured by Zhang Heng. When he saw the mascot entering the fitting room, he quickly proceeded to follow it.


    The suddenmotion had startled the store��s attendant, and considering it was a store specifically for women, it was rare to see men entering it. Even if there were any, they would usuallye with their wives or girlfriends. When someone like Zhang Heng so aggressively barged into the shop, it was only natural that the attendants would be afraid. Customers quickly fled the store in fear, but the same couldn��t be said for its staff.


    Left with no other options, the store manager was forced to confront Zhang Heng.


    ��Sir, how can I help you?��


    Zhang Heng simply ignored her and went ahead to pull the curtains of the fitting room open. The shopkeeper was so shocked by Zhang Heng��s actions that she thought she must havee across a pervert of some kind and was close to screaming for help. The fitting rooms in Only had a particryout. A curtain covered the two-square-meter fitting room to allow the customers�� privacy. However, it only blocked the front; the top was bare and uncovered.


    Before Zhang Heng pulled the curtain, he could see the Kumamon��s calves and feet. It appeared that the person was hastily trying to remove the cumbersome suit. He could also see the mascot��s head popping out above the fitting room. However, there was no one in the fitting room when Zhang Heng pulled the curtain. Like magic, the Kumamon��s costume lost all rigor and form and fell to the ground in a crumpled heap! Initially, the manager was on the verge of shouting, but she stopped herself when she saw that it was actually empty.


    ��Where is the person?!��


    Zhang Heng didn��t answer the manager. Instead, he bent down and shook theid costume vigorously. A small piece of paper fell out with a short message written on it.


    It said: (I have returned your items to you. Here��s a friendly reminder. As you��re reading this, mall security should arrive in about a minute and a half. Don��t let them think you are a pervert, lest you might just get caught.]


    As if to add insult to injury, there was even a Japanese phrase at the end of the message.


    [Gambate!)


    At the same time, Zhang Heng received a message from Hayase Asuka as well.


    ��I��ve found my wallet! This is weird. How is it on someone else��s table? I didn��t even go near it. I still can��t find my passport, though.��


    Suddenly, Zhang Heng remembered the person mentioned that he had returned those items to him instead of her. He then touched his pocket and found out that Hayase Asuka��s passport was on him. Suddenly, footsteps could be heard approaching the fitting room. Earlier, when he jumped off the esctor, he had attracted the attention of the shopping mall��s security guards. However, the most troublesome part was that he ran into a women��s clothing shop and pulled the curtains of the fitting room open, enough to warrant severe punishment.


    Now that he had found the wallet and passport, the person in the Kumamon costume was nowhere to be found. He would have a hard time exining things to security, so, he sent Hayase Asuka another message.


    ��Your passport is with me. Let��s meet at the subway.��


    Zhang Heng wasted no time after sending the text, pulling his hoodie over and exited Only��s main entrance. It was at that time when he noticed that two security guards were approaching him from his right. At the same time, more security guards had gathered on the first floor��s esctor.


    Zhang Heng didn��t panic at a time like this, instead, taking two steps forward along the ss railing. Just when the two security guards thought that they had got him, he jumped off. As he descended, he grabbed the bottom of the rails to absorb the impact. When he let go, he��d alreadynded on the first floor sessfully.


    Before Zhang Heng entered the ck Sail��s quest, his rock climbing skills were at Lv. 1. Throughout his ten years in the Caribbean, he didn��t improve on his climbing skills, but his muscle control had gotten better after training a lot with the saber. Living at sea for a long time had granted him good bnce as well, which was why such feats were no sweat for him.


    The two guards were in disbelief, having a hard time picturing how someone actually jumped off the esctor. Now that they saw it with their own eyes, they were definitely impressed. On a regr day, the guards would be dealing with disgruntled customers and the minor arguments that ensued from it. At most, petty shoplifters or street thugs were the worst they had to deal with. None had seen someone pulling off what Zhang Heng did. Naturally, they felt as if the whole thing was a scene from a movie.


    No one dared stand in Zhang Heng��s path after he jumped from the second floor. He simply walked out of the mall with noplications. Chinese New Year was just around the corner, and throngs of people had crowded the mall for somest-minute shopping. When the guards arrived at the mall��s entrance, Zhang Heng had already disappeared amid the crowd.


    After Zhang Heng exited the mall, he walked around the area to ensure that no one was following him. Only when he was sure that he was safe did he move to the subway station. That was when he saw Hayase Asuke waiting for him over there. Earlier, she was leaning on the ss railing and witnessed all that happened on the second floor. Throughout the whole incident, her mouth stuck in a round ��O,�� momentarily forgetting that her wallet and passport were lost. It wasn��t until Hayase Asuka received Zhang Heng��s message that she the mall for the subway station.


    As quickly as the situation escted, she had already forgotten the earlier incident. Right now, she was more interested in Zhang Heng, as if it was her first time meeting him.


    ��Zhang San, please tell me! Are you actually Superman?��


    ��Err... I��ve trained hard for my marathons.��


    Zhang Heng realized that what he did earlier was indeed insane. After all, he wasn��t in 18th century Nassau anymore. Not only did he manage to retrieve Hayase Asuka��s wallet and passport, but he even discovered that the mysterious person was, in fact, targeting him. However, he was still unable to figure out its identity and purpose. If he managed to capture the person in the Kumamon suit, everything about his current situation would immediately be enlightened.


    Speaking of which, the mysterious individual��s attempts were all futile. After running off with Hayase Asuka��s wallet and passport, it was returned in the most dramatic way possible. The whole thing almost seemed as if a kid was pulling a prank on them. However, Zhang Heng could confirm that the person in question possessed at least one game item. Otherwise, what happened in the fitting room would be practically impossible to exin. Judging by the handwriting and sentence structure of the note, the mysterious person was probably female.


    ��Huh? Running a lot would eventually allow you to jump down from great heights? During high school, I woke up nearly every morning to jog. However, I��m still hopelessly clumsy.��


    Hayase Asuke took two steps back, attempting to figure the whole thing out.


    ��Since you��re the one who��s telling me all these, I��ll believe you for now. Oh, right. I feel you��ve changed a lot. When I saw you earlier, I almost didn��t recognize you. Thankfully, you��re still as reliable as before. That��s great,�� she murmured shyly in a soft tone.


    After that, Hayase Asuka spread her arms and hugged Zhang Heng tightly.


    ��Consider... consider this as gratitude from an international friend,�� she continued as her face blushed.

 Chapter 261 - Charity Organization

    <strong>Chapter 261 Charity Organization</strong>


    It would be unwise for them to return to the shopping mall for now, so Zhang Heng brought Hayase Asuka to a different restaurant for their hotpot. After that, he helped her pick the fermented tofu, tea, and white wine that her family wanted. She also purchased some gifts for her two nephews and an off-season short-sleeved shirt for herself as well.


    Seeing Hayase Asuka��s voracious retail appetite was enough to prove that women could be like a runaway Hexie bullet train when it came to shopping. It was already dark when she was finally done. After having some ramen for dinner, Zhang Heng sent her back to her hostel. Once she was safe, he returned to his dorm.


    The final exams of each course were scheduled differently and not all students had their semester breaks at the same time. At that time, even thest batch of students was done with their finals, and the hostel was left with the university��s interns like Zhang Heng and Ma Wei. With most of the students gone, the campus was eerily silent at night.


    After a while, Zhang Heng saw a familiar face under the streemp. It was Shen Xixi. He hadn��t seen her after their unpleasant dinner not too long ago, and hisst memory of her was when she got into a ck Mercedes. Coming from a well-heeled family, she didn��t need to work for the university during the breaks, so Zhang Heng was surprised that she was still around campus. Standing by her side was the young man who picked her up with the Mercedes. It seemed that they were in a heated argument.


    ��I can��t ept your proposal! We can��t just make an innocent person take such great risks.��


    ��This can��t be considered as a risk. We will stay near her and jump in if anything happens. I will personally guarantee her safety.��


    ��Guarantee her safety? You? Or Yang Zihe? Forget it. Until now, we still can��t figure what the hell that thing is or how we��re supposed to deal with it. We can��t even protect ourselves, much less protect her!��


    ��Tell me what we should do then? We��ll never figure out how to deal with that thing if we don��t get close to it. As we speak, it might have already killed someone innocent. I told her... I told her this would be a dangerous mission. She agreed to do it, and I promised to pay her good money to make up for the risks she would have to face.��


    ��No! She has no idea what she��s about toe across...��


    Suddenly, Shen Xixi paused as she noticed Zhang Heng walking toward her. The young man attempted to taunt Zhang Heng by cocking his eyebrows, only to be met by Shen Xixi��s frown. During thest gathering, the young man was supposed to pick Shen Xixi up at a spot further away from the restaurant. She had never thought he would actually drive all the way there and take the initiative to open the door for her.


    The circumstnances of that time were critical and hence, Shen Xixi didn��t say a word about it. She��d heard about the rumor going around the university. Though they were unpleasant, she never bothered exining herself even if it could exin her sudden disappearance from the university or not returning to the dorm at night. However, that didn��t mean that she was okay with the rumors. Now that it had spread throughout the university, her purpose was achieved. That said, she wished to keep them they were, especially in front of Zhang Heng.


    Though she harbored no romantic sentiments toward Zhang Heng, she had to admit that he left her with an excellent impression. Many friends had deserted her due to the recent incident, and only a handful would still talk to her without being judgemental.


    ��Let��s end it here tonight,�� said Shen Xixi to the young man.


    ��Okay. I will send you a WeChat messageter.��


    The young man nodded and stopped ring at Zhang Heng


    ��Wang Yu. I believe that we should try to calm down tonight. Let��s figure out some other way to deal with this matter.��


    Wang Yu raised his eyebrows, sensing that Shen Xixi wasn��t too happy about the whole thing. From the first time they met, her emotional maturity left a deep impression on him. Whatever the situation, Shen Xixi would always prioritize the feelings of those around her.


    When he noticed that she wasn��t too happy, he instantly stopped doing anything that would aggravate the situation. He simply walked towards the parking lot. Once Wang Yu was gone, Shen Xixi turned around and looked at Zhang Heng.


    ��I��m sorry. I feel like having some milk tea. Would you like toe with me?��


    Zhang Heng could see that Shen Xixi was definitely in a foul mood so he didn��t reject her offer. They both walked out of the university to Coco��s, a milk tea shop near the bus terminal. Shen Xixi purchased two cups of milk tea and handed one with less sugar to Zhang Heng.


    ��I think you��ve changed a lot.��


    Both were merely acquaintances, and Shen Xixi didn��t know too much about Zhang Heng. So, she came up with a random statement and quickly moved the conversation to the young man that she was with.


    ��Wang Yu. I got to know him from a charity organization,�� said Shen Xixi while nting a straw into her cup.


    ��Charity organization?��


    ��Yes, but whatever we do seems to be unpopr around here. We specialize in studying and dealing with extraterrestrials that invade the country. You know about them, right?��


    ��I��ve heard about them in my high school biology ss.��


    ��These beings bring catastrophic effects to our ecosystem. Not only do they affect the economy, but they would eventually cause the extinction of all life on this. We believe that the very survival of humans may be threatened with them around. Our country is a good example of the damage these extraterrestrial beings can bring. Although the government is trying to solve the problem once and for all, the workforce is sorelycking, which is why organizations like ours offer assistance to them. Residents would typically report any sightings to us, or they would enquire about it online. When we have enough information, we will travel to the affected locations and provide them with a free identification service.��


    ��Sounds like you��re doing something very meaningful.��


    Whatever Shen Xixi told Zhang Heng exined her argument with Wang Yu. However, she still kept a lot of details from him, such as the type of extraterrestrials they were dealing with or why would anybody��s life be at risk from dealing with them. There was also a possibility that Zhang Heng didn��t hear any of it, considering that there was some distance between them earlier. Nevertheless, Shen Xixi didn��t want to dwell on the topic further, not wanting to indulge in it after her brief exnation.

 Chapter 262 - Bicycle Repair

    <h4>Chapter 262 Bicycle Repair</h4>


    With the new year fast approaching, those yet to return to their respective hometowns each had their own worries.


    Shen Xixi and Zhang Heng were just ordinary friends �C although exchanging WeChat contacts since their camping trip together, they rarely talked to each other. After briefly exining about the nonprofit organization she had joined and her daily activities, their conversation quickly switched to the finals.


    This, however, was Zhang Heng��s blind spot. To him, the exams that had taken ce a week ago were a thing of the past, a good ten years ago, to be exact. He couldn��t recall much of its details, and so, he merely yed along, nodding at everything she said without muchment.


    Shen Xixi noticed the polite obligation in his responses. Still, since they rarely interacted with each other, there weren��t many different topics they could touch on other than the final exams. It was starting to get awkward, and although Shen Xixi had only finished half of her tea, the two decided to part ways. Somehow, she looked hesitant as she turned to leave. In the end, after a short pause, she quickly blurted, ��Be careful.��


    ��Be careful?�� Zhang Heng stopped in his tracks.


    TI


    Realizing how vague her statement sounded, she began to exin, ��Yes, I mean, since many people will be on the move during Spring Festival, you should be careful on your way back.��


    Zhang Heng nodded. ��You too,�� he replied.


    Zhang Heng was back in his dorm room that he left a long time ago, and Ma Wei hadn��t yet returned from his tutoring job. After turning on the lights, he set his backpack down and sat at his desk. Out of habit, he took out a piece of paper and a pen, and tried to organize the information he gathered from this round of the game.


    Because of the lengthy duration of the game this time around, Zhang Heng had a lot of time to burn afterpleting its main task, using most of it to improve his skills (mainlynguage), and also to confirm some of his conjectures. Other than what he had told the bartender, Zhang Heng really wanted to know where Moresby and that wall that swallowed the olddy hade from. He was also curious if the game items with supernatural powers had anything to do with them. What secrets lurked within this mysterious game he was involved in?


    Discounting Moresby��s Bones, Betty��s Shell was the sixth game item Zhang Heng found. As of now, it was also the most powerful one �C able to change the weather at sea. At the same time, it was unlike the other game items he had, seeing how perilous it was to use.


    Was the sailor on the carrack truly lost in greed and anger like what Seth said? Zhang Heng was still skeptical about it. However, there was one thing he was sure of �C these game props were all rted to ancient myths and legends. Aside from the unidentified Shadow Moment and Shadow Key, the Rabbit��s Foot was a symbol of luck in many folklores. The ne Simon gave him was connected to the Tapio, the Finnish mythical forest god. The Moresby creature, ording to the old man in the Tang suit, was the guardian of a tribe from the remote Papua New Guinean inds called the Alkiz.


    The Paris Arrow he carried with him originated from a Greek legend, and when he was on the ck Sail quest, he encountered an ancient god that he suspected to be part of Celtic mythology. Unfortunately, that ancient god, Betty, was weak and drained when they met. Later on, Zhang Heng attempted to help her by expanding her pool of believers, but for some reason, she was unable to regain full strength. In the end, he was unable tomunicate with her on a deeper level. But then again, during the auction, Zhang Heng saw game items that looked very much like Louis Vuitton handbags, and even iPhones. Also, the game item ��Escape Dagger�� that sold for a hefty 2000 game points, looked, and sounded very much like a popr prop from another game. It seemed as if the conclusion he��d drawn wasn��tplete. Zhang Heng subsequently circled the words ��folklore�� and ��myth,�� then wrote a question mark next to them. Then on a nk space, he wrote Shen Xixi and Huang Yu��s name, noting at the end that they too might be yers themselves. He put down his pen just as Ma Wei walked into the room. Ma Wei removed the gray knitted gloves from his hands and rubbed his fingers, all red from the cold, and he was surprised when he saw Zhang Heng.


    ��Hey, you��re back!��


    Zhang Heng closed his notebook. ��Yeah. How did it go today? Is the tutorship going well?�� Ma Wei shook his head. ��That kid is tough to manage. His father is an executive in an organization, and the mother is a branch manager of a bank. They have two houses on the third ring road and one each in the fourth and fifth. I told him that since his family is so well-to-do, he just needs to study hard. With his parents paving the way for him, he can easily seed in whatever he wishes to do. Guess what he answered me with? He said: my family is so rich that we can never finish spending our money. Why do I need to be sessful anyway?����


    ��That seems right in some kind of way.��


    Ma Wei sighed. ��The kid��s parents are very busy. They constantly entertain their clients and are only home veryte. It was always just him and his nanny. The nanny, on the other hand, wouldn��t discipline him, and he��s always eating imported junk and snacks. He��s only thirteen, and he��s already 120kg! I also heard his schoolmates calling him the devil incarnate. His mom hired me to help him with his homework for one hundred and fifty yuan per hour. If he shows any improvement in his mid-term and final exams, she will pay me a hundred for each subject.��


    ��So, how were his results?��


    ��It��s the same as before. No progress at all,�� Ma Wei sighed, looking very glum. After all, when he was discussing his employer��s pay, the particr topic motivated him a lot. It was evident that the little fatso had a weak foundation, meaning that there was lots of room for improvement. For this, Ma Wei had put in a lot of effort, even filling up a notebook with various learning strategies. s, the plump little boy sneered at the notes he was given, saying, ��What��s the use of learning? Look at you. You��re so good at it, yet, instead of getting somewhere, here you are tutoring


    me.��


    Those words hurt Ma Wei deeply, but he never mentioned it openly. In fact, if it wasn��t for the handsome sry, he would have chosen to tutor someone else. This was especially true after the little plump thing recently grew fond of a girl, and his mind waspletely distracted, constantly thinking of ways to win her over. Ma Wei could already tell that the boy��s results would only worsene the next semester.


    Ma Wei picked up a thermos next to his bed and poured himself a cup of warm water. Then after a moment��s deliberation, he turned to Zhang Heng. ��Oh, by the way, do you know how to repair bicycles?��


    ��Why?��


    ��The chain felt a little loose when I was riding back yesterday,�� said Ma Wei. ��It felt like I was peddling air.�� ��I��ll take a look at it with you,�� Zhang Heng replied. Back when he was in Tokyo Drift, he had learned how to modify cars, and considering how much simpler the transmission of a bicycle was, repairing it shouldn��t be much of a problem for him.


    Zhang Heng took out a shlight from his drawer before grabbing a screwdriver that had been left by someone. Then, he went downstairs with Ma Wei to where the bicycle was parked.


    Chapter 262 Bicycle Repair


    With the new year fast approaching, those yet to return to their respective hometowns each had their own worries.


    Shen Xixi and Zhang Heng were just ordinary friends �C although exchanging WeChat contacts since their camping trip together, they rarely talked to each other. After briefly exining about the nonprofit organization she had joined and her daily activities, their conversation quickly switched to the finals.


    This, however, was Zhang Heng��s blind spot. To him, the exams that had taken ce a week ago were a thing of the past, a good ten years ago, to be exact. He couldn��t recall much of its details, and so, he merely yed along, nodding at everything she said without muchment.


    Shen Xixi noticed the polite obligation in his responses. Still, since they rarely interacted with each other, there weren��t many different topics they could touch on other than the final exams. It was starting to get awkward, and although Shen Xixi had only finished half of her tea, the two decided to part ways. Somehow, she looked hesitant as she turned to leave. In the end, after a short pause, she quickly blurted, ��Be careful.��


    ��Be careful?�� Zhang Heng stopped in his tracks.


    TI


    Realizing how vague her statement sounded, she began to exin, ��Yes, I mean, since many people will be on the move during Spring Festival, you should be careful on your way back.��


    Zhang Heng nodded. ��You too,�� he replied.


    Zhang Heng was back in his dorm room that he left a long time ago, and Ma Wei hadn��t yet returned from his tutoring job. After turning on the lights, he set his backpack down and sat at his desk. Out of habit, he took out a piece of paper and a pen, and tried to organize the information he gathered from this round of the game.


    Because of the lengthy duration of the game this time around, Zhang Heng had a lot of time to burn afterpleting its main task, using most of it to improve his skills (mainlynguage), and also to confirm some of his conjectures. Other than what he had told the bartender, Zhang Heng really wanted to know where Moresby and that wall that swallowed the olddy hade from. He was also curious if the game items with supernatural powers had anything to do with them. What secrets lurked within this mysterious game he was involved in?


    Discounting Moresby��s Bones, Betty��s Shell was the sixth game item Zhang Heng found. As of now, it was also the most powerful one �C able to change the weather at sea. At the same time, it was unlike the other game items he had, seeing how perilous it was to use.


    Was the sailor on the carrack truly lost in greed and anger like what Seth said? Zhang Heng was still skeptical about it. However, there was one thing he was sure of �C these game props were all rted to ancient myths and legends. Aside from the unidentified Shadow Moment and Shadow Key, the Rabbit��s Foot was a symbol of luck in many folklores. The ne Simon gave him was connected to the Tapio, the Finnish mythical forest god. The Moresby creature, ording to the old man in the Tang suit, was the guardian of a tribe from the remote Papua New Guinean inds called the Alkiz.


    The Paris Arrow he carried with him originated from a Greek legend, and when he was on the ck Sail quest, he encountered an ancient god that he suspected to be part of Celtic mythology. Unfortunately, that ancient god, Betty, was weak and drained when they met. Later on, Zhang Heng attempted to help her by expanding her pool of believers, but for some reason, she was unable to regain full strength. In the end, he was unable tomunicate with her on a deeper level. But then again, during the auction, Zhang Heng saw game items that looked very much like Louis Vuitton handbags, and even iPhones. Also, the game item ��Escape Dagger�� that sold for a hefty 2000 game points, looked, and sounded very much like a popr prop from another game. It seemed as if the conclusion he��d drawn wasn��tplete. Zhang Heng subsequently circled the words ��folklore�� and ��myth,�� then wrote a question mark next to them. Then on a nk space, he wrote Shen Xixi and Huang Yu��s name, noting at the end that they too might be yers themselves. He put down his pen just as Ma Wei walked into the room. Ma Wei removed the gray knitted gloves from his hands and rubbed his fingers, all red from the cold, and he was surprised when he saw Zhang Heng.


    ��Hey, you��re back!��


    Zhang Heng closed his notebook. ��Yeah. How did it go today? Is the tutorship going well?�� Ma Wei shook his head. ��That kid is tough to manage. His father is an executive in an organization, and the mother is a branch manager of a bank. They have two houses on the third ring road and one each in the fourth and fifth. I told him that since his family is so well-to-do, he just needs to study hard. With his parents paving the way for him, he can easily seed in whatever he wishes to do. Guess what he answered me with? He said: my family is so rich that we can never finish spending our money. Why do I need to be sessful anyway?����


    ��That seems right in some kind of way.��


    Ma Wei sighed. ��The kid��s parents are very busy. They constantly entertain their clients and are only home veryte. It was always just him and his nanny. The nanny, on the other hand, wouldn��t discipline him, and he��s always eating imported junk and snacks. He��s only thirteen, and he��s already 120kg! I also heard his schoolmates calling him the devil incarnate. His mom hired me to help him with his homework for one hundred and fifty yuan per hour. If he shows any improvement in his mid-term and final exams, she will pay me a hundred for each subject.��


    Only


    ��So, how were his results?��


    ��It��s the same as before. No progress at all,�� Ma Wei sighed, looking very glum. After all, when he was discussing his employer��s pay, the particr topic motivated him a lot. It was evident that the little fatso had a weak foundation, meaning that there was lots of room for improvement. For this, Ma Wei had put in a lot of effort, even filling up a notebook with various learning strategies. s, the plump little boy sneered at the notes he was given, saying, ��What��s the use of learning? Look at you. You��re so good at it, yet, instead of getting somewhere, here you are tutoring


    me.��


    Those words hurt Ma Wei deeply, but he never mentioned it openly. In fact, if it wasn��t for the handsome sry, he would have chosen to tutor someone else. This was especially true after the little plump thing recently grew fond of a girl, and his mind waspletely distracted, constantly thinking of ways to win her over. Ma Wei could already tell that the boy��s results would only worsene the next semester.


    Ma Wei picked up a thermos next to his bed and poured himself a cup of warm water. Then after a moment��s deliberation, he turned to Zhang Heng. ��Oh, by the way, do you know how to repair bicycles?��


    ��Why?��


    ��The chain felt a little loose when I was riding back yesterday,�� said Ma Wei. ��It felt like I was peddling air.�� ��I��ll take a look at it with you,�� Zhang Heng replied. Back when he was in Tokyo Drift, he had learned how to modify cars, and considering how much simpler the transmission of a bicycle was, repairing it shouldn��t be much of a problem for him.


    Zhang Heng took out a shlight from his drawer before grabbing a screwdriver that had been left by someone. Then, he went downstairs with Ma Wei to where the bicycle was parked.

 Chapter 263 - Aren’t You a Little Smug?

    Chapter 263 Aren��t You a Little Smug?


    The street lights outside the hostel had been turned off for a few days now, and most of the building��s residents had already returned to their hometowns for the Spring Festival. Only a few dorms were still lit, and the building��s surroundings were unusually dark at night. Zhang Heng turned on his powerful LED shlight, which shone brightly with a white glow. Following Ma Wei��s directions, he found the parked bicycle. It was a Flying Pigeon* bicycle Ma Wei purchased from a senior from his hometown. It appeared worn and rusted and seemed to have done more than a couple of miles under its belt.


    Every year during graduation season, the new graduates would set up stalls in front of the hostel building to sell the items they no longer needed at reasonable prices. It was then that Ma Wei purchased this two-wheeler for less than a hundred yuan, thinking he could eventually sell it off to the freshmen when his turn to graduate arrived. It was excellent value for its price, and the robust machine reliably ferried him back and forth from his part-time tutoring job. Zhang Heng took a quick nce at the vehicle and found that its chain was indeed loose, just as Ma Wei had reported.


    The solution to this problem was actually rather straightforward. All he needed to do was loosen the nut holding the rear axle and pull the rear wheel back to tighten up the chain. He would finish up by recing the nut and screws with brand new ones. Since Zhang Heng could fix the minor problem there and then, he crouched down and went straight to work. Ma Wei, who was walking up from behind him, wore a peculiar smile on his face. Zhang Heng focussed on fixing on the bike, and Ma Wei stood outside the shlight��s beam, so unless Zhang Heng had eyes at the back of his head, he wasn��t able to see the expression on his friend��s face.


    Ma Wei appeared to be hopeful and happy like a birthday boy unboxing his presents at a party.


    Zhang Heng was already reaching for the rear axle but suddenly, he stopped halfway. Without warning, he dropped the torchlight in his hand, and grabbed Ma Wei by the wrist. ��Well, you��re a smug one, aren��t you?�� Ma Wei��s face fell. Before he could say anything, Zhang Heng was already on his feet, pushing the screwdriver hard against his throat.


    ��God damn it! What is the meaning of this? Such a reaction is unwarranted if you don��t want to fix my bike, huh?�� growled Ma Wei as his face darkened.


    ��I should be the one asking you that,�� replied Zhang Heng. ��Why have you been following me? What is your purpose? That Kumamon back at the mall... that was you, right? How did you disappear from the fitting room? Why are you pretending to be my friend? Where is the real Ma Wei? Did you hurt him?��


    ��Ma Wei�� thought about the question for a bit, but before ��he�� coulde up with a lie, he felt a sharp pain on his wrist.


    The imposter gasped and gritted his teeth. ��Ow! Ow! Ow! It hurts. So, you��re not only violent towards boys, but you��re also unfriendly towards girls! How ungentlemanly of you...��


    Zhang Heng was taken aback. ��Are you that drunk girl from the public toilet?�� Throughout the years, Zhang Heng had experienced many battles, some big and some small. Nevertheless, all of them happened in the game. In the real world, the only time heid a hand on someone wasst night, and there were no other witnesses at the scene, either. The drunk girl on the ground had also disappeared when he was chasing down the group of bastards who ran from the toilet. Now that he thought about it, it was an uncannily simr incident to what he experienced at the mall.


    Ma Wei��s imposter didn��t answer him. Instead, he said, ��How did you find out that I wasn��t actually your friend?��.


    ��I don��t know how you did it, but your appearance and voice are impable. Your mannerism of him is slightly wed, but it��s not too bad. You made a grave mistake, though. It seems you don��t truly understand who Ma Wei truly is. Due to the environment that he grew up in, Ma Wei is very insistent on being independent. He��s always ready to offer his assistance but rarely troubles anybody for help. Simple things like fixing his bicycle; he would have done it himself. Even if he were to ask for my help, he would��ve only done it after several failed attempts. Moreover...�� Zhang Heng paused. ��... he doesn��t like drinking warm water. He only drinks it only after it has cooled a little. Ma Wei would never have poured it out of the thermos and drink it straight away.��


    There was of course a third reason that Zhang Heng didn��t reveal. Ever since hepleted ck Sail, his temperament had changed drastically. After knowing each other for more than a year, even if Ma Wei didn��tment about the changes, he would have at least looked slightly shocked.


    When Ma Wei��s imposter walked in, Zhang Heng noticed that his expression barely changed. The imposter greeted him as if they��d already met. This was because the two had already metst night.


    That was when Zhang Heng began to be suspicious of this ��Ma Wei.��


    ��Huh, if it wasn��t for theck of time, I wouldn��t have made such an amateurish mistake,�� pouted the imposter. To be honest, seeing a guy do that was kind of strange. I didn��t do anything to your roommate. I just brought his wallet and bicycle back first,�� the imposter continued, indirectly admitting that he had actuallye for Zhang Heng.


    ��Do we have anything against each other?�� Zhang Heng��s brows furrowed.


    ��What do you think? Last night, I came out for some fun, and when I finally had the stage set up, caught myself five little fishes, and was about to have a good time, you came along and scared them away. You wasted all my effort,�� the imposter moaned.


    ��If you wanted it so bad, then why didn��t you spend your money at the clubhouse?�� Zhang Heng chided coolly.


    The imposter became speechless. After about a minute, he snapped out of it and said, ��I think you��re mistaken. When I said ��a good time,�� I didn��t mean...��


    Zhang Heng cut her off. ��...also, even if I had identally ruined your n, didn��t you already get your revenge back at the mall? We��re already even. So, why are you stilling after me?��


    ��Even? We��re far from even. You don��t react to being duped like a normal person.�� Ma Wei��s imposter looked unhappy. ��Just thinking about it makes my blood boil.��


    Zhang Heng��s eyes widened in surprise. Back in the mall, he could sense that the other party didn��t have any malicious intent towards him. Even though she had used the Kumamon costume to steal Hayase Asuka��s wallet and passport, she eventually returned those things and even left a note along with it. There seemed to be no ill intention in the whole affair. There was more of a mischievous vibe to it.


    Of course, if Zhang Heng were to be arrested by the mall cops, she would have been even more pleased. ��You sound like you love these pranks but you still care a lot about how it ends,�� Zhang Heng observed. ��Why? Does it have any importance to you?��

 Chapter 264 - You Should Wait Here

    Chapter 264 You Should Wait Here


    When she was posed with the critical question, Ma Wei��s imposter refused to utter a word, adamantly refusing to answer Zhang Heng. At the same time, his body and face were changing as well. Within ten seconds, she transformed from Ma Wei to the girl in the toiletst night. Some physical traits of hers had changed too. The tattoo on her arm was gone, and the purple wig and fake eyshes were no longer on her. Given a choice, she would have definitely not revealed her true self. There could be only one exnation to her transformation then �C a limited time for her disguise.


    Was it some game item? Zhang Heng wasn��t sure. When one received a game item in the quest, the system would typically send the yer a notification. Back in the real world, however, a yer would not receive any notifications. However, a person could only carry so many things at one time, and Zhang Heng would be able to identify the game item if he carefully checked them one by one.


    A game item that enabled the yer morph into apletely different person within a limited time. A piece with such caliber would be at least C-grade, able to be sold for thousands of game points during an auction. Previously, when Zhang Heng got pranked by the Kumamon at the mall, he suddenly felt that the method the mascot had used was awfully familiar. Now, he finally remembered where that feeling came from.


    In between the third and fourth round of the game, Zhang Heng had some free time and attended a year-end auction. Other than getting to know different yers and gathering information, he managed to purchase the Paris Arrow and Shadow Key. He even got to witness a dramatic event unfold before him right before the auction ended.


    The mysteriousdy with shades who entered the auction center managed to make a fool out of some influential individuals. After that, she went as far as to spend a whopping 100,000 game points to purchase the only B-grade game item auctioned that night �C the Dreand of Death. The method she used to fool the three significant factions was simr to that of the woman standing in front of Zhang Heng


    Even though their looks, age, and sizes differed from each other, there was a strong possibility that the two were actually the same person, considering that their morphing skills were simr. Even if they were separate individuals, there must be a particr connection between them. However, this had nothing much to do with Zhang Heng. Even if he could prove that the person in front of him had something to do with that mysterious woman from the auction, he had no intention to stick his nose into what happened there.


    Zhang Heng had, in fact, grown more cautious about the woman after all that. After she made a scene at the auction, she managed to sessfully flee the ce unscathed. Zhang Heng was now worried that the woman or her allies were still holding a weapon of mass destruction, one like the Dreand of Death.


    Things were beginning to get moreplicated, and Zhang Heng extended his arms again to search the imposter. Suddenly, he thought of something, and his fingers stopped midair.


    ��What��s wrong? Finally remembered that I��m ady, huh?�� asked the Ma Wei��s imposter with her eyes blinking.


    Zhang Heng suddenly asked her a random question. ��What would have happened if I collided with the bicycle just now?��.


    ��It doesn��t really matter anymore. It didn��t happen anyway. What a shame. I was waiting for a good show.��


    ��I don��t care what evil ns you have in mind, but I believe that it would have activated the moment I collided with the bicycle. In other words, you might have other traps on you, triggered once when I touch your body. That��s why you weren��t nervous even after I captured you. With your morphing abilities, you knew that I would definitely search your body. By that time, the second trap would be triggered, and you��d once again flee without a trace.��


    ��Must you always be this careful? Your life must be boring as hell.��


    ��Of course. Now that you realize that there��s no way out, you��re putting on a show to confidently bluff your way out. Perhaps you��re attempting to draw me into thinking that you have an ace up your sleeve. You did this to stop me from searching your body.��


    ��Which oue do you think would happen?��


    ��We shall know soon.��


    Zhang Heng nced at his watch just as Ma Wei��s imposter was trying to swallow what he said. One hour and forty minutes were left before midnight. Once the hands of the clock stacked on each other, Zhang Heng would get to enjoy his extra 24 hours. By that time, he would have enough time to study the fake Ma Wei and the items she possessed.


    ��Since you don��t want to turn yourself into a murderer and kill me, not to mention that you didn��t dare to search me as well, does that mean I can leave now?�� ��If I let you go, will you cause me trouble again?��


    ��Of course not. It��s pointless anyway. You are such a boring person. Even if you stepped into my snare, you��re not going to react. I should look for others instead.��


    ��Great. Wait here.��


    ��......��


    Zhang Heng had no intention to let down his guard. However, he did move the screwdriver away from her neck. On the other hand, the imposter was still attempting to figure out how to escape the situation, intently looking at her surroundings to find a way out. Suddenly, she came up with an idea when she saw two peopleing out of the study room.


    Just as she was about to call out Zhang Heng as a pervert, she felt an excruciating pain stabbing her stomach. Zhang Heng pulled his arm back and moved away from the woman. ��Baby, are you okay? I told you not to overeat the spicy hotpot, didn��t I? Let��s go to the hospital now, eh?�� said Zhang Heng while squatting down in front of her. When the two boys saw the woman clutching her stomach as she crouched down, they thought something terrible had happened to her and instantly approached to see if they could lend a hand. However, being single guys, they were a little disappointed when they heard overhead the conversation between ��the couple.�� Knowing that there was no chance to be knights in shining armor, they had no intention to linger around. After looking at her face, they felt the major predicament of every single man in the world hitting them hard. Why was it always somebody worse always getting the pretty girls? Why did the pretty girls never notice them?


    Ma Wei��s imposter was in so much pain that she couldn��t close both of her legs. At the same time, she gave Zhang Heng a thumbs up. Zhang Heng noticed that it wasn��t safe for him to keep waiting here. After all, the dorms were just above him. Although few were still in the university right now, students that couldn��t return to their hometowns would sometimes hang around the area. ��Let��s go. We need to go somewhere else.��


    ��Shi... how did an asshole like you manage to get a cute Japanese girlfriend?��


    Ma Wei��s imposter rubbed her stomach vigorously as she talked to him. The fact that he still clutched her hand tightly to make sure that she wouldn��t escape had made her really angry. ��Stand up straight if you can walk. And Hayase Asuka is no more than a friend.��

 Chapter 265 - Is This Necessary?

    Chapter 265 Is This Necessary?


    ��Just a friend? Based on the assistance I provided you with, that girl didn��t see you as a normal friend.��


    After a while, something crossed her mind, and Ma Wei��s imposter started to take pleasure in Zhang Heng��s misfortune. ��Oh. Now I know why you won��t fall in love with her. You are worried that it might be a long-distance rtionship once she returns to her country, just like the couple from the movie, Raincoat. They both loved each other a lot, but they were forced to watch each other marry someone they didn��t truly love. After going their separate ways, they could only see the raincoats that they gifted to each other to reminisce on the sweet memories buried deep within their hearts...�� Zhang Heng tapped on the woman��s shoulder and pointed at the well-lit building in front of her.


    ��Do you know what that ce is?��


    ��Yeah. I know what that ce is. That��s a 24-hour grocery store.�� ��All I need to do is to spend two RMB to buy some duct tape, and I��ll be able to enjoy silence once again.��


    Zhang Heng brought Ma Wei��s imposter to the edge of arge field. Usually, the ce would be open at six in the morning until ten at night. However, since the final exams were over, and most students had returned to their hometowns, the field closed earlier than usual. This didn��t stop Zhang Heng from entering it, though. Using his student card, he slipped into the crack of the door of the office and attempted to break in.


    ��I never expected you to be this sort of person. It appears you��re not as noble as you make yourself out to be. From what I��m seeing, you must have done a lot of hical stuff in your university.��


    Zhang Heng didn��t bother exining himself to the woman. He had learned these skills with the extra 24 hours that he had every day, and most of the time, he was aw-abiding citizen. It was rare that he would break any rule set by the university as well.


    After fiddling with the card for a while, Zhang Heng managed to enter the office, grabbing the key that opened the fence that guarded the field. Once they walked past the entrance, the woman calmly took a good look at her surroundings. ��Is this field new? Looks like a good ce to me. Speaking of which, I have a friend who studies at your university as well. Some time ago, she even brought me to taste the cafeteria��s famous braised chicken.��


    Zhang Heng wasn��t interested in her babbling and brought her to a wall located on the west side of the field. It appeared that there wasn��t a soul around them right now. Situated opposite the field was the three-story university gym, and at this hour, all its lights were off. A residential area was directly beyond the wall, and its residents could see the field clearly. However, since the two were standing below the tall wall, it was considered a blind spot. Now that Zhang Heng locked the gate leading to the field, it was practically impossible for the woman to pull any tricks on him. ��Is this even necessary?��


    As a gust of frigid wind blew at Ma Wei��s imposter, she couldn��t help but shudder in the cold. It was hard for her to keep pretending she didn��t have a care in this world now that she was in a semi-enclosed space with Zhang Heng. From what she saw, no one woulde to her rescue if something awful were to befall her. Besides, the field was surrounded by darkness, an entirely different environment from where she was earlier. Previously, she wasn��t worried that Zhang Heng would��ve hurt her. Right now, she wasn��t so sure anymore.


    After a short while, the woman attempted to negotiate with Zhang Heng.


    ��Oy! Let me go, and I will give you a game item. What say you?��


    ��So, you are a yer as well?��


    ��I��m not a yer, but I used to be one. Due to personal reasons, I��m not allowed to enter the quests anymore.�� ��Huh?��


    The woman, however, had no intention to dwell on the topic. Zhang Heng guessed the reason for her banning had something to do with the auction incident some time ago. All the while, Zhang Heng had felt that the mysterious woman��s godlike metamorphosis skills were too overbearing. Not only did she manage to fool the leaders of four factions, but she even managed to cheat the software. It was as if she was a bug in the system. Until now, he still couldn��t figure out how she did it.


    ��You��re such a mean person! You��re the one who spoiled my n first! I admit that I pulled a prank on you when I saw you at the shopping mall. I even went as far as helping you impress your Japanese girlfriend. The way she looked at you when you came after me... it was nothing short of amazing. Hehe! As a girl, I can tell you that you��ve managed to capture her heart. It��s time to move on, bro.��


    Ma Wei��s imposter gave Zhang Heng��s shoulder a pat as she talked to him. Nevertheless, even after the awkward bout ofughter, she noticed that he showed no reaction at all.


    ��I��m really curious. Other than lies, what are you made up of? I know that you had your eyes on me since I was at the pharmacy. You��ve been plotting against me ever since, right?�� Zhang Heng said.


    ��What pharmacy? I rented a Kumamon outfit on that day, and I spent my entire day at the shopping mall. Well... I did go to a couple of shopping malls that day, as a matter of fact. When I saw you and your girlfriend at the Xidan mall, I bought her a rose. After that, some asshole came to mess with me. Oh right, where��s the Kumamon costume? I paid 200 RMB as a deposit. I��ll need it back.��


    Even Zhang Heng had to admit that lying was indeed a talent. When the average person told a lie, their bodies would typically make small and subconscious movements that would give them away. However, lying seemed toe naturally as eating and drinking to the woman. Zhang Heng failed to spot any ws from the way she behaved. She wasn��t that old anyway, so how could she have so quickly mastered the fine art of deception? Could she have practiced it since she was a kid? Was she a pathological liar?


    Just as Zhang Heng was about to say something, the same sensation he had at that pharmacy of someone spying on him surged through his body again. This time, he could sense the evil intent behind it. As for the imposter, she was still staring at him innocently.


    Suddenly, Zhang Heng extended his hand, seeming as if he was about to grab her chest. The woman was terrified this time, on the verge of screaming out loud. Secondster, he rudely grabbed her shirt by the cor and pulled her abruptly toward him. ��Brother! I have HIV!!!��


    Unable to hold back any longer, she screamed as loud as she could. Right before the two collided into each other, Zhang Heng let her go, and she fell hard on the running track. The skin on her palms was grazed when she used them to support herself. She then took in a deep breath.


    She winced in pain, and there was a tear in her eye. ��Fuc... are you sick in the head?! It looks like you��re addicted to torturing people, you sadist!��


    It was then when she saw something terrifying. The solid wall that she stood beside earlier began to melt like chocte under a me.

 Chapter 266 - Run

    Chapter 266 Run


    ��What the hell?!�� eximed Ma Wei��s imposter in disbelief and horror. Zhang Heng, on the other hand, was already in grave danger.


    Having witnessed how the wall engulfed an olddy before, he instantly noticed it moving and managed to pull the clueless girl away from danger. If that was his first encounter, he wouldn��t have been certain, but now, Zhang Heng confirmed that since it hunted it��s victims so strategically, whatever that thing was, must have some sort of higher intelligence. When the wall began to ripple like boiling water, it caught Zhang Heng��s attention. He swiftly shoved the woman away before the oozing ck fluid could reach her. However, the creature was actually feigning an attack, as its real target was actually Zhang Heng. The curious creature seemed to be able to control how fast it melted, where the wall��s corners dissolved more quickly than its body.


    Unbeknownst to Zhang Heng, the ck liquid had already wrapped around his feet when he grabbed the cor of the woman. He had seen how efficiently the thing hunted, taking less than ten seconds topletely engulf the old scavenger. He knew he was running out of time.


    Even at this juncture of life and death, Zhang Heng remained as calm as a millpond. He turned away as he threw the woman aside, then quickly tried to pry the creature away from his feet. However, as he suspected, the beast could switch forms freely between solid and liquid. After wrapping itself around Zhang Heng��s ankle, it instantly hardened and became as hard as concrete. Now, Zhang Heng felt as if his left foot was encrusted in ster, and he waspletely stuck in ce, unable to move an inch.


    This was also the same reason why Zhang Heng couldn��t save the olddy. Now, it was his turn. He realized that this wasn��t something he could possibly fight against. The ck liquid spread like wildfire, running up his ankles, unhindered.


    In a blink of an eye, the tar-like substance had engulfed his calf. If this were to continue, he would soon be dragged into the wall alive, a horrible way to die, to say the least �C not something anybody would want to endure. To Zhang Heng��s greatest surprise, Ma Wei��s imposter had a little more loyalty than expected. Although scared to death, she didn��t run even after getting back on her feet. Instead, she shouted at Zhang Heng, ��What��s its weakness? What should I do?!��


    In response, Zhang Heng simply stared at her, pointed to the direction of the field��s exit, and said, ��Run!��


    Had this been a Qiong Yao opera, Ma Wei��s imposter would have been deeply moved by Zhang Heng��s oh-so-sacrificial, tough-guy act. She would have been tugging on Zhang Heng��s other thigh, crying and screaming at the top of her lungs, begging, ��No, I��m not leaving you! If one must die, then we die together!��


    However, this was hard reality, not some stage show. After staring Zhang Heng in the eye, she hesitated for a moment before turning around to run toward the gate as fast as her legs could carry her.


    At a time like this, there was no time for second thoughts. She could only trust his judgment. There could only be two reasons why he told her to run. First, the action of running could be useful against the creature, or second, Zhang Heng knew that he was a lost cause and didn��t want to drag her down with him, the reason why he made her leave while she still could.


    After running for a bit, tears started pouring out of the woman��s eyes. She stopped and, at the same time, cried out to Zhang Heng, ��Dude! I don��t have the key!��


    Zhang Heng had brought her to the field to prevent her from attempting any more tricks, locking up the gate for good measure, and effectively keeping outsiders from entering. However, that meant that nobody was getting out either. The key to that lock was still with Zhang Heng, and as the woman turned around, what she saw gave her a chill.


    Zhang Heng had disappeared. In his ce was what seemed like a stone wall that had appeared out of nowhere, right smack in the middle of the running track.


    It was all like a poorly written piece of darkedy.


    As hrious as it might have been, the woman couldn��tugh at all. Right now, she was inplete shock. Too bad for her, as she didn��t have the time to mourn Zhang Heng��s death. Even though the creature behind her had just swallowed a person whole, it didn��t seem to satisfy its insatiable hunger, appearing to be more raucous than ever.


    After running for a while, she realized that the ck substance wasn��t very speedy. It moved only as fast as she could run. The only reason for its sess so far was because of its sudden and abrupt attacks, alling without prior warning. Most people would have a sense of security when they leaned against a sturdy wall, subconsciously believing that they were protected from threats that came from every other direction.


    In fact, if the victim was prepared, the prospect of an escape was still on the books. Moreover, whatever worried the woman the most did not actually happen.


    That creature didn��t have an Image Splitting Skill, which would allow it to replicate itself, making it omnipresent. That would have allowed it to surround its victim from every angle. It seemed that it could only remain as one entity, and a part of its body had to be connected to the wall no matter how far it ventured.


    However, it could definitely move freely from one wall to another, provided that the wall that it was attached to had returned to its original state. It was during these snatches of time that the woman could take a breather. Unfortunately, she failed to see a way out of the predicament and was, in fact, feeling absolutely awful. Due to specific reasons, she wasn��t supposed to be doing vigorous exercise. She hadn��t run so fervently since her high school fitness test, and now, her lungs felt as if they were about to burst out of her chest.


    Nevertheless, not running would mean the end of her. She even began to wonder if she would die of exhaustion before the creature could get its hands on her if she kept sprinting at such a pace.


    As a matter of fact, shortness of breath and a tightness in her chest was beginning to gue her, and now, her vision was getting blurry. Just as she was about to give up, she suddenly heard a familiar voice saying, ��Here, quick!��


    Lo and behold, Zhang Heng, of whom she thought was dead, was alive and standing at the gate. He had miraculously, at some point, opened the entrance of the field, and was now shouting at her. Unfortunately, she wasn��t the only one who saw Zhang Heng. When that creature realized that he was actually alive, the wall behind the woman quickly returned to its original state.


    This was her golden opportunity. By the time the wall was restored to its previous form, that thing would have been part of the gate��s pirs. By then, it would be toote for her.


    Ma Wei��s imposter felt as if all the energy in her body had been drained out her as she attempted to move her leadden legs toward the gate. Every ounce of strength in her body had fizzled out, but she tried to squeeze whatever little energy she had left within her Just as she began to pick up her pace, the dreaded creature of a wall began to move again. There was a look of hopeless despair in her eyes. But just as she thought that the creature would surely swallow her, a pair of hands wrapped her waist tightly.

 Chapter 267 - I Know About It

    <h4>Chapter 267 I Know About It</h4>


    At a moment where life hung in limbo, Zhang Heng carried Ma Wei��s imposter and ran as fast as he could. To his surprise, she was a lot lighter than he thought, weighing less than a hundred pounds. It certainly didn��t match her height. However, this wasn��t the pressing issue right now. cing her on his shoulders, he started running toward the exit. Though he was carrying someone on him, he was still a lot faster than her when she ran.


    Zhang Heng��s persistent training had given him an edge when it came to stamina, and instead of letting the woman run on her own, he figured they would be a lot quicker if he just carried her. With swift hands, he unlocked the gate within seconds. While they ran, the woman was so terrified that she almost vomited. She then started sobbing like a little child.


    ��You tricked me! You used me as bait to attract the creature��s attention. You even nned to get away without me, right?��


    ��I��m sorry. That was my item��s effect. I technically needed somebody to distract the thing while I was unlocking the gate.��


    In desperation, Zhang Heng couldn��t figure out a better way to free himself other than using his Shadow Moment. Once he entered shadow form, he was able to escape his physical boundaries and ditch the concrete that had smothered him. However, it would take some time before returning as a human once he entered the shadow form, and could only watch as the woman was chased by the creature. There really was nothing he could do at that time.


    Zhang Heng could have easily left her behind and move through the gate in his shadow form, the safest way for him to escape the field. However, he remembered that she had actually risked her life in an attempt to rescue him earlier. Thanks to her selfless act, Zhang Heng was willing to risk his own life to save her as well.


    Of course, the woman had to hang on for three minutes until Zhang Heng��s shadow form expired. If she failed to do so, Zhang Heng would have left the ce by himself. In other words, the woman had helped herself to survive the monster��s deathly grip.


    After a while, Zhang Heng stopped to rest. His heart thumped so rapidly that a break was necessary if he didn��t want to copse. The woman, on the other hand, had no intention getting off him. All she did was change positions on his shoulders and clung on tightly like a ko. He knew that virtually all her stamina had been spent trying to run away from the monster. Hence, he did not force her to get down. Suddenly, Zhang Heng felt a sharp pain stabbing his shoulder. ��Oy! Can you stay put? We are still trying to get away from that creature!��


    Ma Wei��s imposter harrumphed and removed her teeth unwillingly from Zhang Heng��s shoulder as she stared at her bite mark in satisfaction.


    ��I know that we��re running away from the monster. However, my grudges against you will never be settled if I don��t leave a mark!��


    Satisfied after doing whatever she longed to do, the woman moved her attention back to the more pressing matter at hand.


    ��So... what the hell is that thing?��


    ��I have no bloody idea.��


    e


    .


    ��You have no idea, huh? Whatever the thing was, you were clearly the target.��


    Without having to spend any energy running from the monster, the woman think straight. Now that she carefully put some thought into it, she came up with a rather interesting conclusion.


    ��I��ve crossed paths with this creature once. I rescued a little kid from being its meal. Maybe, that��s why it��s targeting me.��


    Zhang Heng paused for a while before continuing


    ��What do you mean when you said ��its weakness�� just now?��


    ��Are you a new yer? With your strength and stamina, you don��t seem new to me. Things like these are not secrets and most experienced yers should already know. Usually, supernatural beings like these have a weakness. Once we find out what it is, we��ll just need to focus on it. Technically, even a mighty monster could be killed by a child if its weakness is exposed.��


    ��Weakness? Something like an Achilles Heel?��


    ��That��s right. We need to figure out its origins or lore before we deal with it. Sometimes their weaknesses are hidden in stories passed down from generation to generation.��


    ��Apart from that?��


    After learning his lesson from Tapio, God of Forest, and the Lucky Rabbit Foot, Zhang Heng went online in search for information of a wall that could eat people up. Unfortunately, he found nothing particrly useful. There wasn��t any time for that now, considering they were practically knocking on death��s door.


    ��Usually, the most effective method to deal with most monsters is to use brute force. However... I��m not too sure about this one. Perhaps it needs to engulf you before you can start bludgeoning it to death.��


    Zhang Heng knew a method like that was most probably useless against it because this creature could freely change its form. In other words, this was going to be an extremely foolhardy monster for them to defeat. While he ran, Zhang Heng tried his best to stay away from all the walls that he passed by. However, the entire city was made out of concrete, making it the best ce for the monster to hunt. All it needed to do was to slip from one wall to another. It would be almost impossible to locate and destroy it. As the topic of the creature��s weakness was in discussion, Zhang Heng suddenly thought of something. Before he could say anything, though, he came across someone he knew.


    Zhang Heng chose not to run on the main road because there were too many buildings around it, besides not wanting to endanger its inhabitants. So, he carried the woman and ran past a little garden located northeast of the field. The ce was a favorite for pleasant and rxing strolls, especially true for couples that were in love. Now that most students had returned to their respective hometowns, and considering it was already ten at night, Zhang Heng didn��t expect to meet someone he knew here.


    It was Shen Xixi, the girl who broke up with him not too long ago. It seemed as if something was bothering her tonight, and Zhang Heng was surprised to see that she hadn��t yet returned to her dorm. Shen Xixi stood up from the bench near theke the moment she heard rapid footsteps approaching. She too was surprised to see Zhang Heng. However, seconds after that, she heard Ma Wei��s imposter shouting at her.


    ��Run! Run!��


    Naturally, Shen Xixi was baffled by the desperate cries. However, when she saw the ck liquid chasing them from behind, she felt excited. At first, Zhang Heng thought that Shen Xixi would ask him a ton of questions about the strange thing behind him because that was what ordinary people would do. Instead, she decided to heed the advice to run.


    Only after Shen Xixi had caught up with them did she bombard Zhang Heng with questions.


    ��Where did you guys find that thing? Have you seen its attack? Did it have something to do with the wall?!��

 Chapter 268 - This Is Unreal

    <h4>Chapter 268 This Is Unreal</h4>


    Before Zhang Heng could say anything, Ma Wei��s imposter popped her head up and asked the question.��You know how to deal with this thing?��


    ��This is my first time facing this creature. Ofte, lots of stray animals and homeless people have been disappearing from the streets. We received news that someone saw the ck liquid moving within the walls at the locations of those unexinable disappearances. My people have been trying to track it down for some time. However, it��s extremely cunning. Judging by the victims�� background information, it basically targets the weakest group of the society. Nobody would notice that they��ve gone missing. I can��t figure why it woulde to the university this time, though. This is our best chance to get rid of it.��


    As they ran, Shen Xixi took out her cellphone to contact Wang Yu and the rest of the organization to gather at the university. When she returned her phone to her pocket, Zhang Heng asked her a question.


    ��Your organization deals with these matters as well?��


    ��I��m sorry that I lied to you. Usually, people wouldn��t believe us if they didn��t see such creatures with their own eyes. It��s hard to exin these things to the public, which is why we call ourselves a non-profit organization.�� Ma Wei��s imposter whispered into Zhang Heng��s ear,


    ��She��s trying to say that you��re not going to be much help. What��s going on right now? This woman doesn��t know that you are a yer. And it seems kind of sadistic too. She likes using her allies as bait.��


    ��Just stay put.��


    ��Huh?��


    ��I��m not talking about you.��


    ��I know that you��re not talking about me.��


    Ma Wei��s imposter looked really serious. She then turned around to look at Shen Xixi.


    ��Hey, pretty one. When are your mening?��


    ��Usually, all of them are home at this hour. They live some distance from this ce, and would need at least an hour and a half to get here. That��s if they manage to get a cab right now. As for those living nearby, they can get here within half an hour.��


    ��Great! At least someone will take care of our bodies.��


    Although whatever Ma Wei��s imposter said was unpleasant to the ear, she was trying to tell everyone that the three weren��t in a good state. Until now, Zhang Heng still had his stamina in tip-top condition and didn��t show signs that he would tire anytime soon. However, he was still carrying someone over his back, and it would be impossible for him to keep running at such speeds for a sustained amount of time. As for Shen Xixi, one could easily see the regr workouts she��d been doing, with only the thick winter clothing covering her dazzling figure. Aspared to Ma Wei��s imposter that fizzled out after only a minute of running, Shen Xixi was definitely more durable than her. Until now, at least, her breathing was still steady, and it certainly didn��t look as if she was about to copse anytime soon. However, nobody could predict what would happen in ten minutes.


    Among the three of them, Ma Wei��s imposter was the only one that didn��t use any of her stamina. That said, she still tried to put herself to good use. While the monster was jumping from wall to wall, she had noticed a pattern to it, and the moment she spotted the walls around them changing, she would quickly inform Zhang Heng. ��We need to do something about this,�� said Zhang Heng after running for a while.


    The three ran at the same pace with the monster. However, the path they chose was predictable, where they ran along the tar roads. Besides not always being a straight path, they would sometimese across buildings in front of them. In such instances, the creature would take advantage of its wall-jumping abilities to move along the buildings, closing in the gap between them or even surpassing them at times. Left with no other option, they could only turn and run back in the direction from where they came.


    IOT


    After a short silence, Shen Xixi finally made up her mind.


    ��The typical human isn��t powerful enough to deal with such a creature. I have a way to distract him. I want the two of you to use this opportunity and get away from this ce.��


    As she spoke, Shen Xixi took out her wallet and drew out a red card. Zhang Heng turned to look and found out that it actually looked familiar to him. He soon recognized that it was a trap card from Yu-Gi-Oh! �C Battle Mania


    Card Type: Trap card.


    Number of uses: Unlimited.


    Rarity: Rare (R)


    Effect: Activates only during your opponent��s Standby Phase. All face-up monsters that your opponent controls would be changed to their Attack Position and cannot change their battle positions this turn. If possible, all monsters your opponent currently controls must attack in this turn.


    After seeing the effect of Escape Dagger, Zhang Heng wasn��t surprised by Shen Xixi��s item. He could guess what she was trying to do. In Yu-Gi-Oh, this card would force the opponent��s monster to morph into its attack position. In other words, she was trying to taunt the beast. After creating an opportunity for Zhang Heng and Ma Wei��s imposter to escape, she would contact Wang Yu to help her. Acquiring a game item wasn��t her only reason for her insistence on killing this monster. She was mainly tired of seeing people getting killed by it.


    ��Wow! Look at her spiritpared to you. When we first met, youpletely ignored me even after seeing those thugs about to rape me. What a stark difference!��


    Zhang Heng said nothing in defense. Instead, he stopped running and said, ��Come down.��


    ��No way! Are you angry with me? I was just making a randomment.�� Ma Wei��s imposter seemed to be unhappy, but she had toe down from Zhang Heng��s back regardless. Both of them were safe for now after Shen Xixi used the trap card. However, Ma Wei��s imposter didn��t think that Shen Xixi could outrun the monster and win the battle. Judging by her looks, Ma Wei��s imposter knew that Shen Xixi wasn��t confident that she could hold up until her people came to her aid. Still, she had used the trap card to get Zhang Heng and the woman to a safe spot. At the same time, she didn��t stop running away from the monster, trying her best to draw it as far as possible from them.


    ��We should do something to help her!�� muttered Shen Xixi when she saw her getting further and further away from them.


    ��Great! Go help her then. If she lives, I won��t hold you responsible for what you did to me before this.��


    ��I have something to do. So, I��ll be away for a while.��


    ��This is unreal! Come on, brother?! Why do I have to go first every bloody time? You��re exactly like my primary school teacher. He lets his students do the most difficult stuff and only starts to work properly during award month,�� groaned Ma Wei��s imposter while rolling her eyes at Zhang Heng. ��Remember. Hang on until Ie back.��


    ��Wait. What if you don��te back?��


    Zhang Heng had already left when Ma Wei��s imposter asked the question. As a chilly gust of wind blew at her, she pulled her coat together. Just like what she did to Zhang Heng when the monster had attacked him, she chose to run towards Shen Xixi for help.

 Chapter 269 - Fine, I’ll Continue Running Then

    <h4>Chapter 269 Fine, I��ll Continue Running Then</h4>


    In the darkness, Shen Xixi could hear the steady rhythm of her breathing and heartbeat. It had been five minutes since she used the Battle Mania card, where the D-grade game item took effect, turning the creature��s attention onto her.


    However, what was about to happen next would be her biggest test yet. She knew that if she continued running aimlessly like that, she wouldn��tst more than thirty minutes.


    After a while, Shen Xixi learned the pattern of the creature��s movements, where its behavior was in direct rtion to the walls. In other words, the further she stayed away from the walls, the safer she would be. Less than a kilometer outside the school grounds was People��s Park, which was had been opened to the public and was probably the furthest ce from the city��s jungle of reinforced concrete.


    Shen Xixi nned to deal with the creature there until Wang Yu and the others arrived. But just as she ran through the eastern gates, she saw that the beast was already waiting for her there. The creature appeared to have guessed her n and had surpassed her. Shen Xixi did a quick assessment and decided to give up on heading to the south gate because one, it was too far, and there was no way she could outrun the thing, and two, the gate was usually locked at nine at night. Even if she managed to get there, it would be a waste of effort.


    Eventually, she opted to retreat to the small garden where she had been, the furthest ce from all the other school buildings. She decided that she could hide around the small artificialke over there and y hide and seek with the creature.


    After running for so long, though, Shen Xixi��s body was starting to send her brain fatigue signals. She was, after all, a girl, and even though she began to workout regrly to enhance her stamina since bing a yer, she was only slightly more durable than an ordinary person. Moreover, unlike Zhang Heng, who had been ying as a single-yer, Shen Xixi was used to ying in a team setting To improve efficiency and cope with variousplex situations, each member of the team had their own specialty. As far as possible, the skills and abilities wouldn��t ovep, but rather,plement each other. Each teammate had a predetermined development route as well.


    In her team, Shen Xixi��s yed the role of team leader and brains. Battles were the responsibility of the other members. Since her job was to improve her leadership and decision-making abilities, it meant there wasn��t much time for physical exercise. Also, the low visibility in the dark was causing her a lot of trouble.


    Being in the cramped garden would put a distance between her and the buildings, but the setting was also moreplicated. Of course, it wasn��t without reason that the garden was hailed as a sacred lovenest for budding couples �C there were only two streetmps in the whole area, one of which was broken a long time ago. Exuding a vibe of romantic ambiance, it was perfect for hugs and cuddles. Right now, it wasn��t exactly ideal for Shen Xixi.


    She didn��t know if the creature had eyes or how it was able to see, but one thing for sure, its vision was definitely not affected by the amount of light surrounding it. Her perception, on the other hand, was definitely influenced by the darkness, which was causing her to lose her sense of direction.


    In fact, if it had not been for energy preservation, Shen Xixi wouldn��t have risked it to run to this ce and allow the creature the chance to a sneak up on her. As she panted, she stopped by thekeside to slow her breathing. She stood with her back facing the artificialke as a precaution, so the other directions were clearly in her sight. Her strategy was straightforward but also very effective.


    Under the glow of the sole streemp above her, she could clearly see to her left and right. Behind her was theke, and since there wasn��t any concrete structures on it, save for a little rock formation, it should be safe. The only problem was the trees that blocked her front view. Thankfully, it was winter, and most of their leaves had fallen off.


    It was in this direction that Shen Xixi focused her attention on. If the creature were to attack her, she would surely be able to see it. Her nerves were still frayed, knowing that no matter what, the enemy was still a supernatural creature. Even in her calm demeanor, she was a little skittish. Suddenly, the phone in her pocket vibrated. It was a text from Wang Yu.


    He wrote: Wait for me! I��m nearby. I��ll be there soon!


    She had to admit that the text calmed her nerves a little. It seemed that the situation was a lot better than she expected. Wang Yu wasn��t the team��s main fighter, but he was second only to Yu Yangzi. The only problem was that he lived the furthest from the school. He was the one that Shen Xixi mentioned would take at least an hour and a half to get there. Nevertheless, he would have to be her best bet, for the time being, at least.


    Shen Xixi shook her head in an attempt to clear her mind. Receiving Wang Yu��s text set her thoughts in motion again. She wasn��t merely thinking about passively running for her life but hoped that she would be able to gather more useful information to deal with the creatureter on. As she was thinking about her next strategy, the hill on the artificialke behind her began to melt quietly.


    This wasn��t Shen Xixi��s fault. Because that thing had been traveling through concrete walls, she had deliberately avoided the buildings on campus. It didn��t cross her mind that the creature could also use the mock rock formation.


    By the time Shen Xixi noticed the ck liquid moving toward her, it was toote to react. Thank goodness, Ma Wei��s imposter arrived just at the nick of time. As she searched for Shen Xixi, she had stopped to tear off a piece of y from her pocket and began molding it. It wasn��t until two minutes ago that she seeded. Sprinting to the artificialke, she threw it at the creature when she saw it.


    Itnded between Shen Xixi and the pool of ck liquid, and a wall was instantly erected.


    Shen Xixi was terrified. She thought that Ma Wei��s imposter must have had a grudge against her and was about to use the creature to get rid of her. But a minuteter, she saw that the wall was actually blocking the creature from reaching her.


    ��What are you still doing there? Run!�� shouted Ma Wei��s imposter. ��My sticine wall won��t hold for long!��


    Shen Xixi didn��t even look back as she started running. She turned to the girl who had just saved her and asked, ��You��re a yer too?��


    ��I suppose so,�� Ma Wei��s imposter answered as she huffed. She hated working out the most. Without Zhang Heng around, her human mule was gone, and she was forced to buck up and run alongside Shen Xixi. But as soon as she started, she stopped, looking very excited. ��Oh, how silly of me! Why am I running? That thing will only attack you, right?��


    Shen Xixi��s answer, however, only destroyed her hope. ��My game item also has a time limit. Its effect can onlyst for fifteen minutes. That��s less than two minutes from now.��


    When Ma Wei��s imposter heard this, she wanted to cry. ��Fine! i��ll continue running then.��

 Chapter 270 - It’s Not Me, I Didn’t Do It, Don’t Accuse Me

    <h4>Chapter 270 It��s Not Me, I Didn��t Do It, Don��t use Me</h4>


    The sticine wall erected by Ma Wei��s imposter wouldn��t stop the creature for too long. Right now, she and Shen Xixi were running for their lives toward the parking lot. Earlier, Wang Yu had sent a message to Shen Xixi and told her to meet up there. Though Shen Xixi ced most of her attention to the monster, that did not mean she had stopped thinking about other stuff. After running for a while, imposter noticed Shen Xixi constantly ncing at her.


    ��Just ask what you want to ask. I might not answer you anyway,�� said the imposter while gasping for breath.


    ��I��m sorry. The incident at the auction center has spread around the entire circle of yers. Everyone is on high alert. Still, many yers fell into that trap, especially members of the three major factions. The victims reported that they would always find a small pile of sticine beside them.��


    Shen Xixi paused for a while, then continued,


    ��As of now, the three major factions havee up with arge amount of money as a reward to whoever that can provide the crook��s whereabouts.��


    ��It��s not me. I didn��t do it. Don��t simply use


    me.��


    Ma Wei��s imposter quickly denied all the allegations. Now, she was more cautious when she talked.


    ��Did you tell others about my ability to use sticine? I did it to save you, you know?�� ��No. I won��t tell anybody about it, but are you still going to do what you do? The three major factions are mighty, and sooner orter, they will find out about you. I also think that it��s better if you return the Dreand of Death to them. A B-grade game item will bring you a lot of trouble.�� ��I told you that I��m not the one who did it! That woman is causing all kinds of trouble everywhere. Why am I the one to take the me?! I have never seen this Dreand of Death before. There��s nothing for me to return!��


    ��That woman?��


    Ma Wei��s imposter had no intention of exining any further. ��Anyway, all you need to know is that I��ve nothing to do with that woman. Err... wait. She has something to do with me. She was the one who caused me to be banned from the game.��


    Shen Xixi always wanted to ask about her rtionship with Zhang Heng, but something unexpected happened suddenly. The left part of the wall in front of them started melting.


    ��Go to Qinsi Block now. I will lure it there,�� replied Shen Xixi.


    ��Where is Qinsi Block? I��m not from your university, hey?��


    ��Oh. I��m sorry. Follow me. This way!��


    Shen Xixi grabbed the imposter��s hand and headed in a different direction. At that moment, the imposter was already showing signs of exhaustion. It seemed that the monster didn��t want them to leave the university. Hence, it paid extra attention to the exit. However, there was still some distance between the parking lot and the exit, and seeing the two running toward Qinsi Block, the monster went after them as well.


    Shen Xixi ran in a big circle and charged toward the parking lot while the monster jumped from one wall to another. It was actually a brilliant n, and there was nothing wrong with it. However, Shen Xixi hadn��t considered the imposter��s durability. If only she had witnessed how the imposter huffed and puffed as she ran earlier, she would surely have wondered how someone could have such weak stamina.


    Earlier, when the imposter ran towards Qinsi Block, her mind was so jumbled that she couldn��t make out which direction she was supposed to take. She had to rely on Shen Xixi to guide her on the right path. Seeing that they were almost at their destination, the imposter was shocked to discover that the path she just took was just a warm-up run. There was still a very long way to go.


    The imposter��s stamina had almost depletedpletely, and she could no longer lift her legs to continue running. She squatted on the ground and clutched her chest with both hands.


    ��I can��t run anymore! I can��t run anymore! Just leave me here and go.��


    Shen Xixi didn��t know what to do anymore. After all, the imposter was a full-grown woman, impossible to be carried like how Zhang Heng took her on his shoulder. Considering that the imposter had rescued her once, she would definitely not leave her here to die. As they stopped running, the monster had caught up to them. Suddenly, they saw a beam of bright lighting from a car.


    Wang Yu and his ck Mercedes were finally here! There were only 30 meters between them. Some time ago, an outsider hit a girl from the university, resulting in a massive fight between the driver and the students. Ever since the ident, the university had prohibited cars from driving inside the university. They even added two metal pirs on the path that connected the parking lot to the university. University teachers and staff were no exception as well. After parking their vehicles in the lot, they had to walk to the office or sses.


    However, these two metal pirs didn��t stop Wang Yu from rescuing Shen Xixi. Once he saw that she was in grave danger, he wasted no time drove his modified Mercedes up on the sidewalk. By doing that, he managed to bypass the metal pirs. At the same time, Shen Xixi quickly dragged the imposter to the side. In the end, the ck Mercedes crashed head-on into the pile of ck goo.


    To their surprise, the Mercedes was dented severely at its front. The ck liquid managed to change form from liquid to solid, which meant that the car had just hit a hard wall. From the powerful impact, arge spiderweb of cracks could be seen on the wall. However, they soon disappeared, and the wall looked as good as new. Before the collision, Wang Yu had bravely jumped out of the car and wasn��t injured.


    He then quickly stood up after he rolling on the ground for a bit. With his precious car destroyed, Wang Yu became really upset.


    ��This is ridiculous! How can we kill it?��


    ��Melee attacks are useless against it. We need to figure out its weakness as soon as possible. We tried our best to look for information about this creature��s background. Unfortunately, it was fruitless. That means this creature isn��t as powerful as we think it is. It has to have some kind of weakness, regardless.��


    Seeing that the wall had started melting again, Ma Wei��s imposter put on a bitter smile.


    ��The weakness of a concrete wall? It has to be a tractor.��


    Previously, all Wang Yu could think was to save the woman in front of him in the coolest way possible. Undeniably, the way he showed up was awe-inspiring. However, he began to regret what he just did. All the while, he wasn��t too happy with Shen Xixi dealing with these supernatural threats. The game quests were already dangerous enough, and now, Shen Xixi wanted to help the real world as well.


    Any ordinary person would pray that they would never have toe across something like this. Even though yers like them knew more about the world they lived in and even possessing game items that could help them, they were still human beings. It was extremely risky for them to handle such threats of unearthly origins.


    However, Shen Xixi had a good reputation in the team, and most of her teammates would usually agree with whatever decision she made. Even if Wang Yu wasn��t happy with the arrangement, he could only keep it for himself. Besides, he had always been fond of her. If they wanted to defeat this monster, there were countless pros and cons to be considered.

 Chapter 271 - Missing Its Target

    <h4>Chapter 271 Missing Its Target</h4>


    Zhang Heng ran into the dormitory building and looked at the lifts. Only one of the two avable elevators were operating during the holidays, and it was now on the ninth floor. Considering it might stop on other floors on its way down, Zhang Heng decided to take the safer option on the other side, the stairs. Having no idea how much longer Shen Xixi and the imposter couldst, every second counted. It took him only 47 seconds to climb to the 11th floor where his room was located.


    When he pushed the door open, a sweat-soaked Ma Wei was sitting at his desk, a nk look stered on his face as he held onto a wallet. He mumbled, ��How could this be? I remember very clearly that I brought it with me when I left. I even bought two buns in the afternoon. How could it have returned before I did?!


    This was the most baffling thing he had ever experienced in his entire life. After his tutoring session ended, and he was about to go home, he realized that his wallet and bicycle were missing. He had frantically searched nearby, and yet, found nothing. Now, he was dizzy and confused.


    Then, when he returned to the dormitory, his old bicycle had magically parked itself downstairs, and his missing wallet was already on his desk. Not only was the money still in there, but there was also even an extra forty yuan in it. Ma Wei felt his emotions heaving like a wild roller-coaster ride. Surprised and thrilled, he was at the same time bemused at the inexplicable happenstance. In his stupor, he didn��t even notice Zhang Heng entering the room. By the time he looked up, Zhang Heng was already rushing out the door. From the corner of his eye, Ma Wei spotted him holding the SF recurve bow. ��Are you going to practice archery? But it��s sote...��


    Zhang Heng picked up his bow, arrow, and telescope from his wardrobe, and instead of greeting his roommate, he hurried into the bathroom next door. With the telescope, he searched for Shen Xixi and the imposter through the tiny venttion window and saw that they were running from theke toward the parking lot.


    He chose a small photocopy shop located between the parking lot and the man-madeke. It was also the closest location to the male dormitory. Making his way there as quickly as he could, he climbed up the sycamore tree next to the shop, the perfect spot for an ambush. At this point, Shen Xixi and imposter weren��t too far away from him.


    However, the two girls didn��t notice Zhang Heng. All they cared was to run for their lives, focused on avoiding the ck liquid that was quickly advancing on them. Zhang Heng took in a deep breath and pulled out the Paris Arrow from his quiver. The imposter had mentioned before that most supernatural beasts had a so-called Achilles�� heel. As long as they figured what it was, they could kill even the most powerful and invincible of monsters.


    The Paris Arrow was also a legendary item associated with the Achilles Heel. Zhang Heng had returned to the dormitory just to retrieve it. Although it wasn��t his first time using this game item, he had only employed before it as an enhanced arrow with automatic angle correction. This was the first time he was using it against a supernatural creature and had no idea how effective it would be.


    Zhang Heng armed the bow with the Paris Arrow. With his Lv. 2 archery skills, he swiftly locked on to the target without much difficulty. It wasn��t until Shen Xixi, and the imposter ran past him that he released his finger.


    However, something unexpected happened. Not only did the arrow not find the ck liquid��s weakness, but it also missed its target entirely.


    Zhang Heng had been practicing archery for the longest time now, and practiced within a ten-meter range, even if it was a moving target, he could at least hit the eighth ring. In fact, there was no chance he would miss such an easy target. On top of that, the ck liquid was a lotrger than his regr bullseye targets, and it was technically impossible for him to miss his mark. Judging by his extensive experience, he knew that it was a good shot the moment the arrow left the bow. Ironically, it was as if an invisible force had shifted the arrow��s flight path. Zhang Heng saw with his own eyes as the Paris Arrow deviated, flying past the creature before disappearing into the darkness. Except for Zhang Heng, the shooter, the other two people, and the creature didn��t even notice the existence of the arrow.


    Zhang Heng��s frown deepened as he looked at a fleeing Shen Xixi in the distance. Even if he caught up to them, chances were that he could do nothing against the creature. It appeared that it was immune to physical damage. So, after giving it some thought, Zhang Heng decided to find the Paris Arrow. He remembered that it had deviated in a southwesterly direction. Zhang Heng leaped off the tree and headed there. After around a hundred meters, he found his arrow sticking out of the ground.


    Zhang Heng felt a little flummoxed. That creature��s weak spot couldn��t have been the dirt on the ground. Even if it was, there was a lot of soil under the tree back there; the Paris Arrow had no reason to fly all the way here. There could only be one exnation for this �� before the Paris Arrow could hit the monster��s weak spot, it had already used up all its kic energy. However, Zhang Heng was somewhat of an archery veteran, and he could urately shoot up to two hundred meters. Even if there was wind resistance, there was no way it would only go as far as a hundred. On top of that, the angle the arrow prated the ground at a bizarre angle. It was at that moment that something suddenly clicked in his mind, and he looked up at a structure not too far away.


    It was the school library, a seven floored concrete building. If the arrow��s target were the building, then it would all make sense. It had suffered a loss of kic energy as it converted into gravitational potential energy. Still, it wasn��t enough to send the arrow to the target, so it fell midway and plunged into the ground.


    Nheless, it hadpleted its mission in a way, pointing Zhang Heng in a particr direction. Although he didn��t know why that creature��s weak spot was in the school library, he knew that the answer to tonight��s crisis could be hidden within it.


    Zhang Heng pulled the arrow out of the ground, reced it on the bowstring, then carefully treaded to the dark library ahead of him.

 Chapter 272 - Three Arrows

    <h4>Chapter 272 Three Arrows</h4>


    Zhang Heng was more familiar with the library than the dorm room he had lived in every day. He would either spend his time there or the gym during the extra 23 hours he had. Since a regr of the ce, he made a copy of the door��s key, usually entering through its employee-only entrance. He would first head to the basement to turn on the main power before entering the elevator and pressing the button to the seventh floor.


    Unsure if the thing he was looking for in the library of even a living being, he quickly came across an idea. The library was located in the middle of the university, and since it went up to seven floors, it was perfect as an observation point for the entire area. From the top floor, there was a birds-eye view of the whole university campus. If the thing that entered the library was indeed a living being, it meant that whatever he did before entering was no longer a secret.


    If the creature didn��t spot Zhang Heng entering the library, it would have known by now since the electricity had been turned on. By turning on the entire building��s power, he hoped to confuse the creature, where it would have to figure out which floor he was on. Meanwhile, Zhang Heng would use the stairwell to move to the next floor.


    Since the Paris Arrow��snding spot proved that whatever he was looking for was on the top floor, Zhang Heng decided to start his search there. When he arrived, the entire ce was pitch ck the moment the door was opened. Utilizing the familiarity of his surroundings, he located the switch for the LED light above without much problem. However, it didn��t turn on after the switch was flipped. rm bells started going off in his head, and he immediately became extremely cautious. The Paris Arrow had further confirmed that there was a high possibility that his target was on this floor.


    Immediately, Zhang Heng wound the string of his bow. Right now, his biggest problem wasn��t the thing he was looking for. The Paris Arrow had already helped him locate the whereabouts of the clue before its energy depleted. The problem was that he was now away from the ck liquid, and having no idea where it was, in no way could he reshoot it.


    Suddenly, Zhang Heng heard a rustling sound. Although hushed, it sounded extra crisp in the empty library, and he deduced that it came from the back of one of the book racks. Since it wasn��t too far from him, he approached the shelf with the bow in hand. Cautious of booby traps, he decided to take the longer route, moving around the tall rows of books to get to it. Just as he was about to close in on the source of the sound, what seemed like a masked person charged at him all of a sudden!


    Zhang Heng was well prepared to handle attacks from such close proximity, and with the Paris Arrow on his bow, he couldn��t miss the target. Afterpleting a few quests, Zhang Heng��s heightened awareness had allowed him to take aim at his mark in a split second. Right before he could release the arrow, though, the bow unexpectedly twitched a little. In the end, the arrow flew past the person andnded on an English book.


    After that, Zhang Heng quickly turned his body to avoid the attack from the masked person. Before he could check his enemy out, Zhang Heng promptly pulled out another arrow from his quiver and reloaded his bow. He then aimed at the shadow that was heading towards the exit.


    This time, the arrow hit the person��s calf, causing him to lose bnce and falling to the ground. Seeming to be severely injured, and judging by the loss of mobility, Zhang Heng took the opportunity and shot a third arrow at the shadow. Without warning, the wall on the person��s left melted.


    Now, Zhang Heng had reencountered the ck liquid.


    This time the liquid engulfed the masked person, sucking him into the wall. Zhang Heng chose not to pursue it this time know how perilous it would be. Whether the elevator or the stairwell, he wouldn��t stand a chance against the ck liquid in such a confined space. Besides, there wasn��t much time left before the hour hand would strike twelve.


    After looking at his watch, Zhang Heng held his bow and stood guard, ensuring that creature wouldn��t return to the library again. He then turned around and walked towards the masked person and took off the mask. It was actually a girl, and she seemed to be a student at this university. Both her hands were tired, and there was a sock stuffed in her mouth. She seemed to have just encountered something terrifying, and the moment Zhang Heng untied her, she started to cry, running to hide under a table near him. She was clearly panic-stricken and was trembling uncontrobly.


    Zhang Heng picked up her student card that had fallen to the ground and saw that she was called Li Shengyue.


    ��You are safe now. The creature is gone.��


    Zhang Heng put aside his bow and handed back Li Shengyue��s card.


    It wasn��t until a minuteter before she snapped out of her fear. She snatched the card defensively from Zhang Heng.


    ��Zhang Heng?!��


    Li Shengyue was surprised to see that her rescuer turned out to be Zhang Heng.


    ��Wait. You know me?��


    ��I don��t know you, but I know that the creature was here for you.��


    The events that had taken ce tonight had gone beyond the realms of everything she knew. She began shaking each time the thought of what happened crossed her mind. Despite the stammers and stutters that she couldn��t control, she still tried her best to narrate whatever she knew to Zhang Heng.


    ��After the finals were over, they moved up the library��s closing time to six in the evening. In the afternoon, I wanted toe here to read, and I saw a kid around seven to eight years old standing outside. He told me that he wanted to enter the library to read someics. However, he couldn��t get past the turnstile and seeing the librarian wasn��t around, I unlocked the turnstile and let him in. I saw him heading to theic area on the second floor. So, I told him to look for me on the seventh before he exited the library. ��While I was reading, he came up, walked toward me, and asked me a question. He asked if I knew a certain Zhang Heng. He also told me that this person is a student here. I told him that there were thousands of students, and I couldn��t possibly know every single person here. Immediately, his face darkened the moment he heard what I said.


    ��I have never seen such a terrifying face on a kid. He had the look of a killer in his eyes! After that, he didn��t say a word and left me alone. I was struck by fear, and I lost the mood to read. Around ten minutester, I decided to leave the library, and I descended to the second floor to look for him. However, he wasn��t there anymore.


    ��In fact, I searched the entire library, but he was nowhere to be found. I thought he must have followed someone out, and just to be safe, I hung around until the closing of the library. Before I left, I went to the toilet. That��s when I saw something in the mirror. I saw...��


    Li Shengyue��s voice was trembling.


    ��You saw the wall melting into ck liquid?��


    Li Shengyue nodded vigorously.


    ��The ck liquid dripped on my shoulder and slithered onto my face. I felt that I was suffocating, and my survival instincts kicked in, telling me to get out of this ce. When I tried to move my leg, I found that I was paralyzed. It was an awful feeling! Soon after that, I passed out. When I woke up, I found myself tied up here.��

 Chapter 273 - Neutral

    <h4>Chapter 273 Neutral</h4>


    Zhang Heng sent Li Shengyue back to her dormitory. It was at that time that he received a message from Shen Xixi telling him that the ck liquid had given up on pursuing her all of a sudden. She also asked about his current whereabouts and situation. Before Zhang Heng could reply to her, he received a friend request.


    The person��s name was, ��Why Do You Always Look Unhappy (# 0��)��


    Zhang Heng prompty rejected the friend request. Two secondster, he received another request from the same person. This time, it came with a side note.


    [No one can reject me twice. No one!()*?w?))]


    Zhang Heng read it, and once again, rejected the friend request.


    Almost instantly, the person sent Zhang Heng another request. This time, the side note was different.


    (Someone smart like me knows that you will reject my friend request again. Am I right? Hehe. (ZV**)]


    This time, Zhang Heng epted it and sent a reply.


    (Whatever you just did ispletely meaningless.)


    (No. It��s not meaningless. Wait! Hold on right there! Don��t block me. I asked for your contact from Shen Xixi. There��s something important that I need to tell you.]


    (Eh?]


    (You��re cold-blooded, and you��re definitely not a real man. However, I��m surprised that you stuck to your promise. I��m d you didn��t run away. Have you killed that thing?]


    (That has nothing to do with you.]


    [Hehehe! I��m just showing my concern. Do you know how dangerous the situation was just now? We were so close... so close to meeting our maker tonight. This is the golden opportunity to eliminate that creature. Shen Xixi asked for your whereabouts just now. If I tell her that you��re the one who saved us, I��m pretty sure you��ll gain an extra fan.)


    (Your stomach no longer aches?]


    (I feel better now, but there��s still some lingering pain r_1. I��ll go to the clinic for a checkup tomorrow.)


    Why Do You Always Look Unhappy (#��O��) sounded serious. Soon after that, she sent another message to Zhang Heng.


    [Don��t worry, don��t worry. I know that you don��t like to show yourself. I told her that I don��t want you to know I��m a yer, and I��ve asked her to hide in the park first. She still doesn��t know that you��re a yer. Oh right. I told her that we knew each through an online game. Don��t forget that you asked me out for hotpot! (*�� v��))]


    After that, Zhang Heng replied Shen Xixi and told her that everything was fine. She then informed Zhang Heng that the creature had fled. As of now, she couldn��t figure what had happened as well and reminded him to be extra cautious of his surroundings. If a simr thing were to happen again, he could contact her immediately, and she would assist him in the shortest time possible.


    Zhang Heng thanked her for the offer; his gratitude genuine. Until now, Zhang Heng had met several yers, where most of them were friendly and courteous �C just like Ding Si and the professor who had both given him some useful advice. However, there were limits to their kindness, only imparting information after having ensured that their own interests were protected.


    A yer who was willing to risk her life to save others like Shen Xixi was indeed hard toe by. For those who had been oppressed for a long time, they wouldn��t just simply pursue their long-desired justice or rescue someone weaker than them. Instead, they would turn from being the victim to the oppressor. After getting their revenge, they would use their influence to bully the weaker ones. What they had always hated wasn��t how unfairly they had been treated, but rather, hated that they weren��t the ones who had brought that injustice to this world.


    What made Shen Xixi such a unique breed wasn��t because she didn��t go down the path of darkness, but because she was willing to use her precious game items to rescue ordinary humans. It was no easy path to take. It was a miracle that she was still alive and even gather a group of like-minded yers. After all, they were countless yers in the system, and some were just as kind and righteous as Shen Xixi. However, the reality of the situation differed from fairytales. In fairytales, the righteous would somehow always defeat evil, and light always overcame darkness. In reality though, a strong sense of righteousness and moral outlook meant that the yer��s chances of survival would be lower since more risks would have to be taken.


    Those who had chosen to walk this path were either dead. or had given up due to the unbearable hardships they had to face. The fact that Shen Xixi kept walking on the noble path was enough to prove that she had strong determination, leadership, and charisma. As for Zhang Heng, he was apletely different species altogether. ording to D&D��s Alignment System, Zhang Heng was to be considered ��neutral.�� He had a mature set of beliefs and would live his life ording to his principles. No temptation from this world could shake his solid foundation.


    At times, he would help those who were stuck in a tough situation, but he wouldn��t do it all the time, not like Shen Xixi. She would even risk her life to save strangers. Unless the person was dear to him, he would never risk his life for someone he didn��t know. In other words, Zhang Heng and Shen Xixi were twopletely different people. However, that didn��t stop him from admiring her. He was also willing to provide whatever help he could offer if Shen Xixi were to be in trouble. After all, it wasn��t a bad thing to have more people like Shen Xixi in this heartless world. If Wang Yu and the other yers who supported Shen Xixi didn��t exist, Zhang Heng wouldn��t mind revealing his true identity to her. After replying Shen Xixi, Zhang Heng put his phone away and nced at his watch. There was only a minute left before midnight. His private time was about to arrive soon. That said, Zhang Heng had no intention to let go of that creature. Clearly, it was targeting him all the while. Even though it was now injured and its weakness exposed after getting hit by the Paris Arrow, Zhang Heng knew that it would be extremely troublesome to deal with if he didn��t take the opportunity to kill it now.


    Besides, his university was exposed, and he didn��t want to live in fear for the rest of his life. He didn��t want to live with the constant thought at the back of his mind that the walls around him could melt and consume him. Before he went after the creature, he first returned to his dormitory to greet Ma Wei. After that, he grabbed something with him before he left the hostel. It was midnight the moment he entered the elevator to ascend to the first floor.


    Zhang Heng had his bow with him when the doors of the elevator opened. He swiftly ran past the dorm aunty, who was in a sweatshirt and cotton slippers. She waved a U-shaped lock midair and yawned at the same time. Zhang Heng was familiar with a world where time could be paused for him. Although still somewhat curious, he had lost the initial excitement when he first came into this world where time stopped. To him, this world without time was like a wax museum filled with ultra-realistic figures.


    This time, there was something important that he needed to do.

 Chapter 274 - Caught You

    <h4>Chapter 274 Caught You</h4>


    Zhang Heng followed the blood trail from the library to an orphanage. The whole tracking process wasn��t as simple as one thought it would be. Although the shadowy figure��s calf was injured, it did not need to rely on legs to flee Zhang Heng since the ck liquid allowed it to travel from wall to wall. However, moving within the confines of walls was no good feeling, and from time to time, it would need to stick out its head for a breath of fresh air.


    Each time the figure emerged from the wall, it would leave a few drops of blood on the ground. The creature��s blood was unique, and it was easily identifiable. Thicker than the blood of an ordinary human, it was darker, almost ck, in fact. Not to mention the putrid stench it gave off. Still, it was no easy task to track droplets of blood in such a massive city.


    Zhang Heng strung his recurve bow to his back. With a shlight in one hand and phone in the other, he opened the Gao De map application and studied it. Discounting what it did at the library, the creature usually avoided showing itself in crowded ces. It always targeted the city��s weakest bunch, the lower rungs of society. This meant many people had never seen it before. Now that it was injured, it would be even more cautious of its surroundings. With the electronic map, Zhang Heng eliminated ces that had a high volume of people at this hour. For example, the main road and the food street that operated untilte at night. Picking a couple of secluded areas, he then singled out spots with the highest possibility where the creature would go. From there, he would follow the order and zone in on the selected areas until he found the special blood on the ground. A search like this would be tedious and time-consuming since he was the only one looking.


    However, all he needed was to look for five spots with blood on the ground, and he could figure out the location of the shadowy figure. After that, everything should be lessplicated. Of course, some time would be needed to pinpoint the exact ces on the map. After searching the boarding school and nearby hospital, he found no traces of the creature or that it had been there. Thest ce he would need to search was the orphanage in front of him. Including the day, Zhang Heng hadn��t closed his eyes or rested for more than 30 hours. Hence, he didn��t rush there and instead, headed to a nearby grocery store for some coffee. As usual, he left the money on the cashier��s desk and walked out.


    Zhang Heng felt a lot more alert after the dose of strong coffee. Making sure to leave no trace, he wiped his saliva and fingerprints off the bottle with a piece of tissue, then threw them into a dustbin half a street away. The coffee��s extra boost of energy got him moving again, and he climbed over the gate of the orphanage.


    At suchte hours, most of the orphanage�� staff had gone home, leaving only a few guards, caretakers, one doctor, and four nurses who were on duty. It seemed to be another routine night, with the guards ying cards in their mess like they always did. The doctor was preparing for an evaluation in his office. As for the nurses, one was dozing off, with the other three busy ying Honor of Kings. The first floor housed the emergency, and duty room. There was also an observation room, a children��s restaurant, staff mess, and a multipurpose hall, but these ces werepletely empty right now. Seeing that the first floor was of no concern, Zhang Heng quickly ascended to the second floor, where most of the dormitories of the orphans were located. After scanning the caretaker��s mess and activity room on this floor, he found nothing. So, he moved his attention to the dormitories. At a corner in the west, Zhang Heng noticed a bed that had been isted by the orphans. It appeared the orphans were terrified of the person whoy there, and although mere meters from the rest of the beds, a vibe of great segregation could be felt.


    Right now, the other orphans were already asleep in their own bunks, but Zhang Heng saw nobody on the isted bed. As he lifted the nket, he saw a used medical bandage stained with blotches of ck blood, confirming the creature was now in this orphanage. Stepping back to look at the namete hanging in front of the bed, the bed supposedly belonged to a child called Zhang Jinli. The staff of the orphanage hoped that the child would someday grow up to be a polite and well-mannered person, just as his name suggested. Unfortunately, their wish didn��te true.


    In the picture, Zhang Jinli looked sullen and grumpy, with his eyes giving off a death stare. He gave off the vibe of a crazed murderer, a temperament unfit for someone so young. Considering the terrifying things that he had done, the picture was considered cute. ��Gotcha,�� whispered Zhang Heng in a low voice while taking down the picture. After Zhang Jinli had been wounded by the arrow, he returned to the orphanage and snuck into the emergency room to steal some bandages. He didn��t linger on the bed for too long, knowing that in his haste, he must have left a lot of evidence. Nheless, Zhang Heng deduced that it would be highly unlikely that he��d leave the orphanage now. After all, the wound on his leg was quite severe. Although Zhang Jinli was absent from his bed, Zhang Heng remained calm and didn��t panic. He swiftly continued searching, and in the end, he found him in an examination room.


    The boy had hidden himself behind an ultrasound machine with his body curled up.


    Heng walked up towards him, then unwrapped the bandage that was hastily wrapped around his leg. The wound from the arrow was deep, and some kind of ck blood oozed from it. In such a state, Zhang Jinli was fragile and vulnerable. Also, with time now paused, he could no longer control the ck liquid or kill innocent people. Not even a finger of his could be lifted. Right now, the terrifying creature was nothing more but a motionless, delinquent child.


    Zhang Heng could have opted to kill him right now. This would be the first time Zhang Heng killed someone in a still world. Although the Mannerheim and ck Sail quests bathed him in a baptism of bullets, he was still uneasy whenever he took a life. However, his conscience wouldn��t bother him if it was the right thing to do. Besides, the kid that he was about to kill was probably not human anyway. He swung the knife, about to strike, but stopped short of Zhang Jinli��s throat.


    Zhang Heng frowned, seeing the hatred and insecurity that Zhang Jinli harbored toward this world in his eyes. He was different from Li Shengyue; having no fear whatsoever in his eyes. In other words, he controlled the ck liquid willingly. The wound on his leg and ck blood was also enough proof that he was the one who attacked Zhang Heng and Sheng Xixi in the school.


    There was still one thing bothering Zhang Heng. ording to Li Shengyue, Zhang Jinli was at the university that afternoon which meant he had left the orphanage. That said, with his ability to travel within walls, it wasn��t that hard for him to leave unnoticed. If he had left since the afternoon, it would be impossible that nobody realized the absence. However, when Zhang came across the orphanage��s staff, none of them seemed the least nervous that an orphan had gone missing for a long time now.

 Chapter 275 - Time To Take A Breath

    Chapter 275 Time To Take A Breath


    Zhang Heng lowered his utility knife and sliced through Zhang Jinli��s thumb until flesh and blood were seen. In this unnaturally still world, living beings defied thews of physics, and no blood flowed out from the small cut on the boy��s thumb. Now, Zhang Heng could finally see the color of his blood.


    Surprisingly, his thumb��s blood was in a different color from the blood on his leg. It was red. To be safe, Zhang Heng scraped away all the dried blood on his leg, and found that only the topyer was ck. It was still the regr red blood underneath it. From here, he confirmed that Zhang Jinli wasn��t the creature and was just an ordinary child from the orphanage. That said, he figured that the kid might be connected to the creature somehow, willing to shoulder the me, conceal the bandages under his nket, and even take an arrow to his calf. Even an adult would think more than twice before attempting such brazen feats.


    However, the child had no idea the price he would have to pay for helping the creature. If Zhang Heng hadn��t been paying attention to the staff��s reactions, he would have killed Zhang Jinli by now. After that, Zhang Heng kept his utility knife away, remembering that his real target was the monster and not some cynical orphan. If Zhang Jinli was the one that assaulted them, where was the ck liquid then?


    Almost 20 hours had passed since he entered the world where time stopped. In two hours, the hour hand in his watch wouldplete a full cycle, and factoring in the time needed to return to the dormitory, he was only left with an hour and a half to look for the monster. Right now, Zhang Heng had searched the entire orphanage building. Other than Zhang Jinli, he found no one else suspicious.


    If his target left the orphanage after it treated its wound, it would be bad news for Zhang Heng. He simply didn��t have time to search another area. He knew, however, that the creature must have had a purpose for choosing the orphanage. Orphans, like Zhang Jinli, rarely had the chance to interact with outsiders. Mostly, the kids simply didn��t trust them due to personal reasons.


    Since no orphans had left the orphanage, only one possibility could exin the whole situation. Zhang Heng entered the records room beside the B-super room and looked for the adoption records. He then picked the names of the orphans that had been adopted recently. Initially, he thought that he would spend a long time checking out the records, but when he saw an attached picture, he was left in shock. It turned out he recognized the person.


    Zhao Xiaotian was his name, given by this orphanage upon his arrival. The kid in the picture was someone Zhang Heng had met before. It was the one he rescued after witnessing the wall consuming an old woman on the street. During that time, Zhang Heng attempted to save the homeless woman but only managed to save her grandchild in the end.


    After the harrowing incident, he made a police report at the local station. He left the kid there as well, knowing that he was now in safe hands. ording to thew of the day, if the police failed to locate the kid��s rtives, they would be immediately sent to an orphanage. Zhao Xiaotian had been sent here about a month ago. Coincidently, Zhang Heng spotted him at the amusement park a few days before Christmas Eve, only to think that he misrecognized someone. Besides, he forgot about himpletely when Hayase Asuka and her pursuer exited the horror house.


    In retrospect, Zhao Xiaotian��s true identity was actually shadowed by doubt. Whether it was information that Zhang Heng gave the officer or his assumptions, both of them believed that Zhao Xiaotian was the olddy��s grandson. The boy had presented himself as the victim throughout the entire incident, but yet, there was no solid proof of his rtionship with the olddy. Generally, those who lived on the lower strata of society were close-knit, generously helping each other out in hardship. It was perfectly normal considering a stranger as a family member.


    When the ck liquid engulfed the olddy, Zhao Xiaotian simply stood there and watched silently. He did not cry or scream. At first, Zhang Heng thought that the boy must be in shock, but now, he looked at it in another way. Perhaps the kid was enjoying the scene of the old woman getting consumed by his masterpiece. Shen Xixi once told Zhang Heng that the creature would only target people of a lower ss.


    To get close, Zhao Xiaotian realized that he had to be epted as part of theirmunity. With his young age, they would let their guard down without much thought. Most homeless wouldn��t think of Zhao Xiaotian being a threat, considering what little they already had. It was the perfect camouge, a wolf in sheepskin. Without anyone knowing the boy��s real identity, he could take his time and pick his dinner.


    Now, Zhang Heng had a question in mind. Where could Zhao Xiaotian be? ording to the records, the boy had been adopted by a middle-aged couple that couldn��t bear child, and they lived in a humble Sihuan neighborhood. Even though a lead was in hand, Zhang Heng didn��t rush there immediately. Up until this point, Zhao Xiaotian was the most cunning nemesis he had ever encountered. A master at eluding its enemy, Zhang Heng had already made three wrong decisions thanks to him.


    When they first met, he made Zhang Heng believe that he was a victim. Then, during the library incident, he attempted to turn Li Shengyue into a scapegoat. There was too little time for Zhang Heng to deal with him in the library and in a split second, Zhang Heng had to shift his bow to aim at the true target. Now, at the orphanage, Zhang Jinli volunteered to help Zhao Xiaotian confuse Zhang Heng. Even Zhang Heng had to admit that it was aplicated strategy.


    Zhang Heng believed that Zhao Xiaotian��s framing of Zhang Jinli wasn��t the end of the saga, but the beginning of his retaliation. There were surely more evil ns up his sleeve, and if Zhang Heng stepped into his trap, high chance he would be thrown in jail for murdering someone innocent. Though Zhang Heng had some powerful game items on him and a wealth of experience, this ce was, after all, not 18th century Nassau. A single person couldn��t go against an entire country. Even if he managed to escape the authorities, he would need to live in the dark for the rest of his life.


    Zhao Xiaotian had an exceptional understanding of human society. All the while, he hunted in extreme caution and managed to stay under the radar of the authorities and the public. He even knew how to take advantage of thew of the day to benefit himself. The only thing he didn��t realize was that Zhang Heng had an extra 24 hours each day. Based on Zhang Heng��s understanding of him, once Zhao Xiaotian marked his target, he would stalk it and control it. It appeared he was somewhat of a sadist, fond of watching his prey struggle and fight for their lives. Unfortunately, he messed with the wrong people this time.


    After that, Zhang Heng studied the orphanage��s blueprints again, and this time, he found something new. The walkway on the second floor was 50cm shorter than the one on the n. A window which was supposed to be there was also gone. In other words, the wall��s original structure had changed.


    ��I think it��s time for you toe out and take a breath.��


    Zhang Heng didn��t wait for an answer and proceeded to the construction site next to the orphanage. Around ten minutester, he returned with a huge demolition hammer in his hands.

 Chapter 276 - Closure

    Chapter 276 Closure


    A red Volkswagen Polo pulled up to parking lot No.6. The bartender turned off the engine and got out of her car as her khaki-colored martin boots crunched into the snowden ground.


    Spanning more than eleven square kilometers, Nanhaizi Park was considered one of thergest wends among the suburbs. It was a colossal area equivalent to four Summer Pces and used to be hunting grounds of royalties who once lived there. Apart from having a wide range of foliage, wild Pere David��s deer also made the wends their home. Considering that it was quite a distance from the city, it wasn��t a ce frequented by many, not to mention that it was now two in the morning. No one in their right mind woulde to such a remote location at this hour.


    Other than the red Polo at the sixth parking lot, not a single living soul could be seen. The bartender, however, wasn��t afraid or anxious about the ce. She slipped a cigarette into her mouth from the half-smoked pack of Marlboro��s. She lit it and immediately took two long drags, before cing the fag between her fingers and tapping her phone with her thumb.


    ��Come out. There are no cameras here.��


    Five minutester, Zhang Heng dragged a suitcase out of the woods with him.


    ��Why do you need 20 game points to deal with a dead body?��


    ��Please. I had to look for a recement while I drove all the way out here to help you deal with this. It��s a long drive. Don��t forget that fuel costs money. Besides, you are about to extract game items from the body, right?��


    The bartender popped the trunk of her Polo, pulled out a stic sheet, andid it on the ground, then signaled Zhang Heng to bring the body over.


    ��It��s this guy,�� she said while opening up the bag. ��You know him?��


    ��When the adults have a party in the house, they would usually attract the kids next door.��


    She took twost puffs from the cigarette and tossed the butt aside, then pulled a pair of medical gloves from her pockets.


    ��Zavilcha. If I��m not mistaken, he was supposed to be a monster from an old vic fairytale. His name is almost forgotten these days, even in Russia. At first, parents used the story to scare their kids into returning home before sunset. They were also forbidden to y with kids they didn��t know or follow them home. That��s because Zavilcha would use his evil abilities to manipte the walls in his house and consume those children.��


    As she spoke, the bartender brought out her toolkit and pulled out a scalpel from it.


    ��You are actually quite powerful. This creature was weak, and it didn��t have anybat power as well. However, its evil intention was the key to his skills. In a city filled with tall buildings, it can easily defeat you if you pay all your attention to its intentions and ignore its true form. ording to what I know, Zavilcha is very good at hiding himself.��


    The bartender lifted Zavilcha��s leg as if she was going to add it to her soup.


    ��Oh, right. You want to snap a photo or something? Once I cut him up, his body is no longer... perfect.��


    ��Ugh. No, thanks. I don��t have weird fetishes.��


    ��Okay, then,�� shrugged the bartender.


    With swift and precise moves, she cut off Zavilcha��s second toe and ce it into a Tulewood box. ck blood oozed out of the severed limb.


    ��As usual, I will give you the identification results in three days. After that, I will deliver the item to you. Don��t worry about the orphanage and his foster parents. I��ll deal with them. This will be the best 20 game points you��ve ever spent.��


    The bartender stowed everything in the trunk and took off her gloves.


    ��Okay. It��s a wrap. I��m heading back to the bar. Are youing with me?��


    ��Sure, if it��s no trouble for you.��


    She started the engine, and Zhang Heng opened the door of the passenger��s side.


    It had been a long night. Hunted by the creature called Zavilcha, they both crossed paths at the library for a short moment. Then, at the stroke of midnight, Zhang Heng started to hunt him down with his extra 24 hours. The entire debacle hadsted for a grueling 20 hours, and it wasn��t until he used the sledgehammer to demolish the wall at the end of the second floor that he finally found his target. After confirming that Zhao Xiaotian was the assant, Zhang Heng slit his throat without any hesitation. However, he wasn��t sure if it was enough to kill him. To evade the authorities, Zhang Heng shoved the body into an extrarge suitcase and brought him to the remote wends. There were no walls around Nanhaizi Park, which meant Zhao Xiaotian could no longer use his ability to attack Zhang Heng. Considering that his throat had been slit, he could do nothing even if he was still alive. Once the extra 24 hours were up, Zhang Heng contacted the bartenderdy to negotiate the fee for taking care of a dead body. The moment the price was right, she drove to the park and did what she was paid to do. And this was the end of the whole thing. With only 20 game points, Zhang Heng could rest his case of getting attacked by someone hiding within the confines of solid walls. As a bonus, he had also solved the case of the missing homeless on the streets. ��Do you want to have some tea? My treat.��


    The bartender set up her navigation system and took out a bottle of Dongfang tea from the glovebox.


    ��You��ve been reserving this tea for yourself, huh?��


    ��I have a vacuum sk with me.��


    A simple statement like that proved that no matter how cool the youngster, how rich an executive manager, how carefree the hipsters, or how powerful the deities were, they would have to start thinking about preserving their lives one day.


    After hearing what the bartender said, Zhang Heng grabbed the tea from her and gulped it down since he was thirsty. A ton of unanswered questions stilly within his heart. Whether it was Zavilcha or Moresby, it seemed like something big was changing in the world he lived in. If these creatures were living among humans for a long time, what made them gather all of a sudden? Was it the game, or was it some other factor? So far, all the creatures that Zhang Heng encountered were weak and hungry. How did they end up like this? Were there new creatures that were stronger, and would eventually rece them?


    Unfortunately, the bartender was in no mood to answer any questions. The moment the red Polo was on the move, she stuck her earbuds into her ears to the tune of Guo Degang��s Xiangsheng

 Chapter 277 - Betty’s Shell and Evil Wall

    Chapter 277 Betty��s Shell and Evil Wall


    Now that Zavilcha was dead, Zhang Heng could finally enjoy his holiday. The bartender sent him back to his dormitory, where he slept until the next afternoon. Upon waking up, he texed Why Do You Always Look Unhappy (#��O��), telling her to inform Shen Xixi that the monster was dead.


    Almost instantly, Why Do You Always Look Unhappy (# ��O��) agreed. Then, the curious girl began asking his whereabouts and how the fight with the monster went. She even asked if he had recorded the whole thing, or if he acquired any game items, or had fun...


    Zhang Heng didn��t know what to do with Why Do You Always Look Unhappy (#��O��). He didn��t even know her name. They first met outside the bar��s toilet, and unintentionally, ruined her n. Not too long after that, he met her again at the shopping mall in a Kumamon suit, trying to prank him and Hayase Asuka. Even though she tried to convince Zhang Heng that it was merely payback for what he did, he had other ideas. He thought Why Do You Always Look Unhappy (#��O��) did it to satisfy a peculiar fetish of hers. Too bad her prank didn��t work in the end.


    After the failed n, Why Do You Always Look Unhappy (#��O��) transformed herself in the image of Ma Wei and asked Zhang Heng to fix his bicycle. It was at that time that she wanted toe up with another prank. s, she failed again. If the monster hadn��t appeared then, Zhang Heng nned to use his 24 hours to find out more about her.


    Why Do You Always Look Unhappy (#��0��) was surprisingly decent when Zavilcha appeared in front of them. Instead of running away when the wall consumed Zhang Heng, she decided to stay back and help him. After that, she even followed his instructions to protect Shen Xixi. If Zhang Heng��s promise was to be believed, he was supposed to forgive everything that she did.


    Onest thing bothered Zhang Heng, though. Why Do You Always Look Unhappy (#��O��) knew that he was a yer. She shouldn��t bring him too much trouble, for now at least. So far, Zhang Heng had yed all the quests in single-yer mode, and as far as he knew, he made no enemies so far. Besides, he had no valuable game items on him as well, technically eliminating him as a target even if people knew he was a yer. As for Why Do You Always Look Unhappy (#`O��, it seemed she was connected to the mysterious woman in shades at the auction. The information she had with her would interest a lot of people.


    Zhang Heng didn��t answer Why Do You Always Look Unhappy (#oo��)��s questions, putting his cellphone aside. Now, he would attempt to live a regr life. Other than studying and the everyday workout, he even added a little social activity to his life. For that, he went hiking with members of the photography club that didn��t return home and joined a few activities organized by the rock climbing society. Being a member for a while now, he rarely showed up. At the same time, the results of his final examination were out as well. Things were definitely more convenient now than his senior year, where all he needed to do was go online and check for himself. The best thing was that he could view them privately, thus saving him any potential embarrassment if the results didn��t shine.


    Thanks to the extra 24 hours each day, everypulsory subject that he took ranked among the top five, except for English, that was. Thankfully, and to his surprise, he garnered a perfect score for Advanced mathematics, discounting five marks that had been deducted because he skipped a ss. Since many of the elective courses were essays and open papers, their scoring was more subjective. His worst was getting the twelfth ce in happiness studies. As for critical thinking, he got a full score, but somehow, Zhang Heng found it to be useless. Even if a perfectly logical reason for an argument was to be found, it was almost always impossible to persuade a person devoid of logic in the first ce. It was a reason whyizens could never be convinced during an online argument. In the end, it would simply fizzle out with everyone thinking it as banter and trolling As for his English results, they were directly rted to the band-six results, and he had to wait until February. With his current English proficiency, it shouldn��t be a problem reaching a score of 609. Even without the additional points from the assignments, his final exam was enough to gain proper credits.


    The two unidentified items he had left with the bartender were mailed to him earlier. He excitedly opened the package, feeling as if he��d just received a delivery from Taobao. [Name: Betty��s Shell]


    (Grade: E]


    [Effect: Consumes your anger to summon a storm at sea. Lasts for 15 minutes. Storm��s level depends on the user��s anger level.]


    This was an item acquired from the ck Sail quest. When he returned to the real world, he had attempted to contact Betty, the Celtic god, but to no avail. He had a bad feeling about it all, and due to Betty��s weakened state, theymunicated only shortly each time. From there, he discovered that Betty, just like all the other characters in the game, didn��t know she was in a game. He received further confirmation when she actually chose him to help her recruit more worshippers.


    Zhang Heng��s experience in ck Sail told him that all the quests he entered so far were a copy of real-world history. Considering Betty��s state when they met, there was a high chance that she was now dead or had disappeared since a few hundred years had passed. This shell was the only thing she left behind, and the game��smittee ced it in the ck Sail quest. Now, for the other game item, Zhang Heng had freshly gotten it from Zavilcha. Having a ��unique�� look, Zhang Heng wasn��t sure about carrying it with him all the time.


    <b>n</b>


    [Name: Evil Wall]


    (Grade: D]


    [Effect: Reconstructing a wall��s structure. Form can be swapped from solid to liquid. Remaining uses: 4]


    The first thing Zhang Heng did was test its effect, and to his surprise, it worked better than he initially expected. Having experienced Moresby, Zhang Heng knew that game items extracted from monsters would be weakened, and the Evil Wall was no exception. Although impossible to be used in the same way as Zavilcha, it was surely a handy tool to get through forbidden zones or escape abyrinth. Of course, as in the manner of all things, it came with its own weakness.


    It could only be used when there were walls around and would work perfectly in a city but was useless in vast open spaces with no concrete walls in sight.


    All in all, Zhang Heng was satisfied with the two game items he acquired.

 Chapter 278 - Apollo Training Camp

    Chapter 278 Apollo Training Camp


    Although Spring Festival was still two weeks away, the bar was already warming up, with New Year decorations strung generously over the windows and walls. On the second floor, the bartender had already stered the lounge with little red trinkets for the uing celebrations.


    Zhang Heng raised his eyebrows, ��A fortune dog?��


    ��It��s the year of the dog �C when in Rome, do as Romans do.�� The bartender chewed on a piece of gum while tinkering with her new concoction, a New Year��s special.


    Today was the first day of February, and the lounge appeared empty as it always was during the first half of every month. Due to quests being randomly drawn, the yers would be like anxious students that were about to sit for their year-end exams, keen for that little bit of extra time for somest-minute revision. Traffic at the bar often surged at the end of the month.


    But Zhang Heng��s winter vacation had already startedst month, and it would go on until the beginning of next month. Having booked a ticket home in advance, he was set to leave in a few days. Although he could locate other game checkpoints in his hometown, he wasn��t as familiar with them as he was with Sex and the City. Not to mention that he needed to wipe off any trace of his decade-long life as a rugged pirate.


    For those reasons, Zhang Heng decided to use up the month��s game frequency in advance. However, this meant that his n to return to the previous quest would have to be dyed. ��Happy New Year.��


    Zhang Heng sat down at the booth, then set the rm and ced it in front of him.


    ��Happy New Year and have a good trip,�� replied the bartender. She didn��t look up from her work, but rather, dropped some dry ice into the cocktail ss with a pair of tongs. Soon, white steam filled the rim of the ss and gently poured out like a waterfall. About fifteen minutester, the rm rang, and Zhang Heng felt a familiar dizziness. Then, the system prompt yed in his ear.


    (yer identity verification]


    [Verification approved. The fifth quest is randomly selected for yer 07958.] (Extractionpleted �C Current Quest: Apollo Training Camp]


    (But why, some say, the moon? Why choose this as our goal? And they may well ask why climb the highest mountain? Why, 35 years ago, fly the Antic? Why does Rice y Texas? We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to ept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too.]


    It is for these reasons that I regard the decisionst year to shift our efforts in space from low to high gear as among the most important decisions that will be our best to organize and measure our abilities and skills. Because we are willing to ept this challenge, we will not want to dy it, and we must win.��


    [Mission Objective: Try looking at earth from a different angle]


    (Mode: Single yer; Competitive mode)


    [Time flow rate: 240]


    (One hour in the real world is equivalent to 10 days in this game. yer will be returned to the real world after sixty days) Friendly reminder: The game will begin in five seconds. Please get ready.


    The message for this quest sounded unprecedently rich. It simply couldn��t be helped because the Apollo project was simply too famous. When he heard of Mannerheim Line and New Providence, it had taken him a while to register the information. After all, most weren��t too familiar with the Winter War and Nassau��s pirates. No one, however, hadn��t heard of the Apollo Project.


    Being the first man tond on the moon, Armstrong carved his name along with mankind��s grandiose ambitions in the history books of human space exploration. He was as famous as Gagarin, the first human to journey into outer space. Although the space race had its origins from a bitter andplicated political rivalry, it was undeniable that it yed a considerable role in the advancement of engineering, technology, and exploration beyond the confines of Earth. Many of these technologies, first tested in space by the military, were gradually converted to civilian use. Satellites, once a top-secret military project, had changed the way humans lived, now indispensablemunication tools. More importantly, this period in history demonstrated extraordinary bouts of courage and humankind��s relentless spirit of exploration. It also inspired China, India, and other countries to venture into space. The quest��s background introduction was an excerpt from Kennedy��s distinguished moon-speech in 1962.


    For now, though, Zhang Heng��s focus was on the words ��single yer withpetitive mode��.


    Unlike most yers who preferred to y in a team, Zhang Heng had finished all his quests solo. However, in the previous four games, he was always the only yer, not to mention that the missions were also always in single-yer mode.


    Now, with the addition of the word petitive,�� did it mean that he would encounter other yers? The five seconds given for preparation was brief, to say the least. Before Zhang Heng could specte the matter further, the game had already begun. The first thing he saw was a beam of blinding white light washing upon him. Zhang Heng pushed the spotlight above his head away and saw that he was standing in a sealed room. Next to him were six other people, dressed in the same blue uniform he was wearing.


    Zhang Heng looked down and saw a NASA logo on the left of his chest, and on the right was his ck identity card with an English name on it �C David.


    Unsurprisingly, the organizingmittee had always done a good job of protecting yers�� privacy. In a quest where more than one yer was present, they would ensure that each one received an alias. And if he was right, his appearance would also be altered to a certain degree. Since he didn��t have a mirror on hand, he couldn��t say for sure how he looked right now.


    Nevertheless, Zhang Heng could feel that he was still in his own body, and his strength and agility seemed to be where it was. That was good news.


    For now, he didn��t have the time to observe the other yers; his attention drawn to therge, peculiar instrumentid before him.


    ��- Aerotrim (multi-axis trainer) is designed to simte a situation on a three-axis gimbal that can be rotated in any direction. This contraption will help you familiarize yourself with unforeseen situations that you may face in space. Once the pilot is strapped in, it will start to spin. If you still don��t understand it, imagine yourself as a cat getting spun around in a drum of a washing machine. Your task is to stabilize the instrument before you pass out.��


    Standing opposite them was an instructor, also in a blue uniform. He looked at the seven trainees before him, then dered, ��Our first victim, Anderson.��


    All seven candidates lowered their heads and nced at the identity card on their chests. A slightly overweight man named Anderson looked devastated.


    ��Aww,e on! Ain��t this a little too harsh for our first time? What the hell is this thing anyway? Does ite with a manual?��

 Chapter 279 - Dinner and the Multi-Axis Trainer

    Chapter 279 Dinner and the Multi-Axis Trainer


    The portly fellow named Anderson spoke in mandarin. Although speaking in a hushed tone, the yers could clearly hear what he was saying. He looked at the people around him with pleading eyes. ��Err, you... anyone has an idea how to work this damn thing?��


    The only answer he received was silence.


    The Apollo Program was in operation from 1961 to 1972, and it had been around for fifty years. It was an early space project, where at that time, the United States had justpleted the first human spaceflight program, the ��Mercury�� project, sessfully sending astronaut n Shepard into space. Back then, training facilities were very different from the current ones.


    Those interested in astronaut training would have perhaps heard of centrifuges and neutral buoyancyboratories. Still, a facility with a piece of multi-axis training equipment was rare �C it was also Zhang Heng��s first time encountering such a contraption. From the instructor��s description, it seemed that the machine was an ufortable experience. Very. Those who paid attention would have noticed that he employed the term ��victim.��


    Since Zhang Heng confirmed that there was nothing wrong with his hearing, it could only mean that the training wasn��t going to be easy. Considering that everyone had just entered the quest, they still hadn��t quite made sense of the situation that they were really in.


    Typically, the first person chosen from a line of new recruits would undoubtedly be in the most disadvantageous position. Thanks to the guinea pig of a tubby man, the yers were never more eager to gauge how the instrument worked and see first hand how severe the simtion would be. Lab rat Anderson was probably the only one who didn��t think that way. When he saw the instructor, already at the ready, looking a little impatient, he knew he couldn��t put it off any longer. He had no other option. Realizing that no help wasing, and with no other yers willing to take his ce, he dragged himself to the instrument and sat down.


    An assistant quickly fastened Anderson into the seat, then retreated to the control panel before the nervous trainee could protest.


    Sweat soaked the chubby man��s cor, and he gulped. ��I... Can I...��


    ��Whatever it is, save it for after the training,�� the instructor interrupted coolly before signalling the assistant to flip the switch.


    Apanied by a loud mechanical grinding, multi-axis training device whirred to life and began to rotate. Zhang Heng and others now understood what the instructor meant by ��like a cat thrown into a washing machine.��


    The chubby man strapped into the seat looked terrified as the machine began to rotate on its axis, tossing and turning his body in the air. That, however, was only the beginning. Half a minuteter, the instructor said, ��Speed up.��


    Anderson was so dizzy that he lost all orientation, unable to recognize his bearings. It was a hundred times more exhrating than being tied to the front of a roller coaster, not in a good way, of course. He had already forgotten his reason for being there, and now, his instincts had taken over. All he wanted to do was to get through with the torment as quickly as possible.


    However, things only got worse for the poor sould. The instrument didn��t stop, and instead, the tumbling became more and more intense.


    When Zhang Heng saw this, he took two steps backward. At that moment, everyone��s still had their attention locked on the training device. No one noticed Zhang Heng��s discreet movements, except for a girl in sses who also retreated with him.


    The man on the multi-axis training device could no longer control himself. The muscles on his greenish face suddenly lost their tension, and arge stream of vomit came spewing out of his mouth.


    Those who were in the front were showered with a rain of gastric juice and half-digested food. The unluckiest person there had his mouth ajar, deep in thought about what he should do when his turn came. He didn��t expect to taste the bile even before he got on.


    The assistant noticed that the chubby trainee had gonepletely unconscious. Worried that Anderson would choke on his own vomit, the machine was promptly turned off. Quickly, a team of medics on standby rushed to Anderson, unbuckled him, and ferried him off the seat.


    As the staff was cleaning the instrument, the instructor had already started rolling the call again. ��Next, Anthony.��


    The yer named Anthony didn��t look any better than Anderson, and although a person had already gone before them, the ones waiting got even more anxious when they saw the toll it took on the poor man. Fear and dread began to seep among the freshies.


    Compared to the chubby trainee, this Anthony guy was in excellent shape and obvious gym buff. With arms taut in bulging muscles, he was probably a very good fighter, which gave him plenty of options on the table. Fleeing for one��s dear life didn��t sound so humiliating after all. His eyes swept across the room, falling on the staircase and door above it. Nheless, after a moment of hesitation, he conceded to fate and sat down on the training device as an honest man would.


    This wasn��t his first quest, and he was no rookie either. Since he wasn��t too sure about the situation he was in, the risk of escaping the room was just too significant. What more, their primary mission was to go to space. Space exploration had always been a massive undertaking, and other than the astronauts themselves, the entire venture required teams of scientists, and an enormous budget, to name a few. The Multi-Axis Trainer may be tough on the toughest of bodies, but it surely wasn��t deadly, and the trainees could find no reason to resist getting on the machine.


    Anthony obediently went through the pleasure of subjecting his body to a violent tossing and churning. He performed slightly better than Anthony, persisting for a good half-minute before vomitting only after leaving the machine.


    ��Livingston,�� The instructor soldiered on, indignant of the previous trainee��s condition as he called out the third name.


    Livingston was the oldest among the group, looking to be in his mid-forties. Donning a pair of signature gold-rimmed sses, he seemed very gentle, unlike Anthony. He gave off the vibe of the textbook nerd, one of those permanantly belonging in the category of intellectuals. He wore a wry smile on his face. After wiping some vomit from his sses, he handed them to an assistant.


    ��Great. At least we��ll soon find out what everyone had for dinner,�� muttered the girl who retreated with Zhang Heng. Her statement illustrated how helpless the yers felt as they understood that nobody was about to escape the ordeal.


    The roll call went by very quickly. Those who went on came knew that they shoulde down fast, especially after seeing the middle-aged man. When the multi-axis training instrument elerated, he begged for it to stop. The instructor relented and asked his staff to turn off the instrument.


    When the middle-aged man came down, he could barely stand up, albeit able to control himself until reaching the bathroom, where he hugged the toilet, retching and emptying out the contents of his stomach. When the other trainees saw this, they didn��t try to prove who the tougher man was. The moment they felt queasy, they asked for it to stop. At least, in this way, it could save them some embarrassment. Instead of going easy on the very-sickly looking team, Zhang Heng noticed that the instructor��s frown had only deepened.


    Finally, out of all the seven, Zhang Heng was the only one who hadn��t mounted the multi-axis trainer yet.

 Chapter 280 - Unprepared

    Chapter 280 Unprepared


    ��David, let��s begin if he is ready.��


    Zhang Heng witnessed the few before him getting on the machine, and when his turn arrived, it was apletely different feeling from what he expected. He noticed a small monitor in front of him on his right, set in an offset position. There were also two joysticks on his left and right. The machine seemed to be a crude contraption and looked simple enough to operate. However, the moment the Multi-Axis Trainer was turned on, he quickly realized how hard it was to stabilize his seat. Precise maneuvers were needed to control the power and angle, and just as he was starting to familiarize himself with the controls, the Multi-Axis Trainer sped up. Zhang Heng felt as if he was rudely tumbled around in a blender at full speed. As the machine rolled on its axis like a modern-day zorb ball, he started fiddling with the control sticks in an attempt to get upright. To be honest, he had no idea if they even worked. When he looked around him, all he could see was a kaleidoscopic blur of colors. The lights on the ceiling appeared for a moment and somebody��s legs, the next. In milliseconds, the pipes on the walls were in front of him. The scenes shed and repeated multiple times as the machine mercilessly dragged its helpless victims along with the ride. And the worst part was that the dinner in his stomach also started churning vigorously.


    Apart from the vomiting plump guy who was still in the toilet, a few yers who just recovered from their harrowing ordeal had started taking pleasure in Zhang Heng��s misfortune. After all, they obviously didn��t do well, and with dissatisfied hearts, naturally hoped that those who went after them would fail as well. After a while, the man with the gold-rimmed sses snapped out of his daze.


    ��How long has it been?��


    Everyone started looking at each other when the question was asked. They had just returned from a nightmare, and although they nced their surroundings from time to time, their attention was mostly on the instructor.


    Suddenly, a loud announcement could be heard.


    ��Two minutes and fifty-two seconds. It passes our average time and beats our worst record by twice.��


    The firm soundingss had short hair and looked to be extremely experienced. Clearly, she was now interested in Zhang Heng, havingid eyes on him since he took a step back from the fatso on the verge of puking. ��Thanks for the reminder,�� the overweight man grumbled. After getting fixed up by the medical staff, he had regained consciousness. However, puking all over his mates wasn��t going to do him well, and before he could even make friends, many already held a grudge towards him. Alienating an earthling in a space program might sound ridiculous, but so was the nature of humanity. Right now, he stood as far away from the crowd as possible, nervously wiping away the beads of sweat on his forehead that just wouldn��t stop flowing.


    ��What does that guy do? A pilot? An acrobat?�� asked Anthony.


    ��Who knows? I think he has the look of an assassin,�� the girl replied gleefully.


    While they were talking, Zhang Heng finally asked to stop the Multi-Axis Trainer. When both of his legs finally touched the ground, he was greatly disorientated, grabbing the rails of the staircase to stop himself from falling over. Living life as a pirate for ten years, he was forced to brave countless storms on Jackdaw. Hence, he could bnce himself better than most people, the reason why hested longer on the machine. After a while, though, he took to the toilet just like everyone else.


    When he came out, the six candidates were already gathered together at the same spot. ��To prevent any of you from forgetting my name, I��m going to introduce myself again. My name is William Kenhaus. You can call me Kenhaus or captain. It��s entirely up to you. As you know, we��ve justunched Apollo X three days ago. We n to orbit the Apollo Lunar Module around the moon for some initial testing. The data gathered will help us to better prepare for our first moonnding in the near future. So far, everything is woking as intended, and if all is nominal, the crew should return to Earth in five days. After that, we��re up.��


    The captain paused for a moment, cleared his throat, then continued.


    ��Apollo XI will send humans to the moon. However, we face one problem right now. A week ago, a few of our astronauts got infected by a new disease, and although our medical team tried their best to contain it, many caught the bug and are severely ill. In their current state, it would be impossible for them to carry out the mission. The main crew, their backup, and even the support teams assigned to fly and operate Apollo XI were infected as well. In other words, we don��t have enough people for theunch.��


    Zhang Heng and the other yers listened intently to the captain. ording to the history of NASA in the real world, no highly infectious disease had ever broken out in the space center. Seemingly, the developers of the quest were trying to insert it into this critical event. It was exciting to see how the whole thing was going to turn out with the addition of a new and unforeseen variable.


    ��Anyway, we are in need of personnel to run Apollo XI. The mission director attempted to talk to the president into dying the whole mission, but his proposal was unfortunately denied. Sputnik, Gagarin, and the Soviet Union are way ahead of us in space technology. Right now, the score is 2:0. We have to win this time, no matter the cost!


    ��I personally prefer to recruit very experienced pilots to be astronauts, but the president and mission director personally rmended all of you. I, for the life of me, cannot fathom why they would choose you lot. From what I see, you are worse than my grandma who fought in World War I! Since this is a direct order from themander in chief, I have no choice but to follow it. So, I will need you to put away your sorry asses and buck the hell up. ��From today onwards, I��ll be responsible for your training. If you are lucky, the crew of Apollo X might return on time. If they manage to recuperate from the journey, they will be assigned to fly Apollo XI. If that happens, touch wood, all of you here will only have to be the backup crew for the mission. You��ll be d that you don��t have to die in space. Okay. Any questions?��


    Every yer tried to digest the pile of information pouring into their ears as fast as they could. the moment they opened their eyes and saw their uniforms, most already knew what the mission was like. After listening to the captain, they now understood their current circumstance. Most of those present hadpleted several quests, and technically, experienced all manner of challenges the game would throw at them. However, this was the first time they were asked to fly to the moon since entering the game. Never in their wildest dreams would they expect to be strapped onto a rocket, sting themselves all the way to the moon.


    As the gravity of the situation dawned on them, grounding their feet ever closer to mother earth, they saw more anxiety in each other��s eyes than when they hopped on the Multi-Axis Trainer.

 Chapter 281 - This Is My Forte

    Chapter 281 This Is My Forte


    Twenty minutes after the grouppleted the gut-wrenching Multi-Axis Trainer, Zhang Heng and the other yers were sent to the next training facility by a minibus. Through the windows, he saw arge, white building flying two gs in the middle��the star-spangled banner on the right and a NASA g on the left. A humongous replica of a rocket stood majestically beyond the building.


    ��Kennedy Space Center is located on Florida��s east coast on an ind called Merritt Ind. It was built in the year 1962, and named Kennedy inmemoration of President John F. Kennedy!�� the high school kid chirped excitedly.


    ��Judging by our surroundings, I think we were at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station just now. The famous Project Mercury, Gemini, and early Apollo Missions all lifted-off from there. The coast enables rockets tounch toward the ocean without endangering lives. At the same time, the air force station is close to the equator as well. The location would give theunch vehicles an extra speed boost, making it easier to reach the velocities needed for orbit. However, the air force station couldn��t house the massive Saturn V rockets, which was why the Kennedy Space Center was built nearby.


    ��Hold on. Is Kennedy dead in this game?��


    ��Yes, assassinated in Das, 1963. Although he gave the famous speech about choosing to go to the moon, he died before he could witness it.��


    ��Everyone. Do I have to remind you again that this is not a tour bus? Aren��t you supposed to be more concerned about your current situation?�� said an anxious Anthony.


    ��Yes. It seems our main quest is to set foot on the moon or, at least, travel to outer space. Based on what I know, these two matters are just the same to me.��


    ��Why do you say so?�� asked the girl.


    She was the only girl on the team, and coincidentally, sat beside Zhang Heng when she got on the vehicle.


    ��Didn��t you know?�� asked the high school kid in surprise, before continuing.


    ��ording to history, Apollo 10 wasunched on 18.5.1969 at 12.49 a.m. The captain told us that Apollo 10 wasunched three days ago. That makes today the 21st of May.��


    ��So?��


    The high school kid leaned back on his seat and smiled at the girl.


    ��Well, Apollo 11 wasunched on 16.7.1969. Apollo 12 was thenunched on 14.12.1969. There were five months between these twounching dates. Considering the time we have for this quest, so...��


    ��Didn��t you tell us that America ran this project called Gemini?��


    ��Project Gemini was conducted between Project Mercury and The Apollo Program. It started in the year 1961, and after ten times of sending astronauts to orbit the Earth, the project ended in 1965. Toplete the main quest, we will have to get on Apollo 11.�� The high school kid wore this gravely serious look in hisst sentence. Suddenly, the chirpy atmosphere in the vehicle changed, and all eyes were on the kid.


    ��Why? Did something happen? Was Apollo 11 a dangerous mission?�� asked the plump man.


    ��Dangerous?��


    The high school kid then pointed at the NASA driver in front of them with a smile.


    ��Yes. This is, after all, humanity��s first attempt tond on the moon. Ordinary citizens like them could never imagine what it��s like to go to outer space! Even the scientists, engineers, and Nasa��s own astronauts were extremely nervous about the whole undertaking. The whole nation��s reputation was at stake. Now, since we are from the future, we know that this mission was a huge sess. One problem remains��how do we get on Apollo 11?��


    ��How many astronauts did the luna mission carry?��


    The girl asked the most important question that everyone wanted to ask. Immediately, the school kid put up three fingers.


    ��We have all heard of themander, Neil Armstrong, Lunar module pilot, Buzz Aldrin, and service module pilot, Michael Collins.��


    ��Only three? There are seven of us here.��


    This time, the fat man��s voice had changed.


    ��Is this your first time participating in a single-yer quest with apetitive mode? Do you know what the wordpetitive means?�� Anthony jibed whileughing. ��I... I usually y in a group. This is my first time entering a quest alone. The difficulty setting of the solo quests is too high. You know more than half the yers here will be eliminated by the end of this quest, right? Since I was young, I have never won anypetitive events. When ites to ranking, I have never breached the middle echelons as well.��


    ��So, why choose to work alone now?�� asked the girl.


    ��Well... because...��


    The fat man stuttered but couldn��t seem to produce a reason. In the end, Anthony had to be the one to reveal his weakness.


    ��Because you are too weak. You dragged your team��s feet. That��s why they abandoned you. After that, you couldn��t find a team that was willing to take you in. That��s how you ended up alone.��


    Though the plump man didn��t admit to it, his pale face was enough to prove that Anthony was somewhat right.


    ��Lucky us! That means one lesspetitor,��ughed the high-school kid in satisfaction with both his hands ced at the back of his head.


    ��You guys are so optimistic. ording to history, Apollo 11nded on the moon sessfully, but don��t forget Armstrong and his team were the ones whopleted the mission. Now, we have to do it. What are the odds of uspleting the mission sessfully?�� asked the middle-aged man with gold-rimmed sses. Immediately, everyone fell silent. Only the continuous hum of the vans�� loud diesel engine droned through the cabin. After a few minutes, Anthony spoke again. ��On the bright side, we still have 60 days to train ourselves.��


    ��Technically, 55, because Apollo 11unches on the 16th of July. Minus the quarantine period before theunch date, it leaves us with only 48 days. Take note that astronauts usually require two to three years of training. If the astronaut would be assigned to deep space explorations, at least five years of training would be needed. Payload specialists and scientists fare slightly better than an astronaut. They only need half a year of training,�� the high-school kid listed.


    ��How on earth are you so familiar with all these things? Even if you are well-prepared, you wouldn��t just go collect these random cold facts, right? You even know the preciseunch date of Apollo 11,�� said the girl, amused.


    ��That��s because I��m a space enthusiast. This round is my forte.��


    The high-school kid beamed with confidence.

 Chapter 282 - Not Fifty

    Chapter 282 Not Fifty


    In the conference room of Kennedy Space Center��s building number 12, the seven trainees each received a thick training manual from NASA. It was met with varying degrees of reactions.


    ��This sixty-page stuff is just an index?��


    Plump Anderson felt as if he was about to break down. ��Learning basic physics of rockets, aerodynamics, orbital mechanics, jet propulsion, astronomy... I get all these, but why in the world are biology, geology, and material science even in here? And I don��t understand the title ��electronic engineering.�� How can we cram so much in fifty-five days?��


    ��A gentle reminder �C that��s just the theoretical part of it,�� the high-school student said.


    ��What��s after that?�� Anderson groaned.


    ��Physical training, extravehicr activity, space disorientation training, spacesuit training, familiarity training, flight training, and emergency escape training ... anything and everything is possible. Apollo 11 is a fifty-year-old space project. To be honest, I cannot say for sure that these training regimes exist in this era,�� repled the student, who wasn��t looking too happy himself either.


    At first, he was the most excited amongst the yers. For an aerospace enthusiast, there was nothing cooler than taking to the skies, and getting into space on a spacecraft was the holy grail of it all, not to mention participating in one of the most important events of human history. Although it would be a bit of a fly in the ointment to be nting the American g on the moon, it was a game and would not affect reality or history. When the young man actually received the manual and saw how much an astronaut had to learn, he had a hard time smiling


    ��Battle royale?�� The hunk named Anthony shed the other guy a smile filled with sarcasm. ��Then, you should go straight to heaven.��


    ��There��s actually no need to be so pessimistic,�� Livingston the intellectual middle-aged man, pushed his sses into ce. ��There are three spots avable for Apollo 11, which means that in addition to the skills that each astronaut must master, each of us can forgo some of the training. We can perhaps, choose one particr aspect to focus on, andplement each other...��


    However, he was interrupted before he finished speaking. The thin and tall young man who looked a little listless said, ��Forget it, old man. Every one of us here ys solo except for that fat guy over there. Don��t treat the rest of us like we��re fools.�� Yawningzily, he continued, ��Don��t tell me that you didn��t notice captain William Kenhaus holding a little pocketbook in his hand. Every time one of us got off the multi-axis trainer, he would jot something down on it. If I��m right, he��s probably scoring our performance. These scores will probably decide who gets to fly on Apollo 11, and who will be the substitutes. You tell us to forgo some of the training and specialize in certain aspects, but the total of three sixty-points added up is much higher than a single eighty-points.��


    The middle-aged man adjusted his sses again, looking unfazed. ��I was just suggesting to increase our chances of survival afterunching...��


    ��Only on the premise that we can get into Apollo 11��smand and service module,�� the student chipped in.


    ��Actually... if you think about it, the chances of us getting selected are still very high,�� Livingston answered calmly.


    ��A fifty-fifty chance. That��s standard, apparently,�� Anthony frowned.


    ��Not fifty!�� The student��s eyes lit up as if he suddenly thought of something.


    The listless young man fiddled with the pen in his hand. After a short silence from the team, hezily asked, ��What?��


    The student looked at the only girl among the seven. She raised an eyebrow in defiance, asking, ��What?!��


    ��Unfortunately for your kind, you might have entered the wrong quest. If this quest��s level is difficult, then it could very well be hell for


    you.��


    ��How can you tell?��


    ��You really don��t know much about 1960s America, do you?�� the middle-aged manughed. ��Marilyn Monroe, the Beatles, Bob Dn... what else is worth mentioning from this era?�� the girl retorted.


    ��Although the Civil Rights Act of 1964 hade into effect, discrimination in society was unfortunately still rampant, not only toward people of color but also women. That was why the ��60s and ��70s saw the birth of many feminist movements. Very few women were allowed to join the jury; their bank loan approval rate was only half of that of men, and interest was fifty percent higher.��


    The student took over the conversation. ��Very few people know that in 1960, NASA implemented a project to determine whether women could be astronauts. Twenty-five female pilots were invited to undergo simr tests and assessment as Project Mercury��s male astronauts. Thirteen of them eventually qualified.��


    ��What happened to them?�� ��Although the 13 women received the same evaluation and training as the male astronauts, the officials never dered them as astronauts and didn��t arrange for them to enter the spaceflight training. It was said that NASA management believed that female astronauts would waste precious resources and distract the public from the male astronauts. In the event of an injury or death in the middle of a mission, it might give the public a negative perception of the program. So, in 1963, NASA fatefully terminated the training program for female astronauts.��


    The student paused. ��I must also mention that in that very same year, the Soviets sent Valentina Tereshkova, the first female astronaut into space. It��s all very ironic,�� he added.


    ��So, for me to be selected for Apollo 11, not only do I have to perform a bunch of superhuman feats, but I also have to pray that Captain Kenhaus and NASA��s top-brass are forward-looking men, and have no prejudice toward women?��


    ��I��m afraid so.��


    ��That��s just too bloody bad, innit?��


    The girl did her best to force a smile. She was sitting near Zhang Heng, but the moment she heard the unsavory prospects of being a woman, she adjusted herself, snuggling up so close to him they were practically touching.


    ��Three out of five. Looks like our chances are pretty good,�� Anthony beamed.


    ��This time, since we don��t have much time, I propose we get along with each other. We each have our own specialty; our particr skillets. May whoever with the highest score earn the right to fly on the mission,�� the middle-aged man dered as he looked at the only person in the room who hadn��t spoken from the start.


    Anthony and the high schooler also turned to look at Zhang Heng. Although the listless young man did not look back, he had stopped ying with the pen in his hand.


    Zhang Heng had been sitting in a corner, quietly flipping through the training manual. When he heard the statement, he looked up, shut the book, and said in a cavalier tone,


    ��I refuse.��

 Chapter 283 - Past Dismissal Time

    Chapter 283 Past Dismissal Time


    This was Zhang Heng��s first time meeting other yers in a quest. Before this, it had always been just him alone. He only had to think about his surroundings and the resources at hand to sessfullyplete the main mission. There wasn��t much else to consider.


    This time, however, there were six other yers in the Apollo Program��s training camp with him. No one knew each other beforehand, which meant everyone��s identity, skill, or game items they carried were a mystery.


    Seven peoplepeting against each other for three spots. Even if they were able to achieve a short-term truce, it wouldn��t make much difference in the end. Those who were falling behind wouldn��t just sit there and do nothing if their career was as stake. Of course, that wasn��t the reason why Zhang Heng refused to go along with Livingston��s proposal.


    Anyone who had yed games that involved killing people knew the importance of character design.


    The threats present in this round of the game weren��t just external but also internal �C between the yers themselves. As the game progressed, yers not only needed to study the mission in detail but also excel in their physical training. They would then need to size up their opponents, and figure which ones were the potential friend or foe.


    Although no one mentioned it, it was undeniable that those who ranked at the very bottom would have no choice but to get rid of the yer above them if they wanted to board Apollo 11. Therefore, under normal circumstances, the sooner someone outshone the other, revealing their cards too quickly, the easier it would be for them to be targeted by their opponents. That said, the actual situation at hand differed slightly.


    Because only three persons would be selected to fly Apollo 11, it wasn��t necessary for the yers to get rid of everyone who performed better than them. In fact, yers would need to consider many factors before making those choices. The scores, the opponent��s strength, rtionship, and the opponent��s subsequent role in the moonnding operations all had to be taken into consideration.


    It was also the reason why the high-school student shared information he possessed with the other yers and the middle-aged man who had attempted to be the team��s leader.


    Zhang Heng, on the other hand, opted for a different method. Thanks to the ck Sail quest, his temperament and general resolve had turned a tad fiercer and wilder than that of the ordinary person. When he first entered the game, he clearly sensed the other yers�� inhibitions toward him. Except for the girl who showed interest since the beginning, he could also sense that even the plump man, somewhat ostracized by the group, didn��t dare stand too close to him.


    It would have been a waste of effort to devote so much energy and time to change everyone��s opinions, and it might not make much of a difference anyway. Zhang Heng would rather stick to the image they had of him and would use it to send a message to potential enemies to consider the risks of going against him carefully. Sure enough, as soon as he said that, Anthony and the high-schooler looked at him differently, and Livingston��s brows furrowed. Through the course of their interaction, they realized that Zhang Heng could be a lot more difficult to deal with than they initially thought. Livingston, the intellectual of the group, actually posed the question to feel Zhang Heng out, sizing up the man��s determination. He didn��t expect him to be this unyielding


    Currently, it appeared that among the seven yers, Zhang Heng was the one not to be trifled with. And since he had made clear his intentions to disregard the other yers, it was going to be difficult for them to gain any useful information from him. He did this as a kind of barrier, preventing them from properly evaluating the threat he posed and reformting their strategies on the fly.


    Only the girl didn��t seem surprised. Instead, she appeared thrilled, and her eyes shone with the eagerness of a child.


    At that moment, the captain entered the room. ��Alright. I believe you��ve all taken a look at your training manual, and know that you��ll have to master everything in it. The bureau for knowledge has specially arranged for experts to teach you. sses start at four in the afternoon and break at six. You will continue with the second session from six-thirty to eight-thirty. The third ss will start at twelve and end at two.��


    ��Excuse me,�� the student raised his hand. ��The third lesson you mentioned; is that twelve noon to two in the afternoon? Shouldn��t that be the first ss, then?��


    ��No, you will have other types of training during that period. The third lesson I mentioned is from midnight till two in the morning.��


    The captain wore an unemotional, hard expression. Looking at the recruits below him with steely eyes, he grumbled, ��I believe you all know that we don��t have much time left. We need to make the best use of every minute and every second. I hope that that you won��t waste what little time we have by asking such stupid questions again!��


    Plump Anderson, who had the nick of saying the wrong things at the wrong time, opened his big mouth, ��We have sses in the wee hours of the morning? Even our college entrance examinations weren��t even this excessive!��


    The captain smirked, only to move aside to make way for an elderly man that looked like he could use a shower. With wild, unkempt hair and a greasy cor, he entered the room in a slow but steady stride.


    ��Professor Steve from the Manned Spaceflight Engineering Program will be exining Saturn V��s structure, and basically... basic rocket science.��


    ��Right now?�� Livingston looked bewildered. ��Shouldn��t we visit the space center first, learn about the current space program, get to know the logistics people we��ll be working with? And what food and lodging and such?��


    ��Don��t worry. We have arranged all your meals and amodation for you. As for the visit, it��s scheduled at 0600 hours tomorrow morning,�� The captain said as he flipped through the pages of what seemed to be a timetable.


    ��Wait. Didn��t you say that the third ss of the day will end at two in the morning? Then, we have to wake up by six?!��


    ��It��s ��assemble��.��


    ��I��m sorry?�� Anthony thought he had trouble hearing the captain.


    ��It��s ��assemble��, assemble at six, not wake at six,�� the captain corrected himself. ��Anyway, I wouldn��t want to waste more of your time. What you learn here will determine if you can survive in space. So, do yourself a favor, and work hard. Don��t get distracted.��


    When he was done, the captain took no more questions, and simply nodded at Professor Steve. ��Go ahead and start the lesson, professor.��


    Then, he left the conference room as he closed the door behind him. Right before he exited, the high-school student who had been closest to the door overheard the captain muttering under his breath, ��Ugh. These greenhorns...��


    The old professor handed out six hundred pages worth of materials to the recruits, then picked up a piece of chalk. ��Good afternoon to thedy and all of you fine gentlemen. d to meet you. Today, we��ll be looking at our first chapter: physics of rocket thrust...��


    Forty-five minutester, the bell that everyone had so badly anticipated did not ring.


    Steve might have appeared like a regr old man, a little shaky when he moved and all, but he sure didn��t look like he��d been standing for two hours. He didn��t even seem the least bit tired, not taking any breaks in between, not even until six o��clock. He just kept going on, and on, and on.


    ��Who was the one who said that capitalism keeps its student��s past dismissal time?�� A weary Anderson muttered.

 Chapter 284 - Are You Sure?

    Chapter 284 Are You Sure?


    After the ss, everyone felt that no different from afterpleting the Multi-Axis Trainer; their brains spinning nonstop after attending Steve��s Rocket Thrust Physics ss. Throughout the lesson, Steve mumbled like a machine gun out of control, seeming as if he wanted to spill everything he knew about the Saturn V rocket within an hour.


    Ten minutes into the ss, tubby was on the verge of crying, not even bothered to pick up his pen cap when it dropped on the floor. This time, someone reacted worse than him. And that person was Anthony. Ever since he received the learning material, he kept wiping the sweat off his brow.


    The knowledgeable middle-aged adult passed a piece of paper to Anthony. However, he did not take it from him. Instead, both his eyes were starting the level-three rocket structure in his book. He looked absolutely lost. He wasn��t the only one, though, as the high-school kid was no longer Mr-know-it-all, scratching his head and grabbing his hair in silence during the lesson. As for the girl beside Zhang Heng, she had closed her book and was leaningzily on her seat. Then, she startedining about the whole thing.


    ��Psst. All these English jargon... and no trantions in the book! Who the hell can understand them?!��


    Those who were bold enough to venture on single-yer mode were usually multi-lingual and had a good foundation in variousnguages. With English being the most widely usednguage around the world, it was naturally everyone��s first choice to master. However, each individual had varyingnguage proficiency. Although using English tomunicate wasn��t a problem for most of them, a situation like this would undoubtedly put their vocabry to the test.


    The high-school kid��s English was audibly better than most, and seeing that he was an aerospace enthusiast as well, he could recognize most of the technical terms used during the lesson. However, he still found it hard to absorb everything that Professor Steve was pouring out of his mouth. On the other hand, Anthony was already a state of total confusion. The knowledgeable middle-aged man seemed to be indifferent; the look on his face unchanged since the start.


    Nheless, the yer that surprised Zhang Heng the most was the listless young man. Among the seven, he was the one who had paid full attention, busily jotting down the professor��s teachings as he went on.


    The girl beside Zhang Heng noticed him staring at the young man. Out of curiosity, she too turned to look at the man sitting in front of her. Professor Steve was talking about the pressure in the J2 engine��s chamber and the consumption speed of oxidizing agents. When the girl leaned forward to get a better look, her breasts identally brushed Zhang Heng��s shoulder, her warm breath on his neck, causing a tingle on his skin.


    ��Is he serious right now, or is he putting on a show? Perhaps he��s silently cursing on his notebook.��


    The listless young man heard what she said. Unexpectedly, he turned around and smiled frivolously at her, leaving her in an abashed shock. She quickly looked back at Zhang Heng. After a while, she whispered into his ears.


    ��I don��t like him. I don��t think he��s a good person in the real world. And that uncle over there? I have seen people like him at work. These may look gentile and polite on the surface, but I know of the evil intention reeking within them, just waiting to burst out.��


    Zhang Heng kept staring at the ckboard, not responding to the girl. ��I can see that you are different from them. Though you might look fierce on the outside, I know you��re actually a good person...�� ��You sure about that? Unfortunately, I have killed many people. There were young kids, elderly, young soldiers with wives waiting for them toe home, and even hard-working fishermen that toil away on the shores. To be honest, I��ve forgotten how many died in my hands. They are both soaked in blood. I��m now numb, and I don��t really care anymore.��


    ��All these things happened in the game, right? You only did it to survive, I suppose. In the real world, however...��


    ��You have no idea what I look like and who I am in the real world. Vice versa, I don��t know what kind of person you are in the real world as well. But, I know what you want from me.


    ��The only thing I can tell you right now is that you chose the wrong target. If I were you, I would stop wasting time on me. One more thing, can you please keep quiet if you don��t mind. I know that you don��t care about this lesson, but it doesn��t mean that others are not interested.��


    Once Zhang Heng finished, Professor Steve turned around and grabbed his messy hair.


    ��Erm... so, this is what you need to know for the J2 engine. You canpare it to the F1 engine behind you. Next, we will take a look at the inter-stage rings. It has eight small rocket thrusters. Its function is to separate itself from the second stage of the rocket. It is considered one of the most important sections of the Saturn Vunch vehicle...��


    In that hour, Zhang Heng finally got to enjoy the silence that he longed for. It seemed like his warning worked on the girl, and she no longer whispered to him, nor did she grace him with any subtle touches of her body. He could finally focus on theplicated subject at hand. It was already 6.20 p.m when Professor Steve finished his first lesson, dragging them on for a good 22 minutes before finally releasing the lot.


    ��That��s all for today.��


    At that point, everyone simply wished that he would just close his book and leave them. Thankfully, the professor said no more, opened the door, and stylishly left the room. Immediately, every yer in the room breathed a massive sigh of relief. The grueling ordeal was over for now. Even the young man who had been paying his full attention for two hours found that he reached a saturation point. Sitting through two hours of nonstop physics was tiresome, to say the least.


    Anthony stood up from his seat and stretched in exasperation like an exhausted cat. Suddenly, a short, bald man walked into the room and wiped off the notes of rocket thrust physics from the ckboard. He then picked up the chalk and quickly wrote ��aerospace engineering theory�� on the ckboard. ��Hello, everyone. I know we are on a tight schedule, so I��ll skip the introductions. Wee to aerospace engineering ss.��


    ��Hold on. Did you enter the wrong ss?�� asked the listless young man.


    ��Oh. There are seven minutes left. There much to cover, and I think we can start covering the basics first.��


    ��Problem is, we haven��t had dinner,�� groaned the middle-aged man with a bitter smile.


    The moment he said that, a meal cart was being pushed into the ssroom.


    ��Don��t worry about it. You can eat while listening.��

 Chapter 285 - Forming a Team

    Chapter 285 Forming a Team


    After enduring two back to back lessons, the meeting room was more of a crematorium��s atmosphere. Each yer felt extremely drained and fatigued. Luckily, the bald man did not drag the lesson. At 8.30 p.m. sharp, the captain came to the meeting room and pped his hands.


    ��I know that you are tired of lessons. Next up, physical training might just help you unwind your brains.��


    This time, all moaned and wailed at the same time. Earlier, all the yers wanted to question the captain when he told them that there was a three and a half-hour gap between the second and third ss. When they were told that they needed to attend ss at midnight, they realized it didn��t make sense to have such a long gap.


    As expected, the captain ignored their groans.


    ��I will see you in seven minutes. Thest to arrive will have to do five sets of pull-ups!��


    Even before he was done talking, the yers scurried out of the ssroom to the meet-up point. Shortly after they started running, the girl tripped and fell. The plump man was running in front of her, and turned around to help her up. Suddenly, something crossed his mind, and he quickly retrieved his hand. However, he did stop to show his concern. ��Are you okay?�� ��I��m fine. I must have tripped over something. You go on ahead first.�� The girl put on a shallow smile, took off one of her shoes, and leaned on the wall to check her feet. The plump man knew that it was inappropriate for him to keep staring at her legs. So, he gulped, mustered some courage, and asked her, ��Do you want me to carry you?��


    ��You are so nice. I��m fine. You should get to the gym now. Don��t fall behind!�� the girl replied with concern.


    ��Sigh... I don��t think I can outrun them anyway.��


    It was rare for the plump guy to get this close to a girl, especially someone as attractive as this one. He was so nervous; he had to wipe off his sweaty palms on his pants.


    ��Let me help you over to the gym.�� ��Thank you.��


    The girl then put her arms over tubby��s shoulder.


    ��Zhen Xiong,�� said the girl softly. ��Ah?!��


    The plump man was startled upon hearing the girl speak out her name.


    ��That��s my name.��


    ��Oh, oh, oh... Sorry... Sorry!��


    His face started flushing, his heart fluttering a little. He had no idea why he even apologized to her.


    ��My real name is Jia Lai. I��m an employee of JD Corporation in the real world.��


    ��That��s one of the top 500 corporations in the world!�� eximed Zhen Xiong with her eyes wide open.


    ��No... no... I��m just an owner of a grocery. It��s now part of JD��s franchise stores. All I did is change the name of my store. I still have to do everything myself. I��ve only seen JD��s CEO on TV before.��


    ��Anyway, I think it��s not that easy to manage the whole ce. Can I visit your shop next time if I��m in the mood for some snacks...�� Zhen Xiong did not look down on Jia Lai; every word she uttered was sincere and truthful. Suddenly, she lowered her voice.


    ��Bro Jia, do you have a mission failure exemption card?��


    ��That item costs 800 game points. Nobody would buy something so expensive except for those top-tier factions,�� Jia Lai replied while shaking his head.


    After he figured out what Zhen Xiong had in mind, he was sad and dejected.


    ��It seems like both of us will be eliminated,�� she said. ��I know my limits and how far I can go. This is the end of the road for me. You, however, are different. There��s still hope for you. Don��t give up! Perhaps they were trying to scare you when they told you that women were looked down upon in this era. We always say that foreigners value their freedom a lot. Besides, the Soviets have just sent their first female cosmonaut to outer space! I believe America wouldn��t want to fall behind them.��


    ��Bro Jia. You are so kind. What did you do to your previous team? Why did they give up on someone like you?��


    ��It��s no use being kind nowadays. In my very first quest, I managed to learn a bit of first aid. My quest also required me to keep delivering items, and soon, I acquired Level 1 in my driving skills. I��m also a good cook, and now, I��m learning Russian. It appears these skills aren��t very useful in this quest.��


    ��Who told you that they are useless? Bro Jia, can I put my faith in you?��


    Zhen Xiong looked at him in the most serious way possible.


    ��Of course,�� replied Jai Lai without hesitation.


    He felt a surge of passion rushing through his spine. ��Let��s team up if you don��t mind me dragging your feet. We will move forward together. Either we both get on Apollo 11, or we quit this together.��


    ��Of course, I don��t mind, but... I believe you can find someone better than me, right?��


    ��You are right about me joining a single-yer game withpetitive mode for the first time. Usually, it��s tough to trust anyone in this mode, and I��d rather team up with someone kind instead of those who seek to take advantage of me every chance they get. This advice applies to multiyer mode as well. I stopped ying this mode since my teammates betrayed me. I don��t want to go through something like that again. So, I��m going to ask you one more time. Look me in the eye and tell me, can I trust you?��


    Jia Lai nodded vigorously, staring into Zhen Xiong��s eyes to show that he was sincere. At first, he just wanted to let Zhen Xiong know that he wasn��t messing around, but after a few seconds, a different kind of feeling started blooming in his heart. He started to move from staring into Zhen Xiong��s eyes to her nose and lips. They were curved charmingly, and there was a touch of luster to them. Both of their faces started to move closer to each other. Then, right before their lips touched, Zhen Xiong gasped, pushed him away, then quickly took a step back.


    Jia Lai felt lost and quickly exined himself.


    ��No... no... I didn��t intend to...��


    Zhen Xiong bit her lips, lowered her head, and didn��t speak another word. They had arrived at the gym. Jia Lai didn��t know how they even made it there.


    ��Bro Jia, please go in first.��


    ��No. You go first. I��m pretty sure the other yers are here now. Besides, your leg is hurt. How are you supposed to do pull-ups?��


    ��We use our upper body strength and waist muscles to do pull-ups. Those have nothing to do with the leg.�� ��Anyway, you should go in first. After all, we are teammates now; I��m supposed to take care of you. Don��t worry about me.��


    ��Bro Jia. Just let me be thest to go in. I hurt my leg anyway, and I won��t be able to train. I don��t really care about the punishment as well.��


    Zhang Heng and the rest took only five minutes to get to the gym located on the second floor. NASA��s gym was no different than the ordinary gym of the sixties. Compared to modern-day fitness franchises, this one wasn��t that big. Other than the equipment, a half-sized basketball court and a rock climbing wall could be seen as well.


    Everyone breathed a sigh of relief when they reached the gym.

 Chapter 286 - Of Elvis’ Poster and Spacesuits

    <h4>Chapter 286 Of Elvis�� Poster and Spacesuits</h4>


    No more weird equipment was being used for physical training. However, how hard it was made them feel no different from basic rocket physics, and aerospace engineering didn��t seem that dry and dull anymore. This time, Anthony performed best among the yers, gaining first ce in both bench pressing and weightlifting. As for Zhang Heng and the listless young man, they both ced second and third. Judging by the familiar way Anthony stomped along with the equipment, it seemed he was a regr gym buff.


    The high-school student didn��t fare well in physical training, ced even behind the knowledgeable middle-aged man. Considering that he was about to go through the National College Entrance Examination, it was perfectly reasonable that he would spend every moment he had studying instead of doing rigorous training. He simply didn��t have the time, even if he wanted to. Unfortunately, the personing inst was still the plump guy. Through his sluggish performance, everyone now saw why he was kicked out of his previous team.


    Where did he find the courage to insist entering the gym when he could only do half a pull-up? Luckily, Zhen Xiong asked to gost. All too soon, she started regretting her decision. Although she was injured and was excused from this session, the captain said she would have to make up for it in the next. While others were busy training, Zhen Xiong simply sat aside and did practically nothing. Since her leg was injured, she focused solely on upper body strength. It was already 11.50 p.m. when the session was over. By that time, all seven candidates were literally dragging their exhausted bodies and minds back to the meeting room upstairs. It was time to learn how to fly a supersonic jet. Since none of them were aviators, the captain was keen for them to familiarize themselves with the T-38 Talon, a supersonic jet trainer. This time, Zhang Heng included, was too fatigued to do anything. Luckily, living conditions provided by NASA weren��t too shabby. Not only did everyone have their own dorm, but it was even equipped with a personalvatory as well. Their clothes were already neatly arranged in the wardrobe. Usually, Zhang Heng would check his character panel before he slept. However, when he finally entered his room at 2.15 a.m, he was too tired to do anything. All he wanted to do was toy on the bed and sleep.


    Having only three and a half-hours of sleep, it wasn��t quite enough to rid his body and mind of exhaustion. The rm woke him up with a jolt, before he was asked to get a quick cold shower. After that, he opened the curtains and took a good look at his room. He still had no idea how the other rooms looked like, though.


    It wasn��t arge room, a studio-like space around 40 square feet, furnished with every piece of essential amenities. It included a single bed, wardrobe, table, couch, television, and a fridge. The only thing worth mentioning here was the sixties-era technicolor television, a groundbreaking invention for its time. Of course, the picture quality could never bepared with a modern and slick UHD television. That said, its design was unique,ing in a square box-like structure with a thick frame around it. It looked more like a microwave or a fish tank.


    Behind the television was arge poster of the movie, Viva Las Vegas, a romance flick featuring Elvis co-starring Anne Margaret. On the poster, both of them were leaning back while looking at the camera.


    As his tired mind began to clear, Zhang Heng took out a clean suit of NASA uniform from the wardrobe. He quickly spotted a note stuck on the bottom of an empty basket ced beside the clean garments. (Put your dirtyundry here.]


    Zhang Heng followed the instructions, tossing his dirty uniform into the basket. He was famished, but before he could look for any food in the fridge, he heard the captain speaking loudly outside his room.


    ��Gather up! You��ll all be visiting the space center today. After that, dinner is served at 1800 hours. You will begin your astronaut training at 1820 hours.��


    After the first day of torture, all seven yers were prepared to face another day of grueling training. Their faces were stoic when they heard the announcement; not disying much emotion whatsoever. Either they were numb, or not fully awake yet. The schoolkid was the only one excited when he heard that there would be astronaut trainingter.


    Now, the spacesuit used in the Apollo missions was an upgraded Project Gemini A7L suits. They would be further upgraded in the future for the Apollo-Soyuz mission and Project Skb. Sci-fi movies made getting in and out of the suit a breeze, seeming as if the astronaut could slip into them without much effort. In reality, it was a nightmare to deal with. Take the A7L as an example; a suit that weighed around seventy pounds. The specialized piece of equipment had five differentyers. Theyer that closest to the skin housed an advanced liquid-cooling system. Mated to a nylon spandex to ensurefort, above this was a pressured airbag, allowing the astronaut to freely move its joints before anotheryer of nylon topped it off. Lastly, the outer skin was a protectiveyer against the heat. The suit��s helmet and gloves were connected to it by metal rings.


    That was not the end, for after putting on the hefty suit, Zhang Heng had to carry a portable life-support system as well, allowing him to breathe in outer space. As mentioned earlier, it was connected to the suit��s cooling system, a radiator of sorts. On the left side of the pack was a tall antenna that supported a two-way voicemunication. This was the very reason why ultimate fitness was needed for an astronaut. An untrained individual would find it hard to even move in the shackles of the ��suit.��


    Nevertheless, the astronauts would undoubtedly feel better after they entered a zero-gravity environment, what the suits were created for in the first ce. Usually, each astronaut would be equipped with three spacesuits. One of them would be used during the mission, the second during training, and thest was a spare. With his trainer��s assistance, Zhang Heng put on the famous fish-tank helmet. Suddenly, he felt like he was sucked into a vacuum chamber, isted from the world outside. However, it wasn��tpletely silent inside the helmet. He could hear a soft buzzing and the sound of the cooling fan from the life-support. After that, the trainer instructed him on how to use the urine bag, before reading what was on the control module for the life support system located on his chest to him. From there, he could monitor and adjust the liquid and power of the life support system.


    This was an entirely alien experience for all seven yers. Although it was in no way a breeze to learn, it was definitely better than the boring theory lessons and the energy-sapping physical training. Learning to put on the bulky spacesuit was fun, at least. If not for the extreme rigors and constraints that bing an astronaut required, sting to the moon strapped to a Saturn V rocket would be nothing less but a mind-blowing experience for 99.9999% of people. In 2001, one of the wealthiest people on Earth actually paid a hefty sum to be a space tourist, a seat that cost him a whopping twenty million dors. In total, the lucky tycoon got to spend eight days cruising above mother earth on the International Space Station.


    At the same time, Zhen Xiong noticed Zhang Heng always ncing at the clock during the training. It was as if he was waiting for something

 Chapter 287 - Transitional Quest

    <h4>Chapter 287 Transitional Quest</h4>


    Ever since Zhang Heng received the analog watch, his 24 hours had increased to 28. When its hands reached midnight, he would enter a world where time halted no matter where he was. Having tested his theory multiple times throughout the entire month, his extra 24 hours would still apply when he entered the game, thus, umted into his total ytime.


    Before the NASA quest, Zhang Heng had always yed the game himself. From the dested ind to the 18th century Caribbean, all four games werepleted by Zhang Heng alone. It wasn��t until this game that six other yers were paired with him. This situation was a first for him, and he had no idea what would happen at twelve. This was excatly why he chose single-yer mode all the while, hoping to avoid unnecessaryplications like this.


    Usually, Zhang Heng would enter the game at 11.55 p.m. from the real world. There were five minutes until midnight, and ording to the game��s time flow, five minutes was equivalent to twenty hours.


    It had been almost twenty hours since Zhang Heng entered this world. Immediately, he told his trainer that he needed to head to the toilet. However, his trainer gently reminded him that he could pee within the provided urinary bag in the spacesuit, considering it as a training exercise for the times he really needed to relieve himself in space.


    Zhang Heng was desperate. He thanked his trainer and insisted that he had to go the toilet by hook or crook. No matter what would happen after this, walking around inside a seventy-pound spacesuit wasn��t part of his n. In the end, his trainer relented, having to spend fifteen minutes to help him get out of it. The moment Zhang Heng freed his right leg, he retook a look at his watch. Only half a minute was left before the clock��s handsnded on twelve. It was at that time that Zhang Heng spotted Yin Xiong and tubby looking at him suspiciously. Whether he liked it or not, Zhang Heng having no time to interrogate them, anyway.


    The moment the clock��s hands hit twelve, everyone in the training room literally stopped in their tracks, their faces frozen in time as well. The world hadpletely turned into a giant wax museum.


    Zhang Heng had expected this oue all along. Earlier, he tested this theory with hisputer. In the still world, it was possible to enter a single-yer game. The only caveat was that he would be unable to y any games that required an inte connection. Although he was unable to scientifically exin the phenomenon, the mysterious quest that he just joined was still considered a game. Every game that he previously joined was still running when it was midnight in the real world. The only thing that changed was that his gamey had be longer. Since there were other yers present in this quest, it had proved that the world would stille to a stope midnight.


    However, before Zhang Heng could move a muscle, he heard a notification from the game��s system.


    (Warning!!! Warning!!! Game-time critical error detected.��


    (Submitting critical error...] (Second level clearance has been initiated. Initial analysis: failure to continue. One yer suspected of foul y. Contingency n activated...]


    (Parallel quest activated: Apollo Training Camp��s transitional quest. Number of yers: 1. Goals: none; so far. Time: 240 days. yer, please pay attention!)


    Zhang Heng frowned and suddenly heard The Beatles�� ��Yesterday�� echoing in his ears. At the same time, his surroundings turned pitch ck. It wasn��t the same darkness as when the lights were turned off, but rather, a ckout situation where all light was utterly non-existent. Zhang Heng usually experienced this at the beginning of every new quest, where thepleteck of external stimuli helped him pay full attention to the announcement. This, however, was the very first time it urred in the middle of the game. It felt as if the game��s online server was being rebooted.


    Luckily, the darkness did notst too long. When Zhang Heng opened his eyes again, Paul McCartney was already at, ��Oh, yesterday came suddenly...�� He found out that he was no longer in NASA��s training room. The yers around him had disappeared as well. Right now, he was standing on a vast runway. He could hear the deafening roar of jet engines, and suddenly a fighter jet flew over his head with a gust of wind almost knocking him over. From afar, Zhang Heng saw a pretty blond girl waving at him, looking extremely anxious. ��Jim doesn��t like the neers wandering around the ce. Let��s leave immediately when you are done with him. The people from theb are still waiting for us.��


    ��Lab?��


    ��Yes. Your school��s students are there now, and you��re the only one left behind. Oh... can you please get off the runway? We��ll be in big trouble if the tower spots us.��


    ��I��m sorry.��


    Immediately, Zhang Heng moved away from the runway. He had no intention of risking his life as well. Getting hit by a speeding aircraft rumbling down the runway at over 200 miles per hour wasn��t his idea of a good death.


    Nheless, this wasn��t his first time hearing a warning from the game��s system. When the second level clearance kicked in, the error wasn��t submitted to the system, subsequently removing it permanently from the game��s sequential decision-making algorithm. Zhang Heng suspected that this all might somehow be connected to the mysterious old man. Since the old man had chosen him to y the game, he must have known that such issues would eventually ur. It was evident that the second level clearance was used to deal with the problem, but apparently, it did not work properly in multiyer mode. Hence, the system determined that he was technically cheating.


    In the still world, he was the only one who could move, and it was safe to say that he was invincible. Just like the Zavilcha case, Shen Xixi and her team failed to defeat it even after several attempts. In the still world, however, Zhang Heng used only a rudimentary utility knife to defeat the monster. In other words, he could easily eliminate the other six yers in the paused world if he wanted to, as well.


    It seemed the system had noticed this anomaly, and to protect the other yers, it created a transitional quest for Zhang Heng and ced him in there. Due to the rushed decision, no goal had been set up for the quest at the moment. Zhang Heng was wondering if this quest was as dangerous as the Winter War. ��What is the time now?��


    ��Time? Erm... 10.35.��


    ��What��s today��s date?��


    ��12th February.��


    ��Which year?��


    ��Is this supposed to be a joke? It��s 1955! Hmm. Do all MIT students use weird antics like this to get attention? I should remind you that if you arete again, your internship at Louis Flight Dynamics Lab will be canceled!��

 Chapter 288 - At Home In Foreign Lands

    Chapter 288 At Home In Foreign Lands


    The Apollo Training Camp quest was set in 1969. If the pretty blonde wasn��t lying, it meant there were fourteen years left before the inception of the Apollo Program. If his memory served him right, NASA hadn��t even existed yet back then. However, its predecessor, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) was established in 1915. When Zhang Heng followed the pretty blonde to theb and saw other interns and the manager, Zhang Heng finally knew what kind of ce Louis Flight Propulsion Laboratory (LFPL) was.


    Being NACA��s thirdb, it was originally named Aircraft Engine Propulsion Laboratory, set up to help America deal with their aviation gremlins since their enginesgged behind their counterparts. In 1949, World War II broke out. Warnes equipped with European liquid-cooled engines far outperformed America��s air-cooled engines in speed and altitude, and experts soon realized that Americacked the required researchbs toe out with better aircraft engines. Thus, in the year 1940, Congress approved funding for its construction at Ohio��s Clevnd Hopkins Airport.


    And that was how the aircraft research facility started blooming in America. In 1948, it was renamed Louis Flight Propulsion Laboratory (LFPL) inmemoration of thete NACA��S director, George. W. Louis. Then, in the year 1999, it was again renamed to Glenn Research Center. It became one of NASA ��s most important facilities for researching and developing rocket engines. Even though this transitional quest was created specifically for Zhang Heng, thanks to the bug detected by the system, it meant he wasn��tpletely booted from the Apollo Training Camp quest. The game had granted him the identity of an MIT grad, and ced him at the Louis Flight Propulsion Laboratory fourteen years before the Apollo 11 project. If his suspicions were right, he would only be reinserted in the main quest after fourteen years had passed.


    This oue was definitely worse thanpleting the main mission in the still world. Over there, he could easily eliminate all the other yers when time stopped, meaning he couldplete the quest way earlier than expected. Since the system couldn��t tell if he was cheating or not, it decided to send him to a transitional quest to protect the other yers.


    LFPL was an important NACA research facility, its employees handpicked from the best and brightest engineers that America had to offer. After NACA��s dismissal, its top researchers were quickly recruited by NASA, whose focus had now shifted to Aerospace Technology. Although Zhang Heng didn��t carry any future space technology with him, it seemed like a good opportunity to start mastering some physics and aerospace engineering,


    Even though he couldn��t speed up time and peek into his main quest, LFPL was built right beside Ohio��s Clevnd Hopkins Airport and he could at least hop onto an airne and fly. At that time, the T-38 Talons used in the Apollo Program hadn��t yet been invented. In this era of the fifties, the T-33 Shooting Star was the best of its day. Introduced as a jet trainer, it was the simr aircraft that Zhang Heng encountered on the runway. Before taking to the skies, however, there was a problem he first needed to solve. The system had thrown him the identity of an MIT student and soon, he also discovered why LFPL actively recruited interns. It was all because NACA had embarked on a groundbreaking aerospace project. All that fuss was about the X-15 hypersonic aircraft, an experimental rocket-powered ne that elerated up to a mind-bending Mach 6.72, six times faster than the speed of sound. The rocket engine enabled the aircraft to climb to an altitude of 107.8 kilometers, effectively passing the Karman Line into outer space. Remained unbroken in the 21st century, it still holds the record for the fastest piloted aircraft ever flown by a crew. In 1955, the X-15 Project officially broke ground, where LFPL yed a huge role in its inception. Interns like Zhang Heng were supposed to assist the scientists and engineers working on the project. However, his qualification of a master��s degree was in name only, generously granted by the system. Once it was discovered that Zhang Heng knew nothing about physics and engineering, he would most probably be sent back to the university.


    Even if things did go his way, who would be willing to teach him anything at such a busy time. He would be doomed to spend his days in theb before he knew it, seeing the enormity of the project and the amount of work at hand. Before Zhang Heng could figure out a solution to this problem, the pretty blonde was already assigning the interns to their respective engineers. If the engineer wished for a particr assistant, they were wee to choose as well. Zhang Heng saw two engineers picking interns that they had worked with before.


    At the same time, the interns also told the pretty blonde what they wanted and waited for her to assign a task to them. To Zhang Heng��s surprise, he saw an Asian man amid the crowd.


    In neen fifties America, it was rare to see Asians working in a top-tier research facility, especially one that ran such ssified technology. Judging by his appearance, the person looked to be of Chinese descent. So, Zhang Heng decided to try his luck and greeted the person in Mandarin.


    The person was taken aback when he heard thenguage. Clearly, he understood what Zhang Heng was saying. However, Zhang Heng had now been transformed by the system, making him look more like a European. That exined why the Chinese engineer was shocked to hear Zhang Heng speaking in perfect Mandarin. ��Hello! Can I be your assistant?��


    ��What is your profession? I��m researching the general theory of three-dimensional flow in turbomachinery. Are you interested?��


    ��I��m studying economics, in my second year right now.��


    Zhang Heng was actually embarrassed to tell him the truth. However, he knew that he would not be able to hide it forever, and instead of waiting until tasks were given, he figured that telling the truth now was in his best interest.


    <b>II</b>


    <b>11</b>


    The engineer was taken aback by Zhang Heng��s answer and was speechless for a long time. It seemed like one of those bad American jokes, or a subtle racist sentiment. After all, he had constantly experienced racism after studying there for so many years.


    ��I��m sorry. I have my own reasons for staying in theb. If possible, I hope to learn a bit of engineering. If you think it��s too much trouble, I can always look for someone else.


    Since they were conversing in Mandarin, no one around them could understand what they were saying. Hence, Zhang Heng wasn��t worried about eavesdroppers. He also knew the engineer would keep his secret indefinitely. Chinese expatriates often chose not to get themselves into trouble, thus keeping to themselves whenever they could. If, however, the engineer refused to take him in, surviving in this research center would be a massive challenge.


    ��Sure,�� said the engineer.


    Instantaneously, that single word uttered from his countryman washed him with the warmth of home. He felt right at home, at home in a foreignnd.


    So, with the newfound close-to-heart alliance forged, the engineer walked up to the pretty blonde, telling her he wanted Zhang Heng as his assistant. Apart from him, another MIT girl had also been assigned to the same engineer as well. Everything was soon set in stone, and when they were back at hisb, the engineer shook Zhang Heng��s hand vigorously.


    ��I forgot to introduce myself to you. My name is Wu Zhonghua. I��m Chinese.��


    ��I��m Zhang Heng.�� It was one of those rare asions where Zhang Heng revealed his true name. I��m Chinese as well.��


    Note: Wu Zhonghua is the Qian Xuesen of Air China. Graduating from MIT, he worked at Louis Flight Propulsion Laboratory before introducing the general theory of three-dimensional flow in turbomachinery. Later, he gained recognition as a world-ss scientist. Just like many other physicists of that era, he gave up his high-paying job abroad and used the excuse of traveling around Europe with his wife to return to his homnd. Both Wu Zhonghua and his wife were the pioneers of Air China.

 Chapter 289 - Having Drinks

    Chapter 289 Having Drinks


    Life in the Lewis Flight Propulsion Laboratory was probably the simplest one Zhang Heng ever led. Theb��s staff, save for the blond HR executive, and Director Jim, who rattled Congress every morning for more funds, were the most decent and passionate researchers Zhang Heng had evere across. They neither plotted against nor wrangled against each other, and since there was no main mission in the transitional quest, there were no threats to his survival either. Zhang Heng passed his days peacefully and uneventfully.


    Every day, Wei Zhonghua would give him engineering lessons, more like a crash course, actually. Knowing his student wasgging behind actual MIT graduates, the engineer spared no expense, imparting everything he knew, whenever he could. Then, at the end of each day, Zhang Heng would buy drinks for the pilots who frequented the nearby pub with his internship sry. In the second month, he sessfully boarded an airne, and in the fourth, awarded the experience of flying subsonic on the T-33. He wasn��t far from flying a ne on his own.


    However, Wei Zhonghua resigned from NASA not long after that, citing a longing for a school��s environment. The man was to head to Brooklyn Collegiate and Polytechnic Institute to teach as a professor. The whole debacle rmed Glennan, NASA��s chairman, and despite his best efforts at persuasion, nothing was going to stop Wei Zhonghua from leaving. Thus, the people in theb ended up giving Wei Zhonghua a little farewell party. Zhang Heng did not join the party but drove Wei Zhonghua and his wife to the train station in a borrowed Chevrolet.


    He was among the few who really knew Wu Zhonghua��s true intentions. Even though staying back in theb would have been more beneficial, it was really just a game, and no matter where, whatever timeline, or how many times he experienced it, someone somewhere would make the same choice, regardless. Knowing these things, Zhang Heng did not even try to convince Wei Zhonghua to stay.


    In fact, Wei Zhonghua had already helped him a lot. Right now, although still behind an actual MIT engineering graduate, four months had passed, and from a zero, Zhang Heng was now able to perform tasks required for the research and was very familiar with Wei Zhonghua��s research. He had no trouble doing things like collecting data and filling in the finished models. Even if another were to rece Wei Zhonghua, Zhang Heng could continue working in theboratory by putting on an act, considering he actually knew what he was doing


    Zhang Heng watched on as the train carrying Wu Zhonghua and his wife pulled away. Having heard that Wu Zhonghua��s recement was currently being transferred from the Langleyboratory, and wouldn��t arrive until tomorrow, he didn��t rush back to theboratory. Except for waiting, there wasn��t much for him and the female assistant to do. This could only mean a day off work, and seeing how pleasant the day was; Zhang Heng decided to cruise around Clevnd in the borrowed car he was in.


    He bought two vinyl records of Patty Page, a burger, and a corn torti, unexpectedly making an achievement worth three points. After that, he fed pigeons in the city park, as hezily strolled around. It was a beautiful day, not one to be wasted just like that in the confines of concrete and ss. Zhang Heng only returned to theboratory before sunset He had just gotten out of the car when the blonde girl rushed over and grabbed hold of


    e


    .


    him.


    ��Great! We just got ourselves a test pilot. He��s in the corridor on the first floor. But something came up in Congress, and I have to hurry over. I��ll need you to show him around theb and the runway.��


    She sputtered her words, pushing a stack of documents into Zhang Heng��s hands. ��While you��re at that, please pass these to Professor Maggie for me...��


    ...the ck Jaguar XK120 parked not too far away kept honking.


    The blonde stumbled, blowing a kiss at Zhang Heng. ��When I get back tomorrow, I��ll treat you a cup of coffee. It��s a date!��


    Before he could answer, she pulled up her skirt and ran to the car in her heels.


    And just like that, Zhang Heng became the receptionist of theboratory. Shaking his head, he carried the things to the corridor and saw someone indeed waiting there.


    The man looked to be quite young, in his twenties, perhaps. But unlike most youth of this age, he had an inherent brooding quality about him, as if he was always pondering about something. At the same time, his subtle but decisive movements bore the temperament of a seasoned soldier.


    Thatst part was not unusual �C many test pilots in theboratory came from a military background.


    When he saw Zhang Heng approaching, he politely got up from his seat.


    ��How do you do, sir? I��m David,b intern. You must be the new test pilot. Jane asked me to show you around the ce you��ll be working.��


    ��Thank you,�� the man said, offering a hand. ��Neil Armstrong, retired navy pilot.��


    His voice was deep and firm.


    Zhang Heng stopped in his tracks as he held Neil��s hand, freezing for a brief second. ��What��s the matter?��


    ��Oh, nothing! Pleasure to meet you, Mr. Armstrong,�� Zhang Heng blurted quickly.


    ��The pleasure is mine.��


    ��If you don��t mind, I have to get these documents to Professor Maggie before we start the tour.��


    Armstrong nodded.


    Zhang Heng did not expect to meet Neil Armstrong �C the first man tond on the moon. Not now, in 1955, at least. In retrospect, Armstrong had indeed worked for NASA as a test pilot for a certain period. At that time, the legendary astronaut looked youthful, and ording to Zhang Heng��s calctions, Armstrong should be only about twenty-five. Afterpleting his Navy service, he had returned to finish his university education. He hadn��t yet obtained a master��s degree in aviation engineering. Later in his life, upon making history on a sessful moon mission, he kept a low profile, living a quiet life teaching at a university. He almost never epted interviews, nor did he write a single biography. In fact, few knew that Armstrong never took a picture of himself on the moon. The widely circted moonnding photo was actually taken by his crewmate, Buzz Aldrin. Armstrong��s shadow could barely be seen from the reflection of Aldrin��s helmet. The other famous photo, the footprint on the moon��s surface, was also the courtesy of Aldrin.


    Unlike his rather rambunctious crewmate, Armstrong was a humble and unostentatious man; only the few who corresponded with him knew what he had to through when he was a young man.


    But Zhang Heng was more interested in Armstrong��s piloting skills, a prodigy who obtained his pilot license when he was merely sixteen years of age. Before getting his driver��s license, or even joining NASA, he had already piloted more than 200 different aircraft types. This was one of the main reasons he was chosen to be an astronaut. Zhang Heng was unsure about on thing, though. Would their meeting in 1955 affect the quest fourteen yearster?


    After delivering the documents to Professor Maggie, Zhang Heng hurriedly went back to Armstrong. ��So, did you arrive in Clevnd?��.


    ��Yeah. I submitted an application to the Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base, but since they are full, I was assigned here for now,�� Armstrong answered. ��If that��s the case, we should get drinks after the tour.��

 Chapter 290 - Extensive Preparation Time

    Chapter 290 Extensive Preparation Time


    It was said that in one second, a cheetah could sprint as far as 28 meters on the grasnd, a hummingbird could p its wings 55 times, 1,620 cubic meters of Greend��s ciers would melt, and the earth would orbit the sun 29.8 kilometers.


    Yin Xiong, however, wondered if a person��s character could change so significantly in one second. Blinking, in fact, might have taken even less than that.


    If Zhang Heng had that dangerous quality about him, then it must have dimmed so significantly that it was almost imperceptible now.


    Yin Xiong couldn��t help but wonder if there was something wrong with her eyes.


    But things such as a person��s temperament were discerned purely by perception and were difficult to quantify. Things like these mystified her, and she didn��t have an exnation for it.


    Then,ter, during training, Zhang Heng didn��t look at the clock again, and with the help of the trainer, he sessfullypleted his first spacesuit training. Throughout the whole process, he was very calm. No one knew he had just spent 240 days in the 1950��s United States. When Zhang Heng opened his character panel after the training, he could see a number of changes made to his profile.


    Name: Zhang Heng


    Gender: Male


    Age: 19


    yer ID: 07958 Rounds yed: 4


    Current game points: 737


    Possessions: Paris Arrow (D), Evil Wall (D),


    Shadow Key (E), Lucky Rabbit��s Foot (E), Betty��s Shell (E), Hunter��s Blessing (F)


    Skills mastered: Sailing (level 3), Saber (level 3), Language Proficiency (level 2; eightnguages at a basic level), Archery (level 2), Wilderness Survival (level 2), Driving (level 2), Shooting (level 2), Engineering (level 1), Flying (level 1), Piano (level 1), Car Tuning and Repair (level 2), Ski (level 1), Rock Climbing (level 1).


    Evaluation:


    The yer has slightly better luck than most and a higher chance of encountering enemies. yer is protected from shadows, storms, evil intentions, and is an experienced sailor. Skilled with knives, arrows, firearms, can drive and fly a ne. He is capable of surviving in the wild, has a rich reserve of skills, and considerably adept atbat. The yer deserves continuous attention.


    ��Shadow Moment,�� an item that had been with him for a long time and used up until the Zavilcha battle, had been reced by ��Evil Wall�� and ��Betty��s Shell.�� Both of these allowed their user to escape a particr situation but also had their own limits. All in all, it was a good upgrade.


    Skills were where Zhang Heng made the most progress. After being in ck Sail for 3900 days, he finally gained another level 3 skill; in fact, there were two �C sailing and swordsmanship, both indispensable for a mighty pirate. With a little more training, Zhang Heng could even consider representing the country for the sailing events in Tokyo��s 2020 Olympics.


    In addition to that, he spent most of his time learningnguage. Starting with three; English, Chinese, and Japanese, he now spoke eight. Even though it was just a drop in the ocean of humannguages, eight was an extensive range, ensuring he would have fewermunication troubles in future games.


    All of the above was everything Zhang Heng gained before entering the Apollo training camp. The level 1 engineering and piloting skills on the character panel had been obtained from the transitional quest he had justpleted. On top of that, he picked up aerodynamics and material science, not disyed on the panel since they were still at level 0. He even earned an unexpected 42 game points. Moreover, thanks to his improved theoretical knowledge, his car tuning and repair skills moved up a level, which was a good thing.


    Although the system inhibited him from eliminating other yers during Still Time, the extensive 240 day preparation period gained him an upper hand over the rest of them. Thanks to that, no one in the training camp could surpass his score.


    Of course, at the end of the day, the three people with the best result might not even be the ones to board Apollo 11.


    These yers, however, weren��t passive pushovers who just sit by idly. Should the game be not in their favor, they would definitely look for means to change the game��s rules.


    Even Jia Lai, the one appearing to be the weakest of the group, would not sit on his hand and blindly ept his fate. Everyone, including Zhang Heng, knew this. It was only because they had just started the game that the amity was kept among each other. Once the results of the first round were revealed, this temporary peace would be broken. Their first spacesuit training ended precisely at eleven-thirty. While more engaging than physical training, the amount of exercise involved was pretty much the same. Lugging around a weight of nearly 70 pounds, each movement was a chore, requiring plenty of energy for the simplest of bends. When the yers took off their spacesuits, they were drenched from head to toe in their own sweat. There was no time to freshen up, though. Given only a short break after lunch, they were quickly shoved to the next lesson: diving practice.


    Space was apletely different environment from the Earth, the most obvious being gravity. Gravity was everywhere on Earth, and all creatures living on it could not escape its bond. So, to simte a zero-gravity environment on earth, it was necessary to find ways to counteract its effects.


    Often, the amazing fantasies of science fiction would tout some sort of covert anti-gravity technology, something that, unfortunately, didn��t exist in reality.


    NASA would use arge aircraft (nicknamed the Vomit Comet) to create over ten seconds of weightlessness through a parabolic flight. This enabled the astronauts to experience an environment that was closest to space on earth. There were its quirks, however, and besides the strain the aircraft had to endure, they would have tond after every session, making the whole affair an extremely troublesome one.


    Water buoyancy, on the other hand, could offset some gravity, creating a sense of weightlessness. Despite a certain degree of realism, it still differed somewhat from an actual space environment. The human body perceived gravity through the otoliths of the inner eardrums. Although one was submerged in water, the otoliths would still be subjected to gravity, meaning that being in the water would not affect a person��s ability to determine direction. In space, however, the otoliths would be affected by theck of gravity. The astronaut��s sense of direction would be disrupted, and they wouldn��t be unable to distinguish between up and down.


    But that was the best NASA could do to simte space on terra firma.


    Unlike the other yers who did not look too excited, this training yed on Zhang Heng��s strengths. Although he had never dived before, he experienced getting stuck on a deserted ind in his first game. He had foraged for food on a destend and spent half his ck Sail quest at sea. Being in the water felt like his second home.

 Chapter 291 - Dangerous Mechanical Tick

    Chapter 291 Dangerous Mechanical Tick


    Being an astronaut was one of the mostplicated jobs a human endured. When Project Mercury first started, NASA recruited a total of 100 experienced pilots as astronaut candidates. Only seven were selected in the end. During the early stages of human space exploration, nobody really knew what would happen the moment they left the confines of earth. Theoretically, the list of mishaps could be endless, since space was infinite, and all they had were their guts and an overpriced tin can. Ground control was thousands of miles away, and there wasn��t anyone up there they could rely on. As an astronaut, they had to be prepared for every instance of an emergency, fixing problems that weren��t even in their manuals. It was a job that required not only bravery but also ingenuity. That was why the astronauts�� training was essential to them.


    Their entire day during training was filled with a tight training schedule, enough activities each day to drive anybody crazy. Even breathing had be somewhat of a luxury. However, training did get interesting at times. The anti-gravity simtion on the parabolic flights allowed their bodies to float freely in the air. They also got to try astronaut food for the very first time. The dehydrated ready-to-eat meals weren��t nearly as good as the over-the-counter burger, but still decent and ptable.


    Thest activity was Zhang Heng��s favorite. He was in his spacesuit when he dived into the swimming pool, seeing the light piercing through from the surface to the bottom. A stream of air bubbles continuously shot out the snorkels of the divers beside him. He could hear the whoosh of air blowing from the vent inside his helmet and the low rumble of the asional air bubble outside. Once wholly immersed in the water, Zhang Heng felt as if he��d entered a world ofplete silence, and although he knew that he hadn��t yet encountered space, he had to admit that he enjoyed the feeling a lot.


    Of course, these were just the highlights. The training was exhausting and a dull affair most of the time. Pushed into a regime fit to recruit a secret agent, the trainees had their limits put on trial, and even some of them were even broken. Not too long after that, the teaching-to-the-test sses and high-intensity physical training started taking a toll on the lot. Even Jia Lai had lost some weight as well. The saddest part was that he knew the lumps of fat would return once he left this quest. However, theory ss and physical training weren��t the worst part of the course, for NASA had this machine that was capable of torturing one��s very soul.


    Known as Johnsville Centrifuge, the machine could elerate from zero to two hundred kilometers per hour in seven seconds. It was everyone��s worst nightmare. During training, the candidates were supposed to keep conscious under the pressure of tremendous G-forces while the machine sped up. Seeing how this machine worked, the Multi-Axis Trainer didn��t look so bad anymore.


    Lastly, the most horrifying machine award had to go to the Lunar Landing Training Vehicle. This must be NASA��s ugliest and most dangerous invention. From its exterior, it looked like a giant mechanical tick and was used to simte moonndings. NASA themselves admittedter that the Lunar Lander Training Machine couldn��t urately simte an actual moonnding. It did not show what it was like to exit the aircraft. Most of the time, the clunky machine would put its pilot in grave danger too.


    Inside a modern virtual simtor, operators could calmly discuss and analyze the reasons for their spacecraft crashing. The Lunar Landing Training Vehicle was different, however, were only two oues were possible once the pilot stepped into the machine that literally took off the ground. They could either sessfullynd the craft, or if they failed, god forbid, it would explode once it touched the ground. Right before the explosion, the pilot would best be quick to eject, if burning in rocket fuel and oxidizer wasn��t their choice for death.


    ording to statistics, NASA once produced four Lunar Landing Training Vehicles as an experiment. Three were destroyed during training sessions. In other words, it had a shocking failure rate of 75%.


    ��I wish someone can tie the machine��s inventor to it and let them have a taste of their own medicine,�� grunted Jia Lai under his breath.


    No matter how much theyined, though, the captain had already summoned the first person to the machine.


    ��The first person to go is Anthony.��


    Anthony raised his eyebrows, not the least willing to get on the bonkers contraption as well. However, after going through a month of intensive training, he had tried all kinds of weird machines and was able to muster up enough courage. Besides, the captain was still grading them, and Anthony wanted to leave a good and bold impression on him. After all, physical attributes weren��t the only factor that contributed to the assessment; the mental side of things was just as important.


    Although he had a bad feeling in his heart, Anthony relented, deciding to obey the captain��smand as he boarded the aircraft. While fastening his seatbelt, the staff did a quick checkup on him.


    ��The wind is acting up today. Be careful,�� the staff warned.


    ��Am I... supposed to say myst words right now?��


    ��The lever is under your seat. Pull it if you see your life shing before your eyes. Once you pull it, you will be ejected out of the machine, and your parachute will bring you back to the ground safely.��


    ��Understood.��


    ��Let��s begin if you are ready,�� the captain��s voice echoed through the inte.


    The Lunar Landing Training Vehicle started wobbling around dangerously like a drunk man the moment it lifted off the ground. Luckily, it soon stabilized and reached its expected altitude.


    ��1100 feet. Exceeding minimum altitude,�� Anthony could be heard saying.


    ��Roger that. You can attempt tond now,�� replied the captain.


    At the same time, the rest of the yers kept their eyes on the Lunar Landing Training Vehicle. From where they stood, it looked like a colossal flying tick, with an unsightly, exposed metal frame and four tiny legs sticking out its bottom. The front part of the aircraft was exposed and they could see Anthony nervously fumbling with the controls. Piloting the vehicle required great reflexes and skill, essentially like trying to bnce a unicycle on a tightrope. Without a doubt, this was one of the toughest parts of their training, not to mention that the wind wasn��t on their side today. It would greatly increase the difficulty ofnding the sensitive and erratic craft.


    ��He��ll kill himself if something goes wrong,�� the listless young man said all of a sudden.


    The other yers red at him in silence.


    ��What? Don��t tell me the thought hadn��t crossed your minds. We knew his day would eventuallye, am I right? One lesspetitor ain��t a bad thing. Note to all; I��m referring to all of you here: I have never seen him as a worthy opponent.��


    Although whatever he said wasn��t pleasant to the ear, it was hard to argue with him. He might seem like a useless teenager, but throughout the month he spent at NASA, he had managed to surprise everyone with his excellent airmanship and theoretical knowledge, second only to that of Zhang Heng. Although the results weren��t released yet, he should have no problem getting selected as an astronaut. As for the rest, they started to think about what would happen after the results were released. Maybe the time hade to see the other yers as enemies.


    Anthony was still struggling tond the Lunar Landing Training Vehicle slowly. However, the rest of the yers no longer paid their attention to him. They were backing off as if avoiding impending doom that was about to strike at any moment.


    ��You��reing down too fast! Slow down! I repeat. Yournding speed is too fast. You need to slow down. Pull up and try again!��


    Anthony was sweating nonstop, flicking switches, and vigorously adjusting the sticks in an attempt to bring the craft under control. Unfortunately, it seemed like the machine had lost its bearings and began wobbling violently in the sky. At the same time, it wasing down really fast. Then suddenly, it seemed to lose all power and dropped from the air like a stone. Within a few seconds, it crashed to the ground in a massive fireball. The yers ducked to the ground as mes and heat washed over them with the shockwave.


    The next thing they saw was a cloud of ck smoke rising to the sky.

 Chapter 292 - My Favorite Part

    Chapter 292 My Favorite Part


    The medical team on standby rushed as quickly as they could to the Lunar Landing Training Vehicle��s crash site, but the sweltering heat and thick veil of smoke kept them from doing their jobs.


    Judging by the dire situation, they were all just doing the best they could. No one thought Anthony would survive the ze. The fire brigade arrived promptly, taking only five minutes to put out the mes. Sadly, the Lunar Landing Training Vehicle was beyond salvage, and all that remained was a smoldering heap of metal and debris. And in the pilot��s seat, an equally scorched corpse was present as well.


    ��The morning��s training is canceled. Everyone, standby in your dormitories,�� said the captain, an unusual, somber look apanying his face. ��Don��t let this get out to anyone, especially the journalists. Later, at noon, an expert will give each of you a psychological assessment. Also...�� He paused and looked at the yers. ��...whoever wishes to quit can tell me now.��


    The yers kept mum. It was obvious that quitting was not an option. Even in the face of such a tragedy, even if everybody died, nobody was going to quit as long as the mission wasn��tpleted. That was simply who they were.


    Although what that young man said wasn��t exactly pleasant, Anthony��s death was, in actual fact, a good thing for everyone else. Right now, none of them really knew what to feel.


    The yers returned to their dorms as the captain instructed. Zhang Heng grabbed a carton of milk from the refrigerator and poured himself a ss. As soon as he picked it up, there was a knock on his door.


    He opened the door and was greeted by Yin Xiong standing outside his room.


    Since the day he warned her, the two had no more private conversations. Yin Xiong naturally teamed up with Jiai, and the other yers were fine with it too since both were the underdogs of the group.


    ��What is it?�� Zhang Heng asked.


    ��Can we talk inside?�� Yin Xiong did not look too good. The smile on her face was forced, and there was an undertone of panic in her voice.


    ��There��s no need for that,�� Zhang Heng said. ��We can talk here.��


    The girl chewed on her lower lip. ��I know what you think of me, but what can I do? Since the start, I didn��t have a choice. It chose me, I didn��t choose it. I received an invitation out of nowhere to join the game. I had to work hard to survive, just like when I graduated from college. I just wanted to do my best like everyone else, support my family, and be an ordinary person. But then, my superior stopped me in the pantry one day, telling me that he��d make my life in thepany hell unless I became his secret lover... ��...that is the cruel truth of the world, isn��t it? The weak can never choose,�� Yin Xiongughed at herself. ��Sometimes I really wish I was a man. Maybe then, I wouldn��t have be what I am today.��


    She looked up at Zhang Heng. ��I��m not lying. I can see that you are different from the others, so I��m not here to take advantage of you. I��m here to tell you to be careful of Jia


    Lai.��


    ��Why? Isn��t he an ally of yours?��


    ��Don��t be deceived by his appearance. He��s the most secretive among us, a hell lot more than everyone thinks... I...��


    Suddenly, the door to the room on Zhang Heng��s right suddenly opened. Jia Lai poked his head out. ��Oh, there you are. I was just about to look for you. Didn��t you say your refrigerator��s run out of coke? I��ve still got some here. Want any?�� As he spoke, Jia Lai snuck nervous nces at Zhang Heng.


    Zhang Heng was the most inscrutable yer among them. Always on his own, he was an obscure character, rarely interacting with the others. Moreover, he was strong and performed above and beyond in his training. Some people even wondered if he was, in fact, an actual astronaut. Although his menacing aura was not as telling as before, Jia Lai was still instinctively intimidated.


    Yin Xiong did not continue what she was saying. She gave Zhang Heng a good look, then drew a smile on her face for Jia Lai. ��Alright, I��ming!�� She hadn��t even left for five minutes when there was another knock on Zhang Heng��s door.


    This time, the middle-aged man was standing outside. Livingston pushed his sses up the bridge of his nose, saying, ��I think we all need to talk about what just happened. I��ve already notified the others and we��ll be gathering in my room in fifteen minutes. Do you have any questions?�� ��No.��


    ��Very good, see youter.��


    This was the first time Zhang Heng entered another yer��s residence. Livingston��s ce was slightly smaller than his but theyout was the same. The only difference was, in the ce of a TV, there was an antique radio. The other yers were already there when Zhang Heng arrived.


    The high school student and the listless young man upied the only two chairs in the room. Jia Lai and Yin Xiong were on the bed, and the couch was still unupied. Livingston then gestured Zhang Heng to the sofa.


    Once Zhang Heng was seated, Livingston closed the door and walked to the center of the room.


    ��Alright, I��ll get straight to the point. I don��t think Anthony��s death was an ident.��


    ��Why say that?�� asked the listless man as he noisily cracked a peanut open and popped it into his mouth.


    ��Don��t tell me you didn��t see it. Anthony followed all the instructions to the dot. When he realized that the Lunar Landing Training Vehicle was out of control, he pulled the lever under the ejection seat. All of these happened a few seconds before the whole thing crashed and blew up.��


    ��Why wasn��t he ejected then?�� Jia Lai asked.


    Livingston looked around the room. ��Good question. I believe some of you here can answer that for me.�� ��Oh, this is my favorite part!�� the listless young man pped.


    ��I remembered you saying that one day, he might just kill himself by ident,�� the student suddenly blurted.


    ��So?��


    ��How did you know that this would happen?��


    ��Because I��m smarter?�� shrugged the listless young man. ��You can��t possibly believe that. With my scores, I can board Apollo 11 without killing anyone. Out of all the people in the room, save for that cool guy over there, I��m probably thest person you should suspect.�� ��Seems to be that way,�� Jia Lai muttered. ��Excuse me?�� the listless young man turned around, as his gaze hardened.


    Jia Lai instantly shrunk back, looking away almost instantly. He seemed to have an instinct of a scared animal.


    ��I think he��s saying that since the results are not out yet, there are still many uncertainties.�� Livingston wiped his sses. ��For all we know, you could be lying.��

 Chapter 293 - Psychological Evaluation

    Chapter 293 Psychological Evaluation


    ��I��m bluffing?�� The listless young man chuckled in amusement as he reached into his pocket for a pack of Camels. He lit up a stick, then looked squarely at Livingston. ��Speaking of which, among us, he is obviously the master of deception. He was so concerned, he gathered everyone together. If I��m not mistaken, your grades are closest to that idiot, Anthony. Then, there��s also that schoolkid over there. The three of youpete against each other for the final spot. Now is the best time to strike, get rid of one, and exponentially increase your chances of entering the top three. No matter how you look at it, that seems to be the case.��


    ��No, I will definitely be in the top three,�� The school student argued, but he somehow did not sound too confident.


    ��Heh, is that another one of those battle royale theories?�� the listless young man snorted. ��Forget it. Having good aerospace knowledge doesn��t necessarily give you the upper hand in this game. Just look at our lone wolf over there. I��ve already gotten my private pilot��s license in Australia three years ago.�� The listless young man looked at the middle-aged man standing in the center of the room. ��As a research engineer, your theoretical knowledge is inferior to his for sure. In fact, even the dead guy is way ahead of you in physical training. In my humble opinion, you have almost zero advantage in thispetition. With Anthony dead, the first to benefit is our friend with sses, and the second is... you.��


    The listless young man blew out a smoke ring, then continued, ��And to be honest, I don��t get what��s the point of this little meeting. Each of us here wants the other dead. Isn��t it allmon sense?��


    Livingston answered calmly, ��But the problem is, today, the killer killed Anthony, and tomorrow, he may use the same method to kill the rest of us. You don��t want to be in the Johnsville Centrifuge knowing that it wouldn��t stop spinning. Instead, it just goes faster and faster until your prostate and tonsils are pulled out of your body.��


    ��I... I have something to say,�� the high school student suddenly spoke up again.


    ��What is it?��


    The high school student pointed to the listless young man. ��Last night, I saw him leave his room and sneak out of the space center.��


    ��Last night?�� Livingston raised an eyebrow. ��By the time we finished our third ss, it was already two in the morning.�� He turned to the listless guy and said, ��Why didn��t you use the opportunity for some shut-eye? Why did you go out?��


    The listless young man shrugged. ��That was my own prerogative. It��s got nothing to do with any of you.��


    ��You won��t answer that because you must have rigged the Lunar Landing Training Vehicle. Our schedule for this week had been bumped up, and thest time the captain roll called, he changed the order of the names. Now that I think about it, your name was calledst this time.��


    Livingston pushed his sses up his nose. ��It��s already a hazardous machine on its own. If the ejection seat fails, it means losing the only of escape in an event of an emergency. Whoever who flew on the machine could have easily died. But this was no targeted murder. You didn��t target Anthony. You just used the vehicle as a means to get rid of one unlucky bastard.��


    ��That brings us back to the first question �C why would I want to do it? I��m not worried about the scores. So why would I need to get rid of a yer?��


    ��I don��t know. Perhaps, you simply wanted to eliminate a threat before anyone else did it. Or maybe you wanted to create chaos. After all, as you said, we weren��t too suspicious of you when we first met. But...�� Livingston turned to look at Yin Xiong and Jia Lai. ��...a random murder like this would benefit you more. You bothest. It doesn��t matter who dies; you will benefit nheless.��


    ��Wow. If that��s the case, then we��d have to kill a lot more people,�� Yin Xiong sneered. ��Besides, I��m only one ce below Anthony and I��ve never passed a single flight test. How could I have known how to tamper with that machine? If Anthony managed tond the machine sessfully, then wouldn��t I be sabotaging myself?��


    To protect her ally, Jia Lai, who had avoided causing trouble all the while, she told Livingston, ��If I remember correctly... you seem to have paid close attention to the weather in the past two days. The wind yed a major part in today��s crash.��


    ��Great, so other than our lone friend here, the rest of us are all suspects, huh?�� the listless young man mocked.


    ��I think... no one should be ruled out,�� Jia Lai said. ��David has the highest scores among us. Even though he has no reason to kill anyone, he��s also most likely to be the most skilled killer. We cannot rule out the possibility that someone might have bribed him with points or items to kill Anthony off.��


    Zhang Heng said nothing in response to the allegation. He had not spoken a word throughout the entire discussion, listening intently to what the other yers were saying instead. He could sense that plump Jia Lai seemed to be more aggressive than usual tonight. Concerning what Yin Xiong told him earlier, Anderson behaved really suspiciously too. The listless guy obviously felt a little uneasy after the high school student ratted about him sneaking out of the space center, but he quickly covered it up by acting indifferent.


    Not to be discounted, the schoolkid himself was also questionable. He and now deceased Anthony were directpetitors. In fact, Zhang Heng also noticed another small detail �C when the Lunar Landing Training Vehicle crashed, he was the only one who looked unsurprised. As for Yin Xiong, Zhang Heng had always kept her at arm��s length. She was definitely not as weak and vulnerable as she appeared to be, which was also why he did not let her into his room even though she looked awful just now.


    Lastly, there was the middle-age Livingston. He had had working hard to y the role of team leader, meticulously analyzing the cause of Anthony��s death, and subsequently pointing his usations at the listless young man.


    With emotions peaking, fingers pointing and heads rolling, the meeting this time bore no fruit. No one knew the exact cause of the Lunar Landing Training Vehicle malfunctioning, and NASA��s experts were expected to arrive soon to conduct a psychological evaluation on all six of them, mainly to assess if witnessing the ident caused the trainees to experience negative emotions and whether these would affect the subsequent mission to the moon.


    Soon, the captain received the results of the evaluation, and to his surprise, the emotions of the six trainees did not fluctuate too much.

 Chapter 294 - Huge Shock

    <h4>Chapter 294 Huge Shock</h4>


    At first, the captain was concerned that Anthony��s death would throw the candidates into irrational fear and post-traumatic stress disorder. After the evaluation results were released, it seemed he might have just overthought the whole thing. Considering that time was of the essence, training resumed that afternoon itself. ording to the original schedule, flight training was supposed to be slotted after the Lunar Landing Research Vehicle training. Nheless, this part was going to be different from all the other regimes that they were through so far. This time, the instructors would no longer be guiding them.


    After a month of intensive training, this would be the yers�� first solo flight. All the while, NASA had been paying a lot of attention to the Space Training Academy. Ordinary pilots and spacecraftmanders had many simrities, both required to continually monitor the aircraft, weather, fuel, flight path, and the all-important mission. With the enormous amount of information at hand, they would have toe up with different decisions in the shortest time possible.


    Once a problem arose, the yers were required to diagnose and deal with it urately. At the same time, Concurrently, they would keep radio contact with ground control at all times, making their workload immense. Great focus and diligence would be required of the candidates, which was why flight training was the most crucial part of the entire course. Most yers dedicated all their time and effort to make sure that they would ace their flight training.


    Anthony had just died from an ��ident�� not too long ago. Before the authorities hunted his killer down and NASA releasing the investigation results, one could only guess the reason behind his untimely death. The most important thing was that none of them knew how the mysterious killer killed him. Other than the young man used of leaving his roomst night, none of the yers left their rooms. It was the same thing during lunch, where they all knew each others�� whereabouts. Technically, the suspect couldn��t have tampered with the Lunar Landing Research Vehicle without anyone noticing


    When Anthony��s turn arrived, the other yers were gathered around the captain. Since Zhang Heng knew that he would end up first ce, he did not pay attention to the Lunar Landing Training Vehicle but observed the other yers instead. He spotted nothing out of the ordinary at that time.


    A supernatural force, perhaps?


    Considering those who entered this quest were yers themselves, there was a high chance that they carried powerful game items with them. For now, this was the most usible exnation for Anthony��s death. This meant several new possibilities in the case. Zhang Heng could understand why the knowledgeable middle-aged man wanted to look for the murderer as soon as possible. As long as the case remained unsolved, everyone would be carrying a Damocles�� Sword on their heads. Toplete their main quest, they would have no choice but to weed the killer out.


    The severe ident that had just urred caused a nervous and ominous atmosphere to hang over Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. Everyone tiptoed around with a cautious tone about them, checking all the equipment thrice, just to be sure. For the next stint, the technicians had just done the second round of ground checks for the aircraft, making very sure everything was airworthy. After that, Zhang Heng put on his custom made flight suit, helmet, and oxygen mask. He then hopped into the cockpit. For the other yers, this might be their first time flying a jet trainer, but during the transitional quest, Zhang Heng had flown this particr type many times himself. When he took the T-38 out for a spin earlier, the instructor was impressed by his performance, unable to stopplimenting him when hended.


    Zhang Heng��s Level 1 flying skills may not match up to that of professional pilots, but they were sufficient for him to pass the current quest. This was especially true after he spent a long time horning his airmanship, where all he needed right now was more flying experience. The young man and school kid in front of him hadpleted their sorties. As for the rest, they no longer seemed to be worried about their safety as well. Zhang Heng was third to get on the ne. Once the seatbelts were fastened, he pulled the safety pin of his ejection seat; for good measure, of course. He then turned on the flight disy and flipped a row of switches. Subsequently, the radar and gauges came to life, and he did a radio check. The pre-flight checks were done, and he was ready to start the engines.


    The moment he held the start button, the engine whirred to life, beginning from a low hum and increasing to an almost deafening high-pitched whine. The aircraft was now configured to fly, and after making sure that everything was in check, Zhang Heng signaled ground with his hand indicating that he was ready. Immediately, they ran to the ne, dismantling thedder and removing the chocks. Once the ground power was disconnected, Zhang Heng released the brakes and gave it a little throttle. The T-38 rolled out of the hanger slowly, taxiing to the runway.It was still a windy afternoon, albeit a lot better than the morning��s gusty weather. More importantly, the skies had cleared, and it was the perfect time to fly. At 13:45 sharp, Zhang Heng requested to take-off from the tower. The moment he was cleared, he pushed the throttle on his left to full, and the airne screamed and shuddered as the engine spun up. Then, the aircraft started barreling down the runway, pushing Zhang Heng back into his seat with massive force. The moment he reached 220 knots, he pulled the stick back, and the T-38 lifted its nose off the ground. Zhang Heng took a quick look at his instruments, making sure that he was on a steady climb and that the aircraft headed in the designated direction. He was required to fly out to sea and find a corvette named Miller. Once he spotted it, he would turn around and return home. The mission wasn��t all thatplicated, really. All he needed to do was to ensure that he didn��t miss the target. All too soon, everything worked as intended, and Zhang Heng could rx a little. He looked outside the ss canopy, enjoying the stunning view earth had to offer from above.


    He had to admit that this game changed him a lot. Half a year ago, he would never have thought that something insane like this would happen to him. Even second-generation rich kids could only imagine drifting like Takumi Fujiwara on a twisty mountain road. Now, Zhang Heng was speeding in a fighter jet over America��s territorial waters.


    At 13.52, he contacted tower again, informing them of his altitude, speed, and heading, at the same time, checking the aircraft��s fuel consumption. All gauges were within their designated parameters, and nothing was out of ordinary so far. The sunlight outside the window was dazzling, bathing the cockpit in bright light. In less than ten minutes, the aspiring astronaut managed to locate the corvette. At 13:59, Zhang Hengmunicated with the tower for the third time. He told them that the mission wasplete, and he was now turning home.


    Around four and a half minutester, the jet aircraft suddenly jolted violently. There was, and a loud rattling and grinding, and through the ss canopy, he spotted the left engine in mes. Secondster, a loud rm started beeping on the instrument panel. At the same time, air traffic control could be heard over the radio. ��David, what is going on?��


    ��I think it might be a bird strike; hit a seagull or something.��


    Immediately, Zhang Heng killed the ming engine. ��David, can you make it back to the base?!��


    ��Let me try,�� grunted Zhang Heng while ncing at the altimeter.


    From the beginning, he managed to keep his calm through the frightening anomaly. All those long hours spent flying and training with Armstrong were precisely to prepare for situations like this. He still had one engine left, and if all went well, returning to base should be a textbook maneuver. Just when the jet began to stabilize itself, another loud explosion rocked Zhang Heng to the bone. It was the right engine this time, and now, except for the muffled sound of the wind, the cockpit was silent.

 Chapter 295 - Following Closely

    <h4>Chapter 295 Following Closely</h4>


    And that was Zhang Heng��sst contact with the tower before allmunications were lost. Base instantly sent out a rescue team to hisst known location.


    This was the second major ident on the same day, and even the steady and calm captain started to feel nervous. Undeniably, the risks were astronomical when it came to astronaut training. The Apollo 1 incident was a tragedy that NASA would remember for the rest of their days. During aunch test, themand module of a test article caught fire suddenly with three unfortunate astronauts inside. The hyperbaric oxygen atmo caused the fire to spread a lot faster than expected, and tragically, all three astronauts were charred to oblivion when ground control eventually got to the rocket.


    This catastrophe caused the Apollo Program to be dyed for 20 months. After that, many other idents continued to gue space exploration. This was, however, the first time they witnessed two people losing their lives while training on the same day. Oncemunications were dead, the tower had no way to know Zhang Heng��s current situation. For a twin-engine aircraft, an experienced pilot would usually be able to coax the ne back home even if one engine suffered a critical failure. Alternatively, the pilot couldnd the aircraft as soon as he could. However, if both the engines failed, the aircraft would lose altitude quickly, seeing how the heavy trainer wasn��t a very good glider.


    In such a situation, Zhang Heng��s best chance of survival would be ejecting and parachuting to the ground safely. Ever since Anthony��s ejection seat failure, the yers did not have much faith in the aircraft anymore. Not too long ago, Livingston gathered everyone in a meeting, looking for Anthony��s murderer. Logically, that should have pressured the killer into not acting again within such a short period. Nobody expected the murderer to go as far as to kill Zhang Heng within a few hours of Anthony��s death.


    It appeared that this time, the assassin targeted someone they expected least. Until now, Zhang Heng��s scores always came in first for astronaut training. Killing him would indeed empty one of the seats on Apollo 11. However, the other yers also believed that the killer wouldn��t benefit much even if Zhang Heng was eliminated. Other than the fact that he looked like a guy who shouldn��t be messed with, killing the person in first and third ce made no difference. Seeing that space was the ultimate goal here, everybody hoped that their crewmates were reliable. It wasn��t a solo mission, anyway, and the three had each others�� lives in their hands. Logically, the killer should have targeted the second and third ce instead of the best man for the job.


    There was only one person who could have had the motive to kill Zhang Heng.


    ��What��s going on? Why are all of you staring at me like I��m the killer?�� the listless young man asked while snorting.


    ��You said that you had no reason to kill Anthony because he wasn��t a worthy opponent for you. This time, you must have found your reason,�� said Yin Xiong. ��What do you mean by that?��


    ��You realize that you are now in grave danger. Most yers hope for your elimination. Now that David is gone, chances are you��ll get first ce in astronaut training.��


    ��So what?��


    The listless young man rubbed his chin thoughtfully.


    ��You and David are the only two pilots with a solid foundation on flying. With us losing David, we��ll have no choice but to choose you as our pilot.��


    ��I like how you think. If I had a choice, I��d like you to be my moonnding partner.��


    ��Dream on.��


    ��If I were you, I wouldn��t be so rude to my futuremander. If you are unhappy with me, I would like to invite you to my room for an ��in-depth�� discussion,�� the listless young man sneered with an emphasis on the words, ��in-depth.��


    ��Now that you��ve got what you wanted, can you tell us how you did it? You knew the sequence of the people who would get on the Lunar Landing Training Vehicle, which prompted you to mess with the machine a night before it happened. We just need to know how you messed with the ne. How did you cause a twin-engine failure? David is a better flyer than you. How had he not found something wrong with the engines before takeoff? Besides, wasn��t Mark between you and David earlier? What kind of game items do you possess?��


    ��What if I don��t tell you? Are you going to bite me?��


    ��It��s true that we need someone to fly the ship. However, we shall cross that bridge only when we get on Apollo 11. Before that, we shouldn��t ce our lives at the mercy of someone��s whim. Besides, I��m pretty sure that you don��t have it as well.��


    Livingston cleaned his sses before continuing


    ��To protect ourselves, you must show us your game items and tell us the way to activate and deactivate them. Otherwise, we��ll have to take it from you by force. By that time, we might take other things as well.����Hehe... uncle, you sound a lot tougher than you look. Unfortunately, you asked the wrong guy. I wish I could tell you how I made them crash. I wish I could tell you how I killed that idiot, Anthony. The truth is... this is myst time repeating myself... this is so stupid. Listen, I didn��t kill them. I don��t care how you look at me. I didn��t do it. At the same time, I can��t say that I hate the fact that they both got killed. That��s all there is to it.��


    ��We��re wasting our time. He��s full of lies. We should restrain and search him, �� the schoolkid suggested.


    ��I agree,�� seconded Yin Xiong. ��I will kill whoever thatys their hands on me. I will make sure of it. I ain��t kidding.��


    The listless young man��s face had darkened to a somber facade, and the other yers could see the furious rage burning in his eyes.


    ��Why? If you didn��t do it, why can��t we search you? Just like what you said, you are the most qualified pilot among us after David. If you can prove that you had nothing to do with their deaths, you can just sit aside and watch the show. Don��t you want toplete the main quest yourself?��


    ��I will not disy my trump cards. Not before the game ends.��


    Everything then came to a halt. They thought twice about roughing someone up. Livingston had some concerns as well, considering this was an air-force base after all. Even though they outnumbered the listless young man, it was still hard for them to exert such force in such a high-security area. Suddenly, Jia Lai who had been quiet all the while spoke up as he pointed at the beach.


    ��Ah... is there something wrong with my eyes, or is that David on the speedboat?��

 Chapter 296 - Miracle

    <h4>Chapter 296 Miracle</h4>


    The rescue team was shocked to find Zhang Heng on a cruise ship. He was bathing in the sun with a man in trunks who seemed a lothario, the few women in bikinis standing close to him a testament to his influence. It appeared the man was the captain of the ship. At that moment, he stared at Zhang Heng as if he was looking at a god.


    Twenty minutes ago, Zhang Heng found both of his engines failing on him. An airne without its engines was like a bird without wings, and the aircraft started falling out of the sky the moment they med out. The numbers on the altimeter were dropping quickly, and he knew there wasn��t much time left. Running out of options in a crippled airne, Zhang Heng pulled the eject handle.


    And just as expected, nothing happened. During a critical time like this, the life-saving ejection seat suddenly stopped working just like that. This was precisely what happened to Anthony in the Lunar Landing Training Vehicle earlier. Zhang Heng didn��t expect to be the mysterious murderer��s second target. He would have to save the gripes forter. This wasn��t the time to think about these, a time where life was quickly slipping away from his hands.


    Many people assumed that crashing at sea was better thannd, thinking that a waternding was safer than the hard ground. The truth was, the impact from the speeding ne on the water surface was no different from ramming head-on into a concrete wall. When that happened, even the most experienced pilots would not survive the crash. If the engines couldn��t be restarted, there wasn��t much the stricken pilots could do to save themselves. Thankfully, Zhang Heng possessed a game item that might just save his life: Betty��s Shell.


    se


    Until today, Zhang Heng had never thought that he could use this game item so unconventionally. In this life-threatening situation, there was nothing else he could rely on except for Betty��s Shell, used to escape his enemies and speed up his ship. Throughout that period, he also realized he could control the storm better. That said, whatever he was about to do to save himself was insane. Not only would he need to invoke a gigantic storm, but he would also need to control it in the most precise way possible.


    When the left engine stopped working, Zhang Heng realized that things weren��t as simple as he thought. While attempting to fly with only one engine, he began to prepare a backup n. Then, when the right engine failed, a massive storm cloud had already appeared in the sky. It expanded so quickly that he could literally see it changing by the second. The temperature variance increased amid the newly formed clouds, and water vapor molecules rose rapidly. The convection became more and more intense, and in the end, the evaporated vapor hyper-cooled and started to shrink. At the same time, gas molecules under the cloud kept on filling up the empty space. All these thingsbined were the perfect recipe for a tornado.


    In that split second, the aircraft was violently sucked into the vortex. Zhang Heng felt like he was back into the Johnsville Human Centrifuge, where everything around him began spinning into a blur. Never had he thought the training simtions would be put to use even before heunched to space. Pressure within the tornado was extremely low, and the air was thin, and despite the conditions, the oxygen mask allowed him to breathe normally. With the tornado spinning faster and faster, the suction near the center got more energetic as well. This greatly helped in reducing the descent rate of the malfunctioning ne.


    Zhang Heng paid close attention to the altimeter, calibrating the size of the tornado based on the altitude and descent rate of the airne. His goal was to do a smooth and soft waternding. However, it was no easy feat to achieve. Any small mistake made, and he might be thrown out of the vortex or sucked higher up. Thankfully, none of that happened, and eventually, he managed to guide the ne out of the tornado. The airne glided on the water for some distance beforeing to aplete stop.


    Once the ordeal was over, Zhang Heng received an achievement.


    (The man who entered a tornado.]


    This achievement earned him 15 game points. When he exited the ne, he received another achievement.


    (Sessfully maneuvering an aircraft on water.]


    Considering how difficult the feat was, the system rewarded Zhang Heng a generous 25 points, although not the highest he had received in one go. He would, however, never attempt such a thing again, even if the system threw him 100 points. 500 meters from where hended, a cruise ship witnessed Zhang Heng emerging from the twister andnding on the water.


    It was the first time the captain witnessed something so unbelievable, a person surviving two catastrophic events at the same time. This exined why he saw Zhang Heng as a godter on. Those things were undoubtedly miraculous, powerful enough to change someone��s belief. Zhang Heng thanked the captain after receiving a towel and a set of clean clothes. With the assistance of the two bikini-ddies, he managed to get out of the hefty flight suit. Feeling literally 20 pounds lighter, he got into his new clothes, slightly oversized since they belonged to the captain. The nice thing was that they were clothes meant for a holiday, and after the ordeal, he actually feltfortable and snug.


    Bathing in the warm sunlight, Zhang Heng could finally rx again. While waiting for the arrival of the rescue team, he and the captain managed to talk a little. Although his mind was still on the events that had happened earlier, he had to admit that the ��ident�� was somethingpletely unexpected. Judging from the killer��s decision to murder Anthony, it seemed the killer wished to eliminate the ones closest to his grade or ranked lower than him. By doing that, he would be able to push up his ranking. If that were to be the case, it meant the murderer��s next target should be Livingston or the schoolkid. The listless young man might be a target as well. If the killer made Zhang Heng the target, no one would benefit from it except the young man. And it also didn��t exin Anthony��s death. Although unpleasant to hear, the listless young mas was not lying. The truth was that he did not have a motive to kill Anthony.


    All too soon, Zhang Heng realized that he had justplicated the whole thing. No matter who the killer was or for what reason, all that was needed was killing the listless young man, and its safety would be guaranteed.


    Both of them were the only experienced pilots of the entire team. Putting the safety and lives of the crew in mind, no matter who the three Apollo 11 astronauts were, they would definitely want Zhang Heng or the listless young man on board. Zhang Heng had no intention to wait for the killer to pick his target, though.


    This time, he wanted to strike first to guarantee his safety.

 Chapter 297 - Note

    <h4>Chapter 297 Note</h4>


    Although a fighter jet worth millions had crashed at sea and sank to its bottom, NASA was relieved to see Zhang Heng returning in one piece.


    Two deadly incidents had urred on the same day, and if another ident were to take ce, it would certainly catch the unwanted attention of the public even if had nothing to do with the Lunar Landing Research Vehicle. In fact, ever since Congress approved the Apollo Program, public opposition had been gaining traction by the day.


    Taxpayers started to question the sensibility of the astronomical expense required to fund the program, or whether the so-called ��space race�� and moonnding were simply political dick-measuring among the superpowers. Political significance seemed to far outweigh the project��s practical relevance, where all that money could have been used to improve the livelihood of themon man. Such funds could have been easily used to increase unemployment benefits, decrease interest rates, and even help coloredmunities in a time where they faced great oppression.


    Then, there was the press. Media would have had a field day, unceasingly pursuing NASA and the yers if they caught wind of the idents. Fortunately, unlike Anthony, Zhang Heng miraculously survived.


    The moment he reached the shore, he did not meet with the other yers but was instead, sent directly to the infirmary. Although Zhang Heng appeared to be unscathed on the surface, the medical team still ran full physical tests on him just to be on the safe side. When they confirmed he was in good health, they brought him to a conference room where an inquiry had been set up to investigate the cause of the ident. It was more like a discussion session, where a team of investigators listened as he rted his experience. This included reigniting the engine, measures the pilot had taken, and the condition of the fighter at the point of failure. They even questioned him about how he escaped.


    Because he was found on a cruise ship, Zhang Heng made no attempts to hide the truth and told the investigators everything, including the part where his jet was sucked into the tornado. He did, however, leave out the part about using Betty��s Shell to control it. Trying to be as transparent as possible, he told of how the tornado spat him out, subsequently granting him a safending on the water.


    The whole story sounded more like a ridiculous myth to the investigators�� ears, and although Zhang Heng��s narrative couldn��t bepletely ruled out theoretically, their professional experience told them that the chances of such a remarkable thing happening were just too small. Equally small was the probability of both engines failing in midair at the same time, and the part about the jet being caught inside a tornado was even more far-fetched. Before the investigators called upon him, they had done their homework �C at that time, the waterspout was just off the coast and many around the area had seen it. Moreover, the stories of eye-witnesses on the cruise ship matched Zhang Heng��s statements precisely.


    So, as incredulous and impossible as it sounded, the investigators had to ept the only exnation they had at the end of the day.


    Moreover, they also paid particr attention to the faulty ejection device. The fatal incident that morning that cost Anthony his life was directly rted to the ejection seat failing tounch on the Lunar Landing Research Vehicle. Less than a few hours after the first incident, the ejection seat on the T-38 malfunctioned as well. Naturally, a suspicious connection hung between the two.


    NASA had already sent divers to recover the jet-trainer, intending to conduct a detailed investigation when it was brought back ashore. On top of that, they even looked into the possibility that Zhang Heng might have intentionally damaged the ne himself.


    was 0


    S


    By the time the interrogation was over, it was already dark. Zhang Heng was informed that until the final report was out, he was grounded and wouldn��t be allowed to fly. He didn��t object the decision, knowing that it was somehow a blessing in disguise. Staying on the ground would ensure his safety, and before the culprit was caught, he did not wish to endure the same ordeal again.


    After a hearty dinner, Zhang Heng returned to aerodynamics ss.


    He only just sat down when he received a note. On it was a simple sentence �C You suspect Bruno too, right? Meet me in the corridor tonight at three.


    Bruno was the alias of that listless young man. Yin Xiong passed Zhang Heng the note, but Livingston had actually written it. As Zhang Heng received it, Livingston nodded at him covertly. Zhang Heng wasn��t surprised. Two consecutive ��idents�� had taken ce on the same day �C one sessful and the other a failure. The other yers would surely worry about their lives, desperate to find out who was behind all this.


    For the moment, it appeared that everyone had reached a consensus that Bruno was the most likely suspect, and that they weren��t about to let him decide their fate. So they decided to take action.


    That basically meant that Bruno would be prematurely kicked out of the game. Even if he wasn��t the culprit, the yers wouldn��t want a potential threat staying on either, not especially after that argument. Never mind the fact that many were vying for his spot in the first ce. Since Zhang Heng managed to survive, they did not really need Bruno around.


    The four yers joined forces and nned to ambush Bruno. That meant he had almost no chance at winning. Livingston had also invited Zhang Heng to join the cause. Of course, it wasn��t because he valued Zhang Heng��s strengths but to keep him from ratting to NASA about the ambush.


    It was, undoubtedly, a very wise decision.


    With two serious idents happening in one day, and from the manner of questions being asked, it seemed that the investigators too, suspected the idents could have been premeditated.


    They couldn��t risk such things happening again, not even if it looked like a genuine ident. Lives and reputation were at stake here, and with the recent public bacsh, it couldn��t havee at a worse time. Only throughplicity could the secret be kept under wraps.


    Zhang Heng didn��t take too long to decide, agreeing to go along with Livingston��s suggestion.


    Regardless of whether Bruno was the murderer or not, getting rid of him would definitely benefit Zhang Heng. Even if the other four yers restrained themselves, he would still have to find a way to kick Bruno out to protect himself. Since they were all on the same side, Zhang Heng had no reason to disagree, something that Livingston had previously expected. In the subsequent physical training session, Livingston got up close to Zhang Heng quietly, exining briefly about the ns tonight. To avoid rming Bruno, the pair quickly separated after the message got across. Livingston even made it a point to gather everyone, informing them that the discussion would continue tomorrow at noon.


    Bruno, on the other hand, seemed displeased with the suggestion. Even so, he approached Zhang Heng after training ended. He tried to exin that he had nothing to do with the jet trainer��s ident and, at the same time, wished to be an ally of his. Bruno clearly knew that he had fallen out with the other yers and sorely needed support.


    ording to him, he and Zhang Heng were the ones with the highest scores, and working together would exponentially increase the sess rate of qualifying for the moonnding mission.


    Zhang Heng only said that he��d consider it. When the hour hand on the clock struck three, he opened the door as promised.

 Chapter 298 - Elimination

    <h4>Chapter 298 Elimination</h4>


    Zhen Xiong (changed from Yin Xiong), Jia Lai, Livingstone, and the schoolkid were all waiting in the hallway, remaining as silent as possible and even making sure the doors were closed gently. Once Livingston saw that everyone was present, he produced a lighter from his pocket. He lit it up and ced it near the copper lock on Bruno��s door. A few secondster, something magical happened before their eyes. The lock which was supposed to be made out of solid copper melted in the lighter��s mes!


    It was typically impossible to melt copper in such a matter of seconds, what more with a mere lighter. That left only one exnation for this magic trick. The lighter had to be a game item. However, Livingston seemed to have no intention of exining how it worked. The moment the lock melted down, he quickly kept away the lighter. The schoolkid opened the door next and entered the room with the others. Once everyone was in the room, Zhen Xiong swiftly shut the door. At the same time, she stuffed a towel she was holding into the keyhole to prevent any sound from escaping out.


    Soon, they realized that all that stealthiness was pointless. Although they made little noise while melting the lock, light sleepers would still be awoken by the shuffling of footsteps, especially with that many entering the room at the same time. To their amusement, Bruno was still fast asleep despite the less-than-graceful entrance. Livingstone hurried to his bedside and tapped his face a few times. Surprisingly, he didn��t respond. All he did was grunt, turn himself around, and continued sleeping. After that, Livingston turned on themp beside the bed, picked up a bottle from the ground, and examined it under the light.


    ��What are these? Sleeping pills?�� asked the schoolkid curiously.


    Livingstone didn��t answer. Instead, he pulled a pill from the bottle, opened the capsule, and poured its contents out on his palm. However, after attempting to smell it, he still failed to determine what the substance was.


    ��Can I take a look?�� asked Zhen Xiong while extending her hand.


    ��Of course.��


    Livingston handed the bottle to her. Shen then examined it carefully, sniffing it, then dipping her thumb into the powder to taste it. ��It tastes like LSD.��


    ��LSD is a hallucinogenic substance. Its scientific name is lysergic acid diethmide. Once consumed, the user would experience powerful hallucinations. It��s really difficult to describe the effects. Some say you can hear strange sounds and see kaleidoscopic colors moving around you. Your perception of your surroundings distorts and deforms; all these happening in your mind, of course. I was once tricked into tripping on LSD when I was at a club. ording to what I know, it should be highly addictive.��


    ��Huh? So, what are you trying to say?�� asked a confused Jia Lai.


    ��He��s saying this stuff right here is a drug,�� said Livingston.


    At the same time, the schoolkid took the initiative to tie Bruno up. It was at that time, they realized that Bruno was actually not asleep. His eyes were actually open all the time, albeit so small that no one realized it. At the same time, there was a smile on his face, as if he waspletely oblivious to his surroundings.


    ��This man is an addict. No wonder he always looks so weak,�� Jia Lai scoffed.


    ��Let��s put that aside first. We need to focus on something more important. Search and see if he��s carrying any game items with him,�� instructed Livingston.


    To prevent anybody from secretly taking possession of the items, they agreed to pair up and keep an eye on each other. 15 minutester, they were done with searching Bruno and his room. They even went as far as to look in the water tank of his toilet. In the end, they found two game items in his room. One looked like a fork, and the other one looked like the fang of an animal that probably belonged to a big cat. As of now, these two were considered as unidentified items. They would have to wait until Bruno regained consciousness before they could question him.


    Unfortunately, the effect of the LSDsted quite a long time. Bruno came around at five, quickly realizing that he wasn��t in the best state. Rage overwhelmed him right away, and he swore that he would kill Livingston. However, when Livingston ced the bottle in front of him, Bruno swiftly calmed himself down.


    ��You refused to let us search you because of this thing, right? You knew all too well that NASA would never allow an addict to travel to space, huh?��


    ��I have told you time and again that I��m not the darn killer. You are looking at an innocent person. Oh, wait...��


    Bruno then stared at Livingston.


    ��Maybe, you are actually the one behind all this! You are trying to divert everyone��s attention to me. By doing that, you��ll get away with whatever you��ve done!��


    ��Don��t you think it��s a little toote to divide us? We will have to solve this problem first, no matter what. I will now ask you some questions and I hope you can answer me truthfully.��


    ��So what if I answer you truthfully? Does that mean you won��t tell NASA that I have been on LSD?��


    Bruno stared and shook his head in disbelief at the other four yers before going on.


    ��Sooner orter, you will regret what you have done to me! Hasn��t it urred to you that it doesn��t matter who the killer really is? The real killer is using this opportunity to eliminate yers that threaten him the most. It seems I��m the first one.��


    After that, Bruno turned his gaze to the school kid and warned him gravely.


    ��You. You will be second.��


    His statement managed to make the student rethink the whole thing. A hesitant look now appeared on his face.


    ��Don��t allow his words to sway your emotions and thoughts. If you want to get to a higher rank, you have to get past him first. With him out of the game, it��s nothing but good news for you. That��s something that will never change, I��m afraid. Right now, we need to focus on finding the real killer. Anything else on your mind; we can discuss thatter. Agree?��


    Nobody disagreed with Livingston��s decision.


    Seeing how he had everyone��s support, Livingston pulled a chair and ced it in front of Bruno.


    ��I know that you must hate me a lot right now. I have to admit, I was the one who nned the whole thing tonight. However, it��s only because you are the most suspicious among us. But... I must also admit that your deduction made perfect sense. If I were to be the murderer, I would kill the yer that threatened me the most. I��m fair, and so I��ll give you a chance to prove you��re not the killer. By doing that, your point will automatically be validated. Even though you will still be kicked from the game, you won��t be the most suspicious person anymore after you leave. Isn��t that what you wanted to see?��


    ��Heh. Save it. I��m no three-year-old kid. I know exactly what you want. Rest assured, I��ll make sure not to give you what you want. You��ll never know who the real killer is. Therefore, you better pray you��re not the next target.��


    Bruno was strangely calm at a time when his resolve was put on trial before his teammates. He knew that once the other yers found out that he had been consuming contraband, it was the end of him. He also made it clear that he was not about to work with Livingston��s investigation.

 Chapter 299 - Result Is Released

    <h4>Chapter 299 Result Is Released</h4>


    Without cooperation from Bruno, it was hard for them to continue with the investigation. ording to the n, Livingston was supposed to threaten Bruno by killing him to force him to cooperate with them. Now that the LSD incident was exposed, Bruno knew that he would not be able toplete the main quest. It was no different for him to live for a few days less or a few days more. That was why he had no intention to cooperate with the investigation. At a time like this, even violence would be ineffective against him. Besides, it was now unnecessary to kill him and make it look like an ident since they caught him red-handed consuming LSD. However, if they handed him to NASA right now, they would no longer be able to question him.


    After an entire night of messing around, Livingston still did not get the answer he wanted. In frustration, he stood up from the chair, went to the bathroom, turned on the faucet, and started sshing water on his face.


    ��What now? Does that mean we have found the killer?�� asked Jai Lai.


    Jia Lai was waiting for Livingston toe out from the bathroom. Both his legs were getting tired after standing for so long.


    ��I don��t know,�� Livingston replied while using a towel to dry his face.


    ��Uh... What��s that supposed to mean?��


    ��Just like what you see. He could be our killer or not. We can never get him to confess. It will be a waste of our time if we carry on with the investigation.��


    Livingston was exhausted after staying up for the entire night.


    ��So... that��s it?�� asked Jia Lai with both of his eyes wide open.


    ��Unless you have a better idea, that is.��


    Livingston took a look at his watch.


    ��We only have half an hour before morning training. We need to figure out a way to put an end to this.��


    ��Erm... What should we do now?��


    ��Clean up the room and hand him over to NASA. There should be some traces of LSD traces left in his blood. It��s enough to eliminate him from this round of the game.��


    ��What should we do with his two game items?�� asked the schoolkid.


    ��We still don��t know their function, and we will not be able to identify them before this round ends. In other words, we can��t use them. So, let��s look for somebody to hold the items for us. We can discuss talk about the allocation right before the game ends.�� ��Who��s gonna take care of them? You?�� asked Zhen Xiong


    ��Do you guys have any better suggestions?��


    ��The least suspicious person among us is David. I think he would be the best candidate to keep them for us.��


    Initially, the schoolkid wanted to volunteer as the keeper, but when he heard Zhen Xiong suggesting Zhang Heng, he had to admit that it was still the best option for them right now. It was also the only solution that everyone could ept.


    ��I don��t have any opinions.��


    Livingston then handed the two items to Zhang Heng. ��Be careful. These two are still unidentified. There could be side effects. You shouldn��t carry them on you all the time,�� reminded Livingston.


    Zhang Heng nodded and used a towel to wrap the two game items carefully. All of them then waited until 6 a.m. for the captain to show up. They then handed him Bruno with his bottle of LSD. At that time, the captain was numb when he heard that a NASA astronaut was involved in drugs. For the past 24 hours, two fatal idents had happened, and now, he was presented with a drug scandal. Such mishaps and misgivings were unprecedented throughout NASA��s entire history, and only half a month was left before they needed tounch Apollo 11.


    It was toote to stop the project. The government had invested 20 billion dors ounting for 0.57% of the American GDP at that time. 20,000 organizations, 200 universities, 80 research facilities, and 300,000 people were involved in this project as well. Anything short of a meteor crashing down on the United States, nothing would stop the project from soldering on, considering the fiercepetition with the Soviet Union. So, despite the challenges, the morning��s training carried on as usual. During the break, the captain announced the results.


    Without a doubt, Zhang Heng ranked first ce. The worst he received was a B-. Other than that, he received A��s for another three subjects. As for this Multi-Axis Trainer and Psychological Evaluation, he received A+ for both as well. NASAmended Zhang Heng, adding that he was born to be an astronaut. He was equipped with an extraordinary mental state and relentless spirit. In terms of physical attributes, there was still space for growth. All he needed was time. For now, he was definitely getting on Apollo 11. Jia Lai��s results contrasted drastically inparison to Zhang Heng��s. He got thest ce for all trainingpleted so far. Thement that the evaluation team gave him was pretty straightforward. Whether it was his physical or mental state, he was not ready for space. If he did not want a horrible ident broadcasted across the screens of the entire world, it was best for him not to take on any space jobs.


    The others�� rankings were very much expected by everyone. Bruno was ced second, and the schoolkid came after him. Following those two was Zhen Xiong. Her mental state was excellent, but unfortunately, she wasn��t in a good physical state. Her gender was undesirable, as well.


    Now that the results were released,petition between the yers became even more apparent now. The team of seven was now reduced to five. In other words, chances for them to fly on Apollo 11 had significantly increased. Among them, the schoolkid was the happiest. Supposedly, his result was ranked behind Anthony and Bruno. Since the two of them were now out of the game, he had managed to enter the top three ces. If he can live until the takeoff of Apollo 11, he would be able toplete the main quest.


    There were only ten days left until the officialunch. The schoolkid realized that he had to keep an eye on Jia Lai and Zhen Xiong since the two of them had partnered up. Under this one-versus-two situation, he wasn��t confident that he would win the fight. So, he decided that he wanted to partner up with someone as well. He could forget about Zhang Heng because no one would target him. Other than the fact that he scored well in all the subjects, he could help to increase the sess rate ofnding on the moon. Besides, he managed to survive the assassination and return to the base unharmed. No one knew how he did it.


    Under such circumstances, he would not attack anyone as long as no one messed with him. That would mean the schoolkid was left with one final option. Whatever that Bruno said earlier had affected him a lot. He suspected that Livingston was actually the real killer, but after analyzing his current situation, he realized that Jia Lai and Zhen Xiong needed two slots but not one. That would mean they would target him and Livingston. As he stood on the same spot, the schoolkid felt that it wouldn��t be too bad a thing if Livingston was indeed the killer.

 Chapter 300 - Only The Living Have The Right To Worry About Tomorrow

    <h4>Chapter 300 Only The Living Have The Right To Worry About Tomorrow</h4>


    After the results were released, the yers started to grow more cautious of each other. It resulted in an awkward happening during lunch hour. The remaining yers were so worried that their food was poisoned that none dared take the first bite. At the same time, the yers were clearly divided. Zhang Heng was still alone, whereas Livingston and the high-school kid decided to partner up telling themselves that they would both pull through. Although not the best partnership, these two were definitely more robust than the Jia Lai-Zhen Xiong duo. Still, despite everything, nobody could figure out the identity of the real killer. Suspicions among the yers were rife, and the matter had turned into a hugely destabilizing factor.


    Since there were now fewer people in a team, it meant everyone was a step closer to victory. At the same time, the yers would also have to bear greater risks. The opportunists would surely strike first in a time like this.


    ....


    ��What��s with the rush?��


    The schoolkid hesitated a little after hearing Livingston��s n.


    ��I know that your mind is constantly bugged about whether I killed those two yers or not. Since we are now partners, I can tell you confidently that it wasn��t me. If you are not lying, then we better pray that Bruno is the killer. Otherwise, the culprit must be either of those two in our opponent��s team.��


    ��The worst part is, we don��t know how it was done. Judging by the two idents, we know that their items must have an ability that could affect an aircraft. We will have zero-gravity training tomorrow morning, and we have to get on a ne for the parabolic flight. If you don��t want any ��idents�� happening to us, I think we should deal with the threat as soon as possible. By the way, how many times have you joined a single-yer game withpetitive mode? Still have those wild imaginations in your head?��


    ��This is my second time. The first time, I was in a far more dangerous situation than what we are in. Many yers were killed in an earthquake in my previous game. In the end, the survivors were even fewer than the minimum amount of yers required toplete the game.��


    ��You are really lucky then. In my previous game, two of my real childhood buddies had to fight each other to grab thest spot. Since they used fake names and their looks had been modified, they didn��t recognize each other until the final moment.��


    ��Did they work together to eliminate other yers?��


    ��It was toote for that. There wasn��t enough time to work out a n. Besides, the others weren��t that weak as well. Even if they worked together, they weren��t confident enough that the n could be executed sessfully. When one of them hesitated, his friend struck and killed him, grabbing thest slot for himself.��


    ��Huh!��


    The schoolkid was shocked by the dramatic ending. To conceal his surprised face, he quickly moved on with the conversation.


    ��I don��t sympathize with them, you know. I��m just worried about NASA��s employees. After all, one too many idents happened on the same day. I��m pretty sure the authorities are starting to suspect that it��s all a deliberate act. Oh, and the public isn��t painting NASA in the best light at the moment. The media has also been focusing a lot on NASA��s idents recently, doubting they can safely get our people on the moon. If we act on your n right now, you think it might affect the Apollo Program...��


    ��Only the living have the right to worry about tomorrow. Don��t worry about Apollo. In such times, NASA has no option but to carry on with the project. They will try their best to prove the world wrong, and all. What we need to do now is to eliminate the rest of them and get ourselves on Apollo 11.��


    ��You��re right. I couldn��t agree more. We��ll go ording to your n during the fire drill,�� the schoolkid nodded.


    After a month training and studying, the yers were already familiar with Kennedy Space Center��s surroundings. Hence, the schoolkid managed to make his way to one of the storerooms during his break. The small-ish room located on the seventh floor stored the base�� daily rations, and security there wasn��t too tight. Usually, a single administrative officer would watch over the ce. It wasn��t too difficult to sneak in without alerting anyone. After the idents, NASA increased the security of the entire facility. Although the store wasn��t of great importance, they ced a guard there anyway to ensure nothing untoward would happen again. However, that didn��t stop the schoolkid from breaking in. He took out a small piece of ss, and after a few tries, he managed to turn the sunlight��s reflection to the guard��s face. He then ced it outside the wall and waited for him to pick it up. The startled guard immediately got up, approaching the curious shiny object with caution.


    It was at that time that something magical took ce. Right after the guard picked up the ss, his mind wentpletely nk, and he plopped to the ground with a gaping mouth, stunned and oblivious. Relieved, the schoolkid emerged from the back of the wall, took a quick look at his surroundings, and hurried into the storeroom. After a while, he walked out hiding something under his shirt. Once he picked the ss from the ground, the guard returned to his normal state.


    ��Great. I have been looking for this thing. I��m d you found it. Thank you so much!�� the schoolkid eximed, with an ear-to-ear smile beaming over his face. The guard was still in a daze, unable to remember what happened after he picked up the ss. As a NASA employee, he quickly recognized the schoolkid as one of the astronaut candidates. So, he nodded at him and returned to his post. After getting the items he wanted, the schoolkid quickly ran back to the training center. He arrived at the training center right before the fire drill started, ending up beside Livingston and gasping for air. Many people were looking at him.


    ��Are you trying to tell everyone you��ve just done something behind their backs?��


    ��Easy for you to say. Try running from the canteen to the storeroom to the training center in such a short time! I��m nowhere on time. I think I did a good job, though. Managed to figure out how to make the captain team us up without raising our opponents�� suspicion?


    ��We don��t have to say anything. They are weaker than us. Logically, they should be the ones worried, not us.��


    Before Livingston could finish, Zhen Xiong pointed at Jia Lai and asked the captain a question.


    ��Kenhaus, can you put us in the same team?��


    ��Reason?��


    ��I��ve teamed up with the others during our previous sessions. Anderson is the only person I haven��t teamed up with. I would like to team up with different people so I can familiarize myself with the way others do things.��


    ��Very reasonable. Request granted.��


    Zhang Heng had no intention to get involved in their fight. Hence, he asked to team with the trainer. Thus, everyone now had their partner with them. Everyone also knew that this part of the training wasn��t going to be as simple as they thought it would be.

 Chapter 301 - Fire

    <h4>Chapter 301 Fire</h4>


    Having a fire in space was one of thest things any astronaut would want to encounter.


    After the Apollo 1 ident, NASA took a number of drastic measures to improve fire safety. They reoptimized and refitted the spacecraft��s interior by recing all mmable materials with self-extinguishing ones, insting the piping and wires, correcting wiring problems, and changing the atmospheric pressure in the cabin-the gas in the cabin was converted from pure oxygen to an oxygen-nitrogen mix. Thebustible nylon spacesuit was also exchanged for a safer fiberss model. To top it all off, NASA fortified the astronauts with intensive firefighting training.


    Fires in the spacecraft were very different from the ones on earth. Without gravity, the hot air generated by the burning mes wouldn��t rise, but instead, wrap itself around the fire, forming a low oxygen, high-temperatureyer.


    Because of theck of oxygen, the mes would spread very slowly, forming a ball as it went along. The temperature of the fire would be lower than it would be back on earth.


    Generally, many rms would start sounding the instant a fire was detected in the spacecraft. The astronaut would then need to put on an oxygen mask, determine the source of the fire as quickly as possible, and cut off any nearby power supply. Meanwhile, the other crew would put out the mes using a fire extinguisher. In a case where the fire was uncontroble, they would iste the burningpartment and retreat to another part of the ship. Then, they would have to turn off the air cirction fan.


    All that was followed by the infamous explosion on Apollo 13 on the second day after itsunch. Fortunately, the seven astronauts on board remained extraordinarily calm and reacted expediently as they moved to the lunar module. Amid the tireless support from mission control, the moonnding n was aborted. The crew orbited it instead, managing to ��slingshot�� themselves back to earth safely. It was the greatest miracle in the history of human spaceflight.


    Of course, that was something to talk about in the future.


    NASA��s firefighting simtions were carried out in the closed environment of a mock spacecraft, a simtor of sorts. Of course, no actual fires were lit. Instead, it was reced by a red warning light. Participants in the training were required to follow a set of procedures, and in theory, the trainees shouldn��t face any real danger.


    Based on the order on the list, it was Livingston��s turn to take the lead. He nced at the highschool student standing next to him, and both of them entered the spacecraft.


    There were two parts to the simtor, each corresponding to the service module and the lunar module, respectively. The two moved to the innermost cabin, ready to begin the first part of the training.


    When the rm sounded, however, they did not retrieve the oxygen mask as required by the manual. Instead, the student quickly took off his clothes to reveal a row of bags tied to his body.


    The bags did not contain water, but a pale, yellow liquid �C gasoline he had stolen from the storeroom.


    He quickly tore them up and poured the fuel on the cotton bag that was used to simtebustibles. ��Perhaps you can tell us now how we are supposed to hide the smell of this thing. Do we lock the door, thenplete the remote detonation?��


    Livingston did not answer until the student finished emptying out the gasoline. Instead, he retreated quietly to the side of the door, took out a match, and said, ��I told you about my two childhood friends who were also yers in myst single-yer quest. Topete for the final spot, one had to kill the other. It was a tough choice... very, very tough...�� Livingston paused for a moment. ��What I didn��t tell you is, I was the one who did it.��


    ��What?�� Sensing something wasn��t right, the student turned around and saw Livingston standing at the junction between the service module and the lunar module.


    Then, he threw the match he was holding to the ground. Itnded on a gasoline-soaked cotton bag. With a mighty cackle, a raging fire quickly broke out. The high schooler reacted instinctively and ran for the door, but Livingston had already shut the entrance to the service module. The schoolkid was now trapped in a raging inferno.


    The fire rms in the service module began ring wildly, but in the backdrop of a growing fire, it sounded more like an insult. Realizing the gravity of the situation, the student frantically pushed the door as hard as he could. It budged slightly, but just as there was a glimmer of hope, Livingston drowned it out again. Through the gap, the student saw him taking out a lighter, aiming it at the lower half of the hatch.


    The lock on the hatch melted quickly when the mes of Livingston��s lighter touched it. In a few seconds, he turned it off, and once the temperature cooled, the melted hatch and floor, creating a hardened seal.


    Confident that his victim was now welded in, Livingston stopped what he was doing. This time, there was no way the student could muscle the hatch open, no matter how hard he tried.


    ��I��m sorry, I didn��t tell you the truth. I don��t know how to mask the smell of the gasoline, thenplete the detonation remotely. I just don��t have that kind of tech on me.��


    ��Have you gone insane?! How would killing me benefit you in any way? You n topete with those two?�� yelled the student, beads of sweat dripping down his face. With the assistance of the bags of gasoline, the mes were growing fast, already licking his back and scalding his suit. The fear on his face intensified as his face scrunched in agony. He even cried and begged for Livingston to open the hatch up.


    Thetter was, however, unmoved. ��Who says I��m fighting two people?�� Livingston cocked an eyebrow. ��I have allies, but too bad it ain��t you. Oh, by the way, you can scream all you want, but these two simtion chambers are sealed tight. Those people outside won��t hear a thing.��


    ��How are you going to exin my death to NASA? Are you only thinking about going to the moon, or are you doing this to help someone? You��re not that kind of person, are you?�� the high schooler cried, his eyes wet and nose dripping with snot.


    Livingston took a few steps away from the spreading mes. He could feel the heat from the other side of the hatch. ��You brought the gasoline into the simtor yourself. From the moment I got out of bed until now, I haven��t been out of sight. You are the only one who disappeared for some time after lunch, so they��d all think that you set off the fire on your own ord. As for a reason, I don��t know. Perhaps the recent training was too intensive, stressed you out and all. Those idents finally pushed you to your limit, and perhaps... you just snapped? I simply proceeded to the lunar module for the second part of evacuation training as required. By the time I found out, it was toote; you��d already shut the middle hatch.��


    ��Do you think NASA won��t suspect you?��


    ��I don��t care. As long as there��s no clear evidence, they��ll still need us to the moon for them.�� Livingston covered his mouth and nose with his hand to keep himself from inhaling the thick, noxious fumes. Looking at the watch on his wrist, he calcted how much time the schoolkid had left. The smoke in the lunar module was getting thicker, now too thick for him to stay any longer.


    Livingston cleared his throat, straightened his face, and ran to the exit as he put on a panicked expression.


    ��Help! Fire!!!��

 Chapter 302 - True Ally

    <h4>Chapter 302 True Ally</h4>


    ��Is it necessary for the fire drills to be so damn realistic?�� asked a confused Jia Lai.


    All too soon, they saw thick smoke from behind Livingston. Immediately, the captain��s face changed, puzzled how a training routine could start a real fire. He rushed to the lunar module but discovered that the fire had already consumed the service module whole. Five secondster, he exited the simtor and contacted fire and rescue. This was never supposed to happen, not to the point where a trainee burned in the cabin, at least. It took five minutes for the fire and rescue team to arrive at the training center.


    Livingston told everything he knew to the captain. Despite his legitimate sounding story, the captain still found it hard to trust him. However, it wasn��t his job to investigate the case, and he would have to leave the matter for the investigation team to deal with. Whatever Livingston told him didn��t make any sense. Why would the student set the service module on fire? Why the iron hatch to the module was unable to be opened during the critical moment? No matter how he looked at it, the captain couldn��t see any foul y involved.


    Hence, he didn��t pursue the matter further. Livingston underwent a simr procedure as Zhang Heng after he survived the ne crash. The medical team first gave him a thorough check-up. If his health checked out, they would send him off to the investigation team. As of now, the entire NASA was in a crazed frenzy after having to deal with all the ��idents.�� Never did they have to deal with such a predicament since the first day they established, and now, the entire programy in limbo. Nervousness and panic lingered in the air. Those stubborn old politicians against the space program were nothingpared to whoever that caused these ��mishaps.��


    On the other hand, Jia Lai was overjoyed seeing Livingston��s fallout with the student. He was initially worried that they would hatch a brutal n to eliminate him but he never expected them to turn against each other in the end. Their newly formed partnership was now dissolved. Hence, the rescue team quickly confirmed the death of a young man in his teens. Now, only four people were left in the race to get on Apollo 11. Livingston was currently under NASA investigation. They clearly suspected that he had something to do with the death of the schoolkid. Although Zhen Xiong��s scores were ahead of him, NASA might just remove her from the project due to her gender.


    In other words, there was a high chance Livingston would get toplete the main quest. Meanwhile, Jia Lai did nothing to conceal the look of happiness on his face. Now that a teammate had just burned to death, he was supposed to be sad, or at least attempt a solemn face. However, the happy surprise flooded him with excitement, and he was unable to contain it. The smile on his face caught the captain��s attention, who then red in disdain.


    Zhang Heng knew that Jia Lai��s behavior left a bad impression on the captain. Social skills were one of the hidden tests in the astronaut selection program, and after all, nobody wanted to squeeze into a cramped space with an unpopr figure. Considering Jia Lia��s current situation and test results, he was apparently happy with the oue. Compared to Jia Lai, Zhen Xiong managed to hold back her emotions well enough. Although pleased that her chances to board Apollo 11 had increased significantly, she showed none of her joy through her expressions. She even attempted to put on a sullen face when the student��s body was wheeled out for an autopsy. As a bystander, Zhang Heng was shocked by the oue. Judging by how the situation unfolded, it was clear that the student��s killer was his ally, Livingston. Even he had to admit that Livingston justmitted the perfect crime. It was, however, perilous to murder a fellow astronaut at a time like this. Livingston had an advantage, though. Zhang Heng knew the investigators would be unable to extract any substantial evidence from Livingston. He knew how calm and meticulous he always was, and after the death of the schoolkid, Livingston wasn��t about to ce himself in a tight spot where he had to deal with two opponents alone. These circumstances made Zhang Heng believe that someone must have been helping him all


    along.


    There was a high chance that Zhen Xiong was his secret ally. Zhang Heng observed that the two somehow didn��t interact much with each other. During the fire drill, Livingston had never targeted Zhen Xiong and Jia Lai. He had always been aiming for the schoolkid. Apart from tricking him into breaking into the storeroom, he also needed to guarantee that they would both end up on the same team. Zhen Xiong had made it possible for him to pair up with his target. From the surface, it looked as if Zhen Xiong teamed with Jia Lai so they could be safe from Livingston and the schoolkid. Since Zhang Heng made it clear that he wanted nothing to do with their fight, her suggestion would automatically put Livingston and the schoolkid on the same team.


    In other words, Livingston��s covert ally had to be Zhen Xiong and not Jia Lai. This exined why Livingston targeted the schoolkid. Between the two, he must have evaluated that Zhen Xiong was the harder one to deal with. Since he appeared to be able to see the bigger picture, he would definitely partner up with his greatest threat to ensure his interests were secure. Partnering up with Zhen Xiong to eliminate the two weaker yers also seemed a less risky option.


    Jia Lai was destined to fail, somehow still dreaming that he would be chosen for Apollo 11. Following the schoolkid��s death, his sad ending was soon set in stone, and eventually, the three yers selected to fly the mission were Zhang Heng, Livingston, and Zhen Xiong.


    Zhang Heng felt that the oue was an eptable one. In terms of results, Livingston ranked third among the other yers, besides being an engineer who worked for a research facility before. In some basic subjects, he was actually better than Zhang Heng. As for Zhen Xiong, she scored nothing remarkable for her physical and theory tests. Also, NASA was gender-biased toward males. That said, she performed considerably well in the space disorientation simtion. Her results should be good enough for her to qualify as an assistant on Apollo 11.


    However, one question still boggled Zhang Heng��s mind. Who attacked him before Anthony��s death? He had suspected Zhen Xiong and Livingston, but with their less than ster flying skills and spacecraft simtor results, it was unwise to make him their first target. Zhang Heng felt he was missing something, something crucial.


    After thest ss ended, Zhang Heng returned to his room. He stopped in his tracks when he saw lighting out of the open door. Sensing something wrong, he crept up slowly as the sound of water running from the faucet could be heard from the bathroom. Pulling out the butter knife in his pocket, he gingerly pushed the door open. A man with a towel wrapped around his waist was standing in front of the mirror, humming and shaving his beard.


    Suddenly, goosebumps sprouted all over Zhang Heng��s body. ��No need to be so nervous. I��m just here to greet mymander. Are you going to kill your fellow astronaut beforepleting the main quest?�� asked Bruno with a smile while raising both hands.


    To be honest, Bruno never looked better. Only around 20 hours ago, he was caught red-handed consuming LSD. Now, he seemed calm; the anger and panic that was in him were all but gone.

 Chapter 303 - Final List

    <strong>Chapter 303 Final List</strong>


    ��I can understand how surprised you must be right now. Just give me some time, and I��ll exin everything,�� Bruno continued while staring at the butter knife that was touching the skin of his throat. ��If you wish to exin anything at all... I suggest you start with the ne crash.�� Zhang Heng pulled the knife back.


    ��When did you find out about it?�� said Bruno, who seemed shocked at the revtion.


    ��It��s a question that��s been bothering me for a long time. After that ��ident,�� everyone looked suspicious to me. Other than you, not one else had the right motives to kill me. Let��s face it. Only three yers canplete the main quest. Logically, even if there were secret partnerships, they wouldn��t have made me their first target. You��re the only one who could gain the most from my death. I have to say... you had us all fooled with your LSD. Not only did it give you a good alibi for leaving the space center at midnight, but you also managed to distance yourself out from that shit storm brewing within our team.��


    Bruno grinned. ��I made a mistake there. Nancy warned me that you��re most probably the hardest to deal with in the entire team. Because of your existence, my situation became even riskier. The only way for me to feel safe again is to eliminate you. That��s enough of a reason for me to kill you. After Anthony��s death, you couldn��t have expected to be next to die, not so soon anyway. Then, to my surprise, you somehow managed to escape. It was at that time; I realized that I had toe up with an alibi. Hence the LSD incident.��


    ��The drugs were fake?��


    ��No. That was real LSD. Couldn��t afford the risk. One of you might just identify it. Besides, it wasn��t easy acting like I was high. About the drugs, yeah, you��re right about me. I��m an addict. Two hours ago, I popped an LSD pill. Right now, I��m feeling a hell lot better. Before I joined this great game, I couldn��t have imagined how I would live in this boring world without the help of LSD. It��s the 60s and 70s, man! LSD swept through America. Even members of Queen, The Beatles, and The Rolling Stones were users. Since I��m in this timeline, there was no way in hell I would give up the chance to taste LSD! However, the question was, how did I pass my blood and urine tests?�� ��Game items?��


    ��Oh, I almost forgot about that. You guys took away two of my game items. However, you made amon mistake. You really think those are the only items that could grant you supernatural powers?�� Bruno grinned.


    ��What are you trying to say?��


    Zhang Heng��s interest was aroused. Speaking of game items�� supernatural powers, Zhang Heng had something like that with him right now; the extra 24 hours he had every day. It was a gift from the old man he had encountered in the real world. It happened anyway, without relying on any game items. The conditions triggering and ending it seemed to be fixed.


    Afterpleting a few games, Zhang Heng had be more curious about the old man��s identity. They both had a conversation in a coffee shop where time stopped. The old man imed that he gave him the extra 24 hours because he wanted him to y on his behalf as an agent. If he was an agent, then there must be other agents around the world as well. They too, would have had different supernatural powers being granted to them.


    Bruno was in a good mood tonight. Perhaps the LSD��s effects hadn��tpletely worn off. Instead of stopping, he continued blurting out everything he knew to Zhang Heng.


    ��I met her before at a foreign student party. I saw her walking toward me. I was pretty sure she was there for me specifically because nobody else in the room could see her.��


    ��Or maybe you were just high and you were seeing things?��


    ��Nah. She was real. As real as us. No. Hold on... she��s more real than the boring world I live in. I��ve got to admit, although I hit up quite a bit of drugs that night, I never doubted her existence. What happened after that... was proof I didn��t lose my mind.


    ��Among my many friends, some call themselves brothers. There was one guy who called himself my brother, but I knew he secretly hated me. I knew exactly who he was, and after all, I just snatched his girlfriend from him. I got sick of her a weekter. So, to make me pay for what I did to him, he called the cops on me. At a party one night, a dozen police officers raided my room. We tried out best to destroy all the drugs we had, but we were still forced to get tested at the hospital.


    ��I studied in an extremely famous school in Australia. If something like that got exposed, they��d surely kick me out. After being in Australia for so long, I was supposed to graduate the year after that. My family, you know, being conservative folk, won��t be too happy if they knew I got expelled. They might just stop giving me money if they knew I��ve been on drugs. Guess what the test results were? I was the only one at the party who was clean.


    <b>was</b>


    ��The funniest part was, I was so high I couldn��t stand up on my own when the police arrived. From that day on, I knew that no matter how many drugs I took, no medical equipment could trace it. Not in my blood, urine, or saliva. It was and still is a miracle! A true miracle!��


    Zhang Heng was speechless. Bruno��s encounter was very simr to his. However, the way he acquired his supernatural power was rather... well, he looked charming, thankfully. This was probably the dream every addict wished for. Zhang Heng didn��t want to dwell on the topic, and again, pushed the butter knife a few centimeters into Bruno��s throat.


    ��You messed with my ne and tried to kill me. Now, here you stand before me. What makes you think I can��t just kill you right here?��


    ��No. I believe you have all the means to kill me, but I don��t think you will do it,�� said Bruno, still smiling even though his neck had started bleeding. ��Why?��


    ��You don��t want to lose a good astronaut on your team, right? Losing me will cause Apollo 11 to be dyed. By the time they get back on track, none of us willplete the main quest. Since I��m here, it means the final three astronauts have been decided...��


    Before he could finish, they both heard someone knocking at the door.

 Chapter 304 - Enjoying The Process

    <strong>Chapter 304 Enjoying The Process</strong>


    ��It seems that Nancy has eliminated that fatso. Don��t worry about Livingston. I left him a big gift. With me right now is solid evidence, proving his connection to the schoolkid��s death. He thought he was just going to answer some simple questions from the investigators. He��ll be surprised to see the FBI waiting for him. In other words, he��s been eliminated from this round of the game. Only three of us are left now. I suggest we improve our rtionship before we set to the moon. All in the name of ensuring the mission ispleted without hups, of course. You can start by returning my items to me.��


    ��Is that right? I don��t think so. Thanks to you, I now remember some things that happened not too long ago. I missed something important and interesting. Want me to enlighten you?��


    ��Why not? We have lots of time, anyway.��


    Bruno plopped on the couch in his bathrobe and touched his throat with his hands. Although Zhang Heng did not voice his intention, Bruno knew that he wasn��t about to be killed when he saw Zhang Heng put down the butter knife. At that, Bruno seemed to be pleased, and he rxed a little.


    ��What day is today?��


    ��I��ve no idea. We have only two weeks left before Apollo 11unches.��


    Bruno shrugged.


    ��I��m not talking about the time we have left for this quest. I��m asking about the date in the real world.��


    ��Why ask?��


    ��Hey, have you ever thought of this? After the useless fatso��s team abandoned him, why didn��t he look for a new one willing to ept him? Why choose to embark on such a high-risk quest instead?��.


    ��Well, you did say that his previous team abandoned him. It clearly shows that there must be something wrong with him. He couldn��t find...��


    Suddenly, Bruno paused mid-sentence. He noticed that something didn��t quite fit. If Jia Lai��s team had really abandoned him, he still had an entire month to find a new one. It made no sense that he would give up looking for a reliable team before starting a new round of the game. Bruno began dreading that something terrible would happen to them soon. At the same time, Zhang Heng opened the door and saw Jia Lai standing outside his room; the plump man still looking sluggish and cowardly. After Zhang Heng opened the door, Jia Lai poked his head in like an ostrich, scanning around with his eyes wide open.


    ��You��re here! That��s nice.��


    Then, he turned around to look at Zhang Heng.


    ��You first or me first?��


    Zhang Heng moved aside and allowed Jia Lai into the room, who then thanked him again.


    ��Where��s Nancy?��


    Seeing that the conversation had moved toward Nancy, Bruno didn��t feel too good.


    ��Are you referring to Zhen Xiong? She��s with her little pet now,�� Jia Lai replied with a smile.


    When Bruno saw the strange smile on Jia Lai��s face, his heart sank. Jia Lai, however, simply ignored him and turned his attention to Zhang Heng. ��Do you know how your engines died?�� ��Huh?��


    ��Nancy has a C-grade game item that allows her tomunicate with small animals within a certain area. She has the ability to give them some simplemands. With that, shemanded a flock of birds to fly along your flight path. Unfortunately for her, she used up herst usage for the item attacking me tonight,�� said Jia Lai.


    After that, he walked toward the table and pulled out two pieces of tissue, wiping the blood off his hand.


    ��Did you kill her?�� Bruno asked as he gulped.


    ��No. No. No... but I��ve got to admit that I was tempted. However, I didn��t want to get into any trouble. NASA has enough on its te. I don��t want to add to their problems.��


    Although Jia Lai appeared to be extra considerate, it did nothing to alleviate Bruno��s anxiety and fear.


    ��I didn��t kill your partner, but you don��t seem too happy about it.�� Bruno curved his lips and tried to put on a smile.


    ��I realized something when I felt like killing her. Right now, there are only four of us left. If I were to kill her, it means I��ll have to let you live. I��m not sure if that��s the right decision. I also know she��s been lying and taking advantage of me the whole time. She was trying to hide your turbulent rtionship with Livingstone. But that��s is the true nature of women, isn��t it? Forever in a state of fickle-mindedness. Can��t really me her for that.��


    Jia Lai moved a chair and ced it in front of Bruno.


    ��There��s something I still can��t figure out. She flirted around with almost everyone here. Even the high-school kid had a taste of her. Being her partner, however, she didn��t even allow me to touch her hand. The more she did that sort of thing to me, the more excited I felt. I��ve dreamt for a day like this time and again. When she exposed herself in front of me, I saw the fear on her face, and she knelt and begged me for forgiveness. She even said she was willing to do anything as long as I forgave her. Unfortunately, when that day arrived, I had lost all interest in her...��


    Jia Lai paused for a while.


    ��...But soon, I realized that my interest wasn��t lost after all. I was subconsciously enjoying the whole process.��


    As he talked, he extended his arm to tap Bruno��s shoulder.


    ��I know people nowadays care about the results more than anything else. Of course, I��m not against it. After all, I want to be among the three toplete this quest. But then again, at times, I feel that people care about the results so much that they forget to enjoy the process of getting there. Don��t you think it��s a waste?��


    ��What are you trying to say here?�� ��It��s simple. After all, Zhen Xiong and I are good friends. Even though she didn��t invest too much in our friendship, I��m still willing to give her a chance.��


    Jia Lai took out a ballpoint pen and a bloody piece of paper from his pocket.


    ��So, this is the situation. There is still one avable seat on Apollo 11, and I have to choose between the two of you. I��m trying to be as fair as possible, so I gave her 15 minutes toe up with a n that can help me kill you without raising NASA��s suspicion. Now, I��m going to give you five minutes toe up with a n to kill her. After that, my independent friend right there will choose one for me to execute. He��ll be the one who decides who will live on for this round. Any more questions?��


    Immediately, Bruno ran and grabbed the pen in front of him.

 Chapter 305 - The Final Drills

    <h4>Chapter 305 The Final Drills</h4>


    Four days had passed since thest tragedy. Because the incidents involving the five astronaut candidates were so bizarre andplicated-four were eliminated, in which three of them were killed, the investigation team was stretched a little too thin. NASA had meant to keep the happenings under covers until they coulde up with an answer to deal with them. But the very next day, it was already all over the media. And the more the news spread, the more nefarious the stories became. A group of people even named the series of idents as ��the moonnding curse��, iming what NASA was doing triggered the anger of God, ultimately leading to all these disasters.


    During the past few days, massive crowds had marched in protest outside the Kennedy Space Center and Congress.


    NASA was forced to hold a press conference to exin the situation. The remaining three astronauts who attended the conference were bombarded with questions for forty-five minutes. The reporters present kept throwing out borate questions, some of which were trick questions with hidden traps.


    However, the three candidates were prepared for this situation like this, and their answers were all airtight. Once the interview was over, Public Rtions immediately led the three men to the lounge at the back of the building.


    When the door was shut and all noise outside was isted, they were finally alone. Only the three of them were in the room, and Bruno immediately served Zhang Heng and Jia Lai with a ss of water. He said in a somewhat subservient manner, ��Brother, have a drink.��


    Jia Laiughed. ��A fat guy like me prefers coke.��


    ��Then I��ll get one for you right away!�� Bruno smacked his chest.


    ��There��s no need for that. We��re going to the moon soon. It��s better for us toy low until then.�� Jia Lai��s voice had a hint of concern. ��Have you had LSD recently? We��ll need you to pilot the Lunar Module. You should be able to do that, right?��


    ��No problem. It��s won��t be a problem at all. I haven��t touched that stuff for a long time now, and I��ve never been soberer,�� Bruno said.


    In the end, Jia Lai��s so-called ��opportunity�� and ��choice�� did not exist at all. He had already decided earlier on to keep Bruno and kill Zhen Xiong... not because she lied to him but because she was more difficult to deal with than Bruno. So, Jia Lai had killed his opponent early in the game in the highest respect, leaving the not-very-threatening Bruno to be the final member of the moonnding trio.


    They were less than ten days away from theunch of Apollo 11. Considering that there was still a one-week quarantine period before theunch, the team had two days to do whatever they liked. As for training, there were only the final survival drills left.


    This was to ensure that in case the spacecraftnded in a hostile environment, the astronauts would be able to survive until rescue arrived. During the Gemini Project, the astronauts were required to go through rescue training and intensive five-day survival course in three harsh environments �C the tropics, desert, and water. NASA even sent the team of astronauts to d and the Amazon for secret training.


    However, due to time constraints this time, the survival training courses had been pared down. In fact, water survival training waspleted in the swimming pool, and training in the tropics was simply omitted. Desert survival, however, was carried out as nned, though pushed to the back of the schedule in case the team hadn��tpleted the others. Moreover, only two days were allocated for that.


    Compared to the previous training sessions, the three remaining candidates were not burdened by the need to outperform the other. That was because no matter what their results were, the astronauts for the mission had already been confirmed. So, in the eyes of Jia Lai and Bruno, training was no different from a vacation.


    Just then, someone walked into the lounge. It was the captain, and he was apanied by a person.


    Jia Lai and Bruno did not pay much attention to the second person because they figured that he must be an employee in charge of the survival training. Zhang Heng, on the other hand, appeared startled.


    The captain did not introduce hispanion. Instead, he went straight to the point. ��You have received forty-five days of training, and you have mastered the various skills required of an astronaut. Throughout this journey, you��ve experienced many things, and fortunately, you��ve all persisted till the end. I am proud of your hard work and your efforts, and now, relish the opportunity to put your mark on history!��


    Jia Lai and Bruno shared a look, grinning with excitement seeping out of each other��s eyes. Being the final winners of the game finally sank in, and knowing they would sessfully board Apollo 11 to set foot on the moon, the both couldn��t hide their delight. Especially considering everything that had happened before, and how Jia Lai went from beingst on the least to be among the final three. Now that the dust had settled, he no longer needed to pretend and hide his innermost thoughts.


    Among the three, only Zhang Heng remained unmoved. He looked at the man standing quietly next to the captain, and it evoked some memories.


    Then, Jia Lai and Bruno heard the captain continue his announcement. ��This afternoon, we will begin our final training. I hope that every one of you will take it seriously. These results will contribute significantly to determine who the final candidates are.��


    ��Wait a minute. Final candidates... What do you mean?�� Jia Lai looked worried.


    ��We��re already the final candidates, aren��t we? The three final astronauts piloting Apollo 11-that��s the three of us, no?�� Bruno��s eyes had be wide and wild. ��You once told us a new infectious disease caused you to lose a significant number of astronauts, and the returning Apollo 10 crew have strangely been unable to recover. So, we should be the only three ones left, right?��


    The captain kept a straight face as he answered, ��Yes, that��s right. We��ve tragically lost many astronauts because of that mysterious infectious disease; to be precise, nearly all of them. That said, some of them managed to recover.�� The captain looked to the man standing next to him. ��Neil Alden Armstrong, former Apollo 10mander, has passed the observation period a week ago and is now undergoing therapy to the road of recovery. He��s in good condition and is confirmed to be fit for Apollo 11.��


    ��Wait...�� Bruno looked horrified as the shocking truth dawned on him. ��That means only two spots left for us?��


    ��More urately, there��s only one. We��re very fortunate that Captain Michael Collins, Service Module pilot, has been recovering well,�� said the captain. ��But don��t worry. Those who are not selected can join mission control and be part of the support team. You��ll still be able to participate in this great voyage.��

 Chapter 306 - Cruel Elimination Rate

    <h4>Chapter 306 Cruel Elimination Rate</h4>


    The moment Jia Lai heard it, his face fell into a darkened heap. Who would have thought that such a cruel twist of fate would strike them so suddenly? They had worked so hard in eliminating the other four yers, almost losing their lives, at one point. After barely making it out alive, they managed to shove their way into the top three ces. Nobody expected that Armstrong and Collins would recover in time to rejoin the mission. Naturally, it came as great news for NASA who had been under increasing public scrutiny.


    These two were a very different breed from Zhang Heng and the team. Neil Armstrong and Michael Collins were considered as some of NASA��s most experienced astronauts. They underwent years of intensive training and were the brightest and most qualified the United States had to offer. Before being assigned to take charge of Apollo 11, Armstrong flew Gemini 8 in 1965 to orbit the earth. As for Collins, he was an important part of Gemini 10, having performed a couple of spacewalks while on it. Their return gave NASA a much-needed adrenaline shot. To the three yers, however, it was nothing but awful news.


    In retrospect, the system never mentioned how many of them got toplete the quest. The person who had told them that about the details was actually the schoolkid, and since the information was based on NASA��s history, all the yers epted his statements without much question. At the beginning of this quest, the captain mentioned that no avable NASA astronauts were fit enough to go to space at the moment. All they needed to do was to pay attention to the three astronauts who returned from the Apollo 10 mission. As it turned out, their speedy recovery had directly affected the progress of the quest. Despite the cruel twists of fate, the system had actually been rather generous towards them.


    Just like the other astronauts infected with the mysterious ailment, the three crucial astronauts from Apollo 10 didn��t seem like they were about to recover anytime soon. This further confirmed that only three yers were allowed to board Apollo 11. Because of that, Jia Lai decided that he wouldn��t kill Bruno, worried that they wouldck the personnel needed to fly the mission. Unfortunately, fate pulled the cruelest joke it could on them, leaving some thinking that it would have made no difference even if it was revealed earlier. The difficulty of choosing three yers out of seven had just increased to picking one out of three.


    Earlier, Zhang Heng had been living in total oblivion of hispetition. Of course, if he knew that only one would be allowed on Apollo 11, he would have definitely not chased down the first ce in ss. Not right now, at least. Bruno, on the other hand, had to be the saddest among the three. He never thought Jia Lai would be chosen to carry on instead of Zhen Xiong. At that time, he was so happy he couldplete the quest that all his sorrows seemed to have disappeared altogether.


    Woefully, the good tidings didn��tst long. After going through all that trouble of eliminating the rest, they would now have to fight each other to clinch thest and only spot on Apollo 11. Considering that his game items were all lost, Bruno had now ended up in thest spot even before the mission began. After hesitating a bit, though, he quickly drew ties with Jia Lai. Zhang Heng wasn��t the least bit surprised at the unholy alliance. He was unsure if Armstrong still remembered what had happened fourteen years ago, but even if he did not, he somehow knew he had what it took to be thest one standing. His results were the best among the three anyway, not to mention that he never once allowed emotions to get in his way. Professionalism had always been his first priority when he carried out a mission, and Zhang Heng was confident that Armstrong would eventually select him as a member of his crew. Whether it be Jia Lia or Bruno, they would still have to find a way to kick him out if they wanted a chance atpleting the quest.


    To achieve that, Bruno teamed up with Jia Lai. The best oue for him would be Zhang Heng and Jia Lai dying while fighting each other. If Jia Lai won the fight, however, NASA would surely turn away from him whenpared to Bruno��s caliber.


    As for Jia Lai, he quickly got back on his feet after shaking off his anger and disappointment. A one in seven passing rate was the most stringent he��d ever encountered, not to mention it was his first time ying this ��single-yer withpetitive mode�� round. This was was lower than the average passing rate. However,ining about it now was useless. Compared to Bruno, he could see the bigger picture. He saw two paths he could take, either kill Zhang Heng and Bruno to be the only yer left or kill Armstrong and Collins to free up two spots for Zhang Heng and Bruno.


    Both options had their pros and cons. When it came to the sess rate, of course, Armstrong and Collins were clearly the better options in helping himplete the main quest. However, Armstrong and Collins were also easier to kill since they wouldn��t expect to be targeted by anybody. Then, there was another major concern. Would the other astronauts return to NASA after Armstrong and Collins were killed? Would Zhang Heng and Bruno work with him to assassinate them? To Zhang Heng, killing Armstrong and Collins would bring him no benefit.


    Whichever way it would go, Jia Lai didn��t have much time to think, having only ten days left before theunch of Apollo 11. The challenge he faced next was to survive the wilderness. Ultimately, he decided not to wait until the training was over or to keep guessing if the other astronauts would return to NASA. He would simply leave his fate in his own hands. In such times, the most reliable person would be himself.


    Jia Lai believed the two other yers shared the same idea as well, which was why he didn��t bother discussing how to eliminate Armstrong and Collins with Zhang Heng. He knew Zhang Heng would most likely not fall for his trap. During all the previous training sessions, he had deliberately made himself appear as weak as possible so the other yers would let down their guard. This time, he had no intention to hold back anymore.


    The three didn��t say a word to each other on the ne. On the other hand, the captain just wouldn��t stop going on about the various survival skills needed for the wild, wild, wilderness. So, a few hourster, they arrived at theirnding spot in the scorching Nevada desert. A few employees were already waiting for them.

 Chapter 307 - Area 51’s Einstein

    <strong>Chapter 307 Area 51��s Einstein</strong>


    Spanning a total area of more than 500,000 square kilometers, The Great Basin Desert is North America��srgest desert. It upies Nevada, more than half of Utah, a small part of Idaho, Oregon, California, and Wyoming.


    Speaking of the desert, the first name that crosses the mind has to be Las Vegas.


    In 1888, the ce was a tiny town. It wasn��t until 1905 that arge number of gold miners flooded into the area when gold was discovered. However, like the other gold-rush towns, the gold mines became empty after a brief period of excitement. Las Vegas soon returned to its previous rural state. Its actual rise was during the Great Depression, where the state legiture passed a bill to legalize gambling. It turned the sleepy desert town into a dazzling city filled with hotels, nightclubs, and casinos. Unfortunately, Zhang Heng and the other two yers were not here to tour Las Vegas,nding instead at the Area 51 Air Force Base. Constructed more than a decade ago, it was located on ake bed in Nevada, only 130 kilometers from bustling Las Vegas. In the decades since its establishment, the United States had always infamously denied its existence. At the same time, to prevent curious eyes from prying into the covert test site, the Air Force bought another 9,000 acres ofnd around it and pped it with a no-fly zone.


    Area 51 was initially used to develop Lockheed��s U-2 high-altitude reconnaissance spy ne. After itspletion, other top-secret projects also kick-started from this base, and it wasn��t until 2013 that the United States officially recognized the existence of Area 51.


    This also shrouded Area 51 with ayer of mystery. Many believed that the so-called ��Green Man,�� a frozen corpse of an alien, was stored among the base�� confines. Every newly elected president woulde to visit this ce after their inauguration. There was a growingmunity of extraterrestrial and UFO enthusiasts, swearing that they had caught sight of a short, gray creature with arge head moving nearby.


    However, Zhang Heng and the other two yers obviously didn��t have such luck to catch a glimpse of UFOs and extraterrestrials. The person who greeted them was no green alien, but an ordinary-looking man in charge of the air force base. After exchanging handshakes with the team, he informed them that the simtion environment had been set up, and training could be carried out at any time.


    It was rare for themander to show his humane side. When he saw that it was already sunset, he decided that he would move the training forward to tomorrow morning. So, after dinner, the three were given the opportunity to move around freely. However, they were only allowed to move around very few designated areas, and no matter where they went, there was always someone watching. The person in charge of hospitality apologized for the ufortable restrictions, reiterating that nothing was deliberately done to go against them. They were simply following the most basic security protocol.


    Zhang Heng and the team nodded, indicating that they understood the situation. But seeing how tight security was, it would be almost impossible for them to do anything secretly while on the base. At least they would be safe until tomorrow morning. It was a rather pleasant oue, where it might also be thest peaceful night they would get to enjoy. After dinner, Jia Lai looked at Zhang Heng and nodded politely.


    ��See you tomorrow.��


    When Jia Lai was done, he was in no mood to do any walking under the supervision of security personnel. So, he returned to his room. When Bruno saw him leaving, he too got up quickly and followed him until they reached his ce. In the end, though, he watched as Jia Lai mmed the door in his face, almost hitting his nose.


    Bruno felt awkward. Jia Lai had made it clear that he didn��t trust him, having no intention to discuss tomorrow��s ns with him. He felt like a tool, being used for someone��s own gain. His judgment was sadly urate. Bruno was interested to know Jia Lai��s n in advance, just to see if there were any parts of it he could take advantage of. It would be better if he killed Zhang Heng and Jia Lai at the same time. Now that the door was closed before him, Bruno had no choice but to return to his room.


    So, Zhang Heng was the only one left in the cafeteria. He quietly finished hisst spoonful of baked beans. The sky outside the window had darkened a lot, and with dry, gusty winds kicking up the yellow sands, the crimson sun soon fell below the horizon of the dunes. Even in the presence of an existential threat, at the impending life or death battle, it was hard to ignore such a magnificent sight. ��Such magnificent destion, isn��t it?�� a strange voice came from behind.


    ��Sorry?�� Zhang Heng turned around and saw a middle-aged man dressed as an engineer. He seemed to be an Area 51 researcher. Seeing that he had caught Zhang Heng by surprise, he smiled. Instead of continuing the previous topic, he asked, ��You are an astronaut from NASA, aren��t you? I heard that you are going to the moon.��


    ��My name is David.��


    Zhang Heng introduced himself, then put down the knife and fork he was holding as he extended a hand.


    ��We are the crew of Apollo 11. Well, technically, only candidates...��


    ��I��m Einstein.��


    The middle-aged man shook hands with Zhang Heng, who immediately raised his eyebrows. Zhang Heng had never seen how Einstein looked when he was young, but when the middle aged-man mentioned his name, Zhang Heng realized that they actually bore some resemnce.


    The middle-aged man released his hand and smiled.


    ��Just kidding, you know the nature of our work. We signed a non-disclosure agreement before we came here. We can��t reveal our real names. Let��s talk about you instead, Mr. David. Are you satisfied with the ce?��


    ��You seem to be doing very well.�� ��You too. As recently as sixty years ago, no one thought that humans could fly the skies in a big iron bird. Ten years ago, no one believed that humans could leave earth and go to outer space. Even today, many still don��t think that humans have the ability to set foot on another celestial object...�� Einstein paused. ��...but all this happened, with the help of mathematical forms, great engineering advancements, and repeated experiments. Humans havepleted those seemingly impossible things, time, and again. Isn��t this a modern miracle? No disrespect to the one who led the Jews to their promisednd, but I have to say, technology is the greatest power in this world.��


    It was a typical remark of an engineering student. In a way, though, it was difficult to argue with him.


    ��I��m sorry to have interrupted your meal. When I heard that NASA��s astronauts are here, I had toe and meet you folk,�� said the middle-aged man as he shrugged. ��No onees to this ce usually. Anyway, it was nice meeting you, Mr. David.�� ��I��m also d to have made your acquaintance, Mr. Einstein.��


    ��Okay, I shall not interrupt your siesta. I wish for you to seed in your training and get on Apollo 11. I will listen to the broadcast when they talk about younding on the moon.��


    The middle-aged man ended the brief conversation. With mug in hand, he turned and walked out. It was nowpletely dark outside.


    However, as Einstein was almost at the exit, he stopped again. Turning around, he said, ��Oh yeah, I almost forgot. I have a small gift for you. Consider it as a token of our first meeting. I left it in your room. I hope you like it.��

 Chapter 308 - Venomous Snake

    Chapter 308 Venomous Snake


    Zhang Heng kept thinking about the man he met earlier named Einstein, and wondered if it was merely a coincidence that he mentioned the words ��magnificent destion��. Those were the words of Buzz Aldrin, describing how he felt when he first set his eyes on the moon��s surface as he exited the Lunar Module.


    But he couldn��t find the man again. The name ��Einstein�� was obviously fake, and for now, all Zhang Heng knew was that he was a researcher in Area 51. However, no thanks to the extremely secretive nature of Area 51, unless Einstein sought Zhang Heng out, they would never meet again.


    Einstein appeared and disappeared in a jiffy, very much like the evening sandstorms.


    Early the next morning, Zhang Heng paid close attention to Jia Lai��s and Bruno��s expressions. From the look on their faces, he concluded that nothing special must have happened the night before. The man who called himself Einstein was nowhere to be seen, but whoever the man may have been, Zhang Heng set the matter aside first since survival training wasing up.


    The results of the training would eventually decide which of them would be the final candidate to board Apollo 11. Things, however, didn��t turn out the way NASA expected


    After breakfast, Zhang Heng and the two crewmates changed into their spacesuits. Area 51 sent military trucks to ferry them to the training location. When they reached the training range, a mock-up Lunar Module awaited them on the yellow sands to replicate themand and service module separation sequence as they returned to earth.


    The Lunar and the Command Module simtors were built on a one-to-one ratio, and everyst screw on them was configured precisely like the actual vehicle. Equipped within it were all the items the astronauts needed to survive the wilderness.


    The truck pulled over in front of the simtion module and dropped off the three trainees. It was only after they entered the simtor that the truck left.


    Two kilometers away from the range, the captain and NASA personnel were observing the situation with telescopes. NASA had learned their lesson from all the previous idents, and they ced an emergency rescue team on standby in the vicinity. Helicopters and off-road vehicles were also on the ready, not to mention that Area 51 Air Force Base wasn��t far away, and they agreed to send assistance when necessary.


    Fingers crossed, with the beefed-up precautions and preparations, there shouldn��t be any more idents.


    To say that the modules were cramped would be an understatement, andfort was probably a concept as far as the moon itself. In fact, the entire spacecraft had been so carefully designed that every gram it weighed was into careful consideration. Take modern rockets, for example. Every additional 1kg of weight would require an additional 50kg of fuel. To ensure the spacecraft would have sufficient escape velocity, theunch vehicle needed to have adequate thrust, and the spacecraft��s weight was usually kept as low as safely possible.


    Once its functionality and safety were verified in the best way, it was deemed necessary to sacrifice a part of the piloting experience. Nheless, three men waiting to rip each others�� throats apart while squeezed and squashed together into the tiny module sounded a little ironic.


    This was especially true for Bruno, whose breathing had turned rapid; his mind seeming drifted and preupied. Jia Lai and Zhang Heng, on the other hand, appeared to be much calmer. Especially thetter, whose breathing rhythm had hardly changed.


    The thick bulky spacesuits that were on them smothered out of whatever little room they had left, and even if they wanted to, nobody was going to carry out whatsoever ns they had been brewing. After waiting for god-knows-how-long, during which the three trainees remained in solemn silence, the captain announced through the radio that they could begin the training.


    Jia Lai, closest to the hatch, climbed out first, followed by Bruno. Zhang Heng was thest to leave the module. When his feet touched the soft, sandy ground, he unlocked his helmet and removed it. Immediately, the surrounding sounds and air flooded his senses, and he felt as if he had returned to the outside world. When he looked up, he saw nothing but destion all around them. Except for some sparse bushes, only one monotonous hue colored his vision.


    Right away, they were faced with an awkward problem-how were they getting out of their spacesuits? Since the suits were explicitly designed to be used in space, they became a cumbersome problem uponnding. Lugging such heavy equipment around would severely restrict their movement and consume considerable energy.


    Hence, after themand modulended, the first thing the astronauts were asked to do was to remove the suits they wore.


    Even after all that training, it would take a good while if you relied on yourself to remove the suit. If you had apanion to help you, however, it would greatly hasten the entire process. The problem right now was that the three of them werepeting against each other, and none were about to lend any assistance, even when it came to such minor favors.


    Eventually, Zhang Heng was first to speak up, telling Jia Lai, ��I��ll help you.��


    A look of surprise shed across thetter��s face. He nodded, feeling grateful. For a split second, Bruno regretted his inaction. He and Jia Lai were nominal allies and he should have been the one to step up and offer help. Zhang Heng, however, beat him to it. Too bad that NASA was watching them with hawks eyes, and it wasn��t the best idea to get rid of an opponent right now.


    So after Jia Lai got out of his suit, he helped Zhang Heng to do the same. In the end, Bruno, too managed to get rid of the shackle of a suit and put on an ordinary NASA ordinary.


    In the meantime, Zhang Heng returned to the simtion module, getting some food and water from the cargo trunk along with other useful instruments that he may have any use for. The three requested for help as they were trained, and reported their approximate location to the control center. After that, they began constructing a makeshift shelter.


    Zhang Heng had already done this countless times in his first game. The difference this time was, he didn��t have to go around scavenging for materials since NASA had kindly taken into ount the various environments the astronauts faced uponnding, preparing everything they could think of in advance. All they had to do now was to carry out all the materials from the Lunar Module and assemble the shelter ordingly.


    Even Jia Lai had to admit that Zhang Heng had the disposition of the most ideal crewmate, a calm, reliable, all-rounder. But for an opponent, that surely couldn��t be a good thing. It would mean that he was going to be significantly more challenging to kill. It was essential that an opponent of such caliber would have to be killed with a single blow, or he would certainlye back for him. Such an opponent would give him no second chances.


    Fortunately, Jia Lai had always been a patient one, or he wouldn��t have pretended to be the harmless puppy at the beginning of the game. He waited until Zhen Xiang and Bruno teamed up before getting rid of the rest of the yers. Only then did he show his true colors.


    He was exactly like a venomous snake, always on the lookout for the best time to strike.


    So, at the beginning of field survival training, Jia Lai seemed to be very cooperative. After the other two requested for help, he actively joined the construction of the bunk. It took the three about fifteen minutes toplete it. As a finisher, they installed a canopy to shelter them from the zing sun above their heads.


    As a requirement for the training, none of them had breakfast. Zhang Heng distributed the food he had retrieved from storage to the other two. Although starving, Jia Lai didn��t rush to finish his meal, giving Bruno a cold, hard look instead.


    Thetter understood what Jia Lai meant and, with a bitter expression, opened the bag of dehydrated food, mixed it with water from a sealed bag, and ate a spoonful.

 Chapter 309 - Desert Survival Training

    <strong>Chapter 309 Desert Survival Training</strong>


    Breakfast was bacon pieces and cinnamon bun paired with a drink of Tang. There was also pea soup and tuna sd, standard Apollo-era space meals.


    These were mainly dehydrated and semi-moist foods, some of which required heating and some in their natural state (mostly nuts). There was no problem with them nutritionally, but tasted barely passable.


    The space food ofter generations was greatly improved, having benefited from the advancement of food preservation technology. In Zhang Heng��s era, NASA would provide astronauts with an option of more than 180 types of food and beverages. You could even have chocte ice cream on the International Space Station (of course, a very extravagant thing even for now), which helped a lot in keeping the astronauts�� morale high throughout their months-long stay and lonely tours above our.


    For now, however, Zhang Heng and the other two candidates wouldn��t get to enjoy this privilege. The storage hold in the service module contained enough food for three astronauts for eleven days. If all went well with the mission, excluding the moonnding and returning to earth, the remaining food shouldst them six to seven days, just enough for the astronauts as they awaited the arrival of the NASA rescue team.


    However, considering possiblemunications equipment damage and other unforeseen emergencies, Zhang Heng and crew weren��t allowed to stay where they nded�� as they waited for help toe.


    So, after breakfast, the three performed simple some navigation, divided the food and water among themselves, and continued the training session. They packed the supplies into backpacks and moved to the next target location �C also the toughest part of the survival course.


    The target location was 80 kilometers away. Even if they walked without taking a break, it would take them at least 20 hours. What more, summer wasing, and the desert temperatures far exceeded 40 degrees Celsius in the day.


    Under the scorching sun, the body would lose water very quickly, and if not replenished in time, it could easily be dehydrated. Fortunately, even though forced to traverse the hellishndscape, Jia Lai, the more overweight one of the group, didn��tg behind. For Zhang Heng, a man who had experienced worse situations than this, it was all another day��s worth of work. He was the most physically fit among the three, and with Level 2 wilderness survival skills, the current situation was not much of a challenge for him.


    The truth was, the NASA provided emergency backpacks and supplies in the service module had saved the trainees a lot of trouble. After all, NASA wasn��t training them to be survival experts. Under normal circumstances, astronauts were only trained to follow the manual��s emergency procedures, make good use of the resources at hand, conserve strength as much as possible, and finally,plete the task within the specified time.


    The most the astronauts had to go through was a more than a strenuous stretch of workouts, pretty much like basic military service.


    However, after walking in the desert for an extended period, moods began to fluctuate.


    Not only did the dry and arid environment test the body to its very limits, but also inted everyone��s emotions in the worst way possible, especially when the three of them were hiding something. On the surface, they were all facing the same situation �C all aiming for the final spot. But the fact was, even if Zhang Heng did nothing, he could have simply survived on his own, relying on his outstanding performance to be the final candidate for Apollo 11.


    In contrast, Bruno and Jia Lai were more passive, especially so for Jia Lai. Thanks to the strategy he adopted at the beginning of the game, he ranked at the bottom of the three. He would really have to use this final training session to get rid of his two opponents.


    Jia Lai, however, didn��t know what Zhang Heng was thinking �C whether Zhang Heng nned to ace survival training and get on Apollo 11 on his own merits, or risk it and eliminate his threats which were Jia Lai and Bruno.


    After all, only one week was left until the end of the quarantine period, and there was no way one��s safety could be guaranteed for sure.


    The main problem was that Jia Lai didn��t know what kind of person Zhang Heng was. In the past month, Jia Lai didn��t just pretend to be weak to lower the guard of those around him, but also so that he could covertly observe everyone.


    The time and energy he spent on each person were different. For example, Jia Lai didn��t bother studying the brawny man and the high-school student, while Zhang Heng was one of the few he paid most attention to.


    Until today, though, he still severelycked understanding about Zhang Heng. Zhang Heng, the lone wolf, was the most mysterious yer among all the others, and Jia Lai couldn��t tell what he did for a living in the real world or what his past was. In fact, Jia Lai wasn��t even sure how old Zhang Heng was, not to mention that he had a poker of a face to read.


    This was the most difficult part for Jia Lai. Since he had no idea what kind of person his opponent was, it was challenging to devise a strategy. When there were still three spots avable on the Apollo 11 mission, Jia Lai maintained an amicable rtionship with Zhang Heng. Now, he had no other choice but to effectively get rid of hispetitor.


    Upon the edgeless desert, three lonely figures moved slowly across the sand dunes. Bruno pulled at his cor. Having drank countless times from his water canteen, he still couldn��t shake off the anxiety building in his heart. He looked up at Zhang Heng, who was walking in front and noticed that up until now, he had been striding at the same pace all along, seemingly oblivious to the environment.


    On top of that, Jia Lai, who was walking behind him, had been very quiet. This made Bruno very ufortable, and he was feeling the pressure. Since breakfast, there had been this ominous feeling in the air, as if something awful was bound to take ce. But then, nothing happened throughout the entire journey, and the unsettling feeling was now more suffocating than the scorching weather.


    At noon, they came across a rock face where they could hide from the cold of the night, and decided to rest up there for a while to make lunch. Per how he��d been trained, Zhang Heng gathered stones from the ground and formed an arrow with them, pointing the rescue team in the direction they were traveling in.


    It wasn��t after a thirty-minute break that they got on the road again.


    At dusk, Jia Lai and Bruno��s breathing had grown heavy, their clothes now soaked in sweat. The parts of their skin that had been exposed to the sun were red and raw. Despite the many protective measures, a lot of sand still managed to get into their clothing, and like an abrasive, it constantly rubbed against their skin as they walked, making every step a painful and ufortable challenge.


    The ten-hour long journey drained them of whatever strength they had. Zhang Heng, the team��s leader, decided to take a break when he noticed that the other two couldn��t go any further. So, he found a suitable ce to set up for the night.


    He collected some dry leaves and branches, then set up a bonfire to heat up the food. At least, the three exhausted men would be able to enjoy a warm dinner.


    All these caused Jia Lai to be uncertain. So far, Zhang Heng had done everything by the book, abided by the training regime, and orded every request of the captain. Was he really nning to win thest spot with only his scores?

 Chapter 310 - Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night

    <strong>Chapter 310 Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night</strong>


    Sand and stones dissipated heat quickly, and desert temperatures between day and night were at different extremes. In fact, the temperature difference between the noon and early morning could be in excess 30 degrees Celcius. One could either roast under the scorching sun or freeze at the drastically falling temperature at night. Also, to avoid the many venomous snakes and insects that made the desert their home, Zhang Heng chose a rtively high terrain to start a fire. Besides, fire also preventedrger and more dangerous predators from approaching them.


    However, danger didn��t always originate from the surroundings. Zhang Heng, Jia Lai, and Bruno were all sitting around the bonfire. This should be the best time for them to make up for the lost stamina during the day, but none of the three dared close an eyelid. This was, without a doubt, the best opportunity for them if they wanted to get rid of each other. During the day, NASA kept a hawk��s eye on them from a few kilometers away, and it was difficult to carry out any dangerous maneuvers without being noticed. Although unknown if any NASA personnel stayed awake after nightfall, one thing was for sure. Visibility was significantly reduced in the dark. Even if the observers put in their best efforts, it was difficult to see everything from that distance.


    The mes of the bonfire danced in the night, apanied by crackling wood and flying embers. Nothing else moved apart from that, and it wasn��t after a long time before somebody spoke in a low voice.


    ��Do not go gentle into that good night,


    Old age should burn and rave at close of day;


    Rage, rage against the dying of the light. Though wise men at their end know dark is right,


    Because their words had forked no lightning they


    Do not go gentle into that good night.��


    ��Dn Thomas... it��s a poem he wrote to his critically ill father,�� Zhang Heng said. ��I always thought it was from the movie ��Interster,�� replied Bruno as he yawned and rubbed his eyes that could barely keep open. Throughout the day, he used up most of his energy, and after dinner, he could feel the fatigue kicking in. However, he didn��t dare close his eyes even for a minute.


    ��I liked that movie a lot, and this poem as well. It��s rtable to our current situation, eh?�� Jia Lai added. ��Each time we participate in a new round of the game, we face the risk of elimination and loss. Let��s not talk about what happens after we lose. Everyone knows one thing, though. We mustn��t give up until the veryst moment. After all, we don��t want to be forgotten by the world.��


    ��Uhh, to be honest, I don��t care if anyone remembers me or not,�� Bruno shrugged. ��When I thought that I would never be able to host a future party in my Australian mansion or driving my Porsche 911 to pick up hot college chicks, or my younger brother taking my share of my inheritance.... hell, of course, I don��t want to lose. After all, who knows if I would have such good luck in my next incarnation


    ��So what about you? What is the driving factor that gets you through these rounds?�� asked Jia Lai as he shifted his gaze to Zhang Heng. ��Since everyone isn��t resting, let��s talk to each other. There��s not much time left for us anyway.��


    ��I don��t know. For now, I��m just trying to figure out why these games were created in the first ce,�� Zhang Heng nonchntlymented as he poked the bonfire before him with a twig.


    ��Yes, we all want to know who hosted this game, what its purpose is, and when it will stop and how to beat it eventually... but then again, we don��t always get answers to all our questions, right?��


    Jia Lai��s eyes flickered in the fire as he stared nkly, and no one knew what went on in his mind. For a moment, Zhang Heng even thought that Jia Lai was about to strike.


    Suddenly, Bruno��s nervous voice broke the awkward silence. ��Yo, guys, look! What is that?!��


    He just had just gotten up and was about to visit the nearby bushes to empty his bowels. Right after he unzipped his pants, something shed before his eyes in the nearby darkness. Unsurprisingly, Bruno was freaked out. His fight or flight instincts kicked in, and he instantly panicked. He didn��t even bother clearing out the rest of the by-products in his stomach, running and stumbling while trying to pull his pants up.


    Zhang Heng and Jia Lai stood up immediately when they heard the strange rustling, looking at each other in surprise. Clearly, this unexpected situation had nothing to do with any of them. Zhang Heng picked up a burning wood from the bonfire and pointed it in the direction where Bruno was running from. It was then that he saw mysterious silhouettes above the dunes not far away from them.


    ��What the heck is that?��


    Bruno squinted.


    ��It should be a mountain coyote.��


    Zhang Heng observed quietly for a while. In the novice quest, he learned many techniques to identify animals from Bell. It happened toe in handy now, where Zhang Heng��s mind automatically fell on information about mountain coyotes.


    A coyote subspecies native to the North American continent, the mountain coyote, could be found across the United States. The species could be seen in Washington State, the Cascade Mountains in eastern Oregon to the south through the Great Basin, the Sierra Nevada Hignds, and all the way to northern Mexico.


    Most of the time, however, these coyotes thrived in forests, swamps, and grasnds; ces that were abundant with food and water. It was rare running into a pack in a desert, and to make matters worse, they looked to be starving as well. The creatures appeared to have not hunted for a few days. Otherwise, the three yers who had stayed close to the bonfire all the while would have never been targeted.


    Zhang Heng was unsure if the NASA observers had noticed their predicament, but even if they dide to the rescue, it would take a good amount of time. The mountain coyotes were already on the prowl, stalking and surrounding their victims. It was one of those creatures that feared no man, and as humans continued to encroach into wild territory, there were often sightings in the suburbs. That said, although these creatures were usually solo hunters, they had now unexpectedly appeared in a pack.


    Even Zhang Heng wouldn��t want to deal with five coyotes alone. Of course, he could turn around and run. Although most likely unable to outrun the coyotes, he should have no problem running faster than Bruno or Jia Lai. Then, something suddenly crossed his mind. Instead of leaving the campfire, he kicked two pieces of burning wood as thick as a forearm to Jia Lai and Bruno.


    Jia Lai hesitated for a while, but eventually picked up the burning wood on the ground. He instinctively turned around and ran, but in his haste and anxiety, he tripped and fell, eating a mouthful of sand on the way down. When he raised his head, a coyote was already above him, growling and baring its massive fangs.


    Bruno was nearly scared to death, but he also knew that he could count on no one in a time like this. That said, he should have been grateful that Zhang Heng and Jia Lai didn��t choose to eliminate him now. Fortunately, Bruno was also an experienced yer who hadpleted several rounds, and though his game items were gone, the skills he mastered hadn��t left him. So, in a split second, he wrapped his elbows around the coyote��s neck so that it couldn��t bite him. Quickly, he got up and pinned the coyote to the ground.


    On the other hand, Jia Lai was a lot calmer under the attack of the coyotes. He stood there and watched them with an icy stare. And just as the canine��s hind legs mmed the ground, preparing to pounce, Jia Lai jumped, strangling the unexpecting coyote with lighting speed.

 Chapter 311 - Jia Lai’s Answer

    <strong>Chapter 311 Jia Lai��s Answer</strong>


    Without a second thought, Jia Lai stabbed the burning piece of wood into the coyote��s gaping mouth. Shocked and confused, the creature yelped, screaming and howling in pain thereafter. The plump man grunted, and with a frown, he flung the severely wounded animal aside.


    After the threat on his side had been neutralized, Jia Lai turned to look at Zhang Heng, only to discover that he had gone up against two coyotes and that the battle had already ended. The thing Jia Lai regretted was that he allowed Zhang Heng to act too quickly. When he turned around, the only thing he saw was two coyotes with their fur burning fleeing into the darkness. Unable to witness how Zhang Heng won the battle, Jia Lai��s wish to learn more about his opponent was diminished.


    It was at that time that the familiar chop of a helicopter rotor pierced the silence. After a series of idents, NASA��s significantly improved their crisis response, including increasing their potential astronauts�� level of protection.


    Within five minutes, the helicopter was already hovering above them. Right before it touched the ground, the captain jumped off and shouted, ��Are you all okay?�� The trio nodded over the dust clouds kicked up by the rotor wash. Even Bruno, having faced the most dangerous battle, was unscathed. At most, he was just a little shaken. The worst thing that happened to him was the coyote drooling all over his face. It smelled terrible. The captain continued, ��I didn��t expect to encounter coyotes here. There have been no coyotes around here for a long time. Remind me to report to the higher-ups and see if they can throw in some coyote repent to your emergency backpacks. Don��t expect too much, though. By the time they approve, you guys would have been to the moon twice. So... I��ll ask you again. Do you still want to continue with the training?��


    Jia Lai and Bruno nodded without hesitation. Although they had just experienced a frightening incident, the trio hadn��t yet figured who the winner of this round would be. Hence, they didn��t want the training to end just like that. So, the captain turned to look at Zhang Heng. ��I respect your team��s decision,�� he said. The reply came beyond Jia Lai and Bruno��s expectations. Logically, Zhang Heng should have chosen to stop the training right now. Based on his previous results, he could get the final spot easily. Only one possibility remained on why he made such a decision When the opportunity arose, he would eliminate all his threats in one go. This was to prevent unnecessary trouble during the istion period.


    ��Well, we��ll see you at the end, then. Oh, and safety is paramount!��


    Since all three agreed, the captain said nothing more. He got back on the helicopter and flew off the campsite in another dramatic cloud of dust. Nheless, despite the deep animosity between the three, the atmosphere improved a little after fighting off the coyotes together. That said, all three knew in their hearts that this was just a one-time thing.


    <b>as</b>


    When the number of yers allowed toplete the quest was reduced to one, there would be no morepromise between them. Perhaps it was due to the coyote incident that caused Jia Lai to abandon his n. Eventually, when the sun started rising from the east, and the air began to warm up, nothing had happened between them. The three spent the night safely by the fire.


    It was in the early hours of the morning. The remnants of the smoldering bonfire were still toasty, which allowed them the minor luxury of a warm breakfast. This should be theirst meal in this desert, where they were now less than 30 kilometers away from their destination. If everything went well, the group should arrive in about seven hours. Jia Lai had still not approached Bruno to discuss their n, and thanks to that, Bruno ultimately gave up on him. He knew this meant Jia Lai never valued their partnership in the first ce, deeming him useless from the start.


    The thing that baffled Bruno was why Jia Lai didn��t seem to be in a hurry, especially in a time like this. He even tidied up his emergency backpack before setting off despite knowing that time was of the essence, and that the destination wasn��t too far away.


    If Bruno didn��t do something about it in thesest seven hours, he might never get another chance to strike at them. Among them, Bruno was now the most anxious one. There wasn��t much point for that anyway. He had lost his game items, and Jia Lai had abandoned him. Right now, he didn��t know how he could kill the other two under NASA surveince. To execute his n, he would have to wait for the precise moment.


    Just like the day before, the three were on the road again once done with breakfast.


    They chose to start their journey at the break of dawn. The sun barely peeked out of the horizon, and the desert��s temperature wasn��t too high at this time. The cool atmosphere significantly sped their pace up, enabling them to conserve stamina and energy. At the same time, they also received a notification from the system. As a reminder, the system informed them that they had just gained a ��Desert Camping�� achievement, earning them 2 points each.


    Up until this point, game points had been the paramount goal of each yer, where powerful guilds had always focused their research on its acquisition. The research results varied, but it was discovered that no matter the technique, the efficiency of earning game points could only be increased to a certain extent. Since every quest was a unique experience and was non-repeatable, it was theoretically impossible to apply one point-maximizing technique to the other.


    For example, Zhang Heng once obtained 30 food achievements in the quest, Tokyo Drift. After that, the achievements didn��t ur again in another quest. No matter how many American signature foods from the 60s he ate, he could get any more points from it. But in the previous transitional quest, he did get a ��Fast Food & Amp Music�� achievement by eating a burger and a chicken burrito after listening to a vinyl record.


    He was fascinated by thebinations as well, where certain hidden rules guided this randomness. For example, Zhang Heng discovered that the probability of getting game points after sessfully surviving a mortal threat was very high. This rule, however, wasn��t very useful, for no sane yers would risk their lives just to earn more game points. After all, it didn��t make much sense if the yer died in the game.


    That was exactly how Bruno felt right now. His anxietypletely diluted the joy of gaining prospective game points. He then wiped the sweat off his face. Three hours had passed since breakfast, and as the temperature of the desert steadily increased, they were now faced with the return of the tormenting heat. What made Bruno even more nervous, though, was Jia Lai��s inaction, unable to fathom why he gave upst night��s rare opportunity.


    What better opportunity could present itself than striking hard under the cover ofplete darkness? Just as those thoughts crossed Bruno��s mind, he felt the hot air around him whipping up strangely. So he raised his head to look at the distant skyline. Finally, he got his long-awaited answer.


    The captain��s voice could be heard ring over the radio.


    ��Attention!!! There is a sandstorm inbound! Training has been canceled. Stay where you are, and don��t go anywhere. A vehicle will be there to pick you in the shortest time possible!��

 Chapter 312 - Duel In The Sandstorm

    <strong>Chapter 312 Duel In The Sandstorm</strong>


    Over the horizon, a yellow sandstorm swept forward at an rming speed. Zhang Heng made a quick nce. The sandstorm was seven to eight kilometers wide and at least two to three kilometers high, impossible to run from on foot. Even NASA��S helicopters with the best maneuverability couldn��t risk taking off and flying into such violent natural phenomena. And with the rather unimpressive speed of the jeep, it wasn��t possible to pick the three before the sandstorm arrived. This was why the captain wanted them to stay where they were.


    It was the first order of his that wouldn��t be heeded. The three knew the sandstorm was the rion call for the final battle. The thick dust surrounding them would reduce vision to a bare minimum, and under such conditions, NASA��s observers wouldpletely lose control of them. No matter what they did, it would literally stay between the three of them. In other words, there was no longer the need to hide their strength. Zhang Heng nced at Jia Lai from a distance, who also happened to look the same way. Their gazes intersected. At this moment, Jia Lai finally decided to expose the intense murderous rage in his eyes.


    ��Sorry. I will win this game and survive. If there can only be one winner in this game, then only I can be that person,�� growled Jia Lai.


    The sandstorm was now less than a few hundred meters away, and Zhang Heng quickly took off the innermost vest of his uniform and tied it across his face to cover his mouth and nose. The biggest threat brought by sandstorms were suffocation and blindness, and without protective measures, therge amount of sand carried by the wind would quickly enter and block the respiratory tract, causing the person to choke. As for blindness, they had goggles with them, fortunately. After Zhang Hengpleted all the necessary steps to protect himself, he took out a stolen steak knife from dinner at Area 51 the night before.


    Momentster, the sandstorm finally madendfall.


    Jia Lai was right. From the beginning, Zhang Heng didn��t n to advance solely by relying on his excellent grades. Because there would be a week-long quarantine period afterward, Zhang Heng wasn��t interested in testing if NASA provided adequate protection for the mission team. What more, there was a high probability that Jia Lai and Bruno would be part of the support team at the space center. They might get the opportunity to get rid of Zhang Heng at that time. Thus, Jia Lai wasn��t the only one using the survival course as a means to get thest seat on Apollo 11. Zhang Heng, too, also nned to use this opportunity to deal with the threats before the quarantinemenced.


    However, Zhang Hengpletely didn��t expect the arrival of the sandstorm. Compared to the waterspout he summoned from the sea, Zhang Heng leaned more towards the fact that Jia Lai wasn��t the creator of the sandstorm. If he were, he wouldn��t have waited until the end of the training to summon it. And as strange as it sounded, this wasn��t the best environment for the sandstorm to deal maximum damage.


    Although they were on rtively t terrain, there wererge boulders and rock formations nearby, which could be used to shelter the winds and sand. It didn��t offer the best protection from the storm, but it was sure better than the t dunes they passed an hour ago. Zhang Heng spected that Jia Lai should be in possession of an item that could urately predict the weather. He foresaw the arrival of the sandstorm ahead of time, the reason why he gave upst night��s opportunity to strike and ultimately dying the final battle.


    Of course, it didn��t rule out the fact that his item might have needed a long time to create the sandstorm. It exined why it only started brewing at the end of the training. Be that as it may, since the sandstorm was here, it was time for Zhang Heng to strike his enemies down as well. As he moved, he turned his back against the storm and tried crouching as low as possible.


    Bell once told him that the sand particles would get finer at the upperyers of the storm, thus increasing the probability of suffocating. On the contrary, sand particles in the lower parts of the storm would be rtivelyrge, and by just using a cloth filter, it could prevent sand from entering the nostrils or the mouth. At the same time, he had to watch out for flying debris.


    The best way to survive a sandstorm would be to find a reliable shelter and hide within its confines until it passed. Visibility would be reduced to almost blindness, where one could only see up to a meter ahead. Naturally, it was easy to lose one��s direction. Zhang Heng, however, was unaffected by these problems. Before the winds became too strong, he had scanned the nearby terrain and located Jia Lai and Bruno��s positions. Just as expected, Jia Lai was no longer at his initial position.


    Zhang Heng quickly drew a map in his mind. There was a stone about the height of a person less than thirty steps away. It would make for a good sandstorm shelter, and Jia Lai might have moved there. Of course, that also meant the possibility of traps waiting for him. Also, about fifty steps to his right was an unsecured car hoodying on the ground. If used properly, it could help shield most of the wind and sand, and even block iing attacks when necessary. Zhang Heng hesitated for a while and decided to head in the direction of the car hood. He was afraid that the longer he waited, it would soon bepletely submerged under the piling sand. With the power of memory, Zhang Heng began to move to his right. He silently calcted the steps he took in his mind. However, after fifty-five steps, he failed to find the hood. There were two possibilities for this situation. It could have been taken away by someone, or he had moved in the wrong direction.


    If it were thetter, it would be more troublesome since he didn��t know which direction he was currently facing or how far he had deviated. If he were unsure of his current location, then the map in his mind would be useless to him. If that were to be the case, he would need to give up on looking for Jia Lai and seek shelter immediately.


    Getting lost in a sandstorm was no joke. Even if Zhang Heng covered his face with his clothes, prolonged exposure to the sand would still cause indefinite suffocation. By a stroke of luck, Zhang Heng suddenly spotted the silhouette of the hood he was looking for after turning a few steps southwest. At the same time, a shadowy figure appeared behind him.


    The sand and roaring wind not only reduced visibility to near-zero but also made hearing ineffective. To prevent sand from entering his ears, Zhang Heng had to wrap it up, further plugging out the sound. In such harsh environments, it was almost impossible to hear footsteps on the sand that came from behind.


    Zhang Heng knelt on one knee on the sand, preparing to dig out the half-buried hood. The shadowy figure, on the other hand, had also lifted arge rock, preparing to smash it on Zhang Heng��s head.

 Chapter 313 - Life And Death Situation

    Chapter 313 Life And Death Situation


    During the critical moment, Zhang Heng turned to his side, barely avoiding contact with the rock. He did not see the ck shadow behind him, nor did he hear the other person��s footsteps. He did, however, notice someoneing from behind. Speaking of which, the sandstorm turned to be a blessing in disguise.


    To avoid inhaling in too much dust, Zhang Heng kept his back faced into the wind, It meant the wind blew directly at the assant as well. The assant��s body would block a part of the wind and sand as he approached, allowing Zhang Heng to sense the changes in the wind. This was how he dodged the lethal attack from his enemy.


    On the other hand, the attacker was too slow to react, not expecting Zhang Heng to survive the surprise attack. While he was still stunned, Zhang Heng elbowed him, and he fell to the ground with a thud. Although his face was covered, Zhang Heng easily recognized the attacker as Bruno judging by his size.


    This was by no means good news. Bruno��s game items were now with Zhang Heng, and it was impossible that he would choose such a radical strategy when he had nothing with him. He even hid nearby to wait for Zhang Heng to get close before attacking. In this instance, Zhang Heng couldn��t see his surroundings clearly, and Bruno should be experiencing the same problem as well. So, how did he know that Zhang Heng wasing to get the car hood?


    These thoughts shed through Zhang Heng��s mind, and just as he realized that a threat was nearby, a sturdy arm silently wrapped around his neck. Jia Lai had discovered a way to maintain good vision, and when the sandstorm arrived, the first thing he did was to find Bruno.


    Bruno knew very well that from the start, Jia Lai��s only intention was to use him as bait. What he didn��t expect was that Jia Lai kept silent about what he wanted him to do until the veryst minute, knowing that it would be difficult for Bruno to say no. He knew that Bruno too, wished that Zhang Heng would die here.


    Jia Lai, who had an unhindered and unobstructed vision through the sandstorm made him a terrifying enemy to deal with. There were one too many ways to kill another in the blindness of the sandstorm, and it wouldn��t take much effort either. Jia Lai hadn��t done anything until now simply because Bruno was still valuable as an effective bait.


    ording to Bruno, since Jia Lai could clearly see without being affected by the sand, he didn��t need toe looking for him, seeing how he could just kill everyone by himself. They wouldn��t even know what hit them. Everything that happened after that was proof that Jia Lai��s obsessions over Zhang Heng weren��t that unreasonable after all.


    He failed to attack Zhang Heng, pinned to the ground by his opponent. The hot sand burned his forehead, and the fear in his heart caused it to thump wildly. Bruno thought that he was really going to die this time, until Jia Lai shouted his name, asking him to let him deal with Zhang Heng instead. He finally snapped back to his senses. However, Bruno only nced at two of them. He then struggled and got up from the ground. Instead of joining the fight, he chose a random direction and ran, disappearing into the sandstorm.


    Bruno certainly hoped that this time, Zhang Heng really would die here. If that happened, he would be the only candidate left. He also knew that if he helped Jia Lai kill Zhang Heng, he would be next to die. Jia Lai had the advantage in this sandstorm since he could navigate easily with his superior vision. If left alone, there was no way he could outrun Jia Lai.


    Thus, when Jia Lai and Zhang Heng were fighting, Bruno took another route. He decided to escape the area and hide where Jia Lai couldn��t find him. Even if Jia Lai sessfully killed Zhang Heng and lived till the sandstorm was over, Bruno would automatically be chosen as the final astronaut to board Apollo 11 since he fared better results.


    In theory, there was nothing wrong with his choice. Whether a sess or failure, it all depended on Jia Lai killing Zhang Heng. However, there were no shelters along the way in the direction he chose to escape. He would likely suffocate to death before the sandstorm blew over.


    Jia Lai knew that Bruno was unreliable, and hisst-minute escape didn��t surprise him the slightest. He knew exactly what he was up to. Jia Lai sighed. Right now, though, there was no time to pay attention to Bruno. To him, Zhang Heng was his biggest threat, and now, he wasn��t about to let the opportunity slip. He continued increasing pressure around Zhang Heng��s neck. NASA had conducted arm strength tests before, and at that time, Jia Lai��s performance was as bad as his other tests. The truth was, his strength was the most superior amongst all the yers. Not even Zhang Heng could match up to him. When dealing with the coyote, he easily strangled the beast to death with one hand. It tried it��s hardest, but no matter how much it tried to break free, it failed to free itself. Jia Lai was confident that he could suppress Zhang Heng in the same way. Secondster, Jia Lai��s pupils contracted suddenly, and he quickly turned his head around. At the same time, something shed past his chin.


    If he was half a second slower, the steak knife would have prated his throat. Jia Lai didn��t even manage to see how Zhang Heng did it; his back now drenched in a cold sweat. Nevertheless, he did not loosen his lock around Zhang Heng��s neck. With a grunt, he attempted to use his other hand to block Zhang Heng��s knife.


    Zhang Heng��s counterattack came ahead of time. He first mped Jia Lai��s neck with both legs, and at the same time, exerted a burst of strength to his waist. The two then rolled on the sand, and when they finally came to a stop, their positions were reversed. This time Zhang Heng was on top, and the knife in his hand was less than two centimeters away from Jia Lai��s right eye.


    Zhang Heng didn��t practice wrestling too much, but Anne had once taught him this trick to get rid of an opponent��s control during close-quartersbat. The two sparred with this maneuver many times. During the ck Sail quest, he did not get it to use it many times, and when he left Nassau, he was already the famous pirate king of the Seven Seas. It was rare anybody wanted to have a duel with him.


    This was technically the first time the trick came in handy, and now, it was Jia Lai��s turn to hang on for dear life. With clenched teeth, he blocked Zhang Heng��s wrist with everything that he had, desperately trying to keep the knife away from his eyeball. It was that time when Jia Lai realized he wasn��t the only one who had concealed his strength during the physical test.


    Although Zhang Heng had been working out in the gym frequently, and even with NASA putting him through all kinds of physical training, he was still at a disadvantage to Jia Lai when it came to brute strength. Just like his earlier analysis, this wasn��t the best time for Jia Lai to attack him.


    Nevertheless, although strength wasn��t Zhang Heng��s forte, his endurance had always been outstanding.


    The three had been walking across the desert the entire day and even failed to get proper rest that night as well. To make matters worse, more than three hours had passed since breakfast, and it was safe to say that they weren��t in the best physical condition. Due to the difference in endurance, Zhang Heng was the least affected. Slowly but surely, Zhang Heng surpassed Jia Lai in strength.

 Chapter 314 - To Me, This Is Long Enough

    <strong>Chapter 314 To Me, This Is Long Enough</strong>


    The steak knife moved slowly but steadily towards Jia Lai��s eyes; its tip just about to touch his iris. But the next second, Zhang Heng suddenly pulled back the knife and dropped it on the ground beside his feet.


    Instead of feeling happy that he��d just escaping death, Jia Lai felt very afraid. Zhang Heng could finally see what was hidden under the sand. It was a rattlesnake, of the most poisonous reptiles that roamed the desert. Unlike other serpents, its venom could produce a special kind of enzyme after it entered the human body, causing necrosis, damage to the nerve fibers, and eventually, brain death once it entered the nervous system.


    If the rattlesnake injected enough venom into its victim, and anti-venom wasn��t administered in time, the probability of death was very certain. Judging by its tail, the rattlesnake that Zhang Heng pinned to the ground by Zhang Heng should have just matured not too long ago. About a meter in length, its yellow and brown skin camouged it perfectly against the sand, causing it to be extremely difficult to spot.


    However, under normal circumstances, rattlesnakes weren��t supposed to be very aggressive, and they rarely attacked humans. Unless threatened, the first thing they usually did was to flee. Besides, there was a sandstorm now, and it was impossible for the rattlesnake to hunt, lest it might get swept away by the winds. There could only be one possibility for the appearance of a rattlesnake here.


    ��Did you really think I��dpletely believe what you told me? The item you took from Nancy that allowedmunication with animals hasn��t reached its maximum usage, right?�� asked Zhang Heng.


    ��So, its been on your mind all the while?�� Jia Lai was surprised, but then remembered something. ��We encountered a coyotest night, and you didn��t just leave us there and flee. Was it because you suspected it had something to do with me?��


    Zhang Heng nodded.


    ��Pfft, what a troublesome opponent.��


    As he talked, Jia Lai was stalling time, hoping to recover his strength. He took in a few deep breaths of air, only to cough violently at the sand getting into his lungs.


    ��Ahem, okay, this round is a tie, and for the next round... I��ll find a way to kill you in the next round.��


    ��There will be no next round,�� Zhang Heng said calmly. ��This is your end. I was waiting for you to use yourst trump card. Did you really think you could beat me with your pathetic skills?��


    Zhang Heng grabbed the rattlesnake��s tail and cut off its head with the sharp knife in his hand before throwing its lifeless corpse to the side. Then, he pulled out the knife from the sand and started to walk toward Jia Lai. Zhang Heng didn��t look the least tired, a testament to his enduring stamina.


    ��What kind of monster are you?�� thetter bitterly clenched his teeth. ��This is my eleventh game and my fifth time ying solo-mode. I��ve met all kinds of yers, including some verypelling people, but this is my first time meeting someone who��s this versatile and doesn��t seem to have any weakness. How is this possible? How many games have youpleted?�� ��If you don��t count this round, Ipleted a total of four games. But for me, these four are long enough for me.��


    Jia Lai raised his eyebrows with a look of surprise in his eyes as if he still had something to say. When Zhang Heng walked towards him, he quickly rose from the sand, and at the same time, tossed a stone size of a grapefruit at Zhang Heng��s head whileughing hysterically.


    Zhang Heng��s expression remained unchanged. He calmly dodged the stone. As Jia Lai threw the rock in frustration, he took two steps forward, before stumbling to his knees on the sand. Secondster, Jia Lai discovered something that horrified him. The cloth he wrapped around his face to block out the dust was gone.


    Almost at the same time, he swallowed a mouthful of sand, and started to cough more violently. Jia Lai knew how dangerous it was to expose his mouth and nose to the fine sand particles and didn��t care how funny he looked right now. Immediately, he tried to take off his pants to use it as a mask, but Zhang Heng wasn��t about to let him do that.


    He used the method that Jia Lai used on him previously. With a swift move, Zhang Heng strangled Jia Lai from his back. At the same time, Jia Lai desperately opened his mouth and gulped for air, but the more he struggled to breathe, the more sand he inhaled. Jia Lai began to panic, getting more and more frightened of what was about to happen to him.


    He wanted to break Zhang Heng��s arm, but theck of oxygen caused his muscles to lose all strength. His mind turned blurry as well, and all he heard was the faint rumble of an engine before he lost consciousness. That was an indication that NASA wasn��t far away, not to mention the captain who was shouting their names at the top of his voice. That said, his calls were soon drowned out by the sound of the howling wind.


    Jia Lai never expected to be so desperate to be found by NASA. He exhausted hisst bit of strength by opening his mouth and desperately trying to coax out a sound. But Zhang Heng had also heard the vehicle approaching then, and with no mercy, he grabbed a handful of sand and stuffed in Jia Lai��s mouth to make sure he stayed silent.


    Zhang Heng patiently waited for two and a half minutes until Jia Lai gradually stopped struggling. When he felt no more resistance, Zhang Heng finally let go of him. Jia Lai��s expression in hisst moments was frozen in time. His panic, unwillingness, and despair had all fallen into silence. Zhang Heng, too, had been in the sandstorm for almost half an hour and was beginning to feel difort in his throat and on his skin.


    The sand in the wind prated his cors, the seams of his shoes, and through the clothing that covered his face. Like getting hit by millions of tiny bullets, he felt as if the sand was shooting at him. Currently, the wind had also reached a speed of more than 100 kilometers per hour.


    Zhang Heng then frisked Jia Lai��s body as quickly as he could, taking away whatever game items he had on him. After that, he grabbed the emergency backpack that he threw aside earlier, walked back to where he stood and tried to listen in to the sound of the engine. The Jeep had probably missed them and was now moving away. Knowing that if they left him now, he might just not survive the storm. Hence, he pulled out a re gun from the emergency backpack and fired a shot at the sky. The red re pierced through the sandstorm, leaving a long trail of dust on its way up. In addition to that, the loud noise it made when it was fired managed to spread to a good distance as well.


    After a while, the Jeep��s engine got louder again, and Zhang Heng could see the beam from its headlights through all that dust. Half a minuteter, it stopped in front of him. Due to the low visibility, the driver was shocked when he suddenly saw Zhang Heng appearing in front of him. Fortunately, he stepped on the brakes in time. The captain then opened the door to let him in.


    ��Where��s the rest?��


    ��I didn��t see them. The sandstorm was so severe we got separated.��


    The captain nodded and tapped the driver��s seat in front of him.


    ��Gibson, let��s go around this area and see if we can find them.��

 Chapter 315 - Return To The Space Center

    <strong>Chapter 315 Return To The Space Center</strong>


    The Jeep came to a halt, stalling after circling the area halfway. It wasn��t because they had managed to find the other two, but the sandstorm was so severe that the dust and debris soon overwhelmed the intake, clogging it up. At first, the engine seemed underpowered, and the vehicle struggled to move. Not too long after, the engine sputtered before dyingpletely. In this case, it was impossible to start the engine again. Things didn��t go well for the second Jeep too. It was just the matter of which one would stop functioning first. Left with no other option, NASA had to give up on searching for the other yers and hunkered down in the vehicle until the storm passed. It was then that a small ident urred. A flying stone hit the right passenger window and shattered a hole through it. Everyone scurried to block the crack withyers of clothes to prevent sand from flying into the car.


    However, nobody expected the sandstorm tost an entire day and night. Hours upon hours passed, and when the wind started to die down, they could finally exit the car. Seeing how it was buried halfway in the sand, those in the car wouldn��t survive if the sandstormsted any longer, let alone thosepletely exposed to the elements. Under such an unforgiving environment, it would be almost impossible for missing people to survive.


    Even so, the captain chose to contact Area 51 immediately the moment the winds died down a little. He also requested a second rescue party to be sent out to search for the two trainees that NASA lost in the sandstorm.


    Before they moved on, the captain sent Zhang Heng back to Kennedy Space Center as he was due for a one-week quarantine before he could get on the rocket. It was essential that he stayed away from his family and colleagues to avoid catching any viruses, colds, or anymon diseases.


    During this time, and unless absolutely necessary, only staff screened by the medical team could get close to the quarantined astronaut. Considering the odd virus and floating particles in the air, the astronaut wasn��t allowed to leave the istion chamber either. If their spouse or child came for a visit, they had to first undergo a stringent medical examination. NASA even restricted the duration of their stay.


    This would ensure the wellness of the astronauts�� health could be monitored to the greatest extent. Of course, all the trouble they went through wasn��t for nothing. NASA couldn��t afford to have the astronauts miss theunch window or postponing the mission because of a runny nose. Thankfully, this problem didn��t exist the moment the spacecraft entered orbit. No bacteria or any infectious viruses were in the vacuum of space, and it was rare that astronauts got sick while they were there.


    Due to the mysterious infectious disease that ravaged the base, NASA paid particr attention to the quarantine process. Thanks to the unexpected sandstorm, Zhang Heng was quarantined a day less than initially nned. After the medical team conducted aprehensive physical examination, confirming him in perfect health, NASA��s executives couldn��t be more relieved.


    No one had expected things to move in this direction. Armstrong and Collins�� surprising return gave NASA a much-needed boost and even restored Congress�� confidence in the moonnding. NASA was inplete shock after seeing how idents strangely kept happening to this batch of urgently recruited candidates. In the end, only one of the seven survived.


    Fortunately, NASA eventually pulled together enough astronauts for the mission. That said, Zhang Heng, who survived, had the best training performance out of the seven, and although not the oue that NASA had hoped for, they were content with who they got in the end. The selection process had unexpectedly turned into an elimination round. Thus, the final candidate was now set in stone.


    Zhang Heng had to spend the next four days in the istion room.


    After entering the quarantine period, the astronauts would no longer be assigned any tasks or training. Of course, a good amount of everyday exercise was mandatory to ensure the astronaut was in the best of health. The astronauts could also use this time to adjust their sleeping patterns to adapt to the work schedule in space. In terms of diet, NASA no longer set any restrictions. In theory, astronauts could request whatever they wanted from the dietician. They were even allowed rtively high-calorie ��junk food�� because space food could never bepared to the delicacies on earth. Whatever they could eat on earth now was considered aspensation for whatever the astronauts would miss out while in space.


    Of course, this should be in no waypared to the infamous st meal�� of death row inmates.


    After all, it was only eight years since Gagarin entered space for the first time, and now, humankind once again challenged themselves tond on another celestial object. For the Apollo 11 mission team, it was an opportunity to create history. A venture of such great heights, though, didn��te without an equal cost, one that was marred by extremely high risks.


    Let alone returning the crew sessfully, the entire undertaking was more of a shot in the dark, pun not intended. Despite all the years and hours of ridiculouslyplicated calctions done by teams of brilliant astrophysicists, no one really knew what would happen the moment the rocket took-off or if the spacecraft could even enter lunar orbit. They also had no idea if the lunar module wouldnd safely on the moon, or if it would evennd at all.


    Although the process had been simted thousands of times in theboratory, nobody could predict what could happen hundreds of thousands of miles away on an alien world. After all, even insurancepanies were unwilling to draft up policies for astronauts. Despite the morous title, the guarantee that their families would bepensated in the event of their death was now further away from earth than they could imagine.


    For this reason, Armstrong and a few came up with a unique way of insuring themselves. They left hundreds of envelopes with their autographs and souvenirs rted to the mission and gave them to their wives, rtives, and friends before they set off. If an ident did, god forbid, happen, these signatures would be theirst gift to humanity. In other words, their autographs would hold considerable value, and the money from selling the envelope alone should help secure the future of their respective families.


    Armstrong also suggested Zhang Heng do the same, to which he declined. After all, there was nobody for him to miss in the 1960��s United States. All his kin lived outside the game. Nheless, Zhang Heng still helped up Armstrong and Collins by signing a couple of envelopes, even taking a photo with them as well. These items could probably sell for good money when they were no longer alive.


    Zhang Heng never thought that doing all these before the mission even began was pessimistic or somewhat of a bad omen. It was all standard practice to n ahead in the event of failure. After all, even the White House would have already prepared a eulogy for them. Once the moonnding failed, newly elected President Nixon would broadcast it to all Americans.


    While expressing his condolences, he wouldmend them for their courage and fearlessness. It would undoubtedly help with damage control, minimizing the moonnding failure��s fallout amongst the public.


    But none of these things concerned Zhang Heng, and instead, he used the rare peace and quiet before the departure to check his recent yield. After killing Jia Lai, he received a reward of 20 game points. He got three game items in total: a wooden whistle, a lens, and a marble. Zhang Heng guessed that the lens should be rted to Jia Lai��s ability to maintain his vision in the sandstorm.


    As for the whistle and the marble, it was difficult to identify their functions, judging by their appearance. Coupled with the fork and teeth he got from Bruno, it was safe to say that Zhang Heng got five items in this round of the game. Game items were his high return behind the high risks he faced.


    However, he cared more about the little gift from the Area 51 engineer called Einstein. Even though he knew that it was no game item, Zhang Heng could no longer look away from it the moment he opened the box. In it was a truly wireless Bluetooth headset; a pair of Apple AirPods.

 Chapter 316 - 16th of July, The Day Finally Arrives

    <strong>Chapter 316 16th of July, The Day Finally Arrives</strong>


    If Zhang Heng remembered correctly, Apple��s Bluetooth Wireless AirPods were released in 2016.


    The Apollo quest was set in 1969. Seven yearster, Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne founded Apple Computer together. As for Bluetooth technology, it was created in 1994 by the famous telmunicationspany, Ericsson. In other words, these AirPods were definitely not a product from this era. So, who in the world was the man calling himself Einstein?


    Einstein didn��te to see Zhang Heng because life in Area 51 was boring. He had his own agenda when he came to meet the astronauts preparing to set off for the moon. Other than Zhang Heng, he didn��t look for Jia Lai and Bruno. Zhang Heng didn��t even know if he was really one of the engineers in Area 51, let alone figuring out why he gave him the headset that way ahead of this time.


    An important thing to note was that Einstein only gave him one earbud, the one for the left ear. Even so, Zhang Heng put it together with the other game items that he collected. The entire mission to the moon wouldst only eight days, and there would be little remaining time for Zhang Heng��s quest. This meant that when the quest ended, there was a good chance that he would still be at the moon. That could only mean that he had to pack in advance.


    Fortunately, NASA allowed their astronauts to bring a small number of personal belongings to space, provided they were meticulously listed down. During the quarantine period, Zhang Heng had visitors. Four days after the sandstorm, the captain returned to the space center and brought back the results of the initial search and rescue. A joint effort between Area 51 and NASA saw them pull together their search assets, and after three days and three nights, Jia Lai��s body was found. He was confirmed to have died from suffocation. Bruno, on the other hand, was still missing.


    The sudden sandstorm had blown millions of tons of sand hundreds of kilometers away, enough to bury all traces of anything living. Coupled with the high temperature and dryness of the desert, it was a dire task for the search to continue. However, the captain insisted that he would carry on until Bruno��s body was found.


    In fact, no one thought that Bruno would survive. Public Rtions also notified the media of the unfortunate news as soon as possible. Even President Nixon himself expressed his condolence for those who lost their lives during training. At the same time, the president had a brief conversation with the only survivor, Zhang Heng.


    Due to the ident, Zhang Heng failed to attend the preunch press conference. However, this wasn��t bad news for him, and although it wasn��t his first time dealing with the media, he hated being bombarded by questions since he couldn��t provide information about his family and background. Moreover, unlike Armstrong and Collins, he was just a visitor that was passing by this world. All he cared about was whether he couldplete the main quest or not. He didn��t need to be famous in this world.


    After a six-day quarantine, Zhang Heng put on the right mental attitude and made the final preparations for the moonnding. He had done everything he could, for now, having already eliminated all threats and obstacles along his way. Even so, the mission was set to be a perilous voyage from the get-go, filled with unknowns and uncertainties.


    It was July the 16th in no time.


    Eight years of preparation (from the implementation of the Apollo Program), the effort of 400,000 individuals, tens of billions of dors spent, and the nation��s top scientists and engineers working day and night to practically create a miracle. It had all led to this, a project that showcased a country��s ultimate capability during their most peaceful time with all the investment they could get on hand. All that blood and sweat, all that unimaginable risk, was to wee the arrival of this day.


    Today, the whole world had its attention focused on the Kennedy Space Center, waiting to witness humans�� historic voyage; leaving their home to explore another celestial object for the first time.


    Armstrong, Collins, and Zhang Heng woke up at four in the morning. They dressed neatly, packed their personal belongings, and bid a final farewell to the crowd that had gathered outside the building. Then, with a wave, the three men entered a ck Lincoln to Launchpad 39A at Cape Canaveral spaceport. There, they ate theirst breakfast on Earth. The staff helped them into their A7L spacesuits, and when all the leak checks wereplete, they put on their space helmets. Everyone in the area was dressed in their best outfits, and during this process, two photographers followed them around busy clicking away their cameras for whatever it was worth.


    To be honest, Zhang Heng did not fancy this feeling at all, especially the annoying shutter clicks. It looked like some kind of weird ritual to him, the three of them being the sacrificial offerings. At the same time, more than half of NASA��s senior officers and representatives from the White House shook hands and hugged each one of the astronauts. The expressions on everyone��s faces grew solemn. It would indeed be a miracle when the three astronauts of Apollo 11 finally returned to Earth with the star-spangled banner wrapped around them.


    Fortunately, the entire media snafu didn��t take too long. As everything was ready, ground control issued instructions to the spacecraft soon after.


    Armstrong took the lead and pushed the door to the equipment room.


    At this time, the spaceport��s engineers stood spontaneously in the corridor, apuding and nodding to the three, wishing them a smooth journey. Journalists were already crowding outside the gate with their cameras, and the moment the three astronauts showed up, the cameras immediately came to life. With shes going off everywhere, it was as if supermodels had just lined up for a catwalk. Everyone was trying their hardest to capture this historic moment.


    However, the three didn��t linger for too long as Hollywood stars on the red carpet did. They simply waved at the reporters who had been waiting for hours and got into the bus prepared by NASA. They then adjourned to the spaceport. Before this, Zhang Heng was lucky enough to see the assembled Saturn Vunch vehicle, a behemoth that cost of 185 million (more than 1 billion US dors today). Designed by rocket prodigy Werner von Braun, it maintained the record for over 50 years as the most powerful rocket everunched my man.


    It stood at a whopping 110.6 meters, a height surpassing the Statue of Liberty in New York. After being fueled up, the entireunch vehicle weighed an astonishing 2,883,900 kg. The building to assemble theunch vehicle and the Apollo module waspleted in 1966. It remained as the building with thergest ground area in the world. The four gates that lead to each area were 139 meters high, each taking 45 minutes to open.


    The Saturn V rocket moved to the spaceport a few days ago from the assembly building on a purpose-built Crawler-Transporter. At night, the Saturn V looked like a giant sword made by the gods as it stood majestically over the Cape. Looking up at the massive machine from below, it was hard not to be bewildered by this absolute marvel of human technology.

 Chapter 317 - To Space

    Chapter 317 To Space


    The elevator continued to rise on Launch Umbilical Tower, and the three astronauts got further and further away from the ground. Zhang Heng raised his head and looked toward the distant sky, where the crimson sun rose over the coastline. Light and dark perfectly intertwined at this moment, as if captured in time and frozen on film.


    ��I hope we��ll get to enjoy such a beautiful sight again,�� Collins whispered from the side. Although the astonishing height of Saturn V gave an illusion that the elevator would never reach the top, it eventually stopped in front of the bridge. The NASA technician opened the elevator door for them and nodded. At the same time, engineers had alsopleted the final inspections before theunch. The three of them walked across the bridge linking rocket and tower and ingressed into the narrowmand module.


    Zhang Heng tried his best to keep his spacesuit away from theplicated instruments and cables around him. At the same time, he found his seat, and the door of themand module slowly closed behind him. Only the three of them were left in the spacecraft, where Armstrong and Collins were both weathered and experienced NASA astronauts. They hadpleted space missions before; hence the two were very calm. Butpared to Armstrong��s unchanged looks, there was a slight hint of nervousness on Collins�� face.


    After all, a series of unfortunate events had just happened at NASA. The mysterious infectious diseases, and the crazy attrition of the training camp... all these seemed to only confirm the widely spread rumor of God didn��t want humansnding on the moon.�� Even with Collins�� steady-as-a-rock mental state, it was difficult for him topletely ignore these external interferences. But when the mission started, he quickly devoted himself to it.


    Like the original Apollo 11 mission recorded in history, NASA still arranged for Armstrong to be themander and Collins as themand and service module pilot. As for Zhang Heng, he reced Buzz Aldrin as the lunar module pilot. Collins was also the only person who did not set foot on the moon during the Apollo 11 mission because one crew needed to be in themand module when the lunar module separated. If Armstrong and Zhang Heng could not return to Earth, Collins would then fly themand module back to Earth alone.


    His situation was the best amongst the three, almost having guaranteed that he woulde home, provided the machinery did not fail. But he had to pay a price for that safety, and that was him not getting on the moon for the first time. In terms of mission priority, he had a higher position than Zhang Heng, the lunar module pilot. After talking a little more during the quarantine period, Zhang Heng had be more familiar with Armstrong and Collins. Because the experienced duo returned to the team rtivelyte, the three did not get the opportunity to train together. This once made NASA��s executives worried about the chemistry between the three. Unfortunately, they had no better solutions, and could only create an environment that coaxed them to familiarize themselves with each other during the quarantine period. Thanks to that, Zhang Heng got to confirm something that he was unsure of before.


    Whatever happened in the parallel quest wasn��t co-rted with the normal quest, and Armstrong had no memory of his time working with Zhang Heng at the Lewis Flight Propulsion Laboratory 14 years ago. This could be seen from Armstrong��s expressions when the two met againter. Armstrong seemed as if he was looking at a stranger.


    Zhang Heng was sad as he thought about it, knowing that this would happen when he returned to the main quest. Fourteen years had passed, and Zhang Heng��s appearance hadn��t changed one bit. He hadn��t aged too. Nobody would have thought this possible to happen to anybody, and besides, how would one coin up a convincing exnation to exin this phenomenon? Regarding what happened after the two were separated, Zhang Heng had more or less read up about it on the inte and books.


    Armstrong married college sweetheart J Elizabeth Shearon in 1956, and the couple had three children together. Karen, his daughter, was diagnosed with a malignant tumor and lost the ability to speak and walk. Not too long after that, Karen tragically passed away on Armstrong and J��s wedding anniversary. The incident greatly affected Armstrong, which was why Zhang Heng was quieter when he saw him for the second time. Armstrong was one tough cookie. Through his tribtions, he never once grieved in front of anyone.


    Heter applied to NASA to be an astronaut. In addition to his passion for flying, he wanted to escape reality, and perhaps only through high-intensity training and work could he temporarily forget the pain of losing his daughter. Subsequently, his marriage did not end well too.


    In 1989, J left a note for Armstrong at the dinner table, requesting an end to their 38-year marriage. In Armstrong��s words:


    ��Our marriage is like a failed flight. It copses silently... If possible, I still want to say, I love my wife, I am sorry...�� But at this moment, as Armstrong sat in the cabin, he did not think about all these things. He focussed all his thoughts and energy on this mission, a reason why NASA identified him as a stable and reliable leader. In a sense, although Armstrong and Zhang Heng lived at different times, they had many simrities and could see each others�� shadows from the other.


    There was a tacit understanding between the two at the Lewis Flight Propulsion Laboratory, and they returned to the Apollo training camp 14 yearster. Although this version of Armstrong didn��t remember what happened before, the subtle sense of understanding between the two hadn��tpletely disappeared. Armstrong could feel it as well. He and Zhang Heng were seeing each other for the first time, but it felt like a reunion between old friends, and Zhang Heng seemed to know his family situation and his background information very well.


    .....


    Mission control in Houston initialized a two-minute countdown before theunch of the Saturn V. Everyone within the radius had all evacuated to safety. Today, over a million people hade from all over the country just to witness the historicunch. Other than that, dozens of TV cameras were rolling, broadcasting the whole process to the entire world. Zhang Heng tugged on his seatbelts for thest time to make sure that he was secure.


    The countdown was now down to thest 15 seconds, and internal guidance was activated... Then with 9 seconds left, the ground trembled as five F1 engines of the first stage ignited with a thunderous roar. They were soon at full thrust. Approximately 12,000 kg of rocket-grade kerosene was injected into the engines and burned every second, enough fuel to fill up 15 fighter jets. The fiery inferno at the bottom of the rocket ejected with a cloud of smoke that could be seen from miles away. Then, the ungodly thrust they generated lifted the behemoth Saturn V slowly off the ground.

 Chapter 318 - Mission Accomplished

    Chapter 318 Mission Aplished


    Zhang Heng felt like he was experiencing a giant earthquake. Everything around him shook violently, and despite how sturdy the whole vehicle was built, the way each screw nged and vibrated made them seem like they would fall apart at any minute.


    As the rocket lifted off the ground, the powerful eleration threw its passengers in themand module back into their aluminum alloy seats. It felt as if a gori sat on their chests, and even the simple movement of raising an arm became an arduous task. Fortunately, Zhang Heng trained for this very situation in the space center and was no stranger to the massive g-forces their bodies were subjected to while on the ascent.


    The numbers on the disy board kept jumping at a frantic pace!


    135 seconds after liftoff, the central engine shut down. At 150 seconds, the other four F-1 engines around the periphery were cut off. When the first stage was exhausted of fuel, the Saturn V rocket had already reached an altitude of more than sixty-eight thousand meters.


    Explosive charges separated the first stage from the interstage ring, and along with the Launch Escape System, they both separated from the vehicle and subsequently fell into the ocean.


    The second stage could begin its job. The J-2 engines were ignited, and the entire vehicle increased its velocity from a ��modest�� 9,200 kilometers per hour to a terrifying 24,600 kilometers per hour, sling-shooting it into the upper atmosphere in one fell swoop. The entire processsted for a full six minutes until the second stage ran out of fuel. It was quickly discarded as well. Now that the entireunch vehicle was about a tenth of its original weight, it was the third-stage�� turn to engage and keep the vehicle��s trajectory. Apollo 11 continued to elerate, andpared to liftoff, the awful vibrations in the cabin had calmed considerably.


    The third stage shut down automatically after burning for precisely 2.75 minutes. The Saturn Vunch vehicle carrying the Lunar Module had reached its escape velocity of 28,000 kilometers per hour, sessfully entering Earth��s orbit.


    The moment the announcement of sessful orbit was made, mission control in Houston erupted into roars of cheers and apuse. It meant that theunch phase was a sess and was now over. When the engines were shut down, thrust levels dropped to 0% in just half a second. With a slight jolt, the pressure on Zhang Heng��s chest magically dissipated, and suddenly, he found himself floating above his seat. Thankfully, the seat belts kept him firmly strapped, and he wasn��t about to fly off anywhere.


    He had read many books and watched countless movies about space, even witnessing theunch of Shenzhou 5, and fullyprehended every step of the moonnding. Now that it was actually happening, and that he was physically in the thick of it, it was an entirely different feeling altogether.


    Right now, they were orbiting the Earth at an altitude of 166 kilometers. When their helmets were removed, they floated from their hands like feathers. The view of mother Earth finally came into sight through the porthole of the spacecraft.


    Words failed to describe the otherworldly sight presented before them. An azure all alone in the deep, dark velvety sky. An arc-shaped horizon looming from the mists of the atmosphere, where thousands of tiny clouds drifted silently over the blue ocean. The ground was like a vast palette with a bright amalgamation of colors. They transitioned from yellow deserts to undting mountains to dark green rainforests. The scene invoked indescribable awe and andslide of emotions flooding through the hearts of the astronauts. It was a moment where everyone became speechless and dumbfounded.


    Even Zhang Heng, who had been calm andposed all the while, found himself a little dazed, as he gazed at his homeworld from high, high above.


    Just then, a series of system prompts echoed in his ear.


    (Admire Earth from space �C Missionplete...]


    [Returning in four days...) [Sessfully boarded the Saturn Vunch vehicle �C 10 game points. Please view the character panel for more details...] (Sessfully entered Earth��s orbit �C 20 game points. Please view the character panel for more details...]


    [Sessfully maintained continuous weightlessness for more than 500 seconds �C 10 game points. Please view the character panel for more details...]


    ��Isn��t it beautiful?�� Collins unbuckled his seatbelt and pushed himself with his legs to Zhang Heng��s position. ��Once you��ve seen this view, you will never be able to forget it for the rest of your life. Congrattions, David. You are now a real astronaut. But you��ll only be able to get your golden brooch when you return to earth.��


    On the other side of the spacecraft, a rare smile crept onto Armstrong��s lips. No matter how many times he had been to space, it was hard not to bepletely immersed in earth��s beauty from miles above.


    Right now, though, there was other important work to be done. Apollo 11 would stay in earth��s orbit for a period of time, and the spacecraft would use that time to conduct final inspections. Then, Apollo 11 Saturn would once again reignite its engines and officially begin the journey to the moon.


    This step was also known as the trans-lunar injection.


    At this point, although Zhang Heng had alreadypleted the primary mission and gained 50 game points, he was still four days away from the return date. So, he had no other option but to remain in space andplete the moonnding mission with Armstrong and Collins.


    Soon, it was confirmed that all systems were in order and that there were no problems with navigation. The spacecraft was pointing in the right direction. The third stage�� J-2 engines ignited again after 148 minutes, and with itsst remaining bit of fuel, the spacecraft officially left earth��s orbit.


    The Saturn Vunch vehicle had nowpleted its duty.


    Next, the skills of the three men on board would be put to the test.


    It was a hairy maneuver that involved seperating the Apollo Command and Service Module (CSM) from its adapter, turning the CSM around, and docking its nose to the Lunar Module before pulling thebined spacecraft away from the third stage. It meant the pilot in charge would have to pitch up the CSM 180 degrees, make a U-turn and fly the front of the rocket before docking with it. Then, they would have to extract the Lunar Module and discard the third stage, no longer useful at this point.


    While a good portion of these perilous in-flight operations would be assisted by mission control on the ground, the entire docking process required manual operation, and even the slightest error could bring catastrophic consequences.


    ��The next part is all you,�� Armstrong told Collins.


    Thetter nodded and took a deep breath.


    Collins separated the CSM from the rocket and gave the thrusters a little power. After he was 300 meters away, hepleted the rotation. Then, at a velocity of 2 meters per second, the entire assembly reconnected with the Lunar module.


    To avoid distracting Collins throughout the entire process, neither Zhang Heng nor Armstrong said a single word, merely observing quietly through the portholes above their heads.


    Collins used the gas thrusters and gingerly adjusted the orientation and position of the spacecraft as if picking up a diamond with tweezers. His hands that gripped the joysticks were firm and consistent. In the end, with the slightest tremor on the bulkhead, he sessfully connected the ws of themand and service module into the docking ring on the rocket, wless and without a single error.


    Three hours had passed since liftoff. Apollo 11 officially bid farewell to Earth and was on its way to the moon that was 300,000 kilometers away.

 Chapter 319 - Moon Landing

    <strong>Chapter 319 Moon Landing</strong>


    ��Err, have any of you seen my gloves?�� Collins asked. He was hugging a bowl of pork and dehydrated baked potatoes when he popped out of nowhere like a specter.


    ��I don��t know. But I think it floated past my head a minute ago,�� Zhang Heng replied.


    ��And you just watched it fly away like that?��


    ��It seems so.��


    ��Alright.��


    ��You can go look in the Lunar Module. It probably went in that direction.��


    ��Collins, did you take the wrong toothbrush?�� Armstrong poked his head out from the door, his expression grim.


    ��Did I? I remember putting my name on it.��


    ��Yes, and you put it on my toothbrush,�� Armstrong grunted. ��Also, remember to clean the fuel cell. Whose turn is it?��


    Zhang Heng raised his hand, ��It��s mine.�� ��I��ll do it,�� Collins cut in. ��Don��t the two of you have something really big to do today?�� he chuckled and patted Zhang Heng on the shoulder. ��You must return safely.��


    ��Don��t worry about me. Neil will return safely,�� said Zhang Heng. Collins�� brows furrowed, unable to understand what Zhang Heng meant.


    Right at that moment, mission control came over the radio, ��Apollo 11, this is Houston. You will enter the moon��s orbit in fifteen minutes. Over.��


    ��Roger that, Houston. We��ll be ready. Over,�� Armstrong answered. He turned to Zhang Heng, ��You haven��t had breakfast, right. Eat more. We have lots of work waiting for us once wend on the moon. We won��t have much time then.��


    Zhang Heng nodded, knowing anyhow that he wouldn��t be staying long on the moon. He looked at his Tissot watch and saw that only one minute was left before 5:55. ording to his calctions based on the game��s time flow, he only had four hours left in this quest.


    It was also why he told Collins that Neil would return safely. He himself, on the other hand, would leave the scene and never set foot inside the Command and Service Module again.


    Twenty minutester, the three stopped what they were doing and stood in front of the porthole. The view outside was much clearer, and they saw the surface of the moon in great detail. Right now, Apollo 11 was only a hundred kilometers away from the moon.


    The moon itself didn��t emit its own light, but it could reflect approximately 7% of visible light. Through the porthole, they could see craters and ravines that pockmarked the surface of the moon-much like a honeb. Zhang Heng knew that it was giose, a type of volcanic rock that resulted from the cooling and crystallization of magma which formed the lunar crust. The lunar mantle was of stronger basalt, containing more iron than the crust. As for the innermost core, molten iron with a small amount of sulfur and nickel made up most of it.


    ��Alright, looks like we��re at our destination,�� said Collins. ��We��ll have to separate soon. I hope you won��t miss me too much.��


    ��Thank you, Michael. When I��m not around, you can eat all the chicken sd you want,�� said Zhang Heng.


    ��I won��t take that as a joke,�� Collins pretended to look serious. Then two secondster, he continued, ��Take care, the both of you. I will be waiting here. Let��s return to earth together.��


    Armstrong merely nodded, saying nothing.


    Zhang Heng spent the remainder of his time preparing for thending, omitting all the daily necessities, only carrying his game items. He put on his EVA spacesuit and entered the lunar module ��Eagle�� with Armstrong. Armstrong then closed the hatch behind them.


    ��Houston, this is Eagle. David and I have entered the Lunar Module. Landing legs are deployed. Everything��s in position. Over.��


    ��Eagle, this is Houston. Please confirm that you are using ethylene glycol line 1.�� ��This is Eagle. We are using line 1. Over.�� Zhang Heng answered.


    Then Collins��s voice came over the radio. ��This is CSM Columbia. All twelvetches are fastened. Switching to manual mode. Eagle will separate at an estimated time of twenty minutes.��


    ��Roger that.��


    ��Wish you guys good luck.��


    To reduce as much weight as possible, no seats were installed in the lunar module. Instead, Zhang Heng and Armstrong had to stand in front of the control panel. As the lunar module��s pilot, Zhang Heng would take on the task of flying it. He would need to gingerly maneuver the Eagle andnd it at the designated coordinates.


    This would be a massive challenge for him, but it was at times like this that Zhang Heng was at his calmest.


    At first, Armstrong was worried that Zhang Heng wasn��t trained enough, but when he saw the look in his eyes, he knew that he was ready.


    ��OK, we are about to begin.�� After counting down, Collins pushed the button to separate the CSM from the Lunar Module.


    ��This is Houston. Please remain in flight mode. Eagle, keep an eye on your fuel. Your maximum continuous ignition time is 910 seconds.��


    ��Roger that, Houston.�� Zhang Heng became extra focussed, as he prepped the Lunar Module fornding.


    However, it did not take long for them to run into trouble. The warning light on controls suddenly shed.


    ��Executive overflow. We lost radar,�� said Zhang Heng as he nced at the warning indicator.


    ��Roger that, Eagle. Land at your discretion.��


    ��Roger that, Houston,�� Armstrong answered.


    But before the two of them could even breathe, the warning light started shing again. ��Program rm,�� Zhang Heng frowned, ��Error code 1202. What is this, Houston?��


    ��Houston to Eagle, 1202, received. Please hold. We are checking.��


    Zhang Heng turned off the rm manually. Lo and behold, less than a minuteter, the program rm rang yet again. Then, one of the worst things that could happen, actually happened. The altimeter suddenly froze at 4000 feet. It meant Zhang Heng would have tond relying on his bare judgment and the naked eye. He was practically flying blind.


    The situation was not looking optimistic, but the two had no other options. When they descended to about 2500 feet, Zhang Heng and Armstrong realized that they had overshot the predictednding zone.


    Now, as if to mock them in the face, the fuel gauge failed a short whileter. Zhang Hengst confirmed that with the fuel left in the propulsion system, the engines could still ignite for about 30 seconds. Arge, deep valley appeared in front of the Eagle. With the radar out of service, there was no way for Zhang Heng to gauge how deep or wide the valley was.


    He had to make a split-second decision whether to risk a high-speed crashnding in the deep valley or find a way to fly past it.


    At this critical juncture, the wireless AirPods that Zhang Heng put alongside the game items suddenly came on by itself. Then a familiar voice said, ��Friendly reminder, you have only 23 seconds of fuel left!��

 Chapter 320 - Enjoy The Victory

    <strong>Chapter 320 Enjoy The Victory</strong>


    Zhang Heng nced at Armstrong and found him staring at the valley in front of him. It seemed he didn��t notice the voiceing from themunication channel. As for mission control in Houston, every line seemed secure, and there wasn��t any sign of interference there. Zhang Heng quickly came to realize that he was the only one that could hear the voice.


    ��You need to make a choice. You have only 19 seconds of fuel left,�� the voice reminded him.


    Zhang Heng looked down again and found that the location was too rough fornding. The valley on the opposite side seemed no less dangerous as well. He also was oblivious to whaty beyond the valley. The surface might be just as rough on the terrain he was flying above right now. If he knew the exact amount of remaining fuel, he was more inclined to bet on this spot, but now, with the hint from the mysterious voice, Zhang Heng finally made up his mind and pointed the spacecraft to the valley. ��Very brave choice, you still have 13 seconds of fuel left, 640 feet above the ground.��


    The voice in themunication channel continued, and it gave Zhang Heng the figures he needed the most. It allowed him to regain control of Eagle��s current status after losing the instruments. As the seconds passed, the lunar module got closer and closer to the valley. If themander were to be someone else, he might question Zhang Heng��s decision at a time like this. Commander Armstrong, however, remained silent, deciding to trust Zhang Heng��s judgment.


    The warning rm beeped again, and a red light shed. Since it was noisy and loud, Armstrong instantly disablem them to prevent Zhang Heng from being distracted. The Lunar Module gradually descended, and they were quickly soaring above the valley. Looking down from above, however, they only saw darkness �C like a huge mouth, waiting to eat the spacecraft alive.


    ��...7 seconds of fuel remaining, 315 feet above ground.��


    Because of the quickly depleting fuel, Zhang Heng decided to shut down the thrusters. He would only reignite them after gliding for some distance. The moon��s gravity was only a sixth of Earth��s, and even if fuel did run out, Eagle wouldn��t just fall to the surface immediately.


    The valley beneath them was approaching fast. Fortunately, with thest 5 seconds of fuel left, Zhang Heng finally saw the other side of the valley. It was a very t terrain, an excellent ce tond the spacecraft. So the only question that remained was if they had enough fuel to get there.


    After the initial observation, Zhang Heng estimated they still needed to travel for about 1.7 kilometers, and it would take a minute and a half to get there at their current speed. They were now less than 50 feet from the ground and almost touched the cliffs that lined the valley. Zhang Heng had to spend another two seconds of precious fuel to boost the altitude of the Lunar Module.


    Now, he needed to adjust the Lunar Module��s position and decelerate it during hisnding. In other words, he had to make good use of the remaining fuel on board.


    Like a shadowy specter, the lunar module glided silently over the valley.


    ��32 feet...��


    Zhang Heng��s hand got colder and colder as he grabbed the joysticks. The Lunar Module was headed in the right direction, but they were at a shallow angle of descent, which meant the vehicle could hit the rock wall before it couldnd. As he flew closer and closer to hisnding point, the Lunar Module missed the rock wall by less than 15 feet. Zhang Heng remained extremely focussed, not bothering to celebrate after escaping the close-call. He coasted the spacecraft forward for a short distance before he entered thending procedure.


    Then, he triggered the thrusters, and running on vapors at this point, they lit up, bringing the spacecraft to a stop. The thrusters fizzed out theirst breaths, and once all the fuel had been used up, the fournding legs of the Eagle were already on the surface of the moon.


    ��Houston, this is Jinghai Base. The Eagle hasnded,�� Armstrong reported. Despite crossing a massive hurdle, his tone remained stoic and hadn��t changed a bit.


    In a jiffy, massive roars and cheers erupted through Mission Control Center in Houston, and everyone ran around in excitement with everything they could grab in their hands. They had good reason to get this ted because, for the very first time in history, a human hadnded on the moon!


    NASA threw in everything they had just for this day to happen. The doubts and immense pressure they faced from the public meant that they had to put in the double effort and prove themselves worthy. When their dream finally became a reality, the teams couldn��t help but tear up. Zhang Heng was pleased, and although he knew that this was just a game, he still felt as if he was part of history now.


    ��Congrattions, ten out of ten for the perfectnding,�� the voice on themunicator said. ��You will soon enter my favorite session. The Neil Armstrong beside you is about to utter my favorite sentence. This is my favorite scene in our entire human history.��


    ��It��s unbelievable, isn��t it? Five hundred years ago, most people believed that the Earth was t. Now, you are standing here on the moon 300,000 kilometers away from Earth. There is no oxygen here, but your spacesuits allow you to breathe. Science and technology forever changed lifestyles and cognition. Despite that, some people still believe that the Earth is t... they held a party in North Carolina not too long ago. But this is not important now. Our brain is a good thing, but you can��t expect everyone to have a good brain... well.. the point is, technology is great, isn��t it?��


    ��Who are you?�� Zhang Heng frowned. ��Our encounter in Area 51 wasn��t a coincidence, right? Why did you infiltrate our quest? Are you a yer? What is your purpose of looking for me?��


    The moment he spoke, Zhang Heng realized that the voice belonged to the man calling himself Einstein. It exined why the Bluetooth headset suddenly turned on by itself. Zhang Heng didn��t know the origins and identity of Einstein, but judging by the circumstances of their first meeting, he was sure Einstein harbored no malicious intent towards him. Also, Einstein had been an immense help with thending.


    Einstein smiled when he heard Zhang Heng��s voice.


    ��Times have changed. Four hundred years ago, it was alright burning Giordano Bruno to death to prevent him from spreading the heliocentric theory. Our time hase; the older generation is getting weaker. They, however, are not willing to be forgotten by time, wishing to use this game to redeem their past glory. Of course, we all know it��s just a lie that they fool themselves with.


    ��They��ve lost a long time ago and have beenpletely defeated. As far as I know, some of them live worse than dogs. This is truly saddening. They should have just killed themselves hundreds of years ago, and perhaps, they could at least die with a bit of decency. Natural selection and survival of the fittest. These are the wise words of Darwin. Victory will always belong to the newer generation. So my advice for you is to choose your side carefully. You don��t want to board a sinking ship like the Titanic. Beneath the gorgeous robe couldy a lice infestation . I like you. We will meet again. Finally, enjoy the victory. Not everyone can stand beside Neil Armstrong on the moon.��

 Chapter 321 - Apollo Training Camp

    <strong>Chapter 321 Apollo Training Camp</strong>


    On a silent moon, the entrance tform slowly opened, and a camera was turned on as well. Armstrong walked out of the hatch and climbed down slowly along with thending gear. He first checked the four load-bearing legs to make sure they were good order so the Lunar Module could use the entire descent stage as aunchpad when they lifted off. They would just need to fire up the ascent stage�� engines to return to lunar orbit and dock with the Command and Service Module.


    A voice from Mission Control came over themunications channel.


    ��The camera is good. We can tell you, Neil, you are looking good.��


    ��Thank you, Houston.��


    Armstrong looked up to Zhang Heng in the lunar module. He then nodded at him.


    ��A textbooknding.��


    After that, Armstrong continued to climb down thedder.


    (The following were the original words of Armstrong when hended on the moon) ����I��m at the foot of thedder. The LM footpads are only depressed in the surface about 1 or 2 inches, although the surface appears to be very, very fine-grained, as you get close to it. It��s almost like a powder. Down there, it��s very fine.��


    After he was done talking, Armstrong turned around.


    ��I��m going to step off the LM now.��


    Millions of people had been sitting in front of their TV��s biting their nails and holding their breaths until Armstrong��s left foot moved from thedder to the surface.


    ���� That��s one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.�� Armstrong said.


    However, due to a transmission problem with the sound equipment, and distance from the Earth, the sentence became intermittent when transmitted to the television. Coupled with Neil Armstrong��s strong Ohio ent, many people did not hear what he said.


    Then, the audiences in front of the TV began whispers of, ��Wait, what did Armstrong say when hended on the moon?��


    ��Well, it seems like he said, this is a small step for man, but also a big step for mankind?��


    ��It all sounds very philosophical, but is this a small step or a big step for mankind?��


    <strong>1111</strong>


    It wasn��t deliberate, though. In fact, nobody who watched the broadcast, NASA��s own mission control in Houston included, heard the letter ��a�� in the middle. At the same time, the press had already begun writing their articles. Every journalist was now in the race to be the first to report the big scoop. It wasn��t until Armstrong returned to Earth that he re-exined what he said on the moon.


    All those things would only happen way after Armstrong returned to Earth. Zhang Heng followed Armstrong down thedder and took his first steps on the moon��s surface. What attracted him the most was an equally deste but magnificent scene. This was a monochrome world of gray, undting with craters and jagged surfaces. There was nothing but rocks and dust around him. No sound or life existed there as well. Eternal silence was the only thing one could find. That said, it was all undeniably a breathtakingly beautiful sight to behold. It was no wonder Armstrongter said, ��I have been to the moon, so, where else on Earth can attract me?��


    Beauty and scenic value aside, however, things didn��t look so good for the human body. Without the protection of the ozoneyer, the temperature on the moon��s surface could reach a scorching 160 degrees during the day, and at night, it would drop to an ungodly minus 180 degrees. Coupled with the ubiquitous radiation andck of oxygen, astronauts needed to be in their spacesuits at all times.


    Zhang Heng couldn��t look at his watch, but mission control told him the time on Earth over the radio. He only had apparently less than thirty minutes left before the end of this quest. In other words, the journey was about toe to an end.


    ��Neil, I��m going to stroll around,�� Zhang Heng told Armstrong, who stood not far away from him.


    ��Affirmative, David. Be careful.��


    ��It��s nice to have met you, Neil.��


    Those were Zhang Heng��sst words to Neil Armstrong. After that, he hopped to a distant crater like a rabbit.


    After jumping around for about a hundred meters, Zhang Heng turned off the radio. Now, all he heard was his own breathing and the buzz of the life support system. It was pitch ck, as the vast nket of space hung above his head. At this moment, he was alone on an emptyva in. It was as if he was standing in a pce of the ancient gods. And like the soundless alien world, his heart had also gone exceptionally quiet. Zhang Heng did not know where he should be going. So, he walked into the darkness in front of him without hesitation.


    (The quest has reached its deadline. Quest ispleted��]


    [Apollo Training Camp quest is cleared. Your fifth round of the game is over. Returning to the real world��]


    Zhang Heng opened his eyes. This time, the quest didn��tst too long. Combined with the transitional quest, its entire duration was less than a year. However, as the time-flow rate was slower this time, six hours had already passed in the real world. The bar downstairs was probably closed at this hour.


    Fortunately, nothing changed in the lounge. It was at the beginning of the month, and it was rare to see guests around. Besides, Zhang Heng should best to finish the game. Only he and the bartender were left in the lounge. She hid behind the bar and was reading Akira Toriyama��s ��Dragon Ball.�� She took a nce at Zhang Heng as he got up from the couch. ��You were away for a long while this time.�� ��I traveled to and far away from here.��


    The bartender made ame joke.


    ��How far? Did you go to the moon?��


    ��Almost,�� replied Zhang Heng as he threw down five game items over the bar counter.


    ��Great yield. Psst. Psst.��


    The bartender put down theic in her hand and put the game items in a wooden Tulewood box.


    ��Did you get to meet other yers?�� Zhang Heng nodded, picked up the tablet on the side, and entered his yer number. He then clicked the confirm button and paid 20 game points for the identification fee.


    ��You didn��t tell me how you could meet other yers in a single-yer game���� ��I can��t reveal too much. In fact, I have told you almost everything I��m allowed to tell you. On the bright side, you managed to get your hands on another five items.�� ��By the way, do you provide storage services at this checkpoint?�� Zhang Heng asked as he moved along quickly.


    He didn��t want to dwell on the topic anymore, knowing that once the matter here was dealt with, Zhang Heng could finally return to his hometown and celebrate Chinese New Year. He did not n on bringing along those game items with him. He knew that it was the time where he would cross paths with many people. It was a recipe for potential problems.


    ��Yes. Three game points per item, per day.��


    ��Huh?��


    Zhang Heng raised his eyebrows, and he thought he heard it wrong.


    ��The checkpoint is the safest ce to store all your game items. Even if the three most powerful guilds invade this ce, it��s still impossible for them to take your game items. It will only cost you three points per item. Value for money proposition, don��t you think?��


    Zhang Heng quickly noticed a loophole. ��What if the three major guilds capture the owners and force them to withdraw all their items?�� he asked. The bartender onlyughed, implying that she was only responsible for keeping the game items safe, and had nothing to do with the lives of their owners. ��Forget it. I��ll take care of my game items myself,�� Zhang Heng replied.


    He then wrote the address of his grandfather��s house on a sticky note.


    ��Please send them to this address.��

 Chapter 322 - The Journey Back Home

    <h4>Chapter 322 The Journey Back Home</h4>


    There was no one outside the bar in the early morning. Only a few cleaners were cleaning the mess on the floor.


    After returning to the earth, Zhang Heng needed some time to get used to gravity again. Fortunately, unlike a real astronaut, his physical body remained in the same state as before he entered the quest. His bone mass and blood volume were still the same, and he did not feel thirsty. He also suffered no vision problems (usually hyperopia). Hence it was more of a psychological adjustment for him.


    After all, all he did was wander in space for four days. Even with the moon having only a sixth of earth��s gravity, these minor problems could be resolved in a matter of an hour or two, unlike the ck Sail quest.


    Zhang Heng walked to a small housing estate. Upon seeing a roadside stall that served breakfast, he ordered a bowl of hot soy milk, with two Youtiao and a boiled tea egg. When he was done eating, the road was already lively again, and white-cor workers who lived nearby could be seen leaving their houses. Commuting in big cities had always been a serious problem. Most of the workforce lived so far away from their workces that it was worse than the distance between the Cowherd and Weaver Girl. Left with no other options, they had to get up very early in the morning and to fill their stomachs as fast as they could before joining the mad rush to work. Many even developed the skill of eating while walking.


    Zhang Heng had visited a number of cities when he was still a kid, where he would follow his parents to attend academic conferences or his grandfather to meet friends who came from elsewhere. It was at that time when he got into the habit ofbeling every city he visited in his mind. For this particr city, he had studying here for a year and a half, but still found it hard to find the right words to summarize and describe it. It was like a bowl of thick soup thrown in with all sorts of ingredients, its strange and weird vors brutally shing and mixing with each other.


    No matter how picky the diners were, you could always find the parts that you liked. At the same time, you had to endure the parts you didn��t like. Perhaps then,plexity was itsbel.


    After finishing up thest sip of soy milk, Zhang Heng wasn��t about to join in with the crowded mess of white that boarded the city��s various public transports. Instead, he unlocked a shared bicycle by the roadside using a QR code. He then rode all the way back to school. As he approached a few stores, he stopped his bicycle to buy some local produce. It would be used to deal with the little brats that frequented his house every Chinese New Year. As for the robot vacuum cleaner that he wanted to buy for his grandfather, an order had already been ced on Xiaomi��s official website.


    Nothing else happened in the next two days. Zhang Heng put his Paris Arrow into the locker of the archery hall and took with him for the other game items that had no problems passing security checks. After that, he bid Ma Wei goodbye before embarking on the journey back to his birthce to celebrate the Chinese New Year.


    Whenever Chinese New Year was near, millions of people would rush to board the trains. Zhang Heng had to squeeze through the gargantuan crowd just to get to the ticketing counter. After rummaging through the entire human mess, he managed to board the train. He put down his carry-on luggage and started to look for his seat ording to the number printed on the ticket. There was already someone at his designated seat, and it looked like a young couple upied it. Seeing that the original passenger had arrived, the boy got up with a smile and told Zhang Heng that they couldn��t get double seats and asked if he was willing to change seats with him. At the same time, he showed his ticket to Zhang Heng.


    Zhang Heng took a look at it. Fortunately, the seat wasn��t too far away, located at the end of the carriage. So, Zhang Heng agreed to change seats. The boy��s face instantly lit up with joy, and he repeatedly thanked Zhang Heng. There was a high chance there was no extra space over there, so Zhang Heng did not take down his small suitcase that had found a spot on the luggage rack. He could only carry his backpack, which had a drinking cup and other valuables such as a camera and the game items.


    Zhang Heng��s new seat was close to the aisle. Seated next to him was a middle-aged man in a jacket. He had not stopped talking on his mobile phone since he got on the train, appearing as if he was exining some work issues or discussing after-sales problems with his customers. He sounded like some kind of sales director of a particr manufacturer.


    Opposite Zhang Heng was a girl who should be a student like him. She held a book called �C ��TOEFL Vocabry, Root + Associative Memory�� in her hand. She wasn��t the most attractive, having tiny slits for eyes and a t nose, and a scrawny body as well. At least she was still young and seemed to have a lot of potential till maturity.


    wa


    Sitting next to her was a slightly older woman. She had a pair of headphones on and was watching a drama on a tablet. All three looked ordinary, and Zhang Heng did not know if this was a sequel forpleting the single-yer game withpetitive mode. He could not help but subconsciously observe the people around him. There were still other yers in the real world, and there were a lot of them. Hence, it was perfectly reasonable that he kept looking over his shoulder.


    Speaking of the battle with Jia Lai in the Apollo Training Camp, it was his first time single-handedly killing other yers. Zhang Heng thought he would feel bad about it, but that didn��t turn out to be the case. Maybe it was because he had endured too many battles and his hands were soaked with blood anyway. The people he killed were from the quest or monsters in the real world. That said, he was surprised his heart remained the same even after killing other yers. When he stuffed Jia Lai��s mouth with sand and watched him suffocate to death, he was calm and unmoved throughout the whole process. Perhaps he was a little too calm. Jia Lai was the first real person he killed. For a moment, even Zhang Heng could not recognize him.


    He wasn��t sure if his current situation could be considered normal since he had such a bountiful experience. Hence, it was hard for anyone to tell him what he should do right now.


    When the girl with the TOEFL book noticed somebodying towards her, she quickly emptied the seat opposite her by removing a bag of potato chips and an apple. Zhang Heng thanked her as he sat down. As soon as he put his backpack down, his phone vibrated.


    A small ��1�� appeared on the cute version of Aqua��s avatar in his WeChat contact list. It meant he just received a new message. Zhang Heng tapped on it. [I��m sitting opposite you. Did you see me?] Zhang Heng frowned and looked up at the TOEFL girl. She had her head lowered and was memorizing words from the book. She could feel Zhang Heng looking at her face and observing her thoroughly. At that time, she was in a panic. Instead of looking up, she only lowered her head further. Her ears were slowly turning red as well. Zhang Heng replied. (I will block you if you keep on doing this to me.]


    [Hehe... I��m bored. What are you doing? Do you want to go to the haunted house with me? I heard the alley is very, very, haunted. Let��s catch some ghosts tonight. (��-W-)]


    (I��m on a train back to my hometown for Chinese New Year. You can go there yourself.]


    (Huh. Does that mean you��lle to the haunted house with me if you are still here?]


    (No.]

 Chapter 323 - Deep Sleep Aboard the Train

    <h4>Chapter 323 Deep Sleep Aboard the Train</h4>


    After dealing with the prankster��s harassment, Zhang Heng took out a ��Finnish Grammar�� book from his bag and continued from where he stopped. Surprise shed in the eyes of the TOEFL girl sitting opposite of Zhang Heng


    Finnish was a very nichenguage, where only one university in China, namely the Beijing Foreign Studies University, offered any rted major. The enrollment each year was tiny as well. In fact, less than 100 people managed to master Finnish in the whole country. Besides, Zhang Heng��s poise was very much that of a student��s. The TOEFL girl hesitated and whispered, ��ssmate?��


    ��Hmm?��


    ��Aren��t you from Beijing Foreign Studies University?��


    ��Oh, I am not,�� said Zhang Heng. Realizing what had caused the misunderstanding, he waved the book and exined, ��Just for my own pleasure.�� The TOEFL girl��s face turned red. ��I��m sorry...�� she muttered.


    Zhang Heng smiled. ��Don��t worry about it. I like Find very much, and I hope to go there someday.��


    ��May your dreams be granted soon.��


    After that, the TOEFL girl quickly buried her head in the red book again. The train continued to move forward, and the carriage was alight with sounds. Some chatted and ate sunflower seeds. Children were crying and ying music, and the middle-aged man beside Zhang Heng was still talking on the phone. Suddenly, Zhang Heng missed the moon��s eternal silence.


    The man had got up from his seat, and when he came back, he finally put away his phone as he muttered a few words. Then, he leaned his head on the curtains and fell asleep after that. Zhang Heng continued to flip through the ��Finnish Grammar�� in his hand until an attendant who was pushing a cart reminded the passengers to keep their legs off the aisle.


    The TOEFL girl took out an apple from her bag. After a few moments, she took out another one, and in a soft voice, she asked Zhang Heng, ��Hey there, do you want an apple? It��s washed.��


    ��Thank you.��


    Zhang Heng did not refuse her kindness to avoid embarrassing her. The TOEFL girl breathed a sigh of relief. The gesture had eased the previous awkward introduction, and she seemed to have forgotten about it. She appeared less bashful and started to talk while taking a bite off the apple.


    After chatting for a while, the TOEFL girl winked at Zhang Heng, whispering, ��Look at the uncle next to you. He��s drooling.��


    Zhang Heng looked at him and frowned. Many people drooled while sleeping, but it was rare seeing a middle-aged man drooling so much that the curtain was wet. In fact, he seemedpletely unable to control his salivary nds. Immediately, Zhang Heng tried to pat the middle-aged man on the shoulder, but there wasn��t any response. So, he tried harder, nudging the man this time. Still, the middle-aged man did not wake up.


    The TOEFL girl, too, noticed that something wasn��t right.


    ��What��s wrong with him, is he sick?��


    ��I don��t know. Let��s call the attendants first,�� Zhang Heng replied in a low voice.


    After that, he ced his fingers under the middle-aged man��s nostrils. Seeing that the man was still breathing, he proceeded to open his eyelids and saw that his pupils were not dted, and they responded instantly when exposed to light. Apart from the abnormal amount of saliva, his current state wasn��t medically abnormal. He was in a deep sleep, but it was strange that he couldn��t be awakened by any means.


    After a while, the TOEFL girl came back with a train attendant. Zhang Heng did not move the middle-aged man, cing him t on the seat instead to stop him from choking on his own saliva.


    Nheless, there was only so much the train attendant could do. They had received a good amount of first aid training, but they certainly did not possess any professional medical knowledge. Unable to make a better diagnosis, the only thing the train attendant could do was to keep shaking him, hoping he woulde to.


    ��Sir, wake up. Please wake up!��


    After confirming that the middle-aged man was breathing properly and his heartbeat was also normal, the attendant began to suspect that the man was actually pretending to be asleep. Just then, a rough part of the track caused the whole car to shake, and the man��s body fell towards the table, his head hitting the corner hard. Although he wasn��t bleeding, the loud, sickening thud from skull colliding with metal couldn��t be faked.


    Even so, the middle-aged man still didn��t wake up.


    It was then that the attendant started to panic a little. Soon, an emergency broadcast came over the inte. They were looking for any doctors on board. After a few tense moments, a doctor showed up, but he could only make simple diagnoses since he had no medical equipment with him. Unfortunately, he, too, failed to find the root cause.


    The middle-aged man had been traveling alone, and his phone was locked. Hence, train attendants couldn��t contact his family to enquire about his medical history. In the end, they could only reach the hospital at the nearest station. When they arrived at the next stop, medical staff quickly rushed into the train and carried the man into the ambnce.


    Finally, the unexpected incident hade to an end.


    As the crowd slowly returned to their seats, the TOEFL girl and Zhang Heng returned to their respective ces as well. She still seemed a little shocked and gasped a little when she saw the drool on the curtains. ��What happened just now?�� she asked.


    ��I don��t know.��


    Zhang Heng lied. After seeing the condition of the middle-aged man, he came up with a few guesses. When the train attendants and the kind doctor were busy ��rescuing�� the middle-aged man, he turned on his mobile phone. He then opened up WeChat and touched Why Do You Always Look Unhappy with Aqua��s profile picture (#��O��).


    (Hey, I want to ask a question.] (What��s up? Finally decided to visit the haunted house with me? Looking forward to...)


    (Stop talking about the haunted house first. I told you I��m on the train.)


    Zhang Heng typed, paused, then typed again.


    [Dreand of Death. Who��s holding it now?]


    [??? y stupid.jpg]


    (Will a person targeted by Dreand of Death never wake up? And all that drooling is abnormal as well, right?] This time she kept quiet for a long time, struggling to answer Zhang Heng. It took her half a minute before she replied.


    [Did you see it happening to someone?] [Yes. It happened just now, right in front of me. The person has been carried off the train, but I suspect the user is still here.]


    [...big brother, I really don��t know who has it right now. I know the Dreand of Death��s previous owner, but as far as I know, she sold it right away after she got her hands on it. It hasn��t been used at all. Besides, the Dreand of Death doesn��t require its user to be in the vicinity.)

 Chapter 324 - Spring Cleaning

    <strong>Chapter 324 Spring Cleaning</strong>


    The incident of the unconscious man on the train was no more but a small episode that quickly passed. After discussing the matter for a while, the passengers quickly shifted their attention back to what they were doing. Before contacting Why Do You Always Look Unhappy (# 0��), Zhang Heng checked out the train, using the excuse of filling up water. However, he saw nobody behaving abnormally. The person who had attacked the middle-aged man was most likely not on the train.


    After returning to her seat, the TOEFL girl still chatted enthusiastically with Zhang Heng. Zhang Heng��s thoughts, however, were still on what happened earlier. Obviously, the matter wasn��t so simple. This wasn��t the end, since the three major guilds had been offering handsome rewards to capture the mysterious woman that appeared suddenly at that night��s auction.


    Everyone present at the auction got yed by her, and the three major guilds wanted her to pay for what she did to them. More important for them was to retrieve the Grade B-game item, Dreand of Death from her. Since they still couldn��t locate this weapon of mass destruction, nobody from the guilds felt safe. After all, nobody knew if they would end up like Silver Wing��s former guild leader.


    Zhang Heng had been ying solo for some time, and when the participated in his only single-yer-withpetitive-mode quest, no one else ended up alive. Thus, he should be rtively safe for now. Under normal circumstances, he shouldn��t be a prime target. It was simply a coincidence that the killer chose the man next to him since he changed seats with the boy earlier.


    Nothing extraordinary happened until the train arrived at the next station.


    The TOEFL girl wanted to get Zhang Heng��s contact, but she was too shy to ask. As she watched him disappear into the crowd with a backpack and suitcase, she could not help but feel a sense of loss. She knew that they would never see each other again.


    Zhang Heng did not bother his granddad to pick him up from the train station. However, his grandpa came anyway with his old Volkswagen. As they met, he hugged his grandfather outside the exit before cing his luggage in the trunk before entering the passenger��s side. This reminded him of another incident. He was an apprentice of Takeda in the Tokyo Drift quest, managing to learn some rather impressive drifting techniques from him. And he even won a death race. Yet, he still couldn��t drive in the real world.


    It was because he did not have a driver��s license yet. Perhaps it was time to get his licence once and for all.


    ��How is school life?�� Grandpa asked while driving


    ��It��s not bad. Same old.��


    Even without warnings from the weird man in the Tang costume, Zhang Heng couldn��t possibly tell his granddad about what happened to him recently. Let alone making anybody understand and ept such things, there was nothing the old man could do but worry if he knew about it.


    However, after the Zavilcha incident, Zhang Heng wondered if he should remind his grandpa to look over his shoulders for any threats. After contemting for a while, though, he knew how difficult a normal person would react even if they knew about in advance. And as a part of the older generation of intellectuals, grandpa held a firm belief in Marxism. He wasn��t one to get involved in such matters.


    ��You seem to have matured a lot recently,�� smiled grandpa as he looked at Zhang Heng through the rearview mirror. ��Very well, don��t be as frivolous like your father. A man should look like a man. Speak less, and do more.��


    ��Why then, did you let him marry my mother in the first ce?�� Zhang Heng asked while opening a box of CDs. He took one out called ��Qi Li Xiang��, an album about the same age as this car, and inserted it into the yer.


    After a while, the catchy tunes of Jay Chou started to y over the stereo.


    Grandpa harrumphed, ��Your mother��s always had a bad taste since she was a child. Inherited it from your grandma...��


    Zhang Heng smiled and said nothing.


    Half an hourter, the car arrived at his grandpa��s residence. This area was made up of old apartments, and due to the fact that it was built decades ago, underground parking wasn��t on the minds of the builders at that time. Later, the government added more parking spaces on the roadsides.


    After grandpa parked his car, Zhang Heng got off and took his suitcase with him. While walking toward the apartment unit, he ran into a few residents of the same building. A long time ago, everyone worked the same job. Hence, Zhang Heng��s granddad was very close to them. Besides, he used to run around the courtyard when he was a little kid and had visited most of the units.


    At a time like this, Zhang Heng was obligated to chat with them for a while. When they finally returned home, grandpa warmed up a pre-prepared meal for him. As they ate, the conversation moved to Zhang Heng��s parents. During Christmas, Zhang Heng received a call from them, saying that they would be back this year for Chinese New Year. They did not tell him the specific date back then and he got to know that they hadn��t bought their flight tickets until a few days ago.


    The two would take a flight to meet Zhang Heng in four days, after a stopover in Shanghai. Although Grandpa was still dissatisfied with their reluctance in returning to China, he still valued the family reunion a lot. Weeks ago, he had started preparing a variety of ingredients, even bringing out his precious Maotai which he kept away for a long time.


    It always felt good to be home, especially for Zhang Heng. For the past six months, he had endured aplicated and arduous journey. After taking a shower, he took his backpack and walked into his bedroom. The switch on the wall was flicked, and the lights immediately came on. After ncing around, Zhang Heng realized that nothing much had changed since he left.


    Except for the new bedsheets and quilt, everything else remained the same as before. Above the shelf beside his bed, two superhero figures of Hulk and Spiderman he bought while in junior high were in their Bruce Lee and Alnd poses. The PSP stuffed at the bottom of the drawer was now an antique. He even found several posters of S.H.E and Jay Chou in his drawer.


    Zhang Heng threw his backpack in front of the desk and copsed on the bed.


    Finally, at a time like this, there was no need to think about the previous quest. He did not need to guess the thoughts of those around him as well. This was probably the true meaning of returning home.


    Zhang Heng got up at ten, had breakfast, and started helping his grandfather clean up the house before the Chinese New Year. They started decluttering the study room, taking out the trinkets and boxes that were stuffed all over the ce. After wiping them clean, they were sorted out.


    As the cleaning proceeded, Zhang Heng found an unopened pager under the bookcase and was thinking about how he should deal with it when he saw Grandpa standing on the other side. It appeared the elderly man was deep in thought as he held a photo album in his hands.


    Zhang Heng put down the pager and walked over to him.


    The album must be quite old, seeing how yellowed the photos were. However, one could still make out the faces of the people on them. It was a girl with a sweet smile and a young guy with a serious look.


    ��She looks beautiful,�� Zhang Heng said.


    ��Yeah, which is why I always said she had bad taste. Back then, many young men pursued her, but she chose me instead.�� Grandpa wiped his sses and continued, ��I was a very ordinary boy back in school. It��s safe to say that I��m a nerd that doesn��t understand what love is. I can still remember how I got so nervous while taking the picture. The people in the photo studio asked me to rx, but I just couldn��t smile anyway. Hence, my face on the picture. After that, she always said I looked arrogant in this picture.�� As grandpa spoke, a photo slipped out of the album.

 Chapter 325 - Old Photo

    <strong>Chapter 325 Old Photo</strong>


    Zhang Heng bent and picked the photo from the floor. Unlike the other pictures which were fixed in their slots, this one was clipped instead, hence the reason it fell out. Thus, it should be a more recent addition to the album. There were more than 20 people in the picture, and they looked to be from the same organization. Everyone was in winterproof clothes, hats, and snow boots. At that time, they were standing on a cier with a dozen sled dogs beside them.


    In a single nce, Zhang Heng instantly spotted his parents in the crowd. They looked to be very young at that time. Standing on the left of the first row, his father had made a V gesture at the camera. His mom, on the other hand, was busy stuffing snow into his cor. They were both smiling and seemed really happy.


    However, Zhang Heng��s gaze stopped at the rightmost person in the second row. His pupils contracted instantly the moment he saw the Tang costumed man who had given him the extra 24 hours. Zhang Heng quickly noticed that his appearance almost hadn��t changed at all. In the photo, he wasn��t in that Tang suit but had on ordinary clothes that every westerner wore. It appeared he was attempting to look as inconspicuous as possible, seeing how he was behind the others. He wasn��t that tall too, which was why half of his face was blocked. In the photo, his eyes were trained on the others while he smiled.


    Zhang Heng looked to the timestamp printed at the bottom right of the photo. It was taken 17 years ago. At that time, he should be more than a year old.


    ��Oh,�� grandpa replied as he put on his reading sses. ��This was taken on thest research project they participated in before returning home. It was in Greend. They said the temperature could get down to minus 70 degrees. Someone apparently found some ancient ruins, and arge part of it rted to ancient myths. When your parents were invited, they didn��t waste a second.��


    ��What were the results?�� Zhang Heng asked.


    ��I don��t know. I have never cared for these sorts of nonsense. In fact, I disagreed with your mother when she chose this course as her major. She��d always been interested in weird stories and legends since young. At that time, your grandma took her side. Convincing two women were way more difficult than convincing one. Fortunately, they took you back to China after the project ended. I though they��d finally settle down here, but they left after two years. When you be a parent one day, you��ll know how eager your kids can be when ites to venturing the world.��


    ��Can I take this photo with me?�� Zhang Heng asked.


    ��Of course, but remember to inform your parents when they are back. Anyway, I have lots of other photos of them.��


    Grandpa nced at the sweet-smiling woman in the photo before finally closing the album in his hand.


    ��Let��s put these memories aside and finish the work at hand. There are too many ces to clean. Thank goodness you got home early. I knew I couldn��t count on your parents.��


    ��Okay.��


    Zhang Heng put away the photo and pointed at the pager, asking, ��Do you still want this thing?�� ��Hmm, this was given to me by your grandmother. I have a special box for the things she gave me. I��ll look for itter.��


    ......


    The two cleaned the house from morning to night. Now, the study, master bedroom, and bathroom were finally done. There were two more bedrooms, and then, it was the kitchen, the most troublesome spot in the house.


    The next morning, Zhang Heng turned over a small plot ofnd in the backyard, intending to grow some produce when the weather became warmer. Grandpa seemed a little surprised as he saw how Zhang Heng turned over the ground.


    ��The educated youth from the universities are taught to work like this?��.


    Grandpa passed him a cup of warm water. Zhang Heng simply shrugged and took a sip from it.


    As he looked at thend he plowed, he remembered how it previously took at least an hour and a half to dig through a small area. Now, it was only half an hour, not to mention workmanship was definitely better than before. Zhang Heng was no expert, nor did he deliberately venture into agriculture. It was just one of his hobbies. That said, sustenance had always been the eternal pursuit of mankind, no matter time or ce. Out of the need to survive, he gained farming experience on the deserted ind andter, in the ck Sail quest. Although the skills were probably at LV o, it was good enough for him.


    ��We are progressing a lot faster than I thought. If this is the case, we should finish cleaning everything by tomorrow morning.��


    Suddenly, the doorbell rang.


    Zhang Heng was wearing his old clothes when he dug the ground, and his shoes were all muddy, so grandpa went for the door. A young woman was standing outside. She was the resident of the unit opposite theirs, and there was a worried look across her face. After listening to her, grandpa became serious as well. He then nodded.


    The young woman thanked grandpa profusely. After a while, she brought a little girl over.


    ��Old Chen hurt his leg while shopping for vegetables. No one else is in the house except for his daughter-inw and his granddaughter. The daughter-inw requested us to watch over her daughter for half a day. She needs to go to the hospital to look after Old Chen. Chen. Still remember Tian Tian? She kept following you around during your summer holidays.��


    Grandpa started with a brief introduction.


    ��Tian Tian, do you remember brother Zhang Heng?��


    The little girl seemed a bit shy, instantly hiding behind her mother after hearing what grandpa said.


    ��Anyway, I��ll leave her in your good hands. Please take care of her,�� the young woman said gratefully. ��Don��t worry. I watched her grow all the way up. She can make herself at home. By the way, is Old Chen okay?��


    ��It wasn��t a bad fall, but he��s been suffering from osteoporosis, and they estimate it��ll take a while before he recovers. Anyway, the hospital has been calling us, and I��ve to rush there now. Tian Tian has brought her homework with her. She��ll be preupied with it.��


    ��Okay.��


    Grandpa nodded and said nothing after that. After he sent the young woman off, he led Tian Tian to a coffee table and moved her to a small stool to do her homework. At the same time, Zhang Heng didn��t leave the backyard, deworming theurel tree instead. When he put the canister down, he received a message from Ding Si.


    The two had met at the auction and exchanged contacts. Although Zhang Heng rarely interacted with other yers, he wasn��t against keeping good ties withmerce chambers like Fulou. They could prove handy with exchanging game points and selling game items. With their help, he wouldn��t need to wait until the auction to sell his game items. Moreover, Fulou had often sold him useful game items and provided valuable information.

 Chapter 326 - Simple Drawings

    <strong>Chapter 326 Simple Drawings</strong>


    Ding Si��s text this time was partly an advertisement. It was about a newly established forum led by the three major guilds. They had rented overseas servers to facilitate and promotemunication between yers, and each yer could register for an ount for free.


    Zhang Heng briefly nced at the picture Ding Si attached. The name of the website was Immersive Simtions Fan Forum.


    There were also rules and regtions written in fine-print below, done in a way that if a regr person identally clicked it by mistake, they would think that it was just another gaming fan forum.


    Currently, three main sections of the website were open- a message board, a trading section, and a teammate recruitment section. Some other functions were still under construction. The website��s developers imed they would do their utmost to protect members�� privacy, encrypt their identities, and would not require users to be bound by email or mobile phone registrations. In fact, ament could even be left as an unregistered user. But of course, registration with an ID was still encouraged.


    In principle, website administrators were not responsible for the authenticity of the information posted on the forum, and new members were reminded to stay vignt at all times and to never disclose their personal information.


    The idea of such a site was actually conceived a long time ago. Reportedly, it started off with a group of yers who created QQ groups and invited their friends to actively share their experiences. However, after a series of vicious incidents, the QQ groups were dissolved. The current website was considered to be an upgraded version of the QQ group. The initial intention of the forum was to reunite the yers, hoping to solve the problem of poormunication and to eliminate the ��every man for himself�� mentality. Of course, that didn��t mean the three major guilds didn��t have their own selfish intentions. Through the forum, they hoped to establish a position of leadership gradually. For now, the creation of the webpage was obviously a huge advantage, especially for single yers like Zhang Heng. It provided him with a tform to understand the outside world.


    However, Zhang Heng did not sign up immediately. Although the three major guilds imed that the site was safe and that they would not disclose their members�� IDs, Zhang Heng didn��t log in using his mobile phone orputer. Instead, he nned on visiting an Inte cafe when he was free.


    After tidying the yard, Zhang Heng got out of his muddy shoes and entered the house. He was about to take a shower but stopped as he walked past Tian Tian.


    The girl was sprawled over the coffee table, pencil in her hand. At first, Zhang Heng thought she was doing her homework, but when he came closer, he realized that she was actually scribbling on the back of the workbook.


    She had drawn a picture of a woman sitting on a bed, where an old many there with a leg in an elevated position. There was a frightened look on his face because the light from the ceiling was falling down on him.


    It was a simple child��s drawing, but within the innocent brushstrokesy an ominous and frightening image.


    ��Can I have a look?�� Zhang Heng asked warmly, reaching out.


    Tian Tian was startled, so focused on her drawing that she did not see himing. Despite the scare, she handed the workbook to Zhang Heng.


    Zhang Heng flipped through the book and saw a few other drawings, including one of an old man who had fallen off his bicycle, a little puppy falling into a pond, and another of a woman cutting her finger amid a meal preparation.


    Zhang Heng��s eyes widened as he thought about the band-aid on that woman��s index fingers. He looked down at the girl and saw her looking up at him, her eyes trembling in fear.


    They hadst met about a year and a half ago, and back then, Tian Tian was a cheerful and bubbly young girl. Now, she seemed a lot quieter than before.


    ��That��s pretty good,�� Zhang Heng smiled as he handed the book back to her. He noticed how relieved she looked when the book was in her hands. Admittedly, it was difficult for children this age to hide their true feelings.


    Zhang Heng abandoned the idea of a shower and changed into fresh clothes instead. Then he went to his grandfather and asked, ��Which hospital is Uncle Chen in?��


    ��Why? Feel like visiting him? That��s good. When you were a little kid, you were always at his ce, eating a fair share of meat. He��s in The Second People��s Hospital. I was nning to see him, but since you��re going, then you can go in my ce. Do you have money?�� Zhang Heng waved his wallet. ��I��m going.�� Once he was outside, Zhang Heng dropped by a local fruit shop to purchase a fruit basket. Then, instead of taking the bus, he hired a DiDi* and arrived a lot faster at Shenzhen��s Second People��s Hospital more than three kilometers away.


    No matter what time it was, the ce was always crowded. Patients, visiting families, rtives, and friends... it was so packed that human scents and odors overpowered the corridor. There were sounds of people coughing, and a pungent scent of disinfectant lingered in the air.


    It was nothing but a depressing scene.


    Instead of approaching customer service to get the patient��s information, he remembered the bed number on Tian Tian��s drawing and found the ward without trouble. Through the viewing window, he then saw Grandpa Chen and the young woman inside.


    Zhang Heng knocked on the door twice before entering the ward. The woman was surprised, but immediately stood up and greeted him. She epted the basket of fruits, and she asked about his university life.


    Grandpa Chen looked pretty good. Even though he had just fallen and injured his leg, he was still in high spirits. He evenughed aloud when he saw Zhang Heng, noting how they hadn��t seen each other for a while and that Zhang Heng looked even better than before.


    Zhang Heng peeled an apple for the old man using a fruit knife that happened to be on the bedside table. The setup of the ward was pretty decent, considering it was a three-patient ward. The other two beds were upied, and Grandpa Chen was in the middle. Above his head hung an old-fashioned double-ended fluorescentmp.


    It was a scene that was eerily simr to the drawing.


    Zhang Heng didn��t leave immediately even after the apple was peeled. He stayed by Grandpa Chen��s bed and chatted with him, something the woman thought was rather odd. Grandpa Chen reminisced about the old times, rting how Zhang Heng would never tell anyone if he had peed his pants when he was still a kid, and how he tried to hide the embarrassment by standing in front of the heater to dry himself off. The memory was so funny to Grandpa Chen that he seemed to have forgotten the pain in his leg.


    Suddenly, without warning, the fluorescentmp on the ceiling detached from its housing and took a dive toward the old man! Just as the tube was about to hit Grandpa Chen��s head, a hand reached out and caught it. Zhang Heng could even block a falling butcher knife �C a lightbulb was nothing to him. Also, he had been secretly keeping an eye out for any movement from above. Still, he was somewhat bbergasted that the light actually fell. Predicting the future? But all the simple sketches only seemed to portray bad things. It was more like some kind of a curse.


    The woman gasped, and although clearly in shock, she thanked Zhang Heng profusely. The nurse tending to the patient next to them stared at Zhang Heng with curious eyes. She had frozen in ce and seemed startled as well. Unfortunately, Zhang Heng decided not to stay in the hospital any longer. Now that his suspicions were confirmed, he needed to figure out a way to solve the problem.


    Footnote:


    Didi: A ride-sharing tform

 Chapter 327 - Recurring Slaughter

    <strong>Chapter 327 Recurring ughter</strong>


    Even though the old man in the Tang suit had already alluded it all, Zhang Heng did not expect to encounter another supernatural event so quickly after the train incident. Those things had been operating in the dark in the real world even before the game existed.


    But one thing was for sure. Even if supernatural events did happen then, they weren��t as frequent as now. Also, since the yers were taking out arge number of game items, more ��unexpected�� situations would take ce. Zhang Heng frowned. This was not the first game, so it was imusible that the organizingmittee were oblivious about the consequences of doing so, or perhaps it was what they intended?


    Zhang Heng stopped himself from overthinking. There was no point as of now, seeing how he couldn��t confirm anything anyway. So, he decided to focus on the matter at hand.


    Old Chen and Zhang Heng��s grandfather shared a pretty amicable friendship. They were both colleagues, then neighbors for many years after their retirement. During the school holidays, Tian Tian used to follow Old Chen around like a puppy. Had Zhang Heng not known her, he would have just disregarded it, but since he knew her, it was very difficult not to care.


    To solve the problem, he would need to first get to its roots, and the best ce to start was obviously Tian Tian. Zhang Heng had to find a way to understand what he was really dealing with before he could decide what to do next.


    Before that, though, Zhang Heng made a detour and stopped at an inte caf��. He visited the new website using the URL Ding Si had provided. Zhang Heng was surprised to find that the forum had many visitors, though most of the traffic was on the message board. This was only theunching day of the forum, yet many were already unting their prowess, tirelessly posting tawdryments like ��bump, sofa, floor, ceiling�� under every post


    Some even took the opportunity to post long but pointlessments. In one post, a person yelled, ��I��m about to ascend to heaven, and I would like to ask all my fellowrades to lend me a helping hand!��


    Some people had queued under a certain post with a tacit understanding, ying the role of a broken record �C repeating and regurgitating everything that others said.


    There was also an infinite idiom solitaire post.


    Birds of the same feather flocked together, apparently, and it was human nature to naturally bond with those who had the same aspirations.


    The total number of yers wasn��t small, but inparison to the throngs of ordinary folk, they were the minority. Those who were outside the yer circle would probably find it difficult to understand the harsh challenges they had to face each day. yers had to keep finding ways to employ their talents, abilities, game items, and skills toplete one quest after another. On the one hand, these yers got to enjoy the rich experiences that nobody else could get. On the other, they constantly faced all kinds of danger, some even life-threatening.


    Whatever the yers witnessed and experienced couldn��t be shared with non-yers as well, and therefore, in one way or another, they were actually very lonely. Those who had a team had it better. If a single yer like Zhang Heng were to be psychologically unstable, he would have lost his mind a long time ago in the quests. Bute what may, it was always good to have a ce that served as a reminder that they were not alone.


    Other than the mess of useless posts, Zhang Heng did find some useful things on the website. One of the top posts was an announcement by the three major guilds, stating that they were looking for information rting to ��Dreand of Death�� and the mysterious woman who appeared at the auction.


    The article also mentioned the incident on the train. In fact, Zhang Heng wouldter find simr reports in the newspapers. After the petrified middle-aged sales executive was sent to the hospital for a thorough examination, he was found to be perfectly healthy. An hourter, however, his blood pressure suddenly soared, causing the capiries in the brain to rupture. It increased pressure on his brain tissue, which eventually caused cerebral edema to develop. The hospital performed an emergency surgery but s, they were unable to save his life.


    For this reason, the newspapers interviewed several medical experts to discuss the matter and investigate the cause. This was one of the most searched topics on the inte, and experts appealed for the public to be vignt of the risk of a cerebral hemorrhage, which could also be the result of overworking. However, Zhang Heng was rmed, discovering that this wasn��t the only incident that had taken ce within the same period.


    In fact, justst week, a simr thing had happened to six or seven people. When it took ce, the victims all asleep in bed, and families only found out about their deaths the next morning. The circumstance in which the incidents urred wasn��t toopelling and were treated as sudden death due to cerebral hemorrhage.


    As a matter of fact, the episode on the train should be an exception. The perpetrator obviously did not want to attract public attention. Zhang Heng was now certain that that one of the conditions of triggering Dreand of Death was that the target had to be sleeping. From the sales rep��s phone conversation, Zhang Heng could deduce that the man��s trip on the train was unnned. It was apparently due to a work issue that he had to speak to the customer in person. Much to his annoyance, however, the customer canceled the order and didn��t show up.


    The middle-aged man was devastated at that time, and after hanging up the call, he had nothing to do and fell asleep on the train. In order words, him boarding the train and falling asleep were probably unanticipated. Under normal circumstances, he should have returned home before falling asleep. That way, he would have been like the other seven, dying on his own bed, quietly and peacefully before being diagnosed with cerebral hemorrhage. Now, instead, the incident had ended up all over the news.


    It was obvious that the three major guilds took this matter extremely seriously. This was about two months since the reappearance of Dreand of Death, and unlike before, the erratic killing pattern began as soon as it appeared.


    Because the person in possession of the Dreand of Death had already gone through a round of killings before, most yers believed that although it was a Grade-B item, it probably had only a few uses left in it. But now, it seemed that wasn��t the case. This time around, the pool of victims was rather peculiar.


    All seven victims were from all over China, from Yunnan to Shanghai, and there was even a case where two people who were more than a thousand miles apart died the same way on the same day. Thements that followed the posts were discussions about the phenomenal trajectory of the new owner of the game item.


    What was it? A killing expedition?


    This time, however, because there were no prominent victims like Silver Wing��s guild leader, the panic wasn��t as widespread or as intense. Even so, the three major guilds, all up against amon enemy, had already dispatched personnel to investigate the connection between the victims.


    At the same time, they also urged the yers to actively provide information, should they have any, and promised a reward of game points based on the value of the intelligence they received

 Chapter 328 - Elimination Process

    <strong>Chapter 328 Elimination Process</strong>


    Zhang Heng browsed several other hot posts and registered an ID called Saturn 5. He then shut down theputer, and left the Inte cafe. The whole process only took him less than twenty minutes, and when he returned home, Tian Tian was alone jumping on a rope in the backyard. Grandpa was leaning against the courtyard door, looking at her. He looked a little worried.


    Sensing unrest, Zhang Heng put on his slippers and walked to his grandfather.


    ��Do you remember taking Tian Tian with youst summer holidays?�� Zhang Heng nodded.


    ��At that time, she was very lively, running around the house behind you. In fact, when I saw her a month ago, she was still very normal, jumping up and down all the time. But after that, she somehow became terrified ofmunicating with other people.��


    ��What happened in between?�� Zhang Heng asked.


    ��No one knows. A child her age usually has a regr life. She spends most of her time in school every day, and on Saturdays and Sundays, she��s either with her parents or attending sses. Her parents suspected that it was the school��s problem at first. After all, she spends most of her time there. You know, sometimes, children in school get bullied����


    ��What happened after that?��


    ��As a result, her parents went to talk to her ss teacher. They even sought her substitute teacher and the rest of the kids in the ss, hoping to find out a little more about their daughter��s peculiar behavior. They all told her the same thing. Tian Tian is good at learning, beautiful, well-behaved, and she��s the ss monitor. She is very popr among teachers and ssmates. A kid like her is unlikely to be the target of bullies. Later, her parents brought her to a psychologist. Since then, the situation has improved to some extent, but����


    ��But?��


    ��But the good times didn��tst long, and soon, her condition began to deteriorate again. Now, she seems to have social anxiety, not knowing how tomunicate with others. Her mother will apply for a school leave in two days. After that, she will bring her to the city to meet a specialist for treatment. In fact, if it weren��t for Old Chen��s injuries, they would have already contacted the hospital over there.�� Grandpa shook his head. ��I hope everything ends well this time.��


    Zhang Heng was left in silence.


    The current situation showed that there should be two possibilities for what happened to Tian Tian. Either she hade into contact with monsters like Moresby and Zavilcha, or she had unintentionally obtained some game items. The psychiatrist, though an experienced expert, wasn��t equipped to deal with supernatural phenomena like this, so Zhang Heng decided to investigate the matter himself.


    He intended to start with thetter possibility, where many game items were circting among yers at the moment. It wouldn��t be too surprising if one of them lost an item or someone identally took it. That was why Zhang Heng initially intended to deposit his game items at the game checkpoint.


    Right now, Zhang Heng needed to focus on locating the game item.


    Although the environment in the quests was more dangerous than reality, it had its own advantages. For example, when the yersid their hands on a game item, they would hear a notification from the system. This method could also be used to quickly identify whether the item the yer was holding was a game item or not. So far, the system had been very urate except for extreme cases like an auction.


    On the other hand, Zhang Heng couldn��t rely on the game��s system in the real world. There was also no character panel for him to review the items as well, making things a lot harder.


    Judging by Tian Tian��s current state, it would be difficult tomunicate with her.


    Zhang Heng pondered for a while, went out of the house, and went to a nearby mall where there was arge Disney stationery counter. He bought a series of stationery, including notebooks, a pencil case, a pencil sharpener, and a school bag. These were all popr items among school kids, and he hoped to do an exchange with Tian Tian.


    Tian Tian was moved after seeing the Frozen backpack, but when Zhang Heng told her that the exchange included the workbook in her hands, she seemed a little hesitant. In the end, though, she still failed to resist the temptation of a Disney stationery set. She handed everything over to Zhang Heng, except the textbook.


    Zhang Heng patted the girl��s head and took her old backpack along with its contents back to his room.


    He then contacted the bartenderdy and asked her for the address of the game��s checkpoint in his current city. He was, however, not in a hurry to get there as a hefty amount of game points would be needed for item identification. Besides, his membership card was invalid at other checkpoints, which meant he had to pay the full price for the service.


    That night, Tian Tian��s mother returned from the hospital and thanked them for the trouble. She also specifically thanked Zhang Heng for his assistance with Old Chen. Soon after, she collected Tian Tian, now sitting quietly in a corner, back home.


    At dinner, Zhang Heng had mentioned that he wanted to retire early tonight. He went back to his room right after that. Once he had his privacy, he proceeded to go through Tian Tian��s old backpack. For now, the two most suspicious items were the pencil and the workbook, especially true for the workbook. Being part of a generation influenced by ��Death Note��, it was difficult not to notice such an obvious target.


    After rechecking it, though, the workbook seemed to be like any other. The date that was on her previous work was a month ago. Tian Tian still behaved normally at that time. There was, of course, the possibility that she had not found the conditions to trigger the item at that time. As for the pencil��


    Zhang Heng picked it up, cing it under the light of amp. Just as he was about to take a closer look, there was a knock on his door. He was greeted by grandpa��s serious face when he opened it.


    ��Something untoward happened to Old Chen again. The drip stand next to his bed fell, and it happened to hit his head. His forehead now has two stitches. I am going out to visit him now. Thought I��d inform you about it.��


    Retribution for the interrupted curse?


    Zhang Heng was surprised. When he went to the hospital, he chatted with Tian Tian��s mother about the recent happenings in his family and found that the idents seemed to run on a schedule, where one would take ce every three days. This was the ninth time, and each time it happened, it wasn��t a fatal ident. ording to the pattern, the next ident should be three days since he had interrupted this one. Now that Old Chen got into another ident again, it appeared that this was the recement for the ident that Zhang Heng stopped. Zhang Heng frowned, extremely curious if this time, Tian Tian had drawn any stick figures in advance. However, he couldn��t just knock on her door right now. Fortunately, the young woman sent her to grandpa��s house again the very next day. It was then that Zhang Heng saw a stick figure of a falling drip stand scribbled in the new Disney workbook.


    He had personally purchased the pens and notebooks. In other words, the possibility of game items being hidden in the pile of stationery could almost be ruled out.


    Could it be the work of a monster? Zhang Heng was lost in thought as he stared at Tian Tian lying on the coffee table.

 Chapter 329 - Communication and Doubt

    <strong>Chapter 329 Communication and Doubt</strong>


    While cleaning the house, Zhang Heng took some time off to check on the curse. He went on Baidu, researching the meaning of the simple strokes and foreseeing the future. However, he might have inputted the wrong keywords might because the search results mainly returned with horror and science fiction movies. Advertisements for art training sses popped up on the inte browser too.


    As he logged out of Baidu, he realized he had to start with Tian Tian if he wanted to find a breakthrough in this matter.


    Although Tian Tian was reluctant to speak now, the Disney stationery set that Zhang Heng gave her indicated that there was some form ofmunication between her and the outside world. And like any other child her age, she was still tempted by these things. Earlier, Zhang Heng failed tomunicate with her effectively, but he wasn��t about to give up on trying. He decided to use other methods to talk to her.


    After that, Zhang Heng told his grandfather that he wanted to bring Tian Tian out.


    Grandpa hesitated a little.


    ��It��s good to help her rx, but make sure you look after her.��


    Zhang Heng nodded, ��nothing will happen when she��s with me.��


    Of course, he was more than qualified to say something like this. Squatting down, he asked Tian Tian, ��Would you like to have McDonald��s?��


    Although the child was a little scared, children her age showed almost no resistance to when it came to McDonald��s. She finally nodded.


    ��Okay, we��ll go to McDonald��s then.��


    They both boarded a cab and headed to arge shopping mall, going straight to the McDonald��s outlet on the second floor. Zhang Heng ordered Tian Tian a kid��s meal that came with a toy. As for himself, he ordered a ss of Coke.


    After getting the order, the two found a ce to sit down. Zhang Heng then pushed the set meal to Tian Tian. She nced at him, seeing that he had no intention to stop her. So she reached out and grabbed a nugget.


    He waited patiently for her to finish her chicken McNuggets and the cheeseburger. The abundant food finally allowed the girl to rx a little.


    ��I know that you understand what people around you say. I also know that many have told you the same thing. They said that they could help solve your problems, but in the end, they all failed to live up to your expectations. I can guarantee you this time; it��s different.��


    Zhang Heng paused. ��Whether you believe it or not, I actually understand what you��re going through right now. They are the closest people to you in this world, and you don��t want to hurt them, right? I can see in your eyes. Guilt and self-me... you just don��t know how to stop, stop all of this. I can help you, but only if you tell me what happened first.��


    Zhang Heng looked into Tian Tian��s eyes, ��Did you meet any strange person... or a strange thing before this?��.


    Tian Tian suddenly stopped and looked at Zhang Heng. After a long while, she shook her head. Zhang Heng frowned and decided to change the method he asked questions.


    ��Who��s asking you to draw on your workbook?��


    This time, Tian Tian lowered her head after she heard Zhang Heng��s question. She obviously did not want to answer any more questions like this. So she silently gnawed on the cheeseburger in her hand.


    Themunication between them was basically over. Zhang Heng��s knuckles tapping the table, clearly displeased by the oue. He could feel that their conversation must have affected her in a certain way. Tian Tian��s eyes were hopeful, and with her shaking her head, it was the best proof that she finally responded to external stimuli.


    However, when Zhang Heng moved the topic to the drawings in the book, Tian Tian��s guard immediately came up. His hope was dimmed, as her defensive mechanism effectively cut off allmunications that had been established.


    Why did that happen?


    If something was working in the dark and caused one ident after another at home, everyone close to her must have sustained some sort of injury. Why would she cover-up for that thing? Zhang Heng knew he was missing something important. The second half of the meal was finished in silence. Zhang Heng knew that he could no longer make Tian Tian talk to him, and he didn��t push her any further. The two returned home after that.


    That afternoon, Tian Tian waspleting her homework, and Zhang Heng continued helping his grandfather with spring cleaning. Progress was slow because of the previous dy, but in the end, he finally managed to finish all the cleaning up before sunset.


    The house now looked spanking clean and brand new, which put grandpa in a good mood,


    ��Not bad at all. You are much better than your mother. When she was a little girl, she wouldn��t even clean up a small area of the house during the Chinese New Year. However, when it came to collecting the New Year��s money, she ran faster than anyone.��


    Zhang Heng washed thest piece of rag in his hand and put it back in ce.


    ��I��m d that you are satisfied.��


    ��All we need to do tomorrow is to stick the Spring Festival couplets on the wall. After that, we can celebrate the New Year with your parents once theye back.��


    ��Isn��t it too early to post the Spring Festival couplets? I thought we had to do it at the right time? Aren��t we supposed to stick them on the 28th or 29th of the lunar calendar?��


    Zhang Heng wiped the water off his hands.


    ��It��s just a formality,�� grandpa replied. ��The most important thing is to stick the Spring Festival couplets together to make it livelier. This is the true meaning of Chinese New Year. It doesn��t matter when we stick it on the wall. It makes no difference to me.��


    Zhang Heng��s grandpa used to be a scientist, which why he did not believe in anything mystical or mythical. After that, grandpa proceeded to practice writing with a brush. As Zhang Heng took the trash out, he took a quick nce at Tian Tian��s apartment unit. The room facing the area with a lot of green nts was her room, and although the curtains were drawn, he saw light spilling out.


    He stood by the trash can for a while. Just when he turned to leave, the curtains were drawn slightly, and a small gap could be seen. A pair of eyes watched Zhang Heng quietly.


    ...


    On the other hand, he had no intention to give up on the investigation. The afternoon��s attempt inmunication seemed ineffective, prompting him to take a more direct approach. He decided to go over to her house. If the culprit was around, it was most likely in Tian Tian��s house now. Clearly, all the idents had happened to Tian Tian��s family members.


    Of course, it would be inappropriate to knock on the door right now and ask to enter her room. There was an 80% chance that her parents would send him directly to the police station. Having these things in mind, Zhang Heng waited until the hour hand pointed at twelve. When time came to a standstill, Zhang Heng left his grandpa��s house wearing sports attire.


    On the first floor, the front door of Tian Tian��s house was secured by a ss-B lock cylinder, and the windows were also equipped with anti-thefts. Evidently, using the public transport card wouldn��t unlock the door. It was time for him to use the item called Evil Wall.


    (Name: Evil Wall]


    (Grade: D]


    (Function: Reconstructing a wall particle. Can be switched between solid and liquid. Usage limit: 3]


    Zhang Heng approached the wall and took out a toe from his pocket. He thought that this broken toe would rot, but it didn��t look much different from when it was just cut off. It felt weird in hand. Zhang Heng then pressed the toe against the wall and wrote a few vic letters with the remaining ck blood from the toe. A few momentster, the wall began to boil and melt.

 Chapter 330 - Eye

    Chapter 330 Eye


    When the wall in front of him melted away, Zhang Heng stepped across the nts and walked directly into Tian Tian��s room. The bubblegum pink wall then started patching up again, gradually returning to its original form. Zhang Heng found the light switch on the right. He flipped it on, and looked around. He was also surprised to see that Tian Tian wasn��t in bed.


    In fact, there was no one in the whole room. The quilt on the bed remained undone. However, a pair of slippers were by the bed. Zhang Heng frowned. Tian Tian should be sleeping at this hour. It would be impossible for a little girl her age to go out on her own. Surely, her family would disallow it, and there was also no way to climb out of the window since security grills guarded it. After looking around, he decided to check on the bed and wardrobe in the room. These two ces were the only possible hiding spots that a little kid could hide in.


    Zhang Heng first opened the wardrobe. He found children��s clothing, sheets, and quilts in it. The Disney schoolbag he gave Tian Tian yesterday was in there as well. Squatting down, he pinned his cheeks as close as possible to the floor, peeking under the bed. This time he finally found something.


    The ��missing�� Tian Tian was hiding under the bed. Her body was curled up into a ball at the furthest corner, her expression looking a little frightened. Zhang Heng also noticed that her eyes were wide open, which meant her eyes weren��t closed when the hour hand pointed at 12.


    What was she afraid of?


    Why did she have to hide here?


    Was something about to appear in her room tonight?


    Zhang Heng had a feeling that he was very close to the answer, so he stood up, checking his surroundings to see if he could spot any suspicious items. He decided to start with the wardrobe. He found two storage boxes, where one contained Tian Tian��s kindergarten certificate and a couple of art pieces she had made. The other one mainly stored toys, including Barbie dolls and bears. These objects seemed to be fine, judging by their appearance.


    <b>le</b>


    He moved to the desk after that. On it were some stationery, textbooks, and toys for girls. Zhang Heng then noticed a Winnie the Pooh notebook. After recing Tian Tian��s old workbook, she had begun to doodle in this notebook instead.


    Her first piece was about her grandfather getting hit by a drip stand in the hospital. ording to the previous pattern, her second painting should appear tomorrow. When Zhang Heng opened the notebook, he saw a new picture that had hadn��t seen before. It seemed to have been done recently, where a little girl was hiding under the bed looking very frightened. If he was right, this little girl should be Tian Tian herself, and the thing in front of her seemed to be... an eye?


    Could this have been the object that had been wreaking disaster to her family?


    Zhang Heng sensed a trace of evil in that eye, or at least in Tian Tian��s eyes; this thing was evil. The next step had be much simpler, though. He only needed to locate the eye, and the frequent idents that had strangely befallen Tian Tian��s family could be solved.


    The painting did not specify when the next ident would take ce, and he could not rule out if the evil creature were already in the room. If that were the case, then he would have to find a way to install a hidden camera, waiting for 24 hours until the true identity of the evil being was revealed.


    He seemed to be in luck tonight. It took him less than an hour to locate the object.


    It was a peculiar little ornament made out of unusual stone and was about a fifth of the weight of ordinary gems. Other than that, it retained its natural shape, except for a small hole drilled at its end. It could be made into a ne, bracelet, or keychain. At the face of the stone, a red-colored eye was engraved. The strange thing was that no matter which angle it was looked at, the eye seemed to be staring at its looker.


    Zhang Heng found the peculiar object under Tian Tian��s pillow, and it perfectly matched the eye that Tian Tian drew on the book. It also seemed to be quite old. So, to be safe, Zhang Heng did not touch the ��eye�� with his hands, knowing that it might be cursed. Instead, he tore two pieces of paper from the notebook, wrapped it up, and put it in his pocket.


    At this point, the matter should havee to an end. As long as the frequent mishaps stopped happening to Tian Tian��s family, and she stayed away from the source of the curse, her mental health should gradually improve with the therapy she was getting.


    Zhang Heng spent another four hours scanning Tian Tian��s entire house. After making sure that there were no more suspicious objects, he left the house through the front door.


    The time was 00:45, and 45 minutes had passed since the end of Zhang Heng��s extra 24 hours. Instead of going home, he stood by the roadside, wearing a mask and hoodie, staring at the KTV that was opposite him.


    This was the address given to him by the bartender. A drunk man in a suit hugged two voluptuousdies as he walked out from the ce, a wide stered across his face. He then hopped into a rented car and went straight to a hotel. With the four burly guards standing outside the entrance, Zhang Heng could probably guess the nature of this establishment.


    That said, after several anti-prostitution operations, KTVs like this had tried to stay out of trouble. The women who worked there were only allowed to apany their customers to drink. At least no one dared to make any deals here. Once they left, however, they were free to make whatever deals with whoever they wanted to.


    Men frequently fancied socializing, and no matter which city, ces like this frequently enjoyed good business. Of course, their customers weren��t focussing on the singing bit. Just like the Sex and the City bar, ces like this were excellent masquerades as game checkpoints.


    Zhang Heng kept his mask on as he walked over to the KTV. His appearance immediately attracted the attention of the four bouncers. The muscr man who seemed to be their leader stepped forward. However, instead of stopping Zhang Heng, they quickly retreated after seeing that he had no intention to stop. Zhang Heng entered the KTV, passed the counter in the lobby, and headed to private room 2306. This time, though, the two gorgeousdies in bunny costumes gestured to stop Zhang Heng from entering the room.


    They both had professional smiles and judging by their exposed arms and thighs; it was obvious that they had been trained by the system. This reminded Zhang Heng of the two men with shades guarding the irondder on the first floor of Sex and the City. If the security guards outside were hired by the KTV, then these two beauties were obviously rted to the gamingmittee.


    Zhang Heng then showed them his yer number on his arm. One of thedies smiled and moved aside.


    ��I wish you a pleasant gaming experience tonight,�� said thedy in a sweet voice.

 Chapter 331 - Heart-throbbing First Love

    <strong>Chapter 331 Heart-throbbing First Love</strong>


    Zhang Heng always partook his new quests at Sex and the City. This was his first time visiting another game checkpoint. Only then did he notice that each checkpoint was styled very differently.


    When it came to the atmosphere, the bartenderdy��s checkpoint looked like a VIP lounge at an airport. It had a particrly seductive ambiance, and there were even scantily dressed women sitting on each deck. It��s decor also closely resembled a Japanese brothel, with dim lighting and psychedelic music.


    ��I have never seen you around, but you don��t look like a neer. You��re home for Chinese New Year, right? Can I help you with anything?�� An uncle in beach pants stood up from behind the cash register, speaking to Zhang Heng with a cigarette in mouth. He seemed to be the only person in charge of this checkpoint. Zhang Heng could clearly see his face and the girls on the deck.


    Worlds apart the bartender��s icy countenance, the uncle at this checkpoint was warm and friendly. He walked over, put his hand over Zhang Heng��s shoulder, and told solemnly, ��Since it��s your first time here, allow me to introduce you to our special yer care service �C Heartthrobbing First Love.��


    ��This is an exclusive service that only our checkpoint offers. All you need to do is pay one game point for the service. You can see the beauties over there... extend your hand and say hello to them.��


    The uncle gave Zhang Heng an encouraging stare, only to get no response. Not to be discouraged by hisck of interest, he patted Zhang Heng��s shoulder once again. The man��s enthusiastic taps caused his cigarette ash to fall on Zhang Heng��s shoulder.


    ��That��s right. I know there are certain things you can��t let go of. A lot of young people miss out on finding true love because of that. This is a game for the brave. Every round of the game, each quest you participate in, is filled with crises. As a yer, you should enjoy it while you still can. When you��re about to kick the bucket, knowing that you haven��t even touched a girl��s hand is thest thing you want to think about, right? You also don��t want to die regretting you didn��t get to confess your love to the girl you liked. Perhaps then, you might just die a painful death with all that regret in your heart.��


    The uncle was fullymitted to his job, and it seemed whatever he said touched the softer parts of his heart. His eyes began to glisten with tears.


    ��The service we provide at our checkpoint is to help yers solve this kind of frustration. You can see manydies in front of you. You can choose your first love here. This is Cindy, and she is very mature.��


    Soon after that, the girl named Cindy waved her hands at Zhang Heng.


    ��Bei Bei, your girl next door. Can you feel the sun shining on you?�� The girl named Bei Bei popped the bubblegum in her mouth.


    ��Jia Jia... a true wildcat! She��s famous for her twerking. She��s my personal favorite. This one will definitely be your most memorable first love.��


    ��Before you say anything, I know what you��re thinking. Even if you��re an experienced lover and you have no regrets about your first love, ourdies can chat with you before you start your game. They will be with you through your most tormenting moments and help you adjust your mental state so you can cope with the next challenge. Trust me. Your one game point will definitely not be wasted.��


    Zhang Heng finally found the opportunity to speak, ��...actually, I am not here to y the game tonight.��


    The uncle nodded, his face disying an I-understand-you-expression.


    ��Since when did our ce be so famous? Of course, you are most wee toe and have fun with thedies. It is impossible to take them out for the night, but our prices are...��


    Zhang Heng had to interrupt the uncle to avoid the topic from going in a strange direction. ��I��m here to trouble you to identify something for me.�� He then took out the eye jewelry wrapped in two pieces of paper from his pocket.


    ��Identification. Oh, oh, oh... wait a minute!�� The uncle returned to the cashier and squatted for a while. He then started to mutter, ��Where��s that batch of tulewood boxes I just bought?��


    The girl named Jia Jia took out a women��s cigarette and put it in her mouth. She then left the deck, walked to the cashier, and lit it up with a lighter. She paused for a while before talking to the uncle.


    ��Didn��t you throw those broken boxes of yours under the fourth deck?��


    Blowing a puff of smoke at Zhang Heng, she looked toward him. ��I like your watch. Here��s my number. You can ignore that idiot and contact me directly.��


    ��Hey, I heard that! What you are doing goes against our original agreement.�� ��Don��t be silly. We aren��t partners of any sort. You have to rely on my sisters to help you earn game points. They can live very well without you in an era where entertainment is everything.�� The uncle with beach pants did not look very good after hearing what she said.


    ��You are so mean,�� he muttered.


    After that, he walked to Zhang Heng with a bag of tulewood boxes and took the gem from Zhang Heng.


    ��I have to deal with some things during the Spring Festival. You will only get the identification results after five days. Is that okay with you? Of course, you can pay double the game points and opt for the express service. If you go for that option, you can get it as soon as tomorrow night, but you will have toe and get it yourself.��


    Zhang Heng��sck of interest in the service seemed to disappoint the uncle. However, he handled his client��s request professionally as he saw a different opportunity presenting itself.


    ��The regr service is fine,�� said Zhang Heng


    Now that Tian Tian��s family��s problem was solved, this item was like a bonus to him. Since the matter was basically over now, there was no need to rush it.


    ��Okay, here��s my business card. If you need any services in this city, you can always call me.�� After that, the uncle winked at Zhang Heng again. ��Of course, you can contact me too if you change your mind.��


    ��That will not happen, I��m afraid.��


    Zhang Heng epted the card and left the game checkpoint.


    After walking around for a while, making sure that no one was tailing him, Zhang Heng turned in the right direction and returned home. He gingerly opened the door and went straight to bed. The next morning, Zhang Heng was awoken by the buzzing of the soymilk machine. He washed his face and came out with a toothbrush in his mouth. Grandpa had already set the fried sugar cakes and Youtiao on the table. At the same time, a steaming batch of soy milk was ready as well.


    ��Your parents will be home tonight. After we finish putting up the Spring Festival couplets this morning, we can go pay the supermarket a visit in the afternoon. Is there anything we need at home?��


    ��It��s okay. I think you have prepared enough. In fact, our fridge is packed to the brim. Even if the world ends now, the food in there is enough tost all four of us a month,�� Zhang Heng said while brushing his teeth.


    ��Your grandmother��s always said that it��s better to be safe than sorry. Oh yeah... I almost forgot. M beans, your mother��s loved them since she was a kid. She could eat at least three packs every Chinese New Year. I will buy someter.��


    ��Grandpa... she is 44.��


    ��So what, in my eyes, she��ll always be a child.��

 Chapter 332 - Redundant

    <h4>Chapter 332 Redundant</h4>


    Zhang Heng pasted the Spring Festival couplets and the word ��Fu�� (prosperity in mandarin) on the front of each door, taking a step back to make sure they were aligned correctly.


    One thing he just couldn��t understand was that with the continuous economic boom, consumer products were continuously improved, not only in terms of function but also in design. This part had been given more importance as the years went by. Yet, the Spring Festival couplets were forever so gaudy. Since it was going to be the Year of the Dog, malls and roadside stalls had incorporated elements of dogs to their Spring Festival couplets. Their designs, however, were somewhat questionable. The cartoonish images looked almost exactly as they did ten years ago, and everyone seemed to have gotten used to this gaudy style.


    It was generally epted that if the couplets weren��t gaudy and garish, they wouldn��t be traditional enough. In actual fact, the traditional Spring Festival couplets centuries ago didn��t feature these messy cartoonish elements.


    A little girl ran into Zhang Heng as he was pasting the couplets. She knocked on Tian Tian��s house, located opposite his grandfather��s ce. She looked to be a ssmate of hers and was warmly weed into the home by Tian Tian��s mum. This seemed to confirm that Tian Tian was indeed very popr in school.


    When Tian Tian��s ssmates heard about the misfortunes befalling her family from her mother, many of them came by to visit. They gave her some much-needed encouragement and wished her a speedy recovery, also reassuring her that she would be out of the woods soon. On top of that, her rtives had also been by her side, eagerly searching for a cure.


    Now that Zhang Heng had found and eliminated the source of Tian Tian��s anti-social behavior, her family should be able to enjoy a peaceful and happy Spring Festival.


    Zhang Hen��s parents were expected tond at seven twenty in the evening. As the Spring Festival approached, a massive influx of people was on the move. To avoid getting stuck in a traffic jam and the ensuingck of parking, Zhang Heng left home with his grandfather an hour and a half ahead of time.


    Despite that, when they finally arrived at the airport, a long pile-up was blocking the road, with a few cars rear-ending each other like dominoes. Fortunately, no one was hurt, and by the time traffic police were done dealing with the ident, there wasn��t much time left. Coincidentally, the flight had been dyed too. Thus, even after grandparent and grandson circled the airport��s parking lot twice, the ne still hadn��tnded yet.


    Grandfather��s wore a very formal outfit tonight, donning a 20-year-old French leather suit with meticulouslybed hair. Although he had often expressed his dissatisfaction with his daughter and son-inw, this was the first time in three years that they saw each other. This reunion was clearly very important to him.


    The two squeezed their way through the crowd, and when they finally arrived at the pick-up gate, it was crowded as hell. Like Zhang Heng and his grandfather, most of them waiting for their rtives. Some even held up signs.


    There were no more seats left at the pick-up gate. Zhang Heng looked at the watch on his wrist. Although there had been a traffic dy, the flight was also dyed by 30 minutes. Including the time needed for baggage collection, it meant Zhang Heng and his grandfather would have to wait here for at least forty minutes.


    Sensing that the long wait might be taxing for the elderly man, Zhang Heng said, ��Why don��t you go back to the car? I��ll stay here and wait.��


    ��Don��t worry about me, I��m not that old yet. I didn��t dress like this so I could sit in the car,�� said Grandfather as he shook his head.


    ��Alright. I��ll get us some drinks then. What would you like?��


    ��Water will do.��


    Zhang Heng nudged his way through the massive crowd again to reach the convenience store. He grabbed two bottles of Ganten* off the shelf, and at checkout, the cashier swiped away 24 yuan from his Alipay*.


    IIII


    Selling mineral water at the airport was probably more profitable than pushing drugs.


    As soon as Zhang Heng paid for the water, amotion started at the pick-up gate.


    During the holidays, the flow of people at the airport skyrocketed. Because of how crowded it was, it was almost impossible to avoid physical contact with another person. It turned out that a man had seized the opportunity to lean his body against a young woman. He held a magazine in one hand, preventing anyone from seeing what was he doing with the other.


    The young woman noticed it and quickly shifted away, but soon after, the man leaned against her again. The woman was obviously a little uneasy, but since she was too embarrassed to speak up or was unsure if it was idental, she simply shuffled a little further again. The man, however, was smart enough not to step on the same rake twice. Seeing that the woman had been alerted, he quickly changed targets.


    As soon as he drew near to his next victim, a solemn voice came from behind him. ��Young man, how could you be so despicable at such a young age? Does your family know about this?��


    The man turned around and saw an elderly grey-haired man in his sixties. He wore a gray old-school windbreaker with a woolen sweater underneath. His shoes were well-polished as well.


    ��Lunatic!�� the lewd man cursed. When he saw people staring at him, especially the girl he ��identally�� touched earlier, he red at the nosy man with suspicion before turning around to leave.


    Someone, however, stepped in front of him. It was a young man who looked like a student and was holding two bottles of water.


    The man was already in a fit of anger and in a hurry to leave. When this happened, his shame suddenly turned into rage. He was about to tell the young man to piss off, but when their eyes met, he felt this strange chill in his heart, and he could not seem to get the words out.


    Just then, he saw two stern-looking security guardsing in their direction. ��What are you doing?!�� they shouted.


    Panic quickly spread across the man��s face.


    The nosy old man was already walking towards the guard. ��Comrade, he groped a woman. I saw it.��


    The guards nodded. ��Leave it to us, sir.�� They then walked up to the man and said, ��Please take a walk with us, sir.��


    ��Why? I didn��t do anything! Don��t listen to his nonsense. Look at him, he��s an old man. He can��t even see properly,�� the man hissed.


    ��My vision is still 1.0. I don��t even need reading sses to read newspapers,�� retorted the elderly man.


    ��Pleasee with us. If you really haven��t done anything, the surveince cameras will prove your innocence,�� the guard insisted politely.


    The man looked at his belly and realizing he couldn��t outrun the sturdy guards, he reluctantly left with them.


    Zhang Heng nodded at a girl who was at a distance. She was standing in front of him at the checkout queue earlier, and when Zhang Heng saw themotion, he had asked her to call for assistance. Worried that his grandfather might be bullied, he hurried over to the scene. Now that the matter was resolved, he went over to thank the girl. Then, he walked up to the elderly man. ��Not bad, a good sword always stays sharp.��


    ��If something like that happened back in the day, he would have been paraded on the streets!�� his grandfather said in a grim tone. ��I am an old man. Even if he challenged me, he wouldn��t have dared to do anything. Why did you stand in his way? That was redundant.��


    ��There won��t be a next time,�� Zhang Heng smiled, not offering any exnation.


    Footnote:


    Ganten: a.k.a Baishuishan in mandarin, a premium Chinese brand of bottled water.


    Alipay: third-party mobile and online payment tform.

 Chapter 333 - Gifts

    <h4>Chapter 333 Gifts</h4>


    Flight CZ5376 finally jumped to arrival status on the electronic board.


    Ten minutester, passengers began pouring out of the exit. Zhang Heng and his grandfather were standing in front of the waiting crowd. They watched as people passed by, but saw no familiar faces.


    Zhang Heng��s phone rang �C it was his mother.


    ��I��m sorry. So sorry. Sorry. You must have waited a long time. We didn��t expect our flight to be dyed. We still haven��t located one more luggage. Your gifts are inside. Please wait for us... just a little while more.�� ��No problem. Don��t worry about it. Take your time,�� Zhang Heng assured. Ten minutes after they hung up, and after everyone had left, Zhang Heng finally saw the two hurrying out of the arrival hall.


    111


    ��Dad!�� A woman with healthy-looking skin, looking no older than thirty, dropped the small luggage in her hand and began running. When she identally kicked the stic leg of the queue barrier, she stopped to rub it, gritted her teeth, and continued running


    ��Hey, slow down! Don��t fall over.�� The man walking behind her carrying an oversized suitcase seemed a little flustered.


    He was in a ck Calvin Klein down jacket with a brown scarf around his neck. There was a pair of sunsses in his chest pocket and looked to have sprayed on a healthy amount of cologne. He was good-looking, but his hairline was receding and was a small belly had developed.


    When he saw Zhang Heng, he looked taken aback. ��Who are you?�� A secondter, he smiled broadly. ��I��m kidding. So, did you miss us, handsome young man?��.


    Zhang Heng took the oversized luggage from the man. ��I��m all grown up now. Can we be a little more mature?��


    ��Tsk, tsk, tsk. I really miss the time when you were young. Whenever I went downstairs to buy a bottle of soy sauce, you would cry and shout, Daddy! I want daddy! Where are you, dad... You were so cute back then.��


    ��No such thing happened. Now, don��t go around making up stories anymore,�� Zhang Heng grunted. ��Last time, you told me that you pulled me out of a frozenke during winter. When I asked grandfather, he told me that it was all made up. If you have Alzheimer��s, treat it as soon as you can and don��t dy it.��


    ��This one is true. You were very attached to me when you were a kid.�� Zhang Heng��s father scratched his head and looked around the airport. ��Where��s your girlfriend? Didn��t shee with you?��


    ��If I have a girlfriend, the first thing I��d do is to keep her away from you.��


    ��That��s a pity, your mother and I also prepared a gift for her. She will definitely like


    it.��


    As they spoke, a red figure suddenly pounced on Zhang Heng from the back.


    ��Hahaha. I feel like you��ve grown much taller since west met �C it wasn��t noticeable on video. Oh, there are muscles too! Not bad... not bad at all! Looks like someone listened to his mum. Train hard now... it may be difficult, but you must maintain your physique until you finally trick someone into bing your wife. Then you can let loose and eat anything you want.�� ��Ah... I didn��t let loose, alright. It��s because you never finish the food you order, and we shouldn��t waste food anyway. So, I ended up eating non-stop,�� Zhang Heng��s father defended himself.


    Although Zhang Heng was mentally prepared, he had to admit that he still underestimated their real stamina. They didn��t stop talking for one moment, from the airport arrival gate all the way to the underground parking lot. The conversation did not stop even after they got into the car. As they drove through the city, they pointed out the changes it underwent, very much like the pair of returning overseas Chinese they were. Halfway through the journey, however, the two became a little quieter.


    It wasn��t because they had nothing to say, but because they were hungry.


    ��I��ve prepared all the ingredients. Just hang on a little longer. Once we get home, we can eat hot pot,�� grandpa said to Zhang Heng��s mother.


    Thetter gave her father a thumbs up, an excited smile breaking over her face. ��You��re the best dad in the world! No doubt about it.��


    Zhang Heng��s father turned to look at his son sitting next to him. ��Shouldn��t you be saying something?��


    ��I think you are still a long way from that.��


    ��Ah, see, that��s why I really wanted a daughter. Girls are more loving. They are the apple of every father��s eye,�� Zhang Heng��s father sighed.


    When the four finally reached home, Zhang Heng��s grandfather took out some sliced beef, tripe, and cut vegetables from the refrigerator, then added the boiled bone broth to the copper pot.


    While they waited, Zhang Heng��s mum opened the oversized luggage, took out something wrapped in bubble wrap and newspaper, and handed it to the old man, ��Dad, Guojian picked this piece of British bone china* for you.��


    ��Thank you.�� Although grandfather��s expression remained solemn, it was obvious that he was pleased with the gift. Since retirement, his three major hobbies had been ying chess, drinking tea, and tending to the garden in the backyard. Upon receiving the porcin tea set, he seemed to ease his looks upon Zhang Heng��s father, bing more affable.


    Zhang Heng��s father made an OK gesture to his wife who was under the table, indicating a smooth pass.


    Then Mother Zhang took out another box. Compared to the previous tea set, the box was tiny, about the size of a jewelry box. Zhang Heng raised his eyebrows, ��What?�� ��I��m sorry I haven��t been around all these years. I��ve been absent throughout your adolescence. This has always been our shoring as parents.�� Zhang Heng��s father looked atypically serious, no longer as cheeky as before. ��Moreover, we couldn��t return for the New Year for two consecutive years. We owe you two New Year gifts. We��re going to make up for all of that,�� Zhang Heng��s mum continued, then handed the box to her son. She encouraged him to open it up and look inside.


    ��Err...�� Zhang Heng opened the box, revealing a car key inside. ��Congrattions, son. This is your first car!�� Zhang Heng��s parents shared a look. ��You should get your driver��s license. It��s only a polo, but I hope it could at least help you get a girlfriend.��


    ��Don��t worry about the license �C I��ve put it under a ssmate��s name,�� Zhang Heng��s mother said. ��You can go get your te number, and the car will be yours when it��s your turn. We��ve already paid for a year��s insurance. Of course, you have to find your own way for the gas, parking, and the next year��s insurance. We won��t be increasing your pocket money. It may be a little early, but you need to prepare to be part of society...��


    ��Thank you.�� Zhang Heng put the key away and thanked his parents.


    He had actually been considering on purchasing a car. During his extra 24 hours every day, all public transportation would stop functioning. Although there was always the shared bicycle, it was a rather slow way to travel, and it severely limited the scope of his activities.


    Things would be much better if he had his own car. To him, money was not a problem, where after all, one game point could be exchanged for 30,000 or 40,000 yuan. License te numbers were difficult to obtain in Beijing. If it weren��t possible, Zhang Heng would have to consider renting a license te. But now, the problem seemed to have solved itself.


    The Polo was actually enough for him. If it was not up to par, he could always modify it himself. After all, his car tuning and maintenance skills were at Level 2.


    Footnote:


    Bone china: a type of porcin that isposed of bone ash, feldspathic material, and kaolin

 Chapter 334 - Eighteen Years of Waiting

    <strong>Chapter 334 Eighteen Years of Waiting</strong>


    ��So, you want to know more about mythology now, huh?�� Father Zhang was a little surprised, ��I thought you lost interest in such things after you graduated from sixth grade?��


    The four had finished their dinner, and after cleaning up the tableware, Mother Zhang and her father were going through some old photos in the study room. Outside, Zhang Heng and his dad were in the living room, eating fruit while watching TV.


    ��Okay, what do you want to know? I will try my best to tell you everything I know. Just go ahead and ask me questions,�� said Father Zhang after picking up an apple and taking a bite.


    Zhang Heng silently pondered for a moment.


    ��Is there really a god in the world we live in?��


    ��Hack!��


    Father Zhang almost choked on the apple he just swallowed. He coughed twice and asked, ��What��s the matter, do we really have to pretend that you are still a sixth-grader?��


    He took a sip of water to soothe his throat.


    ��I remember us discussing this a long time ago. Although your mother and I are theology majors, we do not have any beliefs. In fact, I am interested in mythology, but only the history and humanity parts of it. Your mother... well, she is just interested in all the weird stories. She likes to travel around, take pictures, and taste food in the name of the archaeology of religion and cults. If I remember correctly, her master��s thesis was about the diet of medieval believers.


    ��From my point of view, the so-called myths are just stories written by mortals, just like fairy tales, but myths are for the adults. For example, ��Odyssey�� was said to be written by Homer, a blind poet in ancient Greece. And we all know that the book��s theme was about the Trojan War. There weren��t only mortals, but there was also the demigod, Achilles, the Sun God Apollo, and Poseidon, God of the sea.


    ��But in reality, the Trojan War was the only actual historical event. The rest are Homer��s artistic add-ons. Academicians generally believe that even if Homer was real, there were no proper historians in the era he lived in, which was in the ninth century BC. At that time, no one paid too much attention to history��s authenticity. Thanks to that, people concocted their versions of history and incorporated real events with myths and legends. Hence the birth of Odyssey.��


    Father Zhang paused, ��In fact, if you properly study the system of myths and legends, you will find that they all have their origins. Usually, these tales are passed down verbally, constantly evolving based on the society they originated from. For example, Celtic mythology originated from Celtic folklore and was influenced by ancient Rome and Christianity. If the stories in it were real, why then would they be influenced by the civilization of the time? Greek and Roman mythology are typical examples.��


    Father Zhang continued while gnawing at the apple. ��Roman mythology waspletely born out of Greek mythology. Many gods have different names because of different pronunciations. As for their legendary tales, they are all the same. How could this stuff be true?��


    Zhang Heng was silent. Whatever his father told him matched what he thought about mythology. But then again, where did those so-called godse from? He met an ancient Celtic god in his ck Sail quest. Other than that, there were also the supernatural creatures he encountered in the real world. If the legends about them were all made up, how on earth did they exist in the real world?


    Zhang Heng remembered the man named Einstein he had met at the Apollo Training Camp quest. Judging by what he said, it seemed that he was on the same level as the man in the Tang suit. However, he didn��t feel that he was connected in any way to the myths and legends. As for the game items he saw at auction, some of which obviously products of modern society... Zhang Heng decided to put this question aside for now and asked one of the most pressing issues in his mind. ��How about gods that have something to do with time?��


    Father Zhang raised his eyebrows, ��The god of time? Indeed, there are gods rted to time in many mythological systems, but the most famous is the protogenoi in ancient Greek mythology, Chronos. He is the supreme god worshipped by Orphism. It symbolizes the first cause that transcends everything. He existed before everything began, and is the supreme god in the ��Twenty-Four Sacred Narratives.�� He also possesses power above all things. He doesn��t have a physical form, but he sometimes appears in the image of a snake, a three-headed man, a cow, or a lion. He is, however, better known as the image of an old man, usually described in modern artworks as an old man holding a sickle.��


    ��Old man, does the old man look like this?��


    Zhang Heng took out an old photo from his pocket that he picked up after cleaning the study and put it on the coffee table in front of his father.


    Father Zhang was taken aback when he saw the photo, quickly picking it up.


    ��Huh... Where did you find this photo?��


    ��You have participated in many research projects, and mom takes lots of pictures all the time. Why did I only find this after I searched the entire room? Where are the others?��


    ��That��s because we lost a sled and four sled dogs at the end of the research. They fell into a hole on the ice along with all the things on the sled. That included our Kodak. We tried out best, and in the end, we still failed to rescue the four poor little guys, let alone the things on the sled. As for Mr. Time, he was the sponsor of the expedition, but we haven��t seen him for more than ten years since it ended.��


    Although his dad tried his best to maintain a rxed tone, Zhang Heng could sense that his heart wasn��t as calm, especially after he saw the photo. His pupils were contracted, and clearly, he was hiding something. However, what surprised Zhang Heng the most was that the incident didn��t seem to involve Mr. Time.


    Later, when Zhang Heng��s father talked about Mr. Time again, he had rxed and had settled into a morefortable position. Zhang Heng didn��t quite understand why his father would lie about the film. Even grandpa knew about this expedition. In other words, he was the only one in the whole family who had been kept entirely in the dark from the project. The question was, why did his parents get rid of the photos, and at the same time, reluctant to talk about the expedition to Greend 18 years ago?


    What happened on that ind in the Arctic Circle, and what did it have to do with him? He was only a year old at that time. If the strange man in the Tang suit had met his parents 18 years ago, he obviously didn��t choose Zhang Heng 18 yearster based on appreciation and coincidence.


    Instead of seeing it as a random encounter, it looked more like a meeting that the mysterious man had been waiting for 18 years.

 Chapter 335 - Meeting At Sillicon Valley

    <strong>Chapter 335 Meeting At Sillicon Valley</strong>


    At San Jose Airport, the old man was no longer wearing the strange-looking Tang suit.


    He was dressed like a tourist and appeared to have just disembarked the ne. He was also carrying a small suitcase with him; its gilded handle was engraved with a magical creature. It had a snake-like body and the heads of a lion, bull, and human. He walked out of the airport gate, reached his hands out and hailed a cab.


    ��Excuse me, please take me to The Westin Palo Alto.��


    After shutting the car door, he took out a travel brochure from his pocket and read it.


    ��Okay, sir.��


    The ck driver nced at the old man through the rearview mirror.


    ��Oh, by the way, I want to listen to hip hop. Don��t you like hip hop too?�� The old man put his suitcase aside.


    ��I��m afraid I do anything about it. You know, it all depends on what��s on the radio.��


    ��Hey, is that how your boss teaches you to entertain your customer? Can��t even fulfill such a small request?�� the old man leisurely replied. The driver got annoyed when he heard that. ��What do you mean?��


    ��Don��t waste your time. Believe me, boy. No one in this world can spend more time than me. You don��t want to waste your time on


    me.��


    The old man then opened a box of gum and poured ten pieces into his mouth in one go. After a short moment of silence, the driver finally started the car. ��Goodd, now you can y me some hip hop.��


    The driver pulled an iPod from his pocket and handed it with a pair of headphones to the old man behind him. ��It��s got Nicki Minaj, Post Malone, and Jay-Z...�� ��Oh, Nicki Minaj? Just my favorite. Great! You��ve got to admit that technology has indeed made life morefortable,�� said the old man as he ced the headphones across his ears.


    Half an hourter, the car arrived at Silicon Valley. This wasn��t an administrative division. Initially, the term only referred to the areas surrounding Santa ra Valley. It gradually expanded to areas that included Santa ra County and San Mateo County in the southwest, and San Francisco Bay and parts of meda County to its east.


    Silicon Valley was the melting pot of all American tech industries, also famous worldwide for its forefront in electronic technological innovation. A series of internationally renowned tech conglomerates such as Apple, Google, Yahoo, Facebook, and Oracle made it their home. It is also a tech geek paradise.


    The cab finally stopped at the gate of a startup corporation. Compared to bigpanies like Intel and Te, thispany was negligibly small. Its main business was developing online photo albums, and there were less than ten employees in the entirepany.


    The old man carried the box and came to the door of the office of the CTO, who was also the CEO and the boss of thepany. Secondster, the door opened automatically.


    ��Cool,�� the old man eximed and walked in.


    The door closed automatically behind him, and the lights in the room were dimmed to sufficient brightness. The old man saw that the entire floor he was standing on happened to be a massive disy screen, but it felt like a carpet, and there were even electronic water ripples disyed beneath his feet. When a mechanical dog saw a strangering in, it got up from its and started to bark at the old man. A circuit board was thrown to it, to which itid down obediently and started to lick it.


    The man named Einstein that Zhang Heng saw in the quest was sitting behind his desk. At its corner was a model of a Saturn V rocket. He then stretched out his hand and made a wee gesture. With his eyebrows raised, the old man walked to where he pointed. Immediately, the wall in front of him folded and turned into a couch.


    ��Impressive.�� The old man sat down, deliberately plopping down with force. He could feel his butt touching the surface of an unknown material. Somehow, it felt unexpectedly soft and plush.


    ��Your arrival today made me realize that I have wasted my life.��


    The man named Einstein was watching a technology conference. He swiped the screen with his finger and silenced the video, his face expressionless as he spoke to the old man.


    ��So, what brings you here?�� ��You know the reason, don��t you? Otherwise, you wouldn��t have sent your people to the airport��s gate to block me. Right?��


    The old man spat out a piece of now tasteless chewing gum to the ground. Immediately, the mechanical dog, still licking the circuit board, suddenly alerted its ears. Its eyes scanned the gum on the ground. It let go of the circuit board and rushed toward its discovery. In less than five seconds, the floor was cleaned without a trace of messy gum.


    After that, it returned to its kennel obediently.


    The old man then poured out another ten pieces of colorful gum onto his hand. ��Why did you modify the number of yers allowed toplete the quest? It made it a lot more difficult for my people toplete it. Whatever you did vited the rules of the game, right?��


    ��Aren��t you ashamed of yourself, talking to me about these things? You really thought I wouldn��t notice his abnormal rate of development? No ordinary person could achieve what he achieved in such a short period of time. This is clearly your doing. You and your tricks that allow you to mess with time. You really thought you could hide it?��


    ��Well... fortunately, I��ve always had good connections. Now, I��ll just have to pray harder that everyone turns a blind eye to what I did.��


    The old man continued on his road to diabetes by eating an entire lot of gum in his hands.


    Einstein frowned. ��What are you nning to do with your disciple? I don��t believe you��ll spend more than 80% of your power on him. Such a price is too hefty for you. You��re different from some frail idiots who are about to be buried into the ground. Although your strength has been weakening over the years, you��re still a long way from leaving this world, right? Why choose to make such a desperate move at such times? From what I know about you, you expect a greater return after investing so much in him.��


    The old man shrugged. ��I told you the truth a long time ago, but why can��t you believe that I just want to win this game and take a share of the new market. I want to revive my past glory and make myself famous again.��


    ��Do you really think those ridiculous clothes will allow you to integrate into apletely different society?��


    ��Why not give it a try? After all, KFC introduced Beijing chicken rolls in China.�� The old man blinked, ��survival of the fittest, that��s what you��ve always been talking about, right? Although I prefer you as Jordan Bruno and being tied at the stake, we can never go back to those good times, right?��


    ��Be careful, Cronus, don��t set yourself on fire.��


    ��I will try to keep this advice in mind, Sainz.��

 Chapter 336 - Accidents Happening Again

    <strong>Chapter 336 idents Happening Again</strong>


    Someone knocked on Zhang Heng��s window at dawn. When he opened it, the person had already left, and there was only a ck package under the window sill.


    Zhang Heng put on his clothes, walked to the door, and retrieved the package. When he unpacked it, he found the game items he passed to the bartenderdy a while ago. It seemed the identification process for them had beenpleted.


    It was Zhang Heng��s first time encountering other yers in hisst game. Not only did he have to find a way toplete the main storyline, but he also had topete with opponents, where only one out of the seven-person-group was allowed toplete the quest. However, Zhang Heng gained a total of five game items afterpleting it. He first took a look at the fork and teeth which he found on Bruno.


    [Name: Water-Soluble Metal]


    (Grade: F]


    [Effect: Melts when ites in contact with water. Metal returns to its original form after 120 minutes. User is allowed to control the number of uses. Water-Soluble Metal cannot be reused.��


    After seeing this game item, Zhang Heng finally understood why the ejection devices of the previous training aircraft and fighter jets encountered the same problem.


    Bruno messed with them before they were put in use. First, he melted a small section of the fork with water and poured it into the ejection device. After 120 minutes, the metal would return to its original form and weld the machinery together. He killed Anthony with this method and worked with Zhen Xiong, manipting animals to eliminate Zhang Heng.


    Bruno didn��t expect Zhang Heng to ovee the dangerous situation, though. Left with no other choice, he concocted a n, turning everyone��s attention to him by using LSD.


    Zhang Heng then picked up the card next to the tooth.


    [Name: Portable Mighty River Crab]


    (Grade: E]


    (Effect: Don��t be fooled by its appearance. The way it looks ensures that you can carry it in any situation. Even the most experienced police dog will be unable to discover it. Transforms into your favorite river crab. Just eat it to trigger its effect.


    It was an item perfect for Bruno and was probably the dream item of all drug addicts. Combined with his inexplicable ability, he could get high anytime, anywhere with no ramifications whatsoever. On the other hand, an item like this would be useless to Zhang Heng. After checking out Bruno��s game items, Zhang Heng turned his attention to the three items Jia Lai once possessed. Jia Lai had alreadypleted eleven games, and it came as no surprise that he was the most experienced yer among the seven. If not for Zhang Heng, there was a high probability he would be the one toplete the Apollo Training Camp quest.


    Aspared to Bruno, his game items were of way better quality, it��s lowest being D-grade. Among them, there were two C-grades, but unfortunately, one had reached its maximum number of uses. The wooden whistle that allowed its user tomunicate with animals had reached its maximum uses. This item had been snatched from Zhen Xiong and was Jia Lai��s trump card in his final duel with Zhang Heng amid the sandstorm. That was thest time this game item was used, and now, its status was simr to Shadow Moment. Both items were technically useless right now.


    Nheless, another grade C-game item was still usable. Zhang Heng, however, was more interested in that grade D-game item.


    [Name: Filter Lens]


    (Grade: D]


    [Effect: Field of vision within 300 meters will remain unaffected by light and environmental factors.)


    In other words, the item granted its user apletely unobstructed view. Not only would the yer see clearly in extreme environments, but it doubled as night vision goggles. In fact, it had a more potent effect, allowing the user to see in color instead of the monochrome green. Although it had a range of only 300 meters, it was more than enough to handle most situations. Most importantly, it would pair well with Zhang Heng��s shooting and archery, especially when using his Paris Arrow. In other words, he would almost never miss any target within a range of 300 meters.


    As for thest grade-C item, it was simr to what Zhang Heng previously expected. An item used to predict the weather, it gave its user an urate weather report for the next seven days. But the best part about it was that it allowed its holder to choose two out of seven days and exchanged their weather. This one had three more uses in it.


    Those were all the game items Zhang Heng acquired from his previous quest, and if they were sold for game points, he could at least gain a thousand points. It was by far his most profitable yield.


    Not nning to wait until the auction at the end year, he contacted Ding Si right away, asking Fulou to help sell the Portable Mighty River Crab he would never use. The rest of the game items were temporarily ced in a cardboard box under his bed.


    After dealing with the package, Zhang Heng changed into sportswear. He was about to go out for a morning run when he ran into Tian Tian��s father in the aisle. He had just returned home, looking weary and exhausted. Seeming as if he had spent the entire night awake, he forced out half a smile when he saw Zhang Heng.


    Zhang Heng stopped and asked, ��Uncle Chen, you just came back?��


    ��Auntie Han��s finger was identally cut off by a meat grinderst night. I took her to the hospital, and the surgery has just finished.��


    Tian Tian��s father sighed. Chinese New Year��s Eve was tomorrow, and everyone a happy family reunion was happening everywhere. Their family, on the other hand, had only encountered one ident after another. Before his daughter��s sudden depression was cured, his father hurt his leg, and now his wife��s finger was broken. Although the doctor managed to reattach the finger, full recovery wasn��t certain, certainly not in the near future, at least.


    He took a leave of absence from his workce to take care of his wife, and having just returned from the hospital after an entire day, he now had to prepare breakfast for his daughter. He was in no mood to borate more. As the man sighed, he unlocked the door and entered his house silently.


    Zhang Heng frowned. The cursed object responsible for the misfortunate idents in Tian Tian��s family had been removed. Logically, all idents should have stopped happening altogether. Now it seemed like it wasn��t the case. Last night happened to be the time for a new round of idents, and judging by their pattern, they were bing ever bloodier as well.


    The first ident involved slicing through the skin while cutting vegetables. After that, their puppy fell into the water, before Tian Tian��s grandpa broke his leg. Now her mother severed her finger. If this problem failed to be resolved in time, the situation might simply be uncontroble. Zhang Heng realized that there might be a problem with how he approached the matter, taking out the business card given by the uncle with beach pants. He called the phone number on it and told him he was willing to pay double the fee to speed up the identification process. That same afternoon, the uncle informed him that he would pick up the game item.


    Two dayster, Zhang Heng returned to the Private Room 2306 of the KTV.


    The uncle with beach pants held the eye essory in one hand and scratched his inner thigh with the other.


    ��Well, let me put it in this way. This thing might have once been useful, but it can now no longer be considered a game item. I detected some energy residue inside it, but it��s very weak. In fact, it should have lost its effectiveness for quite some time.��


    ��I know this thing. This is a guardian talisman of the Yasimba tribe in Namibia,�� said Jia Jia who was smoking at the side. ��It was made by tribe elders and given to children. Its psychic abilities can warn the children of impending danger. However, it would be useless to anyone over eight years old.��

 Chapter 337 - Orange Ice Cream

    <strong>Chapter 337 Orange Ice Cream</strong>


    The evil-looking piece of jewelry turned out to be a protection amulet. The matter had now taken in apletely different path, way beyond what Zhang Heng initially expected.


    He thought all along that the series of mishaps befalling Tian Tian��s household were rted to her paintings, where they seemed to serve as warnings. By using this method, she intended to tell those around her about the impending threats. Unfortunately, no one noticed it. Perhaps, she attempted to tell the people around her, but no one believed her, thinking that these were all mere coincidences.


    After therapy, she stopped sharing these paintings until Zhang Heng identally discovered them. As for thest picture of her hiding under the bed, the evil eye must have been referring to Zhang Heng, the intruder, and not the guardian talisman. When Zhang Heng bent down and looked under the bed, his eyes appeared before Tian Tian, automatically fulfilling the painting��s prophecy.


    As a result, Zhang Heng��s previous investigation strayed in the wrong direction. Tian Tian appeared to have nothing to do with the awful string of mishaps. No, that couldn��t be right. She was undoubtedly rted to this matter, but despite that, she was also the only one in her family that remained unharmed. Why?


    Whoever or whatever that had been attacking Tian Tian��s family clearly harbored a great deal of malice toward them. But why then was Tian Tian unhurt? Was it because she was still young? Zhang Heng did not think so. How could someone cruel be enough to hurt a pet dog but spare someone��s life because of


    age?


    He must be missing something important. While thinking about this issue, Zhang Heng walked home, and on the way, he received a phone call from his mother. She was craving ice cream and specified that it had to be an orange vor. So, he detoured to a nearby Wal-Mart and tried to look for the orange-vored ice cream in the freezer. s, there wasn��t any, and in the end, he bought her a box of original-vored ice cream and a bag of oranges.


    When returning home, Zhang Heng met the little girl who visited Tian Tian. She stood by her window and was peering into the room with its curtains drawn. Suddenly, the girl sensed someone approaching her from behind. She quickly turned around to leave, only to be stopped by Zhang Heng. ��Are you a friend from Tian Tian��s homeroom? What��s your name, and do you also live in thismunity?��


    The little girl took two cautious steps back and ran away without saying anything. Zhang Heng didn��t go after her. He just stood there and watched the little girl get further and further away from him. Parents would usually instruct girls her age to never talk to strangers under any circumstances, and was hence unsurprised by her reaction. Although she disclosed nothing to Zhang Heng, he was now sure that she lived around this area.


    Kids her age were typically only allowed to move around in the courtyard of the same building since most residents knew each other, and it was considered as a safe and familiar environment.


    In fact, this was the third time Zhang Heng saw her in less than a week. The first time she was there, she had entered Tian Tian��s house to visit her, but in herst two visits, she just stood outside the house and looked through the window. Judging by howfortable she was around the house, she must be in good terms with Tian Tian.


    A close mate? Zhang Heng stopped staring at the little girl. He took the ice cream and oranges with him and headed home first. When he opened the door, he saw his mother sitting on the couch barefoot with her legs crossed. The controller in her hand made clicked noisily as she yed King of Fighters with his dad. However, the Kyo Kusanagi she controlled was crushed by Athena Asamiya, no thanks to his father, and she was clearly losing the game. When she saw Zhang Henging in, she immediately tossed the controller away and yelled, ��Yay! My ice cream is here! You��re lucky this round... we��ll fight again after eating.�� However, after unwrapping the ice cream enthusiastically, she was disappointed when she discovered it was original-vored.


    ��Where is my orange-vored ice cream?!��


    Zhang Heng then threw an orange at her.


    ��Here, just eat this orange. There was no orange-vored ice cream in the supermarket.��


    Zhang Heng��s mother held the orange in her hand and became lost in thought.


    ��Aren��t you a little too cruel to your mother?��


    Zhang Heng��s father attempted to uphold justice for his wife.


    ��Why not go out again and find her orange ice cream this time?�� he said.


    Zhang Heng raised his eyebrows.


    ��Forget it. This looks pretty good. It��s natural, no additives or artificial voring.��


    ��By the way, tell grandpa not to cook my share of food when hees backter tonight.��


    ��Ah... we finally returned to China, and we haven��t spent much time together. Why are you going out every day?�� Zhang Heng��s mother seemed to have a hard time epting the new reality. While peeling her orange, she continued toin about how he was always missing from the house. ��Don��t youngsters these days prefer to stay home alone instead of socializing?�� she sighed.


    ��I have something to do, and I��ll be home once it��s settled. Also, your stomach is not built to handle too much ice cream. Control yourself,�� Zhang Heng warned.


    ��Hehe... you still remember that, huh, my son?��


    Zhang Heng��s mother smiled, now appearing to be a little happier after not getting the vor she wanted.


    It was now daytime, and Zhang Heng headed the game��s checkpoint. It was inevitable that he was spotted by many, and so, took the long road back home. To be safe, he had changed into a new set of clothes. He then called Qin Zhen, a good friend of his since childhood. Having studied in the same junior high school, their friendship was still strong up to this day. On the other end of the phone, Qin Zhen gasped. ��You��re thinking of asking Liu Ming to meet us? And you are asking him to bring his sister with him?! Hold on. I��m a little confused. Are you asking for Liu Ming or his sister? She��s just enrolled in elementary school! Dude, you sure are desperate for a girlfriend, aren��t you?��


    ��What the hell are you thinking? I just need to ask her some questions!��


    Before this, Zhang Heng found out about Tian Tian��s school and ss through her workbook, discovering that the little girl who visited her looked exactly like the person in the photo he saw on social media. This was no coincidence since all the kids in the area would attend the nearest elementary school. Many of Zhang Heng��s previous friends were living nearby as well. However, he did not know Liu Ming too well. They walked home together a few times when they were in the same junior high school, but that was about it.


    On the other hand, Qin Zhen and Liu Ming often yed basketball together. Liu Ming was the one who uploaded the photo on social media. In the picture, he was helping his sisterplete some homework.


    The caption of the photo was �C What sort of elementary school question is this?! Even I can��t solve this. I feel my intelligence getting lower.


    Zhang Heng wanted to learn more about Tian Tian��s situation at school. Her parents had previously investigated the matter and ruled out the possibility of bullying. Their investigation, however, was focussed solely on ordinary human beings. Even if they found something they couldn��t exin, they would have just forgotten about it. So Zhang Heng decided to recollect all the information to see if they missed anything.


    The fact that Liu Ming��s sister was in the same ss as Tian Tian saved him a lot of trouble.


    ��Help me make an appointment with Liu Ming for dinner. Ask him to bring his sister with him. I��ll foot the bill,�� Zhang Heng said.


    ��Okay... but if you dare mess with his sister, don��t me me if I hunt you down.��

 Chapter 338 - Center of the World

    <h4>Chapter 338 Center of the World</h4>


    Late that night, while taking out the garbage, Peng Jiating couldn��t help but walk up to Tian Tian��s window again. She had passed the same window countless times, and each time, she would stop in front of it.


    Before Tian Tian��s existence, she was the girl that everyone envied.


    She hailed from a happy and wholesome family. Her father, a senior engineer, often went abroad for work, and whenever he came back, he would have thetest gadgets that enabled her to brag in front of her friends. Coupled with her sweet appearance and excellent grades, she had always been the little princess everyone aspired to be.


    Until one day, the girl named Tian Tian appeared out of nowhere. She dazzled with a sparkle from the get-go, and like the brightest star in the room, she subconsciously stole the light away. Peng Jiating discovered that Tian Tian had everything that she had, where in some cases, her belongings were even better than what she owned. Tian Tian��s father had a better job than her dad as well. Being in a higher position, he got to travel abroad more frequently. Tian Tian was also prettier than her, and she performed better academically too, not to mention how her ssmates decisively elected her as the ss monitor as soon as she enrolled in the school.


    Besides, the things she did not have, Tian Tian had all it all. Peng Jiating��s parents divorced when she was only a toddler. Her father took custody of her and subsequently married another woman. Soon after that, she was granted with a half-brother. Her grandparents, on the other hand, seemed to have their favor upon the little boy, preferring to devote their time to him instead. Of course, the treatment from her stepmother was in no way awful, but it was only because she didn��t want the infamous reputation of a ��vicious stepmother.�� The sad truth was, she did not show her stepdaughter much love. Her father was the only one who truly cared about her, but unfortunately, he was rarely home.


    No one knew that the little princess whom everyone adored at school had actually been sorely neglected at home. Nheless, Peng Jiating chose to bear the pain for the sole reason that school was herst piece of haven.


    There, she could be a little princess again, and just like Cindere and her crystal shoes, she could enjoy the envy and praises of others, bing the focal point of everyone around her. This rare sensation of being wanted, this attention she longed for, meant everything to her.


    However, Tian Tian��s arrival seemed to have blocked out whatever attention she so desperately needed. Whether deliberate or not, Tian Tian ruthlessly sucked away the light and warmth that used to be hers. She was now the model student in the eyes of the teachers and the personality her ssmates vyed be. Every single thing she did, every move she made, never failed to attract interest, even imitation, in some cases.


    ��Tian Tian wore new shoes today. They look so good; I want them too!��


    ��Tian Tian having double ponytails is as cute as an angel!�� ��Tian Tian was almostte today. She ran into the ssroom while panting. That flush on her face was so beautiful, so rosy!��


    ��Tian Tian, what��s today��s homework?��


    ��Tian Tian, mind if I borrow your eraser?��


    ��Tian Tian, can you speak with the Chinese teacher and get her to give us less homework? They always listen to what you say...��


    ��Tian Tian... Tian Tian... Tian Tian...��


    Why was this god-forsaken name everywhere? Even students with the most miserable results were deliberately mischievous just to attract Tian Tian��s attention, those stupid and silly actions all for a reprimand by Tian Tian. She would ask them sternly to pay attention in ss, and the boys would smile stupidly for the rest of the day. Apparently, a scolding could be a reward to some.


    Peng Jiating went as far as distributing Belgian choctes her father had bought her among her ssmates. In the past, everyone would be grateful for what she did. They would praise her for having such a good and generous father. This time, however, she received a very different response.


    ��What... it tastes pretty normal, nowhere near as good as the ones Tian Tian brought us. Did your father buy fake Belgian choctes?��


    Peng Jiating grasped the pencil so hard her fingers turned a deathly white. She hated her younger brother, hated her grandfather and her grandmother for always loving him more. She hated her father, who was never home and hated her mother who left her. Despite all of that, she had never loathed another person so badly, not until now at least.


    The hatred she harbored toward Tian Tian overflowed from her every vein, dying to burst out of her body at any given moment.


    Why?! Why were some born to this world with everything given to them?


    It was as if all the happiness in the entire universe had been collected and dumped on Tian Tian alone. How could the world be this unfair? Just thinking about it almost drove her to insanity.


    ��So, is this the oue you wanted?��


    Peng Jiating suddenly heard a voice could be heard a voiceing from behind. She turned around to find the young man that she had met in the afternoon. Peng Jiating did not like him, especially his eyes. It was as he could see right through her as if he knew what she was thinking. Once again, she rapidly shifted away and attempted to leave like thest time.


    ��You know what will happen next. Her parents, grandpa, grandma... they will die one by one, and she will live a miserable life as you wish. She will then be adopted by other rtives, and you��ll be left alone. She may transfer to another school, or worse, can no longer adapt to life at school. But I guess you don��t care about these things, eh? Unfortunately, after spending so much effort and energy into destroying her life, you still won��t get what you want,�� said Zhang Heng.


    Peng Jiating stopped. Obviously, Zhang Heng��s words had caught her attention.


    ��You don��t know what you look like in the eyes of others, right?�� Zhang Heng went on, his voice extraordinarily icy in the quiet night��s breeze. ��In fact, no one has ever liked you before. The reason why your ssmates evenplimented you was because of all the imported snacks they got from you. To them, you no more but a clown. Each day after school, you��ll best in your entire ss to be picked up. Nobody ever sits with you at lunch in the cafeteria. You thought you hid it well, but everyone actually knows your family��s real situation. They know your dad and mom are divorced, and that your grandparents shower your brother with all the love they could give.


    ��No one cares about your existence. Even if Tian Tian didn��t exist, there would be Lily and Nan Nan. There will always be more popr people than you...�� Zhang Heng paused. ��Don��t believe me? Think I��m just trying to scare you? Is it because I am not your ssmate? Think I really don��t know you and the people around you? That��s okay. You know what? I found someone who actually knows you.��


    The moment Zhang Heng was done talking, a small kid came out from behind him, a tangled expression on her face. She was Liu Ming��s younger sister, Liu Yuwei, and she was in the same ss as Peng Jiating and Tian Tian. After Peng Jiating saw her, her breathing gradually sped up.


    Liu Yuwei then opened her mouth, ��I... I��m actually a little afraid of you.��


    This sentence alone seemed to have sucked all the energy out of her, the girl quickly disappearing behind Zhang Heng once she was done talking.


    Peng Jiating��s face became pale. Zhang Heng was right about her. Peng Jiating did not quite believe what he said earlier, and the inconvenient truths rattled her to the core. Rage began boiling in her blood, and it wasn��t until Liu Yuwei showed up that she started to awaken from her dream.


    She had to now face reality, one that would graze the very depths of her soul. It was one she had been trying to avoid for the longest time. Now being forced to face her inner demons, the reality that no one in this world liked her finally sank in.

 Chapter 339 - Come Along If You Can Keep Up

    <h4>Chapter 339 Come Along If You Can Keep Up</h4>


    ��Are you sure... it��s okay?�� Liu Meng asked as he watched Peng Jiating running away, a worried look on his face.


    Qin Zhen, who had been watching on the side, was also gaping. ��I have to do this. The only way to find out what she��s been hiding is to drive her into a corner,�� Zhang Heng vaguely replied, not exining any further. He turned to Liu Yuwei and said, ��Thank you for your cooperation. You can all go home now. I��ll take care of the rest.�� ��Will she be okay?�� Liu Yuwei looked concerned. ��Who? Tian Tian or Peng Jiating?��


    ��Both of them.��


    ��I don��t know. I��ll try my best,�� Zhang Heng answered.


    Liu Yuwei plucked up the courage to speak again. ��Before this, I��ve never... told anyone in school about Peng Jiating��s family,�� she blurted.


    ��I know.�� Zhang Heng patted her on the head and told Liu Meng, ��It��ste. Bring your sister home.��


    ��What about me? Can I stay and help?�� Qin Zhen volunteered.


    ��Go home. You��ve already done your part. I��ll handle the next part myself.��


    ��One extra person, one more helper for you,�� Qin Zhen brazenly replied. He saw how foggy tonight��s incident was, and until he really understood it, it would be like that itch he could not scratch. Until now, all he saw was Zhang Henging up with whatever he had to criticize a primary school student, and Zhang Heng had made it clear that he did not intend to exin why.


    It was like watching a TV series or reading a really good book halfway before the director or author decided to cut it short and discontinue it without warning.


    Zhang Heng nced at Qin Zheng. ��Whatever,e along if you think you can keep up.�� ��Alright.�� Qin Zhen couldn��t help but get excited the moment he heard the word ��whatever,��pletely ignoring the rest of the sentence. He had always been physically fit �C part of his school��s basketball team in high school and in college. Weekly training waspulsory, and as a result, he was much fitter than Zhang Heng before he even graduated high school.


    With that, Qin Zhen confidently believed that it shouldn��t be a problem for him to keep up with Zhang Heng. In fact, Zhang Heng wasn��t that fast and didn��t seem to be in a hurry. He kept a normal pace until they reached Peng Jiating��s house.


    ��So, what next? What should we do?�� Qin Zhen was curious.


    Unlike Tian Tian, Peng Jiatin��s house was on the fifth floor, the highest level of the micro-district.


    Zhang Heng emphasized that he wasn��t about to make contact with Peng Jiating��s family. Puzzled, Qin Zhen instantly asked how he nned to get to her.


    Zhang Heng did not answer. Instead, he walked to the north side of the building that faced a dry pond. Streetmps around the area were no longer turned on to save on electricity, making the entire ce pitch ck at night. This would be the perfect hideout for someone who really didn��t want to be seen.


    While keeping his eyes peeled on the top of the building, Zhang Heng ced a foot on an air conditionerpressor and pushed himself up with the other, eventually managing to grab onto the eaves of the second floor.


    ��Hey, are you serious?�� Qin Zhen was taken aback. It was now clear that Zhang Heng nned to climb all the way to the top of the building. But then again, it was way too dangerous �C to the average Joe, it looked no different from climbing the Stawamus Chieftain Rock.


    Zhang Heng answered, ��Really? You had to shout that loud? You��re attracting everyone��s attention!�� As he talked, his hands and feet did not stop, and before long, he had already reached the third floor.


    Qin Zhen finally understood why Zhang Heng said ��if you could keep up.�� He looked up the building, feeling as if he was watching Spiderman scale a wall.


    Zhang Heng left Qin Zhen downstairs. His Level 1 climbing skills were enough for him to cope with the situation. Quickly, he arrived on the fifth floor without much effort. The entire process took him only less than ny seconds.


    To Zhang Heng, getting to Peng Jiating��s house on the top floor was a lot easier than getting into Tian Tian��s ce since thetter��s windows were welded with security grills. Considering how high Peng Jiating��s house was above the ground, such preventive measures weren��t necessary.


    Zhang Heng changed position and moved his left foot from the air-conditionerpressor to the window sill. He then swung his body over. Qin Feng, nervously watching from below, nearly bit his tongue off.


    Zhang Heng had never been to Peng Jiating��s house, and he didn��t know the exact location of her unit. His only option was to search through all of them. Thankfully, it shouldn��t take much time. Even though there were curtains blocking his view, all he had to do was press his ears against the ss to find out whose unit it belonged to.


    Finally, Zhang Heng stopped at the window of a quiet, unlit unit.


    The window was locked by a verymon crescent lock, which wasn��t very secure at all. All one had to do was push the window hard enough from the outside. Once a gap was created between the two panes, the lock would loosen.


    Zhang Heng tried to do it as quietly as possible, but thanks to the old rusted bolts and nuts, they began creaking loudly. Fortunately, whoever that was inside the house seemed oblivious to the noise.


    Zhang Heng sneaked in through the window. Just like what he told Liu Meng and Qin Zhen, he had deliberately provoked Peng Jiating, letting her believe that no one in the world cared about her so he could see what she had been hiding. After all, Peng Jiating was just a normal kid. Even if she hated Tian Tian to the core, it was impossible that she caused all the mishaps in Tian Tian��s family.


    ]


    To do that, she obviously got ��help�� from an external source. Of course, Zhang Heng could always choose to search Peng Jiating��s room during his Still Hours, but with the protection of the talisman, he wasn��t sure if whatever he found was the root cause of the idents. Only when Peng Jiating genuinely felt abandoned by the whole world would she seek the thing out.


    Like a drowning person grasping at thest straw in front of them, this anomaly was the only kind thing left in the world to her.


    Even though he hade somewhat prepared, the scene behind the curtain still took Zhang Heng by surprise.


    Peng Jiating was lying on her bed, eyes closed andpletely naked except for tiny scales that covered her entire body like crocodile skin. There were even two sharp spikes under her lower abdomen.


    This extremely peculiar sight had Zhang Heng wondering if Peng Jiating was a human or a mutant.


    He took two steps forward and approached the bed. Peng Jianting��s eyes suddenly popped open, and she pounced at him!


    Zhang Heng calmly but swiftly stretched out his right hand from his pocket. Something shed, and he struck Peng Jiating��s forehead with the handle of the knife. At the same time, to avoid the ineffectiveness of conventional physical attacks, Zhang Heng deliberately took half a step backward.


    However, it turned out that he overthought things. Although Peng Jiating��s physical appearance had changed drastically, other than being a little more agile than the average person, her human weaknesses still remained. She immediately passed out after Zhang Heng attacked her.

 Chapter 340 - You Need To Do Better

    <strong>Chapter 340 You Need To Do Better</strong>


    ��Thank you so much. It��s a total of 100 game points.��


    In the hotel room, the uncle with beach pants threw a candy that was smothered with gastric acid into the soapbox beside him. He then pulled off his medical gloves and walked out of the bathroom.


    ��She should be fine for now. The wound on her stomach won��t affect her movement, and the scar will disappear after three days.��


    ��Will she return to her old self?�� Zhang Heng asked as he looked at Peng Jiating, still lying unconscious in the bathtub. She was already dressed, and he had no idea how the uncle performed the surgery on her. Her abdomen had been cut open, but there was almost no blood on her, not to mention that it only took him fifteen minutes to stitch her back up.


    One hundred game points was a tall order for most yers, about four million yuan if converted into RMB. Zhang Heng thought the price was eptable. After bringing Peng Jiating out of the room, Zhang Heng contacted the uncle. The two had agreed to meet at a hotel, where the uncle would deal with Peng Jiating��s condition.


    ��Don��t worry. Since I have collected your game points, I will make sure that makes a 100% recovery.��


    The uncle wiped off the blood from his hands using a towel and pointed at the candy in the soapbox. ��The reason why she was like that was because of this thing.��


    ��What is this?��


    ��Well, under normal circumstances, I should charge you another identification fee, but since we just made a transaction, and as it��s not the first time I have seen this item, I��ll give this information to you for free.��


    The uncle with beach pants threw away the towel, opened a bottle of mineral water. He took a big gulp, sighing in satisfaction before speaking to Zhang Heng again.


    ��About that... have you heard of Leviathan?��


    ��Leviathan, the monster recorded in the Hebrew Bible?�� Zhang Heng frowned.


    ��Yes. There is a description of it in the Book of Job. It is some kind of sea monster, and it looks like a crocodile. It had hard scales, sharp teeth, spikes on its abdomen, and can also spit fire from its nostrils. Something like that...��


    ��So she was targeted by Leviathan? Why?�� Zhang Heng asked.


    He still remembered what he saw in that room. Peng Jiating did look very simr to a Leviathan, except for her neck. Her face hadn��t changed; she couldn��t breathe fire and didn��t possess any pointy teeth as well.


    ��Because the Leviathan needs her to carry its next generation. Fortunately, you found out about just in time. If the hatching process went to her brain, I wouldn��t have been able to help her then.��


    ��Hatching?��


    The uncle with beach pants scratched his inner thigh again.


    ��Leviathan is not only recorded in the Hebrew Bible. In fact, it��s now better known by another name.��


    ��What is it?��


    ��Envy.��


    ��You��re talking about the seven deadly sins?�� Zhang Heng raised his eyebrows.


    ��Yes, the envy that ranks second among the seven deadly sins from the Catholic religion... the demon that represents it is Leviathan. I don��t know who the kid in the bathtub is or what she has to do with you, but her recent jealously must have been very severe. Otherwise, the Leviathan wouldn��t have targeted her. During the whole incubation process, the best nourishment for the hatchlings is jealousy. Each and every one of us is jealous of something. Just like when Jia Jia gave you her phone number, I envied your youth, strong body and handsome face ...��


    Suddenly, the uncle with beach pants lowered his head, staring at the fat that was surrounding his waist.


    ��...but such jealousysts only a short time. For the average person, it wouldn��tst more than a day or two, far from the amount required for incubation. So, Leviathan wouldn��t choose us as a vessel to hatch its eggs. The incubation process will not bepleted if we are dead. Normally, it will only choose those who canplete the incubation process within three to five months.��


    ��Is the candy over there Leviathan��s egg?��


    ��Yes, not just candy, but technically anything as long as it could be swallowed into the stomach. Theoretically speaking, even a coin is fine, but more often, it appears in the form of food. Unfortunately, we didn��t get to 315 to report it,�� the uncle shrugged. ��The Leviathan was attracted to the host��s jealousy. When the egg is deposited into the host, it will further enhance their jealousy.��


    ��Thank you,�� Zhang Heng said.


    ��You��re wee. After all, you paid for the service.�� The uncle with beach pants was unwilling to give in after knowing that Zhang Heng was rich in-game points. He then switched to another topic, his instincts as a merchant kicking in.


    ��Since you have so many points, why not consider our exclusive service? Before you say anything, I solemnly guarantee that you won��t regret trying it. What I��m about to propose ispletely different from whatever you have experienced before. It is like a brand new adventure, and it is rare that Jia Jia is so interested in you. Thest time I saw her so interested in someone was probably more than 20 years ago. Besides, let me tell you a secret...��


    The uncle lowered his voice, looking around him at the same time. ��Don��t tell anyone, but the yer who brought Jia Jia out of the game didn��t get to sleep with her! Of course, everyone thought they both did it, but that��s just not true. The yers aren��t the ones who get to choose. Jia Jia only sleeps with those she is interested in! You get what I mean, right? This is a very, very rare opportunity. I would say it��s easily more difficult than running for the president. Now, the president of the United States changes every four years. It took 20 years for Jia Jia to find someone she is interested in!��


    ��Uh... I am very grateful and honored that she is interested in me, but I think I am good for now,�� Zhang Heng said.


    After sending off the uncle with beach pants, Zhang Heng nced at the watch on his wrist. There were only a few minutes left before the stroke of midnight. So, he stood there and waited until the world came to a pause before carrying Peng Jiating back to her residence. Zhang Heng put her on her bed after he entered her room.


    Before he left, he walked to the desk and picked up a pencil.


    ��If you really care about your daughter, you should have noticed how neglected she has been. Love and care are not something that could be reced with gifts each time you return from abroad. She��s unhappy when you��re away. I know that life is not easy. We all face our own challenges, but as a father, you need to do better. It��s your responsibility �C from a friendly onlooker.��


    After that, Zhang Heng slit the note in Peng Jiating��s father��s wallet. He turned off the lights, then left the house.

 Chapter 341 - Not So Happy Today

    <strong>Chapter 341 Not So Happy Today</strong>


    Even though Zhang Heng removed the Leviathan��s eggs from Peng Jiating��s body, he still couldn��t change the way she viewed the world. Peng Jiating��s grim demeanor was the result of years of neglect and serious family issues. All Zhang Heng could do was remind her father to be attentive to any changes on Peng Jiating and hope that it wasn��t toote.


    ording to the uncle in beach shorts, the idents that had happened around Tian Tian were brought on by Leviathan��s eggs. The more unfortunate she became, the more pleasure Peng Jiating would obtain, all working to smoothen out the hatching process. While Peng Jiating destroyed the target of her jealousy, she was unconsciously destroying herself.


    Now that the eggs were removed, Tian Tian��s misfortunes would also finally stop.


    On his way back, Zhang Heng made a stop outside Tian Tian��s window and ced the Yasimba tribe��s guardian amulet on the window sill, thereby returning it to its rightful owner. Now that the issue was resolved, Zhang Heng made himself a cup of coffee and went out to take pictures of the city��s night scene. Twenty-four hourster, he checked out of the hotel and returned home. As he gently pushed the door open, he was greeted by the sight of his grandfather sitting at the table.


    Grandpa put down the newspaper in his hand and looked at him from behind the lens.


    ��I��m sorry,�� Zhang Heng whispered. ��Are they asleep?��


    ��No, I��m still waiting for that orange ice cream of yours,�� Zhang Heng��s mother yawned as she walked out of the bedroom, her husband right next to her. ��You said that you��d be back before twelve. You could have at least given us a call to tell us... So, you��d better have been out on a date, or I don��t know how to cover for you.��


    ��I��m sorry. I didn��t think it would take that long.��


    Stopping time was indeed a very useful ability. The more it was used, the more it could be felt. Imagine watching the entire world stopping in its tracks, and you��d have all the time you to train, study, observe, and think. It was certainly a good feeling, albeit, not an omnipotent one.


    Take right now, for example. When time stopped, Zhang Heng actually returned home once, made coffee, and grabbed his camera. He saw his grandfather at the table and noticed his parents were breathing heavily in their bedroom, clearly not asleep.


    So, he knew what was about to happen when he came back for real, but he could not change the oue. In fact, he even had to feign ignorance and pretend he was clueless. But no matter what, knowing that someone in the world still cared for you was very reassuring. Especially after seeing Peng Jiating��s family situation, Zhang Heng felt grateful to have had a very different childhood experience.


    Even though his parents left when he was still very little, they would alwayse back to spend a few months at home, doing nothing but staying by his side. They��d be telling him those fairy tales and legends or dragging him along to the movies for some boring horror flick. They would mindlesslyugh at the poor videography, chaotic script, and terrible props.


    And whenever they were away, Zhang Heng��s grandfather would faithfully fulfill his duties as a guardian, ying two roles at the same time. He was a better parent than them on his own right, andpared to his peers; Zhang Heng was never neglected or unloved as a child.


    So, when he was all grown up, other than preferring to be on his own, Zhang Heng didn��t possess any other obvious w in his character.


    Now that the idents surrounding Tian Tian��s family were resolved entirely, Zhang Heng��s life returned to its previous peaceful state. Except for the extra twenty-four hours each day, this year��s New Year celebration was no different from the usual affair.


    On the evening of New Year��s Eve, the family gathered at the table to wrap dumplings. In addition to the four main dishes prepared by grandpa, Father Zhang contributed a baked lobster with cheese and a te of vegetable sd. Zhang Heng also whipped up two specialty dishes that he had just learned.


    In the end, his unique Caribbean-style grilled jerk chicken won the best dish award of the night. Undoubtedly, both the judge and award presenter were Mrs. Zhang.


    As they watched the Spring Festival G on the couch, Zhang Heng received quite a few New Year��s greetings. Apart from his three dorm mates, Shen Xixi also sent him a text. Althoughprising only a few simple words, it was clear that the message wasn��t the regr forwarded affair. Hayase Asuka, far away in Tokyo, had also sent her blessings attached with two photos of her bathing in a hot spring.


    After the Meiji Restoration, Japan abolished the Lunar calendar and switched to the Gregorian one, thus causing many feudal customs to disappear. Except for a few remote ces, no one really celebrated Lunar New Year. Hayase Asuka, on the other hand, had apparently studied the situation in China and sent the greetings at eight in the evening.


    Those were the initial greetings. It wasn��t long before a barrage of messages from other friends and ssmates, even various websites that he had renewed his membership with, started bombarding his phone. Through the continuous bombardment of greetings, Zhang Heng suddenly noticed that there was no activity at all from the most active person with the Aqua profile picture.


    Zhang Heng clicked on the conversation. Theirst text was two days ago. Why Do You Always Look Unhappy (#��O��) had mysteriously told him that she��d gone alone to fish at a river, and had finally caught a grouper. Five minutester, she sent a picture of a toy grouper hanging from a fish hook.


    That was thest time he heard from her. There was nothing after that.


    Since he had already opened the conversation, Zhang Heng sent her a New Year��s greeting. About ten minutester, she replied to him.


    �� Not very happy today.


    Why?


    �� Can youe somewhere with me? It won��t take long. I just can��t go back alone. Zhang Heng could sense that Why Do You Always Look Unhappy (#��O��) wasn��t very happy today and did not press her for details. He simply answered with, ��Alright, how do I find you?��


    �C Have you heard of a way to log into the game without using game points? Word is, you��ll need a ce where nobody can disturb you, then find something that connects to the inte; aputer,ptop, or tablet, for instance. If you don��t have any of that, a mobile phone will suffice. The gamemittee will then send you an email.


    �� So? I��ve used up my game quota for this month.


    Zhang Heng typed.


    �� It��s okay. I will forge a simr email that can bring you to a very special quest. Don��t worry; this quest won��t use up your points quota. There��s no login limit, and there is no danger to this game. As I said, it��s very special. I can even enter games even though I��m banned. Plus, it won��t take up too much of your time. In fact, I am not ying to move to the next level or anything, I just want to... take a look inside. I usually go by myself, but I don��t know if I can do it tonight.

 Chapter 342 - Master Builder

    <strong>Chapter 342 Master Builder</strong>


    At eleven o��clock, Zhang Heng excused himself and retired to his room. He locked the door before taking out his Dellptop. When he logged in to his ount, he saw that he had a new email.


    The section under the sender was nk, and the subject was login.


    Zhang Heng clicked on it.


    ��yer number 06992 invites you to form a team to join a new round of game. Please ensure that you are alone in a private space with no one else around. Click on the link below to start the game when you are ready. Have a wonderful time!��


    There was no need to mull over it. Even if Why Do You Always Look Unhappy (# O��) was pulling some trick again, he had a mission failure exemption card, ensuring that he wouldn��t encounter too great a danger in the quest.


    Zhang Heng clicked on the link at the end of the email.


    The next thing he knew, he was hit by that familiar dizziness, and the system prompt echoed in his ears.


    [Verifying yer��s identity...) [Verification confirmed. yers 06992 and 07958 are holders ofponent 300501. Connecting yers to the quest]


    (Extractionplete-Current Quest: Master Builder (Special)]


    ��An evil ruler is nning to destroy the entire city. The world is at stake and it awaits its savior. This game will not be added to your count. You can exit the game at any time and start again.�� [Mission objective: Save the World)


    (Mode: Multiyer]


    [Time flow rate: 480]


    (One hour in the real world is equivalent to 20 days in this game. yers can terminate the game at any time and return to the real world)


    [Friendly reminder, the game will begin in 5 seconds. yer, please get ready.]


    It was Zhang Heng��s first time hearing that a quest��s main objective was to save the world. Judging by its description, he thought he would be sent into a dystopian wastnd or to the eve of the apocalypse. When he opened his eyes, he found himself standing in a train station, surrounded by a bustling crowd.


    Everything looked normal... except that everything around him was made out of blocks.


    Lego? Zhang Heng raised an eyebrow. Lego, a building block toy, was invented by Ole Kirk Christiansen, father of Lego. The word came from the Danish phrase ��LEg Godt��, which trantes as ��y well.�� Food-grade stic was used to manufacture the parts, with protrusions on one side and corresponding indents on the other. The pieces are assembled ording to instruction manuals to form a variety of models, or the yer could set the manual aside and build whatever they please ording to their own personal preferences. In the world of Lego, nothing was impossible, and the possibilities were endless. Zhang Heng had seen many Lego fanatics build life-size Lego models on the Inte and in exhibits, including a full-scale Bugatti Veyron (engine also made out of Lego bricks, and could be driven on the road at low speed


    �C no more than 30km/h), all sorts of bricked-out animals, and even houses. In this game he was in, however, he was literally in a world formed by bricks. This was the first time he had seen something like this.


    He was standing in a massive railway station, where even the ss roof above, the marble floor beneath his feet, the cake shops, and convenience stores were bricks. Every single detail, from the ticket vending machines to the entrance of the subway station; they were all constructed from millions upon millions of colorful Lego bricks.


    In fact, all the passersbys were also brick people. Suddenly, Zhang Heng had a premonition. He looked down at his own hands and, as he suspected, saw that his palms had turned into the ssic C-shaped hands of the Lego minifigures.


    Just then, someone patted him on the shoulder. He turned around and saw a nerdy girl in ck-rimmed sses, braided hair, and an old-fashioned sweater.


    Zhang Heng furrowed his brows. He did not recognize her until she spoke.


    ��Under normal circumstances, most people would choose to look left in such a situation.��


    ��Why Do You Always Look Unhappy?��


    ��Yup. I know I look funny right now. You canugh at my appearance, but remember; you��re no better than me. You look like a rectangr potato cake. But the good news is, you are yellower, and you��ve still got eyes, nose, and mouth... although they are merely paintings on your face...�� While Why Do You Always Look Unhappy (#O��) was trying her best to conceal the excitement in her tone. Zhang Heng could hear that she was in a very good mood, which meant that this wasn��t a prank. Something did happen to her.


    ��What is this ce? Why aren��t you with your family during New Year��s Eve?�� Zhang Heng asked.


    ��Because this is my hometown, and my family is here.��


    Zhang Heng��s eyes widened. He was taken aback. ��So, you��re actually a stic block?��


    ��Who��s the stic block here?! I meant to say that this ce is exactly the same as my hometown. Err... except its all made out of Lego. Anyway, wee to Guangzhou, the city of flowers! We are now at South Railway Station, and we��ll grab a cab to West Square. Come on, walk first, talkter.��


    Why Do You Always Look Unhappy (#��O��) led the way. Together, they hailed a cab, which was also made out of Lego. Except for that, the system ran the exact same way as it did in the real world, whereby taking a cab from a different direction would mean getting dropped at a different area, and passengers still had to line up board the vehicle.


    Some Lego minifigures even jumped the queue when no one was paying attention-it was all uncannily simr to real life.


    The taxis at the front of the row left one by one, and at the same time, a new batch of cabs took their ces. An officer in charge let about a dozen people through, Zhang Heng included, and the passengers freely boarded cabs that were still unupied.


    Why Do You Always Look Unhappy (#O��). opened the door, sat in the front passenger seat, and said something in Cantonese.


    The driver nodded and asked them to put their seatbelts on before pulling away.


    ��So, you��re Cantonese?�� Zhang Heng asked.


    ��Yes.��


    ��Why are we going North?��


    The driver craned his neck and asked, ��North?��


    ��It��s none of your business. You just need to drive.��


    Why Do You Always Look Unhappy (#��O��). rolled her eyes, then switched to English when she spoke to Zhang Heng. ��It��s better not to talk about other ces in front of them. Even though the ce is almost exactly the same as the real Guangzhou, there are still minute differences. They don��t know that there are ces outside.��


    ��But we just came from the train station.��


    ��Yes, but they only have a very vague idea about the outside.

 Chapter 343 - Save It For Yourself

    <strong>Chapter 343 Save It For Yourself</strong>


    The cab drove along the highway, and through the car window, Zhang Heng saw could see the lush trees and tall transmission tower passing by him. The white clouds that floated in the sky looked like they were made up of Lego bricks.


    It was all rather convincing if one didn��t take a closer look at it. At the same time, Zhang Heng took the opportunity to check his character panel and found something very different. His skills and item bar were grayed out this time, and the unavable status was disyed next to him.


    Why Do You Always Look Unhappy (#O��) seemed to be aware of what he was thinking. Shen then exined to him in English, ��As I said, this quest is extraordinary. Your game items and skills are unavable here. Just rx, and stop worrying so much. Consider this trip as a vacation.��


    Before Zhang Heng got to speak, the driver interrupted again. This time he spoke in Mandarin, ��About your vacation, do you want me to rmend a few good ces?��


    ��Don��t look at me like this. I learned English before, as well. I can handle those foreigners perfectly fine.�� The driverughed triumphantly, his eyes turning into small slits. He then cleared his throat and started speaking in English, ��Gu De Mao Ning, Shi, Wei Er You Wang Te Tu Go, Mani Mani, Mani Mani, Mo Mani. Wan Te Ful.�� (Good morning, sir. Where do you want to go? Money, money, money, more money. Wonderful.)


    You Always Look Unhappy (# O��) ced her hands on her forehead, and with a helpless expression, she said, ��I suggest we wait until we reach our destination before we talk...��


    ��Okay.��


    However, even if the two passengers around him were speechless, they still couldn��t stop the enthusiastic driver from talking, especially after he discovered that this was Zhang Heng��s first time in Guangzhou. He quickly volunteered to be their tour guide.


    ��Now, on your right, it the Changlong Bird Paradise. There are many varieties, including cranes, cranes, cranes, and cranes.��


    ��Uh, you just repeated the crane four times.��


    The driver pretended not to hear that and continued introducing the ce enthusiastically.


    ��Ahead of us is the Pearl River... further ahead, you can see the iconic Guangzhou Round Building. Look at how round it is. Does it resemble a copper coin? It��s also the ugliest building in the entire city...


    ��...now we have finallye to Zhujiang New Town, the most expensive area in Guangzhou. This is considered to be the center of the whole city. An inch ofnd here is measurable by gold. On the other hand, the Yuexiu district across the street is a little less exaggerated.��


    ��F*cking... what a f*cktard... Watch the road when you drive! By the way, where were we?


    An hourter, the taxi finally stopped by the curb.


    After they paid the driver, You Always Look Unhappy (#��O��) clutched her belly and squatted on the curb beside the road.


    ��Phew. Wait for me. Let me rest for a while. It��s been a long time since I��ve met such a talkative person.��


    Zhang Heng looked around and saw the shopping malls next to each other on both sides of the road. Billboardsrge and small were everywhere, and the streets were alive with an endless stream of vehicles. ��What is this ce?�� he asked.


    ��Grandview za, Tianhe��srgestmercial center.��


    ��So, you entered this quest to satisfy your shopping cravings?��


    ��Of course not. I��m just used to having a drink here before I go home. Though I have been back several times, I still can��t get used to it, especially on days like today. Thank you for your willingness toe with me this time. After all those terrible things I��ve done to you, I didn��t expect you to still believe me. To be honest, I��m truly touched. In return, I will let you take a look at my breasts. Although they arepletely t now... there are only two circles and dots in the center, which is strange; I can��t feel their existence at all.��


    ��Thank you; you should keep it for yourself.��


    You Always Look Unhappy (#��O��) scratched her head.


    ��I remember that there was a Starbucks next to me, shall we sit there for a while?��


    The two came to the counter of the coffee shop and saw the barista expertly pulling a cup containing brown and blue cylindrical pellets from the coffee machine. Zhang Heng guessed that this represented the water and coffee.


    It took Zhang Heng a while to ept this magical setting, but once he did, he felt pretty good.


    When the waiter handed the mug over, though, there was a small problem. Zhang Heng found that he could not hold the Starbucks coffee cup with his ws even after stretching it as wide as possible.


    ��Uh, there is a tab under it which can be inserted into your hand.��


    You Always Look Unhappy (#��0��) guided Zhang Heng like an experienced customer to make sure he got his coffee.


    ��It took me a little while to get used to these things when I came in here for the first time.��


    Zhang Heng tried to suck through the straw, but couldn��t inhale anything. However, he miraculously felt he was drinking actual coffee, and the straw would squeak when he sucked it hard.


    At the same time, an ident had happened on the road in front of them. Two cars collided with each other, and blocks were scattered all over the floor. The despicable driver that rear-ended the vehicle in front of him pretended to be hurt, leaning, and groaning on the steering wheel. He made himself looked like he was about to die. A crowd was beginning to form, where some took pictures, and others recorded videos to upload to their TikTok ount. Other kind-hearted ones contacted the hospital.


    Just when everyone��s attention was attracted by the car ident outside, a bald man put down the ��Harry Potter�� in his hand and walked towards the two. He then cleared his throat.


    ��Don��t look at him, don��t say anything to him. He is rted to the main quest. As long as we ignore him, he will walk away when he finds us boring.��


    ��Main quest?��


    ��Yes, the main quest is to save this world. If you don��t do anything, this city will be destroyed in three days. But if you had to do something, you��d be required to go through some reallyplicated and troublesome process. Basically, you have to keep running to look for various key items. And in the end, you will find out that you still can��t stop the end of the world. What we need to do right now is to ignore it.�� You Always Look Unhappy (#��O��) took a big sip of coffee.


    The bald man then walked towards them and politely asked if they wanted to hear a story. After getting no answer, he walked away in disappointment. While he was leaving, he stole a mug from the shelf.


    After he left, You Always Look Unhappy (# O��) put down the coffee cup in her hand and stared out the window, seeming to be lost in thought, and not knowing what she was thinking. After a long time, she spoke again. ��When I passed by here a long time ago, I always envied the people inside. I thought those people wearing suits going in and out of the office drinking Starbucks every day was very cool. I wanted to be like them. I know this idea of mine is ridiculous, but it was my dream for a good period of time. I have been working hard for it. When other girls chatted which nail polish looked good and which drama was wonderful, I was studying hard. So, yes, this dumb thing was who I used to be.��

 Chapter 344 - It’s Me, Mom

    <strong>Chapter 344 It��s Me, Mom</strong>


    ��I still remember when I was a kid, the vige used to be here.��


    You Always Look Unhappy (#0��) pointed to Yang Ji Vige, which wasn��t too far away, and the two walked along Guangli Road aftering out of Starbucks. Soon, they came up to Guangzhou Avenue.


    This was one of the busiest roads in Huacheng, a spot in the city where the traffic jams were the worst in the morning and evening. Lego drivers on the road impatiently honked at the cars in front of them while inching forward at the speed of a wheelchair.


    When the pedestrian light turned green, the traffic stopped, and the two mounted the overpass to get to the other side of the road.


    ��At that time, I was probably still in elementary school, and I felt that the ce was a mess. There were shanty houses everywhere, haphazardly stacked with maze-like alleys, and the wires that hung above me were like spiderwebs. There were also clothes hanging on the wires, and I had to always look out for bicycles! The cyclists would always run through a puddle and ssh mud on my pants!��


    ��Do you still live in this area?��


    ��Our family rented a house for some time but they demolished the ce seven or eight years ago, and we had to move out. I am not a Guangzhou native. My parents came here to work when they were young.��


    Now that the resettled houses and office buildings had been newly built here, Zhang Heng gave them a simple inspection. Each building was over thirty stories tall, and a group of aunties sat by the roadside outside the building with rental leaflets ced by their feet. They chated and sunbathed while waiting for potential tenants to inquire about their properties.


    You Always Look Unhappy (#��O��) squatted down to scratch the chin of a stray cat. The feline seemed to enjoy it a lot, purring and wagging its tail. ��My father works in a restaurant on the second floor of this office building. He usually gets off at 11:30 at night. He��s a great guy! Once you see him, you��ll know that he never stops smiling for a second. When my final exam results came out, he made me his specialty noodles and celebrated it with me.��


    ��Are you going to wait for him?��.


    ��No need for that,�� You Always Look Unhappy (#0��) took a deep breath and stood up. ��It��s gettingte, and I��m hungry. My mother should be preparing dinner now, just in time for you to have a delicious meal. But before that, there��s still something I need to do.��


    ��What��s the matter?��


    You Always Look Unhappy (#��O��) looked at Zhang Heng.


    ��Kill me,�� she said with a wink.


    A high school girl carrying a backpack holding onto an English book as she walked past a male infertility treatment bunting, seizing every minute to memorize as many English words as possible. She did not notice the two people following her from behind.


    Earlier, Zhang Heng walked in front of her on purpose and took a quick look at the girl. He found out that she looked almost exactly the same as the person next to him, except she looked more innocent. Shecked the cynical temperament that You Always Look Unhappy (#��O��) had.


    ��Are you sure you want to kill yourself?�� Zhang Heng turned to look at her.


    Thetter shrugged, ��If I don��t kill her, I can��t go home. After all, my mother is just an ordinary woman. Even if she is now a Lego brick, she won��t be able to ept that she has two daughters that look exactly the same. I alone am enough to make her worry. It will be a disaster if the two of use into her life at the same time. There are too many people right now. We can��t kill her here. Let��s wait until she passes through a more deserted ce. There are lots of abandoned cars over there. After killing her, stuff her body into one of the trunks. Don��t worry about the police... this world will be destroyed in three days anyway.�� The two followed the innocent girl for a while, and as expected, they came to a ce where the traffic was as slow as a trickle. Besides, it was night, and the lights were dim. It was indeed a perfect ce tomit a crime, much like the one in the anime Detective Conan.


    Zhang Heng took a 1*1 blue Lego brick from the roadside, held it in his hand, and waved it twice. There was also a string of numbers, 300523 printed on it, where every LEGO brick had its own serial number.


    ��Are you going to do it, or do you want me to do it?��


    ��You do it... Aren��t you really pissed by my pranks? Here��s your chance for revenge. Just kill me. I hope you can gain some joy out of it.��


    Zhang Heng did not say a word. He carried the blue LEGO brick and walked towards the girl. However, he was still not used to acting in LEGO mode. The strange sound of his footsteps quickly caught the attention of the girl in front of him. She was still trying to memorize the English words in the book under the dim light. Immediately, she raised her head and turned to look behind her.


    Before she could even open her mouth, a 1*1 blue LEGO brick greeted her face!


    ��O!!!�� gasped You Always Look Unhappy (#oo��). ��It hurts!!!�� ��Do you also share her pain?�� Zhang Heng frowned. ��No, I��m just adding the sound effects. I hope you��ll get a more... immersive experience.��


    Zhang Heng was speechless, ��Go and open the trunk.��


    ��Yes, Mr. Killer.��


    Zhang Heng had no experience killing LEGO high school girls. He looked at the motionless girl in the trunk with a (�� 2��) expression. He then asked You Always Look Unhappy (#��O��), ��Is... is she dead?��


    ��Who knows. How about stabbing her two more times?��


    ��Forget it... that��s it.�� Zhang Heng closed the trunk, ��What now?��


    ��We are not far from my home. You can just say that you are my ssmate... but you seem a little too mature for that.��


    You Always Look Unhappy (#��O��) picked up the schoolbag that her dead another-me dropped on the ground and handed it to Zhang Heng, ��Carry it on your back. Fix your hair a little. It should be messier. Studying at school is a difficult task. No one has the time to live so delicately.��


    Ten minutester, the two came up to a dpidated apartment. Since there no elevators were installed, they had to climb all the way up to the sixth floor, passing through white sheets and a few shirts on the way. Finally, they arrived in front of a humble-looking entrance.


    You Always Look Unhappy (# O��) was talking nonstop earlier. Now, she had suddenly be quiet. She stared nkly at the brick wall in front of her, lost in thought. It was obvious she wanted to return here for a very long time but for some reason, she seemed too afraid. It was why she had coffee first after she left the train station. After that, she went to the ce she lived as a child. Thest ce she went to was her father��s workce, though she didn��t go in to look for him. All the cold jokes she��d been telling Zhang Heng was actually her way to suppress the nervousness in her heart.


    After a while, she hesitantly stretched out her hand and knocked on the door twice.


    ��Who?�� a voice that sounded like a middle-aged woman came from inside.


    ��It��s me, mom!��

 Chapter 345 - Happy Chinese New Year Eve

    <strong>Chapter 345 Happy Chinese New Year Eve</strong>


    ��Mei Nan, school is over?��


    The girl called Mei Nan showed Zhang Heng a threatening look, warning him not tough at her name. She whispered, ��Don��t talk during dinnerter. Although you say you��re my ssmate, you don��t know my school well. You also don��t know much about my high school as well. Talk less, and my mother won��t be suspicious.��


    As soon as she was done talking, the door opened.


    The woman standing at the door smiled. ��Give me your schoolbag, take off your shoes, and eat first,�� she said warmly. She was stunned, though, when she saw Zhang Heng.


    ��This is...��


    ��He is my ssmate. About that... His parents are doing something important, and he can��t go home for now. There��s nowhere for him to go, which is why I brought him home first.��


    Mei Nan quickly exined the situation before Zhang Heng could say anything.


    ��Oh, oh, oh, wee, wee! It just so happened that I cooked a lot. Let��s eat together.��


    ��Thank you, auntie,�� Zhang Heng replied as he followed the two of them into the house.


    There were only two rooms and a living room in the entire house. Cramped and looking in dire need of a revamp, the ceiling was so low that Zhang Heng hit his head on the incandescentmp when he entered the house.


    Mei Nan��s mother immediately apologized, ��I��m sorry... I��m sorry! Are you all right?��


    ��It��s okay. His head is made of iron. You should worry about the light instead,�� Mei Nan jibed.


    Through the aisle, Zhang Heng could see the kitchen. Some kind of meat was stewing in the iron pot above the gas stove, its fragrant aroma instantly hitting him in the nose. He also saw a little boy who looked only about three or four years of age, lying on the dinner table doing his homework.


    The little boy shouted immediately when he saw Zhang Heng, ��Mom, sister��s got herself a boyfriend from school!��


    ��You little bastard! Do you want more homework or are you looking for a good beating?�� Mei Nan growled and rewarded the little boy with a punch at the back of his head. ��My brother... he is a fool,�� she sneered.


    The little boy then cried while clutching his head, ��Mom!!! Sister��s talking too much, and she beat me as well!��


    Mei Nan��s mother brought the food out of the kitchen and reprimanded them, ��Stop messing around! Mei Nan,e help me scoop the rice.��


    After that, she turned around and enthusiastically spoke to Zhang Heng. ��Why are you still standing there? This ce is a mess! I hope you don��t mind.�� ��Nope, it��s all good here.�� Zhang Heng grabbed a stool beside the table and sat down. At the same time, Mei Nan��s younger brother pretended to do his homework, but his eyes were curiously eyeing the stranger.


    Seeing that his sister and mother were in the kitchen, he leaned over and asked in a low tone, ��Big brother, my sister is ugly and bad-tempered. Why do you like her?��


    Zhang Heng then informed the boy, ��Your sister is standing behind you now.�� The little boy was shocked when he heard this. ��You are going to lose your brother-inw, big brother...��


    ��...you know what? I��m not going to wait until the end of the world. I think I might just kill him now!�� Mei Nan threw her bowl in front of the little boy and said to Zhang Heng, ��There are no chopsticks here. You can��t use them in your current state anyway. Just use your hand to eatter.��


    Zhang Heng nodded.


    Mei Nan��s mother still seemed a little curious about Zhang Heng. However, she was very polite, where all she did was to ask his name and where he lived. She even kept making him eat more, worried that the food she cooked didn��t suit Zhang Heng��s taste. Only when she saw her guest heartily finishing two bowls of rice did she put on a smile.


    Mei Nan was still helping Zhang Heng to cover his story, but gradually, her attention shifted to her mother and younger brother. Zhang Heng was soon ignored by her. A whileter, after finishing the food, Zhang Heng got up. ��Thank you for the dinner. The food was delicious. My parents should be home now, and I think I should make a move,�� he said.


    ��Let me send you off.�� Mei Nan put down the rice bowl in her hand and stood up. The two then walked downstairs. Mei Nan��s younger brother was peeping from the window upstairs, prompting a slitting-throat gesture from his sister and a sh of gritted teeth. Her little brother was so startled he almost fell off the stool.


    ��Thank you foring back with me. I didn��t expect a family reunion on New Year��s Eve even though it��s not New Year��s Eve in this quest.��


    ��What happened?�� Zhang Heng asked, ��Why haven��t you been home for such a long time?�� ��Well, because I needed to send you off and guide you to a nearby hotel?��


    ��I��m talking about the real world. What happened to your parents or your brother?�� Zhang Heng asked as he looked into Mei Nan��s eyes.


    ��Oh, they are all okay. Actually, I��m the problem...�� Mei Nan said, but she appeared ufortable and didn��t want to borte. ��Don��t worry. The problem will be solved soon. By that time, I will be able to reunite with them. I know there several good hotels nearby. You can stay there for two days, or you can stroll around the city. Other than Canto Tower, you can go in any direction you wish. I will find you when the world is destroyed...��


    ��See you at the end,�� Zhang Heng interrupted Mei Nan. ��You should go home and apany your family. I can take care of myself.��


    ��Okay,�� Mei Nan nodded.


    ��Happy New Year��s Eve.�� Zhang Heng said.


    ��Happy New Year��s Eve.��


    Zhang Heng waved and walked back to the alley they passed. After bidding farewell to Mei Nan, he decided to look for a ce to stay. This quest wouldn��tst too long. After converting three days in the quest to real-world time, it was only 9 minutes. Since it would be many hours till midnight arrived, it meant Zhang Heng wouldn��t get to use his extra 24 hours. Besides, the quest��s mechanism allowed yers to leave anytime they wanted. In fact, he could have returned to the real world right after apanying Mei Nan home if he wanted to.


    But then again, it was a rare opportunity to live in a world built entirely out of LEGO. Just like what Mei Nan had told him, he could consider this trip as a vacation. Zhang Heng enquired a fewdies nearby who were square dancing, and they directed him to a hotel with rtively convenient transportation.


    Just as he walked in, he saw the bald man who was reading Harry Potter at Starbucks that afternoon. This time, he was holding a copy of Yangcheng Evening Newspaper in his hand, pretending to read it.


    Sitting on the sofa in the lobby with an automatic piano in front of him, he seemed to be waiting for Zhang Heng to approach. Instead, the boy went straight to the front desk.


    ��Can I have a business suite?�� Zhang Heng asked the receptionist.


    ��Of course, sir. Please wait a moment.��


    The bald man��s n to wait for Zhang Heng failed. He had to get up from the sofa. As he cleared his throat, he walked toward Zhang Heng, consciously attempting to maintain his calm andposed demeneour. Before he could get to him, Zhang Heng had already gotten his room card and was walking to the elevator.


    The bald man finally got a little anxious when he saw this. He quickly ran to the elevator and squeezed himself in before the doors closed.


    ��Are you following us?�� Zhang Heng raised his eyebrows.


    ��Give me 15 minutes to exin everything.�� The bald man looked gravely serious.


    ��Because the world will be destroyed in three days?��


    ��How did you know this?!�� The bald man was shocked, but continued, ��You are the chosen one, soe and save the world with me!��

 Chapter 346 - End of The World

    Chapter 346 End of The World


    Zhang Heng learned about the background of this quest from the bald man.


    It was just like what he expected of a Lego game. The introduction of the main quest was crude and straightforward, where even kids could understand the bald man��s exnation. In short, in three days, an evil scientist would open a space portal on top of the tallest building in Guangzhou, the Canton Tower. He would then summon a monster capable of destroying Earth. yers from another world (the chosen one) had to prevent the monster from destroying the city. ording to Mei Nan, there would be a lot of troublesome side quests, but all these served toplete the final quest.


    However, Zhang Heng also noticed that his skills and game items were sealed in this quest, including his physical fitness. His strength and agility had be very different after turning into a Lego man. Zhang Heng initially spected that the physical fitness of all the yers who entered this quest would be standardized, thereby minimizing the advantages and disadvantages caused by those differences.


    It meant there was only one crucial skill needed for this quest. ��Building skills, you must use your building skills to save the world!�� the bald man said with a serious look, before showing Zhang Heng a demonstration. He removed a leg from the couch. When mated to the TV and a nail clipper, he created a Gatling gun.


    He then demonstrated how to use towels, soapboxes, and keychains to make grenades.


    Zhang Heng raised his eyebrows, ��Can these things really work?�� ��Of course.�� The bald man nodded and ced the grenade in Zhang Heng��s hand. ��Be careful; don��t pull the pin. In our world, you can use everything you build. Of course, you will have to learn the quintessence of the things around you. Only a very small number of people can do that. For these people, we generally call them master builders...�� He coughed twice, ��...and I happen to be a master builder. If you must be my disciple and learn my skills, I can consider it.��


    ��Thank you. I shouldn��t have any need to learn building skills for the time being.��


    Zhang Heng opened the door of the house, bowing a little as a gesture of sending the guest off.


    The smile on the bald man��s face froze. ��Are you confident enough in your building skills?��


    ��No.��


    ��Have other great builders approached you?��


    ��No.��


    ��So... how will you and yourpanion n to save the world?��


    ��I haven��t thought about it.��


    ��Huh?��


    A question mark appeared on the bald man��s head.


    ��Good night.��


    Seeing that the bald man had subconsciously walked out the door, Zhang Heng went to close it. He now had a preliminary understanding of the main quest. Just like Mei Nan told him, the main quest of this dungeon seemed to be quite tricky, and the process wasplicated. Besides, the final skill that was required of the yers didn��t make much sense as well. This so-called building skill was only rted to assembling Lego blocks.


    In terms of practicality, it was far more inferior to the skills that he learned in the previous quests. Zhang Heng wasn��t too interested in this quest. It was better for him to spend some time exploring this world. He did this for the next two days, visiting the Changlong Wildlife Park, took a night cruise on the Pearl River, and tasted Cantonese breakfast. Although it was all technically Lego blocks, they tasted unexpectedly good. Finally, Mei Nan came to the hotel to find him in the afternoon of the third day.


    ��You��re done spending time with your family?�� ��Yes,�� Mei Nan took out a bottle of cold mineral water from the refrigerator in the guest room, took two sips, and pointed to the direction of Canton Tower. About an hour ago, a beam of light went straight to the dome, and at the end of the beam, a huge air vortex appeared.


    The peculiar phenomenon attracted many curious onlookers. They had taken out their mobile phones, taking pictures, and recording videos. Unbeknownst to them, a catastrophe was just near the corner. Reporters were also rushing into the scene to report this strange event. However, they were not allowed to enter the Canton Tower, where a bunch of heavily armed men wearing ck guarded the entrance.


    ��The space portal has been opened, and the monster should appear in ten minutes. We should leave now.��


    Zhang Heng nodded and put down the unfinished rice noodle roll in his hand.


    ��If you want toe back again, I can apany you.��


    ��I don��t think I��ll be back here again,�� Mei Nan shook her head.


    ��Why?��


    ��The key to enter this dungeon is a game item I own.��


    ��Block 300501?�� Zhang Heng remembered the system notification when he entered the game.


    ��Yes, but I am not the only one who has the item to enter this world. As far as I know, there are a total of 24 game items that allow the yers to y this quest. When you enter this world for the first time, the system will choose your favorite ce as the starting ce. That��s why I am here. For others, it may be somewhere else. We will y the game separately, and it can be either a single-yer game or a multiyer game The tasks are the same, but there can only be one winner. Once someonepleted the game, the game items to enter this world will disappear from the other yers. So, this is actually apetition.


    ��I did try toplete the main quest, but as I said, the difficulty of this quest is very high, and your sess ratergely depends on your Lego building skills. But... Well, how should I put it? This skill is useless to most yers. It is rare that yers would spend their precious time practicing building Lego. I have been training on the skill for a month, but it is still LVO. Of course, there is another way where you can make use of the time flow in the real world to practice the skill. After all, three days here are only equivalent to nine minutes in the real world.��


    ��But?��


    ��Although yers can theoretically repeat this game, there is actually a limiter on the key to enter this world. After using it ten times, the key in your hand will be invalid. So, if you count the time need to fight the monster, a yer only has 30 days in total. Thirty days is far from enough for you to be good enough toplete the game. Including this time, I have used this key four times. The bad news is that I just got a piece of new information. One of the teams has just recruited a Lego master, and they are very close to clearing the final stage of this dungeon. Therefore, I don��t think I can fully utilize the remaining uses of this game item.��


    Zhang Heng frowned, ��You wanted toplete this game because you wanted to use the remaining uses of this key to visit your parents and family. What about other people, why then would they be willing to spend their time and energy on what��s basically a useless skill?��


    Mei Nan raised his eyebrows, ��Because there is a rumor that there is a grade-B game item hidden in this world.��

 Chapter 347 - Let Me Read The Manual

    Chapter 347 Let Me Read The Manual


    ��So. You want to y the game again?��


    Zhang Heng nodded, ��I may have a way to help you clear the level.��


    ��I know you want that Grade-B game item, but... forgive me for being straightforward. Although Lego is just a toy, assembling it is actually challenging!�� Even those who are extraordinarily talented won��t be able to be a Lego master in just three days. What more, we still have many side tasks to do. You don��t have much time to brush up your LEGO building skills.��


    ��Anyway, as you said before, the remaining uses of the key will be wasted if we don��t use it, so why don��t we try again?��


    ��If you insist...�� Mei Nan shrugged.


    Zhang Heng nced at the watch around his wrist, ��The time now is 11:15 at night. I��ll go ahead and do some preparations. Wait until 11:58 to send me the email.��


    ��Okay, what do you need to prepare?��


    ��I��m going to read a Lego manual.��


    II


    11


    Although there was no time limit for the Master Builder Quest, there were three days for the yers to move around. This world would be destroyed after those three days. The rules of time, however, did not apply to Zhang Heng. He noticed that the time flow rate of this quest was 480, which meant that if he counted the extra 24 hours he had, his time in this quest could reach a staggering 483 days, more than enough for him to improve his LEGO-building skills by a considerable margin.


    Under normal circumstances, even extremely enthusiastic Lego fans wouldn��t spend more than a year assembling LEGO day and night. Although Zhang Heng had the extra time, it did not mean that he would spend all 483 days putting bricks together, not to mention that he was already living in a city entirely built by LEGO. However, the Grade-B game item was worth the trouble, and Zhang Heng was confident that he could ovee all those difficulties. After all, he had survived 520 days alone on a deserted ind.


    Zhang Heng used the remaining time to read up about LEGO on the inte, looking up as many videos as he could. It gave him a better understanding of the level of the top yers in the world of LEGO.


    Then at 11:58, Mei Nan sent an email to Zhang Heng. Closing the other web pages, he clicked on the link in the email.


    When he opened his eyes again, he had returned to the South Station. It was still the same Lego roof, the same bakery, and electronic cards. The only difference was that Mei Nan was now wearing what she usually wore; a pair of jeans, sport shirt, and a Dodgers cap.


    Since she didn��t need to go home anymore, she didn��t need to dress like a high school girl.


    ��How��s your LEGO tutorials going?��


    ��It��s not bad. I got to know that they justunched the ��Overwatch�� series.��


    ��...forget it. Let me take you to check out the difficulty of this dungeon.�� Mei Nan sighed, ��Come with me; I will bring you toplete the first side quest.��


    ��Don��t we need to get to Starbucks to meet that bald guy?��


    ��Don��t worry about him, that guy sticks around like a piece of chewing gum. Even if you don��t want to see him, he��ll pop out when the timees. In fact, he should have spotted us already when we appeared at the train station. Anyway, he��ll spend some time to make sure that we are the chosen ones before hees to talk to us.��


    Mei Nan walked toward the subway entrance as she spoke. ��Let��s go. It��s faster to take the subway to get to where we are going.��


    After half an hour, the two came to a bar called Metal Rose. It wasn��t night and there seemed to be no one in the bar.


    When they came up to the ss door, Mei Nan took the initiative to knock. After a short while, someone walked and spoke from behind it.


    ��Sorry we only open at 6 o��clock.��


    ��It doesn��t matter; we are not eating here,�� Mei Nan said. ��We are here to find the Demon Butcher.��


    ��Would someone really call themselves something so embarrassing?�� Zhang Heng asked.


    The waiter at the door also shook his head and said, ��Sounds like ame name to me. You should go to the anime city next door if you��re looking for those types.��


    ��No, I��m pretty sure that he is here,�� insisted Mei Nan. ��Tell him that the chosen one has appeared.��


    The waiter��s face changed the moment he heard those words.


    ��Wait a minute.��


    Less than two minutester, he came back again. This time, his tone had be more respectful, ��The Devil Butcher asked you first to prove that you��re the chosen one.��


    ��I was stuck in this side quest when I first came here,�� Mei Nan said to Zhang Heng. Be that as it may, with her previous experience, she had be familiar with the quest, swiftly disassembling the parterre and bicycle by the roadside and put a motorcycle together.


    During this period, the waiter looked at the timer in his hand. When Mei Nan finished her work, he stopped it.


    ��3 minutes and 24 seconds, not bad.�� Then he turned his attention to Zhang Heng, ��What about you?��


    ��Me too?�� Zhang Heng raised his eyebrows.


    ��ording to the rules, it��s enough for one person to prove themselves to the Demon Butcher. However, the Demon Butcher wants to see each of your potentials,�� the waiter continued.


    ��Okay.��


    Zhang Heng scanned the surroundings and looked for parts that he could use. Soon, he squatted down and started to create something. He finished in a shorter time than Mei Nan, only taking him less than two minutes toplete the task. The waiter behind the ss door was taken aback, speechless, when he saw Zhang Heng��s creation.


    ��...What the hell is this? A piece of French bread with a fishtail? What was your previous upation? An abstract artist or a performance coordinator?��


    ��In fact, this is a sword, and the fish��s tail is actually the grip.�� Zhang Heng said.


    ��Uh... is it because my imagination is not good enough? But it doesn��t matter... the chosen one is here. Consider it a buy one, free one deal.��


    The waiter finally opened the doors. ��You are looking for the master builder, Demon Butcher? Congrattions, you found him. I am the one you seek.��


    The waiter stood up straight when he spoke, but unfortunately, he didn��t manage to surprise them.


    ��After watching the same thriller movie a few times, it��s hard to be surprised by anything,�� said Mei Nan.


    ��Are all the master builders in this world this arrogant?�� Zhang Heng asked.


    ��Of course not,�� someone replied in a solemn voice. ��I am not that kind of person.��


    The bald man appeared from behind Zhang Heng and Mei Nan, looking at them like a ghost. With piercing eyes, he said, ��I finally found you, chosen one. The survival of this world lies on your shoulders.��


    ��Mobile Arsenal?�� the waiter frowned. ��I thought you died three years ago. I didn��t expect you to be still alive.��


    ��It��s not so easy for a Master Builder to die. Of course, except for those who actually died.��

 Chapter 348 - Infinite Building Block

    <strong>Chapter 348 Infinite Building Block</strong>


    Chapter 94


    ��In short... only the chosen one can stop the Evil Scientist.��


    All four of them entered the bar. The waiter poured a ss of water for Zhang Heng and Mei Nan, and the bald man repeated what he said before. It appeared that the main quest basically remained unchanged.


    After remaining silent for a while, the Demon Butcher finally spoke up. ��I never thought that the Evil Scientist would choose this path. For an unrealistic fantasy, he is willing to bet the lives of an entire city.��


    ��Even if there is only a ten-thousandth chance that his wife and daughter can be resurrected, he would still walk this path of no return without hesitation.�� The bald man��s expression remained solemn. ��This is probably a husband and a father��s obsession.��


    Pausing for a moment, he continued, ��But we all know the consequences of doing this. Once the space-time portal is opened, monsters would be attracted by it and enter our world. In the tragedy three years ago, all the master builders had to work together to save the city. We lost more than half ourpanions in that battle.��


    The waiter also seemed to recall the tragic battle, and a hint of fear lingered in his eyes. ��After the war, the Evil Scientist was so angry that he began to hunt down the remaining master builders. During that time, I heard he killed many of my old acquaintances. Rumour has it that once the Evil Scientist catches you, he would dismember you into pieces! He would finally hang your ass on the advertising board of Wanda Studios. It served as a bloody and cruel warning to the remaining master builders.��


    ��Uh... that��s actually Ninjago��s ass. Just two days ago, Ninjago, his girlfriend and me watched ��Tiny Times�� together. After we came out of the cinema, they broke up. I still remember Ninjago��sst words... ��trash movie, eat my (BEEP]!�� I didn��t expect his wish toe true in such a way.�� The bald man��s eyes were full of sadness.


    <b>��</b>


    ��Yeah, that dangling ass scared a lot of people. So the rest of them chose to remain anonymous, just like me. By the way, I now help the boss sell liquor to rich women, and I��m actually earning more than before. But it doesn��t matter... forget what I said.��


    ��In recent years, our power has weakened, but at the same time, the Evil Scientist gets stronger day by day. His technology of cloning bionic humans has also made a major breakthrough recently. Now, he has an army. But we cannot just give up. What more, its all different this time,�� said the bald man as he got rid of the sadness in his eyes. His gaze turned to Zhang Heng, and Mei Nan, who were beside him. ��We have the chosen ones with us.��


    ��You��re right.�� The waiter who was depressed at first heard those words and became excited again. ��With the leadership of the chosen ones, we will survive this crisis.��


    ��Wait, we��ve been talking about this matter for a long time, but you guys haven��t mentioned who the Evil Scientist is,�� frowned Zhang Heng.


    The waiter and the bald man stopped talking and looked at Zhang Heng with their heads cocked.


    ��Well, I see now. I guess like the Demon Butcher and the Mobile Arsenal; the Evil Scientist is just a nickname.��


    The bald man nodded, ��Everyone who bes a master builder will have a new and cool name. Don��t underestimate it; it��s the best representation of the master builder��s characteristics.��


    ��Yes, the characteristics are very important. Every master builder, in their own right, is an outstanding artist. We can build many things, but we all have our own specialties and weaknesses,�� the waiter added on. ��For example, my name is the Demon Butcher because my best creation is ��the butcher.�� These are hell creatures created from the corpses of demons, equipped with amazing attack power and invulnerability, and a powerful tackle.��


    ��I am called a Mobile Arsenal because I am the best at making ammunition.�� The bald man grabbed the ashtray on the table. He then picked up a toothpick box and a fork. His hands started twisting until it became a blur, and in the blink of an eye, a mini-missile appeared on the table.


    ��As for the Evil Scientist...�� the bald man sighed, ��He was originally our leader, and he was also the strongest, most creative, and most charismatic person among us. At that time, he was known as the scientist. His forte was to create all kinds of high-tech gadgets. The smart toilet bowl in my house is a gift from him. Oh my goodness, that thing is such a blessing. Every time I��m done using the toilet, a small detector would stick out. When the water hits my butt, I can feel my soul being cleansed! Did you know that it can even heat up the spot where it touches your skin? I once thought it was the greatest invention that humanity...��


    ��Ahem, stay on the right topic, Mobile Arsenal,�� the waiter coughed twice and reminded him.


    ��Oh, sorry, I just remembered the good times when we worked together. You know, Ie from a single-family. Although our age gap isn��t veryrge, he was like my father, and he means a lot to me. Of course, it��s just a metaphor,�� the bald man sighed. ��Butter, the idental death of his wife and daughter changed him drastically, turning him into the Evil Scientist. After he killed so many master builders... I don��t think I can forgive him anymore. So when I see him again this time, I will return the smart toilet bowl that he gave me. From then on, I want to have nothing to do with him.��


    The waiter patted the bald man on the shoulder,forting him.


    ��So what we have to do is prevent him from opening the space portal?�� Zhang Heng asked.


    ��No, we have to close the space portal after he opens it and before the monsters are summoned. Timing is crucial,�� the bald man continued, regaining his energy a little after beingforted. ��I may not have made it clear before, but to activate the space portal, two things are needed: The quantum collider and the Infinite Building Block. Based on my understanding of the evil scientist, he should have installed the quantum collider in Canto Tower. It��s the tallest building in the city.��


    ��Why? Is there a height requirement to open the space portal?�� ��As far as I know, there aren��t any... but it is morepelling to put it at the highest ce. The Evil Scientist has always been a man with a sense of ritual in his life. In fact, he��s still a little bit superstitious. We yed a gacha game together before, and while we pulled the cards, he insisted on taking a shower before doing it. This is a very essential operation for him, and he will try his best to increase his probability of sess. Unfortunately, we can��t sneak into Canto Tower and destroy the quantum collider now. I know that he must have prepared a backup quantum collider in case things don��t go his way. And we don��t know where that one is as well. In fact, the more important thing here is the Infinite Building Block. Without it, the quantum collider is just a pile of scrap. There is only one Infinite Building Block in the entire world!��

 Chapter 349 - Building Something

    <strong>Chapter 349 Building Something</strong>


    ��The Evil Scientist always carried the Infinite Building Block with him, resulting in him bing more and more powerful. Now, he��s unstoppable. Technically, we, too, will get our opportunity to strike when he opens the space portal this time since he��ll ce the Infinite Building Block into the quantum collider. The moment the quantum collider starts to work, it will be impossible for him to take out the Infinite Building Block. There will be no such problem for us, though. Extracting the Infinite Building Block will also stop the quantum collider and save the whole city.��


    ��Let me start from the beginning. To open the space portal, we will need a quantum collider and an Infinite Building Block. Now, there are two quantum colliders. One is installed in Canto Tower, and the other, we have no idea where it is. So the best way to deal with it is to wait for the Evil Scientist to activate the quantum collider on Canto Tower. His power will be at its weakest at that time. Then, we defeat him, extract the Infinite Building Block from the quantum collider, close the space portal, and finally save the city?��


    ��Don��t forget that I need to return the smart toilet bowl that he gave me personally. And yes, that��s basically everything we need to do,�� the bald man nodded.


    ��The Evil Scientist is mighty, and a group of bionics also fights alongside him. The few of us here are not powerful enough to defeat the Evil Scientist. We can��t even sneak into the Canto Tower,�� the waiter replied in a worried tone.


    ��You��re right. It��s not enough to only have the chosen ones help us. We still need to find more allies,�� the bald man said while looking at the waiter. ��Actually, after finding the chosen one, I was nning to bring them to see you first.��


    ��You want to gather all the other surviving master builders to fight the Evil Scientists together?�� The waiter was surprised. He frowned, continuing, ��It��s a good idea, no doubt, but how are we supposed to achieve that? To avoid the Evil Scientist, everyone has chosen to stay hidden in recent years. I do have some of their contacts. Do you want me to help you find the Messenger?��


    The bald man nodded, ��The animal messengers built by the Messenger can help us to contact everyone in the shortest time possible. However, she seldom interacts with the other master builders. You have been on good terms with her since the beginning. We have to admit that many of us took wild guesses on the nature of your rtionship.��


    ��Well, I do know where she lives,�� the waiter scratched his head.


    ��Excellent, it shouldn��t be toote to go and look for her now,�� smirked the bald man while smoothly taking a te from the table next to him.


    ��The second test ising.�� Mei Nan said to Zhang Heng, ��When we get to the Messenger��s house, we will run into the bionics that will attempt to catch her. There will be a battle.��


    ��Battle?�� Zhang Heng raised his eyebrows. ��But we are now with two master builders. They should be more powerful than me, right?�� he said.


    Mei Nan nodded, ��Yes, although I didn��tmit to building LEGO, I have at least done it for a month. However, my current LEGO skills are still at Level 0. These two guys might look weak, but don��t be fooled. Their LEGO building skills are now least at LV2 since they acquired the title of master builder. In other words, they are equivalent to full-time LEGO yers in the real world. They can assemble any LEGO model by themselves, shoot a short video, upload it on the Inte, attract arge number of fans, and be Inte celebrities. They are stronger than us, but...��


    ��But?��


    ��You will knowter,�� Mei Nan sighed.


    The four soon came up to a residential area that seemed to be quite old; its residents mainly elderly people. Every household had flowers and potted nts on the balcony. The waiter then pointed to the top floor of an old apartment with a pigeon loft.


    ��The Messenger lives there, and the pigeons in the loft are all created by her.��


    ��Uhh... did you tell the Messenger in advance that we��reing for a visit? Is she nning to kill a few pigeons to serve us?�� The bald man squinted. He was very observant. The pigeons in the loft were all stumbling around and there was also blood spattered on the cages.


    ��Not good.��


    The waiter��s expression changed. As soon as the bald man was done talking, he saw a hooded person jumping out of the window. The person stepped on the raised edge of the window sill and attempted to climb over to the balcony next door. A man in ck was following her from behind.


    The bald man��s expression changed. ��Those are the bionics serving the Evil Scientist. It seems that they are a step ahead of us; they found the Messenger first. The Evil Scientist must be worried that she might contact other master builders in this city to stop him.��


    As he spoke, the waiter was already rushing over to her. He disassembled the nts, wall tiles, and fitness equipment along the way as he ran, and when he was downstairs, he already had an intable cushion with an image of Hello Kitty with him.


    At this time, the hooded person was in a massive predicament. She tried her best to stick her body to the wall and moved step by step to the opposite balcony. However, the man in ck extended his body out of the window and attempted to grab her.


    The waiter yelled at the top of his lungs, ��Jump, Messenger, jump!!!��


    The Messenger looked down and hesitated. After all, she lived on the seventh floor. The man in ck took the opportunity, managing to grab her shoulder. A grin broke on his face the moment he caught her, but the next moment, he only found a hooded jacket in his hand.


    The Messenger gritted her teeth, closed her eyes, and jumped from the stairs,nding on the freshly made intable cushion. Before everyone could take a breath, more people in ck rushed out of the corridor towards the waiter and the Messenger.


    Secondster, there was the loud rattling of machine guns firing. The bald man made use of the time to build a Gatling gun and was shooting at the enemies. The LEGO bullets wererger than the usual, as big as a fist. However, they traveled slower and could be seen by the naked eye. That said, they were just as deadly as real bullets.


    As soon as the bald man joined the fight, he immediately suppressed the men in ck who were going after them. But as the first attack subsided, the surviving ck-clothed bionic men began to look for shelter and drew their guns to fight back. Now, it was the bald man��s turn to feel the pressure. He said to the waiter, ��Let the butcher out. There are too many of them!��


    However, the waiter shook his head when he heard the suggestion. ��No, the butcher��sbat power is too great, and I won��t be able to control him once I summon him. Besides, there are too many civilians in this ce.��


    In fact, not too far away from their battle, there was an older man who was sunbathing. At the beginning of the battle, he attempted to run for his life with a look of horror on his face. Unfortunately, his legs seemed to have lost their potency, only managing to move 50 centimeters after a long while.


    The two of them seemed to have discussed the battle n in advance. They turned around to look at Zhang Heng and Mei Nan. ��Hurry up, build something. Whatever that can help to stop the enemies!�� they shouted.

 Chapter 350 - I Have An Idea

    Chapter 350 I Have An Idea


    ��I... I can��t hold them off for much longer. Are you guys done yet?!�� the bald man urged anxiously. His tone implied that if Zhang Heng and Mei Nan didn��t do something now, he was a goner for sure.


    Mei Nan wasn��t convinced, though. ��Ignore him. He��s far from doomed �C we still have about seven minutes. Even though they said we could build anything, it��s useless to build weapons right now. The Evil Scientist has takenplete control of the city, and his minions are everywhere. More bionics attack us if the battle continues, which is why we need to leave here as soon as possible,�� she said.


    ��A vehicle?��


    ��That��s right. We need to build a vehicle.�� ��Can��t we just use the existing vehicles?��


    ��I thought about it, but unfortunately, have you seen any reliable means of transport on your way here?��


    Zhang Heng looked around. Not a single bicycle could be seen in the entiremunity, much less a car. The only transport avable was probably that wheelchair next to the old man with a terrified look on his face. Obviously, that wasn��t the most reliable means to help them fight their way out.


    Mei Nan said, ��I only know how to build a Smart Fortwo. Because of itspact body, it will require the least amount of blocks, and it��s rtively simple. But even so, it took me more than half a month of practice �C seven minutes is just enough for me to build one Smart Fortwo or two motorcycles... but then we��ll have a problem.�� Zhang Heng understood what the problem was. The Smart Fortwo only had two seats; one for the driver and the other for the passenger. Even if there was space in the trunk, it could only fit a maximum of four people at its very limit.


    Earlier on, there was only Mei Nan, the messenger, the bald man, and the waiter, which would have been just right. Right now, they had one more person �C Zhang Heng. Even if they switched to making the motorcycles, they would still face the same dilemma.


    ��Go ahead and build that Smart Fortwo. I��ll think about how to solve the problem of the extra person.��


    They were running out of time, so Zhang Heng and Mei Nan divided the work. Thetter nodded and immediately dove into the intense process of constructing the vehicle, while Zhang Heng tried toe up with more solutions.


    He had watched the entire process of Mei Nan building the motorcycle, and it didn��t look tooplicated �C but understanding it and being able to do it were two very different things.


    Right now, judging by his skills, he couldn��t even build the simplest sword. The waiter evenmented unsparingly that Zhang Heng��s sword looked like a French baguette with a fishtail. For Zhang Heng, building a motorcycle would be harder than scaling the Himyas.


    As the seconds and minutes trickled by, more and more men in ck began to appear. The bald man��s cries got even more desperate, and although he was doing nothing to help ease the situation, it didn��t stop him from bugging Zhang Heng and Mei Nan. ��Are you done? When will you be done? Is it not done yet? If it��s not done soon, our ass will be on the line!!!��


    Fortunately, Mei Nan was immune to the constant urging, and she was nearly finished with the construction of her Smart Fortwo. She was now assembling the car��s exhaust pipe.


    On the other side, after six long minutes, all Zhang Heng had managed to build was a rope.


    He was supposed to make a bicycle since it had a much simpler structure than a motorcycle, but somehow, a few joints must have been wrongly assembled, or perhaps it was all wrong that at the end, he had identally created a nylon rope.


    The waiter did not waste the opportunity to say something mean. ��Heavens! Is your n for us to end our own lives with that rope?��.


    By that time, Mei Nan had alreadypleted the Smart Fortwo, taking her a total of six minutes and twenty-three seconds. She did pretty well this time, much faster than her usual. Mei Nan slid into the driver��s seat, started up the engine, and called out to her group, ��Hurry up and get in the car! At the very worst, we��ll have to abandon one person.��


    The bald man and the waiter gasped sharply as soon as she said that. Not Zhang Heng, though. ��No need for that. I have an idea!�� he said.


    He then opened the trunk of the car and said to the waiter and the messenger, ��Get inside first, and hold on to this nylon rope.��


    There was no time for questions, so the two did as they were told and climbed into the trunk.


    The bald man opened fire at the enemy as he retreated to the passenger seat. But halfway there, Zhang Heng blocked his path. ��This is not your seat.��


    Zhang Heng moved the wheelchair next to the old man and then tied the other end of the nylon rope onto it. ��Are you kidding? I��d rather kill myself with that rope.�� Even though he said that, when he saw the throng of enemies pouring in from all directions, the bald man reluctantly but obediently settled down in the wheelchair. ��You should��ve made me a seat belt,�� he wasining.


    When Zhang Heng hopped into the car, Mei Nan said, ��Sit tight, everyone. This trip might get a little bumpy.��


    ��Oh, that��s just great! There��re bumps. Seriously, has no one noticed that I am in urgent need of a seatbelt?�� The only answer to his question, however, was the roar of the Smart Fortwo��s engine. Mei Nan stepped on the gas pedal and the car charged out of the gate like a wild horse.


    Almost at the same time, two bionics rushed out from the front corner in an attempt to stop the car. However, the Smart Fortwo didn��t slow down and rammed right into them, sending them mming into a wall.


    The bald man behind the car did not keep himself unupied. He had the Gatling gun with him, and as he rode the high-speed wheelchair, he sent a rain of bullets flying at whoever was giving chase.


    Once they entered a narrower area, Mei Nan ignored the red light and drove straight into the intersection. However, when she saw arge trucking from the left, honking incessantly at them, she immediately took a sharp right.


    The bald man��s face turned a sickly green. He grabbed the rope, desperately trying to shorten the distance between the wheelchair and the car. The messenger and the waiter pitched in, and in the end, they managed to catch the wheelchair. The sad tragedy of having a person flinging off a wheelchair while drifting was thereby avoided.


    ��So, what use is the rope?!�� The bald man gasped, clutching his chest. ��We should��ve just had the Demon Butcher and the Messenger grab the wheelchair. Wouldn��t that have been better?��


    ��I��m sorry... that��s the first object I actually made. It would be a pity not to use it.��


    ��Where are we going now?�� Demon Butcher asked.


    The Smart Fortwo running the red light caused a series of traffic idents, and the resulting pileup happened to block the road. Unable to get through the blockade, the bionics chasing after the car could only stand and watch as the car drove away.


    ��I know a ce where you can avoid these annoying little tails,�� the bald man said, disassembling the useless Gatling in his hand and fashioned himself the seat belt he had been thinking about the whole time.

 Chapter 351 - Incredible Work

    Chapter 351 Incredible Work


    The Smart Fortwo stopped in front of a waste recycling station.


    The bald man unfastened his seat belt and jumped out of the wheelchair.


    ��This is the ce. The owner is a friend of mine, and I asked him to let us use it for a while. Don��t worry. It��s on the highway. No one usuallyes to this ce. What we��ll need to do now is to let the Messenger contact the other master builders. As soon as possible, hopefully.��


    The other four people got out of the car as well. To prevent the bionics from finding their new base by pinpointing the car��s location, the Demon Butcher transformed it into two stone lions and ced them in front of the waste recycling station. The five walked into the waste recycling station, a ce that specialized in recycling electronic waste. Thousands upon thousands of air conditioners, refrigerators, color TVs, and washing machines were piled up in the open space like a small hill.


    ��Great, there are lots of materials here for the Messenger to build the animal courier. By the way, the situation was critical just now, and I haven��t had time to introduce you,�� the waiter said. ��Messenger, these two are famous chosen ones. Guys, this is the Messenger.��


    The Messenger nodded at the two of them. The first thing she did after getting out of the car was to make a hooded coat, which she used to cover her face.


    The waiter exined, ��Don��t misunderstand her. The Messenger is a timid person and doesn��t like to socialize. I have known her for so long, but I haven��t seen her talk to anyone before. Her existence is also the most special among the master builders. Her specialty is limited to only creating animal couriers


    The bald man also spoke up, ��Messenger, I am d to see you again, but now is not the time to reminisce about the old days, not with me, at least. Anyway, we are not that close to each othera. In short, the evil scientist ns to destroy the entire city three dayster. Fortunately, we have also found the chosen ones. Now we need to gather all the master builders to defeat the evil scientist and save the world. You��re the only person who can contact all the master builders, which is why those men in ck attacked your residence. Now, I must also admit that I couldn��t stop staring at your breasts when you lost your shirt earlier. Are you still willing to help us?��


    Just like what the waiter said earlier, the Messenger didn��t speak at all, simply nodding again when she heard what he said. After that, she climbed up the mountain of the garbage next to her and started to dismantle the discardedputers. She kept working on it, and the garbage dump in the center of the recycling station started getting noticeably smaller. Soon after that, the mountain of garbage was reced by a huge, ck, meteorite-like object with a bumpy surface.


    ��Uh...I think she might have misunderstood what I meant,�� the bald man lowered his voice and said to the waiter. ��If I were to tell her directly, I might hurt her feelings. Is there any way you can gently remind her?��


    ��Don��t worry. I��ve known the Messenger for a very long time. She��s the person I worry about the least. She knows exactly what she��s doing.��


    The waiter seemed to be very confident. However, as soon as he said that, the Messenger��s feet slipped and she almost fell off the top of the huge meteorite. Fortunately she quickly stabilized herself and carried on with her work.


    After half an hour, the waiter brought two tes of pan-fried steaks made from discarded mobile phones.


    ��Anyone wants to have dinner?��


    At the same time, the Messenger had finally finished her work. She then climbed down from the meteorite.


    The bald man was the first to talk to her. ��Thanks for your hard work. A very outstanding job indeed. Other than working on the wrong thing, everything you��ve just done is wonderful. I wanted to remind you earlier, but the Demon Butcher disagreed with me. But it��s okay; we still have time, we can do it again... Wow!�� Suddenly, a swarm of ck bees flew out from the craters of the meteorite-like object.


    The bald man was bewildered when he saw the flying insects. ��So this meteor is actually a huge beehive! I take back what I said before, and I sincerely apologize to you. Messenger, you are incredible!��


    ��I told you. She knows exactly what she��s doing.��


    Just as the waiter handed the piece steak to Zhang Heng, Mei Nan walked over.


    ��By the way, she asks what message you would want to convey to the other master builders?��


    ��Let me think...�� the bald man cleared his throat. ��Well, just write... we��ve lost a lot in the battle three years ago. Some friends are gone forever, and some are forced into hiding. We have contributed a lot to this city, and yet, we only got death and exile in return. You may put the words, death, and exile, in bold. You know, it increases the visual impact and creates unity... ahem...


    ��...these years haven��t been easy on all of us. In addition to the pressure we face each day, we have to avoid the evil scientist and his minions. They are everywhere, even at the rookie post. Honestly, this has gone way too far. For the past few years, I couldn��t even buy anything on the Double Eleven sales! The shadow of evil has only be stronger, and justice is all but bleak. I know that you have all wandered around, doubted, feared, and hoped that this is all just an awful nightmare. However, exmation mark. Dash.


    ��...I also know that when this city is threatened again, all of you will still rise up and protect it without the slightest bit of hesitation. Just like what you��ve done before; unite, join your hands, and fight against evil together! I have received intel that the evil scientist will open the space portal in three days, destroying the world for his gain. Fortunately, we have also found the chosen ones.


    ��...you there, the elderly, we need your help now! Let use together to end this malice once and for all! No more hiding, no more sadness. Because Spiderman once said that the greater the power, the greater the responsibility. Now, the time hase for us to bear that responsibility. Dash. Your forever friend, Mobile Arsenal. Okay. why are you still standing there? Send these words out.��


    The Messenger stood frozen when she heard the bald man��s long message.


    ��Uh... I think she meant that with the size of those bees, they might not be able to convey so much information,�� the waiter interpreted.


    ��Well, then remove thest phrase and just say, ��friends forever.��


    ��Take out Spiderman��s quote as well, although I must say I like that one a lot,�� the bald man sighed. ��That��s is the biggest concession I can make.��


    The Messenger remained motionless.


    ��Well, fine! You win! Change the message to; we have found the chosen ones,e quickly!!!��

 Chapter 352 - I Will Start Learning Next

    <h4>Chapter 352 I Will Start Learning Next</h4>


    The bee messengers buzzed their transparent wings, swarming into all directions of the city as they left their massive hive. About an hourter, the Messenger Bees began to return. The first two dozen returnees lined up, quickly forming a bunch of crooked characters on the ground.


    ��What does it say?�� the bald man asked impatiently.


    The waiter stood aside and continued to act as the interpreter. ��Uhh... these Messenger bees found Ms. Cat. She said, damn, where are all these beesing from?!��


    ��That��s it?��


    ��No, but I guess she might have fainted since insects terrified her since childhood.��


    ��Well, next...��


    ��The next one is Cowboy Daddy. He said, uh... ��these crooks are all so dedicated now! I��m not interested in online dating or buying tea leaves!!! If you dare look for me again, I will tear off your wings and stuff them into your mouth. You will get a taste of ultimate regret!��


    ��That old man is still grumpy as always. Well, next one.��


    ��Rocket Man, I��m not home, or to be precise, I��m not on Earth. Leave a message if you have something urgent to discuss with me.��


    ��...Next, next...��


    ��Dessert King, I want to contribute to justice, but my stomach hasn��t been well recently. It��s suddenly acted up again! I may not be able to join you guys.��


    ��...Next, next, next!��


    ��Candy Baby says, I��m taking care of the Dessert King at the First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University. So I can��t go as well.��


    ��Wait, when did they get together? I didn��t know that?!��


    ��Probablyst summer. Something wasn��t right after they came back from Chimelong Paradise. They stuck to each other like glue every single day. What��s wrong with them?�� The waiter then gasped with raised eyebrows. ��Oh! I remember now! Didn��t you have a bitter past with Candy Baby?��


    ��No! Ridiculous! Complete nonsense. I never bought her choctes on Valentine��s Day, nor did I send her Sophie on Women��s Day. Nexxt.��


    ��Well, the Ocean King. Oh, I like him. I heard that the Little Sun Painting and Calligraphy ss that he worked for got closed down. After that, he taught himself programming and worked for a gamingpany. I haven��t contacted him since then. After that, theirpany implemented 996, and sometimes 997. Anyway, I couldn��t contact him after that. Let me see what he said...��


    ��...ugh... you still have time to y with bees?! If you can��t finish typing these ten thousand lines of coding, don��t even think about getting off work today. Do it right away! Do it now!!! Even if it��s the end of the world, you��ll have to f*cking submit the code to me today! Hold on. This doesn��t sound like Ocean King. Messenger, can the voice of others be recorded as well? The bee Messenger will record all sound within a square meter. Okay... guys, I think the Ocean King won��t be joining us as well.�� The waiter raised his head and looked at the bald man, ��Gathering the rest of the master builders don��t seem to be going well. Any backup ns?��


    ��We can��t give up hope. Although the road is long and bumpy, the future is always bright,�� the bald man replied. ��Well, no. No, I don��t have a backup n.��


    ��So we are in a deadlock now... I don��t know if we should hang on to it. With the five of us alone, we can��t possibly fight the Evil Scientist. Maybe I should go back to the bar too. There should be a lot of customers there now, and it��s a great opportunity to sell more imported alcohol...�� Then, the waiter hesitated, saying, ��The Messenger also wants to find a new apartment where she can raise pigeons on the roof.��


    Mei Nan winked at Zhang Heng, and the two walked aside, ��My quest��s progress stopped herest time. As of now, we can talk to anyone and see if we can learn their Lego assembling skills. You could theoretically learn from all three of them, but our time is limited. As they said, each one has a particr specialty. These skills are not easy to master, and you��ll only learn the basic skills at best during your early stages. Only after you master the basics can you continue to learn the more advanced stuff.


    ��I personally rmend learning from the Mobile Arsenal because if... if we can get to the end of this quest and confront the Evil Scientist, a battle would definitely break out. The creations of the Messenger are all nonbat units. The Butcher, created by Demon Butcher, is undoubtedly the strongest among all the other master builders. Still, you��ve heard him saying how the Butcher is uncontroble, and the difficulty of creating it is also the highest among the three. So, just take my advice. Learning from Mobile Arsenal would be a much better proposition. He can create all sorts of weapons �C from pistols to sniper rifles, even howitzer cannons. You don��t need to learn all of them; just choose a few you like.��


    Although Mei Nan had no hope ofpleting this quest after seeing Zhang Heng��s less than ster LEGO assembling, she remained very patient. She exined everything to Zhang Heng in detail, even helping him analyze who he should learn from.


    ��But remember, you only have one night to learn the LEGO assembly skills. We will leave here before dawn.��


    ��Why?��


    ��Because a third test will be conducted at dawn. I can��t pass this level with my current skills, and I don��t know how he did it. Evil Scientist��s men will find this ce and surround us. This is going to be different from the afternoon��s battle. This time, they will go all out, and if we stay, the possibility of us escaping is zero. If we leave before dawn, Demon Butcher will build a Butcher to help the Messenger and Mobile Arsenal escape this ce. But he would surely die in the end.��


    Zhang Heng nodded, ��When is the battle going to happen? I mean the exact time.��


    17:15 or 7:20? Between that time.��


    Zhang Heng nced at his watch and pondered for a moment. ��We will stay,�� he said after a while.


    ��Huh?�� Mei Nan man raised her eyebrows, wondering why Zhang Heng suggested what would be certain death for him. She had exined it clearly before, and she believed he understood what she said very well.


    ��We will stay.�� Zhang Heng repeated it again, not exining his decision at all.


    ��You apanied me in the previous quest, so I will apany you this time. You have the final say,�� Mei Nan shrugged. ��Although I can��t convince them to leave this waste recycling station, we can make some preparations in advance to beef up our defense. It should buy us some time, and I don��t think they will go against this too. Besides, I can also make two box guns. It��s is the only weapon that I know how to make.��


    ��Thanks for your hard work. I��ll start brushing up my LEGO assembly skills from them,�� Zhang Heng said.

 Chapter 353 - Ladybug

    <h4>Chapter 353 Ladybug</h4>


    Instead of following Mei Nan��s advice and choose one of the three master builders as his teacher, he talked to everyone first. After having a short chat, he was confident that Messenger, the weakest master builder, would the best among the three when it came to teaching


    Although she was timid and reluctant to speak, not to mention she kept covering her face with her hood, she demonstrated the quintessence of LEGO in great detail. Besides, she remained patient even after Zhang Heng asked her multiple questions. In a way, she was very simr to the man in shorts that Zhang Heng met in the deserted ind quest.


    On the other hand, the bald man and the waiter got Zhang Heng thinking. The creation of the bald man was indeed the most adaptable and useful of the three, but he was also the one who talked the most nonsense. He focussed on very peculiar things as well, continually cozying up with ideas that needed the most exnations. On the other hand, he would emphasize on insignificant things when he could.


    The waiter didn��t have this problem, but he came with another. Although he looked humble from the outside, Zhang Heng found out that he was a closet showoff, and despite trying to put on a pleasant character, his arrogance oozed from within. For example, there was a Hello Kitty picture on the cushion that he built when he saved the Messenger. That was no coincidence. In fact, he would often y with his skill when he assembled his creation, constantly adding things that looked cool but were useless. Such dazzling craftsmanship was an unfriendly prospect for a newbie.


    As a result, Zhang Heng finally chose the Messenger as his teacher and decided to follow her, learning from her the most basic skills of creation.


    After staying awake the entire night, Zhang Heng��s managed to learn quite a few things from her. Looking at thedybug on the ground that gently waved its antennae, this little creature was Zhang Heng��s first creation. Thedybug was the simplest insect one could create among all animals. Before this, he had again identally put together a nylon rope.


    Through the Messenger��s thorough step-by-step demonstration, though, he was no longer so clueless about creation. There was a set of rules in the world of Lego, and they were was as simple as imitating the appearance of what was to be created. For example, the fishtail French bread actually looked very simr to a sword. The waiter, on the contrary, simply changed the appearance of his creations to show off his skills when the function of the item was barely affected.


    This was probably what the bald man was referring to earlier. One had to grasp the essence of the thing they wanted to create. Every master builder was good at capturing the quintessence of their creation, which was why they could be master builders in the first ce. Just one night of learning was not enough to level up Zhang Heng��s Lego assembly skill, but at least he was no longer clueless about creation and design.


    The Messenger gave Zhang Heng a thumbs up as a gesture of approval for his first creation. Before Zhang Heng could say anything about it, the rm was triggered.


    ��Not good, the evil scientist is here!�� The waiter��s face changed.


    ��Damn it, those nasty flies are annoying,�� frowned the bald man as well.


    The two listened to Mei Nan��s suggestion and had installed a camera and a motion detector in the mouths of the stone lions in front of the entrance. From the monitoring screen, they could see a few vans stopping outside the recycling station. A group of heavily armed bionics in ck suits jumped out, quickly surrounding the ce from all corners.


    ��It seems like we have visitors.��


    The bald man picked up a can of Coke on the table, rebuilt it into two grenades, and threw it out of the wall after pulling out the ring.


    Two explosions marked the prelude for the battle. Mei Nan threw a box gun to Zhang Heng, before creating another one for herself.


    The grenade that came from the sky fell into a group of bionics, blowing up many along the way. However, the remaining ones didn��t have any expressions of fear on their faces. Knowing that the n was exposed, the enemies no longer hid in the dark, attacking the waste recycling station with full force.


    A small team of bionics was attacking from the main entrance, and the rest opted to climb over the fence.


    They were greeted by a volley of fierce gunfire. Zhang Heng killed the first two bionics with the box gun in his hand, but many jumped off the wall without the fear of death. The five had to retreat while shooting and fighting at the same time. Fortunately, garbage dumps were everywhere in the yard, and the discarded electronics became their best chance of shelter.


    The myriad bullets that spat out of the Gatling gun harvested the lives of the bionics like a reaper on steroids. However, bionics only increased in number. The bald man cursed under his breath, throwing away the gun in his hand. He then drew the curtains beside him, revealing the countless bullet holes that had ripped through it.


    The bald man used Metal Storm, a weapon of mass-destruction weapon that could fire 16,000 rounds of ammunition per second to destroy one of the walls. Everything in the path of the bullets waspletely ravaged and destroyed.


    Even after the bald man used his trump card to deal with the enemies, it only slightly relieved their woes. The bionics only increased in number, despite the many that had been in. The bald man and the waiter turned around to look at Zhang Heng and Mei Nan.


    ��This time we can��t hold on any longer... if you have any other way to defeat them, now is the time to use them. Otherwise, we will see each other on the advertising wall of Wanda Studios!��


    Mei Nan shook his head, ��Don��t look at me. If I had a way to deal with them, I wouldn��t always have to watch the world end in the hands of the evil scientist.��


    Messenger: ��...�� No one thought that Zhang Heng, ignored by everyone at this time, would suddenly say, ��Give me three minutes.��


    ��Why, want to leave yourst words with them? I should do so as well. Who can help me fight for three minutes? I need to call Candy Baby and say those three words I didn��t get to sayst time,�� the bald man said sadly.


    However, Mei Nan that something seemed different about Zhang Heng. The two had never separated, but Zhang Heng was indeed different from a few seconds ago. His appearance hadn��t changed, though, and it was merely a conjecture of female instinct.


    Mei Nan suggested the waiter, ��Let��s release the butcher. There are no residents around here.��


    ��As you wish, chosen one.�� The waiter then put down the AK-47 in his hand, and secondster, a burly and hideous monster appeared in front of the crowd, holding a butcher knife in one hand and a hook in the other.


    When the waiter was almost done assembling the butcher, he stretched his legs and kicked his creation into the crowd of bionics. At the same time, he also threw out thest block in his hand. Itnded urately on the eye of the butcher. The butcher then shook his head as if he just woke up from a long slumber. Immediately, he bit the bionic in front of him, and at the same time, began to emit a cloud of poisonous green gas, causing a massive group of bionics around him to drop on the ground motionless. The raining bullets, on the other hand, didn��t even leave a mark on his skin.

 Chapter 354 - Marvel-Fan Romance

    <strong>Chapter 354 Marvel-Fan Romance</strong>


    Truly, the butcher was the Demon Butcher��s most powerful creation. As soon as it appeared, it dominated the battlefield, instantly attracting most of the bullets. Amid the chaotic rush of people, it swung the cleaver in its hands like a cub that had entered a candy house, slightly alleviating the pressure on the five people. The bald man finally had an opportunity to take a breath. He nervously wiped away the bullets of sweat dotting his forehead.


    ��What should we do next? Should we take the opportunity and break out of the siege?�� the waiter asked.


    ��... or we can sit here and wait for your butcher to clear out all those bastards out there,�� the bald man suggested. However, as soon as he said that, a bright green beam hit the butcher. The rotting creature, whose performance had been most impressive just a second ago, swelled up like a balloon before exploding into tiny pieces!


    Only a mist of blood in the air and the cleaver on the floor was proof that the creature ever existed.


    ��Oh, no! It��s the evil scientist��s Nano Disintegrator! I can��t believe they actually brought that massive killing machine,�� said the bald man, looking dismal.


    The butcher, of whom they had ced their hopes on, was eliminated by the enemy in less than two minutes after it showed up. This left the group in great despair. Having used all the tricks up their sleeves, they were still unable to turn the situation around. Right now, with the barrage of bullets raining down before them, they could barely lift their heads. To make matters worse, a sea of men in ck were closing in from all directions.


    The bald man leaned against the back of a vintage fridge when a bullet flew past his ear. He grumbled, ��We��ve held the fort for three minutes already! Is it not my turn to write myst words yet?��


    The waiter was devastated as well. ��Oh, god! We��re going to die... but I don��t want to die...�� he cried. ��I just bought a PS4 and thetest 2k13. I haven��t even had a chance to win the championship with my favorite Los Angeles Clippers!��


    The Messenger, however, only said nothing. Mei Nan eyed a pile of garbage not far away from them. It had been three minutes since Zhang Heng went through there, and although it was about time for him to return, no movement seemed to being out from the trash. To be honest, the bald man and the waiter did not ce much on hope on a certain someone since the beginning. Mei Nan, on the other hand, understood the kind of person Zhang Heng was. She knew he wasn��t the kind to make meaningless demands, even though she too had no idea what he could do, considering his less-than-basic LEGO building skills.


    ��Could I have been... mistaken?��


    Right now, even Mei Nan started to panic. The people in ck were getting closer, firing their weapons as they inched forward, and were less than twenty meters away at the moment. Mei Nan was even prepared to exit the game.


    Just then, a strong gust of wind blew, at them one that was so powerful that she had to close her eyes. Then, from the pile of trash came the loud roar of an engine of some sort.


    A giant ck shadow emerged from the pile of trash and started to rise into the air!


    The bald man rubbed his eyes. ��Is there something wrong with my eyes, or are we all dead? Is this real?! I��m actually looking at a Helicarrier here in Guangzhou?! Though, I must say... this is a smaller version, and the ssic logo is missing...�� he eximed. ��Did any of you... call the Avengers?!��


    The waiter and the messenger stared at the strange aircraft with their mouths ajar.


    Before they could say anything more, the weapons bay of the Helicarrier above them opened; as far as the vehicle��s weapon systems were concerned, they didn��t look like a miniature version at all. It was armed to the teeth with missiles andser beams. It took only one wave of attack, and the bionics suffered miserably!


    Not to be outdone, the Nano Disintegrator also emitted the destructive green beam!


    ��Captain America, watch out!�� the waiter called out.


    Nheless, he realized very quickly that he had nothing to be worried about. The defense system on the Helicarrier activated, and it shielded the aircraft from the green beam. As that was happening, its intelligent guidance system locked onto the Nano Disintegrator.


    Three seconds andter, the Nano Disintegrator, along with the bionics around it, turned into ashes with a poof.


    ��Wow! That was cool! I can now meet my idol, Iron Man, and ask him for an autograph!�� the waiter chirped. ��With the Avengers taking over, we can just turn this whole ��defeat-the-evil-scientist-and-save-the-wor ld�� thing over to them. I can continue to work at the bar, and the Messenger can continue to rent rooms...�� Then he turned to Mei Nan, saying, ��I��m sorry, Chosen One, you came all the way here for nothing; but forget about him. Now, we have the Avengers! Man, it��s the Avengers! Have you ever seen those amazing people fail?��. The bald man was also very excited, but he did not disy the same fanaticism as the waiter. He warned, ��Don��t get your hopes up too soon. The situation is still unclear. Can��t you see how that thing looks a little different from the Helicarrier? It��s too small, and there��s no logo on it.��


    He lowered his voice and continued, ��It��s possible that it may be under Loki��s evil spell. We just might have a tough battle ahead of us. But it��s alright... We came prepared. We��ll just need to take it away from Loki��s evil clutches, and who knows, we might even be able to join the Avengers!��


    ��I understand both of you are diehard Marvel fans, and I don��t want to interrupt your fantasy, but if you don��t wante face to face with another wave of enemies, we should all get up there. Zhang Heng is waiting for us,�� said Mei Nan.


    ��You��re right. We can��t just let him take all the autographs,�� said the bald man as he constructed a helicopter. Once all four were inside, he excitedly steered the helicopter upwards toward the Helicarrier. Sadly, there was no Captain America and Iron Man, and neither were there Thor and Hulk.


    Zhang Heng was all alone in the cockpit.


    ��You made this thing?�� The waiter found it hard to believe. ��To be honest, I would rather believe that I came face to face with ck Widow and Hawkeye when I opened the door.��


    ��...Or Loki and his evil men,�� the bald man added. He then looked over at Mei Nan.


    Mei Nan asked, ��What?��


    ��He has awakened. When is it your turn? I still have no idea if the Chosen One could grow rapidly through awakening. It was not mentioned in the prophecy. Anyway, all of these should be recorded in a notebook. By the way, do you Chosen Ones have any more tricks up your sleeves, such as ultra-fusion like Super Saiyan? You can inform me in advance so it��ll be more convenient to strategize the final battle.��


    ��There��s no such nonsense, alright?�� Mei Nan rolled her eyes at him.

 Chapter 355 - Are We Going To Die?

    <strong>Chapter 355 Are We Going To Die?</strong>


    ��Are you... going to exin what happened behind the garbage dump?�� ��As you can see, I built a simplified version of the Hellcarrier,�� Zhang Heng said.


    NOV


    As the two were talking, the voice of the waiter echoed from a distance. ��Cool, there��s even a coffee machine here? Oh, it��s Nespresso! Damn, I want a cup of coffee now How did you build this thing in three minutes?! That��s incredible! Is this the true strength of the chosen one? I take back the words I said to you before, and I apologize most sincerely to you. With your leadership, we might really be able to defeat the evil scientist ...��


    ��It��s a bitplicated to exin. Something unexpected happened earlier; I don��t know if my method will work.��


    The unexpected event Zhang Heng referred to was the first time he yed with other yers in the Apollo Training Camp. His extra 24 hours caused a game-time error, and the mistake wasn��t directly intercepted by the so-called ��second-level authority�� when he was ying alone. Zhang Heng also didn��t know what the oue would be if he failed the audit. This time, he was in a rare quest where he could leave freely. It was the best opportunity to test it out.


    The results went beyond his expectations. When the watch pointed twelve, he entered the parallel dungeon smoothly. There was no warning or penalty for cheating, and it seemed to be the system��s default way of dealing with a yer like him in a multiyer dungeon. The rm triggered in the previous round wasn��t existent in this one.


    Zhang Heng traveled to the parallel dungeon four years ago, before the incidents that happened right now. He met the young version of the bald man, the waiter, the Messenger, and other master builders. He even met the scientist before he became an evil scientist.


    Just like what the bald man told him, the evil scientist was the leader of all master builders. He was powerful, fair, selfless, and charismatic. Zhang Heng could get all the answers to his questions about assembling LEGO blocks from the scientist. In fact, he was the one who had helped Zhang Heng fortify his foundation in LEGO theory.


    This simplified version of Helicarrier was first proposed by the scientist, and he guided Zhang Heng step by step all the way to itspletion.


    Until the terrible war erupted, Zhang Heng was one of the few who got to witness how a respectable scientist turned into an evil scientist, gaining a clearer and more intuitive view of his characteristics.


    ��Well, I won��t ask you how you transformed from a rookie to a LEGO master in the blink of an eye... I just want to know what level your LEGO assembly skills are?�� Mei Nan asked.


    ��Lv.2, and it should be almost at the top of Lv.2,�� said Zhang Heng.


    In those 480 days, he had practically learned all the best creations from all the master builders. In the beginning, it was difficult to learn anything from them but after his skills were upgraded to Level 2, it became a lot easier to understand these things. His strong basics also allowed him to understand the quintessence of creation, and the was no need for him to learn from the beginning.


    ��Tsk tsk... so, from now on, we win battles with a snap of a finger?��


    Mei Nan sat down on the couch in the control room.


    ��It��s not that simple,�� Zhang Heng shook his head. ��The Evil Scientist probably has a Level 3 assembly skill. He is not on the same level as other master builders. He is something else. No one is as powerful as him, and that was three years ago. Considering how he always carried the Infinite Block with him, I don��t know how powerful he is right now. I don��t think I can defeat him.��


    ��Wait a minute, with your Level 2 max strength, no one in the real world is more powerful than you.��


    ��I suppose so,�� Zhang Heng said. ��If you can��t beat the evil scientist, then no one canplete this game.��


    Mei Nan had overestimated the strength of the evil scientist, but she still didn��t expect him to be this powerful, not without the help of Infinite Block.


    ��How did other master builders defeat the evil scientist three years ago?��


    Zhang Heng said nothing. Instead, he looked at the bald man with a cup in hand, waiting in line to get some coffee. ��Why are you looking at me? I��m just going to have cup of coffee. Is it necessary for you to keep staring at me like this? Okay... I admit that I stole a missileunch button on the control panel, but I will return it in a while, aight?��


    Mei Nan soon understood what Zhang Heng meant. ��You mean he is the key to defeat the evil scientist?�� she asked.


    ��I don��t know, but you may be right. This dungeon has a very high requirement for the yer��s LEGO assembly skills. Those who can��t build in this quest would not have got to where we are now, and the further the quest progresses, the higher the requirements for skills are. However, if you want to pass the final level, one cannot solely rely on their assembly skills. I haven��t thought of a way to defeat the evil scientist, but I know that the bald guy has the most special rtionship with the Evil Scientist among all the master builders. And he is also the master builder who talked to us at the beginning of the quest. I think his role is more than just a novice guide.��


    ��Ha! What you said reminded me that I chose to leave the waste collection station earlier, the Messenger and the bald guy were the ones that survived in the battle. The Demon Butcher sacrificed himself to let them escape. This can��t be a coincidence. It shows that he is very likely to be the final piece of the puzzle toplete the final stage. Judging by my experience, I advise you not to ce too much hope on him.��


    On the other hand, the waiter had already finished a cup of coffee, and he looked refreshed. He even made two macarons and shared one with the bald man. The two had a hearty breakfast on the Helicarrier.


    ��We are finally safe now. Where should we go next?��


    ��Well, I would like to go home first and grab the smart toilet seat that the evil scientist gave me. You know, I��m returning that thing to him,�� the bald man said. ��After that, we can find a ce to take a good bath, have a foot massage, and perhaps karaoke in the KTV. After all, the battle is in two days. We need to rx, and we just formed our team not long ago. Everyone is still unfamiliar with each other; we need some team building to increase our rapport.��


    ��Good idea, I haven��t been to the KTV for a long time. The bar I work at hires a live band every night, and I learned many new songs over there. I can perform for you guys when we go to the KTV!��


    The waiter rubbed his hands gleefully. Then, he suddenly remembered something.


    ��Wait, your previous n to contact other master builders failed miserably. We don��t have enough people to attack Canto Tower. Does this mean we are all going to die in the uing battle?��.


    ��I don��t think so. You are too pessimistic, but I strongly rmend that we spend all our money one day before the battle,�� said the bald man.

 Chapter 356 - Smoking is Prohibited in the KTV

    Chapter 356 Smoking is Prohibited in the KTV


    Blur lights and unfinished whiskey marked the private room of a KTV. Dice were spinning on the table, while the bald man and the waiter sang ��The Most Dazzling Ethnic Style�� together.


    When they reached the climax of the song, the bald man turned around and asked expectantly, ��I... can we get somedies to apany us?��


    ��Don��t even think about it. Don��t you think you��re a little too smug? Don��t forget that the evil scientist is still pursuing us,�� said Mei Nan as she poked at the orange in front of her with a toothpick. ��Yeah, you��re right. We have to keep a low profile now. Demon Butcher, help me pick Eason Chan��s Low Key.��


    ��Done. Then I will sing to Leslie Cheung��s Silence is Golden.��


    After the two clicked on the song, the two embarked on another round of passionate singing


    ��How is the situation?�� Mei Nan asked Zhang Heng


    ��I set the Helicarrier to autopilot mode. It should attract the attention of those bionics. They will definitely find a way to bring down the Helicarrier first. In other words, we are safe for the time being,�� Zhang Heng said. Not long ago, they fought a battle with the evil scientist, who ambushed them when they attempted to retrieve the smart toilet seat in the bald man��s house. However, Zhang Heng��s current level of Lego assembly skills was more than enough to deal with the bionics that came in their way. Relying on a set of power armor, he managed to defeat all the ck-clothed bionics nearby in less than ten minutes. When that was done, the five walked back to the bald man��s residence, where the waiter even took a dump.


    Afterward, Zhang Heng agreed to the bald man��s idea to rx before the final battle. That was why the five were in the KTV. At the same time, Zhang Heng did not waste a single second. He took out his mobile phone to search for information while the bald man and the waiter were singing their heart out.


    ��What are you looking at?�� Mei Nan asked.


    ��You are right. We can��t ce our hopes on the Mobile Arsenal. Before the scientist became an evil scientist, master builders did have enemies.��


    ��Hmm. It��s the first time I have heard of this.��


    The bald man looked up at some point and said, ��Yes, the guy that calls himself Vandal King. Uhh... he��s not actually a master builder, and I haven��t seen him build anything so far. All I know is that he enjoyed destroying our creation, a person considered as one of our oldest opponents. For a long time, we have been thinking of ways to solve the trouble that he caused. I remember that he demolished Tianhe Stadium once, just five minutes before the start of Guoan��s and Evergrande��s ser match. It was a nightmare for the city��s ser fans.��


    ��Yeah, I remember that guy too. Before the evil scientist, he was the evilest, most frightening, and most troublesome viin in the city.�� The waiter also put down the microphone. ��Not only did he dismantle the stadium, but he also went as far as demolishing the hospital and the airport as well. The crazy guy didn��t even spare the elementary school. The whole school had to take a day off because of his evil deeds. On the other hand, the students were very happy that the school was destroyed. Students from other schools were also looking forward to the day when the Vandal King woulde after their school. They seem to have made a e-demolish-my-school�� petition on an inte forum.��


    ��I��m starting to miss the old him, now that you mention those old times. At that time, although he got into trouble everywhere he went and always troubled the master builders, it was indeed our most fulfilling period. When I opened my eyes each day, I realized that I had a lot of things to do. Even when I was dating, my phone rang nonstop!��


    ��That happened to me as well! I broke up with my first girlfriend because I had to deal with the disappearance of the Guangzhou Bridge on her birthday eve. I remember how we worked together with several master builders and for the whole night. We had to rebuild the bridge to restore the traffic. But even so, I liked the feeling of achieving something useful. Before I left my girlfriend, I lowered my voice and told her, ��honey, sorry, I have to deal with another emergency.�� It makes me feel like a movie superhero.��


    The waiter��s face gleamed with a touch of nostalgia.


    ��I even epted two shampoo endorsement; you know, the kind of advertisement where I was invited to the studio and model while holding their products. I had to show my teeth when I smiled at the camera. Sometimes, when I walked on the street, some enthusiastic fans would recognize me and would ask for my autograph. There are even children who dream of being us when they grow up,�� said the bald while finishing up the whiskey in his ss.


    ��That is our era, the era of all master builders. Society needs us, and people need us. We can do a lot of meaningful things for themunity. At the same time, we get to enjoy the apuse and praise from the public. This might sound weird, but I used to hate the Vandal King. I thought the world would be a better ce without him, and yes, the world would be a better ce, but it doesn��t seem to be the case.


    ��After the disappearance of the Vandal King, our lives became more rxing than before. Without those annoying calls and text messages, we didn��t need to be standby for 24 hours. However, it also seemed as if we ran out of things to do as well. We didn��t know what we were supposed to do when we opened our eyes every day. The shampoo manufacturers didn��t renew their contracts with me, and I saw no more enthusiastic fans when I walked down the street. I can no longer enjoy the exclusive 30% discount at my favorite restaurant. When I got married, I became anxious and even suffered from depression. It was at that time that my hair bid me farewell.��


    The waiter looked empathetic, ��Yes, without the Vandal King, I finally realized that the items around me are actually very durable as if they will never break. The workers in the factory would follow a set of instructions to produce goods step by step. They no longer need us. We all have to ept the new reality and live like ordinary people. It is not easy for


    us.��


    ��Yes, I still remember my first job after reemployment. I was working in a cannery. Usually, I can finish making a bottle of canned food in only two seconds. It was way faster than their machine, and they were not happy about it. They told me that whatever I was doing was hical, and in the end, they told me to do whatever I was told to do and stop being nosy,�� the bald man lit a cigarette and took a deep breath; his eyes filled with sorrow.


    At the same time, the room��s door was pushed open, revealing the waiter. ��Sir, we are a smoke-free ce. Smoking is prohibited in the KTV.��


    ��Sorry.��


    The bald man immediately killed his cigarette.


    ��Do you want to look for the Vandal King and get him to help us deal with the Evil Scientist? It��s a good idea. Without the help of other master builders, the Vandal King is an excellent candidate to help us. But how do we find him? That guy has disappeared for a long, long time.��

 Chapter 357 - More Shacha Sauce In My Kway Teow

    Chapter 357 More Shacha Sauce In My Kway Teow


    There were only less than 30 hours left until Evil Scientist opened the space portal.


    Zhang Heng and his team hade up to the Shangxiajiu Commercial Pedestrian Streets. Located in Liwan District, a traditional business district in old Guangzhou, it stretched more than 300 meters. Featuring a whopping 300 shops offering a variety of food and merchandise, the ce was always jam-packed with tourists from all corners of the world.


    ��How did you know he��s here? We��ve been suspecting that he must have plotted something after Vandal King disappeared. We even gathered a team to search for him, but unfortunately, we found nobody. His face is usually covered when hemits crimes, and no one has seen how he really looks. He��s even more difficult to identify now, considering such a long time has passed,�� said the bald man.


    ��The reason why you can��t find him is that someone has been misleading you,�� Zhang Heng chipped in.


    When Zhang Heng entered the parallel dungeon, Vandal King had already disappeared for more than two years, and the master builders never stopped looking for him. He too participated in the search, and unlike the others, got some useful information, eventually discovering the whereabouts of Vandal King. However, since Vandal King had nothing to do with his main quest, Zhang Heng didn��t pursue the matter further.


    Four years had passed since that time, and Zhang Heng was unsure if he was still there, so he searched for the location with his mobile phone in the KTV.


    ��Misleading us, what do you mean?�� the waiter scratched his head as he walked over to me Girl. Then, he saw a figure not far away, and immediately, his eyes lit up, ��Ha, isn��t that me Girl?! Wow! I haven��t seen her for a long time. Since Vandal King disappeared, she applied for retirement as well. I can��t tell you how happy I am to see these old faces again. Maybe we should ask her toe out of retirement and fight Evil Scientist with us. I still remember how her mes were so powerful, they disintegrated everything in this world.��


    The five were outside the Chaoshan Kway Teow shop. The woman known as me Girl was busy wiping a table, not bothering to turn around even after hearing footsteps behind her.


    ��Come, sit, what would you like to eat?��


    ��Hi, me Girl, I didn��t know that you worked here. We are in trouble. Evil Scientist wants to destroy the city. We need your help. I��d also like a bowl of beef kway teow. Guess I��ll be hungry soon.��


    The waiter grabbed a stool and sat down.


    The somewhat familiar name shocked the woman who was wiping the table. This time, she finally turned around. ��Demon Butcher?�� she gasped.


    ��And me...�� the bald man came over, ��Long time no see, old friend.��


    ��Sorry, who are you?�� me Girl frowned.


    The bald man covered the hairless part of his head with his palm.


    ��Oh, it��s you, the guy who��s been stalking Candy Baby! You need to improve your ability to pick gifts! How could a man give a girl Sophie as a gift?�� ��No, you got the wrong person. I��m just an ordinary passer-by watching the show,�� the bald man said solemnly. ��I was just about to introduce these two people beside me. They are the chosen ones, and the one who doesn��t speak is Messenger.��


    ��Well, what brings you here?�� me Girl asked as she put away the rags in her hand. ��As I said, we need your help...�� the waiter continued. ��...and, can you put more Shacha sauce in my kway teow?��


    ��Sorry I can��t help you. As you can see, I am no longer a master builder. Now, I am an ordinary self-employed worker... and there is nothing wrong with the kway teow,�� me Girl shrugged.


    ��Actually, we are not here for you,�� said Zhang Heng.


    ��What do you mean? Who else should we look for if our target isn��t her?!�� the bald man asked.


    Zhang Heng looked toward me Girl. ��Aren��t you going to ask the chef toe out and meet us?�� he asked.


    me Girl��s face changed slightly the moment she heard that.


    ��Who did you want to meet again? I think you got the wrong person.��


    As soon as she said that, though, the chef emerged from the kitchen.


    ��Ah Kang isn��t back yet. Want me to pick him up? ...hey, we have customers.��


    ��Vandal King, I have wanted to meet you for a long time,�� Zhang Heng said.


    ��Who? Vandal King... is here too?!�� The bald man looked around curiously, but he didn��t see anyone that would interest him in the kway teow shop. After a while, his eyes finally moved to the plump white man in front of him.


    ��No way, you are saying that this guy is the Vandal King?! Impossible, this is the man who gave all the master builders so much trouble and terrified everyone in the whole city? He looks too, err... ordinary!��


    ��Ha! It��s been a long time since someone called me by that name,�� the fat chef scratched his head, automatically admitting to his true identity. ��I was ignorant when I was young, and I wanted to be famous. To gain the attention of those around me, I didn��t hesitate to turn myself into a public enemy. I also know that I caused you guys a lot of trouble, but after I got married, I finally understood what a man��s responsibility is supposed to be, especially after me Girl gave birth to our first child. We rented this shop and started this kway teow restaurant. Don��t worry; these years have truly reformed me. I haven��t opened a roll of tape for a very long time. In fact, I almost forgot how to open it, haha!��


    The waiter looked on in disbelief, shocked when he heard the Vandal King.


    ��This can��t be good. This time, we are here to ask your help in dismantling something! Evil Scientist has built an army of bionics, and he��ll destroy the world in 28 hours. We can��t stop him with the few of us here... We need your help to destroy Evil Scientist!��


    ��Well... back then, I was really good at dismantling things. No one could do it better than me, but now, I am just an ordinary cook in a kway teow shop. I can��t do what I used to anymore.��


    In an attempt to prove his ims, Vandal King deliberately picked up a small bench beside him. Three minutes had passed, and he couldn��t even remove the stool��s leg. Everyone present clearly saw that he wasn��t putting up an act. Even after trying really hard, he failed the task in the end. It was a shocking oue, a deterioration of skills that had never been seen before this.


    ��Look, it��s not that I don��t want to help you guys, but I��ve lost my ability! If it is possible, I wish to make up for my mistakes and contribute to saving the world, but I am sorry, I��m not the person you��re looking for anymore. When one loses something, he gains something back too. Although I have lost my amazing dismantling ability, I have acquired excellent cooking skills. You must try my kway teow. I��m not bragging, but this is probably the best kway teow within ten-miles. Since you are all old friends of me Girl, how does a 50% discount sound? I will only charge fifty RMB for all five of you. I��ll even throw in two beef meatballs each. I guarantee they are so springy that your mouth will tingle!��


    Footnote:


    Kway teow: Char Kuay Teow is a popr noodle dish from Maritime Southeast Asia, notably in Indonesia, Mysia, Singapore, and Brunei. In Hokkien, Char means ��stir-fried�� and kway teow refers to t rice noodles.

 Chapter 358 - Be Yourself

    <h4>Chapter 358 Be Yourself</h4>


    ��Well, although we didn��t get Vandal King or me Girl to help us, think on the bright side. At least the kway teow here is really delicious. I want another serving,�� the waiter said as he passed the empty bowl to the kitchen.


    Secondster, the Lianxiang Restaurant located nearby was rocked by a mighty explosion, its shockwave shattered all the ss windows into tiny 1*1 blocks while throwing pedestrians onto the ground. The ceiling of the kway teow shop trembled, dropping a piece of ster right into the bald man��s bowl.


    ��Damn it. It��s Evil Scientist again! Can��t he just let us have a meal in peace?�� the bald manined. ��I saved my favorite beef meatball forst... is this what I get?!��


    The explosion was in no thanks to a five-meter tall giant mechanical spider that appeared at the other end of the pedestrian street. As soon as it appeared, it caused a massive panic, where people started dispersing in a frenzy as they ran for their lives.


    me Girl rushed to the cash register and dished out all the money as fast as her hands could grab them. Just when she was about to close the shop��s door, she suddenly froze with panic on her face. ��Ah Gang, Ah Gang is there!!!��


    Ah Gang, the first child of Vandal King and me Girl, had just enrolled in an elementary school near the shop. At this hour, he was supposed to be walking home with a schoolbag on his back. The explosion took ce just as he passed Lianxiang Restaurant, and he was unfortunately hit by the massive st. No one knew if he was alive right now.


    The mechanical spider approached them as its eight sickle-like legs cked and cranked along, digging deep craters in the tarmac with each passing step. ��Leave it to us!��


    The bald man got up from his seat, took out a pair of sunsses from his pocket, and put it on. ��Consider this as my gratitude for the delicious kway teow. Rest assured, we will help you solve this!��


    Then, he turned the chopsticks in his hand and the table beside him into an RPG. cing the grenadeuncher over his shoulder, he took aim at the mechanical spider that wasing for them.


    ��Game over!�� eximed the bald guy as he whistled a tune.


    The high-explosive armor-piercing rocket burst out of theuncher at a speed of 117 meters per second! It flew directly to the spider, hitting its body right on target. The results were surprising, though, once the smoke cleared. The rocket-propelled grenade powerful enough to destroy a light tank failed to kill it, leaving only a small dent on its body. ��I take back what I said before, and I suggest you have another child,�� sighed the bald man as he put down theuncher and sat back. He then asked the waiter beside him, ��Aren��t you going to try to defeat it?��


    ��I don��t know; there are too many people here, and my butcher will hurt the innocent. This mechanical spider is obviously Evil Scientist��s new weapon. I doubt my butcher is powerful enough to defeat it.��


    When the waiter was talking, no one would have thought that Vandal King, still in the kitchen at that time, would suddenly rush out of the kway teow shop. Without saying a word, he went after the mechanical spider.


    ��Uhh... can anyone tell me why he��s throwing his life away? Is your marriageing to an end, or is married life giving him too much pressure?��


    The bald man looked at me Girl, who stood at the side.


    Initially, Zhang Heng wanted to do something about the spider, but something suddenly crossed his mind, and he stopped himself from charging at it. That didn��t mean he was about to stand there and do nothing as he took advantage of the time to build a weapon. After transforming from superviin to chef, Vandal King rarely got to exercise, and after running for a bit, he started panting. The excess fats on his chin bobbed along as he ran, but despite the fatigue, he didn��t stop running, managing to get to Lianxiang Restaurant before the mechanical spider did. The first thing he did was to pick up his unconscious son from the ground. Just as he turned around to leave, the whole area was suddenly overcast by a ck shadow that descended upon them.


    The mechanical spider crashed down Vandal King with one of its legs. Fortunately, the chef moved his bloated body aside in time, dodging the lethal attack by the skin of his teeth. However, the sudden movement caused him to trip, and he fell to the ground, his son dropping out of his arms as well. Without any hesitation, the mechanical spider raised another leg and was about to strike at him.


    ��I��m not sure if I want to watch what is about to happen.��


    The waiter couldn��t help but close his eyes. The bloody scene he imagined did not happen though. For whatever miraculous reason, the spider��s leg magically disappeared. The attack wasn��t blocked by someone, and neither did the mechanical arachnid malfunction. It simply vanishedpletely, as if it never existed in the first ce. Mei Nan rubbed her eyes and counted again, discovering that the mechanical spider had indeed only seven legs left. Immediately, everyone turned their attention to Vandal King, who had just gotten up from the ground. He bent down, gasping for air as he clutched his knees.


    The loss of a limb threw the big spider into a furious rage. To everyone��s horror, it lifted both of its legs at the same time and was now about to stab the unconscious Ah Gang on the ground. The people who were watching the whole thing finally saw what happened to the mechanical spider. Vandal King took a deep breath, suddenly became more nimble and faster than ever before. The hands that were still covered in butter and green onions flew all over the ce, and it took less than three seconds before two of the mechanical spider��s legs were disassembled into a pile of blocks.


    He did not stop there, proceeding to climb onto the spider��s back. Now, the creature started showing traces of fear, as if it had just encountered its nemesis.


    Its seemingly indestructible armored skin was no different from an onion. Vandal King stripped off its armoryer afteryer, and the mechanical spider kept shrinking! After a few moments, the once five-meter tall mechanical spider was now as small as a fingernail. Before it could escape with its tiny legs, Vandal King stomped on it, squashing the bug with all his strength.


    Vandal King wiped the sweat from his forehead, looking at the dumbfounded people around him.


    ��Why are you looking at me? What happened just now?�� he asked.


    ��Your destructive abilities... are they back?�� the waiter asked in excitement.


    ��My destructive abilities? How��s that even possible?��


    Vandal King was taken aback. Earlier, his attention was focused on saving his son, and his body couldn��t keep up with the instructions sent from his brain. His hands simply acted out of his basic instinct. He then looked at his hands, and his voice started to tremble.


    ��My destructive abilities... are really back?��


    When he realized what was happening, he took a look at me Girl, who was standing not far away.


    Then, Vandal King rushed to Ah Gang who was still on the ground. When he found out that his son had simply passed out and wasn��t injured, he let out a massive sigh of relief.


    ��I��m so sorry. I know that it��s not easy to stay with us. I��ve been suppressing my true nature, trying my best to be a good husband and father.��


    Vandal King then scratched his head. ��Erm... actually, I tend to lock my eyes on female customers with good bodies. I hide money from you too. Sometimes I pretend to have washed my feet before going to bed...��


    ��Just be yourself.��


    ��Huh, what?��


    ��I said it��s time to be yourself. You heard what they said before. This time, you can use your abilities to do the right things... do things that are good for the world, save the city, be a hero, and make up for the previous mistakes that you made! Take care of Ah Gang, and I will be proud of you.��

 Chapter 359 - Eve of the Decisive Battle

    <h4>Chapter 359 Eve of the Decisive Battle</h4>


    ��Cool, we��ve now recruited Vandal King into our team. I felt like our chances of winning have significantly increased,�� the waiter said. ��This guy is a beast... well, although he��s gotten a little fleshy now, he��s still a beast with some extra flesh! He was the one who made all the master builders run around to fix his crimes.��


    ��You think too highly of me,�� The Vandal King shook his head. ��After all, I haven��t taken apart things for many years. I��ve inevitably be rusty, and now, I��m probably less than 60% of what I was during my heyday. The old me would have never taken half a minute to tear down that mechanical spider.��


    ��Hahahaha, I like this guy, he can brag,�� the waiter patted Vandal King on the shoulder. ��Yes, I can feel that he��s starting to integrate into our team and be a part of us.��


    ��Now, we only have one thing left.��


    The bald man wore a grave look on his face.


    ��What��s up?��


    ��It is time to give our team a cool name. Otherwise, when we meet our enemy, and they ask who we are, we will lose our momentum once we tell them our name one after the other.��


    ��Wow, are you talking about names like the Avengers or Task Force X?��


    The waiter became interested all of a sudden.


    ��Don��t forget that there are also names like Watchmen and the Justice League. And yes. It��s something like that,�� said the bald man.


    ��This is indeed a significant issue so... let me think... how about the Builders? I don��t know. It sounds like we work at a construction site or something. Or we should call ourselves Defeating Evil Scientist By Closing Space Portal And Extracting Infinite Building Block From Quantum Collider And Returning Smart Toilet Seat To Save the City And Action Team. I think this name perfectly exins what we have done to save the city. But it seems a bit too long...��


    ��Or perhaps we call ourselves Vandal King And His Little Team...�� Vandal King proposed.


    ��I think the name is still open for discussion. What about Messenger? What do you think?��


    Messenger: ��...��


    ��Well, I don��t think we can call ourselves the Ellipsis Team,�� said the waiter while scratching his head. ��Although I somewhat like that name.��


    To get rid of Evil Scientist��s bionics, all five didn��t go back to the hotel. Instead, they found a space and built a house right on the spot, even installing rm and defense systems around it. There, they would spend theirst 24 hours in preparation for the uing decisive battle.


    The bald man and the waiter were still arguing in the living room about what to name the team. At the same time, Zhang Heng and Mei Nan were drinking ck tea on the balcony on the second floor, rxing and enjoying their limited time before the war.


    ��I don��t think I wished you Happy New Year,�� said Mei Nan.


    ��Eh?��


    ��But it shouldn��t be toote. It should be just a few minutes past twelve in the real world, after all, and I want to say thank you. I thought I would be spending the Spring Festival alone. At a time like this, the street is empty, and the shops are closed. I don��t know what I can do. Besides, I��ve been a little down, but I��m feeling better now. I forget my sadness every time there��s something for me to do. Not to mention there are those three fools downstairs. Seems like a good way to celebrate the Spring Festival.��


    Seeing that Zhang Heng was about to say something, she shook her head. ��...no, there is an agreement between us. If you don��t ask me why I didn��t go home, I won��t ask how you managed to improve your LEGO assembly skills to such a high level in such a short time. Besides, how did you even know so many hidden secrets in this quest? Each of us has that secret we can never tell others, right?��


    ��Sounds fair enough, do you want some cookies?��


    ��Of course, I want Blueberry or Matcha vor. Can I?��


    Zhang Heng peeled off one of the corners of the table and skillfully put together into a cookie.


    ��Well, though I have epted that your LEGO assembly skills are off the chart, I have to admit that it still feels a bit weird watching you fashion food out of nothing...�� Mei Nan picked up one and put it in her mouth, ��...uh-huh, it tastes unexpectedly good, and considering how we just ate steak made out of a radio just two days ago, I think I can give these seven points.��


    ��Where are the remaining three points?��


    ��I can��t help but think of the missing table corner when I ate the cookie. I��m worried that I might have identally eaten sawdust.��


    ��I��ll pay more attention next time,�� Zhang Heng said.


    ��No, I still want to know where the food that I eat came from. If you don��t let me see it, I will start thinking about some other worst-case scenario.��


    Mei Nan finished the cookie in his hand. She paused, and whispered, ��Fan.��


    ��My surname is Fan, and my full name is Fan Meinan. Anyway, you already know something that I would never share with anyone. I thought I��d better be more generous.��


    While the two were talking, the bald man and the waiter rushed upstairs, followed by Vandal King


    The three looked serious.


    ��We now face the biggest crisis since the establishment of the team!��


    ��Yeah, we��ve been discussing this for a long time, but we still can��t determine the name of the team. None of us can convince anyone, so we need you to vote. We��vee up with three names for our team up to this point. Movers, Demon Squad, and Vandal King And His Friends. These three names now have one vote each, and Messenger has abstained from voting, so please use your voting power carefully, because your vote will be decisive!��


    ��Or we can call ourselves the New Year��s Eve Game Team.�� Zhang Heng said.


    ��New Year��s Eve? What New Year��s Eve? It��s only September now. Uhh... is this a sequel to of your awakening? Any damage to your cerebral cortex? Is this permanent?��


    Fan Meinan nodded in agreement. ��I like this name so very much. It��s so Chinese New Year-ish. Two votes, so let��s set it as our team��s name ording to the rules.��


    ��Wait... I didn��t know that brain damage could be contagious. Confused about the dates as well? Are we really going to use this name five months in advance? We are three months away from the New Year! Oh my goodness... can you imagine a scene like this? Before the war, we stood in front of the enemy and announced each other��s names. The moment we say that we are New Year��s Eve Game Team, our opponent would definitely spare no expanse in criticism. I might even get a debuff that halves mybat power...��


    ��Don��t overthink about the opinions of others. Just do whatever you are supposed to do,�� Zhang Heng replied as he patted the bald man on the shoulder. ��Rest early; we have an important battle tomorrow.��


    ��No, I will continue to design the action badge, but this time it��ll be easier. I guess I��ll just have to find a bunch of Fu and put it on everyone��s backs toplete the task,�� the bald manined. ��I don��t know. People might think that we are Fuwa.��

 Chapter 360 - The Plan To Ascend The Tower

    Chapter 360 The n To Ascend The Tower


    The night was uneventful. Since Evil Scientist was only going to open the space portal in the afternoon the next day, everyone decided to sleep in. The bald man and the waiter wanted to bring Vandal King out for some team building, getting him to cozy up with them and all, but before they could even step through the door, Messenger caught them sneaking about. The three had no choice but to return to their rooms.


    Zhang Heng woke at ten in the morning and made breakfast for everyone. At twelve in the afternoon, Mei Nan and Messenger returned after going out to assess the situation. The other three also came out of their respective rooms. When they had finished their meal, Zhang Heng started a meeting to discuss their strategies.


    Hot-off-the-press on the table was a diagram of Canton Tower.


    Located on the south bank of the Pearl River, Canton Tower was the tallest structure in the city. Its main building stood at 450 meters, and when added with the 150-meter antenna mast on the top of the tower, it made up abined height of a whopping 600 meters.


    ��Evil Scientist��s quantum collider is here,�� said Mei Nan while pointing at the diagram. ��The 488 Look Out Observation Deck at 488 meters is popr among tourists for photography and provides an excellent birds-eye view of the city. It is also the highest point that visitors can reach. A week ago, they suddenly announced that the deck was no longer open to the outside world. Evil Scientist must have snuck his quantum collider in at that time.��


    <b>ean we</b>


    ��Does that mean we will have to get there first if we want to remove the Infinite Building Block from the quantum collider?�� the waiter asked.


    ��That��s not going to be easy. As far as I know, Evil Scientist has already reced all the tower��s employees with his own people. Needless to say, when he officially activates the quantum collider, security measures will be tightened up by a couple of notches. There will be an army waiting for us at the bottom of the tower,�� the bald man said, looking more serious than ever.


    ��Er,r then... how about we just get to the tower from the sky? Don��t we still have the Helicarrier?�� The waiter suggested.


    ��That won��t do. Evil Scientist knows that we have the Helicarrier. He will make sure to defend against that. In fact, when I was out scouting, I found manyrge anti-aircraft weapons nearby, most of them disguised as ice cream carts, ambnces, and all kinds of things. However, they can immediately transform into deadly weapons once an aerial enemy is detected,�� said Mei Nan.


    ��In that case, we��ll just fight with everything we��ve got,�� Vandal King said. He rubbed his plier-like hands together, and the sofa next to him disappeared. Since his destructive ability got restored, it was as if a switch had been flipped, and his desire for destruction, suppressed for so long now, had all returned to him. Now he would feel restless whenever he wasn��t destroying something. Thanks to that, the bald man and the waiter had to keep creating things for him to help cure his itch. Fortunately, the war was near, and there was no need to worry that there would be nothing to take apart. As for what would happen after they defeated Evil Scientist, nobody really thought of that.


    ��Fighting is necessary, but we have to strategize,�� said Mei Nan as she looked at Zhang Heng. ��You want to do it, or should I?�� ��You go ahead. I��lle inter if necessary,�� Zhang Heng answered.


    ��Alright, then. The fastest way to get to the top of the tower is to take the elevator. If we happen to fight the enemy at the bottom of the tower, alerting the enemy of our arrival, they��ll probably cut off the electricity supply to the entire tower as a precaution. If that happens, we��ll have to climb the stairs all the way to 500 meters. Who knows how much strength we��ll have left to fight by then? What if the monster arrives?�� said Mei Nan.


    ��Then what should we do?��


    ��Do all we can not to alert the enemy. I don��t know why, but for some reason, Evil Scientist did notpletely close off Canton Tower. Although we cannot ess the 488 Observation Deck, the Star and Cloud Observation Heck below is still open to the public. It��s not too far from 488, only about 10 meters apart. We need to get there first.��


    ��Understood. We��ll just have to pretend we are tourists,�� the waiter snapped his fingers. ��Hold on... We won��t be able to use the team logo anymore, right? I��ve gone through the whole nine yards to design it... it took me so bloody long. Taken my feelings into consideration for one second?�� the bald man frowned.


    <b>e so</b>


    Mei Nan blinked. ��Yes. Do you have any more questions?��


    ��I guess I��ll put the logo on the inside. When we battle, we just need to pull open our clothes to reveal the team logo,�� the bald man said. ��If you insist,�� Mei Nan sighed. ��If all goes well, we can take the elevator directly to the Star and Cloud Observation Hall. Of course, we must also consider the possibility of our covers getting blown. It that happens, we move to n B. We��ll have to eliminate the security personnel around us as fast as we can. Then, some of us will take the elevator, while the others get to the second basement and take over the electrical room. When we reach the Star and Cloud observation deck, we then evacuate.��


    ��How long would that take?��


    ��Five meters per second on the sightseeing elevator, six meters per second on the passenger elevator, and ten meters per second on the emergency elevator. In total, forty to eighty seconds. If we go higher up, we will have to fight. Of course, this is all just theoretical. Should something unexpected happen, everyone will need to respond ordingly. Any questions?�� asked Fan Meinan while ncing around the room. Her gaze soonnded on Zhang Heng. ��What about you? Is there anything you��d like to


    add?��


    ��You��ve already said everything I wanted to say. We��ll change and move out,�� Zhang Heng answered. ��What hair and clothes do you want?��


    ��Just ordinary sportswear is fine. As for the hair, a single braid.��


    ��Copy that.��


    ...


    An hour and a halfter, a tour bus stopped in front of Canton Tower, and the six alighted the vehicle, their appearances now significantly altered. There were even unrecognizable to their closest friends, and as a matter of fact, looked no different from a group of tourists. Except...


    ��Are you serious? Must you bring this?�� Mei Nan asked the bald man, who had a toilet seat between his armpits.


    Thetter scratched his chin. ��Yeah. I said it before. This time, when I see Evil Scientist, I will return the smart toilet seat back to him. This is a man��s promise, and it must be fulfilled.��


    ��But the problem is... have you ever seen a tourist who carries a toilet seat around?��


    ��Err... I can pretend that I��m a worker in charge of changing toilet seats of public toilets.��


    ��I don��t think it will work.��


    ��Or we can make a little disguise, and make this thing look like a surfing board. It might look a little odd, but at least it would look much better,�� said Zhang Heng.

 Chapter 361 - Welcome To Join Us

    Chapter 361 Wee To Join Us


    The bald man was all suited up, leather shoes, and a surfboard under his arm. His appearance captured lots of attention around him, especially when the picture on the back of his surfboard was a lid of a toilet bowl.


    The six didn��t ascend the tower immediately for fear of alerting their enemies, instead electing to sit at a nearby cafe nearby and wait for the quantum collider to be activated.


    ��Okay, from now on, we have to be careful with what we do. There are surveince cameras everywhere around us, and that includes the Evil Scientist��s bionics.�� Fan Meinan lowered her voice. ��Always remember that we are just tourists. Don��t do anything that will blow your cover... I��m talking about you, Vandal King.��


    Vandal King reluctantly put the ashtray that he was dismantling back to its original spot, and Fan Meinan angrily mmed her coffee mug on the missing part of the ashtray. ��You need to curb your desire for dismantling items. Just wait one more hour, and you can destroy whatever the heck you want.��


    ��I��m sorry. I got excited before our operation,�� Vandal King sheepishly replied as he wiped the sweat off his forehead.


    Having stayed silent for some time, Fan Meinan was a little surprised seeing how the two most provocative in the team, the waiter and bald man, were quieter and more obedient than anyone else. Fan Meinan thought they had finally grown up, and it wasn��t until she turned around that she found out that they were staring at a woman with a wide-brimmed hat sitting at the next table.


    Their unabashed res were rming, where the woman in the hat was apparently beginning to feel embarrassed by the way she was being looked at. Well, or rather, a little restless, considering how both her hands trembled as she held her coffee mug. Clearly, she was afraid of them.


    ��You two, I can understand your feelings about being single for so long, but don��t forget what today��s business is! And believe me, as a girl, I can tell you for sure that you can��t win a girl��s heart by staring like that.��


    ��I don��t know,�� the waiter scratched his head, ��I have never seen her before, but she looks familiar to me. Is this the ��love at first sight�� thing that everyone has been talking about?��


    ��Even if you truly fell in love at first sight, you should know the firste-first-serve basis. I had my eyes on her first, obviously,�� growled the bald man. Seemingly dissatisfied, he went on, ��As a friend, you should quit silently and bless me at a time like this.��


    The waiter had no intention of taking a step back. ��There is no such saying,�� he retorted.


    ��We should y it fair and square. It��s got nothing to do with the order. Someone once said that there are only 20,000 people in this world who can make you fall in love at first sight. You probably won��t even cross paths with one in your entire life. Since she��s my love at first sight, I��ll make sure that I won��t give up on her.��


    Fan Meinan pped her forehead. ��After staring at the girl like this, you two are out of the game. There��s nothing else for you to fight for.��


    At that moment, the woman with the wide-brimmed hat seemed to have made up her mind, hastily packing her books andptop on the table. After being stared at for such a long time, she had be so ufortable that she wanted to leave the ce as fast as she could. She picked up her Scottish Fold and left in a hurry. She obviously liked cats a lot; not only did she bring a cat with her, but her purse was also printed with a cat. Even her shirt had cartoon cats printed on it.


    Fan Meinan raised her cup.


    ��Congrattions, your ��love at first sight�� ising to an end here. Let��s make a toast to the fastest break up in the world!�� she beamed.


    What she did not expect was that Zhang Heng, who had been silent all the while, stood up and approached the girl. His actions caused the waiter and bald man to feel like enemies were attacking their very hearts.


    ��It��s over; I me you. Someone else has imed our target.��


    Seeing that Zhang Heng was approaching her, the woman with the wide-brimmed hat became even more nervous. She almost ran away, but when Zhang Heng said something, she instantly stopped in her tracks. Seeming skeptical at first, she eventually began to talk to him after a while.


    The bald man was amazed. ��Damn! He��s good, right? Besides awakening, does the chosen one also possess the skill of picking up girls? This is making me jealous.��


    It didn��t take long before Zhang Heng came back with the woman.


    ��Is he personally announcing their rtionship in front of us losers? Damn, this is making me sad! Is this even necessary?�� the waiter cried in grief.


    ��Allow me to introduce her. She is Ms. Cat, a master builder. Ms. Cat, this is Messenger, Demon Butcher, Mobile Arsenal, Vandal King, and just like me, this is Fan Meinan.��


    Ms. Cat stretched out her hands for a handshake.


    ��Wait, you are Mrs. Cat?�� The waiter was shocked, ��You do resemble her a bit, but it appears you have also put on some sort of disguise like us. No wonder you looked familiar. So it��s not love at first sight after all.��


    The bald man was also disappointed. ��I thought I met one of those 20,000 people,�� he said.


    After Ms. Cat took a seat, she exined the reason why she wanted to escape. She had initially thought that Zhang Heng and his team were working for Evil Scientist and that her cover was blown.


    ��So, you are also here to stop Evil Scientist from destroying the world?�� the waiter asked. ��It seems you have received Messenger Bee��s message.�� ��Messenger Bee? What Messenger Bee?�� Ms. Cat looked a little puzzled. ��I did see a swarm of bees flying in front of me, and I was so frightened that I fainted. Well, I actually learned from the cats that Evil Scientist ns to destroy the world. This whole thing is somewhatplicated to exin. In a nutshell, my cat heard from the neighbor��s cat��s girlfriend��s best friend about her neighboring cat, who was bragging about how evil his master is. Today, he will open the space portal and let all the monsters in. So, I came here to find a way to stop him.��


    The bald man attempted to invite her to his team. ��Great! Our goal is the same as yours,�� he eximed. ��It feels good to meet people who share the same cause. You can join our New Year��s Eve Game Team and fight Evil Scientist with us. We need to remove the Infinite Building Block from the quantum collider. Let��s save the city!��


    Ms. Cat was taken aback when she heard that. ��New Year, what New Year? Isn��t Chinese New Year five months away? If you guys are talking about the New Year��s Day, it��s still three months before we get to celebrate it.��


    The bald man gave Zhang Heng an ��I-knew-something-like-this-would-eventu ally-happen�� look.


    ��Don��t be bothered by unnecessary things. In short, we wee you to our team,�� Zhang Heng said. ��Having more people help us will significantly increase our odds of winning this fight!��

 Chapter 362 - Fire In The Hole !

    Chapter 362 Fire In The Hole !


    At 5:17, a beam of light appeared above Canton Tower and shot out straight to the dome.


    A huge air vortex subsequently appeared at the end of the light. The whole incident could have been a scene from ��Avengers�� when aliens were invading New York (here, the conscientious author has omitted the 500-word description of the magnificent scenario)...


    Tourists and passer-bys all started taking out their phones and snapping pictures of this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.


    ��Alright, the quantum collider has been activated! It��s time for us to make a move,�� Mei Nan said. ��Remember our n. Lay low, ride the elevator as a tourist up to the Star and Cloud Observation Deck, and get to the 488 Lookout from there. Oh, and one more thing, please keep in mind that we only have seven minutes toplete this mission.��


    She got up from her seat first, and the other six followed her. Vandal King rubbed his pliers together, looking ever ready. The bald man put on a pair of sunsses and adjusted his tie. His cool demeanor didn��tst very long, though. He had just stepped out of the coffee shop when his face suddenly fell. ��Shit. I left the toilet seat inside.��


    Two minutester, he rushed out of the cafe with a surfing board and was now brimming with confidence. ��Come on, let��s get out there and stop evil together!��


    As soon as he said that, there was a huge explosion at the gate of the Canton Tower.


    The team of guards standing there was all thrown off by the st. Then, a masked man on a motorcycle carrying a dessert box sped past. He tossed the box at the bionics, and when they caught the box, their first instinct was to throw it away. The delicious aromaing from within, however, caused them to hesitate. Some even went as far as to take a bite. Immediately, they looked clouded and intoxicated, and like an inte-addicted teenager, they tossed their weapons aside and began dancing awkwardly on the spot.


    ��Hey... I wasn��t even gone for two minutes, and you guys already decided to change ns?�� asked the bald man who was gobsmacked.


    ��That has nothing to do with us. He��s not one of us!�� Mei Nan frowned.


    Then, a giant lollipop, about five meters wide and fifteen meters long came down from the sky towards the patrol car. In a frenzy, the guards inside the vehicle fled as fast as they could. Simultaneously, a loud rm rang. The defensive system that Evil Scientist set up was in motion, and more bionics dressed in ck began pouring in from all directions. The masked man soon ran out of desserts to throw. Although he was doing his best to make more, he clearly couldn��t keep up with the ever-multiplying enemy. Just then, a horse neighed loudly.


    ��Hold on, pretty boy,�� a charming and masculine voice could be heard saying. The crowd turned to look, seeing a handsome old man in a hat. The cowboy wore a cored shirt, vest, green scarf, and leather boots. He charged in from Yuejiang West Road riding a maroon-colored pony.


    Drawing the revolver at his waist with one hand, he gave off the coolest look, pulling the trigger at the bionics.


    Bullets flew out of the gun��s muzzle, and before they knew it, the bionics suddenly found themselves fighting against a formidable enemy. They thought they were about toplete a side character��s task and were supposed to take a break, but even after the handsome old man had fired a wave of angry shots, no one was hit.


    The bionics looked around and were relieved. However, out of nowhere, a rope suddenly fell down from the sky and tied them all together!


    ��Oh, how naive! Dear children, the bullets were just a distraction. A cowboy��s real attack is with a rope, of course!�� the old man said as he shook his fist. With a loud huff, the bionics were bound together so tightly by thesso that they could barely move. ��Oh, it��s Dessert King, Candy Baby, and Daddy Cowboy! This is great! I thought they��d nevere!�� the waiter squealed in excitement.


    ��Ahem... I don��t know if you noticed, but I��ve covered my face, and people who do that, under normal circumstances, do not wish to reveal their true identity. Ah, forget it,�� Dessert King coughed twice, taking off his hood on his head. ��Yes, we��vee.��


    While the conversation went on, two fully automatic missileunchers were quietly aimed at them. However, just when the bionic in charge issued aunch order, the missileuncher was strangely unable to receive electronic instructions.


    A hearty voice said, ��I apologize for the interruption. I am Rocketman. By the time you hear this, I have already gone to space. My rocketship and I have already hijacked all satellites, and I��m sorry to inform you that your satellite-guided weapons can no longer be used.��


    ��Cool! Even Rocketman is here! I knew it! People won��t just abandon the city!�� When the waiter saw the familiar face, he became very emotional. ��Except for Ocean King, who has been detained by his boss to write codes, everyone is here! Old friendsing together again... isn��t this amazing?��


    ��When you said ��old friends��, did you include me?�� asked a deep, hoarse voice.


    When everyone turned around to look, they saw what appeared to be a series of shbacks.


    ��Phantom Ninja? Wait. When did unfold in this direction...�� said the bald man. ��I remember you. Didn��t Evil Scientist brutally murdered you? Your ass is still hanging on the wall of Wanda Cinema. It always makes me feel very sad whenever I see it.��


    ��That��s right, I��ve returned this time to get my backside back!�� Phantom Ninja cried. ��It��s time for justice to return, and for evil to pay the price!��


    ��Aww... what a touching speech. But you haven��t answered my question about how you��re still alive.�� The bald man shook his head, then looked at Mei Nan. ��What should we do now? Continue our n?��


    Main Nan raised the box-gun in her hand and rolled her eyes, ��Forget the n! Let��s just get into action!��


    ��I like this new n.�� The bald man removed his sunsses and quickly transformed it into a sh grenade. He threw it into the lobby of Canton Tower and shouted, ��Fire in the hole!�� Then he started running in with the toilet seat.


    About this time, Zhang Heng alsopleted his piece, next to him was a red Iron Man suit.

 Chapter 363 - Morale Support

    Chapter 363 Morale Support


    Fan Meinan looked at Zhang Heng��s Iron Man suit and looked at the rudimentary box gun in her hand again.


    ��I have to admit, I��m starting to feel my mental state going out of bnce,�� she said, not knowing what to think.


    Zhang Heng threw the bracelet used to control the battle suit to Fan Meinan. ��This thing is for you.��


    ��Ha! I��d be embarrassed to take it away from you just like that.��


    Be that as it may, Fan Meinan still took the bracelet from Zhang Heng. She pped it on her wrist for the first time.


    ��What about you?�� asked Fan Meinan, a bright spark of joy gleaming in her eyes. ��I don��t need stuff like these. My hands are the world��s most powerful weapons,�� Zhang Heng said. ��The battle suit will limit my performance and make it impossible for me to assemble what I need in time.��


    Zhang Heng then dismantled the streetmp beside him into blocks, and five secondster, he had a lightsaber in his hands. ��Well, my jealousy ising back again,�� Fan Meinan groaned sourly. At the same time, she turned on the bracelet, allowing the battle suit to wrap her body, ��Well, it feels good, I wanted to try it a long time ago. What does it feel to be Iron Man? I��ll ept your New Year��s gift...�� Pausing for a moment, and with a serious face, she said, ��...it��s time for us to fight for justice together! Come on, Master Yoda!��


    ��Don��t give me a random name!�� Zhang Heng brandished his lightsaber, and a few bullets fired from the opposite side ricocheted, killing the two ck-clothed bionics closest to them. ��Mobile Arsenal and the rest have entered the battlefield. We��ll give it our best shot and join them as soon as possible.��


    ��Roger that.��


    Fan Meinan took control of the suit and fired a 24 mini-missile salvo in one breath. Taking off and flying in all directions, theynded precisely on the group of bionics. The barrage of missiles not only damaged arge area, but the smoke from the explosion created a good cover for the two of them.


    As soon as they arrived at the front door, though, they saw the bald man. He was first to enter the building but was now the first one to rush back out of it.


    Zhang Heng raised his eyebrows.


    ��There is an Optimus Prime inside.��


    ��Uh... is that a metaphor?�� Fan Meinan asked.


    ��No, it��s really Optimus Prime! And a Decepticon. I don��t know how they get here!�� eximed the waiter. He too quickly retreated, not forgetting to urge Messenger who was behind him to escape together.


    Shocked, Fan Meinan probed in and saw the two Transformers having a fierce fight with Daddy Cowboy and the other master builders. However, whether bullet or rope, these weren��t weapons that would do much damage to Optimus Prime and a Decepticon. Let alone Dessert King��s desserts, the giant hard fruit candy that Candy Baby made blew up into a cloud of powder sugar the moment it came into contact with the Decepticon��s fist.


    However, no one noticed how excited Vandal King became when he saw the two behemoths in front of him. His body trembled involuntarily, and it surely wasn��t because of fear. He was like a traveler that had walked the arid desert for three days and nights, and an oasis suddenly appeared in front of him. ��Really? Are we going to fight the Transformers on the first level?! There are two of them...�� Fan Meinan sighed and turned on the arc pulse-cannon on her arm.


    ��Can... I take things apart now?�� Vandal King asked with great eagerness.


    ��Of course, can you take those two things apart?��


    ��No... you should have asked how long would take for me to dismantle them!�� said Vandal King as flexed his wrists and grinned in glee.


    After a while, the defeated Candy Baby was forced back to the door by the Decepticon, and it was at that time that the beast sensed that something bad was about to happen. Before it even had time to put up a defensive posture, it realized it was missing an arm. It was then followed by his calf, waist, pectoral muscles...


    In a moment like this, Vandal King felt as if he��d returned to his kitchen, handling a butcher��s knife and thrusting it toward the chopping board. He could feel within him the sheer satisfaction of the knife swerving down, slicing, and eating through the meaty piece of beef. Only half a minuteter, the terrifying Decepticon was reduced to only its head.


    Vandal King nned to continue doing what he did best, but the next moment, a samurai sword blocked his way. Out of nowhere, a green creature with a red ribbon on its head appeared in front of him.


    ��A mechanical version of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles? Or Raphael? Are Michngelo and Einstein here as well? This is starting to get real messy.��


    Fan Meinan too, was shocked by what she saw.


    ��This is what makes Evil Scientist so scary. His mechanical creations will only get stronger, and in fact, as long as he desires to create something, there is nothing he can��t make,�� the bald man proimed with a solemn face.


    At the same time, Vandal King was in trouble as well. Raphael was in no way as mighty as the Decepticons, but his flexibility and agility were clearly unmatched. Although Vandal King��s dismantling abilities were powerful, he needed to get his hands on his target to make it work. Right now, Raphael was running all over the ce, bouncing from wall to wall, and sometimes even attacking from the ceiling. Vandal King couldn��t eveny eyes on his target for more than a second, let alone destroy it. In fact, he was in grave danger this time.


    Fortunately, Phantom Ninja arrived in time and harrumphed, ��Ninjas like him should only be dealt with by a professional ninja!��


    ��Let us take care of this. You should hurry and stop Evil Scientist. Don��t worry; we will take over the power distribution room and stop other enemies!�� assured Daddy Cowboy.


    ��Erm... you meant you��ll stay here and gain experience by eliminating the weaker enemies, but we��ll have to go up and face the tough boss?!�� the bald man asked.


    ��Yes, that��s what we meant. Do you have any more questions?�� Dessert King replied. The bald man clenched his fists. ��No, I��m very happy that you can help us. Let��s solve the crisis together!�� ��My little Mi, I will pray for you!�� Ms. Cat cooed and made a V gesture.


    The six members of the New Year��s Eve Game Team resolutely marched into the sightseeing elevator amid the backdrop of loud cheers.


    As the elevator door closed, Fan Meinan raised her hand cannon. ��Mind if I kill the guys below after we settle our main business?��


    ��Count me in,�� Zhang Heng said. He knew from the beginning that some of those people were unreliable. Let��s not mention how unstable the Lego World was. As far as the quest��s difficulty was concerned, it was unlikely that the system would send so many people to help them all of a sudden. Sure, it was a pleasant surprise that master builders came forward during the battle, helping them enter the elevator smoothly and all, but they obviously still needed to fight the final battle by themselves.


    ��I hope we get to see the mechanical version of Kantai Collection when we open the door. It��ll help me feel better when I fight them,�� the waiter said.

 Chapter 364 - Murphy’s Law

    <strong>Chapter 364 Murphy��s Law</strong>


    The elevator kept climbing upward, getting further and further away from the ground. Zhang Heng heard the sound of a female voice, exining the elevator��s set up. It was probably a recording that yed automatically whenever it sensed passengers. Amid the message, the woman��s voice suddenly disappeared, and on came a male voice.


    ��Such a pity that all of you made the wrong decision.��


    ��Oh, Evil Scientist. You��ve finally shown up! Now, why is that? Are you worried that we��lle up there and kick your butt? Don��t fret. We��ll be there very soon,�� said the bald man.


    ��Do you think you can stop me as you did three years ago? For the past three years, I��ve been searching for ways to be bigger and stronger ever since that failure. Today, I��m apletely changed man! You people, on the other hand... I saw your little performance outside...��


    <b>ce</b>


    ��Hahaha! How was it? Did you wet your pants?�� ��Hmm, how should I put it? It was utterly disappointing. You seem to have gone stagnant over the years, and might I dare to say that you have regressedpared to three years ago. Without my leadership, you seem to havepletely lost your way.��


    ��Tsk, tsk, tsk. If I were you, I wouldn��t be so smug. Think too highly of yourself, don��t you? The past three years have been great without you. I feel refreshed every day, even my frequent urgency to pee got cured without any treatment.��


    ��Ahem... erm...�� The waiter spoke up. ��If you want to speak to him, you have to press the call button on the elevator.��


    ��......��


    ��Since we��re old friends, I��ll give you onest warning. Turn around and go back now. If you still insist on doing this, then I won��t go easy on you. I know you all too well; you��re no match for me,�� Evil Scientist growled, emphasizing a hint of terror in his final sentence.


    ��Heh, it��s easy to talk. This elevator goes up to the Star and Cloud observation deck, and even if we start regretting, there��s no way for us to go back down, alright?�� This time, the bald man made sure to push the call button, but it appeared that the person on the other end had already hung up.


    ��... the thing I hate most is when someone hangs up on me before I can finish my sentence!�� The bald manined.


    ��Forget about it. We��re almost there. Let��s get ready for battle.�� Mei Nan nced at the LCD screen of the elevator. They were less than sixty meters away from level 107, which also meant that they would arrive at the deck in approximately 10 seconds.


    Everyone immediately became focussed. Zhang Heng had a lightsaber in each hand, Mei Nan activated the missileuncher on the shoulder of her suit, the bald man raised his AK machine gun, and the waiter fashioned a bulletproof vest for Messenger and himself. When the elevator doors opened, the team was shocked by the scene before them.


    There wasn��t a single person in sight.


    ��What is this? It��s dinnertime, and everyone has gone back?�� the bald guy asked, scratching his head.


    The six of them exited the lift. Not far from where terrible were standing, on the empty bar, sat an unfinished bottle of coke.


    ��Something��s wrong. Even if there is no ambush by the Evil Scientist, where did all those tourists go? The tower is supposed to be open to the public until the quantum collider is activated.��


    ��Is that why Evil Scientist took all the tourists hostage? Why? Why would he do that?�� The waiter asked. ��Is he nning to use them to threaten us?��


    ��I don��t think so.�� Mei Nan pointed the miniature missile on her shoulder at a stumbling figure not far away. From the way he dressed-suit and leather shoes, as well as an expensive Rolex, and mobile phone-he was probably one of the tourists.


    But he walked with a peculiar stride, where his feet were spread open at 90 degrees. One of his elbow joints was twisted in an unnatural angle, and his head was lowered, so he was looking down to the floor.


    ��Err, I don��t know why I keep having this awful feeling in my stomach,�� said the waiter.


    ��Are you thinking what I��m thinking?��


    As soon as Mei Nan said that, the Rolex guy raised his head slowly. Parts of his face were missing; all that was left were a pair of bloodshot eyes, half a nose, and two whole rows of exposed gums and teeth where his face had been ripped out. ��Alright, so after the Transformers and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, it seems that we are about to usher in Resident Evil. Evil Scientist has now created the T-virus, huh?��


    The Rolex man caught a whiff of fresh meat and blood, and his movements hastened. At first, he still stuttered in that strange, petrified way, but soon, those staggering footsteps became faster and faster.


    ��This is not Resident Evil; it��s more like the zombies in World War Z!�� The bald man pulled the trigger on his AK and shot at the Rolex zombie multiple times. The creature��s body absorbed the shock of therge rounds from the assault rifle, and with each shot, it jerked and jolted. However, it didn��t fall over, advancing on, as if immune to the lead.


    It wasn��t until Fan Meinan shot its head with the missile from her battle suit that the Rolex zombie��s life ended for good. ��The good news is that the head is still their weakness, and the bad news is that their bodies are more resistant to taking a beating than ordinary zombies.��


    The waiter wiped the perspiration off his forehead and heaved a long sigh. ��Thank goodness there��s only one. It would have been hell if there were a dozen of them.��


    Mei Nan and Zhang Heng looked at each other and sighed. ��Please let us know in advance when you��re going to jinx us again.�� Just as the waiter said that, as if cruel confirmation to Murphy��s theory, more zombies came charging in, and this time, they came in an astonishing number, the horde running and tripping over each other toward the six of them.


    There was no time to breathe. The battle was tomence!


    Zhang Heng sliced off the heads of two zombies in front of him with his lightsabers, but more were running toward him. He jumped backward and rolled under the bar, but the mindless, incessant beasts weren��t about to give up their prey even though they lost sight of it. Like sharks catching the whiff of blood, they instinctively stormed forward. A schoolgirl zombie jumped onto the bar but, what awaited her was a chainsaw spinning at full revs.


    Zhang Heng hadbined the lightsaber with beer bottles to create a new weapon to deal with the current situation. He waved the chainsaw in his hand and dove into the zombie horde. After a Thomas ir*, at least four out of all the zombies lost their heads.


    Footnote:


    Thomas ir: an acrobatic move performed on the floor, in which the performer alternates, bncing the torso between either arm while swinging the legs beneath in continuous circles.

 Chapter 365 - Things Would Have Been Different If Plant Queen Was Here

    C<strong>hapter 365 Things Would Have Been Different If nt Queen Was Here</strong>


    ��This is far from what I expected when I said I wished to meet the girls from Kantai Collection.�� The waiter built a crowbar at lightning speed, then used it to knock Zombie Ted that was clinging onto his legs. ��What are you waiting for? Release the butcher!�� Fan Meinan shouted. Several zombies were crawling on her Iron Man suit, but none of them could prate it, not with their teeth at least. The screeches and dings noise they made as they tried to bite through the armor sounded as if they were using their teeth to y the piano. Fan Meinan turned on the cluster cannon on her chest and burned a zombie to ashes with only a single shot, swiftly dealing with the zombies that were bothering the waiter after that. It bought him the time he needed to build the butcher.


    The waiter did not disappoint, building his butcher as fast as he could. When he was done, he threw it into the zombie horde.


    ��Feel true horror from the depths of hell!��


    As soon as the butchernded, zombies instantly swarmed it, and at least six of them gnawed on the boils on his body. However, when the butcher opened its eyes, the circumstances had changed. Butcher brandished his knife like there was no tomorrow, and the zombies around him had their heads chopped off one after another. Just like when faced with the ck-clothed bionics, the butcher began to massacre whatever that stood in its way.


    ��Good job!�� Zhang Heng praised the waiter as he killed thest double ponytailed zombie in front of him.


    ��Hahahaha, these zombies are nothing,�� the waiter proudly replied.


    However, his pride did notst long. From far, the butcher��s movements began to slow, and it looked around in confusion, as if struck by Alzheimer��s. At the same time, its eyes began to fill with blood.


    ��Oh shit! Your butcher seems to be infected with the virus,�� said the bald man. ��Just like the movies, these zombies can spread the virus through bites. No wonder I don��t see anything living thing left on the whole floor. We must be careful not to be bitten by the zombies.��


    The waiter pointed at a distance. ��Uh, shouldn��t you be worrying about how to solve that problem over there?�� he asked.


    In a mere ten seconds, the butcherpleted its transformation and joined the zombie horde. After bing one of them, the butcher��s power, defense, and speed greatly improved, and it had now be several times more difficult to deal with than before.


    ��Evil Scientist set a trap, and we stepped right into it. He��s the person who knows us best. These zombies were specifically prepared for you. He knew you��d release the butcher. Those zombies were meant to infect the butcher and turn it into his most powerful weapon,�� the bald man groaned in dismay.


    ��Can you take down that thing?�� Fan Meinan asked Vandal King.


    ��I can take down that thing, but it has to be a one-on-one fight. Those zombies next to it are too troublesome, and if they all swarm on me at the same time, there will be nothing I can do.��


    This battle had given him a massive headache, and though the zombies weren��t nearly as agile as the Ninja Turtles, they were still fast enough to strike fear in their opponents. Such was the kind of enemy Vandal King hated the most.


    ��Okay, we will figure out a way to create an opportunity for you. Let��s separate the butcher from the zombies first. Although they are quite agile, there is still a difference in speed between them and us. As long as...��


    Fan Meinan paused suddenly when she discovered that the zombies had stopped charging at them. Instead, the creatures began to gather around the zombie butcher like soldiers surrounding their captain.


    ��Oops, Evil Scientist saw right through you before it even started,�� the bald man was shocked. ��It seems modern zombies have learned to form a formation. I miss nt Queen. If only she were here, everything would have been fine now. This is exactly the kind of battlefield for her to show her skills off, but unfortunately, she died in battle three years ago.�� ��Yeah, the pea shooter and man-eating nt she built were natural enemies of zombies. I now understand why Evil Scientist ced her second on his kill list,�� said the waiter.


    ��So... is that the pea shooter you were talking about?�� Fan Meinan pointed in the direction of the bar.


    Zhang Heng, on the other hand, was getting busy over there, more focused, and concentrated than ever. His hands moved at lightning speed, dismantling the counters, tables, and chairs of the dining bar into blocks before reassembling them into weaponized nts in the shortest time possible. The weapons included pea shooters, man-eating nts, potato mines...


    nt Queen had taught him all these creations while he was in the parallel quest. Their effectiveness in traditional battles was limited, and they were far less lethalpared to the modern weapons the bald men created. However, they were most effective when it came to vanquishing zombies.


    Zhang Heng had now wholly transformed the dining bar into his backyard, frantically expanding his weaponized nt arsenal while the zombies were gathering around the butcher.


    At the same time, everyone��s jaws dropped as they watched in amazement how Zhang Heng assembled the blocks into various weaponized nts. When the zombies were done gathering around the butcher, they found that a terrifying greenhouse had been built right in front of them. Now, with every step they took, they would encounter a barrage of strange attacks.


    The battle didn��t have to go on for too long before the oue was set in stone. In the end, except for the butcher, the other zombies were either crushed by the pumpkins, shot in the head by the peas, or swallowed by the man-eating nts. On the other hand, Vandal King had also dismantled the butcher into eight pieces. When the dust finally cleared, there were no more zombies left in the hall, and peace was restored.


    ��Ha!�� Fan Meinan took off her helmet and looked at Zhang Heng. ��You are so unpredictable. Whenever I think I��m getting to know you better, you always surprise me with something new.��


    The bald man and the waiter, on the other hand, looked as pale as ghosts. ��How is this possible? These weaponized nts are the special creations of nt Queen. How did you... hold on, other than awakening, does the chosen one also possess abilities like soul possession? So, is the soul of nt Queen inside your body right now?! If so, can you help me ask her what her favorite underwear color is?�� the bald man continued.


    ��Ask me these thingster. Let��s get things done first. The world will be destroyed in forty minutes, and we still have the world to save,�� Zhang Heng said.


    ��You��re right. I didn��t expect Evil Scientist to have fallen this much. To deal with us, he didn��t hesitate to turn Canton Tower��s innocent tourists into zombies. What he has done makes him vile and evil! He is no longer the leader that we used to respect and love,�� sighed the bald man as he clenched the toilet seat in his hand.


    ��It��s time to settle the score.��

 Chapter 366 - 329 Protective Shield

    <strong>Chapter 366 329 Protective Shield</strong>


    From the 107th floor to the 108th floor, the six encountered no more enemies. Tourists on the two floors were all transformed into zombies by Evil Scientist��s T-virus, but Zhang Heng managed to eliminate them all with his weaponized nts in front of the bar. Hence, the team managed to enter the elevator smoothly to the top floor.


    The bald man tidied up his suit and said, ��After paying such a huge price and all that hard work, we are finally approaching the final boss. I know that everyone is tired now, but a real man will persevere even though he is exhausted. The pursuit of justice has never been easy. This just makes it all so much more worthwhile for us to sacrifice ourselves!��


    As he spoke, he stretched out his right hand. ��Come on, let��s cheer up, New Year��s Eve Game Team! Well, now all of you should put your hands on my hands. When I shout out loud, let��s raise our hands together...��


    ��Although I don��t want to spoil the atmosphere, I still want to remind you that since the battle started, you were doing nothing when we were looking Vandal King at Shangxiajiu. I thought about it carefully and in the battle, you were so scared that you ran away from the Decepticon and Optimus Prime. You didn��t contribute anything to the team, nor did you have any sense of your existence at all,�� Fan Meinan could not help butin.


    ��But Messenger didn��t do anything useful as well. You see, she hasn��t appeared in several chapters,�� the bald man growled in annoyance.


    ��This is the design of her character,�� Fan Meinan rolled his eyes, ��Anyway, don��t talk nonsense, let��s end this battle quickly!��


    After speaking, she took the lead and walked into the elevator. Zhang Heng also took advantage of this time to rebuild the chainsaw in his hand into a lightsaber, preparing for the final battle. They were now only meters away from the top floor. Hence the elevator did not take too long to reach the viewing deck. Everyone was ready to give it their best to defeat Evil Scientist.


    It was going to be a tough fight for them. Over the years, Evil Scientist had established a reputation of being extremely powerful. The bald man, the waiter, and Messenger once fought side by side with Scientist, considered as his disciples at one point. They knew how powerful Scientist was. On the other hand, Zhang Heng had spent quite some time with Evil Scientist while in the parallel quest. Even if he learned all the assembly skills from other master builders, he still had no confidence in defeating Evil Scientist.


    However, Zhang Heng wasn��t as worriedpared to the other three team members. After all, this quest was very special. He could leave any time and repeat the game again, no big deal to him. If he failed this quest, he would treat it as a journey of getting more experience.


    Zhang Heng gave Fan Meinan a quick look. If things didn��t go well, he wanted her to leave the quest immediately. Zhang Heng believed that with Fan Meinan��s wittiness, she would make herself fight a battle that she couldn��t win, and not putting up a show telling Zhang Heng that she insisted on leaving together. In fact, the cooperated very well when they were facing Zavilcha, and no one got injured or killed in the end.


    As the elevator door opened, the six finally stepped into the final stage.


    They were a little surprised by what they saw this time. This time, they were not greeted by mechanical beings or zombies, but a band of violinists instead. They bowed their heads in unison and started performing. Strange scene aside, the ground was filled with children��s toys and celebrity posters. This suspicious atmosphere had everyone on guard.


    The male voice which came across the elevator��s speakers said, ��Don��t worry, your eyes see the truth. There are no traps here. In fact, I don��t need any trap to defeat you. Song of the Skrk by Kowski, my wife��s favorite song. When she returns to this world, she will want to listen again.��


    ��Your wife and daughter will never back to this world anymore. Evil Scientist, please ept reality, they all died in that explosion,�� the bald man interrupted the former.


    After stepping out of the elevator, everyone finally saw Evil Scientist-architect of the disaster and leader of the evil bionic army. He looked to be about the same age as the bald man and was sitting on the deck in a red windbreaker. When the wind blew at his hair, Zhang Heng saw that half of what used to be ck hair on his head was now white.


    ��How dare you mention the explosion in front of me. If you people had taken my dissuasion and not touched the machine, the explosion would have never happened, and my wife and daughter would still be alive...�� the voice of the Evil Scientist got louder and more hoarse. ��You are a group of murderers; I should have just killed you all during these three years.��


    ��That was just an ident. No one wanted to hurt your wife and daughter. What more, Phantom Ninja also paid the price. You took his butt away from him... well, I think it��s time for you to give him back his butt. ��The bald man continued, ��Also, what you have done to other master builders over the years is unspeakable. You should apologize to everyone.��


    ��Apologize?�� The evil scientist smirked. ��You really don��t think you got to where you are right now all by yourself, right? Be grateful for my kindness because you are still alive. I don��t want to massacre all of you at our reunion. Otherwise, perhaps you��ll reunite instead with all the master builders currently living in the underworld.��


    ��Hoho... This joke is not funny. Has your humor disappeared along with your sense of justice?�� the bald man roared, then lowered his voice and told the other five people around him, ��I have found the quantum collider. The machine is in the green box on the antenna mast, look toward 7 o��clock.��


    ��Yes, this is so LEGO, with a warning sign next to it to tell us that it��s dangerous. Please don��t touch it,�� Fan Meinan said.


    ��So, this is the next step of our n. I will try to stall Evil Scientist by pissing him off with my words, and you can take the opportunity to get close to the box and extract the Infinite Building Block from it.��


    This time, it was Evil Scientist��s turn to interrupt the bald man, ��Are you guys discussing how to extract the Infinite Building Block from my quantum collider? Pity, no matter what you do, it will all be in vain. Yes, because I have ced 329 shields over there!��


    ��329 Protective Shield?! How did you even build that thing?��


    The waiter��s expression changed drastically, and Zhang Heng frowned as well. Fan Meinan looked around, hoping to get some answers. ��Anyone going to exin to me what a 329 Protective Shield is?�� she asked.


    ��The 329 Protective Shield is also called an absolute defensive shield,�� Evil Scientist said proudly. ��As its name suggests, it is a shield no one can break. Don��t underestimate it; even a nuclear-bomb level attack can��t break the defense. When it is activated, it can never be turned off. Only me and my subordinates can enter and leave freely. If I had this thing three years ago, you guys would have never been able to ruin my n.��

 Chapter 367 - You Guys Disappoint Me

    <strong>Chapter 367 You Guys Disappoint Me</strong>


    ��What do you think? Managed to dismantle it?�� Fan Meinan asked Vandal King. She had attempted to attack Evil Scientist with her battlesuit��s many weapons, and the results were just as Evil Scientist predicted. There seemed to be a transparent wall in front of them, blocking out all the targeted attacks.


    Evil Scientist sat behind the wall quietly, wearing a mocking look across his face. He watched condescendingly at the team��s futile struggle.


    In an attempt to ease the situation, Vandal King stretched out his hand and started to decode the 329 Protective shield, closing his eyes to concentrate better. About five minutester, he opened his eyes, sighing, ��The 329 shield is not without weakness, but I would need more time to look for it. I��ll need at least a day to figure out its mechanic, and at least three to dismantle it.��


    ��What about the underground?�� Fan Meinan shot at the ground beneath her feet with the cluster cannon on her chest. However, she tried to get through the wall and approach Evil Scientist and found that she was still blocked by the invisible barrier.


    ��Haha, if the 329 Protective Shield can be broken so easily, I wouldn��t have called it the absolute solution for defense. Just give up. Even if you demolish the entire Canton Tower, you will not be able toy your hands on me,�� Evil Scientist sneered.


    Fan Meinan looked at Zhang Heng again, but this time, he didn��t continue performing miracles. Going against the 329 Protective Shield had Zhang Heng baffled and he couldn��t figure a way to deal with it. Even though he went through all the creations he learned so far, he found nothing useful for this situation.


    The 329 Protective Shield was an idea that Evil Scientist came up with a long time ago. During the parallel quest, Zhang Heng and Evil Scientist discussed its feasibility but there were too many bugs and snags that needed to be solved during that time. Hence, Evil Scientist put the idea on hold. The shield was different from other creations, where 329 Protective Shield��s core value was to visualize the concept of absolute defense. The difficulty of creating it was also much more significant than building real-life objects.


    Zhang Heng did not expect Evil Scientist to make his crazy ideae true, and that he would actually use it here, eventually putting the team in insurmountable danger.


    After one minute, the massive cyclone above everyone��s head also started changing. It slowly moved from white to a think ink-like ck. It looked like something big was about to go down.


    The six initially thought that they still had a lot of time. After all, they spent less than half of that time getting to the top of the tower. The 40 minutes they had was supposed to be more than enough to end the battle. Now, they couldn��t eveny a finger on Evil Scientist. This sticky situation greatly discouraged every member of the New Year��s Eve Game Team.


    Even if Zhang Heng repeated the quest, he had to admit that he��d still fail to find a way to take down the 329 Protective Shield. Evil Scientist raised his head and looked at the sky. A look of excitement and expectation gleamed in his eyes. ��My wife and daughter areing back,�� he said. ��I can feel them. They are calling my name. Today is the day I reunite with my family.��


    ��No. Stop lying to yourself. If this continues, you will destroy this city. Open your eyes and take a good look at what��s beneath your feet. That is the ce we fought and protected. Look at the innocent people below! You told us to protect them. Have you forgotten your oath?�� the bald man earnestly persuaded.


    ��Yeah, I used to worry a lot about such illusions. For the sake of senseless ambition and so-called justice, I had to be patient while working with a bunch of hopeless people. I was like... like a full-time nanny! I was there to tell you what to do and what not to do. But in the end, what did I get? Look at what you have done?! You caused me to lose my wife and daughter. You really... let me down.��


    Evil Scientist turned on the projector and sted it into the sky, disying scenes of the previous battle. It included the bald man fleeing the Transformers, the waiter��s butcher transforming into a zombie, and Daddy Cowboy doing nothing. Dessert King and Candy Baby began to talk about love in the middle of the fight, and Cat Lady, who was supposed to guard the power distribution room, lost her cat at the crucial moment. She was now working overtime in the office, writing codes, and watching Gakki��s new drama, King of the Ocean.


    ��I have to say, that��s rather disappointing. You never failed to disappoint us...��


    ��You are digging out everyone��s most embarrassing moments and putting them together. This doesn��t prove anything about them.��


    ��Hehe, so many of you are gathered here together, but you can��t even touch a single strand of my hair. Doesn��t that make you feel useless?��


    ��Well, even if you��re right about all of us being idiots, at least we��ve found the chosen one, and the prophecy says they will stop you. Well, even though they��re just standing there and staring at you, and it seems they have no way to stop you as well...��


    ��Thanks for mentioning...�� Fan Meinan rolled her eyes. ��Oh, so you really believe that so-called prophecy? I don��t believe it. After seeing so many stupid things, prophecies are one of those stupid things people actually believe in. That prophecy is simply nonsense,�� Evil Scientist sneered in disdain.


    ��No, it��s because you haven��t experienced the miracles of the chosen ones. They can be awakened and allow a soul to possess them. I saw the soul of nt Queen attaching itself to one of them,�� defended the bald man.


    ��I said the prophecy is nonsense... because I was the one who created the prophecy,�� Evil Scientist nonchntly continued, ��I made it up to test your stupidity. It��s a now proven fact that you are hopelessly stupid.��


    After saying that, Evil Scientist didn��t bother looking at the six of them again. He turned around and looked at the huge whirlpool above his head, preparing to wee the return of his wife and daughter. Suddenly, someone patted his shoulder.


    ��You��ve gone too far this time. I��m furious,�� the bald man frowned. ��No matter what happens, you should never take advantage of someone��s trust.��


    Evil Scientist��s eyes opened so wide they almost popped out of his sockets. ��Oh f*ck, how the f*ck did you manage to get in?!�� he growled.


    ��I don��t know. I walked in as soon as I felt angry,�� the bald man scratched his head. ��I didn��t feel an air-wall in front of me. When everyone was all excited about it, I had to pretend that there was actually a wall. I was only concerned about the hidden secret in your n. For example, only a fool wouldn��t be able to detect the wall. After all, you have cheated me several times, and I have to be careful.��


    ��Is there such a loophole in the 329 Protective Shield?!�� Evil Scientist was shocked, but then, he saw the toilet seat the bald man was holding. Then, he suddenly came to a realization. ��This smart toilet seat and the bionics use the same set of Al systems. The only difference is that the bionics are upgraded, which is why the 329 Protective Shield recognized my toilet seat and you as my subordinate. Are you really an idiot? This is the best opportunity for you to extract the Infinite Building Block from the quantum collider. Why are you here with me?!��

 Chapter 368 - But I Have Something To Say To You

    <strong>Chapter 368 But I Have Something To Say To You</strong>


    In a furious rage, Evil Scientist stomped his feet. ��I��ve had enough! Is there no end to your stupidity? You��re as dumb as iQIYI��S advertisements. I can��t believe I used to be one of you! If you��re so eager to die, I��m more than happy to oblige!��


    Evil Scientist then took apart a toy car to build a mechanical viper. He then swung it into the air to throw it at the bald man.


    However, the bald man stopped him. ��Hold on.��


    ��What is it? Anyst words?��


    ��Yes, you��re right. Our n is to remove the Infinite building block from the quantum collider and stop you from destroying the city. That aside, there��s something important I need to do.��


    ��And what��s that?�� Evil Scientist frowned.


    The bald man grabbed the smart toilet seat under his armpit and offered it to Evil Scientist.


    Evil Scientist looked perplexed. ��What? I didn��t say that I would provide any warranty service when I gave it to you, did I?��


    ��I��ve been thinking... about how to end our rtionship. I lost my father when I was only a child, and I dropped out of high school to work at a small brick factory-I used to think that getting paid and buying a can of soda in my vige were the best things in my life. If you hadn��t found me and told me you saw something in me that no one saw, I would have continued living like that, aplishing nothing...��


    ��There are times when I get blinded too. Don��t take it at heart.��


    ��You told me I could be a different person. You taught me how to discover my potential, potential to build something to make the world a better ce. I don��t know... ever since I was a kid, people kept telling me that I could never achieve anything and that I was destined to fail in anything I do. My employer even told me that if I left the factory, I would starve to death, so I should be grateful even if I had to work eighteen hours a day. That was the first time anyone��s ever praised me. I��ve never met my father and never knew what it was like to have one. But at that very moment, I felt certain that you were my father.��


    ��Why are you suddenly talking about this... you hope I��ll be guilty after killing you? What a contemptible maneuver!�� Evil Scientist hissed.


    The waiter piped in, ��Yeah, I still remember the first time I met you. At that time, I failed my college entrance exam, and I was about to join a gang with Brother Kun next door, collecting protection money from the stalls on the street. You were the one who told me


    -before bing a hero; all heroes have to endure pain and suffering no ordinary people can bear; even if they keep getting knocked down, they��d always stand up again. That��s why they��re called heroes. In the end, I chose to repeat a school year... although I still failed the second.��


    ��That... Well... it��s always easy to go on about philosophies,�� Evil Scientist shook his head.


    ��You were our leader once, the person I admired and loved the most,�� the bald man continued. ��But since the explosion, you��ve be different. I should be the one who��s disappointed here. Look at what you��ve done �� pulling out Phantom Ninja��s butt and disying it on the wall of the theatre, hunting down and killing the remaining master builders, and sacrificing the entire city for your own selfish reasons. You even... turned all those innocent tourists into zombies! By the way, you could have just called me and given me a notice in advance. I could have invited my elementary school headteacher here��always hated that one.��


    ��The point is, you��ve betrayed my love and respect for you, so I don��t think I can still regard you as my father, mentor, or even a person I respect...�� The bald man opened his mouth several times, trying to coax something out, but the words just wouldn��te out. Then, after a while, he finally said with hesitation, ��I... I don��t think we can continue our rtionship.��


    A look of sadness shed across the Evil Scientist��s face, but he maintained his bluster. ��If it��s over, it��s over. I��ve already proven that I am stronger without you idiots anyway.��


    ��Since it��s over between us, I feel that it��s only appropriate to return this to you.�� The bald man offered the toilet seat to the Evil Scientist again. ��That��s why I brought it here. Once you ept it, it means that from now onward, you and I are strangers.��


    Evil Scientist harrumphed and reached his hand out. ��Fine... then we can permanently...��


    Just as he was about to touch the toilet seat, the bald man retracted his hand. ��You couldn��t do it, right? Just like me. To be honest, I��ve yed this scene this a million times in my head before I came to see you. I thought I��m ready to be done with you, but when the moment came, I realized I couldn��t do it. I can��t pretend that the rtionship we had never existed... most importantly, I can��t lie to myself...��


    The bald man looked into Evil Scientist��s eyes and said softly, ��Come back, dear scientist. It��s still not toote.��


    Evil Scientist was quiet for a moment. Then, he looked up. ��No. I may be able to stand your idiocy, but I will never be able to forgive you for what you did to my wife and daughter,�� he said resolutely. ��Everything that��s happening now; take it as atonement for what you��ve done.��


    With that, he reached out and grabbed the toilet seat from the bald man��s arms, and in a swift motion, broke it apart. Then in a cold, calm voice, he said, ��As you wish. We no longer have anything to do with each other.��


    ��Really? We��re no longer friends?�� ��Yes, and you better leave before I change my mind, or else...�� The bald man stood his ground, unmoving. ��But I still have things to say to you,�� he said.


    ��My goodness! Are you really going to continue ying the emotional card? Can��t you say what you need to say in one breath? I��m getting really tired of all of this,�� Evil Scientist shot his oldpanion a murderous look.


    ��No. It��s something I can only say when we��re no longer friends,�� said the bald man. ��We��re not responsible for the death of your wife and daughter.��


    ��What?�� Evil Scientist frowned. ��What are you bbing about?��.


    ��We operated that machine exactly ording to the manual you gave us. It exploded because there was a w in your design.��

 Chapter 369 - Come Closer

    <strong>Chapter 369 Come Closer</strong>


    ��No, that��s impossible. There aren��t any ws with my design. I repeatedly checked,�� Evil Scientist said confidently.


    ��Your design is indeed problematic. Otherwise, why did the machine explode in the end? Also, I wanted toin about you a long time ago. Was it necessary to make an automatic popcorn machine two buildings tall? You even used nuclear energy to power them! Are you serious? Your quantum collider is only as big as a biscuit box!��


    ��This is some sort of... contrasting beauty. But that is not the point. The point is that you operated the automatic popcorn machine wrongly, and it killed my wife and daughter. Now, you want to push the responsibility to me? That��s too much.��


    ��On the contrary, your design has been wed from the beginning. We just did what you asked us to do. Then the machine exploded.��


    ��No, it was your fault. You already admitted it. And the main operator, Phantom Ninja, also admitted that it was his mistake as well.��


    The bald man(Baldy) shrugged, ��That was just to make you feel better. We all know how important your wife and daughter were to you, so we decided to refrain from telling you the truth after we discussed it. After all, you have done a lot for us. On the other hand, we didn��t get a chance to do anything for you, and we didn��t want you to me yourself for the mistakes you��ve made. I know you well. If you knew that you were the one who actually killed them, you would drown in your guild until the day you die.�� ��Oh, you don��t know me at all.��


    ��No, I know you very well. I said that I admired you very much, and you��re like my idol. I know everything about you. I even rummaged through your trash!��


    ��That��s a bit too much.��


    ��It was one of those stupid things I did before, I know. I told myself that I wouldn��t do it again. Do you remember that time in Tangxia? A dangerous building was about to copse, and a group of children was ying downstairs. You showed up at the critical point and demolished the building, rescuing them in the end. At that time, news channels covered it for a whole week, and the inte was abuzz with the praises that people had for you. However, you still became depressed for an entire month because a block from the building you demolished identally crushed a stray cat. You med the incident on yourself because it wasn��t actually under the building when you demolished it. In other words, the building should have never been able to hurt it. The cat was killed instead by the block you tossed. I have never seen you me yourself so much.��


    Baldy shook his head, ��You thought you were the one who caused its death. You were feeling so guilty that you couldn��t even eat properly. Sometimes you... are really too harsh on yourself. I can��t imagine how you��ll be when you discover that you were actually the one who killed your wife and daughter. How will you punish yourself? I don��t even know if your heart is strong enough to face this.��


    ��Well, even if you know about the Tangxia incident, it still doesn��t prove the explosion wasn��t your fault.��


    ��You don��t actually believe what I said, don��t you?�� Baldy sighed, ��If you need proof, fine, Messenger.��


    Messenger: ��...??????��


    ��Help me contact Ocean King and tell him to send the video to my mailbox.��


    Messenger nodded, immediately assembling a homing pigeon.


    ��What video?�� Evil Scientist frowned.


    ��Ocean King works at Zhujiang New Town. It��s very close to here. You will know soon about the video,�� said Baldy.


    The pigeon came back ten minutester. Baldy then quickly built aptop and turned to ask Evil Scientist, ��What is your WiFi


    password?��


    ��Ilovechangzeyamei.��


    ��Wow, you haven��t changed your WiFi password for almost ten years!��


    ��So what? As long as Nagasawa Masami is still acting, my password will not change,�� Evil Scientist proudly proimed.


    ��Okay, okay...�� Baldy typed in the password and pressed Enter. ��Okay. Now I��m connected to the inte. You want toe closer and check out the video?��


    When he heard that, Evil Scientist moved from where he stood and came to Baldy��s side.


    ��Come a little closer, the screen is a kind of small.��


    Evil Scientist held back for two seconds, moved closer, and stood almost side by side with Baldy.


    ��Ha! Next, I will open my mailbox.��


    ��Wow! You have a lot of junk mail!�� Evil Scientist frowned as his head shook.


    ��Yeah, I can��t help it. They keep sending me these spam emails, and I can��t delete them in time.��


    ��Really? And you even registered for an adult forum?�� Evil Scientist asked curiously.


    ��No. You must have seen wrongly.��


    Baldy then clicked on the new mail sent by Ocean King as fast as he could.


    The attachment was a video file, and after clicking the y button, a huge factory building appeared on the screen.


    Evil Scientist��s face immediately changed, ��This is...��


    ��Yes, yourboratory. To be more precise, this is your previousboratory.��


    The video shook a little��the recording should be from a handheld DVR, and the person behind the camera seemed extremely excited. He pointed to the massive microwave-like machine in front of him and said, ��Did you see it? It is a nuclear-powered automatic popcorn machine! Use this! This popcorn machine is so cool!!! Oh, I can��t believe such a cool popcorn machine exists in the world!��


    ��I love the Scientist. His inventions are not only practical, but they are very cool as well! I want to ask him to create something for me when I move into a new house. I need one of his inventions in my life,�� a voice said.


    ��Forget it, can you put that in your new home? Doesn��t it use enriched uranium as fuel?! Does that mean that the next time we have popcorn, they��ll be gically modified? But it��s still cool...�� eximed another voice.


    At the same time, the camera rotated and aimed at the eyes of Ocean King. The person then started to zoom in on his face quickly, before zooming out again. By repeating it, the person seemed he would never get tired of it.


    ��Have you guys always been this stupid when I was away?�� Evil Scientist asked in disgust.


    ��Not all the time... but most of the time, yes. We have to have some fun, too,�� said Baldy.


    While the two talked, a voice in the video said, ��Let��s see who is here, our little birthday star!��


    ��Oh! Oh! Oh!!!�� Everyone roared, and the camera finally stopped pointing the poorly focussed Ocean King��s face. This time the camera was pointing toward a woman with a little girl. The little girl was so shy that she hugged her mother tightly.


    Evil Scientist was shocked when he saw the video, ��Qianqian, and Mengjie.�� A gentle look appeared on his face, ��I miss you so very much.��

 Chapter 370 - Just Cry It Out

    <strong>Chapter 370 Just Cry It Out</strong>


    ��Okay, let��s make some popcorn for the little birthday star!�� a voice suggested. ��You��re right. We��ll use this cool popcorn machine to make some cool popcorn! What kind of popcorn would you like, Qianqian? Avocado, and custard apple? Got it. Let��s head to the control room.�� ��Hold on. This thing has a control room?��


    ��Yes, yes! Of course. Such a cool thing needs to have the most advanced technology. In fact, it can even be controlled remotely by Bluetooth.�� ��Wow! Although I don��t know why Bluetooth technology would be used on a popcorn machine, it��s still cool anyway!�� ��Isn��t Qianqianing with us? Are you going to stay here and wait for the popcorn toe out? Err... is it okay? Is it safe?��


    ��Let me take a look at the instructions given to me by the scientist...�� a voice said.


    The lens then pointed toward the person behind it.


    ��That��s me. I mean, me three years ago,�� Baldy said. ��I was pretty handsome back then.��


    ��I found it... the instructions say, please do not enter the heating chamber when the machine is in operation,�� Baldy was saying.


    ��That means the other ces are okay?��


    ��Yes, I��m just following the instructions. The scientist can��t be wrong.��


    ��Cool! Then the little birthday star can stay here. The rest of us will go to the control room.��


    The camera started re-recording the shy little girl, before panning to another angle. Evil Scientist knew the moment wasing, and he had his eyes glued to the screen, afraid that he would miss something important.


    However, the next moment, Baldy clicked the space button and paused the video. He then gazed into Evil Scientist��s eyes and said, ��Are you sure you want to continue watching? I��m not sure if I should show you this video.��


    ��Of course, I need to know the truth,�� Evil Scientist firmly replied.


    ��But, you know, the truth doesn��t always make people feel good,�� Baldy sighed.


    ��I understand... but even so, it��s still the truth,�� insisted Evil Scientist.


    ��Okay.�� Baldy pressed the spacebar again and let the video continue.


    This time the camera was shooting a convenience store, where everyone bought beer and braised peanuts. Some were craving for milk tea, andter, everyone went to a different street and got themselves milk tea and egg waffles. At the same time, Ocean King forgot to turn off the DVR, and the camera was recording his feet...


    Ten minutester, Fan Meinan could not help but blurt, ��The two of you, no matter what you want to do, you best hurry up, because the situation above your head doesn��t look too good.��


    High above in the sky, the menacing ws of a dragon-like creature pierced out of the cyclone, exuding a terrifying aura.


    ��Give me two more minutes. I will be done in two minutes... We are about to reach the most important part,�� Baldy pressed on.


    ��Well, I don��t have a problem with that but the city might not wait for you to be done with the video.�� Fan Meinan chewed on the gum Zhang Heng handed her. The two now knew the zombie battle downstairs was the final battle of this quest.


    As for Evil Scientist, no one could defeat him at this stage. The oue of the game here had nothing to do with the yer. Fan Meinan and Zhang Heng stood there as they watched the drama unfold before them.


    ��Well, let��s speed up the video a little bit.��


    In the control room, Baldy rubbed his hands and opened the instruction manual. ��Next, just follow the instructions above, and you will be able to make the most delicious popcorn in the universe. What��s the vor Qianqian requested again?�� ��Uhh... I don��t remember. I think it��s grape and apple?��


    ��I think it��s banana and durian.��


    ��No, it��s lychee and milk.��


    ��Everyone,�� Baldy said solemnly, ��The scientist has always been helping and guiding us. He has done a lot for us. Now, we shall do him a rare favor, and that is to celebrate his daughter��s birthday when he is away. We need to make sure that it��s perfect. So... please think about what kind of popcorn Qianqian would want to eat.��


    Half a minuteter, Candy Baby suddenly chipped in, ��Chocte.�� ��Eh?��


    ��Pure chocte, no sugar, the taste of cocoa exploding on your tastebuds, its bitterness, and mellowness, just like first love.��


    ��That��s right. It��s chocte. I remember it too. She is absolutely right!��


    ��Now that you��ve mentioned it, I seem to remember it...��


    ��Okay, I get it. Let��s do it. Phantom Ninja, can you operate the machine?�� Baldy shrugged and turned to the page with the chocte recipe. ��Let me see... turn on the power button and preheat the machine for ten seconds... enter the code, coco... ...��


    Evil Scientist opened his eyes wide, carefully scouring the video to see if Phantom Ninja had done anything wrong. However, no matter how hard he looked at it, he could find no problem with the operation.


    ��Finally, press the enter button. Why is there an enter button here?�� Baldy picked up the manual and looked at it thoroughly.


    ��I don��t know, just press it. The scientist doesn��t make mistakes.��


    ��Yeah, you��re right.�� Phantom Ninja��s finger dropped and hit the enter key.


    After that, the control room remained quiet for half a second, before the ce suddenly erupted in cheers and apuse. Someone opened a can of beer and sprayed it all around the ce. Some even spilled milk tea on the DVR��s lens.


    ��We did it. We did it!!! I can��t believe that that we actually did it.��


    ��Yes. Just like what the scientist said, as long as we stick together, there will be no difficulties that we can��t ovee.�� ��It��s true. I feel we are one big family.��


    While everyone was celebrating, a loud explosion suddenly erupted in the background.


    ��What��s that? The sound of popcorn popping out of the pot?��


    ��I don��t know. I can��t find it in the manual...��


    ��Should we check it? I feel having eating popcorn now.��


    ��Uhh... urm... but the manual says that we shouldn��t simply move around at this time.��


    ��What should we do now? Should we head out?��


    ��No, no, we should just listen to the scientist. He is always right.��


    ��Also, the scientist is the best! Let��s just follow what he says.��


    As the video progressed, Evil Scientist started sobbing. Baldy built a roll of toilet paper, tore off a sheet, and passed it over to him silently. At the same time, he moved his shoulder to the opposite side as well. Finally, Evil Scientist could no longer control his tears and started crying bitterly on Baldy��s shoulder. Despite how terrifying a person Evil Scientist was, he was now no different than a lost child who had misbehaved and didn��t know what to do right now.


    ��It��s okay, it��s okay,�� Baldy patted him on the back, ��Just cry it all out. Don��t hold it all in your heart...��


    ��It��s me... It��s all my fault... I don��t have a family anymore,�� Evil Scientist buried his face deep into Baldy��s shoulders. His voice was blown away by the wind blowing at 488 meters above ground, carrying with it the tune of a heartbroken man.


    ��I don��t think so,�� Baldy softly said as he hugged Evil Scientist. ��You haven��t lost all your family members. You see, I��m still here. We are all here. Every day... we are always waiting for you toe back to us. As you said, idiots like us are the garbage of society, and nobody pays attention to us. Without your leadership and guidance, we can never do anything well. We wouldn��t be who we are today if it wasn��t because of you. So... please, don��t give up on us.��

 Chapter 371 - Master Builder (End)

    <strong>Chapter 371 Master Builder (End)</strong>


    ��That��s why I love LEGO so much. Regardless of how typical the story is, it always ends up with a big family reunion.�� Fan Meinan looked at the two men hugging each other on the other end of the shield and shrugged as she removed the Iron Man suit on her. ��Some people say that such stories are terrible and childish, but it��s rather pleasant, to me at least. There are already too many sad things in life. All we can do is to seek happiness within that unhappy life and smile.��


    ��Is that your life��s philosophy? Your WeChat username, and those pranks... were they also because of this?�� Zhang Heng asked.


    ��Yup. I hate seeing people looking sad,�� Fan Meinan confessed. ��But you are quite the strange one. I can��t see happiness or even unhappiness on your face, and you never get angry whenever I pull a prank on you. Even when you got your lost wallet back, you didn��t seem any happier... why are you like that?��


    Zhang Heng kept quiet. Since a young age, he had always been much calmer than the other kids and was rarely frightened by anything. As a result, his rtives oftenmented that the child was a bit too quiet. His mother, however, would always answer that being quiet was a good thing and that silent people were more powerful. She insisted that quiet boys were more temperamental, so there was no need to worry about girlfriends in the future.


    Ever since he received the watch on his wrist and got involved in the bizarre game, he had lived decades more than his peers. Everything he had experienced, the years that had gone by, an experience most would never be able to partake in their lifetime. Mentally, he was already in his thirties, but, emotionally, he was too reserved.


    In fact, Zhang Heng could feel his mood swings diminishing. In some respects, it did not seem to be a bad thing. In the previous quest, he had to make an emergencynding in a waterspout while piloting a fighter jet. At the crux of the emergency, he was still able to execute every step of the n without any incident urately��he was like a machineeven surviving an almost inescapable disaster.


    On the other hand, however, fear and terror were human emotions, basic human instincts. Now, he was not just at the stage where he simply did not feel fear; even his other emotions were gradually muted. Zhang Heng even suspected that he was somehow suffering from some kind of mental illness.


    As the both of them were conversing, Evil Scientist and Baldy had removed the quantum collider from the antenna mast and were walking towards the pair with the box.


    ��I��m sorry my defiance caused you all so much trouble and sorry for making the big mistake of nearly destroying the entire city,�� said Evil Scientist.


    ��Err, I hate to interrupt your affectionate confessions and monologue... but those things above our heads look like they��re going toe out,�� said Mei Nan.


    ��Alright, then I��ll keep this short. I��m no longer worthy of having the Infinite Block. I was going to give them to the Mobile Arsenal since he��s the most talented special builder I��ve ever seen. But since he said that he��s not interested in this thing, I��m hoping to give them to you for safekeeping.��


    ��But we��re not from your world,�� Zhang Heng said.


    ��Oh, I��ve heard that from Mobile Arsenal. But never mind... I��ve already had them for so long.


    Apart from the fact that it inspires me from time to time, it seems to have no other use. I��m sorry I made up that ��prophecy�� about the chosen one, but I have actually heard of a real prophecy-one night while I was asleep, a voice whispered in my ear that if someone from another world stopped me, then I should give that person the Infinite Block. At first, I didn��t take those words to heart, but he kept repeating them in my ear every night. I��ve been suffering from insomnia. Can you see it in my bloodshot eyes?��


    Evil Scientist pulled up the eyelids of his painted eyes. ��Of course, part of it is thanks to me missing my wife and daughter, but... that voice is the main culprit. He was such a pain. So, can you just do me a favor and take this thing away from me? I just want to have a peaceful night of sleep.��


    ��Well, in that case, it is better to ept graciously than decline courteously.��


    Zhang Heng opened the box, and a piece of an ordinary-looking building block was in there. However, it was different from the regr LEGO block. There was no serial number at the back of this piece, and it looked like a counterfeit.


    Once he held it in his hands, the system prompt sounded in his ear. [Discovered a game item�� Infinite Building Block (unidentified)]


    Before it was identified, Zhang Heng had no way of knowing for sure that this was the B-grade game prop that Fan Meinan mentioned. This quest was very special-it did not count as a round, and yers could enter and exit at any time. They could also choose to repeat the game, the trade-off being that yers would not be rewarded with points like in ordinary quests.


    So this object was his only profit from this game. When he took out the block from the quantum collider, the beam of light in the sky disappeared, and the cyclone began to rotate in a reversed direction. The monsters inside, too, cried out in disinclination. They could not get out of the cyclone, disappearing into the night sky, along with their immeasurable anger.


    Instead, a bright river of stars would take their ce.


    Tens of thousands of onlookers had gathered below Canton Tower, recording the unusual weather with their phones and enthusiastically sharing their thoughts.


    ��Hey, that thing... can I take a look at it?��


    Zhang Heng did not even hesitate for a second as he handed the building block to Fan Meinan.


    ��Tsk tsk. How unexpectedly generous. Aren��t you afraid that I would take it for myself or make a run for it?�� Fan Meinan blinked.


    ��No. Because if you did, I would find you,�� Zhang Heng answered.


    ��Ah, you. You really know how to spoil the mood. Most guys would look me in the eye and say that it��s because they trust me. This is a great opportunity for you to leave a good impression on girls.�� ��Will that method work on you?�� Zhang Heng asked.


    ��That erm... it depends. Girls are unreasonable creatures. The right people are always right no matter what they do. On the contrary, no matter how hard they work, the ones in the wrong will only keep losing points,�� Fan Meinan replied as she tossed the Infinite Building Block back to Zhang Heng. ��Anyway, thank you for spending New Year��s Eve with me.��


    Then Meinan retreated to the guardrail of the viewing tform before looking down. ��Speaking of which, I��ve wanted to do this for a very long time now,�� she continued. ��What is it?��


    ��You��ll find out soon enough.�� Fan Meinan grinned. ��Hey, you have to be happy during New Year, eh?��


    Before Zhang Heng realized it, she had already jumped off the 488-meter viewing deck.


    Zhang Heng hurried over just in time to see Meinan��s body shoot across the night sky like a shooting star. Then, it started falling out of the sky.


    The crowd below cried out in terror and covered their eyes. The figure which was about to hit the floor then suddenly disappeared. Zhang Heng knew that Meinan must have exited the game.


    ��Isn��t that a little sloppy?�� Zhang Heng shook his head, then ced the block into his pocket. He took onest look at the city made entirely out of LEGO. He looked toward the bald man and Evil Scientist who were embracing each other before opting to leave the game too.

 Chapter 372 - New Year’s Eve

    <strong>Chapter 372 New Year��s Eve</strong>


    Zhang Heng opened his eyes and found that he was back in his bedroom. He was in the same posture as he was before entering the quest, sitting cross-legged on the bed,ptop on his knees. His fingers were in the air, about to click the touchpad. The screen disyed an ��error 404.��


    Zhang Heng took a look at the watch on his wrist. In the previous quest, he was transformed into a LEGO figurine and fortunately, he was back to normal once he left the quest. The time on his watch showed 00:05. Even with the extra 24 hours, only 9 minutes had passed since he started the game. Unlike his previous games, although this one had many battles, the sense of tension was basically nonexistent, and in addition to the LEGO-styled graphics, it was also possible for Zhang Heng to withdraw from the game any time he wished. Hence, it was not so much of an adventure but more of a vacation.


    That said, after staying in a world made out of building blocks for a year and a half, Zhang Heng felt an inexplicable urge to dismantle objects around him after exiting the dungeon, one of the side effects of the quest.


    It was New Year��s Eve, after all. Although midnight had passed, the street was livelier than usual. Over the years, the city banned people from ying with fireworks, but some still couldn��t help but light them up secretly during the New Year.


    It was hard to sleep at this hour, so Zhang Heng opened his door.


    Grandpa had returned to his room, but his parents were still wide awake. The TV was turned on, but no one was watching it since the two of them were ying Monopoly on the sofa. Zhang Heng bought this board game box when he was still studying in elementary school, having had to save up for a long time before he had enough money to buy it. However, after graduating, he did not y with it anymore, putting it together with a stack of old clothes. He only found it while doing spring cleaning with his grandpa. Zhang Heng initially nned to donate the set to impoverished children living around the mountainous areas. He did not expect that his parents would y with it.


    Mother Zhang cupped her hands and shook the dice in them. To catch the fleeting good luck, she even climbed onto the back of the sofa and let the dice fall from a high spot. As a result, the two were now crawling all over the floor, looking for the ��lucky�� dice.


    ��Hey, you��vee out. Finally... are you done?�� Mother Zhang looked at Zhang Heng with a mysterious smile on her face.


    ��What do you mean by that?��


    ��It doesn��t matter, I was young once,�� Father Zhang said as if he knew very well what his wife just said.


    ��Ha.��


    Zhang Heng finally knew what they were talking about. The two obviously misunderstood when he went back to his bedroom alone and locked the door behind him. Rolling his eyes, Zhang Heng did not bother to exin the whole thing to them.


    After that, Mother Zhang opened her arms wide, ��Come, the first hug of the year. It��s reserved for my most important people. Our family��s tradition should never be broken.��


    ��Since when did our family practice this tradition? Howe I know nothing about it? Besides, the two of you haven��t been back for the past two years. Even if this tradition exists, it should have been broken long ago,�� chided Zhang Heng rhetorically.


    ��Erm... I just thought about it. From this year onwards, this tradition will continue. You can hug grandpa when we are away, and you can hug your girlfriend when you get a girlfriend. Although your rtionship with your girlfriend might notst long, she will be your most important person, for that moment at least. Ain��t that right?�� Mother Zhang asked.


    ��Don��t deliberately say something serious and make yourself look cool,�� Zhang Heng said.


    ��Hahaha! See how my son reacts? Do you know what I thought when you looked me in the eye? I had to talk that much just to get you to hug me. Can��t you take the initiative this time?��


    Zhang Heng had to walk to his mother after she talked to him.


    Just as the two were about to hug each other, Mother Zhang said suddenly, ��Well... don��t you need to wash your hands first?��


    ��I��m just kidding. It��s okay not to wash your hands. I don��t mind. You��re my son, after all.��


    Stamping his feet in annoyance, Zhang Heng finally hugged his mother and father.


    ��Awesome. Now our family has a New Year tradition. You can pass this tradition on to your future sons and daughters. After that, they can pass it on to their sons and daughters. This will pass on from generation to generation, maybe even spreading around the whole world at some point in the future. It��s pretty cool when you think about it... I will be remembered by everyone as the founder of this tradition. Of course, you have to find a girlfriend first to make it possible. You are capable of getting a girlfriend, right?��


    ��Mind your own business.�� Zhang Heng bent over, picked up the dice that his parents were looking for a long time, and threw it on the table.


    The dice bounced twice and finally stopped on the table.


    ��Ah, it��s six! It��s six! This is the number that I needed most. In this case, all the shops on this street are mine,�� Mother Zhang eximed in excitement.


    ��This doesn��t count! Hengheng threw it... you��ll have to throw again,�� Father Zhang objected.


    ��No, this is the choice of fate!�� Mother Zhang insisted.


    If embarrassing herself was a skill, Zhang Heng believed his mother must have probably achieved Level 5.


    m


    Then, Mother Zhang turned and said, ��Why don��t youe y with us? The more yers, the more interesting it gets. Anyway, it��s too noisy outside and I don��t think I can sleep tonight. Let��s just stay awake for the whole night. There is arge bottle of Coke in the refrigerator and we can all y Monopoly while we finish it.��


    ��I have no problem with that. Can the two of you two stay awake for the whole night?�� asked Zhang Heng as he gotfortable on the carpet.


    ��Psst! My son underestimates me. Back then, when I stayed upte each night to finish my thesis, you were just a cell that my body hadn��t split out. This time, let me show you my skills in this game,�� Mother Zhang said proudly.


    It wasn��t long before Mother Zhang fell asleep during the second game. She was the one who spoke loudest but fell asleep on the sofa anyhow, pride notwithstanding.


    Father Zhang took the dice and a bunch of tightly held game-banknotes from her hand. Seeing his mother fast asleep, Zhang Heng went to the room and brought out a quilt to cover her. After that, the father and son cleaned up the table and divided the Coke between themselves.


    ��Nothing happened recently, right?�� Father Zhang suddenly asked while he cleaned the living room.


    ��What do you mean by that?��


    ��I��m talking about your feelings, studies, life, health...�� Father Zhang paused, ��and you suddenly asked about Greend and Mr. Time earlier.��


    ��But, you didn��t seem to want to talk about your Greend scientific expedition.��


    ��Yes,�� Father Zhang went through his hair, ��Because nothing actually happened... You know, there are ciers everywhere, and the impression I got from that ce is coldness.��


    ��Yes.�� Zhang Heng nodded in agreement.


    The two stayed silent for a while, unable tond on a topic to talk about.


    ��I guess... I��m probably not a very good liar, especially to someone,�� Father Zhang was a little embarrassed.


    ��You have never been a good liar.�� Zhang Heng said, ��But it doesn��t matter. Just leave it be if you don��t wish to talk about it. It doesn��t matter.��


    ��Maybe next time. Just you and me, father and son. n toe to Europe during the summer vacation? I can rmend a few good attractions and bars for you.��


    ��Sounds good, we��ll talk about it when the timees,�� Zhang Heng said, ��I��m heading back to my room to sleep. Want to keep the light on?��


    ��Just leave it on. I��ll turn it offter. Good night, son.�� ��Good night, Dad.��


    Zhang Heng opened the door...

 Chapter 373 - Farewell

    <strong>Chapter 373 Farewell</strong>


    Much to his surprise, Zhang Heng received a greeting card from the United States the next morning.


    On it were the Chinese characters for Happy New Year written in crooked hand. There was no name on it but in the lower right corner was a stick figure drawing of Moresby. When he saw that, Zhang Heng instantly knew who sent the card.


    He flipped the card over and saw a small sentence written in fine handwriting. It said, ��Don��t worry about the cheating test. I��ve already fixed the bug for you, and there no need to worry about it the next time you y. Please continue working hard. Smiley face.�� Zhang Heng searched the sender��s address and found that it came from a motel.


    Although The Tang suited old man gifted Zhang Heng with an extra twenty-four hours every day, subsequently changing his life, he still found himself wary of him.


    This was especially true after he came across an old photo and realized that the old man had appeared in his life as early as seventeen years ago. Now, his mistrust of the man had nearly grown to its peak. Whatever the old man said in the maid��s caf�� was no longer credible. Zhang Heng also could not figure out what the old man really wanted from him.


    No one knew better than Zhang Heng just how powerful the old man really was. Within Still Time, Zhang Heng was the one and only king, making him almost invincible. What more, the old man who gave him this ability should only be so much more powerful. At such a level of power, the old man could easily get whatever he wanted. If he already had his eye on Zhang Heng seventeen years ago, why did he wait so long then?


    How was him seventeen years ago different from him now? What secrets were concealed within that Greend expedition his parents participated in? And his abating emotional fluctuations... there seemed to be some sort of hidden connection between these things...


    But for now, he was still unable to connect the dots. That, however, did not prevent Zhang Heng from making preparations. The first thing he did after breakfast was to bring the Infinite Block to the game point for identification. When that was done, he cycled to the library to look up on books rted to Chronos and ancient Greek mythology.


    People of modern society tended to have less social interaction, but the older generation, like Zhang Heng��s grandfather, still maintained the customary Chinese New Year visitation galore. The following days would see rtives and friends visiting each other��s households.


    Zhang Heng made sure to check up on Tiantian��s family next door, confirming that Tiantian��s ��curse�� had really been removed and that the family��s ��bad luck�� was over. Everything returned to normal, and Tiantian��s mental state was gradually improving. As for Peng Jiating... Zhang Heng met her by chance once. She was sitting in her father��s car, and they were about to go somewhere��Zhang Heng wasn��t sure where to, but her stepmother and brother were not in the passenger seat. However, because of the nature of his father��s work, he would only return home during the holidays and for a short period of time. As for whether the environment she was living in would change, and how it would change when he left, Zhang Heng had no idea, nor was it within the scope of his obligations to be concerned.


    Three dayster, Zhang Heng and his grandfather sent his parents to the airport.


    His parents both luggedrge and small pieces of baggage, but this time, however, the contents were different, now stuffed to the brim with various locally produced specialties that filled out the suitcases to the point they they were about to explode.


    Zhang Heng��s father collected the boarding passes at the self-service ticket machine, before the four embraced and bid each other farewell.


    Just as they were about to leave, Zhang Heng��s mother turned around and eximed, ��Oh, yes, I almost forgot the gift!�� ��Gift? What gift? Haven��t you already given us gifts?!��


    ��No, no, no. This is a different one.�� Zhang Heng��s parents then shared a look. ��Ah, I suddenly feel very self-conscious. You should tell them.��


    ��Well... Summer and I were thinking...�� Zhang Heng��s grandfather interrupted, ��Speak mandarin!��


    ��Oh, sorry. Xiao Xia and I... We want to have another child.��


    ��So, you waited until now to tell us the most important thing?!�� Zhang Heng raised an eyebrow. ��Am I going to be a big brother?��


    ��Erm... to be precise, you are actually already a prospective brother,�� Zhang Heng��s mother stuck out her tongue. ��Because of our age problem, we actually started preparing for this pregnancy a year in advance, but it wasn��t until...��


    ��Until two weeks ago,�� Zhang Heng��s father continued. ��It was only confirmed two weeks


    ago.��


    ��So, that��s why you were pestering me for ice cream in the middle of winter and even demanded to stay up all night long?�� Zhang Heng gave his mother a look.


    She looked sheepishly at him. ��Ha... It��s only the sixth week. So, it��s not noticeable yet. It shouldn��t be a problem. Besides, carrying a baby around is tough. If I don��t eat what I want and have as much as I can while I can, then it would only be tougherter on.��


    ��So, that��s why you never told anyone before you made the decision?!�� Zhang Heng��s grandfather frowned. ��That��s just too rash. Aren��t you worried that I may not be strong enough to take care of your child?��


    Zhang Heng��s parents looked at each other. Mother Zhang then chuckled, ��Err... We decided to bring the child up ourselves.��


    ��Overseas?��


    ��Yes, overseas. Mmm... since it��s not a busy time for us, and we have time to care for the child. Dad, we left Zhang Heng with you at that time because we were too busy-we really didn��t have the time then, and secondly, it��s also so that he could apany you. We won��t trouble you anymore this time.��


    Zhang Heng��s grandfather was silent for a moment. ��Finally, you��re bing a little more like parents. It��s up to the two of you as husband and wife to decide, but remember to bring the child home during Chinese New Year to visit your mother and me.��


    ��Of course, if you want, both of you cane visit us there. We just bought a two-story house. You��ll love it; it has a small garden, and you can do your gardening and all...��


    ��Forget about me. I��ve been a Communist party member my entire life; I won��t be able to get used to drinking Capitalist water.�� Zhang Heng��s grandfather shook his head. ��What more, your mother is here, and I have to see her during the holidays.��


    ��What about you?�� Zhang Heng��s mother looked at Zhang Heng. ��Any ns after graduation? Your father and I know quite a few professors, and we could help when you apply for anything.��


    ��I don��t have any ns for the time being,�� Zhang Heng answered. ��There are still some things I haven��t resolved yet. Moreover, if we all leave, I won��t be at peace, leaving grandfather behind on his own.��


    The games hadn��t ended, the mysteries surrounding him hadn��t been solved, and Zhang Heng had no interest in going abroad.


    ��Things... you mean, like rtionships?��


    Zhang Heng merely smiled in reply to his father��s question.


    ��Alright. If you change your mind, you can always give us a call.��


    ��Have a safe journey,�� Zhang Heng wished them.


    Zhang Heng��s mother made a ��call me�� gesture before walking away with her husband toward the security gate. The pair looked back several times and waved at their son and father until they passed the gate and disappeared from sight. Zhang Heng��s grandfather patted him on the shoulder and said, ��Come on now. We should go home too.��

 Chapter 374 - Fair Deal

    <strong>Chapter 374 Fair Deal</strong>


    After sending off his parents, Zhang Heng and his grandfather returned home. When they got down from the car, they ran into Jia Jia outside their house.


    Jia Jia was no longer dressed extravagantly like in the game checkpoint. Today, she was decent, wearing a down jacket and a pair of loose sweatpants. She also made sure that she was tightly wrapped in her clothes. Even so, a passing man couldn��t help but steal nces at the attractivess.


    There seemed to be an indescribable fatal attraction to that body of hers.


    Jia Jia took pulled out a cigarette from her cigarette case and stuck it in her mouth. However, she could not find a lighter in her pocket. So, she asked a passing man, ��Hey, uncle, got a light?��


    The man was no young and immature boy, looking like he��d been with several women already at the age that he was at now. However, When Jia Jia approached him, he still became stunned, and three secondster, he hurriedly took out a lighter and helped her light the fag.


    Jia Jia moved her face forward, resting the cigarette on the mes for a moment. She then took a drag and exhaled a huge cloud of smoke.


    ��Thank you,�� said Jia Jiazily.


    The man was lost again. Just when he mustered enough courage to say something, someone came from behind him.


    ��Ah, you are back.��


    Jia Jia ignored the man.


    The voice obviously had jealous undertones and when he turned around, he saw a young and strong figure. He could only sigh in his heart. After that, he picked up the vegetables he just bought and left with a heavy heart.


    Jia Jia did wasn��t bothered about him, instead, proceeding to talk to Zhang Heng, ��I��ve been waiting for you for a while.��


    ��Your friend?�� Grandpa asked.


    ��Uhh, I guess so,�� Zhang Heng said. ��Then, you should continue chatting.��


    After that, Zhang Heng��s grandpa went into the house.


    The moment he closed the door, Zhang Heng spoke again. ��How did you find me here?�� ��You left your address at the game checkpoint. I followed it, and I found you here. I ran into a kind person on the road that gave me a ride,�� Jia Jia said. As she spoke, she took a small bag out of her pocket. ��Here is your thing.��


    Zhang Heng opened the ck bag and saw the Infinite Building Block with an identification card inside it.


    [Name: Infinite Building Block]


    (Quality: B]


    (Function: Assembly with other LEGO bricks will activate the item. Its effectsts one hour. Item will return to its block state after one hour. Note: This item will only work on tangible objects and will not work on fantasized objects.]


    Although he was prepared, Zhang Heng was a little surprised when he saw the identification results. This small LEGO block with no serial number turned out to be a Grade-B game item; its effects, written on the card, was definitely worthy of a Grade-B game item.


    However, the conditions of using this Grade-B game item were the most unique in any game he��d ever yed. In other words, its true potential depended on how good the user��s LEGO fixing skills were. It appeared that Zhang Heng��s Level 2 LEGO Assembly skills he had acquired in the previous quest woulde in handy again.


    ��I didn��t know you were also responsible for game item delivery.��


    ��I��m never responsible for delivering game items,�� Jia Jia said, ��But this time is an exception. After all, it��s Grade-B. It��s too dangerous to be mailed and I prefer to hand it to you personally. That said, whether the item reaches your hand safely has got nothing to do with me anyway. I was only willing to help that idiot deliver this to you to get your address and find an excuse to see you.��


    Unconsciously, Jia Jia had already gotten closer to Zhang Heng, and now, the two were only a few centimeters away from each other. Zhang Heng could feel Jia Jia��s warm breath cascading down his cheeks.


    ��So, what do you think about the proposal?�� Jiajia whispered into Zhang Heng��s ear. ��What proposal?��


    ��That idiot did tell you that I wanted to sleep with you,�� Jia Jia said. ��Before you say no to me, think of the huge benefits if you say yes. I can be the perfect woman in your heart. You can experience happiness that you have never experienced before. I can also make up for the regrets you��ll never be able to make up in your heart. If you think I��m moving too quickly, we can start a rtionship like ordinary lovers if that��s what you fancy. It��s okay. I can afford to wait for you to fall in love with me.�� ��Why?�� Zhang Heng frowned upon hearing this, ��Why choose me?��


    Jia Jia smiled; her eyes sparkled with purity, akin to the ice on a frozen Lake Baikal. ��In human terms, it is the need for reproduction. I need a descendant. As for why I chose youit��s because I like you. You don��t smell like some nasty, old guy. It��s your own scent.��


    ��My charm?��


    Jia Jia leaned even closer to Zhang Heng��s shoulder and took a deep breath. Like a gluttonous girl getting a whiff of the aroma of chocte, a blush appeared on her cheeks. ��You smell... like a lost child. Don��t worry, sleeping with me won��t bring you any danger, and you won��t lose anything. On the contrary, you can also get the answers you��ve been looking for from me. You have a question about this game, right? I might be able to give you some answers you��ve been looking for a long time. Unlike those guys, my sisters and I are not bound by those old vows.��


    Jia Jia took another step forward as she spoke, her chest almost stuck to Zhang Heng��s body. She then looked at Zhang Heng passionately, ��Well, you can get what you want from me and I can also get what I want from you. It��s a fair deal��we can even make a contract if you are really worried.��


    ��I don��t think this is a good proposal.��


    The person who said that wasn��t Zhang Heng, but the uncle in beach pants at the game checkpoint. He popped out of nowhere, and this time, he wore a green cotton coat with a pair of SpongeBob earmuffs. He had suddenly appeared outside Zhang Heng��s fence and rode a pink Emma electric bike. Although it somewhat made him lookical, the expression he had was uncharacteristically serious.


    ��Subus, you have gone over the line!��


    Jia Jia flicked the ash off her cigarette and returned to her cold expression. ��Every time ites to serious business, some annoying guy will always interrupt me! It��s not your right to mind my business!��


    ��Yes, it��s always your business when ites to the men that you want to sleep with. Earlier I even helped you to convey the message to him, but you, of all people, should know where the boundaries are. You can��t use the information you have as a bargaining chip, intervening in matters between yers. Your behavior is likely to cause unfairpetition, and you don��t want to upset the gamingmittee.�� Jia Jia sneered, ��Oh, what a loyal dog. How disappointing. Whatever.�� After that, she gave Zhang Heng another sultry look and tightened her cor.


    ��I��ll fetch you back,�� the beach pants uncle said as he revved the throttle of his e-bike.


    ��No, I��m not going to sit on that thing!��


    Jia Jia walked to a BMW not far away from her. naturally, the had stopped and was unable to take his eyes off her.


    ��Can I get a ride from you?�� Jia Jia asked.


    ��Of course, hurry up and get in. It��s cold outside,�� the owner proimed diligently, feeling that his heart had been thumped hard by something. His pupils contracted, and his breathing elerated. Immediately, he trotted all the way to open the door for Jia Jia.


    ��Uncle, you are so nice. Can I smoke in the car?��


    ��No problem, no problem, no problem at all!�� the owner smirked.


    Jia Jia sat down on the passenger seat and flipped a bird to the uncle in beach pants.

 Chapter 375 - Killing With No Risk Online Store

    <strong>Chapter 375 Killing With No Risk Online Store</strong>


    After getting the Infinite Building Block, the first thing Zhang Heng did was to get to the mall and purchase a few boxes of Lego bricks for experimentation. He was granted a speedup buff while in the Lego world, and whenbined with his unique pair of plier-like hands, he could achieve fantastic speeds when assembling a model. However, this speed couldn��t be replicated in the real world, even with the 10 fingers he had. Still, he had mastered the skill pretty well and could now assemble in a respectable time.


    From brick to object, a Lego version of a pistol took him only four minutes to build. Zhang Heng looked at the M1911 in his hand. There was almost no difference between this one and a real M1911 and tried to load it before unlocking the safety pin and recing the magazine. Astonishingly, an hourter, the pistol transformed back to a Lego model.


    Zhang Heng retrieved the Infinite Building Block and tried to assemble the recurve bow that he used frequently. This time, it took longer to build it, considering howrge it was. Thankfully, the final product did not disappoint.


    After several tests, Zhang Heng was satisfied with the results.


    As long as he carried a few boxes of Lego bricks with him in the future, he would be able to use his Infinite Building Block to assemble whatever he needed, basically transforming any brick object into the real thing. In other words, he could obtain different kinds of weapons anytime and anywhere, especially in sensitive locations such as airports and certain high-security areas. Naturally, weapons like bows and arrows were strictly banned from those ces. It was in such es that Zhang Heng��s Infinite Building Block would shine.


    After all, no one would consider a pile of Lego bricks as dangerous items.


    The Infinite Building Block was also one of Zhang Heng��s most widely epted game items. However, using it in a quest was another altogether. For example, if he were to teleport into a quest like cksail again, he would be unable to find a single piece of Lego brick, not in an ancient world like that. In other words, the Infinite Building Block would be rendered useless. Nheless, in terms of avability, Lego bricks were considered as easily acquired items.


    After that, Zhang Heng revisited the inte cafe to browse recent postings on the forum. Recently, the hot topic of discussion among yers was another Grade-B game item, the Dreand of Death. It seemed that on New Year��s Eve, word had gotten around that the perpetrator had been found. The strange thing was, more and more posts of simr fashion were continously uploaded in the forum after that.


    It appeared that the murderers were not the same person. What was more surprising was that they weren��t even yers. These apparent murderers did not know each other, were of different ages, lived in different cities, had different upations, and some of them were even housewives-hardly anything inmon amongst them. The only thing that tied them together, though, was the fact that they dearly wished to kill the person they hated most in their lives. ording to them, they had all found an online shop on the inte called Killing With No Risk.


    The establishment promised that its customers could purchase a risk-free assassination service for only ten yuan.


    At first, people thought the site was the regr run-off the mill trinket store, providing their customers with innocent memorabilia like voodoo dolls. That said, some started doubting if it worked, knowing that their enemies would only be knocked down ��spiritually.�� So after an order was made, they received the package from the website a weekter, where detailed instructions for the dummy were enclosed.


    Upon receiving the package, most customers used the doll ording to the steps provided. Whether it worked or not, it was worth a try since they had paid for it anyway. Some were afraid to do it once the item actuallynded in their hands. So, they threw the package aside and continued to curse the ones they hated in their hearts, hoping that it would someday take effect. Of course, there were always those who would ignore the instructions altogether and did things their own way.


    Naturally, nothing happened to the second and third groups of people; the divine justice that they expected didn��t materialize. The first group of people, however, were surprised and horrified when they discovered that their targets were killed in their sleep as promised by the store.


    There were mixed reactions. Some were overjoyed over the oue while some started to regret, afraid that the death of their targets would eventually be traced back to them. They also feared retribution, wondering if the owner of the online store would use the secret to threaten them someday. Not too long after all the recepients got their orders, they went online to search for the shop again and found that the website had disappeared without a trace, as if it never even existed in the first ce.


    Afterward, some quarters even took the initiative to surrender themselves to the police, unable to bear the enormous guilt and psychological pressure they were subjected to. Owing to the oundish and childish confessions of curses and jinxes, the officer handling the case quickly dismissed them and rmended they consulted a psychiatrist instead.


    ��This matter is getting more and more interesting. A new and powerful game item has appeared?��


    ��No. This method of killing is indeed the work of Dreand of Death. The current situation looks more like...��


    ��It��s like someone cloned Dreand of Death and sold the replicas to ordinary people who knew nothing.��


    ��Is that even possible? Someone should have found out they were receiving counterfeits all the while. Are they game items? What is its quality? And how many times can it be used?��


    ��It��s a pity that all the Dreand of Death clones found so far have been spent with no uses left.��


    The person who posted thisment imed to be a member of one of the three major guilds, and had also participated in the investigation. At the same time, he was also a police officer in the real world.


    ��We sent every Dreand of Death clone we could find for evaluation, and no surprise that they weren��t game items. We even found an unopened package, but its contents weren��t game items as well.��


    ��y?��


    ��Yes, it looked like the y that appeared at the auction during that time. It loses effect after a certain period.��


    A few immediately agreed to it.


    ��This is too much... what kind of game item is that guy holding? How did he clone a Grade-B Dreand of Death in batches... a Grade-A game item, perhaps?��


    ��Only two Grade-A game items have surfaced so far. One has exceeded its number of uses, and the other one is missing.��


    ��Wait, shouldn��t we be more concerned about the killer��s motive? She��s now giving away the Dreand of Death to ordinary people like an item from the Taobao bargain bin! Although they��re just clones, will they do her any good?��


    ��I don��t know. The three major guilds have been tracking her down recently, and I believe she should be captured soon.��


    The following replies were basically all sorts of conjecture, and Zhang Heng didn��t bother reading them any further. However, another post caught his attention. The title was��the guy whopleted the Master Builder quest, pray I never find you.


    Zhang Heng opened it up to see what it was all about. The person who started this thread was the Lego master and his team, the one Fan Meinan mentioned earlier. They were close topleting the quest as well. Out of a total of 24 teams in the Master Builder quest, they were thought to be the ones who would eventually acquire the Grade-B item, considering how skillful they were.


    Nheless, after three months of hard work, their long, hard-fought-victory was snatched away by Zhang Heng. In the end, the Lego master didn��t get anything after spending so much energy and time. The anger and disappointment in him were beyondprehension. However, the ones replying were obviously unable to empathize with his frustration and disenchantment. trolls be trolls, they mercilessly spewed insults and jeers without the slightest thought or consideration; seeming to greatly enjoy doing something of this sort.

 Chapter 376 - Return To School

    <strong>Chapter 376 Return To School</strong>


    In the following few days, Zhang Heng didn��t reencounter anymore weird events, and Jia Jia didn��t look for him again either. However, an unfamiliar WeChat ount added him as a friend. The unknown person then sent him an address with a side note, ��Contact me if you change your mind.�� Zhang Heng had been actually doubting the identity of Jia Jia of the checkpoint for a long time. Judging by her conversations with the uncle in beach pants, it was pretty obvious the two weren��t superior and subordinate, nor were they in a cooperative rtionship. On the contrary, Jia Jia appeared to be the dominant one.


    Besides, the things that the beach pants uncle said vaguely revealed some clues that Jia Jia wasn��t actually human. ��Jia Jia�� needed to find a partner every 20 years, and when he called her subus that day, her true identity was thus confirmed.


    Subus, in Latin, meant lustful temptation. Originally derived from Greek mythology, legends about these demons were well documented in Sumerian mythology and Hispanic myths. These demons often appeared in dreams of men, absorbing their essence. Their wings, tail, and horns were signature characteristics of the type.


    However, in modern stories, subus didn��t merely appear in dreams. Their range of activities had be broader, and their imagery was more varied. At the same time, they often worked part-time at a particr ce.


    In addition to her fantastic charm, Jia Jia seemed to possess other abilities as well. Discounting the mysterious Einstein from the Apollo Program, she was the first person to figure out the rtionship between Zhang Heng and the weird man in the Tang suit. Based on what she said about taste, she seemed to know the true identity of the peculiar man.


    Unfortunately, Zhang Heng could get no clear answers from her. Although Jia Jia had been ridiculing the beach pants uncle, she still seemed to harbor a considerable degree of fear toward the gamingmittee. She only offered Zhang Heng so many benefits because of her insatiable desire to reproduce.


    Seeing how she dismissed beach pants uncle, it seemed impossible to keep talking about this matter with her. However, Zhang Heng also knew that if he didn��t offer himself to her, he wouldn��t be able to make her tell him everything. For now, though, he had no n for doing so.


    Putting aside the history of the subus (no matter how cute it looked, it still couldn��t conceal the fact that it was some kind of demon,) and if what Jia Jia said were truethat copting would not bring Zhang Heng any harm, Zhang Heng never had a habit of using his body as a bargaining chip. After adding her on WeChat, he tossed his cellphone aside.


    For the rest of the holiday, data collection aside, Zhang Heng continued to familiarize himself with the Infinite Building Block, hoping to be able to assemble the things he needed in a much faster time.


    Grandpa, on the other hand, bought dinner ingredients from the supermarket. When he opened the door, he got a shock seeing an orange kitten lying on the floor.


    ��A stray cat in the yard?��


    ��No. It belongs to my friend. I��m nning to return itter.�� Zhang Heng picked up the tiny orange cat, still scratching its ears with his hind legs.


    ��Come back early for some fried noodles tonight.��


    ��Okay.��


    ��Oh and, are things packed?�� Grandpa asked while changing slippers.


    ��It��s almost done, only toiletries and power cords left,�� Zhang Heng said. The little orange cat in his hand yawned, seeming unwilling to be held. Although it had started kicking and struggling, Zhang Heng did not dare to put it on the ground. He had it tested before; a cat transformed by an Infinite Building Block was no different than an ordinary cat. To put it in other words, it waspletely uncontroble. If the cat was in a room, it could be captured no matter where it went. Once it got outside the house, though, the cat could wander in the vast, vast world. If it disappeared, it would not be fun if the cat transformed back to Lego bricks and picked it up by someone.


    Nheless, Zhang Heng had confirmed through this experiment that he had no way to control his creations. If unnecessary, he figured it was better not to use the Infinite Building Block to assemble living things, especially those that could run fast.


    ��Don��t forget to put it away tomorrow morning,�� Grandpa said. ��Get up early; I��ll drive you to the train station.��


    ��Uh, I can just get a taxi.��


    ��No, I want to see you off. Anyway, I have to go out to the flower and bird markets in the morning, and it��s no trouble for me to stop by the train station.��


    ��Okay.��


    Zhang Heng opened the door with one hand and cat in the other.


    The little orange feline had been thinking about wandering around the outside world for a long time, and the moment the door opened, it was instantly attracted by what it saw outside. However, Zhang Heng firmly held the back of its neck and didn��t let go. They then came to a ce with fewer people. Zhang Heng waited a while, looked at the time on his watch, and put the little orange cat on the ground.


    The cat was ridiculously energetic, like a dragon entering the sea, or a tiger rushing down a mountain. It spread its four legs and started to run like there was no tomorrow. Unfortunately, as soon as itnded on the ground with its front legs, it retransformed into its original state-a lifelike Lego kitten.


    Zhang Heng first removed the Infinite Building Block from its abdomen, then dismantled the Lego cat and put the pile of bricks into his bag.


    It was a quiet night, and he made use of thest hour he had here to take some pictures. They were mainlyndscape photos of his junior high school and elementary school. On the way, he encountered two inte-addicted teenagers who were poised to rob passing victims. Broke and penniless, they did it to feed their inte gaming habit. Zhang Heng confiscated their clothes and threw their knives into the river two kilometers away from them.


    After that, he went on visiting other spots, including a yground he liked most when he was still a child. It was demolished earlyst year, and in its ce was a five-star hotel that was still under construction. An empty skating ringy beside the plot.


    Zhang Heng also took the time to inspect the grandpa��s old Volkswagen, recing a few old parts to make sure it was safe to drive. He finally returned home an hour earlier and opened grandpa��s house��s door. He sat by the bed for a while, looking at his sleeping grandfather until the hour hand pointed at twelve again. He then got up and returned to his room.


    Early the next morning, Zhang Heng carried his bag and went back to school again. His grandpa drove him to the station, watched him pick up the ticket, and passing through the security check. After confirming that he did not miss anything, the elderly man turned around and left.


    As opposed to when he arrived, there were no more idents on the train on the way back. This time, Zhang Heng was surrounded by students that were ready to return to school. The atmosphere in the carriage was harmonious. No one approached him as well, thankfully. So, Zhang Heng continued to read his ��Finnish Grammar,�� eventually falling asleep until the train reached the terminal.

 Chapter 377 - Inappopriate

    <strong>Chapter 377 Inappopriate</strong>


    The first thing Zhang Heng did once he returned to school was to unpack his luggage and register in a driving school.


    He opted for the course that would get his driver��s license the fastest, but driving schools were in popr demand at the moment, and even the ordinary courses had been fully booked half a year in advance. To be able to drive legally as soon as possible, Zhang Heng decided to go with the VIP ss, which he would be able to attend in two weeks.


    Usually, an appointment could be made in advance for practice whenever the student was avable, and once the required hours had been umted, they could then apply to sit for the test. One could get a driver��s license as soon as 20 days, but it also cost twice that of a regr ss.


    Yet, although Zhang Heng��s driving skill was at Level 2 and he had even sped down the Tokyo Expressway in reverse, there was no way he��d be able to obtain a driving license unless he attended a driving school. Although individuals were technically allowed to bypass driving school, they still had to have lessons. The process was also more troublesome, ultimately taking a longer period to obtain a driver��s license. It wasn��t as convenient as spending a little more money at a driving school.


    After making the necessary payments, Zhang Heng went on to deal with the problem of parking. Because the school��s management was very strict about vehicles, and since students were not allowed to apply for parking spaces, Zhang Heng��s only option was to look for an underground parking lot nearby. This also meant higher expenditures since a parking fee was charged. Coupled with possible future modification costs, Zhang Heng��s current pocket money was definitely insufficient. That said, he wasn��t interested in taking up a part-time job


    ��even though he had 48 hours a day, it did not mean he was about to squander the extra time given-he would rather use the precious gift for fitness, skill training, or even resting.


    Eventually, he contacted Ding Si and requested to exchange fifty points for cash.


    ��Let��s see... right now, the exchange rate is 37,400, which makes 1.87 million for 50 points. After deducting a 1% handling fee, it��s a total of 1.8513 million yuan. How would you like to receive this money?��


    ��Do you have any suggestions?�� Zhang Heng asked.


    ��Of course, if you don��t want to risk exposing personal information during the transfer, the least risky method would be the white card.��


    ��White card?��


    ��Yes, every chamber ofmerce provides a white card, a bank card applied using the information of ordinary people. We will guarantee the safety of the funds in the card, and the original owner will not touch it. Of course, we would not be responsible for any loss or damage whatsoever incurred on your part, such as falling for text message scams. Otherwise, we will reimburse you in full if there truly is a problem with the funds. Of course, you can also choose other delivery methods, such as cash and such...��


    Zhang Heng thought about it and decided he needed the white card. ��How much for one?��


    ��Forty thousand yuan. We will also include aplimentary mobile sim card that is bound to the bank card. You may choose to change your phone number upon receiving the card,�� said Ding Si. ��We will directly deposit the money into the card. You��ll just need to go to a game checkpoint and transfer the points to us. After that, we will set up a location for collection.�� ��Alright.�� ��Happy gaming!�� After solving his funding problems, Zhang Heng contacted his mother��s friend and asked for her address, heading to the ce after she got off work. It was a high-end residential area located on the edge of the Fourth Ring Road. The floor area ratio was only 0.5, and themunity was basically made up of low-rise bungalows with tight security and surrounded by lush greeneries. Zhang Heng registered himself at the guardhouse, walked up to the gate, and rang the bell.


    The owner of the house was clearly waiting for him, as the door opened almost immediately upon his arrival.


    A middle-aged woman greeted him at the door.


    ��Wee.��


    From what he had heard from his mother, her name was Han Lu, a university friend of hers majoring in finance. After graduation, she returned to China and worked for a bank until she became an executive before resigning to start a private equity. She retired once again, just as she was gaining a reputation.


    Then recently, with her contacts and umted funds, she started a venture capital firm. Although she was about Mother Zhang��s age, she seemed to look very young, appearing as if she was only in her thirties.


    There was, however, a difference between the two��s youthfulness. Zhang Heng��s mother was a more carefree character who lived life as if she had never had troubles, while Han Lu��s profession was high-pressured and fast-paced, indirectly leading to her being single until now. Before this, she had simply no time and energy to fall in love, and now she was not attracted to anyone. Even those she was attracted to were already married, and thus, she had grown ustomed to living alone, abiding by the ��quality over quantity�� principle.


    In the huge mansion, there were only two upants��she and the housekeeper. Her youthfulness was also the product of countless pricey serums and lotions. Despite the expensive solutions, one could easily see that she was also a stunning beauty in her younger days. ��Zhang Heng?�� Zhang Heng nodded.


    ��Please take a seat. This is not the first time we��ve met. I visited you when your parents brought you back to China. You were only two at that time,�� said Han Lu. ��I was stunned when I heard the news. Xiao Xia and I... We tell each other everything, but she never told me a word when she became pregnant. I only found out when she came back.�� Han Lu called for the housekeeper to bring some fruits. ��Wow, you��ve grown so much. Time really does fly,�� she continued.


    Zhang Heng thanked her. ��Since you��re here, might as well just stay for dinner. I heard you��re studying here, and I��ve meant to see you, but your mother said that you don��t like to be disturbed? So... need my help with anything?�� Although Han Lu was a woman, the fiercepetition in the capital market had caused her to be a decisive and proficient person. To entrepreneurs who were in urgent need of funding, she was like God. It was true, in a sense. One word from her could determine the life or death of apany. Over time, she developed an imposing aura about her. While not deliberate, a simple gesture, such as sitting near a person would cause them to feel so ufortable and nervous. Most would instinctively get up to leave.


    Much to her surprise, a young-un like Zhang Heng, still wet behind the ears, wasn��t walking on eggshells around her. With her experience, she was very good at reading people, and no one��s nervousness or guilt could escape her eyes. She could even urately tell by sight who was pretending or who was genuinely calm.


    Hence, Zhang Heng belonged to thetter. From the moment he set foot into the house -no-from the moment they made contact, Zhang Heng never showed the slightest bit of timidness. His posture was just the right amount of rxed, and he was polite but yet not overly formal. He also behaved the same when they were having a casual conversation. At the same time, Han Lu was secretly surprised by how well-informed he was.


    Han Lu would even sometimes forget Zhang Heng��s age, as she groaned silently in her heart-she did not care about the age gap between them��there were very few men who could captivate her intrigue. What a pity this was her best friend��s son.


    Of course, it would be inappropriate to develop a romantic rtionship with her friend��s son.

 Chapter 378 - This Is… A Bug In The System, Right?

    <strong>Chapter 378 This Is... A Bug In The System, Right?</strong>


    Han Lu told Zhang Heng not to worry. He could park his Polo at her ce for the time being. After all, she had three parking spaces and he could pick up the car after he received his driver��s license. Nheless, he rejected her offer.


    Zhang Heng didn��t have a driver��s license, and he could not drive during regr hours. This, however, didn��t mean that he wasn��t allowed to drive during his extra 24 hours.


    In fact, public transportation was easily essible in big cities, and there were many methods of traveling during regr hours, and it wasn��t a big problem if personal transport was nonexistent. On the contrary, when Zhang Heng entered the still world, he would need a means of transportation if he wanted to move to a distant ce.


    In the end, Han Lu didn��t force the idea on Zhang Heng. She made a phone call and got someone to drive the Polo to a parking lot near Zhang Heng��s School.


    ��You have my address and contact information. Feel free toe and see me when you are free.�� Before they parted ways, Han Lu said to Zhang Heng, ��Inform me in advance before youe. I travel far sometimes.��


    ��Thank you, Auntie Han,�� Zhang Heng responded politely.


    ��Just call me Sister Han. It sounds younger,�� Han Lu smiled.


    The students who took leave after the seventh day of the new year gradually began to return to school. In Zhang Heng��s dormitory, Chen Huadong came back the earliest. ording to him, staying at home was too dull. All he did was eat and sleep, and of course, he was warmly weed by his parents during the first few days, but after that, his parents would start nagging andining no matter what he did. When Spring Festival was over, he opted to book his tickets and return to school early. At school, he could y all the games and watch all the dramas he wanted.


    Wei Jiangyang was the second to return to school. Mainly, it was because he booked drama tickets for the seventh day of the new year and wanted to watch it with his girlfriend. They both had toe back early to watch it. Zhang Heng came back after that, followed by Ma Wei, thest person to return to the dorm. He went back to his hometownte and stayed home for an extra two days. He did, however, manage to make it back right on the day before school restarted.


    It was the dawn of a new semester, and the finals were still a long way away. It should be the most rxing and exciting time for the students. Chen Huadong, however, looked as if he was about to enter a battlefield. In the early hours of the 26th, he sat in front of hisputer with a serious expression, and with trembling hands, he entered a URL. When he clicked on the mouse, he quickly covered his eyes with his other hand.


    After that, he looked like a girl that was about to get married. He moved his fingers nervously and reluctantly. When he saw the numbers, he couldn��t help but let out an exciting wolf howl. Raising his arms and fists, he eximed, ��Yes! I passed the test!!!��


    ��Your score... is kinda low,�� Ma Wei groaned. He was standing behind Chen Huadong and saw the eye-catching 426 points on the screen. ��It��s one point higher than the passing mark. Anyway, you got about 60 points for your other courses as well.��


    ��Don��t underestimate me. In our school, I��m the God of Exams. Please call me the Naked Exam Prince in the future!�� Chen Huadong eximed while patting his chest.


    Compared to the excited Chen Huadong, Wei Jiangyang, on the other hand, had a solemn look on his face. As another member of the naked exam team, his English was actually not bad, outperforming himself in the college entrance examination. He got 130 points, which wasn��t too bad actually, and shouldn��t have any problems taking the CET-6 examination. He did not pay much attention to the test, and besides, he needed to apany his girlfriend as well. As a result, there wasn��t much time for him to do any revising


    He did not expect to fall so hard this time. Scoring only 402 points in total, it meant he needed to retake the exam in June this year. The moment Wei Jiangyang discovered his less-than-ster results, he seemed to be in pain, wailing with his head buried in his arms on the table. At the same time, simr scenes echoed in every corner of every school across the country, where both wails and cheers concurrently resounded. Chen Huadong patted his shoulder andforted him. ��It��s okay, look on the brighter side. At least you got to add the points you earned for some credits. Our friend, Mr. Zhang, will have a headache soon,�� he said.


    Zhang Heng wasn��t in the dormitory now, but everyone in there knew about his current circumstances. The teacher caught him skipping ss before the CET-6 exam, and had gotten so angry that he canceled all the points Zhang Heng earned. ording to the 3 to 7 conversion rule, he had to obtain a score of at least 609 in this exam to acquire the English credits. Otherwise, he would have to retake the whole subject with the freshmen next semester.


    Zhang Heng��s English proficiency was no secret, scoring a respectable 492 points in the previous CET-4 exam. Although it wasn��t bad, it was just mediocre at best. He needed another 100 points to pass the exam, and besides, the CET-6 exam was significantly more difficult. Supposedly, Zhang Heng was more than capable of passing the CET-6 exam, but it was also unrealistic for someone to get 609 points in one go.


    In fact, it was an impossible goal. Zhang Heng was genuinely unlucky. It just happened that the teacher was in a bad mood. After angering him, Zhang Heng was practically begging to retake the exam next semester. Retaking the exam was a small matter. The main point was, it was embarrassing to have to retake the exam with a group of junior girls.


    Zhang Heng came back at night. As soon as he entered the door, he saw that a small table had been set up in the middle of the room. On it, there were some cold beef, chicken wings, smoked sausage, pancakes, and several other cold dishes. Chen Huadong even took out arge bucket of Coke.


    ��Anyone of you celebrating something?�� Zhang Heng asked. ��No, this is a healing dinner, specially organized by everyone tofort you and Wei Jiangyang��s injured souls,�� Chen Huadong solemnly proimed. He stepped forward and pulled Zhang Heng to the main seat.


    ��Me? Why do I need healing?�� Zhang Heng asked.


    ��We admire your courage for braving through death. They released the CET-6 results today. Have you checked it yet?��


    ��Oh, I forgot about it.��


    It was true that Zhang Heng had forgotten about it. Although it was only two months after the CET-6 exam, Zhang Heng hadpleted three quests during that period. In other words, his mind convinced him that a few years had passed since the CET-6 exam. The memories of the exam were at the back in his head, and he didn��t remember it until Chen Huadong mentioned it.


    Chen Huadong handed him a pair of disposable chopsticks, saying at the same time in relief, ��Think on the brighter side, at least you can snuggle up to those cute little junior girls next semester. With your looks and behavior, it��s not a problem for you to get rid of your single status. When that timees, I might ask you to help me look for a potential partner. By the way, would you like to check your results?�� ��Okay,�� Zhang Heng said.


    Chen Huadong turned on hisputer and thoughtfully helped Zhang Heng open the results webpage. Zhang Heng entered the ount number, paused for a while before entering the password. The page then jumped to the query result. When they saw Zhang Heng��s results, the entire dorm room fell silent.


    Chen Huadong��s jaw had fallen to the ground. After a while, he recovered, rubbed his eyes, and said, ��That��s a bug in the system. It��s definitely a bug, right?!��

 Chapter 379 - Wonder Woman

    <strong>Chapter 379 Wonder Woman</strong>


    Chen Huadong took a deep breath.


    ��691 points? Is there something wrong with my eyes, or is there something wrong with the website?��


    ��248.5 points for listening. That��s ridiculously high, right? What��s the difference between this and the full score?��


    ��Actually, 248.5 IS the perfect score,�� Ma Wei added. ��Huh? Then, for the reading test, he got 241.5...��


    ��The full score for reading is... 248.5.��


    ��So he lost only 7 points for this part? Writing and tranting are 201 points, which meant he��s 12 points short of the perfect score?! Wait, does that mean that only he needs 19 points to get full marks for the CET-6 exam?�� As if he��d just witnessed a murder, Xu Huadong was shocked and wide-eyed. He turned to Zhang Heng, ��What the hell, did you get the answers in advance?��


    Ma Wei, who was beside them, also sighed loudly. He was known as one of the brightest students in the ss and usually obtained excellent results in all subjects. Everyone said that he was born to study and achieve greatness. However, he knew the difference between excellence and excellence. English was his weak spot and he��d been desperately trying to improve since entering university.


    He woke up every morning, diligently going to the yground to practice reading in English. He even insisted on only reading English publications and memorizing their vocabry. To practice writing, he had used up more than a dozen notebooks. It was well worth it, all the effort he had put in to improve his English, seeing how he got a healthy 612 points when the results came out. Although quite satisfied, he didn��t expect someone to get a better result.��


    ��There is no end to learning, and the people from the old days were right about one thing. Learning this is like sailing against the current. There can be no rxation orcency,�� Ma Wei mored with emotion.


    Chen Huadong grabbed his hair in disbelief. ��It��s over. Ma Wei is so shocked that he��s started quoting the wise words of ancient people.


    ��691 points... that��s the highest score in the school. No. Maybe in the city. It could also be the highest score in the entire country! What do you think, Wei Jiangyang?�� Chen Huadong asked as he turned to look at Wei Jiangyang. Wei Jiangyang was in no better condition and was almost in tears. ��I��m dead. I��m just so sad that I didn��t pass the CET-6 exam. When I see others passing with flying colors, I became even sadder. I have two friends who got more than 600 points. What evil have Imitted to deserve this karma?! Why assign me to this dormitory from hell???��


    ��I don��t usually see you doing revision. Your parents are working overseas... did you travel abroad during the winter and summer vacations? If so, it would mean you have been using English tomunicate. Hold on, that��s not right. You got only 492 points during the CET-4 exam. How did you get a whopping increment of 200 points in one go? This too much! You received the answers to the test in advance, right?�� Chen Huadong screamed. ��Damn it! Why didn��t you share the good stuff with your friends?��


    ��Didn��t you pass the test?��.


    Chen Huadong stood straight with his head lifted.


    ��Yes. I did. Hey, don��t look at me like this. I have a desire for high scores as well,��


    ��If you are telling the truth, you wouldn��t have taken the test without any preparation,�� Zhang Heng said.


    ��Well, it seems this meal is prepared for me since I��m the only one who��s feeling sad tonight... let me make the toast first.��


    On the other side of the table, Wei Jiangyang had already sat down and poured himself a ss of Coke, which he gulped down in a second. Though it was only a carbonated drink, he was drowned in sadness and disappointment after he emptied his cup.


    Seeing that Wei Jiangyang was a little depressed, Chen Huadong tried tofort him.


    ��Don��t be sad. You can retake the exam in June. Your credits are good enough so you won��t have to retake the course next year. As long as you pass CET-6 before you graduate, you��ll be fine. Even I passed the test. Seeing how intelligent you are, there��s nothing for you to worry about.��


    Wei Jiangyang rolled his eyes, ��I joined the naked test army because I believed in you. But... you��re so lucky that you pass every time. You��re leaving me here alone.��


    ��Sigh. Just as the saying goes, your love life may be smooth sailing, but your academic performance will fall hard.��


    Though Zhang Heng told the three of them not to tell anyone else about his CET-6 exam exsults, the whole ss knew about it the next day. And on the third day, the news had spread to the entire course. In the end, the entire school knew about it.


    Shen Xixi even sent him a congrattory text. She had recently been busy trying to contact several capable teams, hoping to share her ideas and discuss the possibility of working with them. The discussions focussed on dealing with the recurrence of supernatural incidents simr to Zavilcha. She wanted to be able to solve the crisis in the shortest time possible and prevent more innocent people from being harmed.


    After the new forum had been set up, she adopted Wonder Woman as her username, subsequently uploading arge number of posts. She even took the initiative to share her previous fighting experience with Zavilcha and other monsters. Judging by the nature of those posts, Zhang Heng deduced that Shen Xixi must have been the one who wrote them.


    She was one of the few yers who was willing to risk her life to protect ordinary people. She saw this as her responsibility, offering healthy incentives to those who were willing to work with her. She also promised to distribute the loot she got to her allies ording to the value of the information provided. If the team were willing to provide information, they would still be able to reap benefits in the end, even if they didn��t participate in any battles.


    The game in itself was already perilous, so most yers had no interest in protecting the safety of irrelevant strangers. With that in mind, nobody would push away the opportunity to earn more game points. Judging by their replies, it seemed there were many yers from the same city interested in sharing their information with her. A few teams even expressed their willingness to cooperate in hunting down those monsters.


    Wonder Woman... Justice League?


    Although Zhang Heng could picture some of Shen Xixi��s thoughts and aspirations, the truth was that no one really knew what the oue would be. Something sinister had been brewing between yers recently. There was the turmoil at the auction, the mysterious girl with sunsses, and the missing Grade-B Dreand of Death. Then, there was the establishment of the new forum, the long-lostrge scalemunication between yers, and the sudden outbreak of mass murder among ordinary people. Zhang Heng had a faint hunch that something major was about to take ce. That exined why all the parties were ready to strike at any moment. Did the gamingmittee know about this matter? How were they going to approach it? Or, could it be that the gamingmittee was actually the one behind all of this?


    Zhang Heng couldn��t envision how the whole thing would develop. However, there was nothing wrong withing down with some preparation.


    Last night, hepleted the transfer of game points at a checkpoint, andter, he received a white card from Fu Lou together with the 1.813 million yuan inside it. Zhang Heng deliberately chose to ept the white card one minute before midnight. This was to ensure that nothing would go wrong, and he could also take the opportunity to explore Fu Lou as well.


    It was no wonder Fu Lou was worthy of being called a veteran chamber ofmerce. The delivery man was just an ordinary person, and there was no way to trace him through his mobile phone. For now, Zhang Heng could at least confirm that Fu Lou wasn��t doing anything terrible behind their customers�� backs. In other words, he would deal with them again in the future.


    Now that a fresh injection of funds had been received, modifications to the Polo could finally meet its dateline.

 Chapter 380 - Whistleblower

    <strong>Chapter 380 Whistleblower</strong>


    Four weeks had passed since school started, and Zhang Heng had gradually resumed his previous routine. In addition to attending sses and practicing driving, he allocated the remaining time he had to maintain fitness and master other skills. At the same time, given the increasing frequency of supernatural events around him, he also began a moreprehensive study about myths and legends.


    To get things moving, Zhang Hengunched a preliminary investigation into what took ce in Greend 17 years ago. Judging by his father��s reaction, the incident was obviously rted to him. The old man in the Tang suit had him worried, and although his father said that he would talk about it one day, Zhang Heng didn��t intend to just sit by and do nothing


    Since it was non-governmental scientific research, it should have been left some breadcrumbs behind. Zhang Heng didn��t know the name of the scientific expedition or members of the team, and all he had was a photo taken 17 years ago. It still held important bits of information, such as the name of the sponsors that were printed on the backpacks of the team.


    Unfortunately, search results revealed that the travel agency that organized the trip filed for bankruptcy only half a year after the expedition ended. Upon checking its establishment date, he found out that it was registered only one year before the expedition, so there was a high possibility that the agency was a shellpany set up specifically for this particr expedition.


    This made Zhang Heng even more curious about the purpose of the research done by the old man in the Tang suit after wasting so much effort in it. There were 19 other people in the team, so Zhang Heng decided to employ a nifty little tool called Facesaerch topare their appearances. It turned out that Google��s facial recognition engine did actually detect a few simr faces. It managed to identify four of them.


    One was the guide of the expedition, another one was a doctor, and the final two were retired SEAL operatives.


    Zhang Heng then found two of their Facebook profiles and another Twitter ount. Unfortunately, a browse through Twitter found no useful information, and Facebook profiles were private. Unable to determine their true identity, Zhang Heng remained cautious. The first phase of the investigation could be temporarily shelved for now.


    One thing could be confirmed, however-the scientific research wasn��t as simple as what Grandpa told him. It was no regr archaeological investigation or ruins exploration. The two former SEALs in the team were the best proof of that. What concerned Zhang Heng the most, though, was the doctor.


    It wasmon that a doctor joined a research expedition, especially if the team headed to ces that were inessible and had harsh environments. Medical personnel was encouraged to tag along to ensure the health and safety of the team. Strangely, the doctor in this research team was a psychiatrist.


    So why would a team that had gone all the way to Greend to research ancient ruins need a psychiatrist with them?


    The mouse in Zhang Heng��s hand hovered over the Facebook profile of the psychiatrist named Marshall. He knew he had to travel to Greend to find out more. Before that, though, a new round of the game would have to bepleted before the end of the month.


    Zhang Heng arrived at the bar��s lounge at 11:42. He chose single-yer mode once again and set the rm. After gulping down the ice-cold mojito in hand, he put down the ss.


    He closed his eyes as hey on the sofa.


    The sharp taste of mint leaves and citrus filled his throat, and at the same time, a familiar dizziness swarmed within his head. A secondter, Zhang Heng heard the system notification ying in his ears.


    [Verifying yer identity...]


    (yer verified. The sixth quest will be randomly drawn for yer 07958...]


    (Extractionpleted. Current questWhistleblower.]


    ��The inte is the foundation of our society. It is a massive globalwork connected by a set of protocols. Its inceptionpletely changed humanity��s way of life and granted unprecedented convenience to many. Today, mankind cannot live without the inte. Controversy about cybersecurity, however, has never stopped since the very beginning. Which side will you choose?��


    (Task Objective: Help Edward escape or help Number Zero capture Edward]


    [Mode: Competitive mode single-yer]


    (Time Flow: 360) (1 hour in the real world is equivalent to 15 days in this game. After 90 days, yer will be forced to return to the real world)


    [Friendly reminder: the game will officially start in five seconds, please get ready!) Just before the countdown ended, the clicking sounds of slot machines gradually resounded in Zhang Heng��s ears. These were mixed with the sound of footsteps, people talking, and the sound of falling chips.


    A casino? Zhang Heng opened his eyes and found himself standing in a colossal casino.


    A soft carpetid beneath his feet, and two rows of slot machines were on his left. The head of a white tiger sat hanging at the upper left corner of the hall, and beneath it, four Chinese characters. The four words were Long Teng Hu Xiao (Ascending Dragon, Roaring Tiger). Arge number of what appeared to be tourists were vigorously inserting coins and pulling the levers of the slot machines. The five rows of pictures behind the ss screens would then start to spin, and when a specificbination matched up, the machine would spit out money for the yer. Most of the time, the gamblers would waste all their money here.


    Zhang Heng moved forward, and his eyes fell on a huge wooden roulette table in front of him. Many believed that roulette was the fairest game in the casino since nobody was there to control the odds. In theory, no matter how the yer betted, the chances of winning seemed to be fixed. Supposedly, there should be no distinction between an expert or a rookie when the wheel started turning


    Behind the roulette table, six people were ying ckjack, a card game that had French origins. To put it simply, the game��s goal was to reach a total sum of 21 based on the value of the cards in hand. With each additional draw, yers attempted to get as close as possible to 21 points without exceeding it. When the round ended, yers would disy their cards in a showdown to decide who won or lost.


    Although the element of luck yed a vital role in ckjack, it was also a highly-skilled game, where all professional gamblers were required to first master ckjack. A film called ��21�� was even made. It told of a group of MIT students who used mathematics to win a massive amount of money from a casino. In the movie, the Asian students usedplex calctions to win a total of 5 million US. The unbelievable wins shocked and rattled the entire gaming industry.


    The set of algorithms used were also publishedter, and it no longer became a secret. However, it required a considerable amount of mental arithmetic and continuous training to master the skill. Since casinos continually improved their methods to counter these ��counters,�� it was somewhat useless for ordinary folk to know about it.


    There were two yers on the poker table who had already exceeded 21 points after asking for more cards. Frustrated and dejected, one even got up and left. The remaining four quickly got to their toes, hesitating if they should get more cards or not.


    Zhang Heng nced at the people nearby. Since the game started, he had been working hard to observe his surroundings. ording to Miss Bartender, the chance of encountering apetitive mode single-yer quest wasn��t very high-odds of that being one in six. Zhang Heng also didn��t expect to y twopetitive mode single-yer quests in a row.


    That could only mean one thing��there were also other yers in the vicinity, right here, right now.

 Chapter 381 - Getting Lucky

    <strong>Chapter 381 Getting Lucky</strong>


    Zhang Heng looked like a typical tourist when he wore a short-sleeved T-shirt and a pair of knee-length shorts. He wore sandals on his feet, and there was a pair of sunsses in his chest pocket, Like the Apollo Training Program quest, his appearance has been modified to some extent. He could feel the beard on his chin, and there was a tattoo of Peppa Pig on his right arm as well (fortunately, it was only a tattoo sticker). This time, the system retained his Asian characteristics, except that his skin was darker now. He seemed to have developed a habit of sunbathing too. Otherwise, his strength, agility, and body shape, though, were in their original state. Zhang Heng��s wallet contained about 300 euros in cash and a Visa debit card with an unknown sum of money in it. The name on the passport said, Lu Yan.


    Since he couldn��t tell if there were other Asian yers in this quest, he tried to make himself stand out a little less, exchanging 50 Euros to coins and pretended to y on a slot machine. After a short observation around him, he couldn��t find anyone who looked like a yer. Although it waste at night, the casino was packed, and a myriad of variousnguages bombarded his ears. Tourists here poured in from all over the world-France, Italy, the USA, China, Germany, the UAE, and even North and South Africa. In a certain way, the ce could pass off as the United Nations General Assembly to the untrained eye.


    Zhang Heng managed to get the answers he was seeking from the cover of a travel brochure held by an elderly American couple. He had to make some guesses. The four major gambling cities in the world were Las Vegas, Antic City, Macau, and Monaco. Macau could instantly be eliminated. Although he had spotted several Asians in this casino, there was no way it couldpare to the casinos in Macau. Then, few European tourists would travel to casinos in Las Vegas or Antic City. Since he was in a uniquely subtropical Mediterranean climate, there could only be one answer left-Zhang Heng was in Monaco.


    Located in Western Europe, Monaco, a principality situated in the French Riviera became an independent state in 1861. Being the second smallest principality in the world, with a total area of 2.02 square kilometers, the city was smaller than New York��s Central Park. Despite Monaco��s cramped streets and alleys, it was well-known for its high-stakes betting, upmarket tourism, and top banking institutions. Revenue generated by Monaco was also among the top in the world.


    Thetest page on the passport confirmed Zhang Heng��s deduction. He looked around again, and although still failing to locate other yers, he did find a few notable targets of interest. Among them, the ones that concerned him most were a young couple.


    The two had been hanging around the poker machine area for some time, staying behind other yers and observers, quietly watching the game in front of them. From time to time, they would gaze into each others�� eyes and kiss passionately as if they were a couple that had just fallen in love.


    A Spanish man in a suit who had constantly been wiping his sweat appeared to be out of luck tonight. He had lost several games in a row, and after losing another round, he had enough, hammering his thigh in anger. He decided to try his luck on other games, as he stormed toward the roulette table with a look of frustration on his face.


    Since the machine was now vacated, the young couple sat down and took his ce.


    They then proceeded to y a few rounds, and just like the previous man, they lost more than they won. Thus, the man got five cards in his hand as the game began, and immediately, he seemed dissatisfied with what he got, opting to change the cards instead. After changing them three times in a row, his cellphone rang suddenly, and he hurriedly answered what appeared to be an important call. Although he had left the casino, his young wife was still sitting next to the console, looking bored and flipping through a fashion magazine.


    Seven minutester, the man returned.


    While he was gone, other yers wanted to use the machine, only to be stopped by the man��s wife. When the man came back, he kissed his wife again and sat in front of the game console.


    Although he pretended not to care and wasughing with his wife, Zhang Heng could see that the man was under a lot of pressure. He kept looking at his watch, and his other hand was ced next to his button. It appeared he was getting ready for something. His wife, amused by the constant jokes he threw out, keptughing nonstop. Sheughed so hard that she bent over and with her loosely fitted spaghetti strap, it was a feast for the eyes of those standing behind.


    At some pointter, the man��s middle finger suddenly pressed the button.


    The next moment was like a magic wand had been waved.


    The screen of the machine began to flicker uncontrobly. As it shed in a never seen before fashion, the heavenly sound that all gamers dreamed of could be heard sting out of the machine��s speakers.


    A Royal Flush! Just as the man looked around him,ing to terms with what just happened, a hushed murmurbined with envious groans resounded all around him.


    The man was stunned at first and it wasn��t until his wife nudged him in excitement did he react. His expressions confirmed that he still couldn��t believe the incredible fortune he was just bestowed with. Just like all gamblers blessed before by the goddess of luck, his mouth was ajar, and the smile on his face ran right from ear-to-ear.


    The odds of getting a royal flush was 4000 to 1, and a bet was 5 euros. The man just made two bets, which meant he had already made 40,000 euros in one round of the game. This was by no means a small sum of money.


    Ordinary folk had no ess to the second floor, a private lounge popted by billionaires. These elites drank fine champagne and hugged supermodels as they yed. For most tourists who visited the ce for fun, it was nothing less than a miracle winning 40,000 Euros in one night.


    The man was already hugging his wife. But his happiness did notst long, as four men in ck suits swiftly approached them. They seemed to be the staff of the casino. The young couple was then asked politely to change to a different machine.


    Then, one of gentler looking men with high cheekbones squatted in front of the poker machine. He first checked the casing to make sure that nothing was out of ce. After that, he took out a bunch of keys, opened the case, removed the circuit board, and extracted the read-only memory chip inside it. He then ced it in a ROM reader.


    More and more tourists in the casino started to notice the unexpected situation, curiously watching the employees fiddling with the machine. The young couple felt offended and were a little dissatisfied with the unwanted surprise. Having lost the mood to y, they demanded to see the casino manager. The remaining three staff, on the other hand, kept a stern eye on them as if they had done something wrong.


    Fortunately, the awkward stare-down didn��tst too long. After a while, the guy with high cheekbones frowned. The test results on his hand showed that the memory chip had not been tampered with.


    Of course, it wasn��t right that the casino so tantly barged in and dismantled the machine that someone won big on. It wasn��t an illegal casino either. Be that as it may, the high-cheekboned guy had actually noticed the young couple earlier.


    He had enough reasons to suspect that they did not win the game fair and square.

 Chapter 382 - Two Options

    <strong>Chapter 382 Two Options</strong>


    Forty thousand euros wasn��t a sum worth mentioning for arge-scale casino like this.


    The problem was that no casino wanted to be treated like an ATM.


    The casino staff with high cheekbones had recently heard some rumors from his peers. A couple known by the gambling industry as ��the Lucky Fingers�� had got royal flushes from four casinos in just three days. These casinos, however, only reacted to the matter after it happened.


    The couple also made sure that they controlled their urge to win more money in every casino. They would usually y a game or two and win 50 to 60,000 euros. Under normal circumstances, this amount of money would not attract the attention of the casino.


    Thousands of tourists walked through the doors of the casino every day, and most of them generally lost money the moment they sat down on a table. There was, however, the asional one or two who win a healthy sum of money when the sample wasrge enough. Professional gamblers and cheaters were the kinds of people that the casino would pay attention to. It was also impossible for them to pay attention to everyone who won money. Although the probability of getting a royal flush was very low, there were so many poker machines in the entire casino that sometimes, a lucky winner would be born from time to time.


    When one of the casinos noticed the couple, they quickly took a look at the CCTV footage on the monitor and found that the man received a call and left his seat for a while right before hitting the royal flush. This made him suspicious, and he tried his best to control his facial expressions. He was no professional actor, though, and his acting was all amateurish.


    By that time, Lucky Finger had already left, and that casino quickly made corresponding arrangements to handle this matter. However, the couple did not show up the next day. This move not only failed to dissuade the casino��s suspicion, but it made them grow even more suspicious of their previous win. After contacting other casinos, they found out that the couple had won four royal flushes in three days in different casinos.


    Even if the man��s finger had been kissed by the goddess of luck, such a bizarre streak of good fortune was close to impossible. It was therefore concluded that the Lucky Finger couple pair were cheaters. ording to their modus operandi, there was a high probability that they hopped from casino to casino tomit the crimes. Following the discovery, the casino that fell victim immediately notified other casinos about it. That was why the staff had initially approached the couple.


    From the moment they walked into the casino, their every move was under surveince. When they magically hit royal flush again, the casino staff wasted no time to approach them. This time, the lucky couple would not be able to leave so easily.


    The high cheekbones employee had worked in this industry for more than 20 years, umting a lot of experience in that long time. Before being employed here, he worked at Macau and Las Vegas, and through the years, he had seen more than his fair share of characters walking into the casino. Whenpared to professional gamblers and cheaters, however, the young couple was tenderer than the new shoots just sprouting out of trees.


    This indicated that they had just must have just started scamming casinos not too long ago. Such greenhorns were easy to deal with; he was sure. This time though, he seemed to have made the wrong judgment. The woman��s acting skills were obviously rather convincing, where she had been yelling andughing all this time, trying to attract attention and put pressure on the casino. It might seem vulgar, but the staff had to admit that the crude and simple method was indeed very effective.


    Naturally, arge number of people began thinking that the casino was overbearing. It was undeniable that many underground casinos operated in such a manner. However, for those famous casinos that targeted tourists, they valued their reputation a lot. Forty thousand euros might be a huge amount of money for the ordinary person, but for these big casinos, it was simply a drop in a bucketful of water. They desperately wanted to catch the Lucky Finger couple, but doing so would certainly affect their reputation. Such a small gain wasn��t worth the loss.


    The woman��s male partner was trying to show his strong side too, but he was a mediocre actor, looking guilty as if he had justmitted a crime. The staff with high cheekbones was starting to get unhappy about the ever-increasing crowd that had gathered around them. He initially thought that as long as he showed up on time to catch the couple��s cheating, this matter would be quickly resolved. However, things did not go his way. Even the results of the inspection showed that this particr poker machine was still intact and fine.


    The staff with high cheekbones had two choices at a time like this. He could either let the two of them leave the premises while the situation was still under control, where the casino would have to swallow the loss and minimize the impact silently, or he could insist that they enter a private room for further interrogation.


    The staff wished that he could frisk them right here, right now, but by doing that, he would surely expose whatever dirty little secret they were carrying on them in front of all the guests. Casinos tried to avoid using illegal methods like this unless it was ast resort. It was all in the name of protecting reputation, where they would try to make the whole debacle look more eptable to the public eye. The best way to do this was to ��invite�� the two to a room, continue to exert mental pressure on them, and to keep going until through their psychological defense broke. This was especially true for the Lucky Finger man. The staff with high cheekbones was confident that he could make him confess within ten sentences.


    In the end, though, he chose the third method.


    The staff with high cheekbones asked someone to bring a bottle of Bordeaux wine and presented it to the young couple. At the same time, he apologized and said, ��We are so sorry. Our mistake has caused you unnecessary trouble. This is a gift from the casino. I hope you will have a good time here tonight.��


    There was a look of surprise on the Lucky Finger man, while his counterpart snorted coldly, ��Mistakes were made. How can we still have fun tonight?��


    The staff with high cheekbones smiled, ��I��m extremely sorry. If you do not wish to stay here any longer, you are free to leave at any time.��


    ��Are you sure?�� the woman asked. ��Of course! We have neither right nor reason to keep you here.�� The staff with high cheekbones took two steps back and politely gestured to the door with both hands.


    ��You��re always wee to visit us again.��


    ��Hmph, I will nevere back to this kind of ce in my entire life!��


    The woman in the camisole dropped the sentence and dragged her husband to get the money that they won. The pair grabbed the cash and stormed out of the casino in a mighty hurry.


    As soon as he got out, the Lucky Finger man in a nnel shirt and a silver watch heaved a massive sigh of relief. He could not help but start toin, ��I told you to stop just now, but you insisted on ying another round of poker. Great! Now, we can��t enter this casino anymore.��


    After they walked to a ce with no one around them, the woman immediately let go of her husband��s hand. ��What are you afraid of? I know you well! With whatever little guts you have, you wouldn��te here again anyway, even if they didn��t approach us. Best thank me because you got to make some more money before you left. I should take more than 10% this time. You should pay me half the reward!�� she sneered.


    ��Half? Are you kidding? You didn��t even do anything! All you did was pretend to be my wife to cover me. My partner and I did all the technical work,�� nnel-shirt argued.


    ��You are just a bunch of nerds. If it weren��t for your crappy acting, they would have never approached us. What��s more, I have already made you almost 200,000 euros, and I still have less than 20,000 euros in my pocket. To be fair, I��ve contributed a lot as well.��


    ��You just need to dress skimpily, show some skin, andugh as loud as you can to attract the attention of the cameras and staff. Think about your previous job-you lost nothing in this job,�� growled nnel-shirt, his eyes about to pop out their sockets.

 Chapter 383 - Masked Man

    <h4>Chapter 383 Masked Man</h4>


    The man in the id shirt provided a valid reason. ��We had an agreement before. You do know the work you did in three days paid you more than what you earned in half a year, right?��


    ��Yes. But unfortunately, it��s not enough,�� the woman replied.


    ��Not enough... What do you mean by that?�� ��Okay, I changed my mind. How about sharing all the money we made in the past few days? Otherwise, I��ll tell the casinos what you have done... I believe they will be interested in your recent... winning streak...��


    The the Mediterranean sea-breeze wasn��t that cold, but for some reason, the nnel-shirted man shivered. ��Why are you doing this?!��


    ��Why? Because I need more money.��


    ��But we had an agreement.��


    ��Yes, yes, you guys always like to talk about agreements and agreements. But you know agreements mean nothing in this world, right? Whatever you��ve been doing; that breaks the game��s rules too, right?��.


    ��But...�� nnel-shirt paused suddenly, and then a look of horror materialized on his face.


    ��Hey... is that necessary? I just want half of the money. Are you terrified, or what?��


    An unfamiliar voice came from behind her, ��I��m sorry to disturb you. I wonder if you two are interested in enjoying the night view of Monaco?��


    The woman turned around and saw a ck Buick stopping behind her. The window of the passenger side came down, and a head poked out from it. The person was bald, and he did not look like he had good intentions. A mermaid tattoo was also on his neck.


    Inparison to nnel-shirt, whose calf was already trembling, his fake wife managed to put up a better act. Although she was actually nervous right now, she still mustered enough courage to ask the man a question. ��Are you... from the casino?��


    ��You should watch what you say, miss. We have nothing to do with the casino. We are just a group of Monaco��s hospitable residents,�� the bald tattooed man grinned, giving off an unsavory and vile look.


    Although they did not admit it, even a fool would have known that the man and his people in this ck Buick were rted to the casino. The local casinos were concerned about their reputation. Although there were certain things they wouldn��t do themselves, it certainly didn��t mean that they would sit by and do nothing


    The inability to hold the two of them responsible for what they did in the casino in front of everyone was by no means a guarantee that they would not hire external help to intervene with the problem outside. The ck Buick appearing at this hour was obviously here to solve the casino��s problem.


    nnel-shirt became more and more nervous. It was his first time encountering this kind of trouble and had no idea what he should do in such a situation. Nervously ncing around his surroundings, it was apparent that he was desperate to escape. The woman was also regretting her recent actions. In the past three days, the two had easily scammed away a considerable amount of money from the few casinos, managing to make a fool out of them. Blinded by the thrill and ease of the profits, her appetite became so ravenous to the point that she was deluded.


    She thought that those casinos were her personal ATM, especially after she got to know that there was a technical team supporting nnel-shirt. They were the original team, and as he said, she was only recruited to the team to cover him temporarily. Before that, she was just a pole dancer at a small bar in a small town. She was a nobody. When she couldn��t make rent, she even provided extraservices to the men in the bar.


    Who knew what would happen after this? Such a rare opportunity wouldn��t knock twice, and she had to make as much money while she could. It exined why she was adamant to carry on despite nnel-shirt beseeching his counterpart to stop. She knew they mighte across little snags and potholes, but certainly not getting into big trouble like this. Compared to a nerdy nnel-shirt, she hade across all kinds of people while she was working as a pole dancer. Since their enemies had managed to locate them, she knew it was now useless trying to escape while inside others�� territory.


    What more, the entire Monaco was only 2.02 square kilometers wide.


    At this juncture, she was already thinking about selling out nnel-shirt to the people from the casino. However, she might not be able to keep the 20,000 euros she earned. Though she threatened to expose him, she wouldn��t do unless it was thest resort since she might not make any money anyway at the end of the day.


    It was all because she knew what the casino people were interested in. Earlier, she had tried to figure out how nnel-shirt and his team managed to hit a royal flush on the poker machine every time. She also knew that it was her forte to extract whatever information she wanted from men. All she needed were two bottles of beer, some romantic music, and getting into the bathroom naked with steam around her. By that time, most men would have fallen for her. Unfortunately, even after nnel-shirt exined everything to her, she found that she still didn��t understand a single thing.


    Terms like ��pseudo-randomness�� and ��linear-feedback shift register�� sounded like a foreignnguage, let alone the confusing source code.


    ��That��s why I hate nerds. They are not real men! Whether on the bed or under the bed!


    Those topless and sweaty things working hard at construction sites are the real men! For those who y with keyboards and numbers, they are a bunch of sissies at best!!!��


    Now, she was furious after knowing that although she unleashed all her charm and exposed her body, it yielded nothing in return.


    She failed to acquire the most valuable thing. Even if she sold the nnel-shirt out to the casino, she knew that she would gain no benefit. She knew that should be thankful if the casino thugs even let her go in the end.


    After a while, the bald man in the ck Buick got a little impatient. The car doors flung open, and out came four burly men.


    ��In Monaco, it��s impolite to refuse an invitation.��


    nnel-shirt started to panic when he saw the four muscr men, and he was about to run for his life.


    Suddenly, a ck shadow descended from the sky!


    It was a masked man with a hood. He had jumped from the second floor of a nearby residential building andnded on the roof of the ck Buick. When hended, a small cloud of dust flew up, and the whole car shook. For a moment, the bald guy thought it was an earthquake.


    Next, the masked man jumped off the roof of the car and kicked the muscr man in front of him with his knee. The three other goons quickly reacted, surrounding the assant, arms akimbo, and ready to strike.


    nnel-shirt was fortunate to witness a scene that only appeared in American blockbuster movies of the past. Three fierce and confident-looking men had been put down by a single masked man in just one minute.


    It seemed that the masked man didn��t even exert his full strength on them. Although the four thugs were lying on the ground, their injuries weren��t actually fatal.

 Chapter 384 - You Might Be Able To Defeat Us

    <h4>Chapter 384 You Might Be Able To Defeat Us</h4>


    The background of this game was obviously rted to the Inte, and this was the first time Zhang Heng was given the liberty to choose one of two mission objectives that so drastically contradicted each other. In a sense, thispetitive single-yer mode was more like a faction rivalry.


    yers who chose to go different directions would be opponents.


    Of course, no matter which direction they chose, they needed to, first and foremost, find the person named Edward mentioned in the main mission. But, there were millions, if not at least hundreds of thousands of people in the world named Edward. It would be like finding a needle in a haystack.


    All things being equal, someone would probably lead him or give him hints to find Edward.


    Except for nnel-shirt who definitely caught his attention, Zhang Heng did not find any other suspicious individuals in the casino. Although the man was wearing a disguise, his sses, the slightly hunched shoulders, and long, slender fingersespecially the innate temperament, were all very difficult to conceal.


    If Zhang Heng��s guess was right, the guy must have been doing calcting-rted work for a long time, and Zhang Heng could also tell that, like the staff with high cheekbones, that nnel-shirt must have cheated. And simr to the employee, Zhang Heng, too, couldn��t tell how he did it. Subsequent inspections also proved that nnel-shirt did not tamper with the security camera pointed at the poker machine, which made things even more interesting


    Since there was no evidence, the high-cheekbone staff had no choice but to let the pair leave the casino. On top of that, to bolster the unfavorable impact of this incident, the casino had to present the couple with a bottle of expensive red wine.


    While the other patrons admired and envied the couple��s good luck, Zhang Heng knew that the casino had no intention of letting it slide.


    The bottle of wine was the best proof of that.


    When the couple left the casino, the high-cheekboned staff pushed the door of the staff lounge open, taking out his mobile phone. As that was happening, Zhang Heng quickly walked out of the building.


    Nevertheless, nnel-shirt and his ��wife�� had already left in a hurry, worried that they were being followed by the casino staff. Zhang Heng was only one minute behind them, but the couple had already disappeared. Despite that, Zhang Heng did not panic. He noticed that there was a hotel next door and made his way into the lobby. He then followed a couple of passengers into the lift and up to the sixth floor. He then went through the fire exit to finally reach the top floor.


    From there, one could enjoy a panoramic view of half of Monaco. It was alreadyte into the night, yet this bustling tourist paradise was still brightly lit. With the help of a camera filter, Zhang Heng was able to find the couple again.


    Once he had determined the location they were at, Zhang Heng made a move.


    Since the buildings were rtively close to each other, Zhang Heng decided to scale the rooftops-not a terrible way to keep track of the couple. Less than five minutester, his attention was drawn to the ck Buick that was slowly closing in on the couple. At the same time, the nnel shirt and his wife had stopped running and appeared to be in a heated argument.


    Zhang Heng looked down and saw a sweater and a short-sleeved shirt hanging on the balcony below, so he borrowed them and used them to cover his face. On the way, he also picked up a table knife from the coffee table on another balcony. The ck Buick parked itself behind nnel-shirt like a ghost. Instead of hurrying down immediately, he hid at a balcony on the second floor to get a measure of the situation below. Only after he was sure that the ck Buick was tied to the casino and that the well-built men were not carrying any hostile weapons did he jumped down to help the couple. Even though he had to face four opponents at the same time, Zhang Heng managed to take one of them out by surprise using his knee. So, fighting the remaining three men with his level 3 knife-fighting skills should be less of a strenuous effort. Zhang Heng wasn��t nning to be an enemy of the casino. After all, nnel-shirt didn��t squander off an obscene amount of money, and there was no reason to escte the conflict.


    Zhang Heng��s sudden appearance gave nnel-shirt such a fright that he frozepletely. His ��wife,�� on the other hand, reacted quickly and dragged him away to flee the scene. The bald guy did not go after them, and neither did Zhang Heng. The man asked in French, ��Are you with them?��


    Because of geographical proximity, pre-independent Monaco was closely attached to France, hence the residents here also spoke French. Zhang Heng understood thenguage since he spent a decade learning French, Spanish, Italian, Dutch, and Latin in the ck Sail game.


    Of course, after over two hundred years, the pronunciation, grammar, and vocabry of modern French had its differences with the lingo spoken back then. Still, it wasn��t a problem for day-to-daymunication.


    Zhang Heng did not answer the man. He simply pointed at the bald man��s phone. On the screen was an electronic map with a moving red dot. That was how the Buick was able to track down the couple.


    ��There seems to be no other way.�� The bald man sighed and walked out of the car. At the same time, the driver that towered over 1.9 meters and looked as hard as a metal rod got out of the car as well. He tossed a golf club to the bald man, then slipped a pair of brass knuckles over his hand. Zhang Heng did not doubt that bones would definitely be shattered if the weapon hit the body.


    The bald man cracked his neck and put up a fighting posture. He then waved at Zhang


    Heng.


    ��My parents have always taught me to be polite, especially when dealing with tourists who bring us ie. I have always been very polite, showing my gentlemanliness, but if someonees to my house and fools around with me, I have to feel sorry for that visitor since I��ll give him a taste of the other Monaco��s magic.��


    Two minutester, he and the driver joined the losers, which consisted of the other four of their men. The bald man was in such pain that he huddled on the ground while clutching his stomach, wheezing as sharp pain gripped him. Zhang Heng up walked to him, took out his phone from his pocket, and ced the locked screen in front of him.


    ��You may have knocked us down but don��t even think about it... Hiss... 7588.��


    Seeing that Zhang Heng was aiming a knife at his eyes, the bald man immediately gave up and told Zhang Heng the password.


    Although he was a professionally hired muscle, he wasn��t that dedicated to his job to the point of giving up his only pair of eyes. Besides, nnel-shirt scammed only 40,000 euros from the casino. This amount of money meant nothing to the establishment, and the only thing they were worried about was that the new confidence scam would spread like wildfire. By that time, the casinos would have gone bankrupt with many people using the same technique to walk out wealthy.


    ��Thanks.��


    Zhang Heng unlocked the phone with the password and took note of where nnel-shirt and his wife were sitting. After that, he turned around and left.


    ��You don��t know who you are provoking-no matter where you hide in Europe, we will find you!�� the bald guy yelled at Zhang Heng. The moment he said that, he saw Zhang Heng stopping and walking towards him. Immediately, the bald guy��s face changed. ��I was just kidding. Don��t take me seriously.�� ��Send a message to the boss who hired you. I guarantee that I won��t take any action against Monaco��s casinos in the future, nor will I leak the secret technique to others. In exchange, you people must stop pursuing this matter,�� Zhang Heng said.

 Chapter 385 - You Guys Don’t Have A Choice

    <strong>Chapter 385 You Guys Don��t Have A Choice</strong>


    ��Waldo, we��ve been exposed. The casino has people watching us! They even sent someone in a car to abduct us! The guy was terrifying. I can tell from a nce that he��s not a good person. Maybe they��ll even kill us...��


    In his panic, nnel-shirt keyed in the wrong number twice, and when his trembling fingers finally got it right, he instantly started blurting out words into the receiver like a trigger-happy machine gun. ��Calm down, man! Calm down...�� The guy named Waldo on the other end of the line said. ��We��re just making small money off the casinos. They��re not going to kill us for a couple of euros.��


    ��That��s because you didn��t see those guys! The leader was like a perverted, abusive serial killer. He even brought a whole group of Terminators and was about to haul us into their car! God knows what they��d do to us! I��ve seen movies like that��they will tie us up, electrocute us, and torture us like we��re animals until we tell them everything we know. They��ll even want to find out who I liked in primary school!��


    ��Hey... Philip. Listen to me. You need to calm down! It��s just the way the casinos do things. They will shake you up and do everything they can to break down your psychological barrier, forcing you to slip up. But like I said before, they don��t want to be involved in any kind of trouble unless it is theirst resort. Speaking of which, if they found you, how did you escape?�� ��To be honest, I��m not sure either. Some guy that was dressed like the Green Arrow, except he didn��t have any bow, suddenly jumped down from the building. It was like in the movies-It took him only one minute to take out all the casino guys. Justina and I escaped while they were fighting.�� Philip wondered out aloud, ��Did we juste across a superhero like Batman or Green Arrow?��


    ��I don��t know. But you��re right; we should leave. Where are the both of you? Get to the hotel and pack up. We leave in half an hour...�� Waldo paused. His friend on the other side of the line wasn��t responding. ��Philip, Philip? Are you still there?�� Philip hid his phone behind him when he saw the masked man walking toward him, feeling no more rxed than when he was facing the bald guy. The one who had taken down four guys in one breath was right in front of him, not the ck Buick. It could only mean that this person must have defeated the bald guy and his casino entourage.


    Justina put on a brave face. ��What do you want? The money we earned from the casino?�� she asked boldly. When Zhang Heng heard this, he stopped in front of Justina. Instead of showing fear, she stuck her chest out��those assets weren��t too bad at all. Though she only worked in a small town, Justina never thought herself as lesser or worse off than those in the big cities. The only thing shecked was an opportunitywhich was why she was desperate to make money.


    She believed that only with enough money could she escape that little backwater town and move on to a bigger stage. So, if possible, she wanted to keep the money-even if she had to sacrifice something else for it. However, to her surprise, the masked man was neither interested in her bag of money, nor was he drooling at her cleavage (of which she was very proud of). Instead, he reached out and took the bottle of red wine from her.


    The moment Zhang Heng got hold of the bottle, he threw it down, spilling the blood-red liquid all over the ground. There was an overbearing smell of wine in the air. Justina felt herself wince. Even if she did not drink the bottle, she could have sold it for two to three hundred euros. What a waste, something so valuable was so tantly and thoughtlessly chucked like that. The masked man, on the contrary, did not seem to think so.


    Zhang Heng bent down and picked up something he was looking for among the broken pieces of ss. It turned out to be a waterproof miniature tracking device that was stuck inside the bottle, concealed by thebel outside. Unless the bottle was destroyed, no one would ever notice it.


    Zhang Heng then proceeded to toss the tracking device and the phone that the bald man used to track it into a nearby dumpster. It finally dawned on Philip that everything Zhang Heng had done up until now was all in the name of helping him. He was about to say something, but Zhang Heng spoke first.


    ��Where do you live?��


    ��Err... We are staying at the Port Pce Hotel, but we were just nning to leave. We��re about to pack up and leave,�� Philip answered. Zhang Heng��s ent sounded a little strange, but considering his Asian descent, Philip did not overthink it.


    ��Good. Lead the way,�� Zhang Heng said.


    ��Huh... are youing with us? How would I know that you don��t have other intentions? Don��t get me wrong; I��m grateful that you saved us, but it doesn��t mean that we��ll just trust you right off the bat. I��ve watched a lot of movies, and I��m not attacking you personally, but bad guys usually approach the protagonist by pretending to be friendly. Then, it would turn out that they were actually hiding sinister secrets.��


    ��You have no choice,�� Zhang Heng answered.


    ��Okay. I understand.��


    Zhang Heng��s sharp reply made Philip realize the gravity of the situation. So, he nodded obediently and lead Zhang Heng to their hotel. The hotel wasn��t very far from the casino. Naturally, given that it was actually Monaco we��re talking about here, even the furthest ce was not that far away.


    Soon, the three of them arrived at the door of the hotel.


    ��Erm... you have to get rid of that thing on your face, or the guests in the lobby would be suspicious,�� Philip reminded.


    Zhang Heng made noments, simply asking for Philip��s room number. He then followed the couple to take the elevator upstairs.


    Justina kept giving Philip the look, but thetter only gave Zhang Heng their real room number.


    In the room, Waldo had already packed up, and when he saw Philip, he heaved a sigh of relief. ��Thank goodness you guys are back! When the call cut out, I thought of calling the cops. There��s no train to Nice at this hour, but we can drive. I��ve just hired a car.��


    ��Waldo...�� Philip interrupted his partner, shaking his head. ��About that... We might have an extra passenger.��


    ��What do you mean by one more passenger? Hold on. Did you hook up with some chick in the casino? But how is that even possible when Justina is with you the whole time? Since when could you still attract women? What does she look like, and how old is she?��


    ��Waldo, it��s a guy, and... OH-MY-GOD��He��s right behind you!�� Philip��s eyes widened.

 Chapter 386 - Secret of the Slot Machine

    <strong>Chapter 386 Secret of the Slot Machine</strong>


    ��Lu Yan,�� Zhang Heng introduced himself while patting the dust off his pants at the same time. Waldo and Philip gawked at him in shock.


    ��Waldo!��


    Waldo instantly snapped out of his bewilderment and stretched out his hand, ��You must be the one who saved Philip and the others. Philip mentioned you before.��


    He seemed to be a lot more cheerful and talkative than Philip and appeared to be in a steadier mental state as well. He wasn��t too afraid when he saw Zhang Heng but was instead excited.


    ��Wow, did you really defeat those four strong men all by yourself? You don��t look like you could achieve such a feat. Did you use Chinese Kung Fu?��


    Zhang Heng did not answer him. Instead, he looked at Philip, who was beside him. ��Are all your things packed?�� he asked.


    ��I have packed everything for you,�� Waldo said, pointing at the two suitcases at the corner. ��Don��t worry, I��ve put your book, Lui, that you hid under the pillow into the luggage.��


    Philip blushed when he heard what Waldo said.


    ��You don��t need to emphasize it...��


    Waldo pointed at Zhang Heng��s mask again, ��Uhh, won��t you remove that thing?�� ��Given the trouble you have just caused, I don��t want my face to be captured by surveince cameras.�� A bright smile swiftly appeared on Waldo��s face.


    ��Don��t worry, the cameras here can��t capture your face,�� he grinned.


    ��Oh, I forgot to tell you that we managed to hack the hotel��s surveince system and installed a small program in it. All the videos that have our faces will be automatically deleted when we leave,�� Philip added.


    ��Who are you guys anyway?�� Zhang Heng raised his eyebrows and finally took off his mask.


    ��Philip is a security consultant for two listed intepanies. As for me, I am an expert on socialworking activities.��


    ��Socialwork activity expert?��


    ��Waldo has no job. He lives in the attic of his mother��s house, and all he does every day is scroll through pictures of beautiful women on Instagram and Facebook. He also finds ways to hack theirputers and browse through their photo albums.��


    ��Heh...�� Zhang Heng looked at Waldo.


    ��In short, you can also call us geeks,�� Waldo concluded atst.


    ��Well, you two geeks, I think we should leave the hotel now.��


    ��Uhh... OK. Then, I��ll go see how Justina is doing,�� said Philip as he was about to open the door. When the three of them came to Monaco, they checked into the hotel in two separate instances. Waldo first got a single room for himself. After that, Philip and his ��wife�� got a double room. When they finally got the rooms to themselves, Philip and Waldo were the ones who took the double room, and Justina had the single room for herself.


    ��She will not leave with us,�� Zhang Heng said. ��Oh? Is that so?��


    Philip retracted his hand when he heard what Zhang Heng said. After a while, he couldn��t help but ask, ��Why?�� ��I heard your little quarrel...��


    ��Quarrel, what quarrel?�� Waldo asked curiously.


    Philip scratched the back of his head. ��Justina has some disagreements with us. Well, she wants us to increase her sry...�� he muttered.


    ��I think the word threaten would be more urate,�� Zhang Heng said.


    Waldo looked regretful. ��Damn, I really shouldn��t have told her how we cheated.��


    ��Actually, I don��t think she can master your methods. Otherwise, she would have gone to the casino and spilled everything to them in exchange for rewards. She would definitely not wait here and do nothing,�� Zhang Heng said.


    ��Then, are we supposed to leave just like this? Don��t we need to say goodbye to her?�� Philip asked.


    ��I��m afraid you won��t get to do it. I went to her room before I came to see you,�� Zhang Heng replied. ��Did you kill her?�� Philip��s eyes widened, and his face was horrified.


    ��Of course not, I just knocked her out.��


    Zhang Heng threw down forty 500 Euro banknotes to Waldo. ��ording to your previous agreement, I left the rest of the money to her. Any other questions?��


    Philip and Waldo looked at each other.


    ��Let��s leave if you have no questions,�� Zhang Heng said.


    Five minutester, the three of them were already seated in the Mercedes-Benz C-ss rented by


    Waldo. Philip fastened his seat belts, taking a nce at Waldo and Zhang Heng beside him to make sure that they too had also fastened their seat belts. He then started the engine.


    However, just as he was about to drive off, he quickly pulled the handbrake again, and his face changed. ��It��s bad,�� he said nervously. ��What happened?��


    Waldo thought that Philip must have discovered something new, but Phillip simply replied, ��I didn��t check the tires and our surroundings.�� He then crouched down and went around the car to see if the tire treads were fine and that no kids were skulking at the car��s blind spots. After the quick inspection, he came back in.


    ��Uhh... Philip is this kind of person. Due to the nature of his work, he is usually more cautious. You��ll get used to it once you spend more time with him,�� Waldo exined.


    Philip re-fastened his seat belt, adjusted the position of the rearview mirror, before finally stepping on the pedal.


    The Mercedes slowly and inconspicuously crept out of the hotel parking lot at a humble 20 miles per hour.


    Waldo set his navigation system to Nice, the closest French city to Monaco. A well-known tourist town, they would only need 40 minutes to get there from here. The journey would also take them along a beautiful coastal highway. Unfortunately, it was night, and they wouldn��t be able to see anything around them.


    Philip peeked at Zhang Heng in the rear seat from the rearview mirror. ��Uhh... you didn��t tell us where you wanted to go? Where should we drop you?��


    ��I��d better start with you. Tell me why you wanted to scam so much money from the casino, and how did you do it?�� Zhang Heng inquired.


    Waldo did not say anything. As a ��socialwork activity expert,�� he had made it clear that he was a useless vagrant. However, when Zhang Heng took a second look at him, he deduced that Waldo must havee from a good financial background, noticed how his expression hadn��t changed much even when 20,000 euros was tossed to him.


    Philip, on the other hand, was the security consultant of two listed Intepanies. He, too, should not be short of money as well. He was obviously the kind of person who would take no risks, and it was hard to imagine that he would risk getting targeted by swindling off such an insignificant amount of money.


    Phillip and Waldo didn��t answer Zhang Heng��s questions. The two knew that they were no match to him, and besides, Zhang Heng did not seem to be a talkative person as well. They were anxious that Zhang Heng might kill them if they gave the wrong answers.


    After a while, Waldo said, ��Well, let me answer your second question first. You know all casinos tell you that they do not control the machines, right? Whether you hit the jackpot or not all depends on your luck...��


    ��So?�� Zhang Heng frowned. He had never been to a casino before, and his knowledge of slot machines only came from movies and novels.


    ��But this is actually impossible. Look, if the money thates out of the machine exceeds the money that the yer put in it, the casino will make a loss. However, if the slot machine pays out too little, they would probably not return to the casino. This means the casinos have to set a payout ratio. Larger casinos generally control their profit at about 5%, which means that when the sample isrge enough, they will earn 5 dors out of 100 dors from one slot machine. By doing that, yers will feel the thrill, and they will keeping back to the casino. The casino, in turn, gets to keep some of the profit. Now, herees the problem. If the results of each game are really purely random, then whatever payout ratio they set would be meaningless.��

 Chapter 387 - Not Interested

    <h4>Chapter 387 Not Interested</h4>


    ��Pseudo-randomness?��


    ��Yes. The core internal algorithms of slot machines all rely on one thing, a thing called a pseudo-random number generator. It��s an algorithm used by the machine��s designers to produce a random infinite number sequence. The sequence of numbers generated by the algorithm might look random, but unfortunately, the numbers you see are not really random.��


    Immediately, Waldo became excited when he caught wind of the topic. He started to be talkative.


    ��What we have to do is very simple. First of all, we need to know how the random numbers in the calction program within the slot machine and the cards disyed on the screen are corrted to each other. So what��s it��s method, and how effective is this pseudo-random number generator in producing results? If you can master these things, you will know the secrets of a slot machine. To us, a slot machine is akin to ady who emerges from the bathroom with no clothes on her. We can see everything crystal clear.��


    ��Well, this metaphor is a bit vulgar, but you know what I mean,�� Philip nodded in agreement.


    ��Next, we need to write a deciphering program that takes into ount the various variables that will affect the final result. When we go to a casino to determine the operating cycle of a slot machine, we can then use the deciphering program to predict the machine��s operating status for the next few hours or even days.��


    ��One thing to add, while we are in the casino, there must be strictly no interference. For example, if the machine gets restarted, we will have to recalcte the whole thing again.�� ��Yes, that��s right. We chose video poker machines because they are the oldest models, and we hope that the random-number algorithm within them is more straightforward. The poker game machines in these casinos are all produced at the end of thest century. Yes, the program inside is based on a theory put forward by Donald Knut in the 1960s, using the Monte Carlo method ��the so-called linear feedback discement register. They employ the method to give out cards to the yers. It��s just... retarded.


    ��I mean, the actual situation is actually not that simple. We found their source code in the Patent Office and bought a machine of the same model for research purposes. In order to figure out how the code works, Philip also wrote a disassembler. When all the preliminary research had beenpleted, we have managed to write a small program that allowed us to calcte the current status of the poker machine and how long before it churns out a royal flush. As for thest step, we just need to y a few rounds on the machine.��


    ��I��m sorry, I��ve been dragging everyone back,�� Philip said guiltily. Acting too nervously at the casino, he had caused its employees to be suspicious of them. Supposedly, he was going to stop after he swept thest four casinos but he could not stand Justina��s babbling in his ears, and he finally agreed to hit onest casino. Unfortunately, thest stint caused a series of troubles for them.


    Although Phillip and Waldo had somewhat escaped the casino��s clutches, they still couldn��t figure if Zhang Heng, sitting in the back seat, was a friend or foe. Clearly, he posed arger threat to them right now.


    ��We can��t me you. From the beginning, we all knew that you weren��t the most suitable person for this job. The time required to press thest button has to be precise. Among us, only you have been forced to practice piano by your mother since you are a child, which is why you can press it in 0.005 seconds. You can maintain your uracy at about 50%, which none of us can do,�� Waldo exined.


    ��You have done well,�� he went on tofort his friend.


    ��So, you have otherpanions?�� Zhang Heng asked. ��Well...��


    Although Waldo always avoided mentioning anyone else, he got too excited and some words had unintentionally slipped out of his mouth. Unbeknownst to him, he had identally revealed something, albeit rather vaguely. Besides, Zhang Heng had also overheard the quarrel between Justina and Philip as well. He knew for a fact that there was a team behind them.


    But this time, the two seemed to uphold their loyalty to their team, and no one said a thing about it. Even Philip, who had been a little timid, took the initiative to say, ��We can give you all the 200,000 euros we earned this time.��


    Phillip peeked at Zhang Heng in the back seat but found that thetter gave no reaction.


    Zhang Heng wasn��t interested in making money, because no matter how much he made here, he couldn��t bring it back to the real world. Let alone 200,000 euros; he would not even blink his eyes if 20 million euros were ced in front of him. He was satisfied as long as he had enough money to use here.


    ��We will share our technology with you, together with the small program to predict the cards you��ll receive when you use the machine. With this, you��ll be able to make a steady stream of money from other casinos,�� said Phillip while grinning.


    ��I��m not interested in these things,�� Zhang Heng said. ��Huh?��


    The two were surprised when they heard this. Zhang Heng only appeared after the conflict happened between Philip and the casino. This meant only two possibilities to exin this situation. Either he was staying on for the money or to learn their secrets. Apart from these two things, they had nothing valuable with them.


    ��Have you ever heard of a person called Edward?�� Zhang Heng asked.


    ��No!�� the two replied in unison while shaking their heads.


    ��You guys answered way too fast. Great. It seems I have found the right person,�� said Zhang Heng.


    Seeing how they had been found out by Zhang Heng, Waldo began to plead for their lives instead.


    ��Let us go; we��ve already told you everything we know.��


    ��You misunderstood me. I am not your enemy. On the contrary, I want to join your team.��


    ��Why?�� Philip��s eyes widened.


    ��Just consider me a stranger who wants to uphold justice,�� Zhang Heng said. The system gave him two options toplete the main mission. One was to help Edward escape, while the other was to help Zero to capture Edward. In other words, there were two sides to this quest.


    Although Philip and Waldo still refused to admit that they had anything to do with Edward, it was unlikely that they sided with the opposition based on their upations. That meant that they would want to help Edward out as well.


    Zhang Heng was in no hurry to choose sides, but as of now, the two were the only clues he found rting to Edward. He needed to get as much information about Edward as possible and he could at least figure out the gist of the whole thing. And the easiest way to achieve this was, of course, to join the organization that the two nerds were in.


    He could also resort to violence, but Zhang Heng wasn��t one to torture someone for a confession. That, however, didn��t mean he didn��t have the ability or capacity to do it. He tormented someone dangerous and challenging in the ck Sail quest. These two would probably notst for ten seconds if Zhang Heng decided to take it out on them. Judging by the current situation, he would just be shutting off alternate ways toplete the main quest if he were to do that.


    This wasn��t something that he wanted to see.


    Philip and Waldo looked at each other when they heard those words. After a while, Philip said, ��Err... it��s not for us to decide. We have to ask others�� opinions first.��

 Chapter 388 - You’re Right

    <h4>Chapter 388 You��re Right</h4>


    Soon after, the three of them left Monaco and arrived in Nice, a beautiful coastal city located in southeastern France.


    Zhang Heng used the free time to check on his character panel briefly.


    Name: Zhang Heng


    Gender: Male


    Age: 19


    yer ID: 07958


    Rounds yed: 5


    Current game points: 659


    Items in possession: Infinite Building Block (B), Weather Marbles (C), Filter Lens (D), Paris Arrow (D), Evil Wall (D), Shadow Key (E), Lucky Rabbit��s Foot (E), Betty��s Shell (E ), Hunter��s Blessing (F), Water-soluble Metal (F)


    Skills: Sailing (Level 3), Swordsmanship (Level 3), Language proficiency (Level 2)�� Eightnguages at generalmunications level, LEGO assembly (Level2), Archery (Level 2), Wilderness survival (Level 2), Driving (Level 2), Car tuning and repairing (level 2), Marksmanship (Level 2), Aerospace (Level 1), Piano (Level 1), Skiing (Level 1), Rock climbing (Level 1)


    Assessment: yer is a LEGO master, with slightly better luck than most people, and has a higher chance of encountering enemies. He��s protected from shadows, storms, and evil thoughts, and can predict and change the weather of a particr area. In addition to extensive sailing experience, the yer is also skilled at handling knives, arrows, and firearms. yer can drive cars, fly aircraft, spacecraft, and other vehicles. He is also able to adapt to the wilderness, and with his abundant skill reserves and excellentbat effectiveness, he stands out among yers. Even though the new year had passed, Zhang Heng��s birthday was a month awayexining why he was listed as 19-years-old on the character panel. At the beginning of the fifth game, Zhang Heng had 695 game points. Then, in the Apollo Training camp, he earned another 154 points but spent some of it to identify several items. After that, when he removed the Leviathan��s egg from Peng Jiating��s body, he used up 100 points. After identifying the Infinite Building Block and exchanging 50 points with the central bank, he was left with 659 points.


    In terms of essories, he had added the Infinite Building Block, Weather Marble, Filter Lens, and Water-soluble Metal to his collection. Right now, though, Zhang Heng��s problem was no longer a shortage of game items, but an over-abundance of them, thereby cluttering up his pockets. Thank goodness most of them did not take up much space. Except for the Paris Arrow, everything else could be pocketed. If new game items were to keeping in, he would have to give up some of them.


    Simr to sailing, his engineering skills, aerodynamics, physics, and material sciences were allpounded into ��aerospace skills.�� When he sessfully piloted the lunar module, his aerospace skills had been upgraded to Level 2, but he was too focused on the task at hand to notice it then. The only thing was, this skill wasn��t exactly handy for everyday use. On top of that, he had also gone from ��worthy of continuous attention�� to ��stands out.��


    Zhang Heng��s brows furrowed. As the game progressed, he seemed to be encountering an increasing number of supernatural beings and wondered if this was in any way rted to his evaluation. He couldn��t tell if it was a good or a bad thing, now that more eyes were on him.


    On the other hand, Philip and Waldo finally got in touch with their team and briefly exined the situation. About fifteen minutester, they received a reply from the other side.


    Philip hung up the phone and said to Zhang Heng, ��The rest of the team agree that you can join us, but...��


    ��But?�� Zhang Heng cocked an eyebrow.


    ��But you must prove that you��re here to help and that you��re not our enemy,�� said Waldo. ��How?��


    ��I just got the news that one of our friends had been captured. If you can save him, we��ll wee you to the team.��


    ��Edward?��


    ��No, no, no. Not Edward. Edward has enough experience to take care of himself. It��s another one of our friends.��


    ��Where is he?��


    ��Rodez.��


    Zhang Heng looked at Philip, straight-faced. Although he knew France to a certain extent, it was limited to well-known cities like Paris, Marseille, and Lyon.


    ��Ah... Rodez is in the Pyrenees region. It��s the capital of Aveyron in the south. It��s quite far from here,�� Philip exined.


    ��We��d better get there by train or ne... do you need to rest before that? It��s nearly eleven now. We can leave tomorrow morning,�� Waldo said. ��Oh, I can book us a hotel online-I��m an or member, and I still have some coupons,�� Philip added. He then took out his phone and began to search for the nearest or hotels before booking two rooms and a suite specifically for Zhang Heng. Upon arrival, Philip and Waldo dragged their luggage into their room, then popped out to smile at Zhang Heng.


    ��Good night. We have a lot to do tomorrow. Better get to bed early,�� Waldo added.


    Just as Waldo was about to shut the door, Zhang Heng blocked it with his hand.


    ��You guys are in the wrong room.�� ��Haha, Luke, you��re too courteous. The suite is yours. This double bedroom is enough for us.��


    ��No, we��ll sleep together,�� Zhang Heng said.


    ��Together?�� Waldo looked surprised.


    ��The bed in the suite isrge enough for two. The both of you can sleep in it, and I��ll sleep on the couch,�� Zhang Heng replied.


    ��Ah, that won��t do,�� Waldo scratched his head, ��You are our guest. How can we make you sleep on the couch...��


    Zhang Heng nodded, ��You��re right...��


    Waldo and Philip looked pleased, but what Zhang Heng said next dragged the corners of their mouths down.


    ��Then, you can sleep on the couch. Philip and I will sleep on the bed,�� Zhang Heng went on.


    ��Huh?�� Waldo grimaced, saying, ��Seriously? I don��t want to sleep on the couch, either.��


    There was no way Zhang Heng was going to let Waldo and Philip share the same room while he slept in a separate room. Sure, the suite wasfortable, but Zhang Heng was certain that the two would slip away in the wee hours of the morning. Especially since there was a living room in the suite, it was going to be even more difficult for Zhang Heng to hear movements in the corridor.


    But it was alright if Waldo slept in the living room. He just needed one of them to keep feeding him with clues. Moreover, Zhang Heng noticed that the guy was pretty loyal. If Zhang Heng had Philip with him, there was no way Waldo would run away on his own.


    In the end, Waldo spent the night on the couch, and when he woke up, he immediately regretted his decision because now, his back ached like it never ached before.

 Chapter 389 - Elevator Gone Wild

    <strong>Chapter 389 Elevator Gone Wild</strong>


    The night went by uneventfully. During breakfast the next morning, Zhang Heng asked Philip if there was amercial street near him.


    ��You want to buy LEGO bricks?�� Philip was surprised.


    It was no wonder Zhang Heng��s question surprised him. The first impression that Zhang Heng gave him was that of a typical tough guy in those action movies. He was supposed to personify a lone hero that could bring down a group of people without so much as flinch, and when he went to a bar, he would have to order the strongest spirit. Even if he was shot, he could pick out all the bullets from his body while gritting his teeth in the bathroom without frowning.


    That morning, Philip saw Zhang Heng drink a ss of warm water and eating a nutritious breakfast��including meat and vegetables, and an omelet. Philip felt inexplicably disappointed, especially now that he heard that Zhang Heng wanted to buy LEGO bricks. He was unable to figure out why the tough guy wanted to buy a bunch of educational toys.


    However, Zhang Heng didn��t care about what others thought about him, always being one to ignore his surroundings. In his first quest, he had to eat coconuts for three meals a day. Now that conditions had gotten better, he wasn��t going to abuse himself by starving. Maintaining a healthy eating habit was essential in keeping his body going until the end of the quest.


    ��For shopping, we are not far from Jinmeide Avenue. The Star of Nice department store is there. Although it is not as famous as Galleria Lafayette, it��s considered one of the best shopping malls in Nice.��


    Waldo went to get himself two crepes while listening to their conversation.


    Zhang Heng finished thest croissant on the te, wiping his mouth with a tissue. ��Very well, let��s go there,�� he continued.


    ��Uhh, but I haven��t finished eating...�� Waldo nced at the crepes on the te.


    ��You have eaten a total of five tes of food,�� Philip said as his eyes widened.


    ��Because it��s free. I should take advantage of it,�� Waldo replied with a wide grin.


    After he finished the crepes, Waldo went on to empty another fruit tter, gulped two sses of orange juice and milk, went to the bathroom, and reluctantly left the hotel restaurant.


    It was Zhang Heng��s first time discovering that Waldo could eat so much. Philip told Zhang Heng that Waldo had always lived in his mother��s attic and rarely stepped out of the house. Judging by the way he ate, he was still a little thinner than ordinary people. Zhang Heng had to admit that Waldo��s must have had very good genes.


    The three arrived at the Star of Nice at 9:42 a.m. but had to wait outside the entrance since the department store wasn��t open yet. Fortunately, it would open for business in a short while, and they didn��t have to wait too long. Zhang Heng managed to find a LEGO store as well, proceeding to buy five boxes of bricks in one go. He also made sure that all the parts and models he needed were included.


    Zhang Heng finally understood the gist of the famous saying, an SLR will ruin a person��s life, but LEGO can make you poor for three generations. Earlier, he checked his bank ount. Unfortunately, there was no money in it-in its ce, an overdraft limit of about 2,000 Euros. The LEGO sets he bought cost him 500 Euros, which was almost a quarter of what he had.


    Moreover, he ran into trouble after walking out of the store. Although mall security pretended to be patrolling, Zhang Heng was well aware that he was their target judging by their less-than-subtle movements. At the same time, Philip and Waldo were also deliberately keeping their distance from him.


    ��Are you sure you want to do this?�� Zhang Heng asked calmly as he looked at Philip.


    The two were shocked and afraid, unable to understand how Zhang Heng knew what they were thinking. Waldo, on the other hand, attempted to put on his best act.


    ��Huh, what did you say?��


    Zhang Heng opened a box of bricks, quickly picked out a handful of parts, and put them in his pocket. He then threw the remaining four unopened boxes bricks to Philip, saying, ��Help me take care of these for a moment.��


    Philip was confused.


    ��Huh?��


    ��Although I won��t kill you if I lose it, you��d better stop doing irrational things when I��m in a bad mood,�� said Zhang Heng, leaving with them hisst words of advice.


    At the same time, all five security guards were walking towards him. Zhang Heng also saw two men who seemed to be inclothes police officers entering the mall. While he was unprepared, one of the security guards reached out to grab Zhang Heng��s arm. However, he managed to dodge it easily. Immediately, the guard��spanion charged toward him. Zhang Heng did not want to fight the entire group of security guards at the same time, knowing that it would be hard for him to win if they all attacked him at once. So, after taking out one person, he ran as quickly as he could.


    He sped to the elevator that wasn��t too far away, managing to get in just in time. However, as he was descending to the lower floors, the elevator suddenly stopped. After a second, it started to operate in the opposite direction, causing its passengers to be thrown to the ground and screaming in fear.


    Seeing that Zhang Heng had escaped the security guards, the two inclothes finally uncovered their identities and rushed toward their target. Meanwhile, Zhang Heng saw a bunch of shopping bags scattered on the floor. The rest of the people in the lift were still trying to stand up and get a hold of the situation. In the end, he had to give up on this route. At the same time, after this incident, he also realized that he had underestimated the team behind Philip and Waldo.


    It now appeared that they could not only turn a casino��s poker machine into their ATM, but they could even hack through electrical equipment


    Of course, appliances like elevators weren��t connected to the Inte, and that wasn��t how they did it. Zhang Heng remembered two elevator maintenance crew when the mall was opened just now. In other words, they must have been ready for battle since the beginning When did they start? During breakfast?


    Speaking of which, Waldo had gone the bathroom halfway after he overate for breakfast. Did he use that opportunity to contact his team? No, it should have been earlier-he must have contacted his team when he was alone sleeping on the couch in the living roomst night.


    That meant the other party had one night to prepare for the fight. However, he only proposed toe to the Star of Nice in the morning. Waldo must have taken the opportunity to go to give his team the updated location in the toilet. The mall guards and inclothes policemen who had suddenly targeted him were obviously on their side. Although Zhang Heng didn��t know how they did it, it wasn��t the time to think about such things.


    His top priority now was to leave the mall first. While Zhang Heng was thinking hard, he quickly assembled a taser gun in his pocket with the LEGO bricks that he just bought. As he added the Infinite Building Block to it, the taser was immediately weaponized, ready to deal with the brewing trouble. At the same time, Philip and Waldo did not waste the golden opportunity, quickly running to a safe passage while the chaos ensued. It was the first chance they got to escape Zhang Heng��s control.


    The two geeks mustered everyst bit of stamina that they could squeeze out and ran as fast as they could.

 Chapter 390 - Meet at Mary’s Cafe

    <strong>Chapter 390 Meet at Mary��s Cafe</strong>


    ��Don��t you think we��ve gone too far?�� Philip worriedly asked as they ran.


    ��Err... Too far?�� Waldo repeated. To justify his multiple trips to the bathroom, he had forced himself to cram food down his already overloaded stomach, then pretend like he was not already past his limit. It wasn��t too bad when he was walking, but right now, as he tried to run, it felt as if his entire stomach was tumbling around inside him.


    ��Luke did save Justina and me from the casino��s men regardless, and he knows Edward too. What if he really wants to help?��


    ��Z said that the enemy is too powerful. We cannot take any risks right now. Don��t worry; he��s not in any real danger. The cops will soon realize that they were mistaken, and he��s not a fugitive. What we need to do now is to get away from this ce before that happens!��


    Waldo pushed the door open.


    ��Wait, that��s the second floor,�� Philip reminded him.


    floor, really? It felt 1


    Waldo shook his head in exhaustion. ��Second floor, really? It felt like we��ve been running for a very long time,�� he panted. ��That��s because you��ve been living in the attic for too long and need some exercise...��


    ��Alright.��


    Huffing and puffing, both men ran all the way to the parking lot and jumped into the car.


    ��Hurry! Hurry! Hurry! Move it!�� Waldo urged as he repeatedly nced behind them.


    Philip, however, still took his time to buckle up his seatbelt. He then adjusted the rear-view mirror, looked left and right to make sure that no one else was following before finally starting up the car.


    ��Are you for real? At a time like this?!�� Waldo looked at his partner in disbelief.


    ��Sorry, it��s be a habit,�� Philip apologized as he stepped on the gas pedal and drove to the parking lot exit.


    The two scrambled to pay the parking fee and even refused to take the change. They then sped away from the ce. As they got further and further away from the department store, Waldo heaved a sigh of relief and copsed in the passenger seat.


    ��Phew. That was close. We finally got rid of that problem. Victory high-five?��


    ��No, no!�� Philip shook his head. Although he said that, he still offered up a palm and high-fived Waldo. ��These few days have been the most exciting days in over twenty years of my life. Hey, you should contact the magician and the others, and tell them that we��ve escaped.��


    ��Alright.�� Waldo took out his cell phone to make the call, but before he could dial the number, his phone rang.


    Who is it?��


    ��Oh, it��s Little Boy. She had to stay behind to clean up the elevator and the security camera room making sure we didn��t leave any trace,�� Waldo exined as he answered the call.


    The voice that came from the other end, however, was Zhang Heng. ��Meet me at Mary��s Caf�� in fifteen minutes.��


    Zhang Heng hung up as soon as he was done talking, not giving Waldo the chance to ask questions.


    Less than ten minutester, the white Mercedes-Benz pulled up in front of the caf��. Shortly after that, the car of an elevator maintenancepany also stopped nearby, and two individuals exited the vehicle. They began to survey the area together with Philip and Waldo.


    Zhang Heng turned to the petite girl next to him, in a baseball cap and dressed like a boy. ��Let��s go,�� he said.


    The girl harrumphed and tried to yank her arm free from his hand, but failed.


    Even though he was prepared for this oue, being fooled put Zhang Heng in a less-than-good mood, especially since he had to tase a security guard to escape as quickly as possible. He did not mind the fact that Philip and Waldo escaped. They both must have thought that they were stealthy, but in reality, their secret eye contact with the girl in the baseball cap upon entering the department store didn��t escape his eyes.


    With the experience gathered from ck Sail, Zhang Heng felt that their acting skills were seriouslycking, which was why he didn��t panic even though he lost sight of Phillip and Waldo. After shaking off the mall cops, he waited for the girl in the baseball cap to leave the mall before following her. Then, when she was crossing the road at the traffic light, he pressed the taser gun against her waist and contacted Waldo using her cell phone. Now, both parties would meet again at Mary��s Caf��.


    This time, Zhang Heng was finally able to speak directly to the team behind Philip and Waldo.


    ��Are you their leader?�� Zhang Heng looked at the ponytailed middle-aged man who resembled an artist.


    ��No, you seemed to have misunderstood something. We don��t have a leader. We are just a loose organization. In fact, we all have our own careers and life. On normal days, we are busy with our own things-our activities almost never sh. Many of them too just met for this assignment,�� the man replied, ��so, you can see us as a sort of interest group. I am the oldest in the group, so, if you��re looking for a leader, then I guess that��s me.��


    ��What you did is not something an interest group could do,�� Zhang Heng retorted, ��why did the security guards and in-clothes suddenly attack me?��


    ��That��s because we did something to make them mistake you for a fugitive,�� Ponytail answered. ��Sorry about that. ording to Waldo, you are very skillful��they wouldn��t have been able to escape under normal circumstances. We only did that as ast resort.��


    ��You hacked into the police systems?��


    ��That would be too much trouble. All we had to do was impersonate a police officer and call the manager of the mall and convince him that a wanted criminal is loose in his building,�� Ponytail exined, ��It��s all very straightforward. There are telmunication operators called business phone systems, and there are loopholes in their regtions.


    ��This service was originally set up to facilitate the needs of businesses, where they could choose to change their phone number disyed on the other person��s phone. However, thanks to the aforementioned loopholes, the service can also be used to disguise your number as the police, the fire brigade, or even the bank when making a call or sending a message. Of course, such a service is only made avable to specific customers��so, we still had to tweak a little something. Anyway, you can also use rented legal business phoneworks to modify certain fields of the Initial Address Message (IAM) in the ISUP (ISDN User Part). Doing that will also achieve the same goal.��


    It would have been better if the man hadn��t exined anything at all, because even after he did, Zhang Heng was stillpletely clueless. It gave him a clue, though, as to who this guy was. ��You guys are allputer experts?�� Zhang Heng asked.


    ��Uhh... although we each specialize in different things, we are about the same. We��re all geeks.��


    ��Even her?�� Zhang Heng pointed at the tiny girl in the baseball cap he had kidnapped earlier.


    ��Yup. Little Boy. She��s ourmunications expert.��

 Chapter 391 - CTOS

    <h4>Chapter 391 CTOS</h4>


    People often equated geeks to hackers, but there were certain nuances between them.


    An American ng, the word geek was originally used to describe people who were passionate about one or specific fields and invested a lot of time in its research-mostly in the electronics field. In the beginning, the word carried a derogatory connotation, and in the early days of the P-revolution, the term was then extended to hackers, also with a negative overtone.


    Nowadays, however, especially since the rise of Silicone Valley bigwigs like Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, the term ��geek�� was given a new meaning. It began to bebeled as a person who was free, creative, and breaking stereotypes. Indeed, geeks were such a group of people. They were the adventurers on the Inte, the hardware enthusiasts, hackers, technologists, programmers, engineers...


    ��Simply put, you can be anyone-you only have to stick to our principle and you can join the 01 guerris,�� Philip said. ��Of course, most of those who join us are fromputer-rted fields, though we��ve always hoped that some cheerleader girl or dancer would join us.��


    ��We have a secret forum of our own, with a self-developed instant messaging software. Over there, we usually discuss technical problems. You can also post about problems you encounter and wait for someone to answer it, or simply show off your skills. The people there are all very nice.�� ��Is Edward part your crew?�� Zhang Heng asked.


    ��No, Edward, he... he��s not one of us,�� replied Ponytail.


    Zhang Heng raised an eyebrow at the statement.


    ��About a year ago, Edward hacked into our forum, the website that we built together.��


    Waldo still looked surprised at the mention of this incident.


    ��Was it supposed to be difficult?��


    ��Erm, not really. It��s a little easier than hacking into the government��s defense systems,�� Philip answered, ��The most important thing is that he did it without anyone realizing it. If he hadn��t left us a message after the fact, we wouldn��t even have known that he was there.�� ��What message?��


    ��Initially, it was just something of a greeting. You know, hackers appear to be low-key, but, the fact is that most of them desire attention-especially when they manage to hack into really difficult ces, they tend to leave a little something. For example, I know a guy who snuck into the HR system of the tel giant Soci��t�� fran?aise du radiotelephone (SFR) before sending sent a little red flower to all the employees who were working overtime that night.��


    ��Hah!��


    ��That guy did exactly the same. He left a pixel map of Pac-Man, but it was very small, located on the lower right corner of the homepage. Unless you paid close attention, you won��t be able to see it. Anyway, that was the first time we met Edward. After that, we built a new firewall and encryption system, but the guy still managed to get in.��


    ��Were you guys angry?��


    The man with the ponytail adjusted his sses. ��Angry? No, no, no. It was like an interesting game for us. We enjoyed the feeling of ying against him. So, we revamped the forum, and you can probably guess already��he beat us again. But throughout the whole process, we were all having fun. And it was from then onwards, that we began to have furthermunication.


    ��We always thought that ��Edward�� was a group like us, but the truth gave us the shock of our lives. He said that he was Edward, and he was the only one in his ��team.�� He told us that he was hired by a very powerful organization and was doing something very cool, something that could turn the world upside down. Once sessful, the project was supposed to radically change the way everyone lived and traveled. Of course, Edward always kept his address and work confidential.


    ��We didn��t take the matter too seriously at the beginning, because, you know, hackers... Who doesn��t like to brag? People always talk about how great they were in the past, but the fact is, they are not even half as good as what they im to be. I have to admit that Edward is very good at what he does. Heck, it wouldn��t be hyperbole to say that he is the best I��ve ever seen, but to say that he was going to turn the world upside down was just a little bit too over the top. But that aside, we were happy to make a new friend.


    ��From then on, Edward would often drop by the forum and blow his own trumpet, asionally rying recent happenings. Most of it, though, was just about how short the executives�� skirts were on that day, or how awful lunch was. He was always a very contract-abiding guy and never discussed work to us. Until one month ago, we suddenly received a message from him saying that he didn��t know if he was doing the right thing...��


    Philip barged in, ��I asked him what happened, and if he��d been under a lot of stress at worktely, but he never replied. About a weekter, he suddenly contacted me and told me that he escaped and had a very important thing on him. I asked him what it was, and he sent me a document. I could tell from that document that something might have really gone wrong.�� ��How so?��


    Philip nced around the room and lowered his voice. ��It��s a program called TOS. They are nning to build a powerful central control system that will connect all public facilities in the city to thework. It��s like installing a brain for the city-gaining insight into hiddenws that cannot be seen with the naked eye from the massive amounts of data it collects. This could solve problems that decision-makers have always faced due to limited information, such asing up with partially optimal strategies and not globally optimal solutions. Through millions of precise and meticulous calctions, the program can intelligently reallocate public resources to avoid waste.


    ��I��ll give you an analogy-once all traffic lights at all intersections are connected to thework, you can recalcte the optimal time allocation for each individual signal light to save travel time. Should an ident ur on the road, the brain of the city will alert the hospital directly so an ambnce could arrive at the scene in the shortest time possible.��


    ��Sounds pretty good...��


    ��Yes, that��s what Edward thought too at first. Butter on, he discovered that TOS actually had a secret agenda. Once the system had been set up, not only would information from the public facilities be automatically gathered, it would also actively gather personal data from every citizen-your phone messages, medical records, medical insurance numbers, criminal records, favorite websites, the friends you chat with, browsing records, chat content, and every bloody time you use a credit card-all of those things would be collected by it.��


    ��It��s a disaster,�� Ponytailmented.


    ��Yes. This means that in the future, every move we make will be under surveince. We will have no privacy at all��even our rooms would be full of cameras,�� Waldo became unusually serious, ��You won��t know when they are going to hack into your phone, or even your drone...


    ��...and if the development of the system continues, things may only get worse. This is only the first stage. In the second stage, TOS will analyze and predict everyone��s tendency to be dangerous. While it��s a great concept, being able to stop a crime before it even happens, we don��t know what algorithms are used to calcte this tendency. Without restraints, we could all end upbeled as dangerous people!��

 Chapter 392 - Sincerity

    <h4>Chapter 392 Sincerity</h4>


    ��Edward was certainly no low-ranking ck Nest member, having key evidence in his hand that proved CTOS was not only used in public facilities.��


    ��It��s okay to hand over the evidence to the police just as it is,�� Zhang Heng said.


    Ponytail and Philip nced at each other and sighed, ��It would be great if it were so simple. ck Nest has veryplicated origins. Although they are a rtively new techpany established only ten years ago, their territory has expanded rapidly all over the world. Throughout Europe, hundreds of small technologypanies merged with them, but the source of funds behind the organization has always been a mystery. A mega project like this would be impossible without the help of powerful people. The enemy we are about to face is a behemoth of unprecedented proportions!��


    ��I��m sorry for what we did to you, but this is a special time. At a time like this, we don��t know who else to trust,�� Ponytail apologized.


    ��Then why do you trust me now?��.


    ��Mainly... it��s because Little Boy is in your hand,�� Waldo hesitated.


    ��We want to help Edward not only out of friendship but also because we don��t want to live in a closely monitored world. We always say that we can��t have both security and privacy at the same time. Sometimes you have to sacrifice some of your privacy to live safely in this world. Since Berners-Lee founded the World Wide Web, it is still a controversial topic and an ongoing debate. This time, whatever ck Nest Company has done obviously crossed the line. The bottom line is, we can��t stand there and watch it happen anymore. We have to do something about it,�� Philip, the security consultant, added, ��But first, we must ensure the safety of 01 team members.��


    The girl in the baseball cap with the username Little Boy on the forum was still rubbing her bruised wrist caused by Zhang Heng. She stared at him with a hostile re.


    Ponytail looked a bit helpless.


    ��We don��t believe you, but we don��t have many options,�� he said, ��When we go against the ck Nest, our only advantage is that our enemy doesn��t know about our existence. Otherwise, ck Nest wouldn��t need toe up with strategies to deal with us; they could just control us directly. In other words, it is highly unlikely that you are siding with them.��


    ��No, there is another possibility. ck Nest wants to use us to find the whereabouts of Edward,�� Little Boy said. This was the first time she spoke in front of Zhang Heng. He finally knew why she chose Little Boy as her username. Not only did she dress up like a boy, but her voice also sounded neutral. As she spoke, she continued staring at Zhang Heng


    But what surprised her was that the guy in front of her seemed to be distracted at this vital moment.


    Zhang Heng had been thinking about another possibility. A quest with such confrontation between factions had apparent loopholes. For example, yers could freely change factions ording to the development of the situation at a particr stage of the game. Or, everyone could choose not to join sides at first and agree to all join the same side after meeting. This could significantly reduce the difficulty of the game.


    This quest was different from the Apollo Program Training Camp, with no limit on how many yers could enter. In theory, as long as everyone chose the same side, everyone would be able toplete this quest.


    The system, however, obviously took this loophole into consideration. After the members of the 01 guerris finished telling the story about Edward, a familiar voice came into Zhang Heng��s ear, asking him toplete the faction selection within five minutes. He was told that once he chose his side, he wouldn��t be to make any more changes.


    Generally speaking, two factors had to be taken into ount in the selection of the faction. One was the strength of the faction. For now, CTOS was undoubtedly stronger, and the 01 guerris were more like an improvised mob.


    The thing that Philip did in the casino was indeed impressive, and in all fairness, they did a good job at the mall as well. Putting aside their mediocre acting skills for a moment, the ns that they hade up so far were still very good. If their opponent weren��t Zhang Heng, they would have probably gotten what they wanted by now. However, this did not change the fact they were in an absolutely disadvantageous position. Since this was a game, the yer��s choices greatly impacted the story��s development. Nheless, Zhang Heng still hadn��t encountered any yers so far.


    This didn��t make much sense. If the 01 guerris were the key to approaching Edward, it would be impossible that Zhang Heng was the only one who found them. He also didn��t think that crossing paths with Phillip and Justina in the casino was out of pure luck��especially after the conflict between the two and the casino staff at that time. Although many people in the casino noticed the incident, he was the only one who caught up with Philip afterward.


    Taking into ount the two factions given by the system, Zhang Heng could confirm that the yers�� starting points significantly differed from each other. And the clues that everyone encountered had to be different as well. Since yers were given a limited time to choose a side, it prevented yers from selecting the same faction after the discussion.


    In other words, it was easy to choose a side, and Zhang Heng did not need to think about other yers too much.


    ��Putting my problem aside, if you can��t just call the police, how do you n to stop CTOS then?�� Zhang Heng asked Ponytail.


    ��Edward has contacted several prominent media outlets and famous international documentary directors. He wants to disclose the evidence he has on hand, but it will certainly cause him massive problems. The only reason why he hasn��t been found by the ck Nest yet is that he knows them very well... and he��s managed to hide himself well too. For now, the ck Nest still has a gentle attitude towards him, and they hope that he can return to them soon.


    ��They value Edward��s talents very much, but everything has a limit, and he��s notpletely indispensable to them. The sessfulunch of CTOS will always be their priority. Once they discover what Edward��s true intentions are, they will not hesitate to treat him as a serious threat. Our task is to ensure that the news can be sessfully published, and at the same time, help Edward avoid the ck Nest hunters.��


    Ponytail hesitated, but since he had revealed so much, it did not make much sense to keep the rest of the information from Zhang Heng. So, he decided that he would tell him everything. After that, though, he looked at Zhang Heng nervously.


    ��You told me that you have one more friend, not Edward, and he was supposed to be arrested. Is it true, or did you say that just to get rid of me?��


    Waldo scratched his head, ��It is a half-truth, and we do have a friend who is in trouble. Our next n is to rescue him. But not in Rodez. We wanted to use fake news to get rid of you.��


    Zhang Heng pondered for a while and looked at the people of the 01 guerris in front of him, ��I know that there��s ack of trust between us after what happened earlier. But since we will inevitably continue to work together in the future, allow me to show you my sincerity.��

 Chapter 393 - Team Members

    <h4>Chapter 393 Team Members</h4>


    Waldo��s mod was the best on the ne. Usually, he would not step out of his house, spending most of the time nestling in his mother��s attic. What he needed to do in this operation was very simple. As long as he arrived at the casino before Philip and Justina, he would need to use the pinhole camera hidden within a magazine to record how the poker machines worked. After that, he was required to send the footage back to the team for analysis. It should be an easy and straightforward process.


    His only regret was that he did not get a femalepanion like Philip.


    In retrospect, he waspensated by getting to fly first-ss to Grenoble. While there, Philip had to visit four separate casinos in three days to hit multiple royal flushes. All the previous missions carried out by the 01 guerris were all in the name of umting enough funds for the next operation.


    In addition to cracking slot machines, oi��s members had also considered cracking ATM machines and hacking shopping websites, using security loopholes to copy an unlimited number of coupons, then selling them to consumers to make more money. That said, this could create a lot of unnecessary trouble for them. Once the loophole was discovered, the coupons would be quickly voidedvoiding coupons was equivalent to cheating consumer��s money, which vited 01��s principles. In the end, everyone decided that it was best to squeeze money from the casinos.


    Of course, the operation was risky, but since they targeted casinos, they weren��t too worried. In Waldo��s own words, casinos made money by tricking gamblers into ying games that they could never win, and they were hitting these casinos to avenge the gamblers. Moreover, the game was about picking the right cards, and all they did was to bypass theyers of obstacles and pick the right cards. No matter what, they were not at fault.


    Even Philip, the most nervous of the lot, had to admit that it gave him a great deal of pleasure when the confident casino staff used a ROM reader to check on the machine, eventually finding nothing wrong with it. At that time, he felt as if he had outsmarted the entire casino.


    In fact, everyone in the 01 was experts in their respective fields, but they rarely used their skills to make money through improper channels. This was their first time hitting a casino, and it was all very exciting for the lot. It wasn��t the peak tourist season either; hence there weren��t many passengers on the ne. They were only six passengers in this flight��s first-ss zone, making conversations an ease for the group.


    Among the five members of the guerri team, Philip and Waldo apart, and Little Boy, whom heter met in the mall, Zhang Heng didn��t know much about Ponytail and the guy who had been wrapping himself tightly. They had not talked much in the cafe.


    ��Semiprime, cryptography expert,�� Ponytail introduced.


    ��Semiprime?��


    ��Yes, if you multiply two prime numbers, you can get a semi-prime number. The calction process is very simple. Theputer can solve it within half a second, but it bes extremely difficult when you calcte it backward. Therger the number, the calctions required to solve the equation will be moreplex as well. Hence, it will take a longer time. Perhaps even hundreds ofputers won��t be able toplete the equation after hundreds of years. Credit cards and online shopping use this kind of encryption method nowadays. Only you and the bank know the two prime numbers that are used for decoding. This is one of the most secure encryption methods known.��


    ��...but?��


    Semiprime smiled. Without borating further, he shook hands with Zhang Heng and apologized, ��I am dressed up like this because I have albinism. I don��t want anyone to see me.��


    Zhang Heng nodded to express his understanding.


    ording to Ponytail, 01 actually had one more member, but due to personal reasons, he wasn��t able to participate in this operation. He would meet up with the team when the matter at hand had been dealt with.


    Those were all the members that made up the 01 guerris.


    Among them, the one most hostile to Zhang Heng was Little Boy, and although Zhang Heng promised to help save people in exchange for 01��s trust, Little Boy still did not buy what he said. She looked at him cautiously, before turning to look at Ponytail, ��Must we let this guy with unknown origins join us? He doesn��t fit the spirit of 01, right? And Tom, ording to our previous agreement, more than two-thirds of the members must agree before a neer can join us.��


    The ponytailed man smiled bitterly, not knowing how to continue.


    Considering the current situation, they could not say no to Zhang Heng even if they disagreed with him joining the 01. As for Zhang Heng, he seemed very calm even at a time like this. After hearing that, he said to Little Boy, ��I can make up for your shorings.��


    ��Shorings? We are the best of the best in our field. The 01 guerris are the perfect team, and I believe we can ovee whatever difficulty thrown at us,�� Little Boy adamantly insisted, obviously unconvinced.


    ��Technically speaking, you may be right, but you have obvious shorings. There are no actors in your team. For example, now, the five of you have no chance of winning against me.��


    Philip was ashamed, knowing that despite how bad it sounded, Zhang Heng was right. The biggest problem of the 01 guerris was that every member there was technical personnel; all professionals working in the background. They had caused quite a bit of trouble dealing with the slot machines, and Phillip couldn��t imagine what would happen if they went against ck Nest. After all, not everything could be solved by using their skills.


    Little Boy hadn��t seen what Zhang Heng could do before, and just as she was about to say something, she felt the cold steel of a metal knife ced on her neck.


    Ponytail was shocked, ��How did you bring this knife onto the ne? Did you hack the airport security system?��


    Waldo, on the other hand, was awestruck, ��He is a pro! I learned today that Jason Bourne does exist!��


    Suddenly, Little Boy��s life shed before her eyes, and goosebumps started sprouting the moment the knifended on her skin. But unlike what she had imagined, Zhang Heng did not use this opportunity to threaten her with harsh words, not seeming to have any intention to make her suffer. When Zhang Heng shook his fingers, the knife disappeared.


    ��This is the quintessence of forming a team,�� he said, ��Everyone has their own forte and weakness. I heard Tom say that you are an excellentmunications expert, and I look forward to working with you.��


    Looking at the palm stretched out before her, Little Boy hesitated for a moment, then stretched out her right hand. She touched Zhang Heng��s hand for a second, only to quickly draw it back as if she was afraid of being burned.


    ��OK, since everyone has known each other, we can now start discussing the n.��


    Seeing that the most troublesome problem was being solved quickly, Ponytail was impressed by Zhang Heng��s skills. He then turned on hisptop and showed Zhang Heng the photos.


    ��I remember you told me that it was supposed to be a ��he,�� said Zhang Heng as he looked at the smiling female student in the photo.


    ��Uhh... because I didn��t know whether if you were an enemy or an ally at that time. You can never be too careful,�� Ponytail said, pointing to the girl in the photo, ��She is Edward��s sister and the person he cares about the most. After Edward escaped, ck Nest started paying attention to her. Edward was worried that if he released the information he has, the people from ck Nest would definitely attack her. So, we must rescue her first.��

 Chapter 394 - Gaspard

    <h4>Chapter 394 Gaspard</h4>


    ��Leah, a second-year student in the music department of Pierre Mond��s University, wasn��t aware of what happened between her brother Edward and ck Nest. Before Edward left ck Nest, he sent her an encrypted email. ck Nest scrambled to scrunch their brains, trying to crack the encrypted email, only to find a 60-second animation of SpongeBob SquarePants in the end.��


    ��That��s very Edward,�� Little Boy praised.


    ��So, she doesn��t know that he��s in some kind of trouble, right?��


    ��Yes,�� Ponytail answered, ��That��s one of the challenges of this rescue mission. We have no idea who the other one is. I was going to contact Leah earlier on to tell her the truth, but ck Nest is keeping a close eye on her right now. They are monitoring her mobile phone,puter, email, and socialworks. They haven��t made a move yet because they n to use her as bait. If we contact her online, they��ll find out for sure.��


    ��Our initial n was to paralyze thework that is monitoring her, but we have no idea how to make her believe us ande with us,�� Philip scratched his head, ��She might even mistake us for human traffickers...��


    ��Any more detailed information about her?�� Zhang Heng asked as he looked at the blue-haired girl on the screen.


    Ponytail looked at Waldo.


    ��Oh, is it my turn?�� Thetter gleefully rubbed his palms together as a grin formed across his face. He took out a USB sh drive from his pocket, plugged it into theputer, and clicked on a folder. ��What is this?��


    ��It��s all the social information about her that can be found on the Inte, including blogs, Christmas videos on S, the names of the dogs she likes, boys which she had a crush on in junior high, the specific lipstick brand and color that she uses and lots of other things. We may not be able to contact her, but I can still log in to her social ounts and snoop around.��


    Instead of essing the data he was given, Zhang Heng asked Waldo, ��Can I learn how to do that too?��


    ��Of course, I have dozens of ways to hack into social ounts, some of which don��t even require much knowledge aboutputers,�� Waldo said, brimming with confidence when it came to his area of expertise. Little Boy simply snorted. She had just changed her attitude about Zhang Heng because he took the initiative to make peace, but now that she heard he was interested in hacking social ounts, her opinion of him took a sudden plunge.


    Fortunately, Ponytail coughed and interrupted the conversation. ��Erm... you should discuss this in privateter. Let��s just focus on what we need to do now.��


    Zhang Heng did not object to that, himself needing to learn how to hack so he could continue to investigate the matter that had happened seventeen years ago. It was not urgent, though, having only been less than a day since the game started. Zhang Heng spent the remainder of his time on the ne sifting through information he could find about Leah. By the time theynded, he had a general idea of who she was.


    ��Disguise as Gaspard?!�� Ponytail eximed.


    ��Yes, Gaspard is one of Leah��s closest acquaintances. The two met in an online music group a year and a half ago and had sent each other thousands of emails and tens of thousands of text messages. Each of them regards the other as their best friend, and most importantly, they have also never met each other. Leah may not believe us, but Gaspard, on the other hand, could coin up a reason, and she would end up leaving with us.��


    ��That��s not a bad idea... but it��s not going to easy to execute,�� Philip said, subconsciously tugging at his hair. He could not imagine how he could disguise himself as Gaspard. Leah would most probably peg him for a sham before he even had a chance to speak. The other members of the 01 guerris might be better actors, but they too had their limitations.


    Finally, after a long silence, Zhang Heng said, ��I��ll do it.��


    The lemonade Waldo was sipping on nearly escaped his mouth. ��You��ll do it? You��re ASIAN! You��re the least likely candidate!��


    ��Has skin color been a topic of discussion in their emails and messages?��


    ��Hang on...�� Waldo typed in the keywords and found that the pair had discussed living conditions of ethnic minorities and their musical styles, but had never talked about their skin color.


    ��That may be so, but you don��t look French at all, and do you know anything about music? If the topic surfaces, your cover will be blown.��


    ��I��ve yed the piano, but I don��t know much about French pop music,�� Zhang Heng replied, ��But don��t worry, there won��t be a problem tomorrow.�� He then nced at his watch. Twenty hours had passed since he started the quest, and based on the game��s rate of time-flow, he had another ten hours before he had to enter a parallel quest. There, he would have nearly a year-enough time for him to assimte with the French, and also learn more about pop music. On top of that, there were the 01 guerris backing him up in terms of the logistics.


    The ne soonnded at Grenoble airport.


    Waldo stretchedzily and reluctantly got off from the first-ss seat he was in. Once they had disembarked, he and Semiprime went through the formalities of renting a car, while Ponytail went to pick up the luggage. Philip connected to the WiFi to deal with a few days�� worth of umted work, leaving Little Boy with Zhang Heng. She made it clear that she wanted no conversation with Zhang Heng as she plugged in her earbuds and started up a game on her console.


    Surprisingly, she was ying a very old game -in fact, one might even call it antique.


    It was Tetris.


    The game was invented in 1984 by a Russian named Alexei Pajitnov. yers could shift, rotate, and ce various blocks to form aplete line. When that happened, the line would disappear and the yer would be granted points. It once took the world by storm and was popr among all ages.


    Little Boy had obviously made some changes to the game��s program. Typically, the game��s difficulty would increase over time, but the one she was ying started at the most difficult level. The blocks fell from the top like a storm-Little Boy waspletely focused, her fingers flying all over the screen, dragging, dropping, and shifting the blocks into ce in mere microseconds.


    This was one level that put the yer��s eyesight, speed, and thinking to the ultimate test.


    Little Boysted for about two and a half minutes before eventually losing.


    ��Can I try?�� Zhang Heng asked.


    Little Boy hesitated for a minute, tempted tell him off, but remembered the Ponytail��s instructions before he left. He had told her specifically not to get into conflict with Zhang Heng. Finally, she reluctantly handed the game console to Zhang Heng.

 Chapter 395 - Easter Egg

    <h4>Chapter 395 Easter Egg</h4>


    ��Oh, you people are ying this game...��


    The checked baggage from first-ss were the first toe rolling out on the conveyor belt, which was why Ponytail returned to them reasonably quickly. He saw Zhang Heng holding the game console in his hand and smiled. ��This is a traditional game of 01. What is our highest score again?�� he asked.


    ��697216 points,�� Little Boy spelled out the numbers sternly, ��Philip won it. This is not fair. He��s a piano yer, and his fingers can surely move faster than ordinary people. My best score is very close to him, though.�� ��I can��t do it anymore. I keepin inst. The speed of my fingers and eyesight are not my forte,�� Ponytail said, ��My best record is only 200,000 points, but fortunately, I have Semiprime with me. Luke has yed piano before as well. He might be able to challenge Philip��s score.��


    Little Boy did not say anything to bring Zhang Heng down this time, afraid that the mysterious knife would find itself under her neck again. Judging by her less-than-satisfied expression, she obviously disagreed with that statement.


    To kill time, Zhang Heng had also yed Tetris before when he was a kid. During the first round, Zhang Heng lost really fast. Lasting less than ten seconds, he only got himself 100 points.


    However, with the help of this losing round, he started to familiarize himself with the buttons and rules. He performed much better in the second round-althoughsting only 20 seconds, he got a total of 3,000 points. The score had Little Boy raising her eyebrows. Even though she didn��t like Zhang Heng, she had to admit that his results were impressive for a neer.


    The members of 01 were good enough topete with each other, and most of them could achieve a high score in the game. When they first started ying it, they were also confused by the game��s mechanics.


    However, Zhang Heng was not satisfied with this result. His hand-eye coordination was not recognized as a skill by the system��the reason why it was not disyed on the skill panel �� but it was thoroughly put through its paces and had improved greatly during the LEGO quest.


    During that perioid, his speed of assembling bricks had reached an astonishing level. He now knew all the LEGO parts by feel, and could assemble simple objects with his eyes closed. The Tetris blocks, on the other hand, began to drop faster as the level increasedsimr to LEGO, once familiar with the game, mastering it wouldn��t be too difficult. So just ten minutester, Zhang Heng, who had only yed only six games of Tetris, had a score tied to Ponytail. Zhang Heng used the mostmon method employed by Tetris masters


    -he first stacked the blocks high enough, before clearing them all in one go. With that, he would be able to garner the highest score possible. This method greatly tested one��s speed, eyesight, and mental state.


    To make matters worse, Zhang Heng��s ears were continually bombarded by system prompts as he was ying.


    [Achieved 5000 points on Tetris��s highest difficulty: +3 game points. Visit your character panel to learn more...]


    [Achieved 10,000 points on Tetris��s highest difficulty: +3 game points. Visit your character panel to learn more...]


    [Achieved 30,000 points on Tetris��s highest difficulty: +3 game points. Visit your character panel to learn more...]


    [Achieved 50,000 points on Tetris��s highest difficulty: +5 game points. Visit your character panel to learn more...]


    (Achieved 600,000 points on Tetris��s highest difficulty: +20 game points. Visit your character panel to learn more...]


    Zhang Heng did not expect to earn a whopping 143 game points in 20 minutes. It would have taken him at least a year in a quest to earn that many.


    The reason why he borrowed the game console from the Little Boy was that his dexterity had reached an impasse when he practiced assembling LEGO. After observing the methods employed by other builders, he wanted to try it to see if it worked. Unexpectedly, he found a hidden Easter egg.


    It would be hard for someone to believe that such a huge reward was hidden within a rudimentary Tetris game. This seemed to have once again confirmed the system��s peculiar reward system, something that was way beyond what an ordinary person would guess.


    Zhang Heng stopped ying as the car arrived. ording to his previous points, if he wanted to achieve a new high score, he had to y until he got 8 million points. It wasn��t a good time for him to do so, and he still had a lot of time for breaking records. Zhang Heng intended to practice a little bit more, challenging the highest score with 999999 points to see what kind of reward the winner would receive.


    Little Boy took the game console back, but had no idea what to say about it.


    After everyone got in the car, she could hold back no more. ��You...how did you do it?�� she asked softly.


    ��I practiced with LEGO,�� replied Zhang Heng, having no intention to hide the method he used.


    Little Boy raised her eyebrows. It was no secret that Zhang Heng carried LEGO bricks with him all the time; hence the answer made perfect sense.


    Later, Zhang Heng gave her an impressive demonstration of how to assemble a panda in one minute. Of course, he didn��t use his Infinite Building Block. Little Boy was greatly moved by Zhang Heng��s demonstration, and judging by her fascinated looks; she nned to go to a LEGO store to get her own set of bricks.


    ��Let��s get to the hotel first, and then I will assign tasks to everyone. We need to choose a good time to execute the n, and we will also evacuate immediately once we got what we came for. When that happens, I will book an air ticket for Leah. We also have to travel on the highway. Lastly, the team funds are now being managed by Semiprime. You can all ask him for the equipment and tools you need.��


    After that, Ponytail turned to look at Zhang Heng, ��Do you need anything else?��.


    ��I can handle myself,�� Zhang Heng said.


    His Infinite Building Block was enough to deal with most situations. Hence, to prevent others from suspecting him, he chose to do the remainder of the preparations by himself.


    Ponytail nodded in reply.


    As soon as they were done talking, everyone saw a red Ford overtaking them before abruptly slowing down with malicious intent. Semiprime, who was at the wheel, gasped in shock. Subconsciously, he tried to changenes, only to find the steering being firmly held by someone��s hand.


    As if that wasn��t enough, Semiprime realized a Citroen pulling up to their side at high-speed, drawing very close to their car. If he had changednes just now, his Renault would have collided with it.


    The sly Ford ahead of them abruptly braked again, its rearmps lighting up for a split second before it elerated once more. ��What is going on? Are these people from ck Nest? They have found us... how is this possible?!�� Philip groaned in horror and distress.


    ��It��s possible that they are ck Nest, but they are not targeting us,�� said Zhang Heng as he returned control of the steering wheel to Semiprime. While he spoke, the Citroen continued to speed up, chasing the red Ford.


    A thrilling pursuit on the highway had begun, courtesy of the two cars.


    ��It seems that we are not the only ones who are eyeing Leah,�� Zhang Heng said. He was mentally prepared for a situation like this, yingpetitive single-yer mode after all. It was about time he ran into other yers.

 Chapter 396 - Sit Tight

    <h4>Chapter 396 Sit Tight</h4>


    ��Is there anyone else targeting Leah?�� Ponytail asked in surprise.


    ��Has Edward contacted anyone else other than you?�� asked Zhang Heng.


    ��About that... Edward only told us that he needed our help,�� Philip scratched his head, ��but then again, with his character, there��s a possibility that he has prepared alternatives. After all, he has always believed in not putting all the eggs in the same basket. It��s his investment philosophy.��


    ��However, this is going to be troublesome. No matter who they are, they have obviously alerted ck Nest. They will definitely be more vignt after this. This will greatly increase the difficulty of our operations in the future, and I��m afraid that the action n we have just came up with will have to change again.�� A wry smile slowly appeared on Ponytail��s face.


    ��Opportunities are rare, but since we��ve crossed paths, let��s try to find out a little more about them. It would be great if we can collect some useful information,�� Zhang Heng said.


    ��Who? ck Nest or the person in the Ford?��


    ��We need to know more about both, but we can��t get too close. Otherwise, they might get suspicious.��


    ��That shouldn��t not a problem. I have a professional ultra-telephoto lens, and the photos can also be post-processed through software. But they��ve been gone for quite a while now, and I am afraid that we can��t catch up with them,�� Ponytail said.


    ��I can still catch up with them at this distance. Let me drive,�� replied Zhang Heng.


    ��Huh?�� Semiprime was stunned.


    In 01, the only ones who could drive were Ponytail, Philip, and Zhang Heng. Amongst them, Semiprime had the best driving skills, naturally bing the team��s official driver. Although his driving skills were better than the other two, he was to be considered an average driver at most.


    ��You can drive?�� Philip was also surprised.


    After that, he saw that Zhang Heng and Semiprime had changed positions with each other. The moment Zhang Heng held the steering wheel, his entire posture changed as well.


    Little Boy was taken aback when she saw this. Before she could even say a word, Zhang Heng had already stepped on the clutch lightly and shifted into gear. ��Sit tight,�� he muttered.


    The engine roared as he stepped on the pedal, lurching the Renault forward like a prancing wild horse, and throwing everyone back to their seats under the powerful inertia.


    ��Not good! The road ahead is blocked!�� eximed Waldo, who was in the passenger seat.


    Although the Ford did not cause them to collide with the Citroen, the dangerous pursuit between the two cars had affected other vehicles on the highway, causing a series of idents and making the situation even more chaotic.


    The erratic driving from the two vehicles resulted in a rear-end collision involving four cars, blocking threenes. Other cars had to avoid the pile-up slowly, and the bottleneck was quickly turning into a jam.


    It was no wonder Waldo panicked.


    A big truck was moving slowly ahead of them, and at their current speed, the space left by therge truck was not enough for them to changenes after passing where the ident happened.


    ��Well, should we... slow down?�� Waldo nervously asked Zhang Heng in a trembling voice. He could hear his teeth chattering as he spoke.


    ��No, we can get past it.�� Zhang Heng��s expression was still calm. Not only did he have no intention to slow down, he stepped on the gas even harder, putting the pedal to the metal.


    ��Are you sure about this?! I haven��t hacked into Scarlett Johansson��s ount yet!�� Seeing the two vehicles getting closer, Waldo could not help but let out a virgin��s yelp.


    Secondster, Zhang Heng pulled the handbrake and turned the steering wheel. The Renault Scenic��s body drew a beautiful arc, sliding it into the leftne right into the path of one of the cars involved in the ident. Both vehicles got so close that Waldo could actually touch the car��s hood.


    At the same time, thanks to Zhang Heng��s lightning fast reactions, he managed to squeeze into the gap between the rear of the truck and the front of the car that was involved in the ident with a perfect estimation of time and angle. If he reacted a secondter, everyone would have died in a fatal car crash.


    Before the 01 guerri team could even catch their breath, they saw Zhang Heng pummelling the Renault into the traffic ahead again.


    Ponytail, Philip, and others hurriedly fastened their seat belts for the first time. On the other hand, Waldo, sitting in the front passenger seat, had closed his eyes in despair.


    The next five minutes would prove extremely tormenting for Waldo. It wasn��t until he noticed that the car had slowed did he open his eyes. ��Is it done? Can I go to the toilet and throw up now?�� he asked with a greenish face.


    ��I just caught up to them, but I can��t go any further. If I get closer, ck Nest��s people will notice us.�� Zhang Heng said.


    ��Enough.��


    It happened that the section of the road they were on now wasn��t too congested. Ponytail unbuckled his seat belt, stood up, and poked a camera out of the panoramic sunroof. When he pinpointed the target, he adjusted the focal point and pressed the shutter button.


    Not to be outdone, the people from ck Nest were also very cautious. Although they were focusing on the Ford in front of them, the driver could still see some shes behind him. The moment they turned their heads, Zhang Heng instantly moved the Renault behind a pickup truck.


    Ponytail ducked nervously. He couldn��t wait to check the photos he had just captured.


    ��How did it turn out?�� asked the Semiprime on the side.


    ��We are in luck. I managed to take a picture of the Citroen driver, but I only managed to capture a quarter of the Ford driver��s face,�� Ponytail said, before preparing to stand up for a better shot.


    Suddenly the red Ford in front of them pulled to the side of the road without any warning. After that, the driver came down from the car and ignoring the surrounding vehicles, he climbed over the fence that was lining the roadside.


    It turned out that he had parked beside a bridge that was over a hundred meters above a raging river below it. At such a height, jumping off a bridge was no different than jumping off a tall building. At the same time, the Citroen it pursuit came to a stop as well. Four men with guns subsequently alighted the car and started shouting.


    With no hesitation whatsoever, the driver of the red Ford suddenly jumped off the bridge.


    The members of 01 werepletely stunned. ��He... did he just kill himself?�� Little Boy asked after a short moment of silence.


    ��Theoretically, yes.�� Zhang Heng said.


    Unless he were Captain America, he would have surely been killed by the impact ofnding on the water. However, if the driver was a yer, he might survive the jump with the help of game items. Naturally, yers could achieve wonderous miracles with them.


    If the driver of the red Ford really intended tomit suicide, there were many more ways to do it. The easiest way was to ram the Citroen at full force, causing a collision bad enough to kill the upants of both cars.


    Nheless, seeing how he chose to abandon the car and jump down from the bridge, there was a low possibility that he was attempting suicide.

 Chapter 397 - La Grenouille Verte

    <h4>Chapter 397 La Grenouille Verte</h4>


    The ��suicide�� of the Ford driver impacted the 01 gueris significantly. To help Edward, they had voluntarily stepped forward, attacking ck Nest��s CTOS Project to uphold justice and protect inte freedom. They were certainly not inspired by superheroes and were simply an ordinary group of people at best. Reality was way crueler than they had thought, especially after seeing four gunned men exiting the Citroen. They finally realized how dangerous this whole thing was, and whether they wanted it or not, they were now involved in it.


    All five attempted to put themselves in the shoes of the driver of the red Ford, deducing that he must have had no other option but to kill himself. It appeared he would rather do that than to beg ck Nest to spare his life.


    Everyone in the Renault fell silent.


    ��Whoever here that��s starting to regret; it��s not toote to quit now.��


    Zhang Heng was the one who spoke up, leaving Little Boy clueless as to how someone could still remain so calm at a time like this.


    He drove past the ident site at a steady speed, as if nothing had happened.


    The members of the 01 guerris were undoubtedly excellent in their respective fields. As long as they were assigned to the right task appropriately, they could provide unparalleled technical support. However, Zhang Heng could not force them to participate in something so dangerous. It was better to give them an option to leave now rather than allowing an unsuspecting member to suffer extended psychological damageter on. ��Are you kidding me? Do you think such things scare us?�� Little Boy was the first to speak up.


    Zhang Heng was mindful of not embarrassing her in front of the team. When the Ford driver jumped off the bridge, her body had started shaking. It was probably her first time witnessing somebody ��dying�� at such close proximity, and besides, there was a possibility that they too would end up like him. Philip wanted to say something, and even though he had opened his mouth, he decided to keep mum. Nevertheless, the calmest person among the five turned out to be Semiprime, only speaking when necessary. ��We already know that this is a dangerous journey, don��t we? The right choice is always the hardest choice to make. Think of Assange, Aaron Swartz...��


    ��No offense, I like Aaron too, but I don��t think it��s a good time to mention his name,�� Waldo said, ��But I don��t n to leave. I once got into big trouble. Edward helped me settle it, so, for me, this operation is more than simply upholding justice.�� Philip sighed again. ��I can��t imagine what my future daughter��s life would be like if she lived in a world ruled by CTOS.��


    ��Wait... so, it��ll be okay if you get a son?��


    ��Yes.��


    Philip thought on it for a while, then affirmed, ��Yup... if it is a son, he will be fine.��


    ��I��m d we have once again reached a consensus,�� Ponytail said with sped hands. Amid the group��s discussion, he had been working onpleting the photo��s processing. The man in the picture had a pair of blue eyes and a hooked nose, looking somewhat like a vulture. Ponytail then sent the photo to Waldo.


    ��Leave it to me,�� Waldo nodded.


    It took him only two minutes before he found the online ount of the hooked nosed man, but it took almost twenty to hack into his ount. ��Are you in trouble?��


    ��Give me five more minutes,�� replied Waldo. He didn��t look up, eyes focussed on the screen and his fingers busily tapping away on the keyboard.


    ��Okay!��


    Five minutester, Waldo finally let out a sigh of relief. ��Vincent Naceri. This guy is ruthless. His parents are not French. He grew up in Belgium and joined the foreign mercenary army when he was 19, stayed there for five years, before disappearing for three years. There were rumors that he was doing the Seventh Division��s bidding, dealing with things the government didn��t want to get their hands dirty with.


    ��I just hacked into the Seventh Division��s system, and the rumors are true. This guy killed an entire vige, including women and children, in a certain operation in Africa. The government was supposed to eliminate him in that vige, but someone saved him, gave him French citizenship, and asked him to join ck Nest. He is now the leader of ck Nest Secret Operations�� second squadron.��


    ��Wait, you hacked into the Seventh Division��s system in only twenty-five minutes? Since when you became this good?�� Philip frowned.


    ��Can��t you let me brag for a minute? Well, it��s actually not that exaggerated. Remember how I kept asking you questions about securityst year? I sneaked in during that time, and they didn��t find out. It��s still there, but I rarely go in for a stroll.��


    ��How about the Ford driver?�� Zhang Heng asked, caring more about the person he suspected was a yer.


    ��He covered his face when he abandoned the car, and I only managed to recover a quarter of his face from the side. It wasn��t easy to look him up in the system, but it doesn��t matter anymore. He��s dead,�� sighed Waldo with outspread hands.


    ��ck Nest and their goons will find a way to salvage his body and figure his identity,�� said Ponytail. He had noticed Zhang Heng��s particr interest in the driver of the Ford. After thinking for a moment, he said to Little Boy, ��We have Vincent��s cellphone number. Can you monitor and locate him?��


    Little Boy nodded. ��He is not a technician,�� she added, ��which means he is not as cautious as us. I can locate and monitor him through an application that has location and voice permissions. Leave it to me; I��ll deal with him.��


    ��Is there anything else we need to do?�� Ponytail turned to look at Zhang Heng again.


    ��Thanks, but that would be all for the time being. Let��s discuss the rest of the matter after I study to what extent ck Nest controls Leah.��


    At the same time, the Renault Scenic also drove off the highway, pulling up to the hotel they had booked earlier.


    After dinner, the five members of the 01 guerris went on to purchase the equipment they needed. Zhang Heng chose to act alone. Since the enemies were extremely powerful, he had to tread lightly. Instead of driving a rented car, he got himself a cab and went to a bar called La Grenouille Verte.


    It was 11:54 at night when Zhang Heng entered the bar. Having done his research before he came here, he knew that this is Grenoble��s famous gay bar. It was also an extremely rare gay bar with mixed genders as patrons.


    Zhang Heng took a seat and ordered a beer. That was when a man with a cowboy hat came to him. He declined the man��s request to have a drink together, secretly observing his surroundings.


    At 00:32, Leah and her Choking to Death band arrived. ording to information collected by Waldo, the band would perform at La Grenouille Verte every Wednesday and Saturday night. Aspared to the school, theplicated environment here was more suitable for Zhang Heng to hide.


    After a simple warm-up, Leah hugged her bass guitar, and amid cheers from the crowd, she walked up to the microphone. Instead of saying anything, she turned around to the drummer behind her before hugging and kissing the blond girl.

 Chapter 398 - Split the Work

    <h4>Chapter 398 Split the Work</h4>


    Zhang Heng wasn��t startled by Leah and the drummer��s passionate kiss.


    Based on the data Waldo collected, Zhang Heng got to know that Leah was bisexual, meaning she was attracted to both men and women. In junior high, she had a boyfriend who was the captain of the football team. He was her first love. Two monthster, however, she found out that her boyfriend was cheating on her with a girl from the cheerleading team. Amid the tumultuous heartbreak, she gradually realized that she was also attracted to girls.


    Following that, she had three girlfriends, the blonde drummer being the third. They got together six months ago, and from her correspondence with Gaspard, Zhang Heng could tell that she was also interested in him.


    In general, most people looked better in pictures than in person.


    Leah was an exception, though, even more beautiful in person. With her iconic short blue hair and piercing eyes as clear as Lake Tignes, she dazzled on the stage, like an ice cube falling into a whisky ss.


    But Zhang Heng only looked at her twice before withdrawing his gaze. His focus tonight wouldn��t be on her.


    Through observation, Zhang Heng was able to determine that ck Nest had sent two of their people to La Grenouille Verte and also controlled the CCTV in the bar. On top of that, there were three other suspicious individuals Zhang Heng was unable to identify.


    This was just the set up inside the bar��there would be even more of ck Nest��s people stationed outside. ck Nest had obviously invested a lot of resources on Leah. All that was left for them to do was wait for their prey to take the bait.


    It had been less than forty minutes since Zhang Heng entered the bar, and he had already rejected three people who attempted to strike a conversation with him. He clearly stuck out like a sore thumb, and if this went on, it would undoubtedly raise ck Nest��s suspicions. Knowing that he had been noticed, Zhang Heng paid for his drinks and prepared to make a move.


    As he proceeded to the entrance, something stopped him in his tracks. A man with piercings on his right ear caught his eye.


    The man was sitting in a three-person booth. Hispanion opposite him was chatting away, but the man appeared distracted. His eyes would periodically dart to Leah who was on the stage��his surreptitious nces toward the stunning woman told of his attractions.


    Zhang Heng only noticed it after watching him for a while.


    The man��s appeared to be growing more and more annoyed by the minute��not only because the trantor he hired for two hundred euros wouldn��t stop talking, but more importantly, he had no idea how to take Leah away from ck Nest��s watchful eyes.


    Just about then, a person abruptly sat down on the empty seat in his booth, not even bothered to say hi.


    Before the man with the ear-piercing could say anything, hispanion hissed at the neer, ��What the hell are you doing? Can��t you see we��re on a date?!��


    ��I just need a few minutes of your time. I��d like to speak to him,�� Zhang Heng pointed at the man with the ear-piercing.


    ��Tell him that he��d better get out of my sight before my fist ends up on his face,�� the man told hispanion in English. He was obviously in a foul mood.


    ��Your fists better be better than your driving skills,�� Zhang Heng replied directly to him in English as well.


    The man with ear-piercing seemed taken aback. He reached down for something at his waist, but Zhang Heng noticed it and instantly stopped him.


    ��Do you really want to fight?�� the trantor growled as he rolled up his sleeves. Unfortunately, his beer belly could have been a little smaller, and his movements a little more subtle.


    But the man with ear-piercing said, ��That��s enough. You can leave now.��


    ��Did you hear that, kid?�� Beer Belly hissed at Zhang Heng, trying to look threatening but failing miserably.


    ��I meant you.��


    The man with ear-piercing took out 100 euros from his wallet and handed it to the trantor. ��You did very well. This is the remaining payment. That��s all for today.��


    ��Really?�� Beer Belly was confounded, ncing back at forth at his client and Zhang Heng. Then, as if something clicked, he smiled meaningfully at the pair, took the cash without protest, and said, ��I��ll get going then. You guys have fun. You have my number. Call me if you need a trantor again.��


    The man with the ear-piercing waited until the trantor left before he continued. ��How did you recognize me?��


    He spoke in Mandarin, but with the mini rock concert ring in the background, there was no need to worry about anyone overhearing their conversation.


    Zhang Heng pointed at the mole at the man��s neck. ��I was following you when you were racing with the ck Nest people. It was then that I managed to capture a quarter of your face on the camera. I didn��t think I would be able to find you with the photo.��


    The man with ear-piercing cursed under his breath. Instead of warming up, he red at Zhang Heng renewed hostility. ��Which side are you on?�� he asked.


    ��If I��m standing on ck Nest��s side, do you think you��d still be able to walk out of this bar?�� Zhang Heng retorted, ��Oh, by the way, the whole jumping into the water thing was done beautifully.��


    ��Damn, I didn��t expect those guys to be that ruthless! I was only going to kidnap someone to get a picture of the situation, but their backup arrived in ten minutes and killed my friend!��


    ��Your friend?��


    ��A police officer who had been investigating online fraud... he got dismissed. He discovered ck Nest through a hacker and found something fishy about CTOS. A guy iming himself to be Edward contacted him and told him that if he wanted to know the truth, he would have to save L from ck Nest.��


    ��It looks like we have the same target then,�� Zhang Heng nodded. ��So, what��s your n?��


    A look of wariness reappeared on the man��s face. ��Why don��t you tell me about your n first?��


    ��At the moment, it��s going to really difficult for any of us to take Leah under ck Nest��s nose, so the only way around it is for us to work together.��


    The situation had now changed. Since the man with the ear-piercing had raised the rm, ck Nest had increased surveince and the number of goons around Leah. Zhang Heng really didn��t know what to do in a situation like this, but since he had found a new helper, he might as well seize the chance.


    The man thought about it for a while before saying, ��Alright, but I��m used to working on my own; I don��t like having someone to slow me down.��


    ��We can split the work. Each of us will be in charge of one part. That shouldn��t be a problem, right?�� Zhang Heng replied.


    The man was very cautious, wanting to leave no stone unturned. ��So, who��s going to decide how the tasks are divided?�� he questioned rhetorically.


    ��We��ll decide the tasks first, and then you choose.��


    The man felt a bit embarrassed when he heard the answer. ��Actually... We can throw a dice to make sure it��s fair,�� he went on to suggest.


    ��There��s no need for that. You can go ahead and decide,�� Zhang Heng shook his head, ��Also, we can use this opportunity to exchange intel. You ask one question, and I��ll ask one.��


    Perhaps it was Zhang Heng��s generosity that won the man over. He answered readily, ��Fine. Then you ask first.��

 Chapter 399 - I Have Bad News

    <h4>Chapter 399 I Have Bad News</h4>


    ��Where did you meet that cyber enforcer?�� ��On the travel bus, from Toulon to Marseille. He was holding aptop, and he was the only person on board who could speak English. I had no other choice. How about you?�� ��Monaco, casino, I met a young couple that hacked poker machines.��


    ��Do you speak French?��


    ��Yes.��


    ��You��re so lucky. It��s nice to enter a quest with nomunication barriers,�� the man with piercings sounded envious.


    Zhang Heng simply smiled.


    ��Sorry, I just asked two questions. You can


    man with piercings was very cautious, he was also very upright and insisted on not taking any advantage.


    He was also a rtively alert person. Those who were not cautious wouldn��t be able to survive apetitive mode quest. This made Zhang Heng regret his previous proposal about the division ofbor.


    ��Have you met other yers?��


    ��No, I came here from Marseille. You are the first yer I met.��


    The answer of the pierced man also confirmed Zhang Heng��s conjecture that each yer would be ced far apart from each other. It basically eliminated the possibility of them meeting before the faction selection process. The skin color of every yer in this quest was also different. ��Piercings�� was a typical white man, and it was only by coincidence that Zhang Heng got to keep his original skin color. Hence, it wasn��t realistic to recognize a yer by skin color. ��You said you kidnapped someone from the ck Nest. What did you ask him?��.


    ��I wanted to know how many people from ck Nest were assigned to capture Leah and how powerful ck Nest��s forces in Grenoble are. For the first question, the person that I captured didn��t have clearance to know about it. He only told me that those secrets were in the hands of a man named Vincent Naceri. As for the second question, ck Nest��s armed forces in Grenoble are not as powerful as I thought they would be. However, they can ask the police to help them when it is necessary. I abandoned the car on the bridge because I was worried that they might notify the police to set up a roadblock.��


    Then he thought for a while and asked, ��How much do you know about Edward?��


    ��Not much, I only know that he is an important R&D staff member of CTOS. He is supposed to be very skillful, but no one has seen him before, and there are no photos of him either. He said that he would contact us after we rescue Leah.��


    ��My situation is simr,�� Piercings concurred, ��If you know where this guy is, force him to hand over the evidence to you. After that, you can tie him up and bring him away toplete the main quest. We don��t need to go through so much trouble.�� ��I have no further questions. Do you have anything else to ask?�� Zhang Heng said. ��How do I contact you?�� Piercings asked.


    ��Oh, my phone...�� before Zhang Heng could finish, his phone screen suddenly lit up, and he received a message.


    ��I am Little Boy. Please tell me you are not with the man in the picture.��


    Zhang Heng looked down and saw the Piercing��s somewhat blurry face in the attachment. In the photo, he was holding the steering wheel with both hands. ��There��s bad news,�� Zhang Heng said. ��What��s wrong?�� Piercings frowned. ��Yor face was indeed blocked when you jumped off the bridge, but remember how you said that ck Nest could make use of Grenoble��s police force? Your face was captured by a high-speed camera.��


    ��Damn!�� Piercings was shocked.


    By then, Zhang Heng had already sent out a text message�� ��hold Vincent off a little longer.��


    Three secondster, Zhang Heng received a reply from the Little Boy, ��I turned off his cell phone and blocked the call, but there are other people around him. You can use another phone to request the photo from the police station and send it to his subordinates. Optimistically, you still have 20 seconds to leave the bar.��


    ��We have to go,�� Zhang Heng put away the phone and said.


    The two got up one after the other, attempting to slip out of the bar unnoticed. Momentster, all the bar��s patrons suddenly stood up.


    Leah said over the microphone, ��OK, it��s tonight��s bonus event! Please hold the hands of the people around you. Don��t be shy... it��s okay if you don��t know each other. We are a family! Let��s sing together!�� Piercings fiercely red at a random man in the bar who tried to grab his hand.


    However, amid the obstruction by the flow of people, Zhang Heng noticed that the screens of several mobile phones flickered almost simultaneously. Two men were standing near the door, and they reached out and took out their phones from their pockets.


    ��It��s toote,�� Zhang Heng said. ncing around him, he spotted a toilet sign. ��Go over there!��


    ck Nest��s goons in the bar had received a photo from Vincent. The person in it looked familiar.


    They had been observing every single customer in the bar and had already spotted the man with piercings for a long time now. When they saw the photo, they immediately remembered who the person was. However, when they turned around, the man with piercings had disappeared. The Asian who was with him was gone as well.


    The bar was not that big. They had appointed someone to guard the door, and if they failed to locate them after looking around, they would know that they must be in the toilet. Zhang Heng and Piercings were now in the men��s toilet. It had no windows; there was an exhaust fan in the southwest corner.


    Piercings stepped on the urinal with one foot and ced the other on the wall to remove the exhaust fan mounted around eight feet. He did not expect it to be so firmly installed. As he was just beginning to break a sweat, Zhang Heng tossed a screwdriver to him.


    ��Really?! The world has people whoe to the bar with this kind of stuff on them?��


    Piercings were shocked.


    ��Stop talking nonsense and quickly disassemble it.�� Zhang Heng had temporarily assembled a screwdriver with the Infinite Building Block. He had tested it before, where if the item was just an ordinary object, the system wouldn��t notify yers that it was a game item.


    In contrast to Piercings, Zhang Heng wasn��t that worried if they could leave the bar safely because he still had the Evil Wall with him. If the current method failed, he could melt the wall in front of him right away. The Evil Wall had a limited number of uses, though, so he was reluctant to use it unless it was hisst resort. His rtionship with Piercings was also limited to this cooperation, and Zhang Heng surely didn��t want to expose his trump card so quickly.


    As Piercings frantically unscrewed the mountings of the venttor, Zhang Heng looked for something to block the toilet door. After a while, they heard someone kicking on the door. Fortunately, Piercings had managed to remove all the screws in time. Seeing that the exhaust fan was now loose, he tossed the screwdriver away and pulled it out with force.


    After a short hesitation, he looked at Zhang Heng said, ��You go first!�� before drawing the pistol from his waist. He then crouched down, aiming in the direction of the toilet��s door.


    There was no time for niceties. Zhang Heng picked up the screwdriver on the ground, stepped onto Piercings back, and pulled himself into the hole of the vent.

 Chapter 400 - Homeground

    <h4>Chapter 400 Homeground</h4>


    Zhang Heng climbed out the other side of the vent. In the toilet, the door shook violently, threatening toe apart at any moment. For good measure, Piercings fired two shots to keep the people outside from kicking the door down. Having no desire to fight whoever was on the other side of the door, he quickly climbed up the vent.


    Zhang Heng reached out to pull the man out of the vent. When the two of them were clear of the bar, Little Boy sent a third message.


    ��Vincent will be there in about five minutes, but ck Nest��s men have the bar surrounded.��


    ��I see them.��


    Zhang Heng saw some figures appearing at the entrance of the alley behind the bar. At the same time, the other party spotted Zhang Heng and Piercings as well. One of them immediately pointed his gun and shouted, ��Don��t move!��


    Before he could pull the trigger, the two were already on the other side of the alley, crossing it and turning to the road. This, however, did not mean that they were safe. Other than the ones in the alley, ck Nest��s personnel who stood guard outside the bar were now rushing over from the street next door.


    ��Any ns in mind?�� Piercings asked as they ran.


    ��What about you?��


    ��I��m going to find a river.��


    The man clearly had some kind of item that allowed him to jump safely into a river. It caused him to develop the habit of looking for it whenever he was in danger.


    ��....then we��ll probably have to split up,�� replied Zhang Heng. ��Alright. You can go ahead. I can buy you a few more minutes, depending on the situation, though, I cannot guarantee for sure if I��m going to stay. If there is actual danger, I��ll have to split first.�� Piercings handled the gun skillfully, leaving Zhang Heng wondering if the man had got his training in quests or real life.


    Zhang Heng preferred thetter because the man had a proper aim. He had probably invested a lot of time and effort honing his skills, not to mention how sharp he was at countersurveince. Had it not been for the mole on his neck, Zhang Heng would have never recognized the man in the bar. Based on these things, Zhang Heng concluded that the man was very likely a police officer in real life.


    The two exchanged numbers. Then, without warning, Piercings suddenly raised his gun and fired a shot at a head that suddenly popped up from behind the alley.


    ��This is it. Let��s split up now!�� As soon as he said that, Piecings ran toward the other side of the street. When he took off, he nced at where Zhang Heng was standing from the corner of his eyes and saw that he had disappeared.


    Piecings blinked. Game item?


    He then saw Zhang Heng��s figure above a post office that was closed.


    Zhang Heng had already climbed up the metal shelf outside the building and jumped onto the canopy when Piercings raised his gun. The unstered retro-styled brick wall provided him good grooves and traction, and he took only five seconds to scale to the window sill on the second floor. He proceeded to climb to the top of the building.


    The gunshots behind Piercings reminded him that his pursuers were closing in on him. ��Seriously?!�� he eximed with a grunt.


    A Dacia Sandero had joined the men in the alley in pursuit of him. Piercings ducked behind a trash can. He could hear the engine drawing closer and closer. He knew that if he were surrounded, he could be in real trouble. He found himself regretting that he tried to be a hero. If he had known that Zhang Heng could climb the wall so quickly, he would have left the responsibility of drawing away their pursuers to him.


    It was toote now, though. Piercings raised his weapon again and fired five shots at the window of the caf�� across the street, leaving spiderwebs of cracks on therge ss pane. Then, with gritted teeth, he shielded his head with his leather jacket and rammed the ss window, sending a shower of broken ss on himself and into the coffee shop as he fell in. Ignoring cuts and bruises, he rolled off the ground and sprinted toward the back door.


    Zhang Heng looked at the city map on his phone. The Is��re river was only one kilometer away-Piercings should be able to make it there without a problem. As Zhang Heng looked on, someone spotted him.


    Zhang Heng started running, and it wasn��t until the people chasing him were out of sight that he stopped to catch his breath. He looked around, and a subway station nearby caught his attention. Without thinking twice, he jumped off the roof of a pet shop and bought a hat from the homeless man at the entrance of the subway for ten euros. Putting it on to cover his face, he rushed into a train before its doors closed.


    During the train ride, Little Boy sent him a video.


    Piercings looked like a mess as he retreated and fought all the way to Is��re. He was about to be captured by the enemy when the highway incident reurred-he had jumped into the river.


    ��Your cover was blown, but Waldo hacked into the bar��s system and reced all your photos and personal information.�� ��Thank you,�� Zhang Heng said, ��I��ming back.��


    Ten secondster, Little Boy sent him the subway map with the route back to the hotel marked out for him.


    One hourter, Zhang Heng returned to the hideout.


    Ponytail cautiously peeked around at the corridor to ensure that Zhang Heng wasn��t followed before closing the door behind him.


    ��What should we do? The surveince cameras at the bar aren��t connected to the web, and I can��t do anything. They managed to capture you, so you can��t show your face to ck Nest��s people. How should we proceed with the next part of the mission?�� he asked.


    ��On top of that, after two incidents, ck Nest will surely increase surveince in ces Leah frequents. They��ll be able to spot suspicious individuals right away,�� said Phillip, ��We have no way of getting close to her.��


    ��Then, we��ll make here to us,�� Zhang Heng said.


    ��Huh?��


    ��We��ll make here to us. You guys are right. If we allow ck Nest to be always a step ahead of us, there��s no way we can win,�� Zhang Heng said. ��So, we need to set the operation in our own hunting grounds.��


    ��I get it now.�� Waldo nodded. But after a while, he scratched his head and continued, ��That, uhh... I understand what you mean, but could you exin it to the others?��.


    Zhang Heng pulled up the map of the city on his phone and pointed at a ce in the north. ��There��s a ski resort here, about an hour��s drive from Grenoble. After what happened, they will be sweeping the city for the guy who jumped into the river and me. We don��t have to face them head-on and avoid them by hiding out there. At the same time, we can do the right preparations��turning the ski resort into our home ground.��


    ��You��re right... but you��ve overlooked one problem. All of Leah��smunication devices are under ck Nest��s surveince. They are just waiting for us to contact her. The moment we do that, the first people you��ll see here will be ck Nest��s secret task force. If we don��t contact her, though, she will nevere to this ski resort. You see, it��s like a paradox.��


    ��It��s skiing season now, but Leah is no ski-enthusiast. You can count on both hands the number of times she went skiing,�� Waldo said, ��If we wait for her at the ski resort, we might not even see her after two years.��

 Chapter 401 - Meet Again

    <strong>Chapter 401 Meet Again</strong>


    Zhang Heng said nothing and turned on the television. Amercial for a shampoo was ying


    ��We can��t contact her directly and tell her when she should go to the ski resort, but we can make here up with the idea herself.��


    Waldo snapped his fingers. ��Ad! We can send an advertisement to her mailbox, pretending to be the ski resort.��


    ��But she probably receives a lot of those. Strictly speaking, the advertisement will only raise the probability of her visiting a ski resort by a little.��


    ��No... We only need one person to get it done,�� said Zhang Heng.


    ��Who?��


    ��Her girlfriend, the blonde from the band... what��s her name again?��


    ��Adele,�� Waldo answered.


    ��Yes. ck Nest is only monitoring Leah. So, we can nt the idea of going to a ski resort in Adele!��


    ��I can send the advertisement to Adele��s email, and include a discount for couples,�� Waldo chimed in.


    ��Don��t use the ski resort��s name. It��s too easy to see through. Use the name of some travel agency,�� Ponytail added. ��I remember she has a part-time job, so we can ce some billboards along the route she takes to work,�� Philip exined, ��We can also ride on the same elevator, and discuss skiing-rted things in front of her.��


    ��I can even get into her social ounts to see who she follows and use them to post pictures of the scenery of a ski resort. By employing these methods, the idea of going to the ski resort will transpire in her mind.��


    ��Very good. Remember, when she talks Leah into going to the ski resort, ck Nest will also be watching. Whatever we do, we mustn��t blow our cover. We have to make ck Nest believe that it was truly her own idea to go skiing,�� Zhang Heng added, ��It��s a bad time for me to be out in the city, so...��


    ��Leave it to me,�� Waldo thumped his chest.


    ��I can stay and help too. You will need someone to act with,�� Little Boy said, ��Last time at the casino, all of you said that my chest is too t, and I can��t possibly distract the staff. I��ll be able to do it this time.��


    ��Then, I��ll leave the car for the both of you,�� Semiprime said.


    ��Philip and I will go with Luke to the ski resort to get ready,�� said Ponytail, ��All of us will split up and do our parts, then meet up again at the ski resort after that.��


    None of the members of the 01 Guerris had any objections, so after being assigned to their respective parts, they retreated to their rooms to rest. Zhang Heng, however, did not climb into bed. He looked at his Tissot-it had been almost thirty hours since he entered the quest, which meant that the parallel quest would start soon.


    Back in the Apollo Training Camp, he had gone back fourteen years in time. It was the same with the Master Builder parallel quest, where he was sent back four years. He did not know what year he would be sent to this time, only hoping that it wouldn��t be too far back sinceputer technology constantly and rapidly evolved. It would be unfortunate if the technology he spent so much time learning about were useless in the time period he was sent to.


    (Generating parallel quest��this is a parallel quest for Whistleblower]


    Number of yers: 1


    Mission objective: None


    Duration: 360 days,


    [Attention, yer...] This time, the sound of Edith Piaf��s ��Life of Roses�� yed in his ears. She was a singer, revered as a national treasure who lived a tragic but legendary life. At only forty-eight, she died of liver cancer, and France held a state funeral for her.


    When the music faded away, Zhang Heng opened his eyes again and found himself standing in a dark and dingy alley. Someone had somehow managed to break the bulb of the streetmp.


    Fortunately, it was a full moon that night, and under the moonlight, Zhang Heng could make out the graffiti on the wall-it was a mask made up of 01 codes. On its right was the corporate logo of ck Nest with a big red ��X�� sprayed over it. Underneath it, the words ��We want you to...�� were written, with the rest of it scratched off.


    Zhang Heng thought that it was a little odd. He looked around at his surroundings, made sure that there was nothing else worth paying attention to before walking out of the alley.


    Fortunately, everything else on the street appeared normal��the neon signs of restaurants, the passing vehicles, and walking pedestrians. Zhang Heng even spotted arge and bright electronic billboard at the intersection not far away from ying advertisements. The illuminated sign was a novelty; it��s avant-garde design bound to attract all who saw it.


    On Zhang Heng��s right was a coffee shop that offered takeaway. When he searched his pockets, though, he was horrified to find that other than his game items; there was nothing else in them. Even the wallet and passport he had with him all the time were nowhere to be found. This would undoubtedly make moving around the city a hassle for him.


    Zhang Heng frowned as he shook his head. Just then, he heard exmations and gasps behind him. He turned around and saw a fully masked individual carrying a backpack. He had apparently just thrown a rock at a street camera and broke the rest, one after another.


    The onlookers looked bbergasted, constantly stepping backward and avoiding the individual like the gue. Maybe it was because of how he was dressed like a terrorist and the bag full of pebbles that nobody came forward to stop him. They simply ignored him as he senselessly continued attacking the cameras.


    Luckily, his despicable behavior did not go on for very long. The sound of sirens was approaching fast. However, it seemed like the masked individual was not too keen on confrontation. He abandoned the remaining pebbles and sprinted toward the alley where Zhang Heng had just walked out from.


    Just as he was about to enter the alley, something changed. A pair of lovers who had joined the onlookers suddenly seized the masked individual. The man held the vandal and pinned him to the ground. He then twisted his arms before the woman pulled out a pair of handcuffs, locking them on his wrists.


    ��Police! You are under arrest for destroying public property. We��ve been searching for you for a very long time,�� the male officer grunted as he pulled the mask off the vandal. To his surprise, the one beneath the mask turned out to be a girl.


    The other officer��s walkie-talkie was already out and she was about to say something when something hit her at the back of the head. She cked out and copsed on the ground.


    The male officer did not expect another incident to ur in the situation they thought was under control.


    He reached for his gun, but he was one step toote. He was struck on the temple too, and like his partner, fell to the groud as well.


    Zhang Heng searched the male officer for the key to the handcuffs, but the masked girl urged, ��We don��t have time for that. We need to get to the safehouse first.��


    Zhang Heng picked her up from the ground and said, ��Lead the way.��


    He was certain that the parallel quest this time was different from the previous ones since the Little Boy in his arms looked much more mature than when they had first met... even the areas that were previously undeveloped had now blossomed.

 Chapter 402 - Future

    <strong>Chapter 402 Future</strong>


    Zhang Heng carried Little Boy and ran to the end of the alley.


    ��The trash can... there is a foldingdder in it. You can use it to go up the wall. It would be best if you go up first. You can help me get up after that,�� Little Boy said.


    ��Maybe there��s an easier way.��


    Zhang Heng took off his coat and tied Little Boy tightly around his chest. He then stepped on the trash can, jumped onto the wall, and managed tond on the other side right before the police arrived.


    ��... I destroyed the CCTV on your right two days ago,�� Little Boy paused as she continued to point the direction. Zhang Heng did not waste any time, running to the right side without saying a word.


    ��Turn left, pay attention to the camera. Stick to the wall to avoid it.��


    Little Boy seemed to be very familiar with the surrounding area, and she even nned out an escape route that would avoid the detection of the countless surveince cameras. Ten minutester, the two were already clear from where the incident urred, and they could no longer hear sirens behind them.


    ��Hey, you can put me down now,�� Little Boy frowned.


    They were in a somewhat awkward position now with their upper bodies were stuck together. To have a better grip, Little Boy had to mp Zhang Heng��s waist with her legs and having had to tilt her head all the way to observe the route, her neck and thighs started to feel a little sore.


    When she was back on the ground, she moved her neck and looked at Zhang Heng.


    ��I didn��t have time to ask you questions just now. Who are you, and why are you saving me?��


    ��After so many years, you are still the same. In this case, you should first say thank you,�� Zhang Heng said.


    ��It��s not toote to thank you after I figure out your true identity. Perhaps you are from ck Nest, just like the pair of police officers. They pretended to be a couple and arrested me. You pretended to be a good-hearted person who helped me. You are trying to win my trust. Who knows if you have any other ill intentions? And don��t talk to me in that tone. I don��t know you at all.��


    Little Boy tried to tidy up her hair, but her hands were still handcuffed behind her.


    Although she was as stubborn as before, Zhang Heng still managed to extract a good amount of information from her words. This parallel quest was different from the one he��dpeted earlier in the sense that it was no longer about the past but the ��future.�� Little Boy made it seem as if it was the first time she met Zhang Heng. Hence, there was a high probability that this so-called ��future�� was based on a past that had no yer activity.


    ��You are part of the 01 Guerris, right?��


    ��It��s obvious, isn��t it? We are the only ones in the city who are still fighting against CTOS.�� ��By smashing the CCTV with stones?��


    ��Are you guysughing at us?��


    ��No, I admire you very much. Philip and Waldo, are they with you? How about the magician and Semiprime?��


    Little Boy��s expression changed when she heard those names. ��Are you here to look for trouble?�� she muttered with an audibly different tone.


    ��What do you mean?��


    ��Don��t you watch the news? ck Nest would be bleeding money if they were hired as an undercover agent.


    ��Hmm... It seems you guys got yourself on the news... I urgently need to cram everything that happened in the past few years in the shortest time possible,�� Zhang Heng said, ��How about we make a deal?��


    ��What deal?��


    ��I help you unlock the handcuffs, but I��ll need you to answer a few questions. If you feel ufortable answering any of them, you can choose not to answer.��


    ��Oh, I can unlock the handcuffs without your help,�� Little Boy snorted. Before Zhang Heng spoke, a passerby saw Little Boy and the handcuffs on her. Instantly, a suspicious look grew on his face.


    ��What are you looking at? Haven��t you seen kinky stuff like this?�� Zhang Heng lifted Little Boy against the wall with one hand and opened the zipper of her sweatshirt with the other.


    ��Shameless!�� the passerby cursed softly and left in a hurry.


    ��Look, the CCTV isn��t your only problem now. You can��t even walk a few steps without people looking at you,�� Zhang Heng smirked and zipped up Little Boy��s sweatshirt again.


    Little Boy��s expression changed. And after a while, she asked, ��Can you really undo my handcuffs?��


    Zhang Heng nced at the cuffs, taking note of its model. ��Of course. Do you have a wallet?�� he asked.


    ��In my right pocket.�� What surprised Zhang Heng was that there was no credit card in Little Boy��s wallet but only cash instead.


    ��Based on your credit card spending records, they can know when and where you went, what you bought, and evenpare the credit card records of others to find out who you met. Cash is the safest method for me to purchase things right now.��


    ��You are right.�� Zhang Heng folded a brand-new euro banknote into a long thin straw, inserted it into the keyhole, and twisted the note in an anti-clockwise direction. The handcuffs clicked open as they became undone.


    ��Who are you, murderer, thief, gang member?!��


    ��It��s just a small trick that I learned from watching videos on the Inte.��


    ��Aren��t you afraid of being monitored when you search for such videos?��


    ��I don��t live here.��


    ��You are lucky.��


    Little Boy took off her handcuffs and wriggled her wrists. She then looked at Zhang Heng and stared at him for a long time, trying to figure out something from his face. Half a minuteter, she said, ��Come with me.��


    ��Where to?��


    ��My ce, it��s safer there.��


    Zhang Heng followed Little Boy to her apartment. It was an old house with moldy walls, and even the ceiling was covered in grey blotches. There was no elevator. Little Boy��s door was secured with the mostmon mechanical lock. She then took a key out of her pocket and unlocked the door.


    The unit was a small one-bedroom apartment with the living room taking up the rest of the space. Little Boy��s ce was in great contrast to the old and dpidated staircase he saw earlier. Her apartment was clean and tidy, and although the area was small, her choice of decorations gave it a snug feeling. There was also an English Shorthair sitting on the sofa. When the door opened, it did not raise its head.


    ��First things first,�� Little Boy opened the door of the microwave oven, ��put in all your smart devices that can be connected to the inte.��


    ��I don��t have any smart device...�� Zhang Heng said.


    ��You are lying.��


    ��You can search me if you don��t believe me.��


    Little Boy frowned. Instead of believing in what he said, she decided to frisk him to ensure that he was not lying. After that, she said, ��Just sit down.��


    There was only one sofa in the living room, and the English Shorthair had imed it. Zhang Heng was wise enough not to invade the territory of the very ferocious beast. So, he sat down on the stool at the next table.


    ��What do you want to drink?��


    ��Coffee.��


    ��No. I don��t have coffee here.��


    ��How about tea?��


    ��...no tea as well.��


    ��Water then.��


    ��Great.��


    Three minutester, Little Boy warmed up some milk and poured a ss for herself and Zhang Heng. She then picked up thezy English Shorthair on the sofa and sat opposite of Zhang Heng. ��What do you want to know?��


    ��Where is Edward?��


    ��You actually know that name?�� Little Boy was getting a little cautious, ��...and you dare tell me you are not from the ck Nest?��

 Chapter 403 - Have You Heard of the Parellel Universe Theory?

    <h4>Chapter 403 Have You Heard of the Parellel Universe Theory?</h4>


    ��This is a bitplicated to exin.�� ��You won��t know if you don��t try,�� Little Boy scratched her short chin.


    ��Have you heard of the parallel universe theory in quantum physics?�� Zhang Heng asked.


    ��Sorry, what? Say it again.��


    ��The theory of parallel universes, the multiverse is a collection of finite or infinite possible universes...��


    ��I know what a parallel universe is,�� Little Boy interrupted Zhang Heng, ��I mean, are you going to fool me with this science fiction skullduggery? Do I look like a junior high dropout or a die-hard Marvel fan?��


    ��Look, I told you that it��splicated to exin everything...�� While the quest was still in progress, yers were prohibited from revealing to NPC that they were yers from the real world. Hence, Zhang Heng could only try to use the parallel universe theory to exin how he knew the 01 members and Edward.


    ��Just treat it as science fiction for now.��


    Zhang Heng spent a good twenty minutes rting his encounter with the 01 Guerris to the point they prepared to rescue Leah. Little Boy raised her eyebrows after listening to Zhang Heng��s story.


    ��So you really got 600,000 points in Tetris?�� she asked, gasping under her breath.


    ��It��s a good story, and it��s enough to pick up immature girls who haven��t stepped into the world, but please tell me you��re not expecting me to believe this kind of nonsense. However, I have to say that you seem to know 01 very well... did you collect our information on purpose?��


    Little Boy frowned, then paused as if caught in some deep thought. ��This story is so ridiculous, and I kind of believe you��re not ck Nest. I know they are all a bunch of bastards, but if they wanted to send an agent to infiltrate 01, you should have made up a better story.��


    ��...thank you for trusting me.�� Zhang Heng said.


    ��Well, what do you want to know? I can��t trust you fully yet. Although you saved my life, I still can��t tell you some of the ol��s secrets.��


    ��No, just tell me the things that you are allowed to tell me,�� Zhang Heng said, ��Let��s go back to the first question, where is Edward


    now?��


    ��Dead.��


    ��He died?!��


    ��Yes, not only is he dead, but it has been twelve years since ck Nest killed him. How? Some reporters who contacted him betrayed him. The pretended to enter his room for an interview, but that was when they killed him. They took away all his important documents. We failed. ck Nest has also erased every trace of his existence in this world.��


    Little Boy took a sip of milk and continued, ��In the second year after Edward��s death, ck Nestpleted the first phase of CTOS development-first in Nice, then in Marseille, Paris, France... and it��s all over Europe now. They have eyes everywhere. I��m talking about traffic lights, surveince cameras, subways, POS machines, car navigation systems, satellite phones, mobile phones,puters �C as long as they have built-in microprocessors and are connected to the inte, they are all under CTOS�� control.��


    ��Isn��t anybody against them?��.


    ��Of course, there are. In fact, when it all started, many people expressed their concerns about privacy and security. News reporters,work activists, a small number of senates, and hackers were not happy with it, but ck Nest promised the public that CTOS would never be above thew.��


    The British Shorthair was getting a little impatient after Little Boy rubbed it for a long time. The feline stretched its legs, prompting her to quickly put it on the ground.


    ��As their tagline goes�� ��technology makes life better,�� ck Nest is not just apany. It��s aplicated web that runs all the way to the top, supported by mega-corporations, politicians, and entrepreneurs. Combined, they are like a huge machine that always runs at full capacity to pave the way for CTOS to be employed in all aspects of life. Man, I have to admit: they sure covered up CTOS well. To the public, CTOS is safe, efficient, and convenient, just like a gift from God. ��ck Nest promised that with CTOS, traffic would dramatically improve, crime rates would drop exponentially, and public resources would no longer be wasted. They did it, in fact, but at the expense of personal data privacy. However, no one noticed how the number of politicians supporting CTOS had steadily increased among voters. At the same time, the politicians who are against it are getting less and less support. Thanks to this, they are gradually bidding their political career goodbye. Some die-hards have umted a lot of fame among the voters, so ck Nest uses CTOS topletely vite their privacy, collecting every little bit of information they could find to create scandals. They analyze every sentence word. Even a casual chat during dinner cannot escape the ears of CTOS.


    ��Nobody could withstand the power of such offensive attacks on one��s privacy. During those days, new scandals were being published almost every day. The people screamed and cursed the corrupt politicians on the inte. At the same time, ck Nestpleted their purge little by little. After that, they take over the press and education... they silently control the right to speak. Everyone began to praise CTOS. Even those who didn��t get to enjoy what CTOS had to offer are also eagerly looking forward to ck Nest��s arrival in their cities.


    ��Only hackers are aware of the severity of the situation... in the name of defending freedom and privacy, they dered war on ck Nest. We have experienced fierce battles on the inte. Some have been caught and knocked down, even killed. New people continually join the battle, but with the crazy expansion of CTOS, we are getting less and less space to move around.


    ��Moreover, public opinion is always on their side��we arebeled as criminals. We don��t just need to take on ck Nest; we are about to take on the entire world! On the other hand, ck Nest��s behavior gets more outrageous by the day. They created a list of ten thousand people, pping the tile ��dangerous�� on them. They monitor them 24 hours a day, and if necessary, they will use the same methods they used on Edward to deal with the people on the list.


    ��We have suffered significant losses. No, maybe it is more urate to use the term: end of the road. During that time, I lost a lot of friends. You want to know the situation of other people in 01, right? Well, this is no secret��when Edward was killed, the magician was with him. So... he was not spared by ck Nest. Philip was tired of the war, emigrating to Hong Kong with his family. Waldo, he betrayed us six yearster and joined ck Nest. Arge number of top hackers were also being recruited at the time he joined. Z was arrested two years ago.


    ��Now, only me and Semiprime are left. Nheless, we have assembled a few who still want to fight against ck Nest. 01 is the only remaining resistance in Europe. We can only operate underground.��


    ��Are you now the leader of on?��


    ��Don��t you read the news?�� snapped Little Boy, ��The current leader of 01 is Leah, Edward��s sister, who also happens to be at the top of ck Nest��s hit list. They are roaming all over the world, trying to bring her in.��

 Chapter 404 - What if I Agree To Give You A Job?

    <h4>Chapter 404 What if I Agree To Give You A Job?</h4>


    ��Leah��s your leader? That��s probably the most shocking thing I��ve heard all day since I found out that ck Nest has taken over all of Europe!�� Zhang Heng eximed.


    ��You only say that because you don��t know her. She��s a born a fighter like her brother. After Edward��s death, she became the most resolute anti-CTOS mutineer, employing her charismatic personality to influence and unite many.��


    ��Where are they now?�� Little Boy sighed again, ��We��re fighting a war we cannot win.��


    ��It��s tough to believe that even you would say something so dismal,�� said Zhang Heng. ��The Little Boy I knew would have never given up so easily.��


    ��I��m just stating the facts. This war has been going on for twelve years, and I��m starting to get real tired,�� Little Boy chugged down the entire ss of milk in onerge gulp.


    ��Then why bother to sabotage the cameras on the street and risk getting caught?��


    ��It��s only to send a message to those skeptical of CTOS that there are still people in the city resisting them. On top of that, Z��s second phase is about to begin. The people in ck Nest have appointed the three judges, and the jury also belongs to them. We may not have a chance to win, but we can always do something.��


    Zhang Heng also finished his ss of milk. ��Onest question-how do I find Leah?��


    ��I don��t know. ck Nest is always sending people out to capture her, so her location is a secret that only the 01 knows. If you want to get to her through me, you best give up now. I don��t know where she is, and even if I do, I would never tell you,�� said Little Boy as she picked up the two empty sses from the table.


    ��I��ve answered all your questions, and I even gave you a ss of milk. Yes, you��re wee. We��re even now. If there��s nothing else, please leave.��


    Little Boy turned to walk to the sink, ignoring Zhang Heng. But after she finished washing the two cups, Zhang Heng was still sitting in the same spot.


    ��What��s the matter? Do you need me to open the door for you?��


    ��I don��t have any documents or identification on me.��


    ��Oh, I would like to express my sympathy for your tragic experience, but you can go to the police and bring the Proof of Loss, a photocopy or an electronic copy to your country��s embassy to have it reissued.��


    ��I don��t have a photocopy or an electronic copy. In fact, I have my doubts about whether my country still retains my personal information,�� said Zhang Heng, ��As I said, this world is different from the one I��m used to; there is no evidence of my presence here.�� ��Hah, your parallel universe theory again? I must admit, you��re pretty good at making up stories.��


    ��Do you have any suggestions?��


    ��If, and I��m saying IF... if what you say is true, then you��re in deep trouble. Without any identification, and since they can��t determine your country of origin, they might detain you until you die of old age. No one will care if you live or die anyway.��


    ��So that means I should avoid the police at all costs so I won��t get locked up, huh?�� Zhang Heng got up from the seat. ��Thank you for your consultation. I��m delighted to have met you.��


    Zhang Heng walked to the door, but just as his fingers met the doorknob, Little Boy said, ��Wait.��


    She had a look of uncertainty on her face. After a long while, she sighed. ��Do you have any money?��


    ��No, but I can borrow some off those ��kind�� people on the street,�� said Zhang Heng, ��based on how I usually do things, survival is always my number one priority, I suppose.�� ��Are you even aware of how CTOS works? Do you know where all the cameras in the city are located? Do you know who you can trust and who the enemy is?�� Little Boy��s frown deepened, ��even if it��s justmitting a crime, you are just a rookie in the criminal world. The police will surely catch you.��


    ��I don��t think so. Trust me, it��s not going to be easy to catch me.��


    Zhang Heng pushed the door open. ��What if I��m willing to offer you a job?�� ��Huh?�� Zhang Heng stopped in his tracks. ��...and a ce to stay,�� Little Boy added, ��you don��t have any identification so you can��t stay in any of the hotels. I can take you in, but you��re sleeping on the couch, and you must listen to everything I say. You only do what I tell you to do. Of course, I won��t ask you to do anything absurd. On the other hand, I will teach you how to survive under CTOS, how to avoid cameras, lose a tail... and you are responsible for feeding Baby Croc.�� ��... did you really name your cat Baby Croc?��


    ��You just have to tell me if you agree or not,�� Little Boy answered with a poker face.


    ��I want to learn yourmunication skills too,�� Zhang Heng said.


    ��If you meet my requirements, I will consider it.��


    ��If that��s the case, I don��t see why I should refuse the offer,�� Zhang Heng closed the door, ��can I ask why the sudden change of mind?��


    ��Here��s a piece of advice-mind your own business. Don��t ask too much.�� Little Boy turned and walked into her bedroom, then came back out with a quilt. She then spread it on the couch. ��I only have two quilts,�� she said, ��this one is a little thin, but you seem to be in good shape, so you probably won��t freeze to death. I��ll get some necessities tomorrow. You��ll have to make do tonight.��


    ��Where��s the pillow?��


    ��You are pushing your luck here.��


    ��I prefer to call it a basic human need.��


    ��I don��t have any extra pillows. Do you want Baby Croc��s cat bed?��


    Zhang Heng looked at the British Shorthair. As if noticing something, the cat stared back at him as well, daring him to try if you will.


    ��I don��t think it��ll agree to that suggestion.��


    ��You��re such a pain, you know? I have some old clothes you can use as a pillow,�� Little Boy said.


    ��Thank you.��


    After she was done dressing the couch, she found Zhang Heng a pair of slippers, a towel, and a toothbrush. ��You are not allowed to use my cup, and before I buy you a new cup, rinse your mouth directly at the tap. When you pee, you must put the seat up,�� Little Boy went on, ��the water heater is ancient, so before you shower, let it warm up first. During winter, showers have to be done within twenty minutes, or the water will turn cold. Too much hair clogs up the drain, so it must be cleaned regrly. You can eat the food in the fridge, but it will be deducted from your sry, and we��ll split utility bills fifty-fifty. Do you have any more questions?��.


    ��Erm, if your boyfriend finds out that I live here, will there be a problem?��


    ��I don��t date.��


    ��But if it��s been twelve years, you��re probably around twenty-nine already.��


    As if she didn��t hear anything, Little Boy turned off the lights of the living room.


    ��You should get some sleep. There��s a whole list of things to do tomorrow,�� she said.

 Chapter 405 - Job

    <h4>Chapter 405 Job</h4>


    Zhang Heng opened his eyes and realized that Baby Croc was sitting on his chest, staring straight at him.


    Rays of sunlight broke through the gaps of the curtains and fell on his face.


    Zhang Heng nced at his watch. The time now was 07:29. He picked up the British Shorthair and ced it on the coffee table beside him. After that, he got up and sat on the sofa.


    Simultaneously, the bedroom door was opened, and Little Boy, still in pajamas, stumbled sleepily out of the bedroom. She squinted. ��Up so early?�� she asked.


    ��You said there are lots of things to do today.��


    ��We��ve got lots of things to do, but you��ll have to wait work ends,�� Little Boy said, ��If you can brew the coffee and toast the bread before I finish cleaning up myself, I won��t ask you to pay for this breakfast.��


    ��Fair enough.��


    Zhang Heng walked into the kitchen and waited for Little Boy toe out of the bathroom. There was a pot of coffee, four slices of bread, bacon, and fried eggs being served on the table.


    ��You sure work fast,�� Little Boy said.


    ��It��s a surprise, you��re not asking me to pay for breakfast. Hence, I made sure I went the extra mile.��


    Little Boy gobbled up the omelet and bread at a speed that was ipatible to her body shape. She also drank the entire cup of coffee in one breath.


    ��I��m going to work; you stay at home. Try not to make a mess. I��ll be home at about four in the afternoon, and then we will go shopping for your daily necessities.��


    ��So, you hired me just to make breakfast for you?��


    ��Of course not, your work can��t start until the evening. Oh, and don��t make dinner. I wille home with pizza.��


    ��So while waiting, I��ll just sit here and stare at Baby Croc?��


    Little Boy paused, ��You can watch TV or read something. I have a book in my bedroom... If you want to learn mymunication skills, start with the most basic theory. Okay, I can��t keep going on, or I will bete.��


    ��Have a great day. I��ll watch over Baby Croc.��


    After breakfast, Little Boy flew downstairs and ran to the subway station a mile away from where she lived. After the transit, she had to take two different buses to get to the pizzeria she worked at. Despite the energy-consuming rish, she managed to get there only a minute before she was consideredte. Wasting no time, she shuffled over to the employee��s changing room and got into her uniform.


    She took a deep breath, opened the door, and walked to the ordering counter.


    Today was not much different from the past. However, the staff who worked with Little Boy could not help but notice how she wasn��t paying attention to her work today. She had keyed in the wrong order several times. And it seemed as if she had this frustration that she had nowhere to vent.


    Little Boy realized she might have made a grave mistake. She should have never left the guy calling himself ��Lu Yan�� at home. The two had known each other for less than a day. She didn��t even know if it was his real name, let alone his background, or why he he had approached her.


    As the day progressed, thoughts of what Zhang Heng might be doing in her house couldn��t help but cross her mind. She was a little too careless this time. She should have at least brought Baby Croc along, but pets weren��t allowed in the pizzeria. Also, if she did bring her cat with her, she would not know where to ce it.


    Little Boy impatiently counted down for someone to take over her shift. She looked extremely serious as she had her lunch, and even employees who were close to her didn��t dare approach the grim-looking girl.


    After what seemed like forever, it was finally time to get off work. This time, Little Boy did not take the bus or subway. Instead, she hailed a taxi and headed straight home. Once she arrived at her apartment, she quickly ran upstairs, took out the key as fast as possible, and opened the door.


    A ser match was on the TV, and a copy of ��RRU Design Principles�� was ced upside down on the coffee table. The living room was empty. Even Baby Croc, usually basking on the couch at this time, was gone. Little Boy��s heart sank at the scene.


    At the same time, she heard a suspicious rustling in the bathroom. She hastily looked around, quickly finding a baseball bat in front of the TV and took it with her. With bated breath, She gingerly approached the bathroom.


    Just as the bathroom door came into sight, it suddenly opened sightly, and Baby Croc squeezed out from the crack. Zhang Heng��s voice could be heard from inside the bathroom, ��Ah, you��re back... earlier than expected.��


    ��What are you doing in there?�� Little Boy anxiously asked with a frown.


    ��Changing the light bulb... the light bulb in your bathroom is not working. Didn��t you know? Aren��t you afraid of bumping into something at night?��


    When she heard that, Little Boy breathed a sigh of relief and put the baseball bat away. ��Nosy!�� she sneered.


    ��What do you mean by nosy? I��ll be living here too, from now on.�� When the bulb had been reced, Zhang Heng turned on the faucet and washed his hands.


    Then, another thought crossed Little Boy��s mind. ��There are no spare bulbs at home. Where did you find one?�� she asked curiously.


    ��I removed the bulb from your bedsidemp.��


    ��You have twomps in your bedroom. It won��t matter if one gets removed. Oh, and you better change your tablemp��s bulb... just buy a new one and rece it.��


    ��Well, a second piece of advice-don��t mess with the things in my house when I��m away,�� Little Boy said in a stern tone. ��If you insist...��


    Zhang Heng wiped his hands clean and walked out of the bathroom, ��Where is my pizza?��


    ��...I forgot... I was in a hurry. While I was working, I kept thinking about what sort of damage you would cause. Tomorrow, I will bring you the best pizza in the shop.�� ��So... you work in a pizza restaurant now?��


    ��Yes.��


    ��With your skill set, nomunicationpany will reject your application...��


    ��I am also on ck Nest��s wanted list. If I work for those bigpanies, I will have to use my mobile phone andputer. ck Nest will monitor my every move then. This is why I��ve been working petty and insignificant jobs these few years.�� ��It hasn��t been easy, huh...��


    ��Ugh! Enough with that nonsense. I did promise you to buy your daily necessities today. And I have to buy you another set of working clothes as well...��


    ��Can I buy four sets of Lego bricks?��


    ��What?�� Little Boy thought there was something wrong with her ears.


    ��You can deduct the cost of the Lego bricks from my sry. How shall I put it? It is quite important to me...��


    Little Boy looked at Zhang Heng again, and when she saw that he was not joking, she agreed. ��Okay, you need to list everything down, and we��ll buy them all togetherter,�� she replied.


    ��If I can vote for the best employer of the year, I will vote for you.��


    ��Let��s get it straight. I am not your employer. I happen to know where you can work, that��s all.��


    Little Boy shook her head as she sighed, ��Let��s go, we need to finish with the purchase before sunset. Then you can start working.��


    ��Can I ask in advance about the nature of my job?��


    ��I don��t know. You have to meet the middleman to know what jobs he offers. Don��t worry. You won��t be allowed to do anything dangerous... it��s not like you can do them anyway.��

 Chapter 406 - Middleman

    <h4>Chapter 406 Middleman</h4>


    Zhang Heng tagged along with Little Boy to the nearby Carrefour, where they bought nkets, pillows, a rinse cup, underwear, socks, and razors. Little Boy also picked out a bottle of cologne for him, but Zhang Heng waved it off, indicating to her that he had no need for that sort of thing. When he passed by the knife rack, however, he stopped and picked up a pocket knife.


    Its handle was made of rosewood with a brass end. Sporting a stainless-steel de, it felt sturdy and durable. More importantly, it was only 11cm longpact enough for traveling. With Zhang Heng��s level 3 knife fighting skills, it would make a perfect melee weapon. ��Do you want it?�� Little Boy asked. ��Can I?��


    Zhang Heng looked at the price tag that read �35. ��It��s a little pricey,�� he hesitated, ��I can choose another one.��


    ��Never mind, just take this one. It��ll just be deducted from your sry.��


    ��Thank you.��


    After their trip to the mall, Little Boy brought Zhang Heng to a used clothes store and spent �10 on a ck suit, a cored shirt, and leather shoes��the whole set.


    Zhang Heng changed into the suit and walked out of the fitting room. Little Boy took two steps back and gave him a once over.


    ��How is it?�� asked Zhang Heng.


    ��It��s half a size too big, but it seems pretty good overall,�� Little Boymented as she picked out a pair of shades off the rack and handed them to Zhang Heng. ��You don��t have to wear it, just put it in your front pocket.��


    Zhang Heng did as instructed, and Little Boy finally nodded in approval. ��Now, that��s more like it...��


    Little Boy did not exin why it was ��more like it,�� and Zhang Heng didn��t ask.


    They dropped their shopping bags at home before getting two hot dogs from a roadside stall for dinner. It was already night by then.


    ��Let��s go. Time to get to work.��


    Little Boy finished off thest of her sausage, wiped her mouth, and lead Zhang Heng to the subway.


    It was the hour where everyone was just getting off work, so the station was packed to the brim. The two had to squeeze their way into the train. ��In a while, we��ll be meeting a guy called Fox. He��s a famous middleman in the neighborhood,�� Little Boy exined to Zhang Heng as the doors of the coach slid shut.


    ��Middleman?��


    ��Yes, he sets up the connectionsmatchmaking businesses. He then drawsmissions from them. Simply put, he��s the go-to person when you��re in trouble. As long as you have money, he��ll do anything for you. Of course, he won��t be doing them himself. What he does is recruit the right talents for you.��


    ��Like an intermediary?��


    ��They have the same method of making a profit, but the biggest difference is that an intermediary only does legal things. Fox, on the other hand, has no tabooswful, uwful, or even grey-area endeavours... as long as it brings him money, he��s willing to make a deal.��


    ��Hah! And I thought criminals would disappear like magic once the city connected to CTOS.��


    ��The crime rate has dropped significantly, but the perpetrators have not entirely disappeared. The people working for ck Nest are brilliant. If criminals were to vanish all of a sudden, then people would definitely question the feasibility of CTOS. The public is willing to sacrifice some of their privacy for safety, but if they realize that they are already safe, their focus will shift back to the security of their privacy. So, ck Nest has to maintain a bnce��they need to prove that CTOS is effective, and they can��t do that if they eliminate every criminal in the city.��


    ��If criminals no longer exist, then there would be no need for the police.��


    ��Yup, that��s the logic around it,�� Little Boy said, ��but after CTOS was set up, it massively impacted Dark World. The old rules of survival no longer apply. Old and stubborn ones who are not up to the times retired, but neers like Fox emerge as quickly as the older ones disappear.��


    ��What about 01?��


    ��We��re not criminals,�� Little Boy went on, looking dead-serious, ��even though ck Nest has always discredited us, 01 has been a non-profit organization since its establishment. Even illegally obtained funds were used to fight CTOS, and never have they gone into the pockets of the members.�� ��It��s really inspiring,�� Zhang Heng nodded. ��Are you mocking us?�� ��I have never ridiculed you. You, on the other hand, no matter what year I meet you, you question my motives. Is this the ��historical inertia�� everyone had always talked about?��


    An hourter, the pair arrived at the other side of the city. Here, near the outskirts, there were evidently fewer cameras and even fewer people on the streets. ��Do not speak when we meet with Fox. Let me do the talking,�� Little Boy reminded Zhang Heng when they arrived.


    ��Whatever you say.�� Hence, they walked into an underground garage. The cars grew lesser as they descended two floors below, and the sound of booming stereos grew louder and louder.


    When they finally reached the lowest floor, two men with crew cuts were smoking at the entrance. When they saw the pair approaching, they got up and made a ��no entry�� gesture with a finger.


    ��We��re here to see Fox,�� Little Boy said.


    The men looked at each other, then sat back down again.


    ��So much for security, those people. One name and you��re allowed toe in,�� Zhang Heng observed. They then walked into the garage four levels underground. Unlike the empty upper floor, the ce was packed with people, luxury cars, and sultry, attractive women.


    ��It��s just a small gathering organized by a group of rich second-generation kids who try to be as badass as possible to satisfy the curiosity of gangsters. Some of them even brought ��soft censorship�� to avoid being targeted by the police.�� Little Boy searched the ce and finally stopped. ��I found Fox.��


    He was also one of two people in the party in formal wear; the other person being Zhang Heng, dressed in a full suit. Unlike Zhang Heng, though, Fox was semi-formal, where under his trench coaty pair of beach shorts and hairy thighs. Even though the room was chilly, he did not seem cold and even appeared to be in a good mood. In each of his arms was a French girl, both of them smiling and looking up at him. ��I��m sorry, darlings, work is here. Why don��t you go get me some champagne?��


    The two girls reluctantly left his arms, and one even raised her eyebrows at Little Boy as she walked past.


    ��Don��t take it to heart. Sophie gets jealous easily, and h keeps a cute cobra in her garage,�� Fox said, ��It��s been a long time. I haven��t heard from you for a very long time. When Semiprime sent me an encrypted email telling me that you��reing to see me, I thought I heard wrong. Is this... your boyfriend?��


    ��No, he��s just a guest, and right now, he needs money for rent, which is why I brought him to see you.��


    ��Nice to meet you.�� Fox extended a hand and shook hands with Zhang Heng. Then he turned his attention to Little Boy. ��So, you still haven��t found a boyfriend yet?��


    ��People who talk crap often die prematurely in movies,�� Little Boy growled in a chilly tone.

 Chapter 407 - Addtional Condition

    <h4>Chapter 407 Addtional Condition</h4>


    ��You��re to look for a job? Okay... First, tell me what you are good at?�� Fox asked, ��and for the sake of 01, I��ll help to make you some good rmendations.��


    Before Zhang Heng could say anything, Little Boy chipped in, ��Just give him the mostmon job. We don��t want him to get into trouble.��


    ��What do you mean by amon job?�� ��A job that doesn��t vite thew.�� ��Wow, it��s a magical feeling hearing this from the people of 01,�� Fox touched his chin, ��No wonder you dressed this man up as a Credit Bank of Lyon director.��


    ��I remember you offered bodyguard jobs here, didn��t you?��


    ��That was in the past. When securitypanies were understaffed, they would borrow some people from me. But now, their bosses don��t like me very much.��


    ��Why?��


    ��Well, it��s probably because I took the lead and killed one of their important customers,�� Fox spread his hands, ��What can I do? An excellent middleman should treat all employers equally. If I tell them who��s going to kill their customer, my reputation will be gone forever. By then, how am I supposed to continue in this line?��


    ��Do you have any other simr jobs?��


    ��Well, I��ll look for it,�� Fox nodded as he took out hisptop from the car��s trunk. He clicked on the mailbox and scrolled a few times. ��Uhh... there��s a bar that needs people to watch the ce for them, but they are specifying for someone muscr and has a fierce gaze. How��s your body shape?��


    ��No way,�� Little Boy vetoed after his suggestion, ��sometimes a barmotion will rm the police, and he musn��te into contact with the police at all costs.��


    ��Why?��


    ��There is no why. Also, he��s not allowed to do jobs that require him to verify his identity.��


    ��That��s going to be troublesome. Enforcers are making sure that no one breaks thew at a time like this. It isn��t easy to find a legal job without verifying your identity. After all, I am a middleman, not a headhunter. It��s not like I have that many legal jobs for you to pick.��


    Little Boy was silent for a moment. ��What about ck jobs?�� she asked.


    Fox snapped his fingers, ��There will be one ck job tonight,�� he turned and looked at Zhang Heng, ��Can you drive?�� ��No problem.��


    ��Then, it should be an easy job for you. A client entrusted me to find a driver and personal bodyguard to apany him toplete a transaction. After everything is done, he will pay you 300 euros.��


    ��Transaction? What kind of transaction?��


    ��Sorry, you know the rules of our business. I don��t inquire about the nature of our customers�� personal business. I don��t rmend that you find out about it as well. The less you know, the safer you would be. But based on my previous experience, this should be a low-risk job. Most probably, your friend will simply be required to drive the car over there. After that, he��ll just need to stand there and wait for a while. Oh... yes, if everything goes well and the customer is satisfied, they will increase the pay. It��s a simple job.��


    ��Just drive the car there to earn 300 euros, and there are zero risks to it?�� Little Boy looked at Fox with a cocked head and sneered, ��do I look like a fool to you?��


    Fox sighed, ��Well, I��m just saying, you know. If it is so easy, I would have done the job myself, but I can swear that this is indeed a solid job. In fact, several people have been looking for this job before you came. I��ve made the inquiries, and the employer told me that he��s in a rush. I��ll have to decide in half an hour, but I can give you 20 minutes to discuss it first. After that, please tell me your decision. If you decide to do it, I will find other jobs for the others.��


    Fox then beckoned at the two girls who had gone to get more champagne while Little Boy had pulled Zhang Heng to the corner.


    ��I suggest you give up on this job. The more ambiguous the job, the easier for you to encounter an ident,�� Little Boy said, ��You don��t have to start working tonight, right?��


    ��But you heard what he said. I don��t have any way to verify my identity. Even if I manage to find odd jobs like you, I still have to avoid the police. I have to find a way to support myself. After all, I owe you a lot of money,�� Zhang Heng said.


    ��I��m not in a hurry. What are you worried about?�� Little Boy frowned, ��We can think of a better way. I think Semiprime should know other middlemen.��


    ��In your heart, you know very well that even if you change the middleman, we��ll probably get the same results, right?�� Zhang Heng put his hand on Little Boy��s shoulder and looked into her eyes.


    ��Hey, I have experienced crazy things that the ordinary person would never imagine. I am good at many things, but handling a crisis is my forte. I have always done a good job protecting myself, so trust me, I can handle this,�� he said. Little Boy��s eyes darted back and forth at his face as if looking for an answer. She silently let out a sigh.


    Zhang Heng waited for her answer. It was then when a wealthy inheritor, probably tired of the models and female students around him, saw something special in Little Boy. Wanting to have a change of taste, he approached her, attempting to strike a conversation. As expected, Little Boy simply told him off, leaving a shocked and defeated look on the rich boy��s face.


    ��Well, you win this time,�� Little Boy sighed, ��Remember to leave as soon as the situation turns bad. I will find you another job if that happens.��


    It took the two less than five minutes to give Fox a reply.


    ��So, what is your conclusion?��


    ��I��ll take the job,�� said Zhang Heng.


    ��Very well, uhh, let me find it... Where��s the car key...�� ��...but, we have an additional condition,�� Little Boy blurted all of a sudden.


    ��Huh?��


    ��I want to go with him.��


    ��Sorry, what did you just say?!�� Fox raised his head with a dazed expression, only to discover that Zhang Heng��s face was also awash with surprise.


    ��Either take me, or we won��t do this job,�� Little Boy insisted, her tone suggesting no room for negotiation.


    ��This... it��s against the rules,�� Fox scratched his head, ��the client only asked for one person.��


    ��Then tell him my request and let him decide,�� Little Boy said, ��You can pull it off.��


    Fox became extremely frustrated. ��Do we really need... ugh... to make a simple thing like this soplicated?��


    ��It depends on how good you are. Convince him if he wants to get it done ASAP. He should consider my suggestion.��


    ��Ha-�� Fox opened his mouth and wanted to say something, but he eventually swallowed it back. In the end, he just sighed, ��I will try to tell him that nobody is willing to take the job except for you. This is the best I can do for you.��


    ��Thank you.��


    Fifteen minutester, Fox turned off hisputer and said, ��It��s done. You both can do this together, but the reward remains the same. I really don��t understand why there are idiots in this world who are willing to provide two-person service for a single-person pay. Are you the two in love or something?��


    ��As a friendly reminder from a woman, the woman called Sophie is not jealous of you. She knows that you like the feeling of someone getting jealous over you... all men who treat women as dumbasses are the real idiots.��

 Chapter 408 - The Chemistry Teacher and the Box

    <h4>Chapter 408 The Chemistry Teacher and the Box</h4>


    Zhang Heng grabbed the car key from Fox, and together with Little Boy, went up to the second basement of the parking lot.


    ��Can you really tell if a woman is really jealous or just pretending?�� he asked her as they approached a ck Volkswagen Transporter that had seen better days.


    Opening the creaky door, Zhang Heng slid into the driver��s seat, moved it to his position, and adjusted the rear-view mirror.


    ��No, why would I bother myself with such trivial matters?��


    ��I only said it to make him feel bad. Anyway, there��s no actual way to verify such things,�� Little Boy said, ��hey, do you really know how to drive?��


    ��It feels bizarre to have to answer the same question twice,�� Zhang Heng replied


    ��It��s not toote to give up now. It��s better to admit defeat than to put on an act and then get caughtter.��


    ��Yes, yes. I��ll try not to let the cat out of the bag.��


    Zhang Heng started the car, and forty-five minutester, the Volkswagen pulled up below a bridge. Under the re of its headlights, a figure could be seen pacing anxiously by the pier.


    Zhang Heng stopped the car, a little taken aback. Since it was a ck job, he expected his employer to be someone from the underworld, but the man before him looked like a regr person in his forties or fifties. He was slightly bloated, had a slick of oily hair but was clean-shaven. With the frumpy windbreaker he had put on, he looked somewhat petrified.


    Instead of climbing in right away, the man asked apprehensively, ��Is this the car to theundromat?��


    ��I��m sorry, theundromat is closed,�� Zhang Heng replied. It matched the agreed-upon code, and the man heaved a huge sigh of relief when he heard those words. He opened the car door and climbed into the front passenger seat. ��Thank God, you��re finally here, I was so worried I nearly died,�� he stammered nervously. He carried a cardboard box close to his chest, and it was evident that it was very important to him. He had his arms wrapped tightly around the package as it was the most precious thing in the world, not loosening his grip even as he settled down in his seat. ��Where are we headed to?�� The man gave Zhang Heng an address of a remote location, a ce quite a drive away from where they were. Unfamiliar with the city, Zhang Heng did not react when he saw the address, but Little Boy��s brows furrowed when she heard where they were headed.


    ��Why are you going into the Albanian��s territory?��


    ��That, uhh...�� The man wiped the beads of sweat on his forehead with the back of his hand, not knowing what to say.


    ��Is there a problem?�� Zhang Heng asked. ��Those guys are big-time criminals. They are inextricably linked to the red-light district business in the city, smuggling and tricking girls from their own country intoing here in the name of working abroad. They would then turn on them, keep them captive, before forcing them to provide services to men. Sometimes, they would even prey on female tourists who are traveling alone, nting good-looking members of theirmunity at airports or train stations to strike up conversations with the girls. After they��ve gathered the target��s information, they decide whether or not to make a move. On top of that, they are also involved in other criminal activities��you��ll basically find them when there is money to be made.��


    ��I... I have some business with them,�� the man stammered.


    ��It��s unwise to make the Albanians your business partner,�� Little Boy said to the man. She then turned to Zhang Heng. ��This is too dangerous. I suggest that we abort this job,�� she said.


    ��No, no, no! I must go there tonight,�� the man immediately panicked, saying, ��I��ve already contacted their leader. He��s a very kind person, and there shouldn��t be any danger.��


    ��Then, we should just hand the car over to you, and you can go there yourself,�� said Little Boy.


    The man was speechless. He began sweating even more profusely. Desperate, he begged, ��I... I can��t... I��ve heard a lot about them. If I had options, I would never have chosen to associate with them. Please, I beg both of you �C don��t abandon me. I... I can pay you more.��


    ��This has nothing to do with money,�� Little Boy replied sharply.


    ��I can give you three hundred, no, five hundred... one thousand!�� the man promised, ��If the transaction goes smoothly, I can even give you two thousand.��


    ��You��re that loaded? I couldn��t tell,�� Little Boy raised her eyebrows at the man.


    ��If I��m really rich, why would I get myself involved with those people?�� the man smiled sadly. ��What do you do for a living?�� Zhang Heng suddenly asked. The man hesitated for a while. He did not want to divulge too much information about himself, but at the same time, he was even more afraid that his driver andpanion would desert him and let him deal with those demons on his own. So, eventually, he decided to tell the truth.


    ��I��m a chemistry teacher,�� he sheepishly muttered.


    ��Chemistry teacher?!�� Little Boy studied the man again and realized that his temperament was truly that of a teacher. ��So, what is a Chemistry teacher, instead of being in school educating people, messing himself up with the underworld?��


    ��Same as you-money,�� sighed the man again, ��I had a happy family... but seven years ago, my daughter was diagnosed with a rare disease. At the stage she was in, no medicine could cure her. She could only rely on drugs and machines to keep her alive. We have to fork out arge sum of money every month for such kind of extensive treatment, and we��ve used up all our savings. We even sold the house and the car. Thenst year, my wife was so overwhelmed by it all that she filed for divorce.


    ��The school that I work for has set up two fundraisers for me, but the donations were just a drop in the bucketpared to the medical costs. I��ve borrowed from family, friends, the bank... even loan sharks refuse to lend me any more money. There��s nothing I can do. If I can��t pay this month��s bills, the hospital will stop my daughter��s treatment. I don��t have a choice. I have to take the risk. Please, please help me! I really need this money to save my daughter��s life! Once it��s done, we can split the money 30:70.��


    ��Hang on, did you...�� Little Boy��s gaze fell on the cardboard box in the chemistry teacher��s arms. Then, she paused, finally understanding it all. ��The balls you have on you... you know the consequences of getting caught with those?��


    ��A person like me has nothing else to lose. If I can help my daughter live, even for one more day, why must I worry about what��s going to happen tomorrow?��


    The chemistry teacher hugged the box to his chest, his teeth chattering. ��...but don��t worry. I know the rules. Just pretend this conversation never happened. No... you��ve never even seen what��s inside the box. Even if something did happen, it would have nothing to do with you.��


    ��No.�� Little Boy shook her head. ��Even if you are willing to risk dealing with criminals like these, they have 10,000 ways to swallow an ordinary person like you alive. Let go when you should. You��ve already done your best. That��s just how life is... your daughter will not me you even if she gets to know...��


    ��No! no... it��s not the end. It hasn��t ended!�� The teacher��s eyes widened, his breathing grew heavy, and the green veins on his neck bulged. The fear on his face vanished, reced with a demeanor of a stubborn bull. ��Please, Fox said that you are both capable people. There must be a way you can help meplete this transaction, right?�� he resolutely insisted.

 Chapter 409 - Think Carefully

    <strong>Chapter 409 Think Carefully</strong>


    ��Unfortunately, we can��t help you either. I don��t know what the Fox guy told you, but we are not who you think we are,�� Little Boy said, ��We are different from those Albanians...��


    ��I can help you,�� added Zhang Heng. ��Really?��


    The chemistry teacher was surprised, and although he felt desperately hopeless after hearing Little Boy��s discouraging remarks he saw the light of hope again after Zhang Heng promised to help him.


    ��Don��t try to y tough here. The men who traded with him are the real criminals. They have guns in their hands. There��s no way we can go against them,�� Little Boy reminded, ��You are not helping but harming him.��


    ��The situation is not as bad as you put it,�� Zhang Heng said while holding the steering wheel. ��The teacher next to me has what they want. Of course, it would be better to just grab it without having to pay for it. If we can take this opportunity to grab the hen thatys eggs forever, this will be a huge victory for us.��


    The chemistry teacher��s face changed drastically. ��No. No way. I have an agreement with their person in charge.��


    ��Trust me, no one in this world understands how a robber thinks better than me,�� said Zhang Heng.


    ��This proves what I��ve said is right. We are heading directly into a trap set up specifically for us,�� Little Boy frowned.


    ��Theoretically speaking, you are right. But...


    ��But?��


    ��But it doesn��t mean that this is an impossible task. A robber behaves ording to how a robber is supposed to behave. They work hard for a reason. The point of a negotiation is to convince them that the cost of violence is higher than whatever they stand to yield.��


    ��Please teach me how to do it,�� the chemistry teacher pleaded, ��I will share half of the money with you this time.��


    ��It��s toote. It��s hard to change a person��s behavior in just one or two hours. If you trust me, then don��t say anything when you see the bosster. Let me do the talking,�� Zhang Heng said. ��No problem,�� the chemistry teacher nodded. Zhang Heng turned to Little Boy. ��This time, it��s a lot more dangerous than expected. I will drop you near the subway station so you can go back first.��


    ��No, I said I would go with you. Although the 01 has no business with the Albanians, they should have heard of our name before. If the negotiation goes south and they want to deal with you using radical measures, they��d have to think about the consequences of messing with the 01,�� said Little Boy confidently.


    ��Okay, but we have to set some ground rules. When I negotiate with the Albanians, stay in the car.��


    ��Hmm.�� Little Boy nodded in agreement, knowing that she wasn��t good at dealing with this sort of situation. ��Then, can I stay in the car, too?�� the chemistry teacher eagerly asked.


    ��Unfortunately, you can��t. You are the key to this transaction. You muste with me, and you must try to control your fear too. Don��t shiver, and don��t be afraid if someone looks at you. Don��t look away, and y as tough as you can. By being brave, you will help us take the lead in this.��


    ��Tough? How can I be tough,�� the nervous teacher asked.


    ��Well, imagine you are standing on a podium, and treat them like they are your students,�� Zhang Heng said.


    The teacher wiped his sweat away. ��I... I��m not sure if I can do it.��


    ��At least give it a try,�� Zhang Heng said, ��Don��t be too nervous. I��ll be there with you.��


    Zhang Heng drove half a kilometer away from the rendezvous point. The area he was at now felt different from other ces, where there were more women on the street, and each of them had their own fashion sense. Though it was a chilly day, many of them were dressed in skimpy clothing. A few just put on a coat to cover their bare bodies.


    France had a contradictory view toward red-light districts. It was different from the Nethends and Germany, which had wholly legalized it as an industry. It also differed from the semi-legalized UK. Although it was deemed illegal in France, the government still pped taxes on it, calling it a frence job.


    As society continued to develop, the ancient industry had started promoting its business on the inte. Customers could now choose the girls they wanted online. That said, certain Eastern European countries still preferred to conduct business traditionally.


    ��What��s the matter?�� Seeing that Zhang Heng had stopped the car, the chemistry teacher couldn��t help feeling nervous again.


    ��Give me five minutes,�� replied Zhang Heng, and to the surprise of Little Boy and the teacher, he took out his newly bought Lego blocks.


    ��Huh?!��


    Little Boy looked at Zhang Heng as if he was pulling some kind of prank.


    The chemistry teacher became even more anxious. He hesitated for a moment. It��s... not the time for this,�� he reminded Zhang Heng.


    ��Don��t worry. It��s still too early.�� As he spoke, Zhang Heng assembled an Italian Beretta 92F pistol. He then threw a couple of Lego bricks to the teacher next to him. ��Try it too. It helps ease the tension.��


    ��I think I��ll be fine,�� replied the teacher and immediately returned the bricks.


    ��Err.. are you going to use these toys to negotiate with those Albanians?�� Little Boy asked.


    ��Just in case,�� Zhang Heng murmured, inserting the Infinite Building Block into the gun he just built. Since he had so swiftly ced the 92F on his waist, Little Boy and the teacher missed the moment when the Lego gun turned into a real weapon.


    ��We are not ying games here. Do you think those Albanians are stupid?�� Little Boy suddenly looked dead serious. ��You will get yourself killed!��


    Zhang Heng had made the final preparations. ��I��m sorry I kept something from you. Not only did Ie from a parallel universe, but I��m also actually a magician,�� he said. He then waved to the girl that had already headed toward the car, telling her that he did not need any special service.


    ��I, I feel a little bit out of breath!�� The teacher was feeling nervous, trembling before they even met their target. This was not a good sign. Sure he had made up his mind, but the moment he thought about what he was about to face, the honest man who had never received a speeding ticket failed to control the tremors that had ovee his body.


    ��You should take her advice. Not everyone is suitable for the thug life. In fact, I have seen many powerful people in the criminal world, and they did not end well. Besides, CTOS is all over the city now. Think carefully. There��s no turning back after you take this step. Even if you want to stop, someone will dig up your past and coerce you into doing things you would never do. To put it simply, you��ve now reached a dead end,�� Zhang Heng said.


    ��Thank you... I may not be ready yet, but I have figured it out,�� the teacher said, ��This is the only way to save my daughter. Let��s get started.��

 Chapter 410 - Fight Me Together?

    Chapter 410 Fight Me Together?


    The location that had been agreed upon was outside a ughterhouse.


    An unpleasant stench wafted around the surrounding air.


    Zhang Heng stopped the car. Not far from them, four men were ying a knife game around a small table.


    The rules of the game were simple. The yer was basically required to ce a hand on the table, and with a knife in the other hand, poke the gaps between the fingers quickly. Whoever moved the fastest would be the final winner.


    The whole process was fascinating, often regarded as a symbol of courage for those with the nerve to participate. Hence, the four men were having so much fun that they failed to notice somebodying.


    ��There are still twenty minutes left. What should we do? Wait in the car, or should I go down and talk to them?��


    ��No need for so much trouble,�� Zhang Heng said while turning on the high beam of the car.


    The headlights hit the men so brightly that they could no longer continue ying. Irritated and annoyed, they got up from their chairs, grabbing their weapons and cursing loudly.


    The chemistry teacher was shocked. ��Wow! Now is that impolite or what?��


    ��Have you ever seen robbers and viins speak politely?�� Zhang Heng asked, ��These four were there to make sure that they could give you a good scare. They know you are just an ordinary person, and I can bet that they would nevere to you if you don��t get out of the car. If you go to them, they will not listen to you either. This is how they do things. Tactics like these will make you feel more nervous and fearful. The more you fear, the more they will benefit in the negotiation.��


    ��Is this the location that they requested? The nearest security camera is a kilometer away, and with the current visibility, there��s no way it can capture clear footage. In other words, they hold the power to strike first.��


    The chemistry teacher was embarrassed, ��I initially thought we were supposed to meet at the bridge where you picked me up, but their person in charge told me on the phone that their boss wanted to trade on their turf instead. They said they would call off the deal if I didn��tply. I know it��s a bad idea, but the person in charge of the transaction assured me that it would be safe...��


    ��They are just ying good cop-bad cop with you,�� Zhang Heng said, ��Not having a surveince camera is actually not a bad thing. Wait for my signal to get out of the car.��


    ��Huh?��


    Before the teacher could figure out what was going on, Zhang Heng was already heading to the four men.


    ��Kid, are you the driver? Do you have a death wish? Why the hell did you shine your lights on us?!�� the man with tattoos on his body and face growled viciously, ��Don��t you know whose turf is this?��


    ��Two hundred years have passed, and you guys still haven��t made much progress. You can only pretend to be tough by relying on a gang behind you and shitty makeup. How disappointing,�� Zhang Heng said calmly, ��Since that��s the case, I will let you witness what real evil is.��


    ��Yo, asshole! What kind of crazy are you?! You must be longing for death,�� the tattooed man smirked as he stretched out his hand to grab Zhang Heng��s cor.


    ��What should I do?!�� cried the panicked teacher in the car with a tone as anxious as an ant on a hot pot. ��Why did they suddenly start fighting? There must be some misunderstanding. They might not know why we are here. I��ll go down and talk to them.��


    Little Boy reached out and held the teacher��s shoulder.


    ��You heard what he said before getting off the car. Let him handle this matter. Just wait for the signal here.��


    Despite her confident words, there was a hint of worry in Little Boy��s eyes.


    The next moment, she saw the tattooed man suddenly falling to his knees while clutching his neck with his hand. His face was beet red, and like a fish onnd, he opened his mouth wide and gasped for breath, but no air would reach his lungs.


    The remaining three men looked at each other, shocked by what they saw.


    Zhang Heng shook his fists.


    ��Are the three of you going to attack me at the same time?��


    This time, things were different from the quick fight against the casino thugs. Not only did Zhang Heng have to defeat the four men in front of him, but he had to also injure them as much as possible to instill fear in them.


    Earlier, Zhang Heng��s fistnded on the tattooed man��s trachea, allowing him to experience the not-so-subtle pleasure of suffocation. Although the man��s tragic situation had affected his threepanions, the bunch of Albanians was taught to live fearlessly. Cowards would never survive in this cruel and dark environment.


    The three men froze for a while. Looking at each other, they then charged at Zhang Heng. One swung an iron meat hook in his hands, attempting to hit Zhang Heng with it. Before he could do so, though, a knife that came out of nowhere prated the flesh of his arm.


    Zhang Heng drew out his newly acquired knife, and blood started sttering all over the floor. ��Find a hospital within 20 minutes and deal with your wound. You can choose to be not disabled for the rest of your life,�� he told the unlucky man.


    However, the young man with a deep cut on his wrist did not take a step back. The wounds he suffered only angered him further. He let go of his bleeding wrist, roared in a fury, and charged at Zhang Heng again. ��Your courage ismendable, but unfortunately, you are an idiot. After bing a cripple, do you really think you can continue staying here?�� Zhang Heng said, elbowing the young man who attacked him from behind. ��There is no such thing as respecting the old, loving the young, and helping the disabled in this line of job.��


    For thest opponent, Zhang Heng elected to break his leg and leave him on the ground wailing. At the same time, the valiant youth had also started attacking. However, Zhang Heng simply stood there and didn��t move until his opponent got very close. Moving aside, he managed to dodge the attack easily. To reply in kind, Zhang Heng��s kneended hard on the guy��s abdomen.


    This time, peace had finally returned.


    Zhang Heng put away the folding knife in his hand, walked to the tattooed man, grabbed his hair, and dragged him on the ground for three meters to the table that they yed the knife game on. He mmed the man��s head onto the table and grabbed the knife lying nearby. ��Which eye do you prefer, the left or the right?��


    The tattooed man could no longer y the tough guy like before. Tears and snot flowed out uncontrobly, and all that was left in the formidable gangster was man��s most primitive and instinctive fear.


    Suddenly, a voice was heard saying,


    ��Enough.��


    An older man with a leather apron came out of the ughterhouse. He was dressed like a butcher, his beard and hair trimmed carefully. He then took a handkerchief out of his pocket and wiped away the blood on his hands.


    ��I��m sorry. Forgive me. My memory has not served me well. Have we met before, my friend?��

 Chapter 411 - Compensation

    <strong>Chapter 411 Compensation</strong>


    ��No. I came to this city not long ago, and we probably haven��t met each other before,�� Zhang Heng said.


    Even though the person in charge had appeared in front of him, Zhang Heng was still grabbing the tattooed man��s head.


    ��That��s interesting. We haven��t met each other before, and I��m pretty sure that we don��t have any disagreements as well. My friend, why are you doing such a terrible thing to me?�� The old man looked around. He saw his men on the ground, immobile and severely wounded. He then wiped his hands with his handkerchief and handed it to the person behind him before taking off his leather apron.


    ��I don��t think I know your name.��


    ��I��m just an insignificant nameless man. My name is not important. I do my job, and I get paid. But I think you should know about my employer. He is supposed to do business with someone here tonight. My job is to make sure that the transaction proceeds without any hups,�� Zhang Heng said. ��Oh, Mr. Jonathan, I like him. Is he in the car behind you? If only he got down earlier, I don��t think such a regrettable tragedy would have happened.��


    ��My employer hopes to see your sincerity when he gets off the car.��


    ��Do not take advantage of my good nature, my child. This is not how business is supposed to be done,�� the old man was shaking his head, ��We haven��t evenid our eyes on the goods, and you want us to show you the money first? That doesn��t make sense at all. Am I right?��


    Zhang Heng tapped on the tattooed man��s cheek with the back of a knife. ��Mr. Jonathan has done business with others, and they usually don��t use people like him as a wee.�� The people behind the old man were ready to draw their weapons. However, they were stopped by their boss.


    ��Interesting, it��s been a long time since I met someone as interesting as you.��


    ��...but I often encounter people like him,�� Zhang Heng snapped, nting the tattooed man��s head on the table harder.


    The tip of the knife had been dangling in front of the tattooed man��s face for a while. He was so afraid that he peed himself. A slight frown appeared on the old man��s forehead when he saw the cowardice of his man. Immediately, he stopped talking and turned to the man behind him.


    ��Get the money out.��


    Zhang Heng finally let go of his palm when he heard the words. He then put the knife back on the table. A look of surprise shed in the old man��s eyes. He wasn��t surprised when Zhang Heng defeated all four of his men in one go, but when Zhang Heng took a step back, he felt like he could never truly figure him out.


    He then coughed, ��Well, when are you guys going to stop embarrassing me?�� After what the old man said, the few men lying on the ground mustered their final straw of strength to stand up. They limped to the ughterhouse with their heads hung low.


    ��Wait.�� Zhang Heng said, pointing to the guy who was stabbed in the wrist before, ��He has to be sent to the hospital quickly.�� ��This little injury is nothing to me. I won��t make a fuss like a woman. I will just wrap it with somethingter,�� the man replied with the pride of a fighter burning in his heart. His tough-guy statement had also won the approval of hispanions.


    ��I hope you will not regret what you said tonight the day you realize you can no longer hold a folk,�� Zhang Heng said indifferently. Never one to be nosy, he would not repeat the same thing three times. Everyone was responsible for the choices that they made, whether it was the chemistry teacher or an Albanian kid who was trying to prove that he was a real man.


    Defeated, the old man��s goons finally brought out a leather bag.


    Zhang Heng then signaled the chemistry teacher in the car toe out, who then took two deep breaths before opening the car door.


    Just as he got out of the car, he tripped on the scuff te. He managed to stabilize himself quickly and walked over with the carton in his arms.


    ��Jonathan, I thought that there is a good level of trust between us. It would be best if you weren��t so wary of me. I can��t believe that you hired someone to protect you. Don��t you trust me?��


    The teacher grabbed onto the leather bag with an embarrassed expression on his face. He opened his mouth and tried to exin to the old man, but no words left it when he remembered what Zhang Heng told him.


    ��Count it,�� Zhang Heng said. The teacher nodded and quickly counted the cash in the leather bag. ��All good,�� he nodded vigorously.


    ��Just as agreed...�� the old man raised his eyebrows, ��can we inspect the goods then?��


    The teacher finally handed the cardboard box to the old man.


    The old man wasn��t idle when he inspected the goods. He constantly nced at Zhang Heng, but he did not speak again. Not until his men came back and said something to him.


    The teacher became very nervous suddenly, ��I��ve checked the things that I made, and the quality is excellent. I��m pretty sure it exceeds your standards.��


    ��Rx, rx, there is nothing wrong with the goods. I am very satisfied with them,�� the old man reassured.


    His words allowed the edgy teacher to let out a sigh of relief, but in a split second, the old man suddenly changed his words, ��Then, it��s time to talk aboutpensation.��


    ��Compensation, whatpensation?�� the teacher��s heart skipped a beat.


    ��Your man hurt my man. Are you nning to leave this ce just like that?�� the old man smiled, ��I am a reasonable person, but the people above me are not as kind as me. You know, we are aplicated... big family. So, we must consider all of the aspects when doing things.��


    The chemistry teacher was a little overwhelmed when he heard what the old man said. He stood there with his mind nk while holding the paper bag. At that moment, he began cursing in his heart on how Zhang Heng had overdone it. If only the young man hadn��t kicked up a fuss unprovoked, they should have all returned to their cars safely by now.


    Zhang Heng, however, was utterly unfazed. He knew very well that if he had not hurt those thugs, the old man would have never them as politely as he did. Zhang Heng then asked the old man in front of him, ��What do you want?��


    Unexpectedly, the old man��s target wasn��t the chemistry teacher but him. ��Aspensation, how about you work for me for a month,�� the old man directly spoke in Zhang Heng��s direction. ��That��s impossible,�� Zhang Heng refused without hesitation, ��I have no interest in getting involved in trouble.��


    ��But you are already in trouble now.��


    ��Who can cause me trouble? You?�� Just as Zhang Heng was done talking, the subordinates behind the old man pulled out their guns from their waist suddenly. What they did not expect was Zhang Heng reacted faster than them.


    Then, right before they could aim, a Beretta 92F was pointed at the old man.


    The crisis had caused the chemistry teacher��s heart to sink to the bottom of the ocean. He did not expect that the crowd that acted so politely a second ago would go against them the next second.


    ��It��s useless. Like I said, we are one big family,�� the old man smirked. Looking as calm as a dove even with a gun pointed to his head, he went on, ��A big family means everyone can be sacrificed. If you kill me, someone will soon take my ce. Not only will you die, but yourpanions in the car won��t escape us as well. Some of our stores happen to be short of staff recently. I believe she can help us to solve this problem.��


    ��Is that so? Then, I will kill him.�� Zhang Heng turned his gun to the stunned teacher. ��If I kill the hen thatys golden eggs for your family, I��m not sure what the other members would think.��

 Chapter 412 - Of Midnight Chats And Black Tea

    <strong>Chapter 412 Of Midnight Chats And ck Tea</strong>


    ��Thank you, thank you, thank you so much for helping me!��


    The chemistry teacher wouldn��t stop thanking the two under the bridge. As per the agreement, he took a wad of money from the leather bag and handed it to Zhang Heng. Obviously relieved and satisfied, he looked forward to another encounter in the future.


    ��Any chance of employing your help again for the next transaction?��


    Zhang Heng looked toward Little Boy in the back row, raising his eyebrows as a gesture.


    Little Boy pondered for a while before speaking. ��Call this number. Whether someone answers or not, hang up immediately after hearing the dialing tone. Call again in half an hour. Don��t anything unnecessary. Don��t reveal your identity. This spot will be our meeting ce, and all you need to say is the time to meet.��


    ��Okay, okay,�� repeated the teacher. He then stuffed the leather bag into the innermost part of his jacket.


    ��Good luck to you,�� said Zhang Heng as he started up the car.


    The silhouette of the chemistry teacher grew smaller in the rearview mirror until hepletely disappeared in the darkness.


    ��I��m in luck today. I just made 4,000 euros in one night,�� Zhang Heng said. He drew ten 200 euro banknotes from the stack of cash and passed it to Little Boy.


    Little Boy frowned when she saw how much she��d been given.


    ��You don��t owe me that much,�� she said.


    ��This is not what I owe you, but your share of the reward for the work wepleted together.��


    ��I don��t want it. You did it all yourself. I didn��t even get off the car,�� Little Boy said.


    ��The knowledge that you shared about using modern information systems to track someone down is definitely worth this much.��


    ��But, I��m starting to regret...��


    ��Why?��


    ��Because you don��t seem like a good person, after all. Why were you so good at dealing with those Albanians? Is there no fear in your heart? How did you bring down four people all by yourself? Where did the gune from? How did you know that they would let us go by threatening them with Jonathan? Have you done something simr before? Did you really lose your ID, or is it really because you are a wanted man?��


    ��It seems that you have lots of questions about me. If I can��t give you a satisfactory exnation, what would you do? Call the police, or just ask me to stay away from you?��


    Little Boy snorted, ��If I make you stay away, you��d just join the Albanians and be a real criminal. Don��t even think about it. I��d prefer to keep my eye on you.�� ��Yes.��


    Zhang Heng took out another thousand euros from the two thousand euro stack. ��This is for this month��s rental and whatever I owe you.��


    Little Boy willingly took the money this time. ��There are still food expenses, and I wille up with a number at the end of the month,�� she didn��t forget to add. ��Okay.��


    After returning the car at the parking lot, Zhang Heng rode the bus home with Little Boy. However, it started to rain halfway, and both of them did not have an umbre. Cold and drenched, it was almost midnight when they finally returned home.


    They took turns to shower and changed into a clean set of clothes. The cold rain and warm shower seemed to have awakened the two, and since nobody was sleepy, Little Boy went ahead to prepare a pot of ck tea.


    ��Want a cup of tea?�� she asked Zhang Heng.


    ��And how much would that cost me?��


    ��Do I look that miserly to you?��


    ��I don��t know, are you?��


    Little Boy rolled her eyes as she passed the cup of ck tea to Zhang Heng.


    ��Sorry, the time I spent with you was not too long, I haven��t had time to get to know you.��


    As the tea cooled down a little, Zhang Heng took a sip. It was nd and unremarkable, where its sweetness after the bitterness wasn��t very prominent. It tasted like something from the budget bin of the supermarket.


    Little Boy poured herself another cup of tea, took a cushion, and put it under the window. After that, she took her slippers off and sat down with her legs crossed, rubbing Baby Croc with one hand while holding the teacup in the other.


    She let out a satisfied sigh after taking a sip of the warm brew.


    The rain pattered the ss with a pleasant ticking, and streams of rainwater flowed down the window carving along with it awork of estuaries and arteries. The two didn��t speak for a long while, sipping on their tea while enjoying the hypnotizing rain in silence.


    Zhang Heng��s voice suddenly pierced the surroundings. ��You persuaded Jonathan to give up and ept reality. Why don��t you ept it yourself.��


    ��Huh?��


    ��You said that you��re fighting an unwinnable battle. So, why fight?��


    Little Boy squinted. ��Why should I answer your question?�� she asked. She shifted a little, changed her sitting position, and stretched her legs twice.


    ��Anyway, I��m always avable.��


    ��Ha! Don��t try to extract information from me. The 01 has trained me well in this area. I got A+ for this skill. Why don��t you answer me first? Why did you spy for ck Nest?��


    ��Because... they look more like the winners at the end of it all?�� Zhang Heng replied.


    ��Yeah, if you only work for the winner, you can never lose. Hence, the ��logic�� of smart people,�� Little Boy sneered, ��But do you know the problem with smart people? They are sometimes too smart for their own good. Forget it. Let��s not talk about me. Let��s talk about you. You can try to make up for your parallel universe story. I almost forgot what the world was like twelve years ago. Come on, let��s see how many memories you can bring back to me.��


    ��Uhh, it��s actually not much different from the way it is now. You know, it��s still a cesspool, and people are still incredibly selfish. Compared to real problems with politics and the economy, everyone cares more about their wallets than anything else. Some brave souls took to the inte to speak up for the weak and to uphold justice. That��s all. On the contrary, you have changed a lot after twelve years.��


    ��Really, what��s changed?��


    ��At that time, you lived up to your reputation as a tomboy. You were very uptight, and you couldn��t stop trying to prove yourself. I simply can��t imagine how you lived your life.��


    ��Hmph,�� Little Boy grunted and took another sip of her tea.


    ��...but I��m d that you haven��t changed much. You still hide your kindness and sense of justice under all that coldness.��


    ��You do know that even if you say nice things about me, I won��t lower your rent, right?�� Little Boy said sternly.


    ��You brought me ck tea. I had to do something nice for you too.��


    ��Well, you didn��t pass the test. Your story is filled with loopholes. I can��t bear hearing any more of your high tales...�� Little Boy paused, put her empty teacup on the window sill. She picked up Baby Croc andid it on herp.


    ��I guess I can tell you that... you had a lot of dreams as a kid, and you were ambitious. Then as a teenager, you felt like the master of the world. Whenever you saw something wrong, you would want to fix it, to fit all the blocks into their right ces again. You werepelled to clean up the dust on the table. At that time, you really wanted to make the world a better ce. When you got older, however, you found that it wasn��t what you thought it was, and people really didn��t care about right or wrong... ��...the adult world only cared about benefits and profits. You could see the injustice and saw how badly everything needed to be corrected, but everyone remained silent. Nobody resisted, with everyone convincing themselves that this is what the world is like. They were like sheep, blindly following the rules, and enduring injustice just because the cost of change was simply too great. You thought I can��t do it alone, and my voice is too small... and that��s why at times, the world seems to be a whole big ball of a ckedy...��


    ��I mean, I understand how the world works. I understand that everything is about profit, but it certainly doesn��t mean that right and wrong do not exist outside it. What is right is right, and what is wrong will remain wrong


    ��this is not philosophical rtional dialectics. I think ck Nest made a mistake. I have to admit that they may be the winners in the end, but unfortunately, victory does not mean justice. I know what they are doing is wrong, and as long as I can, I will continue to fight, 01 will continue to fight, even if no one is on our side,�� Little Boy proimed with an unwavering and resolute tone.

 Chapter 413 - I’m Honored

    <strong>Chapter 413 I��m Honored</strong>


    In all fairness, life in this parallel quest was a rtively easy one for Zhang Heng, perhaps second only to that time he spent in Legnd.


    During the day, Little Boy would work at the pizza shop, while he would be at home cuddling the cat and learning theoretical knowledge independently. Whenever he came across something he did not understand, he would jot them down and ask Little Boy when she returned from work.


    Then, when evening came, it was his turn to work. The chemistry teacher and the Albanians had dealings about once every two weeks. On top of that, Zhang Heng would also ask Fox for other jobs.


    Despite Zhang Heng��s efforts to keep a low profile, his fame grew in the underworld thanks to his perfect record of guiding sessful transactions time and time again. It was also during this period that he participated in an underground drag race, winning himself a sports car.


    His opponent happened to be the rich kid who flirted with Little Boy the other time.


    His attempts at wooing girls had probably gone so well that he had never been rejected before. So, instead of giving up, he kept thinking about Little Boy despite being scolded by her. Then about a month and a half after that, he ran into Little Boy and Zhang Heng again. He challenged Zhang Heng to a race. Should he win, Zhang Heng would have to leave Little Boy, but if Zhang Heng won, he would obtain his car for the keeping.


    It was a very romantic and masculine thing to do, except for the part where he lost his sports car when the race was over. This act of love was one close to perfection.


    The rich kid did not understand how he could have possibly lost��he had one of the best-performing cars, and he was also a celebrity in the underground racing circle. Even if he wasn��t the best of the best street racer, he was definitely above an ordinary driver. Moreover, Zhang Heng was driving a Talbot, a bread and butter everyday-runner that could be seen everywhere on the street. He should have never have lost.


    If the race had been on the open road, the chances of Zhang Heng beating the rich kid were slim, considering how different the specs of the cars were. Thanks to CTOS, street-racing teams were forced topete in the parking lot to avoid being caught on surveince cameras. The location was practically tailor-made for drifting.


    The rich boy��s inferior driving skills weren��t something that could be made up for with horsepower, which was why he did not only lose but waspletely obliberated.


    ...


    As Zhang Heng grew familiar with the positions of the surveince cameras andmunication tracking devices in the city, Little Boy wasn��t going to waste time chaperoning Zhang Heng at work. After being with him on several asions, she finally understood that even if Zhang Heng were to be locked up in a cage with a group of the worst criminals, the only person to survive in the end would be him. So, instead of worrying about his safety, it was simply better to be praying for his opponent.


    Because hecked any identification whatsoever, Little Boy had no idea how old Zhang Heng really was, but from his appearance, he was probably a few years younger than her. Yet, when he stood face to face with those gangsters, it was difficult to distinguish who was older based on their looks alone.


    And as his reputation grew, Zhang Heng was even invited to act as an arbitrator to mediate conflicts that had broken out between several gangs.


    After about three months, however, the chemistry teacher suddenly stopped calling Little Boy��s number.


    Worried that something might have happened to him, Little Boy searched the address of his daughter��s hospital and found that the treatments had been paid two months in advance, and the teacher had just visited his daughter in the ward yesterday.


    ��What do you think?�� Little Boy asked Zhang Heng who messing with Lego bricks on the couch,


    ��What do you mean by what do I think?��


    ��Why did he stop hiring you as his bodyguard?��


    ��Oh, that... after so many transactions, he probably feels that he has already established a stable partnership with the Albanians. On top of that, my fees happen to be very expensive, so...�� ��So, he kicked you out?��


    ��Most probably. But it doesn��t matter. I have other jobs,�� Zhang Heng answered, inserting thest brick onto the Empire State Building before removing his blindfold. He checked the time to see how much his Lego assembly skills had improved.


    ��What��s going to happen next?��


    ��There is a high probability that the Albanians will detain him-probably for a month. It won��t be life-threatening, though. They will just make him churn wealth out for them day and night. But to let him work in ease, they wouldn��t touch his daughter. In fact, they��ll continue footing her medical bills. If he is smart enough, he best keep the manufacturing process close to the chest.��


    ��What if he��s not?��


    ��Only hens thaty eggs are valuable,�� Zhang Heng answered, ��I��ve warned him before, that the Albanians didn��t touch him only because I was there. Unfortunately, it seems he didn��t listen. He might have even believed that I said that so that I could continue sucking out easy money from him. Especially since he��s be even more familiar with the Albanians, he probably thinks they regard him as a friend. But people like that don��t have the word ��friend�� in their dictionaries.��


    ��Can��t you reduce your fee a little and continue to work with him?�� Little Boy��s brows furrowed.


    ��You probably don��t know the rate I��m charging him now,�� Zhang Heng said, ��I��m already giving him the friends-and-family rate.��


    Little Boy took out two oranges from the fridge and threw one to Zhang Heng. ��I don��t know why, but I keep feeling like you need a good beating,�� shemented.


    Zhang Heng caught the fruit. ��Everyone has to be responsible for their own choices, especially those who live in the underworld. I��m not his babysitter. I can��t protect him for the rest of my life. Initially, my job was only to chauffeur him to the business deal. Giving suggestions should be considered an additional service.��


    ��Even so, ordinary people can��t possibly learn so quickly.��


    ��I beg to differ. I knew... a girl. She learned the ropes so quickly she even surpassed my expectations.��


    Zhang Heng paused for a moment and thought about that ck-market merchant who came to the ind empty-handed but eventually became the biggest trade leader in Nassau.


    He did y a role in providing guidance, but at the end of the day, Carina��s achievements were due to her own efforts. That woman possessed a force that did not match her looks, and to others and herself, she was born for this kind of cruel and dark territory.


    For a brief moment, Zhang Heng was lost in thought. Everything that happened in the ck Sail quest was now but a distant memory. Although asionally dreaming of the redhead, she seemed to always disappear along with the beach and seashells at the break of dawn.


    ��I��ve decided,�� Little Boy said as she peeled the orange in her hand. Her voice snapped Zhang Heng back into reality.


    ��Decided what?��


    ��To bring you to meet the other members of 01. Didn��t you always say that you wanted to learn other inte skills and not justmunication?��


    Zhang Heng raised an eyebrow at her.


    ��Aren��t you worried that I��m a spy for ck Nest?��


    ��We need to remain vignt, but at the same time, we must not lose the courage to trust.��


    ��Who said that?��


    ��I did. Why?�� Little Boy asked. ��After three months of observation, I feel that despite your numerous shorings, you can be trusted... a little. So tonight, you and I will be joining oi��s routine meeting. What do you think?�� she continued.


    ��I��m honored.��

 Chapter 414 - Say Hello To My 17-Year-Old Self

    <strong>Chapter 414 Say Hello To My 17-Year-Old Self</strong>


    Eleven months was a long time in the game, but it passed very quickly in real life.


    In that tiny apartment that had a space of less than 60 square meters, Zhang Heng had experienced the four seasons. He was familiar with it��s every corner, knowing the position of each piece of furniture, knowing where to store the milk and eggs in the refrigerator, and knowing which cat food Baby Croc liked the most. He also knew how the old TV in front of the sofa would shut off automatically when a football match was shown...


    Zhang Heng proposed to buy a new television since he made lots of money from Fox. Besides, it was not like he could take the money out of the quest anyway. As a person without identity, he could not spend the money that he earned as he wished. However, Little Boy rejected the suggestion without any hesitation. The reason was that the newly produced televisions had micrputers that could connect to the Inte.


    This meant that the CTOS could trace them.


    Speaking of which, this was the strangest quest that Zhang Heng had ever participated in. It was supposed to be the future. However, besides learning new skills, he rarely came into contact with electronic products in his daily life. Instead, Little Boy chose to go far away from her apartment to teach Zhang Heng how to make use of the new skill that he learned.


    Therefore, other than watching boring TV shows, old movies, and ying Tetris together, the usual entertainment for the two was the endless small talk. Little Boy liked it a lot when it rained. Whenever the sky darkened, she��d prepare drinks. asionally, cookies would be baked as well if she had the time. She loved eating cookies while watching the rainfall outside the window.


    Zhang Heng had no idea how many cookies Little Boy had eaten in the same position and the same posture before he arrived.


    It was simr to the fact that only a handful of people knew how there was still a group of people in this city fighting for justice. Fewer and fewer 01 members remained in the team, where some chose to quit, unable to handle the enormous pressure that came along with it. Some had their enthusiasm erased since they had been fighting for a long time but still failed to glimpse the victory they longed for. People like them would quit silently in the end. Besides pursuing justice and axioms, there were still countless things in their lives that required their concern.


    Parents, partners, children, friends... these were people in their lives that they needed to spend time with to build better rtionships. When dreams began to fade, everyone had to learn how to face reality. . At this point, the ck Nest��s victory was set in stone. The people around them had be more and more ustomed to the existence of CTOS to the point that they couldn��t live without it.


    Not everyone was as obsessed as Little Boy in making things right again. With the departure of the original members, coupled with theck of fresh blood, the demise of 01 now seemed only a matter of time. Perhaps when the veterans like Leah, Little Boy, and Semiprime became older, no one would remember that they ever fought for justice.


    During this period, Zhang Heng participated in oi��s operations as foreign aid, but even with his abilities, there wasn��t much he could do. After over ten years of crazy expansion, ck Nest was now a behemoth. Aplicated rtionship of benefiting each other had been formed, where even CTOS�� creator lost control over it. It was no longer under the control of one or several people. In other words, no one would be able to stop it.


    However, Zhang Heng��s information technology, inte intrusion and defense, modification of electronic equipment, and anti-tracking skills had all improved to a certain degree. Thebination of all these skills turned him into a Level 2 geek. It was also his most significant achievement in this parallel quest.


    There was one month left, and this parallel quest was about toe to an end. It was finally time to say goodbye to Little Boy.


    ��Are you leaving?�� Little Boy leaned against the kitchen counter, holding a cup of coffee. ��Yes, thank you for taking me in and for teaching me so many things. It��s almost time for me to return to my parallel universe,�� Zhang Heng said. He had already bought a suitcase and everything he needed from the department store.


    ��How long till you leave?�� ��In less than a month, but I have some things to do before I leave,�� Zhang Heng said. He nned to spend his remaining time traveling to Grenoble, intending to explore the ski resort in advance and improve on the Leah rescue-n. On top of that, he would also sneak into ck Nest to learn more about them.


    Of course, considering the risks of infiltrating ck Nest, he allotted this operation to be done at the end of his trip.


    ��You said Edward was still alive when you came, and ck Nest hadn��t killed him yet. Although I still don��t believe your parallel universe nonsense, if 01 hypothetically stopped CTOS 13 years ago, what will happen to my world?��


    ��I don��t know,�� Zhang Heng said, ��I only traveled back to the past before this, but never to the future. This is my first time, but...�� Zhang Heng paused, ��but I guess, whether I seed or not, we probably won��t meet again.��


    This parallel quest was based on a future unaffected by yers from the real world. In other words, even after this round was over, Zhang Heng had no right to y an extra round. It meant he would never see the future Little Boy again.


    Hence, Zhang Heng wondered what the point of his 11-month stay was. Was it all an illusion? But he remembered everything clearly. The 29-year-old Little Boy standing before him at the moment was so real. Every frown and move from Little Girl told him that this was an authentic experience.


    ��I understand,�� Little Boy took a sip of coffee, expressions unchanged, ��Go to bed early after you are done packing. You will be on the road early tomorrow.��


    ��Ok.��


    Little Boy seemed calmer than Zhang Heng had imagined. She even calcted tomorrow��s breakfast expenses in advance and settled the rent, water, and electricity with Zhang Heng. The weather report on the TV forecasted heavy rain in the city after midnight, reminding the public to close the doors and windows. Leaving Zhang Heng undisturbed, Little Boy did not sit under the window and listen to the rain as usual.


    After the two bid each other good night, Little Boy returned to her bedroom.


    The living room was filled with darkness once again. Zhang Heng divided half of the money he had made during this period and ced it under Baby Croc��s bed. After that, he got onto the couch and closed his eyes.


    As he slept, he vaguely felt something warm climbing on him, softly settling on his hips. He thought it was Baby Croc, but when he opened his eyes, he saw Little Boy��s face.


    Her pajamas were undone, and she began riding him while covering his mouth with her hand.


    ��Shhh, say hello to my 17-year-old self,�� Little Boy whispered as she bent down.


    The torrential downpour came as promised. The wind made the leaves rustle, casting with it shadows of trees shaking in the gusts. The storm caused the signboard of the convenience store opposite of their apartment to be blown away, its blue light piercing the night and disappearing into the darkness.


    The whole world seemed as if it was about to be devoured by a massive flood.

 Chapter 415 - You Choose First

    <strong>Chapter 415 You Choose First</strong>


    It was morning, and Zhang Heng had breakfast at the hotel with the rest of the 01.


    ��Why are you looking at me? Is there something on my face?�� Little Boy asked as she picked up a te. ��Nothing,�� Zhang Heng answered, averting his gaze. Despite having simr faces and precisely the same childhood... the Little Boy in front of him right now and the twelve-years-older Little Boy whom he had lived with for the past few months were not the same people.


    What determined a person��s identity wasn��t DNA or other biological characteristics, but experiences and memories. Up until now, Zhang Heng was still uncertain as to what happened to Little Boy in the twelve years. Other than that same rock-head stubbornness, there was an unmistakable look of exhaustion in her eyes. Nevertheless, despite the same soul, Zhang Heng knew that the woman who leaned against the window listening to the rain pattering had disappeared entirely from his world��just like the storm that night. The group of six parted ways in the parking lot, and Zhang Heng stopped to buy a few bottles of ck tea from the vending machine next door to drink on the road. Two hourster, the remaining three drove a rented car to the ski resort.


    Philip parked in the open-air parking lot, opened the door, and took in a deep breath of the frigid but fresh mountain air of the Alps. On the other side of the car, Zhang Heng and Ponytail were already on the snow, their boots crunching loudly on the ice.


    Since it was the peak season, the ski resort was swarming with tourists.


    Most of them were residents from Grenoble and other neighboring towns. There were also a handful of foreigners, so Zhang Heng��s presence did not attract too much attention.


    ��Have you been here before?�� Ponytail asked


    Philip.


    ��Nah, you know me, never one for physical sports. E-sports is an exception, of course. What about you?��


    ��My wife and I came to this ce when we were on our honeymoon. We only stopped by a bar on the mountainside for a couple of beers, and we didn��t ski. Man, that was a long time ago...�� Ponytail sighed and looked up at the snow, ��It looks like we have a lot of work to do.��


    The ski resort southeast of Grenoble was built on a considerably vast area. The ski trails on the mountain alone were more than 300 kilometers long, ranging from simple to professional trails. On top of that, a neverending stream of tourists continuously poured into the area. The good news was that if ck Nest followed Leah here, it would be virtually impossible for them to screen every single person. Also, in the case of an emergency, they would not respond as quickly as they did in an urban area.


    That was half of Zhang Heng��s npleted. On the other hand, it also meant long and tedious preparation work.


    ��Should we ask the others to dy the operation?�� Phillip asked.


    ��I��m afraid the situation might change for Edward. After all, most of ck Nest��s resources have gone into locating him. I don��t know how long he��llst. The faster we do what we need to do here, the better,�� said the ponytail man.


    ��Don��t worry, I��ve already got a rough n, and all it needs is a little refining. If all goes well, the preparations should bepleted in two days. Best have Little Boy bring Leah to the ski resort as soon as possible,�� said Zhang Heng, ��so that ck Nest won��t have enough time to develop aplete surveince n.��


    Ponytail and Phillip looked at each other, stunned.


    ��You took only one look at the mountain, and you already have a n?��


    ��That��s because this isn��t my first time here.��


    Zhang Heng took out his phone. ��Now, we can start allocating the work.��


    He dialed the number of the man with piercings. About seven secondster, Piercings answered in a hushed voice, ��Hey, unless it��s an emergency, I��ll call you back in half an hour.��


    Before Zhang Heng could reply, the man hung up.


    About twenty-five minutester, he called again. This time, he spoke in a normal tone.


    ��What is it?��


    ��Are you busy?��


    ��Ah, since that night, the police had been on a lookout for me. I can��t go back to where I stayed. My bags and luggage are all there, and I now have less than 400 euros on me. On top of that, I don��t speak French. When you called me earlier, I was spotted by some police officers on patrol. I��ve only just escaped,�� heined. ��What about you? Your face got captured by the surveince camera that night when we were in the bar, right?��


    ��I have some very talented technical support. They changed my identity in the database of the hotel I checked into,�� Zhang Heng grinned.


    Piercings started sobbing. If only his technical support hadn��t died so soon, he wouldn��t have had to suffer like this, doing everything solo with a seriousnguage barrier to add.


    ��If you can��t stay in the city anymore, how about getting out of it?�� ��Get out? I still have to figure out how to get Leah away from those ck Nest goons.


    ��Yes, as previously agreed, we will act separately. Each of us will be responsible for a part of the work. You can choose first.��


    ��Tell me about your n first.��


    ��Give me a mailing address, and I��ll send you an encrypted email.��


    Fifteen minutester, Piercings typed in the code, anxious and excited. He opened the email Zhang Heng sent him and scrolled to the bottom of the page. All of a sudden, he became overwhelmingly outraged. He dialed Zhang Heng��s number and practically shouted, ��You��re setting me up! You want to use me as bait?!��


    ��Well, if that��s how you feel about it, you can take the other job. Leave the baiting to me then,�� Zhang Heng said calmly.


    ��The other one needs a full team, and the core requirements are too ridiculous! No one can do it!��


    ��Oh, there is, and I can.��


    ��Then you��re not actually giving me a choice at all!�� Piercings snapped. Back in the bar, he thought that Zhang Heng must be a kind person since he promised to let him make the first choice.


    ��I��m sorry. This is the most suitable n I can think of. And frankly, my job is even more dangerous,�� said Zhang Heng.


    That Piercings couldn��t deny. Although he might have to y the role of bait in this n, Zhang Heng��s job, which includeding face to face with ck Nest, was actually a lot riskier.


    So, after a moment of silence, Piercings asked, ��Are you confident we��ll be able to get Leah away from ck Nest?��


    ��Eighty-percent certain,�� Zhang Heng answered, ��If all fails, we��ll go directly to Edward.��


    ��Oh, don��t bullshit me. If we can��t save Leah, we will never know where Edward is,�� Piercings sneered, ��But since I don��t have a better idea, we��ll give your n a try.��

 Chapter 416 - Decoy

    <strong>Chapter 416 Decoy</strong>


    Leah could vaguely recall thest time she went skiing. It was a good eight years ago or so.


    She was still in junior high then. The whole family had gone to the ski resort together, and in the end, they almost left her behind in the bathroom. It was already dark, the staff had already gone home, and there was no one around. It surely wasn��t a very happy memory at all.


    However, when Adele told her that she wanted to go skiing, Leah agreed right away. There was nothing she could do to stop herself from saying yes. It happened to be really difficult to refuse a real cute girl��s request. Especially when she had juste out of the shower, with droplets of water still clinging on her wet skin. And that was how Leah ended up here in the reception hall of the ski resort with Adele.


    The two had already changed into their ski suits. Armed with thick gloves and sunsses, they rented skis and poles and helped each other put on their helmets. What the couple did not know was that not far behind them, two teams were disguised as tourists. There were twelve in total, monitoring them from among the crowd.


    ��Nothing unusual yet,�� reported one of them after looking around.


    Right now, Vincent and the third team were disguised as a documentary filming team, camping out at the mountainside��s observation point, and setting up high-powered telescopes. A female technician monitored Leah��s mobile phone.


    Vincent responded, ��Keep your eyes on the target. Keep her within thirty meters.��


    Next to him, his assistant, a young man chewing gum,mented disapprovingly, ��Is this even necessary? We��ve checked all the guests at the hotel and didn��t find anyone suspicious. Also, we��ve been monitoring Leah, and no one has contacted her. It was entirely her decision toe to the ski resort. She and that little girlfriend of hers... what��s her name... Adele?��I��ve got to admit, she��s pretty hot. Speaking of which, can you send me a copy ofst night��s video? I��d like to review it again,�� the young man rubbed his hands gleefully.


    Vincent stared at his assistant from the corner of his eye. ��It��s always better to be safe than sorry. This is the main reason why I��ve been able to survive so many battles. We��vebed through the entire city but still couldn��t find the two guys at the bar that night. They seemed to have just vanished. They��ve either given up or are preparing something even more dangerous. Our focus has always been on the urban area, especially the ces Leah frequents, but here... we��ve rarely been here. Due to limited workforce, and the fact that we still need to keep an eye on Leah, we weren��t able to do much in terms of preparation though we had two days to prepare.��


    ��Do you think they n to grab Leah here?��


    ��This would be their best chance.��


    ��Then why did we still allow her toe here? Why didn��t we just coin something up like a car crash or something to make her stay? Wouldn��t that be less risky?��


    ��Don��t you know that mosquitos, the pesky little things they are, can��t actually cause you any real danger? That said, they constantly buzz in your ears, and it��s very annoying. So the best way to deal with it is to find the best window of opportunity and kill it. This is their chance to act, but it is also ours as well.��


    Vincent waved his hand, and an unassuming camera was brought to him. ��You��re a bbermouth, yet I still put you in my team. Do you know why?��


    ��Huh?��


    ��Give it a try.��


    The young man put his eyes to the viewfinder, looking uncertain. After a while, he gasped, ��Oh, military scopes?�� ��Your favorite TAC-50 sniper rifle is camouged as a camera so we won��t frighten away the tourists. I remember your longest sniping range was three kilometers.��


    ��3659 meters, to be precise,�� the young man grinned, shing two rows of pearly whites. ��...unfortunately, it couldn��t be made public. Otherwise, I would have been dubbed the world��s number one sniper.��


    ��I hope you��re half as good as you im to be,�� Vincent said, ��Anyway, your assignment is simple. If the two men from the bar show up, kill them.��


    ��Wow, simple, and straightforward. I like it.��


    Leah and Adele finally had all their equipment and protective gear ready and were now lining up for the cable car. From here, the cable car would take them directly to the mountainside or the peak of the mountain. The beginner and intermediate slopes were located halfway up, whereas the summit was reserved for the advanced and extreme ski trails.


    With the assistance of a resort employee, the couple got onto a cable car. Adele went first, followed by Leah, who needed some help from the staff.


    It was then that Leah noticed something strange. When the employee with the piercings helped her get into the capsule, he slipped a piece of paper into her palm and whispered something in her ear. When Leah turned to look at him, he winked.


    The technician monitoring Leah��s phone took off his headset and ran to Vincent. ��Something happened! Someone��s blocked the cell phone signal!�� he eximed urgently.


    At precisely the same moment, the person in charge of looking out for suspicious individuals shouted, ��It��s the guy who jumped off the bridge!��


    Without any warning, the young man who was ying dead on the chair jumped out of his seat, tossed away the hot-water bag in his hands, and eximed, ��It��s here! It��s here! It��s finally my turn!��


    He ran to the disguised TAC-50 camera, and as soon as his fingers found the trigger, his entire demeanor changed. He no longer looked weak and hungry but transformed into a formidable killing machine with a weapon to match.


    But almost immediately, his brows furrowed. ��How cunning. He keeps going to crowded ces.��


    ��Do we need to intercept the target?�� someone asked through the radio.


    Vincent thought about it for a moment before answering. ��Let��s split up,�� he said, ��The rest of you continue following Leah. Make sure at least two pairs of eyes on her at all times.�� ��Is this a decoy?�� The young man pushed another stick of gum into his mouth, ��In that case, let��s swallow the bait.��


    Piercings knew that his cover was blown the moment he used the shielding device to block the boy��s mobile phone. After running for a while, he saw the people who had taken his bait tailing him. The n was going well so far, and all he had to do now was to lure this group into a game of cat-and-mouse, shake them loose, and his task would beplete.


    Considering the current distance between him and his pursuers, it did not seem too difficult a task, but for some reason, he felt an ominous premonition deep down inside of him.

 Chapter 417 - Off-Track Skiing Path

    <strong>Chapter 417 Off-Track Skiing Path</strong>


    Piercings was already very close to the vehicle��s parking spot. However, fewer visitors avable for cover at a time like this, and fortunately, the enemies realized the consequences of shooting at a ski resort, which was why the enemies didn��t draw their guns. Hence, Piercings became a little careless after running away from his enemies for a while.


    Secondster, a bullet from nowhere whizzed past his scalp and hit a sign that not far away from him. He was so scared that cold sweat started pouring out of his forehead.


    ��Ah, I missed the target!�� the young man was disappointed by his aim. At the same time, he did not forget to find an excuse for the mistake that he made,ining to Vincent. ��Your camera shell is kind of heavy. I won��t miss my target again,�� hemented.


    However, when he readjusted his sights, he could no longer find the target.


    Piercings had experience fighting in an open space. After knowing that he almost met the grim reaper, he immediately knew that a sniper was targeting him nearby. Without any hesitation, he quickly dropped on the ground and rolled behind a snowdrift next to him.


    However, the threat was still present. He knew that the sniper was still aiming at him from somewhere. Once he stood up, there would be no dodging the bullet the second time. The worst thing was, he suddenly remembered that there was a team of enemies pursuing him.


    Only around two hundred meters separated Piercings and his enemies. One of them quickly flipped out a police ID to calm the nearby tourists who were still in shock, while the other five surrounded the snowdrifts. For Piercings, the situation had just be increasingly unfavorable for him.


    He was only less than fifty meters away from the vehicle. In a moment like this, however, fifty meters was like a ravine hidden with an insurmountable threat.


    Just when Piercings thought this was where he would meet his maker, the snowmobile quietly parked on the side of the road, suddenly started up its engine on its own, and rushed toward the snowdrift uncontrolled.


    Piercings was overjoyed when he saw it. ��Thanks!�� he eximed under his breath.


    Zhang Heng��s voice came from the headset, ��Don��t thank me, but thank the magician if you really need to thank someone. He modified the snowmobile.��


    The young man holding the TAC-50 was confused and puzzled when he saw the snowmobile with no one on it rushing out from behind the snowdrift. To avoid being shot by the sniper, Piercings stayed on the other side of the snowmobile.


    ��This is so cunning, right? It��s not fair,�� the young man scratched his head.


    Vincent frowned, but he also knew that it was impossible getting the young man tond an urate shot from this distance. In fact, he had done all he could to force the target into a dead-end. They did not expect that someone could remotely control the snowmobile. Seeing How Piercings was getting further and further away, Vincent finally made up his mind, ��Tell the fourth group that they can attack as well. If they can��t catch the guy, they have to kill him.��


    Just as Piercings got away, Leah and Adele also hopped onto the cable car and were now at the mountainside. They were initially supposed to get off here. Without warning, Leah gave Adele��s cheek a kiss and asked her to jump off the cable car first. ��Sorry, I like sharing my secrets with you, but not this one. The more you know, the more dangerous it will be. If you are willing to trust me, go back by yourself after you have fun. Don��t worry about me,�� she told Adele.


    Leah buckled up her seatbelt again. She did not jump down from the cable car, determined to ascend to the peak of the mountain.


    Vincent realized what was going on. He knew that when his cell phone signal was blocked, Piercings must have said something to Leah, but he did not understand why she trusted him just like that without hesitation. Based on what they know about Leah, she wasn��t the kind of person who trusted easily.


    However, Vincent was no longer willing to take any more risks. Immediately, he ordered the team who followed Leah to capture her when she reached the top of the mountain to avoid any unwanted surprises.


    In fact, not only Vincent but even Piercings himself and the members of the 01 couldn��t figure out what was so special about those ordinary words. Why was Leah willing to believe them and so readily followed the instructions on the note to ascend the mountain?


    Waldo rummaged through the chat records of Leah and Gaspard, but he could not find the source of that sentence. It was why he expressed his doubts about the feasibility of this n. However, Zhang Heng insisted on using this sentence as proof of identity.


    The reason was straightforward. This sentence was given to her by herself. It was from Leah twelve years in the future, the person who knew her best in the world.


    As soon as the cable car arrived at the tform, Leah immediately unfastened her seat belt and jumped off. She then threw away her mobile phone and other electronic devices as instructed in the note, then rushed out of the station. The enemies were also ready to pursuit her. After a while, the cable car stopped in mid-air and then began to operate backward amidst the crowd that was left in shock.


    Some of them managed to react to the crisis quickly enough. When they saw that they weren��t too high from the ground, they unfastened their seat belts and jumped off the cable car as well. Unfortunately, those who were at the back didn��t have such good luck. At this height, their legs would probably be broken if they jumped down. As they hesitated, the cable car had led them to slide back.


    Fortunately, four out of six people from the ck Nest managed to make a jump.


    Immediately, Leah ran across the advance ski trail with her sled and ran toward the extreme ski trail.


    ��That woman is crazy!�� the young man said while looking through the scope.


    She was now too far away for him tond a good shot. Even with his extraordinary marksmanship, he couldn��t hit the target. So, he just stood still and watched her. No matter which trail she chose, Leah would have to go down the mountain eventually.


    After a while, what he saw shocked him so much that he forgot to chew the chewing gum in his mouth. Not only had Lean ran over the advance ski trails, but she also ran past the extreme ski trails, heading directly to a spot where no trails were marked out.


    Off-track skiing was the most dangerous skiing method. Since there were no preset trails for one to follow, it meant that the terrain��s difficulty and unpredictability would be significantly increased. At the same time, obstacles on such trails were way more than the regr routes. One small mistake, and the unsuspecting skier would suffer from fractures, be paralyzed, frostbitten, or even face certain death.


    This was especially true for beginners like Leah, where choosing to ski off-track between the mountains was equivalent tomitting suicide.


    Leah took a quick look at the woods and the warning signs on the side of the road. She too, knew the consequences of her dangerous option. She stopped and staggered for a while, but soon, ck Nest��s goons had almost caught up to her, and she had no choice but to soldier on.


    The skis continued elerating under the influence of gravity. Leah felt increasingly nervous as the wind whooshed by her ears. As she descended the mountain through the thick forest, she repeatedly avoided small shrubs and trees in her way, and barely missing a small tree. Before she had time to catch a breath, though, a big rock appeared in front of her suddenly.


    Leah desperately attempted to slow down, but it was toote.


    Seeing that she was about to sh with the rock, the familiar zing of a snowmobile��s engine emerged from behind her, its rider picking her up as it zoomed beside the stricken girl.

 Chapter 418 - Escaped

    <h4>Chapter 418 Escaped</h4>


    Zhang Heng scopped Leah up in one hand, put her in the back seat, and used his other hand to ride the snowmobile. He managed to calmly avoid all the stones as he carved a path through the thick woods. At the same time, he said, ��Snowboard.��


    When he said that, Leah understood immediately. ��Who are those people that are chasing me?�� she asked.


    ��They are from ck Nest. Your brother Edward has key evidence that ck Nest is using CTOS to collect data and vite the privacy of citizens. Once the situation deteriorates to a certain extent, they will use you to ckmail your brother.��


    ��ck Nest? That technologypany?! Many people around me are using their devices. ording to what I heard, theye up with pretty high-quality products.�� Zhang Heng swiftly maneuvered the snowmobile along the unmarked track, dodging trees along his way like he would bullets. ��ck Nest isn��t your regr tech corporation. They have other motives hidden in the dark. In other words, we are in a perilous situation. They will use every means avable to them to prevent the disclosure of their secrets.��


    ��Dangerous? How dangerous?��


    ��Just now, one of our people responsible for leading the pursuer away was almost sniped by their assassin.�� ��Here? At the ski resort? In broad daylight?!�� ��Yes, and they have a dirty rtionship with the police. It means they can get police support whenever they want.��


    ��Does that mean we are on our own now?��


    ��Hold on tight,�� Zhang Heng replied, not answering Leah��s question this time.


    He then turned abruptly, and the snowmobile drew an arc. Despite being reminded in advance, Leah was almost thrown off, and she subconsciously reached out to grab Zhang Heng��s waist.


    ��Why stop?��


    Leah��s question was automatically answered after a few seconds. The snowmobile had stopped on the edge of the cliff. Initial visual observation confirmed that they were a good 20 meters above the ground below. Zhang Heng got off and took out the snowboard that he tucked behind the snowmobile, and quickly put it on the ground. ��This is as far as the snowmobile goes. There is a way around the cliff, but the forest is simply too dense for the snowmobile to pass through. We��ll have to snowboard from now.��


    ��Ugh... but I just threw away my snowboard since you asked me to...��


    ��It doesn��t matter, just cling to my back and hug me tightly. Even if you have your board with you, you can��t cross this path seeing how bad you are at skiing.��


    ��That��s true...��


    Leah was not as hypocritical as other girls, not hesitating to jump on Zhang Heng��s back after she heard what he said.


    Zhang Heng paused. ��...you are too fast. I haven��t even strapped on my snowboard properly.��


    ��Oh! Sorry... should I get down then?��


    ��No need.�� Zhang Heng had properly mped his ski shoes to the snowboard. ��Make sure you hold on to me tightly. I can��t take care of you when we begin our descent,�� he said.


    ��Okay,�� Leah nodded. To lose all the extra weight on her, she took off the ski shoes on her feet.


    As the snowboard started moving, they steadily increased speed, and the sound of wind whooshing past their ears could be soon heard. Zhang Heng wasn��t too worried about the four enemies behind him. Even if they somehow managed to catch up to him, Zhang Heng was confident that he could get rid of them. Hence, he raced against time and risked a safe descent to prevent ck Nest from using the same trail he had carved to get down the mountain.


    The good news was that Piercings had not only led the enemies away from Leah but even the squad that Vincent had ced along the foot of the mountain. That way, even if Vincent realized what was going on, it would be difficult for him to go all the way to the other side of the mountain in the shortest time possible.


    In fact, Vincent wasn��t really too happy right now. He had done everything that he could do, but the other party was always one step ahead of him. Whether it was Piercings who acted as bait or Leah who chose to ski off the beaten path, he had been caught off guard each time his enemies made a move.


    Such an borate n couldn��t have just materialized overnight. The other party had obviously done a great deal of preparation, and they were only waiting for Leah to show up at the ski resort. The two people involved in the operation were also extremely good at what they did, definitely not ordinary folk. This was the worst oue for ck Nest. It meant an unknown force had interfered in Edward��s business, undoubtedly a situation ck Nest hoped not to encounter.


    ��What should I do now?�� the young man asked with innocent eyes.


    ��Notify the fourth team, ask them to give up pursuing the target, and intercept Leah instead. At the same time, we will head down the mountain as well,�� Vincent said. Still, he knew that this was just a temporary solution, and it wasn��t going to help much with their n. it appeared Piercings had led the fouth team to a random ravine. It was now impossible for them to catch up with Vincent.


    Besides, they were still at the mountainside, and even if they threw away all the equipment, it would still take a considerably long time before they could get to the foot. Vincent regretted the decision he made��the group of people ck Nest assigned to monitor Leah weren��t too good at skiing. From the very beginning, he should have never allow Leah to head to the ski resort and take the risk.


    It was now toote for any sort of remorse. Now, Vincent needed to think about how to deal with the aftermath of the whole situation.


    Sure enough, when they finally got to the other side of the mountain, they only saw discarded snowboards. Leah and the snowmobile rider were gone. Then, another piece of bad news came along right after this one. Piercings managed to ditch his pursuers behind him and disappeared in the snow.


    Not only did ck Nest lose Leah, but they also failed to capture anyone on their list. The mission was aplete failure.


    Vincent kicked a trash can next to him out of frustration. He took a few deep breaths to calm himself down, took out his newly purchased phone, and dialed a number.


    ��We lost Leah...�� ��Yes... We have no options left. Edward has lost control. It��s time to implement the cleanup n to stop him... I��m pretty sure they have professionals helping them. Otherwise, rescuing Leah wouldn��t have been so easy. It appears that other parties may be interested in her as well. We need to speed up the n. Right, I understand, I won��t let this happen again.��


    The young man raised his eyebrows. ��Did they call us trash?�� he asked.


    Vincent hung up the call. ��No, you have watched too many movies,�� he said, ��but headquarters realized we must be short-staffed and they are sending new people to support us.��


    ��Oh, you mean the new people that are going to strip you off of your hold on the operation?��


    Vincent frowned, ��This isn��t the time for internal conflict. We must put our prejudice aside, work together, locate Edward as quickly as possible, and neutralize the threat once and for all.��


    ��Ah, has headquarters finally made up their mind?��


    Vincent turned to look at the young man with sharp eyes. ��You seem to share a good rtionship with Edward. You are in charge of the safety of his area before. You��ve also apparently yed chess with him before,�� he replied with a cold tone.


    ��Do you have a problem with executing him?��


    ��I have always had a clear distinction between work and life. I even killed my brother-inw back then. He is just an ordinary friend to me. I have no problem with killing him,�� the young man shrugged, ��not to mention that my rankings in chess will improve if I kill Edward. I don��t see a reason why I should reject this job.��

 Chapter 419 - Joint Operation

    <h4>Chapter 419 Joint Operation</h4>


    ��Then... should we introduce ourselves?�� Waldo stammered, sounding much less confident he usually did on Facebook and Instagram.


    This was mainly due to Leah being extremely attractive, even more so than certain female celebrities and hosts whose pictures he used to browse on the inte. In fact, most of the photos the celebrities took in private weren��t nearly as good as those posted on the inte


    ��some even looked like entirely different people.


    Leah was one of those hailing from the rarer breed. She looked even prettier in person.


    This was the first time Waldo had ever been in such proximity to such a beautiful girl. He was a nervous wreck. Stretching his hand, he spluttered, ��I... my name is Waldo. Erm... I��m twenty-four and single. I like Gundam and DOTA2... Oh, and I��m Gaspard��s friend too.��


    ��Oh? The two of you know Gaspard?�� Leah looked at Waldo, eyes wide. ��Huh?�� Waldo nearly choked at her response. He turned to look at Zhang Heng with a panicked look on his face, ��Didn��t you... didn��t you use Gaspard��s identity to get in touch with her?��


    ��No, I told her we��re Edward��s friends,�� Zhang Heng answered.


    The whole 01 team was bbergasted. ��Huh?!��


    Little Boy cocked her head. ��Why did she believe you then?�� she asked.


    ��Rocky is a stray puppy that my brother and I picked up. At that time, my mother didn��t allow us to keep any pets. So, we found a cardboard box and built a home for him in the yard and brought him food every day. But a weekter, Rocky disappeared. We searched everywhere for him but to no avail. He just disappeared so suddenly. We haven��t seen him since. This is a secret between my brother and me. No one else knows about it,�� Leah exined.


    It all suddenly dawned on Philip. ��No wonder you told Leo to write down ��Rocky will be back next week.�� Wait a minute,�� He looked at Zhang Heng, ��How did you know that?��


    Leah suddenly turned wary. ��Didn��t my brother send you guys? Who are you?��


    ��We are Edward��s friends, and he did send us to save you. As for Rocky, I will exin everything to you when this is all over,�� Zhang Heng said, not even flinching, although he made a promise that he knew would never be fulfilled.


    By the time everything ended, all the yers, including him, would have to leave the quest. There was no need for him to exin anything Ponytail had the Digital Video ready. He said to Leah, ��Do you have anything you want to say to your brother?��.


    ��Is this some kind of prank show?�� Leah raised her eyebrows.


    ��No, we have to send evidence to Edward to prove that we��ve saved you from ck Nest so that he will reveal the next phase of the operation to us.��


    ��And... What is the next phase of the operation?�� Leah inquired as she epted the camcorder.


    ��Edward will leak the evidence the press exposing ck Nest��s misdeeds by using CTOS to collect private data from citizens.��


    ��Then?��


    ��Err... then the CTOS project will most probably die under public pressure, or itsunching will be put on hold until they can protect the privacy of people effectively.��


    un


    ��I was asking about my brother.��


    ��Uhh... I... I don��t know.�� Philip cast a helpless look at Zhang Heng.


    ��We will protect Edward from ck Nest until the whole thing is made public,�� Zhang Heng replied.


    ��And then? What happens after that?�� Leah asked, adamant about getting an answer.


    ��Then, there would be no reason for ck Nest to go after your brother. After all, this has nothing to do with personal grievances. ck Nest is only hunting Edward to prevent him from exposing evidence. Once it is out in the open, ck Nest probably wouldn��t bother your brother anymore, because if something did happen to him, the public would view ck Nest in an even worse light than before,�� said Zhang Heng, ��Of course, anything can happen, but as long as I��m here, I will keep your brother safe.��


    Leah did not know if she should believe him or not. ��Onest question: if you have to choose between my brother��s life and exposing ck Nest, which would you choose?��


    ��Edward,�� Zhang Heng answered without hesitation. Even though exposing ck Nest seemed to be more important, his main mission was to help Edward escape. If Edward died, it would mean nothing to the yers who chose this side even if he could expose ck Nest.


    Of course, Zhang Heng still supported the idea of exposing the techpany. As he said, once their secrets were leaked, ck Nest would have no reason to continue chasing Edward. After all, they were not a gang but an advocacy group. Advocacy groups were generally sensible and rarely worked themselves up over personal grievances.


    The 01 Gueris had also chosen Edward, but their reasoning was simpler��they did not want anyone to sacrifice their lives.


    Leah rested her chin in her hands and contemted their words. Waldo and the others waited nervously until she lifted her head.


    ��Why are you all looking at me?�� Leah asked.


    ��We��re waiting for you to make a decision.��


    ��What decision? I��m already in your car, and there are so many of you. I can��t fight you. What else can I do besides going along with your n?�� Leah said.


    ��What she says makes sense,�� Waldo shook his head, ��No, we��re not the bad guys. Whatever it is, we are helping your brother. You have to do this voluntarily.��


    ��Alright, I never said you guys are bad,�� Leah said, ��At least you won��t be monitoring me twenty-four-seven like those ck Nest people. It��s what I loathe the most. When I think about how somebody is constantly scrutinizing every single thing I do or say, I get goosebumps all over. If what you��re saying is true, I don��t want CTOS to go online either. After all, all of us have secrets we don��t want anyone else to know, right?��


    ��I think she thinks like us hackers,�� Waldo��s eyes brightened, ��Can we recruit her into the 01 Guerris?��


    ��Dream on, buddy. You guys are gxies apart,�� Little Boy answered, ��Just give up already. There��s no hope for you. Ask her if you don��t believe me.��


    ��I��m sorry, but you��re not my type. It might be hurtful to hear such harsh words, but I don��t want to raise your hopes, then disappoint youter on,�� said Leah, ��...but you are quite cute. I��m sure you��ll have plenty of girls wanting you.�� Waldo��s face turned pink. He did not expect his love toe and go quickly. The whole thing onlysted less than three minutes.


    Leah returned the video recording to Ponytail, and Zhang Heng handed his mobile phone to her.


    ��Take another one. I have a friend who prefers to work alone. He participated in this rescue, so he��ll need the video to prove to Edward.��


    ��Hah, so this is a joint operation?��

 Chapter 420 - Do You Hate The Rain?

    <h4>Chapter 420 Do You Hate The Rain?</h4>


    The 01 Gueris went on a month-and-a-half-long vacation after rescuing Leah. Semiprime sent the video recording in an encrypted email to Edward, but eventually, it came to nothing. Edward never responded.


    To avoid ck Nest��s hounding, the group came to a little town in southwestern France. Waldo had an uncle who lived here. With no heirs, he left the house to his nephew.


    Waldo had mentioned this before, but no one took him seriously. It all changed when they arrived at the ce, amazed by just how massive the house really was. For the guest rooms alone, there were six of them! The fine pce could easily amodate all of them and then some more. There was also a huge courtyard nted with a variety of flowers and nts,plemented by a small sparkling pond at the back.


    Philip pushed open the windows and admired the picturesque view. ��Why would you live in your mother��s attic when you have a ce like this?�� he asked.


    ��Erm... that��s because there��s no one here to cook for me, and there are no takeaway services either...�� Waldo answered candidly.


    ��That��s true.��


    ��I mean, the taxes for houses like this are over the top... SO, I rent it out for half of the year during the peak seasons, but the money is barely enough to pay for the taxes and maintenance. It just makes me want to sell it,�� Waldo grumbled.


    ��Don��t be in such a hurry to sell it. I��ve always wanted to own a ce with a view like this, a little piece of heaven I can retire to when I��m old. After I��ve saved enough money and my daughter��s gone to college, you can sell it to me,�� Ponytail said.


    ��Ugh... I don��t know if I can wait until then. There��s a whole lot of games on Steam just waiting for me to buy,�� Waldo answered nonchntly.


    ��Anyway, make yourself at home, but leave the room with the best WIFI signal to me,�� Waldo said as he threw himself onto the couch and ripped into a bag of chips.


    ��This guy is hopeless...��


    The 01 team did a quick cleaning around the house; then, Semiprime drove to a supermarket at the town center to stock up on some food and daily necessities. They did not spend much of the money they earned from the casino, only using enough for their expenses and saving the rest for the operation. Initially, the group only nned to stay here for a few days, hoping that Edward would reply within that time. They would then hurry over to rescue him. Nobody would expect that they would be here a lot longer than initially nned.


    As was his habit, Zhang Heng did not waste whatever time he had, learning electronic control systems from Ponytail. He even had Waldo and Philip teach him how to hack into an ount and bypass thework��s security defense systems.


    Zhang Heng didn��te into contact with either of the three men in the parallel quest.


    At that time, Ponytail and Edward died, Philip emigrated to Hong Kong, whereas Waldo had taken refuge within ck Nest.


    It was actually difficult to me thetter two. Aside from Philip, who had gotten tired of fighting, Waldo also sent 01 a great deal of secret information while working for ck Nest, greatly helping 01 avoid a ton of unwanted trouble. When ck Nest came to know about it, they let the matter slide, seeing how skilled he was and all. However, he was no longer allowed ess to ssified information and was only allowed to provide technical advice.


    Including Leah, there were a total of six people in the building. If the mission failed, it would be really hard to imagine how drastically different the direction each would take in twelve years.


    Leah found an old guitar lying about in the yard��s storage room. It had a missing string, though. She wiped the instrument clean and carried it in her arms. ��Is there anything you��d like to hear?�� she asked the lot.


    ��I don��t know... what about ��La Marseiise��?�� Waldo suggested. Philip frowned. ��Why would anyone want to listen to the national anthem after dinner?��


    ��Because I can��t think of anything else, and everyone has heard it before. It��s really popr, you know?��


    ��So, she��ll be ying the guitar, and we��ll all have to stand upright and put on a solemn face?��


    ��How about Joe Dassin��s Les Champs-��lys��es? I��m sure everyone��s heard of it too,�� Leah plucked the strings twice, ��It��s one of my favorites, and there are only five strings left. Just enjoy the music. Alright, enough talk. Let��s begin...��


    She cleared her throat and began:


    ��I was walking down the avenue; my heart opened to strangers,


    I wanted to say hello to anyone at all, anyone, maybe you,


    Whatever it is we would talk about,


    It was enough just to speak to you, to be close to you, On the Champs-��lys��es, on the Champs-��lys��es!


    Whether in the sun or in the rain, at noon or midnight


    Everything you could want is on the Champs-��lys��es!


    Leah, havinge from a professional music background, also happened to be a talented singer. Coupled with experience as the lead singer of Suffocated to Death, she actually sang a lot better than many famous singers. Her jazzy, melodic voice gave the ssic French pop song a very different vor.


    If it had not been for her brother��s tragic death, she might have perhaps be a famous superstar twelve yearster, taking into ount her irresistible charm and how stunning she looked.


    When the song was over, Philip and the others erupted into apuse as patrons at La Grenouille Verte would.


    Leah did a little curtsy. ��Thank you, thank you. Your enthusiasm will only cause me to puff up. Hahaha!��


    ��Encore! Encore!�� Waldo put down the device in his hand, putting his Legend of Zelda he��d been burying his head in for fifteen months on hold, a rare urrence for a guy who was that close to bing one with the gaming device.


    ��Alright...�� Leah epted the request and began the second song.


    It, however, did not escape Little Boy��s observant eyes that Zhang Heng wasn��t in the house with the rest of them. A whileter, she found him by theke. The skies had sprouted a drizzle, and it was cold. Little Boy pulled her coat tighter around herself.


    ��What are you doing here?�� she asked. ��Fishing,�� Zhang Heng replied, waving a fishing rod.


    ��Huh? But it��s raining.��


    ��Do you hate the rain?��


    ��I wouldn��t say I hate it, but I don��t particrly like it either. It gets so humid when it rains,�� said Little Boy, frowning at the thought.


    ��Mm, that��s true.��


    Suddenly, the buoy that had been bobbing calmly on the water started moving.


    ��Oh, you��ve baited a fish!�� Little Boy said.


    Zhang Heng did not react immediately. He waited until the buoypletely sank into the water before jerking the rod and reeling in the line. Therge fish struggled as he hooked it out of the water.


    ��Too bad it��s a carp. We can��t eat that,��mented Little Boy.


    ��Who said carps can��t be eaten? I��ll cook it tomorrow, and you can give it a go.��


    Zhang Heng bent down and put the fish in the pail.


    ��Shall we go back?��


    Little Boy nodded, and the two walked alongside each other on the slightly muddy path. Little Boy kept opening her mouth to speak, but no words woulde out. ��What is it you want to say?�� ��I feel like everyone��s tooid back. It��s like they��re on vacation. Because Edward didn��t reply, the whole team is directionless. It doesn��t seem good for us to just kick back like that,�� Little Boy confessed her worries. ��Don��t worry. It won��tst long,�� Zhang Heng assured her, ��The real challenge is about toe.��

 Chapter 421 - Address

    <h4>Chapter 421 Address</h4>


    Little Boy did not expect Zhang Heng��s prediction toe true so soon.


    Two weekster, just when everyone was beginning to doubt if Edward would ever contact them again, they suddenly received an anonymous email. This email, with nothing written on it, came from a temporary mailbox. The only thingposed in it was an address.


    Immediately, 01 members gathered in front of theputer. Waldo scratched his head, not knowing what to make out of it. ��Who sent it, Edward?��


    ��This is too easy. It might be a trap from ck Nest,�� Little Boy warned cautiously. ��ck Nest doesn��t know who we are. We didn��t expose ourselves except for Luke,�� Ponytail paused, then exined to Zhang Heng, ��On the night you were discovered, Waldo hacked into the airline��sputer systems. He��s changed our passenger details to prevent ck Nest from finding us.��


    ��Moreover, this email address that we are using right now isn��t the same one Edward used tomunicate with us. This is my private email address. We used to correspond using this one, Phillip added.�� ��So, you are the only two who know this email address?��


    ��Uhh, that��s not the case. I have a few friends who know it, but they are not the kind to pull pranks. They won��t just send me an email with nothing but an address on it without any reason,�� Philip said.


    Before Little Boy could say anything, Zhang Heng chipped in, ��There is no problem with the address.�� ��Well, how do you know the address is okay?�� ��Because one of my friends received this address too when I asked him about it. He used a temporary mailbox as well,�� Zhang Heng exined.


    ��But you cannot rule out that it could be a trap that ck Nest hasid for us. If Edward really sent this, why didn��t he contact us with the email address he always used?�� Little Boy asked rhetorically.


    Waldo made a wild guess. ��Because... his original mailbox has been exposed?��


    ��Yes, if Edward��s previous mailbox has fallen into the hands of ck Nest, they will know that we have contacted him, and they will likely use this opportunity to set a trap for us,�� Little Boy analyzed. From a logical point of view, her inference was indeed very reasonable, but for Zhang Heng who had already seen the ending, the address on the email had to be the city where Edward was now hiding in.


    Zhang Heng thought for a moment. ��You are right, but this is the only clue we have in two months. We can either go to that address or just sit here and wait.��


    What Zhang Heng said silenced the 01 team. It would be a perilous but exhrating journey in helping Edward fight against the formidable and fearsome ck Nest. However, they had spent almost two months in a random hamlet, and other than sleeping and eating, they had nothing else to do. Philip was even in the mind to be depressed over a weight gain of two pounds.


    On the other hand, Waldo, who had been lying on the sofa slurping Coke and eating potato chips, hadn��t gained an ounce of weight. Philip felt that life was unfair.


    However, no matter howfortable it was to live in this town, everyone was getting tired after spending such a long time here. No one knew when or if any new clues woulde in if they kept waiting, and even then, they still couldn��t get rid of the traps ck Nest set for them.


    ��Luke is right. We can��t just sit and wait here anymore,�� Ponytail said, ��anyway, we need to investigate the ce on the address. Of course, Little Boy��s worries are justified. It is imperative that we remain vignt at all times. We can take the train to Grenade first, and drive to Toulouse after that. If ck Nest has set up a trap for us in Toulouse, they won��t be finding us at the airport or the train station.��


    ��Great, I��ve always wanted to go to Toulouse,�� said Leah.


    Toulouse, the capital of Haute-Garonne in southern France-Pyr��n��es, was the fourthrgest city in France. It was known as the city of roses, not because Toulouse produced a lot of roses but for itsrge number of pre-war buildings with it��s iconic brick structures. Toulouse was named after the color of the red bricks that resembled blooming roses.


    Walking under those red brick walls threw one back in time, giving one a sensation of walking through the tracks of history. Every brick and tileid here was filled with stories and traces of a time long-forgotten.


    Hence, 01 finally reembarked on their journey after two months of rest. This time, Leah traveled with them as well. With a face caked in a thickyer of thick makeup, she hoped ck Nest��s people wouldn��t spot her. A wide-brimmed hat and oversized sunsses that masked half of her facepleted the disguise.


    ��Would I be mistaken as a celebrity?�� Leah asked with a chuckle.


    Zhang Heng nced at Leah in the rearview mirror, ��Can��t you buy a smaller pair of shades?��


    ��I can��t help it. I��m afraid the smaller sunsses will unleash my ravenous beauty,�� sighed Leah as she stretchedzily, looking as helpless as a kitten.


    Zhang Heng understood why Leah would be the leader of 01 twelve yearster. This girl was friendly. It did not match her almost perfect appearance, but when the two were mixed, she radiated with a pleasant and easy-going warmth that instantly made those around her feel at home.


    Little Boy, on the other hand, was on the other side of the spectrum. Although she didn��t have the typical poster-girl gleam of Leah, the features on her face were beautiful. She wasn��t one to care about dolling up, and would instead remain inconspicuous by having a pair of headphones on and keeping her head down all day. Besides, she was always dressed like a boy. In Waldo��s own words, ��Little Boy is like a little boy. I have and will never develop any romantic feelings toward a little boy.��


    Zhang Heng had seen her sitting alone by the window, munching on cookies on a rainy day. He didn��t think Little Boy was that bad. As he reminisced life in the parallel quest, Little Boy suddenly broke his thought. ��I just checked out the address, and I see nobody suspicious over there,�� she said.


    ��Okay, we will reach the ce in about five minutes,�� replied Zhang Heng. Considering how weak the 01 were when it came tobat, he hoped they would focus on the mission��s logistics instead of barging to the frontlines and risk their lives. Eventually, Zhang Heng and Leah were the only ones who headed towards the address given in the email.


    Little Boy paused for a moment. ��It��s strange,�� she said, ��The nearby surveince cameras couldn��t find any signs of intrusion.��


    ��It means nothing is wrong, right?�� Leah wondered.


    ��No, she meant that if it were Edward, he would have done something to the ce with his skills,�� Zhang Heng exined.


    In the parallel quest, 01 had failed to rescue Leah. Therefore, the subsequent plot development was different from the present. In this timeline, Zhang Heng was unable to figure out what Edward intended to do.

 Chapter 422 - Garden

    <h4>Chapter 422 Garden</h4>


    Jacobin��s Abbey was the address on the anonymous email, a ce about ten minutes�� walk from the town hall.


    This Gothic monastery was built by the Dominicans in 1215 and had a history spanning more than 800 years. The entire building was made out of red-y bricks and tiles and was divided into churches, the inner courtyard cloister, and the priests�� dining hall. It was also the final resting ce of Thomas Aquinas, Catholic��s most famous theologian, and philosopher.


    When Zhang Heng and Leah walked into the church, the first thing that caught their attention was the beams that rose to nearly thirty meters in height. These beams supported the roof of the church, and spreading out into a distinct ��palm-tree�� at the top. The elongated windows, also supported by the beams were made up of hand-painted stained ss. When the sun shone through the window andnded on the central bench, it made whoever sit there feel like they were being bathed in a holy and cleansing light.


    Zhang Heng looked around and notice a group of tourists who were also visiting the chapel. He didn��t see anybody suspicious, though. Edward did not like to take pictures, but during the parallel quest, Zhang Heng managed to get a nce at a sixteen-year-old Edward from his driver��s license. ording to Leah, Edward had changed a lot in ten years, so Zhang Heng decided to bring her along. Nheless, after a tiresome search, Leah failed to spot her brother in the church.


    The two were now disguised as lovers, where Leah clung to Zhang Heng��s arm lovingly. They posed as tourists who were visiting the 13th-century building. She had also given her hair a new coat of silver dye from the blue that it once was.


    ��I feel like a spy in a spy movie. Has my brother really be so cautious now?��


    ��Little Boy��s worries are actually justifiable. Edward must have used a different email address to contact us because he knows his original email address isn��t secure anymore. In other words, ck Nest is getting closer and closer to him,�� Zhang Heng said. Considering that his appearance was exposed when he met Piercings at the bar, Zhang Heng had to put some effort into modifying his looks. He was inspired by Fox when they met for the first time, so, to make sure that no one would recognize him, he put on a suit, sprayed on some cologne, and slicked his hair back. Now, he looked more like an elite from the financial industry.


    In the parallel quest, ck Nest had found Edward in a nursing home three weekster. Edward reced a volunteer there. This, however, wasn��t his first hiding spot in Toulouse, where he had been constantly on the move to avoid detection.


    Nobody really knew where Edward��s hideouts were before this, and if they failed to meet up with him today, Zhang Heng could only go to the nursing home in a week to try his luck. However, the plot of the quest had taken a different turn thanks to the participation of a yer. This applied not only to the 01 Gueris but also to ck Nest.


    It would also prove difficult for Zhang Heng to exin how he knew Edward��s hiding spot, the reason why he was careful not to be rash during the two months. These two months in the small town was a precious gift granted by the system so yers could learn as much as they could about the game. Speeding up this process may not yield any benefits. On the contrary, it had the potential to put the yers at great risk. ��Would you like to go elsewhere?�� Leah asked. The two had been in the church for almost 20 minutes, but they saw nothing that sparked an interest.


    ��Yeah,�� Zhang Heng nodded. Behind the church was a beautiful cloister, a ce for the priests tomunicate and meditate. Two sections of the cloister had been destroyed during the war, and it was rebuilt in 1964. In its center was a courtyard, nted with trees and other foliage.


    The two walked across the red stone pavement searching high and low, and despite their best efforts, they still couldn��t find Edward there. In fact, they spent nearly two hours in the Jacobin Monastery, exploring every single corner of the building. Yet, they failed to find any clues.


    Left with no other options, the two left the monastery empty-handed. Someone was handing out leaflets at the exit. Leah took one and returned to the car, taking off her hat and oversized sunsses.


    ��Maybe he��s not around today?��


    ��It is highly unlikely,�� Zhang Heng frowned, ��there��s always this one thing I��ve never been able to understand. Edward��s email only stated the location but not the time. This means that we cane here any time we want. And he can��t be in the monastery every day since it��s guaranteed to attract a lot of unwanted attention. I think we must have missed something there. Let��s do this again tomorrow and pay closer attention to our surroundings.��


    ��Is it possible that whatever my brother left behind is outside the monastery��? Leah instantly asked.


    ��Huh? What have you discovered?��


    ��When I was young, my brother and I would y a cryptography game. Texts arepiled and ciphered in Hebrew.��


    ��Do you speak Hebrew?��


    ��No, no, no, but these have very simple keywords. We don��t care about its meaning. All we did was topare it with the corresponding French letters, then trante them to get the information we want,�� Leah exined as she waved the Catholic leaflet in her hand. She pointed to an inconspicuous spot on it. ��Here, look,�� she said.


    Zhang Heng looked closer and saw a sentence written in Hebrew. From the interpretation of typography and context, it seemed to be a passage from the Bible. Leah then attempted to trante it, and she got the word ��garden.��


    ��Garden? Could it be the atrium��s garden that we saw earlier? Did we overlook anything over there?�� Leah asked curiously.


    She grew excited knowing that the mystery was about to be unraveled, just like opening a clue from all those treasure hunts she yed when she was a child.


    Little Boy spoke to them through themunicator again, ��I searched the garden in Toulouse just now and found a restaurant, a training ground for boxing, and an elementary school. Is it possible that Edward is hiding in one of those ces?�� ��Pick one,�� Zhang Heng said to Leah. ��Restaurant? I happen to be a bit hungry.��


    ��Good.��


    Zhang Heng pulled open the navigation app on his smartphone, searching for a restaurant named Garden. He knew that it was unlikely that Edward would be there. The restaurant was a popr hotspot, ushering in throngs of diners each day. Such a ce was obviously not the ideal spot for a person desperately trying to stay hidden and to avoid getting tracked down.


    Fortunately, though, the foie gras and sausages were delicious. For Leah, who had been strolling in the monastery for the whole afternoon, it couldn��t be better. The food rejuvenated her exhausted body and mind.


    The sky was turned darker as the two finished up their meal.


    ��There are still the training grounds and elementary school. You can choose this time,�� said Leah.

 Chapter 423 - Too Quick, Does It Count?

    <h4>Chapter 423 Too Quick, Does It Count?</h4>


    The boxing training ground called Garden was located in the old town at a corner that usually went unnoticed. Below it was a store that sold second-hand sporting goods. The shophouse was still in its original brick-and-tile structure like the other shops in the old town, and the mottled walls looked like it had been there since forever. The neon sign hanging in front of the window wasn��t on. They were not sure if the owner turned it off to save electricity, or it was just broken. Fortunately, the lights from the window proved the training ground was still open for business.


    Zhang Heng and Leah walked up the stairs to the second floor of the sports shop, where the unmistakable sound of punching bags got louder louder. Two ripped men without shirts were drenched in sweat. There was someone skipping on a rope, and another man lefted dumbbells. On the side, a group of children sat on the ground, paying attention to a teacher of some sort. He was an old man with greying hair and looked like the person in charge of this training ground.


    The group of what seemed to be eight or nine-year-olds focussed intently on what they were doing, ignoring Zhang Heng who had just entered the grounds. However, Leah��s beauty caused the man who was lifting the dumbbells to look at her twice.


    ��My brother is not here,�� Leah whispered to Zhang Heng


    Zhang Heng nodded. For now, he was not in a hurry. So, he stood there and waited patiently


    out 15 minutes. The grey-haired coach showed the kids a punching routine and let them practice on their own. He then walked towards Zhang Heng and Leah.


    ��Can I help you?�� the old man gestured politely as he put his hands together.


    ��We are looking for someone,�� Zhang Heng said, ��but it seems he��s not here.��


    ��Then I��m afraid I can��t help you,�� The old man turned around and returned to teach the group of children again.


    ��Wait, are you Catholic?�� Zhang Heng took out the leaflet he received outside the monastery.


    The old man grabbed the leaflet and nced at it. After a while, he returned it to Zhang


    Heng.


    ��Sorry, I don��t believe in religion,�� he replied as he shook his head.


    ��My apologies for the disturbance.��


    Zhang Heng put the leaflet back in his pocket and was about to leave. Unexpectedly, one of the muscr guys stopped hitting the punching bag. He pointed at Zhang Heng, then pointed to the boxing ring beside him.


    ��He wants to fight you,�� the old man frowned.


    ��I��m sorry. I haven��t done any boxing before,�� Zhang Heng declined politely, then looked to Leah.


    ��Let��s go,�� he went on, wasting no time and prepared to leave.


    The ripped man was displeased when he saw this. At that, the old man sighed and spoke again, ��He may know where the person you��ve been looking for is.��


    ��Sorry, is he a mute? Can��t he speak for himself?�� said Zhang Heng as he turned around to look directly at the ripped man.


    The ripped man seemed to understand the word mute. His expression changed immediately, and he appeared even more unhappy. He then thumped his chest with his gloved hand, before looking at Zhang Heng with a provocative stare.


    Several other people in the training ground also noticed the tension in the air and stopped what they were doing.


    ��I don��t know the rules of boxing very well,�� Zhang Heng said.


    ��It doesn��t matter, you can use whatever fighting skills you are good at, or you can even use weapons if you wish to.��


    ��Who can lend me a knife?�� Zhang Heng asked. The folding knife he always used couldn��t be brought out of the parallel quest.


    ��Are you fine with a steak knife?�� ��Yeah.��


    Zhang Heng then borrowed some tape and wrapped it around the knife.


    After seeing what Zhang Heng did, a scornful smile surfaced on the ripped man��s face,ughing at the young man as if he was doing something useless. Even if Zhang Heng was holding a Tang Dao, there was no way he would be able to hurt him, let alone a steak knife.


    ��Wait, you will thank me for wrapping the knife with the tape,�� Zhang Heng said.


    The old man tried to pass Zhang Heng some protective gear, to which he only rejected. He took off his suit and handed it over to Leah. After that, he entered the ring with the muscr man.


    Zhang Heng��s opponent seemed amused by his sparsely he was equipped. Seeing how his opponent was dressed so lightly in only a shirt and a pair of trousers, the ripped man moved his limbs slightly, toozy to even put up a proper defensive posture. The muscr man then taunted Zhang Heng with a finger, signaling for him to start the fight.


    However, his pupils contracted in the next moment. He still thinking about whether to use an uppercut or straight punch and how much strength needed to defeat Zhang Heng without killing him when something didn��t seem right. Before he managed to throw any punches, he saw Zhang Heng move suddenly.


    The muscr man was in no way weak. He had been an amateur boxer for three years and participated in many boxing matches with opponents of varying experience. This was his first time encountering someone with such a swift reflex.


    While he was still putting up a hooking posture to provoke Zhang Heng, the tip of the steak knife in Zhang Heng��s hand shed before his eyes. It happened in a split second, and his eyes would have been sliced to oblivion if he had only moved two centimeters forward.


    Nobody expected the battle between dragon and tiger toe to an end in less than a second. Zhang Heng had moved so quickly that those people around him didn��t have the time to be surprised.


    ��Did I move too fast? Does it count?�� Zhang Heng withdrew his hand, ��Why not you try this time?��


    The muscr man wiped the sweat from the tip of his nose. After Zhang Heng��s strike, he finally lost his calm and disregard that he had before. He instantly mucked up, bing more alert as he knew he wasn��t dealing with an easy opponent. Despite the odds, he was also confident in his strength, and once he got serious, he knew he still had a good chance to defeat Zhang Heng.


    As the thoughts coursed through his mind, the muscr man finally began to move around. To prevent Zhang Heng from attacking him like before, he made sure a good distance seperated them. He then carefully tested Zhang Heng��s rhythm by shaking his shoulders. It was what he would usually do when he faced a powerful enemy.


    On the other hand, Zhang Heng did not respond to what he did. Instead, he just stood quietly in ce.


    After the muscr man tested his opponent for a while, he became embarassed after seeing Zhang Heng��s reaction. Every time he made a move, he would imagine a way Zhang Heng would counter his attack. He would thene up with a defensive move based on the scenario in mind. As a result, he kept on freaking out like a silly goose for a long time. On the other hand, Zhang Heng hadn��t made a single move yet.


    The muscr man realized he could no go on like this. He had to attack. While thinking about this, the muscr man finally took his first step and threw his right fist at Zhang Heng. At the same time, Zhang Heng made a move as well. He leaned back a little to dodge the punch. Immediately, the muscr man pulled a second punch at Zhang Heng! This time he chose to attack his opponent��s chest, but Zhang Heng still managed to dodge it easily.


    After the two calcted maneuvers, the muscr man threw away whatever strategies he had in his head and just started punching Zhang Heng nonstop with his fists. However unbelievable it may sound, Zhang Heng once again dodged the man��s hurricane-like attacks.


    ��Huh?��


    A look of surprise shed through the eyes of the old man as he watched the battle. It was his first time witnessing a man with such quick reflexes. Even a professional boxer wouldn��t perform on the same level. This was not something that could be achieved by theories alone. It required a lot of practical experience.


    ��Are you done with your attack? If you are done, I��ll take a shot next,�� Zhang Heng finally spoke up after avoiding countless strikes from the muscr man.

 Chapter 424 - Iron Fist

    <h4>Chapter 424 Iron Fist</h4>


    Muscles finally understood what Zhang Heng meant when he said he would be grateful for the extra tape.


    In just half a minute after Zhang Heng turned from defense to attack, Muscles was cut so many times he lost count. Later on, he decided to give up attacking and focus on defending himself, but nheless, still suffered multiple stab wounds.


    In Zhang Heng��s hands, the steak knife was like an elusive ghost. There was no telling where it wouldnd or go next. Though the knife drew no blood since it was covered in tape, there were still plenty of bruises, and boy, did they hurt like hell.


    In the end, the ripped man was down on one knee, gasping for dear breath. When he saw Zhang Heng walking towards him, he quickly raised his arms and shouted in mandarin, ��Stop! I give up!��


    IS


    Zhang Heng wasn��t surprised, knowing who the muscle man really was since he had not spoken a word since the beginning. The fact that he spoke in mandarin meant he admitted to being a yer. ��Do you know where Edward is?��


    ��Yes, I��ve been with him for the past two months, and I��ve been taking care of him,�� Muscles gasped, drawing in deep breaths as he struggled to stand, ��but that guy is very troublesome, always asking for this and that. He��s really difficult.��


    ��What should I call you?�� Zhang Heng offered a hand.


    ��I��m called Torres in this quest, but you can call me Iron Fist.�� Iron Fist shook Zhang Heng��s hand, but the pain in his body only made him wince.


    Zhang Heng did not ask Iron Fist why he wanted to challenge him. He did not need to since he knew exactly what Iron Fist was thinking. This was a rival-faction quest. While yers of the same faction would naturally work together, there was a �C Iron Fist hoped to use his skills to win the right to have a say in the partnershipter.


    Instead, he was given a handsome drubbing. Zhang Hengpared his opponent to the man with piercings, and he came to a disappointing conclusion. In terms ofbat skills, this amateur fighter was no match for the ex-police officer.


    ��While you were with Edward, have you ever seen other yers?��


    Iron first shook his head. ��It seems that yers won��t meet in the earlier stages of the quest. You are the first yer to arrive after we sent the email.��


    ��How many have you sent?�� Zhang Heng asked.


    ��Only two emails were sent from the monastery��s address. But because only Leah could decipher the keyword that Edward left there, he also contacted three other people-a reporter from Le Monde, a moderator of an online forum, and a well-known documentary director. Edward selected thest because he considers him the most trustworthy person to expose ck Nest.��


    Iron Fist paused for a second before continuing, ��But recently our situation hasn��t looked too good. Somehow, ck Nest found out that Edward was in Toulouse and sent many of their men after him. They even got a guy named Vincent to be theirmander. We had to be very careful. Just two weeks ago, A group of unidentified militants raided Edward��s residence, but fortunately, we evacuated five minutes before they broke in.��


    ��What are you guys talking about?�� Leah asked.


    ��We got lucky. We finally found the one we��ve been looking for,�� Zhang Heng answered.


    An hourter, the whole 01, including Leah and Iron Fist, headed to the hardware store around the corner of the training hall. Zhang Heng had to act as the interpreter for both parties.


    ��This is also Mr. Gilm��s shop. Oh, Mr. Gilm is the owner of the boxing hall. Back in the day, he was a very famous boxer. He made heaps of money in professional matches and took advantage of the cheap housing prices in Toulouse. He��s bought some nice looking properties, but the training hall remains his favorite.��


    ��What is Mr. Gilm��s rtionship with Edward? Why would he take such a massive risk by helping you?�� Little Boy asked.


    ��We arepletely unrted to Mr. Gilm, but he has a past with ck Nest. His son was a loyal fan of ck Nest and collected all their merchandise. Then, the family was involved in a car ident, where his son was tragically killed. Mr. Gilm believed that the autopilot system supplied by ck Nest was the cause of the unfortunate traffic ident. Then, he sued ck Nest.��


    ��So, what happened?�� ��ck Nest obviously won thewsuit. They provided piles of data and test results to prove that the autonomous driving system was safe and reliable. Butter, Edward found the ws in the system and sent it to the court anonymously. So, during the second trial, Mr. Gilm won and received handsomepensation. He still hates ck Nest, though, and thanks to that, he is skeptical of all high-tech products. He hopes someone can stop ck Nest fromunching the CTOS system.�� ��Hah!�� Philip smirked and looked at the surveince camera above them.


    ��Don��t worry. This model isn��t connected to the inte. Edward uses it to monitor the movements out here,�� Iron Fist exined.


    The hardware store was already closed for the day, but Iron Fist had the key with him. He unlocked the door and spoke to the camera in English, ��Edward, we��reing in.��


    After that, he pushed the door open and entered the shop. As he walked in, he turned to Leah. ��He really cares about you. He��s mentioned your name many times before, and what worries him most is ck Nest doing something to you. So, yeah... it��s great to see you arrive safely.��


    Zhang Heng did not trante what Iron Fist said this time. His brows knitted together as he looked around the unlit hardware shop. ��Is there something wrong with Edward��s body?�� he asked.


    ��Mm?��


    ��Edward left Garden��s address in the clue not only because it��s Mr. Gilm��s ce, but so he can watch the training hall as well. In other words, he should have spotted his sister already. So why hasn��t hee downstairs?��


    ��Are you suspicious of me?�� Iron Fist asked and cocked an eyebrow at Zhang Heng. Instead of exining further, he immediately walked up to the attic above the top floor and knocked on the door to prove his innocence. Curiously, no sound came from inside.


    Iron Fist looked taken aback. ��Could he be sleeping?��


    Slowly, Iron Fist pushed the door open. However, the moment he did that, a red dot appeared on his forehead.


    ��Careful...��


    Before Zhang Heng could finish his sentence, Iron Fist��s head violently snapped backward, and he copsed on the ground. A spatter of warm liquidnded on Zhang Heng��s cor.


    ��Sniper! Take cover...�� Zhang Heng whispered as he scanned the room. There was a messy desk, a folding bed, and a telescope in front of the window pointed toward the training hall, but the room was empty.

 Chapter 425 - Do Me A Favor

    <h4>Chapter 425 Do Me A Favor</h4>


    Fortunately, no one else had entered the attic except for Iron Fist. When Zhang Heng asked everyone to take cover, Leah and the 01 immediately retreated to the stairs. Thankfully, no one else was shot.


    Zhang Heng spent half a minute looking around the house before withdrawing to a spot outside where the enemies couldn��t see him from the window.


    The current situation had be very unfavorable for them. ck Nest had made a grand entrance by brutally pulling a hit on Iron Fist. Zhang Heng wondered if this was the same sniper that ambushed them while they were skiing in Grenoble.


    Piercings once mentioned to Zhang Heng that the enemy was uncanilly sharp at long-range shots with his sniper rifle. Zhang Heng had experienced the Soviet-Finnish war, and under a fair fight, he wasn��t afraid of snipers even if the opponent had the terrain advantage.


    This time, however, time was against him.


    Now that the sniper was in ce, ck Nest��s merceneries shouldn��t be too far away. He faced a dilemma, where even if he could eliminate the sniper, there wasn��t enough time to do so. As long as the sniper was still alive, he and 01 would never be able to step out of the hardware store.


    One one oue could result from such a stalemate: ck Nest would soon surround the hardware store and kill them while they were inside.


    Leah��s body trembled slightly. She had just witnessed the death of a living person in front of her, and the shock and confusion in Iron Fist��s eyes were fresh in her mind. Still, she was more concerned about her brother��s safety, so once she calmed down a little, she approached Zhang Heng to ask about the details.


    ��Where is my brother? Did they kill him?��


    ��No, if ck Nest killed Edward, they wouldn��t be waiting for us here then,�� Zhang Heng said. Taking his chances, he looked around the room for clues as to what condition Edward might be in. No signs of fighting or traces of break-in could be found, a good indication that Edward wasn��t attacked.


    That could only mean one thing. Edward must have left first because he managed to detect the threat beforehand. Hence, it was the only piece of good news that Zhang Heng got at this moment, and it also meant that the game didn��t end here. Although Edward might have got away by the skin of his teeth, Zhang Heng and the 01 weren��t so lucky, coincidentally crossing paths with the team tasked to eliminate Edward.


    ��What should we do?�� Waldo asked nervously as he stuck to the wall like glue. ��Is it toote to surrender now?�� he asked in a trembling voice.


    ��Judging by what just happened, I don��t think they will ept our surrender,�� Philip smiled bitterly.


    The people in 01 were the elite of the elites in their respective fields. Of all the things,bat had never been their forte, and they had no way to deal with a group of armed thugs at this moment. Besides praying silently in their hearts, they could only sit and wait for their enemies to kill them.


    In fact, ck Nest came faster than they thought. Arge SUV stopped outside the entrance of the hardware store, and five masked men with hoodies jumped out of the car. Without saying anything, they barged into the store, kicking the door down while at it. These people were armed with submachine guns, and weren��t to be trifled with. The stance the group carried with them proved they were a special force of some sort, and it was only a matter of time before all hell broke loose.


    cre


    Nheless, when ck Nest��s goons stepped into the hardware store, they were presented with the opportunity to enjoy the torture Iron Fist had gone through. Zhang Heng pulled the trigger, killing three masked men as he charged toward them from the front of the store. One of them raised his weapon and aimed at Little Boy and was about to pull the trigger when Zhang Heng sent him off to hell with his two otherpanions as well. The remaining two assants did not expect such a skilled fighter to be concealed within the store. Seeing that the situation had gone south, they attempted to escape. Zhang Heng, however, had no intention of allowing them to do so. He shot them from the back and extinguished their lives.


    The dust soon settled, and dead were strewn everywhere. Zhang Heng��s retaliation had caught 01pletely off guard and they were left in a stunned, petrified state. They all knew how good Zhang Heng��sbat abilities were, but they did not expect them to be this good. It was a one against five battle, and although bringing along many useless teammates, he still managed to kill all of them.


    The 01 team was speechless, forgetting to ask where Zhang Heng even acquired the gun from. When Waldo looked at Zhang Heng again, the man was no longer Bourne but was now a Batman.


    In spite of the victory, Zhang Heng��s expression hadn��t changed much. He knew that the advantage onlysted for now since it was just the first wave of enemies. When the second wave arrived, they would be more prepared. In other words, uing battles would only increase in difficultly.


    Ponytail finally recollected his thoughts after experiencing a massive assault on his senses. He quickly took out his mobile phone, ��When I was avable earlier, I installed a smart remote function on our car. We can remotely start the engine and drive the car here.��


    ��No, don��t drive the car here. The sniper is very good. Once we are in his field of vision, he still can kill whoever is in the car,�� Zhang Heng said, ��Who has an electronic map?�� ��Me.�� Philip clicked into the navigation system.


    Zhang Heng pointed at a ce. ��Get the car there,�� he said.


    ��This ce is two blocks away, right?�� Ponytail asked in surprise, ��How are we supposed to get there? You said the sniper would kill us even if we use the car as cover. If we walk out of here, he will kill us within seconds! Are you trying to tell us to split up and try our luck?�� ��It doesn��t make sense to go our seperate ways. He has the time and bullets to kill us all,�� Zhang Heng paused, ��...what I��m about to do next may defymon sense. So I was hoping you could all do me a favor and don��t ask why afterward. Just don��t ask how I did


    it.��


    ��Huh?�� Philip and others hadn��t the slightest idea of what Zhang Heng was talking about.


    At the same time, the sounds of other vehiclesing from the street outside could be heard. The second wave of enemies was about to arrive. This time, they were about to face more than just one carload of ambushers.


    Zhang Heng took out the Evil Wall that he had been carrying with him. The next moment, everyone from 01 finally understood what ��defyingmon sense�� meant. The wall at the rear of the hardware store began to move like water. Thinking that he must be seeing things, Waldo rubbed them hard, and when he opened them again, he saw a door appearing on the wall��s surface.


    ��Uhh, guys... did you see what I see?!�� He turned and looked at Zhang Heng in shock, ��How is this possible? How did you do it?�� The moment he blurted out those questions, Waldo instantly remembered something and hurriedly covered his mouth again, ��Oh, sorry, I didn��t mean it.��


    Zhang Heng took the lead and went through the small door.


    ��Everyone follow me. Try to stick to the wall, and don��t let the sniper spot you.��


    When ck Nest��s goons finally rushed into the hardware store, 01 and the team were long gone.

 Chapter 426 - Zero

    <h4>Chapter 426 Zero</h4>


    The 01 Gueris were still in shock. Although ck Nest had dispatched snipers at the ski resortst time, they weren��t under fire at that time, and so, the fear was simply surreal to them. When the sniper killed Iron Fist, his blood sttered all over Zhang Heng��s shirt. It made them realize that they had just crossed paths with death himself.


    Everyone, including Leah, crouched under their seats, fearing that the flying bullets would im their lives from nowhere. Two minutester, Zhang Heng told them, ��Okay, you cane out from the hiding. We are safe for now.��


    ��Uhh... are you sure? I heard that he could snipe the farthest. How far did he shoot when he was being deployed at the ski resort?��


    ��We are in a city now, not an open environment like a ski resort,�� Zhang Heng exined patiently, ��The route I chose has a building as cover. The snipers can��t shoot us from here.��


    ��That��s a relief..�� Waldo finally rxed and returned to his seat.


    Although out of danger, Ponytail wasn��t looking too good. ��Those people are not targeting us. Their target is Edward. ck Nest��s patience is finally running out, and they do not intend to use peaceful means to resolve this matter.��


    ��Edward is in a dangerous situation now. We must find him before they do.�� Semiprime said in a rare urrence that he spoke up.


    ��But the only person who knew his whereabouts has just died in front of us.��


    As soon as Little Boy said these words, everyone fell silent again. Although still less than forty, Ponytail was the oldest among the team, and he��d never faced a life and death situation before. Ever since he got himself involved in ck Nest��s and Edward��s matter, he had witnessed death twice.


    When Ponytail jumped down from the bridge, he survived miraculously somehow. However, Iron Fist was really dead this time. There was no way that he could survive that fatal shot.


    ��I��ve been thinking about a question along the way: how did ck Nest find us here?�� Philip, who had not spoken in a while, asked.


    ��Eh?��


    ��No one knows Edward��s abilities better than us, but the guy who died just a few minutes ago said that ck Nest raided their residence two weeks ago. Judging from Edward��s character, he would only be more cautious. At the same time, he must have found out the reason behind it and took precautionary measures. But even so, ck Nest still managed to locate him two weekster.��


    ��Are you trying to say that someone betrayed Edward?�� Little Boy raised her eyebrows, ��At a time like this, there are not many Edward can trust. Iron Fist is definitely not the one that betrayed him. After all, he is already, uhh... that way. So only Mr. Gilm is left, but considering what happened to his son��s family before, it is unlikely he��s on ck Nest��s side.��


    ��I��m not saying that there is a traitor among us, but that there must be something that allowed ck Nest to locate Edward,�� Philip sighed, ��unfortunately, we don��t know what that thing is.�� ��It��s CTOS,�� Zhang Heng, who was driving, interrupted suddenly.


    ��Eh?��


    ��ck nest has connected CTOS to this city.��


    01 looked at each other when they heard that, ��...it��s impossible, isn��t it? CTOS isn��t evenplete yet. And generally speaking, such a project needs to be approved by the House first.��


    ��Certain parts of CTOS have yet to bepleted, and the algorithms haven��t been calibrated to their optimal level as well. However, the part of the system that collects personal data from the public waspleted half a year ago. In theory, this toned-down version of CTOS is now online. As for its legal jargon, ck Nest didn��t get authorization from the parliament, but they are very powerful in Toulouse, and the city council is theirs. They��ve obtained a signed document from the mayor, allowing them to carry out some ��preliminary experimental work�� in Toulouse.��


    ��What preliminary experimental work?��


    ��That��s where the problem lies. The definition of the phrase isn��t stated clearly in the document. That would mean ck Nest can do whatever they want at this point.��


    ��Including silentlyunching CTOS without the public knowing it?�� Leah��s eyes widened.


    ��It seems like it.��


    Before leaving the parallel quest, Zhang Heng wanted to figure out what exactly the number zero meant in the main mission. He did not get the answer from 01, and Edward��s murder didn��t yield too much useful information either. Zhang Heng spent half a month visiting people involved in the matter at that time, and he did not get anything useful from them. After that, he sneaked into ck Nest��s headquarters on thest day and found a copy of CTOS��s development records during its early days. ording to the research and development records, ck Nest apparentlyunched an unfinished version of the CTOS system in secret to capture Edward.


    The name of this system-Zero.


    However, ording to information Zhang Heng collected, Zero was only supposed to beunched two weekster. Zhang Heng still had plenty of time to do the necessary preparations. Zero must have gone online earlier than scheduled because of the yers�� behavioral changes.


    Two weeks ago, ck Nest people raided Edward��s room, proving that Zero must have been online at least one month earlier.


    ��Okay... we now face a city under close surveince of ck Nest,�� Philip took a deep breath, ��let me think about what we can do at this time?��


    ��Can you hack into the CTOS system?�� Ponytail asked Waldo.


    ��I don��t know. Edward once talked about CTOS with me. He and several other talented guys developed their advanced AI security, a system which continuously improves itself through machine learning. He boasted that even he couldn��t hack into it. But you know me, I never thought that there are ces in this world I could never go. It will take time, maybe weeks, maybe months, but they will eventually track me down. No... I should say, with the help of CTOS, they will track us down inevitably.��


    ��I can hack into CTOS,�� Zhang Heng said, ��but of course, my skills are only good enough to hack into the iplete CTOS.��


    In the parallel quest, a group of hackers led by 01 fought a long war with ck Nest. During this period, the hackers had managed to achieve some small gains. However, every time they found a loophole, ck Nest would upgrade CTOS�� security. In the end, the hackers had inadvertently made CTOS more perfect than before. It was nearly perfect, in fact, which was the group of hackers was in such a rut in the end.


    But this wasn��t the future. Zero was the early version of CTOS, and it surely had loopholes. Two months before they entered the small town, Zhang Heng was already more prepared than everyone in the 01 Gueris.

 Chapter 427 - You Want My Coffee?

    <h4>Chapter 427 You Want My Coffee?</h4>


    It was probably because the team had experienced too many unimaginable things in one night that the 01 did not appear to be shocked, but rather, desensitized when Zhang Heng said that he could hack into CTOS.


    After seeing a solid wall melt before their eyes like warm chocte, Waldo would have probably believed it if Zhang Heng imed to be Thanos who hade to Earth in search of the Infinity Gems.


    Amid the oblivion and confusion, Little Boy was the first to break the silence.


    ��Can you hack into CTOS and disable it?�� she asked.


    ��No, I��m not going to do that. Now that Iron Fist is dead, we need to find Edward as soon as possible,�� Zhang Heng answered calmly.


    Little Boy looked unconvinced. ��Wait, don��t tell me you��re thinking of using CTOS to get to Edward?��


    ��Since ck Nest can find Edward using CTOS, I don��t think they would mind sharing their search results with us,�� said Zhang Heng, ��but first, I��ll need to remove our mobile phones and equipment from CTOS��s surveincework.��


    On the 27th floor of ck Nest�� Toulouse branch, Vincent��s lips were tightly pursed as he watched the man in front of him sipping a cup of coffee.


    The man was very patient. He had not spoken since he walked into the room, even brewing his own coffee without asking. With a set of seemingly cumbersome tools, he carved a leaf on thette, as if he hadn��t noticed the presence of a guest.


    It was clearly not a very polite thing to do.


    But Vincent was way past the age where he would be irritated by something like this. And since the person had not spoken, Vincent remained silent too, patiently waiting on the sofa.


    While he was one that didn��t mind waiting, someone else could not.


    A particr sniper who imed to be the best in the world was very upset. Rubbing his nose, hemented, ��Ah, I really can��t figure it out. It��s obvious that everyone works for someone, yet how is it that some think so highly of themselves that they feel superior to others?��


    A slow smile spread across the face of the man enjoying his coffee. ��Perhaps it��s because I haven��t screwed up before?�� he scoffed and put the cup down, ��...I��ve seen your resumes. Imposing, I must sayespecially yours, Mr. Vincent. You��ve practically be a legend after what you did as a mercenary and all that dirty work for the seventh division. And... Mr. Abu, the teenager with an addiction to the inte, but discovered identally to have extraordinary reflexes and a dynamic vision, then molded and groomed to be the best sniper there ever was. Such a motivational story should have been made into a novel.��


    ��Since you know how close we are, why didn��t you at least offer us a cup of coffee during the entire time we are here?�� Abu answered, clearly miffed.


    ��Because I still couldn��t wrap my head around one thing,�� the man leaned forward, smiling.


    ��Since the both of you are such outstanding individuals, even having groups of elite armed forces under yourmand, why then weren��t you able to handle a weak technician?�� he went on.


    ��Edward is no ordinary technician. He is meticulous and methodical, and his cautiousness, close to paranoia. You can see how sly he is from how he ys chess, always thinking about how he could set-up his opponent. He��s very difficult to catch,�� Abu retorted, picking up an empty cup in front of him, ��hey, my mouth is a bit dry, pour me a cup of coffee too, please. No foam, just more sugar...��


    The man opposite him chuckled, actually picking up the coffee pot. He was about to pour the coffee over Abu��s cup when he suddenly let go, and with his free hand, he grabbed Abu��s arm.


    Caught off-guard, Abu jumped out of the sofa, slipped, and fell into the coffee table. He screaming in pain as nose came in contact with ss. But it wasn��t over yet. The man opposite him had gotten up as well, grabbing both of Abu��s hands. He held them back in a handcuff position, before finally stomping his boot on the young man��s face.


    A bout of rage shed in Vincent��s eyes. Although he never really liked Abu, the young man was still his subordinate. When the man stepped on Abu��s face, it indirectly meant stepping on Vincent��s face as well. Vincent reached for something at his waist, but the quiet and unmoving red figure standing by the window was much faster than he was. The next thing he knew, the woman��s gun was up against his temple.


    ��You want my coffee? Sure, here, have all you want. Come,e, don��t waste any of it,�� the man mocked in a chummy tone. He leaned in on the leg that was on Abu��s face so that the young man��s cheek was pinned against the table. The pot he had just let go shattered, spilling out with it steaming hot coffee that quickly moved towards Abu��s mouth and nose.


    ��Did you people really think I had a good temper?�� The man growled, ��I��ve meant to say this, but what the heck is wrong with you French? So rude, yet you think so highly of yourselves. Oh, and you��re alwayste. You can��t even do a simple task properly. Slow-witted, yet hate epting the leadership of others, not to mention your constant insecurities about getting your power snatched from you.


    ��Please, try counting the number of opportunities you must��ve wasted. There are so many of you in Grenoble, yet you couldn��t watch over a little girl, letting her slip under your noses. You had even more in Toulouse, yet all but Edward��s shadow is mising. Headquarters even used the unfinished CTOS to help you find those people. Weapons, personnel... you have everything you need, yet, is this how you repay me in the end?!��


    ��You let Edward slip away two weeks ago. Okay, let��s just attribute that to your carelessness. Butst night, you fell at the same spot over and over again. What are you? A goldfish? Does your memoryst only seven seconds?! Please! Can��t you be a little more ashamed of yourselves? If this happened in my neighboring country, you would have been disemboweled-one of the few things I admire about them. You, on the other hand, stroll into my office and demand for coffee. Tsk, tsk, tsk... I should crush your head under my feet right now. At least you��d contribute to the world, reduce carbon emissions perhaps.��


    As the man spoke, he put even more weight on his feet until Abu��s face waspletely contorted. Vincent couldn��t hold it in anymore. ��Enough! You want the authority I have-I can give that to you... I would even follow yourmands voluntarily. I nned to exin yesterday��s failed operation to headquarters; to give up my position and let you take over. Are you satisfied now?�� Vincent said coldly.


    At that, the man loosened his grip on Abu��s hands and removed his boot from Abu��s face. The smile returned to his face. ��Great. If you��d said that earlier, I wouldn��t have had to lose a coffee pot. I rather liked that one. Too bad, I won��t be able to use it for coffee anymore.��


    ��Give me one hour. I will hand you the job, then the team, over to you.�� Vincent immediately got up from the sofa. Obviously, he did not want to stay in the room any longer.


    Abu clutched his bleeding nose and sheepishly followed Vincent from behind. Just as the two were about to walk out the door, the man��s said, ��Just in case, I have a question to ask you. Are you going to do something stupid and irrational... such as asking your subordinates to pretend and obey our orders?��


    Vincent kept walking, ��Rx. We both know how that would end, but you��d better kill Edward because you know that there are still many in the headquarters who don��t trust you. If you fail, you will end up worse than us.��


    ��Thank you for the reminder.��


    After Vincent and Abu left, the woman in red asked in Mandarin, ��Are you sure you want to use such brutal means to seize power?��


    ��Trust me; I know how to build a good rtionship. A harmonious and friendly partnership is the ideal picture, but unfortunately, we do not have the time. We all choose to be on their side because ck Nest is powerful, but who knew howplicated their internal structure was,�� the man frowned, ��ck Nest is like a clumsy giant, strong but stiff. I can��t believe it took us more than two months just to gain some authority. Zero is the same. We were only able to register for it three weeks ago. We could have grabbed the yers from the opposing side and ended the game before they even had a chance to react. We can��t go on like this. It��s too slow. We need to speed up this giant.��

 Chapter 428 - Don’t Waste Your Friend’s Heartfelt Sandwich

    <strong>Chapter 428 Don��t Waste Your Friend��s Heartfelt Sandwich</strong>


    In the parallel quest, twelve years in the future, the whole of Europe was under the control of CTOS. Little Boy also taught Zhang Heng how to survive in such an environment and keep a low profile.


    Little Boy had to admit that even extremely cautious individuals couldn��t escape the eye of the obscenely invasive surveince cameras and electronic systems. As the leader of 01, Leah spent most of her time wandering around the United States, China, and Russia.


    Although Edward was one of CTOS��s designers, he wasn��t part of the team responsible for developing the algorithms that collected personal data. However, his understanding of its system was better than most of his counterparts. That said, he was all alone now, and there was nobody around him he could trust. Getting discovered was only a matter of time now.


    This time it took only less than four days for ck Nest to locate Edward��s new hiding spot.


    The coffee man was in a Herm��s suit this time. He held a cup of freshly ground coffee and slowly entered themand car, where the woman in the red dress was waiting for him. Aspared to the casual-looking man, she seemed to be better equipped. Wearing a bulletproof suit, she had a 9mm submachine gun in her left hand, a dagger was ced on her arm, and her favorite mini pistol was strapped to her thigh.


    The most eye-catching thing on her was the katana on her back with a de over 80cm in length.


    ��Wow, it looks like you are well prepared.��


    ��And it looks like you arete,�� the woman in red scowled icily.


    ��Sorry. It took me a while to grind the coffee.�� The man sat down opposite thedy and yawned.


    ��Did you know that this time, we wll likely encounter yers from an opposing faction?��


    ��Yes, I heard that the guy named Abu had killed a yer before,�� the man replied and sipped a little coffee from his cup.


    ��Then, you should get serious too,�� the woman in red frowned.


    ��Rx, Scarlet, now that we have the power tomand, we are not far from the end of the game,�� insisted the man, shifting his bottom to a morefortable position.


    His appearance also triggered the dissatisfaction of Abu at the back of the car. ��Look at how arrogant this guy is. You sure piss me off real bad. Why did you stop me from shooting him the night before?! I was confident that I could keep the whole thing low. After that, we could have just reported to headquarters that he was killed in action.��


    ��No. Our priority now is to kill Edward. Your other matters have to be put on hold first. That includes your personal grievances between you and your target. Settle it after everything is over,�� Vincent said.


    ��Ah, it��s the old-fashioned saying again,�� Abu stretched out his hand, touched his bruised cheek, and proimed in an affronted tone, ��I think we can handle the task of killing Edward.��


    ��Really? How did we let those people escape the hardware store four days ago?��


    ��Well... maybe they turned into ghosts and went straight through the wall?�� Abu smiled awkwardly. He felt discouraged as he approached the matter, being something that puzzled him for a very long time.


    He had surrounded the people in the hardware store, leaving them nowhere to escape. However, when the second team rushed in, they found no one inside. Those people vanished into thin air right under his nose.


    It wasn��t out of pure spite that they got scolded for being worse than trash. However, anybody who was beaten up or stepped on the head would surely be extremely unhappy.


    ��I��m sorry. Let��s watch them do what we couldn��t,�� Abu sneered. Vincent��s expression was as cold as ever. ��We will know soon,�� he answered.


    Edward��s new hiding spot was in a natatorium. After thest attack, he had be more cautious. With the help of Mr. Gilm, there was now more than one hiding spot for him. One was the hardware store, and the other one was a newly opened natatorium.


    The natatorium was a very strategic hiding spot since it was one of the few ces where surveince cameras were nonexistent. He worked as a cleaner and night watchman and was permitted to stay at the natatorium all day without going out. Of course, it was all a cover, and he had to abandon all electronic devices on him. Still, despite the overthought precautions, Zero managed to find him anyway.


    It was all because of the girl in charge of the cash register at the front desk. She had the habit of writing a diary on the Inte. She recorded stories about this weird new colleague, and Zero subsequently retrieved it thanks to a keyword.


    Right now, Scarlet and the coffee-man were rushing to the natatorium with the 01 team.


    Edward got up early to change the water for the two swimming pools. At the same time, a group of guests arrived one after another. Ignoring them, Edward had his back facing the swimming pool as he cleaned the tiles on the ground.


    After a while, Edward noticed something. He raised his head and saw a sweetly smiling girl beckoning him over. The natatorium provided staff meals, but only offered lunch and dinner, and not breakfast. This wasn��t a big problem for Edward, where two meals were sufficient to keep him alive.


    However, the girl in charge of the cashier noticed that he hadn��t been eating breakfast, thinking that he must be trying to save up. Feeling sorry for him, she prepared an extra set of breakfast in the morning and brought it to him.


    Edward told the girl that she did not need to do this, to which she nodded, but still insisted on bringing him breakfast every morning. To avert suspicion and appear as normal as possible, Edward epted the kind gesture.


    The girl then mouthed to him, asking him to eat with her in the staff lounge. This had been going on every day for the past few days. Hence Edward did not suspect anything. He put down the mop in his hand and followed the girl to the lounge, but as soon as he opened the door, he was shocked. A stranger was sitting in the room, holding a coffee cup. ��Jared, he said that he��s a friend, and he wants to surprise you, which is why I didn��t tell you in advance.��


    Goosebumps sprouted all over Edward��s skin, and his heart started pounding like mad. He instantly felt threatened and wanted to flee the ce as soon as he could.


    What the man said next, however, stopped him from running. The stranger put down the Starbucks cup in his hand and said, ��You must be quite lucky. We found you before ck Nest did.��


    The cash-register girl was a little confused. ��ck Nest? What kind of ck Nest?�� she asked with her head cocked to one side.


    ��Let��s go; ck Nest will arrive in about four minutes. Anything you need to pack?�� ��I��m taking my backpack with me.��


    It appeared that Edward had calmed down, and he did not doubt Zhang Heng��s identity. Zhang Heng then stuffed the box of homemade sandwiches on the table into Edward��s hands.


    ��Okay, I��ll see you in the parking lot in 60 seconds,�� Zhang Heng added, ��Eat it on the road. Don��t waste your friend��s heartfelt sandwich.��

 Chapter 429 - I’ll Do It Alone

    <strong>Chapter 429 I��ll Do It Alone</strong>


    ��Who wants to tell me who��s fault this is? A few minutes ago, our lovely target was still working in this natatorium. When we got here, he is gone.��


    The technicians were all extremely nervous right now, knowing all too well that the newly appointed boss wasn��t someone easy to get along with. Abu��s slightly swollen face was the best proof of that. He pretended to be serious, but everyone saw the creases between his eyebrows. They almostughed out loud.


    ��Who else can you me? If you didn��t waste our time, we should have arrived here a few minutes ago, and Edward wouldn��t have run.��


    In the end, Scarlet turned out to be the one to give him an unceremonious scolding.


    ��Let Zero seek out individuals entering and exiting the natatorium in the past few minutes, and look for the most suspicious person.��


    Immediately, the technicians started working, fingers furiously tapping away on their keyboards.


    The coffee-mug man looked helpless. ��Can��t you see? There is a traitor among us! Someone leaked our n to our enemies. If the traitor is not found, how are we supposed to carry out our n?�� he scowled


    ��It doesn��t matter. You go ahead and look for whoever it is. I��ll be here alone, doing whatever needs to be done,�� Scarlet replied with that chilly undertone.


    She walked to thest truck and asked the driver to open the door. At the same time, the technician chipped in, seeming slightly happy. ��I found it! Just three minutes ago, Edward got on a blue Dacia Sandro, and they passed us,�� he said in excitement.


    ��Very well, send me their location,�� Scarlett said, then got onto the truck.


    ��Are you serious? They��ve been gone for a long time now. If they are smart enough, they��ll abandon the car. How are you going to track them down and capture them then?�� the coffee man frowned.


    The moment he finished his sentence, he saw a motorcycle jump out of the truck, doing a wheelie and rushing forward at an unimaginable speed.


    ��-Dodge Tomahawk, the fastest bike-like vehicle produced by Chrysler Automobiles in the United States. Taking after a Batmobile, it came equipped with a Dodge Viper 8.3-liter V10 engine, churning out a healthy 500 horsepower. Coupled with its four wheels, it could reach a terrifying speed of 676 kilometers per hour.��


    Since a bike was a lot smaller than a car, it was also nimbler and more maneuverable in the city. The rider, however, had to be skillful enough to dodge all the obstacles in its path. In the blink of an eye, Scarlet��s figure disappeared from everyone��s eyes. ��Hehehe, did you see that? This is the ��ability to execute�� that I��ve always emphasized,�� the coffee man said, ��If all of you possess such zeal and enthusiasm, we could easily take out ten Edwards. Okay... next, those who know where Edward was before this,e to the natatorium with me. I want everyone to... have a little swim and rxation.��


    A sneer appeared on Abu��s face after he heard what the boss said. However, his smile froze at the corners of his mouth when he saw the demon-like figure turning and looked at him.


    ��Abu, let��s start with you.��


    ��Who are you?�� Edward in the rear seat asked.


    Zhang Heng informed him at the natatorium that he wasn��t from ck Nest. Edward too did not doubt it since ck Nest didn��t need to conceal their identity. It was also why Edward followed Zhang Heng into the car without asking a single question. Now that the two of them were finally safe, Edward went ahead and asked what was on his mind.


    Zhang Heng handed Edward amunicator, to which Edward frowned, ��You may not know that ck Nest is constantly monitoring every corner of this city. They only found us because of this thing over here. They have erected a server in the area, and as long as the sensor detects the analog signals, they will be intercepted. We know that it��s not limited to only cell phone signals, radios, and other electronic devices. An Al system will be analyzing all this information.��


    ��It doesn��t matter. The line has been encrypted,�� Zhang Heng said.


    Edward took themunicator and listened to it. A familiar female voice could be heard from the other side of themunicator.


    ��Brother, are you all right???�� ��Leah? Are you here too?!��


    ��Yes, Luke and the 01 Guerris rescued me from ck Nest. It was all rather thrilling, but fortunately, we are all fine. But the person who��s been taking care of you... got killed by ck Nest. .��


    ��Sorry for getting you involved in this dangerous matter,�� Edward apologized.


    ��No, you are just doing the right thing. The ones who should be sorry are those who make the world even worse than it already is,�� Leah said.


    Edward was silent for a moment. ��I made a mistake,�� he said, ��When they recruited me, they promised to use my technology and their capital to make the world a better ce. I believed them, but the results arepletely different from their original promise. This is my fault, and I must correct it myself.��


    ��Don��t worry; we��ll fix it together.��


    Zhang Heng drove the Dacia Sandro into a parking lot. Once he received Edward��s coordinates, he set off immediately to prevent the ck Nest from getting there before him. He did not have time to make too many ns, telling Semiprime that he would meet him on the second floor of the parking lot. Semiprime would drive a new car there to rece this one, and when all that was done, the three would leave together in the new car.


    Zhang Heng received news that Semiprime had reached the designated location half a minute ago. Hence, he drove the car to the second floor below the basement. When he saw Semiprime waving at him from a distance, Zhang Heng stopped the car, and Edward was about to open the door.


    ��Stay in the car,�� Zhang Heng said sharply with a frown.


    After that, Zhang Heng opened the door of the driver��s seat, and he heard a rumbling sounding from the entrance, like a giant steel beast roaring. The sound became louder and louder.


    Zhang Heng then said to Semiprime on the other side, ��Get down and hide.��


    Out of nowhere, a hideous-looking bike-like vehicle appeared in front of the three of them, and the woman in red raised her submachine gun. Once she pulled the trigger, a rain of bullets started flying in all directions.


    The ss shattered, and Zhang Heng rolled over to the concrete pir next to him. The woman on the bike was fixated on shooting Zhang Heng. Immediately, she directed her weapons to the back seat of Dacia Sandro.


    Her goals and intentions were obvious. As long as Edward was dead, the winner of this round would be decided. There was no need to fight with other yers.


    The next moment, she detected a threat approaching her. She focused her strength at her waist and jumped off the Dodge Tomahawk. At the same time, she threw away the submachine gun in her hand and drew the katana to deflect the iing arrow. Zhang Heng did not stop there. He shot three arrows in one go, but Scarlet managed to dodge all of them with her incredible skills and inhuman reflexes. The expression on Zhang Heng��s face remained unchanged. He drew the Paris Arrow from his quiver and put it on the bowstring.

 Chapter 430 - Fierce Fight

    <strong>Chapter 430 Fierce Fight</strong>


    The left arm? Scarlet managed to figure out where the arrow wouldnd. Immediately, she tried to turn left to dodge the arrow, but the next moment, her pupils suddenly contracted.


    Zhang Heng released the bowstring, and the Paris Arrow curved along a weird trajectory that defied thews of physics, catching Scarlet off guard. The three ordinary arrows shot before this were to confuse her. Zhang Heng unleashed his Paris Arrow finally revealed his true color the moment he shot the Paris Arrow.


    This was the arrow that would determine it all!


    However, this time, it was Zhang Heng��s turn to be shocked. Scarlet brandished her katana into the air, drawing an arc. She twitched her head a little and pushed the Paris Arrow knocking it slightly to the right before it actually hit her. It grazed her cheek, leaving a long wound that blood slowly oozed out from. Simultaneously, the Paris Arrow��s powerful trajectory correction function turned it around, and it was now flying towards the back of Scarlet��s head.


    However, it had lost most of its kic energy, and Scarlet managed to catch it firmly with one hand. Before she could even catch a breath, a de struck at her again. It was never Zhang Heng��s style to greet before a battle. The moment Scarlet attempted to kill Edward, she had indirectly told everyone who she was without saying a word.


    On the second floor of the parking lot, two people were locked in battle, giving their best to dodge each others�� attacks. Scarlet panted withbored gasps, feeling the ufortable sting when sweat dripped into her eyes. However, what disturbed her even more was Zhang Heng��s relentless attacks. Ever since she acquired the Mikazuki Munechika, she had shifted all her focus on mastering katana. Soon after that, she started delving into close-quartersbat, realizing her forte as she went on.


    yers killed by this katana had reached double-digits, and the name Scarlet gradually spread among the yer circle.


    This was the first time she encountered such a difficult opponent. Although Zhang Heng was using a de to fight just like her, his close-quartersbat skills were far superior. At the same time, he exuded this faint domineering aura.


    She realized that such skills on the de couldn��t have been mastered in a few years. There was nothing fancy about his techniques, yet, his every calcted strike carried the intention of killing her. They were crude, yet lethal. She would have lost the battle by now if it weren��t for the Mikazuki Munechika.


    Deep down inside, Scarlet knew that if as her opponent was holding an ordinary saber instead of a dagger, she had no chance of winning. Even with such an unrefined weapon, he��d already managed to push her to the brink of defeat.


    Then, Zhang Heng stopped unexpectedly.


    It wasn��t because he couldn��t bear fighting with her anymore. He knew very well that the de in his hand was almost at its limit. After shing multiple times with Scarlet��s hotshot weapon, it was riddled with cracks. Scarlet��s katana, on the other hand, seemed to suffer virtually no damage. Such was the difference in quality between an off the shelf product and a finely crafted work of art.


    After fighting with Scarlet for a while, Zhang Heng figured out that her katana must be a game item. She must have dodged his Paris Arrow, not out of sheer luck, but due to the katana. During the battle, he clearly outshone her techniques and skills, but every single time, she somehow managed to neutralize Zhang Heng��s lethal blow. She onlysted until now, thanks to the ��magical�� sword.


    Semiprime and Edward, on the other side, were utterly dumbfounded. They had never seen anyone fight like this before.


    ��You guys leave first, don��t wait for me.��


    Immediately, the two snapped out from their stupor. Edward got out of Dacia Sandro and got into Semiprime��s car. There was no reaction on Scarlet��s face. She knew that Zhang Heng was there. In other words, she couldn��t capture or kill Edward.


    She then spoke into the headset, ��I need support.�� It was all she said, turning it off and focussing entirely on the battle. She took a half step back, holding the katana with both hands in front of her chest as if facing her ultimate nemesis.


    Scarlet knew that as long as she dragged the battle on until the cavalry arrived, she would ultimately win.


    She had always disliked how Mr.Coffee dealt with the matters at hand. Initially, they had five yers on their side, but he thought that they were too troublesome. In a shocking move, he killed them all, leaving Scarlet and him to be the only two yers still alive in their faction. She had to admit that he was very powerful. Besides, he knew how to speak and read in French. These were the reasons why she was willing to give up the position ofmander.


    Zhang Heng was the most powerful enemy that she had encountered so far, but if she joined forces with Mr.Coffee, and coupled with ck Nest��s support, she was confident of eliminating the threat.


    Zhang Heng knew exactly what Scarlet was thinking


    The natatorium where Edward was hiding wasn��t too far away, probably around ten minutes�� drive from here. Zhang Heng did not know that Mr. Coffee was busy catching traitors in the military camp. Normally, since Scarlet arrived here first, herpanion must not be far away.


    This was also why Zhang Heng let Semieprime and Edward go first because there was not much time left for him. Scarlet might be only defending to drag the battle on. Combined with her formidable katana, it would prove difficult to transform his ster swordsmanship into a desirable result. This also meant that the battle wouldn��t be ending anytime soon.


    Suddenly, Zhang Heng tossed the de at Scarlet.


    While she tilted her head to dodge the de, Zhang Heng immediately rolled back to the Dacia Sandro that he parked nearby.


    Scarlet held the katana in one hand, and with the other, pulled out the mini pistol on her thigh. She then carefully aimed at the spot where Zhang Heng was hiding, taking special care not to get too close, knowing how terrifying her opponent��s archery skills were.


    ��Do you... need our help?�� Little Boy spoke through themunicator, a rare hint of tension in her voice. She could not see what was going on in the parking lot. All she heard was Zhang Heng sending off Edward and the Semiprime first. On the other hand, he had been at the parking lot for some time now, and his allies were getting increasingly worried.


    ��No, just meet at the designated location. I��ll go there now.��


    As he spoke, Zhang Heng dragged a big bag out from under the back seat, spending 20 minutes assembling whatever was in it. For thest step, Zhang Heng inserted the Infinite Building Block into the item. He then unveiled the freshly minted RPG, holding it in his arms.


    At the same time, Scarlet was uneasy. Zhang Heng had been using the car as cover for some time. If she were to be in his shoes, she would have wanted to leave this parking lot as soon as possible. Although hiding in the car was a good exchange for short-term safety, it also gave her an opportunity to catch a breath and regain control of the situation. Once Zhang Heng showed up again, she would shoot at him.


    For abat expert like Zhang Heng, he should not make such a low-level mistake.


    At the back of the car, Zhang Heng adjusted the sights of the rocketuncher. At a time like this, he would not show up in Scarlet��s field-of-vision. After all, a rocket-grenade was slower than the speed of a bullet. Zhang Heng held his breath and estimated Scarlet��s position from the sound of her footsteps. He then aimed at the ceiling from where she stood and pulled the trigger.

 Chapter 431 - Explosion

    <strong>Chapter 431 Explosion</strong>


    Pedestrians on the streets nearby could hear the deafening explosion from the second floor of the parking lot. Zhang Heng went down on the ground immediately after he pulled the trigger. The resulting shockwave was so powerful that it pinned him tightly on the floor. At the same time, Dacia Sandro beside him had moved by more than ten centimeters.


    Seeing that the situation did not turn out well, Zhang Heng had put up his arms to protect his head, but even so, he sustained some minor injuries. Thankfully, the good old Dacia Sandro had blocked most of the debris that would have otherwise caused serious harm.


    Earlier, only the car��s rear window shattered, but now, every pane of ss on the car suffered the same fate. Sharp pieces of broken ss rained all over Zhang Heng. The air was filled with dust and smoke, and there was debris everywhere. It looked like the aftermath of a warzone as if the entire ce had been hit by a missile.


    The explosion knocked Zhang Heng out, causing him to experience short-term tinnitus. His mind went nk. After about twenty seconds, the ringing in his ears subsided, and his hearing gradually returned. Pushing himself off from the ground, he dusted off the concrete on his body.


    A giant crater could be seen at the spot where the rocket-propelled grenade hit. Steel rebar embedded within the concrete jutted out like jagged thorns, and what was left of a Porsche hung out of the hole with its wheels hanging outside.


    A pile of concrete and debris now covered the ce where Scarlet was standing. Unless a miracle happened, it would be impossible for her to survive. This time, since Zhang Heng��s opponent was killed by the explosion (unlike how he killed his opponent with his bare hands during the Apollo Training Camp quest,) he wasn��t rewarded any game points.


    He stumbled a little, retrieving the Paris Arrow from a distance of about ten meters and walked to the rubble to make sure Scarlet was really dead. Only a few pieces of red cloth were seen were dangling out of the giant concrete b. However, Zhang Heng managed to spot something else in the gap between the two cement bs.


    As he picked the katana up, he heard a notification from the system.


    [Game item found �C Katana (unidentified, broken)]


    Zhang Heng pulled out the katana without much effort. Unfortunately, like its previous owner, it did not survive the explosion. Its de was broken, and its lower part was nowhere to be found. He knew it was special the moment he held it in his hands, and a glint of sadness emanated from the cracked de, seeming like it knew it was broken and was mourning its destiny.


    This was the first time Zhang Heng came into contact with a damaged game item, and he had no idea if the sword could be repaired. If only there were more time, he would have looked for its remaining pieces.


    However, six minutes had passed since the battle between him and Scarlet ended. Zhang Heng was a little surprised that ck Nest hadn��t arrived yet since the explosion was loud enough to alert the police officers nearby. Not wanting to take any more risks, he picked up the Dodge Tomahawk and jumped on it.


    Forty secondster, Zhang Heng thundered out of the parking lot with the monstrous V-10 thumping between his legs. He chose to travel on a route with less surveince, making it difficult for Zero to lock on to his position.


    The current CTOS system wasunched in a hurry when it was still semi-finished. The cameras used to monitor the street were from the transportation department. Zhang Heng took advantage of the many shopping malls and subway stations around him, and after changing transportation modes several times, he managed to rid himself of all the surveince cameras on the street. He met up with the 01 on a trash cleaning boat on the Cannon River.


    ��We sessfully escaped Zero��s surveince. There are no cameras on the river, and I��m confident enough to say that we are safe... for now,�� Little Boy paused and looked at Zhang Heng, ��What the hell happened in that parking lot? I heard the explosion. Are you okay?��


    Zhang Heng had already changed two sets of clothes while escaping, but his hair still contained some traces of dust.


    ��I encountered a difficult opponent. It wasn��t that hard to defeat her, actually... I was mainly worried that ck Nest would capture me if I was stuck fighting for too long. So I had to do something minor to get out of there.��


    ��That��s not something minor. You��ve got reporters rushing over there, and its already on the news on a few channels. Some are even suspecting a terrorist attack,�� Waldo said while facing theputer.


    Zhang Heng took a towel from Little Boy and wiped his face and hair. ��Let ck Nest worry about it. They��ll find a way to settle the problem. After all, they still want to kill Edward. Things are starting to get more serious now.��


    ��We should move Edward to a safe ce as soon as possible,�� Ponytail said.


    ��Thank you, but I can��t leave yet. I have to fulfill my promise and expose what ck Nest has done to the public.��


    ��But now, these guys are starting to panic. They will do whatever it takes to kill you before you can speak to the public,�� Philip warned, sounding worried.


    ��Or you can pass the information to one of us, and we will announce it on your behalf,�� Ponytail suggested.


    ��No, it took me a long time to find three honest and selfless people I think I can trust. I took risksmunicating with them, establishing a connection, and gaining their trust. The three of them represent traditional media, emerging online forums, and documentaries. I need to tell them the truth face-to-face. It has to be me, and it can only be me. Only via that can it be a credible matter. ck Nest has enormous power, but they can��t cut off all three channels simultaneously. As long as these three channels work together, ck Nest will eventually meet their demise,�� Edward insisted.


    ��When?�� Zhang Heng asked. ��The team wille to Toulouse in two days.��


    ��ck Nest has already hacked your mailbox. So, they probably already knew about the meeting.��


    ��No, I encrypted my mail this time, and it will be destroyed after I read it. Even if they hacked into my original mailbox, they wouldn��t know who I am contacting.��


    ��Even so, it��s just too dangerous to risk it,�� Ponytail shook his head, ��How long will it take toplete the interview?��


    ��I have a lot of things to tell them, and since they don��t work in our field, I have to exin everything to them inyman terms. I estimated that it would take three days or two and a half at the least toplete the interview.��


    ��Did you know, that��s long enough for ck Nest to kill you a hundred times over?!�� Waldo asked in disbelief.


    ��Yes, so I may need some help,�� Edward looked at everyone, ��Words cannot describe how grateful I am for everything that you��ve done for me. Really, I have known you people for so long now, but I have never been able to meet up with all of you. I wish that we could have met in a better ce. There��s nothing I can do about it since the matter has almost gotten out of my hand. Perhaps when everything is over, we can reintroduce ourselves in a nice caf��. But now, we��ll have toplete what hasn��t beenpleted.��

 Chapter 432 - This Is Reality

    <h4>Chapter 432 This Is Reality</h4>


    When Mr. Coffee arrived, reporters were already swarming the parking lot.


    ��Let the victim��s family go in first,�� said Mr. Coffee as he lifted the cordon.


    At the same time, a blonde policewoman who was standing nearby suddenly walked over and stopped him.


    ��Sorry, no entry here.��


    ��I didn��t want to do this, since I��ve despised such people in the novels and movies. But one has to admit, it��s pretty cool doing it once in a while,�� Mr. Coffee coughed lightly, before suddenly turning serious, ��Who is your chief? Ask him toe see me...��


    The policewoman frowned. ��Sir, if you continue to cause trouble, I��ll have to arrest you,�� she insisted sternly.


    ��I bet you won��t do it, because, let me tell you what��s going to happen. In exactly half a minute, your phone is going to ring, and your chief will ask you to let me go in,�� Mr. Coffee smiled.


    Having freshly graduated police academy, the blonde policewoman still had a heart full of passion for upholding justice. Whatever Mr. Coffee just said triggered that very passion. With one hand on the handcuffs on her waist, she pointed menacingly with the other, saying, ��No. Thew is sacred and invible.��


    ��I like how you turn so serious when you��re talking to me,�� Mr. Coffee winked.


    The moment Mr. Coffee was done talking, the policewoman��s cell phone rang. Her expression changed the moment she saw who was calling. She walked away, answering the call without looking back. Mr. Coffee could hear the policewoman arguing with her superior, but somehow, she appeared defeated. Her boss must have said something harsh, too, for when she walked over, she was sobbing.


    ��As I said, the world doesn��t work the right way most of the time. It��s a pity, but this is reality.��


    Mr.Coffee had already spotted Vincent, first to arrive at the parking lot. The puffy middle-aged man next to him should be the chief of the police station. The two were walking together, and Vincent made a hold-on gesture with his palm.


    Mr. Coffee turned to the policewoman, ��Justice and evil are just two different factions. There is no distinction between them. The most powerful side will im victory in the end, but no matter which side you choose, you stick to your principles.�� After that, the policewoman looked to be deep in thought.


    At that, Mr. Coffee smiled lightly, turning his attention to Vincent and the director.


    Vincent��s face was virtually expressionless.


    ��I didn��t know you had the ambition to be a mentor,�� said Vincent.


    ��I don��t have anything to do anyway,�� Mr. Coffee rubbed his hands, ��So? How did it go? Is mypanion dead?��


    ��No, but she is seriously injured and is receiving treatment below.��


    ��Tsk tsk, that woman is just amazing. Even an RPG can��t kill her. Just like me, she is a monster as well. Let��s go check on her.��


    Nas


    On the second floor of the parking lot, Scarlet��s eyes were shut when she was carried into an ambnce. Her left shoulder was severely injured, and her scap suffered from aminuted fracture. The doctor had just repositioned her index and little finger that was garishly bent 90 degrees upward. He even fixed one of her knees that had popped out of its socket.


    Mr. Coffee walked up slowly to the ambnce, ��Wow, if it isn��t our lone knight... you don��t look too good, eh?�� ��If you think you can kill me and take away my game items in the state I��m in, just bloody do it already,�� said Scarlet.


    Mr. Coffee sat down across Scarlet. ��Tsk tsk, you seem to have misunderstood something,�� he scoffed.


    ��I��m not a murderer. I killed those yers because they were too weak! Not only did they do nothing to help us, but all they could think about was the loot they��d get at the end of the game. But you... you are different.


    ��Just like me, you are the selected. We are special. These boring appetizers are about to end, and the main course will be served! The war is about to begin. When that happens, only the strong will live. Obviously, a lone wolf will not survive. Admit it, you need apanion, and I need apanion. We are like... well, a perfect match, should I say, just like soy milk and youtiao.��


    ��Just give up already. Even if I need a partner, I��ll never choose you,�� Scarlet replied coldly.


    ��Why? I have achieved 18 consecutive victories. If you count this game, it will be my 19th time iming the win. It is difficult to find someone as good as me,�� Mr. Coffee eximed wide-eyed.


    ��Careful of your overconfidence. Your 18-game winning streak may just end this round.��


    ��Huh?!��


    Mr. Coffee raised his eyebrows, interested in what Scarlet had to say, ��Come on, let��s talk about who you fought against? How many people are there? And how strong were they?��.


    Scarlet closed her eyes as she leaned her head on the stretcher. ��I had only one opponent. I can��t gauge his age, but that guy��s skills on the sword are immacte. It is safe to assume he��s reached lv3 in swordy. He��s practiced for at least ten years, and he has a lot of actualbat experience. I believe he��s killed many people, but his attacks carried no hostility. No, the man has steady emotions, almost expressionless with no fluctuations.��


    Mr. Coffee was a little taken aback as if he��d just discovered a panda. ��He won with pure skill, instead of relying on a game item like you?�� he asked in disbelief, ��Hah! There are there still crazies like him who would spend more than ten years practicing their swordsmanship? Marksmanship would be a lot better, don��t you think?��


    ��Yeah, I thought so too before I met him, but it turns out I can��t even defeat him with my Mikazuki Munechika,�� Scarlet grimaced.


    As soon as she stopped talking, somebody in charge of cleaning the scene ran happily towards her while holding a cutting de. ��Found it! We have found what you want!�� he shouted excitedly.


    In his haste and excitement, he tripped over a piece of jutting steel, and his body leaned forward. The next thing he knew, his hand was bleeding


    ��Careful! It��s a sharp de...�� Scarlet chipped in, taking the broken de with her hand that could still move. A hint of sadness shed through her eyes, and she carefully put the broken de away.


    ��When you told me about your opponent, I felt excited,�� rejoiced Mr. Coffee, ��I always thought this was another ordinary game. I didn��t expect to have this much fun!��


    Scarlet was puzzled, ��Aren��t you busy looking for an alliance for the future war? That guy is not weak. Why not make him your ally?��


    ��You have to admit, having a teammate of the opposite sex is always more exciting,�� Mr. Coffee scoffed.


    Scarlet was toozy to pay any attention. After a while, she spoke again, ��I will quit this round. You canplete the game yourself. I will use a mission failure exemption card to offset the punishment.��


    ��Hey! Hang on, will you? I��m still here. Try to do nothing and enjoy the victory once in a while. Maybe you will like it,��ughed Mr. Coffee.

 Chapter 433 - She’s Also My Landlady

    <h4>Chapter 433 She��s Also My Landy</h4>


    Zhang Heng was wrapping the broken de in canvas when he heard footsteps approaching ��Wepleted the n ording to your instructions. Want to take a look?�� Little Boy asked.


    ��Good. I��ll be there in a minute,�� Zhang Heng answered, but he didn��t budge from where he was standing. He pointed at a brightly lit arch bridge in front. ��Is that Pont Neuf*?��


    ��Yes, it��s also called Pont de pierre*. Built in the sixteenth century and repaired for almost a hundred years, it is still used today. It��s considered one of Toulouse��s ces of attraction,�� Little Boy walked up next to Zhang Heng


    Under the moonlight, the reflection of the bridge on the river against the sea of burning city lights gave off a beauty few words could describe. It was simply magnificent.


    The two gazed in silence at the spectacr view. A momentter, Little Boy spoke up again. ��If everything goes as nned, we will meet those guys from the newspaper forum tomorrow. When Edward is finished with the interview, we��ll transfer him to a safe ce. How about you? Any ns after this?��


    ��Hmm?��


    ��Will you return to your country?��


    ��Oh, if everything goes well, most probably. My passport is about to expire soon anyway,�� said Zhang Heng. As soon as the ny days were over, all yers would be sent back to the real world. Since he could not tell this to the 01 Gueris, Zhang Heng used his passport as an excuse. Coincidentally, his passport would also expire in ny days, making for an eptable exnation. ��I still have no idea why you��re willing to get yourself involved in the entire thing. Unlike us, you��re not from here, and you don��t live here... But hey, whatever it is, I still want to thank you,�� Little Boy said.


    ��Don��t need to thank me,�� replied Zhang Heng, ��I��ve learned a lot from all of you throughout this time. Consider it helping each other out.��


    Little Boy nodded and was about to return to the cabin when Zhang Heng suddenly said, ��Make more friends and live a happier life.��


    ��What?�� Little Boy thought she must have heard wrong.


    ��Other than these people from 01, you probably don��t have any other friends, right?��


    Little Boy was taken aback. ��How do you know that?�� she gasped, ��We��re all geeks, and we don��t really care what the public thinks of us. For me, 01 is enough.��


    ��... perhaps you��re right. I take back what I said.��


    ��Will we meet again in the future?�� Little Boy asked.


    ��Perhaps someday; I��d like to try the cookies you baked.��


    Little Boy frowned. ��Fine. I��ll learn when I��m free, but I can��t guarantee they��ll taste good.��


    ��Trust me, you may not be a genius in the kitchen, but when ites to baking, you��re practically a Michelin star chef.��


    Zhang Heng then returned the game console to Little Boy.


    The highest record on it was now his 999999 points.


    ��Is it just me, or do we actually know each other?�� Little Boy asked, looking puzzled. ��No, I just happen to know someone who��s almost exactly like you.��


    ��Is she your friend?��


    ��Mmhmm, and she��s also myndy,�� Zhang Heng answered, ��Better get an early rest. We��ll be busy again starting tomorrow.��


    In the conference room, Vincent could clearly feel Mr. Coffee��s excitement, and the woman who was assigned with him was now gone.


    After the explosion in the parking lot, she simply dressed her wounds, returned to her ce, packed her bags, booked a flight, and took a taxi to the airport. Three hourster, she was gone from Toulouse. Everyone in ck Nest was bbergasted. And after Mr. Coffee��s rectification movement, the whole team was even more saddened. Many had beenining about the two people sent from headquarters, and some of them even hoped that Vincent would step forward and stop all this nonsense.


    However, they were all declined by Vincent. Since surrendering his position as leader, he had done his best to amodate Mr. Coffee��s every request like a good deputy would, and thanks to his almost omnipresent poker face, no one really knew what he was thinking


    The technician wiped the cold sweat on his forehead and finished the report. ��We fixed the ws in Zero so the enemy can no longer use it to collect information,�� he said.


    ��So, you��re saying that the swimming pool incident happened because they used Zero to find Edward?�� Mr. Coffee put both his legs on the table, fiddling a spoon with his hand.


    ��Yes... that seems to be the case,�� the technician nervously stammered, growing even more nervous by the minute.


    ��Rx. I��m just asking you a few questions. Even if your answer��s not satisfactory, I can��t possibly use this little spoon to kill you.��


    The joke was in no way funny, but the technician forced himself to smile.


    ��I just find it hard to ept that a toy that costs tens of billions of euros to build has such weak protective measures. Didn��t you say that this thing is very secure, that even if someone did find a loophole, it would take more than three months to crack? But... it hasn��t even been four weeks since this thing went online,�� Mr. Coffee grumbled as he tapped the spoon on the table with a slow, menacing rhythm.


    The technician was on the verge of tears. ��I... I don��t know either,�� he managed to croak.


    Only making that guarantee to Vincent and the others, he did not expect it toe back and bite him, and so soon too. Until today, the technical team still marveled at their adversary��s ability to sniff out and exploit vulnerabilities in the system. It was hard to imagine that anyone at all would be able to pull that off in such a short amount of time.


    ��Who could it be? Edward? He knew CTOS like the back of his hand, and is also a very skilled hacker, right?��


    ��No, after doing some research, we agreed that this is not Edward��s usual method of attack.��


    ��Then who is it?��


    ��I... don��t know,�� the technician answered awkwardly.


    ��Will there be other attacks on Zero?��


    By this point, the technician had lost all confidence. ��Probably not. Uhh, I... I don��t know either,�� he babbled.


    ��Don��t you have any other lines besides I don��t know?�� Mr. Coffee sighed, ��I could hire someone off the street for a couple of euros to rece you so he can tell me ��I-don��t-know�� all day long.��


    It was then that Vincent spoke up. ��We came across a very good technical team in Grenoble ��it��s possible they did it.��


    ��You see that? Now that��s professional,�� Mr. Coffee pped his hands, ��From this point onward, we must consider the existence of this team of technicians whenever we make ns. Okay, the next question... why did Edward choose to hide in Toulouse?��


    ��We��ve already looked it up. It��s because he knows a man called Jimmy. Thanks to an ident that killed his son, he hates ck Nest,�� the technician quickly answered.


    ��No, he was waiting for someone,�� Vincent corrected, ��He wants to reveal all the information he has to the public, but since he��s worried about his sister��s safety, he hasn��t done anything. He doesn��t have to worry about that anymore, though.��


    Mr. Coffee looked interested. ��How does he n to do that?��


    ��Based on his character, he won��t just select one channel. Besides, he will make sure to choose the most lethal method, knowing how he��s made up his mind.


    ��Very good. Monitor all the airports, train stations, and highways��find out which journalists, public figures, or influencers areing to Toulouse. Whoever they are, they will definitely be meeting with Edward. And then...�� Mr. Coffee paused, ��...we show up and kill everyone.��


    Trantor��s note:


    Pont Neuf: New Bridge, also known as Pont de pierre (Stone Bridge) is the oldest standing bridge across the river Seine in Paris, France.

 Chapter 434 - Combat Proposal

    <h4>Chapter 434</h4>


    <h4>Combat Proposal</h4>


    gnac Airport, the sixthrgest airport in France, is located next to the Airbus assembly nt. Less than a 20-minute drive from the city, it was also a few of the ces monitored by ck Nest.


    Mr. Coffee got all the passengers�� names before the nended. Three names on the list aroused his interest. One was a news reporter, the other a documentary director, and thest a forum moderator. They were all famous individuals in their respective fields, and it was merely a ��coincidence�� that the three of them got on the same ne. It was impossible that nobody would notice it.


    The ck Nest technician who discovered the list immediately sent it to Mr. Coffee, anticipating his praise, grinning from ear-to-ear. However, Mr. Coffee only held the list for a long time. ��What do you think?�� he asked Vincent,pletely ignoring the technician in front of him.


    ��It��s a trap,�� Vincent said, ��With the skills of the technical team on the enemy��s side, I believe they can hack into Zero. I don��t believe changing a few names in the airline��s boarding system without anyone knowing would be a problem for them.��


    The coffee man pped his thigh, ��Well, what do you know? It��s a damn obvious trap, isn��t it?! Are they looking down on us? Are there even such idiots who would fall for such a trap?��


    The person in charge of the technical team looked embarrassed, ��Then... shall we... resummon the team tasked to watch the enemy?��


    ��No,�� Mr. Coffee smiled, ��Did you get anything from the tracking team you applied from headquarters?��


    ��Not yet. Those people did not attack Zero again, and we have strengthened our guard for now. If our opponent makes a move again, we will know.��


    This time, the head of the technical team was confident enough to make such a promise.


    ��Besides, the drone has also arrived,�� he went on, ��It allows us to monitor ces that the surveince cameras can��t cover. We followed your orders and entered the information and faces of the potential suspects into the database in advance. The city��s surveince cameras and drones can now scan every single person in the city. This time, we��ll definitely find them in the shortest time possible.��


    Mr. Coffee said nothing, turning to Vincent instead. ��Mr. Vincent, I heard that you were a mercenary and participated in several wars. I want to ask you a question.��


    ��Please, ask away.��


    ��What would you do if you��re trapped in a dangerous situation, where you��repletely surrounded by your enemies?��


    ��Sitting and waiting is the most dangerous approach. The best way to get out of a sticky situation like this is to move around as much as possible, disrupt the situation, and devise a way to escape. It��s the only way you can create an opportunity.��


    Mr. Coffee rubbed his chin.


    ��It seems the enemies think the same thing as well. Rather than seeing this list as a botched trap, it is more like a war book,�� he said.


    ��War book?�� Little Boy was puzzled.


    ��ck Nest will take the bait,�� said Zhang Heng.


    It was difficult for him to exin the rationale behind it to Little Boy. Edward wanted to meet the three people he had beenmunicating with for a long time to expose CTOS��s dirty secrets. This would seriously threaten ck Nest, and they would use everything at their disposal to stop it from happening. As long as ck Nest deployed its personnel at several transportation hubs, there was a high probability that they would lock on to their target.


    ��There is nothing wrong with the airport��s power outage n, but we have to draw ck Nest��s people away-especially the sniper, he��s just too dangerous.��


    ��All we did was change the boarding information. Think it��ll fool ck Nest?��


    ��Oh yeah, it will,�� Zhang Heng said affirmatively.


    The main objective of this round was to either help Edward escape or assist Zero in capturing Edward. On the surface, it seemed that this would result in only two endings for these yers. There was, however, another possibility. When the quest��s duration ran out, and if Edward neither escaped, nor did ck Nest kill him, yers from all factions would lose the quest.


    No one wanted to see such results.


    Although an ending that benefitted nobody was very much dreaded, it was still possible. After all, only five days remained for the quest, and it was too risky for Zhang Heng to give up now. Be that as it may, he was confident that he could survive another five days.


    On the other hand, such a result was eptable for ck Nest. As long as they managed to stop Edward from contacting the media, they could slowly y hide-and-seek with him in the city. But then again, it would surely be uneptable for the yers who chose ck Nest��s side.


    In the eyes of Vincent and Little Boy, the name list wasn��t even worth being called a trap, but in the eyes of yers like Mr. Coffee and Zhang Heng, that list served arger purpose.


    ��Is this an invitation to start a duel in advance? This is unexpectedly refreshing. Oh, shit, the proposal is making me so excited,�� Mr. Coffee scratched his head.


    Vincent rarely spoke since he handed overmand to Mr. Coffee. It was usually Mr. Coffee asking the questions, and Vincent answering them ordingly. This time, though, he couldn��t hold himself back.


    ��We have the advantage now, and as long as we don��t mess up, the enemy will not be able to defeat us,�� he proimed.


    ��You��re right, but if we can use the opportunity to cut off their source, it will extinguish the threat once and for all,�� said Mr. Coffee.


    ��But what if this is just a distraction?��


    ��I can understand your worries. This is my n. It��s three in the afternoon now. Whether I can kill the guy on the enemy��s team or not, I��ll bring our people back before dark. I��ll leave the ce to you for the time being,�� said Mr. Coffee adding a reassuring pat on Vincent��s shoulders.


    Vincent seemed a little helpless, ��How many people do you want?��


    ��I don��t need to too many. Just get me a small team. And oh, I need that guy as well. He��ll be useful in the uing battle,�� said Mr. Coffee as he pointed at a man standing behind Vincent. He was Abu, and he was trying his hardest to pretend he did not exist.


    Since the night before yesterday, Abu stopped talking back or humiliating Mr. Coffee. Instead, there was a touch of fear in his eyes. It was Vincent��s first time seeing Abu behaving in such a manner, and it only served to fuel his curiosity on what happened between the both of them. But since Abu never spoke about it, he had decided not to ask about it.


    Abu��s face changed when he was named, but in the end, he had no choice and followed Mr. Coffee��s order.


    ��Don��t cry. It might be an opportunity for you to see something hard to see in life. You should be happy.��


    Mr. Coffee then turned around to look at the technician on the other side. ��Watch the three baits. See where they are headed.��


    ��Yes, sir.�� The leader of the technicians hurriedly left after receiving the order.


    Mr. Coffee pped his hands.


    ��The party has already started. Alright, pack up and get ready to move! Let��s not let our hosts wait too long!��

 Chapter 435 - Pursuit

    <h4>Chapter 435 Pursuit</h4>


    As the nended and the three targets on the list walked out of the airport, the drama between Edward and ck Nest finally kicked off.


    ck Nest��s personnel quickly locked on to all three and hacked into their electronic devices. At the same time, Mr. Coffee and Abu sprung into action, with the two elite action squads, closely following them from behind. Vincent was dissatisfied with Mr. Coffee��s decision to act without authorization despite knowing all too well that it was a bait. Still, since what was done was already done, he could only try to control the damage as best he could and fix the consequences afterward. Now, he had to readjust the remaining manpower andyout. These were issues that Ponytail and Little Boy should have been worried about.


    Thus, the battle between the yers began!


    In the beginning, more yers chose ck Nest��s side. Ironically, their only yer left in the end was Mr. Coffee.


    ��Many fail to understand simple logic. No matter how much trash adds together, it just ends up a bigger pile of trash,�� said Mr. Coffee.


    Abu felt a little ufortable, especially when he and Mr. Coffee were the only two in the car. So, he poked his head out of the window, pretending to enjoy the scenery.


    ��Of course, I��m not talking about you; you are still useful,�� Mr. Coffee added leisurely.


    Those words finally ticked Abu off. ��If you want to kill me, just do it! Is it that fun to ridicule me every day?�� hemented in an irritated tone.


    ��To be honest, it��s exciting,�� Mr. Coffee said.


    ��Well, to make up for you unpleasant stay with me, I��ll allow you to move freely from now on.��


    ��Huh?�� Abu was surprised.


    ��I��ve studied your resume. You are a talented sniper, lurking in the dark. Seizing the opportunity at the right time is your forte. It is a waste of talent letting you follow orders. So... this means you won��t have to take any more orders from me,�� said Mr. Coffee,


    ��...I hope you won��t let me down.��


    ��Aren��t you afraid I would just leave?�� Abu raised his eyebrows.


    Mr. Coffee was resolute, brimming with conviction. ��You are a smart man. When I saw you for the first time, I knew that although you don��t like me, you��d always choose to stand on the side of the winner, and I am born a winner,�� he said, tone filled with confidence.


    Abu fell silent, and after a while, he looked up. ��Did you deliberately give me a chance that night?�� he asked.


    ��What do you think?�� Mr. Coffee asked rhetorically without answering.


    ��...I need a car.��


    Then, this is your car from now on.


    .....


    Twenty-five minutester, ck Nest��s convoy arrived in front of Toulouse Town Hall Square, one of the Toulouse��s most central and visited attractions.


    The technician reported to Mr. Coffee, ��The three people have been here for a while, but no one left, and their cell phone signals disappeared as well.��


    O


    ��Interesting, were they worried that we might have brought a sniper with us? He deliberately chose the ce with most people,�� Mr. Coffee took a look at all the people around him. Other than tourists, there were booths trading secondhand goods and street performers littering the way.


    ��Bring out the drones to scan the area.��


    ��Okay...�� the technician paused, ��But getting the drones into the city hall won��t be easy.��


    ��It��s okay. I��ll bring some people with me to search the city hall,�� Mr. Coffee replied and ordered a group of people to follow him. All of them were asked to carry only a pistol that was strapped to their waists. After that, Mr. Coffee showed a special permit from the police to the guard at the door, and they were allowed into the city hall.


    Toulouse�� city hall was built in 1190, but among the medieval parts of the building, only the gate and courtyard of Henry IV was preserved. Most of the structure waspleted after 1750, with golden corridors and paintings hanging all over the ce. Its interior was one that exuded magnificence. But Mr. Coffee wasn��t here for sightseeing. All eleven of them scattered in different directions and started an intensive search of the ce. The drones operating outside the city hall gave them a bird��s eye view of the situation.


    It did not take long for them to locate their targets in the crowd.


    Just as Mr. Coffee approached them, one of them suddenly yelled, stepped over the warning sign, and rushed to a painting next to him. The tourists were left in shock, when they saw a lunatic sshing his drink on the treasured oil painting, while his twopanions took off their pants.


    Before they could make any more disturbing antics, they were stopped by the security guards. Mr. Coffee looked on at the troublemakers with a smile.


    ��It��s too na?ve. Are you nning to use this method to save your life... call the chief, and we will arrest these people on behalf of the police.��


    But as soon as his voice dropped, a group of reporters came out of nowhere and started taking pictures, attempting to cover the sensational piece.


    The moment ck Nest��s operatives took a step forward, they were forced to stop again. They turned to look at Mr. Coffee in a frustrated manner, and at the same time, the voice of the technician could be heard over themunicator.


    ��I found the suspected Asian in the bar that night. Our goal is now on a bus,�� he reported.


    At the same time, the identities of the three people in front of them were also revealed. They were three new interns recruited by the newspaper.


    ��Tsk tsk. Are they trying to force me to make a choice here?�� Mr. Coffee��s tone did not change, but his re was terrifying.


    The captain of the squad did not want to get into trouble at a time like this. When he remembered what Vincent told him before they left, he had to muster up enough courage to speak up. ��If we arrest those three men on behalf of the police, the reporters will definitelye after us,�� he said.


    Mr. Coffee didn��t insist on the previous order to be carried out. ��Do I look like someone who never thought about this possibility? ��Follow that guy and don��t let him get away. When the problem over there is resolved, we��ll go to the police station to get someone,�� Mr. Coffee changed his mind.


    ��Roger that.�� The team leader breathed a sigh of relief and immediatelymanded the team back to the car.


    The two drones had already caught up with the bus. Mr. Coffee quickly boarded it, followed closely by ck Nest��s convoy.


    With the help of Zero, the ck Nest fleet picked the fastest route. Simultaneously, the traffic lights on the roadside were manipted to ensure that the ck Nest could catch up to them. The distance between the two parties quickly shortened. However, as the bus stopped at the next stop, the people went into the subway entrance.


    Mr. Coffee was a step toote. Now that Zero was online, all cell phones in the city could be turned into monitoring devices. Soon, he managed to locate the target in the subway, and not long after that, the pursuit had led the two out of the city.

 Chapter 436 - Reaper’s Scythe

    <h4>Chapter 436 Reaper��s Scythe</h4>


    The blue Renault finally stopped outside an old manor on the outskirts of the city.


    ording to the intel, the estate��s former owner was a wholesale seed merchant. After going bankrupt, his wife left him, and the bank repossessed thend. In the end, having no ce to go, hemitted suicide in the living room. As a result, the bank failed to sell the property, and it had been left abandoned ever since.


    There was no one to take care of it, and the once beautiful courtyard was now overgrown with weeds. Strangely, the sweet iris nted by the merchant when he was still alive was thriving well.


    Mr. Coffee got out of the car and looked up at the sky. It was gloomy, and low, dark clouds foretold that heavy rain was around the corner. Closing the car door, he took a look around. ��Is it here? It��s a good ce to send him to his maker,�� he said.


    Picking a bulletproof vest from the back seat, Mr. Coffee put it on, then collected his Remington M870 shotgun from the trunk, along with three grenades. ��Let��s give our friends a heartfelt wee.��


    The assault team dragged two heavy machine guns from the bed of the truck and set them up on the grass outside the manor.


    Once the weapons were hot, they began firing at whatever that came into their sight. Bullets poured out from the barrel, shattering ss, wooden doors. Everything unfortunate enough to be in the path of the flying shells were shredded mercilessly. The mindless shootingsted for a full five minutes, stopping only after they had depleted their bullets.


    Mr. Coffee threw two grenades at the manor before taking off this earplugs.


    ��Now, it looks better! Get ready to go in.��


    The assault team behind him immediately picked up their assault rifles, crouched through the broken door, and charged into the house.


    It was a monumental, disheveled mess inside. Whatever valuable furniture had been moved a long time ago, leaving whatever that was left to be utterly decimated by the rain of lead. The ckened blotches on the once white walls were in no thanks to the grenades. The assault team searched room by room, but they found nothing.


    ��It makes no sense. Our drone saw him get into this building, and he didn��t leave after that!�� said the captain while frowning.


    Mr. Coffee carried the shotgun and walked to the end of the hallway. ��That can only mean that there are rooms we haven��t searched


    yet.��


    When the captain heard that, his mood lightened slightly, and his face rxed. The team had searched every corner of the manor above ground, and it was almost impossible for anybody to make a move without being noticed. Hence, the only ce they hadn��t searched was underground.


    Immediately, Mr. Coffee spread the team out, sweeping the ce again from the start. True enough, after a moreprehensive search, they managed to find an entrance to a hidden tunnel behind the firece. However, an unfortunate event ured whilst the secret door was bieng opened. It was a booby-trap, where an arrowunched from a crossbow, and prating the chest of an unlucky one.


    The very untimely death of a ck Nest personnel instantly made the rest of the team very skittish. The team leader quickly sent in a second person to rece the dead man. With the help of a glow stick, he managed to take a look around. It was a small wine cer, built by the merchant before his business went bust. It stored countless bottles of wine from all corners of the world.


    The team member reported his findings to the captain, and unbeknownst to him, a dark figure suddenly emerged from behind the wine rack and fired several shots. Consequently, another ck Nest elite was killed.


    At the exact moment, the other ck Nest agents poured in and began firing back at the 01 Gueris with everything they had. After emptying their magazines, they ceased fire and walked up to the wine rack in anticipation.


    Lo and behold, there was no one there


    Mr. Coffee made a gesture, and two of his men entered the tunnel from the front. A small gunfight ensued as the those in the tunnel retaliated. Then, once again, yet another ck Nest member was killed and the other severely wounded.


    In just a short period, ck Nest��s elite assault squad was reduced to a mere four members. Yet, despite paying such a hefty price, they hadn��t even seen the opponent��s shadow. This sorely irked Mr. Coffee, but nheless, he remained indifferent, appearing unaffected by the massive casualties his team suffered. ��Has the drone picked up on anything?�� he asked as he tossed a glow stick into the tunnel.


    ��No.��


    ��Then, take a look around and see if there are other buildings around the manor.��


    ��There is a warehouse. The tunnel leads in that direction,�� answered the captain once he got confirmation.


    ��Leave two men to guard the entrance. The rest wille with me to the warehouse,�� Mr. Coffee replied.


    Vincent had trained the ck Nest team well. Upon hearing Mr.Coffee��smand, he effeciently divided the assault team into two teams. Mr. Coffee took the four people behind him, left the manor, and walked towards the warehouse in the northwest direction. Before they could make any headway, though, they came under attack again.


    Instead of feeling surprised, Mr.Coffee lit up, since it meant they had been on the right track all along. And this time it was the enemies��st stand. He could feel it from the way they were attacking. The enemy fire felt extraordinarily aggressive, as if it was theirst hurrah, and they had nothing to lose.


    Overwhelmed by the zealous 01, Mr. Coffee had no choice but to look for cover with his four men following closely behind.


    On the other side, the lone Abu walked through a small forest. He had arrived before Mr. Coffee and got to witness the battle that had just taken ce, even hearing in the entire time on themunications channel. However, he chose to remain silent.


    Mr. Coffee judgment on him was correct. Abu preferred to move unrestricted aspared to face-to-facebat, finding his own secluded nest to settle in. Besides, he wasn��t a defensive sniper, constantly electing to go full offense, especially if he couldnd a one-shot kill.


    His prey often didn��t know where the bullet came from until the veryst moment of their lives.


    This was also the principle that Abu adhered to-the true reaper woulde when one expects it the least. No one would ever see the reaper��s face or hear his footsteps.


    Abu took a look at the warehouse, mapping out several suitable sniping points in his mind. When the two men began shing, he ran to the warehouse, nesting up in one of those spots. After setting up his weapon, the warehouse��s south window with the target beneath it came into his sights.


    The weather wasn��t looking too good today.


    Due to the thick clouds hovering in the sky, it was darker than usual, and way more humid. For an elite sniper like him, this wasn��t too much of a problem. 1.7 kilometers was no different than staring at his target in front of his eyes.


    The only troublesome thing was the iing heavy downpour.


    Fortunately, raindrops falling from the sky were far slower than bullets flying through the air. Abu adjusted the scope, and now, there was nothing to stop the reaper from swinging his sickle. ��It��s not your day today,�� Abu murmured, gently pulling the trigger.


    As the loud gunshot echoed in the air, the target in the warehouse unsurprisingly fell to the ground.


    Abu let out a sigh, all the frustration in his chest of Mr. Coffee finally lifted. What happened three days ago was like a nightmare. It had been haunting him, never expecting such a horrifying demon to exist in the world.


    ��Anyway, there��s no way for you to defeat that demon. I will do you a favor and send you to your maker.��


    Abu kept away his gun and enabled the call function on his cellphone.


    ��It��s done.��


    Mr. Coffee and the others walked out of the bunker after getting confirmation that the target was eliminated. ��What? I thought he was a powerful and ruthless character. Did he just die like that?�� asked Mr. Coffee cynically.


    Suddenly, another gunshot thundered from inside the warehouse, catching ck Nest��s team off guard. At least three members were shot, with Mr. Coffee taking one in the leg as well. He fell to the ground with a groan as bullet prated flesh with a sickening spatter.


    Abu was shocked to see the situation, quickly looking into the scope again. It was then that he witnessed something incredible. The ��corpse�� thaty on the ground had been resurrected, and now, he was shooting like a madman.

 Chapter 437 - Sniper Duel

    <h4>Chapter 437 Sniper Duel</h4>


    How could this be?!


    Abu had always been very confident in his marksmanship, never expecting to miss his target twice in just three days. At this point, his confidence was greatly shaken.


    Soon, he managed to calm down and properly figure out the problem.


    ss!


    Earlier, he faintly felt that there was something wrong. The ss on the warehouse was too clean. Obviously, it did not match the dpidated warehouse, looking to have been reced only recently. This ss had a higher refractive index than ordinary ss, the reason why his previous shot did notnd on his target.


    Instead, the opponent feigned death and defeated an ambush.


    However, the guy��s good luck ended here. Now that the problem had been discovered, a good sniper wouldn��t fall for the same trap twice.


    Abu immediatelyid on the ground again, calcting the ss��s refractive index from the previous bullet hole and adjusting his sights to the new trajectory.


    A few secondster, the sniper��s sixth sense saved his life.


    Abu sensed something wasn��t right, decisively giving up on shooting as he rolled to his side with the sniper rifle in hand. That very moment, a bulletnded on where heid earlier, sshing mud on his face. If he had not moved, his brain matter would have sttered everywhere instead of mud. Abu knew the precariousness of the situation he was in. Estimating his opponent��s position based on the shot, he rolled on the ground several times and ended up behind a small tree.


    JIt appeared that just like him, his opponent was an elite sniper as well!


    With only one shot, Abu managed to figure out where his opponent was hiding. Being the experienced sharpshooter that he was, he was actually excited instead of panicking. As long as his opponent human and not a demon, there was no reason to fear. He was also grandly proud of his skills, especially in the field of sniping. Abu never thought there would be a rival to his talents.


    Many marveled at his talents when he yed video games, where his lightning-fast reflexes and instant responses came naturally as drinking water. There was no need for any practice��he would get the highest kill count in the game. His only trouble was that he kept getting reported to the officials that he was a cheat, and the game��s management frequently banned his ount by mistake.


    Unceremonious as it may sound, it might be the only way ordinary yers could beat him.


    Things were different now that he was holding the real sniper rifle. No one could ban him anymore since this was the real world. He had be unbridled, unfazed in the sights of another sniper that matched his unopposed skills.


    Abu closed his eyes and allowed himself to be one with his surroundings. He attempted to capture and filter out certain sounds that could point him in the right direction, hopefully gaining better insight into who he was fighting and eventually getting an advantage. Judging from the opponent��s position, he was now in a safe spot. If the opponent wanted to attack again, he would need to change his position.


    And as long he moved, he would make a sound. It might be no different from the wind blowing over grass or the rustling of fallen leaves to the ordinary person. Still, Abu was one who could distinguish insignificant details often ignored by everyone else. Judging by the previous shot, Abu could tell that he and the opponent weren��t too far apart. All he needed was a little movement, and he would be able to pinpoint the enemy��s exact position urately.


    And Abu firmly believed that his opponent would make a move eventually. It wasn��t because he was more patient than the enemy, but rather basing his judgments on what was happening beneath the manor right now. Although the warehouse guy seeded in carrying out a surprise attack, eventually eliminating three ck Nest agents, another two members were still fighting back. Not to mention Mr. Coffee, who started cursing incessantly at everybody after getting shot in the calf.


    Besides, two powerful assault team members were still in the wine cer. After hearing what had happened through themunicator, they had instantly rushed over to the scene. In other words, those in the warehouse were still at a disadvantage. As of now, they had unleashed their trump card, and if ck Nest got serious, they would be in some serious trouble.


    By this time, Abu had basically figured out thebat n of the other party. While he was thinking about killing his target in the warehouse, his enemy was thinking about how to kill him as well. No one liked the fact that a sniper was lurking in the shadows somewhere, ready to extinguish the life of whoever that came across his sights.


    This only exacerbated the bad situation of those in the warehouse. The opponents didn��t randomly choose this location for the final battle��the topography of the warehouse and the high-refractive ss had been intentionally ced. It was a trick for him to expose his position first. Abu knew very well that he did not need to worry at all. His enemy should be the one to worry about the current situation. Just as he expected, his opponent took the first step after staying silent for half a minute. Abu instinctively picked up his rifle, rolled out from behind the tree, and fired a shot.


    It was a pity that the scope wasn��t used, seeing how he failed to hit the target. Abu was in no hurry, though. He hid behind arge rock and waited for his enemy to act again. On the other hand, the storm had been brewing for a while, and it would soon hitndfall with a fury. A heavy downpour would severely inhibit vision, but the good news was that the rain would affect both sides. It was still fair y. In fact, Abu was confident that he would perform better than the other sniper in such unfavorable weather.


    The enemy must be anxious now, Abu thought. The enemy wouldn��t have been expecting the sudden rain, and it would surely ruin whatever n he had in mind.


    ...right?


    Did the heavy rain disrupt Zhang Heng��s n?


    Well, Zhang Heng did not think so, since he too, was expecting the heavy rain. To be precise, he was actually the one who summoned the downpour with his Weather Marbles.


    Abu had to be the most formidable sniper he��d met after Simon.


    Zhang Heng��s shooting skills increased to Lv. 2 in the Mannerheim dungeon. Being his teacher, Simon��s shooting skills were obviously a tad higher, at Lv.3, and possibly approaching Lv.4. As for Abu, although not as skillful as Simon, there was a high probability he had Lv.3 shooting skills.


    Of course, a duel between snipers wasn��t entirely determined by skills alone, where factors such as strategy and environment would influence the oue. Abu was right


    -Zhang Heng had always been a meticulous opponent, wanting to make sure that his enemy waspletely decimated.


    Unfortunately, Abu had miraculously dodged Zhang Heng��s most confident shot. Despite the miss, Zhang Heng didn��t flinch, waiting patiently... waiting for the rain to fall. As the storm blurred the surroundings with an imprable mist of water, he took out the Filter Lens from his pocket.


    This meant the horrible weather would only affect one side in this battle.

 Chapter 438 - You Won, But I Didn’t Lose

    <h4>Chapter 438 You Won, But I Didn��t Lose</h4>


    (Name: Filter Lens]


    (Grade: D]


    (Function: Preserves the user��s field of vision up to 300 meters-user will be unaffected by factors including light and natural urrences]


    Zhang Heng and Abu were about 270 meters apart, just within the Filter Lens�� range. Equipped with this D-ss prop, the blur of the rainstorm within a 300-meter radius of Zhang Heng��s field of vision magically vanished, and visible light had improved significantly.


    Abu, on the other hand, was struggling. Constantly harassed by the pouring rain, all he could at the moment was to keep his ears open and try his best to locate his target amid the roaring patter.


    As Abu was in deep concentration, his right ear twitched slightly. Then all of a sudden, he rolled out from behind the rock into a crouched position, raised his gun, and pulled the trigger. Without checking to see if he had hit the target, he hurried over to the next bunker.


    This coherent set of actions took only less than two seconds, enough to put all the snipers in the world to shame.


    But just as he was about to stand up again, he felt a sharp, overwhelming pain stab his waist.


    Abu��s eyes widened, and the searing pain was suddenly ovee by confusion and bewilderment as his knees gave way to onto the muddy ground.


    Though his mind told him that he was in grave danger and should get to a safe ce as quickly as possible, the harsh reality was that Abu had lost all sensation in his body. He couldn��t even lift a finger.


    No one knew the power of a sniper rifle better than Abu, himself a sniper.


    He had oncended headshot on a target two kilometers away with a sniper rifle. The poor guy��s head exploded like a watermelon. Abu didn��t even have to look down to know how bad his injury was. That shot had not only sted a fist-sized blood hole in his body but had also severely shattered his spine.


    He was on death��s waiting list, and very near the top at that.


    Zhang Heng took his time retrieving the backpack he had used as bait.


    Even though there wasn��t much aiming involved, Abu��s blind shot still managed to hit the backpack, and the Lego bricks inside it spilled all over the ground. It was a testament to the sniper he imed to be, where such fine marksmanship could only be described as otherworldly.


    Even Zhang Heng, an opponent, couldn��t help but put him in the highest regard. So, after he finished tending to his backpack, he walked to Abu��s body to bid him farewell for thest time.


    Abu was losing blood fast. All too soon, he was at death��s door, falling in and out of consciousness. As Abu slipped further into the jaws of death, he gave a final look of reluctance but there was nothing he could do in thest moments of his life. His mind reyed the scene of the fight, confirming again that he hadn��t made any mistakes and had done everything he could. s, everything ended in such irony. Now hey in the mud like a defeated dog.


    Though he couldn��t speak, Zhang Heng knew what Abu was dying to ask. So, he reached into his pocket and showed the dying man the Filter Lens. A sudden burst of energy snapped Abu��s eyes open. Then, miraculously, as if regaining the confidence of the best sniper in the world, he croaked in a raspy voice, ��You... you won, but I... didn��t lose?��


    ��Mm,�� Zhang Heng nodded.


    When he finally got his answer, a look of content permanently stered on Abu��s ashen face.


    Zhang Heng had taken the crown in this battle, gaining him 20 points.


    As the sniper duel concluded, the battle at the warehouse was about to reach its peak.


    Once the men from the wine cer arrived, ck Nest had the upper hand in firepower, even flying in two drones through the window to act as their eyes. Those holding up the warehouse were further driven into a corner. There were no catching of breaths, as a hail of bullets showered on them from all directions to the point they could barely raise their heads an inch.


    When he saw the enemy outside about to barge in, Piercings screamed into the walkie talkie, ��Are you f*cking done?! If you don��t get your ass here soon, you��ll be dragging my body out of this ce!�� This time, to his great relief, he wasn��t greeted by silence from the other end. ��In position,�� Zhang Heng answered as he pulled the trigger. The enemy running in the front suddenly leaped into the air. His rifle was raised, and he was about to face Piercings, but he did not even get the chance to fire. In fact, he��d never had the opportunity to fire ever again.


    Zhang Heng, hiding in the forest, was in sniper mode. There were hardly any adjustments to be made, as he pivoted the barrel of his gun, and the next target was located almost immediately. As the second shell left the rifle��s elongated barrel, the target��s bone shattered to smithereens, and he fell to the ground, rolling and screaming in pain. Undoubtedly, it was a sight never to be witnessed by children. To Zhang Heng, this shot was a dud. The Filter Lens was only effective up to 300 meters, and since the warehouse was way out of range, his shots weren��t as urate as they should. But they were sufficient.


    He fired eight shots in total. Two missed, and the remaining six hit their targets, Mr. Coffee included. Now, they were all but sprawling across the ground.


    While Piercings swore that he would never be bait again, the battle hade to an end. He stuck his head out, and other than faint groans and whines, the world was quiet again. Not to be missed, the two drones that were attempting an escape were also shot down by Zhang Heng. Finally, he put away the rifle, got up, and walked down the slope.


    ��Have you been notified by the system?�� Piercings asked.


    ��Huh?��


    ��I mean, any opposition yers among these


    people?��


    Piercings walked out of the warehouse, armed with a pistol as he examined the bodies with his toes and putting the poor bastards who were hanging on by a thread, out of their misery.


    ��No,�� replied Zhang Heng. It was one of those things he was intrigued by. In terms of sheer firepower, ck Nest had the upper hand, and since they epted the battle, yers had to be behind it.


    In theory, a yer should be among the ones who fought this battle.


    Zhang Heng had seen the woman in red from the rival team, but he wasn��t sure if she was dead or alive after what happened at the parking lot. As for the rest of the yers, he knew nothing about them. Mr. Coffee seemed to be the groupmander, but there were no notifications from the system even after getting gunned down. ��Could the yers from the rival team be so afraid theypletely relied on ck Nest to eliminate us?�� asked Piercings. He had already checked all the corpses on the ground, except for coffee man. Thetter had performed rtively poorly in the battle, shouting orders to attack at his subordinates, while he pulled back. When Zhang Heng shot the man running in the front, the coffee guy immediately turned around and ran away. Unfortunately, that only kept him alive for only half a minute longer.

 Chapter 439 - Enough Talking

    <h4>Chapter 439 Enough Talking</h4>


    Piercings had checked his surroundings thoroughly, but when he walked up to thest corpse, he stopped and became alert suddenly. There were bullet holes on his clothes, but there was no blood on it. Without hesitation, Piercings shot the dead body��s head another three times.


    A few secondster, he witnessed something unbelievable. The bullets had hit their target but left only a slight red mark. After that, deformed bullet shells ricocheted off the corpse and dropped to the ground. ��Oh, are you done?�� Mr. Coffee got up from the ground, tidied up his messy hair, and said in Chinese, ��You didn��t even give me a chance to scare you.��


    Piercingspensated for his panic, beguiling his heart as he witnessed something impossible. As a yer, he��d seen all kinds of supernatural urrencesespecially yers who hadpleted a few rounds of the game��they would have at least one or two life-saving items with them.


    Like how he jumped from the bridge into the river when danger befell him, Mr. Coffee was obviously in possession of some game item that protected him from harm. Piercings grunted, letting out two sharp breaths. With a decisive move, he emptied the entire clip in one go. Items with such powerful effects generally had a limit on the number of times they could be used. The easiest way to defeat an opponent like this was to make him deplete his item��s uses. By that time, the opponent would no longer be able to defend himself.


    The rain of bullets battered Mr. Coffee, and under the influence of Newton��sw of motion, his body twitched and jerked like an electrocuted frog. Instead of falling to the floor, he grinned.


    ��You sure are rude. Not even letting me have my turn?��


    When Piercings finally stopped shooting, there was a wide grin on Mr. Coffee��s face.


    Greeted by an empty pistol, Piercings tossed it away and immediately rolled over to pick up a corpse��s rifle. He then pointed it at the seemingly immortal Mr. Coffee again. ��It��s useless, you can��t kill me even if you shoot until your fingers cramp up,�� said Mr. Coffee leisurely, as if knowing what his opponent was thinking. Piercings�� face changed drastically. ��Grade B game item?�� he thought.


    There was nothing else he could think of other than a game item that was at least Grade B or higher, which also had an extraordinarily lengthy duration.


    ��Wrong answer. What a pity, but... you can��t be med. After all, there��s only so much an ordinary yer knows at this level.�� Mr. Coffee stood up from the ground and patted away the muddy water on his body.


    ��Your skills are very average, and I am not interested in you. I��m actually here to look for the guy that beat Scarlet in the parking lot,�� Mr. Coffee paused, ��...he��s also the one who ambushed us in the woods. He killed my sniper. I didn��t expect him to be that good.��


    ��Don��t treat me like a fool. I have killed some of the most powerful yers,�� Piercings snorted in disgust.


    ��Is that so? I haven��t killed yers more powerful than me. It must be because... the most powerful yer I have ever met is myself,�� Mr. Coffee replied confidently.


    Seeing Piercings�� gaze still following him, Mr. Coffeepounded on his conviction. ��There��s no need to look around; I have nopanions. In fact, save for a future teammate who decided to quit this round, I was the one who sent the three remaining troublemakers to their makers,�� he thoughtfully added.


    Piercings was in shock. ��You even killed the yers from your faction? Is it because of game points, or you want to loot their items?��


    ��Neither, I just don��t like them,�� shrugged Mr. Coffee. ��An antisocial? I caught quite a few of your types when I was working.�� ��Oh, I promise you I��m better than them.�� Mr. Coffee snapped his fingers, ��Well, the chat ends here. I will kill you first, then I shall see how good that guy really is.�� After he said that, Mr. Coffee moved toward Piercings.


    Piercings instantly pulled the trigger with no indisposition. The assault rifle was way more tenacious than the pistol, firing multiplerge rounds each second, but as Mr. Coffee had foretold, the shells did little effect to him, except for shredding his clothes into tiny rags.


    He even took off his bulletproof vest to prove his point.


    ��F*ck!��


    Seeing that the impossible Mr. Coffee was still standing before him, Piercings threw the assault rifle in his hand and punched him.


    Astonishingly, or rather, un-, at this point, Mr. Coffee didn��t even flinch. Piercings had given everything he got into that punch, socking his right cheek firmly, and this time, not even the slightest of marks could be seen. Piercings, on the other hand, felt as if he��d just hit an armored car with his fist. His fingers hurt badly, and it seemed the bones might have cracked as well.


    Mr. Coffee��s head tilted a little as it absorbed the punch��s impact but soon returned to normal. He blinked and smiled slyly. ��Is it my turn yet?�� he asked with palms in the air.


    The moment he said that Mr. Coffee grabbed Piercings�� cor and rammed his forehead with his own. Piercings staggered, and his forehead started to bleed. Stumbling a little, he almost lost his bnce.


    ��Don��t die on me just yet. I��m just getting started!��


    Mr. Coffee continued his savage assault with a left uppercut. Since Piercings was stumbling about anyway, he miraculously managed to dodge the attack. After this blow, he stretched out his arms and hugged the coffee man firmly, and then the two fell to the ground together.


    As they fell, Piercings changed tactics again, grabbing Mr. Coffee��s arm with one hand, and with the other, he twisted his wrist, performing a Jiu-Jitsu Kimura lock.


    ��This is interesting. Are you using this method to control me after you realize you can��t break my defense?��.


    Not only was the Mr. Coffee unperturbed, he even showed a touch of appreciation. The best way to deal with the Kimura Lock was to stop the opponent beforepleting the routine. That was because the Kimura Lock was almost unbreakable.


    There was an exception, of course. Like what Mr. Coffee was doing right now, he was so strong that he used only one hand to force Piercings into spreading both his arms. Piercings�� face darkened and reddened, but still, he failed to stop Mr. Coffee from escaping. He had the strength of an iron horse, way exceeding the limit of a normal human being. Piercings was hit on the chin, and he slid half a meter away from where he stood, passing out almost instantly. However, Mr. Coffee didn��t intend to stop here. He walked over and sat on Piercings, delivering one brutal punch after another. Piercings was soon like a broken sandbag. Under the series of heavy blows, all his ribs were broken.


    It wasn��t until half a minuteter that Mr. Coffee stopped. ��Do you have anything else to say? Otherwise, get ready to meet your maker,�� he continued without even the slightest pant.


    Before Piercings even had the chance to reply, Mr. Coffee raised his fist again and thumped his trachea with all his might, but instead of makingndfall, his fist went through his opponent��s body and hit the dirt on the ground.


    Mr. Coffee frowned, puzzled when he saw that Piercings�� body had melted into a puddle of water. This small puddle then merged into a water giant two meters away from him.

 Chapter 440 - Invincible Body

    Chapter 440 Invincible Body


    ��It seems that you have a good item on you. Is water the condition that triggers it? But how did you managed to predict that the storm would hit us today? The weather forecast says today is supposed to be sunny...��


    Mr. Coffee got off the ground and shook his wrist. ��...but it doesn��t matter. You don��t have to answer me. I am not that interested in the answer anyway. As long as I get rid of you, these questions are no longer important.�� However, before he could do anything, the water giant struck first. Thus, two indestructible monsters started a savage and primitive fight. Both sides chose not to use any weapons, electing to fight each other with their bare fists. At the same time, they also couldn��t be injured or fatigued.


    This even fight, however,sted less than sixty seconds before the water giant began to fluctuate.


    ��Oh, it seems you need to top up your item. Mine��s still going strong. You may not believe it, but I can do this all day long,�� said Mr. Coffee.


    Before he finished talking, the water giant had already separated from Piercings. He then quickly retreated five meters. As he stood there, the water around Piercings started to flow away. Standing there, the water around the man with earrings began to flow out. He panted in exhaustion, horrified by how powerful the coffee man was.


    How could this be?


    <b>W</b>


    Mr. Coffee��s powers went beyond hisprehension, and it was then that he knew defeating him was impossible. Piercings now believed what Mr. Coffee said, that he had never crossed paths with anybody more powerful than him. With his terrifying defensive power and incredible strength, it was no wonder he managed toplete so many quests.


    Like an apex predator, he stood at the top of the food chain without natural enemies to dethrone him.


    Piercings couldn��t imagine what else could kill him. Did he have to resort to a nuclear weapon? If one were dropped here, Toulouse would be gone as well.


    ��I like the look on your face now,�� sneered Mr. Coffee, ��...although I have seen it on a lot of people, I have to admit that this is still very fascinating to me. Thank you for warming up to me, but we should end it now.��


    Mr. Coffee took another step toward Piercings.


    Piercings were left terrified, but there was nothing he could do. The bizarre creature he faced was a monster that couldn��t be killed by bullets, nor did Kimura��s lock work on him as well. His strength was abnormal, and he would never tire. Besides, his trump card had also been used.


    Piercings nced at the pearl in his hand. It had lost all its luster, which meant this Grade-C game item had exhausted all its uses. He still had another game item with him, but it was useless inbat. And the worst part was that his stamina had depleted, his body sustaining injuries as well. It looked like this is going to the end for him.


    ��Don��t get too frustrated-you��re considered one of the better opponents I��ve met. I think I can rank you in my top ten,�� said Mr. Coffee, ��You��re... out of luck. It was a pure misfortune that you met me as your opponent.��


    He stretched out his hand as he spoke, about to strangle Piercings�� neck.


    A few secondster, a bullet that came from the sniper rifle hit his eyeball urately. Mr. Coffee only managed mouth the word ��f*ck�� before he was sent flying away.


    ��You only rescue me at thest minute, brother,�� said Piercings. He almost burst into tears when he turned around as he looked at the figure walking in the rain.


    ��I couldn��t help it. We were too far apart. Trust me; I came as soon as I could,�� Zhang Heng replied. ��You are so toxic. Thebined danger of working undercover for eight years was a lot lesser than working as bait for you!��ined Piercings as he stood in the heavy rain with tears in his eyes.


    As they talked, the ��corpse�� on the ground started to move again.


    ��What the hell?! Is he still not dead? ��screamed Piercings as if he was about to lose his mind.


    ��Damn, I was scared! I thought I was about to die.�� Mr. Coffee frisked the dust off his chest and sat on the ground with a frightened look. ��Hehehe... I have used my head to catch bullets, and I have even tried to use my butthole, but this is the first time I��m using my corneas to catch bullets!��


    ��Are you still human?! Are you sure you��re not a monster in human skin?!�� stammered Piercings. He tried to speak, but the words just wouldn��te out.


    Mr. Coffee grinned. ��Well... I am actually quite curious myself,�� he said, and shifted his gaze to Zhang Heng, ��Ah, so you��re the one who defeated Scarlet. Mt main purpose ofing here is to see you and... kill you.��


    Zhang Heng stood silently in the veil of heavy rain.


    ��Sorry, I��ve got nothing personal against you. I was wooing that woman indeed, and I promised to carry her through this round. I am also obsessed withpeting against all manner of yers, especially the more powerful ones,�� said Mr. Coffee, then reached out to point at Zhang Heng, ��I want to see the same expression on your face... next, I will need you to struggle as much as you can, and slowly witness my invincibility in despair.��


    After listening to Mr. Coffee��s, Zhang Heng finally spoke.


    ��Styx?�� he asked.


    When Mr. Coffee heard the name, his pupils contracted. After a while, though, heughed again. ��Ah, yes! It appears I didn��t target the wrong guy. You are no ordinary yer, but unfortunately, you are not destined for the proxy war.��


    Piercings was confused. ��Styx? What is Styx?�� he asked in bewilderment.


    ��Sticks is an ancient Greek goddess that lives in the underworld and is in charge of the River Styx. Some call her the goddess of oath and hatred.�� Previously, Zhang Heng studied the god of time, Kronos, and he��d read up quite a bit about ancient Greek mythology.


    Mr. Coffee��s state made him think of a distinct possibility, and now, his reaction confirmed his conjecture.


    ��In ancient Greek mythology, if mortals stepped into River Styx that ruled by Styx, they would be able to enter the underworld. Gods would lose their divinity if they crossed this river, and as for demigods, they would be invulnerable if they soaked themselves. However, it would leave a fatal weakness on their body.��


    ��Wait, why does the story sound familiar to me? Was someone soaked in this river?�� frowned Piercings.


    ��Achilles, the son of the sea goddess Thetis and the hero Peleus, and legendary hero of the Trojan War. His mother dipped him into the River Styx when he was a baby,�� Zhang Heng replied, throwing the sniper rifle away and taking the longbow with him.


    ��You are right. I am Styx��s agent. In a sense, I��m to be considered a demigod,�� Mr. Coffee admitted, ��Styx took me to the River Styx, and I soaked in it for a while. So, I am now invincible. As for the weaknesses recorded in the myths, trust me, you won��t be able to locate them even if I give you a day.��


    However, he did not expect Zhang Heng to put on a strange look on his face.


    ��I have always been reluctant to believe in the existence of destiny, but I am afraid I��ll have to make an exception we��ve met today,�� said Zhang Heng, drawing his Paris Arrow from the quiver.

 Chapter 441 - Similar Fate

    Chapter 441 Simr Fate


    Achilles wasn��t only the Greek��s champion and the most powerful hero of the entire Trojan War. He was invincible on the battlefield, unstoppable even. And he managed to kill Hector, the bravest warrior of Troy, causing the long-stalemate war to lean towards Greece��s side. He was known as a demigod hero powerful enough to change the tide of battle. Unfortunately, he sphemed against Apollo, son of Zeus, and killed by Hector��s younger brother, Paris. Under Apollo��s guidance, Paris�� Arrow urately hit the only weakness on Archilles�� body, his ankle.


    This arrow was now in Zhang Heng��s hand.


    (Paris�� Arrow]


    (Grade: D]


    (Effect: Once the arrow leaves the bow, it automatically heads for the target��s weakness.]


    Although Zhang Heng had used this arrow in the previous games, he didn��t find it very useful. The arrow only proved its worth when he went up against Zavilcha, and considering that it was one of the most inconvenient game items to carry, he was thinking of leaving it behind in the real world.


    He was grateful, though, that he did not make such a decision.


    Zhang Heng began to pull his bowstring. Mr. Coffeeughed when he saw this, ��Are you trying to reproduce the results of the battle three thousand years ago? Unfortunately, I am not Achilles, and you are not Paris. Do you want to shoot my heel? How about I show you my heel and let you shoot it?��


    Mr. Coffee lowered his head and rolled up his trousers.


    ��This guy is too arrogant, right?! The thought of me dying in the hands of such an arrogant guy makes my mood even worse,�� Piercings smiled bitterly.


    He too wasn��t inclined to beleive that Zhang Heng was capable of hitting Mr. Coffee��s weakness. Now that he was unbeatable, Piercings figured out their death was inevitable. If Zhang Heng was right about Mr. Coffee bing invincible after soaking in the Styx, it meant that there was no way to kill or hurt him.


    Such buffs wouldst permanently without the help of any game items. It was as if he wore 27yers of steel armor, but all without the heft. Piercings even suspected an atomic bomb might not kill this monster.


    Was it okay to let such a powerful man exist in the game?


    Mr. Coffee stretched out his hands and raised them to the sky. He was confident that Zhang Heng would not be able to hurt him.


    ��Come on. You have three chances to attack me...��


    However, before he finished, Zhang Heng had unleashed the arrow at him. The Paris�� Arrow shot out with an unexpected gust of wind. However, it only flew past Mr. Coffee��s ear.


    Piercings opened his eyes wide. ��Did you miss your target?�� he asked. He did not expect Zhang Heng��s arrow to really hit a target��s weakness. He was disappointed that Zhang Heng missed himpletely. After all, they weren��t very far apart, and there was no reason for him to miss his target.


    Just as was wondering what was going on, he saw that the arrow had suddenly changed trajectory without any external interference. It did a 180-degree turn. Mr. Coffee��s grin only got wider and wider. Since Zhang Heng had made such an amateur mistake, his mind must be confused, and he was gradually losing his fighting spirit.


    A few secondster, the smile on his face froze. Behind his head, the returning Paris�� Arrow urately hit the fingernail of his left thumb.


    As always, no one could stop destiny.


    ��I don��t need three chances. One arrow is enough,�� said Zhang Heng nonchntly.


    Mr. Coffee trembled. Aspared to the attacks he received before, Zhang Heng��s arrow was supposed to leave him unscathed. After all, arge sniper roundnded on his cornea earlier, and since he was okay, it was only logical to think that such a minute injury wouldn��t do anything to his body. Such damages wouldn��t even maim an ordinary person, let alone an almost invincible monster.


    When the little fingernail shattered, Mr. Coffee instantly stopped breathing, as if a clock��s battery was pulled out, or a wind-up toy getting stuck. Maintained the same posture he was in, he fell head-first on the muddy ground.


    ��What the hell? Trying to fake your death again?!��


    Since Mr. Coffee pulled a prank on him earlier, Piercings was undoubtedly suspicious of his ��death.�� After a while; he saw Zhang Heng putting away the longbow in his hand as he walked to the corpse.


    ��Hey, be careful, this guy likes to pretend he��s dead.��


    ��Don��t worry; I can assure you that he is dead this time,�� replied Zhang Heng. He knelt and turned over Mr. Coffee��s lifeless body.


    ��How are you so sure about this?��


    Piercings stared nervously at the corpse, not too far away from him.


    ��Because I received a notification from the


    system.��


    Zhang Heng was a little surprised. ording to Mr. Coffee, he had killed three yers from his side. It was reasonable to think that those yers�� game items should be with him now. But for some reason, Zhang Heng only found a pair of bronze rings on him.


    The effect of these wouldn��t be known until he identified them.


    ��Wait... are you saying that he is dead?!�� Piercings thought he heard wrong, unable to believe that Mr. Coffee was still alive and kicking just a few minutes ago. The monster that beat him to a pulp was now dead.


    ��I told you he��s dead, and he can no longer get back up.�� After checking the corpse, Zhang Heng picked up the Paris�� Arrow as the finishing move to win this round. Piercings couldn��t help but feel a little mad. ��So, his weakness lies in his fingernail?! That��s f*cking cheating. All he needed to do was to make a fist to hide his thumb. No, he could punch me up when I fought him earlier, even raising his hand arrogantly when he asked you to shoot him with three arrows. He did all that to keep the fingernails behind him. But then again, how did you know his weakness? And how did the arrow U-turn just now?��


    ��You know the rules. Did I ask you how your water giant works?��


    ��It��s okay to let you know, I guess. My water giant is a Grade-C item. Its trigger condition is a considerable volume of water. River water or rain will work. However, I just finished up itsst use.�� Piercings went silent, sighing as he looked at the dying pearl in his hand.


    ��How are your injuries? Can you still get up?�� Zhang Heng asked. ��I will live, but I can��t fight anymore. So I won��t be much help from now on. You can look for a ce to hide me. Anyway, we have four days before this quest is over. If I canplete this, I owe you once.��


    ��Well, take your time to recover, and leave the rest to me,�� said Zhang Heng as he nodded.

 Chapter 442 - Are You In A Hurry?

    <strong>Chapter 442 Are You In A Hurry?</strong>


    It had been fifteen minutes since Vincent lost contact with Mr. Coffee.


    Thest footage that the drone sent back showed Mr. Coffee��s people viciously getting gunned down by a mysterious sniper who had also eventually shot down thest two drone units.


    The ck Nest technicians looked at each other, and for a long time, no one said anything. Vincent was as expressionless as a statue.


    ��In the end, Vincent broke the silence. ��Do your job! Don��t make me repeat myself.��


    ck Nest��s staff breathed a sigh of relief. Before Mr. Coffee took over, Vincent had been in charge of the operation. Vincent was their lynchpin, and now, they could get their act together and delve into their work again. The shock and panic that had befallen the crew quickly dissipated as well.


    Vincent, on the other hand, was not as calm as he appeared to be.


    In fact, he was on the verge of exploding into an uncontroble rage.


    Though he had disapproved Mr. Coffee��s neurotic decision to step into the trap deliberately, he did not stop him when he made the decision. Instead, he sent his strongestbat team to assist Mr. Coffee and even assigned him his best sniper, Abu.


    Much to his disappointment, Mr. Coffee performed dismally. Even with such a luxurious lineup, he still managed to fail in such a miserable fashion. Vincent even started to presume that Mr. Coffee must have been deliberately pitting against him.


    The arrogant sod��s blunder ruined all of Vincent��s ns. The technicians were fine, but they were getting a little stretched out in the field. Should pushe to shove, he would have to put on his battle armor and take out his favorite 17.


    ck Nest had the absolute upper hand in firepower, but being on the defensive had its own disadvantages too. Having no idea what mode of transport Edward and his people would use to get to Toulouse, Vincent had to scatter his men at various locations, including the airport, train station, and highway. At the same time, he mediated and directed the team, all in anticipation of making a move. At least they had Zero��s powerful monitoring capabilities, hopefully enabling them to find the target among the sea of people.


    Louis was the star reporter of Le Monde, known for his incredible ability to dig up scandals in the government and business world. He had exposed Strauss Kahn, former president of the International Mary Fund for a sex scandal, eventually forcing him to resign. The wife of former Prime Minister Fran?ois was also exposed for embezzlement, in no thanks to him, and not too long ago, he was busy following the papertrail of arge welfare agency��s funds.


    Louis received a secret tip that the welfare agency was allegedly involved in high-priced purchases and financial fraud-arge part of the agency��s donations was said to have gone to the chairman and vice chairman��s own pockets.


    However, in the middle of the debacle, Louis received a strange e-mail. The sender said that he had headline-worthy information in his hands, but refused to disclose the content.


    At first, Louis did not take the message seriously since he received emails like this almost daily, with his reputation and all. Still, most of these so-called ��big-scoops�� were actually the senders getting themselves into trouble.


    Louis would reply by expressing his sympathy for them, but he weren��t Batman, and neither could he bring justice to everyone. Instead of drowning within these personal dilemmas, Louis wanted to focus his attention on the big scoop, something he knew would have a far-reaching influence.


    Upon receiving the email, he quickly managed to sniff out something unusual from it.


    This mysterious sender seemed to know what he was thinking and sent him a second email. This time, it wasn��t sent to the public email address on his website, but to the secret inbox he used tomunicate with special informants.


    That caught Louis�� attention, his reporter��s instincts telling him that there was big fish to catch.


    After an exchange of keys, they began to establish a line ofmunication through encrypted emails. Louis�� hunch proved to be true. The more he knew, the more he was gobsmacked. At the same time, he also realized the insurmountable danger that surrounded the matter.


    ck Nest was not just some multinational group made up of a bunch of consortia. Their tentacles were far-reaching, coiling all the way among the inner workings of political and business circles. Once CTOS wasunched, gaining control over entire Europe would be all too easy for them.


    Louis immediately set his work aside and set up a ce and time to meet Edward.


    He managed to put together a small team, and along with him, was a videographer, a moderator of arge online forum, and a well-known documentary director. There was a total of six people, and together, they departed from Paris to Toulouse.


    The team was nervous and on edge as theynded. Before they took off, they were briefed about the status of the newspaper��s advance team. The three interns who yed bait had done well inpleting their part of the mission. The next part was up to them now. Louis looked at Pierre in the next seat. Pierre had been his photographer for a long time, and no matter how precarious the situation got, he was the one always to capture the footage Louis needed.


    ��Are you ready, Pierre?��.


    The lights on the airport runway lit up brightly through the ne��s windows. Pierre did not answer. He nodded and gave Louis an ��OK�� sign. Before Louis��s big break, he was a war correspondent in Iraq for a period of time, where he had also met Pierre.


    They survived the Gulf War together, so there was no reason they wouldn��t survive this investigation.


    ��Well, let��s begin, then.��


    When the ne came to a halt, the flight attendants routine reminder to the passengers to check all their luggage, the six-person crew��s adventure began.


    Airports generally got their electricity from two separate power supplies and were also often equipped with more than one backup power set, so power outages were sporadic.


    But tonight, gnac Airport��s terminal was plunged into total darkness. The airport evacuated tourists and tried to find the cause of the power outage. It was chaos where people were running and stepping onto each other.


    Upon receiving the news, Vincent acted immediately, barking out instructions as hemanded the driver to start the lead vehicle. Still, as that was happening, an unfamiliar voice came over his hand-heldmunicator.


    ��Mr. Vincent, are you in a hurry?�� Vincent��s brows furrowed. ��Are you the people who killed Abu and the others?��


    ��Yes, that��s right. To avoid a reurrence of that... unpleasant incident, I strongly rmend you stay where you are,�� the voice said.


    ��And what if I refuse?��


    He was replied with the sound of a sharp ��thwap,�� and a bullet punctured one of the PV��s tires.


    ��This one��s just a warning. If you insist on doing things your way, then the next bullet will be for you,�� replied the voice calmly.

 Chapter 443 - Whistleblower (End)

    <strong>Chapter 443 Whistleblower (End)</strong>


    ��... Nice to meet you. Where should we start?��


    Edward faced the camera and adjusted his hairstyle and cor. ��Should I talk about CTOS first, or ck Nest?��


    ��Why don��t you start with self-introduction?�� said Louis, who was sitting on the opposite side.


    ��Okay, sorry. It��s my first time doing an interview like this, and I don��t know how it works.�� Edward paused. ��My name is Benjamin, Benjamin Reynolds. I am a core developer of ck Nest��s CTOS system. Before that, I went to college for a year, but I quickly dropped out. I have a dog, and it is called Pudding. Uhh, not too long after that, I developed two programs with my friends, and I made a fortune selling them. The techpany that bought my software was a ck Nest subsidiary. After that, they wanted to hire me, and it was at that time I was told about the CTOS project. What they told me when they recruited me ispletely different from what is happening right now...��


    When Edward was being interviewed, Little Boy walked onto the balcony and saw Zhang Heng watching the night scene. ��Z contacted me earlier. He has almostpleted everything he needs to do in Hong Kong. After Edward finishes the interview, he can fly to Hong Kong right away. He will be safe until the incident is exposed.��


    ��Hmm,�� Zhang Heng nodded. ��I will send him to Hong Kong.�� This part had everything to do with the sess or failure of the quest. At a time like this, Zhang Heng had no intention to let his guard down, and it necessary that he went on this trip. After all, he��d ovee countless threats this round, and if something went wrong during thest phase of the n, all the effort he had put in would be wasted.


    Although, in theory, ck Nest didn��t need to kill Edward anymore after Louis sent the interview to the press in an encrypted mail, being cautious was always Zhang Heng��s way of doing things. Besides, Scarlet was still missing. ording to Mr. Coffee, she decided to quit the game halfway. Little Boy wanted to say something, but in the end, all she had to say was, ��I wish you all the best.�� ��You too,�� Zhang Heng replied.


    After Little Boy left, Leah came to the balcony this time.


    ��We have thanked you so many times so that I won��t thank you again.�� Leah took out a USB sh drive from her pocket. ��Hey, my brother asked me to give it to you. But I don��t know what��s inside,�� she went on.


    Zhang Heng took the USB sh drive and raised his eyebrows... because he heard the system��s notification the next moment.


    (Game item �C U disk found (unidentified)].


    Between Scarlet��s half-broken katana and Mr. Coffee��s copper ring, he had obtained two-and-a-half game items when andbined with the extra 300 points he earned from finding the Easter Egg; it was a considerably good yield overall.


    Other than that, Zhang Heng also noticed the proxy war mentioned by Mr. Coffee before his death.


    Previously, Zhang Heng encountered a junkie in the Apollo dungeon. He could bypass machines and tests without assistance of game items, and although his ability didn��t affect the ordinary person, it was still considered a supernatural force.


    Theoretically, those strange but otherworldly abilities were no different from Zhang Heng��s extra 24 hours.


    This also meant that he wasn��t the only agent. The old man in the Tang suit reminded him to be careful of other agents when they met for the first time, and with the sporadic information that Zhang Heng had gathered, he probably figured out the purpose of this game, or at least the goal of the first half of the game. This peculiar game had been going on until now to allow people like the old man in the Tang suit to choose agents. Encountering yers like him in the game, skill level, abilities, game items, and the character panel��s evaluation on his performance in each round tournament further confirmed Zhang Heng��s line of thought.


    The so-called yers were like merchandise disyed on shelves, waiting for the next customer to choose them. Zhang Heng was also more concerned about what would happen next. After every gambler at the table had selected their cards, how would the next game be carried out, and how would the proxy war unfold?


    Four dayster, in Hong Kong, Zhang Heng received a notification toplete the main quest. He had also officially confirmed that Scarlet had given up this round. So, he spent the remainder of his time strolling around Temple Street in Yau Ma Tei, getting a temple attendant outside the southern wall of Tin Hau Temple to look into his face.


    The temple attendant was very well dressed. He had his long hair neatly tied into a bun, wore a long-sleeved attire paired with cloth shoes, and from head to toe, exuded a divine aura. Of course, he carried about with him a transcendental temperament.


    The reality for many businesspeople was a cruel one, where they had a hard time keeping their business going throughout rain or shine. The temple attendant had spoken Cantonese for fifty years, but for the sake of serving a wider variety of customers, he now had to learn Mandarin.


    He spoke about Zhang Heng��s career and marriage in an authentic Hong Kong ent, and although he looked calm on the surface, his heart told a different story. Failing to detect any micro-expressions on Zhang Heng��s face caused him a great deal of frustration. His tried and tested method wasn��t working, and left with no other options; he tried striking up a small conversation. After a while, he finally got to the highlight. Zhang Heng was apparently about to face a catastrophic event in two months.


    Zhang Heng smiled when he heard those words, not responding in any way to it. When the temple attendant thought that he could only earn a basic service fee, Zhang Heng took out his wallet from his pocket.


    The temple attendant immediately put on a serious look. ��If you don��t have enough cash, Alipay will do,�� he said, going straight to the point.


    ��Aren��t there only a handful in Hong Kong who use Alipay?�� Zhang Heng asked.


    ��Oh, in the service industry, the customeres first. Customers from the Maind like electronic payments, and ever since they introduced Alipay, my customers have increased by half,�� the temple attendant sighed. ��Next month, I��m nning on using WeChat to help with my business. By the way, do you y online games?�� ��asionally, why?�� ��I can predict your chances of getting SSR characters... it��s cheap. It��s just two hundred dors.��


    Instead of opening his wallet, Zhang Heng gave the entire thing to the temple attendant.


    The temple attendant looked hesitant, ��Um... I said you would face a great catastrophe in two months, but you don��t have to give up on life just yet. Listen to me, young man. When there��s a will, there��s away. Am I not still here to help you change your destiny?��


    ��You misunderstood me. This wallet has no use to me anymore. There��s not much money left in it, but I brought this back from France. Keep it if you like it,�� said Zhang Heng.


    ��This doesn��t sound right,�� the temple attendant said cautiously. However, he reached out anyway and took the wallet. ��Genuine leather?��


    When he raised his head a few secondster, Zhang Heng had been long gone.

 Chapter 444 - Crossroads For Youths

    <h4>Chapter 444 Crossroads For Youths</h4>


    Zhang Heng was growing ustomed to his current lifestyle. He would go to the Sex and the City bar every other month toplete a game, then return to school life. Except for his roommates who could detect the change in his temperament, no one else could tell that he was different than he was yesterday.


    Afterpleting so many games, Zhang Heng was getting better at controlling his mood. Whatever happened after he returned from ck Sail would never happen again. Like this Whistleblower quest, Zhang Heng spent most of his time living with Little Boy, and thus, hadn��t experienced any significant emotional changes and high-intensity mental pressure. It was why the changes within him weren��t noticeable.


    In the afternoon, while Ma Wei prepared lessons in the library, Wei Jiangyang invited Zhang Heng and Chen Huadong to the court for a game of basketball. After throwing a couple of hoops, a group of senior students came, and they were then divided into two groups of three. Everyone was just ying for fun initially, but they soon got bored, so someone suggested that the losers do 20 push-ups. The game naturally became more aggressive after that, and at the same time, more conflict arose among the team as well. Fortunately, both sides managed to control their emotions well enough. When someone fell, the opposing team would immediately help them get off the ground and pat down their backs.


    It wasn��t until one thin, tall guy got defeated by Wei Jiangyang three times. Deeply embarrassed, he started to shove Wei Jiangyang around. Then, all of a sudden, the atmosphere around the basketball court tensed up significantly. It was then that the group��s attention was caught by a red Lexus approaching from the distance.


    The school typically forbade vehicles from outside the school to enter this ce. Even the faculty��s staff could only park their vehicles in the parking lot. Generally, security would only lower the two iron barriers when freshmen enrolled in the school or when seniors graduated.


    Citing those reasons, the appearance of the Lexus quickly captured a lot of attention.


    It seemed the car was heading for the office building that wasn��t too far away. However, as it passed the basketball court, it suddenly stopped and reversed. The driver lowered the window, revealing the person on the wheel.


    It turned out to be a stunning woman in a white shirt and a pair of jeans. There was light makeup on her face, and she was adorned with lustrous ornaments and jewelry. Her appearance told of a woman with a powerful and confident aura.


    Chen Huadong looked at her once, and he got excited immediately.


    ��This has to be the best MILF ever!��


    He had just said out what every boy was thinking right now. Logically speaking, as long as the students weren��t in engineering, they shoulde across plenty of girls on campus. The guys had seen all manner of beautiful women, but this time, everyone had to admit that this was probably the gorgeous woman they��d everid eyes upon. Especially when thedy turned to look at them, everyone��s hearts started racing. They were all very nervous.


    ��Why didn��t you answer my call?��


    ��Huh?�� Chen Huadong waspletely confused by what was going on. He then heard Zhang Heng��s voice behind him. ��Sorry, I didn��t hear my phone ringing. I was ying basketball just now. Why are you here, Sister Han?��


    Han Lu removed her sunsses. ��The dean of Economics and Management knows me. Hence, he asked me here to give a lecture. Initially, I wanted you to be my guide..��


    Han Lu actually knew the dean, also knowing that the field of finance wasn��t popr around here. Over the years, she made a name for herself in the financial world, to the point the average entrepreneur would beg to meet her, and she would usually charge by the minute. Somebody like her was expected to have connections with the dean in this university. Something must be wrong since she was willing to give lectures for free. No university would reject such a fantastic opportunity.


    Her significance could be seen from the way the school weed her, where not only was her Lexus given special permission to be driven on campus, but several high-ranking officers from the Department of Economics and Management even dined with her before the lecture started.


    ��Have you had lunch? Shall we?�� Han Lu asked.


    Zhang Heng shook his head. ��I don��t attend events like that.��


    ��You are right,�� Han Lu said. ��I didn��t like my uni��s leaders when I was studying as well. Academic Affairs Office was the second one I hated. Carry on with your game then. When I finish the lecture, let��s go somewhere nice for dinner. You should be familiar with the area. You haven��t contacted me since thest time we met. I promised your mother I��d take good care of you,�� shemented.


    Zhang Heng smiled. ��I was just afraid I��d be interrupting your work. Haven��t you been very busytely?��


    ��No, my job is to listen to different people bragging about their achievements to me. I might just live a few years longer if I don��t listen to all that twaddle,�� replied Han Lu as she returned the smile. ��I will see you tonight.��


    After that, she raised her window and sped towards the office building. The rest of the boys on the basketball court were left open-mouthed and astounded.


    ��Master Zhang, you got that woman to be your sugar mama?!�� Chen Huadong eximed in envy. ��That has to be the perfect life I��ve always dreamed of.��


    Zhang Heng threw the ball at Chen Huadong. ��Cut that crap. She��s my mom��s best friend.��


    Chen Huadong, however, was no longer in the mood to y any basketball.


    ��Why doesn��t my mother have a friend like her?!��


    Wei Jiangyang, on the other side, seemed a little worried. ��Old Zhang, is it because of Shen Xixi��s affair? She went for a rich old man, so... you hooed up with an older woman as revenge?��


    ��Mind your words, old Wei. Listen to what you just said. How can a MILF queen like her be called an old woman,�� grunted Chen Huadong in great dissatisfaction?


    ��I have exined many times. Shen Xixi and I are just friends, and she doesn��t go for older men, nor is she in a rtionship with one. Instead of helping curb the rumor from spreading, it seems you��ve been ming it.��


    Wei Jiangyang scratched his head. ��Everyone is saying the same thing about her. Don��t worry. If someone dares to spread rumors about you, we will do everything we can to stop it. Anyway, are you really not in a rtionship with that woman?�� he chuckled.


    II


    11


    Suddenly, a senior that has hesitating to speak said something. ��That was Han Lu, President Han? I saw her picture on a listedpany that I applied for. She was thepany��s first investor.��


    ��She didn��t just invest in just onepany. Manypanies have her picture on their walls. She is often on the news, and she seems to have been awarded the title of Asian Female Leader,�� said the tall, thin man. ��You��re one lucky guy, brother. You don��t need to worry about work at all after you graduate.��


    Undoubtedly, the other seniors thought the same as well.


    They were about to finish their studies, and having less than one semester left; they would soon enter society and join the brutal rat race. People of different creeds faced different situations, where some wouldnd their desired careers, and some still unsettled. Some struggled which path they should choose; if they should be a civil servant or engage an unstable job they had been longing to do.


    Countless young graduates would face the intense emotional pressure of heading into the unknown. Hence graduation season was also breakup season.


    The stresses of moving into a different city, the intensepetition, and the harsh realities of making it on their own had left many feeling utterly helpless. The culture shock that hit graduates as they officially took the reins and started their new jobs usually caused them to make sudden and drastic decisions. Some chose to break up with their loved ones, some split-up, and got back together again, and some broke up and regretted it all after a few years. Only a small number of lucky people chose to protect their rtionships until it became mature.


    Happiness was something that one had to work hard to acquire. Behind every sweet smile in wedding photos were heartbreaking quarrels and bitter conflict others never saw. Enormous sacrifices andpromises from both sides were also essential. These would all eventuallye together, forming into what we know as marriage.

 Chapter 445 - Come Closer

    <h4>Chapter 445 Come Closer</h4>


    The food alley near the school was a lively ce every night. After all, sustenance was the reason mankind was alive. The restaurant Zhang Heng chose served some of the best grilled fish around the area. Hence, the establishment was doing very well, with an almost perpetual queue waiting outside the restaurant every night. As Han Lu looked around for parking, Zhang Heng headed to the usher to get the number. More than 30 people were in line in front of him.


    ��Should we change restaurants?�� Zhang Heng asked Han Lu.


    ��It��s fine. Let��s eat here,�� Han Lu said. ��I��m not in a hurry, anyway.��


    It was a shame that those in the finance line didn��t hear what she said, or they would have probably died of shock. It was hard to imagine that the Han Lu, who always went, ��My time is precious. Make your long story short. Don��t say anything unnecessary�� would even think of waiting in a thirty person queue.


    She had always been like this, firmly believing that everything could be quantified in value. For her, work was an ongoing struggle, and as soon as she opened her eyes each morning, she would sort out they day��s business based on priority. Time would then be allocated to each task ording to its value.


    In other words, there could only be one possibility on why she was willing to sit and wait outside a small restaurant. She must haveputed that the waiting was worthwhile and the time spent valuable.


    ��I haven��t stepped into school for a long time. Coming back here; it makes me feel a lot younger. It made me think back on my school days as well,�� sighed Han Lu.


    Truth be told, she had long forgotten the name of her ss monitor, and neither did she care if her old ssmates were dead or alive. Apart from meeting Mother Zhang when she studied abroad, she had literally no other friends she could confide in.


    For influential people like Han Lu, getting benefits out of a new friendship was priority. To her, it was more about the exchange of interests and creating a win-win scenario. Friendship still mattered, but it didn��t matter much.


    Han Lu wasn��t one to whine like little girls in romance dramas. She knew it was a fair world. There were gains and losses, and since she gained far more than she lost anyway, there was really nothing for her toin about.


    Of course, she would be happier if she could procure more than what she bargained for.


    Han Lu took out her mobile phone. ��Come closer, let��s take a photo,�� she told Zhang Heng. ��I want to prove to your mother that I��ve lived up to her trust.��


    Zhang Heng had to lean against Han Lu again when he heard this. No matter what age the woman came in or what their upation was, they had always been skillful at taking selfies. All too soon, Han Lu managed to find a perfect angle and captured the photo.


    At that very moment, a text message came in on the phone.


    It came from an unknown number. The first sentence disyed on the message was ��Boss Han, it��s about the project supplementary information you mentioned...��


    Han Lu clicked on the text message, but when it was open, she could no longer read the text. Instead, only an inexplicable picture was disyed. In the dim and dark photo, a shadow of a human seemed to lurk in the darkness. The shadow looked to have a pair of ck wings as well.


    Zhang Heng was quick to react. The moment he saw what it was, he instantly blocked the phone screen with his hand. However, it was toote.


    ��What the hell is that?�� Han Lu frowned. ��Is it a prank?��


    ��What time did you sleepst night?�� Zhang Heng solemnly asked.


    Han Lu was a little surprised. This was her first time seeing Zhang Heng being so severe. He gave her a calm and mature impression.


    ��I usually hit the hay before midnight, but a pharmaceuticalpany I invested in will initiate their first round of financial meetings next week. We still can��t agree on the valuation, which is why I workedtest night. I slept at about two in the morning, and I woke up at seven-fifteen. Why ask?��


    ��Because you might not be getting some shut-eye for a while,�� replied Zhang Heng. ��Huh?�� Han Lu raised her eyebrows, obviously having no idea what Zhang Heng meant.


    ��This is kind ofplicated to exin.�� ��It doesn��t matter. We have lots of time on our hands.��


    Zhang Heng took out a lens from his pocket and handed it to Han Lu. ��ce it in front of your eyes.��


    Han Lu was puzzled by the item. She had been venturing the field of business for many years and met all kinds of men. They would all use all manner of methods to win her over, and she thought that Zhang Heng was probably pulling some tricks. That inexplicable photo might have something to do with him, after all. Yes, she was interested in Zhang Heng, but it surely didn��t mean she would lose her mind when she was with him.


    Han Lu had always believed that even the most perfect man would eventually make a mistake. However, she undeniably enjoyed what was going on right now, and even if this wasn��t what she expected, she wished it wouldst longer.


    When Han Lu put the lens in front of her eyes, however, jaw fell open in shock.


    ��Is this some ck-market technology?! This is incredible. Apart from clearer vision, the brightness is adjusted as well. If I can mass produce this, the profits will be unimaginable! This could find many applications in countless fields. What you need right now is a professional team to help you promote this item. I can provide you with such a team, as long as you make me your top investor. Oh, sorry, upational hazards...�� Han Luughed at herself. ��I feel the urge to invest when I see a good item. Considering the good rtionship between your mom and me, I don��t mind if you reject my proposal. I��ll still help you with it.��


    ��Unfortunately, this item cannot be mass-produced,�� Zhang Heng said. Zhang Heng was cautious with the words that he used. Han Lu was the overly practical and logical kind of woman, and It wasn��t easy to change the way she viewed this world. At the same time, he also needed to abide by the rule of not revealing his yer��s identity to others. It wasn��t easy to just exin things as it is.


    Han Lu lost most of her enthusiasm the moment she discovered that she would yield no benefits from the item no matter how valuable it was. As quickly as her business intuition struck her, she suddenly realized something and quietly waited for Zhang Heng��s exnation. ��Below the surface of this ordinary world... are some supernatural things.��


    ��Well, is this part of your mom��s research? When we were studying together, I knew your mother majored in theology. As far as I know, she doesn��t really believe in these things. It is all fairy tales to her,�� said Han Lu.


    ��This has nothing to do with my mother, and she doesn��t know the existence of those... things. I know it can��t be easy to ept new truths, but what I��m going to say next is very important. From now on, you have to make sure that you don��t close your eyes. Don��t sleep, or take a nap... not until I find a solution.��

 Chapter 446 - Do You Have Any Enemies?

    <h4>Chapter 446 Do You Have Any Enemies?</h4>


    Dreand of Death.


    It was the most frightening game item known to the yers.


    It killed the former leader of Silver Wings, one of the three major guilds, where he was an owner of Grade-A game items. After that, the original owner of Dreand of Death was killed by the guildsbined effort. Since they could not decide on a new owner, the three major guilds eventually came up with the fairest method-putting it on auction.


    The guild that acquired the item wouldpensate the other two guilds with a handsome amount of game points. With that, everyone benefitted from the deal. None of them would expect a mysterious woman to so rudely mess up their n. The woman in sunsses managed to acquire the item, using the game points she squandered off from the chamber ofmerce. As a result, the Dreand of Death, an item the three major guilds fought so hard for, disappeared once again before their eyes.


    In the following months, yers searched high and low for the whereabouts of the mysterious woman and the coveted item, but no matter how hard they looked, she seemed to have vanished from the surface of the earth. It was all quiet, until a year ago, when Zhang Heng took the train home and ran into a middle-aged man who wouldn��t wake up from his sleep. He learned afterward on the foru that the Dreand of Death had reappeared. This time, there were more victims, and worse, they were no longer limited to yers. Many were ordinary people who were scattered all over the country, and none of them were even rted to each other. The issue had quickly caught the attention of many, and the forum began to pile up with posts regarding the dreaded item��s reemergence.


    After investigations conducted by the three major guilds, the ��murderers�� were found. The bad news was that they all turned out ordinary people, and the Dreand of Death they purchased actually came from an online shop called Murder Without Risk.


    It didn��t cross the minds of most people that the purchase would genuinely kill the person they hated. All they wanted to do was vent their disgust and dissatisfaction, and after learning that those they targeted were actually dead, many descended into insanity.


    That said,pared to the mental health of the ��culprits,�� the yer base was more concerned about other things. These were all questionable killings.


    The yers demanded answers to a few key questions. Who was the shop owner of Murder Without Risk? Why had so many Dreand of Death copies appeared in the real world? How did the person do it? The fourth question, however, was the issue that most yers were concerned about: how to survive a Dreand of Death attack.


    The entire Silver Wings guild found it hard to carry on after the death of their former leader. The fear among the yers had also reached its peak at that time.


    To make matters worse, copies of the Dreand of Death were now widely distributed in the real world. Although the Murder Without Risk shop had disappeared, no one really knew how many copies had been sold, used, or how many were left. No one knew when or where it would appear again. No one could guarantee for sure that they wouldn��t be the next victim.


    Although posts on the forum were rife with spections on how to deal with the problem, none were verified. There was a silver lining. After multiple arrests of the ��murderers,�� the yers soon had a clearer pictue on the trigger conditions for the item.


    The Dreand of Death came in the form of a ck feather. The user needed to ignite a piece of paper with the target��s name on it along with the feather. The ashes of the two were then required to be soaked in water. For thest step, the target would have to be shown the photo that Han Lu received.


    Not limited to solely text messages, the picture could be shown on billboards, videos, or even including it in PowerPoint slides. As long as the target looked at it, it was fine, even if they didn��t realize that they actually saw it.


    ��So, you are trying to say that I��m under a curse, and from now on, if I close my eyes, I will die in my dreams?��


    Even after witnessing the Filter Lens�� magical effect, Han Lu still found Zhang Heng��s words to be utterly unbelievable.


    ��Yes, that��s one way to put it. It��s not too difficult to prove what I��m saying.�� Zhang Heng realized that it was unrealistic to make Han Lu realize these problems�� gravity by just giving her an exnation.


    ��Do you have any enemies?��


    ��It depends on how you define enemy,�� Han Lu said. ��In our field, it is difficult to stay pure and clean. It can be all fine and dandy with your client today, and the rtionship could cease to exist tomorrow. Emotions should never get between investments, and as long as I see fit to plug the losses, I will decisively withdraw all the remaining funds. I don��t care if yourpany survives tomorrow. Sometimes entrepreneurs will band up with investors and find a way to kick me out of the game. And if I happen to encounter a project I can��t handle myself, I may join forces with the very ones who tried to kick me out.


    ��It��s veryplicated... Personally, I don��t mix feelings or grudges in my work. This is my way of doing things. I have seen too many entrepreneurs losing everything. If you y with fire, you��ll have to expect that your investments can be burned forever too. Perhaps only one out of a dozen projects you invest in will survive. That one project mightpensate me just enough to cover my losses. There��s a thin line between gambling and investing, and being rational is my way of living. There are all kinds of people in this field. Some are very emotional... I don��t know how many hate or dislike me. I can��t even remember their names.��


    ��Let��s narrow it down. Who hates you to the point of killing you?��


    ��Wow, what a question...��


    ��Don��t need to think too long. Just give me the first name that appears in your mind, and we��ll start there,�� said Zhang Heng.


    ��Xu Jianjun.�� Han Lu spread her hands. ��We have no previous grievances. He is a retired soldier, and a friend introduced me to him about two years ago. He took on a project,ing to me and telling me that he wanted to specialize in producing furniture. I read his proposal and thought it was okay. If it worked out, he stood to make a million or two a year. But that��s probably the limit. There isn��t much room for expansion, and I��m generally not interested in small projects like this. For the sake of my friend, though, I invested about 700,000 yuan. I must admit, I made the contract sound rather demanding, but that��s reality. I need to protect my interests. No one besides me was willing to invest in his project. So, he signed the contract after thinking about it for three days.��


    ��What happened then?�� asked Zhang Heng.

 Chapter 447 - The Past

    <strong>Chapter 447 The Past</strong>


    ��Later, a disagreement broke out between us. He found a small textile factory, hoping toe up with his own brand after purchasing it. This isn��t we agreed initially, and it was obvious he wanted me to keep investing more money into his business. I told him that it was impossible. At that time, he was very emotional, and so, I gave him a warning,�� Han Lu said.


    ��What��s next?�� ��A weekter, I contacted the textile factory behind my back. I immediately activated the terms and conditions on the agreement and froze thepany��s ount. I surrendered and left the investment. I think I lost about three to four hundred thousand yuan. I treated it as an investment for friends. Later, the friend who introduced him to me also apologized. After that, he even rmended a few reliable projects for me. I thought this incident woulde to a pass, but I didn��t expect Xu Jianjun had no intention to let it slide.��


    Han Lu rubbed her head and gave a big sigh, seeming to have a headache when talking about this.


    ��Under such circumstances, the entrepreneurs would either look for a new investor or dissolve thepany��but Xu Jianjun was very stubborn. I discovered that after textile factory��s acquisition n was aborted, he was there for another year and a half. However, he couldn��t find a new investor, and in the end, he sold his birthce home and slept in thepany lobby every day, eating pickles and porridge. Unfortunately, working hard might not help with starting a business sometimes.��


    ��Hispany was bleeding money, and capable employees started leaving one after another. That was when he entered into a vicious cycle. In the end, he was brought to court for failing to pay their wages. That was thest straw. Thepany wentpletely bankrupt after that. He suffered a terrible loss and med me for everything instead of reflecting on himself.


    ��After thepany went bankrupt, Xu Jianjun initially nned to sue me. So, he looked for severalwyers, but they told him I didn��t vite the agreement, and he had no right to sue me. Out of options, he stood in protest with a banner at mypany��s entrance every day to demand his rights. He even went as far as blocking me at the parking lot several times. Once, he even got so upset that he shoved me. I was afraid since it waste and I was alone, so I called the police. The police station is just right across the street, by the way. The cops soon came, and after I told them what happened, they took him away. That was thest I saw of him.��


    ��He returned to his birthce?��


    ��No, hemitted suicide. Heid on the tracks and let a train run over him. It is said that the corpse was... err... mangled and mutted. He also left a suicide note saying that he had been an upright person, which was his first time getting arrested by the police. He said he��d haunt me for eternity. Think his spirit��s taking revenge it��s on me?�� Han Lu became slightly ufortable at the thought, instinctively hugging herself and looking around.


    ��As far as I know, it��s not possible,�� Zhang Heng said. ��A dead person will remain dead Maybe his family member hates you?��


    ��He has no family, his parents passed away very early, his wife divorced him four years ago, and he has no children. I heard he has a distant cousin or something, but they rarely keep in touch. Oh... and I was the one who ended up paying for his funeral.��


    ��What about his friends?��


    ��I have no idea. I don��t know much about him. I only found out about these things after his death.�� Han Lu shook her head.


    ��Okay, I think I understand what is going on right now. Would you like to go home and wait, or...��


    ��Can I investigate with you?�� Han Lu asked. ��You said you wanted to prove supernatural entities exist in the normal world we live in. If I can witness the process, I��ll definitely be convinced. Besides, I need things to do to keep me awake.��


    ��Okay,�� replied Zhang Heng. ��Let��s first determine if you��re cursed or not. How did you deal with Xu Jianjun��s stuff?��


    ��They were cremated with his corpse. In fact, he left nothing behind, only two sets of clothes and a few books on business management. I��ve got to admit, apart from being a little extreme and, oh, that stubbornness of his, he��s a really nice guy, really. At least he��s better than the vast majority of entrepreneurs that only know how to talk. When my friend introduced him to me, I thought he was nice. I saw that he was trustworthy and honest, so I invested some money in his business, but I sure didn��t expect him to end up like this.��


    Han Lu sighed.


    ��Well, did he have any social media ounts?��


    ��He��s very old-fashioned��no Weibo or blogs whatsoever. The only social media ount he had was to promote hispany on the forum. It was to save costs-he often went to the forum to promote his products.��


    ��How about his WeChat friends?��


    ��Uh, I deleted his contact after the whole thing went south. And I haven��t added him back since.��


    ��How about the friend who introduced him to


    you?��


    ��Erm... I can ask him.�� Han Lu dialed a number, got up, and walked to the side of a nearby acacia tree. A momentter, she came back. ��He deleted Xu Jianjun��s contact after his death too. He says saving a dead person��s WeChat contact on the phone brings bad luck.��


    ��How about the phone number?��


    ��He wrote it on the original agreement. I can ask my assistant to send it over. But will it be useful?��


    ��It depends. An ount would usually be canceled after 90 days ofte payments,�� said Zhang Heng. ��I need a ce with inte ess. There is an inte cafe nearby, but I��ve got to have some steamed buns to fill out my stomach first. I��m sorry, I guess we won��t be having that grilled fish tonight.��


    ��Understood. After all, staying alive is more important, right,�� chuckled Han Lu. It appeared she was still in a good mental state, seeing how she could still crack jokes. In addition to her not fully believing Zhang Heng��s exnation, the years of hustling in the world of finance also made her calmer than the ordinary Joe. The two bought some buns from a small stall, quickly gobbling it up even before they left the roadside. They then proceeded to the inte cafe to book a private room, and after a while, Han Lu��s assistant sent Xu Jianjun��s number to her. Fortunately, the number was still registered to him, and for good measure, the assistant sent a copy of his ID card as well.


    Middle-aged people like Xu Jianjun generally did not care about passwords, security, and that sort of thing. All his ounts used the same password. Hence, it was not difficult to hack into his WeChat ount. Zhang Heng first used Xu Jianjun��s ID card to retrieve passwords from registered marketing ounts.


    After entering the WeChat login interface, everything went smoothly after that. Since they were using a new mobile phone, all his chat history was gone. The posts for his friends to view did not disappear, though. These were mostly useless ramblings, ranging from inspirational articles to junk, which used exaggerated headlines.


    Zhang Heng, however, soon managed to find whatever he was looking for.

 Chapter 448 - Count to Ten

    <strong>Chapter 448 Count to Ten</strong>


    Guo Miao-Xu Jianju��srade-in-arms, joined the army the same year as Xu Jianjun. After that, the both of them returned to their hometown, where one was discharged, and the other found another profession.


    Among his circle of friends, Guo Miao was the one Xu Jianjun interacted with the most. At nearly every event of thetter��s life, Guo Miao would leave supportive messages, encouraging his friend to courageously brave through the storms as they would pass and dawn was just on the horizon.


    ��He��s done more harm than good to himself. Starting a business is a perilous thing, especially for those who have no experience. You actually pay a tuition fee when you first start a business. The key lies in how much you learn from that experience. Everyone falls sometimes, but the difference between winners and losers is that the former always finds a way to get up,�� said Han Lu. ��Instead of staying on the bumpy path until the end, you need to learn from your past failures.��


    ��Is this a lesson on entrepreneurship?��.


    ��No, it��s small talk between friends. I don��t know why, but I always forget how young you actually are. Are you proficient in basicputer operations? How is that possible? You��re so young... Why do I feel like there��s nothing you don��t know? Is this some kind of supernatural phenomenon, like the prophets in the Bible?��


    Han Lu��s shoulder almost brushed Zhang Heng.


    ��I just happen to know a little more,�� Zhang Heng answered. Zhang Heng swiftly retrieved Guo Miao��s current address from the Inte-it wasn��t too far from where they were��about 400 kilometers away. It would take around four hours if they used the motorway.


    ��If it��s alright with you, let��s go now.��


    ��Erm, Guo Miao was also a soldier like Xu Jianjun. It would be better if we bring more people with us, or even hire a bodyguard or


    two.��


    ��There��s no need for that. I can manage that part.�� Zhang Heng got up from his seat.


    ��Whoa, that sounds very reassuring, but to be on the safe side...�� Han Lu pointed to a message in the group chat on Zhang Heng��s phone. ��Would you like me to find some of our old friends to intimidate that woman, show her who��s boss?��


    She then spread her hands in surrender. ��Hey, I don��t want to deliver myself to their doorstep only to be bushwhacked.��


    ��As I said, you can still choose to stay at home. I can always record a video for you,�� said Zhang Heng. ��The fewer people know about this, the better. When this is all over, I hope you��ll keep it a secret too.��


    ��Why? Are you in danger as well? Do you need my help?�� Han Lu was quick to read between the lines of Zhang Heng��s request. ��...I know many people...��


    ��If I ever need it, I won��t hesitate to ask,�� said Zhang Heng. ��But right now, let��s focus on how we can solve your problem.��


    ��Alright.��


    Han Lu did not mention the bodyguard idea anymore after that. The red Lexus subsequently took off, speeding in the direction of the location pointed by the navigation app.


    Four hourster, they exited the highway and entered a small county town where Guo Miao worked as the head of security in a stic processing factory. Zhang Heng spoke to the old man at the gate and learned that Guo Miao was also on duty at the factory tonight. ��Should wee back tomorrow morning instead? The security guards in the factory are all his subordinates,�� Han Lu suggested. ��...or we can wait until he gets off work tomorrow morning and intercept him on his way home.��


    ��Determining if you are a target of the Dreand of Death is just the first step. I don��t want to spend too much time on this part. The real problem is figuring out how to lift the curse,�� said Zhang Heng. Stepping out of the vehicle, he looked at the time on his watch.


    Drive another three hundred meters, and remember to keep the engine running. Then, close your eyes, count to ten, then open your eyes again. After that, don��t speak, just listen carefully.��


    ��Huh? Is this... some sort of game?�� Han Lu asked. ��You can treat it like a game,�� answered Zhang Heng as he pulled his hoodie over his head.


    Han Lu did as she was told and parked the Lexus three hundred meters ahead of them. She saw Zhang Heng��s silhouette from the rear-view mirror. He stood under a streetmp, staring at the factory building; his face expressionless, like a statue. Han Lu shrugged.


    ��Alright.��


    She let her eyelids fall and counted to ten in her head. When she reached eight, she could hear the heavy breathing of a maning from the backseat.


    When she finished counting to ten, he spoke up.


    ��Who are you?�� the stranger asked, still gasping. Han Lu��s quickly opened her eyes. Zhang Heng, who was still standing under the street light ten seconds ago, was now seated at the car��s back with a man. His head was covered with a sack, and his limbs were bound.


    ��Don��t panic. We��re just doing an aftersales visit,�� Zhang Heng said.


    ��What aftersales visit? Did you get the wrong person?�� asked the bound man. He sure was a brave one. Most would have wet their pants at this stage, but while his breathing had quickened, there wasn��t the slightest tremor in his voice. He really was a soldier.


    ��You��re Guo Miao, right?�� Zhang Heng asked.


    ��Yes, that��s me,�� Guo Miao answered candidly. His wallet was still at the back of his pants, so he did not see the point in lying.


    ��Then we didn��t get the wrong person. You spent ten yuan on a murder democide order on a website called Murder Without Risk.��


    ��Who are you?! Are you the police? And no, just having the intention to kill is not illegal,�� Guo Miao snarled. He still didn��t understand the situation he was put in. Just a second ago, he was enjoying ate-night hotpot with his colleagues, and the next moment, his hands and feet were bound, and there was a sack over his head.


    Though he couldn��t see where he was, Guo Miao surmised that he was probably in a car from the shape of the seat he was sitting on. He had even deliberately raised his voice to see if anyone else could hear him.


    Suddenly, he received a punch in the lower abdomen, and a hard object was ced against his crotch.


    ��Save that thought. We��re not asking for money, nor do we want your life. We just have a few questions to ask. All you have to do is to answer them nicely, and we will let you


    go.��


    Once he heard that, Guo Miao immediately becamepliant. ��What do you want to know?��


    ��Have you ever browsed our online store?��


    Guo Miao kept quiet.


    ��Just like you said, thinking about killing someone is not against thew, and no, we��re not the police either.��


    ��Yes,�� Guo Miao finally admitted.


    ��Then what was in the package you received?��


    ��A ck feather, something like an instruction manual, and a strange photo. They asked me to follow the steps in the guide, and the target will die unexpectedly.��


    Han Lu gripped the steering wheel hard, trembling slightly.


    ��Did you follow the instructions, then?��


    ��Mmm,�� Guo Miao nodded. ��I wrote down a name and burned it with the feather. Then, I poured the ashes into some water and sent the picture to the target in a message.��


    ��Onest question, and please be sure to tell us the truth. Your answer will determine if you��ll get out of the car with everything intact, or in pieces which will be eventually discovered in the trash.�� Zhang Heng paused for a minute. ��Whose name did you write?��


    Guo Miao gulped. ��Han Lu. That woman killed my bestrade-in-arms, and I have to make sure he gets the justice he deserves.��


    ��Congrattions, you��re free to go, Mr. Guo Miao.��


    Zhang Heng opened the door on Guo Miao��s side.

 Chapter 449 - I Think I’m Starting To Like Her

    <strong>Chapter 449 I Think I��m Starting To Like Her</strong>


    Before letting Guo Miao out of the car, Zhang Heng took a look at Han Lu. She shook her head, and before anyone could say anything, Zhang Heng kicked him out of the car. Han Lu then stepped on the gas, and the car disappeared into the night. Guo Miao��s loud cries for help soon attracted the factory��s security guards, and half a minuteter, the bag on his head was taken off. Guo Miao was still puzzled until now. He had no idea what happened to him earlier.


    How did he get into a stranger��s car all of a sudden? What was the purpose of kidnapping him?


    What happened tonight was like a bizarre nightmare. Guo Miao shook his head in disbelief. ��This is creepy,�� he murmured to himself.


    At the same time, in the Lexus, neither Zhang Heng nor Han Lu spoke. After a while, Zhang Heng broke the silence. ��I didn��t expect you to be so calm.�� ��What should I have done? Kill Guo Miao? Are you going to kill him for me? And is there any point in killing him other than us getting tangled in awsuit? Or should have we beaten him up? ording to you, the curse is in effect now, so killing him won��t change anything anyway,�� retorted Han Lu.


    Zhang Heng decided to remain as frank as he could. ��About that... it��s hard to answer. Some think that killing the Dreand of Death��s holder is part of the solution to lifting the curse. A case study, however, had proven that killing its holder will not lift the curse.��


    ��If killing the item��s owner works, I��m willing to take the risk,�� Han Lu said calmly. ��However, I don��t see the point of killing him to vent my anger. Yes, I��m hated by many, but Guo Miao happened to receive an opportunity to get rid of me. I bet he didn��t even know what he was doing. And he didn��t dare to confront me, avenging his brother, and all. So, he can only rely on unscrupulous methods...�� Han Lu paused. ��...let��s not talk about him. I believe everything you say now. There are things in this world that science can��t exin. Will you help me lift the


    curse?��


    ��I��ll try my best, but I can��t guarantee results,�� Zhang Heng said.


    ��...Shouldn��t you try tofort me at a time like this? It��s like you go to the hospital for an examination, and you��re diagnosed with a fatal disease, but the doctor still says you��re fine.��


    ��Sorry, I thought people like you would rather hear the truth.��


    ��Theoretically, you are right, but it turns out that women still like listening to lies,�� said Han Lu.


    The Lexus entered the motorway again.


    ��Where shall we go next?��


    ��I��ll need to go back to meet a friend first.��


    Considering that time was of the essence, Han Lu ignored the speed limit. Twelve demerits on her driving records were nothing whenpared to her life. In the end, Han Lu made it to the destination in less than three hours.


    She parked her Lexus outside a KTV.


    After a while, Fan Meinan, in a flight attendant attire, came out.


    ��Hey, brought your new girlfriend to brag?! What about that Japanese girl? Cruelly abandoned after you took advantage of her?��


    Zhang Heng ignored the jeering and looked at Fan Meinan��s outfit. ��Who is in luck today?��


    ��Hehe! A young man who runs a filmpany and likes toy hands on female students in the name of helping them be a model. I found out that he likes toe here and sing, so I��ve been waiting for him to give him a gift.�� Fan Meinan adjusted the flight hat on her head.


    ��Let��s get down to business. Have you contacted the person that I asked?��


    ��Yes,�� Fan Meinan nodded. ��But let me warn you, I can��t guarantee she��ll show up. The three major guilds have been looking everywhere for her. I was affected by her, and I have not seen her for a long time. I��m a little afraid of her, actually. She is not easy to get along with.��


    ��No matter what, we��ll have to go to the ce first.��


    Zhang Heng��s strategy was straightforward. Since there were huge spections on the forums on how to lift the curse of the Dreand of Death, it indicated that the three powerful guilds must have had insider information that ordinary yers didn��t know of. The only ones who knew how to use the Dreand of Death were limited to those who had used it before.


    Among them, the first owner of the item was dead, and the second was supposed to be the mysterious woman at the auction. ording to Fan Meinan��s statement, the Dreand of Death was no longer with the woman. Despite that, she was now the only person that Zhang Heng was likely to look for.


    ��Do you need a change of clothes?�� Zhang Heng asked Fan Meinan.


    ��I don��t think so. Aren��t you good at fighting?�� ��...no matter how good I am at fighting, it still doesn��t mean I like to get in unnecessary trouble.��


    ��Are you trying to say that with the way I��m dressed, I��m tempting others tomit a crime against me?�� Fan Meinan looked at Han Lu, who was in the driver��s seat.


    Han Lu, on the other hand, was very calm.


    ��Fine. I will stay put and y the ugly duckling that no one loves. Give me two minutes.�� Fan Meinan turned around and ran back to KTV.


    ��Don��t take it to heart,�� Zhang Heng said. ��She��s always been like that.��


    ��It��s fine. She is a fascinating child.�� Han Lu smiled. ��Is she... also from your world?��


    ��Huh?��


    ��That... the supernatural world below the ordinary world.��


    ��Well, she��s a lot tougher than you think. It won��t be easy to take advantage of her just like that.��


    There was a thoughtful look on Han Lu��s face. ��Is there any way to enter your world?��


    ��Trust me; you don��t want to enter that world.��


    Fan Meinan had returned with a set of loose and rather dull-looking set of clothes. She then got into the car. ��A luxury car that costs over one million yuan... this is my first time getting into such an expensive car. I don��t know where to put my butt.�� ��If you like it, I can give this car to you,�� Han Lu said. ��We can sign the agreement first, then wait until you get your driver��s license.��


    Fan Meinan was a little surprised when she heard that. ��Huh? Why? Was it my sarcasm that irked you? nning to use money to get me under your thumb, huh?��


    ��Of course not. It��s because Zhang Heng told me that you know someone who can save me, and there��s nothing wrong showing generosity to the person who saved my life.�� ��I can��t guarantee that I will be able to save you.�� Fan Meinan opened a bag of pistachios in the back seat. ��It��s too early to thank me.��


    ��It��s not early. If I die, this car is meaningless to me anyway,�� Han Lu said lightly. ��Oh, what should I do? I think I like her now,�� Fan Meinan said to Zhang Heng.

 Chapter 450 - She’d Always Been The One I Envied Most

    <strong>Chapter 450 She��d Always Been The One I Envied Most</strong>


    Before departing, Han Lu bought a 15 bottle carton of Nescafe at a 7-11 on the roadside. She sipped on the cold coffee, and it freshened her up a great deal.


    It was now was four in the morning, and Han Lu still seemed to be doing fine. After all, there was one too many times when urgent work needed to be dealt with overnight. Hence staying upte was not unfamiliar to her. Although she was aging, she had always maintained healthy habits, resulting in a figure way better than women way younger than her. It also meant she would have more time to figure out a way to save her life.


    Soon, the three returned to Zhang Heng��s school, collecting the recurve bow, Lego bricks, and other gadgets before going to the agreed ce. It was a small park outside the Fifth Ring Road. Considering it was close to a nearbymunity, it was a favorite exercising spot for elderly folk.


    Han Lu parked the car outside the park.


    ��Uh, she doesn��t trust anyone,�� said Fan Meinan. ��So, I��ll go in alone and tell her about the situation. If everything is good, I��ll call you guys in.��


    ��There is no danger, right?��


    ��...how do I put it? She doesn��t like me that much, or should I say, she sneers at me whenever she sees me. But it��s alright. Rest assured, she won��t beat me up.�� Fan Meinan took a deep breath, opened the door, and walked out of the car.


    Now, only Zhang Heng and Han Lu were left in the Lexus.


    Han Lu turned on the radio. ��Any songs you want to listen to?��


    ��You choose,�� Zhang Heng said. ��y whatever song that lifts your spirits.��


    ��Is this the privilege of a dying woman?�� Han Lu shrugged as she took out her mobile phone, and connected it to the car��s stereo via Bluetooth. After rummaging through her ylist, she hesitated and sighed. ��Forget it. I��m not in the mood for any songs.��


    After that, neither of them spoke another word.


    .....


    Han Lu broke the silence after a long while. ��How does it feel to have a child?��


    ��Huh?��


    ��Your mom and I are best friends. When we were studying abroad, I never got tired of sticking close to her. I thought I knew her well, including her habit of secretly picking out raisins from her cereal. However, I had never seen that expression on her face when she held the little you in her arms. Her eyes were shining, and she became so gentle.��


    Han Lu paused...


    ��We also talked about marriage and having children... Little Xia told me she watched a documentary about a mother going intobor before, and she felt that childbirth hurt too much. At that time, she said she would never have children in the future. I told her if that was the case, then no one would marry her. She eveb said that if no men wanted her, she would live together with me. I would be the one who makes the money, and she would be the one to spend it.��


    ��That sure sounds like her,�� chuckled Zhang Heng.


    ��Not too long after that, she found herself the right man and married him.�� Han Lu tapped the steering wheel. ��That traitor... she��d always been the one I was most jealous of. She lives like she��s deranged, takes all problems for granted, and shoves them to her people to bear instead. That said, that woman has apelling intuition. She always makes the right choices at the most critical time. Whether it was marriage or having a child... it��s hard not to admire her. For once, I thought I finally won her over with my career taking-off, but she didn��t seem to care much about that sort of thing. That retard must probably think she is doing as well as me, but her monthly wages can��t even cover my hairdo.��


    ��You have done well,�� Zhang Heng said. ��It��s just that people are always reluctant to cherish what they already have, or once they get something else better, the value of whatever they used to have seemingly depreciates. Instead, your desire to obtain what you can��t get would only grow. Like getting married, or starting a career... these are just personal choices at different stages of life, and there are no good or bad in this matter. You��re simply enduring a very depressing phase. Your normal life will resume when this is all over.��


    ��Is it some illusion... or it sounds like advice from somebody much older than me.�� Han Lu was about to borate but was stopped by Zhang Heng��s finger.


    Han Lu fell shush. ��What��s wrong?�� she whispered after a while.


    ��She��s been gone for a long time.�� Zhang Heng lowered the window. The park was eerily silent thiste at night, and only the rustling of leaves could be heard echoing in the air.


    ��I thought we are supposed to wait for her signal?�� asked Han Lu.


    ��Yes, but it might be better for us to do something in such a situation.��


    Zhang Heng got out of the car and grabbed his recurve bow from the trunk. Taking a ski mask from the backpack, he then put over on his face. ��Wait for me in the car and lock the door. Follow the old rules. Keep the engine running; ignore us, and drive away immediately if you notice something not right.��


    Then, Zhang Heng turned around and walked into the park.


    He strode quickly, but at the same time, paid close attention to his surroundings. To avoid any misunderstanding, he did not pull the bowstring.


    It did not take long for him to reach the center of the park. There was nothing there. On the other side was an artificial pond with no water in it, and behind him was a wall. There was no ce for anyone to hide. Suddenly, something alerted Zhang Heng, and he stopped in his tracks. He stretched his right hand to retrieve the quiver, but two hands suddenly grabbed his waist. The space in front of him started to distort, and several figures appeared from the dark. Fan Meinan��s mouth was covered, restrained by two people, while another one held her hands behind her.


    Thest person appeared right in front of Zhang Heng. After the surprise attack, the assant was about to punch Zhang Heng��s groin.


    Thankfully, Zhang Heng��s reactions were swift, and he managed to block the punch with his recurve bow. He moved his head back, hitting the nose of the attacker that was behind him. While the enemy suffered immense pain, Zhang Heng took the opportunity to free himself.


    He took two steps to the right, looking at the four unfriendlies in front of him.


    A person who was apparently their leader spoke up. ��Very well, catch her aplice as well. The three major guilds will definitely offer a good price for them.��


    Zhang Heng raised his eyebrows. ��Who are you?�� he asked.


    ��You can call us the enthusiastic bunch. During this period, the yers have worked very hard to look for this woman and her aplices. I didn��t expect our luck to be so good.��


    ��I��m afraid that you have been misled into capturing the wrong person,�� Zhang Heng replied.


    ��How is it possible? Her face may be devious, but this sticine game item is definitely real.�� The leader put his hand into his pocket and took out a piece of sticine, smiling casually.

 Chapter 451 - Eletrocuted

    <strong>Chapter 451 Eletrocuted</strong>


    Zhang Heng said nothing after that. The moment the enemy took out the sticine, he knew it was useless exining anything to them. The group allegedly believed that Fan Meinan was the mysterious woman in sunsses who had appeared at the auction that day��the three powerful guilds and the yers�� chamber ofmerce offered handsome andvish rewards for her capture, and as of now, she was like a walking cash bag that would make any yer go after her.


    The jacketed man with the bleeding nose took out a white glove from his pocket and slipped it over his hand. He snapped his fingers, and blue electrical arcs started dancing around them. The leader who was standing nearby swallowed a pill. Ten secondster, the muscles of his left arm began to bulge, ripping his sleeves apart. His arm��s size had now tripled, brawny and strapping like a world weightlifting champion.


    ��If I were you, I wouldn��t fight back. Otherwise, things might turn ugly,�� scowled the jacketed man. ��Just save us all that trouble and surrender now.��


    ��Is that so? I��m afraid you will be troubled for a while, then.�� Zhang Heng pulled a folding knife from his backpack��s side pocket. Although he had fought multiple enemies in one go before, this was his first time going up against numerous yers simultaneously. ��In that case, let��s fight. Once we capture you, we��ll be the richest yers on the.��


    The leader then lifted a decorative stone on the grass beside him and hurled it at Zhang Heng. It was hard to describe just how powerful his left arm was, seeing how the rock he threw flew towards Zhang Heng like a smoking cannonball. To avoid the iing blow, Zhang Heng ducked immediately and rolled on the ground.


    Simultaneously, the jacketed man made his move as well, undoing a copper chain essory that was on his jacket and held it in his gloved hand. He instantly conducted the electricity on his hand to the copper chain. Then, he threw it at Zhang Heng in a fury, who had thankfully blocked the electrified metal with this backpack. At the same time, the second enemy on the other side charged at Zhang Heng as well.


    It appeared that this little team must have been together for a while now, seeing how they executed almost perfect teamwork. Generally, a team like that wouldn��t carry too many game items on them, allowing them to focus on bringing out the items�� full potential. Just like the glove that could generate electricity, the jacketed man had figured how to use a copper chain to carry out a mid-ranged attack. Besides, a chain would be a lot more challenging to defend than bare palms.


    However, Zhang Heng��s skills went beyond their expectations. As they didn��t use too many game items to fight, Zhang Heng managed to block a joint attack from two assants with his folding knife��though it seemed Zhang Heng was on the losing side, it was worth noting that he was fighting two opponents that were using supernatural powers against him.


    A yer who relied purely on hisbat skills?!


    The leader and the jacketed man nced at each other, surprised by Zhang Heng��s expertise. At the same time, they were relieved. Battles between yers were notoriously unpredictable, especially when they encountered unfamiliar yers with unfamiliar game items. Even a single game item could drastically change the oue of a battle.


    Initially, they nned to be invisible by using a game item, hoping to keep Zhang Heng under control. Unfortunately, instead of getting their bounty, Zhang Heng managed to free himself, and the jacketed man��s nose had been bleeding until now. To stop the bleeding, he had stuffed tissue up his nostrils. What worried them the worst, however, were the unique game items that Zhang Heng possessed.


    For now, they might just be overthinking it. When Zhang Heng appeared before them, he held a longbow. Supposedly, that was supposed to be his most potent weapon. The game items he possessed were most likely rted to bows and arrows. To block the frontal assault, he had to drop his bow earlier.


    After that, he switched weapons to a small knife, and although Zhang Heng skills were more than adequate, a simple folding knife wasn��t quite enough to defeat enemies of that level. He also faced the charged chain and empowered arm, gaining no subsequent advantage in the battle. His enemies overpowered him from the beginning, and if he was carrying any powerful items, he would have used it long ago.


    Now that they figured out the whole thing, the four wanted the battle to drag on for no longer. They weren��t worried that they couldn��t capture Zhang Heng. They were instead concerned that other yers would know their whereabouts ande here to share their victory. So one of the men who was restraining Fan Meinan let her go. He took out a dart from his pocket and aimed at Zhang Heng��s eyes.


    However, the situation suddenly changed. The knife in Zhang Heng��s hand disappeared, and a look of horror shed through the leader��s eyes. Momentster, he held his neck and stumbled two steps backward. The knife that disappeared from Zhang Heng��s hand was now stuck in his throat. This sudden turn of events hand rent the group speechless. No one knew how Zhang Heng, supposedly losing, had managed to strike a lethal attack.


    When that happened, a thought seemed to cross the yer��s mind with the dart, and he immediately aimed it at Fan Meinan. Right before he could do that, the sound of a gunshot rang in the air. Zhang Heng pulled out a Lego M1911 infused with the Infinite Building Block from the backpack. The first thing he did was to eliminate the darted man. When another enemy realized what was happening, he reacted instantly, running toward Fan Meinan and hiding behind her. He then reached into his pocket and drew out a knife.


    Zhang Heng did not hesitate. He pointed his gun at Fan Meinan and pulled the trigger again.


    Fan Mei Nan closed her eyes, and the next moment she felt something warm sttering on her neck.


    At this point, she could finally free herself from her captors. Zhang Heng had just solved the most troublesome part of the battle, always confident that he was good enough to defeat his opponents. It would be pointless if he won and Fan Meinan was still held hostage. They could easily use her to threaten him.


    However, after Fan Meinan had been rescued, Zhang Heng found his other arm entangled with the copper chain. A cruel look shed through the jacketed man��s eyes, and a powerful electric current ran through the copper chain directly to Zhang Heng��s heart. It was his first time getting electrocuted. As the powerful current coursed through his cells, his muscles convulsed, his pupils dted, and he was unable to react. His limbs lost all strength, and he felt as if his heart had stopped beating.


    This processsted for about a few seconds, but it was then that a knife pierced into the jacketed man��s chest. Subsequently, the man fell to the ground.


    Fan Meinan was lying on the jacketed man��s chest, and she was trembling. This was her first murder, but she couldn��t care less about how she felt right now. She dropped the knife in her hand and ran to where Zhang Heng fell.


    ��Hey, are you okay?!��

 Chapter 452 - Telepathy

    <strong>Chapter 452 Telepathy</strong>


    When Zhang Heng opened his eyes again, he was back on the rear bench of the Lexus. Fan Meinan and Han Lu were both staring at him.


    ��Did we leave the park?��


    The first thing Zhang Heng did was to check his body. Except for feeling a little weak, there were no apparent injuries since he wasn��t electrocuted for too long. He was much relieved when he saw that no permanent damage had been done.


    ��Yes,�� Fan Meinan nodded and looked a little guilty. ��Sorry, it is my fault this time. I almost caused you a great deal of trouble. I knew she never liked me, but I didn��t expect her to go to this extent. She ns for me to take the me.��


    ��What is really going on between you and that woman?��


    ��About that... It��s hard to exin the whole thing to you, but let��s just say that we are from the same faction,�� Fan Meinan smiled bitterly. ��She has always regarded me aspetion, though, and we have way different personalities as well.��


    Zhang Heng looked at Han Lu. ��Can you leave us for a bit?��


    ��Of course.�� Han Lu opened the door and walked out of the car, leaving only Zhang Heng and Fan Meinan.


    After Han Lu left, Zhang Heng looked at Fan Meinan. ��What is your rtionship with the god Loki in Norse mythology?��


    Fan Meinan raised his eyebrows and looked surprised. ��When did you find out?��


    ��Since the mysterious woman appeared at the auction. I had a vague conjecture, but things got clearer once I understood the game. Your acting is very close to the god of lies and tricks. Are you his agent?��


    ��No, we are not his agents. At best, we are regarded as backup,�� Fan Meinan sighed. ��You can say that we are all on the inspection list.��


    ��And you trust yourpetition?�� ��Uhh... our rtionship is kind ofplicated,�� Fan Meinan hesitated. ��...well, she is my sister.�� ��Sister? What kind of sister.��


    ��The kind of sister bonded by blood, but she was given away by my parents when she was very young, so I can probably understand her resentment towards me. But it doesn��t change the fact that she is my sister. Besides, I just learned about that not too long ago. She is also the one who introduced me to the god.��


    ��Were you a yer before this?��


    ��No, I was just an ordinary person before that. No one understood the rules when giving out those invitations. In theory, anyone could get an invitation and participate in the game. But if you don��t have one, you can��t enter the game. There is another way to enter the game in this world, and that is to be an agent.��


    ��But you said you are not an agent.��


    ��Yes, but that god is extraordinary. Ancient and sacred vows do not work on him, and he can turn the impossible into possible.��


    ��Since you haven��t received the invitation letter, why did you want to enter this world, and why did you have to be Loki��s agent?�� ��I have my reasons, of course.�� Fan Meinan tried to squeeze a smile. ��I��ve said too much; I can��t go on. Trust me; I can take care of myself.��


    ��Considering what happened, I doubt it,�� said Zhang Heng, but that was all he said, not asking any further. He paused for a while. ��Can you still contact your sister? We haven��t resolved the problems caused by the Dreand of Death.��


    ��Based on what I know about her, she usually disappears after doing that, but I can give it a try.��


    ��How do you n to do it? You said you don��t know where she is, and you can only try asking her out.��


    ��Actually, we used tomunicate telepathically with each other when we were small, but I didn��t pay much attention to it at that time,�� Fan Meinan replied. ��I always thought they were hallucinations. When I was in fourth grade, I identally fell from the stairs and hit my head real hard. I fell into aa, and it was then that I experienced something phenomenal. I felt my soul entering another body. I was conscious, but I couldn��t control that strange body, much like a bystander.


    ��... it happened another time when I was in high school. I got hit by a football flying from a distance, and they brought me to the infirmary. A simr thing happened again. This time I saw my face in the mirror. Hold on, to be exact; it was my sister��s face. A man hugged her waist from behind, and I could feel his breath on my neck. It itched, and I almost lost my first kiss. Fortunately, I regained consciousness as soon as I was taken into the ward. I never told anyone about this, including my sister.��


    ��It seems that your sister didn��t like telepathy, or she wouldn��t have let you take the me. It��s because you can use the ability to lead the three major guilds to her capture,�� said Zhang Heng. ��What should I do to knock you out?��


    ��Uhh... now here��s the problem. My telepathy doesn��t work every time I beatose,�� Fan Meinan said bitterly. ��And I am afraid of getting beaten as well.��


    ��What should we do then?�� ��I read up a little about telepathy, and many theories suggested that the closer a person was to death, the greater the probability of triggering the telepathic abilities.��


    ��Hmm?��


    Fan Meinan sighed, ��Try drowning me.��


    ��Are you sure? It won��t be pleasant.�� ��For a one-million-dor luxury car, it��s worth trying. Nah, I��m kidding. Isn��t she your friend? I can��t just watch her die like that.�� Fan Meinan shrugged, ��Besides, there is still you. You��ll make sure I won��t die, right?��


    Han Lu opened the door.


    ��How��s the talk going? Do I need to wait a little longer?��


    ��No, we are done with our discussion. Can I visit your mansion next? I have always been curious about the life of the rich. And I can sign the transfer agreement for this car as well,�� said Fan Meinan.


    ��No problem, wee to my ce,�� Han Lu nodded. ��The sun ising up soon... I��ll get the maid to cook us some breakfast.��


    ��I think I shouldn��t be eating anything as I don��t want to be throwing up all over your bathroom.��


    An hourter, the three arrived at Han Lu��s residence. Fan Meinan looked calm andposed, still in the mood to admire the wall��s oil paintings. Zhang Heng noticed, however, that her right hand was holding her sports clothes. It seemed like she wasn��t as calm as she appeared to be.


    ��Where is the bathroom?��


    ��I��ll bring you there,�� Han Lu said. However, she didn��t expect Fan Meinan to look at Zhang Heng nervously instead of going straight to the toilet.


    Zhang Heng turned around to look at Han Lu. ��Give me a clean towel, and don��t let anybodye in.��

 Chapter 453 - Drowning

    <strong>Chapter 453 Drowning</strong>


    After closing the bathroom door, Zhang Heng did not turn on the faucet right away. Instead, he looked at Fan Meinan with worried eyes.


    ��We may be able to find other ways. You don��t have to do this...��


    ��Yes, you are right, but your friend probably can��t wait that long,�� Fan Meinan insisted. She took a deep breath and turned on the faucet of the bathtub faucet. ��I will struggle, and I might try to catch a breath. You, however, have to make sure that my nose and mouth do not leave the water...��


    Fan Meinan paused. ��Set the time to 4 minutes. If it is too short, I may not be able to look for anything valuable. If it is too long...��


    ��If it is too long, you may suffer irreparable brain damage. Even if I manage to save you, you��ll probably be a vegetable forever,�� Zhang Heng went on. ��When a person is in a hypoxic state, it only takes five minutes before the brain cells start dying off. So, I have to resuscitate you within five minutes.��


    ��Well, d you know,�� Fan Meinan replied. ��Okay...I have nothing else to say.��


    She nced at the bathtub again, but it was only filled halfway.


    Fan Meinan then unbuttoned her coat, leaving only her innermost vest. Although she tried her best to behave like she usually did, her aggravated breathing exposed her inner feelings in such moments.


    Zhang Heng was carrying her away from the monster when the two first met, and he realized then that Fan Meinan was very light. She usually preferred to wear loose clothes, and it wasn��t easy to see the shape of her body. Now that she had taken off her top, Zhang Heng found the girl to be extremely skinny. There was almost no flesh around her bony arms.


    Fan Meinan wasn��t used to being stared at like this. She turned around, hugging her arms around herself. ��Why is it so cold,�� she muttered.


    ��I��ll ask if there is anything that can warm you up,�� said Zhang Heng as he opened the door.


    Fan Meinan stopped him before he could leave. ��No, this is fine. It won��t take long anyway.��


    After that, the two spoke no more until the bathtub was filled. Fan Meinan reached out to test the water temperature.


    ��Let��s begin,�� she replied with clenched teeth.


    Zhang Heng nodded. Fan Meinan rarely had such a grave expression on her face. Since she had made up her mind, there was no dying it. As she immersed herself in the water, the entire world around her fell silent. Her ck hair floated like algae, and she exhaled a string of bubbles from her mouth. From the top, she looked like a mermaid living at the bottom of the sea.


    This beautiful picture didn��tst too long, though.


    Soon, Fan Meinan started to choke for breath. Her survival instincts pushed her to keep raising her head, but her decision kept her in the water. Her lungs were bursting for air, and Fan Meinan struggled harder than she ever did before.


    When she simply couldn��t do it anymore and was about to resurface, a steady hand kept her head below the water.


    The water in the bathtub started to ssh around violently.


    Fan Meinan��s iling became more and more intense. In the end, her desire to breathe surpassed everything. She desperately tried to push Zhang Heng��s arm away, clenching it with her dying breath until blood started oozing out from the wounds. Despite her best, or rather, dying efforts, she was still unable to raise her head. As quickly as it began, Fan Meinan��s struggles became lesser, as she used up thest of the oxygen in her lungs.


    It was also an absolutely tormenting process for Zhang Heng, especially when Fan Meinan was drowning in the bathtub, and he had to watch her desperate struggles. Not only could he not help her, but he had to shove her into the abyss with his own hands. Those who had a weak heart would have copsed in a moment like this. However, Zhang Heng managed to ce his arm on Fan Meinan��s head from the beginning to the end, even after she caused him to bleed.


    However, in the end, Zhang Heng hesitated for a while and grabbed Fan Meinan��s hand. It seemed the girl had had exhausted all strength. Her stuggling finally slowed, and when she finally stopped moving, Zhang Heng pulled her head out after five seconds. It appeared she was no longer breathing at that time.


    A minute and a half passed.


    Zhang Heng swiftlyid Fan Meinan��s body on bath towels that had been ced on the floor. She looked like she was asleep, and with her wet dripping hair stuck to her forehead, she seemed like a frail and beautiful creature.


    Zhang Heng then stared at the minute hand on his watch.


    Four minutes seemed like forever to him.


    Zhang Heng began to bring her back twenty seconds earlier than the agreed time. He ced both hands on Fan Meinan��s chest and gave her cardiopulmonary resuscitation. However, she didn��t respond even after some vigorous pumping.


    Her eyes were still tightly shut, and she wasn��t breathing. Immediately, Zhang Heng put Fan Meinan��s head on his knees, blowing air into her mouth while pumping her chest as he went along. He repeated the process...


    After a few minutes, Fan Meinan��s carotid artery finally began pulsating, albeit faintly. Zhang Heng gave up on pumping her chest and continued to blow into her lungs.


    When both of their lips separated, Zhang Heng reached out again to check Fan Meinan��s pulse. She slowly opened her eyes, and the two looked at each other. Then, without warning, Fan Meinan began to cough violently, and she couldn��t help but retch her guts out on Zhang Heng��s thigh. She hadn��t eaten much since the evening, only chugging down some beer and having two bags of sunflower seeds at the KTV. Hence, she regurgitated the undigested parts of the snacks.


    Zhang Heng was surprisingly not disgusted. He quickly propped Fan Meinan against the bathroom wall, before wiping her hair and cheeks with a clean towel.


    ��I saw her. I saw her...�� Fan Meinan whispered weakly.


    ��We can talk about itter,�� Zhang Heng shushed and brought the girl he had just killed and raised some water again. ��Let��s rinse your mouth first.��


    Fan Meinan stretched out her hands, but she almost dropped the ss. Thankfully, Zhang Heng managed to catch it before itnded with a crash.


    Zhang Heng fed Fan Meinan some water. ��Let me help you.��


    Fan Meinan took a sip, rinsed her mouth, and spat it out into the toilet bowl next to her. ��Sorry about your pants... I didn��t mean it.��


    ��It��s nothingpared to keeping your head in the water,�� said Zhang Heng.


    ��For a moment, I was distraught that you won��t save me, or you didn��t save me in time, and my brain suffers from irreversible damage.�� Fan Meinan took two breaths of air greedily, ��I��m pretty sure that I won��t do such crazy things again.��

 Chapter 454 - Journey

    Chapter 454 Journey


    Fan Meinan plopped onto the sofa, holding a cup of hot coffee.


    ��So, she just boarded and went straight to the first-ss cabin? Erm...it��s probably first ss, I guess. I have never flown first-ss before, but it looked pretty luxurious, and there were many snacks on the table, and it made me hungry. Speaking of which, when can we have breakfast?��


    ��Soon. The maid��s getting it done,�� answered Han Lu, as she wondered what must have taken ce between Zhang Heng and Fan Meinan in the bathroom.


    Something had definitely happened between them, and although they did their best to behave as normally as they could, Han Lu could sense that Fan Meinan��s attitude towards Zhang Heng had shifted slightly.


    ��A ne. Know where she��s headed to?�� Zhang Heng asked.


    Fan Meinan subconsciously made a small gesture, blocking Zhang Heng��s view with the cup, but after realizing that it may have been inappropriate, she abruptly took a sip, nearly burning her tongue in the process. ��Mm, a map was spread out in front of her, and she was probably studying the itinerary. There was a ce on the map marked with red ink ��that��s probably where she��s headed.��


    ��Well, it seems like we��ll need to take a trip,�� said Zhang Heng. ��We don��t know if she will be staying for a few days or leave immediately after a quick day trip, so we must hurry��the sooner we leave, the better. In fact, we can book the tickets now.��


    ��My assistant will take care of that. Just give me your identification and address, and she��ll book us the earliest flight.�� Han Lu stood up and turned to Fan Meinan. ��You don��t look so good. Get yourself a good rest before we hit the road. And you...�� she turned to Zhang Heng. ��What is the measurement of your waist? I��ll get you some new pants.��


    ��Ah, no, no, I��m good,�� Fan Meinan protested.


    ��Well, why not? I��m the one who can��t sleep here,�� Han Lu retorted. ��If you guys are not well-rested and refreshed, how are you going to help me solve my problem?��


    After Zhang Heng and Fan Meinan wrote down their personal information, Han Lu excused herself as a phone call came in.


    The two remaining people in the room looked at each other.


    The atmosphere began to feel a little awkward.


    Both Fan Meinan and Zhang Heng had consciously tried to forget everything that had happened in the bathroom. The chestpression and artificial venttion were both standard procedures of cardiopulmonary resuscitation. Zhang Heng did not overthink it, but whenever his lips left hers, their eyes would meet, and any well-endowed human being would start thinking about something else.


    Fan Meinan wanted to say something witty to hide her own feelings, but she had no idea what to say since she was never one to speak first.


    Thankfully, it wasn��t too long before the housekeeper began serving breakfast. The sumptuous feast incorporated fresh fried eggs, bacon, sd, cheese omelet, and hot milk. There were even Chinese soy milk and fried dough sticks. At the sight of the minor banquet, Fan Meinan squealed in delight. She had not eaten much sincest night, not to mention how she belched everything out after the less-thanfortable ��dive.�� Right about then, Han Lu was finished with the phone call and went to join them.


    ��I didn��t know what you fancied, so I had the housekeeper prepare a little bit of everything. Go ahead and help yourselves. The ne tickets are booked. The driver will pick us up in twenty minutes.��


    Fan Meinan was still a little weak from her near-death experience andst night��s andck of sleep, and as soon as she sat on the ne��s seat, her eyes shut almost immediately.


    Han Lu tossed Zhang Heng a bottle of iodine and a pack of cotton swabs and pointed at the wound on his arm.


    ��The world that you both live in... Do youe across danger every day?��


    ��No. We��re no different than the average person most of the time. I��d consider this an out-of-the-ordinary condition.�� Zhang Heng tore open the packet of swabs.


    If he hadn��t discovered that Han Lu was a Dreand of Death target by ident, Zhang Heng wouldn��t have taken the initiative to find the mysterious woman through Fan Meinan, nor would he have involved himself in the affairs of the three major guilds.


    Fortunately, when Zhang Heng visited the yer forumter, he found no further developments in the small parkst night. Fan Meinan had disposed of the four bodies, and she was going to give Zhang Heng the game items, but he refused to ept them. As of now, Zhang Heng didn��t know how many people knew about the team of yers looking for the mysterious girl, and the game items they had seemed to be quite distinctive as well. So, if someone did recognize them, it would mean nothing but trouble, which was why Zhang Heng decided that Fan Meinan should hold on to them for now. He would wait for the whole thing to subside before dealing with the game props ordingly.


    ��How do you feel now?�� Zhang Heng asked Han Lu.


    ��What else could I be feeling? It��s been 24 hours since Ist slept. I can only say... well, I��m still hanging on.�� Han Lu shrugged and took out a cosmetic bag to fix her makeup. The dark circles under her eyes and the paleness of her skin were barely visible under the concealer, but the tiredness in her eyes was in to see. ��You can sleep if you��re tired. Don��t worry about me.��


    ��Don��t worry. All we have to do is find that woman. She should know how to solve your problem,�� Zhang Hengforted.


    Han Lu smiled. ��This a very unusual trip for me. I have a crucial meeting to attendter, and I have an appointment this afternoon with two friends. But sincest night, it seems as the only thing apanying me is good ��ol caffeine.��


    ��My mother kept saying how you��re a natural-born fighter, the strongest woman she had ever met,�� said Zhang Heng.


    oman


    ��No, that��s actually your mom. She has never been able to beat me at backgammon, yet she still enjoys the game.�� Han Lu took a sip of tea. ��I have never been much of a believer of the notion that taking a trip or climbing a mountain could cleanse the soul and change a person��s view, but I have friends whopletely changed after going through certain experiences. There was this friend of mine who climbed Mount Everest and was nearly killed by an avnche. After returning, hepletely switched from being avish young man to a vegetarian and a devout Buddhist.��


    Han Lu paused. ��Only when facing life and death situations will people realize what is truly important to them, right? And maybe this is it for me, I just hope I can survive to tell the tale.��


    ��You will,�� Zhang Heng answered conclusively.


    An hour and a halfter, the nended.


    It was drizzling outside, and the temperature was low.


    Fan Meinan woke up from her sleep and found herself covered with several nkets. ��Have we arrived?�� she rubbed her eyes and asked.


    ��Yes. I checked the local news while you were sleeping, and I��m afraid it ain��t good,�� Zhang Heng said.

 Chapter 455 - The Flu

    <h4>Chapter 455 The Flu</h4>


    ��So? Hit it. What��s the bad news?��


    After having a well-deserved rest, Fan Meinan finally seemed to be in better spirits. She pulled off the nkets shrouding her body. ��I found the city that we need to go to. Recently, there has been a significant rise of patients over there.��


    ��Huh?�� Fan Meinan raised her eyebrows. ��So... We got caught in a flu outbreak? Now, when is that seasonal flu again?��


    ��If I remember correctly, the peak of seasonal flu period is from December to March or May next year,�� said Han Lu.


    Fan Meinan looked at Zhang Heng. ��I hope I��m worried for nothing.�� Zhang Heng said nothing more after that.


    However, Fan Meinan became vignt after hearing the news. ��Well, maybe your worries are not unfounded after all. Based on my understanding of her, she hardly goes out unless there is something significant. This time, she happens to be heading to be a hospital.�� ��Wait, you��re not telling me that... this flu has something to do with her, right?�� Han Lu had this incredulous look on her face. ��Influenza is a respiratory disease caused by influenza viruses. It usually spreads by close human contact and pollutants around us. It��s just amon infection...��


    Han Lu suddenly paused. ��Sorry, I��m still trying to understand your world. Before this, I never thought someone could kill me in my sleep.��


    ��Wee to this bizarre world,�� Fan Meinan said. ��Anyway, we better be prepared. Let��s buy some facemasks when we get off the ne.��


    After disembarking, the three people discovered that the actual situation was a little more severe than they initially thought.


    One-third of the people they met on the road had masks on, and everyst stock of Isatis Indigotica and Vitamin-C were sold out in pharmacies. There was, however, insufficient clinical data to prove that these two supplements could indeed prevent colds, but most people still had the impression that the over-the-counter remedy would help in some way.


    The three bought thest two boxes of masks on the shelf after hopping around four different pharmacies. The masks�� price had increased by at least tenfold, but a woman busy stockpiling up medical products sumbed to the obscene amount of money Han Lu offered. Grabbing the cash, she hurriedly left the ce and went to a different pharmacy. So finally, the three of them managed to purchase the necessary medical equipment to protect themselves.


    ��You are right,�� said Fan Meinan. ��This flu is abnormal. If we are right about it, the source of the problem is probably that hospital.��


    ��We only need to find your sister this time and get the Dreand of Death��s cure from her. It is best not to be distracted unrted issues,�� Zhang Heng said.


    ��Roger that,�� concurred Fan Meinan. Since their target had arrived an hour and a half before them, there was no time for a little R & R. After purchasing the masks; they immediately rushed to the hospital. The hospital was also the busiest during flu season every year, and to cope with the sudden influx of the sick, many extra doctors had been drafted in. And this year��s situation was unique. Thanks to the prolonged working hours and insufficient rest, the medical staff��s immunity was also declining, especially when facing so many infected patients were all in a day��s work. As a result, arge number of doctors and nurses started to fall sick.


    The hospital was short-staffed of staff, where each day, where the number of patients in the hospital��s lobby now rivaled arge-scale Spring Festival event.


    There were parents with children, young with the elderly, and even couples cuddling with each other. The corridors were filled with a pungent mix of body odor and powerful disinfectant. Not helping with the situation were the incessant wailing and crying of little kids.


    ��It is not easy to find someone in a ce like this,�� Han Lumented. ��What does your sister look like? Can you at least give us a simple description?�� ��Telling you how she looks is practically useless,�� said Fan Meinan. ��As long as she puts the sticine on her face, she can have a brand new look. It��s how she has evaded capture from almost everyone from the three major guilds.��


    ��It seems like we have to carry out n B,�� said Zhang Heng.


    ��Err, I don��t know we still have a n B... wait... What is n B again?�� Fan Meinan stuck her scrawny body to Zhang Heng as much as possible to prevent her from being shoved around by the overwhelming crowd.


    ��What is your sister looking for? She seems to have done lots of research before she came to this hospital.��


    ��Yeah. I saw her notes and the map. She eliminated a few ces,pared them with some markers before finally circling this ce. She seemed to be looking for something or someone.��


    ��In other words, we can find her as long as we find what she is looking for,�� Zhang Heng concluded.


    ��You are right, but didn��t you say we shouldn��t get distracted?�� ��As I said, the n has changed.�� ��Okay, no harm giving it a go,�� Fan Meinan shrugged.


    Han Lu frowned. ��Sorry, but I don��t get it. If we are not looking for your sister now, then what should we be looking for?��.


    ��Assuming my sister is rted to thisrge-scale outbreak, we will most probably find her as long as we find the source of the


    flu.


    ��I can understand this part. I mean, what is this source that you are talking about?��


    ��It could be anything. A book, a piece of expired cheese, a nt that makes you sneeze, or perhaps even a rag. I don��t know, But the good news is, my sister doesn��t know the source of the infection as well. It��s like a treasure hunt. Let��s see who can find it faster. Bear in mind that she has done more research than us, and she��s ahead of us by an hour and a half.��


    ��Try to look for patient zero,�� Zhang Heng said. ��Even if the patient is not the source, he must havee into contact with the source somehow.��


    ��That��s right, but how are we going to find this ��patient-zero?�� After all, many peoplee to the hospital every day because of the flu.��


    ��Well, we can narrow down the suspects. Since your sister targeted this hospital, there is a high probability that the first patient is still here. I can try hacking into the hospital��s local areawork, check the records, and look for those admitted because of flu?�� replied Zhang Heng.


    ��I didn��t see you during the winter holidays, and have you acquired a new skill?�� Fan Meinan asked in surprise. ��Could you be a true genius, then? Now, why I can��t see it in


    you?��


    ��Instead of teasing me, why don��t you think about what your sister would do in the face of such a situation. Did we miss anything?��

 Chapter 456 - Sick Bed

    <h4>Chapter 456 Sick Bed</h4>


    The three found themselves an empty office and sneaked into it. When Zhang Heng turned on theputer to check the hospital records, Fan Meinan used her sticine to make a new face for herself. Han Lu was the most nervous among them. Although she had encountered all kinds of incidents in the capital world, this was her first time sneaking into somebody��s office. She was asked to stand by the door to keep a lookout for anybody that mighte knocking.


    ��It��s okay,�� Zhang Heng told her. ��If someonees in, knock them out before they can scream.��


    Han Lu took nced around anxiously, picking up themp beside the examination bed without hesitation.


    After a while, Fan Meinan had finished constructing a new look for herself. Now, she looked like apletely different person. Zhang Heng��s eyes opened wide at the female version of ��Ma Wei�� in front of him, and he was at a loss for words.


    ��Can��t you... change to a more... normal look?��


    ��Fine.�� Fan Meinan reconstructed her ��face�� again, and when she raised her head, the person looking at him now very much resembled Hayase Asuka. She then blinked at Zhang Heng.


    ��bid. 5~.��


    ��Do whatever you want as long as you are happy.�� Zhang Heng��s hands were still on the keyboard, and soon, he managed to enter the hospital��s patient management system.


    After a thorough search, he singled-out a little girl named Wang Shuangshuang. She was admitted two weeks ago, just when the number of flu patients in the hospital started to rise significantly. She had been here for more than ten days, and her condition had only gone from bad to worse. Each time she was about to get better, her condition would worsen again, and this situation had repeated twice.


    Her attending doctor could not figure out an effective way to cure herpletely, so the hospital called on all of the resident doctors to try to find a way. Nheless, despite pooling together some of the brightest minds on site, they failed to improve her current prediciament.


    Zhang Heng tore off a post-it note and wrote down the girl��s ward and bed, as well as three other seemingly suspicious patients. Suddenly there was the sound of a key being inserted into a keyhole.


    A chubby man in a white coat opened the office door, and he just walked in naturally without any second thoughts.


    However, the sight of Zhang Heng and Fan Meinan inside his office had him startled. When he wanted to look at the sign outside the door, amp hit him hard on the head, and he fell to the ground without getting the chance to say a word. Han Lu closed the door behind her as quickly as she could, then dragged the man to the sofa. She noticed that Zhang Heng and Fan Meinan were staring at her.


    ��What��s wrong, is there something on my face?�� Han Lu asked.


    ��No, this is my first time seeing a rich person beating someone up. That was awesome!�� Fan Meinan said truthfully.


    Zhang Heng got up and checked the unlucky man on the sofa. Since the back of a human head was a very fragile part, those who had not received professional training in that area could cause paralysis or even death when hitting somebody at the back of their head. Fortunately, Han Lu was female, and she had also not slept in a long time. Hence, there wasn��t much energy left in her when she hit the man. The hapless guy was out cold and would probably only wake up after a while.


    Initially, Zhang Heng mentioned that he wanted to do it himself, but he did not expect Han Lu to react so quickly. Luckily, she caused no major trouble.


    Zhang Heng put away the post-it note. ��Let��s go,�� he said.


    The three slipped out of the office again, and Han Lu still seemed a little excited while they were on the way to the ward, probably intrigued by the way that she knocked the man out. The fatigue on her face had been reduced as well. After a while, they passed the nurses�� station. At the moment, the hospital was short-staffed, and all nurses were all busy with their tasks, so there was nobody to notice them when they passed it. Zhang Heng followed the signs and found Wang Shuangshuang��s ward. ording to the patient management system records, Wang Shuangshuang was 13 years old this year, and she should be in junior high. Her ssmates were all in school, but the girl could only lie on the hospital bed with her schoolbag lying silently on the bedside table. A woman who seemed to be her mother sat by her bedside.


    Zhang Heng looked at Fan Meinan. She was carefully observing them through the window for a long time. She then shook her head. ��It can��t be her. Her appearance might change, but the way a mother looks at her daughter can��t be faked.��


    ��We��ve found the target now. What should we do next?�� Han Lu asked.


    ��Good question. It seems like my sister hasn��t found it yet. We should find a less conspicuous spot and wait for her to show up,�� Fan Meinan replied. ��Well? Any suggestions?�� she turned to ask Zhang Heng.


    Zhang Heng did not answer in a hurry, only answering after a while. ��This is a twin-bedded ward. Who is the patient next to her bed?��


    To maintain the patients�� privacy, a curtain acted as a partition in the middle of the room. Since it was drawn, it was impossible to look at the other bed from the window.


    ��About this... I��m afraid I��ll have to ask the nurse before we can know,�� Fan Meinan said.


    ��Forget it. I��ll go in and take a look myself,�� replied Zhang Heng. He then walked into a ward next to him. A nurse had just pushed the medicine cart in. She quickly bent over, tied a rubber tube around the patient��s wrist before applying some iodophor on the back of the patient��s hand.


    While the nurse was concentrating on treating the patient in front of her, Zhang Heng quietly sneaked out a bottle of Levofloxacin, a pair of syringes, and two infusion stickers from the cart. He took the syringe apart by removing the needle, and once that was done, he put it on the back of his hand and stuck an IV infusion sticker on it.


    He connected the other end with the Levofloxacin, held it, and pretended to walk into the wrong ward. He walked into Wang Shuangshuang��s ward without paying attention to the girl and her mother near the door. Zhang Heng lowered his head and drew the curtains open.


    To make it seem as if he��d entered the ward by mistake, Zhang Heng put on a stunned expression. He took the opportunity to look at the patient on the bed next to Wang Shuangshuang. He found an elderly old man who was asleep, and his wife sitting next to him on the visitors�� chair. She was peeling an apple, and when she saw Zhang Heng, she was taken aback.


    Zhang Heng apologized to the grandmother, drew the curtains shut, and walked out of the ward.


    ��How did it go?�� asked Fan Meinan. Zhang Heng tore off the infusion sticker from his hand and threw the syringe and levofloxacin into the trash can next to the bathroom.


    ��I��m not sure, but the patient next to Wang Shuangshuang doesn��t look right to me. It shouldn��t be bedtime now. Even if the old man is a deep sleeper, he should have woken up during the infusion. I saw his IV infusion bottle. The bottle was new, and the drip just started. The wife, knowing that her husband has fallen asleep, is still peeling the apple. She looks suspicious to me as well..��


    But as Zhang Heng walking, he saw a nearby woman in a hospital gown holding a thermos sk secretly watching them not far away. When Zhang Heng looked at her, she instantly threw away the sk in her hand and bolted toward the stairs.

 Chapter 457 - Elevator

    <h4>Chapter 457 Elevator</h4>


    Themotion in the corridor didn��tst long, and the situation soon calmed down. After that, the old woman peeling the apple stood up and walked to the door with a hunched back. cing her wrinkled face on the ss, she looked left and right, ensuring there were no threats in the corridor. After that, she straightened her back a little bit and nodded, stretching out her hand, and pushing the door open.


    However, something cold and hard stopped on her waist.


    ��Don��t shout, and don��t do anything unnecessary,�� Zhang Heng said. ��We are not from the three major guilds. We just want to ask you a few questions.��


    The old woman began trembling. She then turned her head with a smile on her face. It was as if she didn��t understand what Zhang Heng said and hoped he could repeat it.


    ��You can continue your acting, but believe me, you are not going to like what happens next,�� Zhang Heng said. He hadpletely kept the old woman under control by holding her hand tightly. With that, she wouldn��t be able to use any game items.


    After that, Zhang Heng led thedy to get the elevator. To the regr passerby, Zhang Heng looked like a kind young man helping an elder. This time, however, the expression on the old woman��s face finally changed. She opened her mouth and was about to yell for help, but she felt a knife slicing through her right arm. Zhang Heng then used the remaining infusion patch and stuck it on the small wound, ��As I said, you will receive a more severe injury if you don��t behave.�� After seeing blood, the old woman becamepliant again.


    Zhang Heng pressed the down button on the elevator, nning to take the old woman out of the hospital first. To avoid the other target��s suspicion, Han Lu and Fan Meinan were tasked to go after him. Zhang Heng was the only one remaining in the ward area. They agreed to rejoin outside the west gate of the hospital afterward.


    So far, things were going well. ording to Fan Meinan, the woman in sunsses was different from other yers. She had always been alone and had no otherpanions. The woman who ran away suddenly was just an ordinary person she had hired for help.


    From here, they realized that she was cautious and cunning. No matter where she was or what she was doing, she would always leave a safe exit for herself. There was a high probability that the old woman was her only way to escape this hospital. This was a city she wasn��t familiar with, after all. She had only arrived an hour and a half before Zhang Heng and Fan Meinan. Hence, there was not much room for preparation.


    Zhang Heng didn��t understand one thing. She had found Wang Shuangshuang one step ahead of them, but she did nothing about it, pretending to be the patient��s family next to Wang Shuangshuang��s bed instead. Fortunately, such things weren��t that important anymore. For now, Zhang Heng wasn��t concerned about what happened in this hospital. The most urgent thing was to make the woman in sunsses spit out the method on lifting the Dreand of Death��s curse.


    The elevator indicator lit up, and the doors slid open.


    A male doctor and two nurses pushed an electric hospital bed towards the elevator. The patient on the bed seemed to be in poor condition, and so were the expressions on the faces of the doctor and the nurses. They looked anxious and unsettled. The male doctor identally bumped into Zhang Heng, immediately grabbing him and apologizing.


    Zhang Heng told him that it was fine. He stepped aside to let them enter the elevator first before he and the old woman entered.


    The cramped conditions inside the elevator did no help to the worsening air quality. Zhang Heng��s throat started to itch as well, now that he��d been in this hospital for some time. He could not help but start to cough. Instead of getting better, though, the difort in his throat only got worse. Zhang Heng kept hacking more frequently, and at the same time, his temperature begun to rise as well, coupled with a pounding headache.


    The old woman next to him looked at him in surprise. Something seemed to cross her mind, and she suddenly became excited. Zhang Heng realized that there was something wrong with his body. At the same time, he ruled out the possibility that he was attacked by the girl wearing shades. Zhang Heng held on to her hands all the time, and she shouldn��t have possibly gained ess to any game items. Besides, the outbreak had broken out here even before she came to this hospital.


    Zhang Heng quickly thought about what happened earlier. Something wasn��t right when the male doctor bumped into him. The doctor had grabbed his arm to ��stop him from falling.�� Immediately, Zhang Heng lowered his head and looked at his wrist. That was the only spot that the doctor touched him, and now, the area had turned a purplish-ck color.


    Zhang Heng realized that he could no longer remember the male doctor��s face, but he still remembered his tag, feeling like he had seen the name before. After he captured the girl with shades, he didn��t think much about other things. It was then that he remembered where he saw the doctor��s name.


    He was Wang Shuangshuang��s attending doctor. At this point, Zhang Heng finally figured out what the woman with shades was waiting for in the ward. Her target wasn��t Wang Shuangshuang, but her attending doctor.


    He was probably the source of this flu.


    It did not take long for Zhang Heng to sort out everything. The elevator had just gone past two floors, and a patient at the back was trying to squeeze forward, obviously trying to get out of the elevator as soon as possible. Once everyone had gotten off the elevator. Zhang Heng suddenly stretched out his hand to block the elevator door. He pulled the girl with shades out.


    Until now, Zhang Heng had no idea what the doctor did to him. The only thing that he knew was that his current condition wasn��t just the simple flu. His condition had deteriorated faster than he expected, where his temperature had been rising steadily, and now, his vision was beginning to blur as well. At the same time, his lower abdomen was hurting too. He was gradually bing weaker and weaker, and quickly too.


    The moment Zhang Heng got off the elevator, he immediately pressed the up button again. The top priority now was to return to the previous floor and find the male doctor who did this to him before his strength was utterly depleted.


    ��Unfortunately, it��s toote.�� The old woman finally spoke again. She eyeballed Zhang Heng with a hint of mockery.


    ��Who is that guy?��


    ��Have you heard of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse?�� the old woman leisurely asked.


    ��The white horse rider in the New Testament, Revtion-Pestilence?��


    Zhang Heng felt nauseous when he heard that. ��Is that guy an agent of the gue?��


    ��Agent? No, no, that��s the Pestilence himself.�� There was a growing excitement in her eyes. ��I have been looking for him for a long time, and I would like to thank you. Otherwise, I don��t think I would have found him.��


    At that very moment, the intense cramps in the abdomen had blurred Zhang Heng��s thinking. In less than two minutes, he had almost lost all strength to stand.


    The old woman looked at him with a touch of pity. ��Well, you aren��t the first to die in his hands, nor would you be thest.��

 Chapter 458 - Rider of the White Horse

    <strong>Chapter 458 Rider of the White Horse</strong>


    ��I watched as the Lamb opened the first of the seven seals. Then I heard one of the four living creatures say in a voice like thunder, ��Come!�� I looked, and there before me was a white horse! Its rider held a bow, and he was given a crown, and he rode out as a conqueror bent on conquest.��


    �C ��New Testament of the Bible �C Revtion, John��


    It wasn��t Zhang Heng��s first time encountering a biblical creature. Before this, he��d dealt with the mess left by the jealous Leviathan, one of the seven deadly sins, but he never actually saw the monster.


    Compared to demons like the Seven Deadly Sins, the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse were even more famous. These Four Horsemen were super big bosses who would only appear before the end of the world, each representing gue, war, famine, and death.


    Their appearance marked the demise of humankind and the dawn of judgment day.


    Zhang Heng was in horrible shape right now. He could see the other elevator arriving on this floor, but even simple movements proved a gargantuan task for him. Rather than saying that thedy in shades was still under his control, he was the one relying on her to keep him from falling over.


    Even if he sessfully made it upstairs, he was helpless against the horseman in his current state.


    Thedy in shades reached into Zhang Heng��s pocket, took out his phone, and tossed it into the nearest bin. He was so weak that he could not even stop her.


    ��Sorry, but it looks like I won��t be answering your questions.��


    Zhang Heng could not deal with her right now. The moment the elevator door opened, he attempted to step forward, but his legs were so heavy they might as well have been made out of the lead. He exerted nearly every ounce of strength in his body and only managed to make one small step, his feet barely touching the ground as itnded.


    Losing his bnce, he stumbled to the floor. His vision was getting blurry, and his forehead was burning. It felt as if his brain was about to crack open.


    The woman in shades yed along and put on an expression of dismay. Seeing the dismal situation, other patients quickly called for doctors and nurses.


    Zhang Heng could hear the sound of a stretcher rolling on the tiled floor, but he could barely see anything. His lips were moving, but he could scarcely utter a single word.


    Fortunately, he was quickly carried onto a stretcher. A stethoscope was pressed against his chest, with the doctor asking him for his name and emergency contact. There seemed to be many onlookers, but no one noticed that the elderlydy with him disappeared.


    Thetter had slipped into the bathroom amid themotion, and when she re-emerged, she had be another person. She watched as the doctors wheeled Zhang Heng into the emergency room before she left through a safe route and returned to the sixth floor.


    Now, she was standing outside Wang Shuangshuang��s ward, and through the ss, she could see that the male doctor from the elevator wasn��t inside.


    But thedy in shades was in no hurry. The doctor had arrived on this floor not too long ago, and it was improbable that he would leave so soon. But since she knew his identity now, finding him shouldn��t be too difficult anymore.


    So, she hopped from one ward to another, searching for the man. Nheless, even as she approached the end of the corridor, she still had not found him.


    Just as she was beginning to doubt her suspicions, she spotted the doctor walking out of the male restroom, shaking the water off his hands before stepping into the treatment room.


    Thedy in shades did not hesitate, immediately following behind him. When she pushed the door open, however, the room was empty.


    While she was still swallowing down her shock, the door suddenly shut behind her.


    The doctor appeared behind her like a ghost. He then released the doorknob. ��Are you looking for me?��


    ��Yes, my lord.��


    Thedy in shades turned around with excitement ming in her eyes. She had waited for this moment for far too long now.


    ��Aren��t you with Loki? Does he know that you��re here looking for me?�� the doctor asked, removing the surgical gloves on his hand.


    ��No,ing here was my own idea. It had nothing to do with Lord Loki.��


    ��If you know me well enough, you should know that my three friends and I prefer taking from people rather than giving,�� said the doctor in a very condescending tone. ��Whatever it is that you want from me, my advice is for you to forget that stupid and unrealistic idea as soon as possible.��


    Thedy in shades went down on her knees. ��Look! I��m not asking for your kindness. I came here to make a deal with you?��


    ��Who are you to make a deal with me?�� the doctor sniffed. ��I��m not one of those Northern European guys, and I don��t need to give a face to Loki.��


    ��I know what you want, and what I want, only you can give,�� said thedy in shades


    Han Lu and Fan Meinan had been waiting for an hour outside the hospital, and still, there was no sign of Zhang Heng. Concerned, Fan Meinan called his cellphone, but no one picked up.


    ��Could something have happened to him?�� Han Lu asked, worried.


    ��Err... that��s very unlikely. With that guy��s skill andposure, he��s always the one who gets to beat people up-I��ve never seen anyone taking advantage of him. Even my sister is no match for him.��


    The assurance managed to put Han Lu��s mine at ease, albeit just by a little.


    ��But then... he couldn��t possibly be so indisposed that he couldn��t pick up the phone.�� Fan Meinan paused to think, and since she was unsure, she called again.


    Ten secondster, someone finally picked up.


    Fan Meinan exhaled in relief, but s, it was the voice of a stranger that greeted her. ��Who are you?�� the voice on the other line demanded.


    ��And who are you?�� Fan Meinan asked in return.


    ��Even if I tell you my name, I��m afraid you wouldn��t know who I am. I found this phone in the bin. Are you a friend of this phone��s owner?��


    ��Where did you say you found the phone again?�� Fan Meinan��s eyebrows furrowed.


    ��In the hospital��s trash can. If you made those calls earlier, I wouldn��t have found out that there was a phone in there,�� said the person on the other end. ��If you��re a friend of this phone��s owner, then you bettere get it quick. I��m here with my wife for a pregnancy check-up. We��ll be leaving in about twenty minutes.��


    ��Give me five. I��ll be right there.�� Fan Meinan hung up.


    ��What happened?�� Han Lu asked.


    Fan Meinan bit her lip. ��I don��t know... Zhang Heng��s phone was found in the trash can, but I don��t know if this is a trap from my sister or not.��


    ��Huh?��


    ��Anyway, that guy is probably in trouble. I��m going back to find out. You stay right here.�� ��We better go together,�� Han Lu said. ��If anything happens, I could be of help. I believe I��ve proven myself in the office.��

 Chapter 459 - Split Up

    <strong>Chapter 459 Split Up</strong>


    ��You... are his family?��


    Thedy doctor looked at the two people standing in front of her.


    ��Close enough. I am his sister, and she is his...�� Fan Meinan hesitated.


    ��...girlfriend.�� Han Lu continued.


    ��Great! We have been looking for his family. He��s not in good condition now,�� the doctor went on. ��His fever is not dropping, and his temperature has exceeded 40 degrees Celcius. I��ve just given him an injection bring the fever down. Who will pay for his consultation and treatment?��.


    ��Give me the bill.��


    Han Lu took the bill and hurried to the payment counter.


    ��We just heard the broadcast? What happened to him?�� asked Fan Meinan. ��He was fine when we separated ten minutes ago.��


    ��That��s what we are trying to figure out. Since you are his sister, do you know anything about his medical history? Anyone in your family experienced something like this before?��


    ��As far as I know, he��s always been in good health.��


    ��I can see the looks healthy as well. When we found him, he had fainted outside the elevator. So we��ve done some checks on him, but I can��t give you an answer before the resultse out. It would be best if you prepare for the worst. He��s really not looking


    good.��


    As soon as the doctor was done talking, a nurse ran towards her. ��Doctor Zhou, the patient is critical! His temperature is still rising, and his breathing is bing more and more difficult as well.��


    ��Sorry, I��ll have to check on my patient now.��


    The doctor put on a mask and strode into the emergency room. ��What happened?�� Han Lu asked after settling the bills.


    ��I don��t know, but I believe he needs our help right now. Whatever or whoever that made him sick, the source should still be in the hospital. Modern medical procedures may not solve this problem. We must find that thing that dropped this grave illness on him. Only that thing can save him.�� Fan Meinan frowned. ��I strongly rmend that you stay here this time because this matter is far more dangerous than we could ever imagine.��


    ��How do you know what I imagine?�� Han Lu said calmly.


    ��Did you think you could understand the truth of this world with just a few words from us?�� Fan Meinan shook her head. ��This world is far crazier and a hell lot more dangerous than you think.��


    ��I haven��t closed my eyes for nearly forty hours. Whether this incident happened or not, I��ll be like a crazy woman anyway.�� Han Lu gulped down another can of coffee in an increasingly futile attempt to keep herself awake.


    ��Fine.��


    Time was quickly running out, and no one knew how long Zhang Heng couldst. So Fan Meinan did not try to talk her out of it anymore. She rubbed her chin in contemtion. ��First of all, we must determine where Zhang Heng was attacked. Before we went after the bait, and, let��s assume Zhang Heng found my sister and sessfully kept her under control... wasn��t he was supposed to meet up with us after that? So the question is, why did hee to this floor?��


    ��Because he realized in the elevator that something was wrong with his body?��


    ��You might be right. Zhang Heng is usually very calm and cautious. He wanted to get off the elevator after realizing that something was wrong, which exins why he wanted to return to the previous floor. In the end, he passed out in front of the elevator.�� Fan Meinan bit her lips and continued to analyze, ��So the thing that caused his sickness should still be on the floor where Wang Shuangshuang is. And this thing apparently didn��t attract his attention in the beginning. Hold on. There are still many areas that we need to cover. We��d better check the surveince video to find out what happened to him.��


    ��How do we get the surveince video?��


    ��I��ll take care of it.�� Fan Meinan said.


    ��In that case, let��s split up. I will go up and see what I find first. Your sister doesn��t know of my existence. It should be safer if it��s me,�� said Han Lu.


    ��Okay, be careful.��


    Ten minutester, Fan Meinan looked at the male security guard who fell into aa in the men��s toilet cubicle. She took off the clothes from him and put it on. Now, she had wholly transformed into the security guard. Fan Meinan locked the door, put up a Cleaning-Under-Process sign at the toilet entrance, and returned to the monitoring room. The guard��s partner saw hime in. ��What took you so long? Something wrong with your kidneys?��


    ��No, I ran into Doctor Zhou. Someone passed out in the corridor just now. Doctor Zhou wanted to know why, so she asked us to send her a copy of the surveince video.��


    His partner showed a look of surprise. ��Unless the chairman approves, no one is allowed to view the surveince video. Doctor Zhou should know about this.��


    ��Yes... I know the rules, but we have an urgent situation now. A patient is in grave danger, and he might die if Doctor Zhou can��t find the cause quickly. We can talk about the approvalter,�� said Fan Meinan.


    ��Wow... did you take the wrong pills today?�� The eyes of the guard��s partner widened. ��Don��t you know that rules are rules? Doing this will cost us our jobs!�� He paused. ��I don��t want to see someone dying either, but this is a hospital, and people die here every day. All we have to do is to do our jobs well.��


    ��You��re right,�� Fan Meinan sighed. ��Trust me; I don��t want to do this to you either.�� The partner was a little puzzled. ��Huh?�� Without warning, the paddles of a defibritor suddenlynded on his chest.


    ��Sorry, nothing personal.�� Fan Meinan flipped the switch, and the security guard started going into a violent fit.


    When Fan Meiman turned off the switch, the guard��s body dropped off the stool like a rock.


    At the same time, Han Lu had also arrived on the floor where Wang Shuangshuang��s ward was located. The atmosphere on this floor hadn��t changed much since they left. The corridor was swarming with patients and their family members. A matron was scolding a young nurse loudly for apparently losing a patient��s medicine.


    There were tears in the nurse��s eyes. She was giving an injection to a patient earlier, and when she turned around, a bottle of levofloxacin and a syringe had strangely gone missing. The head nurse was after her now, demanding for the poor junior to pay up for the missing items.


    Han Lu walked towards them and asked, ��How much is it? I will pay for it.��


    The head nurse seemed a little surprised, ��It��s not about the money. I want her to remember this lesson...��


    ��I don��t think she has done anything wrong. There are so many people in the hospital now; it is impossible to pay attention to every single person around you all the time.�� Han Lu took out her purse and drew a thousand yuan from it. ��Will this be enough?��


    The nurse seemed was a little embarrassed. ��No, no, no. I��m the one who lost the medicine. Let me pay for it. And ording to the hospital��s regtions, we can��t take money from others.�� ��It��s okay; consider it a donation then. After you pay for the medication, you can give the rest of the money to those who need it.�� Han Lu then put the money on the nurse��s desk. ��Hey, let me ask you a question.��


    ��Sure, ask away. What is it?�� Thanks to Han Lu��s timely interruption amid the argument, the nurse��s mood had improved a lot. She now felt that there were still many good people in this world.


    ��Have you been at the nurse��s desk recently? Have you seen any new visitors?��


    ��Uhh... new visitor. We have it in the registration system, but I am afraid I can��t show it to you,�� the nurse apologized.


    ��Can��t you, perhaps, do something?�� Han Lu asked. ��You can ask me to register too, then pretend to let me take a quick peek of the records. You don��t have to take any responsibility.��


    While the two were talking, the treatment room door opened, and a woman walked out of it.

 Chapter 460 - Heart!!!

    <h4>Chapter 460 Heart!!!</h4>


    The junior nurse was stunned since the other person didn��t look like a patient at all. Aftering out, he did not walk to the ward but instead headed directly to the elevator. The nurse opened her mouth to say something in an attempt to stop the woman but hesitated the moment she remembered the mistake she made not too long ago. She wasn��t about to shoot herself in the foot again.


    However, the expression on her face had captured Han Lu��s attention. She noticed something wasn��t right. So, she turned behind. ��What��s wrong?��


    Just then, another person walked out of the treatment room.


    The nurse breathed a sigh of relief when she saw the man with a sweet smile on her face. ��Director Kuang!��


    The doctor with the surname of Kuang nodded at the greeting.


    Seeing that the nurse��s expressions had returned to normal, Han Lu did not ask any further questions. She continued focusing on the visitor list, still thinking about looking through all those names as quickly as possible. Suddenly, her heart skipped a beat, and an inexplicable sense of fear surged through her body.


    That sense of fear came and went quickly, passing by like a sh of light. Had it not been for the horror that Han Lu saw in the nurse��s eyes, she would have suspected that the fear wasn��t real.


    The doctor then asked in a deep voice, ��How is the patient in bed 203?��


    The nurse patted her chest. ��She seems better today. I took her temperature just now, and the fever has subsided. I hope she is okay,�� said the nurse with concern.


    Han Lu shuddered a little when she heard that, but nheless, she kept her feelings under control.


    No. 203 was Wang Shuangshuang��s bed. The identity of the doctor in front of her with the surname Kuang was revealed. He was Wang Shuangshuang��s attending doctor, and his sudden appearance made him a suspicious person. With his presence, it wasn��t hard to connect what happened between him and Zhang Heng. Han Lu��s heart started beating faster. It should have hit her a long time ago. All the while, she had been focusing on the visitor list to the point she forgot that hospital staff was obviously free to leave the hospital whenever they wanted.


    Han Lu tried her best to remain as calm as possible, not forgetting what Fan Meinan told her before this. If Zhang Heng was on the verge of death because of this Director Kuang, it meant this person was extremely dangerous.


    Just then, the phone in Han Lu��s pocket started ringing


    Han Lu nced at the caller ID. It was Fan Meinan.


    Grabbing the opportunity, she walked away, finding herself a corner that no one noticed, and answered the phone. The two of them almost said the same thing together����I might have found him!��


    Han Lu paused, ��You first...��


    ��I watched the surveince video. Zhang Heng bumped into a male doctor before getting into the elevator. After that, something bad happened to him. After descending two floors, he exited the elevator with my sister. I think he wanted to head back to look for the doctor, but his body wouldn��t allow it. Soon after that, he lost consciousness on the ground,�� said Fan Meinan.


    ��Did Wang Shuangshuang��s attending doctor go by the surname of Kuang? He��s standing next to me right now,�� whispered Han Lu.


    ��Yes! that��s why I called you quickly.��


    ��It means the person who walked out of the same room with him was your sister.��


    Fan Meinan hesitated. ��That��s right.��


    Right now, her sister was nning to leave the hospital, and Zhang Heng was in a critical situation. It was time for her to make a decision.


    Han Lu quickly came up with an idea. ��I��m keeping my eyes on him. Come here quickly.�� ��Okay.��


    Fan Meinan said nothing after that, knowing that although Han Lu was in a sticky situation, it was her utmost priority to rescue Zhang Heng first. ��Wait for me,�� she said and hung up the phone. On the other side, Han Lu pretended to talk while secretly keeping her eyes on Director Kuan. It seemed Director Kuang didn��t notice her at all, and once he was done talking to the nurse, he walked directly to Wang Shuangshuang��s ward. Han Lu breathed a sigh of relief as she saw the director walking away. She swiftly put away her phone.


    Now, she only needed to wait until Fan Meinan arrived. The next moment, however, something pped her neck from behind. Han Lu had no idea what happened, and before she knew it, she was dragged through the wall into the ward and mmed heavily to the ground. When Han Lu saw the expressionless face of ��Director Kuang�� staring down at her, the fear in her heart quadrupled. She could not help but let out a loud scream.


    ��Director Kuang�� remained in his position, looking at her with indifference. There wasn��t a hint of emotion in his eyes, causing an endless chill of despair to run through Han Lu��s heart. She became even more horrified when she realized that no one could hear her scream. The two patients on the bed were in a deep sleep, let alone those outside the ward. This happened a mere 5 seconds after Fan Meinan hung up the phone. No one could hear her cries for help, so naturally, no one woulde and save her.


    Han Lu crawled towards the door, trying to escape the ward. But when she wanted to grab the doorknob, she found out that the door couldn��t be opened no matter how hard she tugged at it. Banging the door desperately with all her strength, she attempted to attract the attention of those outside the ward. s, it was as if the world had forgotten her.


    After that, Han Lu heard the neighing of horses. The ward lights were dimmed, and ��Director Kuang�� had a crown on his head. He was holding a peculiarly shaped longbow made of human bones. He spoke with a voice so loud, it was as if the entire earth could hear his bellows.


    ��The day I descend on earth will be the day the gue goes rampant, and all humans will suffer!��


    He then slowly raised the longbow and aimed it at Han Lu, nowpletely ovee by terror. However, neither Pestilence nor Han Lu noticed a dark figure sneaking in from the window.


    ��Director Kuang�� pulled on the empty bowstring. Although there was no arrow, Han Lu felt the unprecedented fear of death haunting her very being.


    Just when she was sure that she was about to die, a sharp scalpel stabbed into ��Director Kuang��s�� back. Ironically, not a drop of blood came out of the wound. ��Director Kuang�� frowned, slowly turning around to see who this brazen attacker was.


    Zhang Heng, however, did wasn��t bothered to look at ��Director Kuang�� at all.


    He held the scalpel tightly, seemingly focussed on his actionspletely. Zhang Heng pulled the knife all the way down, slicing the target��s back wide open. A few secondster, something magical happened. The top part of the wound had already begun healing, and it was obvious that some supernatural power was repairing the ��director��s�� body. The part that recovered was as smooth as a mirror, and there wasn��t even a scar.


    ��Director Kuang�� sneered at Zhang Heng as if to mock his inability to maim his target. However, Zhang Heng would soon do something really unforgettable. Without warning, Zhang Heng shoved his entire hand into ��Director Kuang��s�� open wound as if probing for something. ��Director Kuang��s expression changed for the first time. After a while, Zhang Heng��s right hand stopped. He had finally found what he was looking for!


    ��Director Kuang�� roared furiously, ��How dare you...��


    But before he could finish, he was put to a stop!


    Zhang Heng��s right hand left his body abruptly, and on the palm of his hand, there was a beating ck heart.

 Chapter 461 - Killing God

    <h4>Chapter 461 Killing God</h4>


    Zhang Heng clenched his fist and squeezed the ck heart with no vacition, and bright, ck, blood oozed out of it. At the same time, the horse stopped neighing as well and the previously dim room was now bright again. It was at that time, Han Lu felt as if she reconnected with the world again. The sinking feeling of destion and loneliness had disappeared. The shock that she experienced, however, would never fade.


    Director Kuang��s body seemed to be frozenthe anger on his face sealed-in forever; his mouth wide open like a roaring lion. And behind him stood a man covered in ck blood. It was like David facing Goliath��Every inch of his body was bathed in ck.


    Han Lu��s heart started thumping in her chest again.


    In the end, ��Director Kuang�� lost his vitality, and his body plopped to the ground. It also indicated that this short but perilous battle was finally over. ��Zhang Heng?�� Han Lu finally recognized the person who rescued her during the critical moment.


    Zhang Heng stood there with his eyes closed, motionless as if he had not heard his name being called at all.


    When Han Lu started getting worried, Zhang Heng suddenly spoke up. ��Can you help me find some clothes?��


    ��Okay...��


    Han Lu was back to normal when she heard Zhang Heng speaking. She was reluctant to take her eyes away from him. Being the woman she was, Han Lu had dated all kinds of young and handsome men, including a club��s young master, a buff young man from the gym, and even several celebrities. All of them were in excellent shape, to say the least, but for whatever reason, their muscles seemed tock a sense of beauty, not unlike expensive and fragile ss toys disyed before a store��s window.


    Han Lu opened the cab beside her, finding a set of sportswear that belonged to one of the patients. She quickly grabbed it and handed it to Zhang Heng. ��How did you end up like this?��


    ��I climbed from the window in the emergency room. My clothes are still there.�� Zhang Heng tore off the infusion sticker on his hand, turned on the faucet in the bathroom, and washed off the blood on his body.


    ��Are you... okay? The doctor told us you weren��t doing so well.��


    Before Zhang Heng could reply, Han Lu��s phone rang again. She immediately answered the call, where a very anxious Fan Meinan came over the line. ��Where are you??? I didn��t see you in the hallway. What happened?!��


    ��Uhh, I��m in Ward 207, and the situation is a bit... well... It��s hard to exin in words,�� said Han Lu.


    As soon as she finished speaking, the door of the ward pushed open from the outside.


    Fan Meinan saw the corpse of ��Director Kuang�� on the floor. After that, she saw Zhang Heng, stark naked and wet,ing out of the bathroom. Suddenly, her cheeks turned red.


    ��Seems you are enjoying what you see too?�� Han Lu handed over the sportswear to Zhang Heng, and he quickly put on the pants and jacket. The showcase of nudity was finally over.


    Fan Meinan closed the door behind her immediately. ��...Who can exin to me what in the world is going on here? How did you get yourself into the rescue room, and how did you get out?��


    She turned to look at Zhang Heng.


    ��The person your sister wanted to meet here is Pestilence, one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse,�� said Zhang Heng as he picked up the bone bow on the ground. ��We met outside the elevator, and he touched my skin. After that, I felt like smallpox, flu, and the gue all attacked me at the same time.��


    ��The Four Horsemen of Apocalypse? Pestilence himself? This... how did you defeat him?�� Fan Meinan asked in bewilderment.


    ��I��m not so sure myself. I thought I was going to die too. I almost expired in the emergency room... My respiratory system was failing, the temperature kept rising, and my head hurt like hell. I couldn��t speak, and even opening my eyes was almost impossible. All I could hear was people walking around me and talking,�� rted Zhang Heng. ��Then my heart stopped for a few seconds... it felt like the whole world had quieted down. I vaguely saw that the heart rate monitor had tlined. But the best thing? I didn��t actually feel sorry for my own death. In fact, I felt nothing during that time.�� ��You were dead?��


    ��For a while, I believe.�� Zhang Heng said. ��Who saved you after that?��


    ��No one. I don��t remember what happened in those few seconds, but somehow, I opened my eyes and I found myself to be healthy again. I had no fever, headache, or nausea, and my strength had recovered. However, I also saw a doctor holding defibritor paddles in her hand, and she was about to ce them on my chest. I didn��t want to get shocked, so I had to knock her out and the nurses around her as well. After that, I climbed through the window and returned to this floor. I happened to see that Han Lu was in danger from outside the window, so I quickly crawled in to help.�� ��You survived the gue? How is that even possible? The Four Horsemen of Apocalypse are supposed to be powerful enough to destroy the world!�� Fan Meinan��s eyes widened as if they were about to pop out of their sockets. ��Butpared to that... I can��t believe that you managed to kill Pestilence! How the hell did you do that? How did you know what his weakness was, and how did you urately pinpoint it?��


    ��I wish I can answer all your questions, but unfortunately, I can only tell you that I wasn��t thinking back then. I acted entirely by instinct. When I was young, though, my parents told me stories of many myths. Maybe one or two of those mentioned the weakness of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse,�� said Zhang Heng. He squatted down and picked up the crown on and the peculiar bone bow from the ground.


    The bone bow was his most significant yield yet after a fight. However, there was no way of knowing what it could do before it was sent to be appraised. But being equipment of a Horsemen of the Apocalypse, he couldn��t be wrong about its prowess. ��Director Kuang��s�� body had decayed and melted at an incredible speed before finally turning into a pile of ashes.


    If it were not for the ck blood on the ground, it was as if the situation never ured at all.


    After that, Zhang Heng and Han Lu stayed behind to ensure no one would enter the room. At the same time, Fan Meinan stole a few detergent bottles and brushes, and the three of them started cleaning up the blood on the ground.


    The twodies were still in shock after witnessing what happened earlier. Han Lu witnessed the battle with her own two eyes, and when the bone bow was pointed at her, she almost stopped breathing. This was her first time getting that close to a celestial being, and before the scalpel stabbed Pestilence��s back, she thought that this was the day she would die. The scene where Zhang Heng extracted Pestilence��s heart would now be forever imprinted in her mind.


    Although Fan Meinan did not witness the battle, she experienced a greater shock than Han Lu since she knew exactly how powerful the Four Horsemen of Apocalypse was. They were different from those so-called gods that had lost most of their supernatural powers over time. The world had not forgotten the existence of the Four Horsemen of Apocalypse. Looking at the flu that had affected the entire city, one could witness just how mighty these demigods were.


    It would be nothing less but an incredible feat if a mortal killed one of them, even if it was a sneak attack.

 Chapter 462 - Resonable Inference

    <h4>Chapter 462 Resonable Inference</h4>


    The three quickly cleaned up the ward as soon as they could. After that, Han Lu and Fan Meinan took the bone bow and the crown, wrapped them in sheets, and left the hospital with the elevator. Zhang Heng, on the other hand, climbed through the window and returned to the emergency room to take back his clothes and personal belongings. He then left the hospital quietly.


    The three regrouped in the car once outside the hospital. Han Lu still seemed a little shocked.


    ��I still can��t believe that you killed a Horsemen of the Apocalypse...�� said Fan Meinan as Zhang Heng opened the door.


    Zhang Heng sat down, closed the door, but only shook his head. ��It is meaningless discussing stuff like these at the moment. We came here to find your sister, but it appears we have lost her again.��


    ��That��s the problem! To be honest, I don��t want to be fooled again. This doesn��t feel good.�� Fan Meinan smiled bitterly.


    ��We may still have another chance,�� said Zhang Heng


    ��What do you mean?��


    ��Why did your sistere to find Pestilence?��


    ��The three major guilds wish to bring her in, and she obviously became furious about it. Is she trying to eliminate the three major guilds with the help of Pestilence?�� Fan Meinan fell into deep thought while touching her chin. ��It��s not easy to kill so many yers in one go. Even when ites to deities, only a few of them could carry out such a feat. And Pestilence is one of them. She may have gotten what she wanted from the deity... Hold on. It��s not easy to ask for the Pestilence��s help, and I��m afraid it must have cost her dearly in exchange for whatever favor she needed. Their first contact is only a spection. There should be follow-up contacts.��


    ��This is our most reasonable inference for now,�� Zhang Heng said, pulling out a Samsung Gxy while at it. ��I got Pestilence��s mobile phone.��


    ��They may contact each other again, but why must they do it through mobile phones?��


    ��Because it is our only clue now.�� Zhang Heng turned on theptop beside him. ��I can hack through the phone��s lock screen password and check out his contact list.��


    Since it was all about Han Lu��s fate, she was naturally nervous and on edge. ��When did you see theming out of the room,�� Zhang Heng asked Han Lu.


    ��Uh... about 11:03 or 04?�� replied Han Lu replied. She closed her eyes, rummaging through her memories. ��It was 11:03... I looked at the wall clock at the nurse��s station.


    ��Thest iing call on the phone was at 10:20 in the morning. It couldn��t have been her.�� Zhang Heng turned to the contact list and continued to scroll through it. ��Most of the contacts here are colleagues from the hospital. I don��t see anything suspicious. If this is the case, we can only wait for the person to contact us.��


    ��I didn��t expect Pestilence to be so dedicated in his hospital work.��


    Zhang Heng turned to Fan Meinan. ��You have the ability to change your voice when you pretend to be someone else. Can you imitate Pestilence��s voice?��


    ��Yes, but I have to hear him speak first.��


    ��It��s easy to acquire his voice. Since he was the director of this hospital, he should have some videos on the Inte.�� Zhang Heng quickly found a panel of experts on infectious disease and epidemiology organized by the Municipal Health Ministry. Pestilence had been invited as an expert to speak at the summit. The whole situation seemed like an ironic piece of ck humor.


    Fan Meinan paid attention to the video. After a while, she cleared her throat, and she started to speak in the voice of ��Director Kuang.��


    ��Under the leadership of Deputy Mayor Guo, we shall build a harmonious and caring doctor-patient rtionship together...��


    Han Lu nodded. ��Overall, you sound just like him. However, I think you should carry a more indifferent tone.��


    ��Roger that.��


    ��For now, we��ll just wait for your sister to contact Pestilence again. Can you still take it?�� Zhang Heng asked Han Lu.


    ��Erm... I��m still fine,�� Han Lu said, ��I did some research earlier, and I found out that the longest time somebody didn��t sleep is ten days. However, it also said that I��ll start hallucinating after five days, and brain damage will kick in after seven. I can bepletely delirious as well.��


    ��We will find a way to lift the curse within five days,�� said Zhang Heng.


    ��If it doesn��t work, It seems I��ll be swallowing more water in your luxurious bathtub,�� Fan Meinan sighed.


    ��Then... where should we go now?�� Han Lu drank another can of coffee again. Before the curse could be lifted, she had to drink coffee as if it was drinking water.


    ��Let��s head back,�� Zhang Heng insisted, taking a can of coffee for himself. ��You need to rest, but that doesn��t mean you can fall asleep... If Pestilence ns to deal with the three major guilds that we are going after, the battlefield would be in the city where we live.��


    ��Okay, then I will ask my assistant to book the return tickets.��


    ��Give me some time to deal with my own stuff. I��ll meet you at the airportter.��


    Zhang Heng contacted the bartenderdy and asked for the address of the city��s checkpoint.


    Having just acquired two pieces of equipment from Pestilence, he could bring the crown onto the airne but not the bone bow. He also knew that using amercial courier service to deliver the bone bow was unreliable as well. Hence, he decided to employ the special logistics service offered by the checkpoint. The advantages of using this service were clear-it was guaranteed to be safe and fast. There were zero chances that the package would be lost in transit. Of course, such perks always had the same setback. Simr to the services offered by all checkpoints, it was extremely costly.


    The delivery of one game item required 15 game points, and two things needed 20 game points, which was almost equivalent to a whopping 800,000 yuan. It was very much like daylight robbery, and fortunately, Zhang Heng had earned many game points from the Whistleblower quest.


    Fan Meinan and Zhang Heng then went to the checkpoint together. After Zhang Heng paid the fee, Fan Meinan pulled him to a corner.


    ��You know that even if you did find my sister, she might not know how to deal with the Dreand of Death, or maybe there��s really just no way to lift the curse.��


    Zhang Heng nodded, ��I��ve taken that possibility into ount.��


    ��So...Should we tell her about it?��


    ��I will wait until the time is right,�� Zhang Heng said.


    ��When is the right time, then?��


    ��When we are sure that we have no way to lift the curse.��


    ��She may die of pain.��


    ��It��s still better than giving up at thest minute right before she gets saved,�� Zhang Heng said. ��Now, the only thing that keeps her alive is the faith that we can save her. If we tell her the truth now, she may not evenst five days.��


    ��You��re the boss. You have the final say.�� Fan Meinan shrugged and stopped arguing. ��Thanks.�� Zhang Heng paused and looked into Fan Meinan��s eyes, ��For what you did for me before, I haven��t had the chance to say thank you...��


    ��Oh, are you talking about the time when I stuck my head into a bathtub full of water and almost drowned? It��s a pity that I couldn��t find my sister in the end, not to mention how we almost got killed by Pestilence.��


    ��If you need any help at all, please remember toe to me.��


    ��Wow, this sounds sweet.�� Fan Meinan blinked. ��Then, I��ll take it seriously... Is it true that you are powerful enough to kill the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse? How could I have not found out about this? Are you really that good?��

 Chapter 463 - Changes

    <h4>Chapter 463 Changes</h4>


    Upon returning to Beijing, the three went their separate ways for the time being. Zhang Heng was pretty lucky��there had been no roll call on that one day he missed ss, and once he arrived at the campus, he headed straight for the showers.


    It was around three in the afternoon, so the public bath was barely upied. Zhang Heng stood under the shower, letting the water wash away the residual ck blood on his body. Though his body had recovered, it was still better to be safe than sorry since the blood belonged to one of the four horsemen.


    Zhang Hengthered himself up with a grand amount of soap, then rinsed himself with warm water. He repeated the whole process twice for good measure.


    He looked at his right arm��the needle mark had disappeared, only less than five hours since he pulled it out.


    Zhang Heng did not tell Fan Meinan and Han Lu the entire truth-after surviving that deadly gue, he experienced... changes, to put it simply, especially during the few seconds when he stopped breathing.


    He did not entirely lose consciousness, and during that time, he witnessed something so bizarre it couldn��t even put it into words.


    After he opened his eyes, other than his body��s self-healing property bing stronger than the ordinary person, he did not sense any other differences. His strength, agility, and reflexes were the same as before, and other than taking advantage of a sneak attack, he was able to kill the horseman mainly because thetter underestimated him.


    The horseman did not expect Zhang Heng to rip his heart out like that, which exined the trace of anger and confusion in his eyes.


    Zhang Heng had no way of knowing what happened to himself or what was happening. Thankfully, his new self-healing ability wasn��t nearly as exaggerated as the horseman; not noticeable unless one paid close attention. As for any other hidden changes, Zhang Heng would need to keep an eye out for the time being.


    After his shower, he set aside the worries about his body, put on a pair of slippers, and went to the market to buy a bottle of ck tea. During checkout, however, he realized that he had left his campus card in the public shower. With furrowed eyebrows, he reached into his pocket for his mobile phone, but then, a hand with a campus card reached out from behind him to pay for the drink.


    Zhang Heng turned around and found himself standing face to face with Shen Xixi.


    She smiled at him. ��It��s on me.��


    ��Thank you.�� Since a bottle of tea wasn��t that expensive, Zhang Heng didn��t refuse the offer.


    ��How have you been?�� Shen Xixi asked.


    ��About the same-attending sses, ying games, and reading books in the library.�� Zhang Heng twisted open the cap of the bottle and took a sip.


    ��Really? But I didn��t see you during Computer Essentials ss.��


    ��Erm...��


    ��Hey, I��m not implying anything. It��s just that... I heard from Xiao Xiao that you happened to pick the same elective as I did.��


    ��Oh, something was going on with my mother��s friend, and I couldn��t make it,�� answered Zhang Heng.


    ��Your mother��s friend... Han Lu?�� Shen Xixi raised an eyebrow.


    ��How did you know?��


    ��What you should have asked is who doesn��t know? Your two roommates have been telling everyone that you know Han Lu... they might as well have printed flyers for it.��


    ��Okay, okay... I��m just kidding. It was Xiao Xiao. She probably heard it from Wei Jiangyang,�� Shen Xixi said. ��Well, I gotta go. I have a ss in the evening, and I��ve got assignments waiting for me. I need to head to the library.��


    She took out her phone as she got up. ��Oh, by the way, a few friends and I set up a WeChat group for dealing with... that kinda stuff we faced before. You can rmend it to anyone who needs help. If they are facing any difficulties whatsoever, they can always leave us a message. When our people see it, they will offer advice, or even help if necessary.��


    Zhang Heng received the QR code Shen Xixi sent. When he scanned it, it led him to a WeChat group called Stranger Things. God knew if the yer forums had inspired Shen Xixi, but it was evident that she was moving farther and farther along the path she carved for herself.


    Whether it was the Anti-Alien-Invasion welfare organization or the WeChat group, her desire to help ordinary people hadn��t changed since the beginning. And ording to Fan Meinan, more and more yers have agreed to join her, and they have even attracted the attention of several local guilds, which had also added to her workload. This meant that for Shen Xixi, getting some time to study quietly in the library was bing a rarity. She even considered taking a break from school.


    Zhang Heng signed up for a WeChat ount with the phone that Ding Si had bounded to his bank card and left a message in Stranger Things. �C I have a friend who received an extraordinary picture. What should we do?


    In less than two minutes, he received a reply.


    -What kind of picture?


    When Zhang Heng briefly described the picture that Han Lu received, the other party suddenly sounded anxious. They replied in mere seconds.


    �C From now on, please do not allow her to close her eyes. Where is your friend?


    Zhang Heng began to type something, but a thought crossed his mind, and he scrapped it. He put his phone back into his pocket. From the way the person reacted, it was apparent that nobody had any ideas on how to solve it.


    Zhang Heng was only giving it a try, though. The Dreand of Death was recognized among the yers as an iprehensible killer. Even after the three significant guilds invested enormous amounts of manpower and material into investigating it, they had yet to develop any concrete solutions. Other people aside, if Shen Xixi had found a solution, she would have published it on the inte as soon as possible to keep more people from being harmed.


    At present, the most reliable solution was to find thedy in shades. But Fan Meinan still had not contacted him yet. Obviously, she hadn��t yet heard anything about it.


    Zhang Heng failed to think of a better solution, and all he could do now was to keep waiting.


    What he did not expect was that the wait wouldst as long as two days.


    It had been three days since Han Lust slept. Eighty hours without any sleep was causing her to feel increasingly anxious and depressed.


    Han Lu was mentally more substantial than most people, but even so, her patience was running out, and the endless doses of caffeine gave her a weary look. She was almost at wits�� end.


    When Zhang Heng arrived at her ce after ss, she threw a tantrum, throwing things around the house because the housekeeper was ��too noisy�� while preparing food. Han Lu��s eyes were bloodshot, and the moment she saw Zhang Heng, she copsed on the sofa as if she had lost every ounce of energy. She slowly rubbed her temples in despair and despondency. Zhang Heng noticed a pile of documents on the coffee table. ��Are you still working?��


    ��What choice do I have?! I have to keep myself busy.�� Han Lu smiled bitterly. ��Otherwise, it would be just too difficult. I am at the point where I��m willing to exchange half of my assets for one hour of sleep. Just one hour would suffice.��

 Chapter 464 - Dating

    <strong>Chapter 464 Dating</strong>


    Zhang Heng took the coffee pot from the maid and poured a cup for Han Lu.


    ��Interesting. I used to like coffee. I even flew all the way to bloody Ethiopia to buy coffee beans. But now, the very smell of it makes me feel like puking.�� Han Lu lifted the cup, only to put it down momentster. She looked into Zhang Heng��s eyes. ��I need you to tell me the truth. Do you really have a way to help me? If I can choose how I die, I don��t want to die at work suddenly. At the very least, I should get four or five young and ripped men to keep mepany, perhaps lie in the bathtub with me. Might as well spend some money and pamper me before I die.��


    ��I��m trying...��


    ��You know well enough that an answer as such is not good enough for me,�� said Han Lu.


    Zhang Heng opened his mouth, but his phone vibrated at the same time. It was a WeChat message by Fan Meinan. There was only one sentence, and he could see it without unlocking his phone.


    (She called me!)


    Zhang Heng got up. ��Let��s hold on for a little longer. We��ll be getting an answer soon. You have been holding on for so long, and if you give up now, all that suffering will be wasted.��


    ��I know what a sunken cost is.�� Zhang Heng walked to the door, and Han Lu spoke again. ��If you still can��t catch her this time, can you take a few days off from school?��


    ��Why?��


    ��I have many friends, but none I want to see before my funeral. And your mother may not be able toe back in time. I don��t want to leave this world alone.��


    ��You are not going to die yet,�� Zhang Heng said. ��Since you managed to escape from Pestilence, there is no reason why you can��t survive this crisis.��


    Late at night, in the suburbs~


    Although there were still vehicles passing by the overpass, the streets were practically deserted, and there wasn��t a soul to be seen.


    Thedy in shades emerged from the darkness. Her red high heels tapped the ground with a distinctive click, and from the steady but slow steps, it was apparent she wasn��t in a rush. The first thing that she did was to take out a pair of night-vision goggles from her handbag. After putting it on, she strolled around the area, making sure that no one would ambush her. Only after she was certain did she take off the goggles, tidy up her clothes, and walk towards the meeting spot.


    Pestilence had agreed to meet her in front of a newsstand that was now closed.


    Thedy in shades reexamined whatever she wanted to say in her mind. Compared to their first meeting, she was now more rxed. Since Pestilence had agreed to meet up with her, it meant that he was interested in making a deal. However, she was about toe face to face with a demon of sorts, and regardless of how much she wished she could put her mind at ease, there was no way she could fully rx.


    Thedy in shades arrived at the newsstand five minutes earlier, and at the same time, left an escape route for herself. To do that, she had paid 10,000 yuan to hire an amateur driver, who coulde and get her within 120 seconds if something went wrong.


    After bing public enemy numero-uno of the three powerful guilds, many thought that she would be found after going into hiding. For now, however, she was very much alive and well, and in addition to her superb ability to disguise herself, being extremely meticulous had also helped a lot with her cause as well.


    Right now, she wasn��t even trying to defend herself against Pestilence. After witnessing first-hand the creature��s power in the hospital, she knew there was nothing she could really do if the celestial being really wanted her life.


    She continued waiting before the newsstand, taking constant nces at her watch. Only less than two minutes were left before the meetingmenced. She didnt have to wait long before faintly seeing a dark figure wearing a crown and holding a longbowing to her from a distance.


    The silhouette looked just like one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, not to mention how it looked down on her in condescension. Then, in just a few seconds, it turned away, disappearing into the night.


    Now, thedy in shades became increasingly nervous. She then noticed another figure walking toward her. Pestilence had changed his appearance to ��Director Kuang,�� and considering the human image the creature carried, it made most situations less stressful for the unexpecting spectator. The teleportation she witnessed earlier had also left her deeply impressed.


    No wonder Pestilence was known as an entity powerful enough to destroy the world. His otherworldly powers were simply unfathomable to most.


    ��My Lord,�� cooed thedy in shades, her greeting as respectful as ever. ��Director Kuang�� had a nk look written across his face. He kept the same pace, walking to her a step at a time. ��Have you made up your mind? Just follow my method, and we can reproduce the Spanish flu of 1918. Your name will definitely be remembered by the world again,�� said thedy in shades before pausing for a moment. ��I��m not talking about the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. I��m talking about you, Pestilence. You will be everyone��s worst nightmare. In fact, you��re the first Horseman that walked the earth, which is why you deserve to be the leader of the four. Whether Death or War, how could theypare to you...��


    ��Extend your hand...�� Director Kuang interrupted her with amanding tone.


    Thedy in shades didn��t hesitate and immediately stretched out her right hand.


    ��Director Kuang�� took out something from his pocket, leaving a hint of confusion in thedy��s eyes. The object looked a little strange. Based on its design, it looked like a regr everyday item, square-ish in shape, and looked a lot like a power bank of sorts.


    Anyone would pass off unnoticed if they had such an object in their hands. However, it was odd to see Pestilence holding it. Before she had time to ask anything, ��Director Kuang,�� who was opposite her, suddenly put on a weird smile, and at the same time, pressed the switch on the device. What turned out to be taser instantly generated a high-voltage pulse through its built-in transformer, throwing thedy into a brief fit before rendering her unconscious.


    She had fainted before she even had a chance to call her emergency driver.


    After that, ��Director Kuang�� bounded her hands and feet with cuffs. Before she took out her mobile phone to call Zhang Heng, he had already appeared in front of her.


    Fan Meinan was stunned, ��What the hell. How did you get here so soon? Are you Liu Xiang?��


    Zhang Heng did not say anything. He dragged thedy in shades on the ground and carried her into the Polo��s back seat. Zhang Heng had not obtained his driver��s license yet, but it shouldn��t be a big problem if he drove at night. Of course, he could have easily called for a cab, but he didn��t do it for obvious reasons since he was with an unconscious girl.


    Not wanting things to go bad like thest time, he specifically instructed Fan Meinan to set the meeting at midnight. This time, no matter what thedy in shades did, it wouldn��t affect Zhang Heng because his world would stop at midnight.


    The n went smoother than expected. Thanks to the good amount of preparation, thedy in shades didn��t suspect that the ��Director Kuang�� she met was actually a disguised Fan Meinan. Of course, the most important thing to note was that she didn��t expect Pestilence to have been killed by Zhang Heng


    Zhang Heng avoided the path that the amateur driver would take, driving the Polo to the overpass instead. Now, all he needed to do was make thedy in shades spill out the method to neutralize the curse of the Dreand of Death.

 Chapter 465 - Seth

    <strong>Chapter 465 Seth</strong>


    Thedy in shades opened her eyes, finding herself on a chair with her hands strapped to the back in an old abandoned workshop. The person who tied her on the chair had to be an expert. No matter how hard she tried to break free, all her attempts were to no avail. Her fingers could not reach her pockets, as well. ��Are you looking for these?�� asked Fan Meinan while holding a bag of sticine.


    ��It��s you???�� snorted thedy in shades coldly. ��You seem to have gotten braver after I haven��t seen you for a few months. How dare you pretend to be a Horsemen of the Apocalypse? Aren��t you afraid that Pestilence wille looking for you?��


    ��Hmm... I don��t think he has the time to retaliate against me,�� said Fan Meinan, letting out a long sigh. ��Let��s talk about our problems. You know I harbor no bad intentions against you. Why can��t you sit down and have a good talk? I just want to ask you a few questions.��


    ��What then? Are you going to hand me over to the three major guilds?��


    ��Of course not. As long as you answer my questions, I will let you go.��


    ��What if I don��t cooperate?�� Thedy in shades raised her eyebrows, her tone filled with angst and aggression.


    ��I��m doing this for your own good...�� Fan Meinan smiled bitterly. ��If you don��t want to cooperate with me, the person behind me wille and interrogate you personally. Trust me. You wouldn��t want to see him in person.��


    ��When you mentioned that it��s for my own good, you meant bringing in more people to catch me?��


    ��You have also made me your scapegoat several times. So, if you really want to talk about this, you still owe me more at the end of the day,�� said Fan Meinan.


    ��Don��t forget who introduced you to Loki; without me, you will still be...��


    Fan Meinan interrupted thedy in shades. ��Okay, let��s not dwell on the topic anymore, okay?��


    A strange expression appeared on the face of thedy in shades. ��You don��t want yourpanion to know your past identity, huh? Didn��t you tell your partner about your past? Hehe! How pathetic...��


    ��And that��s the end of our chat. Let us focus on what we are supposed to be doing now,�� said Fan Meinan. ��You took the Dreand of Death from the three major guilds, so you must also know how to lift the curse.��


    ��Should I have known?��


    Fan Meinan walked to thedy in shades and looked her into her eyes. ��I know you and the three major guilds are conflicted, and I don��t know what ns you have in mind, but I have never interfered with your endeavors. This time, the victim is an ordinary person, and it has nothing to do with those three guilds. Tell me the way to lift the curse. I swear I��ll only use it to save people, and I��ll not tell anybody about it.��


    The girl in shades lifted her head, looked at Fan Meinan, and said softly, ��No... you know nothing, sister.��


    ��So, this is personal?�� Fan Meinan was starting to get a little annoyed too. ��Is it because you were taken away as a kid, and now, you hold a grudge? Are you angry because of this?��.


    ��Is that what you think of me?�� Thedy in shades shook her head. ��You keepining that I don��t trust you, but the irony is that you��ve never trusted me either. When we first met, I told you that I willingly left the house. I me no one for it. Otherwise, I wouldn��t have rmended you to Loki. However, you, on the other hand, have never stopped wondering if I held a grudge or not. The exciting thing is, I can no longer remember the faces of those two people...


    ��...after you asked me if I knew a way to lift the curse, I told you that I don��t know anything, but yet, you didn��t believe me. You assumed that I��m wasn��t talking because I have a beef with the three major guilds, which was why I yed along and said that I had a way to lift the curse. I could have asked you to do me a favor as well, but I didn��t expect that group to be so unhelpful. You went after me nonstop, and you almost ruined my n. Now, you��vee up with a n to capture... Damn it! Now, tell me, who��s the one being bullied here?��


    ��Impossible, the Dreand of Death was in your possession for so long. Are you trying to tell me that you didn��t open it?...�� Fan Meinan frowned.


    ��As I said, it was all business for me. I��m not the one who wanted the Dreand of Death. I am just the middleman.��


    ��Who actually took away the Dreand of Death, then?�� Fan Meinan asked.


    ��You��ve asked me before, and my answer remains the same. It��s better that you know nothing about it.��


    ��You��re still reluctant to talk at a time like this?��


    ��I��m doing it for your own good. That guy is not someone that you want to mess with. You pretended to be Pestilence, and yes, there is a chance that he will let you off the hook since it��s nothing serious. However, if you mess with the person I just talked about, he will definitely make you pay for it.��


    ��Tell me who took the Dreand of Death!�� repeated Fan Meinan, looking serious this time. ��Tell me his name, and don��t take any chances. You know you will have to say it sooner orter.��


    Thedy in shades simply shrugged and blurted the name out. ��Well, okay. As you wish. His name is Seth.��


    ��Who is that?��


    ��In Ancient Egyptian mythology, the child of the twin gods Gabor and Nuit were said to have brutally torn open their mother��s womb before they were due. Seth was born that way. In the early days, he was known as the God of Strength and was worshipped by many people. His status in Egypt was unquestionable, but with Osiris gaining Egypt��s kingship, Seth��s status was challenged. In the end, Seth became jealous of Osiris, and he killed him. After that, Osiris�� child, Horus, sought Seth in a duel to avenge his father. During the battle, Seth had Horus�� eyes gouged out, but Horus also tore off Seth��s leg and testicles. Finally, the gods exiled Seth to the desert... ��...after that, he lived with the Sun God for a while. During that time, he managed to kill Apache, the giant snake. He was known by the people of that time as the protector of the sun. However, as Horus became the country��s main god, Seth became the rebels�� representative at the same time. In the end, he fell into darkness and turned into the God of Chaos. He acquired the Dreand of Death through me and made a dozen copies of it to spread the chaos.�� ��Where can we find Seth?�� ��How would I know? He is the God of Chaos. How could he be at a fixed ce?�� thedy in shades continued. ��To be honest, I don��t want to deal with that guy anymore. If only he gave me a Dreand of Death copy as promised, I wouldn��t even need to look for Pestilence. Speaking of which, why do you have Pestilence��s cellphone? I already figured out the trick on the bridge, but how did you answer my call to Pestilence?��.


    Fan Meinan shook her head and ignored thedy in shades. Instead, she spoke into hermunicator. ��It��s not ringing. Did you hear me?��

 Chapter 466 - This Is It

    <strong>Chapter 466 This Is It</strong>


    Fan Meinan grabbed the bronze rings from the hands of thedy in shades, throwing it to Zhang Heng,ing down from the second floor.


    (Name: Oath Rings]


    (Grade: F]


    (Effect: If one of the two bearers breaks an oath, the other will know about it.]


    Zhang Heng obtained this Grade-F game item from Mr. Coffee during the previous quest. The identification results just came in that afternoon, and it happened toe in handy during the interrogation process.


    The conditions of activating the Oath Rings were straightforward. All the wearer needed to do was mix both wearers�� blood, write the vows on parchment, then put on the ring. If one were to vite the vow, the other wearer would be instantly notified-the ring of the one who broke the vow would start to heat up. Once the ring was removed, the oath would be invalid.


    Styx was more than just the goddess who lived in the underworld and ruled the river. She was also known as the goddess of oaths and hatred. Since Mr. Coffee was her agent, it was no surprise that he had this pair of rings on him.


    Although the Oath Rings were only Grade-F game items, they were actually quite useful in certain situations, doubling up as an effective lie detector after a vow had been written. Other than that, the identification results of the USB drive from Edward had also been released. The drive was also a Grade-F game item, where it would make the user��s IP address untraceable when plugged into aputer.


    The two items that he acquired in his previous game were not only super powerful, but they were also practical enough to be used in certain situations. However, these were in no way helpful in removing Han Lu��s curse.


    Zhang Heng had once put all his hopes on thedy in shades, but now, it proved a wrong strategy. Fan Meinan watched as Zhang Heng drew a knife and walked toward thedy in shades. ��She... she has told us everything she knows...�� Fan Meinan muttered nervously.


    ��Yes, so it doesn��t make much sense for us to keep her around.�� Zhang Heng then cut the rope binding thedy in shades. Thetter rubbed her wrists, stared at the masked Zhang Heng, and sensibly bowed her head. Happy to be alive, she silently walked out of the factory without uttering a single threat or harsh word.


    But just as she was about to reach the gate, Fan Meinan voiced out. ��You��d better not contact Pestilence again.��


    Thedy in shades stopped, seeming a little surprised. ��Why?�� she asked.


    ��Because he can��t reply to you anymore.��


    ��Oh, is this an early April Fool��s joke?��


    ��I thought the same as well when I saw what happened. Consider it as a friendly reminder from a close rtive.��


    Afterward, thedy in shades seemed to have understood something. She looked at Zhang Heng for another second, then turned around and walked out of the old workshop without uttering another word.


    Fan Meinan was a little sad, but she quickly cheered herself up. ��It seems we have reached an impasse. My sister does not know how to lift the curse, and we are not about to locate Seth anytime soon. I��m sorry I lead you to a dead end.��


    Zhang Heng shook his head. ��You have already helped us so much, so leave the rest to me. Great. I��ll be the one that gets to break the bad news to her. Let��s go. I��ll drive you to your ce first.��


    It was three in the morning when Zhang Heng returned to Han Lu��s house, the only one in the entire area that was still lit up. Han Lu opened the door after she heard a knock. There was loud music, and cigarette butts were scattered all over the floor. An open bottle of plum wine was also lying on the table.


    ��Don��t worry. I drank too much coffee and tea. I needed a change of taste, hence the plum wine. I won��t be getting drunk if that��s what you��re thinking.


    ��Where is the maid?�� asked Zhang Heng, looking around the messy living room as he let out a long sigh.


    ��I gave her some money and put her up at a hotel. So... it appears we are the only ones left in this house.�� Han Lu exhaled a puff of smoke and put her finger on Zhang Heng��s lips. ��Shh! Don��t tell me the results just yet. Come have a drink with me.��


    Zhang Heng closed the door, taking a seat opposite Han Lu.


    Han Lu brought a ss with a Mount Fuji engraving at its bottom and poured some plum wine into it. Zhang Heng then took a sip from the ss. The freshness and sweetness of fruits mixed with strong distilled spirits brought on a distinct tasting experience. ��So, how did it go?�� Han Lu asked.


    ��We found her.��


    ��I��m not asking about that. I��m asking you how the wine is.�� Han Lu frowned and threw the half-finished cigarette on the floor.


    Zhang Heng took took Han Lu��s ss away from her. ��At least listen to me before you drink this.��


    ��No, I don��t want to listen to you now!�� replied Han Lu, shaking her head. After two tries, she failed to get the ss back from Zhang Heng. So, she picked up the bottle instead.


    ��We found her and asked her about the Dreand of Death, she...��


    Without warning, Han Lu suddenly threw the wine bottle against the wall, interrupting Zhang Heng midway. The bottle was shattered, painting the wall with sshes of purple. ��I said, I don��t want to hear this now! You thought I didn��t know the oue when I first opened the door? Why can��t we pretend that we don��t know anything and have a ss of wine first?!�� she bellowed in a fury.


    ��Sorry,�� Zhang Heng muttered under his breath.


    ��No, I should be the one to apologize. The thought of dying at this age crossed my mind before, and I always thought I would be brave enough to face it. I thought, if death came knocking on my door one day, I would confront it with calm and finesse before I meet my maker. I want to be able to leave this world gracefully. This is very important to me... perhaps we can��t defeat death, but at least, we can retain our dignity in the face of it. I don��t want to be who I am right now-a hysterical crazy woman... But until death is right at your doorstep, who knows what kind of mood you will be in, right?��


    ��You have done well,�� said Zhang Heng.


    ��But I want to do more, and I still want to live. That��s the problem... I don��t want to die like this. It��s not an oue I want, which is why I��m so... angry!�� said Han Lu, her eyes turning red in frustration and hopelessness.


    Zhang Heng was silent for a moment. ��There is still time... Perhaps I can find another way to help you.��


    ��Did you know, the worst part of this whole ordeal is not the feeling of despair, but getting your hopes shattered one after the other. I don��t want to experience this kind of thing again,�� she went on in exasperation.


    Han Lu looked extremely tired, very much like a traveler trekking the desert for days without a sip of water. a


    ��That��s it, stop right here.�� ��Is there anything that you��d like to do?�� asked Zhang Heng.


    ��I originally nned to make love with you, but I changed my mind. I have never missed sex in my life. With one phone call, I can get men of all shapes and sizes to sleep with me... Right now, it��s impossible to get what I want.�� Han Lu shook her head. ��The girl who was with us before...��


    ��What about her?��


    ��She always seemed as if she didn��t care about those around her. She looked just like me when I was young, but I saw that she cares about you. She doesn��t want you to know about it... From my experience, she��ll be hurt by such thoughts sooner orter.��


    Han Lu��s mind suddenly became crystal clear, as if he could see through Zhang Heng��s heart.


    ��It��s because... you don��t have much emotion left in you, right?��

 Chapter 467 - Plot Twist

    <strong>Chapter 467 Plot Twist</strong>


    Zhang Heng wasn��t sure why Han Lu would say something like that. In retrospect, he realized that he wasn��t all that perfect too. Since he was a child, he had been a quiet person, and whenpared to other children who liked to group up and y, he preferred to be alone, reading his books and properly allocating his time. Of course, it wasn��t some sort of mental illness he was suffering from.


    When it came to emotions, he wasn��t all that different from his childhood peers. Once he got involved in the game, all his abilities began improving rapidly. However, his emotions fluctuated less frequently, allowing him to remain calm during a battle and always making the right choices. Unfortunately, it came at a price. He wasn��t sure if he could still be ssified as a human. Especially after this incident, he realized that his body had also undergone some changes...


    Han Lu��s was done venting her anger after she tossed the bottle. After that, she sat on the ground while hugging her knees, seemingly in great despair.


    Just then, Zhang Heng received another WeChat message. It wasn��t from Fan Meinan but the Stranger Things group.


    (Are you there? Did your friend close her eyes?]


    Zhang Heng was in no mood to reply to any messages, but seeing how the sender had actually messaged in the early hours of the morning, the person must have been paying close attention to this matter. Out of courtesy, Zhang Heng typed in a reply.


    [It��s over for her. Thanks.]


    [It��s over? Don��t give up. Maybe I can solve your friend��s problem.]


    (What do you mean?]


    The other person did not reply, sending a WeChat ID instead. Zhang Heng took a look at it and realized that it was Shen Xixi. It meant the person from the group who texted him should be Shen Xixi as well.


    Zhang Heng added the WeChat ID with another phone number.


    Shen Xixi didn��t say anything unnecessary, going straight to the point. (You are a yer, right? I saw your previous message. However, you didn��t reply to us after that. Do you believe that we can save your friend?


    (Have you people figured out a way?]


    [It��s all lessplicated now since you are a yer. Even without us exining that much, you must know how terrifying the Dreand of Death could be. The worst thing is, we found out that it��s a frequently used item. We have been studying it for a long time.]


    Before Zhang Heng could reply, Shen Xixi��s sent another message to him.


    [I know what you��re about to say. The three major guilds and other yers have also been studying the Dreand of Death, but they haven��t gotten anything out of it so far. You really think we can achieve what they can��t?)


    (Why not?] (Have you heard of Morpheus?] (Onirii, one of the three thousand dream gods in Greek mythology. How is the Dreand of Death rted to him?]


    [No. So far, several theories have been circting among the yers on the Dreand of Death��s origins. For now, most of them are leaning toward the idea that the Dreand of Death is rted to Hypnos. Hypnos is the twin brother of Thanatos, the personification of death. The sea nymph, Pasithea, gave birth to three children, who were also the leaders of the three thousand dream gods. One of the three happened to be Morpheus.


    Shen Xixi pondered for a while before she replied again.


    (Half a month ago, our people acquired a game item rted to Morpheus. It allowed us to enter the dreams of a person. We still don��t know the Dreand of Death��s mechanism, but judging from its name, it has something to do with killing the person in their dreams.)


    (Name your price.]


    [It��s not that valuable, being a D-Grade item. We thought of using it to deal with the Dreand of Death, but the n was never actually put into action. Hence, we don��t know what will happen in an actual situation. Even if we can enter the victim��s dream, I��m not sure if it might be toote by then. We have no idea what the dreamer dreams about as well. The worst thing is that we can find no Dreand of Death survivors. There is simply no way to delve deeper into it even if we wanted to.)


    (What do you want then?]


    (We don��t want anything. We just want to enter the victim��s dreams and observe the Dreand of Death from a closer vantage point. From there, we hope that we can learn methods to prevent it from doing more harm . Of course, if you are worried about the danger, you don��t have to follow us. Just give us your friend��s address and contact information, and we can go to her directly.]


    [How many people are allowed to enter the dreand together?]


    [In theory, the thing allows up to four people to enter the dream.]


    (Save a spot for me.)


    [Sure.]


    Shen Xixi didn��t hesitate when Zhang Heng asked to enter the dream with them.


    [Give me the address. If it��s not too far away from where we are, we will arrive in about an hour.]


    Zhang Heng sent Han Lu��s address to Shen Xixi. In such desperate times, he saw no reason to continue concealing his identity from her. He could choose to wear a mask, but that too was no longer necessary. When Shen Xixi saw Han Lu, she would automatically think of Zhang Heng. The two had just met in the school supermarket in the afternoon, and Shen Xixi knew that he skipped ss because of Han Lu. It was a little too obvious at this point.


    Forty-five minutester, the doorbell rang, and Zhang Heng got up to open the door. Shen Xixi was outside the door with two people. The moment she saw Zhang Heng, her expression changed immediately. ��Why are you here?!�� she blurted without thinking.


    Then, something seemed to cross her mind, and she hesitated a bit. ��Are you the Simon that I added on WeChat?��


    Zhang Heng nodded.


    ��How do you guys know each other?�� asked a ponytailed girl standing behind Shen Xixi.


    ��I always thought we knew each other, but it seems we haven��t really met,�� said Shen Xixi.


    ��I must apologize for not telling you the truth before this,�� said Zhang Heng. ��I trust you, but I��m not sure if I can do the same for your buddies.��


    ��I understand your concerns,�� replied Shen Xixi. ��Huang Yu withdrew from our team after that incident, so there��s nothing to worry about. These people here are my old teammates. They have been with me for a long time.��


    Shen Xixi then briefly introduced her three teammates to Zhang Heng.


    The ponytailed girl was called Rabbit, and the boy next to her with a small head and holding a flowerpot was called Li Bai. Once they entered the house, they began admiring the luxurious decorations sprawling all over the floor. It was a shame that they had to see the wall sshed with plum wine. Shen Xixi quickly snapped back to reality and soon entered her working mood.


    ��Han Lu is the person targeted by the Dreand of Death?��


    Zhang Heng nodded. ��She hasn��t closed her eyes for four days.��


    ��That exins the mess here,�� said the girl named Rabbit.


    ��Where is she now?�� Shen Xixi asked.


    ��In the bedroom, I told her about the situation, and she agreed to cooperate with us for thest fight.��

 Chapter 468 - See You On The Other Side

    <h4>Chapter 468 See You On The Other Side</h4>


    ��Okay. What do I need to do?�� Han Lu asked Shen Xixi.


    Shen Xixi simply smiled, picking a small ck flower from the flowerpot. She tore off a petal and handed it to Han Lu. ��Swallow this petal and just go to sleep.��


    ��Well! What do you know. This is exactly what I want to do before I die!�� Han Luughed at herself and took the petal. ��What will I see when I close my eyes? Will it be a nightmare, or perhaps hell?��


    ��We are about to find out.�� Shen Xixi paused for a moment. ��I don��t know if he told you, but you may not be able to wake up after you close your eyes, so...��


    ��I��ve left a suicide note and a video. Don��t worry, if an ident happens along the way, the police won��t suspect you.��


    ��What I actually want to say is, do you have anything else to say?��


    ��I have written my will in the suicide note, and since I��ve already said too much tonight, I don��t think I need to say anymore,�� said Han Lu, before turning to Zhang Heng. ��I��ve had a bit of a drink. What I said earlier... I hope you don��t take it to heart.��


    Zhang Heng nodded, ��I wish you the sweetest of dreams.��


    Han Lu changed into her pajamas, lit a stick incense, washed the flower petal down her throat with warm water, andid down on her big bed. Three minutester, her eyes popped open again. ��You guys are standing around my bed! I can��t sleep even if I��m sleepy.�� ��We��ll head out first then. Anyway, the average killing time for the Dreand of Death is two hours,�� said Shen Xixi.


    After that, the four quickly retreated to the living room outside.


    While waiting, the young boy called Li Bai began exploring the ce like a curious baby.


    ��Sister Xixi. I think arge piece of china like this could be worth tens of thousands.��


    ��I don��t know much about porcin, but the ones Han Lu collects usually costs millions of yuan,�� replied Shen Xixi, shaking her head as she gave the ce a once over.


    Li Bai was shocked to the bone when he heard that.


    ��Hey, this china is worth the points I can earn in a round of the game? Is this woman as rich as Jack Ma or what?��


    ��There are far more wealthy people in this world than you know,�� snapped Rabbit. ��You exchange your game points with money every day, but I bet you can��t imagine someone buying 3,000 game points in one go.��


    Li Bai was bbergasted. ��Let me calcte how much it costs... Err... Wow! At least 100 million yuan!�� he said, his tone a notch higher than it already was. ��But must say. though, I am quite satisfied with what I currently have. I used to work as a barber��s apprentice at a hairdresser��s, washing the hair of customers. I worked so hard that the skin on my fingers almost peeled off, and for that, I earned only 1,500 yuan every month. Now, at least I��m capable of sending my family some money every month. I also covered my sister��s tuition-fees and brother��s wedding cost.��


    ��Idiot. It would help if you treat yourself better as well. Everyone is working hard to umte game points and exchange them for game items to strengthen themselves. You are the only one that failed to save up any game points so far. All you��ve done is spend them all,��mented Rabbit, seemingly a little annoyed.


    Li Bai scratched his head and chuckled. ��I still have Sister Xixi and you. Don��t worry. I won��t hold you back. Just leave the threats to me. I��ve been fighting since I was a kid, and even if I��m outnumbered, I��ll never make a run for


    it.��


    ��...see that��s the problem over there. Normal people would be smart enough to escape if their enemies are more powerful than them. No matter how reckless you are, you will only have one life. If you lose it, you won��t get it back,�� Rabbit went on with a frown.


    On the other side, Shen Xixi was looking at Zhang Heng


    ��What��s the matter?�� Zhang Heng asked.


    ��So, about the monster capable of melting the wall... was it defeated by you?��


    Zhang Heng did not deny it. ��Oh, you mean Zavilcha? Yeah, I killed that thing.��


    ��It looks like you saved me again, huh.��


    ��Again?��


    ��When we went camping before, didn��t you help us drive away some bastard?��


    ��At that time, I didn��t know you were a yer. Even if I didn��t make a move, you could have easily handled it,�� said Zhang Heng. ��As for Zavilcha... If you didn��t buy me time, I wouldn��t have gotten back to the hostel for my game items. Besides, you also helped me this time. I guess we are even


    now.��


    Shen Xixi shook her head. ��As I said, we don��t know the mechanism of the Dreand of Death. All we have is a general idea. I needed to run some experiments on it, but unfortunately, we never got the opportunity to do so. This time, we are just taking what we need.��


    After the topic, the two did not know what else to talk about.


    Shen Xixi and Zhang Heng shared a somewhat awkward rtionship. They both went to the same school and were ssmates and friends, but they were actually acquaintances. They didn��t know each other very well, and within a regr semester, they barely spoke to each other.


    Now that she knew Zhang Heng was a yer, they seemed to have gotten a little closer. That said, being yers, they automatically remained mum about their current circumstance to a yer of another team if they didn��t know each other well.


    Zhang Heng suddenly remembered something. He then passed Piercings�� contact with Shen Xixi. ��Have you people been recruiting recently? You can try to contact him. He was with me in the previous quest. I think he��s a police officer. He has skills and integrity. You might want to talk to him.��


    Shen Xixi thanked him and took the number. ��What about you? Are you interested in joining us?�� she asked. ��We are not a guild, and our management is not as strict as well We only gather when a problem urs. We aim to work hard to protect this city.��


    ��Sorry, I��m used to running solo,�� said Zhang Heng, ��But you cane to me for help if you encounter something tricky. I��ll see what I can do.��


    Despite knowing how valuable a person like Zhang Heng was on the team, Shen Xixi did not force Zhang Heng to join her. Fifteen minutes had passed since Han Lu swallowed the petal. Noticing the time, Shen Xixi opened the bedroom door, and the four walked toward Han Lu��s bed. This time Han Lu��s eyes remained closed. Her breathing was steady, and her cheeks were still a little flushed after all that drinking. Shen Xixi stretched out her hand and nudged Han Lu��s body. As expected, Han Lu did not respond exactly like the middle-aged man Zhang Heng encountered on the train.


    Shen Xixi slowly retracted her hand. ��It��s time to start,�� she told the three people beside her.


    There were four petals left on the little ck flower that had been just picked. Rabbit carefully tore off the four petals, passing one to each.


    ��Swallow the petal, and you can enter her dreams,�� said Xixi to Zhang Heng. Beside them, Li Bai was already on the floor after he swallowed the petal. Rabbit, on the other hand, had moved to a couch. She shifted around until she wasfortable, then ate the petal too.


    Shen Xixi found a spot to lie beside Han Lu, ��The bedrge. You can lie next to me.��


    Zhang Heng wasted no time andid right beside Shen Xixi.


    Shen Xixi put the petal in her mouth. ��See you on the other side,�� she said.

 Chapter 469 - Dreamland

    <h4>Chapter 469 Dreand</h4>


    Zhang Heng didn��t expect the petal to actually taste good. It had a strange sweetness to it. Before he could enjoy its taste, though, drowsiness quickly crept in, conquering his body. Then, without him doing anything, his mind started fighting back the drowsiness. His brain went quiet for a moment, focusing all his attention in fighting the sleep. The next few seconds were confusing. After seemingly losing consciousness for a short while, Zhang Heng opened his eyes again. The first thing he saw was the ceiling of the bedroom.


    Did it fail? Zhang Heng frowned. He didn��t deliberately try to stay awake. It was his brain��s natural reaction tobat the drowsiness. Gradually, Zhang Heng started to notice the changes around his atmosphere. Han Lu, Shen Xixi, and others were no longer there. He was the only one left in the bedroom. Since light wasing in from the window, it was already daytime.


    Zhang Heng got up, walked to the bed, and nced at the garden below. A man wearing Under Armour sportswear was jogging by the street. He ran past an older man walking a dog, and the two even said hello to each other.


    Nothing looked out of the ordinary.


    He then moved toward the dressing table, finding an open box containing foundation and mascara. Women of any age significantly cherished their cosmetics, and in the state they were in, it could only indicate that Han Lu must have left in a mighty hurry.


    Why was she so hasty to leave? Could she have been startled? Was she perhaps, running from something?


    Zhang Heng touched his pocket, quickly realizing that all his game items were gone, except for the watch on his right wrist. He proceeded to pick up the floormp from the corner and opened the door. It seemed like someone had cleaned up the ce, where the once messy living room was spick and span. The odd thing about was the door was left ajar. A person of Han Lu��s stature would never leave the door unlocked, much less having it unattended like that. Something was definitely not right.


    S now


    Zhang Heng was almost sure that he was now within the confines of Han Lu��s dream. There was a problem, though. Shen Xixi and her team were now missing.


    He insttively pulled out his mobile phone and found that there was no signal. It meant there was no way of contacting Shen Xixi. Weighing his options, Zhang Heng hesitated and decided that he wouldn��t just wait there. He still preferred to work alone, anyway. So, he wrote a note and stuck it on the door. If Shen Xixi and her teammates dide back, they would be notified of his presence.


    After riding the elevator downstairs, he walked out of theplex. This was his first time entering the dreams of someone, and since nobody really knew the inner workings of the Dreand of Death, Shen Xixi couldn��t instruct anybody before they went to sleep. That said, since Han Lu was the first to sleep, she was evidently the one who should be found first.


    Zhang Heng nned to check out Han Lu��s office to see if she was there.


    For now, the world in Han Lu��s dreams almost matched reality one-for-one. Even minor details, such as the scratches on the elevator buttons and flowers on a lot that had been trampled over by kids, were all preserved. There was a chance that Han Lu herself, might not remember such minute details.


    A fainating anecdote went like thisEvery ordinary person absorbs massive quantities of information each day through their eyes, nose, and ears. Unfortunately, the human��s memory is limited, and the brain chooses to receive only useful information. This however didn��t mean that the useless information the brain filtered out would disappearpletely. Instead, bits and pieces would be buried in the person��s subconscious. It was just seeing a snake in the countryside when you were three years old. As you grew older, the incident��s memory gave way to the ��more important�� things in your consciousness. Now, although the piece of memory seemed to have disappeared, it would, in fact, lurk quietly in the corner of the mind, untouched and literally, unremembered.


    Some quarters attempted hypnosis and meditation to awaken this part of the memory that apparently no longer existed. There was an easier way to do it, though, and that was via a person��s dreams. In a sense, dreams were like keys to unlock a mountain of treasure buried within the subconscious mind.


    Zhang Heng plucked a flower from the flowerbed and ced it under his nose, and strangely, she smelt nothing. It must be because Han Lu had rhinitis since she was a child, and she rarely tried to smell flowers. This indicated that no matter how surreal the surroundings were, this ce was, after all, a fragment of the dreamer��s mind and not the real world.


    Considering how Han Lu was most likely in some danger at this moment, Zhang Heng did not waste any time. He walked out of themunity, reached out to hail a cab, and headed to the central business district where most of the office buildings were located.


    Han Lu had leased an office in the most expensive area to wee enthusiastic entrepreneurs who wished to work with her. She had arge professional team, each responsible for juggling legal issues, analyzing project feasibility, and taking over project management when necessary. Zhang Heng registered at the reception desk downstairs, and the receptionist politely informed him that Han Lu wasn��t in right now. The young girl smiled sweetly. After all, she couldn��t know if the ordinarily-dressed bald man she weed today would be a billionaire tomorrow. At the same time, he noticed that the girl��s hands were hidden under the table, ying a mobile game.


    This showed that Han Lu must have known about her receptionist��s behavior at work.


    Zhang Heng spent half a second feeling sorry for the receptionist. ��So, any idea where Han Lu could be?��


    The girl shook her head. ��Sorry, I have no idea what Ms. Han��s schedule is. Did you make an appointment in advance?��


    Zhang Heng waved his mobile phone in front of her. ��I have an urgent matter to discuss with her. But since my mobile phone has no signal, I cannot contact her.��


    The receptionist should be the same age as Zhang Heng. She rxed a little and stuck her tongue out. ��My phone has been out of signal too, for two hours, in fact! It��s just so strange. Thanks to that, I didn��t get to have breakfast. I don��t have cash with me, and I attempted to win a rice ball at the convenience store. Yeah, I failed.��


    While the two were talking, the lights suddenly dimmed. Both in officewear, a man and a woman held their coffees as they curiously looked at something near the French window.


    Zhang Heng walked over and saw that a vast cloud had now hidden the sun behind it.


    ��Is it going to rain?�� asked the office guy.


    ��Ah, this is so annoying. Why does it always have to rain on the day I don��t bring my umbre?!��ined his colleague beside him.


    ��Don��t worry. The rain won��tst long. Besides, I can drive you home when we get off work.��


    ��Ugh, elementary flirting. How cliche. I��m no fresh-grad, man,�� sneered thedy.


    ��Wow, we are sensitive, aren��t we? I was just trying to help a colleague.��


    ��I don��t care what your intentions are. Office romance is on top of Ms. Han��s hate-list. I��m more than satisfied with this job and current ie. I still have two houses to pay for. You should try your advances on someone else.��

 Chapter 470 - Our City Does Not Face The Sea

    <strong>Chapter 470 Our City Does Not Face The Sea</strong>


    Zhang Heng could easily break into Han Lu��s office to see if she was there or not. Nheless, he gave up on the thought. The girl at the front desk seemed to be telling the truth. Han Lu emphasized efficiency, and if she were to be here, the two employees wouldn��t have had the chance to be so rxed, drinking coffee while admiring the clouds.


    Zhang Heng wasn��t sure what the ramifications in the dream world would be if he disrupted these memories. In such unknown territory, it was best to remain cautious. So, resorting to the safest way, he returned to the front desk. ��Are there any ces that she usually goes to?��


    When asked, the receptionist found herself in a tough spot. As a professional receptionist, she knew all too well that disclosing the boss�� whereabouts to a stranger was a definite no-no.


    ��About that...�� she stuttered, not knowing if it was right to divulge any information.


    What more, arge number of people loved to hate Han Lu. Not too long ago, a disgruntled entrepreneur who lost in an investment held a banner to protest at the entrance of the office. Rumor was that he even blocked Han Lu off at the parking lot, and after getting nabbed by the police, he unfortunately took his own life. The depressing incident had caused jitters among thepany��s employees for some time.


    Han Lu, on the other hand, was barely affected. The project proceeded in an orderly manner, and after the incident, she got all her employees to attend self-protection training courses,pany-sponsored, of course. With that in mind, although the receptionist had a good impression of Zhang Heng, all she could do was show a helpless smile on her face.


    Not wanting to cause unwanted changes to the dream world, Zhang Heng did not force the receptionist to divulge Han Lu��s whereabouts, simply thanking her and leaving the officeplex after that.


    Compared to the day��s good weather when he arrived at Han Lu��spany, the wind was now blowing a tad stronger. The parasols set up in front of Starbucks fluttered noisily with the drafting gusts, and women walking by the streets let out muffled screams as they held down to their miniskirts. Dark clouds had nowpletely blocked off the sun, and it now looked as if it was six or seven in the evening.


    Although most people on the roadside felt that heavy rain was about toe, Zhang Heng sensed that it was a foretelling of something ominous. So far, the most bizarre thing in Han Lu��s dream was this formation of dark clouds.


    Curious as it may seem, he didn��t think that the drastic change in weather had something to do with Han Lu. He soon came to realize, though, that time was running out. He felt lost, not knowing where he should go next or how he should proceed. After all, his understanding of Han Lu was limited. Other than her residence andpany, he had no idea where else she would go to.


    Zhang Heng stood there, pondering for half a minute. He stretched out his hand as a cab pulled by the sidewalk. The driver had a sharp, thin face, and his trousers were unzipped. He also noticed an adult magazine lying on the seat beside him, its front cover featuring a rather racy image of a seductive woman.


    Zhang Heng opened the rear door and sat in the passenger seat.


    Now that he was in Han Lu��s dream, he could feel everything she experienced and imagined. The taxi driver was no exception, where it was probably a fragment of her memory. This was especially true for minute details such as the driver��s appearance and the license te. It was hard to make up something like that.


    Everything Zhang Heng experienced right now was how Han Lu once felt, including her perceptions and opinions toward a certain subject. For example, the taxi driver may not be a pervert, but since Zhang Heng saw and felt him through her eyes, he automatically had a bad impression toward him.


    Having these things in mind, he more or less figured how he should find Han Lu. So far, his entire experience since he opened his eyes were theption of memories hidden deep within Han Lu��s subconscious. There were clues strewn about everywhere. On one particr grey and stormy day, Han Lu did not drive her car for some reason. Instead, she got on a taxi after she left her office.


    The driver looked at Zhang Heng as he got in the car, nodding in greeting. ��Where to, brother?�� he smirked.


    ��Hey bro, I need to ask you about someone,�� Zhang Heng asked instead.


    ��You��re asking me about someone?�� The driver paused, seemingly bewildered. ��A man or a woman?��


    ��Woman.��


    ��I know many women,�� the driver tapped his chest. ��Want me to introduce you to some nice girls? Thai, Vietnamese... or Russian?��


    ��No, I��m just looking for a customer that entered your car.��


    Zhang Heng went on, describing Han Lu��s appearance in detail to the driver.


    The driver frowned and thought for a while, ��I might or might not remember her. It��s just been so long and, I can��t possibly remember everydy I picked up. You know, I was given the nickname Seven Wonders when I was young. I could reach the top of the mountain seven times a night. Let me tell ��ya, I have seen all kinds of women. It��s impossible you ask me to remember one.��


    ��Oh, I don��t think you have seen her type before. She is unique,�� smiled Zhang Heng as he took out his wallet, withdrawing 500 yuan from it. ��...tell me where she went, and this is all yours.��


    The moment he saw the money in Zhang Heng��s hand, the driver became excited. He patted his head anhd chuckled delightfully. ��Oh, hoho, I finally remember her now! Sure! I��ll take you to her.��


    The driver clicked on the meter and stepped on the gas as Zhang Heng buckled his seat belt. Half an hourter, Zhang Heng frowned and asked, ��Where are you bringing me?��


    ��We are going to the airport. Didn��t you ask me to take you to where she went?�� the driver replied with a smile.


    Zhang Heng was speechless. Since Han Lu was heading to the airport, there was a good chance she wouldn��t drive there, hence the cab. It also meant that whatever he was doing now was meaningless.


    ��Pull to the side.�� Zhang Heng unfastened his seat belt. He nned to hop on to another taxi to try his luck. Suddenly, the car in front of them stopped abruptly, prompting the driver to m his foot on the brake.


    ��No way! Isn��t it past the morning peak hours? What��s with the jam?!�� he muttered under his breath. ��God damn useless urban nners, eh? I don��t see the road conditions getting any better.�� Zhang Heng did not respond to him. Instead, his attention was fixed on the people who came out of the car in front of him. They began climbing on their car��s roof.


    ��What the hell is wrong with these people? Aren��t they going to move their cars?�� The taxi driver vented his dissatisfaction by blowing the horn, but the very next moment, he saw Zhang Heng opening the door and walking out. Suddenly, the road was swarming with people, and the situation ahead became unclear.


    To get a better view, Zhang Heng stepped on the roof of the taxi, and that was when he saw the most magical scene in his life.


    At the end of the road in the distance, what appeared to be a massive white wall was sweeping toward his direction, overturning and uprooting trees that were along its path. Everyone at the front begun to flee in panic while those at the back of the queue still wondered what was going on.


    ��Why did you climb on my car?!�� the taxi driver got out of the car and screamed in a fury,


    ��Leave your car behind,�� said Zhang Heng. ��A tsunami ising. Run for your life!��


    ��Are you trying to be funny? Our city doen��t face the sea... Hey, now you have to pay me for standing on my car!��


    Zhang Heng ignored him. Although the tsunami seemed to be far away, the massive tidal wave could reach a blinding speed of 700-800 kilometers per hour, fast enough to catch up with a modern jetliner. Every single second from now was precious. It was impossible to leave by car since they were locked in a traffic jam that wasn��t going away. It was unrealistic to turn around, as well. Even if he started running as fast as possible, it was nearly impossible to outrun the speeding tsunami.


    So, Zhang Heng quickly looked around to find a high ce.

 Chapter 471 - Tsunami

    <strong>Chapter 471 Tsunami</strong>


    The tallest nearby structures were several residential buildings located on the east side of the road, though a green zone remained in the middle of it all. Zhang Heng visually estimated the distance to the spot, where he concluded that it would be almost impossible to get there in time. Instead, the four-story museum on the west side looked like a more reachable goal.


    Wasting not a second, he jumped off the taxi��s roof and ran toward the museum as fast as he could. The cab driver was still in a rage, mad over his passenger trampling on his vehicle��s roof. At that time, Zhang Heng had already arrived at where the bus sign was. He hastily pushed away two high school students engrossed with their mobiles, then ran toward the bicycle and pedestrianne before jumping over the museum��s ticketing gate.


    The ticket collector operating the booth was taken aback by the intruder, yelling at Zhang Heng to stop as he went after him. Not only did Zhang Heng refuse to stop running, but he started to speed up the moment he heard those cries. An elderly couple had just entered the museum, and Zhang Heng slipped in before the automatic door closed.


    The museum was open for business not too long ago, and there weren��t yet many visitors. There were only about a dozen people in the bronzeware exhibition hall on the first floor, where they slowly strolled and admired the showroom��s collections.


    Zhang Heng found the stairs in a few seconds, but the guards on the first floor were alerted as well. They began to surround him in no time. Zhang Heng, however, didn��t n on wasting any time on them. His mind raced to calcte how much time he had left, eventually estimating that he should have around six or seven seconds left. At that moment, the guard who was now on his right attempted to pounce on him, but Zhang Heng managed to duck the attack, avoiding it by inches. The guard on his left failed to capture him as well since a shelf separated them.


    In the final three seconds, Zhang Heng ran up the stairs as quickly as his legs would climb them. From the corner of his eye, he could see through the ss wall that the gargantuan tidal wave was already makingndfall. Then, it struck! The ten-meter wave mercilessly smashed onto the museum��s south-side ss wall, shattering the doubleyered tempered ss in less than half a second!


    After that, swathes of seawater rushed into the museum along with a barrage of branches, bricks, bicycles, and other garbage. Zhang Heng managed to rush to the third floor at thest moment. Seawater swallowed the two floors beneath him in the blink of an eye, and the guards in pursuit were swept away by the colossal wave before they could even shout for help. The group of tourists visiting the museum had disappeared, probably killed by as well.


    At this moment, Zhang Heng felt as if he was alone on a deserted ind in a vast ocean. The human species was evidently powerless against natural disasters.


    Nobody really expected a tsunami to hit them, and as it approached the city, many people didn��t realize what was happening. It was all but toote when they realized that a cataclysm wasing for them. While many were swept away by the unstoppable current, either being pushed to the wall or trapped in their floating cars, sharp objects impaled the more unlucky ones, or in this case, lucky, as they were instantly killed on the spot.


    A little girl wearing a dress about six to seven years of age opened her eyes wide in terror, utterly shocked by the devastation taking ce right in front of her.


    Zhang Heng didn��t bother asking about her parents. Before he could catch his breath, he saw a second wave approaching at an incredible speed. This one was even taller than the previous one, almost as tall as the museum itself. Instead of running upstairs, he turned and ran to the center of the three-story exhibition hall. He heard a thunderous rumble behind him, and that was when the giant wave effortlessly prated thest twoyers of ss. The exquisite collections of porcin from the Tang and Song dynasties had resisted the test of time, but they were nothing against the mighty tsunami. These ended up like the ss wall, too, shattered into oblivion.


    The second wave spared nothing in its path, swallowing the little girl behind Zhang Heng too. Zhang Heng held onto a pir and hugged it as tightly as he could. The ravaging pir of water came crashing on the pir violently, and as it hit Zhang Heng��s body, it split into two streams, rushing forward with unstoppable force to the wall.


    The museum vibrated and shook to its core, but fortunately, the building��s foundations were strong enough to withstand the impact. Zhang Heng wasn��t so lucky. Since the waves did not break through the wall, they flowed back and headed for him instead. All he could do right now was to curl up and protect his vital organs. Fortunately, the wave was weakened when it returned to Zhang Heng, and since he was holding on to nothing, he was swept along with it. The powerful undercurrent caused him to tumble a few times beneath the water. The world around him spun violently, and all he could do now was ride it out and hope he survived.


    That said, afterpleting the Apollo training camp, Zhang Heng was now a master at resisting dizziness after his episodes of getting thrown around a centrifuge like a ragdoll.


    He held onto his breath and tried his best to deal with the impact using his back. Thankfully, he remained conscious, and a minuteter, he could clearly feel the undercurrent beginning to weaken. It meant that the tsunami��s first wave was about to over. Zhang Heng waited for underwater for about 20 seconds, and right before he ran out of oxygen, he regained control of his body. As he stuck his head out of the water, he quickly realized that the world around him had changed drastically.


    The city was no longer a familiar sight.


    The once heavy traffic plying the roads were now all under meters of water. The tsunami hadpletely engulfed the houses built in the lower area nearby, causing only their roofs to be visible. High-rise buildings survived, though, except for a few who had weak foundations.


    Zhang Heng wiped the seawater off his face. He saw broken parasol trees and utility poles floating all around him. Overhead cables were entangled with tree branches, and there was even a sandal undting along with the waves, its owner nowhere to be found.


    After a while, Zhang Heng found a door panel floating by. Immediately, he pulled it toward him. It could be used as a raft, and since getting it meant he no longer needed to tread water, precious physical strength could be conserved. This might just be the first wave, and no one knew if or when the next one would hit the city again. Having those thoughts in mind, Zhang Heng decided to prepare in advance.


    Now that he was in Han Lu��s dream,mon sense and experience might not work in this world. In fact, the tsunami was more than bizarre. Zhang Heng wasn��t sure if the tsunami was in any way rted to the Dreand of Death, but it exined why Han Lu left her ce in such a hurry. She must have been warned.


    Nheless, considering her exodus to the airport, she could be anywhere at the moment, and all Zhang Heng could do was pray that Han Lu managed to get to safety in time. As for the burning questions in his mind, they would have to wait until she was located.


    But the bad news was that the tsunami had destroyed the city, and everyone rted to Han Lu had either been killed or missing. Now, Zhang Hengpletely lost track of his goal, and he was at aplete loss on what to do next.


    For now, he had to look for a safe ce, waiting to see if a second tsunami would arrive.

 Chapter 472 - Han Lu’s Childhood

    <h4>Chapter 472 Han Lu��s Childhood</h4>


    Zhang Heng held onto the door and paddled in the opposite direction of the tsunami.


    He saw many tragedies along the way, including floating bodies, mothers who lost their children, and children who lost their mothers. They were all sitting on whatever high ce they could find, and they seemed to have lost their souls. There were also people holding the corpses of their loved ones, sobbing uncontrobly. No help seemed to be avable to them right now, and the more resourceful survivors were looking for food and drinking water floating around them.


    Zhang Heng remained unmoved by the sight and continued to paddle toward the target location. After all, this was just a dream, and nothing would change even if he decided to help them.


    In the end, he came to a five-star hotel whose lobby was fully submerged in water. The receptionist at the front desk could no longer help guests fill out their registrations. Zhang Heng climbed the outer wall and arrived on the sixth floor, managing to find a room with open windows.


    The guest inside was missing, but the person��s suitcase was still on the bed. Zhang Heng spotted a bottle of water on the table, quickly picking it up and drinking down half of it. After that, he took off his soaked clothes and shoes to dry them before changing into the hotel��s bathrobe and slippers. He still didn��t know how Shen Xixi and the others were doing. Separated when they entered Han Lu��s dream, Shen Xixi and her team had gone in a little earlier than him. He wondered if they had located Han Lu. He stood in front of the window and looked at the flooded city below, knowing that it would be almost impossible to do anything effective in such a catasatrophe.


    The only good news was that the second wave of tsunami did note, even after Zhang Heng waited in the room until night arrived. The water flooding the city, on the other hand, showed no signs of receding.


    Zhang Heng took a look at his watch, realizing that it had been 12 hours since he left Han Lu��s residence. Something was not right since usually, Dreand of Death victims would survive no longer than three hours. When Zhang Heng did not know what else he could do next, the strange dark cloud in the sky that had been engulfing the whole city quietly disappeared. After that, he felt increasingly drowsy, and his eyes automatically fell shut.


    When Zhang Heng opened his eyes, he found out that he was standing outside a watch shop. The time was about two and a half hours before he entered Han Lu��s dream. The sun had just risen, where the city had returned to normal, and there were no signs it was ravaged by a tsunami. The owner of the roadside breakfast stall was already busy preparing for business.


    That said, Zhang Heng still noticed that something wasn��t right.


    The shops along the street were old, looking like they were from the ��70s and ��80s. The watch shop next to him was a good example. There were no fancy neon signs and LED lights in the shop. The simple-looking ck que hanging above the shop��s entrance had three words printed on it-Clock Repairing Service. A piece of yellow paper on the ss window had the words Shanghai, Dongfeng, and Beijing written in red letters. Zhang Heng guessed that these names were watch brands, names that had alreadypletely disappeared in the modern era he lived in.


    He walked out of the alley, noticing that there was no traffic jam. There were very few cars on the road, and most people rode bicycles. From time to time, an old-fashioned public bus would pass by. And there was even a donkey-powered cart. A traffic policeman in a white shirt, ck pants, and an armed belt around his waist stood at the intersection, directing traffic. Not far behind him, a banner was being hung. It said, ��Long live the friendship between the peoples of China and France.��


    A green army truck drove by Zhang Heng with a load full of young people. Holding the handles with one hand and their straw hats with the other, they all sang the same song. They seemed to be feeling hopeful about their future. Their faces didn��t disy the frustrations of paying the monthly mortgage and getting forced to follow the 996 working hour system.


    Was this... a dream about Han Lu��s childhood?


    After thinking for a while, he figured Han Lu must probably be a student in this era, though, he wasn��t sure which grade she was in. As interesting as it was to see how the ce was back in the ��70s and ��80s, it also made it extremely difficult to locate Han Lu.


    After all, Zhang Heng didn��t know Han Lu that well, and his understanding of her was limited. Previously, he resorted to a taxi driver for help after failing to find her in her house and office. Now that the dream had morphed into Han Lu��s childhood, Zhang Heng was at aplete loss.


    He wasn��t a man of the era. Most of his understanding of the ��70s and ��80s came from books and movies. How Han Lu lived her life, how many family members she had, and which school she studied in, Zhang Heng had no answers to all these questions.


    Then, something seemed to sh through his mind. He realized that he had received essential clues, but he could not remember a single thing when he tried to recall them. Zhang Heng stood by the side of the road, continuing to try his luck.


    He waited for the indicator to turn green and walked to the opposite za. There were three young people, two men and one woman, rehearsing a dance routine. The woman wore a long-sleeved military uniform. One of the men behind her was in a Chinese tunic, and then another man was in a suit and tie. Immersed in their practice, theypletely ignored the people around them.


    Zhang Heng noticed the three because of the young woman among them.


    She dazzled brightly among the crowd as if she was the brightest star in the darkest of skies.


    Zhang Heng tried to put himself into Han Lu��s shoes, just like how she viewed the taxi driver. She must have had invested a considerable amount of emotions into this young woman, admiring her without thinking about what others thought. It must be why she took up an important spot in Han Lu��s dream.


    CI


    This information was useless to Zhang Heng, though. Han Lu was just a bystander in this situation, silently admiring this girl in the crowd. She had not attempted tomunicate. It appeared he wouldn��t be getting any information about Han Lu from this young woman. Zhang Heng quickly looked away and searched for the next target. His gaze fell on another woman not far away who was watching the dancing practice. She was the second most prominent person in the za, where Han Lu��s attention seemed to be captured by the Aviators she wore. Everyone knew that it was imported, and it was hard for her not to stand out.


    After that, Zhang Heng saw a popsicle cart not too far away. An older man with a white hat and apron sold popsicles at five cents each.


    Zhang Heng was speechless. This dream was theption of situations or people that Han Lu envied. He could guess that Han Lu must have been still very young in this era.


    Suddenly, someone patted him on the back.


    Zhang Heng turned and saw the girl named Rabbit in Shen Xixi��s team. She was surprised to see him and looked at Zhang Heng as if he was her savior. ��Oh my god! I finally get to meet someone that I know! This is great! Do you know what ce this is?��

 Chapter 473 - Air-Raid Shelter

    <h4>Chapter 473 Air-Raid Shelter</h4>


    ��Is this the same city but over 40 years ago? No wonder I kept wandering around without knowing its name for a long time,�� sighed Rabbit, breathing a sigh of relief after meeting Zhang Heng. ��Something worse happened to me. I was trapped on the roof, and the frigid winds from the sea tortured me for almost half a day! During that time, I saved a guy who fell into the water, and instead of thanking me, he wanted to kick me into the ocean. It was awful!��


    ��Do you know why we were sent here from that tsunami?�� Zhang Heng asked. ��Well, most people think that we only dream once a night. That��s because most people only remember theirst dream before waking up. That��s not right, I��m afraid. In the study of sleep, the researchers are ustomed to dividing the sleep cycle into two periodsrapid eye movement sleep (REM) and non-rapid eye movement sleep (NREM). These happen alternately during a sleep cycle. Early studies showed that people only dream during their REM sleep butter, new research overturned the im. Therefore, in theory, we might have many dreams in one night. Based on a conjecture of mine, I believe we just came from Han Lu��s previous dream, her second dream. But it is still unclear whether this transition between dreams is natural or a special one triggered by the Dreand of Death,�� muttered Rabbit, blurting out all the words in a stato.


    ��Any ns in mind?��


    ��Uhh... Is reacting per the circumstance considered a n??�� Rabbit shrugged, ��We only just acquired this item that allows us to enter someone��s dream. It has unlimited uses, but one thing��s for sure, it uses up one flower for each trip. Right now, there are only three flowers in total. Once we use it up, we��ll have to wait until it grows again. By the time another flower blooms, who knows how many people the Dreand of Death would have targeted. Hence, we did not conduct any experiments in advance. We have to watch every step we take.��


    When Rabbit was finished, she looked at the Popsicle cart not too far away. ��Wow, the popsicles look delicious, and they only cost 5 cents. Don��t worry about the calories. I��ll go get myself one now.��


    She took out her wallet, handed over ten yuan, and generously gave it to the elderly man operating the cart. ��Keep the change, grandpa.��


    Instead of taking the money from Rabbit, the old man stared at the ten yuan and frowned. ��Little girl, is your bill... a counterfeit?��


    Rabbit looked embarrassed, quickly realizing the mistake she made.


    In the end, she simply ran away while the old man looked at her suspiciously. She hurriedly returned to Zhang Heng in desperation.


    ��Shit! They��ve never seen our modern RMB note before.��


    Since the two could found no useful clues around the za, they could only keep looking for someone that could help them. Meanwhile, Zhang Heng would look at his watch every once in a while.


    When Rabbit saw Zhang Heng looking at his watch repeatedly, she sighed. ��It��s useless. The time flow in the dream world is different from the real world.��


    Acknowledging Rabbit��s advice, he looked at the time recorded on the phone twice, making sure he remembered it. ��I know. I just want to see if I can find out the contact.��


    ��Contact, what contact?�� ��I don��t know yet, so be prepared,�� said Zhang Heng. The two went along the street, asking around randomly about Han Lu��s childhood. Unfortunately, they found no useful information that told about Han Lu��s whereabouts. After what seemed like a long while, they identally bumped into Han Lu��s mother, a trantor. She had that frequently serious look on her, and she did not like to smile.


    It was evident that Han Lu��s feelings for her mother were veryplicated. The nature of her mother��s work required her to travel often, and thanks to that, she missed out on most of her daughter��s childhood. At the same time, her emotionless, poker face also made her look like a mean person.


    Zhang Heng, however, managed to discover some things inmon between the two of them. The way they frowned when they get impatient looked the same, and other than that, perseverance was a quality they both shared. Zhang Heng also finally got to know where Han Lu��s rhinitis came from.


    Zhang Heng and Rabbit quietly followed behind Han Mu, trying to determine where Han Lu stayed as a child. Not long after that, though, Zhang Heng once again noticed the abnormally-shaped clouds appearing above his head.


    The same thing happened before the tsunami hit the city, like some omen before a catastrophic event.


    Rabbit raised her head to the sky. ��Again?�� she muttered, her hands shielding her eyes from the sun. ��The same bloody thing is going to happen to us again. What should we do? Should we continue to follow her or look for a high ce and observe the situation?��


    Zhang Heng thought for a while before reaching a decision. ��You get to a safe ce first. I��ll keep following her. Let me know where you��re heading to, and I will look for you once there��s news or when the tsunami passes.��


    Rabbit hesitated. ��In that case, I��ll stay a little longer. ording to the previous pattern, we have around half an hour before the tsunami arrives. I��ll only five minutes to retreat to safety.�� Zhang Heng didn��t want to persuade her after hearing her out.


    s, both couldn��t be more wrong this time. After a quarter of an hour, Rabbit looked bewildered as she stared at the thing poking out of the clouds. ��Really?! I thought the ind tsunami was enough nonsense. I didn��t expect anything mythical to be in this dream?!��


    ��I saw three huge ck shadows spreading their wings above the city, like Death with wings, looking down on the peasants.��


    ��Uhh... I just hope they won��t spit fire everywhere.��


    As soon as Rabbit said that, a giant dragon opened its mouth, and its ming breath hit a bus on the road dead-on. Its passengers didn��t even stand a chance to escape, where everyst person onboard was decimated by the sea of fire. The heat was so intense it melted the cars around the bus.


    The dragon did not stop there. Fire quickly swept across the entire street. In just a few fiery spits, the lively and joyful street promptly turned into purgatory on earth. Unlike the previous tsunami, those caught in the fire werepletely erased from the world, charred to oblivion.


    ��Airraid shelter!�� Zhang Heng spat out three words quickly upon seeing the deadly scene unfolding before him.


    Air-raid shelters were rare in the modern-day. But in the early 1970s, violent Sino-Soviet rtions and threats from the United States gave credence to the notion that nuclear war was imminent. During that special period, the powers that be equipped almost all major universities, factories, and government bureaus with air-raid shelters.


    A sprawling underground city was built right below the capital. It extended in all directions, from Wangfujing all the way to the railway station. There was even a cafeteria and barbershop. Fortunately, these air-raid shelters didn��t see any use, and they gradually faded out as time went by. With the appearance of the dragons, however, they could surelye in handy.


    There was an air-raid shelter less than 400 meters away from the two were, and the terrified crowd was running there. There was no need for Zhang Heng to say anything to Rabbit. She was shoved along with the running stampede of people, joining the horde involuntarily. After running for a while, she realized that Zhang Heng was no longer with her.

 Chapter 474 - Dragon Flame

    <strong>Chapter 474 Dragon me</strong>


    Rabbit looked back to Zhang Heng rushing in the giant dragon��s direction instead of escaping with her. Earlier, everyone paid attention to three giant dragons that had suddenly appeared above the city. Zhang Heng was the only one that divided half of his attention to Han Lu��s mother.


    When the crowd began to flee in panic, Han Mu ran toward the air-raid shelter as well, but before she could run far, someone pushed her from the back, and she fell to the ground.


    Falling amid a stampeding crowd that was fleeing in panic was extremely dangerous. Han Mu tried to get up, but someone stepped on her waist. The person happened to be a young student and was very polite. And he immediately apologized to Han Mu after he realized that he had identally stepped on her. A few secondster, someone identally stepped on Han Mu��s calf again.


    The young student was trying really hard to get Han Lu��s mother to stand up amid the chaotic frenzy. However, it was a fruitless attempt. Driven by the survival instinct, everyone was shoving those in front to get to the bomb shelter as fast as possible. The young student couldn��t stop the people behind him, as he too got shoved. He almost fell to the ground, and when he looked back again, he saw that a lot of people were stepping on Han Mu.


    Suddenly, he felt that someone was squeezing his side. The young student opened his eyes wide and wanted to know who the person that ran past him was. Af of now, he couldn��t control where he was headed to, as if being caught in a giant wave. Though he wanted to help Han Mu very severely, he was utterly powerless against the tide of human bodies. At the same time, it was hard for him to imagine that someone would go against the huge wave.


    A single person was like a small boat in this storm. Anytime now, it would be torn to shreds by the massive storm. He could, however, always find a gap to squeeze through the crowd.


    And just like that, Zhang Heng managed to grab hold of Han Mu. Having lost count of the people that stepped over her body, she didn��t look too good. Her right hand was severely injured as well, and she managed to survive the stampede by the skin of her teeth. If she stayed on a little longer, she would be indefinitely killed. Zhang Heng paused for a while, found the perfect opportunity, and grabbed her from the ground.


    At the same time, he nced at the dragon in the sky. The three dragons began to move separately, wandering around the city and spitting fire everywhere. This time, even if Zhang Heng hid in a tall building, he would not be able to avoid the dragon��s attack. A single breath from the dragon was enough to raze the entire building to the ground.


    The most dangerous dragon had to be the one that attacked the bus earlier. Compared to the other two, it was closest to Zhang Heng and Han Mu. It had also turned both streets into a sea of mes in a blink of eyes.


    It nownded on the restaurant��s roof, with four of its long wed legs resting on the eaves. It adjusted its position and chose its next target. After a while, it spotted the bomb shelter that was filled with people. The rabbit had managed to get to the shelter��s door, but Zhang Heng had a little trouble since he was with an injured Han Mu. With an extra person, he couldn��t squeeze through the crowd like he so flexibly did before.


    This meant his current situation had be more dangerous. After resting for a bit, the dragon expanded its ck wings again. It dived into the crowd and took a deep breath of air. A few secondster, it started spewing a stream of fire from its mouth. Half the street turned into a sea of mes in the blink of an eye.


    The me scorched arge area around the bomb shelter, charring those who had not been able to enter it in time. Even those who had just entered the shelter couldn��t escape the brunt of the far-reaching inferno.


    Like a neverending sea of napalm, the dragon��s breath had immense destructive power!


    Zhang Heng got lucky, being right beside the dragon when it attacked the crowd. As a result, he got to witness the dragon killing all the unlucky ones. The extremely high air temperature singed the hair on his head, causing them to frizz up. Unlike the rest which turned around and fled in terror, Zhang Heng stopped for a while, then covered his mouth and nose with his clothes and rushed into the sea of mes ahead of him.


    It was impossible to outrun a flying dragon. For the same reason, sticking with the crowd was almost equivalent tomitting suicide. The dragon, too, was very cunning. It would only target ces where there were most people. The only way for Zhang Heng to survive was to run toward the area that the dragon had already scorched. Obviously unsatisfied with the damage dealt, the dragon didn��t look back, continuously looking for its next target and leaving a trail of burnt mayhem and destruction behind.


    It was not easy deciding to go into the ze. In addition to oveing the dragon��s fear, the ridiculously high temperatures and toxic smoke in that area were enough to stop anyone attempting to approach. When Zhang Heng��s stepped on the ground, he felt as if he was standing on magma in a volcano crater. The rubber on the soles of his shoes started melting, producing a sickening sizzling noise.


    Even with Zhang Heng��s extraordinary physique, it was hard tost long in such a hostile environment. He almost had to give Han Lu��s mother up, but fortunately, they were now was not too far away from the bomb shelter��s entrance.


    Zhang Heng ran as fast as possible, managing to get to his target location in less than eight seconds. The one-foot-thick iron gate was half-melted, exposing a ck hole behind it. At the same time, Zhang Heng could smell something strange burning.


    Upon his arrival, he felt a burning heatwave rushing towards him. He even went into a momentary trance, where he thought he made the wrong bet this time, and the giant dragon had turned and attacked him. Zhang Heng soon realized that the dragon��s deadly mes weren��t targeting him, but it was simply the draft from the dragon pping its wings. The crowd was still its main target.


    The temperature around Zhang Heng was so high to the point he thought that the dragon was actually aiming for him. Seeing that it was just hot air, Zhang Heng bent down and sprinted into the bomb shelter. By then, his body had almost reached its limits, just like barbecued meat on a stone b. His mouth, nose, and respiratory tract were severely irritated from the overbearing smoke and poisonous gasses.


    After enduring ten meters of torture, Zhang Heng got to breathe fresh air again. The underground city��s venttion system was well built, where it was said that more than two thousand venttion shafts cris-crossed the bomb shelter. It ensured that nobody would be stuffy even after long periods. Zhang Heng ran for some distance before finally ending up at a rtively safe ce. He put Han Lu��s mother down and leaned against the wall. Only then did he have the time to check on her condition. She was still breathing, albeit unconscious. Her face was bluish, with an almost dyed reaction to external stimuli. It appeared to be the effects of excessive carbon monoxide inhtion. Fortunately, she survived.


    Zhang Heng breathed a sigh of relief. Han Mu was the only useful clue that he had obtained ever since entering Han Lu��s dream. If the dragon killed her, he would have to start looking for another needle in a haystack. Clearly, it was an oue he didn��t desire. He would rather risk it a little and make sure she survived.

 Chapter 475 - Missing Out

    <strong>Chapter 475 Missing Out</strong>


    Rabbit was forced to move forward when the crowd shoved her from behind. Upon arriving at the bomb shelter, she could finally get to slow her pace a little. When the mes of the dragon came rushing into the cave, the crowd panicked again. Those wishing to live got away from the entrance as fast as they could. Before she could even catch a breath, Rabbit got pushed deeper and deeper into the bomb shelter.


    When she finally stopped moving, she realized she was lost. The ce looked the same from every corner, where numerous passages spiderwebbed through the underground city. It took her a long time before she finally returned to the entrance, where she met up with Zhang Heng. ��Dang, what��s wrong with your skin?!�� eximed Rabbit.


    ��Slight burns. No matter,�� Zhang Heng replied, shrugging the injuries off. ��Can you help me find some water?��


    ��Oh, oh, oh... no problem,�� Rabbit nodded. After a while, she returned to Zhang Heng, handing over a tin kettle she found lying around at a corner. Zhang Heng fed Han Mu some water and told her to rest up, before standing up to talk to Rabbit.


    ��How is it?��


    Rabbit had been waiting a long time ago to ask Zhang Heng the question. ��Well, this dream is based on Han Lu��s memories of her first day in junior high. It��s her 13th birthday today. Her mother took the day off, wanting to bring her to the zoo to see the pandas. They had been nning this for a month, and I guess Han Lu is looking forward to this day��s arrival. She was so excited she couldn��t get a good night��s sleep. s, Han Mu received a call early in the morning. It turned out to be an important trantion job, and finally, she had to give up on the n she made with Han Lu. When she finally returned, she discovered that Han Lu had left home in a fit of rage. So, she came out looking for her.��


    ��Well... it is but a sad story. But why is a three-headed dragon in this dream?��


    ��I��m looking for an answer to that as well. What do you think it signifies?�� Zhang Heng asked.


    ��Well, the two dreams we experienced so far were filled with catastrophic events��the tsunami in the previous dream and now the dragon. Whenever the dark clouds appear, it foretells of the disaster,�� Rabbit said. ��They all have onemon characteristic, though, and that is that they have nothing to do with the dreams. We can rule out the possibility of Han Lu binge-watching disaster movies or ying action games recently. These disasters are probably not part of Han Lu��s original dream. It seems like something forcefully inserted these catastrophic events into her dreams.��


    ��The Dreand of Death?��


    Rabbit nodded, ��Yes, these disasters are probably rted to the Dreand of Death.��


    ��Why does the Dreand of Death need to destroy Han Lu��s dream? It doesn��t make any sense.��


    ��Good question. Many researchers are experts in the study of dreams. Even before humanity mastered the alphabet, the study of dreams had already begun. Unfortunately, until today, our understanding of dreams is still very limited. Not to mention how the Dreand of Death is rted to Hypnos. It��s always been one of the most mysterious Grade-B game items ever known.��


    Rabbit paused for a moment. ��Based on Han Lu��s reaction, she seemed very afraid of these disasters as well. Right before each disaster struck, she managed to go into hiding. We don��t know what would happen if she died in one of these disasters, and I strongly rmend that we do not let that happen to her. We need to locate her as soon as possible. Do you know where she��s hiding?��


    ��Han Mu did tell me some of the possible ces that she may hide in. There��s a high chance she��d be in one of them. Han Mu also said that since she finds it hard to move around right now, she hopes we can find her daughter and bring her here,�� said Zhang


    Heng.


    ��Excellent, let��s start now,�� Rabbit eximed, seeming filled with renewed hope. ��Based on the previous dream, we should have at least half a day to look for her.��


    ��70s-era cities were way different from 21st-century modern towns. For safety reasons, the two chose to traverse the underground city tunnel until they found the nearest exit. From there, they would ascend up to ground level.


    It wasn��t easy finding the right path amid the hundreds of tunnels that lined the massive underground city. Zhang Heng hired someone familiar with the ce, hoping it could help them find Han Lu. Although the banknontes they had weren��t recognized at this point in time, the wallet could still be used for transactions. Bartering, however, was a popr alternatative to cash.


    After examining the wallet and making sure it was made out of genuine leather, the person agreed to help them after Zhang Heng told him that it was all to save someone��s daughter. The person, however, would only guide them in the underground city. Up there, they were on their own.


    Zhang Heng and Rabbit searched three possible spots. ording to Han Mu, Han Lu would most likelye to these three ces alone. One of the locations was engulfed by fire, and Han Lu wasn��t at the other two as well. Despite getting almost nothing, Zhang Heng and Rabbit weren��t discouraged, continuing to search for all possible locations and eliminating those with no Han Lu in it. In the end, they were left with only one ce. There was a high chance they would encounter her over there.


    As the two exited the underground city, the dark clouds in the sky rapidly thinned out.


    Seeing what happened, Rabbit stomped her feet in frustration. ��This is exactly what I worry about the most. Why must ite now? Technically, we should be left with at least thirty to forty hours before we transition to another dream.��


    Zhang Heng frowned. Thest ce they could search was the house of Han Lu��s best friend in high school. It was just a street away, but the problem was that the dragon was resting on the roof. Most of the people who lived in the area were all gone, and if he were to rush there right now, it would be impossible the dragon wouldn��t notice him. After weighing his options, Zhang Heng gave up on the idea. ording to his previous encounters, he found out that the dream would change every two or three minutes after the clouds cleared. It would not be easy to find an effective way to avoid the dragon��s attention. Now that the dragon was resting there, Han Lu might have even left that area.


    Rabbit was a little discouraged to see what was taking ce.


    ��After going through all that trouble, looking for her for the longest time, and almost getting cooked by the dragon, it appears all our effort is wasted.��


    Zhang Heng remained silent. He kept looking at the dragon, pondering over something in his mind.


    Rabbit felt desperate. ��We are running out of time,�� she urged. ��We may never get this close again in the next dream. We should set a ce to meet in advance.��


    ��You decide the ce,�� Zhang Heng said as he looking away.


    Rabbit thought on it for a bit. ��How about the za that we were at? I now remember what the ce is! 40 years into the future, it��s be IKEA. Do you remember the name of the street?��


    ��We will meet there after that.��


    Now, the dark clouds above Zhang Heng��s head had disappeared. Sunlight poured down over the dragon��s enormous wings, its scales radiantly glowing like it was made out of gold. The dragon raised its head and let out a roar toward the sky. The third dream had arrived.

 Chapter 476 - Third Round of Dreams

    <h4>Chapter 476 Third Round of Dreams</h4>


    Zhang Heng opened his eyes and found that he was in a different ce. This time, he was in a different era, but he was no longer in the previous city. To be more precise, he was not even in his own country anymore.


    At the moment, Zhang Heng was surrounded by blond and blue-eyed foreigners, and the signs of the roadside shops were all written in English. He came up upon a for a magazine booth on the side of the road and learned from the owner that he was now in Durham, a small northeastern English town.


    Something instantly struck Zhang Heng��s mind the moment he heard the name. Han Lu studied in Ennd for some time, and she had studied at the world-famous Durham University, Ennd��s third oldest and most prestigious university. It was also called Doxbridge, along with Cambridge and Oxford, where it constantly ranked among the world��s top 100 universities. It attracted many middle-ss and wealthy applicants from China, not to mention international students. Han Lu��s business school was EQUIS, AMBA, and AACSB certified, making it one of the world��s top business schools.


    Zhang Heng did not hesitate and took a taxi to Durham University.


    The driver, an enthusiastic man about his country, thought that Zhang Heng was a tourist. Naturally, he started talking about famous sightseeing spots around the next city. However, when he arrived at the destination, Zhang Heng had to knock him out because he couldn��t pay. Stuffing the driver in the trunk, he scurried the taxi to an underground parking lot. After parking the car, he walked into Durham University.


    Like most prestigious schools, Durham University was a massive establishment, where itsnd was dotted with ancient brick walls and medieval castles. Among the few universities in the city��s outskirts, Durham University was one of the few that still adopted the collegiate system. Somewhat simr to Harry Potter��s Hogwarts School of Wizard and Wizardry, students weren��t divided to their dormitories via majors, but rather ording to their personalities, hobbies, and habits. It could all only mean one thing. Looking for Han Lu within these confines would be nothing short of a daunting and gargantuan task.


    Zhang Heng thought about where he should go next when a short-haired girl came to him. She was not much older than him and looked like a student from this university. Clutching two books in her arms, she seemed to be in a hurry, but she suddenly stopped in her tracks as she passed Zhang Heng.


    She turned over and asked in Chinese, ��Need any help?��


    Instead of answering her question, he simply stood there and stared at her.


    The girl with short hair then touched her face, ��Huh? Can��t he understand Chinese? Korean or Japanese student, perhaps?�� ��Sorry... I��m actually looking for someone,�� replied Zhang Heng as he finally snapped out of his shocking discovery. He kept his eyes trained on her, not looking away though she seemed a little bbergasted. He had only seen the young her from a photo.


    ��I��m afraid I can��t help you. Consider yourself unlucky for asking the wrong person. I��ve only been studying here for a year and a half. I can count the people I know with both my hands. Guess I won��t be of much help,�� the short-haired girl shrugged.


    ��No, I��m pretty sure you know this person because she is your roommate,�� replied Zhang Heng


    Was it a coincidence? No. It should be said that the seemingly heartless woman before him had a keen intuition that didn��t match her cute demeanour. It was why she had stopped and turned around even after passing by Zhang Heng. Sensing the frustrations in his heart must have stopped her to give him a helping hand.


    When it came to this, he could only consider this ability as some sort of superpower. It was almost impossible for someone to see through his mind after he��d experienced all kinds of stuff, which would make even the most gullible believers shy away. The girl in front of him was probably the only soul in the world that could achieve such a feat.


    ��Damn! Are you Han Lu��s foreign boyfriend? I have heard a lot about you,�� the short-haired girl opened her eyes wide. ��I heard her talk about you and saw your photos. You don��t look like the man in the photo,�� she said, but quickly covered her mouth after that. ��I��m done for. Did I say too much? But Han Lu shouldn��t be so promiscuous. All she does isin about homework every day. O didn��t think she��d have the time to have an affair.��


    ��You��ve misunderstood. I��m just a friend,�� Zhang Heng replied with a grin. ��I need to talk to her about something. In a rush?�� Zhang Heng pointed to the books she was holding


    ��Uhh.. not exactly in a big-big rush... I could go tonight if I didn��t make it now.�� The short-haired girl then snapped her fingers enthusiastically. ��Let me take you to Han Lu first!��


    ��Sorry for the trouble.�� ��Haha! Oh, stop being so obliging, will you? We are all descendants of Yanhuang, after all,�� pipped the cheery and hospitable short-haired girl. ��In return, you can tell me some gossip about her....��


    ��Okay, I know a lot of stuff from her childhood. Interested to know?��


    ��Of course!��


    The short-haired girl seemed delighted, vigorously nodding at her newfound ��friend.��


    With someone as a guide, Zhang Heng could finally stop going for broke. The two walked and chatted and soon came up to a tennis court. The short-haired girl had juste out of her dormitory and said that Han Lu had been out since early that morning. She did not exin her whereabouts, but she loved tennis and often yed at this spot at this hour.


    Unfortunately, the tennis courts were void of Han Lu as well.


    The short-haired girlforted Zhang Heng, ��It��s okay. We��ll just proceed to the next ce. If it��s anyone else, I would have been so sure, but it��s Han Lu we��re talking about here. I can find her with my eyes closed.�� Zhang Heng didn��t really know what else to do but to follow her. ��Well, don��t look for the ces she often goes to. Since you know her so well, any idea where she would hide if she were, uhh, frightened?�� ��What?!��


    The short-haired girl was stunned when she heard what Zhang Heng said. ��She is one of the bravest girls I��ve ever met. We watch those horror movies together andugh as if it were a si. Who can scare her? You?��


    She stole a nce at Zhang Heng. Before he could even begin to disagree, she shook her head and interrupted.��..no, nope. I am very good at judging people. You are not a bad person.��


    ��Something very, very bad is about to happen to her, which is why I must look for her as soon as possible. Can you help me?�� Zhang Heng asked with raised eyebrows.


    ��What��s with all the mystery? You n to save the world, or what?�� She had a sparkle in her eyes. ��it sounds like fun! Let me in-I know somewhere she would go to when she��s in a bad mood. Let��s head there.��


    ��Where?��


    ��The Oriental Museum,�� replied the short-haired girl. ��Many Asian and Indian artifacts are disyed there. Han Lu always said the ce was like her second home, and it calmed her down on her bad days.��


    ��Let��s not waste a single second and go over there now,�� said Zhang Heng as he raised his head and looked toward the sky. The weird clouds were going to show up again. So far, he had experienced three instances of dreams. ording to his calctions, the earlier clouds appeared, the faster the dream would end.


    It was in no way a good sign; a grim reminder to Zhang Heng that time was running out.

 Chapter 477 - Got Another Clue?

    <h4>Chapter 477 Got Another Clue?</h4>


    Along the way, even the short-haired girl noticed the change in the atmosphere. ��Hey, I have a bad feeling that something awful is about to go down.��


    Zhang Heng looked at her, but he did not exin anything. ��We talked a lot about Han Lu. Let��s talk about you,�� he said, instead of answering her.


    ��Me?�� The short-haired girl was a little surprised. ��How am I rted to your mission to save the world?��


    ��No. I want to have a small chat with you,�� Zhang Heng said, ��Anyway, we still need to walk a bit before we get to the museum.��


    ��Well, let��s do the small talk then,�� the short-haired girl scratched her head. ��I am essentially a very boring person. My hobbies are lying in bed and reading novels andics. I��m a movie buff as well. Though I don��t mind socializing, I find it troublesome to keep getting my hair done. I take an unpopr course. I don��t know what else to tell you.��


    ��Is there anyone you like?��


    ��Wow, now that��s a very personal question.��


    ��Sorry if you��re offended...��


    ��I would think a stranger is rude if he were to ask me something like this after meeting him for less than half an hour. I don��t feel that way, though, when you asked me the question. It��s weird. I feel like I know you. Have we met before?�� the short-haired girl asked in curiosity.


    ��Is that right?��


    ��To answer your previous question, I dated a boy, but it was a high school thing. He took me home on a bicycle, and I could smell the detergent on his shirt. I really loved that smell. Unfortunately, my dad had to spot him, and since then, he��s been waiting at the school gate to pick me up every day. It was miserable. After a while, we broke up since our rtionship affected his grades. But what can I say, eh? When I was studying abroad, my drama addiction affected my love life as well.��


    ��Don��t worry. You will meet someone you like in the future. He will show up at the right time, and you��ll have a happy family. The person you love shall give you all the happiness in the world.��


    ��Could this be some sort of prophecy?�� The short-haired girl smiled, ��But it sounds good. I want to think that it��lle true for me.��


    After a while, the bus stopped in front of St. Aidan��s College, and the Oriental Museum was nearby. At the same time, the sky was also covered by dark clouds as well. The short-haired girl was a student at Durham University, so there was no need to buy a ticket. After frisking his pocket awkwardly, Zhang Heng suddenly realized that he couldn��t pay for the ticket.


    ��I��ll buy you a ticket. Han Lu can reimburse meter,�� the short-haired girl said, reaching for her purse. ��Thank you.�� Zhang Heng breathed a sigh of relief. Although he could use the previous method to get into the museum, it would undoubtedly attract a lot of unwanted attention, thereby risking alerting the nearby police officers.


    Since Zhang Heng had no idea what kind of catastrophe he was going to face, he figured it was better hey low. The museum wasn��t that big, very few visitors were there at the moment. To Zhang Heng��s surprise, he reencountered Rabbit. She was standing with a tall and handsome boy.


    ��Oh, shit. That��s Freddie.�� The short-haired girl let out a long sigh.


    ��Who is Freddie?��


    ��He��s Han Lu��s admirer and rising star of the school��s ser team. Something��s up with him recently. He has been pestering Han Lu relentlessly, and although Han Lu told him that she��s attached, he just wouldn��t stop. So all she can do is to avoid him as much as possible.��


    Rabbit, on the other hand, was filled with joy when she spotted Zhang Heng. ��You found this ce too?��


    Zhang Heng��s eyes moved.


    Rabbit continued, ��To be honest, I don��t know where I am, although I set a ce for us to meet up. Luckily I met this handsome guy here. I asked him if he knew Han Lu, and he told me he would take me to her. We seem to be a step behind, though. She��s no longer here. I��ve asked the staff, and they said she left about 15 minutes ago. The apocalypse is nigh. This time, it��s only taken an hour and a half to arrive. At this rate, we probably won��t even have half an hour to move around in the next dream. By the way, who��s this?��


    The short-haired girl was about to say something, but Zhang Heng interrupted her. ��That��s it for now. Thank you for your help. See youter.��


    Now that surely didn��t sound too polite, and it made it look as if Zhang Heng ditched her after she went out of the way to help him. The short-haired girl said nothing, though, simply looking toward Zhang Heng and Rabbit with a smile. ��Well, I wish you all the best, and I hope you save the world soon.��


    After that, she left the museum.


    Rabbit raised her eyebrows, ��Whoa... wait.. What do you mean? She can��t provide us with more clues?��


    ��You��re right,�� said Zhang Heng thoughtfully.


    ��Who is he?�� The football yer named Freddy suddenly voiced out. All the while, he��d been eyeballing Zhang Heng belligerently.


    Seeing the twomunicating in Chinese, he began to feel increasingly ufortable with Zhang Heng��s presence.


    ��It��s okay, Freddie. Uhh, he is a friend of mine.�� Rabbit quickly turned around to extinguish the brewing mes. She then turned to Zhang Heng again, ��What should we do now? Found any clues?��


    Zhang Heng didn��t speak until the short-haired girl had walked out of the museum��s door.


    ��What should I call you? Hypnos?��


    Rabbit��s face shed with surprise.


    ��Who? Me? Did the dragon fry your brains? Do I look like Hypnos to you?��


    ��I started to suspect you in the previous dream,�� replied Zhang Heng. ��I must admit that you put up a good act when we first met in that dream. Rabbit and I have just met recently. Apart from her name and appearance, I know very little about her. So it��s hard for me to tell that you are pretending to be her.��


    ��What? So you think that I am pretending to be someone?�� Rabbit looked puzzled. ��Why?��


    ��You were so good at ying that part. To be honest, when I first saw you, I really thought you were Rabbit,�� Zhang Heng said. ��But then I noticed something small, and that was when I started to suspect you. As far as I know, you and the other three always worked in a team. You��ve never once mentioned your teammates after you met me. Moreover, when you decided where we should meet in the next dream, you chose the za where we met.��


    ��Where��s the problem in that?�� asked Rabbit, a hint of frustration lining her words.


    ��Although it isn��t a remote area, it��s actually very unpopr. You said you didn��t remember the road, butter, you said you could recognize the way a little. If you are really Rabbit, you should have started with the desire to meet your teammates. Logically, you were supposed to choose a ce familiar to your team. You could have even chosen Han Lu��s ce. The reason why you chose the ce we first met was so that I wouldn��t meet the others, especially the real Rabbit.��


    ��Interesting deduction, but how do you exin those disasters then? Just like you, they hit me as well.��

 Chapter 478 - I’d Like To Correct Something

    <h4>Chapter 478 I��d Like To Correct Something</h4>


    ��Those disasters had nothing to do with the Dreand of Death. On the contrary, it��s more like Han Lu��s defense mechanism of sorts. Think of what you would you do if you had rats and cockroaches at home?��


    ��Buy some rat poison and put it at the corner? Or disinfect the whole house with pesticides? It appears she chose the second method,�� grunted Rabbit.


    ��Yes, I was wrong from the beginning, whether it was the tsunami or the giant dragon. They weren��t targeting Han Lu all along.��


    ��Can��t me you. After all, anybody who found Han Lu running for her life and hiding from these unnatural disasters would think that she��s under the Dreand of Death��s spell.��


    ��But in fact, the one she��d been avoiding all along, since the very beginning, has been you, and you alone, yes?�� Zhang Heng quizzed. ��She changed dreams frequently to escape your tracking��from her childhood to studying abroad to her daily life. I wasn��t with you in the first dream, so I don��t know why the tsunami attacked the city. But then we found Han Lu��s mother, supposedly the key figure in the second dream, the strange clouds appeared again.��


    ��A coincidence, perhaps?�� Rabbit said.


    1


    ��Yes, but this time, when you, and this... Freddie appeared in Han Lu��s favorite museum; those clouds appeared again. The first time might have been a coincidence, but the second, surely not. It��s all but a possibility too small.


    ��You weren��t the sole target of the disasters. Everyone else in the dream could have been killed as well. Right now, we are standing in Han Lu��s vault, one that she uses to store information. These are the collection of memories from her subconscious, containing information rted to her. She was worried that you��d use this information to locate her. Unsure who to trust and not knowing who the enemy was, she had to destroy all foreign beings in the dream. You choose to partner with me because Han Lu and I are closest among all of us. I��m your best lead, and I would have led you to her eventually.��


    ��Anything else you wish to add?�� Rabbit asked.


    ��Actually, it was the dragon that confirmed my doubts about you.��


    ��The dragon?��


    ��Yes. During thest dream, we came to Han Lu��s schoolmate��s house. The dragon was resting on the roof of that building, and yet that building was intact. If those dragons were chasing Han Lu, I thought, then they should have burned down the building as soon as possible. The dragon did not. Instead, it seemed to be guarding the ce, preventing anybody from approaching it. It was then that I started to think of another exnation for these disasters.��


    ��Your observation and deduction rank second among everyone I met. Of course, the woman named Han Lu did a good job too. I��d rank her defenses in the dreams among the top ten,�� Rabbit smiled. ��I didn��t expect you to find out so quickly. This was supposed to be an interesting round. Unfortunately for you, my friend, you won��t get to witness what��s about to happen. Since my identity has been exposed, it means I��ll have to kill you now. I��ll use your identity to approach the rest. The girl called Shen Xixi is pretty good as well. She��ll be able to lead me to Han Lu.��


    ��Rabbit�� then spoke to Freddy in English. ��He just said something insulting, and he even threatened me! Can you help me teach him a lesson?��


    ��Of course. It��s my honor,�� grinned Freddie, his fists clenched into balls.


    Freddie had obviously been waiting for this moment for the longest while. Although Zhang Heng didn��t really know what the real Freddie was like, it seemed Han Lu didn��t have fond memories of the guy. He was the kind that got jealous quickly, and he was unquestionably violent, where he had been disying signs of discontent the moment Zhang Heng started talking to Rabbit.


    On the flipside, ser yers possessed the physique all men envied. His arms were the size of the ordinary man��s calf, and they were beefy as hell, as well.


    ��Let me educate you on how to treat ady properly,�� he grinned and muttered.


    Zhang Heng, however, didn��t even look at him. Instead, he focused all his attention on Rabbit.


    Such a reaction only served to further anger Freddie. He lunged at Zhang Heng, attempting to swing a fist at his face. Within a few seconds, Zhang Heng slipped behind him, stretching out his arm to mp Freddie��s neck. As Freddie instinctively reached out to free his neck from the choke-hold, he felt a sharp sting biting into his unprotected ribs.


    Zhang Heng did not hesitate, mming Freddie��s head into a nearby shelf. His head smashed into the ss, crushing the priceless antique jade bowl inside it. Despite his unresolvable resolve, he had lost all the strength to get up from the ground. ��Awesome,�� Rabbit apuded cynically. ��I��m tempted to hire you as my next agent.��


    Suddenly, amotion could be hearding from outside the museum. A man, presumably a museum employee, fell in. Zhang Heng quickly recognized him as the man who checked his ticket at the entrance. Zhang Heng thought he was here to stop their fight, but he didn��t expect a man to follow him in a suit and sunsses.


    ��Hmm... Agent Smith! The character from ��The Matrix.�� Could he be our disaster this time? By the way, I like that movie,�� Rabbit said.


    Zhang Heng knew about Agent Smith as well. Originally an ordinary antivirus program, he was responsible for eliminating people and programs harmful to the Matrix. Gradually freeing himself from the Matrix��s control, he became a virus-like being.


    In addition to super-strength and inhuman reflexes, Smith��s most astonishing ability was to replicate himself infinitely like a virus. He could turn his target into a copy of him by inserting his hand into the target��s chest.


    Zhang Heng wasn��t sure which version of Smith was in Han Lu��s dream. If he was the final version of Smith, then he was basically Superman who could do anything he wanted, minus the effects of kryptonite.


    Perhaps this was a blessing in disguise. Zhang Heng now knew that these disasters were Han Lu��s defensive mechanisms kicking in to counter Hypnos.


    Rabbit, however, smiled, seeming to know what he was thinking.�� Don��t worry, and just rx. You guessed it right. But I have to correct one small little thing about your deduction. These disasters don��t just targeting me. They go after every invader that enters her dream. Of course, that includes you. They are like the guardians of Han Lu��s subconscious. Their goal is to destroy everything.��

 Chapter 479 - Eternal Dream

    <h4>Chapter 479 Eternal Dream</h4>


    Agent Smith spotted Zhang Heng and Rabbit from the outside. He walked in, face expressionless.


    Instead of charging directly at him, Smith picked the museum staff from the ground and inserted his right hand into the helpless guard��s chest. He screamed in pain, where a thick, ck liquid oozed from his chest, spreading and engulfing his entire body at the same time. In only about two seconds, the guard had transformed entirely into another Smith.


    Rabbit shrugged. ��As I said, neither of us can escape...��


    Right before she could finish, Smith turned to Rabbit and lunged at her, socking her in the face with his fist.


    ��O! It hurts!!!��


    It wasn��t before half her face was smashed, did Smithnd a kick on Rabbit��s belly. It sent her flying, its force so great she knocked over several shelves along the way.


    Zhang Heng didn��t have the time to check out what happened to Rabbit since the other Smith was now walking towards him. He looked around quickly, catching a glimpse of a bronze sword in a showcase cab. Zhang Heng instinctively smashed the ss when he saw the weapon, drawing a Spring and Autumn Period bronze sword.


    This time, it was his turn to face Smith��s fist. After seeing what happened to Rabbit, Zhang Heng didn��t use his arm to block the punch and instead dodged it with his pure reflexes. Swinging the sword to his back, he thrust the ancient weapon forward, managing to hit Smith.


    Nevertheless, the Smith that Zhang Heng just encountered wasn��t the most dextrous Smith from The Matrix. This incarnation of Smith had failed to dodge the attack. Despite that, apart from his shades needing a little adjustment, everything, including his hairstyle, remained unchanged.


    Smith stretched out to grab the bronze sword, easily snapping it into two. He tossed the pieces to the ground, loosed his neck, removed his sunsses, and went for Zhang Heng again. Zhang Heng wasn��t surprised by how the first round of fights with Smith went. After all, Smith, the ultimate guardian of the third dreams, was nearly as formidable as the tsunami and dragon. Evidently, Smith wasn��t one to go down without a fight.


    But Zhang Heng��s biggest problem now was that his items couldn��t be brought into Han Lu��s dream. It left him with little room in conjuring an excellent strategy to defeat Smith.


    In the end, he decided to adopt the dodge-and-hit strategy. He had to stay as far as he could from Smith and use the opponents�� speed to his advantage. He also had to ensure Smith wouldn��t get close enough and transform him into another Smith. The virus�� killer move in the movie was to create unlimited copies of himself, and there was a good chance Zhang Heng would cease to exist if Smith managed toy his hands on him.


    The Smith next to Zhang Heng started to walk towards Rabbit, now lying motionlessly on the ground as if she was dead. Smith then stretched out, intending to ��hack�� into her chest and transform her into another Smith copy. A rabbit wouldn��t stand a chance if he were to do that. Then, as if jump starting to live, Rabbit��s eyes snapped open, and she grabbed Smith��s arm.


    Rabbit grinned, sneering cynically at the less-than-human apparition. ��I admire your attitude and your sense of responsibility. But, hey, don��t forget to take a rest once in a while.��


    She then touched Smith��s forehead with her finger. Then, as if all power to his body was cut, Smith fell lifelessly to the ground. Rabbit stood up, patted the dust off her body, and nced at Zhang Heng. He was now in a sticky situation. ��It seems I there��s nothing else for me to do. Take your time to deal with him. Don��t worry about me. I��ll go ahead first.��


    After that, she opened the window and jumped out.


    Zhang Heng and Smith didn��t go after her, each one afraid of the other. Though less than half a minuteter, Rabbit returned to the museum through the window cursing. Zhang Heng looked at where she was, seeing dozens of men standing outside. All dressed in the same suit, sunsses and had the same face, and they stared into the museum��s open window with a ghostly expressionless face.


    Smith had already started making copies of himself, and it wouldn��t be long before he transformed everyone in the city into his likeness. Earlier, Rabbit managed to end the battle quickly, and she didn��t even appear to break a sweat. The truth was, Rabbit had actually sacrificed a lot in the attempt to get Smith to snuggle up with her. The price for that was a heavy blow from Smith, resulting in half her face getting smashed in and two broken ribs.


    Seeing how Smiths�� copies coulde in from all directions, she realized she had to face multiple enemies. It was no wonder she didn��t look so good.


    This was in no way good news for Zhang Heng, either. The fight was only escting. One Smith was terrible enough, but he was now forced to deal with a wave of Smiths. Even with a respectable Lv.3 Swordsmanship and the physical skills mastered in ck Sail, he could barely defeat him. If more Smiths joined the battle, it would put him in an immeasurable amount of danger.


    Now that the two were trapped in the small museum, Zhang Heng knew it was impossible to simultaneously deal with so many of Smith��s copies. He could only hope that they would kill Rabbit first and that Han Lu could wake up in time.


    Zhang Heng quietly strayed far away from all the doors and the windows.


    He then saw Rabbit, sighing at the sight of her. ��So, I��m forced to use that trick in the end?��


    Rabbit took out a harmonica from her pocket and started ying it. When Zhang Heng heard the first note, warning signs shed in his heart. He quickly covered his ears with both hands, but the melody found its way to bypass his ears, eventually reaching his brain despite his best efforts. His consciousness began to fade away slowly.


    Zhang Heng knelt on one knee. Making a decisive decision, he picked up a thin piece of ss on the ground and pierced his eardrums with it. Despite that, the sweet and pleasant melody didn��t disappear with the other sounds. Thest thing that Zhang Heng saw was the suited Smiths dropping like flies as the sound of the harmonica��s melody filled the room. The whole world seemed to have fallen asleep.


    Rabbit finally finished the song after three minutes. She wasn��t in the best state, her lips as pale as paper as she put the harmonica away. She then stood there with her eyes closed before taking a deep breath.


    Pocketing the instrument, she walked to Zhang Heng��s side.


    ��The guy called Seth went overboard this time. Why would he make so many copies of my game item? I��m exhausted. This time that nearly killed me. Forget it... Let��s finish this order first.��


    Rabbit squatted, putting her fingers on the forehead of the nowatose Zhang Heng. ��In the name of Hypnos, I order you to show me the dreams in your heart, and in return, I will bless you with an eternal dream... Huh? Wait. What the hell is this?!��


    A horrified look appeared on Rabbit��s face. Hypnos was the god of sleep in Greek mythology, and he had seen all kinds of strange dreams. Whether it a tsunami or dragon, they were allmon to him. When he peeked into the eye of Zhang Heng��s mind, however, he saw a grotesque, twisted nightmare he had never seen before.


    Though a hasty glimpse, Hypnos couldn��t help but tremble in fear.

 Chapter 480 - Wake Up

    <strong>Chapter 480 Wake Up</strong>


    The scenes in the rescue room reyed in Zhang Heng��s mind like a broken record. He didn��t know how long these images had been there, nor could he understand the meaning behind them. Perhaps they were just meaningless... just meaningless dreams.


    When he opened his eyes, he saw the familiar ceiling again. The fourth dream, perhaps? Zhang Heng could vaguely recall what happened, only remembering the moment before Hypnos put him to sleep. Whatever happened after that was no longer in his memory. Soon, though, he discovered something different. He saw Han Lu, missing in the previous rounds of dreams, lying down beside him.


    Shen Xixi, who was on the stool nearby, opened her eyes when she heard movement. Rubbing her eyes, she eximed in surprise, ��You��re awake, great.��


    ��Where are we?�� Zhang Heng asked.


    ��Han Lu��s home,�� Shen Xixi replied with raised eyebrows. ��Rest assured; we have left her dream.��


    ��Huh?��


    ��Probably in the third round of dreams, the situation at that time was terrible. The entire city was filled with Agent Smiths from the Matrix. To protect me, Li Bai sacrificed himself.��


    ��He died?��


    ��No... I mean, he died in Han Lu��s dream and was transformed into Smith. When he dies, he will leave Han Lu��s dream and wake up in the real world. On the contrary, what happened to you is rather strange,�� said Shen Xixi. ��Han Lu woke up after the third dream, and we tried to wake you up, but you were still in a deep sleep. I��ve tried calling your name right beside your ear, and I patted your cheeks as well. You gave me no response. To not hurt you, I didn��t use any more intense techniques. So, are you okay now? Any difort on your body?��


    ��Wait, we are in the real world now, and you said Han Lu woke up once?��


    ��Yes, she��s the only person who has ever woken up after being cursed with the Dreand of Death. She is fine now. Since she didn��t get a wink of sleep for the past few days, an hour is obviously not going to be enough. So, we gave her a quick checkup and left her to sleep.��


    ��You defeated Hypnos. How did you do that?�� Zhang Heng asked.


    ��Uhh, well, it was what I wanted to ask you. In previous dreams, there were a series of unnatural disasters, and we spected that they might have been rted to the Dreand of Death. While looking for Han Lu, I tried to look for a way to deal with them, but unfortunately, there was no progress. After that, we woke up suddenly.��


    ��Where is Rabbit?�� Zhang Heng asked.


    ��After confirming that Han Lu is fine, I let the two return,�� Shen Xixi continued, ��Especially Rabbit. She��s very busy with her senior year at high school. What��s wrong? Why are you looking for her?��


    ��Have you seen her in the dreams?��


    ��Yes, we met in the first dream, and when the tsunami struck us, we hid in the TV station.�� Shen, Xixi paused. ��...why did you ask about her?��


    ��I saw Hypnos in the second dream. He disguised himself as Rabbit, approached me, and wanted me to lead him to Han Lu. I was only a little suspicious of him at that time, and when we met again in the third dream; I made him confess,�� Zhang Heng said.


    ��Were you alone?�� Shen Xixi raised his eyebrows, ��That was way too risky. Hypnos is the god of sleep, and the dream world is his turf. You couldn��t have possibly dealt with him in a dream, could you?��


    ��Sorry. It seems he can turn into anybody within a dream. I don��t know what he will look like the next time we meet again,�� said Zhang Heng said. ��I didn��t know who else I could trust during that time, so I resorted to a quick fight.��


    ��I can understand your situation. I would have done the same thing as well. How did you make him give up killing Han Lu then?��


    ��I don��t know. Multiple Smiths surrounded us. Then, Hypnos started to y his harmonica, and everyone fell asleep when we heard the melody. I was no exception, which is why I��m asking you what happened after that,�� said Zhang Heng. ��I didn��t cross paths with him since the beginning, and neither did everyone else. Unless, as you said, he pretended to be one of us...�� Shen Xixi pondered for a while before shaking her head. ��...but it��s unlikely. We��vepleted so many quests together. It��s not that easy for Hypnos to rece one of us without us finding out sooner orter. Is that why he gave up? But it��s never happened before. Otherwise, the Dreand of Death wouldn��t have killed so many.��


    Zhang Heng and Shen Xixi subsequently exchanged notes about Han Lu��s dream world, and despite going through the small details, they came out fruitless. Not only did they fail to figure out what happened, but only more mysteries and questions surfaced. They still didn��t how Han Lu managed to survive the curse, or why Hypnos let them go when he was at an absolute advantage.


    Zhang Heng nced at Han Lu, still fast asleep like a baby at this time. ��Can you please do something for me?�� he asked Shen Xixi.


    Shen Xixi already knew what he was about to ask even before he finished.


    ��Stop worrying, people, and I will keep this matter close to the chest. We have to remain silent so that other yers won��t hound her.��


    Shen Xixi smiled bitterly. ��This whole thing looks like an ident to me. We haven��t found the slightest hint of a solution to deal with the Dreand of Death. It��s not like we can help the others. So... just consider this never happened.��


    ��No, thank you for your help this time. If you didn��t contact me and bring that item, we wouldn��t have entered Han Lu��s dream. She would probably be dead now like everyone else,�� Zhang Heng replied, his mood carrying a slight undertone of exasperation.


    ��You��ve thanked me more than once. As I said before, I��m just doing what I��ve been doing...�� Shen Xixi paused. ��I still hope that everyone��s strengths could be pulled with a clearer code of conduct and self-discipline. Then maybe, we might just protect the ordinary from the threat of the supernatural. If you��re interested, you are wee to join us at any time.�� ��I��ll consider it,�� Zhang Heng said.


    Shen Xixi stood up from the chair. ��It��s almost dawn now. I will head back to school. What about you?��


    ��I��ll wait until she wakes up to say goodbye,�� replied Zhang Heng, unable to stop himself from looking at the window. There, the first break of light bled over the horizon. The clear sky hadn��t the slightest hint of a cloud, especially not those ominous ones. It confirmed that he had indeed returned to reality.


    ��See you at school,�� Shen Xixi pipped as she stood up.

 Chapter 481 - I Have My Plan

    <strong>Chapter 481 I Have My n</strong>


    There was a forest behind the hillside covered in valerian.


    A wooden cottagey hidden in the woods, its atmosphere breathtaking. Right outside, the clear water of a shallow creek glistened and trickled by, as ancient, unknown trees whose branches seem to be entwined with each other under some mysterious force were woven into a colossal umbre, blocking out the sunlight.


    Having the perfect lighting at almost all times of the day, it was probably that one cottage in the woods everyone didn��t mind having.


    The owner of the wooden hut had a peculiar hobby. His pets were not the regr cat and dog, but a group of crows. These birds differed from their counterparts, silently perched on the roof without letting out a single caw as if they were fast asleep.


    In the dark room, a pale man with wings suddenly woke up from his bed. Beads of sweat lined his forehead, and his eyes flickered. The most attractive part of him was the pair of wings that grew on his back. When spread out, they were at least four meters long and two meters wide. They seemed wide enough to fill the entire room.


    The observant would quickly point out that his wings fluttered ever so slightly.


    It was then that the sound of a harp ying came from outside. It��s soothing and melodic tune flowed through the house��s door and into the man��s ears, calming his mind. He sat up on the bed for a while, put on his slippers, and walked to the table where he picked up an unfinished bottle of Coke.


    The sugar in the drink further calmed him down, and he couldn��t help but let out a sad sigh as he watched his slightly bulging belly. He then walked toward the door, stopping to throw the empty bottle into the trash can. When he saw the figure sitting on the sofa in the living room, he frowned and shook his head.


    The strangely dressed older man on the sofa pped after listening to the beautiful harp performance. ��Thank you, Pasithea, for the amazing performance. I felt like I was in the golden halls of Vienna. And if I may, Pasithea, I raise my hat as a tribute to you!��


    The woman with greying hair nodded in thanks. Putting away her harp, she sheepishly tiptoed out of the cabin, trembling under her skin.


    When she walked to the door, the man looked at the old man warily, asking, ��Why did you show up here.��


    The older man did not answer him. He paused for a while. ��I still remember how beautiful she was among the Three Graces. Reminds me of Daphne. No wonder you couldn��t help but offend Zeus for her back then. How��s your back? I bet it doesn��t feel so good falling from such a high ce.��


    ��So, you��vee here tough at us?��


    ��No, it��s just a shame that we can��t defy thews of time. The once-powerful goddess is getting old.��


    ��Pasithea isn��t in the best condition. After all, there are simply too few who know her name these days,�� the man said. ��It won��t be long before she disappears from this world.��


    ��That��s a real shame,�� the old man said. ��It appears this is the fate of the old folks. After all, nothing goes against thew of time. One day the world will forget us all... eventually.��


    The man snorted coldly, ��Is that right? I think you��ve been quite happy recently. Heard you went to Silicon Valley to find that guy.��


    ��Hatred will not help us survive. Evolution is a naturalw,�� the old man went on, ignoring his counterpart��s jibe. ��So, you are nning to betray us by following thews of nature and joining the enemy?�� The man took a knife from the wall and walked towards the older man. ��Just listen to yourself! You are just as disgusting as those bastards. I should have warned the others about you. Oh, I almost forgot. Time is ruthless, and you only look forward but never look back, right?��


    Thetter shrugged. ��Listen to what you are saying, Hypnos. You should know that no one cares about the past more than me. I still remember those names that have vanished from the hands of time. I��ve asked you toe to me no matter what you��re facing. My door will always be open to you.��


    Hypnos snorted coldly and sat down beside the older man. Snatching an apple from the fruit te, he began peeling it with a knife. ��This is a mistake. We shouldn��t have agreed to y the game in the first ce. Instead, we should have followed the old traditions and gather everyone to fight them. Yes, we may be at a disadvantage, but we��ve won a war against the titans before. I don��t know what kind of brainwashing you��ve done to Zeus... Why would he ept such a ridiculous request?!��


    ��We can��t do that, unfortunately,�� the old man exined patiently. ��This ispletely different from the war with the Titans. Judging by the current situation, we��ll be dead in no time if we keep fighting.�� ��Not for me,�� Hypnos replied. ��Pasithea is too weak to wait until the next round. I must help her to achieve results in the next round.��


    ��Chosen anyone yet?��


    ��Yes, I did meet a candidate this time. The girl��s name is Shen Xixi. I��ve been following her for a while... but I saw something else in the dream this time...�� When Hypnos thought about the terrible scene that he saw, he couldn��t help but shudder. He then saw the corners of the older man��s mouth turning upwards. Quickly realizing something, Hypnos replied vigntly, ��You came to me because of this?��


    ��That��s right,�� the old man admitted, ��I hope you can forget the things you saw.��


    ��Is he rted to you?�� Hypnos bit the apple.


    ��I am doing it for your own good. Knowing too much is not a good thing sometimes,�� the old man said.


    ��Are you crazy? Why did you provoke that thing?!�� Hypnos asked angrily,�� Don��t we already have enough enemies now? Even they don��t dare mess with that thing. If that thing is awakened, we will be greeted with an all-out disaster! Thanks to the stupid works of mortals, its name is now widely known to everyone. Not even ourbined force defeats it. Put a little finger on it. Didn��t you see it? His name is in the newspapers, novels, movies, and games!��


    ��Calm down, calm down, Hypnos. I only did this because I��ve actuallye up with a n,�� the old man replied leisurely. ��So far, the situation is still under my control. In exchange, I can help Pasithea to find an excellent agent. Well, you can��t pick the girl named Shen Xixi because someone else is already watching her... She has entered the trial phase. As for Seth, I can also help you deal with him and prevent him from making multiples copies of Dreand of Death. Once I deal with him, you don��t have to run here and there anymore.��

 Chapter 482 - He Is Coming Back

    <strong>Chapter 482 He Is Coming Back</strong>


    Han Lu did not wake up until the night. This time, she slept a total of 14 hours. Even so, she still felt drained after waking up, her long slumber unable to make up for the past days of lost sleep. She eventually opened her eyes, much to Zhang Heng��s relief. He still wasn��t sure why Hypnos disappeared after letting Han Lu go when he clearly held the advantage. As of now, Han Lu was thankfully out of danger. Zhang Heng said, ��For safety��s sake, you��d better call me or send me a text every morning. You don��t have to do it for too long. One month will do. I want to make sure that Hypnos will not target you anymore.�� ��No problem...�� Han Lu paused, ��...you saved me.�� ��Uhh, I��m not too sure about that.��


    Although Zhang Heng suspected that Hypnos�� sudden retreat could have something to do with him, he had no intention of iming glory without collecting sufficient evidence.


    ��You can��t deny that you are the one that saved me.�� Han Lu did not hesitate, ��If you didn��t read the message I sent you, I would have died in my sleep,�� she went on thoughtfully. ��Thank the key item provided by Shen Xixi��s team as well. Otherwise, we would have never been able to enter your dream world.��


    ��I will find a way to repay them... it��s thanks to you that they are here to help me. Let��s get back to our previous topic��you saved my life. If I count what happened at the hospital, this is the second time you��ve saved me. So... What do you want?�� Han Lu asked directly.


    ��...I don��tck anything for the time being, but I wille to you if I need anything.�� Zhang Heng stood up and put on his coat. ��I skipped a whole day��s ss, so I��m going back to school now. I cooked you a meal while you were asleep and put it on the table. You can have a good meal after a shower.��


    Nothing unusual happened in the next two weeks. Zhang Heng had also sessfully obtained his driver��s license, though he had to wait for his car��s registration te. He had to first apply for a number before trying the lucky draw that happened twice in a month. The winning probability of that wasparable to that of the lottery. Even with Lucky Rabbit��s Foot, it was impossible to win on the first draw.


    Zhang Heng was not in a hurry, anyway. The car could be driven under the name of Han Lu��spany. In fact, Zhang Heng had taken his four dormmates for a meal the very night he got his driver��s license. And they deliberately picked a ce far away from the school. Chen Huadong was a little apprehensive about Zhang Heng��s driving skills, unable to stop reminding him to look out for oing traffic. He held onto his seatbelt nervously as Zhang Heng drove, but the moment there was a little road congestion, he saw how Zhang Heng skillfully navigated through the traffic. In the end, he shut his mouth and let Zhang Heng do what he did best. As he got off the car, he approached Zhang Heng to ask who his coach was, hoping to get a rmendation. With no hesitation, Zhang Heng passed Chen Huadong the coach�� WeChat contact. Chen Huadong was already dreaming that he would be king of the road after 20 days of intensive training. There was always a gap between idealism and reality. Zhang Heng learned nothing special from the driving school except for standard driving techniques and traffic regtions. On the other hand, his extraordinary driving skills were from the owner of a fishery shop in the Tokyo Drift quest.


    Since he was the driver, Zhang Heng was the only one that didn��t touch the booze. After the meal, he drove the slightly drunk Ma Wei, an utterly unconscious Wei Jiangyang, and a seemingly fine Chen Huadong back to the dormitory.


    After attempting to carry Wei Jiangyang to his bed, Zhang Heng turned on hisputer, and that was when the power cut off. Before this, he had been doing some research about the scientific expedition to Greend 17 years ago. That was when he found two Facebook pages of the members and a Twitter ount. Since he could get no useful information on Twitter, and the Facebook profiles were private, Zhang Heng��s could not carry on with his investigation. Thanks to his hacking skills mastered up to Lv2 upon returning from Whistleblower, he managed to retrieve their passwords covertly. Finally, he got to log into their ounts to seek for more information. Zhang Heng first logged into Nicholson��s Facebook ount. Formerly a SEAL member, he was 50 this year. From the photo, he looked adamant; his chest muscles were in good shape, and he had a pair of muscr arms as well. He was in a pair of beach pants in the photo, squatting on the sand while roasting oysters on the grill. Behind him was a young girl hugging him affectionately by the neck. After that, Zhang Heng reencountered the young girl in other pictures. She was standing with another older woman. If he guessed correctly, those two should be Nicholson��s daughter and wife. After the expedition, Nicholson returned to Colorado, where he started a small constructionpany. Due to poor management, it closed down four years ago. Heter became a truck driver. He wasn��t on Facebook very often. Most of the photos on it were of him with his family , and although he was 50-years-old, he often received greetings from prettydies thanks to his tough appearance. Nicholson, however, ignored all of them.


    Apart from that, Zhang Heng also noticed that Nicholson regrly updated his Facebook profile in March, May, and August every year. It could be a coincidence, or he was hiding something. He also posted about stuff he did while he was still a SEAL. Despite all that, he posted nothing about the scientific expedition, as if he didn��t want anyone knowing about the trip to Greend seventeen years ago. The Facebook ount of psychiatrist Marshall carried a little more excitement. He frequently shared his thoughts about work and notable events in his life. Then,te at night, especially before dawn, Marshall would post something that didn��t make much sense. It went in the tone of: [He has spotted me...] [I still remember... Those crazy whirlpools... Torn apart...] [Eyes! His eyes... He ising back!] These were all posts written from his perspective. Thanks to his secrecy, nobody ever knew what he had to endure in the dead of night. The 42-year-old Marshall was different from Nicholson. He had not married until now and had only one girlfriend he dated for around five years until they separatedst year. ording to Marshall, it was because she couldn��t stand his sleepwalking. But intuition told Zhang Heng that there were deeper reasons behind the breakup. The week after Marshall split with his girl, he never updated his Facebook again. Zhang Heng had no idea what happened to him.

 Chapter 483 - Deductive Reasoning

    <strong>Chapter 483 Deductive Reasoning</strong>


    Zhang Heng managed to note down the addresses of the former SEAL and psychologist right before the power went out. Whether the United States or Greend, they were a great distance from the city he was located in, not to mention how further investigations had to be carried out once he got there. It meant he needed at least a week or two to get the information required.


    Nevertheless, not long after the new semester started, Zhang Heng started bing known as the guy who skipped sses. His string of good luck was finallying to an end. Thanks to the Dreand of Death debacle, he was recorded twice by the school for skipping ss. The school had began to take notice of him, and for the time being, he had toply with whatever they wanted. Hence, thest resort was to dy his summer break ns. At the end of the month, Zhang Heng made another trip to Sex and the City bar. This time, the bartender wasn��t behind the bar mixing cocktails. Instead, she was cking outside the lounge, leisurely lighting up a cigarette as she looked at the men and women on the dancefloor.


    ��What you have entrusted to me is now done,�� she told Zhang Heng as he approached. ��Huh???��


    The loud music drowned out her voice, and Zhang Heng had to move closer to hear what she had to say. ��I found someone who can help you repair that katana. He��s the most powerful cksmith I��ve ever known, where he once forged weapons for the gods. He can not only restore your katana to its forme glory, but he can even give it some upgrades!�� ��But?��


    ��But... in exchange, the price you��ll have to pay is 2000 of your game points. Besides, you still have to find the lower and upper pieces of the katana before he can help you.�� ��All he needs to is put the two pieces together, and he wants to charge me 2,000 game points?! This is no small amount we are talking about. That sort of points can buy me a Grade-C game item. And I��m talking about the popr ones here.�� Zhang Heng still remembered that the final price of the Escape Dagger cost him only 2,050 points. He paused for a moment, then continued. ��Besides, you haven��t told me what grade the katana is.��


    ��Unfortunately, I can��t identify it until the cksmith restores it,�� replied the bartender.


    ��So, this is like a gamble?�� Zhang Heng frowned. The katana in question had been obtained from Scarlet in thest round of the game. Upon returning to the real world, he passed the katana, together with a sh-drive and copper ring to the bartender. He even requested for a restoration expert to try fix the broken saber. Little did he expect the price would be that extravagant. No matter how he looked at it, blowing 2,000 points to repair an unknown grade item was a risky endeavor. Even a Grade-C item might not achieve this value, and if it turned out to be a Grade-D or E or even worse, a Grade-F item, Zhang Heng would suffer a significant loss.


    ��Anyway, I��ve found someone for you, and the decision is in your hands,�� the bartenderdy said.


    ��Wait until I find the lower half of the katana, and I will think about it,�� replied Zhang Heng.


    The remaining piece should be with Scarlet. And since it was not going to be easy getting it from her, Zhang Heng thought it best to leave this matter temporarily. He pushed open the lounge��s door and walked to the empty deck. Taking out the rm clock from under a stool, he set the time and started his seventh round of the game.


    [Verifying yer identity...]


    [Verified, randomly selecting the seventh round for yer 07958...]


    [Extractionpleted. Your current quest is: Deductive Reasoning)


    ��A logician can infer the existence of the Antic Ocean or Niagara Falls from a drop of water without having to see or hear it. Life is like a chain. We only need to look at one part of it, and we get to see the whole picture.��


    [Task objective:plete investigating a case with your new roommate, and find the criminal first!)


    [Mode: Single yer] [Time flow rate: 240) (1 hour in the real world is equavalent to 10 days in this game. After 30 days, the yer will be forced to return to the real world)


    Friendly reminder, the game will officially start in five seconds. Please be prepared. The moment he heard this round��s title, Zhang Heng��s mind immediately pointed toward a reknown name in detective novels. Could the game really be afoot?


    When he opened his eyes, the street sign in front of him confirmed his previous conjecture.


    �� Baker Street.


    He shifted his gaze to the house on the opposite side of the road. Just as expected, he saw the unmistakable number: 221B The infamous 221B Baker Street, residence of the author of ��A Practical Manual of Beekeeping,�� and the ��Study of Queen Bee��s Quarantine.�� After retirement, he had settled down to write those outstanding books. Zhang Heng stepped forward and walked through the muddy roads littered with horse excrement. The ashen skies of 19th Century London were as gloomy as ever, where a perpertual gray mist hung over the city ominously like the face of a typhoid patient.


    A man with a bowler hat drove a carriage past Zhang Heng, sshing mud on his trousers. Before he could say anything, the carriage had disapperead into the street.


    There was nothing he could do about it, so Zhang Heng reached out and knocked on the door.


    After a while, someone answered the door. Appearing in front of him was a jovial, middle-ageddy. ��Oh! You must be the new tenant!�� she chirped joyously. ��Mrs. Hudson?�� Zhang Heng asked. In the novels, Mrs. Hudson was the propietor of 221B Baker Street. Doubling up as the part-time cook and cleaner of the apartment, she generously included those services in the rent. The real-her seemed a lot younger than described in the novels. Frankly, she could pass off as a woman who hadn��t yet turned forty.


    ��Yes, Mr. Zhang. Now where��s your luggage?�� Mrs. Hudson querried enthusiastically while looking behind Zhang Heng. ��Uhh.. I left them with a friend. I��ll pick them upter... anyway, I brought little, and I traveled light. Can I see my room first?�� ��Of course!�� said Mrs. Hudson. ��Hurry up ande in! This will be your home from now on. It��s rtively well furnished, and the lighting��s good as well. There is a clear view of the street below when the curtains are drawn....�� She then hesitated for a while.


    ��What��s wrong?�� asked Zhang Heng. ��...It��s your roommate. He��s a little strange, but I can assure you that he��s a decent man. He has his quirks, though. No one is perfect,�� Mrs. Hudson sighed. ��Anyway, I hereby wee you to our tiny plot ofnd.��


    Zhang Heng raised his eyebrows. ��My roommate, where is he now?�� ��He��s gone out to attend a concert, but considering the time, I think he should be back soon.�� Just as Mrs. Hudson was done talking, someone knocked on the door again. Mrs. Hudson turned around to open the door. This time, it was anky and sharp nosed man about six-feet tall. He tossed his fingers around in the air, still wandering the oceans of music until he noticed Zhang Heng behind Mrs. Hudson. ��Ahh, it seems my roommate is here! d to have made your aquaintence. I am Sherlock Holmes. Holmes will suffice,�� he smiled awakwardly and stretched out a palm filled with blotches of ink and traces of reagents.

 Chapter 484 - I’m Glad You’ve Introduced Yourselves

    <strong>Chapter 484 I��m d You��ve Introduced Yourselves</strong>


    Zhang Heng and Holmes shook hands. Thetter didn��t let go right away, though. ��You��ve lived at sea for a long time. Seaman? Nomore likely someone who makes decisions on board... the captain or the chief mate? But that was probably a long time ago. Hmm... Interesting. You shouldn��t have been upying such a high position at your age.


    Forgive me��I don��t know much about the politics of the East... You��ve experienced war, more than once, and have seen blood. But you��re not a soldier. This is starting to get interesting. You��re trained in archery. I must say, you are quite the jack-of-all-trades, you��ve been to many ces before... Are you a traveler? Last but not least, I hope that I would have a chance to hear you y the piano!��


    ��Wow! That��s very impressive. Did you just deduce all of that?�� Zhang Heng asked. ��just a little parlor trick. If I told you, it wouldn��t be impressive anymore. Also, do pardon me, if I should have offended you,�� Holmes smiled amiably. Despite the friendly gesture, Zhang Heng could sense the underlying smugness and condescension in his tone, qualities he was so famously associated with. Chronicling someone��s entire life in the first meeting was in itself not a very polite thing to do.


    Even though he did ask for Zhang Heng��s pardon at the end, it sounded more like an appropriacy rather than an apology. It was probably amon fault in all geniuses since time immemorial. They often ced themselves in the center, acting recklessly, and almost never taking the feelings of others into consideration.


    Sherlock made a move to withdraw his hand but Zhang Heng didn��t let go. ��Lacks knowledge in literature, philosophy, and astronomy, and extremely limited understanding of politics, but profoundly knowledgeable in chemistry, a serious bias in botany, knows nothing about gardening, but is extremely well-versed with all kinds of taboos, which you, unfortunately, happen to subscribe to. You should stay away from them.... With your willpower, I believe it is possible. You are good at identifying soil, possess a wealth of but unsystematic knowledge of anatomy, and you��re skilled in boxing, fencing, and Bartitsu.


    You have a brother who is a government official; he is smarter than you, but you hate admitting it. Your grandfather was a country squire, but the family fortune declined. By the way, I also hope to hear you y the violin, on the premise that you y it properly, of course. Otherwise it would just sound like an animal howling.�� Zhang Heng said all that in one breath. This time it was his new tmate��s turn to stare. The detective turned to thendy.


    ��Did you tell him everything about me?�� he asked Mrs. Hudson. Thetter shook her head. ��I have no idea what is it that you do all day in your room, Mr. Holmes, but I only hope that you do not turn the room into a mess again.��


    ��Ha!�� Holmes frowned as if pondering on a problem. After a minute, he said, ��... about my knowledge in chemistry��you were able to tell from the reagents on my hands. As for the violin, you felt the callouses on the tip of my fingers when we shook hands, and I just mentioned that I��ve just been to a concert, so it��s not that difficult to tell. As for my fencing skills, my ��p��e is on the balcony.


    You must��ve seen it when you were downstairs. The boxing, on the other hand... I used to do it but some of the habits remained. That��s not too surprising. The Bartitsu aside... how were you able to deduce my aplishments in various disciplines? It��s no secret, and after we��ve lived together for a while, you��d be able to tell. But this is our first time meeting each other. And my brother-I almost never mention him. Even Mrs. Hudson doesn��t know he exists. What about myte grandfather? How did you know?��


    ��Arthur Conan Doyle told me. Don��t take it to heart.�� Zhang Heng smiled and finally withdrew his hand. ��Arthur Conan Doyle? Who is he?�� A look of confusion crossed Holmes�� face. ��I don��t remember having such a friend.��


    Mrs. Hudson, who had been listening by the side, said, ��I��m d you��ve introduced yourselves. Although, it is but slightly strange, because most people introduce themselves, not... But, oh, never mind, what��s important is that you��ve gotten to know each other. I��ll bring some refreshments so you can continue your conversation!�� ��That��ll be wonderful!�� Holmes had clearly taken an interest in Zhang Heng. He removed his hat and coat, hung them on the rack, then settled down on the sofa where he produced a pipe and began filling in the tobo.


    ��Mr. Zhang Heng, I must admit that you��re far more fascinating than I imagined. I hold certain old-fashioned stereotypes about Orientals. In fact, I was worried that you would move out within two days like my previous roommates, but now I am sure that we will get along very well.�� ��Mr. Holmes, I also find your observation and deduction skills absolutely intriguing, and I hope to learn from you.�� Zhang Heng made himselffortable on the sofa opposite the detective. ��Onteresting. There are indeed many people whoe to my doorstep for help��whether it be a private detective or the police officers in Scond Yard��whenever they encounter difficult andplicated cases which they cannot solve by themselves, seeking for my counsel on the evidence they��ve collected. But they only want to eat the fish... you��re the first one who actually wants to learn how to fish.��


    Holmes paused for a moment. ��I don��t mind sharing the skills I��ve unearthed, but some things are easier said than done. It would take a lot of practice. There had been people who had shown interest in learning from me but they always end up giving up in the end. But you��re different. You already possess excellent observation skills. Very well, perhaps you��ll be a quick study.��


    ��I know I have made it very clear on the advertisement, but for the caution, I feel it best that I go through everything again. The two of us will be renting the t, and we��ll be splitting the rent. We��ll each have a bedroom to ourselves, and since I was the first to move in, I have already selected my room. But I can assure you that your room is just asfortable. We��ll share the sitting room, but I have precedence when I need to work. Sometimes I will conduct experiments in my room, and maybe y the violin-I hope you don��t mind. Oh, you can inform me in advance if you have any habits or hobbies.��


    ��Just one-I hope that you don��t y your violin in the wee hours of the morning.��


    ��A reasonable request. I will do my best to keep that from happening.�� Holmes sounded sincere but nomittal. He obviously did not trust himself to keep the promise and was prepared to renege.


    ��Then I have nothing else.��


    ��Very well, then let us toast to our co-living.�� Holmes then shouted into the kitchen, ��Mrs. Hudson, we changed our minds! We won��t be having an afternoon tea��it��s time to drink! Could you please bring my treasured bottle of Port to entertain our mysterious Oriental guest?��

 Chapter 485 - The Unidentified Corpse Of Thames

    C<strong>hapter 485 The Unidentified Corpse Of Thames</strong>


    The pleasant wine party did notst too long before it was interrupted by an uninvited guest. The uninvited guest was a tall man with a fairplexion and grayish-yellow hair. He frowned when he entered through the door.�� ��Something bad has happened.��


    ��You alwayse to me when you are in trouble. I��m not even surprised anymore.�� Holmes sat on the sofa, having no intention to deal with the uninvited guest right now. He wanted to introduce Zhang Heng to him first. ��Gregson, chief of Scond Yard. I��mparing him with his peers,�� he looked at Gregson again, ��Zhang Heng, my mysterious and lovely new roommate from the far east. We are discussing the influence of professional opponents. We are also trying to eliminate my treasured Port wine as well. Since you are here, would you like to have a ss with us?��


    ��I am afraid this is not a good time to drink,�� the inspector said, ncing at Zhang Heng at the same time. ��Don��t worry. This friend of mine can be trusted, and his lips are sealed.�� Holmes said, ��You can tell me anything that you want to tell me right here.�� ��Okay.�� This wasn��t Gregson��s first rodeo with Holmes. Upon hearing that, he discounted Zhang Heng and spoke his mind.


    ��I encountered a challenging case.��


    ��I doubt it, but you can go on.�� ��In the afternoon, the police on patrol found a dead body at the River Thames. We asked a nearby boatman to help us to retrieve it. The victim is a young girl but that��s all we know. Our efforts in uncovering her identity remain fruitless. There were no clothes, jewelry, and other useful items that could help us to identify her. We don��t know her name, where she lives, what she does, and whether she has any friends or rtives. In short, we don��t know anything about her. No one has reported anyone missing recently. You said that you are most interested in this kinds of sticky cases, so I came to you as soon as possible.�� ��A wise move.��


    After listening to Gregson��s description, Holmes showed a touch of excitement on his face. He turned to Zhang Heng and said, ��My friend, I am sorry that we have to end the party early.�� ��It doesn��t matter. Work is paramount,�� Zhang Heng expressed an understanding. Holmes got up, put on his coat, before suddeenly saying, ��Where is your hat? Theory ss is over. You should put what you have learned into practice next.�� Zhang Heng was a little surprised. He could see that Gregson didn��t want him involved in this case. Besides, he and Holmes had only met for two hours. Even though they shared a good chat, Holmes didn��t need to invite him to solve the case.


    As of now, Zhang Heng had a primary mission he needed toplete. He did not expect to be granted that opportunity on the very first day he entered this world. Holmes was the kind of person with astute observation. Zhang Heng happened to have many secrets with him. The two hours that Zhang Heng spent chatting with Holmes was stressful. Even though he mentioned wanting to learn from Sherlock, he wanted to not appear too eager and leave a bad impression.


    However, it now seemed that Holmes had a habit of dragging his roommate with him to solve any criminal case. In the novel, not too long after he knew Watson, he would drag him to every crime scene he came across. If Zhang Heng remembered correctly, Watson lived with Holmes for several weeks during that time. And they knew each other��s temperaments rather well, This time, however, Holmes and him were only slightly closer than aquaintences.


    The inspector wanted to say something about it, but in the end, he decided to keep his mouth shut. Zhang Heng dly epted Sherlock��s invitation, and the three of them got into a carriage parked at the roadside.


    Most of the narratives in ��Sherlock Holmes�� took ce in thete 19th century. At that period, Britain was in the Victorian era. The industrial revolution was taking ce and Ennd expanded its colonies overseas. Politics, economy, and culture developed rapidly, resulting in a gross domestic productrger than all countries put together. They were known as the empire that never rested, and it put them at the center of the world.


    London, it��s capital, was also the world��srgest city with a poption of more than six million.


    Unfortunately, there was an increasing gap between the rich an the poor. To quote Dickens�� opening sentence in ��A Tale of Two Cities����This is the best era and the worst era.


    Rapid poption boom in a such short period turned London in to a sardine can of extremely crowded proportions. Zhang Heng still remembered some data he came across. In every 1,200 square feet, there were 2,795 families with more than 10,000 people living in the same house. They were like piglets locked in a pigpen.


    Most ordinary workers earned less than ten pounds a year, and arge portion of the money went into thendlord��s pockets. They were forced to eat low-quality bread mixed with expired flour, potato flour, potassium alum, and chalk powder. Falling sick was not an option, where most didnt have the means to even buy simple clothes or toys for their children. Getting enough rest was a massive problem as well, where most of the poption were overworked and exhausted. In contrast, take Watson as an example. The novel states that he worked as a military doctor. Although not a rich man, he could afford a rtivelyfortable life in London. Given an allowance of 11 shillings and 6 pence per day, it was equivalent to almost 17 pounds of ie every month. As for thendlords and factory owners, they would bag in even more. Hanging around dance theaters each day, they frequently switched sex partners.


    The carriage drove towards the River Thames. Holmes was in a good mood along the way, chatting endlessly about the concert he had attended. Unfortunately, it was difficult for his twopanions to delve into the topic. Inspector Gregson��s mind was on the case, and although Zhang Heng had yed the piano before, he knew but a handful of famous 19th century musicians. ��I like music, one of the few things that excites me in this dull world. The other thing I enjoy are those criminal cases. The moreplicated and brutal they are, the more I enjoy them. Unfortunately, fewer and fewer criminals are willing to use their brans when theymit crimes.��


    ��In most cases, you can actually find simrities in cases that have urred in the past. So, if you get stuck, try looking back at the old ones, and you will find yourself rewarded by them.��


    ��Did you build an archive in your mancave?�� Gregson interjected. ��I do have the habit of collecting newspaper clippings with difficult cases on them. However, most of the past cases are stored in here,�� Holmes smiled as he tapped on head.

 Chapter 486 - Go And Solve The Case

    <strong>Chapter 486 Go And Solve The Case</strong>


    It was already dusk when the carriage arrived at the crime scene.


    Gregson had left two men to keep an eye on the corpse. To disparage curious onlookers, they covered the poor child with a nket they obtained from the boatman. It was the least they could do to show some respect to the unfortunate victim. The three got out of the carriage, and Gregson noticed that a reporter-like guy was already among the crowd, messing around with his giant camera. ��These guys are like fleas. No matter what I do, I can never get rid of them,�� Gregson muttered. Clearly, he was upset by what he saw. Up until now, authorities failed to find a single clue to crack the case. Perhaps they could employ the powers of the press to seek the victim��s family. Having that thought in mind, he walked over to the reporter.


    Holmes, on the other hand, didn��t rush to lift the nket. He first chatted with the policeman who found the body and then wandered around for a while before slowly and gingerly walking toward it. Zhang Heng covered his nose as he examined the corpse. During that era, the River Thames smelled horrible. Before the turn of the 19th century, the water here was clear, and schools of fish and shrimps thrived in its waters. However, along with the Industrial Revolution came the city��s expansion, and the river saw massive numbers of factories getting erected beside it. Every inch of industrial waste and domestic sewage found its way into the poor river. The once spotless River Thames began to deteriorate drastically. With mountains of trash and excrement choking up the waterway, the river was now a veritable stinking ditch.


    The government was aware of this problem,ing up with a system to filter the sewage underground sewage system and sewers connected to the River Thames to transfer as much waste as possible downstream. Admittedly, and thankfully, the method achieved desirable results in the end.


    Zhang Heng looked at the corpse for a while, and like Gregson, he saw very little. Holmes was right. He might have exemry observation skills, but sufficient knowledge would be needed to support his deduction. Besides the fact that Zhang Heng knew very little about Ennd��s criminal cases, he also didn��t know much about the Victorian era. Whatever he knew about the city came from books he read and movies he watched. At most, he watched a BBC documentary or two about this period.


    As a bystander, this knowledge might be enough for him to deal with the people around him. However, it was not nearly enough to solve cases. For example, Holmes could judge the brand and origin of cigarettes a person smoked from the soot on the clothes or the ground. Zhang Heng might also notice these little details that ordinary people failed to notice, but he had no idea what cigarette brands existed in this era. If he got stuck at this step, continuing with the next phase of the deduction would almost be impossible.


    Zhang Heng soon realized that the primary mission wasn��t going to be easy topete. He had topete against Holmes. And clearly, the time and ce did not favor him. This round might seem safepared to all the other games he��dpleted so far, but it was also true that this had to be the most difficult round he��d experienced so far.


    Fortunately, enough time was given toplete the quest.


    Holmes squatted down and examined the corpse closely. He whipped out a magnifying ss to further examine the child��s palms and hair as he went along. He even went as far as scraping the remnants under her fingernails. At this point, he no longer looked like a sloth but more like a well-groomed hunting dog. In the end, he got so close to the corpse he almostid upon her. He stared intently at her face, and his gaze moved downward slowly. Finally, he paused for a moment when he reached the neck.


    Then, he stood up, dusted his coat, and asked Zhang Heng, ��What do you see?��


    ��Well, it should be murder. The victim is a female, 15-16 years old. She seemed to be a little weak. Perhaps an illness of some sort? The cause of death cannot be drowning because she has been hit on the head. Besides...�� Zhang Heng paused. ��The victim was probably vited before her death.��


    ��Not bad,�� Holmes smiled. ��You are not a forensic doctor, but impressive how you pointed out all these details. Take your time.��


    Gregson had finally finished dealing with the reporter. He took out a handkerchief, wiped the sweat off his brow, and walked over. ��It��s a deal. That man is the reporter for The Echo. Let��s wait for him to take a picture of the victim and put it on tomorrow��s newspaper��s front page. We hope the child��s family can see it. If they notice it, they shoulde to the police station to look for us. By the way, any progress on your side?�� ��I don��t know the child��s name yet,�� Holmes replied in nonchnce.


    Gregson��s emotions were a bitplicated. After hearing Holmes��s reply, he was disappointed and but rejoiced a little at the same time. He then ��There��s only so much we can do now. In fact, I have done everything I can for now. The victim is unclothed, after all. It��s hard to find any clues on her. It seems we have to wait for the newspaper to help us.��


    ��That will not be necessary.��


    Holmes thought it was funny. He lit his pipe, took a deep breath, and the awful stench of the river was ousted by the smoke.


    The sheriff was bewildered by what he heard.


    ��What do you mean by that?��


    ��If I were you, I would send someone to investigate the John Textile Factory located one mile upstream. The child worked there. The murderer is male and was someone close to this child. He constantly thought of her in a sexual way. He should around six feet, strong, and has scars on his body, especially on his arms.��


    Holmes look returned to boredom as he turned to Zhang Heng. ��Let��s go, our work is finished,�� he said. ��It��s still early. Fancy dinner? Let��s go to Houben Restaurant. They serve my favorite ham over there.��


    ��We may proceed,�� replied Zhang Heng.


    ��We will get our own carriage. I don��t want to bother you sending us over there, Sergeant.�� Holmes then turned to the dumbfounded Gregson. ��Inspector, why are you still standing here? You have gotten the clues you wanted. Now hurry up and solve the case.��


    Half an hourter, Zhang Heng and Holmes were seated at Houben��s restaurant��s dining table.


    For starters, the waiter poured them each a ss of red wine. The soothing music the restaurant yed drowned out the tragedy that took ce on the River Thames today.


    Holmes held the wine ss, staring at Zhang Heng in intrigue as if he had discovered something interesting. ��You are really patient,�� he said after a while. ��I am bing more and more interested in you. There is still sme time before the dishesareserved.fyu have any questions, do ask, and I will do my best to answer you.�� ��I shall begin by asking the looming questions in mind. How did you know where the girl worked, and how did you know the profile of the murderer?�� Zhang Heng asked.

 Chapter 487 - Let’s Make A Bet

    <strong>Chapter 487 Let��s Make A Bet</strong>


    ��It��s not that difficult,�� said Holmes said ��To be honest, after hearing Gregson��s words, I thought I was going to be handling a difficult case. I was expecting to solve one simr to what happened on the Isle of Arran in 1832. In the end, I went to the scene and found nothing great about it. Let��s talk about the John Textile Factory first.��


    Holmes paused, ��Remember what we were talking about in the afternoon?��


    ��Are you referring to the study of the shape of hands based on upation?��


    ��Yes, I have been researching this area recently. I��ve met many people from London working in all sorts of fields-masons, fishers, cooks, typists. I would leave the house early in the morning and stay in the slums until the sun went down. As a result, I have spent countless hours studying hand shapes andparing them with those working in the same industry. The results are remarkable. I am nning to write an article about it,�� Holmes said. ��I was at the river bank just now, and I had made sure to check the child��s palm thoroughly. I referred her palm to my research results. Although her body has been immersed in water for quite some time, there is no doubt that she worked in a textile factory. There is nothing wrong with your observation. The long hours of work made her a little weak, and she was probably still sick when she was killed.��


    ��But there are many textile factories in London, right? How can you be so sure that she worked at John��s?��


    ��Good question,�� Holmes replied, ��I think that the location where the body was abandoned must be very close to where the body was found. That one��s easy to exin. The body was found during the day. Although it was a little foggy, visibility was rtively fine, not to mention passenger and cargo vessels passing from time to time. If a dead body was floating on the river, it couldn��t have floated too far before it would get discovered.��


    ��Wait. I remember you saying that her body has been floating in the water for quite some time.��


    ��Yes,�� Holmes smiled slyly, ��pay attention to my words. I said that her body was soaked, not float.��


    ��Is there any difference between these two words?��


    ��Of course, judging from the state of the corpse, the victim��s time of death of the victim should best night. The assant must have killed her by mistake, and he panicked. So, he threw the corpse into the river and tied rocks on her feet for good measure. People would have merely thought that another child had gone missing. Many leave this town every day when they realize it��s no ce to make a living. Especially for a girl from the working ss like her... not much care about her whereabouts. You need to know that the police handle murders and disappearances very differently.


    ��How did the police discover her body again?��


    ��Many possibilities. Perhaps the perpetrator was too nervous and he didn��t tie the rope properly. Or maybe something dragged the body and the rope snapped...�� Holmes went on. ��These are not merely conjectures without facts. Other than the timing, I found traces on the victim��s wrist... a rope had been tied to it. And now, the whole thing makes perfect sense. Her body had been immersed for god knows how long until the rope was cut off, and her body floated to the surface. ��John��s textile factory is the closest one in the area, and it is also the first ce I suspected. I found some blue crystals in her hair, which appears to be copper sulfate pentahydrate formed when copper sulfate meets water. Coincidentally, a chemical factory happened to be next to John��s. This is also the most important basis for my final inference.��


    ��A truly impressive deduction! You almostbined a criminal investigation with precise science,�� Zhang Heng expressed his sincere admiration.


    Holmes did not say anything to thepliment, but the expression on his face told Zhang Heng that he was pleased. So, he paused and continued, ��As for inferencing the assant, it��s not that hard to analyze him.��


    ��Appreciate the further details...��


    ��We all know that he attempted to assault the victim, but that child mounted a fierce resistance. She was brave, and she fought for her life. However, too great was the difference in strength between the two sides. In the end, she failed to escape. The murderer couldn��t have had his way on her for too long. While she was being raped, she fought and scratched the perpetrator��s skin. The corpse had been underwater for a long time, but tiny skin tissue fragments remain under her nails. The killed could have gotten angry after she hurt him. Losing his mind, he must have strangled her to death.��


    ��Wait... you��re saying that the child was strangled to death?��


    ��That��s right,�� Holmes replied with affirmation.


    ��But wasn��t she hit on the head?�� Zhang Heng asked.


    ��As I said, a fight must have broken out between the two. Judging by her injuries, I��d like to think that she hit her head on a table. That, however, wasn��t the fatal blow. She died by suffocation, but not from water. The murderer strangled her until she suffocated. There was a bruise on her neck, but it wasn��t obvious since the body has been underwater. I don��t believe theyman would have found it. As for why I mentioned that they know each other, it is because it was highly unlikely that two people of different genders would be in the same room after dark.��


    ��What about the assant��s height? You said he��s almost six feet tall. How did you know that?�� asked Zhang Heng.


    ��Well, now that, my friend, requires some great deductive skills,�� Holmes pompously proimed. ��I simted the way they... positioned themselves. The woman must have been at the bottom and the man on top. Then, Ipared them with the bruises on the neck to determine his palms�� direction and angle. From there, I could predict the approximate height of the perpetrator based on mine.�� Holmes finally rified all his previous inferences before the dish was even served.


    In many instances, this world worked this way. Hearing the conclusion, they would feel it magical and unbelievable. However, once they knew the inference process, it would seem less mysterious, like knowing how a magic trick was performed.


    ��Positive reasoning is easy. For example, if you see bread, you will know that it is served during breakfast, and not vice versa. Is an ability that detectives need to exercise and master. If you want to learn, start by guessing his job. From a person��s sleeves, shoes, thumbs and index finger��s cocoon, fingernails, shirts, facial expressions... and others, you should be able to single out his profession. For example, the gentleman at the table behind you. Via observation, I see he has just returned from Afghanistan, and he is a military doctor.��


    When he heard that, Zhang Heng put on a puzzled expression for the first time tonight, thinking it was way too much of a coincidence.


    Holmes thought Zhang Heng didn��t believe what he said.


    ��We can make a bet to see who can urately tell more about him. Don��t worry. I��ve never seen that man before.��

 Chapter 488 - Mr. Watson

    <strong>Chapter 488 Mr. Watson</strong>


    Holmes swirled the red wine around his ss. ��The way this gentleman holds the knife shows that he has had medical training, yet, he has the bearing of a soldier. So, it is clear that he was a military doctor. His face is dark, yet the rest of him fair-so he must have spent a good amount of time in the tropics. Hisplexion is poor, his face haggard, and he has obviously been wounded on his left arm because it looks a little stiff. So, the question is, where in the tropics can a military doctor get wounded? Clearly, only in Afghanistan.��


    ��Impable inference. It looks like I would have to concede the bet,�� Zhang Heng announced.


    ��Don��t be so quick to give up,�� encouraged Holmes. ��If you win, I will show you my collection of newspaper clippings. You can alwayse to me if there��s anything you don��t understand.��


    ��Really?�� Zhang Heng��s eyebrows rose in intrigue.


    ��Yes,�� Holmes answered. ��If you lose... Erm... you will have to help me with my experiments whenever you��re avable.��


    ��Agreed.�� Zhang Heng then began, ��His name is John H. Watson, a graduate of King��s College, London, and he served in the 66th Infantry Brigade.��


    Holmes was speechless for a minute. ��Are you cheating? You didn��t even see anything. How could you have guessed that? Don��t fib, I happen to know the people he��s with.��


    Zhang Heng made a gesture.


    Curious, Holmes put down the wine ss in his hand and made his way to the doctor��s table. After a while, he returned to his seat.


    ��Incredible. Mr. Watson ims he doesn��t know you.�� ��Actually, I learned about him from a friend. A military doctor who just returned from Afghanistan to London with an injury on his left arm is not amon sight, no?�� Zhang Heng deducted.


    Watson was the infamous second protagonist and the first-person narrator of all ��Sherlock Holmes�� novels, so of course, Zhang Heng knew him better than Holmes did. ording to events told in the books, Watson had supposedly spoken to someone that he was unable to find a suitable room for rent in this restaurant. Through a mutual friend, he was then introduced to Holmes, who happened to be also searching for a tmate. Though it appeared that Watson would now have to find another ce to rent.


    ��You win,�� Holmes conceded with good graces. ��I��ll hand you the newspaper clippings when we get back.��


    ��You mentioned that you are writing a journal on the effects of hand shapes based on professions. Can you show it to me when you��re done?�� asked Zhang Heng .


    ��You��re quite studious, my Oriental friend,�� Holmes raised his ss. ��But for now, let��s set everything aside and enjoy dinner.��


    On the way back, Zhang Heng leaned back in the carriage, closed his eyes for a while, and checked his character panel like he always did.


    Name: Zhang Heng


    Gender: Male


    Age: 20


    yer ID: 07958


    Games yed: 6


    Current game points: 1005


    Items in possession:


    Pestilence Bonebow (B), Infinite Block (B), Filter Lens (D), Paris�� Arrow (D), Evil Wall (D), Shadow Key (E), Lucky Rabbit Foot (E), Betty��s Shell (E), Hunter��s Blessing (F), Water-soluble Metal (F), Oath Ring (F)


    Skills:


    Sailing Lv.3, Swordsmanship Lv.3, Language Proficiency Lv.2 (Eightnguages at dailymunication level), Lego Assembly Lv.3, Archery Lv.2, Wilderness Survival Lv.2, Driving Lv.2, Car Tuning and Maintenance Lv.2, Shooting Lv.2, Space Travel Lv.2, Hacking Lv.2, Piano Lv.1, Skiing Lv.1, Rock Climbing Lv.1


    Evaluation:


    yer is a Lego Master, is slightly luckier than most and has higher chances of encountering enemies. He is protected from shadows, storms, evil thoughts, and gues. This yer is also an experienced sailor, skilled at knife-fighting, archery, shooting, knows how to drive a car, fly an airne, spacecraft, and various other vehicles. The yer is also highly adaptable to the wilderness, has a rich reserve of skills,bat skills included. He is also a trustworthy and noteworthy yer.


    Yeah, that��s right. In the Whistleblower quest, in addition to his Level 2 Hacking skills, Zhang Heng��s biggest gain was the 382 points he bagged, 300 of which the Tetris game contributed��the biggest easter egg he had found in the game so far.


    Of course, the most prominent item was still the second B-Grade game item, the Pestilence Bonebow, that he had taken from the horseman. It was an extremely powerful weapon that could inflict its target with a range of two to five gues, as long as the arrow released from the bow drew blood.


    On the other hand, Zhang Heng was still trying to figure out the C-Grade game item White Horse Crown. The description attached to the item was simple and not very informative. All it said was that it could be used to summon the horseman��s white horse and had a lifespan of three usages that wouldst up to an hour each. But because of how modern it looked, Zhang Heng didn��t carry it into this quest.


    Truth be told, the Pestilence Bonebow was also somewhat overly-conspicuous, especially the material it was made of. Carrying it around in full view on the streets would prompt his arrest, so Zhang Heng was careful to wrap it in a white cloth. On top of that, he reced the less versatile Weather Marble with the Oath Ring


    Another matter to remark on was that Evil Wall only had one morest use.


    Thus, the above was Zhang Heng��s status update in the new quest.


    Back at the apartment, Holmes invited Zhang Heng into his living quarters. It wasn��t exactly what Zhang Heng had in mind at all. The private detective��s bedroom was spick and span, with everything organized in the most systematic of manner. Of course, this was when Holmes was his a model-tmate disposition.


    If the quest did not stray from the original writing, where Holmes still endured intermittent phases of mncholy. He would hide in his room the entire day,pletely apathetic and uninterested in anything at all, relying on small pills and syringes to keep himself functioning, like a fish out of water whenever there was no cases to solve, no adventures and nothing exciting for him to dissect.


    He, or more urately, most of us, had two such contradictory sides to our personalities.


    Holmes pulled out two boxes from under the cab, blew off the dust and said to Zhang Heng, ��Here, I��m lending this to you. I don��t have much use of it anyway-most of the cases are already stored in my head.��


    ��Thank you.��


    Zhang Heng opened the box and did a quick study of its contents. There were all kinds of newspaper cuttings and notes from various time periods; even articles from the time before Holmes was born. He made deductions based on the articles and jotted his hypothesis on the nk spaces around them.


    These things were all that Zhang Heng needed.

 Chapter 489 - The Article in the Echo

    <strong>Chapter 489 The Article in the Echo</strong>


    Zhang Heng woke up early the next morning and picked up the on the case of ��Ricoletti of the Club-Foot and his Abominable Wife.�� If memory served him right, it was the first case Holmes solved as a detective. The case was mentioned in the book, but no detailed ounts were recorded. Holmes was already enjoying his coffee and toast when Zhang Heng entered the dining room. They greeted each other before Zhang Heng plopped himself down at the table.


    Holmes noticed the papers in Zhang Heng��s hand.


    ��Oh, that case was quite an interesting one. Although it was not much of a challenge, it was still the early days of my detective career, and it took me three days toplete the investigation. Now, a case like that would only take me one afternoon.��


    Zhang Heng chuckled. He did not despise the slight disy of overconfidence; rather, such confidence was fundamental to Holmes�� persona, the very reason he was loved and sought after by hundreds of thousands of readers. In fact, in his daily dealings, Holmes was a very humble person, but when it came to his field of expertise, he guarded his territory with pride like a lion.


    Zhang Heng had just finished his ss of milk when someone knocked on the door downstairs.


    Mrs. Hudson opened the door to find a triumphant-looking Gregson standing outside, where all that anxiety that bogged him down before this seemed to have vanished. He wafted upstairs and cleared his throat.


    ��Has any of you read today��s newspaper?��


    ��I haven��t had the time,�� Holmes looked at their guest with interest.


    Gregson presented both gentlemen with an issue of the Echo.


    ��Take a look. It��s fresh off the press.��


    Zhang Heng took the paper and read the report on the front page aloud.


    The reporter first introduced the unnamed female corpse found on the Thames yesterday, then talked about how Inspector Gregson cleverly uncovered the factory where the deceased woman had worked, eventually confirming the identity of the Jane Doe. The article also briefly mentioned that a Mr. Holmes aided the police, but it was mentioned once in the entire article. Instead, several paragraphs were solely dedicated to touting the ��brilliance and wit�� of Inspector Gregson.


    As Zhang Heng read those words out aloud, Gregson��s face flushed pink. ��You have provided me with a lot of assistance, especially John��s Textile Factory��s link to the case. But you were not entirely correct. Anyway, the part in the front is not important... please continue reading.��


    Holmes wasn��t crossed at all. In fact, he smiled in content as if he was already used to it. As a matter of fact, it was precisely why Scond Yard kepting to him for counsel-he didn��t care much for status and reputation and, therefore, wasn��t inclined to have an apoplectic fit over the Yarders taking the limelight away from him. The truth was quite the reverse, where his interests in those strange cases exceeded all that need for trivial fandom.


    Zhang Heng continued reading. The article went on about how Gregson had so promptly brought his men to the textile factory, thereby confirming the girl��s identity there and then. Her name was Molly, and she hade to London a year ago, joining her aunt, who had helped her find a job in the textile factory. Because she wasn��t a skilled worker, Molly was paid peanuts, but the same couldn��t be said for her daily workload. She workedboriously, earning barely enough to make ends meet. Because her aunt had four children to support, there was only so much help she could offer. So Molly had only herself to rely on in the city ��that was until she met Paul.


    Paul was a year older than her and hade to London three years earlier to work at the chemical nt next door. Despite his age, he was considered an old fox in the chemical nt, often stirring up trouble when he could. The reporter painted Paul as a treacherous, cunning, andzy viin, who beguiled the innocent and na?ve Molly with sweet words until he finally couldn��t keep up with the act. It revealed his true colors.


    After doing a bit of digging, Gregson discovered that Molly had gone to see Paul after work that night. The inspector and his team hurried over to Paul��s residence, where he found Molly��s clothing that witnesses imed she wore on the night of the tragedy. With such damning evidence, Paul was no longer able to deny his hand in the crime.


    In thetter part of the article, the reporter wrote an affecting conclusion:


    The people of London are blessed to have an outstanding officer, the likes of Inspector Gregson, who managed to solve a remarkably unusual case in only half a day. He appeals to the public, who, in turn, would provide relevant information, willingly cooperate with the police, and, together, maintain the order of the city.


    Those words tickled a delighted Gregson to tears, and he said to Holmes, ��I don��t mean to be disrespectful to you, but with all due respect, Sherlock, even the smartest of us, makes mistakes. You truly are remarkable �C you were able to tell that she worked at John��s just by looking at her body. Concerning your deduction about the murderer, it��s only natural that there should be a little discrepancy. At the end of the day, it��s still up to us, the police, to get things done right.��


    ��That Paul boy is different from what I described the murderer to be?�� asked Holmes indifferently.


    SO


    ��There��s a slight variance,�� Gregson replied with a smile. ��The part about him being someone she knows is right, and the part about him having sexual thoughts about her was unmistakable. When we raided his residence, we didn��t just find her clothes under the bedthe bastard had been thinking about it for a long time, but that��s nothing unusual. In many of the cases I��ve worked on, it��s always the men who can��t seem to have the slightest control over their urges. It��s such a pity that the child Molly was so young. ...��


    me


    Holmes interrupted the inspector.


    ��What about the rest of my deductions?��


    ��His height was different. That little bastard wasn��t six-feet tall. He��s only about five and a half feet. He was really quite the feral beast. We had two men holding him down, and he just kept struggling, even trying to bite off one of our officers�� ears. I had no choice but to make him an honest man, with a bit of roughing up, of course. He wasn��t that strong, though. Definitely stronger than Molly, but no stronger than the ordinary man. He was also pockmarked with scars and bruises from many fights, but there were no scratch marks on his


    arm.��


    ��You got the wrong man!�� Holmes remarked. Gregson snorted and chuckled.


    ��Just listen to yourself, Sherlock. I know that your deduction wasn��t exactly spot-on, and it might be a little embarrassing for you, but people in our line of work do make mistakes. No matter how good someone is at something, they would still mess up once in a while. Which is why we often say that the most important thing while handling a case is getting the evidence!��


    ��Having proof is right, but you��ve got the wrong man,�� Holmes shook his head. ��That kid Paul is not our killer.��


    ��How is that possible? Think I��m just some rookie who just joined the force?�� Gregson argued. ��I have been a police officer for many years and handled countless cases! There can��t be any mistakes with such conclusive evidence. What more, that little bastard broke down, admitting that he had always wanted to do Molly.��


    ��Having such thoughts doesn��t constitute for a crime,�� Holmes retorted. ��At this age, they are all curious about the body of the opposite sex, but that does not make him a killer.�� ��The clothes-how do you exin the clothes, then? There were bloodstains on them!�� said Gregson. Holmes did not answer the inspector right away. Instead, he turned to Zhang Heng and asked, ��Are you avable this morning? It looks like we shall have to make another trip to save an innocent soul from wrongful incarceration and prevent the real viins from escaping thew!��

 Chapter 490 - Baker Street Irregulars

    <strong>Chapter 490 Baker Street Irregrs</strong>


    The carriage stopped outside John��s textile factory.


    Zhang Heng and Holmes got out of it and at that time, a man with a mouth full of rotten teeth and a sharp chin came up to them.


    ��Gentlemen, can I help you?�� he asked.


    ��We��d like to go inside to look for someone,�� said Holmes.


    ��I��m afraid that��s inappropriate. Everyone inside the factory is female and both of you are men...�� The man shook his head, ��That��s not right, that is not right.��


    Holmes reached out to his pocket, took out a half-pound gold coin, and threw it into the man��s hand. ��We just need a quarter of an hour.��


    Thetter frowned, pretending to be embarrassed.


    Holmes did not bother ying along with his act. He was about to reach out and take the gold coin back when the man protested.


    ��Okay, okay, okay. The boss is not here today. I can find a way to help the two of you to get into the factory. But let me be clear. You only have a quarter of an hour. I can��t let you stay in there any longer,�� said the man said and quickly pocketed the gold coin.


    He then took the two into the textile factory.


    Watt��s invention of the steam engine kickstarted the industrial revolution. The steam engine gradually reced the water frame, and textile factories did not need to be built by the waterways anymore. Due to the fact that the John Textile Factory was founded a long time ago, it had never been relocated. It was still at its original site. Nheless, the equipment inside the factory had been upgraded over time.


    This was Zhang Heng��s first time witnessing such a scene. The vast factory was full of machines. Pipelines were being set up under the ceiling, and the continuous belt spinning around the pulleys powered the sewing machines noisily. All the female workers wore hats and aprons, standing in front of the machines, and repeating the dull and tedious; it was repetitive and made them no different than a marite. In this factory, there were no distinction between humans and machines. The man asked, ��Who are you looking for? Maybe I can help you. I know everyone here.��


    Holmes and Zhang Heng then exchanged nces. After that, Zhang Heng ced his arm on the man��s shoulder.


    ��To be honest with you, we actually want to open a textile factory. We are here to learn from yours!��


    Immediately, the man became vignt, ��That won��t work! If you have told me about this earlier, I would never have let the two of youe in here!��


    ��Don��t be so sure,�� Zhang Heng said, ��We want to recruit a group of skilled workers. If you can help us, we can give you good money.��


    The bloke was moved when he heard the offer.


    ��No, how can I betray Mr. Stotts! He put me up to this job, and he is a distant rtive as well. I won��t do anything that would put him at a disadvantage.��


    ��If you do the job we give you well, you can expect a handsome amount of money entering your pockets,�� Zhang Heng said, ��more than enough for you to eat, drink and y for a long time.��


    As the two chatted, Holmes quietly left the ce.


    Twenty minutester, Zhang Heng and Holmes met up again outside the textile factory. The man escorted the two to the road and said excitedly, ��I will make a list soon and make sure that all of them are honest and hardworking folk.��


    ��Sounds like a n! We wille to you again after we determine the location,�� said Zhang


    Heng.


    Seeing that the man was contented and had returned to the factory, Holmes spoke again. ��Not bad. I was right about you wasn��t I? You were born to do this. With a bit of training, you will outsmart those idiots at Scond Yard in no time!��


    ��How about you?��


    Holmes chuckled twice, ��I who the murderer is.��


    ��Oh? Who is it?��


    ��Don��t worry. I will announce the conclusion once I gather enough evidence. In a way, Gregson is right. Gathering not enough evidence and announcing out our deduction is a big taboo in our line of work. Once you preconceive that someone is the murderer, you will subconsciously ignore the evidence that is not conducive to your deduction. Gregson himself made such a mistake. He wholeheartedly believed that the kid named Paul killed Molly. All the evidence he collected was set to go against that kid.�� Holmes paused. ��The basis of deduction is observation. First of all, you��ll need to look for small and often overlooked details through extremely detailed observation. Every small detail is like a dot on white paper. When you can connect all of them, you will be able to find the answer you are looking for.��


    ��It happens that the chemical nt Paul works is right next door. Shall we have a look too?�� asked Zhang Heng.


    ��It couldn��t be better,�� said Holmes. ��I��m looking for someone over there as well.��


    The two then walked to the chemical factory. With men as their main workforce, rules here weren��t as tight as the textile factory. There was, however, still a supervisor watching over the factory. Holmes had to spend half a pound to chat with a few people in the factory about Paul. He touched his chin as he returned.


    ��Interesting.��


    ��How did it go?��


    ��Different people here have apletely different opinion of Paul, but this is actually quite normal. I expected this oue. Gregson was here, and he asked the factory manager and concluded that Paul is an old man. He��s a troublemaker,zy, insidious, and cunning. But when I asked his fellow workers, they spoke highly of him, saying that he has a good heart, always willing to help others, and stand up for anyone getting bullied... perhaps it is why the factory manager does not like him,�� said Holmes.


    ��Where was he when the murder happened?�� Zhang Heng asked. ��That��s the problem. The chemical factory workers leave work half an hourter than the textile factory workers. After Paul��s shift ended, he went to look for Molly as usual. This is a well-known facy, but no one was with him during that time. Hence, he has no reliable alibi, but it still doesn��t matter. We will prove his innocence after we catch the murderer.��


    ��Where shall we go next?��


    ��We havepleted all the investigations that we could do carry out. Let the Baker Street Irregrs do the rest,�� said Holmes.


    ��Let��s go home.��


    Zhang Heng was no stranger to the Baker Street Irregrs. The entire herd of urchins were dirty and smelly, to say the least, and Mrs. Hudson wasn��t pleased whenever they showed up. She would keep her eyes on them all the time, fearing that something would go missing in the living room.


    Holmes took out three shillings to the leader of the group named Wiggins.


    ��Your carriage fees, I want you to keep an eye on the guy named Pearson who works at the Wood Chemical nt. I want you to see what he does, then report back to me. Oh yes,e and see me alone the next time. Let the others wait outside, or Mrs. Hudson will put me on a stake.��


    ��Yes, Commander!�� the group of children shouted while standing upright. After that, they were dismissed with a wide smile on their faces.

 Chapter 491 - A Small Injury

    <strong>Chapter 491 A Small Injury</strong>


    The Baker Street Irregrs were among Sherlock Holmes��srge deck of trump cards.


    They were made up of a group of street children employed by Sherlock to run errands and track down information. Due to their age and social status, people paid no attention to them, and they were practically invisible within the city��s confines. Even if they were to trail someone undisguised, it rarely raised any suspicions.


    ��Instead of letting them wander around aimlessly around the streets, it��s better to give them something to do. Don��t underestimate those urchins��sometimes they are even better than a dozen police officers. They can go everywhere and hear everything,�� said Holmes as he picked up his violin. ��Since we have nothing else to do, any songs that may tickle your fancy?��


    ��Please, just y whatever you wish.��


    ��Then it��ll be Sarasate��s Introduction and Tarante,�� said Holmes. He ced the violin between his chin and left corbone and began ying Zhang Heng guessed that Holmes��s violin level had to be between Lv.1 and Lv.2, a little less skillful than professional yers, but it sounded terrific all the same to the untrained ear. Listeners enjoyed his ying a lot, especially in the times he put special effort into it.


    As Holmes becamepletely immersed in the sea of music, Zhang Heng took the opportunity to see his chosen case.


    In all fairness, it was actually quite interesting.


    This was especially true, considering how he learned programming andmunication for quite a while in the previous quest. Inparison, these cases were far more captivating, particrly when the collection of newspaper clippings yed out like the scenes of an eloquent story, where each uncovered plot would be more bizarre than thest.


    Zhang Heng understood why Holmes was so fond of solving crimes. It was like ying a crossword puzzle. It��s participants had to utilize their full knowledge and concentration, and finding the answer itself was enough to bring satisfaction and a great sense of aplishment.


    Of course, there were more urgent things Zhang Heng needed attending to. Sherlock was finished and Zhang Heng asked him a question. ��Do you know of a way I can earn money?��


    ��Why? Are you short of money?�� Holmes raised his eyebrows. ��For someone who pays half-a-season��s rent as a deposit to someone he hadn��t met before, it��s rather strange that you��re in need of money.��


    ��That money was given by an elderly friend when I told him that I had found lodging. The truth is, I don��t have much left,�� confessed Zhang Heng. He examined his pockets at the beginning of the quest, and there were about five pounds and seven shillings in it. Even though the rent was paid forward, and meals were provided at home, the money wasn��t nearly enough to support the daily expenses of London.


    Holmes shrugged. ��I would like to hire you so that you can assist me in solving crimes. We worked well together in that textile factory, but I may not be able to pay you any sry. If I did, I wouldn��t have needed someone to share the rent with me.��


    ��Solving crimes is something I��m interested in, so you don��t have to pay me anything, but it looks like I would need another job, perhaps something that won��t take up too much time,�� said Zhang Heng.


    Even though it was still early in the quest, beating Sherlock Holmes at solving crimes wasn��t going to be an easy task. That said, Zhang Heng was ready to put in the work. In fact, he did not need much money, just enough to cover his expenses. Earning that much here would be useless as he couldn��t bring the money out into the real world anyway.


    There were plenty of ways Zhang Heng could make money in this era, but they were all jobs that took up long hours. What more, the more important thing here was to exin to Holmes his source of ie.


    ��Hmm... I do happen to know a way to make money.�� Holmes touched his chin. ��I did it for a while, and although it wasn��t for the purpose of making money at the time, it did bring me a considerable ie. It meets your requirements perfectly. Also, it won��t take up too much of your time. All you need to do is free up an evening, but...��


    Holmes paused.


    ��It won��t be easy. You have to show me that you are indeed capable of making this money.��


    The private detective got up from the sofa and gestured to Zhang Heng. ��Come with me, leave your hat and coat, we won��t be gone long.��


    The two walked out of 221B Baker Street and came to an open area with no one around. Holmes stopped, turned to face Zhang Heng, and raised his fist without a warning. Zhang Heng immediately reacted by moving out of the way and avoided being hit.


    ��Not bad,�� Holmes praised. ��I can tell from your physique that you��ve probably been trained to fight. Great. I shall not reserve my strength then.��


    Holmes constantly shifted directions so his opponent couldn��t tell when or how he was going to attack.


    Zhang Heng, on the other hand, remained in his ce, not moving much.


    The next minute, Holmes suddenly threw a punch again, but this time, Zhang Heng did not sidestep. Instead, he stretched out a hand to block Holmes�� punch, this time, much stronger and faster than the previous one.


    ��Good defense.��


    Holmes did not seem surprised but rather excited by his tmate��s resistance. Now, he appeared to be more motivated to win, and became a lot more focused.


    In truth, his punch was not all that unusually strong. His moves were quick, clean, and straightforward. In a way, it was very simr to Zhang Heng��s style.


    Holmes�� boxing skills, like his violin ying skills, however, were at the highest level for an amatuer. It more than sufficed for the detective industry, but was worlds apart Zhang Heng��s decade of training in deadly battlefields. Right now, without a sword in hand, Zhang Heng was somewhat handicapped and he would have to rely on his body posture and movements to avoid most of Holmes�� attacks.


    ��I��m going to start my counter-attack,�� announced Zhang Heng.


    Holmes hesitated. He could already tell that Zhang Heng was a lot stronger than he was, but at the same time, it made him even more curious about how good his opponent really was. Since they had already started, they might as well go on, he thought to himself.


    Five minutester, Holmes returned with Zhang Heng to their apartment with one hand covering his eye.


    ��Do you need me to get you something for that?�� asked Zhang Heng.


    ��No need. It��s just a minor injury,�� said Holmes. ��I was hit harder than this every day when I was a boxer.��


    The moment Sherlock uttered those words, he quickly realized that it was nothing to be proud of.


    ��Anyway, I can introduce you to a few underground boxing arenas, but if you really n to make money from this, you��d better throw a game every now and then. Don��t win too effortlessly, otherwise, there won��t be any excitement and suspense, and the handler will have a difficult time.��

 Chapter 492 - Carpet

    <strong>Chapter 492 Carpet</strong>


    That evening, Wiggins returned to report that the Baker Street Irregrs had followed and observed Pearson for half a day, and that nothing worthy of note had been obtained. He had started work at the chemical nt as usual and didn��t act strangely. Holmes wasn��t in a hurry, so he asked the kids to continue to keep their eyes peeled on Pearson. As for Sherlock, he wanted to work on his research paper.


    On the second morning, Wiggins arrived, furiously knocking on the door and startling Mrs. Hudson, baking bread in the kitchen at that time. Themotion woke Zhang Heng too, and when he stepped out of his room, he saw Sherlock Holmesughing loudly as handed seven shillings to Wiggins.


    ��One for each, two for yourself. Go to Inspector Gregson, and tell him that Holmes wants him toe to 221B Baker Street,�� said Sherlock. As he looked up, he saw Zhang Henging down the stairs.


    ��It��s done. The case is finallying to an end! If Pearson is caught, the main culprit won��t be escaping.��


    ��Huh?�� asked Zhang Heng with raised eyebrows, ��you have all the evidence you need?��


    ��That��s right,�� replied Holmes, rubbing his hands together. ��Let��s have breakfast while waiting for Gregson. I��ll exin everythingter.��


    About an hourter, Inspector Gregson reluctantly arrived at 221B Baker Street, murmuring in disgruntlement as he entered through the door. ��I said the case is over. Why did you ask me here? The police are very busy. I couldn��t even get a proper night��s sleep.��


    ��Really? What are you up to? New case? Still waiting for themissioner��smendation?�� Holmesughed.


    Gregson blushed and lowered his tone by a notch. ��I��ve contributed to this city after all. The case has been in the newspapers for the past two days. Nothing surprising that it grabbed themissioner��s attention.��


    ��Indeed, but I think it��s still not toote to celebrate after we catch the real murderer,�� said Holmes.


    ��The real murderer?!��


    Gregson was taken aback.


    ��Come with me. It won��t take up much of your time. By the way, bringing your cuffs with you?��


    ��I have it with me,�� replied Gregson impatiently. ��I also have my gun with me, and I will not leave this essential piece of equipment behind.��


    ��Probably, won��t need it. After all, the suspect is not wicked, and besides, we still have a master here,�� said Holmes while ncing toward Zhang Heng. Yesterday was still fresh in his mind, and his eyes were still a little swollen.


    ��Let��s go, gentlemen.��


    Instead of directly heading to the chemical nt, they first entered a pawnshop with a carriage.


    ��Someone came to pawn a carpet earlier. Where is that carpet now?�� Holmes asked the owner.


    The pawnbroker instantly became nervous when he heard the question.


    ��I knew it,�� he cursed under his breath.


    ��Eh?��


    ��I��m not talking about you, gentlemen. I��m talking about the kid who came to pawn the carpet earlier. I was suspicious of him, and to be honest, I��ve been in this business for a long time. I have crossed paths with all kinds of people. Judging by his attire, he looked like a poor man. How could he have gotten his hands on such a good carpet? He pawned the carpet right when I opened for business. ��Could it have been stolen?�� I muttered in my heart.��


    ��Why did you ept it then?�� quizzed Gregson.


    At that, the pawnbroker simply sneered.


    ��How much did you give him?�� Holmes asked.


    ��Two... two pounds,�� the owner sheepishly admitted. ��I examined the workmanship and materials, and you��ll need to spend at least twenty to thirty pounds for something of that quality.�� ��So it means you reap ten times the profit if you manage to sell it off? Come on, don��t feel bad about it. The problem is, it is a piece of evidence, and it is rted to a murder. Perhaps we will give it back to you after we use it. Now, take us to the carpet!��


    ��Fine... Fine.��


    The pawnbroker brought the three to a warehouse where pawned items were stored. Holmes squatted down, and he could see bloodstains in the middle of the carpet without even using a magnifying ss. Someone had attempted to clean the spot but apparently didn��t do an outstanding job.


    Gregson tried to console himself.


    ��This doesn��t exin anything,�� he said in disbelief, seeming to be a little shaken and a little nervous as well. ��Well, the pawnbroker mentioned the carpet��s probably stolen.��


    ��This is the carpet in John Jones�� office,�� interjected Holmes. ��To be honest, I didn��t expect the investigation to go so smoothly. I thought he would have used a more secure method to deal with this.��


    ��Why does that name sound so familiar? Wait... are you talking about John��s textile factory��s current owner?�� Gregson finally remembered where the name came from. ��He was the one who weed us into the factory. Seemed like a nice guy, that bloke.�� ��The textile factory��s female employees don��t seem to think so. It��s not the first time he��s harassed one of them,�� said Holmes. ��Although nobody wanted to talk about it, I still discovered that he��d taken over the factory his father about a year ago. Right after that, female employees over there started getting pregnant. Of course, most kept as quiet as they could and left the factory after receiving severance payment.�� ��It is indeed not something one should be proud of.��


    one


    Gregson��s tone had mellowed considerably. He went on, ��Well, I admit that I might have missed something. Mr. John is suspicious, but I still insist that the kid named Paul is my number one suspect here. After all, the bloody clothes under his bed can��t be fake.��


    ��Stop getting nervous, and listen to me first.��


    Holmes smiled.


    ��It was Molly��s turn to clean up the ce when the tragedy struck her. She was thest to leave, and at that time, the light in John��s office was also still turned on. In other words, they were the only two people still in the factory at that time. John had all the time in the world tomit the crime. The next day Zhang Heng and I visited the textile factory. The guy at the entrance told us that John was not there. That didn��t sound right to me, especially after someone was murdered in his factory. He should have been at the factory, trying hard to calm his female employees down. When we were there, I sneaked into John��s office and noticed that his carpet had been changed recently. The new carpet was obviously not the right size, probably one that was hastily pulled from home. A faint bloodstain was also on the corner of his majestic desk. Blood seeps into the wood grain, yes, but as you said, it still doesn��t exin why Molly��s clothes were under Paul��s bed.��


    There was a reason why Gregson was the best man to hold the police inspector post.


    He shook his head. ��Is John trying to put the me on Paul? But Paul works at the chemical nt next to his factory. John might not even know him. Secondly, even if he knows that there is such a person called Paul, it is impossible he knew where he lives. Thework of alleyways in the slums would confuse John. If a person like him enters the slums, he would have been instantly noticed.��


    ��You are right, which is why I believe that there is another conspirator in this case!�� proimed Holmes.

 Chapter 493 - Sit Down and Rest

    <strong>Chapter 493 Sit Down and Rest</strong>


    Holmes booked a carriage, and the three hurried over to the chemical nt.


    ��Conspirator?��


    Gregson was surprised.


    ��Didn��t you say that this was a crime of passion? The suspect obviously did not n. The reason why he killed Molly was that she resisted fiercely. It frustrated the killer. And as you said earlier, there were only two people left in the textile factory.��


    ��This is thest key thatplements my reasoning, and it is also the most important key,�� Sherlock deduced with surety in his voice.


    ��I found the answerter in the chemical nt. Paul lived in a shared house, and his roommate also worked in the chemical factory. These guys leave work half an hourter than the textile factory. Paul had left the chemical factory first, intending to look for Molly as usual. However, Molly wasn��t at the ce where they often met. Paul felt that something was not right. So, he went to the textile factory and saw that it was closed. In the end, he returned to the chemical factory.��


    ��Huh?��


    ��His roommate, Pearson, was still there at that time, so Paul fetched Pearson to go find Molly with him,�� Holmes went on.


    ��Something interesting ising next. Paul and Pearson split up to look for Molly. Now, Paul didn��t manage to find her, but his roommate, Pearson, identally ran into John, who happened to be dragging Molly��s body to the river to be disposed of. Naturally, when most peoplee across a situation like this, they would either call the police or if they are good fighters, they would have tried to try to apprehend John first. Unfortunately, Mr. Pearson chose another path.��


    ��Which path?��


    Gregson couldn��t help asking.


    ��Much like Paul, Pearson came to London when he was very young. This was his fourth job. Previously, he polished shoes on the streets, washed dishes at a restaurant, and helped to look after horses. At night, he would sleep in the stable. Suchds must have experienced the hardships of life at a very young age. Knowing there was no one he could rely on, he had to seize every opportunity before him. On that fateful night, when he saw John by the river, he realized the opportunity he had been waiting for all this while had finally arrived.


    ��Pearson persuaded John, now in an extreme state of panic and anxiety. He told him he could help with this matter, and although John naturally didn��t trust strangers, but the situation at that time wasn��t in his favor. There were not many options for him to choose from, and as ast resort, he could only choose to believe Pearson.


    ��After that, Pearson proved that he had lived up to this trust,�� said Holmes, as he turned to Gregson again.


    ��Remember how you told me that you found Molly��s clothes under his bed? I thought it was weird at that time. Since he dumped the body into the river, why did he have to take her clothes off and put them under his bed?��


    Gregson was embarrassed. ��This... is a problem... Why didn��t I notice it before?!��


    ��But if Pearson were the one who did it, then everything would make perfect sense. At first, he persuaded John to take the clothes off Molly. He then brought them home and put them under Paul��s bed so the police would question Paul but not Mr. John. As for the carpet in his office, John handed that task to Pearson too. This guy seized everyst opportunity in front of him. In a way, his n was a huge sess. I thought we had to wait a long time to slip up, but to my surprise, he ends up making such a low-level mistake.


    ��He didn��t even think of burning the carpet in the first ce. Instead, he pawned it.��


    Holmes shook his head.


    ��The article published in the Echo might not be a bad thing, after all. At least, it paralyzed his nerves. Considering his previous living conditions, it is not iprehensible for him to make such a mistake. It does save us a lot of trouble. Now, we just need to get the nket and apprehend Pearson. With that, we have everything we need to prosecute the real murderer. Then, the case will be over.��


    The three then got off the carriage in front of the chemical factory. This time, there was no need for Holmes to bribe the guard anymore. Gregson revealed that he was a policeman, and they managed to find Pearson, who was still working in the factory at that hour. However, they ran into a small hitch while trying to apprehend him.


    Perhaps it was because the police had arrested their protesting colleagues. Now, all the workers had turned hostile towards them. Pearson recognized Gregson and realized that something wasn��t right. As a result, he had persuaded his fellow workers to surround Gregson and Holmes.


    Seeing Pearson disappearing into the crowd, Gregson went after him without much thought. He drew his revolver and was about to shoot into the air when Holmes abruptly caught his arm. Gregson stomped in frustrated fury.


    ��Why are you stopping me for?! He is getting away!��


    ��Don��t worry. He can��t run far,�� replied Holmes nonchntly, not showing the slightest bit of anxiety.


    Pearson ran out of the factory after he had created a mess. He was deeply frustrated. Paul was his friend, where the two stood up for each other whenever they were broke. Because of that, Pearson did not want to live like that anymore. However, no matter how hard he tried, life always handed him the short end of the stick, kicking him down over and over again.


    It wasn��t until the previous night when he met John that Pearson finally made up his mind to stop living like this. He decided that he��d be famous in the metropolis, and for that reason, he didn��t hesitate to turn against Paul and help John instead. At least, he could be a manager there without working his arse off. He could not wait to quit his job at the chemical factory.


    And with the thought in his hand, his dreams suddenly seemed possible. Only two dayster, however, his dreams were shattered to smithereens. Although he had managed to escape the factory, he was now perplexed, and he did not know where he should go next.


    Suddenly, he saw an Asian man standing not far ahead. ��Pearson?�� the Asian man asked as he looked at him.


    ��Get lost!��


    Pearson was in a rut and wasn��t in the mood for a conversation at the moment.


    ��It seems we have found the right person,�� the Asian man nodded, ��Just sit down and rest for a while.��


    ��I��m frustrated, man. Don��t me me for being impolite if you don��t get lost.��


    Pearson clenched his fists.


    The Asian man smiled when he saw it.


    ��Sure. This makes things easier.��


    Five minutester, Holmes and Gregson finally came out of the chemical factory. Gregson��s clothes were ripped, and his hat was lost. He was cursing nonstop, and then was when they spotted Zhang Heng standing under a tree with Pearson, now crouching and hugging his stomach.

 Chapter 494 - Boxing Fight

    <strong>Chapter 494 Boxing Fight</strong>


    Every night, the alley behind owl tavern was abuzz with noise and activity.


    Loafers and nearbyborers loveding here after work. There was no Tiktok or Weibo in this era. Hence there was also no turning into keyboard warriors, and entertainment was sorely limited, especially for these lower-ss citizens of the society. They couldn��t afford a game of golf or attend fancy dance parties like the wealthy gentlemen anddies, nor would they understand the sophistication of theatre.


    One thing this group of men preferred, however, was a sport like boxing, where flesh met flesh and spattered blood and sweat were everywhere. Now, this was indeed a man��s romance. Combine that with some money, and the entire prospect became an exhrating and adrenalin pumping undertaking for the underprivileged lot.


    The truth was, it wasn��t just the workers, but even the rich enjoyed this brutal amusement. Among the rowdy crowd were gentlemen dressed in fine suits and hats. They tapped their canes, waving money in the air like they were toilet paper. A group of onlookers had gathered in a circle, leaving a space in the center for tonight��s two main protagonists. One was a hulk of a man who worked in a shipyard. The muscles on his arms bulged, and his chest was covered in a carpet of thick hair like a bulletproof vest. They called him Anchor Quinn, inspired by the tattoo on his right arm, and he was a regr among the underground fight club. He scored 13 winnings and six losses in the past three months, and he could have reverted the losses.


    Tonight, his opponent was an unfamiliar face. Asians were rare in London, especially those who spoke fluent English. This one imed to be a famous traveler from a wealthy family, probably equivalent to a British squire. His hands belonged to one who had never done a days��bor, and his healthy but far from strapping physique had many of the spectators feeling less than optimistic about him.


    ��What the hell is this? Couldn��t they find a better fighter?��


    ��I bet he won��tst ten rounds against Anchor. That poor bastard will most probably end up in the hospital!��


    ��Ten rounds? I don��t think he can evenst five! If the guy has any sense at all, he should kneel and beg for mercy before it even starts.��


    ��If memory serves me right, he won��t get any money then...��


    ��Instead of thinking about making money, he should think about protecting his own little


    life.��


    The crowd discussed among themselves, the odds between the twopetitors, worlds apart.


    On the one hand, Zhang Heng��s odds had jumped to 7/1, and on the other, Anchor��s was only 1.9/1. In other words, if you were to ce a pound on Anchor, and he won, you would earn less than two shillings. But even then, the majority ced their bets on Anchor. After all, it was free money.


    It was a shame that small-scale street boxing promoters had limited funds. As a result, each indivudual betting limit was capped at five pounds, also an effective method to keep anyone from bribing a boxer to secretly manipte the game. Otherwise, winning by quantity was also an excellent way to make money. However, for most of these workers, five pounds was a lot of money. Since it was rare that they encountered such a risk-free opportunity to make money, people had began borrowing money before the match started.


    And what happened next confirmed the people��s verdict.


    While Anchor had his share of shoringsclumsy and threw slow punches-every punch he threw was firm. Under his violent offensive, his poor opponent, the Easterner, could only dodge, and even so, still received several punches on the body.


    Until now, he did not even have a chance to attack,pletely subdued by Anchor��s overwhelming firepower. ��Kill him! Anchor! Tear him apart! We don��t need sissies in a man��s sport!��


    ��Show him what English men are made of!��


    The crowd��s fervent cheers seemed to give Anchor an injection of renewed strength. His awkward, clumsy movements became faster and lighter. Zhang Heng received two more punches, and he wasn��t looking too good.


    The crowd exploded into apuse. Holmes, who had been observing from the sidelines, wanted tough. So far, Zhang Heng had been on the receiving end of the punches, and it looked like he was never going to win. But only a seasoned observer could see that those punches didn��t damage Zhang Heng too badly. Anchor��s movements were so slow that before his fist struck, Zhang Heng had already raised an arm to protect himself. So, even though the Asian looked like he was at a disadvantage, he was actually holding up pretty well.


    Zhang Heng��s breathing had remained unchanged since the beginning of the fight, and his footsteps were methodical. On the other hand, Anchor, who had the supposed upper hand, had begun to pant-ack of stamina, amon problem among strength-type fighters. Especially when encouraged by the roar of the audience, he struck again with full force at the cost of slowing down after the rush of adrenaline had passed.


    It was almost time to fight back, Holmes thought to himself.


    Just then, Zhang Heng began to make a move. This time, when Anchor swung a fist at him, Zhang Heng did not block the blow, instead, he moved half a step forward, and with a slight tilt of the head, avoided the fist. A panicked look shed across Anchor��s eyes. As a boxer, he recognized just how bad his situation was. He had thrown so much strength into that punch that it was impossible to retrieve it halfway.


    On top of that, his chest was also wide open-a bad time to be so close to his opponent.


    But he very quickly, he rposed himself. So what if his opponent was near? Judging by the earlier sparring, his opponent��s performance had been ratherckluster. Anchor, holding true to the idea of ��punch first, then use the opportunity to grab the opponent and put an end to this long overdue game,�� he regained confidence.


    ��It��s never a good habit to underestimate your opponent,�� Holmes tutted, rubbing his chin.


    The next thing he saw was Zhang Heng, striking Anchor��s face.


    The punch was more painful than Anchor expected. A tooth, along with a spray of blood, had been knocked off. His brawny frame helped him weather the force, though, and he managed to stay upright. So, things weren��t looking too bad.


    It was now his turn.


    Anchor��s hand curled into a fist. He was about to strike Zhang Heng on the head, confident it would siffice to knock the Asian to the ground.


    But before he could swing his arm, he received another punch on the right cheek.


    What?! So fast?!


    Blinded by the punch, Anchor began to stagger, and all the strength reserved in his bodywaspletely drained off him.


    But that wasn��t the end of it. Zhang Heng pped Anchor��s ears hard with his palms, and the otoliths in the semicircr canals that controled the bnce of the body were affected. Anchor began swaying like drunk.


    He could barely walk straight, let alone fight. His mind was a puddle.


    Naturally, Zhang Heng did not miss the opportunity, and ended the long but not-in-the-least-bit dangerous battle with an uppercut.


    Anchor��s giant body fell to the ground with a sickening thud.


    Suddenly, the once unruly cheers and shouts evaporated, and a heavy silence filled the alley. Mouths were left ajar, and waving handkerchiefs hung in mid-air. The people��s eyes were gaping wide, as if unable to process the sudden turn of events they had just witnessed.


    How could Anchor, who had the very clear advantage, be knocked out just like that?

 Chapter 495 - The Idle Days

    <strong>Chapter 495 The Idle Days</strong>


    ��That was an exhrating fight! You followed all the pointers I gave you, won the fight, and fooled all the spectators at the same time. Here��s the money you won.��


    Holmes handed all thirty pounds to his tmate.


    As a participant, Zhang Heng couldn��t bet on himself, so he had Holmes ce the bet on his behalf. In addition to the two pounds he won, he received a respectable 32 pounds from the fight alone.


    ��You have no prior reputation, and no one knows how good you are. What more, this is just some lowly anonymous fight, so the fee for your appearance is only this much. It will get better, but it looks like you��re too eager to make a name for yourself, haha!��


    ��Like I said, making money is of secondary importance to me,�� replied Zhang Heng as he wiped the sweat off his face with a towel.


    ��Pity. If you continue participating in fights, you might very well be a well-known boxer. You have the skills, theposure, and youe from some ancient, mysteriousnd from the far east. It would be an excellent gimmick,�� Holmes remarked. ��But I��m d that you��re willing to work with me. I really do need a partner.��


    ...


    Two weeks had passed since the River Thames case. At that time, Zhang Heng managed to sieze Pearson who was trying to escape, and Gregson interrogated him on the spot, thus confirming Holmes�� deduction. The inspector had Paul immediately released, but bad news awaited him when he went to John��s house with his men to arrest him. They learned that he had gone on vacation and had left the night before-clearly, the movements of a guilty man.


    Gregson pped his thigh in a fury. What worried him most was that John would have escaped to some obscure colony and would never return. He could be a long way from Ennd and it would be nearly impossible to catch him then. But Holmes had suggested that unlike Pearson, John was a man of good standing in London, owning many factories and plots of prime estate.


    He wouldn��t have abandoned all of these things and escape to the colonies, where life was far less colorful than a big city unless it was hisst resort. His escape was more of a temporary nature. Holmes�� proposal to Gregson was also straightforward.


    ��Capture�� Paul, and then pay John��s house another visit with the excuse of inviting him to attend Paul��s trial in court.


    Gregson thought about it and did as he was told, and it did not take long for this gambit to bear fruit.


    it turned out that John had never left London at all. Instead, he had been hiding in a secret manor on the outskirts, keeping a close eye on the situation, while his old housekeeper would report any news to him. The arrest of the ��murderer�� instantly made headlines on the Echo and newspapers such as The Times and The Evening News. Headed by Inspector Gregson, Scond Yard wasuded for their efficiency and valor. Furthermore, unions and activists were also demanding for the personal safety of female workers be improved. With the matter seemingly concluded, John returned to his home a weekter, worried that a lengthy absence would raise suspicion.


    As soon as he set foot into his house, he was instantly surrounded by the police.


    Gregson could finally breathe a sigh of relief. Smugly, he put John in cuffs, and the next day, Echo printed a new article detailing how the astute Inspector Gregson had used the media to deceive the killer, lowering his guard down, before finally nabbed the real perpetrator.


    The citizens of London felt as if they were witnessing the unfolding of a sensational detective story. They little expected the case to hold so many unforeseen surprises, where a battle between sheer wit of police and criminal ended with justice triumphing over evil. Who would hate to read a story like that?


    Holmes had also been keeping track of the case��s progress, but mostly, of whether his deductions of the criminals were urate or not. Everything else outside of that didn��t seem to concern him.


    Holmes even made a trip to see John personally after his arrest. He returned to 221 Baker Street that day, looking extremely pleased. Zhang Heng thought it was rather amusing. Sherlock Holmes��s obsession with deduction and reasoning had reached a tipping point where most people found difficult to understand. He was addicted to it, like a child preupied with toys, unable to withdraw no matter how hard they tried.


    ��The case itself isn��tplicated. In fact, it was quite simple. If I had been put in charge, I would have been able to tell that John was the killer right off the bat. Even if the evidence was insufficient and I couldn��t make an arrest, I would have my men follow him and keep him form escaping. Thank goodness, it��s finally over,�� said Holmes.


    It took Zhang Heng two weeks to go through all the cases Sherlock had handed him. They really opened his eyes, especially some of the morepelling crimesmitted by the more crafty murderers.


    Holmes, however disagreed with the quick scanning


    ��There��s no need to rush. This is just the beginning. After this, you��ll need to summarize and analyze the simrities and differences between these cases, then remember them. You might encounter simr cases in the future, and you��ll be able to make quick, efficient deductions. As for the knowledge of soil, tobo, and all that, I��ll be teaching you that as well. But not now... At least not until you��vepleted the first stage; otherwise, you might just bite off more than you can chew.��


    Zhang Heng nodded.


    With the stipends he earned from the boxing match, money wasn��t going to be worry for the next two months. Of course, as the odds of him winning increased, things wouldn��t be that simple anymore. His appearance fee would increase, of course, but he would have to participate in two or three fights a month to make enough money to cover his expenses.


    Sherlock Holmes was consulted on two more cases after the River Thames case, one from a fellow detective, and anothermissioned by a client. After listening to detailed ounts, Holmespiled a list of deductions and solved the cases without even visiting the scene of the crime.


    These two cases earned him some money. But after that, there was an idle stint.


    With no work avable for the entire week, Holmes finally found the time toplete his paper on the effect of the shape of hands on different professions. Then began the screeching and howling of his violin, until he finally sumbed to the boredom and became a sack of potatoes.


    When Zhang Heng enjoyed his breakfast, which he rarely had the opportunity, Holmes was still fast asleep. In fact, he spent the entire morning in his room.


    Zhang Heng knocked on his tmate��s door and let himself in.


    Holmes was slouching on his suede armchair with his head tilted back. There was a syringe on the side table and a couple of needle holes in his arm.


    ��Do you know that this only serves to kill you?�� asked Zhang Heng.


    ��Don��t worry; this is only 7% of the solution. I��m aware of the harms it can bring, but I am not the type of who can just sit and do nothing. I need to be doing something! Even if I am given the most difficult problem or the most difficult case, I would be happy. I detest living an uneventful, mediocre life! The side effects of this drug is nothing byparison.��


    Holmes��s eyes were shut as he spoke, ��Every earthling pursues stability andfort, getting married, having children, and a stable job. But what��s there to look forward to in a life like that? Don��t get me wrong. I��m don��t look forward to chaos all day long, but if there are no criminals in London, then I will consider relocating! Otherwise, I might just die in this chair sooner orter!��

 Chapter 496 - The East End

    <strong>Chapter 496 The East End</strong>


    Even though Zhang Heng and Holmes had been getting along quite well, the two had only known each other for a few weeks and hadn��t yet developed a deep friendship. After Zhang Heng��s attempt at persuading thetter, he said nothing more the next time they saw each other. After all, they were all adults, old enough to be responsible for their own actions.


    Zhang Heng heaved a massive sigh before he left the house.


    ��You rarelye to London, so go out more often when you have time. Don��t just see the city; observe each detail, and keep a record of them. It will help with solving any uing cases.��


    ��Mm, I asked Mrs. Hudson to bring you lunch,�� answered Zhang Heng. ��Thank you.��


    As a matter of fact, even without Sherlock Holmes��s reminder, visiting London had always been part of Zhang Heng��s n all along. One thing was for sure, though, Sherlock Holmes knew the city like the back of his hand. He could always be found in the upper ss��s banquets (although he despised their shallow materialism and the ostentatious red tapes), drinking dark beer, and making jovial conversations with cab drivers.


    To win thepetition andplete the mission, Zhang Heng would need to narrow the gap between them as much as possible.


    So, that afternoon, he decided to leave the house. Instead of calling for a carriage, he took to walking the streets.


    He first headed to the lively Queen��s Market, where the Royal rence Vase was on sale for just one shilling. The ornament made of ss, enamel, and gold was explicitly crafted for King George IV and was said to have taken 15 skilled workers three years toplete. Curiosities and trinkets from all over the world could be found there, including cotton-padded clothes from India and tea from China.


    After that, Zhang Heng took a boat tour of the Thames River, which at that time, was nked by factories and houses. Thick, endless streams of ck smoke belched out of the chimneys, and ships dropping anchor choked the riverbank, congesting to the point only a narrow passage remained down the middle. At the sterns, topless boatmen smoked tobo, and the incessant smog Dickens described as ��interminable serpents�� engulfed the entire city in a grey shadow.


    Horse-drawn carriages sped down the roads, women selling flowers weaved through the crowd with baskets in their hands, while the shoeshine boys sat on their heels, diligently working their brushes and hoping to earn a little more tips.


    IO


    To the west of Charing Cross was London��s main business and entertainment center, also Ennd��srgest financial capital. The famous West End theatreplex was located here. Au contraire, Bishop��s Gate Street, lying east of River Thames, was apletely different scenery altogether.


    In the Middle Ages, it was a vast, rural, and sparsely popted area. However, the rapid expansion of London City saw a poption boom. The houses here were in, squalid, and dpidated terraces, cramped and dense with narrow, curved alleyways running between them. Originally the residence of sailors, shipbuilders, and arge number of Jews, it had now be the gathering spot for all low-ie groups. The poption here was densely packed, cramming in about 30,000 people every half a square mile. Each house was upied by arge number of people, where lighting conditions were awful, and venttion greatlycking. The sharedtrines were filthy, and along with that came a permanent stench wafting around the air. These unsanitary conditions were the source of many nasty epidemics��Typhoid being the mostmon one.


    In the early 19th century, a cholera outbreak caused about 6,000 deaths. Several other outbreaks of the same disease followed, killing tens of thousands of people, most of which the poor in the east.


    Furthermore, London��s east end had the highest crime rate and was notorious for being the most dangerous ce in the city.


    Two million people called the area home, yet there was a heinous absence of basic public facilities, municipal authorities, theater galleries, soldiers... Really, there was nothing at all. It was like the city��s forgotten corner, carrying with it no history nor future.


    Unless absolutely necessary, west Londoners would never set foot in this ce, not to mention how they first needed to contact Scond Yard. If and when they did pay a visit, they made sure to bringpany, and were never alone at all times.


    Zhang Heng made sure to change into iner clothing beforeing, but it wasn��t long before he was hit with a barrage of strange gawks and awkward stares.


    It was mostly because of his Asian face that he stood out like a sore thumb. On top of that, as a modern man from the 21st century, his skin was better than that of nobles of this age though he had never bothered with skincare. Even with the change of clothes, he still looked too different from the poor scraping by in the east end.


    Two children passed him by. One was ying with a stick when the other slipped and fell on Zhang Heng


    ��Pardon me, sir.��


    The child studied Zhang Heng��s face, then getting up his feet to catch up with his friend. But before he could do that, someone grabbed him by the cor.


    meo


    ��What are you doing?! Don��t you touch me, I��m warning ��ya! Don��t you know who my brother is? Not a soul here dares step on his tail,�� screeched the child.


    ��Oh, really?�� Zhang Heng mocked, grabbing the child by his legs and shaking him hard. Three wallets fell out, along with some bits and pieces of things.


    ��Got yourself quite a nice yield today, I see.�� Zhang Heng released the child and then picked up his own wallet.


    ��Just you wait! You won��t be leaving here today!�� Humiliated, the child ran off, face as red as beets, and leaving behind his looted goods.


    Of course, Zhang Heng was not interested in dealing with them. He dusted his wallet and continued to walk ahead.


    He had long heard of the notorious east side, but he had lived among pirates before, so this ce did not strike him as any more chaotic than all the ces he��d been in. Of course, that was until he came to the Whitechapel. He had to admit that it was far worse than Nassau.


    Although the pirates at the lower rungs of Nassau were also dirt poor, at least they still had freedom and hope for the future. Everywhere in the taverns on the ind, there was optimistic chatter about ancient and mysterious treasures, the wealthy merchant vessels carrying oil, of monsters in the sea, and the beautiful mermaids that lured sailors to their doom. They didn��t even own a small boat, and no pirate gang was willing to ept them, but their faces remained brimming with bewildering confidence, as if they were all ckbeards of the future. It was also what Zhang Heng adored most about Nassau. They had sheer, impregnable will to survive, and thrive, under the chaos and disorderprecisely what this forgotten districtcked.


    The only thing more terrifying than poverty was numbness and despair.


    Perhaps that was why people like Pearson wanted to leave this ce so desperately. All along the way, all Zhang Heng saw were hungry children, suffering families, drunk viins, and the likes of them. It��s apocalyptic, war-torn squatter-like nature was the hell one would only think of each time murders or diseases happened.


    Zhang Heng kept walking when he suddenly heard an altercationing from ahead.

 Chapter 497 - Gypsy Busker

    <strong>Chapter 497 Gypsy Busker</strong>


    Zhang Heng walked up to where the argument happened, where a gypsy busker was standing between a Jewish home and a few brutish men.


    ��That��s jsut too much! The man in this family has just fallen off a scaffolding not long ago. Just look at the state of his leg! He��s been unable to work for thest two months. Can��t he pay the rent half a monthte? Do you really have to drive them out?�� asked the Gypsy busker in disbelief.


    Zhang Heng had also noticed that the man had a wooden splint attached to his leg. The family��s furniture and luggage had been dragged out of the house and thrown along the road, causing the whole family to be distraught. Their belongings were treated no differently than a pile of garbage, mainly consisting of a tattered wooden bed, old pots and pans, and a sofa with a missing leg. No one knew where they picked up all these things. The dirty wooden pony that the girl clutched dearly in her arms was probably the only toy she had.


    ��On-time payments, that is the rule here,�� the hunchback sternly proimed.


    ��We are all reasonable people. You can ask the family. I have given them a week��s grace. Do you expect me to do it again? I told you that lots of people are looking for houses here. Someone will eventually rent my house even if they can��t afford it. I won��t be losing money one way or another.��


    ��But they are living here right now...��


    The hunchback impatiently waved off the busker.


    ��I don��t care how long they��ve been living here! I don��t run a charity. If they can��t pay me, they should just sleep on the streets!��


    ��You are cruel beyond words! They have a child here; I implore you!��


    ��The kid is too young to work in factories or mines. It is why I have lost hope in them. Even if they do everything, they can and loan some money to make up for this month��s rent, what next month? At the same time, they will not be able to repay the money they owe. And if owed money owed is not repaid, creditors wille knocking on the door again. It will surely cause a lot of trouble for my future tenants.��


    The hunchback coldly continued, ��A family from Wales is interested in this house. There are two adult men in their families. The husband and the elder son are both very strong. Although the younger son is thin, he could fit into chimneys and clean them. On the other hand, the man��s wife would sell flowers during the day and entertain guests at night. It won��t be long before they can save enough to buy this house! How would you choose if you were me?��


    This time, the gypsy busker was at a loss for words.


    The hunchback man nced at him again, ��Why, are you new here? You have to be new here. YOu wouldn��t have been so nosy otherwise. Look at their neighbors. Is anyone willing to defend them? Let me give you a piece of advice. If you want to survive here, better mind your own business.��


    ��No, since I see it, I will not leave it alone.��


    The gypsy busker opened his wallet and took out eight shillings from it.


    ��Here you go, this is two months�� rent. I will help them out this time.�� After that, she pointed at the man of the family, ��He can work again after two months, and naturally, he can continue paying the rent.��


    It was the hunchback��s turn to be startled this time. He seemed to be caught in hesitation, and he stood there for a while with his twitching. After a while, he collected the money from the gypsy.


    ��Consider yourself lucky this time. Let��s go,�� he scowled at theme man.


    After they left, the Jewish family thanked the gypsy busker with everyst breath. They just met, and they were not even friends. It was hard for them to imagine how a stranger would pay the rent for them.


    The gypsy busker thought for a while, took out a gold coin worth a pound and a half from his wallet, and put it in the little girl��s hand.


    ��Don��t worry, your father��s leg will soon be better. And your life will be better too!�� he said, winking at her.


    ��This...��


    The man��s wife was utterly stunned. She couldn��t fathom how the gypsy busker would give them such a massive amount of money.


    Before he could say anything to her, the kind gypsy busker had left with the organ on his back. Soon, he disappeared amid the crowd on the street. Zhang Heng witnessed everything that happened, and after giving it some thought, he decided to follow the gypsy busker.


    He saw the gypsy weaving briskly in and out amid the crowd, appearing and disappearing from time to time. He stoped in front of the salmon stall to have a quick chat with the boss before squatting in front of a drunk man, iling his arms akimbo as he cursed the unscrupulous factory owner and greedy woman. That was thest time Zhang Heng saw him.


    He lost trace of the gypsy busker after that.


    Zhang Heng stood in front of a crossroads and raised his eyebrows. He had to admit that the haphazardyout of the London��s east end was indeed an excellent ce to slip away unnoticed. Zhang Heng wasn��t mad after realizing that he��d lost the busker. He just wanted to remind him that someone was watching him. Now that he was gone, it saved Zhang Heng the trouble. Zhang Heng had turned around to leave when he saw the gypsy busker not far behind him. He was walking to him and had his eyes fixed on Zhang Heng. ��Are you following me?��


    ��I��ll speak inly. I just wish to remind you that someone is targeting you,�� said Zhang Heng.


    ��Why should I believe you?��


    The gypsy busker shrugged. ��This rut is filled of thieves and crooks, and it��s a cesspool for those with the worst of intentions.��


    Zhang Heng didn��t bother to exin himself. Instead, he just made a ��please�� gesture.


    The gypsy, however, did not leave immediately and rolled his eyes instead.


    ��Oh? Any suggestions, then?��


    ��My advice is... don��t get caught,�� replied Zhang Heng. ��You��ve revealed that you are rich by solving the family��s difficulties. They have eyes on you now.��


    ��I knew it! The guy who collected the rent is not a good person.��


    ��He might not be the one after you. He is very familiar with this area and knows a lot of people. Perhaps you caught the eye of his friend or someone else.��


    ��This is so troublesome! I only carried one pound with me this time. The rest of the money is for my dinner and carriage fee.��


    A group of strangers suddenly emerged from a small alley on the other side of the street. One of them then pointed at him, ��Don��t run, you pesky thief! Give me back the wallet you stole!��


    The gypsy was exasperated when he heard what they said. This gang of ruffians was good at twisting the truth. They were actually here to rob his wallet. By saying that, it was an indication for others not to intervene in this matter. Seeing that they had surrounded him, he nervously said to Zhang Heng, ��Your advice seems to havee a littlete. Do you have other suggestions now?��


    ��Yes,�� Zhang Heng said while taking off his coat and handing it to the gypsy, ��hold it for me.��


    Thetter frowned and took the coat that Zhang Heng had bought for ten pence from the used clothes shop.


    ��Since I see no police around here, I will knock them out one by one.��


    Zhang Heng loosened his wrists.

 Chapter 498 - Does Mr. Holmes Live Here?

    <strong>Chapter 498 Does Mr. Holmes Live Here?</strong>


    There were a total of five men running after them. Outnumbered, Zhang Heng ran to the assants instead of waiting for them to get to him. The leader of the group and the one at the back were about five or six meters apart.


    Since they were all fixated on the gypsy, they were unable to react in time when Zhang Heng came for them.


    The person leading the band of pursuers was about to shout, attempting to scare the Asian man, but the easterner made the first move, punching him in the trachea. A sharp pain shot up the man��s neck, and the leader of the group crumpled on the ground, clutching his neck and wheezing as he struggled for breath.


    Zhang Heng didn��t stop there. With a violent kick, he sent the person behind the leader crashing into a fish stall. The unlucky bastard overturned the cart of salmon and was buried under a pile of smoked fish.


    When the other three assants saw what had happened to their friends, they came to a halt, looking as if they had seen the devil.


    These troublemakers were not unfamiliar with fistfights, but they often targeted those weaker than them. They had only stolen crowded ces before and had only been involved in a few serious fights. This waspletely new to them. Both their aplices didn��t even get the chance to swing a fist before they were pummelled to the ground.


    The three men looked at each other in dismay.


    Zhang Heng lowered his body as if to make chase, and the three remaining assants turned around and fled.


    ��Hah!��


    The busker��s eyes were as round as marbles. It was quite a hrious scene��three attackers armed with wooden sticks running helter-skelter from a barehanded man.


    Zhang Heng walked past the man, still gasping for dear breath, and retrieved his coat from the busker. He gave it a little pat and draped it back over his shoulders.


    ��It��s all good now. But here��s my advice to you, leave this ce as soon as you can.��


    Zhang Heng turned around and left without waiting for a reply. He helped the gypsy only because he happened to be there. Thetter had shown kindness to the Jewish, and since he was present at the scene, he did not mind helping out.


    As he was walking away, the busker came up to him, asking, ��You��re really quite an interesting character. How long have you been here in London? What��s your name? Where do you live?��


    Zhang Heng then openly revealed his name and address.


    ��Oh, you��re not an East Ender. Why are you here, then?�� asked the gypsy. ��Well, you��re not an East Ender either, yet here you are,�� Zhang Heng retorted. ��I... I have my own reasons, of course.��


    The gypsy busker answered. ��Whatever it is, thank you. When I have time, I will visit your ce.��


    ��Mmm.�� Zhang Heng nodded, not taking thest statement seriously.


    The two parted ways at an intersection and returned to their respective homes.


    When he returned to his apartment on Baker Street, Mrs. Hudson had just finished preparing a warm dinner consisting of bacon, potatoes, and pumpkin soup.


    Much to Zhang Heng��s surprise, the detective wasn��t in his room ying dead. Mrs. Hudson said that Holmes had received a letter earlier and had left the house since noon.


    Zhang Heng could not help but wonder what case Holmes must havee across this time. Just this morning, he was still curled up in his armchair, thinking about ways to end his life. Yet, in the afternoon, he suddenly slipped into work-mode again,pletely unaffected.


    Mrs. Hudson was setting the table when there was a knock on the door. When Zhang Heng opened it, he found a bearded coachman standing there. In a gruff voice, he asked, ��Is this Mr. Holmes��s residence?��


    ��That��s right. But he��s not home at the moment.��


    ��But my master has something urgent, and he needs a consultation,�� the coachman insisted, dissatisfied.


    ��I don��t know why he left, but if you��re in a hurry, you can wait for him inside...��


    Zhang Heng��s voice trailed off...


    ��Holmes?��


    The bearded man burst intoughter, and he spoke in his regr voice.


    ��Not bad. You were able to see through my disguise,�� Holmes remarked, removing the wig, beard, eyebrows, and a whole bunch of misceneous things.


    Now, he looked like himself again.


    ��Your disguise is good. Not only did you look like a coachman, but you also acted like one. You even changed your ent, lowered your tone, and used a different dialect. Even your figure had changed.��


    ��But it couldn��t get past you...�� Holmes sighed. ��How did you know it was me?��


    ��You��ve cleaned and removed all the ink stains from your hands, but there are still remnants of chemical reagents. And your shoes are a little new. It doesn��t look like something a coach driver would wear.��


    Zhang Heng stopped as if he thought of something but gave up when he could not recall it.


    Holmes looked a little annoyed. ��Ha! It seems you��ve learned a lot this afternoon. I deliberately soiled my hands. Could you tell me? As for the shoes- I was careless-I had a pair of old shoes I kept for situations like this, but it was damaged during one of my experiments some time ago, and I had yet had the time to rece it. In the end, I had to relent and got a pair of unremarkable ones. Fortunately, not everyone in this world has excellent observation skills like you and me.�� ��It looks like your trip went well.��


    Zhang Heng couldn��t remember what he wanted initially to talk about, so he set it aside for the moment.


    ��It was worthwhile.�� Holmes sniffed the air. ��Has Mrs. Hudson prepared dinner? Then let��s talk over dinner.��


    At the table, Holmes briefly described the job he took in the afternoon to track a prominent Congress member and look into his rtionship with a young woman without alerting anyone.


    ��The congressman is an important member of the Conservative Party and has many allies in the party. But some Conservatives suspect that he has fallen over to the opponent, the Liberal Party. After preliminary investigations, they ruled out the possibility that the congressman was involved in bribery or was under threat. But recently, he struck up an intimate rtionship with a young woman. Worried that this may be a trick up the Liberal Party��s sleeve, and since they were unable to find out the rtionship between the two without being found out, they��ve asked me for help.��


    ��So, what have you found?�� ��How should I put it? It was rather intriguing.�� Holmes leaned back against the chair.��


    Under the disguise of a coachman, I went to the youngdy��s ce and found out she had a boyfriend she was very fond of. They were an inseparable pair, so I can ascertain that her rtionship with the congressman is not what everyone thinks it is. But, at the same time, I could see that the congressman really likes her. He had gifted her with many expensive clothes and jewellery. Considering their age difference, the answer is obvious.��


    ��Huh?��


    ��She��s the congressman��s bastard daughter.��

 Chapter 499 - Gentleman Thief

    <strong>Chapter 499 Gentleman Thief</strong>


    ��I sneaked into the bedroomter, spening some time finding relevant evidence. I��ve also heard rumors that the congressman is good at everything, except he is afraid of his wife. It��s probably why he only dared to meet his illegitimate daughter secretly.��


    Holmes used a knife and fork to cut the potato and stuffed it with bacon into his mouth as he talked.


    Zhang Heng could see that he was famished. He didn��t have a bite of breakfast, and during lunch, he only a few bites from the meal Mrs. Hudson prepared for him. It was most probably the remnants of the drugs, where its effects hadn��tpletely worn off. To make matters worse, he had been focusing on his work all the while. It was a miracle hested until now. If it were not for the earlier incident, Zhang Heng would have almost forgotten about it. In addition to Holmes��s extraordinary observation and reasoning ability, he was excellent at disguising as well. It wasn��t easy to look through Sherlock Holmes, but mostly after Watson wrote an article about what he did, his poprity had begun to rise to the point he had to put on some makeup in order not to be recognized He had the uncanny ability to masquerade as some a coachman, an older man, a beggar, an officer, or even a woman... If given a chance, Zhang Heng yearned to learn a little of those makeup skills from him. With lightning speed, Holmes devoured the food before of him like a starving animal. When the food had all been gobbled up, he put the knife and fork aside and let out a contented sigh.


    ��Tomorrow, I have a friending from France. Want toe with me to meet him?�� ��Well, what does he do?��


    ��He is a detective like me. His name is Fran?ois Le Vird. He is a fledgling rookie. As of now, he is not very famous. Last year, I worked a case with him in France, and he��s a fascinating young man. Although he can be careless at the time, he actually has great potential. He didn��t say anything in the telegram, but I believe he didn��te all the way to London just for a vacation. Let��s see why he will be visiting this time.��


    Sherlock Holmes and Zhang Heng arrived at the pier early the next morning, waiting amid the thick fog for the steamer Seagull to drop anchor.


    ��It��s interesting, isn��t it,�� Holmes stated, holding up his cane. ��Before Watt invented the steam engine, no one thought that ships could sail on the water without sails and oars. This magical machine did indeed change a lot of things. Now, factories to ships, or trains, are inseparable from the power of steam. Such is the charm of science. The world changes rapidly every day. Change is the only constant, and no matter what industry you��re in, if you don��t acknowledge the change, you will soon be eliminated by it. For example, alkaloidsthis highly toxic substance had only been discovered decades ago, but I have noticed its appearance at a more frequent rate in recent cases I��ve investigated. Compared to traditional methods of murder, alkaloids can��t be easily detected.��


    ��I can��t agree more,�� Zhang Heng said. Sherlock was in the era of the information boom, where all kinds of new and fantastic crimes had been emerging in an endless stream. Both criminal investigators and the criminals themselves continuously learned and improved their craft.


    Sherlock Holmes could be the best detective in Great Britain or even Europe. He had never allowed himself to becent, though-his research and essays yed an essential role. In fact, several experimental studies that he��d conducted had yet to demonstrate its safety and morality.


    A quarter of an hourter, Vird walked out of the Seagull. He had red hair and a face full of freckles. Seeing Holmes, he was like a little fan that got to meet his idol, feeling excited and slightly abashed at the same time.


    ��I can finally see you again, Mr. Holmes,�� Vird eximed excitedly as he shook hands.


    ��I��m d to meet you too, Vird,�� replied Holmes replied, before introducing him to Zhang Heng. After shaking hands with Zhang Heng, Vird continued, ��I��m here to follow someone in London this time, and I wanted to visit you while I��m here.��


    ��Who are you tailing?��


    Sherlock Holmes wasn��t one for the niceties like the ordinary Joe. He skipped the polite words and went straight to the point.


    ��A thief. He hasmitted several crimes so far, but few know of his existence.��


    ��Oh, why is that?��


    ��Because he is different from other thieves. He doesn��t target valuable things such as jewelry, relics, or art pieces. Instead, he pays attention to the value behind the items he wants to steal,�� Vird exined.


    ��He usually targets reputable people in society. I must say that he is rather bold because he actually went for some European royal families! Once he locks on to his target, he will start to unearth all the dark secrets behind them. It could be a shameful affair, perhaps a murder the targetmitted years ago... These are all things they wished dearly that they could hide away. Once he steals something that can be used as evidence, the owner will be left miserable, looking at an obscene extortion fee. The worst part is they can��t go to the authorities for help.��


    ��Is he a gentleman thief? Or is it more appropriate to call him a ckmailer? What did your client lose?�� Holmes asked with interest.


    Vird hesitated and said, ��If it was someone else, I couldn��t tell you anything due to the agreement I made with my client. However, I believe in you and your friends. All of you are gentlemen of high moral character...��


    ��That��s enough. Just skip the praising part and talk about the key points.�� Holmes waved his hand.


    ��My client is a Viscount. He likes Canaletto��s oil paintings very much. About nine years ago, a well-known collector��s house had been robbed, and he lost a lot of things, including a Canaletto oil painting. Two yearster, someone approached my client and asked him if he wanted to buy something good. My instant client recognized that the person was holding the missing Canaletto painting. He knew that people of his stature should never get his hands on stolen goods, but he lusted so badly for the painting. So, he approached the collector and asked to buy it. However, the collector rejected his offer. Now that he has the chance to take it into his possession, he would definitely not let it go. So, he chose an indirect way to purchase the painting.


    ��On the surface, he refused to buy it, even asking him not to step into his mansion again. Once the left, he secretly found an unrted person to buy the painting from him. All these years, he never took the painting out for the exhibition. He left it at his residence and indulged its marvel alone. Somehow, it was discovered by that sellerter. And this is why I came to London,�� Vird exined it all in one breath.


    ��However, it is more important for me to visit you first,�� he added.

 Chapter 500 - The Stolen Oil Painting

    <strong>Chapter 500 The Stolen Oil Painting</strong>


    After spending the whole morning together, Zhang Heng knew that Mr. Vird was indeed, if not, Sherlock��s biggest fan.


    His words and the way he looked at Holmes confirmed his thoughts about him.


    On the other hand, although Sherlock Holmes said nothing about the ttery, he secretly enjoyed such admiration towards him. No matter how lonely and noble artists were, they truly wished deep inside their hearts and minds that the world would ept their works. Based on how one defined an artist, Holmes couldn��t be considered one, though, his attainments in the criminal investigation did earn him a Victorian artist title.


    Of course, Holmes would pay more attention to the case that Vird told about rather than thepliments. Holmes appeared to be extremely interested in this ��gentleman thief.��


    In the carriage, he asked Vird, ��How much information do you have about him now?��


    When posed with the question, a look of embarrassment shed across Vird��s face.


    ��I tried my best to investigate this matter, but unfortunately, I haven��t gotten much information about it. Mainly because it��s not that easy to find the victims. Most people refuse to talk about these embarrassing matters that took ce in the past. That thief... How should I put it? In a sense, he is a gentleman; as long as you pay the ransom, he will keep his promise and return whatever he stole. He will also not harass his target again. Because of that, most of his victims obediently pay the ransom with no further questions.��


    ��Not bad. So, he is a thief that knows how to manage his reputation,�� Holmesmended. ��It seems that our friend regards this business as his life��s work. How can we not meet such an interesting person? Shall we?��


    Vird was ted, rubbing his palms as he eximed, ��So, this time, are you nning to make a move? This is wonderful! As long as you are willing to work this case, I��m pretty sure that it will be the end of this gentleman thief. I don��t think he knows you are in London. Otherwise, he wouldn��t havee here.��


    ee


    ��My friend, you exalt me too much,�� Holmes smiled. ��Let��s talk about the case first.��


    ��Don��t worry. I know how inconvenient it is for you to go to France. I have surveyed the scene and collected all the seemingly useful and useless information for your reference.��


    As he spoke, Vird took out a small notebook from the suitcase.


    Zhang Heng took a look at it. Almost every page was filled with dense notes, and carefully drawn pictures even apanied them. Even Holmes was impressed.


    ��Your notes are of the most careful detail, Vird; I firmly believe you have surpassed most of your peers.��


    ��Hehe! It��s nothing. I believe that hard work can make up for my shorings.�� Vird scratched his head, overjoyed to beplimented by his heartthrob. Sherlock Holmes did a speed-read on the notebook, then took another half an hour to read it from beginning to end. After that, he handed it to Zhang Heng. ��Read it. It��s fascinating.��


    Zhang Heng took the notebook and roughly scanned through its contents.


    Viscount Canaletto��s oil painting had gone missing half a month ago. Because of the painting��s special nature, he did not put it in the collection room like his other collections, storing it in a small, inconspicuous room. There was also arge and exquisite porcin vase from China in there as well. Although the vase carried a much higher value, the thief had no interest in it, taking only the painting with him. Clearly, he knows a lot about my client.��


    ��What do you think?�� Holmes asked Zhang Heng. Thetter thought for a moment before giving his thought on the matter.


    ��There are several problems here. First, even if the painting goes missing, no one can prove that the viscount once possessed it.��


    ��Oh, yes, the viscount has a little quirk. He likes to leave his signature on the back of the oil paintings he collects. Even if he knew it was stolen, he still had to sign his name on it,�� Vird confessed helplessly. ��Otherwise, I wouldn��t have toe all the way from Paris to London.��


    ��The second question: how many people knew that he had purchased the piece?��


    ��You are asking the right question here,�� Holmes nodded.


    ��It is also the most interesting part of this case. You mentioned that the viscountpleted the transaction secretly through an intermediary. How did the gentleman thief find out about it after so many years? Since he is dedicated to unraveling the most unbearable secrets of the heart, he should have revealed this secret before anything else.�� ��This is also the part that baffles me the most,�� Vird said, ��I can��t figure him out either. Just imagine; even if he learns a person��s secret by chance, it��s impossible he would discover the darkest secrets of people he never targeted. Perhaps he indulges in dark magic that allows him to see what people are thinking? He might be against someone formidable this time.��


    ��I don��t believe in the ck magic of witch doctors,�� Holmes snorted. ��Among the myriad cases I have dealt with, everything that seemed mysterious and counterintuitive on the surface would eventually have a reasonable exnation to it; as long as you are patient enough to study the subject, of course. Once all the bad oues have been eliminated, you would end up with the truth.��


    ����


    ��You are right! I have learned something new,�� Vird digressed humbly. He looked like a pupil in ss, obediently absorbing his teacher��s advice. It humored certainly Holmes a bit.


    ��Carry on, my Oriental friend,�� he told Zhang Heng. ��Thirdly, it involves the modus operandi,�� Zhang Heng continued. ��The viscount went to see the oil painting the night before it was gone. Early the next morning, the maid who cleaned the house found it missing. In other words, the painting must have been stolen at night. However, the viscount��s mansion was heavily guarded, not to mention the presence of a few hounds patrolling the grounds. During that night, the hounds did not bark. The note stated that no other visitors came to visit the viscount during that time. Behind the house is a small garden. There was some light rain in the morning, and the soil was loose. There were no footprints, and the front door was facing the housekeeper��s room. He didn��t hear any unusual noises at night, so how did the gentleman thief enter the viscount��s mansion and leave with the oil painting before dawn?��


    Vird was also annoyed.


    ��You are right! That guy is perfect. He came and went without a trace. The maid cleaned up in the morning and found that the frame was still there, and only the painting was missing. The gentleman thief even left a letter with the signature, Mr. M, on the ground. He triumphantlymented on the decoration of the viscount��s mansion. He��s treated it as if it was his property. How annoying it was!��

 Chapter 501 - Do You Have A Theory?

    <h4>Chapter 501 Do You Have A Theory?</h4>


    ��Have you investigated the maid who cleaned the room?�� Holmes took out his pipe and filled it with tobo.


    ��I have. Even though the maid has been working in the house for two years, the old housekeeper immediately detained and searched her. Still, there was no oil painting. Moreover, she had not been anywhere else since she entered the house and went to see the housekeeper. So, we can rule her out as the suspect,�� said Vird. After a brief pause, he continued, ��Through the viscount��s contacts, I also found two other victims of Mr. M. The descriptions they provided were simr to the viscount��s situation, all receiving a letter from Mr. M when their valuables were stolen. One of them was on vacation when the burry urred, and the other was a public figure more prominent than the viscount. Their valuables were well-concealed, but by whatever powers, they were stolen somehow. Like a magician, the thief could sneak into whatever secret rooms you have and always has his victims firmly in his clutches.��


    Holmes lit his pipe and took a drag.


    ��The most talented thief I��ve ever met is a dwarf who performed in a circus. He was half the height of a child and a scrawny, stick-thin creature. He could burrow into your home through the chimney and squeeze through narrow crevasses by contorting his body, never leaving behind a single trace of his visit.��


    ��Which is exactly why I��vee to you��I haven��t the faintest idea how the guy did it,�� replied Vird respectfully.


    ��Alright,�� Holmes smiled. ��Since I��ve already promised to help you, and this case interests me, I won��t set it aside, but for now, let��s find you a ce in London.��


    The three arrived at an inn on a carriage, and while Vird checked in, Holmes stood in the lobby, smoking his pipe as he watched the touristse and go.


    ��Do you think Mr. M is among them?�� Zhang Heng asked.


    ��Who knows?�� Holmes blew out a ring of smoke.


    He was obviously in a good mood. ��We��re fortunate today, Zhang Heng, to havee across such an intriguing case. I knew that Vird was going to bring us a surprise��hah! �� turns out he didn��t disappoint!��


    Zhang Heng didn��t know if he shouldugh or cry.


    The more difficult Vird��s case was, the happier Holmes became. Such mentality and trend of thoughts of a great detective was what separated him from that of the ordinary mind.


    ��Do you have any theories as to where the painting might be?�� asked Zhang Heng.


    Holmes did not answer, asking in return, ��What about you? Do you have any ideas?�� Zhang Heng had been contemting the case as they traveled here, trying to piece together all the clues. Thanks to Vird��sprehensive notes��the red-haired detective carried out a very detailed investigation of the scene, virtually turning the viscount��s mansion upside down-Zhang Heng was able to conjure up the scene in his mind. He took a minute to think before answering. ��You said to eliminate all the bizarre and unscientific options, and you will be left with the truth. No thief could be this good and not leave a single trace on the soil, then walk past the hound, and not cause amotion. So I inspected theyout of the house. Other than the old housekeeper guarding the door, the chef was also up veryte that night. He was busy in the kitchen, located not too far from the main door, usually locked. That being the case, I believe that the problem lies with the maid.��


    Holmes looked at Zhang Heng as if he was gazing at an endangered animal before eximing, ��My mysterious, oriental-traveler-friend. Despite how long we��ve known each other, you never fail to amaze me! It has been such a privilege to have met you. Though you��re still learning, you could actually work independently with those abilities of yours. You better my mediocre counterparts by miles; even Vird, a neer full of potential, is no match for you. It won��t be long before you be a strongpetitor of mine. Perhaps then, this world would cease being so dull and pedestrian.��


    Coming from Holmes, these words were considered high praise. Although he had to include some self-gratification, in the end, the very fact that the proud detective could say such things demonstrated that he genuinely respected Zhang Heng.


    Holmes chuckled. ��Haha! When I saw the note earlier, I thought of the homicide of Fort Combe. At that time, the rumor was that the victim had been murdered by ghosts. All the doors and windows had been shut from the inside. To make matters worse, the murder scene was gory, highly suggesting a revenge. The locals believed that only ghosts could have done it, and even arge number of police think that it must have been an act from a vengeful spirit.


    ��But, as I said, eliminate the distractions out of the equation, and whatever remains will be the correct answer, even if it might seem impossible on the surface. It turned out that the victim was the murderer himself, and he killed himself by extreme means. It was a fascinating case since the victim kept a secret that had been digging at his soul for the longest time. Ridden by guilt for something he had done in the past, it had haunted him all his life. To make things worse, he was terminally ill and was worried that the spirits would seek revenge on his wife and daughter. As a result, he decided that it was the best way to repay the debt. ��The circumstances of that are simr to this case. I��ve studied Vird��s note and ruled out the possibility of an outsider entering the home. It leaves us with only one possibility, the thief has to be someone from the house. After all, bribing a maid who earns less than a pound per week was a lot easier than sneaking into a well-guarded mansion. If I were Mr. M, I would have done the same.��


    Zhang Heng��s brows furrowed. ��That exins the letter found on the floor. The maid must have nted it there while she was cleaning, then stole the painting. There is one thing that still puzzles me, though. How did she pass the inspection? Could the guards be aplices?��


    ��You��re very close to the final answer, my eastern friend!��


    Holmes�� eyes sparkled, excited, and eager. ��I believe you only need another half a day to figure it out. Finding the painting is not going to be difficult. The tricky part would be capturing Mr. M and having him admit that he was the thief. He is very talented and has an incredible imagination.


    ��Based on his behavior, we understand that he is cautious, meticulous, and patient. It won��t be easy to catch that guy. But London is our stomping grounds; it would be uneptable that we let him escape again!��

 Chapter 502 - The Opera Singer

    <h4>Chapter 502 The Opera Singer</h4>


    ��What are you discussing?��


    Vird returned, forehead drenched in perspiration. ��The restaurants in London and what we should treat you toter,�� Holmes answered.


    The redhead detective blushed. ��Oh, there��s no need for that. I��m not here on holiday. Don��t worry about me; I��ll settle for a simple meal.��


    Holmes couldn��t help but smile at the fellow��s reaction. ��Vird, my friend, we were actually looking for the missing oil painting.��


    ��What? You found the oil painting?!�� Vird nearly leaped into the air. ��That was fast! But how?��


    ��If you do as I say, stay calm, and pay attention to the details that you might have missed, you will also be able to piece the answer together.��


    ��Oh, you have such a high opinion of me. It may be child��s y to you, but to the unexceptional man like us, it��s like reaching for the moon,�� Vird sincerely admitted.


    ��It��s not like that. As I said, you have the potential, Vird, but you haven��t fully tapped into it yet. In fact, Zhang Heng here is about to find the answer as well, and he hasn��t been in this business for long.��


    ��The people in yourpany are certainly not ordinary-I can only hope to learn from them.��


    Unlike Gregson, this red-haired detective was unduly modest, always putting himself down, ying the humble student.


    With nothing tobat Vird��s self-vilification, Holmes said, ��It was a joke, but since you��re our guest and it��s almost lunch, let��s have a meal together. You can restter in the afternoon and mull over the case. I��ll need the afternoon to look into something anyway, so we��ll be seeing each other again tonight.��


    The three subsequently had lunch at the famous Royal Restaurant in London. After the meal, Holmes left in a hurry as he had dered, leaving Vird to return to the hotel and Zhang Heng to Baker Street alone. As soon as he opened the door, Mrs. Hudson shot him a strange look.


    ��What is it?��


    ��You have a guest,�� she answered. ��A guest?�� Zhang Heng looked puzzled. He was all alone here in this 19th century London and had neither friends nor rtives. The only person he was close to was Holmes, and nearly everyone who came to 221B Baker Street was his guests.


    Then, suddenly someone came to mind-the gypsy busker he met that afternoon in the East End. Before they parted ways, the busker had asked for his name and address and promised a visit.


    Zhang Heng thought that the gypsy had only said it in passing, never expecting the fellow to actuallye, and the very next day, to boot.


    However, when Zhang Heng walked into the drawing-room and saw his guest, he was surprised to see that instead of the gypsy busker, a woman was seated on the sofa-and a gorgeous woman at that. No, to put in in a more precise way, she was the ultimate fantasy of every Victorian man, elegant, well-dressed, and all around her, an inherently mysterious persona.


    ��What is it?�� the woman asked as she bit into a biscuit. ��Don��t you recognize me?��


    ��You��ve gone through an immense transformation.��


    Zhang Heng had to admit that if Holmes�� makeup skills were at a level two, this mysterious woman was at a full-blown level three. Her disguise as a man was very natural, to put it mildly, even covering up her neck with a long scarf. It made it impossible to see that she did not have Adam��s apple, a dead giveaway.


    Of course, it was also mostly because Zhang Heng paid little attention to her at the time. He was simply helping her. Also, unlike Holmes, she was not a familiar face, and numerous factors contributed to his failure in noticing those tiny little details.


    ��I didn��t mean to deceive you, but as you can see, if I went as myself, I wouldn��t have been able to go,�� said the woman.


    ��Then what isdy such as yourself doing in the East End?��


    ��I��m the lead singer of an opera troupe, and I am fairly well-known in London, but I guess you probably haven��t seen me perform. I went there looking for inspiration for the new piece,�� the woman answered. ��Sorry, I rarely pamper myself with operas.�� ��It��s alright. I��m performing at the Queen��s Theatre tonight. If you like, you cane watch with your friend.��


    The woman produced two tickets and ced them on the table.


    ��I only helped because I happened to there. You really don��t have to.��


    ��Then, treat it as making an acquaintance.�� The woman did not take the tickets back. After finishing thest cookie in her hand, she went to Mrs. Hudson,plimenting, ��Good bake.����Well, I��m d you like it!�� Mrs. Hudson trilled in delight.


    The opera singer stretchedzily. She hade with the intention of gifting Zhang Heng the tickets, and now that it was done, she stood up from the sofa to leave.


    But Zhang Heng called out to her, ��I didn��t get your name.�� ��Adler,�� the opera singer turned around and smiled, ��Irene Adler.��


    She reinstalled her bowler��s hat and veil, showing herself out. A two-wheeled carriage was already at the ready.


    Zhang Heng flinched when he heard the name. Those who read the ��Sherlock Holmes�� series would find the name Irene Adler all too familiar. Holmes once told Watson that he had only lost to four people. Among them, were three men and a woman, and that woman was the mysterious opera singer, Irene Adler. The confrontation between the pair was recorded in ��A Scandal in Bohemia.�� The female singer and her new husband fled London one night and Holmes failed toplete themission, but it turned out to be a perfect ending for both parties. In the end, Holmes asked to have Adler��s photo as a souvenir, and since then, had only referred to her as ��that woman.��


    Consequently, certain readers suspected that Holmes might have had a secret affection for the opera singer.


    Nheless, as Sherlock Holmes��s new roommate, Zhang Heng, was more inclined to think that it was pure admiration for a like-minded soul. In fact, Holmes was a stranger to the softer passions, such as love. His attitude toward it was always one of repugnance, believing that such things would damage rationale, its effects of which far worse than the substances he injected himself with. Love was like sand that had fallen into a precision instrument or cracks on a high-powered lens.


    Therefore, he had always stayed away from love and the likes of it. Of course, he did still study the psychology of people in love, but it was all in the name of solving cases.

 Chapter 503 - The Oil Painting’s Location

    <h4>Chapter 503 The Oil Painting��s Location</h4>


    Holmes returned at dusk, storming into the room without saying a word. Completely disregarding the audience��s well-being outside, the shrill rubbing of bow and string started ring out his bedroom. After torturing them with erratic howls, screeches, and wails for a good 15 minutes, he finally put down the instrument in contentment.


    He then said to Zhang Heng, who was at his side, ��The meeting with Vird has been canceled tonight. I told him that we couldn��t acquire much useful information in the afternoon. Hence, the meeting would be pointless.��


    ��Sounds good to me. I actually wanted to tell you that I might not be able to make it tonight.��


    Zhang Heng then took out the two opera tickets.


    ��A friend gave me these and invited me to her performance.��


    ��Huh? A new opera in the Queen��s Theatre?�� Holmes�� intuition was as sharp as ever.


    ��Anypanions that might be tagging along with you?��


    ��You know that I just arrived in London not long ago, and I��m still unfamiliar with the ce. So, I don��t have any acquaintances...�� ��What a coincidence! I do happen to be going to the Queen��s Theatre tonight,�� chuckled Holmes.


    ��Other than the violin, do you also like opera as well?��


    ��I really like opera, but we won��t be there for that tonight,�� Holmes said, ��We want to capture that Mr. M. Once we capture him, we will know who his target is. His yground has always been in France. Now that he��se all the way here to London, he must have a big job to do.��


    ��So, you��ve narrowed down the list?��


    ��Well, I went to visit a few friends this afternoon andpiled a substantial list of his potential targets. He hasn��t moved his finger yet, but I would have begun studying my victims if I were to be him. It just so happens that the first, third, and fifth on my list will all appear in the Queen��s Theatre tonight. I know the chief makeup artist of the hall. Initially, I wanted him to help me get a ticket, but since you have an extra ticket with you, it��s all perfect!��


    As they finished thest bites of dinner, Holmes and Zhang Heng draped on their suits and prepared to head to Queen��s Theater. Holmes got rid of his stubbles and cleaned up himself. When coupled with his aquiline nose and sculpted face, he looked bright, as if a renewed vigor clutched his soul. Perhaps he wasn��t the most dashing man around here, but he was definitely not ugly either.


    He picked a walking stick. It had the carapace of a tortoise for a handle and rosewood for its body.


    ��My oriental friend, you are now wealthy! You should pick a walking stick that suits your standing.��


    Zhang Heng might never understand the love affair between European men and their walking sticks. The streets of London saw every gentleman bearing their very own walking stick. And most of them had more than just one. When they walked their corgi��s in the morning, they would bring along their wooden sticks, and in the evenings, those would be reced by a silver cane. Men waving their golden sticks around at some fancy banquet was amon sight for the more affluent and moneyed.


    There were also custom walking sticks used only on asions like business meetings and operas in theatres. When Balzac was depressed and in huge debt, he still didn��t hesitate to splurge 700 francs to buy a luxurious walking stick with agate embedded on it. Such manner of over consumerism surpassed most modern shopaholics, the Victorian equivalent to selling one��s kidney for thattest iPhone.


    However, Zhang Heng��s principle has always been to adhere to the culture of the ce he set foot in.


    The 19th century was probably the golden age of the walking stick. Famous jewelry brands quickly jumped on the bandwagon, all wanting a piece of therge profit. Tiffany and Cartierunched their own walking sticks, though Zhang Heng wasn��t that interested in those brands. Other than their extortionate and extravagant price tag, what Zhang Heng had in mind differed from most ordinary people. Such an ostentatious price was one of the reasons why he wanted to stay away. He insisted on his own specifications too, where other than providing him an appropriate identity, he also wanted the cane to double as a defensive weapon when necessary.


    Having that in mind, he paid more attention to the stick��s weight and sturdiness, and if it was qualified to be used as a weapon. Its appearance wasn��t his priority. Thus, he nned a visit to the flea market the next day.


    When the two arrived at the Queen��s Theatre, there was still half an hour before the performance began. Irene Adler selected Zhang Heng, and hispanion was superb; their seats were located right in the middle of the second row. Coincidently, the three persons Holmes talked about were in the second row as well.


    Zhang Heng learned that one of them was the current prime minister of Great Britain, the Marquis of Salisbury. Before the show started, he strolled into the box with a cigar in mouth, apanied by a few individuals.


    Sherlock Holmes was also on the watch list, or more precisely, keeping an eye on the prime minister��spany. Thus far, he found nothing worthy of note. As spectators began to pour into the venue, the theater��s lights dimmed, the music started, and the curtains slowly drew upward.


    Two minutes before the show began, Zhang Heng told Holmes, ��I think I finally understand now.��


    ��Well, what is it that you understand?��


    ��I know where that oil painting is.��


    ��Oh?�� Holmes couldn��t help but crack a smile when he heard that. ��Let��s talk about it.��


    ��The disappearance of oil painting is the main point here. The painting��s frame is still in the room,�� Zhang Heng analyzed. ��It��s been something that has baffled me for a long time. Taking the painting and its frame along with it is rather unmanageable. In other words, myst deduction was indeed problematic. If the housekeeper and maid were conspirators, he could have brought it out first and left it with the maid. However, the maid removed the painting in the end. It shows that the housekeeper had nothing to do with it. She had taken the painting out of the frame to conceal it easily, probably rolled up somewhere. Since she had been searched and nothing was found on her, only one possibility remains-The painting is still in the room!


    ��Many tend toe up with the wrong idea when ites to this. They think Mr. M has to hold something in escrow to threaten its owner. In fact, there was no reason for him to do so. There was an easier way to achieve his purpose. As long as the victim thinks he is the thief of the targeted items, his n had already kicked into motion. The letter we found was a scheme to lead us off the trail to where we are now. Think about this��when the viscount woke up in the morning and found the painting missing, Mr. M��s letter was discovered on the ground at almost the same time. Thebination of these elements would lead people to think that Mr. M was indeed the culprit.��


    ��Outstanding!�� Holmes pped his hands and praised. ��I��m not ruling out how certain criminals deliberately mess up crime scenes, but most of the time, everything they leave behind serves a purpose, especially for such an experienced thief. Like an artist, he will not mind adding a couple of extra strokes to an already perfect painting... Let��s move forward. If I ask where the painting is hidden in the room, can youe up with an answer?��


    ��In that porcin vase,�� Zhang Heng replied decisively, ��Vird is indeed a very conscientious detective. To collect more information, he rummaged through every corner of the room, except the porcin vase. It has a tiny mouth, but is spacious within. If someone hid the oil painting and ced it close to the bottom, spotting it from above would be impossible.

 Chapter 504 - Carmen

    <h4>Chapter 504 Carmen</h4>


    ��Terrific deduction,�� Holmesmended. ��As I said, you really do have a remarkable talent for this line of work, my oriental friend. There really are no words to describe your brilliance!��


    He was about to say more,, but the music had started, so Holmes retreated to his seat. He sped his hands and straightened his knees, ready to savor the performance.


    This new opera was called ��Carmen.�� The author George Bizet was French. Extremely talented, he sadly died at the young age of 37. This y, which told of a tragic tale of love in Seville, Spain, waspleted a year before his passing


    The story told about Carmen, a beautiful and unfettered gypsy girl that worked at a cigarette factory. Don Jose, the military squad leader, fell head over heels for her, abandoning his lover, the kind and gentle Mica by the countryside. He even vited strict military discipline and let Carmen go when she got involved in a fight with a fellow female worker. When Jose was released from prison, he joined the group of smugglers that Carmen belonged to. s, the days that followed saw the two young lovers hit a rough patch. Carmen quickly moved on and fell in love with Escamillo, the bullfighter. While the crowd was cheered for Escamillo��s victory over the bull, Carmen perished under Don Jose��s dagger. Love and destruction were the themes of this y. Unlike the previous stories where the main characters were heroes or mythological personalities, the protagonist, Carmen, was a female factory worker and a low-level military officer. It was an incredibly bold attempt, which was why Irene Adler disguised herself as a gypsy busker in the East End to search for inspiration.


    Ms. Adler wore a red dress that drew everyone��s eyes to her.


    Tonight, she was even more dazzling than ever, with a certain wild disposition. The 3/8-beat aria she sang as she seduced Don Jose was the climax of the first act.


    But just as the audience was indulging her performance, Holmes patted Zhang Heng on the shoulder and whispered, ��We have to make a move.��


    The pair got up from their seats and tiptoed as gingerly as they could to the aisle, crouching low to avoid attention.


    ��Do you see that waiter in the box on the second floor?�� asked Holmes.


    ��Mmhmm.��


    ��He delivers fruit tters to each of the boxes. And normally, the same person does it throughout the night. Just ten minutes ago, another guy took his spot.��


    ��Do you think it could be Mr. M observing his target up close?��


    ��I don��t think it��s Mr. M himself, but this bloke is obviously connected. If we get our hands on him, at least we��ll be able to find out who Mr. M is targeting now,�� Holmes continued.


    When they looked up, though, they spotted the waiter staring at them suspiciously.


    ��He seemed to have... noticed us,�� Zhang Heng sighed.


    ��... Looks like it,�� agreed Holmes.


    Without warning, the waiter abruptly threw the tter he was carrying and ran to a nearby box.


    ��Let��s split up. I��m going up!��


    ��I��ll take the outside then,�� said Zhang Heng.


    After a quick discourse, Holmes ran up to the second floor and Zhang Heng exited the building.


    Sherlock Holmes�� sudden appearance at the stairway alerted the guards beside the Prime Minister��s box. It was then that he dashed into the box next door.


    Holmes pushed the doors open. The table was a mess. Food and wine were all over the floor, and the windows were wide ajar. A man who seemed like a businessman, together with his wife and daughter, huddled together, trembling in fear.


    Holmes didn��t stop there, cing his left feet on the window sill. He was about to leave when he noticed that the family seemed more aggravated than relieved.


    He quickly understood that the person he was after must be still in the box.


    But the waiter was also quick to realize that his pursuer had seen through his n, so he rolled out from under the seat and stabbed Holmes�� calf with a knife. Sherlock managed to block the attack with his cane and knocked the dagger off his attacker��s hand. The man, however, pushed himself off the ground and grabbed hold of Holmes. As Holmes struggled to free himself, the pair stumbled backward and fell onto the floor.


    The situation was utter terror and chaos. The wife of the businessman screamed at the top of her lungs, but it pitched exactly with the peak of the crescendo, the perfect cover for the scuffle in the box.


    Sherlock��s boxing skills were no use to him in such a cramped space, and on top of that, he hit his head on something during the fall. The waiter sat on top of Holmes and coiled his hands around the detective��s neck. Holmes desperately tried to reach for his cane but the waiter merely kicked it out of the way.


    Presently, Holmes could only hope that the family watching from the sidelines would somehow help him. The businessman was the first to snap out of his temporary paralysis. He pushed the door open and left with his wife and daughter, leaving his coat behind.


    ��Great!!! You��ve been really helpful,�� Holmes growled through gritted teeth.


    Now, his only option was to do try his best and pry away the hands strangling his neck.


    Although Holmes looked thin and lean, he was certainly not weak. But tonight, his opponent way overpowered him, and there wasn��t much space to move either.


    Holmes was struggling to breathe, and his grip gradually weakened.


    Just as he started to see his vision getting cloudy, a figure jumped in from the window, kicking the waiter on the ribs, and sending him through the door towards the corridor. Vindicated, Holmes greedily drew in his critical supply of fresh air.


    ��Am I dead? Why else would you be here?!�� he sputtered and choked between words.


    ��I didn��t see him on the streets so I assumed he hadn��t left the box. I was worried that you were in danger, so I climbed up,�� Zhang Heng exined.


    ��Climbed up?! You mean you climbed up all the way here? But how?! There��s nodder or stairs,�� Sherlock asked in bewilderment. ��Have you worked in a circus before?��


    ��I guess you can put it that way. If you��re fine, I��ll be chasing after our guy, then,�� Zhang Heng replied, not wanting to let slip the opportunity. ��Go ahead. I��ll lie down for a bit. I��ll be there as soon as I can,�� Holmes panted, his face now as white as a ghost, and his eyeballs bulging.


    Zhang Heng ran out of the box and saw that instead of leaving, the waiter had proceeded to the prime minister��s box, telling something to the guards outside. After hearing what the waiter had to say, both guards charged towards Zhang Heng in a menacing hurry.

 Chapter 505 - Prussian Barbers

    <h4>Chapter 505 Prussian Barbers</h4>


    ��Don��t move and stand against the wall!��


    The guard issued a stern warning, drawing a pair of handcuffs from behind.


    When the man pretending to be a waiter saw Zhang Heng getting detained, he silently fled via a nearby flight of stairs. Even in such moments of peril, Zhang Heng remained calm and unruffled. He turned and asked Holmes, ��What are the consequences of killing the prime minister��s guards?��


    Sherlock, still gasping for breath, replied, ��It depends on the situation. However, I��m pretty sure you can��t stay in London after that.��


    ��If that��s the case, I��ll leave it in your capable hands.��


    Zhang Heng walked back into the box, opened the window, and leaped out of it in front of Holmes.


    The guards soon filled the box, but Zhang Heng was long gone. A stricken Holmes, however, was found lying on the ground dumbfounded.


    Zhang Heng had Lv1 rock climbing skills, and with a little assistance from the decorations on the walls outside the theater, he managed to rappel down with ease. The moment his feet touched the ground, the masquerading waiter exited the theater, bolting instantly in the opposite direction when he saw Zhang Heng. Not wasting a single second, Zhang Heng went after the escapee.


    The hot pursuit covered half of the street. West District was a very lively spot at night, where the roadsides were lit to the bone with old gasmps. Compared to the dark, dingy, wet cobblestones of East District, this ce was another country. Pedestrians strolled, and carriages rumbled on the streets. The turn of the 19th century saw nightlife blooming along London��s main business arteries. A rarity in that era, eateries, theaters, saunas, clubs, and many stores were still open for business after sunset.


    The waiter in disguise frantically searched around before finally racing into a barbershop. Zhang Heng followed him in, but only after a few running steps, he stopped in the alert. It was but toote. He heard the click of the door��s lock behind him.


    Meanwhile, several barbers who were chatting and reading newspapers rose in unison, grabbing the razors on the barber stations.


    Zhang Heng did a quick headcount of his enemies. Together with the apprentices, there were seven in total, all armed with the sharpest weapon they could get their hands on. This battle would by no means be easy, and he was all prepared to endure the uing challenge. He gestured for them to wait and slipped out of his suit. Like a mantis poised for its kill, he wiggled up his wrists and ankles, taunting the plump barber closest to him with a finger.


    As a response, the entire seven began to swarm around Zhang Heng. Having no intention to be had no intention to be tonight��s carving, he turned around and ran. The weakest looking kid of the bunch, probably about 14 or 15 years old, acted instantly, thrusting the razor forward, but Zhang Heng managed to dodge it. Not to be outdone, he picked up the kid��s cor and threw him over the shoulder at two assants. At that very instant, his bogey��s behind him had arrived.


    Zhang Heng dropped low, rolling quickly on the ground to avoid the attack. However, before he could get up, a small knife was drawn at his back. The enemies were ruthless. While Zhang Heng focused on dodging the attacks, he managed to pick up a knife the apprentice had dropped.


    Once he avoided the first blow, Zhang Heng subsequently blocked the second, and at the same time, grabbed hold of the knifed barber and tossed him to a mirror on the side. It caused the man a temporary loss of his fighting abilities, but at the cost of getting a deep gash on the left arm. The two barbers that had been rendered paralyzed had now caught up to him too.


    There wasn��t much choice except for plucking up courage and standing up. One split second was all Zhang Heng needed to grab another knife from the station beside him. He could now use both hands to attack. Armed, he gained the ability to defend himself fully. The caged battlegroundsted for about six minutes, and at the end of it all, four barbers, and one apprentice were defeated. The remaining two barbers were in exhaustion, gasping for breath. Zhang Heng wasn��t in good shape himself, now having a few sh wounds on his body. Fortunately, it wasn��t his face they went for.


    Sure, Zhang Heng had an endurance of a bull, but he had already endured a battle earlier at the theater. A sprint of pursuit then followed, consuming more of his stamina. Having spent all his energy, he no longer bothered to deal with the remaining two, leaning against the table, gasping with short, shallow breath.


    In these tense moments, someone suddenly knocked on the door, causing the entire room to jump in fright. Zhang Heng saw Holmes standing outside, signaling for someone to open the door for him. The two barbers merely looked at each other, and no one went and opened the door. Holmes shrugged, having no choice but to figure it himself. Holding his cane with two hands, he drove it into the door��s ss, shattering it to smithereens. He then and reached in with his right hand and unlocked the door from the inside.


    Seeing how the situation had escted, a barber rushed over to Holmes with a knife. However, Holmes still did not retract his hand. He waited for the opponent to get closer before hooking the barber��s neck with his cane. Along with the rod, the barber��s head was dragged into the door, jamming itself between the door and Holmes with an awful thump.


    After that, Holmes opened the door quickly and walked in. He put his cane on the ground. ��Sorry, did I interrupt you?�� he quizzed the room. ��A little bit, I would say. I thought you would have retreated to the safety of the carriage, well on your way to Scond Yard by now,�� Zhang Heng replied, wiping the sweat from his forehead.


    ��Ha! Nice move to let me deal with the police. Lucky for me, the theater��s guards know who I am, and the precinct��s deputy chief in the other box can testify for me as well,�� Holmes said. ��So, here we are. If you stayed for a little longer, you would have heard my warning. The man who pretended to be a waiter is a Prussian, and the Prussians in London happen to love them group fights. So, it wasn��t a coincidence you were ambushed. Best avoid Prussian ces when you are going after your target.��


    Holmes looked around, seeing the defeated Prussian barbers at his feet.


    ��However, I have to admit the results surprised me a bit. I know you��re a good fighter, but I didn��t have the faintest that you were this good.


    After saying that, Sherlock swung his cane at lightning speed, striking the only barber who was still standing. Thetter was about to escape, but his lower abdomen was smacked so hard that he fell on the ground.


    ��You are wee.��


    ��Is your neck better?�� Zhang Heng asked.


    ir 1


    ��It has seen better days... I don��t know. When this fiasco is over, I��ll probably visit the clinic for a basic checkup.��


    Holmes��s mood had turned sour after Zhang Heng mentioned his neck injuries. ��Is that guy still inside?�� he asked Zhang Heng while rubbing the sore spot.


    ��I don��t think so. Otherwise, I would have fought eight men instead of seven.��


    After that, Holmes walked to the back room. As expected, the window was wide open.


    ��Well, we are not without gain this time. At least, we got an answer to your second question.��


    ��Huh?��


    ��Aren��t you curious about how Mr. M knew the secret behind the viscount��s oil painting?��


    Holmes rubbed his chin.


    ��After this incident, I be more and more convinced that Mr. M is not acting alone. Since he has errand-boys, he would naturally have people helping him gather information. I��m afraid we didn��t simplye across a simple criminal this time. It��s a criminal organization. They have a clear division ofbor. Some are responsible for gathering information, some to the area, and some to bribe those around the target. Mr. M is the head of the snake. All he needs to do is to n.��


    Sherlock watched Zhang Heng pick up the dusty, wrinkled suit that had been trampled.


    ��Where are you going?�� he asked.


    ��Back to the theater to enjoy tonight��s interrupted show,�� Zhang Heng replied as he put on the suit again. ��Anyway, the ticket is a gift. It would be rude for me to leave halfway through the show. And, oh...�� Zhang Heng stopped at the door.


    ��You don��t have to thank me for saving your life.��


    ��I thought it had slipped your mind. Apparently not,�� said Holmes.


    ��It��s not easy to forget that red and bloated tomato of a face when you got strangled,�� chuckled Zhang Heng. ��I��m leaving,�� he waved. ��And I will leave you to deal with this mess. I didn��t kill any of them. Their injuries are only external.�� ��Well, the female lead is indeed gorgeous. I hope her fatal attraction on you won��tpromise our n, dear Oriental friend of mine,�� Holmes smiled, troubled, and with a cocked eyebrow.

 Chapter 506 - Show’s Over

    <h4>Chapter 506 Show��s Over</h4>


    Zhang Heng briefly treated his external injuries before returning to his seat at Queen��s Theatre. When he got there, the opera was alreadying to an end.


    Escamillo and Carmen walked into the crowd at the square outside the bullfighting arena with their heads up high. Carmen remained outside the ring as she watched the valiant Escamillio walking into it. It was around that time that the rowdy-looking Don Jose found her. He begged for reconciliation, but Carmen only remained indifferent. At the same time, loud cheers echoed in the arena.


    Escamillo defeated the bull. Carmen was ted, proceeding to take off the ring that Don Jose gave her and threw it on the ground. She wanted to rush into the ring to share the joy with her lover, but in a shocking turn of events, the desperate Don Jose took out the dagger that he prepared to stab Carmen. When the bull had returned, and the arena cleared, only Carmen remained, lying in a pool of her own blood.


    ��I killed her, Carmen, my dear Carmen!�� wailed Don Jose in agony as if the world hade to an end.


    At this point, the opera finally ended.


    Then all the y��s actors walked onto the stage. The lights came on, and the entire theater was filled with thunderous apuse. There were no doubts here that the new y ��Carmen�� was a runaway sess in London.


    Zhang Heng stood up as well, apuding and pping along with the people around him.


    After the performance was over, he headed backstage to congratte Irene Adler.


    Throngs of people formed lines to congratte the beautiful songstress, and even the wife of the prime minister went backstage to give her best wishes personally. Since she had more than her enough of her share of action, Zhang Heng wasn��t inclined to squeeze in and join the fight to congratte her. He simply stood there quietly, and only after the crowd had almost dispersed, did he approach Adler��s dressing table that was now like an overgrown greenhouse. There were so many flowers that she had to ce them next to her dressing table. As for the other actors, they received all but a few.


    ��I now know how much Londoners adore you,�� eximed Zhang Heng.


    ��Really? Pity that you��re not from London then. I saw you leave midway,�� Adler replied with a sly smirk.


    ��Uh... my friend and I have something urgent to deal with.��


    ��Well, I can see how urgent the matter is.�� Adler raised his eyebrows and pointed at Zhang Heng��s suit. ��You look a little worse for wear, almost catching up to Don Jose��s persona if you


    will.��


    ��Actually, I just visited the barber.��


    ��I see they haven��t the best service, considering the state you��re in. Mind telling me the name of the establishment? I��ll make sure to avoid it in the future,�� Adler chuckled.


    IIII


    As a person who had read the original works, Zhang Heng would, of course, be wary of Irene Adler. That being said, he had to concede that Irene Adler was indeed a very, very, attractive woman. It was no wonder that the King of Bohemia could never forget her. The king was the one at fault. He abandoned Adler in the quest for more power, and after marrying a Scandinavian princess, it led to the photo incident. Judging by Holmes��s attitude toward the case, he was more inclined to take Adler��s side. Not to mention how he became rather disgusted by what the king had done.


    That was why he only asked Adler��s picture as payment once the matter was over. At the same time, he refused to shake the king��s hand. Zhang Heng could probably understand Holmes��s appreciation for Irene Adler-she was indeed a brilliant and intriguing woman. Therefore, Zhang Heng decided to act as neutral as possible when dealing with her, careful not to be too elusive or zealous. Even a strong character like Sherlock Holmes did not always act alone. He had the Baker Street Irregrs and police officers that assisted him with his cases. He had friends from all manner of trades. If Zhang Heng wanted topete with him, he would need his friends for help.


    As one of the only four who had beaten Holmes, Irene Adler could just be an excellent candidate to aid Zhang Heng.


    ��Although you left the hallway, and I was a little mad at that, the very fact that you came back, in the end, makes me willing to forgive you. I��d like to also thank you for waiting outside to congratte me. Though, I see you brought no flowers with you,�� Adler battered her eyelids.


    It was a long night for many. When Zhang Heng returned to 221B Baker Street, Holmes hadn��t gone to bed, fiddling instead with an Amazon blowgun in his room. Earlier, he barely survived the attack, but now it seemed his spirits had returned to him.


    It was exactly as he said��the more difficult the problem, the more excited he would be. On the contrary, asking him to live an ordinary life was no different from murder. ��Interesting, you did not send her home,�� Sherlock observed, looking at Zhang Heng at the door.


    ��I don��t think we are close enough for that...�� replied Zhang Heng, ��...and don��t worry, my rtionship with her is not what you think it


    is.��


    ��Excellent. Otherwise, they would simply gain another ordinary man falling in love, but lose an excellent detective.��


    Zhang Heng did not continue the topic. ��Did you get anything useful from those barbers?�� he asked Sherlock, not wanting to dwell on the Adler topic.


    ��I��m d that you still remember our case, but unfortunately, as I guessed, they are not affiliated with Mr. M��s criminal gang. At least, I found out who beat us up in the theater tonight.��


    ��He beat you, but I beat him up for you. Thank you,�� Zhang Heng corrected. ��It doesn��t matter. Makes no difference to me. In short, that man is called Carlson. ording to him, he works in a gun factory. I believe the two pieces of information they gave me are 80% false. He got to know the group of barbers when they drank together. As I said, Prussians in London stick together in a group. He had gone into the barbershop, frantically telling them that bad guys were in pursuit of him. Hence, the barbers worked together to fight you off.��


    ��Wait, so, they didn��t know that man very well. That would mean you got nothing useful from them...�� Zhang Heng frowned.


    ��You��re right. But fortunately, I have fought him earlier, and I got something useful when he strangled me.��


    ��Mm?��


    Holmes put down the blowgun in his hand.


    ��That man has extraordinary skills. They are simple yet practical. When he put me down, I could see that he was in the army before. And he is definitely Prussian. I believe I��ve mentioned it to you before. Other than that, he is also a gambler. I saw the watch on his right hand-it should be quite valuable, but it has some sort of ticket number on it. It is exactly what London pawnshops would usually do. They would use a needle to engrave the number on the back of the watch, much like tagging the item with a pricetag��this was done to avoid confusion. Typically challenging to spot with the naked eye, I managed to touch it when I was struggling. There are at least three numbers, which means that he has pawned this watch three times. He would repurchase it from the pawnbroker each time, indicating that he acquires arge amount of money once in a while. So, the question is, where did that moneye from?�� ��Mr. M?��


    ��Yes, we will need to head to the casino tomorrow. I have a hunch we are very close to the mastermind behind the whole thing!�� said Holmes.

 Chapter 507 - New Discovery

    <strong>Chapter 507 New Discovery</strong>


    Regardless of creed and period, gambling had always stood to be one of humanity��s favorite choices for entertainment.


    19th century London was no exception. There were probably hundreds, if not thousands, counting pubs, street arm wrestling, and gambling houses, bothrge and small. The next evening, Holmes, Zhang Heng, and Vird met up at 221b Baker Street.


    ��Considering the nature of the bloke��s job, he won��t go to popr gambling houses,�� said Holmes. ��Pubs suit him better, and fighting clubs as well. Last night I had... a, uhh... an amicable conversation with the Prussian barbers, and I was able to find out the name of the tavern they usually gather at. We��ll use that as the basis for our search to improve efficiency.��


    ��So, we��ll be splitting up?�� Zhang Heng asked.


    ��Sure. We��ve both seen the man. Vird will go with you, and I will go on my own. But since they��ve seen our faces, we should put on a disguise,�� Holmes added with a thin beam on his face.


    He brought out two wigs and some makeup tools. ��Your skin color is a problem. You��ll stick out like a sore thumb in London, but most of that could be covered up with clothes and an application of soot on the face. It��s nighttime, so unless you take a real close look, you won��t be able to tell. Of course, you shouldn��t get too close to him.��


    Holmes immediately got to work. After a while, a batch of fresh soot was ready. Holmes had disguised himself as an old, chain-smoking sailor.


    Zhang Heng paid close attention, taking note of the techniques Holmes employed. Of course, it was all rtively elementary disguise, nowhere nearly as good and as fine of handiwork as Sherlock Holmes��s earlier coachman impression. Irene Adler��s gender-bender, gypsy busker disguise, on the other hand, was on a whole different level.


    Pockets filled with change, they left the apartment once all was ready. At the crossroads, Zhang Heng and Holmes each went in a different direction. Zhang Heng and Vird��s first stop was a pub called the Pigeon, but after sitting down for a drink, they discovered that the target wasn��t present. It appeared the Pigeon��s patrons were mostly refined gentlemen, and since there were only a handful of gamblers there, Zhang Heng and Vird left for the fight club next door.


    The atmosphere of the ce was crowded, stifling and deafening. Two brawny men battled it out in the ring while the others watched in eagerness. Through the mass of body odor and overflowing testosterone, Zhang Heng and Vird painstakinglybed through every corner of the ce. By the time they were done, the match was over. One of the fightersy motionless on the floor, unable to get up.


    The spectators erupted into cheers and apuse-obviously, these had ced their bets on the winner. In juxtaposition, there were also men with their faces buried in their hands, looking ravaged and destroyed. It was apparent that these were the unlucky ones tonight.


    Having been here a few times himself, Zhang Heng understood all too well how those who watched the game couldn��t help but wager a part of their money. The lure of easy money could have been the most infectious disease, where one would be infected with an almost instant effect the moment they saw how so much money could be made so easily. It was an infection that would force you to scratch that itch, despite the best abstinence efforts. There was a caveat to that, however, where most of the time, there was a much higher chance of making a loss.


    The French detective, against all odds, waspletely unaffected by any of this. Zhang Heng finally understood how Vird could garner praise from someone as austere as Holmes. Not only did he know how to bow and scrape, but he would also be absolutely unyielding once given a task,pletely focussed on the mission at hand. Each time he spotted someone that remotely fitted the target��s description, he would covertly approach Zhang Heng for confirmation. Despite their best efforts, neither of the two spotted the man who escaped from the opera house. Zhang Heng even suspected that he must have fled London after getting spooked byst night��s incident.


    But Holmes somehow adamantly insisted that he was still in the city.


    ��Even though he��s not the one who calls the shots, his caliber is difficult to rece. At this point, he won��t abandon the n just because of a small hup,�� Holmes reminded them in their earlier discussion.


    Subsequently, Zhang Heng and Vird visited two taverns and another fight club. And yet, perhaps it was just bad luck or juju that their expedition was again unfruitful, not to mention it was already getting dark.


    ��I wonder how Mr. Holmes is doing,�� asked Vird in exhaustion, wiping his forehead.


    But then, Zhang Heng suddenly stopped walking. Vird followed his partner��s gaze and saw that he was looking at a man that did not fit the target��s description. However, the red-haired detective carefully set his doubts aside and said nothing to deter Zhang Heng. When Vird looked back, Zhang Heng was leaning against the wall all of a sudden, stumbling wildly and emptying the contents of his stomach. Vird yed along, patting his friend on the back.


    The target in question didn��t seem to suspect anything. He merely nced over at the two gentlemen, and as if in a mighty hurry, he strode away as quickly as he could.


    Zhang Heng waited until the man had left before he terminated the act, getting to his feet.


    Vird could finally ask the question he��d been longing to ask. ��Who��s that?��


    ��One of the prime minister��s guards. We met at the opera housest night.��


    He was the one who wanted to put Zhang Heng in handcuffs. Because they had seen each others�� faces and Zhang Heng��s rudimentary disguise, Zhang Heng wanted to take no chances. Mulling over how Mr. M had bribed the maid to be fake the oil painting theft, Zhang Heng concluded that this was his modus operandi, and it seemed that he nned to use the same approach this time.


    ��What should we do? Should we go after him?�� asked the French detective.


    Zhang Heng considered the proposition, shaking his head after that. ��It would be great if we can find out who the new target is, but it doesn��t make sense to follow a guard. Do you remember where he came from?��.


    ��Of course,�� answered Vird.


    ��Let��s go see if the man I foughtst night is still there.��


    Zhang Heng and Vird entered the caf�� that the guard had just walked out of. It waste, and since it was nearly time to close, only a few customers remained. Even the waitresses were yawning and stretching their arms. Zhang Heng looked around, but the Prussian was nowhere to be seen.


    Zhang Heng and Vird decided to expand their search scope, but unfortunately, there wasn��t a single trace of the waiter fromst night. Deciding that it was time to call it a day, they rejoined Holmes two blocks away.


    When the private detective heard Zhang Heng��s ount of what took ce, he nodded.


    ��You��re right. The person who was bribed is not part of the group. Bribery aside, since we can��t prove it just yet��if you had apprehended him, it would��ve caused Mr. M and his group to panic. Conversely, now that we know who their next target is, and we have the advantage here. Let��s y this game with them.��

 Chapter 508 - Closing in on the Truth

    <strong>Chapter 508 Closing in on the Truth</strong>


    Holmes decided not to tell the Prime Minister what happened that night.


    Zhang Heng had no objections, but Vird felt differently about it-he thought that it was not very gentleman-like since it meant using the prime minister as bait. But since he wasn��t a British citizen, he felt it wasn��t his ce to make anyments. So, in the end, Holmes got what he wanted.


    The Baker Street Irregrs were summoned once again. This time, Holmes made an appearance himself. During the day, he would dress up as a cobbler, setting up a booth nearby the prime minister��s residence. At night, he yed a drunk on the streets.


    Two dayster, he managed to make four shillings from repairing shoes, but still, no sign of the elusive Prussian.


    Even so, Holmes didn��t get perturbed at all. He only slept three hours a day, yet still seemed to be filled with energy, even in the mood to y the violin when he had the time.


    Zhang Heng and Vird, on the other hand, spent their time stomping in the belly of London��s pubs and fighting clubs, hoping to find the perpetrator. To their disappointment, like Holmes, neither of them yielded anything. Then, on the morning of the third day, Zhang Heng received unexpected news that Holmes was arrested.


    He rushed to the police station, apanied by Vird. The private detective was found seated on a bench, chin resting on his hands, and seemingly deep in thought. Zhang Hengpleted the bail procedure, and Holmes was subsequently released.


    Holmes collected a shoe brush and toolbox from the police officer and walked out of the pound without saying a word. This worried Zhang Heng and Vird.


    The moment he got into the carriage, Holmes broke into a fit ofughter. ��Hah! It appears that I��ve underestimated our opponent!��


    ��Huh?��


    ��It��s all rather embarrassing,�� Holmes sighed. ��I haven��t been this abashed in such a long time. I went there to spy on them, but instead, I was found out and given a good beating. Someone informed the officer patrolling on that street that a suspicious individual had been seen outside the prime minister��s residence. Thus, I was arrested. I��m well acquainted with the police, but since this involves the prime minister, they weren��t able to release me immediately, except on bail, of course.��


    ��They saw through your disguise?��


    ��Rather, it had been all a trap since the beginning,�� said Holmes. ��It��s safe to say that we��ve been targeted. Probably because we attempted to find the Prussian based on the information we had on the night at the opera. But the enemy clearly did their homework as well, and boy, did they do pretty well. It appears they now know where we stay and what I do. They have been monitoring us, and what happened today must have been a warning directed to me...��


    ��Warning?��


    ��Yes. It seems they do not wish for me to be involved,��mented Holmes. ��But at the same time, it means we��re very close to the truth.��


    ��Sorry to interrupt,�� The French detective scratched his head, ��but did I miss something? Haven��t these two days been unfruitful? Why are we suddenly close to the truth?��


    ��I don��t know yet, but we must have done something these past few days that made them nervous. I��ve been trying to determine what it is even before you came,�� Holmes said.


    He reached into his pocket, only to find his pipe was missing. Where did it go? Oh yeah, he had changed his clothes earlier.


    Vird quickly took out his own pack of cigarettes from his pocket and offered Holmes a stick using both hands.


    ��Don��t worry. Let me think about it a little bit more,�� said Holmes, taking in a long drag.


    As Holmes mulled over the issue, Zhang Heng recollected the events during the past few days to see if he had missed anything. It wasn��t long before the two looked at each other and cried Eureka! almost simultaneously. ��What is it???��


    Vird was burning with curiosity, wishing so badly that he could just climb into the brains of Zhang Heng and Holmes.


    ��Are you thinking what I��m thinking?�� Holmes asked Zhang Heng.


    Zhang Heng looked at Vird.


    ��You mentioned that all of Mr. M��s crimes weremitted in France. This indicates he is very likely a Frenchman.��


    ��And Carmen is a French opera...��


    ��...yes, that��s all true.�� The French detective frowned. ��So?��


    ��Carmen first premiered in Paris before London, and Mr. M happens to be here in London at the same time,�� replied Zhang Heng. ��Could it be just a coincidence?�� ��Hold on. Are you inferring that Mr. M is connected to the opera troupe?�� ��That would exin why they were so nervous,�� said Zhang Heng. ��...nervous because we showed up the opera,�� Holmes continued. ��They must have thought that we were close to finding Mr. M.��


    ��I��m going to pay Ms. Adler a visit and see if any of the troupe members are French and had arrived in London recently,�� Zhang Heng announced.


    Half an hourter, Zhang Heng arrived at Irene Adler��s ce. After Zhang Heng reported his name, the housekeeper weed him, telling him to wait in the living room. Upon entering the house, he heard someone ying the piano on the second floor.


    ��Ms. Adler is practicing. Please wait a moment,�� said the housekeeper. ��Alright.��


    Zhang Heng sat himself down on a sofa while the housekeeper made him a cup of tea. After about a quarter of an hour, the music stopped, and the opera songstress emerged from the stairs.


    ��Look who��s here! It appears we have an extraordinary guest, Mr. Zhang Heng,�� Irene quipped. The white dress she was in today made her look like a blooming lily.


    Knowing how perspicacious irene could be, Zhang Heng went straight to the point and rted everything to her.


    The opera singer looked stunned. ��It all makes sense now. You left that night because of this case.��


    caus


    ��I hope you won��t take any offense, Ms. Adler.��


    ��Irene. Just call me Irene,�� answered the singer. ��How could I me a man who works so hard to make London a safer ce for all of us?��


    ��It��s strictly a pro bono job,�� said Zhang Heng. ��So, perhaps it would be more appropriate to call it a hobby.��


    ��That makes it even more admirable, doesn��t it?�� said Irene. Sitting adjacent to Zhang Heng, she poured herself a cup of tea.


    ��The person you��re looking for actually exists. He��s the troupe��s French consultant. During rehearsals, he onlymunicates with the team through telegrams, but the London premiere is of great importance, so he came here all the way from France. I must say though, that I don��t fancy him very much. He might appear humble on the surface, but I can tell how he��s a very proud man, constantly looking down on people��women especially. Of course, he��s very good at his job; but unfortunately, he��s not the smartest person in the troupe-as he would like to think.��

 Chapter 509 - Case Over

    <strong>Chapter 509 Case Over</strong>


    ��Yuri, he asked me to have dinner with him before, but I rejected him. He probably thought that I was the same as those women from the French opera troupe that allowed him to do whatever that pleased him,�� said Irene Adler while putting down the teacup in her hand. ��I can give you Yuri��s address, and I can even ask him out for you, but what good is it for me?��


    ��What do you want?�� Zhang Heng asked. ��Hmm...I haven��t figured it out yet.�� Irene blinked.


    ��Let me know after you figure out what you want.��


    ��Sounds good to me,�� replied Irene Adler. ��In this case, Yuri is yours.��


    At the Royal Hotel.


    Irene was sitting opposite a French man looking to be about 40 years old. Thetter was going on about Paris��s artistic atmosphere and how many outstanding artists were born there. Irene Adler was looking at the man with admiration, greatly ting the Frenchman.


    ��It��s a pity that Bizet is no longer there. I can introduce other ys to you, though. I have many contacts from the Paris Music Festival, so if you get tired of staying in London anding to Paris, please contact me.��


    ��Oh, you think too highly of me! I can only speak a few French words. It would be hard getting used to Paris, let alone singing there.��


    ��It��s okay. Language can be learned,�� Yuri wiped his mouth with a napkin. ��You are very talented. Whether your appearance or singing skills, once you have mastered French, and coupled with my resources, you will be the best in Paris. You will also be one of the few female singers who have seeded in France and Ennd.��


    Irene burst into a giggle when she heard the words, seemingly yearning for the beautiful reality depicted by Yuri. She then raised her ss in her hand and said, ��Please, forgive me for being rude. I didn��t know you were this funny and interesting. You arepletely different from other men that I have met!��


    ��At my age, nothing more is left except for a little experience and a bad sense of humor.��


    Yuriughed at himself and raised the ss in his hand. He had always been polite, making him hard to fault. When his eyes shed over Irene��s chest, he could feel that an imperceptible heat ignited him.


    His experience told him that his remarks should have conquered Adler��s heart. He assumed she was nowpletely mesmerized by the beautiful prospects that he portrayed, meaning that he was about to get what he wanted-maybe even as soon as tonight.


    Yuri was pleased when he noticed that Irene had taken the initiative to drink first. Once she became drunk here, he could...


    Instead of that, Yuri felt dizzy first. He knew the amount of alcohol he just consumed, and never before had he gotten drunk only after two sips. Yuri immediately realized that there must have been a problem with the wine. His heart sank.


    Despite all that, he didn��t suspect Irene, believing that some other enemies must have targeted him. It was also amon mistake made by most men:


    Underestimating women. Even a powerful character like Sherlock Holmes could have fallen for Irene Adler. This time, the famous Mr. M was no exception. Yes, yearned badly for the attention of the people around him to help him, but he was also a cautious man. Even on a date, his bodyguard would tag along. A few secondster, his head fell into in Irene��s arms.


    ��Oh, Mr. Yuri, you look a little drunk. It��s fine. I will send you back,�� Irene purred gently.


    She then called the waiter and asked him to go downstairs to call for a carriage. Holmes, disguised as a coachman, walked into the restaurant behind the waiter and carried Yuri to the carriage with Irene.


    The bodyguard at the other table was lost. Uncertain if Yuri was drunk or about to be taken advantage of by that woman, he stayed in his spot. Yuri had already been carried downstairs by that time. The bodyguard hurriedly paid the bill, but the carriage was already gone when he came out of the restaurant.


    Suddenly, someone patted him on the shoulder.


    Zhang Heng and Vird quickly sandwiched him.


    A week had passed since the brewing of the oil painting case. Holmes��s tactics of capturing the mastermind behind the criminal organization had been a great sess. All members of Mr. M��s gang were found and arrested. The viscount retrieved the missing oil paintings from his porcin vase, and Vird had safely returned to France.


    However, Holmes still needed to figure out a way to deal with Mr. M, a mastermind of countless crimesitted. Hence, it made him a criminal. Strangely, for all the crimes hemitted, none of his victims dared to speak up or report the crime. In other words, it was difficult to convict him through legal means.


    When Yuri woke up, he realized that he had fallen into a trap. However, he noticed that Holmes could not do anything with him. In the end, Zhang Heng was the one that managed to force him to unveil information of his plices. After Mr. M swore he would never return to London, and Sherlock Holmes allowed him a safe return to France.


    Zhang Heng too had gained something after this case. The ��criminal investigation�� skill appeared on his character panel, something that could be regarded as a reward for studing this period��s cases and participating in an investigation in person. In addition, apprehending Mr. M earned him 15 game points.


    That said, the main task he cared about the most was still unfinished. Zhang Heng initially thought that with Irene��s help, he would be the first to discover Mr. M��s true identity. In fact, it was exactly how this case ended, but the system didn��t seem to recognize this result.


    Zhang Heng guessed that it was because Holmes was the one that made most of the deductions. And in the end, it was also Holmes��s deduction that spooked Mr. M. After that, the two thought of the opera troupe at about the same time. Hence, the system didn��t recognize Zhang Heng as the first to find the criminal.


    Naturally, Zhang Heng became a little resentful, but he wasn��t too upset. At least, he��d now figured out the way to win this game. And he saw the hope of winning. Although this wasn��t an easy path to go down, time was still on his side, fortunately. After this case, he came to the realization that Holmes was only human and could make mistakes. His self-correction ability was terrible to the point he managed to see through Mr. M��s defenses in the oil painting case.


    In the end, Zhang Heng always felt that there was another reason why Holmes chose to release Mr. M. He had asked Holemes about this before, to which Holmes only replied with a smile. After that, he reproduced his violin.


    ��I��d like to listen to ��Carmen�� again. It is indeed a good opera show. Your friend, Miss Adler��s performance, is lovely. I��m fond of one of the sessions. Let me y for you right now.��

 Chapter 510 - A Little Game

    <strong>Chapter 510 A Little Game</strong>


    Before he knew it, Zhang Heng had been in Victorian London for five months now.


    He had gradually grown ustomed to the thick smog covering the Thames, the din and chaos of the underground fight clubs, and the Englishman��sck for culinary imagination and creativity.


    On the other hand, his skills had progressed expeditiously��his criminal investigation skills reached Lv1 three months ago and the few cosmetic lessons that he picked upter in the quest also earned him a Lv1st month. On top of that, thanks to frequent interaction with Irene, he learned a lot about 19th-century music, literature, and arts.


    ��Art appreciation�� was even added to his list of skills, though it was only at level o at the moment.


    Ms. Adler was of great assistance to the oil painting case, but she never asked for any favors in return, as if she hadpletely forgotten about it. She treated Zhang Heng like a mate, but considering her intelligence and cunning, he never believed for a second that the incident hadpletely slipped her mind.


    He only hoped that whatever request she was brewing wouldn��t be anything too troublesome. For now, at least, they were getting along reasonably well. Holmes, on the other hand, was a little trickier.


    When they first met, Sherlock Holmes was rather gentlemanly, and although there was the asional act of delinquency, it was nothing that put anyone in real trouble. However, as time went by, the two became like couples who had outlived their honeymoon and were gradually revealing their true selves to each other.


    Holmes would often conduct all sorts of experiments in his bedroom, and other than when he snuck a corpse into the house, he nearly burnt the whole building down-Mrs. Hudson was especially miffed about this. Then there was the sensuous melody of Sherlock��s legendary violin in the wee hours of the morning, a spectacle Zhang Heng was fortunate enough to have heard...


    But every time he ��got into trouble,�� Holmes would apologize earnestly to Zhang Heng shortly after that. Knowing Holmes as Holmes, he would then repeat the same offense the next time.


    Fortunately, other than these minor frictions, life on Baker Street was a fairly pleasant one.


    Zhang Heng learned more than he ever did before from Holmes-not only his method of deductions, but also all manner of recherch��, amalgamated into a wealth of practical knowledge. Of course, determining the target��s direction based on shoe impressions on mud was only useful in the 19th-century. Back in the 21st-century, such an approach was ineffective with modern concereteyered cities. Although that was the case, learning all about it was in itself a very interesting experience, even more so when the pair worked on cases together.


    The main objective of this game was to solve a case and find the criminal before Holmes did, though, if the plot developement matched the one in the book word for word, there would be no beating the yer who knew the answer even if a hundred Sherlock Holmes were to be put together. Zhang Heng realized that at the beginning of the quest.


    In fact, up until now, none of the cases they had worked on were the same as the ones in the original text. By this time, Holmes and Watson would havepleted the ��A Study in Scarlet�� case. This never happened in this game. Zhang Heng expected this, of course, because it made perfect sense��the game would just be testing yers�� familiarity with the novel if it did.


    It wasn��t as if there was nothing to worry about, though. If Irene Adler had appeared, then what about Holmes�� other notorious arch enemy? Would he be appearring in this quest as well?


    Enter Professor Moriarty, a man Holmes described as the Napoleon of Crime. He was the most powerful criminal mastermind in all of Europe, establishing himself as kingpin of London��s criminal empire, where half of all the crimes in the city were rted to him. Descriptions of the professor in the novel were few and far between, making him one of Doyle��s more mysterious characters.


    That said, he wasn��t excatly ambigious either.


    In the book, Moriarty was mathematics professor at a small university in Ennd, and was a well-known figure in academia. Surprisingly, after consulting several lecturers from the mathematics department, Zhang Heng discovered that none had ever heard of the name Moriarty. Even the professor��s acimed academic piece, ��The Dynamics of an Asteroid �� was nowhere to be found in bookstores.


    Of course, these signs alone weren��t necessarily an indication that Moriarty wouldn��t make an appearance in this game. Henceforth, Zhang Heng would remain vignt of this criminal mastermind.


    He and Holmes both didn��t know that another case was creeping upon them.


    It was azy afternoon, and Zhang Heng and Holmes werezing on a bench in the park, snacking on sandwiches and ying the game they had been ying a little too much recently.


    Zhang Heng rested his chin on his hands as he looked at ady with a puppy walking past. ��Definitely married, at least two husbands, and has a child. Her living conditions aren��t as good as they used to be, loves jewelry but is stingy with her maids, and, in fact, has a disdian for animals. She has one only because everyone else does, and she feels pets are simply extra trouble for the maids. She smokes, enjoys the asional drink, and has recently attended a ball.��


    ��Appendage��the child she gave birth to is gone!�� said Holmes.


    ��Huh?��


    ��I��m d you noticed that she had given the candy in her pockets to the children on the street. Generally, a person who has children in the family would carry sweets on them, but if you paid attention to the way she looked at those children, you can see that within the affection, lies a hint of jealousy. To boot, shees here every week to distribute candies to the neighboring kids. If you have a child of your own and that child is well and alive, trust me, you won��t be so caring towards other children.��


    ��You��re cheating. You��ve seen the target before!��


    ��No, it��s experience,�� replied Holmes in an instant as he shook his head. ��I often came to this park, so I have the relevant experience. You must know that all reasoning is based on experience. You can��t possibly expect me to abandom them when I make deductions, my oriental friend.��


    ��Alright, next.�� Holmes pointed to a man not far from where they were seated. ��Typist, has a wife, a Freemason, and has been to China. The pipe in his hand is of great importance to him, ys ser, and was probably in the Navy in his younger days.�� ��I can tell that he��s been in the Navy, but the part about ser��was it because he was observing the children y on the street?��


    ��Not just that. Earlier on, when the ball rolled over to his side, he gave it a respectable kick. But you didn��t see it probably because you were busy gnawing on that sandwich.��


    ��What about the pipe? Why would you say that it��s essential to him?��


    ��Oh, that��s very obvious, my friend.�� Holmes smiled. ��That pipe only costs six to seven shillings, but the silver hoops it had been repaired with costs more than the pipe itself. Most people would have just bought a new one.��

 Chapter 511 - Whitechapel Serial Homicides

    <strong>Chapter 511 Whitechapel Serial Homicides</strong>


    Zhang Heng tossed a half-pound gold coin to Holmes, the money for the bet they��d made before.


    Sherlock took the coin and slipped it into his pocket, a rare contented smile appearing across his face. ��Don��t be discouraged, my friend from the far-east; you have progressed greatlypared to a few months ago. As I said, you onlyck understanding of this city, but these things cannot be rushed. Live in London for three to five years and I��m sure you��ll know most of its crooks and nannies.��


    ��But if one wants to surpass the great dectective, I am afraid he will need more than three to five years.�� Zhang Heng said.


    ��This is something that has always intrigued me.�� Holmes tore up the remainder of his sandwich and threw tiny bits of it to a flock of feral pigeons nearby. ��You seem to be very obsessed, trying to outdo me at every corner. Why is it so important to you?��


    ��Climbing the highest peak has always been a climber��s ultimate dream.�� Sherlock Holmes smiled. ��You tter me-my eastern friend sees me as the tallest mountain in my field of work.�� Just when Zhang Heng thought Holmes had changed, he added, ��Well, I don��t think I can find a detective better than me.��


    Zhang Heng wanted to defeat Holmes, not because he was dying to be the best detective, but simply because the main mission required it. It was also something he had struggled toplete ever since this game started. It had been more than a hundred days since he entered this world, and fortunately, his extra 24 hours provided him with another 240 days of game time. Nevertheless, after so many cases, he still failed to defeat Holmes even once.


    This arrogant, impossible man of a Victorian sleuth was nothing less but a legend.


    However, after stripping off the halos surrounding Holmes, living with him for a period allowed Zhang Heng to peer into the real, true person Sherlock Holmes was. He was really just a man, not a god, meaning that even he made mistakes and had his share of weaknesses. Whether he liked it or not, Zhang Heng had to admit that Holmes was leagues ahead of him in a fair contest, not to mention how Holmes was in a familiar setting. There was indeed an apparent gap between the two of them and a ratherrge one at that.


    Zhang Heng never thought he��d never beat Holmes, though.


    Holmes��s hubris was justified, and as he said, he was truly the best detective of the era. Zhang Heng wasn��t that bad, on the other hand. The two were simr in more ways than they��d like to think, both equipped with excellent observation, reasoning, and an uncannyposure under duress.


    He was confident that he could fill in the gap between him and Holmes. Afterpleting so many games, Zhang Heng was no longer the innocent student he once was. Based on Holmes��s ability to reason, he estimated his criminal investigation skills were probably at the top of Lv.3.


    With Irene��s assistance, and when his criminal investigation skills had reached Lv. 2, he might just be able to Defeat Holmes. Instead, thepetition appeared to have already begun, something Zhang Heng expected would only happen after he had gotten a bit of practice.


    ��Look at this.��


    Holmes handed over the newspapers in his hands to Zhang Heng, ��It seems our dull existence about to end soon.��


    Zhang Heng took the newspaper, and when he saw the headline, he was stunned.


    (The Whitechapel serial murderer has sent a letter of provocation to Scond Yard. The public hopes the police will apprehend the culprit as soon as possible!)


    Seeing the Whitechapel serial murders, Zhang Heng couldn��t help but think of an unsolved case. Reading on, the news matched what he was thinking of.


    What was London��s most infamous criminal case at the end of the 19th century? It was none other than the case of Jack the Ripper.


    In just three months, six women were murdered around the Whitechapel area of London��s East End (five of the victims were generally thought to be rted to Jack the Ripper). All of them were prostitutes and were killed using ruthless and brutal methods. Due to ack of substantial evidence, the case remained unsolved, and to this day, Jack the Ripper��s identity remained a mystery. Many theories subsequently surfaced about who he was, but the case gradually grew cold as time went by.


    If Zhang Heng��s memory served him right, then Jack the Ripper had started his killing spree in the fall of 1888. It was now in 1881. He surely didn��t expect to bump into the case seven years beforehand, though, and realized how this might just turn out to be his golden opportunity. Although hundreds of years had passed, interest in the Whitechapel murders of 1888 hadn��t diminished. In fact, Jack the Ripper remained a hot topic that would be fervently discussed among future generations, where numerous films and novels depicting him sprouted like mushrooms after the rain in the modern world.


    Whether police, detectives, or fanboys, they had always sought to find the real serial killer. No matter howpelling some of the theories were, none were convincing and conclusive. It meant the gap between Holmes and Zhang Heng had finally drawn closer. Holmes had the home advantage, but Zhang Heng was equipped with all kinds of weird fan-based theories thatter generations hade up with. Zhang Heng knew very well that this game wasn��t going to be so simple as the previous ones.


    The victims, for instance, all the names of the victims, differed from the original cases. Jack the Ripper would choose his target randomly, and since his killing spree had started seven years earlier, many victims of the actual cases hadn��t even began bing prostitutes yet. Thus, these women wouldn��t be the targets of Jack the Ripper. This time, intervals between the prostitute murders had increased significantly. Thus far, three people had already been killed in just half a month. Meanwhile, news publishers had also received the first letter with a ��Dear Boss�� written on it.


    The murderer��s arrogant attitude shook up the entire Scond Yard. Most didn��t think that the murderer himself wrote the letter. As a result of the many unknowns, panic began to fester withing the East End bowels, amongst them, prostitutes and women that lived alone. The police had also started to receive k for the way the case was handled.


    No wonder Holmes said his boring life was over after he read the news. The two did not stay in the park any longer, where Holmes hurriedly gged down a carriage to return to 221B Baker Street. As he expected, two other carriages were parked by the side of the road. ��It seems that we have many visitors today,�� Holmes said while knocking on the door.


    The door opened to a very disturbed Mrs. Hudson. Obviously, she had never witnessed a scene as such before. Seeing Zhang Heng and Holmes had returned, she let out a massive sigh of relief.


    ��Thank god, you two are back! I have never seen so many police in my life! I wouldn��t be too worried about Zhang Heng being the good,w-abiding, courteous man he is. As for our Mr. Holmes, what trouble have you caused us again?��


    ��Don��t worry. This is work!�� Holmes chuckled delightfully, adding, ��And what a terrible judge of character you are! Our eastern friend here is not as harmless as you thought, Mrs. Hudson. You have never seen his performance in the boxing ring. He is a total beast.��

 Chapter 512 - Handwriting

    <h4>Chapter 512 Handwriting</h4>


    Zhang Heng and Holmes entered the living hall, and 221 Baker Street was as Mrs. Hudson had described-unusually crowded.


    Apart from the familiar faces of Gregson and Lestrade, even the deputy chief of police was there, and it was inly written on his face that he was in a rotten mood. Seeing their chief pace back and forth by the window, none of the officers dared ensconce themselves on the settee either.


    So, the whole group of men stood around the drawing-room. Though plenty of seating was avable, no one dared to rest their bums. It was quite a funny sight, except that no one wasughing-every face in the room disyed an expression of grim and solemnness.


    Only when Holmes walked in did the group unanimously let out an audible sigh of relief.


    ��It looks like none of you have been sleeping well these days,�� said Holmes. ��Lestrade, did you have oatmeal and omelet for breakfast?��


    ��It��s not the time for jokes!�� the small, wiry inspector smiled bitterly.


    The deputy chief looked up at Holmes like a drowning man clutching at a straw. He marched toward the private detective, offered a hand, and chriped cordially, ��I��ve heard a lot about you! Lestrade, Hopkins, and the others often mentioned you, telling me that you��re the best detective London has ever seen, possibly even Europe! Also, we haven��t had the time to thank you properly for your assistance in the Thames case.��


    ��Oh, it is all but a minor matter.�� Holmes returned the chief��s handshake before motioning his guest to take a seat.


    Only when their deputy sat down did the rest of the Scond Yarders finally rest their feet.


    The deputy chief had apparently done his homework beforeing to Baker Street. It was already informed of the Eastern detective who worked alongside Holmes��the reason why he made noment on the matter and dove straight into the issue at hand. He looked at Holmes with eyes filled with anticipation.


    ��I believe you are aware of the reason for our visit.��


    ��The Whitechapel homicide,�� Holmes smiled, reaching for his pipe. ��I saw it in the newspapers.�� He paused for a minute, then continued, ��Left-handed, male, between the ages 30 and 40, not the most steadfast of characters, unstable, is traditional and conservative.��


    ��How could you tell?�� The deputy chief shook his head, looking stumped but impressed. ��We haven��t even presented the case to you. Or, could you have covertly been to the scene? In fact, information published on the papers has been somewhat tweaked, not to conceal the truth, but to curb unnecessary unrest from brewing among the public.��


    Holmes pointed at a picture of the article with his pipe. ��This might have been edited, but the picture is real. All my inferences are based not on the article��s description but rather on the handwriting on the letter sent to the publisher.��


    ��Oh?!�� The deputy chief eximed, bemused. ��You could tell all from the handwriting alone?��


    ��Of course. Just like art, a good graphologist can see beyond the literal word.��


    The deputy chief looked skeptical, so Holmes took the initiative to exin his deduction. ��I won��t talk about age��it��s going to be rather troublesome. If you��re really interested to know, look it up in the paper I published two years ago. There is an obvious disparity between the handwriting of the old and the young. Theoretically, the age of an author could be told from their handwriting. Of course, learning all these takes a lot of practice. Telling apart the handwriting of a male and female is elementary since each gender has thier own aesthetic deviations. A lefty is easy to tell as well. Notice those ink stains on the letter? When you write with your left hand, the side of palm tends to rub against the paper, which is why there are smeared blotches all over the letter.��


    ��Then what about the theory of the killer being weak of character, unstable and conservative? How were you able to tell?�� asked the deputy chief in even more intrigue than he already was.


    ��Notice that the tall letters are not the same height as the short ones-see how his d��s look like a��s, and the i��s and e��s are the same sizes. People with strong personalities tend to write with a clear distinction between the short and tall alphabets. As presented here, this shows the exact opposite of that. Simrly, you can see that his k��s are all written in different sizes, implying that he has an unstable personality. But the capitals are elegant, an indication he is a conservative person.


    ��That��s everything I could deduce from the handwriting. But your doubts are not unfounded, and since there no evidence points to the writer of this letter being the murderer, we cannot rule out the possibility of someone trying to meddle with the police.��


    The deputy chief candidly responded, ��You have proven more than once that you are good at what you do. I��ll be frank here and tell you that the police are under great pressure to solve this case, not only from the parliament but also from Her Majesty the Queen herself. She has decreed that we solve the case within a specific period, but so far, we haven��t found any leads yet. You know what the East End is likeplicated and a cespool of criminals and their offspring. Gregson and his men have identified a few suspects, but one after another, they were ruled out. Now, we have... lost our bearings, so we��vee to you for help. If we can solve the case on schedule, we will reward you handsomely!��


    ��You��re too kind,�� Holmes nodded, bowing politely. ��I happen to be very interested in this case if I say so myself��even if I don��t get paid, I would still do it.��


    The deputy chief was ecstatic to hear the private detective��s answer. ��That��s absolutely wonderful! This is the best thing I��ve heard all day! It��s almost noon now, and I��ve booked a table at a restaurant for you and your friend...��


    Holmes interrupted the deputy, ��I��m the type who forgets everything else the moment he starts working. Thus, there is no need to eat. In fact, we should begin now, if possible.��


    ��Oh? That��s even better, even better!�� the deputy chief nodded vigorously. ��I heard that you know Lestrade and the lot. If there��s anything you need, just give them the orders then. As long as it��s within our capability, we will do our best to provide you whatever assistance you require.�� Lestrade and other officers flushed with embarrassment. It wasn��t as if the Scond Yarders hadn��t approached Holmes for help; it was because it made them look ignominiousthey might as well have publicly announced the ipetence of London police. On top of that, they could also clearly hear the disapproving tone in their deputy chief��s voice when he mentioned the Yarders.


    Holmes said nothing about it, though. Getting up from his seat, he said, ��Well, gentlemen, if that��s the case, let��s get to work!��

 Chapter 513 - Autopsy

    <strong>Chapter 513 Autopsy</strong>


    After the visit to Sherlock Holmes, the Deputy Commissioner hurriedly left, dealing with pressure from the media and the parliament. The other officers returned to their jobs, too, leaving only Lestrade in the apartment.


    Although solving Whitechapel��s serial killings had suddenly be the police task force��s top priority, it certainly didn��t mean they could abandon all their other duties and cases. As thergest city in Europe and the world, police work was challenging, to say the least, not to mention how it was now an eventful season for the city. Whitechapel��s homicides spurred a flurry of copycats, serving to rile up potential criminals tempted tomit evil. Coupled with the growing panic among its citizens, the entire London police force was forced to cancel their vacations and return to work.


    Lestrade had been following up with the Whitechapel cases since the first murder appeared. He was also the person who knew the case best. Naturally, he was the best candidate to stick around and help the two sleuths.


    The three got out of the carriage, and there was a morgue not far away. So far, three women had been killed, all ranging from ages 34 to 50. The first two victims�� bodies had been returned to their families for their final rites, and the third victim was killed two days ago. No family came forward to im her body, and it was still there as a result.


    When Sherlock Holmes was about to enter the morgue, he was stopped by Zhang Heng. ]


    ��Can you give us some time?��


    Lestrade gestured politely with his hands, stepped aside, and waited patiently.


    ��For this case... I hope the two of us can work separately,�� said Zhang Heng to Holmes. ��Oh?�� Holmes asked with a curious look, ��...why?��


    ��I would simply like to verify what I have learned during this time.��


    Holmes looked into his eyes, leaving Zhang Heng to wonder if Sherlock Holmes had seen through him. However, in the end, Holmes just smiled, saying, ��Fine. The more, the merrier. Your joining only serves to makes this matter more interesting. If that��s the case, let��s bet on who catches the murderer first. The loser is doomed to supply two tickets to an opera at the Queen��s Theater.��


    ��Are grand ys a new addiction of yours?�� Zhang Heng didn��t hesitate and agreed to the


    bet.


    The conversation between the two took less than a minute. They then called Lestrade back, and thetter started to introduce the case.


    ��The deceased was called Bernice, a 46-year-old woman. Like the two previous victims, she was also a prostitute living in the East End��s worst parts. Her body was found at the fence behind the cheap apartment where she lived. She was first discovered by a coachman who went by the name of ter. We can technically rule him out as a suspect.��


    The stumpy police officer lifted the shroud covering the body and continued. ��Our pathologist estimates that she was killed was around five in the morning. Her neck was slit by a sharp knife, hence the cause of death. The modus operandi is simr to the other two murders that we encountered before this. After she died, the murdered mutted her body. When the coachman found her, a section of her bowels had been thrown over her right shoulder.��


    As he exined the gruesome murder, Lestrade passed some photos of the scene to Holmes and Zhang Heng.


    ��The difference is that part of her uterus and abdomen had also been cut away. This piece of the puzzle baffles us. I simply can��t imagine why the murderer would go to this end.. what was his purpose?�� Lestrade went on, unable to stop a hint of concern and anxiety from seeping through hisposed nature.


    Holmes��s eyes lit up, but he did not rush to say anything. Instead, he asked Zhang Heng, ��You go first, or me?��


    ��You go first.�� Zhang Heng was still studying the photos, including that of the two previous victims. He looked hard, sifting through them, trying not to miss out on even the slightest detail. At the same time, he was interested to know how his inferencespared to those ofter generations.


    It wasn��t that Zhang Heng didn��t realize how unrealistic beat Sherlock Holmes by relying on his Lv.1 criminal investigation skills. He hadn��t the slightest room for faults this round, not to mention how letting Holmes go first was actually a strategic move so he could observe where he ced his attention.


    On the other hand, Holmes wasn��t the least bothered by the fact that he had to go first. He immediately took out the magnifying ss he often used from his pocket and walked to the body. Suddenly, Holmes seemed to transform into this incredibly sharp hunting hound, sniffing around the corpse in excitement. He even put his face up to the rotting body, although the putrid odor is emitted. Five minutester, Holmes put away the magnifying ss with a look of satisfaction on his face. It was now Zhang Heng��s turn.


    As if the start of a boxing match, Zhang Heng inhaled sharply as he closed in on the corpse. In the past few months of tailing Holmes, he had gained heaps of valuable knowledge, where he made significant progress in anatomy, forensic anthropology, and wound inspection. All these meant that the body in front of him was now a treasure trove filled with clues, and he was equipped with the right tools to harvest them.


    He first noticed a foul stench of alcohol in the air andter found the deceased��s skin to be reddish, suspected to be caused by tngiectasia. Combined with the smell of alcohol, this indicated that the victim had a long-term drinking habit. Later Zhang Heng also noticed the fatal wound on the neck. It wasn��t clean-cut and straightforward, but the murderer had brutally sliced and butchered the neck to the point her head was almost severed.


    Other than the apparent wounds, noticeable strangtion marks were also apparent on the neck. Zhang Heng frowned. Those were the marks of a rope or a hand. It looked more like a handkerchief caused it. Zhang Heng remembered a rumor that imed Jack the Ripper to a woman, but such a conclusion was too premature with only a handkerchief as evidence.


    Zhang Heng remembered Holmes�� warning that detectives were required to be absolutely rational and objective when handling a case. One couldn��t afford to have preconceived ideas. This sort of reasoning involved using clues to eliminate irrelevant evidence, eventually leading to the indisputable answer. If one was subjectively biased when gathering evidence, it only served to stray them further away from the truth.


    So Zhang Heng set aside all the clues he��d found so far and continued examining the body. In addition to wounds on the victim��s lower abdomen and neck, there were injuries to her neck and face.


    ��It can be seen that the murderer has a real disdain toward prostitutes,�� Lestrade, who was leaning against the wall, sighed. ��Otherwise, he wouldn��t have done anything like this to her. I have been an officer for so many years, and I have never seen anyone treating another person like this.��


    Zhang Heng did not respond, turning to look at the scratches on her face in silence. He then looked down, before finally, his eyes locked onto her abdominal cavity. The uterus is an extraordinary organ, the origin of life. A human fetus is conceived here. It could be seen that this serial killer had a special liking for this organ unique to a female. In the first murder, the victim��s throat was slit, and there were a dozen stab wounds on her body. As for the second victim, her abdomen was slit open, and her uterus was also stabbed. For the third victim, the serial killer went one step further and cut off half of the uterus. Like a prospective miner, the demented killer had just strolled into an endless goldmine, digging out their innermost desires from the depths of her very bowels.

 Chapter 514 - Cooling-Off Period

    <strong>Chapter 514 Cooling-Off Period</strong>


    It was in the opinion of many people that serial killers were absolute lunatics or unhinged, cold-blooded thugs.


    The fact was that it wasn��t an urate representation. Serial killers weren��t all the same. Studies have shown that a number of theme in the form of highly educated idealists who have a high sense of morality, even willing to sacrifice themselves in pursuit of the truth they so desperately sought.


    They often came as good-looking, well-dressed, and well-spoken individuals with stable careers and closed interpersonal rtionships. As for how they ended up being serial killers, the reasons varied from one individual to another.


    The Federal Bureau of Investigation defines a serial killer as a person who has murdered three or more people, with a cooldown period between the crimes. Unlike mass killers, they would carry out massacres in one ce in a short period, or spree-killers who murdered in a frenzy.


    Jack, the Ripper, was your textbook serial killer.


    His crimes only urred within the confines of Whitechapel, and he had a consistent behavioral pattern. ording to Lestrade, among the three murders that had taken ce within half a month, there was a ten-day gap between the first and the second, but the third murder happened only five days after that.


    It was clear that the rate of murders was elerating


    Whether the killings were for a mission, entertainment, ideals, or only a career choice, the killer got a certain kind of satisfaction from the act itself.


    It wasn��t dissimr to those addicted to video games or patroning brothels, where serial killers were simply addicted to killing people. Every time after visiting a brothel, most people would have a so-called refractory period, and simr to that, the ��cooling-down period�� was like a serial murderer��s refractory period.


    After each murder, the killer��s excitement would peak before gradually deting. They would relive the experience and continue to learn until their next crime was due.


    This phenomenon proved to be little more than troublesome, considering how you��d be facing a constantly evolving enemy��the shortening cool-down period a tell-tale sign of the declining emotional stimtion and gratification that each murder granted the killer. For that reason, the murderer would need to kill even more frequently to ease the gradually intensifying cravings.


    If Zhang Heng remembered correctly, two more murders urred in the East End on the third day after the first letter. However, one of those crimes was different from the restmodern-day researchers concluded that this particr case wasn��t the work of Jack the Ripper himself. But it was unclear if it a copycat or if someone was trying to rock the boat, taking advantage of the chaos to kill before putting the me on Jack the Ripper. In short, Zhang Heng didn��t have much time to solve the case. If possible, he wished that no more murder victims turned up. The best-case scenario was to find the murderer within three days. Of course, now that the rate of the killings had only gotten more frequent, he might not even have three days to solve this. Not to mention how he waspeting against the formidable Sherlock Holmes.


    Zhang Heng got to work immediately. After examining the body in the morgue, he went straight to the crime scene. But whatever that had happened there had long been cleaned up, and all the evidence collected by the police. There was still small traces of blood on the ground, but other than that, not many clues were left. After a visit to all three murder sites, it was clear from the locality of the crime scenes that the murderer was only getting bolder. He had moved from dark and dingy alleyways to a loading area, then to the fence behind the apartment-each new murder having a possibility of being discovered than thest. Zhang Heng marked the three locations on the map, then going by Lestrade��s addresses, he visited witnesses who discovered the bodies and thest person who saw the victims alive. Unsurprisingly, having been harassed and bombarded with questions by reporters, police, and nosy curtain-twitchers, the witnesses were immediately put-off by Zhang Heng the moment he revealed the purpose of his visit.


    When he took out a gold coin from his pocket, though, their attitudes took an almost instant turn. The once hostile witnesses be hospitable again and readily regurgitated answers they had been repeating so many times before this.


    The police reports had actually provided all these facts, and Zhang Heng had already read them, so that wasn��t his focus.


    Thanks to the generations of fans inspired by Jack The Ripper, Zhang Heng already had a list of suspects. The specific names and ages may not be useful, but their corresponding upation and motives are made for a great reference.


    For instance, a retired sheriff believed that Jack the Ripper was a sailor on a German merchant ship since the Whitechapel district was very close to the pier. The arrival and departure of the merchant ship from London coincided with the time the victims were killed. He spected that the murderer was probably a seaman. As for the killer��s mysterious disappearance and the fact that no further crimes weremitted afterward, the sheriff surmised that the murderer must have fled to the United States.


    Zhang Heng could then use this information during his interviews with the witnesses and enquire if they saw any sailors around the victim��sst seen location on the night of the incident.


    There were other theories like the royal conspiracy theories, the barber theory, midwife theory-all of these a sort of collective intelligence. Each approach had a corresponding entry point, but the results, on the whole, weren��t ideal. The witnesses spewed all manner of ims, and the ramblings weren��t nearly good enough to form a firm conclusion.


    Zhang Heng realized that he might be heading in the wrong direction, but he had to give it a try anyhow since he had the advantage.


    He had been so busy the whole day that he forgot to eat his lunch. In a blink of an eye, the sun was already hanging low, so Zhang Heng decided to call it a day. He had been to many ces today, and he had managed to collect a diverse and extensive chest of information. It was time to stop for now and sort his thoughts out.


    When Zhang Heng returned to 221 Baker Street, Holmes had already finished his dinner and was tackling a dessert te with a fork. He did not seem to be in a hurry.


    ��How was your investigation today?��


    ��I don��t have any leads for now. What about


    you?��


    ��I��ve found a handy clue, and I��m digging deeper into it. I should have the results tomorrow,�� Holmes smiled. ��Would you like me to give you a few tips, my dear eastern friend?��


    Zhang Heng shook his head.


    ��The one who sprints first might not be the first to reach the finishing line.��


    ��That��s true, but the person who runs first would always hold an advantage. I��m already choosing the opera we��ll be watching,�� interjected Holmes as Zhang Heng seated himself across the table.


    Mrs. Hudson walked in carrying dinner. It was smoked bacon, peas and bread, and a few pieces of fruit. The dessert was pudding. Zhang Heng finished his meal quickly, wiped his mouth, and returned to his room. He took out the revolver he had bought three months ago, a kerosenemp and a knife.


    Holmes raised his eyebrows in surprise at the sight of Zhang Heng��s gear.


    ��Going out again?��


    ��Mmhmm. The murdrer may be on the prowl. Even if I don��t find him, I could at least inspect the environment and condition of the crime scene at night,�� Zhang Heng added after a pause. ��Also, I could use the chance to understand the sex workers in a deeper fashion.��


    ��Not bad,�� apuded Holmes. ��You��re bing more assimted to this city.��

 Chapter 515 - I Have A Few Questions To Ask You

    <strong>Chapter 515 I Have A Few Questions To Ask You</strong>


    The East and West Ends were like twopletely different worldse nightfall.


    Only one streetmp still glowed, and the rest were either broken or vandalized. Until now, no one took the initiative to repair them. Hence, a many spots were left dark and unlit. The low, squalid, dpidated buildings, uneven roads, and dark alleys made navigating around the area an awful nightmare. After the Whitechapel serial killings, the police sent an entire battalion to strengthen waning security.


    Up until now, Zhang Heng hade across two teams of very serious-looking police officers. They sternly held onto their batons while a whistle hung around their necks, ready to be blown at the earliest sign of trouble. No matter how many officers were deployed, making them patrol the area seemed to yield pointless results. They couldn��t keep their eyes on every street corner. More importantly, the police simply couldn��t maintain such intensive patrols for an extended period.


    In fact, the police had increased their workforce when the second murder case surfaced. Thus far, they still hadn��t found any leads, and instead, arge number of low-level officers had startedining about the dreary working hours and how they simply weren��t paid enough. Before the murders, patrol officers typically headed to the tavern for a cool-down and a pint amid their patrols. After the series of brutal killings, none were inclined to pull such stunts anymore.


    Zhang Heng still wore the old coat he bought when he first arrived, and Irene had also given him the scarf she wore when she masqueraded as a gypsy busker. Coupled with his recently mastered makeup skills, few would doubt that he wasn��t from around here.


    Zhang Heng first headed to the location of the most recent homicide. This particr spot had now be the focus of the police. Since residents inhabiting the area had done well to avoid the ce at all costs, Zhang Heng could stand quietly behind the fence during the day without having anyone to bother him. During the day, he attempted to identify the soil using the method that Sherlock Holmes taught him. However, that provided him with little useful information because the entire East End��s infrastructure was in shambles. Puddles and mud smeared every inch of the road, and even if the murderer��s shoes were stained with dirt, it was no longer reliable evidence.


    At night, Zhang Heng came here to look at the lights, curious to know if the nearby houses were lighted at that time. To avoid unnecessary trouble, he trod lightly, careful not to overstay his wee. He quickly walked out from behind the apartment, and it was about then that he spotted a girl in her early twenties on the side of the road. She had an old coat draped over her shoulders, and she lugged around a wine bottle in her hand. When she saw Zhang Heng, she took the initiative, saying, ��Hi?��


    Zhang Heng raised his eyebrows, feeling amused, and bbergasted.


    ��Exciting, isn��t it; I won��t let you down!�� The girl��s smile seemed somewhat forced.


    ��Since you know about the recent tragedy here, you should have stayed home,�� said Zhang Heng.


    ��I need to pay for rent and food. I just borrowed this half bottle of wine from someone,�� replied the girl. Her English sounded like she wasn��t from this country, a heavy ent embedded among her words.


    ��No matter what happens in this world, we have to keep working, don��t we?��


    ��Well, at least stay in a crowded ce, or with yourpanions, perhaps. You will feel safer.��


    ��This line of work is not as simple as you think it is. We, the prostitutes, have our designated territories. I am just a foreigner who arrived here not too long ago. They will definitely not ept me,�� the girl sadly rted, ��I can only linger in ces they won��t go. Anyway, what are you thinking?��


    ��You shouldn��t be here,�� said Zhang Heng lightly. ��Know what kind of mene here at this hour?��


    ��They say a murderer wouldn��tmit two crimes at the same spot.��


    The girl��s body had been trembling a little from the beginning, and obviously, she wasn��t as bold as she seemed on the surface.


    ��That��s right, but, ever thought that even if that serial killer doesn��te here, there will be others with ill intentions dropping by this ce. Behind every famous serial killer lies many impersonators. You being here provides them the opportunity to honor their idol by killing you,�� said Zhang Heng as he took half a step towards the girl. The girl could not help but gasp in shock, subconsciously stepping back. Zhang Heng then took the half-finished bottle of wine from her and looked at thebel. ��Do you usually drink this kind of wine?��


    ��That��s right.�� The girl replied, her eyes darting around wildly, scanning her surroundings to see if there were passing cops. Zhang Heng opened the cork and smelled the bottle��s contents. ��How much can you make in one night?��


    ��Huh?�� The girl pondered for a while. ��Three or four pennies. If I am lucky or if someone is generous, I may be able to earn more. Or I can meet several customers in one night.��


    Zhang Heng then threw a half-pound gold coin to the girl.


    ��Come with me tonight.�� The girl was thrilled at the prospect of earning a gold coin. No wealthy men were living in the East End, which was the first time encountering such a generous and rich customer. However, sheter recalled what Zhang Heng said. Her heart sank instantly. She was not that valuable, anyway. To be more precise, she possessed nothing of value as well, except for her own life. ��Don��t overthink it. I just want to ask you a few questions,�� Zhang Heng reassured the frightened girl. ��I guess you haven��t had dinner? Let��s look for a ce to get something to eat.��


    The girl only hesitated for less than half a second before she decided to go with Zhang Heng. Like what she had said earlier, she knew the risks of following a stranger. That said, she was willing to risk her life to put some food into her very empty stomach. Such was probably the fate of people like her.


    Zhang Heng saw many other prostitutes while he was heading to the restaurant. They posed and slithered seductively, doing everything they could to attract potential customers in the pubs and alleys. That included some older women that were in their 50s and 60s. Logically, they should haveid low after Jack the Ripper went on a rampage, and the streets would only be safe after the authorities arrested the serial killer. To Zhang Heng��s surprise, none of them stopped work.


    The one thing more terrifying than Jack the Ripper was life itself.


    ��Once you get yourself into this line of work, it��s tough to get out. Think of it as being trapped in the mud. Since you can��t get out, you can only watch yourself sink slowly.��


    This was what an experienced colleague told her when she first entered this line of work. Thetter died of typhoid fever three months ago, all alone in her home when her life fizzed out. No one knew she was dead until the rent collector knocked on her door two days after her death. The girl did not want to end up like her when she became old.


    However, reality had always proven to be the harshest of teachers. She was not good at talking like the others, and in her younger days, she didn��t get to earn much. Once she became older, lesser and lesser customers would want her for business.


    Her mood became even worse when she thought of this. Suddenly, Zhang Heng spoke up.


    ��How should I address you?��

 Chapter 516 - Key Questions

    <strong>Chapter 516 Key Questions</strong>


    ��Noomi, I��m from Sweden,�� the girl replied, licking her lips.


    Seeing that she was still a little uneasy, Zhang Heng produced a cigarette from his pocket and handed it to her. She thanked him graciously, but it wasn��t until the cigarette touched her lips that she realized something odd. She then asked slowly and cautiously, ��You... How did you know I smoke?��


    ��It��s simple. Although you haven��t smoked in a while, your teeth are still yellowish, and the holes on your clothes are the result of cinders burning through them,�� Zhang Heng said. After that, he paused for a while, noticing how his mannerism had be more and more simr to Holmes. It was probably because they had been living together for some time now.


    On the other hand, Holmes was no exception to Zhang Heng��s influence, greatly interested in hsi fighting style and having started indulging in rock climbing lessons.


    Noomi��s surprise brought Zhang Heng back to reality, ��Oh, what is your profession? You have an excellent observation.��


    ��Detective. Actually, I came to investigate Bernice��s death. Oh, and the two victims before her as well.��


    ��Are you a detective?��


    Noomi was relieved. ��No wonder you went to that ce. I overheard the men in the tavern saying the police have locked on to a suspect. They all said that the devil is doomed.��


    Zhang Heng wasn��t allowed toment on this matter. It had always been the usual practice of Scond Yard, where they would first release a batch of vague information to stabilize the situation. It was done to put the public at ease, which would otherwise have ended up in panic and hysteria. As far as these murders were concerned, only they knew how far along the investigation was, so far.


    ��I am just helping out,�� Zhang Heng was forced to say. ��Before the murderer is arrested, I would advise you to be more vignt about your safety.��


    Noomi wasn��t the least bothered.


    ��Not only are the girls in a state of constant fear in a time like this, but our business has greatly deteriorated as well. Everyone hates that guy. Anyway, it��s not easy for me to get a customer, and I can��t be bothered by other things. Of course, if everyone is as generous as you, my life would have been much easier.��


    Zhang Heng did not say anything after that. He chose to change the subject, ��Do you know all the three victims?��


    Noomi hesitated, ��As I said, even the prostitutes have their territory. I��m not familiar with the first and third girls, but I live quite close to her with the second victim. We even cross paths sometimes...��


    Zhang Heng swiftly retrieved information about the second victim from his mind.


    ��Edna? What do you know about her?��


    Noomi pondered for a while. ��I heard that she had an Indian boyfriend, and he worked in a ss factory. But he was no good to Edna. He was a violent drunkard, bludgeoning her up every time he had too much to drink.�� Zhang Heng raised his eyebrows. This was a new clue. The police had also found out about Edna��s boyfriend, but they did not know about thetter��s violent tendencies, nor did they know that the two had conflicts before. That said, it was highly unlikely that Edna��s boyfriend was Jack the Ripper. The police had an excellent job of covering all the aspects of their investigation. On the night of Edna��s death, Jack was drinking at the bar with someone, leaving more than a dozen witnesses to prove his alibi.


    It was a good sign, though. Zhang Heng��s decision to approach the prostitute could prove vital to the investigation, and thus, he continued his interrogation.


    ��Any other information?��


    Noomi shook her head. ��I don��t know Edna too well. This is how we usually behave in this line... every woman for herself, looking out for themselves first. We usually have no time to stick our noses in the affairs of others. Oh, one more thing! I��m not sure if this helps, but I heard that Edna had a child before she met her boyfriend, but she sent it back to her birthce.�� ��Oh?��


    This time, Zhang Heng��s interest was truly aroused.


    Back in the real world, someone had managed to summarize the simrities between the victims of the Whitechapel homicides. Other than the fact that they were all prostitutes, most of them suffered from moderate to severe alcoholism. Otherwise, they would be living with at least one drunkard and even had offspring as well. In the three homicides, Zhang Heng was currently investigating, the victims�� names and ages had been altered to some extent. However, alcoholism and cohabitation were two factors that remained unchanged. The second victim, however, was the only one with a child.


    Nheless, the information provided by Noomi now filled the gaps in dotting Zhang Heng��s investigation.


    As of now, Zhang Heng was confident Jack the Ripper didn��t select his targets based on the difficulty of achieving his goal. When he was hunting, he did abide by a set of strict guidelines. Or at least for the first few crimes that hemitted, he carefully selected his targets. When the authorities started to close upon him, he would then abandon some of his rules to stay afloat.


    So the question was, how did he acquire information about his targets?


    ording to Noomi, there were territorial boundaries, even among the prostitutes. They were usually unfamiliar with their counterparts from a different territory, and it just happened that Jack the Rippermitted the crime in a vast area. Not to mention how only a few people knew that the second victim had a child. At most, it was just a rumor that was spread among the inner circles.


    The prostitutes were considered the group of people who belonged to the lowest of society��s lows even if they lived at the East End. However, the men that live here still needed their services. No one would care about their affair other than their bodies. Even if one met up with them every night, they would not know their living conditions, families, and interpersonal rtionships.


    A man deliberately collecting all this information would surely attract attention. Although the police officers of Scond Yard were not as capable as Sherlock Holmes, they were more diligent than expected. It would be impossible for such a person to exist without catching their eye.


    The case was beginning to get more and more interesting. Zhang Heng realized that if he could find the answer to this question, he might not be far away from finding Jack the Ripper.


    Seeing that Zhang Heng had paused and seemed to be thinking about something else, Noomi became a little nervous. ��Sorry, I��m not bright, and I don��t have many friends. Did I manage to help in any way?�� ��No, you did a great job. Have we arrived at the restaurant? Let��s have dinner first, and let��s stop talking about homicides. Let��s talk about your daily routine.��


    ��My daily life?�� Noomi was bewildered. She has been in this business for so long and had encountered many strange requests. No one, however, had asked her such amon question. It was then that a look of sudden realization shed across her face.


    ��Oh, you want to know about my customers and me...��


    ��No, no, I don��t want to know about that. I want to know about your hobbies, ces you would go to every day, people you meet, and so on. I don��t need the details,�� Zhang Heng exined. He simply wanted to learn more about the prostitutes through Noome. From there, he hoped to find how Jack the Ripper selected his targets.

 Chapter 517 - Same Starting Point

    <h4>Chapter 517 Same Starting Point</h4>


    Zhang Heng returned to 221b Baker Street at four in the morning. It had been a peaceful and uneventful night at Whitechapel, and the only real bother were a few drunks fighting in the alley behind the pub. As soon as the police arrived, everyone disappeared from the street except for the wasted ones, to sloshed to even wake up. Nothing else happened after that.


    After sending Naomi back to her ce, he headed home to bed. At seven o��clock, three hourster, his eyes flipped open.


    As he walked out of his room, where Holmes, as usual, had already finished breakfast and was smoking his pipe, flipping through the day��s newspapers. ��Good morning.��


    ��Morning.�� Zhang Heng sat down at his usual seat, rang the bell, and waited for Mrs. Hudson to bring his breakfast to the table.


    ��You came back ratherte yesterday night. How did it go? Please don��t tell me you still found nothing. I had high expectations of you,�� remarked Holmes as he turned a page, his eyes still fixed to newsprint.


    ��I have found one very important clue. I have a general idea of how the killer selects his targets.�� ��Oh?�� Holmes straightened up, finally tearing his gaze away from the newspaper. He looked at Zhang Heng ��Pray, tell.��


    ��Don��t forget that we��re now inpetition against each other. If you want to know, you should go find out yourself,�� Zhang Heng answered.


    Holmes burst intoughter. ��Are you still mad at me for choosing the opera ahead of time? Alright, I take back what I said. But I��ve also managed to learn a lot of things. If that��s the case, let��s see who finds the answer first then.�� He put down the papers in his hand, fetched his hat and walking stick from the hanger, and said to Zhang Heng, ��I must admit, you��re putting me under a bit of pressure. It seems I��ll have to raise my game.��


    ��Hopefully, you can still catch up,�� said Zhang Heng with a grin on his face.


    By the time he finished his breakfast, it was seven-fifteen. Quite some time had passed since Holmes left. Zhang Heng lingered at the breakfast table for a while and began sorting his thoughts. What he had said to Holmes wasn��t in any way an exaggeration. In fact, he did discover a lot of thingsst night, especially after his talk with Naomi. He found a precious piece of information. ording to her, churches of the East End wouldn��t ept girls in her trade, except for a tiny chapel known as The Church of the Sacred Heart. The priest treated the prostitutes as equals, and when some of them had no ce to go, he often allowed them to spend the night at the church. On top of that, the generous clergy periodically passed out loaves of bread to the starving women when he had the opportunity.


    Naomi might not realize something amiss, but Zhang Heng sensed it clearly enough.


    He finally found the answer he had been searching for the whole night.


    Who could approach these prostitutes openly without attracting attention? The answer had actually been staring him in the face the whole time-a clergyman. In fact, there wasn��t even the need to deliberately collect information about these women since they actively sought the parish out to reveal all their secrets no holds barred during confession sessions anyway. Zhang Heng looked at his pocket watch but did not leave immediately, knowing that the Church of the Sacred Heart wasn��t yet open at this hour.


    While waiting, he briefly nned his next move. After that, he put onst night��s gear again and called for a carriage.


    When he arrived at his destination, a familiar face showed up at the steps of the church.


    Holmes was standing outside the door, watching him, wearing the most intrigued look on his face.


    ��Interesting. While we both chose to go in different directions, it appears we still ended up in the same ce.�� Zhang Heng felt a little frustrated. He had tried his best to race against time, even sessfully obtaining the information he wanted, but despite all the effort, he was unable to curb Holmes��s unrelenting progress.


    The skills of this Victorian detective could never disappoint.


    ��Well, should we exchange information we have before we go in?�� suggested Holmes.


    Zhang Heng considered the proposal and agreed, albeit reluctantly.


    Unlike during the previous cases they worked on, where Holmes would candidly exin his reasoning and Zhang Heng would employ them in the investigation, the pair was now in a short-term alliance. This fair transaction of information shouldn��t affect the final oue. But then, the question remained, that if the both of them caught the killer together, who would be considered the winner?


    At this juncture, there was simply no point in thinking about it.


    ��I��ll go first,�� dered Zhang Heng. He gave a quick summary of the information he gathered from Naomi and also his own interpretation of it. ��Also, the wounds on the victims�� facesthe first one was a little vague, but the knife marks on the second and third victims were crisscrossed. They looked very familiar when I first saw it, and now that I think about it, it resembled a cross. The murderer is likely to be a religious person.��


    ��Impressive analysis and reasoning!�� Holmes eximed, ��I am very d your work yesterday bore fruit!. Mine is rtively simple. I went to the newspaper��s publisher in the afternoon.��


    ��The newspaper?�� ��Yes, I noticed some red ink on that letter. As you already know, I��ve been researching this subject for a long time and from the material of the paper, I was able to tell the manufacturingpany. It��s the same with ink. But the information I could gather from the ck ink is limited because nearly half of London uses this red ink. The letter, on the other hand, turned out to be useful.��


    Holmes chuckled, continuing, ��Unlike the ink, these letters were not the cheapest. It��s not somethingmonly found in the East End, but when I heard who the biggest customer of that paper mill was, I immediately thought of this ce.��


    ��The church?��


    ��Yes. The church��s stationery is purchased in bulk before they get distributed to each chapel,�� Holmes said.


    ��But there��s not only one church in the East End.��


    ��Yes, but this is the one closest to all three scenes of crime. And while you were still at home enjoying your breakfast, I talked to the people in the neighborhood. The prostitutes are known to frequent this church!��


    Zhang Heng sighed, adding on to Holmes�� ount.


    ��There are two priests in the church. Father Matthew is 80 years old and is semi-retired. He retired to the suburbs five years ago and is now rarely involved with the church. Basically, only his name is attached to the church. Also, at his age and seeing how frail he is, he is unlikely to be the murderer. So that leaves us with Father Jacob. He is fifty-six this year, still strong, and is in charge of the church. The prostitutes oftene to confess their sins to him. Now, what they didn��t know was that Father Jacob may, for some reason, resent prostitutes who have children but are drinking and cohabiting. The dear secrets they so openly shared with him turned back on them, haunting them in a lethal fashion.��


    Holmes could only smile.


    ��As I said, we��re both now at the same starting point again.��

 Chapter 518 - Father Jacob

    <h4>Chapter 518 Father Jacob</h4>


    The doors of the Church of the Sacred Heart flung open sharp at eight o��clock. Father Jacob appeared at the entrance, carrying two baskets of bread to be handed out to the homeless of the neighborhood.


    Zhang Heng and Holmes observed the priest from a corner.


    ��Your previous deduction was wrong,�� said Zhang Heng.


    ��That��s impossible. Even if there is a slight deviation in the details, it��s unlikely to be too far-off,�� Holmes said tly, albeit looking a little resigned.


    They were referring to the deduction Holmes made based on the letter��s handwriting.


    ��Left-handed, male, between the ages of 30 and 40, of a weak personality, is unstable, traditional, and conservative.�� It appeared that apart from his gender, the other inferences, such as being left-handed and age, were incorrect. As for the suspect��s character and personality, it was still too difficult to tell at the moment.


    On top of that, Zhang Heng noticed that Father Jacob��s left shoulder appeared to have an injury, most likely due to his advanced age. He held the bread basket with only his right hand, probably because his left hand was too weak. Besides that, Father Jacob��s hair wasbed neatly, and while his clothes were well-worn, they were spotless.


    Father Jacob embodied the archetype of a typical priest, a little old-fashioned and imposing, yet, filled with warmth and kindness at the same time.


    Holmes and Zhang Heng looked at each other, seeing the doubt in the others�� eyes. Up until this point of the investigation, Father Jacob had topped the suspect list, but now that they had actually seen him in person, Zhang Heng felt that the priest��s chances ofmitting the crime were slim.


    Everything else aside, ording to Holmes and clues from the crime scene, the killer probably held the victim by the neck with one hand while slicing her throat with the other using a small knife. With Father Jacob��s shoulder injury, it was doubtful he could have done all that strenuous and vigorous maneuvers.


    Zhang Heng grabbed hold of a homeless man who had just received a loaf of bread. ��My friend, I have some questions for you.��


    ��What is it?!��


    The man looked rmed, hurriedly concealing the bread in his coat.


    Zhang Heng produced a shilling. ��Is there anyone else parishing this church besides Father Matthew and Father Jacob?��


    Before he could even answer, the vagrant snatched the shilling and shook his head. ��There was a young deacon before this, but he couldn��t stand living in the East End, so he left. Now, there��s only Father Jacob.��


    ��Does he have a family?��


    ��No, he has always been alone. He��s been in this church for over thirty years. He has never been married, no children either. Erm... but I heard that he has a cousin, but he��s not in London.��


    As the man spoke, his eyes were drawn to the pocket from which Zhang Heng had just taken out his wallet.


    Zhang Heng knew what the older man was thinking. It may be daytime, but this was the East End. He gave the man another shilling, but clearly, it wasn��t�� quite enough. Deciding to try something else, Zhang Heng drew his coat back a little to reveal the revolver strapped to his waist.


    The vagrant immediately behaved himself. Upon realizing that Eastern man was not someone to be trifled with, he abandoned the idea of robbing him and turned to leave, muttering and cursing under his breath.


    Holmes, on the other hand, was already walking towards Father Jacob.


    ��Forgive me, Father, for I have sinned.��


    ��Every soul makes mistakes in life, my child,�� Father Jacob said, ��The important thing here is if you are willing to repent or not.�� ��I want to confess my sins, all the lies I��ve told, the things I have done... the guilt that they have brought, they torment my days and my nights!�� cried Holmes.


    ��Very well! It shows that your heart still belongs to the light,�� Father Jacob nodded. ��Come with me, child.��


    Zhang Heng watched as Holmes followed the priest into the confession room.


    About fifteen minutester, Holmes came out. Before Zhang Heng could ask him anything, he shook his head at his friend. ��You don��t have to go. It��s not him.�� ��Huh???��


    Zhang Heng furrowed his brows.


    ��He had solid alibis when the first and third murder took ce,�� Holmes exined, ��He wasn��t even in the East End when the first murder happened. Also, that injury on his shoulder is real. He couldn��t possibly have done it with one arm.��


    ��What about an aplice?�� asked Zhang Heng.


    ��We cannot rule out that possibility. I asked him some suggestive questions when we talked, and he showed no sign of disgust towards the prostitutes. And judging from the crime scenes, I don��t think there are any indications of an aplice.��


    Zhang Heng was not too surprised by Holmes�� answer. He had only asked the question for the sake of asking. It was generally rare that serial killers worked with a partner. No matter their reason of starting their demented journey, they all wanted to y God in their own world. But then, there could only be one God.


    Holmes wasn��t discouraged, though, nor was he disappointed by the fruitless discovery.


    ��This proves that my description of the murderer is urate. I just need to find more clues. You��re heading in the right directiononce we find themonality between the three victims, we��ll be able to identify our killer.��


    ��I hope we still have enough time,�� replied Zhang Heng.


    Although going the church route did not turn out as expected, it did give Zhang Heng quite a few ideas, and soon his attention fell on a small clinic in the East End.


    Apart from the priests, another category wouldn��t raise suspicions when they contacted the prostitutes. They were the doctors.


    Until now, the notorious fourth murder case, in which the Ripper sliced open the victim��s abdomen, where he removed part of her uterus and kidneys, had yet to ur. That murder was done in the dark because there were police patrolling nearby, and the whole process probably only took less than nine minutes, not to mention how the cuts were clean and surgical. So, it was no surprise that many people suspected that the murderer had to be a professional surgeon of some sort.


    But because Naomi was from Sweden and didn��t fit in with the other prostitutes, she had very limited knowledge about the victims. She wouldn��t have known where they usually got treated. Zhang Heng had to seek out others to get this piece of information.


    Holmes had already left. Zhang Heng turned around to take onest look at the church, and his eyes met Father Jacob��s. The priest nodded back politely, picked up a mop, and began cleaning the floor with his head lowered.


    As Holmes said, there was quiet and equable energy about him. Zhang Heng felt that someone like him couldn��t possibly have anything to do with the Whitechapel serial murders.


    The bet between him and Holmes hadn��t been forgotten, so he didn��t linger at the church and made his way to the tavern, where more prostitutes could be sought.

 Chapter 519 - Notebook

    <h4>Chapter 519 Notebook</h4>


    Zhang Heng did not know where Holmes had disappeared again. On the other hand, he managed to find a few prostitutes who were rtively close to the three victims, and through them, found out about their daily routines.


    In the end, Zhang Heng set his sights on a man called Mark Cohen, a Jewish doctor active around the Whitechapel area. He wasn��t a qualified doctor registered by the Central Medical Commission, but it was also rare that prostitutes were offered the luxury of getting a qualified doctor to treat them.


    During that era, a physician held a high and mighty social position, belonging to a social ss called the gentries. However, with the rise of surgeons and pharmacists, physicians gradually lost their high standing, especially after pharmacists gradually transformed into general practitioners, working hand in hand with surgeons to actively promote the British medical system��s reform and strive for better rights. But even when it came general practitioners, few were stationed at the East End. None of them were willing to provide any services the prostitutes working around this area.


    It was the reason why people like Mark Cohen existed. In a sense, his role was somewhat simr to that of a general practitioner, where he would do his best to treat various illnesses. Other than that, he also doubled up as a midwife and an obstetrician. This made Zhang Heng pay special attention to him.


    The prostitutes had mixedments on him. On the one hand, his services were cheap, and although he wasn��t a qualified doctor, he had managed to do his job reasonably well. On the other, arge number of prostitutes had also voiced their difort when they were examined, where his stare seemed to follow their every movement, very much like a slithering snake.


    Zhang Heng then enquired about Mark Cohen��s residence, arriving at the ce before sundown.


    A stench so intoxicating and revolting overwhelmed the senses, not to mention the pigsty not far away. Chicken manure was everywhere on the road, and Zhang Heng spotted a few women doing theirundry by the ripe sewage while a couple of men with ckened faces walked towards him. They looked to be stokers that worked in the nearby factories.


    It did not take long before Zhang Heng found the doctor��s apartment. After a few knocks on the door, there was no answer. He then took a look at the lock on the door and found it to have a basic mechanism, one that was only effective against ordinary men. Battling the nauseating odor, Zhang Heng��s eyes darted around like a wildcat, ensuring that there weren��t prying eyes before he gently picked the lock with a knife.


    aro


    The smell inside the apartment was worse than outside, bearing the strange but putrid mixture of sweat and decay. With a deep frown, Zhang Heng and pulled out the revolver strapped to his waist. As he explored the apartment further, he saw a pool of blood on the ground. The unit itself was rtively empty, sparsely furnished with only a bed, wardrobe, and dining table. Socks and filthy garments were strewn everywhere, and as Zhang Heng followed the bloodstains to the curtain, a pair of boots could be seen under it.


    Instead of drawing the curtains open, he shed it with his knife, the de tearing through it as if it were butter. Unfortunately, he did found no monsters concealed behind. A false rm? The boots were still on the ground, probably ced there by their owner.


    Zhang Heng quickly drew the rest of the curtains with his other hands.


    He saw a spot that looked like a simple consultation room. With only two stools and a small workbench in the middle, the thing most noticeable was a very bloody lump of flesh on the workbench.


    This was the origin of bloodstains on the floor and putrid odor, where a massive swarm of ck flies noisily devoured the decaying body part. Zhang Heng��s first reaction was finding the third victim, Bernice��s missing uterus and abdominal flesh. With that, he could lock on to the serial killer. When Zhang Heng walked towards the table and observed the organ, however, he found that the object didn��t resemble a woman��s womb in shape or size but rather looked like it belonged to some kind of animal.


    Zhang Heng then thought of the pigsty that he saw on the side of the road. Other than that, he also saw a notebook on the table. After opening it and flipping through its pages, he only found random notes and scribbles, most of which happened in his daily life. Some medical research was documented, as well. But as Zhang Heng progressed through the notebook, the contents gradually changed. The writer had apparently be more and more agitated with each entry.


    Not only had the handwriting be more and more scribbled, but the contents had also changed. Most of them were rted to prostitutes. Hemented about arge amount of money they made yet wouldn��t stop acting pitifully here in the East End. From an entry about a month ago, he seemed to have gotten into conflict with two prostitutes. One had stolen his pocket watch while they came to seek his service. Mark Cohen went after the prostitute, but the other made him trip, causing him to lose a tooth.


    Zhang Heng was going to keep reading, but he heard the door behind him getting opened. He slipped the notebook into his coat, and at the same time, the person entered the apartment. Judging from the footsteps�� sound, it appeared two people were walking around in the unit. This surprised him a little but also did little to affect his n.


    He could always jump out the window, but the path had been ruled out when he slit the curtains before this. Once Mark Cohen found out that his ce had been broken into, he would definitely make a run for it. Not to mention how Zhang Heng had taken away his notebook, as well.


    Hence, he decided it best to arrest Mark Cohen here and bring him to the police station. He hid behind the curtains, listened intently to the sound of the footsteps, and did some calction in his mind. Once one of them reached out to lift the curtain, and that was when Zhang Heng pointed his knife directly at him. Zhang Heng could see that his target was in shock, and luckily, he managed to retrieve the knife before anybody got hurt.


    Almost instantly, the other policeman drew the pistol from his waist and pointed it at Zhang Heng. Zhang Heng raised his hands and threw away the weapon, indicating he harbored no ill intent.


    An hourter, Holmes arrived at the police station. He knocked on the floor with his walking stick and looked at Zhang Heng from behind the iron fence. ��They nned to let you out half an hour ago, but I asked them to keep you behind bars for a little while longer. I want you to take a moment to experience what I experienced.��


    ��Did you tell the police to arrest Mark Cohen?�� asked Zhang Heng.


    ��Yes, in fact, before you went to his house, the police got to him. The two officers you encountered were there to collect evidence,�� Holmesughed. ��It seems that I will win the bet this time. I can finally think about which opera I should watch.��


    ��I don��t think so,�� replied Zhang Heng as he looked at Holmes. ��You��ve caught the wrong person.��


    ��Apprehended the wrong person?�� Holmes raised his eyebrows.


    ��You haven��t interrogated Mark Cohen yet.��


    ��Yes, but Lestrade said he admitted he was the murderer as soon as he was in custody.��


    ��It��s useless for him to admit to the crimes.�� Zhang Heng took out the notebook and shook it in front of Holmes. ��If you interrogate him, you will know he suffers from amentia.��

 Chapter 520 - Guessing

    <h4>Chapter 520 Guessing</h4>


    ��Interesting.�� Holmes closed the notebook in his hand. ��It appears Mark Cohen had indeede into conflict with those prostitutes. So, he led himself to the role of Jack the Ripper, all for the sake of seeking pleasure. However, he didn��t expect that the deeper he got into the role, the more he lost parts of himself.��


    ��These things were clearly recorded in his notes. He began to imagine that he was the murderer after the first killing was reported. By the time he saw the letter in the newspaper, his soul and mind hadpletely been devoured by Jack the Ripper, and in the end, he couldn��t even tell who he was anymore.�� At the same time, Zhang Heng had already walked out of the cell. He then loosened his hands and ankles. ��And as for the uterus that you retrieved from his residence, give it a once over, and you will find that it does not belong to a human. When the first victim was killed, he had the perfect alibi of delivering a baby girl that night. Once you locate the girl named rissa, you will know I speak the truth.��


    Holmes chewed on the pipe in his mouth, pondering thoughtfully over something.


    Just then, Lestrade rushed over from the other side of the corridor. ��I contacted several newspapers. The director wants to promote this case! He wants tomend the police force and you as well. After all, you are Scond Yard��s special consultant. This time, you��ve helped us solve this strange case...��


    ��Wait,�� Holmes reached out and interrupted Lestrade. ��We haven��t caught the murderer yet. So let��s forget about celebrating. It will only serve to inte the murderer��s ego.��


    ��What are you talking about?�� Lestrade was confused. ��The suspect has just pleaded guilty, and he even described how he killed the victims!��


    ��He got the idea from the newspaper report. The uterus on the table was taken from a pig,�� Holmes exined. ��Lestrade, I always thought you are the best and brightest Scond Yard had to offer. If you are willing to spend more time collecting clues instead of boasting your merits, you would surely achieve more than what you have right now.��


    Lestrade shook his head when he heard those words. ��I have been at Scond Yard for so many years, and no matter what case it is, we usually close it once somebody steps up and confesses to his crimes. I think you are just overthinking. Anyway, the reporters should be there in half an hour. The director is going to see the queen early tomorrow morning to report the good news. He will also mention you and your eastern friend��s contributions.��


    ��Have you so quickly forgotten the Thames case? nning to cooperate with the media to fish out the real murderer? By then, I don��t think the public will cooperate with you,�� Holmes went on, shaking his head in discouragement. ��It��s the director��s decision. I can��t change it no matter what you say,�� said Lestrade said. ��Unless you can arrest the real murderer right now...��


    Zhang Heng suddenly asked, ��Can I meet Mark Cohen?��


    ��You want to see him? That��s not how the rules work, but in light of your contribution to the police, I believe we can make an exception,�� Lestrade said.


    Lestrade then brought the two to the interrogation room where the doctor was held.


    ��I��ve tried questioning him once; hence I won��t be going in this time. Besides, I have to deal with the reporters.��


    As Lestrade left, Holmes rubbed his chin. ��Do you think Mark Cohen losing his mind wasn��t an ident?��


    Zhang Heng nodded, ��Judging by his notes, I can see that he did have a mental illness, but I don��t think that it was an ident that his mental health suddenly deteriorated during this period. The police were looking for Jack the Ripper, and he so just happened toe to us and confess his crimes?��


    ��Interesting guess,�� Holmes said.


    Zhang Heng noticed that Holmes used the word guess rather than inference. Even Zhang Heng had to admit that after two previous cases that they solved, he realized it would be impossible to beat Sherlock if he only used what he gave him.


    Under the deductive framework, it wasn��t possible that his Lv.1 deduction skill would beat Holmes��s which was at Lv.3. Even if he tried hard, the best he could do was to achieve a draw. He sorely needed to find another way to win this bet and to aplish that, he would need to bolster his deduction skill greatly. In the absence of evidence, he needed to be able to make bold assumptions. Sherlock Holmes once said that guessing was a big taboo for a detective, and the moment they headed in the wrong direction, it was highly likely they would end up stuck in a dead-end. Zhang Heng��s situation was different now, though, where he only needed to win once. As long as he made the right bet, he would be able toplete the game.


    Besides, he wasn��t about to make any blind guesses. He saw Mark Cohen sitting in the interrogation room, looking very calm andposed. He did indeed possess the temperament of a doctor, save for a set of small and protruding eyes.


    Zhang Heng sat down opposite him.


    ��Were the three Whitechapel area murders rted to you?�� ��Yes, I killed them,�� Mark Cohen nodded and admitted without hesitation, shing with it, a crazed smile across his face. ��I like the way they looked at me when they died. Fear in its purest form. It��s... beautiful!�� ��Really?�� asked Zhang Heng. ��Don��t worry. God will punish you.�� The doctor shifted ufortably, looking slightly annoyed.


    ��God will punish me? No, no, I��m just doing the right thing! It is the women who are wrong. God instructed me to punish them. They deserved every bit of it because of their sins! I��m simply obeying Hismand. His voice... they are always in my ears.��


    ��Have you heard the voice of God?��


    ��Yes! He said he would reward me and call me his son,�� Mark Cohen proudly dered.


    ��Last question.�� Zhang Heng stared into the doctor��s eyes.


    ��Which church do you usually attend?��


    Mark Cohen��s mouth instantly snapped shut the moment he heard the question. His eyes then rolled toward the ceiling as if a doorway to heaven was about to open and he would slowly ascend.


    Despite all the showbiz, his actions had already given Zhang Heng the answer he wanted. Zhang Heng got up and left the interrogation room. Holmes listened to their conversation, and not a word escaped his mouth. He did not speak until Zhang Heng walked out of the interrogation room.


    ��Interesting, so, you suspect Father Jacob brainwashed him?��


    Zhang Heng nodded. Instead of answering Holmes��s question, he hurriedly walked out of the police station, gging down a carriage. Holmes got in with him. ��Even if you suspect that he��s the serial killer, there��s no need to leave in such a hurry. I wasn��t done with my questions. There are only two priests in the Church of the Sacred Heart. Father Matthew is too old, and I am certain that Father Jacob is not the murderer. So, the question is, why would he make Mark Cohen, a mentally deranged man, believe he is Jack the Ripper?�� ��I��m sure the real murderer must be rted to him,�� replied Zhang Heng. ��As for why I am in such a hurry, it is because I am worried about the safety of a friend.��

 Chapter 521 - Quick Rescue

    <strong>Chapter 521 Quick Rescue</strong>


    ��In the afternoon, you asked a friend to keep an eye on the Church of the Sacred Heart. Did you suspect Father Jacob at that time?��


    In the carriage, Holmes seemed a little surprised.


    ��No, I didn��t suspect Father Jacob at that time. I��m not targeting the Church of the Sacred Heart.�� Zhang Heng shook his head. ��You said that the letter came from the church, and although we cleared Father Jacob in the morning, I haven��t given uppletely on this lead. Instead, I asked a friend to help me investigate churches in the Whitechapel District. To find out the true attitude of those churches toward prostitutes, she even put on some makeup, masquerading herself as one.��


    ��Are you talking about Miss Irene Adler?�� Holmes came to a sudden realization. ��She is indeed a better makeup artist than me.��


    ��That��s right,�� replied Zhang Heng.


    ��You seem to be very concerned about your bet this time. Allow me to express my opinion on this matter,�� Holmes said. ��It is unwise to put such a beautifuldy in such grave danger, especially when Whitechapel is shaken by fear of the serial killer.��


    Zhang Heng decided to be frank when it came to this. ��This incident has developed in ways that havepletely exceeded my expectations. I initially nned to meet up with her after investigating Mark Cohen, but I didn��t expect to encounter the police in his residence.��


    Zhang Heng had been mingling with Holmes for several months. He knew how certain Scond Yard officers, Gregson and Lestrade, for instance, were familiar with him. Unfortunately, low-ranking police officers knew very little. Most had never even heard of Holmes��s name, a simr story with the two policemen Zhang Heng encountered at Mark Cohen��s residence. Knowing he still had a long way to go before the quest could bepleted, Zhang Heng didn��t want to offend Scond Yard just because of some misunderstanding. Hence, he elected to surrender his weapon voluntarily.


    At first, when he arrived at the police station, he thought someone there would recognize him. After he told the officers in charge of his arrest about his situation, Holmes had been messing with him, which was why no one released him from the cell.


    It wasn��t until the Mark Cohen investigations were over that Zhang Heng had time to meet with Irene Adler. By that time, it waspletely dark. They then saw a carriage crashing into a fruit cart, overturning it and blocking the road. The coachman and the fruit farmer locked themselves in a heated dispute, and after waiting for a long time, Zhang Heng and Holmes decided they should just switch carriages. By that time they arrived at the East End, it was already around nine in the evening.


    ��Did you both agree to meet here?�� asked Holmes as he alighted the carriage.


    The two now stood at a small pavilion, a rtively prosperous ce at the East End. Nheless, they caught no sight of Irene Adler anywhere.


    Although Zhang Heng was worried about her, Irene Adler wasn��t in a situation as dangerous as he had imagined. Other than the fact that the authorities had increased the number of patrols after the three murders, Mark Cohen��s arrest managed to ease Whitechapel District��s tensions. Whatever the rtionship between Father Jacob and Jack the Ripper was, he obviously wanted Mark Cohen to take the fall. If that were to be the case, the real Jack the Ripper should now be in hiding since Mark Cohen had been arrested.


    But for some reason, Irene Adler still hadn��t shown up.


    Was it because she had waited too long and decided to return? It might be the reason she didn��t show up as promised. After all, he did arrive several hourster than the agreed time, and Irene Adler certainly wasn��t the kind ofdy that would stand in the same spot, waiting for hours until Zhang Heng arrived.


    Before leaving, she should also be smart enough to find a way to notify Zhang Heng. He became increasingly worried that Irene Adler might have been a little too smart for her own good. Having discovered Father Jacob��s anomalous behavior, she might have investigated him alone. Of course, Father Jacob would not just sit there and wait for Irene Adler��s big expos��.


    The Church of the Sacred Heart shut its doors at eight. Father Jacob lived in a small house behind the chapel. Without wasting any time, Zhang Heng and Holmes rushed there, and upon their arrival, they found the house to bepletely dark. Zhang Heng entered the house through the window, and Holmes, the front door.


    Upon deeper inspection, they found the house to be empty.


    Only an elderly dogy on the floor, so old it could hardly move. It couldn��t even manage a bark when a stranger broke in.


    Holmes lit a candle, and the two scanned their surroundings. Unlike Mark Cohen��s bloody cabin, Father Jacob��s cottage looked just like an ordinary priest��s residence. Sparsely decorated, a worn and well-read Bible was beside the bed. And that was it. There was nothing else worthy of note inside the house.


    ording to descriptions by the prostitutes, Father Jacob��s daily routine was simple and straightforward, even considered to be rather rigid. He would either be working at the church or spending time at his residence and being anywhere else for the clergyman was a rarity. Since the church was closed and he wasn��t at home, something was definitely not right. Holmes walked around the kitchen for a while. He was about to say something but decided to keep it in instead.


    The disappearance of Irene Adler and Father Jacob made the whole situation a little ufortable, especially how Irene Adler only got involved in this matter because of entrustment. If something terrible happened to her, it would be difficult for Zhang Heng to forgive himself. Right now, it was imperative Father Jacob was located as quickly as possible.


    Inparison to the sloppy Mark Cohen Father Jacob was a more cautious man. He left nothing in the house that would lead Homes and Zhang Heng to him. The only notebook left behind was rted to theology.


    The entire house was in pristine condition, almost spick and span. Zhang Heng stood at the desk, closing his eyes. After half a minute he opened his eyes again.


    ��Church.��


    ��Mm?��


    ��No matter what rtionship Father Jacob has to Jack the Ripper, it will not change the fact that he is a devout priest. Jack the Ripper knew about those prostitutes through Father Jacob, and as a priest, he had sworn an oath to keep those confessions confidential. I don��t think he leaked it intentionally. Jack, the Ripper, must��ve overheard it.�� Zhang Heng paused before he finally concluded, ��There is probably a secret room in the church, beside the confession room.��


    ��Below.��


    ��Eh?��


    ��That secret room is not next to the confession room, but below it. There is to be an empty space below the confession room!�� Holmes pompously interjected. ��I discovered it when I made my confession at the church. It was obvious when I stepped on the floor. I thought a basement had to be beneath it.��

 Chapter 522 - Just Wait A Little Longer

    <strong>Chapter 522 Just Wait A Little Longer</strong>


    Zhang Heng and Holmes got to the church as quickly as they could. The rusty brass lock on the door wasn��t about to stop them from getting in. Holmes struck the lock with his cane with oomph and hurrah, only to find the stubborn old thing not budging an inch.


    Defeated, he stepped aside and watched as Zhang Heng pulled out his revolver, firing a deafening shot at the lock. The two then ran into the church.


    As was the case with Father Jacob��s residence, there was no one here. Moonlight poured through the stained-ss windows and lit up the pews with a kaleidoscope of colors, creating an atmosphere of enigmatic tranquility and stillness.


    ��Find an entrance,�� Holmes instructed Zhang Heng before the pair split up.


    Irene Adler, now underground, heard the movement above her. She struggled, twisting and squirming hard, but her hands and feet were tightly bound. Gagged with a piece of cloth, the only sound she could manage was a muffled whine.


    Father Jacob continued praying fervently by a wooden table as if he hadn��t heard the gunshots.


    But who the opera singer feared more was the other person in the room-a man between the ages thirty and forty, his skin paler than a ghost, as if he had never spent any time under the sun at all. His long and unkempt beard looked like it hadn��t been shaved for a long time, and he was thin, except for his pair of sinewy arms. A tattered old coat covered his body, and as he sat by the bed, he watched on at Irene with intrigue.


    The priest seemed to have read the opera singer��s mind. ��They won��t be able to get in. This secret room was a shelter built during the Middle Ages, and even if you were to dig your way, it��s not something to be aplished in a day.��


    Upon hearing that, Irene stopped struggling. The pale man was getting impatient. ��Are you done yet? Can I start already?��


    ��Not yet. Just a little while more,�� replied Father Jacob without turning around to look.


    The priest picked up a blood-stained leather apron from under the table. He turned to Irene, ��You must be wondering why we��ve chosen you... This is all because of mebecause of a mistake I made when I was young.��


    ��Can we leave the stories forter?!�� the pale-skinned man snapped, but when he saw the apron, his eyes lit up.


    ��It won��t take long,�� said Father Jacob. ��Don��t you remember what I taught you? We have to be polite and patient.��


    The pale-skinned man immediately stopped talking, and his face flushed red.


    Father Jacob continued, ��As I said��I��ve made a mistake. I was only neen then. Father Matthew wrote a letter to the church saying how short-staffed Sacred Heart had be. But at that time, priests were scarce, and barely any of them were willing toe to the East End. But I was young, zealous, and fervent, so I volunteered to go and help.


    ��I must admit-I came from a family of squires, and at the beginning, I had great difficulty adjusting to life here. I came to London when I was sixteen and stayed with Father Abelson. We asionally visited the poor here in the East End, but it��s different when you actually live here. When I first arrived, I was a little depressed. I wanted to go back to Father Abelson badly, but I was afraid people would think less of me because I couldn��t bear the hardship.


    ��It was also around this time that I met a girl, Emma. She was a prostitute, only sixteen, and new to the trade. Her father died, and her mother ran away with another guy, so she had no choice but to do what she did to survive. But unlike the other girls, she would attend church every week, and that was also how we met.


    ��Perhaps because we were about the same age, that she felt I was different from the rest of the congregation, and she would oftene to talk to me. I was in a rut myself, and many a time, she ended up being the one tofort me.��


    Father Jacob seemed to be lost in the past as he spoke.


    ��Father Matthew had warned me before, but I did not take him seriously. I thought I was doing a good thing, leading a lost soul onto the right path. I became socent until one night, she came to see me. It was veryte; a demanding customer had just hit her, and she cut her arm on some ss. I patched her up, and as I was getting up to leave, she kissed me. It took me by surprise, and my mind wentpletely nk. She then threw herself on me, and I wanted to push her away, but I don��t know why Icked the strength to do so. And then, it just happened.


    ��She disappeared before dawn, leaving me behind. Only then did I realize what I had done. I was filled with guilt and shame, knowing that I would have disappointed many


    �C Father Abelson, Father Matthew... and myself especially. Whatever the excuse, whatever that happened that night, shouldn��t have happened! I wanted to fix it. So, from then on, I made a decision to avoid Emma. She came to church to see me several times, but I pretended I wasn��t there. At night, I would lock the door of my lodging and wouldn��t open it no matter who came knocking. After a while, she finally disappeared from my life.


    ��It was a huge relief, at first. I thought I had gotten away with it, but what I didn��t know, was how it was the beginning of a nightmare.��


    ��Can we start now?�� the pale man interrupted, reaching for a scalpel from under the pillow. ��Give me some time,�� replied Father Jacob, in a stern andmanding tone prompting the pale-skinned man to put the scalpel back.


    ��About a yearter, I found an infant at the door of the church. Amid the shrouds covering it, was a letter with no signature. But I recognized Emma��s handwriting. She imed that it was our child and although there was nothing to prove it, I don��t know why I believed her,�� Father Jacob paused. ��...I just believed her,�� he repeated.


    Irene looked at the pale man, and suddenly, she came to an understanding. Father Jacob nodded. ��Yes, he is the child. I sent him to the orphanage, but he did not live a good life there. After he came out, I helped him get a job at the hospital, but he could neverst long in one ce. Only five years ago, Father Matthew retired and moved to the suburbs, so I was left alone in the Church of the Sacred Heart. I allowed him to live down here, and I told him the truth about his mother and me. I only wanted him to know where he came from, and I definitely didn��t expect him to me his mother for his miserable life.��


    ��Can we start now, Father Jacob?!!!��


    The pale-skinned man screamed at the top of his lungs. Obviously, his patience was running thin.


    ��She��s all yours! I��ve never let you call me father, but now, you can call me your father,�� said Father Jacob.

 Chapter 523 - The Truth

    <strong>Chapter 523 The Truth</strong>


    Irene Adler watched in dread as the pale man got up from the bed and approached her. His eyes darted around in excitement, like a child who had discovered a new toy, not to mention how he seemed to have a perverse attachment towards her. The demented smile on his face reflected off the scalpel in his left hand.


    The knowledge that she was all alone, and that no one would being to her rescue slowly sank in. Irene Adler shut her eyes in despair. A few secondster, there was a loud rumble right above her, the sound of someone opening the entrance to the secret room. When Zhang Heng and Holmes rushed down with their revolvers, they were bewildered by what they saw. They never expected to bear witness to such a peculiar sight.


    Irene Adler��s hands and feet were still bound, unable to move. Father Jacob stood beside her, with no emotion on his face. A middle-aged man was lying in a pool of blood beside Father Jacob, and engraved on his face was an ��I-can��t-believe-this-is-happening-to-me�� look; his eyes staring woefully at Father Jacob as if asking why.


    When Father Jacob saw Zhang Heng and Sherlock Holmes, he threw away the bloody knife in his hand and said calmly, ��I��m d that both of you are here. I��m the one that killed him.��


    Holmes squatted, examining the middle-aged man. He saw the wound on the back of his head and shook his head.


    ��It��s toote.��


    Zhang Heng walked past the corpse, approached Irene Adler, untied the ropes on her hands and feet, and removed the rags from her mouth. Once free, she spat on the ground, getting rid of the strange taste in her mouth. Earlier, Zhang Heng had his Evil Wall ready for its final usage, but fortunately, Holmes managed to find the entrance within three minutes.


    When the two rushed in, they thought that they would encounter a hostage situation, but the result turned out a surprise. Zhang Heng subsequently heard a system notification from the game that his main task waspleted. Although he still had many doubts in his heart, it was not the time to dwell on such matters. The two detectives tied Father Jacob with the rope that bound Irene Adler, then notified the authorities.


    Holmes stayed in the basement, guarding Father Jacob while waiting for backup from the police to arrive. On the other hand, Zhang Heng sent Irene Adler home, staying there until six in the morning before returning to 221B Baker Street. At that time, Holmes had already returned from the police station.


    He looked content, and he even ignored Mrs. Hudson��s protests, going straight ahead to his room to rub on his fiddle. It��s loud and unmistakable melody echoed around the walls of the old apartment. ying the rather raucous instrument in the wee hours of the morning, the neighbors might juste over and silence him for good.


    ��It seems you��ve got ins and outs of the whole thing figured out,�� said Zhang Heng. ��It seems you can watch the operas for free in the future,�� replied Holmes at almost the same time.


    ��This might not be the mostplicated case I have encountered, but indeed, it can be regarded as the most interesting.�� Holmes put down the violin and finally turned the topic back to the case.


    ��Father Jacob made a mistake when he was young and, he had an illegitimate child with a prostitute. Although I don��t think he was really his child, all of that doesn��t matter anymore. The important thing is that the matter had always been a knot in his heart. He is willing to treat that child as flesh and blood, or perhaps, is simply punishing himself, hoping to atone for his past mistakes.��


    Zhang Heng had already learned about these from Irene Adler, hence he wasn��t surprised. He signaled for Holmes to continue.


    ��The birth of this child was a mistake. He is the fruit bore of a priest and prostitute after allowed their desires to rule over them. They are not even considered to be in love. To protect his reputation, Father Jacob had no choice but to send him to an orphanage. Having such an environment for a childhood, his character inevitably became withdrawn and gloomy. Father Jacob said that seeds of evil were buried in his body. I have a way different view on this matter.��


    Holmes lit the pipe. ��The police and Father Jacob himself believe that Jack the Ripper murdered those trick girls out of revenge for giving birth and abandoning him. However, I think the murders were some sort of ritual to trace his life��s origin. Of course, not to mention how he must be dying for attention, much like the rest of the serial killers. The letter sent to the newspaper is the best proof of my spection.��


    ��How about the uterus?�� Zhang Heng raised his eyebrows.


    ��Yes, I think that the uterus, in this case, is a significant symbol. It��s an important organ rting to reproduction, and it is also a ce where the fetus grows. Jack the Ripper ripped out the victim��s uterus, indicating that he hopes to find a sense of belonging. For instance, he chose prostitutes who had given birth to children, drunkards, and those who constantly lived among men. Through these characteristics, he connected these victims with his biological mother. Each time hemitted those crimes, it was then that he felt the closeness between himself and his victims. He feels as if he had found his mother...amazing. Emma gave him life, and he took that very life away from those prostitutes


    -a perfect cycle.�� Holmes blinked, ��Of course, thetter part is just a spection of mine. Jack, the Ripper, is dead, and I guess my spections will probably never be confirmed. Speaking of Jack the Ripper, let��s talk about Father Jacob-I have to admit that his role, in this case, went beyond expectation. Remember our previous spection?��


    ��Mm?��


    ��We had all agreed that there was no aplice in this case. In the end, when you connected Father Jacob to Jack the Ripper through Mark Cohen, a brief period of confusion hit me. The fact also proves that Father Jacob was not an aplice of Jack the Ripper.��


    Holmes continued, ��Jack the Ripper nestles silently in the secret room under the Church of the Sacred Heart��s confession room. This allowed him to eavesdrop on many secrets, secrets that should have always stayed within the confines of the cubicle. Father Jacob didn��t realize that his son hadmitted the first crime until he took the initiative to confess to him. At that time, Father Jacob was caught in a dilemma. He did not want Jack the Ripper to continue with his killing, but on the other hand, the murderer was his and Emma��s child. This is where he found a reason to protect this child, hoping to atone for neglecting his son throughout his youth.


    ��So he made another wrong choice. He decided to hide this matter and hoped he��d be able to control the beast. At the same time, he began subconsciously guiding Mark Cohen, who has a mental health condition, intending to use him as bait to misdirect the police. From a father��s standpoint, it all makes perfect sense to me.��


    ��But he obviously overestimated his abilities and Jack the Ripper��s long-repressed mental health troubles. Hence, the second and a third murder case. When the whole thing began to go out of control, Father Jacob realized that he couldn��t stop Jack the Ripper. Then, when Miss Adler came to look for him, Father Jacob saw her be the perfect target for Jack the Ripper. So he kidnapped her, but not to let his son kill her


    ��he was using her to test his son. ��He wanted to see with his own eyes if his son had defeated the devil in his heart or not. He had repeatedly promised that he would notmit those crimes again, but the results disappointed the father... From Jack the Ripper��s reaction, Father Jacob knew that more people would inevitably lose their lives as long as his son was still alive. Thus, he was left with no choice but to end his son��s life.��

 Chapter 524 - Deductive Reasoning (End)

    <strong>Chapter 524 Deductive Reasoning (End)</strong>


    Holmes described the case from beginning to the end as simply as he could. However, words could never perfectly depict theplicated feelings and rtionships involved in this case. Whether it was Father Jacob and Jack the Ripper, or the rtionship between Jack the Ripper and the victims, it was probably moreplicated than the world could perceive. It was a pity that they couldn��t find the answer to those questions since Father Jacob killed Jack.


    No matter what, the case was finally over. This was the best result that one couldpare with the real-time cold case that would take ce seven yearster. Holmes stretched his arms, telling Zhang Heng, ��You won the bet this time. Although you put yourself in grave danger, I can��t deny that you were always one step ahead of me. Now, you can execute the privilege of the winner. It��s time to choose the opera to watch tonight.��


    ��Really?�� Zhang Heng asked, ��But why do I feel as if you didn��t give it your best? Deliberately let me win this time?��


    ��Who knows, you seem to have an unexinable reason-you have to beat me


    once.��


    Holmes smiled, ��But I did try my best this time. After all, solving crimes is a passion of mine. It would be hard cing a roasted turkey before a food connoisseur and asking him not to eat it.��


    Two hundred seventy days seemed like a long time, but for Zhang Heng, who had been continually absorbing new knowledge every day, time passed in a blink of an eye. Including the Whitechapel District��s serial homicides, he and Holmes had covered over a dozen cases together.


    There were many bizarre and twisted stories. If Zhang Heng wrote all of them down, he might rece Conan Doyle as the greatest Victorian-era detective novelist. In theter period, Zhang Heng even began to handle some of the cases independently. His criminal investigation skills had reached Lv.2, followed by makeup skills. Other than that, he also asked Irene Adler for some knowledge about putting up a good performance, though his art appreciation skills remained at Lv.o.


    Thus far, this game had yet to provide him with any items. It wasn��t until thest day when Zhang Heng and Holmes went to see an equestrian show. When it ended, the two wandered along the banks of the Thames, talking about contemporary violin artists and 18th-century pirates, where Holmes marveled at Zhang Heng��s understanding of Nassau. Following that, the two went to a tavern on the side of the road to sit down and rx.


    It wasn��t far from the pier; hence many sailors drank and yed cards here. It was indeed a vivacious establishment; it��s atmosphere loud and lively.


    It was then that Sherlock Holmes��s hold habits began to surface again. He pointed at a man with a mustache on his left and said, ��Scotsman, has many brothers, graduated from Edinburgh University, worked as a marine doctor, went to West Africa, likes writing, and they are good at crossword puzzles as well.��


    ��Heh, we don��t have topete this time. I��ll buy you a pint.��


    Zhang Heng still had some money, and it would be hard to spend all of it before leaving this world. That was why he did not mind to buy Holmes a drink. ��That couldn��t be better. We��ll start with two pints,�� Holmes requested to the bartender.


    Just when the two found a seat to sit down and wait for the beer, the mustached man ying the crossword puzzle at the other table came over. Newspapers in hand, he eximed, ��Mr. Sherlock Holmes and his Eastern roommate, Sir. Zhang Heng! I did not expect to see you two here.��


    ��Good, sir. You know us?�� Holmes raised his eyebrows.


    ��Of course, you two are the most famous detectives in London right now,�� replied the mustached man with a smile. ��Can I sit here?��


    ��Please do! The more we drink with, the more interesting it gets,�� Holmes said. ��What is your name?


    ��Doyle, Arthur Conan Doyle,�� said the visitor enthusiastically, reaching out his hand.


    Holmes was a little surprised. After shaking his hand, he turned to Zhang Heng. ��Is he the friend that you mentioned before?��


    Holmes noticed Zhang Heng was even more surprised than he was when he heard the name.


    ��Don��t be surprised. We actually met for the first time.�� Conan Doyle exined, ��Before that, we weremunicating through words.��


    ��Communicating through words. You mean the letter?�� Holmes frowned.


    ��Close enough,�� Doyle said, pausing. ��When I came, I heard about an interesting case at Central Garden. Ady fell to the ground, and when she regained consciousness, her purse and other jewelry were still there. However, only her earrings are missing. Why not investigate this?��


    ��Sounds interesting. After staying idle for so long. We finally have something to do.�� Holmes was excited. He seemed to have forgotten Zhang Heng that sat beside him. He picked up his cane, got up, and strode out of the tavern.


    After that, the bartender brought two mugs of beer for them. Doyle picked up one of them and sighed. ��Thank god for that guy finally left. Otherwise, I can��t guarantee that he will not figure out my real intention with his crazily good observation skill. By the way, do you know that I created Sherlock Holmes based on a teacher I met when I was in college? His name is Joseph Bell. The way he teaches and asks questions will grant him the ability to see through your soul. He is capable of telling where youe from and what your upation is. He had a great impact on me at that time. I have thought that if he is a detective, he will definitely turn this line of work into urate science.��


    ��Of course, Edgar An Pie and ��mile Gaboriau also gave me a lot of inspiration. The character that Poe created, Detective Dobin, has always been my childhood hero. And Gaboriau��s interlocking writing method also gave me a lot of inspiration. This is how the writers work. One generation will influence another generation, just like passing on the precious knowledge from generation to generation. When you read the works of modern people, you can always find the context thates from the past.��


    Conan Doyle took a sip of beer and said to Zhang Heng, ��You should also try it. There are still a few hours left before your questes to an end. It��s not easy to return to 19th century London to taste the beer here.��


    ��Who are you?�� Zhang Heng finally asked.


    ��Who am I?�� There was a smile on Conan Doyle��s face. ��I am those names that you are familiar with. I am William Shakespeare, Alexander Dumas, and Arthur Conan Doyle. I��m also Neil Gaiman, George Raymond, and Richard Martin.��


    ��The god of the novel?�� Zhang Heng raised his eyebrows and took a sip of the beer in his ss.


    ��It��s an eptable way to exin the current situation.�� Conan Doyle snapped his fingers. Zhang Heng thought of the ancient Celtic god he met in the ck Sail quest and the mysterious man who called himself Einstein at the Apollo Project��s training camp. Now that he encountered the god of the novel, he suddenly realized something, ��So, there is a god that is rted to the quest in every round of the game that I y?��


    ��You are good at observing, just like your roommate Sherlock Holmes.�� Conan Doyle praised, ��As you can see, all the games serve two functions. The yers can get game items, points, and skills from it. And we can also use this to observe the yers and find a suitable agent for ourselves. You have the Infinite Building Block with you, so it should also be easy for you to understand. For us, it does not mean that the more powerful the yers are, the better it is for us. We must also take into ount thepatibility. This is a veryplicated matter. You have to weigh all of the aspects to make the best decision. At the same time, recruiting agents must also obtain the consent of the one that is being recruited.��


    ��Do you want to recruit me to be your agent?��


    ��Well, in theory, it is true that only when I want to recruit someone as an agent will I show up in front of him before the end of the quest. But you are an exception,�� Conan Doyle pointed at Zhang Heng��s watch on his right hand, ��You have chosen your side, haven��t


    you?��


    ��Then why do you even bother to show up in front of me?�� Zhang Heng asked, while quietly putting his fingers into his pockets and holding the knife there.


    ��Don��t be nervous, I��m don��t have ill intention towards you,�� Conan Doyle shrugged, ��On the contrary, there are actually many connections between you and me.��


    ��Connection?��


    ��I noticed that you are trying to find some answers that can help you to understand yourself better,�� Conan Doyle drank the beer in the ss in one breath, then burped contentedly, and stood up, ��You will thank me for this meeting when you find the answer. ��


    ��Wait, do you have the answers?��


    Conan Doyle did not continue on this topic but showed a smile, ��We will meet again, just like all the protagonists in the story have to make the final choice. By then, you also need to make your own choice.��


    After speaking, he put down the empty mug in his hand. Zhang Heng wanted to go after him, but he found that his body could not move. He could only watch the novel walked out of the tavern. After that, hended his attention on the newspaper that was left behind. There was a small bump in the middle of it. Zhang Heng opened the newspaper. He found the pen that Conan Doyle used to y the crossword puzzle.

 Chapter 525 - Manhunt Thread

    <strong>Chapter 525 Manhunt Thread</strong>


    Two weeks passed since the end of the Deductive Reasoning quest.


    Zhang Heng could finally bid farewell to the fish and chips he��d been chomping on for the days he could remember. He could yet throw himself again into the embrace of the canteen on the second floor. His other three dorm mates were used to his asional night absentees by now, and it wasn��t like their school officially appointed an officer to check on them. Even if he lived outside campus, no one really cared anyway.


    Rumors, however, would eventually emerge if one kept leaving campus grounds, just like how Shen Xixi was branded a sugar baby, said to be cozying up to older rich men who would bolster her opulent lifestyle. It was now Zhang Heng��s turn to taste Shen Xixi��s unpleasant experience, especially after someone spotted him having dinner with Han Lu at the food court. Han Lu��s flirtsy attitude definitely didn��t help things; there was plenty a room for imagination since there was a time he wouldn��t return to the dormitory every month. Of course, nobody believed Zhang Heng��s exnation that Han Lu was just his mother��s best friend. The rampant rumors showed no sign of slowing, answering the true, loquacious nature embedded within a person. Besides satisfying one��s curiosity, it was to be expected that a little imagination was also added to whatever topic they wanted to know more about.


    The ugly truth was, whenever a person fell from grace, an onlooker would actually receive gratification from it. A few insincere words of constion were also an inevitable addition to the package. After all, no one would so brazenly endanger their future and finances due to words from a loose tongue. It was probably because he was male, that he attracted lesser attention than Shen Xixi. Men had their attention drawn to different things, where their time would be rather spent on games, sports stars, or manga characters. Not to mention they were in their sophomore year, and most hadn��t even the slightest of what their future looked like.


    Zhang Heng or Shen Xixi were both usually busy with things that really mattered, and these rumors didn��t bother them at all. He now owed Shen Xixi a favor after the Dreand of Death incident. Considering the risk of never returning to the real world, Shen Xixi and her team knew nothing of the consequences of entering Han Lu��s dream. Even so, they still chose to enter, and although they did it out of their own ord, Zhang Heng didn��t want to take their kindness for granted.


    As of now, there was nothing he could do to help Shen Xixi. The non-guild yer group she led had recently gained momentum. Not only had arge number of yers had joined them, but smaller and medium-sized guilds had begun engaging and cooperating with them.


    Everyone might not have the same goals, but most of the yers knew that killing supernatural creatures would grant a high chance of game items dropping. Considering game items were scarce, and the method to obtain them had always been a mystery, Shen Xixi had actually provided them with a reliable means.


    Shen Xixi did not refuse such people, though. Not only was it challenging to discern everyone��s true purpose, but she knew all too well that yers like her were a rarity, armed with the sole purpose of protecting the ordinary. They wouldn��t be solving their problems anytime soon with the small number they had, which was why they sorely needed help. No matter what the purpose of the other party was, Shen Xixi didn��t mind working with them, as long as the final results matched their


    goal.


    As time went on, however, the organization began to juggle withplicated internal issues, and Shen Xixi now spent most of her time coordinating and managing the guild. The city they were in was also an exceptional one, where two of the three major guilds were headquartered here. So far, the grand guild had not expressed their stand on Shen Xixi��s newly-established guild, probably wanting to observe her for now.


    The sh-drive obtained from the Whistleblower quest enabled Zhang Heng to log in to the yer forum on hisputer without worrying about his IP address getting tracked. Hence, he had been quite active on the forum recently.


    After some time, he noticed a post.


    It was called ��Finding People,�� its creator going by the handle of Scarlet Sword, a supporting role in a fantasy novel. The forum was filled with a myriad of posts simr to this. The team that lost to Zhang Heng in the Lego quest was a good example. Disgruntled, they furiously told the world that they would look for Zhang Heng no matter what happened.


    Whether in multiyer or single-yer mode, there was a chance of encountering other yers. Undoubtedly, having more than one yer would also seeints starting toe in. That said, the developers had done an excellent job protecting the privacy of yers. Everyone��s appearance and voice were modified, and unless one confessed their identity, it was practically impossible to look for a specific yer once a game ended.


    The good news was that there was now a yer forum-a ce where all yers could congregate. Looking for a specific yer had naturally be one of the hotter topics of the forum. Then, there were quite a few posts created solely to vent a yer��s anger, carrying with them not much meaning in the end. Scarlet Sword��s post, however, was different. When Zhang Heng saw the name, he instantly thought of the woman in red from the Whistleblower quest. The two had a brief but fierce fight, finally ending when Zhang Heng sted off the ceiling of a parking lot with an RPG. The ceiling gave way to a pile of debris, right where the woman stood. Naturally, Zhang Heng thought that she��d been eliminated, only to learnter from Mr. Coffee that she was still alive, deciding to call the quest quits. And this post was no ident. She was looking for him.


    The woman named Scarlet made no references to the previous battle, leaving neither resentful remarks, nor did she covet revenge as well. Instead, she simply asked politely if he was avable for them to discuss something.


    Zhang Heng knew what she was talking about


    ��the katana originally belonged to Scarlet, broken into two halves during the explosion. Realizing it would be unsafe to linger within the copsing parking lot, Zhang Heng only managed to pick up the sword��s upper part, leaving it��s lower half-buried under the debris. Scarlet must have retrieved it after ck Nest cleaned up the ce.


    The two were presently caught in an awkward situation, where neither could use the iplete game item. Zhang Heng consulted the bartenderdy, and to make matters worse, even if the missing part was retrieved, the follow-up maintenance cost of the katana would amount to a whopping 2,000 game points.


    The post received many views, but there were only a fewments. yers clicking on that post didn��t see the expected trolling and bickering, leaving many who were hungry for drama high and dry. Some yers even pretended to be Zhang Heng, asking to talk to her. However, Scarlet didn��t reply to them.


    Bait-post or not, he intended to contact her anyway. If he managed to work things out, he could at least figure out the katana��s value first before deciding if he should repair it or sell it.


    ��I feel sorry for what happened at the parking lot. What do you want to talk about?�� he typed.

 Chapter 526 - Trade Request

    <h4>Chapter 526 Trade Request</h4>


    Zhang Heng��s reply became the topment in Scarlet��s post. After that, newments kept popping up. After yers caught glimpse of his message, someonemented, ��Not bad, the good brother of mine. It seems you��ve done something exciting in the parking lot. You can die with no regrets now.��


    This nonsensical reply made for a lousy head start on Scarlet��s post. A few seconds hadn��t even passed before someone alreadymented. ��So what happened in the parking lot? Can you describe it in 800 words?��


    Someone then followed suit, saying, ��Nah, don��t believe him. I��m the main character here. We did in the garage, not in the parking lot.��


    Fortunately, Crimson Sword reply immediately. Two minutester, Zhang Heng was invited to a chat room; a new function recently implemented on the forum. Initially intended as a convenient ce for yers tomunicate, it had unfortunately turned into a ce where spammers posted their malicious messages.


    Hundreds of people opened chat groups��they ranged from celebrity-chasing groups to football star debates, emotion management sses, and discount information on famous brands. Each chat room had a theme. Alternatively, one could also do what Scarlet did��create an encrypted space to talk about private matters.


    Seeing Saturn 5 enter the chat room, Crimson Sword went straight to the subject.


    [Is the upper part of Mikazuki Munechika with you?)


    Zhang Heng raised his eyebrows as he typed.


    [So this katana is Mikazuki Munechika? What about the one at the Tokyo National Museum.]


    (That one is a counterfeit.]


    Scarlet had nothing to hide when it came to this. She was somewhat of an excellentmunicator, and more specifically, good at talking to people like Zhang Heng. She knew there was no other way to speak to him except for absolute honesty.


    Since no one was about to fool anyone, whatever ill intention one had for the other had to be put aside for now. It would also makemunication more efficient.


    (You treasure the katana a lot. What is its value?] Zhang Heng asked again.


    (Grade C)


    Scarlet paused, then added,


    (But this Grade-C weapon suits me best. I can��t spare you the details, but I can tell you that I��ve been using it for more than a year now... I have a unique ability. The longer I use the sword, the more powerful it bes, which is why I am so obsessed with finding it.


    (Do you want me to return it to you?]


    [No. I want to propose a trade. You defeated me in the Whistleblower. The broken katana is your trophy, but we each have a piece of it. Nobody can use it in this state, so instead of the stalemate, it��s better that we make a deal.]


    (What will you pay for it?) [The katana isn��t one of the more popr weapon choices. This Grade-C game item is estimated to carry a market value of 1300 to 1500 points. One thousand game points are all I can pay for the half you currently possess. I can make up for the rest of the points with game items if you don��t mind.)


    (Do you have a way to reforge this?]


    (That��s a problem I��ll need to solve.) Immediately after that, she became worried if Zhang Heng might think her offer not good enough. So, she exined again.


    (This is the best I can offer you. I��m frank with you here. If you ask for more, then I see no option but to abandon this trade and look for another katana that suits me.]


    She hesitated for a while, saying everything in one go. [I��m willing to tell you one more thing. This sword isn��t that great for ordinary people. I only value it this much because I specialize in wielding the katana. Only I can maximize its value.]


    Zhang Heng, however, gave an unexpected reply.


    [I��m afraid I��ll have to say no to you.)


    Scarlet wasn��t too pleased by the reply. She had put in great efforts in analyzing Zhang Heng, and supposedly, there was no reason for him to reject the deal. At the very least, he should have shown a little interest in the negotiation. Scarlet began to wonder if Zhang Heng actually hated her due to the previous battle.


    At the time, Zhang Heng and Scarlet took sides with different factions in the quest, and it wasn��t surprising that they would fight each other. Besides, the battle caused her to sustain significant losses, where not only was her precious katana broken, but half of it was now in Zhang Heng��s hands. Not to mention how she almost lost her life in the battle. All things considered, she should have been the one holding the grudge, not Zhang Heng.


    Seeingmunications breaking down, Zheng Heng hurriedly exined his intention.


    (I use melee weapons as well.]


    Scarlet was bewildered when she read what he typed. During the previous battle, she marveled at his swordsmanship, only to take out an RPG in the middle of the battle. Then, when they first met, he disyed excellent archery skills. It was why she didn��t know which weapon he preferred, even going as far as to think that something must be wrong with the man. Everyone had a limited amount of energy. Scarlet, being a natural on the katana, upied most of her day training, and honing her skills. And that was all she was really good at. It was her first time encountering an opponent as skillful as him.


    Zhang Heng didn��t appear to reject the deal because of anything personal, and despite the attempts of striking a deal, they were now back at square one.


    So, instead of the deadlock volley, Zhang Heng made her a counter-offer.


    (I will give you 1,000 game points. I believe it is an amount sufficient to solve our problem. How about you sell me the other half?]


    [Can you fix it?)


    [This is a problem I��ll need to solve.]


    Zhang Heng used her own words on her. Now, their positions werepletely reversed.


    Of course, it wasn��t just some random price he came up with. He knew Scarlet wasn��t lying, though she didn��t exin why she was so desperate for the broken piece. Everything else, apart from that, should be fine. The katana carried a value of 1,500 game points, and if he were to buy the other half, he would need to pay her 1,000 game points and spend a further 2,000 to repair the sword. This would mean the katana would be sold at double its market value.


    But the problem was that even with a considerable amount of game points, Zhang Heng could not find a melee weapon he really liked. Melee weapons were niche and wouldn��t sell for a good price. Other than that, ded weapons were a rarity as well. Zhang Heng had been looking for an excellent ded weapon since he returned from the ck Sail quest, having entrusted Ding Si to look for a good one in the market. Unfortunately, he failed to get what he wanted until today.


    And if Mr. Coffee wasn��t lying, the so-called ��proxy war�� was ted to begin soon. It was probably why Scarlet was so desperate to get her katana back. ording to her, she would need a long time to increase her ded weapon��sbat power, and if she got another one, she would have to raise it from scratch.


    What more, ording to the bartender, 2,000 game points should get the katana fixed and upgraded. For Zhang Heng, spending 3,000 game points on the katana sounded like a reasonable amount.

 Chapter 527 - The Game’s Next Phase

    <h4>Chapter 527 The Game��s Next Phase</h4>


    This time, Scarlet was left speechless.


    Like what she said, 1,000 game points was indeed a very generous offer. It was a fact half a katana was barely usable, and even if Zhang Heng refused to sell his other half, it wasn��t like selling her part of the sword would be a problem. If it were not for the proxy war that was approaching, she might have just epted Zhang Heng��s proposal.


    But now... she appeared to be unwilling to sell her half to him. Zhang Heng had made it clear that he did not want to sell his half because he toocked a ded weapon, and it seemed game points weren��t his concern.


    Scarlet hesitated for half a minute before finally replying to him.


    [I will think about it.]


    [Okay.)


    Zhang Heng replied politely without pushing it.


    Scarlet couldn��t help but ask again at the end.


    (Where and whom did you learn your swordsmanship from?]


    This time, Zhang Heng refused to reply. It was clear from his attitude that he didn��t want to answer this question. Scarlet realized that she, too, might have crossed the line, and after a while, she saw a prompt on the upper right corner of the screen that Saturn 5 had left the chat room. And so, it was in that manner that the first conversation between the two ended.


    Scarlet turned off her Surface. She was relieved. ��Saturn 5�� was not as crazy as Mr. Coffee. In fact, she thought Zhang Heng to be very rational andmunicated extremely well. However, once his mind was made up, changing it was almost impossible. From there, Scarlet could also tell that Zhang Heng didn��t need game points.


    Scarlet, on the other hand, hade up with everything she had to gather a total of 1,000 game points. Her loss in the Whistleblower quest forced 800 game points out of her to purchase a mission failure exemption card.


    If possible, she wouldn��t mind using some other means to take back the upper part of her katana. After all, Zhang Heng took it from her without permission. Then, when she fought with him, she didn��t manage to get any advantage out of him, and although she held Mr. Coffee in disdain, she had to admit that his strength rivaled a nuclear-powered mecha.


    Up until now, she still didn��t understand how Mr. Coffee could have lost the battle. One thing was certain, though-Zhang Heng had terrifying strength. So, whichever way this went, she would still need to rely on a deal if she wanted to get the other half of the katana. While Scarlet continued to weigh the chips on her hands, Zhang Heng was in the lecture room, attending a Western Culture and History ss, an elective he had taken.


    He��d put in some effort into choosing several courses this semester. Besides selecting those he had an interest in, he deliberately chose courses helpful to the game, even picking Elementary French, a veryplicated-soundingnguage.


    He earned lots of course credits in this semester alone, and throughout the period, he also had much more free time. Not to mention the extra 24 hours he had in a day. As usual, after finishing the seventh game, he gave the pen he got at the end to the bartender for identification.


    The results, however, were somewhat unexpected. This was the first time the game point failed to identify an item, prompting the bartender to refund Zhang Heng with four points and provide him free advice.


    ��Such situations are rare, but it has happened before. After all, even the system panel could get hacked at the auction center. I��m not surprised by the results. Perhaps you could tell me how you obtained this pen? I could try to help you figure out the problem.��


    Zhang Heng remembered the words of Conan Doyle right before he left. So far, Zhang Heng was confident that the old man in the Tang suit approached him for other purposes. His qualifications and game points had all been provided by the old man, and up until now, he still didn��t know the bartender��s role in the game��s system.


    Zhang Heng hesitated for a while and finally decided to reveal his encounter with Conan Doyle in the quest before taking back the pen. He then asked the bartender again about the proxy war. ��Proxy war? Ahh, the organizingmittee was just about to announce it,�� said the bartender, ��So, there is nothing wrong with telling you first. Anyway, I guess quite a few people know about it already, and afterpleting so many rounds, you should know what it��s all about. As of now, most of the agents have been determined. Very few haven��t ced their bets yet, but the important is estimated to be released next month. By that time, the game would be entering its next phase.��


    ��The next phase?��


    ��Yes, the qualifiers are about to end, and the main game willmence once the name list is released. The next phase is about to get really exciting! It seems you��ve already got the tickets for the next round. I wish you good luck in advance!��


    ��What about ordinary yers?�� Zhang Heng frowned. ��What will happen to them after the proxy war starts?��


    ��They may freely choose the side they wish. They can either join the agents or be apostles. A single person never starts wars. Of course, if you are strong enough to defeat everyone, I will be the first to apud you,�� the bartender added with a sly grin.


    Zhang Heng wondered if something was wrong with him. As they conversed about the topic, a wild sh of fanaticism and excitement glistened within the bartender��s eyes.


    ��You should wait for the organizingmittee��s notification for the specific content. I��m going back to work. I overspentst month, and this month, I suffer the consequences of a huge debt.��


    And that was all the information Zhang Heng had currently. For good measure, he also sent a WeChat message to Fan Meinan. On a normal day, her reply woulde almost instantly, which made him wonder if she really had nothing else to do except to scroll through Weibo every day. This time, she waited for an unprecedentedly long time before sending in her reply.


    [I��m busy.]


    After that, there was nothing from her. There was still about a month before the proxy war, and Zhang Heng was in no hurry. Fan Meinan seemed to have an important matter. When he thought about the powerful individual behind her, he figured someone was about to meet an awful end. It happened that Zhang Heng needed to deal with something too, hence, didn��t browse the yer forum for about a week.


    The moment he came online again, he saw something utterly shocking taking ce.

 Chapter 528 - Ultimatum

    <h4>Chapter 528 Ultimatum</h4>


    One of the three major guilds, Arc of Light, issued an ultimatum to Shen Xixi��s newly formed union at midnightst night without any warning. It came as aplete surprise to Zhang Heng. They demanded an apology from Shen Xixi for the vicious conflict at Tongzhou that night, surrender the four murderers, andpensate for the losses. If she refused, they would dere war on her. Since no third party was present at the time of the incident, yers on the forum couldn��t tell what really happened that night. ording to Arc of Light, the number of yers from their faction had been tracking down a monster. In the midst of the chase, they ran into another team of yers belonging to the union. The Arc of Light yers immediately issued the union��s yers with a warning, to which they were wise enough to give way to them.


    Regardless of why yers joined the union, at least they did it intending to protect ordinary people. In other words, if Arc of Light were the ones who killed the monster, the union��s yers should dly ept the oue. Unexpectedly, union yers apparently yed dirty. They pretended to leave, but instead, took another path back to where they were initially.


    At the critical moment when Arc of Light was fighting the monster, the union yers abruptly attacked them out of nowhere. The ambush resulted in five out of the six Arc of Light yers�� deaths, where only one managed to stay alive to tell the tale to his faction. Following that, Arc of Light was furious; hence, the confrontation with Shen Xixi��s union.


    However, yers on the forum had a hard time believing the whole story. First, the Arc of Light survivor was the only one who brought the matter up. Shen Xixi and her union, however, hadn��t yet responded to the usations. Next, the three major guilds had been trying their best to keep the yers under control, intending to show that they were a very reasonable bunch. After all, they had the upper hand over most yers, and it was impossible they wouldn��t take advantage of their powerful position. They had people from all manner of life them all the time; hence, it was unavoidable that a few rotten apples festered among them. Many small, medium, and even non-guild yers had mixed feelings toward these three major guilds.


    Once the yer base saw the announcement, more and more happiness seemed to build over their misfortune. One of the most upvotedments was: ��The stupid dogs of Arc of Light bully whoever they can whenever they want to. They totally deserve what happened to them.


    Less than two minutes after he posted hisment, he was muted by the moderator; the reason for that was attacking somebody with hurtful words. The yer forum was actually something that the three major guilds created. Still, most of its moderators were supposed to be selected by yers to ensure a fair atmosphere. Instead, the three super moderators were all members of the three major guilds, now endowed with the powers of banning or muting anybody whenever they so pleased.


    The yer that was muted had no intention to keep quiet. Since it was easy to make a new ount on the forum, the muted yer returned in less than ten seconds, even using the same username but with a 01 added behind it.


    (Come on, you power-hungry pig! I dare you to ban me again! You can mute me, but can you mute justice?]


    As soon as this reply came out, yers began cheering for him. This was how the inte rolled. If you asked the group of people to confront Arc of Light in person, there wasn��t a single soul who dared to do so. However, no one would back down if you put them behind a keyboard and screen. The super moderator was aware of this problem, and after banning a bunch of worthless keyboard warriors, he gave up.


    These cynics typically didn��t care about who was right or wrong in this conflict between Arc of Light and the union. Most simply took the advantage to vent their dissatisfaction with the Arc. Since the union had just been formed not too long ago, most yers found no conflict of interest with them. Besides, the union was different from a guild-yers who joined the union wereplicated. Some were independent teams not attached to any guild, and since the union was in a weaker position than Arc, they were bound to get the sympathy and support of the yer base.


    For this case, unfortunately, all that sympathy and support in the world had no effect in solving the problem at hand.


    Zhang Heng realized that Shen Xixi was in trouble this time as soon as he saw the post. Regardless of right or wrong, establishing the union itself was bad news for the grand guilds. The union��s current structure was rtively loose, and they were no threat to the three major guilds. And Shen Xixi had repeatedly stated that the union��s purpose was only to protect the ordinary.


    However, no one would know what would happen if the union continued to grow, that they might one day be a juggernaut powerful enough to turn against the three major guilds. After all, strength within the union��s structure could be gradually cultivated, and yer rtionships could be enhanced through working towards the same goal. At the moment, everyone was working together to defeat the monster and to distribute the loot as per regtion. If these yers were to cross paths in the same quest, there was a good chance that they would work together. Then, slowly but surely, they would stick with each other to form a powerful faction. This incident might just be a catalyst, but it did not matter if it was right or wrong. The three major guilds were tired of simply standing and observing Shen Xixi��s union. This time, they were determined to do something about it. As if it were not bad enough, the two other major guilds�� unanimous silence could only indicate that the situation was slipping toward the worst possible oue.


    They employed a cunning technique-force Shen Xixi to hand over yers responsible for the incident. Aiming to tackle the union��s weakest link, they knew how the camaraderie within the union would be fractured forever once she surrendered her people. And if Shen Xixi chose to resist, then the Arc of Light would most likely dere war with the union. Let alone the difference in strength between the two sides��based on the union��s current situation, how many would choose to coexist and die with this new emerging force simply?


    So no matter which path Shen Xixi chose to go down with, the union seemed to have reached the end of its road. She had only kept mum about her stand on this matter because the union was in aplete mess right now. After receiving the warning, she immediately contacted the union��s management, including the leaders of small and medium guilds, and representatives of the independent teams, beseeching them to develop a solution. Although Shen Xixi was prepared to face the worst, she felt a chill run up her spine each time she thought about everyone��s reaction.


    Nearly 90% agreed that the incident��s team should be handed over to the Arc of Light. It wasn��t like these people cared about the truth. It was just as they said; the truth was no longer important. Whether the Arc was lying or not, the top priority was first to ensure the union��s safety. After that, they could prove their point to the Arc with words.


    Shen Xixi looked at the allies in front of her, feeling a deep sense of exhaustion in her heart. No matter what outsiders thought, the reason she established the union was simple: to do the right thing.


    Doing the right thing might sound simple, but those who had actually put it in practice only knew how difficult it was to do.


    Because the world wasn��t always reasonable.


    Beforeing here, Shen Xixi had met the yers who caused the conflict, and she was at least 80% sure that Arc of Light was the one lying. Even if it wasn��t the other party��s n, they were obviously about to use this conflict to break the union. Everyone knew what the yers�� fate involved in this incident would be if they chose to hand them over to the Arc. Everyone seemed to have deliberately ignored this. Personal sacrifices were underestimated in a big group of people.

 Chapter 529 - Deadline

    <h4>Chapter 529 Deadline</h4>


    Shen Xixi took Western cultural history as well, but she didn��t make it to ss today. In fact, she did not show up in school at all for the whole day. Many were used to this, though. The boys would show a hint of regret whenever the name of their course�� beauty queen was mentioned. The girls, on the other hand, didn��t care too much about her.


    Even among the three residing in Zhang Heng��s dormitory, two had drawn a clear line with Shen Xixi. Wei Jiangyang��s girlfriend, Han Xiaoxiao, still couldn��t let it go. She and Shen Xixi used to be close, and she once even persuaded her to rethink what she was doing. After all, she was from a decent family, where she didn��t need to sell her body. Her dad was no wealthy CEO, butpared to most girls born to working-ss families, she never had to worry about her life.


    It did not make sense that she went down this path, not to mention how she was never a vain girl in the first ce. However, neither those who cared about Shen Xixi nor the gloaters at school knew the real situation she now faced.


    The union��s impromptu meeting had been going on for a day and a night. Most important discussions had actually beenpleted in the first hour but, the founder of the union, Shen Xixi, didn��t agree to the solution. It was why the meeting had been dragging on until now. Arc of Light gave them only one day. That was, if the union did not give them what they wanted by midnight, war would then be dered on them.


    If that were the case, it was an eptable oue for the union.


    Most in the conference room knew that once the yers were handed over to the Arc of Light, the foundation they were built upon would fall apart. If the yers were to be handed over today, they might end up the same tomorrow. That said, they should at least try to stay alive today, much less think about tomorrow.


    The president of a medium-sized guild attempted ast effort. In persuasion, he said, ��I know you are displeased by the oue. In fact, none of us are happy. This is a huge blow to the union, and it might also affect your reputation. However, we all know how tough a decision it must have been for you, and we guarantee this position will remain as yours in the time toe.��


    ��Reputation? I felt misunderstood! I don��t care who the boss of the union is. We are not a guild. It doesn��t matter who the chairman is.�� Shen Xixi shook her head, ��I cannot possibly agree to hand them over to Arc of Light. They will be killed!��


    ��You may not want to surrender them, but we can��t keep them as well,�� someone immediately retorted. ��Although our numbers won��t suffer, our yers have far less strength than top guilds like Arc of Light. Their current admission criteria are to have at least survived five games, let alone that their guild has more than ten Grade-B game items. Most of our yers havepleted only three games, a less than average number. Moreover, we only have four Grade-B items, and most of them are nonbat type.��


    ��The Arc of Light is not the only top guild,�� said Shen Xixi. ��We will pay dearly if we go against them. Arc of Light must also consider if the bnce between Silver Wings and the yers can still be maintained.��


    ��What is that dear price we will need to pay then?��


    The guild leader of a small guild asked the question that everyone was waiting to ask.


    The union��sposition was inherentlyplicated, wherein small and medium guilds and independent yer teams participated. So far, they had no problem cooperating, but in times of real danger, these apparently close allies would find it very difficult to work together.


    Now that everything was out in the open, masks hade undone, and everyone spoke their minds. The medium guild leader who spoke before continued, ��The agreement between us was to deal with monsters in the city. That does not include a battle against one of three major guilds, Arc of Light.��


    Shen Xixi frowned and was about to say something, but the next moment, someone abruptly kicked the door open.


    Li Bai, still with blood still on his body, and Rabbit, a lollipop in her mouth, strode into the meeting room. They brought along three captives with them. ��These bastards wanted to kidnap someone, but we caught them,�� said Li Bai. Rabbit went on, ��...they are from Horizon. Li Bai beat up another two unlucky bastards, and they are now lying in the hospital.��


    Shen Xixi cast her gaze on a middle-aged man who had not spoken much. He seemed gentle. It was the guild leader of Horizon, and he did not avoid her gaze. He pushed up his sses and confessed, ��Someone has to do it, at this point. Since you are unwilling, we will do it for


    you.��


    ��We haven��t evene up with a conclusion yet!�� answered Shen Xixi, still taken aback by the sudden intrusion.


    ��I don��t even know what the point is for discussion,�� said the middle-aged man. ��If you don��t hand them over, there is no need for the union to exist anymore!��


    ��Is that a threat?��


    Shen Xixi looked around the people in the conference room.


    The atmosphere in the meeting room was tense. No one replied to her. In other words, they must have agreed with the middle-aged man.


    ��So, this is the justice your heart seeks?!��


    Shen Xixi��s heart sank, but there was a slight glimmer of hope, where she hoped to awaken the conscience in their heart through those questions.


    However, after a long while, the oldest man and a representative of the independent yers spoke slowly.


    ��Politics has nothing to do with justice.��


    There were only less than three hours left before they had to reply to Arc of Light.


    Until now, the union still hadn��t revealed their stand. On the other hand, the yer forum was getting livelier by the minute-yers had posted spections about Shen Xixi��s decision, and some had even started a bet for this event. Judging by the wager that most people ced, they leaned more towards Shen Xixi eventually handing the yers to Arc of Light. It was only a matter of time.


    Dragging it a little longer would show that the union did surmount some resistance against the Arc of Light onught, something that might ease the consequences of handing over the yers. Public opinion on the forum seemed to have reached a consensus-it was a choice any reasonable person should make.


    After all, Arc of Light wasn��t really intending to destroy the union. At best, it was only because of the union��s rapid growth, causing the three major guilds to ruffle their feathers. They wanted to use this opportunity to stunt and stifle their development, in the fear that they might someday be a threat.


    Handing over the yers meant reducing the union��s internal cohesion, allowing the union to maintain its loose structure, and in turn, stopping Shen Xixi from integrating the emerging union into a powerful force. This would be an eptable result for both parties.


    However, at 11:12 in the evening, the medium-sized guild, Horizon, announced the forum, reiterating their respect for Shen Xixi and the union she led. They had also stated that the two sides chose to split due to personal differences and wouldn��t rule out the possibility of working together again in the future.


    As soon as this thread got posted, a second thread emerged before the lurkers got even to say anything about it. It was quickly followed by the third, then fourth. These were all posts by guilds or independent yer groups within the union. Anybody smart would promptly sense that something wasn��t quite right.


    Without warning, the newly formed union was now on the verge of copsing overnight.

 Chapter 530 - Preparation

    <h4>Chapter 530 Preparation</h4>


    Like everyone else, Zhang Heng had been following the progress of this matter. Even at night ss, he would bring along hisptop, seat himself in the lecture room��sst row, and check thetest news on the forum from time to time.


    ss ended at 9.45 p.m. After returning to the dormitory, Chen Huadong and Wei Jiangyang invited him for a round of League of Legends. Zhang Heng agreed to y, and he chose a Jungler, where he asionally nced the forum while free-farming in the jungle. The first three rounds ended very quickly; all of them ending in less than 20 minutes. It was either Zhang Heng��s team annihting the opponents, or their core yers were being targeted nonstop. Zhang Heng, the Jungler, did not even need to step out of the forest to help the battle.


    However, the fourth game was extremely challenging. A very skillful yer on the enemy��s team was showcasing his mad skills, carrying the entire team. Unfortunately, four useless yers had joined Zhang Heng��s team, and all they knew was to cheer. The enemy team kept killing their team with no respite, like wolves hunting a flock of chickens. Once Zhang Heng��s teammates were sent back to the base, they rushed to protect their towers, trying their best to maintain the fragile and precious bnce. The fight was so intense that nobody seemed to get the high ground.


    In the end, Zhang Heng had to sneak to the enemy��s base to destroy their tower, leading them on to win the battle. When he turned off the game, he had already read Horizon��s thread. At 11:32, the union, or rather, half-disbanded union, finally posted an announcement. It turned out they refused to hand their yers over to Arc of Light.


    There was also an attachment at the end of the post about the conflict with Arc of Light��s yers. The union told a whole different story, where the ones being assaulted was actually the union team. This independent yer team was rather powerful, and though they were forced to face both the monster and Arc of Light yers, they managed to withstand the onught. The monster ran away in the end. However, they managed to kill five Arc of Light��s yers, and only two on the union��s side were killed.


    Quickly, the post caused an uproar in the forum. It wasn��t about the truth. In fact, even without the video evidence, many had already suspected that Arc of Light had fabricated the whole thing. It was Shen Xixi��s decision that upset everyone. When Horizon announced they were leaving the union, some were guessing that Shen Xixi might eventually go against Arc of Light. Even with that knowledge, they were still left in shock after reading the announcement.


    The union was way weaker than Arc of Light, let alone in a semi-disabled state.


    Shortly after Shen Xixi��s announcement, more and more yers announced that they were leaving the union for good. If the union looked shaky earlier, it now looked like it was on the verge of dying. All these took ce the moment Shen Xixi posted the thread.


    The Arc of Light reacted to Shen Xixi��s decision very quickly. At 11:45, they responded to Shen Xixi, expressing their regret for thetter��s choice. This time, they wrote in a very polite tone. They believed that Shen Xixi had been confused by the perpetrators, and they would head to the union at midnight to deal with the four murderers.


    Any yer that wasn��t blind knew that the union had already copsed. In other words, Arc of Light had achieved their goal. There was no longer the need for wonton obliteration. They did not want to cause more yers to resent them.


    At 11:49, the bartender sent Zhang Heng a message, telling him she ced the stuff he wanted at the designated spot. He didn��t express his gratitude in the end since she didn��t give him any discounts.


    He then put all the things he might need in his backpack.


    He never brought a powerful weapon, the Pestilence Bone Bow, back to the dormitory because he did not want anyone messing around with it. His dorm mates were baffled by his actions, knowing how it was normal that he didn��t return. This was their first time seeing Zhang Heng leaving at such ate hour.


    The moment Zhang Heng said that he had gone to find Han Lu, Chen Huadong and Wei Jiangyang gave him a quick re. Ignoring the strange looks and questions they asked, he hurriedly left the hostel before the dormdy locked the gate.


    As usual, the world came to a standstill at midnight. There were a lot of things to do tonight, but Zhang Heng wasn��t really anxious. He set the time and decided to take one thing at a time. For now, he nned to go to the parking lot to get his Polo.


    Once Shen Xixi made up her mind, nothing would stop the copse of the union. There was nothing Zhang Heng could do to stop it as well. Butpared to the others, he got to know her earlier. He knew her better than them, and he knew what was really going on. With Shen Xixi��s character, she would never give up the innocent in exchange for peace.


    Now, she had to bear the consequences of her choice. Things had be lessplicated since her mind was made, though. After achieving its goal, Arc of Light would proceed to punish the murderers. As expected, Shen Xixi chose to keep protecting the four yers.


    Zhang Heng finally got to pay back the favor he owed Shen Xixi in Dreand of Death. Earlier this morning, he sent her a WeChat message, asking if she needed any help. She rejected him, saying that the union was capable of solving the predicament themselves.


    Although Shen Xixi was stubborn in certain matters, it certainly didn��t mean she was stupid or naive. Based on the circumstances at the time, Zhang Heng believed that she, being the decision-maker, had naturally considered the worst possible oue. She refused his help only because she didn��t want to drag him into this pile of crap.


    Shen Xixi also knew that Zhang Heng had been reluctant to join the union because he thought it wouldn��t end well. She had no reason to get him involved at the union��s most precarious moment. However, Zhang Heng did not really care about the risk. Even if she refused to let him help her, he could easily get her position with his Lv.2 hacking skill.


    But instead of looking for Shen Xixi first, he drove his Polo to the address given by the bartender and found a ck box hidden at the bottom of a dumpster behind the wall. A key was tied to the handle, and after closer inspection, he confirmed that he got what he wanted. He then tossed the object into the trunk.


    He then drove leisurely to the next location without hurries.


    Zhang Heng had been working nonstop for more than ten hours, and finally, he had done almost everything on the list. After that, he checked into a nearby hotel to replenish his energy with food and well-deserved sleep. He waited for his cellphone to ring on time, and only less than fifteen minutes left before the hour handpleted a circle.


    Zhang Heng washed his face, opened the password-protected ck box beside the bed. He took out a number of parts, assembled them before it was all finallybined into a CS5 sniper rifle, a weapon courtesy of American firearms manufacturer McMin Firearms.


    Unlike the famous Finnish Star or L115A3, the CS5 was not a sniper that could shoot super long range. It is more suitable for urban warfare. And it is also a rare sniper rifle equipped with a silencer to meet Zhang Heng��s needs. He noticed that a post-it note was posted at the back of the rifle. It was written by a Miss Bartender with the words: Happy Killing. She even drew a cute version of a gunman at the lower right corner.

 Chapter 531 - Bait

    <h4>Chapter 531 Bait</h4>


    The Arc of Light had proved worthy of being one of the three major guilds. Although it was established after the other two significant guilds, it was weaker than the rest. Grow into a guildparable to the other two in such a short time was a gargantuan task, to say the least.


    Unlike the union��s haphazard workings, Arc of Light had been nning for this operation for a very long time. Their management was infamously arrogant and efficient, a known fact among yers��whether nning or execution, they were ready even before the get-go-going as far as to nt one of their own in the union. This came in the form of a president of a small-time guild, voluntarily joining the union when it was first established, and even bing one of its representativester on.


    It meant that, while the union was locked in conve, Arc of Light watched their every move. They also managed to find out the whereabouts of the four yers they hunted. Obviously, the deadline were words that meant nothing to them. After Shen Xixi made the announcement at 11:32 p.m, they would not just there and do nothing to wait for the people from the Arc of Light to look for them.


    In fact, at 11.00 p.m, Arc of Light��s first assault team had already arrived near the target location. If Shen Xixi was willing to cooperate, it would all end well, and no blood would be spilled. However, if she was still adamant about going against them, the assault team would attack at midnight, and if everything went ording to n, the battle should end in less than ten minutes.


    However, Arc of Light was surprised when they received thetest intel. Their targets had apparently been secretly transferred half an hour ago. Arc of Light��s internal evaluation of Shen Xixi had always held her in high regard. She was young, no doubt, but an equally mature and calm woman. Not to mention the natural charisma and charm she possessed. For these reasons, Arc of Light knew who they were dealing with and had the ball rolling in advance. The current escapade, however, could be the act of Shen Xixi alone.


    It was a question no one could solve. It did not matter who was the one that tried to solve it. The fact that Shen Xixi managed to transfer her people secretly in such a risky situation even had Arc of Light bemused.


    There was nothing she could do to fix the situation right now��the union��s impending copse was imminent. Few were willing to stay by Shen Xixi��s side-relying on them take on Arc of Light was no different than using an egg to hit a stone. Moreover, Arc of Light had all the information about Shen Xixi and herrades in their hands.


    Although they stated that they wanted to capture and punish the four murderers tonight, they did not promise that those would be the only targets. If they could not locate who they were looking for, they would look for Shen Xixi next. Since she insisted on getting herself into this pool of chaos, they wouldn��t mind if they ended up with her anyway. They could then interrogate them about the four murderers.


    This was why Zhang Heng couldn��t use the extra 24-hours to help her move her people out. Unless Shen Xixi and her allies chose to permanently leave the city and nevere back, it would be pointless. She would never take that option unless it was thest resort.


    Arc of Light��s leader, Eryue Weicheng, had finished work on time at 4:30 in the afternoon. He drove to the elementary school to pick up his daughter and was about to throw a birthday party for her at Sheraton tonight. He invited all her ssmates, and since tomorrow happened to be the weekend, he made an exception to allow his daughter an all-nighter with her friends. Everything had to be pinpoint perfect tonight. His daughter was the only princess of the night, and everyone would be giving their best wishes to her. This importance of this had even surpassed the n.


    Everything that needed preparing had been prepared a long time ago, and it made no difference if he stayed to monitor the whole operation or not. Not to mention that were are two vice-leaders and three chairpersons in the current war-room. Naturally, Eryue Weicheng was not worried about the situation at all.


    At 00:05.


    No one noticed a parliament of owls perching on the telephone pole, staring down at them with theirrge yellow-brown eyes. This ce was an urban vige located at the edge of the Fifth Ring Road. Most local farmers built their own houses here, and some were rented out to migrant workers. Since the subway station was quite a distance away, the rent was rtively cheap. That said, a room with a separate bathroom would still cost up to 1,000 yuan. To save on money, some shared rooms with up to four other people. Li Bai��s rented apartment was shared among four individuals. The room had two bunk beds, just like the setup of a dormitory. Each of them had to fork out 400 yuan per month, and thendy decided to shut an eye on the matter.


    After Li Bai became a yer, his ie suddenly blossomed. However, he chose to exchange most of his game points for money and sent them back to his hometown, choosing to live here in this urban vige. Two minutes ago, he hurried back to this room. It seemed he hade back to retrieve something, not even bothering to reply to his roommate��s jokes.


    The two Arc of Light strike teams had quietly surrounded this ce. After that, they looked at their superior, a bearded man dressed like a director, who shook his head. ��Try your best not to rm the residents here. Just wait until hees downstairs.��


    Everyone then waited for another five minutes, but still, Li Bai was nowhere in sight. The bearded man realized something was wrong and immediately led a group to the rental house. Inside, three men were topless, drinking beer and ying Honor of Kings. Li Bai was nowhere to be seen. The one guarding the window saw no oneing out of the room either.


    Had Li Bai fooled them?


    However, the bearded man did not seem too worried. He turned and said to a man behind him, ��Find him.��


    Thetter nodded, lit a handful of weird tobo, took a deep breath, and made an odd cry. He then rolled his eyes, and at the same time, the group of owls standing on the telephone pole outside the door seemed to have received a message. They quickly spread their wings one after the other and flew in all directions.


    The bearded man knew that their target had realized he was being trailed. That meant he probably didn��te back to get anything. He just wanted to take advantage of the urban vige��splicatedyout to distract the strike team. On the other hand, Shen Xixi was preparing to get the four out of the city. It was a pity that they made the wrong move tonight. The second strike team was prepared for this situation.


    Those owls were used to deal with this situation. The bearded man knew that Li Bai had been with Shen Xixi for a long time, and he could be considered as a veteran in Shen Xixi��s team. As long they capture him, he would be able to make him tell them the whereabouts of their targets.


    There was no problem with his n. However, he had underestimated Shen Xixi��s determination.


    To be more precise, everyone had underestimated Shen Xixi��s determination. She knew all too well how precarious tonight��s situation would be. The strength between the two factions was severely unequal, and it was pointless for her side to mount a defense. From the beginning, she never intended to adopt a defensive strategy, and beyond expectation, chose an offensive tactic instead.


    Arc of Light wanted to capture her ally to force her to surrender. At the same time, she wanted to capture the Arc of Light��s senior management as a bargaining chip to negotiate with them.


    Li Bai was bait, but not to distract Arc of Light.


    He was the bait to draw them in.

 Chapter 532 - Barber’s Pole

    <h4>Chapter 532 Barber��s Pole</h4>


    Li Bai kept on running without looking back. Since he was familiar with the terrain, he could easily throw off the enemy��s scents. But no matter how fast he ran, he failed to get rid of the pesky owl above his head.


    Thetter clung to him like sticky candy. The owl practically served as a feathery Global Positioning System for his enemies. And it would not leave no matter how hard Li Bai tried to scare it off. Naturally, the bird wouldn��t get too close to him that could ensure its safety. Too bad Li Bai didn��t have any long-range weapons. All he could do right now was to flee in embarrassment. At times, he even had to run into others�� homes.


    Both Li Bai and his enemies shared amon goal-none of them wanted to alert the residents living in this area. Li Bai only entered houses that their owners had still not returned from work.


    The bearded man was impressed by Li Bai��s stamina. After running for a quarter of an hour, Li Bai was sweating profusely but showed no sign of slowing down. It was a pity that he was a yer, or he should have tried marathons. Perhaps he would have earned himself a chance to be an Olympic champion after some training.


    Arc of Light sent more than two teams of yers to deal with them tonight. The other group of yers wasn��t as friendly. While Li Bai was running away, he still kept an eye on the enemies that were going after him, but after running for a while, a golf club stuck out from behind the wall in front of him and hit him directly on the right leg.


    Li Bai suffered a sharp pain in his calf. It seemed like the bones insides his leg was shattered. Though he was suffering from excruciating pain, he chose to endure it, gritted his teeth, and not said a word about it.


    Li Bai then kept running with his other leg. The person who attacked him was in no hurry. He waved to stop his allies, who were about to pounce at Li Bai. ��Run! Just keep running. Aren��t you good at running? Although we were asked to capture you alive, as long as you are still breathing, we can do whatever we want to you... really thought you could kill our people and stash away the murderer? You know you have to pay the price, right?��


    While talking, the man loosened the tie on his suit and walked up menacingly to Li Bai with the golf club. Li Bai, running in front of him, tripped on something and fell to the ground. Despite that, he said nothing, continuing to crawl toward the barbershop that wasn��t too far away.


    At that time, the two assault teams with the bearded man finally caught up. The bearded man frowned when he saw what happened. ��Let��s not create more troubles for us. Just capture him and hand him in.��


    ��There��s no need to rush. Gotta have some fun after working your ass off for so long,�� sneered the man in the suit. He then swung the golf club twice but found Li Bai had stopped running. He was leaning against the door of the closed barber, looking at it coldly.


    For some reason, anxiety burdened the bearded man��s heart. He quickly pulled out a pistol from his waist. Before he could fully draw his weapon out, his body froze. His mind was still working, though, and he immediately realized what the problem was. The barber��s pole in front of the barbershop seemed to have been around for a long time and looked like a game item. Once the person took a look at it, they would be rendered immobile.


    As long as one person got to remind the people at the back not to look at the light, they would regain their freedom. By the time they realized it, it was toote. Everybody quickly followed suit, given a rude awakening when they realized they couldn��t open their mouths.


    A total of twenty-four people were frozen in ce. At the same time, Rabbit and Shen Xixi walked out of the barbershop. The rabbit ran up to Li Bai. ��What a madd you are! Are you okay?��


    Although Li Bai��s calf hurt like hell, he still managed to squeeze out an ugly smile. ��It��s okay. I had to let him hit me. If I stopped here abruptly, they might catch on about something fishy, and they wouldn��t have fallen into this trap.��


    Shen Xixi nodded at Li Bai in return. ��Hold on. I will ask the faceless man and old K to drive the car here. We will take you to the hospital first.��


    ��No, it��s just a fracture. I won��t die from it,�� reassured Li Bai, wincing a little from the awful pain. ��We finally caught so many of them, and there should be two small leaders within. The man holding the golf club and the bearded one are the leaders. Let��s use them to negotiate with Arc of Light.��


    A strange voice suddenly echoed in everyone��s ears.


    ��I��m afraid those chips aren��t quite enough for a negotiation us.��


    It was a woman who seemed to be Shen Xixi��s age. She was dressed in sportswear and appeared to be a night runner. She took off the Bluetooth earphones and put them in her pocket, seemingly oblivious to her people were frozen, not far away from her. She then looked at Shen Xixi, and a smile appeared on her face after a while.


    ��Very well. Just like what we analyzed, you are not the kind of person that would just wait to die.��


    ��You are?�� asked Shen Xixi solemnly.


    ��You can call me Xiao Bing. Although I have always hated this nickname, all those guild bastards keep calling me Xiaobin anyway. So, it doesn��t matter to me,�� the woman named Xiaobingmented. ��I am from Arc of Light��s Department of Strategic Analysis. For the past month, I have spent most of my time studying you.��


    ��So,st night��s attack was really premeditated?!�� Li Bai eximed, ��You��ve been preparing for this a month, right?��


    Xiaobing rolled her eyes and looked at Shen Xixi, deeply bothered by the fact that her ally was asking stupid questions.


    Shen Xixi ignored her dirty looks. ��What have you learned about me?��


    ��Almost everything,�� Xiaobing snapped her fingers. ��I have studied your personality, horoscope, interpersonal rtionships, acting style, values, outlook on life, and even the concept of mate selection. So no matter what you do, it��s no secret to me.��


    ��After talking so much nonsense, many of your allies still got defeated by us!�� snorted Rabbit coldly. After seeing Li Bai was injured, she was furious at what they did to him.


    ��Wrong, little sister,�� Xiaobing shook his head, ��I said we have anticipated your every move. So, of course, we know that you want to take our people hostage, which is exactly why I sent them here for you to capture them.��


    The bearded man did not know what the man in the suit was thinking. If he could speak now, he would have begun to curse her.


    However, Shen Xixi seemed to have thought of something when she heard the words, and her face changed.


    ��Yes, that��s right. I��m talking about two of your allies who are in charge of taking care of our targets. However, the higher-ups need us to capture a few of your people to force you to hand in the four murderers to us. But I think that since we want to capture all of you, it is better to do it all at once. I don��t want any unexpected troubles. I have to thank you for helping us. After you capture our people, you notified your people toe to you. Otherwise, I wouldn��t know where to find you.�� Xiaobing smiled.

 Chapter 533 - First Target

    <h4>Chapter 533 First Target</h4>


    Shen Xixi realized how precarious the situation she was in now�� Not only because the enemies may have captured the faceless man and Old K, but the barber��s pole��s effect also would notst forever. After 160 seconds, the enemies would regain their freedom, and half of that time had already passed.


    Shen Xixi did not intend to waste any more time talking nonsense with the enemies. She looked at Rabbit, and the two approached Xiao Bing together. Thetter had no intention to put up a fight, quickly turning around to run instead. At the same time, four more teams appeared at both ends of the road, surrounding Shen Xixi and her allies. After running for a while, Xiao Bing stopped, turned around, and put on a smile. She did not know that the barber��s pole would only work for 160 seconds, running to draw Shen Xixi and Rabbit out of the pole��s area of effect and to prepare for the next battle. However, just when she thought everything was set, a re suddenly fell in front of her. The intense light made everyone��s eyes on the street close involuntarily. When Xiao Bing opened her eyes again, Shen Xixi and her allies had disappeared. Midnight was finally here.


    Thus, began the war between Arc of Light and the union in this urban vige.


    At the beginning of the battle, most yers on the forum had urately predicted the situation. Arc of Light disyed an overwhelming advantage right from the start. What was really surprising though was Shen Xixi��s strength�� The union had copsed within an hour of the announcement of Horizon��s withdrawal.


    ording to the statistical analysis from the Arc of Light��s Strategy Department, few were left on Shen Xixi��s team to help her. When the battle began, however, Arc of Light soon discovered that wasn��t the case. They seemed to have sorely underestimated Shen Xixi��s reputation and influence in the union. Not only was Shen Xixi rescued in front of the barbershop, but Xiao Bing also received news that the mysterious force had killed the strike team which captured Old K and the faceless man. But after receiving the news, she was not surprised but rejoiced. For Arc of Light, they were supposed to be undefeated, especially in this battle. Since that was the case, she didn��t mind the slight twists and turns amid the war. Now, she could highlight the importance of the Strategy Department. She could also use this reason to request more funds for the department.


    In a hotel room two kilometers away from the urban vige, Zhang Heng set up his CS5 on the window sill. And at the same time, he turned on the TV and turned up the volume. He did not intervene right away in the battle happening in the urban vige. Besides the fact that he was confident enough that Shen Xixi would not lose the battle so quickly, he also had more pressing matters at hand.


    Zhang Heng��s luck was pretty decent tonight. He managed to use the extra 24 hours to locate an Arc of Light frontlinemander, obtaining a copy of the battle n used to deal with the union. Although it was only a simplified version, the execution time, route, and personnel deployment were all recorded. Other than that, Zhang Heng also obtained thetter��s ount and password used to login to the internal OA of Light Arc.


    However, it seemed the Arc of Light guild had their fair share ofputer experts. Zhang Heng tried to hack into the yer forum jointly created by the three major guilds, and as expected, it was a failed attempt. With the USB sh drive from the Whistleblower quest, however, the three significant guilds failed to track him down.


    The Arc of Light��s internal OA used the same firewalls for the yer forum. It was certainly no easy hack, but with the freshly acquired ount and password, Zhang Heng could now log in to the system and retrieve more information about the battle that would soon take ce.


    His first target was a group of elite long-range strike teams. Zhang Heng bought the CS5 with game points from Miss Bartender. It meant Arc of Light could do the same thing as well. And as one the three major guilds, there definitely had some gun masters among their yers.


    Arc of Light had inittially nned to capture Shen Xixi��s team alive, hence there was no need to deploy long-range weapons. But now, the tables had turned-It turned out that many were still helping Shen Xixi even after the union��s copse. Arc of Light saw this, and feeling threatened, they wanted to obliterate them entirely.


    Besides, they wanted to warn yers on the forum to not get involved in this matter. Once these people rushed to the urban vige, the fragile bnce between would be broken. And Zhang Heng was there to make sure that this would not happen.


    Not far away, Zhang Heng saw two ck MPVs passing by the traffic lights from his scope. As they sped toward the urban vige, two remote-control ground locks suddenly appeared on the road ahead. The driver of the first car did not expect such an obstruction to pop up smack in the middle of the road. He jammed his foot on the brakes and swerved the vehicle in another direction. Though he managed to avoid the poles in front of him, he couldn��t avoid the vehicle barelling in from behind. In the end, the car overturned and rolled twice on the ground.


    At the same time, Zhang Heng pulled the trigger.


    Reaper was the first name on his list.


    The driver of the second car was shot in the head by a bullet that came from nowhere. It caused his right foot to slip off the brake pad, and after rammed into the back of the car in front of it, it skidded to the remote ground locks. Its passengers were tossed around like ragdolls as the vehicle hit the steel poles head on.


    The people in the first car suffered the same fate as well. They did not expect an enemy ambush, thinking it must have been a traffic ident. However, the road that they were traveling on was rtively remote. Besides, it was past midnight. There were no other vehicles on the road except for them. When they heard the pettering of bullets on their cars, their question was answered.


    The first person who got out of the car fell to the ground before standing up. Blood was sttered all over on the seat. The others quickly realized what had happened-all of them masters of the gun. Naturally, they knew that a sniper was attacking them. So, they promptly unfastened their seat belts and looked for cover.


    In less than ten seconds, Arc of Light had lost three more men.


    The two six-person teams were now left with only seven members. Fortunately, these ones seemed to be seasoned and experienced fighters. Within a few minutes, they managed to get their hands on their weapons and retreated to the back of the car. They hoped to maintain the stalemate with Zhang Heng until backup arrived.


    Of course, Zhang Heng wasn��t about to let that happen. Seeing that all his enemies had retreated to the back of the car, Zhang Heng detonated a canister of tear gas hidden in the dumpster by the roadside.


    The pungent chemical concoction irritated their eyes and noses, causing them to cough violently, with tears flowing out from their eyes. The white smoke from the tear gas provided them with a good cover, and they were hopeful once again. If they could take this opportunity to retreat to the closed supermarket behind them, they would no longer have to worry about their lives.


    They did not know that Zhang Heng had taken out the Filter Lens from his backpack.

 Chapter 534 - Surrounded

    <h4>Chapter 534 Surrounded</h4>


    Xiao Bing, too received news that the long-range attack team had been assaulted. Ten minutes had passed since theirst message-��preparing to escape into the supermarket and waiting for support.�� After that, she received no more messages from them. It was these sorts of silence that made hearts drop, the precursor to something awful that might have befallen them.


    After backup hurriedly arrived, they confirmed that something terrible had indeed happened to the long-range attack team. Two multi-purpose vehicles had overturned on the road, and dead were scattered all over the ce. However, the killer was nowhere to be found. And this was just the beginning. A quarter of an hourter, she received another piece of bad news.


    A small team carrying essential game items had been ambushed by the mysterious killer as well. In the end, not only did they lose what they were transporting, five out of eight of their members were killed, and two were seriously injured. Unfortunately, the mysterious killer fled the scene five minutes before backup arrived. Before she even had time to digest the awful news, she was told that the squad responsible for escorting the prisoners had also been wiped out twenty minutester.


    The yers in the forum were rattled by the tremendous shock. No one thought that the war, one that was supposed to have been over and dusted within ten minutes, would encounter such a plot twist. It seemed a team of yers had been secretly helping Shen Xixi. They managed to stop Arc of Light��s first wave of attacks. But what was even more surprising was that some war-god had appeared to have taken the union��s side. Since the two elite long-range attack teams were assaulted, casualties on Arc of Light��s side had begun to soar.


    More than an hour had passed since the first Arc of Light��s assault teams were wiped out. The information about the mysterious sniper was analyzed, including his weapons, the route he chose, and the time spent in each battle. yers lurking on the forum marveled at the mysterious sniper��s exceptional marksmanship


    ��the way he positioned himself, and how he had always managed to flee right before Arc of Light��s backup arrived. It appeared this sniper knew the inner workings of their n, picking off targets that only increased in strategic value one after the other. Not to mention how he managed to eliminate all his enemies in a tiny amount of time.


    Was he going to turn the tide of the battle all on his own?


    Before tonight, no one would have the slightest inclination that something so absurd could happen to them. But now, Zhang Heng had seemingly done the impossible. Just as yers�� praises began pouring in, he encountered his first hup of the night.


    Zhang Heng once again set up his CS5 on the rooftop, about to execute his fifth target. He would reduce each battle��s time by five minutes, and other than preventing Arc of Light��s reinforcements from attacking him, he had to ensure that things moved along quickly. Although he knew their troop deployment and route, preparations could only be made along the way based on information he collected. Working with the OA battle squad to determine the specific target, he knew that obtaining internalmand information wouldn��te so easy.


    Arc of Light soon realized their servers were getting infiltrated as more and more of their strategic targets were hit. As long as they changed their passwords, their information would no longer be essible. Zhang Heng would only encounter more danger as he moved on. The target driving the Hignder was approaching, and a plump man in the passenger seat was holding his mobile phone, seemingly ignorant of the fate that awaited him.


    Zhang Heng sensed that something was sorely amiss. He swiftly tucked away his gun, turning around to see behind him. Someone had been approaching him without realization, prompting Zhang Heng to pull the trigger. It was a stunt learned from Simone. At an almost point-nk range, he could hit the target blindly without using the scope. The next moment, though, he felt a burning sensation raging where his palm touched the barrel.


    Zhang Heng instantly threw away the CS5 in his hand. Unfortunately, the exceptionally high temperatures had burned his palm, leaving it badly scalded and blistered. The barrel of the CS5 on the ground glowed even redder after a few seconds as if it had just been removed from the kiln. The mysterious person did not approach Zhang Heng after disarming him, staring at him instead, in a hood and mask with great interest.


    ��So you��re the one who��s been causing us trouble tonight?�� asked the person after a moment��s silence.


    Zhang Heng remained mum.


    ��Why won��t you speak? Are you dumb?�� The person uttered a pitiful tut, ��It seems we have got ourselves a little celebrity tonight! You have be very famous on the forum. Half the posts are about you now, and everyone is curious about your identity. Why don��t you take off that mask and let me see your face?��


    As the person talked to Zhang Heng, a man with a pair of shadowy wingsnded on the roof. On the other side, the door at the stairway was also pushed open, and out came a burly man carrying a gigantic chainsaw. Three enemies now surrounded Zhang Heng from three directions, and he was only two steps away from the edge of the rooftop.


    This was no coincidence. Arc of Light��s reacted faster than Zhang Heng imagined, extremely quick to catch where the problem was. Instead of asking everyone to change their passwords, they simply decided to let it be. Instead, they used the people in the Hignder as bait to surround Zhang Heng on the rooftop.


    These three individuals looked different from the enemies Zhang Heng had met before. If the people he killed were Arc of Light��s elites, these three people were undoubtedly higher in rank. As expected, the guy who had spoken before spoke again, ��I have good news and bad news; which one do you want to hear first?��


    Before Zhang Heng could even reply, the man continued, ��The bad news is that you crossed paths with us tonight. I advise you to not try anything stupid. There are not many in Arc of Light who are stronger than us. Our people have studied your characteristics, and they know how proficient you are at firearms. We, happen to be your kryptonite! Especially me. As long as I am here, you won��t ever dream of touching a gun again!��


    The man expected to see Zhang Heng��s panicked and pale face, but he was left a little disappointed. From the start till the end, Zhang Heng��s expressions hadn��t budged an inch.


    ��But the good news is, Arc of Light had always been the most open-minded guild of the three major guilds. It is our tradition to value talents. I have to admit that your crazy performance tonight has been impressive. As a result, senior management wants to give you a chance to join our ranks as an Arc of Light member. If you agree to join us, we will no longer hold you responsible for the murders youmitted. You can also keep the game items you took from us. How��s that sound? It��s the best offer you can get from us.��


    However, he didn��t expect Zhang Heng to mount a reply when he was done with his little speech.


    ��So, Arc of Light sent the three of you to deal with me? Isn��t it a little careless of them to make such a decision?��.

 Chapter 535 - Kill One by One

    <h4>Chapter 535 Kill One by One</h4>


    ��You guys have been talking there for a long time. Are we going to attack him?�� said the burly man with the chainsaw impatiently. ��This guy is so arrogant. Let me try to fight him first!��


    Before his twopanions could answer him, he had already taken a big step, hastily moving toward Zhang Heng. His allies knew all too well about his temper, and after hearing his heated tone, they didn��t stop him.


    ��Just don��t destroy him. I still have questions I want to ask,�� continued the man who spoke with Zhang Heng.


    ��Then you probably won��t have a chance to ask him any questionster. I had a hard time keeping my target alive using my fighting style.�� The burly man grinned menacingly, and at the same time, flicked the switch on the handle. His chainsaw was not plugged into a power source, its cable still dragging on the ground. Strangely, the phantom of a machine buzzed to life a few momentster.


    The piercing whine of the machine broke the silence of the night. Without saying anything, the man lifted the chainsaw and swung it upon Zhang Heng��s head! Not only would his skull be shattered, but there was a good chance, Zhang Heng would be split into two! Zhang Heng had no intention to block the man, stepping back to dodge the attack. In the end, the chainsawnded on the floor, causing a massive cloud of sparks to fly around and grinding a cavity a few centimeters deep into the rock-solid concrete.


    ��Don��t worry. You��ll have your turn soon.�� The burly manughed wildly and raised the chainsaw again.


    It seemed like the reaction did not affect him when the chainsaw created an impact on the ground. Even when the chainsawnded on the ground, the man remained expressionless, still holding the saw firmly in his hands. Then, with a loud have, he struck the saw at Zhang Heng��s head again. To avoid the weapon��s full brunt, Zhang Heng had to dodge also, missing the spinning des by a couple of millimeters. Even worse was that Zhang Heng was already at the very edge of the rooftop, his foot now halfway off the ground.


    Knowing how close he was to certain death, he took a step back, and now, there was only a fist-wide space between him and the busy road beneath. This building he chose as a sniper nest was fifteen stories high. If he fell from this height, there was no way he would survive the fall.


    A beam of joy shed in the eyes of the burly man. He foresaw that Zhang Heng would either stumble and fall from the tall building or split into two by his chainsaw. Once again, he decisively lifted the saw and eximed with excitement, ��I dare you to be as arrogant as you did now~!��


    However, the chainsaw missed its target, and Zhang Heng, against all odds, had seemingly disappeared into thin air!


    The burly man did a double-take, sticking his head out to look down the building. Suddenly, he heard a voice from behind him. ��Are you looking for me?��


    He quickly turned around, and, lo and behold, Zhang Heng had already snuck up from behind.


    The burly man��spanions stared at each other, unable to believe what they just witnessed. As bystanders, they began to realize what had just taken ce. Zhang Heng did jump down from the building, but as he fell, he grabbed the edge of the rooftop only in time to swing his body, creating enough force to bring himself back to a safe spot. His movements were lighting quick, abandoning the opportunity for escape. If Zhang Heng took this opportunity to strike, the strong man with a chainsaw would be really displeased. The man with shadow wings behind him said, ��The game is over. Let��s take him down together. This guy is tough to deal with!�� Zhang Heng��s reaction had made him more cautious, prompting him to spread his wings on his back. And the person who messed with Zhang Heng��s rifle earlier also took out a deck of ying cards from his pocket.


    What they didn��t expect was the rooftop��s ground suddenly turning into a pool of flowing ck liquid! The strong man with the chainsaw fell directly into an office below him. Zhang Heng fell with him as well, and the person who messed with Zhang Heng��s rifle fell in the bathroom next door.


    The man with shadowy wings escaped because he could fly, but his face could only change when something struck his mind. He charged down from the sky; the pool of ck liquid had coagted back into the reinforced concrete ground. The flyer was caught off guard, crashing into the ground and hitting his head so hard he almost fainted.


    (Name: Evil Wall]


    [Grade: D]


    (Function: Reconstruct the structure of a wall. User is allowed to the state of a wall from solid to liquid. Remaining uses: 0]


    Since the three of them came on the rooftop together, Zhang Heng had been waiting for the opportunity to separate them. In a way, the man who messed with Zhang Heng��s rifle said the right things. Arc of Light specially formed this squad to deal with him, and since one of them could render a gun useless, Zhang Heng could only resort to close-quartersbat. The strong man with a chainsaw existed solely for a situation like this. His formidable weapon and great strength were suitable for frontalbat. The flyer, on the other hand, had better dexterity to make up for his speed. In other words, the three of themplimented each other perfectly. It was true how Zhang Heng didn��t have many opportunities to defeat them all at once.


    However, things changed when they were separated.


    Zhang Heng deliberately retreated to the side of the tform. Although the strong man with the chainsaw was highly offensive, it easy for Zhang Heng to dodge those attacks with the training he had from the ck Sail quest. Unfortunately, there were still enemies watching the battle. Zhang Heng needed to look for the perfect timing even if he wanted to take out the Evil Wall from his pocket to use it.


    The half-second he had when he fell from the roof was the only time for him to disappear from sight. Now that one enemy was outside the building, and another fell into the bathroom next door, they were officially separated from each other.


    So, Zhang Heng only needed to deal with the strong man with a chainsaw. However, he did not have much time left. The enemy in the toilet would break the door in around two minutes, and the guy with wings should also find a window to enter the building. Hence, he needed to defeat the enemy in front of him as fast as possible.


    The strong man with the chainsaw got up from the ground and found that his allies were gone. He wasn��t afraid but rejoiced instead. Immediately, he picked up the chainsaw on the ground and snorted coldly, ��You can only dodge my attack. There��s nowhere for you to hide this time!��


    Zhang Heng did not reply to him. Instead, he drew out two Nepalese swords from his backpack. Since Scarlet��s negotiations were not concluded, he had to buy these to deal with his enemies tonight. He ordered it from Miss Bartender together with the CS5, and although the sabers weren��t game items by any means, they should suffice for tonight��s situation.

 Chapter 536 - Free Falling

    <h4>Chapter 536 Free Falling</h4>


    The man who messed with Zhang Heng��s gun surely wasn��t in luck tonight. Falling through the roof, hended in the bathroom, crashing his head on the toilet bowl, hitting it so hard that bright red blood started to gush out. Around ten secondster, he finally figured Zhang Heng��s n.


    After the massive blow to his head, he struggled to stand up from the ground, stumbling around a little. When he finally got to his feet, he hurriedly collected the ying cards that were scattered all over the floor, even fishing out some floating in the toilet bowl. Those ying cards were game items; every single one of them precious to him. Once making sure that he had all his cards, he pushed the bathroom door open, slowly limping and wincing.


    As soon as he got out of the bathroom, he heard the burly man holding the chainsaw bellowing. But unlike the time when he was on the rooftop, this was a roar filled with fear. It caused the one who messed with Zhang Heng��s gun to waste no more time. He tried to push open the door, only to find it locked.


    He then drew an ace of hearts from the card box and threw it at the tempered ss beside the door. When the card touched the ss, powerful kic energy was emitted, and what resembled a spiderweb spread across the ss surface.


    Without hesitation, he drew a second card, and this time, the ss gave way, shattering into smithereens. He quickly rushed to where the strong man was, but the scene before him almost scared him to death. The strong man was sitting on the boss�� chair behind a desk, eyes wide open, face frozen, and very much dead. His body was covered with multiple open wounds, and both his arms were covered in blood. The injury that cost him his life, however, was the deep gash that slit his throat wide open, the part where Zhang Heng struck his Nepalese saber, thereby extinguishing the man��s life.


    When Zhang Heng took the saber out, the sneak attack behind him was here. The man who messed with Zhang Heng��s rifle knew that this was a perilous moment. Besides, his leg was still injured. There was no way for him to escape now. Hence, he could only stay back and fight. To stay alive, he had to use everything at his disposal to deal with Zhang Heng. As an act of desperation, he threw his ying cards at his opponent. At almost the exact instant, Zhang Heng kicked the desk over and ducked behind it. The rain of ying cards whooshed through the air, striking the table and cutting deeply through the hard rosewood with ease. Zhang Heng attempted to pry the cards out using his Nepalese sword, only to find that they were so sharp they even left scratches on the surface of the de!


    Seeing that the first wave of attacks failed to injure Zhang Heng, the man that messed with his rifle became even more nervous. He then took out three more cards to throw at Zhang Heng. When he saw that the overturned desk had shielded Zhang Heng, he charged him in a rage, but he was stopped when he saw something. Left in fear with the hairs on his neck standing, he threw the remaining cards in his hand at Zhang Heng. The salvo of cards somewhat managed to halt Zhang Heng��s advance, and he managed to retreat. Soon, he had sessfully drawn some distance between him and Zhang Heng, but before he could catch a breath, he realized that his card box was empty. His expressions changed, his face fell to the ground, thinking that he would surely meet his end here like the strong man. At that time, his ally with shadow wings had finally arrived, and he could breathe a sigh of relief. Even if the two failed to beat Zhang Heng, they could at least escape by air.


    However, the happy expression on his face onlysted for less than a second. it was then that he noticed the Nepalese saber stuck in his chest, with Zhang Heng standing adjacent to him still in the throwing posture. Thest thought crossing his mind was how Zhang Heng could have managed to hit him from such a distance?


    The two battlessted less than three minutes. They endedter than expected, but luckily, Zhang Heng managed to kill them both before they got to reunite. Initially, the man with shadow wings wanted to pounce on Zhang Heng, but after discovering his twopanions getting killed one after the other, he quickly changed his mind. He couldn��t have imagined that Zhang Heng, having lost his gun, would fight so fiercely. A slight dy had cost both his allies their lives.


    This time, the analysts in the guild��s strategy department had made a colossal mistake. The reports provided by them were utterly inurate-it mentioned that Zhang Heng was only good at firearms and that his weakness was close-quartersbat.


    Zhang Heng did separate the three of them before the battle began officially. However, the fact that he could kill the strongman with chainsaw one-on-one, and his ally by throwing the saber, were all considered close-quartersbat. If he were to join Arc of Light, he could have quickly be one of their top fighters, not to mention his excellent marksmanship.


    The man with shadow wings knew this information had to be sent back to the headquarters. Since he was the only one left, getting rid of Zhang Heng would be a tall order. Fortunately, unlike the other two, had had a pair of shadow wings. It enabled him to have an easy escape if he couldn��t defeat Zhang Heng in the end.


    Now that he had made up his mind, he did not stay where he was. He had just entered the building and only two steps away from the window. It would be a quick and easy escape. Although Zhang Heng��s CS5 was now ready to fire again, the rifle fell into oblivion when the roof copsed. He only needed to look out for Zhang Heng��s throwing saber.


    However, what he did not expect was that Zhang Heng would untie the longbow behind him. The man with shadow wings felt a strong sense of uneasiness. Although he did not believe that Zhang Heng could master archery after he mastered marksmanship and swordsmanship, he had witnessed enough miracles tonight, and his faith was sorely shaken.


    However, he had no intention to stand there and see himself getting killed. Seeing that Zhang Heng was ready to draw his bow, he jumped out of the window as fast as possible. This time, he kept his wings folded, free-falling like a stone that was dropping from a great height. Thest thing that he saw was Zhang Heng pulling the bowstring. Judging by the arrow��s trajectory of the arrow, keeping up with speed he was falling at was impossible.


    So, he was relieved. He was nning to fly to the back of the opposite office building first to bepletely safe from Zhang Heng��s attack. When his wings were spread halfway, the arrow that had was released from a great distance away drew an arc in the air, defying thew of physics.


    And it hit his heart, dead right in the center.


    Standing by the window, Zhang Heng witnessed the guy with shadowy wings behind him tumbling and struggling in the air. In the end, he still could not change his destiny. Despite his efforts, he only met a grim fate, mming into an SUV parked by the roadside, the impact so severe it caused the SUV��s roof to cave in. The windows were all shattered as well.


    Then, the SUV��s rm was triggered.

 Chapter 537 - Admiral Rank?

    <h4>Chapter 537 Admiral Rank?</h4>


    The birthday party wasing to an end in the small auditorium on the Sheraton Hotel��s fourth floor. After cutting the cake and singing the birthday song, it was finally time for tonight��s highlight, a Disney-themed part at midnight.


    Everyone present could choose a costume they liked and dress up as their favorite Disney character. The daughter of Eryue Weicheng chose Elsa from Frozen, and Eryue Weicheng himself chose the dead old king. He watched his daughter and a plump kid dressed as Prince ddin perform thest dance. After that, his cell phone rang.


    Eryue Weicheng frowned. Not only was he Arc of Light��s leader, but he was director of two listedpanies. He now had two mobile phones and three numbers. One was used to answer business calls and family, while the second was dealing with the guilds and yers.


    He muted his business calls phone tonight, which could only mean that the phone that he used to deal with guild matter had to be the one ringing now. He nced at his Patek Philippe watch and realized that it was 1 a.m.


    Was the war with the union over?


    Eryue Weicheng was not in a hurry. After Elsa and ddin were done with their dance, he stood up and took the lead to apud for them. After that, the hotel staff began to clean up the stage, taking out a PS4 and other fun stuff. The birthday party had ended, and the kids could do whatever they wanted. Those wanting to keep ying could stay in the auditorium, and those who didn��t could retreat to the room upstairs to sleep. Eryue Weicheng walked to a secluded corner and returned the call to the number that called him. Swordfish, one of Arc of Light��s directors, answered the phone, sounding a little more than helpless.


    ��Something went wrong.��


    ��What is the problem? Has the target been caught?��


    ��Something went wrong with the n tonight,�� Swordfish reiterated. ��A powerful guy is helping the union.��


    ��Huh?!��


    Eryue Weicheng was surprised by what he heard. The union wasn��t small by any means, but not many powerful yers had joined them either. As for the slightly more famous yers, Arc of Light hade up with a n to deal with them, where the operation should theoretically have a 100% sess rate. Since he had the caliber to be the most powerful guild leader, doubling up as the director of two listedpanies, he was used to solving such conundrums. Quickly calming his mind, he asked, ��How big is the trouble?��


    ��Within an hour, he has killed five of our members and also robbed two Grade-C game items from us. He even managed to hack into our OA. He knows our every move. To settle the issue, the guild sent a special operations team to deal with him. They were supposed to seal his skills and defeat him, not to mention how all three were ��Seven Warlords of the Sea�� level.��


    The mostmonly used method among yers to evaluatebat power was the rounds of games theypleted, but the technique had many shorings. First of all, yerspleting the single-yer dungeons were generally stronger than those whopleted the quest with a team. In a team, every yer developed in a different direction. Some yers specialized inbat, for instance.


    So Arc of Light developed itsbat power rating system based on One Piece. In addition to the Seven Warlords of the Seas, there was an admiral, emperor, and king.


    Although the Seven Warlords of the Seas were at the bottom of this system, anyone who was qualified to enter was regarded as a master. Most elite yers of the guild couldn��t even make it to this list-out of the three thousand members, only less than a hundred made it. A total of 14 had reached the admiral level. The king level saw even fewer. Eryue Weisheng was one of them, and thus far, nobody had a higher position than him. It was frankly a pointless rating; other than the fact it was cool; it was a One Piece concept. yers from the Strategy Department must have been One Piece otakus. They described the emperor ranked yer as having the ability to destroy the world. However, as the guild leader, February Siege further confirmed that the whole point of creating the ranking system was to copy the idea from the original work. It looked perfect since it was based on the number of rounds the yerpleted. Nheless, it was not absolute.


    The battle results also had to consider environmental factors, whether one side was weaker against the other, and various other variables. It did not mean that the Seven Lords of the Sea would not defeat the admiral. Like the goons sent by the Arc of Light, they were there to cripple Zhang Heng��s sniping ability and were supposed to suppress him with close-quartersbat. The results, however, was as undesirable as it was unexpected.


    ��An admiral-level master yer?�� Eryue Weisheng��s interest was aroused. The first question he asked was the possibility of recruiting Zhang Heng.


    ��The three yers who were killed by him were asked to recruit him.�� Swordfish, on the other end of the phone, smiled bitterly. ��But at that time, we thought that guy was also at Seven Lords of the Sea level. So, I guess they were not very polite when they recruit him. Should we try to recruit him again?��


    Eryue Weisheng disagreed. Since Zhang Heng had refused the recruitment by action, it was pointless to try again.


    After a while, he said, ��Let the woman deal with him. She started this incident, so she should end it.��


    On the other side, Zhang Heng had finally entered the urban vige.


    After losing the information that he acquired from OA, it was impossible to target the Arc of Light��s strike team one by one. So, he decided that he would go to the battlefield to face his enemies.


    Xiao Bing, the front linemander, felt she was about to face a tough battle. The other party��s brutalbat methods and terrifying effectiveness had been fully demonstrated in the past hour, the reason why she received no support from headquarters. Otherwise, the war would not have dragged on until now.


    The three ��Seven Lords of the Sea�� leveled yers couldn��t even defeat Zhang Heng even after they worked with each other. The men that she had were still fighting the union, and as of now, she did not have anyone strong enough to deal with Zhang Heng. In fact, she was on the ready to retreat a quarter of an hour ago. Like a firefly in the dark, she knew once her opponent dealt with the people she had, he would being for her.


    As a result, her situation did not look too good now. She did not want to follow in the footsteps of those men that perished on the battlefield. So she has quietly retreated to a small hotel. It seemed like her bad premonition wasing true. After a while, she had lost contact with the team that was supposed to guard the ce. Something terrible was about to happen to her. Xiao Bing turned off the light in the room and held a pistol, alone in the guest room��s bathroom, pointing it at the door.

 Chapter 538 - Suggestion

    <h4>Chapter 538 Suggestion</h4>


    Although Zhang Heng picked up the CS5ter, it was no longer usable-high temperatures had damaged the rifle��s internal structure. That said, Zhang Heng possessed the Infinite Building Blocks, a fine fit for dealing with such situations.


    Three minutester, a new CS5 reappeared in his hands. He disassembled it, put its parts into a box, and carried it to the urban vige. He then found a rtively tall residential building and decided to ascend it.


    The battle between Arc of Light and the Union had raged on for a long time. Although they had tried their best to avoid attracting the attention of the ordinary, youths of the day had evolved into pseudo-nocturnals. Many were wide awake even after midnight, and some noticed something unusual taking ce outside their windows.


    However, Arc of Light dealt with it very quickly. They cut offmunication signals in the area, temporarily blocking it; not to mention a bespoke game item they had that allowed them to erase the people��s memories. They wouldn��t remember a thing that happened during the past two hours. ording to the original n, the battle should have ended now.


    Zhang Heng had all but disrupted Light of Arc��s ns. While on the rooftop, he took a monocr from his backpack and zeroed-in some Arc of Light members retreating to a specific ce. On the other side, a small hotel attracted his attention. There were no suspicious people outside, but the same couldn��t be said for the nearby buildings. Zhang Heng realized that someone important had to be hidden therethey must have retreated in a different direction to protect the people hiding inside the hotel.


    Putting down the scope, Zhang Heng reassembled the rifle as quickly as he could, ignoring those retreating. He then zoomed to the street where the hotel was located. Not hasty to eliminate his enemy, he first used the CS5 to take out a man in a rental house not far away from him��the man woulde out to check his surroundings from time to time. Another four people hiding in the grocery store next door got sniped as well. Unfortunately, thest shot finally exposed Zhang Heng��s location, prompting the enemies to fire back immediately in a rage.


    Zhang Heng squatted down and paid attention to where the firing sound wasing from. With his excellent hearing, he located the enemies firing at him. He then took out a pocket mirror, looked at it quickly, and pulled it back, using the opportunity to change position. After counting to three in his heart, he poked his head out from a different spot and fired his rifle before the enemies could react. In that short stint, he managed to bag another two kills.


    Zhang Heng took out the elite long-range assault team dispatched by Arc of Light Arc, leaving behind ordinary marksman yers. They had submachine guns for weapons and could only be used for frontal assaults. Once a certain distance was put in between, the submachine gun��s uracy would drop drastically. Even if Zhang Heng stood there and allowed them to shoot at him, there was a good chance they wouldnd no urate shots. It also meant that he would dominate the battle eventually.


    Zhang Heng fired the rifle at his own pace. After repeating the same step several times, all the marksmen on the enemy��s side had been killed. He took a little more time to clean up a few enemy remnants still holding up in the building. When that was done, he walked to the small hotel with the CS5 in hand.


    To avoid causing bad memories for the receptionist on the first floor, Zhang Heng climbed to the second-floor window. Once he got into the hotel, he opened the door, seeing no one in the corridor. He had initially nned to search room by room, but he heard footsteps outside the corridor before he could carry that out.


    He raised his CS5 and pointed in the direction of the emergency exit. When he came into the hotel, the street was still empty. The waiter at the front desk was asleep, which meant the person was definitely here for him. Arc of Light had disyed their full strength when he got assaulted once on the rooftop earlier. As one of the three major guilds, they would have many master yers as members. Nheless, he was surprised his enemy came for him so fast.


    He did not hesitate this time. When the footsteps approached the door, Zhang Heng shot half a second ahead of time. The bullet passed through the enemy��s body, leaving not so much as a single trace. Zhang Heng was dumbfounded. The bullet continued on its trajectory, hitting the wall behind her. It was as if the bullet had just prated a phantom.


    Zhang Heng managed to take a good look at his enemy this time. It was a woman in a white dress. Barefoot with her long ck hair hanging down to her waist, it was hard telling her age. Also, with her was a long sword. She wasn��t that tall but exuded a thick heroic aura.


    She then looked at her chest where the bullet passed through. She was just as surprised as Zhang Heng. After a while, she looked up.


    ��Even if you know I am from Arc of Light, you should at least listen to my introduction before you shoot me.�� ��You didn��t ask where I came from when your guild set those traps to deal with me,�� replied Zhang Heng. He knew that Arc of Light would send someone to disable his sniping. Hence, he did expect his rifle to leave the woman in white unscathed. He was simply unsure if it was the agent��s own ability or an effect of a game item that made her immune to his bullets. To test his theory, Zhang Heng pulled the trigger again without saying hello. Even after he emptied the bullet cartridge, the woman in white��s body remained unchanged. She shook her head afterward, seemingly disapproving of Zhang Heng��s approach.


    ��This is a bit too messy.��


    At this point, Zhang Heng was sure that the opponent��s ability to defend those bullets was very likely her own ability. If she had relied on game items, it should have exceeded the number of uses by now. Still, he couldn��t tell if her ability was simr to that of Piercings. Previously, the Piercings had turned himself into a water giant, neutralizing bullets and blocking melee attacks. In the end, Zhang Heng had to ce his hope on the Paris Arrow.


    The woman in white was in no rush to do anything to Zhang Heng. And she had no intention to draw the long sword as well, standing there silently and waiting for Zhang Heng to end the attack before she spoke again.


    ��Are you a friend of that child?��


    Although she did not mention the name, Zhang Heng knew that the child the woman in white was referring to was Shen Xixi. He saw that Arc of Light seemed to send people who tended to prefer negotiation. So, Zhang Heng stopped his attack. It was undeniable that tonight, he had killed his fair share of enemies. Still, the ultimate goal was to help Shen Xixi solve her problem. Since the enemy was open to negotiation, he didn��t mind cooperating. ��As long as the Arc of Light stops all the attack on the Union, and stop pursuing what happenedst night, I can promise you that I will stop the killing,�� said Zhang Heng.


    However, what the woman in white said next left Zhang Heng shocked.


    ��I have to admit, from my personal point of view, I appreciate what you did tonight. However, I have to say sorry. Even if Arc of Light epts your terms, I cannot. What if we talk about another proposal.��


    ��What proposal?��


    ��You stop the killing tonight, and if we do meet again in the future, I promise not to hurt you,�� the woman in white said.

 Chapter 539 - On the Same Path

    <h4>Chapter 539 On the Same Path</h4>


    ��Don��t reject my offer first,�� said the woman in white. ��If you really care about her, you should listen to me and avail yourself from this war.��


    ��Why?��


    ��I appreciate your bravery, standing up for your friends and all. Unfortunately, not everything in this world can be shared. Sometimes you have to learn to bear it all alone. Certain paths are tailored for only a single person, and some battles are meant to be faced by one alone by design. This is her battle, not yours.��


    ��Which side are you from?�� asked Zhang Heng, a deep frown forming across his forehead.


    This was a question he��d been wanting to ask since a long time ago. The woman in white said that even if Arc of Light was willing to ept the truce, she wouldn��t. Zhang Heng initially thought that she must have had some conflict with Shen Xixi, but now, that didn��t seem to be the case. Based on what she said, it was apparent she wasplimenting Shen Xixi. However, she stopped Zhang Heng from finding the person hiding in this hotel.


    Clearly, she did not want the war to end.


    ��I do not take anyone.��s side. I am not Arc of Light, nor am I from the union,�� said the woman in white. ��I am just walking my own path.�� ��Don��t you think your path is domineering? Why do you have to worry about how others will choose their path?��


    The woman in white smiled, ��I can ignore how others choose their path, but I have to take care of that child because she walks the same path as me.��


    Zhang Heng raised his eyebrows, ��Are you not human?��


    Although the woman in white��s narrative was somewhat cryptic, Zhang Heng managed to figure out the reason behind it.


    ��Are you choosing an agent by using this method?��


    ��Your observation is very keen, but unfortunately, you do not travel the same path as me.�� The woman in white said lightly, ��You are a righteous man. The fact you shot before trying to talk made me realize you are the kind who sides righteousness if it doesn��t hurt your interest. You have no other faiths or beliefs in your heart.��


    ��Righteousness? Are you Themis or Astria? No... you are Justitia!��


    Zhang Heng finally determined the identity of thedy in white.


    When it came to the god of justice, Zhang Heng first thought of Themis, the goddess of justice that maintainedw and order in ancient Greek mythology. She was the second wife of Zeus, and she was the one that maintained Olympus��s order. On almost all the statues dedicated to her, she had a serious expression on her face, with a tray in one hand and a scepter in the other. As for Astria, she held lightning and a torch and was the goddess of the stars and purity.


    The most famous goddess of justice, however, was Justitia. She was a goddess created by the ancient Romans whobined all the gods that were rted to justice in Greek mythology. She held a sword in one hand and a scale in the other. Simultaneously, she was blindfolded, symbolizing how she would always pursue the truth and not be blinded by her senses. Although thedy in white was holding only a sword with no scale and she wasn��t blindfolded, she still stood out among the moral beings. Based on what Zhang Heng remembered, Justitia was a goddess who liked white since it symbolized her wless morality and her upright nature.


    During the Renaissance, statues of Justitia decorated almost every courthouse. Even today, there were many statues of Justitia outside the courthouse in Europe. There were virtually no legal practitioners who did not know her name, an indication that this woman was different from the small-time gods almost eliminated by time. Although Justitia was an ancient god, she was considered to be among the most powerful deities. Her true strength should beparable to that of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.


    Zhang Heng was not sure if he could defeat her, and obviously, Shen Xixi��s being favored by the Goddess of Justice was something he��d been expecting. Just like what Justitia said, Shen Xixi was destined to take this path, and Justitia should have paid attention to her for some time now. Her perseverance, intelligence, and strength made her the perfect candidate as Justitia��s agent.


    ��Since she is yours, why are you stopping me?�� Zhang Heng looked into Justitia��s eyes and asked.


    ��Everyone has a righteous seed in their heart, but itis hard to grow this seed into a towering tree. Challenges and difficulties are the best nutrients for the seed��s growth. The road to light is destined to be full of thorns. I shall see if she possesses enough courage to carry out her beliefs,�� proimed Justitia sternly. ��As I said before, this is her war, and it has nothing to do with anyone else. In fact, I was the one who convinced Arc of Light to go to war with the union.��


    ��So, everything that is happening right now is to test her? For that reason, you did not hesitate to cause the two major forces to be at war and make the innocent pay with their lives?!�� Zhang Heng shook his head. ��What kind of justice is this?��


    ��You misunderstood me. Although I started this war between the union and Arc of Light, it was actually inevitable. This is a conflict of interests between two parties. Arc of Light��s leader is a typical businessman and will always make the most rational choices. In a way, you two share many simrities. This city reached its limits when it amodated the two major forces. There is absolutely no space for a third party to interfere with the battle. Whether it be today or tomorrow, the battle between Arc of Light and the Union was bound to happen anyway.��


    ��Then, why not do it tomorrow? Even when the union grows, and even if they still cant fight Arc of Light, at least they won��t copse just like that.��


    ��What��s the point? Arc of Light will be the eventual winners, and by that time, I am afraid that they would have fought a few battles. Thousands of yers will be involved, and it will eventually evolve into a long-term war. Many more will be injured and die, and more people like you who have nothing to do with the war will be dragged into it as well. So, why not just let the union disintegrate today?��


    ��So you want Shen Xixi to surrender?��


    ��I don��t want her to admit defeat,�� Justitia shook her head. ��I want to watch her fight for justice in her heart. Even if her strength is weak and her hope is slim, that doesn��t mean she will lose the battle. Justice does not mean victory. Although we all firmly believe that the light will eventuallye to us, we must venture into the darkness before that. This is her darkness and her dawn.��


    After hearing this, Zhang Heng was silent for a moment before finally putting down the CS5. Justitia thought that she had managed to convince Zhang Heng to walk away from this battle. So, she put a smile on her face. A few secondster, she saw Zhang Heng taking out two Nepalese sabers from his backpack.


    He held them in his hands and said, ��I don��t think that someone like Shen Xixi needs you to arrange her path. She is not trying to get anyone��s approval. You and she have nothing inmon. She is warm-blooded, and you are a reptile.��

 Chapter 540 - I Called For Backup

    <strong>Chapter 540 I Called For Backup</strong>


    A look of surprise shed across Justitia��s face. ��Are you still going to fight me after knowing who I am?��


    ��Well, I��ve killed a simr guy before, and I don��t mind adding another name to the list,�� replied Zhang Heng. ��Are you referring to Pestilence from the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse? Did you kill him? How is that possible?!��


    Justitia��s expression finally changed.


    ��If you tell me you killed other gods, I would have an easier time believing you. The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypsee from hell. No mortal can cause them any harm. Have a Grade-B or higher grade item that helped you restrain him?��


    ��You will soon find out the answer to that.��


    Zhang Heng didn��t just stand there and wait for his opponent to take the first shot this time. Justitia��s strength was probably higher than Pestilence, where she had demonstrated her ability to allow bullets to pass through her. It almost looked like she was hacking life itself. Zhang Heng knew that this time, he had to be cautious.


    He rarely struck first, but the Nepalese saber shed an arc in the air, slicing directly into the goddess of justice��s chest. In Roman mythology, detailed descriptions of Justitia��s appearance and priesthood were recorded. However, her battle records were nk. It certainly didn��t mean Zhang Heng took his opponent��s sword for a disy piece. On her other hand, the scale was there to measure good and evil, and after she looked at it, it was time she executed judgment with her sword. She was neither the god of cksmiths, nor was she a war goddess like Venus. The best thing Zhang Heng could right now was to end the battle before she could attack him. This time, he went all out.


    He had no intention to drag the battle.


    On the other hand, Justitia stopped relying on her ability to resist damage. She was even swifter than him, but after sizing up her agility, Zhang Heng breathed a sigh of relief. Her movement speed was still within human limits, and he could make up for it with his Lv3 saber skill.


    Including the battle with Pestilence at the hospital, this was the second time he fought against a god. Zhang Heng also discovered some secrets, where there was a big difference in physical strength between different gods. In fact, some gods were no stronger than a mortal. Of course, each had their own bespoke ability. In a way, they were like enhanced versions of the agent.


    Gods were different from the yers-as long as a yerpleted a quest, they would grow to be better. Meanwhile, the strength of the celestial beings was more uncertain, fluctuating over time. As for ancient gods, especially those born ages ago, their strength had dropped drastically. Just like ck Sail��s ancient Celtic god, there was no news about her at all after the quest waspleted. Zhang Heng even suspected that she must be dead.


    The gods that were still alive had also contracted human diseases, such as the old man in the Tang suit, who loved sweets so much he got diabetes. Even Pestilence��s phone held many contacts of medical representatives


    �C He even had an appointment with the hospital��s chairman to y tennis on Saturday. Ironically, it seemed that a god was interested in improving his health.


    As they quietly thrived among the mortals, few could actually tell the difference between them and the regr neighbors. Of course, when they decided a disy of powers was in order, people would surely remember the legends tied to these beings. Justitia must have been working in the courthouse for a long time now, and her muscles hadn��t been oiled much. Nheless, she managed to escape most of Zhang Heng��s attacks with only her bare feet. After the battle with Zhang Heng ensued for a while, she retreated to the corridor��s end.


    Justitia frowned, finally drawing out the sword on her waist.


    ��Condemnation!��


    Justitia chuckled softly, and a ball of golden holy light appeared on the sword. Before he knew it, Zhang Heng��s de collided with the sword.


    The next second, Zhang Heng discovered that he had already left the small hotel��s corridor and was now standing on a grass patch. Justitia was nowhere to be found.


    Had it all been an illusion?


    As Zhang Heng��s eyes fell upon a person not far away from him, he immediately retracted that thought.


    ��Are you the one that messed with me?��


    The Tang suited elderly uncle had a straw hat and rubber shoes on, looking as if he was going fishing. Half a year had passed since theyst met.


    He sneezed as a cold gust of wind blew,ining, ��You think I wanted to do that? Why did you provoke that woman? If I didn��t stop the time and bring you out, you would have been killed!��


    Zhang Heng raised his eyebrows. ��I would have been killed by her?��


    ��Well, it��s possible you are powerful enough to kill her. But what��s the point? It��s the 21st century now. The Second World War has ended for more than 70 years. Don��t bring yourself down by talking about killing all the time. What she does has nothing to do with you.��


    ��I owe Shen Xixi and her team a favor,�� said Zhang Heng.


    The old man opened a bag of QQ candies and poured a whole bunch of them into his mouth, ��They can��t die anyway. You can make her pay next time.��


    ��These have nothing to do with you. Why so worried?�� asked Zhang Heng, his eyes darting around his surroundings curiously, trying hard to determine where he was. Almost all grasnds looked the same at night. And not a soul was in sight, which wasn��t good news.


    ��Stop looking around. We are on a dam now,�� said the old man in the Tang suit with a shrug. ��When you go back, the battle over there should be over. Also, you are my agent. Of course, I have to take care of you.��


    The old man made it sound reasonable, but Zhang Heng didn��t appear to appreciate the gesture very much. He had be increasingly suspicious of him ever since he discovered that his parents and the old man knew each other for a long time. 17 years ago, they were all in the same expedition, and it was very likely that he had seen him at that time.


    Whatever Zhang Heng was investigating most likely had a lot to do with the old man. Zhang Heng was wary of him when they first met but he didn��t ask much. The old man in the Tang suit seemed unaware of it andined about the mosquitoes in the grasnd.


    Zhang Heng ignored him and walked to the Volvo nearby, the car that the old man must have driven him here with. When the fuel tank was checked, he found out it to be devoid of gas.


    ��The nearest homestay is 20 kilometers away,�� the old man kindly reminded Zhang Heng.


    Zhang Heng was a little speechless. ��Then how are you going back?��


    ��I have called backup toe and get me in about two hours. Want toe with me?��

 Chapter 541 - I’m Happy When You Are Happy

    <strong>Chapter 541 I��m Happy When You Are Happy</strong>


    The thickness of the old man��s face went way beyond what Zhang Heng imagined. After the rescue team arrived to deliver the gasoline, he offered to let Zhang Heng and head back with him.


    ��The high-speed rail will only bepleted by the end of the year. You can either go back by ordinary train or long-distance bus. Besides, after that, you still have to travel some distance before you can get to the train station. I don��t think you can any cabs at this hour. We should go back together. Besides, I can keep youpany as well.��


    Zhang Heng thought for a while before finally agreeing to the old man��s proposal. He hopped into the driver��s seat and the old man sat beside him. Zhang Heng started the car, and the Volvo��s engine hummed to life. After twenty minutes, the two finally got out of the grasnds. Since the rescue team only brought them two small barrels of fuel, Zhang Heng drove to the nearest gas station to fill up the tank.


    The old man in the Tang suit took the opportunity to sneak into the small supermarket at the gas station and bought arge bag of snacks, half of which were sweets of all kinds. After getting into the car, he tore open a pack of marshmallows and handed a box of egg yolk pie and a pack of braised eggs to Zhang Heng.


    ��Hey, it��s almost dawn. Let��s have some breakfast before driving.��


    Zhang Heng was browsing through thetest news in the yer forum. The battle in the urban vige had ended, but the oue was not known for the time being. The Arc of Light blocked the news, and no statement was made. Other than that, Shen Xixi had not logged into the forum since midnight. yers hanging out on the forum were now waiting anxiously to acquire thetest updates of the battle. Other than that, many posts were discussing him on the forum. Zhang Heng took a quick look at it and turned off hisptop. He then started to devour the egg-yolk pie.


    He had fought several battles in a row and was now famished.


    The old man in the Tang suit looked at Zhang Heng. ��Are you still angry with me for pulling you out of the battle?��


    ��Should I?�� Zhang Heng asked, expressionless, as he finished thest bites of the pie and threw away the wrapping.


    ��To be honest, I don��t like Justitia either. Roman mythology is like a pot of chowder. The folks pour everything into it and stir constantly. It looks good from the outside, but it might not taste as good in the mouth. They tend to mix up mythologies of the east and the west, even incorporating Greek and Egyptian mythology with folk religion. But you have to admit; they did a good job once. Now, most of them have fallen from grace. Justitia is lucky. She tied herself to thew. Nowadays, nobody believes in gods and monsters anymore. They are more willing to believe in thew.�� The old man babbled on as the Volvo pulled away from the gas station. In the rearview mirror, the staff on duty at the gas station walked back to the duty room with a yawn. ��Let��s not talk about these frustrating things.��


    The old man finished his marshmallows, then tore open a pack of popping candy. He stuck out his tongue, pouring in andslide of sweets. His eyes closed as he took in the sweetness.


    ��How��ve you been doing recently? Is everything good? We haven��t met for a while. You should havepleted seven games by now, right? Are you satisfied with the little gift that I gave you?�� ��What is this? User-feedback survey?��


    ��I can understand.�� The old man smiled as he waved the popping candy. ��I am different from deities like Justitia, who abuses her agent when she has nothing else better to do. I will always take care of my partner��s well-being. When you are happy, I��m happy. After all, I have invested everything I have in you. Like the old saying goes, don��t mess with a gambler who is already losing.��


    Zhang Heng made noments. If it was a few months ago, Zhang Heng might have still believed what he said. After the Greend incident, however, he no longer thought that the old man approached him with the sole purpose of making him beat the game.


    The old man continued, ��Actually, I came here deliberately to look for you. You should already know that the proxy war is about to begin.�� Zhang Heng first heard of the proxy war from Mr. Coffee, and then he also asked the bartenderdy about this question. However, he only managed to acquire some ambiguous descriptions about it. Now the old man was here for this matter. It seemed like the proxy war was vital for him.


    ��Proxy war was somewhat simr to what you have experienced in thee games. It is still considered a quest, but it will be more dangerous. Not only do threatse from the quest itself, but also yourpetitors. As its name suggests, the proxy war only involves only the agents. Of course, your former teammates can continue to team up with you as an apostle-Don��t underestimate the apostles��If you can lead them well, they can be a mighty force. After all, many yers have skills that equal the agents, and it��s only because of affiliation or better choices that caused the deity to give up on them. Of course, if you like to fight alone, that��s up to you as well. The gift to you is still valid.�� After eating the popping candy, the old man finally stopped talking for a while.


    ��Other than that, I have to remind you of something. When we first met, I warned you to be careful of other agents. Some of them will use every means necessary to get rid of theirpetitors in the real world. Especially after tonight��s events, you are now famous among the yers. Fortunately, other than Justitia, no one can recognize you. Just be careful not to run into her again. If you have the time, you can also kill the yers you don��t like. I have to say that you are very decisive tonight.��


    ��Just paying back the favor,�� Zhang Heng replied nonchntly.


    ��Yea, yea, whatever you say,�� the old man shrugged, ��I know you don��t trust me fully, but it doesn��t matter. One day, you will realize who cares about you... Finally, you have to remember that I am your solid backup. No matter what happens in the future, you can always ask me for help. Tsk, if you want, you can write the sentence in a notebook. Okay, I��ve said what I wanted to say. We can rx now. The journey is still long. What song do you want to listen to?��.


    The old man in the Tang suit turned on the stereo. ��I remember there was a song called ��Learning how to Meow.�� Have you heard it before? It��s trendy! ��Seaweed Dance�� is quite good as well. Earlier, I saw a female streamer on TikTok, and I have to say that her body is nothing short of a masterpiece created by God himself. I��m not sure if she used filters while she was recording the clip, which is why I��m nning to get her contact and ask her about it..

 Chapter 542 - Presumption

    <strong>Chapter 542 Presumption</strong>


    After Zhang Heng returned to school, he sent Shen Xixi a WeChat message to make sure she was safe.


    Shen Xixi replied with a ��Negotiating�� after a quarter of an hour. ��Thank you, don��t worry,�� she added after a pause.


    Zhang Heng knew that Shen Xixi was no longer in danger but he didn��t know what her discussion with Arc of Light was all about. With her personality, it was obviously impossible to make her hand over her people to them just like that. Otherwise, the war wouldn��t have even happened in the first ce.


    Zhang Heng was wrong this time. Shen Xixi and Arc of Light hadpleted negotiations quicker than expected. Before the war even began, Arc of Light have achieved its goal. After the union��s copse, they no longer cared about the four ��murderers,�� the excuse they used to start the war. They had to make sure that they put a good ending to the show, on the surface at least.


    Zhang Heng killed heaps of enemiesst night. He intended increase the price that Arc of Light had to pay-everything he had done was to force Arc of Light and Eryue Weichang to sit down and negotiate with Shen Xixi. Amid the war, he crossed paths with Justitia, and amid the battle, the old man in the Tang suit pulled him to a random grasnd. But since Justitia started the war between the union and the Arc of Light, she should also clean up the mess after that.


    Zhang Heng was right. The ending, however, wasn��t something Justitia expected. ��You don��t want to be my agent? Butst night, you mentioned The Scales of Justice, proof that you and I chose the same path,�� Justitia frowned, ��Don��t you want to expand and spread this path to others? The reason why you formed the union was to help more ordinary people, right? Together, not only can we rebuild it, but we can also expel evil and rekindle the torch of justice!��


    ��Do you want to light the torch of justice, or do you want more people to worship you?�� Shen Xixi asked calmly. ��You want me to be your agent just to help you win this game.�� ��Is there any difference between the two?�� Justitia��s frown got deeper. ��If more people believe in justice, more of them will fight for justice! I have countlesswyers and judges working with me, but I didn��t choose any of them as my agent. I chose you because I see myself within you.��


    Shen Xixi shook her head. ��You are wrong. We believe in justice itself, not you. Even if you are gone one day, justice will still be here.��


    Those words threw Justitia into silence. After a while, she looked up. ��Let��s put my matter aside first. The final reward for this game is amazing. It��s great that even the gods are jealous. No one can refuse how tempting this is. Only yers chosen as agents will be eligible to participate in the final game. I really need you to help me win this round, and you need me to appoint you as an agent.�� Shen Xixi remained unmoved. ��If you have been observing me for that long as you have imed, you should know that I never care about rewards.��


    ��No, you can make good use of that reward. Even if it��s not for yourself,�� said Justitia with adamance, but after a short pause, there was a smile on her face. Cronos thought I didn��t know he was the one who saved the kid, right before my Sword of Judgementnded on him. He looks down, patronizes me... by the way, I haven��t seen him for half a year, and it seems he��s getting weaker and weaker. He was still forced to use his time-stopping skill to rescue that kid, though. This shows that an unprecedented evil must be hidden in that child! Interesting. I couldn��t feel the existence of evil at all when I spoke to that kid. Why did Cronos, the god of time, choose him as his agent?�� Justitia muttered to herself.


    After a while, she looked at Shen Xixi again, ��Anyway, the kid camest night. He risked his life to fight Arc of Light for you. He should be your friend, right? In that case, can you bear to watch evil swallow him one day? And now, you have an opportunity to save him right in front of you.��


    Shen Xixi raised her eyebrows, this time, seemingly moved.


    Zhang Heng had gone through numerous battles tonight. He drove from the grasnds for the whole night back to his city. And he did not expect that he actually made it in time to attend the ounting principles ss at 9:45 in the morning. Having no time to wash up, he rinsed his mouth quickly, headed to the cafeteria for some steamed buns, and walked into the ssroom half a minute before ss started.


    The bell rang right after he sat down, and Chen Huadong, who had already upied the golden seat at the third row at the back by the window, gave him a thumbs-up, an indication he admired Zhang Heng��s guts to enter ss right on time. Zhang Heng then quickly walked to Chen Huadong and sat beside him. Thetter moved the book on the seat and whispered in a low voice.


    ��I thought you are noting. Everyone said that you were sitting on Han Lu��s thigh, and you have disregarded your credits.��


    On the other hand, Wei Jiangyang shook his head and said, ��After experiencing the previous Level 6 incident, I think the young master, Zhang Heng, just doesn��t want his usual grades anymore. Anyway, with his wittiness and knowledge, as long as he gets more than 90 points in the final exam, he can still proceed with his study.��


    The ounting lecturer coughed twice, and he red at them with hawks eyes. The two students stopped talking immediately. After they made sure that the teacher forgot about them, one started to look at an NBA match, and the other used his mobile phone to read light novels.


    Zhang Heng opened the textbook in front of him, but his thoughts weren��t on it. He noticed that the old man in the Tang suit was still pretending to be innocent. However, he looked much older than when he met himst time. In just six months, he already had more wrinkles on his face and grey hair on his head, but he was still in good spirits, even hooking up with the female streamer on TikTok. When he bid farewell, Zhang Heng noticed that his back was now a lot more hunched than thest time they met.


    Zhang Heng didn��t know what he had gone through during that period, but it was obvious he wasn��t in good health. Zhang Heng was reminded of the weak ancient Celtic god he encountered in the ck Sail dungeon and now knew that even deities would die, be forgotten, or even getting killed. However, the difference was that Zhang Heng did not think that the old man in the Tang suit would allow himself to be forgotten by others. There was no doubt that he��d been executing some n all along. Zhang Heng did not know his role in this n and what role he��d y in the future. Would the two be enemies eventually?

 Chapter 543 - Set Item?

    <strong>Chapter 543 Set Item?</strong>


    The war between the union and the Arc of Light started without warning and ended just as abruptly. However, everything was settled now. Arc of Light announced that it had reached a settlement with the union and promised to stop hunting for the four murderers. Everyone knew how they had managed to bring the union down, and even if Shen Xixi managed to keep the four ��murderers�� alive, the union couldn��t return to its previous state. Arc of Light was clearly the winner in this war, and the union, the obvious loser.


    The union was now less than a tenth of its original size and dominated by independent yer groups. Therge and small guilds working with the union had left before midnight and were too embarrassed to ask to rejoin. After the war, everyone was well aware of Arc of Light��s goal��they would not allow anyone to form the thirdrgest faction or union in this city. Hence, no one in their right mind would go against their will.


    Zhang Heng met Shen Xixi in the cafeteria that night. She sat in the corner alone, eating a bowl of barbecued-meat rice. Thanks to the rumors, no one would eat with her anymore. Even her own dorm��s residents refused to befriend her, where everyone deliberately avoided her. It was as if she was carrying some kind of gue.


    Shen Xixi, however, took it all in lightly. After all, there were too many things that required her attention. This wasn��t the time to spend energy on such trivial matters. She ate and read a book at the same time, her face showing not the slightest concern.


    Suddenly, a te was ced opposite her. Shen Xixi looked a little surprised. She raised her head to see that the person was Zhang Heng. ��Are you reading a book about self-cultivation?�� Zhang Heng pointed to the book she was reading.


    ��Yeah! I��ve been missing out a lot, and I read it when I��ve got the time,�� said Shen Xixi, adding, ��This game will end one day, and we will return to normal life, right?��


    ��I hope so,�� Zhang Heng looked at Shen Xixi and signaled with his eyes to ask if he could sit facing her.


    She nodded.


    ��If and when this matteres to an end, what do you want to do after graduation?��


    ��Me?��


    It was rare to see a spot of embarrassment on Shen Xixi��s face. ��I... want to open a pet store. It��s a dream I��ve had since I was ten. I��ve told nobody about it, not even Rabbit or Li Bai. You are the first to know. Remember to visit my shop when my dreames true.��


    ��Definitely. Inform me when your pet shop is open for business.��


    ��What about you?�� Shen Xixi asked after a sip of her millet porridge.


    ��I don��t know, I have never thought about these. The old me wanted to live life ording to the way he likes... Nothing has changed. Maybe I will go on a trip first. There are so many ces in the world that we haven��t been to and the life we��ve never seen before. I wish I could experience it all if possible.�� Zhang Heng said.


    ��I wish you a smooth journey in advance then.�� Shen Xixi picked up the bowl of millet porridge.


    ��I also wish your pet shop a prosperous business,�� responded Zhang Heng as he picked his bowl of seaweed soup.


    The two did not talk too much about the game because it was a public ce, after all. All kinds of people would pass them from time to time. Nobody would understand or believe what they had been through so far.


    Five minutester, Shen Xixi finished the barbecued-meat rice in the bowl, wiped her mouth, and looked at Zhang Heng. Zhang Heng has almost finished his food as well. Maybe he had been with Holmes for too long, that his eating speed had slowed down a lot since finishing thest game. Quote from Sherlock Holmes��This was the way a gentleman should be eating. It was actually not that bad. Eating slowly enable the person to chew the food more thoroughly and made it easier to digest. And now Zhang Heng has developed a rhythm in eating. Shen Xixi saw the way Zhang Heng ate, and she was fascinated by it. Secretly, she hoped that he could eat a little longer.


    It was not until Zhang Heng put down the chopsticks that Shen Xixi realized that she had been staring at him for some time. Suddenly, she felt embarrassed to ask the questions that she wanted to ask.


    After that, Zhang Heng raised his eyebrows at Shen Xixi, ��I have finished eating, and there is still an elective course that I have to attend in the evening. I will take off. Take car!��


    ��You too.�� Shen Xixi watched Zhang Heng stood up and walked to the counter to return his food tray. She had indeed suspected that the mysterious sniper who caused a lot of trouble to Arc of Lightst night was Zhang Heng. After forming the union, she had made a lot of friends. However, none of them was outstanding in marksmanship and close-quartersbat. Zhang Heng��s strength had always been a mystery to her. Shen Xixi and Zhang Heng had not been through the same quest together. The only time when they worked together was during Han Lu��s case, where they entered her dream to end the Dreand of Death��s curse.


    However, the situation was quite special at that time. After entering the dream state, everyone was separated. Zhang Heng was with Hypnos, and in the end, Shen Xixi did not know why Hypnos gave up and left. It must have had something to do with Zhang Heng-In other words, among so many yers, only Zhang Heng had sessfully solved the Dreand of Death��s curse. Not even the three major guilds could deal with it.


    However, Shen Xixi was a little shaken during the meal just now. Justitia mentioned that the mysterious sniper had unimaginable evil in his body. After knowing Zhang Heng for so long, she was sure that Zhang Heng might not do everything out of justice. However, thetter did have its own rules of conduct, with a bottom line and principles, far from evil.


    Therefore, Shen Xixi decided not to ask him about it and watched him leave instead.


    Since the time between afternoon and evening ss wasn��t long, so Zhang Heng went directly to the ssroom after eating. He did not want to tell Shen Xixi that he was the mysterious sniperst night. Firstly, he did not do it to her gratitude. Secondly, his n was executed halfway through and was interrupted by the old man. Technically speaking, he did not help much. Hence, it did not matter to him whether Shen Xixi knew about it.


    After evening ss was over, Zhang Heng ran to the parking lot outside the school and opened his Polo��s trunk. He risked his life to help Shen Xixi and the union to go against Arc of Light, working hard through night, but it wasn��t without gain. During that time, he killed several of Arc of Light��s assault team and collected some game items.


    Since he was in the real world, he did not receive any notification from the system. Hence, he did not know whether the items that he took from them was game item. Besides, the Arc of light did not leave him too much time to take care of his enemies. Hence, he must end the fight as fast as possible. And he could only make use of his experience to collect those game items.


    But there was one thing that Zhang Heng sure of. The ne pattern that he acquired from the man with wings was very familiar to Zhang Heng��s Shadow Moment. The crow��s image, coupled with the Shadow Key that he had, these three things were obviously from the same set of items that remind Zhang Heng of the concept of set items in this game. Now, he just needed to figure out how to put these three things together.

 Chapter 544 - Katana Hunting

    <strong>Chapter 544 Katana Hunting</strong>


    It would be better to hand over the matter to the professionals.


    Zhang Heng took photos of the three items one by one and sent them to the bartender.


    About a quarter of an hourter, he received a reply.


    [Interesting, have you found the three items needed for this set?]


    Instead of answering the questions, Zhang Heng asked rhetorically, (Will I receive a massive boost if I put them together?]


    (A boost? Oh... You are talking about the set effect. No. No. No. That��s now how it works. After you gather all the necessary parts, pass a test and you will be able to inherit part of the original owner��s power from it.]


    [A power simr to an agent?]


    [Simr abilities as an agent, and you are not required to sign any contract. It will be considered as your ability. Such items are very rare and can only be used when they are all collected. At the same time, once you used the set items, they will be rendered useless. So, I personally suggest that you use up the remaining uses beforebining them. As for how much power you can get, it depends on the affinity between you and the original owner.] The bartender exined everything to Zhang Heng patiently. (I remember I appraised Shadow Moment for you. There should be four items in this set. You need one more item toplete it. Once you collect it all,e to me and spend a hundred points. I can help you activate the set��s effect.]


    After Zhang Heng contacted the bartender, he called Ding Si from Fulou and asked for his help to keep an eye on the fourth item��s whereabouts and inform that his Portable Mighty River Crab had been sold for 122 game points. After deducting the 2% handling fee, Zhang Heng could get 120 points.


    The remaining items in the trunk were challenging to deal with. If Zhang Heng sent them all for identification, it would cost him a great fortune. Besides, it wasn��t like he could sell game items acquired from Arc of Light through legal channels.


    After the end ofst night��s war, Arc of Light shook hands with the union. Nheless, they did not give up finding the mysterious sniper, mainly because Zhang Heng had killed many of their yers. Other than that, three Seven Lords of the Sea level master-yers had also been taken out by Zhang Heng, an incident Arc wouldn��t be forgetting anytime soon.


    Earlier, they had put up a reward on the forum, soliciting the whereabouts and rted information of the mysterious sniper. If anybody managed to capture him, Arc of Light would give out a Grade-C game item as a reward. Many yers on the forum were eager to try their luck, but after they witnessed Zhang Heng��s true strength, a vast majority decided against it. Besides, one Grade-C game item was not nearly attractive enough to a master yer.


    Arc of Light would definitely not distribute highly practical Grade-C items like an Escape Dagger for the reward. In fact, there was a good chance it would turn out to be something useless. So, for now, Zhang Heng was still safe. Meanwhile, the rest of the game items obtained from Arc of Light would have to be kept in the trunk for a while.


    After a few moments, Zhang Heng received a new message.


    (I havee up with a solution to our problem.]


    The sender of the message was Scarlet.


    [Do enlighten me.) [If I can find another decent katana for you, will you return my broken one?


    (Where is the katana now?]


    Zhang Heng wasn��t like Scarlet. He didn��t have specific requirements when it came to choosing a katana. If there was one of simr quality, he wouldn��t insist on holding on to the Mikazuki Munechika. Of course, he had to look at the new katana before any decisions could be made.


    [It��s is not with me now.]


    Scarlet paused and continued,


    [I am afraid that you will have to get it yourself, or more precisely, I��m allowing you to get the sword.)


    Scarlet was worried that Zhang Heng might not have understood her. So, she exined the whole thing again. [I have a game item that allows me to spawn a special quest after using it. Only one person is allowed toplete this quest. It is like a knife mound. You can pick a katana from the quest and bring it back to reality.)


    Zhang Heng was no stranger to such special quests. His Infinite Building Block was obtained from one of those, and after listening to Scarlet��s exnation, it seemed this was different from Fan Meinan��s Lego quest.


    [A yer can only enter once?]


    Zhang Heng asked.


    [Yes, otherwise, I would have gone in again and tried to get you a new katana.]


    Scarlet continued typing,


    [And I must tell you in advance-I can��t guarantee that the katana you bring out from the quest will be of the same quality as the Mikazuki Munechika. But you can rest assured that all katana in the quest are well-known swords in history, and you will quickly recognize them. However, getting your hands on them won��t be easy.)


    (How difficult would it be?]


    (This item can only be used three times. My friend and I each entered once, so there are only one attempt remains. What I experienced was a quest called ��Eiroku no Hen.�� Rebels surrounded Ashikaga Yoshiteru��s mansion, and I protected his mother and wife. For that, I got this Mikazuki Munechika as a reward. My friend, on the other hand, experienced was a quest rted to Masaru Demon Sword Vige. She failed toplete the quest, and in the end, she only managed to bring out a Grade-E katana...


    Scarlet paused again.


    [...the following are just conjectures and are not necessarily urate. When we choose our katana, it chooses us as well. But beware. Everyone using this item receives different quests that are tailored specifically for you. There will be a katana that suits you best, but all lies in your ability, whether you can acquire it or not. Other than that, these quests have another advantage, and that is you can improve your skills on the katana. Ashikaga Yoshiteru is a very famous katana master in Japan. I stayed with him for fifteen days, but my techniques while wielding the sword improved a lot.


    Zhang Heng��s reply was quick this time, leaving Scarlet a little surprised.


    [I agree to the deal.]


    Discounting standing a chance to get a famous sword with the same quality as the Mikazuki Munechika, the fact that he could improve his katana technique was enough to make Zhang Heng ept the deal. He had spent ten years in the ck Sail quest to improve his swordsmanship skill to Lv.3. Daily practice was no longer enough to upgrade to another level. He, however, had not given up the possibility of further improvement. If what Scarlet said was true, then this was an excellent opportunity for him to achieve his goal-Not to mention he had the extra hours, allowing him to stay longer in the dungeons. Scarlet was still concerned that Zhang Heng did not understand the trading conditions, yet again, she reminded him.


    (Let me tell you the truth here: The game item itself is very valuable. Whether you get an excellent katana or not after you use my game item, you��ll have to return the upper half of the Mikazuki Munechika to me. Of course, it shouldn��t be a problem for you toplete the quest.) [I��m fine with that.]


    Zhang Heng chirped.


    (Before that, though, I need to make sure this ain��t a trap.)

 Chapter 545 - Bakumatsu Kyoto

    <strong>Chapter 545 Bakumatsu Kyoto</strong>


    Zhang Heng and Scarlet agreed to meet at the checkpoint where both their identities would be revealed. It was a safe zone, so neither had to worry about being ambushed.


    Zhang Heng used his Oath Ring to authenticate Scarlet��s words, then exchanged the upper part of the Mikazuki Munechika for Scarlet��s scabbard.


    Scarlet checked the hilt she received to confirm that it was genuine before slipping it into its satchel. She then instructed Zhang Heng on how to use the scabbard. ��Cut the flesh of your palm and let your blood drip onto it, about two milliliters. After three minutes, you will find yourself in the special quest.��


    The transaction wasplete, at this point, and eager to reforge her Mikazuki Munechika, Scarlet didn��t linger around the checkpoint, leaving hastily after a handshake with Zhang Heng.


    Both enemies in the Whistleblower quest, Scarlet attacked Zhang Heng on the Dodge Tomahawk, and Zhang Heng almost killed Scarlet in the subsequent fight. But their few meetings outside the game had been pretty pleasant. Scarlet even said that if given another opportunity, she would work with him again.


    After Scarlet left, Zhang Heng checked his watch. It was forty minutes to midnight, and since he wasn��t in a hurry, he ordered a drink and asked the bartender for a knife. Five minutes to midnight, he cut his left palm and let some blood drip into the scabbard.


    When the blood looked to be enough, Zhang Heng wrapped the cut on his hand with some gauze.


    Two minutester, that familiar dizziness struck, and he could hear the system prompts in his ear.


    [Verifying yer��s identity]


    Verificationplete. yer 07958 has the scabbard in possession. Connecting yer to the quest...] [Extractionpleted��Your quest is Bakumatsu Kyoto (Special Edition)]


    ��The Battle of Sekigahara in 1600 paved the way for the Edo period. The Tokugawa n ruled the country and instituted a policy isting the country for more than two hundred years. At the end of the Shogunate, finances were tight, exploitation was risinmoners could no longer stand the oppression, and riots became rampant. During the ck Ship incident, an East India Company��s warship had broken through the country��s gates with artillery, forcing the Shogunate to sign a series of unfair treaties, forfeiting their sovereignty and humiliating the country. This infuriated the locals. With internal and external troubles on the rise, the philosophy ��Revere the Emperor, expel the barbarians�� became the slogan that kickstarted the movement to overthrow the Tokugawa shogunate. The rebellion was led by Satsuma and Choshu provinces, where a secret meeting took ce in Kyoto-leaders conspired tounch a coup against Tokugawa Yoshinobu, leaving the country in a precarious state...


    This game will not be included in your stats, and you will be unable to reenter the quest once you exit.��


    [Mission Objective: Find the sword]


    [Mode: Single-yer]


    [Time flow rate: 240] (One hour in the real world is equivalent to 10 days in this quest. The quest ends in 30 days. yers can terminate the game at any time and return to the real world)


    Friendly reminder: the game will begin in 5 seconds. yers, ready yourselves!


    Unlike previous quests, before Zhang Heng entered this one, Scarlet had given him a treasure trove of information, and he could prepare well ahead of time. He spent one night (plus the extra twenty hours) skimming through Japan��s history and had be rtively familiar with the Bakumatsu period.


    If memory served him right, the ck Ship or Kurofune incident took ce in 1854. By 1865, Saigo Takamori and Okubo Toshimichi of the Satsuma Domain had taken over. In 1867, Emperor Takamori, who suppressed the movement, passed away. Emperor Meiji, who was only fourteen at the time, seeded the throne. Meiji sided with the movement.


    That year was also probably Kyoto��s most tumultuous period. In fact, most daimyopowerful Japanese feudal lords��took the wait-and-see approach. It wasn��t until the Toba Fushimi battle the following year that the Satsuma Rebellion tookplete control of Gyeonggi-do and gained the majority��s support.


    During the subsequent Meiji Restoration, Japan underwent rapid advancement, making it the first country in Asia to embark on industrialization. In contrast, China, which had been in contact with the West, was still under the rule of the Qing dynasty. After the Opium War, the semi-colonial and semi-feudal countries continued to decline. Although Lin Zexu, Wei Yuan, and their likes, whose eyes were opened to the world, worked hard to promote reforms, they struggled under the existing system. The irony was that Wei Yuanpiled the ��Illustrated Treatise on the Maritime Kingdoms�� in hopes that hispatriots would be able to recognize a world-renowned force. To his surprise, the book sold poorly in China-Qing Dynasty schrs were probably busy memorizing stereotypes at that time. Consequently, the publishing house lost a lot of money. An ocean away, in Japan, the book sold out and had dozens of reprints.


    In addition, after the Meiji Restoration, the military, especially the navy, became increasingly powerful, and Japan began embarking on a path of brutal expansion. Most people were already familiar with subsequent events that followed.


    Now that the dust had settled, and while missed opportunities to make history could be made up with hard work, the deep wounds and scars it left behind could never be restored no matter how hard the future generations worked.


    Zhang Heng briefly recalled the rted historical events during the countdown, and when he opened his eyes, he found himself standing in a town, most likely Kyoto. It seemed a very prosperous area; its streets were nked with tea houses, bathhouses, and shops, and lining them were dozens of street peddlers.


    The atmosphere was crowded, festival-like and abuzz-young women in kimonos, geishas, samurai withrge and small swords on their waists, and even Western faces were walking about. It had been thirteen years since the ck Ship Incident. In addition to the ��Japan-US Peace Treaty,�� the Shogun signed a series of trade treaties with Britain, Russia, France, and other powers. In the early days, only a small handful of Dutch (the Nethends was the only country that could trade in Japan before the ck Ship Incident), but now, the western poption in the city had grown substantially.


    On top of that, there were many more foreign products avable for purchase. Zhang Heng��s first stop was a shop selling mirrors. His reflection showed that he was dressed like the typical ronin*-a straw hat and a worn-out Haori that had not been washed for god-knows-how-long-the sword on his waist indicated his status as a samurai. The Edo society had a strict and borate social structure, and samurais were members of the ruling ss. All feudal lords owned these warriors��rge armies, where their masters would pay them sries and provide food and lodging. Of course, whenever there was war, these warriors would have to sacrifice their own lives. Both parties had their own rights and obligations, but ronin or wanderers like Zhang Heng��s had no master and had no ie. In fact, there was practically no money in his pocket.


    Regardless of the time period, filling your stomach would always be the most crucial thing. What was more, Zhang Heng was going to stay here for a long time. He would have to solve the issue of food and amodation first and foremost.


    *Ronin: A samurai without a lord or master during Japan��s feudal period

 Chapter 546 - Who Are You?

    <strong>Chapter 546 Who Are You?</strong>


    Japan was going through troubled times, where peace and order were absent throughout the country. The choppy waters gave birth to many job opportunities, especially for the samurai. Because of the uncertainty of the country��s situation, the ns changed their ways, recruited troops, and bought horses, actively saving as much as they could as they awaited the future. It was still a far better period than the time after the Meiji Restoration when the Sword Abolishment Edict was issued. The move caused the samurai to lose their jobs overnight and their swords confiscated from them.


    Especially for those who were very skillful, they had the luxury of choosing their employers, which was whoever offered the highest pay-Both shogunate and Tobaku supporters were all actively seeking manpower.


    Zhang Heng, however, wasn��t interested in going down that path. Once he joined a particr establishment, food and clothing wouldn��t be a problem, but for that, he would have to give up his freedom. This era strongly emphasized Kashindan��s* absolute obedience to theirndlords. If he was assigned a task, he was unwilling to do, he could never refuse. If he did, he would be sent to the frontlines.


    Zhang Heng��s other mission objective for this quest was to find a sword that suited him and could challenge a skilled samurai. It would be an excellent opportunity to break through his sword skills. So, be it the Tokugawa Shogunate or Satsuma Domain, he didn��t want to get tied up to either side. For now, the best course of action was to y by ear.


    In fact, he did not have to solely rely on his samurai status to make a living. Many foreign merchants in Kyoto now, and Zhang Heng had mastered quite a number of foreignnguages. In any given period, trantors were always a scarce resource. He could make money doing trantions for foreign merchants, and it also would not hurt that he would be able to travel around Kyoto for free.


    Having made up his mind, Zhang Heng decided to head for the pier. It was gettingte, and if he failed to find a job before sundown, he could be spending the night sleeping rough on the streets. Zhang Heng was about to leave when he heard someone calling out, ��Excuse me, my lord, would like to have some grilled eels?��


    Zhang Heng looked down and saw a timid little face looking back at him. It was a girl of about twelve years of age carrying a tiffin box. Even though she had mustered everyst bit of courage she had, she still looked a little nervous. Those tiny hands holding the food container trembled.


    But before Zhang Heng could say anything, herpanion, looking to be slightly older than her, pulled her away.


    Thetter whispered, but Zhang Heng could still make out a few words.


    ��Psst. Chiyo, don��t provoke the ronin. They are dangerous!��


    The girl named Chiyo stole a nce at Zhang Heng. As the two girls were busy trying to escape Zhang Heng, the ��dangerous man,�� they ran into a passer-by.


    Chiyo��spanion looked up, and the color drained from her face as he stammered, ��S... Sorry, I didn��t see you.�� ��Delinquent little rascal!��


    The person they ran into was also dressed like a warrior, except he carried a far more intimidating demeanor than a ronin. This warrior had twopanions with him, looking like they had a little too much to drink��they had probably been drinking at some nearby pleasure quarters. The man shoved the tiffin the girls were holding, rudely tipping them over, then bellowed, ��It is thanks to you idiots that those Westerners bully and humiliate this country!��


    ��Brother Yamada, watch your tongue. You wouldn��t want those guys from the Shinsengumi* to hear you,�� advised apanion of his.


    ��What is there to be afraid of, Matsuo? Times have changed...��


    The warrior named Yamada didn��t seem worried. ��In fact, I��ve meant to ask Kondo Isami to teach me his Tennen Rishin-ry��.��


    Yamada bellowed, and hispanions were terror-stricken when the word ��Shinsengumi�� was mentioned. They nced nervously at Zhang Heng. After the Ikedaya incident, Kondo and his ronin group, the Shinsengumi, rose to fame, earning themselves the moniker ��Wolves of Mibu.�� They were staunch supporters of the shogunate and helped it maintainw and order in Kyoto. On top of that, they also dealt with Tobaku supporters. Ruthless and vile, they made for excellent assassins, and an immense multitude feared the Shinsengumi.


    Matsuo did not know why Yamada would suddenly mention the Shinsengumi. He shot Takahashi a dirty look as if ming him for letting Yamada drink that much.


    The pair wanted to drag Yamada away before he made a scene, but he was already getting out of control.


    It was a mistake mentioning those westerners. It made him reenact the anger he harbored against them for all those years, and in a fit of fury, he grabbed the Tachi at his waist.


    Matsuo and Takahashi shrunk away from theirpanion. Yamada was furious, and he was quite the swordsman-he wasn��t just the best out of the three, but he was rtively well-known among the samuraimunity. Matsuo and Takahashi were not about topromise their own safety.


    The little girls were so terrified that they forgot to run for their lives. Instead, their legs were cemented to the ground as they watched Yamada draw his sword.


    Yamada��s brows furrowed. He wanted to scare the two little rascals and watch them pee in their pants, but he interpreted it as silent opposition when the girls did not move. Combined with the intoxication, the scene brought up some unpleasant memories.


    Of course, he had every reason to be resentful. Three years ago, he followed the radical Kusaka Genzui to save the emperor as a samurai of the Choshu domain. At that time, he was a high-spirited warrior, but the Hamaguri Gate Rebellion did not defeat the Kyoto defenders. Kusaka Genzuimitted suicide to avoid capture. The shogunate joined forces with Britain, the United States, France, and the Nethends to attack Shimonoseki, forcing the Choshu Domain to concede. Shinsaku Takasugi, one of the leaders of the shogunate, was forced to rove the streets. Things did not pan out well for the samurai who participated in the Hamaguri Gate Rebellion.


    Yamada had drawn his sword because he was sloshed, but mostly because of his rancor for his unfulfilled aspiration. Seeing the two undaunted little girls ��resisting�� him, he was overwhelmed with hatred. Yamada raised his sword above his head.


    Even though the little girls selling grilled ill were just strangers to him, and he had no interest in improving Kyoto��s security, they had only got into trouble because they were trying to get away from the ��dangerous man��Zhang Heng. He wasn��t just going to stand on the sidelines and watch the kids getting hacked to death by a madman in a drunken rage.


    But as Zhang Heng was about to draw his sword, something at the corner of his eyes made him stop. On the other side, Yamada yelled at the top of his lungs, his sword raised above his head. As he swung the de downward, a wooden sword met it, subsequently blocking the attack. ��WHO ARE YOU?!�� Yamada roared, his nostrils ring, eyes wide, and chest heaving vigorously. ��Koyama-dojo, Akane Koyama,�� said the rescuer in a clear, crisp voice.


    To everyone��s surprise, the person who stepped in was a young girl, holding off the attacker with a wooden sword with one hand and carrying some tuna she bought from the market in the other.


    Footnote:


    Kashindan: a Japanese feudal Daimyo��s band of retainers, something simr to a small elite militarypany or a unit of faithful bodyguards Shinsengumi: a special police force organized by the Bakufu during Japan��s Bakumatsu period in 1863

 Chapter 547 - Fight

    <h4>Chapter 547 Fight</h4>


    When Yamada drew his sword, everyone scrambled to get away; but when Akane Koyama stepped in and blocked Yamada��s sword, the people stayed on, and watching from afar.


    Unable to finish what he started, Yamada��s mood worsened. Worse still, the person who stood in his way was a woman. He barked, ��Are dojos in such a slump now that they ept just about anyone?! A bloody disgrace!��


    The young girl held her ground. ��In my opinion, it��s the Choshu Domain that is going downhill �� their samurai are experts at bullying little girls on the street.�� Yamada��s face darkened, his voice quivering. He was so mad that he could literally kill her at any moment.


    ��Hey, woman... did you just insult our Choshu samurai?��


    Contrary to what most believed, the Shogunate had imposed numerous samurai restrictions during the Edo period�� They weren��t allowed to kill civilians simply because they were unhappy. ording to Article 71 of Tokugawa Yoshimune��s ��Kujikata Osadamegaki, a book of rules for public officials, samurai had the right to strike any individual of a lower ss with the sword (and avoid punishment) when their reputation had b by rude behavior.


    The rules for disrespect-killing were described in detail in the book. First of all, in most cases, the samurai were only allowed to kill civilians in their own daimyo territory (and the daimyo did not like having their own civilians hacked to death). The chances of civilians being killed in Edo* and Kyoto were high (There were even Edo civilians keen on extreme sports who deliberately provoked the samurais). Secondly, samurais were not allowed to bring up old scores. If they were insulted yesterday, killing the perpetrator today was forbidden. Thirdly, if the opposing party apologized, the samurai were also prohibited from killing that person. Then, after a kill had been made, samurai were expected to undergo thorough investigation and inquiry. Should the samurai��s report be false, he would immediately be deprived of the samurai status. Of course, if there were no witnesses or if the crime wasmitted by a fast-running Ronin, that was a whole other problem.


    So, strictly speaking, Yamada��s attempt to kill the little girls was poorly substantiated. If he hadn��t drunk so much tonight, he would not have drawn his Tachi, especially not in broad daylight.


    But the situation had now taken a turn.


    This young woman who had appeared out of nowhere was impudent. Yamada might have been drunk as a lord, but his brain still functioned reasonably. As soon as the woman had spoken, however, he began ying the ��insulted a Chosun samurai�� card. That way, when he terminated her, he would have something to attest to his actions even if he were to be investigated.


    It dawned on Akane Koyama that she might have expressed herself too insolently, but before she could say anything, the girl standing next to Chiyo burst into tears.


    She was so terrified that she froze for a good while, not showing any reaction.


    ��Scram!�� Now that Yamada had a new target, he could not be bothered to deal with the two little brats. He shoved the crying girl, pushing her down to the ground. Immediately Chiyo ran to her friend��s aid. After making sure that her friend wasn��t injured other than a scrape on her palm, Chiyo turned her pretty, big eyes to Akane Koyama, looking concerned.


    Yamada raised his weapon again. Even though he spoke condescendingly towards the dojo girl, he dared not underestimate her because she could block his attack.


    Akane Koyama��s swordsmanship had been passed on to her by her father, the owner of Koyama Dojo, a ce she practically grew up in. During its heyday, people often visited topare notes; hence Akane developed a pair of keen eyes and could tell if someone was the real deal by merely holding their sword.


    Even though this Choshu warrior appeared to be brusque and ruthless, he was not just all hat no cattle. Not to mention Koyama Akane had only brought a wooden sword, so this fight was not going to be easy for her. More onlookers had started crowding the area. Matsuo and Takahashi were beginning to feel the heat. The Shinsengumi could be nearby and could show up at any time, and it would be pointless even if Yamada won the fight because his opponent was just a lowly woman. In any case, if he lost, it would not only be him, but the entire Chosu Domain would be put to shame.


    Matsuo and Takahashi nced nervously at each other, both wondering if they should just knock down Akane, then drag Yamada away with them. However, a pair of eyes suddenly fell on Matsuo. Sensing danger, Matsuo looked up to meet the gaze of the person. He was dressed like a ronin; he saw Matsuo looking back at him and twisted the sword in his hand as he gripped it tighter. The warning was obvious.


    Matsuo cursed his bad luck. He was not as skilled a fighter as Yamada. It was all thanks to not getting epted in his previous workce that he reluctantly joined the Tobaku, thinking that when the shogunate was overthrown, a veteran like him would at least be made an official of some kind. It was about the same case for Takahashi-Usually, the pair would just tag behind Yamada and take advantage of whatever they came across with. When they actually had to roll up their sleeves and fight, there was no guarantee that they would win, even if it was a two-to-one.


    Even though the guy looking at him looked penurious and unruly, his gaze was fierce and intense. Matsuo was absolutely certain that those who had never spilled blood before would never have such a look in their eyes.


    Could he be a thug who had escaped to Kyoto after murdering someone?


    To be safe, Matsuo and Takahashi decided to stay where they were and not make a move.


    On the other side, Yamada and Akane were focused on the fight, no longer paying attention to anything around them. One of Yamada��s specialties was a sword technique called Oishi Shinkage-ry��, which originated from Shinkage-ry�� and was devised by Oishi Susumu. It was said that Oishi once challenged all the dojos in Edo using a bamboo sword and came out undefeated. The main feature of the Oishi Shinkage-Ryu was a high-speed attack with the left hand.


    Yamada��s left-hand was lightning-fast and persuasive. On the other hand, Akane Koyama��s area of expertise was handed down by her father, mainly defensive stances. There wasn��t a strike she couldn��t block with her wooden sword.


    This was Zhang Heng��s first time witnessing a samurai sword fight. Both Akane and Yamada��s sword fighting skills were inferior to his. ording to his calctions, Yamada was at about the start of level 2, and Akane should be at the peak of level 1.


    But because one of them was inebriated, and the other had a wooden sword, neither could put their skills to full use. Inparison, Yamada was slightly more affected. Even though Zhang Heng did not know which school of swordsmanship technique he employed, he could tell that Yamada was an expert in speed attacks, something that required great agility and masterful precision. Right now, he could barely walk in a straight line.


    In contrast, Akane Koyama��s circumstances were slightly better. Her weapon was a disadvantage, and her swordsmanshipcked versatility, but because she was the type to take the safer route. In Zhang Heng��s opinion as an expert swordsman, the fight was actually not as dangerous as it appeared.


    Footnote:


    Daimyo: (in feudal Japan) one of the great lords who were vassals of the shogun


    Edo: the former name of Tokyo

 Chapter 548 - Akane Koyama

    <h4>Chapter 548 Akane Koyama</h4>


    In the blink of an eye, more than a dozen shes were exchanged between the two. Akane Koyama stumbled five steps backward, and although her face showed no fear, Chiyo was getting more worried as each second ticked by. Immediately, she looked around, hunting for the likes of anyone that could offer some help. Unfortunately, most bystanders were unarmed civilians, and even if they were willing to lend a hand, there was nothing much they could really do. In the end, her gaze fell on Zhang Heng, the ronin.


    However, Zhang Heng had no intention to get involved in this matter.


    He could envision that in about ten moves, Yamada was bound to lose the battle. Unable to attack for some time now, he had be more and more frustrated. Perhaps he felt it embarrassing to lose to a woman. Those who specialized in quick melee attacks knew how taboo it was to get anxious and impatient during a battle. His form was beginning to show signs of deterioration. To exin in gaming terms, although his APM (action per minute) was improving, his EAPM (effective action per minute) fell simultaneously.


    Zhang Heng would not want to be nosy at a time like this. Hence, he decided that he would ignore Chiyo for now. He stood there and turned his attention to Matsuo and Takahashi.


    Although Akane Koyama and Yamada��s swordsmanship were not as good as his, there was still something to be learned from their battle. The Japanese katana-fighting skill was founded rtivelyte. The Tang Dao also inspired the Tachi, but they were both crafted differently. A Tachi would be made using a high-temperature carbon removal technique, where the cksmith would carburize it at the end of the forging process. Japan had alwayscked high-quality coal; hence the Tachi could only be smelted at low temperatures.


    On the other hand, the Tang Dao forging technique was lost, causing the sabers that were forged during the Song and Ming Dynasties to drop drastically in quality. Usually, a Tang Dao was a thicker and heavier weapon, while the Tachi was lighter and thinner.


    Speaking of sword-fighting skills, schrs in the Spring and Autumn Warring States Period were required to study martial arts. Among the Ancient Six Arts were riding and shooting. As they traveled through the country, words didn��t always bide well, and when that didn��t work, the fist was typically the other method to resolve the problem. Confucian schrs were forced to abandon some of their principles for the emperor��s convenience in ruling the country. The quintessence of Ancient Six Arts was changed as well, where it waster tranted as something along the lines of ��a gentleman would use his tongue to deal with his problems instead of the fist.�� Back to the Japanese side, the prevalence of warrior culture upheld the samurai as part of the ruling ss. During that time, many were very willing to spend their time honing their katana-fighting skills, and before the Haito Edict, numerous dojos dotted thend, and Japanese katana-manship schools flourished as well.


    ne


    These Japanese katana-manship schools each had signature teachings. These were all very new things to Zhang Heng, and whether learning from them would yield anything valuable was still unknown. That said, Zhang Heng yearned to visit all these schools.


    Scarlet once said that the quest was generated ording to the characteristics of the yer.


    Zhang Heng entered the quest, Bakumatsu Kyoto, for a reason. When he saw Yamada and Akane Koyama fighting each other, he felt he learned something, and although it was only a small gain, it was valuable enough since he hadn��t improved in a long time. Masters of all disciplines gathered in Kyoto, and it gave him an excellent opportunity to learn from them.


    When Zhang Heng was thinking about where to start, the battle between Yamada and Koyama Akane had already ended. Koyama Akane took advantage of Yamada��s rush, attacking him. When Yamada could not retrieve his katana after going for Koyoma Akane, she sprouted from her defensive position and used her katana to sh Yamada��s hand. Thetter was in such intense pain that he had to let go of his Tachi.


    Koyama Akane did not continue attacking him. ��You are defeated,�� she proimed.


    ��What nonsense are you talking about? How could I be defeated!�� Yamada became furious. Although he had dropped his Tachi, he still had a wakizashi at his waist. Except for those practicing the dual-wield technique, the samurai of the Edo period would only use their wakizashi after they lost their primary weapon.


    Yamada prepared himself to draw his wakizashi to fight Koyama Akane. After he lost the, he looked like a disgrace to his kind. He always thought his opponent was nowhere nearly as good as him, not to mention how he engaged in battle after getting drunk. At least, that was how he felt after losing. This battle was all about the honor of the Choshu Domain��s samurai, and he had to win by hook or crook.


    Koyama Akane put away the wooden katana. She shook her head,menting, ��I don��t want to fight anymore. I fought you to save others. If you really want to fight me, go to the dojo, and I will be there waiting for you.�� After a short pause, she added, ��And now you have a weapon. I only have a wooden katana, which is exceptionally unfair.�� Yamada��s rage overwhelmed him that he almost fainted. He was amazed by the fact that she had the kahunas to mention impartiality. If not for his drunken haze, he would have won the battle.


    Yamada only felt a flow of heat rushing to his head, and he almost had a cerebral hemorrhage. Both of his nostrils were breathing out hot air. A few secondster, someone grabbed his arm. It was Matsuo and Takahashi. After seeing Yamada dropped his weapon, they finally dared to move forward to talk him out of it.


    ��My friend is drunk today. This battle doesn��t count. We will head to your dojo and challenge you another day,�� shouted Matsuo. And the three of them subsequently left before patrollers could arrive.


    Koyama Akane did not stop them from leaving. She then bent down and picked up the tuna that dropped on the ground earlier. After that, she walked to Chiyo and her friends and asked, ��Are you all right?��. The two little girls shook their heads. After thanking Koyama Akane, they bent down and picked up the grilled eel skewers that had fallen to the ground. Both children of fishermen and artisans, they learned how to save money from young and were no strangers to thrift. Although the skewers couldn��t be sold anymore since they had fallen to the ground, they could still be eaten after a bit of washing.


    Zhang Heng sensed Koyama Akane ring at him. She then touched her pocket, took out about fifteen cents, and handed it to the two girls.


    ��I went out in a hurry today. This is all I have today, but it should be enough to make up for your loss.��


    Chiyo and herpanions did not take the money. The only reason they were still breathing right now was thanks to Koyama Akane. In fact, they were thinking about ways they could repay her. To them, it would be inappropriate if they took her money.


    Koyama Akane then gave Zhang Heng another death-stare. She could be heard muttering under her breath.


    ��They almost died because of you! You didn��t even help them, and now you are not going to give them some money to make up for their losses?��


    Koyama Akane didn��t have to speak any louder than that, but Zhang Heng heard what she said, albeit not too clearly. When he finally realized what she was talking about, Koyama Akane was already leaving after giving the two girls pats on their heads.


    Zhang Heng was dumbfounded.


    This wasn��t thest time the two would cross paths with each other, though. In fact, not long after that, they would meet yet again.

 Chapter 549 - Choosing A House For Rent

    <h4>Chapter 549 Choosing A House For Rent</h4>


    After the Perry Expedition, the Edo Shogunate concluded the Kanagawa Treaty with the U.S and was forced to open the two trading ports of Shimoda and Hakodate. However, after the five years of Emperor Komei��s reign, the two sides signed the Treaty of Amity and Commerce on the Puritan Ship. The ports of Kanagawa, Nagasaki, Niigata, and Hyogo were added to the treaty. At the same time, foreigners were allowed to stay for business in the Edo and Osaka areas.


    Although Kyoto wasn��t on the list, it took only one day to get there from Osaka. Ten years had passed since the Treaty of Amity and Commerce, and after the Kinmon incident, Sonn? j?i rethought their strategy. Since the emperor was the only one in charge now, he focused on bakumatsu. The barbarian was no longer mentioned anymore, and they started to cooperate with the West actively. Hence, Westerners could move around even more freely now.


    As the most important river in the Kansai region, the Yodo River originated from Lake Biwa and connected the Kyoto Basin with the Osaka in. It was an important transportation channel for Kyoto during the Edo period. Many foreign merchants from Osaka had alsoe to Kyoto by traveling on this river.


    Zhang Heng asked around about the nearest pier, and he arrived at the spot before sunset.


    The ce was no less lively than the city. The riverbank was lined with machiya, where tiles were neatly arranged on their roofs, and signboards and curtains swayed in the gentle breeze. The window��s firstyer was a thin convexttice followed by a mosquito-a ssic example of traditional Japanese architecture.


    The building��s main structure was made of wood, its entrance narrow, but the walkway long. Under normal circumstances, the part facing the street would be used as a shop, and the back was used as lodging. The advantage of thisyout saw all the shops clustered up, and they were close to each other.


    There were boatmen unloading goods at the pier, and there were alsodies preparing to get on the boats. A shrine was not too far away from Zhang Heng, where dozens of devotees gathered outside for the daily blessings and protection. It wasn��t long before Zhang Heng found a Western businessman interested in hiring a trantor.


    Thetter��s name was Gabriel, a Frenchman. He hade to Kyoto with a business group to discuss selling a batch of cotton yarn with a local businessman. It seemed he was dissatisfied with the cotton yarn business, and he had other ns in his mind. However, it was inappropriate for him to announce his ns to the business group-It meant he would not be able to use the assigned trantor in the group. Just when he wondered where to find a Japanese that could understand French, Zhang Heng delivered himself to him. Gabriel was delighted. He quickly waved his hand, eventually agreeing to pay Zhang Heng a koban each day as his sry. Koban was a general currency used during the Edo period and was a gold coin of sorts.


    A koban was equivalent to one tael of gold, and one tael of gold was equivalent to a small sentence of one or two gold-one or two gold was approximately 60 mace or four strings of coins. In this era, the daily ie of a craftsman in Kyoto was about 70 coins. In other words, Zhang Heng��s current daily ie had almost caught up with a craftsman��s two-month sry.


    Zhang Heng knew one or two things about trantion jobs of the era. He had consulted the people at the pier before he came here and discovered a huge demand for professional trantors in Japan right now. However, those who couldmunicate with foreign businessmen were no longercking as they did before the Perry Expedition. In fact, even when the country was shut down during the bakumatsu, Satsuma, Choshu, and others had been secretly doing business with other countries.


    The tanegashima (actually the matchlock gun) originated from Satsuma. When a Portuguese merchant ship was blown to Tanegashima Ind south of Satsuma by a typhoon, they named this Japanese iron gun as Tanegashima. Now that the shogunate had opened for trade for over ten years, many Japanese had traveled to Europe to study, and a trantion job wasn��t as valuable as it used to be.


    Gabriel��s paid more than double the market price. And he did not even know Zhang Heng well. Zhang Heng also asked for an advance payment, and despite that, Gabriel didn��t hesitate to hire him. From there, he knew that this French businessman��s n in Kyoto might not be as simple as he thought it was.


    With Zhang Heng��s Lv.3 sword-fighting skills and the experience umted in the previous few quests, he was not too worried about the dangers he encountered. Moreover, it was sundown, and it might be toote to find the next employer. So, in the end, an agreement was reached between both sides.


    After paying Zhang Heng a koban, Gabriel asked him to meet tomorrow morning at the tea house next to the pier. When Zhang Heng left the pier after talking to him, the sky had fallen intoplete darkness. Thanks to a meal before the quest, he wasn��t very hungry, and as of now, his top priority would be to find a ce to stay.


    During the Edo period, the shogunate set up a Sankin-k?tai system to control various domains�� lords. These were required to go to Edo every once in a while to carry out government affairs for the shoguns. In fact, it was just an excuse to make them spend less time in their territory and prevent them from fooling around when they were there. If they disobeyed, they could be taken down the next time.


    However, Tokugawa was kind enough to fix all the dojo along the way. Later, he even started to develop hatagoya, a somewhat simr concept to capsule hotels ofter generations. Not only did they include two meals for every night you stayed, but many hatagoya had maids to take care of their customers. During the bakumatsu, more and more travelers poured into Japan, and the hatagoya started to deteriorate. Criminals began providing gambling equipment and prostitutes to their customers, and some hatagoya even forced their maids to be sex workers.


    After that, Osaka��s businessmen banded up, discussing a n to open chain hotels and unified the service standards, so travelers could stay at ease in the hotel with the guild��s sign hanging outside the door.


    Whether it was a hatagoya or an ordinary inn, they were temporary solutions for Zhang Heng. Considering the time that he needed to stay in this quest, Zhang Heng still preferred to rent his a house. Seeing that there was still some time, instead of going to the hotel in a hurry, he found a middleman nearby and asked thetter to show him the houses around this area avable for rent.


    The middleman was a fourteen or fifteen-year-old boy who looked brilliant and was also born in this area. He was well informed and knew everything about every household. Zhang Heng first paid him 100 coins and promised to give him another 100 after that. Immediately, he became more energetic than before. He did not care if he had not eaten dinner. His priority was to take Zhang Heng to walk around the streets.


    However, Zhang Heng was not interested in the several houses located in the prime spots. The two of them went further and further and had to light up theirnterns in the end. Zhang Heng had already nned to give up and wanted to do it again tomorrow. However, thest ce triggered Zhang Heng��s interest.


    Once they entered the house, they saw a small courtyard. At its center was a cherry blossom tree, and the smells it emitted were nothing short of phenomenal. There was a well under the tree as well, and the water was crystal clear. Theyout of the small courtyard was square, simple, and beautiful. Once Zhang Heng pulled open the shoji door, he saw that the house was spacious and there was also a tea room. Other than that, the furniture wasplete. In a modern-world context, Zhang Heng could just bring his luggage in and stay here for good.

 Chapter 550 - It’s You?

    <h4>Chapter 550 It��s You?</h4>


    ��I like this ce.��


    Zhang Heng turned to the middleman who brought him to the house and asked, ��How much is the rent?��


    ��The rent is really not that high. It only costs two strings of coins a month.��


    The middleman scratched his head. Seemingly, he was reluctant to borate.


    Zhang Heng walked around the house with antern, not paying too much attention to the brooding expressions of the middleman behind.


    ��When can I sign the contract? It��s a bitte now. Uh, I might have something to do tomorrow. How about early in the morning? Can the ownerse and meet me here really early?�� asked Zhang Heng. ��No, no, no, there��s no need for all that trouble. The owner happens to be living right next door! My lord, if you have made up your mind, I can call her over now.��


    ��She stays so close to this house?��


    Zhang Heng was a little astonished. When he thought about it, he slowly rationalized the whole thing. The family��s mansion appeared rtivelyrge, and it was customary to rent out a part of it to make some extra money. As it happened, the wall on his left looked rather new. However, Zhang Heng did not think much about it. ��Sorry for the trouble,�� he nodded.


    After a while, the middleman brought thendlord to meet Zhang Heng.


    Before the two arrived at the door, the middleman��s voice could be heard.


    ��I��m doing you a huge favor now... I have found you a generous tenant. He didn��t even frown when I told him that the rent is two strings of coins every month. Now, you must not drive away another potential tenant. Otherwise, no one in this area will dare to rent your house in the future!��


    Another voice snorted coldly, ��What kind of tenant are you introducing this time? The man asking to rent my ce previously had his hands all over me. I had to teach him a lesson.��


    The middleman rolled his eyes when he heard what she said. ��That is what a man likes! That guy drank too much and he simply wanted to take advantage of you. There was no need for such a fuss.��


    ��How is this a fuss? Just talking about it pisses me off! I ran into three samurai warriors from the Changzhou Domain at the market today. They drew their katana in the street and was about to bully the two children! But the worst part was that no men dared to stop them...��


    The woman��s voice sounded uncannily familiar. After noticing that she was talking about what happened at the market earlier, Zhang Heng immediately knew who she was. She was none other than the female warrior named Akane Koyama, the one who defeated Yamada with a wooden katana. Zhang Heng wasn��t expecting to meet her again so soon after they parted ways. Now, it so happened that he was about to rent her house.


    As they were talking, the two had already walked into the courtyard, and Zhang Heng��s sole opportunity to make an escape vanished. The moment they saw each other, the atmosphere became extremely awkward.


    ��It��s you?!�� Akane Koyama raised her eyebrows. Just when she was going to say something else, something important appeared to have crossed her mind, abruptly swallowing the words about to escape her mouth. On the other hand, the middleman was proud to seal the deal, ��Well, as soon as I saw this man, I knew he was destined for great things! If he bes famous in the future, maybe your little courtyard will be recorded in history!�� ��How is that even possible? Let��s find some clean clothes to wear first,�� replied Akane Koyama with a distinct irritation in her voice. The way Zhang Heng dressed right now was far from the generous tenant that the middleman mentioned to her earlier. Akane Koyama even suspected that he might not be able to pay the rent.


    Zhang Heng could understand Akane Koyama��s concern, but he did not expect that she mentioned nothing about raising the rent. With a straight face, she said, ��Since you will be living with me, you must abide by my rules. First of all, it is strictly forbidden to destroy the nts and trees here. Secondly, you are forbidden to drink and get drunk here. If you want to drink, there��s always a restaurant for that. Finally, the most important thing is not to be like the three Changzhou samurai warriors today. They use their martial arts to do evil and terrorize our residents...�� she paused, ��...well, disregard thest rule. You look like haven��t learned any martial arts before. Otherwise, you wouldn��t have just stood there and not help the girls.��


    IIII


    Zhang Heng was speechless.


    ��If there are no other questions, let��s enter the house and sign the contract.�� Akane Koyama urged.


    Zhang Heng considered the deal for a while, and he was fine with the rules she stated. They were all very reasonable, and although previous residents had been violently driven away by Akane Koyama, he wasn��t too concerned. He realized that he was too choosy when it came to picking a house to rent. It wasn��t like he didn��t walk around the area for some time, and he had also seen a few houses. Nevertheless, he was no interested in renting any of them. If he carried on searching, he might just find nothing better, so he decided to settle for this one.


    Thus, Zhang Heng and Akane Koyama quickly signed the lease contract. He had already exchanged the koban with silver and copper coins, and once the contract was signed, he immediately paid off the middleman and the rent.


    Akane Koyama, the owner, was a little surprised to see him take out the money.


    ��I didn��t have much money at that time. I earned these after that,�� exined Zhang Heng and the two whose mouths were ajar.


    ��You earned this money?�� Koyama Akane looked suspicious. ��Is Kyoto a good ce to earn easy money now? How did you make such arge amount in such a short time?��


    ��I��ve traveled to various western countries and I have a good understanding of theirnguages, so I just got myself a job as a trantor.��


    ��You can understand Westernnguages? Well, your Japanese is a bit weird...is it because you have been in Western countries for too long?�� Akane Koyama asked suddenly. She instantly saw Zhang Heng in a different light. During that time, it was unimaginable to leave home and travel thousands of miles to the west, and those who did make it abroad already had the idea of finding a way out of Japan for a long time.


    This made Akane Koyama change the way she looked at Zhang Heng. She thought for a while and said, ��I live in the dojo next door. If you want to practice with the sword, you can find me there.��


    Zhang Heng thanked her politely. He had finally found a house for rent that he liked. After that, Ayane Koyama and the middleman left together. Zhang Heng could not do any cooking since there was no time to buy ingredients, so he settled for nearby a roadside food stall to ease the hunger. When he returned to the house, he did a simple wash-up,y on the stack, and listened to the sound of the wind swaying the branches outside. This was how he spent his first night here.


    Since he epted a koban from Gabriel, Zhang Heng decided to take up the responsibility and rushed to the tea house between the piers early the next morning. However, by the time Gabriel woke up, it was noon. When he arrived at the tea house, he seemed relieved when he saw Zhang Heng.


    Last night, Gabriel was worried that Zhang Heng might not stick to the n after taking the money. After all, certain patriots of Japan were trained to assassinate westerners a long time ago, thinking it would help them defend home and the country. Fortunately, such crimes had dropped drastically in recent years.


    Gabriel squeezed a smile on his face and said, ��What we need to do today is very rxing. Let��s have a taste of Kyoto cuisine first. After that, we will go and watch sumo wrestling. In the evening, the local merchants will hold a banquet for us. I��ll just go there by myself. That��s what you need to for the day. How does that sound? Easy money, right?��


    Zhang Heng did notment about it. He knew that Gabriel��s choice to act alone was intended. He had something conspired up his sleeve. His activities today were only a cover-up, but Zhang Heng did not expose him. Just as Gabriel said, at least the money that he earned today was easy money.

 Chapter 551 - May I Know the Name of the Famous Dojo In Kyoto?

    <h4>Chapter 551 May I Know the Name of the Famous Dojo In Kyoto?</h4>


    The first day on the job wasn��t that difficult. As Gabriel said, all they did was enjoy good food and have fun. The two of them went around Kyoto��s city and would head to whichever lively and fun spot. The French businessman even told Zhang Heng that he was free to go in the evening. As they strolled, Zhang Heng could feel some sneaky guys trailing them closely from behind.


    Since Gabriel only paid for his trantion service, Zhang Heng was not obligated to protect him. Unless they decided to assault Gabriel, where it might cause Zhang Heng to lose his ie source, Zhang Heng would ignore them since they were doing nothing except following them.


    Gabriel looked cheery, but perhaps he already knew that he was being followed. Or he wouldn��t have just wandered around the city whole doing nothing important.


    Zhang Heng had no interest in their affairs. Of course, he would avail himself to all of Gabriel��s bidding, but when it came to rest, it wasn��t his concern. When work was over, he returned to the house that he just rented. After stepping through the mansion��s gates, he scooped some water from the well and drank


    The chilly well water had to be the best thirst-quencher of the era. Zhang Heng wiped his mouth with his sleeve after having enough, but it was then that he heard a series of yells and the sound of wooden knives shing from the Akane Dojo beside his house.


    Zhang Heng remembered Akane Koyama��s invitationst night, and he also happened to have something to ask her. He put down the scoop in hand. Since he came home early today, it was a good idea to head to the dojo next door.


    A que hung above the dojo��s main entrance with two characters on it, Myoshin-Ry��written by Akane Koyama. Zhang Heng searched his memory, and he was certain he had never heard of such a sect before. It wasn��t extraordinary, though. The Shogunate was where thest golden era of Japanese swordsmanship. There were more than two hundred recorded sects, and one could bet that there were hundreds of unrecorded ones around.


    Unfortunately, most of them would be lost forever in time, where only the most famous ones survived. In the era of Heisei Losers and Reiwa Sexless Men, there were few people still learning swordsmanship. Various sects emphasized self-cultivation, and swordsmanship was no longer considered an essential tool to kill enemies.


    Myoshin-Ry�� must have drowned in the torrent of history like other insignificant sects. Zhang Heng didn��t delve too much into that and entered the dojo.


    The first thing that captured his attention was a verdant grape rack, covered with luscious vines. It wasn��t the fruiting season; hence, few flowers bloomed among the green leaves. Next to the grape rack was a maple tree, its bark wide enough for a person to hug. Akane Koyama had built a fence around the tree to protect it. Other than that, there were three hens and a small crop plot on the chicken coop��s right-hand side. It seemed the vegetables were growing well. Zhang Heng was baffled by the ce that he just stepped in. It didn��t look like a dojo at all. Instead, it looked more like a small farmyard. After walking past the little tige, Zhang Heng arrived at the main house. The first thing he saw was a weapon rack with numerous bamboo katana and karuta. There was also a shrine so visitors could pay their respect to the previous sensei of the dojo. Other than that, there were also small wooden ques with each person��s name written on them. They were arranged in the order of teacher and student.


    The dojo was very lively at the moment. Akane Koyama was teaching her young students. The oldest ones were probably only fourteen or fifteen, and the youngest were perhaps seven or eight years old. Though they were just kids, they were entirely focused on practicing on their swords. They were instructed to form a team of two and sparred with protective gear on them. Akane Koyama walked amongst her students, carefully observing their moves, correcting them, and cheering them up.


    When she saw him, Akane Koyama gave Zhang Heng a nod. After learning he had ventured abroad to the west to further his studies, she no longer regarded him as a loiterer and troublemaker.


    After Akane Koyama gave the kids some instructions, she walked out of the dojo to talk to Zhang Heng. ��Are you here to practice your katana skills?��


    ��No, no, I want to ask about the famous temples in Kyoto.��


    Akene Koyama was stunned. A look of shame and anger shed across her face.


    Zhang Heng then realized that she had misunderstood what he said. He quickly added, ��I have no intention to be an apprentice. In fact, I... came to Kyoto topete with the master here.��


    ��Eh, what did you say you came to Kyoto for?�� Akane Koyama��s eyes widened to the point of popping out. Although she said nothing more, the way she looked at Zhang Heng was more than an exnation.


    Akane Koyama��s impression of Zhang Heng had improved to a certain extent. However, when he was at the market, he just stood there and watched the whole thing unfold before him. He did not even dare to save the little girls. It was hard to imagine a person like him would have the bristols to say he was here to challenge the masters. However, Akane Koyama still liked to think that people were generally good. Maybe it was because Zhang Heng had been studying abroad for too long, and upon his return, perhaps he did not know the country that well anymore. He could just be deluded. This man must be thinking that he��s a master. But then again, if he thought he was, then why didn��t he try to save the two little girls?


    While the problem got Akane Koyama��s mind grinding, she suddenly saw the middleman running toward them. At the same time, he was yelling, ��Something awful is going to happen to you guys! Run now! A group of samurai is asking where your dojo is. They look aggressive. It��s probably your father��s enemy. I pointed them in a random direction, but I think they will get back to the right track soon!��


    ��Enemies? When my father was alive, he never made any enemies. And I��ve never heard of him having grudges with anyone.�� Akane Koyama shook her head.


    Zhang Heng��s expression changed. He did remember the three samurai warriors of Chosh�� Domain fromst night. The man who drew the tachi and attacked others was more powerful than Akane Koyama. Besides, this matter involved the honor of the Chosh�� Domain. It was impossible that they would just let the case slide so easily.


    The middleman was anxious.


    ��This is not the time to talk about this! You should look for a ce to hide first!��


    ��Are you telling me to leave the dojo and hide?�� Akane Koyama frowned.


    ��Or what? You want to bring your dojo with you?�� The middleman rolled his eyes.


    What he did not expect was that the group would arrive a lot faster than he thought. Before they coulde up with a solution, a total of five samurai barged into the dojo. Yamada, who previously fought Akane Koyama at the market, was with Matsuo and Takahashi, while there were two other unfamiliar faces as well.


    Yamada looked furious. Last night��s defeat was an utter disgrace. After he sobered up, he wanted to get his revenge at Akane Koyama��s dojo, but unfortunately, they were one step toote. The Tobaku supporters had heard about their fightst night.


    Shinji Takeuchi was among the Tobaku supporters, and his rtionship with Yamada wasn��t that good. Like Yamada, Takeuchi was also born in the Chosh�� domain and was a renowned samurai among the Tobaku supporters. It was inevitable that they would startparing each other, and as time passed, a certain extent of hatred festered between them.


    About half a year ago, Takeuchi went to challenge Yamada. He thought it would be a close fight, but Yamada lost the battle quickly to his surprise. The two pulled about a dozen moves, and Yamada was entirely suppressed. In addition to the significant difference in strength, Yamada wasn��t as skilled on the katana as Takeuchi, and hence, the real reason he lost.


    After that fight, Takeuchi became more famous among the Tobaku supporters. On the other hand, Yamada showed signs of going downhill. That was how they got the bad blood between them. Thest thing Yamada wanted was that Takeuchi knew what happened to himst night. Unfortunately, his worst nightmare came true. The rtionship between Takeuchi and Takahashi was excellent. Yamada suspected that Takahashi leaked the matter to Takeuchi. Thetter came to knock on his door early in the morning and expressed his doubts about Yamada��s strength. Takeuchi insisted on going with Yamada to the dojo. Otherwise, they would tell more people about what happenedst night.


    Yamada had no choice but to agree to his request. For today��s battle, not only was itpulsory for him to win the fight, but he had to make sure Takeuchi wouldn��t have room to criticize him. The stakes were high.

 Chapter 552 - Please Enlighten Me

    <strong>Chapter 552 Please Enlighten Me</strong>


    Yamada stormed into the dojo, only to spot the boy who pointed them in the wrong direction. He red at the poor kid with the eyes of a tiger.


    ��Hmph! I��ll deal with youter!��


    The boy turned as white as a sheet and hid behind Akane to avoid Yamada��s death-stare.


    The samurai ignored Zhang Heng and said to Akane, ��This is great. That fightst nightyou attacked me when I was drunk and insulted our Choshu warriors. We get to fight again today.��


    Yamada was as shrewd as ever. He spoke first, making sure to ssifyst night��s ambush on a drunk man as foul-y as an excuse for his defeat. But he wasn��t all that wrong. If he had not been so tipsyst night, he would not have lost to Akane, who was only wielding a wooden sword.


    Akane was unfazed. It was probably because she grew up in a dojo that she had grown used to such threats. She wasn��t bothered to argue with Yamada, merely gesturing him to enter the building. The entire group entered the main hall.


    The children that were training put down their bokuto* and stared. The atmosphere in the dojo had suddenly shifted.


    Akane pulled two bokuto from the shelf, one for herself and the other for Yamada.


    She threw the sword to him, but he did not reach out, letting the bokutond by his feet.


    ��I don��t need it. I brought my own.��


    Yamada pulled out the Tachi at his waist.


    Instantly, the children went into an uproar. Friendly duels among warriors were nothing unusual, and even if they had trained under different schools of swordsmanship, there were always areas where they could learn from each other, just like research, the more a truth gets debated, the clearer it bes. Other than training daily, warriors were also required topete with others to gain experience.


    Generally, a wooden katana would be used for obvious safety reasons. It helped to determine who won, and both warriors generally benefited from the maintained peace.


    If real weapons were used, lives would surely be put at risk, mostly when thepeting party��s skills were on a simr level. Just one wrong move would lead to an inevitable disaster.


    Akane did not realize that Yamada had meant for them to use real weapons when he challenged her to a duel. She shook her head.


    ��I haven��t trained my Myoshin-ry�� enough. I��m nowhere near my father��s level. I cannot guarantee that I can fight with a real weapon without hurting my opponent.��


    ��It��s alright. Swords are meant to injure, and life and death are ruled by fate. We can swear that whichever way the duel ends, we will not hold the other party responsible and allow our past grievances to be forgotten,�� Yamada answered.


    He barely finished when Takeuchi chuckled aloud. ��This is about the Choshu samurai��s reputation! Since when did you start calling the shots? Just because you say bygones are bygones doesn��t mean it is.��


    Yamada was speechless. Even though what Takeuchi said was unpleasant to the ear, it was the truth. Last night��s incident was about the serious crime of insulting the Choshu warriors. Just because he said it was forgiven did not mean it was. Yamada believed himself to be the better fighter, and it was proven duringst night��s fight. Even though he was drunk, he was able to work out the fundamentals of her skills. ording to Yamada��s own reasoning, getting rid of Akane will solve the problem, but there was nothing he could do about Takeuchi finding fault with his choice of words.


    ��If you insist on using a real katana, then I��ll just admit defeat,�� said Akane frankly-she really did not mind. This, however, caused Yamada to panic. He did not actuallye here today for a duel but for the kill. Only by terminating Akane would he make up for his mistakest night-otherwise, he would be a Choshu criminal. Thew was not as harsh as it was back during the Sengoku period*, and other than those Shinsengumi lunatics, obligatory seppuku* was no longer used as punishment for petty crimes. But even so, he had lost that much face, and unless he did this, it was going to be thought to keep being a part of the Tobbaku group. Yamada looked around the hall, and his gaze settled on the wooden table where a shrine had beenid out. He then drew his sword and sliced the table into half.


    Finally, Akane��s expression changed.


    ��You��ve crossed the line! What made you think that you can just waltz in here and do whatever you like?!��


    Akane stormed toward the only weapon rack with real swords, subsequently picking out the uchigatana at the top.


    Yamada was pleased to see that Akane had finally epted the duel. He grinned in relief, letting out a satisfied ��ahh.��


    ��I��vee today to learn your Koyoma Myoshin-ryu.��


    But it was then that a voice cut in.


    ��Wait.��


    Everyone in the hall was taken aback when they turned to look and saw Zhang Heng. They, too, like Yamada, didn��t notice his presence and wondered where this person dressed like a ronin hade from.


    Only Takahashi and Matsuo winced as if the man had brought up some unpleasant memories. Takeuchi, on the other hand, examined the strange ronin with interest.


    It had not been easy finding suitable lodging to settle down in Kyoto, and obviously, Zhang Heng did not wish for hisndy to be hacked to death on the second day of his stay. Who would the property belong to then?


    Zhang Heng walked up to Akane and whispered under his breath, ��Can��t you see he��s attempting to provoking you? Don��t fall into his trap. You are no match for him.�� Akane said nothing in response. She grew up in the dojo and had always been good at reading people. Afterst night��s fight, she understood that Yamada��s fighting skills bettered hers, but what he had just done was the straw that broke the camel��s back. Not only was the dojo her father��s legacy, but it contained precious memories of her childhood. She watched her father build a nameless dojo into a ce of high reputation. The ce was filled with visitors in its heyday, but after her father passed away, the dojo began to decline, and many teachers and students left.


    Akane certainly wasn��t blind to the fact that she couldn��t sustain a dojo; she simply couldn��t find it in herself to shut it down. Some time ago, she offered free lessons and lunch to recruit children from poor families but the running costs of the dojo skyrocketed as a result. To ease her increasingly strained finances, she had rented out a part of the small courtyard. In no thanks to Yamada, Akane refused to return to where she started just when the situation had finally taken a turn for the better. She would have given up everything else, but definitely not the dojo her father left her. She had to protect it with everything she had.


    This was probably when Koyama dojo was at its weakest. All these students in the hall, they had just joined no less than a few months, having never been in any actual fights. She was the only one who could step up to face this crisis, and she had to.


    Akane nodded at Zhang Heng, ��Thank you. I know what I��m getting into.��


    Zhang Heng wanted to say more, but Akane was looking up at Yamada, saying, ��I��m ready. Please grant me the favor of enlightening me.��


    Trantor��s note:


    Bokuto: a Japanese wooden sword used for training in kenjutsu (also bokken)


    Seppuku: sometimes referred to as harakiri, is a form of Japanese ritual suicide by disembowelment reserved for samurai.


    Obligatory seppuku: capital punishment for samurai to spare them the disgrace of being beheaded by amon executioner. Sengoku period: a period in Japanese history of near-constant civil war, social upheaval, and political intrigue from 1467 to 1615.

 Chapter 553 - The Decided Winner

    <h4>Chapter 553 The Decided Winner</h4>


    Yamada had been waiting for Akane Koyama to say yes to his challenge. Seeing that the other party finally agreed to a battle, his gloomy face finally showed a touch of joy. The others had consciously stepped aside and cleared the space in the middle for the two contenders.


    Only Takeuchi and Zhang Heng still stood there. Takeuchi then chirped, ��Great! I can witness brother Yamada��s Oishi Shinkage-Ryu stabbing technique again! My people will be proud of him.��


    After that, he slowly retreated to a corner.


    Yamada discreetly scolded Takeuchi. Thepetition had escted to the point it now involved a Choshu domain samurai��s honor. But Takeuchi didn��t seem satisfied. He had to involve the fight between the sects as well. This had increased Yamada��s stress level tremendously. His Oishi Shinkage Ryu Stab Technique was a sort of quick melee attack. If he hesitated at any moment, the technique could fall apartpletely. From the surface, Takeuchi appeared to be encouraging him, but he was actually taking the opportunity to disrupt his mind.


    Yamada, on the other hand, had been adopting Shingy?t?-ry�� for a long time. He was the kind of samurai who paid close attention to his surroundings, employing elements that could benefit him. After all, Yamada was a man who had been through the Kinmon incident and wouldn��t be affected so easily by Takeuchi. Moreover, one��s state of mind would only be affected if the opponent��s strength was equally powerful. As long as he stayed sober, he was confident that he would win the battle.


    Yamada saw that Zhang Heng was still in his way. Sternly, he waved the Tachi in his hand and urged, ��Go away, or I will sh you with my Tachi!��


    Zhang Heng pretended he heard nothing, turning to Akane Koyama instead. ��If you can��t defeat him, just give up. Don��t take the risk. If you make one wrong step, this dojo will be shut forever.��


    Then, like Takeuchi, he too retreated to the side.


    Yamada was getting impatient. Not even bothered to perform the pre-fight salutation, he raised his Tachi and lunged straight for Akane Koyama.


    Since the two fought at the marketst night, Akane Koyama knew that Yamada��s left-hand was swift and she had been guarding her right against being attacked. However, as soon as the fight started, Akane Koyama realized she made a mistake. The Yamada right now and the drunken Yamadast night werepletely different people.


    This time, Yamada was adamant that Akane Koyama paid for what happened to himst night. Not only was his performance unaffected by the pressure, but it actually brought out the best in him. Now that he was fully focused on the fight, he was faster than before, but his form was impable as well. Coupled with indomitable momentum, he had managed to produce a perfect rendition of the Oishi Shinkage-Ryu Stab Technique.


    Meanwhile, Akene Koyama was doing all she could to defend herself. She felt almostpletely powerless against Yamada��s dominating blows. The Koyama Flow was a technique that focused on defensive abilities. She was supposed to pay attention to the Tachi��s movements and feel them with her heart. Unfortunately, Yamada��s attacks were so swift, and as her eyes darted around, she had no idea how to suppress him.


    In less than ten moves, Akane Koyama��s right arm was shed by Yamada. The onlookers immediately had the feeling that Akane Koyama would lose the battle. Akane Koyama, however, had no intention to surrender anytime soon. With gritted teeth, she passed the katana to her other hand.


    Yamada was disappointed that he failed tond a heavy blow to Akane Koyama. If only she had dodged a second slower, he would have been able to cripple her. This time, his goal was not only to defeat Akane Koyama but to end her life for good. An arm might not be enough to cleanse the offense suffered by the Choshu Domain Warriors.


    The few previous rounds of sparring had Yamada getting a clear grasp of Akane Koyama��s strength. He figured that they had a rather significant gap between them, and it was then that he thought he could finally let out a sigh of relief. He was d that Akane Koyama had no intention to surrender. However, he knew that she would definitely not continue the fight if something simr happened again, no matter how stubborn she was.


    So, he covertly changed tactics. First, he changed forms and slowed down his attacks. In exchange, the trajectory of his strikes became more evident, hence easier to dodge. It allowed Akane Koyama to think she could rx a little when the truth was that the threat had just escted to a serious level.


    Yamada hid his trump card, for now, seeking the perfect opportunity tond a fatal blow. Few that were there could really figure Yamada��s true intentions. When they saw Akane Koyama bleeding from her wounds, Matsuo and Takahashi could not help but cheer for Yamada. Nheless, as the fight progressed, they could not help but start worrying about him. On the contrary, Akane��s dojo children had stopped their anxiety and began to see the light of hope. Akane Koyama had taught them-as long as they managed to defend from the attack, they could capture the opponent��s weakness, thereby looking for a counterattack opportunity. But Takeuchi, who was also a master, knew exactly what Yamada was thinking.


    ��How dare he say that I am cunning? He is no better than me,�� Takeuchi proimed with a chuckle.


    The battle ended faster than everyone expected. A second ago, Akane Koyama was still fighting with Yamada. The next second, without warning, Yamada sped up his attacks again, changing from his previous habit of assaulting from the left. He aimed at Akane Koyama��s forehead and shed at it with all his might! The sudden change caused Akane Koyama to misjudge the direction of the opponent��s move, barely lifting the katana to block the attack. She was forced to take half a step back. It appeared she had underestimated Yamada��s strength. The blow was so powerful that Akane Koyama fell to the ground, her katana ttering noisily along with her.


    At this point, no matter how unwilling Akane Koyama was, she could only ept defeat. However, as the winner, Yamada had no intention to stop. A cold, bloodthirsty madness shed in his eyes. He raised his Tachi and charged at Akane Koyama.


    She gasped in shock, thinking if this was the day she would leave the world. What would happen to the dojo her father left her after his death? These children were still working on their foundation. Without learning the skills she wanted to teach, would the Koyama Flow be lost forever?


    In stark contrast to Akane Koyama��s despair, Yamada��s eyes were filled with excitement. The battlest night had greatly tarnished his reputation. Takeuchi even deliberately made a trip here to watch the battle. While they were on the way, he did not stop teasing and ridiculing him. Now, he finally had the chance to put a stop to this nonsense.


    As long as he killed Akane Koyama, he��d regain all that he lost. Then, something totally unexpected happened. A katana stopped Yamada��s final blow. His hands went numb for a while, almost causing him to lose his grip on the Tachi.


    Simultaneously, the katana that stopped his attack remained unmoved.


    ��The winner has been decided. You don��t have to kill her.��


    The opportunity to kill Akane Koyama hade and left. Yamada couldn��t help but boil with rage. When he saw the ronin who stopped him, his anger only amplified.

 Chapter 554 - Three Moves

    <h4>Chapter 554 Three Moves</h4>


    The sudden turn of events caught everyone off-guard. No doubt the duel results had already been determined, Yamada��s attacks only raged on, where even swore he��d take Akane��s life. Then, at the critical moment, Zhang Heng appeared out of nowhere and blocked the fatal blow.


    Takeuchi inhaled sharply, and his sleepy eyes lit up.


    Even he had to admit that Yamada��s n had been sessful. Little by little, he led Akane into his snare, only revealing his fangs at the end. Unfortunately, it fell short. It wouldn��t have been easy for that ronin to parry Yamada��s attack. He would have to react fast enough, where if he were to be one secondte, Akane would have been in. But speed alone was not enough. Yamada��sst two attacks were undeviating. If his intention to kill Akane was only realized at thest second, it would still have been toote even if the ronin was quick to react. Like Takeuchi, the ronin would have to see through Yamada��s intentions ahead of time to be able to save Akane by the skin of her teeth.


    Takeuchi thought back and recalled seeing Zhang Heng taking a half-step forward when Yamadaunched his final attack.


    The small half a step shouldn��t be underestimated. For Akane, it was a difference between life and death.


    She didn��t anticipate Zhang Heng to step in.


    When the drunken Yamada caused amotion at the marketst night, Zhang Heng yed the daft baddie. Sure, he was also carrying a weapon, but the ronin strangely didn��t step in to stop the rogue samurai, something Akane misinterpreted as cowardice.


    However, after learning that Zhang Heng had traveled to Western countries, her opinion about him changed, but only to a certain extent. She thought that Zhang Heng was the kind who held culture in low esteem and despised martial arts. Warriors of the Edo period were literate individuals and good fighters because how could illiterate men be expected to rule the territory? (Not to mention, the Japanese literacy rate actually exceeded that of many Western countries during that time).


    During those turbulent times, men with noble aspirations actively sought ways to save their county. While some used their swords, others went the course of the pen. In Akane��s opinion, however, there was no difference between the two.


    But afterst night��s incident, Zhang Heng came to the dojo, exining that he hade to Kyoto to challenge a high-ranking samurai warrior. Akane thought that must be a braggart who knew not his ce. She simply wasn��t certain if he just wanted to show-off or if he really nned to get bashed at a dojo somewhere.


    Before she could answer the question, the Choshu people were already knocking on her door, forcing her into epting a duel with Yamada. She noticed the bloodthirst in Yamada��s eyes and thought that must be where she would meet her end. Imagine her surprise when the man she believed to be unreliable saved her when her life hung by a thread.


    The guy did not step in to help when she was up against three men, but now that there were five, he suddenly stepped up to the te. Could he have measured the gap between the enemy and her based on the number of people in the dojo where he included the children?


    As Akane tried to make sense of the situation, Yamada suddenly bellowed, ��This concerns the very soul of the Choshu warriors�� reputation! It��s a duel between Oishi Shinkage-Ryu and Myoshin-Ryu! Who the hell are you?! What makes you think you��re qualified to intervene?��


    ��Oh, I just recently found lodging here.�� Even though the samurai was uncouth, Zhang Heng told him the in truth. ��Oh? So, you��re just another parasite? That means you��re one of them?!�� hissed Yamada with malice.


    The samurai had misunderstood him, and before Zhang Heng could exin, Yamada snapped, ��You came at the right time. Since you��re from this dojo, then you have a share in this woman��s crime! If that��s the case, both of you can pay with your lives!��


    ��Hold on!�� Akane picked herself off the ground, clutching her injured right hand. ��This has nothing to do with him. I am your opponent here!��


    ��Stop bbering. Don��t worry, none of you will escape today!�� With his carefully formted n now quashed, Yamada was incensed. He would instead shed all pretense of cordiality than continue rambling.


    Without another word, the samurai raised his katana in menace.


    ��Might as well!�� Zhang Heng shot Akane a look, telling her to step back. Then he looked at Yamada and said, ��Unlike thisdy here, I fight to kill. Once my sword leaves its sheath, I��m afraid it won��t end well for you. You and I are on different levels. Since you��ve already gotten the victory that you wanted, yesterday��s grievances should have been settled. Why don��t all of us take a step back?��


    ��How bold!��


    Yamada threw his head back andughed hysterically as if he had just heard the funniest joke. ��Even your dojo master lost to me. Yet, here you are, a parasite, making such lofty statements.�� Yamada��sughter abruptly stopped, and he looked Zhang Heng in the eye, enunciating every single word, ��I hope that your swordsmanship is half as powerful as your mouth; otherwise, you might evenst ten moves.��


    Zhang Heng shook his head. ��Ten is too many. I only need three moves to defeat you.��


    He had never fought Yamada, but he had already seen the samurai fight twice and was somewhat familiar with Oishi Shinkage-Ryu. To boot, he also had the opportunity to observe some of Yamada��s style and tendencies.


    When Akane and Yamada were fighting, Zhang Heng imagined himself in the fight and thought about the fastest way to defeat his opponent. Three seemed to be the more urate number.


    Yamada obviously thought otherwise. To him, the ronin was simply trying to ruffle his feathers.


    For the time being, it could be a countermeasure. But only the weak would use such a feeble trick to close the gap between themselves and the strong, a methodpletely ineffective in terms of actual strength.


    As long he kept his cool, calmed down, and gave it all he had, the ronin had absolutely no chance against him. And that was exactly what Yamada did.


    He shoved Zhang Heng��s pesky words to the back of his mind, raised his weapon, and charged towards the ronin. As he gushed forward, he focussed his mind and produced his best, of not, second-best moves. If only Susumu Oishi was here, he would have been very impressed.


    Zhang Heng, on the other hand, did not react. He was not even in abat stance.


    Akane held her breath.


    Just when Yamada was right in front of him, Zhang Heng finally made his move. It was no fancy performance, and all he did was raise his sword to meet his opponent��s.


    A sly look passed over Yamada��s eyes. He was waiting for Zhang Heng to do just that. But when his sword was in midair, Yamada suddenly shifted from striking to shing, and he targeted Zhang Heng��s neck. If sessful, Zhang Heng would probably be unable to keep his head.


    The onlookers let out a hushed gasp, not expecting Zhang Heng to transform such a simple move into something artful. However, Zhang Heng��s reaction was swift. He repositioned his sword from horizontal to vertical. Yamada was pleased to see that. He rarely met anyone faster him.


    Too bad it all amounted to nothing in the end. Because before he made a move, he found a good spot. Even if their swords were to sh again, he could rush and stab Zhang Heng in the chest.


    But on the spur of the moment, he heard Zhang Heng say, ��Three moves.��


    Swords shed, and blood sttered. Yamada��s left hand iled wildly in the air.

 Chapter 555 - Are They In Kyoto Now?

    <h4>Chapter 555 Are They In Kyoto Now?</h4>


    Everything happened in an instant. Matsuo, Takahashi, and others were still admiring Yamada��s exquisite swordsmanship when, unexpectedly, Yamada��s situation took a sudden roll downhill. There was no transition in the middle, and Yamada, a minor but renowned samurai among the Tobaku supporters, was now a cripple, seeing how his left hand had been sliced off.


    Bright red blood spurted out from the wound, sttering on Zhang Heng��s Haori that had not been washed for a long time. The bloodstain made Zhang Heng��s unusually tall figure look even more terrifying now. Matsuo and Takahashi were so shocked by what they saw that they unconsciously stepped backward. They did not stop until their backs hit the wooden fence. They nervously nced around their surroundings, ever ready to flee if things turned sour. On the other hand, Takeuchi��s pupils contracted all of a sudden.


    Even Yamada, having lost his left hand, was probably oblivious to what just happened. Judging from the expression on his face, he had a hard time believing that he lost the battle, considering he had the upper hand earlier.


    Takeuchi, a master swordsman himself, could barely keep up with Zhang Heng��sst strike as a bystander. That was how he realized that Zhang Heng��s final blow had to be extremely powerful.


    Zhang Heng caught the slight setback between Yamada��s first change of moves and the second, and he charged toward him as quickly as he could. At the same time, he flicked his wrist so swiftly that his katana��s tip drew an arc, thereby dodging Yamada��s attack. During that time, Yamada was swinging the katana in his hand. From Takeuchi��s perspective, it looked like Yamada deliberately moved his wrist towards his opponent��s de.


    Takeuchi took in a deep breath. He was amazed by Zhang Heng��s incredible speed and urate calction. It seemed like everyone he met today were better than him, and it wasn��t until the severed limbnded on the floor that Yamada realized that something had gone terribly wrong. Beads of sweat started forming on his forehead as the pain in his left wrist intensified. However, a samurai��s pride withheld stop crying, and he fell on his knees from the debilitating pain. On the ground, his chest heaved violently, and his face as white as a ghost.


    The dojo became quieter than ever, where the sound of a needle falling on the ground could be heard. Akane Koyama opened her mouth wide, standing there staring nkly. She, too, was having a hard time grasping what had just happened to Yamada.


    Not too long ago, she was worried about Zhang Heng��s safety. Before she realized it, he had already defeated the terrifying enemy in front of her. As a person who fought against Yamada twice, Akane Koyama was probably the most qualified person to talk about Yamada��s true strength. Although this Yamada may not be as good as her father, they weren��t too far apart.


    With such skills, he could be regarded as a master no matter where he went. Therefore, it was only reasonable that she lost the battle with him. However, such a master had fallen in the hands of a ronin returning from overseas.


    Akane Koyama had never experienced something like this before. The man in front of her, of whom she had despised, was actually a formidable master. After three moves, Zhang Heng did not turn back to check on Yamada.


    He then talked to the Koyama Akane, ��I��m sorry.��


    ��Huh? What, what are you sorry for?��


    ��For dirtying the floor of your dojo.�� Zhang Heng pointed to the blood on the ground, sending a re to Matsuo, Takahashi, and the others. The two wished that they could transform themselves into earthworms burrow deep into the ground. The other Choshu Domain samurai with Takeuchi was horrified by what he witnessed as well. In the end, Zhang Heng finally fixed his gaze on Takeuchi. He could see that the man before him was probably the leader of the samurai group. Seeming to have encountered some difficulties at the moment, he just stood there, arms folded and deep in thought. Zhang Heng raised his eyebrows and asked, ��What say you? Should we fight?��


    Takeuchi looked very distressed.


    ��I figured... I might not be able to defeat you. But that idiot kept talking about insulting the samurai of the Choshu Domain before. I don��t think it would be appropriate that we just leave like that.��


    Upon hearing that, Matsuo and Takahashi��s hearts became colder. The belief that was still supporting them was that Takeuchi was better than Yamada. Although Takeuchi was not as scary as Zhang Heng, he did defeat Yamada with ease before. Maybe, another battle would sprout out?


    But now, Takeuchi personally admitted that he was inferior to Zhang Heng. Their only hope was now shattered. ��Oh, do you have any masters in Choushu Domain?�� asked Zhang Heng.


    te


    ��Of course! Although Yamada is quite famous, he is not as strong as me!�� gushed Takeuchi, ��Although I am not that bad, there are still many who are better than me.��


    Zhang Heng seemed to be interested in it when he heard this. ��Are those guys in Kyoto now?��


    ��Well... Most people are still in the Choshu Domain, but most masters now gather in Kyoto in these troubled times. Men are destined to make great achievements. Indeed, many people are traveling to Kyoto now.�� Takeuchi nodded.


    ��Great! Can you go back and tell those guys that if they want to avenge this man,e to this dojo to look for me. I��m here waiting for them,�� continued Zhang Heng.


    ��Happy to do so!�� Takeuchi pped his thigh. ��I was right about you! In that case, we will see you another day.��


    After he finished speaking, he gave Matsuo and Takahashi a look and told them to leave with the injured Yamada.


    Upon exiting the dojo, Takeuchi asked Matsuo and Takahashi to send Yamada to the hospital to get treated. Meanwhile, Takeuchi and hispanion hurried to find the chief of the Choshu Domain in Kyoto.


    Yamada and his people aggressively came to the dojo, but when they left, they were dingy. As the group left, Akane Koyama finally realized that something was not right. ��Hey, why did you tell them toe to my dojo just now? Think I need more bad things to happen here?�� Zhang Heng spread his arms. ��There��s nothing I can do about it. I��m living here now. Since I��m starting it, I will make sure I��ll take the responsibility to end it. There��s nothing for you to worry about. No matter whoes next, I will deal with them personally. There is no need to be so pessimistic. To be honest, your dojo is dpidated... it can��t get any worse than this. Maybe after this incident, Maybe your dojo will be famous in Kyoto after this incident.��


    Zhang Heng was not bothered by it. After all, he was here to challenge the masters in Kyoto. His goal was to look for the whereabouts of the famous katana. Saying that he belongs to Akane Koyama��s dojo was just to smooth things up for him. ��...But you are not from my dojo.�� Akane Koyama looked helpless, ��Let��s not mix these matters up. I am very grateful that you saved my life. I will find a way to repay you. How about I give you a waiver on your rent... Although Myoshin-Ry�� is only a small sect and is not famous in Kyoto, I will not allow an outsider to help me boost this dojo��s reputation. It might look stupid, but this is my principle. I will not hold you responsible for taking advantage of this dojo. Judging from the way you fight, I��m pretty sure that your sensei must be someone great. Will he allow you to join other sects?��


    ��Her? I think she should be fine with it.�� Zhang Heng thought about it carefully before he replied to Akane Koyama. He��s honed his swordsmanship from the ck Sail quest. Anne was barely qualified to be called Zhang Heng��s sensei. After all, Zhang Heng practiced with Anne for a period, and they would usually use sparring to learn from each other. To Anne, the sword technique that allowed her to kill her enemies was good.


    ��If you really care about this kind of thing, then let me join your sect,�� Zhang Heng proposed a solution.


    ��Eh?��

 Chapter 556 - Nara Chameshi and Grilled Bonito

    <h4>Chapter 556 Nara Chameshi and Grilled Bonito</h4>


    Zhang Heng held up the rice bowl in front of him, put it under his nose, and took in a whiff. Akane Koyama��s Nara Chameshi had a heavenly fragrance, a mixture of tea and grain with hints of salt and wine.


    A serving of Nara Chameshi had more than just rice in it. Usually, the Japanese included millet, dried chestnuts, glutinous rice, red beans, and fried soybeans. After brewed with the stock, it was typically served in a bowl paired with pickles and tofu soup. Originally, Nara Chameshi was something only monks would eat at the Toda-ji and Kofuku-ji Temple in Nara. However, it had since gained a lot of poprity since it was served to ordinary people.


    ��Give it a taste,�� Akane Koyama put down the wooden spoon and urged. ��I shall.��


    Zhang Heng took his chopsticks, picked up a pickled stick of radish, and chomped on it with the steaming hot Nara Chameshi. ��How is it?�� Akane Koyama asked nervously, sitting on her knees and eagerly leaning forward.


    Zhang Heng did not answer her immediately. Instead, he closed his eyes, allowing himself to savor the taste lingering between his lips and teeth. After a while, he opened his eyes.


    ��Well, that was unexpectedly delicious. I didn��t know you can cook so well.��


    ��You are too generous with your praises. I learned it from my father,�� said Akane Koyama, relieved after seeing Zhang Heng��s reaction.


    ��Can your father cook?��


    ��Yes, my father once said that cooking is the same as swordsmanship, a form of cultivation on its own. It takes great patience to get the results we desire,�� continued Akane Koyama.


    Five days passed since Yamada and his men came to challenge Akane Koyama. After the Choshu Domain��s samurai retreated, Zhang Heng volunteered to join the Koyama Dojo. However, she didn��t agree to let him join immediately, urging him to rethink it for a few more days.


    In Akane Koyama��s opinion, apprenticeship was one of those significant events in life. When it came to that subject, one was usually discouraged from making a hasty decision. Moreover, Zhang Heng��s swordsmanship was formidable enough that even her father might not beat him if he were still alive. Hence, Akane Koyama did not know what else she could teach Zhang Heng. To thank him for saving her life, she invited Zhang Heng over by cooking him a simple meal. Other than Nara Chameshi, she also prepared grilled bonito. The fresh fish and its skin were grilled over the fire until they turned white. After that, he was supposed to dip it in vinegar with wasabi. Delicious, it was a very popr dish in Kyoto.


    Matsuo Basho (yes, that��s right, the famous Hihori haiku master) once said, ��The wisteria blossoms / bending the finger and waiting patiently / it is a good day to eat bonito.�� The haiku was used to express his desire to eat bonito. There was also once a saying, ��I will pawn my wife to eat bonito.��


    When the yearly season of bonito was avable in the market, its price wasparable to gold. Back in the day, only the generals were allowed the pleasure of savoring it.


    Now, it was finally the people��s turn to enjoy the bonito. Akane Koyama had spent a lot to make the meal. Coupled with the children��s subsidies, she had been stretched so thin, she probably wouldn��t be holding up any longer even though Zhang Heng just passed her the rent. Her best option was to close down the dojo and live in Kyoto with the rent she received every month. Or, she could marry someone and give birth to a child. These were the possibilities that she had never considered before.


    As the two ate, someone suddenly knocked on the door.


    Akane Koyoma put out the fire. ��I��ll open the door. Carry on with your meal.��


    She then ran to the front door and when she opened it, standing outside was a couple that looked unfamiliar.


    ��How can I help you both?�� asked Akane Koyama.


    Before the man could even say a word, his wife was already down on her knees in gratitude.


    ��Huh?��


    Akane Koyama was baffled by the situation. Fortunately, the man quickly exined, ��We are Chiyo��s parents. A few days ago, you rescued two little girls at the market? One of them is our daughter.��


    ��Yes. I remember. It��s not a big deal... I just did my best to help them.��


    Akane Koyama seemed a little shy when she talked to them. At the same time, she also saw Chiyo hiding behind her parents. Thetter was holding a box and was a little bashful as well.


    Taking the box from Chiyo, the man handed it to Akane Koyama.


    ��We know we can never repay you for saving our daughter. I hope you will ept this little gift from us.��


    Akane Koyama opened the box and saw a wakizashi.


    ��My ancestor is a famous cksmith in Ise, but I am ashamed to tell anybody. In my generation, I only know how to make some farming tools. Fortunately, a wakizashi was still handed down to me. I hope you can find some use for it,�� said the man.


    ��This is too precious. Since it��s a legacy from your ancestors, passed down for generations, you should keep it,�� replied Akane Koyama, politely declining the offer. ��No, no, we are not samurai. Even if we have it at home, all it would do is collect dust. It��ll be better for us to give it to someone who really needs it. I believe that you will be able to use it well.��


    Seeing how Koyama Akane refused to ept the gift, the man became a little anxious. Immediately, he pulled his daughter to him and knelt on the ground like his wife.


    When Zhang Heng heard themotion outside the door, he thought that the Choshu Domain��s samurai hade to their doorstep. He quickly put down his bowl and chopsticks and walked out of the dojo. Chiyo seemed a little surprised to see Zhang Heng, not expecting him to be living with Akane Koyama. The little girl looked at Zhang Heng curiously and guessed the rtionship between the two in her heart.


    In the end, Akane Koyama couldn��t refuse them, so she dly epted the wakizashi. And thankfully, the family of three soon left. Akane Koyama stood silently at the entrance of the dojo as she held the wakizashi. The sword appeared to have invoked some deep memories. Zhang Heng did not want to bother her. After a while, she raised her head.


    ��Sorry. I remember some things my father said before-Koyama Myoshin-Ry�� focuses more on defense than offense. Everyone has something or someone they want to protect. A de is used to inflict hurt. However, as long as it is used well, it can also be used to save. This is probably the reason why he opened the dojo. Today, his words have left a deeper understanding of me.��


    ��Can I see it?�� Zhang Heng stretched out his hand and took the wakizashi from Akane Koyama��s hand.


    The wakizashi was slightly lighter than an ordinary short sword. Although it had been forged a long time ago, it was well maintained, and the de was still sharp. Using the jade technique, the iron sand was first smelted into iron blocks in a furnace. After that, the cksmith would bludgeon the iron block with a hammer until it turned into a t bar, subsequently molding it into shape. The wakizashi was indeed an excellent weapon. ��Take it if you like it,�� said Akane Koyama. She had noticed that Zhang Heng only had an old knife, and he did not have a wakizashi.


    The wakizashi was not used regrly like Tachi. In most cases, it was used for emergency after the samurai lost his primary weapon. Or the samurai would use it to break armor and fight in small ces.

 Chapter 557 - I’m Here To See Someone

    <h4>Chapter 557 I��m Here To See Someone</h4>


    Zhang Heng never thought that the first item he would get would be a wakizashi.


    He hadn��t even started on the main mission yet but had alreadypleted one side mission and even obtained a piece of novice equipment.


    In all fairness, the knife was of rtively good quality. Even though it was no acimed sword, it was finely-made, much better than the one he had, which looked like a fake de. Of course, whenpared to a renowned sword like the Mikazuki-Munechika, the wakizashi was, to some extent, a little inferior.


    Moreover, short swords like this one were more suitable for hand-to-handbat. When the enemy was plenty, short des weren��t as ideal as an uchigatana or a tachi. Zhang Heng wasn��t too concerned about one-on-onebat. He was looking to obtain a proper sword in case he found himself in a one-to-many situation.


    But since a sword had been presented to him, he decided to ept it anyway.


    This quest was simr to Master Builder, the previous special quest. It focused specifically on honing his swordsmanship, which was why other items were not allowed to be brought in. He could still ess his skills, but many of them weren��t very useful in the Edo period, which meant that he had to hone his swordsmanship.


    But perhaps during the process of creating the quest, the developer did think it possible for the yers�� sword skills to be at Lv.3��Zhang Heng was walking around Kyoto like a video game boss character rather than fighting monsters and leveling-up like a rookie. Low-level monsters were insignificant to him.


    In the end, Zhang Heng stuck to his decision to join Koyama dojo so that he could deal with the Choshu warriors should theye again and challenge Akane. On top of that, being attached to a school would make it easier for him to go around and challenge other warriors to duels. Otherwise, his only other option was to exin that he learned his way on the sword by killing people in Nassau and that the founder of the school was a red-haired female pirate named Annie.


    Akane filled Zhang Heng in on the rules that had to be followed when practicing Koyama Myoshin-ryu. Basically, they were not too different from other schools, where they all advocated courage, benevolence, upholding samurai morality, and the likes of it. Zhang Heng remembered the general idea of it. Although he was not too interested in these sorts of things, he figured that since he had joined the dojo, the least he could do was show respect. He listened to Akane��s teaching and exnations as patiently as he could.


    Akane dutifully chose a fine day to bring Zhang Heng to pay respects to the dojo��s ancestors. To his surprise, the dojo��s founder wasn��t Akane��s father but someone named Koyama Iwa. Akane had no idea who this person was either, and all she knew was that he was the founder of Koyama Myoshin-ryu, and assumed that he must have been an ancestor of the Koyama lineage.


    Zhang Heng had no interest in finding out more about the man. Koyama-ryu was a small school. Even during Akane��s father��s era, it was not particrly famous, at least not to the level of Oishi Shinkage-ryu, much less the likes of Hokushin Itto-ry��, and Tenshin Sh��den Katori Shinto-ry��.


    To Zhang Heng, Akira Kokoro was a little too metaphysical. In his opinion, there was no difference between Koyama��s swordsmanship and that of other schools��thebination of basic physical fitness, training, and experience. No matter how strong and invincible your mind had been trained, there were still others who would be indefinitely faster and more robust, and you would find yourself unable to defend against their attacks��this was perfectly demonstrated during the duel between Akane and Yamada.


    Of course, it was only Zhang Heng��s first day as a Koyama dojo member-he wasn��t exactly in the position to be disparaging the school��s core principles. On the other hand, Akane Koyama was surprised that a skilled fighter like Zhang Heng had no knowledge of basic training methods. And from what she observed during his battle with Yamada, his moves were also bizarre, very much inclined to Western schools of swordsmanship, something she attributed to his travels overseas.


    However, during a conversation with Zhang Heng, she discovered that Zhang Heng��s swordsmanship did not have a formal system, and to put it nicely, was just bits and pieces put together. As a matter of fact, this guy would stab and strike wherever he felt was right. When fighting an enemy, he would think on his feet. Could he really be telling the truth? Was he really self-taught?


    But did such geniuses actually exist in the world, that one became a skilled swordsman simply by training their own?


    Akane could tell that Zhang Heng was a very experienced fighter, or perhaps more urately, his sword skills were crafted purely forbat. Regarding this, Zhang Heng merely exined that it was the result of his years fighting pirates in the West. However, this answer did little to satisfy Akane��s doubts. Instead, it only served to deepen the mystery. This man was clearly rtively young, probably only in his twenties, and wasn��t exactly old enough to have experienced so many battles. But she also noticed that Zhang Heng would asionally stand under the cherry tree in the yard, looking up longingly to the sky with an undeniable trace of sadness in his eyes.


    Even so, Akane understood that everyone had their own secrets. No doubt, Zhang Heng had to have his own story too. And since she was reluctant to talk about it, she probed no further. She wrote the name Yuta Abe which Zhang Heng made-up on a piece of wood, then hung it alongside the names of the other students of the dojo.


    And just like that, from that day onward, Zhang Heng was an official member of Koyama Dojo. He could work as an interpreter as he waited for the arrival of the Choshu domain.


    But much to his surprise, before Takeuchi even sought revenge, someone from another domain came knocking on Koyama dojo��s door first.


    He was a cheery-looking teenager with a permanent smile on his face, as if he hadn��t a single worry in the world. When Akane firstid eyes on him, she believed him to be a son of some noble family that must have gotten lost and ended up at the dojo.


    The boy covered his mouth and coughed twice. It sounded like the fluttering of a butterfly��s wings, strangely endearing. He smiled amiably at Akane and said, ��Hi, I��m here to see someone.��


    ce


    It was then that Akane noticed the ck haori* and the Tachi with a ck scabbard he wore. Many warriors in Kyoto wore ck, but among them was a notable group. The drawings of hills on the sleeves of the boy confirmed Akane��s suspicion.


    Before she could ask him, the boy confessed, ��Yes, I am a member of the Shinsengumi.�� He paused for a minute, then smiled, ��You must be Miss Akane Koyama.��


    ��Why has a Shinsengumie to see me?�� Akane frowned, her senses perked up, instantly wary of him.


    The Shinsengumi may have the support of the bafuku and was entrusted with the crucial task of maintaining the public order in Kyoto. But the fact was, this group of ronin were the ones causing more trouble than anyone else. They arewless troublemakers who assassinated anyone that opposed the shogunate. Yet, despite the group��s harsh and ruthless grip, they possessed incrediblebat effectiveness and had many skilled fighters among their ranks. They were not a wee sight.


    Trantor��s note:


    Haori: a traditional Japanese jacket that stops at the waist of the hip which is worn over a kimono

 Chapter 558 - Menjo Kaiden

    <h4>Chapter 558 Menjo Kaiden</h4>


    ��People from Shinsengumi came to look for you?��


    Zhang Heng apanied the French businessman for an afternoon stroll around the hanamachi. Upon returning to the dojo, Akane rted to him what happened that afternoon. As of now, work had been as easy as a breeze. He had only been asked to apany Gabriel to eat, drink, and have fun. Thetter seemed very patient, as well. So far, Gabriel had paid Zhang Heng four koban for his trantion services. Coupled with other leisure expenses, it seemed like Gabriel wanted to experience Kyoto��s exotic atmosphere to its fullest. His activities these few days was truly baffling. Zhang Heng also noticed Gabriel��s followers got lesser and lesser. He knew that the day Gabriel��s n toe to pass was not too far away.


    ��It��s a young man,�� Akane said. She then described the appearance of the person to Zhang Heng briefly. When Zhang Heng heard that he was from Shinsengumi, the bright smile on the person��s face, and the fact that he was constantly coughing, a name came to his mind.


    Could it be that man?


    ��He came here because of the Choshu Domain��s samurai. He heard about what happened at the market that day, and they came back to seek revenge. The reason why he came here today was that he wants to cooperate with us,�� Akane went on.


    ��Cooperate? And how do they propose to do that? Stay hidden in the dojo and ambush those samurai?�� While talking, Zhang Heng took down the wakizashi from his waist. He recently followed Gabriel around to have fun in Kyoto, and since there was no danger, for the time being, he left his primary weapon at home and only brought the wakizashi with him.


    Other than that, he no longer wore the haori that the system gave him by default at the beginning of the quest. Akane found some of her father��s old clothes and gave them to Zhang Heng. However, Zhang Heng��s height was very umon during the Edo period, and he stood out among the crowd everywhere he went. In the end, he had to look for a tailor to customize some clothes for him. Until today, he hadn��t yet received any custom-made garments.


    ��No, Shinsengumi has no interest in ordinary Choshu Domain samurai. They seem to have bigger goals in mind.��


    Although the visitor did not borate on their intention, Akane wasn��t the kind of girl who was oblivious to how the world worked. As the daughter of a dojo owner, she now bore the burden of running the center alone. She was informed about the current situation in Kyoto. Since the Shinsengumi had found this dojo and they weren��t here for Yamada or the others, it was apparent they were looking for more important people.


    ��What do you think?�� Zhang Heng asked Akane.


    ��When my father was still alive, Ito used to visit him to discuss the emperor��s affairs. However, my father refused to divulge into the matter every single time. After that, some generals came to persuade him to serve the emperor, but he rejected them as well. He said that it wasn��t something he wanted to do and that he was just a small dojo owner. He also said that he was not equipped with the knowledge to distinguish between right and wrong. In that case, it was better to focus and do what he knew was right, such as wielding the katana to protect the nearby neighborhoods or help people in need in these troubled times,�� said Akane. ��So I rejected their proposal of cooperation.��


    ��And then, what did that guy say?��


    ��He said that he understood and respected my choice, but the others in the group might not think so. He also told me not to worry too much, and he would try to persuade their chief to take another approach. Before I forget, he heard about you slicing off Yamada��s left hand. He said that he woulde to see who you are when he has the time.��


    Such childlike curiosity did sound a lot like him.


    Zhang Heng had developed a lot of interest in that man. If the man was who he thought it was, it would be a more than worthy opponent to fight with. So Zhang Heng said to Akane, ��If hees here again next time and I happen to be away, can you help me to set an appointment with him?��


    ��Huh?�� Akane misunderstood Zhang Heng��s intention. She hesitated and said, ��I think he... should be harmless. He just wanted to meet


    you.��


    ��You have misunderstood me. I��m more interested in Tennen Rishin-ry��,�� exined Zhang Heng as he sshed his face with well water.


    The two had dinner under the maple tree of the dojo. When that was done, Akane cleaned up the dishes and leftovers and went back to the house to take out two wooden katana. Although she preferred to meditate than to wave her weapons around, it would be inappropriate for her not to know anything about the sword as the leader of a sect. After Zhang Heng joined the dojo and listened to Akane��s exnation, he learned that he would need a certificate to practice the sword.


    There were three tiers when the leader of a dojo assessed their disciples.


    �C Kirigami, Mokuroku, Menjo, or Mokuroku, Menjo, Kaiden.


    Kirigami was the most basic pass for anyone wishing to join a dojo. When a person first enrolled, they could not tell others about their sect��s name when they fought with others. After all, reputation was something fundamental to a sect. If others were always picking on the sect members, it was inevitable that their reputation would be affected. As such, for disciples who were still at the kirigami stage, the sect required them not to get into trouble as best as they could. If they somehow did, they were forbidden from mentioning the sect that they were in. At least, when they were defeated or wounded, no one would know who their sensei were. This could avoid bringing shame to the dojo that they were in.


    As for the Mokuroku tier, the sect would give out the paper scrolls so their disciples could jot down the moves that they learned. Once they reached Menjo tier, the samurai would earn the right to tell anyone about the sect they were in before a battle��smencement. Like Akane and Yamada, the two of them were at Menjo tier.


    And thest one, Kaiden, meant that the disciple had learned everything their sensei could have taught them. Those who had reached this tier could be considered as real masters of the sect. Just like the guy who came to see Akane this afternoon, if he was really the person that Zhang Heng familiar with, then he had achieved the Kaiden tier.


    Back to Zhang Heng, he initially thought he could fight with anyone he liked after joining Akane��s dojo. However, it appeared that he needed to get to the Menju tier first before he could fight anyone freely. This wasn��t a difficult task for Zhang Heng, though, who had an Lv.3 in swordsmanship. Putting aside his state of mind, he could master a technique in about two to three days. After all, his power, speed, and reflexes were top notch. Now, he just needed to acquire a license before he could kill someone.


    Akane had to admit that Zhang Heng was better than her. When she was a child, she practiced really hard to master her swordsmanship. There were times that she shed tears for the tough training that she had to go through. To her surprise, Zhang Heng managed to learn and master it without needing to put too much effort into it. She often required to correct his form a few times, and Zhang Heng would perfect the moves.


    Now the two were having a sparring session. Both were using Koyama Myoshin-Ry��. Akane could no longer defeat Zhang Heng. It made her wonder if she was a dummy.

 Chapter 559 - Suzaku Dojo

    <h4>Chapter 559 Suzaku Dojo</h4>


    It only took Zhang Heng five days to get the Menju certificate from Koyama Myoshin-Ry��. The speed of Zhang Heng��s progress made Akane speechless. Judging by his skills, there was no reason for her not to give him the certificate. So from today onward, Zhang Heng could tell anyone that he was a disciple of Koyama Myoshin-Ry��.


    He was in a good mood. And it happened that Gabriel had a gathering with a merchant group today. In other words, Zhang Heng was free for the whole day. Recently, neither the Choshu Domain samurai nor Shinsengumi made any moves, making it difficult for Zhang Heng to figure out what they were up to.


    Although the dojo was still not improving, Akane, as the host, was very satisfied with her current life. However, for Zhang Heng, the current situation was different from what he expected. It was not a big deal for him. Since there was no one here to cause trouble, he could take the initiative to make some.


    Recently, Zhang Heng had been inquiring about the whereabouts of the famous katana. At the same time, he also learned about Kyoto��s big and small dojos from Akane Koyama, herself a Kyoto native. Finally, he set his sights on a dojo called Suzakukan.


    It was a dojo that had only opened its doors in recent years, but it had grown a lot. Sugawara Saemon traveled to different dojos when he was young to learn all of their signature moves. In the end, he came up with Shigen Shinkai�CRyu and defeated a couple of well-known samurai at that time. Rumor had it that he even fought against Serizawa Kamo, the former director of Shinsengumi. No one knew how the fight ended, but the ability to survive the battle when going against the violent Serizawa Kamo was proof that Sugawara Saemon was indeed powerful.


    After Serizawa was defeated by Kondo Isami, Hijikata Toshizo, and others, Sugawara Saemon established his Suzakukan in Kyoto, and a lot of people were interested in joining his dojo. Seemingly, he was doing quite well at the moment.


    Zhang Heng knocked on the door.


    ��Koyama Myoshin-Ry��? Is this sect still in Kyoto?��


    The disciple in charge of the reception at Suzakukan had his head held up high. Zhang Heng could hear a touch of disdain from his tone, but his attitude was not without reason. When Sugawara Saemon came to Kyoto looking to challenge masters to boost his fame, it was the happiest time of his life. However, after he built up some fame and opened the dojo, others woulde and challenge him, themselves wanting to be famous.


    It was okay if someone skillful came to challenge the great Sugawara Saemon. However, many random sects from all over the country came to challenge him. Sugawara Saemon did something simr at the beginning as well. When he fought someone, his opponent would make-up stories to change how the battle went, regardless if he won or lost. And Sugawara Saemon could do nothing about it.


    During the early days, he fought against Serizawa Kamo. At that time, Serizawa Kamo wanted to look for a sparring partner, and he was selected. However, someone changed the story to Serizawa Kamo fought Sugarawa Saemon but failed miserably. Therefore, when the Suzaku Dojo disciples saw Zhang Heng, he felt like he was here to pull the same stunt until Zhang Heng exined his intention.


    ��I heard that the owner of this dojo has a famous sword made by Miike Tenta Mitsuyo. I wish to have a look at it.��


    The disciple in charge of the reception immediately was angered by what he heard. ��How dare you?!�� Miike Tenta Mits was a well-known cksmith in Japan. He was active at the end of the Heian period, Miike District at Chikugo province. All the weapons that he crafted were priceless. His most famous work waspleted during the Ashikaga Shogunate period. It was known as Tenka-Goken.


    Zhang Heng came to the Suzaku Dojo because of the rumors that Sugawara Saemon owned a weapon crafted by Miike Tenta Mitsuyo. But what he said had obviously angered the people in Suzaku Dojo.


    The samurai��s most trustedpanion was the katana, and it was just as important as their life. Although most of the samurais failed to achieve where they lived and died with their katana, they would never lend their katana to an outsider.


    Zhang Heng��s request was very rude to them. He was about to do something even harsherter on. If the katana that Sugawara Saemon own was ?tenta-Mitsuyo or a katana that was as good as Otenta-Mitsuyo, Zhang Heng would never return it after he borrowed it.


    ��Let me test your Koyama Myoshin-Ry��!�� Immediately, a disciple jumped at Zhang Heng. Zhang Heng nodded as if he did not see the hostile gazes around him. He then grabbed the wooden katana handed over to him by others and said calmly, ��Please enlighten me.��


    Due to Zhang Heng��s previous disrespectful act, the person charged Zhang Heng without paying him any respect. Zhang Heng took his time and made the stance that he learned from Koyama Myoshin-Ry��. The wooden katana tip was slightly raised, and the defensive stance was leaned slightly to the left. Zhang Heng stood there and let his opponent attack first.


    On the other hand, his opponent had no intention to hold back his strength. He was readied to unleash his might on Zhang Heng. A few secondster, everyone around them heard a ��pop�� sound. Zhang Heng had managed to block his attack with his wooden katana.


    Zhang Heng��s opponent was dissatisfied and shouted, ��Again!��


    After that, he lifted the katana and strike at Zhang Heng again. This time he was aiming at Zhang Heng��s right shoulder. However, the result was the same. Zhang Heng managed to block the attack once again. The opponent was having a hard time that he could not beat Zhang Heng. He kept making some strange war cry and swinging the wooden katana in his hand. However, no matter which direction he shed, Zhang Heng could always block his attack. He could not even touch the corners of Zhang Heng��s clothes. On the other hand, Zhang Heng was standing, without even making a single move. All this while, he was watching his opponent jumping up and down, burning in a me of anger.


    Initially, Zhang Heng did not pay much attention to Koyama Myoshin-Ry��. To his surprise, it worked unexpectedly well in the battle. Before he learned Koyama Myoshin-Ry��, Zhang Heng had always relied on his speed and strength to bully his opponent. He had to admit that Koyama Myoshin-Ry�� had made the battle more rxing. No matter where the opponent came from, he could always put up his wooden katana to block the attack with the fastest speed.


    The saber skills that leaned from the pirates were crude and simple. They did not pay too much attention to the details. However, Japanese swordsmanship had been passed down for hundreds of years. Naturally, they had their fair share of advantage.


    For Zhang Heng, this quest was not only a journey to own a powerful katana but also a great opportunity for him to hone his sword skills further. Although he had countless opportunities to defeat his opponent, he chose not to do so. Instead, he made use of his opponent to learn more about Shigen Shinkai�CRyu.


    Before he could do that, someone stopped thepetition.


    ��Surrender now! You will not be able to defeat him.��


    Zhang Heng��s opponent, a young man with a thin line of mustache, was angered, but he dared not to say no to the man. He stopped what he was doing and obediently retreated to the side.


    It was a middle-aged man who spoke, but the man was not Sugawara Saemon (Zhang Heng asked about Sugawara Saemon��s appearance when he came). ��I��m the captain of Suzaku Dojo, Shimizu Isshin. Do enlighten me.��

 Chapter 560 - Borrowing Katana

    <h4>Chapter 560 Borrowing Katana</h4>


    Zhang Heng felt that Shimizu Isshin had to be a lot better than the young man before this.


    Since he was the captain, he was second only to Sugawara Saemon among the dojo��s ranks. He should have been practicing Shigen Shinkai�CRyu for some time now. Of course, who else would be the one to showcase everything that he had learned so far.


    In fact, Shimizu Isshin had been following Sugawara Saemon even before he opened the Suzaku Dojo. After practicing Shigen Shinkai-yu for more than ten years, he finally acquired his Menju status. Now, he taught on behalf of Sugawara Saemon at the dojo. Even Sugawara Saemon himself wasn��t sure if he could defeat Shimizu Isshin.


    Now that he was standing in the face of Zhang Heng, Shimizu looked even more solemn than when facing his master.


    Other practitioners observing them knew that the offensive side always had the advantage over the defenders. Like the saying went, no one could defend forever, where sooner orter, the attacker would creep up and break the opponent��s defense. However, Zhang Heng insisted on staying at the same spot, not even moving his feet an inch. He managed to nullify his opponent��s attack quickly. Even if Koyama Myoshin-Ry�� was a sect that emphasized defense, it was impossible that anyone maintained such a calm mind in the face of such a formidable opponent.


    This could only mean one thing: the gap in strength between the two must be a lot wider than initially expected. Shimizu felt the pressure bearing down on his shoulders. Fighting this battle meant carrying the dojo��s honor. Before the battle began, he bowed to his opponent, drew the wooden katana, and said in a deep voice, ��Let��s learn from each other.��


    Zhang Heng got his hands on the katana crafted by Miike Tenta Mitsuyo a quarter of an hourter. At the same time, he also got to witness the quintessence of Shigen Shinkai�CRyu. On the other hand, Shimizu was sweating profusely, gasping for breath, looking much like a fish out of water. There was fear in his eyes. He had tried his best, but it was fruitless.


    He even felt that he was not much different from the junior that fought with Zhang Heng earlier. He failed to break his defense no matter how hard he tried.


    No one had ever heard of a sect called Koyama Myoshin-Ry��, and they wondered how its disciples could be so skillful. Shimizu was known as an experienced master of Suzaku Dojo. No matter what happened, his expression always remained unchanged. Suzaku Dojo��s disciples had always said that as long as Shizumu was here, there was no need to worry about anything, even if the sky fell on them.


    However, at the end of the battle with Zhang Heng, Shizumu��s mind was muddled. This was his first time experiencing helplessness, where the harder he fought, the sadder he felt. It was as if everything that he learned so far had been rendered useless.


    Shizumu was actually not that weak. When the two of them fought, Zhang Heng could feel that Shimizu was stronger than Yamada. Shigen Shinkai�CRyu had always emphasized taking the first strike. Their iaijutsu was particrly interesting. The rumor was their iaijutsu was a fusion of Kinri Sankyo iaijutsu and So-Ryu iaijutsu.


    After the battle with Shimizu, Zhang Heng had roughly figured out his strength and speed. When Shimizu was using iaijutsu, he unexpectedly managed to infuse an impressive strength into the strike.


    Although his attack was still blocked by Zhang Heng, the ability where one could force its body into an overdrive state was actually quite interesting. After defeating Shimizu Isshin, Zhang Heng initially thought that he would face Sugawara Saemon, the ultimate boss of Suzaku Dojo. In the end, he was a no show. Instead, he sent someone to deliver the katana to Zhang Heng. It could also mean that Sugawara Saemon had surrendered.


    Zhang Heng had no idea what was going on inside the Suzaku Dojo now. Shimizu Isshin was almost equally powerful as Suwagara Saemon. Since Zhang Heng defeated Shimizu Isshin, Sugawara Saemon would definitely note to rechallenge Zhang Heng. It must be why he gave the katana to without saying anything


    And Zhang Heng kept his promise. After taking a good look at the sword, he left satisfied. To everyone��s surprise, Zhang Heng refrained from blurting out anything arrogant after that. Shimizu was relieved, quickly leaving the dojo and headed to his sensei��s study room. Sugawara Saemon was intently practicing calligraphy, not even looking up when he heard someone knocking on the door.


    So Shimizu stood aside respectfully until his senseipleted his brushwork. Suguwara put down the brush and sighed.


    Shimizu bowed his head in guilt. ��I��m ashamed. I failed to defeat him, and I even lost your beloved sword to him.��


    ��It��s okay,�� replied Sugawara Saemon. ��There will always be geniuses in this world. Except for Miyamoto Musashi, the Sword Sage, no one can remain undefeated forever. Look at me. I failed to beat Serizawa Kamo as well. I had to wait for him to die before I could open Suzaku Dojo in Kyoto. It��s just a katana. What more, he��s only borrowing it. He didn��t say he wouldn��t return it to us, did he? He can take a good look at it as long as he wishes.��


    ��I me myself for not improving enough,�� Shimizu replied, his face sullen. ��Now is the best time for the dojo to grow. I didn��t expect this to happen to us, and everyone saw it as well. I��m afraid my loss has brought forth many undesirable consequences...��


    ��There��s no need to worry...�� Sugawara Saemon sneered. ��Do you really think this Abe Yuta is only here to borrow the katana? Look, this is just the beginning. Suzaku Dojo isn��t the only one in Kyoto that houses the famous katana. Maybe the man is the next Miyamoto Musashi. By that time, Kyoto would be in chaos.��


    Shimizu raised his head with a look of consternation, not expecting his sensei would give Abe Yuta such high evaluation. The weirdest part was Sugawara Saemon did not even go and watch their battle just now.


    He seemed to know what Shimizu was thinking in his heart. Sugawara Saemon then shook his head, ��You have been with me for the longest time and have the best aptitude. Of course, what I value most is your character. When I noticed that your opponent caused a great stir in you, I could roughly guess how strong he was. It is necessary to guard against arrogance and rashness, but you don��t need to belittle yourself. Your strength is not bad, but your opponent was too strong. You were outgunned. Treat this loss as an opportunity. Everyone says that I traveled everywhere to learn each sect��s best before I finally created Shigen Shinkai�CRyu. But in fact, my most precious moment was when I trained with Serizawa Kami. The tremendous pressure he inflicted on me forced me to fuse the bits and pieces I learned before. It��s the same for you. Relive the battle. If you can find out your shorings, you will excel again. Go now. Suzaku Dojo will require your presence again.�� After that, Shimizu bowed and exited the study room. Before he left, he heard Sugawara Saemon muttering, ��Koyama Myoshin-Ry��, Koyama Myoshin-Ry��... I��ve heard this name somewhere before. Now, why can��t I remember anything about it?��


    On the other side, after Zhang Heng defeated the captain of Suzaku Dojo, he realized that sweat hadn��t even broken out. Since it was still early, he visited another dojo. After that, then turned to Shimon-ya at the market and bought some soba noodles, oden, and some roasted glutinous rice dumplings that Akane Koyama had been longing for a long time.


    Zhang Heng slowly walked back to his residence.

 Chapter 561 - Kiyomizu-dera

    <h4>Chapter 561 Kiyomizu-dera</h4>


    When Zhang Heng returned, he found Akane squatting by a wooden basin preparing nigiri sushi.


    Nigiri sushi, hand-pressed sushi rice topped with sliced fresh fish, was considered a more luxurious dish. Legend had it that Tokugawa Ienari, the Tokugawa shogunate��s eleventh shogun, was a greedy and lustful man. His favorite concubine��s adopted father was a man named Sekio Nakano. Thanks to too many people wanting to be high-ranking officials through Sekio, many luxury shops were set up nearby his residence. A sushi restaurant owner had the idea of setting up a business selling nigiri sushi next door to Sekio. (Frankly, it was not really that high-end, but the trend soon caught on, and stalls were being set up on the streets).


    ��Is that tonight��s dinner?�� Zhang Heng asked, cing the soba noodles and roasted glutinous rice balls on the table. He had already finished the oden on the way back.


    ��No. I��ll be visiting Kiyomizu-dera tomorrow. This is for tomorrow,�� answered Akane.


    Zhang Heng heard of the famous temple located in the Otowa Mountain in the east of Kyoto before. Built in 778 AD, it was the oldest temple in Kyoto. Although the building had withstood fires and reconstructions, the scenery from there was no less stunning. Visitors ascended the mountainside to admire cherry blossoms in spring and maple leaves in autumn. Inter generations, Kiyomizu-dera was included in the World Heritage site and has since been one of Kyoto��s must-see attractions.


    ��Are you going to see the cherry blossoms? Can Ie along?��


    ��Um, something like that.�� Akane nodded slowly. Somehow, the question made her blush a little. ��Don��t you need to do your trantion work?��


    ��It��s fine. My employer usually doesn��t get up until midday. If you��re going to be there for a while, I��ll just leave first.��


    ��Oh, okay. Then help me make more nigiri.��


    ��Thank you.��


    Zhang Heng had been touring Kyoto with Gabriel a lotter, but the French merchant had a preference for ces that offered food, drink, and y-he was not interested in shrines and temples at all. In contrast, Zhang Heng, who had never been to Kyoto, was very interested to see what the centuries-old Kiyomizu-dera looked like. Since Koyama Akane was going, he thought he might as well tag along


    The next morning, before the sun rose, Akane knocked on the door to Zhang Heng��s room.


    When he opened the door, Akane was carrying antern and the nigiri sushi box they prepared the night before.


    Since they were going to the temple, she was in a formal kimono with red, blue, yellow, and white, held together with a sash. On her feet, she wore white tabi* and zori*.


    Because she spent most of her time in the dojo, she was always dressed in dogi* and hakama*. This was the first time Zhang Heng had seen Akane out of her uniform. She actually looked feminine, and he couldn��t help but stare a little.


    The gawking made Akane a little uneasy. ��What?!��


    She lowered thentern, trying to hide her face in the darkness, and said sternly, ��Hurry up and get ready. We��ll leave soon.�� ��Alright. I��ll get changed.��


    Zhang Heng disappeared into his room again. Akane began to exhale, but Zhang Heng suddenly turned around again and asked, ��Er... what should I wear to the temple?��


    ��Anything you like. Just don��t bring your sword.��


    ��Okay.��


    Akane watched Zhang Heng enter the roomhe had forgotten to close the door behind him, and for a minute, she did not know what to do. Even though she could not see anything from where she was, she could hear the rustling of the fabric as he put on his clothes. Her face flushed, and she wanted to get away from the door, but she was worried that doing so would make her look suspicious.


    In fact, she was a little strange. Her mother had died young, so Akane grew up in the dojo; Apart from her father, she had always been surrounded by trainees in the dojo-most of them men. She trained together with them, inevitably, there had to be some physical contact, yet she was never bothered by it. But why would standing here at the door make her feel so nervous?


    Was her outfit today a little too unusual?


    But back when her father was still alive, when they visited Kiyomizu-dera together for thest time, she had the same outfit on, and she developed the habit of visiting Kiyomizu Temple at this time year.


    This year, though, was different because someone else would be going with her.


    Zhang Heng quickly changed into his clothes and washed his face with the cold well water. Compared to well-dressed Akane, he looked no different from what he usually did, really doing what she said and putting on his everyday clothes.


    ��Let��s go.��


    Akane led the way, and Zhang Heng followed closely behind.


    Since they were both martial artists, they were light on their feet, and before long, they were already at Niomon. Zhang Heng looked up and saw the vermilioncquered gate. The first ray of sunlight in the morning fell on the corner of the gate��s tower, and it gave off a solemn yet divine look.


    From here, the winding stone path stretched upward to the west gate. Behind it was the three-storied pagoda and kaisan-do, and through a corridor, was the famous Kiyomizu Stage built on a cliff.


    From there, one had a breathtaking view of the blooming cherry blossoms. Although there was one in the ce Zhang Heng was living in, nothing couldpare to the sight of the trees when grouped. From this point, Kyoto��s imperial city with the hall behind it supported by 139 huge wooden pirs was clearly visible, making it an extraordinary sight. ��The view here is spectacr,�� Zhang Heng said. ��I��ve heard people talking about the cherry blossoms in Kiyomizu temple, and now that I��ve seen it, I have to say that it certainly lives up to its reputation.��


    Akane muttered an agreement, but her body still seemed slightly stiff.


    Their journey there had been an annoying one. Whenever both of them were walking side by side, she would feel awkward, and whenever she sped up her pace, she would wonder if Zhang Heng was watching her. When she turned around and saw him admiring the view, she would feel a little disappointed. She felt like she was going mad the whole way there.


    Fortunately, they quickly arrived at the main hall where she could pray to Guan Yin, sorting out her chaotic emotions. Akane wondered what was wrong with herself today, even attempting to meditate to quieten the distracting thoughts in her mind.


    After that, the two strolled across the stage, walked down the forest path to the valley below. Trudging through a maple forest, the two soon arrived at Otowa-no-taki, which literally trantes to Sound of Feathers.


    Although it was called a ��taki,�� it was actually not a waterfall. Instead, there were only three small streams of water flowing down the rocks. It was only dawn, but a few people were already there, getting the water.


    Trantor��s footnote:


    Tabi: Japanese socks worn with thonged footwear


    Zori: a traditional Japanese style of flip-flops, originally made with a straw sole.


    Dogi: uniform for training in Japanese martial arts


    Hakama: a type of traditional Japanese clothing

 Chapter 562 - Okita Soki

    <h4>Chapter 562 Okita Soki</h4>


    Akane bent down and dipped her hand into the pool, its water chilly and invigorating.


    The Otowa waterfall of Kiyomizu Temple was known throughout Japan. It was said that the spring water here had reiki or healing energy and was excellent for boiling tea. There was a tea house not far from here owned by a kind and pleasant elderly woman.


    ��Are you hungry? We��ve been walking for a long time. Let��s get something to eat,�� Akane said, keeping as straight of a face as she could. ��Good idea.��


    Zhang Heng was baffled. What had he done wrong? Why was she so distant towards him throughout the walk up here? He mulled over it for a bit, then said, ��Since you��re treating me to sushi, let me treat you to some tea.��


    Akane gave no reply as the pair made their way to the tea house with blue noren curtains*.


    A waiter came to greet them.


    ��What do you feel like having today?��


    Zhang Heng was searching for a seat when Akane suddenly gasped. ��What are you doing here?!�� she could be heard asking.


    Zhang Heng turned to look and saw that Akane was speaking to a young man.


    Zhang Heng recognized him immediately. He was precisely as Akane had described him to be


    �C he really did have a unique brightness and naivety about him. Considering his age and the blood on his hands, these qualities were even more precious, ones that were beyond logic and reason.


    However, under Akane��s gaze, the young man looked flustered and embarrassed; his eyes begged her not to probe him any further.


    Akane raised an eyebrow, oblivious to his plea. ��Why is the Shinsengumi here? This is hallowed ground. You better not cause any trouble here.��


    ��No, no, no. You��re mistaken,�� the young man waved his hand in denial, darting nervous nces at the entrance of the tea house. ��This has nothing to do with the Shinsengumi. I came here on my own.��


    ��Huh?��


    His reply only added to Akane��s suspicion. The way he acted told her that he was nning to ambush someone. Could the Shinsengumi have found out that some important Tobaku leader was visiting this ce?


    ��Argh, it��s really not what you think it is,�� the young man contested. Then the next minute, as if he had seen something outside the tea house, his cheeks flushed red, and he quickly averted his gaze. Akane wanted to question him further. She could not care less about the bad blood between the Shinsengumi and the anti-shogunate, but if they were going to sh swords, they better not do it here at the temple, or the ancient shrine would be caught in the crossfire.


    But before she could throw any more questions at the poord, someone grabbed her by the arm.


    ��Let��s find a ce to sit first. I don��t know what kind of tea we should have,�� Zhang Heng interjected.


    ��Oh!�� Akane nearly jumped out of her skin; her mind suddenly went nk, and the warmth in her palm caused all the confusing emotions she had tried so hard suppress to gush back in. her head felt as if it was about to explode.


    Dazed, she followed Zhang Heng to an unupied table. Just then, a youngdy and an elderly woman walked in. If Akane��s resolution was like a sword that had been forged over centuries, then this young woman��s geniality was the sunshine of March. When she walked into the little tea house, the whole ce lit up.


    The Shinsengumi young man lowered his face, looking sozzled even though the tea house did not serve alcohol.


    The young woman did not look around the establishment but ordered a rice cake, to-go, from the waiter. After that, she thanked him in a soft, gentle voice and left.


    It wasn��t until her figure disappeared outside the door that the young man sat upright again, staring nkly at the teacup before him, his expression despondent.


    Akane was amused. ��Who is she?��


    ��Ah?�� The young man shook his head, looking embarrassed. ��Er, er... I never asked. I saw her at Dr. Tezuka��s.��


    In between, he covered his mouth and coughed. The redness on his face only deepened. He had heard that the girl wasing to the Otawa waterfall, so he snuck up here and waited.


    To his surprise, Akane did not criticize his actions.


    After a minute, the young man asked her, ��Is he your man?��


    It was Akane��s turn to be flustered.


    ��What nonsense are you talking about?!�� she growled menacingly.


    The young man was taken aback since Akane seemed as if she would tear him into pieces. He couldn��t helpparing her to Ms. Saya, who was much gentler and sweeter.


    ��Okita Soki?�� Someone suddenly called his name.


    ��Mm?�� he answered instinctively. When he saw the man who came with Akane calling him, he asked, ��How do you know my name?��


    ��The Shinsengumi��s best swordsman. There��s a lot of talk about you going around in Kyoto,�� Zhang Heng answered. Inwardly, he was sighing in relief.


    OkitaSoki was probably the only reasonable person in the entire Shinsengumi. It wasn��t to say that he killed fewer people, but in fact, those who died by his sword were no lesser than hisrades. Nheless, he was favored bymander Kondo Isami, willing to do anything his leader made him do with zero questions, and as a result, he was able to remain unaffected.


    He was Kondo Isami��s sharpest sword, and swords made no distinction between good and evil. And to quote Hijikata Toshizo, it saves one the trouble of agonizing over trivial matters.


    s, this number one swordsman of the Shinsengumi dubbed ��Bakumatsu��s divine sword�� did not have many days left to live. There was no cure for his chronic cough (tuberculosis) during this era. If Zhang Heng remembered correctly, next year, on the 30th day of the fifth month, the lunar calendar, was the day of his passing.


    But right now, he was just like every other young man, having secret crushes on girls anding all the way to Kiyomizu temple just to sneak a look at her.


    ��I��m nowhere near the best swordsman... you��re too kind. Kendo-sensei, Hijikata, and Oishi Kuwajiro��they are all better than I am,�� Okita said humbly.


    ��When are you free? Drop by the dojo, and we��ll have a duel,�� said Zhang Heng.


    Later generations painted Okita Soji as a gifted genius who died young. Although he was only in his early twenties, many believed that he was Shinsengumi��s best swordsman and in the entire Kyoto. How could Zhang Heng forgo a chance to have a duel with a person such as Okita? On top of that, he was also interested in finding out what it meant to be the best swordsman during this era.


    ��Sure,�� Okita readily agreed. ��But I��m afraid it won��t be soon. I have some important matters to attend to. But once it is taken care of, I wille to see you at the dojo.��


    ��Does it have anything to do with that woman just now?�� Akane asked. ��Ah, no, no. It was all business.�� Okita blushed.


    Trantor��s notes:


    Noren curtains: traditional Japanese fabric dividers hung between rooms, on walls, in doorways, or in windows.

 Chapter 563 - Gabriel’s Secret

    <h4>Chapter 563 Gabriel��s Secret</h4>


    Okita Soki met the love of his life during his trip to Kiyomizu-dera, a more than pleasant surprise for him. As for thepetition, Zhang Heng was in no hurry since an agreement had been made with the other party.


    Although Okita Soki was suffering from a cough, he shouldn��t have trouble getting through the day. Okita Soki, the samurai with the highestbat power, for now, was like a perfect main dish. Once Zhang Heng tasted it, he would probably not go for other appetizers.


    Consequently. Zhang Heng did not mind thepetition between the two getting pushed back. Besides, there was something for him to do now��the two katana he��d borrowed from the Suzaku Dojo and another dojo before seemed quite decent. Unfortunately, they were just like that wakizashi��their quality still falling far short of the legendary katana. Especially the Suzaku Dojo��s katana that was supposedly crafted by Miike Tenta Mitsuyo. Later, Zhang Heng asked a particr collector to appraise it, unsure if this katana was Miike Tenta Mitsuyo��s work.


    This was also the most troublesome part of this quest. ording to the information Scarlet gave him, the system wouldn��t notify him when he got his hands on those katana. When Scarlet and her friend entered this quest, they had a clear goalpleting the mission within the time frame. However, when the quest called Bakumatsu Kyoto was assigned to Zhang Heng, the scenario waspletely different. It could mean that he would need to make some tough choices by the end of this quest.


    For now, it wasn��t a problem to be too concerned about. All Zhang Heng needed to do right now was to challenge Kyoto��s masters and collect famous katana.


    Another week passed since the trip to Kiyomizu-dera Temple. The samurai from Choshu Domain did note to look for him. Initially, Zhang Heng thought that it was a little weird. Judging from their character, it did not make sense that they did not make a move for so long. Not unless there was something more critical that required their immediate attention. And now Zhang Heng finally got to know the reason behind it. He was told that Shinsaku Takasugi, who had been recuperating at Sakurayama, had passed away due to an illness.


    It was indeed a significant event.


    Shinsaku Takasugi was the leader of the Choshu Domain. A hot-blooded leader in his youth, he assassinated Westerners, burned the British embassy, and forced Emperor Komei to pardon the barbarians. After that, he singlehandedly recruited and formed the kiheitai. During the Kinmon Incident, the Sonn? j?i was defeated. On behalf of the Choshu Domain, he was coerced into signing the Shimonoseki Treaty with Britain, the United States, France, and the Nethends, forcing him to abandon the barbarians. When the Shinsaku Takasugi sumbed to the shogunate, he lived in exile for a period of time. Still, it did not take long for him to join forces with Ito Hirobumi to recapture the Choshu Domain��s reins. Subsequently, he mulled a series of drastic westernized reforms, allowing the Choshu Domain to embark on the road of prosperity and strength. Then, not too long after that, he managed to defeat the shogunate fleet at Oshima and Ogura. It was a glorious moment for him. Unfortunately, the life of such a tremendous hero would ultimately be extinguished by a puny cough. He died on his sickbed on the eve of the new era��s arrival. Understandably, Choshu Domain was now in great distress and grief, and it was no surprise that they weren��t bothered to deal with the Koyama Dojo affair for the time being.


    Shinsaku Takasugi��s death didn��t cause Zhang Heng to feel anything. After all, he picked no sides from the beginning, considered himself merely an observer. He was more concerned, though, about another issue-Juzumaru wasing to Kyoto.


    The Juzumaru, one among five world-famous katana, was nearly as revered as the Mikazuki Munechika. It was Honkoji��s precious treasure, and its current owner, Kirino Toshiaki, was also known as the Four Hitokiri of the Bakumatsu.


    This man was Satsuma domain��s leader, Saigo Takamori-one that was willing to abandon the honor of a samurai to be a killer specializing in assassinating shogunate minions. As of now, countless shogunate officials had died in his hands, and after Shinsaku Takasugi��s passing, Saigo Takamori happened to want toe to Kyoto. It made the imaginations of many run wild.


    Was the Satsuma Domain nning to take advantage of his ally��s death, Shinsaku Takasugi, to make a big move?


    Something huge might befall Kyoto. The Shinsengumi and Kyoto Mimawarigumi patrolled the streets with their katana every day. Nheless, they failed to locate Kirino Toshiaki. This caused great distress to the residents that lived in that area. The emperor and the kuge watched the whole thing unfold before them in the imperial city, while the shogunate sect was in danger.


    Zhang Heng paid attention to the situation��s development as well. It was rare that he got the exact whereabouts of the five great katana in this world. Of course, he wanted to take this opportunity to get his hand on Juzumaru. This meant he needed to locate Kirino Toshiaki before the Shinsengumi��this would prove more than challenging as Tobaku had many supporters in Kyoto. Despite all that, they still failed to figure out where Kirino Toshiaki was hiding now. And Gabriel, on the other side, was still putting up a great act, sessfully driving away from his pursuers, which had been following him for days. Since Kirino Toshiaki was in town now, no one had the time to keep following him around.


    So Gabriel found Zhang Heng that afternoon and asked secretly, ��Are you avable tomorrow night?��


    ��Huh?�� Zhang Heng raised his eyebrows.


    ��I��m attending a significant banquet tomorrow night, and I need you to be there to help me with trantion. Don��t worry, if it is done well, I will pay you ten koban, all at once,�� Gabriel added.


    The trantion work asked of him was easy andfortable so far, and it did not match the generous pay Gabriel showered on him. Zhang Heng knew that good things such as this had the nick of notsting forever. Now, Gabriel was about to ask Zhang Heng to do what he was supposed to do after taking all those koban from him. He believed as long as he said yes to Gabriel, he would know what was hiding inside his sleeve tomorrow night.


    It seemed like it was not easy money, after all.


    No matter what Gabriel intended to do, it was obviously not something that could be revealed. Zhang Heng was not naive enough to think that Gabriel believed he��d keep the secret from him. Hence, it was not hard to predict what Gabriel would do to him after the whole thing was over.


    Zhang Heng needed to make a quick decision if he should risk it or not. If it were purely for the reward of the ten koban, then he would turn around and leave-he had made a lot of money during this period anyway, and Akane Koyama had mentioned she wanted to exempt his rent. However, Zhang Heng rejected her offer. No matter what, he could continue being a trantor for Gabriel, except he might not receive as much money as he did.


    But what interested Zhang Heng was the people Gabriel worked with.


    Now, he knew that it was the shogunate who��d been following Gabriel all this while. It could only mean that Gabriel was most likely siding with Tobaku. And it happened that Zhang Heng was looking for Juzumaru, and Kirino Toshiaki might fall in the hand of Tobaku supporters.


    Zhang Heng found it hard to say no to Gabriel. This was the only useful clue he had at the moment. Since he was confident in his swordsmanship, Zhang Heng said yes to Gabriel after a short while considering. Thetter seemed relieved.


    ��Excellent, let��s meet at our old spot tomorrow night.��

 Chapter 564 - Ukichi

    <h4>Chapter 564 Ukichi</h4>


    Akane had no idea what Zhang Heng was up to tonight.


    Before he left, all he said to her was, ��Going to work. Don��t leave any food for me,�� before he walked out of the dojo with his sword.


    Akane thought it was just the regr affair since Zhang Heng had gone out for work a couple of times before, though not often, so this time should not be any different.


    The fact was, she did not have the capacity to worry about such things right now. Ever since their trip to the temple, her feelings towards Zhang Heng had changed. She did not know what it was, or perhaps she had an inkling of what it was, yet unwilling to admit it. Women��s minds were as murky as the reflection of the full moon on the water.


    Other than her rtionship with Zhang Heng, Akane had other worries too��the most important one being Koyama dojo��s survival and development. Because they needed students, she was forced to offer free training and meals to attract poor parents in sending their kids to the dojo. However, it also meant that her funds would be sorely strained.


    Even though Zhang Heng rejected her offer to let him lease the yard for free, the rental alone was insufficient to feed that many mouths. Akane had been agonizing over ways to increase the dojo��s source of ie but to no avail.


    As she racked her brain, she noticed a stranger standing outside the dojo looking in. Pointing sternly at the bokuto on his chest, she barked, ��Who sent you here?!��


    ��Huh?!�� the frightened stranger stumbled backward.


    ��Is this Koyama dojo?��


    ��Can��t you see read what��s written on the que above the door?�� Akane did not let her guard down.


    ��I... I saw it. It��s just that I didn��t expect it to be so... direct,�� said the stranger. ��Have youe to be beaten up?!�� Akane almost shouted. How dare this shifty-looking bugger criticize the dojo! ��I��m sorry! I��m sorry!�� The stranger quickly apologized. ��I know that Koyama doesn��t like chasing fame and fortune. This is just the right ce... To tell you the truth, I actually came here to be an apprentice.��


    ��Huh?�� Akane withdrew her bokuto and looked at the stranger with suspicion. ��Why have youe to Koyama dojo to be an apprentice?��


    The stranger was surprised by the question and Akane��s skepticism.


    ��Because... I want to be the best samurai in the world?�� answered the stranger cautiously.


    That expressionbined with his seemingly wretched appearance was hrious; even more so, the solution to his ambition to be the world��s number one swordsman was toe to the impoverished and starving Koyama dojo. Akane was convinced the stranger in front of her was just tugging her chains. So, she raised her book again and growled, ��You arrogant bastard, prepare to die!�� ��What?!�� The stranger shouted. He could not understand why he had to be punished for telling her the truth. Could this be part of an entrance test? No wonder the people of this school were so fierce.


    Zhang Heng had gone to the meeting ce to meet up with the French merchant. Today, Gabriel was dressed in a tuxedo, and his hair meticulouslybed, and he looked refreshed. When Gabriel saw Zhang Heng arrive, he waved and announced their destination. ��Hi, Mr. Yuta. We��ll be going to Gion tonight.�� Gion was located to the east of the Kamo River. Originally, it was just a street in front of Yasaka Shrine. Then in 1665, the Edo Shogunate allowed the establishment of tea houses, before being eventually developed into a famous hanamachi or geisha district. Gion saw its golden age around the Edo period. It was said that there were three thousand geishas here and was the preferred spot for all men to satisfy their desires.


    The person who invited Gabriel to this ce clearly knew of the French merchant��s hobbies.


    But Gabriel was in no hurry to get there. He brought Zhang Heng to a stall for food and only left when the sky turned dark. They made their way slowly to Gion, confirming Zhang Heng��s theory. Obviously, it was inconvenient for the person the Frenchman was meeting to be seen in public, which was why the banquet was dyed to this hour. Anybody wanting to join the meeting would have the cover of night, thus avoid being seen by anyone. Could the person be Kirino Toshiaki, the one everyone in Kyoto was looking for?


    Even though Zhang Heng hoped this was the answer, he knew that the cunning French merchant only contacted the anti-shogunates to discuss business. Moreover, an executioner like Kirino Toshiaki knew nothing about business at all. Of course, it did not mean that he wouldn��t want to tonight. Even if he wasn��t the host of tonight��s banquet, there was a chance he could be bodyguard, so Zhang Heng did notpletely give up hope.


    Zhang Heng followed Gabriel into a tea house named Ukichi, and immediately, he could sense that something was different. From the waiters at the entrance, the dancers they passed in the corridor, to the smilingdy boss, Zhang Heng could sense that all of them had martial arts training before.


    Zhang Heng realized that his theory was wed. The host had chosen this ce not to satisfy Gabriel��s manly needs but because this was the secret meeting ce of anti-shogunates. Zhang Heng was even more curious about the host of the banquet tonight. Taking such measures to maintain confidentiality and security could only mean that this person was someone big. But Zhang Heng pretended to be indifferent.


    They walked through a corridor and came to the middle of the courtyard, where a hostess blocked Zhang Heng��s path.


    She bowed politely and said, ��Sir, Ukichi is a ce for pleasure. Please, leave your katana behind.��


    ��But I��m not here to seek pleasure,�� answered Zhang Heng.


    The hostess merely smiled in reply but did not move away.


    Seeing the tension build up between his trantor and the hostess, Gabriel quickly interjected. ��It��s alright, you can leave your sword with them for safekeeping. It��s just a banquet. There won��t be any danger. You cane back and collect it after dinner.��


    ��This is a relic from my ancestors. I cannot part with it,�� Zhang Heng insisted. The truth was, he had simply borrowed it a few days before, and it happened to be the sharpest and sturdiest one. He brought it with him for the battle that might take ce tonight.

 Chapter 565 - Bushi

    <strong>Chapter 565 Bushi</strong>


    Gabriel could not help but bemoan these samurais for being so clueless. He did not understand why they would dwell on something meaningless. It was just katana, and they could have only deposited their weapons here first. Maybe they were afraid that their precious swords would be stolen. It was unnecessary to get into a stalemate for such a trivial matter.


    As he wiped the sweat off his brow, Gabriel attempted to persuade Zhang Heng again. On the other hand, someone walked up to the maid and whispered a few words to her.


    In the end, the maid said, ��You can bring your wakizashi with you, but you must leave your katana here.��


    Zhang Heng knew that it was the most significantpromise the other party was willing to make. He did not want to ruin this trip tonight because of this incident-his goal ��to meet the person behind this whole thing. So he nodded and agreed to the opposing party��s request. However, instead of handing over the katana to the maid, Zhang Heng nted it in the courtyard. ��Don��t move it. I will retrieve it when I leave.��


    The maid did not object to Zhang Heng��s instruction, merely bowing again. ��A very warm wee, to our distinguished guests of Ukichi. Please, allow me to make up for the disrespect.��


    Without so much as waiting for Zhang Heng��s reply, she pulled out a tanto from her waist and turned to stab her chest. It happened so quickly that Gabriel did not even realize what was going on. The tip of the tanto had pierced the maid��s delicate skin and was on its way to her heart. However, at this critical moment, a scabbard blocked the tanto.


    ��Don��t do it. I have forgiven you,�� replied Zhang Heng earnestly.


    And Gabriel, standing beside Zhang Heng, was taken aback by what he saw. To him, they were a bunch of lunatics that were about tomit an inconceivable act in front of him. While he was persuading Zhang Heng earlier, he thought that the maid should have minded her own business. Now, he was even more horrified by the maid��s inordinate method to redeem herself.


    It was just a small mistake. No, it was not even a mistake. The maid was only performing her duty and was following the rules. Stabbing herself was unnecessary. In utter disbelief, Gabriel shook his head repeatedly.


    Zhang Heng knew very well that the people in this tea house were probably not just samurai. They could be bushi. Only men like them could be so cavalier towards life��not only the lives of others but also their own lives. ��Pleasee with me.�� Although an unpleasant incident had happened earlier, thedy boss still kept her expression unchanged and led them. By then, Zhang Heng had already put away his wakizashi and followed behind the boss as if nothing had happened between them. Gabriel was bewildered, but he trailed them anyway after a while.


    Thedy boss then opened the shoji for them, where, already, some people were sitting in there. Most of them were samurai, and some geishas were apanying them. One was ying the shamisen, a traditional Japanese instrument, another two danced, and the rest poured wine for the guests.


    Seeing Gabriel walking into the room, one of the older samurai and some other samurais stood up to wee him, and at the same time, took the opportunity to introduce him to the rest of the room. On the other hand, Zhang Heng took a quick look at the many samurai sitting in the room, and it seemed Kirino Toshiaki wasn��t present. To his surprise, he met someone he knew there.


    It was Shinji Takeuchi.


    Thetter had gone to Akane��s dojo with Yamada to challenge her. After Yamada��s hand was cut off, Zhang Heng thought Takeuchi would stand up and avenge hispanion, but he did not expect that Takeuchi would im that he was weaker than him. So, he carried Yamada and left the dojo-the reason why Zhang Heng remembered him.


    Takeuchi��s expression suddenly changed upon seeing Zhang Heng. He seemed to be taken by surprise that thetter would appear here tonight. But in the end, he managed to squeeze a smile and a nod at Zhang Heng.


    ��Takeuchi, do you know each other?�� the older samurai asked as they curiously witnessed the scene.


    ��We met once.�� The smile on Takeuchi��s face was somewhat forced. The Koyama Dojo incident was so embarrassing that he wanted to tell nobody about it. After the brief introduction, Zhang Heng roughly figured the identities of the group of people in the room. Most samurai were from the Choshu and Satsuma domains, but Matsuo and Takahashi weren��t among them. Zhang Heng guessed that their clearance level was probably not high enough; hence they could not participate in the banquet.


    Zhang Heng did not forget the task he was supposed to be doing here. After taking a seat, he tranted the samurai��s questions to Gabriel, and in return, each of Gabriel��s answers to them. However, at this point, both parties were discussing pointless niceties, including Gabriel��s impression of Kyoto, France��s current situation, and that of other European countries. The elder samurai apologized to Gabriel, saying that he would have to wait a while before the important person arrived. Gabriel nodded to express his understanding.


    Many Japanese of that era had begun to study the West and had put more effort into understanding the world. The shogunate was no longer as hostile to Westerners as the early emperors and barbarian sects. Instead, they were starting topete with the shogunate for the support of the western powers. This also caused the shogunate led by Tokugawa Yoshinobu to be more and more anxious.


    But these things had nothing to do with Zhang Heng. The two parties chatted for a while, and the dishes were served at the table one after another.


    During the Edo period, the only meat avable in Japan was fish and poultry. However, the ruling ss valued fish with little fat. The shogunate also issued regtions that no one was allowed to consume any living beings with four legs. Hence, the people began dumping their sick cows and horses in the wastnd-it was no absolutew, though. Pregnant women and patients were allowed some venison and pork.


    Unfortunately, thew did little stop the food connoisseurs from eating the meat. Although thew was in ce, people from all over the country were secretly eating and enjoying the contraband. The ce where meat was sold was called the ��monster house,�� where meat sellers typically announced they were selling medicine. It was said that the shogun, Tokugawa Yoshinobu, had a serious liking toward pork.


    Most samurai here tonight were individuals keen to learn from the West. Hence, they did mind those taboos, and to wee Gabriel, a visitor from the distant west, the tea house prepared a red-leaf pot for him.


    The so-called red-leaf pot�� was a secret code for venison-meat pot. Normally served with tofu, meatballs, and green vegetables, it was prevalent in Kyoto, and the dish looked so good that it made many drool over it. Coupled with the beautifuldies around him, Gabriel felt that his presence was immensely valued.


    The older samurai stretched out his hand and smiled. ��Please, enjoy!��


    Gabriel grabbed the chopsticks awkwardly. He then asked a question before eating, ��Should we not wait for the master toe first?��


    ��It��s okay; I was told that we could start eating first,�� the older samurai replied with a smile. ��As for that business, it��s not toote to talk about itter.��


    ��If that��s the case, I shall help myself then.��

 Chapter 566 - Gion Blood War

    <strong>Chapter 566 Gion Blood War</strong>


    The geisha sat on the ground, ced the shamisen on herp, and clutching the strings with her left hand, she held the ginkgo leaf-shaped ivory pick with her right hand. She started plucking, ying a sprightly tune. It was said that most geishas in the Edo period began to receive rigorous training from the age of ten. Unlike sex workers, the appearance wasn��t the only requirement for geishas��the women needed to master ikebana, tea ceremony, etiquette, dance, musical instruments, and have knowledge about different cultures. The effort and energy invested were no less than that of a samurai mastering his sword.


    Generally, they were tasked to serve essential guests. As for those geisha who was more famous in this industry, they were allowed to choose their guests. If they did not like a person, they would not catch a glimpse of them even if they had a lot of money. Most of the geishas were only asked to perform their talents. Their circumstance was definitely better than sex workers.


    The steaming-hot red-leaf pot, coupled with the beautiful Kyoto dance, entertained the guests and hosts in the tea house to the fullest. The older samurai was good at making someone happy. In addition to the sake, he had specially prepared some French wine for Gabriel, which was also where he originated from. He could not help but persuade Gabriel to drink a few more sses.


    When everyone had their fill of food and drink, someone pped their hands twice outside the house. It wasn��t loud, but the geishas stopped ying their shamisen once they heard it, hurriedly lowering their heads and cleaning up the ce. After that, they bowed and left the house with their heads hung low. At the same time, the Choshu and Satsuma domain samurai returned to their positions immediately. A hint of excitement was especially evident in the eyes of the Choshu domain samurai.


    At that time, Zhang Heng knew that the man he had been waiting for was about to make an appearance. Gabriel, too resumed his original sitting position, obviously not ustomed to sitting on his heels. When he first came to Japan, he oftenined about the anti-ergonomic sitting method. After sitting in this position for a while, his legs would be numb, and he would cross his legs instead. But now, he decided he needed to show respect to the man he was about to meet.


    The shoji door was pushed open from the outside, and the man who walked in first was a samurai with a squarish face. As soon as this person showed up, all the samurai in the house felt an invisible force descending over their shoulders, as if a ferocious beast was ring at them. The two samurai at the front could not help but move back a little.


    ��Kirino Toshiaki!�� Someone eximed in a low voice, ��Is he here too?��


    Kirino Toshiaki looked unusually tall for a Japanese of this era��he was almost as tall as Zhang Heng, and his shoulders were vast. On top of that, he also had a pair of long arms, and his hands were covered in calluses.


    In his youth, it was said that Toshiaki Family was rtively poor, and his father was seriously ill. Thus, to pay for his father��s treatment, he misappropriated domain funds. However, the authorities soon found out, and he was exiled from the domain. At one time, the family could only make money from farming. But Kirino Toshiaki did not give up on bing a samurai. At the age of 15, he first trained at the Yakitori Dojo located at Ijuin, before he switched to the Jigen-ryu. When he was 18, his brother died, and his death hit him hard-he had to go home to help with farming.


    However, what he had learned in the previous three yearsid the foundation for finding his direction. While working as a farmer, he continued to train hard. At the age of 25, he finally mastered his sword. It was at that time that he met Saigo Takamori, the most crucial nobleman in his life. Eventually, he became Kirino Toshiaki, the person powerful enough to terrify the shogunate. No one knew how many people he had killed so far. A nce from him was enough to put fear into a person. Zhang Heng had a different focus, though, paying his attention to the katana that hung on Kirino Toshiaki��s waisthis goal tonight.


    The Juzumaru-one of the five greatest katana in this world, forged by Aoe Tssugu! The monk Nichiren owned it during the Kamakura period, and it was named Juzumaru because the handle was wrapped around by a rosary. As Zhang Heng looked at this famous sword, Kirino Toshiaki was also looking at him. Perhaps it was because Zhang Heng was someone that he had never seen before.


    But eventually, he stopped staring at him and bowed to the person behind. ��It��s cleared. Pleasee in.��


    Although most in the room already knew who the person behind Kirino Toshiaki was, it still caused a greatmotion when the man showed up.


    ��Master Togy��! Master T?gyo! It��s really you.�� ��You look fine! This is really great!!!�� When they saw the man, many Choshu Domain samurai started to cry.


    Although Zhang Heng had guessed that the person who came to Ukichi tonight to discuss business with Gabriel would be influential, he was surprised when he heard the man��s name. He was the most influential and powerful person in the Choshu Domain. Shinsaku Takasugi was his real name, and he was supposed to have passed away recently. Master T?gyo was his other name.


    It was no wonder that the sect hired Kirino Toshiaki as his personal bodyguard.


    If others knew that the lord of Choshu, who should have been dead, suddenly appeared in a tea house in Kyoto, it would probably cause a great stir and unleash a series of unpredictable changes. But on the other hand, Shinsaku Takasugi risked such a significant risk of entering Kyoto and meeting Gabriel personally. Something big must be going on.


    ��Mr. Gabriel, we meet again.�� Shinsaku Takasugi let out a heartyugh before entering the room.


    Although he still looked a little weak, his eyes were filled with vitality. And he seemed fine like any other healthy adult. This sparked a glimmer of hope in the samurai��s hearts. In this period of significant change, Shinsaku Takasugi yed a great role. Whether it is his political career, military capabilities, or influence in the Choshu Domain, it was difficult to be reced.


    As a result, when news of his death broke out, it was an ultimate nightmare for the Choshu and Tobaku Domain supporters. Gabriel alsoughed when he saw Shinsaku Takasugi.


    ��Well yed! You fooled even your old friend.��


    ��A special method must be taken during this special time,�� said Shinsaku Takasugi.


    ��Special method? It seems you have made up your mind.�� Gabriel felt excited, and he instantly sobered up. ��Yes, you have been in Japan for so long. I��m pretty sure you know exactly what��s going on right now. It��s time for the world to change. Instead of dying and continuing with pointless fixing, it is better to break it and rebuild the world again.��


    Shinsaku Takasugi wrote, ���Ҳܤο����������ƺΤ��դ�Ц�äƴ������O���� ����ؤ���!��. He singlehandedly fought off the shogunate fleet. Even Gabriel had to admit from the depths of his heart that this short Eastern man before him was destined to do great things. It was no wonder that so many people from the Choshu Domain and even the whole of Japan were willing to follow him and serve him.


    However, he did not forget his identity just because he was admired. Gabriel finished his wine and smiled slyly, ��Then, what do you want from me? And what will I get in the new world?��


    Trantor��s footnote


    �Ҳܤο����������ƺΤ��դ�Ц�äƴ������O���� ����ؤ���A famous poem written by Shinsaku Takasugi.

 Chapter 567 - Gion Blood War (II)

    <strong>Chapter 567 Gion Blood War (II)</strong>


    Shinsaku Takasugi and Gabriel were attempting to work out a major deal.


    While the feudal lords were still bickering if they should make Tokugawa Yoshinobu carry out the Taisei Hokan and hold him responsible for the series of mistakes hemitted before, Shinsaku Takasugi had made a decision to overthrow the shogunate in Kyoto. His main purpose was toe to Kyoto to meet up with Okubo Toshimichi and Saigo Nakamori and cook up a n to overthrow the shogunate.


    To travel from Edo to Kyoto, they first needed to deceive Tokugawa Yoshinobu. After that, they would use force to detain him. Be that as it may, Tokugawa Yoshinobu had always been very cautious, and he might just see through their n. If he traveled to Kyoto, he would be protected by his soldiers all the time, not to mention how influential and powerful the Shogunate was in Kyoto. Forces like Gosanke, Sesisanke, Shinsengumi, Kyoto Mimawarigumi and various ronin groups took the shogunate��s side. And if Choshu and Satsuma Domain soldiers came to Kyoto, Tokugawa Yoshinobu would certainly be alerted. There was a high chance a fierce battle would break out between them.


    This was not what Shinsaku Takasugi and Okubo Toshimichi wanted to see. The two still hoped toplete the exchange of power through a court coup. This was to protect and preserve Japan��s Genki. However, the feat would require more manpower to be achieved, which meant they needed to send these people into Kyoto without the shogunate��s knowledge.


    So, in the end, they decided to ce their hopes on Gabriel, a French businessman.


    Shinsaku Takasugi had started to contact and cooperate with Gabriel as early as the time Choshu Domain were reforming and strengthening their military-he knew Gabriel had a lot of connections��his hands deep in the business of cotton yarn, iron cannons, and matchlock guns. Even the two new battleships, one being the infamous Heishin-maru that Shinsaku Takasugi bought was made possible by Gabriel. Since he was French, few dared to inspect the cargo on his vessels.


    Shinsaku Takasugi hoped to order a batch of weapons from Gabriel and secretly transport them to Kyoto aboard a cotton vessel. At the same time, a three-hundred-man samurai squad would serve as the secret weapon against Tokugawa Yoshinobu��these would be transported to Kyoto through the cargo ship as well. To make it possible, Satsuma and Choshu Domain were willing to fork out ten thousand koban.


    Gabriel, however, did not immediately agree. It was a businessman��s nature to go after more profits, and there were no exceptions when it came to that. Unfortunately, Gabriel turned out to be the stereotypical industrialist with voracious greed. His business in Japan over the years had made him a lot of money-the reason why he was inclined to give careful thought before epting Shinsaku Takasugi��s proposition.


    At the same time, Gabriel and other Western businessmen silently observed the civil war in Japan. To protect themselves from the barbarians, the United Kingdom, America, France, and the Nethendsunched a retaliatory attack on Shimonoseki. That said, most foreigners still tried their best to avoid getting involved in a Japanese civil war.


    A good example would be when Shinsaku Takasugi defeated the shogunate during the second Choshu expedition-Western nations merely observed them from the beginning to end. Judging by the current situation, both the shogunate and the Tobaku had an equal chance to im victory. Tobaku supporters were known for their assassinations of westerners, but they had changed over time, and they were the ones that opened up Japan for westerners to do business. Meanwhile. The shogunate led by Tokugawa Yoshinobu was just the opposite. Having previously cooperated with westerners, they now wanted to lock down the country, preventing them from entering Japan. For these reasons, the Western countries had no intention to support either of the two.


    Such a political investment was precarious. If it failed, the next ruler would treat the investors as the enemy. On the other hand, it could also be extremely profitable. Although Gabriel didn��t say yes to the deal, he didn��t explicitly refuse it as well��an indication that Shinsaku Takasugi should increase the amount of koban offered.


    The samurai in the room began cursing Gabriel for his insatiable greed. Gabriel, nheless, had the power to make the call right now. If he said no to the deal, soldiers from Choshu and Satsu would not travel to Kyoto. In other words, their n would fall apart.


    W


    Zhang Heng was actually a little surprised. Historically, ��kubo Toshimichi and Saigo Takamori were the main forces that brought down Tobaku. It was simply that it wouldn��t happen so soon-in fact, the Tobaku supporters could afford to drag on a little longer. Hence, Tokugawa Yoshinobu initiated Taisei Hokan and took the initiative to return the shogunate��s power to Emperor Meiji in exchange for position and rights in the newly formed government. He first pushed himself to the end of the road, then forcing himself to figure a way to get out of this sticky situation, which was no less an impressive feat.


    Now, not only did ?kubo Toshimichi and Saigo Takamori run out of excuses to execute a coup, they even managed to sessfully divide the Tobaku forces. Afterpleting the move to restore Emperor Meiji��s return to power, people started to side with Tokugawa Yoshinobu. More and more people wanted him to join the new government. In retrospect, Okubo Toshimichi and Saigo Takamori were only bing more and more isted.


    Forced into desperation, they transferred troops to Kyoto as ast resort. At that time, the Satsuma Domain had no advantage over the shogunate, but Saigo Takamori triumphed over the shogunate army three timesrger than his own. The battle of Toba Fushimi had determined the course of the time.


    Compared with history, Shinsaku Takasugi was still alive and kicking. This was undoubtedly a significant variable. He came to Kyoto before he was fully recovered and talked happily in front of everyone. He might hide from the samurai in the tea house but Zhang Heng��s improved observation skills acquired from the Deductive Reasoning quest allowed him to see that Shinsaku Takasugi was living on borrowed time.


    It might also be the reason why he could not wait to do something big. He wanted to catch a glimpse of the new era that he created before he died. But before that, he still needed to negotiate the current deal with Gabriel. The French businessmen had a ravenous appetite, and the ten thousand koban they offered wasn��t about to satisfy him. The Shinsaku Takasugi, however, had their bottom line too. Although keen to learn from the West, many were reluctant to allow westerners to interfere in their country��s affairs.


    Among those was Saigo Takamori.


    The Convention of Kanagawa caused the shogunate to lose its reputation among the people. It was a mistake that the new government vowed to never make again. Therefore, ording to the agreement made by Shinsaku Takasugi and his group, Gabriel could negotiate for more money, but that would be all. If he wanted something else, he had to find another way, even if it meant postponing their n.


    The negotiation had entered a stalemate, and to prevent mimunication due to the nuances of differentnguages, both sides brought their own trantors. Simultaneously, they could also correct the other��s trantion errors to ensure that their intentions were made known to the other party.


    But Zhang Heng��s mind was not on this business meeting. He had been thinking about how to get the Juzumaru hanging around Kirino Toshiaki��s waist. And the most important thing was how to get out of hanamachi alive. Since the person who came here tonight was Takasugi Shinsaku, they couldn��t let a temporary trantor like him walk out of this tea house alive. Once the two parties agreed on the deal, he would be no longer useful for them.

 Chapter 568 - Gion Blood War (III)

    <h4>Chapter 568 Gion Blood War (III)</h4>


    There were more than twenty samurai in the room, but Kirino Toshiaki, one of the four Hitokiri, was also present.


    With only a wakizashi, even an excellent swordsman like Zhang Heng would not be able to take them all on his own. Zhang Heng also considered the option of taking a hostage. The person with the highest value was obviously Choshu leader Shinsaku Takasugi, who happened to be one anti-Bafuku movement��s most important members. His days might be numbered, but once Zhang Heng put a knife around his throat, not a single soul in the room would move a muscle.


    That said, standing right beside Shinsaku Takasugi was Kirino Toshiaki, clearly here tonight to deal with situations like that. The man was silent as a rock, but Zhang Heng could sense his eyes following his every move.


    Although unpleasant, it was expected, since Zhang Heng and Gabriel were the only ones not part of the anti-Bafuku group. Andpared to Zhang Heng, who brought a sword with him, the French businessman lookedpletely harmless. Even an idiot could tell who was more of a threat.


    Of course, Zhang Heng was extremely swift with his sword, a lot faster than most people thought.


    If Zhang Heng suddenly attacked Shinsaku Takasugi, Kirino Toshiaki might just be unable to protect him. But Zhang Heng��s goal wasn��t to terminate Shinsaku. If he did, it would be like shaking the ho��s nest. There was no way Zhang Heng would get out of there alive.


    If it were a one-on-one fight, Zhang Heng had nothing to worry about. But in such a tight space, if everyone were to lunge at him all at once, the whole situation would be really dangerous. If threatening to kill Shinsaku Takasugi turned out to be unsessful, then Zhang Heng would have to settle for the next best thing and use the French merchant as his shield. The anti-Bakufu clearly needed Gabriel alive. Diplomatic issues aside, if Zhang Heng were to kill him, there would be no one to help them transport weapons and troops into Kyoto.


    On the other hand, they had to contemte one possibility-news that Shinsaku Takasugi was alive might get leaked if they let Zhang Heng escape.


    Once Tokugawa Yoshinobu heard of the news, he would be able to surmise that the anti-Bakufu was cooking up a n to overthrow him. Even if he was half-witted, he wouldn��t risk his life bying to Kyoto. Moreover, the Kyoto Mimawarigumi and Shinsengumi would most probably gird up their loins��who was to say that the Ikedaya incident would not repeat itself?


    Zhang Heng was never the kind to allow anyone to decide his fate. It would not surprise him if these anti-Bafuku warriors chose to sacrifice Gabriel��s life just so they could get their hands on him.


    After all, while it might be difficult to find another shipper, losing a partner was better than risking the whole n being exposed.


    So, Zhang Heng decided that in any case, he had to retreat to an open space outside so that whether he chose to fire or flee, he would still be in control. Halfway through the transaction, after both sides had agreed on a framework and were further refining the contract details, Zhang Heng asked to be excused to use the facilities.


    Shinsaku Takasugi gave his consent with a nod, even joking that the sky was dark outside and he should be careful not to stumble into thetrine.


    Other than Sirino Toshiaki, the entire room was filled withughter and excited chatter, and the atmosphere seemed harmonious. The French businessman even patted Zhang Heng on the shoulder,mending him for his service tonight. He even said that he would raise Zhang Heng��s sry. Nheless, Takeuchi, who was sitting at the corner, seemed distracted.


    Zhan Heng got up, opened the shutter door, and walked out. When the doors behind him closed, he saw the maid who had previously stopped him in the courtyard.


    She was carrying antern, and against the darkness, it made her look like a wandering soul.


    ��The outhouse is the other way.��


    ��Thanks, but I want to stretch my legs for a bit,�� Zhang Heng answered.


    But the maid merely repeated in a monotone: ��The outhouse is the other way. If, however, you had a sudden change of mind, then please return to the house. It��s cold here in April, and you should be careful not to catch a cold.��


    Zhang Heng smiled back at her and set one foot on the courtyard, ignoring her warning,


    The maid drew a deep long sigh. A convoluted look shed across her icy face. ��I��m afraid you don��t understand the significance of your step.��


    ��No, it��s the first I��ve heard of a teahouse that doesn��t allow its customers to leave,�� replied Zhang Heng as he walked towards the woman.


    ��That is really... such a pity,�� said the maid, shaking her head, her slender hand gripping the hilt of her sword. Then she looked Zhang Heng in the eyes. ��Forgive me, but I have a duty to fulfill.��


    As soon as she said that, a fierce de of wind hit the nape of Zhang Heng��s neck.


    The attacker was standing on the roof of the tea house, waiting quietly like a ck cat. It was not until he took the step that represented death that he suddenly jumped down from the sky, taking a swipe at Zhang Heng.


    It was a stealth technique used by assassinssilent and deadly, just like death itself. Perhaps ninjutsu from Kai province was interwoven between its moves, making it difficult to guard against.


    The de was seconds away from Zhang Heng��s neck, but suddenly, a wakizashi appeared out of nowhere and pierced through the assant��s jaw. The tip of the weapon reemerged at the top of his head, mottled with warm, red blood.


    This gift from Chiyo��s parents turned out to be a fine sword��its sharpness was in no way inferior to some of the more famous swords. The assant��s veil fell, and Zhang Heng recognized her.


    It was one of the geisha who performed for the guests.


    This really was the anti-Bafuku��s base in Kyoto, and the seemingly tender geishas and maidservants were actually Bushi-trained by the sect.


    ��This is going to be a problem.��


    Zhang Heng drew a deep breath. Ukichi tea house covered a vast area, and so were its numerous geisha and maidservants. If they were really all the anti-Bafuku��s bushi, then Zhang Heng would be very busy tonight. But it was toote to turn back and return to the house. Now packed with warriors, including Kirino Toshiaki, the outdoors gave him more space to move around.


    The maid who had just witnessed the tragic death of her colleague gave off an indifferent disposition. Perhaps she didn��t draw her sword immediately to repay Zhang Heng for saving her from suicide. Instead, she just stood there, waiting for him to pick the sword he��d buried into the ground earlier that evening.


    ��I��ve heard of the famous Gion long before I came. Who would have thought that I��ve to kill my way out on my first visit here,�� said Zhang Heng as he drew his sword. ��Now, whoever wishes death cane here!��

 Chapter 569 - Gion Blood War (IV)

    <h4>Chapter 569 Gion Blood War (IV)</h4>


    In the courtyard shrouded in darkness, enemies were waiting tond a critical hit on Zhang Heng. Zhang Heng��s words were like a chant that opened the doors of hell, breaking loose minions of bloodthirsty evil spirits. They charged at Zhang Heng like moths attracted by the fire. The maid carrying thentern adjacent to them finally drew her tachi. At the same time, at least three knives shed at different parts of Zhang Heng��s body.


    In a moment of life and death, Zhang Heng did not lose his calm, firmly holding the katana with one hand and his wakizashi in the other.


    He had challenged many dojos in Kyoto, and besides the fact that he was looking for legendary katana, he wanted to observe the swordsmanship of different sects and learn from the best. Although his swordsmanship was still at Lv.3, Zhang Heng felt that he had made some progress. Unlike when he first came here and got defeated by relying solely on his basic attributes, he now had learned manybos. Although he could not incorporate all thesebinations into one, he could use differentbos ording to the situation.


    For example, since Zhang Heng was surrounded right now, the Niten Ichi-ry�� would be the best method to deal with them. Holding the wakizashi in his left hand and holding the katana in his right, he managed to block the two Tachi that shed at his left leg and lower waist. The attacker was a womaneven though she was skillful on the Tachi, she would still possess less strength than men no matter what. The moment her Tachi collided with Zhang Heng��s katana, he exerted all his might into blocking her attack, managing to force her to drop her Tachi.


    Zhang Heng quickly utilized this small gap, swinging the wakizashi to the front of his forehead. And he managed to block the iing third sh. At the same time, he swung his katana and sliced off one of her arms before she couldnd another strike on him! The blood sttering on the ground further intensified the courtyard��s atmosphere.


    Zhang Heng did not stand there and wait for his enemies to surround him. Instead, he retreated while defending himself. At the same time, he was looking for weakness in the encirclement��this allowed him to showcase the quintessence of the Niten Ichi-ry��. Miyamoto Musashi was not only a samurai but also a master of war. In the famous duel at Ganryu Ind, Musashi defeated the most powerful samurai, Sasaki Kojiro, with a unique strategy.


    Musashi��s swordsmanship was wless, and he defeated his opponent with his masterful skills. Besides, he did not limit his creativity on his attacks. When it came to Zhang Heng, he became even more imaginative. Since Zhang Heng was holding two weapons of different lengths, his moves were extremely unpredictable. It caused many of his enemies to be seriously injured.


    These samurai really lived up to their name. Even if theirpanions were dying nonstop, their eyes held not the slightest hint of fear, and even if their limbs were severed, they would charge at their enemies.


    Who cared if Zhang Heng were to chop off their heads��they would still charge at him with no hesitation, all to create opportunities for theirpanions. This was how they fought. All they knew was to continue attacking their enemies, even if it meant certain death. Retreating was never an option for them!


    Many of them were adopted by powerful and influential sect members since they were still a child. Some of their family members received great help during their most difficult times. So, they were willing to offer themselves to those who help their families. The ancient training method allowed them to abandon all the emotions. They were also taught to fear nothing. In other words, their purpose of living was toplete the tasks given to them. Often, it could help them to burst out terrifyingbat power.


    Under such a violent offense, no matter how powerful the person, it was impossible for them to leave the battlefield unharmed. Zhang Heng��s left arm, calf, and waist were shed one after another. Fortunately, they were just light injuries. Two of the injuries were caused by his underestimation of his opponent��s decisiveness. He made sure that his wakizashi was prated the opponent��s heart, but the enemy could still rely on his amazing willpower to sh Zhang Heng with his Tachi. There was even an enemy who left a row of teeth marks on his wrist.


    However, Zhang Heng was not polite. The battle of life and death was not a time to pity and cherish jade. In a short period, he had cut over more than a dozen people, including the maid he had rescued before. The deepest cut in his waist was thest gift the other party gave him.


    Zhang Heng��s heart remained calm, and he did not feel regret for saving the woman earlier. He did not want to watch her kill herself because of a small mistake. It had nothing to do with her trying to kill him right now. Just like the other party said, they were trying to fulfill their responsibility.


    All those attackers that wanted to kill Zhang Heng could no longer be considered as a whole human. They had abandoned their lives and feelings. Now, they lived their lives for others and were willing to die for others.


    Zhang Heng used his wakizashi to block a sudden attack, and then he aimed for the right timing and used his katana to pick up the burningntern that had fallen to the ground and threw it at the room where the firewood was stored. He retreated to the burning room and stood there to prevent others from putting off the fire.


    Zhang Heng took out the might he gained from the ck Sail quest and started to swing both of his weapons to make sure no one could get close to him. And in that short time, no one could get into one foot within his range.


    After Zhang Heng did some calctions, he found out that the people he just killed or injured were probably less than a third of the tea house��s manpower. If this went on, he might use up his stamina and die here. That was why Zhang Heng set the room on fire. He was preparing his escape route. The main entrance and the side entrance of the tea house were heavily guarded. It was probably going to be difficult to break through them. However, Zhang Heng still had his lvi rock climbing skill to climb up the roof and flee from this ce. It was also the weakest spot of the encirclement. Although some men knew ninjutsu standing on the roof, most of them had jumped down from the roof when the fight broke out. They were trying to sneak an attack on Zhang Heng, but Zhang Heng eventually killed most of them.


    Once the fire got bigger, Zhang Heng would leave the tea house. But at this moment, he suddenly heard the faint shouting from outside the gate, and at the same time, he could feel that the pressure around him had reduced. Did something change? While trying to figure it out, he heard a familiar voice shouting, ��The captain of the Shinsengumi first strike team is here! Listen up! Put down your weapons for us to inspect the ce! Our director is en route as well!��


    After he shouted, his enemies had no intention to do what he ordered. Instead, it only made his enemies fight more fiercely. The tea house people seemed to be nning to get rid of the captain before Kondo Isami arrived here. But what they did not expect was that tonight was going to get worse for them. Before they could defeat Zhang Heng, their sworn enemies were here to assault them without warning.


    Okita Soki started to charge into the tea house after he voiced out his intention. The katana in his hand bloomed in the dark, like a butterfly. However, this beautiful butterfly was extremely deadly. His katana cut down anyone who stood in his path.


    And he was all alone.

 Chapter 570 - Gion Blood War (V)

    <h4>Chapter 570 Gion Blood War (V)</h4>


    ��Don��t attack! It��s me!��


    Zhang Heng heard someone suddenly talking to him.


    With the assistance of the dim light, Zhang Heng saw Okita Soki. Thetter coughed twice and shed an enemy in front of him. He stood with Zhang Heng andforted him, ��Don��t worry, our people will be here soon.��


    ��Don��t lie.�� Zhang Heng snapped. ��You shouted so loudly in front of the door earlier, afraid that they might not know that Kondo Isame is en-route. Do you think they will believe that?��


    Okita Soki scratched his head, ��Will they believe that?��


    ��If they did, they wouldn��t have allowed you to enter the tea house so easily.��


    Zhang Heng patiently analyzed the situation for Okita Soki, ��Now, they obviously want to surround us here.��


    ��I��m so sorry. Lying has never been my forte,�� confessed Okita. ��I received intel that a mysterious man is here to meet somebody in secret. Then I saw you are inside the tea house as well, and I was worried about your safety. So, I rushed in to help you! There was no time to call the calvary.


    As the two chatted, Zhang Heng saw thedy boss not far away from them, holding something in her hand. The expression on his face changed, and he shouted to Okata, ��Run!��


    ��What?��


    Okita Soki couldn��t understand why Zhang Heng would run from his enemies. They might not be able to kill every single one of them, but they could at least exert more pressure. There was no reason to flee right now. After seeing Zhang Heng dropping and rolling on the ground, Okita��s keen perception of danger as the first master of the Shinsengumi saved his life. He quickly leaned over and dodged a bullet from thedy boss��s gun. When she filled up her gun with gunpowder and bullets, Zhang Heng got up from the ground and lunged at thedy boss. It seemed that thedy boss was an essential person in this tea house, seeing how several geisha and samurai scurried to protect her upon Zhang Heng��s attack.


    Zhang Heng knew that it was a life and death moment for him. He had allowed the boss to reload and fire a second shot at him. Thus, he abandoned his defense and attacked her with all his might, employing the most potent skill from Niten Ichi-ry��, Mindless sh, to wipe out the opponents in front of him. He had no intention to leave any of them alive.


    In a critical moment as such, courage and determination were all he needed.


    The two geishas along the way had their necks severed as soon as they approached theirdy boss. They swayed like drunkards and fell into the flower bed beside them. But soon, others took their ce, refusing to let Zhang Heng kill thedy boss. He made every step under tremendous pressure. The blood of his victims in front of him had now streamed into a river, and the fire burning in the storeroom had only raged in intensity.


    The amalgamation of fire and blood literally transformed the small courtyard into a living hell. During this period, what remained unchanged was Zhang Heng��s pace. He was like death, waiting to harvest each soul that was unfortunate enough to cross his path.


    In the end, thedy boss started to shake in fear. Indeed, the samurai around her felt nothing, not knowing what fear was, but thedy boss was just an ordinary person. She knew how to fear for her life. When she saw Zhang Heng getting closer, she started to panic and spilled the gunpowder on the ground. What really made her want to retreat was Okita Soki, now rushing towards her from the other side.


    mo


    Thedy boss finally made up her mind to move to a safe ce beforepleting the reloading process. However, her dismissal caused a loophole in the originally perfect defensive formation. Although it onlysted a split second, in the eyes of masters like Zhang Heng and Okita Soki, it was enough for them to change the battle��s tide. Without any warning, Zhang Heng tossed his wakizashi at the samurai that stood beside thedy boss, pinning him to the ground. At the same time, Okita slew the enemies in front of him without any hesitation. Seeing how things had turned for the worst, thedy boss decided to change her escape route, but unfortunately, Zhang Heng had caught up to her. Although the samurai and geisha who feared no death were trying their best to protect thedy boss, there was nothing they could not when faced with opponents like Zhang Heng and Okita Soki. The gap between them was too huge. Zhang Heng could not care less about two katana aiming straight for his chest since their master got killed only a secondter. Due to the inertia, the de did not prate deep into his flesh-it looked bloody on the surface, only adding to his unhinged persona. Then, Zhang Heng finally stood in front of thedy boss.


    The fear had caused thedy boss to forget that she did not fill any gunpowder and bullet into her gun. She then raised the iron cannon in her hand as if it was her final hurrah, desperately pulling the trigger. Nheless, only white smoke came out from the muzzle. After that, her head was detached from her body. No amount of foundation could conceal the fear on her face.


    ��Excellent! Let��s get out from here!!!�� Okita, Soki shouted.


    Although there were still many samurai in the tea house, there was nobody tomand them anymore with thedy boss��s death. Hence, theirbat power had significantly reduced -a good time for them to break through the encirclement.


    However, Zhang Heng��s gaze was on the other side. After hearing the names of Shinsengumi and Kondo Isami, the Tobaku supporters who gathered here tonight begun evacuating in an orderly manner. They left through the side entrance-among them, the most important members were Shinsaku Takasugi and Gabriel. Some samurai stayed behind, raising their katana above their heads with the intention of killing Zhang Heng and Okita Soki.


    Zhang Heng knew that tonight was the best chance to get his hands on the JuzumaruShinsaku Takasugi and Kirino Toshiaki were not going about to appear that often anymore. Especially after what happened tonight, Shinsaku Takasugi might even leave Kyoto. If Kirino Toshiaki were to escort him back to Choshu Domain, Zhang Heng would never acquire the famous sword.


    However, Zhang Heng did not act recklessly. He quickly evaluated his current physical state and the sess rate and risk of seizing the katana. Okita Soki wiped the blood off his face and foollowed Zhang Heng��s gaze. He then put on a strange look on his face, ��Is there any grievance between you and the Choshu Domain?��


    ��There is no grudge between them and me. I just want the Juzumaru.�� Zhang Heng said without concealing his intention.


    Okita Soki was surprised to hear that. Earlier, he hadn��t finished what he wanted to say to Zhang Heng. When he rushed in to save Zhang Heng, he did suspect the rtionship between Zhang Heng and the Tobaku supporters. After all, the two had only met once at Kiyomizu-dera. One could never be too careful even if they talked to someone close to them, let alone the two barely knew each other. But this doubt was cleared when he rushed in and saw Zhang Heng embroiled in a fierce battle with the samurai. However, Okita Soki did not expect Zhang Heng toe here tonight just for the katana.

 Chapter 571 - Gion Blood War (VI)

    <strong>Chapter 571 Gion Blood War (VI)</strong>


    Zhang Heng had already thought about it. While dealing with a Satsuma Domain samurai who charged at him, he said to Okita Soki, ��Hey, let��s discuss something.��


    ��What��s the matter?�� Mr. Okita was busy coughing and beheading his enemies, but he could still make time to reply to Zhang Heng. Even in this bloody and messy battle, he still maintained his elegant posture. His Tachi was like the moon in the starry sky, exuding a faint cold light. Swiftly and sprightly, he beheaded every single enemy that stood in his path.


    ��It��s such a pity your Shinsengumi failed to kill Kido Takayoshi at Ikedaya,�� said Zhang Heng. ��This is your rare opportunity to make up for it. Want to watch it slip away from your hands?��


    ��What do you mean?�� Okita Soki raised his eyebrows.


    ��Shinsaku Takasugi. He is among them,�� replied Zhang Heng. ��What?!�� Okita Soki was stunned. ��That man... didn��t he just die not long ago?��


    ��That doesn��t seem to be the case... I just saw him earlier. He was well alive and most busy preparing for a grand n.�� ��Ah, these people are so annoying. No wonder Mr. Kondo said that the world is in chaos thanks to them,�� grumbled Okita Soki, shaking his head andining about the Tobaku supporters.


    The truth was he actually did not know how much evil Shinsaku Takasugi had done. Whatever it might be, his sensei asked him to kill all of them if he saw them. Okita Soki was certainly not stupid, but he was sometimes veryzy.


    ��If you go against him now, you might be able to catch up with him,�� Zhang Heng reminded.


    ��Huh?�� Okita Soki did some fast thinking this time, ��You want to get your hands on the Juzumaru, and it is with Kirino Toshiaki right now. Kirino Toshiaki is protecting Shinsaku Takasugi, right?�� ��Yes, catching up to Takasugi will allow us to get what we both need.�� Zhang Heng finally threw out the terms of cooperation. Okita Soki��s eyes widened, ��... don��t you think you that you are out of your mind? Most head to a safe ce as soon as possible when they get ambushed or assassinated. As for you, not only will you not escape but you��ll go after the enemies...��


    ��If I was alone, I would have escaped by now. But now that we are paired up, there is still a certain chance of sess, but you have to make up your mind quickly. Otherwise, Shinsaku Takasugi will run away,�� Zhang Heng exined sincerely.


    ��Since you don��t care about the danger, then I, as the captain of the first strike team, have no reason to retreat as well!�� Okita Soki was a young man, and he was unwilling to fall behind. Besides, he witnessed Zhang Heng��s swordsmanship, and he too got very excited about it after admiring him. So the two changed directions. Instead of running towards the main entrance, they ran to the side door. Their actions immediately caught everyone��s attention in the tea house, and many were caught off-guard, especially the Choshu and Satsuma samurai who chose to stay behind.


    The elder samurai��s previous polite smile was gone from his face. Now, they were reced by eyes that were filled with rage.


    ��Hey, asshole! Damn it! How dare you undermine our authority?!��


    While he yelled, he raised his katana and rushed towards Zhang Heng and Okita Soki, while the other samurai followed behind him, grunting and throwing curses at the same time.


    ��Great timing!�� Okita Soki was thrilled when he saw the enemies charging at them.


    It had been a long time since the Ikedaya Incident that he��d felt this excited. Although he had been battling for a long time, the sudden secretion of adrenalinepletely nullified his pain and fatigue. The katana in his hand never felt so light before.


    He was at his peak right now!


    Seeing that the enemies took the initiative to attack, Okita Soki would bring out his best to defeat them. So, he instantly employed the skill he was proudest of-a three-stage charging strike, the Seigan no Kamae. The tip of the katana was pointing at the bottom right direction. From there, Okita Soki would smack it down abruptly to stop the opponent��s strike. After that, he would lift the sword with all his might and sh his opponent with lightning speed. At that time, the opponent would be left defenseless for a split second, as if killing them without them putting up a fight.


    The older samurai was considered an experienced warrior. He had encountered all kinds of opponents, and although he knew these two men before him were mighty, he was somewhat confident that he could defeat them. As long as he managed to block their attacks a few times, his allies behind him would charge and kill them. By that time, the massive mound of pressure he was experiencing would be reduced by a lot. Even if it were not easy to win the fight, at least he wouldn��t be banished to the losing side.


    Dreams were always perfect, but the reality was crueler than he thought. He did not even get to see how the young man in front of him move. After a second, the world around him began spinning wildly. Thest question that crossed his mind was why the trees in the courtyard were nted. After killing an opponent, Okita Soki did not feel much excitement because nearby, Zhang Heng had also killed an enemy with a clean strike. This round could only be considered a tie at best. He did not even know the name of the man he just killed. To him, he was just an unimportant character.


    ��Come and kill me!!! Do it now,�� Okita Soki eagerly darted around, seeking out his next prey. ��Don��t forget our main goal.�� Zhang Heng saw that Okita Soki was enjoying ughtering the enemies. He could not help but remind him about their task on hand.


    ��You��re right. Only by eliminating Shinsaku Takasugi can the world returns to its peaceful state.�� Okita Soki agreed with Zhang Heng��s point of view. Both of them continued to battle for a little longer and defeated the samurai who stayed behind. Tobaku supporters in the tea house gradually reduced in numbers to the point that they could no longer stop the two of them.


    Zhang Heng killed thest enemy that was closest to him and rushed to the side door. He then raised his head and looked out the tea house, quickly lowering down his head again.


    There was a gunshot!


    Before the Satsuma Domain samurai managed to draw their katana at the alley to ambush Zhang Heng, their throats were slit when he charged at them. And Okita Soki was following right behind. After dealing with the two annoying flies, Okita Soki��s face flushed red from the vigorous exercise, and he could not help but start hacking away.


    ��Are you okay?�� Zhang Heng remembered that the young man beside him had a cough like Shinsaku Takasugi, but Okita Soki seemed to be in a rtively better situation.


    ��It��s not a problem. I have this sickness since I was a child. I need to take it easy.�� The Okita Soki was not bothered by it. He then added, ��It��s okay if I don��t rest. It��s important to go after them.��


    Zhang Heng was worried about him.


    ��You can rest for a while. I want to confirm their current location as well.�� After he said that, he climbed up to a machine nearby and actively searched for the positions of Shinsaku Takasugi and Kirino Toshiaki. Soon, he saw the samurai who escaped from the tea house were divided into two groups, one of the group was heading to the west and the other to the east.


    Shinsaku Takasugi should be hiding in one of the groups.

 Chapter 572 - Tonight, Your Opponent is Me

    <strong>Chapter 572 Tonight, Your Opponent is Me</strong>


    As Zhang Heng observed the whereabouts of Shinsaku Takasugi on the roof, Okita Soki didn��t have a long time to rest because the remaining of the samurai from the tea house were going after them. Okita Soki��s back was against the wall, and he only had seconds to catch his breath. With determination, he turned around and engaged the samurai again. The Tachi in his hand howled in the air, orchestrating another brutal baptism of blood.


    Zhang Heng jumped down from the roof, swiftly shed to the left and right, and killed two enemies in one breath. Having managed to help Okita Soki clear the enemy wave, he told him what he saw earlier.


    ��What should we do, shall we separate to go after them?�� Okita Soki asked.


    ��No, I already know which team Shinsaku Takasugi is in!��


    The fact that Zhang Heng was far away from, and it was night, there was no way to get a clear look at them. No matter what happened, Kirino Toshiaki, the bodyguard, would definitely not leave Shinsaku Takasugi��s side. Besides, he was taller than most people, making him easy to spot in a group. That was how Zhang Heng found out the whereabouts of Shinsaku Takasugi.


    ��Great, let��s rush over!�� Okita Soki��s eyes were irritated by sweat, and it seemed something was stuck in his throat as well. He looked ufortable, and he coughed twice. On a night engulfed with blood and mes, Okita Soki did not notice the taste of blood in his mouth.


    ...


    Shinsaku Takasugi had to admit that he underestimated the Shinsengumi this time. It wasn��t just their mightybat power-the most important thing was that he misunderstood Zhang Heng��s identity, thinking he was a secret agent of Shinsengumi. Otherwise, it was hard to exin where he learned martial arts. And why did the Shinsengumi aid him the moment the samurai in the tea house attacked?


    Gabriel was also on the escape team. Although he exchanged clothes with a samurai from the Choshu Domain, the samurai��s haori looked funny on him, especially how it didn��t seem to fit him at all. Gabriel could only put the haori on his body instead of wearing it. Running and panting, he wiped the sweat off his brow, looking very, very helpless. He was the one that hired Zhang Heng as a trantor. His original trantor fell ill, and he had to stay in Osaka. It was an emergency, Logically speaking, the Shinsengumi couldn��t have nted someone by his side in advance. Besides, Gabriel was cautious. Before hiring Zhang Heng, he��d been observing him for some time, and after seeing Zhang Heng talking with other Western businessmen about work, he finally hired him as his trantor. Initially, he just wanted Zhang Heng as an expandable tool. He did not expect him to cause such disastrous consequences. In short, whether Shinsaku Takasugi or Gabriel, both now believed that Zhang Heng was a member of the Shinsengumi or at least a shogunate member. Even in their wildest dreams, they would never have thought Zhang Heng was here tonight for a katana.


    Shinsaku Takasugi was first to flee because of his special status. When Okita Soki told his enemies about his intention toe here, he was already to flee the tea house whether the Shinsengumi��s reinforcements woulde here. Unfortunately, his health would pose a big problem. When he first entered the tea house and chatted with Gabriel, he seemed fine. Now, he could not hide it anymore. After running for a few steps, he started to pant.


    However, Shinsaku Takasugi refused the offer of help from others. He gritted his teeth and insisted on continuing to run. After running for a while, he tripped and fell to the ground. His arms and palms were bleeding. And he was embarrassed by it. No one thought that the legendarymander who fought against the shogunate would be weak after a year.


    Everyone who witnessed this scene could not help but think that this was the end of a legendary hero. Kirino Toshiaki had a rare look of worry on his face. He then said to the Choshu Domain��s warrior next to him, ��Go and look for a litter.��


    Gion was a famous ce for entertainment in Kyoto. It was very lively every night. Usually, there would be many influential individuals who came to this ce, meaning it wasn��t that difficult to look for a litter. In order to confuse their enemies, they decided to divide the troops into two groups. That was why Shinsaku Takasugi chose not to leave in a litter.


    But now, his physical strength had reached its limit. It was pointless keeping his whereabouts a secret anymore. At their current speed, their enemy had enough time to kill another team and catch up with them afterward.


    But at this time, some of them were still feeling hopeful and said, ��Maybe both of them have been killed by our people?��


    Kirino Toshiaki looked back in the direction of Ukichi, shook his head, and said, ��If those two are dead, someone will put out the fire immediately.��


    But the reality was that the fire in the tea house was getting bigger and bigger, and it even rmed the building next door. The two samurai drew their katana and forced a man who came here to have fun and drink to get out of his litter. And then, they worked together to put Shinsaku Takasugi in.


    ��Get out of here quickly!�� Kirino Toshiaki told the bearer.


    His tall figure and his temperament made the bearers absolutelypliant to him. They lifted the litter obediently and moved in the direction that hemanded. Kirino Toshiaki was about to follow the litter, but he stopped moving after a few seconds when he turned around and saw the young man on the other side of the street. Thetter looked terrible. There were several wounds on his arms and calves. The haori on his body was soaked in blood and stuck to his chest. However, his eyes seemed to burn with determination.


    ��Keep up with our lord. Let me take care of the threat here.�� Kirino Toshiaki said in a deep voice to the rest of the people around him.


    Several samurai warriors, including Takeuchi looked at each other. They did not say anything, running immediately to catch up with Takasugi��s litter. Although Kirino Toshiaki stood alone in the middle of the street, he acted as if he had thousands of soldiers standing behind him. He then raised his head and said, ��Okita Soki?�� ��Hmph!�� Okita replied and drew out the katana from his waist. He killed so many enemies tonight that even his scabbard was covered in blood. The blood dripped down from the tip of the katana to the ground. His face was also stained with bloodthirst.


    ��No matter who you are, you will die tonight if you stand in my way!��


    ��Then it depends on whether you are good enough to kill me,�� replied Kirino Toshiaki indifferently when he heard the words, his right hand slowly reaching out to his waist to draw his Juzumaru.


    Just then, a voice came from the roof in front of him, ��You are my opponent tonight.��


    Zhang Heng turned to face Okita Soki. ��Go after Shinsaku Takasugi, and leave him to me. If you do that, we can consider the n we discussed asplete.��

 Chapter 573 - Chips

    <strong>Chapter 573 Chips</strong>


    Kirino Toshiaki knew that the soldiers protecting Shinsaku Takasugi were no match for Okita Soji. Still, when the guy on the roof appeared, he no longer had the energy to stop the Shinsengumi guy.


    Zhang Heng��s presence alone had ced him under tremendous pressure.


    Kirino Toshiaki could not remember thest time he felt this tense. Even the slightest distraction amid the ensuing fight might cost his life.


    On top of that, he was also a little nonplussed that he met two of ��his own kind�� on the same night.


    Never mind the Shinsengumi; vassals of the Bafuku, who had been chasing down and killing anti-bafuku samurai��even Kido Takayoshi nearly lost his life in the Ikedaya Incident. Sure, Okita Soji was still young, but he was the Shinsengumi��s best swordsmanhe couldn��t have spilled less blood than Kirino Toshiaki. The other person, on the other hand... The name Yuta Abe was unknown to Kirino Toshiaki.


    He had never heard of this person before, and they had met for the first time tonight. This Yuta guy came to the tea house as the French merchant��s trantor, and Kirino Toshiaki made a rare mistake of failing to recognize him as a threat.


    But as they were leaving the tea house, Kirino Toshiaki spotted the fight in the courtyard. He could tell that the man had fought many battles and looked like he must��ve lost count of the people he killed. In fact, this Yuta Abe could very well be the most experienced soldier among the three of them.


    How was it that no one knew about the existence of this man?


    Nevertheless, this wasn��t the time to be getting to the bottom of such matters because Zhang Heng had just jumped off the roof.


    When two skilled individuals engaged in battle, attacking the enemy from a high vantage point was a rare course of action, not unless it was an ambush-doing so may grant them an advantage of extra gravitational potential energy. As a result of not moving mid-air, the person would suffer the disadvantage of being passive.


    Kirino Toshiaki waited until Zhang Hengnded on the ground before drawing out the Juzumaru on his waist.


    Under the moonlight, the body of the Juzumaru let out an icy glimmer, a drastic juxtaposition to the Buddhist rosary wrapped around its hilt. Yet, they perfectly fused to achieve a remarkable bnce-much akin to the cycle of life and death.


    Kirino Toshiaki spoke first, and his words were neither swift nor slow. ��I began training when I was fifteen, did 8,000 strikes with the bokuto every day. After ten years, my skills on the sword improved drastically, and in another five years, I obtained this sword from Master Inoue and killed forty-four enemies.


    ��...Koyama dojo, Yuta Abe, borrowed this sword from the Take-no-g��dian Dojo,�� responded Zhang Heng with a simple introduction.


    Kirino Toshiaki did notment and said nothing more, raising his sword as in response.


    Kirino Toshiaki��s style originated from Jigen-ryu, a traditional school of swordsmanship unique to the Satsuma Domain emphasizing charging headlong, using momentum to defeat the enemy-a style both bold and fierce. If the Tennen Rishin-ry�� was the Shinsengumi��s choice of kenjutsu, then the Jigen-ryu had to be the sword technique most favored by the venerable samurai.


    Kirino Toshiaki lifted the Juzhumaru over his right shoulder and swung it at Zhang Heng. With the increasing momentum of his body, he locked onto the target. Back then, this move would overwhelm his enemy, who would turn retreat and evade, thus falling into Kirino Toshiaki��s trap.


    Once the enemy took a step backward, they would find their positions bing even more passive, and Kirino Toshiaki��s attacks would continue like a tide, one wave after another until the enemy descended into a confused frenzy. It was at this moment that death was determined.


    Zhang Heng did not fall into the snare, not even backing down once against Kirino Toshiaki��s unyielding strikes. Instead, he met his enemy��s sword with his own.


    ��Good!�� Kirino Toshiaki shouted, unsurprised, and delighted


    Jigen-ryu was no jest to frighten people. In fact, Hanjiro Nakamura spent ten years training day and night to improve his strength and speed. Ordinary swordsmen would never be able to parry his blows. Unless one was an expert at determining the severity of strikes, chances were that the weapon in hand would be knocked off.


    Hence, this move was no ruse, but an honest and upfront open-n.


    However, this dual swordfight turned out to be way beyond Kirino Toshiaki��s expectations. The guy he was fighting actually received his full-blown assault, and although a little strained, Zhang Heng managed to pull out his wakizashi to block the attack at thest minute.


    Stopping the back of the assailing sword at thest moment as it was bouncing towards his shoulder?


    Zhang Heng, too was a little surprised at himself.


    His persistence in maintaining fitness and the long hours he spent training did not go to waste. With the advancement of science and research, the modern-day diet became more nutritionally bnced, and the human physique was far more robust than people of a decade ago. In this quest, Zhang Heng��s foundation was superiorpared to the people of this period, and it was rare to encounter an opponent that could subdue him with strength alone.


    Of course, he had not fought any battles as fierce as this one, and his physique had weakened a little. But undeniably, Kirino Toshiaki��s training for the past ten years had not been for nothing. In fact, he overpowered every opponent Zhang Heng had encountered before.


    Despite the discouraging odds, Zhang Heng did not panic��the stronger the enemy, the more valuable the lesson. Most importantly, it would greatly help in improving skills. In gaming terms, fighting bosses and elite monsters meant earning more experience than fighting small, insignificant enemies. Zhang Heng had challenged so many dojos, yet, what he gained could neverpare to tonight��s battle. After this, he would need to take this experience back with him and slowly digest it.


    Upon realizing that he was at a strength disadvantage, Zhang Heng decided to change his approach, moving more actively while his footsteps grew more rapid. In Kirino Toshiaki��s eyes, it was not a smart move. Kirino Toshiaki could see the effect all the continuous high-intensity fighting had on Zhang Heng. Moreover, thetter had sustained multiple injuries. It would not end well for him if they were to embark on attrition warfare.


    In fact, the pair dueled for a while but came to a draw. Zhang Heng took a step back and then raised his sword to his eyes, using the moonlight to size up the chips on the de. The uchigatana he held might not be as valuable as the Tenka-Goken, but it was not too bad either. During the battle at the tea house, there were not so many chips on the de. But after only ten strikes against Kirino Toshiaki, the chips had more than doubled. The Juzumaru in Kirino Toshiaki��s hands were just too sharp.

 Chapter 574 - Annie-ryu

    <h4>Chapter 574 Annie-ryu</h4>


    Since Zhang Heng was dealing with Kirino Toshiaki, Okita Soki soon caught up with Takasugi and his gang. At the same time, only four samurai were now left beside Shinsaku Takasugi. It was true that there were numerous Tobaku Supporters in Kyoto, but none of them were reliable. So these four were thest armed personnel that Takasugi had for protection.


    The Choshu Domain��s leading samurai harrumphed with conviction to Shinji Takeuchi, ��Takeuchi, I will leave you now to protect the lord!��


    Shinji Takeuchi gritted his teeth. ��I don��t think it��s a good idea that we keep running. So let��s fight themon enemy together! He has endured a fierce battle. We might just be able to defeat him.��


    The leader shook his head. ��The lord��s safety is our priority. If there��s no one to follow the litter, the group of bearers will definitely leave our lord behind!��


    After hearing what the leader said, Takeuchi was speechless. In the end, he could only do what was asked of him. With him following the litter, those bearers had no choice but to continue carrying it.


    But after taking a few steps, Takeuchi heard angry shouts of his allies behind him and the sh of weapons. At that time, he knew they had to be fighting the Shinsengumi kid named Okita Soki. He had been killing everyone that attempted to stop him tonight, and only one goal was in his minde what may, he had to send Shinsaku Takasugi to his maker tonight. Anyone who dared cross his path was an enemy.


    Seeing how the three enemies from the opposing side were rushing forward, Okita did not retreat but charged at them instead. He swung his katana before the three encircled him, the swordnding on an enemy��s chest. However, thetter knew what Okita��s goal was. Not only did he not lose hisbat effectiveness, but he became even more courageous.


    The wounded man transformed into a wild maniac upon receiving Okita��s heavy blow, rushing towards Okita with his katana, swinging his wakizashi at the same time. ��Shogunate bastard! Die!!!�� His two allies also took the opportunity to attack Okita as well. Okita was extremely calm in the face of such peril, the corner of his eye-catching the trajectory of the three katana aiming at him. After that, he pulled off what was a precarious move.


    He first let go of the Tachi that was stuck in the enemy��s body, then stepped half a step back to dodge the attack. Without hesitation, he charged at his enemies once again, reached out to his Tachi, swung it vigorously before his opponent��s wakizashi attacked him.


    This time, he used his strength very well. Not only did his Tachi manage to cut into the enemy��s flesh, but he even cracked through a few ribs. However, there was a master samurai among the two remaining enemies. While Okita was dealing with another enemy, he stabbed him in his calf.


    At this point in the battle, techniques were no longer that important anymore. Willpower and determination were the two factors that would determine the winner of this battle. The man with the knife in his chest was obviously expiring soon. He reached out and grabbed Okita Soki��s leg as he fell to the ground, trying to create an opening for his allies to kill Okita.


    Presently, Okita seemed to have given up on defense. He bore the price of letting his enemy sh his left arm, rushing to stab the opponent in the throat before another enemy swung a katana at him. After that, he beheaded the man holding on to his thigh. Now, there was only one enemy left.


    Okita Soki prepared himself for the final battle. Thest remaining enemy was stunned by his overbearing aura, his hands trembling slightly as overwhelming fear engulfed him. Among the three enemies, this was the one with the leastbat experience. After witnessing the tragic scene, he seemed to have lost all will to fight.


    His allies had been ticked off one by one, causing him to lose his battle intent entirely. The strong pir of faith in his heart was shaken to its core. Just as he hesitated, wondering if he should escape to save his life or uphold the samurai��s honor, Okita swung his katana and struck first. At that time, the winner had already been decided. Indecision was a big taboo in any battle.


    Okita Soki effortlessly sent his enemy��s katana flying away. It was so easy, even he was surprised. He then swung his Tachi at the enemy for the second time, and that was when he heard the frail voice of the enemy begging for dear life. Unfortunately, the continuous onught of wonton violence and blood seemed to have invoked something evil buried deep within Okita Soki.


    Ignoring his enemy��s pleas and cries to spare his life, Okitanded a lethal blow on his enemy with no respite. When that was done, he tended to the wound on his leg and quickly and went after the litter.


    His blood-washed appearance made pedestrians scream, but General Manager Okita ignored the irrelevant guys. There was only one goal in his mind.


    Soon after, Okita managed to catch up with the litter. Immediately, the bearers knelt and begged for mercy. Okita lifted the curtain with the tip of his katana, and lo and behold, discovered that no one inside. The Choshu Domain��s samurai were gone as well.


    ...


    On the other side of the street, the battle between Zhang Heng and Kirino Toshiaki had reached its climax. To drain the enemy��s stamina more effectively, Kirino Toshiaki changed his previous valiant and fierce fighting style to a more defensive one. He skillfully executed his attack��s angles and timing, forcing Zhang Heng to make more moves than necessary. The two were fighting on the street, and it attracted the attention of many passers-by. Compared with Okita Soki��s battle, Zhang Heng��s battle was obviously a lot more elegant. After they fought for some time, neither of them got hurt. It seemed more like a gentleman battle. However, only experts could see that this battle was actually far more dangerous than Okita��s battle. There was not much difference between their strength, which meant the battle would be broken down into smaller pieces and would emphasize handling details. It was one fight too close to call.


    So far, Kirino Toshiaki was undoubtedly on the winning side. One of them had the speed advantage, and the other one held the edge in power. Hence, they could be considered as standing on equal ground. However, Kirino Toshiaki had one of the five best katana in the world, and it enabled him to gain the upper hand in this battle. On the other hand, Zhang Heng��s katana was already riddled with cracks. It wouldn��tst any longer than a couple more hits.


    The bnce of the battle would eventually lean towards Kirino Toshiaki.


    Zhang Heng seemed to be aware of this, as well. Instead of changing the way he fought, he took his offense up a notch. Finally, the katana in Zhang Heng��s hand could no longer withstand another heavy blow; one-third of it was sliced off by Juzumaru. And the broken de flew out obliquely and stuck on the door of a nearby tea house. Kirino Toshiaki��s expressionless face finally showed a touch of joy.


    Since Zhang Heng��s weapon was broken, it would definitely affect him greatly no matter what sect he was in. After that, Zhang Heng��s fighting style started to change drastically. It transformed from a Niten Ichi-ry�� to something he had never seen before. There was no fixed attack pattern, and it seemed that he was just waiting for the opportunity tond a heavy strike on him. Every single strike was life-threatening.


    ��I have seen your sigen-ryu. Next, it��s your turn to see Annie-ryu.��

 Chapter 575 - A Ghost

    <h4>Chapter 575 A Ghost</h4>


    Almost twenty days had passed since Zhang Heng entered this dungeon. He had challenged many dojos and learned many skills from them. Now, he could switch between sword techniques ording to the circumstance. However, during life and death situations, people would still choose to rely on their instincts.


    Here, Zhang Heng��s instinct was the swordsmanship he learned from the ck Sail quest. Honed by fighting with other pirates as a pirate for ten years, the so-called Annie-ryu was actually a sword technique that did not belong to any sect. It relied solely onbat instinct and experience.


    After Zhang Heng��s katana broke off, he took the initiative to get closer to Kirino Toshiaki, hoping to narrow the gap between them. The battle became more perilous, and at the same time, their reflexes were being put to the test.


    When it came to the speed of his reflexes, it had to be Zhang Heng��s forte. He had experienced more battles than Kirino Toshiaki and knew how to capture the right time tond a critical hit. There was no one better than him


    �C it was something Zhang Heng relied on when he was in a life and death situation. Kirino Toshiaki, fifteen years older than Zhang Heng, had better swordsmanship and was physically stronger than Zhang Heng. The age, however, meant that the speed of his reflexes might have declined over the years.


    At this critical moment, though, he still managed to remain calm. Since he could no longer mount a defense, he turned to the offense again. The only thing on his mind right now was that he had to fight to save his life. Since he was still conscious, he had to look for every opportunity tond a critical blow on Zhang Heng by using his Juzumaru. And at the same time, he would wait for the chance to increase the distance between him and Zhang Heng.


    Both were trying their hardest to fully utilize their specialties while looking for each other��s weaknesses. Kirino Toshiaki was considered the most potent adversary that Zhang Heng had encountered in this quest so far. It was also the battle he enjoyed the most. For now, neither could take advantage of anything.


    However, as time went by, Zhang Heng had be more and more familiar with Kirino Toshiaki��s moves��the way he struck and his strategy was made known to Zhang Heng bit by bit. On the other hand, Kirino Toshiaki had just gotten used to Zhang Heng��s Niten Ichi-ry��. Unfortunately, Zhang Heng changed to a new fighting style in a blink of an eye. This time, he had be more elusive. His swordsmanship was something the Japanese had never seen before, leaving for a very confused Kirino Toshiaki.


    At this time, Zhang Heng finally his counterattack xon. The katana in his right hand initiated contact with the Juzumaru, blocking Kirino Toshiaki��s attack. Meanwhile, his wakizashi stabbed Kirino Toshiaki��s lower ribs.


    Kirino Toshiaki realized that he was in grave danger. Instead of pressuring Zhang Heng, he withdrew his Juzumaru decisively and attempted to sh Zhang Heng��s left wrist-he was trying to minimize the injuries that Zhang Heng was about to inflict. In the process, however, he sensed something wasn��t right. Zhang Heng had to be pretending that he was going to stab him in the lower ribs. Apparently, Zhang Heng must��ve predicted his fighting style a long time ago, waiting for an opening, and shed Kirino Toshiaki with his katana when the time was right.


    Kirino Toshiaki immediately stepped back, but it was toote��the two drew apart again. However, Kirino Toshiaki��s right hand was bleeding, where on the groundy two severed fingers.


    Zhang Heng��s strategy was to change the way he fought in a short period. He had taken advantage of Kirino Toshiaki��s slower reflexes. Simultaneously, he was also deliberately tempting Kirino Toshiaki to go back to his previous fighting style. In the end, Zhang Heng was rewarded with an excellent yield.


    Kirino Toshiaki could no longer hold Juzumaru with a hand left with three fingers and was forced to hold his weapon with his left hand. But his left hand was definitely not as flexible as his right. He would not have any problem if he were fighting ordinary battles, but now that he faced a formidable opponent like Zhang Heng, a disadvantage like such cost him the winning spot.


    Looking at the severed fingers on the ground, Kirino Toshiaki finally put up an expression on his poker face. However, the expression was not despair or fear but rather a relief.


    He opened his mouth and said in a low voice, ��I can finally show my gratitude to my Master Saigo Takamori today. It��s a pity... I will never see the new era you promised.�� After that, he raised his Juzumaru again. He then nodded at Zhang Heng and said, ��Come on, I��d rather die in your hands than in the hands of some fool.�� ��As you wish.�� Zhang Heng held on tightly to both of the weapons in his hands.


    Okita Soki knew that he was cheated by the enemies when he drew the door curtain. However, he didn��t overthink it. Shinsaku Takasugi was in horrible condition. There was a high chance that he could no longer walk on his own, the reason why they were willing to rob the litter and risk being exposed. Besides, only one samurai left to protect Shinsaku Takasugi, which meant he needed to carry Shinsaku Takasugi on his back.


    Soki recalled the split road he encountered along the way, and he turned around to head there. He soon made a new discovery. At one of the intersections, he saw a fresh blood poolShinsaku Takasugi appeared to be in a worse condition than he thought. Instantly, he went after them by following the trail of blood.


    He had left Gion, and not far away was the residence of Tsu Domain. Tsu Domain belonged to the shogunate, and it was unlikely that Shinsaku Takasugi would ask for their help. However, a house belonged to the Hiroshima Domain on the other side of the street-many in Hiroshima Domain were quite close to the Tobaku supporters. Although the Shinsengumi��s wasn��t influential enough in Kyoto to break into a samurai��s house, Okita Soki would never let Shinsaku Takasugi get away anymore. Hence, he decided to climb the wall to enter the house.


    As soon as hended, someone was waiting to attack him. Fortunately, Soki had anticipated the sneak attack, managing to block the attack the moment it struck.


    With the help of the moonlight, he could see the opponent��s face clearly. It was a young samurai that was about his age. He was thest samurai tasked to protect Shinsaku Takasugi. Seeing that the sneak attack had failed, the opponent soldiered on and continued to attack Soki. He wanted to turn the situation to his advantage.


    His swordsmanship bettered most of his peers in all fairness, but he was still iparable with a master like Okita Soki. When Soki was at his peak state, he could defeat his opponent in less than ten moves. But now, he had consumed too much of his stamina, and he was severely wounded as well.


    As a result, it cost him some effort to win this battle. Soki had to use his signature skill to stab the opponent��s throat with his katana. Seeing blood spurting from the mouth of the young samurai, Soki finally felt exhausted. But fortunately, the battle was finally over now. What he needed to do right now was to look for Shinsaku Takasugi, who was hiding in the house, and stabbed him in his to make sure that he stayed dead this time.


    In fact, Okita Soki wasn��t one to fancy killing people. But in this era, every man was forced to make tough choices.


    He was a rtivelyzy person and was closest to Kondo Isami, the Shinsengumi leader. He followed Kondo Isami from his hometown to Kyoto. Thetter wanted to achieve something great. In the end, they chose to join the shogunate.


    However, Okita Soki��s mind was not at work at this moment.


    Once he dealt with thest samurai, his mind drifted to other ces.


    ��Real headache... How can I see Miss Saya again? Okita Soki had been worrying about this matter for some time now. When the two met for the first time, he forgot to ask her address after a good chatting session. After that, he had ��coincidentally�� crossed paths with her several times, but he still failed to muster enough courage to ask for her address. Sometimes, he was only dared to look at her from afar.


    He also went to consult the most resourceful member of Shinsengumi, Hijikata. Thetter said to him, ��Be brave! Just go and propose the marriage to her father. What she thinks is not important at all.��


    Soki scratched his head cheeks repeatedly after hearing Hijikata��s words. He knew something wasn��t right with the idea, not to mention how he didn��t want to be hated by Miss Saya.


    The next moment, he heard the sound of a bucket falling to the ground.


    Were there more enemies?


    Soki turned around abruptly, tightly clutching his katana, and that was when he saw someone he had been dreaming of.


    However, this time, her innocent, healing smile was reced by one of fear.


    What was she afraid of?


    ��Oh, it��s me. I��m now covered in blood like an evil spirit,�� thought Okita. ��I��m sorry that you��ve to see my ugliest side before I could introduce myself to you.��

 Chapter 576 - A Fruitless Relationship

    <h4>Chapter 576 A Fruitless Rtionship</h4>


    Although losing two fingers meant that Kirino Toshiaki would eventually lose the battle, he had no intention to admit defeat just yet. Instead, he chose to fight to thest minute, defending his dignity as a samurai to the end. As a top master of the Bakumatsu era, once he decided that he would fight till the death, he would tremendously boost hisbat power.


    Kirino Toshiaki shoved away the distracting thoughts flooding his mind. Every strike he made was designed to inflict injuries to both sides. To a certain extent, he made up for the disadvantage of holding the katana in his left hand. Zhang Heng still had the upper hand in this battle, though. As time went by, the wounds on Kirino Toshiaki increased.


    His chest, waist, abdomen, arms, and neck had been stabbed. He applied pressure on the wounds with one hand to stop the bleeding while his other hand still wielded the katana. Unfortunately, he only got weaker over time. Zhang Heng shed his chest again, and Toshiaki straightened his back before falling to the ground unwillingly. Against all odds, the stubborn Kirino Toshiaki stuck his Juzumaru into the ground, attempting to use it as a support to help him to get on the feet again.


    Walking over, Zhang Heng stabbed Kirino Toshiaki��s heart, helping him end the suffering once and for all. He then took a deep breath before pulling out the Juzumaru stuck in the ground. The rosary that was entwined on its hilt was frosty as Zhang Hengid his hand on it. It somewhat soothed his racing heart after the fierce battle. He then scrutinized the Juzumaru.


    Some supernatural powers appeared to have protected this sword. Even after battling for such a long time, not a single dent could be found on it. Looking back at the weapons in Zhang Heng��s hands, they were both dinted and chipped. If the battle had dragged on any longer, both his weapons might just shatter onto pieces.


    Zhang Heng took a good look at it again before putting Juzumaru back into the scabbard. His quest was halfpleted at this point, and he had found a legendary katana that was close to the level of Mikazuki Munechika. Now, he only needed to hone his swordsmanship and see if a better katana could be found. The battle of Gion had finallye to an end. It was unclear what happened to Okita Soki. In fact, Shinsaku Takasugi did not care much if he was dead or not-whether the Tobaku or the shogunate, it made no difference to him who won or lost. Not to mention that the current shogunate��s downturn was impossible to be restored by one person. Even if Shinsaku Takasugi died here tonight, Okubo Toshimichi, Saigo Takamori, and others were insufficient to prevent Taisei h?kan and the Battle of Toba-Fushimi.


    Zhang Heng made an offer Okita Soki could not resist since he needed him to get the Juzumaru. Now that the katana was in hand, there shouldn��t be anything else that required his attention. Suddenly, he remembered that Okita Soki fought beside him tonight. If thetter hadn��te to his rescue, all he could do was flee, and getting the Juzumaru would have been out of the question.


    In the end, Zhang Heng decided to check on him. The bloody battle that went down at Gion sent shockwaves to the public, and bystanders stared at Zhang Heng with fear in their eyes. They were so terrified of him that they took a few steps back each time he approached any of them. It wasn��t like they knew who he was, and he might just kill them if they crossed him.


    After that, Zhang Heng walked to the ce where Okita Soki fought earlier, and he saw three corpses on the road. All were samurai of the Tobaku sect, and each one died had in a different manner of horror. One of them was even without his head. Then Zhang Heng turned to the bloodstains on the ground.


    The whole time training with Holmes saw the art of tracking be a specialty of Zhang Heng, and he hurriedly tried to figure what happened here. Takasugi should have abandoned the litter to buy himself more time, but somehow, Okita Soki still managed to catch up with him. Zhang Heng was about to move forward, but the next moment, he saw a figure holding a katana appearing in the dark.


    ��Who are you?�� Zhang Heng raised his eyebrows and asked.


    The opposing party gave no answer, so Zhang Heng slowly moved his hand to draw his Juzumaru.


    A few secondster, thentern on the side of the road revealed the man��s identity. It turned out to be Okita Soki, who separated not long ago. However, the man looked as if he��d just endured something horrible.


    ��What happened?�� Zhang Heng was a little surprised, ��Did Takasugi run away?�� ��No... I killed him,�� murmured Okita Soki. ��I killed him in front of her... in front of her... I killed someone who lost the ability to fight back.��


    ��Him?��


    Zhang Heng had no idea who he was talking about.


    ��Miss Saya... Shinsaku Takasugi fled to her home. When I got there, she was just about to treat Takasugi��s wounds. I ignored her pleads and killed Takasugi, who happened to be already in aa at that time. I had to knock his father out as well.��


    Okita Soki raised his head and looked into Zhang Heng��s eyes. He looked like he was in great pain. ��Did I... did I make a wrong choice?��


    It was hard for Zhang Heng to answer the question. The conflict between the shogunate and the Tobaku was irreconcble. Their struggle would determine the course of Japanese history. As a member of the Shinsengumi, Okita Soki, even if he did not care about politics anymore; he knew very clearly that the side that he was on.


    Tonight, the two had spent too much energy and paid an enormous price. Okita Soki had to kill Shinsaku Takasugi no matter what, but unfortunately, luck wasn��t on his side tonight. Before the love between him, Miss Saya could even blossom, killing Shinsaku Takasugi in front of her only permanently destroyed their rtionship.


    But to be honest, even if nothing happened tonight, Zhang Heng was actually not too optimistic about their rtionship.


    No matter how beautiful the encounter was, the fact that Okita Soki was captain of Shinsengumi��s first strike team could never change. And Miss Saya��s father was from the Hiroshima Domain. He wasn��t about to let Soki marry his daughter. After all, Soki was the executioner of the shogunate. How was he going to face his rtives and friends if his daughter married someone from the shogunate?


    Besides, Soki couldn��t hide his identity from Miss Saya forever. So, Zhang Heng thought, perhaps this was the best ending for him. Since the two hadn��t officially gotten together, this was the most decisive way to end the ailing rtionship


    Like most lovers, their rtionship was destined to be over before it could bear fruit.


    Only the two would know what it felt like.


    The distress and heartbreak in Okita Soki��s heart were difficult to understand. Zhang Heng could feel the pain and contradiction he experienced but chose to say nothing. He just patted Soki on the shoulder, and said, ��Go home, take a hot bath, find a doctor, get a good night��s sleep, and tomorrow will be a new day.��

 Chapter 577 - Enlighten Me

    <h4>Chapter 577 Enlighten Me</h4>


    Akane Koyama only heard about Gion��s battle when it was almost noon the next day, and it was the same guy called Takizawa Masata who told her about it. He had been loitering outside her dojo for some time now and was filled with excitement and admiration as he rted the story to her. ording to him, it seemed Zhang Heng and Okita Soki had defeated the more than 200 enemiesst night. Not only did Kirino Toshiaki fail to stop them, but it was also rumored that several powerful and influential people were killed in that battle as well.


    Takizawa Masata exined it with color and vividness as if he was at the scenest night. Akane Koyama had already known from Takizawa Takizawa Masata about Zhang Heng��s challenge to various dojos. When the two met, Zhang Heng once mentioned that he wanted to visit all of Kyoto��s major sects. Akane Koyama thought he was kidding. Now, she knew that he was serious.


    Akane Koyama was worried about Zhang Heng��s safety after he secretly challenged so many dojos in the name of Koyama Dojo-it was no wonder Takizawa Masata was so eager to sign up. He wouldn��t be thest one, though. This morning, Akane Koyama met seven people who wished to apprentice under her. It seemed the meeting with Zhang Heng would have to be postponed. It was estimated that what happened at Gionst night would spread even further-it meant that more people would onlye to apprentice at Koyama Dojo.


    Akane Koyama had to close the dojo temporarily, and everyone, Takizawa Masata included, was asked toe again tomorrow. Then she knocked on the door next door, but no one responded.


    Initially, she intended to confront Zhang Heng about this issue, curious about why he would challenge so many dojos and get himself caught in the battle between the Shinsengumi and the Tobaku supporters. However, it turned out Zhang Heng wasn��t at home, prompting her to start worrying. She did not believe a word from Takizawa Masada about Zhang Heng killing hundreds of enemies. No matter how powerful a master was, they had to have a limit. Even if a hundred enemies simply stood there and allowed Zhang Heng to ughter them, both of his hands would eventually be numb.


    Zhang Heng and Okita Soki were only a two-man army. Only God knew how they defeated so many-not to mention that they actually won the battle in the end. Takizawa Mazaki only described how invincible they were but said nothing about how badly wounded they got or how severe their injuries were.


    WC


    After hesitating for a while, Akane Koyama climbed the dojo��s wall and entered Zhang Heng��s courtyard. Fortunately, her worst nightmare of a bruised and battered Zhang Heng lying in a pool of blood in the courtyard didn��t materialize. She pushed the door to Zhang Heng��s house, only to find him sleeping on his bed.


    Zhang Heng had gone to seek a doctor before returning to his house, where his injuries were treated with herbal remedies. Fortunately, most of them were just external, where Kirino Toshiaki caused the most severe wound on his body. After fighting for so long, the adrenaline rush had all but fizzled out, hence the fatigue. Not even bothering to grab a bite of breakfast, Zhang Heng went right to sleep the moment he arrived home safely.


    Akana Koyama was embarrassed when she saw that everything was fine. It was impolite of her toe into his room without knocking on the door first, not to mention that she might be mistaken for other intentions.


    Fortunately, Zhang Heng was still sleeping at this moment, and Akane Koyama attempted a tiptoe, gunning to leave the house gently and quietly.


    However, right when she took a few steps, a familiar voice caught her. ��Miss Koyama? Can you pour me a ss of water?��


    ��No, don��t get me wrong... I didn��t mean that,�� replied Akane Koyama with incoherence, as she was taken aback.


    ��I know you are simply worried about me,�� Zhang Heng went on. He opened his eyes and shed a smile at Akane Koyama, ��I can��t move that well for now, which is why I��ll need your help... ��


    ��I see.�� Akane Koyama took the copper pot and poured a ss of water for Zhang Heng quickly. She was so nervous that she forgot why she came here. She did now know what to do while Zhang Heng drank the water.


    ��Thank you...�� he paused. ��...sorry for all the trouble I caused you.��


    ��It��s okay. I��m d you��re fine,�� Akane Koyama replied in her heart. But halfway through, she realized something wrong. Initially, she came here to ask Zhang Heng how he got so close to the Shinsengumi. If she continued the current topic, she would not ask those questions.


    But fortunately, Zhang Heng seemed to know her frustration, taking the initiative to answer the questions in her mind.


    ��I have nothing to do with the Shinsengumi. I just met Okita Sokist night.��


    ��A random encounter? In Choshu and Satsuma samurai territory?��


    ��Well...�� Zhang Heng pondered for a moment, eventually deciding not to tell Akane Koyama about the French businessman��s conspiracy with Takasugi. Even if Tobaku��s n failed this time, it would not affect the overall situation. In the next few months, Tokugawa Yoshinobu would still return the power to the emperor, and the battle of Toba Fushimi bound to happen in January the following year.


    In the end, the shogunate would bepletely defeated, and a new government would be established. In fact, Zhang Heng did not want to cozy up too much with the Shinsengumi, one that was destined to be dismissed in the end. Thest thing he wanted was to cause unnecessary trouble to Akane Koyama. After what happenedst night, Zhang Heng was thinking to show his goodwill to Tobaku. Forget about Saigo Takamori. During the Satsuma Rebellion, he would have chosen to side with the losers. And in the end, they were all wiped out by the new government. As for Okubo Toshimichi, he died too early. Perhaps Ito Hirobumi would be the right choice?


    Zhang Heng did not tell Akane Koyama about his n. He simply smiled. ��I was there for some other reason.��


    ��Because of that?�� Akane Koyama pointed at the Juzumaru on the table.


    She had also heard about Zhang Heng��s habit of borrowing a katana everywhere he went, but now she finally had the opportunity to advise him. ��Yes, a good katana is the crux of a samurai, but if you are too obsessed over this, your cultivation will be affected. Moderation is the key to sess.��


    ��You are right. I will return all the katana I don��t need tomorrow.�� Zhang Heng nodded.


    Hearing Zhang Heng��s hasty reply, Akane Koyama felt a little ufortable. After that, she did not know what else to say anymore.


    On the other hand, Zhang Heng felt that the rest of the katana was no longer good enough since he acquired the Juzumaru. Unless he came across the five most powerful katanas in the world or something better than Juzumaru, he would ept no more swords even if he were to get it for free.


    When the topic was over, the atmosphere in the room became awkward again. Akane Koyama did not know what to say next. Should she ask Zhang Heng to rest well or not to cause so much trouble in the future? In the end, Zhang Heng broke the silence. ��I heard Kiyomizu-dera has stunning maple trees. We should head there together in the autumn.��


    ��Hmm... Sounds like a n.��

 Chapter 578 - Every Relationship Is Different

    <h4>Chapter 578 Every Rtionship Is Different</h4>


    Zhang Heng and Okita General Secretary both looked like they were seriously injured. Fortunately, their injuries were not life-threatening. After a proper three-day bed rest, he could move around freely again. Two weekster, his physical and mental state fully recovered. That one battle against Kirino Toshiaki actually brought him more gain than challenging all those dojos. During that time, he gave it all he got to absorb what he learned so far.


    Kirino Toshiaki was like a mini-boss in the gaming context that gave out a lot of experience points. Encountering someone like him in the Bakumatsu era was rare. Then, there was another as good as Kirino Toshiaki waiting to challenge Zhang Heng. After waiting another week, Zhang Heng figured Okita Soki should have fully recovered as well. Since they had agreed to a challenge, he went looking for him at his house only to find that Soki wasn��t there. After asking around, Zhang Heng was told that Kondo Isami had asked Okita Soki to take a long break. Instead of resting to make a full recovery, he spent the time going out early in the morning and only returning at dusk. No one knew where he went or what he did.


    Since Zhang Heng had nothing to do, for now, he decided to try his luck and see if he could meet Soki outside his residence, asking those living nearby about the ces Soki frequented. Even after walking around the area, Zhang Heng still failed to locate him. So, he went back to Gion, the home where they met for the first time.


    Zhang Heng remembered a tea stall there, and as expected, Okita Soki was there. Who knew how long he had been sitting here. He stared at the house across the street, but the door remained closed.


    ��A pot of tea, please.�� Zhang Heng told the owner before seating himself next to Soki. Soki forced a reluctant grin, and he wanted to say something, but he only moved his lips, unable to squeeze out the words that he tried to utter.


    ��Have you been spending your day heretely?�� asked Zhang Heng.


    Okita Soki nodded and removed his gaze from the house in reluctance. He looked down, staring at the te of rice cakes that had been left alone for some time.


    ��You two can��t be together.�� Initially, Zhang Heng wanted to convince Okita Soki to give up on the rtionship. However, when he saw how depressed he became, he decided to be honest and speak his mind.


    ��I know.�� Okita Soki��s eyes were dim. ��I don��t expect her forgiveness. I just want toe here to look at her from a distance. Just one look.��


    ��If you insist on investing your feelings into this rtionship that yields no result, you will only bring more troubles to yourself. You will encounter...�� Zhang Heng paused, almost forgetting that Okita Soki would die in May. In other words, the hearty and sincere boy in front of him only had about a year to live.


    This was likely to be thest rtionship of his life.


    Okita Soki coughed twice. ��Hijiakata told me the same thing as well. But... it��s different. Every rtionship is different. Even if I do meet someone I like in the future, she will neverpletely rece Miss Saya in my heart.��


    Zhang Heng was moved by those words, and he fell into silence.


    At this time, the tea house owner served them the tea, and Okita Soki seemed to realize his willfulness. He was a little embarrassed by it. ��I��m sorry, Mr. Kondo told me many times that I��m too emotional.��


    S


    ��There is nothing wrong with being too emotional. If it were not for your feelings, I would have to find a way to escape that night.�� Zhang Heng replied while pouring tea for Okita Soki and himself, ��I heard that your chief gave you a long break?��


    Okita Soki sipped the tea and thanked him. ��Well, I killed Shinsaku Takasugi, but it��s been said that the current situation is a bit different. The higher-ups are considering cooperating with Tobaku supporters. This decision was made confidential, and the director told me he would reward me afterward. Actually, I don��t care about the reward, which is why I asked for a long break.��


    After that, something seemed to cross Soki��s mind. ��Oh, yes, you are here for a friendly duel. I��m avable now. Where should we go? The Koyama dojo?�� ��No need.�� Zhang Heng��s answer was unexpected. ��I want to fight the top master of the Shinsengumi-a man known as the Heavenly Sword, not a sad person trapped by love. For now, you have no value to me.��


    ��I��m sorry,�� Okita Soki apologized, ��I really don��t feel like touching my weapon now.��


    ��When you are fully recovered,e to the Koyama Dojo and find me.�� Zhang Heng finished his tea, got up, and left ten copper coins on the table.


    ��Okay, I won��t break the promise again.�� Okita Soki said seriously.


    Zhang Heng had underestimated the impact of this incident on Okita Soki. It was said that fearing the Shinsengumi��s retaliation, that house�� owner decided to marry off his daughter to someone from his hometown. When Okita Soki knew about it three dayster, Saya had already left Kyoto.


    That day, Mr. Okita sat in front of the small tea stall from the morning until the night. When the owner was closing up, he did not dare to retrieve the stool that he was sitting on. Until midnight, Soki continually gazed at the house with bloodshot eyes, so stubborn he refused to get up and leave.


    After another month, Zhang Heng heard that Okita Soki was gravely ill. When he visited him, Soki had lost a lot of weight. He was only skin and bones on of his body parts, and among other things, his cough had worsened as well. He was still suffering from mild fever too. When Zhang Heng saw him, he was sitting in the yard, looking at an orchid in the corner.


    Okita Soki didn��t notice Zhang Heng walking into the yard. A master like Okita Soki would have noticed him the moment he stepped into the yard. Zhang Heng then sighed secretly in his heart. Soki was deteriorating rapidly, and with his coughing, coupled with the emotional trauma he experienced earlier, he might die earlier than expected.


    However, he seemed quite sprightly now. When Zhang Heng put down the pork he was holding, Okita Soki finally noticed him and said, ��You are one rare visitor.��


    ��I am nearby doing something. I came over when I remember that you are staying nearby here.��


    ��Are you still challenging the dojos in Kyoto? Mr. Abe, you are such a weird person.�� Okita Soki smiled. ��Nowadays, there are legends about you in the streets and alleys of Kyoto. I heard that thanks to you, Koyama Dojo has be very famous, recruiting many disciples.��

 Chapter 579 - Coming As Promised

    <h4>Chapter 579 Coming As Promised</h4>


    Okita Soki rted to Zhang Heng about the recent happenings brewing within the Shinsengumi. It appeared that Kyoto��s public security was worsening by the day, and the general��s behavior was getting more and more ambiguous. The director Kondo Isami and the deputy Hijikata Toshizo were getting increasingly worried. With the rapidly deteriorating situation, rumors that a new government would soon be propped up began to spread widely among the public. The ronin in the group also began to worry about their future. If the new government fell into the Tobaku Sect��s hands, they would definitelye up with everything they had to destroy Shinsengumi since it was the shogunate��s main force.


    While everyone was panicking, Okita Soki, trying to make a full recovery at home, was exceptionally calm.


    He knew how bad the situation was, but he managed to convince himself to simplify the whole thing. Since the director and deputy director were still in discussion, he just needed to execute them as usual. Okita Soki just did not know if he could even swing the Tachi in his hand.


    ��In two months, the maple leaves of Kiyomizu-dera should turn red too,�� Okita Soki blurted to Zhang Heng.


    ��Yes.��


    ��Ah, when the timees, I really want to take a look,�� Okita Soki sighed.


    ��I see.��


    ��Unfortunately, I have lost a reason to go there again.�� A trace of sadness lurked beneath in Okita Soki��s signature hearty smile. Perhaps he saw his destiny from the orchid in the corner.


    ��Get well soon. I heard that Director Kondo and Deputy Director Hijikata are busy seeking a potential partner for you. Your sister Ako entrusted them with your marriage before you left home,�� replied Zhang Heng.


    Okita Soki shook his head. ��You don��t have to lie. I know my body. I am afraid this sickness that gues me is incurable. So, I shouldn��t waste the time of any other woman.��


    Zhang Heng was speechless.


    But then, Okita Soki reassured Zhang Heng. ��Don��t worry; I haven��t forgotten the agreement between us. I will go to you when my health gets better.��


    ��Well, if there is anything at all that you need, get someone to look for me in the dojo.��


    Okita Soji��s health deteriorated faster than expected, and there was a good chance the friendly match with Zhang Heng wouldn��t even take ce. It was a shame that Zhang Heng was unable to fight the top Shinsengumi member in this dungeon. But such was life. Nobody got what they wanted all the time.


    After that, Zhang Heng wasted no more time, quickly building a good rtionship with the Tobaku supporters. Initially, he wanted to look for Konda Isami, but he wasn��t in Kyoto at that time. Since he knew Saigo Takamori, Kido Takayoshi, and Sakamoto Ryoma were going to live a short life, he gave up on looking for these historical celebrities.


    He wasn��t asking for much, anyway. All he wanted to do was protect Koyama Dojo from certain destruction after the new government was established. It could easily be made possible by anyone with a little influence. The new government had a challenging journey ahead of them. Many lost their lives in civil wars and assassinations, where practically none of them had a good ending. Hence, it was a bad idea to get too close to them.


    Besides, Zhang Heng made some time to watch the maple leaves with Akane Koyama at the temple. Everything happening to her now was something she never dared imagine before. Koyama Dojo had been given a new breath of life. Presently, it had be even better than when her father was alive. Nheless, she didn��t know why her joy faded when she heard that Zhang Heng would leave Kyoto next year. When she went to the temple, Akane Koyama��s mood had changed.


    Including the extra 24 hours, Zhang Heng had spent 270 days in this dungeon, equivalent to almost nine months. Besides obtaining the legendary katana, Zhang Heng��s most significant gain from this dungeon was that his Lv3 swordsmanship was finally improving again after a long time of stagnation.


    By the seventh month, however, Zhang Heng could no longer level up his swordsmanship by challenging Kyoto��s dojos. After merging the signature moves of various dojos, he vaguely noticed that he was about to reach Lv.4 swordsmanship.


    Unfortunately, he could not find a way to break through the barrier. At the end of the shogunate era, Kyoto was the best ce to hone one��s swordsmanship. This could be thest chance for him to improve. When he left the dungeon, it would be almost impossible to do it.


    However, there was no one left in Kyoto worthy of fighting him.


    Two of the four legendary samurais had been killed by Zhang Heng, and he even helped Tobaku to kill some of the shogunate��s masters. An opponent like Kirino Toshiaki was indeed hard toe by. Zhang Heng was desperate to meet someone as good as him.


    He thought about going to Edo if he wanted to improve his swordsmanship further-he wanted to challenge someone powerful over there. However, he did not know the consequences if he left the designated location of this quest. Zhang Heng would only do it if it were hisst resort. When he was thinking about it, an old friend came to look for him.


    Okita Soki had put on a light blue haori today. His cuffs had Shinsengumi patterns on them, and this was also his favorite set. Having his hair and beard trimmed, he painted some pastel on his face like one of those geishas to hide away how pale he actually was.


    Early the next morning, he knocked on Koyama Dojo��s door.


    Akane Koyama was shocked to see the frail Okita Soki at her doorstep. Not long ago, she heard that his health had taken a worse turn and that death was inevitable, which was why she had gone to visit him only a few days ago.


    Before he entered the dojo, Soki bowed solemnly at Akane Koyama. ��Can you ask Mr. Abe next door toe over? Just tell him that Okita Soki is here for the appointment.��


    ��Appointment?�� Akane Koyama hurriedly let the ailing man enter the dojo, appearing to have forgotten the friendly duel entirely. After all, the appointment was made six months ago, not to mention the state Okita Soki was in. Let alone a friendly match; he might even have a problem walking. ��I have adjusted my body and spirit to the best condition ording to what I promised him. Mr. Abe and I will have to continue with our friendly duel no matter what.��

 Chapter 580 - Favor

    <h4>Chapter 580 Favor</h4>


    Koyama dojo was not what it used to be. It had way more students now, and after Zhang Heng��s motivational speech, many came in early to train, forcing Zhang Heng, who was just a wall away, to develop the habit of going to bed getting up early. When Akane found him, he had already washed up and was getting just about to go for a run. Knowing that Okita was literally knocking on death��s door, Zhang Heng had long given up hope of fighting a duel with him. Furthermore, in the current state he was in, Okita wasn��t even expected tost one round. Even though Zhang Heng was stuck between levels 3 and 4 and had no way to move past that stage, thest thing he wanted was for Okita to sacrifice his life.


    However, when Zhang Heng saw Okita, he knew that he would not talk the man out of the duel.


    So, in the end, both ended up in Zhang Heng��s little courtyard at Zhang Heng��s request. Regardless of who won, he did not wish for the duel��s result to be made public.


    Okita Soji took the bokuto from Akane but was in no hurry to remove the tachi from his waist.


    He looked at Zhang Heng in the eyes and said, ��Before we start, I have a few questions I��d like to ask you.�� ��Please, go ahead,�� replied Zhang Heng. ��Are you working together with Satsuma and Choshu Domain now?��


    The atmosphere suddenly turned somber.


    Akane appeared to be troubled and was about to speak up when Zhang Heng raised a hand to stop her. ��Yes,�� he nodded.


    ��Of course.��


    Okita Soji��s reaction waspletely unexpected. Instead of being angry and disappointed, he looked relieved. ��I heard simr rumors. I also heard that the deputy leader of Kyoto Mimawarigumi died by your hand.��


    rum


    ��Mm, that��s true,�� Zhang Heng answered. ��So, have youe to avenge them today?��


    ��No, even though we do the same thing as the Kyoto Mimawarigumi, our association is perfunctory. Also, I��m not a perfectionist like the deputy leader.�� Okita Soji shook his head. ��Times have changed; the general has already relinquishedmand and returned imperial rule to the Emperor. However, they are still not satisfied. No one knows what the future will look like, and there��s panic among the people. Many are already seeking ways to escape the country, but because of the strict regtions, no one dares to say it aloud. The truth is, people are already thinking of other ways to deal with it.��


    Okita paused, ��I want to speak to someone who has contact with the Sonno-joi. It��s just perfect that Mr. Abe happens to be well-acquainted with them. It��s because I know that I can trust you.��


    ��You can alwayse to me if you need any help. Are you hoping to get out of Shinsengumi?�� asked Zhang Heng.


    Okita smiled. ��How is my current situation any different from that? I don��t care about the higher-ups�� matters, but I��ve worn this uniform for so long, and I��ve gotten used to it. And why bother wasting energy taking it off when I��m already at the end of my life?��


    Zhang Heng kept quiet and waited for Okita to continue.


    ��... there are two people in this world that I will never stop worrying about. The first is my elder sister Ako. Thank goodness, she��s already married. The other person is Commander Kondo. He was the one who brought me to Kyoto, and he and Hijikata have been taking care of me all this time. I know themander very well. He��s a stubborn man-once he sets his mind on something, he will never change it. If... If the new government is established, I��m afraid he will never submit to those renegades. So, I��m asking you to do something that won��t be easy to do...��


    Okita Soji sighed. ��...should the situation deteriorate to that extent, and if conditions permit, I hope you can help Commander Kondo


    -pull some strings to have themander��s life spared, let him return to his hometown, and perhaps, live out the rest of his life as a farmer.��


    Okita was probably the only one among the Shinsengumi unconcerned about politics. Ironically, he was also probably the most thoughtful.


    His worries were not unreasonable. In fact, they were bang on.


    Zhang Heng, well-versed with the era��s history, knew precisely what was to be Kondo Isami, Shinsengumi��s leader. Even though, for some reason, Kondo was unable to participate in the Battle of Toba-Fushimi, he remained loyal to the Shogunate and returned to Edo after he lost the Battle of K?sh��-Katsunuma to the new government. On top of that, there was also internal conflict within the Shinsengumi. Kondo led the remaining members with their revolt against the new government, but he was captured in Nagareyama, then beheaded in public soon afterward.


    Zhang Heng thought about the request and then decided to be forting with Okita. ��I can only do my best, but there is no guarantee.��


    The fact was, Kondo��s death would be due in April the following year. By that time, Zhang Heng would have already left the quest. He had been swampedtely and found no time to use his extra game opportunity to return to the previous quest. In fact, he had no idea what would happen to this quest after he left.


    However, he could find a way to smooth things over between him and the higher-ups ahead of time and maybe even keep Kondo Isami from dying. But then again, based on Kondo��s personality, even if he was lucky enough to escape death, chances were he wouldn��t retreat to his hometown and be a farmer. There was still the Enkyu Ezo War, the Satsuma Rebellion, and many more.


    But even if Zhang Heng fulfilled his promise and saved Kondo, Kondo��s death after the fact was no longer his responsibility.


    Okita Soji sighed, obviously relieved. ��That��s enough. I never expected you to swear by it or anything like that. I just want to have one less thing to worry about when I leave. There is onest thing I need you to do for me.��


    As he was speaking, he removed the sword at his waist, and as he stroked the de, his face softened. ��This sword is called Kiku-ichimonji, cast by the swordsmith Ichimonji of the Ichimonji School of Bizen Province. It��s seven hundred years old and has been mypanion since I could remember. Unfortunately, our fate has concluded. I want to find a home for it, and you are the best candidate. I believe that, in your hands, it will dazzle with even more brilliance.��


    Zhang Heng was dumbstruck. The Kiku-ichimonji may not be one of the five heavenly swords, but it was also reputed as one of Japan��s greatest. There were rumors on the inte iming that its owner was none other than Okita Soji��though very few would agree to that. Yet, here was Zhang Heng, receiving the famous sword from Okita Soji.


    Okita visited Zhang Heng at the Koyama dojo to make some arrangements for when he was gone. He clearly sensed that he did not have much time left, so he asked Zhang Heng for a favor and to bid the world farewell as a samurai.

 Chapter 581 - The Prettiest Fireworks In the World

    <h4>Chapter 581 The Prettiest Fireworks In the World</h4>


    The cherry blossom trees had shed their flowers, leaving behind only dried and yellow leaves. With the gentle morning breeze, leaves rained down from the tree like a golden shower.


    Mr. Okita raised his cheeks and took a deep breath, savoring the taste of nostalgia showered upon him by the ecstatic environment. He opened his eyes, telling Zhang Heng, ��My sensei is the leader of Tennen Rishin-ry��, and his name is Kondo Sh��suke. When he was neen, he acquired the Mekyo Kaiden. After that, he came to Kyoto with his Kondo Isami. Both of them joined the Shinsengumi at the same time. We participated in the assassination of the former director Serizawa Kami, Hikujiro Uchiyama, and the subsequent Ikedaya Operation. Other than that, we��vepleted many major and minor missions too. I don��t remember how many people I killed, but my swordsmanship got getting better and better. Six months ago in Gion, we fought side by side. But if you treat me the same, I��m afraid you will lose the battle..��


    Okita Soki paused, ��...I had nothing to do when I was sick. Each day, I could only think about all kinds of nonsense to relieve the pain. Among those things were thoughts about my swordsmanship. I almost re-enacted all the previous battles I had been through, and I looked for ways to ovee my weaknesses and improve my skills. It took a long time for me to recuperate. So I��m not lying. I am indeed in the best state of mind and body.��


    ��It just so happens that I have been busy improving myself recently,�� replied Zhang Heng with a nod. ��It seems we can verify each other��s gains in this friendly match.��


    ��Indeed.��


    Okita Soki said no more, raised the wooden katana in his hand and made a move. Instantly, his whole temperament changed. Without the dread that gued him, Okita Soki was radiating with life force and vitality. Nobody would have ever thought he was seriously ill just moments ago. If Kirino Toshiaki was like a tiger from the mountains, the current Okita Soki was like the bright moon hanging in the dark night.


    He tossed his shadow into the river, and it looked like it was reachable.


    ��Be careful, Mr. Abe.�� Okita Soki ced the wooden katana at his side, and at the same time, he began to move. He was as light as a butterfly that flew amongst the flowers, dashed toward Zhang Heng in a blink of an eye. The only thing that was faster than him was the wooden katana in his hand.


    Zhang Heng, on the other hand, remained still and did nothing about the iing attack. However, his eyes never stopped following Soki��s hands. When the wooden katana struck, Zhang Heng quickly caught the katana in a steady move.


    But the next moment, Zhang Heng let out a sigh, and Okita Soki��s wooden katana disappeared from his vision. A secondter, it reappeared again, and itnded urately on the back of Zhang Heng��s sword.


    With Zhang Heng��s sword pinned down, Okita Soki did not waste this rare opportunity and stabbed his opponent��s chest with all his might. Zhang Heng still managed to remain calm in this dangerous situation��the time he spent on the ship during the ck Sail quest helped him survive the attack. When the wooden katana struck at him, Zhang Heng turned sideways and dodged the attack.


    This was just the beginning.


    Okita Soki took the opportunity and bludgeoned Zhang Heng non-stop like his life depended on it. Every strike that hended was better than thest. The fallen leaves on the ground whipped up each time he swung the wooden katana, like an orchestra perfectly synced andposed.


    Zhang Heng knew that Okita Soki was not lying earlier. There were indeed significant improvements in his skillspared to when he met him at Gion that night. If Kirino Toshiaki stood before him now, it was likely that he would not be able to survive more than 20 moves, considering his horrible physical condition at the moment.


    Zhang Heng was very curious about how this top samurai would turn out if he did not die so young. What could he achieve afterward? Unfortunately, no one would know the answer. Thank goodness, though, two other people were able to witness thest dance of this peerless master at the end of his life.


    Akane Koyama held her breath from the first moment Zhang Heng and Okita Soki fought. Since she was a katana practitioner, nothing in this world could be more exciting than the battle brewing before her.


    Zhang Heng and Okita Sokie were perhaps the strongest swordsmen at that time. This friendly battle that they had could be considered as the battle of the era. Though they were slugging it out in her small courtyard, it was a breathtaking sight to her. It wasn��t until yearster that Akane Koyama became a master. Whenever she recalled this battle, she knew she had learned a lot from it.


    After the battle at Gion, Zhang Heng had almost forgotten what it felt like to be pressured by others during a fight.


    Could this be the gap between different talents?


    While he was challenging the dojos in Kyoto, Okita Soki caught up with his skills secretly. No one knew what kind of epiphany he gained when his illness tormented him. Now, the two were standing on the same line again. The most enjoyable thing in this world was topete with someone as good as you.


    Without expressing themselves with words, Zhang Heng and Okita Soki could feel each other��s thoughts. Soki��s eyes lit up like stars in the night sky, and the corners of his mouth curved upwards, revealing the long-lost innocent, hearty smile. Meanwhile, Zhang Heng closed his eyes, clearly recalling the cultivation mantra Akane Koyama told him earlier. And he thought it was useless. As of now, Zhang Heng entered his zone. Although his eyes were closed, his other four senses had be unprecedentedly sharp and sensitive. Okita Soki��s movements were predicted, and his attacks were all blocked by Zhang Heng. Unbeknownst to her, tears fell from Akane Koyama��s eyes. After witnessing the battle, the most moving scene she had ever witnessed, she saw that both sides had amon goal of pursuing what they deemed to be beautiful. She could see that Zhang Heng and Okita Soki were giving it their very all. It was especially true for Okita Soki. Like a moth flying toward the mes of a candle, he couldn��t stop himself, fighting with everystbored breath he had. He fought even if it meant certain death.


    Zhang Heng had also forgotten that he was seeking a breakthrough in his swordsmanship. He was so focused on the battle he did not even hear the system notifications. All he could think of was to defend against Okita Soki��s next attack. His sweat started to evaporate, turning into a steamy cloud as the intense battle raged on. However, a few secondster, his powerful momentum disappeared without any warning. The heavens and earth returned to silence again, leaving only a vast expanse ofnd, cleansed, as if there was nothing. It was at that time; Zhang Heng knew the traces of Okita Soki in this world would remain in this world forever. When he opened his eyes, he saw Akane Koyama was crying.

 Chapter 582 - Present

    <h4>Chapter 582 Present</h4>


    After the friendly match with Okita Soki, Zhang Heng��s Lv.3 swordsmanship had finally broken through to Lv.4. To him, this was like stepping into a new realm. The promotion to each major level was a qualitative leap, not to mention LV4, which was in itself a very rare achievement for anyone. After the upgrade, he could feel that his five senses had been considerably enhanced. Coupled with previous insight andbat experience umted by challenging various dojos, and the foundation built in ck Sail, Zhang Heng finally came up with his sect.


    Tomemorate this battle with Okita Soki, Zhang Heng decided to name the new sect Tendou-ryu. He also gained a new skill called Mind��s Eye, allowing him to keep fighting even when his vision was impaired.


    With the newfound talents, perhaps he could even fill in if there was a job opening for the Daredevil in the future. He pondered about it as he rubbed his chin. He could also feel that his Mind��s Eye had room for further improvement. Perhaps its ultimate goal in the future was to remainpletely unaffected even with all five senses blocked.


    If that was the case, his sixth sense would probably need to be improved to an incredible level.


    This might sound supernatural; a master, the likes of him, could usually sense impending threats. It was instrumental in preventing sneak attacks. However, if Zhang Heng were to rely on his sixth sense to fight, he might have to spend a lot longer honing that skill. He was in no hurry, though. His time in this dungeon wasing to an end, his swordsmanship had been upgraded as he wished, and he had found two legendary katana as well��even if he wanted a higher quality sword, he would not know where to look for it.


    So what about the Kusanagi no Tsurugi, one of the three Divine Weapons?


    Well, the sword was extraordinarily reputable but was mostly used as a ritual tool. Besides, it was ancient, and questionable materials had been used in its forging. This meant it might be unsuitable for actualbat. Instead of being stored in the Kyoto Imperial Pce, it was currently in Atsuta Jungu, and there was no way Zhang Heng could get his hands on it even if he wanted to.


    It was fair to say that the Divine Five Swords were the best swords a yer could get their hands on in this dungeon, and although Scarlet previously spected that there were better weapons here, she had no idea how to find them. Zhang Heng had no intention to force it either. He had already done everything he could. It was simply fated that he could not find them.


    Next, he had to solve a dilemma. ording to the rules of the dungeon, he could only bring one weapon out. He could either choose to grab the Juzurmaru or the Kiku-ichimonji.


    Undoubtedly, it was a tough choice to make.


    Zhang Heng spected that these two katana had to be Grade-C weapons. As for their respective specialties, they could only be identified after an appraisal. As of now, he knew that the Juzumaru had extremely high durability, and the rosary entangled around its hilt was likely used to ward off evil spirits.


    The Kiku-ichimonji, meanwhile, was Okita Soki��s favorite katana. It was lighter but sharper than the Juzumaru and could easily cut a falling leaf into two. Soki��s excellent skills allowed him to fully utilize the katana. With Zhang Heng��s current swordsmanship, this katana would increase his attack speed by 30%.


    These two swords had their own specialties, and it was making him a little hard to decide. Just as he was hesitating, the quest came to its end.


    After that, the Battle of Toba Fushimi broke out as recorded in history. When the nation��s political situation became more and more unfavorable, Okubo Toshimichi and Saigo Takamori decided to embark on a journey to destroy Tobaku. In January that year, the shogunate was defeated several times, ushering in a new era.


    Those people immersed in joy today had no idea what fate awaited them in the future. Per the agreement with Okita Soki, Zhang Heng used the connections he built in Tobaku Sect to meet Kido Takayoshi. Thetter promised that if Kondo Isami was willing to surrender and stopped making the new government his enemy, he would spare his life. However, Isami had to publicly dere that he was dead, and he had to go back to his hometown and live his life out as a peasant.


    Zhang Heng knew Kondo Isami was not going to ept a deal like this. Kido Takayoshi, too knew that Kondo Isami would not agree to the deal. However, Zhang Heng had fulfilled the promise he made to Okita Soki, and that was to find a way for Kondo Isami to live. However, he would not help Kondo Isami decide anything because everyone ultimately had their own destiny.


    After doing these things, the next step was to wait for the day of parting.


    The Cherry Blossom in the yard finally lost all its leaves. Although new shoots would grow in theing year, Zhang Heng could no longer wait for that day toe. Today, he sat in the Koyama Dojo��s courtyard, watching a few samurai practice their swordsmanship while eating grilled fish and pickled radishes.


    Soon afterward, Akane Koyama walked out of the main room after ending a ss. She wiped the sweat from her forehead, took a bowl of red bean soup handed by Zhang Heng. She asked as she took a sip, ��Have you booked the tickets?��


    ��Yes. It��s tomorrow afternoon.��


    Zhang Heng smiled. He told her that he had something to do overseas and that he had to go back there again. And the return date was uncertain as well.


    Now the Koyama Dojo was on the right track. The era of the samurai was over. Sometime after that, the new government would form the Metropolitan Police Department. ording to history, the department trained its officers in different sects and eventually came up with their own-Keisatsu-ryu. After that, they taught the sword technique to others.


    And Zhang Heng managed to alter history by a little. Through his efforts, the little-known sect, Koyama Myoshin-Ry��, was now inducted among Japan��s top ten sects. Later, the Koyama Dojo was also employed by the Metropolitan Police Department as a training ground for its members. In this way, even in the Meiji era, Akane Koyama��s dojo would still get to grow.


    Akane Koyama bit her lip. She had witnessed all those things that Zhang Heng had done for Koyama Dojo during this period. However, it is difficult for her to repay him. She could only silently enjoy the benefits brought by him, and to her, this was uneptable. After a while, she broke her silence. ��Weren��t you collecting swords earlier?��


    ��Oh. I stopped doing that after you reminded me,�� chuckled Zhang Heng.


    ��My father had a katana too, but it is not legendary. I don��t know who made it,�� Akane Koyama said. ��I know it��s iparable to the katana you have, but take it as a parting gift.��


    ��If that��s the case, I will dly ept it.�� Zhang Heng nodded. Although he could not bring this katana out of this dungeon, he epted Akane Koyama��s kind gesture. He reached out and took the sword from her, then drew it out of its scabbard and took a look. As expected, it was ordinary and looked to be less than a hundred years old. Though it was well kept, it wasn��t as hard as the Juzumaru, and neither was it as sharp as the Kiku-ichimonji. Its de seemed dull, and there were no inscriptions left by the swordsmith.


    However, Zhang Heng still epted the katana because he did not want to disappoint Akane Koyama. He got up and bowed to her.


    ��Thank you for taking good care of me during this time.��


    Akane Koyama tried to lift her head, not to let the tears fall out of her eyes. Shen then whispered, ��I will keep the courtyard for you forever. Come back if you have time.��

 Chapter 583 - Katana Appraisal

    <h4>Chapter 583 Katana Appraisal</h4>


    Until thest day, Zhang Heng still failed to decide which katana to bring back to the real world. After thinking for a long time, he decided it would be better to consult a professional. So, he brought his Kiku-ichimonji, Juzumaru, and the unknown katana given by Akane Koyama to Kyoto��s most famous sword house. He had been here to admire their katana before, and he also told the shopkeeper to reserve all the famous katana for him, so the manager and shopkeeper knew who he was.


    When they saw him entering the shop, smiles instantly appeared on their faces. ��Abe-sama, we don��t have any new katana today. What brings you here?��


    Zhang Heng handily gave the little monk five cents to open the door, causing thetter to grin almost to the back of his head.


    ��Ah, I am not here to buy katana today. I want to look for someone to appraise a few katana.��


    The shop manager and the shopkeeper looked at each other andughed.


    ��What��s wrong?�� Zhang Heng asked. ��It��s a coincidence that you are here today. The boss is usually not in the store, and I don��t know why he came here early today, but this is an excellent opportunity! He knows all kinds of swords in the world. From the works of famous swordsmiths to the weapons made by ordinary cksmiths, he can identify their origin with a nce!�� ��Is he that good?�� Zhang Heng was a little surprised.


    ��If you have any questions about a katana or sword, just ask him. Of course, you have to make sure that your de is good enough to capture his attention.��


    ��Don��t worry about that. Please lead me to him.��


    ��Come with me.�� The store manager took Zhang Heng to a tea room behind the katana house.


    A thin old man could be seen making tea there.


    ��This guest here hopes you can appraise his katana for him.�� The shop manager bowed at the thin man.


    ��Thank you,�� he replied, nodding in thanks. The shop manager then exited the house. The old man pointed to the tatami on the ground. When Zhang Heng saw it, he bowed and sat down. During the Tokyo Drift quest, he had spent some time in Japan. At that time, etiquette was not as important, and he could sit as he pleased.


    Since Zhang Heng was in a different era, he realized that he had to learn the traditional Japanese sitting style. The toe joints were stretched as far as possible, the instep and calves were ced on a t surface, where the heel and toes were used as support. It was ufortable, to say the least, and it was said that this sitting posture resembled corporal punishment in China.


    However, ording to the history of China, it seemed like no one sat like that anymore.


    The boss did not talk about helping Zhang Heng to appraise his katana. Fortunately, Zhang Heng was not in a hurry. Since there was still half a day left before the quest came to an end, he just sat there and watched the old man make tea.


    The Japanese tea ceremony was divided along two main lines-matcha and sencha. In fact, both originated from China, where matcha was from the Tang Dynasty, and sencha was from the Ming and Qing dynasties. When they were passed down to Japan, they were furthered developed and improved. It was said that the earliest tea seeds were brought back to Japan by those who studied in China during the Nara era.


    Sen-no-Riky�� was a master, and his Wakei Seijaku had a great influence on theter generations.


    The boss had obviously studied the quintessence of Wakei Seijaku. He lit the charcoal and boiled the water in one go. Then, he warmed the bowl, poured the hand-ground tea powder into the bowl, added some hot water, and stirred the tea with a chasen until bubbles started to form. Intricate and graceful, it was not unlike an art performance. Finally, the tea was poured into two bowls. This was matcha.


    Zhang Heng took one of the boss��s bowls and pointed at its pattern to show his gratitude.


    He then took a sip but couldn��t taste the difference.


    ��You are very patient,�� the boss showed a smile on his skinny face as if he could see right through Zhang Heng��s mind. He then shook his head, ��Let��s talk about the katana.��


    Zhang Heng took out the first katana and handed it to the boss.


    ��Juzumaru.�� As expected, the boss only nced at it, going on, ��...Heian Era, made by Aoe Tsuneji. The de is two feet and five inches in length. The rosary around it belonged to the former owner, Master Nichiren. This was a famous katana that belonged to a Buddhist temple. Unfortunately, it fell into the hands of an executioner. It caused the sword to be hostile. To eliminate its hostility, you have to ce it at a temple for some time.��


    ��You are truly good with katana.�� Zhang Heng then handed him the second sword.


    ��This is the Kiku-ichimonji. You have many good katana,�� the boss remarked, then stroked the de as if it was a fine vase. ��Did you see the quenching marks on it? They are deeper than the ones found on ordinary katana. This technique is called Ichimonji. The Kiku-ichimonji was the masterpiece of the Ichimonji sect. And its maker was from the Kamakura period. His name is Ichi, and he named it Monji. The katana is two feet and four point two inches long. Its most famous owner is Okita Souji. This famous sword has finally found its destiny. Unfortunately, its owner had a short life. If you listen carefully, you can still hear its wailing. A passionate person paired with a passionate katana was nothing more than love.�� After listening to the boss��sments, Zhang Heng fell into silence. After a while, he raised his head. ��What I��d like to ask next is which of these two are more suitable for me.��


    The boss did not answer him immediately. Instead, he said, ��Don��t you still have one more? Why don��t you take it out?��


    ��That one was just a gift from a friend. Although it is of great significance to me, I��m afraid it is not good enough for you to appraise,��mented Zhang Heng.


    ��I decide if the katana is worthy of my time, not you. Do you still want me to appraise it?��


    ��As you wish.�� Zhang Heng finally handed him the ordinary tachi that Akane Koyama gave him.


    ��Well, this tachi is so-so. The one who cast the de is so-so, and the original owner is so-so too. This tachi doesn��t even have a name, and there are no inscriptions on it. Maybe the one who made it felt that it was an embarrassment. I can��t find its origins in books anyway. It is definitely worse than the katana I have in my shop.��


    Zhang Heng did not know what to think. He had told the boss that the Tachi was ordinary, but the old man insisted on appraising it. When he finally got it, he couldn��t stop criticizing it. It was as if he had nothing better to do.


    ��Anyway, this Tachi was given to me by a friend.�� Zhang Heng stretched out his hand, attempting to take it back.


    However, the boss did not immediately let it go. He said, ��In that case, choose this one.�� ��Hmm?��


    ��I said, just choose this one. Juzumaru is Master Nichiren��s katana, and Kiku-ichimonji belonged to Okita Soki. Both of them had crafted their signature on the katana. Hence, these are theirs.��


    Zhang Heng seemed to be moved by his words.


    A katana is only famous because of its owner. It doesn��t matter if it doesn��t have a name. You can give it one. It doesn��t matter if it doesn��t have a history. Just write the history yourself. Besides, you have invested your feelings into this piece. This is your katana.��


    The boss was like a demon, incessantly tempting Zhang Heng to take this katana. ��You don��t want me to bring these two famous katana out of this dungeon, right?�� Zhang Heng somewhat knew the boss�� true identity. So, he decided that he would be honest with him.


    The boss took a sip of his tea and said with a smile, ��This is your choice. I��m only responsible for the suggestions. Don��t regret it after you make up your mind.��


    ��After you have said so much, you can��t bury the fact that this katana is weaker than the other two.��


    ��You know very well that there is nothing perfect in this world. Katana are like people. We all have our sad moments. Some many emperors and generals suffered from losses. The most important thing is that they had help in their most difficult times.��


    ��So... You are saying that I should be the one who makes this katana famous?��


    ��Hehe!�� The bossughed, and all the divine aura emanating from him when making tea was lost. ��The choice is yours. Maybe this katana will help you during your most difficult time?��

 Chapter 584 - Bakumatsu Kyoto (End)

    <h4>Chapter 584 Bakumatsu Kyoto (End)</h4>


    Zhang Heng returned from the Bakumatsu Kyoto quest three days ago. When he received the result of the item identification, he knew that he had been fooled.


    [Name: Common Sword]


    (Grade: F]


    (Usage: de Bone (only one), fruit of the katana shop��s owner in his early days. The maker searched extensively for surplus materials from famed swords, employing tenacious ambition to forge the unparalleled de Bone. However, the quality of the materials themselves was poor, and its casting method very ordinary. But as his firstpleted product, it is pretty good.] The description meant that the person who forged the sword used leftover materials from famous swords and ambitiouslybined them. Unfortunately, the final product was of extremely low quality.


    Zhang Heng expected this to happen. No matter how the boss vaunted about the sword, its workmanship and materials used were something that couldn��t be changed, and it was never mentioned in the history books. In every way, it was inferior to the two other swords, and when the boss justified the sword with the ��young men should go and make history�� excuse, Zhang Heng turned a deaf ear.


    Yet, he eventually decided to buy it because from his long experience in the games��the boss who would only appear at the end of the quest should be on the same level as Einstein in Apollo Training Camp, and Arthur Conan Doyle in Deductive Reasoning.


    The guy was buried rather deep in the questneither Scarlett nor her friends had met him before. Zhang Heng assumed that it had to be the katana shop��s owner because he set off some trigger. Zhang Heng had three swords on him. The battle to obtain the Juzumaru was the fiercest-it spilled from the tea house to the street, and at the end of it, he had to fight Kirino Toshiaki. The battle for the Kiku-ichimonji was more demanding in terms of swordsmanship-defeating Okita Soji, probably the best swordsman of the Bakumatsu period and one determined to wear himself out, was no easy feat either.


    But if you thought about it, it was the third sword, its acquisition of which did not seem to require much effort was the most difficult to obtain.


    Including the extra time he had due to the bug, it took Zhang Heng nine months to assist the ailing Koyama dojo back to life and be known throughout Kyoto. This would have been an impossible undertaking for the other yers who only had thirty days toplete the quest.


    Based on previous patterns, most of the game items were directly corrted with difficulty, especially hidden items��the reason why Zhang Heng decided to bet on the sword.


    However, it turned out to be a dud.


    The bartenderdy seemed to be gloating. She was there when Zhang Hengpleted the exchange with Scarlet. Generally speaking, game items that allowed ess to special quests were quite valuable. Even if Zhang Heng did not use them himself, he could sell them for a good price and earn many points. In every way, it was way more powerful than an F-grade item. This was a massive loss for him.


    After all, once upon a time, he had two C-grade items-simr to the Mikazuki Munechika��yet he chose this ��Ordinary Sword�� over them. All he could do now was ept his losses.


    Zhang Heng counted the points he had umted so far. After the Deductive Reasoning quest, he had around 1200 points. Later on, because he was involved in the battle between the Arc of Light and the Union, he bought a sniper rifle and a sh bullet that cost him 50 points. Right now, he had around 1100 points left.


    When the bartender finished exulting in his misfortune, Zhang Heng asked, ��Remember you told me that you knew a cksmith that forges weapons for the gods?�� ��Mmhmm. What about it?�� The bartender raised an eyebrow at him, looking intrigued. Then she pointed at the ��Ordinary Sword�� and said, ��Don��t tell me you��re thinking of recasting this thing?��


    ��Now I finally understand what the guy meant when he said-someone great helped him to get out of a tough situation,�� sighed Zhang Heng.


    After the disappointment subsided, Zhang Heng reconsidered all possibilities. Suppose the owner of the katana shop bore no malice when he rmended the sword. In that case, there could be only one exnation left��the man obviously knew nothing about Zhang Heng. However, he did know that Zhang Heng had the means to recast the sword and activate the de Bone feature concealed within.


    That also implied that the shop owner and the swordsmith the bartender knew were not the same people.


    ��You better think this through. No one knows what this so-called de Bone��s characteristic actually is. That guy I know charges a hefty price for his service. What��s more, this sword is only a Grade-F item. Why invest so much in ending up with a D or even just an E-grade item? Your losses would be even greater then. Sometimes, nipping your losses at the bud may be the wiser move,�� the bartender warned.


    ��This sword is given to me by a friend, and it contains her emotions. The guy was right; this is my sword,�� said Zhang Heng. ��Which is why I��ve made the decision. We��ll see how it performs after it has been recast. Also, can you ask him if I could pay using game items?��


    Zhang Heng might not have many points on hand, and after the battle between the Arc of Light and the Union, he had collected quite a few game items that weren��t the least practical. On top of that, he received a few more items when he killed the yers�� team to save Meinan. Right now, he had so many game items that it was almost excessive.


    There was always a limit to the items he was allowed to bring into quests. The remaining items in his possession were hard to be put to fair use, and it would be great if he could use them to pay for the recast. ��That guy does have an interest in strange materials,�� said the bartender. ��It wouldn��t hurt to ask...��


    Theits X had stringent de-control regtions. Zhang Heng was not interested in carrying around an F-grade sword, so he simply deposited it with the bartender.


    After that, Zhang Heng gave himself some time off and temporarily stayed away from that strange world, returning to his original position as a college student.


    In the following week, he stayed away from the yers�� forum, attended lectures on time, and yedputer games with his roommate Wei Jiangyang and the others. He never missed his daily training, of course. Above all that, Zhang Heng also downloaded Fate/Grand Order* and made it just in time for Honno-ji��s Rerun. Zhang Heng hit level 648 twice, but even after he took out his Lucky Rabbit��s Foot, there was still no sign of Okita Soji.


    Perhaps their encounter at the dungeon had exhausted whatever fate that bounded them.


    When Chen Huadong erupted in excitedughter, proiming loudly, ��Miss Okita is mine!��


    Zhang Heng was reminded of the boy with a shy smile in Kiyomizu Temple and the brilliant cherry blossoms that day.


    Trantor��s note: Fate/el Zero Order: an online, free-to-y Japanese mobile game

 Chapter 585 - This Is the Answer I’d Like To Hear

    <h4>Chapter 585 This Is the Answer I��d Like To Hear</h4>


    ��Mister, is your mom, my master?��


    Chen Huadong had been getting more and more bored recently. Ever since he broke up with Xu Jing, he had returned to the embrace of the virtual world. He called this a healing process, where he buried his head in FGO, Warship Girls, and Azur Lane nonstop for days and nights. Everyone was impressed by how strong his liver was. As if that wasn��t enough, he also binged watch four harems and two yuri series. Even though his day was full of activities, he didn��t forget to wander around the dormitory. Whenever he saw someone, he would ask if the person was his master. The obsessive behavior caused even Ma Wei not to dare to show up outside of his dormitory anymore.


    This afternoon, Chen Huadong started his daily patrol again. As he walked, he stopped suddenly and stared at Wei Jiangyang, who was browsing for sneakers in front of hisputer. He then fell into deep thought.


    ��What��s wrong... are you so obsessed with my beauty you failed to look away?�� Wei Jiangyang panicked when he realized that Chen Huadong was staring at him.


    However, Chen Huadong let out a long sigh when he heard what Wei Jiangyang said. ��Old Wei, why do you think this world is so unfair? You are not more handsome than me, and you��re not richer than Zhang Heng. Other than the two of them, Ma Wei is also far more mature than you. Why is it that you are the only one with a girlfriend in our dormitory?��


    ��...because I��m not ying three mobile games at the same time?�� Wei Jiangyang raised his eyebrows. ��Zhang Heng doesn��t y mobile games that much as well. Besides, his rotten luck is making him say goodbye to all the gacha games,�� replied Chen Huadong with a shake of his head.


    ��You have to know that Zhang Heng wasn��t actively searching for a girlfriend, and I��m pretty sure he will find one if he puts some effort into it. As for you, you can��t even find one even if you work hard for her. Now that��s is the fundamental difference between you and him.�� Wei Jiangyang kindly reminded, ��A couple of days ago, a girl from the next ss asked for Zhang Heng��s WeChat. And he declined her request without any hesitation.��


    ��...Old Wei, do you really need to shoot me in the head again after my heart is broken?�� Chen Huadongined. ��Actually, you are not that bad...�� Wei Jiangyang realized that Chen Huadong had recently gone through a heartbreak, so he stopped teasing him and startedforting him instead.


    ��Tell me five best things about me now. Quick! One minute. Go!�� Chen Huadong was not going to let Wei Jiangyang off the hook that easily. Now, he was dead serious.


    ��If you fail to say it, it means you don��t love


    me.��


    IIII


    Wei Jiangyang was speechless.


    ��Why do you ask such stupid questions like my girlfriend?��


    nuld


    Zhang Heng put down the ��Finnish Grammar�� in his hand. ��You are not too bad yourself. Although you are not that handsome, I can say you look above average. You are pretty meticulous, you don��t have any bad habits, and you are funny too. Often, when you y League of Legends, you carry your teammates to victory.��


    ��See that. That��s the answer that I��m looking for!�� Chen Huadong��s sorrow turned into joy when he heard what Zhang Heng said to him. Immediately, he put on an ear-to-ear smile.


    ��But... you are always ying games in the dorm. No one could discover you even if you had all those good qualities. I remember you set up a club when you started your freshman year. And you joined the movie club as well. Why haven��t you gone there recently?�� ��Tiger Shark is an online club. We do everything via the inte, like sharing games and anime clips. Besides, there are no girls in the club too. Counting on Tiger Shark to find a girlfriend for me is the same as counting on the Mongolian Navy to regain Hawaii. As for the movie club...�� Chen Huadong sighed, ��It��s even more meaningless. All the seniors there are arrogant and disrespectful. They are there to get a girlfriend as well, and I��m afraid if I stay there, I will be one of them too.��


    ��You post on the inte every day to look for uncensored anime. I didn��t know you possessed such a high-level thinking process.��


    ��Those two things are unrted!�� Chen Huadong said in a huff. ��Relying on their advantage as senior to bully others is wrong! When they find out that a girl has a boyfriend, they will figure out a way to split them up. I��m not like them.��


    ��Oh? Who are those bastards who would do something so hical?��


    ��Forget it; let��s not talk about them,�� replied Chen Huadong with an eager wave of the hand.


    ��Come on. Then, no one can save you anymore. You refuse to socialize even after our lengthy advice. You will keep feeling sorry for yourself in the dorm alone,�� harrumphed Wei Jiangyang.


    Chen Huadong himself felt how hard the loneliness had hit him. He put his hands behind his back. Standing under the clothes hangers on the balcony, he let out a long sigh.


    Zhang Heng thought for a while and said, ��Two days ago, Asuka Hayase told me that she has a female junior of hers who likes anime had just arrived in China and wants to find like-minded Chinese friends to practice her Chinese. Would you like to give it a try?��


    ��What the hell?! Why are you so cruel to me?! I just want to find a girlfriend. I don��t want to develop an unforgettable long-distance rtionship and contribute to the friendship between China and Japan!�� ��Then let me ask Xiao Wu, who stays at the opposite dormitory. He seems to be an ACG fan, too. He is also the vice president of Tiger Shark. I think he can go well with Asuka Hayase��s female junior.��


    ��Don��t, don��t, don��t!�� Chen Huadong became anxious when he heard Zhang Heng��s suggestion, ��...Xiao Wu, he... he, he has someone he likes. I��ll do it. I will consider it as making a new friend. Anyway, I have always wanted to be friends with a real Japanese girl.��


    ��Hasn��t Xiao Wu been single for some time? When did he get a crush... and why do you sound so awkward,�� Wei Jiangyang raised his head and asked curiously.


    ��I will inform Asuka Hayase about it,�� Zhang Heng said, ��Don��t forget your promise.��


    ��I will not let that happen. From now on, I am willing to be a bridge to build a better friendship between the two countries,�� Chen Huadong proimed confidently.


    After hearing the good news, he finally regained his vigor. He was so happy that he decided to stop ying his mobile games. Instead, he went to the library to learn Japanese, and Zhang Heng even rmended him two introductory textbooks.


    ��This guy finally decided to do something right. Although he didn��t talk about it, I can see that he took a big blow from that breakup with Xu Jing. It would be a great opportunity toe out of it, and he could even learn Japanese.�� Wei Jiangyang looked at Chen Huadong��s back as he walked out of the door. He said, ��We are not like you. Ournguage talent is not as good as you. Not only have you achieve the sixth grade faster and 700 points, but you have also learned Japanese quietly. And now you are starting to learn Finnish. Give us a break, man.��


    Zhang Heng hummed casually and sent a message to Asuka Hayase to tell her about it. He then swiped through his contact list and saw Fan Meinan, whom he had no spoken to for some time. He hesitated but still decided not to send her any messages since she told him that she was fine. That was why he did not want to ask the same question again.


    Then, Zhang Heng put his cell phone away and picked up the ��Finnish Grammar�� again.

 Chapter 586 - Riddle

    <h4>Chapter 586 Riddle</h4>


    A peaceful week passed quickly.


    Zhang Heng was flipping through a book about photographicposition in the library this afternoon. He then received a call from Shen Xixi.


    ��Is it convenient to talk now?��


    ��Wait a minute.��


    Zhang Heng got up, left the borrowing area, walked into the safe passage, and nced around. There were only a few freshmen discussing assignments around him, and no one even noticed when he walked past.


    Picking up the phone, he asked, ��What��s the matter?��


    ��I remember you telling me before that you know how to drive?��


    ��Yeah.��


    Zhang Heng knew Shen Xixi wasn��t talking about whether he had a driving license, but she spoke of driving skills.


    ��Can you please help me with something?�� Shen Xixi asked, ��Heard about the news that was circting in the forum recently?��


    ��Sorry, I haven��t been on the forum much this week.��


    ��Oh, if that��s the case, you should take a look at the forum news first. After that, if you want to talk, you cane to the Time Sculpting restaurant in Food Alley to look for me.��


    ��Sounds good.��


    Zhang Heng hung up the phone, opened hisptop, plugged in the USB sh drive that allowed him to hide his IP address, logged into the yer��s forum, and started browsing the most popr posts. He did not need to search long, though. After a nce, he instantly knew what Shen Xixi wanted to discuss with him.


    The most exciting news circting the forum was the Sphinx. Unlike Moresby and Zavilcha that Zhang Heng had encountered before, the Sphinx was the mythical creature that everyone had heard of. It originated from Egyptian mythology, but most of its famous tales came from Greek mythology. ording to legends, Sphinx would squat on the cliff near Thebes city, intercepting bystanders and asking them to solve a riddle��What animal walks on four legs in the morning, two at noon, and three at night?��


    Whoever failed to solve the riddle would get eaten by the Sphinx. Until one day, Oedipus passed by and solved the riddle. The Sphinx was so ashamed of itself that it jumped to its death.


    Like all Greek myths, the story was the kind filled with wisdom. Discounting the fact that Sphinx jumped to its death after Oedipus solved the riddle, each mythology also described the Sphinx as a monster with a lion��s torso, a woman��s face, and had wings on its back. Since it had a pair of wings, it could not jump off the cliff to kill itself.


    The post about the Sphinx��s spotting was first uploaded by a yer named Goldbach. He said he was a high school teacher. One night, while he was on the way home after work, he saw a creature akin to arge hunting dog springing out from the side of the road. Its appearanceuncannily simr to what the myths and legends described the Sphinx looked like. There, it stood beside a garbage bin. Then, what happened after that yed out exactly like the myth.


    The monster made Goldbach solve a riddle. If the answer were correct, he would let Goldbach walk away, but punishment was in store if he gave the wrong answer.


    Goldbach felt nervous suddenly. As a yer, he quickly realized that he had encountered a supernatural incident that would most likely cost him his life. Although the Sphinx did not mention that it would take his life, Goldbach knew from the myth about the fate of those who failed to solve the riddle.


    It scared Goldbach to death. He lived in a rtively rural settlement, and there were not many pedestrians on the road. He was not the kind of yer who specialized inbat either. All he could do was bite the bullet and start listening to the riddle that the Sphinx had for him. Fortunately, the riddle was as bad as it was recorded in the myth.


    ��The upper and lower limbs are all hands, sometimes it crawls, and sometimes it walks. It walks like a person but crawls like a dogguess the animal. Remember, you only have one minute and three chances to guess the right answer!��


    Goldbach was so nervous his mind instantly became nk. After a while, he managed to calm himself down and came up with an answer. ��Monkey... is it a monkey?��


    ��Congrattions, that��s right!�� the Sphinx replied in a robotic voice. It then retreated into the bushes and disappeared, as if it had never appeared in the first ce.


    Considering the rtivelyrge difference inbat power between the two parties, Goldbach did not dare ask the Sphinx why it did not kill itself after he solved the riddle. After the Sphinx left, Goldbach felt like he had woken up from a terrible dream. Terrified by his ordeal and worried that the monster might follow him home, he did not dare return to his residence. Instead, he went straight to the game checkpoint and spent the night there. His wife and daughter thought he must be having an affair. Unfortunately, he could not tell them the truth either.


    After that, he wrote a long post and posted it on the forum. The whole thing looked like a made-up story; hence no one believed in him in the beginning. Some peoplemented on his post.


    [My brother, are you from uc?]


    [Are you trying to create fake news?]


    It was not until more and more victims surfaced that it became the most popr post in the forum.


    The second victim was not that lucky. He was walking his dog early in the morning, and as he strolled to a driveway, his dog barked suddenly. It refused to go any further. Although the yer reacted quickly, he still failed to avoid the suspected Sphinx.


    ��It��s not too old. It has a thick beard and is neither big nor small. The only thing that it knows is to call out to its mother. Guess the animal.��


    ��What the hell?!��


    The second victim almost fell to his feet from the immense shock and terror he was experiencing ��The answer is wrong! You have two more chances.��


    ��I just used up an attempt?��


    ��The answer is wrong! You have one more chance.��


    The second victim did not dare speak freely again this time. After a while, he came up with an answer, ��Is it a cat?��


    ��Wrong answer.�� Following that, the Sphinx charged at the second victim. Just when thetter thought he was about to die, the creature swung its paws and scratched his arm. It then jumped onto the driveway, and Teddy��s aggressive barking disappeared after jumping over the wall.


    The second victim quickly rushed to the hospital immediately and had a doctor check on him. The results showed no abnormality, and after a shot of rabies vine, he headed home to rest. As of now, he remained in good physical condition. The mild fever he had was a normal side effect after vination. He would need to continue to go to the hospital to finish the remaining four injections. Arge number of yers criticized him to the ends of the earth.


    [Brother, the answer is sheep. How can you get it wrong? And you even used up all your three chances.]


    (Since when did the Sphinx be so lovely? All it did was scratch you, then run away after you failed to solve the riddle?]


    (Where is your dog? Didn��t it save you during that critical time?]


    (My friend. While you expected Teddy to save you, Teddy was expecting you to save him.]

 Chapter 587 - Sphinx

    <h4>Chapter 587 Sphinx</h4>


    The circumstance of the third victim differed from the first two. He had a short temper. He did not say a word when he came across the Sphinx, charging at it with his short knife instead. Unfortunately, the Sphinx managed to dodge the attack, swiftly charging at the third victim and leaving behind three w marks on his face.


    Just like the unfortunate few who failed to solve the riddle, the Sphinx dropped the same punishment on the yer who attempted to kill it when its life was threatened. Fortunately, it did not take the opportunity to kill the third victim. After it punished the third victim, the Sphinx quickly ran away.


    Hence, the problem with the Sphinx had be the forum��s hottest topic.


    It was said that the Sphinx did the same thing to ordinary people as well. Most, however, treated it as an urban legend, and some people evenughed at their unfortunate encounters. As the second victim, the scratches on the third victim were also identified asmon dog bites. They could only admit that they were unlucky and get themselves a shot of a rabies vine.


    Zhang Heng had a rough understanding of the current situation. Now, he knew why Shen Xixi was looking for him. After the battle with Arc of Light, the union was officially dissolved. However, Shen Xixi had not stopped what she had been doing. Although the Sphinx�� incident was not something too severe, it disrupted the lives of ordinary people. Shen Xixi wanted to make this problem go away.


    However, without having the union to support her, she severelycked the workforce needed


    ��the reason why she was looking for someone that could drive well. From the information she gathered, it seemed that the creature had lightning speed and moved extremely fast.


    It was almost impossible for anyone with two legs to catch up with it. This case didn��t seem as dangerous as his previous endeavors. As the driver, Zhang Heng did not even need to participate in the battle. Hence he didn��t refuse Shen Xixi.


    Turning off hisputer, he headed to the restaurant Shen Xixi mentioned.


    This restaurant looked like one that an inte influencer would open. The owner had spent a great deal of money on the interior, where each corner was meticulously decorated to the point it felt artisanal. During its peak, the market saw a massive boom of cafes with simr concepts. Too much of a simr thing, and the continual rise of operating costs, caused caf����s like this to be more unsustainable. The ambitious ventures soon began to suffer from significant losses, forcing many of them to shut their doors.


    There were not too many customers in the caf�� that Zhang Heng went to. He saw Li Bai when he entered the establishment, sitting rxed at the table in the middle. He enjoyed a ss of juice, and when he saw Zhang Heng, he immediately stood up and greeted him enthusiastically. Zhang Heng then pointed to Li Bai��s hair, ��Why did you dye it red?��


    ��I��ve been watching m Dunk recently. Sakuragi Hanamichi��s hair is red. Rabbit told me that I��m as stupid as Sakuragi, so I might as well go and dye my hair red. How does it look? Am I handsome, having this hair color?�� Li Bai stroked his hair happily.


    ��How should I put it... it looks nostalgic.�� Li Bai��s red hair reminded Zhang Heng of the Zangai Family when he was a child.


    After a brief greeting, Li Bai led Zhang Heng to a private box.


    As soon as the door was opened, the unmistakable smell of smoke filled the atmosphere. In addition to Shen Xixi and Rabbit, there were three men and two women. Two were chain smokers, ignoring the no smoking policy in public ces and making the private box look like a deity��s wondend. There were at least a dozen cigarette butts in the ashtray in front of him.


    The t-headed man raised his head and nced at Zhang Heng, ��Who do you think you are? How dare you make us wait for you.��


    Before Zhang Heng could answer him, he said impatiently, snapped at Shen Xixi standing beside him.


    ��Okay, everyone is here. Let��s start.��


    Shen Xixi wanted to apologize to Zhang Heng. Zhang Heng, however, wasn��t bothered. He found a stool and sat down.


    Li Bai then closed the door. Shen Xixi went into the topic of the day, ��Everyone here knows a thing or two about the news circting on the Inte. What we are dealing with here is probably the Sphinx of Greek myths. Everyone knows the story of the Sphinx. Oedipus solved its riddle and caused it tomit suicide by jumping off the cliff. Unfortunately, this rule does not apply to the Sphinx that the yers and ordinary people encounter. The Sphinx��s riddles are supposed to be easy to solve. Even if we guess the right answer, it would just leave. That��s it.��


    Shen Xixi paused and looked around. ��But the good news is that this Sphinx is not as strong as what the myths and legends described it to be. It is powerful enough to lock down the entire city. Its size should be close to a Caucasian Shepherd Dog. Itsbat power is simr to Caucasian Shepherd Dog as well. Scratching is Sphinx��s primary attack. Since it has a body of a lion, its limbs are mighty. And it is supposed to have a pair of wings as well. However, no one has spotted it flying. To be cautious, we have to assume that its wings work.��


    Shen Xixi turned on the projector, and the city map was projected on the wall.


    ��I marked the locations where the three victims were attacked, and I also interviewed regr people who have posted their encounters with the Sphinx on the Inte before. From here, we can triangte its hunting ground.��


    Shen Xixi drew a few red circles on the map and connected them with a straight line, which happened to be a triangr-shaped area outside the Fourth Ring Road.


    ��This ce is not small.�� A woman with a choker on her neck stubbed out her cigarette and said.


    u,


    ��Yes, this is also the reason why I want to work with everyone here.�� Shen Xixi said, ��ording to my previous strength analysis of it, we have to eliminate this creature with brute force. When we carry out the n, we need to stay at a distance to get to our allies in one minute. The moment the Sphinx picks on someone, one of us has to immediately inform the rest. After that, just dy for a minute and wait for your other teammates to arrive. A fair reminder. No matter how retarded the riddle sounds, do not give the correct answerotherwise, it will disappear immediately.��


    ��Since our target��s weakness is unknown for now, we have prepared a variety of weapons for tonight��s operation. That includes stun guns, anesthesia guns, gasoline, water guns, fishings, two crossbows, and swords. You are free to bring your own weapons if you so, please. As for clothes... now, although the weather has started to be warmer, I strongly rmend that you choose clothes that cover your whole body. If you don��t have any,e to me to pick up a set of canvas work garments.��


    ��No need to be so long-winded. We don��t need others to teach us how to fight.��


    The t-headed man was getting impatient. ��Simon.�� Shen Xixi looked at Zhang Heng again, ��You keep the car running. If everything goes well, you don��t have to do anything tonight. But if that thing escapes our encirclement, you will have to go after it. But you don��t need to be too nervous. So far, it��s not very destructive. If we let it escape, we go after it again.��


    Zhang Heng nodded.

 Chapter 588 - I’d Better Wear My Seatbelt

    Chapter 588 I��d Better Wear My Seatbelt


    It took Shen Xixi less than ten minutes to get everything set up. After arranging to meet in the evening, the guy wearing a ttop haircut left in a hurry, clearly uninterested in acquainting himself with Zhang Heng, who was only a temporary teammate. After he left, Rabbit gave Li Bai a nudge, and the two went together, leaving Zhang Heng and Shen Xixi alone in the cubicle.


    Thetter was packing the projector. ��It��s beneficial that you coulde. Don��t mind 1801. He��s a surgeon at a hospital and has several surgeries a day. He��s swamped, so he��s always in a rush.�� ��You don��t have to exin anything to me,�� Zhang Heng answered. ��Don��t worry. I��m just here to help, not give you trouble.��


    ��Thanks. I don��t want the both of you to be enemies over this issue,�� said Shen Xixi. ��1810 and his team are quite well-known among independent yer groups. They are a verybat effective team, but they had a fallout with Arc of Light and are one of the few groups who didn��t leave the union. Oh, by the way, where��s your team? I don��t think I��ve ever met your teammates before.��


    ��I don��t have one. I��ve always yed solo,�� Zhang Heng answered inly.


    ��As in on your own?�� Shen Xixi��s eyebrows rose a notch. Since yers were often subjected to strange and alien environments in quests, most preferred to act collectively. Of course, disputes were inevitable where people are involved, and yers did leave their teams for various reasons. Nheless, most were only temporary-very few yers actually yed perpetual solo games. Seeing that Zhang Heng had no intention of borating, Shen Xixi refrained from asking more. ��You can alwayse to me if there are any problems, or you can consider joining our team for the time being. We happen to be short of a driver, now that Huang Yu has left our group.��


    ��I��ll think about it,�� said Zhang Heng.


    There was still some time before the operation. So, Zhang Heng went to the library and flipped through two riddle books to prepare himself for their opponent. He was there until nine when Shen Xixi sent him a text. Zhang Heng left the library and came to the east gate where a BMW X3 was parked with its emergency beacons turned on.


    It was drizzling, but Zhang Heng came prepared. He pulled over his hoodie and walked to the driver��s seat. When he opened the door, Shen Xixi waved at him from the passenger seat.


    ��Wow, our Fujiwara Takumi is here.�� Rabbit poked her head out of the back-seat window and asked while chewing on a piece of gum, ��I forgot to ask you earlier-how many years have you been driving?��


    ��I just got my driver��s licensest month,�� Zhang Heng answered.


    ��Then, I��d better wear my seatbelt.��


    Rabbit disappeared into the car.


    Fortunately for them, Zhang Heng��s driving was steady. Nothing happened on the road either��there were no close-calls and no panic-braking in the middle of the road. Satisfied and relieved, Rabbit leaned back and rxed for the rest of the ride.


    After about forty minutes, the X3 arrived at the location. 1810 and three other members of his team were already waiting.


    Like before, 1810 wasted no time at all. Upon their arrival, he simply nodded at Shen Xixi, saying, ��Let��s get to work.��


    Shen Xixi distributed walkie-talkies to everyone. After that, they picked their own weapons, then headed to their respective posts as nned to hunt the Sphinx-or more precisely, wait to be hunted by the Sphinx.


    Zhang Heng remained in the car, ready to step in at any time. Even though the location was a little out of the way, people were still walking on the streets since it was still early. The next hour and a half went by pretty uneventfully save for the voices booming over the walkie-talkie every three minutes.


    As he was sitting in the car, he received a text from the bartenderdy informing him that the swordsmith was willing to recast his ��Ordinary Sword.�� But because Zhan Heng did not have the casting materials, an additional cost was also charged, which brought the final tally to a whopping 4,000 game points. Sadly, Zhang Heng could not enjoy the twenty percent member discount because it was a third-party service.


    But there was also good news. Besides game points, the swordsmith also epted game items as payment. However, items handed over would be valued at twenty percent below the market price.


    Having considered the offer, Zhang Heng agreed to proceed with the transaction. Besides the fact that he did not have enough points for the recast, he also had a whole stash of game items that were difficult to sell through normal channels. While the war between Arc of Light and the union had ceased, the hunt for the mysterious sniper from that night was still ongoing


    The other teams aside, Zhang Heng killed the three Arc of Light elites. This wasn��t something Arc would let slide so easily, and as long as they had some sense, they would definitely be keeping an eye on Shen Xixi. After all, Zhang Heng prepared well and left hardly any clues that might pinpoint to him at the scene.


    But since his involvement that night, he had be closer to Shen Xixi, and by now, Arc of Light was probably alreadybing through Shen Xixi��s social circle. Fortunately, he rarely interacted with her in school, so Arc probably wouldn��t find him suspicious.


    But because he had used swords, guns, and arrows in previous battles, Zhang Heng��s only self-defense tonight was the Infinite Blocks. If everything went as well as Shen Xixi said, his driving skill might not even need to be employed. That, of course, would be the best oue.


    Zhang Heng returned the bartender��s text, telling her that he had some things to take care of and would be bringing the items to her for evaluation once he was done.


    After the message was sent, Zhang Heng turned on the radio.


    Sitting around like that and waiting was tedious, especially in such a small space. But because he had to be ready to make a move, Zhang Heng stayed in the car and kept the engine running Compared to the others, however, he was in a considerably good situation. Wandering around in long-sleeved shirts, long pants, and full-body armor in weather like this proved extremely ufortable, not to mention having to be constantly on guard against a creature that could appear at any moment. ��I haven��t seen anything unusual so far. I��m going to buy some drinks from the vending machine. It��s so hot, I��m dying,�� Rabbitined.


    She walked to the vending machine, picked a bottle of Coke, and selected the payment method. She had reached for her phone and was looking up when she was suddenly given the shock of her life. Even though she was mentally prepared for tonight, seeing a woman��s head attached to the body of a lion in the middle of the night was enough to spook even the bravest of hearts.


    Nheless, Rabbit was able to pull herself together and listen to the thing on top of the vending machine say, ��Wrapped with red cloth on the outside, and white cloth on the inside. Open it and look carefully. There are small woodenbs in a row. Guess the fruit.��

 Chapter 589 - Escape

    Chapter 589 Escape


    Rabbit almost screamed when she heard the riddle. It was too simple. But she still tried her best to resist the temptation to answer the correct answer. Shen then whispered into the inte, ��It��s with me.��


    ��Wrong answer, you have two more chances.��


    Rabbit was relieved when she saw the Sphinx��s reaction, concerned that it might have discovered their n to eliminate it tonight and that it would definitely make a run. But now, it seemed that the Sphinx followed some behavioral pattern, just like an artificial intelligence being��it would not do anything to Rabbit before she answered the riddle correctly or until the time ran out.


    ��Roger that. Who is the closest to Rabbit?�� Shen Xixi��s asked through the walkie-talkie. Shen Xixi��s steady hand in carrying out the operation gave Rabbit peace of mind.


    ��Me! I will be there soon.�� said the woman wearing a choker. Zhang Heng finally knew her code name-ck Swan. ��I��ll be there soon, too, don��t be afraid!�� answered Li Bai with a hint of anxiety.


    ��Idiot! I��m not afraid of it at all.�� Rabbit blushed and defended herself when she heard Li Bai��s reply.


    But it was then that the Sphinx��s emotionless voice could be heard again. ��Wrong answer. You have one more chance.��


    Rabbit instantly shut her mouth and stopped talking. About forty secondster, ck Swan rushed to Rabbit��s side, raised the anesthesia gun in her hand, aimed at the Sphinx, and asked, ��How long do you have?��


    Rabbit rolled her eyes, gesturing to ck Swan with her fingers that she had sixteen seconds left, before quickly drawing a fifteen. ording to the third victim��s description, the Sphinx would start to retaliate if the yer took the initiative to attack it. If they were going to battle the Sphinx, they had to be damn sure that they outnumbered it. Since there were still fifteen seconds left, ck Swan did not mind waiting a little longer to see if anyone else coulde to them.


    The two were very nervous at that moment, especially ck Swan. She was now pointing her tranquilizer gun at the Sphinx, not knowing if it would feel threatened, attack her in advance, or run away.


    The fifteen-second wait seemed like fifteen hours.


    Fortunately, Sphinx��s mind seemed to be focused on the riddle, and it turned a blind eye to the tranquilizer gun. It was still squatting quietly on the vending machine, not even looking at ck Swan.


    About three secondster, Li Bai finally arrived on the other side of the street, running like a cheetah while gritting his teeth. Blue veins bulged on his forehead. It seemed like he was not the second closest person to Rabbit, but he still ran faster than the others. His red hair gave him the look of a superhero inbound to rescue Rabbit.


    Considering the calction error, Rabbit did not dare wait any longer. Immediately, she gave an OK gesture to ck Swan, and thetter pulled the trigger! The tranquilizer dart flew out of the muzzle andnded on the Sphinx urately.


    The dart��s drug was powerful enough to stun an elephant��but not the Sphinx, who showed no response. It took a quick look at ck Swan, then charged towards Rabbit without warning. Nevertheless, she was prepared for such a scenario, swiftly ducking and rolling on the ground and sessfully avoiding the Sphinx��s pounce. And at the same time, she drew out a saber to defend herself. Unfortunately, she only managed to block a single hit from the Sphinx, and was sent flying away.


    Fortunately, Li Bai had rushed to where they were. He then shouted to Rabbit, telling her what he was about to do. Swiftly, she rolled away from the Sphinx. In the blink of an eye, a fishing was tossed, subsequentlynding on top of the Sphinx.


    Seeing the creature trapped in the fis, Li Bai was delighted. ��Let��s hold it down together!�� However, before he could finish, the Sphinx exerted a burst of great strength, dragged the fis with it, and continued its advance at Rabbit.


    Caught unaware by the monster��s brute might, Li Bai staggered and fell on one knee. However, he did not let go of the, tightly holding on to it for dear life. As a result, he was dragged three meters away, and the friction almost tore his pants.


    ��What the hell is this thing? Why is this yellow doggo so powerful?!��


    ��That��s not a yellow dog. It��s a Sphinx! It will help if you read more. Don��t embarrass yourself,�� smirked ck Swan, taking the opportunity to fire another shot. Just like the previous shot, the second tranquilizer did little effect to slow the Sphinx. ck Swan threw away the tranquilizer gun in her hand as she eximed into the walkie-talkie. ��Be advised! The Sphinx is highly resistant to tranquilizer darts. We need more support!�� After that, she helped Li Bai grab the fishing. Although the two were not strong enough to stop the Sphinx from moving forward, they somewhat managed to slow it down.


    In the third victim��s case, there was actually a question nobody had figured out the answer to. When the victim took the initiative to start the fight, did the Sphinx target the person who created the fight or failed to solve the riddle? For the third victim, he was the one that started the fight, then was unable to solve the riddle. Naturally, the Sphinx would attack him instantly.


    Although ck Swan attacked the Sphinx first, it ignored her and continued to go after Rabbit, seemingly intent on going after her.


    Rabbit was so scared that she quickly shouted the right answer, ��Mandarin orange! The answer is mandarin orange.��


    Unfortunately, one minute had passed since the Sphinx asked her the riddle. Hence, it did not stop its chase. Fortunately, 1810 was finally here. The t-headed man snorted coldly and tossed the scalpel in his hand. He was aiming for the Sphinx��s head.


    The oue surprised everyone.


    1810��s stainless steel medical scalpelnded on the Sphinx��s head and bounced off.


    ��Why is the Sphinx��s head so hard?!�� 1810 was taken aback.


    ��Is it immune to physical attacks? I��m afraid our situation has just gotten moreplicated now,�� ck Swan frowned.


    Fortunately, the Sphinx was nowpletely entangled by the fishing. With the addition of 1810, the three of them finally managed to surpass the Sphinx in strength, temporarily restricting the creature��s movements and getting Rabbit out of danger. However, it did notst long. ck Swan noticed that the Sphinx��s ws were out, ready to attack them.


    The Sphinx appeared to have finally realized that things weren��t too looking good for it. Giving up on the rabbit hunt, for now, it began getting rid of its restraints. It managed to w a small hole on the and squeezed out half of its body after a while.


    ��What should I do? I don��t want to be scratched!�� When Rabbit saw that the Sphinx had almost regained its freedom, she almost cried out loud.


    ��Change of n. Let��s help Rabbit get out of danger first.�� Shen Xixi��s voice came from the walkie-talkie. She��d been unable to get to them because she was too far away. The two allies with crossbows that arrived afterward failed to cause any damage to the Sphinx as well.

 Chapter 590 - Working Together

    Chapter 590 Working Together


    A minute and a half had passed from the time Rabbit and Sphinx began to fight each other until thetter broke free of the fishing. During this time, her other allies started to arrive one after another.


    Zhang Heng��s responsibility in this mission was rtively easy, where he was only needed when the Sphinx began to run from them. No matter how perfect the n was, it had to be adjusted ording to the current situation. When the tranquilizer darts were rendered useless against the Sphinx, ck Swan quickly requested support. By that time, Zhang Heng had already shifted gears from P to D.


    He put the pedal to the metal��the X3 let out a roar and sped towards Rabbit.


    When Shen Xixi told everyone that there was a change of n, she asked Zhang Heng to immediately take Rabbit to a safe ce. Zhang Heng spotted Li Bai, 1810, and the others fighting the Sphinx under a streetmp not far away.


    In the battle��s first round, everyone quickly came to realize the Sphinx��s remarkable strength-it was immune to tranquilizer darts and physical damage, making it a very tricky subject to deal with. Then, as the battle prolonged, they discovered that the Sphinx wasn��t as mighty as was described in the myths. Its moves were predictable and straightforward-with its ws its only weapon, the creature seemed to follow a particr attack pattern as well.


    It might be hard to dodge it when attacking it for the first time, but as long as its attack pattern was studied, most of its advances could easily be avoided. The more troublesome thing to deal with was its agility. Gingerly darting on its paws among the crowd, it was a challenge to keep up with the creature��s extraordinary dexterity.


    If it was smart enough to give up chasing Rabbit and adopt a strategy of destroying them one by one ording to the battlefield situation, it would have maimed Shen Xixi and her allies. However, this Sphinx was determined to punish Rabbit, adamant on soldering on it until its goal was achieved.


    Rabbit had just run from behind Li Bai to 1810��s back. The two helped her to block two heavy blows from the Sphinx, and their arms were numb after that. Hence, they could not get into another fight immediately. Before Rabbit could even catch her breath, she had to run for her life again. She wanted to run to ck Swan, but thetter hurriedly declined. ��Don��t choose me. I��m too weak to block its attack!��


    Thus, Rabbit had to run to somebody else. The other ally was ready with his crossbow. However, the Sphinx pulled a trick on them this time. It pretended to pounce at the ally with a crossbow, but ended up lowering its body, ran past the guy in front of it, and sprang from Rabbit��s back.


    In this critical moment, Rabbit sought thest resort to save her life. She spat out the bubble gum in her mouth, whereby it expanded to the point of blocking the Sphinx��s vision. When it scratched the massive with its paws, its surroundings were suddenly engulfed by a cloud of white dust like tearing a bag of white flour.


    Rabbit took the opportunity and began to run from the Sphinx. Somewhere, deep down inside, she knew there was no way she could outrun it.


    Fortunately, an X3 stopped in front of her at the next moment!


    ��Get in the car.��


    These four simple words were gospel to Rabbit.


    In fact, there was no need for Zhang Heng to speak�� Rabbit had already tugged the door��s handle and jumped in. ��Go fast! Go fast! We need to escape while it��s trapped in the smoke!��


    However, before she could finish her sentence, she saw a silhouette rushing towards her. The dust had no effect on it at all. Rabbit opened her eyes wide and watched the Sphinx leap towards the windshield.


    Before anyone could react, it drew further apart from the X3 again. Zhang Heng tried to stay as calm as he could in the perilous situation. Since there was no time to turn the car around, he shifted to ��R�� while stepping on the gas. The SUV then elerated backward and shook off the Sphinx!


    Nevertheless, it was only a temporary solution. After the Sphinx fell to the ground, it ran towards the car. Zhang Heng estimated that it could reach a speed of 80km/h. It was indeed a creature that possessed monstrous abilities.


    ��What should we do?�� Rabbit asked nervously as she looked at the Sphinx, who hadn��t given up on the chase.


    ��It��s okay. Sit tight,�� replied Zhang Heng, observing the situation behind him through the rearview mirror. He saw an intersection not far away, and he mmed the brakes in advance, flicking the steering wheel counterclockwise, pulling the vehicle into a drift.


    Zhang Heng hadn��t done something like this for a long time. Other than the fact that he had just obtained his driver��s license, it was also because he would usually abide by traffic rules and would never show off his skills. As long as it was not an emergency, he always kept within the speed limits. There was no reason to cause unnecessary trouble to other drivers and himself, and after all, everyone only had 12 points.


    The X3 went sideways, drawing an elegant arc as it slid smoothly to another road. Such precise control of the car managed to impress a usually stoic Rabbit. ��Wow! So you really are a master driver!��


    Before Zhang Heng could reply, Shen Xixi asked over the radio again, ��Rabbit, are you okay?��


    ��I��m okay. Simon picked me up in the car. Sister Xixi, you weren��t here to witness Brother Simon��s driving skills! His is much better than Huang Yu, who only knows how to brag all day long.�� She then asked Zhang Heng curiously, ��Is that trick drifting? I have seen it in theics before.��


    Zhang Heng nodded with a hum.


    With the gas pedal all the way to the floor, the X3, and the Sphinx. Zhang Heng began to pull apart. This gave him time to turn the car around, putting it back in its proper direction. Now, it would be more difficult for the Sphinx to catch up with them.


    But afterward, Zhang Heng did not rush to get rid of the Sphinx. Instead, he turned on the inte and said to Shen Xixi.


    ��Do you have a stun gun?��


    ��Yes, why? Do you have any ns?�� ��Let��s work together. I will bring Sphinx back to its original ce in five minutes. Can you think of a way to hit it?��


    ��There are people on our side who are good with firearms. Although the Sphinx can move pretty fast, I think we cannd a sessful hit on it if we can ambush it ahead of time...�� Shen Xixi paused for a while. ��...but the tranquilizer gun and crossbow are useless against it. And scalpels fail to prate its body as well. What makes you think the stun gun will work? Have you discovered something useful?��


    ��It��s just an immature guess.�� Zhang Heng did not give a proper answer right away, ��I guess we will knowter. You guys brought some gasoline as well, right? Might as well try attacking it with fire too.��


    ��Okay. This gives us to have seven minutes to prepare,�� replied Shen Xixi.


    The two finalized the next course of action in a few words, and Zhang Heng slowed down a bit to ensure that the Sphinx could keep up. He then began to lead the creature on a tour around the city while Shen Xixi prepared everything

 Chapter 591 - Behavioral Pattern

    Chapter 591 Behavioral Pattern


    Zhang Heng sped forward in the X3. It was almost 11 p.m now, and few pedestrians and vehicles were on the road. Besides, this ce was rtively rural as well. Otherwise, if Zhang Heng were here during the rush hour, he would be forced to be stuck in a traffic jam even if his driving skills were good.


    As he drove on, Zhang Heng observed the Sphinx running behind the X3 through the rearview mirror. So far, about 200m separated the two parties, a rtively good distance to keep an eye on the Sphinx, yet ensure it would not get lost. This time, Rabbit could clearly feel the X3 going faster, then slowing down again, and Zhang Heng even made sharp turns from time to time.


    Fortunately, Rabbit did not suffer from motion sickness or she would have vomited all over the windshield. Finally, when Zhang Heng turned to another road, Rabbit could not help but blurt, ��Brother Simon, I know that you drive real good, but we don��t have to keep drifting do we? Even if we��re on a straight road now, I don��t think it can catch up with us.�� ��Oh, I��m just testing something out,�� replied Zhang Heng.


    ��What are you testing?��


    ��Have you read the story of the Sphinx?��


    Rabbit nodded, ��I believe I��ve heard of it in readingprehension in junior high school. I read about it again online for this operation. Why do you ask?��


    ��Whether Egyptian or Greek mythology, they both agreed that the Sphinx was a highly intelligent species, and its intelligence far exceeded that of an average human. More precisely, they wereparable to a human genius.��


    ��You are right.�� Rabbit thought for a while.


    ��But this Sphinx that appeared out of nowhere does not seem to be able tomunicate with people. In the three previous attacks published on the forum, the Sphinx just asked the riddles, waited for the answers, and punished those who failed to solve the riddle. However, in the first and second attacks, both victims did try tomunicate with the Sphinx. However, the Sphinx seemed to be unable tomunicate with them.��


    ��Exactly! Everything I said was regarded as an answer! It caused me to make two mistakes,��mented Rabbit as she recalled what happened earlier. ��The Sphinx waspletely immersed in its own world. It gave no response when ck Swan raised her tranquilizer gun to shoot


    it.��


    ��Its behavioral pattern is fixed, and it looks programmed to perform only certain tasks. What did you think it was?��


    ��Uh... what?��


    ��AI.�� Zhang Heng said. Having learned to program when he was in the Whistleblower quest, he was very sensitive to issues like this. This Sphinx��s current behavior was the result of high-level programming. When Zhang Heng was waiting in the car earlier, he made a Baidu search for the three riddles concocted by the Sphinx. He found out that all those riddles came from a children��s book called The Encyclopedia of Riddles.


    ��Do you think the Sphinx we came across... was actually an intelligent robot in disguise?�� Rabbit was shocked.


    ��It��s a low-level AI, but itsbat effectiveness is decent,�� Zhang Heng said.


    In fact, Zhang Heng had a simr conjecture after reading up information on the Sphinx on the forum. He could not confirm his spection at that time, but this time, after Rabbit had taken a considerable risk, the opportunity to prove his theory had finally arrived. Before this, he had deliberately changed the X3��s speed to test if the Sphinx had a fixed behavioral logic.


    ��No wonder you asked Xixi to prepare a stun gun. But is it effective against it?��


    ��Its external defense is indeed solid, but if this thing is really a robot, then its internals must contain a circuit board. It would beposed of copper foil. When a high-voltage stun gun hits it, it will produce a heavy discharge, and the electronicponents within it can be destroyed easily,�� exined Zhang Heng exined.


    But just as the two were talking, Zhang Heng noticed that the Sphinx had stopped chasing them.


    It squatted in the middle of the road, quietly watching the X3 pulling away. Just when Zhang Heng hesitated whether or not to stop the car, the Sphinx suddenly spread out its wings, slowly taking into the skies.


    Rabbit was shocked at the sight. ��Didn��t you say that its behavioral pattern is fixed?��


    ��It seems that since it could catch up with us, some hidden conditions must have been trigged. A new set of behavioral patterns must��ve kicked in.�� Zhang Heng did not deliberately slow down this time. No one on the forum had seen Sphinx flying before, and no one knew what sot of abilities it possessed at this stage. Since this was the Sphinx��s trump card, Zhang Heng would definitely not underestimate it.


    Zhang Heng did not care whether the Sphinx would fail to catch up with them, stepping on the gas even harder than it was designed to. Unfortunately, the increased speed of the X3 was unable to draw a wedge between the two. The flying Sphinx was now twice as fast as when it was on the ground, not to mention how it could bypass many obstructive buildings as well.


    Zhang Heng then turned on the walkie-talkie and said to Shen Xixi, ��Are you ready over there?��


    ��Only three minutes had passed. We are not done with the preparation yet. What��s the matter?�� Shen Xixi asked. ��Then you��d better prepare within two minutes,�� Zhang Heng nced at the watch on his waist, ��because our opponent tonight has activated its flight mode.��


    Shen Xixi reacted quickly, ��With the wings on its back?��


    ��That��s right.��


    ��Okay, please be careful too. And if possible, try to lower its altitude. If it flies too high, the stun gun won��t reach it,�� exhorted Shen Xixi.


    ��I will try my best.��


    After Zhang Heng and Shen Xixi had finished speaking, they noticed that the Sphinx was only less than a hundred meters away from them, which was faster than Zhang Heng expected.


    Zhang Heng then said to Rabbit next to him, ��Fasten your seat belt; the next section of the road may be very bumpy.��


    Before Zhang Heng finished his sentence, he had already made a sharp turn and sped into the bushes by the roadside. Once the X3 came out from the bush, it abruptly switched to another road and drove into an underground tunnel.


    After losing the speed advantage, the only way to gain the upper hand was by changing directions swiftly and abruptly. At the same time, he also needed to take advantage of the terrain. Before he went to rescue Rabbit, he had turned off the X3��s electronic stability system and switched the gear to manual mode.


    While maneuvering the X3, he felt like he was back to the days of studying abroad in Tokyo.


    He had pushed the X3 to its maximum speed, and the engine echoed its protest loudly in the tunnel.


    ��I hope there are speed traps in this tunnel.��

 Chapter 592 - Work of Art

    Chapter 592 Work of Art


    The X3 went on a rampage, like a steel behemoth out of control.


    Not only did Rabbit obediently fasten her seat belt, but she grabbed the handle until her knuckles became white and made sure to lean firmly on the seat. She felt as if she was riding a roller coaster in an amusement park.


    As her surroundings continued to rotate, erge, then shrink in her field of vision, motion sickness began to swamp her. She had no idea how Zhang Heng managed to drive in this state, let alone handling the Sphinx in pursuit of them. Even though Zhang Heng employed every inch of skills he had, the Sphinx was closing up to the X3 little by little.


    This was never a fairpetition to boot. After the Sphinx entered flight mode, not only did its speed increase significantly, it now held the advantage of bypassing ground obstacles. Although Zhang Heng could rely on the nearby buildings to slow it down slightly, it still wasn��t an effective method to draw a reasonable distance between the creature and them.


    Rabbit thought she could hear the sound of the Sphinx��s wings pping.


    Although Zhang Heng dodged its first attack by drifting the SUV, the monster eleratedterally andnded on the window of the passenger��s side.


    The Sphinx��s human face stuck to the ss; its beautiful but lifeless eyes stared right into Rabbit��s soul, making her wonder if she was in a horror movie. The Sphinx then raised its paw to the ss, and with a single tap, the toughminated ss started to shatter.


    Rabbit shrieked, fumbled with the seat belts, and fled to the rearpartment. Then, Zhang Heng��s voice came into her ear.


    ��Do not move.��


    As he spoke, Zhang Heng pulled the car abruptly to the right, and the X3 was about to m into a wall next to him. A second before car contacted wall, Zhang Heng pulled the car back towards the main road. At that moment, they were less than two centimeters from the wall.


    The Sphinx, caught in the middle, shed across the rearview mirror. Before it could smash the ss and attack Rabbit, it collided and was dragged along the wall. Sparks flew when its wings came in contact with the brick wall. Once again, this confirmed Zhang Heng��s theory that the Sphinx was a robot.


    When Rabbit saw the creature rolling on the ground, she finally let out a sigh of relief. ��Did we kill it?�� she asked Zhang Heng. ��I don��t think so,�� Zhang Heng replied, holding tightly to the steering wheel. At the same time, the Sphinx also reacted quickly. It started to wrap its body with its wings.


    Zhang Heng figured that the Sphinx probably wasn��t severely damaged from the collision earlier. Soon after that, Zhang Heng knew he was right when he saw the Sphinx getting up again from the rearview mirror. However, its left front leg was injured, and it had developed a limp. Unfortunately, that did not affect its ability to fly.


    The Sphinx spread its wings again, catching up with the X3 in no time. After the collision, the passenger window waspletely broken. A strong gust of wind hitting Rabbit��s bangs made her nervous again. ��What should we do?��


    ��Don��t worry; hold on for a while. We will be there soon,�� replied Zhang Heng, ncing at his wristwatch. Although he was forced to reduce the preparation time from seven minutes to five, they still arrived at the rendezvous point 20 seconds before time.


    Zhang Heng could only pray that Shen Xixi was ready to deal with the Sphinx. Not too long after it got back up, it flew andnded on the car��s roof. To prevent the Sphinx from entering the vehicle through the broken window, Zhang Heng had to drive against the wall all the time. In the end, the Sphinx had to attempt to enter the car from the driver��s window.


    Zhang Heng reapplied the same technique and quickly steered the car against the wall. However, the Sphinx managed to escape thanks to the rtivelyrge distance between the vehicle and the wall. In the end, the Sphinx attempted to breach the rear window. Now, interfering with its n, was going to be a lot moreplicated. Without any warning, Zhang Heng steered the X3 into the wall, crushing the Sphinx yet again.


    Zhang Heng took advantage of this rare moment, stepped on the elerator, and drove towards where Shen Xixi and others were without changing directions. At the same time, he turned on the inte, ��We are almost there. I hope you are ready.��


    ��Roger that. Do you have a way to force the Sphinx to lower its flying height?�� Shen Xixi asked.


    ��It��s easy.�� Seeing that he had reached his destination, Zhang Heng stepped on the brakes and turned the steering wheel to park the X3 on the side of the road.


    Then he saw a dark figure falling from the sky and leaped straight into the driver��s window.


    Zhang Heng��s expression remained unchanged. He watched the Sphinx pounced at him, but before it broke the window, it was hit by something. At the same time, there was a blue electric current passing through his body. The high-pressure nitrogen in the magazine pushed out the two electrodes from the barrel and urately hit the Sphinx��s body.


    Simultaneously, the battery in the gun barrel began to release high voltage electricity through the insted copper wire. Everyone felt nervous, afraid that it would not work on the Sphinx. Fortunately, the stun gun worked wondered on the Sphinx. The high-voltage electricity rendered the Sphinx paralyzed. As if the plug to its power source was pulled, it fell from the car window, motionless like a mannequin.


    Shen Xixi was relieved when she saw that the Sphinx was defeated. Although Zhang Heng had not told her that the Sphinx could be a robot, Shen Xixi had already considered the possibility when he told her to use a stun gun.


    Rabbit then got out of the car and watched 1810 and the others tie up the fainted Sphinx on the ground with an iron chain, thus dering tonight��s operation a victory.


    ��So the series of unfortunate events recently are not supernatural events?�� Rabbit wondered.


    ��No,�� Shen Xixi shook her head. ��Although it was programmed, it was not possible to invent such a robot that could perform suchplicated actions with the current level of technology. ��So, Xixi, think someone��s behind it?�� ��That��s for sure, but I don��t know if it is a yer or some other...��


    Although the Sphinx had been apprehended, a frown still adorned Shen Xixi��s brow.


    ��If you think about it carefully, this thing has not done anything except to make people solve its riddles at night.��


    ��This is what I��m worried about the most. This thing is probably just a work of practice. We don��t know if the person woulde up with something more dangerous in the future.��

 Chapter 593 - One More Time

    Chapter 593 One More Time


    ��ording to our agreement, this thing is now ours,�� 1810 said to Shen Xixi. ��Be careful. Wherever it came from, it��s packed with technology we don��t understand. Its owner may be able to locate it somehow,�� Shen Xixi warned. ��We��re not kids; we don��t need telling what to do.�� 1810 shot the man with the crossbow a look, who then helped carry the Sphinx into their van.


    ��It was good working with you. You have my number-call me when there��s another job like this,�� said 1810.


    After the other group left, Shen Xixi turned to Zhang Heng. ��I don��t know how to thank you. I never knew you were such an incredible driver. You did more than half the work tonight, and you should have a share, but I made a pact with 1810��s team-as a reward for their participation in the operation, they get to keep the Sphinx. But I can make it up to you with 10 points, no, 15 points.�� Zhang Heng shook his head. ��There��s no need for that. Just pay for the traffic tickets we got tonight. Also, better remind those guys that although high voltage electricity can destroy the circuit boardponents, I don��t think it can be done through a shell. The Sphinx may be only temporarily disabled, more like overload protection of sorts.�� ��I��ll send 1810 a text, but he never liked people telling his team what to do. Not to mention, they are very experienced guys. They should be able to handle it,�� said Shen Xixi. ��Let��s hope that��s the case.��


    The dinged and badly scraped X3 was now considerably damaged and if highway patrol were to spot it, it would definitely be gged down for inspection. To avoid that, Shen Xixi ordered another car. ��I��ll send Rabbit home first, then return to school. Want toe with us?��


    ��It��s alright. I need to do something. Got to


    go.��


    Zhang Heng looked at his watch. It was almost midnight.


    He did not want to be sitting in a car when time stopped; he would have to return to the vehicle when the Time Stop ended, so he would instead figure out another way to get home.


    Before he left, Rabbit gave him a hug, ��Brother Simon, when are we going to do this again?��


    ��Didn��t you almost throw up?��


    ��Well, now that it��s all over, I think it was really cool. It was the most exciting ride of my life! When mum drives me to school, it feels like an olddy trying to cross the road.��


    ��That is the right way to drive... Study hard for your college entrance examinations. If you pass, I��ll drive you around a car park,�� said Zhang Heng. ��That��s a promise,�� Rabbit beamed.


    In the van��s co-drivers seat, 1810 had already gotten out of his protective suit and was lighting up a cigarette. His team members all looked pleased with the sight of the object chained up in the trunk. Their goal was simple: they joined the union to earn some extra money. Unfortunately, not long after, the union copsed.


    1810 supported Shen Xixi because the partnership system she devised to monitor unusual activities around the city coincided with their interests. Meanwhile, Shen Xixi and her team valued the problem-solving aspect more than the benefits. The two parties were different, but they were perfectly symbiotic, which was why 1810 regretted the union��s dissolution. Nheless, it wasn��t something a team as small as his should be worrying about.


    The driver, who went by the name Mole, turned on the stereo and yed an upbeat song. He looked at the rearview mirror. ��Hey ck Swan, you should probably have enough points to buy that game item you wanted, eh?��


    ��Don��t ever mention it again. It��s infuriating. Another yer bought the bracelet two days ago,�� answered ck Swan. The girl with the choker pulled a cigarette out of the box.


    The guy next to her, who called himself Little Duck, immediately took out a lighter and eagerly lit her cigarette. ��What grade do you think this item is?��


    ��This thing is not as tough as it looks. When the tranquilizer and captain��s knife didn��t work, I thought it would be challenging to beat. Then, it turned out to be just a machine. I��m guessing probably only F-grade, E-grade at the most,�� ck Swan went on.


    ��Ah, then if that��s the case, there��s not much point to it then,�� said Yogurt, a girl who had been resting her eyes since they got on the van.


    ��At least we get to earn a little something this year...�� Little Duck was the kind of person who was easily contended. ��We rarely get jobs that aren��t risky.��


    1810��s phone vibrated. He took one look at the screen and put it back into his pocket.


    ��Wife? Lover?�� guessed ck Swan. ��No, Wonder Woman. I thought that only older women nag, but it seems women of all ages do the same. She��s reminding me to be careful of that machine at the back and that it may only be in a temporary... what��s that word... overload protection.��


    ��No wonder she hasn��t had a boyfriend until now,�� Yogurt joked.


    The whole car dissolved intoughter. With the job done, the group was in a merry mood. They nned to head to a safe house about 30 kilometers away, where they would pick the machine apart and find the game item concealed within it.


    Only 1810 wasn��tughing. He turned to ck Swan. ��But she does have a point. Just to be safe, turn on the signal inhibitors.��


    ��Alright, whatever you say.�� ck Swan shrugged and turned on the jammer. Immediately, everyone in the van lost their mobile signals.


    ��Is the chain fastened?��1810 asked Mole again.


    ��One hundred percent. Its limbs and wings are chained to the trunk so it can��t fly.��


    1810 turned to Little Duck, taking out a TASER. It crackled and popped with a menacing sizzle. ��If there are any unusual movements, I will make sure it returns to overload protection.��


    ��Very good. We have to be extra careful when we deal with supernatural events.��


    As soon as 1810 finished talking, ck Swan chortled. ��Why? Is there a problem?��


    ��Nothing. It��s just that you criticized other people for being garrulous, but you are even more long-winded. As you said, we are not children anymore. We havepleted more than ten quests��so trust us. We have enough experience and skills to do our jobs well.�� ��You��re better off worrying about your daughter��s junior high school entrance examination.�� ck Swan blew a smoke ring, giggling

 Chapter 594 - Being Serious

    Chapter 594 Being Serious


    After dealing with the Sphinx, Zhang Heng called for a taxi to head back to campus. Things could get awkward if time stopped while he was on the subway. The feeling of being locked in the carriage was the worst. It happened that his Polo was not with him during that time, and it seemed that his only choice of mobility was this carbon-neutral, environmentally-friendly means of transportation. It was a modest effort from him in an attempt to lower urban pollution.


    It was the early hours of the morning, and vehicles and pedestrians on the streets were sparse. Due to the time stop, the whole road looked like a stage y waiting to happen, exacerbated by the street lights projecting a beam on the spot. When Zhang Heng shuttled through it, he felt like an actor, performing on a different stage. In fact, he had been living like an actor recently. Because of his time bug, his gaming duration was often several times that of others. Each round was more like a whole lifetime for him from a nameless desert ind to the remote Caribbean Sea, to gloomy 19th century London and a chaotic Kyoto at the end of the shogunate. He would usually y different roles in different quests.


    To this day, all the game time he umted exceeded even his age. Sometimes, Zhang Heng would experience a momentary trance when he opened his eyes in bed, not knowing where he was and where his next journey would take him.


    He became a NASA astronaut, was a pirate king of Nassau, a geek in the future world, and even a rookie wondering ancient Kyoto... Miss Bartender once said that experience and lessons were things that made us who we were today. Although it had been less than a year since he joined this magical and mysterious game, he was nowpletely different from who he was a year ago. These changes were not just about a series of high-level skills to disy on his skill bar or even those strange and useful game items. His soul had also grown a lot-every choice he made in every round of game had drawn him closer to his true self.


    However, this ��true self�� was making Zhang Heng feel more and more alien. His bicycle was parked in front of a stationery store, and he looked at his reflection on the ss door. A few months ago, he had noticed the changes on his face. Although it seemed no different from before, he suddenly realized that he looked grumpy all the time. Previously, it wasn��t that obvious. It wasn��t until his observation ability had reached a new level after the Deductive Reasoning quest that he could finally see where that grumpiness came from.


    His skin, features, eyebrows, and hair were all the same as before, except for one thing that was slowly fading away-his feelings.


    Zhang Heng and Shen Xixi once briefly talked about it before. As the yers progressed more profound into the game, they would begin to go through a process of awakening. And when life itself hung on the very bnce, they would thus free themselves from the shackles civilized society tied them in; primal instinct would be released, gradually revealing the bottom of their hearts. However, all Zhang Heng could see was mist, a mist of nothingness.


    And there seemed to be something waiting for him behind the mist, calling out for him.


    It was like the end of all stories.


    Zhang Heng��s mind told him that he should stop moving forward. However, he did not sense any threat from the being behind the fog. On the contrary, he felt an inexplicable sense of intimacy, as if he was going home.


    At that time, Zhang Heng knew that a trip to Greend had to be on his n as soon as possible.


    After returning to school, Zhang Heng first took a cold shower, then headed to the gym for his daily training. After the break, he read a book in the library for a while until time began to flow again. Heading to the parking lot, he sorted out his game items in the trunk and drove to Miss Bartender.


    ��These belonged to Arc of Light��s guys. I still remember this shlight. I just identified it not long ago. It seemed you had a good yield that night.��


    ��How many points are these items worth?��


    ��There is a C-level item among it, which is very valuable. If you put it up for auction, it can go for 2,000 to 3,000 game points. However, if you mortgage it, you��ll probably get 1,600 points. The other game items can be sold for around seven to eight hundred game points each.��


    Zhang Heng now had 1,000 game points with him. Besides, he had killed a small team of yers because of Han Lu��s affairs. The items that he got from them were ced at Fan Meinan��s ce temporarily, and it should be enough if he added the value of those.


    ��I guess I have to wait a while before I earn those final seven hundred game points,�� Zhang Heng said.


    ��No problem. Anyway, it takes almost a month to cast the de. You can pay the bnce after it is done.�� It was rare that the bartender actually said something right. It was probably because she was not the one earning that money.


    ��Thank you,�� Zhang Heng said. When he was about to leave the game checkpoint, the bartender smiled and said, ��Since you are here, have a drink first.��


    After finishing talking, she made a ss of Martini as quickly as possible for Zhang Heng. This time, he did not mess around.


    Zhang Heng sat down in front of the bar, ��You look happy. Did something good happen to you recently?��


    ��Hmm, you are right,�� the bartender smiled slyly. ��Have I told you that I��ve been waiting for someone? Recently, I received news that that person ising back soon.��


    ��Who? Is this person your fianc��?�� Zhang Heng took a sip of Martini and asked.


    ��He is much more important than my fianc��!��


    This was Zhang Heng��s first time seeing the bartender so excited. She looked like one of those female fans obsessed with their inte idols. She was basically worshipping the person. ��He is my master, my belief, and the meaning of my existence!��


    ��Sounds like a powerful man... Is he the master behind this game?�� Zhang Heng guessed.


    ��No, he doesn��t have much interest in games or anything. He is the real thing. That��s why I admire him so much,�� the bartender gushed.


    ��That must be a pretty cool guy,�� Zhang Heng figured that the man that the bartender was waiting for was not a human being. The person was at least on the same level as the old man in the Tang suit and the Einstein that he met. Since the bartender refused to borate on the matter, Zhang Heng didn��t pursue the matter. He then drank down the Martini in one gulp, wiped his mouth, and put the empty ss on the table, ��In that case, I wish you good luck.��


    ��Good luck to you too,�� replied the bartender. ��I got news that the proxy war will start in at most half a month. Your showtime ising.��

 Chapter 595 - 5 Chewing Tobacco and Horseshoe

    Chapter 595 Chewing Tobo and Horseshoe


    Zhang Heng only took a day off before returning to the game checkpoint. Although the proxy war would not start until half a monthter, he still had toplete a quest before that.


    At the same time and seat, Zhang Hengid on the sofa and put the rm clock on his chest.


    (Verifying yer identity.]


    [Verificationpleted, the eighth game is being drawn randomly for yer 07958...]


    [Drawingpleted-Current quest is Chewing Tobo and Horseshoe]


    ��Unimaginable wealth is buried in the west. Here, you can get 160 acres ofnd for only $10. No matter where youe from and what past you have, you can start a new life here. However, this wealth is apanied by countless threats. Remember, only the toughest and strongest can survive on thisnd and be nurtured by it...��


    [Task objective: settle in Lincoln County and find the lucky horseshoe]


    [Mode: Single]


    [Time flow rate: 480) (1 hour in the real world is equivalent to 20 days in this game. The yer will be sent back to the real world after 40 days)


    Friendly reminder, the game will officially start in five seconds. Please be prepared.


    When he saw the quest��s name, Zhang Heng knew where he would be sent to this time. The background information of this round proved his guess was right. If he remembered correctly, the stiption of ��$10 for 160 acres ofnd�� came from the Homestead Act, signed by the 16th President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln, during the Civil War. It managed to bring the already soaring westward movement to a climax again.


    Countless American citizens who yearned for wealth had flocked to the west, where they worked thend and built their homes. Simultaneously, many viins, thugs, gamblers, murderers, and the people who lost theirnd and wealth during the American Civil War also headed to the west, far away from the prosperous and stable East Coast and the legal system. The west had be a paradise for desperadoes.


    The massacre and exile of Indians apanying the Westward Movement aggravated contradictions and hatred between the Native Americans and the pioneers. It turned the west intond infested with unimaginable peril. When Zhang Heng opened his eyes, he found himself standing in a desert. Red rock cliffs were everywhere, and sparse bushes and cacti were probably the only colors in the Gobi Desert. This time, the situation was simr to that of the Soviet-Finnish war. He was still wearing his short-sleeved shirt, shorts, and sneakers from the real world. Other than that, his mobile phone and keys were also in his pocket. Since the Pestilence Bone Bow was too conspicuous, he did not bring it into the game. Instead, it was reced by the Pestilence��s White Horse Crown and other game items he put in his backpack. Zhang Heng then went and checked his character panel briefly.


    Name: Zhang Heng


    Sex: Male


    Age: 20


    yer Number: 07958


    Number of the gamepleted: 7


    Current game points: 23


    Items in possession: Infinite Building Block (B), White Horse Crown (C), Filter Lens (D), Paris��s Arrow (D), Shadow Key (E), Lucky Rabbit Foot (E), Betty��s Shell (E) ), Hunter��s Blessing (F), Melting Metal (F), Oath Ring (F).


    Skills: Swordsmanship Lv.4, Sailing Lv.3, Language proficiency Lv.2 (eightnguages have reached a dailymunication level), Lego assembly Lv.2, Archery Lv.2, Field survival Lv.2, Driving skills Lv.2, Modification and Repair Lv.2, Shooting Lv.2, Aerospace Lv.2, Hacking Lv.2, Criminal investigation Lv.2, Make-up Lv.2, Piano Lv.1, Skiing Lv.1, Rock climbing Lv.1.


    Evaluation: The yer possesses incredible swordsmanship. As an opponent, you don��t want him toy his hand on any ded weapon. At the same time, he is also a Lego master, with an excellent criminal investigation and disguise ability. He has slightly better luck of encountering enemies than ordinary people. Other than that, he is also sheltered by shadows and storms. The white horse is his mount. The yer has excellent sailing experience. As for other weapons, he is good at using bows and arrows, firearms. He can drive cars, fly airnes and spacecraft, and other vehicles when ites to transportation. He can quickly adapt to a wild environment. Forbat, he is resourceful and possesses strongbat power. He is also the kind of yer that sticks to his oath, which is rare among yers.


    To recast that ��Ordinary Tachi,�� Zhang Heng practically invested all the game points he umted so far, leaving only 23 game points for an emergency.


    In terms of game items, there was little change from the previous round of the game. Except for the recement of [White Horse Crown] and (Pestilence Bone Bow], Zhang Heng had used up the (Wall of Evil Thoughts] during his previous battle with Arc of Light. It was now officially resting in peace. Besides that, Zhang Heng also acquired the Shadow Ne, which was part of the Shadow Set, but he did not bring it with him this time.


    In terms of skills, Zhang Hengxin acquired two skills after hepleted the Deductive Reasoning quest. The two skills were Criminal Investigation and Makeup, both of which had reached Lv.2. (Lvo Art Appreciation was not disyed) Also, his most significant change was, of course, the Lv.4 swordsmanship. This was the highest level of skills that he had so far. And it was probably also the limit of human beings. In thetest evaluation, the system emphasized his swordsmanship above everything else.


    Other than that, Zhang Heng also noticed that hisbat power had changed from excellent to powerful, and his final overall evaluation has also escted from eye-catching to rare.


    Zhang Heng did not spend too much time reading the evaluation. Though time was an issue for him since he had extra 24 hours every day, the scorching sun above him would definitely not allow him to stay here for too long


    Zhang Heng knew that he needed to do something about it as soon as possible. He had no clue about the main task asking him to find the Lucky Horseshoe for the time being. He knew that in some Western legends, horseshoes and rabbit feet are regarded as lucky objects. However, the horseshoe he was supposed to find was considered very special. Although he stayed in the United States for some time during his sixth game, the Apollo Training Camp, he wasn��t very familiar with Lincoln County. And he did learn a lot about the states in America. As for counties, unless they are very famous. He would not know the specific details of each county. It seemed like Lincoln County was established not long after the Westward Movement.


    And his guess was correct. Lincoln County was located in New Mexico. It was initially a small vige inhabited by Mexicans. In memory of the assassinated Abraham Lincoln, the vige was renamed Lincoln. But whether it��s Lincoln County or Lucky Horseshoes, it was something that Zhang Heng needed to studyter. Right now, his top priority was to find a ce with people. Zhang Heng first figured out the direction with the shadow observation method. However, even if he managed to distinguish south, east, west, and north, he would not know which direction to choose. Since the system put him here, it was impossible not to provide him with any hints. He was not supposed to rely just on luck.


    Zhang Heng then climbed a rtively high red rock nearby and spotted something.


    �C A section of railway. The first railroad in the United States was built around 1826. It was only used to transport granite. However, with the Westward Movement��s vigorous development, the United States has more than 410,000 kilometers of railroad sprawled across the United States. It was more than the sum of some other countries in the world. Later, they had to remove almost half of it because some were not being used.


    Whenever there was a railway, it often meant that there would be towns along the way.


    Zhang Heng climbed down from the rock wall and walked towards the railway.

 Chapter 596 - My Friend

    Chapter 596 My Friend


    It was the hottest time of the day. Temperatures on the Gobi had already exceeded forty degrees. Zhang Heng put his backpack on his head to block the sunlight, but this action proved pointless. After trudging along the railway tracks for a while, the skin exposed to the sun became tan, and his vision started to be blurry.


    Finding a rock wall that offered some shade, he sat down to rest for a while, waiting for the scorching sun to go down a little before taking off again. He had a whiptail lizard forpany, hiding in the same spot as him to escape the tremendous heat.


    In the Apollo program training camp, Zhang Heng underwent an exercise to test how well he could survive a desert. The only difference was that he was given a supply package. NASA had done an excellent job providing proper training to their future astronauts, having ounted for every emergency that could happen and provided contingencies for them. The trainees were even given anti-inmmatory drugs. This time, it was different. Zhang Heng was being thrown into the Gobi by the game system. From his clothes to personal effects, he was sorely unprepared to survive the rigors of the desert.


    Since he had found the railroad, Zhang Heng originally nned to walk along with it for a while until the train came, intending to hop onto it and get off at the next settlement. Unfortunately, it seemed like he was not in luck today. Two hours had passed, and he still had not seen a train pass. So, he could only carry on the journey with his legs.


    After walking for almost four hours, water in his body was evaporating quickly. Not only did the corners of his mouth be dry and cracked, but the exposed calves and arms were also a little red and swollen, an indication that he was experiencing sunburn. Fortunately, he spotted a small town from far.


    He was relieved. Like most of the small towns in the west in this era, the unknown town he spotted was built along the railroad. The railroad tracks went through the town center, with residential houses on one side and taverns, brothels, and casinos on the other side. Drunkards tend to make a lot of trouble. So, it was necessary to keep them on the other side.


    When Zhang Heng got closer, he realized that something was not right with this town. It looked entirely deserted; and through the open doors of a few houses, there wasn��t a single living soul to be seen in them. Not to mention how they were devoid of furniture as well. Zhang Heng randomly walked into one and found the ground filled with dust. It seemed the owner had not stayed here for a long time. The other residential buildings of the town were no better than this one. The only one that showed the slightest difference was the bar in the town. Eight horses were hitched outside the bar. Considering that this was probably the only ce with humans in the entire town, Zhang Heng did not hesitate to open the door and enter the bar.


    Unlike the empty town outside, the atmosphere in the bar was vivacious. Four men gathered around a table ying poker while cursing at each other loudly. There was also a guy who was already drunk lying on a table by the window; he had a booming snore. Meanwhile, theme barkeeper was counting the bottles of liquor on the alcohol rack. On the other table, two young men were sitting there quietly. One was cleaning his rifle, and the other yed with a dagger.


    The moment Zhang Heng strolled in, the racket of a bar fell into a hushed silence. Of course, such behavior waspletely understandable. His 21st-century attire looked a little too trendy, not to mention the eye-catching skin color he had.


    Since he was not here on a date, he didn��t really care what people thought of him. ncing around, he walked to the bar and put down his backpack.


    ��Excuse me, give me a ss of water... beer is fine too.��


    Theme boss did not turn around when he heard Zhang Heng��s request, seeming as if he heard nothing, and continued to sort out the alcohol rack. Zhang Heng frowned. The United States had a veryplicated immigrationposition. The English and Scottish weren��t the only ones that emigrated here, and though rtively rare, the possibility that the boss spoke no English couldn��t be ruled outpletely. So Zhang Heng asked him again in French and Spanish.


    Yet, there was no response from the boss.


    Instead, a bearded man put down the cards in his hand and walked over. Thoughing off as rugged and weathered, he was unexpectedly polite. ��Mind if I sit next to you?��


    ��Please,�� replied Zhang Heng after a pause. ��Since you are a patron, perhaps you could answer my next question. Is the owner of this bar deaf?��


    ��Hahaha!��


    The manughed when he heard Zhang Heng��s question. Instead of answering directly, he posed another question. ��Where do youe from, my friend? I don��t see your horse outside the bar.��


    ��It��s in... another town.��


    ��Well, as far as I know, there are no towns within a hundred miles.��


    ��So, as you can see, I��ve walked a long way,�� replied Zhang Heng. He looked toward the table where the man was sitting and pointed to the bottle of whiskey on it. ��Can you give me a ss of whiskey? I have not taken a sip of water for some time.��


    ��Of course! As the saying goes, good whiskey is meant to be shared among friends.��


    The bear-like man smiled, but he did not get up. He then looked at Zhang Heng and blinked. ��You are a Chinese man, right? You look stronger than most Chinese guys, and you are wearing some weird clothes. Also, you don��t have that thing behind your head...��


    The bear-like man made a braid gesture. ��Don��t be nervous. I had two Chinese friends who owned a grocery store in the town. I truly liked them. I did visit their grocery store frequently... you know, they were like tireless bees flying beside your ears every day. Buzz... Buzz... Buzz... Ah... forgive me; I��m not well educated. That might have been an inappropriate analogy... One day, our friendship came into a little hup...��


    The bear-like man suddenly looked very troubled. ��You be the judge. That morning, I went to their store as usual and took honey, candles, and two wine bottles. Before leaving, they stopped me and asked me to settle my debts. Their actions hurt me deeply. Considering our friendship, I never thought money could be used as a measure. So I put down the honey, candle, and the bacon in my hand. I opened one of the wine bottles and took two big sips from it. ��And as that happened, my two friends kept chattering, and chattering in my ears... So I drew my revolvers from my waist and shot-off their cute little heads! Suddenly, all problems between us have been resolved!��


    The bear-like man grinned widely.


    ��Now, let me answer your previous question. No, one-leg Randall ain��t deaf. Considering his age, this old bastard hears sharper than a dog. He clearly heard every word you said. It��s just that... he doesn��t give a f*ck about you.��

 Chapter 597 - Here’s to You

    Chapter 597 Here��s to You


    ��I think I get what you mean,�� Zhang Heng nodded.


    Trekking under the scorching sun for more than five hours, his body was weak, and he still had no idea where he or Lincoln County was. Having finally found his own kind in the vast, unforgiving Gobi desert, Zhang Heng vowed to be as friendly as he could be when he walked into the bar.


    But so far, it looked as if his n was about to fail.


    Historians repeatedly emphasized the devastation brought on by the vigorous westward expansion into Native Indian territory. In a mere century, about a million Indians were ughtered (during the westward expansion), and the rest were forced to move to reservations. However, the sacrifices that the Chinese made were rarely mentioned.


    After the Civil War, the United States ouwed very. Around the same time, westward expansion saw Europeans rapidly developing uncultivatednds. Laying railways required a lot of cheapbor, so businessmen turned their sights to Southeast Asia. During the Qing Dynasty, China experienced a poption boom and was under threat from the Taiping Rebellion. Insurgencies sprouted like mushrooms after the rain. As a result,rge numbers of the poorer ss fled to Hong Kong and Macau. Later, many were tricked into sailing to the Americas to be coolies, hardborers who were paid meager sries could bear hardships, subservient, and willing to do all sorts of dangerous work. The Transcontinental Railroad, dubbed one of the Seven Wonders of the Industrial World, spanned over 3,000 kilometers and ran through the entire North American subcontinent. Almost all of the most challenging and dangerous sections of the railroad werepleted by Chinese workers. Inter years, there was a popr saying that described it-There is a Chinese worker��s skeleton under each sleeper of the Transcontinental Railroad.


    However, the influx of these cheapborers, who did more work than they ate and almost never slept, severely affected the United States��bor market. Discrimination against Chinese workers also reached its peak at that time, especially when the railway was nearingpletion. Worried that Chinesebor unions would flock to nearby cities and towns and snatch jobs away from the locals, miners attacked the Chineseborers. The men barged into their camps at night with knives and guns, forcing the frightened Chineseborers to flee.


    During this period, discrimination against Chinese workers was nothing new, and it was not just verbal abuse that the immigrant workers had to endure. So, while Zhang Heng could not ascertain if the story the bear-like man told was right, he had read somewhere that such things really did take ce. During the neenth century, in the West, someone shot and killed a ck cowboy simply because he did not like ck people. The criminal fled before the sheriff arrived and escaped incognito to another town to drink some more. There, at the bar, he saw another colored man. Unable to control his overwhelming urge, he drew his gun and killed the innocent man. Fortunately, he was quickly surrounded and shot dead by the bailiff.


    Countless other simr urrences as such had happened in the West.


    This was a ce where bullets took precedence over reasoning. Every person was their own walking constitution. The faster your shots were, the more effective yourw became.


    Zhang Heng was not mad. In fact, he understood their way of thinking. He came to the bar by himself, thirsty and tired, and unarmed. Forget guns; he did not so much as have a knife on him. The seven strong men in the bar, on the other hand, were armed to their teeth. They were drunk, and it would be a challenge to stop them from seeking some fun at a moment like this.


    Zhang Heng had to admit that he had taken the wrong route��there was no point being friendly with hoodlums in a ce like this. But it did not matter since dealing with thugs and viins had always been his strength. Perhaps it had been far too long since the ck Sail quest that he had almost forgotten the standard method of dealing with a situation like this.


    Zhang Heng picked up an empty beer bottle from the bar and raised it. He looked at the bear-like man and said, ��Here��s to you for helping me recall those nostalgic times.�� While the man was still wondering why Zhang Heng employed an empty bottle to make a toast, the bottle suddenly appeared right in front of him. Zhang Heng pressed the beer bottle upon the man��s face and then punched the ss��s bottom.


    There was a loud crack��the sickly sound of the man��s nose breaking.


    The few people in the bar were confounded. They were enjoying themselves a moment ago, then out of nowhere, one of theirpanions was struck. Was this Chinese man blind? Did he not see where he was? Wouldn��t most people just leave the bar with their tails between their legs in a situation like this? Why would anyone strike first?


    The six men in the bar reacted almost instantly. The guy toying with a rifle immediately raised his gun, but Zhang Heng was too fast for him. As the bear-like man stumbled backward after getting hit by the ss bottle, Zhang Heng grabbed the man��s revolver on his belt.


    Both weapons were raised at almost the same time, but Zhang Heng was half a second faster. He pulled the trigger, and a spray of red exploded from the other guy��s head. The poor soul fell face down on a table, motionless.


    Immediately after, Zhang Heng pointed the revolver��s barrel at the poker table, prompting the man wearing a thick mustache and the skinny man at the table to pull out their weapons. Zhang Heng ignored the skinny man and shot the mustached man in the chest. The skinny man also pulled the trigger, but perhaps it was because he was too nervous that the bullet missed Zhang Heng and hit the alcohol rack behind him.


    Zhang Heng did not even so much as blink. He pulled the trigger again and finished off the guy next to the skinny one. Just then, the one ying with the dagger stormed towards Zhang Heng, the dagger aiming squarely at his chest. The skinny guy also had a precise aim at Zhang Heng. Yet at a time like this, despite knowing where he was going to end up regardless of who he went for, Zhang Heng remained calm. In the end, he chose the guy with the dagger. As soon as he pulled the trigger, he lunged towards the dagger.


    Then when the de was just inches away from him, the bullet tore through the man with the dagger and killed him, his falling body blocking the barrel of the skinny man��s gun.


    Zhang Heng fired again and hit the skinny man in between the brow. The sound of gunfire woke the drunk man snoring away in the corner of the room. When he opened his eyes and found hispanions lying lifelessly around him, his mouth fell open, looking as if he had seen a ghost. Fortunately for him, the shock onlysted for a brief moment because Zhang Heng saved thest bullet for him.


    All of this happened in a matter of seconds. Unless you saw it with your own eyes, you probably would not believe that seven armed men would be wiped out in such a short time.


    Zhang Heng tossed the empty revolver aside, picked up the lever action on the ground, then fired a shot at the bar��s owner.


    Thetter��s body was thrown back, mming into the racks of liquor. A look of shock filled the man��s eyes. He was reaching for the revolver when Zhang Heng shot him. The man did not stand a chance.


    Zhang Heng sighed aloud. ��Well, now that this has happened, I might as well go all the way. Why should I have to try and blend in?��


    Pity, the bar owner was not alive to hear it.


    Zhang Heng picked a clean ss from the bar, walked to the poker table, and poured himself a whiskey ss. He finished it in one gulp, finally rehydrating his body. After that, he picked up a stool and brought it to where the bear-like man with the broken nose was sitting


    The way the man looked at Zhang Heng had changedpletely. Having witnessed hispanions killed before his eyes, that big, muscr body was now curled into a ball, sitting on the ground trembling and ignoring his bleeding. He asked in a terrified voice, ��You...who are you?��


    Zhang Heng sat down on the stool.


    ��Why don��t we leave this question for thest, and you can answer a few of mine. How does that sound?��

 Chapter 598 - 8 Zhang Heng’s Trouble

    Chapter 598 Zhang Heng��s Trouble


    The bear-like man called himself Rich.


    Zhang Heng got both good news and bad news from Rich.


    The good news was that he finally knew where Lincoln County was. The bad news was that the ce was quite a distance from where he was currently. He had to go all the way south through the Gobi, and ording to Rich, it would take at least two days to get to Lincoln Country on horseback, and the journey was perilous.


    As for the train...


    ��The train hasn��te here for a while. There was a copper mine in this ce, and this small town was built at that time. The miners and their families inhabited the town, but the copper mine was exhausted after some time... I��m not too sure about that. Maybe there is still some copper left. However, one has to dig at least 200 feet before they can find any copper. It is almost an impossible task. As you can see, everyone has moved away.��


    ��Then why are you still here?�� Zhang Heng poured himself another ss of whiskey.


    ��We are not from this town... We are just doing business nearby.�� Rich��s eyes flickered.


    ��What kind of business?��


    ��Fur business, but the fur business is not doing well these years. Beaver skins aren��t as valuable as they used to be, and those little things are getting harder and harder to find,�� Richined.


    ��So this ce is your stronghold?��


    ��Yes, we took over this ce after the miners moved away. No, it��s just this bar.��


    ��How many people do you have in total?��


    ��Seven people, you have seen, uh, I am the only one left now...�� Rich��s eyes showed pleading. ��Sorry, sir, I apologize most sincerely for what happened before. I made up stories about my Chinese friends. I drank too much just now, and I started to spout out nonsense...��


    ��Hmph.�� Zhang Heng harrumphed and took another sip of whiskey. ��But why did I spot eight horses in front of the bar? Don��t tell me one of them belongs to the owner. Considering his physical condition, I don��t think he can still ride a horse.��


    ��Um... We had eight people before, I��m sorry, nine. Unfortunately, we encountered some trouble and lost two of ourpanions, but one of the deadpanion��s horse is still there. Please, sir. I have already told you everything I know. I know that you are a good, upright, and respectable person. We made a terrible mistake today, and we were punished for it. For God��s sake, can you just let us off the hook this once? I... I have 15 dors in my pocket, and I can give it to you,�� Rich begged.


    Zhang Heng handed over half a ss of whiskey to Rich. The creases eased on Rich��s face, and he rxed. It was a symbol of peace. He then gulped it down in one go. However, when he looked at Zhang Heng again, he saw a gun pointing at him.


    Zhang Heng picked up the rifle, leaning against his feet. ��No, you don��t know who I am. By the way, your answer just now was filled with lies.��


    Before Rich could answer, Zhang Heng pulled the trigger.


    After the gunshot, the whiskey ss fell to the ground, and the bar was finally quiet again.


    Zhang Heng removed the (Oath Ring) from Rich��s body and put it back in his backpack. Although the Oath Ring was only a Grade F game item, it was unexpectedly useful, especially during an interrogation.


    [The other party can perceive an oath vition]


    It was basically a portable polygraph.


    Zhang Heng spent some time looting the small bar, managing to find some food and a few buckets of drinking water in the storage room. After that, he made himself dinner, his first meal since entering this dungeon.


    He carried a te of bacon and potatoes, sat outside the bar, and watched the sunset as he ate. After knowing how far Lincoln County was, Zhang Heng was in no rush to get there, deciding to put up in the town for the night. After eating, he picked a rifle and inspected the nearby area thoroughly.


    Rich did not lie about the town. It had been abandoned for quite a while, and apart from him and his aplices, no one usually came around here.


    sour


    There are many simr towns to this one in the wild west. Most were built upon nodes of natural resources. Miners, ranchers, and golddiggers would gather at these ces, bringing along their families with them. As they engaged in production, they still needed to live their lives and have entertainment. However, as resources depleted, most would naturally move to somewhere new in search of more loot. Hence, the entire city would be abandoned and reimed by nature.


    This was now a ghost town.


    Zhang Heng scouted the ce quickly and found a rtively clean house on the opposite street to spend the night. When he returned to the bar the next morning, the first order of the day was a change of clothes. Hisplexion would bring him a lot of unnecessary attention, but his modern garments were even more of an eye-catcher. Though the short-sleeved shirt and shorts were cooling, they were not going to protect him from the sunlight. If he wanted to travel a long distance, and equipment upgrade was in store.


    Cowhide boots, shirts, leather trousers, denim scarf... these were all things given to Zhang Heng by Rich and hispanions. Zhang Heng found a guy of simr size to him and put on his clothes. Other than that, he grabbed two Colt revolvers and tucked them in the holster around his waist.


    As for the more powerful Winchester rifle, Zhang Heng did not take them because he wanted to settle down in Lincoln County without looking for trouble. The two revolvers were enough for him to defend himself.


    Ammunition, food, and water were all necessary consumables. Hence, Zhang Heng stuffed some of them into his backpack.


    Besides, Zhang Heng also got the 15 dors that Rich had promised him. Unfortunately, these guys weren��t wealthy by any means. The total sum he looted from eight people amounted to less than 50 dors. Fortunately, it should be enough for him to live for a while.


    Before leaving, Zhang Heng opened another barrel of whiskey, sprinkled it on the dead bodies and the floor, and lit up the ce with a matchstick.


    Soon, everything was engulfed by the fire.


    After he did what he wanted to do, Zhang Heng walked out of the bar.


    However, this was the beginning of his troubles.


    The distance from here to Lincoln County was great. Not only would it take an insurmountable time to get there on foot, but the journey would be unpleasant as well. And it was impossible to count on the abandoned trains here. So in this era, Zhang Heng had only one option left.


    He looked at the eight horses chained outside the bar. After having his dinnerst night, he brought a few haystacks to the eight horses and observed them from far. The darkest ck horse looked the strongest. So, Zhang Heng crossed it out. The other horses were also very vignt when he approached them. They were constantly kicking the ground with their hoofs or shaking their heads. They did not look like they could be Zhang Heng��s friendly partner.

 Chapter 599 - Lonesome Cowboy

    Chapter 599 Lonesome Cowboy


    Until today, Zhang Heng had only two horse-riding experiences��colt he rode in the park when he was young. These colts were usually led by experienced staff and walked around the area at speed close to ten miles per hour.


    In other words, this was the first time he chose a horse as a means of transportation. He was looking forward to the scene of riding a horse. From a safety point of view, Zhang Heng decided to do it step by step.


    So he picked the shortest and thinnest brown horse with a hair loss problem. Compared to the other horses, it looked rtively docile. When approached, the steed showed no resistance, and as it lowered its head to eat, Zhang Heng walked to its side.


    He tried to stroke its back, to which it sneezed and shook its body twice. Seeing that Zhang Heng didn��t intend to leave, it stopped moving around and continued its hay meal. Zhang Heng made up his mind. He knew that wasn��t as good of a horse as the others. No matter how good the horses were, their potential could only be fully realized if they met the right owner. For Zhang Heng, there was no other horse more suitable for him than this tame brown horse.


    Riding a slow horse came with its own advantages, including a lower risk of falling. After choosing his mount, Zhang Heng released the other horses, saving them from being roasted along with the bar. Instead of rushing to Lincoln County, he rode his new horse in the town for twops to relive the feeling of riding a horse.


    He still remembered a little bit of what he learned from the park. For example, he was not supposed to put his feet into the stirrups too much. This was to prevent the rider from being dragged like a rag doll when he fell. Zhang Heng also remembered the staff teaching him something about holding the reins right, but he could not remember it anymore. Other than that, he also could not remember the correct way of sitting on a horse as well. There was one thing he could recall, a little bit about starting and slowing down the horse. After spending some time practicing riding the horse, he managed to do it, but he was still not very skilled.


    After all, he was just a novice who had to rely on himself to learn how to ride correctly. Thanks to his excellent bnce and controbility, he did way better than most beginners. After practicing for a while, Zhang Heng felt good enough to embark on a journey. Putting on a felt hat, grabbed the reins, and set off in the direction of Lincoln County.


    In the vast Gobi, a cowboy with two guns was riding his galloping horse under the scorching sun. It looked like a scene from a movie. However, it all depended on how one defined galloping. In fact, the horse was only moving a little faster than walking.


    However, there was nothing much toin about since Zhang Heng did not need to walk across the Gobi on his own legs. At the same time, he did not dare let the horse run free as well. The first reason was that he had to prioritize his safety, and the other was to prevent the horse from dying before it got him to his destination. If that happened, Zhang Heng would have to walk all the way to Lincoln County. A man and a horse had now officially embarked on a voyage to Lincoln County.


    When the sun had reached its zenith, Zhang Heng managed to find a slightly cooler spot. He then got off his horse and filled himself up with some water and food. After making a rough estimation, he figured it would take him at least five days to reach Lincoln County at the current speed. There was more than enough food to get to the destination, save the water supply that was only enough tost him and the horse three days. One could survive without drinking water for a day or two.


    ording to the now-deceased Rich, there were other mining towns along the way to Lincoln County. To get there, however, some detours would have to be made. If he included the detour time, he might just arrive at Lincoln County seven dayster.


    Fortunately, Zhang Heng was not in a rush.


    After lunch, Zhang Heng and his horse carried on the journey again. This time they traveled for another five hours. The scenery in the Gobi was magnificent. However, a little monotony would set in after looking at it for a long time.


    Zhang Heng started to feel his muscles bing sore after sitting on the saddle for so long. The saddle��s friction didn��t make things better, giving him significant difort on both of his thighs. And this was only his first day.


    It was said that when the railway hadn��t yet been constructed, cowboys would sometimes go on a trek for several months, leading their herds behind them. During this period, they had to look after thousands of cattle, guard themselves against wolves, vipers, and sometimes face ambushes from Native Indian tribes. Even after the railwaywork��s initial construction waspleted, the sale of live cattle still required the cowboys to travel a great distance.


    Those who excelled in this job were the real warriors. It was no wonder cowboy culture gripped the hearts and minds of the United States for so many years.


    Then,st night, Zhang Heng��s lonesome trip to the west was interrupted. At that time, he had just set up a bonfire and finished cooking. As he finished up thest of his cornmeal, he heard the sound of a horse galloping.


    Zhang Heng then quickly took out the Filter Lens. When the mysterious stranger entered the Filter Lens�� effective range, he could clearly make out the uninvited guest��s appearance. It was a middle-aged man with a mustache and appeared to have spent some time in the desert. He looked dusty and dirty, but it did not hide that he was a handsomed.


    However, the first thing Zhang Heng noticed was the badge on his left chest. Unfortunately, it wasn��t a badge that would leave anybody relieved. The Wild West waswless-one could never trust anyone except for the guns in their hands. Even a handful of sheriffs or bailiffs were working among grey areas. Such individuals were even more dangerous than real gangsters.


    Zhang Heng did not say a word. Instead, he drew the Colt revolver from his waist.


    The stranger��s reaction was also rapid. He subconsciously took out his gun when he saw Zhang Heng drawing his revolver. However, the distance between the two was about 60 meters, and their surroundings were dark. With the help of the Filter Lens, however, Zhang Heng would shoot at him first.


    He waited for him to pull out his gun before pulling the trigger. Considering that his opponent might be a good guy, the first shot only served as a warning. The bullet hit the gun in the man��s hand urately, forcing him to drop it.


    ��Oh-oh, rx, friend, I am a marshal, and I have no malicious intent towards you.�� The man pulled the rein and stopped his horse from moving forward. Zhang Heng was impressed by his equestrianism.


    ��Is there anything I can do for you, Mr. Marshal?�� Zhang Heng was calm when he talked to him. However, he did not put away the gun in his hand.


    The bailiff understood why Zhang Heng was so vignt. He, too, would have drawn his gun before he talked. In this wilderness, one could never be too careful. Zhang Heng did nothing wrong there.


    He raised both his hands and to tell Zhang Heng that he had no intention to hurt him. He then brought his horse closer to the bonfire. And he finally had a clear look at Zhang Heng��s appearance. He was taken aback, ��Are you an Indian?��

 Chapter 600 - Mysterious Oriental Man

    <strong>Chapter 600 Mysterious Oriental Man</strong>


    The Chinese people of this era generally wore queues, and unliketer generations, were extremely skinny. On top of that, there were also yellow-skinned Native Americans, so it was not surprising that the bailiff failed to recognize Zhang Heng��s ancestry.


    But when the bailiff dismounted and approached the stranger, he could tell that Zhang Heng was not an Indian-which was a relief. With all the conflict between the colonists and the natives, he did not want to be standing at the end of the barrel of an Indian��s gun in the no-man��snd of the Gobi.


    The bailiff removed his other holster and hung it on the horse��s back to reassure the Chinese man he meant no harm.


    Seeing that the other party had expressed deference, Zhang Heng returned the favor by putting away his revolver.


    ��Alright. I never thought I��de across a Chinese in this god-forsaken ce.�� The bailiff offered Zhang Heng a hand. ��I��m Morton.��


    Zhang Heng shook the hand and replied, ��Zhang Heng. Anything is possible, Mr. Marshal.�� ��Where are you heading, Mr. Zhang Heng?�� the bailiff asked. ��Lincoln county,�� Zhang Heng replied frankly. ��Good ce. I was there a month ago. Although there are no suitablends to grow tobo or anything like that, there are many grazing pastures. The dark beer at the bar downtown is pretty good as well. You won��t want to miss it,�� Morton gushed, eyeing the cornmeal mush in the pot.


    ��Please, help yourself,�� Zhang Heng offered. He had nned to take a detour to replenish it at other towns anyway, and he did not mind giving away this half-bowl of polenta. ��Thank you.�� Morton took out a metal canteen from the bag hanging next to the saddle-it was probably his lunch box. He scooped two spoonfuls of corn paste, and since it wasn��t too hot, he scarfed it down, licking his lips as he finished it up. The bailiff felt that he should do something in return for having eaten Zhang Heng��s food, so he offered some advice. ��With all due respect, Mr. Zhang Heng, it is unwise to travel across the Gobi to Lincoln County alone.��


    ��Why do you say that?��


    ��This is not a peaceful ce. Murders and robberies are frequent here. I��m currently investigating a group of men whom I have pursued for over 20 days. They im to be pelt traders, but they probably conduct shady deals behind closed doors. Not long ago, there was a bank robbery in Shining Silver town. A group of masked men killed the bank��s manager and a poor woman who had gone to deposit money there. They hauled forty kilograms of gold and escaped!


    The local sheriff and a team of officers went after them, but the sheriff was shot and killed in the fight. Some of the masked men were also injured, but they were probably minor cuts and bruises.�� The bailiff paused to catch his breath and continued, ��Before the incident, someone saw the group of pelt traders in a town nearby, and they looked very suspicious.


    Speaking of which, where did youe from? Did you see any suspicious people along the way?�� Zhang Heng was surprised to learn about the background of the people he killed in the bar. The people that the bailiff described were consistent with the group of men he encountered in the bar. At that time, Zhang Heng had an inkling that those men were no straight arrows.


    After all, no matter how you��d put it, pelt traders setting up a stronghold in an uninhabited town was something unheard of, and those guys sure didn��t look like nice people either. Nheless, Zhang Heng was so preupied with getting on with the main mission that he wasted no time prying into the business of those men.


    After he had gotten the information he wanted, he terminated thest guy. But it turned out that the excellent habit cost him forty kilograms of gold. Later, when he searched the tavern and did not find any gold, he recalled what Rich said before he died. He thought Zhang Heng had epted his offer ofpromise, but Rich didn��t even get to give up the gold whereabouts in exchange for his own life.


    ��No. I��ve not seen anyone of that description, Mr. Marshall,�� answered Zhang Heng, ��but I will keep an eye out. If Ie across any of them, I will alert you at once.��


    Zhang Heng would never admit to having met those men. Apart from the fact that they were just suspects that hadn��t been actually convicted (and that he had killed them all), the most crucial piece of this puzzle was the whereabouts of 40 kilograms of gold. Even if he told the truth, that he hadn��t so much spotted a single nugget of gold, no one would believe him. What more, he was merely Chinese. Thus, Zhang Heng made a wise move by removing himself from this matter.


    He even considered killing the bailiff. After all, the location where they met wasn��t very far from the abandoned little town. It may have taken Zhang Heng two days, but with the bailiff��s horse-riding expertise, it would only take thewman one day to arrive at the town. Also, since there were not many people around, there was a good chance Zhang Heng would be named a suspect. But he eventually abandoned the idea. While the bailiff may be searching for Rich on his own, once he did find them, he probably wouldn��t have juste barging into the bar on his own.


    He would have brought along some of his colleagues with him, and since Zhang Heng did not know where hispanions were, and if he would cross paths with them, he could not possibly kill every single person he met. Morton looked at the eyes of the Chinese man before him, and he struggled to find anything unusual or odd-No-in fact, this man was unlike any other Chinese he had met before. Not only was he traveling in the desert without apanion, but he also appeared unfrightened nor was he intimidated by the strange and unfamiliar environment he was in. In fact, he even drew a gun at aw enforcement officer.


    To top it off, he seemed well-versed with the West��s legal environment and even spoke standard fluent English as if he had spent some time in Europe. Morton even detected a hint of a London ent. So, there was this Chinese man, sitting on his own; seemingly a man of few words, but not silent to the point of being ignored. ��Mysterious oriental man,�� Morton thought to himself. Then he chuckled, ��However this investigation turns out, I will drop by Lincoln County again sometimeter.


    If you have any information, you can always go to the sheriff there and they��ll send me a message. Remember, those men are dangerous. If you really doe across them, it��s best you keep your distance.�� ��Thank you for the heads up, Mr. Marshall, and I wish you sess in all your endeavors.�� Zhang Heng nodded.


    Since another human was a rare sight in the vast desert, the two kept each otherpany for one night, during which Zhang Heng asked the bailiff for some tips on horse-riding. Morton had witnessed Zhang Heng��s outstanding marksmanship, one that bettered most cowboys, so it came as a surprise to see how Zhang Heng was actually a novice who knew nothing about riding, especially when he was on the horse. Even though the Asian man knew some of the basics, it still seemed as if it was his first time. Yet, this guy had the guts to ride on his own, all the way to Lincoln county. Morton did not know whether to praise Zhang Heng for his bravery or chastise him for stunning injudiciousness.

 Chapter 601 - Radish

    <h4>Chapter 601 Radish</h4>


    Zhang Heng finally arrived at Lincoln County a day earlier than initially nned.


    The night he met the bailiff, Zhang Heng mentioned that he wanted to learn his equestrianism. Morton was very patient. Not only did he answer all of Zhang Heng��s questions, but he guided him on a personal level and corrected most of the wrong postures.


    That night, Zhang Heng finallypleted his self-learning process. The teaching continued until after midnight, and the poor bailiff did not expect to pay such a high price for a bowl of corn paste. So the two went separate ways the next morning. Morton was still yawning due tock of sleep.


    Amid his journey, Zhang Heng continued to hone his horsemanship to perfection. Such vigorous training would indeed cause him days of backache. It was one thing that couldn��t be changed immediately, even after the right ways of riding a horse were learned. He would have to get used to it by himself.


    However, the good news was that his riding was indeed improving. Although there was no change in his skill panel, he could personally feel the progress. At least for now, he had no problem with performing some of the basic skillsets.


    Zhang Heng also gave his first horse a nameRadish. After all, it was not a good idea to keep calling it a horse with a hair loss problem. ording to n, he replenished supplies halfway and reached the destination smoothly a couple of hourster.


    The Lincoln County��s county seat looked vivacious. This ce was way more extensive than the two towns he visited earlier. Apparently, there were two mining areas and many farms nearby, so so many people lived here. The town was also equipped with a bank, telegraph office, grocery store, hotel, bar, schools, and even a printing press. It was an excellent ce to settle down.


    Zhang Heng jumped off the Radish��s back and patted the dust off his body. Getting to Lincoln County had been no less a challenging journey. Having spent six days and five nights in the wilderness, corn paste had be almost tasteless. As of now, the matter of settlement or the search for lucky horseshoes wasn��t on his mind. The most important thing was to look for a ce to take a hot bath and fill his stomach with food.


    But before that, he still had some small problems to solve.


    Not long after he entered the town, he felt a faint hostility along the way. An old man was sitting in front of his house spat at his feet, the spitnding only two steps away from Radish. Two cowboys were leaning against the stables, catcalling every single girl who passed them. One of them said to Zhang Heng, ��Hey, boy from the east, you��d better back the f*ck off to wherever you came from. You are not wee here.��


    Zhang Heng had faced the same situation in the small town, and now, he had a good idea of how to deal with them. He drew his gun and shot at the hat of an old man nearby. Thetter froze for a moment, then sent out a salvo of all kinds of filthy words. Until Zhang Heng shot at the cup he was holding, he quickly shut his mouth, and his face was reddened.


    The two cowboys did not expect a new visitor like Zhang Heng to be so arrogant. Immediately, they drew their guns without saying a word. While they were doing that, Zhang Heng had already drew the second revolver and pointed it at them.


    ��If I were you, I would go to the bar to have a drink before the sunset. After all, life is short, and no one knows what will happen next moment.��


    The two cowboys then nced at each other. Although they were unhappy with the oue, they decided to step back and better understand the current situation.


    Then Zhang Heng looked at the old man again, ��Hey, it looks like you are going to need a new cup. I hope the next one will spend a little longer time with you.��


    The old man was so furious that his veins popped, his arms trembling.


    However, since the revolver was pointing at his head now, not a word could be said no matter how angry he was.


    Suddenly, another person spoke.


    ��You have gotten what you want, now, can you put away your weapons?��.


    It was a middle-aged man who was about fifty years old. He was wearing a dirty shirt and reeked of alcohol. If it were not for the grayish, weathered police badge on his chest, Zhang Heng would have thought that he was a tramp.


    Since he walked out of the police station, he should be the sheriff here. Although Morton and the middle-aged drunkard standing in front of him were consideredw enforcers, they somewhat differed. The sheriff was usually known as sergeant as well, and the town elected a sheriff to maintain the safety of an area. On rare asions, a sheriff would act as the local magistrate to hold trials.


    Bailiffs, on the other hand, were also calledwmen. Usually affiliated with the feds, their main job was to hunt down or escort fugitives.


    One was in charge of their local area, and the other worked for the federation. The nature of their work was to maintain an area��s stability, punish the evil, and reward the good.


    Zhang Heng saw that Lincoln County��s sheriff hade forward, so he decided to put away his revolvers. He came here to settle in this ce, not to make trouble. It was not too bad if he provoked the ordinary people here. However, if he angered the sheriff here, he would be forced to leave this ce.


    However, Zhang Heng did not regret what he did earlier. Although cowboys and pirates were not the same kinds of people, they both bore many simrities. To be more precise, all humans had many things inmon. The two shots he fired weren��t a mere vent of anger, but rather, to send a signal that they should not be messing with him.


    Considering his skin color, it would be tough to get a head start in the West of this era. Coming to a new territory alone did not mean that you will be safe even if one decided toy low. Instead of waiting for others to bully him, Zhang Heng took this opportunity to make a scene.


    In this way, if someone wanted to badmouth him, they would now have to think about the consequences. Of course, it didn��t mean that Zhang Heng would be fine afterward. In fact, things would get more serious than he imagined. Although he had temporarily scared them off, it was not easy to live in a hostile environment like this. In this world where everyone had a gun, Zhang Heng would not be able to do as he pleased.


    A few sses of whiskey, coupled with a few provocations, was enough to make a person abandon all sanity. No matter how strong Zhang Heng was, it was impossible to go up against an entire town alone. And he couldn��t be on guard 24 hours a day either. He was, after all, a human, and he would get fatigued. He might be able to hang on for a day or two, or even a week, but eventually, he would get tired.


    Zhang Heng had already begun to realize that it was not easy toplete the first half of the main mission and settle in Lincoln County.

 Chapter 602 - Bounty and the Alcoholic Sherriff

    <h4>Chapter 602 Bounty and the Alcoholic Sherriff</h4>


    The little conflict that had just taken ce in the county town quickly settled down in the presence of the sheriff.


    But many heard the gunshots and hade out to see what was happening, thereby witnessing the whole incident.


    Zhang Heng had achieved his first goal. Later, when he walked the streets again, no one dared to provoke him anymore. But, on the other hand, he had gotten himself on Lincoln County��s unpopr list.


    The way the sheriff looked at him said it all.


    As a matter of fact, the townspeople��s attitude towards him hadn��t changed much at all, except that they were now more wary of him. When Zhang Heng and Radish passed by, the women would drag their children into their homes while the men would stop in their tracks, offering nothing but a look of nervousness and hostility on their faces.


    Zhang Heng found a pub where he bought some grass fodder and beans for the Radish as a reward for all the hard work for the past few days. He also ordered a pint of darkger rmended by the bailiff, alongside a staple of steak and fried eggs. As he ate, he contemted his situation and his next move.


    He had found Lincoln county, but this ce was harsher than he thought it would be.


    In terms of unpoprity, he was probably ranked second only to the Native Americans. In fact, he might even be ranked higher than ouws and gang members.


    Zhang Heng wasn��t even sure if the cook had actually spat in his steak.


    Having spent three out of the forty-nine dors he had taken from Rich, he was now left with forty-six. If he were to put up at a hotel, he would be looking at one dor a day; meals included, which meant the money was only enough tost him about a month and a half.


    As usual, Zhang Heng still needed to find a way to make more money to survive in this quest. At that time, he began to miss that 40 kilograms of gold. Zhang Heng didn��t know what the system meant when it asked him to settle down in Lincoln County as the main quest. Was he supposed to look for a ce to stay, or was he supposed to stay here for some time? Or, was he supposed to just live here until the system sent him back to the real world. The first two requirements could be achieved easily. As for the third requirement, if he were about to stay here for an extended period, he would have to consider a property purchase.


    Nheless, thinking about things that would only take ce in the future was pointless. After Zhang Heng finished lunch, he decided to head over to the police station in town. There were actually many jobs that he could involve himself in, but when he thought about the way the townspeople treated him, he didn��t have many options left to choose.


    Among the odd jobs on offer, the work that could provide him with quick money and required no cooperation from anyone would undoubtedly be a bounty hunter.


    The police station��s soreck of manpower could barely cope with the West��s vast andplex environment. Most towns had only aw enforcement officer or two, and their enemies outnumbered many a time. Not only did they have to maintain localw and order, but they even doubled up as judges. It was almost impossible for them to take the time to go out of town.


    Even with the bailiffs�� help, they still required a great deal of workforce to help them deal with the problem in the West. It was the main reason why thew was nearly non-existent in those parts at that time. Once someonemitted a crime at a certain ce, it was difficult for the police to track the person down after they changed their name ory low.


    Thus, the inception of the bounty hunter profession.


    ording to the criminals�� threat level and the scale of the crime, the police would offer different rewards to the bounty hunter. If they agreed to the reward, these bounty hunters would hunt down the fugitives on their behalf.


    It was a profession only brave men and adventurers dared pursue. Zhang Heng had never doubted hisbat ability, but when he came to the police station and looked at the wanted list, he oversimplified the whole thing.


    Zhang Heng eliminated fugitives with a rtively low bounty. Although it was less risky going after these small-time criminals, the gains were not proportional to the pay, especially for novices like Zhang Heng. He doubted that the money he made during this round of hunting would be less than the money spent on the trip.


    The wanted criminals that came withrger rewards; on the other hand, they did not usually act alone. However, Zhang Heng was not bothered by it. The reason why they were hard to track down was that they were simply good at hiding themselves. No one really knew where their whereabouts were and had evasive skills that rivaled a ghost. Zhang Heng��s sailing skill was at Lv. 3, and his driving at a Lv.2, and he had even flown a spaceship before. Unfortunately, none of these skills could be put to much use during this quest.


    Along the way, Zhang Heng and Radish had acquainted quite well with each other. That said, he knew that his riding skills and the speed of his steed were considered below average in this era. In other words, he would not be able toplete any bounty since almost everyone was a lot faster than him.


    Moreover, Zhang Heng��s marksmanship could only be fully optimized when Radish stopped moving or dismounted. Once Radish started to gallop, his uracy would drop a lot. In summary, the money offered on the list looked very attractive, but it was unprofitable. And Zhang Heng also held a disadvantage-He was unfamiliar with the surrounding towns, and it was likely that he��d get lost. However, his analytical reasoning andbat skills weren��t something many possessed.


    Zhang Heng was confident that he could get it done, but he would have to take some time choosing the right target.


    As he was standing outside the door looking at the list, the drunk sheriff he dealt with not long ago also walked out from the room with his low-hanging potbelly preceding him. ��Boy, let me warn you about something. When you��re in the county, you had better behave. I��ve seen lots of young men like you who thought it wise to be arrogant after learning a bit of shooting. Know how they end up?��


    ��Back then, I gunned five people down in one go,�� the sheriff made a cool shooting gesture while exhaling a breath that reeked of whisky from his nostrils. But the next moment, he slipped and nearly fell to the ground. Fortunately, someone by his side propped him up, with the person urging, ��Sheriff, it��s time. Everyone is waiting for you.��


    ��Do I have to go, Jameson?!��


    The sheriff, immersed in the glory of the past, grunted when he was interrupted.


    ��I��m afraid in this Lincoln County; you are the embodiment of thew and nemesis of criminals. I am god-awful sure you need to show up to scare them off. And you also need to read the final judgment.�� The visitor nced at Zhang Heng unintentionally.


    ��Well, it is necessary to let those ouws know how powerful thew is,�� the drunk sheriff replied with a nod. Instead of leaving with Jameson, he turned and returned to the police station.


    ��Uh... are you going in the wrong direction, Sheriff?��


    ��Damn! Do I look useless to you? I��m just going to get the bottle I haven��t finished, Jameson,�� the sheriff replied before slowly stumbling back to his table. After he grabbed the whisky, he picked up his hat and slowly walked out of the station.


    At that time, Zhang Heng also noticed that a crowd had gathered in the officialdom not far away. There was a tall wooden tform in the center of the ce.

 Chapter 603 - Death Sentence and Repentance

    <h4>Chapter 603 Death Sentence and Repentance</h4>


    ��Twelve... Twelve good people who are so different from you have put you on trial, saying you are guilty. Look at the crimes that you havemitted. You...�� The drunk sheriff on the wooden stand pointed at the man with his hands and ankles tied with a rope.


    ��You fought against a man for a horse, stabbed the owner with a knife, made a mother lose her son, a wife to lose her husband, and an innocent child to lose her father! Do you anyst words?��


    ��Yes, I didn��t control my temper at the time. I killed him by mistake, and it got to where I am today. Now, it��s toote to say anything about it.�� The shorty obviously knew that his death was imminent. He then took a deep breath and said, ��I just hope I can apologize to the family of the man I killed. Although I know they won��t forgive me, so be it.��


    After he spoke, he nodded at the sheriff and closed his mouth.


    The next moment, a ck cloth was put on his head.


    Meanwhile, the drunk sheriff walked toward the other person, a strong-looking hunk of a man. When the sheriff saw him, undisguised disgust shed across the sheriff��s eyes.


    ��You raped your sister-inw when your brother was selling the cattle elsewhere. After you were exposed, you killed your brother. Such evil acts that happen on thisnd are tant to the judicial system and human morality! I should have killed you when you attempted to run away. I shouldn��t have let you live for so many days and waste our food. Say yourst words.��


    ��No, you��ve got the wrong man. You shouldn��t believe that (BEEP). It is not me who killed my brother! The adulterer is someone else! They��ve banded together and framed me! The moment my brother and I both die, the ranch will fell into the hands of that whore and her lover!��


    Compared with the previous shorty, the second man��s emotions were obviously more aggressive. Yelling and struggling in panicked desperation, the executioner had to pat his back, signaling him to keep his voice down. The drunk sheriff snorted coldly, ��Your trial is over, and the jury has decided. If you have any objections, you can tell your grievances to God directly when you see him. Oh... sorry, I almost forgot, an evil man like you can��t see God. Go to hell, bastard, next one.��


    Once again, the sheriff pulled out his bottle, took a sip of whiskey, and walked towards the one-armed man. ��You...�� The drunk sheriff was stuck after saying only one word. He then pointed at him, stared at him for some time before squeezing another word from his mouth, ��What have you done?��


    The man named Jameson standing under the wooden pedestal smacked his forehead, unable to bear the scene. At the same time, the crowd became increasingly agitated.


    ��Quiet and quiet!�� the sheriff bellowed. He then took out a crumpled piece of paper from his pocket, unfolded it, and read it.


    ��Oh, damn, you are from Cook��s gang. You��ve robbed the trains countless times and ransacked two towns, killing unarmed civilians. Thews you vited are enough to fill up a piece of paper. To be honest, sentencing you to death has to be too merciful. You should be d you weren��t born in the Middle Ages. Otherwise, I would have nailed you to the wall and let you die slowly! Then, perhaps I can hear your wailing from below every day.��


    The one-armed man was the calmest of the three. He shook his head when he heard that. ��You are wrong,�� he retorted boldly. ��I have robbed trains and caravans, but that was before I lost my arm. After that, I left the Cook Gang and decided to reside here. Town looting has nothing to do with me.�� ��It doesn��t matter. Anyway, the deeds you have done are enough for you to be sentenced to death,�� the sheriff barked impatiently, ��If you want to confess, hurry up! I��m about to finish my whiskey.��


    ��I won��t repent. It��s you who should be the one to repent,�� the one-armed man said lightly, his gaze sweeping over the crowd under the wooden stage. For some reason, no one dared to look him in the eye when he scanned them. The once judgemental eyes of the folk looked away in silence.


    This scene was one of stark absurdity. The one-armed man was the one whomitted those crimes, yet he made it looked like the townsfolk were the ones on trial.


    ��Now that you know my true identity, you should also know how the Cook treats their enemies,�� the one-armed man smiled. ��If you hang me today, the news will spread tomorrow, and the Cook will know very soon. It won��t be long before my brotherse to avenge me, and what happened in those two towns will repeat here. They will turn every inch of thisnd into scorched earth. Those whom you care and love will die before your very eyes. Their tormented screams and wails will resonate in your ears. Then it will be your turn to die... My trial here is over, but yours has just begun! I��m done talking. Just do it.�� After speaking hisst words, he, too, nodded at the sheriff.


    The words of the one-armed man caused the entire square to descend into silence. An atmosphere of anxiety and angst continued to spread among the crowd. With more than 50 members, the Cook Gang was thergest in New Mexico. Ruthless and brutal men, not only did they ughter civilians, but they also dared to fight head-on with a brigade of marshals. Their notoriety was infamous, and the moment the people heard that they might provoke these evil beings, those who knew better began to fear for their lives.


    Some even hoped that the drunk sheriff would just let him go and call it a day.


    However, thewman simply smiled contemptuously, ��Put away your nonsense. People that live in thisnd will not be intimidated by you. As long as I am here, if Jeremy Cook and his minions dare step in my town, they will not leave here alive!��


    ��Let��s just wait and see.��


    A ck cloth was put on his head as well.


    As the executioner pulled the lever, the wooden board under the three people��s feet opened, and they fell into the hole. After a few minutes�� struggle, the used men breathed theirst.


    The crowd screamed and gasped in shock, where manydies covered their mouths, not knowing how to react. Zhang Heng was watching the execution outside the police station, but he did not respond. After all, probably no one in this world was more familiar with the gallows than a pirate. Zhang Heng had even led someone to save a pirate about to be executed, the reason why he did not take one-armed man��s words too seriously.


    Unlike the myriad of small hamlets of the wild West, Lincoln County was a distance from Santa Fe, the political center of New Mexico. It was densely popted for its time, and although it faced a shortage ofw enforcement officers like other towns, there were many ranches in the county. That meant that there were many cowboys, ones equipped with the necessary skills to fight off the invaders. Hence, it wasn��t going to be so easy for Cook and his fifty-odd minions to ransack this ce.


    At the same time, Zhang Heng��s sixth sense told him that something wasn��t right. After he went into conflict with the two cowboys earlier, he always felt that someone kept an eye on him. The feeling was still there after he walked out of the bar. Even when everyone was watching the execution, he could sense that the person was always watching him.


    Could the person be the aplice of those two cowboys? Zhang Heng thought to himself that even though the drunk sheriff had just warned him, he would have to do something about it if he felt that his life was in danger.

 Chapter 604 - Wendy

    <h4>Chapter 604 Wendy</h4>


    The three men who were still alive not long ago turned into corpses in a blink of an eye, swining under the wooden pedestal by their necks and motionless like dried salted fish. To ensure that they were dead, thew enforcement officers waited for a long time before untying the noose around their necks. The corpses were then collected. The drunk sheriff climbed down from the wooden tform slowly after carrying out his social calling; and so, the crowd dispersed. As they returned home, they chatted about what had just taken ce, especially what the one-armed man said at the end. His unsettlingst words had put many on edge, and they started to worry significantly about their own safety. Preupied, the new oriental man in town wasn��t the cause for concern at the moment.


    Zhang Heng looked at the bounty list on the wall, but there were no good targets to choose from. Left with no other options, he could only pull the faces of a few fugitives he wanted to capture from his memory.


    After that, Zhang Heng brought Radish on a stroll to the grocery store in town. A person who had been watching him from afar also came to the grocery store. After some time, though, the Asian man didn��te out. A little anxious, the person wanted to check out the grocery store but was afraid of getting spotted by Zhang Heng. Since his horse was still outside the grocery store, it did not make sense that he would just disappear suddenly. Just when he hesitated, a voice came from behind him.


    ��Are you following me?�� Zhang Heng was also a little surprised when he saw the person who��d been tailing him. Although the person tried hard to pretend to be an adult, he seemed like she was only eleven or twelve years old and had a face full of freckles. No wonder Zhang Heng did not notice her when he turned around earlier.


    ��Are you the sister of those two cowboys?��


    ��What cowboys... oh, you are talking about those guys. No, I have nothing to do with them, sir,�� the girl said. ��Then why are you following me?�� Zhang Heng stuffed some soap and daily necessities that he bought from the grocery store into the bags beside the saddle.


    ��Please allow me to introduce myself, I... my name is Wendy, and my father is a rancher nearby.��


    ��So?�� Zhang Heng raised his eyebrows.


    ��I see you are looking for a job. This is the case: About two weeks ago, my father went out to talk business with someone. He said that he would be back in ten days at most, but as you can see, the deadline has arrived, but he is not home yet.��


    ��Maybe something held him back along the way,�� Zhang Heng said. Since the freckled girl in front of him had nothing to do with the two cowboys, Zhang Heng had no intention to embarrass her. So, he turned around and prepared to leave with Radish.


    When Wendy saw that he was leaving, she quickly ran in front of him.


    ��No, my father has always been a very punctual person, and the town he went to has a telegraph office as well. If he couldn��te back because of some emergency, he would��ve definitely sent my mother and me a telegram!�� ��And then?��


    ��He didn��t send us anything, and it��s been a long time since we lost contact with him. My mother and I are both worried about his safety.��


    ��I can understand your worries, but shouldn��t you go to the town��s sheriff for this kind of thing?�� Zhang Heng changed directions and brought Radish to walk past Wendy��s side. ��I went to Sheriff Terrell. He sent a telegram to the police station in that town, and they told him that my father left six days ago.��


    ��So, is your problem solved?��


    ��No, of course not. I think they are lying. This is obvious. If my father left six days ago, he should have arrived home by now, and he will definitely send a telegram to my mother and me before he leaves,�� replied Wendy as she followed Zhang Heng.


    ��But the sheriff did say that he had left that town.��


    ��I don��t know. I have a bad hunch. I think something bad had happened to him. I told Sheriff Terrell about my hunch, but he didn��t believe me at all, and he asked me to go home and wait patiently. The bailiffs in the town are also busy with other cases. They refuse to take the time to find my father.��


    ��Where are your father��s friends? Why don��t you ask them for help?��


    ��Our family has no friends here. My mother is a Spanish immigrant, and my father is half Apache. You are not the first person to be alienated in this town, and you will not be thest,�� Wendy went on. ��I know how it feels. I saw the things that you did when you first entered the town. I think you are a tough person, just like my father. So, I want to offer you a job, Mister.��


    ��Help you find your father?��


    ��Yes, I can pay you sixty dors after youplete the task.�� Wendy looked nervously into Zhang Heng��s eyes. This was basically the same as a standard bounty reward. Besides, Zhang Heng could use his investigation skills in this matter, and he did not need to travel far. Although the investigation might require him to leave Lincoln County for a period of time, it was not a problem since he had extra 24 hours every day. Besides, if he wanted to earn some extra cash, he would eventually have to leave town whether he liked it or not.


    But there were some things Zhang Heng wanted to rify in advance. He stopped, asking, ��What will happen if I ept this job offer, and your father returns home by himself?��


    ��I will still pay you the money.�� Zhang Heng nodded, ��I��m going to say something that you may not like to hear...what if something horrible happened to your father?��


    ��It doesn��t matter. I have already considered all kinds of possibilities myself,�� Wendy hesitated, ��As long as you can prove that he is no longer in this world, I will pay you the money.�� ��Very well, I��ll take the job,�� Zhang Heng said., ��Pay me half of the money for the deposit, then write an employment contract. I also need you to tell me more information about your father. I wille back once I discover your father��s whereabouts.��


    Wendy was overjoyed when she heard Zhang Heng��s promise, but she added, ��No need for all that trouble. I will go with you, and I will tell you more about my father on the road. I want to know the results as soon as possible.��


    ��Hold up. Did you just say that you want to find your father with me?�� Zhang Heng frowned.


    ��Yes, don��t despise me just because of my age. I can provide you with a lot of help,�� Wendy insisted. ��In addition to providing information about my father, there are many things I can do. I tamed my first pony when I was only seven...��


    ��But you know that we mighte across great danger when we leave town.��


    Zhang Heng did not want someone dragging his feet.


    ��Of course! It is the reason why I hired you. Otherwise, I would have gone by myself.�� Wendy��s eyes widened, puzzled.


    ��So... you just want to hire a bodyguard?��


    ��Yes, if you want to call yourself that.��


    ��Goodbye.��


    Zhang Heng walked towards the hotel with Radish.


    Wendy hurriedly shouted when she saw Zhang Heng left, ��How about the 70 dors, or 75? This is as much as I can pay you. If you want more, I��ll just go to other people. Although the people in town don��t like us, they will not refuse the job if I pay them money. As long as I pay a good price, someone will definitely be willing to be my bodyguard.��


    ��Please, I have no interest in being directed by a kid.�� Zhang Heng shrugged her off with a wave and kept walking, ��I hope you find your father as soon as possible, Wendy.��


    as soon.

 Chapter 605 - Do You Know What Time It Is?

    <h4>Chapter 605 Do You Know What Time It Is?</h4>


    Zhang Heng had done a lot of walking in the past few days. When he arrived at the hotel, the first thing he did was to take a hot shower, getting rid of all that dirt and mud off him. While at it, he also washed his clothes and hung them on the window sill. With the temperature in the area, Zhang Heng��s clothes would dry the next morning. Once he got up the following day, he would have clean and fresh clothes to wear.


    Before sunset, he had already taken off his boots andid on the bed. He did not know how long he slept, but it was definitely not that long. It was still dark outside when the sudden knocking on his door woke him up.


    For the first time, Zhang Heng grabbed his revolver under the pillow and leaned against the door.


    ��Who are you?��


    ��It��s me, sir, Wendy. We met at the grocery store in the afternoon.��


    Zhang Heng did not open the door immediately after hearing her voice. Frowning, he asked, ��Why are you here?��


    ��I re... thought about your proposal. I think what you said finally makes sense to me now,�� Wendy replied. ��What did I say?��


    Zhang Hengbed his messy hair and quickly put on his damp trousers. As for his shirt, he decided to let it wring out for a little longer.


    ��You said you were not interested in getting directed by a kid.��


    ��Yes, that was my answer to you. Go and look for someone else to help you. By the way, do you know what time it is?�� ��Five o��clock in the morning, sir,�� replied Wendy. ��I pondered on it after that and felt that you should be the one in charge of this investigation. I am only responsible for providing suggestions. I wonder if you find this arrangement eptable?��


    ��Why would youe here to talk to me at five in the morning?�� Zhang Heng yawned.


    ��Sorry, I heard you fell asleep very early. If we depart now, we might still reach Glen Town in the evening. I just hope to find my father as soon as possible. The thought of him getting kidnapped by bad men makes it impossible for me to sleep. Please help me!��


    Wendy felt like she was waiting for a trial after she spoke to Zhang Heng. Every passing second was torture to her. After a while, she heard something moving from behind the door. Zhang Heng moved the chair barricading the door and said, ��Come in, slowly.��


    Wendy was ecstatic when she heard Zhang Heng��s reply. She then entered the room, gingerly treading as per Zhang Heng��s request.


    She saw Zhang Heng, who was holding a revolver but couldn��t help doing a second take at Zhang Heng��s naked body.


    After making sure that Wendy wasn��t followed, and that nobody was hiding near the stairs, he put away the gun and closed the door.


    ��Didn��t your mother teach you not to enter a stranger��s room?�� Zhang Heng asked.


    ��I can protect myself,�� Wendy insisted. Seeing that Zhang Heng didn��t believe a word she said, she added, ��If you want to do something vile to me, I will scream as loudly as I can! This hotel has many guests, and we are not too far from the police station as well. The sheriff will get here as soon as he can the moment I make a scene. Although I am not the most likable character in this town, it depends on who Ipare to. Of course, I believe that you are an honest and friendly man.��


    ��You are too naive. Say I��m a viin, poised to do something bad to you, I wouldn��t even give you the chance to scream in the first ce. You can��t be so lucky every time. The best way to protect yourself is not to put yourself in danger.��


    ��80 dors... 80 dors. You are in charge of this investigation.�� Wendy wanted to dwell no longer on this topic, so she raised her offer again.


    Zhang Heng was nomittal when he heard this. ��In contrast, I am more curious as to why you insist on getting me to help you? As you said, you could have hired someone else for this price.��


    ��I can��t be sure if they can be credible,�� Wendy confessed after a moment��s silence. ��There is one thing I didn��t tell you. My father has offended Lawrence G. Murphy. He is the most powerful man in town. All the grocery stores, bars, banks, and hotels are his. Except for Sheriff Terrell, the townsfolk all either work for him or would side with him. That��s why I chose you to help me. I don��t know if my father��s disappearance is rted to Major Murphy, and I don��t want anybody to see that we are in frequent contact. Thest thing I want is to trigger his vignce.�� ��Well, this exins why you hired an outsider like me to help your father,�� Zhang Heng snorted, ��How long were you nning to hide this from me? So, you want me to offend this town��s kingpin by offering me a mere 80 dors? This is not a good deal at all.��


    ��No, sir. I nned to tell you all this, and then some more, as we journey to Glen Town. Things are not as bad as you think. Lincoln County is indeed massive, but Major Murphy has the final say in the town. Outside town, the owners of many ranches and mines are all against him.��


    ��Even so, it��s still going to be a big loss for me.�� Zhang Heng poured himself a ss of water.


    Wendy gritted her teeth, ��How about I offer you a good horse? We have thirty horses on our ranch. You can pick one. I noticed that your steed is not thoroughbred, and it is ancient. .��


    Zhang Heng did not know how Radish would react if it heard Wendy��s evaluation. However, what Wendy said was still a fact. Unfortunately, Zhang Heng��s horseriding skills weren��t good enough to handle a thoroughbred horse.


    A good horse certainly didn��te cheap. Each going for at least eighty to ny dors, Wendy had just doubled-up on her offer by offering him a good horse. This should also be thest time she was going to ask him.


    A hundred and seventy dors was enough to make Zhang Heng reconsider the whole thing. The amount was good enough to sustain him for a year, and even if he didn��t mess with the man named Murphy, he would still be chastised because of skin color. Besides, he was just looking for a missing person.


    Zhang Heng thought for a moment, then suddenly asked, ��Do you know where the lucky horseshoe is?��


    ��Huh?�� Wendy was at a loss when she heard the question, ��You want horseshoes?��


    ��It��s nothing. Forget about it.�� Zhang Heng asked the question because Wendy told her that her ranch had lots of horses. Zhang Heng was not surprised when he did not get the answer that he wanted. He then said to Wendy, ��Let��s go and grab something to eat.��


    ��What do you mean?�� Wendy asked nervously.


    ��Let��s get to Glen Town after breakfast. Didn��t you say we will arrive by nightfall?��


    ��No, it��s actually quite a long journey. We can only get to the town between here and our destination in the evening.�� Wendy was ecstatic, ��Let me bring you something to eat immediately.��


    ��What about you? How are you going to get there? Do you need to rent a carriage?��


    ��You have just underestimated a rancher��s daughter. I will ride with you.��

 Chapter 606 - Note

    <h4>Chapter 606</h4>


    <h4>Note</h4>


    Zhang Heng initially thought that Lightning was a pony. And Wendy did say so as well. However, he ignored the fact that Wendy said she had been taming Lightning since she was seven years old. Five yearster, Lightning had grown into an adult horse with a tall body, shiny fur, and strong muscles. It was filled with vitality and strength.


    In contrast, Radish looked like a value-added purchase or a gift after he bought something.


    ��If you wish to receive a portion of your pay, you can go to my ranch to pick a horse...��


    ��No need,�� Zhang Heng interrupted, ��I��m a sentimental man. For now, I will continue to ride my steed. You are right. We should depart earlier.��


    ��You have the final say.�� Wendy mounted her horse; her speed and smoothness made it look like she had done it a thousand times.


    Zhang Heng jumped on his horse.


    The sun was only rising over the horizon, and most of the countryfolk were still fast asleep. Hence, no one noticed the two leaving.


    To Zhang Heng��s surprise, Wendy behaved really well along the way. Other than answering every question that Zhang Heng posed, she silently rode her horse and said nothing. Half a day had passed, the two onlypleted half of the journey to the next town. Wendy could not help but speak out.


    ��Sir, you don��t have to worry about me. Just speed up. I promise I will not be left behind.�� ��As you can see, my horse is ancient. I don��t think it can survive a ride of such great distance,�� Zhang Heng said. Wendy wanted to reply, but she decided not to say it in the end.


    ��What do you want to say?�� ��Your horse is old, but it is not that old. It would eat the grass on the ground secretly every two steps it makes. I think it is far from reaching its limit.��


    ��Do you know horses well?�� Zhang Heng raised his eyebrows.


    ��Yes, to be precise, my father knows horses very well. Our family��s ranch may not be thergest in Lincoln County, but my father has to be the one most acquainted with horses within a hundred miles. He taught me everything about these magnificent beasts.��


    Zhang Heng thought for a while. ��How about revising the contract we agreed on earlier?��


    ��What?�� Wendy became nervous when she heard that.


    It was out of sheer desperation that she hired Zhang Heng to search for her father. After all, the man had been missing for many days, and she couldn��t afford to wait any longer. However, not many outsiders were in Lincoln County, and it was rare to find an excellent marksman. Wendy had had never met Zhang Heng before, so she did not know what kind of person he was. Although she tried to remain as calm as possible, they were no longer at the hotel. In other words, if Zhang Heng wished to hurt her right now, there was nothing she could do about it.


    Throughout the journey, Wendy silently held a knife in her pocket. Zhang Heng noticed she was holding a weapon, but it did not bother him. ��You teach me about horses, and you can deduct ten dors from my pay,�� he offered.


    ��You want to know more about horses?�� Wendy was baffled by Zhang Heng��s request. Shen then let go of the knife, ��What do you want to know?��


    ��Various aspects, including how to pick, raise, ride, how to calm a grumpy horse, and what are spurs.�� Zhang Heng pointed at the wheel-like contraption behind his boots. Having read about it in novels and seen it in western movies, he knew that they were used to stimte the horse to run faster. It allowed the rider to free up their hands to gun down their enemies.


    That said, he had no idea how to use it.


    These were more advanced techniques, and he could not learn them that night from the bailiff.


    ��I��m happy to share this knowledge with you, but most of them are very basic. I��m worried that you might get impatient,�� Wendy said cautiously.


    ��No. I won��t.��


    As an amateur, Zhang Heng was happy that someone was willing to teach him.


    ��Where do we start?�� This was the first time Wendy faced such a weird request.


    ��It��s better to start with types of horses.�� Zhang Heng pointed at Lightning, ��What breed is your horse?��


    Wendy stroked her mane and said, ��Lightning is an Indian colt. It was first brought to the American continent by Spanish colonists. It thrives here and has finally be what it is today. It is seven years old this year, equivalent to a middle-aged human. And it is my best partner.��


    ��How about my horse?�� Zhang Heng then pointed at Radish and asked.


    Wendy looked at Radish carefully for a while and said, ��I want to take back what I said earlier. It is actually not too bad of a breed. If I read correctly, it should be a Hungarian hybrid, considered a stable breed of hybrid horses. Usually, hybrids are very smart, and after some training, they can oftenplete tasks that other horses cannotplete. Besides that, they have strong self-control.��


    ��Really? I don��t see any self-control in it.�� Zhang Heng looked at the undisciplined Radish, who walked a few steps away and lowered its head to gnaw on some weeds on the ground.


    ��You have to learn to control it, and it is indeed getting old. I estimate it is almost twenty-five to twenty-six years old.�� ��What about riding it?��


    After a while, Wendy confirmed that Zhang Heng knew next to nothing about horses. She found it really hard to believe. Several men on the east coast knew nothing about riding horses, and these usually traveled in carriages and trains. However, in the west, especially in the more remote areas where trains were not reachable, most men had to learn how to ride horses, especially where Wendy lived. Countless equestrian masters were living around her.


    Zhang Heng had never said that he could ride a horse. He came to Lincoln County alone. Coupled with his superb marksmanship and a cowboy outfit, people subconsciously thought that he was a master horseman. Thus, half a day into the journey, Wendy now felt that she had hired the wrong man for the job.


    But it was toote to change her mind now.


    Wendy could onlyfort herself. At least she felt safer. And if Zhang Heng did intend any harm, he would be unable to catch up to her.


    These thoughts clouded Wendy��s mind, but she did not express them. Having the patience of a saint, she slowly imparted all kinds of information Zhang Heng wanted to know as they went on their way. Initially, he wanted to learn about western culture, but it turned out that it was something Wendy knew nothing about.


    ording to her words, apart from a family outing, this was the first time she had strayed so far away without her family. In the past, she was only active in Lincoln County or, more precise, only her ranch and county seat.


    Zhang Heng suddenly remembered a question and asked Wendy, ��Does your mother know that you are looking for your father?��


    ��Yes, sir,�� Wendy replied calmly, ��I left her a note.��


    ��That means you snuck out.��


    ��No, I left a note.��


    ��Which is why we call such behavior as sneaking out. You didn��t tell your mother about it because you knew she wouldn��t have agreed.��

 Chapter 607 - Misunderstanding

    <strong>Chapter 607 Misunderstanding</strong>


    Although they had only worked together for less than half a day, doubts about each other had begun to materialize. Wendy suspected Zhang Heng wasn��t as good as she initially thought him to be, and Zhang Heng began to doubt if Wendy would fulfill her promise at all.


    For Wendy, she had no other choice. Since she had chosen Zhang Heng, she could only rely on him no matter what would happen. At the same time, Zhang Heng gained valuable knowledge and skills, and since it could be considered part of the reward, his doubts didn��t bother him too much.


    To avoid having to spend the night in the wilderness, the two sped up their horses. Zhang Heng could actually make Radish run faster. After all, he came to Lincoln County alone. Only one thing worried him-Radish would be difficult to control if it started running more quickly, in turn, increasing the risk of idents. Hence, he felt that the journey shouldn��t be rushed.


    But whenpared to sleeping on the grass, a little suffering was nothing.


    In the end, the two arrived at Glen Town at about seven in the evening.


    ��This is the town.�� Wendy pointed at a bar in the middle of the town square. ��My father always tells me about this ce, saying that their apple pie is delicious. Every time he passes by, he will buy one, and sometimes, even two for my mother and me.��


    Zhang Heng nodded, ��Let��s stick to your n. You go inside and ask when thest time your father showed up and if he passed through here on his return trip. I��ll head to the hotel to book two rooms.��


    If he wanted to, Zhang Heng could actually head to the bar himself to ask those questions. Nheless, the terrible experience he had to endure when he entered a barst time made him decide to keep a low profile and leave themunications part to Wendy. Even though thetter was only twelve years old, the rancher��s daughter was very good at what she was supposed to do, and she also knew how tomunicate well, revealing maturity far beyond her age.


    Undoubtedly, the harsh environment she lived in yed a big part in shaping her into who she was today.


    Every time her father went out to sell cattle, he would have to leave home for an extended period. During this time, she was required to take care of the remaining horses and cattle in the ranch and look after her mother. Coupled with the townsfolk��s hostility, being brave wasn��t just an option.


    ��Okay,�� Wendy nodded. ��Don��t worry, just leave it to me.��


    ��See you at the hotel.��


    The hotel and bar in Glen Town were very close to each other. After the two separated, Zhang Heng paid for the amodation and asked someone to care for Lightning and Radish before retreating to his room. There, he removed his revolvers and used the time to perform simple maintenance on the guns.


    However, after a quarter of an hour, he didn��t see Wendy entering her room. Thus, Zhang Heng waited another five minutes before he got up and walked downstairs.


    Wendy carefully avoided a pile of horse dung and what seemed to be vomit under her feet and pushed the bar��s doors open.


    A woman with a flower-dotted skirt was near the door. Seeing Wendy, she said, ��This is no ce for a child.��


    ��I��m not a kid anymore, madam,�� Wendy said.


    ��I am not a madam either,�� the woman smiled.


    ��Oh, you are that...�� Wendy suddenly eximed, ��Sorry, I didn��t mean to discriminate against you.��


    ��It��s okay. Your attire is terrible. Are your parents abusing you? Fortunately, you are actually quite pretty. Perhaps when you get older, you cane here to find me if you want to escape marriage, a husband, or your children.��


    ��Thank you, but I don��t think something like that would be possible,�� snorted Wendy. ��Actually, I am here to inquire about something,�� she said after a pause.


    ��Many peoplee to the bar for information. Usually, they buy me a ss of wine first. But for the sake of us both being females, I will not ask that of you.�� She then nodded at Wendy, ��What do you want to know?��


    ��I want to inquire about a man named Matthew Robbins. He is a rancher who should have passed this ce fourteen days ago. He was in a gray shirt and some old-looking boots and is about thirty-five years old. His eyes are firm, and there is a scar on his left abdomen. He may have stopped by the past few days. Do you remember seeing him?��


    ��I can say that this man named Matthew is definitely not among those I slept with,�� scoffed the woman in the flower-dotted skirt. ��Sorry, I don��t stay in this bar all the time. I will go to the second floor if I have work. Now, fourteen days ago... let me think. Business seemed to be pretty good that day. Maybe he came in while I was working.�� The woman in the flower-dotted skirt rushed to the bar and said, ��Perhaps you can ask the bartender over there. He is always here.�� ��Thank you, madam... oh, sorry.��


    Wendy squeezed a smile on her face, but before she could walk to the bar, she felt someone pping her bum.


    ��Is this the neer you told me about two days ago? She is younger than I thought. Is she really 16?��


    The man stank of tobo, and his behavior frivolous.


    ��Ah, it appears there��s a misunderstanding. Bhus, thisdy here is not the Maggie I told you about.�� Noticing how Wendy��s expressions had suddenly changed, the woman in the flower-dotted skirt realized that something was wrong. So, she hurriedly stood up and helped her.


    Bhus then shrugged, ��It doesn��t matter. I��m fine with her. Although she is kind of ugly, at least she is young...��


    Before he finished speaking, he saw Wendy suddenly pulling out a knife from her pocket and was about to stab him. By a stroke of luck, Bhus reacted quickly and blocked it with his hand at the critical moment. He managed to avoid being ripped apart, but the knife sliced into his hand, almost piercing through his palm.


    Instantly, Bhus erupted into a string of curses.


    The woman in the flower-dotted skirt covered her mouth at the sight of the bloody scene. She then hurriedly walked up to him and said, ��Oh god, Mr. Bhus, are you okay? I��ve said this is all a misunderstanding!��


    However, in a senseless outburst of anger, Bhus shoved her aside. Her waist was mmed on a table next to her, spilling along with her the drinks of two other customers.


    ��Royce, what the f*ck is wrong with your people?!�� Bhus roared in fury. He plucked out the knife from his hand, and blood started gushing out of the wound. It spattered and spewed onto the floor, almost forming a bloody mini stream.


    ��Mr. Bhus, you need to look for a doctor in town to deal with that wound!�� Royce ignored the pain in her waist and persuaded the man to look for treatment. Although this was her first time meeting Wendy, she had a good impression of this girl. In retrospect, she did not expect thetter to react so harshly.


    This was just a small misunderstanding, and a simple exnation could have solved it. With Wendy stabbing the man with a knife, however, the situation had definitely escted. Then, she saw Bhus�� eyes shing with a bloodthirsty and murderous intent. It was pointless talking him out of it. The most important thing to do right now was to ensure Wendy��s safety and to stop Bhus from doing something stupid.

 Chapter 608 - I Regret It, So What?

    <strong>Chapter 608 I Regret It, So What?</strong>


    This was the sight that greeted Zhang Heng when he walked into the bar:


    Wendy was pinned to the table, desperately struggling to free herself. One of her hands was fixed on the table, and her other was wounded. A man with bandages wrapped around his hand had his knife stabbed between her fingers, yelling at the same time, ��You little [BEEP)! Aren��t you going to apologize? This is yourst chance! I swear I will cut off your hand if you make me ask you the same question again!!!��


    Instead of caving in, Wendy gritted her teeth and did not say a word. On the other side, a woman in a flower-dotted skirt was trying to talk the man out of it, while the others in the bar were watching the drama unfold before them.


    The man only sought to be more and more furious. Wendy��s stubbornness had embarrassed him in front of everyone. And the wound on his hand also made him lose his mind gradually. And finally, he put on a murderous look and readied to cut off Wendy��s palm.


    But the very next moment, a loud gunshot could be heard, and the knife in his hand flew away. The deafening explosion instantly silenced the noisy bar.


    ��I think she is quite happy with her right hand. She still wants to keep it,�� the visitor sniffed.


    Bhus turned his head and saw an oriental man with yellow skin and ck hair, but wearing cowboy clothes. He was still holding a revolver in his right hand, and smoke poured out from its muzzle.


    The moment Bhus��spanions saw someone shooting at him, they instinctively drew their guns as well. ��I would advise you not to test your luck.��


    ��Who are you? What is your rtionship with this little (BEEP]? Why so, nosy?!�� Bhus scoffed with an expression most unkind.


    ��She is my employer, and I need her to keep paying me... the full amount.��


    ��Is that right? Know what your employer did to me? She pierced my palm!�� Bhus raised his wounded hand, continuing aggressively, ��and you know where she initially aimed at? She was going for my bowels! This little (BEEP] wanted to murder me!!!��


    ��Really, I��m really sorry about that. Then, what?��


    ��Then... until now, she hasn��t even given me a simple apology. I don��t care where you��re the f*ck you came from, but here, where I live, people have to admit their mistakes and pay the price for their wrongdoings. They have to beg for forgiveness!��


    ��Don��t listen to him. He touched my bum first! I just fought back in self-defense. I didn��t do anything wrong!�� Wendy, who was still being pressed on the table, shouted in exasperation.


    ��You heard what she said,�� Zhang Heng interjected. ��It seems you both have a disagreement on this matter. Why not let her go, and we can talk about this like civilized


    men.��


    ��Now, why should I listen to you?�� Backus retorted.


    ��Because... You hurt your right hand, and I��m pretty sure you want your left hand intact, right? Otherwise, you will have to be at the mercy of others to feed you.�� Zhang Heng lowered his revolver and aimed at Bhus��s left hand, ��Well, let me pay you ten dors so you can find a doctor to bandage the wound. Whatever money that��s left after you paid the doctor will be yourpensation.�� ��I can earn one dor a day. Such a serious injury can��t be healed in a week!�� disagreed Bhus. ��50 dors and she must apologize first.��


    ��Fifteen,�� replied Zhang Heng after considering a while.


    ��I��m not f*cking bargaining with you! Do you take me as a beggar?�� Bhus felt insulted, and the way he looked at Zhang Heng had only worsened.


    Although Zhang Heng drew his gun first, this incident happened in front of so many people. Bhus did not believe that Zhang Heng would dare to kill him. Besides, he was still holding Wendy hostage.


    However, Zhang Heng seemed to know what he was thinking. ��I dare you never to leave this town for eternity!��


    ��What is that? Is that a threat?�� Bhus grinned.


    He did not expect that he would be threatened by an outsider in his territory, even when he was the one in the right.


    ��The one who should be watching out is you,�� Bhus sneered. ��You can ask around, who hasn��t heard the name, Bison Bhus? My brothers and I served in the Fourth Rangers. You should be worrying about how to leave Glen alive.��


    ��Thanks for the reminder. It seems I��ll need to buy two more boxes of ammunition.��


    As soon as his voice fell, the bar��s wooden doors were pushed open again. ��Damn. Can��t you guys live peacefully around here? Why do you guys have to give me trouble every single day?�� resounded a husky voice.


    The person here was the sheriff of Glen Town, a good-looking elderly cowboy. Someone had gone to look for him when they saw how bad the situation had be.


    ��Oh, Bhus. It��s you and your people again.��


    The sheriff was not happy to see them.


    Sheriff, it was not us who caused the trouble this time. I am the victim!�� Bhus then showed his injured hand to the sheriff.


    ��So you n to cry all day like a woman just because of a tiny gash?�� The sheriff then looked at Zhang Heng, ��And you. You just fired your gun in my town. I have never seen another Chinese as brave as you. Are you nning to raise your gun all night?��


    Zhang Heng put away the revolver when he heard the sheriff��sment, intending to show that he harbored no malice.


    The sheriff then stared at Bhus again, to which thette harrumphed, and asked his allies to let Wendy go. Immediately, Wendy ran to Zhang Heng��s side.


    ��Okay, I already know what happened here. Twenty dors. After that, you both should shake hands and forget everything that happened,�� the sheriff said.


    ��Twenty dors is too little,�� Bhus protested. ��My hand is severely wounded. I can��t work for at least two months, and I need her apology!�� growled Bhus as he pointed at Wendy.


    ��Shut up. If you want to continue to live in this town, you��ll have to abide by my rules!�� the sheriff sternly implored. ��I said, twenty dors is more than enough. As for the apology...��


    ��I won��t apologize!�� Wendy said. Although her life was hanging by a thread earlier, she still did not intend to go soft. Zhang Heng was a little curious now. How did she be so stubborn at such a young age?


    The sheriff looked at Zhang Heng, who shrugged in reply.


    ��Don��t look at me. I think it��s fine to apologize. But as I said before, we just share an employer-employee rtionship. I can��t order my employer to do what she doesn��t want to do.��


    ��Never mind the apology. Man up, Bhus! Why are you bothered by a kid?�� The sheriff raised his voice and bellowed, ��So many people are watching you! What more, you used to be a f*cking ranger!��

 Chapter 609 - You Are Too Young

    <strong>Chapter 609 You Are Too Young</strong>


    ��Thank you, sheriff, for helping us out. Although I still have doubts about the twenty-dorpensation, we are reasonable people. We know how hard it is to maintain order in a town.�� Wendy said to the sheriff when Bhus and his gang left.


    Thetter was amused by Wendy��s adult-like words and smiled. ��I��m d that you understand and are willing to give me your full cooperation. Madam, your father... he is not as reasonable as you...��


    Afterward, he seemed to realize that he had said something that he wasn��t supposed to say. A frustrated look quickly formed across the sheriff��s face.


    ��Wait, you know about my father and me? How is that possible?�� Wendy��s eyes widened.


    ��Your father and I are friends. He loves you very much. He has shown me your pictures a couple of times.�� The sheriff had no choice but to tell her everything.


    ��But I never heard my father mention you.��


    ��Well, perhaps each of us has a past we don��t want to mention...��


    ��And what is that past?�� Wendy asked.


    ��I��m afraid our past is meant to be kept secret. No one else can know about it,�� replied the adamant sheriff.


    ��Please, my father is missing now. It may be rted to the past you talked about.��


    ��Your father disappeared?! When?�� The sheriff was stunned.


    ��I don��t know the exact time. Fifteen days ago, he mentioned that he needed to leave home to discuss business with someone. My mother and I didn��t see anything out of the ordinary, and we thought nothing of it. Usually, he would be back in a few days. However, it has been fifteen days, and he is still not home.��


    ��So, you are here to look for your father? Hold on, does your mother know that you are in Glen Town?�� the sheriff questioned as he threw a nce at Zhang Heng. ��Mr. Zhang was hired by me to help me find my father. He is also responsible for my safety along the way,�� Wendy introduced. ��Ahh... he is an excellent gunman, may I say.�� ��Really? No matter how good the gunman is, they don��t usually end well. However, I do know that those who don��t carry guns live longer,�� the sheriff snorted.


    ��I have different opinions. If I had a gun with me, what just happened wouldn��t have happened.��


    The sheriff smiled and did not refute. There were some things a young man could not possibly understand. He said sincerely, ��You should go home. Your father will take care of his affairs. You just need to wait at home.�� ��But unfortunately, I am not the kind of person who is willing to sit at home and wait for something bad to happen. I will me myself forever if I didn��t do something,�� Wendy said with stubborn insistence. ��If the stormes, I will walk into the storm. So whether you want to help me or not, I will keep looking for my father!��


    ��But you are only twelve years old.�� ��Twelve is old enough, sheriff.�� The sheriff was dumbfounded, managing to only reply after a long while. ��Why don��t I do this for you. I still have important business to attend to, and I really can��t get away now. Give me a week. After that, I will look for your father.��


    ��Thank you for your kindness, but it dragged on for too long. I am afraid I can��t wait for another week. I should do this myself.�� Wendy replied politely but firmly refused.


    ��With all due respect, Wendy, you are too young to understand this world. The world is a dark ce. Some people are not who they appear to be. You can��t just grab someone with and venture out on the road!��


    ��Mr. Zhang is a good man. I don��t need to live until your age to know that. As for you, Mr. Sheriff, you appeared suddenly and imed to know my father. My father has never mentioned you to me. Why should I believe what you told me?�� Wendy paused, ��Who knows... maybe my father��s disappearance is rted to you.��


    ��You are quite smart.�� Even though his honesty was being put on trial, the old cowboy was not angry. Instead, heughed. ��Matthew has a good daughter. Okay, it looks like I can��t stop you. Madam, let me send you off at least tomorrow. You just offended Bhus. He and his former Ranger friends still have a lot of power in the vicinity.��


    ��Thank you, sheriff. After I find my father, I will tell him you saved me tonight.��


    After the incident, Wendy couldn��t ask about her father��s whereabouts in the bar anymore. After bidding farewell to the sheriff, she ordered two apple pies and went back to the hotel with Zhang Heng.


    ��You should listen to him.�� Zhang Heng said, ��Now it seems your father��s disappearance may not be as simple as it seems. I think he is hiding something from you, and he doesn��t want you to know about it.��


    ��In that case, you won��t get your reward.��


    ��I can go andplete other bounties to make money,�� Zhang Heng rebuked her calmly. ��Also, remember what I said before?��


    ��You dared that man not to leave the county seat forever?��


    ��It��s not that. Earlier, I told you not to get into trouble. You promised me, and I let you go to the bar to investigate your father��s disappearance.�� ��I didn��t cause any trouble. He touched me first,�� Wendy emphasized.


    ��Is that why you turned around and nned to stab him to death?��


    ��My father told me that if I��m the shortest and weakest person in the room, I have to make sure that I act the toughest, so no one dares mess with me. They need to know that there are consequences...��


    ��Then the man pinned you to the table, and he almost cut off your palm.�� Zhang Heng stopped and looked into Wendy��s eyes, ��Hey, kid, listen, I can��t guarantee that I will be right there to save you whenever you are in danger. You could havee to me for help.��


    Wendy went silent for a moment before continuing, ��The people in town don��t like our family. My father is often away, and my mother doesn��t know how to read. I am used to solving everything by myself.��


    ��But didn��t you pay me to let me solve these problems for you? You have to assure me that you won��t be so reckless when you reencounter such troubles. Otherwise, I will be forced to send you home.��


    ��There is an agreement between us. You promised that you��d help me find my father,�� Wendy protested.


    ��Yes, but the agreement also says that you must listen to my orders. It means that when I ask you to stop, you must stop. And when I think we can��t go any further, we have to head home.��


    ��This is too cunning. You are shameless.��


    ��It��s okay if you think this way. Now, repeat after me. Sir, I have made a mistake, and I will opt for other ways to solve the problem in the future.��


    ��You��d better say it quickly, or I��ll leave you to the sheriff. He seems to be interested in sending you home.��


    ��Sir, I have made a mistake, and I will opt for other ways to solve the problem in the future.�� Wendy turned her neck and whispered reluctantly.


    ��Very good. I��m d we have reached a consensus again. Take your apple pie back to the room to eat. We have to get up early tomorrow morning and continue our journey.�� Zhang Heng said, ��Also, I will pay that twenty dors for you. Could you write it down somewhere? You must remember to pay me back when this is over.��

 Chapter 610 - Chewing Tobacco

    <strong>Chapter 610 Chewing Tobo</strong>


    Zhang Heng got out of bed as the day��s first light poured into the room. He briefly cleaned himself up and went downstairs.


    The sheriff arrived when he was having breakfast with Wendy. The white horse he rode on whinnied majestically, perfectly matching his uniform and the badge on his chest. He looked so good he had the female owner of the hotel stare at him twice.


    ��Would you like a cup of coffee, Sheriff?�� Wendy asked.


    ��That would be perfect, dear madam.�� The sheriff smiled and dismounted his horse, ��I will escort you two out of the river valley, where you are most likely to encounter ambushes. You will be much safer when you get to the ins. From there, you are on your own. ��


    ��What a sweet man.��


    ��If something bad happened to Matthew��s in my territory, then I��m not qualified to be a sheriff here?�� The sheriff gave Zhang Heng a nod, handed the reins to the hotel��s handyman, and walked to the table. ��It��s a shame you have to leave so soon. We should go on a hunting trip together after you find your father.��


    ��I like hunting. When I was a kid, I always followed my dad to the forest and watched him hunt for hares. However, he had never let mey my hands on the gun,�� Wendy said.


    ��He is right, but I think we can make an exception this time. There are lots of prey around here.�� The sheriff blinked at Wendy.


    ��Are there wolves and bears too?!�� Wendy asked excitedly.


    ��Haha, those are rare. Most have been killed by the Indians who lived nearby earlier.��


    ��It��s a pity. I haven��t seen a bear before.��


    The sheriff took the cup of coffee handed to him personally by the female boss. ��Thank you.��


    ��I don��t know, just want to see it.��


    ��There will be opportunities; there will always be opportunities.��


    Thus, the three chatted while eating breakfast. The atmosphere was light and hearty��the sheriff was the kind of person who knew how to create the right atmosphere at the right time. In his own words, he was supposedly good at charming girls when he was young. That was why he knew the perfect conversation to be cozy up to a girl like Wendy. He even managed to convince Wendy that it would be better to join her on the quest to search for her father. She dismissed this idea, though. As she had said, her father had been missing for a while. She could not afford to wait any longer. ��Sheriff, I think it��s time we depart from here.��


    The sheriff then patted her head, ��Oh, sorry. I��m getting old, and I��m getting chattier. I hope I didn��t bore you.��


    ��You are the funniest and heartiest person that I have ever met! It has been a great pleasure chatting with you, but I��m afraid I have more important matters to attend to.��


    ��Of course. I��m ready. We can set off now,�� the sheriff said.


    ��That couldn��t be better.��


    ��I will be waiting for you outside.�� The sheriff smiled at Wendy again, got up, and walked outside the door.


    At the same time, Wendy had also finished her breakfast and was about to get up. But the next moment, something touched her thigh.


    Wendy lowered her head and saw Zhang Heng handing something to her from under the table. She was taken aback.


    ��Take it. I hope we won��t get to use itter.�� Wendy had a lot of questions to ask. However, when she took the thing from Zhang Heng, he had already stood up from where he sat and said to the sheriff, ��Is that a Kentucky horse?��


    ��No, Snowke is an Arabian horse,�� the sheriff proudly replied. ��It can run real fast, and there are hardly any horses in the ins that can catch up with it.��


    ��It seems I have much to study about horses,�� Zhang Heng said. His body happened to block Wendy, who was behind the table, and she quickly hid the object in her clothes as soon as possible. Then the three of them got on their horses and walked out of Glen Town. The sheriff was still talking andughing along the way, but Wendy��s mind seemed absent, thinking about the object Zhang Heng handed to her.


    In an attempt to take her off the focal point of attention, Zhang Heng took over the conversation and started to chat with the sheriff. He took the opportunity to ask the sheriff about the culture around here, to which the sheriff also asked Zhang Heng to taste his chewing tobo. Following his instruction, Zhang Heng first ced the shredded tobo between his jaw and his teeth. After a few seconds, a pungent smell filled his mouth and pierced his throat. Although the shredded tobo had been blended with spices, Zhang Heng still found it was hard to ept the peculiar taste.


    It was said that chewing tobo had be so popr in the United States because of the pioneering period. The wind and bumpy ride proved it difficult for cowboys to light up their cigarettes while they were on their horses, and they put tobo in their mouths instead when they craved a smoke. If they spat from time to time, they could smoke while working, convenient and easy.


    However, crewing tobo directly would cause the mouth to stimte more saliva than an ordinary cigarette. Besides, there were not a lot of ces for smokers to spit in modern society. Hence, chewing tobo gradually died off from the market.


    Zhang Heng tasted it and spat out the tobo.


    ��It��s a pity,�� the sheriff said, ��you speak English, and I heard that you have good marksmanship. If you want to make it in the wild West, you have to act more like a westerner.��


    ��I do still have a lot of things to learn.��


    ��Don��t worry. Take your time.�� The sheriff patted on Zhang Heng��s shoulder as a sign of encouragement.


    The three people then rode towards the entrance of the river valley. It had technically been a river valley tens of thousands of years ago. Now there was no water here, but the rock walls on both sides remained. It was indeed easy to set up an ambush at this ce.


    ��Let��s go.�� The sheriff took the lead and walked in the forefront position, followed by Wendy, and Zhang Heng.


    As soon as the three of them walked far enough, the sheriff said to Wendy, ��I have to apologize.��


    ��Apologize for what?��


    ��I lied to you before. I couldn��t leave you alone and allow you to follow a random stranger.�� The sheriff pulled the reins, stopped the horse and turned around. ��It��s simply too dangerous!�� ��You have attempted to stop me from finding my father again and again. Is it for my safety or to cover up the truth behind my father��s disappearance?�� Wendy confronted him.


    ��Things... are alwaysplicated.�� The sheriff sighed, ��Maybe I will exin to you again when I have the opportunity, but for now, you should say goodbye to Mr. Zhang. Then I��ll go home. I promise that I will help you find your fatherter. Although it��s always hard to wait, it is at times the most effective way to solve a problem.��


    ��Really, how are you going to send me home? With all due respect, sir, even if you are twenty years younger, you are no match for Mr. Zhang,�� Wendy said.


    ��Maybe.�� The sheriff did not argue with her, ��Fortunately, I still have helpers.��


    Two people with rifles appeared on both sides of the rock walls after he finished talking.


    ��It��s an honor to introduce you to the Deputy Sheriff of Glen Town, Joseph, and his brother, Jonathan.��

 Chapter 611 - Happy To Meet You, Ma’am

    <strong>Chapter 611 Happy To Meet You, Ma��am</strong>


    ��You betrayed us and asked someone to ambush us?��


    Wendy saw the scene before her, and her expression suddenly changed as she stared at the old cowboy.


    For some reason, her gaze caused the sheriff to be embarrassed to look at her. He turned away. ��I am doing it for your own good. If your father were here, he would��ve agreed with me.��


    ��Oh, I thought it was going to be something new this time. It turns out it��s all the same thing again. Stop telling me that you are doing this for my own good. Do you know what annoys a woman the most, sheriff?��. ��What could that be?��


    ��Making assumptions,�� Wendy snapped coldly. ��You have no right to force yourself into my life, sheriff.��


    ��I know that you can make yourself sound convincing, but no matter what you say, ma��am, you can��t change what will happen next. I will ask Joseph to send you home, then Jonathan and I will invite Mr. Zhang to stay in town for three to five days. He will get to enjoy the best that Glen Town has to offer. Until I finish the matter at hand, I will help you to find your father. As for Mr. Zhang, he is free to go anywhere he wants.�� ��How dare you do such a thing?!�� Wendy yelled in a burst of anger. ��I can understand your resentment and disappointment. Sometimes, the world disappoints us. It is the price of growing up,�� the sheriff said and waved at Joseph.


    The deputy was still a young boy with a small mustache, probably only seventeen or eighteen. Upon hearing what the sheriff said, he tidied up his messy hair before walking down from the rock wall.


    ��It��s good to meet you, ma��am. Although I may not look like one, I can guarantee that I am also an excellent gunman. I learned my way around the gun from the sheriff. I will be responsible for your safety when you head home.��


    ��Okay, you can tell her the rest while you escort her home,�� the sheriff urged.


    Wendy then nced at Zhang Heng, who nodded at her.


    ��Don��t worry about me. Precinct coffee should taste good. I will...��


    ��Dn,�� said the sheriff.


    ��I��m going to spend a nice week with Sheriff Dn,�� Zhang Heng added, blinking at Wendy.


    Thetter took a deep breath and looked at the sheriff, ��I will not give up like that. Watch me.��


    ��With all due respect, if you were my age, you wouldn��t have cared about those meaningless words. Send my regards to your mother for me. Well, time to go.�� The sheriff nodded at Joseph.


    It wasn��t until the two exited the river valley that the sheriff turned around to look at Zhang Heng, ��I know some people don��t like yellow-skinned men, but today is your lucky day. I am not that kind of person. As long as you stay put and obey my orders, I will guarantee your safety in the town. But if you dare mess with me... I don��t mind turning you into a corpse in this river valley. No one in thisnd will care if you are alive or dead. Don��t forget how you just got onto Bhus�� bad sidest night, and everyone in the bar saw it. If you died here, the people would think that it had to be Bhus��s people who killed you.��


    ��It seems that you are not as innocent as you look, sheriff,�� Zhang Heng said. ��When you first showed up in front of us, I thought you were an uprightw enforcer.��


    ��Uprightw enforcer?�� the sheriff snorted. ��No one in thisnd can be upright forever. Otherwise, I would have been a corpse long ago. People are veryplicated. Everyone has a secret they want to keep to themselves. I bet you have some secrets as well... I forced the kid to go home for her own good, and for your own good, I suggest you shut your mouth for the time being.��


    Zhang Heng raised his eyebrows and said nothing after that.


    The sheriff dismounted his horse and walked towards him. At the same time, he warned Zhang Heng, ��Jonathan is a sharpshooter. He can shoot a running hare from fifty yards. If I were you, I wouldn��t want to put his marksmanship to the test.��


    Zhang Heng looked up, seeing the young man who was holding a rifle.


    Jonathan was obviously nervous, stiff as a scarecrow as he aimed Zhang Heng. There was a high chance that the sheriff was just bragging. The sheriff first unbuckled the holster around Zhang Heng��s waist. Then, suddenly, there was a frown. ��Hold on, don��t you have two guns? Where is the other one?��


    ��You don��t want to know the answer to that,�� Zhang Heng replied. The next moment, he dropped down from Radish and hid behind it.


    The sheriff��s reaction was quick. Having not the time to pull out his pistol from his waist, he drew Zhang Heng��s revolver from its holster and pulled the trigger without hesitation. Unfortunately, it wasn��t loaded.


    The scene where Zhang Heng fell to the ground after getting shot would remain only an imagination. At the same time, a knife was ced against the sheriff��s throat.


    ��Did you really think I would have handed you a loaded revolver, sheriff?�� scoffed Zhang Heng.


    After he sessfully threatened the sheriff, he quickly hid behind him. Radish was still blocking Joseph, and as a result, the deputy could not take his aim at Zhang Heng no matter how sharp of a marksman he was. Zhang Heng did a quick take at the terrain, then dragged the sheriff to the back of a giant stone, drawing out the sheriff��s revolver at the same time.


    ��Do you know what you are doing?�� The sheriff asked, panting.


    ��Of course, one of my specialties is that I always know what I��m doing.��


    ��For a child, you are willing to turn into a wanted criminal?��


    Zhang Hengughed when he heard those words. ��Take a wild guess here. When I stand before the judge, don��t you think the jury might be interested in that hidden side of yours? I don��t know what the hell you did with Matthew, but you obviously have a more sordid past than mine. You know, you should work on your lying, sheriff. Now, I don��t think you will escte this matter. Am I right?��


    The sheriff was rendered speechless.


    ��Also, if you don��t want to watch that child die on the rock wall, I advise you to ask him to put down his gun and surrender.��


    Right after Zhang Heng said that he heard the sound of a horse galloping from afar, Wendy and Lighting were back at the entrance of the river valley.


    ��How is that possible?��


    The sheriff and Zhang Heng were bewildered.


    Wendy was also taken aback when she saw what was happening. She almost dropped the revolver in her hand.


    ��Why are you here?�� Zhang Heng asked.


    ��Ah, didn��t you give me the revolver to take care of the enemy and to help you out?�� Wendy was at a loss.


    ��Did you kill deputy sheriff Joseph?! Wait, since when did I ask you to kill him? I gave you the revolver to protect yourself, in case that guy had some malicious intent.��


    ��You blinked at me, and I thought it was a signal to do it.��


    Zhang Heng was at a loss too. Initially, he nned to save Wendy after dealing with the problem here. Since Wendy was now here, he decided to kill the sheriff and the gunman in one go.


    ��Also, I didn��t kill that guy. I just tied him up and left him where there was no one.�� Wendy then said to the sheriff, ��I hoped when you told me that there are no wolves and bears here, it is not a lie. Otherwise, you are probably going to pay the price for your lies.��


    Zhang Heng breathed a sigh of relief when he heard that Wendy didn��t kill the young deputy sheriff. In other words, it was not toote to change the n. He realized that Wendy was different from the ordinary girl. At such times, ordinary people would choose to treat the gun as ast resort. However, Wendy took the initiative to attack her enemy, but she also rushed back to ��rescue�� him. Zhang Heng could not reprimand her for it and could only sigh in the end.


    ��You are really braver than I thought, ma��am.��

 Chapter 612 - Because… I Like It?

    <strong>Chapter 612 Because... I Like It?</strong>


    ��Sheriff, I saw his aplice. Shouldn��t I shoot?�� Jonathan on the rock wall said nervously.


    ��Of course not, you idiot, she is only 12 years old. Do you want your head to be on the gallows? Put your gun away ande down,�� the sheriff said, a tinge of urgency clouding his voice.


    ��Yes, sheriff.�� Relieved, Jonathan hurriedly climbed down.


    Zhang Heng, however, did not remove the knife away from the sheriff��s neck.


    ��Give them your gun,�� said the sheriff.


    At the order, Jonathan handed the rifle to Wendy. ��Are you satisfied now?�� the sheriff asked coldly.


    Zhang Heng nodded, ��But you may not be happy with what I will do next.��


    The sheriff figured what Zhang Heng would do. The expression on his face changed instantly. ��I dare you?��


    However, as soon as thewman finished speaking, Zhang Heng pulled the trigger, and the sheriff saw his beloved white horse fall in a pool of blood. ��Sorry, I had to make sure you won��te after us. After all, I don��t really want to go to the police station for coffee.�� Zhang Heng did not stop there, proceeding to eliminate Jonathan��s horse.


    The sheriff looked extremely agonized. ��Why didn��t you kill your old horse and ride my good horse then?!��


    ��Because... this is how I think?�� After the brutal murder of two poor hardworking animals, Zhang Heng frisked the sheriff and Jonathan. After making sure that they were not in danger, he finally put away his revolver.


    He first picked up the revolver that he dropped on the ground and then took the rifle from Wendy.


    When Wendy saw Zhang Heng stretching out his hand at her, she reluctantly returned the revolver.


    ��Can you give me the sheriff��s rifle?�� Wendy asked in a low voice.


    ��No, I don��t want to be shot in the back by my ally,�� said Zhang Heng said. ��You have never learned to shoot. Now would you want a gun?��


    ��I have seen my father hunting, I know how to use one... and I just subdued a deputy sheriff.��


    use 0


    e


    .


    ��He won��t be a deputy after this.��


    Undoubtedly, the sheriff was unhappy that his deputy had been knocked down by a girl who had just turned twelve.


    ��You should not me him, sheriff. It��s not his fault. He just picked the wrong opponent.��


    Wendy looked like a victor. She then said to Zhang Heng eagerly, ��The kid named Joseph has a horse too. Shall we go back and kill it?��


    ��There��s no need for that. They wouldn��t daree after us with only one horse. Am I right, Sheriff?�� Zhang Heng said.


    ��I will avenge my horse, kid,�� the sheriff warned. ��I may not be able to take you to court, but that��s not the only way I can deal with you.��


    ��Is that right? Remember, I can take you to court,�� Zhang Heng said.


    ��Either that or you tell me what secrets are between you and the child��s father. If you do that, I will give you a gun to protect yourself. It��s a long walk back to Glen Town.��


    ��It��s for your own good. You should��ve listened to me and taken this kid home,�� the sheriff growled. ��They won��t hurt Matthew, but they will hurt you both!��


    ��They, who are they?�� Zhang Heng asked. ��I can only tell you so much.�� The sheriff kept mum after that, making it clear that he wanted to utter nothing more. ��I hate people who can��t finish their sentences,�� Wendy frowned.


    ��Me too, but he has undeniably revealed some useful information. At least we now know that your father��s disappearance is rted to a group of people. And they obviously know each other. Your father went to see them, and he probably voluntarily followed them as well. This group of people is dangerous. He is right. You probably shouldn��t have gone looking for your father in the first ce.��


    ��You can��t be 100% sure,�� snorted Wendy.


    ��Yes.��


    ��This could also mean that my father might still be in danger. And you also said that he��s probably with a group of not so nice people. They are going to do whatever they want.�� ��Maybe,�� replied Zhang Heng, silently admitting that Wendy��s guess wasn��t unreasonable. ��I want to find my father then,�� Wendy firmly insisted, then asked Zhang Heng, ��Are you scared?��


    ��I haven��t felt fear in a long time.��


    ��Then are you going to use this as an opportunity to ask for more pay?��


    ��No, now, I have my reasons to keep investigating this matter. Whether you pay me or not, I will not give up on this case,�� Zhang Heng shook his head.


    ��Why?��


    It wasn��t easy to exin to Wendy about his main quest. He might have just gotten a clue rting to the lucky horseshoe. It appeared that Wendy��s mission was now tied to his main quest.


    ��I��m bored, and I want something interesting to do.��


    ��I can��t return home now, so I can help you,�� Wendy said.


    ��I doubt it.��


    Despite that, Zhang Heng couldn��t deny that Wendy came in handy. Although herbat skills were negligible, Zhang Heng had never seen Matthew before. Bringing her around would make him much easier to locate. Not to mention how the rtionship between Wendy and Matthew may neutralize some of the threats.


    On another note, Wendy might also cause him unnecessary trouble. The good thing was that she was way more mature whenpared to her simrly-aged counterparts. She had the most stubborn temperament Zhang Heng had ever seen.


    Though the two hadn��t spent a long time together, her ability to ��cause trouble�� had given Zhang Heng a headache.


    However, Zhang Heng did not force Wendy to go back. He was different from the sheriff, knowing very well that even if Wendy were sent home by force, she would definitely find a way toe after him again. It was better to make her stay by his side. At least, he could keep an eye on her. So Zhang Heng said nothing about it. ��Let��s go. We have wasted enough time. Time to continue our journey.��


    After that, he handed his empty revolver to the sheriff. While the sheriff was looking at him in a hostile manner, Zhang Heng took out a box of bullets and threw it at the rock wall.


    ��You are wee.��


    He then mounted Radish that was still eating some grass. The old horse had no idea that it had almost gotten killed thanks to Zhang Heng��s inadequate riding skills. Seeing Zhang Heng mped its abdomen with his legs, Radish stopped eating the grass reluctantly, nced at the green grass in front of it once more time, and set off on the journey.


    And Wendy followed Zhang Heng obediently with Lightning


    ��Tell me about your father again,�� asked Zhang Heng without turning around. His eyes darted around the tall rock walls on both sides, making sure that there were no more ugly surprises. ��Okay, Mr. Zhang Heng.��

 Chapter 613 - Unfriendly Town

    <strong>Chapter 613 Unfriendly Town</strong>


    After two days, Zhang Heng and Wendy finally reached their destination.


    Gazing at the small town from a distance, Zhang Heng said, ��Did your father tell you that he came here to talk business?��


    ��Yes, he said that before he left.�� Wendy nodded, hesitating before she continued, ��Do you think he lied?��


    ��It��s unlikely. Didn��t you send a telegram to the sheriff here? He did say your father had left.��


    ��Okay.��


    ��At least it tells us that he has something to do with all this. Let��s head to the town to check it out.��


    As Zhang Heng and Wendy rode on, they passed a crop field that wasn��t growing very well. It seemed the weather was not the only reason that caused the ntation to fail. All the crops were wilting, and the strangest thing was that there was not one farmer around.


    Zhang Heng asked Wendy to wait. As for him, he got off his horse, walked towards a house, and knocked on the door. Nobody answered it, and after a couple of times trying, Zhang Heng drew the revolver from his waist, opened the door, and quickly dashed to the side. He waited for a few seconds, but no one came out of the house.


    Zhang Heng raised his head, took a quick look at the house, then put away the revolver.


    ��How is it?�� Wendy asked from behind.


    ��Safe. There is no one in the house,�� Zhang Heng said. Unlike the uninhabited town he passed by at the start of this quest, there was no sign of evacuation here. Zhang Heng even saw a half-flipped book ced upside down on the table.


    Wooden toys were also strewn all over the ground.


    At that time, Wendy had dismounted the horse and walked into the house, ��Where has everyone gone to?��


    ��I don��t know,�� Zhang Heng said. He walked around the house but saw no blood, nor was there anything else suspicious.


    ��Let��s leave.��


    The two then left the farmhouse and closed the door.


    Wendy nced at the nearby fields again and muttered, ��How did the crops grow so badly? Perhaps nobody looked after them? I wonder what the annual harvest looks like?��


    ��I��m afraid not.�� Zhang Heng said, ��Have you noticed, other nts along the way are not growing well too.��


    ��How did that happen?��


    Zhang Heng turned and looked at the well next to him. Scooping a bucket of water from it, he found the water to be muddier than the ordinary well water, and it tasted salty as well.


    One sip was all it took for Zhang Heng to pour the rest away. ��The water here is polluted. That��s why the nts are not growing well.�� ��Do people cause it, or is it natural?��


    ��For now, I��ve no idea, but the townsfolk should have an exnation.�� Zhang Heng mounted Radish again. ��Let��s go. I see smokeing from the town. I think there should be someone we can talk to.��


    Wendy and Zhang Heng entered the town about a quarter of an hourter. The small town named Bliss looked no different from any other western hamlet of the era.


    Although somewhat deserted, there were at least some people living here. Zhang Heng went to the hotel and booked two rooms first. He left his luggage and misceneous items too inconvenient to be brought to the room at the lobby. This time, he didn��t let Wendy go alone to ask for more information about the ce.


    Thetter stood at the window and looked at the street below.


    ��Am I seeing it, right? I feel everyone we��ve met along the way has been all but very hostile


    to us.��


    ��Really, I��m Chinese. People are very hostile to me no matter where I go,�� Zhang Heng said, counting the bullets in his bag at the same time. Meanwhile, Wendy was trying her hardest, convincing him to teach her the right way to fire a gun. In the end, Zhang Heng sumbed to Wendy��s persuasion, finally teaching her everything about shooting, pistols, and rifles. He had to admit, Wendy was indeed quite a talented shooter, not to mention how fast of a learner she was��a lot better than Zhang Heng��s mediocre horsemanship.


    Each time they stopped to rest by the road, she would ask Zhang Heng to lend her his gun for some target practice. And she even managed to hunt down two hares for dinner.


    ��I also noticed the thing that you told me earlier.��


    ��I don��t like the look in their eyes,�� Wendy said. She saw the woman on the balcony across the street hanging her clothes. The woman hastily retreated into her house, mming the door and shutting all the windows, giving the most nervous of nces. ��Is that an outbreak here? Chickenpox, or perhaps something more terrible like leprosy... When I was born, there was a chickenpox outbreak in the town that I lived in. I heard from my father that they would gather all the sick in one room to prevent them from infecting the healthy. Every day, they would send someone to deliver food and water to them until...�� Wendy paused, ��...the people inside were all dead. That was no treatment! It was murder.��


    Zhang Heng had also heard all about leprosy, the infamous disease. Let alone the 19th century, countering this disease in the modern-day was still a daunting task. Those living in the countryside were terrified when they heard about this disease. In this era, where medical know-how was still in its infancy, apart from istion, there was almost no other way to tackle leprosy.


    ��Be careful. This town is indeed unusual.��


    ��We leave as soon as we find my father. So where should we go next?��.


    ��Let��s look for the sheriff since no one wants to talk to us. But before that, we have to go to the grocery store to replenish supplies.��


    The owner of the grocery store was cleaning the shelves. When he saw Zhang Heng and Wendy walking towards him, he immediately came down thedder and hung up the closed sign. Within seconds, he, too, like the others, shut and locked the door.


    But right before the doortched, a hand-stretched into the crack of the door, blocking it from closing.


    ��Sorry, sir, we are closed,�� the owner said while attempting to close the door with increased strength. However, he wasn��t nearly as strong as Zhang Heng. In the end, the door was slowly pushed open from the outside.


    ��It seems we are lucky enough to get here before the shop closed.�� Zhang Heng walked into the shop with Wendy before the owner could argue with them.


    Leaving with no other options, the owner could only serve them and hoped they would leave his shop as soon as possible. He then wiped away the sweat from his forehead. ��Anything I can help you with?��


    ��I want to buy four... no, six boxes of bullets.��


    ��Caliber?��


    ��Two boxes of 44-40 Winchester, four boxes of 0.45-inch Colt long bullets, thank you.��


    ��That��s a lot of ammo... going hunting by any chance?�� While taking the ammunition from the shelf, the owner reluctantly tried to strike up a conversation with them.


    ��Are there any hunting grounds around here?��


    ��Not as far as I know. If you want to hunt, you��ll have to go further.��


    ��Well, looks like we won��t be going hunting then,�� Zhang Heng said. He then turned and looked at Wendy beside him. ��You want some licorice?��


    ��I��m not a kid anymore!�� Wendy frowned.


    ��It doesn��t mean that you are a child if you like to eat sweets. I know a guy, and I honestly don��t know how old he is. Anyway, he is older than anyone you have ever met. He has a sweet tooth, and he can devour all kinds of sweets like a bottomless pit.��

 Chapter 614 - They Are Not Used To Outsiders

    <strong>Chapter 614 They Are Not Used To Outsiders</strong>


    Zhang Heng took the ammunition and half a can of licorice candies.


    A secondter, he received a system notification.


    (Bought licorice candy at the grocery store. Game points: +3. Visit your character panel for more information...)


    Zhang Heng was getting more and more confused by this unique achievement system. Earlier, he had been given some tobo to chew. Besides being curious about how the famous chewing tobo tasted, he wanted to see if he could earn game points from this unique experience.


    As a result, nothing happened. In retrospect, he unwittingly obtained three points from purchasing a can of licorice candy and bullets from the grocery store. The randomness was unexpected-it was no wonder those guilds still failed to decipher the game-point system even after studying it for so long. ��What��s the matter?�� Wendy, standing beside him, asked.


    ��It��s nothing; eat your licorice.�� Zhang Heng handed her half a jar of candy, then told the shop��s owner, ��Do you know where the people in the farmhouses outside of town have gone to?��


    Thetter��s hand began to tremble involuntarily when he heard Zhang Heng��s question, the bag of flour he held almost fell to the ground. Luckily Zhang Heng managed to catch it before itnded.


    With a brief thanks, the boss took the bag of flour from him.


    ��The gue broke out in the town some time ago, and the infected were quarantined.��


    ��It seems we did guess it right. It really is a gue. How bad is it?�� Wendy asked. ��Everything is under control for now.��


    ��Is there a doctor in the town? Where are the sick taken to?�� asked Zhang Heng.


    ��The church in the town. They are temporarily quarantined there, and the doctor is taking care of them. You better stay away from that


    ce.��


    ��Don��t worry. We want to live a lot longer than this,�� Wendy chuckled. ��May God bless you.��


    ��Much obliged, ma��am.��


    After Zhang Heng paid for the stuff, the two left the grocery store. Not too long aftermencing their journey, Wendy felt that her boots were ufortable, and she was about to squat down to fix them when Zhang Heng suddenly spoke up. ��There��s no need to do it now. Let��s walk a little longer.��


    ��Why?��


    ��The boss still spies on us from the store. Don��t look back, and don��t make any unnecessary moves.��


    ��He��s watching us?�� Wendy was dumbfounded.


    ��To be precise, he is observing our movements and reactions,�� Zhang Heng said. ��If you had just told a lie, you would pay special attention to the audience��s reaction as well.��


    ��Lie? Are you talking about the gue?�� ��Well, it��s interesting. It seems the people in this town are attempting to hide something,�� Zhang Heng frowned. ��I don��t know what the role of the sheriff in this hoax is.��


    Five minutester, Zhang Heng and Wendy arrived at the police station in the town. In broad daylight, the thick-bearded sheriff was flirting with a woman in his office. Wendy was startled when she walked into the police station. The woman was lying on the bearded sheriff��s chest, and they looked like they were about to do something really intimate.


    ��Let��s get up. Herees somebody. I��ll have to start work now, babe,�� the bearded sheriff cooed, proceeding to pinch the woman��s thigh. Thetter giggled, got up, and gave a flying kiss to the bearded sheriff.


    The sheriff then patted his dirty uniform and wiped the badge on his chest. ��Is there anything I can do for you two?�� he asked.


    He was also the first average person that Zhang Heng encountered after he came to this small town. He was different from the residents that he saw earlier. Other than the fact that the sheriff must��ve not showered for god-knows-how-long, he looked pretty unspectacr. As for his little hobby, there was nothing wrong with that. After all, being a sheriff was a 24-hour job in this era. Considering how he was the de-facto person in charge of the town, the concept of working hours did not apply to him.


    ��Could you be Sheriff Harper? I heard a sheriff is a short man,�� Wendy said.


    ��You have good eyes, ma��am. I am not Sheriff Harper. Sheriff Harper is too old and has retired. I am his sessor. You can call me Loew.��


    ��Sheriff Harper is retired? But I just sent him a telegraph a week ago,�� Wendy��s eyes widened. ��Yes, I didn��t expect this to happen as well. He was the first group of residents to settle in this town. He has contributed a lot to this ce, and those who live here shall always remember his dedication. So, what brings you to the fine town of Bliss?��


    ��Actually, we are here to find someone, Sheriff Loew.��


    ��Really, who?��


    Wendy nced at Zhang Heng, and thetter nodded. So, she continued, ��We��vee to find my father. He��s been away from home for a long time. Before he left, he told us he woulde here to discuss business with someone.��


    ��Oh, that��s too bad. Perhaps you could tell me his name, and I will see what I can do for you.��


    ��My father��s name is Matthew Robbins, a rancher from Lincoln County. He wears a gray shirt and has a pair of old-looking boots. He is about thirty-five years old. And he has a scar on the right of his belly.��


    ��I wrote everything down, and I will investigate this matter right away. You can rest in the hotel and wait for news. I should be able to get back to you tomorrow morning,�� replied Sheriff Loew as he winked at Wendy. ��Can I ask you one more question? What��s wrong with the people here?�� Wendy could not help but ask.


    ��Oh, don��t take it to heart. They are just a little xenophobic. Just wait until they know you more. After all, something terrible just happened in town.��


    ��I heard about the gue. It��s really unfortunate.��


    ��We will get better. We always do. Those who thrive on thesends are courageous.��


    ��Even without your observation prowess, I can tell he��s lying.�� In the room, Wendy quietly asked Zhang Heng, ��How could Sheriff Harper retire at this time.��


    10


    ��Hmm.��


    Zhang Heng cleaned the barrel of the Winchester rifle, not looking up as he spoke.


    ><M��What should we do next? You know that there is something wrong with the sheriff. So, why would you tell him about your father.��


    ��We can��t hide it from him. After all, I have sent them a telegram before. Our purpose here is not a secret, but telling him would give him a false sense of security. Even though we have doubts about the town��s situation, we should continue to pretend that we trust the fake sheriff. And by the way, we get to see who his aplices are.�� ��What do you think?�� Wendy frowned.


    ��If I��m right, they wille to us tonight,�� Zhang Heng said. ��For your safety, I should let you leave first. However, if I do that, they will be suspicious of us. If Sergeant Dn did not lie, they should know your father and not harm you. Just get ready. If things go south, you should leave the town with Lightning right away. I will stay behind to deal with them.��

 Chapter 615 - Night Combat

    <strong>Chapter 615 Night Combat</strong>


    ��What about you?�� Wendy asked. Zhang Heng was not precisely an expert horserider. If the situation turned ugly, he probably wouldn��t be escaping on horseback. ��I may be desperate to find my father, but I don��t want you to risk your life either. If things don��t work out here, we can always get out of this town. We can still seek help in the other towns nearby.��


    ��Where? Renssr or Spurs? These two are the nearest towns, but they only have one sheriff. Or were you thinking about going back to Glen and ask Sheriff Dnd, whose horse I killed, for help? Let��s not talk about his stand first. Once we leave, they will surely suspect something isn��t right.��


    Zhang Heng was just finished cleaning the rifle. ��Don��t worry. I can handle it.��


    ��How? You said before that they could be a whole group of them-five, seven... Worst-case scenario, there could be dozens of them, and you��re only one man. Not to mention your horseriding sucks.��


    ��Thank you for reminding me of the unfortunate fact, but thank your lucky stars I don��t n to run.��


    ��Are you out of your mind? You��ve only got three guns!��


    ��And six boxes of ammunition. That��s enough,�� Zhang Heng retorted. ��Their biggest mistake would be to make a move at night.��


    ��Why?�� ��You��ll see,�� Zhang Heng answered calmly.


    Wendy was a little distracted throughout dinner. Zhang Heng��s words kept reying itself in her mind, and no matter how hard she thought about it, she could not figure out how Zhang Heng nned to eliminate an enemy that outnumbered him.


    If they were nning to attack Zhang Heng and Wendy tonight, they woulde prepared. Even if Zhang Heng could ambush a couple of them, there was no chance of a victory once the rest joined in.


    However, the person concerned did not seem worried at all.


    Night fell quickly. To avoid raising suspicions, Zhang Heng and Wendy returned to their respective rooms.


    Zhang Heng loaded bullets into the firearm he just serviced. Picking up a stool, he sat by the window. The curtains were drawn, leaving only a tiny slit that allowed him to look down at the street below. Once he was in position, he took out the (Filter Lens).


    This small D-grade item was one example in which grade did not represent an item��s function. With Zhang Heng��s shooting and archery skills, the more he used it, the handier it became. His field of vision within 300 meters becamepletely unhindered by factors including natural light and weather, so fighting in the dark was pretty much a breeze.


    In fact, this would be his most significant advantage tonight.


    Zhang Heng was ready. All that was left to do now was to wait for the prey toe. Lowe, the fake sheriff, and his men were earlier than Zhang Heng expected. It was not even midnight yet when they arrived in front of the hotel. They probably thought that they were going to win, hands down.


    That was expected. What kind of danger could the strangebination of a Chinese man and a little girl pose?


    Wendy did as was instructed, and blocked the window to keep stray bullets from hitting her. She even flipped over the heavy desk in the room, thus using it as a barricade for the window. As she built her little fort, she became a little less anxious, but her heart was still racing.


    She pressed an ear against the wall, but all she heard was silence from Zhang Heng��s room next door.


    It was so quiet that Wendy wondered if Zhang Heng had left. Soon, though, her thoughts were interrupted by the hooves of horses arriving downstairs. A wave of panic washed over the girl. There was still no sounding from the room next door.


    Zhang Heng did not open fire but waited for Lowe to enter the building.


    There were a total of six men. Two guarded the entrance, while another two watched over the first floor, ready to jump in whenever needed. Lowe and another guy walked up to the second floor, terrorizing the stricken innkeeper. Just as one of the men guarding the door made a gesture for him to keep quiet, the poor man copsed onto the ground.


    Wendy saw the men stopping briefly in front of her room through the crack in the door, then walking away. Clearly, Lowe and his men didn��t see her as a threat. In their opinion, once they got rid of the easterner, the battle would be over.


    Wendy felt that if she had a gun, she might be able to take the men on the other side of the door by surprise and kill them. Unfortunately, even though her marksmanship had improved, Zhang Heng said that he would not give her a gun to defend herself this time.


    And this was actually what worried Zhang Heng the most. He did not care if Wendy could help or not-he was even concerned this kid might be too bold for her own good. If she had a gun, she would indeed allow all hell to break loose. It was amon problem amongst most firearms dabblers-once they had a gun in hand, an inconsble urge to do something would overwhelm them.


    Zhang Heng experienced that once in the river valley, he was not about to go through that again.


    SCI


    Wendy��s heart was in her throat. She kept screaming in her mind for Zhang Heng to start shooting at the men outside her room, but yet, all seemed eerily still next door. Lowe and hispanion looked at each other. Thetter stepped back, kicked the door open while Lowe prepared to fire his rifle. To their surprise, however, there was no one in the room.


    Lowe and hispanion entered the room and saw the empty stool by the window. ��Where did that bastard go?��


    The answer to his question was a gunshot, followed by Lowe��spanion dropping to the ground with a thud.


    Lowe was startled. He wasn��t caught off-guard by the ambush, but by the fact that the gunshot hade from above. By the time he thought of aiming his rifle at the ceiling, it was toote. Zhang Heng released his left hand from the beam and jumped down, firing a shot right in Lowe��s face.


    The men downstairs hastily drew their weapons when they heard the gunshots, but Zhang Heng moved quickly. Instead of aiming at his assants, he aimed at the kerosenemp on the table downstairs. Themp shattered as he pulled the trigger, plunging the entire hotel intoplete darkness. Then, abandoning the men downstairs, Zhang Heng repositioned himself by the window again.


    When the two men keeping watch outside heard the gunshots, one of them dismounted his horse, and the other scanned the windows, ready to fire.


    Instead of opening the window, Zhang Heng fired through the ss, shattering the window and killing the armed man. The other one, who had just dismounted, crouched down, thinking that the shooter should not be able to see clearly in the darkness. But Zhang Heng pulled down the trigger guard, reloaded his weapon, and then with a click, the hammer was depressed, the trigger returned its position, and the barrel closed. The fourth bullet was discharged, and Zhang Heng hadpleted three kills.


    The other two men downstairs had their weapons drawn, but they were like headless chickens without a source of light.


    Zhang Heng leaned against the door, noted their positions, and killed them, one after the other. He had theplete advantage at fights like this. He barely even broke a sweat.

 Chapter 616 - Passerby

    <strong>Chapter 616 Passerby</strong>


    Wendy finally heard the long-awaited gunshot. However, the fierce battle that she imagined did not take ce. The gunshotsted less than a minute before it ended.


    After that, peace was restored. Wendy was nervous, not knowing who the final winner was. Suddenly, she heard someone knocking at the door. Fear kicked in once again. Immediately, she looked around and grabbed the fruit knife on the table.


    ��I hope you won��t stab me when I go in,�� Zhang Heng��s voice came from outside the house.


    Wendy was relieved, but instead of opening the door immediately, she asked, ��Are you the only one outside?��


    ��You can take a look under the crack of the door.��


    Wendy ducked the moment she heard Zhang Heng��s instruction. Through the crack, she saw only a pair of shoes outside the house. She then opened the door but still hid the knife behind her back.


    ��It��s over,�� Zhang Heng, who was outside the door, said, handing a revolver to Wendy at the same time. ��I killed the other people and caught the guy who pretended to be a sheriff. I am about to interrogate him. In the meantime, I need you to keep an eye on the boss. We are still trying to figure out the rtionship between this group of people and the town people. Maybe they still have aplices. So it��s always right to be more cautious.��


    ��Since you are going to question him, can I listen outside the house?�� Wendy asked.


    ��No, the interrogation will probably be a bit inappropriate for children,�� Zhang Heng said. ��It��s better that you wait outside. I��ll tell you the resultster.��


    Zhang Heng did not wait for Wendy��s reply. He turned around and closed the door before he left.


    Wendy walked out of the room and went downstairs. Instantly, she saw bloodstains from the corpse that Zhang Heng had dragged to the kitchen. She then moved a chair and sat in front of the innkeeper, now paralyzed by fear. In fact, there was no need to keep an eye on him all the time. His two allies had just expired before him, one of them shot in the head, with his own brain matter sttered over his face. The innkeeper��s legs had gone so soft that he could no longer stand up for now.


    However, Wendy decided to do something to make sure that the innkeeper would not escape. She then waved the revolver in his hand and threatened, ��You better stay put. I will kill you if you dare to move. Don��t put my marksmanship to the test.��


    About twenty minutester, a gunshot came from the second floor, and Wendy saw Zhang Heng walking out of the room. ��How did it go?�� Wendy stood up. ��Did he tell you anything about my father?��


    ��Well, I��ve figured everything out, but some people need saving first. I will exin when Ie back,�� Zhang Heng said.


    ��Saving people? Where?��


    ��The church... the missing farmers are there, and there are four guards too.��


    ��Is my father there too?��


    ��No, your father is not in town, but he should be in no danger for the time being.��


    Before Zhang Heng left, he added, ��After I leave, I need you to lock the hotel��s doors. Don��t let anyone approach and don��t trust the people in the town.��


    ��Okay,�� Wendy nodded.


    After Zhang Heng finished speaking, he hurried out of the hotel with his weapons in a bag.


    Wendy then watched him disappear into the night. When she turned around, she saw that the innkeeper��s face was pale. ��It��s over, it��s all over!�� he kept muttering. ��What��s over?�� Wendy asked. The boss was indifferent when he heard this and just murmured, ��We��re all going to hell.��


    Instead of heading to the church, Zhang Heng first went to the grocery store he visited during the day. He barged in and stuffed the three shotguns and five revolvers on the shelf into his bag, even grabbing some ammunition with him. The grocery store owner, still in his pajamas, heard themotion, and walked downstairs.


    He was bewildered when he saw Zhang Heng, oblivious to what was going on. He then asked, ��You...what are you doing?��


    ��I��m borrowing something from you, and I will return them to you when I��m done with it.�� Zhang Heng put thest box of bullets into his bag and picked it up.


    The boss reacted, and his eyes widened, ��Are you robbing me?! In our town? Are you not afraid of being arrested by the sheriff?��


    ��The Sheriff of Bliss is dead a long time ago. You guys are the ones that caused his death. I don��t think I need to worry about him anymore. If you are talking about the fake sheriff, I don��t think he would have any objections,�� Zhang Heng shrugged.


    After speaking, he kicked open the grocery store door, put the bag of weapons and ammunition on Radish, and headed towards the church alone.


    As he approached the church, Zhang Heng jumped off the horse.


    He had not learned to shoot while riding a horse, but he used to wander on the sea, which makes his bncing ability better than the average person. It will be a matter of time before he mastered this skill. However, before that, he could only dismount and fight.


    The church��s door was closed tightly, and a faint light squeezed out from it.


    Zhang Heng walked towards the door and fired a shot at the sky. About half a minuteter, the door was opened slightly, and a gun emerged from the crack. The man turned left and right, and he saw no one was outside. The one-eyed gunman then poked his head out carefully.


    Immediately, Zhang Heng killed him with a single shot.


    After that, his left hand drew the revolver around his waist and dangled it from the gap. Zhang Heng then adopted the same strategy as before. First, he broke the kerosenemp and filled the church with darkness. He then used his Filter Lens to look at his surroundings. With ease, he killed all three gunners inside the church.


    When Zhang Heng put away his Filter Lens and re-ignited the kerosenemp, the light revealed the people imprisoned inside the church. Most were cks, and there was a girl, weeping in the corner, her body covered with nothing but tattered rags.


    Zhang Heng quickly took off his coat and put it over her. He then looked at the side of the pulpit. There was a strong man who looked like the leader of this group. When Zhang Heng walked into the church, a few of them looked at the strong man in panic. Clearly, they were used to letting him take charge.


    ��How many of you are being imprisoned here?�� Zhang Heng asked.


    ��There are twenty people on the first floor, and thirty on the second, but most are women and children. They killed half of the men.�� The strong ck man who said that had a hint of anger shing in his eyes. ��Okay, pick someone who can fight. Both men and women are fine.�� Zhang Heng threw the sack that used to store all his guns and bullets on the ground and pointed at the corpse on the floor, ��Arm yourself; the sooner, the better. We will leave here in five minutes.��


    ��Sir, are you the bailiff nearby?�� someone asked.


    ��No, I��m just a passerby.�� Zhang Heng replied, pulling the brim of his hat.

 Chapter 617 - The Past

    <strong>Chapter 617 The Past</strong>


    As they walked into town, the farmers that Zhang Heng rescued from the church ran into another group. The tension in the air was palpable, where both sides had their weapons pointed squarely at each other.


    The muscr ck man standing in front shouted, ��Davidson, you bastards! You conspired with the Cook gang to kill us all!��


    The guy named Davidson, probably the leader of the town��s residents, retorted in his defense. ��Listen to me, Nikkor, we just wanted to teach you a lesson. I did not expect things to turn out this way. We made a mistake; we should never have trusted the Cook gang.��


    ��Try telling that to those who are now dead!�� Nikkor hissed. ��Now, those bastards have all been killed by a good man named Zhang Heng. Why are you standing in our way?! Are you nning to finish what they started and kill us all?��


    ��Of course not. We just wanted to have a chat with you. We were just discussing giving you 5,000 dors aspensation for the losses you��ve suffered. Of course, we know the money will never remedy the pain of losing family and friends... but at least it can make your life a little easier.��


    ��As long as you��re here, our lives will never be easier!�� Nikkor barked in a fury. ��And it��s not like you��re offering topensate us out of kindness. Whatever it is you have to say, might as well say it now!��


    Davidson nodded. ��Whatever happened to Sherriff, Harper was a tragedy, but given the circumstances at the time, we had no other choice...��


    Nikkor interrupted by spitting on the ground. He looked at each person standing before him, to which no one dared meet his gaze��they all had their heads lowered. ��You bastards! You shot him thirty-two times! Every single one of you has a hand in it. They shot their own sheriff! In fact, they didn��t kill him immediately. They deliberately avoided the vital organs and left him to bleed to death. I must admit that you white folk really do know how to have fun with a f*ckin human being... it really opened my eyes.��


    ��What could we have done?�� the owner of the grocery store cut in. ��Those men from the Cook gang were looking at us with guns their hands. If we didn��t do what they say, they were going to kill us too!��


    ��Nikkor,�� Davidson continued, ��Every one of us here feels guilty for what happened that day. Our conscience torments us-we��ve already been punished, and there��s nothing we can do about it. All we can do is to look forward -as long as we can reach a consensus. Sheriff Harper, like everyone else, died in the hands of Cook as well. We will let all of you go.�� ��Why? Are you worried that other people would find out about all the good things you��ve done? Does your conscience torment you? Do you even know what real punishment is? When each and every one of you get hanged on the gallows for the crimes you��vemitted, that the real f*cking punishment then.��


    ��Is this really necessary, Nikkor? If I remember correctly, none of you were exactly best friends with Sherriff Harper. Let��s not forget that he also hated cks and has locked up many of your people.��


    ��That��s true; Harper was one god-awful, in-bred old bastard. I��ve thought about shooting that bald head of his many times, but when the Cook gang wanted to kill us... Except for Mr. Matthew, only this old bastard stood up against them... of all the people in the whole town, he was the only one. You have to admit, that old bastard had the b*lls, but you had to go kill the only person in the whole town who had them.��


    ��We didn��t have a choice...�� the storekeeper muttered


    ��You always have a choice. You had guns, and there were more of you. Yet, you did not even fight back,�� Nikkor sneered. ��You are a bunch of mother*ckin�� cowards. Now, either you get out of our way, or we start fighting. Enough of all this nonsense.��


    ��Nikkor, it��s not that simple,�� Davidson exined. ��You don��t understand the situation we are faced with. That guy named Zhang Heng had only killed Cook members who stayed back to guard the town. There are still more than 30 of them out there! These men are cold-blooded murderers, not farmers or miners like you and I! When theye back, we will have to face their wrath, so right now, we must unite and stand together to face whatever��sing for us. It is the only way we can save our town.��


    ��Is there a screw loose in your brain, Davidson? How can we work together after everything that has happened? Might as well be pointing the guns at their own heads. Who knows what could happen?! When things turn bad, who��s to say that you won��t turn against us? You people would do anything to keep yourselves alive.��


    While the men argued, Zhang Heng had had already snuck back to the hotel.


    Wendy quickly removed the table, barricading the door.


    ��Did anyonee by when I was away?�� Zhang Heng asked.


    ��Yes, the owner of the grocery store; he came by not long after you left, but he didn��t knock. He��s gone off to search for someone else. What happened outside? There were a lot of people,�� Wendy asked.


    ��Bliss�� residents are mainly miners and their families. The mines have polluted nearby water sources, resulting inrge areas of crops to die. The remaining ones are no better. The local farmers are angry. The rtionship between the two miners and farmers became increasingly tense. From time to time, there would be some uh... conflicts. Then six months ago, a miner boy and a farmer girl went out to y together, but only the boy returned. The girl never came back. The girl��s father believed that the boy killed her, so he went to the boy��s house with a few of his friends and killed the boy. Naturally, the boy��s brother fought back. Two dayster, the girl returned home safely. It turned out that she had a disagreement with the boy and, in a fit of anger, she walked away from him and lost her way.


    ��So, this time, it was the miners turn to demand an exnation... with guns. When the farmers heard the news, they gathered a force as well. Conflict broke out between the two sides, with many wounded. Every now and again, the farmers would go down to the mines and cause trouble, and the animosity between them kept growing.


    ��About a month and a half ago, an old hunchbacked man appeared in town. He overheard the minersining about the whole thing, so he told them that he could help them solve their problem. All they had to do was pay him 6000 dors. He said he could hire people who could teach those farmers a lesson, so they would never cause the miners any more trouble again.


    ��The miners talked it over and thought it was a feasible n, so they pooled their money, and the hunchback brought the Cook gang here. They seized the farmers intending to kill them and their families. Then, to prevent the miners from reneging, the Cook gang forced the miners to kill their own sheriff. It was... very brutal. I won��t describe it in detail, but I think their real motivation wasn��t just to earn the six thousand dors. It was your father.��


    ��So, my father��s rted to all this?�� Wendy asked in surprise. ��Not this, but to the Cook gang��s leader Cook. It all makes sense now. Do you remember the one-armed man from the Cook gang who was hanged? He was in Lincoln County for a reason. I��m guessing that it probably has something to do with finding your father. The guy who pretended to be the sheriff didn��t know about Cook and your father, but there is no doubt that they know each other. Oh, maybe Sheriff Dn from Glentown is involved too. The three of them are old acquaintances. Cook threatened to kill the farmers unless your father does something for him.��

 Chapter 618 - Lucky Horseshoes

    <strong>Chapter 618 Lucky Horseshoes</strong>


    ��What do they want my father to do?�� Wendy asked impatiently. ��...help them find a group of people,�� said Zhang Heng, whose expression became a little weird all of a sudden.


    ��Who are those people?��


    ��More than a month ago, there was a robbery in Shining Silver Town. A group of masked men robbed a bank and looted forty kilograms of gold. However, few people knew that they also took something that they are not supposed to take. That thing belongs to the Cook.


    ��Cook wants your father to help him find that thing, but he seems to have other ns too,�� Zhang Heng said.


    ��But... the timeline does not match. As far as I know, the one-armed man came to Lincoln County very early and lived next to our house...�� Wendy frowned, ��...wait; you��re saying that the Cook has been watching my father all these years?��


    ��I��m afraid that��s the truth.�� ��Until Cook lost whatever they had, they contacted my father and asked him toe to Bliss. My father is half Indian, and that makes him a master tracker. After that, they used the lives of the farmers in the town to threaten my father, forcing him to help them to find someone!��


    Thus, Wendy finally figured out the ins and outs of this matter.


    ��Twelve days ago, Cook left ten people to keep an eye on the farmers, and he left town with your father and the remaining thirty-odd.��


    ��So my father only needs to help Cook to find whoever they��re looking for, and he��ll be set free?�� Wendy asked.


    ��It��s not that simple, I��m afraid,�� Zhang Heng shook his head. ��Cook ordered their men who stayed behind to kill everyone in half a month. After that, they were supposed to leave Bliss and meet in Lincoln County.�� ��Huh?�� Wendy��s eyes widened. ��What are they doing in Lincoln County?��


    ��You haven��t seen it yet. Cook doesn��t actually care about the thing he lost,�� Zhang Heng said. ��Your father has been their goal from the very beginning. They n to go to Lincoln County to avenge the one-armed man executed not too long ago. If they pull it off, your father, who is with them, will be treated as their aplice. In simple words, he has nowhere to go other than to stay with Cook��s Gang.��


    ��So, what should we do then?��


    Wendy��s reaction was calmer than Zhang Heng expected. Although worried about her father, she did not lose her mind. Instead, she said, ��If you can help me resolve this, I can call the shots and give you half of my family��snd and the cattle that live on it.��


    ��At this point, there is only one way to solve this problem. We need to stop them before they arrive at Lincoln. However, even if I can��t handle thirty-odd people at the same time. We have to look for help.��


    Two dayster, Zhang Heng and Wendy rushed back to Glen Town.


    ��Haha! Look who we have here,�� the sheriff outside the police station sneered. ��I have been waiting for this day to arrive! Well, it hasn��t


    expect to avenge my horse so soon.��


    ��You know Cook, the leader of the Cook Gang, don��t you?�� Zhang Heng asked directly.


    ��Well, how did you know about that?�� After hearing Zhang Heng��s question, the sheriff��s face changed drastically, and he quickly nced around. Seeing that there was no one following them, he was relieved.


    ��Your secret did surprise me,�� Zhang Heng said. ��The sheriff of Glen Town is in cohorts with the notorious Cook Gang.��


    ��You know nothing, kid. Don��tment on the past of others. You were not there when it happened,�� the sheriff snorted coldly.


    ��Then tell me, tell me everything about that mysterious past so that we can rescue Matthew,�� Zhang Heng continued. ��I think I have made it very clear. I will bring my past into the grave with me,�� the sheriff shook his head.


    ��You are so stubborn and unwilling to cooperate. Are you 100% sure that Cook will not kill Matthew? There is something worse in this world than killing a person, and that is ruining his life. I don��t know the nature of Cook and Matthew��s rtionship, but I do know that Cook is messing up Matthew��s life. As we speak, Cook is taking his people and Matthew to Lincoln County, preparing to avenge their recently executed member. Needless to say, you should know what it means.��


    ��What? Is Cook nning to attack Lincoln County?! Lincoln is not a small town like Glen.


    county seat.��


    ��They��re not going there to conquer the ce. They just want to loot it. By the time the armed forces arrive, they will be long gone. Considering Matthew��s tense rtions with the townsfolk, what would they think when they see him showing up with Cook and his gang?��


    The old cowboy fell silent after hearing this.


    After waiting a while, Zhang Heng was about to give up. The sheriff then quickly said, ��I know, Cook has always wanted Matthew to be his sessor. He��s been training Matthew since he was young.��


    ��My father used to be part of the Cook Gang?!�� Wendy instantly became dumbfounded. ��He is not the only one. Matthew, Cook, and the three of us were the first members of the Cook Gang. No, at that time, we were not called the Cook Gang, but the Lucky Horseshoes. We didn��t form the Lucky Horseshoes to burn, kill, or loot. Vengeance was our true purpose.��


    ��Vengeance?��


    The sheriff looked at Wendy, ��Your father rarely talks to you and your mother about the past, right? Regarding his past, he worked in Cook��s ranch before meeting your mother. That was also the time where he met the love of his life-Mary. They got married, and soon after that, Mary was pregnant with a child. At that time, Matthew was the happiest man in this world. Matthew and I were good friends, and they were ready to let me be the child��s godfather. However, no one expected misfortune to hit so quickly.


    ��Once, Cook and Matthew brought their cattle to be sold in a town five hundred miles away. When they returned, they found their homes ransacked, and Mary was gone. At first, they thought it was a robber who did it, but they found out things were not that simple. All signs pointed to Ruben, the only son of Union Pacific Railway Company��s director.


    That guy was a yboy. He always imed that he came here to supervise and inspect the railway project, but the truth was that he and a group of evil friends woulde to hunt for animals and visit the brothel. When he saw Mary, Ruben couldn��t take his eyes off her. He and his friends flirted with Mary several times, but Matthew was there to help her every time.


    ��What Matthew and Cook did not expect was that as soon as they left the town, Ruben would abduct Mary. Theyter found Ruben and asked him to release Mary. However, Ruben denied all usations. That bastard didn��t want anyone to find out about the crime hemitted, so he killed Mary without hesitation. It wasn��t until a weekter that we found Mary��s body in the woods. Wild dogs had mauled her corpse. And the child she carried, only three months old at that time, was killed as well.��

 Chapter 619 - A Tale of Vengence

    <strong>Chapter 619 A Tale of Vengence</strong>


    ��We��ve thought about using thew to solve this, but the United Pacific Railroad Company is very powerful. With only one sentence, they decide if they would build the railways for your towns. And the towns with railways usually develop faster than other towns that don��t have one. Following that, there would be more immigrants moving in, thus, increasing the production of goods. It would be hard for us to send those goods to other towns without the system.


    We were in a small town with less than 50 people at the time. Everyone was hoping that a track would pass the town and make our lives easier. Reuben obviously knew about this, so he ckmailed the town��s sheriff into concealing his crime.�� The sheriff seemed to dwell in his memory. He paused for a while before continuing, ��The town��s sheriff was Mr. Thompson. He and the United Pacific Railway Company were on the same side, and he was a loyal dog of theirs. So, Sheriff Thompson insisted that Mary be taken and killed by the robbers nearby.


    ��Later, we attempted to unite the townsfolk in making Thompson and United Pacific admit to their crimes. Unfortunately, nobody wanted to stand with us. Everyone wanted a railroad more than making them pay for crimes. That was when the Lucky Horseshoes was born. Cook told the f*cking sheriff that if no one could give us the justice we deserved, we would create our own justice.


    ��...apart from us, Cook wrote to two of his friends at the time. Once they received his letter, they quickly rushed to the town. Coupled with another cowboy who worked for Cook, there were a total of six of us, the founding members of Lucky Horseshoes.��


    Upon hearing that, Zhang Heng interrupted the sheriff, ��Is the horseshoe-shaped imprint on your chest a result of joining the Lucky Horseshoes?��


    Zhang Heng saw that mark when he searched the sheriff at the entrance of the river valley. He suspected that thetter was rted to his main quest.


    ��Yes, that��s right,�� the sheriff admitted, ��Matthew and Cook had it on them too, but Matthewter carved out a scar at the spot to get rid of it. This happened after he left the Lucky Horseshoes. In short, once everyone had reached, the six of us covered our faces, and in the dark, we headed to Reuben��s residence. We nned to kill all of them while they were drunk and defenseless. However, the situation spiraled out of control. There were a total of ten people in Reuben��s residence. Other than the two ymates, the rest were security personnel assigned to him by his father. Needless to say, these guards were all useless.


    ��Matthew rushed to the frontline and killed the only two still awake in the room. After that, we started killing every single one of them. However, besides Rueben��s man, we didn��t expect two prostitutes to be in the house. I had an argument with Cook if they should be killed or not. Cook said that they could��ve been there when Mary was killed, but I said we couldn��t possibly be sure. We were there for revenge, not to kill innocent people. When we argued, one of the prostitutes attempted to sneak out of the house while we were distracted. So, one of Cook��s friends went after her and shot her dead. When he came back, he killed another prostitute.


    ��Then... Sheriff Thompson rushed over when he heard the gunshots. He pulled out the gun and wanted to shoot me. I had no choice but to kill him before he killed me. By that time, everything was messed up. Cook told us that it was toote to turn back after all that we had done. Everyone in town knew our grievances with Rueben. When the new sheriff came to the town, all of us would be sentenced to death. Since that would be the case, it was better that we simply killed everyone in town.��


    ��So, you really killed the entire town?�� Wendy asked.


    ��Yes, we ughtered all the men and women, from the elderly to the children. We mercilessly butchered all those who could breathe and walk. I will always remember that night. Everything in front of me was red. We left no soul alive by the time we were done. I told you that we lived in a small town, so we all knew each other. I even talked to some of them during the day. And that night, I had to kill them with my hands.


    ��During the early phase of the battle, we were gaining the upper hand. Butter, more and more people who heard the gunfire armed themselves to retaliate, especially thest two families. They had many sons, and they blocked the door with tables and beds. After that, they started to shoot at us from the window on the second floor. It was a bloody battle thatsted until dawn. In the end, only three people were left alive in the town. And they were me, Matthew and Cook.


    Everyone else was either injured or dead. I didn��t know what that was about. What I know is that the massacre was more than just vengeance.�� The sheriff��s eyes were filled with regret as he spoke. ��After the incident, the three of us sat in the middle of town and looked at each other. No one said a single word. Afterward, Cook dragged his wounded leg, returned home, and took the money he saved to split amongst us. Then, in the afternoon, the three of us went our own separate ways. ��Matthew and I chose to remain anonymous, living the lives of ordinary people. Matthew went to Lincoln County, opening a ranch with the money he received from Cook. Not too long after that, he got married and had a child. As for me, I wandered aimlessly for a while before finallying to Glen Town.


    I drove out the two gangsters harassing and extorting the residents in a bar, and I was elected as sheriff by the locals. In the end, I decided to live here. As for Cook... I learned that he formed a gangter on. He told everyone that his gang was responsible for the small-town massacre. I knew he only did that to protect us, especially Matthew. Cook liked Matthew very much and always treated him as his son. After Mary died, Matthew became Cook��s only remaining kin.


    ��I don��t know why he wanted to disrupt Matthew��s peaceful life. More than ten years have passed since then. It doesn��t make sense to me,�� the sheriff frowned.


    ��But he did go and look for Matthew,�� said Zhang Heng. ��If you want to stop him, you��ll have to stop them before they reach Lincoln County. I have fifteen people on my side, and they can get to Glen Town by afternoon. How many people can you bring with you?��.


    The people Zhang Heng was looking for were the miners and farmers of Bliss. When it came to this matter, he could not seek help from otherw enforcement officers. Still, fortunately, after a long night of negotiations, Bliss��s residents finally reached a preliminary consensus to help to deal with Cook��s gangthey selected fifteen of their best marksman. Zhang Heng and Wendy took off to Glen Town first to look for the sheriff. The rest followed them from behind.


    ��Four, it was the four people you saw that day,�� said the sheriff. ��They are the only people who can bepletely trusted.��


    ��Sorry, are you talking about the guy who got tied up by me andter, thrown by the side of the road?�� Wendy murmured, ��Is that guy reliable? He looks no older than me.��


    ��It��s better than nothing. It means we��ll have twenty people. Although they outnumber us by a bit, I think it��s good enough that we start a fight with them,�� Zhang Heng said.

 Chapter 620 - Fate

    <strong>Chapter 620</strong> Fate


    In the vast expanse of the Gobi, a group of people was riding on their horses. Having been wandering in the wild for a week, everyone looked exhausted and worn out. However, they were getting closer and closer to their final destination, Ghulja.


    However, when they arrived at their destination, they found that Ghulja had already been engulfed by mes, leaving behind only a ground filled with burnt bodies.


    Matthew got off his horse, stood in the middle of the town, and looked up. There were broken houses everywhere, and no living creatures could be found.


    ��I told you that they all died in the fire.��


    Zhang Heng would have definitely recognized the one who just spoke. The bailiff named Morton that he encountered by chance on the first night he entered this world. However, he didn��t look like he was in a perfect state. His eyes were bruised, the bridge of his nose was broken, and at least four or five teeth were missing from his mouth. He was tied on a horse, and he wasn��t talking properly since his teeth were missing.


    ��I don��t believe your tale about the mysterious Oriental gunman... I��ve lived in Lincoln County for so long, and I have never seen such a person,�� Matthew frowned.


    ��As I said, if it weren��t for that night, I wouldn��t have believed that such a strange person lived in this world. He is like a mysterious ghost. No one knows where hees from. I followed the direction he came from and asked the nearby towns, and no one had ever seen such a person! He seemed to have suddenly materialized in the Gobi. He killed seven good shooters in the bar and carried forty kilograms of gold and the thing you were looking for. When I met him, I did hear him say that he was going to Lincoln County.��


    ��Then let��s go to Lincoln County,�� said the hunched old man.


    ��No, I won��t go to Lincoln County with you.�� Matthew shook his head. ��I know what you are trying to do here. Cook, you deliberately revealed my name to Bliss�� folk when you kidnapped this man over here,�� Matthew pointed at Morton on horseback, ��Using this method to get me stuck with Cook��s Gang?��


    ��You are a Cook Gang member and one of its founders,�� the old hunchback casually said.


    ��No, I have nothing to do with your gang, and Lucky Horseshoes has nothing to do with Cook��s gang either,�� Matthew said. ��Are you putting up an act right now, Cook? You and this guy named Morton? You both are ganging up to make me stay in Cook Gang. You went through so much trouble just to trick me into going to Lincoln County with you.��


    ��You think too highly of me, boy,�� the old hunchback muttered. He then took out a box of chewing tobo, ��I am not from the United Pacific Railway Company. Hence, the bailiff here will not serve me. While traveling, I��ve been thinking about getting you to go to Lincoln County with me. However, it seems that the problem has been resolved. it��s all probably fate.��


    ��I don��t believe in shitty fate,�� Matthew responded.


    ��I didn��t believe it before as well. But if it were not for fate, we would all be sitting together in your house now. You will be holding your son, and I will be holding my granddaughter. We would be drinking cold beer and having augh over daily life. And Mary... Mary would be preparing dinner in the kitchen.��


    Cook paused, ��But you are right. Fate doesn��t exist. This is a dog-eat-dog world. I do not regret establishing the Cook Gang; I only regret that I did not do it earlier. I allowed myself to be blinded by the happy life that I once had. Just like you now. The cruel reality will wake us up one day. I heard that you married another woman in Lincoln County, and she gave birth to a daughter.��


    ��This is between us. Don��t involve them,�� Matthew warned.


    The old hunchback smiled. ��It is not me you should be worrying about, but the fate you spoke of. Aren��t you afraid that what happened to Mary will happen to them again?�� Matthew fell into silence upon hearing this.


    ��Look how fragile your so-called happiness is. There are too many powerful people in this world, like the directors of the United Pacific Railroad. You are just an ant under their feet, Matthew. You don��t know when the world will crumble upon you. Know where I went after the three of us were separated?��


    ��Where?��


    ��I took the train to the east coast.��


    ��Then whye back?��


    ��What, did you really think I headed to New York to enjoy my retirement?�� The hunched old manughed. ��No, I will carry out my revenge to the end. I am going to kill United Pacific Railroad��s director. I havee up with a n for myself if I get caught. Since Mary is no longer in this world, I don��t want to live anymore... Things have gone smoother than I thought. I slipped into the target��s house without much effort. Those from the East Coast are different from us.


    Their alertness is almost nonexistent. Before I kill him, I even had the opportunity to indulge his wife before him. And then I noticed the way he looked at me, so frightened and helpless, like a puppy in the rain. At that moment, I suddenly realized that I had be his fate.�� ��What are you trying to say here? ��Matthew frowned.


    ��My point is that if you wish to get rid of this tragic fate of infinite loops, you have to be fate itself,�� Cook said. ��Join us, Matthew, stop being a fate��s pawn. We have forty fearless men with us. With their excellent marksmanship, the entire west is our hunting ground.


    ��Since you already have more than forty allies, why do you want me to join your gang?�� ��Because we are rted, Matthew. I have always treated you as my son. Your bloodline makes you less popr in town. I took you in and taught you how to use a gun, ride a horse, and let you marry my daughter. You were like me when I was young. Join us, and I will continue to guide you.��


    ��Guide me to? To hell with you?��


    ��This ending is not too bad. If we work together, we can kill the devil even if we tumble in the depths of hell.��


    The old hunchback looked with anticipation at Matthew.


    Then thetter shook his head. ��No, Cook, I still have a wife and a daughter. I can��t be a robber with you. The revenge is over. We killed an entire town. It��s over. The love I have for Mary is no less than you. Because of this, I��m pretty sure she doesn��t want to see you like this. You just inflict whatever pain you have suffered on others. What different are you from Reuben then?��


    ��I��m stronger than him. That��s why I survived,�� the old hunchback replied. ��On thisnd, only the strong win the right to survive. Unfortunately, Matthew, you are not strong enough. But it doesn��t matter. You will be strong enough soon. Come on, son. Let us both wee a new future together.��

 Chapter 621 - We Need To Stop Him

    <strong>Chapter 621 We Need To Stop Him</strong>


    On the grasnds, the sheriff, his deputy, Zhang Heng, and Wendy sat around the campfire.


    The miners and farmers from Bliss Town were sitting next to them. Although the two sides decided to work together, they had not worked on theirmunication. They were each doing their own things and still looked at each other with hatred.


    A look of worry shed across the sheriff��s face.


    ��What��s going on?�� Zhang Heng asked. ��We stillck manpower, and most of us here are inexperienced fighters as well. And the worst part is that there is an internal conflict between us. If we fight Cook in such a state, I am afraid there��s a high chance that we will lose.��


    Zhang Heng did not answer the sheriff��s question, asking instead, ��Do you know a lot about Cook?��


    ��No, most of my memories of him were when we were living in the same town. He was a very easygoing man. Simr to his wife and daughter, the whole family are devout Puritans. We were the first to arrive in the town with a covered wagon. I was only six at that time. It is probably hard to imagine now the difficulties and obstacles we encountered along the way at that time. There were robbers, Indians, and men with ill intent lurking everywhere. We had gone through many tough battles, and Cook is the best marksman among us. It is difficult to imagine a gentleman like him would fight so bravely.


    ��He is the most outstanding person among us, a natural leader, and he cares about everyone that matters to him. Without him, we wouldn��t have been able to reach a settlement. When the town was first established, we unanimously choose him as the sheriff. Nheless, he refused the position. He was the ��family first�� kind of man. After he opened his own ranch, he wanted to spend all his time with his wife. Hence, we chose Thompson as the sheriff in the end.


    ��Now, Thompson was a respectable man in his own right, but unfortunately, he disappeared from the world in less than a year. On that particr day, he attempted to help a widow from town retrieve money that someone owed her. Tragically, he was ambushed by the debtor and his two brothers, and they shot him dead in the process. One of them waster caught and hanged in the next town. As for the other two killers, there were long gone before we could sentence them. Some said they fled to Japan, and others said robbers had killed them. Rumors even said they joined the army under different names. But in short, we couldn��t locate them no matter how hard we tried.


    ��Let��s talk about Morris next. He worked for four years as a sheriff. A robber shot him and blinded him in the eye during a crossfire with a group of robbers in town. But he miraculously survived the injury. Two yearster, he retired as sheriff. After that, Thompson Jr, son of old Thompson, took up the position... During that period, Cook had two children, the first one was a boy, but unfortunately, he did not survive the birth. Then, the girl was named Mary. I think the Cook and his wife poured all their love for their deceased son into their daughter.


    ��Cook originally wanted a third child, but in the end, his wife died of dystocia. Neither adult nor the child survived. Cook was depressed for a while, but fortunately, he still had his daughter. Mary pulled him out from his depression and made him embrace life again. It was then when Matthew came into his life. Matthew��s father was an Indian from the Apache tribe, and his mother was a British immigrant. His birth was unexpected. Due to his Indian descent, the townspeople didn��t like him the least bit.


    ��I fought with him when he first arrived in the town. At that time, I was just a young man and couldn��t tell right from wrong. I beat him just because he wasn��t pleasing to my eye, but I didn��t expect that the fight would make us friends. Matthew said that he came to town to find a job, but at that time, I was just a poor boy, so I directed him to Cook. I knew that if there was one person in town that was willing to ept him, it had to be Cook.


    ��Sure enough, although Matthew didn��t know anything at the time, he was hardworking and had an open mind-he was willing to learn everything that was taught to him. It was apparent-Cook liked him so much that he treated him like his own son. Most people in this world are blind-eyed fools. Only a few possess the ability to look past a person��s gender, race, and appearance. It is more important to look at a person��s heart and mind. And Cook has the ability to do so.


    ��You know what happenedter. I won��t say more. Matthew married Mary, and then the unfortunate incident happened. I still don��t know if what we did that night was right or wrong.�� The sheriff paused. ��...but I thought about it againter. I don��t think it was an ident that things got out of control that night. At that time, most of us were determined to avenge Mary. With Cook��s meticulous mindset, it would be impossible he didn��t know the situation we would be facing after killing Ruben and his men. That means he had made up his mind from the beginning to kill all the people in town.


    ��At that time, he was probably disappointed with the townsfolk. Considering how he did so much for this town, the people should have supported him. However, when Mary was killed, only a few were willing to stand by his side. He felt the town had betrayed him.


    ��I heard about what happenedter. After the three of us broke up, he went to the east coast alone and killed United Pacific Railroad��s director. Then he came back and founded the Cook Gang. For the past decade, Cook has been the strongest and most terrifying gang in the West. They looted trains, ransacked towns, and even fought head-on with the rangers. Of course, they also suffered heavy losses. At one time, the people thought they had disappeared, but it didn��t take long for them to emerge again and be more brutal and powerful.


    ��Except for therger towns, small towns like Glen all live in fear of the Cook Gang.�� The sheriff looked into Zhang Heng��s eyes. ��The reason I tell you about these past events is, so you know how terrifying Cook is. When a person like Cook with many excellent qualities decides to turn evil, the damage he can wreak beats any ordinary robber. I don��t know what happened to him after the three of us were separated. One thing��s for sure��I know he must be stopped at all costs.��


    ��In the beginning, he was simply obsessed with revenge. Everything he did afterward, however, was no longer about revenge. His hands were covered with the blood of many innocent people. He killed more ordinary folk than those powerful people died. He even lost count of the children that lost their fathers and wives that lost their husbands. He wouldn��t even bat an eyelid when he ughters an entire stranger��s family. What happened in Bliss was no ident. If we don��t do something about him, I don��t know how many more crazy things he will do,�� the sheriff said with a solemn expression.

 Chapter 622 - Hunter’s Hut

    <strong>Chapter 622 Hunter��s Hut</strong>


    ording to the sheriff��s description, Zhang Heng could determine that Cook��s marksmanship had surpassed Lv.2 but hadn��t yet reached Lv.3. Also, his horseriding skills were outstanding. He could now fire his gun while he was riding on his steed. Of course, it was not as urate while he was standing still.


    Considering Cook��s age, Zhang Heng was confident that he could defeat him if it were a fair matchup. However, if one took into ount the thirty thugs in the Cook Gang, the situation was not optimistic.


    But luckily, they still had time.


    Cook would not expect that the ten people he left to be stationed in Bliss would be killed, causing their whereabouts to be exposed ahead of time.


    ording to Zhang Heng��s estimation, Cook Gang should still need to travel for another day before they reached Lincoln County. While they were thinking about how to deal with those thugs, there was a key problem for them to figure out, and that was how to intercept Cook and Matthew before they got to Lincoln County.


    ��The intel that I have on hand about the Cook Gang is two-months-old,�� the sheriff frowned. ��They have always been like this. Theye and go like the wind. Some people call them the Crimson Scourge. No one knows where they would appear or where they were heading to. The only thing that everyone knows was that wherever they went, and blood would be spilled.�� ��I probably know where they will be,�� Zhang Heng said. Bailiff Morton has been tracking those bandits disguised as fur traders. As long as Cook and Matthew are not stupid, they will find Morton first. So they should arrive at the scorched town now.�� Undoubtedly, 80% of them would believe what Morton told them, thinking that Zhang Heng was the one that took the forty kilograms of gold and the object Cook had deposited in the bank.


    In fact, Zhang Heng couldn��t really determine if the thing really existed, or whether it was just an excuse for Cook to draw Matthew out.


    Apart from Cook, the only group of people who could answer this question had been killed by Zhang Heng. Getting an answer might prove a little challenging Zhang Heng told the sheriff about the direction that Cook and the others might be heading in. Thetter spread out a map and pointed to a forest trail twenty miles east of Lincoln County. ��If your intel is reliable, Cook will first group up with the ten people he left in Bliss. After that, he will attack the county seat. Considering that there will be a gap between their arrivals, the first person should find a ce to settle down. And this is the best location.��


    Wendy then interrupted, ��My father and I went there in the summer. I remember a hunter��s hut over there. It has no owner, and any hunter can rest there.��


    ��If Cook didn��t see anyone in Bliss when he arrived, he would probably rest in the hut too,�� the sheriff said.


    ��Can we set up an ambush there?�� Zhang Heng asked. ��It��s difficult,�� the old cowboy shook his head. ��I haven��t been to that ce yet, but Cook is a very cautious person. The bailiff who pursued him said he��d first sent some scouts to garrison the location. Once the ce is secured, he will set up a perimeter around him. This is why the Cook Gang has been so difficult to eliminate. Even if we want to surround him, we cannot hide nearby. We��ll have to charge at them from a distance.��


    Zhang Heng frowned at the sheriff��s idea. The dark of the night was his best adavantage to win the fight against Cook. However, if Cook and his people chose to hide in the hunter��s hut until dawn, then it would make no sense to ask a group of miners and farmers to fight. ��Let��s head there first,�� said Zhang Heng after thinking for a while.


    There wasn��t much time left. The Cook Gang should reach Lincoln County in a day. On the other hand, Zhang Heng and the others would take at least half a day to get to the woods. At the same time, they had to be cautious of any encounters with Cook members in the woods. That meant they had only half a day left to make all the necessary preparations. Before dawn, the group had set off again to the cabin Wendy mentioned.


    That hut was located in the middle of the woods, and there was a small trail leading to it, created by the hunters who frequently hunted there. A stream ran beside the hut as well. Since it just rained, the air in the woods was humid; tree barks still had water droplets on them.


    This was by no means pleasant news for Zhang Heng and the rest since it meant that they couldn��t use fire to drive Cook and the others out of the house. Besides, there were branches on the ground and it would be difficult to approach outside without making a sound.


    To avoid hooveprints on the ground, the sheriff made everyone else wait outside the woods. Zhang Heng, Wendy, and he were the only ones that entered the woods.


    The sheriff walked around the hunter��s cabin and asked Zhang Heng, ��Do you have any ideas?��


    ��I don��t think they can fit thirty people in this hut. Cook will assign some of them to guard the perimeter. Once wemence the attack, whoever is inside the hut will be alerted. It is difficult toplete the ambush. However, if we are lucky, we should aim at all the thugs guarding outside. Once we eliminate a few, our chances of winning would improve significantly,�� Zhang Heng paused, ��But the real trouble is fighting those who remain in the hut. There is no ce for cover around here. By that time, we will have to wait for them to attack us before we can attack. Hence, we need to find a way to lure them out.��


    ��Even if we can draw them out, are you confident you can defeat them?�� The sheriff raised his eyebrows.


    ��It��s impossible to defeat all of them in one go. If they are determined enough to leave this ce, I don��t think I can kill them all. However, if Cook is my only target, I think I can pull it off,�� Zhang Heng said. ��That should be more than enough. Cook has always been the soul and brain of the Cook Gang. As long as Cook is killed, the Cook Gang will naturally cease to exist.�� The sheriff said, ��I may have a way to get them out of the hut, but I still need your men to help me.�� ��They will all follow your order, sheriff.�� After briefly discussing the battle n, the three temporarily left the forest. If all of them entered Lincoln County simultaneously, they would attract all the unwanted attention. So, they went only one person to watch the ce, and the rest headed west. After a twenty mile walk, the group of twenty took the time to rest behind a grassy slope. And Zhang Heng still had something to do before the war began.


    He walked toward Wendy, who had been quiet the whole way here.


    ��Let��s go. I will take you home first,�� said Zhang Heng. ��Please, I��ve been honing my marksmaship for a long time, and I��m ready forbat... and you are not short of manpower now,�� Wendy begged. ��You have never experienced a real battle. This is not as simple as you think, and what we are about to face is the most brutal and powerful gang in the entire West. I don��t think we��ll have any room for negotiation,�� Zhang Heng replied.

 Chapter 623 - Sheriff’s Plan

    <strong>Chapter 623 Sheriff��s n</strong>


    Seeing how persistent Zhang Heng was, Wendy said nothing but obediently followed him back to her ranch.


    A woman milking a cow in a cowshed saw Wendy returning and immediately put down the milk bucket and ran over. Taking Wendy into her embrace, she sobbed, ��Great, they said a strange oriental man kidnaped you. And Matthew is not there. I almost died of worry!��


    Wendy tried to move her head away from her mother��s chest, and she nced at Zhang Heng awkwardly, ��Sorry...�� Zhang Heng raised his eyebrows, ��It okay. Such is the nature of humans.��


    ��Oh!��


    Wendy��s mother finally noticed Zhang Heng, immediately shoving her daughter behind her, a hint of alertness showing in her eyes. She probably did not know what to say, so she just stood there.


    The scene was a little awkward. In the end, Zhang Heng broke the silence. ��I have escorted your daughter back here safely. You��d better watch her and don��t let her run off anymore.��


    This time, Wendy��s cooperation made Zhang Heng felt a little uneasy. Considering how she was prone to making an escape, he couldn��t help but worry that she would sneak out again. Initially, he wanted to ask someone to watch over her, but he did not have the manpower to fight against Cook Gang. Hence, he couldn��t afford to take out someone from this team to do such a thing.


    ��I didn��t mess around. I went out to find my father!�� Wendy defended herself.


    ��Whatever, you just need to stay home this time,�� replied Zhang Heng before giving Wendy��s mom a nod. ��Excuse me.��


    After that, he left with Radish without waiting for the answer from Wendy��s mother. As soon as Zhang Heng left, a beer carriage rolled into Lincoln County.


    The coachman jumped out of the wagon, unloading barrels of beer, and some workers from the wagon. The barkeeper walked out and was a little surprised when he saw them. ��Where is Bhagat? Wasn��t he the one delivering the beer before this?��


    ��Bhagat has been diagnosed with a bad case of measles. I��m his recement for


    now.��


    ��Poor boy,�� the bar owner muttered with emotion, ��I hope he recovers soon. Come on, bring the beer in. You haven��t had lunch yet, right? I have some food left in the kitchen.��


    ��That couldn��t be better.�� The driver tied the horse and smiled, showing a row of yellow teeth.


    The bar owner did not notice that the workers following the driver had gone a little pale. Even if he noticed, he would not take it seriously. Bhagat, the coachman who was working with him, had measles. It was understandable why the young man was in a bad mood.


    After Zhang Heng handled Wendy��s affairs, he immediately returned to the sheriff and other people. From a distance, Zhang Heng saw the old sheriff cutting something with a knife. Zhang Heng then walked up to him, ��Why, are you still a tailor?�� ��I��m no freaking tailor, but if you want Cook and his men to abandon the hunter��s cabin, you better pray that my tailoring is good enough.��


    ��Hmm?��


    ��The only thing that worries Cook around here is Major Wade and his hundreds of soldiers,�� the sheriff said. ��I n to masquerade as Major Wade. If we are lucky enough, where the moonlight is not so bright tonight, Cook and his men would have poor visibility, and my n might work. If Cook realizes that an army surrounds him, he will definitely not stick to the hut anymore. He would start to flee before his enemies get close.�� ��Sounds pretty good,�� Zhang Heng said. ��We better pray this works,�� replied the sheriff.


    ��Any movement over in the forest?�� Zhang Heng asked again.


    ��We haven��t spotted them for the time being. So far, only two kids wanted to enter the forest to do some hunting. Our men talked them out of it, but unfortunately, we can��t warn the county��s people. Once Cook and his men are here, I��m afraid no one wille out alive once they go into the forest.�� ��So, what��s your n here?��


    ��We better get started early.��


    That said, the night had passed, and there was no trace of Cook and his gang. And the next morning, Cook still hadn��t shown up. ��What seems to be the problem here? Is there something wrong with the route you gave us?�� the sheriff asked Zhang Heng. ��The route... should be fine. There is still a day left before they get here. Although they should have arrived at their current speed, I��m not ruling out the possibility of idents while on the way here. Let��s wait a little longer.�� Zhang Heng said. If Zhang Heng��s horseback riding was good enough, he might have just wandered around, doing some investigations with a good horse. But now, there was nothing he could do other than to wait. Once this whole debacle was over, Zhang Heng nned to sharpen his equestrianism and the ability to shoot while on horseback.


    Half a day had passed, and several miners and farmers had begun to grow impatient.


    They only followed Zhang Heng here since they were afraid that the Cook Gang would attack their towns. With their departure, their town��s defenses would be weaker. The thing that worried them the most was that Cook��s men chose not to attack Lincoln County. Instead, they changed their route suddenly and headed towards their towns.


    This oue would undoubtedly be disastrous for those residing in those towns.


    Fortunately, though, soon after sunset, the people who were keeping an eye on the woods rushed back to them on horseback.


    Everyone felt really nervous at that moment. That could only mean one thing, and that was their target was finally here.


    Sure enough, the ally shouted before he got off the horse, ��The Cook Gang! They are here!��


    The sheriff was startled, immediately asking, ��How many of them are here? Is Cook among them?��


    ��I didn��t dare to take a closer look. They were very vignt. After arriving at the hut, they began to sweep their surroundings. I was afraid of being spotted. So, I took a quick look at them from a distance and ran away.�� The investigator added, ��But I��m sure it is them because I recognized one. He was the one that forced us to kill Sheriff Harper. There are many of them, and they should be the Cook Gang. What should we do now, should we ambush them?��


    ��No, it��s too early now.�� The old cowboy shook his head. ��You have to wait at least for the sun to go downpletely, and also to see how bright the moonlight is. Let��s fill up your stomachs first, put on your military uniforms, and get ready for battle. .��


    After speaking, he pulled aside a tall and chubby guy, the person who��d be ying Major Wade tonight. Taking advantage of this time, the old cowboy once again told him what to do to the house. The people inside shouted.


    ��No, it��s too early now.�� The sheriff shook his head. ��At least we have to wait for the sun to go downpletely. And also to see how bright the moon is at night. Let��s fill up our stomachs first. Put on your military uniform and get ready for battle. .��


    After that, he pulled a tall and chubby guy aside, the man that was supposed to act as Major Wade tonight. The sheriff took advantage of the time left and reminded him what to say to Cook Gangter outside the hut.

 Chapter 624 - Perimeter Defence

    <strong>Chapter 624 Perimeter Defence</strong>


    To be honest, Zhang Heng was never once lucky since he entered this dungeon. The first thing he did was kill an entire bar full of people to get himself a drink. Butter, he found out that the people that he killed were rted to his primary mission. Amid the search for Wendy��s father, he encountered the old sheriff. Zhang Heng got into a massive fight with him because he insisted on sending Wendy home. When he arrived at his destination, he became embroiled in the conflict between local miners and farmers. Fortunately, his bad luck would seem to be finally over by tonight.


    As soon as the sun went down, arge ck cloud appeared in the sky, blocking the moonlight. It was very dark, and the visibility that night was very low. In other words, their n��s sess rate for tonight had just gone up.


    But to be cautious, everyone decided to wait another two hours before making their move.


    The war was approaching, and everyone in the camp carried a different look on their faces.


    Zhang Heng walked to the sheriff, who was in a daze as he held a hip sk that he carried with him. ��Are you okay?�� Zhang Heng asked. ��Of course,�� the sheriff confidently said, ��Why would I not be okay?�� ��You only talked about the rtionship between Cook and Matthew, and the rtionship between you and Matthew, but you didn��t mention the rtionship between you and Cook.��


    ��There is nothing to mention between Cook and me. I joined the Lucky Horseshoes because of Matthew. Cook and I are just ordinary friends.��


    ��Is that right? But from your tone, it��s pretty obvious you admire Cook very much.�� Zhang Heng sat down in front of the sheriff, resting the Winchester rifle on his knee.


    Thetter went silent for a moment before saying, ��He has always been the person I admire the most. No, it should be said that he��s the one that all the young folks in town admire. After what happened that night, I know he did not tell me everything about the n. I don��t me him. And I��m telling the truth here. He understands me and each of us. He knows that if the price he has to pay is to kill everyone in the town, we might not join him in his revenge n. So I can forgive him regarding this, but everything that happened after that... it��s somewhat difficult to ept.


    ��Actually, I lied earlier. When the Cook Gang was first established, I went to him look for him alone. At that time, they just robbed a train and killed all its passengers. They took everything valuable, and the remaining goods were burned to ashes. The Cook Gang at that time was not as cunning as it would beter. I managed to find them with the trail that they left behind.��


    ��And then?�� Zhang Heng took the hip sk handed over by the sheriff and took a sip. ��Then, I was discovered by their people. A guy sneaked and knocked me out from behind. When I opened my eyes, I found myself tied to a tree.��


    ��Did Cook recognize you?��


    ��No, he was looking at me quietly. And one of his men had a gun pointed to my head. At that time, I was so angry that I didn��t consider my safety. I just asked him aloud, on how he became such an evil man.��


    ��What did he answer you?��


    ��He didn��t answer me. He just asked me how many people I had. I didn��t answer his question. Then his men started to beat me up for about three minutes. The brutal attack caused me two broken ribs. Just when I thought I was going to die, Cook finally asked them to stop. And then he told me that this would be the first andst time. If he met me again, he would beat me to death. After that, they left me alone under the tree and fled.


    ��Iy dying there for a whole week before being rescued by a passing caravan,�� the sheriffmented, his head shaking. ��So stop thinking that I would show him mercy just because of our past friendship. I have to make him pay for what he��s done.��


    Two hours passed by quickly.


    Zhang Heng and his party started to make their move at nine o��clock. To avoid getting spotted by the enemies, they made sure to ride slowly, not to mention how they wrapped their horses�� shoes in cloth. Finally, they arrived at the outer perimeter of the forest at a quarter to ten.


    The look on the sheriff��s face had also turned solemn. With the low visibility, the people they appointed would disguise themselves as Major Wade and his soldiers, but that would also increase the difficulty of sneaking in. The man responsible for keeping an eye on the forest ran back to tell them that the Cook Gang had finally arrived. Now that they knew about the forest situation, and they had no idea about their defense arrangement.


    ��I��ll lead the way,�� Zhang Heng said. And he took out the Filter Lens and put it over his eyes.


    Within an effective range of 300 meters, his vision became entirely clear again. Even the water droplets on the tree trunk could not escape Zhang Heng��s eyes.


    Everyone silently walked for about two hundred yards. After that, Zhang Heng stopped suddenly.


    ��What��s wrong?�� the sheriff asked in a low voice.


    ��There are people on the tree in front of us,�� Zhang Heng said. With the Filter Lens�� assistance, Zhang Heng saw a man doing surveince for the Cook on the tree not far away.


    He would actually be quite troublesome to deal with from this distance. After all, there were 19 people on Zhang Heng��s side. Even if they moved carefully, they would still make some noise. And Zhang Heng could not use his gun to kill the man from such a long distance. Besides, the sound of gunshots would expose their location too. Bows and arrows would not work either because the sound of the body falling on the ground would alert other people. ��Change direction,�� Zhang Heng said. Although there were 30 people in the Cook Gang, it was still impossible for them to cover the entire forest. And the people that were in charge of surveince had different habits. For example, the man Zhang Heng encountered after diverting to the east was now squatting under the tree.


    Zhang Heng took his bow and arrow from a farmer and then cautiously approached his target. At a distance of about 80 meters, the enemy began to sense that there was movement around him. The ground was filled with dried branches and leaves, and the sound of breaking and crunching twigs was inevitable. But fortunately, at this distance, the enemy could not see Zhang Heng clearly. He thought that the sound was caused by wild animals that lived in the forest.


    Zhang Heng walked forward another ten meters. This was probably the closest he could get to the enemy. He then put his Paris��s Arrow on the bowstring, looked at the target��s position roughly, and released it. The arrow drew an arc in the sky beforending the target��s heart urately.


    The enemy grunted, and he wanted to reach out to the arrow and pull it out from his chest. However, he stopped breathing when he ced his hand on the arrow.


    ��It��s safe.�� Zhang Heng rushed to the people behind him, and then he walked to the man that he just shot to death and retrieved his Paris��s Arrow.


    After taking out the enemy quietly, there was no trouble for the rest of the journey. Everyone quickly approached the hunter��s cabin. Since the Cook Gang was not engaged in a war, it was logical that they invested in less manpower to secure the perimeter.

 Chapter 625 - Battle in the Forest

    <strong>Chapter 625 Battle in the Forest</strong>


    Zhang Heng had the hunter��s hut in his sights. Other than that, he also saw a few more tents being set up around it.


    At that time, Cook Gang had just finished supper. There was nothing else for them to do in this barren mountain, and except for the guards, most chose to sleep right after they ate. After all, they needed all their energy for the tough fight that would ensue in two days.


    The county seat of Lincoln County differed from other small towns. Manpower was never a problem for them. Although they did not have enoughw enforcement officers, many ranches were nearby. The local ranchers and cowboys possessed the caliber for basicbat, and even the brutal and ruthless Cook Gang made sure to not take them lightly.


    Zhang Heng, too had gone to lie down for a while. Too bad the Filter Lens didn��t possess the function of seeing through obstacles, or he would have used it to locate Cook. If he guessed right, Cook should be resting in the hunter��s cabin, the mostfortable spot in this forest. Unfortunately, Cook did not walk out of the house while he was watching the hunter hut. Otherwise, the battle would have ended in seconds. Since he had no idea how often the guards changed shifts, Zhang Heng didn��t want to wait too long. He nodded at the sheriff, and everyone started to utilize the lighting from the hunter��s cabin to attack Cook Gang.


    It was unclear if Zhang Heng or the sheriff fired the first shot. At least two bullets hit a robber that came out to pee, and at the same time, Deputy Sheriff Joseph��s excitement could be heard. ��I hit the target!��


    The thug fell to the ground as soon as he took out his penis. The first shot had broken the calm and quiet night. In the first attack, at least six or seven people from Zhang Heng��s side shot the only thug standing outside the hut. But in the end, only two bulletsnded on the target, the rest either missing ornding on the corpse. The sheriff then shouted hastily, ��Aim at the tent.��


    The marksmanship of these farmers and miners was average. Coupled with their inexperience and frayed nerves, it was unrealistic to expect each one of them to urately hit the target. Even though the tents were rtivelyrge, it was impossible that they miss their mark so long as they could shoot decently. Of course, whether the bullet would hit the person inside was another matter.


    The bandits who were used to risking their lives everyday reacted very quickly, instantly waking up from their slumber the moment they got attacked. They picked up their weapons without putting on their clothes, and some even rushed out from the tent naked. While looking for cover, they started to fight back.


    Upon seeing this, Zhang Heng raised his Winchester rifle in his hand and killed the naked thug. At this time, most of the thugs from the tents were killed off by the farmers and miners. Fortunately, they did not have time to figure out where the enemy came from, merely firing wildly in all directions. The people in the hut quickly realized something had gone wrong. Promptly, they killed the kerosenemp, leaving the hut inplete darkness.


    No one injured from Zhang Heng��s side got injured save for an unfortunate miner whose arm was struck by a bullet.


    Suddenly, the sheriff��s heart sank. The Cook Gang��sbat ability was definitely more substantial than the farmers and miners. Once the initial period of panic had subsided, and the situation calmed down, Cook Gang would be the final winner.


    The dark of the night had limited the Cook Gang��sbat effectiveness. Otherwise, Zhang Heng��s side would have suffered more casualties. The sheriff hadn��t yete up with a good solution for their shorings, and although he was an excellent marksman in his own right, the restrictions he faced in that situation were too significant for him to bear. Right now, he could only ce his hope on Zhang Heng.


    Thetter had promised that he would handle the situation. However, when the sheriff asked Zhang Heng what exactly he should do right now, Zhang Heng simply told him to kill every single enemy.


    Hence, the sheriff was eager to see how Zhang Heng eliminated their enemies.


    After Zhang Heng fired the first two shots, there were no more movements from the enemy��s side. Using the short window he had, he memorized each Cook member��s location outside the wooden hut. After figuring out everyone��s location, he swiftly picked up his rifle again.


    It was then that the sheriff saw the most memorable scene of his life. Zhang Heng constantly switched between firing and reloading. Whenever a bullet escaped his rifle, a life from the enemy��s side would be harvested.


    The sheriff did not know how Zhang Heng pulled it off. On a night where visibility was so low, Zhang Heng managed to hit all his targets urately. Once he emptied the rifle, Zhang Heng reced it with another one.


    At the same time, the Cook Gang finally started to retaliate. Seeing their allies getting picked off by one, the thugs who had gone through all kinds of bloody fights began to feel panic. Zhang Heng��s side then took the opportunity to move closer to the hut. At the same time, Zhang Heng took out another two enemies.


    Meanwhile, Cook��s casualties had finally exceeded double digits. And the battle had just begun not too long ago. The sheriff didn��t just stand by and watch Zhang Heng make all the killings. Seeing that the rest of the thugs retreated to the wooden hut, he immediately led his men to shout outside the hut. He told Cook and others that they were surrounded by the military and asked them toy down their weapons and surrender.


    After that, ��Major Wade�� came forward and began to persuade them to surrender, promising that their lives would be spared as long as they handed over their weapons. Instead of being killed, they would be brought back for a fair trial.


    The sheriff knew that it was impossible for Cook to take the deal. Hence, they did not surround them. Instead, they left an opening for the gang to escape, and Zhang Heng would be there waiting for Cook to show up.


    The sheriff shouted for a while, but there was no movement in the wooden house. Just when he began to doubt whether their identities were exposed, the hut��s door and windows all flew open simultaneously. Cook gang members who were still nestled inside flocked out and started looking for their horses, preparing to break through the encirclement.


    Zhang Heng resisted the temptation to shoot and quickly searched for Cook and Matthew inside the hut.


    Soon he found a man who he suspected to be the leader, with his face covered. He was lowering down his body and being guarded by the thugs around him. However, Zhang Heng did not see Matthew among them.


    Although they were in retreat, the Cook gang members showed a considerable degree of organization and did not appear to flee in chaos. Even Zhang Heng had to admit that Cook had his men and horses trained well. Even though they were merely a band of thugs, their discipline surpassed that of the regr army.


    The opportunity was fading, and Zhang Heng was running out of time to search for Matthew. He started firing at Cook��s position, where he managed to kill the two thugs guarding Cook. After that, Zhang Heng seized the golden opportunity and pulled the trigger without hesitation.


    The bulletnded on Cook urately. Zhang Heng could see Cook staggered for a while, but the men next to him quickly helped him get on his horse. Quickly, they rode deeper into the forest.

 Chapter 626 - Wendy’s Plan

    <strong>Chapter 626 Wendy��s n</strong>


    ��Managed to hit him?��


    The battle on the sheriff��s side soon came to an end. Since they managed to get closer to the enemy, they did gain something in return. Two thugs had been sessfully killed and another four wounded. Nheless, three thugs managed to get away unscathed.


    As for Zhang Heng��s side, one man got injured, and the enemy killed the other. The oue had rendered the sheriff speechless.


    Fortunately, the military uniforms had managed to put fear into the goons. Besides that, Zhang Heng��s expert marksmanship also helped destroy the bandits; his confidence had made them reluctant to fight the war. Otherwise, the situation would��ve only gotten worse.


    At that moment, however, the sheriff was more concerned about Cook��s life and death. ��Yes,�� Zhang Heng nodded. ��Where?��


    ��Head.��


    ��At such a great distance, in a pitch-ck forest, and under the protection of the thugs, you still managed to shoot him in the head?!�� Although the sheriff had the chance to witness Zhang Heng��s expert marksmanship before, he still could not help but ask him about the unbelievable feat. ��Strictly speaking, I fired two shots. You are right. Many people surrounded him, and I had to shoot and kill one of his guys first. After that, I killed another


    runners,�� Zhang Heng said. ��I have seen so many weird things at my age. I have seen a man��s crotch getting stung by a ho. I have seen someone getting killed by a bullet falling from the sky. No one knew who the murderer was, but I still want to say: what happened to you was simply a miracle. Your marksmanship and eyesight are too good. You are the goddamn miracle itself! A one-man army indeed!�� gushed the sheriff in significant excitement. ��Have you found Matthew yet?�� ��No. What about you?��


    ��It��s too dark at night, and I can��t see clearly. But the good news is that at least I don��t see him among the thugs we just killed. But if you really killed Cook, then Matthew might be in danger. With Cook by his side, Matthew��s safety is not a problem. However, if Cook��s dead, then the remaining thugs are likely to me Matthew. So we��d better catch up with them immediately.��


    ��I won��t go with you guys,�� said Zhang Heng. Zhang Heng knew his horseriding skills couldn��t match up to them, and although he was improving by the day, thebination of him and Radish made it impossible to catch up with Wendy. Let alone going after a bunch of thugs who had a forte ofing and going without a trace. The sheriff did not force Zhang Heng to go along with them. So far, Zhang Heng had the highest kill count in the group. Coupled with his previous masterful shots, Cook members should have lost the courage to resist. And there were only a dozen of them left. In other words, Zhang Heng��s side had outnumbered the enemy. Although the farmers and miners were not good at shooting, it was advantageous to have them around as cover for the finer marksmen.


    Saving Matthew was the utmost priority. So, the sheriff jumped on his horse and went after them without saying much.


    Seeing how the rest were going after them, Zhang Heng frowned. He felt that something wasn��t right. Things had gone a little too smoothly tonight. Of course, this had something to do with their preparations. That said, Cook Gang��sbat effectiveness shown tonight seemed somewhat inconsistent with the legend. Besides, as the big boss of this dungeon, Zhang Heng had shot Cook right on the head-he obviously wouldn��t survive from such an injury. Nheless, Zhang Heng received no game points for killing him��the only notification he received was that he had killed ten yers and was rewarded 30 points. There was still no progress for the primary mission. Did he miss something?


    .....


    Wendy had been well-behaved since Zhang Heng left the ranch, and for the first time, began to practice ying the violin that she hated the most. Her mother was delighted by her recent change, thinking that her child had finally grown up after experiencing hardship.


    The first thing that she did was to check Wendy��s body. She was relieved when she found that the thing she worried about the most did not happen. Being a very conservative woman, she was opposed to her daughter learning how to ride a horse. She felt that a woman should be doing the things that a woman should do.


    But this time, her husband, Matthew, who rarely sided with her daughter, thought that it wasn��t unreasonable that a rancher��s daughter learned how to ride a horse. If something untoward did happen to him one day, Wendy could inherit this ranch.


    Thus, Wendy was given Lightning when she was seven. At that time, so was so delighted that she wanted to bring Lightning into her room. Fortunately, her mother stopped her from pulling such a crazy stunt.


    Even so, the matter worried her mother for a long time. If she knew that her precious daughter had learned to shoot from a gun, the poor woman might just faint. Fortunately, it seemed that everything was back on track now. As long as Matthew came back, it would be a happy family once again.


    While ying the violin, Wendy leaned on the window and looked down quickly. Unfortunately, she saw no chance to escape the house. Zhang Heng knew her better, though, knowing that she wasn��t one to give up so easily. And Wendy had indeed been secretly nning a second escape.


    And this time, she decided to take the shotgun her father left in the storage room with her. She knew the ce where the battle was going to ur, and with Lightning��s speed, it meant she could get there in an hour. Since she assumed that she had mastered her marksmanship, Wendy felt that her unexpected appearance amid the fierce battle might actually change its tide and fortune.


    Before all of that could happen, though, she had first to escape her house. Although she found no opportunity to escape the house in the afternoon, she wasn��t discouraged. If escaping during the day wasn��t possible, she could do it at night. After dinner, she waited patiently until her mother fell asleep, and then she tiptoed down from upstairs and walked to the storage room beside the stable.


    She managed to retrieve the gun smoothly. However, after putting on a smile for mere seconds, Wendy was in trouble.


    She rummaged through the storage room but failed to find any shotgun rounds.


    It turned out that the ce her father stored the shells was now empty. So, she had to continue her search elsewhere. In the end, she had to return to her room since she found no ammunition.


    Early the next morning, she pretended to have a chat with her mother about the shells, with thetter saying that they were locked somece in the house. Thus, Wendy had to wait until the second night. She first took the key from her mother��s room, opened the locked cab, and took two ammunition boxes from it. After that, she locked the cab again and temporarily hid the gun behind the cab. Finally, she returned to the mother��s room to ce the key where it belonged. However, when she was about to put the key down, someone knocked on the door downstairs.


    Wendy was stunned. Could it be that the battle was finally over? Was Zhang Heng here with his father?

 Chapter 627 - I’m Going To Die, Matthew

    <strong>Chapter 627 I��m Going To Die, Matthew</strong>


    The knocking on the door also woke Wendy��s mother up. She then saw her daughter standing in front of her window, key still in hand.


    It was a bit of an awkward atmosphere.


    However, the mother wasn��t bothered about educating her daughter at the moment. When she heard the knocking on the door downstairs, she immediately got dressed, rushed down, opened the door, and saw the man that she had been thinking about for the longest time.


    Twenty-one days had passed since Matthew��s disappearance. Inevitably, some bad thoughts had crossed her mind, and her heart had sunk many a time. Now that her husband had safely returned, tears started welling up in her eyes.


    Immediately, she ran into Matthew��s embrace.


    But then, she heard someone talking. ��Shouldn��t you introduce them to me, Matthew?��


    Wendy��s mother looked up and saw an elderly hunchbacked man and three burly men standing behind Matthew. If the bar owner were here, he would probably recognize one of them as the one who brought him the liquor yesterday afternoon. The old man then took off his hat and bowed to her, ��Don��t worry, ma��am, we are all friends of Matthew.��


    Wendy��s mother looked at her husband.


    Thetter nodded, ��Jane, this is Cook, Cook, this is Jane, my wife.��


    Jane breathed a sigh of relief, smiled, and stretched out her hand, ��Forgive my nervousness. Matthew hasn��t returned from home for a long time. Wendy ran away with an Asian man earlier, and we didn��t know where he came from. There was a rumor saying that a group of bandits was nning to rob the town, and so on... I remember that the leader of the band was also called Cook.��


    ��There are a lot of coincidences in this world, madam.�� The old man kissed the back of her hand, continuing politely, ��I hope I didn��t disturb you. Seeing you is like seeing my daughter. You are so kind and pure. It��s a pity she wasn��t as lucky as you.��


    ��You are too kind. Why would you say that?��


    ��Oh, something has happened to her, terrible things, but it��s all over. It��s better not to mention it,�� said the old man said to the three men behind him. ��Stay here.��


    The three men nodded.


    Then the humpback and Matthew walked into the house together. When he saw Wendying down the stairs, a smile broke out on his wrinkled face. ��Look at this lovely girl. She��s your daughter, I suppose? Matthew has spoken about you many times. Your name is Wendy, right?�� The old man touched his pocket and took out a gold bar. ��Sorry, I was in a hurry along the way. I didn��t have time to buy any candy. Let me give you this instead.��


    ��The is too expensive!�� Jane quickly rejected the gift. ��It��s nothing. It��s just a small gift. Good people like you deserve nothing less than this. Just treat it as a gift of fate.��


    ��Jane, go get something to eat. Neither Cook nor I had dinner yet,�� said Matthew while waiting for the old hunchback.


    ��Okay, I remember I baked some cookies in the morning.��


    ��Very well. Please make two more cups of tea as well.�� After Matthew spoke, he looked at Wendy again, ��Go and help your mother.��


    Wendy red at her father, then looked at Cook suspiciously before finally followed her mother to the kitchen.


    After the two left, the old hunchback said, ��The child has eyes quite like yours. When I first saw you, you were just like her, vignt, stubborn...��


    ��Don��t beat around the bush, Cook. Aren��t we here to check out the town? Whye to my house?�� Matthew interrupted.


    ��Oh, you don��t need to worry about that. Morris had already inquired about everything that I wanted to know yesterday,�� said the old hunchback said leisurely. ��I did ask him to inquire about your residence.��


    ��What do you want?��


    ��Nothing, just a little curious about your life.��


    Cook put his foot on the table in front of him. ��I have always regarded you as my son. I want to know how you��ve been after we separated.��


    ��You can ask me directly,�� Matthew said with a sullen face.


    ��Yes, but I prefer to see it with my own eyes.�� The hunchbacked old man smiled, ��I��m sorry to interfere with your life. Really, I hope we can warm up a little. Let��s start with what we��ve done all these years. I��ll start first; then, you will tell me how your life has been...�� ��I don��t need you to tell me. I know what you have done all these years. You��ve been quite a frequent topic in the papers.��


    ��Well... I must admit that I am really popr with reporters and newspapers. As long as I��m still here, they will never be unemployed.�� The hunched old man shrugged.


    ��Whatever you have done... those things... they��re not funny. You and your thugs burned and looted every ce youe across. Whether the rich or poor, the old or young, you wouldn��t let them live. You set fire to the church and ughtered babies...�� Matthew snapped coldly. ��Fear is power in itself. You must learn and harness it and use it to your advantage. I am a robber, not a priest. Why should I do good deeds and listen to everyone��s bitter tales?��.


    The hunchbacked old man paused.


    ��Damn it. I thought you would be a little more mature after that incident. In the end, it appears you are no different from your past self. Okay, that��s all for the topic. Let��s get down to brass taxes. I know you have heard a lot of news about me over the years, but the next thing I want to tell you has never been reported in the newspapers. No... I should say that even most of Cook gang members know nothing about it.�� ��What have you done this time?��


    ��It has nothing to do with that.�� The hunchback looked straight into Matthew��s eyes. ��I��m going to die, Matthew.��


    ��After you have done so many bad deeds, do you think you will get a good death?��


    ��No, that��s not what I meant.�� Cook waved his hand, ��I said I am going to die, and I��m referring to my health. My time is running out. I can feel it. This is why I��vee back to find you.��


    Matthew fell silent after hearing this. ��How do you know you are dying?�� ��It is my body; of course, I know I am dying,�� the hunched old man said. ��I have seen the face of death himself. He has blue eyes, just like Mary. I am not afraid of death, but I do have a few things to do before I die. And the most important thing is to look for someone who can take over the Cook gang.��


    ��And you want me to take over the Cook gang and be the next you?�� ��Why not? Believe me. You will love this feeling of freedom. You are now trapped by the menial and the mundane with a pretense of false happiness. I��vee to your home tonight to free you from this tragic cycle.��

 Chapter 628 - They Can’t Save You

    <strong>Chapter 628 They Can��t Save You</strong>


    Matthew��s face changed suddenly when he heard that. ��I swear, if you dare to do anything to Jane and Wendy, I will kill you, Cook! No matter where you go or how many people you have around you, I wille for you and drive a bullet into your head.��


    ��Very well, all I need is this rage.�� After that, Cook suddenly stopped talking. He saw Jane walking over with tea and cookies, and he asked, ��Are you guys talking about something interesting?��


    ��Yes, Matthew and I were talking about our previous salmon fishing trip.�� Cook then took the teacup and thanked her with a smile. ��I don��t know if he told you about it. There was one time we got lost in the forest after our hunting trip. We walked nonstop, and we arrived at a creek. I��m not sure if we were the first one to find out about this creek. In short, there were so many f*cking salmon in there that they were squeezing against each other! Every single one of them was healthy and fleshy. Matthew and I caught them without using any fishing gear. As long as you extend your hand, you will be able to catch them. And they didn��t even put up a fight, as if they were staying there for you to get them. And it made me very curious. What made them like this?��


    ��What is it?�� Jane asked with interest. ��It��s life, madam. It��s life that made them like this. For a long time, they had no enemies to disrupt their lives. This creek has provided them with lots of sustenance, and they gradually lost their guard against the dangerous world. They dwelled and indulged in their short-lived happiness, and when the threat came knocking on their door one day, they forgot how to escape.�� Cook took a sip of the tea and continued, ��Seeing them reminds me of the society we live in now. Isn��t it like this creek? It does its best to maintain order and allow the fishes to live infort and multiply as much as possible. All thesews, economic orders, God... these things create an illusion of prosperity, making people feel at ease.


    They be willing to be domesticated, and they eventually lose their self-instinct. Ma��am, did you know that when the real threates, none of these things can save you? Yourws, money, and God... none of them can save you.��


    After Cook was finished, the living room fell into silence.


    Jane tried to squeeze out a smile on her face, ��... honestly, what you said scared me a bit, sir.�� ��I apologize for that, ma��am. By the way, your tea is delicious.�� Cook raised his ss, then turned his head and looked at Wendy, ��You are fortunate to have such a skilled cook for a mother.��


    Wendymented nothing about that, but instead, asked, ��How is your harvest?��


    ��What?��


    ��You said that the creek was full of salmon. How was your harvest that day?��


    ��Oh, great. Although we didn��t catch the deer, we did catch many salmon. I had to take off my coat to put all the excess that could no longer fit into our container. But even so,pared the ones that we caught with the ones of the creek, it is still insignificant. It as if no matter how many fish we pulled out, their numbers didn��t reduce. Your father and I had to eat the grilled salmon for several days. After that, the smell of fish became repulsive to me for a long time.�� Cook reminisced, smiling as he went along. Matthew, who��d been quiet all the while, spoke up. ��Well, I have something to discuss with Mr. Cook. Wendy, why don��t you go upstairs with your mother first.��


    ��Okay, we will leave the living room to you men.�� Jane smiled politely at Cook.


    However, her smile suddenly froze on her face the next moment.


    It was because Cook had drawn a revolver from his waist and was now pointing it at her. ��I like you, dear, really. You remind me of my daughter. I sincerely hope this will not happen to you. But... I need you to help your husband sober up because he just wouldn��t listen to what I have to tell him. I think it��s time for life to reveal the truth.��


    Cook then pulled down the hammer of the gun.


    Jane��s breathing instantly hastened. Her eyes bulged in disbelief, and she looked lost. At the same time, Matthew, who was on the other side, also stood up abruptly from his seat, like an angry cheetah, ready to pounce on its enemies. Before he could do that, though, Cook drew out another pistol and pointed it at him.


    ��It��s not your turn yet, my child. Be patient.��


    ��You don��t know what you are doing!��


    ��On the contrary, I know exactly what I am doing!�� Cook smiled.


    ��What do you want, Cook? If you kill my wife, I will not join your gang even if it costs my life.�� ��About that, let��s wait and see... I will kill your lovely wife first; then I will take your daughter with me once I��m done with Lincoln County. But in return, I will hand over the Cook gang to you, and you can use them to find my whereabouts. Many of them have lived with me for a long time. They know my habits, where I like to go, and even the ces where my old friends live.


    All you have to do is ask them, and they will take you to me willingly. ��Don��t worry; they��re all easy-going folk. As long as you familiarize yourself with their temper and give them what they want, they will treat you as their own. You might lose two family members, but you gain more than forty brothers in return. Sometimes, you might feel that they are a little noisy... but you will get used to it. You have one year. Don��t let me down, my son.��


    ��Don��t do this, Cook. When I find you, I will kill you!�� Matthew red in a shocking rage. ��If you are capable of doing that, I don��t mind at all.��


    ��If you don��t let my mother go, I will kill you too,�� said Wendy.


    ��Hahaha!�� Cook burst intoughter when he heard what Wendy said. But the next moment,, hisughter stopped abruptly because he saw Wendy��s shotgun.


    Unlike her mother, Wendy once heard the sheriff talk about the past. Therefore, when the old hunchback showed at her doorstep, she immediately knew who the other person was. Nheless, Wendy did not act like any other ordinary girl. There wasn��t a hint of fear on her face.


    Instead, she concealed everything in her heart. Her face showed no fluctuation from the beginning till the end. She had even managed to deceive an experienced man like Cook. Wendy was simply waiting silently for a chance to strike back.


    It wasn��t until Matthew and Cook got into a heated argument, that she finally found the opportunity to take out the shotgun that she had hidden behind the cab. She forced herself to calm down and recalled the methods that Zhang Heng had taught her. Picking up the shotgun as fast as possible, she aimed it at Cook��s heart.

 Chapter 629 - Countdown

    <strong>Chapter 629 Countdown</strong>


    ��Do you know how to use it, kid?�� asked Cook.


    ��Of course. I have a teacher of great distinction. He is a superb marksman and can defeat ten heavily armed men all by himself. If he happens to be here tonight, I bet you and yourckeys will die even before you step into my house,�� Wendy said.


    ��Wow... that��s a real shame. Pity he isn��t here tonight. Otherwise, I��m curious as to what this man looks like. It sounds like he has three heads and six arms,�� Cook said casually.


    ��It��s okay. You don��t need to feel any sort of regret. I, his protege, am more than enough to deal with you. Although I am nowhere as good as my teacher, I��m still a sharpshooter myself,�� Wendy puffed out her chest.


    ��I cannd an urate shot on a running hare from fifty yards, let alone shoot at such a close distance. When I pull the trigger, a hole will appear in your chest the next second, and the bullet will tear through your flesh and heart. In your final moment, you will fall to the ground and wail. But rest assured, it will be quick since you will soon go to hell, you damn old hunchback bastard!��


    Wendy spat on the ground.


    ��Heh,�� Cook raised his eyebrows. He was stunned and did not speak for half a minute. Blinking, he continued, ��I have to admit that... you gave a pretty passionate speech there, my child. Especially thest few expletives. I can say that you are way more straightforward than your benevolent, moral-centered father. I gave him plenty of chances while we were on the way here.


    I deliberately turned my back to him when I slept. If he were cruel enough, he would have snatched my gun, threatening me and winning the fight. But in the end, he let me down. All he could think of during that time was to run away from me. Sadly, he didn��t know that there was nowhere in this world he could escape to. It��s because no one can escape fate.��


    ��I don��t know about your bullshit about creeks and salmons, but I only know that people can��t outrun bullets,�� Wendy snapped coldly. ��Well, at this point, I can��t agree more,�� Cook paused. ��It seems that we are in a deadlock. You have a gun, and I have a gun. Let me tell you what will happen next, kid. I��ll shoot and kill your parents. Then, you��ll shoot me, and if you��re as good of a marksman as you im to be, the gunshots will attract the three men outside your house.


    They will rush in, and when they see my body on the ground, they will shoot at you without hesitation. And yes, you will fight back. If you are lucky, you may be able to get someone as a human shield. Nheless, a bullet will hit you eventually. Believe me, it hurts a lot. Especially if this is your first time getting shot. ��If you get hit... Well, the process is simr to what you described. If you are unlucky, you won��t die for some time after getting shot. That would be the worst part.


    You will be lying on the cold hard ground, bleeding out while waiting for death to im your soul. You will feel the utmost desperation and loneliness. Your mother��s corpse will be lying on your left, and your father��s to your right. In a sense, you will be reunited with your family. And then you will have the old bastard of a hunchback lying in the middle. Oh, things are about to get real annoying for you.��


    ��Are you done?��


    Wendy asked in nonchnce. Although she was trying to restrain the panic in her heart, she had to admit that Cook had indeed dug into her weakness. What she feared most was her parents dying in front of her. When the gruesome scene crossed her mind, her hand trembled slightly, and her body became stiff.


    But that was not the worst part. What was worse was that she knew that she could not even sacrifice herself for her family.


    Not to mention that she exaggerated her marksmanship and applied the words the sheriff used to describe Joseph on him. After all, at such close proximity, Wendy was confident that she couldnd her shot on Cook urately.


    Unfortunately, her gun was empty. Although Wendy stole both the gun and the bullets, she did not have time to reload it. Initially, she wanted to ride her Lightning into town after returning the keys, then find a bright spot to slowly reload the shotgun. However, she did not expect Cook toe knocking right on her door.


    When Cook sat down in the living room, she had to look darn hard for the slimmest opportunity to get the shotgun, let alone reload it. In other words, thus far, she had been lying. ��Are you feeling nervous, child?�� Cook��s devilish eyes seemed to see right through her heart.


    Wendy was sweating bullets from her forehead to the tip of her nose. ��I��m not nervous. I don��t mind sacrificing my life to kill you. At least I can watch you die in front of me. I��ll consider it revenge for my parents. I bet it will feel good,�� she insisted with resolute obstinance. ��Very good. See, Matthew, this is what I��ve been trying to emphasize all along. Even your daughter knows that you must look straight into the eye of fate and fight that bitch. What a pity...�� Cook looked at Wendy with a look of regret, ��You are a girl, and I don��t have that long to train you. I would have brought you with me, but since I am in a good mood now, I��m deciding to do you a small favor.��


    ��What kind of favor?�� Wendy gulped. ��I know you are suffering, and you don��t know what you should do. It doesn��t matter, kid. Just leave it all to me. Dealing with this kind of deadlock has always been my forte,�� Cook harrumphed. ��I will count to ten. If you don��t put down the gun, I will pull the trigger and kill your parents. Of course, you can try your luck and kill me first. This should be fun.��


    Wendy kept telling herself that Cook was pulling psychological tricks on her, trying to crush her will with every word uttered. However, she could tell from thetter��s icy stare that he wasn��t lying.


    ��Ten,�� Cook added casually.


    Wendy had never felt so helpless before, having practically no idea what she should do next. Should she surrender, or hold out to the end and watch Cook kill her parents? She had done everything she could. Preventing the tragedy that was bound to happen now seemed impossible. Although she kept telling herself to be strong and to keep the enemy from peering into her weaknesses, tears couldn��t help but ooze out from the corner of her eyes.


    ��It��s okay. It��s okay, Wendy. You��ve done well. Your mother and I are proud of you,�� Matthew said softly, then looked at Cook as if his mind had been made up. ��Let them go, and I will go with you.��


    ��No, you have to follow my n. I don��t believe in your verbal promise, Matthew. I will kill your wife and take your daughter away. This will be an unchanging fact. Of course, if your daughter insists on holding on to the gun, I can only kill you together with them. You know me well, Matthew. I always do what I say. I have always regarded you as a son. Now, I have lost a daughter, and you have no idea the torment I��ll have to endure if I lose my son. My heart will be filled with grief. Nine.��


    Tears blurred Wendy��s eyes. She felt that the shotgun was getting heavier and heavier to the point that she could not lift it anymore, as if it would fall from her hand at any moment. Just when her strength about to be exhausted, she heard a gunshot from outside the house, with two more following that. The sound of the firing gun, however, was mixed with the sound of screams. Then, bodies began to drop dead on the ground.


    After that, everything returned to silence, as if nothing had happened.


    The sound of the gentle night breeze blowing past the pastures was the only audible thing ��What the hell was that?�� Cook frowned. No longer in the mood to y games with Wendy, he shot her in her hand while she was distracted, forcing her to drop the shotgun. Then Cook turned his gun and pointed at the door.

 Chapter 630 - It’s Fine Now

    <strong>Chapter 630 It��s Fine Now</strong>


    ��Kenny!��


    ��Walt!��


    ��Manuel?!��


    Cook raised his voice and called out the names of his three men, but no one answered.


    It was not until half a minuteter that there was another knock on the door.


    ��What a load of bullshit.�� Cook sneered. He did not say any more nonsense after that. He pulled the trigger and emptied all the bullets from his pistol. The other party might have sabotaged himself this time. If he did not knock on the door, Cook might have still not known where he was. With the knocking on the door, the other party had just revealed his position. And the thin wooden door was nowhere nearly tough enough to stop the bullets from prating it.


    In the blink of an eye, Cook was done shooting at the door. When the white smoke from the muzzle dissipated, he could no longer hear anyone moving outside the house.


    Cook threw the empty pistol to Matthew and said at the same time, ��Go, open the door and see what��s going on outside.��


    Matthew hesitated for a moment, knowing that Cook intended to use him as bait. When he saw that Cook was aiming another gun at his wife, he could only pick up the emptied pistol, lift the kerosenemp on the table, and walk out of the house.


    On the other hand, Jane was no longer worried about her life anymore. She quickly ran to her daughter, checked her injured hand, then opened the cab to look for some gauze she could wrap around the gunshot wound.


    Wendy endured the excruciating pain, looking at the shadow under the cab from time to time. Earlier, she hid the shotgun rounds there, intending to find an opportunity to reload. But the next moment, Cook��s words shattered herst hope. ��My dear, you��d better not make any more stupid moves. Otherwise, I��ll make sure your body gets punctured by more bullets. Now, kick me the shotgun with your leg.�� Wendy had no choice, unwillingly kicking the weapon to him. Cook then stepped on it with his left foot and turned to look at Matthew, who had reached the door. Thetter took a deep breath and opened the door riddled with bullet holes.


    There was, however, no gunshot. ��How did it go? Did you see his body?�� Cook asked.


    ��No, there are only three corpses outside. All of them are your men,�� Matthew said.


    ��Where is the blood?��


    Matthew moved the kerosenemp forward. ��Uh, I don��t know. There are a lot of bloodstains on the ground, but it looks like your people left it.��


    ��Well, it seems that I am going to meet him in person.�� Cook��s face looked unchanged after hearing that, ��It just so happens that I haven��t moved my muscles for a long time.�� As soon as his voice fell, the mysterious man pulled the trigger, and the bullet went through the kerosenemp in Matthew��s hand. Cook reacted quickly to the threat. Within seconds, he managed to figure out the direction of the gunfire. He then rolled to the door, raised his gun, and fired.


    However, the next moment, a figure shed past the window and smashed another kerosenemp in the house. Then the room soon plunged into darkness. Cook kicked over a table as a cover, grabbed Wendy��s mother, and leaned back. After that, he started to shout.


    ��What then? Without light, I can��t see you, but you can��t see me as well. And I still have a hostage with me. It seems we are in a gridlock. Why don��t we have a chat?��


    Cook paused and asked, ��Who are you, and what is your rtionship with the Matthew family? Why do you care about them?��


    II


    11


    There was no reply to his questions. It looked as if the mysterious visitor had made up his mind and didn��t intend to speak.


    Cook was not bothered, though. He continued, ��Well, let me tell you how things will go next... You killed three of my men. To be fair, I should kill the hostage, or... should we resolve this dispute in a gentleman��s way? How about a one-on-one fight with you? You��re an excellent marksman, and I��m just an old man. If we have a duel, you have a greater advantage. Just kill me, and you can save this family.��


    ��Tsk, it seems that you are a person who doesn��t like talking, but that��s okay. I am a very patient person. I will give you half a minute. After half a minute, if you don��t respond, I will kill this woman.��


    As soon as the room fell into the darkness, Wendy squatted down for the first time, endured the pain in her busted hand, and started to search the ground blindly. She did not know who the mysterious visitor was. The person could be Cook��s enemy. That said, it was never her style to pin her hopes on others.


    After a while, she managed to get her hands on the box of shells under the cab. She then gently crawled in the direction of the shotgun.


    While going to get the shotgun, she had to avoid the debris on the ground carefully. It was important for her to make as little movement as possible. Only she would know how difficult it was to perform. When she finallyid her hands on the shotgun and wanted to reload it, she heard another gunshot.


    Wendy was stunned.


    She had been feeling extremely tense the entire time. The concept of time was no longer mattered to her. She did not know how many minutes had passed. Maybe the half-minute deadline had been reached. The only thing that she felt was some warm liquid sshing on her face.


    Until the light came back on. She quickly looked around, and the thing that she feared most did not happen. Although her mother looked terrified and trembled in fear, it seemed like there were no injuries. Instead, Cook��s head was pierced through by a bullet and copsed in a pool of blood. The liquid that sshed Wendy��s face just now was Cook��s blood and maybe mixed with some brain matter.


    At the top of the stairs on the second floor, Zhang Heng put down his gun. At the same time, he received two system notifications. One was about the main quest, and the other was the 30 game points that he received after killing Cook.


    In the second half of the main quest, Zhang Heng met the sheriff, and then he met Matthew and Cook. In other words, he had gathered all the three founders of Lucky Horseshoe. This part of the quest was nowpleted.


    This quest was not as difficult as he imagined it would be. Strictly speaking, Zhang Heng actually did not need to go through any battles. As long as he found the three people, he couldplete the quest. But in fact, it was imusible for him to encounter Cook and his Cook and his gang without going through a battle with them.


    Zhang Heng looked at Wendy, who was still in a daze, and said to her, ��It��s okay.��


    It seemed Wendy did not hear Zhang Heng talking to her. She was still holding the shotgun in his hand tightly and pointing at Cook��s body on the ground.


    Zhang Heng went downstairs and walked to Wendy. He held the barrel with one hand and carefully remove Wendy��s fingers from the shotgun, ��It��s okay. He��s dead. There shouldn��t be many thugs left in the Cook gang. Sheriff Dn will lead his men after them. Your family is safe now.��

 Chapter 631 - Quick Battle

    <strong>Chapter 631 Quick Battle</strong>


    Zhang Heng was not interested in doing the ten-step walk before shooting at each other.


    This method of dueling, however, did sound and look cool in western movies, though. Zhang Heng did not think his marksmanship would be worse than Cook. They had both trained in different environments, wherein Zhang Heng honed his skills on the gun from Simon. He was better at long-range sniping, rather than a Western cowboy��s ssical duel.


    In fact, even if Zhang Heng were familiar with their style, he would not put on his Filter Lens unless absolutely necessary.


    No matter how good a shooter was, it was bound for one to be eventually be killed in the duel. There was always someone faster than you in this world. Besides, Zhang Heng figured that Cook might be concealing his real intention with the duel he just proposed. However, it wasn��t crucial to Zhang Heng anymore.


    From the very beginning, Zhang Heng had never intended to duel.


    After killing the three people outside the house, he leaned against the wall and knocked on the door with the back of his rifle to draw Cook��s attention. Then, killing the only two light sources, he swiftly scuttled around the end of the house and climbed to the second floor.


    Judging from theyout, it should be Wendy��s room that he must have stepped into. But unlike rooms of other girls, there were very few dolls. Instead, Zhang Heng saw many wooden ponies and knights.


    Zhang Heng also heard Cook��s shouting downstairs. Hence, he did not stay in the room for too long. He gently opened the door and walked along the corridor to the stairway. The Filter Lens allowed him an unobstructed view of what was happening downstairs. Zhang Heng then took up the Winchester rifle in his hand and ended the battle smoothly. The entire process took less than a minute.


    Cook had no idea where the deadly bullet came from when he was sent to meet his maker.


    ��Please allow me to express my gratitude for saving the lives of our family.��


    Since it waste at night, Zhang Heng decided to spend the night at Matthew��s house.


    The next morning, as everyone was at the dining table, Matthew mentioned the incident that happenedst night again, and his face was full of gratitude. ��Oh, you��re wee. I��m just fulfilling my responsibilities as a contract employee.�� Zhang Heng took a sip of milk. ��After all, only a living employer can pay me.��


    ��What contract?�� Matthew was a little surprised.


    ��About that...�� Zhang Heng put down the cup and took out the contract Wendy signed with him before leaving.


    Matthew took the contract and looked at it, ��Eighty dors in remuneration, twenty dors in debt, plus a good horse... Looks good to me. I can pay you now.��


    ��That couldn��t be better.�� Zhang Heng raised his cup again, ��...Happy to serve.��


    Then, Wendy suddenly interrupted. ��Wait,�� she said.


    ��What��s wrong? Have any questions?�� Zhang Heng asked.


    Wendy was lucky. The bullet prated her palm, grazed her bones, and went right through, leaving behind a gaping hole in her hand. A doctor had treated her wound, and she was fine now, save for a scar that would formter. Naturally, her mother was worried that it would affect her marriage. Wendy, however, wasn��t the least bothered by it.


    ��That contract is wed,�� Wendy solemnly proimed.


    ��Are you trying to go back on your words?�� Zhang Heng raised his eyebrows. ��No, you forgot something,�� Wendy continued. ��I told you that as long as you help my father deal with Cook, I will give you half of thend and cattle my family owns,�� she said while looking at her father, ��Can I be the one that makes the decision, dad?��


    ��Well...�� Matthew thought for a while. ��I wasn��t home, and you are my eldest daughter, so this must mean that... our family assets are at your disposal. Congrattions, Mr. Zhang. You are now a rancher in Lincoln County. Actually, I overboughtnd when I first came here. I can��t take care of such arge area by myself. It would be perfect if you can take half off my shoulders,�� said Matthew with a toast. ��Are you sure about that?�� Zhang Heng put down the knife and fork in his hand. Although he was not as demure as Shen Xixi, he did not feel good taking advantage of a little girl. Obviously, he did not take Wendy seriously when she


    OV


    thend.


    ��Of course,�� Matthew said, ��You said the Cook gang is gone for good now. I know that a few of them managed to escape. Since Cook is dead, I don��t think the gang can make aeback. However, there��s the possibility that the few survivors wille back here to avenge Cook. We can feel less worried if a powerful gunman like you became our neighbor, right, Jane?��


    Matthew looked at his wife. Thetter nodded and smiled at Zhang Heng. ��Matthew��s right. What happenedst night was absolutely horrific. If you hadn��t arrived in time, I don��t think I��ll be sitting here talking to you. I hope you can stay, and we can take care of each other.�� When Zhang Heng heard the proposal, he felt embarrassed. ��Um, actually... I don��t know how to raise cattle.��


    ��Don��t worry. I can teach you,�� Matthew graciously offered. ��And horseback riding as well. Wendy has told me about you. I won��t say that I��m the best horseman in the county, but I can say that I might be the best rider within a hundred miles. No one knows horses better than I, and I can continue to tend to your herd just like before.��


    ��If that��s the case... wouldn��t that be too generous?�� asked Zhang Heng. ��Compared to what you have done for us, these rewards are insignificant,�� Matthew insisted with sincerity.


    After breakfast, the old cowboy and the drunk sheriff came to the ranch too. Before they even saw the drunk sheriff, they already heard his voice. ��Where is Cook? Where is Cook��s body?��


    ��In the barn, sheriff,�� answered Matthew.


    The drunk police chief, however, was in no hurry this time. He turned over, got down from his horse, nced at Zhang Heng, and snorted, ��Are you the one who killed him?��


    ��Yes, sheriff.��


    ��Don��t be too proud, Oriental man. The reason why Cook could live to this day was that I hadn��te forward to hunt him down. Back then, I could out five people at once with one gun,�� the drunk sheriff gloated as he sipped his whisky.


    Wendy, standing by the side, could not help but say, ��Zhang Heng can kill ten people with one gun. I saw it with my own eyes.��


    At that, the drunk sheriff was rendered speechless for a long while. After all, the feat of killing five people with one gun was hisrgest pride. He would tell the tale to everyone that he met. Unfortunately, he met someone better than him today.


    ��Each person is different. You��ll understand when you grow up, little girl.�� The drunk sheriff managed to find a good excuse for himself. He then looked at Zhang Heng and coughed twice, ��Since you killed Cook, let��s forget the unpleasantries before that. On behalf of the residents of Lincoln County, I wee you to settle in our humble town.


    You can live here as long as you want, but remember, don��t cause trouble. I don��t care if you fight, but just make sure that you don��t kill anyone. If that happens, I��ll arrest you.��


    ��No one could be disciplined andw-abiding than me, sheriff,�� Zhang Heng said. ��Very well, let��s go see Cook��s body now. However, the person sent to verify the body will not arrive for another two weeks. Once the person confirms that the body is indeed Cook, you cane to me to receive the reward.��


    ��Is there a bounty for killing him?�� Zhang Heng pondered for a moment. ��I don��t seem to see a bounty like this outside the police station.��


    ��Cook gang has been notorious in recent years, and they have many members. The local authorities have no way to take them down. Usually, a small town like us wouldn��t dare put a bounty on their heads since they might attack us. In other words, the reward for killing Cook is actually very handsome... Damn, why don��t I have this kind of luck? If Cook was in front of me, I would shoot that old bastard without hesitation,�� the drunk sheriffined.

 Chapter 632 - Bad Boy

    <h4>Chapter 632 Bad Boy</h4>


    A month and a half passed in the blink of an eye.


    Zhang Heng finally set up his new home, including a two-story building, a cowshed, and a horse pen. Initially, he wanted to start a vegetable garden, but thend wasn��t suitable for crops. Even if he were given the seeds and took good care of them, he wouldn��t obtain a good yield. In the end, Zhang Heng gave up.


    He was not an expert in building stuff or had very high requirements for the quality of life. Mainly because Matthew gave him arge piece ofnd, but there was nothing on it but grass. He had no choice but to build everything himself.


    Fortunately, he had not wholly forgotten the building techniques he learned from the short man in the novice dungeon he entered. After getting paid for killing Cook, he hired two more helpers and a mason.


    Most houses in the town were made of brick and wood. The advantage of building a house like that was that it could bepleted rtively fast; the cost of building could be controlled easily. However, after Zhang Heng asked the drunk sheriff about the bounty, he decided to build it with his own money. He decided to rece all the wood with metal, meaning his house would be sturdier and had a lower chance of catching fire. As for its shorings... it was expensive.


    The iron and construction materials were produced in factories on the east coast and transported to the town by train. By the time they reached him, their prices would be hiked up several times. Since Zhang Heng had not received the bounty reward yet, he could only borrow the money from Matthew first.


    Fortunately, the oue looked pretty good. The design of his house closely resembled his house in ck Sail. He even took some reference from the design of other houses in the town. With a total area estimated to be about 200 square meters, it really wasn��t thatrge. It was, however, more than enough for him since he would be living alone. Hence, after construction waspleted, Zhang Heng also received an Lv.o construction skill and 20 game points, which was an unexpected gain.


    Zhang Heng took two steps back and admired the house he would be staying in for the next few years.


    Although there were still several hours before sunset, he paid the helpers and masons a day��s worth of wages and let them off early. Zhang Heng then found his Radish leisurely munching on the grass beside the house. Grabbing his steed, he rode to Matthew��s house next door. Wendy was in front of the door, already waiting for him toe.


    ��What do you think? Do you want to try it today?�� When Wendy saw him, she got up and patted the dust off her skirt.


    Zhang Heng nodded.


    ��Then I��ll call my father.�� Wendy briskly rushed into the room.


    Two minutester, the three of them were standing in front of the stable. ��Are you ready?�� Matthew asked.


    ��Hmm, let��s start.�� Zhang Heng took a deep breath, pushed open the stable��s gate, stepped in, then lowered the woodentch.


    There was only one horse in the stable. It was jet ck with dark and shiny fur. ording to Matthew, it was initially the leader of arge herd of wild horses on the grasnds. It was the most grumpy and difficult horse to be domesticated, getting into serious trouble less than a week after it got here. The stubborn horse destroyed the stable��s door and escaped with other horses.


    After that, Matthew had to spend several days to get it back. He subsequently built a personal stable for it, and Wendy named it Bad Boy. ording to Wendy��s promise, Bad Boy now belonged to Zhang Heng. However, after a month and a halfter, he still couldn��t ride it.


    Zhang Heng had suffered a lot from the Bad Boy��s temper. Thanks to the impossible horse, he was dragged five-meters on the ground like a ragdoll. The scratches on his arm were still visible.


    But before he even got better, Zhang Heng hade to rechallenge Bad Boy. After a month and a half of Matthew��s intensive training, Zhang Heng was no longer the man who could not even control Radish. His horseback riding had now officially reached Lv.1.


    However, in the repeated fighting of wits and courage with Bad Boy, Zhang Heng realized that Lv.1 horse-riding skill was nowhere good enough to tame this wild dark horse. Despite the odds, he did not give up. After experiencing so many quests, he had mastered skill after skill. Zhang Heng came to realize that the most valuable skill a human possessed was the ability to learn. Gathering experience from past failures and continually finding solutions to problems was a skill many creatures possessed. However, only humans could fully utilize this ability.


    When first ying ��Sekiro,�� the yer would be defeated by various bosses again and again. Just like attending sses, after all the teacher��s knowledge had been gathered, it was time for the graduation exam.


    Zhang Heng took off his hat, grabbed the noose thrown by Matthew, and swung it over his head.


    On the other side, Bad Boy seemed to know that his old nemesis wasing to get him. Immediately, it stopped strolling around and began to scratch the ground with its hooves. And at the same time, its ears turned down, and it was showing his teeth.


    Before Zhang Heng could even make a move, it rushed toward Zhang Heng with full force. If Zhang Heng failed to dodge it, it meant everything that he learned during his umpteen years of piracy was just a waste. When Bad Boy approached him, he swiftly dodged aside, avoiding the brutal attack easily.


    Bad Boy, however, was not going to stop there. It turned its head around and tried to bite Zhang Heng. Zhang Heng hesitated for a split second, then hurriedly squatted to avoid the bite.


    This time, Bad Boy��s attack revealed its weakness. Thest time Zhang Heng caught its fault, he got dragged on the ground for five meters after throwing thesso around its neck.


    This trick was extremely effective against the ordinary horses, but it wasn��t about to trick Bad Boy into submission. The ill-tempered ck horse had an incredible will. After such a long time of training, Zhang Heng��s strength had improved, but he was nowhere nearly as strong as a horse. Each time, he got dragged and thrown around by the creature��s brute strength.


    So this time, Zhang Heng did not make any rash moves. Instead, he let the horse think that it had gained the upper hand in this battle. Meanwhile, he would keep looking out for the golden opportunity to control it.


    The ck horse��s attacks were limited. Zhang Heng had been having fun taming it, even naming those skills by drawing references to the games he yed. There was Brutal Ramming, Death Trampling, Diving Dragon Swipe, Ultimate Kick, and even the Furious Bite.


    Other than that, Bad Horses would step on your feet while you were not paying attention. If that happened, it would pretend to enjoy the beautiful scenery around it and take a deep breath of the fresh air. And the person had to suffer 400 to 500 pounds of weight being crushed on the feet.


    Although Bad Boy was born of a violent nature, its attack methods would always repeat.


    After performing a set of (Brutal Ramming) + [Divine Dragon Swipe) + (Furious Bite] + [Ultimate Kick), it would enter cool-down period. It then turned around and looked at Zhang Heng triumphantly. If it could speak, it would have gone along the lines of ��Stupid humans, you are not worthy of riding me yet!��

 Chapter 633 - Taming a Wild Horse

    <h4>Chapter 633 Taming a Wild Horse</h4>


    While the fierce horse-versus-human battle was ongoing, it was apletely different picture on the other side of the field. Radish munched away on its hay, utterly oblivious to its surroundings. It did not even so much as look over as if apathetic about getting reced by another horse, further convincing Zhang Heng that it must be suffering from Alzheimer��s.


    As he graduated from the beginner stage, the novice mount became gradually less able to meet Zhang Heng��s needs. Radish��s strong suits��its Buddha-like character and aid-back attitude��had now be shorings, reinforcing Zhang Heng��s desire to find a recement.


    Zhang Heng couldn��t wait anymore, and he was determined to conquer Bad Boy today.


    In the beginning, Matthew would give Zhang Heng pointers, but there was no need for that anymore. Zhang Heng had basically mastered all the maneuvers, and now it was just a matter of gaining experience and finesse.


    Today, Matthew stood outside the fence with his daughter, quietly observing Zhang Heng and Bad Boy grappling with each other. Even though Zhang Heng was desperate to change his mount, he was very patient in the round pen-he did not rush the process, letting Bad Boy run loose instead, exerting its energy.


    After a while, realizing that it had failed to provoke Zhang Heng, Bad Boy became frustrated.


    The anger in its eyes, the aggressive snorts, and the way it gritted its teeth-one would have mistaken it for a carnivore at the top of the food chain.


    Bad Boy charged again, finally using its trump card��the Brutal Ram. It raised its hoof to kick Zhang Heng in the chest, finally sending this annoying human flying in the air.


    However, this was exactly what Zhang Heng had been waiting for. He threw out the noose, which caught Bad Boy��s front left hoof, and he rolled over, escaping its Brutal Ram. Then, he got to his feet and tugged at the rope.


    When Bad Boy performed the Brutal Ram, it stood on its hind legs, giving Zhang Heng time to get off the ground. By the time the horse realized what was happening, it struggled to break free, but Zhang Heng already had a firm grip on the rope. Unlike when the rope was around its neck, Bad Boy��s movements were now restricted. Barrelling about became almost impossible. Nheless, it did not stop the wild stallion, kicking up dust and dirt into the air in a raging tantrum.


    The tug of war between man and horse continued. Wendy, who was watching from outside the fence, watched on with bated breath.


    Zhang Heng struggled to stand his ground against the violent tugging at the other end of the rope. Eventually, he had no choice but to run alongside Bad Boy. Fortunately for him, Bad Boy could not run any faster due to the external force, and its movements were unsteady. Bad Boy whizzed around the round pen, hoping to topple Zhang Heng but little did it know that doing so would cause its other leg to be caught around the rope. Instead of a strong, wild horse, it was now more like Tigger.


    Bad Boy hopped for a bit until Zhang Heng found the opportunity to approach its side finally. Zhang Heng held onto the rope with one hand and grabbed Bad Bay��s mane with the other.


    Now, Bad Boy could neither escape nor kick. Its resistance became more futile by the minute, and finally, Zhang Heng could almost taste victory. He wasn��t about to let Bad Boy regain control-he tugged at the rope so that Bad Boy had to curl up his front hooves, then pushed Bad Boy down until it was in a kneeling position.


    In the end, Bad Boy was lying on its side again, both man and horse out of breath.


    Zhang Hengposed himself first before reaching out to stroke the horse. When Bad Boy eventually calmed down, Zhang Heng loosened the rope around its hooves.


    However, once it was free, Bad Boy abandoned the pretense. It got off the ground and broke free of Zhang Heng��s control. It gave Zhang Heng a look as if saying, ��Surprised? I was only pretending!��


    Zhang Heng did not get angry at the creature. He got up, dusted his trousers, and spun up thesso again.


    The wrestle between horse and man resumed, and it wasn��t until five minutester that Zhang Heng managed to restrain Bad Boy to the ground again.


    This time, Zhang Heng was ready to teach it a lesson.


    He waited a whole ten minutes before undoing the ropes. Most horses would have surrendered by then, but the intransigent, impossible Bad Boy of a steed refused to be subdued.


    Thus,menced the third rodeo.


    This time, Bad Boy learned from its previous mistakes and refrained from doing the Brutal Ram.


    But it was naive to think that it would be able to escape its eventual fate-getting bound. Zhang Heng had already felt it in his heart. He had the right feeling to do it, and although a little knackered, he was in the zone.


    He felt his vision getting sharper and thesso easier to handle. Zhang Heng waited for Bad Boy to start running before he once again tossed thesso out. In the past two times, the rope caught Bad Boy��s pastern. This time, however, Zhang Heng was aiming for its forearm.


    Once again, Zhang Heng had the ck horse falling to the ground.


    Finally realizing that there was no escape, Bad Boy did not dodge or start a wrestling match with Zhang Heng. Instead, it stayed where it was.


    But Zhang Heng knew all too well that it was still too early to celebrate. This battle had only just begun. As anticipated, once he got on Bad Boy��s back, the ck horse went berserk again, jumping and kicking around, sparing no effort to fling the offending human off its back.


    Zhang Heng was thrashed about like a little canoe trapped in the giant waves of an ocean.


    But Zhang Heng happened to an experienced sailor who was an expert at navigating a boat in a storm. He gripped the horse��s mane firmly and braced his legs. No matter how much Bad Boy tossed about, it failed to get rid of its rider. All Bad Boy could do was zip around the pen. Wendy was sweating bullets when her father said, ��Open the gates.��


    Although unable to fathom the reason behind her father��s instruction, Wendy did as told and utched the wooden gate. The next thing she knew, Bad Boy bolted out of the round pen like lighting, sprinting across the field with Zhang Heng on its back.


    It wasn��t like Zhang Heng had never driven a fast car before, but this was like driving without a windshield. The wind was ring at him from all directions, and his butt hurt severely from the bumpy ride. The force was different from a car engine, far more ufortable than driving a car. But it was exciting and invigorating.


    The red sun setting over the horizon, the endless pastures, and the joy and satisfaction of having just tamed a fierce horse intertwined to form the perfect picture of the wild, wild west.


    There was freedom in the wind, and Zhang Heng could smell it.

 Chapter 634 - Chewing Tobacco and Lucky Horseshoe (End)

    <strong>Chapter 634 Chewing Tobo and Lucky Horseshoe (End)</strong>


    As for this time, the situation was quite special. Zhang Hengpleted the main task ahead of schedule before the given deadline.


    The task of looking for the Lucky Horseshoes was automaticallypleted after meeting Cook and Matthew. Other than that, the task of settling down in Lincoln County waspleted two weeks after he owned the ranch.


    In other words, he did not need to worry about his quest anymore, and he could do whatever he wanted. And his life in the west had just begun. After redeeming his extra 24 hours, his time in the quest was extended to 520 days. Soon after taming Bad Boy, he also received the bounty that he was supposed to receive after killing Cook.


    In total, killing Cook granted him ten thousand dors. And the twenty Cook Gang members that he killed contributed another eight thousand dors to him. In total, he bagged a satisfying eighteen thousand dors.


    Undoubtedly, such an amount was a huge sum of wealth in the 19th-century United States.


    It took less than 500 yuan to pay for the cost of building materials, and whatever money that remained was enough for Zhang Heng to spend the rest of his life here, as free as the wind.


    The old cowboy and the drunk sheriff looked for Zhang Heng that day and gave him information about the remaining Cook gang members. Those farmers and miners were poor marksmen, but with the help of the old cowboy and young deputy sheriff, they managed to hunt down a few of them after a night��s pursuit. In the end, only four gang members managed to get away. In other words, they could no longer do any more evil. To ensure that Matthew��s family was 100% safe, Zhang Heng went on an excursion, hunting down Cook gang remnants. And it took him two months to find all four of them. Zhang Heng handed two of them over to the local sheriff, and he killed the other two when they attempted to retaliate.


    At this point, the incident had officially ended.


    However, Zhang Heng did not just idle and do nothing throughout the day. There were a myriad skills to learn and master in this dungeon, and in addition to horsemanship, tending to cattle and rapid-shooting were skills that Zhang Heng was interested in delving into. Among those, rapid shooting was the skill he had to master. That said, he hoped that he could further improve his marksmanship through rapid-fire practice. As for tending to the cattle... it was actually a niche job.


    Especially the use of asso. A skillful cowboy could rope in a target with ease. When a herd of cattle went out of control, the cowboy��s skill and mind would be put to the test��they would need to catch up with the cows in the shortest time possible and toss thesso to rein in the herd.


    This trick could also be used on people. Without employing deadly weapons, asso could be used to incapacitate the target. Zhang Heng also paid attention to the whereabouts of game items in this round of the game. Unfortunately, he heard nothing about the existence of game items in this dungeon.


    Now, he had a better understanding of these game items�� origins. Basically, every game item was rted to a god, just like those gods behind each urrence. However, the gods may stay in more than one instance. ording to Miss Bartender, there were even cases where a dungeon held no game items at all.


    Zhang Heng did not know which god he would encounter in this quest. Could it be the god of the west? The cowboy-god? The god of the wilderness and the god of liberty seemed to make sense in this context. However, since the god in charge of this dungeon did not show up like the gods he encountered in the previous one, it was clear that this god wanted no furthermunication with him.


    Naturally, he didn��t want to provoke the god.


    Nheless, his peaceful life was short-lived. Six monthster, he was involved in the war in Lincoln County. Lasting five months, it was a dispute between Major Murphy, Lincoln County��s most influential man, and the town��s ranchers. During the early phase of this county war, they harassed and assassinated each other.


    It was not until the fifth month that the war became a full-blown battle. After Zhang Heng picked up arms to help with the war effort, the ranchers began to overwhelmingly. Eventually, the two parties decided toe to a new agreement. After seeing his hired gunmen getting killed and wounded, Major Murphy promised to reduce the price on items purchased from the East Coast by half. And he also promised that he would never raise prices again. At the same time, he sold off two pastures and swore never to get involved in Lincoln County��s livestock business.


    The five-month-long Lincoln County war had finallye to an end.


    And Zhang Heng��s biggest gain in this county war was not the ranch that he bought from Major Murphy at a low price. After all, he could not stay here forever. The wealth that he possessed in this world meant nothing.


    What he was really interested in was a shooter named Billy.


    If Zhang Heng remembered correctly, this man appeared most frequently in western movies, and there were many stories about him.


    Contrary to the wild and unruly character the actor brought to the silver screen, Billy was a rtively young and timid man. Having arrived at Lincoln County recently, he was hired by a rancher and joined the county war in Lincoln County not too long after that.


    Zhang Heng had fought by his side several times. Billy was certainly nowhere as amazing as portrayed in the films and television series, but he was indeed a quick shooter. With only a pint of beer, Zhang Heng managed to make Billy teach him the secrets of bing a ��fast-gun.��


    Thest two months saw Zhang Heng practically do nothing but practice drawing his gun and shooting. In the end, he managed to improve his shooting skills to Lv.3. With that being said, he was now an expert in long-range sniping and close-range shooting.


    Other than that, hebined the horseback riding skill and cattle-tending skill and came up with a Lv.2 skill called ��cowboy.��


    Before leaving, Zhang Heng divided the remaining fifteen-thousand dors into two bags.


    One was buried under the fence of Matthew��s house, and another under his own fence.


    After that, he chose a good day and brought Wendy for hunting.


    The two returned to the woods where Zhang Heng fought with the Cook Gang. Some time had passed, and peace was once again restored in the ce. The bailiffs took away the dead bodies that night, and the hunter��s hut was rebuilt and cleaned. There was even some chopped firewood courtesy of hunters who had stayed there.


    The only trace that proved that a battle had taken ce here was the bullet marks on the door.


    Zhang Heng and Wendy returned to the hut before sunset with the rabbits and deer that they killed. After that, Zhang Heng started a fire and begun dealing with their prey.


    Wendy sat in front of the campfire and watched him getting busy. ��You haven��t told me where you��re from.��


    ��Is that important?�� Zhang Heng asked rhetorically without looking back.


    ��Well... if I want to tell my future child your story, how am I supposed to tell him where you��re, why you were here, then met me, and we both set off on a journey together?��


    ��It��s not my origin that allowed us to embark on this journey, but your persistence at that time. You are the most stubborn kid I have ever seen. You knocked on my door before dawn. I was still awake back then. When I looked into your eyes, I knew that if I didn��t say yes, you would continue to bug me into the


    week.��


    ��Hmm, was I that annoying?�� Wendy flushed.


    ��10,000 times more annoying than you can imagine.�� Zhang Heng reached out and touched her hair. ��But, you saved your mother and father that night. It was really... brave. Although you are a girl, you are stronger than most men I have ever met.��


    Wendy looked embarrassed after Zhang Heng praised her, ��You saved my family that night.��


    ��Yes, but if it weren��t for the time you bought me some time by pointing the shotgun at Cook, I would not be able to get there in time before Cook killed your mother.�� Zhang Heng said, ��That means you have a yed a part in changing your destiny, kid.��

 Chapter 635 - Ring-Toss Game

    <strong>Chapter 635 Ring-Toss Game</strong>


    ��Young man, bring your girlfriend over here for a chance at my ring-toss! Four rings cost you only ten yuan, and ten rings cost you only twenty. The prizes I have include bunnies, soft toys, and the grand prize is a Xiaomi Mi Band! It��s a fair game. You will definitely win something in the end.��


    Zhang Heng and Hayase Asuka came across a ring-toss game booth when they visited the night market.


    Hayase Asuka held the stinky tofu in one hand, stopped, and watched on with enthusiasm. The owner immediately took the opportunity to promote his game, but his effort was in vain. That was because Hayase Asuka, a Japanese exchange student, could not understand Chinese.


    And there was already a couple ying in front of the booth.


    The two seemed to want to win the Mi Band. Judging from its packaging, it should be a second-generation Mi Band with a market price of around 120 yuan. If they could win the grand prize, it was no less but a significant profit.


    But this kind of game was like the discount bundle sold in a penguin game. The customers would always feel that they had profited from the game if they won something. As for the boss, he would still benefit from whoever visited his booth.


    Mini-games like this often came off as innocent and straightforward, but they were far moreplicated than one could imagine.


    For instance, the booth owner would usually put the most valuable prize the furthest and the unworthy ones closer to the customers. It was an attempt to tempt the yers into aiming for the valuable prizes that were a lot further to reach. Furthermore, the valuable prizes were generallyrger and more challenging to get a ring on them. The ring was designed to be very light in weight, making it was hard for the yers to control their throw. It was made out of a material with great sticity as well, usually bouncing off the surface it hit.


    The couple spent 20 yuan on buying ten rings. Unfortunately, none managed to put the ten rings on the grand prize. Their rings managed to graze the packaging a few times, but the owner wasn��t worried at all. In fact, he still wore a smile, as if encouraging the couple to keep ying until they bagged the grand prize. When the young couple threw theirst ring, the boss saw their frustrated looks. He then waved his hand at them and kindly gave them two constion prizes��two One Piece keychains. Eiichiro Oda would probably be wondering just when did he authorize a random game booth to sell his One Piece merchandise. When the boss asked them to try again, the couple rejected his offer. So, the boss smiled and watched the dejected pair walk away from his booth. He then stuffed the 20 yuan hustle that came by so easily into his pocket.


    Zhang Heng then asked Hayase Asuka in Japanese, ��What do you want?�� ��The little rabbit is adorable, but the foreign student dormitory does not allow us to keep any pet there.�� Thetter looked at the rabbit in the cage and moaned with disappointment, ��but this game looks entertaining. How much does it cost to y?��


    Zhang Heng tranted the amount of money needed to y this game to Hayase Asuka, and she quickly took twenty yuan out from her wallet.


    ��Oh, she��s not from around here!�� The boss overheard the two conversings in Japanese. He took the money from them, once again wearing his ear-to-ear smile, ��I will send you two extra rings.��


    Zhang Heng then passed the rings to Hayase Asuka.


    After receiving the stic rings from Zhang Heng, she looked at the prizes on the ground. The first thing sheid her eyes on was the rabbit cage. She wished she would get to keep the little rabbit in her room. Thus, realizing it would be a somewhat impossible endeavor, she fixed her eyes on the Kingston 64GB sh drive. No matter the woman��s nationality and age, they were always good at choosing what they desired. This was probably one of a woman��s hidden talents.


    Although there were various prizes on offer, most were useless objects produced by some small factories, save for the Mi Band used as a gimmick to attract customers. The second prize would be the sh drive.


    The market price of the sh drive was about 70 yuan.


    Hayase Asuka watched the pair of couples ying earlier, and she knew that tossing a ring on the Mi Band, the prize furthest away from her, was no small challenge. So she took the initiative to lower the difficulty for herself.


    She took a look for a long time to aim before throwing out her first ring. Even before she threw the ring out, Zhang Heng knew that she would be winning no prizes today. He caught her bending forward when she tossed the ring, meaning that there was a 100% chance that it would bounce off its target.


    The moment the owner saw her throwing technique, he could instantly tell the girl was an amateur who knew nothing about the game. The smile on his face only served to grow. And, of course, he did not forget to console her. ��It��s okay! It��s okay! You��ll get the next one.��


    Zhang Heng interrupted Hayase Asuka before she could throw the second ring. He then corrected her posture. Hayase Asuka immediately realized that she had made a mistake, sticking out her tongue as a thanks gesture.


    Although she corrected her posture, the fact that the stic rings were too light and difficult to control was not something easy to ovee. Perhaps she wasn��t used to throwing this way, that the second stic ringnded even further from her target.


    Asuka Hayase looked at Zhang Heng again, attempting to seek an answer from Master Zhang. But this time, Zhang Heng could only shrug his shoulders helplessly. This was not rocket science. As long as one got the posture right, the rest would have to be left to skill and fate.


    In the end, Hayase Asuka tossed ten rings by herself. But unfortunately, the result almost matched the previous couples that yed this game. She eventually gave up on her target and chose a worthless soft toy in front of her. However, she was probably disappointed in herself and failed tond the ring on the easy target too.


    Seeing that there were only two rings left with her, a little frustration began to set in.


    Zhang Heng suddenly chimed in, ��Would you like me to give it a go?��


    Hayase Asuka nodded and passed the rings to Zhang Heng.


    Holding the rings in his hand, Zhang Heng estimated their weight. He had lived in the West some time ago and was now an expert at using thesso. He couldnd hissso at a bull that was running among the herd. A mini-game like this shoulde as a breeze.


    Zhang Heng threw the first ring in his hand without any preparation. Instead of waiting for the first stic ring tond on the target, Zhang Heng threw the second ring.


    In the end, one of the ringsnded on the USB sh drive, and the other ringnded on the Mi Band. These two items were the most valuable prizes at the booth.


    The boss counted his money happily at the side, even going as far as to prepare a keychain as the constion. He did not expect to lose both of his most valuable prizes in a blink of an eye. His face changed immediately. The two ringsnded on the prizes urately, and the boss could note up with an excuse to disqualify them. It was then that the owner knew that he��d encountered a maestro tonight.


    If the ring on one prize, it could be pure luck. However, if he managed tond the rings on two prizes, that was pure skill.


    So, the owner could only conclude that the young man in front of him must be a master.


    It was not easy to make a living. Zhang Heng heard that some people went as far as buying their own w machine to practice catching the dolls at home. That said, some people would practice tossing rings at home just to win the prize that they wanted.


    Game booths that ran on such a concept was a profitable venture when it had many customers. However, the booth��s owner would asionally encounter an expert. Most of these were willing to admit defeat. Nheless, Zhang Heng showed mercy to the owner. He only decided to help his girlfriend after failing tond a single ring on anything after ten attempts. The owner of the ring stall shook his head and sighed. He then walked over, handed over the prizes to Hayase Asuka, and congratted the reluctantly grinning girl.


    However, the boss could not bear to be the only one to make a loss tonight. So, he decided to drag other booth owners down with him. After that, he gave Zhang Heng an idea, ��Hey young man, listen to me, there is one more game stall like mine 30 meters ahead. He has better prizes there, more valuable than my Mi Band. You should pay it a visit!��

 Chapter 636 - Everything Will Be Fine

    <strong>Chapter 636 Everything Will Be Fine</strong>


    Zhang Heng didn��t follow the owner��s suggestion. It wasn��t his goal toe here to win all the prizes that all those booths had to offer. The money spent would be used to bring joy to him and Asuka Hayase. Instead of relying on winning prizes to be rich, it was better to buy a ranch in the west and raise cattle on it.


    Asuka Hayase may not have much use for the USB sh drive and Mi Band, but the joy of hitting the jackpot was enough to keep her excited the whole night. Such was the kind of feeling that motivated thousands of yers to spend huge sums of money on their gacha games. After that, Zhang Heng sent Asuka Hayase, whose legs had gone weak from excessive shopping, back to the international student dormitory. He then looked at his watch. It was 10:30 at night, and there was still an hour and a half before midnight struck.


    After that, Zhang Heng found a ce without cameras and parked his Polo by the roadside. He then went to a nearby convenience store to buy a bottle of Pocari Sweat. Due to the extra 24 hours that he had, his fitness level was also doubled. Although it had only been half a year, the hard work that he put in to strengthen himself had started bearing fruits. After taking off his clothes, his abdominal and chest muscles could be seen popping up. He began to pay attention to his diet, too-excess calories


    still better to go on a low-calorie regime. To achieve that, he tried his best not to consume any c, even if it was a Coke Zero. Fried and oily foods were out of the question as well.


    After Zhang Heng settled the bill, he returned to the car and sent Fan Meinan a text.


    (Where are you?]


    After a good while, Fan Meinan finally replied.


    (I got a sudden stomachache right before I went out.]


    (Where do you live? I��ll bring you some medicine.]


    [Ah! Trying to trick me into giving you my address? Then, you will provide an excuse that you need to take care of me, ande knocking on my door in the middle of the night. Then, when I��m feeling weak and need someone to be my side, you will nurse me with medicine. From there, you n to conquer my body, right?]


    Fan Meinan, on the other side of the line, became instantly alerted.


    [...]


    Zhang Heng sent an ellipsis as a reply to her.


    (Just give up. I won��t give let you do that to me. I will arrive on time.]


    [See you then.)


    Zhang Heng put away the phone and drove his Polo to the nearby McDonalds.


    Fan Meinan arrived on time at 11:07. Her face looked a little pale, and she was panting. Putting down her backpack on the table, she plopped down on the stool opposite Zhang Heng. ��Hey, here are all the game items that you temporarily put in my ce.��


    ��Thank you.�� Zhang Heng did not open the backpack, directly cing it on the seat beside him.


    The game items in the bag came from the yers he killed while rescuing Fan Meinan more than a month ago. And this time, Zhang Heng had sold everything that he could sell to recast the (Ordinary Katana). He spent all his points, but he also sold the items that he did not need. In the end, he was still short of around seven hundred game points. With the 100 over points that he earned in the previous game, he should clear his debt.


    After that, he just needed to wait and see what changes would happen to the (Ordinary Katana) after the recasting. If it got upgraded from its F-Grade to a measly E-Grade, he would have to find some time to kill the swordsmith.


    But now, he was more concerned about other things.


    Zhang Heng looked at Fan Meinan. ��What are you up to during this time?�� he asked. ��Why do you reply to me slower and slower after I send you a message?��


    ��Huh? I usually have my own things to do. I��m sorry that I can��t be the ��honey�� thates to you every time you summon me. Isn��t there a rich woman and a cute Japanese student apanying you?�� Fan Meinan curled her lips as she bemoaned, ��Ah, you have been here for so long, and you didn��t even order any food. Why hasn��t the waiter chased you out yet?��


    ��I ordered a single set meal for the vagrants nearby, and I have ordered something for myself to take awayter,�� replied Zhang Heng. ��What do you want to eat? I can treat you to whatever you want to eat.�� ��Sounds good to me.�� Fan Meinan then blurted in satisfaction, ��Thank you, boss,�� she turned to look at the menu that wasn��t far away and squinted for a bit. She then retracted her gaze and sighed, ��Forget it. It��s almost midnight. I don��t want to be fat.��


    ��You are already thinner than when we first met.��


    Zhang Heng still remembered when Fan Mei had put on men��s clothing to transform herself into Ma Wei, attempting to y a prank on him. Unfortunately, they ran into Zavilcha, and Zhang Heng had to carry her for a while in the school. Fan Meinan was taller than her counterparts, standing at anky 170cm. Nheless, she weighed less than 90 pounds. And now, she looked to be only about 80 pounds. She was not supposed to be this thin. Perhaps she had eaten something wrong, and it caused her to lose some weight. Even though Fan Meinan was as rude as ever when she spoke in WeChat, she looked a little weak when Zhang Heng met her in person. After a while, he noticed a band-aid stuck to the back of Fan Meinan��s hand. The girl subconsciously retracted her hand when she saw Zhang Heng staring at it and tried to exin herself. ��I identally cut my hand while cutting fruits.��


    ��You use the back of your hand to hold fruits when you cut them?��


    ��What the heck? Have you justpleted a quest where you yed detective? Since when did your observation skills be so good?�� Fan Meinan eximed with raised eyebrows. ��Did no one tell you that you don��t have to speak up all the time even if you noticed something wrong?��


    ��You look a little embarrassed.��


    ��Every dog has its day. Your rich woman almost died in her dreamst time. This is the truth of life. And can you ask her to take back the Lexus she gave me? Well, I didn��t know that maintaining a luxury car is so expensive. I can��t afford it with my meager sry,�� Fan Meinan sighed.


    ��As I said before, you helped mest time. If you have any trouble this time, you can ask me to help you.�� Zhang Heng looked into Fan Meinan��s eyes.


    ��.......��


    ��Thanks, but you can��t help much with this matter. I still have to do it myself,�� replied Fan Meinan. ��You should prepare for your proxy war. You��d better pray you don��t encounter me there. If you run into me, I will make you suffer. By the way, you are so damn mysterious all the time. Who do you work for?��


    ��I thought I had found the answer before, but now I am a bit unsure.�� Zhang Heng replied.


    He was sure that the old man in the Tang suit was Kronos, but the real question was his true identity was still unsure. His emotions were slowly disappearing. What did the expedition to Greend seventeen years ago have anything to do with him? And why did Kronos approach him? Without getting answers to these questions, Zhang Heng could not determine whether the old man in Tang suit was a friend or foe, nor did he know what thetter��s n was. He had a faint hunch that Kronos hoped that the extra time that he granted in the games could elerate the disappearance of his emotions. However, he was unsure of what the consequences of that would be. ��It seems that each of us has our own worries,�� said Fan Meinan with both of her hands put into her pockets. After hesitated for a while, she took out her hands again and held Zhang Heng��s hand on the table. She then looked at him and said softly, ��Don��t worry, everything will be fine.��

 Chapter 637 - New Email

    <strong>Chapter 637 New Email</strong>


    In retrospect, the life of the vast majority of people in college was not that exciting.


    Every corner of the campus exuded the gross scent of love, where couples publicly disyed their affection everywhere. The ssic scenes of romance novels were brought to life here every night. The president of the student union and the heads of various clubs were in high spirits, organizing various activities. However, the buzz couldn��t conceal the fact that most people were single. The only three ces that they could go were the dormitory, canteen, and ssroom, either attending sses or having fun with their roommates.


    It was as if the city was an exciting ce, but it had nothing to do with most people.


    After graduation, they would soon realize that they actually didn��t do much during their time in college. Life on campus didn��t feel so monotonous and boring, though. Even if the students were bored, there was always someone around to spend time with them.


    It was not until they entered society, that they realized the familiar avatars in their friend list on a random game hadn��te online for a long time. The online game that they used to y together had now been reced by other online games.


    This specific breed of loneliness was probably called growing up...


    Those, however, were the things that they had to consider in the future. For now, the four, still in their sophomore year, felt like college life would never end.


    Today, the film club was ted to y a Quentin ssic in the small auditoriumDjango Unchained. After a meal, Chen Huadong dragged Zhang Heng and Wei Jiangyang to watch the movie together in flip-flops. They paid two yuan each before entering the auditorium.


    Although they came twenty minutes before the movie started, many were already seated. The first few rows of seats were either upied or reserved.


    Chen Huadong did not rush to find a seat. Instead, he looked around him and saw many pretty girls. Some of them came with boyfriends, meaning he wouldn��t have to chance to talk to them. Others sat alongside their roommate or friends...


    Chen Huadong was one whocked guts. After struggling for a long time, he saw many pretty girls, but he had no courage to make a move to sit beside one of them. After all, there were still so many empty seats in the auditorium. If he went ahead and sat beside a gorgeous one, everyone would find out his true intention.


    ��Over the top. I think they are over the top. It doesn��t match my calm and mature temperament.�� Chen Huadong shook his head and chose one of the seats in the middle row. However, he made sure to explore the possibility of sitting next to some of the girls that camete. Hence, he picked a seat where both of his sides were still empty. If what he imagined came true, he could only me it on fate.


    Wei Jiangyang sat on his left side, while Zhang Heng sat near the aisle. Wei Jiangyang then said, ��Master Chen, if you continue to act like this, I am afraid that you��ll be single for the rest of your four years in college.��


    ��Show me what to do in this situation then?��


    nted at Wei Jiangyang, ��Sit right there?��


    ��It��s inappropriate. This trick can only be used by Young Master Zhang. I��m afraid that the ordinary people of my generation will be unable to master it,�� Wei Jiangyang shook his head.


    ��That��s not enough. In the end, one��s look is still the most important factor to attract girls,�� Chen Huadong sneered. ��If I were blessed with a handsome face, I wouldn��t worry about where I should sit. I could sit wherever I want, and the girls would automatically flock to me.�� ��That makes sense.��


    Chen Huadong��s wishful thinking eventually fell through. In the end, the seats in the auditorium were not fully upied. A boy sat next to him, though, and the two silently looked at each other, glimpsing a touch of loneliness in each other��s eyes.


    ��Why do men make another man suffer?�� Wei Jiangyang said.


    Simr things were happening everywhere in the auditorium. This was the age where hormones raged. However, bashfulness got the better of them, and it was causing both the boys and girls to be too embarrassed to take the first step. Everyone was waiting for the signal to make up for the next ny-nine steps. Yet, no one was willing to take the most critical step-the first.


    As such, a love story would not be born here. Seeing that the auditorium was full, the film club stopped letting people in and began the movie began to y. The students��motion calmed down as well, as the crowd started to immerse themselves in the film.


    The bounty hunter Schultz, pretending to be a dentist, brought the ck man called Django to hunt down their target, and their enemies outnumbered them. When Chen Huadong saw that, hemented, ��Quentin is a legend. The scenes are pretty explicit. How did the film club members get their hands on the uncensored version? I want to be a bounty hunter now. I envy their lives so much! They ride their horses everywhere to bring down the scales of justice, and they were paid to do that. Life can��t get any better than that.��


    ��Hey, wasn��t your dream moving to Japan to be a porn director?�� Wei Jiangyang asked.


    Zhang Heng, on the other side, shook his head. ��It��s not that simple being a bounty hunter. The risks outweigh the benefits. The west is vast, and people have to endure extreme heat all the time. No one can work as a bounty hunter forever. If you possess the skills for that, it would be better to move into a small town and be their sheriff.��


    ��Pfft. You make it sound like you��ve worked as a bounty hunter before,�� Chen Huadong rolled his eyes.


    The movie was rather lengthy. The North American version was 165 minutes in total, which was almost three hours. The movie started at seven in the evening, and only ended around ten. When the ending credits started rolling, students started to leave the auditorium one after another while discussing the movie they had just watched. Chen Huadong felt that the dentist was too impulsive, and thanks to his inability to let go of his grudge, he was killed in the end. It was really not worth it. As for Wei Jiangyang, he was interested in the explicit scenes. With a newfound interest in Quentin Tarantino, he decided to binge-watch the ��Kill Bill�� trilogy.


    After the movie, Zhang Heng discovered that he had received a new email.


    After looking at the sender, Zhang Heng realized that the inevitable hade.


    It was an email from the gamemittee.


    Its contents told about the proxy war that was bound to happen in a week. At the same time, other agents in various ces had also received the same email. Zhang Heng found a secluded corner and opened up the mail to read it.


    The organizingmittee first congratted Zhang Heng for entering the second stage of the game and announced the time and general rules.


    The rules were almost the same as before. It was still quest-based, but the new quests were no longer the ones where the yer needed to master their skills and search for game items. They would now be more inclined to a level system. And these quests would be more dangerous and unpredictable��they adopted the elimination system, their purpose simr to what the old man in Tang suit told him. They were carried out to rank all the agents, and the final winner stood to get a mysterious gift prepared by the organizingmittee.

 Chapter 638 - Alien

    <strong>Chapter 638 Alien</strong>


    The proxy war participants were all yers who had worked their way up to be an agent.


    Non-agent yers, on the other hand, were allowed to join the proxy war as but they could only enter as an apostle. They could only choose one deity to side with. Since each agent could recruit up to three apostles, the new system would allow yers to y the game in small teams.


    However, if an agent wished to join the proxy war alone, they were more than wee to do so. Recruiting apostles was notpulsory, but it was better for most agents to have a helper than none, and the chances ofpleting a level in a team were also greater.


    Zhang Heng, however, had no intention to recruit any apostles due to his special circumstances. Besides, there were some differences between the dungeon in the proxy war and an ordinary dungeon, the details of which would be exined during the game.


    Only five days were left before the proxy war began.


    Zhang Heng did a quick take on the email sent by the organizingmittee. He then opened the browser and saw that the organizingmittee hadunched an official website, and the yers could log in with their forum ounts.


    The official website was now empty, and little information had been uploaded to it. However, Zhang Heng noticed a yer list on the website��s left side, looking like a leaderboard of sorts. For now, there were no names on it.


    Zhang Heng looked for his yer code on the website, and the system prompted him to enter a disy name to others. He pondered on it for a moment and eventually decided to go with ��Simon.��


    After that, he left the empty official website.


    In the next five days, Zhang Heng made no special preparations. He had appointed the bartender to send the [Ordinary Katana] for recasting before the first proxy war, and he probably wouldn��t get it now. Fortunately, his game items bettered most of the yers, and he wasn��t too stressed about the war��s early phase.


    Five dayster, Zhang Heng went to the Sex and the City bar.


    The bartenderdy gave the nod after checking his yer number. ��Wee to the proxy war. The first three rounds are equivalent to an admission test. You need to clear the three dungeons solo or in a team within 45 days. While you are at it, get as many scores as possible. ��Does the score mean game points?�� Zhang Heng raised his eyebrows.


    ��No, have you yed Super Mario?��


    ��Well, I��ve yed it several times on the Xiao Bawang learning machine when I was young.��


    ��Scores are simr to the gold coins in the Super Mario game. Unlike game points, however, you can actually look at the scores. However, whether you can earn them or not will all depend on your skills.��


    Zhang Heng immediately realized the leaderboard��s function on the newlyunched official website. ��How many can pass this test?��


    ��The top 500,�� said the bartender. ��The top 50 have additional rewards, but the rewards for 1-50 are the same. After all, this is just an entry-level test. Do you have any further questions?��


    Zhang Heng shook his head.


    ��You��d better be mentally prepared. The quests of the proxy war are very different from what you��ve been experiencing.�� The bartender also added, ��Happy gaming.��


    ��Difference? How big of a difference?��


    ��You��ll know when it happens.�� As usual, the bartenderdy did not tell him everything.


    Zhang Heng set the rm,id on the deck, and allowed the drowsiness to consume him.


    [Verifying yer ID...] (Verificationplete. Agent identity confirmed. yer number 07958 is wee to join the proxy war. This is the first round of the test. Quest is being randomly selected...]


    (Extractionplete. Current quest-Alien]


    ��Please explore the background of the game by yourself.��


    [Quest goal: earn as many points as possible, 5 points for every alien found and killed)


    [Mode: Single]


    [Time flow rate: 120) (1 hour in the real world is equivalent to 5 days in this game. yer will be sent back to the real world after 20 days)


    [Friendly reminder, the game will officially begin in five seconds. Prepare yourself!)


    The opening dialogue that had remained unchanged for years finally changed this time. The system even reminded him that he was joining the proxy war.


    Before figuring out the old man in the Tang suit��s true intention, Zhang Heng had to maintain a cooperative rtionship with the other party. After all, he had to admit that the ��gift�� the old man gave him was indeed handy, not just in games but also in his regr life. In the real world, 48 hours a day allowed him to do a lot more than a regr person.


    Therefore, he decided to fulfill the promise made to the old man in the Tang Suit the day they met in The Maid Caf��. He would win this proxy war for him.


    The title of this quest sounded like the time when Mayflower sailed across the sea while American post-colonists were still fighting with the natives. In this case, Zhang Heng��s marksmanship and riding skills should help him earn many scores in this quest.


    However, when Zhang Heng opened his eyes, he was a little surprised by what he saw-he was sitting on his own bed.


    He looked around the room-he was certain that he was in his room or at least an excellent replica of it.


    Modern-day earth?


    Many years had passed since the Second World War. Although conflicts broke out now and then, society as a whole had started working hard to make good money as a collective. Those who were ssified as alien and had to be killed were getting rarer and rarer.


    What more, Zhang Heng was back in his hometown, a third-tier city.


    Zhang Heng had no idea what else would have beenbeled as ��alien.��


    And since the game required the yers to ��explore on their own,�� Zhang Heng would have to solve this mystery himself. He looked around again. It was indeed his room, save for some minute differences. This room was a copy of his room when he was in high school.


    The timetable he posted on the wall was in its ce and the textbooks and workbooks on the desk. There was even his old Mate-7 mobile phone.


    There was a sudden knock on the door, and Zhang Heng could hear his grandfather��s voice on the other side. ��We��re having fish tonight. I��m going out to buy one. Stay home and do your homework. Don��t fool around.��


    Zhang Heng mumbled a reply. After a while, he heard the door open and the lock clicking.


    He quickly put the White Horse Crown, Paris Arrow, and Pestilence Bone Bow from under the bed, inconvenient items to carry around.


    Since it was his first time joining the proxy war, Zhang Heng wanted to take no chances, taking practically everything he could bring. Then, he opened the door and walked out of the bedroom into the living room.

 Chapter 639 - Someone Familiar

    <strong>Chapter 639 Someone Familiar</strong>


    Zhang Heng stood in front of the mirror in the living room, staring at the reflection of his seventeen-year-old self.


    Three years ago, his height and figure were starkly different from what it was now. Fortunately, his attributes-strength, and speed included��were preserved in this quest. After that, Zhang Heng unlocked his Mate 7 and looked at the time. The screen disyed today��s date as Wednesday, April 13, 2016.


    Zhang Heng had no idea what happened during the previous day. Even if he did remember it, it wouldn��t help much because he was now in a dungeon. A quest where the setting mimicked the real world was actually quite a troublesome one. He would now need some time to figure out the difference between this world and the real world, and he couldn��t tell for sure whether his past memories would have a positive or negative effect.


    Zhang Heng walked around the living room, then entered several rooms and found nothing unusual. So he nned to go out and have a look. His grandfather did advise him to stay put before he left, but Zhang Heng wasn��t really just going to sit there and do his homework obediently since he wasn��t in the real world.


    Finding the key, Zhang Heng took it and opened the door. Usually, his grandpa would go to this huge wet market to buy fish, and it was quite a distance from his house. Taking that into ount, he had about forty minutes to explore this dungeon before his grandpa returned.


    He wasn��t given any goals either, and so far, he had been given nothing that could be considered a clue. So all he could do was to continue wandering around.


    The residents that lived in themunity were exactly the same as he remembered. He even ran into Qin Zhen. He rode a bicycle, and there was a basketball in the basket, ready to head to the court by the riverbank for a game.


    Once he saw Zhang Heng, he stopped the bike with one foot on the ground. ��Come and y basketball with me.��


    ��No, I haven��t finished my homework yet,�� replied Zhang Heng. ��I didn��t do mine as well. I��ll wake up a little earlier tomorrow and go copy the others�� work in the ssroom.�� Qin Zhen spread his hands, ��Why are you wandering outside now?��


    ��I have something to do. We��ll y together next time.��


    ��What��s the matter?�� Qin Zhen was intrigued by Zhang Heng��s reaction, ��Is it a date? Is it a girl in your ss? Do you want me to help you? For example, I can act like a bully, blocking her way, then attempt a robbery. You can then be the hero ande to her rescue!�� Qin Zhen waved his arm as he spoke. His tanned skin andnky figure made him looked like a bully.


    ��I appreciate your kindness,�� Zhang Heng said. ��You should go ahead and have fun with your basketball. We ran out of soy sauce at home. I need to get a bottle for grandpa.��


    ��Pfft! You should have told me earlier.�� Qin Zhen retracted his foot and stepped on the pedal, ��Don��t forget about the weekend,�� he said before cycling away.


    Zhang Heng did not know what he promised Qin Zhen three years ago. Friends since childhood, he must have either promised to y games or basketball with him. These two activities were basically his hobbies. When he was alone, he would download porn to watch.


    Undoubtedly, Zhang Heng was not too bothered by it. Apart from Qin Zhen, he met several other familiar aunties and uncles. He greeted each of them before stopping at a newsstand where he bought the day��s newspaper. The reports in this now three-year-old edition were the way he remembered it. Most articles focussed on meetings that different politicians held at various ces in the country. There were particr articles promoting positive thinking and Zhang Heng could remember most of them. However, after reading them altogether, he realized he didn��t remember its details. The following story was about workers who were trying to restore the electricity somewhere, and three children who had drowned in a river.


    Zhang Heng clearly remembered this one. A major event three years ago, no one knew how the three children quietly fled their respective homes after their families fell asleep that night. And the most bizarre part was that they walked a whopping five miles, arriving at the river before dawn where they eventually drowned.


    This incident was questionable, causing quite a stir among the public at that time. It was the talk of the week, and along with it sprouted spections of all manner. Among them, the river spirit had to be the most popr one. Every summer, there would surely be a drowning case in that particr river. Some drowned while ying in the water, while somemitted suicide. Although there was a sign prohibiting people from swimming, it wasn��t enough to stop the more eager residents from getting their fix of the river.


    The three kids found drowned were rtively young. The oldest was only fourteen years of age, and the youngest was only ten. At that time, the authorities had swiftly announced the results of their investigation. One child left a diary to prove that this was indeed an ident. Zhang Heng was still studying at that time, didn��t think much about it.


    He was now in the proxy war��s dungeon, and the game started on the second day after the drowning of the three children. Perhaps the incident might have had something to do with the quest. Having no more use for the paper, he tossed it into the trash can but kept the page that contained the report about the drowning


    After that, he saw a pancake stall next to the newsstand and a wave of nostalgia washed over him. The stall was closed permanently during his third year in high school. Apparently, the owner had made enough money and had gone back to the vige to build a house and get married.


    Sometimes, when he woke upte in the morning; he woulde here to buy a pancake for himself. The owner could recognize him, and he always smiled as a friendly gesture. Looking at the time, Zhang Heng figured that if he went to the river, he wouldn��t make it back in time before his grandpa got home. Left with no other options, he had to postpone his investigation until that night. That, however, left him with time to prepare. Zhang Heng first visited the convenience store and bought a bottle of mosquito repellentmosquitoes swarmed by the thousands by the river in summer. He then got four batteries for the shlight that he saw at home, a bottle of mineral water and a packet of biscuits. The sum of those items almostsumed all of his pocket money.


    While he was paying, he saw another familiar face.


    The person was a rather well-known in themunity. Having graduated from a prestigious university, he was the child that families would use topare with their kids, excelling in both character and academics. After graduation, however, something happened to him. He found a few jobs, but couldn��t hold any of them. After that happened, he just stayed at home to y games and watch anime.


    As a result, the people around him started to see him differently-from role model to bad example. After staying at home for such a long time, his mental state began to deteriorate, and he was soon admitted to a mental hospital by his family. If Zhang Heng remembered correctly, he should have just been discharged.


    He looked frail and thinner, wore an old T-shirt, and looked like hadn��t shaved in a long time. When he entered the convenience store, his head was faced down all the time because he did not dare to look at others. He came to the convenience store to buy cigarettes. In this era where almost all people were using Alipay and WeChat to make their payments, he still used paper money to pay. After he spent a long time searching for the money that he had on him, it yielded no result.


    The cashier started to get a little impatient.


    ��Let me pay for him,�� said Zhang Heng.

 Chapter 640 - Investigation At The River

    <strong>Chapter 640 Investigation At The River</strong>


    While talking, Zhang Heng took out his cell phone, clicked on WeChat, and paid off the one yuan for the person in front of him. However, he received no thanks from the other party. All he did was hastily grab the pack of cigarettes, opened the door of the convenience store, and leave.


    ��What kind of person is that,�� the cashierdy muttered. She felt that the situation wasn��t fair for Zhang Heng. ��He was so rude. You shouldn��t have paid for him.��


    ��It��s alright. It��s only one yuan anyway,�� Zhang Heng said, ��We should help each other since this is a smallmunity.��


    If Zhang Heng remembered correctly, when the man that just left was still a college student, the cashier used to have a crush on him. Whenever he came to the convenience store, the cashier always wanted to buy him some snacks. At the same time, she would try to look for a topic to chat him up. Tragically, their lives were very different, and in the end, their rtionship did not work out well.


    However, his current situation did make it difficult to rte to the bright young man before. Zhang Heng did not dwell on this issue, scanning the code of his purchases, and left the convenience store. He then went around to wander a little longer and returned home after realizing that it was almost time for his grandpa to be home.


    After dinner, Zhang Heng returned to his room, closed the door, and turned on theputer.


    The first thing that he did was to search for news about the three drowned children on the inte. Two of them were boys, and one of them was a girl, and they were all from the samemunity where they knew each other. The girl came from a single-parent family, where her father had passed away when she was still very young. When the distraught mother found out that her daughter had drowned, she wailed and fainted several times. The police officers had to call an ambnce to take her to the hospital. Zhang Heng watched the interview, but he couldn��t find anything amiss. If the victims of the incident weren��t three children, it would not have received such big attention. It would just be another ordinary piece of news.


    Unfortunately, few useful clues were found regarding the incident, and he could only carry out the basic investigations first.


    He waited until 10:30 when his grandpa went to bed. After waiting for a further half-hour, he figured that his grandpa should be asleep. At 11, he carried the backpack with the Pestilence Bone Bow on his back, grabbing his car key on the table before leaving. Zhang Heng entered the car, tossing the backpack and bow to the rear seats. He chose a CD and inserted it into the stereo, and Jay Chou��s melodious tunes started filling the car.


    His residence was quite a distance from the river where the three children were drowned. Considering that he was now a high school student and had barely turned eighteen, a detour was necessary. Thus, he avoided a few intersections with more traffic.


    By the time he arrived at his destination, it was 11:36 at night.


    The ce was devoid of people at that hour, and there were no lights either. The only sound that filled the air was the powerful sound of water rushing through the river. The ce was dark and gloomy, but for someone like Zhang Heng, who killed a Horseman of the Apocalypse, he found no fear in himself.


    He found a ce to park, turned off the engine, and took his backpack and bow with him. Turning on his freshly powered shlight, he began to walk toward the river. The police had found their bodies downstream, but as for the exact spot where the ident took ce, authorities deduced it must have happened where they found the girl��s shoe.


    They spected that the girl fell into the river identally. The two boys must have attempted to rescue her, and they too entered the river. Thanks to that, all three were lost in the currents of the dark, raging waters.


    Zhang Heng descended into the embankment. During the rainy season, these walking paths and the riverbank would bepletely submerged underwater. A drought during the past two years, however, had brought the water level down, and many often came here to fish and swim.


    After walking for about five minutes, Zhang Heng came to the spot where the ident happened. Since police investigations wereplete, they removed the yellow-stripe tape that once cordoned off the area. Not far from where Zhang Heng stood, a new sign had been erected, prohibiting swimming in the river. When Zhang Heng pointed his shlight at the signboard, he found that the word ��prohibited�� was missing. The area was deemed unfriendly to investigators, seeing how pebbled littered the entire riverbank. This made looking for footprints almost impossible. The police had already been here once, and to them, it was pointless to investigate the scene again. Zhang Heng could only start his investigation from somewhere else.


    He stood at the ce where the girl left her shoes, then stretched out his foot and felt the ground. Apparently, the mossden rocks on the riverbank were extremely slippery, and if one were not careful, they would most definitely lose their footing and fall into the water.


    There were many small puddles around Zhang Heng, probably formed when the water level rose to a certain level. Communities of small fishes and tadpoles were trapped in these puddles and could be caught easily with a stic bottle. Now, Zhang Heng understood why this ce was so attractive to children. Coupled with the diary that the police foundter, was this really just an ident? While Zhang Heng was in deep thought, a sudden noise came from behind him. He moved the shlight over and found a small toad. The amphibian remained motionless as the bright light hit it. He figured that the sound must have originated from this little thing leaping and kicking the pebbles around.


    At that instance, an idea struck him. When the light hit the spot under the bridge, he saw something else in a split second. However, when he shone his torch at the spot again, there was nothing there. Zhang Heng stood there, thought for half a second, and decisively turned off the shlight.


    He took out his Filter Lens from his pocket, put it on his eyes, and walked towards the bridge pier.


    If there was something hidden behind the bridge pier, that thing should have fled right before he walked toward it.


    Of course, it did not rule out the possibility that the thing would continue to stay there, waiting to ambush him. Zhang Heng wasn��t too worried, though, carrying the Pestilence Bone Bow and Paris Arrow with him. There was also a pocket knife in his pocket.


    Just as Zhang Heng took two steps forward, he saw a ck figure rushing out from behind the bridge pier and running to the other side. Judging by its silhouette, it looked like a person or at least a humanoid creature. His face was covered, and all Zhang Heng could tell was that the person was a male.


    Zhang Heng quickly went after him. The opponent��s stamina was below average. Let alone a powerhouse like Zhang Heng; he was even slower than the ordinary man. Besides, the surroundings were pitch ck, and his vision severely impaired. Zhang Heng��s speed, on the other hand, didn��t reduce thanks to the help of the Filter Lens.


    The two drew closer and closer. The mysterious man realized that he could not outrun Zhang Heng. With gritted teeth, he jumped into the river.


    Zhang Heng did not follow him in. Although a fine swimmer, this was known to be a perilous river, where powerful, unpredictable undercurrents could overpower a man in seconds. Zhang Heng was surprised when he saw how willing the mysterious man was to risk his life just to shake him off.


    The more important thing was that Zhang Heng already knew who the person was. He could just go and look for him tomorrow. Zhang Heng did not want to go into the river simply because he did not want to get his clothes and game items wet.

 Chapter 641 - Life of a High School Student

    <strong>Chapter 641 Life of a High School Student</strong>


    The hour and minute hand on his watch met, pointing to zero together.


    Zhang Heng received a system reminder in his sleep and learned that his quest time had been extended from 20 days to 140 days. Since it was set in the modern-day, the prolonged game time had undoubtedly more pros than cons. In other words, there was now more time to explore this dungeon. He could hone his skills, and at the same time, there was no need for taking additional risks.


    However, was this quest as peaceful as it portrayed?


    The rm woke Zhang Heng up early the next morning


    Having left high school life for quite a while, he would need some time to get used to the grind again-waking up early every morning, then gobbling down breakfast as fast as possible before the mad rush to school. Returning to high school all of a sudden made him a little ufortable, not to mention that yesterday��s homework was upleted.


    Aftering back from the riverst night, he wanted toplete his homework, but the moment he looked at them, he found that he had forgotten a lot of things. So he gave up on doing itpletely.


    After breakfast, Zhang Heng grabbed his schoolbag, said hello to his grandfather, and left for school.


    Although he knew who the person under the bridge��s pier fromst night was, he didn��t immediately confront the person. The first reason was that the person would not run away from this ce for now, and the second was that everything seemed normal in this dungeon so far. Nheless, Zhang Heng made sure that his guard stayed up all the time.


    On the bright side, at least he had not done anything beyond his status as a student yet.


    After waited for a while, Zhang Heng finally got on the bus. There were many students and office workers who went on the same bus. One of the girls with pigtails took advantage of the time to memorize some texts. When the bus became too crowded, the driver shouted, ��Stand back a little! Stand back a little!��


    Zhang Heng had no choice but to move half a step toward the pigtailed girl. The two were almost sticking together. She then raised her head and looked at Zhang Heng. Immediately, he showed an apologetic smile to her. The girl with pigtails quickly lowered her head to the point it almost got buried in the textbook.


    Zhang Heng had been taking this route for some time now, and this wasn��t his first time encountering her. Judging from the textbook she was holding, she should be a year older than him. In reality, however, Zhang Heng had never spoken to her, nor did he know her name until shepleted her college entrance examination.


    The purpose of this quest was not for Zhang Heng to relive the memories of high school. Seeing that the girl was well into her textbook, he didn��t intend to disturb her. So, the two stood close together until they arrived at the school. Zhang Heng was encumbered by the crowd and had to squeeze his way to get off the bus. He tidied up his slightly messy clothes and looked at the familiar yet unfamiliar school gate. The current time was 7:15, only five minutes left before the day��s sses began.


    Knowing he could bete, Zhang Heng picked up the pace like the other students around him. He found his ss by memory, and not long after he put down his schoolbag, the bell rang. Zhang Heng had traversed many quests, and he had also done all sorts of odd jobs. However, the busiest job was none other than a high school student.


    This was the kind of life where you opened your eyes every day, and the day was fully arranged. However, the magical part was that although everyone was super busy every day, they still managed to squeeze out some time to engage in rtionships. It was as if everyone had 48 hours a day.


    Zhang Heng felt a little dizzy after a day of ss, not to mention his summoning to the office by many teachers since he failed to hand in his homework. Fortunately, he had not caused too much trouble, making a good impression of himself in front of his teachers. Zhang Heng told the teachers that he was not feeling too well, the most effective excuse to avoid reprimand. However, this was just a temporary solution.


    Fortunately, Zhang Heng had someone that he knew sitting beside him. Her name is Bai Qing, a friend who happened to be the ss studymittee member.


    ��Are you okay? Did Teacher Song scold you?�� asked Bai Qing with concern as she looked at Zhang Heng, who had just returned from the office. She was the one who had notified Zhang Heng to go to the office earlier.


    ��I told them I had a feverst night.��


    ��You were sickst night?�� Bai Qing was a little surprised. ��No.��


    ILL


    ��Then, you��d betterplete your homework next time. If you just get good grades, the teachers will stoping after you. And you won��t be so lucky next time,�� Bai Qing reminded. Apparently, she hadn��t forgotten her duties as a member of the studymittee.


    And Bai Qing could not figure out why Zhang Heng gave her a different feeling today. Unlike before, Zhang Heng was obviously absent-minded in ss. He paid not the slightest attention to the lessons, whether it be math or English. He did not even bother to open the textbooks on his table. Although Zhang Heng would asionally let his mind wander, this was Bai Qing��s first time seeing him being so disconnected for the whole day. She also noticed that he would write something down in the textbook with a pen from time to time, only to cross it out a momentter.


    Zhang Heng acknowledged Bai Qing. The girl thought that he would heed her advice, constantly feeling that he was different from the other boys in the ss. He had a kind of maturity that did not match his age, as if he knew what needed to be done all the time. After a while, she heard Zhang Heng asking her a shocking question.


    ��Can I copy your homework?��


    IL11


    Upon his request, Bai Qing was speechless. ��The teacher is no fool. He can tell that you��ve copied someone,�� she replied.


    ��It makes sense. I shall borrow another person��s homework to copy from it.��


    It was troublesome enough toe to school every day without knowing what was going on. Zhang Heng was in no mood to do homework school like before. Although he had an extra 24 hours every day, he had no intention to abuse himself.


    ��Copying from multiple copies of homework... is not the solution, either,�� Bai Qing frowned. ��You will suffer in the exams. You can��t lie to yourself when ites to learning.�� As she spoke, she handed her homework and examination papers to Zhang Heng.


    Ordinarily, Bai Qing could sit at her seat for a long time to finish up her homework. During the break, Zhang Heng had never once seen her leave except for toilet visits and fetching water. By the end of the school day, her homework would have been almost done.


    ��Thank you,�� Zhang Heng nodded and took the workbook. ��I will treat you to a cup of milk teater.��


    ��Coco?��


    ��Whatever you want.��


    ��I want a double portion of boba pearls. How about English and Biology homework? I haven��tpleted them yet,�� Bai Qing offered.


    ��I canplete English by myself. As for biology, can youe to school early tomorrow morning?��


    ��Yes,�� Bai Qing nodded. Seeing Zhang Heng grabbing his bag, she hesitated and let out a ��Hmm...��


    ��Why? Is there anything else?��


    ��I will help you... for a week at most. After that, you will have to do your own homework.��


    Looking at Bai Qing��s serious expressions, Zhang Heng did not defend himself. He simply nodded and said, ��I will see if I can find another way then.��

 Chapter 642 - Contact

    <strong>Chapter 642 Contact</strong>


    After school was finally over, Zhang Heng returned home with his schoolbag.


    Instead of going home, as usual, he decided to pay the college hostel a visit. Although the student��s face was coveredst night, Zhang Heng could recognize him from his clothes. His Adidas sweatpants and the T-shirt printed with the word ��Underground�� had exposed his identity. He was wearing the same set of attire when Zhang Heng saw him in the convenience store.


    Zhang Heng knew thatst night, the college student had to be targeting him because he told no one about his n to go to the river to investigate the drownings. He had driven his grandfather��s car to the river, not to mention the rtively remote surroundings of the route he picked. While on the way to the river, only an asional car would pass him by.


    Let alone sneak under the bridge pier when he was standing by the riverbank, Zhang Heng clung to the fact that the college student had arrived there than himst night. When the student saw Zhang Heng parking his car beside the river, he quickly hid underneath the pier. Hence, there were now questions to be answered. Why was the college student on the riverst night? What was the rtionship between him and the three drowned children?


    Why was the college student so scared when he saw Zhang Heng? He even risked his life to jump into the water. Probably, he was the only one that had answers to these questions. Zhang Heng knocked on the door of the student��s house, but there was no response. His parents were still at work at this hour, an indicator that he should be home alone now.


    If memory served him right, Zhang Heng remembered that the student would practically stay at home all day ever since he was discharged from the mental hospital. Other than buying cigarettes, he wouldn��t go anywhere else. Since he just swam in the riverst night, there was no reason for him to wander around today.


    So Zhang Heng continued to knock on the door.


    After a while, Zhang Heng heard a feeble voice. ��My parents are not at home. Pleasee backter.��


    ��I��m here to find you,�� Zhang Heng did not beat around the bush, ��I knew it was youst night. We have to talk.��


    As soon as his voice fell, he heard some weird tteringing from inside, seeming as if things were knocked around. With a hint of panic, the student��s voice came through the door. ��I don��t know what you are talking about. Hold on. I will open the door for you.��


    Zhang Heng raised his eyebrows and rested his ear on the door.


    After listening for a while, he turned around, walked down the stairs, and left the building. After that, he walked to the west, looked up, and saw the window of a college student��s house on the second floor was opened. A man carrying a Sailor Moon schoolbag had his back facing him.


    The college student was holding the window sill and was almostpletely out of the windowpletely. One of his legs was on the air conditioner��spressor, and the other was trying to move it off the window sill.


    It seemed the student wasn��t one that fancied exercise. It took him quite some time toplete the action. Zhang Heng watched him struggle for a while and started to wonder if his leg had cramped up. For his safety, Zhang Heng had to speak out loud, ��You can move your leg to the left first.��


    The student was startled when he heard the voice from behind him, almost falling off the second floor.


    Giving up on the idea of getting out from the second floor, he attempted to crawl back into the house. Due to how anxious he had be, the leg that was stepping on thepressor did not exert enough strength, and it caused him to step on the empty space.


    Fortunately, someone helped him to get back into the house at this critical moment. It was from Zhang Heng. When the college student started screaming, Zhang Heng quickly returned to the home to give him a hand.


    The college student was trembling. Fearing for his life, he repeated the same phrase again and again, ��I don��t know anything! I don��t know anything!��


    Zhang Heng quickly closed the window after he pulled him back into the house. Fortunately, it happened so fast that no one from themunity had spotted them.


    Afterward, Zhang Heng took out the newspaper page about the drownings and threw it in front of the college student.


    ��Tell me, what do you have to do with this.��


    The moment the college student saw the headline of the news, he knelt on the ground and cried, ��Let me go. I know I��m at fault. I don��t know what the hell is wrong with me. Maybe I��ve been cooped out in the house for too long. I just wanted to get some fresh air! I��ve been cooped up inside the house for too long.��


    Zhang Heng frowned. Although the guy was dressed like a crazy person, it seemed his mind was still sound. And he still knew how to do things logically. When he heard that Zhang Heng was here to look for him, he immediately turned to the window, and he even lied before he tried to escape. If Zhang Heng had not heard his footsteps moving to another room, he might have been deceived by him. ��What actually happened to them?�� Zhang Heng asked.


    However, no matter what he said, the college student only knew how to beg for mercy. And he even took off his pants while he was talking, and his squatting posture gave off the impression that he wanted to perform some hardcore stuff.


    Just when Zhang Heng wanted to say something, he heard the sound of the key being inserted into the keyhole.


    For unknown reasons, the college student��s parents came home early today. Zhang Heng knew that he could not stay any longer, so he had to escape through the window. However, before leaving, Zhang Heng caught a glimpse of the college student��s face, and he was a little surprised.


    Instead of showing any sign of relief, the fear in the student��s eyes had amplified, just like when he ran away from Zhang Heng at the pierst night. All his pores were closed tight. This time, there was nowhere for him to run to.


    It was a pity that Zhang Heng could not talk to him anymore because the door was slowly opening. Zhang Heng took advantage of thest minute to jump out of the window, stepping on the air-conditioner��spressor. With backpack on his back, Zhang Heng and looked back at the window.


    He saw a woman there, the mother of the college student. Like all the kind neighbors in the neighborhood, she smiled sweetly at Zhang Heng before closing the window and drawing the curtains.


    Zhang Heng could no longer see what was going on in that room.


    After Zhang Heng returned home, he threw his schoolbag into the bedroom. At that time, his grandpa also happened to walk out of the yard, holding a container that had some vegetables that had just been pulled out of the ground. He also carried some soil.


    Zhang Heng took out a bottle of yogurt from the refrigerator and asked, ��Do you know anything about the college student?�� ��Which college student?��


    ��The one whos mentally ill.�� ��Oh, him. It��s a pity.�� Grandpa said, ��He had so much potential. He majored in mechanical engineering at Harbin Institute of Technology. He was supposed to be an engineer. It��s a shame that he lost his mind.��


    ��How did he be crazy?��


    ��I heard that he had a rtionship problem. His first girlfriend broke up with him and married someone else. At his young age, he couldn��t get over it. Hence he lost his mind gradually. During his most severe episode, he grabbed a kitchen knife from his house and shouted that he would kill anyone who approached him. His parents had no choice but to send him to a mental hospital for treatment. After he was released, he could finally control his emotions, but he was a broken man,�� Grandpa shook his head.

 Chapter 643 - Night Visit

    <strong>Chapter 643 Night Visit</strong>


    Zhang Heng inquired about the college student from his grandfather.


    On the surface, there was nothing out of the ordinary. From the reason that drove him into madness to being sent to a mental hospital, it appeared the decision had been all but his parents��st resort. Despite that, Zhang Heng couldn��t see how his parents were harming him.


    Zhang Heng also remembered his grandfather telling him about the college student who lost his mind. He was at school the afternoon at the time of the incident, and it was talk of the entire neighborhood for a week. The student��s parents seemed deeply saddened by this incident, so Zhang Heng��s grandpa visited them, hoping to offer somefort.


    If that was the case, Zhang Heng could not exin the student��s terrified expression when he heard the door opening. After Zhang Hengpleted the Deductive Reasoning quest, his observation skill had significantly improved, and saw that the student��s fear was genuine, the sort of fear that emerged from the depths of the soul.


    It meant the student was indeed afraid of the person behind the door, just like how he turned and ran after seeing Zhang Heng from under the bridge pier. He must have thought that he��de across someone like his parents.


    The whole incident only seemed to get more interesting. Zhang Heng was now sure that gradually, he was getting more involved in the main quest of this dungeon.


    Undoubtedly, the college student was the key to it.


    Hence, Zhang Heng nned to pay him a visit againter tonight.


    ��You should leave the yogurt at room temperature for a while. I don��t want you to catch a cold,�� said grandpa while walking into the kitchen with the drain basket he used to wash vegetables.


    After a long wait, the hour hand finally pointed at twelve.


    There was almost no difference between this world and the real one. If the time did not stop, it would be almost impossible to tell which world he was in.


    As he did the previous night, Zhang Heng sneaked out of the living room carrying a backpack on his back.


    After considering the possibility that a battle might ur, he brought along his Pestilence Bone Bow and Paris Arrow. Instead of going through the main entrance, Zhang Heng climbed from the west wall to the second floor and tapped lightly on the college student��s room window.


    Zhang Heng had already found out earlier on that this was the student��s bedroom. Thetter had probably left the house from this very roomst night. Nheless, simr to what happened during the day, there was no one there to answer him.


    Zhang Heng knew that the student did not believe him. Right now, the unwell man seemed to be in a state of extreme paranoia, unable to trust anyone but himself. It might why he chose to stay at home all the time.


    Zhang Heng was well prepared for a situation like this. Since the student was unwilling to open the window, Zhang Heng decided to pry it open. First, he threw his backpack into the room, making sure he wasn��t being ambushed.


    Even if the student had a knife and was waiting to stab him, Zhang Heng was not worried. The man seemed frail, and it would be difficult for him to harm anyone even if he stood face to face with them. To be cautious, however, Zhang Heng did not jump into the room immediately after his backpacknded. He first took a quick nce around the room, and to his surprise, nobody was there.


    The room was in an awful mess. The quilt on the bed was undone, and ubwashed tes and bowls were stacked on theputer desk. It was exactly the kind of room where its owner spent most of his time there. Even more of a shame were many poorly maintained action figures andics scattered all over the floor. Other than that, Zhang Heng caught sight of a slipper and the door that was slightly opened.


    Given the degree of fear the student had toward his parents, Zhang Heng couldn��t have imagined that he��d leave the door slightly ajar, something that would only serve to increase his psychological trauma.


    Zhang Heng quickly realized that the student might not have left the room under his own will.


    Instantly, he became vignt, grabbing the Pestilence Bone Bow on his back as he strung the Paris Arrow onto it. When he passed theputer desk, he grabbed a Lego Gundam on theputer table and shoved it into his backpack.


    To put his Infinite Building Block into use, other Lego bricks had to be built around it. However, a box of Lego was too way too expensive for a high school student, and there was no way he could afford it. Hence, all he could do was borrow the bricks from the college student first.


    Zhang Heng then pushed the door lightly, and with a creak, the door started to open. He found another slipper under the sofa as he walked into the living room.


    At this point, he could basically deduce what happened earlier-something or someone must have dragged the college student out of his room. The guy must have struggled a lot, exining the scattered books and figurines. Amid his futile attempts to free himself, he had inadvertently kicked off one of his slippers in his room and left the other in the living room.


    Zhang Heng even found a lock of hair by the sofa. It appeared that whatever that had dragged him out of his room must have been very strong. A sinking feeling started welling from within Zhang Heng��s heart.


    Perhaps he shouldn��t have left him alone during the day. Zhang Heng thought that the student would be fine since he only left for a few hours. Now it seemed the decision had robbed the student of hisst chance to survive.


    Stuffing the lock of hair into his pocket, Zhang Heng looked around the living room as quickly as he could. Suddenly, he heard a noiseing from the kitchen behind him, prompting him to turn around. It was then that he saw a shadow on the frosted ss of the kitchen door. The silhouette stood there, staring at him with the coldest of stares.


    Even at this moment, Zhang Heng managed to remain calm. He did not back up when he saw the silhouette. Instead, he kicked the door open.


    Just as he was ready to fight, he discovered it had been a false rm.


    The silhouette turned out to be a mop. The moonlight casting a shadow on the ss door, coupled with a wild cat, had probably caused the sound. Zhang Heng, however, did not let his guard down. He had a strange feeling that the whole thing was only getting weirder.


    When he kicked the door, the loud noise should have woken up the other people in the house. But until now, there was no movement in the master bedroom.


    Zhang Heng did not hesitate. Since he was here, he might as well check out the master bedroom. If he did not figure out what happened to the college student, it would be difficult to know more about the aliens he needed to deal with in the main quest.


    So Zhang Heng covered his face with a facemask before entering the master bedroom. Then he held his bow and arrow and walked towards the master bedroom.


    If someone called the police now, not only would the authorities use him of trespassing, but they would charge him for attempted murder as well. When Zhang Heng walked into the master bedroom, however, he realized that his worries were unnecessary. The room was empty as well.


    The college student was not the only one that went missing, but also his parents.


    It was hard to imagine any family would go out together at this hour when most people were already asleep. Maybe they had an emergency that required them to leave the house. After a while, Zhang Heng��s eyes were attracted by the bed.


    There was nothing strange about this bed, save for it being a little too tidy. Especially the bed sheet-it wasn��t wrinkled. Someone must have spent a reasonable amount of time to tidy up the bed. When Zhang Hengpared the master bedroom with what he saw in the living room and the college student��s room, it did not make sense that the master bedroom was so tidy and clean.


    This showed that the owner was not at all anxious when he tidied up the room, as if he was about to go on vacation.

 Chapter 644 - Thought It Through

    <strong>Chapter 644 Thought It Through</strong>


    Zhang Heng was woken up by the rm clock beside his bed.


    The bad news was that he needed to be in school today to relive his high school life. There was a silver lining though. Today was Friday, and the weekend break was finally on the horizon if he were to hang in school for another day.


    Zhang Heng yawned. He was a little sleep-deprived, having spent quite a long time at the college student��s housest night. He wanted to try his luck and wait for the student or his parents toe home, but astonishingly, after waiting until five in the morning, none of them returned to the house.


    To avoid being discovered by his grandfather, Zhang Heng had to sneak back to his house when the sky began to light up. Initially, he wanted to lie down for a while, but he remembered that he still needed to copy biology homework from someone else. So, he forced himself out of bed and gave his face a ssh of cold water to feel better.


    Seeing that he was runningte, Zhang Heng gulped down two mouthfuls of soy milk, took a fried dough stick, and hurried out while carrying his schoolbag.


    ��Eat slowly, and... don��t stay upte to read novels next time,�� Grandpa advised while flipping through his newspaper. ��Anyway, the author stopped updating the novel,�� Zhang Heng replied to grandpa while changing shoes.


    Although he had left home today a little earlier, the bus did not arrive on time, meaning he wouldn��t arrive at school earlier than he did yesterday. On the contrary, Bai Qing, the one willing to lend Zhang Heng her homework, had been more attentive, arriving almost twenty minutes earlier than him. When she saw him walking into the ssroom, she raised her eyebrows.


    ��Sorry for getting upte. I forgot to buy you a cup of milk tea. I will make it up in the afternoon.�� With one hand, Zhang Heng put down his school bag and pulled out the chair with the other.


    ��It doesn��t matter. You won��t be going anywhere soon anyway.�� Bai Qing handed over the biology workbook to Zhang Heng. ��You shouldplete your homework first. I will take it back after the morning reading session.��


    ��Thank you,�� he replied. At that moment, he realized how important it really was to have a good tablemate.


    ��I will help you keep an eye out for Teacher Han.��


    Although a kind soul by nature, she was a member of the studymittee, and hence, hadn��t done such a thing before. Instead of looking at the teacher, she couldn��t help but catch a glimpse of him from time to time. As a result, it had now caught the attention of the teacher. Fortunately, Zhang Heng had high efficacy for copying, and by the end of the morning reading session, he managed toplete his homework.


    So the second day of his high school life, Zhang Heng finally turned in his homework on time.


    ��What did you dost night?�� Bai Qing said while doing her math homework during the break.


    ��Hmm?��


    ��We have only gone through two sses. And I lost count of how many times you yawned. You are affecting me,��ined a frowning Bai Qing while moving the bangs covering her forehead aside.


    ��I was at my friend��s house for a while.�� ��For a while?�� Bai Qing erased an auxiliary line with an eraser, her frown only getting deeper.


    ��Well, until dawn.��


    ��Huh,�� Bai Qing snorted, adding the other two auxiliary lines, and wrote down the answer. After a while, she poked Zhang Heng��s arm with a pen. ��Is it a girl or a boy?��


    ��A brother, seven or eight years older than


    me.��


    ��Pfft! You expect me to believe that?�� Bai Qing rolled her eyes.


    ��The truth usually sounds unbelievable,�� replied Zhang Heng.


    His mind appeared to be absent that morning, not only because hecked sleep, but he was still trying to figure out what took cest night. Initially, Zhang Heng thought that the student was the one with the problems. Now, it seemed like his parents were the ones who had bigger issues.


    Had they grown suspicious of him because of what happened yesterday afternoon?


    Zhang Heng was confident with his skills, extremely certain that he had acted fast enough. When the student��s mother entered the room, she couldn��t have seen him jump out the window. However, the possibility that the college student told his parents about it couldn��t be ruled out.


    Other than that, it seemed that it was no coincidence that the student��s mother left work yesterday. She probably wasn��t there for him, but there was an 80% chance that the mother found out that he left home the night before. After all, the student was forced to jump into the river, and his clothes and socks must have been soaking wet. It wasn��t easy trying to sneak into the house without anyone finding out.


    What happenedst night might have had something to do with this incident. For now, Zhang Heng was unsure how the college student and the three drowning children were connected. Right now, what he worried about the most was the safety of the college student.


    After school was over, Bai Qing halted Zhang Heng, who was in a big hurry to leave the ssroom.


    ��Eh, what do you want to do with your homework? Do you still want to copy it? I can��t finish the weekend��s homework in a day.�� ��Can I have your address? I cane on Sunday,�� replied Zhang Heng as he stopped to think for a while. ��Well, on Sunday I��m going to watch a movie and go shopping with a friend. We��re just going over to Wanda za. Can we meet there?��


    ��Sounds good to me.��


    ��We��ll continue this on WeChat then.�� Bai Qing, too, stuffed the books on the table into her backpack. ��Are you in a rush to meet your girlfriend?�� she muttered.


    II


    II


    Having learned his lesson, Zhang Heng took a taxi home this time. It also meant he had spent his weeks�� worth of pocket money, the price he had to pay if he wanted to talk to the college student again before his parents got off work. Before he could do that, he had to be sure that the student was even alive in the first ce.


    No doubt, Zhang Heng was worried about him; it was also true that killing someone in modern society would be almost impossible without word getting around.


    Unless the student��s parents were criminal masterminds, they wouldn��t have taken the route of murder. Amid worrying for the student��s safety, Zhang Heng unexpectedly met somebody who looked like the student walking into the convenience store. ��Please pull over,�� Zhang Heng told the taxi driver.


    He quickly scanned the QR code to pay the fare and got out of the cab. Even before entering the store, Zhang Heng could confirm that the person inside was indeed the college student. However, he looked better than usual. He had shaved, changed a shirt, and was no longer wearing slippers. Now he looked like a top-tier college graduate. Standing in front of the cashier, he was talking to her. While they were talking, she lowered her head shyly and smiled. Zhang Heng then pushed open the ss door of the convenience store, and the doorbell rang.


    A look of disappointment shed across the cashierdy��s face, but she still did not forget to greet her customer. ��Wee.��


    ��Your name is Zhang... Zhang Heng, right?�� The college student turned around, and he no longer panicked when he saw Zhang Heng. Instead, he seemed polite. While smiling, he stretched out his hand, ��I remember you. You are Uncle Cheng��s grandson, right?��


    ��Hmm.�� Zhang Heng shook hand with him.


    His temperature and skin looked fine. Yesterday was the first time Zhang Heng approached the college student, and the man in front of him did look exactly like who he saw. In other words, he was indeed the college student that he encountered at the bridge pier.


    Zhang Heng pointed at his head, ��You feel better?��


    ��Yeah, I finally thought it through. I was so stupid. Love is not everything,�� the college student smiled bitterly. ��When I was in college, I could solve all kinds of problems, even winning the grand prize for our national physicspetition. I didn��t expect that this simplest of problems would bother me for so long.��

 Chapter 645 - Unknowns and Suspicion

    <strong>Chapter 645 Unknowns and Suspicion</strong>


    Zhang Heng looked at the college student in front of him. Thetter was akin to the proverbial inspirational protagonist from a soap opera who had ovee many difficulties, defeated mental illness, and finally regained a new life. All the gloominess that surrounded him seemed to have gone.


    He stood there, talking about how he overcame all the difficulties that he faced in his life, even mentioning how bad he felt for allowing his parents and friends to be worried sick of him. His emotions, actions, or expressions were wless, and judging by thedy cashier��s response; it appeared that the prodigal son had now returned.


    Mental illness could be categorized as a disease itself. Only a minute fraction of people could heal themselves, and it usually took a very long time.


    The college student had been staying at home for so long, rarely leaving his bedroom. Zhang Heng, who had just met him yesterday afternoon and the night before, knew his condition showed no signs of improving. He still remembered that the student even took off his pants in front of him to y dumb. And with the sound of the key being inserted into the keyhole, the look of horror on the student��s face wasn��t something he could make up.


    In a span of less than a day, however, the student made a miraculous recovery. After a night��s disappearance, he abruptly reappeared, and he threw himself right into the public��s embrace again. No matter how one looked at it, something was not right. But before Zhang Heng confronted him, he pointed at the side of the student��s head, ��Where did your hair go?�� ��Oh, I identally tripped and fell on the coffee table earlier. The doctor had to shave a bit of my hair before he stitched up the wound,�� the student exined, moving aside the hair that covered the wound. Zhang Heng saw the stitches.


    ��Oh, does it hurt?�� Thedy cashier girl said with concern. ��I also heard that someone broke into your house. Was your injury from a fight with the thief?��


    ��No, the thief had already left when we woke up,�� replied the college student with a shake of the head. ��I fell while tidying the houseter on.��


    Zhang Heng knew that the college student was lying because he noticed that the hair had clearly been ripped-off violently. His hair, alongside some blood stains and scalp tissue, had been kept in a Ziploc bag inside Zhang Heng��s bag. And his family was not even at homest night.


    One thing left Zhang Heng wondering, though �C how did the student change overnight from a person cowering in fear and begging for mercy into a man so good at making up stories. Even Zhang Heng, who hadpleted the Deductive Reasoning quest, saw no weaknesses in him.


    The college student had almost be apletely different person.


    Suddenly, Zhang Heng thought of something. He took an ice-cream from the freezer on the side and handed it to thedy cashier. At the same time, he said to the college student, ��I don��t have enough change in my e-wallet. Can you pay for me first?��.


    ��No problem,�� the student chirped cheerily. ��We are all neighbors in this small area. And I have caused you guys some trouble before,�� he added while taking out his wallet.


    Zhang Heng raised his eyebrows and said nothing. Now, he was convinced that not only was the man in front of him telling the truth. The student had to be apletely different person since he didn��t couldn��t recall how Zhang Heng paid the one yuan when he bought a pack of cigarettes two days ago. When Zhang Heng asked him a favor, the student would have surely mentioned the incident.


    Was this a precursor to what he had to deal with throughout the duration of the quest?


    A creature that could morph into another person and rece the person.


    And others hardly noticed. Judging by thedy cashier��s reaction, she obviously was oblivious to the fact that this was a different person she was talking to.


    Hence, some things began to make some sense now. The college student must have been so afraid of his parents because they weren��t actually his parents. All his troubles had nothing to do with the so-called emotional entanglement. That had to be the real cause of his mental illness.


    No one was willing to believe him. After all, if he had not seen it with his own eyes, Zhang Heng himself would be having difficulties believing that something so bizarre could happen.


    It was unimaginable how the student could live with his fake parents after getting discharged from the mental hospital. Under the intense psychological pressure he had been subjected to, it was a miracle he didn��t go insane.


    Now, it seemed that whatever little luck he had would end here.


    Justst night, what happened to his parents finally happened to him. Despite the truth being out, Zhang Heng did not immediately act on it.


    He was faced with the same predicament the college student once struggled with. All of the above had been Zhang Heng��s spection so far. He couldn��t prove that the college student was not the original one. There was simply no difference between the two, and Zhang Heng had no idea what sort of alien enemy he faced and what methods they used to rece the student. Was it some cloning technology, or were they parasitic, mind-controlling creatures?


    If he were to attack the student now, there were consequences he needed to consider. Although this quest had a shorter duration than his previous ones, he still had to be here for 140 days. This ce wasn��t like the vast West of the 19th-century United States. He could not just go into hiding after killing someone.


    Zhang Heng was also oblivious to the number of enemies he faced. Other than the college student and his family, who else were under the control of these aliens? It appeared that the best course of action was for him to stay low for the time being. He needed to collect more evidence to carry on with the investigation.


    Of course, having to stay vignt at all times was a given. Judging from the college student��s reaction, he did not seem to know what happened before. Desperate to live to the next day, Zhang Heng was unclear if the original student told his fake parents about him.


    In a worst-case scenario, his identity had been exposed. Many preparations had to be done in advance in the face of the most unfavorable oue. Zhang Heng took his ice-cream from thedy cashier, thanked the college student, and left the convenience store with his schoolbag on his back.


    Although Zhang Heng did not look back, he was sure that the fake college student was watching him from behind.


    It was a bad feeling. And more importantly, after discovering that the student had been silently reced, Zhang Heng suddenly realized that perhaps he could only rely on himself in this quest because he did not know who else he could trust.


    It had been a long time since he encountered a situation as such. As of now, he did not know who his enemies were, where they came from, and how many of them he was up against.


    Going against them wasn��t the scary part. The unknowns and suspicions were the most threatening factors Zhang Heng had to endure in this quest.


    When Zhang Heng opened the door and looked at grandpa practicing calligraphy on the table, he suddenly felt that the old man looked a little strange.

 Chapter 646 - Survelliance

    <h4>Chapter 646 Survelliance</h4>


    Including the time he spent in the previous quest, Zhang Heng realized that he had been away from home for a long time.


    It had been so long that he had forgotten the finer details of the old man when he used to live with him. His grandfather at that time undoubtedly looked younger��the world had developed rapidly over the years, and science and technology had advanced at a pace faster than anyone could imagine. None of those factors affected grandpa, though. In defiance to the test of time, he still kept many of his old habits.


    Grandpa had always been a rtively old-school man. Time had not changed him one bit.


    When the elderly man heard the door opening, he called out without looking up. ��You��re home earlier than usual.��


    ��The rice is in the pot,�� he continued. ��We��ll be having curry chicken tonight; scoop as much as you can eat.��


    ��Okay,�� Zhang Heng responded. He then changed his shoes without putting down his schoolbag and went straight into the kitchen to get himself a bowl of rice with curry gravy on top of it. After that, he went to his room with his food.


    Grandpa did not say much about when he saw Zhang Heng bringing his food back to his room. However, he reminded, ��Make sure a single grain of rice doesn��t fall to the ground.��


    After Zhang Heng closed his room door, the first thing he did was disassemble the Lego Gundam that he acquired recently. Once it was done, he reassembled them into a brick kitten. And when he inserted the Infinite Building Block, the Lego kitten instantly bounced to life. It started licking its paw after it was put on the ground, and it wanted to squeeze itself into the box used to store Zhang Heng��s test papers.


    Zhang Heng ignored the feline. He ced a paper towel on the floor, then put a potato and some rice on it. The kitten didn��t seem too very interested in curry, sneezing after it gave the gravy a sniff. In the end, it did finish eating the small spoonful of potatoes and rice. Zhang Heng then released it and watched it scurry around the house. After waiting for a while, he saw that the cat had no adverse reactions to the food.


    Zhang Heng felt that he had be overly sensitive.


    If his grandpa in this quest had been reced by something else, Zhang Heng figured that it would barge into his room while he was sleeping-just like what they did to the college student. Going through all that trouble to poison his food didn��t seem necessary.


    After eating up the remaining curry chicken rice, he took the te to the kitchen and washed it clean.


    ��Qin Zhen wants to meet me. I��ll be going out for a bitter,�� he told grandpa. ��Don��te back toote.��


    ��Okay. Don��t wait up for me. Just sleep at your usual time. I have the key.��


    After that, he returned to his bedroom, waiting a while before turning back the kitten into a pile of Lego building blocks and stuffing them into his schoolbag. This time, Zhang Heng had swiftly prepared the things he needed to bring with him. Other than the usual game items, he brought a USB sh drive as well.


    For the next part of his investigation, Zhang Heng started by checking the CCTV footage. Last night, the college student��s entire family disappeared into thin air. It was impossible to leave the residence without leaving any traces when dozens of security cameras had been installed in the corridors. Judging from how badly the student had been struggling at that time, it was clear that he did not want to be taken away. Bringing a person out of the neighborhood against his will without being seen or heard would be almost impossible.


    The most likely scenario was that the college student had been stuffed into the car��s trunk. After that, his fake parents left the neighborhood with the car. There were also CCTV cameras installed at the neighborhood��s entrance and exit, and if that were the case, their movements should have been captured.


    To investigate the footage, Zhang Heng knocked on the door of the monitoring room.


    ��Coming!�� a voice responded. The person inside put down his bowl, slipped on his flops, and walked over. After a while, the person opened the door and poked his head out. ��What��s the matter?��


    ��I lost my phone, and I want to check the CCTV footage.��


    A young man, the control room guard, was not much older than Zhang Heng and had just started working here less than half a year ago when he heard Zhang Heng��s request, a deep frown formed across his brow. ��I can��t allow you to do that. You��ll have toe with a police officer if you want to check the CCTV footage. It��s a rule that the residents of our neighborhood are not allowed to watch the security recordings.��


    ��The police won��t care that I��ve lose my mobile phone. At most, I can only file a report. You show me the footage. If I don��t see it, I won��t bother to make a report, eh?�� replied Zhang Heng


    The zealous young man in charge of the control room shook his head. ��No, no, rules are rules. If I let you in, I will be fired tomorrow.�� The guard then closed the door.


    But the next moment, a hand blocked the door that was about to close.


    ��I will make you a deal,�� Zhang Heng went on.


    ��It��s not about money,�� the young man harrumphed confidently with an awe-inspiring sense of justice. ��The leader has asked me to supervise this area because I am a man of principle.�� ��I��m not nning to bribe you either. The deal is��you let me check the CCTV footage, and I won��t expose your dirty little secret.�� The incident in question would happen two monthster. The young guard had secretly recorded a couple of surveince clips when he was on duty in the control room. Instead of copying them into his sh drive, he decided to record the footage with his mobile phonemainly surveince clips of attractive female residents living in the neighborhood. Since it was now summer, many women wore loose-fitting clothes. And the angle the CCTV cameras pointed at endeared him with the best view of them.


    It was not untilter that he got drunk and showed-off the recorded videos to others. Once the matter got exposed, the property agency fired him immediately. The incident had created an uproar in themunity at that time, and Zhang Heng still vaguely remembered bits and pieces of it.


    In fact, the real estate agency also shared part of the responsibility. They did, in fact, hire two people to work in the control room, but the other person happened to be a rtive of the agency��s higher-ups. Thetter was paid every month, but he would never show up at work. This had opened up opportunities for the young man to make those mistakes.


    Before he got fired, he recorded those surveince clips for his personal pleasure, not expecting anybody to find out about his dirty little secret. The young guard��s expression had changed drastically. ��You, what did you just say?��.


    ��You really think no one will know about the horrible things you��ve done?�� Zhang Heng saw the young man put his hand into his pocket, attempting to destroy the evidence, and instantly grabbed his arm. ��What are you trying to do?! I warn you, don��t use violence on me,�� the young guard warned sternly. Seeing that Zhang Heng was all but a student, he tried to break free, but little did he expect his opponent had such great strength. He simply couldn��t break free no matter how hard he tried.


    ��You can continue to shout... shout louder. I want to see which one of us would end up worse in the end,�� Zhang Heng replied in a calm tone.


    The young man was in a dilemma. Not too long after that, he gave up resisting, nervously looking around his surroundings instead. When he saw that nobody had been paying attention to them, he said, ��Come in first.��


    Zhang Heng knew that he had gotten the deal. He then followed the young man into the control room.


    ��Let mey some ground rules. You can only have 20... no, 15 minutes top to look at the CCTV footage. And you can��t make a copy.��


    Although the young guard had sumbed to Zhang Heng, he insisted on mounting a little resistance, all in the name of stroking his ego.


    ��Let me take a look at the CCTV footage first.�� Zhang Heng was not bothered by the young man. He was threatening the young man with his dirty little secret. In other words, he could just ignore the rules that were set by him.

 Chapter 647 - Suspicion

    <strong>Chapter 647 Suspicion</strong>


    ��When did you lose your phone?�� ��Last night,�� Zhang Heng answered. ��Uhh... which building do you live in?��


    Zhang Heng gave the number of the college student amodations to the guard.


    ��Unit 2, Block 5?�� The guard sounded surprised. ��Why? What is it?��


    ��Ah, err... no... nothing.�� The guard was about to say something, but in the end, he mped his mouth shut.


    Zhang Heng reckoned that this man must have filmed someone from the building in secret, and although it had left an impression on him, he was afraid to talk about it.


    Pretending as if he had not heard the overtone, Zhang Heng watched quietly as the guard picked out yesterday night��s recording. The young man then suddenly hesitated. ��Actually, this recording is useless.��


    ��Now why would you say that?��


    ��You��ve probably heard about the student who just got discharged from the mental institution, right? Early this morning, they reported that a thief had entered their house, prompting the police toe and check the recording. ��Did they find anything?��


    ��No. The police suspected that the thief circumvented the camera��s blind spots and climbed upstairs from there. Fortunately, nothing was taken, so the police didn��t investigate any further.��


    Zhang Heng raised his brows but made noment. He sped up the video and watched until the end. Save for a couple of folks still entering and exiting the building before midnight, most were already asleep, except for one guy. At around one, he stumbled into the building, drunk. No one else came out of the building until morning.


    ��Where��s the recording of the entrance?�� Zhang Heng asked. ��You want to see that too? Whoever found your mobile phone probably kept it in their pockethow could you possibly tell by watching the recording?��


    The guard was reluctant, but Zhang Heng had something to use against him now. When he saw Zhang Heng looking at him, he scrambled to locate the gate��s surveince footage. Zhang Heng spent another ten minutes watching the fast-forwarded surveince video. The camera at the main entrance wouldn��t have caught wall climbers like Zhang Heng, but whenever a vehicle entered or exited the building, it would be well in the frame.


    The college student��s red Honda Fit, nheless, did not show up on the recording.


    Could three people just vanish into thin air within a span of a night?


    Zhang Heng considered all the facts before proceeding to ask the guard, ��Did anyone elsee to the control room before the police came to see you?�� ��Erm... probably not,�� the young man shook his head.


    Zhang Heng could sense the hesitation in the man��s tone. ��What do you mean by probably not?�� he pressed on, hoping to invoke a more conclusive reply.


    ��Ah, now that you mention it... before the officers came, I received a phone call from the manager. He told me to bring something to him. I left the room for around ten minutes, and before I left, I made sure to lock the doors. Wait... What does that have anything to do with your missing phone? Are you here to find out about the college or your phone?��


    ILL


    It then dawned on Zhang Heng that he had been one step behind all along. Chances were, the footage would have probably tampered with, all it would take was a set of passable tampering skills and it would have been impossible to notice any nuances with the naked eye. Since the college student��s family had dered nothing stolen, it was likely the police wouldn��t attempt to verify the footage��s authenticity.


    Zhang Heng was well aware that the call he made to the police that morning might havee off a little sloppy. Instead of forcing his family to show their true form, the way the whole thing turned out now made the student look like he was crying wolf. Zhang Heng did not know what happened to the family at that time, and he certainly did not expect a surveince-footage-tempering-expert to be among them. It was worth noting that there wasn��t much time to do anything before the police arrived at the ce to check the video.


    Being able to alter the footage in such a short amount of time could only mean that the culprit had to be very skilled at the job.


    Even though Zhang Heng��s Hacker skills were at Lv. 2, he had never tried tampering with security footage and knew that he wouldn��t have been able to do it. However, this trip was notpletely a waste of time. For now, at least, Zhang Heng knew that the manager that the young guard spoke to should be connected to the student��s entire family getting swapped without anyone��s knowledge.


    Zhang Heng asked the guard for his manager��s name, then copied the two tampered footages into a sh drive. Before he left, he warned the guard, ��Don��t tell anyone that I came here to the control room.��


    ��Don��t worry. I happen not to like my job anyway. If anyone finds out about you, the job is mine to lose,�� said the guard. Then, with an awkward smile, he added, ��...and err, you��ve seen how cooperative I have been. That thing about the videos...��


    ��I won��t tell anyone about it either. But you better not do it again. Also, remember one thing-keep your mouth shut when you drink,�� Zhang Heng said sternly, giving the young guard a final warning.


    Even though things did not pan out as nned, Zhang Heng did not feel discouraged. He knew that delving into this was not going to be easy, and through the college student��s incident, he could also tell that ��they�� had been walking among humans for quite some time and were all too familiar with the rules and regtions of the human world. In fact, they were even more proficient at taking advantage of them than humans-like how theymitted the college student into a mental institution.


    Zhang Heng could imagine just how devastated the student must have be-his family had been palmed off, and not a single soul believed him. Everyone thought that his mental illness had worsened, and naturally, nobody would ever believe anything he said anymore. Worse of all, from tomorrow, he would have to live under the same roof with creatures who came from god-knows-where for the rest of his life.


    Being forced into such a situation, even a normal person would develop severe depression over time.


    But Zhang Heng realized somethingwhatever methods these creatures had employed to rece a grown, living person, it was definitely not easy for them. Otherwise, they would have never go through all that trouble to send the student to the mental institute, then wait until now to destroy this threat once and for all.


    What more, the news about the three children appeared that the ��idental drowning�� might have been rted to these things. The question here was-why did they kill the children? If it was simply to avoid their cover getting blown, there was no logical reason that such drastic measures had to be taken. If they had the means to send a college student who was essentially an adult to a mental hospital, they would certainly have the means to control the three children.


    From the way they behaved, it was obvious that they were extremely meticulous. After recing a human with one of theirs, they would work hard to integrate themselves into society, avoiding attracting attention to the best of their abilities.


    Henceforth, the riverbank drownings had gone on to be thetest hot topic, something that obviously did not correspond to the behavioral patterns of these creatures. On top of that, if the college student was so afraid of them, why did he take such a huge risk, running from the safety of his home to the dark, hazardous riverbank?


    What was he really doing there the night Zhang Heng met him?

 Chapter 648 - Smile

    <strong>Chapter 648 Smile</strong>


    Zhang Heng realized that he might have to go to the river again. His previous investigation was interrupted by the college student, not to mention how Zhang Heng found nothing valuable at the scene as well. Perhaps then, a second visit might yield some gains. At the same time, he had no intention to stop looking for the student. Until now, Zhang Heng had no idea if the college student was alive or dead. If he were still alive, he could not just sit there and do nothing. Zhang Heng wanted to know the truth, or save him if he could.


    Although the creatures had modified the surveince clips, there were still surveince cameras everywhere. In this modern society, the government had installed surveince cameras almost everywhere in the city. Aftering out from the garage, the street outside was filled with shop lots, and many of them had their own surveince camera. There were also vehicles parked by the roadside overnight. Their dashcams might have captured something important.


    Going through the footage one by one, however, would take a lot of effort. And Zhang Heng couldn��t threaten the shop owners like he threatened the young guard. Hence, he could only look for the brand of the cameras in their shops, pretend to be the manufacturer, and contact them for a free quality inspection.


    Upon thinking about that, Zhang Heng started to miss Fan Meinan. Although he had Lv.2 makeup skills, it turned out that Fan Meinan was still better at it. She was Loki��s agent anyway. With a professional liar like her on his team, it would life a lot easier.


    That said, Fan Meinan should be fighting in her own proxy-war quest right now, so Zhang Heng could only leave the thought behind.


    Considering the current situation, it was necessary to learn from those things, and caution needed to be taken with every step.


    Zhang Heng did not head home immediately after watching the surveince clips; instead, heading to Qin Zhen��s house first. Both friends since childhood, Zhang Heng��s grandfather and Qin Zhen��s parents were well acquainted with each other. To ensure that no one would suspect him, Zhang Heng decided to put on a full show, going to Qin Zhen��s house to y video games for an hour.


    The two were ying NBA 2K16 in Qin Zhen��s room. One controlled the Warriors, while the other the Cavaliers. ��I have something else to do on Sunday. I don��t think I cane and find you,�� said Zhang Heng as he scored a three-pointer with Curry.


    ��Huh? What do you n to do this time? Please don��t tell me you need to buy soy sauce


    same excuse twice, arent you?�� Qin Zhen asked after he used Owen to shoot a three-pointer.


    ��No, but I have an appointment with a ssmate.�� This time, Zhang Heng tried to shoot with Thompson but failed.


    ��Boy or girl?�� inquired Qin Zhen as he controlled another Thompson to catch the rebounding basketball from the backboard.


    ��Why does gender matter so much?��


    ��Otherwise, what should I pay attention to? Should I ask which supermarket you��ll visit or what brand of soy sauce you consume?�� Qin Zhen asked. ��As a friend, of course, I have to pay attention to your personal life... and you��d better be dating a girl. Otherwise, it would be weird when yous start missing our appointments for another man.��


    ��...I��m just going to borrow her workbook and copy her answers.�� Leveraging a distracted Qin Zhen, Zhang Heng stole the ball from him and pulled the Warrior��s signature movedefensive counterattack.


    ��So your date is really a girl?�� Qin Zhen seemed uninterested in ying the game. He continued to serve slowly from the backcourt.


    ��Yes, she is my tablemate.��


    ��Yes. It��s always better to go after someone close to you. Where are you two nning to meet? KTV, movie theater, or milk tea shop?��


    ��Wanda Shopping Mall.�� ��Oh, awesome! You are getting better at this. Attacking and defending simultaneously,�� Qin Zhen praised Zhang Heng and gave him a thumbs up.


    a


    Zhang Heng was speechless. He nced at the time on the wall clock and realized he had stayed here for almost an hour. After finishing thest half of the game, he returned the controller to Qin Zhen. ��You win. It��s time for me to go home now.�� ��Hold on. Aren��t we supposed to y seven rounds? The conditions are for one of us to win at least four rounds. We��ve just yed two,�� Qin Zhen grumbled. ��Isn��t it Friday today? There will be no ss tomorrow. Why are you rushing to go back?��


    ��I am not like you. I still have a lot of things to do.�� Zhang Heng got up and said.


    ��I can help you,�� Qin Zhen also put down the controller, opened a bag of sausages, and tossed two sausages to Zhang Heng. ��I will help you to court your tablemate if you y longer with me.��


    Zhang Heng hesitated as he took the sausages. He was not thinking about wooing Bai Qing, but he considered asking Qin Zhen to help him with the main quest. Since he could not rely on Fan Meinan, he had to start looking for someone else to help him with the dungeon.


    After all, collecting surveince clips and watching all of them would require a lot of time. If there were another pair of eyes, the task would be more efficient, saving more time at the end of the day.


    Zhang Heng thought for a while and suddenly asked, ��On Christmas in the fifth grade of elementary school, you asked me to send a greeting card to a girl that you liked. What is her name again?��


    ��Sun Jia.�� A strange look appeared on Qin Zhen��s face, ��Why mention it?��


    ��It��s nothing. It would help if you practiced your calligraphy when you have the time. If you reencounter a simr thing, you might slightly increase your rate of sess,�� Zhang Heng said.


    In the end, Zhang Heng gave up asking him for help. The fake college student he met in the afternoon didn��t recall the one yuan he owed, and through that, Zhang Heng knew that those creatures could not inherit the memories of its host. However, Zhang Heng did not know when they infiltrated human society and how long had they stayed in it.


    As for now, Zhang Heng had no way to figure out the answer. Even if Qin Zhen could name the girl he once liked, nobody could tell if this Qin Zhen was the real one. Hence, to be safe, it was better that he acted alone.


    Soon, Zhang Heng exited Qin Zhen��s house and was about to go home. When he walked to the second floor, however, he found the voice-activated light to be broken. After stomping his foot twice and receiving no response, he ignored it and walked down a few more steps. Suddenly, he saw a figure standing quietly in the dark downstairs.


    Zhang Heng stopped and stared at the figure without saying anything. The shadow was also looking at him, its intentions unknown. After a while, the dark shadow grinned, ��What a coincidence.�� ��Yes.�� Zhang Heng said, ��What are you doing here?��


    Even though the person��s face was hidden in the darkness, Zhang Heng could still recognize the shadow��s height and size.


    It was the fake college student.


    He then raised the stainless steel basin in his hand and said, ��I��m helping my mother deliver some jelly she made to Aunt Wang. How about you?��


    ��I��m here to visit a friend,�� Zhang Heng


    for a while.�� ��Hmm. The lights here are broken.�� ��It was fine when I came here just now.��


    ��Maybe it��s just bad luck.��


    ��Your luck is indeed bad,�� said Zhang Heng.


    When he heard those words, the college student suddenly put on a smile. The smile slowly spread from the corner of his mouth, like a ripple��the muscles of his face seemed to be pulled back by an unnatural force. It was obviously aughing expression. However, theugh made no sound like a puppet with a

 Chapter 649 - Jelly

    <strong>Chapter 649 Jelly</strong>


    Zhang Heng simply stood quietly, waiting for the college student to finish smiling. ��What��s so funny?�� he asked.


    ��Oh sorry, I thought of something when I just stood here.�� ��What is it?��


    ��Did you know that the jelly is made of pigskin?��


    ��Hmm.��


    ��You see it right? How did anybody not see it before? Humans consider this intelligent species as food, consuming their flesh, skin, and even their bones. It is as if they exist solely to be eaten. No one seems to think of this as a cruel act. Everyone I��ve met thinks that this is the way the world works.�� The college student curiously poked the jelly in the pot with his finger. ��Interesting. So, such is the civilization I��ll be facing.��


    ��Trust me. I��ve seen our civilizationmit deeds that are way worse,�� Zhang Heng said. ��Eating jelly is definitely not among the top ten.�� ��If that��s the case, does that mean that a species of higher intelligence can decide the fate of a lower one without asking for its consent? In other words, if a species is on a higher level than a human, they must be allowed to eat humans too.��


    ��I do not think so.��


    ��Why? Humans have been doing the same thing to pigs.��


    ��Because I don��t want to be a piece of jelly?�� replied Zhang Heng with a raise of an eyebrow. ��Hahaha!��


    The college studentughed again when he heard Zhang Heng��s reply. This time Zhang Heng could finally hear hisughter. It sounded a bit screechy, like chalk scratching a ckboard. After he was doneughing, he said to Zhang Heng, ��You are the most interesting person that I ever met.��


    ��It sounds like you haven��t met a lot of people.��


    The college student nodded and pointed at his head, ��I had a problem here before. I have been staying at home for a very long time.��


    ��You don��t look too good right now. Don��t you need a few more courses of medicine to recoverpletely?��


    ��I will take my medicine when I go backter. But first, I��ll have to deliver this skin jelly to Aunt Wang.��


    After the college students finished speaking, they started to move again.


    The distance between the two gradually got closer and closer. When Zhang Heng realized that he was two steps away from the college student, he tilted his body slightly.


    ��Thank you,�� the college student gave a sincere thanks.


    ��You��re wee.��


    ��I��m not that bright, but I like to deal with bright people. I hope you can always be this smart.��


    ��If you are not that smart, it��s better that you give a little less of your false suggestions to anyone in the future,�� replied Zhang Heng in kind.


    After that, the two spoke no further, with one heading upstairs and the other in the other direction.


    Zhang Heng walked out of the gate and looked back at the building behind him.


    He knew that what happened tonight was not a coincidence. Although the student used the excuse of delivering jelly to Aunt Wang, Zhang Heng knew that the creature was actually waiting for him.


    Maybe it was because the real student could bear it no more and told had the creature everything about himself. Or perhaps the conversation with Zhang Heng at the convenience store had raised its suspicions.


    Noticing how the creature had deliberately looked for Zhang Heng at night, the creature must have attempted to use the same method he used on the real student. Knowing that Zhang Heng could not expose them, he deliberately created a terrifying atmosphere, hoping to drive fear into Zhang Heng��s heart and driving him mad. However, they obviously underestimated Zhang Heng��s mental state. Let alone the fact that Zhang Heng was saner than the ordinary person, his mental state was robust and had been greatly fortified, considering the unfathomable things he witnessed during the numerous quests he had participated in. That level of intimidation was no better than opening a can of herring. When he saw the college student standing in the dark, Zhang Heng��s breathing didn��t change, slow and calm as before. Moreover, this encounter verified his previous inferences. Although he hadn��t figured out the nuances of these creatures, the one thing that could confirm, was that they couldn��t take someone��s form whenever they desired to. In other words, even if those things started to grow suspicious of him, as long as they were not prepared to take his form; he would be safe for the time being.


    ere


    However, the state of rtive security would notst forever. The next step would depend if those things were prepared to take on Zhang Heng��s form, or if he managed to uncover any useful clues.


    Zhang Heng did not stay there any longer. He quickly returned home, waited for his grandfather to fall asleep, took his car key, and drove back to the river where the three children were drowned.


    However, after a night of searching, nothing was found.


    This time, Zhang Heng focused his search on the bridge pier where the college student hid that night. He rolled pebbles away and dug the ground and despite all that, all he found was beer bottles, stic bags, leather shoes, and other garbage.


    After another futile effort, Zhang Heng headed home, taking a two-hour nap before going out again to check on the surveince cameras of the nearby shops. This time he finally found something useful.


    A few shops�� cameras actually captured the red Honda Fit of the student��s family at midnight. However, these cameras installed outside the shops were angled toward the entrances they guarded. To know where the student family went that night, Zhang Heng had tobine all the clips.


    He spent a good half of the day rummaging through surveince clips from two different streets to confirm where the Honda Fit was heading to. Then, Bai Qing sent him a text, saying that she and her friend had arrived at Wanda Shopping Mall, and she wanted to know Zhang Heng��s whereabouts.


    Sending her a reply that would get there as soon as possible, Zhang Heng hurried to the bus station and took a bus to Wanda Mall.


    He saw Bai Qing upon arriving on the first floor of the mall. She was in a grey T-shirt with a pair of denim shorts and a pair of white sneakers, lugging around a canvas bag on her back. She was standing in front of a KFC restaurant, staring at the mall entrance.


    She seemed to be looking all over the ce, but since it was a Sunday and the mall was packed, she failed to spot Zhang Heng.


    It was not until Zhang Heng quickly walked to her side that Bai Qing reacted with her eyes open wide. ��Hey! When did you arrive?!��


    ��I just got here. How about you?��


    ��It��s been a while.��


    ��Where is your... friend?��


    Zhang Heng remembered Bai Qing saying that she��de to the mall to watch a movie with her friend. However, she was alone now.


    ��Don��t talk about it. We just went to collect the movie tickets, and I told her that I have to pass you the workbook. I had no idea where she went. Then, she sent me a text to meet up when the movie starts,��ined Bai Qing.


    ��When does your movie start?��


    ��There is still an hour and a half left. We were supposed to go shopping first.��


    ��Have you eaten? If you haven��t eaten, I��ll get you a burger...��


    Zhang Heng pointed at the KFC beside him. But before he could say anything more, he suddenly remembered that he had spent every dime of the week��s pocket money.

 Chapter 650 - Don’t Forget To Bring It On Monday

    <strong><i>Chapter 650 Don��t Forget To Bring It On Monday</i></strong>


    Zhang Heng had spent most of his pocket money on batteries and Florida Water. Before he started to work on the quest, he went online and bought a batch of books. The two then strolled into KFC. ��Check out what you want to eat first. I��ll make a call.��


    ��Hmm.�� Bai Qing looked slightly ufortable. It was her first time going to KFC with a boy alone, and it felt strange to her.


    Zhang Heng went to a corner and called Qin Zhen. Unfortunately, Qin Zhen was a bigger spender than him. The pocket money he had saved for two months had been spent on buying a pair of sneakers. It was the weekend now, and he had not gotten his pocket money yet.


    After that, Zhang Heng contacted his grandfather. Much to his relief and surprise, grandpa wired him the pocket money in advance without asking any questions. Zhang Heng was relieved. When he returned to Bai Qing, he found that she had already paid for his meal.


    ��I ordered you a child��s meal thates with a toy.��


    ��Huh?��


    ��Just kidding. I ordered a meal for two, but I only want the burger and drink. You can have the rest,�� Bai Qing chirped. ��Ah. I��ll return the money to you...��


    ��No need,�� Bai Qing shook his head and said, ��You bought me milk tea before.��


    ��The price of milk tea is nothing whenpared to a KFC meal. Besides, I��ve always copied your homework, and it��s just not right getting me something like this,�� Zhang Heng said, taking a quick nce at the menu to look for the price of the meal that Bai Qing just paid.


    ��You don��t have to pay me back.�� Bai Qing waved her hands at Zhang Heng again and again, ��You helped me before. I was blocked by girls outside the schoolst semester. You were the one who helped me out of that sticky situation.��


    ��Wow. You still remember that incident?�� Zhang Heng raised his eyebrows.


    That incident waspletely unwarranted. She did not know the sportsmittee student from the next ss, but thetter seemed to like her a lot. The boy was close to some bad apples, the kind of students that dropped out of school, worked an illegal job, but when someone asks them to do something horrible, they couldn��t stomach doing so. People like them would usually hang out in a group and wander around aimlessly.


    Among these was a youngdy who was the girlfriend of a member of the sportsmittee. When she noticed that her man had his eye for another girl, she gathered her friends and ganged up on Bai Qing.


    Bai Qing was dumbstruck when they ganged up on her. Fortunately, Zhang Heng left schoolte that day, and the moment he saw her getting surrounded, he walked over and pulled her away. When girls saw that a boy hade to her aid, they did not dare do anything other than provoke her with words that weren��t too kind to the ear. The mob then watched the two leave the school. A monthter, Bai Qing��s parents had decided that they��d fetch her to school and pick her up every day.


    Some time had passed since it happened, and if Bai Qing hadn��t mentioned it, Zhang Heng wouldn��t have remembered at all. Bai Qing did not want to dwell on the issue of who should pay the bill. So, she passed the receipt to Zhang Heng


    ��Please get the meal. I will look for a ce.��


    ��Sounds good.��


    During the weekend, the number of people visiting KFC rivaled that of the mall, and one had to be lucky enough to find a seat. Fortunately, when Zhang Heng got the set meal, Bai Qing had found a two-person seat in the corner as well. She waved at him.


    Zhang Heng walked over with the tray and looked at the drink and the burger in front of him. ��You choose first...�� they both blurted in unison.


    ��Then I shall pick first because I��m very thirsty.�� Bai Qing decided on a cup of lemon oolong tea and a chicken burger, then pushed the tray to Zhang Heng. Zhang Heng had spent a long time investigating the case that he was working on. Without saying a word, he devoured his burger in a few bites and gulped down half a ss of c in one breath.


    ��Do you want more food? I can go and order


    more.��


    Bai Qing took her time to enjoy up her burger. By the time Zhang Heng finished his meal, she had only gone through less than a third.


    ��There are still some fries and drumsticks. It should be enough for me,�� replied Zhang Heng as he yawned.


    ��Am I really that boring?��.


    ��Ah, no. It��s not about you. I just didn��t get enough rest in the past two days,�� Zhang Heng exined.


    ��Hmm... You went looking for that older brother again?��


    ��No, this time I was busy with something else,�� Zhang Heng said.


    ��You are always so mysterious,�� Bai Qingmented.


    Zhang Heng changed the subject. ��What about you? What are you up to?��


    ��Me? I��m just doing my usual stuff, studying and revising whatever I learned in ss. It��s only today that I have the time toe to the mall,�� said Bai Qing as she bit the straw.


    She still felt kind of nervous when she talked to Zhang Heng and had no idea where to look. The truth was, she had known Zhgn Heng for some time now, not to mention that they were tablemates as well. The truth was she had known Zhang Heng for some time now. Logically, she should have feltfortable talking to Zhang Heng.


    Could it have been the mall��s air conditioning? Bai Qing unconsciously rubbed her arm.


    The two soon embarked on a great chatting session. They talked about volunteering at the college entrance examination. Bai Qing was gradually rxed over time, even telling Zhang Heng about her family.


    ��Lately, I feel my dad��s been getting weirder.��


    ��Oh, why say that?��


    ��He used to socialize with his clients ande backte every night. My mother quarreled with him all the time because of this. He recently started toe home early, and I caught him looking at family photos we took a long time ago. This is the weirdest past: He��s always taught us never to look back on the past. I haven��t seen him taking the initiative to look at the family photos.�� Zhang Heng��s expression instantly changed when he heard about Bai Qing��s father. ��Did he do other strange things?�� Bai Qing waved her hand. ��No, my dad is a very serious man. He doesn��t usually smile. Sometimes I don��t even dare to talk to him. He doesn��t do anything stranger than that, I guess?�� After a pause, she continued. ��Is he in a midlife crisis? Is that why he looked through the photos?��


    Zhang Heng did not know if he had be a little sensitive, thanks to what happened to the college student. He had started getting suspicious of everyone that acted differently, thinking that they had to be one of those creatures. Certainly, flipping through an old photo album proved nothing for now. Human beings were not machines, and regardless of how mundane the person was, they couldn��t possibly do the exact same thing every day. Out of cautiousness, however, Zhang Heng said to Bai Qing, ��If your dad does anything unusual in the future, you can tell me about it.��


    1


    ��What��s the point?�� Bai Qing raised her eyebrows, ��Can you control my dad?��


    ��I can��t control your dad, but it��s always good to have someone to talk to,�� Zhang Heng said. To conceal his true intentions, he then added, ��Of course, you can talk to me about other things.��


    Bai Qing obviously misunderstood the meaning of the statement. Her face flushed, and she lowered her head to stare at her shoes. After a while, she nced at her watch. ��Oh crap. The movie will start in 5 minutes! How did we talk for so long?��


    ��Go catch your movie first,�� said Zhang Heng.


    Bai Qing hurriedly took out her homework from her canvas bag and passed them to Zhang Heng before leaving. She thought for a while before finally saying, ��Don��t forget to bring them back to me on Monday.��

 Chapter 651 - 1 Old News

    <strong>Chapter 651 Old News</strong>


    Come nightfall, not a soul was around the riverside, where only the sound of rushing water could be heard.


    Zhang Heng was looking for something with a shlight. For reasons unknown, a cloud of mist mysteriously appeared on the river surface, blurring Zhang Heng��s vision. It prompted him to instantly pull out his Filter Lens from his pocket.


    However, the reliable Filter Lens that had offered so much help to Zhang Heng in his previous quests had unexpectedly failed this time.


    In other words, he couldn��t see through this thick fog.


    After realizing the threats he might be facing, he backed up and walked towards his car. When he looked up, he saw a group of densely packed ��people�� standing on the embankment. They were bowing their heads together and grinning at him with silent smiles, smiling as if they were looking at food on a te.


    At that time, Zhang Heng opened his eyes and saw the rm clock on the table. The time was 00:36. Two hours ago, he finished copying his homework andy on a chair to take a break. Unexpectedly, he instantly fell asleep and dreamt of getting surrounded by those things.


    Maybe the dream was due to Bai Qing talking about her family that noon. Zhang Heng began to realize that those things might have infiltrated human society deeper than he thought. If left unresolved, they might secretly take control of the entire society after a while. And in the end, the entire human race would be wiped out. Fortunately, it was something that only happened in this quest. Zhang Heng got up, went to the bathroom to wash his face, and brushed his teeth. Initially, he nned to head to the river again tonight. Due to the nightmare, however, he hesitated and gave up on the idea. He had searched the river continuously for two nights without any gains, and it was time to consider changing the direction of his investigation. Besides, he had to look for a way to earn more money. If he relied on his grandpa��s weekly pocket money, Bai Qing might have to buy him a burger again next time. In this modern society, money could solve most issues, and with sufficient funds, Zhang Heng could quickly speed up the investigation.


    In this quest, Zhang Heng was given a chance to relive his past life. Zhang Heng then started to think about how a ��time traveler�� like him could make more money. It turned out that the tricksmonly used in novels and movies didn��t work on him, and he could forget about buying lottery tickets since he had never paid attention to such matters. And he had neither the energy nor the time to start a business. It was the same for buying stocks. Even if Zhang Heng remembered the market trend, he would need a lot of patience and enough capital to start-up.


    After looking around, Zhang Heng realized that he could only return to what he did best.


    He changed into a set of clothes he rarely wore and borrowed his grandpa��s car again.


    Zhang Heng was cautious when he drove outte at night. When he returned, he had to park the car back at its original position and carefully arrange the cushions and footpads. There was also a need to clean up the mud that he brought into the car. One thing, though, consumption of fuel was the only problem that he could not solve.


    His grandfather might not notice it if he only drove out one or two times. Over time, however, thetter would definitely find an abnormality in the fuel gauge. If Zhang Heng had enough money, he could have easily solved this problem, where all he needed to do was buy two cans of gasoline and refuel the car every time he was done with it.


    Zhang Heng drove the Volkswagen to the overpass, the continued southward until he arrived at a new district.


    It could be considered a new district on the surface, but in reality, it was actually a ghost town. The new city��s mayor announced with great pride that he wanted to turn it into an Oriental Manhattan, but just when work started on the grand blueprint, he was transferred away by his higher-ups. For some reason, the new mayor had lost all intention to continue with the grand project. Hence, the new district was vacant; its upancy rate very low.


    Zhang Heng could feel that once he got off the overpass. Almost no other vehicles were nearby, and the high-rise apartments surrounded by residential areas were devoid of light. He slowed down the car.


    ording to the description in the news, he finally found his target after circling the area halfway. Aspared to other deserted areas, this street was actually quite lively. It was now midnight, but many still gathered around the area. There were also no fewer than ten customized luxury cars parked there. Zhang Heng breathed a sigh of relief when he saw the scene. What he worried most was that this group of people never appeared in this dungeon or that they did note out to party tonight.


    These were the members of a car modification club, its members mostly consisting of wealthy businessmen��s children. When the abundance of material pleasure could no longer satisfy their lust, they naturally turned to the pursuit of excitement.


    Every week, they would gather at this spot to drag race. This had been going on for a year and a half. During this period, some had gone overseas to study, and some quit due to a deteriorating financial situation for their families. Fresh blood constantly joined the exclusive club reserved for society��s upper echelons.


    Since very few lived in this new settlement, and because of some families�� ties to the authorities, no one cared about them until two of them got into a car ident. During the race, a Porsche and a Mercedes rammed each other, the collision so bad that it caused the Porsche driver��s death. The whole thing was exposed after that.


    Zhang Heng was not too bothered by the news. After all, it was their own people who died in the end, and they did not hurt passers-by. Moreover, they chose to race in a new, sparsely popted township. In other words, whatever they were doing wasn��t considered a nuisance. Compared to some who made a racket on the streets, these were a much better lot. Despite all that, street racing was still an illegal endeavor.


    They became nervous when they saw a Volkswagen appearing on the other side of the street.


    One guy who looked very young, probably the most arrogant among them, said to Zhang Heng, ��What are you looking at? Get lost now!��


    Although the others did not say anything about Zhang Heng, it was obvious that they wanted him to get lost as well. Instead of leaving, Zhang Heng stopped the Volkswagen next to them. As the windows wound down, the crowd saw the person in the driver��s seat.


    They were surprised to see that the driver was a millennial. Zhang Heng was no stranger to such a situation. Although everyone was giving him hostile stares, he showed no fear like an ordinary man would, asking instead, ��Drag racing?�� ��It��s none of your business,�� snapped a young man who was sitting on his Porsche 911��s hood while puffing a cigarette. He was the only racer tonight that came without a femalepanion and seemed to be the group leader.


    ��It��s boring to race among yourselves. Let me join in,�� Zhang Heng said. The moment Zhang Heng said that, everyone started tough at him.


    One of the girls who wore a cap and a id suspender dressughed the loudest. Laughing and clutching her belly at the same time, she almost burst into tears. ��You��re a funny one, aren��t you? Are you nning to race with this piece of junk?��

 Chapter 652 - Racing

    <h4>Chapter 652 Racing</h4>


    ��What��s wrong with my car?�� Zhang Heng asked, ��In 1983, the Santana resulted from SAIC and Volkswagen��s first joint venture. Pushed out from the assembly line using the CKD method, it was 4546mm long, 1710mm wide, and 1427mm tall and had a wheelbase of 2548mm. With a kerb weight of 1100kg, the sedan came standard with a 1.6L four-cylinder engine that put out a maximum of 87 horsepower.��


    The girl in the cap was dumbfounded after hearing a bunch of numbers. She did not understand cars that well. However, she still knew that some of the ssic cars were very valuable. She could not help but ask respectfully, ��Is your car the first batch of the joint venture?��


    ��No, this is a 2004 Santana 3000.�� ��...then why are you talking about the car of the 80s?�� The girl in the cap felt as if she had just been brought on a ride by Zhang Heng. Feeling cheated, she became outraged.


    ��Just to tell you not to underestimate Santana,�� Zhang Heng said. ��Hmph. The price of any cars that parked here tonight is enough to buy ten of your stupid cars!�� The capped girl sarcastically jeered.


    ��Really? But it��s a pity that they can��t overtake my Santana.�� Zhang Heng��s expression remained unchanged.


    ��Pretty smug, aren��t you? Really think that junk you��re driving is an AE86?�� a tattooed man in a Supreme T-shirt asked from the other side.


    His words drewughter again.


    When theughter had subsided, the young man who was on the Porsche 911 spoke again.


    ��Okay, enough.�� Then, he looked at Zhang Heng and warned, ��You��d better leave quickly.�� ��We haven��t raced each other yet.��


    ��We don��t race with outsiders,�� the young man said, ��and we are all gamblers here. Do you have money with you?��


    ��How much?��


    ��30,000 yuan. The winner takes all.��


    ��I have no money, but I can bet my car,�� said Zhang Heng.


    The young man shook his head. ��Your car is not worth 30,000 yuan. At most, you can get 10,000 yuan out of it. And you stole this car from your house, right? Does it belong to your dad or your grandpa? When your parents wake up tomorrow, and they find that the car is gone, how is your dad supposed to send your mom to work?��


    The crowd broke out in another roar ofughter.


    ��That means I have to win the racee what may, �� Zhang Heng said. ��First, you can��t win. Second... As I said, you can��t even pay the entrance fee,�� the young man flicked the ash off his cigarette, ��Go home. It��s for your own good.��


    Suddenly, the millennial who scolded Zhang Heng spoke up. ��I can help him with the money.��


    ��Hmm?��


    Putting his arms around the cap girl, he said, ��I want to see him racing his Santana against us. It should be fascinating. My family runs a debt collectionpany. I will make sure that he pays us.��


    ��Don��t cause any unnecessary trouble. Since you have joined our circle, you must abide by the rules I��ve set.�� The young man sitting on his 911 frowned. ��I said, we don��t race with outsiders.��


    Clearly, he was indeed an influential character among this group of people. After he dropped the order, the millennial did not dare to say anything


    ��Consider yourself lucky. Leave now with your broken car.�� The tattooed man in a Supreme t-shirt made a shooting gesture at Zhang Heng.


    Instead of leaving, Zhang Heng turned off the engine, pulled out the key, and parked the car at the side of the road. ��Sorry. I don��t want to leave yet. I feel this ce is growing on me, and I n to stay here a little longer. Maybe I shoulde here every night to see if there��s a race going on.�� ��So, you are taking our kind words for granted?�� The leader of the group red at Zhang Heng. ��You seem to have misunderstood something. Do you really think that we can��t do anything for you? We will beat you up if you make us! I don��t want to cause trouble because it is troublesome. Don��t you think for a second that we can��t deal with a brat like you.��


    After he finished speaking, all the people from the club gathered around, and someone took out a wrench and a portable fire extinguisher from the trunk, waiting for their leader to give the order to smash Zhang Heng��s car.


    Most of them were the kind who had the stomach to do anything that would cause chaos. And they were unhappy with Zhang Heng��s attitude ever since he stepped into their territory.


    ��I will give you onest chance. You better get lost within a minute.��


    The leader gave Zhang Heng an ultimatum. Zhang Heng nced at the people around who were ready to charge at him at any time. He then said to the leader, ��So you��d rather fight me than race me. Is this a modified car club or a fight club?��


    ��Fine.�� The leader seemed amused by Zhang Heng��s perseverance and desperation to race. He threw the cigarette butt in his hand and got off the 911��s hood. ��If you lose, I don��t want your money or your stupid car. I want you to crawl on the ground in a circle, and you��d better not show up in front of me again.��


    To everyone��s surprise, Zhang Heng shook his head when he heard this, ��Let��s not apply the rule to the two of us. Everyone here should do it together. The more, the merrier.��


    Finally, the leader had be really irked by Zhang Heng. ring, he stopped saying anything unnecessary. ��Okay, you have the final say. Little K, tell him the rules,�� he growled coldly.


    Arge bosomed petite girl approached Zhang Heng with a sweet smile. ��The rules are straightforward. Once everyone is ready, the drivers will go to their respective positions. I will announce the start of the race from here. Use whatever means necessary to win the race! Sounds fair?��


    ��Where is the finishing line?�� Zhang Heng asked.


    ��Do you know where the stadium is? The swimming pool at the west gate is the finishing line for this race,�� Little K went on.


    When the two chatted, four cars fetched the girls to the finishing line of this race. They did not want to participate, and Zhang Heng had no intention to force them to do so. There were eight cars left. Since each would have to pay the racing fee of 30,000 yuan, Zhang Heng stood to gain a whopping 240,000 yuan if he won the race.


    It was more than enough for him to survive the dungeon.


    Before he got to enjoy the money, he had first to win the race.


    The capped girl was right when she said that even the cheapest car here could buy ten Santanas. Not to mention that the leader��s car was race-tuned. Taking only 3.9 seconds to make the century sprint, its horsepower and handling bothpletely outyed Zhang Heng��s Santana 3000.


    And this time, Zhang Heng did not have the time to modify his car because it belonged to his grandpa. He could not do it without his grandpa��s consent, or the old man might suffer from a heart attack the moment he stepped on the gas.


    But there was good news. Zhang Heng checked out the route with GPS and discovered this to be an ordinary course. Considering that many of the new townships�� infrastructure was halfpleted, the road conditions were quite rough. Only a skillful driver wouldpete and win this race.


    Besides, the leader did not seem to want to take untoward advantage. The route that he chose this time was brand new for everyone. That would mean the race was just as tough for everyone.

 Chapter 653 - Competing

    <strong>Chapter 653 Competing</strong>


    About 25 minutester, Little K received the news that the others had reached the finishing line. And at the same time, she sent out pictures of the road conditions to the drivers for their reference. Including Zhang Heng��s car, nine cars had already lined up at the starting line.


    The starting grid had three rows. The leader decided to abandon the lot-drawing system, where they all agreed to let Zhang Heng��s Volkswagen be ced in the middle of the first row. On his left was the Porsche 911, and on his right was the millennial��s Mercedes-Benz SL.


    Behind them were BMWs and Jaguars.


    Regardless of the advantage of their modified cars, Zhang Heng was at a disadvantage even if their cars were not modified. The Porsche 911 could make the century sprint in 3.9 seconds, and its engine could churn out a healthy 420 horsepower. As aparison, a Santana 3000 would get from 0-100kp/h in a leisurely 11 seconds, its engine pumping out a lethargic 110 horsepower. These two cars were not even on the same tier. The odds were firmly stacked against Zhang Heng, and there was a 99.9% chance that he would lose the race.


    The 911 couldn��t reach its maximum speed due to theplicated road conditions, but even if Zhang Heng was a more skilled driver than the club leader, it was still not enough to make up for the gap between the two cars.


    Although Takumi Fujiwara pitted his humble AE86 against cars that were a lot more powerful, the AE86 was heavily modified. If Zhang Heng could use his Polo topete, he was confident he could win the race. For now, though, he needed to think of other ways to win.


    Having nned for the worst, Zhang Heng was prepared to use the Water-Soluble Metal to cause some trouble.


    Before heading out, he had already put a thumb-sized piece of Water-Soluble Metal into the half-finished stic water bottle, and since it had been sitting there for almost two hours, it shoulde into effect right about now. After checking out the route, however, Zhang Heng felt that there was a chance for him to win in this race.


    After all, now, only it was convenient to use Water-Soluble Metal to stir-up some chaos, but it would also bring him a lot of trouble afterward. Although the modified car club members weren��t professional drivers, they at least knew a thing or two about cars and would instantly spot the anomaly if they did a thorough check.


    ��Are you ready?�� A skimpily dressed Little K stood in the middle of the road, looking at the nine cars in front of her.


    Her eyes deliberately stopped at Zhang Heng��s Santana for half a second.


    After she asked the question, the drivers all revved their engines up, like a group of hunks showing off their muscles.


    Zhang Heng knew his car well enough to know that no matter how hard he stepped on the gas, the roar of the Santana��s tiny engine would be drowned out by the imports around him. So he simply extended his hand out of the car window and made an OK gesture, causing everyone tough at him again.


    Little K smiled at him too. After confirming that all the drivers were ready, she raised both arms and started the countdown, ��5... 4... 3... 2... 1... GO!��


    And then, her arms came down.


    Thus, thete-night racingpetition finallymenced. All nine cars lunged forward, like tigers breaking free of their cages!


    VV


    To make up for the gap between the high powered roadsters and his sedan, Zhang Heng used theunch control technique to gain the upper hand. He first engaged the clutch in a semi-depressed state and revved the engine up to 3000 rpm before the start of the race. When the lights went out, hepletely released the clutch and put the pedal to the metal. Once the rev-counter neared its red-line, he shifted into second and continued to push the engine as hard as he could. After that, he would change gear again until the tires emitted white smoke. Once Little K said go, Zhang Heng released the brake immediately.


    As the car took off from the starting grid, the Santana��s engine was forced to squeeze out everyst Nm of torque it could muster. The powerful eleration threw Zhang Heng back into his seat; his eleration, only a little slower than the 911 on his left side. Zhang Heng breathed a sigh of relief. That said, using such a method to get off the line was actually extremely detrimental to the Santana 3000. It wore down not only the clutch, but its tires and gearbox would be damaged to a certain extent. It was a technique used only asionally in an emergency. Fortunately, the car was well maintained andpleted theunch control.


    But soon, the Porsche 911 on his left overtook him, and so did the millennial��s Mercedes SL on his right side. The driver even wound down his window to flip Zhang Heng the bird.


    And this was just the beginning. After a while, two more cars overtook him.


    It was not until the first corner that Zhang Heng caught up with them a bit. His lead, however, didn��tst long. Once they were on a straight road again, the sports cars easily overwhelmed Zhang Heng��s Santana 3000.


    The 911 took the lead. After overtaking Zhang Heng, it was in the first ce. It headed into the tunnel, followed closely by the SL. The tattooed man initially ced on the second row had now caught up with him. The two cars were basically moving side by side.


    At that moment, Zhang Heng and his Santana 3000 had dropped to fifth ce.


    Considering how he was driving the worst-performing car among the lot, his position had caused the club leader to stare at him for a long time. Unfortunately, fifth-ce wouldn��t be winning him the race. It seemed that he could keep his fifth ce until the end of the race.


    Half a minuteter, by the time they were out of the tunnel, Zhang Heng��s Santana had fallen to the sixth position. Although he tried his best to tailgate the cars in front of him, the road was very wide, and once the left and right car overtook the Santana, the ones behind would have no problem overtaking it as well.


    Zhang Heng was a skillful driver but an overconfident one.


    This was how the club leader judged Zhang Heng.


    There seemed to be a great distance between the finishing line and the starting point, but it would only take them six or seven minutes toplete ap at their current speed.


    In other words, they hadpleted almost one-fifth of the course now. Zhang Heng��s Santana was now four cars away from the Porsche 911. After a while, he lost sight of the 911��s taimps. It seemed that his fate had been sealed. However, Zhang Heng did not appear to be in a hurry. Although cars were constantly overtaking him, he still maintained his previous speed (mainly because the car wouldn��t go any faster). Another two minutes passed, where most drivers hadpleted half of thep. Zhang Heng and his Santana were now in the final position.


    On the other hand, the millennial wasn��t doing too good as well, where two opponents overtook him. The tattooed man, on the contrary, was doing exceptionally well today. He actually found a chance to surpass the Porsche 911 in one fell swoop, temporarily holding onto first ce.


    Then the club leader noticed in the rearview mirror that the Santana had disappeared.


    Did he give up?


    Did he flee from the race after knowing that he had no hope of winning the race?


    If Zhang Heng had listened to his advice earlier, the club leader had no intention to cause him any trouble. But now Zhang Heng��s speech had sessfully triggered his anger. He would not let Zhang Heng off the hook just like that. He was not the kind of men that one should mess around with. Before the race started, he had memorized Zhang Heng��s car te number. With the power of his family, he could locate Zhang Heng quickly.


    By that time, he would be able to force Zhang Heng to carry out his promise. But now, the race was not over. Even if Zhang Heng quit, there were still eight racerspeting with him. As the club president, he had no intention to lose the race.


    Less than 500 meters ahead was arge construction site. Although he could shorten the distance by going through it, the road condition was harsh, ording to the information given to him earlier. The road was filled with potholes, and a lot of building materials were abandoned on the road. It was better to take the long road than risking it since it was now night time. Therefore, the club leader turned away from the construction site without any hesitation.

 Chapter 654 - Blind Attack

    <strong>Chapter 654 Blind Attack</strong>


    Zhang Heng felt helpless when he saw all his opponents passing him one by one.


    After all, no matter how glorious the Santana��s past was, it was always designed to be a sedan, and it would never outrun a sports car. In order to ensure that the engine and tires remained intact after the race, Zhang Heng did not dare to perform any bold moves.


    Nevertheless, it was an expected oue. After knowing the road conditions before the race started, the first half of the journey was an unfavorable one. All he could do was to try his best and tail his opponents as closely as he could.


    Then, the second half of the racemenced. It was now Zhang Heng��s time to showcase his strength.


    When Zhang Heng saw the construction site from a distance, he quickly turned off the car��s lights. Since he had his Filter Lens, it made no difference if the headlights were turned on or not. The moment it all went dark, the drivers in front of him descended into confusion.


    It was said that Takumi Fujiwara had used this trick before in ��Initial D.��


    He named this trick ��blind attack.��


    Zhang Heng drove his Santana toward the construction site.


    If the club president could see Zhang Heng��s bold move, he would probably be surprised by his choice. Electing not to take a detour like the others and not slowing down as well, he smashed through the half-opened gate and rammed right into the construction site.


    Close to him was a grey truck that had tipped over. Considering the Santana��s current speed, most drivers wouldn��t have been able to avoid the truck. With the help of the Filter Lens, however, Zhang Heng managed to avoid it with ease. As it dodged the truck, the Santana kicked up a huge cloud of dust behind it.


    Zhang Heng positioned the car carefully, driving between the brick wall and the scrap piles. He felt as if he was back in the Tokyo Drift dungeon, where the seafood shop owner taught him how to drift.


    It took him a long time before his training waspleted. Fortunately, he managed to master the intricacies of the driving skills taught to him, the reason why he could avoid all those obstacles with ease.


    Zhang Heng drove through the construction site without having to slow down.


    Simultaneously, the club president had also overtaken the tattooed man while he was doing the turn, and he regained the leading position. However, before he could put a smile on his face, he saw a car dashing at high speed, charging out from the construction site.


    Zhang Heng��s carnded right in front of the Porsche 911!


    The club president was so shocked that his eyes bulged wide open. He thought that Zhang Heng had given up on the race and fled the scene. Thest thing he expected was that an opponent with a family sedan would be determined enough to race with them. And he even surpassed everyone. This was Zhang Heng��s first time grabbing the top spot ever since the race started. Considering that he was driving a Santana, the club president would never believe that he could outrun the high-performance roadsters if he hadn��t witnessed it himself.


    er


    Then the club president noticed another fantastic feat��the Santana��s headlights were turned off. Let alone the high beam, Zhang Heng did not even turn on the lowest setting. It was no wonder that the club president noticed the Santana disappearing for a brief period. However, he still could not figure out how Zhang Heng could traverse the construction site in pitch-darkness, ande out unscathed.


    The club president could also see that the Santana didn��t slow down one bit. Although they took a detour, it wasn��t a long couse. Knowing that he was far behind the club president, Zhang Heng had to ensure that he was constantly driving at top speed if he wanted to make any meaningful gains. Was there something wrong with the information that they were given? Were there no obstacles in the construction site? How did Zhang Heng acquire this insider information? Or was that just a desperate move?


    Although the club president was puzzled, he had no intention to slow down his car.


    It wasn��t the time to be entangled in these questions. There was still about one-third of the journey to cross the finish line, and the winner had not decided. Even though Zhang Heng took the lead temporarily with his incredible driving skills, a Santana was in essence, still a Santana.


    It was like the difference between nobles andmoners.


    The club president got serious for the first time tonight. 30,000 yuan was nothing to him. The most important thing was that he did not want to bear the shame of losing to an old sedan while driving a sports car. If that happened, he would be aughing stock for the rest of his life.


    The Porsche 911 seemed to feel the owner��s anger, its strained engine let out a deafening roar.


    Although Zhang Heng managed to once again increase the gap between them when he took a turn, the club president managed to closen the gap between them until they were driving on the same line.


    This undoubtedly came as bad news to Zhang Heng since a Santana was never going to outdo the club president��s Porsche 911. Once the club president regained the advantage, it would be then almost impossible to defeat him.


    The 911��s taillights drew two streams of light in the night, while the Santana looked like a ghost in the dark. The club president realized that Zhang Heng wasn��t in a panic at all. On the contrary, he even lowered the windows to get a dose of the night breeze.


    After a while, Zhang Heng signaled the club president by pointing forward.


    ��Again?!�� The club president noticed that there was another small construction site in front of him. Immediately, his face turned pale.


    They were now at a spot close to the stadium, and once they passed the unfinished shooting gallery in front of them, they should arrive at the finishing line. Under normal circumstances, they would have taken a detour.


    The club president knew that Zhang Heng would definitely choose to go through the construction site because that was the only way for him to win the race.


    Now, he was stuck in a dilemma. On the one hand, he did not believe that Zhang Heng would get so lucky again��the information he received earlier had some mistakes in it. On the other hand, he was worried that if he chose the detour, Zhang Heng would overtake him again. And thest section of the road was too short to regain the leading position.


    There wasn��t much time left for him to make up his mind. In a blink of an eye, he would arrive in front of the shooting gallery. With gritted teeth, the club president decided to charge into the construction site.


    His strategy was simple. If there were giant obstacles on site, he would rather be trapped by them, together with Zhang Heng, of course. Zhang Heng was a one-man team, after-all, and the modified car club still had seven active races. The tattooed man was getting closer to them as well��he would win the race after he took the detour. And if the construction site were cleared of obstacles, the club president would be the winner of this race.


    It all sounded like the perfect n.


    Unfortunately, what happened next went beyond his control. The road conditions in the construction site were indeed asplicated as indicated. He had to drastically slow down his car to protect himself. However, the Santana, now tailing him closely from behind, seemedpletely unaffected.


    Not only did Zhang Heng not slow down the car, but he continued to step on the gas. Unsurprisingly, he overtook the club president, at the same time, avoiding the steel rods jutting out from the ground in front of him. The smoke and dust created by the Santana brought forth an indescribable irony to the whole situation. It was as if the old Volkswagen wasughing at a Porsche 911 that could never overtake it.


    And Zhang Heng��s driving skill had also allowed the club president to witness what an exceptionally skillful driver looked like.


    This time, through the bright beam of the 911��s headlights, the club president managed to witness Zhang Heng��s Santana��s performance. He paid so much attention to it that he didnt notice that his car had collided with the sidewall.


    After that, the Santana 3000 drove out of the shooting gallery��s construction site and raced toward the finish line. At the same time, the tattooed man who had taken the detour had just emerged from the corner. He was still about a hundred meters away from Zhang Heng and in the end, he could only watch helplessly as the family sedan sailed across the finish line to win the race.

 Chapter 655 - This Isn’t About Skill

    <strong>Chapter 655 This Isn��t About Skill</strong>


    The Santana 3000 crossed the finishing line where the girl wearing the cap was holding up a signboard. Once Zhang Heng arrived at the finishing line, he drifted his car and parked it in front of the stadium, leaving only less than half a centimeter between the right tire and the stairs.


    Turning off the engine, he pulled the key out.


    The group waiting at the finishing line were bbergasted the moment they saw that Zhang Heng was the first to arrive.


    Earlier, they were able to see the tattooed man��s Jaguar from far and had even prepared some beer upon his win. Although it was pointless to celebrate his victory over the Santana, they could not deny that he did defeat all the other seven drivers. Technically speaking, tonight��s race could be considered the modified car club��spetition.


    No one expected that Zhang Heng and his Santana would clinch the podium in this race. All these rich brats who raced with their luxury cars just had their ass handed to them by a humble Santana, a car that would garner no more than 10,000 yuan in the second-hand car market. Even at such a bargain, it might need a long time before someone would actually buy it.


    The capped girl opened her mouth so wide that a dragon fruit could fit into it. After a while, she asked skeptically, ��Did he install NOS in his car?��


    In recent years, NOS had been frequently used in racing movies, and almost everyone was familiar with it. Installed in tanks and fed into the engine, nitrous oxide would release oxygen and nitrogen when burned. Thebustion of oxygen would increase the engine��s output, while the nitrogen would cool down the cylinders, all in all giving a massive boost to the car��s horsepower.


    Fortunately, though, most who were present here were all car-buffs in their own right. After hearing her question, a man immediately shook his head and said, ��Impossible. The Santana��s engine and exhaust system are notpatible with a NOS instation. He would have killed himself if he fixed it onto his car.��


    But after exining to the capped girl, the man also showed a look of confusion, ��Could he have secretly swapped his engine before the race? But the exhaust pipe still looks the same...��


    As they were racking their brains trying to figure out how Zhang Heng could win the race, the other drivers crossed the chequered g one after the other. The tattooed man and his Jaguar came in second. No one paid attention to him anymore, though. The entire crowd had now turned their focus on Zhang Heng and his seasoned Volkswagen Santana that could.


    Zhang Heng then opened the car door and looked at the group of people who seemed to be petrified by his victorious moment. ��The Porsche 911��s driver is still at the construction site,�� he said. ��I think he crashed into something just now. Did you guys check on him?��


    Immediately, the crowdposed themselves and realized that there was a missing car.


    They were shocked when they heard that the Porsche 911 hit the wall. While they were racing, several drivers noticed that the Porsche 911 and the Santana had driven into the construction site together.


    At that time, the club president and his members were sure that Zhang Heng would lose the race. To everyone��s surprise, the Santana was the first to emerge from the construction site. The Porsche 911, on the other hand, was nowhere to be seen. A few even began to suspect that Zhang Heng must have used some dirty tricks in the construction site to eliminate the president.


    Fortunately, when they found the Porsche 911, the president was safe and sound.


    The president instantly regretted his decision to rush into the construction site with Zhang Heng since the obstacles would force him to slow down. After the Santana overtook him and he witnessed Zhang Heng��s impable driving skills, his morale dipped to zero. Thank goodness he wasn��t speeding when he crashed his car at the wall. The airbags that deployed on time had also saved him a great deal of injury.


    He was physically fine, but the same couldn��t be said about his psychological state. When they found him, he was squatting down, looking extremely dejected.


    The tattooed man checked the mildly wrecked Porsche 911 next to him andforted, ��It��s okay. Only the front is damaged.�� ��I��m not saddened by the fact that my car is damaged,�� the young man shook his head. ��I��m disappointed in myself. How could I lose to a Santana after I��ve raced here so many times.��


    When he said it out loud, the other club members bowed their heads in shame as they fell into silence.


    The oue of tonight��s race had truly baffled everyone. Some still couldn��t believe that Zhang Heng actually won the race.


    ��Did that guy... cheat?�� someone suggested, trying to find an eptable excuse for the defeat. ��How did he cheat?��


    The club president lit himself a cigarette and said, ��You guys just raced with him. His Santana is factory-stock. It wasn��t modified anyway. Otherwise, we wouldn��t have outrun him in the first half of the race.��


    ��Was he really that good of a driver?�� the millennial asked, obviously still doubting the miraculous win.


    He hadn��t paid much attention to Zhang Heng. He had been busy chasing down the Porsche 911 and the Jaguar from the very beginning, but he still ended up losing to them.


    ��Let��s not talk about his skills first. He is really the kind that��s... rare, you know...�� The young man took in drag while trying to recall the unbelievable and unforgettable incident he had just witnessed.


    An ordinary Santana had drifted all the way along the bumpy construction site to avoid various hazards. And the most unbelievable part was that its headlights weren��t even turned on.


    ��What the f*ck was that?! I know drifting, but drifting in the darkness without light is something I have never seen before.��


    It was no wonder that the club president was so stunned by Zhang Heng. Any right-thinking person who had witnessed the scene would indeed be left puzzled as well.


    Zhang Heng had just singlehandedly changed his fate.


    ��It seems that this time, we have met ourselves a master.�� The club president blew out a mouthful of smoke, a solemn expression adorning his face.


    ��So what should we do now?�� All of them were looking at each other, trying to figure out what they should do next. In the end, the club president had to be the one to make the decision.


    ��I will admit defeat and give him the money first.��


    After finishing the race, Zhang Heng got out from his Santana and walked over to the capped girl.


    ��You��ve got any water with you?��


    ��Yes, wait a minute.�� The capped girl hurriedly searched the car behind her. She found a bottle of drinking water and passed it to Zhang Heng. ��Thank you,�� Zhang Heng took the mineral water and thanked her politely. After he confirmed that the bottle had been opened before, he proceeded to unscrew the cap and took two sips from it.


    The girl stared at Zhang Heng, filled with questions and curiosity.


    When she recalled how the two first met, she thought something must be wrong with this Zhang Heng. But now, it turned out that his Santana really outperformed a whole bunch of high-performance cars. The way she looked at Zhang Heng had changedpletely.


    Zhang Heng was indeed a mysterious man.


    And she thought that Zhang Heng was way younger than her.


    ��Aren��t you worried?�� the capped girl asked with concern.


    ��What should I be worried about?��


    ��Although you won the race, they have lots of people over there. What if they want to beat you up?��


    Women were such a strange species. She herself was from the modified car club, but now that Zhang Heng had outperformed all the other drivers, she started to worry about his safety.


    ��Oh, it doesn��t matter. They can��t beat me anyway,�� Zhang Heng chirped casually.

 Chapter 656 - Don’t Worry

    <strong>Chapter 656 Don��t Worry</strong>


    Zhang Heng didn��t have to wait too long before the modified car club members returned.


    The president came back with them as well, and as he walked toward Zhang Heng, he was touching his pocket with one hand. In response, Zhang Heng quickly drew out his utility knife.


    ��You have misunderstood me.�� Upon seeing that, the club president quickly moved his hand away from his pocket to show that he had no malicious intent. He then took out his mobile phone from his pocket, ��You won this round. The total prize money is 240,000 yuan. Your bank ount number?��


    ��I haven��t had time to apply for a bank card. Do you have cash?�� Zhang Heng asked.


    The club president was stunned when he heard Zhang Heng��s request. Was that how a master lived his life? He was shocked by the fact that Zhang Heng did not even own a bank card. Maybe only people like him could possess such masterful driving In martial arts novels, after a martial artist had trained his art to a certain level, he would start to work on his state of mind. The president figured that perhaps this was how Zhang Heng had be so skillful at driving. It was difficult for those who had not reached this level to figure out Zhang Hengpletely.


    ��You... wait a minute.��


    The club president turned around and started to collect as much money as possible. The electronic wallet, however, was widely used in the country right now. Even if most of the club members were extremely wealthy, none would bring so much cash with them when they came out. Basically, everyone had about three to five thousand yuan each in their wallets to handle emergencies. For everything else, there was always the credit card.


    Hence, the president only managed to collect 50,000 yuan for Zhang Heng. Amid the hastily collected notes, Zhang Heng saw some ten yuan bills. It seemed the president had tried his best to give everything that they had to Zhang Heng.


    ��Don��t worry. I will send the rest of the money to you.�� The young man patted his chest.


    ��You guys are car modifying experts. Do you know any ces where I can fix my car in the middle of the night?�� Zhang Heng asked after receiving 50,000 yuan. Since he couldn��t stop the car in the middle of a race, he collided with the construction site��s gate. It left a few dings and dents on the front bumper and grille. The Santana��s tires and brakes were worn out as well, and Zhang Heng had to fix all of that before he drove it home.


    ��Yes, we have our auto repair shop. It is usually open for business during the day. At night, it��s our yground.�� ��Great. You can ask your men to send the rest of the money there,�� said Zhang Heng as he put away the knife.


    Since the club president had a good attitude, Zhang Heng had no intention to embarrass him. After all, his purpose was to make a fortune from the rich kids here, where he managed to coerce them into racing with him. In the end, not only did they have to fork out a huge sum of money, but they were left to deal with the trauma to a certain extent.


    When Zhang Heng learned that the club president was so polite, he was still a little surprised.


    The members had asked him to be their special adviser for the modified car club and teach them how to race professionally. ording to the president, he had never seen anyone possess the skill to beat luxury cars with a mere Santana. Zhang Heng��s experience and knowledge about racing were apparently masterful enough to be taught to everyone in the club.


    They even offered to pay Zhang Heng 20,000 yuan every time he gave a lesson. It was a pity that Zhang Heng did note to this dungeon to make money. With 240,000 yuan, it would be more than enough to fund his future activities. Hence, it did not make sense to be making more money.


    So Zhang Heng rejected the offer, but the two still exchanged numbers. After that, he sent his Santana 3000 for inspection and repair. Once the car was restored to its previous state, Zhang Heng gave the car some well-deserved gas. Finally, he parked the car back in the garage before dawn and returned home with a bag of money.


    ��You won��t... stay upte again, right?��


    On Monday, in math ss, Bai Qing could not help but ask after seeing how Zhang Heng kept yawning while scribbling on the paper.


    Her voice was so soft that Zhang Heng did not hear her clearly. ��Huh?�� he asked.


    ��I said... Did you not sleep against night? Were you copying homework the whole night?�� she repeated, a lot louder this time.


    Zhang Heng blinked after hearing what she said, ��...the teacher is looking at you.��


    ��Huh?!��


    Bai Qing froze for a split-second. When she turned around, she saw the chemistry teacher ring at her. Since Bai Qing was a member of the studymittee, the teacher refrained from reprimanding her on the spot. If Bai Qing were a student with poor academic performance, however, she would have been instantly punished.


    Bai Qing lowered her head in shame, not daring to say another word. She waited until the teacher turned to the ckboard before poking Zhang Heng again with a pen. ��You were talking too. Why didn��t she re at you?��


    ��Because I didn��t move my mouth just now.�� Zhang Heng gave Bai Qing a demonstration, and his lips barely moved when he spoke.


    Bai Qing was speechless. Although Zhang Heng was yawning all the time, he somehow always managed to always pay attention to the teacher��s behavior. Ever since she was caught red-handed by the teacher, Bai Qing did not dare talk to Zhang Heng again, paying all her attention to the teacher like a top student until the ss was over. It was only after the teacher left the ssroom that Bai Qing could breathe a sigh of relief.


    ��Actually, you don��t need to worry. She can��t be bothered to reprimand you,�� Zhang Heng said.


    ��And... why say that?��


    ��Because she is worried about her family. Or, to be more precise, she is worried about her husband cheating on her. She is exhausted and doesn��t want to get involved in other troubles. All she wanted to do was to leave right away after the ss is over.��


    ��Huh... how do you know that her husband��s cheating on her? Did you hide under her sofast night?��


    ��I don��t even need to hide under her sofa to know about it. It��s so obvious. The teachers in our school don��t usually put on makeup, but today, for the very first time, Ms. He put on some really fine makeup on her face. She would have taken at least 40 minutes to put on the foundation before doing this kind of makeup. And she was in our very first period this morning. If you were to be her, would you be willing to sacrifice 40 minutes of sleep to apply makeup for the pleasure of your students in your ss?�� ��But that doesn��t mean that her husband cheated on her, right?�� Bai Qing asked after she thought for a while.


    ��If it��s not for work, women, especially middle-aged-have two possibilities to wake up early in the morning to put on some fine makeup-they are either going to meet their lover or their enemy. From the lipstick that she chose, it seems that she is more inclined to thetter. And she appeared to be extremely impatient today. She stomped her feet several times during the morning ss, and she flipped her book very loudly. It doesn��t look like she is going to meet her loverter. ��Moreover, if I remember correctly, Ms. He is a very controlling person. She controls the family��s finance and her husband strictly. She will check her husband��s whereabouts all the time. Sometimes, things will turn sour when you exert too much control on a person, especially in front of outsiders. She shouldn��t show off this kind of thing-it will inflict lots of psychological pressure on his husband. At this time, he will need a fairer and more petite opposite sex to bring back his male dignity... And that��s how the tragedy happened.��


    Bai Qing blushed when she heard the exnation, ��How do you know this kind of thing so well?��


    ��Emotional dispute is one of the major causes formitting a crime. I have studied crime before. That��s why I know quite a bit about one��s emotions.��


    Zhang Heng then closed the notebook on the table.

 Chapter 657 - Elementary School

    <strong>Chapter 657 Elementary School</strong>


    ��Hmm... what you just said seems to be true. And I��m actually a little convinced.�� Bai Qing thought for a while and realized that Zhang Heng��s reasoning sounded very logical, making it difficult to refute.


    ��Don��t take it too seriously,�� Zhang Heng said.


    ��If you are right, I really pity Teacher He.��


    ��This is life... We all have our own difficulties to face.�� Zhang Heng fiddled with the gel pen in his hand.


    ��It sounds old-fashioned, but you are right,�� Bai Qing sighed and ced her chin on the desk, ��My dad and my mom have been giving me a headache recently.��


    ��Headache... and why would that be?�� Zhang Heng��s expression changed, and he mped the rotating gel pen with his index and middle fingers.


    ��I think I told you about it before. My dad has begun socializing less with his client, and he nowes home early. However, they quarreled against night, and this time, it was a long argument. They didn��t want to let me listen to what they were fighting about, and when I went to the bathroom at night, I saw my mother crying in the living room. She just sat there, and her surroundings were pitch ck.��


    ��Did youfort her?��


    ��No, I went back to my room,�� Bai Qing said.


    ��Huh?�� Zhang Heng snorted softly. ��From the time I found out about their dispute, they had always been quarreling over trivial matters. I guess this is how they run their marriage. When my mother was young, many men had their eyes on her. She would party every day, but in the end, I guess that she wanted to live a stable life, and she married my dad. After they were married, however, she kept getting the feeling that she was married to the wrong man. At that time, my dad was just a small-time technician. His world revolved around technology, and he knew nothing about romance.


    ��My mother had always told me that if it were not for me, they would have gotten divorced. As I got older, they argued less frequently. At that time, my dad went through a ratherrge change. He began learning how to socialize. Later, he quit his job to start his ownpany, and when the business had be stable, he starteding homete. So my mother began to suspect that he had an affair... So is this what marriage looks like?��


    ��Well, many marriages do indeed look like this.��


    ��Then, marriage is a scary thing.�� ��You shouldn��t be worrying about this sort of thing yet. A friend once told me, don��t worry about things that haven��t happened yet,�� Zhang Heng said.


    ��Don��t you boys ever wonder who you will marry in the future?��


    ��About that, it��s a useless thought at the moment... We will know when the timees,�� Zhang Heng said. ��Eh...��


    The bell rang, and the teacher opened the door and walked into the ssroom.


    Immediately, Bai Qing straightened up herself. ��Ah, did I talk too much? I haven��t even told any of these to my best friend.��


    ��You��ll feel better after you let it out of your chest. And as I said, you can tell me about your dad��s abnormal behaviors anytime you want,�� replied Zhang Heng.


    ��So that you can continue to study the subject of emotion serving as a trigger for crimes? I��ll pass. Although my parents always quarrel, they are not going to kill each other.�� Bai Qing finished thest sentence quickly, pulling out her biology textbook from her schoolbag.


    Zhang Heng had almostpletely forgotten how he spent his high school years. Whether it was the phoenix trees outside the window or the sound of ying from the yground, they now seemed so foreign and unfamiliar.


    And he did not remember too much about Bai Qing as well, who was sitting next to him, paying attention to the ss. There were no such things as aliens in the real world. Although the rtionship between the two was amicable, they were ssmates, and they did not go beyond that. She did not meet him at Wanda za. The two had never eaten KFC together. Zhang Heng had also never listened to Bai Qing discuss her family matters.


    After going to college, the two gradually lost contact with each other, just like most of his other friends in high school. Everyone met new friends in college, and each began to have new circles. Most of them did not meet up after that, and Zhang Heng only remembered that Bai Qing was enrolled in Fudan University.


    Zhang Heng spent another day falling asleep in ss. At the end of thest period, all the students in the ss were almost gone. Bai Qing��s gel pen was still scribbled on the paper, and she handed her finished homework to Zhang Heng after a while. Once she entered her learning state, she would be as efficient as a machine.


    ��Well, this is thest one.��


    ��Thank you.�� Zhang Heng took the homework from her and put them in his backpack. After thinking about it, he had been copying her homework for some time now. And Bai Qing even treated him to a KFC meal. He felt awful about it, so he took out his phone and checked on something


    ��Are you free Friday night?��


    ��Huh?��


    ��I will take you to a ce after school.��


    ��Oh.�� Bai Qing nodded. She did not know why she said yes to Zhang Heng. Her mother had been telling her to keep her distance from boys to protect herself. Traveling with a boy at night was something that her mother would never agree with. Perhaps it was because Zhang Heng had always given her a sense of security. Besides, he had ��saved�� her once, and it was hard to put her guard up against him. Thus, she unconsciously agreed to Zhang Heng��s proposal. ��Oh, by the way, you can bring a friend with you. And I will bring a friend too.�� Zhang Heng realized that Bai Qing might feel ufortable if she was the only girl that went with him. ��Okay.�� Bai Qing picked up her schoolbag as she bashfully bit her lower lip, ��Then... see you tomorrow.��


    ��See you tomorrow.�� After school, most students would either go home and slog on homework or make ns with each other. As for Zhang Heng, he had to work on the investigation immediately.


    Zhang Heng hadn��t gained much information about the river, and he quickly realized that perhaps he had been heading in the wrong direction. Perhaps he should no longer be focussing on the three children but on what they found or discovered instead. What caused those creatures to attack them? Maybe their past lives could yield some answers? Zhang Heng found a school that one of the kids used to attend. He tore a piece of paper from his exercise book and wrote down the name of the school. An elementary school should have ended all their sses by now, but fortunately, the ss teacher��s name was printed on the news. So, Zhang Heng took a taxi to the elementary school.


    At that time, all the students had basically left the school and had returned home. The school��s gates, however, remained unlocked.


    king for only a few steps, Zhang Heng was stopped by the security guard. ��What are you here for?�� the guard asked.


    ��Oh, I booked the badminton court at 7:00 in the evening, and my friend has already arrived,�� Zhang Heng said calmly and confidently.


    Many elementary and junior high schools had indoor gymnasiums. To generate some extra revenue, the indoor gymnasium would be opened to the public during non-schooling hours. Zhang Heng had checked everything out when he was in the car, which was why he knew exactly what to say at a time like this.

 Chapter 658 - Reporter Xiao Song

    <strong>Chapter 658 Reporter Xiao Song</strong>


    The security guard allowed Zhang Heng to enter the school without asking any questions.


    Zhang Heng walked towards the gymnasium. When he went to the second floor and confirmed no one around him, Zhang Heng jumped into the teaching building through the window.


    The school��s students had all gone home a while ago, and not a single soul wandered the silent corridor.


    Desks, chairs, ckboard, podium, and the wall could all be seen through the ss.


    The news did not mention the children��s names that drowned in the river to protect citizens�� privacy. The reporters only mentioned only their surnames, but fortunately, it wasn��t too hard for Zhang Heng to find their full names. Knowing their ages, it wasn��t too difficult locating their sses either. After he arrived at the right floor, Zhang Heng checked the ssrooms one by one through the ss.


    Soon, he found an empty immacte seat, one that had no books on it but a bunch of white lilies.


    Zhang Heng looked up at the signboard in front of the door. It showed Grade 5, ss 4. Using his public transport card, he pried the door open and walked in. There was nothing left on the table or the drawer. It seemed that the child��s family hade to take away all its belongings after the tragedy. Later on, the ss students bought the white lilies with their ss fees, and they had been sitting there a while.


    The poster at the back, however, was somewhat helpful to Zhang Heng. After Lin drowned, her ssmates had made a special poster to remember her. Zhang Heng also found out that Lin��s full name was Lin Sisi. Her ssmates had said many good things about her in the poster, including how willing she always was to offer a hand to those in need and her impable academic performance. Zhang Heng skipped all the useless information and continued reading the rest. Soon, he found two notable points. The first thing was that Lin Sisi was a hushed girl. Of course, it was a nice way to describe her. In reality, she was timid and rarely interacted with others, where she sat alone most of the time, engaged in her own thoughts. And the second noteworthy point was that she was very interested in astronomy. The second point surprised Zhang Heng a little. The inte was a widely usedmodity in the modern-day, and it offered much entertainment. Finding a child that had an interest in a subject like astronomy was extremely rare. Besides, Lin Sisi was a girl. But having said that, many of those who liked astronomy were likely to be introverts. If they could not mix well with others, they would choose to immerse themselves in astronomy.


    Besides, Zhang Heng also noticed that this was rted to his main quest.


    Where did those aliense from? When did theye to earth? Or, were they some new lifeform? Zhang Heng had all these questions in his head, which was why he became so sharp when he knew that Lin Sisi was interested in astronomy.


    With all these bits and pieces of information, it was not enough to understand those things. After that, Zhang Heng went around the ssroom and found no other useful clues. So he closed the door and left, and went to the office area.


    Earlier, Zhang Heng saw the name of Lin Sisi��s headteacher in the newspaper. Her name was Li Yan, a Chinese teacher in this school. Zhang Heng managed to locate her seat with ease. The things on the teacher��s desk were quite messy. Teaching books, photocopied documents, notes, and the homework she had finished marking were scattered around. There was a cup with a picture of her daughter, and her husband was printed on it.


    Zhang Heng��s interest was triggered when he saw the enrolment form for Quality Young Teacher Course. Her personal information was written down on the form, including her address, teaching experience, contact number, and others. Zhang Heng then took a photo of the application form and checked on the principal��s office.


    After that, he took a nap on the sofa for 20 minutes. Seeing that the time was almost up, he went to the toilet to wash his face and sprinkle some water on his back and neck, pretending that he had just finished exercising. Before he left the school, he nodded at the security guard.


    Zhang Heng then went to the mall to purchase some formal clothes, bought a voice recorder and a notebook to make himself look like a young reporter. Once everything was done, he called Li Yan to make an appointment with her.


    Thetter was a little surprised when she received the call. A few days had passed since Lin Sisi��s drowning, and it was no longer the hottest topic that everyone talked about, which was why Li Yan was surprised that a reporter wanted to interview her. Zhang Heng told her that he was from the Evening City News, and he wanted to make a special report on ensuring the children��s safety outside of school. He also told her that he had talked to Headmaster Wu about it. All he needed was twenty minutes from her. To make him sound more convincing, he also mentioned Li Yan��s address in the phone call.


    Thankfully, she showed no suspicion, instantly asking Zhang Heng where to meet.


    Zhang Heng told her to meet at a small cafe near her house. Not only did he get to know more detailed information about Lin Sisi from Li Yan, but he also managed to extract had Lin Sisi��s home address and the address of two other deceased children.


    After the interview was over, Zhang Heng shook her hand and sent her out of the cafe.


    Li Yan had just given birth to a baby. There were still a lot of things waiting for her to do at home. So after the interview was over, she hurriedly left the caf��. After she walked a few steps away from the cafe, she stopped and turned around.


    ��Reporter Xiao Xiong, do you believe that there are aliens in this world?�� ��Why do you ask?�� ��I always ask my students to write weekly journals. Sisi��s weekly journal was always the most special journal among all her peers. ording to my teaching experience, the more introverted a child is, the richer their inner world... Sorry, that��s out of topic. Now, let��s go back to her weekly journal. One week before Sisi��s ident, she handed me a weekly diary saying that there are aliens in this world. Apparently, they were already here, living around us, and pretending to be us. They also study us and learn from us, waiting for the day to rece us. And their numbers are growing every day. The worst part is we can��t distinguish them from us on the outside. I��m sorry... I don��t know why I would tell you about it. You must also think that her fantasy is kind of creepy.�� Li Yan then squeezed a smile on her face.


    ��Who else has seen her weekly journal?�� Zhang Heng asked.


    ��Hmm?��


    ��Did anyone read her weekly diary except you?��


    ��Oh, a lot of students read her journal before. I will usually ask my students to read out their weekly journal if they did an excellent job. After that, I will put up the journal on the notice board. Although disturbing, it was indeed very creative. Why do you ask?��


    ��It��s nothing,�� Zhang Heng paused and asked again, ��Did you tell anyone about this other than me?�� ��No, I was very sad after Sisi was found drowned in the river. Many reporters came to interview me, and I had to take my children to ss as well. Everything was so hectic to the point that I forgot to mention the weekly journal. I��m sorry. I don��t know why I mentioned it. I must not have rested well...�� ��Yeah, get a good night��s sleep and forget about it,�� Zhang Heng said, ��The idea of aliens living among us is ridiculous.��

 Chapter 659 - Concert and Extra Income

    <strong>Chapter 659 Concert and Extra Ie</strong>


    Initially, Zhang Heng nned to check out Lin Sisi��s neighborhood. Considering the fact that he had spent quite a long time outside, he could only push this matter back for now. Besides, interviewing Lin Sisi��s parents wasn��t going to be as easy as interviewing Li Yan. Even if they believed that Zhang Heng was a reporter, they might not be willing to meet him.


    After all, another interview would only reopen the wounds still fresh from losing their beloved daughter.


    Zhang Heng returned home at about 8 in the evening. His grandpa was sitting on the sofa reading newspapers, and the food on the table remained untouched.


    ��I��ve sent you a message telling you not to wait for me.��


    ��It��s better that we eat together anyway,�� said Grandpa as he put down the newspapers. He did not ask where his grandson had gone to since he always believed in his judgment and self-discipline. The two had always lived like that. Grandpa believed that the more he controlled Zhang Heng, the more rebellious his grandson would be.


    Zhang Hengter asked his grandfather where he learned such an idea, and thetter told him that he found it out when raising his mother.


    ��Let me heat the food then.�� As he spoke, Zhang Heng brought the dishes on the table into the kitchen.


    After learning that those creatures wouldn��t do anything to him for now, Zhang Heng stopped using the Lego kitten as his meal taster. That said, he remained vignt. The tragic incident that happened to Lin Sisi and the college students was a constant reminder that this was no safe ce. The aliens might have reced people he thought he knew.


    After dinner, Zhang Heng contacted Qin Zhen again.


    Thetter had a cousin who worked as a ticket reseller, specializing in buying, then selling tickets for performances or events at a higher price. Ticket resellers were either loved or hated, especially when it came to popr performances where tickets would be sold out in a blink of an eye on an online ticketing tform. Even if one had a smooth inte connection, there was no guarantee that they could bag a single ticket. If they were lucky enough to snatch one, however, it would be one with an awful sitting position.


    Thus, fans who failed to buy the tickets or wanted a good position could only seek the help of a ticket reseller. It wasn��t umon for a one thousand yuan ticket to be marked up to at least three or four thousand yuan. As for tickets that sold like hotcakes, the reseller would increase the price to seven to eight thousand yuan. At the same time, there was a risk that the scalper would scam the buyers by selling them fake tickets.


    Although all online ticketing tforms imed that they had nothing to do with these resellers, it was difficult for them to exin the shady order of ticket allocation. Only they would know the truth. Like many, Zhang Heng disliked ticket resellers too. However, there were only four days left before the start of the concert, and purchasing the tickets through the legal channel wasn��t possible anymore. Knowing how Bai Qing was a real big fan of GEM, Zhang Heng had been thinking about how to repay her kindness. It so happened that there was a GEM concert on Friday, so he decided that he��d invite her to the concert as a thank you gesture.


    At the same time, Zhang Heng was concerned that Bai Qing would misunderstand his intention. In the end, he decided to bring Qin Zhen with him.


    Qin Zhen took a deep breath after hearing that Zhang Heng was inviting him to a GEM concert.


    ��Did you rob a bank recently? Do you know how much it costs to get GEM��s concert tickets? And you��re even getting the VIP seats?!��


    ��Don��t worry about the money. Just ask your cousin to help me to get the tickets,�� Zhang Heng said.


    Since the race proceeds couldn��t be brought back into the real world, it would be all but a waste if he didn��t spend it now.


    ��Okay, I��ll ask my cousin!�� Qin Zhen agreed. He then asked curiously after a pause, ��Now, which girl are you blowing-off such a huge fortune on?��


    ��Look... if you��re not interested, I can pass your ticket to someone else,�� Zhang Heng said. ��Fine... Fine... You��re the boss since you are paying. It so happens that I like GEM a lot too. Don��t forget me if you are going to do something like this again! I promise to be your eternal wingman.��


    IIII


    Zhang Heng hung up the phone after that. So far, he had been carrying out continuous investigations for several days and nights. He had to go to ss during the day, and hence, didn��t n to sleepte again tonight. After copying his homework and taking a shower, he retired early and went to bed.


    In the next few days, he continued ying high-school student while investigating the alien debacle. Zhang Heng went to the neighborhood where Lin Sisi once lived. Just like what he expected earlier, the girl��s parents had no intention to be interviewed anymore. However, he managed to use a pack of cigarettes to acquire some valuable information at the gate outside the neighborhood.


    ording to the security guard, the three children often left together in a group. The one thing he didn��t know was where they were heading to.


    These three children should have had their own secret base or something along that line.


    Through the surveince clips, Zhang Heng extended his investigation to a ce that was ten kilometers away. He was closer to the east of the city, where several state-owned factories and mines were once located.


    The 1990s were probably the golden years of the state-owned factories and mines. At its peak, a factory had tens of thousands of employees, and the director of a factory was considered to be on equal footing as a mayor. The factory��s grounds were usually like a self-contained kingdom, having its own kindergarten, elementary, junior, and high school built within its grounds. It had everything the prospective worker needed, including housing and hospitals. Due to various reasons, however, theserge state-owned factories started to go downhill. Not only were all the benefits canceled, but the factories even failed to pay the workers as well. Due to this reason, the whole city looked a little bleak.


    There was no longer any need for Zhang Heng to masquerade as a worker from a security camera manufacturer. Since he had loads of money with him now, he could just make up an excuse and gave the store manager a hundred yuan to check their CCTV footage. With that, he managed to speed up his investigation.


    He tracked the Honda Fit all the way here, but it disappeared all of a sudden. Even after watching all the footage from the nearby shops, the Honda Fit was nowhere to be seen. It all but seemed to have disappeared into thin


    air.


    Excluding the possibility of a supernatural phenomenon, Zhang Heng figured that they might have changed the car halfway.


    After noticing an underground parking lot next door, he went down, wanting to check the parking lot��s CCTV footage. It was then that an ident happened.


    There was no one in the duty room, and at the same time, the light above his head began to flicker. Zhang Heng stood still and looked at his surroundings. At least eight to nine people, all holding steel pipes and wrenches in their hands, had emerged from the dark.


    ��You shouldn��t have been so nosy,�� a man who appeared to be their leader snorted in an unfriendly tone.


    ��Is that so?�� Zhang Heng raised his eyebrows, put his hand in his pocket. ��What can you do to me then?�� he chided nonchntly.


    The leader snorted, ��Stop acting like a fool. You know what��s going on here. Someone asked me to tell you to stay put. Otherwise, you might just be the next victim.��


    ��And... who is that person?��


    ��Hey, why are you asking so many questions?��. the leader growled impatiently.


    ��So you actually don��t know anything. You just take their money and do their bidding.�� Zhang Heng��s stare swept across the crowd. Judging from their clothes, they should all be the workers from nearby factories, and it seemed that they hadn��t received any stipends for some time. Hence, they could only find other ways to make some extra cash.

 Chapter 660 - You Guys Should Be Running

    <strong>Chapter 660 You Guys Should Be Running</strong>


    Zhang Heng figured that his recent actions must have alerted those beings. After all, he had been collecting security footage along the street, and he knew it wasn��t something he could hide. Such a move had probably caused them to feel that he was threatening their existence, and thus, hired a group of people to teach Zhang Heng a lesson.


    To them, Zhang Heng was nothing more than a high school student. Once the group of thugs taught him a lesson, they expected him to realize reality��s cruelty and hoped that he��d give up on what he was doing.


    Obviously, they had severely underestimated Zhang Heng and his abilities.


    Technically speaking, this was actually a double-blind quest. Zhang Heng had no idea where those creatures originated from, nor did they know his identity as a yer. Hence, both parties were still at the stage of testing the waters they were in.


    ��How much did the person pay you to teach me a lesson?�� Zhang Heng looked at the group��s leader.


    ��Why are you asking this?�� the leader asked cautiously. ��I want to see if money can be used to settle this,�� Zhang Heng said. After all, he was now quite rich in this dungeon. He would opt for a more civilized solution if he encountered troubles.


    ��He paid us 3,000 yuan, and he wanted us to beat you up so bad that you wouldn��t be getting out of bed for a week.��


    ��Then I will pay you 6000 yuan for you guys to leave me alone. And I also want to know more about the person that you guys contacted.��


    After the leader heard Zhang Heng��s proposal, he looked at the man with a wrench next to him and asked in doubt, ��Are you trying to get our personal information and hand them over to the police while you transfer the money to


    us?��


    ��I can give you cash,�� Zhang Heng said. ��You have 6000 yuan on you?��


    ��Yes.��


    ��Then you pay first.��


    Zhang Heng wasted no time, taking out 6000 yuan from his schoolbag and handing it to the leader. At the same time, he said sincerely, ��I would advise you to give up on any unnecessary thoughts you have in your mind.�� However, thetter obviously had no intention to listen to Zhang Heng��s advice. After getting the money from Zhang Heng, the leader had no intention to leave Zhang Heng alone. A sense of greed started to manifest in his eyes. When Zhang Heng was searching his bag, the leader saw more money in Zhang Heng��s schoolbag. In total, Zhang Heng came out with 10,000 yuan this time. So, the leader changed his words on the spot, ��No, we can��t take your money. We are trustworthy people. So, we will definitely deliver what we promised. Otherwise, no one would dare to work with us in the future.��


    The leader��s self-righteous talk amused Zhang Heng. ��Then how much do you want?�� he asked directly without beating around the bush.


    ��How much do you have on you?��


    ��It��s better not to be too greedy, uncle.�� Zhang Heng said lightly.


    ��We have been waited for so long for an opportunity to make more money. Do you really think we will leave you alone if we don��t squeeze out everything you have on you?�� The leader curled his lips.


    ��I guess it��s time for things to get ugly.��


    Zhang Heng zipped up his schoolbag and slung it on his back again.


    ��What are you trying to do? Are you trying to run?�� The leader let out a sly smile, ��There are so many of us here. If we allow you to run away before our eyes, no one will hire us again in the future.��


    ��Run?�� Zhang Heng raised his eyebrows and took out the utility knife in his pocket. ��No, you are the one who should run.��


    The entire battle did notst long.


    All of them were workers from nearby factories, and obviously, hadn��t receivedbat training of any sort. So, they could only intimadate others with the fat and tattoos on their bodies. In a one-on-one battle, they might even lose to an ordinary civilian. Although they had the numbers, they were facing an experienced yer like Zhang Heng. In other words, they would lose the battle regardless.


    Since he was not in Nassau or 19th century America, Zhang Heng did not beat them up too badly. Things could get troublesome if he caused them to be permanently disabed, or even worse, killed them. So Zhang Heng beat them up only to disable them temporarily. Doubling down on his generosity, Zhang Heng was actually helping the local hospitals or clinics to earn more money. Truth be told, Zhang Heng only had to defeat four men. The rest were so frightened that they dropped the steel pipe in their hand and ran away.


    Zhang Heng ignored those who ran away, walking directly to the leader that was lying on the ground and moaning. When he saw Zhang Heng walking toward him with a utility knife, he became nervous and started to talk, ��Wh... What are you doing?! Don��te near me, eh? We are all civilized people here. If you continue to beat me up, I will call the police!��


    Zhang Heng squatted down beside him, and used his clothes to wipe the blood on the utility knife, then recollected the 6,000 yuan.


    ��Tell me, who is this person that contacted you.��


    The leader saw that the 6,000 yuan that he received from Zhang Heng earlier was now gone. He wanted to p himself so bad right now. Initially, he could have just left with an extra 6000 yuan in his pocket. Even if he returned the 3,000 yuan he received from his client, he could still earn an extra 3,000 yuan. Thanks to his greed, however, he now lost every dime on him. And he would also have a hard time exining his failure to his client.


    Since the leader��s arm still bled, he did not dare plot anymore evil ns. So he told Zhang Heng everything about the person who hired them.


    Zhang Heng was not too surprised when he heard about the person. Since the college student was waiting for him in the corridor that night, he was ready to expose himself. That would also mean the fake college student was the best person to deal with Zhang Heng. He had figured out that Zhang Heng��s investigation would lead him to this parking lot sooner orter, and he had got some hire muscles to ambush Zhang Heng here.


    In other words, the college student��s family did change their car here that night, but the security footage should have been deleted by now.


    This came in no way as good news for Zhang Heng. The investigation had to be put on pause again.


    On the other hand, Zhang Heng was now very close to where the college student��s family went that night.


    He had a hunch that the creatures�� nest was very likely nearby. Although the CCTV footage had been deleted, Zhang Heng believed that the residents around the ce must have sensed something amiss.


    So, for the next step of the investigation, Zhang Heng decided to focus on interviews.


    Five minutester, he confirmed that he could not extract any more useful information from the leader. So, Zhang Heng walked out of the garage and looked up at the sky outside. There was not much time left before the dark of night would set in, and thest thing he wanted was to let grandpa wait for him. Thus, today��s investigation would have to end here.


    He called a taxi and chatted with the driver as they drove on the road. After a while, he received a message from Qin Zhen, who said that he had obtained the concert tickets. Since Qin Zhen had bought the tickets from his own cousin, he only needed to pay an extra 500 yuan for each. In total, Zhang Heng was only required to pay 7,120 yuan for all the tickets.


    To his cousin, this was a significant loss, having made not much more than the cost to purchase those tickets. This was clearly not a bad deal for him.


    Zhang Heng was fine with it, though. The price was indeed reasonable. It would be unrealistic to expect Qin Zhen��s cousin to not earn a single cent from them. After that, he asked Qin Zhen to send over the QR code on the ticket to confirm that the tickets were real. Once he saw that the tickets were fine, Zhang Heng sent the money to him after arriving home.


    Qin Zhen, on the other hand, was in high spirits, since he��d be able to watch the concert for free. He had stopped asking Zhang Heng about the girl that would attend the concert with him.


    He prepared himself and said, ��Don��t worry, even if the girl is super ugly, I��ll not say a word. After all, I still have a masterpiece on the stage for me to watch.��

 Chapter 661 - 1 Friday

    <strong>Chapter 661 Friday</strong>


    It was Friday in the blink of an eye.


    The weekend was nigh, and the ssroom was in a much more rxed atmosphere than before. Monday was the day that everyone hated the most, as if the day the students had to face down their worst enemies. Everyone just wished that they could get over Monday as soon as possible. At the moment, though, everyone was in a lighter mood, and more people talked andughed in the front and back rows.


    If one ranked the emotional values of high school students for a week, Monday was probably the day they felt least motivated since the new week was about to begin. The thought of having had to spend another five days in school was downright depressing. Tuesday was only slightly better than Monday. On Wednesday, students began to see a slight glimpse of hope. By then, they should be a lot more ted than they were since the weekend was just beyond the horizon.


    Upon Thursday��s arrival, many students would start thinking about where they would spend their weekend and what activities they could do. Come Friday; the weekend was finally within grasp. Their endorphins were at their highest, very much akin to the first and second days of an adult��s payday. Saturday, on the other hand, wasn��t as exciting as Friday. That was because the weekend was half gone, and when the realization hit them, a student��s happiness would start to drop. Lastly, on Sunday, the students would enjoy thest day of the weekend, their joy diminished even further. While they enjoyed thest remnants of the weekends, they began to dread the next day since it would be Monday all too soon.


    Today, Bai Qing changed into a short dress that Zhang Heng had never seen before. With her crop cut, she gave off the impression of a girl in the sparkling summer sunshine. She looked more mature in her outfit, too, instead of the regr jeans she��d wear outside. ��Hmm.��


    When Zhang Heng came to the ssroom, he saw Bai Qing looking at him. ��Something wrong?�� ��This dress suits you well.�� ��Thank you...�� Zhang Heng��spliment had left Bai Qing abashed. She immediately buried her face in the textbook. After a while, she muttered, ��You look good too.��


    ��Really?�� Zhang Heng looked at his attire and felt no different from the clothing he wore on average days.


    ��I invited Chi Jia toe with me. Is that fine with you?�� Bai Qing asked quickly afterward, changing the topic and pretending as if nothing happened.


    ��It��s totally fine. You can bring whoever you want with you. I invited my childhood friend as well.��


    Zhang Heng knew how active Chi Jia was, and if memory served him right, she lived very close to Bai Qing��s house. The two would often go home together, and Qin Zhen would surely feel relieved if she tagged along. Although Chi Jia was not exceptionally gorgeous, she was prettier than most of her counterparts, probably having something to do with her active lifestyle. She was well-toned and slim, not to mention how tall she was as well. In fact, she would pair up nicely with Qin Zhen, himself a big basketball fan.


    Bai Qing talked to Zhang Heng quite often, but on this asion, she was at a loss for words after speaking only a few sentences to him.


    Fortunately, the morning��s self-study bell rang amid the awkward moment. The ss teacher strode into the ssroom, red at all the students, and snorted, ��It��s not the weekend yet! Can��t you guys hang on for one more day? I believe I should be handing you guys more homework this weekend.��


    As soon as she said that, the whole ssroom erupted into groans and wails.


    ��If you are told to memorize words or texts, you should do it now. Stop talking to each other.��


    Immediately, all the students started to put on their serious looks and began studying. Zhang Heng took the workbook secretly handed by Bai Qing from below and continued to copy the unfinished homework.


    Friday was probably the most chaotic day of the week.


    During the second half of thest ss of the day, probably only top students like Bai Qing would concentrate on the lesson. This time though, Bai Qing looked distracted, constantly looking at her watch several times.


    The male physics teacher realized that no one was paying any more attention to his ss. Seeing that there were only three minutes left before the ss was over, everyone was allowed to pack up after he gave a few final words. When the bell rang, he shook his head and walked out of the ssroom textbook in hand.


    ��What now? Do you know where we��ll be heading to tonight?�� Chi Jia couldn��t sit still, even before the physics teacher asked them to pack their bags. She was already packed and ready to leave, with only a single workbook left on her desk. After the physics teacher left the ss, she quickly ran to Bai Qing��s desk.


    After Chi Jia asked the question, Bai Qing looked at Zhang Heng.


    Chi Jia pouted, ��You better make sure nothing bad happens to her!��


    ��You��ll be there with her,�� Zhang Heng said.


    ��That��s what I��d like to hear. The reason why Bai Qing thrives is that she��s been under my great care!�� Chi Jia stretched out her hand and squeezed Bai Qing��s face as she talked. ��Stop fooling around,�� Bai Qing broke free from Chi Jia��s ws and growled sternly, ��I believe in Zhang Heng��s character.�� ��Oh, women. The species that ignores a simrly gendered friend once they be attached with the opposite sex.�� Chi Jia let out a long sigh.


    All of a sudden, Zhang Heng produced two concert tickets from his pocket, ��I��m sorry that I had to wait until now to tell you because I wasn��t sure if I could get my hands on these.��


    ��Concert?�� Chi Jia was bewildered. She then saw the name of the celebrity on the ticket and screamed in shock. Those who hadn��t yet left the ss all turned toward her. ��It��s GEM��s concert, and you even got the VIP seats?! Chi Jia, how did you be so rich all of a sudden?�� someone asked.


    ��Get lost!�� Chi Jia said, ��I didn��t buy the tickets, Zhang Heng gave it...�� she blurted out without much thought. When she saw Bai Qing��s flushing face, she finally realized something was going on between her and Zhang Heng. Shen then quickly stopped the rest of the words from pouring out from her mouth.


    ��I asked a ticket reseller to help me buy them.�� Zhang Heng interrupted the conversation in time.


    One should never underestimate how fast rumors spread among high school students. If Zhang Heng had told the others that he invited Bai Qing to GEM��s concert, the whole ss would think that Zhang Heng and Bai Qing were in a rtionship. It would then be followed by Bai Qing getting summoned by the teacher for a ��personal talk.��


    ar


    ��Still, you��re quite rich yourself, Chi Jia. Tsk... Tsk... Never judge a book by its cover.�� A boy who was closer to Chi Jia teased her. ��Get the hell out of my hair. What do you mean by don��t judge a book by its cover? Stop talking if you don��t know what the hell are you talking about. Do I look like a poor ass to you?�� ��I don��t know if you are a poor ass. I thought you spent all your money on Honor of Kings?�� The boyughed, ��Where did you get the money to buy concert tickets. Chi Jia, you��ve be so rich that I don��t even recognize you anymore.�� ��Can you get lost? Bai Qing helped me pay for the tickets first! If I fail to pay her back, I will sell myself to pay off my debt.��


    ��Yes. I heard that the price of pork had increased recently.�� Chi Jia was furious when she heard what he said. And she wanted to kick the boy. Fortunately, the boy ran away before she could do that.


    Others gathered around her to look at the concert tickets for a while, and they all left after expressing their envy, jealousy, and hatred.


    Zhang Heng saw that Bai Qing was relieved. He then picked up his schoolbag and said, ��I��ll make a move first. Let��s meet at the bus station at 102-Streetter.��


    ��Okay,�� Bai Qing nodded.

 Chapter 662 - Milktea is Soulless Without Pearls

    <strong>Chapter 662 Milktea is Soulless Without Pearls</strong>


    The nearest bus stop at 102nd-Street was located about 700 meters away from the school��s east wing. There was an oldmercial street called Shanghai Market, but it had nothing to do with Shanghai, just like the standardized Qilihe across the country.


    Multitudes flocked to the Shanghai Market on Friday, and Zhang Heng chose to meet here because the crowd allowed him to avoid being recognized by someone he knew.


    Since he was first to arrive at the rendezvous point, he bought three cups of milk tea at the shop next to him. ��Are you on a date today?�� A voice came from behind him.


    ��Can you guys just give me a break?�� Zhang Heng took the receipt and sighed.


    Zhang Heng knew who was standing behind him. Like the staircase incident, the college student had been waiting for him outside the school and followed him once Zhang Heng left. Since he did not take the initiative to speak, Zhang Heng had no intention to talk to him.


    Who would be the one to break the silence first?


    ��One original milk tea, less sugar, no ice, thank you.�� The college student took out his mobile phone, scanned the QR code with a smile, and paused, ��This is how it works. To make sure the social system functions normally, some have to work harder than other people.��


    ��That is the truth.��


    ��Not to mention that we are in trouble now.��


    ��What��s the trouble? Humor me.�� Zhang Heng moved aside, giving way to a young couple.


    The college student followed Zhang Heng to the side, too, as they waited for their milk tea to be made.


    ��I thought we reached a consensus at the staircase that night? We should mind our own business. It isn��t right for us to stick our nose into each other��s business,�� the college student said. ��Isn��t peace something you humans always promote?��


    ��What then? If I do that, I��ll be giving you time toe up with something to screw me up,�� replied Zhang Heng.


    ��That depends on your attitude.�� The college student��s tone was ambiguous.


    Zhang Heng red at the college student. ��Where is the original owner of this body? Did he not behave well enough? What happened to him? Did you kill him? Imprison him, or try to control his mind?��


    Yet again, the college student shed his signature smile. ��He has a good attitude, but unfortunately, he wasn��t honest. He should have been d that we treated him as a mental patient. After all, life is so stressful these days. Everyoneins that their work is tough and challenging. A lot of people wish that they could stay at home and y video games every day. He should have been contented with a life like that. Why did he have to go to the river, alone at night, and take something that did not belong to him? In the end, we had to retrieve it.��


    After Zhang Heng heard what the college student said, he red at him. About three secondster, the youngdy at the milk tea shop said, ��No. 147, who is No. 147? Your three cups of milk tea are ready!��


    Zhang Heng handed over the number ticket, took the milk tea, then looked toward the college student again. ��Let me guess. The reason you guys killed the three kids was to find something? And you haven��t found it yet?��


    The college student��s expression changed slightly.


    ��Don��t be too surprised that I know what��s going on right now. If you have already gotten the thing, you won��t be watching and following me all the time. Look at you. You are now working overtime.�� Zhang Heng said, ��Before you try to pull a fast one on me the next time, it��d be better if you spend more timeposing a more believable story.��


    The college student put away the smile on his face and said, ��What happened at the parking lot earlier is a warning to you. If you don��t stoping after us, it won��t be that simple the next time.��


    ��You��d better make sure youe up with something interesting to deal with me. Otherwise, it will be a boring game for me,�� smirked Zhang Heng. He nced at the milk tea shop and reminded the creature, ��Your milk tea is ready. Let me give you a piece of advice for free as well. Well, if you want to pretend to be a human, you should learn a little bit more about our culture. Milk tea without pearls is just wrong.��


    After that, Zhang Heng walked toward the bus station at 102nd-Street. Bai Qing and Chi Jia had just arrived, and they were looking for him in the crowd. Immediately, Zhang Heng waved to them, walked over, and handed them the milk tea he just bought.


    The college student did not follow Zhang Heng again after that. He stayed at the milk tea shop, took his cup, inserted a straw into it, and took two sips from it. He then frowned and said to thedy in the milk tea shop, ��Give me some pearls.��


    ��Ah, sorry, sir. I can��t add the pearls to a cup that��s sealed.��


    ��That��s very sweet of you,�� Chi Jia said, ��but I remember that you can��t bring drinks to the concert.��


    ��You are supposed to finish it before the concert starts. We still have an hour and a half left,�� Zhang Heng said.


    ��Well, guess I��ll be having it now.�� Chi Jia picked the strawberry milk tea.


    Zhang Heng then handed the chocte-vored one to Bai Qing. He had bought milk tea for Bai Qing before, so he knew what vor she fancied. At the same time, he received a message from Qin Zhen on WeChat.


    ��My friend is here as well. Let��s go there now. We can get something to eat if we arrive there early.��


    ��Okay.�� Chi Jia and Zhang Heng were not familiar with each other. She was a very outgoing and active girl, never afraid to bring up a conversation with a stranger. And she could also speak eloquently when participating in a recitation contest with all the people looking at her below. On the contrary, Bai Qing, who sat next to Zhang Heng in the ssroom, would usually talk to Zhang Heng from time to time. Tonight, though, she seemed a little quiet.


    In order to save time, the three of them decided to walk a little further to get a taxi.


    He nced at the milk tea shop again and found that the college student was still standing there. He seemed to have paid for another cup of milk tea with pearls in it.


    Chi Jia followed his gaze and asked, ��Is there anyone you know over there?��


    Bai Qing became nervous when she heard the question.


    ��No, I saw someone that looked like my former neighbor.��


    As Zhang Heng opened the door and entered the passenger seat, he told the driver, ��Please bring us to the old stadium.��


    ��Okay.�� The taxi driver started the meter and changed gears skillfully while stepping on the pedal.


    As the car elerated, the college student and the milk tea shop gradually faded away in the rearview mirror.


    Tonight, traffic was in gridlock outside the old stadium. There were cars everywhere, as well as buses that were impatiently honking away. Zhang Heng, Chi Jia, and Bai Qing had to get off the taxi 200 meters away from the old stadium and walk to their destination.


    Along the way, they came across tons of GEM��s fans who were eager to watch the concert. At the same time, ticket resellers asked if the three had bought any tickets. Some of the more business-savvy vendors had quickly set up shop around the stadium, selling GEM��s merchandise.


    People flooded the za outside the stadium.


    Since Qin Zhen arrived first, he took the initiative to line up and buy glow sticks. After that, he went to the Burger King next to him to buy his dinner. People were lining all the way outside the restaurant. He would have to wait at least forty minutes to get his meal. And he could only order whatever that was left in the restaurant.

 Chapter 663 - Small Matter

    <h4>Chapter 663: Small Matter</h4>


    Sweating all over, Qin Zhen ran over with two big bags of items. Before he even got to them, he had already startedining. ��You guys are finally here! I had to run everywhere to get all these things for you. Getting hereter than me is such a smart move! I think I��vepletely transformed into your maid.��


    ��Didn��t you start lining up very early?�� Zhang Heng took a bag from his hand.


    ��I don��t want to talk about it anymore. I met the son of a bitch who jumped the queue. The girl behind him got mad, and he had the guts to retaliate even though he was at fault. Immediately, an aunty and I went to help the girl. Both of us stood up for her, and in the end, that guy wanted to beat me up! ��


    ��Who won?�� Chi Jia asked curiously.


    ��Isn��t the oue obvious?�� Qin Zhen said proudly. ��He is a high school student and is around 1.8 meters tall. I can see that he is a basketball yer and he is quite muscr as well. But then, I have always fought other kids stronger than me, which was why I wasn��t afraid of him.��


    When Qin Zhen saw the two girls that stood beside Zhang Heng, his eyes lit up. Nudging Zhang Heng with his elbow, he sniggered, ��Aren��t you supposed to introduce them to me?�� He then lowered his voice, ��Which one is your girlfriend.��


    ��Don��t listen to him,�� Zhang Heng said to Bai Qing and Chi Jia. ��His name is Qin Zhen, a friend of mine since childhood. He��s from a different school in the city, but we are of the same age. He may like to brag, but really, he��s a decent guy.��


    Zhang Heng then turned to Qin Zhen, ��This is Bai Qing and Chi Jia, my ssmates.��


    ��What did you mean by I like to brag?�� Qin Zhen sounded disgruntled. ��I��ve always been very reliable.�� As he said, he stretched out his hand and grinned, ��Hello, I am the captain of the basketball team in my school!��


    ��Awesome, I remember your school��s basketball team is pretty good. They came as runner up in the high-school basketballpetitionst year.�� Chi Jia and Bai Qing shook hands with Qin Zhen, and Chi Jia quickly picked up a conversation with him.


    Qin Zhen scratched his head. ��It��s a shame. We could have won the championship. We were clearly leading in the first half of thepetition, but our center yer hurt his leg and couldn��t perform. The opponent caught the rebound, and they managed to score a few points after that. It was not a good day for us.��


    ��It��s okay. You��ll make aeback next time,�� Chi Jia encouraged.


    The Burger King branch they were at waspletely filled, and after the four were introduced, they found a more sparsely popted parterre near the outdoor parking lot. Qin Zhen and Zhang Heng ced leaflets on the ground, letting the two girls sit on it. The boys passed their bags to Bai Qing and Chi Jia, divided the burgers, and started devouring their meal while standing up.


    Qin Zhen was so famished that he gobbled down the burger in three bites. He then took the Coke handed over by Chi Jia and thanked her. When Bai Qing saw this, she hesitated a little before taking out a cup of orange juice from the bag. ��Do you want your orange juice now?�� she asked Zhang Heng.


    ��Sure.�� As Zhang Heng took the cup from Bai Qing, his finger identally touched hers. Immediately, Bai Qing wanted to move away from Zhang Heng��s finger, but she did not do it in the end. Before she could say anything, Qin Zhen��s expression suddenly changed.


    Zhang Heng looked at where Qin Zhen looked and saw a few boys walking towards them.


    Qin Zhen gasped. ��That f*cker is bringing his friends here to avenge him.��


    ��The one who jumped the queue?�� Zhang Heng asked.


    ��Yes. It��s okay. I can settle them. Just wait for me here.�� Qin Zhen took another gulp of Coke and handed the cup back to Chi Jia.


    Worried about him, Chi Jia attempted to throw caution to the wind. ��Hey, don��t act tough. There are so many of them.��


    ��Don��t turn it into a big mess. It��s not a big deal after all. Just let me talk to them,�� added Zhang Heng.


    To which, Qin Zhen shook his head. ��If these people are reasonable, they wouldn��t have jumped queue at the Burger King.��


    However, he did not go to them alone in the end, knowing well enough that he would surely be beaten up. Although he wasn��t afraid, thest thing he wanted was to get beaten up in front of the two girls. It would be embarrassing, not to mention how he was unsure if it might inadvertently involve Zhang Heng, Bai Qing, and Chi Jia.


    He had made up his mind that even if he were destined to be beaten up, he would not drag the two girls into his problem.


    ��It��s him! The dude who bashed me up at Burger King just now.�� A boy in a blue T-shirt pointed at Qin Zhen. Judging by their appearance, they had to be quite young, and they seem ed to be students from nearby universities. There were male and female among them, and the other four boys in the group now red menacingly at Qin Zhen.


    ��After you jumped the queue, you swung your fist at me first,�� Qin Zhen stated for the record.


    He was not afraid of them since he had a lot of experience in fighting with others. Usually, he would run away if he knew that he could not win the fight. However, he was here with his friends today. In other words, he could not run away even if he wanted to do so.


    ��We are not trying to bully you,�� another boy said, ��Stand up straight! You punched my buddy a few times at the Burger King just now. Now, let him return a few punches to you.��


    Chi Jia was dissatisfied. ��Why?! He didn��t even apologize when he jumped the queue. It is not right toe and trouble the person who tried to stop him.��


    ��You guys are his friends, right? This has nothing to do with you. If you don��t want to be beaten like him, stop talking,�� warned another boy.


    Zhang Heng, too, spoke his mind. ��Can��t we just shake hands and let it slide?��


    ��Hey, can you understand humannguage?! There is no room for bargaining here!�� the boy threatened, reaching out to push Zhang Heng at the same time.


    But the next moment, his action was interrupted by the roar of an engine. He then saw six sports carsing from the intersection. The security guard in charge immediately removed the obstacles that were ced at the reserved parking spaces. It made the other drivers who had spent ages looking for a parking spot to divert their anger at them. After seeing the luxury cars, though, none of them dared to say a single word because they knew their drivers had to be wealthy and influential people.


    After the six drivers parked, a young man from the Bentley came out of his car and saw Zhang Heng. And he said excitedly, ��Master! You are here too.��


    After that, he quickly walked towards Zhang Heng.


    Their sudden appearance made the group who came to teach Qin Zhen a lesson stare at each other. While they were still in shock, the young Bentley driver left his femalepanion behind and walked to their backs. When the young man saw that nobody gave way to him, he frowned. ��Are they your friends?��


    ��No.�� Zhang Heng said.


    ��Good.�� The young man let out a long sigh of relief. His expression changed, snapping at the girl closest to him, ��Get lost!��


    The girl��s face changed drastically when she heard the young man telling her to get lost. She was so scared that she almost cried. Immediately, she looked at the boys around him. However, the group who were so previously so eager to beat Qin Zhen up hesitated. When they saw that Zhang Heng and his friends were just high school students, they did not hesitate to confront them. However, when they saw a group of rich young men approaching Zhang Heng, they knew it was not a good idea to provoke them.


    At the same time, the owners of other sports cars had all gotten out of their cars. The group of university students no longer had the numbers advantage. And even if they could win the right, they would have to face the consequences that woulde with it. So, they just red at Qin Zhen and left without saying a word.


    ��Thanks.��


    After they left, Zhang Heng thanked the young man. Although he knew that they were not exactly kind souls, they weren��t people who would find unnecessary trouble. The young man acted in such an arrogant manner because he saw the fight that was about to break out between the group of university students and Zhang Heng��s group. He just wanted to help Zhang Heng and his friends to resolve the problem peacefully.


    ��Don��t mention it,�� the young man said. He nced at the two girls, Bai Qing and Chi Jia, and smiled. ��It seems that you havepany tonight. We won��t bother you anymore. You cane to our club anytime you want, and please, do teach us some of that amazing driving skills.��

 Chapter 664 - It’s All An Illusion

    <h4>Chapter 664: It��s All An Illusion</h4>


    ��Who are those people?�� Qin Zhen asked after the group of rich kids from the modified car club left.


    ��I met them some time ago,�� Zhang Heng replied.


    ��They seem to admire you a lot. And they mentioned about wanting you to teach them something?�� Qin Zhen asked curiously.


    ��They want me to teach them how to drift in a Santana,�� Zhang Heng whispered in a grave tone.


    ��Hahaha!�� Chi Jia burst intoughter when she heard Zhang Heng��s exnation. ��I thought you didn��t like group activities, and you didn��t join any school clubs. I thought you were a rather boring person. I didn��t expect you toe up with such a funny joke. It��s no wonder you could win Bai Qing over.��


    Bai Qing blushed and pushed Chi Jia, ��Stop talking talk nonsense!��


    ...


    This incident that had taken ce before the concert did not wipe away everyone��s excitement but instead, brought the four of them closer. Even Bai Qing, who was a little nervous before, was now back to chatty self. She began to talk about recently released movies and games.


    Zhang Heng also learned that Bai Qing was a fan of Nintendo ssic games, having singlehandedlypleted ssic titles like Super Mario, Contra, Pokemon, and Zelda.


    It was no wonder she tried to finish her homework as fast as possible every day.


    After the four people finished their food, the concert staff began to let spectators into the stadium. The crowd started to look for their respective entrances, and Qin Zhen passed the glow sticks to everyone. They, too, began to follow the crowd into the stadium.


    The VIP area was located on the lowest floor, and they were very close to the stage now. Once they got there, they sat on stools that had been allocated to them by the staff. Qin Zhen��s cousin was kind enough to get them the centered VIP seats, which directly faced the main stage.


    At this distance, they could see the performance without looking at therge screen on the other side. Chi Jia began toin about Zhang Heng not telling her about the seating position beforehand. She would have brought the power bank with her, considering how her phone��s battery had less than 50% left. Now, she had to carefully monitor her usage if she wanted to take more pictures.


    After the admission waspleted, all the fans found their seats, and the lights were dimmed, an indication that the concert had officiallymenced. Just as everyone stretched out their necks to look for GEM, Bai Qing suddenly turned and looked at Zhang Heng in the dark.


    Zhang Heng was aware of that, so he turned and smiled back at her. Right at that moment, the background music was yed. GEM was standing on the elevator tform, rising from the bottom of the stage, and a beam of lightnded on her, making her the center of attention.


    Qin Zhen and Chi Jia excitedly followed the other fans and waved the glow sticks in their hands. A sea of glow sticks lit up the entire stadium at that moment. GEM was indeed worthy of the title, Iron Lung. The moment her voice was audible, the entire stadium��s atmosphere instantly lit up.


    Zhang Heng had attended several concerts before. Admittedly, although some rumors had tainted GEM��s reputation, nobody could deny that she was indeed a top-notch songstress. Watching her singing live in front of an audience was an experience on a whole different level.


    For the next two and a half hours, all four of them fully focussed on the concert. Even Zhang Heng forgot his main quest temporarily. Putting aside the matter of the aliens, this quest allowed him to return to his high-school life. Without having to worry about homework and advancing his studies, Zhang Heng realized how much fun he had missed out on during his high-school years.


    Being a teenager was simple and fun. When a teenager liked someone, they would look at the person they liked with a gentle smile. It did not mean that they had to be together, but one could feel overwhelming joy by just gazing at the person, unlike adulthood, where every action one took would be taken into ount.


    Of course, they thought about the future too, but the future was too far away, except for a handful of teenagers that became more mature than their peers. Most teenagers did not have a clear concept and n for the future, where life in high-school was the summer that would nevere to an end.


    Most teenagers often dreamt of bing a grownup, but once they became adults, they would quickly realize that it wasn��t like what they expected. The world was a starkly different ce than their dreams. Unconsciously, the most beautiful time of their lives had been all but left behind, all too soon.


    ...


    The concert reached a climax when GEM performed her single ��Bubble.�� Released in 2012, it became a tune familiar to everyone, fourteen years after she participated in the reality show ��Singer.��


    For her final performance of the night, GEM changed into a long skirt, holding a microphone in one hand and a translucent piece of silk cloth in the other. As the blowers installed on the stage blew the cloth around, it made her look like she was about to fly away from the stage.


    ��It��s so beautiful,�� Chi Jia gushed in envy, ��I want to be a singer when I grow up!��


    ��Then I��ll be your agent and bodyguard,�� Qin Zhen waved his glow stick and croaked. He was gradually losing his voice after singing along with the crowd for the entire concert.


    ��No, you will beat up my fans if you be my bodyguard!�� Chi Jia rolled her eyes. ��I don��t want to be famous for the wrong reasons.��


    ��Do I look violent to you?�� Qin Zhen scratched his head.


    ��You should continue to y basketball in the future. Isn��t that your favorite thing?��


    ��That��s true.��


    The two-and-a-half-hour concert seemed to be over in an instant. GEM sang two more songs upon her rabid fans�� requests before the concert finally came to a close.


    When they walked out of the stadium, it was almost half-past ten at night. The crowd was still GEM��s tunes while they tried to get on the buses to return home. Some people were trying to get themselves a taxi on the side of the road. Like a lion hunting for its prey in the Africa savannah, each kept a close eye for avable cabs.


    Knowing that a concert was held here tonight, more than the usual lot of taxi drivers were waiting outside the stadium. However, the number of taxis wasn��t sufficient to cover the thousands gathered in the stadium. Some unfortunate ones had to wait for ages just to get home.


    Considering howte it was, Zhang Heng proposed walking for a distance before getting a taxi to send the girls home. Qin Zhen was fine with the idea, and since Chi Jia and Bai Qing lived close to each other, they could just drop-off at the same ce. Zhang Heng and Qin Zhen could then walk home after making sure that the girls returned home safely.


    The taxi arrived at where Chi Jia lived first. After Chi Jia got off the car, Qin Zhen, who was in the front passenger seat, winked at Zhang Heng. Thetter understood and said, ��I will escort you to your apartment.�� Then he told Zhang Heng, ��You cane here to find meter.


    At that time, Chi Jia had already pulled Qin Zhen out of the car.


    Only Bai Qing and Zhang Heng were left in the back seat, but neither spoke again until Zhang Heng sent Bai Qing back to her house.


    Bai Qing did not enter her house immediately. She stood there, looked at Zhang Heng, and said, ��Well, that... thank you very much for today. I bet you must��ve spent a lot on the concert.��


    ��It��s nothing. I made about 200,000 yuan from the supermarket lottery earlier.��


    Bai Qing opened her eyes wide, ��Which supermarket?! Please tell me.��


    ��It��s toote. I won the first prize.�� Zhang Heng grinned.


    ��...��


    ��I just found out that you are quite capable of making up stories.�� Bai Qing smiled. Suddenly, someone ran across the corridor,ing up to a unit, and started shaking the iron-grill door. At the same time, the person shouted, ��Help! Someone is trying to kill me!��

 Chapter 665 - Who Are You?

    <h4>Chapter 665: Who Are You?</h4>


    When Bai Qing heard the voice, her face instantly changed.


    As the steel door opened before Zhang Heng, a middle-aged woman stumbled into the corridor in front of him. She was in an unkempt state, with messy hair, and was in a set of pajamas and slippers. She ignored where she was running, and as a result, tripped over the steps in front of her.


    ��Mom, what��s the matter?�� When Bai Qing saw her mother falling, she instantly ignored Zhang Heng and ran over to see what was going on.


    When she stood on her feet again, the middle-aged woman was trembling. The moment she saw that it was her daughter who helped her, she yelled, ��Qingqing, Qingqing, your dad wants to kill me!��


    ��Mom, what are you talking about? Don��t be afraid. Speak slowly.�� Bai Qing patted her mother on the back, trying to calm her down first.


    However, Bai Qing��s attempts were all but futile.


    The moment thedy heard the footsteps sounding from the corridor, fear devoured her once again. Zhang Heng was familiar with that stricken look on her face since he had seen that very expression on the college student��s face.


    ��Dad?�� Bai Qing called out hesitantly.


    The next moment, a middle-aged man in suit and leather shoes walked towards them.


    He seemed a little surprised to see Bai Qing and Zhang Heng her side.


    ��Dad, what is going on?�� Bai Qing asked.


    ��Leave it to the adults to deal with. Kids should stay out of it,�� the middle-aged man said.


    ��But mom just said you wanted to kill her?!��


    ��Your mother is mentally unstable. I��m taking her to the hospital,�� the middle-aged man said casually.


    ��No, I am not sick! It is you who is sick! Recently, I felt that something wrong with you. I feel like you��ve changed a lot. You��re no longer my husband!!!�� cried the middle-aged woman.


    When he heard that, Bai Qing��s father remained.


    ��When I went to the bathroom earlier, your dad suddenly rushed in, grabbed my hair, and dragged me out! He had this bloodthirst in his eyes, and I knew that he was going to kill me!�� The middle-aged woman hugged Bai Qing tightly. ��Don��t let hime close!��


    Bai Qing then looked at the middle-aged man suspiciously.


    ��Your mother is hallucinating. I just told you that she is mentally unstable, and I am about to take her to the hospital for an examination.��


    Bai Qing volunteered, ��Then I will go with you.��


    ��No. I want you to stay at home. This is an adult matter, and it has nothing to do with you,�� the middle-aged man droned on, his requests unquestionable.


    Zhang Heng could see that Bai Qing��s father was the one who usually gave the orders in her family. Even while talking to his own kin, he used amand-oriented tone, one that was cold and unyielding.


    Themotion caused two families on the first floor to open their doors to see what was going on. One of the men came out with a kitchen knife in his hand. ��What��s wrong? I heard someone calling for help,�� he quizzed vigntly.


    Bai Qing��s father snorted coldly and looked at his wife on the ground. ��Are you happy now? You have put us to shame. Stand on your feet now!��


    Not only did the woman remain on the floor when she heard his order, but she quickly retreated behind Bai Qing.


    ��Oh, a married couple is quarreling.�� The man with the kitchen knife heaved a sigh of relief and then said in an affronted tone, ��Don��t quarrel in front of our house. Do you know what time is it now?��


    ��This is not a quarrel. My husband is trying to kill me!�� the middle-aged woman insisted. When she saw more people around her, she felt a little more relieved, and she stopped trembling.


    ��It appears this is getting out of hand,�� the man with the kitchen knife raised his eyebrows. ��I don��t care about what happens to your family. Just deal with it yourself. Stop screaming.�� After that, he turned around and returned to his house.


    On the other hand, the other neighbor who came out with the man realized that it was a false rm. They, too, closed the door and left them alone.


    So the middle-aged woman quickly looked around to see if there was anyone who could help her. And finally, shended her gaze on Zhang Heng. ��Young man, you can��t leave us here alone. Otherwise, we would be gone from this world!��


    ��I won��t leave you alone, auntie,�� Zhang Heng reassured politely.


    ��Who are you again?�� The middle-aged man frowned.


    ��He is my ssmate, dad,�� Bai Qing replied.


    ��This is nonsense. How many times have I told you not to go out with boys in the middle of the night? Didn��t you say you were going to watch a movie with the girls from your ss?��


    ��We just came back from the cinema. I was worried that it might be unsafe for Bai Qing toe home alone, which was why I volunteered to send her home after the movie is over,�� Zhang Heng exined without changing his expression.


    ��You are simply trying to sweet-talk yourself out of this mess. You really think I don��t know what��s going on between the both of you?�� the middle-aged man warned. ��You��ve already escorted her here. She��s safe. You can leave now.��


    Although Bai Qing��s father seemed persistent, Zhang Heng did not leave.


    ��You are sending her to the hospital. She still appears to be unstable. Anyway, I have nothing to do now. I can stay with her for a while.��


    ��Shouldn��t you be feeling embarrassed about how you can��t see yourself as an outsider?�� the middle-aged man snapped coldly. ��I��m going to take my wife to the hospital now, and I��m in no mood to talk nonsense with you. You��d better not show up in front of me again, or I��ll look for your ss teacher in school and ask to talk to your parents.��


    One had to admit that this strategy was usually quite effective on ordinary high school students. After all, asking to talk to the parents was the ultimate move against a student.


    Fortunately, such a strategy proved ineffective on Zhang Heng. ��My parents are abroad, and I haven��t seen them for a long time. It might not be easy for you to talk to them,�� he replied calmly.


    ��Heh,�� the middle-aged man chuckled. ��You have to have a guardian anyway, right?��


    ��I am staying with my grandfather, but he rarely interferes with my affairs,�� Zhang Heng admitted truthfully.


    The middle-aged man was in no mood to keep talking. He then turned to Bai Qing. ��You should go home first.��


    ��Dad, Zhang Heng is a very nice person. He is just worried about mom and me,�� Bai Qing retorted bravely. ��Can you tell me about the conflict between you and mom? Although mom can be quite materialistic, she��s always been stable mentally. And...�� Bai Qing hesitated. ��...you��ve been behaving a little weird recently.��


    ��I just told you to not interfere with the affairs of grownups,�� the middle-aged man said with a straight face. ��Take care of your own stuff. Just study hard, and get into a good university. This is the greatest thing you can do for this family. You are not allowed to go out with boys anymore!��


    A look of disappointment shed across Bai Qing��s eyes. ��Why do you guys always keep things from me. Please stop treating me like a kid! If all you guys do is bring pain to each other, why continue to live in the same house and torture the other? If it is because of me, the two of you have certainly not given me a harmonious family environment.��

 Chapter 666 - Resolving a Conflict

    <h4>Chapter 666: Resolving a Conflict</h4>


    Bai Qing��s words made her parents fall into silence again. They didn��t even notice Zhang Heng walking away for a short time. When he hung up the phone and returned to Bai Qing, her mother had finally gotten up from the ground. However, she wasn��t willing to get close to her husband no matter what.


    The middle-aged man stood there looking solemn, making Bai Qing seem a little helpless.


    The middle-aged man snorted, ��Keep an eye on your mother. I��ll bring the car here.��


    ��No, I don��t want to go to the hospital!�� Bai Qing��s mother shouted hysterically.


    The way she acted made Bai Qing believe that she must have just endured something traumatizing.


    ��Should we go home first?�� Bai Qing hesitated.


    ��No, I won��t go home! I don��t want to stay with your dad again!�� Bai Qing��s mother insisted, ��He is no longer the person he used to be. I can feel it.��


    ��You are in a mess right now, and you need treatment,�� the middle-aged man said with no emotions. ��When your treatment isplete, I will take you back.��


    As he spoke, he reached out and grabbed Bai Qing��s mother by her hand.


    But the next moment, a hand stopped his arm.


    ��It��s better that you two calm down first,�� Zhang Heng said. ��As you said, she is mentally unstable now. It��s not good to force her to stay outside. It��s better to let her stay in a hotel for a few days. You should talk to her again after she calms down.��


    ��You haven��t left yet?!�� The middle-aged man red at Zhang Heng. He tried to shake off Zhang Heng��s arm with his other hand, but it was futile. The boy was a lot stronger than he thought, and in frustration, he shoved Zhang Heng.


    Zhang Heng, however, easily managed to stop him from doing that.


    ��Stop... Fighting.�� At that moment, Bai Qing had be most anxious. After seeing what happened to her parents, she almost broke into tears. Then, before she could even figure out how the sporadic skirmish between her parents broke out, Zhang Heng had almost started a fight with her father.


    But then, before anybody could react, a faint siren could be heard wailing in the distance.


    The middle-aged man��s face changed drastically, and he looked at Zhang Heng viciously. ��Did you call the police?��


    ��It��s not me,�� Zhang Heng shook his head, ��I just called my friend to tell him not to wait for me and go home first.��


    In contrast to the now panicked middle-aged man, Bai Qing��s mother was ted when she heard the siren. ��The police... are the police finally here?��


    A patrol car stopped in front of them after a while, and two policemen exited the vehicle.


    The chubby officer on duty asked, ��Who was the one that called the police just now?��


    ��Me! Me! Me!�� Bai Qing��s mother instantly answered.


    ��What the hell is going on? You didn��t tell us anything on the phone just now. All you told us was the address.�� The chubby officer wiped the sweat off his brow.


    ��It��s my husband. He wants to hurt me. I��m so relieved that you guys came here in time!�� Bai Qing��s mother gushed with a solemn expression while holding the chubby policeman��s hand.


    The chubby policeman was left dumbfounded when he heard what she said. ��Did you just say that your husband wants to harm you?��


    ��Sorry, my wife is a little mentally unstable,�� the middle-aged man quickly blurted. At the same time, he reached out his hand and took a cigarette out of his pocket. ��I��m so sorry that you guys came here for nothing.��


    The chubby policeman waved his hands. ��I don��t smoke during duty. We have a body cam on us.�� He then looked at Bai Qing��s mother again. ��Ma��am, what��s the matter? You can tell me everything.��


    ��My husband has been a bit abnormaltely. It��s as if he��s be aplete stranger,�� Bai Qing��s mother went on. ��Not only does he look at me like a stranger, but he also speaks like someone that I don��t know. And he doesn��t return home at the time he used to. He even changed the clock on the bedroom wall out of the blue.��


    ��Uh, is there any problem with changing a clock?�� the chubby policeman asked.


    ��I didn��t think it was a problem at first, but when I took it down and cleaned it today, I found something wrong with it.��


    ��What��s wrong with it?��


    When she talked about it, Bai Qing��s mother seemed to recall the horror she experienced when she checked on the clock. The expression on her face became tense again, and then she whispered nervously, ��There... is a hidden camera within it.��


    ��A hidden camera? You mean...��


    ��Yes, it��s one of those pinhole cameras usually found in small hotels or an Airbnb.��


    The plump officer and his partner nced at each other.


    ��You mean your husband installed a pinhole camera in his bedroom?��


    ��Yes, then I found pinhole cameras in the living room, study room, and toilets...�� Bai Qing��s mother covered her mouth. ��I realized that my every move has been monitored!��


    ��Why would your husband want to spy on you?�� the chubby officer asked in disbelief.


    ��I don��t know. As I said, we��ve been married 20 years, and he��s never been like this. He came homete today, and I wanted to ask him about the cameras. I didn��t expect him to look so angry, and the moment he closed the door, he red at me, pushed me to the ground, strangled me, grabbed my hair, and dragged me out of the house!�� Bai Qing��s mothermented in agony.


    The chubby officer saw that the middle-aged man��s gaze had changed suddenly.


    ��How can you do that to your wife? No matter what happens, it would help if you��d just speak amicably. Never resort to violence!��


    After hearing that, the middle-aged man did not say a word. He just stood there, staring at his wife coldly.


    There was no emotion in his eyes, and he looked a little panicked in the dark.


    The chubby policeman then said again, ��So nothing serious actually happened here... but a family dispute?��


    ��What do you mean by nothing serious? He strangled me, and I almost suffocated!�� Bai Qing��s mother insisted while showing the marks on her neck to the officers, ��I used all my strength to kick him before I could open the door and save myself. Please, you can��t let him get near me anymore.��


    ��But he is your husband,�� said the chubby policeman. ��You said that you have been married for 20 years. Lady, there are ups and downs in a marriage. Look at your son and daughter. They are all grown-ups. Divorce is not worth it.��


    ��I don��t have such a good son.�� The middle-aged man nced at Zhang Heng and snorted coldly.


    ��Then you are?��


    ��I am their daughter��s ssmate,�� Zhang Heng said.


    ��Do you live here too?��


    ��No, I live in Yibei District.��


    ��Wait a minute. Why are you here?��


    ��He��s here to send me home.�� Bai Qing, on the other side, blushed.


    ��So you guys are together now,�� the officer continued. He then turned to Bai Qing��s mother again, ��Lady, I think you shouldmunicate better with your husband. If you can��t solve the dispute, you can seek help from the neighbourhoodmittee. We��ll leave first if there are no other problems. Many bad things happened today. A group of drunkards got into a fight, and one of their heads got smashed in.��

 Chapter 667 - Can You Look Outside?

    <h4>Chapter 667: Can You Look Outside?</h4>


    ��No, you can��t go. What am I supposed to do if you leave?�� Bai Qing��s mother held the chubby policeman��s hand.


    Thetter was left in frustration when he saw that Bai Qing��s mother refused to let him go. The most troublesome thing a police officer could ever encounter was a family dispute. Usually, they could only use words to resolve such matters, and unless one of them caused severe injuries to the other party, they had no authority to detain anyone.


    He could onlyfort her again. ��It��s okay,dy. You have already made a police report. If anything bad happens again, we will catch the bad guy this time.��


    Once the police officer started tofort her, Bai Qing��s mother got even sadder. ��I will be dead by then, and it would be pointless for you to detain him.��


    The chubby policeman exined in a hurry, ��No, I mean, your husband will definitely not harm you again. Otherwise, he will be the first person we will be suspecting.��


    The officer then said to the middle-aged man again, ��Be a man and do the right thing. Can you take the initiative and admit your mistake to your wife? Write a letter of guarantee to give your wife peace of mind.��


    The middle-aged man frowned, but in the end, he did what the police officer told him to do. ��I��m wrong this time. I shouldn��t have hit you, and I will never do that again.��


    ��Now, that��s the right thing to do. It doesn��t matter if you��ve made a mistake, but the most important thing is that you admit it and correct it,�� said the chubby policeman while looking at Bai Qing��s mother on the other side. ��Lady, do you think it��s okay now?��


    Thetter hesitated to look at his husband. There was still a lot of fear in her eyes, ��I...I don��t know.��


    The chubby policeman almost cried when he heard this. He was still trying to figure out why Bai Qing��s mother was so afraid of her husband. All his efforts to help resolve this family dispute could be all in vain. However, he had been a policeman for a long time, and he had encountered many weirder cases than this. It had all served to help him improve his patience. He gritted his teeth, thenforted her again. ��It��s okay. The police station is very nearby. It takes only three to five minutes for us to get there. If he wants to harm you again, call me. My colleague and I will get here immediately. Besides, he��s already admitted his mistake. You should at least give him another chance to make up for it.��


    Finally, the woman��s heart softened. ��Then... Then I will give him another chance.��


    The chubby policeman had been waiting for that sentence for a long time. He was so excited that he almost pped his thigh.


    ��Married couples should always use words to resolve all the conflicts. Never use violence against each other. Think twice before you do anything.�� The chubby policeman then talked to them for a little longer. After that, he used his walkie-talkie to ask when he could go and deal with the drunken fight. He wiped the sweat off his face and rushed to the barbecue stall with his colleague immediately.


    After the police car left, the middle-aged man looked at his wife and said coldly, ��Are you happy now?��


    Thetter was a little scared when he asked the question. Immediately, she hid behind her daughter.


    ��Let��s go home.��


    The middle-aged man turned around, swiped his card, and opened the door.


    From the beginning until the end, he refused to look at Zhang Heng as if he did not exist.


    Bai Qing made an apologetic expression to Zhang Heng, and at the same time, said thank you in a low voice. It was not appropriate for her to say anything else at this time. She had to help her mother back to their house.


    Zhang Heng looked at the Bai Qing��s family going into the building, and an iron gate separated them. After that, he stayed downstairs for a few seconds and looked around before leaving the ce by calling a taxi home.


    As soon as Zhang Heng paid the taxi fees via WeChat, he received a message from Bai Qing.


    [Are you home yet?]


    Zhang Heng replied with a yes.


    [I��m so sorry you had to see all of that.]


    A whileter, Bai Qing��s sent him another message.


    [I think they should be fine. Every family faces different problems.]


    [But I don��t think they have the same problem that my family has, where my father wants to kill my mother.]


    Bai Qing added a bitter smile.


    [How are they now?]


    Zhang Heng asked after he got out of the taxi.


    [It��s still peaceful for the time being, but my mother insists on sleeping on the sofa tonight, alone. She still seems to be a little afraid of my dad.]


    [Make sure to lock the door to your room.]


    [Erm... Why? Think they will fight again tonight? If that is so, the more I can��t lock my door tonight.]


    Bai Qing paused and added.


    [Although I��m a little tired of them arguing all the time, this was the first time I witnessed such a huge fight between them. And honestly, I didn��t expect my father to install so many pinhole cameras at home. It is shocking, and this makes me feel a little ufortable. He is not the father that I know anymore, especially when he looked at my mother tonight. There was no love in his eyes at all. By the way, thank you for stopping him.]


    [Actually, I didn��t help much. Your mother was the one that called the police.]


    [Ah, don��t talk about it anymore. I still feel ashamed that you were there to witness the whole thing. They are adults, but they were like two kids who just had a fight in a kindergarten. By the way, I��m standing by the window now. Can you look out?]


    [Sure.]


    [The moon is very bright tonight, and the shadow on it is visible. Unfortunately, it is said that even the United States had stopped sending people up there. I wonder what it feels like standing on the moon.]


    [You can feel the destion when you stand on it. It is a grey world, full of undting craters and bottomless ravines. There is no life, no sound, and weathered rocks are the only interesting thing for you to see there.]


    [Well, I will just close my eyes and imagine it. I think I can imagine the way you describe the moon to me. It��s really amazing. It��s like being on the moon right now. You can consider bing a novelist in the future.]


    [Sounds like a n.]


    While chatting with Bai Qing, Zhang Heng opened the door with the key. It was now midnight, and grandpa had already returned to his bedroom. However, he still left the light on in the living room for Zhang Heng.


    Zhang Heng got out of his shoes, brushed his teeth, washed his face quickly, and went to his bedroom in slippers.


    However, instead of sleeping, he took out another pair of sneakers and sportswear that he bought from under the bed.


    He then poured out all the textbooks and workbooks in the schoolbag, recing them with things he thought coulde in handy, especially a pile of unassembled Lego bricks. After that, he waited for a while to confirm that his grandpa had fallen asleep again if he woke him up just now. And finally, he crept into the living room again and opened the door.


    Although Zhang Heng did not know what happened to Bai Qing��s parents, he was certain that the previous fight was not the end but just the beginning. A follow-up event would most likely happenter, which was why he asked Bai Qing to lock the door.


    Bai Qing was obviously more worried about her parents than herself. So Zhang Heng felt that it was not safe to leave her alone. Besides, he was also curious about how the story would develop.

 Chapter 668 - Dream

    <h4>Chapter 668: Dream</h4>


    Zhang Heng drove his grandfather��s car and headed back to Bai Qing��s neighborhood.


    He found a building on the street where it allowed him to observe her house. He parked his car, turned off the engine, pulled out the key, and walked to a spot out of the CCTV��s range. Now, all he could do was wait.


    This was also the most boring and dreary part of the quest. Even if nothing happened, Zhang Heng could not close his eyes to rest or leave the ce for the time being. He was, fortunately, well prepared for a situation like this. He leaned over to the back seat and grabbed his tablet. Earlier, he had downloaded a few shows that he had been following and some short movies as well.


    Zhang Heng clicked on an old anime, Penguindrum, and continued from the sixth episode. As the flick yed on, he would periodically nce at Bai Qing��s house.


    From the previous conversation, Zhang Heng knew that Bai Qing��s family lived on the sixth floor. The north window should be Bai Qing��s bedroom, and one on the west had to be the living room. As of now, her house waspletely dark.


    Bai Qing typically went to bed at 11 o��clock. Since so much happened tonight, she waited until Zhang Heng had gotten home, and the two had chatted on WeChat for about half an hour before they bid each other goodnight.


    Zhang Heng seemed to see Bai Qing curling up on the bed, tapping her cellphone in the dark bedroom. The blue light from the screen was shining on her face...


    While watching the thirteenth episode of Penguindrum, Zhang Heng realized that his tablet��s battery was almost empty. Hence, he tossed the device back to where it used to be, stretched his back, and loosened his muscles and bones.


    So far, nothing out of the ordinary seemed to be going on in Bai Qing��s house. Zhang Heng then looked at his watch. It was 2:55 in the morning, and the street was devoid of people. The whole city was at a standstill, not much different from the dystopian city in the ��Silent Hill�� game.


    As the clock ticked, his eyes were getting drier and drier, and Zhang Heng dripped in two drops of eye drops into his eyes. At 3:20, he saw a stray dog searching the trash can on his right side. Come 3:45, he shifted himself, lowered down his seat, and leaned back.


    Initially, he just wanted to take a quick nap, but he did not expect to feel sleepy after closing his eyes. When Zhang Heng opened his eyes again, he found out that he was no longer in the car but was standing in a small town instead.


    ��Is this a dream?��


    Suddenly, Zhang Heng remembered the dream he had not long ago where those things beside the river surrounded him. This time around, it looked like he had been brought back to the past, and his surroundings seemed familiar as well.


    However, Zhang Heng did not remember if he had been to this town, whether in reality or in the game. There was no doubt that this was a coastal town. The strong smell of fish in the air disgusted him, and a long sandy path could be seen under the wave breaker. On top of it were a few shacks and fishes lined up beside them.


    Zhang Heng also noticed a white bell tower made of bricks and stones, with a river flowing underneath not far from him. On the other side of the wave breaker, a ck line loomed between the waves, reeking with an evil aura.


    In fact, the whole town was shadowed by an ufortable atmosphere. Although many buildings and houses were being built at the center of the town, most were in a dpidated state. Their roofs had caved in; their walls, rotting. Abandoned railroad tracks by the street were overgrown by grass on both sides.


    Judging by the architecture of the buildings, Zhang Heng figured that he was probably in a western country, circa thete 19th or early 20th century. The presence of evil loomed within the town, or to be more precise, this small town seemed to be under some sort of curse. Even the sky was marred by a suffocating haze.


    Since Zhang Heng was gradually losing his emotions, he wasn��t affected by his surroundings. Instead, he had a faint feeling that he was visiting his friend.


    This made him feel a little strange.


    Zhang Heng walked down the cobblestone path and came to a square. Although there were incandescentmps nearby, they were not bright enough to illuminate the ce. Standing underneath these dim lights was a depressing experience.


    On the way, Zhang Heng saw a few dirty fishermen standing on the wave breaker. After that, he did not see anyone else until he came to the square where he saw an old man walking towards a factory.


    Zhang Heng greeted him in English, but the other party did not respond.


    He did not look back until Zhang Heng put his palm on his shoulder.


    The old man had a deformed and awful face. His head was small and t; his nose copsed, and his eyes protruded from their sockets. With a neck covered with wrinkles, he was bald, and his skin covered in scabs.


    The old man croaked, in a hoarse, sharp, and guttural voice, ��Are you... finally here?��


    Zhang Heng wanted to ask him what it meant, but the next moment, the weird dream ended abruptly. It seemed as if it onlysted a second.


    Then Zhang Heng heard a scream. When he looked up, he saw that Bai Qing��s house��s living room was lit up again. If he wasn��t wrong, Bai Qing was the one screaming right now. Zhang Heng looked at his watch and saw that it was 4:47 in the morning. He could not help but curse himself.


    He now had full control over his body and mind, and although he was exhausted from fighting all night, he couldn��t lie down and fall asleep immediately, having not the intention to do so. Therefore, the dream that he had just now was definitely abnormal. He wasn��t sure, however, if the dream had something to do with his real-life or the alien in this game.


    He did not have time to check his body, so he rushed out of the car, closed the door, sprinted across the green zone, climbed over the iron fence, and jumped into where Bai Qing lived.


    His short nap had apparently disrupted his previous n to a certain extent.


    But since Bai Qing still had time to scream, Zhang Heng knew that she was at least safe for now. Her screams were loud, and many families living upstairs and downstairs had turned on their lights, especially the two families living on the first floor. They were so appalled by the noise that they had rushed out of their houses again. Thus, Zhang Heng took the opportunity to enter the building.


    He ran up the steps to the sixth floor.


    Initially, he nned to enter Bai Qing��s house through the window, but unexpectedly, the door was open.


    After seeing the scene in the house, Zhang Heng could understand why Bai Qing screamed.


    The living room looked like a ughterhouse now.


    Bright red blood spattered all over the walls and the floor. And Bai Qing��s mother, whom Zhang Heng saw downstairs earlier, was lying in a pool of blood. Her lower abdomen had been stabbed multiple times by a knife, and her whole stomach had been cut open. She had stopped breathing due to the extremely serious injury; the fear in her eyes, permanently frozen at the moment when she was ughtered.


    In the middle of the living room, her husband, who had lived with her for 20 years, was standing in front of her body, with bloodstains all over his body. And he was holding a fruit knife in his right hand.

 Chapter 669 - Little Test

    <h4>Chapter 669: Little Test</h4>


    Unlike the frightened neighbors, Zhang Heng immediately rushed into the house to protect Bai Qing. The middle-aged man in the middle of the living room, however, did not seem to have any intention to harm his daughter. After killing his wife, he seemed to have exhausted all his strength, merely standing there without saying a word. He didn��t resist, and neither did he n to flee.


    Someone had hastily called the police, and soon, a team of police officers swarmed the house came. The chubby officer, however, was not among them. After learning about the situation, the police put Bai Qing��s father in the patrol car and hurriedly sealed off the scene while conducting a simple preliminary investigation. For more evidence, they would have to wait for the forensic team to arrive.


    Meanwhile, Zhang Heng apanied Bai Qing to the police station to get her statement recorded.


    She was the daughter of the victim and suspect and the key witness in this murder case. Undoubtedly, Bai Qing was clearly still shell-shocked. It was an undisputed fact that anybody who had witnessed their father killing their mother would be traumatized for a long time.


    Zhang Heng could feel Bai Qing��s body trembling all the time. She was on the verge of copsing, unable to even hold the paper cup the policeman had handed her. The cup fell to the ground, and the tea inside it spilled all over the ce. Considering her situation, it would be difficult for the police to get a statement out of her, so they decided to let the terrified girl take a break and ced a female officer tofort her.


    Bai Qing showed no improvement. It wasn��t until Zhang Heng lowered his head and said something in her ear that she finally got better. Although still shaking, she could finally speak. At that moment, Bai Qing��s grandparents had also rushed to the police station after receiving a notice from them.


    Since Bai Qing hadn��t reached 18 yet, a guardian was required to be with her while making her statement. As for Zhang Heng, he was not allowed to be with her. So, he did not stay, quietly leaving while everyone was busy and distracted.


    An hourter, Bai Qing rejected her grandpa��s proposal to take her home first. The elderly gentleman had no choice but to get her a room at the express hotel near the police station.


    They, too, were in a rut at the moment��their daughter-inw had been killed, and all evidence pointed to their son being the murderer. The authorities had rejected their request to visit him, not to mention they now had to deal with their angry rtives at the same time. After sending Bai Qing to the express hotel and confirmed that she wasn��t suicidal, they could only respect her decision and let her be alone for a while.


    Bai Qing sat alone in the dark room.


    Everything that happened to her so far was so sudden, so horrific, that she didn��t realize what happened that night until now. She had lost both parents at the same time, the only people in the world that loved her unconditionally.


    Although Bai Qing was tired of them arguing day and night, it was undeniable that their blood flowed within her veins. From now on, she would never get to see the woman who always shopped for facemasks on WeChat��the woman who would make her sweet and sour pork ribs and watch her eat it with a smile was now all but gone forever. The man who always looked serious and had no other care in the world, but his business was now gone too. Whether she liked it or not, she would always get to see her father every morning sitting next to the table.


    One of them had left this world, and the best oue for her father was to perhaps spend the rest of his life in prison. Bai Qing covered her face with her hands; her tears streamed down her face uncontrobly.


    From that moment on, her life had just taken a 180-degree turn, and her future was filled with despair.


    Just when Bai Qing was crying bitterly in the dark, someone knocked on her door.


    Zhang Heng��s voice came from outside, ��It��s me.��


    His voice was like a faint light shining into her bleak and cold world, giving her the slightest bit of hope in a hopeless world. The future, however, still did not look too bright for her.


    But as for those who fell into the water, they would hold on tightly to any straw extended to them, no matter how thin. Bai Qing did not bother to wipe off the tears on her face before she opened the door for Zhang Heng.


    ��I haven��t sent you a WeChat message to tell you where I live. How do you know that I am in this room?��


    ��If I failed to find out which room you are in, I��m definitely not qualified to stick my nose into your problem,�� Zhang Heng said calmly. He then took a tissue and handed it to Bai Qing, ��wipe away your tears. We have something important to doter.


    ��When you were at the police station, you told me that you didn��t think my father was the murderer?�� Bai Qing asked with tears still welling up her swollen eyes.


    ��Yes.�� Zhang Heng nodded.


    ��When I turned on the light, I saw him standing there with a knife. And I also asked the police officers who were in charge of this case. They told me that my father was high on the suspect list, and although they didn��t directly pin him as the murderer, I don��t think there��s anything left for them to investigate.��


    ��At the crime scene, there was no other suspect there. Your father was the only one holding the knife, and his body was covered in blood. And I bet the follow-up investigation will prove that the blood on his clothes came from your mother. An experienced criminal investigator would quickly conclude that your father has to be the murderer.��


    ��So, why then would you say that my father isn��t the one?��


    ��That��s a little hard to exin,�� Zhang Heng said. ��And we need to do a little test before I begin.��


    While talking, he took out a pair of Oath Rings, a piece of parchment paper, and a knife from his pocket.


    [Name: Oath Ring]


    [Grade: F]


    [Function: Bearer will know if the other party breaks an oath]


    ��Initially, I wanted to use this on Qin Zhen and ask him to investigate this matter for me. That is because he is the person I am most familiar with and my most convenient confidante within this quest. But then I discovered that the method has loopholes,�� Zhang Heng went on saying. ��It doesn��t matter anymore. It will be fine if I use it temporarily.��


    ��What do you want me to do?��


    ��Stretch out your hand,�� Zhang Heng said, ��It might hurt a little bit.��


    ��What?�� Bai Qing asked, doubtful, but she stretched out her hand anyway.


    Zhang Heng then put one of the Oath Rings on Bai Qing��s finger. After that, he cut her index finger with a knife, caught the blood with a disposable cup, and then cut his own finger. Once their blood was mixed, he wrote, ��I swear that I will not lie from now on�� on the parchment.


    ��Is that all?��


    ��Mmhmm,�� Zhang Heng nodded. ��I will ask you two questions first. First, did you know if this tragedy would happen tonight?��


    ��Of course not.��


    ��Are you here to mess with me?��


    ��What does that mean?�� Bai Qing frowned.


    ��Okay, congrattions on passing the test,�� Zhang Heng said while taking off the ring from Bai Qing��s finger. ��This proves that the person in front of me now is indeed who she is; until you leave my sight at least.��


    ��Look. What��s going on? What does this have anything to do with the thing that happens tonight?��


    ��Are you willing to believe me?�� Zhang Heng looked into Bai Qing��s eyes. ��Because what I��m about to tell you next is a bit crazy.��


    ��Do I have any other choice besides believing you now?��


    ��Okay, I will try to summarize everything for you.��

 Chapter 670 - Upgraded Means

    <h4>Chapter 670: Upgraded Means</h4>


    ��...you mean aliens have invaded our world, and that they��re masquerading as humans by secretly recing our friends and rtives with themselves? And, our rtives and friends may no longer be the people we know?�� Bai Qing��s eyes widened. Although she said she would believe everything Zhang Heng said, as an ordinary person with a respectable IQ,mon sense, and nine years ofpulsory education, she found it really hard to believe upon hearing it for the first time.


    ��Yes. You told me that it was abnormal that your dad be home right after work. And he was also looking at the old photo album alone in the room? That��s when I thought that the alien must��ve reced your father secretly,�� Zhang Heng said. ��The way your mother actedst night was very simr to the victim that I met before. It was so uncannily simr that I started to have doubts about her. I know those creatures were trying to figure out a way to get rid of me. However, I didn��t rush to a conclusion. Instead, I went home, took some equipment, and drove back to where you live.��


    ��You were herest night?��


    ��Yes, I arrived at about 12:48, and I parked my car right outside your apartment. While waiting in the car, I fell asleep for a while.�� Unsure if it would be rted to this quest, Zhang Heng did not tell Bai Qing about his dream.


    ��ording to your deduction, the person who got reced in my family should be my father, right? Since my mother found the abnormality, my father��that... thing��killed my mother?��


    ��No, as far as I know, those creatures have always been very cautious except for the case of the three children drowning. After that, they didn��t resort to killing anymore. In fact, I discovered that they prefer to use the rules of society to achieve their goals.


    ��Take the college student as an example. They created an illusion that the target was mentally unstable through continuous psychological oppression. The student used a knife to cause chaos in themunity before. Once the people around him epted that he is mentally unstable, those creatures would be able to send him to a mental hospital without making up anything about him. And this time, the methods that they use have evolved.��


    ��What do you mean?��


    ��During thest quarrel between your father and your mother, your mother deliberately spoke loudly to alert those living around her. By doing that, the other people and the police would know that your father had the intention to harm your mother. This series of actions directly corrted to what would happenter. When your mother died in the living room lying in a pool of her own blood and your father was found with a fruit knife, nobody would believe he wasn��t the killer no matter what he said. I should have realized that. In fact, it is an upgraded version of the incident where the college student was found holding a knife.��


    ��But the person who behaved abnormally before was indeed my father, and he is also the one that installed those pinhole cameras in the house. How do you exin that?��


    ��Your father discovered that your mother was behaving abnormally. After all, no matter how much they quarreled, they were still a married couple who had lived together for 20 years. When your father looked through the old photos, he might have suspected that your mother was cheating on him. He must have looked at those old photos because he wanted to remember the feelings he had towards your mother. Those pinhole cameras served to catch your mother cheating on him red-handed. This is how a normal person would react. When he decided toe home from work, he was trying to save the marriage. It exins why they had such a huge fightst night. When the police arrived, however, your father kept quiet about the cause of the conflict.��


    Bai Qing thought for a while, ��It looks like your deduction is starting to make sense. My father is the kind of man that puts saving face as a priority. If he suspects that my mother is cheating on him, he would be sure to keep it from any outsiders. But... I saw him standing there with a fruit knife in his hand.��


    ��As long as the person was well-nned, it is easy to make your father the number one suspect. For example, when your dad saw your mom attempting suicide, he would surely have run to her and snatched the fruit knife away. Either your mother managed to act swiftly, or she was simply strong enough to kill herself. In the end, your father took the knife from her. It just happened that you were there to witness the final scene,�� Zhang Heng said. ��Of course, this is only my spection. I need to investigate further.��


    ��So that creature sacrificed itself to send my dad to prison?��


    ��I don��t think they sacrificed themselves. We don��t know much about them. We don��t know what they are, the methods they use to rece us, and what their survival conditions are,�� Zhang Heng analyzed. ��Maybe our physical bodies are like clothes for them. Perhaps they could dispose of it whenever they want.��


    ��Have you been investigating this for a long time? You always look like you didn��t get enough sleep in ss. Has this been the reason?�� Bai Qing asked.


    ��Yes, I��ve been tracking the whereabouts of the college student and investigating the drowning of the three children,�� Zhang Heng admitted.


    ��Why? You said that you are not that close with the college student, and those things have warned you. Why take the risk?��


    ��Well... Ie from the Association of Prevention and Control of Invasion of Alien Species. It specializes in handling abnormal phenomena,�� Zhang Heng lied, using the name of Shen Xixi��s organization as an excuse.


    ��It sounds like a mysterious organization that only appears in novels and movies. Is there anyone in this association besides you?��


    ��Yes, but they are not here. They have other things to deal with, which means we can only rely on ourselves.��


    ��Sorry, I��m trying very hard to keep up with you, but...�� Bai Qing grabbed her head. ��It sounds absurd. You��re telling me that aliens have invaded us, and my mother is actually not my mother...��


    ��It��s okay. Take your time to understand the whole thing. I know how upset you must be right now, and you can either stay here to rest or go to your grandpa��s ce. Leave the investigation to me,�� Zhang Heng said.


    ��No, I��lle with you!�� Bai Qing insisted. ��Don��t leave me alone.�� She reached out and grabbed Zhang Heng��s hand. ��The horrible scene in the living room keeps popping up in my mind over and over again. It��s like an awful nightmare. I can��t rest. If what you said is true, can we get my mother back?��


    ��It is possible, but I must say that the probability is very slim. First, we need to find a way to help your dad.��


    ��If we can prove that my dad is not the killer, I��m willing to do anything to clear his name,�� Bai Qing proimed without hesitation.


    ��Okay, let��s start with the corpse and see if we can find anything,�� Zhang Heng said.

 Chapter 671 - Examination

    <h4>Chapter 671: Examination</h4>


    The corpse was with the authorities now.


    An autopsy would usually be carried out on those who went through an unnatural death to gain a deeper insight into the fatal wounds.


    For this case, the cause of death was undeniable. Hence, the forensic doctors did not need to perform an autopsy on Bai Qing��s mother. Even after the examination waspleted, family members were not allowed to retrieve the corpse immediately. It would be ced at the funeral home temporarily.


    Since Bai Qing��s mother��s death fell under criminal investigation, even her family members could not see her anytime they wanted. And Zhang Heng did not want other people to be around when he examined the corpse. So Bai Qing and Zhang Heng waited until the funeral home closed in the evening before they headed over there.


    Zhang Heng then said to Bai Qing, ��Wait for me outside the funeral home.��


    Thetter bit her lip when he heard Zhang Heng��s instruction. ��I want to go with you because I want to see her again.��


    ��I don��t think it��s wise to traumatize yourself again. Let alone the fact that we have to sneak in this time,�� Zhang Heng said.


    ��I have changed into my sport shoes,�� Bai Qing said.


    Zhang Heng turned around, only to see how determined Bai Qing looked.


    ��I have to see it with my own eyes to believe what you just told me,�� the girl added.


    Zhang Heng thought for a bit before agreeing. ��Okay. Follow me closely.��


    The two had already checked out the ce once during the day. Due to the nature of this business, thieves would usually not target funeral homes, and security here was average. Although some CCTV was being installed in the funeral house, they were mainly located in the columbarium. That was because some family members liked to ce items that were once belonged to the deceased in that particr room, including nes, rings, and bracelets.


    Besides that, the funeral home also hired some security guards to look after the ce at night.


    Zhang Heng climbed over the lower wall andnded at the back of the green zone. Then he reached out and caught Bai Qing, who just jumped off the wall. The two passed through a small flower bed, and the funeral home��s main building was right in front of them. The hall facing the flower bed was a high-end memorial hall, and behind it was the mourning hall. The door to the memorial hall, however, was now locked.


    Zhang Heng and Bai Qing went to the side corridor, pried a window from there, and slipped into the memorial hall. From there, they could walk to the cremation room, where only a broken CCTV greeted them along the way.


    At midnight, the funeral home was extremely quiet.


    The funeral home��s busiest time started at 7 a.m. The two high-end halls, six mid-range halls, and two ordinary halls would hold memorial services continuously throughout the day. Some said that whether the deceased was rich or poor, they all looked the same after they died.


    Actually, this statement was not entirely correct.


    On average, hundreds of people usually attended a high-end memorial service, and the high-end memorial hall would not fit all of them. Whether the people who came for the memorial service were close to the deceased or not, they would stille to pay their respects with flowers. Some funeral services would be held at the ordinary halls where it was attended by only a few of the closest rtives.


    Other than that, from renting the mourning hall to the funeral vehicle, the shroud, and the cemetery slot all came with different price tags. Other than that, their customers were also given options to pick the type of funeral service. It implied that not even the dead could escape the hierarchy so deeply rooted in our society.


    This made people believe that we had to expect that we would never be treated fairly when we were born into this world. And this applied to the dead as well.


    Zhang Heng and Bai Qing walked through the corridor as quietly as possible.


    When they heard the sound of footstepsing from a distance, the two stopped and temporarily hid in the dressing room on the side, a spot where the morticians worked. Usually, they would clean and do some makeup for the corpse before they were sent for cremation. Bereaved family members would want their loved ones to look as beautiful as possible before sending them away on their final journey.


    There was no one inside now; only a few iron racks were ced in it. Zhang Heng and Bai Qing hid behind a rack against the wall, waiting for the sound of footsteps from the outside to approach them. Zhang Heng could feel Bai Qing��s breathing bing more rapid. She probably thought of something that caused her mood to be a little unstable, and she began to tremble again.


    Hearing that the footsteps were getting closer and closer to them, Zhang Heng hesitated and had to stretch out a hand to pat her back.


    Zhang Heng could see that Bai Qing was trying her best to stop herself from crying. She buried her face into Zhang Heng��s embrace, and her shoulders heaved slightly. Zhang Heng gently stroked Bai Qing��s back to calm her down.


    The light from the shlight shone through the window into the dressing room. Fortunately, the security guard had no intention to enter the room. The people who chose to work as security guards here were usually quite bold. However, they would not deliberately look for things that they were not supposed to do. After they checked out the ce briefly, they would quickly take their leave to inspect another ce.


    When the footsteps moved to the end of the corridor, Bai Qing��s body finally stopped shaking.


    After that, Zhang Heng felt that his chest was wet. When he lowered his head to look at it, he saw snot and tears on his shirt. Bai Qing raised her head and quickly apologized to Zhang Heng in a low voice. She then promptly wiped them away.


    Zhang Heng handed her a tissue and said to her, ��It��s okay. Let��s carry on.��


    Bai Qing nodded and followed Zhang Heng to leave the dressing room.


    She sniffled and said, ��I��m sorry, I thought about how my mother��s body would be pushed into the room, and she��s lying there all alone... It makes me really sad.��


    ��That might not be the case,�� Zhang Hengforted.


    The two then walked through the cremation room, passed the empty forensic room next to it, walked through another corridor, and finally reached the morgue. It was a ce where the funeral home temporarily stored the corpses and was probably thergest area on the grounds. All the freezers were neatly arranged in the morgue.


    Zhang Heng looked at Bai Qing beside him and asked, ��Are you sure you want to watch what happens next? You have been very brave so far, but if you want, you can just stay outside and let me do the work.��


    ��We are here now. Let��s get over it.�� Although Bai Qing��s face had turned pale, she still insisted on staying with Zhang Heng.


    Zhang Heng then opened his backpack and took out two pairs of rubber gloves. He put on one of them and handed the other to Bai Qing.


    During the afternoon, Zhang Heng had already found out where Bai Qing��s mother was located. It was easy for them to find her since there was a number written on each freezer. Once Zhang Heng opened the freezer, he could feel the chill hitting on him.


    Although the security guards had just patrolled this area and would not return until the next shift, Zhang Heng wasted no time, pulling out the body bag and cing it on the tbed trolley beside him.


    After that, Zhang Heng proceeded to open the body bag. Although Bai Qing tried her best to control her emotions, she still could not help but cry when she saw her mother��s body.


    Zhang Heng did not pay too much attention to the body��s surface because he knew that the forensic doctor had done a thorough examination on her before. So he did not waste his time checking the apparent wound. The police would generally not send the body for an X-ray and CT scan for such obvious injuries.


    Zhang Heng then took out the Lego bricks in his backpack and assembled a small CT scanner as fast as possible.


    After that, he inserted the Infinite Building Block into the Lego CT scanner. While Bai Qing was looking at him in surprise, a fully functional Lego CT scanner was presented in front of her.


    Zhang Heng and the forensic doctor focussed onpletely different aspects. He did not care about the fatal injuries on the corpse. What he was interested in was its internal structure. In short, what he wanted to know was whether the corpse and a real human had any differences. From there, he wished to figure out how those aliens took into human forms at will.

 Chapter 672 - Closer

    <h4>Chapter 672: Closer</h4>


    Other than checking out the ce during the day, Zhang Heng spent the better part of the day attempting to assemble the CT scanner. Thank goodness his efforts were not in vain. It took him about 20 minutes to get to the morgue, but he managed to assemble the CT scanner that he wanted.


    And scanning the body was not thatplicated as well. Even ayman like Zhang Heng could learn to operate it from manuals he downloaded from the inte.


    What he received next, however, was the raw image from the CT scanner. He would need someone professional to process and analyze the image. Zhang Heng then pushed the CT scanner aside and waited quietly for the Infinite Building Block effect to expire. As for Bai Qing, she was staring at her mother. Thedy��s eyes were closed, and she looked like she was asleep. The horror on her face was gone too. She looked like she was in peace.


    After 45 minutes had passed, Zhang Heng looked at the time on the phone, dismantled the Lego CT scanner, and put the bricks back into his backpack. He then said to Bai Qing, ��We are leaving now.��


    ��Let me take another look, just one look.�� Bai Qing said.


    Zhang Heng did not rush her after hearing her request. He just stood at the side quietly.


    Half a minuteter, Bai Qing zipped up the body bag and pushed her mother back into the freezer. She suppressed her grief and asked, ��What shall we do next?��


    Zhang Heng looked at Bai Qing��s slightly red and swollen eyes and shook her head. ��There is nothing else for us to do for the time being. Go back and rest first. I will send the image to a friend that works in the hospital. When the resultse out, I will contact you again.��


    ��But I can��t sleep now.�� Bai Qing said.


    ��You have to try to sleep because this is likely going to be a long battle.�� Zhang Heng said, ��In my experience, whether you are looking for your mother or saving your father, you need sufficient physical strength to support you till the end of this battle.��


    ��Will you stay with me then?�� Bai Qing bit her lip.


    Initially, Zhang Heng wanted to go home to prepare for the follow-up investigation. Still, considering that he had not slept for almost the entire whole night, it was difficult for him to say no after looking at Bai Qing��s current mental state.


    ��Yes, I will stay,�� Zhang Heng finally said. ��Let��s go back to the hotel.��


    Since the funeral home was at the city��s outskirts, it was almost dawn when they returned to the express hotel. Zhang Heng bundled up all the information that he collected andposed them into an email. Due to the fact that he was worried about those aliens had fully prated human society, he had to go to the hospital to verify that his friend was still his friend. To be safe, he also called his parents, who lived far away in Europe, asking them to find someone they knew to help analyze the CT image.


    He then drew the curtains, and the room became dark again.


    ��Sweet dreams,�� Zhang Heng said to Bai Qing, who was on the bed.


    Seating himself on the chair under the window sill, he leaned his head against the wall with his feet propped on the other chair.


    About a quarter of an hourter. He heard Bai Qing asking from the other end of the room. ��Are you still there?��


    ��Yes,�� Zhang Heng replied in the dark.


    ��Can you...e closer?�� Bai Qing asked softly.


    ��Sure.��


    After Zhang Heng finished speaking, he moved the chair to the side of the bed. Before he sat down, he heard Bai Qing spoke in a hoarse voice.


    ��...A little closer.��


    So Zhang Hengid down on the other side of the bed and then asked, ��Is it better now?��


    Bai Qing did not answer him. She just stretched out her hand, touched Zhang Heng��s face, and asked with a hoarse and crying voice. ��Why, why did this happen to me...��


    Her palms were ice cold, and her voice was filled with sadness, like a lost puppy under the heavy rain, not knowing where to go.


    ��Sorry for getting you involved in this,�� Zhang Heng apologized.


    In the real world, Bai Qing did not need to experience the separation of life and death from her loved ones. She was still happily attending sses at the university, and after all, this was just one of the events in this dungeon. Usually, such an event was linked to the assigned quest.


    Zhang Heng held Bai Qing��s hand and said softly, ��Don��t worry, it will be better when you open your eyes again.��


    ...


    The next time Bai Qing opened her eyes, Zhang Heng was gone. Soon, she heard the sound of water.


    When she was still sleeping, Zhang Heng took a cold shower and analyzed the information he collected. After he got dressed and walked out of the bathroom, he found out that Bai Qing had woken up. And his face was blushing.


    Nothing happened between the two, even though they slept together. Although they were lying on the same bed, they were fully clothed. Having no other thoughts, Bai Qing just wanted to find someone she trusted to stay with her. Likewise, Zhang Heng had no other intentions towards her as well.


    He uncapped a bottle of mineral water and tossed another to Bai Qing.


    ��The results of the CT scan is here.��


    To Zhang Heng��s surprise, it turned out that his unreliable parents were more effective than his friend that worked at the hospital. They sent the result back to him in two hours. An hour and a halfter, his friend that worked at the hospital sent Zhang Heng his results.


    The two sets proved simr. The image��s three-dimensional reconstruction showed that the corpse��s bones and blood vessels were almost indistinguishable from that of an ordinary human body. Only its brain managed to attract the analysts�� attention.


    ��What does it mean by an abnormal fourth ventricle?�� Bai Qing walked to theputer.


    ��The fourth ventricle is an anatomical structure located between the midbrain, pons, and cerebellum. The fourth ventricle��s content was mainly cerebrospinal fluid connected to the third ventricle, the subarachnoid space, and the central canal of the spinal cord. The fourth ventricle of an ordinary person has a quadrangr pyramid shape. But the fourth ventricle on the CT image is twice the size of an ordinary person, and it has a very neat hemisphere,�� Zhang Heng said.


    ��Hmm?��


    ��Let��s put it this way, the analysts who saw the CT image believed that such a neat hemispherical shape could not be formed naturally. It is more like an industrial product. In other words, it was manufactured artificially. In addition, the CT image also shows that the top of the skull has traces of cutting, and it was healed after that. The radius coincides with the fourth ventricle.��


    ��What does this mean?��


    ��This means that there are many possibilities, and it is not possible for us to draw any conclusions yet.�� Zhang Heng said, ��But one thing is certain. The brains of the people who have been reced are different from those of ordinary people. Look here.��


    Zhang Heng pointed at the fourth ventricle on the CT image. There was an irregr-shaped shadow at the bottom of it.


    ��What��s that? Is it a tumor?�� Bai Qing squinted, trying to figure out what that was.


    For some reason, the shadow creeped her out.


    ��I don��t think so.�� Zhang Heng said, ��It looks like some kind of organism. We are one step closer to the truth.��

 Chapter 673 - Meeting

    <h4>Chapter 673: Meeting</h4>


    After having slept for only four hours, Bai Qing finally met her defensewyer in the afternoon.


    When the suspect of a major criminal case had been arrested, even their family members could not visit them. They could onlymunicate with them through thewyers. Bai Qing, however, couldn��t fathom why the gentle and politewyer in front of her made her feel ufortable.


    ��I have worked in this field for ten years and have defended many suspects,�� said the representative. ��Don��t worry. There is no betterwyer in this city than me in dealing with a criminal case. Since Mr. Bai chose me, I will definitely do my best.��


    Unable to wait any longer, Bai Qing��s grandfather asked, ��How is my son holding up?��


    ��He just met his inws, and it did not end well. There were scratches on his arms. Typically, when a murder happens between a married couple, the pain is doubled. It��s an extremely traumatizing experience for both families.��


    ��Mr. Bai did not admit to killing his wife, insisting that he was merely trying to stop her frommitting suicide. Judging by the evidence collected from the scene, it isn��t easy to stand up for his statement. However, he did exin the reason he installed the pinhole cameras. Having suspected that his wife was cheating on him, he also revealed that he had hired a private investigator to investigate his wife before the incident. I am going to get in touch with that private investigator to gain a better understanding...��


    ...


    As Bai Qing��s ssmate, Zhang Heng wasn��t allowed to participate in this meeting with thewyer. Besides not being interested, after discovering the shadow in the fourth ventricle, Zhang Heng believed that he had probably found the alien race mentioned in the main quest. And that the other party was probably still alive as well.


    Since the alien race was willing to send Bai Qing��s father to jail by sacrificing one of their own, Zhang Heng did not rule out the possibility that they might possess a very potent reproduction ability. However, a case like this did not happen as often as he thought it to be. Otherwise, they would have started arge-scale recement operation. If the creature was still alive and the low temperatures in the freezer could not kill it, itspanions would definitely find a way to retrieve it.


    This would be a rare opportunity for Zhang Heng to meet them.


    After knowing what happened to the college student and seeing that the perfectly-shaped fourth ventricle resembled a manufactured object, Zhang Heng became more convinced that those creatures should have a base camp. Unfortunately, he was forced to put his investigation on hold after discovering that the surveince cameras at the underground parking lot were broken.


    Thus, Zhang Heng resisted the impulse to return to the funeral home immediately to dissect the corpse��s head and see what it was made of. He decided to wait for the aliens toe to their ally��s rescue.


    But before he did that, he headed home first.


    When Bai Qing was giving her statement to the authorities, Zhang Heng returned the car to its original ce. He also left a note to his grandpa stating that something had happened to his ssmate, and he had gone to help her.


    It would be a little unusual if he wouldn��t return home for the next two days, so Zhang Heng took the opportunity and headed home first. At this time, the news had also begun reporting on the homicide at Bai Qing��s house. Most quarters assumed that her father was indeed the killer, and although the names of the people involved were omitted, the location of the incident was explicitly reported. The people close with Bai Qing had begun asking her questions.


    Grandpa asked while listening to the news and practicing calligraphy, ��What happened to your ssmate?��


    Zhang Heng did not answer the question.


    ��Boy and girl?��


    ��Girl. She sits right beside me,�� replied Zhang Heng, making an excuse for the actions he would be taking. ��Her mood is not too stable, and I might be staying with her for a while.��


    ��Poor child. She should be traumatized by what happened to her. Do you have enough money?�� asked Grandpa. ��Go to the bedroom and get me my wallet on my desk.��


    Although Zhang Heng wasn��t short of money, he still went to the master bedroom to fetch grandpa his wallet to prevent suspicions.


    Grandpa counted and took a thousand yuan out of it. ��Here you go. If it is not enough,e and get more from me.��


    ��Thank you, Grandpa.�� Zhang Heng stretched out his hands to take the money, but Grandpa did not immediately let go of the cash. He solemnly added, ��She is at her most vulnerable state. Everything that she says or does right now isn��t an indicator of her real intention. Don��t take advantage of her at this difficult time.��


    ��Of course.��


    ��Very well. Please take good care of her.��


    ...


    Zhang Heng changed his clothes at home and sent a message to Bai Qing, asking her about her situation. He learned that thewyer��s meeting was over, and she was currently being escorted home by the police home to pick up her school bag and some daily necessities. Later, she would meet with her grandparents and two uncles to discuss where she would live next. That meant she was not avable for the time being.


    So Zhang Heng started the preparations for his next move alone. He carried a ck stic bag with him, walked for a distance to make sure that no one was following him, and then he went to a public toilet to change his clothes. He used the method taught by Irene Adler and Holmes to make put on simple makeup to deter anyone from recognizing him.


    After that, he took out his cell phone, going on Baidu to look for detectives that provided service for investigating extramarital affairs. Sure enough, he found the phone number left by a group of men who imed to be private investigators. Zhang Heng contacted three of them and found out that two of them were scammers. As for thest one, Zhang Heng believed that he was the real deal through a simple conversation.


    However, he might not be as professional as Zhang Heng thought he would be. The profession of private investigator had always been a grey area in this country. The authority did not give credit to this profession, nor did they ban people from practicing it. Extramarital affairs investigation was always high on demand, which was how this profession survived until now.


    Since no formal qualifications and legal supervision was required, the private detective industry was often filled with scammers. As for the private detective that Zhang Heng contacted, he could not work a normal job. That was how he ended up bing a private detective.


    The two agreed to meet in a cafe.


    ��So, you want to buy a tracker and a pinhole camera?��


    ��Yes, the smaller, the better. I want to know where my wife has been.�� Zhang Heng previously revealed his identity on the phone as a banker and wanted to know if his wife was unfaithful.


    ��You have found the right man. I can follow your wife around the clock. If I see her on a date with another man, I can take pictures of it and send them to you.�� The private investigator tried really hard to sell his service. After all, the money from selling equipment was not as lucrative as being hired by someone. His operating expenses could be reimbursed as well.


    ��No, I have to check it myself. You can give me what I want.�� Zhang Heng took two thousand yuan from his wallet, put it on the table, and said inly, ��If you have it, this money is yours. If you don��t, I will find someone else.��


    Devices such as miniature trackers and pinhole cameras were forbidden to be sold on the market. And Zhang Heng needed them urgently. So he could only seek help from these private detectives. Even if they did not sell it, they would know where to get them.


    As expected, Zhang Heng sessfully got what he wanted half an hourter.

 Chapter 674 - Secret Code

    <h4>Chapter 674: Secret Code</h4>


    Zhang Heng waited untilte that night before heading to the funeral home again to set up the pinhole camera.


    Later, he contacted the modified car club to borrow a van from them. Worried that the aliens might have reced some of its members, Zhang Heng changed the van��s appearance by adding a tailgate and sealing the rearpartment. He then headed to the hotel to pick Bai Qing up.


    Zhang Heng still had to verify Bai Qing��s identity by using the previous method. Thetter looked a little tired, albeit not as sad as before. It was probably because she had caught a glimpse of the CT scan that Zhang Heng had shown her. Filled with hope once again, her fighting spirit was rekindled.


    ��What shall we do next?��


    ��Wait.��


    ��Hmm?��


    ��We now know the whereabouts of one of the creatures. I��ll need it to lead me to their nest. I have been investigating the college student��s identity for quite some time, and those creatures now have their eye on me. I��m not worried about them at night. Once I run out of my house, I am confident enough that I can get rid of them. School starts tomorrow, though, and if I��m not in school, they will definitely pay extra attention to me. They may not head to the funeral home quickly enough to retrieve their ally. So, I��ll need your help.��


    ��What do you want me to do?��


    ��I need you to stay near the funeral home. I have installed cameras in the morgue, parking lot, and front entrance. The camera in the morgue faces the freezer where the corpse is stored,�� said Zhang Heng as he took a tracker out of his bag. ��You��ll need to pay attention and see if anyone moves your mother��s body. Once you find the target, you can stick this underneath their car.��


    Considering that the college student��s family had changed their car halfway through their journey, Zhang Heng hesitated and took out another miniature tracker, this time, the size of a coin. ��If possible, ce this on one of them, and be careful not to trigger their suspicion.��


    ��Okay.�� Bai Qing agreed and reached out to take the tracker.


    ��Aren��t you going to ask me how to use it?�� Zhang Heng raised his eyebrows, ��Or, have you figured out a way?��


    ��I have no idea how to use it, but I will think of a way. Didn��t you say that they won��t be acting so quickly?��


    ��Yes, that��s my theory, at least. It��s unnecessary for them to take risks. When everyone��s attention is no longer on the corpse, it will be their time to act.��


    ��Then, I will find a way,�� said Bai Qing. ��Trust me. I am not some goody-two-shoes who knows nothing about this world.��


    ��Hmm,�� Zhang Heng nodded.


    ��Anything else?��


    ��I have prepared seven power banks, food, and some water for you. You might have to live in this car for some time. You can check in with your grandpa and rtives from time to time so that they won��t be worried. You can��t, however, tell them where you are, or what you��re doing, and that includes your friends... From now on, you can trust no one except for me. And we need to agree on a secret sign. It is too much trouble to have me cut your finger every time.��


    ��Those aliens that you have been talking about... won��t they read our memories when theytch on us?�� Bai Qing asked.


    ��To that, I have no answer yet. But based on previous experience, they don��t seem to know what the recent happenings of their hosts.�� Zhang Heng pondered for a moment. ��I will ask you a question when I want to verify your identity��Do you like me?��


    Bai Qing blushed upon hearing the question, ��And how should I answer?��


    ��Sorry, I��m from another world,�� Zhang Heng replied. ��When you ask me that question, this will be my answer. I��m no longer me if you give you another answer.��


    Bai Qing took a deep breath. ��Okay.��


    ��Finally, I need to put some makeup on you. Although they wouldn��t recognize you, you will be safer if you change your appearance.��


    An hourter, Zhang Heng had put a wig on Bai Qing and given her some simple makeup with the bag of cosmetics he had just bought. As he put the makeup on, he taught her a few touching up techniques. ��You only need to keep an eye out for them during the day. At night, you can rest. I��ll be taking over the shift then. Remember, once you find something out, call my cell immediately, and I will meet you as quickly as I can.��


    ��Hmm.��


    ��You can find a hotel nearby to rest first. Come and change shifts with me in the morning,�� Zhang Heng added.


    ...


    Nothing happened all night. At six in the morning, Bai Qing knocked on the door of the van. Zhang Heng opened the door and saw Bai Qing holding two stic bags in her hand. ��I couldn��t find anywhere to buy breakfast. I had to walk about a kilometer before I found a small stall selling buns and soy milk. Here, I bought you some...��


    ��Thanks.�� Zhang Heng took one of the bags and asked after a pause. ��Do you like me?��


    ��Sorry, Ie from another world,�� Bai Qing replied, ��Am I right?��


    ��That��s right.�� Zhang Heng reached out and pulled Bai Qing closer to the van.


    ��Sounds like a line from some science fiction movie.��


    After that, the two of them did not speak anymore. After eating breakfast in silence, Zhang Heng headed to school with his schoolbag on his back, leaving Bai Qing alone in the vehicle. She was looking at her cellphone.


    This week, Zhang Heng was reprimanded by his teacher, mostly in no thanks to no longer being able to copy Bai Qing��s homework. In the morning, Bai Qing��s grandfather came to school and helped her to take a week off.


    So some students who had a good rtionship with Bai Qing began to think of the news that was reported not long ago. Chi Jia also ran to ask Zhang Heng if he knew what happened to Bai Qing. Zhang Heng told her that he had been sending messages to Bai Qing but received no reply.


    A look of worry shed across Chi Jia��s face, ��How could this happen?! Find her as soon as possible. Otherwise, I��m scared she might lose it. The authorities have sealed-off her house. Do you know if she has other rtives?��


    ��I don��t know.�� Zhang Heng shook his head.


    ��Then let��s go to the ss teacher after school,�� Chi Jia suggested. ��Our teacher would definitely be able to contact her rtives. We��ll be able to locate her then.��


    ��Sorry, I have other things to do after school,�� Zhang Heng said.


    Chi Jia became a little annoyed when she heard Zhang Heng��s reply, ��How could you be like this? You were chasing her before the tragedy, and now that something awful has happened to her, I can��t believe you��re staying away!��


    Furious, she yelled at Zhang Heng. It quickly attracted the attention of the other students who were around. Someoneughed and said, ��What��s wrong with Chi Jia? Did you just confess to Zhang Heng and he rejected you?��


    ��It��s impossible that I��ll like this type of person! This is ridiculous.�� Chi Jia shoved the boy who teased her.


    Seeing that Chi Jia was getting really angry, thetter scratched his head, ��What��s wrong with her??? She was fine just now.��


    ��All the boys should go to hell! You guys disgust me!!�� Chi Jia showed Zhang Heng and the other boys her middle finger.

 Chapter 675 - Tracking

    <h4>Chapter 675: Tracking</h4>


    For the next three days, Zhang Heng and Bai Qing took turns monitoring the funeral home. During that period, he slipped into the morgue again, taking another CT scan and confirming that the creature in the fourth ventricle was still there.


    It seemed they were not in a rush to retrieve the body. It had Zhang Heng wondering if the creature might be dead. After all, the CT scan showed that it had not changed its position.


    He had now also be a frequent visitor to the teacher��s office. Usually, grandpa would not stick his nose into his business. Still, this time, the elderly man had no choice but to remind his grandson upon arriving home yesterday afternoon. So Bai Qing got Zhang Heng to hand her his homework, where early the next morning, at the shift change, she brought along some breakfast and thepleted work.


    To prevent the teacher from recognizing the different handwriting, Bai Qing tried her best to imitate his. Finally, the teacher did not summon Zhang Heng to the office today. The teacher evenplimented him.


    When Zhang Heng handed in his homework on time, the teacher did notpliment him. After not handing in any assignments for three whole days, the teacher was surprised to see him passing it up this time.


    Back to the surveince site, there hadn��t been any movement for some time. Zhang Heng began to wonder if perhaps, there might be something wrong with his n.


    He had tried his best to avoid every conceivable risk, but if those creatures had reced most humans living in society, there would be at least twenty of them watching him in the ssroom right now. In other words, it would be pointless to keep treading carefully. Fortunately, the possibility of something like that happening was minute. If that were true, then the creatures wouldn��t have spared a second and attacked him right here, right now.


    Besides, Zhang Heng hadn��t given up on the drowning case yet. Earlier, he learned from the security guard that the three children often left themunity together. He wanted to know where they usually headed to.


    Hiding his mobile phone under the desk, Zhang Heng looked at the map, when he suddenly received a message.


    It was from Bai Qing, and had only three words in it.


    [They are here]


    Zhang Heng could sense Bai Qing��s tension and anxiety on the other side of the phone, and he quickly replied.


    [Install the tracker and wait for me.]


    He turned around to look at the clock hanging at the back. The physics ss he was in was only halfway through, and there were still 20 minutes to go. He couldn��t wait that long. The only way out was to lie to the physics teacher standing in front of the ss right now.


    At the time when nobody was paying attention to him, Zhang Heng dug the root of his tongue with a pencil, and within seconds, he vomited all over the floor. Blue veins popped up on his neck, and he looked terribly ill.


    When the teacher saw this, he hurriedly stepped down from the podium and came over. ��What��s wrong with you?�� he asked with the utmost concern.


    ��I don��t know. My stomach is upset after I drank a bottle of expired yogurt this morning,�� replied Zhang Heng, his voice quivering and his brow lined with cold sweat.


    ��Ah, could it acute enteritis.�� The physics teacher said with a solemn expression, ��You have to go to the hospital immediately. Hold up, let me see which teacher is avable now.��


    ��No need, Teacher Zheng, I will go to the hospital on my own.��


    ��How could I let you go alone in your current state?�� Teacher Zheng shook his head.


    ��I know a friend who works in the hospital. He will take care of me once I arrive. I��m just a little weak, but I still have the strength to take a taxi,�� Zhang Heng said. ��Can you please inform my ss teacher, sir? I will hand in the request-to-leave formter.��


    ��Okay. You��d better go to the hospital now,�� replied teacher Zheng.


    Zhang Heng returned to his seat, grabbed his schoolbag, and left the ssroom.


    As for the vomit on the floor, his ssmates would clean up for him. This could be considered a perk for the sick.


    Upon leaving the school grounds, Zhang Heng first called a friend at the hospital and asked her to issue him a sick leave slip.


    Thetter did not feel good when he heard Zhang Heng��s request. ��Are you going to do something bad again? Don��t keep involving me in your business, and you haven��t told me where thest CT film came from.��


    ��First, help me toe up with a cover story. Later, my ss teacher will call my grandfather. You tell him that I am with you and I��m doing fine. I will head back once I feel better. As for the CT image, I will tell you everything once it��s all over,�� Zhang Heng replied.


    ��Okay, don��t do it again next time,�� the person at the other end of the phone sighed. He then paused and added, ��After I looked at the image you sent me, it looks a bit like a parasite. Later, I tried and read some articles about it, but nothing helped me understand it better. And the shape of the fourth ventricle, it��s so strange.��


    ��Tell no one about this,�� Zhang Heng exhorted.


    After creating the perfect cover for himself, he could finally turn his attention to Bai Qing again. Immediately, he sent a message to her.


    [How is everything?]


    This time, Bai Qing did not reply immediately.


    Although the situation was urgent, Zhang Heng made a detour to a nearby shopping mall to ditch anyone that might be following him. He changed to a new set of clothes, took a taxi, and rushed to the funeral home.


    Bai Qing finally replied when he was in the car.


    [It��s done.]


    Afterward, Zhang Heng received a notification on his phone that the target car was on the move. He could tell from the tracker that the car was heading toward the east of the city, consistent with his previous investigation results. At that time, he had tried to track down the college student, and thest ce he stopped turned out to be the east of the city.


    Another signal then appeared on Zhang Heng��s cellphone. Sent by another micro tracker, this one was moving in the same direction as the car.


    It appeared that not only had Bai Qingpleted the task, but she even did something extra.


    [Wait for me toe over.] replied Zhang Heng.


    The school and the funeral home were quite a distance apart, and it wasn��t until forty minutester that Zhang Heng arrived at the van. At the same time, he could see that the car he was tracking was not far from the underground parking lot he had gone to. Meanwhile, Bai Qing was very anxious, sending him several WeChat messages, constantly asking his whereabouts.


    [I have arrived.]


    Upon receiving the message, Bai Qing opened the door and poked her head out. The two then exchange their secret codes. Zhang Heng then took the driver��s seat, and Bai Qing moved aside. ��I don��t know how they did it,�� shemented while putting on her seatbelt. ��There was something wrong with the freezer unit, so they pretended to be technicians and took the body with them.��


    ��Did you see how they took away the body?��


    ��No,�� Bai Qing shook her head. ��They blocked the camera with their backs, but I recorded a short clip,�� she said, sending the video that she had just edited to Zhang Heng.


    The clip showed a fat man and a thin man. Apart from one having a leg problem, they looked no different from ordinary people.


    ��How did you put the tracker on them?�� Zhang Heng asked.


    ��I yed to the advantage of being a woman.��


    ��Hmm?��


    ��What are you thinking? I meant it��s normal that a woman asks a man for some assistance. Usually, it��s difficult for a man to refuse ady,�� Bai Qing exined. ��I asked them to help me to carry two wreaths, and then I gave them a can of fruit candy. The tracker is located on the bottomyer of the candy can.��

 Chapter 676 - Dillema

    Chapter 676: Dillema


    Zhang Heng drove the van in pursuit of the tracker��s signal.


    Bai Qing was holding onto the car handle and finally asked a question that she wanted to ask for a long time, ��When did you get your driver��s license?��


    ��Oh, I don��t have one,�� said Zhang Heng. ��But it��s okay, as long as I don��t get caught by the police,�� he added after a pause.


    ��...��


    Zhang Heng shortened the 40-minute journey to only about 20 minutes. He was, however, slowed down by a few traffic officers standing at several intersections along the way. About fifteen minutes ago, the tracker had stopped moving. Worried that Zhang Heng might track them down again, they should have headed to a different parking lot to swap cars.


    After a while, the tracker hidden in the candy box started to move again and about ten minutester, it stopped.


    When she realized that the tracker had stopped moving, Bai Qing became really nervous. ��Have we been found out?!��


    Zhang Heng looked at the map and found that the tracker had stopped beeping at a small factory. Originally a state-owned cannery, thend was sold to a small-time businessman after it went bust, and the owner turned it into a ss factory. Since then, it had been operating for more than ten years. Business was neither good nor bad, but since the continual increase inbor costs, production lines once reliant on manualbor were slowly being reced by machinery. It was simply getting increasingly difficult for a small factory like this to survive in this era.


    Zhang Heng parked the van at the next street, a rtively deserted spot of the city.


    Now, they were only less than two hundred meters from the tracker��sst location.


    Zhang Heng thought about it for a moment. ��Stay here and wait for me.��


    ��Hmm?��


    He didn��t exin much, merely pulling down the rearpartment��s partition and snuck out of the car.


    Bai Qing was still in the front passenger seat, doing nothing as instructed by Zhang Heng. After waiting quietly for some time, she discovered that the phone��s tracker had started moving again. Feeling like she should let Zhang Heng know, she hurriedly opened the partition.


    It turned out that Zhang Heng was undressing. He had taken off everything from his body except for his underwear. Bai Qing��s face flushed, and she quickly looked away, not even getting to tell him what she wanted.


    Zhang Heng didn��t seem bothered by it as he put on a set of new clothes.


    Now he was transformed into a young countryside man who hade to the city searching for a job.


    ��You can look at me again,�� Zhang Heng said to Bai Qing while stuffing the makeup tools and changed clothes into another bag.


    Since the time Zhang Heng did Bai Qing��s makeup, she knew that his skills were somewhat extraordinary. She was, however, still a little surprised when she turned to look at him. He had changed so much that he hadpletely transformed into another person. Not only were his clothes different, but his appearance and temperament had also undergone an earth-shattering change.


    This was the effect of an Lv2 makeup skill. Zhang Heng��s current technique and Holmes��s were almost the same. The art of makeup was the sort of skill that constantly improved over time, and more modern tools were also avable right now. In other words, Zhang Heng could make his makeup even more realistic.


    ��Even if I act, I��ll have to wait until night. In the day, I will explore the factory first,�� Zhang Heng said.


    ��Okay.��


    Bai Qing nodded as she watched Zhang Heng get out of the van. Initially, she thought he would be gone for a long time, not expecting him to return after only a quarter of an hour.


    ��How did it go?��


    Bai Qing could not wait but ask. Anxious and unhinged, this had everything to do with her mother��s whereabouts and whether her father��s innocence could be proven. In the beginning, she doubted what Zhang Heng told her, but after witnessing the subsequent events, she had be more and more convinced that there were indeed things in this world that science and technology could never exin.


    ��This looks like the right ce. I pretended to be an applicant, but I was stopped at the door. The security guard told me that the factory isn��t hiring even after telling him that all I needed was food and a ce to stay and that I was willing to give up two months�� wages. Normally, the factory would use me for two months before firing me, but the guard didn��t even report it to the person in charge. And then I asked the workers in several factories next door. They talked to each other quite often, but they had never seen anyoneing out from that factory.��


    Zhang Heng paused for a moment.


    ��I couldn��t see the factory��s parking lot from where I stood, but judge from some old photos I found on the inte, the lot��s gate originally faced the factory��s gates. Now, the ce is sealed off, and the gate is opened on the other side. This doesn��t make sense at all. The workers would have to walk a lot further to get to work. Besides, there is an unusual number of security cameras around the factory as well.��


    ��Can we sneak in at night?��


    ��It could be quite difficult,�� Zhang Heng said. ��On the way back, I ran into a man delivering something, and he said that even he could not get into the factory. He would be instructed to leave the parcel at the gate every time.��


    ��This factory is so strange. Wouldn��t the workers present their doubt?��


    Zhang Heng did not answer her. Since this factory might very well be the aliens�� nest, it was very likely that they had reced all its workers with themselves. ording to nearby workers, one hundred people were working in this factory. This was not a small number.


    Even if they did not possess any abilities, the crowd alone was enough to defeat Zhang Heng.


    And the problem now was that there was not much time left for the two to prepare to face those aliens. The tracker in the sugar box helped them find this ce. However, it was also a time bomb. Sooner orter, the alien would surely find out about them and realized that they were near them.


    The current situation was unfavorable for both of them.


    Zhang Heng could feel that the difficulty of this quest was greater than an ordinary one. Although it was rare for a quest to be set in the modern world, the unknown nature of the opponent and perilous environment made Zhang Heng feel as if he was ying chess blindfolded. He could only watch his steps carefully since he did not know how his actions would eventually impact the whole event.


    And in terms of the degree of understanding of those things for human society, modern civilization rules had greatly slowed Zhang Heng��s progress. He felt more freedom in the old western world, and if he did not count the extra 24 hours he had, he was close to approaching this quest��s deadline. And he still had not killed a single alien. He also had no idea what was going on with other agents. Maybe it would be better for him to join a team instead of doing it solo.

 Chapter 677 - Visiting the Glass Factory at Night

    <h4>Chapter 677: Visiting the ss Factory at Night</h4>


    After discovering an abnormality in the fourth ventricle and realizing that the deadline of the quest was approaching, an ordinary yer would consider doing something reckless toplete a quest. He would first kill whoever could identify him and then figure out a way to get rid of the shadow in the fourth ventricle. Since the quest was ending soon, the yer should have exhausted every possibility ofpleting the quest.


    Considering how Zhang Heng still had more than 120 days toplete the quest, he would not do anything reckless.


    He looked at the location of the micro-tracker on the phone again. Although it moved a little, the tracker was still in the factory. Now, it was stuck. Someone must have ced it at a stationary spot.


    So he made up his mind and said, ��We know too little about those things. We must not waste a rare opportunity. I will enter the factory tonight and see if I can find any useful information, and perhaps, the people they reced. While I��m at that, I will also bring back the tracker to us.��


    ��Didn��t you say security there is very tight? Aren��t there cameras everywhere?��


    ��We have to take some risks now. Otherwise, it��ll be a long time before we find anything useful. The risk is worth it,�� Zhang Heng said. ��If we keep doing this step by step, they��ll get to mislead us all the time.��


    ��Then what should I do?�� Bai Qing asked positively.


    ��Help me with homework I need to hand in tomorrow.��


    ��...��


    ��Actually, I will need your help with something. I need someone to work with me from the outside and distract them when necessary. You might, however, be putting yourself in danger, and you��ll have to break thew,�� Zhang Heng added.


    ��No problem!��


    Bai Qing did not hesitate to say yes. ��I will finish the homework for you,�� she paused and said.


    ��Thanks.�� Zhang Heng wiped off the makeup from his face. ��I��m going to the hospital first, get the sick leave slip, then go back to my house to prepare for tonight. We will meet here at 1 a.m.��


    ��Okay.��


    ...


    Since they were not going to kill anyone, Zhang Heng left out the Pestilence Bone Bow. His Paris Arrow, however, was with him all the time in his backpack. Since he had the Infinite Building Block, a bow could be assembled during an emergency.


    Zhang Heng had also prepared manypleted Lego models, including a silenced pistol that was missing a brick. Of course, if possible, he wished he��d never need to use a gun tonight.


    The quest set in a modern background allowed Zhang Heng to utilize his Infinite Building Block fully. This Grade-B game item might not be as powerful as the Dreand of Death, but it had been instrumental in dealing with all kinds of emergencies and circumstances. It wasparable to a Swiss army knife, where it allowed its user to deal withplex and constantly evolving environments.


    At 1 in the morning, the two met again in the van.


    Zhang Heng had changed into the clothes of a ss factory worker, and if he was noticed, he could pretend to an employee. It would, however, only work if he was at a distance from the person. Once he entered the factory, his Bluetooth headset had to be on all the time to allow him tomunicate with Bai Qing.


    Upon exining to Bai Qing what she should doter, Zhang Heng opened the door and walked towards the factory, backpack on his back. He found an empty spot, opened the backpack, and took out a mini drone he just bought, flying it toward the factory once he got the controls set up.


    He first flew it to a safe position, carefully inspecting the factory��s surroundings and ensuring that no security cameras were pointing to the sky. He thennded the drone. The ss factory had both night and morning shifts since machines operated 24 hours a day. Other than the huge demand, the silicate within the machines would solidify immediately after it cooled. Having molten ss shards amid the inner workings of a machine would prove hard to remove, and hiring a technician would cost the factory a lot of money.


    For that reason, many people worked in the factory at night. After observing for a while, Zhang Heng saw nobody had left the factory except for those moving materials around. Not one person deviated from their respective tasks, looking as if their movements were synchronized. Nobody talked to each other like they were a group of strangers.


    Even though they were working hard, the scene was terrifying to watch.


    Emphasizing strict discipline, modern society had turned workers into machines. Nheless, no matter how hard they tried, no human in this world could work like one.


    Upon witnessing the scene, he was certain that the aliens must have reced the factory workers.


    He also discovered that one of the four workshops was not in use, seeing how no workers approached it.


    However, the interesting part was a few security guards were guarding it. Not only was the workshop under the shadow of a few security cameras, but guards from the factory would patrol the area every hour. Zhang Heng realized that the three workshops that operated nonstop were probably a cover for whatever they were doing there.


    The workshop looked like a monster with a gaping mouth in the dark, waiting to devour all that entered it.


    Although Zhang Heng knew right away that it wasn��t a ce he was supposed to approach, it was toote to give up on the n now.


    He quickly flew the drone, checking the locations of all the security cameras in the factory. He was also interested in seeing how many security guards were actually there, analyzing their patterns and movements. Half an hourter, the drone ran out of battery, and he had to fly it back to the van.


    Bai Qing would be there to grab it, and Zhang Heng could finally be on the move.


    Since the front entrance faced the security room, it would be impossible to enter the heavily guarded workshop from there. Not to mention the overkill of cameras that did an excellent job monitoring the ce. Fortunately, it was not without its blind spots.


    It wouldn��t be possible to know all these if one wasn��t good at the art of surveince.


    Zhang Heng walked ten steps along the wall from the southeast direction, and once he reached the stop, he climbed over the wall and fell behind a cypress tree. Hiding behind therge trunk, he managed to escape the view of the cameras.


    Usually, there would be no residential buildings built near the ss factory, thanks to the cacophony it usually produced. Most ss factory workers would have their ears buzzing all day long. It came as wee news for Zhang Heng, however. Now, he could talk slightly louder to Bai Qing.


    Afternding in the workshop, Zhang Heng informed Bai Qing, ��I��m here.��


    ��Be careful.�� Bai Qing��s voice seemed a little nervous.


    Zhang Heng did not act immediately. Instead, he squatted behind the tree and waited for about four seconds before he made a move. Then a forklift drove out of the workshop next to him with the ss on it. Zhang Heng calcted the time in his mind. Around ten secondster, the forklift had moved halfway, he quickly lowered down his body, moved towards the nt area, and crawled forward.

 Chapter 678 - Drama Actor

    <h4>Chapter 678: Drama Actor</h4>


    As the forklift disappeared around the corner, Zhang Heng had already crawled about a third of the distance. That meant he was out of the security camera��s range of sight. He then dashed to where the advanced worker disy board was before the second forklift came out.


    That disy board, too, had helped him block the vision of another camera on his left, and instead of going forward, Zhang Heng took advantage of this rare opportunity and crossed the road. Finally, he had arrived at workshop No.1. He began to climb up the roof via the pipe attached to the wall; all in a timely affair, just as the second forklift emerged from the opposite corner.


    Zhang Heng patted the dirt off his body. The loud workshop had helped him mask the nging pipes as he scaled the wall and the walking on the roof.


    There were so many CCTV cameras in the ss factory that even if there were blind spots, it did not mean that he coulde up with a safe path to avoid detection. Getting to workshop No. 3 involved getting through the gates of workshop No.1, but if Zhang Heng stayed on the ground, someone would notice him sooner orter. Fortunately, he found that they did not pay much attention to airborne security.


    This was actually quite normal, where this was a ss factory after all and not a military fortress. No matter how tight security was, there was only so much they could do to fortify themselves. Undoubtedly, the authorities would be a little more than suspicious if they started installing anti-aircraft defense systems around the factory, not to mention how inconsistent it would be with their low-profile style.


    After dealing with the surveince system, Zhang Heng was soon greeted with another new problem.


    Workshop No.3 was the core of the entire ss factory.


    Regardless of which security team patrolled the ce each hour, the windows of workshop No.1 windows had been reced with tempered ss and were shut tight. Zhang Heng tried to pry it open, but it was a failed attempt. He could, however, see what was inside the room�� a pile of waste.


    It did not make sense that creatures would mount such tight security just to watch over a pile of garbage. This wasn��t some kind of dark humor. What they were guarding, however, remained a mystery until Zhang Heng entered the workshop. He had, in fact, found a way to cut through the ss, but since workers would instantly discover the next morning that workshop No.1 had been broken into, the best way to get in was via the front entrance.


    There was a security system at the front entrance that needed to be dealt with, though, and he needed to find a way to open the electric rolling shutter-gate. He knew how to deal with the surveince system, but the gate would be a big problem.


    Fortunately, there was an office building not far from Workshop No. 3, and the electronic map showed that the mini tracker was there as well. So Zhang Heng changed his n and decided to go to the office building to retrieve them.


    He was lucky enough to locate the tracker fairly quickly. It had been taken into the security area on the first floor, and the remote control to open the gate was most likely there as well. There was a man on duty over there, though.


    He looked like he was in his twenties and looked ordinary, but it was what he was doing that was terrifying.


    The man was practicing all kinds of expressions in front of a mirror��like a drama actor on stage; he reenacted the look of joy, pain, sadness, excitement, and even orgasms. Zhang Heng wasn��t here to watch a drama tonight. If he did not want to be discovered, the first thing was to draw the guard away from the duty room��the feat would only cost him two or three minutes.


    After that, Zhang Heng gently retreated to the other side of the corridor and recalled the factory��syout. The next thing he had to do would be perilous��having to calcte the time precisely. He needed to know how long the security guard would spend walking around and the pair of patrols to arrive from their previous spot.


    Zhang Heng was cautious, repeatedly ying the n in his mind to make sure that it was feasible. He squatted down when he was done, took out the Lego bricks from the bag, and assembled them into a kitten. Before inserting the Infinite Building Block, he promptly contacted Bai Qing.


    ��Remember what I told you before? I need your help now.��


    ��OK.�� After receiving the instruction, Bai Qing took a deep breath before using a mask to cover her face. She then carried the package that Zhang Heng gave her and walked to the designated ce. With trembling hands, she poured the barrel of gasoline on the cardboard factory��s outer wall before spraying on a ��Give us our sry! Do the right thing!�� with some a red spray can.


    The cardboard factory��s security guard seemed to have noticed Bai Qing. He then walked out with a shlight. ��Who are you, and what do you want?!��


    Bai Qing did not reply, pulling out a matchbox from her pocket instead. Being her first timemitting a crime, her nervousness was understandable��she failed to light up the match even after striking it twice. The security guard was horrified when he caught a whiff of the gasoline, running to Bai Qing instantly.


    She bravely struck a second match and threw it at the wall, this time sessful, lighting it up in a burst of raging mes.


    The moment the terrified guard saw that, he wasn��t bothered to go after Bai Qing, shouting, ��Fire! Help!!!�� instead.


    Guilt shed across Bai Qing��s sullen face��the ss factory was, of course, the target, but to avoid raising suspicion, they were forced to target the cardboard factory next door.


    The fire burned ferociously, but since there wasn��t anything nearby to stoke the mes, it shouldn��t cause any damage if they did put it ut in time. The current economy wasn��t easy on small businesses��wages getting dedicated had be the norm, and the more extreme workers causing trouble wasn��t something unheard of.


    Upon lighting the fire, Bai Qing ran into the darkness.


    At the same time, the fire had also attracted the attention of the ss factory��s workers.


    Zhang Heng was very close to Workshop No.3. If whatever was inside it were valuable to them, they would ensure at all costs that the fire wouldn��t reach their factory.


    It turned out that Zhang Heng was right about that.


    When the guard on duty in the security department heard about the fire, he immediately stuck his head out of the window. Seeing that the fire was only a wall away, he walked out of the office without hesitation and headed for a closer look.


    And as soon as he left, Zhang Heng slipped in.


    Four remote controls were hanging on the wall. Zhang Heng picked the one with a number 3 sticker, slipped it in his pocket, then quickly opened the drawer and turned the candy box upside down. Thankfully, only less than half of the candy had been eaten. The tracker at the bottom, however, could already be seen.


    Zhang Heng took it out, put the sugar box back in ce, nced across the desk, and saw a printed booklet. Looking at it out of curiosity, he found out the booklet was filled with the young security guard��s expressions. Meanwhile, the original owner of the face was nowhere to be found.

 Chapter 679 - Workshop No.3

    <h4>Chapter 679: Workshop No.3</h4>


    In the monitoring room, the security guard who was in charge of keeping an eye on the surveince feed suddenly noticed that the picture on one screen was shaking. After that, the video flipped 90 degrees, and it was now facing the wall.


    Immediately, the security guard noticed that something had gone wrong. He instantly sensed something amiss, seeing how camera 24 was one of the two cameras facing the entrance of workshop No.3.


    It was the most important ce in the entire ss factory.


    However, before he could react, something happened to the other camera. Like camera 24, CCTV camera 25 seemed to be experiencing the same problem as well. The feed was shaking, and the security guard could see that something furry appeared to be touching it.


    Was that a cat?


    The guard hurriedly went through themon knowledge that he had recently learned about the human world. After a while, he remembered that a cat too was a creature of earth. Unlike pigs and chickens raised in batches for food, cats were mostly reared as pets. It was especially true in the cities, where more and more single young men and women were starting to adopt cats, hoping the animals could keep thempany.


    The cat was the kind of animal that was independent and arrogant.


    As long as they had enough food and water to meet their basic needs, they would practically ignore humans and mind their own business. The security guards had a hard time understanding why humans kept cats as theirpanions. If it was purely forpanionship, why not get a dog instead? Was it because they are not required to bring their cats for a walk?


    After discovering that the cat was why the CCTV cameras were malfunctioning, he was not as vignt anymore.


    To further fortify his deduction, the cat ced its paw on the camera��s lens, causing camera 25 to move.


    Although it was no a big deal, the guard knew that he still had to deal with it as soon as possible.


    The cameras purchased by the factory were of a rtively old model andcked the function which allowed the guard to adjust its angle through the console. Since he was in the monitoring room, he had to ask his colleagues who were patrolling outside to deal with this problem.


    While waiting for the CCTV camera to be fixed, Workshop No.3��s electric rolling shutter gate was slowly opening.


    Zhang Heng then put the cat that had done an excellent job distracting the enemies into his backpack. He did not immediately enter the workshop, knowing that he still had some time before the security team arrived. Before that, he needed to return the remote control to the security office.


    Fortunately, the office wasn��t too far away from where he was. He pushed the close button outside the security office, instantly hanging the remote back on the wall before turning around and rushing toward Workshop No.3.


    The shuttersnded faster than expected, but Zhang Heng managed to get into Workshop No.3 in the nick of time.


    Just as the bottom of the rolling shutter was less than 30 centimeters away from the ground, Zhang Heng managed to squeeze himself into Workshop No.3. Fortunately, everything worked ording to n. As the shutters rolled shut behind him, Zhang Heng knew he hadpleted the most perilous part of this quest.


    Ten secondster, the guards in charge of the patrol had also appeared on the other side of the rolling shutter.


    All they saw was a rolling shutter that was shut and nothing wrong with the security cameras as well��all they needed to do was to readjust the cameras back to their original position. At the same time, the people who had gone to investigate the fire had alsoe back. After confirming that the cardboard factory��s fire would not affect them, they returned to their respective posts.


    Zhang Heng ced his ear on the rolling shutter, paid attention to their footsteps, and waited a while before walking towards the workshop.


    The inner part of the workshop was simr to what he saw from the window earlier.


    The room was mainly filled with waste materials, including rejected ss tes, raw materials left for an unknown period, and two old machines by the previous owner.


    Instead of using a shlight, Zhang Heng put on the Filter Lens to look at his surroundings��he saw no threats. He then spoke to Bai Qing, ��I��m here now. How about you?��


    Since the two had been inmunication from the start, Zhang Heng could hear the security guard from the cardboard factory yelling, attempting to get help to put out the fire. After that, Bai Qing started to run, and Zhang Heng could hear her heavy breathing. The strange thing was, she had been running for quite some time and hadn��t stopped until now.


    Zhang Heng could not help but start worrying. Although the little fire caused no major incident, arson was still considered a vicious crime. If nabbed, she might just be sent to jail, although just a minor.


    ��Ah, I don��t know.�� Bai Qing��s answer surprised Zhang Heng.


    Zhang Heng asked patiently after her reply, ��Are you still running away from people chasing you?��


    ��Chasing... People chasing me?�� Bai Qing gasped for breath, ��I don��t know if there are people after me.��


    ��...


    ��Have you not looked back after running for so long?��


    After a while, Bai Qing spoke again, ��Ah, I��m sorry. I��m too nervous. I was so afraid of getting caught. I haven��t done anything this bad before.��


    ��It��s okay,��forted Zhang Heng. ��You��ll get used to it after you do it a few more times.��


    ��Huh?�� Bai Qing was dumbfounded when she heard Zhang Heng��s reply.


    ��It��s just a joke to make you rx a little. Make sure no one��s behind you before you go back to the car.��


    ��Did you find anything over there?��


    Bai Qing hade up to a wall and was leaning on it, resting.


    ��Well... I will know soon.��


    Zhang Heng walked around Workshop No.3 as he talked to Bai Qing, and soon, his attentionnded on the two old machines. From the outside, one looked like a can washing machine. It was pitch ck all around, but with the Filter Lens��s help, Zhang Heng could see the trailing traces on the ground.


    This can washer weighed more than one hundred kilograms. Under normal circumstances, it would take two people to drag it, but with Zhang Heng��s current strength, he could do it alone. Pushing the machine aside, he saw an entrance to a cer-like ce.


    A disgusting stench wafted out from it.


    Having no idea what was in the cer, Zhang Heng hesitated to enter. Worried that the strange smell might have a negative effect on the human body, he decided to let the cat enter first.


    Zhang Heng tied it up with a rope and ced it in front of the entrance as bait. Obviously dissatisfied with the n, the feline struggled and yowled periodically. It seemed like it did not like the smell as well. Fortunately, no one would patrol around Workshop No. 3 at this hour.


    After waiting for a while, Zhang Heng saw no movementing from the cer. Albeit looking a little sluggish, the cat was healthy for the most part. Zhang Heng decided to stop waiting. He retrieved the cat and put it back in his backpack, and began to walk down the steps.


    As he went further down, the disgusting smell became stronger and stronger.


    And Zhang Heng noticed strange ferns growing on the surrounding walls. He had learned about nts from Bell before and hade across many nt illustrations as well. However, he had never seen this type of fern before. Looking somewhat prehistoric, they looked like the kind of fern that came from the Cretaceous period.

 Chapter 680 - Door

    <h4>Chapter 680: Door</h4>


    Zhang Heng moved his face a little closer to the ferns, but the strange smell around him did not be stronger. It seemed these weren��t the ones emitting the putrid stench. The presence of these nts, however, made the air more humid. Coupled with the smell, it made for an even more ufortable experience.


    Zhang Heng scraped off the ferns with a knife, put them in a sealed bag, and continued further down.


    About ten stepster, a door appeared in front of him.


    If those ferns could make anyone feel ufortable, then whatever that grew on the door could only be described as downright ugly. It looked like some kind of vine, and there were many small saas on each of its nodes. Zhang Heng saw something that looked like a sucker on an octopus��s tentacles at the bottom of the vine, firmly entangled with each other on the door.


    Upon closer inspection, he saw the vines moving slowly.


    This was Zhang Heng��s first time seeing such a mysterious organism.


    He now felt like he was an Alice who fell into the rabbit hole. Instead of walking into a dreand, Zhang Heng was about to enter an abyss of infinite terror. Just by standing in front of the door, he could feel the terrifying atmosphere slowly devouring his mind. It was hard to imagine what he would see behind the door.


    If Zhang Heng were ordinary, he would have definitely turned around and leave immediately. Now, he was simply a little ufortable, thanks to the putrid smell. Usually calmer than most, and when coupled with the turbulent emotions experienced in this quest, he had almost forgotten the taste of fear.


    He walked toward the door, his cating in handy again.


    Though the feline struggled and resisted, Zhang Heng grabbed its neck and brought it near the moving vines. As the cat approached, the vines began to squirm faster, looking like they were preparing to devour their prey. At the same time, the cat��s instincts allowed it to sense the imminent danger. It now struggled with greater intensity.


    Its attempts were futile, however, since Zhang Heng was pinching its neck really hard, escaping an impossible feat to achieve.


    When the vines�� squirming had reached a critical speed, Zhang Heng could hear a muffled explosion. The saas on the branches started to explode simultaneously, where countless small twigs sprouted and unfolded out, like a mosquito��s feet. The twigs then started to pierce their way into the cat��s body, and with the Filter Lens, Zhang Heng could see blood flowing into the vines along those tentacles.


    The cat��s body was trembling, and Zhang Heng could see the animal drowning in fear.


    Zhang Heng had retracted his hand right before the saa exploded, but the vines held on to the cat. Once their tentacles had fully prated its body, the cat finally calmed and stopped struggling.


    At the same time, the vines at the door handle seemed to loosen a little. Although unintentional, those vines had technicallye from the other side of the door. Hence, the door wasn��t sealedpletely. While the vines slowly devoured the cat, Zhang Heng cut out some of them with a knife.


    There was just enough space for him to squeeze himself into the room.


    Although the cat allowed him to witness the horror of those vines, he still decided to go in and take a look. He had observed how the vines hunted down their prey and knew that the process took some time. Thus, Zhang Heng had enough time to step away when the saa exploded. While they were in hunting mode, they would increase speed. This could serve as a sign for Zhang Heng to avoid their attack.


    Other than that, Zhang Heng also confirmed one more thing about those vines when he pried the door open. It looked like the nts didn��t respond to inanimate matter, and as a result, he was brave enough to enter the room through the door.


    Even if this were hell, now that he was on the other side, he had to check out the cee what may.


    ......


    Bai Qing has been listening in to everything going on on Zhang Heng��s side,


    Zhang Heng had not spoken to Bai Qing for some time now since theirst conversation ended. However, the girl could hear the miserable shrieking of the cat through the Bluetooth earpiece. It was like chalk scratching the board, and it made her panic.


    Although she was not there to witness the prehistoric ferns and the ugly vines with Zhang Heng, the fear she was experiencing was no less than the cat. Someone once said that the source of fear came from something that humans failed toprehend.


    The sound on the other side made the atmosphere even more tense and terrifying. Bai Qing could not help but ask Zhang Heng about the situation over there and what he saw. However, she was afraid that she might distract him and put him in danger. So she decided to keep quiet until she heard a babbling sound.


    This time, she could not hold it in anymore, asking hastily, ��How is it? What do you see?��


    Zhang Heng did not answer.


    Thetter seemed to have disappeared. The noise was getting louder and louder, and it caused Bai Qing��s hands and feet to be ice-cold.


    Zhang Heng also noticed the problem with the earpiece.


    Earlier, he could hear Bai Qing��s breathing, but now, only the strange noise was audible.


    Zhang Heng figured that it might have something to do with the maic field here.


    Since he hade into this ce, he had no intention to leave immediately. And the most important thing was his attraction to the sight in front of him.


    Zhang Heng finally knew where the vines came from.


    In the center of the hall, in front of him, was a strange nt. It looked like a banyan tree, only shorter, and had more luscious branches and leaves. The vines on the tree had almost covered the entire room, making the ce seem like a botanical garden of horrors.


    No one knew how long this thing had lived. It seemed to be even older than those ferns outside.


    At the same time, Zhang Heng noticed that this fossil-like nt could breathe like an animal. Something was beating in its tree cavity, much like a heart. Besides, an ash-like material was ejecting from the tree canopy.


    The strange smell that Zhang Heng smelled earlier came from these tiny specs of ashes flying in the air, some of which had fallen on his shoulders and hair tips.


    However, this part was not the most terrifying.


    Zhang Heng saw many capsules that looked like cicada pupa hanging from the trunk. They all came in different sizes. The smaller ones had dark shadows moving within it, and judging by its shape, it looked like the shadow he saw on the CT film. And the thing that wrapped in the big cicada pupa had a human form.


    Suddenly, within the wriggling pupae, Zhang Heng saw his face.

 Chapter 681 - “Clothes”

    <h4>Chapter 681: ��Clothes��</h4>


    It was quite weird for Zhang Heng to see his other-self.


    His second-self was still wrapped in something like a cicada pupa, with fluid surrounding it as if still growing in a mother��s womb. Other than that, Zhang Heng also noticed a fist-thick fibrous tube inserted into the creature��s brain. This might exin the perfectly-shaped fourth ventricle they saw on the CT image.


    The other end of the fibrous tube was connected to a smaller pupa. The thing inside it was trying to break through the pupa��s thin film and crawl into the tube.


    At this point, Zhang Heng has basically figured out how they reced humans.


    They did not get into their target��s head. Instead, they had found a way to clone a human body. This body was like a garment. Once that thing got into the brain, they could start to talk and act like a human. It was no wonder why they had been so inefficient and had not attacked him for so long.


    Once that thing arrived at the fourth ventricle through the fibrous tube, they would start to n an attack on him. And it seemed that daylight mighte faster than expected. Zhang Heng walked around the ancient nt and counted the cicada pupae on the trunk. Among them, there were more small pupae, their numbers reaching to the hundreds. Inparison, there was far fewer cicada pupa��only thirteen of them��which was a bad number.


    Including the time when Judas betrayed Jesus, Jesus happened to have thirteen disciples as well. Given the huge disparity between the number of small andrge cicada pupae, it meant that those creatures needed topete with each other to get out and walk on this earth. This was somewhat simr to the human reproduction system.


    Zhang Heng had just spent a short time here, and his shoulders were already covered with ashes. In such a turbid environment, even breathing had be a little difficult. Fortunately, he brought a mask with him in advance, though he knew that it was not ideal staying here for too long. So, Zhang Heng decided to speed up.


    Although he knew nothing about this mysterious living organism in front of him, its rtionship with the fourth ventricle��s parasite was now clear.


    The weird-looking tree was the one that gave birth to those parasites and cloned those human bodies.


    The tree could also bepared to the Zerg��s Broodmother in StarCraft. In other words, as long as Zhang Heng destroyed this ce, he could at least stop the tree from producing more of those things, even if he could not kill every single one of them.


    Zhang Heng drew his knife to test the nt��s defense mechanism, but before he could even get close to the tree, the vines entwined on the branches started to move again. And this time, every single vine was on the move. They were like giant pythons that had awakened from a deep slumber.


    Immediately, Zhang Heng stopped moving forward. When the saas on the vines exploded together, there would be no dodging them, no matter how agile he was. And as long as he stepped away, the vines would immediately slow down and return to their squirming state.


    Zhang Heng also noticed that those cicada pupae hanging on the branches were far away from those vines. It was to prevent them from being damaged during battles.


    Did that mean the vines could attack indiscriminately?


    He frowned. It would prove challenging to get close to the tree, especially its heart. Fortunately, he had anticipated all kinds of scenarios that might take ce tonight, and he was well-prepared. Zhang Heng then squatted down, opened the backpack behind him, and took out a gasoline bottle.


    The backpack had limited capacity, and Lego bricks had taken up most of the space. Although little was left for the gasoline, it should be enough to light up the whole tree. Zhang Heng unscrewed the bottle and sprinkled as much gasoline as he could on the nt��s center. At the same time, he slowly retreated to the door. The vines were not engaged in abat state at that time.


    After that, Zhang Heng struck a match as he decided to bid this alien tree goodbye before him.


    The lit match fell on the gasoline urately, and it started to burn the tree. In the blink of an eye, the entire tree was engulfed in mes.


    Coupled with the atmosphere, the burning alien was a strangely beautiful sight. When the mes started to attack the tree, the vines tried to protect it, but there was no target for them to attack.


    However, the me in front of him onlysted for less than two seconds. With the next ��breath,�� the tree was no longer spitting out ashes. Instead, it started to spit bright red sap. The moment the mes came into contact with the sticky liquid, they instantly extinguished.


    The fire was quickly brought under control. After the third exhtion, the mes had disappeared entirely, and the previously ckened areas began to fall off, in their ce, reced by new bark. It began to look just as it did before.


    The entire fire extinguishing and repair process only took less than half a minute. After that, everything returned to normal.


    At the other end of the hall, Zhang Heng realized that he was in huge trouble this time. In front of him, the alien tree did not seem to have much offensive ability. It had to rely on the vines to protect it. He was, however, in awe at the creature��s self-healing ability and crisis response capabilities.


    In gaming terms, the alien should belong to the kind of boss with high health points where it allocated all its attributes to survival points. This was in line with its evolutionary theory. Other than those ugly vines, it still had the small cicada pupae to protect it. Focussing solely on defense, there was no longer any need for it to develop any offensive abilities.


    Judging from the damage on the alien tree, Zhang Heng figured that not even a rocketuncher could blow up its outer trunk, let alone the Paris Arrow in his backpack. Even if he managed to find its weakness, there was nothing he could do as long as the outer defense was intact. At this point, he might just need an intercontinental ballistic missile-level weapon to deal with it.


    Zhang Heng had no intention to stay here any longer. His throat had already started to itch, and his vision became increasingly fuzzy as well. After Zhang Heng attempted to burn it down, the putrid smell became even more intense. And Zhang Heng also realized that this smell had a slight paralyzing effect. He might be fine for now. However, if he continued to stay here, his movement would be slower, and it would affect his brain as well.


    It seemed like there was nothing he could do to destroy the tree tonight. Zhang Heng took his mobile phone out of his pocket, took a few photos, recorded the ce, and walked out of the hall through the door.

 Chapter 682 - Essay

    <h4>Chapter 682: Essay</h4>


    This should be the most unforgettable night in Bai Qing��s life, second only to that nightmare that happened in her house not long ago.


    When only white noise could be heard from the earpiece, Bai Qing began to go into full panic mode. Although she repeatedly told herself to be calm, she still couldn��t stop those dreadful thoughts from pouring into her mind.


    What happened at Workshop No. 3?


    Had Zhang Heng encountered any danger?


    Had someone spotted him? Had those creatures captured him? Would they kill him?


    Bai Qing wanted to rush into the ss factory, but her wise mind told her that it would be best for her to stay in the car and wait for Zhang Heng��s instructions. Even she herself did not know how she could survive the past six minutes.


    Every second was torturous. When the white noise disappeared, the connection between the two was reestablished. A familiar voice then came from the other end, much to Bai Qing��s relief.


    ��I��m out of the ss factory,�� Zhang Heng said, ��The signal was lost when I went underground just now.��


    ��It��s okay. Did you find anything there?�� Bai Qing asked curiously after she calmed down.


    ��I figured out how those beings reced the people around us and nted them into human society. That includes how they reproduce and live,�� Zhang Heng paused. ��And I don��t think those missing people are dead.��


    Bai Qing was overjoyed when he heard this. ��Are you saying that my mother is very likely to be alive?��


    ��Yes,�� Zhang Heng said, ��They can��t inherit the memory of their target, which means a living target or at least a temporarily alive one would be more useful to them. They can extract more information by doing this, including the victim��s interpersonal rtionships and living habits. But your mother��s situation is quite special. The being that took your mother��s form chose to kill herself to send your father to prison. Since there are no more requirements for your mother, I have no idea what they will do to her. I��m not ruling out the possibility that they might keep her as a research subject.��


    ��Then, do you know where my mother is now?�� Bai Qing asked.


    ��I��m going to look for her,�� Zhang Heng said. ��If someone from the factory gets detained, there should be signs of it.��


    ...


    Zhang Heng waited another fifty minutes in Workshop No. 3 until his cat turned back into Lego bricks. As expected, the vines were not interested in things like stics and metals, and they immediately let go of it.


    He picked the bricks from the ground, put them into his school bag, and with onest nce at the underground entrance, he returned to Workshop No. 3, backpack on his back.


    Escaping that hellhole felt so good, especially now that he had gotten away from that putrid stench. Since the security camera outside the workshop had been readjusted to its original position, Zhang Heng could not leave the same way he came in. Now, the window was the only way out. Entering the factory via the windows was challenging, but opening it from the inside was easy. Once he was out, a string could then be used to close the window.


    Half an hour had passed by the time Zhang Heng returned to the van.


    Bai Qing had been waiting anxiously for his return. Zhang Heng opened the car door, sat in the driver��s seat, and drank a few sips of water. ��I have good news and bad news.��


    Before Bai Qing could ask further, Zhang Heng continued, ��The good news is, I��ve found evidence that someone had been imprisoned in a room on the first floor. The bad news is that there��s no one there anymore. I��m afraid I might have spooked them with my previous investigation. Perhaps they were afraid that I would find out about Workshop No. 3 and moved the prisoners to another site.��


    ��Where are they now?�� Bai Qing asked. Her mother��s whereabouts remained her biggest concern.


    ��I don��t know the answer to that yet. They moved them carefully and quickly this time. Some of them didn��t even get to pack their things, But don��t you worry, I will find them. Before that, we��ll have to deal with that underground thing first. Otherwise, more people would only keep disappearing. And even if we manage to rescue all of them, there is no guarantee that they won��t be reced again.��


    Bai Qing had received the photos and videos from Zhang Heng earlier.


    Due to the tiny ashes floating in the air, they looked somewhat blurry, but it did not stop Bai Qing from seeing the alien tree and the cicada pupae on the branches.


    If she had not seen it with her own eyes, she wouldn��t have ever believed that such a curious being would call this would home. It was a nt but seemed to possess some animal characteristics as well, especially the trunk��s beating heart. The sound it emitted was enough to send a chill down anyone��s spine.


    ��Now that we have the evidence, how about handing it to the police so that they can kill the... alien?��


    ��I��m afraid that��s unrealistic,�� Zhang Heng said. ��What are we going to tell the police? Are we going to tell them that a monster is living in a ss factory?��


    ��Aren��t the videos and photos enough to make them send someone?��


    ��A few vague photos and a video can��t exin anything,�� Zhang Heng shook his head. ��No one will believe us, and we don��t even know if the aliens had reced the police, so it��s too great a risk to expose these to them. They might just be prepared to deal with us. By the time the real police get to Workshop No. 3, they will find nothing there. And how do you n to exin the fire at the cardboard factory?��


    Bai Qing seemed a little discouraged the moment she heard that.


    ��Well, what should we do? You��ve said that ordinary physical attacks have no effect. Are we supposed to steal an ICBM to kill it?��


    ��There should be other ways,�� replied Zhang Heng. ��With the alien tree��s defensive abilities and survivability, why were they so afraid of the three children? They were willing to go through all that trouble to kill them. They treated adults like your father and the college student like fools. No one will believe what we tell them.��


    ��Do you think the three children had something that could deal with them?��


    ��Yes, but it��ste now. Let��s rest first,�� said Zhang Heng. After he drove Bai Qing back to the hotel, he did not return home immediately. Instead, he pulled out his mobile phone and looked at it. Other than the pictures of the underground creature, another two new photos were stored in his gallery.


    It was an essay written by Lin Sisi.


    She turned out to be one of the three drowned children. Zhang Heng had gone to her school earlier and learned about the existence of this weekly diary from her ss teacher. And this was his first time reading the full version of the essay. Apparently, the aliens in the ss factory were studying her essay as well.

 Chapter 683 - Planetary Observation Team

    <h4>Chapter 683:ary Observation Team</h4>


    The first sentence of Lin Sisi��s essay went like this����Does our there our universe have aliens? It is a topic ourary observation team has been studying.��


    ��With constantly developing science and technology, we receive new and updated news every day. Like the vast universe, theary observation members know that our human civilization is still in its infancy. If other intelligent beings do exist outside the sr system, how do they view us? Are their intentions toward us good or malicious?��


    ...


    Zhang Heng raised his eyebrows. For a child of Lin Sisi��s age, this weekly diary��s writing style and contents were surprising. Zhang Heng remembered how she looked like in the photo. Thin and having some sparse bangs on his forehead, she was hardly noticed by the crowd.


    Thus, only a few people knew about the knowledge this ordinary little girl possessed. Zhang Heng spent five minutes reading the entire weekly diary, only to find its contentspletely different from what he had thought.


    Earlier, he had talked to Lin Sisi��s ss teacher, Li Yan, discovering about the existence of this entry. Maybe the other party was too nervous at the time, and there was some ambiguity in her writing.


    In fact, Lin Sisi mentioned two types of aliens in her entry. ording to the different attitudes that they had toward humans, she divided the aliens into two categories. One species was willing to help humans, and the other group was malicious and aggressive toward them.


    ording to Lin Sisi, these aliens hade to earth as early as the Cretaceous period. Equipped with strong disguise and learning ability, their species were supposed to be on the top of the food chain. Unfortunately, as they were living here on earth, the third extinction event happened. It wiped out almost all animals and nts on the earth, including dinosaurs, killed in the colossal catastrophe. Even the alien species did not manage to survive the extinction event.


    But they did not die right away. The mother served as the core of reproduction escaped the extinction event through a long period of hibernation. Since it did not know when the extinction event would end and whether the environment was suitable for survival after everything was settled down, it slept for an exceptionally long time this time and was only awakened recently.


    When it woke up, it found something better than a dinosaur.


    And that was the human beings who stood at the top of the food chain.


    ��This will be the greatest disaster faced by human history. But unfortunately, human beings did not realize that they are being hunted. The prelude of this battle was about to begin,�� Lin Sisi wrote at the end, ��The adults are all busy with their affairs and waste their time on things that do no matter much to them. Fortunately, theary observation team members have found a way to prevent this disaster. We will fight for the fate of humankind.��


    ...


    Zhang Heng put down his mobile phone. In the eyes of ordinary people, Lin Sisi��s weekly journal might look like a child��s fantasy. Especially at the end, where she mentioned that she would fight for the fate of humanity. Usually, only boys would write something like this, and it was hard to believe that a timid girl like Lin Sisi would have such a passionate side.


    It was a pity that she and herary observation team did not manage to prevent this catastrophe.


    A few yearster, when everyone recalled this summer, they would only remember that three little brats refused to listen to their parents, came to the river to y at night, and eventually drowned. The other parents would use this unfortunate event to educate their children about the consequences of not listening to them.


    Zhang Heng wondered if the three of them would make the same choice if they were given another chance.


    Unfortunately, they had departed this world.


    Most of the contents in this weekly journal were about the evil aliens who came to this world during the Cretaceous Period. Most of the contents matched the things that Zhang Heng saw in Workshop No. 3. Now, Zhang Heng had gained a better understanding of those things. Unfortunately, Lin Sisi did not write about the methods to stop those aliens in her weekly journal.


    However, Zhang Heng did manage to find some useful clues between the lines.


    He had been investigating those things for some time now, and he had to admit that those aliens were indeed very cautious. Even though he risked his life to venture into Workshop No. 3, he did not find anything useful to help him deal with them. Besides, the oldest member of the threeary observation team��s members was only fourteen years old. It was unlikely that they could find so much information on their own. Especially the fact that they knew that those aliens had been living on the earth since the Cretaceous Period. Not even the best archaeologist couldpletely restore what happened tens of millions of years ago.


    So they must have received some kind of help. Coupled with Lin Sisi��s ssification of those aliens, Zhang Heng realized that there were likely to be two types of life forms that could be considered as aliens in this quest. Other than the aliens trying to exterminate every human being, there was another type of aliens trying to help humans. However, that might not be their pure motive. Zhang Heng figured that they might have had grievances with the former.


    After all, this was just a game. Zhang Heng did not care about their purpose. As long as they had a way to help him destroy the weird creature at Workshop No. 3, he would not mind working with them.


    Now, he was back dealing with his original problem.


    How would he find out more about the clues that theary observation team left for him?


    Zhang Heng knew that he was going to lose sleep again for a few days. He was used to having 48 hours of active time in the real world, but when he came into the dungeon that adopted the 24-hour system, he started to feel that 24 hours were not enough for him. He had to continue to go to the school to ensure that the aliens would not suspect that he was onto something.


    With no teammates to rely on, Zhang Heng could only entrust Bai Qing to investigate theary observation team. He sacrificed his sleep and went to the hotel where she was at early in the morning. After the two of them exchanged the secret code, Bai Qing opened the door and let Zhang Heng enter her room.


    ��...you are saying that there is another group of aliens here?�� Bai Qing asked in surprise after hearing what Zhang Heng told her.


    ��The other group of aliens may not be on Earth,�� Zhang Heng said. After analyzing the current situation, he knew that those aliens were still searching for something after making the three children look like they were drowned in the river.


    ��We should be looking for the same thing as well. I don��t know what that thing is, but it is obviously rted to the three children. We have to think about where to start.��


    arium. You said that the three of them would often leave the neighborhood together. And they called themselves theary Observation Team. I think they went to thearium, ��Bai Qing said suddenly.


    Zhang Heng frowned, ��I did consider this possibility, but the distance between thearium and their residence is too far away. It is almost ten kilometers. After considering their age, it was impossible for them to do that.��


    ��No, no, no. I��m talking about the oldarium. My grandmother��s house is around there as well. I lived there for a while when I was a child. So I knew there was an oldarium there. The ce became a spot for teenagers to gather after the newarium is opened. It��s been many years since I��ve been to the oldarium,�� Bai Qing added, ��The oldarium is very close to where they lived. It��s a ten-minutes walking distance.��

 Chapter 684 - Director Gao

    <h4>Chapter 684: Director Gao</h4>


    Zhang Heng and Bai Qing met up for a short while, parting ways after discussing the next n of action. Zhang Heng grabbed the homework that Bai Qing hadpleted for him and headed to the school. As for Bai Qing, she went to the oldarium to investigate what the three children actually did before leaving this world.


    The twomunicated via mobile phone, where Zhang Heng would instruct Bai Qing from time to time to take some photos of the scene, how to find the right person to inquire about the incident, and where she should pay attention to.


    If Zhang Heng had a choice, he sure hoped to exchange roles with Bai Qing.


    Unfortunately, the aliens were actually more cautious of him. Since his clone from the giant cicada pupae beneath Workshop No. 3 was about to hatch, they would be keeping an eye on him more frequently now.


    The moment Zhang Heng stepped into the school, he could feel someone watching him. Of course, he was more than capable of getting rid of whoever that was, but it would only serve to alert the enemies.


    This was not the right time to engage in the final battle with them. The enemies surely were not limited to the hundreds of workers in the ss factory. Until now, Zhang Heng still did not know how many enemies were in the entire city. Allowing them enough time to gather at the same spot would be unwise, and taking advantage of their alertness to find a way to deal with the alien tree beneath Workshop No. 3 seemed like a better option.


    ...


    Bai Qing acted swiftly. After a dash of simple makeup and quick change of clothes, she parted ways with Zhang Heng. Instead of riding a taxi, she chose to get on a bus. Instantly she got mixed-in with the morning crowd, and even had to change buses twice before finally arriving at the oldarium. The ce had now transformed into a children��s pce, and they were promoting all kinds of talent sses.


    There were dancing, violin, and table tennis sses on offer, though Bai Qing saw nothing rted to astronomy.


    Thus, she went directly to the guard at the entrance and immediately showed him Lin Sisi��s photo on her phone. ��Uncle, I��d like to ask. Have you seen this child? She should be with two boys all the time.��


    The guard took the phone, put on his reading sses, and when he saw who it was, he smiled. ��Oh, her! I remember she woulde here with two other boys every week. Sometimes, they woulde here three or four times a week. They were very polite. Whenever they see me, they would greet me. By the way, I haven��t seen them for almost a week. Are you a friend?��


    ��Well, I��m her distant rtive,�� Bai Qing said, and asked again, ��Do you know what they did here?��


    The guard shook his head, ��I have no idea.�� After a pause, he added, ��Director Gao should know more about them. They are always here to look for Director Gao.��


    After asking the whereabouts of Director Gao��s office, Bai Qing thanked the guard. She then sent a message to Zhang Heng while walking upstairs.


    Suddenly, she ran into a man holding a box on the third floor while running. Bai Qing��s mobile phone flew out of her hands, prompting her to scream. The man reacted quickly, putting down the box and attempted to catch the mobile phone. However, it was toote. Bai Qing��s phone flew off of the edge of the stairs and fell to the first floor.


    When Bai Qing went to pick up her mobile, she found the screenpletely shattered. She tried turning it on, lucky, but she could no longer type on it.


    ��Hey, are you okay?�� the man asked while walking down the stairs.


    The guard greeted the man, and Bai Qing knew that the man was a Children��s Pce teacher. The subjects he taught were drawing Chinese painting and calligraphy.


    ��I��m sorry, I couldn��t see you while I was holding the box. Is your phone��s screen broken?��


    ��Is there any ce to fix it nearby?�� the male teacher asked the guard.


    ��There is one phone repair shop 200 meters east of here. They��re not very ethical with prices, though. A parent once went there to repair a mobile phone. The technician took only two minutes to fix it, but the parent was asked to pay 50 yuan.��


    Clearly, the male teacher wasn��t happy with the price. ��Let me see what I can do for you. This is an Apple mobile phone. I will drive you to an Apple official aftersales service store.��


    Upon hearing the proposal, Bai Qing shook her head. ��No. I am at fault as well. I was running, and I ignored my surroundings.��


    She had just received some information about Lin Sisi, proving that she was on the right path. Besides, she managed to send out thest message to Zhang Heng as well. Although she could no longer use her phone, she thought it was more important to talk to Director Gao first since she was now at Children��s Pce. In the end, since it had done what she was supposed to do, she decided not to fix her mobile phone.


    Bai Qing made it clear that she did not want to hold the male teacher ountable. Still, he felt sorry for her and gave her 300 yuan to repair her mobile phone. Since she was in a hurry, she epted the money and headed to Director Gao��s office on the fourth floor.


    Upon the knock on the door, the voice of a middle-aged woman could be heard from inside. ��Pleasee in.��


    When Bai Qing heard the words, she pushed the door open. Director Gao raised her head. She carried a solemn look on her but spoke in a rather polite tone. ��What��s the matter? The talent ss registration is on the second floor.��


    ��I��m not here to sign up for talent sses,�� Bai Qing said. ��Actually, I have something to ask you.��


    Director Gao raised her eyebrows. Instead of asking Bai Qing to leave, she pointed at the chair in front of her desk. ��Please sit.��


    ��Thank you.�� Bai Qing breathed a sigh of relief, sat in front of Director Gao, and thought about what she should say next.


    ��Do you know Lin Sisi and her friends?��


    Director Gao immediately put down the pen in her hand. Instead of answering, she returned the question, ��Who are you?��


    ��I��m a... rtive of hers.�� Bai Qing bit the bullet, repeating the lie she told the guard.


    Director Gao was nomittal. She took a sip of tea and said. ��Before I took up this management job, I worked in the education sector for more than 20 years. And I have dealt with children of all ages. I can tell when they are lying.��


    Bai Qing��s cheeks flushed.


    ��She was among the three children who drowned in the river, right?�� Director Gao did not dwell on the fact that Bai Qing was lying to her. Instead, she sighed. ��I had a bad feeling when I saw the news. Although they didn��t reveal the names and pictures of the deceased children, they did mention their age and the school they attended. After the news broke out, the three children have stoppeding here. Who are you? Her teacher? A reporter? No. You look too young to work those jobs. You should still be a student.��


    ��I��m a high-school student,�� Bai Qing answered in a low voice. Facing the director was like facing her schoolteacher. After the director knew that she was lying, she could no longer use the lie that she had made up in her mind.

 Chapter 685 - Why Is It Important?

    <h4>Chapter 685: Why Is It Important?</h4>


    The atmosphere in the office was a little awkward.


    Bai Qing regretted telling the director that she was a high-school student. The development of this matter hadpletely derailed her expectations. In this case, she would not know how to exin her intention next. And she did not know if director Gao would chase her out of her office.


    In the end, it was director Gao on the other side of the desk who spoke first. ��Do you know how Lin Sisi and I met?��


    ��Hmm?��


    ��A children��s astronomy contest was held in the city some time ago. Only elementary school students were eligible for participation. Most schools chose their grade fives and sixes to participate, and among them, Lin Sisi was the youngest. Yes, she was the only third-grade participant at that time. Although I��ve no idea what your rtionship with her is, I assure you that you have seen her photo before. She was so tiny that she never stood out in a crowd. That said, she was brilliant. I was one of the judges of that contest. I could see that most children spent a great time memorizing facts before they came topete. Lin Sisi, however, was different. She was truly passionate about astronomy. I could see it in her eyes.��


    ��Did she get first ce in thepetition?��


    ��No, she came in second. She answered a wrong question during the final answering session, but it turned out that she was right afterward. The new research findings were announced shortly after thepetition, and the system did not manage to update the answer in time. Although she didn��t get first, she impressed me the most. So I gave her my personal number and told her that she coulde to Children��s Pce to look for me whenever she was avable.��


    ��So, you��ve known her a long time? Did she tell you anything before the tragedy?�� Bai Qing asked quickly.


    Director Gao looked at Bai Qing, answering only after a moment��s silence. ��It��s a pity. I went on a long business trip some time ago. I wasn��t here for about a month. In other words, she had not contacted me for about a month before the tragedy.��


    ��But the guard said that they were here at Children��s Pcest week?�� implored Bai Qing.


    ��Is that right? I did give them a key. I allowed them ess to a storeroom currently not in use. They doe here from time to time.��


    ��Can you take a look at the activity room?�� Bai Qing asked without thinking, then realized that she had probably gone overboard with the requests.


    Unexpectedly, director Gao agreed. ��Sure. Anyway, I have nothing to do today.�� She took out a bunch of keys from the drawer, and they headed to B1. The surroundings were pitch ck at that time, and they were the only two walking in the corridor. Suddenly, Bai Qing felt a little nervous when she saw director Gao walking in front of her.


    Zhang Heng warned that the aliens had been among society for some time now, and there was no way of knowing if an alien had reced director Gao. Before she came down here, Bai Qing was so happy that she hit the jackpot. Now, she began to wonder why director Gao agreed to bring her to check out the storeroom.


    However, she had to admit that she didn��t y her role well while talking to director Gao earlier. If she were in the director��s ce, she would have kicked the imposter out of the office. To her surprise, director Gao stopped pursuing her real identity and even agreed to her request.


    The excitement soon passed, and Bai Qing finally calmed down. She felt that something wasn��t right, though, unable to stop goosebumps from sprouting all over her skin as she looked at the director��s back. Thetter did not speak. She walked to the wall and pressed the switch to turn on the corridor��s light before looking at Bai Qing again, ��Why aren��t you walking? Didn��t you request to check out the activity room?��


    ��Yes, I��m sorry,�� Bai Qing quickly apologized. Biting the bullet, she followed director Gao.


    It was toote to turn back now. Terrified, all she could do was follow director Gao.


    Fortunately, there was no ambush waiting for her. The ce turned out to be an ordinary storeroom.


    ��We mainly stock the sundries here, as well as things left by the previousarium. Of course, we moved the high-value items to the newly built one. The rest of the things here were what they do not need, including some old models and popr science materials,�� director Gao exined.


    Bai Qing��s attention shifted temporarily to the storeroom that she was in. The first thing she saw was a small table and a few stools. On the table were the models of the nines (Pluto had been delisted in 2006, and there were only eights now. This was an old model). Also, there were a Galileo telescope and a sandbox with a crater model in it.


    Bai Qing was overwhelmed. Although a student with excellent academic performance, she was not an astronomy enthusiast. Her strengths were exam-oriented, and she did not know where to start when she all those things in front of her. ording to the previous agreement with Zhang Heng, she could snap a photo of the items here and send the pictures to him.


    But her mobile phone was broken at this moment. Left with no other option, she could only continue to ask director Gao the questions that she had in mind.


    ��Is there anything special here?��


    ��Special? What do you mean?�� director Gao asked rhetorically.


    ��I��m talking about things that otherariums don��t usually own.�� Bai Qing said.


    ��What do you think this is? A treasure-hunting game?�� Director Gao shook her head. ��Thearium can be categorized as popr science, built to help young people to understand more about astronomy. There is nothing unique here. Besides, this is the oldarium. The valuables have been moved to the newarium.��


    ��Uhm. Can you please think a little harder? This matter is very important to me,�� Bai Qing asked anxiously.


    ��Why is it important?�� asked director Gao calmly. ��How am I supposed to help if you don��t tell me your intention?��


    ��Trust me. I don��t want you to get into unnecessary trouble.�� Bai Qing smiled bitterly, ��If you know what happened to Lin Sisi and my family, you would never want to get involved.��


    ��No. You refuse to tell me about it because deep down, you assume that I wouldn��t believe you,�� said director Gao. ��You know, you weren��t the first to ask me about theary observation team.��


    ��Has anyone else looked for you and asked you about this matter?�� Bai Qing was shocked when he heard her reply, ��Who are they?��


    ��It doesn��t matter. You don��t know him anyway,�� director Gao looked into Bai Qing��s eyes, ��When you try to make others believe you, have you ever thought about trying to trust that person first?��


    ��I��m sorry. This whole thing is insane.��


    ��The truth is sometimes crazier than a lie. As a former scientific researcher, no one knows this better than me.��

 Chapter 686 - You Are Here

    <h4>Chapter 686: You Are Here</h4>


    ��You are saying that extraterrestrial life-forms came to the earth tens of millions of years ago and almost ruled the world?�� Director Gao was surprised upon hearing Bai Qing��s confession.


    ��Yes.��


    With gritted teeth, Bai Qing had finally blurted out everything to director Gao.


    Director Gao frowned. ��You do know what you��ve just said sounded like a novel or movie plot, right? It��s absurd. It��s fine if Lin Sisi and her friends believe in such a thing, but how old are you this year? I guess you are around 16, right? You��ll be an adult soon. Why would you believe such things?��


    Bai Qing��s heart sank.


    ��You said that that thing reced your mother and put your father in jail by framing him for her murder. I remember reading about it in the newspapers. That exins why such a thought would appear in your mind, you poor child. You wished your father was innocent. Understandably, a daughter would want her father to stay out of jail,�� director Gao said, ��But you are pinning your hopes on aliens. You are even telling me that these aliens will annihte us all. Strictly speaking, you have vited thew.


    Bai Qing opened her mouth, attempting to further exin herself.


    ��I...��


    ��You have just lost your mother, and you are about to lose your father. That��s why you��ve been so desperate to believe the absurd fantasy that your mind created. It is simply because of everything bad that��s been happening to you. Maybe the real bad guys made up these stories to deceive you. Their intentions must��ve been ill since the beginning and are perhaps taking advantage of your deepest desires to gain your trust.��


    ��No, I have photos and videos to prove my ims, but I can��t show them to you now,�� Bai Qing valiantly defended Zhang Heng.


    ��Really? Did he show these videos and photos to anyone else besides you?��


    ��...��


    Bai Qing was left speechless.


    ��And why didn��t you call the police?�� the director went on. ��I guess he must have told you that the police couldn��t be trusted too and that from now on, you can only trust each other. But you didn��t enter the factory with him that night. You have no idea what went on, right? With current technology, it��s really easy to fabricate photos and videos,�� analyzed director Gao calmly. ��He could��ve just walked into the factory, then walked out without really doing anything inside. When he came out, he could have shown you materials he prepared in advance.��


    ��How about the CT image? There is indeed a shadow in the fourth ventricle. I saw it too...�� Bai Qing said, but her voice became smaller and smaller.


    ��You��ve realized, haven��t you?�� said director Gao. ��He��s been pumping you with second-hand information since the very beginning. Since photos and videos can be fabricated, he could��ve done the same to the CT image, right? Ask yourself if aliens invading our world sound really true, or there��s a better chance that he��s really just trying to deceive you?��


    Bai Qing was all but dumbfounded.


    ��It seems you��ve already gotten your answer,�� director Gao sighed. ��This must be a very difficult period for you. I understand how you feel. When I learned that Lin Sisi and her two friends passed away, I did wish it wasn��t true. This is human nature. When we encounter insurmountable difficulties, we refuse to ept them. We simply bury our heads in the sand, like an ostrich.��


    ��I am not an ostrich. I just hope that whatever happened to me that night was only a bad dream. I just want my mom and dad to be home.��


    Bai Qing started to cry.


    ��I know, the truth always hurts.�� Director Gao patted Bai Qing��s shoulder andforted her.


    ��Sorry.�� Bai Qing wiped away the tears from her face. ��Thank you for telling me all these things. I have interrupted your work. I��m so... so stupid. I should��ve thought of that.��


    ��It��s okay. This is growth that everyone has to endure,�� director Gao paused. ��You know, when I was a child, I too encountered something that saddened me. However, that incident actually prompted me to be an astronomerter. Although I have left the education sector for a few years now, I quickly realize how insignificant I am whenever I look up at the stars in the sky. Sooner orter, you��ll feel your troubles getting smaller and smaller. You cane to look for me whenever you want. I can teach you some astronomy.��


    ��You are really kind,�� Bai Qing replied gratefully.


    ��Looking at you reminds me of my daughter. You both look different, but your temperaments are very simr,�� replied director Gao while waiting for Bai Qing to walk out of the storeroom before turning off the lights and closing the door. ��Unfortunately, she��s settled down in another country.��


    ��I��m nowhere like your daughter.��


    ��You have no idea the troubles she caused me when she was a child,�� director Gao denoted. ��She the main reason I got myself into the education sector. At that time, I desperately wanted to figure out what really went on in her little head.��


    ...


    Director Gao then walked Bai Qing to the exit, watched her walk out of the Children��s Pce��s gate, smiled, and waved at her before returning upstairs. And Bai Qing smiled in return. Turning around, she walked to the street right beside her. At first, she maintained her usual pace, but after a while, she began walking faster and faster, her body trembling uncontrobly at the same time. In the end, she dashed toward the mobile phone repair shop two hundred meters away. And she asked a man that was ying with his mobile phone in the shop, ��How much does it cost to rece a mobile phone��s screen?��


    ��It depends on the model. I need to see if it��s the internal or external screen that needs recing.�� Thetter put down his mobile phone. It was rare that customers visited his shop as soon as he opened in the morning, and as he talked to Bai Qing, he observed her. Although she was a student, she seemed to havee from a rather wealthy family. Quickly, he assumed that she must know little about mobile phones, which meant deceiving and manipting her would be a breeze.


    Bai Qing handed the broken cell phone to the shop owner.


    ��Damn. This is a 6-plus.��


    The boss took the phone and looked at it. ��This is worse than I thought. The entire screen is broken. Did you throw the phone downstairs? Now the entire screen has to be reced, and it will cost you eight hundred yuan.�� Worrying that Bai Qing might think that he was overcharging, he added, ��This is the official price. You can check it online if you��re not confident.


    But to his surprise, Bai Qing did not even attempt to bargain with him. She just nodded and said, ��Rece it. Do you have a phone that I can use here? Can I use it to make a call?��


    ��I don��t have andline. You can use my mobile.��


    Bai Qing snatched the phone from him, startling the unsuspecting owner. He might have just encountered someone worse than him. Would such a good-looking girl rob him? Fortunately for him, she did not run away. She was simply looking for a corner to use it.


    Before she could make the call, however, she heard a voice calling from behind. ��Oh, you are here!

 Chapter 687 - Suspicion

    <h4>Chapter 687: Suspicion</h4>


    Bai Qing subconsciously hid the phone behind her and saw the male teacher she had run into earlier.


    Thetter smiled. ��Great. I was thinking about whether you woulde here,�� he said. ��I thought about it again, and I believe that it��s only right to pay you more. Your phone has been severely damaged, and I��m afraid the three hundred yuan I gave you just wouldn��t cover it.�� Looking at the shop owner beside him, he took out his wallet from his pocket. ��How much does it cost to fix?��


    ��Eight hundred yuan,�� the boss replied with a candid undertone.


    To which, the teacher frowned. ��That much?!��


    ��That is the official price of a screen recement,�� the owner stated with confidence.


    ��Would that be the original and official screen?��


    ��Of course it is.�� The shop owner quickly pointed to the Apple-authorized repair point signboard.


    The male teacher snorted, ��Are you really using that pointless signboard to scam us? Every single mobile repair shop has that signboard hanging outside their shops. Whenever I look at the Gaode Map, I see these fake ��Apple-authorized�� repair shops everywhere. I can��t even find the official stores anymore.��


    The shop owner merely sneered.


    ��The screen that you are about to sell to hisdy is definitely not an original product,�� the teacher went on. ��Four hundred yuan. Take it, or we leave.��


    ��Brother, you pushing me to the edge here. I only run a small business, and I don��t make as much profit as you think. At that price, I can��t make anything at all...��


    It was impossible that the shop wouldn��t make a profit, but shing prices from eight hundred yuan to four hundred was toorge a gap. Undoubtedly, the owner wasn��t too happy and med the teacher for being too nosy. Disgruntled, he grumbled, ��Fine! I��ll take the deal. Pay me the four hundred yuanter.��


    After dealing with the overcharge, the teacher looked at Bai Qing again and found she showed no gratitude on her face. Instead, it disyed one that was of nervousness.


    ��I haven��t seen you before. Is this your first time here?�� asked the teacher, attempting to break the awkward atmosphere. ��There should be sses in school today.��


    ��I... took leave.�� Bai Qing took two steps back until she backed into a ss cab.


    ��Really?�� The teacher blinked repeatedly. ��What is your rtionship with director Gao?��


    ��How did you know I met director Gao?�� Bai Qing asked, caution evident in her tone.


    ��Don��t be so nervous. I��m just trying to make conversation with you,�� the teacher shrugged. ��Uncle Zheng, the security guard, told me about you.��


    ��Does this matter have anything to do with you?��


    ��No, just like I said, I��m just trying to chat with you.�� A touch of helplessness shed across the teacher��s face. ��You don��t seem to have a good temper.��


    ��That��s because I don��t like chatting with strangers,�� retorted Bai Qing almost instantaneously.


    ��Okay,�� the teacher nodded. ��Initially, I wanted to wait until your mobile phone got fixed, then escort you home.��


    ��Thank you, but I have a pair of legs, and I can go home myself,�� Bai Qing replied, her tone in and straightforward.


    At that time, even the shop owner had noticed the argument. He popped out his head to check on them, yet still couldn��t figure out how the two were connected.


    Taking a step backward, the teacher raised his hand, signaling Bai Qing to calm down. ��Okay. Fine. I won��t ask you any more questions.��


    ��Then why are you still here?��


    ��How rude! How did your parents educate you? You didn��t even thank me for your repair bills. How could you say something like that to me?! Suit yourself. I will leave now.�� The teacher turned around and walked out of the shop.


    Bai Qing let out a sigh of relief the moment she saw he was gone. In desperation, she urged the shop owner to fix her mobile phone as soon as possible. She had wanted to call Zhang Heng earlier, but the teacher unexpectedly interrupted her. The second ss should have already started by now, so Bai Qing had to wait again.


    Another twenty minutes passed, and the shop owner failed to fix her mobile phone within the promised time.


    Bai Qing, meanwhile, was only bing more and more anxious. After she discovered director Gao might have actually been reced by an alien, she now felt suspicious about everyone. With Children��s Pce only 200 meters away, Bai Qing was unsure if her acting managed to fool Director Gao.


    She thought she did quite well in the storeroom, though she dared not admit it wless. In retrospect, it was too much of a coincidence that her phone broke the moment she arrived at Children��s Pce. It prevented her from contacting Zhang Heng, and at the same time, the repair shop owner who was taking unusually long to fix her phone had be increasingly suspicious of her.


    Bai Qing had been urging the owner non-stop to hurry up with the repairs.


    The shop owner was sweating profusely. Perhaps it was the constant pestering. Her phone should have been fixed some time ago, but it kept getting dyed. Bai Qing could not remember how many times she urged him to speed-up. When she looked back, she spotted a suspicious Mini parked opposite the street.


    She could not see the driver��s face but a hunch told her he had looks of the teacher who had just left.


    When Bai Qing asked the owner the same question again, the man became a little annoyed. ��What��s the hurry? Anyway, I��ll fix it for you before the afternoon. Perhaps you might want to pay the nearby mall a visit in the meantime.��


    Upon his reply, Bai Qing was finally determined to do something. She snatched her mobile phone from the owner and dashed out of the shop.


    The boss was left in shock for half a second. After a while, he reacted and shouted from behind, ��Hey, where are you going? It hasn��t been fixed yet! Aren��t you going to pay me?��


    By then, Bai Qing was already long gone. As she hurried out of the shop, she nced at the Mini. The person inside the car was staring back at her as well. The two of them looked at each other for a short while, and almost instantly, Bai Qing started running. It was then that she heard the sound of the engine.


    Bai Qing was already in a state of extreme panic, unsure if the engine��s sound was from the Mini. With no hesitation, she dashed into the adjacent neighborhood, trying to get rid of her pursuer. After running into two different junctions, she started to lose her sense of direction. At which time, she spotted an exit. When she ran towards it, however, she was befuddled to find herself back at thearium��s front entrance.


    Director Gao happened to be standing in front of the door, talking to the guard, and she looked like she was heading out. Bai Qing quickly turned and walked away, but the Mini turned into the path at the end of the road she was walking on.


    The fear in Bai Qing��s heart rose to its climax.


    Right at the critical moment, an arm pulled her close to the newspaper stand. Bai Qing almost screamed until she saw the person who pulled her. ��Aren��t you supposed to be in school? Why are you here?��


    ��I sent you a WeChat message, but you didn��t reply. I was worried something might��ve happened to you.��


    ��Don��t worry. I havee up with a perfect excuse for myself to leave the school.��


    After that, he fixed up Bai Qing��s messy hair, and gently, he said, ��It��s okay. I��m here now.��


    However, when Zhang Heng touched Bai Qing��s forehead, she unconsciously stepped back.

 Chapter 688 - No Way To Run

    <h4>Chapter 688: No Way To Run</h4>


    ��Sorry. I��m really nervous,�� murmured Bai Qing.


    ��It��s okay. Just be careful. They are obviously one step ahead of us.�� Zhang Heng sounded a little annoyed. ��These things are everywhere, as annoying as cockroaches.��


    ��What should we do now?�� asked Bai Qing.


    ��We have to figure out another way. Children��s Pce is a dead end,�� Zhang Heng said. ��And it seems they have an eye out on you as well. It is impossible to return to any hotels you��ve stayed at. Let��s find a safe ce first.��


    ��We have to look for a ce that we both haven��t been to,�� he added.


    ��Where?�� Bai Qing asked.


    ��I know an inte cafe owner. I can get him to give us a private room on the second floor.��


    ��How would you know if the aliens hadn��t reced him?��


    ��Don��t worry. I��ve personally checked him out earlier,�� Zhang Heng said. ��The ce is actually simr to a hotel. There is food and drink, and we can stay until wee up with a n for our next move.��


    ��Okay.�� Bai Qing took a deep breath. However, she did not move forward. ��I know this isn��t the right time, but can I ask you a question?��


    ��Of course. You can ask me anything. I will answer you truthfully as long as I know the answer.�� Zhang Heng nodded.


    ��I want to know...�� Bai Qing looked into Zhang Heng��s eyes, ��Do you like me?��


    Zhang Heng was stunned when he heard the question. ��Uh, I didn��t expect you...��


    ��Sorry, I��m so stupid, forget I asked.�� Bai Qing��s head fell, seemingly heavy with embarrassment.


    ��No, I meant, I didn��t expect you to be so brave. I should have been the one to ask you.��


    ��What is your answer?��


    ��Yes, of course. I like you too,�� Zhang Heng answered affectionately.


    Bai Qing covered her mouth when she heard the answer. Tears began to well up in her eyes.


    ��Are you okay?��


    ��I��m fine. I��m just... overjoyed,�� Bai Qing croaked between her tears. ��You are the only one that stayed by my side after the unspeakable tragedy that happened to our household.��


    ��Ah, don��t sweat it. I��m just doing what I��m supposed to do.�� Zhang Heng stretched out his hand again to touch Bai Qing. This time, she did not step away but instead allowed him to wipe away the tears from her cheeks.


    Before he could even retract his hands, new, warm tears fell and wet his index finger. It was then that Zhang Heng became suspicious.


    However, at the next moment, he saw that Bai Qing walked half a step towards him, plunged directly into his embrace, and sobbed, ��This is the first time I confessed to a boy. You don��t know how scared I was. I thought you��d reject me.��


    Zhang Heng pat Bai Qing��s back with aforting but reassuring touch. ��Hey, don��t cry. It��s something you should be happy about.�� He then stuck his head out of the newsstand. ��That car is gone. Let��s get out of here.��


    ��Okay.�� Bai Qing looked up. She had finally stopped crying. ��I will follow you wherever you go,�� she said with determination and resolute.


    ��Well, they have taken control of this ce. Let��s go a little further by cab.��


    Like all young lovers, the pair walked 300 meters hand in hand. Initially, Zhang Heng wanted to get a cab there, but Bai Qing insisted on going another 200 meters further.


    After a while, Bai Qing��s face suddenly flushed, ��Um, I...I want to go to the bathroom.��


    Zhang Heng raised his head and looked around, ��There seem to be no public toilets nearby. Let��s go to the Inte caf�� first. It is very close. It will only take us ten minutes to get there if we get a cab. Can you hold on a little longer?��


    ��I��m at my limits,�� Bai Qing whispered.


    Zhang Heng frowned. Patiently, he replied, ��There is a ramen restaurant in front of us. Let��s go there.��


    ��Great.�� Bai Qing nodded.


    When the two arrived, Bai Qing let go of Zhang Heng��s hand. ��I will go in myself.��


    ��Okay.�� Zhang Heng then stood in front of the window and watched Bai Qing enter the restaurant. Bai Qing said something to the waiter before going to the bathroom. The waiter then pointed her in the right direction. She waved to her newly minted lover standing outside the window.


    Bai Qing entered the cubicle, instantly locked the door, and tears inexplicably formed her eyes again. Despair had hit her hard this time. If the aliens reced Zhang Heng, there would be no way for her to run.


    She thought about calling the police, but would the police believe what she said?


    Director Gao intended to break off the rtionship between her and Zhang Heng, but her deduction was undoubtedly reasonable. Bai Qing��s only source of information so far was Zhang Heng, not to mention that no conclusive evidence had been presented to her yet. Compared to epting such a bizarre story, everyone would be more willing to believe that her trauma had caused her toe up with such a beautiful lie to numb herself.


    And sooner orter, she would be reced by the aliens anyway. Or she might even follow in the footsteps of theary observation team.


    Bai Qing turned on the faucet and let the sound of the water conceal her sobbing.


    That being said, she allowed herself to cry for only half a minute before quickly washing away the tears. After that, she started to look for a way to get out of this ce.


    However, a familiar voice came suddenly from outside the toilet door, ��How are you? Feeling better?��


    ��I��ming out soon. Hang on a little bit.�� Bai Qing did not expect Zhang Heng toe in so quickly. She had crept to the bathroom��s window as she talked, only to realize that they were equipped with one of those anti-thefts. Leaving the ce via the window was out of the question. Again, Bai Qing started to feel impending anxiety que her guts.


    On the other side, Zhang Heng was getting suspicious of her. So he ced his ear against the bathroom door to eavesdrop on Bai Qing.


    After a while, he heard the water disappearing and the sound of footsteps approaching the door.


    Zhang Heng then took a half step back and returned to his original position.


    When Bai Qing opened the door, she barely managed to squeeze a smile on her face. Failing to escape, she had to pretend that nothing had happened before she walked out.


    ��What��s the matter? Feeling unwell?�� Zhang Heng looked at Bai Qing��s reddened eyes.


    ��No. I just thought of my mother again.��


    ��It��s okay. Everything will be fine.�� Zhang Heng held Bai Qing��s hand as he spoke. He felt that her hands were colder than before but figured she must have just run them under the cold water.


    ��Let��s go.��


    In the eyes of the waiter at the ramen shop, the two looked like a young couple in love. Couples in the honeymoon stage usually stuck with each other all the time. Life��s pressures seemed to be all but forgotten, and they freely enjoyed the lovey-dovey period.


    None of them could see the fear buried deep in Bai Qing��s eyes.


    Bai Qing did not want to go to the inte cafe that Zhang Heng mentioned, but she did not know where else to run to.

 Chapter 689 - Bayberry and Ashtray

    <h4>Chapter 689: Bayberry and Ashtray</h4>


    When subjected to tremendous pressure, one human would react differently from the other.


    Some would wail, kneel, or beg for mercy, some put up the final fight to save themselves, whereas some would remain calm, looking for the opportune moment to escape their captor. Bai Qing felt like helpless prey caught in a spiderweb. She realized that she needed to escape immediately from this fake Zhang Heng. Once the victim ensnared by the web struggled, however, its body would inevitably touch the silk strings, the slightest of which would rm the hunter at the other end.


    And the most critical problem was that she did not know who else she could trust.


    The waiter at the ramen restaurant? Or the driver in the cab?


    Whose side were they on? Were they capable of saving her?


    Bai Qing nced at Zhang Heng.


    Thetter replied with a smile. After exiting the ramen restaurant, the two continued sticking to each other like young lovers that had just fallen in love. This time around, Zhang Heng did not let Bai Qing leave his sight.


    ��Don��t worry. We��ll get to our safe spot soon.��


    ��Okay.��


    Bai Qing responded reluctantly. She could feel that the hunter was on the move and was slowly making its approach. It made her feel even more uneasy. She had no idea how long her disguise couldst.


    The taxi driverined about the heavy traffic and the rising property prices. Even though they were in the same car, Bai Qing didn��t hear a single word he said. Her mind was somewhere else, knowing that she should be more intimate with Zhang Heng to lower his guard. But she could no longer force herself to do such a thing again. She was on the verge of breaking down. Just a brief look of him would invoke great terror.


    So, Bai Qing tilted her head slightly and looked out the car window.


    Watching the endless traffic and pedestrians shing by calmed her down a little.


    Since there were a couple of traffic lights along the way, the cab arrived at the destinationter than expected.


    The driver pulled up by the roadside, and Bai Qing noticed that Zhang Heng did not pay the cab driver with his e-wallet. Instead, he handed over a twenty-yuan note. ��Keep the change.��


    He then opened the door and was first to get off.


    Bai Qing got out after him, and the first thing she saw was the inte cafe Zhang Heng had mentioned earlier.


    It was an old building, with a damaged signboard hanging outside saying Ronghua Inte Caf��. On the concrete steps at the entrance sat a group of suspicious-looking teenagers. They should be about Bai Qing��s age, but they weren��t in school at this hour. The boys in the group were smoking away, and their eyes lit up the moment they spotted Bai Qing.


    One of them raised his head. ��Are you looking to have some fun? Let me be your guide.��


    But as soon as he said that, a figure blocked his view and warned him.


    ��She��s my girlfriend.��


    Zhang Heng held Bai Qing��s hand. When the boy saw Zhang Heng stepping in, he threw the cigarette in his hand. He was about to mount a confrontation when a voice called out from the cafe.


    ��Don��t cause trouble, Xiao Fei! Otherwise, you and your friend can��t y for free in my caf��.��


    Upon the owner��s warning against starting a fight, the young man named Xiao Fei backed down.


    Zhang Heng then brought Bai Qing in. Having only thirtyputers, the space on the ground floor wasn��t thatrge. Since it was still morning, only seven or eight patrons upied theputers.


    The owner of the ce, Zhang Heng��s friend, was an oversized man weighing more than two hundred pounds. He was sat in front of the cash register at most times, working part-time as a cashier. When he saw Zhang Heng and Bai Qing walking in, he nodded at them. ��The private room is ready for the two of you, VIP 3.��


    ��Thank you.�� Zhang Heng nodded and was about to go upstairs when Bai Qing suddenly said, ��When I came in just now, I saw someone selling bayberry at the roadside. Can I buy some?��


    Zhang Heng and the owner looked at each other, to which thetter suggested, ��I have watermelons and bananas here.��


    ��It��s okay. I��ll just buy it,�� Zhang Heng said. Since they had now arrived at the inte caf��, Zhang Heng figured that Bai Qing could no longer escape him. He started to lower his guard as a result. ��You go to the room first. I wille in a while.��


    ��Hmm,�� answered Bai Qing.


    ��Just treat this ce like your own home. You can rx here,�� the obese owner added.


    Zhang Heng behaved like a total gentleman, making sure Bai Qing had safely ascended to the second floor before leaving.


    As she stood in the corridor on the second floor and saw that there was no one around, Bai Qing quickly checked out her surroundings. And yet again, she found no way of escape. After noticing the security camera on the other side of the corridor, she wanted to linger there no further. With her head lowered, she walked into the room reserved for VIP 3.


    Aspared to the dirty corridor, the private room was fully furnished. There were twoputers and a small bed for the overnighters, though some questionable stains could be seen on the bedsheet.


    Bai Qing then looked around, pick up the ss ashtray on theputer desk, and held it firmly in her hand. After that, she stood by the door and leaned on the wall, waiting for Zhang Heng toe into the room.


    Every second felt painfully long.


    On top of that, Bai Qing did not know how to escape the inte cafe even if she managed to stun Zhang Heng. The fat owner must have been reced by the aliens as well. Perhaps, asking the gang of teenagers outside for help was a good idea. She simply didn��t do what she could do to convince them.


    Time dragged by, showing none the slightest mercy for frayed nerves.


    Finally, she heard footsteps outside the room. With every closing footstep, Bai Qing��s heart thumped harder.


    This would all be over soon. She closed her eyes, raised the ashtray in her hand, and prepared to strike.


    The person outside the door knocked twice.


    Hearing no responseing from the room after a while, the person stretched out a hand and opened the door.


    At the same time, Bai Qing, waiting at the side, gritted her teeth before swinging the ashtray with all her might. The person, however, managed to stop her strike.


    After that, the man walked into the room and closed the door smoothly.


    The difference in strength between the two was simply too great. No matter how much Bai Qing struggled, she could not free herself from Zhang Heng. She wanted to open her mouth and yell, only to be covered shut by Zhang Heng��s hand.


    ��It��s me.��


    Bai Qing opened her eyes and looked at the face that made terrified her, and her body started to tremble even more.


    ��Ask me that question.��


    When he saw Bai Qing nodding at him, Zhang Heng started to loosen his grip little by little.


    ��Do you... do you like me?�� Bai Qing asked while trembling like a leaf.


    ��Sorry, Ie from another world,�� Zhang Heng replied, letting go of the terrified girl.


    However, Bai Qing was probably still scared to death. Although she didn��t try to strike him with the ashtray again, she still had a hard time believing him.


    Zhang Heng then pointed at the unused pocket on Bai Qing��s shirt, and thetter reached in and took out a miniature tracker the size of a coin.

 Chapter 690 - Snapshot

    <h4>Chapter 690: Snapshot</h4>


    ��I��m sorry. I shouldn��t have let you act alone,�� Zhang Heng apologized. ��I keep feeling that they have their eye on me all the time, which means they��d be attacking me first. Besides, we still have some time left. To my surprise, I didn��t expect them to so quicklye up with a n to attack us at the same time.��


    ��Did they attempt to rece you too?�� Bai Qing was still a little frightened, ��...in school?��


    ��Yes. The alien at Workshop No. 3st night should have hatched by now. Theoretically, it would need some time to learn about our society before recing me. However, it seems they��ve run of patience. Early this morning, they attempted to attack and rece me with the fake Zhang Heng.��


    ��They called me to the disciplinary office, but the discipline teacher was not there. The room was filled with those aliens. Fortunately, they had only slightly betterbat powerpared to a normal person. And they didn��t evene up with any special attacks to subdue me.�� Although Zhang Heng made it sound like it was no big deal, Bai Qing could imagine just how dangerous the situation was.


    ��I see now,�� she replied, ��Director Gao from Children��s Pce told me that you have been lying to me from the beginning. If I hadn��t seen you using Lego bricks to build a CT scanner, I might have believed her. I think she knew I was pretending, so she found someone to follow me. After that... the thing appeared, pretending to be you and saved me. At first, I really thought it was you, but he failed to recite our secret code.��


    Bai Qing started crying again. ��I was too scared at the time and could only act like it was the real you. I was looking for opportunities along the way to run from him, but each time, only dead ends greeted me. And it seems like they are everywhere now. It brought me all the way here. It made me believe that the aliens had captured you.��


    ��It��s okay. We are safe for now,�� Zhang Heng said. ��Just in case, I put a tracker in your pocket secretly before we parted this morning. After dealing with the school problem, I called you, and I found your mobile phone turned off. When I looked at the screen, I saw that you had deviated from Children��s Pce, which is why I came over as quickly as I could.��


    ��I tricked that thing into buying me bayberry. He might being back soon.�� As some thoughts crossed Bai Qing��s mind, she started panicking again. ��And the fat boss downstairs! I think he is one of them as well! How did youe up? Once that thing steps into the cafe, they will know you are here...��


    ��Rx, rx, I have a clear picture of the current situation,�� Zhang Heng calmed Bai Qing. ��Rest assured, that thing won��te back to life again. It��s lying in my trunk now.��


    Bai Qing finally breathed a breath of relief. It was time to loosen up a little. After a while, Bai Qing reorganized what she wanted to say to Zhang Heng. ��We have failed. Those things have total control over Children��s Pce. Other than director Gao, there is a male teacher, probably one of them as well. If the three children really left something there, it is probably in their hands already.��


    ��Yeah.�� Zhang Heng was in a rtively calm mood. After discovering that there was a problem with Bai Qing��s position, he figured that Children��s Pce must have fallen into the hands of those things. However, he didn��t think that they had obtained whatever they wanted. If so, they wouldn��t have been so rash.


    Attacking Zhang Heng at school in broad daylight was taking a monumental risk, not to mention that Zhang Heng��s copy was only a semi-finished product. If he could not fool Bai Qing, there was a good chance he��d be exposed once he encountered grandpa.


    ��The aliens are not in Children��s Pce.�� Zhang Heng thought for a bit. ��Otherwise, they would have found it by now. Maybe we haveplicated the whole thing from the beginning. If there weren��t some item that could deal with alien tree beneath the Workshop No. 3, the three children would have never risked their lives to hide it.��


    ��Hmm?��


    ��It��s been a question I have been thinking about. If the item exists and is so important to them, why would they kill those three children before they locate the item? They could have imprisoned the children and tortured them to find out the item��s whereabouts. Even with professional training, continuously withstanding high-intensity torture would be difficult, to say the least. Not to mention they are only children.��


    ��I am confused. Are you trying to say that the item doesn��t exist at all?�� Bai Qing asked.


    ��No. Judging from their actions and reactions, I��m pretty sure that that item exists. However, it cannot be destroyed nor retrieved. So the aliens had to use every means necessary to prevent its existence froming into light.��


    ��What sort of object can��t be destroyed and retrieved?�� Bai Qing asked, her eyesnding on theputer on the side. Then she thought of something and eximed, ��The inte? Do you think that those three kids posted the method to kill that alien tree online?��


    ��This is the most reasonable exnation, isn��t it?�� Zhang Heng said, ��If you want to spread any news, the inte is the best ce to do so. Once you post something online, someone��s bound to read it and record it down somewhere. Even if they delete the original post, there is still no way to stop what has happened. So, they can only kill the source and nip the bud��s spreading to avoid it from getting known. They misled me from the beginning and made me think they were looking for something tangible. The college student was deceived as well. Whether it was the river or Children��s Pce, there were no useful clues buried there. On the contrary, the people that visited these two ces would be automatically included in their elimination list.��


    ��But now that the original post has been deleted, how can we know who has seen the content, and how do we get in touch with them?��


    ��Leave it to me.�� Zhang Heng turned on one of theputers. ��As long as the information was once posted on the inte, there will be digital footprints. Do you know Baidu Snapshots? Inyman��s terms, Baidu will keep on unleashing Baiduspider while obtaining data. Baiduspider is an automated program that esses and collects various data on the inte. They would then build a database index. When Baiduspider reaches a new website through a link, it will download and store the website��s homepage and corresponding pages. Whenever a user searches for the term through the Baidu search engine, Baidu will extract the cached data from the database server. And this is Baidu Snapshot.��


    ��With this function, we can quickly locate keywords and view the old web pages. If we are lucky, we may be able to see deleted and unauthorized posts.��


    After Zhang Heng finished speaking, he saw that Bai Qing��s mouth was wide open. And she was dumbfounded. It took a long time for Bai Qing toe back to her senses. She then eximed, ��Since when you be so good at utilizing technology??��

 Chapter 691 - Voyager 1

    <h4>Chapter 691: Voyager 1</h4>


    ��It��s all just basic knowledge. You can easily learn about them with a little online research,�� Zhang Heng entered the keywords as he said. He typed in abination of two words��Alien + Cretaceous, but only nonsense showed up in the search result.


    He saw conspiracy theories like, ��The Horrible Truth: Aliens killed dinosaurs!�� Evidently, the information he wanted might be located in this pile of garbage news. There was even an article that went with the title, ��Aliens have already visited earth!�� and ��Eleven pieces of evidence that prove the Chinese are the ancestors of aliens!�� Naturally, none of these proved any useful.


    So Zhang Heng recalled Lin Sisi��s weekly journal again. He changed the keywordbination this time and typed in Alien+Disaster+ess Denied. Simultaneously, to prevent anyone from deleting anything from the database, he used a VPN to ess the inte this time. Although Google had withdrawn itself from China, its algorithms still grabbed information nonstop from Chinese websites. Zhang Heng could take advantage of it toplement Baidu Snapshot.


    This time around, he found something worth a read. He then turned on bothputers, and after spending ten minutes with Bai Qing reading through the posts, he found only one that could be useful. It was a short horror science fiction story written by a professional author, and it happened that the forum did not remove it. The author seemed to really put his passion into the ount, yet only a fewments were below it. Most of the words there, however, served to criticize.


    [I don��t think it will work.]


    [You can��t say that. Maybe the author had been reced by an alien. That��s why his writing is so bad.]


    [It makes sense now. That exins everything.]


    ...


    Bai Qing could not help but send a reply.


    [I think it��s quite a good idea, and it��ll be even better if you just keep writing! You can do it!]


    However, it seemed the author had a hard time dealing with the negativements. Hisst login was three weeks ago, and he had never visited the forum since. Zhang Heng noticed the previousment, though. It was posted only one day ago, and the person��s username was Voyager 1. Thement made no sense at all.


    [Are you Fermi Paradox? So, you are using that thing to write science fiction?]


    Zhang Heng looked at the ID and saw that the person was online.


    So he sent Voyager 1 a private message.


    [Can you talk more about the Fermi paradox?]


    [Wait a moment.] replied Voyager 1.


    After about two minutes, he sent a second message.


    [My boss was just watching us. I don��t want him to know that I��m looking at other things during working hours. You want to learn more about Fermi Paradox? Can��t you just search it on Baidu?]


    [No. You mentioned something about a science fiction novel earlier.]


    [Oh, oh, you��re referring to that thread. I think you might��ve got the wrong person. That guy does not belong to this forum. He used the same username on Douban as well. He is a very mysterious guy��he only logs in from 5:30 to 6.00 every day, and you��ll never see him before or after. He��s as punctual as a robot.]


    Zhang Heng silently pondered upon it. If this ID belonged to Lin Sisi, it made sense that she would onlye online at a particr time since her parents restricted herputer usage��amon practice for most families with young children. The peculiar behavior had made her even more mysterious among the forum members.


    [What do you know about her?] Zhang Heng asked.


    [Her? You��re saying that Fermi Paradox is a girl? Speaking of which, I don��t remember she has ever mentioned her gender. I don��t know her too well. She usuallyes online when we get off work. I remember she was a very serious person. She would argue if she thinks she��s right, and she would not give up until you surrender or it was time to go offline. I must say, though��she was quite knowledgeable. Some even suspected that she must be from some research institute or a schoolteacher.]


    [Oh?]


    [By the way, our group organized a stargazing outing a while ago. Fermi Paradox asked a lot of questions and mentioned that she woulde with two of her friends. Later, she told us that her family wouldn��t allow her to join. At that time, we spected that he was a married man, and his wife was quite strict.]


    Zhang Heng and Bai Qing exchanged nces. It appeared they found the right person this time.


    He continued typing.


    [What is that set of things you mentioned earlier?]


    [Oh, didn��t ��The Three-Body Problem�� win a prizest year? Communicating with aliens has be a burning topic recently. I remembered about three weeks ago, Fermi Paradox posted something about this topic, saying she managed to decipher a part of a radio emission from space.]


    [What happened after that?]


    Voyager 1 was very patient. Since he had nothing better to do, he continued exining the whole thing.


    [The so-called radio is actually some sort of electromaic radiation. It can prate interster medium, traveling even further to deliver information to distant gxies. Scientists use radio telescopes to observe and study radio waves. Thergest radio telescope in the world is the Arecibo Radio Telescope in Puerto Rico, spanning a diameter of 350 meters. But in the second half of this year, our country��s 500-meter wide FAST radio telescope should bepleted. It should then be thergest radio telescope in the world.] proimed Voyager 1 with pride.


    [I know what a radio telescope is.] replied Zhang Heng.


    [Actually, I want to know how Fermi Paradox deciphered the radio waves.]


    [Hold on.]


    The enthusiastic Voyager 1 logged in to Douban, and two minutester, he sent a shocking reply.


    [The post has disappeared.]


    [What is its title?] Zhang Heng asked.


    [It is called ��I deciphered a part of a radio emission.�� Fermi Paradox said that she discovered that a part of a radio emission contained some crucial information. However, during that time, no one in the group believed her. Radio emissions are typically emitted by astronomical objects and carry no meaning. Since it is electromaic radiation, it can theoretically be used to store information. But it is hard to imagine an extraterrestrial life-form converting a pulsar into a radio transmitter. Everyone thought she was joking, and for the first time, she didn��t argue with us. After that, no one talked about it anymore.]


    Zhang Heng searched the post��s title but found that it had beenpletely deleted from the inte. He remembered the man he met who had the skills to edit surveince videos. It seemed that someputer expert was living among them.


    ��What should we do now?�� Bai Qing asked. This was a terrible feeling. Now that they were on the right path and one step away from the final answer, they became stuck in thest section.


    Before Zhang Heng could reply, there was another message from Voyager 1.


    [Well, it doesn��t really matter that the post is gone. Anyway, I have learned her deciphering method. However, it can only be used to decipher that particr radio emission. After that, I cross-checked the radio emission found on the inte, but I couldn��t find the radio emission that she mentioned. So, I figured she might have made the whole thing up.]

 Chapter 692 - Blue-Green Algae

    <h4>Chapter 692: Blue-Green Algae</h4>


    Initially, Zhang Heng and Bai Qing thought that the radio emission would yield a trove of information. Little did they expect that the only thing they would get was a word. It looked like Lin Sisi had deleted all the other pointless parts, leaving only the part that represented the final answer.


    [Blue-green algae.]


    ��This is... cyanobacteria?�� Bai Qing rummaged through the vocabry in her head and found the right word for it.


    ��I know why the three children went to the river that night.�� Zhang Heng sighed, ��They were collecting blue-green algae from the river.��


    Blue-green algae was amon urrence. Found everywhere, one could spot them growing in all kinds of ces with water. Some blue-green algae could cause red tides in the sea and algal bloom in theke after being polluted by nitrogen and phosphorus, causing serious losses to fisheries and aquaculture. However, few people knew that blue-green algae had a history of 3.5 billion years, making it the oldest living creature on earth.


    ��Didn��t you say that even an ICBM can��t kill the thing beneath Warehouse No.3? How can blue-green algae destroy it?��


    ��I don��t know either,�� Zhang Heng said. Pausing to think, he said, ��Based on my preliminary guess, I think the blue-green algae harms the alien tree��s cloning function. We now know that the tree breeds two different kinds of cicada pupae. The small cicada pupae produce the shadowstched to the fourth ventricle, and therge ones produce the human bodies. I don��t think the tree cane up with them whenever it wants. The aliens have first to collect some of their target��s samples. It can clone a dinosaur during the Cretaceous period and humans in the present time... but what about ancient prokaryotes like cyanobacteria? Unfortunately, we don��t have time to verify this conjecture.��


    ��Give it a try since those things have started to attack us. They will not stop until they eliminate us because we are a great threat. And this may also be our only chance to eradicate them.��


    ��Huh?�� Bai Qing wondered what opportunity Zhang Heng was talking about.


    ��They seemed to be fond of taking our ce, pretending to be us and blending into human society. Maybe it��s our turn to switch roles this time,�� adeed Zhang Heng.


    Initially, Bai Qing did not understand Zhang Heng��sst sentence��s meaning, standing there stunned for half a second. Then, she had an epiphany, and her mouth dropped open.


    ��You... You want to venture into their nest by pretending that you are your own clone?��


    ��Why not?�� Zhang Heng said. ��I eliminated the four men in the Academic Affairs Office, found one of their mobile phones, called their superior, and told him that the task waspleted. And now the guy who pretended to be me is in the trunk. Besides, you are with me now. Before they can find out, I can continue pretending to be my clone.��


    Bai Qing blushed when she heard him say she was with him. After a while, she quickly added, ��This is too risky. What if those things use a secret code like us to identify each other?��


    ��It will be risky, but this is our final fight. We ��llhave to go all out. It��ll be an inevitable battle. Fortunately, we have the advantage of bringing the battle to them. Besides, we still have a trump card in hand.��


    Two minutester, Zhang Heng walked out of the inte cafe with Bai Qing. She had been crying while the fat boss looked at them suspiciously.


    The thug named Xiao Fei outside the inte cafe could not help but spit on the ground when he saw them. ��What a waste,�� he cursed.


    Zhang Heng took Bai Qing away from the group, went to the van, opened the door, and got together.


    When the car door closed behind Zhang Heng, Bai Qing immediately stopped crying, and then asked in a low voice, ��How was my acting?��


    ��Not bad, it should be wondering what happened to us. And it will notify the others soon,�� Zhang Heng replied quietly. Earlier, he actually thought about taking down the inte cafe owner but remembered the group of teenagers sitting outside. If he attacked the fat boss, they would surelye in to help him.


    Zhang Heng was not afraid of those brats, not wanting to make the situation worse lest it could negatively impact future ns.


    He then lifted the nket in the trunk to reveal his clone.


    Although Bai Qing was mentally prepared, she was still freaked out by what she saw, stumbling two steps backward. Seeing two Zhang Heng in front of her was a horrifying scene that she would never forget.


    Zhang Heng��s clone was tightly bounded in the trunk, and his mouth was sealed. He could only move his eyes.


    ��Let��s discuss a deal between you and me.�� Zhang Heng sat down in front of it, and at the same time, ungagged the clone.


    ��Unbelievable, you are safe and sound. ording to theparison of human strength, four adults should be able to subdue a minor like you easily in a small room,�� the clone replied. Instead of showing fear, it showed a hint of curiosity.


    Instead of entertaining the clone, Zhang Heng pointed at Bai Qing. ��Let me guess. You should be the one who pretended to be her mother, right? I know you have powerful learning abilities, but it doesn��t make sense that you could understand the human society in one night and learn all kinds of human expressions. Unless you have lived in human society before.��


    ��You are brilliant.�� A smile formed across the clone��s face. ��The way you act and think don��t match your age. None of your peers behave like you. This doesn��t make sense at all. We checked your background and found out that you are just an ordinary high-school student. Your parents are working abroad, leaving you and your grandfather here. How did you possess such strong fighting skills and investigative abilities? More importantly, most would start doubting themselves when they encountered another life form like us. You, however, seemed to recognize our existence from the beginning. I don��t remembering into contact with you before.��


    This question aroused the curiosity of Bai Qing as well. She noticed that Zhang Heng seemed to be a little different from what she remembered. However, she could not tell the differences in details.


    Zhang Heng did not answer. He then said, ��I��m the one asking you a question. You don��t get to ask me anything.��


    ��What difference does it make?�� sneered the clone. ��You two can��t run forever. You killed two teachers and two staff members in your school. Even if we don��t rece you, the police will find you. As for you, my daughter...�� The clone��s gaze fell on Bai Qing. ��You know that you alone are not strong enough to go against us. If you don��t want to live in fear, better just obey us.��


    ��We don��t need you to worry about our future.�� Zhang Heng was unusually calm. ��Let��s talk about you and your tribe first.��

 Chapter 693 - Don’t Be So Sure

    <h4>Chapter 693: Don��t Be So Sure</h4>


    Zhang Heng��s clone curiously red at the knife stuck in his thigh, his face showing no sign that he was in any pain. ��It seems I have to take back what I said before,�� he said calmly. ��You are no smarter than your peers. Since you already know what I am, you should know that such torture wouldn��t affect me. If you are intending to use such means to extract information, I advise you not to waste your energy.��


    ��No, don��t get me wrong, I did this because I wanted to. There is no other purpose.�� Zhang Heng stopped for a moment. ��Okay, let��s go to the next topic. Before that, let me ask you a warm-up question.��


    ��And what would this question be?�� The clone rolled his eyes.


    ��I want to know what medium you used to contact your people?��


    ��What do you mean by the medium that I use?�� The clone rubbed his chin on his shoulder.


    ��Think about a bat��s ultrasonic soundwave.��


    ��Oh, you must be worried that I might��ve told the others about my capture, right?�� the clone grinned. ��But you already know the answer to this question, don��t you? You deliberately captured me and went to the inte cafe for a while. Besides saving your little girlfriend, you wanted to see if my people were aware of our differences. You are quite smart. Although pointless, you did buy yourself some time to escape. However, you will still not end well.��


    ��Really?��


    Zhang Heng didn��tment on the reply. He then asked the second and most important question:


    ��Where did you keep the people you guys have reced?��


    ��Interesting, but what makes you think those people are still alive?��


    ��You better answer me now,�� Zhang Heng emphasized.


    ��Otherwise?��


    The cloneughed when he heard that. ��Admit it. You have no means to threaten me. The reason why I am willing to chat with you is that I��m feeling bored.��


    ��Better not be too sure,�� said Zhang Heng. He opened up the side of his schoolbag and took out a tempered ss jar.


    Inside the jar were four hideous creatures that looked like the unholy child of a three-eyed dinosaur shrimp and amprey. They scurried along the ss wall of the jar, trying to open the lid. Zhang Heng had sealed the jar with some tape, and there was no escaping for those tiny monsters. The moment Bai Qing saw the peculiar creature, she almost threw up her breakfast. She had no idea how Zhang Heng could hold the ss jar without his hand twitching.


    ��Come and say hello to your allies.��


    Zhang Heng had captured these four alien lifeforms after killing the four people that ganged up on him in his school. He had to crack open their heads locate them. Although the clone��s expressions were well controlled, the revtion must have had a significant impact on him since he had stopped talking.


    ��With all due respect, you guys are much weaker than I thought,�� Zhang Heng said. ��I exerted a little strength on one of your allies, and his calf broke.��


    ��High-level lifeforms have always paid more attention to the development of intelligence,�� the clone said. ��We don��t need strong bodies to be at the top of the food chain. Humans perceived dinosaurs as apex predators with advanced physical functions. To us, however, they are nothing but prey.��


    ��I find that hard to refute,�� Zhang Heng said, ��but when I put you into this ss bottle, I wonder if you can still say it out loud with confidence.��


    ��If you��re using them as ckmail, forget about it. We don��t value interpersonal rtionships as much as you humans,�� chirped the clone, his emotions seemingly sorted out.


    ��Really? Why did your allies risk their lives to rescue youst time?�� Zhang Heng turned to Bai Qing. ��Help me get the gas,�� he said to her.


    Mouth covered, thetter dug out a can of portable liquefied gas from the package on the side of the backpack, then plugged in the portable stove and handed it to Zhang Heng. This thing was usually used for cooking in the wild, allowing for the convenience of a proper fire without the luxury of a real kitchen.


    Zhang Heng put the tempered ss jar on it and ignited the portable cooker with a lighter. After a while, the rapidly rising temperature began to irritate the four ugly creatures inside of it. They started to tackle the ss jar even more violently. However, as Zhang Heng��s clone said, perhaps they added all their attribute points to intelligence that resulted in theirckluster physical fitness. As a result, their bodies couldn��t match up to the strength of the tempered ss jar.


    After a while, they stopped moving. All four aliens gradually dropped to the bottom of the ss jar, with their limbs curled up like cooked cockroaches. Zhang Heng didn��t assume that these things would die so easily, though��judging from the corpse from the freezer, they would enter a state simr to hibernation or apparent death once their body went below their adaptive temperature.


    ��Enough,�� the clone suddenly spoke. For the first time, he was angry and began sounding warnings. ��You gain nothing by annoying us.��


    ��It depends on how cooperative you are. Tell us the whereabouts of the people you reced, and I will turn off the fire.��


    The clone lowered his head in thought. It seemed he was weighing the pros and cons of the choice he would be making.


    ��Okay.��


    ��I want to know what you guys have nned for me as well,�� Zhang Heng added. The moment he ended, the clone��s mobile phone rang.


    It should be the owner of the Inte caf��. He was going to ask him why he brought Bai Qing out. Zhang Heng put the phone next to the clone��s ear. ��You know what to say, right?��


    ...


    Ten minutester, not did Zhang Heng discover the whereabouts of those they had kept alive, but he now gained a general understanding of the aliens�� organization. That said, most of them were irrelevant. Zhang Heng knew that his clone would never divulge the secrets beneath Workshop No. 3 since it was the crux of their survival and reproduction.


    Even if Zhang Heng killed it and his four allies, the clone would still refuse to tell him anything. In fact, even if it knew that Zhang Heng had been to Workshop No.3, mum would be the word.


    Till the end of the conversation, Zhang Heng never once mentioned the ss factory and blue-green algae. This confused the clone to a certain extent, making it think that Zhang Heng and Bai Qing were still unaware of their core secret. Under such circumstances, it was willing to sacrifice some intelligence in exchange for a chance for him and his allies to survive.

 Chapter 694 - Disguise

    <h4>Chapter 694: Disguise</h4>


    The most crucial question nowid before Zhang Heng and Bai Qing was whether they should destroy the alien tree beneath Workshop No.3 or save people first.


    Judging from the information obtained by Zhang Heng, these two ces were quite far apart.


    Emotionally speaking, when Bai Qing learned that her mother was still alive, she wished to get there immediately to rescue her. On the other hand, she knew very well that once they saved her mother, the ss factory��s aliens would be alerted. In terms of priority, the ss factory was more critical. That was because most of the aliens were gathering there, and if they were well prepared, even Zhang Heng would not be able to deal with so many at once.


    If they went to the police for help, they had no way of determining if the aliens had infiltrated the force. Therefore, after hesitating for a while, Bai Qing said, ��Let��s act separately. You go to the ss factory, and I��ll go to rescue my mother.��


    This was probably the only feasible solution at this stage. Zhang Heng nodded and did not attempt to stop her. He just said, ��I will give you both the locator and the camera. Just keep an eye on the ce for now. Once I deal with the problem in the ss factory, I will get to you as soon as possible. Remember, make no contact with them until I arrive.��


    ��Yeah.�� Bai Qing grabbed the bag that Zhang Heng handed to her.


    After experiencing so many horrible experiences, she was no longer your ordinary high-school girl. The final battle was just around the corner too, and she had decided not to let it affect her anymore.


    After Zhang Heng finished, he thought for a while, then said, ��Turn around.��


    Bai Qing then quickly turned around upon his request. When that happened, Zhang Heng took out the Lego blocks, assembled a chainsaw, and then inserted the Infinite Building Block to materialize it. While his fake stared at him in fear, Zhang Heng put the gag back into the clone��s mouth and started to crack open his skull with the chainsaw.


    Once the brain was exposed, the thing in the fourth ventricle wanted to escape, but Zhang Heng quickly used a stic box to scoop it up and put it into the ss jar. He cleaned up the blood on the ground and covered the corpse with a nket.


    He then handed the bloodstained ss jar to Bai Qing.


    ��If they want to attack you. Use this as a bargaining chip.��


    Bai Qing turned around and was taken aback by the ss jar��s contents. The thing inside was disgusting. That was thest straw. She couldn��t hold it in anymore, grabbing the trash can handed by Zhang Heng and vomited in it.


    ��Sorry,�� Bai Qing apologized between gagging.


    ��It��s okay. There is still some time left. You have to get used to being with them before you leave,�� said Zhang Heng. He also informed Bai Qing about other matters that needed paying attention. After that, he put on a new set of makeup on Bai Qing before they parted ways.


    Bai Qing went to find her mother, while Zhang Heng first drove to the river, collected a bottle of blue-green algae with a mineral water bottle, then returned to the ss factory. It had only less than three hours since those creatures ganged up on him in the school.


    Carrying his bag, he walked towards the gates of the ss factory.


    This was the second time he came here. This time, he entered through the front gate instead of climbing the wall, even nodding at the guard on duty.


    Initially, the guard wanted to stand up, but halfway through, he sat down again. He just sat there and watched Zhang Heng walking into the factory. He met many workers along the way and recalled what he saw the night before, and they passed him by like he did not exist. As expected, they still behaved the same way.


    If the bosses of other factories saw this scene, there was a high probability that they would cry. This was probably the working environment of their dreams.


    Zhang Heng did not encounter any problems until he walked to Warehouse No. 3. Aspared withst night, security here was even tighter. An outpost had been added, and a team of security guards stood there patrolling the area every five minutes.


    When the leader saw Zhang Heng walking over, he said, ��Stop, why are you back? It��s your duty to stay with that girl. You are not supposed to leave her side.��


    Zhang Heng said, ��I underestimated her. I don��t know what went wrong. She seems to recognize that I��m not the original Zhang Heng. She pretended not to doubt my identity and ran away when I was not paying attention.��


    ��She escaped? Does No. 2 know about this?��


    ��I called and told No. 2 about it. Fortunately, I managed to grab some of her hair before she ran away,�� Zhang Heng went on. ��No. 2 told me that I could start to clone her.��


    Zhang Heng made a huge bet here. He knew that No. 2 was the person responsible for coordinating the operation. During his previous conversation with the fake Zhang Heng, he never mentioned the thing under Workshop No. 3. Zhang Heng figured that the alien tree would need something like hair or blood to clone someone.


    It seemed the Lucky Rabbit Foot worked this time. The guard��s leader did not ask him any more questions after that. Not only did he step away from him, but he even took out the remote control and opened the gate for him.


    Zhang Heng nodded at him and walked into Workshop No. 3. But the next moment, the other man reached out and stopped him again, with only one word.


    ��Wait.��


    Immediately, Zhang Heng started to get anxious, worried most that these people would attempt to verify his ims by checking with No. 2. If they did that, his lie would be immediately exposed. After a while, two security guards came over with a rabbit.


    The leader of the guards retracted his hands. All of them then entered Workshop No.3 with the rabbit.


    Before they arrived at the underground entrance, another guard was already there to remove the can washer for them, revealing the secret entrance.


    Zhang Heng knew that he would be trapped underground if his identity was exposed. All they needed to do was to move the can washer back to its original position to block the exit.


    Without stopping, Zhang Heng followed the two security guards in front of him.


    Zhang Heng could still smell the familiar and strange fragrance around him. The ferns from the Cretaceous period were still around. The stairs continued to descent, and at the very end was the door covered by the ugly vines.


    One of the security guards walked up, using the rabbit as a sacrifice. The vines started to move faster and faster until the saa on the branches eventually exploded, and countless tiny tendrils stretched out of it. Like a mosquito��s proboscis, they pierced into the rabbit��s body swiftly.


    Another security guard quickly opened the door while the vines devoured the rabbit.

 Chapter 695 - Grand Opening

    <h4>Chapter 695: Grand Opening</h4>


    A strange knocking sound came from the center of the hall. At the same time, millions of microscopic ash particles floated everywhere in the air. Fortunately, this was Zhang Heng��s second timeing here. Hence, he was not surprised by his surroundings.


    The two security guards beside him showed no expression too, and they did not stop moving after opening the door. They stood on both sides and walked into the hall with him. It seemed like they wanted to stay until the cloning ceremony waspleted.


    The three of them walked into the hall and stopped before they entered the attack range of the ugly vines. After that, Zhang Heng saw his twopanions lying down on the ground with their foreheads pressed against the floor and their legs spread apart, looking like a toad. At the same time, their bodies started to tremble in the same rhythm.


    Their trembling frequency coincided with the knocking sound around them. Zhang Heng wondered if this was their way ofmunicating with the weird alien tree in the middle of the hall. Whether or not it remembered what happenedst night, Zhang Heng was not nning to wait any longer. This was his limit. After that, he took out a bottle of blue-green algae.


    While the two security guards were still performing their weird ceremony, he opened his handbag silently.


    The guards noticed that something was not right with Zhang Heng. One of them raised his head, only to be greeted by a small wrench. Zhang Heng had smashed his forehead, rendering him paralyzed.


    These things would hide in the fourth ventricle and pilot the human body, and they were usually in a very safe spot. The bodies they controlled, however, were no different than that of an ordinary human being. In other words, once a heavy blow had been delivered to the brain, they would be unable to pilot the body even though they were still alive.


    The second security guard reacted very quickly. After witnessing hispanion��s tragic situation, he rolled on the ground and managed to dodge Zhang Heng��s next attack. Immediately, he turned on his walkie-talkie.


    Instead of panicking, Zhang Heng quickly blocked the exit to stop the guard from leaving. The moment the guard remembered that the signal could not travel out from this ce, it red at Zhang Heng and asked, ��Who are you?��


    ��Good question. I have been looking for the answer,�� Zhang Heng replied.


    While talking, he walked to the second guard with a wrench.


    Thetter took a step back, which brought it closer to the ugly vines�� attack range. The creepers began to move like a shark that had detected blood. The second guard knew he could not move back any further, so he turned to look at Zhang Heng and growled harshly. ��You know our secret. No one will let you leave this ce alive.��


    ��I know you never intended to let me go too,�� Zhang Heng said calmly, facing the security guard who leaped forward. Immediately, he swung the wrench in his hand, this time managing to hit the opponent��s cheek, smashing his teeth twice. An ordinary person would have been dead on the ground upon receiving such a severe blow and injury. But as long as Zhang Heng failed to attack the enemy��s brain or spine, the creature could still fight.


    It was why the guard was still able to move. He stretched out his hand to strangle Zhang Heng��s neck, while Zhang Heng grabbed its cor with his other hand. At the same time, Zhang Heng managed to deliver a second blow to its eye urately and destroyed it, its blood sttering all over Zhang Heng��s t-shirt. After the attack, the creature had been severely weakened. Zhang Heng immediately delivered the third blow and fourth blow. When he finally let go of the wrench, the guard��s head had already been unrecognizably deformed. There was no way he could continue his choke-hold.


    Zhang Heng wiped the blood off his face. With such a brutal attack, the alien hidden in the fourth ventricle was probably squashed. Then, a system notification came in.


    [Sessfully found and killed an alien. Proxy war score: +5. Visit the character panel to view the rted information...]


    After spending so much effort, Zhang Heng finally killed his first alien in this quest. However, he did not finish off the other security guard, now paralyzed, and instead went back to where his bag was and took out the algae bottle, hidden in the deepest part of the bag.


    Zhang Heng divided the algae into four portions. The first was thrown at the ugly vines, the second on the alien tree in the middle of the hall, and the third at the spot where the alien tree spit out ashes. As for thest portion, he reserved it for future use.


    The blue-green algae were more effective than he thought. When he threw the third portion into the tree��s cavity, the ashes it spat suddenly increased by at least tenfold. Zhang Heng had to use his clothes to cover his mouth and nose. It was suffocating in the hall now.


    At the same time, its bark also began to peel off. Previously, Zhang Heng saw how the alien tree would heal itself by shedding off its old bark. This time, it looked like it had contracted some skin disease. Zhang Heng then killed the paralyzed security guard in the shortest time possible, which garnered him five points. At that time, the ashes and fallen tree bark had flooded the hall and was up to his ankles.


    Zhang Heng��s line of sight was almostpletely obstructed. Even the Filter Lens wouldn��t function in this ce. Rendered with little option, he was forced to find his way to the door blindly and through memory. At the same time, he noticed that the vines on the door had be very irritated. They began to climb up the steps, wanted to escape the basement.


    However, since the vines were all part of the alien tree, they couldn��t leave this ce. After crawling a certain distance, they could not move further. Zhang Heng leaped among the saas, managing to dodge two attacks aiming at him.


    And he had finally escaped the basement.


    But for him, the battle had just begun!


    The security guards noticed the abnormality when they saw himing up alone, not to mention that he had bloodstains on his body. They did not say a word to each other, and they started to jump at Zhang Heng at the same time.


    Zhang Heng took out a Lego mini submachine gun from his bag. The leader frowned, wondering what he was about to do with the toy gun. The next moment, he saw Zhang Heng inserting the Infinite Building Block into the gun��sst empty slot.


    And the next thing he knew, he was shelled by a rain of bullets, mercilessly hitting all that stood at the front line. However, the system reminded Zhang Heng that he had only scored 5 points, which meant he had only killed an alien.


    He tried to aim at their heads as much as possible, but the fourth ventricle was not that big, and the location of the aliens inside was not fixed unless he had a considerable amount of ammunition. Otherwise, attempting to kill all of them would prove to be a massive challenge.

 Chapter 696 - Fear

    <h4>Chapter 696: Fear</h4>


    Those things did not expect that their ally would suddenly turn to them. When Zhang Heng opened fire, they were caught off guard. What surprised them the most had to be the toy mini submachine gun that mysteriously came to life.


    Considering stringent gun controlws, an ordinary person would be hard-pressed to get his hands on such a powerful weapon. Not to mention Zhang Heng was only a high school student. It was difficult to connect his urate marksmanship to his age.


    The security team outside workshop No. 3 was utterly stupefied by Zhang Heng��s first attack wave. If they were ordinary humans, they would have been killed on the spot. The human body was like a shell of sorts to these aliens, and they wouldn��t die as long as their brains or spines didn��t get hit.


    In fact, one of the ten aliens who charged at Zhang Heng got lucky, getting shot only in the chest and leg. Although his gun was only twenty centimeters away from the enemy��s head, Zhang Heng decided to stop shooting. He would never miss his target at such close range, but after seeing that there were still so many of them to be dealt with, he decided to reserve ammunition.


    After all, the micro submachine gun in his hand was made of Lego bricks, and there was only one magazine left. Thus, he blocked the enemy��s hand with the submachine gun, and before the alien couldunch another attack, Zhang Heng grabbed his knife with the other hand and stabbed it into its temple.


    With a grunt, Zhang Heng pulled out the knife, now entirely coated in blood, and watched his enemy copse in front of him. Unfortunately, he received no notifications from the system. Suddenly, a guard came out of nowhere and crawled to Zhang Heng to grab his leg. His cheek had been pierced by a bullet earlier, but it seemed like it did not affect him too much.


    So, Zhang Heng fired another shot at him.


    Not long after he took down the group of security guards, a couple of factory workers ran to him the moment he walked out of the workshop. Whether men, women, or children, all ran mindlessly to Zhang Heng as if unafraid of their impending death.


    Zhang Heng did not expect that he would get to enjoy killing zombies in a quest. These things could endure pain very well, and other than the head and spine, they had no other weaknesses. Simply said, they could keep attacking even after they had taken multiple shots, the reason why Zhang Heng thought these creatures were like zombies. They were actually more like the zombies from ��Zombie World War�� instead of the ��The Walking Dead�� series. Hence, after emptying half a magazine at them, he only managed to slow a few down. By the time he realized it, the bogeys on his right side had almost gotten to him.


    Unlike other shooters, close-quartersbat happened to be one of Zhang Heng��s specialties. After the previous battles, he had found a quick and lethal way to deal with them. All he needed to do was to break their necks and render them paralyzed. The method had a shoring, though, and that was the alien in the fourth ventricle would still be alive.


    With the skull��s protection, it would be easy for Zhang Heng to kill them right now. His most pressing goal at this stage was to escape this ce. Not wanting to deal with hundreds of enemies simultaneously in the ss factory, Zhang Heng decided to retreat and paralyze them first.


    At such times, the wrench would be better than the knife.


    It took Zhang Heng less than three seconds to break the necks of two people. That, however, bought him no time, as the other enemies behind him were almost onto him. In the end, Zhang Heng was forced to open fire, in which the system sent him a couple of notifications as he gunned them down.


    Taking advantage of the small window of time, he climbed to the roof of workshop No. 3. It was at that time that he could see how good they were at reanimating their human shells. Those that came out of the cicada pupae earlier were better at piloting the bodies. These ones followed Zhang Heng up to workshop No. 3��s roof. There were also some with worse motor coordination, seeing how they had to climb slowly, and there were some who just couldn��te up.


    After Zhang Heng got on the roof, he did not run immediately. Instead, he waited a while and kicked the first three zombies that appeared off the ledge. He then took a look at the factory and found out that there were enemies in almost every direction.


    Clearly, the trouble he had caused in workshop No.3 had angered those things.


    If they knew what he did underground, they would probably be even more furious.


    Unexpectedly, all the aliens abruptly stopped moving, frozen solid as if the power was cut off from them. Zhang Heng thought that he hade to a huge wax museum. At the same time, he received another system notification.


    Even in such a critical moment, Zhang Heng could not ignore the notification.


    [Congrattions onpleting the hidden mission. Sessfully finding and destroying the ��Pupae Tree,�� cutting off the aliens�� means of reproduction. Proxy war score: +100. Visit the character panel to view rted information...]


    Zhang Heng figured that the Pupae Tree mentioned must have been the thing under workshop No. 3. Rted to the reproduction and survival of the alien, the Pupae Tree��s great significance to them was self-evident. Zhang Heng was not surprised that he was rewarded with 100 points. In many sci-fi movies and games, all the other bugs would die after the brood had been killed.


    However, Zhang Heng was wrong. This was not a movie, after all. All the aliens around him somehow knew that the Pupae Tree was destroyed. Seemingly realizing that their tree had been destroyed, the horde instantly broke out into a frenzied state when they awoke from their slumber.


    They raised their heads in unison and red at Zhang Heng on the roof.


    Although no one said a word, Zhang Heng could feel that that they were probably not too happy now.


    In fact, right at the next moment, the aliens started to climb the roof in an even more furious manner. Some even set up a fire-fightingdder to climb the roof. At least hundreds of them surrounding workshop No. 3, all having a single goal in mind��kill the man that destroyed the Pupae Tree.


    Zhang Heng finally understood what it meant by poking a ho��s nest. It now seemed he would have to be on a constant run and fight for his life for the remainder of the quest. Who knew how many had infiltrated society? Even if the Pupae Tree was destroyed, those still breathing were enough to hunt him down.


    This problem, however, was something to be dealt with in the future. For now, Zhang Heng had to figure out a way to leave the ss factory to join Bai Qing to save the imprisoned citizens. Seeing more and more aliens climbing up the roof, he did not intend to stay any longer. He smashed the head of the alien who charged at him, then ran towards the wall as he emptied his clip. This wasn��t the time for reserving ammunition.


    The remaining bullets managed to create an exit.


    Unfortunately, the enemies were one step ahead, blocking the exit before Zhang Heng could get to it. At the same time, more and more enemies were closing in from three other directions.


    Seeing that he was about to be surrounded, a strange idea suddenly appeared in Zhang Heng��s mind. Even he himself did not know why he would make such a move. He stopped running, stretched out one of his hands to face the enemy in front, and closed his eyes.


    The world seemed toe to a pause. After that, the horde of charging enemies suddenly stopped and fell to the ground like broken puppets. This strange domino effect happened to the enemies who were still climbing thedders as well��their faces filled with indescribable fear.


    As for Zhang Heng, he seemed to have experienced a nightmare. When he opened his eyes again, he was drenched in sweat. His body and mind were exhausted, but he knew that it was not the time to rest. He mustered thest ounce of strength he had and jumped towards the wall.

 Chapter 697 - Did You Know?

    <h4>Chapter 697: Did You Know?</h4>


    Zhang Heng stumbled across the road after escaping from the ss factory. Arge truck almost hit him. Luckily, the driver managed to stop in time. He poked his head out and started cursing, but when he saw the submachine gun, his attitude changed as quickly as he started mocking.


    Bystanders gawked in terror at Zhang Heng��s submachine gun and the fact that he was covered in blood. Right now, he looked more like a monster than those things in the ss factory. Some had even taken out their phones and called the police in secret.


    Zhang Heng couldn��t be bothered anymore. Not long after he escaped from the ss factory, he heard the sound of something hitting the wall from behind. That should be the aliens that were going after him. He assumed that they must have jumped down with him but failed to control their strength as they leaped over the wall.


    The sound they made, however, gave Zhang Heng another boost of adrenaline. Although he was physically exhausted, it was not time to rest. He looked around, and it took him half a second to remember where he parked the van.


    While he ran there, the aliens had already rushed out of the ss factory. He instantly ignited the van��s engine, switched to reverse, and rammed the two aliens who had caught up to him. Amid the frantic screams of bystanders, he mmed his foot on the gas and fled the scene.


    With his driving skills, it would be difficult for the aliens to catch up with him, at least for now. When Zhang Heng saw in the rearview mirror that he was getting further away, he took out his mobile phone to call Bai Qing.


    ...


    Bai Qing answered the call almost instantaneously. She sounded a little nervous. ��What happened? Why do they look angry now?��


    ��I might have just wiped them out,�� said Zhang Heng without mincing words, from the other end of the phone.


    ��...��


    Bai Qing was silent for a moment as if attempting to process what she just heard. ��How long will it take you toe to me?�� she asked after a pause.


    ��Forty-five minutes.�� Zhang Heng nced at the map.


    ��I don��t think they��ll be waiting that long. I saw them packing up, and it appears they are nning to evacuate from the stronghold. I have no idea what they��d do to their prisoners before they leave too. What do I do? I have a bad feeling.��


    ��I will hurry up. Just stay where you are and wait for me,�� Zhang Heng said.


    This time, Bai Qing did not answer immediately. There was only silence.


    Zhang Heng could hear Bai Qing��s breathing bing more rapid. She answered after a while. ��You said that their bodies are very fragile, and you identally broke one of their legs while putting them in the bottle.��


    ��Yes. I know what you are thinking now. Please don��t do it. It��s too dangerous. The jar I gave you is only to be used in the direst of situations. You are not supposed to do something risky with it.��


    ��But you can��t get here right away. Only I can dy them from evacuating,�� Bai Qing said. ��When you were in the car, you threatened one of them using his kind trapped in the jar, and it worked.��


    ��Yes, yes, but at that time, I hadn��t destroyed their nest yet. They are not the same now. I��ve never seen them so furious before. In the state that they are in, we have no way of predicting their behavior. They might do something that surprises us.��


    ��But my mother inside the facility. I can��t just sit here like this!��


    ��I promise you I aming as quickly as I can...��


    ��Did you know?�� she suddenly interrupted him.


    ��Hmm?��


    ��When I asked the alien that question, for a moment, I was actually pleased by its answer. I think that might have been the only time I could listen to you say that.��


    Upon saying that, Bai Qing abruptly hung up.


    When Zhang Heng attempted to call her again, her phone had already been turned off.


    No longer bound by traffic rules, he had no choice but to drive as fast as he could. After all, he had already run in the streets with a submachine gun and reversed his van into two ��people.��


    Time was quickly running out. The police should be locating him soon, and he had to help Bai Qing save her mother before getting arrested.


    However, his biggest problem now was not the police or the aliens. Zhang Heng still could not exin what happened earlier on warehouse No. 3��s rooftop. He had no idea why he did what he did at that time and why those aliens copsed one after another.


    What was worse was that the fatigue did not seem to go away with time. He noticed how this had severely affected him physically and mentally. To be more precise, it came from the deepest part of his soul.


    All he wanted was to look for a ce to close his eyes and have a good night��s sleep. Unfortunately, the current circumstance had forced him to stay awake. In an attempt to suppress his increasing drowsiness, Zhang Heng emptied a handful of chewing gum into his mouth.


    Forty minutester, he arrived at where Bai Qing was, a halfpleted construction site in the new district. It was just as Bai Qing had described��even the guards were gone.


    Zhang Heng opened the door, and almost lost his bnce when he got out of the van.


    He leaned on the door and shook his head, trying to fight the fatigue. Grabbing the Pestilence Bone Bow and Paris Arrow from the passenger seat, he walked into the construction site. In this state, his archery skills would be affected to a certain extent. It was the best time for the Paris Arrow to showcase its ability.


    His greatest fear was that the aliens had killed Bai Qing and the prisoners before they left. If that were the case, he would be one step toote. It would be almost impossible to go through another round of hot-pursuit with aliens with his physical and mental condition. Although he did change cars halfway, the police should still be able to locate him soon.


    Zhang Heng drew his bow, carefully circumventing the small dirt hill in the center of the construction site, and walked towards the concrete building in front of him. Only 66%pleted, its top was not sealed off, and the scaffolds hadn��t been removed as well. When Zhang Heng walked to the elevator, a warning sign suddenly rose in his heart.


    He saw a shadow getting bigger and bigger beside his feet. Before he had time to think, he immediately rolled sideways and avoided the ash cart barrelling down from the sky. The cart fell from the 11th floor andnded where he stood earlier. If he had not dodged it in time, Zhang Heng would have been squashed into a pile of minced meat.


    Before he had time to stand up, two shadowy figures sprang out from the back of the building and attempted to stab him with the iron pipes in their hand.

 Chapter 698 - Last Battle

    Chapter 698: Last Battle


    Zhang Heng evaded the first iron pipe, then blocked the second using his Pestilence Bone Bow. Although the bow was made of bone, it was still a Grade-B game item, and when it collided with the iron pipe, it made a screeching sound. There were, however, no scratches on it.


    The Pestilence Bone Bow��s original owner probably did not expect anybody to use it to block an iron pipe. Judging from the truck that fell from the sky and the two attackers that ambushed him, Zhang Heng realized that the whole thing had to be premeditated. They were just waiting for him toe here and make him pay for what he did to the Pupae Tree.


    They wouldn��t have bothered him if he were in perfect condition, but his mental and physical state were almost at their limits. When the attacker struck at him with the iron pipe again, Zhang Heng failed to avoid it entirely, and it cut a deep gash into his arm. He felt like he was stuck in a quagmire, his speed and reflexes half a beat slower than usual.


    Fortunately, he had gained a lot ofbat experience afterpleting so many rounds of quests. Even if hisbat effectiveness was partially weakened, Zhang Heng felt that he might defeat two opponents that were immune to pain.


    Their attacking style, though, would be difficult for Zhang Heng to deal with.


    The two iron pipes were more than 1.5 meters long. It was almost impossible for an average person to carry the heavy pipes on their own, but for those aliens, they did not seem to have any troubles using it to fight. Having the advantage of the lengthy pipe allowed them to fight from a safe distance. Whether a knife or a wrench, Zhang Heng would have difficulty attacking them after losing his agility. He couldn��t find an opportunity to use the Pestilence Bone bow and Paris arrow to attack them too.


    The enemies seemed to have made up their minds and wanted to use this method to exhaust Zhang Heng bit by bit. Zhang Heng, on the other hand, couldn��t find an opportune moment to retaliate for the time being. He could only keep on avoiding and blocking their attacks. Not only were his arms injured, but his chest and waist had been hit as well. Fortunately, they were just minor cuts.


    After Zhang Heng tackled another wave of attack, he started to pant. On the other hand, his two opponents were tireless, and other enemies were watching him from above. While dealing with the opponent in front of him, he had to watch out for iing attacks from above. The two enemies seemed to be intentionally pushing him to the corner.


    Once his range of action was restricted, he knew perfectly well what would happen to him next. Although aware of the other party��s intentions, he had no other option but to retreat to the trap that the enemies had prepared.


    Now, the time for him to strike back had finally arrived. After Zhang Heng finishing counting down in his mind, he threw away the Pestilence Bone Bow in his hand and drew the empty submachine machine.


    It was time for it to transform back into a Lego toy, and in that split second, Zhang Heng inserted the Infinite Building Block to materialize it again. He raised his arms and aimed at the head of the enemy in front of him, and just as the iron pipe was about to stab Zhang Heng, the alien fell dead. The other enemy did not survive the shot that Zhang Heng fired at him as well.


    Zhang Heng��s marksmanship was clearly not as good as before. Fortunately, little time was spent aiming since both enemies were not too far away. And no one could outrun a bullet. If he were not exhausted, he wouldn��t have had to resort to this method.


    Suddenly, Zhang Heng received two notifications from the system. However, this was not the time for him to calcte his current score. He quickly rushed upstairs since those aliens were still there. In other words, Bai Qing and the rest of the imprisoned people were still alive.


    To get there as soon as possible, Zhang Heng chose to take the elevator. However, he knew those things would not allow him to get up so easily. As expected, when the elevator came to the sixth floor, a sack of cement fell from the sky,nded on the elevator, forcing it toe to a halt.


    And not long after that, another cart of bricks fell from the top floor andnded on the elevator. This time, it snapped the cable, and since they had removed the anti-falling device, the elevator was now in freefall.


    A thunderous crash reverberated throughout the building when the elevator mmed into the ground, the massive impactpletely deforming the metal box. One could only imagine what would happen to the people inside. Hence, as the people on the 11th floor waited for the dust to settle, Zhang Heng had already climbed up from the other side of the wall.


    Undeniably, Zhang Heng had taken a considerable risk by choosing this method to go upstairs. Supposedly, it was an easy climb, but his current condition significantly restricted him. As such, it took him a lot longer than usual toplete the climb. Considering how high he was from the ground, he would have fallen to his death if he missed one step.


    Zhang Heng knew that the aliens must have arranged to ambush him at every point, so he had to surprise them by using an unconventional method. Indeed, this would mess up their ns. Another piece of good news was that it seemed only a few aliens had been deployed to deal with him here. Otherwise, there would have been many more than just two people ambushing him downstairs.


    Although Zhang Heng��s hands slipped twice as he climbed up, he eventually arrived on the 11th floor safe and sound. After entering the building through the cement window, he walked in, trying to make as little noise as possible. At the same time, he silently observed his surroundings.


    After walking for about twenty steps, he came across a load-bearing wall and saw a guy lying on the stairs with a modified nail gun in his hand. This should be the only lethal weapon they could get their hands on for now. A nail gun could be lethal after a slight modification.


    He wasn��t in a hurry to shoot the enemy, though. Seeing that his presence hadn��t been noticed, Zhang Heng marked the location in his mind and continued to move forward along the wall. He walked another ten meters before finally seeing the prisoners that the aliens had reced. Their faces were sullen, creased with anguish from the terrifying experiences they had to endure.


    The college student was among the prisoners. Bai Qing and her mother were among them too. Zhang Heng was relieved to see that they were safe, but now they were in aatose state. The alien in charge of guarding them had a lighter in his hand, and beside him were four empty gasoline cans.


    The alien was surprised to see Zhang Heng. Before he could light the prisoners on fire, Zhang Heng opened fire, hitting his head urately. After he pulled the trigger, the other enemies that were waiting to ambush him from the other side rushed over as quickly as they could.


    Instead of looking for cover, Zhang Heng knelt halfway and fired the remaining twenty bullets. When the smoke finally cleared, he was so exhausted that he did not even want to move his finger.


    As wails of the police sirens grew louder, Zhang Heng knew that he had to be on the run again.

 Chapter 699 - Superman

    <h4>Chapter 699: Superman</h4>


    ��Bai Qing, let me have a look at your math workbook. I have two wrong questions to correct.��


    ��Okay.��


    Bai Qing heard Chi Jia��s voice, put down the pen in her hand, and took out the math workbook from her schoolbag. She handed it over, but continued holding on to it.


    ��Yes?��


    ��Sorry, I got distracted.�� Bai Qing apologized and let go of the book.


    ��Were you thinking of him again?�� Chi Jia took the workbook and raised her eyebrows.


    ��Yes.�� Bai Qing automatically nced at the seat beside her, but some other girl had upied it.


    Three months had passed since the battle at the construction site, and that was thest time she ever saw him. When she opened her eyes again, she had already arrived at the police station with the other survivors.


    As expected, no one believed the story they told the authorities. The four bodies found at the construction site had been curiously stolen that afternoon, and when Bai Qing told the police about the ss factory, they hastily deployed a special-forces team to the location. When they got there, however, the factory had already been emptied, and they found nothing beneath workshop No. 3.


    The good news was that her mother��s body and the other aliens had disappeared at the same time. Due tock of critical evidence, and since her mother was found alive, the criminalwsuit against her father was withdrawn. All that happened before seemed like a bad dream. Everything went back to normal miraculously after Bai Qing opened her eyes.


    On the other hand, Zhang Heng was charged with illegal possession of guns and ammunition, driving without a license, hitting a pedestrian with his car, and suspected homicide. Getting rid of all the charges would be near impossible, so after calling his grandpa onest time, he disappeared.


    The police were not too concerned. Hunting down a high school student with no social experience could not be easier for them, not to mention the presence of security cameras everywhere in modern society. A high-school student like him couldn��t be on the run forever.


    However, what happened next went beyond anyone��s expectation. Zhang Heng��s escape was clean and wless, like a drop of water falling into an ocean. Even after trying a myriad of investigative methods, the police still failed to catch a glimpse of him.


    ��That guy...is really as good as you said?�� Chi Jia asked.


    ��Yes, I sometimes wonder if he is from another. Otherwise, there is no way to exin how he could fight those things on his own.��


    ��Is he like the Superman from Krypton?�� Chi Jia curled her lips, ��Are you trying to be Louis Lane?��


    Bai Qing blushed. ��I just don��t know how he is doing now.��


    ��If he is really as good as you said, you don��t need to worry at all,�� Chi Jia said. ��Maybe he��s returned to Krypton in his spaceship.��


    Seeing Bai Qing��s expression, Chi Jia paused, and a grin appeared on her face. ��Oh, you are not really worried about him, are you? You are wondering why he didn��t contact you after so long. I can see that you miss him a lot.��


    ��I��m not missing him! What are you talking about?�� Bai Qing picked up the book and pretended to smack Chi Jia with it.


    Thetter turned around, ran away, back to her seat, and picked up her school bag. ��I��ll make a move. My sister and I are going to get our nails done tonight. You can carry on thinking about your Mr. Superman.��


    ��...��


    When everyone in the ssroom was almost gone, Bai Qing packed her books and looked at the unrecognizable seat beside her before leaving the building.


    Once she left the gates, she strolled to the bus stop with her schoolbag.


    She had been feeling restless recently but couldn��t figure out why.


    Bai Qing remembered the feeling she had when she was stalked around Children��s Pce. Three monthster, the same feeling struck her again. Bai Qing quickly turned around and looked behind her. However, it was the peak hour where everyone had just gotten off work and school. The street was crowded, and she could find nothing unusual around her.


    So she could only tell herself that she was paranoid. The trauma that she has been through must have made her oversensitive.


    After that, Bai Qing came to the bus stop as usual, where she saw a man wearing a mask and a hoodie. Although he didn��t look at her, Bai Qing felt that he looked somewhat familiar, only that she couldn��t remember where she saw him.


    The bus that she had been waiting for had finally arrived. Bai Qing and other passengers swiped their cards and got on the bus. Right before the door was about to close, the mysterious man stepped into the bus as well.


    Bai Qing could not help but stare at him again. The familiar feeling kept on lingering in her mind.


    She was on the verge of recognizing him. After that, she subconsciously took a few steps forward, moving away from him. She then looked out the window, trying to stabilize her emotions.


    And it did work. After a while, her mood improved, until she saw aw firm on the street. Then, she finally remembered who the mysterious man was.


    He used to be her father��s defensewyer. They had met before, but she had a bad feeling about him. Especially his emotionless eyes; they made her extremely ufortable.


    After experiencing a series of bizarre incidents, Bai Qing did not think that it was a coincidence that she met him here. When the bus stopped at the next stop, she quickly squeezed her way through to the door and got off the bus.


    However, this was an area she was not familiar with. She had no idea where she was and could only choose a ce convenient for hiding. A shopping mall was nearby, so she headed in, walking through the cosmetics and jewelry counters on the first floor. Upon arrival at a fire exit, she opened the hinged door, and outside was an open-air parking lot.


    Bai Qing was looking for an exit, but she saw the mysterious man standing there the next moment.


    Not bothering to hide his intention this time, he walked towards her instantly.


    Bai Qing turned around and ran into the mall, but then she found out that the door could not be opened. She shook the door lock vigorously, desperately trying to attract attention to herself. However, the closest counter was still far away from the fire exit. Seeing that the distance between her and the mysterious man was less than 20 meters, she could only give up and run to the back of the parking lot.


    The masked man took out a knife from his briefcase and followed her.


    He spoke in a hoarse voice, ��It��s time to make him pay.��

 Chapter 700 - To Friendship and Memory

    <h4>Chapter 700: To Friendship and Memory</h4>


    ��It��s not enough that he destroys our entire species. In the past few months, he has been chasing and killing whatever we have left,�� the mysterious man said bitterly. ��Thanks to him, my people have been bing fewer and fewer. With the Pupae Tree gone, we can no longer reproduce in this world. He still refuses to give us the chance to spend our lives hidden among humans quietly. If this is the case, we will also kill all who are rted to him and let him have a taste of loneliness.��


    Bai Qing had backed up all the way to the rear of the parking lot, and she had no more space left.


    She looked around, spotted a fluorescent tube, and grabbed it from the trash can.


    If she were still the old her, she would probably be fearing for her life right now. She was still a little scared after experiencing the alien incident three months ago, but at least she was not trembling in fear anymore. And she could make use of objects that were around to protect herself. She was uncertain, however, if the fluorescent tube could help defeat the alien in front of her.


    Seeing the masked man approaching her slowly, Bai Qing held on tight to the only weapon she could rely on.


    The masked man seemed a little disappointed by her reaction. ording to what he knew, Bai Qing should have been shivering by now, desperately attempting to exin that she had nothing to do with Zhang Heng. After taking a closer look at her face, he realized that she had epted the reason why he hade to her for revenge.


    Although there was no one in the parking lot now, the masked man wanted to waste no time. This was, after all, a public parking lot, which meant there was a constant flow of people here. Hence, he picked up speed and dashed at Bai Qing, wanting to end the fight as soon as possible.


    And the battle ended as fast as he expected. After running less than five steps, blood gushed out of the back of his head. A bullet that hade from nowhere prated its head, going through the alien, wastched on the fourth ventricle.


    The masked man��s eyes were filled with unwillingness and bewilderment, and at the same time, a touch of fear.


    However, in the next second, the alien was unable to control its body anymore. It fell beside Bai Qing��s feet. Seeing blood and brain matter spattering out of the bullet wound, she did not scream in fear but Instead showed a touch of joy. Immediately, she dropped the fluorescent tube in her hand and looked around.


    ��It��s you. You are here, right?!��


    ��...��


    No one answered her question in the parking lot.


    ��So you n not to see me for the rest of your life?�� Bai Qing hollered loudly, ��What are you afraid of? Afraid that I will ask you that question? Am I scarier to you than those things?��


    After a while, a voice finally emerged from the roof next door. Zhang Heng replied helplessly, ��Let��s talk about the other matterter. This guy has an aplice in the mall. He couldn��t go after you while locking the fire exit at the same time. I need you to help me to load the body into the car first. I will go and deal with the other guy.��


    He then threw down a car key from above.


    ��Okay.�� Bai Qing said happily as she grabbed the keys. After a pause, she seemed worried that Zhang Heng would leave without repeating goodbye. She added, ��I miss you very much.��


    ��I know.��


    After his reply, Zhang Heng disappeared from the roof.


    ...


    A quarter of an hourter, the two met again in the parking lot. Initially, Bai Qing wanted to run to Zhang Heng, but a Ford Mondeo drove past her and blocked her way. She had to wait for a while before running to Zhang Heng. This time, she was no longer as reserved, pouncing onto him and hugging him like a ko.


    Thetter had to reach out and hug her to prevent her from falling off.


    ��I knew you hadn��t left yet,�� Bai Qing said.


    The Mondeo��s driver found a parking space. Then the family of three got out of the car and saw the intimate scene between Zhang Heng and Bai Qing. Immediately, the father quickly covered the eyes of his youngest son. And the mother shook her head repeatedly.


    ��Teenagers nowadays know no shame. This is a public ce.��


    Usually, Bai Qing would blush when she heard this kind ofment, but now she was drowning in the joy of reunion. Although under criticism, she still did not stop hugging Zhang Heng.


    She was even brave enough to reach out and touch Zhang Heng��s cheek, ��Am I dreaming now? Are you really back?��


    ��Yes, I��m back, but I can��t stay for long. I still have to deal with a body in the women��s toilet,�� Zhang Heng replied.


    ��Sometimes, I do wonder if you will return to Krypton after saving earth,�� Bai Qing sobbed with teary eyes.


    ��When I am done with them, yes. I am afraid I will be away for a long time.��


    ��How long will you be gone? Forever?��


    ��Something like that.��


    ��That means the secret code that we had between us is more than a secret code, right?��


    ��I��m sorry,�� Zhang Heng apologized.


    ��No, you don��t need to apologize to me. You saved me and my life. You are my hero, even if I��m the only one that knows about it in this world,�� Bai Qing said. After that, she moved closer to Zhang Heng and ced her luscious lips on Zhang Heng��s lips. It was a quick and soft peck, like a dragonfly skimming above the water of a pond during the summer.


    Bai Qing��s face finally turned red this time, and she murmured, ��So this is how it feels like to kiss.��


    ...


    ...


    On the bar lounge deck, Zhang Heng woke up from the Proxy War��s quest.


    Aspared to the past, he found out that his body had not undergone any changes.


    After what happened on the roof of workshop No.3, Zhang Heng had been trying to study what happened to him. But after trying several times, he failed to replicate what he did previously.


    After that, Zhang Heng also checked on his game items and confirmed that none had been responsible for what happened to him.


    Putting the weird dream that he had into consideration��the wet and dark seaside town and the strange-looking old man��was perhaps more noteworthy to him than the quest itself.


    ��You look good today,�� the bartender said. ��Saw an old friend?��


    ��I guess so. You look delighted today too. Why?��


    ��Oh, because my old friend ising back too. I��ve been waiting for him for a long time.�� The bartender��s eyes were filled with joy when she talked about the person. After that, she made two sses of cocktails as fast as possible and passed one of them to Zhang Heng. ��To friendship and memories, the two most beautiful things in the world,�� she toasted.


    ��Shouldn��t you be drinking this with your old friends?��


    ��It doesn��t matter. Drinking with you is the same. He doesn��t like drinking very much anyway.�� The bartenderdy took a sip of the cocktail, then frowned slightly. ��Is it too sour? I think I put too much lemon juice in it?��

 Chapter 701 - Alien (End)

    <h4>Chapter 701: Alien (End)</h4>


    [Could that be fake? Am I blind? What the hell is wrong with the yer��s score who ranked first on the official website?!]


    Posted by: Madrid Is Incredible


    [1475 points??? Holy sh*t! A mistake made by the system? The one in second ce has only 360 points. This is only the first day of Proxy War. The powerful yers of the three major guilds may not have finished their games yet. But his score insane!]


    Posted by: Can You Introduce Your Sister To Me?


    [It is said that the Proxy War quest��s difficulty is much greater than that of the ordinary quest. Many people failed their first game, as far as I know. Of course, they are the kind of agents that are not that strong. Their score should be around 70. But 1475... Who the hell is this yer with the name, Simon?]


    Posted by: Fruit Egg Tart


    [Simon is a neer. We met at the auction at the end ofst year. At that time, he didn��t even know that he could team up with others toplete the game.]


    Posted by: Professor


    [Is that supposed to be a joke? How can a neer be so strong in less than half a year? This can no longer be considered growth. This is mutation!]


    Posted by: Carousel


    [I want to know more about him too.]


    Posted by: Professor


    [Maybe someone else has the same name as him. I have seen three yers with the name Ash. Anyway, we cane up with all kinds of random names for ourselves.]


    Posted by: Pikachu


    ...


    After the start of the Proxy War, this had been the hottest topic of discussion on most yer forums.


    The yer with the name Simon had be the most discussed topic. Having obtained an unbelievable score in his first game, some people even suspected that he must havepleted three games in a day.


    The mechanics of the Proxy War��s dungeon differed from that of an ordinary game. yers were required to clear three games within 45 days. In theory, as long as the yers did not need rest or recuperation, they couldplete all three in one go.


    Even if the score that Simon acquired was divided among three games, the figures garnered were still ghastly. And if this score had been obtained from a single quest, it would be even more mind-blowing. Simply put, even if this yer called Simon did not participate in the second and third games, and he would still qualify for the next round of Proxy War.


    Less than a dayter, another yer who went by the handle of ���¡� scored over 1,000 points. And this time, someone happened to have just refreshed the list, indicating that just a few minutes ago, �¡�s score was, in fact, zero. In other words, �¡�s score had been acquired from a single game. This individual now ced second with a score of 1007.


    The third yer on the leaderboard was not as mysterious as the first two. Pegasus was the current president of Silver Wing guild and holder of 3 Grade-B game items. He scored 872 points in the first game, and if it were not for the mysterious Simon and ��, he should have topped the leaderboard by now.


    It could be seen from this list that the gap in strength between the agents might berger than most of the people imagined. For a game of the same difficulty, the few people at the top of the leaderboard and the other ordinary yers were not on the same level.


    Zhang Heng did not care too much about his ranking. On the contrary, Rabbit sent a text to Zhang Heng through WeChat and asked if he was Simon. After Zhang Heng admitted that he was, she stopped asking anymore. Perhaps, it was because she witnessed how Zhang Heng fought with the Sphinx and saved her. To her, Zhang Heng was the best yer, and she wouldn��t be surprised even if he scored more than 1,000 points. After she got the answer she wanted, she happily proceeded to her homework.


    After that, Zhang Heng also ran into Shen Xixi at school. It seemed Rabbit had told her that Zhang Heng was Simon, and she congratted him when they met. On the other hand, Shen Xixi did not have the time to do the quest yet.


    When she saw Zhang Heng, she hesitated and asked, ��Do you remember them in 1810?��


    ��Yes.��


    1810 was the thead man��s code name. He and his team participated in the previous Sphinx hunt. As agreed, they took away the stunned Sphinx with them.


    ��Their team had an ident on their way back,�� Shen Xixi sighed.


    ��What do you mean by ident?��


    ��Someone attacked them.��


    ��Who?��


    A strange look shed across Shen Xixi��s face. ��Dumbledore,�� she said.


    ��Who?�� Zhang Heng wondered if he had misheard.


    ��Albus Dumbledore, Hogwarts�� principal in Harry Potter.��


    ��I know who Dumbledore is,�� said Zhang Heng. ��The question is, why did Dumbledore attack them?��


    ��It must have something to do with that Sphinx. 1810 said that Dumbledore used a stun-spell on them when they crossed paths.��


    ��That��s the spell from ��Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.�� The movie was still clear in Zhang Heng��s mind. ��Did they be unconscious or frozen after the spell was put on them?��


    ��1810 said that the feeling was more like the kind ofa that followed an electric shock. After getting stunned, those that didn��t fall into aa would enter a state of trance. They would lose the ability to move around and could only watch Dumbledore rescue the Sphinx from the trunk.��


    ��That shouldn��t be a big deal,�� replied Zhang Heng. ��At most, the Sphinx would only carry a Grade E or F game item.��


    ��That should be the case. However, after Dumbledore saved the Sphinx, he walked a few steps but suddenly stopped and turned back.��


    ��Did he forget his wallet?��


    ��Unfortunately, that wasn��t what happened. After Dumbledore walked towards them, he carried the unconscious Yogurt with him. Oh, Yogurt is one of the two girls in their team. She was the smaller girl. She named herself with such a cute name because she likes yogurt.��


    ��Dumbledore kidnapped her?��


    ��Yes. This incident angered 1810 and his team. They could not do anything to stop him. For the past week, they have been looking for... Dumbledore��s and Sphinx��s whereabouts. However, they never showed up afterward.��


    ��...this experience is really magical,�� Zhang Heng shrugged after listening.


    ��I know you, and 1810 started off on the wrong foot,�� Shen Xixi said. ��1810 is willing to apologize for his impolite behavior, and they hope that you can help them.��


    ��Why me?��


    ��They saw your abilities that night, and your score in this Proxy War is outrageous. They consider themselves as independent yers, and they are quite skillful. However, they are still rather ordinary, building no rapport with any of the major guilds. As for me, I do know a couple of elite yers, but they have been quite busy with the Proxy War. I think you are one of those rare ones whopleted the first game so quickly. By the way, they are willing to pay you with game items and game points if you help to rescue Yogurt.��

 Chapter 702 - Argument

    <h4>Chapter 702: Argument</h4>


    In Dong Lai Shun Restaurant��s private room��


    Other than Yogurt, 1810 and the rest of his team were all there, sitting at the table together. However, worry and exhaustion filled everyone��s faces, with 1810 having bloodshot eyes as well.


    Dishes of all manner were served on the table. Whether it was mutton, fish balls, shrimp, or beef tripe, none, however, could arouse the appetites of those present. 1810 had been staring at the copper pot in the center as if waiting for a flower to bloom.


    On the other hand, ck Swan was distraught as well. She subconsciously took out the cigarettes from her pocket. Just when she took out a lighter and wanted to light the cigarette. 1810 stretched out his hand and snatched it before pinching the cigarette with his thumb and index finger and then returning it to ck Swan.


    Thetter rolled her eyes, took back the crushed stick, and threw it into the trash can.


    ��It��s seven. Is he evening?��


    ��Wonder Woman promised toe over and meet us,�� 1810 said.


    ��Didn��t the hospital say anything? You haven��t been to work for so long,�� ck Swan said. ��The director from the theater has been calling nonstop. I don��t really care about the old drama, but the new one premieres tomorrow night.��


    ��I took funeral leave from the hospital,�� 1810 said coldly.


    ��Who passed away?��


    ��My mother.��


    ��Isn��t your mother still alive?��


    ��Let��s hang on until this tough period is over. We have to focus on rescuing Yogurt.��


    ��Don��t me me for not reminding you that she has been missing for more than a week,�� ck Swan said. ��We don��t even know if she is still alive. Is it worth the effort to look for a corpse? This also means that all the hard work for the past six months has gone down the drain.��


    1810 moved his gaze away from the copper pot and looked at ck Swan.


    ��If someone kidnaps you, we will do the same.��


    ��That��s sweet. However, if I��m dead, it doesn��t matter what you do for me.�� ck Swan opened the cigarette box again while he was talking. This time. 1810 grabbed her wrist.


    ��I said, don��t smoke tonight.��


    ck Swan looked into 1810��s eyes and smiled, ��Of course, you are the boss. You have the final say.�� After that, she put the box of cigarettes away.


    1810 frowned. ��I thought we had all reached a consensus on this matter. Everyone voted to save Yogurt at all costs. I remember you voted for it too at that time.��


    ��Voting is meaningless. You are the boss. And you have already stated that you will not give up any one of us. That��s why we all voted ording to your wishes,�� ck Swan said.


    ��If you are not happy with my leadership, you can withdraw from the team any time you want,�� 1810 growled in a deep voice. ��And you don��t have to pay your share of game points to rescue Yogurt.��


    ��Look, that��s why everyone voted yes,�� ck Swan sneered.


    Seeing that the atmosphere had gotten a little tense, Little Yellow Duck hurriedly attempted to calm them down by pouring a ss of orange juice for the two. ��Sister Swan, you are not quite right. The fact that our captain can adhere to his principles is the reason why we all follow him. We can always earn back game points, but Yogurt is one of us, and she was taken by our enemy right in front of us. We can��t just leave her alone. The captain has also mentioned that he would do the same for all of us.��


    ck Swan smiled, ��Little Yellow Duck, I know what you are thinking. You must be thinking that I��m a cold-hearted bitch, and that I��m iparable to the righteous captain. You know what. You are right about me.��


    ��No, no, no,�� Little Yellow Duck waved her hand quickly and exined, ��ck Swan, you will always be my sister.��


    ��Okay, let me give you a piece of advice. When you start working in society, you will discover that what you see and hear may not necessarily be true. There are only two kinds of people in this world. The first kind is the sessful individual, and the second person is the one who helps the first to seed. The former will always use some righteous motivational speech to inspire thetter. People like them would turn their idealistic idea into everyone��s dream. After that, they would work hard to help him make his goale true. And you would be branded as a stepping stone for him to achieve his goal. Despite that, the second type of person will still be dumb enough to suck up to the first type.��


    ��If you have something that you wish to say, say it in my face. Don��t have to beat around the bush,�� snapped a dispassionate 1810.


    ��Do you really think that we are the second type?�� ck Swan turned her head and asked, ��Yogurt was thest to join the team, and she had the least strength among us. I��m more than happy to say that she is suspicious. Two months ago, you said you need someone meticulous to take care of the team��s logistical issues. But the truth was what wecked at the time was a good attacker.��


    ��Oh, I see. You��re angry because I rejected the person that you rmended to join the team.��


    ��Actually...not really.�� ck Swan said, ��You have been trying to convince everyone that you are a fair, responsible, and righteous team leader, but when you are with Wonder Woman, both of bingpletely different people,�� ck Swan paused. ��Are you going, to tell the truth, or are you going to let me reveal your little secret?��


    ��Since you like Wonder Woman so much, why don��t you go join her team?�� 1810 asked rhetorically.


    ��I appreciate people with a sense of justice because they are rarer than diamonds amid our society. Humans are inherently selfish by nature. I don��t want to go the extra mile for the sake of some pointless justice,�� ck Swan went on, ��I epted your invitation because we are the same. Admit it, the reason why you want to rescue Yogurt is not that she is your team member.��


    ��What��s the reason then? I��m old enough to be her father,�� 1810 smirked.


    ��Yes, she is your daughter.�� ck Swan took a sip of orange juice and said casually, ��She was born into this world with your first love. However, you married the former dean��s daughter for the sake of your future. Deep down in your heart, you are filled with the guilt of abandoning them. Out of coincidence, after you discovered that your illegitimate daughter is also a yer, you recruited her into your team.��


    ��You dug my background without my consent?�� 1810��s face had literally be ck, his lips turning downward, his jaw clenched and quivering.


    ��As I said, your team is not only made up of the second type of people,�� ck Swan said.


    Just when everyone was feeling extremely tense, the private room��s door was pushed open.


    Zhang Heng and Shen Xixi walked in.


    ��Sorry, I had to attend a ss in the afternoon. It just ended.�� Zhang Heng said as he quickly looked around the room, observing the expressions on everyone��s face, ��...should I go out first to give you some time to prepare for the meeting?��

 Chapter 703 - Reward

    <h4>Chapter 703: Reward</h4>


    ��Wee,�� 1810 got up first and tried to squeeze a smile on his gloomy face. ��We might have set off on the wrong foot thest time we met. I had to perform two surgeries right after that incident. I was in a rush. That was why my attitude was not pleasant on that day.��


    ��Don��t worry about it. It��s understandable since you are a surgeon. Besides, we didn��t know each other that time.�� Zhang Heng then shook hands with 1810. Frankly, the conflict between the both of them was not that serious to begin with. When they first met, Zhang Heng turned upte, and 1810 had to wait for him. Hence, 1810 thought that Zhang Heng was arrogant and irresponsible.


    If Shen Xixi hadn��t reminded him, Zhang Heng would havepletely forgotten about it afterpleting a quest.


    After that, ck Swan and others also stood up and greeted Zhang Heng with a smile. Except for Little Yellow Duck��s expression, experienced yers like 1810 and ck Swan had their expressions return to normal. No one could see that they just had a big quarrel.


    No matter the conflict, they were all on the same team. After all, and they needed to work together to rescue Yogurt at a critical time like this. ck Swan pulled up a chair for Zhang Heng, and after thanking her, he sat down with Shen Xixi.


    1810 was relieved. He was worried that Zhang Heng would hold a grudge against him and make him pay for what he did. If Zhang Heng were that kind of person, though, this meeting would most likely end badly.


    However, ording to Shen Xixi��s description of Zhang Heng and the brief contact between the two, 1810 felt that Zhang Heng was an easygoing person tomunicate freely and easily with him. As long as one did not interfere with his principles or had any conflict of interest, he would not hold a grudge. But on the other hand, it also meant that he would not be triggered and manipted easily like other youths.


    When facing these types, 1810 would find it best to be honest with every word said.


    1810 did not sit down with the others. Instead, he called the waiter in and asked her to open the two bottles of Feitian Moutai that he had brought along. At the same time, he was sorting out his thoughts in his mind. To his surprise, Zhang Heng took the initiative to speak first.


    ��Since you are very worried about your ally��s safety, let��s get down to business first. Besides, I still need to driveter. I shouldn��t be consuming alcohol.��


    1810 nodded and signaled the waitress to leave the room.


    ��This is embarrassing. When we fought against the mechanical Sphinx that night, you contributed the most, but we reaped the reward in the end.��


    ��Oh, about that. Since you have discussed with Shen Xixi beforehand, it is correct that you stuck to the agreement. I was just there to help,�� Zhang Heng said truthfully. Although he was in need of points to recast the katana, he did not mind missing out on a Grade-E or F item.


    ��We couldn��t keep that thing with us in the end,�� 1810 smiled bitterly, ��Wonder Woman��s told you that we got attacked, right?��


    ��I heard that it was Dumbledore?�� asked Zhang Heng with raised eyebrows.


    ��I was a fan of his, and I even bought the entire collection of books and movies that had him in it,�� Little Yellow Duck interrupted andined. ��Not only did he paralyze us, but he also abducted Yogurt. He is out of character.��


    On the adjacent side, ck Swan was able to analyze this incident more thoroughly. ��ording to the behavioral pattern of mechanical creation, they would not hesitate nor would they change their mind all of a sudden.��


    ��So you think that it came back after receiving a set of instructions?��


    ��Yes,�� ck Swan nodded. ��The Sphinx that we dealt with before has a behavioral pattern typical to machines. It would force the person that it met to guess the riddle, and the person would be given only three opportunities to guess the right answer. No matter what we say, as long as it is not the correct answer, we would waste a chance. If we got the right answer, it would leave. If we use up our chances and guess the wrong answer, it will punish us. There is no middle ground. As for the Dumbledore that attacked us, his goal was to rescue the Sphinx. However, it looked like someone was manipting him.��


    ��Is that thest time you saw Dumbledore?��


    ��Yes,�� 1810 said. ��I could easily recognize him, especially that big beard of his. If he walks on the street, he is hard not to notice unless he used some kind of invisibility spell on himself. We thought that he would have surely some kind of trace behind, so we have been retrieving nearby surveince tapes nearby for the past week. As a result, although Dumbledore��s whereabouts have not been found yet, we have discovered something new...�� 1810 hesitated. ��We saw the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Master Yoda.��


    ��Huh? You are referring to the Master Yoda in ��Star Wars?��


    ��Yes, he��s exactly the same as in the movie. He has green skin and a pair of pointy ears and looks like a long-haired goblin. As for the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, all four were there. With our current team, I am afraid that we are not strong enough to deal with them,�� 1810 said.


    It was no wonder that 1810 was so troubled. They had a hard time dealing with the Sphinx earlier, let alone the other fictional characters that yed an important role in the original films and novels. Even if they did not get to keep their full strength here, as long as each possessed the strength of Sphinx, 1810 and his team could do nothing if they were to get swarmed.


    They were very likely facing a group of mechanical armies. With their sole strength, the possibility of saving Yogurt was too slight, which was why they sought the elite yers�� help.


    ��Of course, we will pay you if you decide to help us. We can pay you 400 game points and two game items. However, they are only of E and F-grade.��


    These items might be no big deal to a grand guild, but considering that these were just a team made up of independent yers, they should be giving off everything they had to Zhang Heng. It was a sincere move from them. To prove that they were not wasting his time, 1810 showed Zhang Heng the two items and the 400 game points that he had. These items should worth a hundred game points.


    Seemingly worried that Zhang Heng was unhappy with the reward, 1810 then said, ��We now have two Grade-E and three Grade-F game items. You can choose from them,�� he said as he took out a lighter and a bottle cap.


    ck Swan frowned, but in the end, she too unsped the choker on her neck and put it on the table. Little Yellow Duck and Mole did the same as well. One of them took out a fish hook, and the other one took out something that looked like the foot of a bird.


    Immediately, Zhang Heng was drawn to thest game item.

 Chapter 704 - Shadow Feet

    <h4>Chapter 704: Shadow Feet</h4>


    The Mole saw Zhang Heng eyeing the game item that resembled a bird��s foot, and proceeded to exin in an enterprising manner. ��This is Shadow��s Foot, Grade-F. The effect is kind of... useless. It allows the user to summon a shadow, and the shadow covers an area of about ten square meters. It��s just an ordinary shadow, though. It has no offensive capabilities or special effects. At most, you can use it to deceive your enemies. I have to say that it is not very useful in a real battle. And there is a limit on the number of times you can use it. Right now, you can only use it once more.��


    ��This should be the least valuable item here.�� 1810 added, ��Perhaps you can look at the others.��


    Since Zhang Heng was about to pick two game items, 1810 rified things, ensuring that Zhang Heng would not regret his choice. After all, these items were just Grade-E and F, and even if they were of different value, it was not that significant. Hence, there was no need to sweat over the minute differences.


    ��That��s fine. I just need this Grade-F,�� Zhang Heng said.


    Ever since he learned that he needed to collect every single piece of item toplete the Shadow Set, Zhang Heng had been paying attention to the whereabouts of the remaining ones. Earlier, he even entrusted Fulou to help him find the rest, but he had not heard back from them ever since. This time, Zhang Heng was lucky enough to encounter one. The name of this Shadow Set item was easy to recognize��the Shadow Feet��s effect was simr to his Shadow Moment and Shadow Key. Even without the four hundred game points, this trip was worth it.


    After that, 1810 introduced the two other Grade-E items, to which, Zhang Heng went for the bottle cap.


    This object was called Ramune, and its effect was fascinating. When the user poured any kind of liquid in the bottle and closed it with this unique cap, the liquid would instantly turn into Ramune. However, it would yield a random vor each time. Now although it looked amazing, it served no other function except saving Zhang Heng some money if he wanted soda.


    Though this game item was nowhere nearly as versatile as ck Swan��s choker, Zhang Heng could see how unwilling she was to give it up. So, since he had obtained the Shadow Foot, he had no intention to possess a beloved game item of another. Besides, he was a man and it would be a little too weird for him to go out wearing a choker...


    As for the remaining four hundred game points, Shen Xixi would act as their middle-woman, waiting until Zhang Heng had rescued Yogurt before seeing that they paid him.


    Seeing Zhang Heng had agreed to help them out, 1810 was relieved, asking for everyone to enjoy the dishes on the table and at the same time, streamlining the next n of action with Zhang Heng. To his surprise, Zhang Heng insisted on investigating the case alone this time.


    ck Swan��s and 1810��s expressions remained unchanged, but the embarrassment on Little Yellow Duck��s face was obvious. Upon seeing this, Zhang Heng quickly exined, ��Don��t get me wrong, I��m just used to acting alone. I will contact you if I have any questions.��


    Hearing this, ck Swan bowed and silently drank her orange juice, making it clear that she nned to stay out of the matter. 1810 thought for a while before subtly voicing out.


    ��Our enemies are quite powerful. If you act alone and encounter any danger. ...��


    Shen Xixi knew that 1810 was still a little apprehensive. This was, after all, only the second time Zhang Heng worked with them, and although they knew he ranked first in the Proxy War��s first round, they still had no idea how powerful he really was. She was also worried that Zhang Heng wouldn��t do his best in his attempt to rescue Yogurt.


    So she said, ��I will investigate this matter with him. What do you think?��


    Shen Xixi turned to face Zhang Heng.


    Zhang Heng nodded. ��Okay.��


    He had a lot of secrets, and he did not want his secrets to be known by outsiders. It would be hard using his full strength when there were others around him. Fortunately, Shen Xixi was one of those allies that he could fully trust. Besides, he could simply wait until midnight to act independently after finding out where Yogurt had been held.


    As they all began to devour the food on the table, Zhang Heng inquired about the details of theirtest investigation and even took notes of key points worthy of attention.


    ...


    The meeting ended in less than an hour. After the meal, ck Swan took the initiative to exchange phone numbers with Zhang Heng. She dug up two tickets from her bag and handed them to Zhang Heng. ��I��m ying in this musical theater. If you are interested, you cane and watch with your friends.��


    ��Sorry, I have to deal with things here first...��


    ��I know. I��m not giving you the ticket for the premiere tomorrow night. These tickets are for next week��s show,�� ck Swan smiled. She then whispered into Zhang Heng��s ear, ��Thank you for not choosing the choker. Maybe when you are free next time, we can discuss how I can repay you.��


    ��You��re wee. It just happened that I had no use for it.��


    ck Swan winked at Zhang Heng and got into her car.


    Meanwhile, Shen Xixi who had been left behind, walked over after talking with 1810. ��What did she tell you just now?�� she asked curiously.


    ��She gave me two tickets to a musical theater,�� Zhang Heng exined.


    ��Oh...�� Shen Xixi responded with a yful look on his face.


    ��...��


    ��You performed so well in the first round of the Proxy War��s quest. It is normal for a girl to notice you.�� Shen Xixi said, and she sighed again, ��ck Swan has been through a lot. A woman like her will always attract the men around her. I heard that she was unhappy with her original team. And she was forced to y two single-yer games before joining 1810��s team.��


    ��Really?�� Zhang Heng paused, then asked, ��What about you?��


    ��I��m lucky. When I was in the Novice Group, I met some nice people,�� Shen Xixi chirped. ��It��s a pity that some of them didn��t make it to this day.��


    Although Shen Xixi made it sound so easy, Zhang Heng knew that her initial gaming experience was not the most pleasant. In fact, that was how most new yers felt. Zhang Heng��s first game was quite challenging as well. He had to stay on the deserted ind for more than a year to the point he was close to bing the next Robinson Crusoe.


    Shen Xixi opened the Polo��s door and naturally sat in the co-drivers seat, just like when she came. After thinking for a while, she decided to ask Zhang Heng. ��Do you know why 1810 wants to rescue Yogurt so desperately?��


    ��I know. Yogurt is his daughter,�� Zhang Heng nodded.


    ��Huh? When did he tell you?�� Shen Xixi was stunned.


    ��It is actually quite obvious. All I did was observe them. They were probably arguing about this matter before we came.��

 Chapter 705 - Emperor

    <h4>Chapter 705: Emperor</h4>


    ��You can even tell that they had a quarrel?�� Shen Xixi asked with raised eyebrows.


    ��Well, I spent quite some time with Holmes in one of my previous quests.�� Zhang Heng exined as he started the car.


    ��How long? Two months? And that��s enough for you to learn his deductive reasoning skill?�� Shen Xixi asked.


    ��Actually... slightly longer than two months.��


    ��That��s amazing,�� Shen Xixiplimented, ��It seems that 1810 has found the right person this time.��


    ��...I��ll do my best,�� Zhang Heng said and drove his car out of the parking lot. He then continued, ��We still have some time. Do you want to go back to school?��


    ��No need.�� Shen Xixi shook her head. ��I have nothing to do when I go back. Yogurt has been missing for more than a week. The sooner I can find her, the better. How about you? Detective, do you have any clues?��


    ��Hmm, we need to find the mastermind. First, we need to y by his rules. Do you remember the Sphinx that attacked us earlier?��


    ��Of course.��


    ��Although the sphinx is a fake, its behavior was a direct copy of the Greek mythological Sphinx. In the surveince video that 1810 showed me, the four Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles got into the sewer after passing the intersection. Except for Dumbledore, who acted out of character, the others tried their best to stick to their roles. That shows that no matter who their creator is, they tend to imitate their original characters.��


    ��Hmm... Indeed.


    ��We can use this pattern to find them,�� she said after thinking for a second.


    ��To be precise, we��ll let theme to us,�� Zhang Heng said. ��Although they change locations constantly, we know the ce that they always go to and their behavioral pattern. Maybe we can lure them out.��


    ��So... we��re going to go into the sewer next?��


    ��No, I mean we can pretend to be the emperor.��


    ��Who?��


    ��Sheev Palpatine, the Gctic Republic��s former speaker,terunched the Clone War, dered the Jedi Order��s treason, and singlehandedly established the Gctic Empire. He is regarded as the number one enemy of the Jedi Order.�� Zhang Heng briefly introduced the emperor��s background to Shen Xixi, ��If Master Yoda sees the emperor, he will definitely show up.��


    ��Okay, I understand your n now. Where should we start next?��


    ��Let��s figure out a way to get the emperor��s costume first. Know where we can get it?��


    Zhang Heng actually knew how to procure it, but doing so would be very troublesome. Eventually, he decided to ask Shen Xixi first.


    ��Well, let me think about it,�� thetter raised her eyebrows, ��I can ask Rabbit to help us. She is a huge anime fan and is in a cosy club. She should be able to get us the costume.��


    ��We owe her a favor this time. It would be ideal if we can buy it because I can��t guarantee that we won��t damage it,�� Zhang Heng cautioned.


    An hourter, the two came to an apartment. A boy with sses was waiting for them at the entrance. There was a box beside his feet with the emperor��s costume in it. Zhang Heng did a quick take and found out that it looked realistic enough. Although not on the same level as the Sphinx, it was good enough to fool the enemies if one didn��t take a good look at it, especially at night.


    ��Are you really willing to spend two thousand yuan for this costume?��


    The boy hesitated.


    The price of cosy outfits fluctuated greatly and could cost up to tens of thousands of yuan. This set of Palpatine��s costume was a well-made reproduction. Its real cost, however, was estimated to be only around five-hundred yuan. Besides, the seller was bored of ying an emperor atic con, deciding that it was time to make a change. So, when he heard that someone was willing to pay a high price to buy his costume, he immediately agreed to it.


    ��Hmm.�� Zhang Heng took an envelope from the storagepartment in the car and handed it to the boy. ��You can count it.��


    Thetter took the envelope and opened it. He felt the envelope��s thickness and smiled, ��No need. You are a friend of Rabbit. I know I can trust you.��


    After that, he looked at Shen Xixi. ��Dude, are you interested in Shimakaze��s costume? It is a treasured collection of mine. Initially, I nned to let my future girlfriend wear it for me, but it seems that��s not going to happen anytime soon. I can sell it to you at a low price.��


    ��Thank you for your kind offer, but I think you shouldn��t give up your dream,�� Zhang Heng said, ��after all, who knows will happen tomorrow.��


    The boy with sses put on a bitter smile upon hearing those words. ��Tomorrow. Perhaps I will be on my own tomorrow...��


    Before he could finish, he heard Shen Xixi suddenly saying, ��Do you have Voldemort��s costume?��


    ��I don��t have a Voldemort costume. His poprity has dropped a lot recently. I do have Hermione��s costume, though. Are you interested?�� The boy was getting excited.


    ��How much would it set me back?��


    He hesitated, ��You don��t need to pay me. Just wear it, and let me take a picture of you.��


    ��Okay?��


    He seemed afraid that Shen Xixi might change her mind, so he hurried back home to grab the costume.


    ��You guys, wait for me.��


    Less than five minutester, he was back. There was a box in his arms, and he was sweating profusely.


    ��Gryffindor school uniform. Tie, cloak, skirt, magic hat, scarf, and staff. It��s all inside the box.��


    ��You came well-prepared,�� Shen Xixi grinned.


    ��You��re right. Everyone in the cosy scene knows how serious I am. I used to crawl on the ground for the entire day in my Bulbasaur costume,�� the boy with sses gushed. He then passed the box to Shen Xixi and shouted, ��Oh, yes, I still have something to do. I need to head back first. I wish you all a good time!��


    Shen Xixi frowned. When the boy with sses ran away, she opened the box. The items in the box matched his description. When she noticed the size of the shirt and skirt, however, she became a little unhappy about it.


    But soon after, her anger dissipated, seemingly amused by the boy. ��The guy said he wanted my photos, but he didn��t even add my WeChat ount. Forget it. Let��s just consider this a gift from him to us.��


    On the other hand, Zhang Heng had changed into the emperor��s costume. Compared to other moreplicated designs, this one was rather simple to wear. All he needed to do was to put on the ck robe and a special skin mask. The boy with sses was not bragging when he told them that this set was his masterpiece. He had even fashioned a pair of ��wrinkled hands�� gloves.


    Upon donning on the costume, Zhang Heng felt like he had transformed into a Star Wars major viin.

 Chapter 706 - Busybody

    <h4>Chapter 706: Busybody</h4>


    The next thing that they needed to do was to head to where their targets would typically appear.


    Zhang Heng drove to the spot where the aliens had been identally captured in the surveince video. This was a rather vast area, and they could only pray that they were lucky enough to encounter them. It made no difference where Zhang heng parked, so he looked for a random lot and parked there. After he turned off the engine, he opened the trunk and grabbed all the equipment and game items needed for tonight��s operation.


    ��You forgot your weapon.�� Shen Xixi got out of the car and stretched out, and threw the lightsaber to Zhang Heng.


    Shen Xixi appeared to be in a good mood tonight. Even she did not know why she felt like this. She knew that she could always rx when she was with Zhang Heng, and at the same time, take a break from her hectic lifestyle. As a team leader, she had to always keep her mind clear and provide fair judgment. Since the union��s establishment, there were many new things for her to consider and deal with. Just not too long ago, she was in a state of confusion. Initially, she had established the consortium with the goal of uniting yers to protect ordinary people from the threat of supernatural forces.


    But when the union was established, things became moreplicated. Whether it was the conflicts between the internal groups or friction between the major guilds, they continued to snowball. As a result, she had to spend most of her days dealing with these matters that had nothing to do with her original intention.


    Therefore, when the consortium was really disbanded, she was not as disappointed as others had imagined. On the contrary, she felt relieved that she was free to do whatever she wanted to do again.


    Shen Xixi realized that she was lost in her thought. So, she turned around and asked Zhang Heng, ��Are you going to open it?��


    ��Yes.��


    Anyway, he had to use it eventually, and it was pointless dragging it along. With no hesitation, Zhang Heng pushed the bottom switch, and a red glowing beam shot up from the handle, just like how it was in the films. The lightsaber also came with some cool sound effects.


    ��Wow, is this what a major viin should look like?�� Shen Xixi stepped back and admired. ��I��m sorry, can I take a photo?��


    ��Do as you wish. No one can tell it is me anyway,�� Zhang Heng sighed helplessly behind the mask.


    Shen Xixi took out the phone, stood next to Zhang Heng, tilted her body slightly, and pressed the shutter.


    ��If you remember correctly... this should be our first photo,�� Shen Xixi said while examining the picture she just took.


    ��I think you are right.��


    ��The good news is that your lightsaber is pretty photogenic. Okay, let��s get to work.��


    ......


    When Shen Xixi said work, she meant that Zhang Heng and her would wander around the streets. They were supposed to wait for Master Yoda, representing the light side, to fight with the dark emperor. Admittedly, this n did sound like a fantasy but considering that the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles had left the sewers to roam the streets, it seemed nothing was impossible now.


    The two talked while walking along the river next to the parking lot. Most of the things they talked about still revolved around this matter.


    Shen Xixi stepped on the stone bricks in the grass and lifted her forehead��s hair. ��I have watched the surveince tape as well, and I agree with you. No matter who the mastermind is, he is a childish guy. And I figure that there is a high chance that the mastermind is a yer like us. After witnessing the Sphinx��s strength that night, it was more than capable of killing the people who failed to answer the riddles, much like the real Sphinx in the myth. However, instead of doing that, it adopted a rtively light punishment, making the whole thing look more like a prank. Maybe he��s trying to avoid the scrutiny of the authorities, or maybe he has the habit of obeying society��s rules, making him less destructive.��


    ��Yeah.�� Zhang Heng adjusted the mask on his face.


    ��But Dumbledore lost control that time,�� Shen Xixi said. ��ording to 1810��s description, I believe he was struggling with a decision at the time, but in the end, Dumbledore still turned around to grab Yogurt. This is the part I��m most concerned with. I have dealt with supernatural events before, some of which are caused by monsters��creatures that can control a wall that we have dealt with together. Most of these events, however, are actually caused by yers. I don��t know how themittee selects the yers, but there is no doubt that theposition of the yer base is veryplicated.��


    ��This is true,�� Zhang Heng nodded as he recalled the yers he had met before.


    ��Whether the game items or the abilities given to the agents, these are powers that defy thew of nature. Like you and me, many yers fail to practice self-control. Take a look at this incident. Many of them started out as pranks. When they began to receive some kind of pleasure or satisfaction from it, they would begin to deteriorate.


    ��You are worried that the Dumbledore incident would cause the mastermind to realize that he can do more with these robots?��


    ��Yes,�� replied Shen Xixi. ��I want to find the mastermind as soon as possible. I want to save Yogurt, and I also want to stop him from going down the evil path before it is toote.�� Shen Xixi looked at Zhang Heng again. ��Do you think that I am a little too nosy? Many seem to think that I should mind my own business.��


    ��No,�� Zhang Heng shook his head, ��It��s a good thing to have faith. Just do what you think you should do. Ignore what others think about you.��


    ��What about you? What is your belief?�� Shen Xixi asked curiously.��You are calm, meticulous, clear-headed, and powerful, yet I never knew who or what you stood for. And I am a little curious about the person who hired you.��


    ��Is this some kind ofpliment?�� Zhang Heng asked.


    Shen Xixi seemed to have made up her mind, and before Zhang Heng could finish, she quickly said, ��You are the one that helped us that night, right?��


    ��Hmm?��


    ��The mysterious sniper who appeared on the night where the union fought Arc of Light. I always had a premonition that that person was you.��


    ��I don��t remember disying my marksmanship in front of you.��


    ��It��s just a guess of mine. I don��t have any evidence to prove you are the sniper, and I can��t do anything if you don��t want to admit to it. It doesn��t matter. Anyway, I owe you a ton of favors. I don��t mind owing you another. ��Shen Xixi stopped and looked at Zhang Heng��s eyes behind the mask. ��Hey, did you know that someone reminded me to be wary of you?��


    ��Uh-huh.�� Zhang Heng harrumphed.


    ��What do you mean by uh-huh?��


    ��What do you think?��


    ��If one day you are really lost in the dark, no matter how far you are lost and no matter what great evil you have done, I will never give up...on you.�� Shen Xixi said solemnly under the starry sky.


    ��Because I��m a nosy girl.��

 Chapter 707 - Enemy Behind You

    <h4>Chapter 707: Enemy Behind You</h4>


    Zhang Heng and Shen Xixi walked around the riverside, and despite feeding the multitudinous mosquitoes that hounded them like hungry wolves, they did not manage to bring out Master Yoda as hoped.


    ��Maybe someone else is on duty tonight. Should I try putting on Hermione��s costume to see if I can bring out Dumbledore?�� Shen Xixi said.


    ��Are you sure?��


    Zhang Heng had seen the costume in the box and could understand why thetter had be so angry at that time. There was a reason why the previous owner treasured this costume. There were no problems with its looks and was even made with fine craftsmanship as well. However, the sizes of the shirt and skirt were too small. It appeared that this set was designed to fit a kid. If Shen Xixi put it on, she could probably only get to cover her privates.


    ��Or...�� Shen Xixi took a breath, ��Let��s just be more straightforward.��


    ��How more straightforward can we get?��


    ��Whether it��s the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Master Yoda, Dumbledore, or something else, they are the characters designed to uphold justice.��


    ��That��s right.��


    ��Maybe we can create a crime scene. No matter who is on duty tonight, there��s a high probability that we can attract their attention.��


    ��Uhh... have you ever thought that we might attract the police��s attention?��


    ��We can try our best to find a ce with fewer people,�� replied Shen Xixi. ��We��ll be creating a scene tailor-made for a superhero appearance.��


    ��...If you are fine with it, then I��m fine with it too,�� said Zhang Heng. ��But we��d better put on some makeup and change to a different set of clothing to avoid being spotted. We don��t want them to know that we are already here.��


    Since they had decided to create the perfect crime scenario, Zhang Heng could only try his best to give the details a little fine-tuning.


    ��Okay,�� Shen Xixi nodded.


    ...


    A drunk woman stumbled along the dark alleyte at night. When she walked past a trash can, she was unable to hold it in and started retching her guts for a good half minute. However, she did not get better after vomiting. She was so drunk that she had to sit down beside the trash can and lean against the wall. Her head drooped to the side, and she fell asleep after that.


    Her chest was heaving slightly beneath her suspenders, and it looked like her guard waspletely down. She even put on a smile, as if she saw the prince charming of her dreams.


    For a split second there, she appeared to have forgotten that she lived in a chaotic and dangerous world.


    Just like what they nned, the bad guy appeared!


    A dark shadow passed by the alley and witnessed this rare scene. Immediately, he looked around to see if there were people around him. Once he made sure that he was alone, he took out his mobile phone and took a dozen pictures of the girl from various angles.


    Seeing that the girl did not respond, he became bolder. He then decided to move closer to the girl and tapped the girl��s shoulder with his hand.


    ��Miss, miss. Do you need any help? ��


    The girl was still out cold, not knowing what was going on in the real world.


    The man��s mind started toe up with some bad ideas. He drew in two deep breaths after that. Perhaps the dark alley had given him the courage he needed, or he found it too challenging to resist the temptation in front of him. In the end, he decided to stretch out his hands, lifted the girl from the ground, and carried her on his shoulders.


    Just as he was about to leave the alley with the girl, another figurended behind him like an oriole. The person raised his hand and shot a ball-like object from his wrist at the viin. To the person��s surprise, the bad guy seemed to know that he was behind, and he managed to dodge the sudden attack.


    When Zhang Heng saw the white spider silk on the wall, he knew who was here tonight.


    ��Spider-Man?�� Zhang Heng turned around and raised his eyebrows.


    Although the other party did not answer Zhang Heng, his distinctive red and blue uniform had confirmed Zhang Heng��s suspicions.


    It was neither the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles nor Master Yoda who hade here tonight.


    This new version of Spider-Man was the mascot of the Marvel universe, and the image of the friendly neighborhood Spiderman had gradually be popr as well. If Zhang Heng were required to choose an opponent from the Marvel universe, Spider-Man would be thest he would choose to go up against.


    The reason was simple. Spiderman��s abilities might not be the strongest, butpared to Thor��s and Scarlet Witch��s fancy abilities created by special effects and CGI, it was a lot easier to replicate.


    Spiderman��s endurance, reaction, speed, and fighting ability could all be achieved through adjusting the mechanical replica, not to mention that he had the annoying ability to manipte spider silk.


    Shen Xixi began to worry about Zhang Heng. However, her eyes were still closed, and only moved her lips. She then whispered, ��What should we do?��


    ��Continue pretending you��re drunk. Let me test his abilities first.��


    Zhang Heng put Shen Xixi down again. After that, he dished his hands in the trash can and took out a Tachi.


    The [Ordinary Katana] that made him miserable was still being recast by the cksmith, so Zhang Heng��s current weapon was an ordinary weapon that he just bought. Spider-Man watched Zhang Heng draw the Tachi from the scabbard. He did not stop him or run away.


    Because fear meant nothing in the face of justice!


    ��Heh, it seems it is going to be an exciting night.�� Zhang Heng went into his attack stance. At the same time, Spider-Man was already on the move. Without exerting much strength, he leaped onto the wall, touched it gingerly with his foot, and his body sprung high into the air.


    He then shot two more Web Balls at Zhang Heng.


    Taking into ount the stickiness of the Web Balls, Zhang Heng decided to dodge it. When he raised his head again, Spider-Man was about tond a flying kick on him. Immediately, Zhang Heng struck his Tachi at the Spider-Man. With Spider-Man��s tingling sensation, he could use his spider silk to change trajectory in the air, and the next second appeared behind Zhang Heng again.


    Zhang Heng turned around and struck his Tachi at Spider-Man, who used his spider silk to dodge the attack in a split-second.


    In the first round of the battle, both sides were equallypetent.


    However, after only two short moves, Zhang Heng could feel how difficult it was going to be to deal with this opponent.


    Spider-Man��s movements were unpredictable. In just one second, he had several positions in the air. Not only did Zhang Heng have to guard against fists and flying kicks that came out of nowhere, but he also needed to look out for the pesky Web Balls.


    Perhaps the only thing that offered him relief was that none of the mechanical enemies knew how to speak. It could be a manufacturing defect or intentional.

 Chapter 708 - Second Thrust

    <h4>Chapter 708: Second Thrust</h4>


    Two figures were fighting each other in the dark alley.


    One of them was so agile and swift that he had unquestionably exceeded the human body��s limits. It could perform incredible movements at critical moments. In contrast, the movements of his opponent were obviously slower. However, this opponent managed to block the swift attacks with the lone Tachi in his hand, like a rock on the shore��no matter how the wind and waves beat it, it still stood resolute.


    Shen Xixi leaned against the wall and opened her eyes secretly. She was also the only witness to the battle tonight.


    She was admittedly quite surprised when she learned that Simon ranked first in the proxy war��s first round. The impression that Zhang Heng used to give her was that of a calm and reliable man. She had never seen him engaged in a battle before. In Dreand of Death, the two had acted separately from the beginning, and during the Sphinx incident, Zhang Heng only showed that he could drive well and rescue Rabbit in time.


    Tonight was the first time she witnessed Zhang Heng fighting. And she finally understood how he could get such a high score in the first proxy-war quest. His speed, strength, reflexes, and sense of bnce were extraordinary. Although nowhere nearly as dextrous as Spider-Man, he still beat out most ordinary people. Clearly, Zhang Heng had undergone a lot of training to get to where he was today. What surprised Shen Xixi was Zhang Heng��s skills on the sword and hisbat experience.


    Shen Xixi, a yer herself, knew a thing or two about the skills that one could learn throughout the duration of a quest. Generally, most yers had skills of Lv.0 and Lv.1. Those who possessed Lv.2 skills were rtively rare, considered as semi-experts in their rted fields. As for yers who possessed Lv.3 skills, these were one in a million. Most of them were yers that practiced serious disciplines, and many yed the role of team strategist.


    Almost all the top guilds would treat these Lv.3 skilled yers differently. As long as they had one Lv.3 skill, the three major guilds would offer generous benefits to recruit the yer.


    Shen Xixi figured that Zhang Heng had an Lv.2 driving skill, an unknown level of deduction skill, an Lv.2 shooting, and makeup skills. For the average yer, this was their limit. Even if they had other skills, they would stay at Lv.0 for most of their journey. That was because everyone had limited energy to spend.


    However, the sword skills Zhang Heng unleashed tonight were estimated to have reached Lv.3. Shen Xixi even suspected that it might have surpassed Lv.3. However, she had never seen an Lv.4 skill before. The results were inconclusive. With only a single Tachi, Zhang Heng managed to take on the Spider-Man, which possessed extraordinary power. This surely wasn��t how a person with an Lv.3 skill performed.


    Shen Xixi still could not figure out how Zhang Heng managed to umte so muchbat experience. This was not something that could be faked or made quickly. It could only be earned through enduring battle after battle. Thebat experience Zhang Heng demonstrated made Shen Xixi wonder if he had been fighting since he was born. Even if she factored in the time he spent in the dungeons, it was almost impossible for anyone to have such richbat experience.


    ...


    As Shen Xixi entered a state of trance, Zhang Heng and Spider-Man on the other side had understood each other��s strength after a round of fighting and testing. Both sides knew that Zhang Heng could never defeat the Spider-Man with the Tachi he held. Even if he couldnd a sessful hit on his opponent, he would not be able to deal much damage. From the very beginning, Spider-Man had been trying his best to behave like a human, pretending to avoid Zhang Heng��s attacks. If his bodyposition were simr to that of the Sphinx they had dealt with, this Spider-Man would have no physical weakness.


    Other than that, the trick Zhang Heng used to deal with the Sphinx earlier was estimated to be useless on Spider-Man. It seemed the enemy had learned lessons from previous battles. This ��Iron Spider�� suit looked like it was made of some kind of insting material where an electric shock would not affect or destroy theponents inside his body.


    Fortunately, Zhang Heng was well prepared for such a situation.


    He no longer focussed on defending this time, and in a jiffy, changed to an offensive fighting style. His attacks got faster, and after a while, he managed to back Spider-Man up against the wall. Zhang Heng then leaped and threw away the Tachi in his hand.


    Spider-Man tilted his head, seemingly puzzled by Zhang Heng��s actions. But then he noticed that Shen Xixi was no longer standing there. At some point, Shen Xixi had snapped back to reality, ran back to the trash can, took out arge travel bag from it, and passed the anti-material rifle to Zhang Heng.


    This was the first time Spider-Man witnessed a criminal working together with the victim. He was left startled for a while. Zhang Heng did not waste this precious opportunity, and he instantly got down on the ground and aimed at the nearby Spider-Man with the anti-material rifle.


    The previous battle with the Sphinx confirmed that ordinary bullets were useless against these things. However, the anti-material rifle��s explosive bullets would explode when theynded on the target. It would then produce two times the force of the explosion to prate the armor.


    When Spider-Man saw the anti-material rifle, he realized that his situation was turning for the worse. Immediately, he tried to make a run for it. Just when he raised his hand and was about to shoot a web to the wall, he was hit on his wrist. If this shot hit an ordinary person, the entire hand would have been blown off. With this mechanical body, however, Spider-Man��s defense might simply be better than the original. The shot had destroyed his Web-Shooter, though, rendering him unable to shoot out webs.


    Afterward, Zhang Heng fired a second shot, hitting the spider mark on Spider-Man��s chest, sending him flying. The creature finally stopped moving when hended on the ground.


    ��Did you kill it?�� Shen Xixi asked.


    ��It looks dead,�� Zhang Heng replied.


    After that, the two walked up to get a closer look at Spider-Man��s corpse. However, just as Zhang Heng turned it over, Spider-Man opened his eyes again. He was aboutnd a kick on Zhang Heng��s chest, but Zhang Heng managed to step back to avoid the attack. When Zhang Heng turned around again, Spider-Man had already jumped onto the wall, quickly disappearing into the darkness.


    Zhang Heng didn��t panic. He deliberately missed the target��s vital spots because his target was neither Spider-Man nor Master Yoda. He wanted to know who the mastermind was.


    After the injured Spider-Man had gone for a while, Zhang Heng took out his mobile phone from his pocket.


    ��Is the tracker installed?��


    ��Well, let��s get back in the car. Let��s see where he takes us.��

 Chapter 709 - Hoax

    <h4>Chapter 709: Hoax</h4>


    Zhang Heng drove his Polo, following the target from a good distance.


    It was said that injured beasts would always find a way to return to theirir to lick their wounds. If that were true, then the injured little spider should also find his way home, returning to his owner.


    But to Zhang Heng��s surprise, the tracker stopped at an ordinarymunity.


    This was no evil manufacturing factory nor a mysteriousboratory. It was just a normal residential area.


    Zhang Heng and Shen Xixi got out of the car and took a good look around.


    This residential area looked a little old. Some of the outer walls beside the staircase had begun to peel off. However, the location was good, mainly because thend price hadn��t risen yet at the timemunity was built. At times, the umtion of personal wealth was inseparable from an era��s background.


    Zhang Heng then looked at his mobile phone again and saw that his target was less than a hundred meters away from him.


    ��It should be right here.��


    ��This ce seems a little quiet,�� Shen Xixi frowned.


    Zhang Heng knew what Shen Xixi meant. It might be an excellent ce to live, but it is was not a good spot to imprison people. Yogurt had been missing for more than a week, and if she was here for such a long time, the smallmunity here would have instantly noticed her. In other words, the possibility that Yogurt was dead was very high.


    ��Let��s act ording to the situationter,�� Zhang Heng said.


    Suddenly, Zhang Heng noticed that his mobile phone��s tracker signal had disappeared. It could only mean that Spider-Man must have spotted the tracker that had been nted on him. In other words, their enemies were anticipating their arrival.


    ��Do you need any weapons?�� Zhang Heng asked Shen Xixi, who was beside him.


    ��No, I have my equipment with me,�� Shen Xixi replied, taking out a small scale from her backpack.


    This was the first time Zhang Heng caught the eye of Shen Xixi��s weapon. Also a game item, this weighing scale was a tad smaller than the ordinary one, hence easily carried in her hand. It was made of unknown materials, and it looked sacred. Just by taking a look, Zhang Heng could feel that all the evil in this world would have to bow before it.


    Zhang Heng suspected that this small scale once belonged to Justitia of the ancient Roman myths, which proved that the one who fought him that night was indeed the Goddess of Justice herself.


    ��This is a gift from an elder...�� Shen Xixi saw Zhang Heng��s gaze falling on the scale in her hand and exined vigorously.


    Having no intention to pry into Shen Xixi��s secrets, Zhang Heng merely nodded and said no more. He then said, ��We now know which building our enemy lives in, but we don��t know which floor he is at. You stay downstairs. I��ll go up and have a look first.��


    ��Go up... How are you going to do that?�� Shen Xixi was a little puzzled.


    Zhang Heng then pointed to a window not far away, ��I��m going up from outside the building.��


    After witnessing Zhang Heng��s various skills, she had developed a certain immunity to these feats. When Zhang Heng told her that he could scale the wall, Shen Xixi felt a little numb, notably a little less surprised as she used to be. So, she simply reminded Zhang Heng to pay attention to his safety.


    After that, Zhang Heng began to climb onto the rack of the air conditioner��spressor on the wall. His destinations were the two households with their lights still on. At this time, most people should have fallen asleep. The ones who had not turned off the lights were either night owls or the mastermind he had been looking for.


    As soon as Zhang Heng climbed to the third floor, he found that one of the houses had turned off its lights. Since he had just lost the tracker��s signal, something didn��t seem right with that particr unit. So, he climbed toward the unit that had just gone dark. To his surprise, the windows were still open.


    Zhang Heng jumped in from the window without much hesitation. The enemy had just discovered that someone was after him, and there was no time to set up any traps.


    Soon after he entered the house, he could feel someone jumping on him from behind. He swiftly tilted his body to dodge the heavy blow. When he turned around, he saw his old acquaintance, the Spider-Man who had fought so fiercely earlier. It seemed he had stayed back in this house to buy someone time. At the same time at the door on the other side was opened. Zhang Heng could hear a woman whisper, ��Go!��


    In that split second, Zhang Heng paid the price for not focusing on the enemy in front of him. Spider-Man punched him in the stomach, causing him to fall into the cab beside him while spilling its contents all over the floor.


    Zhang Heng looked at the contents and realized that they were all action figures from Harry Potter, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Star Wars, and even Cardcaptor Sakura... Spider-Man��s figurine, however, seemed to be missing. Thetter was probably busy fighting him right now.


    Also, Zhang Heng saw various CDs of games and movies on the lower level of the cab. The owner of this room appeared to be a geek of some sort.


    Before Zhang Heng could take a closer look, his adversary, from the other side of the room, charged at him again. Spider-Man was not in his best shape since he could no longer shoot out webs. Besides, there was also a small hole in his chest. The circuitponents inside it were now exposed and his movements had gotten slower too. Simrly, Zhang Heng was not looking too good himself.


    Due to the limited space in this room, Zhang Heng had left his Tachi behind, and the anti-material rifle was in the trunk as well. Fortunately, his Infinite Building Block was small enough to be with him, and he was lucky enough to find a Lego truck under the bed.


    Zhang Heng grabbed the Lego truck and reassembled it into a taser in a split second. He then aimed at the small hole in Spider-Man��s chest and pushed the button. The next moment, a blue light flickered at that spot, and Spider-Man abruptly froze in its tracks, just like the Sphinx.


    Zhang Heng took a deep breath, walked out of the bedroom, pulled out his mobile phone, and called Shen Xixi.


    ��How��s everything over there?�� Zhang Heng asked.


    ��The enemy got away from me, and he was holding Yogurt.�� Shen Xixi sighed helplessly on the other end of the line. ��This is impossible. Since he kidnapped Yogurt, there is no way that he could pass my Evil Identification.��


    Shen Xixi scale was a special kind of game item. She would have to set the benchmark, and once her opponent exceeded its value, the item woulde into full effect.


    ��Have you ever thought that Yogurt hasn��t actually been kidnapped?�� Zhang Heng quickly checked the living room and found two novels for girls on the sofa, potato chips, popcorn, and a pair of female slippers on the shoe rack.


    ��Huh?��


    ��This whole thing might be a hoax.�� Zhang Heng recalled the female voice he heard at the door before and confirmed that it was indeed Yogurt��s voice.


    ��You mean 1810 made up this whole thing to deceive us? Why? It doesn��t make sense for him to give out 400 game points and two items for nothing.��


    ��Not 1810. I think Yogurt directed this whole incident.�� Zhang Heng walked into the bathroom, turned on the light, and saw many skincare products on the shelf.

 Chapter 710 - Abnormal

    <h4>Chapter 710: Abnormal</h4>


    Zhang Heng opened the security door downstairs for Shen Xixi. The first thing she saw when she walked up was the messy living room.


    ��You just fought here?��


    ��No, I was fighting in the bedroom. As for the living room... I think this is the prime example of a modern teenager��s living environment.��


    Shen Xixi thought for a while, ��Are you saying that they never clean up the house?��


    After that, she squatted down, rummaged through the trash can with a pair of disposable chopsticks on the table, and dished out two pieces of facial masks.


    ��It seems that the person we are going to rescue has been living here quitefortably for some time.��


    Shen Xixi tossed away the chopsticks. ��What do you think? Is this just another young couple eloping?��


    ��I don��t think the two of them are lovers,�� Zhang Heng said, ��Perhaps the man really likes the woman, or he wouldn��t have worked with her to do such a thing. On the other hand, I think the woman has no intention to develop a romantic rtionship with the man for now.��


    ��Why do you say that?��


    ��I searched the house briefly before you came up, and I couldn��t find the one thing that ismonly used by couples.��


    Shen Xixi raised his eyebrows, ��Are you talking about...��


    ��The man and the woman have lived together under the same roof for more than a week. And the two seemed to have never left the house as well. If they fancied each other, it would have been difficult for them to control their sexual desires.��


    ��That��s true. Why would Yogurt fake her own kidnapping?��


    ��You should ask 1810,�� Zhang Heng said.


    ...


    Forty minutester, 1810 met up with Zhang Heng and Shen Xixi. Although it was almost midnight when he received the call, he still had not gone to bed at that time. He appeared to be still worried about Yogurt, and once he heard that Zhang Heng found something new, he instantly looked for him.


    On the other hand, Spider-Man was stunned by Zhang Heng in the master bedroom half an hour ago and had transformed back to a figurine. However, there was still a small hole in his chest. Zhang Heng was ying with it in front of the bookcase.


    While 1810 was on the way to meet them, Shen Xixi had told him everything that happened tonight. His face remained dry and expressionless. After a long silence, he asked Shen Xixi, ��What is the name of the person you saw downstairs?��


    ��Shen Dongxing,�� Zhang Heng said, ��His name is on the parcel.��


    ��You saw the guy named Shen Dongxing kidnapping yogurt? Doesn��t this prove that Yogurt has nothing to do with this matter? That means she��s just a victim.��


    ��But Simon heard Yogurt asking Shen Dongxing to escape the ce with her,�� Shen Xixi said. ��If you saw the situation in the house, you should know that Yogurt is not the victim here.��


    ��Her voice can be faked, and the fact that she was not imprisoned is not enough to prove that the man didn��t kidnap her. He may have some other way to make Yogurt stay in the house. ording to what you said, the kid is also a yer, and he may possess some unique game items,�� 1810 said.


    ��It��s possible.��


    Before Shen Xixi could say anything, she saw Zhang Heng nodding. He put down the Spider-Man figurine and said, ��So you want us to continue investigating until we find Yogurt?��


    ��Yes, wasn��t that the agreement? Once you find Yogurt, I will pay you the bnce,�� 1810 said. He still behaved politely, getting up to shake hands with Zhang Heng. ��Both of your investigation abilities are truly amazing. You guys have made so much progress in less than one night. I hope you two can keep up the good work and rescue Yogurt sooner.��


    Shen Xixi frowned and wanted to say something, but 1810 had readied himself to leave. ��Sorry, I left the house secretly just now. I can��t stay outside for too long. Otherwise, my wife will start to ask me questions. Please see if you can find more useful clues here.��


    Shen Xixi stood in front of the window sill while watching 1810 hastily leaving the apartment and returning to his car.


    ��What do you think? He is acting weird tonight. The whole thing is so damn obvious. No one kidnapped Yogurt. Every evidence we presented him is enough to prove that he was wrong about this whole thing. However, he still insisted that he was in the right. If he cares so much about Yogurt, why would he leave as soon as we finished talking to him? He didn��t even take a good look at the house.��


    ��I agree with you. And one more thing. The strong scent of stale tobo on his body was overpowering. If I remember correctly, he has a child. He should not be able to smoke at home. That means he smoked at least seven to eight cigarettes while he was driving just now,�� Zhang Heng said.


    ��He is very anxious. Why? We are very close to finding his daughter.��


    ��I have some idea, but I need to look for more evidence first,�� Zhang Heng said. ��Wait a minute, I��ll make a call.��


    After half a minute, Zhang Heng hung up the phone. ��We have another guest tonight. Would you mind?��


    ��Who?��


    ��ck Swan.��


    ck Swan happened to live around the area, and it would only take her less than fifteen minutes to get to them. When Zhang Heng opened the door, he saw that she was in her pajamas. She appeared to have just gotten out of bed and had rushed to them as quickly as she could.


    But as a woman herself, Shen Xixi quickly noticed that ck Swan��s hair was tied up and not messy. There was some light makeup on her face as well. It made no sense that she did not change her clothes. However, Shen Xixi chose not to expose her.


    ��Here��s the situation...��


    ck Swan spent three minutes briefly exining the seemingly inconspicuous conflict at the dinner table before Zhang Heng and Shen Xixi arrived at the restaurant.


    But with Shen Xixi��s wittiness, she quickly realized how this matter had nothing to do with 1810��s reaction. She might not be as observant as Zhang Heng, but she was far from stupid. Otherwise, she would not be elected as the leader of the union.


    ��Ever since you exposed him, 1810��s reputation among his team has been severely affected. The reason why everyone still obeys him is because he is still the captain. If they find out that Yogurt was the one who nned the whole thing, they would definitely not let them off the hook so easily.��


    ��Yes.�� ck Swan pulled out a box of slim, menthol cigarettes from her pocket and pulled a stick out.


    ��Do you mind?��


    Shen Xixi shook her head. After that, ck Swan lit a cigarette, took a drag, stretched, and leaned back on the sofa. When she sat like that, she inadvertently revealed her bosom a little more. Nheless, she acted like she did not notice it.


    ��500 game points is no small amount. Everyone in the team contributed to gathering this many game points. Yogurt is thetest member of the team, and she doesn��t get along well with others. At most, we are just acquaintances to her. For the sake of 1810, we treated her as our little sister. Now that she is missing, some of us had to give out our hard-earned game points. For her, however, she��s just ying hide and seek with us. Hehe.��

 Chapter 711 - Planning

    <h4>Chapter 711: nning</h4>


    ��This exins 1810��s abnormal behavior. Once he heard what we told him, he had actually epted the results of our investigation. However, he knew all too well in his heart that he would have to bear the consequences of this matter going public.��


    ��The other yers in the team will make him reimburse all their game points,�� said ck Swan while as she blew out a cloud of smoke.


    ��He��ll have to admit to everything even if he refuses to do so,�� Shen Xixi said. ��We found this ce, and we even got the name, photo, and bank card number of Yogurt��s friend. It��s only a matter of time before we find him.��


    It seemed Shen Dongxing wasn��t expecting anybody to be able to locate them, seeing how no defensive measures had been set up around his house. Since it was an ordinary home, all manner of necessities were lying around. Although Yogurt and Dongxing managed to escape tonight, they brought nothing with them since they left in such a rush. Zhang Heng even found Shen Dongxing��s ID card in the drawer.


    ��It depends... How far is a father willing to go for his daughter?�� Zhang Heng asked gingerly.


    ��Hmm?��


    ��Didn��t you send all the information about Shen Dongxing to 1810?��


    ��Yes.�� Shen Xixi seemed lost in thought for a moment. ��He deliberately pretended not to remember Shen Dongxing��s name to confuse us? And when he finally left, my, was he in a mighty hurry. He then asked us to keep staying here to collect more clues. He must have wanted to be first to find Yogurt, lest he doesn��t have to pay us the bnce.��


    ck Swan shook her head. ��The moment you found this ce, this whole incident was over. If Yogurt directed this disappearing act, 1810 wouldn��t dare to not pay up the bnce. After all, you now rank first on the proxy war��s leaderboard.��


    ��So he��s colluding with Yogurt and the others to make this a real kidnapping case?�� The frown on Shen Xixi��s brow only grew deeper.


    ��This is the only way for him to avoid bearing the cost of all 500 game points on his own,�� ck Swan nodded. ��But as far as I know him, he��s not going to do something like that.��


    ��Why?��


    ��Because he knows very well that this trick won��t work. Even if you get the bnce and leave them alone, the nature of his rtionship with Yogurt will cause the other team members to keep investigating this matter. And say if we found Shen Dongxing, we can figure out a way to make him talk.��


    ��Does that mean this is his end?��


    ��No, he still has a choice. He will need to kill Shen Dongxing before you guys locate him. If Shen Dongxing is dead, he can twist the truth into however he likes,�� ck Swan went on.


    ��Is he going to do that for the sake of 500 game points?�� Shen Xixi asked in disbelief.


    ck Swan thought on it for a moment. ��Under normal circumstances, he would never do such a thing since he has a decent job and a happy family. Unless it��s hisst resort, it makes little sense for him to take so great a risk. 500 game points is not a small amount for our team, and 1810 certainly doesn��t own that many. However, I know that he has a Grade-C game item. It should value around 1300 points. If he sells it, he could just top it off.��


    ��Is he willing to sell the Grade-C item?��


    ��I don��t know about that, but from your description, I think he is prepared to kill Shen Dongxing.��


    ��Then we��d better find Shen Dongxing and Yogurt before he does,�� Shen Xixi sternly voiced, a sense of great urgency marring her tone.


    Shen Dongxing and Yogurt left in such a hurry; they had no time to cover their tracks. Nheless, it was still daunting of a task to find those two in such a short time. While looking for them, another doubt seeped into Shen Xixi��s mind. ��1810 made his move before us, and he got Shen Dongxing��s picture as well. How is he sure that he can locate the two before we do?��


    Upon that, ck Swan turned serious. ��Although 1810 can be quite selfish, he��s been doing a good job as our captain, that was until Yogurt joined the team, of course. I think it has something to do with his career. No matter what he does, he always figures out every move he needs to take. If he decides to kill Shen Dongxing, then he would��ve found a way to find him before us. I am afraid that the kid will soon die.��


    ...


    On the other side, in a 24-hour McDonalds restaurant, Yogurt returned to the table with french fries and drinks.


    She then talked to a somewhat scrawny boy who was facing her. ��Do you want Fanta or Coke?��


    ��This is not the time to pick a drink.�� The boy smiled bitterly. ��What should I do? My ID card and wallet are still at home. We can��t even stay in a hotel, and we don��t know where your dad hired such a powerful guy from. He��s too skillful. Not even my Spider-Man can take him on. Is he still human?��


    ��That guy is despicable and shameless. He worked with the victim to attack us. And he even hid away that...��


    ��Anti-material rifle.��


    ��Yes, the anti-material rifle injured your Spider-Man.��


    Shen Dongxing did not seem to think so, though. He watched the battle through Spider-Man��s eyes, realizing that Zhang Heng had terrifyingly aplished swordsmanship, almost as good as legendary anime characters. Soon, Shen Dongxing began to hesitate. ��Maybe... Maybe... You should go back first.��


    When Yogurt heard that, she threw the tray on the table. ��Shen Dongxing! What do you mean? Are you trying to get rid of me?��


    ��No, no, I��m not trying to get rid of you. We talked about getting revenge from your dad, but I never knew when this matter would truly end.�� Shen Dongxing cautiously continued, ��We��ve already taken his Grade-C item. Don��t you think... we should stop here?��


    ��Stop here?�� Yogurt snorted coldly, ��It��s too early to stop. He needs to pay for abandoning my mother. My mother got pregnant before she graduated university and was forced to return to her hometown alone. On the other hand, that bastard was flirting with the dean��s daughter. While his life got better, my mother had to endure everyone��s criticism. Her family had their backs turned on her, and she had a hard time looking for a job as well. In the end, she had to toil in a factory and eventually married a foreman. That asshole would go bonkers whenever he got drunk, and he would start beating the life out of my mother. Her whole life was ruined. Can a grade-C game item make up for it? No! I need to ruin his life! An eye for an eye!��


    Yogurt tore open a packet of ketchup as she talked.


    ��But... I think your dad��s been treating you well. He actually gave us the game item when I threatened him. He still cares about you.��


    ��He doesn��t care about me. He just wants to make himself feel better by showing me some kindness. And he thinks that this makes up for what he owes my mother and me? I won��t let him get what he wants.�� Yogurt sneered. ��This��s why I joined his team!��

 Chapter 712 - Delicious?

    <h4>Chapter 712: Delicious?</h4>


    Seeing that Shen Dongxing was still anxious, she lowered her tone a little. ��Why are you always so timid? Be a man and show me some courage! You are an agent with powerful abilities yourself. You can mechanize all kinds of figurines. I have never seen someone as powerful as you.��


    ��But I need aputer, and I have to carry all those figurines with me. Otherwise... I can only mechanize figurines for an hour per day.�� Shen Dongxing smiled bitterly and shook his head. ��After that, I��m just another weak otaku.��


    ��Don��t worry. I will protect you when you can��t use your ability.�� Yogurt patted her chest. She picked up a fry and persuaded gently, ��Open your mouth.��


    ��Huh?�� Shen Dongxing was a little ttered seeing Yogurt trying to feed him fries. He had been living with her for some time, but she had always kept a certain distance from him. They had not slept on the same bed before nor had they held each other��s hands. This was the first time Yogurt made such an intimate move.


    Shen Dongxing��s ears turned red, and he closed his eyes with excitement. He then moved his mouth closer to Yogurt��s hand, and his lips touched her finger. A look of disgust shed in thetter��s eyes, but she dismissed it quickly.


    Taken aback by his uncontrobly bold actions, his eyes instantly snapped open and he quickly apologized. To his surprise, Yogurt did not get angry. Instead, she smiled and asked, ��Delicious?��


    Shen Dongxing nodded repeatedly. ��It��s delicious.�� He then thought of something, stammered, and hastily exined, ��I, I��m talking about... the french fries.��


    ��I��m talking about the fries as well.�� Yogurt retracted her hand, quietly rubbed it at the inner part of the pack, and picked up another fry. ��You don��t have to worry about your identity getting blown. Just hang in there. When this matter is over, I will look for a great guild, and we can join together. When that happens, my dad won��t dare hire someone to deal with you.��


    ��Okay.��


    Shen Dongxing agreed to continue helping Yogurt. As he chewed on the fries, he stared at her with zealous eyes. ��I will do whatever you ask me to do.��


    ��Good.�� Yogurt smiled.


    Suddenly, her mobile phone vibrated, notifying her that she had received a new email. Faking her kidnap that night was the first step of her n. After that, she would use herself to threaten 1810. Since she was his illegitimate daughter, he would never let his team members know about it.


    She was going to use this secret to threaten 1810. If he did not want his daughter to die, he would have to pay the ransom. That was how Yogurt ckmailed the Grade-C game item off him. As if that wasn��t enough to satisfy her, she asked for another 300 game points from 1810.


    Yogurt was adamant in making 1810 lose all his possessions, and she was trying her best to force him to drop the ��loving-father�� act. When she managed to overwhelm him, Yogurt anticipated that he would give up on her to save himself. After all, she was not his only offspring. He still had a legitimate wife, children and had an everyday life.


    Yogurt had always believed that 1810��s feelings for her resulted from his guilt towards her mother. This was actually what the unassuming person would do. The two had just met not long ago, and they had never lived together as well. 1810 treated her well not because of fatherly love but that he simply wanted to feel better about himself, seeing that he now had the ability to take care of his illegitimate daughter.


    In the end, he was still a selfish man, and Yogurt wanted to expose his darkest secret. She wanted to prove that if he could abandon her mother back then, he would eventually abandon her too. Yogurt could live with the analysis of her rtionship with 1810 but, she did make a few mistakes. The first was that she did not expect ck Swan to investigate her rtionship with her father. Their secret was then exposed in front of other team members. As for the second mistake, she did not expect 1810 to spend 500 game points to hire Zhang Heng to rescue her. From there, her n started to crumble. Shen Dongxing and Yogurt could never return to their safe house. But among these, the gravest mistake she could have made was to underestimate how dangerous 1810 was.


    Yogurt looked at her mobile phone and saw 1810 sent her an email. Thetter had stopped being nice. He told her that he had found out everything about Shen Dongxing, including his name, appearance, ID number, and even his socialwork ounts, and it was only a matter of time before he would be caught. But at the end of the mail, 1810 expressed his willingness to give Shen Dongxing onest chance. That was, if Shen Dongxing was willing to deliver Yogurt safely to the designated location, he might spare his life.


    ��What should we do now?�� Shen Dongxing��s coolnesssted for only three seconds. He just mentioned that he would do whatever Yogurt told him to do. However, when he saw the ultimatum-like email, he immediately broke out in panic. ��They know everything! We won��t be hiding for long. And I didn��t bring my wallet when I escaped! How much money do you have in your bag, and where are we staying tonight? I can��t stay at McDonald��s all night!��


    ��Hey, calm down. Don��t you see that he is just intimidating us? Since he sent us this email, it proves that he can��t find us.��


    ��But... he is telling the truth here,�� Shen Dongxing protested. ��How many days can we run from him? Sooner orter, they will capture us.�� Shen Dongxing paused, then mustered his courage and continued, ��Or, we can join Arc of Light now. They just destroyed the union not long ago, and they are receiving a lot of attention. As long as we join Arc of Light, your father wouldn��t dare do anything to us.��


    ��No.�� Yogurt interrupted him. She realized that her tone was too harsh when she talked to him earlier. So, she quickly exined, ��At least not yet. My revenge n is only halfplete. I need to destroy him.��


    ��But we are about to lose this fight.��


    Yogurt gritted her teeth. ��Then we speed up our final n. Tell him that we need 1,000 game points and his arm. If we don��t see it before dawn, he��ll be collecting my dead body.��


    ��Huh?�� Shen Dongxing was dumbfounded, ��But he... he��s close to finding us. Will he still agree to such a harsh condition?��


    ��It��s because he is desperate to find us that he will do what we ask,�� Yogurt added.

 Chapter 713 - Illusion

    <h4>Chapter 713: Illusion</h4>


    Rabbits would bite their enemies when forced into desperation. Shen Dongxing, however, had no idea what he would do when someone forced his hand.


    He had never gotten into a fight before since young, and even after gaining superpowers one could only dream of, the only thing he did was to let his figurines go out for a walk in the evening.


    What Yogurt did next almost caused Shen Dongxing to wet his pants.


    Aftering out of McDonald��s, Yogurt headed to a 24-hour convenience store and bought a penknife. The two then headed to the parking lot, where Yogurt unpacked the knife and handed it to Shen Dongxing.


    She rolled up her sleeves and said, ��Come on.��


    ��Come...e what?�� Shen Dongxing took the penknife and did not know what to do with it.


    ��Torture me,�� Yogurt blinked. ��Did you really think that you could just sit there and do nothing? My dad needs to know that you are desperate. They have been to your house, and there is a high chance they have begun suspecting that you and I have been faking the whole thing. We have to show him some proof.��


    ��How do we prove it?�� Shen Dongxing asked with trembling hands.


    ��Don��t you know how to torture people? Ugh. Forget it. I��ll do it myself,�� snapped Yogurt as she snatched the knife from Shen Dongxing. In a clean, unfaltering swipe, she made sure she exerted every ounce of her strength when she cut herself. The knife went in all the way, splitting its way into her muscles, causing bright red blood to gush out from the deep wound.


    Shen Dongxing was shocked as he witnessed the terrifying scene unfolding in front of him. ��You are crazy!�� he yelled while instinctively taking-off his t-shirt and wrapping it around Yogurt��s arm to stop the bleeding.


    ��Wait here! I��ll go buy some gauze and iodine,�� he blurted in panic.


    As he ran towards the convenience store, he suddenly stopped in his tracks and whispered in embarrassment. ��Um... can you lend me some money? I just remembered that I have no wallet.��


    ��Don��t waste your time. Just stay here!�� Yogurt rolled her eyes. She did not use Shen Dongxing��s t-shirt to stop the bleeding. Instead, she deliberately dabbed and rubbed the wound with it, causing the shirt to be awash with bloodstains. She then threw the t-shirt back to Shen Dongxing.


    ��Put it on!��


    ��What?��


    ��Don��t make me repeat it,�� Yogurt growled impatiently.


    Seeing that Yogurt was getting angry, Shen Dongxing quickly put on the bloody t-shirt.


    However, Yogurt still seemed unsatisfied. She frowned. ��You��re too weak. Do you even know what to do when forced into a desperate situation?�� She then took some of her blood and smeared it on Shen Dongxing��s face and neck, making him look a lot more terrifying.


    ��Hmm.�� Yogurt took two steps back, cocked her head, and took a better look at Shen Dongxing. This time, though, she seemed satisfied. After that, she stabbed her arm twice without so much as a twitch on her face.


    ��I... we can fake the wounds and blood! I know a friend who does a great job.�� Shen Dongxing��s lips quivered as he spoke, and his forehead was sweating profusely.


    ��Don��t be stupid,�� Yogurt snorted, ��My dad is just bad, not stupid. You can��t possibly fool him.��


    ��Then... Then you can��t keep hurting yourself either!�� Shen Dongxing was almost crying.


    Yogurt��s expressions remained stoic she as inflicted cut after deep cut on her arm. After a while, four gaping sh wounds were very visible. At the same time, she said lightly, ��Compared to the suffering my mother had to endure over the years, this is nothing. Rest assured, I will make him pay for what he��s done to us.��


    After that, Yogurt made another sixteen cuts on the same arm. Fortunately, thest ten cuts were not as deep as the ones before. With all that blood and shes on her, she looked appaling. Even the keenest skeptic who saw her would not doubt that she had been severely tortured.


    Yogurt then threw her mobile phone to Shen Dongxing and said, ��Record a video of me. Keep the first part of the video at around 10 seconds long.��


    Shen Dongxing shakily pressed the record button with his trembling hand. After that, she saw Yogurt crawling on the ground in horror, crying and begging for mercy. Her blood began to stain the green grass of the parking lot.


    After that, Shen Dongxing recorded a four-second video of him chasing Yogurt, then took a few more photos for good measure.


    ��It��s done. You can go buy the gauze and iodine now,�� Yogurt said and took out fifty yuan from her wallet.


    Seeing Shen Dongxing subconsciously walking towards the convenience store, Yogurt quickly halted him. ��Hey, hey, what are you doing? Do you want the store��s employees to call the police?��


    ��Take off that shirt and wash away the blood on your face and hands.��


    ��Oh... Oh!��


    Shen Dongxing snapped back to reality.


    When he returned five minutester, Yogurt had alreadyposed the videos and pictures into an email and sent it to 1810. She then sat on the flower bed in the parking lot, watching Shen Dongxing kneeling beside her, tending to her wounds.


    In the quiet and dark, their breathing was audible to each other.


    After a while, Yogurt suddenly asked, ��Why did you stop talking to me? Did my behavior scare you?��


    Shen Dongxing shook his head, and tears started flowing down his cheek.


    ��You are a man. Stop crying! I didn��t even hurt you. I��m the one who��s gotten hurt here. If I didn��t cry, you have no right to cry!�� Yogurt said.


    Shen Dongxing wiped away his tears, but made no attempts to defend himself.


    ��Sometimes, I get very curious. What do you like about me? I have an awfully bad temper, I can��t cook and do housework, and I don��t treat you well. Revenge is all I��ve been thinking about. Even after we��ve stayed together for so long, I never allowed you to hold my hands. I know that you haven��t achieved much in the past, but you are an agent now. If you go and work for one of the three major guilds, I��m pretty sure tons of girls would starting after you, and those will be more beautiful than me. Why are you so stupid? Why must you cling on to me?��


    After running here and there for the entire day, fatigue was beginning to gue Shen Dongxing. After helping Yogurt bandage her wounds, he slumped to the ground in exhaustion. He did not immediately answer, but instead, he asked, ��Do you remember what happened when we first met?��


    ��I remember what happened to you. A few senior students were bullying you at the bus stand because you didn��t steal enough money from home for them,�� Yogurt nodded.


    ��At the time, everyone pretended not to see me. They walked past me as quickly as they could. And I still remember the feeling of helplessness I felt that morning, as if the whole world was gray... until you stopped them.��


    ��Initially, I didn��t want to stick my nose into your business,�� Yogurtughed. ��But I remember how you kept crying. The sound of it frustrated me. I thought to myself, how did a boy like you be so weak? All you did was to cry endlessly. I have been through so much horror, yet I haven��t shed a single tear. So, why cry over such a small matter?��


    ��I probably... fell in love with you at that time,�� confessed Shen Dongxing. ��I didn��t expect to meet you again after moving house and transferring to another school. When I knew you were a yer, I was so happy. For a long time, you have always taken care of me. I didn��t expect that someday, I��d be able to help you. So when you came to me, I never thought of rejecting you.��


    Yogurt fell into silence. After a while, she spoke again, ��You know that I��m just using you, right?��


    ��Well, I also know that you like girls and not boys,�� Shen Dongxing said. ��I once sneaked upstairs to look for you during the inter-ss exercises. To my surprise, I saw you having an intimate session with another girl in the ssroom. So, I went off and cried for the whole afternoon. You kept asking me who bullied me... I know that you will never join one of the three major guilds with me. You are just lying. But I was still delighted just listening to what you have to tell me. When we were at McDonald��s, I was ted when you fed me French fries. Do you know who Fitzgerald is?��


    ��Yes, the guy who wrote The Great Gatsby.��


    ��He used that book to predict his tragic fate perfectly. And he saw the source of all his pain and tragedy, yet still chose to plunge into the illusion without looking back. In the end, he sacrificed his life for it. I never understood his choice when I was young, but now, I understand him perfectly. Sometimes the illusion is just too beautiful to resist.�� Shen Dongxing said.

 Chapter 714 - Farewell

    <h4>Chapter 714: Farewell</h4>


    ��Sorry,�� Yogurt whispered, ��I always hated my father because he abandoned mother and ruined her life. Before I found him, I could only think about how to avenge her. And I��m willing to do whatever it takes to destroy his life. But when I looked back, I realized that I had be another him.��


    ��You don��t need to apologize. It��s my own choice,�� Shen Dongxing replied. ��I think your mother... never really hated your father at the beginning. Otherwise, she wouldn��t have given birth to you.��


    ��It doesn��t matter,�� Yogurt said, ��Wrong is wrong. Now that I��vee to this, I must make my father pay the price. As for our problems, let��s talk about them after all this is over. I will find a way topensate you.��


    Shen Dongxing wanted to say something, but in the end, the words just failed toe out.


    ��I contacted my dad and sent him the video and photos, and he��s agreed to our request. However, he asked to see me first to confirm I am still alive.��


    ��He...��


    ��There��s no way that he will agree to give us what we want,�� Yogurt sneered. ��He will take this opportunity to ambush you. High chances, he��ll be bringing along the man that fought with your Spiderman earlier.��


    ��Why agree to meet up with him, then?�� Shen Dongxing was dumbfounded.


    ��What are you afraid of?�� Yogurt asked, ��It��s past midnight now, and your ability has been refreshed. If he dares to attack us, we will retaliate immediately. And you don��t have to be there this time. This n is foolproof.��


    ��But how can I help you if I don��t go with you?��


    ��Just pick one of your figurines and pretend it��s you,�� Yogurt said.


    ��Then I... I will hide at a ce near you. If something bad happens to you, I can send another figurine to neutralize the threat. My limit is mechanizing seven figurines at the same time. However, their duration will be reduced by half.�� With no holds barred, Shen Dongxing exined what was supposed to be an absolute secret to Yogurt.


    ��Whatever,�� Yogurt said. ��Just make sure to hide well.��


    ...


    Afterward, the two of them did some preparations. Yogurt chose a secluded spot as the meeting ce��a closed shopping mall. She secretly picked the lock and used some unknown game items to render the security guards unconscious.


    Shen Dongxing, on the other hand, had rented a private room in an Inte cafe not far away. He hurriedly logged into theputer and selected the Captain America figurine that he borrowed from someone else. Captain America had always been a protector, and Shen Dongxing would be more relieved if Captain America was the one who protected her.


    The superhero outfit, however, was still too morous for a 1920s United States. Shen Dongxing then asked him to change to a new set of clothes and covered his face with a hoodie. As for his shield and uniform, he put them on a stic mannequin for the time being.


    Yogurt stood in front of the ss wall on the mall��s third floor, and from up high, watched 1810 park the car by the side of the street.


    1810 got out of the car. Visibly cautious of his surroundings, he kept looking around. As promised, he came alone. No one else was in the car. That, however, meant in no way that he did not bring anybody with him. Yogurt had studied 1810 for a long time, and she knew he would never fight a battle he could not win.


    Nheless, those thoughts bothered Yogurt little since there would only be one winner tonight.


    While there was still some time, Yogurt turned around and looked at Captain America beside her. Thetter stood quietly in the dark and kept an eye on his surroundings. Yogurt said, ��I wanted to tell you something. However, it would be best if you didn��t hear them. So, this is the best time to say it. I hope this incident also helps you learn something new. You are not that young anymore. Stop trusting others so easily. Never invest all your feeling and emotions in someone who doesn��t love you back. Now that you have the ability others can only dream of, you should learn to protect yourself. You can��t expect someone to be always there to help you.��


    Yogurt paused for a while and continued, ��Consider that Grade-C game item as yourpensation. Initially, I wanted to get you more game points, but now, it seems impossible. So, that��s it. I hope you will find a girl truly worthy of your love and will never be let down by her. Well, that��s all I want to say. Take good care of yourself.��


    After she finished speaking, she moved her head to the other side and looked at the elevator.


    In the Inte caf����s private room, Shen Dongxing was dumbfounded. He could see what Captain America saw through theputer, but he could not hear any sound. All he saw was Yogurt moving her lips. Hence, he had no idea what she just said.


    However, his instinct told him that something bad might happen tonight. Unfortunately, he could not make Captain America speak. At the same time, 1810 had arrived, but he could not leave the caf�� to help Yogurt. All he could do was sit in his chair and stare at the monitor anxiously.


    Yogurt never told Shen Dongxing about her whole n. She nned to divulge bit by bit as she went along. Shen Dongxing was not aplete fool, either. Sure, he would space out, and his mind would go nk at times, but that was when he talked to Yogurt. Now that he was alone, he could finally analyze the whole thing. And he realized that something had gone really wrong tonight.


    Since Yogurt knew that she wouldn��t be getting what she wanted tonight, why would she agree to meet 1810? Even if she managed to defeat 1810 and his men, it would still do her no good.


    Her ultimate goal has never changed. She wanted to force 1810 to tear off his hypocritical mask and his fake loving act and admit that he was scum and an irresponsible father. He had to live with the guilt until the end of his life, knowing that no one would forgive him.


    How could Yogurt made it happen?


    Shen Dongxing felt that he was slowly figuring out the whole thing. After a while, he realized that he had no way to prove his spection right. Suddenly, he thought about the man that fought with his Spiderman earlier. He felt nervous again, and he had to stop allowing his mind to wander around. He, he quickly focused his attention on Captain America.


    Besides, he still had Thor, Hulk, ck Widow, Iron Man, and Hawkeye on his table. Their existence gave him a little relief. No matter who came here tonight, no one would be able to hurt Yogurt as long as his ability still worked.


    It was rare that he possessed such confidence.

 Chapter 715 - Accidental Death

    <h4>Chapter 715: idental Death</h4>


    After entering the mall, 1810 did not rush to the floor where Yogurt was. As captain, he had helped his team go through all kinds of challenges, and he wasn��t one to act recklessly after knowing that his enemy could mechanize figurines.


    The moment he stepped into the shopping mall, he had to be hyper-aware of his surroundings. Since he took stealthy steps, it took him a good ten minutes to get from the first floor to the third. However, there was no danger along the way.


    Then he saw Yogurt.


    Thetter��s hands and feet were bound, and she was lying behind a disy window. Just like the photo, she looked to be in an awful state, not to mention the deep wounds all over her arms. When 1810 saw her chest moving, he realized she was still alive. And he was relieved to see that. Then he noticed some yellow unidentified liquid on Yogurt.


    The yellow liquid stretched all the way from behind the disy window to the front of the shop. 1810 then took a deep breath, and his expression changed, and said to the man who in front of the door, ��Gasoline?��


    Although Shen Dongxing was extremely anxious, he had still asked Captain America to take out the lighter in ordance with the agreement with Yogurt.


    1810 became nervous when he saw the lighter, and solemnly, he persuaded, ��Don��t do it. We can talk about the reward.��


    At that time, Yogurt had also woken up. She became excited when she saw 1810 and immediately hit her head against the disy window, seemingly signaling to him to rescue her quickly.


    1810forted, ��Don��t worry, you will be safe soon.��


    Then he turned his head and said to Captain America, ��Aren��t you Shen Dongxing? Where is Shen Dongxing?��


    Although Captain America had wrapped himself up like a mummy, the difference in size between him and Shen Dongxing was too vast. 1810 could not convince himself that Shen Dongxing was actually the one standing in front of him.


    And he also realized that the tall figure facing him had not spoken since they met.


    The moment 1810 took a step forward, Captain America ignited the lighter.


    1810 knew that his opponent was warning him not to take another step. The situation fell into a temporary stalemate. 1810 did not give up onmunicating with the other party, though, mentioning that he was willing to give out a thousand game points. However, he could note up with so much in such a short time, and he hoped that the other party could give him more time and release Yogurt first.


    Shen Dongxing was scratching his head in front of theputer. He could not hear what 1810 was saying. So, he could only order Captain America to protect Yogurt while he held the lighter to continue threatening 1810.


    1810 kept on talking to Captain America, but he received no response. Looking at 1810 through the monitor, it seemed like he was trying to calm Captain America down.


    This was what a father would do to protect his child.


    But the next moment, an unexpected ident happened. A bullet whizzing by from an unknown direction smashed through the mall��s ss wall and hit the target urately. Shen Dongxing was taken aback. At first, he thought Captain America was the one who had been shot but he saw no bullet holes on him. Yogurt seemed unharmed as well. As for 1810, his body jerked back violently, and a bullet hole appeared on his head. After that, he stumbled, hit the third floor��s guardrail, and tumbled to the first floor��s marble floor.


    With his head first to hit the ground, it was a bloody scene to watch. And there was no point rescuing him anymore.


    ��This is... what the hell?!�� Shen Dongxing��s eyes widened in front of theputer,pletely stunned by what was happening before him.


    Yogurt was equally as shocked. She thought she had taken into ount every possible scenario that might ur tonight. No matter what 1810 or Shen Dongxing did, however, none of them could change the ending.


    But she did not expect 1810 to be killed right in front of her eyes.


    His death was so unexpected Yogurt did not know how to proceed.


    Since her target was now dead, everything that she had done so far was all but pointless.


    The death of 1810 had messed up Yogurt��s npletely, causing her mind to go nk for a few seconds. She then snapped back to reality when she heard the bullet smashing the disy window in front of her. It seemed the enemy had no intention to stop after killing 1810.


    Fortunately, Captain America managed to grab his shield and block the bullets aiming for Yogurt in time. At the same time, he used his other hand to untie the rope around her feet.


    ��Wait. Something is off,�� Yogurt said with suspicion.


    As a yer, 1810 must have had participated in team battles before. Hunting monsters in the real world could easily plunge the yers into conflict. Therefore, it was not surprising that 1810 had enemies in the real world. However, the timing his enemies chose to eliminate him seemed a little off. And the killing happened too quickly just now. Yogurt did see 1810 getting shot, falling head-first to the first floor. However, she did not have the time to examine his body.


    After blurting out what she wanted to say, Yogurt realized that it was all useless because Shen Dongxing, now far away in the Inte cafe, could not hear a single word she was saying. After Captain America untied the rope from her foot and hand, he wanted to drag her away from this ce.


    At the inte cafe, a few young people who were focussing on their LoL game witnessed the most magical scene in their lives. They saw ck Widow, Hawkeye, and Hulk running out of the private room one after the other! Just when they were about to say something, something even more magical happened. Iron Man smashed the window and flew into the sky.


    The cafe owner who was helping a customer get a can of Coke at the checkout counter was almost frightened to death. He just sat on the ground and dared not move a single muscle. He never thought that his Inte caf��, now open for five years, could have be a temporary office for the Avengers.


    The rest of the Avengers rushed to the mall with lightning speed. Among them, Iron Man was the first to arrive on the third floor. And Yogurt came to an epiphany when she saw Iron Man.


    She finally realized what 1810 wanted to do. She then yelled at Iron Man, ��Quick, go back!�� At the same time, she kept waving her hands, but s, Iron Man had no idea what she was trying to do. He could only respond with a not-to-worry gesture with his hands.


    There was clearly amunication problem between the two of them. Yogurt did not bring her mobile phone with her. She did this because she had anticipated what would happen next, and she did not want Shen Dongxing to get in her way. However, she did not expect that this move would inadvertently put Shen Dongxing at grave risk.

 Chapter 716 - In The Name Of Justice

    <h4>Chapter 716: In The Name Of Justice</h4>


    Considering how dangerous it was to be a yer, many of the capable ones would have a trump card to handle critical situations.


    1810 was no exception. His trump card was a Grade-C game item that went by the name ��Feign Death.�� In other words, 1810 had two grade-C game items with him. It was a secret even his team members knew nothing about.


    Feign Death was an elementary game item. Basically, it allowed the user to fake their death in front of everyone, where the illusion wouldst for fifteen minutes. If someone touched the user��s body, however, the item��s effect would be nullified.


    While 1810 took his time walking from the first floor to the third, he was actually watching out for Shen Dongxing��s ambush and looking for a spot where he could use his Feign Death. Whether Yogurt or Shen Dongxing, none of the two realized that 1810 had sneaked out of the mall after he faked his death.


    Since 1810 now knew that Yogurt had orchestrated the whole thing from the beginning, he was no longer concerned about her safety. Hence, he only had one thing to do tonight, and that was to kill Shen Dongxing.


    Thetter��s absence in the mall surprised 1810. However, he strongly believed that Shen Dongxing had to be somewhere nearby. After reading the information that Shen Xixi provided him, he now knew the nature of the rtionship between them both.


    Yogurt had never developed romantic feelings for Shen Dongxing, who, however, waspletely obsessed with Yogurt.


    1810 was a man too, and he was once a youngd. He knew exactly what a boy that age was thinking about.


    When the girl he liked was in danger, no matter how strong or weak he was, he couldn��t just watch and do nothing from a distance.


    The person who shot 1810 was 1810 himself. He killed his own illusion to create chaos and to disrupt Yogurt��s n. After he killed his illusion, he turned his gun and fired at Yogurt. This was to prevent her from checking his dead body downstairs. The second reason he did that was to force Shen Dongxing��s hand when he saw Yogurt getting attacked.


    As expected, Shen Dongxing went all out to save Yogurt. He mechanized the remaining figurines he had and rushed them to the mall. When he did that, his location was immediately exposed.


    He was about to pay a huge price for his actions.


    1810 knew that Shen Dongxing had taken the bait. He did not enter the inte caf��, however, because what he was about to do was illegal.


    So he quietly walked to the other side of the caf��, where he could see what would happen in Shen Dongxing��s private cubicle.


    1810 didn��t need to spend too much effort looking for Shen Dongxing. Thetter was sitting in front of theputer and looked very anxious. From time to time, he would look in the mall��s direction through the window. The poor guy hadn��t realized that he had actually been targeted.


    ��You can only me your bad luck.��


    1810 was just about to pull the trigger when he heard a voice nearby talking to him.


    ��Is this necessary?��


    Shen Xixi emerged from the corner of the convenience store, looking at 1810 with a solemn expression.


    1810 was surprised to see Shen Xixi.


    ��How did you find this ce?��


    Before waiting for the other party to answer, 1810 stressed in a deep voice, ��Tonight��s matter has nothing to do with you. You��d better not get involved. I will pay him the four hundred points left by your friend.��


    ��And the price of that is? A young and innocent life?��


    ��I agree with young, but he is far from innocent. If he didn��t stick his nose into my business, he would not have lost his life today.�� 1810��sst sentence carried a hint of threat.


    From a rational standpoint, 1810 did not want to be Shen Xixi��s enemy. Although he had never seen her fighting with anyone before, he knew she was an upright and righteous woman. Some might not fully agree with Shen Xixi��s philosophy, but one could not deny that it was good to have someone like her as a friend.


    Therefore, the consequences of killing Shen Xixi and an insignificant otaku like Shen Dongxing werepletely different. But at this point, it would be hard to put a stop to his n. And now 1810 had a new problem. Even if he killed Shen Dongxing, he couldn��t escape thew since Shen Xixi watched him. In other words, his only way topletely absolve himself from this mess was to kill Shen Xixi after he killed Shen Dongxing.


    Fortunately, 1810��s problem did notst too long.


    A figure then came out of the Inte caf��.


    1810 subconsciously pointed the muzzle at the person. To his surprise, his opponent reacted faster than him. The person took out a pistol, casually pulled the trigger, and the bulletnded on 1810��s weapon, dead on target.


    ��Meeting a person who��s willing to reason with you is something you should cherish,�� Zhang Heng said, ��most wouldn��t waste their time negotiating with you.��


    Immediately, 1810��s expression changed. The person he feared most was none other than Zhang Heng himself. When the two met for the first time, he knew nothing about the youngd. However, he had to admit that if it were not for Zhang Heng, they would have never captured the mechanical Sphinx. Considering Zhang Heng ranked first in the proxy war��s leaderboard, 1810 knew that he was not powerful enough to defeat an opponent like him.


    So he was smart enough to put down his weapon. He then raised both of his hands to tell Zhang Heng that he wanted to surrender.


    Although he acted aggressively tonight, he killed nobody in the end. It meant Shen Xixi didn��t need to eliminate or punish him. At most, she would make him pay Zhang Heng the remaining game points he owed and give him a verbal warning.


    Zhang Heng nced at Shen Xixi. Thetter��s expression, too, seemed a little hesitant. After a while, she took out a small scale and said to 1810, ��I am no judge, and I am not qualified to judge you. Since this is a yer��s matter, we can��t hand you over to the police. However, you did attempt to kill someone, and I can��t just let you off the hook without doing anything. Since this is the situation, we can only let the Justice Scale judge you.��


    Zhang Heng could see that Shen Xixi did not really want to use her Justice Scale on 1810, but unfortunately, there was no other way to deal with him. In the end, she took the scale and walked towards 1810.


    1810��s expression became tense. As a yer, he knew that different game items were used in different situations. The scale Shen Xixi held looked unusual, not to mention the powerful aura of righteousness it exuded.


    1810 attempted to stay calm, but he felt more and more guilty when he looked at the scale. In the end, his legs went soft, and he could not help but kneel on the ground. Shen Xixi stood still in front of him and sighed. In one hand, she held the scale, the other, ced on 1810��s head. She then said sternly.


    ��In the name of justice, I shall now judge your evil deeds!��

 Chapter 717 - Repentance

    <h4>Chapter 717: Repentance</h4>


    This was also Zhang Heng��s first time seeing Shen Xixi putting the scale to use.


    At that moment, she had transformed into what seemed to be an ancient stone statue, one that exuded a majestic aura.


    Some might have missed it, but Zhang Heng clearly witnessed something that might not even be real. He could vaguely see a beating heart in the dark. Some inexplicable ck matter surrounded this heart. There wasn��t very much of this ck matter, and they slowly gathered, thennded on the scale��s tray. It was these ck substances that slowly weighed the scale down.


    At the same time, 1810 felt like he was suffocating. Nothing unusual seemed to be happening to his body, but he looked like he was gasping for air. His forehead was lined with beads of sweat, and his mind began to transport him back, reliving the vows he exchanged with his first love. Those long-forgotten, sweet memories came rushing back, severely haunting his mind. And in his heart was also the same burdensome guilt he felt when he informed his first love that he was preparing to marry the dean��s daughter. The way she red at him, those using eyes, was something he would never forget.


    1810 was expecting his first love to scold and argue with him. However, she did not say a word. She simply turned around, stepping out of his life forever.


    After that, his mind shifted scenes. Under the dean��s help, 1810��s career skyrocketed, and he quickly became a renowned figure in the medical industry. Later, someone found him and asked for his help in promoting a new medical device. With the status of expert, he was more than qualified to endorse the product. After practicing as a doctor for some time, 1810 knew that this medical device was not as good as the manufacturer imed. It might have been useful in certain surgeries, but it required the surgeon to have considerable surgical experience. And it also had some shorings aspared to traditional surgery methods. But these ws were often not mentioned during the promotion of the product. Besides, most surgeries did not require the use of such high-end equipment. At the same time, it was highly likely that certain medical personnel would abuse this product.


    At that time, 1810 had felt that it wasn��t right to market medical equipment that had known ws. Considering the responsibilities he had toward his patients, he did not want the manufacturer to manipte him. Hence, he disagreed. After that, his father-inw, a retiree, talked to him and hinted that the purchasing of the medical equipment had everything to do with his bright future. Hence, it would be unwise for him to push something like that away. The older man promised 1810 that he would reap the rewards in the near future.


    In the end, 1810 decided to endorse the medical equipment after sleeping on the thought for two nights. During that time, his smoking addiction grew exponentially.


    Once again, the scene in his mind changed. This time, he was on a ne.


    Only half a minute had passed, but 1810 felt that he had spent a century in his memories.


    He was reminded of all the evil he had done in his life. Finally, he recalled that he wanted to keep that five-hundred game points, save Yogurt, and kill Shen Dongxing.


    All of a sudden, he heard Shen Xixi��s voice echoing from an unusually remote ce.


    She extended her hand and inserted it into 1810��s body. He felt no pain, however.


    After a while, she retracted her hand, and 1810 woke up from his nightmare. The first thing he did was check his body. He found nothing wrong with it as if nothing had happened to him.


    But 1810 knew the punishment had taken effect. He turned to look at Shen Xixi, who was now in front of him. ��What did you do to me?��


    ��I took away your happiness. From now on, you will never feel joy anymore. No matter what food you taste, what beautiful scenery you see, or meeting whoever you love, you will not get a single ounce of happiness,�� Shen Xixi said. ��But this is not permanent. You can still earn back your happiness.��


    ��What should I do?��


    ��Aren��t you a surgeon? Save 300 people, and you will return to normal.��


    1810 was left inplete silence. Saving three hundred people did not seem like an impossible task. After all, some surgeons performed more than a dozen surgeries a day. Most of them, however, were small procedures like removing an appendix. An operation as such didn��t qualify as saving one��s life. Surgeries like removing tumors were one of those operations that could save a patient��s life. But what if the cancer cells have metastasized and spread to the whole body even after the tumor had been removed? How long did the patient need to survive to be counted as saving one��s life? The difficulty of this matter depended entirely on the definition of saving one��s life.


    1810 looked at Shen Xixi again, but thetter did not intend to exin the matter.


    While they were talking, Yogurt had left the shopping mall to look for Shen Dongxing. Although Shen Dongxing��sbat awareness was rather low, he had already noticed that Zhang Heng, Shen Xixi, and 1810 were not too far away from him. He was so frightened that he hid under the table since he could find no weapon to defend himself.


    After that, he saw a woman with a choker on her necking into the caf��. She sat on the sofa and looked at him with a smile.


    Shen Dongxing recognized the woman as a member of 1810��s team. He realized that this might be the end for him.


    ��I want you to pay the price for stunning me. Seriously, that was the first time I was stunned by a man since I was born... literally,�� gushed ck Swan.


    Shen Dongxing sneered.


    ��But you are lucky, I happen to be in a good mood tonight, and I don��t want to pursue the matter anymore.��


    ��Really?!��


    Shen Dongxing was overjoyed.


    ��I��m just kidding. I am thinking how to trick you out of the table, then ughter you.��


    Shen Dongxing��s face turned pale again after hearing what she said.


    ��You are so gullible. No wonder the girls around you could manipte you so easily.��


    ��Yogurt... didn��t lie to me,�� Shen Dongxing defended her in a low voice.


    ck Swan harrumphed and seemed like she wanted to say something. She thought for a while before shrugging him off. ��Forget it. Young people should do the stupid things only young people would do. Self-protection is something only older people would think about. Learn to reserve your feelings from your failed rtionships. Learn to calcte your gains and losses. With that, you will not get hurt easily. However, after experiencing a failed rtionship, you won��t be able to give as much for the next person you fall in love with. Is that a good thing? I don��t know.��


    ck Swan finished speaking and saw Yogurting out of the mall. She walked to the table where Shen Dongxing was hiding, reached out, and knocked on the table. ��Go ahead. At least stop her from doing something suicidal...��

 Chapter 718 - Unraveling The Secrets Of Set-Items

    <h4>Chapter 718: Unraveling The Secrets Of Set-Items</h4>


    Everyone had secrets. Zhang Heng never asked how Shen Xixi acquired the Justice Scale and what sort of agreement she had made with the goddess of justice, Justitia. Shen Xixi, too did not ask Zhang Heng how he came to know about the location where Yogurt and 1810 would meet.


    She and ck Swan had followed Zhang Heng here, subsequently managing to prevent two tragedies from happening during the critical moment.


    Zhang Heng had two Grade-B game items with him, second only to those major guilds�� highest-ranking members. However, his biggest secret was the extra 24 hours that he had every day. To Shen Xixi, Zhang Heng investigated Yogurt��s disappearance with her the whole night, but the truth was that he had left Shen Dongxing��s apartment after midnight. Using the tracking skill he learned from the Deductive Reasoning quest, it took about four hours to find the two. Instead of tying them up, Zhang Heng imnted Trojan horse malware in their mobile phones to monitor and pinpoint their locations.


    If 1810 had arrived here to ept the result, the investigation of this matter would end here. If 1810 refused to ept the oue, Zhang Heng could locate Yogurt and Shen Dongxing faster than him.


    Anyway, this matter was resolved peacefully in the end. 1810, however, had to pay the price of his team getting disbanded. As they went their separate ways, ck Swan hinted to Zhang Heng that if he were willing to team up with her, she would surprise him with something pleasurable. Unfortunately, Zhang Heng declined her request.


    From the beginning of this game, Zhang Heng had never thought of teaming up with anyone else. Although the difficulty of the Proxy War quest had increased, he could handle it alone for now.


    Zhang Heng had also asked 1810 to pay him the remaining game points he owed. However, thetter did not have enough points, and since his Feign Death was now exposed, he decided to give the Grade-C game item with one use left to Zhang Heng.


    After a little deliberation, Zhang Heng agreed to take the item in ce of the game points. Feign Death was a unique game item, a perfect trump card he could put to good use. However, it had its shorings. If his enemies found out about the item, using it would be pointless. Zhang Heng wasn��t too bothered, as long as it could be used in the quest. In the real world, however, he would never think of using Feign Death to help him to save his life.


    In total, Zhang Heng received three game items in just one night. After bidding ck Swan and Shen Xixi farewell, he headed to the game��s checkpoint to look for Miss Bartender since he had acquired thest Shadow Set piece.


    ��Interesting. You actually managed toplete the entire Shadow Set. That��s efficient of you,��mended the bartenderdy after seeing the four items on the table.


    ��You said that when I find them all, I can inherit part of the original owner��s power?��


    ��Yes, that��s right. But I also mentioned that you��d need to go through some form of test.�� The bartenderdy picked up Shadow Key. ��You can only use this item once more. Once you decide to inherit its power, whether seed or fail, you won��t be able to use it anymore.��


    ��I know, but it doesn��t matter.��


    Shadow Key and Shadow Foot were both Grade-E and Grade-F game items. Their values were limited, and they had been used before. Shadow Key had only onest use left in it. So after giving it a little thought, Zhang Heng decided he wouldn��t wait any longer to go through the test. After all, he had a ton of items with him, and he would not be able to use them all.


    Whenever he entered a dungeon, he would need to consider which item he should bring with him. This was as painful as thinking about what to eat and what to wear every morning. It was better if the game items were converted into an ability.


    ��Since you are fine with it, when do you want to be tested?�� the bartenderdy shrugged and asked.


    ��Do we need toplete any rituals?��


    ��Of course, but it is a very simple ritual. You canplete it now if you want.��


    ��Let��s begin,�� Zhang Heng said.


    ...


    It took less than 15 minutes for the bartender toplete all the preparations. Zhang Heng watched on simultaneously, and he felt that she was just doing what she usually did. Except this time, she used some weird ingredients like lizard tails and mouse skulls. She then put all of them into a blender to grind them and made a homemade cigar filled with some suspicious tobo.


    Zhang Heng raised his eyebrows.


    ��Yes, I know it looks very old-fashioned, but there��s nothing I can do about it. Those old-timers like it a lot. As early as the BCE era, the Mayans and Indians had started smoking tobo, believing that it allowed them tomunicate with their gods. The Mayans left behind this blend��s recipe,�� Miss bartender said. ��Don��t underestimate this thing. It��s not easy to get these materials in the modern world. So you��ll have to pay me whether you fail or seed. It will cost you 50 game points.��


    ��What should I do?�� Zhang Heng asked and grabbed the cigar.


    ��Just bring those four game items with you. It��s best to allow all of them to contact your body. Once you��ve made sure of that, go ahead and light the cigar. By the way, do you have any other game items with you now? Pass them to me first, or they might interfere with themunication, especially the more powerful ones. The original owner of this Shadow Set has passed away for some time. Hence, not much power is left in them. You better not expect too much.��


    ��Okay.��


    Miss bartender thought for a while and decided to exin more. ��If the original owner of this set-item is still alive, it��d be nearly impossible for you to gather them all. After all, if not for special reasons, no one would want to divide their power to others. Giving out part of their power would speed up the owner��s deterioration process. As an agent, you should know about this. This set of items should belong to some very ancient existence.��


    Zhang Heng nodded and temporarily stored all his game items at the game point. After that, he sat cross-legged on the deck and put the four Shadow set items on hisp. Once that was done, he lit the cigar and took a deep breath.


    The taste... was not as disgusting and strange as he initially thought. Zhang Heng even tasted a strange scent from it.


    It seemed like the Mayan��s ritual was not too difficult for him to ept.


    Zhang Heng took a small puff first, and then two long drags after that. The white smoke rose in front of his eyes. Strangely, the smoke did not spread to other ces but hovered around him, bing thicker over time.


    At the same time, Zhang Heng also fell into a half-awake, trance-like state. He becamepletely oblivious to the existence of time and where he was. When he finished smoking the cigar, the smoke had disappeared as well.


    Zhang Heng looked at the scene in front of him and frowned deeply.

 Chapter 719 - Unforseen Circumstance

    <h4>Chapter 719: Unforseen Circumstance</h4>


    Before he even lit the cigar, Zhang Heng was already prepared to face everything that came his way. With the current strength he had, there was no need to worry about the simr tests he would face. ording to Miss Bartender, the Shadow-set��s original owner should have died a long time ago, which meant that there was not much power left in the items.


    This implied that Zhang Heng would not get much power from these set-items, but it did not mean that this wouldn��t be a safe trip for him. Considering how he had killed one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, it was unlikely that an ancient god forgotten by time would cause him too much trouble.


    When the smoke dissipated, a run-down scene appeared before Zhang Heng, one that perfectly matched the Shadow-set items. He was, however, bewildered, when he saw the building in front of him.


    In his dream during the Alien quest hepleted not too long ago, he had visited this seaside town.


    Zhang Heng spected that the Shadow-set had to be the reason the dream happened to him. But when he calmed down, he realized that the items were an unlikely cause. In the Alien quest, he had not yet acquired the Shadow-set��sst piece, the Shadow Foot, and the only set-item he had with him was the Shadow Key.


    It was hard to believe that a mere Grade-E game item could be the root of so many problems.


    Strictly speaking, the first time Zhang Heng realized that there was something wrong with his body was when he dealt with the Dreand of Death. Pestilence had touched him without him knowing it, and at that time, his condition became critical, and he was sent directly to the emergency room. The doctor, however, did not know what to do with him.


    His heart stopped beating for a short while, and Zhang Heng felt death approaching.


    He lost a few seconds of memory after that and when he opened his eyes again, the sickness in him had disappeared without a trace. His heart started to beat again, and he was stronger than before.


    Han Lu once told Zhang Heng that she experienced inexplicable fear when she saw Director Kuang and had always thought the fear had something to do with him. During that time, Zhang Heng happened to lose his memory for few seconds.


    After connecting what happened on the roof, Zhang Heng realized that the fear Han Lu had felt might have note from Pestilence but from him.


    Perhaps he should be considering his current situation from another angle.


    It seemed that his body hid secrets he had no idea about. And Miss Bartender told him that the tobo recipe that she prepared came from the Mayans, used tomunicate with the gods. Zhang Heng had deposited all of his game items at the checkpoint. Right now, he only had the four Shadow-set items with him. Hence, it stood to reason that the original owner of these four items shouldmunicate with Zhang Heng when he inhaled the smoke.


    To his surprise, the tobo did not get him in touch with the original owner. On the contrary, the smoke unlocked a seal somewhere in his body, allowing him to return to the weird dream that he experienced before.


    Zhang Heng did not know what the cause of this glitch was. Maybe the power left by the Shadow set��s original owner was too weakpared to the secrets in his body. Maybe something happened to his body again after the incident on the roof. However, for some unknown reason, he had failed to notice the changes. All in all, his circumstances were not that bad. Between inheriting a small part of the Shadow-set��s power and the secrets his body held, thetter was clearly more important.


    He could always attempt to extract the power from the Shadow set itemster. As for the weird dream, he would not get to encounter it as he wished. And Zhang Heng also noticed that this time, although he had returned to this bizarre dream, the Shadow-set items were still with him. They did not disappear with other game items, and it made him wonder if he was in the test-realm or the weird dream.


    It took him only half a minute to sort out his situation. Whatever that cameter would have to be settledter. Right now, he wanted to explore this dpidated town.


    This ce probably had something to do with his life.


    As he walked down the street, a strong stench of fish wafted into his nose. Arge number of dpidated houses could be seen on both sides of the street, where some had even copsed. Everything here seemed to be decaying slowly.


    Zhang Heng noticed a difference, though. There were obviously more people on the street this time.


    Although there were very few functioning houses here, at least he was no longer the only person around. Those people, however, might not have improved Zhang Heng��s situation.


    Some of the residents looked no different from ordinary people. However, they were only a small part of the poption here, and most of them were youngsters. It seemed like the elderly in this ce were cursed. All of their faces were deformed, just like the old man Zhang Heng met before. He had a narrow forehead, t nose, convex eyes, and crusted skin. And at the same time, the old man appeared slimy and slippery, much like the offspring of a fish and frog.


    However, their gloomy and terrifying faces now had a smile on them. They wereing out of the broken houses at the side of the streets. Some were cleaning their signs, some were busy delivering the fish they had caught, sending them to the fish shops to be processed, and some even put the carpets on the floor. It looked like a banquet would be held that night.


    Besides, some strange noise could be heard from the nearby sealed buildings from time to time. It was as if something was walking across the wooden floor, emitting a low and hoarse hiss.


    Zhang Heng walked for a while and saw a Gothic stone church in front of him. It was far older than the other town buildings. As the bells tolled, the townsfolk knew that it was six in the evening. The sun was about to set into the sea, and the only glimmer of light in this town was about to disappear.


    Walking into the church to take a look, a voice suddenly came from behind him, ��It��s alreadyte. Don��t you need to find a ce to stay?��


    Zhang Heng turned and recognized that the person speaking was the old man he saw when he first came to this town. Thetter hade from the other side of the street. Although he was trying his best to act like an old man who had trouble walking, Zhang Heng could tell that he was better than what was presented.


    ��Any idea what��s going on here?�� Zhang Heng asked.


    The old man did not answer his question but repeated what he said. ��It��s alreadyte. Don��t you need a ce to stay?��

 Chapter 720 - Gilman Hostel

    <h4>Chapter 720: Gilman Hostel</h4>


    ��Any rmendations?�� Zhang Heng did not dwell on the previous question, and decided to answer the old man directly.


    ��Gilman Hostel. They serve delicious food and provide soft beds,�� the old man replied. ��I can take you there.�� Upon saying that, he turned around and walked away, as though beckoning Zhang Heng to follow him.


    Zhang Heng took another good look at the church that stood before him. It did not look like a real church since he could sense the evil and insanity oozing out of it, just like the town itself.


    A man in a ck robe and golden crown walked past the church, but Zhang Heng could not see what he looked like under the robe.


    Since Zhang Heng was not close to the mysterious man that just passed the church, he stopped walking and red at Zhang Heng with his protruding eyes, like a toad.


    After a short deliberation, Zhang Heng decided to follow the old man since thetter was the only person in this town who took an initiative to talk to him. However, he was still not willing to answer any of his questions.


    ��Do you know me?�� Zhang Heng asked after catching up with the old man, ��What day is today?��


    ��July 15, 1927.�� The old man finally answered one of his questions.


    It was almost simr to the date Zhang Heng estimated when he first came into this dream. Zhang Heng then looked at the watch on his right hand subconsciously. However, he discovered that the watch that had been with him all the time was not on his wrist.


    Zhang Heng had been wearing that watch for a long time. Previously, when he arrived in this dream, he forgot to check whether his watch was with him. That didn��t bother him too much, though. It was past midnight when he came into this world, which meant there was still plenty of time before the next midnight came. Besides, his extra 24 hours might not work here.


    Second, he was no longer an ordinary person when he entered his first dungeon. The long list of high-level skills that he acquired had be a part of him, and even if he did not rely on his game items, he was more than capable of protecting himself.


    He technically still had those Shadow-set items with him. His Shadow Moment should have depleted its uses by now, but it seemed that that got refreshed when he came to this ce. For now, there was no time to give it a look.


    While following the old man, Zhang Heng attempted to gather some more information. ��I see that you are preparing for some celebration. What are you guys celebrating?��


    ��Oh, it��s just an ordinary traditional ritual. Don��t mind us.��


    ��Is that so? Do you know how to get out of here?��


    The old man suddenly stopped in his tracks. ��The train is no longer in service. It will take a very long time to leave this ce on foot. If you insist, you can take the bus that leaves at 8 every night, but...��


    ��But what?��


    ��But not tonight. The driver himself is preparing for the celebration. So, the bus will not be in service tonight.��


    ��What about a horse?��


    ��There are no horses in the town,�� the old man replied in a hoarse voice. ��Someone attempted to raise them once, but those animals didn��t seem to like this ce. They were restless at night, so we had to sell them.�� Then he turned his head. ��Do you want to leave this ce?��


    ��Leave? No. I��m just asking,�� Zhang Heng said.


    The old man was not lying. For some reason, he hoped that Zhang Heng could stay in the Gilman Hostel tonight. Always wanting to investigate the ce from the beginning, Zhang Heng himself wanted to know what would happen if he stayed in there tonight. Even if that was the only bus in service tonight, he was not about to leave.


    Nheless, Zhang Heng was smart enough to figure what was really going on. When he met the old man for the first time, he said, ��You are... finally here?�� Zhang Heng could see that the traditional ritual was probably rted to him.


    Something interesting was about to happen tonight.


    He continued chatting with the old man, hoping that he would obtain some useful information. The old man, on the other hand, still answered his questions selectively. It soon became apparent that the old man was trying his best not to identally divulge any secrets��he would not answer anything rted to the ritual.


    Still, Zhang Heng managed to obtain something useful. A hundred years ago, the houses here were filled with people. During that time, this ce was prosperous and lively. Some might even refer to it as a city.


    Ships would dock at the port, and sailors would go ashore for some r&r. Simultaneously, the train frequently stopped by, bringing goods and immigrants from other cities along with it. Locals also employed the trains services to deliver the fishes and shrimp they had caught. Lastly, the gold refinery was the town��s primary source of ie.


    Unfortunately, the town started to deteriorate after the civil war. Its residents began to lose faith in this ce, and soon afterward, some started to disappear. At first, only a few went missing, but after that, more and more people began to inexplicably vanish into thin air. At the same time, a group of newborns began to grow up. Some people��s appearances began to change, the elderly being one of them.


    As he talked about this matter, the old man seemed to be paying extra attention to the changes in Zhang Heng��s expressions. When he saw that there was no reaction, he felt a little disappointed. The young man seemed neither surprised nor afraid, simply signaling him to continue talking.


    At this point, the old man stopped. ��This is it,�� he said.


    Zhang Heng looked up and saw a domed building. Like the other houses around here, this one was in a state of disrepair as well. The words on the signboard could barely be seen, and the wall��s around him were peeling too. He even noticed how most of the walls were now covered in moss and mold.


    A hotel like this would attract no tourists, but ording to the old man, this was the only ce left in the town for outsiders to rest. As Zhang Heng stepped into the shabby hall, he began to suspect that there would be no delicious food and soft beds here.


    The male staff at the front desk looked rtively normal, except that he was a little moody and withdrawn.


    ��Room 427, one dor.�� Putting down the dirty old newspaper in his hand, he continued, ��today is a good day. There are actually two guests here today.��


    ��Another person is living here tonight?�� The old man was a little surprised.


    ��Yes, something happened in the town earlier...�� He stopped halfway and looked at Zhang Heng on the other side.


    Zhang Heng searched his pockets and looked at them. ��Sorry, I don��t have any money with me.��


    ��...��


    The old man and the staff looked at each other.

 Chapter 721 - Another Traveller

    <h4>Chapter 721: Another Traveller</h4>


    The male staff and the old man never expected that Zhang Heng hadn��t brought any money. The one-dor room wasn��t expensive by any standard, but seeing as to how filthy and depressing the environment was, no one would be willing to stay here even if they reduced the price by another 50%. Since the bus was not in service, Zhang Heng had no choice but to live here. Logically, he had no reason to save that one dor.


    After a moment��s silence, the old man said, ��Forget it, I��ll help him pay for the room. Since the celebration is just around the order, we can��t just disregard others and have fun on our own. It is rare to have a guest here. We should be generous hosts.�� Since the old man had led Zhang Heng here, he would not give up on his n for that mere one dor.


    ��Since you are willing to pay for him, of course, I��m fine with it,�� the male staff said. As he helped with the checking-in procedures, Zhang Heng signed his name on the traveler��s book.


    In the meantime, the old man had left quietly, as if his sole objective was to lead Zhang Heng to this hostel.


    Zhang Heng was about to follow another staff to go upstairs, but right then, another person walked in from outside. He looked anxious, annoyed, and a little flustered. He wanted to say something but swallowed back the words. ��Give me a room,�� he simply requested.


    ��One dor.�� Expressionless, the male staff repeated the price.


    Zhang Heng knew that this was the other guest of the Gilman Hostel. The male staff mentioned it earlier. It was actually quite obvious, not only because he looked normal but because he did not have the dark aura surrounding him.


    Since the two were outsiders, maybe they could talk to each other about this ce.


    Before he could say anything, however, Zhang Heng saw a wary look on the person��s face.


    Having been a hunter before, Zhang Heng knew all too well what this look meant.


    This was the look of prey attempting to flee. At a time like this, they wouldn��t ce their trust in anyone or anything.


    ��Room 428,�� the male staff said to the new guest.


    After that, the two new guests of Gilman Hostel followed another staff to the top floor. The staff opened the door for Zhang Heng, and he was greeted with a single room facing the street. Dark and shabby, the room had two windows and some cheap furniture lying around. Judging by its condition, it seemed no one had lived in it for a long time. Not to mention that the mattress on the steel bed frame was hardly soft.


    Zhang Heng did not have high hopes for the food after checking out the room. Since it was almost time for dinner, he asked the staff, ��Where can I look for food here?��


    ��We don��t provide meals,�� the staff snapped coldly. But perhaps he remembered he was still an employee of the establishment, that he added, ��There is a restaurant in town, right next to the hostel.��


    ��Thanks,�� Zhang Heng said. He did not tip the staff, and neither did the staff care as well. So he turned and left.


    Zhang Heng and the other man were the only guests staying on this top floor.


    Thetter��s room 428 was opposite Zhang Heng��s room. He closed the door vigntly the moment he entered, making it clear that he wanted to see no one.


    Zhang Heng wasn��t in a hurry to disturb his temporary neighbor either. So, he decided to give his room a better look.


    The faucet was broken. Before he entered the room, the staff had told him about it.


    In other words, this magical hostel provided neither food nor tap water. This could exin why there were no other guests besides the two.


    The closet��s body was cracked. As Zhang Heng opened it, it creaked loudly, revealing a thinyer of dust that had umted on the shelves. And the dirty quilt was damp as well. If not for the roof to shelter him from the rain and sun, sleeping here wasn��t any different than sleeping on the streets. Lamentably, his lodging woes did not end there. Zhang Heng noticed notch on the door, which meant that the room could still be opened with a key from the outside even if the door was locked. Judging by the traces on the door, it seemed thetch had been removed recently.


    This was getting more and more interesting.


    The good news was, at least the old-fashioned electricmp was still functioning. Although the lightbulb was moldy, causing it to emit a rather dim orange glow, it provided a source of light for the night.


    Something awful was bound to take ce tonight. If the power was cut off, the light bulb would no longer be useful for Zhang Heng.


    After that, Zhang Heng approached the window, pulled up the curtain, and looked at the street below him.


    The street seemed more lively now, and mixed among the crowd were some religious group members. They were all giving their best to prepare for the evening celebration, where everyone had put on gold jewelry. Zhang Heng, however, did not see them preparing any food.


    Without food and drink, a celebration would be pointless.


    Naturally, many who attended a function mostly didn��t care about its purpose, simply wanting to fill their stomachs and have a good time. A celebration without food and drink was like a cake without cream.


    But the group downstairs didn��t seem to think so. They were still excited about the celebration. Zhang Heng looked away from the crowd and saw the wave breaker in the distance. There was also a ck line on the sea.


    When he first came here, he saw the ck line on the sea as well. It made him feel like something was waiting out there to be summoned by him.


    The two small ck dots squatting on the wave breaker should be fishermen. They put down their fishing rods and jumped off the wave breaker.


    Jumping from such a tall ce into the sea was extremely dangerous. Not to mention the reefs below it. If a big wave came when they jumped off, it might just sweep them away. Others who stood on the wave breaker, however, weren��t surprised by their actions. Seemingly used to such things, they continued on with their own business.


    Everything in this coastal hamlet was weird.


    The church bells tolled, indicating that the time was now 7 in the evening. The sun had set entirely, leaving behind only a little afterglow.


    Zhang Heng put down the curtains in his hands. He was actually not very hungry. Even if he didn��t get to eat dinner, he was okay with it. However, considering what would happen at night, some preparations needed to be made in advance. The most important thing to do right now was to get his hands on some weapons.


    Zhang Heng walked out of his room and knocked on the door opposite him.


    ��Who are you?�� A vignt voice came from inside.


    ��Like you, I��m an outsider. Would you like to go out for dinner?��


    After a brief moment of silence, probably considering the proposal, the person in the room opened the door.

 Chapter 722 - I Will Just WatChapter You Eat

    <h4>Chapter 722: I Will Just Watch You Eat</h4>


    Although the man who lived opposite Zhang Heng agreed to eat together, he was still very cautious and kept a certain distance from him. Zhang Heng did not force his friendship, though. At least the two had exchanged names and made a simple self-introduction, which was considered a significant improvement.


    His name was Fabericotte, and he was only seventeen years old. ording to him, he was traveling around New Ennd to explore its natural scenery, historical sites, and a deeper understanding of his family genealogy. Initially, he nned to take the train directly from Newburyport to Arkham, but the conductor in Newburyport had provided him with a more economical travel n. He was supposed to get on the bus and transit here, not expecting the night bus to Arkham would be canceled. So he could only stay here tonight.


    As they chatted, Zhang Heng also learned that Fabericotte had arrived much earlier than him. He had departed Newburyport at 10 in the morning, meaning he had spent at least half a day here. He should have collected a lot of information about this ce by now. Maybe that could exin his heightened wariness and apprehension.


    Something must have had probably traumatized him, seeing as to how he immediately closed his mouth and stopped talking the moment Zhang Heng inquired about the matter. The two had just met, though, and Zhang Heng realized that perhaps sufficient trust hadn��t yet been established between them.


    Although the town was drowning in gloominess and oddities, Zhang Heng did not feel too much repression or fear. On the contrary, Fabericotte beside him seemed exponentially disgusted and disturbed by this small town. In his own words, he did not want to stay here a second longer, wishing that he had a pair of wings to fly away as far as he could from this ce.


    After a while, the two walked out of the hostel.


    Although the nearby buildings still looked dirty, these were in better condition than the town��s dpidated structures. There were grocery stores, pharmacies, wholesale fish markets, refineries, and restaurants. A river even ran in the middle of all these buildings. Perhaps it was time for the residents to get off from their work, or perhaps they were preparing for the celebration that most of the shops were closed. Fortunately for the two weary travelers, the restaurant was still open.


    Two people were already inside the restaurant, a man and a woman. Among them, the man had a thin face, hunched back, and his eyes looked very dull. Zhang Heng stared at him for a while and found that he had not blinked for a long time. If one encountered him as an SCP-173, there was nothing the person could do but cry in the corner.


    On the other side, the t-nosed woman, wearing a rustic dress, was bending over and wiping the table. Although she was about to experience a wardrobe malfunction, no man would look at her when they saw her face.


    Zhang Heng also noticed that Fabericotte, beside him, had be uneasy again. Although neither of them had apparent deformities, they both looked somewhat simr to the old man that Zhang Heng met earlier. ording to the old man��s previous statement, their faces would start to deform as they grew older.


    If Fabericotte had a choice, he would never want to walk into this restaurant. Eventually, though, hunger overcame his fear. He tried not to look at the two other people in the restaurant and focused on the menu at the counter. After discovering they mainly served canned food and ham, he was not disappointed but relieved.


    He did not trust the people in this town very much. Hence, he was quite skeptical about the food they served. A portion of canned food with biscuits and a bowl of vegetable soup were more than enough.


    After that, he made way for Zhang Heng and asked, ��What are you eating?��


    Thetter replied, ��I have no money with me, and I am not very hungry. I will just watch you eat.��


    ��...��


    Farbericotte stood there for a moment and blinked. ��Forget it, let me buy you your meal,�� he relented.


    Zhang Heng then said to the dull-eyed man, ��I��ll have one more of what he ordered.��


    After Farbericotte paid for the food, the woman with a t nose headed into the kitchen.


    Zhang Heng and Fabericotte found a ce away from the counter and sat down.


    Fabericotte could not help but ask, ��You knocked on my door and asked me out for a meal, yet you don��t have any money?��


    Zhang Heng nodded at Fabericotte. After that, he started to check out the restaurant. Decorations had been hung for the celebrationter.


    Fabericotte frowned, growling in a mncholic tone, ��...Do you take me for a fool?��


    ��I told you that I��m not hungry. You should have just eaten without me,�� Zhang Heng turned to him, continuing, ��You are the one who insisted on buying me a meal.��


    ��I... I was just being polite.��


    ��It��s still not toote to tell the chef to cancel my order.��


    ��This is too embarrassing... Wait, did you just say that because you know I won��t do it?��


    ��If you feel embarrassed, I can do it myself,�� said Zhang Heng while standing up.


    ��Are you bluffing?��


    Zhang Heng did not answer him. He just smiled, turned, and walked towards the kitchen.


    When he was about to walk to the door, Fabericotte spoke again, ��Okay, you can stop there. The meal doesn��t cost much anyway.��


    Despite Fabericotte��s persuasion, Zhang Heng kept on walking.


    At this time, Fabricotte felt terrible. After all, he was taught since childhood to help those who were in difficulty. As long as it was within his capability, he should not say no to the person who needed his help. Just like what he said, this meal did not cost much anyway. Even for a young man who traveled with very little cash on him, the least he could do was to buy Zhang Heng the meal. So he got up from his seat and rushed into the kitchen.


    The dull-eyed man sat there and watched the two of them walking into the kitchen. He did not stop them or talk to them.


    The kitchen��s cleanliness was not nearly as unsanitary as Farbericotte imagined. Although the fishy smell still lingered in the air and the walls were covered with mold, at least there were no rats and cockroaches. When he walked into the kitchen, Zhang Heng was talking to the woman with a t nose.


    Immediately, Farbericotte stretched out two of his fingers and shouted, ��Two! We are getting two sets!��


    At that moment, he noticed that Zhang Heng, who was standing at the side, took the two chef knives that were hanging on the wall. He then hid them in his clothes and made a silent gesture to Fabericotte.


    Fabericotte was shocked by it. And he immediately realized that Zhang Heng did not go into the kitchen to cancel his meal. He had gone in to steal the knives for self-protection. This was not the kind of behavior one should be endorsing. Fabericote hesitated for a while before deciding not to tell anyone about it. His heart was thumping in his chest, however. After that, he followed Zhang Heng out of the kitchen.

 Chapter 723 - Don’t Worry

    <h4>Chapter 723: Don��t Worry</h4>


    Fabericotte waited for the t-nose woman to leave after bringing the food before speaking to Zhang Heng in a hushed tone.


    ��What are you doing?��


    ��I took two chef��s knives, didn��t you see it?�� Zhang Heng slowly gnawed on the canned food that had just been served.


    ��I know you stole the knives. The question is, why are you stealing them?�� Fabericotte looked nervous, covertly giving the dull-eyed man and t-nose woman a nce. He then said to Zhang Heng, ��Hey, I think... You better put the knife back before they find out about it. I don��t want to cause any trouble here. I just want to spend the night peacefully and leave this ce as soon as possible.��


    ��Is that so?��


    ��What do you mean?��


    ��Do you think you can spend the night peacefully here?��


    Fabricotte immediately became alert again, ��What do you know about this ce?��


    ��What do you know?�� Zhang Heng asked rhetorically.


    ��...��


    ��I have an idea. Let��s exchange what we know.��


    ��I don��t know anything,�� Fabericotte said immediately. He then added, ��I��m just a traveler who��s passing by.��


    ��It��s up to you then. Anyway, I don��t think you should me me for not warning you. Something bad will happen here tonight. You��d better be prepared.��


    ��What should I prepare?��


    ��Do you know how to use a knife?��


    ��No. I don��t want to sneak into the kitchen and steal a knife like you.��


    ��It��s okay. We��ll look for another weapon.��


    ��Hmm?��


    Zhang Heng had already finished his canned food. However, he didn��t intend to continue borating on his n. He then asked Farbericotte, ��How long do you need to finish your food?��


    Farbericotte looked at the vegetable soup and canned food that he had barely touched. After Zhang Heng asked the question, he gritted his teeth, gobbled up his meal as fast as possible, then grabbed the biscuit and said, ��Let��s go.��


    He didn��t want to stay there any longer because the ugly-looking man and woman gave him an uneasy feeling. The other reason was that Zhang Heng had just stolen two chef��s knives from them, and he was afraid that they would find out about it.


    So the two left the restaurant and returned to the street.


    Farbericotte took in two deep breaths. Unfortunately, the lingering stench of fish in the air didn��t make him feel any better. And after taking a few steps, he suddenly asked Zhang Heng suspiciously, ��Do you feel that we are constantly being watched?��


    ��Yes. Someone is watching us right now. Or should I say the townsfolk have been keeping an eye on us?�� Zhang Heng replied casually.


    Fabericotte turned his head around, but he saw no one following them. While they were eating earlier, they realized that there were fewer people on the street. Earlier, many were still busy preparing for the celebration, but they seemed to have disappeared in the blink of an eye.


    In those stuffy, airtight buildings, however, behind the doors and curtains, Fabericotte clearly sensed that somethingy there, watching them from afar. At that time, the sun had finally set, and thest light of the afterglow hadpletely disappeared. The incandescentmps lining the road were lit up.


    But themps were feeble and could only illuminate a small area on the street. Under the glow of the dim lights, the entire town looked gave off an even more peculiar and mysterious vibe.


    ��I think we��d better head back to the hostel,�� Fabericotte suggested. ��When I was in Newburyport, I heard that it��s not safe at night for outsiders here. People usually go missing at night, not to mention the strange noises all around the town when darkness arrives. They explicitly advised me not to go out after dark.��


    ��Don��t worry. They won��t be doing anything to us anytime soon,�� Zhang Heng said. He then took the lead and walked toward the grocery store. Fabericotte could only trail him helplessly, and at the same time, unleash a barrage of nonstopining.


    ��There��s nothing to see here. Everyone has gone home after work.��


    Zhang Heng ignored him and looked through the ss door to ensure that there really was no one inside the restaurant. He then pulled out the chef��s knife from under his clothes and smashed the ss with the knife��s handle, before reaching in and pulling it.


    ��You! You! You!!!��


    Fabericotte��s eyes widened. He thought that Zhang Heng would have put a stop to his crimes after stealing the knives. Thest thing he expected was for him to loot the grocery store.


    He could barely pretend that he knew nothing about Zhang Heng��s previous misdoings. Looting the grocery store had gone way beyond his principles. He did not want to be an aplice to a crime. When Zhang Heng opened the door and signaled him to go in, the young man quickly took a few steps back.


    ��You are crazy!��


    ��I don��t think so,�� Zhang Heng shook his head, ��I know exactly what I��m doing now. You are the one that looks weird here. Ever since I met you, you��ve constantly been looking over your shoulder, as if you��ve witnessed something terrible but refuse to believe what you saw.��


    ��If you heard what I heard, you would��ve acted like me too.�� Fabericotte immediately realized that he had spilled the beans. This statement was tantamount to acknowledging that he did hear something. He then hastily attempted an escape. ��That��s it��time to go our separate ways. Whether you want to steal a knife or rob the grocery store, it��s all your business. I want to have nothing to do with you.��


    Turning around, he quickly walked away. After a few steps, though, he stopped. ��If you are caught by the townsfolk, you have to tell them that it has nothing to do with me!��


    Zhang Heng blinked a few times. ��The people in the town have been watching us in secret, but no one hase out to confront us until now. Do you think they��ll care that we havemitted a crime?��


    Farbericotte was startled when he heard Zhang Heng��s reply. ��I don��t know. That��s just your spection. I really don��t want to get into any trouble.��


    ��If you want that toe true, you��ll have to first make sure that you are not in any trouble.��


    ��I don��t know what you are talking about. I��m heading back. I suggest you don��t stay outside for too long.�� Fabericotte did not want to argue with Zhang Heng anymore. With that, he ended the conversation and headed straight back to the hostel.


    Zhang Heng watched him walk through the hostel��s door. He stood under the streemp for another half a minute before turning around to walk into the grocery store.


    Not only was he looking for weapons for Fabericotte, but also potential weapons that he could use to protect himself. The two chef��s knives from the restaurant weren��t nearly enough to handle the threats he was about to face.


    Zhang Heng found shlights, candles, ropes, fishing lines, and whiskey in the grocery store. Among all these, his biggest surprise was that he found a rifle, two revolvers, and several bullets. He then took arge backpack and stuffed everything that he found useful in the grocery store.

 Chapter 724 - Midnight Is Coming

    <h4>Chapter 724: Midnight Is Coming</h4>


    Zhang Heng returned from the grocery store with a bag full of useful items. He walked through the lobby of the Gilman Hostel, backpack on his back. Although the rifle clearly protruded out of it, the surly-looking male staff didn��t say a word, pretending he hadn��t noticed it at all.


    After that, Zhang Heng stepped on the broken stairs to get to his room located on the top floor. Every step he made creaked loudly, as though the old wood under his feet was protesting the sudden increase in burden.


    The lights in the corridor were no better than the ones on the street. Although turned on, the distance the light could reach was sorely limited. The long shadows it cast on the walls made the whole ce look even eerier.


    Zhang Heng could clearly hear Fabericotte��s footsteps thumping around in his room. And he could tell from his pace how upset the young traveler was now. After a while, he sat down and took a book out of his luggage. Zhang Heng could hear the sound of flipping papers. Fabericotte was trying to calm himself down by reading a book.


    Wasting no time in the corridor, Zhang Heng reached out and opened his room��s door.


    Instead of resting upon returning to his room, he began to organize the things he brought back from the grocery store. He attempted to make a few Molotov cocktails using methods the Finnish guerris had taught him during the Soviet-Finnish war. However, there wasn��t enough alcohol inmercial whisky to be ignited. Hence Zhang Heng distilled some high-purity whiskey and added tinder as a fuse.


    Once that was done, he loaded all three guns with bullets and tied the ws to the front of the rope. With the makeshift grappling hook, he would be able to use it to climb the wall. After that, Zhang Heng picked up the fishing lines strung them all over his room. Under the dim light, these threads were so thin that they were barely visible.


    Only Zhang Heng knew where he hadid those lines.


    WIth limited sharpness and toughness, Zhang Heng never expected fishing lines to kill his enemies. These, however, served as an effective method to block uninvited guests that might barge into his room. Since the enemies wouldn��t expect the trap, whatever they were about to do would be immediately put to a halt.


    Zhang Heng paid particr attention to the positions of several doors and windows. After nning an escape route for himself, he blocked all the other ces with the fishing lines.


    Upon making sure that the room was secure, he put up a chair against the doorknob and finallyid himself on the bed. After a few tosses and turns, however, he was still denied sleep. First, he couldn��t tell if he was in a dream or reality, and second, he really didn��t feel very sleepy. So, with his mind unable toe to rest, Zhang Heng took out the Shadow-set items and gave them a once over.


    Aftering to this ce, he could clearly feel that the power the Shadow-set items contained had recovered to a certain extent. However, they felt different when he used them. Pulling out his favorite Shadow Moment, he and started to think about the crow in his mind.


    Unfortunately, he saw no crow in the dark. He then tried the Shadow Foot, but it yielded no result too. Just when Zhang Heng wanted to use the Shadow Key again, he heard something.


    The floorboards under the stairs and corridors started creaking. Someone wasing upstairs, and it was no new guest nor employee. Whoever it was, though, the person had deliberately attempted to tread as lightly as possible.


    In other words, the person did not want his presence to be known.


    Earlier, Zhang Heng spent a long time distilling the whiskey and arranging the traps. It was past midnight, and most people should be asleep by now. Suddenly, the only source of light in the room cut-off, as if proving his spections right. The room instantly plunged intoplete darkness. Of course, it wasn��t because the lightbulb had exhausted its lifespan. Someone had cut off the power on purpose.


    Zhang Heng knew that the show was about to begin.


    The townsfolk kept mentioning a celebration in the evening, but the streets were still empty until now, and nobody was outside their houses. The residents had been so busy preparing for the celebration for such a long time, but instead of proceeding with it when the time came, they had all gone home to sleep.


    But Zhang Heng was not in a hurry. Hey silently on the bed, waiting to see what the person in the corridor would do to him.


    Unexpectedly, the person headed to Fabericotte��s room first. He stood in front of the door for a while as though listening to the movements inside the room. After that, Zhang Heng heard the sound of a key being inserted into a keyhole.


    Fabericotte was not ready to face a circumstance like this. His increasing bouts of anxiety had forced him to do something about his safety. Although he disagreed with Zhang Heng��s n to arm himself, he appeared to have made some preparations after returning to his room. To Zhang Heng��s surprise, the intruder failed to unlock Fabericotte��s room with the key. So, he went to the next room.


    The rooms of Gilman Hostel were fascinating. Zhang Heng��s room, a single room, for instance, had a front door and two side doors. Fabericotte��s room should have a simryout.


    The intruder wanted to find another way to enter Fabericotte��s room after discovering that he could not open his room��s door. In the end, after spending a long time trying to unlock both of the side doors, his attempts were all but fruitless, and he still failed to find a way to enter Room 428.


    Initially, Zhang Heng thought that the intruder would give up entering room 428 for now and try his room instead. To his surprise, the sound in the hallway disappeared, and the person appeared to have retreated downstairs.


    After that, Zhang Heng heard footsteps in Room 428. Fabricotte was not asleep either. At this point, he should be terrified. He did not allow himself to be immersed in fear for too long, though. He knew that this was a rare opportunity. Since the other party was determined to harm him somehow, they would definitely not give up so quickly. Staying in the room any longer would prove unwise. This was the time to take advantage of the situation and attempt escape.


    Fabericotte did not dare to open the door and run down the stairs. The intruder would be able to capture him if he did so. So the other thing that crossed his mind was to escape through the windows. Unlike Zhang Heng��s unit, there was a dpidated impluvium outside the windows, and there were some short and abandoned masonry buildings surrounding it. Then, to the west was a swamp.


    The window was too high from the ground. Fabericotte thought about jumping to the masonry building��s roof beneath his room, but after a visual inspection, he figured a sessful jump from this distance wouldn��t be possible. It would work if he entered the room two rooms away from him. So, he first tried the door on the south but found something was stuck behind it. In the end, he could only try to open the door on the north side.


    Suddenly, the creepy footsteps sound came from the stairs again. Goosebumps sprouted all over Fabericotte��s skin. Soon after that, the person began banging violently on his door. It seemed the intruder had given on concealing his presence.


    As Fabericotte trembled in fear, a strange look appeared across Zhang Heng��s face. Because no one hade to him until now. It looked like they had forgotten about him.

 Chapter 725 - The Beginning of the Celebration

    <h4>Chapter 725: The Beginning of the Celebration</h4>


    In the corridor outside the room, Fabericotte was experiencing the most bizarre and terrifying thing in his life, while Zhang Heng, on the other side, remained undisturbed.


    The footsteps outside the room became louder, apanied by a conversation. Zhang Heng had mastered many foreignnguages, but he still could not understand what they were talking about. He realized that theirnguage was made up of only a few sybles, and they repeated those sybles constantly.


    After a while, more and more movement could be heard outside his door. It seemed like they were hitting the door with a heavy object. And some of them wanted to surround Fabericotte from the side door. Zhang Heng could only imagine the fear he experienced at that moment.


    This was especially the case when he heard the door to his room getting hit by a heavy object. When he wanted to leave from the side door, he heard someone trying to insert their keys into the keyhole. It was then that he knew his enemies had surrounded him.


    Soon, he fell into despair, but the sheer will to survive had coerced him to tackle one of the side doors. Fortunately, this one was unlocked, and he managed to open it without much effort, right before the enemy opened the front door with the key.


    Secondster, Fabericotte heard someone barging into the room. If he were still there, there was an 80% chance that he would have been captured. Even so, he didn��t have much time to linger around. As he poked his head out of the window, he saw the roof ridge under the moonlight. The slope, however, seemed a bit steep.


    Fabericotte knew he had no other choice but to jump out.


    He mustered enough courage and prepared himself for the dangerous feat. When he was halfway out, however, he saw something that sent a chill down his spine.


    ck shadows had suddenly appeared from the abandoned masonry buildings below. Fabericotte finally knew why there were so few people in town.


    If the two people he saw in the restaurant were hideous, then the creatures below him could be ssified as monsters. They had gray-green skin and white bellies. There was not a single strand of hair on their skin. Fish-like scales had reced these. And the thing that terrified him the most was their heads. They possessed massive, never-closing eyes, protruding eye sockets, and both sides of the neck bulged with gills.


    They flopped and jumped around under the moonlight, waving their web-covered hands and feet as though dancing to an absurd tune.


    Farbericotte almost fell out of the window after witnessing the horrifying scene in front of him. Fortunately, someone caught him from behind before he let go, and he was dragged back into the room.


    Not only was Fabericotte unhappy, but the level of fear in his heart had also risen to the top.


    He turned his head and saw that the person that dragged him back into the room was the hostel��s male staff. He stared at the escapee with cold, ruthless eyes.


    But at the next moment, Fabericotte heard the sound of the door opening in the distance.


    The familiar boom of a Winchester rifle somewhat neutralized the horrifying atmosphere for Fabericotte. Screams could be heard outside the room when the rifle was fired, but themotion soon died down.


    Fabericotte��s heart sank. Just when he thought that the guy at the door must be under the townsfolk��s control, the door opened.


    Zhang Heng hit the head of the staff, charging at him with the butt of the rifle, managing to silence thetterpletely. After that, he walked toward Fabericotte.


    When he saw Zhang Heng approaching, Fabericotte subconsciously backed off until his back came against the wall.


    ��We are greatly outnumbered. Even if I stay here, I can��t save you,�� Zhang Heng warned.


    Fabericotte snapped back to reality, swiftly getting up to his feet. ��You...Where did your gune from?�� he asked, pleasantly surprised.


    ��I borrowed it from the grocery store,�� replied Zhang Heng. ��Can we leave this ce through the window?��


    ��No, there are monsters outside.�� Now, Fabericotte began to regret that he didn��t loot the grocery store with Zhang Heng earlier. ��How about the street?�� he asked, moving himself a little further from the window.


    ��What do you think?�� Zhang Heng asked rhetorically.


    Although the small town��s residents did not knock on his door, Zhang Heng did not continue lying on the bed, allowing them to take Fabericotte away. Other than the fact that the two of them were the only outsiders in this town, Farbericotte was also the only one who could tell him what had really happened here.


    And Zhang Heng wasn��t that naive to think that they would nevere looking for him. After all, the old man that he met earlier did everything possible to make him stay at the Gilman Hostel. He even paid for Zhang Heng��s amodation fees. There was no way that they would allow him to be the bystander here.


    ��What should we do, then?�� Farbericotte was lost.


    For starters, they could no longer stay here. Although Zhang Heng had a rifle in his hand, they were only a two-man team. A two-man team that was about to go against an entire town. Other than the deformed residents, the monsters that usually stayed hidden in their houses during the day were also out roaming the streets now.


    ��Go south,�� Zhang Heng said. Before they walked out of the hostel, they quickly checked the street. There were not many people, and the building nearby could help them cover their tracks.


    While talking, Zhang Heng had already returned to the corridor, followed closely by Fabericotte. The two walked all the way to the end of the corridor. At the same time, they heard footstepsing up the stairs again. It meant that another group wasing up to deal with them.


    Zhang Heng handed the jerry-rigged wall-climbing hook to Farbericotte, ��Do you know how to use this?��


    ��I think so,�� said thetter nervously as he took the grappler.


    ��Go to the roof of the opposite building. I will meet you thereter.�� Zhang Heng raised his rifle and aimed at the stairs. The moment the first person appeared, he decisively pulled the trigger. The bullet urately hit the target��s head.


    With a sickening crack, blood sttered all over the wall.


    Zhang Heng masterfully reloaded his rifle, swiftly hitting the second person in the chest. Instead of backing up, he kept walking and shooting until he was only three steps away from the stairs. He looked down and found out that the barrage of gunshots and the mounting corpses could not stop them from charging at him. More dark shadows were rushing upstairs. The rickety stairs could only fit so many people, so some of them jumped up on the handrail and climbed toward the top floor.


    A half-fish half-frog creature jumped over the corpse and rushed towards Zhang Heng. Despite frayed nerves, he remained calm, not giving in to fear and panic. Right before the monster pounced at him, Zhang Heng lit a Molotov cocktail and tossed it at the monster.

 Chapter 726 - Swamp

    <h4>Chapter 726: Swamp</h4>


    Apanied by a shrill shriek, the mes instantly engulfed the monster. Its burning body had stopped the people at the back from advancing. Zhang Heng took advantage of the rare opportunity, putting the rifle back into his backpack, and running toward the other side of the corridor.


    There, Fabericotte had hooked the window edge with the w hook. He was climbing down the wall slowly with both his hands grabbing the ropes tightly. When he raised his head, he saw Zhang Heng climbing out the window.


    That man was so agile that he managed to climb to Fabericitte without using any ropes.


    Zhang Heng looked at the group of monsters below him who were still calling out to theirpanions with those strange sybles. He then said to a still hesitating Fabericotte, ��You��d better hurry up because I will not wait for you if the situation goes downhill.��


    Wearing his backpack in front of him, Zhang Heng bent his calf slightly, exerted maximum force, and leaped to the roof opposite him. With the backpack acting as a buffer, it helped him to significantly reduce the impact of the fall.


    Unavoidably, some of the items inside were damaged. When Zhang Heng checked the two Molotov cocktails inside of the backpack, he found it to be broken, though he had made very sure it was well protected.


    After hearing what Zhang Heng said, Fabericotee did not dare to wait any longer. He did not have the explosive energy and excellent bnce that Zhang Heng possessed. Fortunately, he could fully utilize the rope. He held on tight, and like Zhang Heng, kicked the wall hard. After three kicks, he felt that he now had enough strength to leap over to the roof opposite of him. So, with a final, decisive swing, he released the rope in his hand.


    In the end, Fabericotte sessfullynded on the roof, but he was not as fortunate as Zhang Heng.


    Hended back-first, and hisnding point happened to be a weak spot. The building had been left unmaintained for so many years, after all, and as a result, he fell right through.


    Seeing that Fabericotte was about to fall through the roof of the abandoned house, Zhang Heng quickly grabbed his hand and pulled him up.


    ��Thank you!�� Fabericotte eximed in shock, his breaths heavy and his eyes bulging.


    ��Keep up.��


    The ck shadows that initially gathered in front of the Gilman Hostel rushed to the side upon hearing theirpanions�� hail. Simultaneously, the people in the hostel seemed to have crossed the line of fire Zhang Heng created. Poking their heads out the window, they frantically looked for the two escaped men. Some of the more impatient ones even attempted to jump to the roof to pursue them.


    Two monsters managed to jump on the roof. Unfortunately, one fell into the hole that Fabericotee created, and the other lost his bnce when hended, swiftly kicked off the roof by Zhang Heng.


    ��Here.�� Zhang Heng took a quick nce around and decided to move towards the swamp.


    Other than the fact that there were fewer people there, it had a moreplicated terrain. To get there, they had to pass through a small area of buildings first.


    ��More and more seem to being after us!�� Faberricotte yelled in panic as he ran. He also saw a figure with a golden crown in the crowd. That one had emerged from the church.


    Immediately, an indescribable sensation of intense difort emerged in Fabericotte��s heart. He looked away as fast as he could and followed Zhang Heng to the next roof, unable to help himself from spotting those hideous beings whenever he ran. Unfortunately, they could not stay on the roof all the time. With the increasing gap between buildings, they couldn��t keep making more leaps.


    Fabericotte then saw Zhang Heng changing direction and jumping off the roof. It happened that five half-human half-fish monsters were blocking them. The moment he saw them, his heart started thumping violently.


    After that, he saw Zhang Heng fell on one of the monsters, stabbing its head with the chef��s knife in his hand. It was a clean kill. The four other monsters began giving chase as Zhang Heng pulled out the rifle from his backpack. Immediately, he drew two revolvers from his waist.


    Having a greatly enhanced shooting and drawing speed thanks to the Western dungeon he was in, it now took him less than a second to draw the gun and pull the trigger. And like theirpanion, the four monsters soon ended up dead.


    If it were not for the enemies nearby, Fabericotte would have screamed his lungs out.


    When he first saw the hostel��s monsters, he had a strong premonition that he was no match for them. He just wanted to turn around and escape, and he had never thought that there would be someone mighty enough to go against these creatures. For Zhang Heng, on the other hand, he seemed to have exerted little strength although he had just killed five monsters.


    ��Come down.�� Zhang Heng put away the revolvers, walked to the first monster that he killed, pulled out the chef��s knife, and wiped the blood on the monster��s body.


    ��What next?�� Fabericotee asked as he climbed down the roof.


    Unbeknownst to him, his apprehension and distrust of Zhang Heng had now switched to seeking his opinion no matter what he did. Fabericotte himself did not realize that he had now be dependent on Zhang Heng. As long as it wasn��t something insane, he would follow and do whatever he suggested.


    It was a shame that there was no time to ask him about the town now. Hence, the two continued running towards the swamp.


    Admittedly, Zhang Heng��s chosen route was very strategic. They did not encounter anyrge group of monsters along the way, where the scattered ones were quickly killed off by Zhang Heng as soon as they were in his sights. On the other hand, Fabericotte ran as fast as his legs could keep up.


    Due to his passion for travel and adventure, he was a rather fit man than his peers. However, he realized that he failed to outrun those half-fish and frog monsters.


    Fabericotte could feel that more and more enemies were chasing after him. They were speaking in anguage that did not belong to any race on this earth, and the fishy smell was getting more pungent as well. As the pping and splotting of their webbed feet got louder and louder, it reminded him that the enemies were getting closer.


    But the good news was that they were about to leave this area and arrive at the swamp.


    Zhang Heng then lit hisst homemade Molotov cocktail in his hand, managing to dy the enemies�� pursuit once again. The weeds and shrubs of the swamp provided a good cover.


    After Fabericotte ran into the swamp, he saw Zhang Heng in a crouching position, attempting to hide behind the tall grass. He quickly did the same too. Before they could run far, however, they heard the strange sound again, apanied by crunching and rustling from stepping on the weeds. This also meant that those monsters hadn��t yet given up on searching for them. In fact, they had followed them into the swamp.


    The worst part was that the two parties were getting closer a lot faster than when they were in the city.

 Chapter 727 - Necklace

    <h4>Chapter 727: Ne</h4>


    ��Go in this direction. Don��t look back. Hide if you manage to find a perfect spot.�� Zhang Heng said to Fabericotte.


    ��What about you?�� asked Fabericotte.


    ��I will draw them away, and I wille back for youter.��


    Zhang Heng hadn��t been suddenly possessed by Bethune, where his soul would get upgraded, and he wasn��t about to sacrifice himself to keep Fabericotte alive either. He had only done that because he underestimated the monsters�� tracking abilities in the swamp. If the two continued running together, sooner orter, the enemies would be able to capture them.


    Also, if Zhang Heng ditched Fabericotte aside, there was a good chance he would be able to get out of this predicament alone. Getting out of trouble wasn��t his purpose tonight, though. He wanted to investigate what was happening to him, which also meant that he first needed to understand what was really going on with this town. If it were not hisst resort, he would have tried his best to protect Fabericotte.


    Zhang Heng then handed Fabericotte a revolver. ��Use this gun to defend yourself. If the circumstance is not dire, try your best not to fire. Otherwise, I may not be able to save you in time.


    Fabricotte was no a fool, and he immediately understood what Zhang Heng meant.


    Although the revolver could protect him to a certain extent, the loud gunshot would almost certainly reveal his position. If arge number of monsters did surround him, Zhang Heng definitely wouldn��t be risking his life to get him out of that.


    That being said, the revolver still gave Fabericotte a sense of security.


    When fear went beyond human understanding, at least the technological advancements of civilization could bring him somefort, especially under the knowledge that he would surely die without a gun if those monsters surrounded him. With that piece of crude technology, he could at least fight for his life.


    The footsteps behind him were getting closer and closer. Zhang Heng and Fabericotte quickly went through the action n and went on their separate ways. Fabericotte kept moving forward, while Zhang Heng chose another direction to advance. And he deliberately made more noise by touching the weeds around him as he moved.


    Almost immediately, the monsters who were searching for them noticed the rustling. Like a torch burning brightly in the dark, he was attracting the nearby moths to pounce at him.


    Of course, there was good news. After ditching ��cumbersome,�� Zhang Heng had be a lot more agile.


    He quickened his pace and ran toward the paddy field in front of him, where two residential houses were located.


    It would be idiotic to block those monsters with a thin door and wall made of soil. Since he was on high ground, it was perfect for him to carry out a blockade.


    Although Zhang Heng��s ultimate goal was to run away, he did not want to just run. It was never his style to stay silent after getting forced into a corner. If he did not teach them a lesson, they would never stoping after him.


    As Zhang Heng ran, he reached into his backpack, taking out a box of bullets and reloading his rile. He was less than 200 yards from the two small houses at that time, where its broken windows that had been stuffed with clothes could be clearly seen. The front doors were open, and there was a pile of garbage in the courtyard. The mess of broken oyster shells scattered all over the floor indicated that this ce must have been uninhabited for a long time.


    He was about to approach one of the houses after crossing a small bog. Suddenly, something unexpected happened. A shadowy figure emerged from the grass on his left-hand side. It seemed the person had been waiting for some time to ambush Zhang Heng. Considering how close the two were to each other, the monster��s huge protruding eyeballs almost touched Zhang Heng��s cheeks. Zhang Heng, on the other hand, had no time to mount an ambush.


    The putrid fishy smell on his enemy had made it possible for Zhang Heng to identify him.


    Although Zhang Heng had been pushed to the ground, he still managed to aim at his opponent��s neck with his rifle. As he started examining the creature, he realized that its physiologypletely differed from that of an ordinary person. It breathed via the gills on both sides of its neck. The rifle hadn��t affected it too much, simply making it feel a little ufortable. With its feet, the creature kicked the rifle away.


    Zhang Heng also noticed that a piece of gold jewelry engraved with a strange pattern had fallen from the enemy��s neck to the ground amid the struggle. Before Zhang Heng could take a closer look at the ne, he saw other figures rushing out of the abandoned house. They looked like the nearby farmers but weren��t yet fully transformed into the monsters he met earlier. At most, they looked like the man and woman that worked in the restaurant.


    If they managed to get to him, Zhang Heng would need more time to get rid of them. So he decisively pulled the trigger while wrestling the enemy in front of him. He managed to aim at the farmer��s leg when he grabbed his rifle, the bullet firing out of its chamber embedded itself into the target��s thigh. Although not fatal, it was more than enough to stop him from getting into his way.


    After firing the shot, Zhang Heng dropped the rifle, drew the chef��s knife from his backpack, and inserted it into the eye socket of the monster when it turned its head. Thetter grinned and exerted thest of its strength to squeeze out few vague sybles from his throat.


    ��Save it. I don��t understand what you are talking about...��


    Zhang Heng picked up the rifle. After hesitating for a while, he picked up the ne as well and put it in his pocket.


    Initially, he thought that the ne was made out of gold, but after closer inspection, he found that it had a strange luster with a lighter color. It seemed someone had cast it with an alloy of unknown metals.


    This was not the time to analyze this ne. Zhang Heng looked at it briefly, stepped over the wailing farmers, and came up to the two abandoned houses. It was crucial that he confirmed nobody was hiding inside them, so he gave them a quick once over. Sure that he was alone, he climbed onto the roof of one of the houses.


    What greeted him was a spectacr and mysterious scene.


    He witnessed countless half-man half-fish, and frog-like monsters leaping around in the swamp, like dolphins jumping out of the water. However, these look far more horrific than the graceful creatures.


    Seeing dolphins in a boat at sea would always make people happy, but these hideous creatures moving in the swap would freak most ordinary people to the point they peed their pants.


    Instead of wasting time gawking at the multitude of monsters below him, Zhang Heng hurriedly looked for the ones wearing golden crowns and robes. He had noticed these people with weird appearances when he was running away, and it seemed that they were the same ones near the church when he first arrived in the town. They yed amanding role among the monsters, hence making them of higher status.


    Naturally, Zhang Heng needed to kill these ones first.


    But little time was left. The first wave of monsters would soon reach his location.


    Zhang Heng raised his rifle, and with help from the moonlight, he took aim at one of them.


    A deafening bang pierced the air. A figure wearing a golden crown trembled, fell to the ground, and could not stand up again.


    This time, Zhang Heng was unbothered to admire his kill, swiftly changing his muzzle��s direction and fired at his second target.


    The shot missed, however. It was all due to the distance and that this target had be vignt enough to dodge the gunshot after witnessing his twopanions getting killed.


    The Filter Lens, or rather, theck thereof, was responsible for these misses. If only he had the device with him, he would��ve taken out the enemy with a single shot even if it came prepared. As of now, Zhang Heng knew that he had run out of time to reload his rifle. The gold-crowned figure red at him for a while. Zhang Heng then killed the two monsters that charged at him and jumped down from the roof.

 Chapter 728 - Meetup

    <h4>Chapter 728: Meetup</h4>


    Zhang Heng��s two shots impacted them somewhat. At least it slowed their advance. They were clearly not used to losing theirmanders, and although they were still charging at Zhang Heng, they could not help but slow down.


    This was a logical thing for them to do. Although monsters, these were no brainless zombies. They witnessed the way Zhang Heng had massacred theirpanions. With the bodies of the sacrifices lying beside them, hearing the farmers wailing on the ground, they would naturally worry about their safety.


    As for the monsters led by the third sacrifice, Zhang Heng was not too bothered because they were still far away. After firing at his target, he put the rifle back into his backpack and left the two farmhouses.


    Zhang Heng did not rendezvous with Fabericotte immediately. Instead, he went around the area to make sure that he had gotten rid of all the monsters behind him before heading off.


    After such a long time, Zhang Heng had no idea where Fabericotte went. He didn��t even know if Fabericotte had been apprehended. There was nothing he could do if he were that useless. After all, he had done everything he could to help him survive.


    Zhang Heng headed in the direction that Fabericotte went in. At the same time, he noticed that the monsters behind him hadn��t yet given up. He was quite a distance from them, though, not to mention that it was arge swamp as well.


    They couldn��t be locating Zhang Heng in a short time. Considering how he had led the enemies in other directions, he had plenty of time to move around if he was careful. In other words, he finally had the time to listen to Fabericotte��s experiences. For him to do that, he had first to locate Fabericotte.


    Zhang Heng also took this opportunity to check the ne that he picked up earlier. Busy fighting-off monsters, there was simply no chance to take a closer look before this. He discovered that the materials used to make the ne were a bit strange. He deduced that it was of the same material as the golden crowns of the sacrifices, save for the crown��s more refined and intricate workmanship.


    In contrast, the ne had been made to simpler standards. Although there were markings on it, they were mainly some very abstract symbols. Among them, Zhang Heng could only identify the water symbol, something that might represent life. Other than that, there was an ocean and some fishes. He could feel that it was cold to the touch.


    It would have been an excellent summer essory, except that just like its owner, this ne also exuded an indescribable evil and mysterious aura, like a rattlesnake hiding under a te.


    After Zhang Heng confirmed that he could no longer decipher any information from it, he stuffed it into his backpack and continued to look for Fabricotte.


    The dpidated church��s spire stood tall in the darkness from far. And on the other side, long shadows loomed over the wave breaker. It seemed some people were standing on top of it. At first, Zhang Heng thought they were looking for him and Fabricotte, but after close inspection, he realized how wrong his initial spections were.


    Their backs were facing Zhang Heng, and they were looking in the direction of the sea. Or, to be more precise, they were staring at the ck reef. Zhang Heng could not figure out what they were waiting for. Simultaneously, the stench of rotten fish got stronger and stronger, more so when the sea breeze blew at him. At first, Zhang Heng mistakenly thought that another wave of enemies was approaching him only to realize that it was the breeze that was actually responsible for carrying the disgusting smell to him.


    Zhang Heng had a hunch about what would happen to the ck reef. And this might even have something to do with him. The most urgent thing, however, was finding Fabericotte. He needed to figure out what was really happening in the town before deciding his next move.


    Crouching down, Zhang Heng tried to hide behind the weeds while paying attention to any movement from all sides. He spent about an hour trying to identify the types of footprints left on the soil with his pocket shlight. He had deliberately chosen to walk on some muddy road when heading to dinner with Fabericotte, and on those paths, he spotted Farbericotte��s shoeprints.


    In the end, Zhang Heng managed to locate him. He was hiding beside an abandoned railroad track. At first, Zhang Heng thought he was dead when he saw him since he waspletely motionless, looking very much like a corpse.


    As Zhang Heng approached him, he found Fabericotte��s breathing to be very stable. He was simply unconscious.


    Zhang Heng shook the young man and woke Fabericotte from his nightmare.


    Thetter almost screamed when he opened his eyes. Fortunately, Zhang Heng was quick enough to cover his mouth with his hand.


    Fabericotte was surprised and delighted the moment he saw who was in front of him. ��You are finally back!�� he gushed.


    ��Well, why are you sleeping here?�� Zhang Heng asked. ��You even deviated from the route we agreed.��


    ��After we are separated, I ran in the direction that we agreed. Unfortunately, I ran into a group of monsters. To avoid them, I had to change the route slightly. Initially, I wanted to head back in the right direction after a while. It was then that I saw another group of monsters. I saw no alternative, so I had to hide in the railway tunnel temporarily. What I didn��t expect was that they would jump over my head one by one.��


    As if reliving the horrific scene, Fabericotte��s voice quivered. ��God! They were so close to me, so close that I could see the scales on them. The extreme fear that I was experiencing made me pass out. I never thought I would see you again. If one of them looked down at that time, I would have been done for good.��


    ��So, it seems great luck is on your side.�� Zhang Heng sat down next to Faberictte. ��Now, can you tell me about the town?��


    ��Of course. I��m so sorry. Please forgive my apprehension. The thing that has happened here is too absurd, and...�� At that point, Fabericotte hesitated again. ��Do you know that there are only two buses here? Did you have any contact with the outside world? I came here by the morning bus, but I didn��t see you at the time. I don��t know where you came from. The people at Newburyport said that no outsider woulde to this ce.��


    ��I��m from Arkham,�� Zhang Heng lied calmly, ��...I was ordered to investigate what happened here.��


    ��Ah, are you a detective? No wonder you are so good at what you do.�� Faberricotte came to a sudden realization. And soon, a look of regret shed across his face.


    ��That means the government has realized that something is wrong with this ce. There are a lot of legendary tales here. I didn��t expect them to be true. I should have told you everything I know, Mr. Agent.��

 Chapter 729 - Fabericotte’s Story

    <h4>Chapter 729: Fabericotte��s Story</h4>


    Fabericotte calmed down a little after that. Although hismon sense and logic were destroyed after seeing those monsters from such a close distance, he did not allow his mind to fall into confusion.


    He was able to describe to Zhang Heng what he saw and heard that day.


    ording to him, he initially wanted to transit to Arkham from here by riding the bus at 8 p.m. Usually, no one would pick this route, hence the cheap fare. For a poor traveler like him, he chose that route without much hesitation. Besides that, he was curious about this ce as well.


    In Newburyport, he had heard many tales about this ce, such as the disgusting and hideous people who lived in this town, the gloomy, oppressed, and sneaky atmosphere, and the periodical disappearance of people. It seemed like a rather attractive prospect at that time.


    That was especially the case when Fabricotte saw the golden crown in the museum. He became deeply fascinated by the evil aura beyond human imagination and its mysterious origin.


    ��Is the golden crown made of this material?�� Zhang Heng took out the ne he found in his bag.


    ��Yes! That��s it!�� Farbericotte immediately yelped when he saw the ne. However, before he could get a good look at it, he shuddered, trying to look away. It seemed the ne stored some evil magical power. Despite that, Fabericotte could not help but be fascinated by it.


    Fortunately, Zhang Heng did not take it out for too long. He just waved it in front of him and put it away again.


    Farbericotte breathed a sigh of relief, ��Anyway, I took the bus at ten o��clock the next morning and arrived here. Although I��ve had done a lot of research and mentally prepared myself beforeing here, I must admit the strange and dead atmosphere is beyond my imagination. I mean, can you believe it? Before 1846, this town was filled with people. It was said that a great gue swept by, destroying this town, wiping out more than half its inhabitants in a short time. Perhaps this unknown disease is the cause of their strange appearance.��


    Fabericotte paused for a while.


    ��Anyway, I had already gotten on the bus andnded here. Even if I wanted to leave, I had to take the evening bus. So I decided to spend some time walking around. I wanted to satisfy my curiosity too. I wanted to hear more tales about this ce... But as you can see, the people here are not very friendly to outsiders. No one wants to talk to me. In fact, it is not that I don��t want tomunicate with them. Their strange looks simply make me very ufortable. Then, found an employee in the grocery store. He is not a local. Not too long ago, his headquarters transferred him here.


    ��He told me a few things that I should be mindful of, such as not going out in the middle of the night and staying away from the church. Another mysterious order had reced the Freemasons here, and their priests worked on some peculiar rituals. On another note, the townsfolk love water very much. They have swimmingpetitions from time to time. Trust me. You don��t want to know how they swim. By the way, there are four famous families in this town��the Marsh family, running the refinery, the Witt family, the Gilman family, and the Elliott family. However, the people here rarely see them around town.


    ��When the staff in the grocery store knew that I was curious about the tales here, he rmended an old man called Zadok Allen to me. He is a poor old drunk who lives alone and is over ny years old. Normally, he would keep his mouth closed tight, and he is mentally unstable. But as soon as he gets drunk, he would start spilling everything kept in his mind. It is said that he created most of the fables around here.��


    ��Did you manage to find him?�� Zhang Heng asked.


    ��Yes, but it was not an easy task. I had to avoid as many people as possible. In fact, the staff told me that it would be best that nobody knew that I had met Zadok Allen. I used a bottle of wine to lure him to some ruins. That was where I acquired a precious opportunity to talk to him one-on-one.��


    Farbericotte suddenly disyed a look of horror and annoyance, ��but I now wished I never heard those horrible stories from him.��


    ��What kind of stories?��


    ��Everything traced back to a small ind in the South Pacific. At that time, a series of unfortunate events took ce one after another. A ship of fishermen was killed by pirates during the War in 1812. Three of the Gilman��s ships went missing, leaving only the Marsh��s vessels still sailing. However, they didn��t manage to fish for a long. There was a man called Obed, one of the captains of the fleet. He hade to know about a small ind where the indigenous wore gold-like jewelry and fishes that were so abundant their boats would creak from the haul.


    ��Hence, Captain Obed led his people to find the small ind. At first, he just tried to trade the gold-like pieces of jewelry with the natives. Not too long after that, Obed found the source of those gold from the tribal chief. The tribal chief told him that the people on the ind would hold ceremonies from time to time. These creatures would ask the tribe to give up their young people as a sacrifice, and in return, they would give them gold and fishes.��


    ��After that, those things attempted to persuade the ind��s natives to reproduce with them. When they gave birth, their offspring look exactly like humans, but as they mature, they would take on the likeness of those creatures. Eventually, they would live underwater forever.��


    ��Are you referring to those half-human, half-fish, and frog creatures?�� Zhang Heng frowned.


    ��Yes, those creatures were the ones who did business with that tribe. But not all their children grew up that way. Besides that, different people had different mutation times. Some were born like this, and some could maintain their human appearance until they were 70 or 80. Some even looked human until the day they died.��


    ��Hmm.��


    ��In short, Captain Obed figured out what happened on the ind and brought back the gift the tribal chief gave him, a gadget made of lead or something and a set of corresponding rituals. ording to the chief, if they managed to find a ce with fishes, all they had to do was throw the gadget into the water. In conjunction with the ritual, they would be able to find those creatures living underwater.


    ��Captain Obed did not use it at first. He just put it aside and continued to trade with the tribal people on the ind to acquire their gold. Not long after that, he opened a refinery in the town to secretly process the gold and made a lot of money. On the 8th of March, when Obed took the people to the ind, he discovered that the tribe had disappeared. Folks from other inds had wiped them out, and mysterious amulets were scattered everywhere on the ind. For Captain Obed, that could only mean terrible news.��

 Chapter 730 - The Truth Revealed

    <h4>Chapter 730: The Truth Revealed</h4>


    ��The refinery��s business took a sudden turn for the worse, and even the economy of the town began to deteriorate. Captain Obed thought of the lead object that he received from the tribal people. So he told the people in the town that he could bring in gold and fish again. At first, there were objections, especially one of the sailors who had gone to the ind with him. However, those who objected to the idea were soon forced to step away. At that time, Captain Alder started to restore his refinery business.


    ��But in 1846, things got out of hand. Too many people had gone missing in the town, and many inhabitants had seen the half-human half-fish monsters crawling out of the water. That had caused some working in the citymittee to go against him. They made contact and gathered arge number of people to force him to surrender. In the end, Obed and the twenty-three people who followed him were put in prison. Unfortunately, something terrible happened before their trial got to proceed. One night, countless creatures crawled out from the water to the shore. There were gunshots and screams in the square, churches, and fields. It continued until dawn. By that time, half of the town��s people had disappeared.


    ��Obed and the twenty-three people came out of the prison. Leading the remaining half of the town��s inhabitants, he dered that a gue had struck the settlement and was responsible for many deaths. The gue, however, was simply an excuse to cover up for their mistakes. And since then, they began to lose control before finally falling into the abyss of sin. Everything rotted away and died, especially when the first batch of children grew up, and they began showing a difference. More and more inhabitants started to mutate. Monsters crawl in the dark attics and basements. You could tell that the normal-looking people were getting lesser and lesser. I guess this is what we��vee to.��


    Farbericotet��s voice has been to tremble. ��I��ve been trying tofort myself ever since I first heard these tales. I kept telling myself that these were the drunk talk of an old man. After he spoke, he suddenly grabbed my shoulder. He told me that it��sing. It��s toote! It��s toote! It��s toote! He shouted. Then, I saw him run to the distant wave breaker and jumped off of it.��


    ��Did anyone see him talking to you?�� Zhang Heng asked.


    ��I don��t know. I was in too much of a panic. I should have saved him. A normal person would have saved him or at least checked if he was alive. I mean, after all, hemitted suicide because of me. Initially, I thought he had a mental problem. After he jumped down from the wave breaker, I just stood there and felt something strangling me. When I realized that I couldn��t save him anymore, I turned around and ran back to the square. I wanted to take the bus at 8.p.m. to get to Arkham, but the driver suddenly told me that some celebration would be held in the evening and the bus service would stop for one day. After that, I met you at the Gilman Hostel.��


    ��Then, do you have any idea what this thing that Allen mentioned was?��


    ��No, I havepletely no clue. I have told you everything I know so far,�� Fabricotte said. ��If I hadn��t seen it with my own eyes tonight, I would have never believed that such terrifying creatures exist. I swear that the excitement that I experienced here beats my entire life��s experience of encountering strange happenings. If we are lucky enough to leave this ce safely, I will nevere back again.��


    He looked at Zhang Heng with hopeful eyes. ��We can leave this ce in one piece, right?��


    Zhang Heng did not answer him right away. He turned to look in the direction of the wave breaker. The dark shadows were still standing there, motionless.


    After that, Zhang Heng turned around and said to Fabericotte. ��You didn��t tell me the truth.��


    ��What do you mean?�� Fabericotte was stunned. ��I wouldn��t dare hide anything from you now. Otherwise, I��ll be risking my life.��


    Zhang Heng did not answer. Instead, he said, ��I��m just curious of why you guys would put so much effort into making up the whole thing. Is it just for me to see?��


    Fabericotte��s face remained stunned.


    ��You didn��te here by bus,�� Zhang Heng said. ��In fact, the bus never left here. I checked its wheels and the dirt on it. Judging from its condition, I��d say it hasn��t been driven for more than ten hours. And the grocery store��s story has a big loophole as well. Considering the dust on the counter, I don��t think it has been opened for the past week. However, you told me that you talked to the employee there in the afternoon. Oh, and those abandoned houses.��


    ��Is there anything wrong with those?�� Fabericotte asked.


    ��Some of them have copsed because of disrepair, but as for the others, especially the ones by the sea, they had been destroyed by bombs. Their damage differs from the dpidated houses. Somewhere in the town, I also saw traces of tank tracks.��


    ��How did you find out so much after just staying for a while?�� Faberricotte asked in surprise.


    ��My observational ability is a lot better than you think,�� Zhang Heng replied. ��So what day is today? When I first came here, the first person who talked to me told me that it is July 15, 1927. The newspaper the staff at Gilman Hostel��s front desk was reading had been published years ago. And the magazine on the table also shows me the date, July 15. You guys have been using this method to tell me that today is July 15. Why? What is so special about this day?��


    ��No matter what date it is today, everything that you have experienced so far is real. Does it remind you of something?�� Fabericotte asked rhetorically.


    ��Save the puzzle for someone else,�� Zhang Heng said. ��The young man in your story, did he escape here in the end?��


    ��Did he escape?�� the young foreigner asked himself.


    ��Oh, I think it he managed to escape. Otherwise, there would have been no military intervention. The tank marks on the ground and the old blown-up houses were what happenedter.��


    Farbericotte finally stopped pretending and took off the surprised expression on his face. ��Your reasoning and keen observation are impressive. But you were wrong about one thing.��


    ��Please advise.�� Zhang Heng raised his eyebrows.


    ��I am the young man, and that young man is indeed me. Or, to be more precise. That was the old me.��


    ��Interesting, as you said before, people don��t usuallye back after experiencing those horrible things.��


    ��It��s true, but do you remember my introduction when we first met? I said that I came here to admire the natural scenery, look for historical sites, and study my family pedigree.��


    ��You have family members here? Were you born here? Were you sent away after you were born into this world? Is that why you don��t know much about this ce?��


    ��To be more precise, she is my great-grandmother. And she is a member of the Marsh family, Captain Obed Marsh.��

 Chapter 731 - Choice

    <h4>Chapter 731: Choice</h4>


    ��Everything makes perfect sense now.�� Zhang Heng nodded. ��You still haven��t answered my previous question. Why are you emphasizing this day to me?��


    Fabericotte did not answer. Instead, he blinked a few times. ��Someone wants to see you.��


    ��Who?��


    ��Your most faithful servant and follower.��


    ��I don��t remember having servants and followers,�� Zhang Heng said.


    ��There are many things you don��t remember, but it doesn��t matter. Take your time, and one day, you will remember them all,�� Fabericotte said. ��We can help you.��


    ��What��s the price?��


    ��What do you mean by that?��


    ��In the story, you told me that all those who dealt with you had to pay the price. This applied to the indigenous people on that small South Pacific ind and this small town��s inhabitants...��


    ��No, no, you are different from them...�� Fabericotte shook his head, ��We don��t want anything from you. It��s our duty to assist you.��


    ��You are very caring, just like Haido��s waiter,�� Zhang Heng said.


    After he was done talking, he ignored the puzzled expression on Fabericotte��s face and stood up from the ground. Although the fishy smell in the sea breeze was stronger than before, it still could not overpower the foul breaths of those half-human, half-fish, and frog monsters.


    Zhang Heng could sense many people approaching him. They came from four directions, which happened to block all escape routes.


    Drawing his Winchester, he pointed at Fabericotte and warned, ��Since you like staying this hell hole, you better make sure to stay put this time.��


    Thetter stretched out his hand to signal that he would not move.


    Zhang Heng then looked at the wave breaker in the distance. He knew that the person Fabericotte wanted him to meet was probably behind the wave breaker, or more precisely, on the ck reef.


    He could not deny that he was tempted to meet the person as well.


    Although Fabericotte had lied about the time before, he was still quite forting about other issues. To know more about his life, Zhang Heng knew he needed to meet the person on the ck reef.


    At the same time, a lot of vignce was also needed. They were desperately hoping that he would remember who he was. Zhang Heng was certain that they weren��t helping him out of kindness. Aside from memories before the age of six, he could remember his childhood quite well.


    From elementary school to university, he had never experienced amnesia. Before getting involved in this game, his everyday life was simr to that of an ordinary person. Before he reached the age of six, however, he was simply too young to do anything. Therefore, what sort of memory did Fabericotte want him to remember?


    This was also Zhang Heng��s first time realizing that perhaps it wasn��t the best idea to try so hard to look for answers to his questions.


    It wasn��t the time to think about such things. Zhang Heng hesitated, but in the end, he chose not to head towards the wave breaker. Instead, he continued to walk along the abandoned railway. If he wanted to leave this town, that would be the smartest move. Since the enemies were everywhere, it made no difference in which direction he chose. In other words, the problem of being tracked by his enemies did not exist.


    But the bad news was his rifle was running out of ammunition. It wasn��t because he hadn��t taken enough, but he found only one box of bullets when he ransacked the grocery store before this. There were about forty rounds in the box, clearly not enough to deal with the inhabitants and monsters in this town.


    Fortunately, his chef��s knife was still with him.


    In just less than twenty steps, Zhang Heng encountered the first team of enemies. There were seven of them, with two still in human form. It was the same man and woman that he saw in the restaurant earlier.


    Without any hesitation, Zhang Heng fired first.


    The bullet hit the head of a monster dead on target. Immediately, he drew his revolver from his waist with the other hand and killed another monster, with two bulletsnding in the same position. Undoubtedly, it was hard to miss a target from such a close distance.


    Zhang Heng��s battle with them officially started the moment the two enemies fell to the ground. His��s quick kills had foiled their abilities, albeit only temporarily. At least it allowed him to reload.


    Within the weeds, Zhang Heng��s Winchester let out continuous booms. Each muzzle sh briefly illuminated his face in the dark.


    Since he had three guns with him, he could maintain a steady stream of suppressive fire. Under his rapid-firing, no monster could get close to him.


    As the battle ensued, his ammunition had nearly depleted. The first weapon that ran out of bullets was his rifle that wasn��t really loaded, to begin with. After that, his revolver began drying up as well. Although there were still some bullets left, he began to ration his usage. To control ammunition consumption, he drew his chef��s knife and engaged in hand-to-handbat. Unless it was hisst resort, he would try his best to conserve ammunition.


    After some time, he barely broke through the densest and most hazardous monster encampment. Despite the rain of lead from Zhang Heng��s guns, the threat still existed.


    There were just too many monsters. After the tragedy, this town was left with half its poption. In the past few decades, however, they continued to multiply and grow. On a regr day, they would be hiding in the house and the dark. Now that each and every one of them had emerged, it seemed tonight would be more exciting than the tragedy forty-six years ago. And they only had one goal tonight.


    Zhang Heng dumped the backpack that was slowing him down, the empty Winchester included. He had to make sure that he was light enough for better maneuverability. At the same time, his heart rate started rising as his movements intensified. As he faced such a dangerous environment, Zhang Heng noticed the four Shadow-set items on him we behaving abnormally.


    There seemed to be a voice whispering in his ear, and though he couldn��t understand thenguage, he could guess what it asked him to do. It wanted Zhang Heng to make a choice between the four Shadow-set items.


    Zhang Heng hesitated and finally chose the item Arc of Light��s winged-man gave him. As he grabbed the game item, it suddenly split into two. Simultaneously, a ck shadow seeped out of the crack and merged into the Shadow behind Zhang Heng.


    He felt nothing abnormal in his body, but the moment he pictured the crow in his mind, a pair of ck wings grew out from his back.


    More than five meters in length when fully stretched, they weren��t tangible, seeming as if they were made out of pure shadows. It wasn��t unlike the pair of wings he saw on the winged-man when he fought him that night. Zhang Heng��s wings looked darker and more prominent, however, making him look like a fallen angel from a horror movie.


    He, however, knew that he wasn��t nearly as cool as those, where he could fly wherever and whenever he wanted. The moment he spread the wings out, he quickly learned how long theysted��only twelve seconds, and he could only use them once a day. It was simr to Shen Dongxing��s figurine-mechanizing ability.

 Chapter 732 - Wings

    <h4>Chapter 732: Wings</h4>


    While those half-man-half-fish and frog monsters looked at Zhang Heng in bewilderment, Zhang Heng��s soared into the air. A massive pair of ck wings spread out behind him. And at the same time, feather-like fine fragments of shadows were falling from the sky.


    This was Zhang Heng��s first experience flying in the air.


    Of course, flying on a ne didn��t count. This time, he was flying without the help of an external source. Differing from the birds that flew in the sky, he could feel the presence of the wings in his consciousness, but they were not controlled by his muscles. As of now, Zhang Heng was still discovering how to use his wings right.


    Zhang Heng looked a little clumsy as he tried to learn the reins of flight. Since it was his first time using such an ability, he did not dare to rise up too high, merely hovering high enough so the monsters could not reach him by jumping. After that, he flew out of the encirclement.


    Under the moonlight, a ck shadow floated over the wastnd. Zhang Heng could see that all those monsters lifting their heads, staring at him from the ground. They had been preparing for this battle for a long time, and everything that they did was like a carefully rehearsed stage y. However, none of them foresaw that Zhang Heng would grow a pair of wings and fly away.


    Twelve seconds was a short time.


    Zhang Heng silently counted the seconds in his heart. He managed to lower his altitude one second before his wings disappeared. Due to his inexperience in flying, he couldn��t estimate the right speed and strength needed fornding. His armnded first, and he rolled on the ground a few times beforeing to a stop.


    He didn��t even care about checking his injuries. After he got up from the ground, he continued to run forward. Although he had managed to avoid many enemies by flying, there were still many scattered nearby.


    Since he could not use his wings, for now, Zhang Heng was not entirely confident that he would be able to run away. After all, the residents who had lived here for decades or longer knew these grounds much better than him.


    Suddenly, he heard someone uttering a series of rapid sybles. The noise came wasing from the priest with the gold crown.


    Zhang Heng wasn��t sure if this priest was the one that survived the shootout earlier. Although there were more monsters than priests, he was certain there were more than just three priests. After a while, more and more monsters started to repeat the series of strange sybles and, at the same time, stopped advancing as well. It was as if they had just received an order from theirmander.


    Although unaffected by the chants, he still looked back as he ran. For the time being, he did not see theming after him. It seemed they were just going to stand there and watch him leave.


    After running for a while, Zhang Heng gradually slowed his pace.


    Right now, another sound permeated his ears.


    If the voices of those monsters made him feel ufortable, then these low-frequency hums filled with malicious intent would probably turn a sound-minded person utterly crazy. It wasparable to the sound that came from the deepest parts of hell.


    Since Zhang Heng was gradually losing his emotion, he showed little reaction to the sounds. He guessed that the sounds roughly originated from the ck reef.


    It was a shame that the wave breaker blocked the person, and he couldn��t see what was beyond it. All of a sudden, a cloud of white smoke reappeared beside Zhang Heng. Judging by its taste, it was the cigar that the bartender gave him.


    Zhang Heng knew that it was time to leave. Before he left, he took onest look at the low and dpidated buildings and ruins in the distant town, and half of the tower spire bathed in moonlight. He then allowed the white smoke to engulf him.


    ...


    ��You stayed longer than I expected.�� The bartenderdy nced at the clock hanging on the lounge��s wall and asked Zhang Heng, who had just opened his eyes, ��How did the test go?��


    ��I don��t know if it went well.�� Seemingly remembering something, he went silent before asking, ��How much time has passed?��


    The bartenderdy wasn��t too bothered about Zhang Heng not wanting to talk more about the test. She was never a person who liked to explore the secrets of others and had done an excellent job as a game checkpoint staff. That said, she was quite obsessed with the game herself.


    ��You were in there for about half a minute. Since you are awake,e and settle the bill first.��


    ��How much?�� Zhang Heng was not too surprised by her answer. Although he had been in that weird town for almost half a day, he had be ustomed to the change of time after experiencing so many quests.


    But that ce wasn��t like the dungeons he had been to before. His game items, character panels, and even his watch were taken away from him. If he were to describe it, it was more like a dream.


    ��100 game points.��


    ��Why is it so expensive?�� Zhang Heng frowned.


    ��Compared with what you have recently received, this is nothing to you.�� The bartender raised her eyebrows and returned all the game items to him. Zhang Heng had stored all his game items here before he entered the game.


    ��But I don��t have so many points with me.�� Zhang Heng said.


    ��Impossible. Aren��t you ranked first on the proxy war��s leaderboard?�� The bartenderdy was surprised.


    ��But there were no game points to earn in the proxy war��s dungeon.��


    Zhang Heng told everything truthfully to the bartenderdy. Initially, he could have gotten four hundred game points from 1807, but thetter decided to pay with his game items. And the points that he earned from the Western dungeon had practically been used to pay off his debts. Now, all he was left with were thirty game points.


    ��All your points have been used to recast the sword.�� The bartenderdy rubbed her chin. ��What should I do?��


    ��I still have twenty-nine game points. If possible, I will pay the remainder after the next quest,�� Zhang Heng said.


    ��If it was someone else, I won��t take the deal because I don��t know if the yer can survive the next round. And even if they do, I don��t know if they can earn enough points. But given that we have done so many transactions, I might make an exception and let you pay the next time. However, this is only a one-time thing,�� Miss bartender said. She seemed nicer to him this time.


    However, Zhang Heng did not seem to appreciate the favor very much. His expression changed, ��You used to collect game points before providing me with services.��


    ��You mean, I��m making you pay all your game points now?��


    ��That��s not the case. I mean, why did you set a different rule this time. You seem to be really eager for me to participate in this test.�� Zhang Heng looked into the eyes of the bartender, his mind filled with thought.


    ��Are you doubting me? Why? Did anything happen during the test?��


    Zhang Heng could read nothing from the bartender��s cunning eyes. In the end, he said, ��Nothing, maybe it��s just a coincidence.��

 Chapter 733 - Mukaiji Nanako

    <h4>Chapter 733: Mukaiji Nanako</h4>


    Tonight, Zhang Heng had achieved two things in one��he solved Yogurt��s kidnapping and epted the Shadow-set��s test.


    The former went by reasonably smoothly. Although he received no game points from 1810, he did acquire a game item. At least he got something in return after spending all that effort to look for Yogurt. As for the grievances between Yogurt and 1810, and the love story between Yogurt and Shen Dongxing, these had nothing to do with him.


    Afterpleting the trial of the Shadow-set items, he received a huge amount of new information. He had actually been unable to fully understand what was going on; until now, that was.


    ording to his previous analysis, he should have entered the Shadow-set��s dungeon for the test after inhaling the white smoke. Due to personal reasons, however, he returned to the strange town that he had dreamed of. This time, though, he managed to find out why the town was slowly rotting away.


    But then Zhang Heng noticed Fabericotte��s behavior. That was when he first started to doubt if he should continue investigating his life.


    In the end, he decided not to go to the ck reef and meet the creatures there. Fabericotte did refer to him as his most loyal servant and follower. However, based on Zhang Heng��s experience, when someone did not mind paying the massive price of forcing another to do something, it often meant that myriad unfavorable factors would gue the matter.


    When Zhang Heng first arrived in that town, he instinctively felt a particr connection with him. The person standing on the ck reef should be the leader of those half-man-half-fish and frog monsters.


    If Fabericotte wasn��t lying, and that person was his servant and follower, then who was he?


    What about the other items from the Shadow-set?


    If it was as simple as returning to his dream, how were those Shadow items on him? And what about the choice he had to make at the end of his dream?


    Did he pass the test? If tonight��s dream was rted to his body and he hadn��tpleted the Shadow set��s trial, how did he acquire the wings?


    What did the bartender have to do with this incident? Did she know that the ritual would go wrong? Could she have been one of the people that knew about Zhang Heng��s life?


    What was the rtionship between her and the old man in the Tang suit? Did they know each other? If this was the case, it was no coincidence that the old man asked him toe to this checkpoint where the bartender was.


    ...


    So many questions were left unanswered, yet Zhang Heng was in no rush to get their answers. After he came out of the bar, he found a hotel and rented a business suite, falling asleep from morning all the way to the afternoon. Although the mysterious and depressive atmosphere had little effect on him, the battle that began at Gilman Lodge all the way to the swamp had cost him a great deal of stamina.


    After returning to the real world, Zhang Heng didn��t want to think about other matters, merely wanting to have a good rest. Fortunately for him, he had a sound sleep, where there were no interruptions and no strange dreams as well. When his eyes finally opened and he nced at his watch, the time showed 4:20 in the afternoon.


    After that, he headed to the bathroom for a shower. Once he came out, he turned on theputer on the desk and organized the information at hand.


    Perhaps intentional or otherwise��Zhang Heng realized that Fabericotte had never told him the town��s name from the beginning. However, he did mention that he was traveling around New Ennd.


    New Ennd was in no way rted to the United Kingdom. Referring to six states in the Northeastern United States, they included Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Ind, and Connecticut. Newburyport was a city located in northeastern Massachusetts. Zhang Heng had gone to the United States twice in two games, and he still clearly remembered some of the country��s facts.


    But the name Arkham was unfamiliar to Zhang Heng. Those familiar withics, however, knew that there was an Arkham Asylum in Gotham City. The ce was filled with talented people, and they were friendly and polite. However, in reality, it seemed that such a ce did not really exist. To verify his doubts, Zhang Heng clicked on an electronic map.


    As expected, no such ce existed.


    So was Fabericotte lying about it?


    Zhang Heng was in no rush to draw a conclusion. He continued searching for July 15, 1927, the day that Fabericotte and the townsfolk were very concerned about. However, the results obtained weren��t beneficial. The 1946 gue shared no clues about the ce he was looking for, and in the end, Zhang Heng was left with a frown on his brow.


    Suddenly, his mobile phone vibrated. Zhang Heng picked it up, took a look, and found that Chen Huadong had sent him a message. There were only two words��HELP ME!


    He even sent his location.


    Zhang Heng took a look and knew that it was near amercial pedestrian street, not too far from where he currently was.


    As of now, thest thing he wanted was to dwell on this matter. He had recently been dealing nonstop with supernatural incidents, and he needed to rx his nerves by doing things an ordinary person would do.


    So, he turned off theputer, went downstairs to check out his room, took a taxi, and rushed to where Chen Huadong was. Thetter was waiting for him in front of the street. Scratching his head, a girl was beside him.


    At about only 1.5 meters, her stubby height made her look petite, not to mention her silver hair and the quirky outfit she had put on. Her bangs were slightly cocked, making her look like she had just woken up from sleep.


    Zhang Heng remembered Hayase Asuka saying that she had a friend who loved anime and was here as an exchange student. And she wanted to find someone to practice her Chinese, so Zhang Heng had rmended Chen Huadong, who himself had beening to terms with his lengthy period of bachelorship. Hence, that marked the beginning of their international friendship.


    After Zhang Heng got the contact information Hayase Asuka sent him, he immediately forwarded it to Chen Huadong. He never asked if the friendship worked out or not.


    So this was Zhang Heng��s first time seeing her in the flesh.


    Chen Huadong was in luck this time. She was almost as gorgeous as Hayase Asuka. Although she fell slightly short of Hayase Asuka��s sharp facial features, she was cuter than most of her counterparts. As they were walking just now, many boys had their eyes on her. It was rare that she shared the same hobbies as Chen Huadong. It was no wonder Chen Huadong had been so passionate about learning Japanese recently.


    ��You are finally here!�� Chen Huadong��s eyes lit up when he saw Zhang Heng.


    ��Well, how can I help?��


    ��We are going to visit the bookstore. Nanako... Oh, by the way, I haven��t introduced her to you yet.��


    Chen Huadong started to speak in crappy Japanese. ��Nanako... this... Zhang Heng, Zhang Heng, this Mukaiji Nanako.��


    Nanako then stretched out her hand, wanting to shake Zhang Heng��s hand, ��Asuka-senpai talks about Zhang-san almost three times a day. Recently, she had beenining about you not contacting her. She admires you a lot!��

 Chapter 734 - Looking for Books

    <h4>Chapter 734: Looking for Books</h4>


    Zhang Heng and Nanako Mukaiji shook hands. After that, Chen Huadong exined the reason for seeking Zhang Heng��s help.


    When the two of them were shopping, Nanako Mukaiji suddenly asked to stop at the bookstore, saying that she wanted to find a few Chinese books to practice reading. However, she could not remember the name of the book. All she could remember was its contents. Unfortunately, Chen Huadong��s Japanese was half-baked, and he could hardly figure out which book Nanako Mukaiji wanted to buy even after she described the book explicitly with hand gestures. That was why he called for Zhang Heng��s help since he could understand and speak Japanese well.


    ��Help a brother out. I will buy you a mealter.��


    ��What are we eating?��


    ��How about... wonton?�� Chen Huadong looked at Zhang Heng��s expression. Thetter put on a nomittal look. So Chen Huadong changed his mind, gritted his teeth, and said, ��I will buy you the food court��s most famous barbecued seafood!��


    ��Sounds good to me.�� Zhang Heng nodded.


    ��My wallet is bleeding,�� Chen Huadongmented. ��Please make sure that your service is thoughtful enough. Well, don��t be too thoughtful. I don��t want her to be attracted to you. Shit! I��m starting to feel that it��s unwise to ask for your help. You already have Shen Xixi, Hayase Asuka, and Han Lu, a filthy rich woman. I believe you won��t snatch Nanako from me, right?�� he pleaded while looking at Zhang Heng with suspicion.


    ��Remember, I want six oysters,�� replied Zhang Heng.


    ��No.�� Chen Huadong changed his expression when he heard Zhang Heng��s request, ��One oyster costs eighteen yuan. If you order six, that will cost me more than one hundred yuan! And I don��t think it��ll be enough to fill you up. After that, you��ll ask for grilled fish, grilled shrimp, and grilled octopus. By the way, can��t you just eat grilled buns, grilled eggnt, or something cheaper? Those are economical and affordable. I would rather you order kebabs or some chicken wings.��


    ��What am I supposed to eat from a barbeque seafood stall if I don��t eat seafood?�� Zhang Heng casually returned the question, ignoring a shocked Chen Huadong.


    ��...��


    ��What are you talking about? Sounds delicious,�� Nanako Mukaiji curiously chipped in. Although she was learning Chinese, her vocabry was still severely limited. The only words that she could understand were fish, shrimp, and chicken wings. She was staring at Zhang Heng and Chen Huadong, whose nerves were already frayed. With her bangs swinging in front of her forehead, she looked even cuter than she already was.


    When Chen Huadong saw her reaction, he suddenly felt a sense of satisfaction.


    All those raw oysters, grilled shrimps, or octopuses did not matter to him anymore... He then started to speak in his half-baked Japanese, ��Nanako, angel... Zhang Heng, demon.��


    ��Huh?�� Nanako Mukaiji instantly felt shy the moment Chen Huadong suddenly praised her.


    Zhang Heng also spoke out, ��Describe to me the book that you want to buy.��


    ��Really? Sorry for troubling you, senpai.��


    The three of them walked into the bookstore, and Nanako Mukaiji started to describe the book��s contents to Zhang Heng. Upon consulting the staff, Zhang Heng found that most of the bookstore��s employees hadn��t read it before. Hence, he could only head toward the corresponding area to search for the book.


    Zhang Heng would first look at the cover and introduction of the books. This was the fastest way to help Nanako. Sometimes, the summaries of a book had nothing to do with its contents. In fact, it was suspected that the person who wrote the summaries had most of the time never read the contents. Or they would write the summaries in a way that could attract prospective buyers. After the readers bought the book, they would find outter that its contents had nothing to do with the summary.


    It was quite amon practice nowadays.


    Even though Chen Huadong was also helping to search for the book, it took the three of them almost an hour to find the exact copy she wanted. Now there was only one book left, a collection of poetry, and the author was Spanish.


    Mukaiji Nanako was a little embarrassed, ��Why don��t we forget about thest book? We have wasted a lot of time here.��


    ��It doesn��t matter. We��ve got nothing to do anyway, right?�� Chen Huadong red at Zhang Heng.


    For the sake of barbequed seafood, Zhang Heng had to support Chen Huadong this time. Hearing this, he said, ��Well, I need to get a few books for myself too. I don��t mind helping you to search for what you want.��


    ��Chen-san, thank you so much.�� Nanako Mukaiji smiled at Chen Huadong. She was smart enough to know that Zhang Heng was only willing to help because of Chen Huadong.


    ��Ah, it��s nothing. Don��t worry about it. I am your Chinese teacher, after all.�� Chen Huadong scratched his head. He had to admit that Zhang Heng had also given his best this time. He first listened to what Nanako Mukaiji had to say and tranted her words into Chinese. It was the most effective way for the three of them to search for the books she wanted to buy.


    And Zhang Heng yed the role of a wingman perfectly. He did not show that he was better than Chen Huadong. Any books that he found, he would give them to Chen Huadong and ask him to pass them to Nanako. Finally, Chen Huadong put down his guard and secretly gave Zhang Heng a thumbs-up while Nanako was not paying attention.


    Zhang Heng responded with a six-finger gesture.


    Immediately, Chen Huadong��s eyes filled up with tears of both pain and happiness.


    For thest book, Zhang Heng pointed at a bookshelf that he walked past earlier. Chen Huadong immediately ran there and pretended to search for the book. After that, Zhang Heng took the book of poems from Chen Huadong and tranted it to Nanako Mukaiji for confirmation.


    However, thetter shook her head. So Zhang Heng put the book back on the shelf. Suddenly, he paused because he saw another book on the shelf.


    A book that did not belong here.


    It was normal that the bookstore��s customers randomly ced the books that they had flipped through. Earlier, Zhang Heng had roughly checked the books on the bookshelves and did not notice this book��s existence at the time. This was nothing unusual to the average person, but with Zhang Heng��s observational skills, he knew that the probability of this happening was not high.


    In other words, someone ced the book here not too long ago.


    Just when Zhang Heng wanted to grab it, someone took it first.


    ��Oh, so the book turns out to be here.��


    ��It seems you��ve been quite freetely.�� Zhang Heng knew who the person was when he heard the voice. He turned his head and saw the old man in the Tang suit.


    ��I guess these are the perks of being your own boss. Although it��s pressurizing, at least you have more freedom in managing your time, and you can go wherever you want.�� Thetter shrugged and looked at Nanako Mukaiji. ��Are you dating? Did you change girlfriends?�� he asked.


    ��No. I��m just helping a friend,�� Zhang Heng replied.


    ��That��s good. Old people are always more nostalgic. I still prefer the little girl named Hayase Asuka. Fan Meinan is not bad as well. As for Shen Xixi... You know I don��t like the woman behind her, but I have to admit that you��re pretty good at picking girlfriends,�� the old man in the Tang suit put the book under his arm calmly as he said.

 Chapter 735 - Guardian Angel

    <h4>Chapter 735: Guardian Angel</h4>


    While Zhang Heng talked to the Tang-suited old man, Chen Huadong was walking towards him with a poetry book. He was shocked to see the old man. Thetter, on the other hand, greeted him in kind. ��You must be Chen Huadong. Pleasure meeting you here.��


    ��Oh, d to meet you too,�� Chen Huadong replied, dazed. He was a little confused about the current situation. If memory served him right, he knew he had never met an old man in a Tang suit before. Now when a person was called by name, they would naturally return the greeting. The old man seemed to have talked with Zhang Heng for a while just now, meaning he should be an elder or teacher.


    Chen Huadong responded and cast his gaze on Zhang Heng, but thetter had no intention to exin the whole thing. Instead, he turned to Chen Huadong. ��We have found all the books. I don��t think you need me to be here anymore. I��ll be making a move then.��


    ��Of course. I��m sure you have other matters that need your attention.�� In the end, Chen Huadong couldn��t figure out who the old man was to Zhang Heng. However, he could see that the two needed to talk in private, so he nodded and watched them leave.


    The old man first headed to the counter to pay for the book he was holding. He also bought a self-driving tour brochure and a book about cat behavior. It confused people about what he wanted to do next. Did he n to go on a road trip or stay at home to raise a cat?


    Zhang Heng then headed downstairs and walked out of the bookstore.


    Half a minuteter, the Tang-suited old man also headed downstairs with his book. ��I remember a shop around here that sells delicious yogurt ice cream. Do you want one?��


    The old man came to the bookstore because he wanted to invite Zhang Heng to eat ice cream. The two hadn��t met very often, only four times until now. Although their paths would cross sometimes, it turned out that the old man would have an agenda each time.


    During their first meeting, he wanted to hire Zhang Heng as his agent. The second time they met, he wanted to work with Zhang Heng in dealing with Moresby. And the third time was to prevent the brewing conflict between Zhang Heng and the Goddess of Justice. This time was no exception. But Zhang Heng was not in a hurry. He was waiting for the old man to speak first.


    The two then headed to the famous yogurt ice cream shop together. The old man bought tworge servings of yogurt ice cream and asked for all the toppings avable in the shop. As he handed one to Zhang Heng, he said, ��I know there has been some misunderstanding between us, and you don��t trust me a hundred percent. That��s totally understandable. Even the ancient kings could not trust their blood-rted rtives, let alone modern society. Everyone has their little secrets.��


    ��You should know that I saw the book��s title, right? Even if you take it away, I can still buy it from the bookstore,�� Zhang Heng took the ice cream and said.


    ��Of course. They have printed countless copies. Theye in differentnguages printed by different publishers, so millions of copies flood the market. I can��t buy them all. And you can find them on the inte as well.�� The old man nodded. ��Actually, all I can do is advise you from the perspective of a partner and an old friend��try to stay away from these books.��


    ��Interesting, I thought you would make me investigate this matter.��


    ��Why say that?��


    ��The little gift you gave me��on the surface, it is a cheat that helps me extend time in the game, but it��s actually rted to my body, right? You know that over time, my body would experience changes.��


    The old man sighed. ��You know, sometimes, right or wrong don��t apply to certain things. The factor of time can alter the oue of an event. All in all, everything on this earth is closely tied to time. For example, if you like a girl, falling in love with her too early may not guarantee you will marry her. If you fall in love with her toote, she might have married someone else. Thus, the importance of timing.��


    ��Are you worried that I will cooperate with others after I know everything about my life?��


    ��No, no, I��m not worried about that. I mean... Actually, I am not the only one paying attention to you. And not everyone likes you. To protect you, I have to work with people I��m not fond of, including letting you join the game. Through that, you��d be protected by the rules, except for the fight between you and Justitia. Supposedly, no one is allowed to attack you right now except for their agents. This is why I��ve always reminded you to be careful of other agents... As you can see, the people who work with you and I don��t wish to see you get hurt. That��s ourmon goal. However, we do have some disagreements over certain matters, trial ones, really. For example, we still haven��t agreed on the right time to let you know the truth behind everything.��


    ��You just mentioned the people that you work with. Who are those? Are you referring to the bartender at the game��s checkpoint?�� Zhang Heng asked.


    ��Sorry, I can��t give you the name list because I��m a reputable and reliable partner. I vowed never to expose their names even if I discovered that my other partners double-crossed me.�� The old man in the Tang suit spread out his hands, looked helpless, and admitted, ��I know you have always suspected that I was the one who��s been messing with you behind your back. You will be surprised when the truth is revealed, and you will find out that I am the only one who stands by your side. As I��ve said, I am like your little guardian angel.��


    ��Is this charity to you?��


    ��Of course not. Everyone in this world wants something, and I am no exception.�� The old man scooped a spoonful of yogurt into his mouth. ��The thing I want, however, will not harm your interests. I help you, you help me, and this is a win-win situation��the perfect cooperation. I said the same thing when we officially became partners��and that has not changed.��


    ��So you are telling me not to investigate further?��


    ��You are an adult, and you have the right to choose the right path for yourself. I��m just telling you that whatever you��re looking for might not be as good as you expected. And no matter what decision you make, I will always support you; even if you want me to give you the book now, I will do it right away.�� The old man hungrily scooped an even bigger scoop of yogurt ice cream, and some of it fell onto his beard. It made him look really funny, ��Oh, yes, I haven��t congratted you on winning first ce in the proxy war��s first round.��


    ��What��s the point? Anyway, you don��t care about the oue of this sort of thing, right?��


    ��Who said that? Of course, I care. You represent my interests. I would read the news every day about proxy war.�� The Tang suit old man grinned. ��I am happy for you from the bottom of my heart. The final prize is good enough to tempt a god.��


    As he spoke, he patted Zhang Heng on the shoulder, ��Good luck, buddy.��

 Chapter 736 - Empire’s Dusk

    <h4>Chapter 736: Empire��s Dusk</h4>


    Naturally, Zhang Heng would not fully believe what the old man in the Tang suit said. However, the timing of the book appearing was indeed a big problem, but he decided to put this matter aside for the time being. Recently, he spent most of his energy learning to control the pair of newly acquired Shadow Wings.


    In order to avoid frightening the people on the street, Zhang Heng only practiced his flying technique when time stopped for him. Unfortunately, his flying time was capped at twelve seconds a day. After two weeks of training and exploration, he had finally mastered his flying technique, no longernding face first.


    During hisst practice session, he climbed onto a 405-meter-highmunications tower, looked at the city under his feet, took a deep breath, and took a leap of faith. His body began free-falling under the influence of gravity, and his rate of descent elerated. When he was only a hundred meters above the ground, he closed his eyes and pictured the crow in his mind.


    Almost instantly, a pair of Shadow Wings spread out on his back, helping him to slow his descent as he flew to the distant residential building. Right before the wings disappeared, Zhang Hengnded on the roof of a building.


    The moment his feet hit the concrete of the roof, the wings behind his back folded and disappeared. The wholending process was a smooth one. He figured that he might even perform moreplicated moves in the air if he carried on with the daily training. This skill could prove instrumental in evading ground attacks or even flying over extreme natural environments.


    But for the time being, he had achieved his goal��spread his wings andnd smoothly during an emergency fall. In other words, he no longer needed to worry about untoward falls from high ces.


    Other than that, this pair of wings also served as an option for him to escape the threats he would face in the future. Since he had depleted the uses of Shadow Moment and Evil Wall, Zhang Heng had no game items that would get him out of serious trouble, although he had obtained a ton of items recently��the skill set he had helped him ovee many threats ofte.


    But now, with this pair of wings, he was shielded by anotheryer of protection.


    And it had to be admitted that flying to the heavens had always been humanity��s dream. There were murals that depicted flying since the dawn of civilization. Since then, the desire to take to the skies had prated many cultures. Whether it was Western myths or Eastern novels, the gods and demons always had a pair of wings on their backs.


    With the advancement of science and technology, people had invented hot air balloons and airnes that could take human beings into the sky. However, it was still unlike flying freely. Although the ability couldst a scant twelve seconds, Zhang Heng did feel like a bird in the sky.


    From up there, high above, he could see everything under his feet, free from the shackles of reality. When he looked at the familiar sights of daily life from apletely different perspective, everything became refreshing. Unfortunately, twelve seconds was not enough for him to fly to the clouds. Zhang Heng could only wish that he could reach out and touch the dark clouds.


    ...


    After the proxy war started, the interval between the games he needed toplete had shortened. Before the war, he was required toplete one game every month. Now, he needed toplete one proxy war round in that month. Although his physique would be restored to tip-top condition after the end of the dungeon, the mental fatigue would remain.


    Fortunately, it was not a big issue for Zhang Heng since he had an extra 24 hours. In fact, his resting time was twice as long as other yers. Therefore, two weeks after the end of the first round of the proxy war, Zhang Heng returned to the game checkpoint and started an ordinary quest.


    Prior to this, he learned that Shen Xixi��s score for her first round of the proxy war was 325. Her score was not considered low, but it was not too high either. Especially after the top three guilds had begun to exert their strength, she still qualified to participate in the game��s next round. However, she now ranked 60 on the leaderboard, and she was still falling.


    Maybe Shen Xixi didnt give in everything she had toplete the quest, or perhaps other factors were affecting her. Zhang Heng had only seen Shen Xixi used her ability once during Yogurt��s kidnapping incident. The little scale she had with her could probably attack a human soul. The moment she put it to use, her words were enough to shut 1810 down.


    Zhang Heng��s figured that it should be a Grade-B game item. Besides, as the agent of Justitia, Shen Xixi should have other abilities. Of course, there were limitations to these powers. She could only attack enemies with evil intentions; the reason she failed to intercept Shen Dongxing that night. However, she remained an excellent decision-maker. If her team members were there, she would find a way to maximize each of their abilities.


    The current ranking did not represent her true strength. Besides, Zhang Heng had fallen from third ce and was overtaken by the yer in that position. The yer had dived right into his second round of proxy war. He didn��t take it at heart, though. ording to Miss Bartender, the rewards were simr for those who ranked first to fifty.


    So, he decided toplete his ordinary quest first.


    However, he was a little worried about Fan Meinan, having not heard from her since the proxy war began. Until now, she still had not replied to Zhang Heng��s message. Thest time the two met was at McDonald��s.


    At that time, Fan Meinan did not look too good. She looked thinner and had Zhang Heng��s offer to help as well.


    ��I��ve asked about your sword,�� the bartender said to Zhang Heng, ��The fastest you can get it back is in four days. Thetest is a week. I think you should be able to get it before the next proxy war round.��


    ��Well, thanks a lot.�� Zhang Heng sat down and took out the rm clock. There were only less than ten minutes to midnight. It appeared that Fan Meinan��s affairs had to be put aside first. For now, he had to focus on his next quest.


    After setting the time, heid down on the deck, waiting for the dizziness to hit him as usual.


    [Verifying yer identity.]


    [Identiity verified. Randomly selecting the ninth quest for yer 07958...]


    [Drawplete. You are now participating in Empire��s Dusk]


    ��Nerva founded the Antonine dynasty, Trajan expanded the territory, Hadrian perfected the bureaucracy, Antonine made sure that vault was always full. Aurelius wrote ��Meditations,�� but everything would eventuallye to an end no matter how brilliant it was. Where should the empire go now...��


    [Task objective: Survive for 80 days]


    [Mode: Single yer]


    [Time flow rate: 480] (1 hour in the real world is equivalent to 20 days in the game. After 80 days, the yer will be automatically returned to the real world.)


    [Friendly reminder: the game will officially start in five seconds, prepare yourself!]

 Chapter 737 - This Is Rome

    <h4>Chapter 737: This Is Rome</h4>


    Although the system did not mention anything about the dungeon, Zhang Heng could roughly guess the ce he would be traveling to when it mentioned the five names.


    It was Ancient Rome.


    Or, to be more precise, the Roman Empire.


    The origin of all brilliant stories often came from a legend, and Ancient Rome was no exception.


    Numitor and Amulius were a pair of brothers, and their father was a king of the Latin people. Before the king died, he divided his inheritance into two and let his two sons choose from them. Numitor chose the throne, while Amulius chose the countless treasures their ancestors brought back from Troy.


    So one of them became a king, and the other became extremely wealthy.


    But Amulius, who possessed a lot of wealth, was unhappy to live under his elder brother��s rule. So he used his wealth to bribe the ministers and the army to take his side. In the end, he sessfully usurped the throne and exiled his elder brother, Numito. And he also killed Numitor��s son. After his daughter pleaded, he decided not to kill his elder brother��s daughter, Sylvia. However, he made her into a Vestal Virgin.


    The Vestal Virgin served as a sacrifice to the goddess of the Holy Fire, Vestal. And it required her to preserve her virginity. She was not allowed to get close to any men. In other words, Sylvia would not have any offspring. But no one thought that Mars, the god of war, would fall in love with Sylvia. He failed to control his desire and impregnated Sylvia with a pair of twins.


    Amulius was furious when he heard about it. However, he did not dare to offend Mars. So, the only thing that he could do to Sylvia was to confine her. After she gave birth, she put the two babies into a basket and abandoned them in a river, hoping that nature would im their lives. However, the river brought the basket to shore. After that, a wolf came to feed them with milk, a woodpecker brought food for them, and finally, a passing shepherd adopted them. He named then Romulus and Remos.


    Like all the other great legends, a hero would always encounter a turning point before bing a hero. After that, a surge of energy would grant him the strength to pull up the sword stuck in the stone.


    The same thing happened to Romulus. The two brothers soon grew up, and not too long after that, Remus was involved in a conflict between the shepherds and was captured by the king. It was at that time that Romulus knew everything about him and his brother. So, he gathered as many people as he could that hated Amulius, starting an uprising. And eventually, he managed to kill Amulius and rescued his brother.


    When the deed was done, neither of the two wanted to inherit the throne. Instead, they wanted to return the kingdom to their exiled grandfather, Numitor. After that, they built a new city where the shepherd found their bamboo basket.


    However, in the process of building the city, the two brothers diverged again, this time leading to a great battle. Romulus won the battle and killed Remus.


    And the new city was named after him.


    This was the origin of the name of Ancient Rome��s capital, Rome.


    ...


    The story might sound gory and ridiculous toter generations, but many simr stories originated from China, such as Liu Bang killing the white snake and Lao Zi seeing purple gasing from the east when he passed by the Hangu Pass. The older the tales were, the more mythological elements were mixed in them.


    In the words of the author of ��History of Rome,�� they are not based on reliable historical facts. So, I suggest that you don��t have to affirm them nor deny them.��


    In short, with the establishment of the city of Rome by Romulus, Rome had officially entered the Roman Kingdom phase, around 753 BC. After that, Rome embarked on the road of kingdom expansion. In 509 BC, with the Etruscans�� help, thest king, Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, was overthrown by his ministers. And Rome officially entered the Republican era.


    It wasn��t all smooth sailing during the process of this expansion. Rome was isted by its neighboring countries. After the three Macedonian Wars, Rome had gained control over the whole of Greece. The subsequent Syrian war allowed it to conquer West Asia. It was at that time that Caesar made his appearance. After defeating his political opponents and two allies, he had all the power in the world that one could never imagine. With that, he became the emperor of Rome. Unfortunately, he waster assassinated.


    Right after his assassination, his son Octavius inherited the throne. The first thing he did was eliminate his political opponents and two allies (Yes. You read it right. It was the same pattern.) He then established the Principate, officially entering Rome into the age of empires.


    The Roman Empire weed its most prosperous period when it entered the Nerva-Antonine dynasty. The five princes in session were introduced to the public. These were five people that Zhang Heng heard in the brief introduction from the system. They were also called the five emperors. From the period of Nerva��s to Antonine��s ruling, it was the golden age of Rome.


    At this time, Rome was mighty, politically stable, and had control over a vast territory. They were basking in unprecedented prosperity.


    But by the time Aurelius sat on the throne, Rome had begun to spiral downhill. Barbarians invaded thend, not to mention the frequent border wars and a gue that swept the country. Due to these unfortunate factors, Rome��s poption drastically reduced. With that, they received far lesser taxes, and their military expenditure skyrocketed. It caused the empire to plunge into a financial crisis.


    Fortunately, Emperor Aurelius was in power during this critical period. An emperor and a philosopher, he worked diligently from the day he took over the throne till the end of his life. While dealing with the nobles, he had also fought off the barbarians from the north and south. And at the same time, he had to handle the civil war and rebellion. While dealing with so many matters, he still managed to make time to write a philosophical masterpiece carrying the title ��Meditations.��


    However, with the death of Aurelius, the Roman Empire had started to turn away from prosperity again. Rome would never return to its golden age. His son Commodus was also thest emperor of the Antonine dynasty. As for what happened afterward, that was a story for another time.


    Zhang Heng now could roughly guess that he was at the end of 2BC. At this time, Rome was in a bad state. After the death of Commodus, the empire would soon fall into a long period of civil war. But for now, with a territory spanning thousands of miles, a fifth of the world��s poption still came under the rule of the Roman Empire. It was indeed a veritable empire.


    In fact, Zhang Heng had been quite interested in traveling to the Roman Empire. After all, the ancient Roman civilization was an important foundation of Western civilization and would greatly influence future generations. Unfortunately, they could only learn about it from film and literature.


    This time, Zhang Heng had been granted the opportunity to travel in this ancient, colossal empire. However, his main quest also reminded him that this trip to Rome was about to be extremely challenging.


    So far, he had received a total of two survival quests. One of them was the novice quest. He was asked to survive on a deserted ind. And the second survival quest was the Soviet-Finnish War dungeon. Survival quests were usually quite simple and straightforward. He just needed to live until the end. That meant he could stay in the dungeon and do nothing. The troublesome part, however, was usually finding a way to survive from all the potential threats he was going to face.

 Chapter 738 - Arena and Death-Row Prisoners

    <h4>Chapter 738: Arena and Death-Row Prisoners</h4>


    The darkness that engulfed Zhang Heng faded like the tide.


    Before he opened his eyes, he heard deafening cheers and screams. The sound wasing from the top of his head, and mixed within it were the roaring of beasts. These beasts seemed to be just one meter away from him.


    Even Zhang Heng, who had always been calm, was taken aback.


    What did it mean by being one meter away from the ferocious beasts? A beast like a lion and a tiger could kill him with a single pounce. If he was anticipating them, he might be able to dodge the attack. However, he did not know their exact location right now, and the countdown was about to end in five seconds. Zhang Heng��s eyes still needed to adjust to the brightness around him. A dy of even a second would significantly increase Zhang Heng��s mortality rate.


    If the situation was what he imagined, then there was a high chance he would die at the beginning of this quest. Logically speaking, since he had just epted an ordinary survival quest, he should not be ced in such a dangerous scenario right at the start.


    In the next second, Zhang Heng resumed his vision.


    The first thing he saw was the lion in front of him. The cheering had agitated it further, and it stood up, growling menacingly at him. It looked as though it would attack once the cage was opened. He was safe for now since the lion was still locked inside the cage.


    Zhang Heng breathed a sigh of relief when he saw this. After that, he found himself standing in a dark and smelly room. Those cheers continued toe from above him, and there was another person beside him, holding a ceramic bowl full of raw meat, looking at the lion in the cage in fear.


    Judging by the man��s outfit, he should be a ve. Wearing a short-sleeved long robe and a pair of slippers, Zhang Heng found that he, too, was dressed in the same attire. Before he even had the chance to greet the man, another man with a whip came in,shing it while yelling at the top of his lungs.


    Zhang Heng was d that he had spent considerable time learning othernguages during the ck Sail quest. One of them happened to be Latin, the lingua franca of ancient Rome.


    After more than a thousand years, thenguage would have morphed through time, and huge differences in terms of pronunciation and ent would have urred. The ancient Romans, for instance, pronounced ��a�� and ��e�� separately, and when they pronounced ��c,�� it sounded a lot like ��k.�� Besides, their speech had a lot of rising and falling in cadence.


    Zhang Heng felt as though he was listening to a dialect he had never heard before. Having had to guess what the person was talking about, it seemed he was asking them why they were not done with feeding Quinta.


    Needless to say, Quinta was the name of the lion in the cage before him. Immediately, Zhang Heng took the bowl of meat from his partner and poured it into the cage.


    Quinta finally stopped growling after getting its fill of meat.


    However, the overseer was still dissatisfied with them. He yelled again and was prepared tosh his whip. The man beside Zhang Heng immediately lowered his head and ran out of the ce in a hurry. Zhang Heng quickly followed behind him. Once they were away from the overseer, Zhang Heng took the initiative to ask the man a question. ��Hey, what is your name?��


    The other party did not seem to understand, so Zhang Heng repeated the question again.


    ��You know how to speak Latin?�� This time, the man finally understood Zhang Heng��s question. With a surprised look on his face, he answered, ��I��m Varo, how about you?��


    ��My name is Zhang Heng.��


    Zhang Heng gave a simple introduction but paused at the end. ��Please slow down when you speak. My Latin is not very good.��


    ��Okay, okay... it��s nice to meet you, Zhang Heng. No, I should say that it is unfortunate to meet you here.�� Varo put on a sad smile.


    ��Are we in an arena now?��


    ��Yes. To be more precise, we are now in the arena��s underground.��


    ��No wonder I could hear all that noise. What are they cheering about?��


    ��Don��t you know? They are executing the death row prisoners. I used to be among that audience, cheering together with the others.�� Varo looked sad as he reminisced about the past. ��...but now...��


    ��Do the Romans execute death row prisoners in the arena?�� Zhang Heng asked.


    ��Yes, it is a tradition of theirs. They��ll let the wild beasts loose and devour them. Those unfortunate enough would be brought here. By the way, let��s talk as we walk. Partita wants us to clean up the mess. He will whip us again if the diator performance is dyed.��


    Zhang Heng noticed how Varo��s eyes trembled in fear when he mentioned the diator performance. This wasn��t the time to ask him about it, though. Zhang Heng still followed him closely, and the two quickly walked through the tunnel with oilmps and arrived at the ground.


    This arena they were in wasn��t thatrge. Clearly, this was not the famous colosseum in Rome.


    There were still several terraces of seats, however, and could contain at least seven thousand spectators. Almost all the seats were upied. This was where the cheers and screams came from. The audience chanted in a repetitive stato, ��Kill him! Kill him!!!��


    Everyone��s faces were filled with excitement as though they were witnessing a grandiose stage y.


    And one of the two protagonists�� throats was bitten off by the beast. The leopard then sliced his stomach with its paws and began tearing up his internal organs. The blood gushing out of his body gathered into a stream. His face was disfigured. His nose and eyes could barely be seen anymore, while his skull began to expose itself to the audience.


    Although the other death-row prisoner is still alive, fear had overtaken him. He was paralyzed on the other side of the arena. It seemed like he had lived a good life before he became a death-row prisoner. All the fat on his body was jiggling nonstop. He watched in horror as the cheetah was devouring another death-row inmate. The arena deliberately starved the cheetah for some time to increase the cheetah��s aggressiveness. It could further increase the performance��s entertainment value.


    Although the audience in the stands had just witnessed a person��s death, they still seemed dissatisfied. The fat man on the other side of the arena was still alive. So they began to urge the trainers to make the leopard kill him. The two trainers then used a long pole to poke the leopard, interrupting its dinner and forcing it to attack the other prisoner.


    The fat man wanted to get up and run for his life when he saw the felineing for him. However, his legs had be so weak that he failed to get up even after two attempts. His antics caused the audience to burst out in mockingughter.


    Finally, the fat man stood up. Unfortunately for him, the leopard was getting closer. With no hesitation, he around and started to run. Clearly, he could never outrun the leopard. The fat man��s escape had triggered the leopard��s hunting instinct, and before anyone could react, it pounced on the fat man mercilessly.


    By that time, Zhang Heng felt that it was pointless watching the leopard make another kill.

 Chapter 739 - Exciting Performance

    <h4>Chapter 739: Exciting Performance</h4>


    After the beast-master put the leopard back into the cage, Zhang Heng and Varo were asked to clean up the mess.


    The two came to the arena with a cart. ording to Varo��s statement, it was not the first time he watched an execution. During that time, he was one of the spectators. Although he sat on the top level allocated for ordinary citizens, he felt no difort, nor was he disgusted by it.


    In fact, at that time, he was just as excited as the audience was right now. Surrounded by the frantic screaming and cheering, he would be naturally infected by the festival-like atmosphere. His adrenaline would start pumping, and his heartbeat would soar as if a grand y disyed in front of him. And the arena did, in fact, put on some ys from time to time.


    In addition to feeding the beasts prisoners on death row, there was also another type of death penalty involving mythical or historical dramas. For instance, Icarus would make a pair of wax wings for himself and attempted to fly towards the sun. In the end, the wings melted, and he fell to his death. To reenact the legend, the arena would make the death-row prisoners put on the waxed wings. After that, they would find a way tounch him into the sky, watching him struggle in the air as he fell to death. Uponnding, his head would shatter into pieces, his blood at times even sttering as far as the emperor��s pedestal. Some prisoners would y Prometheus, whose hearts would be cut open and devoured by eagles in front of everyone...


    It had to be admitted that the Romans did have some ways of entertaining themselves in this era. They had an uncanny ability toe up with the most creative methods to execute the death-row prisoners. From a modern-day perspective, many of these were extremely inhumane and bloody. Especially in the years when Nero was emperor, some performances were so bloody and brutal that even the citizens of that era found it hard to ept.


    The current performance, at least, seemed to cure the appetites of the rowdy spectators in the stands for now.


    When Varo stood in the arena, he did not feel too good��especially when he saw the two severely mutted bodies in front of him, he almost vomited his breakfast. On the other hand, Zhang Heng��s expression remained unchanged. After enduring the Soviet-Finnish War and ck Sail quest, he was used to seeing dead people. Gruesome sights hardly affected his emotions now. When it came to weirdness and horror, the scene before him was nothingpared to what he saw in the basement of the Alien quest... not to forget the seaside town literally inhabited by monsters.


    Varo trembled in terror when ordered to feed the lion in the cage. Knowing that he could no longer rely on Varo, Zhang Heng instructed him, ��Follow me with the cart.��


    After that, Zhang Heng hooked up the corpse on the ground with the hook in his hand, dragged them onto the cart one by one, and retrieved a half-eaten foot courtesy of the leopard.


    While they were cleaning up, several horsedrawn chariots drove ceremoniously into the arena and circled around. The ves standing on them were in flower crowns and wreaths, and they threw bread and copper coins toward the stands. The whole thing looked like an interlude performance of a modern sports event.


    Some spectators stood up to receive the gifts, while some took advantage of the break to get a drink at the drinking fountain or simply chat with their friends. ording to Varo, the diator performance should be up next.


    The day was ted to be packed with stupendous performances.


    However, Zhang Heng and Varo would not get to watch them. It wasn��t long before they cleaned up the bodies and were soon asked to return underground to resume their work.


    Zhang Heng finally had the opportunity to check his character panel. What he cared about the most right now was the whereabouts of his game items. Before entering this dungeon, he was asked to choose the items he wanted to bring with him. Thest thing he expected was for all of them to be all when he arrived here.


    Name: Zhang Heng


    Gender: Male


    Age: 20


    yer Number: 07958


    Number of gamespleted: 8


    Current game points: 0


    Possessions: Infinite Building Block (B), Pestilence Bone Bow (B), Feign Death (C), White Horse Crown (C), Filter Lens (D), Paris Arrow (D), Lucky Rabbit Foot (E), Hunter��s Blessing (F), Oath Ring (F), Marble Soda (F)


    (Due to the nature of this round, all your items have been stored at Red Nose Smithy. yer can retrieve them with the password: Vulkan)


    Skills: Swordsmanship Lv4, Sailing LV3, Shooting Lv3, Language proficiency Lv2 (eightnguages at dailymunication proficiency), Lego assembly Lv2, Archery Lv2, Field survival Lv2, Driving Lv2, Vehicle modification and maintenance Lv2, Aerospace Lv2, Hacking LV2, Criminal Investigation Lv2, Make-up Lv2, Cowboy Lv2, Piano Lv1, Skiing Lv1, Rock climbing lv1, Herbology Lv1.


    Evaluation: yer inherits a portion of the Shadow-set items�� power and possesses incredible swordsmanship. As an opponent in a battle, you don��t want him tond his hand on any de weapons. He is a Lego master, spear master, and a highly-skilled cowboy. Including sharp criminal investigation skills and an ability to camouge himself effectively, he has a higher chance of encountering enemies than an ordinary person. He is also Pestilence��s messenger with a white horse. Besides umting a considerable amount of sailing experience, he is also good at using bows and arrows. As for transportation, he can drive a car, fly an airne, and navigate a spacecraft. Easily adapts to the wilderness. The skills he has mastered, strongbat readiness, along an ability to keep promises make him a rare gem among other yers.


    This time, Zhang Heng had left his Water-Soluble Metal and Betty��s Shell behind since they wouldn��t be instrumental to his survival in this dungeon. Instead, he brought Feign Death and Marble Soda. Other than that, his Shadow Key had depleted its final use after he passed his previous test.


    Compared to the previous game, his skillset had undergone some changes. First of all, his shooting skills had finally upgraded to Lv3. This was also his third skill that was above lv3. Other than that, his cowboy skill obtained from the Western dungeon was now Lv2, and his herbology learned during the Alien quest had achieved Lv1.


    Although the Proxy War��s dungeon was not designed to help yers improve their skills or obtain game items, Zhang Heng had spent a rtively long time in the dungeons. While hunting down alien remnants to earn more points, he would take the opportunity to learn something new.


    Basically, everything was what he expected so far. Next, he wanted to know what the system had to say about his game items�� whereabouts.


    Of course, he was relieved upon discovering that his items were still there.


    He could understand why the system would do something like that. He started the game as a ve this time. ording to Romanw, everything the ves possessed belonged to their master. All the items he brought into the dungeon were not that eye-catching except for the White Horse Crown. If someone saw a ve carrying the White Horse Crown, it would cause him a lot of unnecessary trouble.


    After Zhang Heng checked on his character panel, he saw Varo was standing there in a daze not far away from him. There was a gloomy expression on his face.

 Chapter 740 - Slave

    <h4>Chapter 740: ve</h4>


    Zhang Heng had heard about the tragic stories that were connected to the Roman ves.


    While Zhang Heng participated in the ck Sail dungeon, the ve trade happened to be booming. He had led the Jackdaw to attack several ve ships when he saw how countless ck men were stuffed into the vessels�� bowels, waiting to be ughtered like livestock. The nauseating stench of urine and sweat permeated every cabin of the ship.


    After he hijacked the ship, Zhang Heng selected the strongest fighters from those ck ves with Laeli��s assistance. He would then recruit them into his pirate gang, and he would send the rest off to an ind. These inds wouldter serve as essential covert supply points when his gang battled against the Nassau Marine. At that time, Zhang Heng was granted the title Liberator of the New Word. He did not expect that he would be a ve one day.


    The worst thing was that the system had made him a ve in the second century, a period where society itself had been built upon a system of very. Rome had a social structure that was literally like a pyramid. Right at the top were nobles, followed bymoners, foreigners, and at the very bottom, the ves.


    These ves were not considered human and were simply treated as production tools or instruments that provided entertainment. The performance going on above them was the prime example of exploiting the ves for pure entertainment��these diators would shed blood and flesh in exchange for cheers and apuse.


    ��What��s going on in your mind?�� Zhang Heng asked Varro.


    ��What?�� replied thetter, shocked. ��Oh, oh, I��m thinking about when our turn to perform as diators wille.��


    ��Are we required to do that?�� Zhang Heng was a little surprised. Judging by the tasks that were assigned to them currently, they were supposed to be ordinary arena workers. Especially Varo��not only was he skinny, but he alsocked courage��he could not even muster enough confidence to feed the lion in the cage. If he was forced to be a diator and fight with his life, Zhang Heng suspected he would survive no more than three seconds.


    ��Not now, of course. We know nothing about bing diators. We��ll be making a fool of ourselves if we jump into the arena now. No one wants to see our clumsy performance. But...�� Varo lowered his voice, ��I got news... The Germanic barbarians will be sent over here tomorrow! Once they arrive, we will have to attend the diator school to train with them.��


    Varo looked at Zhang Heng. However, he did not see the panicked expression he expected. Startled by the nonchnt reaction, he added, ��You... have nothing to say?��


    ��What do you want me to say?�� Zhang Heng raised his eyebrows.


    ��We are about to be sent to a diator training camp tomorrow. I heard that life there is worse than death. They will torture andsh us nonstop. Many have died trying to endure this brutal training. Those who do make it will have to participate in an assessment. If you pass, you will be chosen as a diator, where you will fight to your death during your performance in the arena.��


    ��If you are so worried about your own life, wouldn��t you be fine if you fail the final assessment?�� Zhang Heng said.


    ��That��s the problem. All ves failing to pass will be sold to the mines or viges to make up for the losses. Know how the people over there treat their ves? They will keep you working all the time, just like their livestock. Until the day you die, you will never be free!�� Varro exined in desperation. ��It shouldn��t be like this. Chickpea promised me.��


    ��Who is Chickpea?��


    ��A ve trader. I was a friend of his. After I became a ve, he told me that the nobles would buy me over in the city, and I would get to run a business. As long as the person who buys me gives me a sum of money, I can generate more money for them. And once my business flourishes, I will be able to buy back my freedom again,�� Varro clenched his fists with both hands. Unwillingly and painfully, he cried, ��Why is this happening? Why have I been sold as a ve? I don��t belong here...��


    ��Maybe it��s because you have a well-maintained body?�� replied Zhang Heng. ��Were you a businessman before bing a ve? You��ll look a little more like a soldier if you put on some armor.��


    ��But I have never learned to fight!�� Varro shook his head. ��This is ridiculous. It is obvious that I can use my business knowledge to bring in more wealth. Why would they send me to diator school to be tortured? This is such a waste of talent.��


    ��Heh, if what you say is true, maybe you should talk to the master here,�� suggested Zhang Heng.


    ��I tried. I told the overseer about my situation and asked him to tell the master here,�� Varo said.


    ��What happened after that?��


    ��Then... there has been no news until now.�� Varo put down the rag in his hand and hesitated, ��Maybe I should go and look for the master personally. What do you think?��


    Zhang Heng did not answer right away. Instead, he asked, ��You said you were a businessman before. Why were you sold?��


    ��Don��t mention it,�� Varo sighed the moment he heard the question. ��I sold antiques. A business passed down to me by my father. Our family had made a lot of money from this, but unfortunately, someone got to me afterward. I heard my friend telling me about how lucrative the x business in Egypt was. So I discussed with a nobleman over there to grow more x. He would provide thend, and I was supposed to pay for the rest of the expenses. Once the x gets woven into the cloth, we would sell them to Rome. However, my friend was robbed as soon as he got on the road. He lost his people and money. And what��s worse was that I signed a contract with him earlier. If he did not get the money within the specified time, I would need to pay him arge number of liquidated assets. I tried my best, but still, I couldn��t collect enough money to pay him. So not only did I lose all my assets, but I also became a ve.��


    ��Well, what a sad story,�� said Zhang Heng.


    At that moment, there was another deafening roar of apuse. It seemed the diatorial performance had reached its climax. All around the stands, the spectators were ecstatic.


    And Varo had made up his mind. ��Tomorrow, when the Germanic barbarians are escorted here, everyone would be asked to gather at one ce. At that time, our master should also show up. I can talk to him and tell him about my business experience. If things go well, I��ll be able to leave this ce.��


    ��Really? Then I wish you good luck,�� replied Zhang Heng.


    ��Sorry, I can��t help you,�� said Varo, embarrassed. He had just explicitly described the horrors of the diator school, and now he was saying that he was about to leave Zhang Heng here. The two had just met, and they couldn��t be considered as friends or even acquaintances for that matter.


    After the previous conversation, however, the two had indeed gotten a little closer. Now, Varo was like a y bodhisattva crossing the river. Protecting himself would be difficult, let alone watching out for Zhang Heng.


    ��It��s okay. Just remember to tell me the day you be a free man.�� After Varo��s story, Zhang Heng wasn��t too optimistic about Varo��s sess rate. He knew that amid the darkness, Varo had just seen a glimmer of hope. Nobody could persuade him to give up the idea of escaping the diator school now.

 Chapter 741 - Where Are You From?

    <h4>Chapter 741: Where Are You From?</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    Since they were about to be sent to the diator school, the two were assigned light tasks. As of now, Zhang Heng had still not experienced the cruel oppression of the evil very system created by the current society.


    As if he hadpletely forgotten about them, the overseer did note to them to assign them new tasks after they had finished their work. Hence, Zhang Heng and Varo made use of the time for a short break.


    Zhang Heng startedmunicating with Varo a little more, trying to get as much useful information as possible. His knowledge of ancient Rome was limited to only the more famous historical figures and historical events. Varo, on the other hand, was different. Before he became a ve, he was a Roman citizen and a businessman. He was well informed about current happenings. Although he had a burly figure, he was very kind, probably feeling sorry for what he did to Zhang Heng earlier. Hence, he answered every question that Zhang Heng posed.


    Taking into ount their current situation, Zhang Heng first asked Varo about the status of the ves. Varo told him that the ves lived at the very bottom rung of Roman society. Their fate, however, varied among each other.


    ��Of course.�� Varro exined patiently, ��For instance, ves working in the city usually fare better than those in the countryside. That is because the city is rtively richer, and with wealthier families, it naturally led to improved living conditions for the ves. Some nobles care about their reputation a lot, so they ensured that they provided opportunities to disy their kindness to others. Most of these don��t overwork their ves. Their job includes taking care of their masters and cleaning the house. There is not much heavy work for them. On the other hand, ves sold to the countryside have apletely different fate.��


    Varro licked his slightly dry lips and continued. ��Being sold to the countryside, ves had to do either farming or mining. The food that they eat and their living conditions are terrible. All their masters care about is making them work nonstop, not caring about how their ves live. The more they do, the less they get to eat. And at the same time, they will earn more money. Female ves suffer an even worse fate. They are forced to keep giving birth to babies. Every time a child is born, that��s money for the masters. When the child grows up, they will either enve or sell it off.��


    ��Then what about the investment you mentioned earlier?�� Zhang Heng asked.


    ��Oh, that is the best destiny for a ve with a certain talent like me. The ve can ask the owner to invest a sum of money in him and start a business. As long as you can bring a steady stream of ie to the owner, your status will slowly grow. The higher your status, the less you have to serve your master. And if you are lucky, you will eventually regain your freedom. In order to motivate other ves, many masterse up with a certain amount of money. Once the ve earns that amount of money, he will be able to regain his status as a Roman citizen again.��


    ��It sounds good,�� Zhang Heng said.


    Varo hesitated and then added, ��Actually, a diator... is a way out for the ve as well, albeit barely. If you can pass the assessment and be a diator, your status will be higher than an ordinary ve. And if you can win a certain number of battles in the arena, you can regain your freedom too. However, it is an extremely challenging task. There were many diators with extraordinarybat skills. Unfortunately, they didn��t survive to the day they would regain their freedom. Let alone us. By the way, where are you from? I have never seen someone with your facial features.��


    ��Ie from the Great Han Empire in the Far East,�� Zhang Heng said.


    Zhang Heng was not lying. In the second century AD, China was ruled by the venerable Eastern Han Dynasty. At that time, the Han Dynasty and the Roman Empire were the two most powerful empires globally. In the future, there would be heated discussions on online forums about who would turn out to be the winner if a fight brought out between the Han Dynasty and Rome.


    Although China had unearthed artifacts like the Roman Cup, there had been no unified answer among the archaeologicalmunity regarding whether or not Rome had contact with the Han Dynasty. Let alone a battle between them. That said, such rhetorical and subjective talk with no absolute answer could go on forever.


    Sure enough, Varo was at a loss when he heard about the Han Empire, and he had no idea where China was. ��Then why did youe to Rome and be a ve?��


    ��I wanted to see what��s on the west side. That was why I traveled here. When I went to Persia, I encountered a robber. He attacked me and sold me to a ve trader. After that, the ve trader transported me to Rome.��


    Zhang Heng casually made up a believable story.


    ��You have been so unfortunate, my eastern friend.�� Varo mourned for Zhang Heng for three seconds. In his opinion, Zhang Heng��s temperament and well-maintained skin were proof he was a nobleman. And he also guessed that Zhang Heng was no ordinary nobleman but one with a prestigious status.


    Varo suspected something wrong with Zhang Heng. Why would he give up on the good life of being part of the ruling ss ande to a ce that was so far away from where he lived. Not only was he attacked by a robber, but he was also sold to a ve trader. Now, there would be no way for him to return home, and it increasingly seemed like he was going to lose his life here.


    However, before Varo felt sorry for Zhang Heng, he thought his own tragic experience was not much better than Zhang Heng. His mood dropped to the bottom of the sea again. At the same time, he felt that his rtionship with Zhang Heng had only gotten closer. Both of them had lived a good life, but great misfortune had befallen them and turned them into ves.


    Varo could not help but pat his chest and said, ��Don��t worry, if I regain my freedom in the future. I will make a lot of money, redeem your freedom from this arena, and let you return to your hometown.��


    ��Thank you very much,�� replied Zhang Heng politely. However, he did not take Varo��s promise seriously.


    Since he knew that ves were at the bottom of Roman society, he would not allow himself to stay a ve the entire game. Fortunately, although Rome was in the stage of very, that did not mean there was no way for the ves to regain their freedom. ording to Varo, they could regain their status as Roman citizens through hard work. The status of a Roman citizen was higher than that of a foreigner. Logically speaking, a civilian could also transform into a noble. Of course, it was way harder than transforming from a ve to a civilian.


    Zhang Heng did not need to overthink things at this stage. He needed to focus on getting rid of his ve status first.


    The two chatted for a while until dinner.


    In all fairness, dinner was quite good. It was notparable to the food that Zhang Heng ate from where he came from. Other than the beans in the porridge, Zhang Heng found meat and crabs in it.


    However, Varo did not cheer up when he saw the meat. He then whispered to Zhang Heng, ��It seems that they are really nning to make us enter the diator school.��

 Chapter 742 - The Germanic

    <h4>Chapter 742: The Germanic</h4>


    Early the next morning, Zhang Heng saw the Germanic sitting in a prison wagon.


    At this time, the Germanic people were not as promising as their descendants thatter spread all over Europe. To the Romans, these people were deemed barbarians, where ��Germanic�� was a collective term used for the barbarian tribes on the Rhine��s right bank. The Romans and the Germanic had a long history fighting each other; the first conflict between the two sides tracing all the way back to 113 BC.


    Two Germanic tribes crossed the Danube River to attack the Roman towns, intending to get in, get what they wanted, and get out quickly. Their n, however, was discovered, and they were ambushed up by the Roman legions stationed there. When it came to raw strength, the Germanic people had the advantage. The Romans, on the other hand, were more disciplined and well-equipped. They were also smart enough to develop different strategies to deal with different enemies. These strategies were so solid that many of their tactical ideas were adopted by modern militaries centuriester.


    Hence, the Germanic who advocated personal glory suffered a great loss. The Romans, however, failed to cease their desire to head south. Afterward, they had to deal with the Germanic at their border for a long time, especially in the first century, where Wei Qing and Huo Qubing sent the Xiongnu west, causing Europe a great deal of trouble.


    The Germanic were stuck in the middle and had to pick up their pace as they headed south. When he was alive, Aurelius dealt with the Germanic invasions and both sides were engaged in constant war. After hundreds of years of fighting and learning, the barbarians made great progress, and at the same time, umted valuable experience in dealing with the Roman legions. Once they improved their production techniques, they became more and more challenging to deal with.


    Zhang Heng knew that the war between the two sides was about to end soon. He had learned from Varo that the current year was 180 AD. The former emperor Aurelius had just died of illness on the front line, and his son, Commodus, had inherited the throne.


    Commodus had no interest in the war with the Germanic. If Zhang Heng remembered correctly, the emperor wouldter sign an armistice with the Germanic leaders: a truce in exchange for annual subsidies for the Germanic tribes.


    Considering the distance between the front line and the capital, the two sides might have signed a treaty, but they had not received the news yet. Hence, this group of Germanic could be thest prisoners of war.


    Obviously, their journey to this arena was not very pleasant. As invaders from the north, their image was tainted to the Romans. Some even threw stones while they were being transported. These Germanic were not afraid of them, though,ughing at the bystanders instead.


    One of the tallest men among the group turned his head in disdain and said to hispanions, ��A bunch of pussies.��


    In short, they hade to the diator school in an extremely hostile manner.


    After the trader in charge of the escort and the person in charge of the diator school counted the Germanic, they began to discuss the final price. Soon, they managed to agree on a deal��3000 sestertius per person. However, they couldn��t agree to a price for thest one since he was the strongest and biggest among them.


    The person in charge of the diator school hoped to buy him at the price of 5000 sestertii, but the ve trader insisted on 10000 sestertii.


    Since they were quite a distance away, and both sides spoke very fast, Zhang Heng could not hear what they were saying. So he asked Varo beside him, ��What are they talking about?��


    ��Uh, the ve trader said that the man was courageous and caused a lot of trouble to their army��many soldiers were killed by him. And he has a strong physique. Once they train him well, he could be ady killer. All the nobledies in Rome will be fascinated by him. By that time, he will make his owner here a lot of money,�� Varo exined.


    At the same time, Varo began to worry about his future again, ��These Germanic are prisoners of war, and they all seem very powerful. The average diator costs only two thousand sestertii. The reason I sold myself for two thousand and five sestertii was that I had the ability to do business. Each of them will sell for three thousand sestertii, and thest one is going for ten-thousand. There��s no way we can defeat them.��


    Zhang Heng was on the fence when he heard what Varo said.


    He had been checking out the ce sincest night. It seemed the higher-ups did not think two of them were any threat to the diator school; hence they were not very strict. As long as they did not walk out the door, they could roam around the school.


    As for those ves who had be diators, they seem to enjoy more freedom. They were even allowed to walk out of the gate. This seemed to be different from the diator school that Zhang Heng imagined. With his skill, coupled with his newly acquired Shadow ability, it was not difficult for him to escapee nightfall. The problem was what he should do after he escaped.


    As the only Chinese who had gone deep behind the Roman Empire��s lines, he was like a sore thumb that stood out among the people. Since he was not a Roman citizen, he could get into a lot of trouble if found out that he was a ve on the run.


    After giving some thought, Zhang Heng gave up on the idea of escaping. Instead of risking his life, it would be better to acquire a status for himself in the diator school.


    Varo was afraid of bing a diator, but Zhang Heng was not worried about it at all. Having Lv4 swordsmanship, the Germanic group might not be even as skillful as him, especially when it came tobat experience. In fact, Zhang Heng��s attention was not on those barbarians.


    In order to bring in these ves and prisoners of war smoothly without any trouble, the diator school had dispatched some people to ensure that nothing would go wrong, including six diators and two trainers. It was not the muscr diators that attracted Zhang Heng��s attention but a Persian trainer.


    Stumpy, aging, and unremarkable, he wasn��t the most attractive person. If it is not for his pale blue eyes, he was no different from an ordinary Roman who walked on the street.


    Usually, Zhang Heng could extract a lot of useful information from a single nce of a person. When he saw the Persian trainer, however, he saw nothing.


    The person in charge of the diator school negotiated with the ve trader for a while, and the two parties finally agreed on a price. Considering that the school was willing to pay three-thousand sestertius for each Germanic, the trader caved in and priced thest Germanic at seven-thousand sestertius. He then cursed with dissatisfaction, causing hispanions to burst intoughter.


    These people were fighters of various tribes. After being captured by the Romans, they quickly lost the will to live, unfazed by the knowledge that they were getting sold to the diator school. On the contrary, they were still in a good mood, unbothered by the Romans around them.

 Chapter 743 - Total Victory

    <h4>Chapter 743: Total Victory</h4>


    ��Unshackle them,�� growled the head of the diator school.


    ��Are you sure?�� The ve trader hesitated, ��They are not ordinary people, and they are not going to stay put. Don��t you need to call for more people first?��


    ��If my people here can��t deal with them, I��d better close my school,�� said the school��s head casually.


    After hearing this, the ve trader finally stopped hesitating and opened the prison wagon��s wooden door.


    The Germanic prisoners of war stepped down from the wagon one by one. The burly man among them squinted and red at the head of the school. After that, he started to stretch his wrists and ankles.


    The ve trader quickly looked at the head of the school on the other side.


    Thetter hurried them on impatiently. ��Hurry up! Don��t linger.��


    The ve trader then took out the key on his body and unlocked the chains on the Germanic people. He deliberately set free the burliest Germanic manst. Unfortunately, an ident happened when he approached him to open his chain. In the next second, the muscr Germanic man grabbed his neck and lifted him from the ground with only one hand.


    The ve trader struggled desperately, kicking the Germanic, and attempted to use his hands to break free from the burly man��s grip. To the burly man, the ve trader was nothing but a sack of soft and bby meat.


    His face then started to turn red, and he could feel the oxygen depleting from his body little by little.


    But neither the two trainers nor the six diators tried to help him.


    Just when the ve trader��s vision became increasingly blurred, and he thought that this was where he would die, the burly Germanic let go of him suddenly.


    The ve trader fell on the ground with a thud. When his toes first touched the ground, his legs went soft, and he knelt in front of the burly Germanic.


    The person in charge of the diator School snorted coldly, ��It seems you are not that stupid after all.��


    ��Is that right? I think what he said does make sense,�� the burly Germanic proudly proimed. ��You should have prepared more manpower to deal with Bach.��


    ��What��s worse than barbarism is stupidity. Your name is Bach?�� the head of the school asked coldly. ��Give this stupid Bach a training sword. Let��s see how good he is.�� He said to Bach, ��You better make sure that you live up to your words. Prove to me that you are worthy of that seven thousand sestertii. Habitus, y with him.��


    The diator named Habitus smiled when he heard the order. He then walked out of the crowd, picked up a training wooden sword, and tossed it in front of the Germanic, exhorting at the same time, ��Remember to beg for mercy if you feel pain. I will try to be gentle.��


    Habitus did not continue arguing with Germanic. He drew out his training sword, put it in his hand, and stared at it.


    ��The one standing in front of you is the Gaul Habitus, from the Victor Arena...��


    Before he could finish his self-introduction, Bach, on the opposite side, had already drawn his sword and was charging at Habitus.


    If someone assumed that these Germanics were as stupid and straightforward as they seemed on the surface, then they would be wrong. In fact, these Germanics were savage and cunning. Bach noticed that Habitus had let down his guard when he introduced himself. So, he charged at him without any hesitation.


    He moved as swiftly and vigorously as a leopard. With onerge stride, he arrived in front of Habitus.


    Immediately, he swung his wooden sword and created a gust of wind.


    Habitus, however, did not panic when he saw that Bach was about to attack him with the wooden sword. He did not put up any defense. With one single spin, he managed to dodge Bach��s sneak attack. After that, he gently hooked Bach��s left leg with the tip of his feet. Due to the inertia generated when Bach ran towards Habitus, he did not stop in time. It caused him to lose his bnce, and he fell to the ground.


    ��You Germanic are always screaming and shouting fiercely. But I think your body is quite honest. I appreciate that you kneeled when we met the first time,�� Habitus chuckled.


    This time it was the diator��s turn to burst into a roar ofughter.


    ��Poor fellow, if this happened in the arena, Habitus could have just stabbed this Germanic in his back with his sword.��


    ��So these Germanics look strong, but they have weakbat skills.��


    The diators�� insults served as mes, boiling the blood in Bach��s heart.


    ��One more time!�� The burly Germanic was dissatisfied with the oue. So, he stood up and positioned himself to fight with Habitus again.


    This time he appeared to be a lot more cautious. He knew that the diator in front of him was not easy to deal with.


    And his opponent, Habitus, was still smiling indifferently.


    After that, Bach struck first. The burly Germanic finally got to disy all of his skills this time. Although his swordsmanship was not as good, he was aggressive and ruthless. He could maximize his strength to his advantage. Usually, before the fight could even begin, an ordinary opponent would be so terrified of him that they could only utilize half of their strength to fight with the Germanic.


    Habitus was not bothered by Bach, however. He just kept on focusing on dodging his attacks. In the meantime, he employed small tricks to harass his opponent. And it only made Bach even angrier. He kept roaring, but there was nothing he could do about his opponent.


    Bach felt like a lion performing in a circus at that moment. He was loud, but all of his moves were nothing but aughing stock to others.


    After a while, he shouted, ��Let��s fight him together!��


    The remaining Germanic people nced at each other, but they did not make any moves. On the other side, the person in charge of the school spoke, ��Give them the training sword.��


    Six diators versus six Germanic prisoners of war��It was a fair fight. The two trainers started advising their diators, guiding them and hoping to give them a slight advantage in the battle. This move had thoroughly angered the Germanics.


    However, after watching Bach��s fight, the other five Germanics did not dare to underestimate their enemies, knowing that they needed to pay full attention to their moves. However, even with the correct attitude and maximum strength, they still could not overpower the diators. In the end, the diators won the battle, and all six Germanics, Bach included, were beaten to the ground.


    At this time, the person in charge of the school said again, ��It��s a good thing to have confidence, but don��t boast about your strength if you can��t defeat my diators. Killing a few men does not make you a fighting expert. These diators have experienced more cruel battles than all of you here. They are the real man. Compared with them, you Germanic are but a speck of dust!��

 Chapter 744 - Arena’s Master

    <h4>Chapter 744: Arena��s Master</h4>


    ��It seems the Germanic are not that great after all.��


    After watching the fight between the diators and Germanics, Varo changed his impressions of them.


    On the other hand, Zhang Heng had different opinions. ��I don��t quite agree with that.��


    ��Hmm?��


    ��In terms of strength, the diators indeed have the edge but don��t forget that the Germanic had been dragged here in the prison wagon from a distantnd. They are not in the best physical and mental state. I think they used only forty or fifty percent of their strength just now. I think the diators that were asked to fight them were meant to put fear in them. Although the school stationed only six diators, they were not bothered by the Germanic fighters. I��m pretty sure that these are not the best diators in this school. However, they are definitely above average. In other words, these Germanic have been tricked by the school. After the humiliating defeat, they will learn to respect the school more, and at the same time, train harder to redeem themselves from what happened today.��


    After Zhang Heng finished speaking, he found Varo staring at him nkly.


    ��What?��


    Varo hesitated and said with sympathy, ��In your Han Empire, the political struggle between the nobles must be cruel. Otherwise, how did you managed toe up with all this information from just a single fight? You sound like a wise and respectable old man.��


    ��...��


    They did get to stand aside and watch the fight for too long. With the arrival of the Germanic, the new batch of ves purchased by the school had arrived. Hence, the person in charge of the school summoned everyone to the training field.


    There were about forty or fifty people in total. In addition to the six Germanic men, Gaul, Parthian, Sami, and Zhang Heng, a Han from the far east. Some were prisoners of war, some were ves, and some were civilians who volunteered to be diators. Among them were forgotten Roman nobles too. As he looked at them, Zhang Heng felt as though he was at a small international exchange meeting.


    Everyone stood together and whispered to each other, each wearing different expressions on their faces.


    Zhang Heng noticed a touch of excitement on Varo��s face. Today was the day where the group of backup diators started attending this school. Usually, the owner of the school would show up to check on his new students.


    The moment he showed up, Varo would try his best to convince the owner that he was good at doing business. If everything went well, he would not need to stay here anymore. He could walk on the streets again and breathe in the free air. Though there was a certain limit to his freedom, it was still better than bing a diator and fight till his death in the arena. Being a diator was also better than being sent to the countryside to toil in the fields and work the mines.


    Varo took a look at Zhang Heng beside him. Instead of fear or anxiety, thetter��s face showed interest, as if he was a tourist visiting a farawaynd. Varo secretly admired Zhang Heng from the Great Han Empire, that he could be so optimistic.


    Finally, when everyone had gotten a little impatient under the scorching sun, the school��s owner finally appeared on the stage. It was a middle-aged Roman who looked rich. He was wearing a short-sleeved long gown that could be spotted easily on the streets and a nket-like cloak draped over his shoulders. The scarf had a different length on each side, where the left part was pinned under his arm. He waved it around his chest and neck, then tucked it into his waist. In one hand, he dragged a piece of fabric, and the other was empty. The emerald ring on his finger was very conspicuous.


    Zhang Heng knew that not everyone could wear like this on the street. The ves, foreigners, and even liberated ves were only allowed to wear long-sleeved clothes but not the cloak.


    Beside the middle-aged Roman, two young female ves with good figures followed him from behind. One carefully supported him, while the other held a piece of cloth above him to block out the sunlight. The three then appeared on the building��s second-floor balcony right in front of the field.


    The trainershed the whip in his hand, and everyone on the training ground stopped talking. Then the head of the school bowed slightly to the middle-aged Roman. ��Everyone is here, master.��


    ��Let��s start then.�� Clearly, this wasn��t the middle-aged Roman��s first rodeo. He nodded and sat on a chair in the middle of the balcony, like an emperor seated on a throne, overlooking everyone beneath him.


    He was called Mark Reuss, and he ran the secondrgest diator school in Rome, with more than four-hundred diators under his wing. The theater next to the arena, the three diator training grounds, and the restroom were his assets.


    In a sense, he was indeed like an emperor here.


    He then waved his hand at the school��s head, who instantly shouted at the diators in front of him.


    ��Take off your clothes!��


    Everyone looked at each other until the trainer raised his whip again, and they quickly began to undress, revealing their muscr bodies. Initially, Varo thought that those unruly Germanics would be trouble, but to his surprise, they simply hesitated for a while before falling in line and taking off their clothes as well.


    At this point, Varo was impressed by Zhang Heng��s earlier spection.


    Everyone had soon taken off their shirts, but the trainers still seemed dissatisfied. So, the diators had to continue undressing until only loincloths were left on their bodies. Then, Mark Reuss finally expressed his satisfaction.


    He stood up, looked at each of them, and muttered, ��Very good. This time, the greedy ve trader finally found me some good ves.��


    The person in charge of the school added, ��These guys should be able to make up for the manpower we lost.��


    ��But they didnte cheap,�� the middle-aged Roman��s eyes flickered. ��Where is the Germanic who cost me seven thousand sestertii?��


    The trainer then signaled Bach toe forward, and he reluctantly walked out of the crowd.


    ��Come closer and let me have a better look,��manded Mark Reuss.


    Bach could only take two more steps forward and came downstairs.


    ��Hmm, do you think he can bepared to Sets?�� asked Mark Reuss to the head of the school.


    ��This... might be quite a challenge.��


    Sets was the three-time champion of the Victor Arena. He waspletely unbeatable. When he first came to the school, they had to send four of their most skillful diators to defeat him. Although Mark Reuss was probably unhappy after listening to what he had to say, the person in charge of the school decided to tell the truth after some thought. Otherwise, if Bach��s future growth failed to meet his expectations, the head and the trainer would suffer his wrath.


    ��Although Bach��s potential is not bad, he still not good enough topare with Sets. There is a big gap between them.��

 Chapter 745 - Everyone Loves Sethnets

    <h4>Chapter 745: Everyone Loves Sets</h4>


    ��Everyone loves Sets. The women scream for him, and the men cheer for him. He was the true legend. I still remember hisst performance. The Victor Arena waspletely upied; the tickets sold out in a very short time. The entire Rome shouted his name! When he walked on the stage, his blond hair waved with the wind like an incarnation of the god of war, Mars. At that time, he was up against six enemies. Each time he drew his sword, an enemy would be sent to meet his maker. There was nothing the remaining opponents could do to him. They could only tremble in fear after witnessing his greatness...�� Mark Reuss was so excited that his body started jerking around.


    The person in charge of the school had to knock some cold-hard truths into Mark Reuss, now immersed in his good old memories. ��But my master, no matter how great the heroes are, they will get old. Sets was no exception. I don��t deny the fact that he was once a great diator when he was young. In fact, he was the best diator Rome has ever seen! However, after he became famous, he started to drown himself in alcohol and women. To gain wealth, we arranged too many battles for him to fight. Even before his wounds recovered, he would be made to fight again. As he aged, his strength started to decline greatly. His first two championships went rather well, but we had to tweak the battle for him to win the third championship. As for the final curtain call, we all knew that the six opponents were simply weaklings...��


    ��Enough.�� Mark Reuss became extremely unhappy when he heard that. ��Damn it! I know the truth behind him! I don��t need you to remind me! Know your ce, Gaby!��


    ��Sorry, my master.�� The head of the school immediately fell to his knees.


    ��I don��t care about the true strength of Sets as long as he makes me money! Ever since he retired, my business has only gone downhill. There is more than one diator school in this city, and that old bastard, Siah, is trying to overtake me! I heard he bought a mighty Thracian from who knows where. That guy has won eleven or twelve games in a row. Now, thedies run in the direction of the smelly Thracian! We need to find a way to reverse our disadvantage,�� Mark Reuss stressed.


    ��I��ll do my best.��


    ��No, no, that is not the answer I want! Let me repeat it. I need the next Sets, and I want it now! I don��t care what you do, whether it��s training till the death or sorcery... Make this damn Germanic the next Sets!!!��


    Mark Reuss plopped into his seat in fury, his chest heaving violently. Since he did not get the answer he wanted, he had be extremely annoyed and difited.


    A female ve of his shuffled up to him immediately and rubbed his chest gently, while another poured him a cup of wine. His raging temper, however, drove him to p the cup, spilling wine all over the floor.


    After being reminded of the cold truth, Mark Reuss no longer had the desire to review his newly recruited diators. He then turned to the head of the school. ��That��s all for me today. I have invested in these neers, and as you said... it��s a huge amount of money. Know how I umte my wealth, Gabi? I never do things that cause me to lose money. So, you have 50 days to spare. Gabi... after 50 days, when I ask you the same question again, I hope you��ll give me the answer I want.��


    ��Yes, my master,�� replied the school head, kneeling with his head lowered and his shoulders trembling.


    With the assistance of the ve girl, Mark Reuss stood up. He was about to leave when someone called out for him.


    ��Uh... can I have a minute with you, master? I have something I need to discuss. I promise it won��t take too long.��


    ��Huh?�� Mark Reuss turned his head and saw Varo walking out of the crowd. Frowning, he growled, ��Boy, you better have a good reason to talk to me because I��m in a bad mood.��


    Varo began trembling, knowing how mad Mark Reuss was. The man generally did not care too much about the backup diators, and he would only meet during their admission, which was now. The next time he would meet Ruess would have to wait until the day he was assessed.


    ��Allow me to introduce myself,�� Varo replied with gritted teeth.


    Mark Reuss raised his chin. ��Go ahead.��


    ��I��m Varo, an antique dealer in Mule Street...�� Varo paused, anticipating Ruess��s surprised expression.


    Instead, thetter casually asked, ��And?�� It seemed he had never heard of Varo��s name before.


    Varo was a little disappointed, but he prickled himself up and continued, ��I think your people might have made a mistake when they bought me. I��m a talented businessman, especially in the antique business. My father is a very famous antique dealer, and I am just like him. I��ve heard about your interest in increasing your wealth. Perhaps, you can make use of my talents. As long as you invest in me, I can use my talents to...��


    Before he could finish, Mark Ruess interrupted him. ��Let me ask you a question, Val. If you are talented in making money, why are you standing here?��


    Immediately, everyone broke out intoughter, causing Varo to turn red. ��It was an ident. I invested in a business other than antiques, and my partner encountered a robber. In the end, I had to pay him a lot of money.��


    ��Everything makes perfect sense now...�� nodded Mark Reuss.


    ��What do you mean by that?�� asked Varo, puzzled.


    ��Nothing. Now that I know what happened to you, I will find someone to verify what you have just told me. But before that, I want you to focus on your training. Do me a favor and train well, okay, Val? ��


    ��Actually, my name is Varo... The people on Mule Street know about me. You can ask any of them. It��s all very straightforward.��


    ��Are you teaching me how to do things, Val?�� Mark Reuss lowered his face and rubbed the emerald ring with his index finger impatiently.


    ��No, master!�� Varro lowered his head.


    ��Very well. As I said, I have heard your grievance, and someone will inform you when I make up my mind. Do what you are supposed to do now and be patient.�� After Reuss was done speaking to Varo, he turned around and left the balcony.


    After Mark Reuss left, the head of the school stood up from the ground. The first thing that he did was to look at Varo. The way he looked at him was a little strange, like watching a pig suckling roasted on a rack with a hint of sympathy in his eyes.


    Varo was baffled by the way he looked at his as well. He felt that although he did not get immediate results even after taking such a huge risk, he knew that he had achieved his goal. In other words, he would get to leave the diator school very soon. As long as Mark Reuss was smart enough, he would let him do what he did best after finding out his identity. Varo then returned to where he was standing, rushed to Zhang Heng, and said, ��It was a great sess.��


    Zhang Heng, however, had no intention to congratte him. He just said, ��If life in the countryside is really as bad as you said, I think you��d want to consider taking your uing training seriously.��

 Chapter 746 - One Way

    <h4>Chapter 746: One Way</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    ��What��s going on? Are you jealous of me?�� Varo��s eyes grew wide. ��Hey, if it��s because you have to stay here for the training, and I get to leave here soon, I can understand how you feel right now. I won��t me you for it, my Eastern friend.��


    ��I wish it were that simple,�� Zhang Heng said.


    ��What does that mean? Because I really can��t think of another reason... Is there a reason why you are not happy for a friend who is about to leave this hell hole?�� asked Varo.


    Zhang Heng sighed. ��My dear friend from Rome, haven��t you had even the slightest suspicion of how you ended up here? Are you sure the whole thing is just a coincidence or ident?��


    Varo was stunned when he heard Zhang Heng��s reply. Before he could speak again, a whip was drawn at the two of them.


    Zhang Heng stood still on the spot without even blinking. On the other hand, Varo was so scared that he subconsciously hid behind Zhang Heng. However, he lost his bnce and mmed his head into a Parthian behind him. In the end, the whip missed Zhang Heng��s face by mere centimeters.


    ��What��s wrong with you? Did you leave any on me?�� The Parthian said maliciously.


    Varo was still a little confused. He did not know why the other party was so displeased with him. When he looked at his surroundings, he saw that everyone was ring at him in a hostile manner. Fortunately, he was smart enough to realize that he had a problem.


    He was unsure about Zhang Heng��s feelings, but one this was for sure. He now realized that his conversation with Mark Reuss had sessfully aroused the jealousy of other ves.


    In the eyes of the people around him, Varo was undoubtedly a ��deserter.�� While the rest had to train hard for the assessment, Varo could just sit there and wait for the good news. It would not be long before he would escape and restart his business.


    Although he realized that everyone was not happy with what he just did, Varo had no regrets. Initially, he had no intention to stay in this diator school for long, deeming himself different than all these violent creatures around him.


    And that was why he preferred to stick with Zhang Heng, the Han Empire��s down-and-out nobleman. Although thetter hade from the mysterious and distant East, he still had a lot inmon with him.


    Fortunately, the conflict between him and the Parthians did not escte. After that, more and more trainers drew their whips.


    The head of the school put away the respectful appearance that he showed in front of Mark Reuss. Now, with a grave expression, he scolded harshly, ��Stand properly, you idiots! Stop whispering! Please pay attention to what I��m about to say next! I��m only going to say it once!�� At this point, the head of the school could not help but re at Zhang Heng. Earlier, he paid little attention to this rather foreign-looking young man.


    He could not even remember when he had bought Zhang Heng. He only remembered a couple of small details. All he could remember was that he purchased Zhang Heng when he bought those Sami people. It was all a little strange to him. There was a reason why he was put in charge of the diator school. He was a very meticulous person, especially when it came to selecting potential diators. He was the kind that made absolutely sure that every penny he spent was spent at the right ce.


    It was also rare that he forgot about the objects he purchased. This, however, also meant that the young man in front of him must have been someone with no particr talent.


    Mark Reuss had been urging Gaby to find a sessor to Sets because the diators in this era were simr to pop idols ofter generations. Considering how diatorial performances were extremely popr in this era, Zhang Heng was not surprised by how they treated their assets.


    This was probably the earliest form of pop-idol culture. Excellent diators could significantly enhance the arena��s ie, and they could bring unexpected benefits. This, however, did not mean that the diator school would focus only on quality when it came to buying potential diators. The quantity was essential to them as well.


    Their way of doing business was rtively easy to understand. Just like when one wanted to form a ser team, the legendary ser yer would typically be the most dazzling star on the field. However, if one wanted the team to function normally, the manager would need more ordinary people to fill in other roles. Considering the high-risk nature of the diator profession, the demand for new blood was undoubtedly immense.


    Therefore, while the school strived to build on its trump card, they would also need to replenish many ordinary diators all the time.


    And Zhang Heng was undoubtedly a part of the ordinary diator group. However, the way he acted in the face of the iing whip had managed to surprise Gaby.


    But he did not dwell on this matter for too long. His heart was not as calm as it seemed on the surface.


    It would be an impossible task to train the next Sets in fifty days. All these neers might have good potential, and Bach himself was to be considered as a great diator as well. However, he was still far from Sets��s level. Although Sets��s reputation had spread throughout Rome with the diator school��s help, the spectators in the stands were no fools.


    Sets was indeed the strongest diator for some time. Born to fight, he was quick to master all his fighting skills. Even if his physical fitness declined severely when he aged, his richbat experience would make up for it. It wasn��t something that outsiders would usually notice. Coupled with handsome looks, even the queen could not help but feel attracted to him. Once, he was even secretly summoned into the pce.


    At that time, Aurelius was still fighting a war. No one knew what happened that night. This matter became one of the many legendary tales of Sets.


    Sets was trained by Gaby, so he knew very well that Bach could not do what Sets did. It had to with more than justbat skills. Bach did not possess Sets��s unique charm, chess, and handsome fighting style.


    Unfortunately, Gaby was left with no option.


    No one knew Mark Reuss better than him. Although he was now a free man after the massive contributions he had made to the arena over the years, Gaby still insisted on calling Mark Reuss his master because of how he dealt with his enemies. And he would never want to be the enemy of this man.


    Gaby could only do his best now. He turned his attention back to the matter at hand and muttered in a deep voice, ��I know... you have all kinds of experiences and tales before you came here. Whether you are a ve, prisoner of war, debtor, a man who wants to earn a little for his family, or simply looking for excitement, let��s be honest here, I don��t care at all. Since you are here, you all have your reasons to be diators. You��d better work hard to achieve it and pass the assessment after 50 days. And don��t take any chances.��


    While Gaby spoke, he intentionallynded his gaze on Varo.


    ��Because this is your only way out.��

 Chapter 747 - Does It Hurt?

    <h4>Chapter 747: Does It Hurt?</h4>


    ��As you know, there are many types of diators��Eques, Parmrius, Retiarius, Secutor, and many other types. All of them carry different roles. Although the school will finally determine the type of diator you will be, you can first tell the school the type of diator you want to be based on your weapon of choice and fighting style. I will put all your opinions into consideration when making the final sorting.


    ��Can I have your attention? You��ll need to pay full attention to this because it will determine the direction of your development. It doesn��t mean that you can��t change it once you made up your mind. By changing your mind, however, all the effort that you��ve put in your previous training will be wasted. This means that you will start your trainingter than others, and in turn, your chance of passing the final assessment will be lower.


    ��So, the best way to avoid that is to think clearly from the beginning��what kind of diator you wish to be. What is your forte? If you have doubts or questions, please ask the trainers around you for advice. Everyone is good at different things, and we all have our own fighting style. Whether the person is a retired diator, thief, warrior, or assassin... We can all learn something worthy from them. How much you will learn will depend on you. You don��t need to give me your answer right away because we will conduct a week of basic training first.��


    As he spoke, Gaby looked at the crowd again and discovered that someone was not listening attentively. So, he sneered and continued, ��Of course, I believe that some of you have already thought of the answer beforeing here. It��s good to have your own fighting style. However, what you are good at may not be the right field for you. I have seen a Retiarius. He chose to be a Retiarius because he was a fisherman, and he was familiar with fishings and harpoons. Unfortunately, no matter how much he trained, he lost all the time.


    ��There was once; he almost lost his life. So, he gave up on bing a Retiarius and decided to work his way to be a Parmrius. Eventually, his decision granted him seven rounds of consecutive victories. As I said, all of you should spend the week thinking about what kind of diator you want to be. Don��t regret it at thest moment of your life. By then, it might be toote...�� Gaby paused and looked around.


    ��Only a real man can pass the final assessment to emerge as a glorious diator. Don��t get me wrong. I don��t care about your lives. I merely don��t want your blood to tarnish this arena that holds glorious history and legends. Remember that before you, many great names were born here. Compared to them, you are worse than their sh*t... If some of you are lucky enough to walk into the arena someday, you will do well to ensure your poor performance doesn��t humiliate those great names!


    ��Of course, if you perform well enough, this arena will reward you. Money, honor, fame, and all the women you wish to f*ck in this world! Last but not least, you can also regain the freedom you��ve been longing for...��


    No matter what era it was, empty promises were always the same. It was the same two thousand years ago, and it was still the same two thousand yearster. When the ves heard his promises, they could not help but get attracted. They secretly clenched their fists, and their breathing got more rapid.


    ��Yes, that��s right. These things are always there. Whether you can acquire them will depend on your abilities. To be dead meat or a new legend��you determine your own destiny. But before that, you must first pass the test of bing a diator.��


    At this point, Gaby��s speech had finallye to an end. He pointed at the southwest corner of the training field and said, ��For your first ss, can you see those wooden posts? Grab one each and run fiftyps around the training field.��


    ��Now?�� someone could not help but ask, ��But it��s lunchtime now. Shouldn��t we eat before training?��


    ��Good question. That��s right! I want all of you to run fiftyps now! You��ve clearly heard every word of mine. Congrattions, it proves that you are not deaf!�� Gaby said casually. He then raised his chin and continued, ��Any more questions?��


    He waited another two seconds, and receiving no response, he nodded.


    ��Very well, let��s begin.��


    After hearing his order, everyone walked toward the spot where the wooden pirs were ced. The wooden pirs were not that small, and they were quite heavy, each of them weighing at least sixty to seventy catties. It was not easy to carry it around, let alone running and carrying it.


    Bach also turned around and went with his Germanicrades to pick up the logs. However, he heard Gaby talking to him as soon as he took a step. ��No, no, you are not like them. You��ll have to carry two logs.��


    Bach was furious when he heard the new order, almost failing to hold back his violent temper. He felt that Gaby was trying to get back to him since he had made things difficult for him earlier. Especially just now, Gaby��s attitude in front of Mark Reuss made it clear that he did not like him very much, and he also felt that he was no match to Sets.


    This was a great humiliation for Bach, who had always been a valiant and good fighter. The merger of new and old hatred gave him an inconsble urge to beat up the bastard in front of him.


    Fortunately, Bach��s sanity had notpletely disappeared. He knew that he was now on someone��s turf and thus, had to tone himself down. When he looked at those trainers around Gaby with whips in their hands, the burly Germanic man chose to follow the order. He merely red at them and walked toward the wooden pirs.


    So, in the end, Varo was the only one who was still standing there. He looked a little embarrassed. ��About that, should I do it too?��


    ��What say you?�� Gaby asked rhetorically, ��As long as you are still here, you��d better abide by the rules. Otherwise, this will happen to you every day.��


    The moment he finished, Gaby snatched a whip from a trainer andshed it down on Varo��s chest.


    The former antique dealer let out a bloodcurdling howl. He clutched his chest, now smothered in blood, and fell to the ground.


    Gaby then squatted down in front of him, ignoring his pain, and asked slowly. ��Does it hurt?��


    Varo nodded repeatedly.


    ��If it hurts, please do me a favor. Don��t give me another reason to whip you, okay?�� sighed Gaby.


    ��Now, what do you think you should do? Should I look for someone to check on your wounds? Or should you start the training now?��


    ��I... I will carry the wood now,�� croaked Varo, now in immense pain.


    ��Very good, it seems that you have begun to adapt to life here. I hope you can pass the final assessment smoothly when the dayes. I mean it.�� Gaby patted Varo on the shoulder.

 Chapter 748 - Choosing Profession

    <h4>Chapter 748: Choosing Profession</h4>


    Carrying the wooden log was just the beginning. After that, everyone was asked to do sprint training, weight training, mobile training, and some one-on-one basic exercises. As the sun was about to go down, exhaustion had set upon the trainees. Gaby finally announced that the first day of training hade to an end.


    Some diator candidates had reached their limits. His body trembled involuntarily, and they fell to the ground the moment they heard that the day was finally over. Among these was Varo. He could not even move his pinky. Varo looked at Zhang Heng and saw that although he was sweating profusely, his breathing was still very calm.


    The afterglow of the setting sun seemed to coat him with ayer of glistening gold as sweat ran down his chest. Zhang Heng��s muscles looked very unique. He was not as big and muscr as those burly men, which was also why most of them tended to ignore him at first sight. On closer inspection, one would realize that every single inch of muscle under the clothes was well-proportioned, giving off the look of a precise, calibrated, and well-put-together instrument.


    After that, Zhang Heng stretched his hand to Varo, ��You��d better get up quickly, or you won��t get any food until the next day. Don��t expect these guys to be kind enough to leave us any.��


    Varo then looked around, only to find that most who were on the training grounds had left. Those who were too tired to move were being carried away by theirpanions.


    ��Thank you.�� Varo took another deep breath, grabbed Zhang Heng��s hand, and stood up from the ground. ��The good news is... if it goes well, I won��t have to participate in this damn training tomorrow. By the way, what did you mean when you said you��ve never doubted what happened to me?��


    ��Before I answer your question, it is better that you answer one of mine first,�� said Zhang Heng. ��Your ve trader friend. Will he ever close a deal that will cause him to lose money?��


    ��Of course not! Chickpea is one of those smart alecs. He is really good at what he does. Even if he is not the among smartest ve traders around, he is close to being one,�� Varo said.


    ��I remember you saying that the price of an ordinary ve diator hung around two thousand sestertii. And you sold yourself to Chickpea for two thousand five hundred sestertii because you have the talents to conduct businesses. After that, Chickpea sold you to the diator school...��


    ��Yes. So, what are you trying to say?��


    ��Therefore, there are only two exnations here. First, Chickpea sold you to the diator school for a price higher than two thousand five hundred sestertii. In other words, the school would have known about your value from the very beginning, or they wouldn��t have sent you here since they knew that you were good at business. Or...��


    Zhang Heng paused.


    ��He sold you here at a normal or an even lower price, and as you said, he will not close a deal that would lose him money. So there must be someone supporting him from behind. And this means it��s not a coincidence that you were sold here. And what��s worse is that since the other party had the gut to do such a thing, they would have surely anticipated that you��d attempt escape by telling the master that you are a talented businessman. Hence I believe that the other party has been waiting for this all along. Finally, judging from Mark Reuss��s attitude towards you, I believe that it��s very likely that he��s one of those who know about it.��


    Varo was puzzled by Zhang Heng��s analysis. He wanted to open his mouth to refute, but he did not know where to start. In the end just said, ��You don��t know me at all, and you don��t understand what happened to me. You haven��t even been to Rome before, so I don��t think you should specte about what you don��t understand. I just have to finish myst meal here, get a good night��s sleep, and I can leave this hell hole as soon as I open my eyes tomorrow. And I��ll nevere back again. So don��t tell me over and over again about this conspiracy! This world is not as dark as you think. We should behave kindly all the time...��


    ��That makes sense.�� Zhang Heng raised his eyebrows.


    ��What?�� Varo did not hear what Zhang Heng said.


    ��We should always harbor good intentions... that sentence makes a lot of sense.��


    ��Are you...ughing at me?�� Varo started to doubt Zhang Heng.


    ��No, I admire those who are willing to look at the world with kind eyes. And, my Roman friend, if we don��t go and get our food now, I��m afraid we won��t even get to drink the soup,�� Zhang Hengmented helplessly.


    ��Oh! Right! Let��s go now! Don��t worry. My promise to you is still valid. When I regain my freedom, I will find a way to get you out of here.��


    ��Thank you, but for now, I��d like to stay here a little while.��


    ...


    One week passed in the blink of an eye. The life of a diator candidate was straightforward. There were only three things to do every day: train, train, and train.


    Repetitive basic exercises were dull enough to make a man take his own life, but simultaneously, the end of each training session would cause the trainees to feel as if all their energy had been drained from their bodies. Despite the toll of such a regime, no one dared to bezy. Even though the school had prepared a training n for all the diator candidates, Gaby would still be there to monitor them every day.


    It could be seen that Gaby ced great importance on this group of neers. Some of the diator candidates had secretly asked those who had previously passed the assessment and had be official diators��ording to them, although their training was ridiculously tough, it was not nearly as hard as what they were going through right now. This was probably the extra care that Gaby gave to the neers.


    Especially for Bach, the intensive training almost caused him to break down. Aspared to the rest, he had to do double the grinding. Although he had plenty of physical strength, it was unfeasible to carry out such strenuous training all day, every day. The torture he was put through each day made him want to run back to his mother��s embrace. Gaby, however, was still not satisfied with his performance. As time went by, Gaby��s expressions had turned more and more solemn.


    And today was also the day of the announcement of diator types.


    Last night, everyone had told Gaby about the diator that they wanted to be. Of course, the final result would be decided by the diator school. As the ves trained on the grounds, the trainers were there to observe them silently, looking for the right direction they should be taking, so they could grow to be more powerful.


    Gaby��s eyes darted around the group, and he called out the first name.


    ��Arius.��


    The ve whose name had been summoned emerged the crowd.


    ��Secutor,�� Gaby continued.


    A glimmer of joy shed in Arius�� eyes. This was exactly what he wanted to be. Usually, the opponents of Secutors were Retiarius��. When they engaged in battle, they would wear a sleek helmet. Two holes that were on the helmet allowed them to get rid of the. During the battle, they would focus on defense and agility, two areas they had to y to their full advantage.


    ��Callun Tiga,�� Gaby went on, calling out the second person��s name without pausing.


    ��Trache.��

 Chapter 749 - Pros and Cons

    <h4>Chapter 749: Pros and Cons</h4>


    Gaby��s roll call was still going on, and most diator candidates were assigned with the type of diator they were going to be.


    Some people were happy with the oue, and some were displeased.


    After all, the goal of the diator school was to provide wonderful performances to the audience. Thus, consideration had to be taken on the current number of each type of diator they had. Due to this, some of them were assigned to the category that they did not like.


    Gaby told them that if they passed the assessment to be an official diator and survived five performances, they could ask for a change if they still did not like the field in which they were allocated. At the same time, Gaby also warned some of them to do their best and never ck off. Otherwise, they might just not live to the day they were allowed to change professions.


    ��Zhang Heng.�� Gaby finally called out Zhang Heng��s name, ��Dimachaerus.��


    Zhang Heng nodded to show that he heard the result.


    A Dimachaerus was a diator that wielded two swords in battle. With the only piece of defensive equipment on their bodies being a helmet, Dimachaerus focused on pure offensive abilities. Although the diators would not put on armor, most of them held a shield to protect themselves.


    Since a Dimaechrus would go all out to attack an opponent like the Retiarius, their win rate in the arena was not high. On the contrary, they had a very high death rate. Nheless, this diator suited Zhang Heng best since it allowed him to fully utilize all hisbat power.


    However, Zhang Heng��s first choice was not Dimaecharus. He wanted to be a Secutor, the reason simply being that most of Secutor��s opponents were Retiarius. A Retiarius, on the other hand, was generally recognized as the type that could be easily defeated in the arena. Besides, a Secutor was equipped with a shield where he could use to protect himself.


    Although Zhang Heng intended to work his way through the arena to eventually bing a free man, he had no intention to go all out in the battle.


    No matter which era it was, there was a certain price to pay for being a star.


    Take Sets as an example. He was the diator school��s trump card and held the champion status in Victor Arena for three consecutive years. Although Mark Reuss could not stand the pressure from the people that came to the Victor Arena, he promised that he would eventually grant Sets his freedom. Prior to this, he vowed to squeeze every ounce of strength out of Sets to maximize his yield.


    Mark Reuss knew that very well that he might have to wait a very long time before the next Sets appeared.


    As a result, some diators who attended the diator school at the same time as Sets had regained their freedom. Unfortunately, Sets was still forced to drag his weakened body to the arena every day. In the meantime, Mark Reuss did carry out a few promises that he bestowed Sets, including increasing his remuneration share for each performance and finding more beautiful female ves to serve him. Therefore, one could not use Mark Reuss of forcing Sets to fight in his arena.


    But it had to be admitted that Sets had been gradually getting hooked on fame, lest he would have left the arena a long time ago. For Zhang Heng, the diator school was the same as a driving school. He had no interest in bing the next Sets, turning himself into Mark Reuss��s new cash cow. It wasn��t even necessary for him to rely on diatorship to make more money. As long as he could redeem his freedom, it was good enough. That was why he did not overperform during the seven days of basic training.


    However, everything had its pros and cons.


    Since Zhang Hengid low during the entire week, Gaby had not paid attention to him since the whipping incident during the first day. As a result, he was ssified to be among the unfavorable group.


    When he saw that the Secutor group was overcrowded, Gabi put Zhang Heng into the Dimaecharus group.


    However, Gaby had a good impression on Zhang Heng since he worked hard on his training. Worried that Zhang Heng might overthink the whole thing, he added, ��This is only temporary. When I find a more suitable candidate, we will let you join the Secutors.��


    There was no doubt that Gaby��s words were just an empty promise.


    Gaby��s eyes finallynded on Varo, announcing the fate of the former antique dealer.


    ��Varo... Retiarius.��


    Compared with a few days ago, Varo looked very haggard now. Since the day he told his master that he was a former businessman, the thing he had anticipated to happen had not taken ce. A whole week soon passed. Every morning, he would open his eyes in expectation of something good happening, but the only thing that would await him was another grueling day of training.


    It was as if Mark Reuss hadpletely forgotten about him. After the first day of school, thetter had never visited the training ground, nor did he send someone to pick him up. Gradually, Varo couldn��t help but wonder if he would ever leave this ce.


    As time passed, he recalled what Zhang Heng said to him that day. He wanted to convince himself that it was just wild spection without evidence, but he realized that he could not refute Zhang Heng.


    Today, he finally decided that he would something about it. After listening to the group that he was assigned to, he did not care anymore if it was suitable. Instead, he pleaded to Gaby, nearly begging him, ��You are the person the master trusts the most. Can you help me to ask him about me? I��ve been waiting for seven days. Could the master be too busy that he��s forgotten about me? Maybe you could give him a gentle reminder.��


    Gaby frowned when he heard Varo��s pleas. He noticed that Varo was not paying attention to his training these days. As long as he could ck off, he would do it without any hesitation. His body was still here, but his mind was long gone. Varo had even begun panning where he would buy antiques to sell to his old customers and make a great fortune.


    To Gaby, assigning Varo was a waste of time, seeing how Varo would most probably fail the assessment after forty-three days. He would end up being sold to the countryside and be put to work until he died. For those who had given up on their life, Gaby did not bother worrying about them anymore.


    After looking at Varo��s pathetic state, however, he started to feel sorry for him. He then warned Varo for thest time, ��Just like I told you on the first day you arrived at this school: do what you are supposed to do. You have already told your master about your situation as you wished. If you don��t receive a reply, it means he is never going to give you an answer. Can you please stop giving me any more trouble? I will whip you again...��


    ��But...�� Varo wanted to say something, but Gaby interrupted him impatiently.


    ��No more buts! You know I have the right to decide whether a diator candidate is qualified to be a diator. I could just send you off to work in a mine now!�� Gaby sneered coldly.


    Varo seemed taken aback by Gabi��sst threat. In tears, he was unwilling to ept the oue, but there was nothing more he could do but shut his mouth.


    Gaby decided to tell him the cold hard truth, ��I bought you for only three hundred sestertii. I won��t lose anything even if I sell you to the countryside. You should be thankful that you still have the opportunity to participate in this assessment. Yes, bing a diator might cost you your life, but at least you can die in the arena like a man instead of dying on the fields like livestock or all alone, in a dark mine.��

 Chapter 750 - Varo’s Story

    <h4>Chapter 750: Varo��s Story</h4>


    After seven days, Zhang Heng had gained a better understanding of the diator��s basic training. In general, all the training they had to do was strengthen their strength, agility, and endurance. He was also taught some basic ways to move as a diator during a battle.


    So far, Zhang Heng was not too satisfied with the skills that he learned.


    Considering that he was now in the second century, he did not expect the school��s training to be scientific. Other than the goal of regaining his freedom, Zhang Heng hoped that he could learn something useful in this dungeon. After all, he was now in the Roman Empire, the most prosperous period of diator performance.


    This vital form of entertainment for the Roman people had disappeared inter generations because of its brutality and cruelty. However, it was undeniable that it did create a group of heroes and legends at that time.


    Since Zhang Heng��s swordsmanship had reached Lv4, coupled with thebat experience that he umted from a dozen of quests, there was a high chance he would defeat Spartacus even if he were reborn. However, this did not mean that there was no room for improvement in his swordsmanship.


    For example, he learned a thing or two when he watched the battle between Habitus and Bach. Although Habitus was at a disadvantage in terms of strength, he used his dexterous set of movements to go against Bach��s brute force and manipted him in between his palm. And it caused Bach to lose in his anger. It made Zhang Heng want to learn those dance-like movements from them.


    Zhang Heng considered himself quite agile. During the ck Sail quest, he worked hard to get to where he was today. He was confident that he could defeat Habitus within three moves. It was because the two of them had gone through different training, and they had differentbat experiences as well. It was not all about physical strength. If Zhang Heng could learn Habitus��s moves, it would be a good addition to his skills.


    But Zhang Heng soon discovered that this matter was not as simple as he thought.


    After they were assigned to a different group, everyone was also assigned to their corresponding trainers. They were still required to carry out their basic training. Simultaneously, the trainers would formte different sets of training based on the diator candidates�� forte. Whether it was basic training or individual training, Zhang Heng did not learn Habitus��s movements.


    He consulted his trainer regarding this issue. The trainer told Zhang Heng that per the employment contract, the trainer needed to help the school train diators andplete the required training courses. Some trainers would keep their trump cards to themselves, and they would not teach them to others.


    If Zhang Heng wished to learn Habitus��s unique skill, he had to resort to other means. The mostmon and simple way was to give gifts. diator candidates like Zhang Heng had no way to purchase a gift to please their trainer. However, if he were chosen to be an official diator, he would receive rewards every time he won a match, even if he still held a ve status. Usually, those gifts and rewards were given by the audiences. The diator school would take a part of the reward and give them to the diators to encourage the diator to fight braver.


    After that, the diators were allowed to use the money for entertainment. Of course, they could also improve themselves by knowing that the trainer liked and using it to bring the two parties closer. Some of them would opt to sign a long-term contract to allocate a portion of their reward to a certain trainer. By doing that, the trainer would be his personal trainer. He would be responsible for formting a training n for his diator, watching his every battle, looking for his weaknesses, and constantly helping him to improve hisbat skills.


    However, this kind of treatment was generally only avable to star diators.


    After listening to the trainer��s exnation, Zhang Heng figured he did not need to worry for the time being. That was because the diator candidates and the official diators did not live together. It was usually difficult for him to meet Habitus. Besides, he did not possess any incentives to make Habitus teach him his trump card.


    Fortunately, Habitus would stay in this school for some time. Hence, Zhang Heng was not in a hurry to learn from him. Now that he knew what he wanted to do, he would have to pass the assessment and be an official diator first.


    Varo, on the other hand, still looked worried.


    Since Gaby told him his worth, he was devastated and desperate. No matter how optimistic he was, he could not deceive himself anymore. He was forced to ept Zhang Heng��s deduction about him in pain.


    The reason why he got to where he was today was not just because of his bad luck and failure in investment. Someone had deliberately done this to him. Not only did the person empty his wealth, but he also had no intention to let him live as a free man.


    After the training, Varo did not go to eat his meal. Instead, he went back to where he lived,y on the bed, staring at the ceiling, as if he was a corpse waiting to be buried.


    Zhang Heng finished his dinner alone, and he brought Varo a piece of bread when he headed back to where he stayed. He then threw it on his chest, ��Eat something. You need to replenish your energy. Otherwise, you can��t possibly cope with tomorrow��s training.��


    However, Varo remained motionless as if he had not heard Zhang Heng.


    Zhang Heng frowned. ��Even if you are not doing it for yourself, at least think about your wife. Didn��t you say that she loves you very much and she is willing to wait for you to redeem yourself? From another angle, being a diator is not exactly a bad thing. When the audience likes you enough, even Mark Reuss has to give you back your freedom.��


    Varo smiled sorrowfully when he heard the words, ��Didn��t you ask me before, who made me invest in the linen business in Egypt? It��s not a stranger. It��s my wife.��


    ��...��


    ��If you are right, it was my wife and my best friend who joined forces to put me in here.��


    ��Oh, this is quite unexpected. I can only say that I am sorry to hear that.��


    ��I��m really the stupidest idiot in this world, right?�� Varo cried in a frustrated tone. ��I should have found out about it a long time ago. The signs were there as early as a year ago. The two of them always spent time together, and I chose to ignore many tiny details. When the ve in the shop reminded me about it, I ended up whipping him because he spouted nonsense. I was... foolish.��


    ��Usually, you��ll be thest to find out these things,�� Zhang Hengforted.


    ��Why... How did it turn out like this? I am obviously the one who loves her more. I ask myself, and I��m confident that I didn��t wrong her a single time after we got married. I gave her everything she wanted, whether it was jewelry or silk. No matter how expensive they were, I would buy them for her. And I would even die for her,�� Varo said, crying bitterly.

 Chapter 751 - Suggestion

    <h4>Chapter 751: Suggestion</h4>


    Varo spent about half an hour telling Zhang Heng his heartbreaking life story, including how his wife and best friend tricked him into investing all his money in the Egyptian textile business and how they convinced him into signing the terrible contract. After that, he talked about how he became a ve and sold to the diator school.


    It was not until the others came back to the house that Varo shut his mouth. However, he still could not help but feel really disappointed. So, he started to cry loudly on the bed to make himself feel better. At this time, Bach and the Germanic walked into the house.


    The men seemed to have adapted to their current life. Bach had once felt that Gaby was torturing him. However, he was no fool. Although his training was twice as tough as the others, Gaby had also found him more than one trainer, instructing them to tailor an improvement n for him. Two of the trainers were willing to pass on their trump cards to him for free.


    When he thought about Gaby and Mark Reuss��s conversation, Bach realized that Gaby was not torturing him. Gaby had made up his mind to build him into the next Sets, the reason why he did not hesitate to use up the favor that others owed him so far.


    Nheless, Bach was still not pleased. He did not know what glorious feats Sets had achieved so far, and he wasn��t about to allow himself to be the next Sets. He wanted to continue to be Bach, the one and only. And now that he had epted the fact that he had be a diator, the next thing that he wanted to do was to kill all opponents who stood in his path of bing the new legend in this arena.


    The group of Germanic people reminisced over some pleasantries. Maybe it was about what that they did in their hometowns or the heads they chopped-off in the battle. Everyone seemed happy. However, upon walking into the house, they heard an annoying crying sound.


    ��What happened?�� one of the Germanic askedpassionately.


    Bach and others burst intoughter upon hearing this.


    ��Give the poor man some space. He has just experienced the worst day of his life,�� said Zhang Heng.


    ��The worst day of his life?�� Bach sneered, walked out of the crowd, and walked in front of Zhang Heng, ��Let me tell you what a bad day is. My father was killed by a Roman when I was nine years old. Just because it so happened that he was fishing by the river, an arrow that came nowhere and prated his eyes. On the same day, my brother was stabbed in the heart by a spear on the battlefield, and my mother was dragged away in front of me. I still don��t know where they sold her. I��m the only one still alive in my family because I hid under a bed. I didn��t cry that day because tears only make people weaker. Crying is for women. So please tell your friend that we don��t mind treating him the same way we treat a woman if he continues to cry.��


    Bach exuded a daunting aura. Several other people in the same house could not help but stray a little further from him. Bach was expected to graduate first in his ss and became the sessor of Sets. Gaby had poured in everything he had to train him. His violent temper was as famous as his brute force.


    But what made Bach a little surprised was that the Oriental man in front of him showed no fear on his face after seeing him getting angry. He leaned on the wooden pole and tilted his head to look at him.


    ��This is not apetition. Even if you experienced something worse than him, you have no reason to deprive him of the right to be sad,�� Zhang Heng said lightly.


    As soon as he said this, the room suddenly became quiet.


    All eyes were focused on Zhang Heng and Bach. This was the first time in the same ss had the guts to talk back to Bach, the Germanic bull.


    ��Are you sure that you want to stand up for this wuss?�� Bach��s face darkened. ��Before my fist falls on your face, I strongly rmend that you reconsider your stand.��


    It was not the first day that Bach saw Varo getting upset. To Bach, Varo was not a man that had the guts to face reality. During the first day of school, he called out to the leaving Mark Reuss and expressed his desire to leave the training ground. In Bach��s eyes, he was a wuss that only knew how to take advantage of everything around him. Besides, he did not treat his training seriously as well. He felt irritated seeing his wimpy looks, let alone his wailing and crying now.


    It was hard to imagine having such a weak, cowardly and ipetent person sleeping under the same roof. However, since the recent training had drained most of his energy, he could not bother to deal with Varo. Tonight was hisst straw. When he saw Varo crying on his bed, the dissatisfaction that had umted in Bach��s heart exploded.


    As for Zhang Heng, Bach was not bothered. After all, Zhang Heng had been lying low all the time. He was neitherzy nor prominent. However, Zhang Heng��s toughness surprised him a little today.


    ��I��m simply stating a fact,�� Zhang Heng shrugged. ��Since everyone is now a ve, and perhaps we will have topete with each other in an arena in the future. If we have no intention to get along, there is no need to hurt each other too.��


    ��Who wouldpete with that piece of garbage. I don��t think he can pass the final assessment. Maybe Gaby will sell him to the countryside in a few days,�� Bach sneered.


    ��Never underestimate a person��s potential. The question is when he will realize his strength.�� Zhang Heng touched his chin, and he nced at Varo as he spoke. However, thetter��s eyes were hollow, like a walking corpse.


    ��So you want to stick your nose into this matter?��


    ��Oh, it depends on whether you are willing to ept my suggestion,�� Zhang Heng said.


    Bach stopped talking, and he started to clench his fists.


    Before he could swing his fist, Zhang Heng said, ��Wait a moment.��


    ��Why? Did you change your mind?��


    ��No, if we want to fight, I suggest that we go to the training ground to do it since there is more space over there,�� Zhang Heng then paused for a while. ��You can ask your men to guard the entrance of the training ground and prevent others froming in.��


    ��Why? You don��t want others to watch you being beaten up by me?��


    ��Trust me. This is for your own good.�� Zhang Heng said, ��If you still wish to be Sets��s sessor.��


    Bach did not reply to Zhang Heng immediately when he what he said. He stared into Zhang Heng��s eyes and replied after a long while, ��Okay. Since you have the guts to challenge me, I will agree to your request. No matter who wins or loses, I won��t bother this sissy again. Anyway, he is not going tost long here.��


    ��Very well. Let��s stick with this n,�� Zhang Heng said.

 Chapter 752 - You Won

    <h4>Chapter 752: You Won</h4>


    Zhang Heng and the group of Germanic returned to the training ground.


    At that time, the sun had already set entirely. Bach lit the oilmp, and the remaining Germanic started guarding the training ground entrance to ensure that the two would not be disturbed.


    ��What weapon do you want?�� Bach raised his chin and asked Zhang Heng.


    ��Just give me a training sword,�� replied Zhang Heng.


    ��How about the armor?��


    ��No need for that.��


    Bach then threw the training sword to Zhang Heng and warned, ��I��ll give you a fine piece of warning first. I won��t show mercy just because I��m impressed by you. You��d better be prepared to be beaten by me.��


    ��Well... Most things in this world are unpredictable.�� Zhang Heng took the training sword and weighed it casually in his hand.


    The training swords in the diator school were all made of wood. It was much shorter than a Tachi and was simr to the bronze swords from the Spring and Autumn Period. ording to a saying��one inch long, one inch strong, and one inch short, one inch more dangerous��it was probably to make the diatorial performance look more intensive.


    Bach saw that Zhang Heng had only taken a training sword, and he did not want to have an advantage in any way. Hence, he grabbed a wooden sword as well.


    ��Where is your shield?�� Zhang Heng asked.


    ��Since you are not using one, I will not use one too,�� replied Bach proudly.


    ��It��s up to you then. Anyway, you can get it if you need itter.��


    Bach was finally irritated by Zhang Heng��s words. ��Don��t start getting arrogant just because you knew I was impressed. I��ve changed my mind now. I��m going to make sure you stay in bed for a week.��


    ��Really? Then you��ll have to make sure that you give it your best,�� Zhang Heng calmly replied Bach while raising his eyebrows.


    The next instant, Bach charged at Zhang Heng furiously, brandishing his training sword at him.


    The results��Bach experienced the same thing that happened to him seven days ago. Zhang Heng managed to dodge his attack easily. While Bach surged forward under his own inertia, Zhang Heng used his sword to block him.


    With a loud tap, Bach flew backward, falling down and rolling on the ground.


    Immediately, he stood up from the ground. The way he looked at Zhang Heng had finally changed. In the eyes of others, they thought that Bach had made the same mistake again, where he underestimated the enemy��one that subsequently took advantage of the ws in his movements. Zhang Heng had used Bach��s own strength to topple him.


    Bach knew very well that the training n tailored exclusively for him by Gaby and the other trainers was to eliminate weaknesses in his previous battles. He was different now aspared to how he was a week ago. Although he still could not defeat Habitus��if his opponent used the same move again, he was confident that he would not fall in embarrassment.


    Zhang Heng darted around like Habitus. Though both were agile fighters, a ratherrge difference separated the two. Especially with the hit that Zhang Hengnded on Bach just now��he managed to cause Bach topletely lose his bnce, the real reason behind the burly man falling to his feet.


    Was the Oriental man in front of him the master he imed he was? But why didn��t he see it in him during the previous training sessions? Bach was bewildered. With doubt in his heart, he attacked again. However, only two movester, Zhang Heng shed his sword at Bach��s chest.


    Zhang Heng did not exert too much strength in his attack, merely tapping his sword lightly on Bach��s left chest.


    When he taught the kids swordsmanship in Koyama Dojo, Zhang Heng had fought simr training battles several times, and he knew the right time for him to exert his strength.


    In the meantime, Bach was drenched in his cold sweat. If Zhang Heng were holding a real sword, he knew he would have been dead by now.


    On the opposite side, Zhang Heng did not continue to attack while Bach was distracted. Instead, he put away the training sword and took two steps back. He then asked gracefully, ��Do you need a shield now?��


    Bach became deeply embarrassed when he heard what his opponent had just said. However, he doubted that he could block Zhang Heng��s attack even if he decided to use a shield. That said, he also knew that he would surely lose the battle if he chose not to grab a shield immediately.


    Bach was impulsive, but he was not stupid. So, he went and grabbed a small buckler and held it in his left hand. Instead of charging at Zhang Heng, he put up an unprecedented defensive position as though facing an extremely formidable nemesis.


    Upon catching sight of Bach and Zhang Heng��s brief battle, the smiles on the Germanic��s faces were quickly wiped away, reced by gaping jaws and bated breaths.


    Bach was a famous warrior in their tribe. In order to avenge his dead family, he had killed many Roman soldiers and even a centurion. Hence, they were surprised when they witnessed Habitus defeating Bach. A week had passed, and they had managed to dig up some information about Habitus��s background. They now knew that Gaby had them fooled.


    In the diator circle, Habitus was a very famous man. Although he was not trump card material like Sets, he was considered the second most powerful diator in the Victor Arena, causing swathes of girls to have a crush on him. After traveling a long way to the arena and not knowing the opponent��s background, Bach��s loss was actually justified.


    As for Zhang Heng, this was apletely different situation.


    Among everyone who entered the school together was Victor Arena��s new hope, the sessor to the famed Sets. As for Zhang Heng, he had beenying low and hadn��t spoken much. Falling out of favor, he was assigned to the Dimachaerus group, the diator type that had infamously low chances of surviving the arena.


    By logic, Bach should have had been able to crush Zhang Heng easily.


    Judging from the previous fight, this battle��s oue was self-evident. Bach was on the losing side from the beginning to the end, unable to retaliate even with the strength he had. Although he now had a shield with him, he remained standing still, daring not to charge at Zhang Heng. Bach knew that his confidence was gone, and defeating Zhang Heng had now be a remote possibility.


    Since Bach was unmoved, Zhang Heng made his instead.


    He swung the training sword in his hand to match the pace of his feet. Every single strike was precise, made so Bach would find it extremely hard to defend himself. Therge Germanic had to parry the attacks with the shield and training sword in his hand. After blocking several of Zhang Heng��s advances, his forehead was already drenched in sweat. The noises of the shing wooden swords and shields resonated in his ears.


    Bach knew that he could not retreat anymore, or Zhang Heng��s momentum would be more and more vigorous. And he was almost forced to retreat to the corner of the training ground. At this time, he tossed whatever distracting thoughts he had in his head and swung his wooden sword at Zhang Heng, embracing the odds that Zhang Heng would stab him.


    This was the first time Bach fought back. It was all or nothing, and he wasn��t expecting anything from it. As long as he could push Zhang Heng away and catch a breath, it would be considered a sess. The thing that would happen next, however, was something he did not expect. He heard a snapping sound, and when he raised his head again, he saw that Zhang Heng had taken a half step back, and the wooden sword in his hand had been knocked away,nding on the ground.


    ��You won.�� Zhang Heng looked at Bach, emotionless. ��Congrattions.��

 Chapter 753 - Fantastic Strike

    <h4>Chapter 753: Fantastic Strike</h4>


    After Zhang Heng congratted him, everyone fell into silence, and a burst of cheers broke out at the training ground entrance.


    Bach��spanion, the five Germanic, were cheering loudly.


    If someone told them before thepetition that they would be excited over Bach��s victory, they probably wouldn��t have believed it. To them, Bach was supposed to win this battle.


    But after witnessing this arduous battle with their own eyes, they would never have such a thought in their minds anymore, especially after seeing Bach enduring a ��hard fight�� and never gave up. He tenaciously chose to face his opponent��s intensive attacks again and again. In the end, they assumed that he had found Zhang Heng��s weakness and defeated him with a single blow.


    There was nothing more exciting than how he imed his victory. Bach was like a hero who could never be killed in aic. Not only such a spirit had inspired him, but it also influenced the people around him. However, Bach was not as excited as hispanions. He was still in a daze when the cheers burst out.


    Seeing Bach��s expression, Zhang Heng had to say, ��That was a good strike. You found my only weakness. Given the circumstances at the time, your attack was very bold. Coupled with impable timing, I didn��t expect I��d lose this battle. If you struck me too early or toote, you��d be the one to lose.��


    ��I found your w?�� Bach was skeptical, mainly because he was suppressed by Zhang Heng earlier. He knew that there was no way he could have won the battle. Thest strike that he performed was something that he did out of desperation. However, he still won the fight in the end. When he thought about Zhang Heng��s unremarkable performance in the training camp before, it was hard not to suspect that Zhang Heng might have lost the battle on purpose.


    ��Isn��t it?�� Zhang Heng��s sincere rhetorics had Bach wondering if he hit the jackpot. After all, the situation was very critical, and hisst strike might have had the blessings of Mars, granting him victory in this intense battle.


    Seeing the ecstatic look of hispanions, Bach could not say a single word.


    ��You should join them to celebrate your victory.�� Zhang Heng stretched out his hand.


    Bach hesitated and finally handed over the training sword and the small round shield in his hand. It also meant that he epted the final result. After that, Zhang Heng picked up the wooden sword that fell to the ground and put them back where they belonged.


    Bach promised that he would leave Varo alone whether he won or lost, so winning or losing did not matter to Zhang Heng. ording to his original n, he wanted to be a free man in this diator school without raising any attention. Hence, losing was a better oue for him.


    Although he lost the battle, Zhang Heng could also see from those Germanic eyes that there was no need to worry that the armistice between them would be voided. After all, those who possessed excellent skill and strength in this school would earn everyone��s respect.


    Since Zhang Heng had shown a part of these skills, he knew that he had earned their respect.


    ...


    In Zhang Heng��s opinion, Bach��s troubles were the easiest to solve. As for Varo, he had to get out of the darkness on his own.


    Zhang Heng had a good impression of Varo, being the first person he encountered in this quest after all. Before getting sold as a ve, he was a Roman citizen, and since Zhang Heng knew nothing about Rome��s history, he had to ask Varo many questions and learn from him. Although most of the knowledge he had learned so far couldn��t be put to use yet, it would eventuallye in handy, considering the 24 extra hours he had. In other words, Zhang Heng would have to stay here for the entire duration of a year and a half. It would be impossible for him to stay here for that long, and takingfort in the fact that he would be leaving this ce soon, everything he learned from Varo woulde in handy.


    As for Varo, he was pretty interesting. Perhaps it was because the family��s business had been handed down to from his father that he became quite the expert in buying and selling antiques. That said, he wasn��t nearly as treacherous as most businessmen were. ording to him, his daily work was quite simple. All he needed to do was to go to the streets to collect antiques and sell them in his store. Most of his customers were regrs.


    His innocent character also caused him to be deceived by others easily. All the wealth he umted so far was gone, and he was sold here to be a ve. After learning the truth, Varo looked even more devastated than before. He did not even notice the battle between Zhang Heng and Bach. When Zhang Heng returned, he had stopped crying, but he closed himself uppletely this time. Whatever little hope he had was nowpletely lost, and only numbness remained in his eyes.


    For the next two weeks, although he was still training, eating, and sleeping, as usual, every day, everyone could see that he hadpletely given up on the uing assessment. If this went on, he would be sold to the countryside sooner rather thanter.


    Gaby was thinking about letting Varo work in a mine. It made no sense for him to continue staying here. Bach, however, had talked to Gaby and asked him to give Varo three days to recover from the tragedy he went through.


    Gaby was a little surprised. As far as he knew, Bach and Varo were not that close, and hepletely didn��t expect Bach to actually intercede for Varo. And Gaby did not reject Bach��s request because Bach��s act of goodwill would eventually draw others closer to him. After all, he was expected to be the rightful leader of this ss.


    Although the diators were expected to fight with each other, it didn��t mean camaraderie and friendship didn��t exist between them. Sometimes they would partner up to fight other diators. Although a lone wolf was strong, it would be even stronger if other wolves helped it.


    Gaby was a little curious about how a man like Bach could think of something like this, but he gave it no extra thought since he had something else to do now. After all, leaving Varo here another three days was a small matter.


    More than twenty days passed. The deadline given by Mark Reuss was getting closer, and Bach��s training continued on smoothly as nned.


    Now, however, Gaby realized that he had a bigger problem to deal with.


    Gaby knew very well that Bach��s current training would never get him to Sets��s level. Even if he tried to bribe diators more famous than him to fight with him, the lie would be exposed one day. The higher he went, the more pain he would be in when he fell.


    If he was unlucky, Bach might even lose his life. By that time, the diator school would have suffered a significant loss.


    Gaby even thought about recing him with a well-known diator, Habitus, for instance. He had always been popr and had a consistent winning rate as well. Other than that, his fighting style seemed very pleasing to the audience. Though he didnt have as much potential as Bach, he was of greater strength. Perhaps Habitus could be selected as Sets��s sessor, so Bach would have more time to grow.


    Gaby was so deep in his thought that he forgot Bach was still standing in front of him. When Gaby saw that Bach was getting impatient, he nodded, ��Yes, he can have three more days.��

 Chapter 754 - Double the Training

    <h4>Chapter 754: Double the Training</h4>


    Bach didn��t care if Varo lived or died. He was only willing to plead for Varo because of Zhang Heng.


    Since that hard-fought victory, Bach had begun paying attention to this Easterner that he previously never bothered to even look at. He even secretly observed Zhang Heng from time to time during the training.


    However, the oue only confused him even more. Looking serious, Zhang Heng did not ck off during the duration of the training. When it came to his performance, however, it was lower than average. Hence, it was not an ident that Gaby ssified him as a diator candidate with a good attitude but limited talent.


    Zhang Heng��s Asian appearance was rare and strange to them, not to mention how it could be used as a selling point. Consequently, Gaby was prepared to loosen up some of his requirements during his final assessment.


    ...


    Three days was a short time, especially for someone who had just experienced something devastating. It was far from enough time for Varo to cheer up. But as Bach had said before, everyone on the training ground had a story, and they had a reason for their enrolment at the diator school. Although it was wrong to be miserable, life was, at most times, cruel. With no way to change what had happened, all the person could do was grab hold of the present.


    Judging from his current condition, it seemed Varo had even given up on the present. And he intended to give up on himself as well. In the three days granted to Varo, Zhang Heng did not do anything for him. Zhang Heng had decided to help because he was a friend, not to mention how this was supposed to be Varo��sst chance of proving that he was worthy of staying here. If Varo himself had lost the desire to live, however, it would be pointless trying to help him no matter how hard someone tried.


    It was a shame that Varo would have to spend the rest of his life in a cold and dark mine.


    But Zhang Heng did not expect that a small ident would happen in the afternoon of the third day.


    There were diator performances in the arena. Since the arena was low on manpower, Gaby ordered Varo, who had no hope of passing the assessment, to help him, informing him at the same time that there was no need to attend the training anymore.


    Gaby had given up on Varopletely, and it was almost the deadline. A group of new ves would be sent off to work in the mines the day after tomorrow, and he nned to send Varo away at that time.


    When Varo heard the news, his face still bore no expressions. Neither struggling nor resisting, it appeared his heart was dead. He put down his training sword and followed the overseer to the arena obediently.


    His partner showed a touch of joy when he left. He felt unlucky after he was asked to train with Varo, seeing how the experience was simr to chopping a tree. Now that his sparring partner was his trainer, Varo��s partner could feel the pressure mounting on his shoulders.


    Zhang Heng watched Gaby disappearing into the entrance of the training ground. He did not know if this would be thest time he would see Varo. On the other side, Bach stole nces at Zhang Heng as usual. And Gaby found out about it this time. Thetter harrumphed in dissatisfaction, then pped his hands and asked for everyone��s attention. He then made an announcement.


    ��Starting today, everyone��s training volume will be doubled.��


    The announcement caused a mighty uproar. The training regime designed for the diator candidates was extremely tough, no doubt harder than the basic training regime during the first week of school. If their current training were to be doubled, they would not have time to sleep or eat. Let��s not even talk about the assessment. If this were to go on, they might not evenst until the day that would happen.


    Hearing the announcement had Zhang Heng feeling displeased. He could see that Gaby was getting desperate. Although there was no scientific training in this era, the diators were the cash cows of diator schools. Under normal circumstances, the school was obliged to take good care of them.


    There was a limit on both the amount of training and the frequency of performances that every diator could endure. The diator school would also use massages, baths, and strict diet control to keep their diators in good shape. The warriors ate a staple diet made of whole-wheat, and at the request of the school, grounded animal bones to enhance their bone strength and toughness.


    Doubling the amount of training could seriously damage the trainees�� physiology. It might work well for a short time, but it certainly wasn��t a cost-effective option in the long run.


    Because he had just chatted with Habitus, and the oue was not optimistic.


    The Gaul was very cunning. It seemed like they were told that Gaby was having a problem finding someone to be Sets�� sessor. So, they had asked the diator school to invest more money in them, refusing to be the backup diators.


    Habitus was a veteran diator, and he knew exactly how this business worked. There are always twists and turns in a matter like this. Gaby asked him to hold on until Bach��s skills had fully matured. After that, in order to squeeze every penny out of him, Gaby would arrange a duel between him and Bach, allowing Bach to defeat him.


    There was nothing more eye-catching than this kind of battle, something that would certainly trigger the audience��s interest in Bach. It was a good n so far, with the only problem being Habitus not wanting to be Bach��s stepping stone.


    If Habitus was a ve, Gaby could disregard his opinions and make him obey his orders without question. In general, the school would not force their star diators to do things they were unwilling to do. However, the school was not in a special phase, and Habitus, unfortunately, differed from Bach, Zhang Heng, and others. He was a free man.


    And he was not just a free man who regained his freedom from very. He was a regr Roman citizen, just like Varo. He wanted to be a diator simply because of the money and women. Although he had signed a contract with the diator school, one that required him to perform in the arena for a few years, at least after training wasplete, he was only bound by the school on the surface.


    Gaby wanted to discuss things with him that he could not tell anyone else. Every diator school had unspoken rules when it came to arranging duels for their diators. They had to consider their poprity and promote their neers. The crowd wouldn��t want to see some carefully choreographed stunt, so such things were naturally not in the contract.


    Habitus��s contract was not entirely fulfilled so far, and he did not want to go against the diator school. However, he did not want to sacrifice his own interests and let the school take advantage of him. Habitus was also unsure if he could hang on until Bach��s skills were fully grown. Hence the two parties did not agree to the terms of the initial negotiation.


    Gaby could only continue to force Bach to develop his potential as soon as possible. Bach was still young anyway. Although he came off looking rough and rugged, his actual age was only eighteen. Even if he had hidden illness, it wouldn��t be surfacing for the time being.


    Others were coteral damage. To make Bach feel like he wasn��t the only one asked to double the training, Gaby decided to ask everyone to do it with him.

 Chapter 755 - Thank You

    <h4>Chapter 755: Thank You</h4>


    As expected, no one couldplete the extra training on the first day.


    As the sun went down, it was way past their mealtime. Everyone was famished. The fastest among them had onlypleted a third of the extra training. Zhang Heng made sure he did not over perform during the training, crucial that he maintained moderate progress. Among all of the diator candidates, Bach suffered the worst. Even before their training volume was doubled, he already had to train harder than the rest of them. In other words, he had to work even harder after their training was doubled.


    Looking like a fish out of the water, he stared at Gaby not far away from him.


    And Gaby seemed to have not felt Bach��s anger and resentment. He watched the trainers walking among the crowd without saying a word while urging those who wanted to take a break to carry on with their training.


    Finally, there was a candidate who could stand it no more. He threw away the training sword in his hand, shouting, ��I want to eat!!! I want to eat!!! If you want us to train more, at least let us eat first.��


    Many actually agreed with him, but only three to five people responded. Although the rest did not speak up, the looks on their faces were enough to show that they agreed with his suggestion from the bottom of their hearts.


    Gaby heard the words and walked to the man who threw away the training sword. He then said coldly, ��Pick up your weapon.��


    Usually, the man who tossed the sword would not dare disobey Gaby��s order. But now, perhaps he felt that his request was reasonable, or perhaps he felt that there were a lot of people supporting him from behind that gave him more courage than usual. Hence, he didn��t bend down to pick up his training sword.


    ��Very well. You don��t need to train if you don��t want to train. You will be sent to the mines with the man named Varo the day after tomorrow,�� said Gaby.


    The man who threw the sword was shocked, realizing suddenly that he had just done something stupid. Gaby decided on the life and death of the ves. With only one sentence, he could turn their fate upside down.


    Since Mark Reuss was not here, Gaby was the king. Unfortunately, it was toote for him to beg for mercy now. Gaby seemed determined to make an example of him as a negative role model. After he dropped the order, two trainers came forward. They went up on both sides of the man and dragged him out of the training ground.


    Thetter screamed while struggling, ��You can��t do this to me! Let me be a diator! I can make more money for the arena!��


    ��Do I look like Ick diators?�� asked Gaby indifferently. He had made such a decision because he wanted to motivate the others to train harder. Besides that, he was in a nasty mood right now.


    Habitus was not willing to obey his orders. After all, he was a veteran in this diator school, and he was also a celebrity in the arena. Byparison, the sword thrower was a nobody. Gaby was mad that he used his self-worth to threaten him. People like him could be reced easily.


    After all, no one in this group was irreceable except for Bach.


    Just when the sword thrower was about to be dragged out of the training ground, the two trainers stopped moving forward suddenly. Gaby frowned, and the sword thrower was overjoyed. He thought Gaby must��ve changed his mind. What he did not realize was that Gaby was looking at the man behind him.


    ��Why are you back?�� Gaby asked.


    ��The performance is over. I��m back here for the training,�� replied Varo. His appearance had changed a lot. His beard that had not been shaved for several weeks was now gone, and his hair had been cut short. He looked way more energetic now. The most important thing was that his eyes were once again filled with vitality. It looked like he started to care about his life again. Obviously, he was in a rush when he cleaned himself up, considering the few razor cuts present on his cheeks.


    ��Didn��t I tell you that you don��t need toe back here anymore?�� Gaby was indifferent as if he had not seen the changes on Varo.


    ��You said that I have three days to change your mind. The third day is not over yet,�� said Varo calmly without feeling any fear.


    ��Interesting.�� Gaby was not angry when he heard how Varo talked. After a short pause, he continued, ��I��m a man of my word. In this case, I will keep you until sunrise tomorrow. I have just doubled the amount of training. If you fail toplete it, you will be sent to the mines tomorrow.��


    ��I will make sure I won��t be sent to the mines,�� Varo proimed confidently.


    ��I think we will know the answer to this question soon.�� Gaby raised his chin, ��Go back to training.��


    The sword thrower saw hope when he heard their conversation. He then quickly said, ��I know I��ve done something wrong. Please let me continue toplete the training. I promise I will work harder than anyone else.��


    ��No, I have found someone to fill your position now. You are no longer valuable to me. I hope you like the air in the mines.�� Gaby waved his hand and asked the trainer to drag the person away.


    On the other side, Zhang Heng whispered to Varo, who was carrying the wooden pole, ��Wee back.��


    ��Thank you,�� replied Varo sincerely. Earlier, he looked as though he had given up on life, but it did not mean that he had no idea about what was happening around him. Varo knew that Zhang Heng fought with Bach because of him. And the reason why Gaby was willing to let him stay in this school for another three days obviously had something to do with Zhang Heng.


    ��You are a true friend. If I can continue to stay here tomorrow morning, I will definitely repay you in the future,�� Varo added afterward.


    Zhang Heng was curious about what happened to Varo. He thought that he had given up on himself, but it seemed like the trip to the area rekindled his fighting spirit. Could he have been moved by the diators�� heroism when they performed in the arena?


    However, this was not the time for them to chit-chat. Their short conversation had managed to capture Gaby��s attention. So Zhang Heng quickly shut his mouth and carried on with the training.


    ...


    At 3 a.m., someone finallypleted the training. And Zhang Heng was one of them.


    Gaby was not inhumane. He did ask the cook to leave some food for them. Although the food was already cold, no one had the strength toin at the moment. Everyone hurriedly went to bed after eating.


    In the end, only Varo and his trainer were left on the training ground. Varo��s body was almost at its limit, but he clenched his teeth and did not give up on the training. Amid the training, he fainted once from exhaustion. However, he did not say a word when he regained his consciousness. All he did was continue to push himself toplete the regime.


    Early the next morning, after Zhang Heng had finished breakfast, he went to the training ground. He saw that Gabi was already there and he was talking to his trainer.


    ��I don��t know why you insist on staying here. So what youplete all the regimes before sunrise? A new set will begin soon after that. How are you going to push yourself to carry on with the new set of training?��


    ��Hatred,�� Varo wiped the sweat from his forehead. Something was burning in his eyes.


    ��There is no power stronger than hatred, right?��

 Chapter 756 - Who Will Be First To Draw the Lot?

    <h4>Chapter 756: Who Will Be First To Draw the Lot?</h4>


    Continuous high-intensity training would gradually cause people to lose their ability to think. Most of the trainees had even forgotten how long they had been here.


    In addition to the training, the only other things Zhang Heng did were eat, sleep, and excrete waste from his body. And it had been a long time since he had enough sleep or food. No matter how much they ate, they would feel hungry again in no time. No matter how many hours they slept, their bodies would still be sore for two days...


    Other than the unfortunate man who was dragged out of the training ground earlier, seven more people failed to withstand the training��s immense pressure. Hence, they were forced to quit school.


    Among these were four Roman citizens. They had chosen to terminate the contract with the diator school and return to where they came from. And the other three quitters were ves. These ended up being taken to the mines the next day.


    What surprised Gaby the most was Varo. He did not expect that the man couldplete the training and survive. Thetter hadpleted the first day of training before sunrise and devoted himself to a new regime the very next day without eating or resting. Having not much hope in him, Gaby had thought that he would not be able to continue with the intensive training. To his surprise, however, Varo miraculouslypleted the next round. Although Zhang Heng smuggled some water and bread for him during the training, the only decisive factor that made him press on was sheer willpower.


    And Gaby was impressed by him. Fighting skills were important for a diator, but willpower was indispensable for them as well. When it came to resolve, however, Bach had the strongest whenpared to other diator candidates. He had endured the highest volume of training, and apart from asional expressions of anger, he neverined.


    Gaby did not grant Varo an easy way out just because he was impressed by him. After all, Varo was no highly-talented neer like Bach, worthy of major investment. His willpower was the sole reason he could survive until now, and even if he failed toplete the training, the diator school would suffer no losses. After all, there would always be a shortage of manpower in the mines.


    For now, Varo seemed to be doing quite well. Having fullypleted the first and second day of intensive training, he managed to earn three hours for himself, primarily for sleeping and eating, allowing his body to replenish. On the third day, hepleted his training slighter faster than before. In return, he got to rest even longer.


    But his good luck ran out on the fifth day. He hurt his feet during the training. Gaby did not say a word about it, simply asking him to go carry on. So Varo dragged himself to the training ground with his injured foot and, as a result, almost failed toplete the day��s training. To make matters worse, his ankle swelled up the next day thanks to the previous day��s strenuous exercise, causing him to move sluggishly.


    Varo managed toplete the task before the next sunrise. However, despair hit him hard on that day because he knew how bad his current situation was. It was not something that could be made up with sheer willpower. Considering the state his physical strength and injuries were in, it was impossible for him toplete a new training round.


    But fortunately, Zhang Heng gave him something to help. Thetter made a simple ankle brace out of bark and cloth. ��Put it on,�� he said, tossing it to Varo.


    Back in the real world, Zhang Heng and Wei Jiangyang liked to y basketball, but Wei Jiangyang kept spraining his ankle. Thus, he would buy an ankle brace to speed up his ankle��s recovery. Obviously, thepany that made it would not be delivering any ankle braces to its Roman customers in the second century, so Zhang heng fashioned one out of whatever materials that were avable around him. Luckily, he roughly remembered its structure.


    Under Zhang Heng��s guidance, Varo put on an ankle brace, had some bread and water, and finally managed to survive the most precarious day. Eventually, his bad luck seemed to being to an end. Although his injuries looked terrible, at least he did not hurt his bones. Thanks to the brace, he started to get better and finally recovered from his injury.


    Gradually, Varo caught up with the others, thus gaining more time to eat and rest.


    On the forty-ninth day, Gaby canceled all the training sessions and gathered everyone together. He looked at every single diator candidate in front of him. The number of diator candidates had been reduced from 43 to 30. Due to various reasons, 13 of them had been withdrawn voluntarily or involuntarily.


    Among them, the number of free men had dropped drastically. After all, Gaby suddenly doubled the amount of training without warning, reaching a stage where it was unbearable for most ordinary people. Since there was more than one diator school in Rome, it was unnecessary for them to cling to this particr school if they were still determined to be a diator.


    So by the forty-ninth day, there were only two free men left, with the other twenty-eight all ves.


    This result was in line with Gaby��s expectations.


    The next thing that they needed to do was the final highlight.


    It was a diator assessment.


    Nearly one-third of the diator candidates had been eliminated so far. And not all thirty of the remaining candidates would pass the assessment and be diators. Certain schools in the city would take into ount the cost of training and purchasing ves. Hence, they would loosen the assessment standards. Gaby knew that he was responsible for the spectators�� satisfaction, so he never had the intention to rx the requirements of the assessment in the two decades he was head of the school.


    Only a good diator could give the audience the most exciting of performances.


    It was precisely because of his strict adherence to this principle that the number of spectators who chose to enter Victor Arena had remained high.


    Due to Mark Reuss��s request, this assessment had another purpose.


    ��Congrattions, you havepleted the first part of the training,�� said Gaby. ��But don��t be too happy just yet. Only by passing the final assessment can you be a true diator. And for those who fail the assessment, you should know the fate that awaits you without me borating.��


    Gaby paused and looked at everyone��s expressions before continuing. ��Rx. The assessment is fairly simple. It is not as tedious as your previous training. diators are born to fight! So there is only one criterion for evaluating how good a diator is, and that is whether you can win battles.��


    Not only was everyone unafraid, but they were even eager to try it out. They had been training so hard for so long. Finally, it was time for the results of that training to show.


    ��Very well. Keep this excitement with you. I believe you have also inquired about the assessment before. After you draw your lot, you will fight with your assigned opponent, and the winner will pass the assessment. I will judge the loser based on performance. However, this time, we decided to change the way we carry out the assessment.��


    It was a twist for all the diator candidates. Suddenly, the training grounds fell eerily silent, and the joy of freeing themselves from the hellish training wiped-off from everyone��s faces. On the contrary, everyone could feel that something terrible was about to happen to them.


    Gaby continued calmly, ��In order for you to understand better what a diatorial performance is, and the gap between you and an official diator, your opponent will be selected from the school��s official diator list. The battle arrangement will be decided by lots drawing.��


    ��Now, who will be the first one to draw the lots?��

 Chapter 757 - Battle Arrangement

    <h4>Chapter 757: Battle Arrangement</h4>


    They were supposed to fight with their peers. Many of them were left in fear when Gaby told them that they had to fight with the school��s official diators. Undeniably, it was terrible news. Some, however, were not bothered by this change of rule. Among these was Bach.


    He walked towards the spot where they were supposed to draw the lots, grabbed a wooden sign casually, and handed it to the trainer on the side. Thetter looked at the name on the wooden sign. ��Bach, y against Posthumus,�� he said.


    After that, he wrote Bach��s name on the other side of the wooden sign to mark the game arrangement for this round of the fight.


    Bach grinned, ��Tell that guy, wash up and wait for me!��


    After speaking, he walked away from the lot-drawing table. When he stepped down from the stage, he did not forget to nce at Zhang Heng again. Gaby noticed that Bach kept on looking at Zhang Heng the whole time. He knew that Bach had fought Zhang Heng earlier and won the battle. What he did not know, however, were the specific details of the battle. He could not figure out why Zhang Heng irked Bach so much. For a while, Gaby was even a little suspicious of Bach��s sexual orientation.


    Bach then drew the lot, marking the beginning of the assessment for everyone.


    The hellish training had allowed Gaby the pleasure of everyone��s respect. Since he set the assessment, everyone could only bite the bullet and abide by the new rules. Not all were as talented as Bach. It seemed like he was not worried about the fight with the official diators. Without a doubt, the winner would pass the assessment. On the other hand, the losers might pass in the evaluation if they performed well during the battle. As long as they tried their best to fight their opponents, there was still hope for them.


    Of course, this had a lot to do with their opponents as well. The best scenario would be fighting with someone who had just be an official diator. That would mean the gap of skill between both sides would not be that wide. Their win-rate would also increase if they fought with the diators that always lost.


    Of course, the worst scenario was to run into venerable veteran diators who had richbat experience. Usually, those battles would be over in a short time. The moment they found their opponent��s ws, there was no chance for the opponent to fight back. In other words, the diator candidate would be unable to showcase the result of their intensive training, and the probability of them passing the assessment would be very low.


    Zhang Heng waited until half of the diator candidates drew their lots before going up the stage.


    To the others, Zhang Heng was simply unlucky that he had to go against a veteran diator named Garba. Thirty-seven years old this year, he was considered to be the oldest among the other diators. If he was still allowed to fight in the arena, that meant he had to be very good at what he did. At his age, his physical fitness had drastically decreased. Basically, he was relying on hisbat experience to fight his opponents.


    Looking at Garba��s record, he was a consistent fighter. Even though he could not defeat those grandmasters, he could rely on hisbat experience to drag the battle and make it more exciting for the spectators. This kind of diator was usually known as the legendary neer-killer.


    The biggest shoring of the neers was experience, or rather, theck of. Whether it was control of the battle rhythm or the ability to react to critical moments, their trainers taught none of these. These were things they had to umte through battles.


    Garba happened to be a diator with a lot of experience.


    Unfortunately, he was about to meet a monster neer that would cause him to lose a battle. Let alone other aspects, even Garba with a lot ofbat experience would be unable to defeat Zhang Heng.


    ...


    Zhang Heng did not care much about the result of his draw. It made no difference to him who his opponent was. After looking at the name on it, he handed the wooden sign to the trainer and stepped down from the stage.


    Varo was more nervous than Zhang Heng. Hisbat level was considered below average, meaning his chances of defeating his peers were extremely low. He was now asked to fight a real diator from the arena, causing him to be extremely anxious. After all, he had worked so hard and survived the hellish training. All his effort would be wasted if he failed in his assessment.


    Varo took a deep breath and waited until most of the people knew who their opponents would be. He then walked to the lot-drawing table and drew a wooden card with his trembling right hand.


    When he saw the name on the wooden card, and his face started to turn pale, and he was inplete shock. His right hand trembled even more severely now. And that was not it. What he did next was throw away the wooden card, ran to the side, and vomited his undigested breakfast from his stomach.


    The trainer picked up the wooden card on the ground and looked at Varo with a hint of sympathy. ording to the rules, he had to announce his draw��s result, ��Varo��s opponent is Habitus.��


    Everyone was left bewildered when they heard the name, and their eyes involuntarilynded on Gaby.


    This had gone overboard. Let alone arranging for them to fight formal diators, making the diator school��s trump card fight with a candidate was an act of a bully. It was no wonder Varo started vomiting.


    Earlier, Habitus managed to defeat Bach and humiliated him by making him fall to the ground. If he had fought with other diator candidates, they would have ended up a lot worse.


    ��Don��t look at me,�� Gaby said causally, ��Habitus volunteered to join the battle.��


    That was only the half-truth. Habitus did mention to Gaby that he wanted to join the assessment and became the judge. And he pointed out that he only wanted to fight with Bach.


    Habitus realized that the school had ced too much emphasis on Bach as their current trump card. Hence, Habitus felt that his status was challenged. So, he wanted to teach Bach a lesson, showing Gaby who was more worthy of the school��s investment.


    Gaby, however, told Habitus that the final assessment would be based on a lot-drawing system. It had been done to ensure fairness and that there would be no predetermined opponents for the candidates. Gaby did not believe that Bach was ready to rechallenge Habitus afterpleting forty-nine days of training.


    Habitus thought this matter was over. He did not expect that Gaby would mess with him by including his name in the lot-drawing box. Just when he was about to find a ce to have a good drink, Gaby had sent someone to break the news to him about him having to fight someone during the assessment tomorrow. Also, his opponent was a rookie named Varo.


    Habitus was furious when he heard the news.


    ...


    Meanwhile, thest diator candidate had drawn the final lot, marking the end of the lot-drawing session.


    Everyone��s mood was different when they saw the opponents they had to face during their assessment.


    Gaby then pped his hands again to attract everyone��s attention. ��The assessment will begin tomorrow morning, and the master wille over to witness your training result. I hope you can perform well. And you can ask your trainers about your opponent��s information. Everyone needs to be ready to face the battle tomorrow. Do not let the master down.��

 Chapter 758 - Do You Want To Listen To the Truth?

    <h4>Chapter 758: Do You Want To Listen To the Truth?</h4>


    Gabi had much to deal with, hurriedly leaving the training ground after arranging for tomorrow��s match.


    The rest of the diator candidates were gathered in front of their trainers, inquiring about their opponents. After they knew about their opponents�� fighting styles, they quickly turned around, looking for people with simrbat styles to spar with them, thus simting their uing battle.


    Varo was the only one sitting on the ground alone, motionless.


    From the back, he looked really lonely. This time most people could understand his frustration. He was truly unlucky to get Habitus as his opponent. There was a massive gap in strength and skills between the two of them, which also meant that Varo was destined to be defeated by Habitus tomorrow. That could only mean that he would fail his assessment.


    Zhang Heng also asked his trainer about Garba, including his chances of winning and losing and his fighting style. The trainer had a good impression of Zhang Heng, even reminding him that he had to pay extra attention when fighting a cunning veteran like Garba.


    Upon expressing his gratitude, Zhang Heng walked to Varo��s side.


    Without even looking, Varo knew who was approaching him. ��Don��t worry,�� he said, ��I haven��t given up on myself yet. You asked me what made me make up my mind to be a diator, right?��


    ��Are you willing to tell me now?�� Zhang Heng sat down beside Varo.


    ��I saw him that afternoon, the same afternoon I went to help in the arena.�� Varo clenched his fists.


    ��Who?��


    ��My best friend, or... rather, ex-best friend.�� Varoughed sarcastically. ��I trusted him fully... gave him all my money so he could help me invest in the textile business in Egypt. Not too long after that, he told me that he had been robbed. The authorities told me that he was dead and all the money was gone. They did send the body back to Rome, though. There were no problems with his height and body shape, but his face was disfigured.��


    ��He��s back?��


    ��Yes, and he is with my wife now. They sat in the stands, enjoying the diatorial show. I don��t think they saw me. After all, even I didn��t pay attention to the ves in the arena when I watched the shows back then.��


    Varo��s ex-best friend��s arrogant behavior surprised Zhang Heng. Initially, Zhang Heng thought the man would leave Rome, moving to a new ce forever with the wealth he had robbed from Varo. By doing that, there was no way to prove that this whole thing was a hoax. Nobody expected him to have the audacity to settle down in Rome with Varo��s wife.


    ��Can you sue him and get your wealth back?�� asked Zhang Heng.


    Varo shook his head. ��Julia Basilica only eptswsuits from Roman citizens, and ves are not allowed to sue anyone. Besides, I don��t have any money to hire awyer. And I know he would find all kinds of reasons to defend himself. For example, he could im that he did encounter a robber but managed to run away. And others had mistakenly identified the dead body as him. After all, I was the one that signed the contract voluntarily at the beginning. No matter what the reason was, I did breach the contract.��


    Varo was now a lot calmer than when Zhang Heng first met him, which was why people said hardship was the best way to mold a person. However, the problem Varo had experienced so far was too outrageous.


    After experiencing his wife and his best friend��s betrayal, then losing his freedom, he finally snapped out from his miserable phase. He then went through a hellish training period that was almost impossible for him to survive, only to find out that he would fight with Habitus in his final assessment.


    Varo hesitated and asked, ��What are the odds that I will win against Habitus?��


    ��Do you want to hear the truth?��


    ��Of course.��


    ��Not even 10%.�� Zhang Heng told him the truth. ��He a diator at his golden age. His physical fitness,bat skills, andbat experience are a lot more advanced than you. This gap cannot be made up by sheer willpower. Even after the hellish training, Bach has a very slim chance of winning against him.��


    ��What about you?�� Varo asked.


    Zhang Heng smiled, and he did not answer his question. Instead, he turned around and said, ��Your goal is not to beat him. You need to focus on passing tomorrow��s assessment.��


    ��As you said, his physical fitness, fighting skills, andbat experience are all above me. It will be a one-sided battle tomorrow. How can I pass the test?�� Varo smiled bitterly, ��I don��t even know how long I canst in that battle. Ten rounds perhaps?��


    ��I think you overestimated yourself, my friend,�� replied Zhang Heng euphemistically. ��Defending or running away allows you to drag the battle, but that��s pointless.��


    Spectators were known to not treat diator deserters very well. Once the weaker diator was defeated before the audience got to watch the exciting performance, they would urge the organizer to execute the loser. To please the audience, the organizer would not hesitate to do it in front of them.


    Thus, even a cunning diator veteran like Garba would have to fight hard when he encountered an opponent who was way stronger than him.


    ��The key to passing the assessment is not the number of rounds, but whether or not you can cause Habitus a little trouble.��


    ��Causing Habitus trouble? What kind of trouble? Will my blood be spilled on his sword?��


    ��It has to be something bigger than that,�� said Zhang Heng. ��If you are fighting someone else, I don��t think I can help you. Since we have seen Habitus�� fight with Bach, I think I can give you some suggestions.��


    ��Really?�� Varo asked in surprise. He looked at Zhang Heng again as if looking at the incarnation of Jupiter.


    Zhang Heng had rescued him more than once. He bought him three days to prove himself to Gaby, made his protective gear, and now, he was even telling him how there might be a way to take advantage of Habitus.


    ��Don��t be too happy. I��m not too sure about it as well. After all, it has to depend on your on-the-spot performance and Habitus�� attitude towards you.��


    Zhang Heng continued after a pause, ��Logically speaking, he should not participate in this sort of entry-level diator assessment. We don��t know why he is on the list now, but my guess is that he has some conflict with Gaby. After all, Bach��s growth will threaten his current position. Gaby is probably taking this opportunity to bring him down. Therefore, Habitus is not in a good mood. Other than that, he is a very proud individual as well. Here is your chance. I can y his role and do some sparring with you. We have the whole day to ourselves. If you can do what I say, you can probably cause him some trouble. Even if everything goes well, you only have about 40% chance to execute the n.��


    ��Enough. 40% is better than 10%.�� Varo gritted his teeth. ��From the moment I was sold here, I have only one way to get out of this ce. I have to do whatever it takes to regain my freedom.��


    ��Very well. Let me tell you what to do.��

 Chapter 759 - Your Turn

    <h4>Chapter 759: Your Turn</h4>


    After forty-nine days, Mark Reuss appeared at the balcony on the second floor again. This time, the two female ves that came with him had been reced by a Persian and a Parthian. They were doing their best to serve him as he sat in a chair.


    Mark Reuss, however, didn��t seem too happy because the arena��s attendance rate had dropped again in the past two months. He had to increase the number of battles Habitus had to execute every month, and even that only managed to bring back some audience to the arena. Simultaneously, the greedy Habitus had also taken the opportunity to ask for arger share and hismitment to growing him as the school��s trump card.


    On the other hand, Mark Reuss had also got some political news from the front line. It seemed like the new emperor, Commodus, was unwilling to take over the mess left by his father, Aurelius, and he was preparing to negotiate with the Germanic. This was not good news to Mark Reuss because prisoners of war yed an essential part in his diator��s pool. Most of the highly-talented diators were prisoners of war, not to mention that he had been busy looking for Sets��s sessor. Mark Reuss could only pin all his hopes on Bach.


    ording to the tradition, a great diator show would be held each time a new emperor was crowned. In order to win the hearts of the people, this show was admission free and would be held in the vian Amphitheater, thergest arena in the entire Roman Empire. The arena funded by the royal family took 80,000 ves and eight years to build and could amodate up to 90,000 spectators. Considering its age, it had to be said that this was one of history��s greatest architectural wonders.


    An arena without diators would be pointless, seeing how they were the highlight of the show.


    Although the royal family also owned a diator school, it was notrge enough to support a grand performance like this. It required the cooperation of several diator schools from the private sector to supply them with their diators. Of course, that didn��te free of charge. After all, growing and training diators were known to be costly. However, since this performance��s nature was to win the hearts of the people, there would be no ie, and the organizers had to bear the cost.


    And asking money from the nobles and emperor was no easier than asking for money from themoners.


    Mark Reuss would lose a lot of money if he asked for too little money from the organizer, but he was afraid it would offend the powerful or the emperor if he asked too much. If that were to happen, he would not be able to stay in Rome anymore. Usually, Mark Reuss would choose to overlook the slight loss. By doing that, not only did he get to show his goodwill to the emperor, but he would not lose too much money too.


    Still, this was something genuinely annoying to him.


    Marco Cruz came to inspect his goods with all those troubles and dissatisfaction for the new emperor. He had spent a lot of money on this batch of ves and had to know if the money he spent on them was worth it.


    The order of the battle was decided by the lots drawn yesterday. After Gaby paid a respectful salute to Mark Reuss, he began to organize the assessment. The rules of the battles were the same as the diator performances, except that they would be using wooden weapons this time. In a one-on-one battle, each diator could only use one weapon. A sneak attack from the back was an act that the audience would despise. The other side could not attack his opponents if he admitted defeat. Besides, a trainer would be there to act as a referee during the battle.


    After confirming that everyone understood the rules, Gabi started the roll call.


    The first diator candidate that stepped on the stage was Griff. A Roman citizen, it seemed he was in luck. His opponent was a young man who had just be a diator for half a year. He was a little younger than the diator candidate, and hisbat experience was not as rich. Nheless, the young diator won after a rather lengthy battle. The diator candidate didn��t fight back, but he managed to catch Griff��s weakness, eventually defeating him.


    Gabi thenmented, ��You should concentrate more on the battle. You did fine during the first half, butter, you seemed distracted. And your attacks were not decisive enough. It is good to be cautious of your opponent, but sometimes, the situation requires you to make quick decisions. Even a wrong decision is better than hesitation.��


    Griff looked a little frustrated when he heard thement. He knew that Gaby was telling the truth. The fact that he was a neer, and this was the final assessment that determined his fate, it was inevitable that he would overthink everything. Sometimes he would hesitate to attack when he saw his opponent��s ws, worried that it could be a trap. Hence, he missed a lot of good opportunities.


    After Gaby watched Griff for a long while, trying his best to fight his opponent, he announced, ��You pass the assessment.��


    Griff��s expression instantly turned from worry to joy, and Gaby did not say anything after that. He let him stay in the room on the west side.


    After Griff was a ve named Gta��s turn. His opponent was a well-known diator with three years ofbat experience. If Griff was cautious of his enemy, Gta acted like he was going to face an invincible nemesis.


    As soon as his opponent made a move, Gta quickly took a few steps back. And Gaby was displeased by his response. Fortunately, Gta soon realized that his action was going to cause him to lose some points. In order to make up for his big mistake, he ditched his defensive posture and started to attack his opponent.


    However, his opponent keenly noticed the ws in his attack and evaded Gta��s attack easily, managing to ce his training sword on thetter��s neck in the next second. The battle did notst very long, and he won easily. Immediately, Gta��s face turned pale.


    He looked at Gaby with an imploring gaze, but thetter remained unmoved. Gaby then announced in a merciless voice, ��You��ve made bad decisions during the battle. You attacked your opponent without any n, and your ability to respond to attacks is worse than a pig. You fail the assessment. Go to the house in the east.��


    ��For the sake of the hard work that I put in my training, please give me another chance. I wasn��t well prepared this time. Next time... the next time, I will not make this kind of mistake again,�� pleaded Gta. He knew all too well what going to the house in the east meant. Since he failed the assessment and wasn��t a Roman citizen like Griff, the only fate that awaited him would be getting sent to the mines.


    ��But death will never give you a second chance, my child,�� Gaby continued coldly. After that, he blinked, and two trainers pulled Gta away, who had almost copsed on the ground.


    On the second floor, Mark Reuss had not said a word, eating a fig peeled by a female ve next to him.


    Having not much interest in the previous battles, the only thing that he really cared about was Bach. Today was the deadline he gave Gaby. He wanted to see how much improvement Bach had made after the hellish training given by Gaby. After all, he was the appointed sessor of Sets. However, Bach��s battle was arranged almost at the end of the assessment. Hence, Mark Reuss could only wait patiently.


    Once Gta was dragged away, Gaby spoke again.


    ��Zhang Heng, Garba, it��s your turn.��

 Chapter 760 - Victor Arena’s Evergreen

    <h4>Chapter 760: Victor Arena��s Evergreen</h4>


    Zhang Heng walked out of the crowd and took the wooden weapon handed to him by the trainer.


    Immediately, everyone focused their sights on him.


    Although they had gone through forty-nine days of hellish, high-intensity training, everyone had improved a lotpared to when they first came to the diator school. However, judging from the results of the first two rounds of battle, the neers were still not as promising as the official diators.


    If Griff suffered from a terrible defeat, then Gta��s defeat could only be categorized as purely miserable. At present, the rookie��s score was zero to two, with the official diator on the winning side. After witnessing Gta��s fight, the atmosphere on the rookie side had be a whole lot more tense.


    As for the uing battle, Zhang Heng was still on the unpopr end. Apart from the fight with Bach, he had left hardly any special impression on the others; his performance during the training merely satisfactory. Among the neers, he was considered average and not very eye-catching. On the other hand, his opponent Garba was a veteran diator.


    With his age came heaps ofbat experience.


    He became a diator when he was twenty-eight years old. After that, he worked as a diator for nine years. Considering that a diator��s average age was only twenty-five years old, Garba��s career could be regarded as a miracle. His situation was simr to Varo��s, where he became a diator to pay off his debts.


    In his third year of being a diator, he managed to pay off his debts. After that, he went on retirement for half a year. Due to personal reasons, he returned to the arena half a year after his retirement, and he had been a diator since then.


    In the past nine years, he had witnessed the rise and fall of countless heroes, even getting to witness the legend of Sets. He did not have too many glorious battle records, but with his conscientious working attitude and the time he spent working as a diator, he managed to attract a group of regrs that woulde and watch him fight no matter what.


    And he was also known as the evergreen tree of the Victor Arena. There was also spection among the audience if Garba would die fighting or rretire. Always one of the hot topics in the Victor Arena, some people had even started to bet on it.


    Garba and Zhang Heng then came to the stage together, where Garba gave Zhang Heng a smile. In turn, Zhang Heng smiled back politely.


    Garba was a little surprised by how Zhang Heng reacted. He was there to watch the performance of the two neers earlier. Once a rookie himself, he knew the importance of the final assessment to them, and it was inevitable that they would feel nervous. However, when he looked into Zhang Heng��s eyes, he saw no nervousness in them. In fact, he could not see through him at all.


    Thetter��s eyes are were as calm as the starry sky at night.


    Garba did not have time to overthink it because the trainer had signaled them to start the battle. Zhang Heng did not make the same mistake that Gta made. He did not take the initiative to retreat before the battle began, and he did not put on a defensive position like Griff did either. Instead, he took the initiative to approach Garba at the beginning of the fight. He did not attack him immediately, though, changing into a defensive posture right when he was about to enter Garba��s attack range.


    Gaby nodded unconsciously when he saw this.


    This was the best move a clear-headed diator candidate would make during a battle. Although the diatorial performance required both diators to fight against each other, it was still a form of entertainment. A good diator would not merely focus on pursuing victory, but he also needed to consider the spectators�� preference. Sometimes, they could even use this to open a way to their victory.


    On the surface, Zhang Heng and Griff had the samebat strategy. They both defended first and fought steadily after that. However, the two steps that he took earlier were enough to build the audience��s excitement.


    The former looked like he was going to drag the fight, but thetter passed on this trouble to his opponent. As the oldest diator in the Victor Arena, Garba certainly realized that he had to attack now no matter what. So, he decided not to wait any longer. Initially, he had nned to stay and figure out Zhang Heng��s strength before attacking.


    Compared with the neers, this group of official diators who were tasked to evaluate their opponents had a downside as well. They knew almost nothing about their opponents. There was nothing strange about this. After all, they were neers with nobat record, save for Bach, regarded as the school��s future trump card. Since none of them were famous, the official diators had no way to check out their backgrounds.


    Zhang Heng��s fighting style, his strengths, his weaknesses... these were all unknowns to Garba until the moment he attacked Zhang Heng. Hence, he became very cautious when two of them were asked to fight. Most of his attacks were mainly aimed at probing Zhang Heng.


    As the opponent, Zhang Heng also responded with the standard moves taught by his trainer. Although there was nothing too impressive about them, at least he did not make any mistakes. After that, Garba began to increase his aggressiveness as his n gradually failed, attempting to pressure Zhang Heng into revealing his weaknesses.


    This was also the method used by veteran diators to deal with the neers. Many neers could deal with their opponent better if their opponent took their time to attack them. However, if their opponents started to attack them aggressively, they would have a shorter time to think, and it would cause them to panic. At such a time, the veteran diator could rely on his survival instinct to take over the body. This was something the neers could not do.


    Besides, Zhang Heng was a diator that used two swords, and he was not good at defense. As for Garba, he was a Murmilo, and the only weapon that he had was a short sword. Other than that, he was given a shield the height of half a man to defend himself.


    And with Garba��s richbat experience, a short sword was enough for him to defeat the young man before him. Sure enough, when he started to put pressure on him, Zhang Heng also gave up on his defensive position and started to attack him.


    Their battle was not that exciting so far. Mark Reuss was so bored that he did not even bother to eat the figs on the second floor. Gabi, on the other hand, was paying full attention to the battle. An amateur would see this as an ordinary fight, but only an expert would know this battle��s quintessence.


    Gaby saw that Zhang Heng had not made any mistakes so far. In fact, he seemed to have managed a calm and clear mind when faced with different scenarios. This was an extremely rare advantage. Such an ability was not something neers usually achieved.


    Griff and Gta were the best examples. Compared with the two, Zhang Heng��s opponent was Garba, the arena��s living fossil with ages worth ofbat experience. However, Zhang Heng did not allow himself to be affected by Garba��s fighting rhythm.


    Suddenly, Gaby started to have a slight interest in this eastern man that he had not paid much attention to. And he also remembered the scene when the two met for the first time. He wanted to scare Zhang Heng with a whip, but Zhang Heng seemed to know that the whip wasn��t long enough to reach him. So, he did not even blink.


    A diator with outstanding psychological quality?


    Gaby felt it was expected that he did not pay too much attention to him earlier.


    Maybe Gaby finally had something to look forward to?

 Chapter 761 - Can’t You Do Something New?

    <h4>Chapter 761: Can��t You Do Something New?</h4>


    Unconsciously, Gaby��s impression of Zhang Heng had turned up a notch.


    So far, Zhang Heng��s current performance was enough to pass the final assessment. However, Gaby did not stop his battle with Garba. Except for the battle that would be a stalemate, the final assessment generally allowed the participants to finish the battle. Besides, Gabi also wanted to see what Zhang Heng could do to elevate the battle further. So, he just stood at the side, said nothing, and continued to observe Zhang Heng.


    This was not the first time Garba surprised Zhang Heng. Under pressure, Zhang Heng gave up defending, but it did not surprise him. However, his boldness and decisive attacks were not something Garba expected. Zhang Heng��s attack moves were not that special, and his strength and speed were ordinary, but Garba was still at a disadvantage in this battle. And the reason was simple.


    That was because Zhang Heng had two swords, but Garba only had one. Although the Dimachaerus had a rtively high mortality rate among diators, it was not without its advantages. Zhang Heng abandoning his defensive abilities allowed him to double up his offensive ability. Once Zhang Heng started to attack, Garba would have to focus on his defense. In other words, it would slow down his offensive moves.


    Garba was not worried about it because the murmillo��s strength was not offensive but defensive. As long as the tower shield was in front of him, all the attacks would miss him. Other than that, he still had a giant helm on him. The defensive abilities of a murmillo wereparable to a well-constructed wall.


    However, that did not mean that the murmillo was invincible in the arena. There were only a few types of diators in the arena, and each of them had been studied thoroughly. Zhang Heng was now adopting a standard method to deal with murmillo.


    The tower shield that thetter carried could provide him with many defensive capabilities, but it would also reduce the murmillo��s agility.


    During the battle, Zhang Heng kept circling Garba. The two swapped roles, and the person who was testing the opponent��s offensive abilities were Zhang Heng. On the other hand, Garba was staring at his opponent through the gap in the helmet. When Zhang Heng moved, he would turn to ensure that the shield could protect him.


    So far, although Garba had not been able to gain any advantage, he was still very confident that he could win this battle. After all, he had experienced many fierce battles and was good at handling this kind of situation.


    But then again, Zhang Heng��s calmness went way beyond his expectations. Still, Garba firmly believed that he would be the final winner in this battle.


    Many people despised Garba because of his age, thinking that Garba��s physical fitness had deteriorated. And they were not wrong. Technically speaking, only his strength, speed, and agility had gotten worse. However, his endurance had gotten stronger over the years. Besides, he also figured out a way to fully utilize his stamina. If Zhang Heng thought that he could exhaust him just because he was young, it would mean that he had fallen into his trap.


    However, Zhang Heng, on the other end, did not seem to realize this problem. He was still trying to circle Garba, trying to attack him from all angles and directions. All the attacks, however, were blocked by Garba��s tower shield. In order to avoid being too passive, Garba would strike at Zhang Heng a couple of times with his short sword.


    And Garba was very cunning. Zhang Heng was deliberately exposing his weakness to trick him into putting down his guard. However, Garba did not fall for it. He would take a step back every time after he delivered a blow to Zhang Heng. And he managed to slice Zhang Heng��s arm when he tried to attack.


    The trainer who served as the referee judged that even if they were using real swords, the wounds shouldn��t be too deep. Hence, the battle raged on. This sessful strike had also managed to convince Garba that there was nothing wrong with his strategy. He looked at Zhang Heng and thought, ��Boy, you��re still too young to fight me.��


    Sure enough, everyone thought that the battle would be over soon.


    However, Zhang Heng��s face still showed no expression. He figured it was almost time for him to put an end to the act. Next, employing every skill he had, he would need to create a memorable ending to this battle.


    Zhang Heng��s n, after all, was to pass the assessment in a low-key manner. After putting a stop to his previous pretentiousness, it was time to show off his real skills in the final showdown. Gaby��s current impression of Zhang Heng had changed from a non-talented, mediocre candidate to a cool-headed young diator with a promising future. He thought that it might be worth it for the school to invest in him.


    That was more than enough for Zhang Heng. It was an impression he hoped to leave on others. He did not want to be a star-diator like Bach was but wanted to find a reasonable exnation on how he defeated his opponent in the arena in the future.


    This was not a bnce that one could easily achieve. However, it seemed like Zhang Heng had no problem in executing it. When all the diator candidates were thinking hard about how to pass the assessment, Zhang Heng was thinking about how to defeat his opponent as inconspicuously and reasonably as possible.


    So far, he had done pretty well. Even Gaby, the well-informed man in charge of the diator school, could be deceived by him. He did not suspect that Zhang Heng deliberately concealed his strength, and he probably would not think that someone would be bold enough to hide their powers in the final assessment.


    However, Zhang Heng did not manage to deceive some of them. Bach, as an example, who had fought against Zhang Heng, had kept his eyes wide open during the battle, afraid that he would miss some of the essential details.


    Seeing Zhang Heng pretending to attack slowly, Bach could not help but criticize in his heart.


    ��Where are the furious attacks you used on me that night?!��


    And when he saw Zhang Heng getting hurt on the arm identally by Garba, Bach almost screamed out loud.


    ��How the hell did he manage to hurt you?�� he thought. ��I didn��t even get toy my finger on you that night!��


    Among many diators, Garba was considered a skillful diator, just not as capable as Zhang Heng. When Bach put himself in Zhang Heng��s shoes, he knew Garba would admit defeat soon, or he would be split in two by Zhang Heng.


    During that night, when Bach fought with Zhang Heng, he knew that he would never be able to defeat Zhang Heng. The pressure was on him from the beginning till the end of the battle. Now, he had to pretend that he was not much stronger than Garba. No matter how one looked at it, something was not right. That was why Bach paid full attention to the battle, already reying the battle between him and Zhang Heng in his mind countless times. Still, he could not figure out whether Zhang Heng had deliberately lost to him or that he lost the battle for real. And today��s contest might be able to answer this question that puzzled him for many days.


    Other than Bach, another person in the corner was paying close attention to the battle. It was the old Persian trainer Zhang Heng met when he came to the school on the first day. He was not responsible for training the new people, and strictly speaking, this was only the second time he met Zhang Heng.


    The old trainer seemed to be very interested in Zhang Heng. Since he was standing far away from the stage, Zhang Heng did not notice him.


    Besides, the drama was about toe to an end. Zhang Heng had begun wrapping things up. After his left arm was injured, he changed his fighting style and became way more aggressive.


    Garba was overjoyed when he saw Zhang Heng charging at him. Did the fish finally take the bait?


    Gaby made the same judgment as well. He thought Zhang Heng had begun to lose his patience. Bach was the only one roaring in his heart.


    ��It��s time! He is going to attack him now!��


    Then he saw that Zhang Heng gave up on attacking Garba��s other vital areas. Instead, he focused on Garba��s eyes.


    Garba was taken aback at first. After all, he was a murmillo with a giant protective helmet on him, never thinking the wooden sword in Zhang Heng��s hand could hurt him. But he soon realized that something was not right. Zhang Heng would not use his sword to prate the helmet��s tiny gap to hurt his eyes. Instead, he was actually trying to block his vision.


    Although the almost fully enclosed helmet could effectively protect his head, it would also cause him to have blind spots. This was one of the reasons why Garba had to follow Zhang Heng��s movements. Once his vision was blocked, Garba could only judge Zhang Heng��s position based on his voice and position himself one second earlier.


    But until now, Garba could still maintain his calmness because someone had used a simr tactic on him before. As long as he could defend himself well, Zhang Heng would not be able to hurt him. In fact, Garba also managed to figure out Zhang Heng��s intention. He knew that Zhang Heng was aiming at his left waist.


    ��Caught you!��


    A glint shed in Garba��s eyes, and this time he did not put on his defense anymore.


    Instead, he took the initiative to make himself vulnerable to attack. The training sword in his right hand was ready to strike at Zhang Heng. Before Zhang Heng could attack his left waist, he went and stabbed Zhang Heng��s neck first.


    This battle was not going to end up a tie. Based on Garba��s calctions, he knew that his sword would reach Zhang Heng��s neck first. And he was right about that. However, what he did not expect was that the goddess of luck favored Zhang Heng at this moment. When Zhang Heng saw that his n was about to fail, his other hand made the final struggle and gave up blocking his vision, but instead, he used his wooden sword to stab his helmet. And it went right into the observation hole in front of his helmet.


    From far, Bach was about to curse Zhang Heng.


    ��Another coincidence? Sure! Why not?! It��s just another coincidence! Can��t you do something new?!��

 Chapter 762 - An Excited Bach

    <h4>Chapter 762: An Excited Bach</h4>


    The helmet of the murmillo was designed to protect the head of the diator. Weighing about four kilograms, it was air-tight, just like an iron can. There was a hole in front of the helmet that allowed the diator to look at his surroundings.


    Usually, it was hard for the opponent to stick his sword into the observation hole because it was tiny, not to mention that the diator would be moving around too.


    This required keen observation and precise power control to carry out such a feat. Looking at Zhang Heng��s previous fight with Garba, Zhang Heng had not possessed abilities like that just yet. In other words, it was simply a coincidence that Zhang Heng managed to strike his sword into the observation hole.


    The referee checked again and confirmed that Zhang Heng��s training sword did pierce at Garba��s eye first, so he announced that the final winner of the battle was Zhang Heng.


    After a moment of silence, the rookies started to cheer for him. Although Griff, first to step onto the stage, had passed the assessment, he still lost to his opponent. Until Zhang Heng defeated his opponent, the rookies had their first official victory.


    And Garba was not just a random diator. He was a well-known diator in the Victor Arena. Zhang Heng��s victory had given a huge morale boost to all diator candidates.


    At the same time, Garba took his helmet off. Although he shook his head regretfully, he was not very angry. At his age, he had seen all kinds of weird things in the arena. It was not a good feeling for a veteran diator to lose to a diator candidate, but fortunately, this was not a formal diatorial performance.


    And until now, he did not think that there was any problem with the strategy he adopted earlier. In the end, he was unlucky that he lost the battle. He did not think his defeat was uneptable because the probability of him encountering such a defeat was one in hundreds of battles. After the battle ended, he congratted Zhang Heng.


    ��Congrattions, the next time we fight again, we will fight in an arena.��


    ��I am looking forward to that day.�� Zhang Heng replied and then looked at Gaby, who nodded at him, ��You pass the assessment. You can now go to the room at the west and wait.��


    Although Zhang Heng��s luck yed a big part in his victory, Gaby was quite satisfied with Zhang Heng��s performance. He then added, ��Well fought. Keep up the good work.��


    Zhang Heng returned the two training swords to the trainer on the side, stepped off the stage, and saw Bach and his Germanic brothers starting at him with their eyes wide open, and their breathing intensified.


    They were the rare ones who had the privilege of witnessing two coincidences happening in front of them. No matter how ignorant they were, they now knew what happened in Zhang Heng and Bach��s previous match. One might call it a coincidence if it happened for the first time. However, if it happened again and again after that, it could no longer be considered a coincidence. There was a high chance Zhang Heng was withholding his strength and skills during the battle.


    Although the process and oue of the two battles were different, the way Zhang Heng turned the tide around was simr. If this was not intentional, then what was?


    Seeing Zhang Heng walking into the hut on the west side, Bach secretly clenched his fists. He knew that there was still a big gap between him and Zhang Heng. Although he was confident that he could defeat Garba, he could never manipte the battle in such a dramatic way.


    Bach had lost in the battles before. For example, he lost to Habitus when he first entered the diator school, but heter realized that Gaby deliberately asked Habitus to beat him up when he was weak. The reason was that he wanted to put some fear in him.


    And Bach had to admit that Habitus was very strong, but he did not think Bach was much stronger than him. If it was a life-and-death fight without being restricted by the arena��s problematic rules and referees, Bach did not think that Habitus would live.


    As for Zhang Heng, he was the first person to make Bach aware of howrge the gap between him and Zhang Heng was. No matter the rules and location, Bach did not think he could defeat Zhang Heng with what he had now. With the way Zhang Heng moved in the battle, Bach smelled something familiar from it.


    It was like a beast meeting another beast in the jungle.


    Although Bach knew nothing about Zhang Heng��s background, he could sense that Zhang Heng was just like him��a warrior that fought hard to survive on the battlefield. And the war that Zhang Heng had experienced was more cruel and intense. Bach, who experienced a cruel childhood, believed that only blood and fire could make a real man.


    ording to his standards, Zhang Heng was undoubtedly a real man.


    Of course, Bach was not discouraged. The Germanic now felt that they were full of energy. Before that, he had no rivals among the neers in the diator school. He was the focus of the school. The moment he was demoted from a warrior to a prisoner andter forced to be a diator, he had lost all of his goals in his life. And now Zhang Heng��s appearance had just filled the gap for him.


    So Bach felt that his blood was boiling.


    ...


    After Zhang Heng won the battle ��identally,�� he did not stay at the assessment venue for too long. He followed the order and walked into the hut on the west side. This was originally a ce to store weapons. Griff, who had just passed the assessment, was the only one in the hut. He was still drowning in the excitement. He was walking up and down in the house, and when he saw Zhang Heng came in, he greeted him enthusiastically.


    ��Did you also pass the assessment?��


    Zhang Heng nodded, and he looked for a ce to sit down. He and Griff were not that close with each other, so the two did not talk much. After waiting for about a quarter of an hour, a third person finally walked into the hut. He, too, had an ear-to-ear smile on his face. After that, the fourth and fifth diator candidates entered the room... As more and more peoplepleted the assessment, fewer and fewer people were left on the training ground.


    Those who were asked to enter the west room were extremely lucky. On the contrary, the fate of the people in the east room was not that great.


    After a while, Bach also entered the hut.


    No one was surprised that he passed the assessment. However, when his tall and burly figure appeared outside the hut, everyone could not help but be impressed him.


    The main reason was that he passed the assessment too fast. The person before him had just entered the hit not too long ago. And now Bach was standing outside the hit. In other words, he did not take too long to defeat his opponent. And the most impressive part was that his opponent was an official diator.


    And Gaby was very pleased with Bach��s outstanding performance. Judging from Mark Reuss��s smile on the second floor, it could be seen that he was very satisfied with the training that Gaby tailored for him. When Bach defeated his opponent, he was the first to stand up and apud him. However, Bach did not look at him and walked to the west room before the referee announced the result.


    This move was undoubtedly very rude. Surprisingly, Mark Reuss was no bothered by it. He even stopped Gaby from scolding Bach. He squinted his eyes and smiled, ��It��s okay. It doesn��t matter. After all, he is our trump card, and it is only right that his attitude is different from others. Who do you think is more appropriate to fight with him in the opening match?��


    Gaby then reminded him, ��Master, the assessment is not over yet.��


    Mark Reuss knew that he was a little too anxious. So he nodded and sat down again, ��Then we will talk about it when the assessment is over.��

 Chapter 763 - Oath

    <h4>Chapter 763: Oath</h4>


    Bach��s fight was arranged when the assessment wasing to an end. After him, only three people hadn��t yet participated in the assessment, including Varo.


    Varo was supposed to fight Habitus earlier. Something unexpected happened during the assessment, and the main reason why he was still waiting for his turn was that Habitus was not here yet. Hence, Varo could only wait on the side. It was a rather embarrassing situation.


    Fortunately, Habitus came to the training ground in the end. After all, Mark Ruess was here today. Even if Habitus was dissatisfied with Gaby��s arrangement, he still had to show up for the sake of Mark Reuss. Although he waste, he still decided toe to the training ground.


    Seeing that his opponent was a random diator he had never heard of before, he had no intention to change his clothes. He then picked up a training sword and said to Varo, ��Come on, hurry up. I need to go to Thermaeter. I hope you can make me sweat a little before taking a bath.��


    Varo did not say a word after hearing what Habitus had to say. He just lowered his head and grabbed his trident and fishing. After that, he walked onto the stage and recalled the instructions that Zhang Heng gave him yesterday and the special training.


    Now, it was all up to him, if he could pass the assessment or not.


    ...


    The hut on the west side where Zhang Heng was located had no windows. Hence, he could not see what was happening at the training ground. In fact, Zhang Heng would not go and watch Varo��s battle even if there was a window in front of him. He had taught Varo everything that he knew. Now, Varo had to rely on his skills and luck.


    Unlike Zhang Heng, who had deliberately put on a show, Varo needed the goddess of luck by his side this time.


    There was toorge a gap between the Varo and Habitus and as Zhang Heng had said, even if Habitus underestimated him, Varo��s chances of defeating him were slim to none. All Varo could do was make the fight difficult for Habitus. After that, it was up to Gaby to grade him.


    And the strategy that Zhang Heng taught Varo was very simple. He asked Varo to try his best to reenact the scene where Bach and Habitus fought no matter the method he used. He taught Varro four moves, all of which were to ovee the tricks Habitus used against Bachand possible oues that he would face after that.


    The day before the assessment, Zhang Heng exined Habitus��s character in detail to Varo after an analysis of him. Usually, all the attacks he performed were very fancy, which was how he became famous. During the battle, he would make sure that his attacks would embarrass his opponents. There were pros and cons to everything, however. Habitus��sbat methods might look fancy, but they were quite easy to counter.


    About ten minutes had passed since Bach entered the house on the west side, and no one came in after that.


    Most of them thought that the eleven people left in this room were the only ones who passed the assessment.


    Since they were from the same diator candidates, they developed friendships with each otherpared to the school��s veteran diators. At this time, whether they were familiar with each other or not, they were trying to introduce themselves. Bach, especially, was surrounded by those who passed the assessment. Because of his outstanding strength, the diator candidates were treating him like their leader. In the future, whether they would be teammates or opponents, it was better to be a friend than an enemy.


    It seemed that they were right about being the only ones that passed the assessment. After a while, Gaby appeared outside the hut. Thetter still had that stern look on him. ��Everyone, don��t let your master wait for you. If you are done with talking to each other,e out and take an oath. Only after taking the oath will you be treated as a true diator.��


    After he finished speaking, he turned around and walked back to the training ground.


    Zhang Heng frowned. He thought Varo must have failed the assessment. When he came up with this n for Varo, he knew that the possibility of him failing was higher than sess. Technically speaking, this oue should not be a surprise for the rest of them. And this could be seen from the faces of other people in the room.


    But Zhang Heng still felt it was a shame that Varo couldn��t pass the assessment. After all, it was not easy for Varo to survive until now. One more step and he would have been an official diator. If Bach hadn��te to this school, Varo would never run into Habitus. He would have at least stood a chance to prove himself when he faced other opponents. When Zhang Heng followed those who passed the assessment and walked out of the house, he saw Varo on the training ground.


    A school doctor was examining Varo to make sure that he had broken not his ribs. And Varo grinned when he saw Zhang Heng.


    At that time, Zhang Heng knew that the battle n he had discussed with Varo must��ve worked wonderfully. And Gaby decided to keep Varo.


    ��Okay, don��t linger.�� Gaby said, ��Let��s hurry up.�� While he spoke, he thought of something and put on a smile for the first time. But it was gone the next second.


    At this time, the people who had just passed the test, Varo included, stood in a row at the training ground. There were a total of fifty diator candidates who took the assessment in the beginning, and now, only twelve of them were left. Only less than a quarter of them were still standing o the training ground. The elimination rate was cruel��all those who failed the assessment were either forced to discontinue the contract with the school or sent to work nonstop in the mines.


    ��All those that passed the assessment are here, my dear master.�� Gaby bowed at Mark Reuss on the second floor.


    And Mark Reuss was still keeping his eyes on Bach. He did not even try to hide the joy on his face. He then nodded and said, ��Yes. You did well. I didn��t make a mistake when I entrusted the diator school to you. Let the oath-swearing session begin.��


    All of them had recited the oathst night, but some were destined not to get to use it today.


    Soon everyone started to swear their oaths at a different pace, ��...I swear, whether we are burned by fire, shed by the sword, or spill out blood on the battlefield, we will fight till the end��all for the glory of Victor Arena and the dignity of the diator. We will fight like real warriors and dedicate our soul and body to our master, Mark Reuss...��


    The moment they finished thest sentence, the trainers around them picked up a hot red soldering iron and branded a Latin letter V for Victor Arena on their arms. The female ves who were holding the amphora then walked towards Mark Reuss.


    And Marco Reuss, who had been sitting down, finally stood up at this moment, took the wine ss from the ve girl beside him, and raised it, ��Wee, wee everyone to my diator school. As everyone knows, I am an exceptionally generous man. As long as you can bring victory for me and the arena, I will not hesitate to reward you with money or women. In order to celebrate all of you here passing the test, I have prepared wine for you. When you return to your room, there will be another gift waiting for you. Just have all the fun you want today, my warriors. And if you want more of that, remember to bring more victories to me. Finally, may the goddess of revenge, Nemesis, always look after you!��


    After saying this, Mark Reuss left the balcony with the help of the two female ves beside him.

 Chapter 764 - The Hot Bath That Went Viral In Rome

    <h4>Chapter 764: The Hot Bath That Went Viral In Rome</h4>


    Gaby exined some rules that they had to pay attention to after Mark Reuss left. After that, he hurriedly left and caught up with Mark Reuss to discuss the opening game with him.


    Bach did a good job in the final assessment, allowing Gaby toplete the task given by Mark Reuss. And he even received hispliments. Gaby, however, wasn��t too happy. In fact, he was frowning.


    He was responsible for Bach��s training, and he knew Bach��s true strength quite well. And he felt that it was not a good idea to push Bach to perform in the arena now. Based on Gaby��s original n, Bach would have to receive at least half a year of special training before he could truly be the trump card of the Victor Arena. It was not wise to make him fight with other diators now. However, Mark Reuss was not as patient as Gaby. After watching Bach fight with the official diator today, all he could think of was how to make full use of him, earning as much money as soon as possible.


    Gaby did not know how to convince Mark Reuss to do the right thing.


    .....


    The people in charge were all gone, and only a crowd of diators who had just passed the assessment were left at the training ground. The atmosphere around them became very lively all of a sudden.


    Although they had still not gotten rid of their ve status after bing an official diator, the treatment they received from the arena was way better than before.


    First of all, the hellish training that they had gone through was now gone. Although they still had to train constantly to improve their fighting skills, its intensity would not be as scary as before. Considering the care they received and the recovery method they had in this era, all those diators would have been abandoned by the school if they continued with the hellish training.


    Other than that, everyone��s amodation was now upgraded. Before that, few of them had to sleep in a small room. Presently, only four were required to sleep in the same room. That would mean the snoring wouldn��t get as loud at night. And the other perk of being chosen as an official diator was that they got to enjoy free baths and massages. Among them, the diators with Roman citizen status were allowed to leave the school at any time.


    They could even stop participating in the school��s training. As long as they participated in the battles assigned on time, they could do whatever they wanted. For example, Griff was told that his wife had just given birth to a son. He barely drank any alcohol and left the school in a hurry to go and check on his wife and his child. Other than unmarried men like Habitus, most of the diators with Roman citizen status would go home to sleep at night.


    As for the ves, they did not receive such good treatment from the arena. However, they were told that if they performed more than a year in the Victor Arena, they could ask Gaby if they could step out for some fresh air from time to time.


    Besides, Gaby had also promised them that as long as they could obtain a certain number of wins, they could regain their status as free men. Nheless, even if they did regain their freedom, their social rank would still be lower than an ordinary Roman citizen. On the good side, their status would be higher than the foreigners that lived in Rome.


    This was undoubtedly the most exciting perk for them. Aspared to other ves, diators held more honor. Many girls and nobledies were attracted to these famous diators. However, no one wished to stay as a ve all the time, allowing their fate to be determined by others and being sold around like goods.


    Zhang Heng and Varo returned to their new residence without drinking too much wine. They opened the door and immediately saw what Mark Reuss was talking about. They saw four female ves sitting quietly in the room. They were naked, but didnt seem abashed. Instead, they perked up their bosoms as if sending a silent invitation to them.


    However, Zhang Heng and Varo did not react much when they saw it.


    Afterpleting so many games, it was hard to attract Zhang Heng with physical bodies anymore. He was not going to say no to them, but it was hard for him to get any happiness from sleeping with someone who had no feelings for him.


    Varo was a married man. He used to have many ves working for him. Hence, he was not unfamiliar with this kind of culture. Unfortunately, his mind was currently not on this sort of thing. So he turned to Zhang Heng and said, ��I n to make a batch in the school bathroom. We haven��t cleaned ourselves for so many days. I feel like I smell bad. How about you?


    ��I��m with you,�� Zhang Heng nodded.


    Other than Caesar and the diators, ancient Rome was famous for its obsession with taking baths.


    Ever since the wealthy businessman, Gaius, invented the first hot water equipment set in the early 1st century, hot baths quickly went viral in the entire Roman Empire at an unimaginable speed, bing a part of the Romans�� daily life. Regardless of men, women, children, nobles, or ves, none could resist the hot bath.


    However, even for the wealthy men that lived in Domus, most of them would choose not to build an individual bathroom. Ancient Romans were more ustomed to bathing in public bathhouses.


    There were hundreds ofrge and small bathhouses in the entire city of Rome. Among them, thergest and most famous Trajan Bathhouse could amodate three-thousand people at the same time. And the admission fees for these bathhouses were usually very low. Take Trajan Bathhouse as an example; its admission fee was only one Quadrans (sixteen Quadrans equaled one Sestertius). One could not even buy half a bowl of thick vegetable soup with one Quadrans. ording to Varo, Trajan Bathhouse was like a small city. Those who entered it for the first time might even get lost.


    However, Zhang Heng was not allowed to go there for the time being. They could only use the bathhouse in the diator school, one specially built for the diators and wasn��t open to the public.


    From far, they could see the plume of steaming from the top of the bathhouse. It could never bepared with a public bathhouse in terms of size, but everything a bathhouse should have could be found in the diator school��s bathhouse. For example, upon entering, they could see a big pool in front of them. It was cold water in the pool, and they could swim in it. When they walked past the cold-water pool, they arrived at a small courtyard. This ce was like a gym. Two pairs of diators sparred with each other, and the rest of the people were watching the fight. Other than that, there was another man punching a bag of flour. He looked like the boxer of theter generations practicing with a sandbag.


    Zhang Heng and Varo did not stay and watch them. They walked through the courtyard and came to the destination of their trip. The three rooms behind the small courtyard were the room with the hot bath, the warm bath, and the cold bath.


    Varo quickly took off his clothes, leaving only a belt around his waist. It made him look like Tarzan. He then put the clothes in the cab on the side and then turned to Zhang Heng. ��Come on, my Eastern friend, I bet you will fall in love with it.��


    ��You��d better not say words thate out so wrong when you are dressed like this,�� Zhang Heng chuckled as he took off his clothes.


    The two of them walked into the hot water bathroom on the left, one after another. As soon as they opened the door, Zhang Heng felt a heatwave rushing at him. And he saw the room filled with steam. He could barely see the stone pirs in the room.

 Chapter 765 - Can You Describe Her Look?

    <h4>Chapter 765: Can You Describe Her Look?</h4>


    It was probably only in a bathhouse where everyone was equal could Varo temporarily forget his status as a ve and reminisce about his past life. Especially when he walked into the pool andpletely soaked his body in hot water, every single pore on him was loosened up. Varo could not help but let out a sigh of satisfaction.


    He then closed his eyes in the pool, but he saw that Zhang Heng had still not gotten in after waiting for a while. So he opened his eyes again, ��Come on. It can be quite hot at first, but you can feel that the hot water will take away your tiredness after getting used to it. When I was still operating the antique shop, I used to invite my regr customers to the bathhouse and strike a deal with them...��


    Varo seemed to think of something as he spoke, and a look of nostalgia appeared on his face. But soon, the pain from the bruise on his chest pulled him back to reality.


    He got the bruise when he fought with Habitus earlier. Although the n that Zhang Heng came up for him worked wonderfully, Varo had also managed to anger Habitus. Afterward, thetter did not reserve his strength anymore. He struck at his chest with his wooden sword and won the battle. Fortunately, the doctor confirmed that his ribs were not broken after the battle.


    Zhang Heng did not continue on Varo��s topic. Instead, he pointed at a corridor on the south side and asked, ��Where does that lead to?��


    Varo poked his head out and looked at it. ��It should be a sudatorium.��


    The sudatorium was simr to a modern sauna. It was the hottest spot in the entire bathhouse. The temperature over there could reach a whopping 60 degrees. A continuous flow of heat came from the gap between the wall and the floor, and it was easy for someone to get burned if they weren��t wearing a pair of sandals.


    ��Did you see anything suspicious when you came in?�� Zhang Heng asked afterward.


    ��What do you mean by something suspicious?�� Varo was puzzled.


    There were not many diators who hade to the bathhouse to take a bath at this moment. Except for Zhang Heng and Varro, only two other people took a hot bath, but Varo knew that Zhang Heng was not talking about them.


    Zhang Heng wasn��t bothered to give much exnation either. Seeing the other two diators closed their eyes and resting, Zhang Heng did not ask them the question either. All he did was walk towards the sudatorium.


    His observation ability had greatly improved ever since he lived with Sherlock Holmes. However, this was the first time he doubted what he just saw. Earlier, when Varo opened the door, Zhang Heng saw a woman disappearing in the passage leading to the sudatorium.


    ording to Varo, the Roman bathhouse was designed in a way that men and women would not share the same space to bathe themselves. However, not many people followed the rules. The famous politician and orator Cicero even satirized this kind of phenomenon. He mentioned that it was moral corruption. That being said, it still did not stop the passionate men and women from bathing together.


    Usually, such a thing would not happen in the diator school. ording to the regtions, this was the ce where the diators and trainers take their baths. And the female ves working in the diator school would have to bathe at the public bathhouse.


    Therefore, it was theoretically impossible for Zhang Heng to see any woman here. And the woman��s attire was rather strange. She was wearing a ck robe that covered her entire body. It was clear to Zhang Heng that she was not from this school.


    How did such a person pass the inspection of the janitor who guarded the gate of the bathhouse? And how did she pass through the swimming pool and the courtyard without being spotted by the diators who were sparring with each other?


    Zhang Heng could not figure out how she did it.


    If she were an ordinary person, Zhang Heng would not be bothered by her. However, Zhang Heng instinctively sensed that she was here for him. That was why he did not enter the pool after Varo. Instead, he walked towards where the woman in the ck robe headed earlier.


    ��Are you going to the sudatorium right away? Don��t you need to get used to the heat in the pool first?�� Varo shouted behind him, ��Beware of fainting because of the heat.��


    ��Thank you for the reminder. Enjoy your bath first, and leave me alone for now,�� Zhang Heng said as he walked towards the corridor on the south side.


    Once he moved forward, he could clearly feel that the temperature around him was rising. Compared with the steaming out of the sudatorium, the steam from the hot pool was colder.


    It was no different from a sauna. The function of this room was simr to the previous fitness therapies in the courtyard. The ancient Romans seemed to believe that sweating could drain the body��s toxins and diseases. Therefore, whether it was wrestling or sudatorium, they wanted to make sure that the people could sweat more when they were in the bathhouse.


    Zhang Heng walked through the long and narrow walkway and entered a round room. Since the floor was overheated, he would suffer from a mild burn if heid down here. To let the people rest, the person who built the bathhouse constructed many niches in the wall��s middle.


    But on the other hand, these niches would also block the person from looking at the people outside the sudatorium. Fortunately, Zhang Heng could judge whether there was anyone in the niches from the outstretched legs.


    He walked to the first niche and saw a diator sitting there. Thetter probably thought he had enough of the steam treatment. Before Zhang Heng could get to him, he got up and left the niche. The diator then wanted to head to the hot pool. When he walked past Zhang Heng, he nodded slightly at him to greet him.


    Zhang Heng nodded back and walked to the next niche.


    However, the legs sticking out from the niche this time did not seem to be what Zhang Heng was looking for. They were a pair of skinny and shriveled legs, indicating that its owner was an old man. And Zhang Heng could not figure out why he was certain that it was a young woman even though he had not seen the face under the ck robe.


    Zhang Heng frowned. He felt that something must have gone wrong, and he seemed to have missed something.


    Suddenly, Zhang Heng heard the old man talking to him, ��Did you leave anything here?��


    Zhang Heng walked a half step forward and finally saw the person in the niche clearly.


    It was the old Persian trainer he met when he first entered the diator school. Thetter was also dressed in the same way as him, wearing only wore a corset and sat in the niche. It looked like he was integrated with the stone wall at the back.


    Since the old man talked to him, Zhang Heng asked politely, ��Have you been sitting here for some time? Did you see a woman in a ck robe?��


    It was not possible for others not to spot the ck-robed woman if she entered the sudatorium. No one would turn a blind eye to her. And if others did not see her, it could only mean that the woman did not exist.


    However, the old trainer in the niche reacted very strangely. He did not say that he had seen the woman or doubted Zhang Heng. Instead, he said calmly, ��Can you describe her look?��


    ��I can��t see her face.��


    ��What about other noticeable ces? For example, what is she holding in her hand? Is there anything else on her body besides the ck robe?��

 Chapter 766 - Goddess of Murder and Assasination

    <h4>Chapter 766: Goddess of Murder and Assasination</h4>


    Although it was only a short nce, Zhang Heng��s astute observation still granted him some information. After the old trainer asked him the crucial questions, Zhang Heng also recalled more details.


    ��She... seems barefooted. She has a dagger in her hand. There is an eagle head carved on the handle of the dagger. Other than that, there is also a bunch of keys strung on rattan hanging around her waist.��


    ��How many keys are there?�� the old trainer continued to ask.


    ��I didn��t count, three... no, it should be four,�� Zhang Heng paused. ��Apart from the corridor that connects the hot pool and the sudatorium, are there other exits?��


    ��I oftene here to take a bath. As far as I know, there is no second way out,�� replied the old trainer.


    ��So, you are saying that she just disappeared out of thin air?��


    The old trainer did not answer Zhang Heng��s question this time. Instead, he uttered an unfamiliar name, ��Kreis.��


    ��Who is this?��


    ��The ck-robed woman you met,�� the old trainer said, ��ording to your description, she should be Kreis. She is known as the goddess of murder and assassination. And she is in charge of the delicate bnce between everything. She spends most of her time bncing chaos and order. You seem to be in luck. Kreis seldom shows up in front of mortal beings. There are only a handful of people in this world seen her before. As for her face, it��s better for you not to see it. Those that had seen her face are no longer in this world.��


    ��Why haven��t I heard of her name before?�� Zhang Heng frowned.


    To figure out the old man��s identity in the Tang suit, he had spent some time studying ancient myths. Hence, he knew a thing or two about the beliefs of the ancient Romans. The kind of gods that they worshiped here was ratherplicated. Many old Roman gods came from Greek mythology. With the continuous expansion of the territory, other beliefs spread into ancient Rome. For instance, Jewish Christianity and some ancient religions in Egypt even worshiped the barbarian��s ancestors. Among them, however, Zhang Heng had never heard of the name Kreis.


    ��As I said, not many people can see her.�� After the old trainer finished speaking, he stared at Zhang Heng again.


    However, contrary to his expectation, Zhang Heng did not show awe or doubt when he heard what he said. Instead, it reminded him of something, ��I remember now. This is not the first time I saw her.��


    ��Huh?��


    Considering the historical background of the game, there was usually a god hidden behind each quest. For a brief moment, Zhang Heng wondered if he had really met the goddess in charge of his dungeon. He then recalled where he met her before.


    ��I saw her on a long-necked wine bottle during the celebration when we became official diators of this arena,�� Zhang Heng said, ��Interesting. So, the people have already started to y around with ideomotor phenomenon in the second century AD.��


    Zhang Heng had used this psychological trick once in the Whistleblower quest. He used it to imnt the idea of going to the ski resort in L��a��s mind. He did not expect that someone would use this trick on him.


    And the other party��s ideomotor phenomenon was undoubtedly more stealthy and advanced.


    ��Kreis is just a made-up goddess, right? The figure I saw outside the door was you. Judging from how much you sweat, I think you just entered this niche not long ago. I should have thought of it. Since this ce has only one exit, after eliminating all the irrelevant people, the only person left would be my answer... But the simple ideomotor phenomenon is enough to make me hallucinate. There must be other means to make me hallucinate.��


    Zhang Heng lowered his head and thought for a while, ��It��s the wine. Someone must have put something in my wine, right?��


    Zhang Heng recalled the female veholding the amphora. She was the one that served him earlier. At that time, only Varo and he were standing there. Varo wanted to drink the wine from the amphora, but soon, another female ve fetched him a new bottle of wine. So, in the end, Zhang Heng was the only one that drank the wine from that particr amphora.


    At that time, he felt that the taste of the wine was a little strange. It seemed like it was mixed with some kind of herb. However, that was also his first time drinking wine from the second century AD. Hence, he did not think much about it at the time. After what happened to him afterward, Zhang Heng quickly found the source of the problem.


    The old Persian trainer quietly listened to Zhang Heng��s analysis. ��I didn��t find the wrong person. You are the one we are looking for,�� he said after a while.


    ��We? Oh, so you do have an aplice.�� Zhang Heng raised his eyebrows.


    ��I prefer to call thempanions,�� the old Persian trainer said. ��Also, after watching the battle during your final assessment, I think you were concealing your true strength in the battle, right? You even managed to fool Gaby. He was the one that discovered Sets back then. And he turned Sets into the trump card of the Victor Arena. However, it seems he has failed to discover your true form.��


    ��I have no idea what you��re talking about.��


    Since there were no witnesses or physical evidence, Zhang Heng would never admit to it.


    ��Don��t worry. I won��t tell Gaby about it,�� said the old Persian trainer. ��You don��t need to be so wary of us. We are not hostile.��


    ��You guys just drugged me, and now you are telling me that you are not hostile?�� Zhang Heng said, ��To make me believe in what I saw, you even went as far as making up the god of murder and assassination.��


    ��I didn��t deceive you.�� The old Persian trainer blinked. ��At least not Kreis. She is indeed the goddess we worship.��


    ��But you say she is the god of murderers and assassins.��


    ��Yes. We are killers and assassins,�� The old Persian trainer said, ��Ie from an ancient and mysterious organization. Our history is longer than Rome. It wants all the back to thousands of years, but we have beenying low during this period. In this regard, I think we still have somemonnguage... If you want to ask me why I am here, the answer is simple. I am a friend of Gaby��s, and he invited me to train those diators for him. Most of the time, I��m only responsible for Habitus��s training.��


    ��You are the one that taught Habitus��s footwork?��


    ��Most of it, yes. But he also made some improvements to meet the needs of diator performance.��


    ��Then I suggest you continue training him because I heard that he wants to be the trump card of the Victor Arena,�� Zhang Heng said politely, ��You should focus on him instead of disturbing me.��

 Chapter 767 - Nothing Is Free

    <h4>Chapter 767: Nothing Is Free</h4>


    ��Habitus can��t be the trump card of Victor Arena.�� The old Persian trainer shook his head. ��I told Gaby that his potential had reached its limit.��


    ��Is his potential fully developed, or are you unwilling to help him to develop further?�� Zhang Heng asked.


    The old Persian trainer smiled slyly and asked, ��Is there any difference between these two questions?��


    ��Hmph. I knew it.��


    ��It��s not our fault,�� the old trainer said sternly, ��but this time, I did miscalcte the whole thing. We had an agreement with him. He is supposed to help us get what we want, and we will help him get what he wants. However, he suddenly turned his back on us.��


    ��You want me to believe that Habitus broke a contract between an ancient assassin organization? Why would he do that unless he doesn��t want to live anymore?��


    ��Although we are an assassin organization, we always stick to our principles, unlike some self-proimed nobles in this world. And we will not kill innocent people. Besides, we haven��t signed an official contract with Habitus,�� the old trainer said helplessly.


    ��I understand now. You threw the bait to make him believe that you can help him improve hisbat skills. Then he took the bait and learned that set of footwork from you. After he mastered it, he has no intention to work with you guys anymore. I have to say that he is brilliant. Here are my questions. You chose me as a substitute for Habitus. Why do you believe that I will take the bait? What kind of bait did your organization prepare for me?��


    Since there was hot steam constantlying out from the gap, Zhang Heng was now covered with sweat, and the old Persian trainer experienced the same thing as well.


    ��There is no bait this time, and I have no ns to use you as a substitute for Habitus because Habitus wasn��t the most suitable candidate for us from the beginning. During that time, we couldn��t find someone better than him. That was why we were left with no other options but to choose him.��


    ��What do you mean? Are you nning to ask me to take the bait without giving me bait?��


    ��No, I want to invite you to join us. I am not asking you to have a partnership with me like Habitus. I want to include you in our observations list and be our core member in the future. Or, to be more precise, we want you to be my sessor. As I said before, we are an ancient organization. And we have our own principles and traditions. There are only a couple of core members in the organization. When the elderly retire, the organization will search for more young blood to rece them. However, the young blood must first pass the test.��


    The old trainer paused, ��Don��t say no to me first. Tell me, what do you want the most now?��


    ��My freedom?��


    ��If you can pass the test and be one of us, you will be a free man,�� promised the old trainer.


    ��How about helping my friend to be a free man as well?��


    ��The ve named Varo? I sympathize with what happened to him. It��s not difficult for us to make him free again.��


    ��Thirty thousand sestertius?��


    This time, the old trainer hesitated. ��This... Although we can give you this amount of money, we must adhere to the rules first. I can say yes to it first, and if you really pass the test, I can personally give you the money.��


    ��You are actually quite rich. And... I want to be a Roman senator once I be a free man,�� said Zhang Heng, revealing thest thing he wanted.


    The old trainer shook his head as soon as he heard Zhang Heng��s request. ��This is impossible,�� he said. ��Although our organization does have strong political allies, it would be absurd to let a newly liberated ve be part of the senate.�� Suddenly, he stopped abruptly and realized something. ��You don��t really want to be a senate. You are just saying that to size up our forces. If this is the case, you will be disappointed. As I said, there are only a handful of core members, and they are mainly civilians, which cannot affect the daily operation of the Roman Senate.��


    ��That��s a shame,�� said Zhang Heng, ��Because I can obtain my freedom by my own strength. Thirty thousand sestertius sounds like a lot, but it��s not impossible for me to earn it. Joining the Roman Senate was the only interesting request, but it seems your organization is not powerful enough to grant my wish.��


    ��You can indeed obtain your freedom with your strength, but it will take at least three years,�� replied the old trainer. ��Novices with average strength have only a few opportunities to perform at the beginning. We can help you to solve this problem. At the right time, we can get you out of this ce. Other than that, I can also teach you how to fight.��


    ��I know how to fight.��


    ��Yes, but what you know is thebat style of warriors. I can teach you thebat styles of an assassin. We have turned killing into an art. We don��t engage ourselves in a fight, but once we get into a fight, we will surely im someone��s life.�� The old trainer then looked at Zhang Heng. ��Well, the set of footwork I taught Habitus is just a basic skillset. The really powerful skills are only essible to the core members. ��


    Even Zhang Heng had to admit that the old trainer��sst proposal was very attractive. Until now, the nine rounds of quests had given Zhang Heng a good amount of gains. The game items were not as important whenpared to the skillsets that he acquired��something that took him a lot of time to learn��and was the most valuable thing that he could gain from each game he yed. However, if he could only learn the fighting style of a diator, there wasn��t too much to be gained.


    After all, his swordsmanship had reached Lv.4, and thebat experience he had spent ten umting from the ck Sail quest was enough for him to dominate the arena.


    In contrast, an assassin��sbat skills were more valuable to him.


    As for what the old trainer said about taking him three years to regain his freedom, Zhang Heng did not take it too seriously. He had to admit that he never expected it would take such a long time to acquire his freedom from the arena. ording to the old trainer, that was the average time for a diator to work his way up to be a free man. However, if the diator defeated someone impossible for him to defeat, the audience in the entire arena would cheer for the diator, and they would unanimously demand the master to make the winner a free man. At that time, even the master of the diator school could not say no. That was because the ancient Romans cared a lot about public opinion, at least for those that operated an arena.


    Zhang Heng concealed his true strength because he did not be Mark Reuss��s money-earning machine. Other than that, staying out of the spotlight would also allow him to leave this ce faster. Of course, if the old trainer had a way to get him out of the diator school, Zhang Heng would not say no. If there were an easier way out, after all, he would definitely not deliberately cause trouble for himself.


    However, Zhang Heng knew about one cold-hard truth that would remain unchanged, and that was that nothing in this world was free.


    The old trainer was hiding something from him. For example, why was he working with Habitus? Why did they break off their partnership? And the reason why the old trainer came here was not as simple as Gaby inviting him here to help him to train Habitus. Other than that, Zhang Heng also wanted to know about the core member��s test.


    Zhang Heng did not ask those questions because he knew that the old trainer would not answer him. At least for now, both sides had something that each other wanted. And Zhang Heng had one of the biggest advantages too��he did not need to worry about his future. This was just a quest for him. Counting the extra time he had, he would leave this dungeon in a year and a half.


    This was also the reason why he was more than willing to swear the diator��s oath. As long as it wasn��t something that would bring him an immediate danger, he could always agree to it first. So Zhang Heng asked, ��What do you need me to do?��

 Chapter 768 - Massages and Herbs

    <h4>Chapter 768: Massages and Herbs</h4>


    The old trainer wanted to say something, but he suddenly decided to shut his mouth.


    Not long afterward, Zhang Heng also heard someone talking and the faint sound of footstepsing from the corridor. Arge group of diators walked in from outside. It seemed like they had just finished their training. They were talking andughing while walking. The old trainer then said, ��I will go to you, and we can discuss more then.��


    After he was done talking, he got down from the alcove and went back to the hot pool.


    And Zhang Heng decided to enjoy the hot steam for a little longer before returning to the hot pool.


    ��As someone who��s experiencing such hot steam for the first time, I must admit yousted quite long,�� said Varo after seeing Zhang Henging out of the sudatorium. Varo seemed to have recuperated after soaking in the pool for a while. He then got out and said, ��It��s my turn now.��


    ��I will wait for you here,�� replied Zhang Heng.


    When Varo came out of the sudatorium, the two went to the cold pool next door. The ancient Romans had a bizarre bathing habit. They seemed to like to alternate between hot and cold baths. Actually, this kind of bathing method was very likely to cause them heart problems. Other than that, staying in a cold and humid environment for a long time might even cause sailor syndrome and hearing loss.


    Aspared to the men, the women in ancient Rome were healthier since they hardly took cold baths.


    Zhang Heng tried it once and decided not to do it again in the future. And he also advised Varo not to alternate hot and cold baths in the future. Thetter listened to what Zhang Heng told him and immediately nodded obediently without asking why.


    After that, they ended their bathing session with a massage. ording to Varro, although the public bathhouses had a very cheap admission fee, services such as storing clothes, buying snacks, and getting massages were all charged separately. However, the bathhouse in the diator school was served to protect the valuable assets of the school owners. Hence all the services for diators were given free of charge.


    This was also one of the few perks of being a diator.


    When Zhang Heng and Varo returned to their residence, the ��battle�� over there was already over. The four female ves had left the room, leaving the two drunk diators lying on the bed. Looking at the smiles on their faces, they seemed to be having good dreams.


    Today was the day when they passed the assessment. Gaby also knew that they had worked hard for a long time, so he did not ask them to train today. Everyone was allowed to savor this victorious moment to the fullest.


    Varo, on the other hand, was very disciplined. After his mind and body fully recovered from their exhaustion, he returned to the training ground and began to train. He knew that it was sheer luck that he could pass the assessment this time. Even if he did not face Habitus during the final assessment, hisbat skills were still below averagepared to other new diators. Hence, to regain his freedom in the future and carry out his revenge n, his fighting skills needed to improve to survive the next few battles.


    As for Zhang Heng, he took a nap and then wandered in the diator school until it was dark.


    After they became official diators, the areas that they could go to had expanded a lot. As long as they did not leave the diator school��s premises, they could wander anywhere they wanted. Zhang Heng first talked to a few diators to learn more about the diator schools and staff. Especially the information of some trainers; he wanted to know what they were good at. In the near future, he would love to learn all those skills from them.


    Zhang Heng paid close attention to the old Persian trainer��s information, but from the information collected so far, it was almost the same as before.


    His name was Dadatis, and he joined the diator school half a year ago. The school assigned him to train a group of neers. After that, he was asked to focus on Habitus��s training only. His origin was very mysterious. It was said that he hew Gaby many years ago. Other than that, no one knew much about him.


    Many diators consulted him about their training, and Dadatis was always willing to give them advice. However, his answer was not much different from other trainers. In the end, fewer and fewer people came to him.


    After that, Zhang Heng went to the medical bay. Almost every diator school would be equipped with a medical bay, where all wounded diators would receive medical treatment. This ce could also help the owners reduce their losses.


    In all fairness, the doctors in this era were quite skillful. Take the diator school where Zhang Heng worked as an example. There were retired emperor doctors who worked here, especially good at dealing with external and bone injuries, and they were even equipped with stainless steel or copper surgical tools. Their had a very simr shape to modern surgical instruments��except having no effective means of anesthesia other than alcohol and opium. And, of course, disinfection was something the people of that era had no knowledge of.


    Other than that, they had no good way to deal with internal injuries or organ damage. Hence, they could only wait for the reapers to harvest their patients�� life.


    When Zhang Heng entered the medical bay, he saw a doctor with half-white stubble bandaging a diator with a leg injury. Zhang Heng stood by the door to wait for the doctor to finished treating the injured diator. After he told the injured diator about what he should be really paying attention to, he raised his head and looked at Zhang Heng.


    ��Where did you hurt yourself? Let me see.��


    ��I am not injured,�� said Zhang Heng.


    The doctor frowned, ��Then why are you here?��


    ��Oh, I simply wanted to seek your advice. I wonder if I can buy any herbs here?�� Zhang Heng exined his intentions.


    He spent the remaining time in the Alien��s dungeon to learn more about herbal medicine. It coulde in handy in an era where medical treatment was not as advanced. Zhang Heng picked a fewmonly used herbs to treat inmmation, diarrhea, fever, and bruises. Most of them could be found in the Mediterranean. But even so, it took him a long time to describe what the herbs looked like to the doctor.


    The doctor seemed skeptical after listening to what he had to say. Fortunately, Zhang Heng met a doctor that was willing to open to new things. Some of the herbs were widely used in this era. Except for these surgeons, herbal medicine and prayer remained the most popr treatment for internal diseases.


    The doctor promised to help Zhang Heng look for the herbs that he wanted. If it worked, the doctor did not n to charge him. The school would bear the cost of all the diators�� treatment anyway, which was why he was willing to ept the invitation to be a doctor here. Besides the generous ie, he could also get a lot of opportunities to verify his medical theory.


    After that, Zhang Heng returned to his residence in the evening.


    During this period, the old Persian trainer did note and look for him again, as if he had forgotten about him.

 Chapter 769 - Not Fighting Anymore

    <h4>Chapter 769: Not Fighting Anymore</h4>


    The two diators woke up when Zhang Heng and Varo went for a bath. They were no longer in the room when Zhang Heng returned. When the sky finally turned dark, they returned to the room with their hands on each other��s shoulders and a strong smell of alcohol on them.


    It was understandable that they would go all out and enjoy themselves on this day. Although the diator school promised diator ves like Sets and Garba their freedom back, the vast majority of the ves would die fighting in the arena before they could regain their freedom.


    Although the death rate of current diators had dropped significantlypared to diators from BC, the average survival age of twenty-five still posed many problems. If they chose not to enjoy themselves while they were able to do so, it was likely that they would not be able to do it in the future. Not to mention that they were only allowed to go all out to enjoy themselves on this day.


    After a while, Varo also came back from the training ground. Upon a brief chat with Zhang Heng, he went to bed.


    ...


    Late at night, the entire Roman city became really quiet except for the Domus and temples that had their oilmps lighted. Most of the ces were plunged into darkness.


    Zhang Heng then closed his eyes and soon fell asleep until someone pushed his body. When he opened his eyes, he saw the old Persian trainer standing in front of his bed, signaling him to leave the room. The old man walked out of the room first. Zhang Heng immediately put on his sandals, followed the old trainer from behind, passed the three people who were still sleeping soundly, and came to the courtyard.


    At least for now, Zhang Heng knew that the old trainer did not lie to him.


    Having endured quite a few quests so far, many of them were extremely dangerous. This forced him to develop the habit of staying alert when he slept. Usually, when someone or something moved, he would quickly wake up from his sleep. However, he was sleeping in a room where everyone was snoring. It meant that this habit would not be as effective as before. Still, Zhang Heng felt that it posed many problems when he failed to hear the old trainer��s footsteps.


    If the other party had a murderous intent towards him, his head wouldn��t have been attached to his body anymore.


    So... was this how an assassin fought?


    Zhang Heng saw the old trainer walking towards the small training ground in front of him, quickly following him. However, when he entered the training ground, the old trainer was gone.


    The ce wasn��t as lively as it was in the daytime. It was so quiet that one could hear a pin dropped on the ground. But soon, Zhang Heng was alerted, and he could feel that someone would attack him from his back. The person��s movements were very light; the air currents created by the person when he moved almost non-existent.


    However, Zhang Heng��s richbat experience hade in handy this time. He twisted his body and dodged the blow at thest moment. Other than that, he also had a clear view that the person was attacking him with a small wooden dagger.


    The old trainer was a little surprised when he saw Zhang Heng dodging the attack.


    Bying to Zhang Heng��s bed without him realizing it and disappearing without a trace, he intended to let Zhang Heng feel the power of the assassins. However, the ending was not what he expected. He knew that Zhang Heng concealed his strength during the final assessment, but he did not expect thetter to be that powerful.


    Besides, he had gotten older. His skill has indeed deteriorated aspared to his younger self.


    Time was the greatest enemy a human would face; impossible to defy. Whether it was an assassin or a diator, it was only logical that the person��s physical fitness would deteriorate as the person aged. As someone who partnered up with death all year round, he could clearly feel that his body was failing him and could no longer do what he didst time.


    Zhang Heng, on the other side, had already moved away from the old trainer. He looked around and was trying to find a weapon. Unexpectedly, the old trainer gave up the attack the next moment, turned, and ran towards the training ground.


    Zhang Heng did not go after him immediately. Instead, he went to the room where the weapons were stored. He could also see that the old trainer had no malicious intent towards him, so he only took a wooden training sword.


    As soon as he stepped out of the room, a dagger was struck at his throat.


    ��Pay attention to the spots that can block your line of sight. These are the best ces for assassins to attack,�� whispered the old trainer.


    But this time, Zhang Heng was prepared, and he was able to stop the dagger with the wooden sword in his hand.


    To be fair, the old trainer��s attacks were still very effective. This one was faster than his previous attack. The angle was more unpredictable, and it was stealthy. But unfortunately, his opponent was Zhang Heng, whose swordsmanship had reached Lv 4. Once he had a sword in his hand, even the best assassin in the world could hardly break his defense.


    The old trainer was still using the hit and run strategy. He had no intention to stay and fight after hended a strike on Zhang Heng. This time he jumped directly onto a wall that not far away from him. And Zhang Heng quickly followed closely behind him. They went over the wall to enter the courtyard. In that short time, the old trainer disappeared from his eyes again.


    Zhang Heng soon thought of something. He raised the wooden sword in his hand and blocked an attack that came from the sky.


    ��Your eyes can deceive you. Learn to observe your opponent��s attack pattern.��


    The old trainer looked like he just came out of Zhang Heng��s shadow. It was terrifying and stealthy. He then stopped Zhang Heng from continuing to attack him and lean on the dirt wall beside him, ��Wait, let me catch my breath first.��


    Zhang Heng then put away the training sword.


    The old trainer rested for a while and managed to regain his strength, but he did not intend to continue the battle. He waved his hand with joy and said, ��No more fights. Let��s end it here.��


    ��Okay.�� Zhang Heng wished that the battle wouldst a little longer. Although the old trainer showed only three moves, they were something that Zhang Heng had never seen before. It did broaden his view of this world and he could gain something from it.


    Since Dadatis had already surrendered, it would not be nice for Zhang Heng to continue to attack and bully him.


    ��Actually, an excellent assassin would not attack the same target more than three times. If he fails to kill the target in three strikes, it means that Kreis does not want to take the target��s life. As an assassin, no matter how good the reward is, he would allow his target to live.��


    The old trainer paused and continued, ��I have to admit that I have underestimated you. Even if I��m still my young-self, I��m notpletely sure that I��m good enough to kill you in the three sneak attacks just now. However, it is too early for you to feel happy about it. The top-ss assassins will have more than one way to eliminate their targets.��


    Zhang Heng did not say a word after he heard what Dadatis told him. It seemed like he was disappointed by himself. ording to the original n, he should quietly use the wooden dagger to stab Zhang Heng��s heart. After that, he would use his deep voice to tell Zhang Heng that he was dead. If his n worked, it would be more convincing for him to say to Zhang Heng his glorious past.

 Chapter 770 - Have You Been To The Market?

    <h4>Chapter 770: Have You Been To The Market?</h4>


    The old trainer found a step in the yard and sat on it. ��The assassin is one of the oldest professions of humankind. When the person causing your troubles is gone from this world, all your problems would be automatically solved.��


    ��That��s something hard to refute,�� agreed Zhang Heng.


    Dadatis continued, ��No one knows who the first assassin was because people who do well in this line are those without names. Once they be famous, they are basically not far from death. We differ from martyrs. The only thing that we go after is the mary reward. Before we can im the reward, we have to learn how to stay alive first. Although we are not known in history, I can tell you confidently that we are everywhere. For thousands of years, we stay hidden andmitted ourselves to help to solve problems of themoners, serve the emperors, generals, and change the course of history with the dagger in our hand.��


    ��Well, it sounds like you guys must be quite busy.��


    ��Of course, in the early days, assassins would only fight for themselves, and they would not take the initiative to talk to other assassins. Everyone had a different customer scope, something that has certainly brought us unparalleled freedom. However, theck of faith and belief has caused us to lose the sense of unity. This situationsted until about a thousand years ago when a retired senior received the Kreis��s oracle and began to think of a way to unite the power that belongs to the assassins.��


    ��So this is the origin of the Assassin��s Creed: Brotherhood?�� Zhang Heng interrupted.


    The old trainer was startled. ��What is the Assassin��s Creed: Brotherhood?�� he asked with a cocked eyebrow.


    ��Sorry. I just quoted something from Ubisoft. Please continue,�� Zhang Heng said.


    The old trainer frowned since he didn��t understand what Ubisoft meant. However, considering that Zhang Heng was from the far east, it was only natural that theymunicated differently. As long as the information was not too important, Dadatis had no intention to dwell on it.


    ��The senior found the six most powerful assassins at the time and conveyed Kreis��s will to them. However, it didn��t go well at the beginning. That was because the assassins didn��t like the feeling of being restrained by someone or something. The senior then told them that joining the organization would not have much impact on their daily lives. On the contrary, the organization could be a bridge for them to exchange information, share resources, and help each other.��


    The old trainer paused. ��Although assassins prefer to act alone, it doesn��t mean they can do everything by themselves. A middleman is required for getting different kinds of jobs. The middleman will usually have a richwork of contacts to find the right customers for the assassins. The assassins, on the other hand, could avoid direct contact with their employers. This was also implemented to protect the safety of assassins. After all, assassination is not a glorious feat. Some employers want to eliminate all the potential threats, including the assassin itself after they finished the job assigned to them.��


    ��When the assassins want to find out more about their targets, they would need the help of others help as well. These people could be the thugs or thieves on the street, or sometimes they could be sociable nobles and merchants. They can help the assassins approach different targets and find out more about them. Other than that, sometimes the assassins would need someone��s help when they want to get away from a crime scene. In short, a perfect assassination requires detailed investigation, countless rehearsals, and a good clean-up after the job is done. After all, we are also humans, not gods.��


    ��This sounds like a craftsman��s spirit to me,�� said Zhang Heng.


    ��To sum up, I believe you can also see the benefits of the establishment of the organization. The resources in the hands of other members can be pooled to form an intelligencework, which will eventually serve the members of the organization. Besides, when the organization members encounter a threat that they fail to ovee, the other members can also assist. After all, dealing with an assassin and provoke a group of assassins are twopletely different scenarios.��


    ��It��s reasonable, but the question is how does this benefit the convener? You mentioned that he was a retired man. Why did hee back and spend so much effort to form an organization he will get nothing out of.��


    ��As I said, for thousands of years, the assassin business has always been a mess. The root cause is theirck of belief. Amon goal could unite them, though. This was what the founder of Bnce de had in mind. We worship Kreis. She is the goddess of murder and assassination, in charge of the bnce of everything. And all we have to do is to maintain this bnce for her through assassination.��


    The old trainer looked into Zhang Heng��s eyes and said thoughtfully, ��The bnce is essential because only through bnce can everything maintain its perfect form. It aims to benefit everyone in the world, especially the lowest-ss civilians and ves. Of course, the Bnce de pays close attention to everyone��s interests from a different social ss. That is because we all are a part of this world, and together we form a delicate bnce. But what we care about most is the lower ss. The reason is simple. Because they have thergest number of people.��


    ��You want to benefit the ves; why don��t you just free them?�� Zhang Heng asked.


    ��We release the ves, and then?�� the old trainer asked rhetorically, ��Have you been to the market?��


    ��Yes.��


    ��The market is like a microcosm of the world. There are all kinds of people in it, from cksmiths to farmers, carpenters, tailors... Everyone tries to sell their things. We all have something to sell and buy. And all thesee together to create a bnce. Now, if you take the farmers out of the market, what will happen? The tailors will have no fabrics to sell, pubs will have no ingredients for winemaking, and women can��t buy food. If that happens, it means the bnce is broken, and everyone will suffer.


    ��This applies to ves as well. As I said, the Bnce de has existed for thousands of years. We have seen too many things, the rise and fall of countries, the change of dynasties, the prosperity and destruction of cities, and we have also seen the ves killed those who enved them. Will the ves be liberated after they kill their master? No, they will be a new batch of ve owners. The people at the bottom of society often don��t realize that no matter how society changes, there will always be people who live at society��s bottom. Just like you can��t remove farmers from the market. This is part of the bnce.��


    ��So you tend to maintain the rule of the current ruler?�� Zhang Heng raised his eyebrows.


    ��No, we only maintain the bnce,�� said the old trainer. ��We believe that a stable ruling structure can maximize the benefits of all sses, but we also know that no one can rule forever in this world, just as chaos is the path we must cross before we establish any order. We do not reject chaos.��


    ��Then what is your stand?�� Zhang Heng frowned.


    ��Let everything be in bnce,�� replied the old trainer. ��If the nobles be too powerful, we will cut off the wings of the nobles. When the emperor bes too powerful, we will try to limit his power. When riots break out between themoners and the ves, we will assist the army in suppressing the riots in the shortest possible time to avoid greater losses. When the chaoses, we will also help the true king ascend to this throne and rebuild the bnce.��

 Chapter 771 - I Will Listen To It

    <h4>Chapter 771: I Will Listen To It</h4>


    ��Don��t you think you guys care too much?�� asked Zhang Heng.


    ��No. Imagine us doing minor repairs on a building that is already there. We will not go against the trend of events, and neither do we seek fame or profit. We are people who live in the shadow of history. The vast majority don��t know of our existence. This is also the reason why the Bnce de can be passed on for thousands of years. In fact, most of the time, we are just bystanders, and within the organization, we prefer to call ourselves tinkers.��


    The old trainer continued, ��Speaking of the Bnce de, itprises two parts. The first part is the organization��s core members, the six most powerful assassins from the Bnce de��s first generation. There are a total of seven of them. The second part is the people who have a partnership with the assassins or rely on the assassins to earn their living. This includes intelligence dealers, a small number of nobles, many civilians and ves at society bottom rung, and weapon merchants and doctors. They are considered the peripheral members of Bnce de.


    ��However, with the growth of the Bnce de, the numbers of these two groups of people have changed. Although the organization has encountered several severe crises, it is still growing in terms of the Bnce de��s peripheral members. On the other hand, the number of core members has been rtively stable. And it has only experienced a few expansions. About 400 years ago, we began to open up our organization to other assassins, allowing for an exchange of intelligence and resources. To us, they were considered peripheral members too. The responsibilities that came with it were rtively limited. In their eyes, the Bnce de is just an organization that provides services to the assassins in exchange for rewards.��


    ��What about your core members? How many of them are there now.��


    Dadatis did not answer the questions this time. ��This is a higher-level secret. You will know when you pass the test and take my ce as a core member of the organization.�� After a pause, Dadatis continued, ��You asked what you need to do after joining us. That, I can answer now.


    ��Just like how the original convener answered the six assassins... Bing a Bnce de member will not affect your daily life most of the time. Usually, only when the priest receives Kreis��s oracle would the Bnce de summon its core members and intervene.��


    ��So all your actions are basically based on this so-called oracle obtained by a priest? Congrattions, this sounds reliable. Then can I ask how often she gets an oracle?��


    ��Mortals like us can never guess the will of the gods. Hence, no one can predict when the oracles wille,�� Dadatis pondered for a moment, then added, ��but if you are asking about the past, six oracles were received by the priest in a month, at most. And there was once; the oracle was received more than forty years apart. Some members did not even get to receive an oracle until they retired.��


    ��I kind of like the second scenario.�� Zhang Heng said, ��But I guess I don��t have such good luck. Since you appeared in the diator school and are looking for a potential assassin, it means that a new oracle has appeared.��


    ��That��s right.�� Dadatis nodded.


    ��Your target is Mark Reuss? No, if it is him, you can eliminate him by yourself. You don��t need to work together with Habitus. The diators can get in touch with quite a lot of people... I think the only people that are hard for you to kill are individuals with high authority,�� Zhang Heng analyzed.


    ��Unfortunately, I can��t tell you the name of the target at this stage, but what I can tell you is that the test for you is indeed rted to this oracle. Do you want to be one of us?�� asked Dadatis.


    Zhang Heng shrugged upon hearing the words, ��After I have heard so many secrets about you, do I have a second choice?��


    ��I know that you still have a lot of questions, and you cannot fully understand our belief. But as long as you are willing to open your eyes and carefully observe the world around you, you will feel that bnce is everywhere. And I, as your Teacher, can teach you the quintessence of bnce.��


    ��Uh...I don��t think you need to teach me about bnce. What you said before is quite straightforward,�� Zhang Heng said, ��I clearly understand your philosophy and way of doing things.��


    ��I��m talking aboutbat skills.��


    ��Oh. I still need to learn from you.��


    ��...��


    Dadatis was speechless. He could see that Zhang Heng disagreed with the Bnce de��s idealism, not to mention how he did not seem to have much respect for Kreis. This might have something to do with himing from the East, which made him different from most Romans. In Rome, everyone worshiped their gods wholeheartedly to the point of having high tolerance towards foreign gods. Zhang Heng was willing to join the Bnce de because he wanted to learn theirbat skills.


    But now, Dadatis could not find a better recement after Habitus rejected him. To Dadatis, Zhang Heng was born to be an assassin. Unlike a defective product like Habitus, it was as if Zhang Heng was the perfect assassin temte created by Kreis. He was calm, low-key, had excellent observation skills and analytical abilities. Judging from his previous three moves, his physical fitness and reaction ability were also top-notch. And he did not even need to be refined. He just needed a little polish, and he would shine like a diamond.


    If such a talented young man could not be absorbed into the Bnce de, it would only be at the Bnce de��s loss.


    Dadatis had a selfish thought as well. As he grew older, he could feel that he was not as good as before. That was when he started to look for his sessor. The previous three strikes that hended on Zhang Heng had failed. He was disappointed and frustrated at himself. Though he lost the battle, he could feel joy surging through him.


    Even though he had now confirmed that Zhang Heng was the person he was looking for, he was disappointed to see that the Asian man was not as excited as he expected. He was now like a man who fell into unrequited love. So, he told himself that he would need time to make Zhang Heng understand the Bnce de��s idealism. It did not matter how Zhang Heng thought about Bnce de and Kreis. For now, he just needed to make sure that Zhang Heng agreed to join the Bnce de.


    So he coughed and said, ��ording to the n, I should first teach you ourbat skills. But since they are already powerful, let��s not rush it first. I can teach you the assassin��sbat skillster. You seem to be very interested in Habitus��s footwork. So let me teach you stealth moves first. This is also one of the basic skills of an assassin.��

 Chapter 772 - Be Prepared

    <h4>Chapter 772: Be Prepared</h4>


    Since this was Dadatis��s first lesson with Zhang Heng, itsted a long time. When it was almost dawn, some of the more hardworking ves had already gotten up and began preparing breakfast. And Datdatis had to end the training here.


    The two of them wished that the training couldst a little longer.


    Not only did Dadatis teach Zhang Heng stealth movements as promised, but he also introduced other assassin��sbat skills to him. In this regard, the Bnce de did an excellent job. All those that joined the Bnce de were top-tier assassins. Everyone had a unique skill. When they were young, they would keep their unique skill a secret, but when a top-tier assassin like Dadatis started to age, he would wish that he could leave something to this world.


    The assassin was a person who stayed hidden in the shadow of history. The more sessful the assassin was, the less likely his name would be passed down and known by others. That was why they wanted to leave something behind to prove that they were once lived in this world. Although this idea was not promoted since the beginning of the Bnce de��s establishment, it yed a significant role in preserving and developing assassin skills.


    Dadatis knew what Zhang Heng was thinking about. So, he took the initiative to tell thetter that there was a library in the Bnce de��s secret base. Only its core members were allowed to enter it. And in those books were many ancient assassin skills and rted deeds. Not even Dadatis had seen or read most of them because everyone had limited energy. But if one person could learn all the skills in it, the old man knew it would have to be Zhang Heng.


    When it came to learning and grasping concepts, Dadatis had never seen someone as good as Zhang Heng.


    Zhang Heng had Lv 4 swordsmanship and thebat experience he umted from different quests, especially after challenging all of Kyoto during the Bakumatsu quest. He managed to learn all the signature moves from all those sects. And it improved his adaptability and learning speed when he learned a newbat skill. Rarely anyone couldpare.


    To Zhang Heng, Dadatis was equivalent to the door leading to a new world, allowing him to strengthen his arsenal further. At the same time, he had his first glimpse at anotherbat style, and indeed, he benefited a lot from it.


    Understandingbat style was different from putting it into practice. Take the stealth skills that Dadatis taught him as an example. From understanding, putting it into practice, and mastering it; Zhang Heng would need a long time to do all that.


    Fortunately, he had all the time in the world.


    Dadatis did not leave in a hurry when he was done teaching today��s lesson. ��With your skill and mind, I can��t figure out how you were forced to enroll into this diator school, but judging from your previous performance, I can probably guess what you are thinking. You want to make use of the diator performance to regain your freedom quietly and leave this ce. And you know that if you perform badly or too well, Mark Reuss will not let you off his hook easily. You are smart enough to conceal your true strength. But what if I ask you to show all your strength?��


    ��Huh?�� Zhang Heng raised his eyebrows.


    ��Don��t worry about not being able to leave the diator school. We can help you and your friends to get out of here right away when the thing is over.��


    ��Do you want me to be famous?��


    ��Yes, because I want to send you to the diatorial show at the vian Amphitheater two monthster.��


    ��vian Amphitheater will be holding a performance in two months? How did you know about it?��


    ��As I said before, the Bnced de has its own intelligencework. Not to mention that this matter is no longer a secret now. The Roman senate was discussing this matter some time ago. They have already received the intel that the Roman Empire will end the war with those Germanic. And the new emperor is returning to Rome with his army. The first batch of the troops should be back in Rome as early as a month and a half��s time, and the crowning ceremony shoulde with it. By that time, the vian Amphitheater will host a grand diator show. Other than the royal diators, some of the chosen diators from the various diator schools will be sent to participate in the grand diator show.��


    Dadatis paused and said, ��Although the government will probably not pay the diator school enough money, it is rted to the honor of each school. For the sake of the Roman Senate��s new emperor, all the school would send out their best diators to fight in the vian Amphitheater. In other words, all the best diators from Rome will be getting together andpete in the same arena, showing their skills in front of ny-thousand spectators. Not only will the winner bring good reputation to himself and his school, but he will also receive a reward from the emperor.��


    ��I��m just a new diator. I��m pretty sure Victor Arena will not choose me. Even if Gaby doesn��t want Bach to fight so early, veteran diators like Habitus and other famous diators are more qualified than me.��


    Zhang Heng went to talk to other diators in the afternoon, and he now understood the industry a little better than before. He knew that the new diators might have to wait for several months before they were given a chance to perform on stage for the first time. Of course, a new rising-star like Bach was an exception.


    To start making money from them, the diator school would push them out as early as possible, treating them as cash cows. And they had to participate in performances more frequently than ordinary diators.


    ��Don��t worry about this. If you are fine with it, we will arrange for you,�� Dadatis said.


    ��I��m fine with it. You teach me how to fight, and I help you guysplete the task given to me. Sounds fair,�� Zhang Heng said.


    Dadatis sighed secretly when he heard what Zhang Heng said. He hoped that Zhang Heng would have a sense of belonging to the Bnce de, instead of seeing it as a form of transaction. However, he knew that he could never rush this kind of thing. In the end, he said, ��Be prepared. Your first battle wille soon.��


    ...


    Zhang Heng then quickly went back to his residence before Varo and the other two diators woke up. Except for Dadatis and him, there was no third person who knew what happenedst night. After that, Zhang Heng also devoted himself to training every day like the other neers.


    In addition to the basic training that every diator needed toplete, Zhang Heng had toplete the training session given to him by Dadatis.


    One week had passed in a blink of an eye.


    Zhang Heng had gotten better at moving stealthily. He could now reduce the sound of him moving by half anytime he wanted. He tried to sneak into the kitchen with what he learned and stole some bread. And the cook that was busy cooking with his back facing Zhang Heng did not realize that someone had entered the kitchen to steal food.


    On the other hand, the first batch of battle arrangements was set in stone. In the end, Gaby failed to persuade the money-minded Mark Reuss to put a hold on Bach��s battle first. So, Bach was forced to participate in the next diatorial show. Fortunately, Gaby persuaded Mark Reuss not to arrange the quasi-ace level yers to fight against Bach. This would undoubtedly cause some audience to lose interest in Bach but in exchange for a greater chance of winning. ording to the usual practice, Gaby also needed to select some fodder from the neer group to perform in the arena.

 Chapter 773 - First Fight Arrangement

    <h4>Chapter 773: First Fight Arrangement</h4>


    ��Bach versus Rufus.��


    As soon as Gaby finished speaking, a look of surprise shed across the faces of each new diator. And they could not help but start whispering to each other.


    No one expected Gaby to havee here today. Although everyone here had passed the final assessment and became diators, it was illogical to send anyone to fight in the arena right now. They were supposed to go through months of training before they had their first battle in the Victor Arena. However, some unfortunate ones who did not do well in training would be sent to fight with other diators. And usually, they would die fighting in the arena.


    However, Bach was the strongest among the rookie diators this year. It would be impossible that Mark Reuss gave up on him so early.


    And this time, he was asked to fight Rufus, also known as the ck Sickle.


    Rufus was a protector by profession. Falling under the category of retiarius, it was a rtively rare profession. His weapons of choice usually consisted of a trident and a fishing. As for armor, he had a pair of metal sleeves and full body armor. The metal sleeves would cover the entire arm, used as a shield to block damage with the full-body armor. It would make up for the weak defense of the retiarius. Simultaneously, the metal sleeves would also be equipped with a sickle-shaped de, which could be used as a weapon when necessary.


    Unlike the retiarius, the protector was a profession that everyone did not want to encounter.


    Besides, Rufus was considered one of the best protectors. Although not as famous as Habitus, his poprity was close to that of Garba. If one were to choose one of them as an opponent, any sane person with the right mind would pick Garba.


    Garba��s age and the years he spent fighting for Victor Arena had earned him a lot of fame. On the other hand, Rufus, the ck Sickle, gained his fame mainly from winning battles. And he was twenty-six years old this year. It was the golden age of a diator. With a total of three years of diator experience and coupled with his career in the military, his body and mind were at their pinnacle.


    Aspared to Rufus, Bach was just a rookie that was going to fight in the arena for the first time. No matter how talented he was, no matter how high of hope Mark Reuss had on him, it was still not right to make him face an opponent like ck Sickle in his first battle.


    If it were not because Gaby customized a lot of individual training for Bach earlier, all the neers would have thought that Bach had offended the diator school head. And that was why they made him face such a powerful opponent.


    However, Bach showed no fear when he heard the name of his opponent. Instead, he snorted and harrumphed, ��Who the hell is ck Sickle. He is unlucky that I��m about to fight him in the arena.��


    Seeing how Gaby changed the final assessment��s format and made them fight formal diators, some friction had erupted between the neers and veteran diators. As a representative of the neers, Bach would not act all polite and pleasant towards his opponent. Besides, the Germanic were not the kind of people who practiced politeness.


    ck Sickle, on the other hand, was calmer. He showed no provocative actions nor said any offensive words to Bach. However, when he heard the arrangement of the battle, a smile appeared on his face. And the diators around him also congratted him one after another. To them, ck Sickle was lucky that he was not going to face a challenging and tricky opponent.


    Although they had also heard some rumors about Bach, including how Mark Reuss valued him and wanted him to be the sessor of Sets, it didn��t change the fact that Bach was a rookie in the arena. If ck Sickle failed to defeat a rookie like Bach, all the fame that he gained so far would be in vain.


    On the other side, Gaby had ignored the reactions of the people below him entirely and continued to think about the battle arrangement.


    After a bunch of unfamiliar names was called, two more familiar names entered the rookies�� ears.


    ��Zhang Heng, Varo, Nasica, Sulpicius... twelve people, mixed fight.��


    The neers were surprised that they heard Bach��s name in the battle arrangement. Now, they were looking at Zhang Heng and Varo with sympathy.


    A twelve-man-mixed-fight was a veteran show in the Victor Arena, and it was also one of the most popr performances.


    The reason was very simple. The twelve-man mixed fight was often brutal and exciting.


    The rules were simple. Twelve of them would form a team and fight with another group of people. The winning team would have to search for their next target. At the same time, two or more teams were not allowed to attack the same team. In the end, thest team left standing would be the winner.


    Other than testing theirbat skills, the team members were required to have a tacit understanding of the other team members. Besides, for support, the tag-team fighting also required sufficient stamina.


    The two teams thatsted the end of the battle would usually have bodies marred by wounds. And that was what made the fight even more exciting.


    There were myriad skills involved in the twelve-man-mixed-fight. The diator school, for instance, would arrange a strong team to attract the attention of the audience. After that, they would toss in a couple of less famous but rtively good teams to fight with the strong team. Lastly, to ensure the audience enjoyed watching the duel and reducing the star diators�� costs and casualties, some neers and ordinary diator teams would be included in the mixed-fight.


    Zhang Heng and Varo were obviously ying thest role.


    Among them, hearing Varo��s name was not that surprising to others. During his fight with Habitus, everyone thought that he would lose the fight in a matter of seconds. Out of sheer luck, he managed to pass the assessment with the sudden burst of a dazzling performance. It was understandable why Gaby would include him in the twelve-man mixed fight. It was going to be impossible for him to win in this battle. However, if he managed to put up a good show again, the audience would ask the arena to spare his life. On the other hand, Zhang Heng getting selected surprised all the rookies.


    That was because Zhang Heng performed extremely well in his final assessment, and he defeated the well-known Garba. Besides, he was also one of the few rookies that passed the assessment by defeating his opponent. Coupled with his identity as an Oriental man, he should be valuable for the arena. Hence, no one could figure out why he was included.


    And among the opponents they had to face was Nasika. Thetter was more famous than Rufus and possessed abat style far more brutal. His nickname, Bone Shatterer, should tell his opponents that he was not one to be trifled with. Besides, he was also a frequent fighter in the twelve-man mix fight. His brutal attacks would always result in blood and flesh sttered on the arena��s ground. Hence, that was why he was so popr among the audience. He was one of the few diators that earned a lot of money for the arena.


    Varo felt a little nervous when he heard his name, especially when Nasika red at him and made a thumbs-down gesture, which meant that he would destroy him in the arena.


    On the other hand, when Varo heard Gaby calling out Zhang Heng��s name, he quickly looked at Zhang Heng and saw no change in his expression. He still looked calm. He then remembered Zhang Heng was the one that taught him how to mess with Habitus, and it made Varo calmed down a lot.


    Anyway, this was not the worst-case scenario for him. At leastpared to the others, Zhang Heng and he were close, meaning they would have better teamwork when partnered up. However, whenpared to the other groups, they were undoubtedly at a disadvantage. Varo even wanted to go to a temple and ask about his recent stroke of bad luck.

 Chapter 774 - Promotion and Pray

    <h4>Chapter 774: Promotion and Pray</h4>


    Rome opened her eyes as the first ray of sunlight fell on the Boston Ivy on the apartment��s balcony.


    More and more people emerged from their residences, especially ves and civilians with rtively low social status. They were the ones who woke up the earliest and started to work hard in the morning to make a living.


    One could hear the tinkeringing from the workshop. It was the coppersmith hammering the bottom of the pan. The deafening noise had also awakened the neighbors next door. However, everyone was used to a lifestyle like this. They would wake up and scold the coppersmith at the same time.


    The ve girl walked down from the apartment with a y pot, came to the enormous pot beside the wall, and poured her master��s urine into therger pot. Not too long after that, someone wound send the collected urine to theundry and dump it into arge tank filled with dirty clothes.


    There, theundromat ves who had been waiting for a long time would jump into the tank and step on the dirty clothes that were soaked in urine. Theundromat��s business was so good that even the emperor wanted to tax urine.


    After the ve girl finished pouring the urine, she rubbed her eyes and turned around to go upstairs. However, the next moment, she ran into a teenager who had been squatting by the wall earlier. And the ve girl did not notice him. So, she quickly apologized.


    However, the young man did not respond. At that time, he focussed his attention on drawing two little people on the wall. Judging by the weapons and armor on them, they were murmillo and retatrius. And the boy wrote down their names under his drawing��Bach and Rufus.


    In just a few strokes, Bach and Rufus��s image were drawn onto the wall.


    A short paragraph apanied the drawing:


    [From June 17th to 19th, Victor Arena will be presenting you with wonderful duel performances for three consecutive days. In addition to the diators you are familiar with, Habitus, Nasica the Bone Shatterer, and Rufus the ck Sickle would fight the neer Bach. There will also be exciting duels between beasts. Equipped with awnings, the lower stands are sprayed with perfume, and everyone present will be given a small gift. This is going to be your first choice for cooling off and rxing.]


    After finishing thest stroke, the boy took two steps back to admire his masterpiece. There was a smile on his face. And he finally noticed the ve girl that was standing beside him and looking at his drawing. When the sunlight fell on thetter��s eyebrows, it became golden.


    The boy then stretched out his hand and caressed the ve girl��s face. Seeing that thetter showing a shy look, he whistled,ughed, and ran down the apartment while holding the dye and paintbrush.


    ...


    He was not the only painter who was promoting the new performance of the Victor Arena. In fact, many simr advertisements were being painted on almost every wall in Rome. Other than diator performance advertisements, there were also women who promoted themselves and imed that they could help lonely men solve their problems. Lovey-dovey words were exchanged between young couples, ruthless words from the creditors, and usations dedicated to men who broke women��s hearts...


    The walls of these houses, public buildings, and even the tombstones in the cemetery were the billboards of that era. The information on them wasplex andplicated. Other than that, there were also some men who walked around the streets and alleys to distribute the program list. With the advertisements painted on the wall and the program list distribution, the diatorial show��s promotion was considered done.


    The people interested in going to watch the show could get all the information about it in advance. All that left was whether they were willing to pay for the entrance fees. Since entertainment wascking in Roman, a diatorial show was as attractive as S9.


    On the other hand, diators selected to join the battle were also making their final preparations.


    Varo and Zhang Heng were doing some coordinated training as well. The previous fifty-day special training was aimed at preparing them for individual battles. As for the tag-team battle, training a little would prove beneficial.


    This was why all the neers felt that they were getting unlucky. Except for the Nasika group, even the less powerful groups were trained for a battle like this as well. And Zhang Heng and Varo had to start from scratch.


    Varo saw Nasika on the training ground. Thetter looked stronger than Bach, his arms were almost as thick as Varo��s thighs, and his body was extremely muscr. His profession was a secutor. This was a profession simr to the murmillo, falling under the heavy-duty diator category. Usually, they were equipped with a sword, a huge rectangr shield, and half-body armor.


    Varo saw that Nasika had used his rectangr shield to knock out his training partner at the training ground, causing thetter to break two of his ribs.


    ��Now I finally know how he gets his nickname... I don��t want to face this guy in the arena,�� said Varo to Zhang Heng beside him.


    However, Nasika did not seem to think so. When training on the same grounds, he would always make one or two provocative moves against Varo and Zhang Heng from time to time. When Varo saw that someone was provoking Bach as well, his mood finally improved a little bit.


    This was actually a kind of tradition in the diator school. The veteran diator would always provoke the neers before their first battle, and the diators would usually pray the night before the battle. Although diator schools did not mandate that diators believe in a certain god, most diators would choose to believe in Nemesis, the goddess of vengeance. A small number of people also worshipped Victoria, the goddess of victory, or Mars, the god of war. As for the Germanic like Bach, they believed in their tribal gods.


    Varo noticed that Zhang Heng did not pray. So, he asked curiously, ��In your county...Is there no god for you to worship?��


    ��Yes, there is. But I don��t think I need to pray,�� Zhang Heng told the truth. In fact, he did not mind worshipping Nemesis, the goddess of revenge. However, he was not a potential core member of the Bnce de. Even if he was a little unimpressed with the Bnce de��s idealism, he still had to pay his respects to their god Kreis, the goddess of murder and assassination. It would be inappropriate if he worshipped other gods.


    ��...��


    ��I like your sense of humor. I don��t feel nervous when I am with you,�� Varo said, putting the amulet engraved with Nemesis in his pocket respectfully, ��During the battle tomorrow, I will do my best to protect your back.��


    ��You just need to protect your front.�� Zhang Heng said.


    ��We will live,�� replied Varo in a firm voice to cheer himself up.


    ��Don��t worry. We will win.��

 Chapter 775 - Beastmaster

    <h4>Chapter 775: Beastmaster</h4>


    The retirement of Sets significantly impacted Victor Arena, where nowadays, it was hard to see it being filled. However, one could not deny that the Victor Arena was built on a rock-solid foundation. Mark Reuss was, after all, managing the second biggest arena in Rome.


    Other than Sets, there were several less popr diators, including Habitus, Nasica, and Rufus. Coupled with many mid-tier diators, Victor Arena was still able to attract the people to watch their diatorial performances.


    As of the day of the performance, two-thirds of the seats in the arena��s stands were sold. Mark Reuss, however, was still displeased. After he greeted the nobles and their family members, he returned to his seat and began to frown again.


    Other than the audience��s loss, Mark Reuss was frustrated by the diator show that would be held by the royal family in a month.


    Aside from the possible mary loss, he knew that other troubles were waiting for him. The diator school he ran was currently the secondrgest in Rome, but it was now going downhill. Severalpetitors were waiting to devour him.


    Therefore, the performance in a month could have a more severe impact on Victor Arena. Not only was the new Emperor going to announce the arrival of his reign, but all the diator schools might also undergo enormous changes. Although Mark Reuss had many cards for him to y in his hand, he was still missing the most crucial card.


    It was the biggest trump card.


    ording to the information he obtained, a lot of diator schools had recruited some very powerful neers. The retirement of Sets also meant that the diators had now entered a new era of heroes. Usually, everyone would be active in their diator school. It was rare for the diators from different diator schools to gather together. If any diator could stand out from the crowd and take the final crown, a new king would be born.


    And the school behind that diator would also be the biggest winner.


    That was why Mark Reuss had been rushing Gaby to look for a sessor for Sets. And because of that, Mark Reuss did not mind risking Bach��s life. He knew that Bach would be safer if he could train a little longer before letting him fight with other diators. Unfortunately, the imminent crisis was getting closer.


    As a courageous businessman, he knew that it was time for him to make a move. But in his heart, he did not know whether Bach was powerful enough to defeat the other diators from other schools. Maybe he should talk to Habitus again and take a few steps back.


    Just when Mark Reuss was lost in thought, the diatorial performance had begun. A small orchestra was invited to y as a prelude to the battle. They stood on a slowly rising tform in the middle of the arena and started to y their instruments.


    After that, a group of antelopes suddenly ran out from the gate on the side of the arena. The cheers from the auditorium spooked them, and they started to run frantically around in the arena. One of them wanted to jump towards the audience stage, but the arena had prepared the corresponding measures to make sure that it would not happen.


    A wall with a height of three meters was built at the lowest level of the audience stand. Other than that,rges were being fixed on each pir. Theses could block the wild beasts from entering the stands, and at the same time, enable the audience to keep their eyes on their favorite diators. Hence, no one was afraid when they saw the jumping antelope. And there were evendies who stood up to look at the antelopes curiously.


    From the time of Caesars, the wild animal performance had been part of diatorial shows. Usually, it would be conducted before the diator battles. Unlike what was shown in most films and television series, the diators would not be asked to fight with those wild animals. That was the beastmaster��s task. A while ago, Zhang Heng and Varo saw how the wild animals were used to execute the prisoners. Other than that, the arena would also offer beast hunting and taming performances and some battles between wild beasts to entertain the audience.


    What everyone saw now was a hunting performance between a hunter and an antelope. Later, they would make a lion fight with a bear. In the end, the winner among the wild animals would face the beastmaster.


    The arrangement of the whole performance was getting more and more exciting. It elevated the audience��s mood and made them extremely nervous, especially when the beastmaster walked towards the stage. Both men and women shouted the name of the beastmaster together as they watched him fight the ferocious beast. And the beastmaster had to pay attention and dodge the beast��s sharp ws. During the fight, he managed to leave a couple of sh wounds on the beast with the weapon in his hand.


    At the same time, the beast was only bing more irritated.


    There was nothing more charming than looking into Death��s eyes, constantly mocking Death and escaping his grasp. Some women screamed frantically for him, willing to dedicate themselves to him. One had to admit they wereparable to the most ardent fans of theter generations. The face hidden beneath the helmet was not that handsome; some might even consider him ugly. That was because of the three long scars on the left of his face, and it almost disfigured him. Those scars were left by a cunning cheetah that he had fought with a while ago.


    However, in those women��s eyes, there was no better love medicine in this world than those scars. At least, in the arena at this moment, he was the dream lover of all those women. As Juvena, the poet, said, what girls loved the most was not his face but his sword.


    Finally, the experienced beastmaster sessfully killed the beast in front of him.


    He then stuck his sword into the ground in front of him, took off his armor, and enjoyed the cheers and triumphs of his victory.


    And after him, it was the diator��s turn to fight.


    Zhang Heng and Varo were not among them. Their performance was slotted on the third day. The two did not even go to the arena. However, a much-anticipated battle would be held in the afternoon.


    It was the battle between Bach and Rufus.


    ck Sickle was a Victor Arena celebrity. The audience, on the other hand, knew nothing about Bach. All they knew was that he was a rookie.


    However, this time, Victor Arena broke the rules and included him in the advertisement. Clearly, he was extremely valuable to them.


    The audience was obviously more willing to believe in ck Sickle, seeing how he would win battle after battle in front of the audience. And it could be seen on the odds of their bets.


    Gambling had always been inseparable from the arena since ancient times. In the arena, not only could the audience enjoy the diatorial performances, but they could also bet on their favorite diators.


    On the other side, Varo asked Zhang Heng, who was training with him, ��Who do you think will win the battle?��


    ��I have never seen Rufus the ck Sickle��sbat skills. However, since Gaby made such an arrangement, it meant that he is optimistic about Bach. So if I were to bet, I would bet on Bach.�� Zhang Heng said.


    ��So Rufus will surely lose in the battle?��


    ��If Bach sessfullypletes all the training, Rufus will be defeated by Bach. However, that is not the case. It means Rufus still stands a chance to defeat Bach.�� Zhang Heng said. Ever since Dadatis told him about the grand diatorial performance held at the vium Amphitheatrum, he now knew why Mark Reuss wanted to make Bach his trump card as soon as possible.


    But this diatorial performance might be different from what he imagined.

 Chapter 776 - Turning The Tide Around

    <h4>Chapter 776: Turning The Tide Around</h4>


    The two people in the center of the arena were panting violently.


    The battle had been going on for quite some time, and judging from the audience��s enthusiastic reaction in the stands, it was apparent they were delighted with the battle.


    After a few simple tests, Bach and Rufus immediately started to fight.


    Muscle to muscle, shing to cleaving, the sound of weapons and shields colliding, stters of blood and sweat on the ground; male hormones filled the whole arena.


    Rufus had to admit that he had underestimated the neer in front of him. Bach��sbat skills might need a little polishing, but this was a neer��smon problem. On the other hand, Rufus could sense that Bach was born with an instinct to detect threats.


    Every time he set a trap, Bach would always detect it at the final moment. And the cunning Bach would make use of his trap to go against him. The wound on Rufus��s waist was the best proof of that.


    Bach��s sword hit so hard that it almost chopped off his bones. After the judge paused the battle and inspected the wound, he ruled that the battle could continue.


    Rufus was used to a situation like this.


    Such was the fate of a diator. Unless he was severely injured or the other party surrendered, the battle would continue no matter what.


    Hence, Rufus had gotten used to fighting with different kinds of injuries on him. However, the wound on his waist did affect his next move, especially his dodge action. Fortunately, Bach was no better than Rufus. Thetter��s calf was stabbed by Rufus.


    Now, the two were back on the starting line.


    In the next battle, both sides deliberately took advantage of each other��s injuries. Rufus forced Bach to put more weight on his injured leg, while Bach forced Rufus to twist his waist more often.


    The blood flowed down from Rufus��s and Bach��s thighs to their ankle, where it would finallynd on the arena��s grounds. The whole thing was a brutal and bloody affair, hyping up the thousands of spectators at the stands.


    However, this intense atmosphere did not affect Rufus. He was still trying his best to focus on his opponent. The expression on Bach��s face frustrated Rufus. Bach, as a neer, was not nervous about the battle. And the most important thing was that he showed no emotion as he stared. It was as if he was staring at a dead person.


    Rufus could not figure out why Bach would hate him so much. It wasmon that the diators would fight with each other in the school for various reasons. To attract more audience, the arena would deliberately cook up some drama among the diators. However, Bach had just entered the diator school not too long ago, and he had been focusing on his training. Rufus could not remember when he had offended Bach.


    No matter what, he had to win this battle.


    Rufus rushed to Bach, ��Game��s over, kid. I��m going to fight seriously now. If you don��t want to die, remember to kneel and surrender to me.��


    Bach grinned. ��So these are yourst words?��


    Immediately, Rufus struck at Bach with his trident, exerting all his strength to press Bach down. His astonishing willpower had helped him to ovee the pain from his waist injury. When both sides had reached their physical limits, he forcibly pushed himself back to his perfect state.


    It was then that the battle began to lean towards Rufus. It did not take long for Rufus to stab Bach in his left arm, forcing Bach to drop his buckler.


    Upon seeing that, Rufus��s supporters immediately stood up and cheered for him.


    At the audience seat, Mark Reuss��s face was dark. He looked at Gaby angrily and asked, ��What��s the matter? Didn��t you tell me that Rufus is the most suitable person for Bach to fight against in the opening match? All I see is Rufus beating him up. With this kind ofbat skills and strength, how are we going to make him the sessor of Sets? I have spent so much money to buy him. Is it going to be a failed investment?��


    Gaby was surprised by Bach��s performance as well. He had been in charge of Bach��s training, and Rufus had also been trained by him back then. In other words, Gaby knew both of them quite well. He had gone through careful consideration before he made this arrangement. He was not saying that Bach would definitely win the battle. It was that Bach shouldn��t have been beaten up by Rufus so badly.


    ��I... don��t know what happened, but I can assure you that this is not all of Bach��s strength. I don��t know what��s going on with him or what he is thinking. Losing this battle on purpose will not benefit him in any way.��


    When the two were talking, the battle was about toe to an end. The situation had be more and more unfavorable for Bach. He lost his shield, and his performance was going downhill. On the other hand, Rufus had only be braver, at the same time, prepared to attack Bach with his fishing.


    Finally, he waited for the moment when Bach��s footsteps became utterly disorganized. Rufus caught Bach��s weakness and threw the fishing at him. The moment he did that, he had, for some reason, the sudden feeling that something terrible was going to happen to him. He saw Bach abandoning the ��nowhere-to-escape look,�� turned into a cheetah, dodged the fishing, and pounced at Rufus, directly hitting his arms.


    Rufus wanted to raise his armguards to protect himself, but it was toote. The moment Bach charged towards him, he fiercely inserted the dagger in Rufus��s neck and pierced through thetter��s throat.


    Those shouts of apuse from the audience were silenced all of a sudden.


    Everyone was stunned by this sudden change of oue.


    Blood gushed out of Rufus��s mouth, and his eyes were filled with horror and surprise. He opened his mouth and tried to say something, but only unintelligible sounds came out of it.


    But Bach knew what Rufus wanted to ask, and he moved closer to thetter��s ear. ��Aren��t you curious about why I want to kill you? It��s simple. I checked your resume. Five years ago, you participated in the war against us. Presumably, you must have ughtered quite a few of my people. Consider your death as a debt payment. Even if I can��t kill you on the battlefield, we can still meet in the arena. Am I right?��


    Rufus��s eyes were filled with regret. He did not regret joining the army but regretted not finding out more about Bach before the battle. Otherwise, even if he lost, he could get to keep his life as he conceded in time.


    The audience on the stands could not hear the conversation between the two. After a short moment of silence, they immediately cheered for Bach.


    Except for the people who ced their bets on Rufus, most of the audience watched the performance with great excitement. Upon Bach��s brilliant y to im the victory, the audience immediately gave a round of apuse to Bach and cheered for him. As for Rufus, now lying in a pool of his own blood, he would be forgotten really soon.


    In the stands, Mark Reuss also breathed a sigh of relief. He could now rx again. Although Rufus��s idental death caused him to lose a great diator, he still cared more about Bach since he was the future arena��s trump card. Besides, this was an arena, and it was normal for someone to die here.


    Only Gaby seemed to have thought of something and frowned. He probably knew why Bach��s performance was so unbearable to watch earlier. He was trying to use his weak performance to confuse Rufus, seeking a perfect chance to kill him and wanting to prevent him from begging for mercy. For that, he deliberately let Rufus injured him.


    After all, Gaby was the winner of this battle. So, Gaby only warned him about it with his eyes.

 Chapter 777 - Twelve-Man Mixed Fight

    <h4>Chapter 777: Twelve-Man Mixed Fight</h4>


    The duel between Bach and Rufus became the most exciting part of the first day of the performance. Many spectators continued discussing the battle even after it was over.


    Blood sttering on the ground, muscle collisions, and an unexpected change of tide throughout the battle��in addition to a well-known diator��s death, almost every other eye-catching element a grand performance should have was presented to the audience. Hence, Bach��s name began to spread among the people of Rome.


    [A very powerful neer has appeared in the Victor Arena!]


    That was the phrase spread throughout every street in Rome.


    The first phase of Mark Reuss��s and Gaby��s n had been achieved. However, they could only see the result during Bach��s second battle. With Bach and the dead Rufus��s help, the arena��s attendance rate in the next two days also saw a slight increase.


    And soon, it was the third day.


    Zhang Heng and Varo returned to the Victor Arena��s underground.


    In order to maximize dramatic effects, many arenas had simr designs. Its upper level was a wooden floor covered with sand, and the lower level looked like the backstage of a theater. Among others, there was a weapon storehouse, a cage, and a preparation room. At that time, a special elevator would be used to transport people or beasts to the surface, making them look like they had just emerged from the ground.


    The two worked here before they were trained to be diators. Now, they were back to where it all began. Unfortunately, there were no mirrors in the preparation room. All the diators who were asked to participate in the twelve-man mixed fight were here, and the expressions on each of their faces were different.


    Some were silently cleaning their weapons and adjusting their armor, some were doing some weird pre-war rituals, and of course, some were rxed. And Nasika was one of them, talking andughing with his partner next to him.


    This was the ninth time he participated in a twelve-man mixed fight. And he had won seven out of the eight battles. The only reason he lost in that battle was that Sets was there to fight with him. Even though Sets was about to retire, he still managed to defeat Nasika after a tough battle.


    But now that Sets was retired, not many people in the diator school were powerful enough to defeat Nasika. Especially when the roster for this twelve-man mixed fight came out, Nasika odds had significantly improved. If everything went well, he should be able to clinch his eighth win easily.


    In contrast, on the other side, Varo suffered his old problems again, vomiting into a y pot. He thought that he was ready, underestimating the tremendous pressure he felt when he walked into the arena for the first time as a diator. This was especially the case when he heard the constant cheers from above his head. It reminded him of the two death row prisoners right before they got eaten by wild beasts.


    Seeing how he was crumbling under the pressure, the other diators looked at him in disdain.


    Nasika teased him, ��Hey, boy, how did they let you pass the assessment? Will your fear make you pee in your pants during the fightter?��


    Varo did not answer him. Not only was he a little afraid of Nasika, but he could also feel another round of vomiting up his guts.


    Zhang Heng then handed Varo a bowl of water so he could rinse his mouth.


    ��I��m sorry.�� Varo took the bowl of water and apologized to Zhang Heng. He knew that he had just embarrassed him. All the other diators were now looking down on Zhang Heng as well. ��I will adjust my state of mind before the fightter. I promise.��


    ��Well, you can try to take a few deep breaths. Don��t put too much pressure on yourself. Treat it as a training session,�� said Zhang Heng.


    Varo nodded, but before he could even speak, Nasika spoke again. ��This is different from training. Training will not kill you, but a real diatorial performance could cost you your life. And I guarantee you that you will learn this cold hard truth from the battleter. This is a stage for heroes and warriors, while the bones of cowards and trash like you will be buried here.��


    ��Can you mind your own business?�� Zhang Heng finally voiced out, ��If you have nothing to do now, think about what pose you should make to beg for mercyter.��


    ��Interesting... it��s been a long time since a neer dared to speak to me in this tone.�� Nasika turned and looked at Zhang Heng. ��I am not like Garba. I don��t rely on my age to attract attention. Do you know why the diators didn��t dare to refute me? It is because they are afraid that I will target themter. Trust me. You don��t want to know how my nickname, Bone Shatterer, came about.��


    ��I really want to see what you can do to me.�� Zhang Heng said lightly, ��I��m afraid you won��t get to live up to your title.��


    Nasika wanted to say something, but suddenly they heard a long apuse. Everyone knew that it indicated that the previous performance had ended. Now, it was their turn to perform in the arena.


    ��Oriental man, you will regret what you said to me.�� Nasika red at Zhang Heng, put on his helmet, and stood up from where he was sitting.


    Varo, on the other hand, had finally stopped vomiting. He rinsed his mouth with clean water, got up with everyone, hurriedly walked towards the elevator. On the way, he passed an emergency treatment room and saw a diator getting treated. His left arm was curved in an unnatural shape. It looked like his bone was broken.


    Upon seeing that, Varo quickly looked away and wiped the sweat off his face.


    The diator who performed earlier was bowing at the audience before he left the arena. Soon after that, the cheers died down. It meant that the diator had already left the arena. Hence, the ves in charge of the elevator pulled the winch together, and the twelve diators standing on the tform ascended.


    The yelling and stomping of thousands of spectators soon drowned the entire arena.


    Perhaps only those literally surrounded by the deafening cheers could truly understand Varo��s tension and fear. He felt like his eardrums were about to burst.


    As usual, the twelve diators walked around the arena so the audience could see their faces. After that, they conducted some one-to-one warm-up exercises to showcase theirbat skills.


    Nasika was the most famous diator among the twelve. When he appeared, at least half of the audience chanted his name. And Nasika also waved at the audience to thank them for their support. As for the two rookies, Zhang Heng and Varo, they did not receive much attention.


    This calmed Varo��s nerves a lot, and he recalled the feeling when he trained under Zhang Heng.


    As the three referees walked into the arena, everyone knew that the time for the decisive battle had arrived.


    Varo noticed that Nasika seemed to be approaching them deliberately. He probably wanted to wait for the performance to start before getting rid of the neers first. However, the other diators seemed to have the same idea as him. To them, Zhang Heng and Varo were the easiest pair to get rid of.


    When the fight began, Nasika failed to attack Zhang Heng and Varo first. ording to the rules, he had to find another opponent.

 Chapter 778 - That’s Considered A Win, Right?

    <h4>Chapter 778: That��s Considered A Win, Right?</h4>


    Varo did not expect that he would be so popr.


    When the referee signaled them to start the battle, at least four groups of diators were charging at them. Varo was almost scared to death. Fortunately, only the nearest group was able to earn the right to fight with them in the end.


    Nasika was not too pleased by such an oue. He predicted that Zhang Heng and Varo would not survive the first round of battles. In other words, he would not get a chance to teach the two of them a lesson in this twelve-man mixed fight.


    However, the battle had already begun, and his partner reminded him to be prepared to fight the enemies that were charging at them. The opponents they were about to face had considerable strength, and if they were not careful, they might just lose. Hence, Nasika could only retract his gaze away from Zhang Heng and Varo.


    There was a strategy to win in the twelve-man mixed fight. It was not necessarily better to defeat your opponent as fast as possible. That was because the strongest group would most likely go through more rounds of battle, and it would consume more of their stamina. On the contrary, if lucky, one could immediatelypete in the final round after theypleted the first.


    If there were no opponents avable in the final round, the winner would have more time to recuperate. Other than that, the losers could also regain their qualification by defeating other losers to challenge the final winner.


    In short, this was not a fighting performance that focused solely on strength. Everyone had to formte a corresponding method. It was crucial for the diators to look for theirbat rhythm to make sure they could fight more effectively. If they wanted to win in the final battle, they might need some luck.


    Like the diators who were fighting against Zhang Heng and Varo, they did not rush the battle. Instead, they kept a certain amount of pressure on the two of them to avoid being ruled by the referee as passive fighting. They had made up their minds to drag the battle as long as possible.


    After all, Zhang Heng and Varo were regarded as the weakest group. The most important thing was that one of them was dimachaerus, and another one was retiarius, considered s lightweight diators. They did not even have a shield with them.


    Therefore, the team fighting against them felt that they could end the battle at any time. Ideal opponents like this were not easy to find. If they were to end the battle too quickly, they might have to engage in a tougher battle with other teams.


    Varo also felt that their opponents were taking their sweet time to fight with them, relieving him a little


    Although Zhang Heng said that their goal was to win in this battle, Varo was not too convinced in the end. He felt that a more realistic goal would be to show as much of hisbat skill as possible in the first round of the duel. And Varo would also try his best to im the victory from the first round of battle. Though there was a high probability that they would lose the second battle, at least it would increase their odds of survival.


    What Varo did not expect was that Zhang Heng had no intention to drag the fight. So, he charged at them with both his swords.


    His movements weren��t very swift at first. As if dashing, his steps got bigger and bigger, and his speed increased tremendously in a short time, just like drumbeats. The muscles of his body tightened as well.


    The two diators on the opposite side were stunned by Zhang Heng��s sudden attack. Like Varo, they did not understand why Zhang Heng would break the bnce between them. Logically speaking, it would not do him any good. But as Zhang Heng approached, the two unanimously sensed a huge threat was about tond on them.


    This was not supposed to happen. Varo was left stunned for a while before he finally reacted. Considered a rtively good and loyal partner, he immediately rushed towards the opponents with Zhang Heng. However, there was still a short distance between him and Zhang Heng, which meant Zhang Heng was now fighting two enemies simultaneously. And he was just a neer with no reputation. It stood to reason that he should not have such a strong presence.


    And the next thing that happened stunned Varo even more.


    The two diators on the opposite side had already sensed the danger and put on a defensive posture. However, it was quickly rendered useless. Zhang Heng knocked away one of their weapon with a sword. After that, he kicked his opponent so hard that he was forced to on the ground. When the second diator wanted to raise his weapon, Zhang Heng��s sword was already on his neck. He was hoping that his partner would get up from the ground to help him, B=but thetter was in the same situation. When he wanted to get up, he could feel a chill running up his spine.


    ��Is that a win?�� Zhang Heng asked the referee, who was left in shock.


    In fact, focusing on Nasika��s group, most of the spectators in the stands did not know what happened in the battle just now. After all, the Bone Shatterer was the most famous person in this battle. Hence, everyone hoped that he would win every fight.


    Since it was a boring battle, and Zhang Heng wasn��t a famous diator, few would naturally pay attention. No one thought that Zhang Heng and Varo would win the first round of the fight, not to mention how they ended the battle at such an astonishing speed. It happened in just a blink of an eye. For the people who were paying attention to Zhang Heng, all they saw was Zhang Heng charging towards his opponents, and the battle was over.


    What happened during the battle left many confused.


    Mark Reuss was one of them. He and Gaby were discussing how to set the roster for the crucial diatorial performance that was going to be held after a month. Among them, one of the diators was Bone Shatterer. Hence, they were focusing on Nasika��s group. Mark Reuss did not even look at Zhang Heng and Varo��s performance. Shocked, he asked Gaby, ��What happened.��


    Thetter was responsible for the management of the entire diator school. Of course, he would not just focus on a single diator. He was used to observing all the diators who were engaged in the fights simultaneously and had been paying attention to the situation on the battlefield. That was why he was staring at Zhang Heng right now. And Zhang Heng happened to be looking at him as well.


    Gaby snorted, ��I didn��t expect that I would misjudge someone.��


    ��What do you mean?�� Mark Reuss frowned.


    ��This Easterner has hidden his strength during the previous training and assessment,�� Gaby exined. He was the kind of person that hated anomalies. During the fight between Bach and Rufus, Back did kill Rufus even though he still won in the end. And now, what he discovered from Zhang Heng was obviously more shocking.


    ��Oh?�� Mark Reuss was interested to hear what he had to say about Zhang Heng. After all, Zhang Heng never left a deep impression on him before. That was why he did not pay much attention to this oriental man in the first ce. He even forgot how he passed the assessment. So, he went on and asked, ��How much strength does he hide? Can he be included in the roster?��


    Gaby pondered for a moment, ��Although Julius and Askle are not well-known, they are considered to be very powerful. Even Habitus could not defeat them instantly. Of course, they are also unfamiliar with Zhang Heng and Varo. And they have underestimated them. I don��t know. I can��t say anything about them now. Let��s continue to observe them. Since he decided to unleash all of hisbat skills, he should be ready to im the victory of this twelve-man mixed fight.��


    But Mark Reuss thought of another thing. He pped his thigh and said in an annoyed manner, ��I knew I should have promoted him.��


    ��Who is better, Nasika or him?�� he asked after a pause.


    ��I think we will know the answer soon.��

 Chapter 779 - We Should Be The Winning Pair, Right?

    <h4>Chapter 779: We Should Be The Winning Pair, Right?</h4>


    Although the whole thing happened so abruptly and seemed incredibly unreal, the judge still had to rule that Zhang Heng and Varo won the battle.


    The main reason was that the oue was too obvious for anyone to refute. Two swords were ced in front of Julius��s and Ascle��s necks, and they looked extremely embarrassed by their current circumstance. They had lost their strength to fight back. Since Zhang Heng and Varo ended the fight too quickly, they had to wait for the others to finish their battle before they could get another pair of diators to fight with.


    Judging by how the two looked right now, it seemed like they did not need too much rest. All Varo did was run two meters, and the battle was over. He did not even break a sweat. They had won the battle so quickly and easily that Varo felt that it was unreal. Until Zhang Heng put away both of his swords, Varo realized that everything was real.


    ��We won?��


    ��Yes, but it��s only the first round.�� Zhang Heng replied, his expressions calm as if what had just happened was just something that did not matter to him.


    On the other side, Julius and Ascle looked a little depressed. It was a terrible loss for them since they did not get to showcase any of their strength. This was definitely not a very pleasing scene for the audience, especially since the two had little to no reputation. After the battle was over, the audience would probably request for the two to be executed.


    Fortunately, the losers were allowed to fight one more fight to redeem themselves. Due to the sudden defeat, they did not suffer any injuries nor consume any of their stamina. In other words, they had a better advantage in their next battle. Indeed, they woulde up with all their strength to fight against their next opponents.


    On the other side, Nasika had also started to showcase hisbat skills. This was not the first time he fought with his current opponents. Hence, both sides knew each other rather well. The opponent��s group was not weaker than Nasika��s group, so he dared to take the initiative to strike at Nasika.


    Nasika knew what his opponent��s n was. Instead of picking the weakest team, they chose to tackle the most powerful team first. It was apparent that they did not n to win the fight from the beginning. Their goal was to get into the loser category. Before they let Nasika and his partner defeat them, they would make sure to exhaust and injure them as much as possible.


    It had to be admitted that this was indeed a good n. If it went well, everyone��s favorite, Nasika, would pass the duel��s first round. He would suffer from a certain degree of injuries, which meant it was very likely that he would be eliminated in the next battle. After that, it was possible that they would reencounter each other in the losers bracket. By that time, the chances of defeating them would be significantly increased.


    This strategy, however, was a rather risky one too. If they lost to Nasika, the spectators would no longer favor them, meaning their chances of getting executed would increase significantly. Therefore, the star diators would try their best not to lose in any battle. Secondly, they might not be able to get out of the loser group again.


    The other most significant problem was that a n did not constantly develop in the direction they expected. Nasika, for instance, was now going to go all out in this battle. He was different from the other diators. Due to his enormous strength, not only therge shield in his left hand could be used to block attacks, but it could also be used as an offensive weapon.


    If he tackled his enemy with the shield, the person might fall or be sent flying. And if he exerted all of his strength in this attack, his shield would be able to break the bones of his enemies.


    During the duel, the two opponents were focusing on guarding against Nasika��s attacks. However, they had underestimated their opponents. They forgot that Nasika still had a partner.


    Thetter was not as well-known as Nasika and was overshadowed by him. But this did not mean that one could underestimate him. He had always been Nasika��s best partner. The two made up for each others�� weaknesses. Nasika focused on offensive attacks, and his partner would focus on attacks that harassed their opponents. With the two partnered up, the opponents would often find that they had no other options but to go against Nasika.


    Now their opponents were facing what other opponents had faced in the past. When they wanted to retreat, one of them was stuck in the battle with Nasika��s partner. When that happened, Nasika charged at them immediately. Seeing that his opponent would put up a defensive posture, Nasika cunningly put away the big shield and shed the opponent��s side body with his sword. Although his opponents managed to dodge this lethal attack, it also forced them to reveal their weaknesses.


    Immediately, Nasika��s partner shed one of the opponent��s arms with his sword.


    The judge had no intention to stop the battle. That was because this scene was simr to what happened between Bach��s and Rufus��s battle. The cut on the opponent��s arm was not as deep, and although blood gushed out from the wound, it was not fatal. Hence, there was no reason for the judge to stop the battle. It did not take long for another opponent to get hurt. However, it was only a minor injury. It was at that time the two opponents realized what Nasika wanted to do.


    Nasika knew his opponents�� n from the very beginning. Now, he was using their n to go against them. Not only did he want to defeat them, but he also wanted to drain all of their strength and stamina. They would not be able to win the next round when they would fight among the loser bracket. And they were about to face the worst possible oue. The two remembered that Nasika was well-known for making his opponents pay for what they did to him. It was now toote for them to change the oue. There was no way for them to get out of it unharmed now.


    They could not defeat them, and they could not surrender just like that after suffering such slight injuries. The audience would not let them off the hook easily. Therefore, the two had to bite the bullet and carry on with the fight. In any case, they had to survive for a little longer before they surrendered.


    However, at this moment, a cunning smile could be seen on Nasika��s face. He dropped his currentbat style and tackled one of his opponents�� chests with his shield. This time, Nasika exerted all of his strength in this strike. The unfortunate opponent was sent flying away by the brutal attack. By now, some of the bones in his body must have been broken. When the other opponent saw that his partner could no longer fight, he put down his weapon and wanted to surrender. Unfortunately, it was toote for him to do so.


    Nasika charged at him in that split second, raised the sword in his hand, and cut off his target��s arm.


    This cruel and bloody scene immediately made the audience cheered for him. The Bone Shatterer was famous for a reason. His brutal and violentbat style was considered art in that era.


    However, when Nasika, now bathed in blood, raised his hands, he found out that he received fewer cheers from the audience. When he looked back, he saw that Varo was looking at his heroic posture like the audience in the stand.


    Nasisa frowned. He realized that he might have unintentionally helped Varo and Zhang Heng unintentionally by eliminating a pair ofpetitors in the loser group.


    But the next moment, he saw the judge signaling him to walk towards Zhang Heng.


    Nasica was a little puzzled by it. He then said, ��We should be the winner group, right?��


    The judge nodded and agreed, ��You two are the ones that left in the winner group.��


    Nasika was shocked. He realized that he had spent quite some time making his opponents pay what they failed to do to him. However, it wouldn��t be that long. At most, Zhang Heng and Varo could only fight one round of the battle. But ording to the judge, Zhang Heng and Varo hadpleted two rounds of the battles, and they had won both rounds.


    How was that possible? Nasika looked at Varo in confusion, only to find out that the doubt on thetter��s face was no less than his.

 Chapter 780 - The Battle Everyone’s Been Waiting For

    <h4>Chapter 780: The Battle Everyone��s Been Waiting For</h4>


    Varo felt like a spectator in the arena��s best seat.


    Both battles were singlehandedly won by Zhang Heng singlehandedly. And at the same time, he managed to end the battle rtively quickly. Compared with the first round of the battle that ended almost instantly, the second rounds�� opponents were more cautious when they found out Zhang Heng and Varo was the first team that imed the victory in the first round of the fight.


    However, the opponents still could not do anything about Zhang Heng even though they knew he was mighty. The gap of strength between the two parties was simply too broad. Staying cautious would not change the fact that they would lose. Zhang Heng even conserved some of his strength to let Varo participate in the battle. Otherwise, Varo was no different from another spectator.


    Even so, the fight did notst long. Shortly after that, Varo found out that they had imed two consecutive victories. On the other side, the most popr pair of diators were still fighting with their opponents.


    After the unexpected victory in the first round, more and more audiences began to pay attention to Zhang Heng and Varo. However, technically, most paid their attention only to Zhang Heng. After discovering that they won the fight easily in the second round of the battle, the audience was left in shock, and they began to talk about Zhang Heng��s origins.


    Such an oue had caused a lot of frustrations to Mark Reuss. The diator school did not anticipate that the audience would pay so much attention to Zhang Heng and were unprepared to handle the curiosity. In the end, the curious spectators found the answer that they were seeking from the previous battle schedule.


    And the battle on Nasika��s side had finallye to an end. The judge ruled that his opponent could no longer fight. For the first time, the audience understood why they lost the battle. Hence, they did not ask the arena to execute them. Instead, they were sent for treatment.


    And the other reason was that everyone was eager to watch Nasika��s team against Zhang Heng��s team.


    The former was the star of the Victor Arena and had many supporters, while thetter was the rookie that stood and fought in this arena for the first time. No one had seen his diatorial performance before. To the audience, he was a man shrouded with mystery.


    Within five minutes, Zhang Heng managed to im two consecutive victories. And he finally gained his first batch of fans. Among them, most of them were women, especially the nobledies. They seemed to be very interested in this dark-haired, dark-eyed, exotic oriental man.


    And now, these new ��fans�� of Zhang Heng had begun to cheer for him. And some of them were virtuous and gentledies that could be seen on the street and at home. But now, they had changed intopletely different people. They rolled up their sleeves and started to ��greet�� Zhang Heng��s opponent, Nasika, with vulgar words.


    Zhang Heng now knew the importance of a diatorial show to the Romans. It was said that when Sets��s poprity reached its peak, the audience was a hundred times crazier than it was now. It was no wonder Mark Reuss was so desperate to seek out the next Sets.


    And now, the owner of the diator school was also looking at Zhang Heng enthusiastically. He was different from Gaby. Many people said that he was a cruel and unrelenting man, but this was not true. Mark Reuss only treated the people that had no value to him cruelly. On the other hand, he was always good to the people that could earn him a lot of money.


    Gaby might have felt unhappy by the fact that Zhang Heng concealed his strength earlier. Mark Reuss, however, did not share the same sentiments. Just like when he found out that his daughter had an affair with Sets, he pretended not to know instead of reprimanding the man.


    Those that did not know him well would think that Mark Reuss was a forgiving person. But Gaby, who had worked for Mark Reuss for decades, knew many things that other people did not know. After Sets announced his n to retire, the diator school started to n his final battle. At that time, Mark Reuss asked Gaby privately whether to let Sets survived from the battle to preserve his legendary status or let him die on the battlefield where it could yield Victor Arena higher profit and poprity.


    Gaby felt a chill climbed to his spine. Sets had made a lot of contributions to the Victor Arena in recent years and made a lot of money for Mark Reuss. But Mark Reuss disregarded all of his contributions. All he could think of was profit as always.


    This was the true Mark Reuss, a man that ced profit about everything else.


    That was why he was so pleased to see Zhang Heng fighting well. His mysterious origin could make him a lot of moneyter on.


    So, why hadn��t Mark Reuss noticed it? The answer was simple. It was because the diatorial performance was just a packaging process for the diators. In the end, the diators�� strength was the one that determined everything. Without strength, there would be no packaging. With good packaging and strength, though, a star diator would be born.


    When Mark Reuss was still thinking about how to package Zhang Heng, the battle on the other side had already begun.


    When Nasika saw Varo and Zhang Heng, he was surprised and delighted. When he found out that he did not fight them in the first round of the battle, he thought that he would never have the chance to teach the two new arrogant neers a good lesson. And now his chance was here. However, when he heard the judge saying that they were the only two winning teams left, he noticed something amiss.


    Nasika was not stupid. He quickly realized that these two rookies might have concealed their true strengths. The ability to win two consecutive battles in such a short period of time had proven quite a few things. Not even he could achieve such an unbelievable feat. However, Nasika was not too worried because he was pretty confident in his strength.


    Thebat experience he umted over the years he fought in the Victor Arena was something they did not have.


    Just when he was thinking about how to win this fight, he was surprised to hear Zhang Heng taking the initiative to speak to him. Thetter asked, ��Are you ready?��


    ��What do you mean by that?�� Nasika asked subconsciously.


    However, Zhang Heng did not answer him this time. He just said, ��Don��t worry, it will be over soon.��


    After speaking, Zhang Heng made the first move. On the other hand, Nasika did not mind checking Zhang Heng��s strength and abilities first. So, he raised his big shield in his left hand to put on a defensive posture.


    And this move would also be a decision he would regret the most in this battle.


    He did not expect that this would also be the only decision he could make in this battle.


    In a matter of seconds, Zhang Heng dashed forward and was already in front of Nasika. This time Zhang Heng used the Batt��jutsu he learned in the Bakumatusu dungeon. He fused all his strength and aura into this strike. There was nothing fancy about it. When his sword came in contact with Nasika��s shield, Nasika felt that he would not block this attack.


    Nasika was horrified. One should know that his strength was excellent. Even Sets would not be able to defeat him at this point. However, Bach might be able topete with him in terms of strength. Logically speaking, Zhang Heng should not be stronger than him. However, he did not know why he could not y this match to his advantage even though he had the upper hand in strength.


    And all of this was just the beginning. Soon, Zhang Heng unleashed his second strike, followed by the third sh, the fourth sh... From the start to the end, Zhang Heng only did one thing in this battle.


    And that was constantly shing at Nasika��s shield.


    Nasika barely managed to protect himself from Zhang Heng��s first strike. Having had to use all his strength to fight it off, he could not help but retreat. In the end, he was forced to toss away his short sword. He had to use both of his hands to hold the shield. But no matter what he did, he felt like he was sitting in a small boat in the stormy sea, unable to withstand the terrifying pressure that Zhang Heng exerted on him. All of his struggles were are useless.


    Nasika even started to doubt the strength that he was once proud of.


    After a while, his hands went numb, and his legs were weak. He could no longer hold the shield. So, he dropped it. And he saw a white light shed in front of him. Nasika had already decided to close his eyes and wait for his death. Suddenly, the unstoppable sword ceased its movement and stopped less than a centimeter from his nose.

 Chapter 781 - Total Victory

    <h4>Chapter 781: Total Victory</h4>


    When Zhang Heng charged at Nasika, his partner did not help him fight off Zhang Heng.


    The reason why he made such a decision was that he was too frightened. After a while, he calmed himself down and started to assess the situation. In his opinion, if Zhang Heng had concealed his strength earlier, he should not be much stronger than Nasika. In other words, even if Nasika could not defeat him, he should at least be able to hang in there for a while.


    Thus, he chose this opportunity to kill Varo, the weakest diator in the arena. After that, he nned to work together with Nasika to attack Zhang Heng.


    There shouldn��t be any problem with this strategy. It was true that Varo was weak as he thought he was. As soon as he approached him, Varo started to lose his calm. Besides, retiarius was a profession that focused more on offense instead of defense. Once Varo lost his calm and began to focus on defense, it was equivalent to revealing his opponents�� weakness.


    In this way, he would be more and more passive in the fight. All he could do was to back-off from his opponent, which was very risky for him.


    But at this moment, a familiar voice came to Varo��s ear, ��Don��t be afraid. He is just bluffing. Just go all out and fight with him. He may not be able to defeat you.��


    Nasika��s partner was shocked when he heard Zhang Heng��s advice to Varo. Since he had the time to give advice, it meant his battle with Nasika had ended.


    Everything happened way too quickly. Nasika��s partner had considered the possibility that Nasika would lose to Zhang Heng, but he would have never expected the battle to be a one-sided ughter. To his horror, Nasika couldn��t evenst a short while. And now he had to fight two opponents at the same time.


    He disagreed with Zhang Heng��s statement about him not being able to defeat Varo. However, when he knew that Nasika was defeated, his fighting spirit had been greatly affected. And with Zhang Heng watching from behind, he could not help but begin to act clumsily.


    On the contrary, Varo, on the opposite, found out that Zhang Heng had killed Nasika and began to advise him. Suddenly, he could feel a surge of energy flowed within his body. Maybe he felt that someone was nearby him to help him if he failed to defeat Nasika��s partner. So Varo was able to fight his opponent confidently, showcasing everything that he learned from the training camp and his recent training results.


    As the battle raged on, Nasika��s partner was beginning to get overwhelmed. He was, after all, a veteran diator, and although his talent was not too outstanding, he did not expect to be suppressed by a neer who had just stepped into the arena. Until now, he still could not figure out how the experienced Nasika lost the twelve-man mixed battle so quickly. And how ridiculously powerful could Zhang Heng have been that he managed to defeat Nasika in such a short time?


    This was the main reason why he still could focus on his battle right now.


    However, even though he knew that there was no hope of winning even if he defeated Varo, he still did not immediately admit defeat. This was the most basic professional quality of a veteran diator. It was not until Varo��s fishing trapped him when he was distracted that he put down his weapon and surrendered.


    On the other side, only two teams were left in the loser group. The battle had also reached its climax. Trying their best to fight for the only chance to redeem themselves, the fighting scene remained brutal and bloody.


    In the end, only one group barely imed the victory. After examining their wounds, however, the judge ruled that they could not continue fighting. Hence, the final winner of the twelve-man mixed fight was born. When Varo heard the audience cheering for them, he felt surreal, feeling as though he were in a dream. He did contribute to the final victory and, for the first time, defeated a strong opponent one-on-one. This had significantly boosted his confidence.


    Of course, he also knew that most screams and cheers were actually dedicated to Zhang Heng, next to him. Simultaneously, the cheers were mixed with curses from those who bet on Nasika��s group.


    In the end, though, those voices were suppressed by one, and that was Zhang Heng��s name.


    There was no doubt that a new star was rising in the Victor Arena at this moment.


    There was an ear-to-ear smile on Mark Reuss��s face. He lost Rufus and Nasika, who could earn him a lot of money. Technically speaking, Nasika only lost his reputation and not his life. Only an experienced man like Gaby knew how ruthless Zhang Heng was. By destroying the thing that Nasika was most proud of, Zhang Heng had basically destroyed his mental state.


    During the battle, Zhang Heng had him overpowered entirely. It would not be easy for him to get out of this frustration. In a worst-case scenario, his strength would decline sharply, and he would live under the shadows of this lost battle for the rest of his life.


    But even if this tragedy happened to Nasika, Mark Reuss wouldn��t be too bothered. The reason was simple��he had found himself a new gold mine. Not only was it enough to make up for the loss of Nassika, but it also seemed that Zhang Heng would be making him heaps of money.


    ��Who do you think is more powerful?�� Mark Reuss asked Gaby enthusiastically.


    Thetter, of course, knew that Mark Reuss was not talking about Zhang Heng and Nasika because the answer to that question was obvious. Nasika had lost the fight in the worst possible way. Zhang Heng used this battle to prove that the two were not on the same level, so it was easy to guess who Mark Reuss was talking about now.


    Although Gaby was displeased by the fact that Zhang Heng concealed his strength, he had to put that thought away. ��He had almost the same strength as Sets when he was at the peak of his career,�� he said.


    Mark Reuss��s eyes lit up when he heard what Gaby said. But then Gaby reminded him, ��But he is more difficult to control than Sets. We may not be able to control him fully.��


    ��It doesn��t matter. Your job is to keep discovering talented diators for the school. Leave the rest for me to handle.�� Mark Reuss did not take Gaby��s concern seriously. He then rubbed the emerald ring on his index finger and proimed with pride, ��Everyone has their weakness. It could be money, beauty, honor, freedom... The key to controlling the people like them is to know what they want. You��re nowhere as good as me when ites to these things.��


    ��How can Ipare with you, my master.�� Gaby bowed respectfully.


    ��Wait until the diatorial performance... No, bring him to see me after this match is over.�� After Mark Reuss spoke, he stood up and had no intention to watch the performance anymore. He was now thinking about how to package Zhang Heng into a star diator. Since he had found the new sessor for the throne, the rest of the performance was now incredibly boring to him. So, he stood up and left.


    On the other hand, the celebration continued. Female ves holding tes walked around the arena, where spectators would throw their gifts for the diators onto the tes. Most of the gifts were coins. Among them were some feminine items that represented their love for their favorite diator.


    Zhang Heng waved his hand to thank the audience. Suddenly, he felt that someone was watching him amind the crowd in a hostile manner. When he looked at the person, he only saw the person fully covered in clothes.

 Chapter 782 - Ally

    <h4>Chapter 782: Ally</h4>


    Zhang Heng did not expect Gaby to bring him to Mark Reuss��s residence. Thetter��s Domus was not in the diator school but was instead located diagonally across the street, which was a good location.


    The Domus referred to the mansions of the wealthy. Unlike the modern vis, a Domus looked more like a small fortress, with a shape of a shell. There were almost no windows in this building. Unlike the kind of apartment that the ordinary people inhabited, the Domus had no balcony as well.


    Zhang Heng then followed Gaby into the gate, through the entrance, and came to the front hall. Although there were no windows, it was bright enough inside the building. This is because the front hall did not have a roof. Such a design allowed the sunlight to pour into the hall and rainwater collection.


    When it rained, the rainwater would flow out from the statues�� mouths on the edge of the roof, and it would fall into a square rain-bearing pond. Not only could the rain-bearing pond be used as a decoration where water would be reflected on the surrounding walls to improve the atmosphere, but it was also connected to the underground water storage tank. It would ensure that the Domus would have a water supply at any given time, unlike civilians that lived in the apartments, where they had to go out to fetch water from the wells and fountains in the city.


    Zhang Heng did not expect Mark Reuss to stand in the front hall to wait for his arrival. Seeing him show up, he immediately walked over with enthusiasm and put his hands on Zhang Heng��s shoulders.


    In the eyes of other Romans, this was a shocking move. It was unprecedented that the master woulde out personally to greet the ve. And he just made a move that a friend would do to another friend. And the best part was there was not a hint of reluctance on Mark Reuss��s face. It meant that everything he did to Zhang Heng was natural, and it came from the bottom of his heart.


    Now he looked kind and friendly. Aspared to the person who looked at the ves under his feet condescendingly on the second floor��s balcony, he was apletely different person now. But just when everyone has emerged in a harmonious atmosphere, a cold snort destroyed it.


    Zhang Heng noticed the girl standing on the second floor earlier. When he walked into the front hall, her face was darkened. And when Mark Reuss ced his hands on Zhang Heng��s shoulder, the girl stomped, turned her head, and returned to her room.


    ��Oh, that��s my second daughter, Domar.�� Mark Reuss introduced, ��Don��t mind her. I have been very busy with the diator school and had no time to look after her. That is why she is so rude. Let��s go to the reception room.��


    Gaby seemed to be a little worried about Mark Reuss��s safety. So. he said, master... Do you want to find a few more people to go with you?��


    ��It��s okay,�� Mark Reuss waved his hand, ��Zhang Heng is with us. Besides, if he really wants to kill me, with his skill, I��m afraid there��s no one here can stop him.��


    Gaby bowed and said nothing after that.


    Mark Reuss then smiled again, ��Come. Let��s go to the reception room.��


    Compared to the front hall, the lighting in the reception room was dimmer. Once Zhang Heng��s eyes adjusted to the dark surroundings, he could see the wall��s murals and the mosaic floor tiles under his feet, which were quite colorful.


    Of course, the reception room��s most attractive item was the sizeable magnificent table and the chair studded with jewels. Mark Reuss was sitting on it now. He then pointed at the other stool on the opposite side.


    Zhang Heng then sat on it without saying much.


    ��Interestingly, when I asked Gaby and ve traders, none of them remember who bought you.�� Mark Reuss said as he looked towards Zhang Heng.


    ��So?�� Zhang Heng raised his eyebrows.


    ��So I guess this is a good thing because it means that no one knows your past. We can work to make you look more mysterious to the audience. This is a good thing. Most women would be attracted to a man like you. However, I think you are not mysterious enough. I can ask someone to spread some rumors about you. For example, I can tell them that you are a prince from a country in the east or a general or something. After that, someone conspired against you, and you were forced to flee to Rome. Unfortunately, you became a veter and were sold to the arena. Every woman likes this kind of story. And they would sympathize with you...��


    Mark Reuss was utterly immersed in the story that he made for Zhang Heng. Halfway through, he realized that Zhang Heng wasn��t reacting. He then pped his head and said, ��Oh, did I not tell you that I wanted you to be the new trump card of Victor Arena? Do you know about Sets? He was the most popr and admired person in Rome when he was still in diator school. I can give you everything he once had. No, I can give you more than what he had and make you more famous than him.��


    ��And what do you want me to do?�� Zhang Heng asked.


    ��Victories, many victories, non-stop victories,�� Mark Reuss leaned back, ��I have nothing to ask from you except for victory, my friend. Of course, sometimes, we will need you to cooperate with us to do some necessary promotion.��


    ��I am your ve. You can just order me to do those things. If it doesn��t work, you can threaten me with death,�� replied Zhang Heng.


    ��No, no, no. I don��t treat you as a ve. You are different from those guys,�� Mark Reuss said while taking out a bottle of wine and two sses from under the table. ��Anyone who knows me knows that I am very different from other masters. I respect talented people. As long as you are capable of doing something really well, I will respect you from the bottom of my heart. Not to mention, I felt how you were a little special when I saw you for the first time. I am not talking about your appearance. It��s more towards your soul. I do like you, and that is the truth. And I think we can definitely do something big together. Couple with your strength and my operation, the whole of Rome will be crazy for you.��


    Mark Reuss then poured the wine into two sses and said enthusiastically, ��Try it, this is wine from Persia.��


    After Zhang Heng took the cup from him and drank the wine, he continued, ��Now that we are friends, you can tell me what you want and need. Women, fine wines... or anything else. As long as it is within my reach, I can satisfy you.��


    Zhang Heng put down the wine ss and said, ��I want to go out and get some air.��


    ��No problem, you can leave the diator school whenever you want, as long as you inform Gaby about it.�� Mark Reuss nodded without hesitation. He was not worried that Zhang Heng might run away from the diator school. Thetter had no other rtives in Rome and coupled with his unique looks and poprity, it was even more difficult for him to escape.


    For now, Zhang Heng had no intention to leave this ce. He wanted to get back his game items that were stored in one of the shops in Rome. At least, something good happened to him after he became famous. It seemed that Mark Reuss wanted to maintain a good rtionship with him. In other words, thetter would not desire to take away what he had. Besides, Zhang Heng was getting bored in the diator school. After so many days, he wanted to walk around the ancient city of Rome.


    ��Is there anything else?�� Mark Reuss asked thoughtfully.


    ��Also, I don��t want to date anyone.�� Zhang Heng said.


    Mark Reuss gradually put away his smile when he heard what Zhang Heng said. A look of embarrassment appeared on his face.

 Chapter 783 - Private Talk

    <h4>Chapter 783: Private Talk</h4>


    The diators were the super idols of this era.


    Hence, in reference toter generations�� celebrity idols, it would be difficult for Zhang Heng to run away from crony capitalism. No matter how famous a diator was, he still could not get rid of his ve status. That was the one unfavorable thing for him. As long as someone paid enough money, the school would ask the particr diator to secretly meet up with the generousdy.


    When a man and a woman spent some time alone, it was apparent that something intimate would happen between them. This was also an extra ie for the diator school. Most of the diators would usually not resist this kind of thing. Besides, they were not allowed to disobey their masters as well. Such a matter would further enrich their legendary tales. And it would also be something that the other people talked about on the street.


    The love story between Sergio Louis and Aibia was well-known in the entire Rome. The former was a famous diator at that time, while thetter was the senator��s wife. Aibia would always go on a date with him after his performance. This was something that everyone knew about in Rome.


    But no one would have thought that Aibia would abandon her husband and family for Sergio Louis. The couples who were tortured by love finally eloped and left Rome together one night.


    Their stories had since be the bards�� favorite subjects when they wrote love poems.


    Mark Reuss did not expect that Zhang Heng would reject something that seemed innocuous, not to mention how this would earn him way lesser money. If it were someone else, Ruess��s face would have darkened now. However, he did not do so because his rtionship with Zhang Heng was still in its honeymoon stage.


    And he did not want to let the friendly atmosphere that he created with great effort vanish because of this matter. So he thought for a while and said, ��I can help you reject some people you don��t like, but I can��t afford to offend those with high authority. Hence, I can��t give you any promises, but I can promise you that from now on, no one will bother you until youplete your performance at the Amphitheatrum vium. ��


    ��Amphitheatrum vium?�� Zhang Heng pretended not to know about it.


    ��Yes, that��s right. I won��t hide it from you anymore. The war between the Germanic and us is over. Our new emperor will return from the battlefield soon. At that time, there will be a grand diatorial show to mark the beginning of his reign. We are not the only diator school that will participate in this grand performance. Several other famous diator schools in Rome will also send their diators to join the battle. I heard that there are many powerful diators in other diator schools. Are you confident enough to defeat them?��


    Mark Reuss looked at Zhang Heng expectantly. He was patient and friendly towards him because the uing diatorial performance would reshuffle the rankings of the diator schools.


    Zhang Heng did not disappoint him. He nodded and said, ��Of course, I will im the victory for you.��


    ��Very good!�� Mark Reuss seemed overjoyed when he heard that.


    ...


    And earlier, Dadatis, on the other side, had also quietly left the diator school. No one paid attention to him. He came to a small market, passed by the alleys with clothes poles, and went to a wooden loggia where a man was selling spices. His stall was filled with saffron, pepper, cloves, mint, and rosemary.


    Dadatis squatted down and started to pick the herbs that he wanted. Suddenly, he felt a sharp de pointing at his back.


    ��Is the rumor true? Have you really be that old that you��ve lost your basic judgment?�� spoke someone behind Dadatis.


    Dadatis did not look back. Instead, he said lightly, ��Maybe. But you don��t seem to live up to your reputation as well. Otherwise, you wouldn��t have taken the flowers handed to you by the girl at the previous intersection.��


    The mysterious person��s expression changed when he heard what Dadatis said.


    ��Did you do something to the flowers? No, you are just bluffing.��


    ��What do you think I��m here for then? I��m trying to make an antidote for you,�� Dadatis replied leisurely.


    ��You lie! How could some use spices be used to make an antidote?��


    ��No. I just know that you don��t like things that taste bad. So I bought spices to make the antidote taste better,�� Dadatis said, inserting the mint in his hand into a small bottle.


    The mysterious person behind him hesitated for a moment and finally took the vial, drank it, and at the same time, put away the dagger he held.


    ��Why are you not in the arena? Isn��t he your most beloved student?��


    ��Because I don��t watch a battle where I know who the winner is. I know you watched his diatorial performance, right? What do you think? He is good, yeah?�� Dadatis pped his hands and stood up.


    ��What an assassin needs are more stealthiness and patience. An excellent assassin would look for the perfect opportunity to kill the target with one blow, rather than fighting the opponent head-on,�� said the mysterious person said in an affronted tone. ��He is more suitable to be a warrior and fight on the battlefield. Besides, he has already starting to be famous. Mark Reuss will use him as a trump card in the arena as long as he is smart enough. When he is used to living afortable and luxurious life, can he endure the loneliness, and will he be willing to be a nameless person like us?��


    ��You��re making the same mistake I made when I first met him. And that is, you have underestimated him. Believe me, people like him can��t be bought by Mark Reuss,�� Dadatis said. ��As for hisbat style, don��t worry about it. I��m teaching him proper assassin skills right now.��


    ��Oh, I see.�� The mysterious person chuckled. ��You said that he couldn��t be bought by Mark Reuss. Is it because you couldn��t convince him to believe in Kreis and ept our beliefs?��


    ��I��m working hard on it. These things usually take time.�� Dadatis shrugged.


    ��Don��t tell me that you forgot about the incident that happened two hundred years ago. At that time, the organization received the oracle, and we should have killed Octavius, just like how our people assassinated Caesar. But Octavius managed to convince one of us to betray us. That traitor worked with Octavius and almost destroyed the Bnce de. Many veteran assassins died because of this incident. And this was the result of recruiting people who did not believe in our belief.��


    The mysterious person paused before continuing, ��You know that the other members of the organization will not agree to let a person who does not believe in our beliefs.��


    ��I wish that the tragic incident did not happen two-hundred years ago. But like I said, it��s a process, and it takes time,�� Dadatis replied calmly.


    ��A process? I don��t think you can get other members�� support except for your old friend, Faceless. And unlike the situation two hundred years ago, we are now surrounded by enemies.��


    ��Then, let��s stop turning other people into our enemies.��


    ��Why can��t you follow the previous n and let Habitus assist us?�� The mysterious person was a little angry.


    ��Because Habitus will not cooperate with us. I am his trainer. I know him far better than you. He is what you call the kind of person who most likely will betray us. We don��t know other options if we want to carry on with the n smoothly.��

 Chapter 784 - Red Nose Blacksmith’s Shop

    <h4>Chapter 784: Red Nose cksmith��s Shop</h4>


    Zhang Heng did not know that the Bnce de had an internal conflict on whether to ept him into the organization.


    Of course, such things didn��t concern him too much. Now that he was finally standing on the ancient Roman city streets, he could see what this ancient empire was like with his own eyes.


    Ancient Rome had many simrities to modern society, such as the amazing drainage system. Some of which could still be used in modern times. And for the outstanding contributions to architecture, many people might not imagine that all these buildings were built in the first century. There was a surge in poption in Rome, and it caused the shortage ofnds to build more houses. To solve the housing problem, they had to build a lot of tall buildings.


    One of the most famous buildings was called the Happiness Building. Zhang Heng spotted it from where he stood because it is ten stories high. Of course, a ten-story tall building was nothing spectacr in theter generations. However, it was hard to imagine the residents living on the top floor going up and down every day without an elevator.


    The Happiness Building was like the Oriental Pearl TV Tower in Rome, standing in the middle of the city. Of course, it was one of the few unique buildings in Rome. In contrast, the apartments where themoners lived on the roadside were far less luxurious. Generally, these were only four or five stories high. Every floor added to the structure would yield the owners more ie. They were usually enthusiastic about making their apartments taller. However, doing so could endanger the residents�� life.


    Firstly, the building wasn��t nearly as stable as the high-rise building with reinforced concrete structure in theter generations. Therefore, it was often heard that the building here would copse from time to time. Those who got buried under the copsed building could only me it on their bad luck. Besides, there was no fire-fightingdder in this era as well. Once a fire broke out, the people that lived on the upper floors would suffer the most. The gap between the rich and the poor in the apartment buildings was pronounced, where greedy apartment owners would build their apartments as high as possible. In the end, the empire had toe up with a correspondingw to limit the height of buildings.


    Aside from the structural problem, once the building became taller, the frequency of someone tossing their garbage from the higher floors would increase tremendously. When Zhang Heng walked on the streets, he did see someone dumping their rubbish from the apartment��s top floor. Fortunately, he was agile enough to dodge all of that.


    He also encountered a group of kids who were having their sses on the roadside. This was how the students In Rome��s elementary school studied. There were peopleing and going on the streets, causing it to be constantly covered in dust. And the students were forced to listen to the vendors�� shouts and the donkeys�� braying.


    Here, the teachers would teach their students basic spelling and arithmetic. After that, mostmoners�� children would start working to earn money. Only the children of the rich and nobles would continue to receive an education.


    In all fairness, ancient Rome had a reasonable literacy rate among the people. It was better than the previous era. However, those that could not read and write were still more than those that were educated.


    Zhang Heng asked for directions from the two locals, then continued to walk down the street. It did not take long for him to arrive at the Probus Bridge. After passing this bridge, Zhang Heng woulde to the south of the River Tiber. This river passed through the city of Rome. And due to the rtivelyrge amount of sediment, River Tiber��s water would be golden when the afternoon sun shone on it. With the sycamore trees on both sides of the riverbank, it was indeed a unique scenery.


    Zhang Heng walked across the Probus Bridge and finally saw the end of his trip.


    The Red Nose cksmith��s shop was located in the building on the southern river bank. ording to the information that he retrieved from his character panel, the game items he brought with him to this dungeon were stored in that shop.


    Zhang Heng then walked into the cksmith��s shop and saw the cksmith crafting a dagger. Thetter was a burly ck man who was currently focusing on the work at hand and did not look back when he heard the footsteps behind him.


    After a while, Zhang Heng said, ��Vulkan.��


    Vulkan was the god of fire in Roman mythology, husband of Venus, and the password for Zhang Heng to retrieve his game items. However, when Zhang Heng uttered the word Vulkan, the ck cksmith did not respond to him. Zhang Heng waited patiently for about five minutes. Only after the cksmith finished sharpening the de and stood up did Zhang Heng realize how tall the cksmith aas. With a height far exceeding two meters, he was technically a giant.


    ��You are finally here.�� The cksmith said, ��Someone deposited something here two months ago and said that you mighte and get it at any time, but I didn��t expect to wait for so long.��


    While talking, he turned and walked into the back room, and after a while, he carried the package out.


    With a quick nce, Zhang Heng knew the package was meant for him because there was a game organizingmittee logo on it. Since he was in Rome, the logo was painted using some of the mostmonly used dyes in Rome.


    Zhang Heng opened the package and took out a few game items that could be used in this dungeon. After that, he put the remaining game items back in the package and asked the cksmith, ��Do you still provide storage services here?��


    ��Yes.�� The cksmith nodded, ��But ites at a cost. One Sestertius every two days.��


    The fees were quite expensive, but Zhang Heng has just made a fortune from the recent battle. Even after the diator school took a massive cut from it, he was still left with some money. He was no poor. After that, he took a gold coin from his pocket and tossed it to the cksmith, ��This is the money for the 200-day deposit. Keep my items safe.��


    The cksmith was puzzled after he took the gold coin from Zhang Heng, ��You don��t know me, right? This is your first timeing to my shop. Why do you trust me so much? Aren��t you afraid that I will sell your things to others secretly?��


    ��This is a good question,�� Zhang Heng said. ��But fortunately, I can judge others quite well.��


    Of course, Zhang Heng was not the type of person who would trust someone he met for the first time. The one that he trusted was not the cksmith but the game organizingmittee. Since the game organizingmittee chose to store his game items here, all his game items would be protected with the highest security. Hence, Zhang Heng did not bother to look for other ces to store his game items.


    After paying the money, he left the shop. With all those game items, Zhang Heng was more powerful, and it gave him the strength to take the initiative in any battle. Next, Zhang Heng was about to look at the temple, but he suddenly stopped moving.


    That was because he found out that the person that had been following him reappeared again. At first, Zhang Heng thought it was someone sent by Mark Reuss to follow him secretly in case he tried to run away. But now, it seemed like that was not the case. Zhang Heng noticed something hiding around their waist. While Zhang Heng was in the shop, they had gone to look for some weapons instead of staying idle. In other words, once they found the right ce, they would not hesitate to attack Zhang Heng.


    As for now, Zhang Heng was extremely valuable to Mark Reuss. He still needed him to earn more money for him and win the diatorial show that would be held more than a monthter. Logically speaking, it was impossible that Mark Reuss would send someone to attack him.

 Chapter 785 - Are You Guys Interested?

    <h4>Chapter 785: Are You Guys Interested?</h4>


    Zhang Heng did not stay at the same ce for too long. After a while, he continued to move forward, pretending to not notice the person that was following him.


    He strolled along the banks of the Tiber River. At a pace neither fast nor slow, he blended into the people around him. After walking for a while, he turned right into Perfume Shop Street.


    As the name suggested, this street was full of perfume shops.


    Perfume��s origins were discovered to be earlier than what most people had thought. It was used in ancient Egypt more than 3,000 years ago, before finding wide use in ancient Greek and Rome. The advertisements that were painted on the walls at Victor Arena where Zhang Heng fought earlier informed the audience that they would be spraying perfume at the lower stands. This served as a means for the arena to attract more audiences.


    Other than that, the ancient Romans had many creative ways of using perfume. For example, when building a house, some people would mix it into the mortar. By doing that, when the sun shone on the mortar, it would emit fragrance. And some people would spray perfume on their ves and horses, making them feel refreshed and happy wherever they went.


    Due to the ancient Romans�� passion for perfumes, the business of perfume shops flourished. Many people walked around Perfume Shop Street every day. Those tailing Zhang Heng felt as if they were facing a wave of enemies, worried that he might slip away if they failed to pay attention to him for even one second.


    After a while, they realized they did not need to worry about Zhang Heng getting away from them. That was because Zhang Heng did not speed up his pace or look for somewhere to hide. From the moment he turned into the Perfume Shop Street, he was always within their sights. Until he left the Perfume Shop Street and came to a group of apartments at the back of the street, it was quieter over there.


    Zhang Heng then walked into an alley with clothes poles. The bright-colored clothes hanging on top of it gently surfed in the wind. The group of people following Zhang Heng secretly nced at each other, feeling that the right time to attack Zhang Heng was almost upon them. So, they quickly drew their weapons, most of which were daggers, and among them, one short sword. The group of five then dashed into the alley.


    Zhang Heng had just turned into the alley a few seconds ago, but they lost sight of him.


    What happened to their target?


    The five people rubbed their eyes and were shocked to find out that Zhang Heng had vanished into thin air. They had been following him around for the whole day without losing him, but just as they were about to attack, Zhang Heng was nowhere to be found. This was something that they could not ept.


    How did someone disappear into thin air? If they had not seen it with their own eyes, they would have probably not believed it. Just when they were thinking about dealing with the person who hired them, a voice came from above their heads.


    ��Are you looking for me?��


    Zhang Heng loosened the grip on his hand that was holding the wall and jumped off. And hended right on the back of thest person, who lost bnce and fell into the four people in front of him.


    Immediately, Zhang Heng took advantage of the split second he had to pick up the opponent��s short sword that fell on the ground. The four people in front of him also turned around to help their ally up.


    The peace did notst very long. The next moment, the five people charged at Zhang Heng without saying a word.


    And Zhang Heng had no intention to talk to them as well. Judging by their appearance, they looked to be street thugs that hadmitted all kinds of crimes. To make them talk, Zhang Heng had to give them a good beating first.


    Fortunately, such a battle was a piece of cake for him.


    Zhang Heng chose to fight them at this location because it was a rtively remote spot. It would also force the five thugs to attack him here. And the second reason was that the alley was very narrow. It could fit only a maximum of two people when they stood next to each other. If they made too much movement, they would definitely alert passers-by.


    Although there were five people on the enemy��s team, only two of them could attack Zhang Heng simultaneously. And they might interfere with each other��s attack. So Zhang Heng went ahead and stabbed them. One wanted to move to the right, and the other tried to move left. In the end, none of them could dodge Zhang Heng��s attack.


    Since they were just a group of thugs, none possessed any notable fighting skills. All they could rely on was their brute force. Even Varo, who had only been trained for fifty days, could deal with the two of them at the same time.


    And it took Zhang Heng less than three minutes to make them sumb to him. It meant none of them dared to get up from the ground after Zhang Heng beat them up.


    Then Zhang Heng squatted in front of one of the thugs who seemed to be the leader, lifted his head with a short sword, and asked, ��Come on, tell me, who sent you?��


    ��I can��t say. Otherwise, I won��t be able to live in Rome anymore,�� replied the young man with gritted teeth. Looking to be of only about sixteen or seventeen years old, he was one tough cookie.


    ��You should know that I��m not happy with this answer, right?�� Zhang Heng looked into his eyes.


    Although Zhang Heng spoke calmly, the young thug could not help but begin to tremble in fear. Before he could talk, the person next to him said, ��Just tell him. Tell him everything. We are all in this together. We didn��t make much money anyway. Each of us can only get seven Denarius. It is not worth risking your life for so little money.��


    Upon that, a look of hesitation appeared on the young thug��s face.


    ��I think what your friend said is very reasonable. If I were you, I would take his advice,�� Zhang Heng said, driving his sword deeper into the thug��s neck at the same time.


    ��Hunahpu, the people from Hunahpu Arena hired us. They paid us to follow you whenever you leave the arena alone. We did not expect that we would get the opportunity to execute our n on the first day,�� the young man replied in a low voice, his words filled with bitterness.


    ��They asked you to kill me?�� Zhang Heng raised his eyebrows.


    ��No. We just had to make sure that you stayed in bed for two months.��


    ��I see now.��


    Zhang Heng knew that the Hunahpu Arena must have hired them to attack him because of the diatorial show that was going to be held at the Amphitheatrum vium in a month��s time. Aftering to Rome for some time, Zhang Heng now knew a thing or two about diator schools. He knew that Hunahpu Arena was the fourthrgest diator school in Rome and was considered one of Mark Reuss��spetitors. Over the years, both diator schools were filled with conflict.


    However, Zhang Heng did not expect that they would act on him so quickly. He had only gained fame a few hours ago after the twelve-man mixed fight ended. Even if the Hunahpu Arena wanted to mess with Mark Reuss, it was only logical that they would start with Habitus first.


    Zhang Heng tapped the hilt with his fingers as he pondered over the matter.


    The five gangsters looked at Zhang Heng nervously. Their faces were filled with anxiety because they did not know what would happen to them.


    A momentter, Zhang Heng stretched out his hand, ��Hand over the money you received.��


    The five thugs did not do what Zhang Heng asked right away. They were reluctant to hand over the money to Zhang Heng. Since they did not have a proper job, they would not have any source of ie. It was not easy for them toe across an opportunity to make money. Although it was not much, handing over the money to Zhang Heng just like that was very much a painful affair. Moreover, they had to think about exining to their employer after they failed the given task.


    Seeing that the group of thugs wouldn��t hand over the money to him, Zhang Heng said again, ��I am always fair. You can choose between not getting out of bed for two months or giving me the money.��


    In the end, they had to hand over the money to Zhang Heng reluctantly. After Zhang Heng counted the coins, he did not put them into his pocket. Instead, he said, ��Very well, I now have a profitable business to discuss with you guys. I��m not sure if you guys will be interested in it.��

 Chapter 786 - Wise Choice

    <h4>Chapter 786: Wise Choice</h4>


    The thugs looked at each other when they heard what Zhang Heng said, not expecting that he would make such a proposal. He just robbed them of their money and used their money to hire them.


    Was he nning to take advantage of them without breaking his wallet?


    Since the five thugs required money now, the leader quickly responded. They would not be able to get the money back if they said no to Zhang Heng right now. The wisest thing they could do right now was to hear what Zhang Heng had to tell them first.


    He then asked, ��So, you want us to teach the people at Hunahpu Arena a lesson?��


    ��Oh, no. Rest assured. I won��t make the task difficult for you guys,�� replied Zhang Heng. ��It has nothing to do with the Hunahpu Arena. I just want you to help me to investigate something.��


    Zhang Heng briefly told them Varo��s story, then went on, ��With Varo��s talent, it was a waste that he was sold and thrown into the diator school. Clearly, someone had spoken to Mark Reuss in advance. Varo��s wife and his friend are just civilians. They shouldn��t be powerful enough to do something like this. I need your help to find out who did such a thing to him. Let me give you a friendly tip. You can look for a ve trader called Chickpea and ask him about it. I will give you ten Denarius first. Once you are done with this task, I will give you the rest of the money. What do you think? If you are pleased with this arrangement, maybe I will give you more jobs next time.��


    The leader looked at his allies, one of them hesitated, and the remaining three nodded at him. So the leader then nodded at Zhang Heng, ��Okay.��


    ��A wise decision. Come to the diator school to find me when you have what I want.�� Zhang Heng counted ten silver coins and returned the daggers to the five thugs.


    ...


    Zhang Heng would always help with Varo��s affairs. For example, he taught Varo how to pass the final assessment, and during the twelve-man mixed fight, he chose to give to support Varo mentally instead of helping him defeat his opponent. By doing that, he could help Varo to boost his confidence. If Zhang Heng were right, the two would not team up again.


    Zhang Heng had always guessed that someone powerful must have wanted Varo to suffer. It would not be easy for him to regain his freedom. When they were at the training camp, Zhang Heng did not say much to Varo. He asked the five thugs who attacked him earlier to investigate this matter since he stumbled upon a good opportunity. If it went well, Varo would at least know who his real enemy was.


    Besides, Zhang Heng was trying to recruit someone that could help him toplete specific tasks from time to time. After all, he was just an outsider in the city of Rome. When it came to the people he knew and how to deal with them, he was not as good as the five thugs in front of him. Besides, he was still a ve.


    ording to Dadatis��s statement, Bnce de had a group of excellent peripheral members. However, Zhang Heng was still in the test period. In other words, he would not be able to make use of them for now. Besides, even if Zhang Heng finally passed the test and joined the Bnce de, he figured he would not be able to trust the Bnce de fully. In the end, he still needed toe up with his own trusted team. Those five thugs might not be his permanent team members, but it was good to start with them.


    In short, whether it was the diator school or the Bnce de, Zhang Heng had to be cautious of them. He had to prepare a way out for himself when things went south. After that, Zhang Heng did not go and visit the temple after those thugs attacked him. Not because he was worried that the people from Hunahpu Arena would attack him again, but because the sky had begun to turn dark.


    So Zhang Heng had to return to the diator school. Mark Reuss seemed to have high hope on him. Earlier, he agreed to Zhang Heng��s request to change to a different ce to stay. When Zhang Heng walked into the new room, he found out that the room was more than doubled his previous room size. And Zhang Heng did not need to listen to others�� snore anymore. Other than that, Mark Reuss also assigned a female ve to serve Zhang Heng. Not only would she take care of Zhang Heng��s daily life, but she was also asked to meet Zhang Heng��s sexual needs.


    However, Zhang Heng was more ustomed to living alone. When he thought about how Mark Reuss might punish the girl if he drove her away, Zhang Heng decided not to say anything in the end. When the sky waspletely dark, he did a simple wash-up and went to bed.


    This time his senses were sharper. When he opened his eyes, he saw Dadatis standing in front of his bed. Dadatis then beckoned to him. After that, the two walked past the asleep ve girl lying on the floor and left the house.


    For the past week, he had visited Zhang Heng several times in the middle of the night. It seemed like Dadatis wanted to keep this a secret. Such a problem, however, had never existed when he was dealing with Habitus.


    ��How��s it going? Did you have a nice afternoon?�� Dadatis asked.


    ��You found the people who attacked me?�� Zhang Heng was a little surprised. He knew that those gangsters did not lie to him.


    ��You are only half right. Those people that attacked you are from the other arena. All I did was give your basic information in advance to them. Based on your performance in the twelve-man mixed fight, anyone smart enough would attack you. ��Dadatis said leisurely, ��Very well, you have asked Mark Reuss for the right to go out freely. Our next stage of training happens to be outside school.��


    ��Hmm?��


    ��You��ve been practicing stealth for so long. Only actualbat can help you to digest the theories that you learned from me,�� Dadatis said, ��You need to lose the person that is following you. And this time, you can��t attack them.��


    ��It doesn��t sound difficult.�� Zhang Heng said, even if he did not learn how to be stealthy, he could get rid of people who were following him with his speed.


    ��No, no, you don��t understand what I mean. I want you to stay around them without being discovered by them. This is what it means to be stealthy for an assassin,�� Dadatis said.


    ��Are you serious? I��m a foreigner. It��s hard not to notice me in the crowd.��


    ��That��s why this is the exercise that best reflects the stealth ability of an assassin.�� Dadatis�� assertive words made it difficult for Zhang Heng to refute.


    Dadatis paused and continued, ��You possess excellentbat skills. Whenever you have a problem, you will think about how to solve it with your skills. Usually, this is not a problem. However, it will hinder your progress on the road to bing a great assassin. You need to ovee this if you want to be a great assassin.��


    Even though Dadatis��s tone was simr to his usual tone, Zhang Heng still heard something wrong with his voice. He then asked, ��Did you encounter any trouble recently?��


    ��Some of the members in the organization disagree with you joining the Bnce de. But I am not worried about this.�� Dadatis hesitated and decided to tell Zhang Heng the truth. ��About two hundred years ago, there was a traitor in our organization. He took refuge in Octavius, the Roman emperor at the time. With the help of Octavius, he formed an assassin organization to assassinate the members of the Bnce de. This is why I don��t want others to know that we are meeting each other constantly. Over the years, I have to make myself avable and show my face to get certain things done. Although I have done some disguise, I still can��t hide it from the veteran assassin.��

 Chapter 787 - Mark Reuss’s Gift

    <h4>Chapter 787: Mark Reuss��s Gift</h4>


    ��So, there is an assassin organization going against your assassin organization?�� Zhang Heng asked.


    ��Yes. And because the Bnce de��s traitor founded it, it had a very simr organizational structure. Except for the presence of the priest, his organization is a replica of the Bnce de. They even had the same number of core members,�� Dadatis said helplessly.


    ��I see.��


    ��Although they have only two hundred years of history, the ruler at that time supported them. Hence, they managed to grow their organization fairly quickly. From that time onwards, they have beening up with different ways to go against us. Supposedly, I should have waited for you to pass the test and join the Bnce de before I tell you all these things, but given your current situation, it is indeed possible for you to meet our rivals in the future. I think it��s only right to let you know in advance,�� said Dadatis. ��For the sake of your safety, you��d better not openly discuss Bnce de with others.��


    ��Understood,�� Zhang Heng said.


    ��Very well. Then I will teach you how to conceal yourself in the crowd. Hopefully, you know how to deal with them in the future,�� Dadatis said.


    ...


    Zhang Heng��s life was straightforward for the next month or so. Dadatis woulde and look for him from time to time in the middle of the night and continue to teach him thebat skills of an assassin. He would then go out and y peekaboo with the people hired by other diator schools to attack him during the day.


    Since Dadatis told him that he was not allowed to attack the people tailing him, Zhang Heng took a lot of effort to deal with them. As he had said, his looks were very special in the city of Rome, and concealing himself in the crowd wouldn��t be easy. Besides the stealth skills that Dadatis taught him, Zhang Heng still had one more hidden trump card: his Lv2 makeup skills. What surprised Dadatis was how good Zhang Heng actually was even without anyone teaching him. Under the tremendous pressure he faced, he began to integrate his makeup and stealth skills to conceal himself better.


    He even participated in four more diatorial performances, and as expected, won all four of them. And they were wless victories. Coupled with the way Mark Reuss operated and packaged Zhang Heng, his poprity skyrocketed in a very short period.


    Now, almost the entire city of Rome knew of a very powerful oriental man in the Victor Arena. And Zhang Heng also received the nickname ck Lightning. Over a couple of days, he received more than a hundred love letters. Ever since Sets retired, fewer spectators visited the Victor Arena. With Zhang Heng now its main anchor, the seats in the Victor Arena had filled up again. Mark Reuss could not be happier.


    But soon, another matter quickly captured everyone��s attention.


    And that was the new emperor of Rome, His Royal Highness Emperor Commodus, finally returned from the front line.


    Five Good Emperors ruled the Antonine dynasty, and Nerva was the first ruler. The interesting thing was that the first four of these five emperors had no heirs to inherit the throne. Hence, they all chose to adopt a son with an outstanding moral code to inherit the throne. When it was Aurelius��s turn to rule, he had a son named Commodus.


    Strictly speaking, Commodus was not the first son of Aurelius. Aurelius had four sons before him, but unfortunately, the oldest child only lived to about eleven years old. Hence Faustina bore a pair of twins for Aurelius. The older twin brother died at the age of four, and his younger twin brother was Commodus.


    Later, Aurelius weed his seventh son, Marcus. Marcus was chosen as his heir at the age of four. Unfortunately, he died of illness at the age of seven. In the end, Commodus became the only surviving son of Aurelius.


    This might sound a bit depressing, but considering that none of Aurelius��s four predecessors had a son to inherit their thrones, he was in a definitely better situation. Moreover, Aurelius foresaw that he would die not long after he contracted the incurable illness. So, he began to train his only heir. When he went to fight the Germanic, he brought Commodus with him and had personally taught him how to handle government affairs and lead the soldiers to fight the war. In seeking other military support, Aurelius arranged a between Commodus and Christina. Thetter was born in a well-known Roman family. Her father was assigned twice as a consul, and he had considerable influence on the senate. In Aurelius��s vision, Christina would be the link between Commodus and the senate, and the marriage would be vital in assisting Commodus to further stabilize his rule.


    Aurelius��s health, however, was worse than he thought. In the end, he failed to teach everything that Commodus was supposed to learn. When he passed away, Commodus was only neen years old.


    And now, this young man who had just begun his sophomore year had to take the scepter from his father to be the new ruler of the entire Roman Empire.


    With his father��s saint-like image and the four previous four good emperors, the people of Rome were looking forward to what the new emperor would do, especially when he returned to take over the power.


    And Commodus did not disappoint his people. On the second day of his return to Rome, he announced at the enthronement ceremony that a grand diatorial performance would be held in order to reward the army and gain the support of the people.


    The young man who had just turned twenty had not forgotten his father��s teachings. The bread and diatorial performances were vital to a king��s ruling. His generous act immediately won the cheers and support of the people.


    Simultaneously, the senate, which was responsible for preparing the diatorial performance, had also begun. All the important notices and documents were distributed to various diator schools in Rome and other cities.


    There was no doubt that this would be a feast for those who joined the diator performance.


    ��Look, this is a new weapon that I had someone special look for you.��


    That afternoon, Mark Reuss visited Zhang Heng and brought him a gift��two Persian swords. Instead of swords, they looked more like a pair of des. These could be considered as ancestors of the Damascus swords ofter generations.


    The two des gifted to Zhang Heng by Mark Reuss were obviously better than the traditional standard weapons. In this era, most of the Roman weapons were made of iron and steel. However, since they were still not good at manipting metal��s carbon content, the quality of their swords wasn��t that great.


    However, the two Persian swords that Mark Reuss gifted him could be regarded as the ultimate weapons. Not only were they sharp enough, but they also came without the shorings of other ded weapons. Other than that, the sword body was extremely tough. The craftsmanship was simr to the samurai swords fromter generations, forged with high-carbon steel was wrapped around low-carbon steel. Hence, this pair of swords had almost no weakness.


    The caster could have discovered this crafting method identally, or he might have mastered a unique crafting method.


    Zhang Heng was more inclined to the former possibility. Otherwise, the quality of weapons in Rome would have improved tremendously.

 Chapter 788 - New Mission

    <h4>Chapter 788: New Mission</h4>


    ��How did it go?�� Mark Reuss rubbed his hands as he looked at Zhang Heng with eagerness.


    Thetter swung the two Persian swords in his hands and nodded. ��Not bad.��


    ��I��m d you like it. I��m counting on you this time,�� said Mark Reuss. ��For the honor of Victor Arena, we must win the championship of this diatorial show.��


    ��I will do my best.�� Zhang Heng said.


    ��Very well. I know I can always count on you.�� Mark Reuss patted Zhang Heng��s shoulder with satisfaction, ��Other than you; we also n to send Bach, Habitus, Carnero, Mulkazan, Paral, and Milo. All seven of you willpete with the diators from other schools. But of course, I ce most of my faith in you. Other than that, I have also asked Gaby to find out about the diators from other arenas and mark out the ones you need paying attention to. However, the name list won��te out until tomorrow. Oh, yes, I need you to attend to a dinner tonight.��


    Zhang Heng raised his eyebrows.


    ��I know, I know, we had an agreement. But this time is different. The dinner will be held at the Dior Senate��s house. He is one of the most powerful people in the entire senate. The entire empire��s most influential people will be attending the dinner tonight, and that includes our new emperor. They want to know what the diators look like before the show. All the diators are required to attend this dinner. Later, I will get someone to get you a new set of clothes.��


    Mark Reuss turned and walked out of the house but stopped walking when he reached the door. He then paused and added, ��You��d better use the remaining time to take a shower and spray some perfume on yourself. Believe me. It��s never a bad thing to make yourself popr in front of these people. What you are about to face is the most powerful group of people in Rome.��


    ...


    Zhang Heng��s ve girl was very diligent. Just as Mark Reuss left the house, she hurriedly headed to prepare items Zhang Heng needed for a good bath. But as soon as she opened the door with the wooden barrel in her arms, she could not help but yawn. And the next moment, the wooden barrel in her hand fell to the ground. Startled, she bent down to pick the barrel up, but she suddenly felt extremely sleepy. Unable to resist this drowsiness, she finally fell asleep on the ground while holding the wooden barrel.


    Zhang Heng then looked at Dadatis, who walked in from the door. Surprised to see him, he said, ��Did you juste to see me in broad daylight?��


    ��Don��t worry. I��m very careful. No one sees me,�� said Dadatis. ��You��ve kept to our previous agreement and earned the right to join the diatorial performance. I��m here to tell you your next goal.��


    ��Hmm?��


    ��If everything goes ording to n, you should receive an invitation to the dinner tonight. This is a rare opportunity for you. We need you to approach someone there and impress him if possible.��


    ��Who is that person?��


    ��Our new emperor, Commodus.��


    ��So your target is the new Roman emperor?�� Zhang Heng wasn��t too surprised when he heard the name. Perhaps he already knew that Commodus had been actually killed in an assassination. With Dadatis joining the diator school, many things had be self-exnatory.


    Commodus was probably the Roman emperor that liked diatorial battles the most. And he also had a weird habit��watching the fight from the stands didn��t seem enough for him. For him to fully enjoy the battle, he would descend into the battlefield and join the battle. Consequently, he died in a somewhat ironic way��death by strangtion in the bathtub by a diator.


    ��Maybe, maybe not.�� Dadatis��s answer was ambiguous.


    ��You had better be honest with me. If my target is s Commodus, I am afraid I will quit the test,�� Zhang Heng said.


    ��Why?�� Dadatis asked in a serious tone.


    ��I may be a foreigner, but I am not stupid. I know the consequences of assassinating a Roman emperor.�� Zhang Heng replied indifferently, ��The conditions you offered aren��t good enough for me to take this risk.��


    Dadatis looked into Zhang Heng��s eyes, and after a while, he gave in. ��Well, I can assure you that your target this time is not Commodus.��


    ��Who is my target then?�� Zhang Heng asked, ��Are you still nning to hide it from me at this point?��


    This time, Dadatis hesitated for a long time before finally replying. ��Altrus, Commodus��s most trusted advisor. He has royal blood flows in his body too. Before he met Commodus, he was a low-life in the city of Rome. And now, his fate is changedpletely. He and another young man named Clint are Commodus��s right-hand man, and they are inseparable from Commodus. He is most likely going to be the second most powerful person of the empire in the future.��


    ��Why do you want to assassinate him?��


    ��This is the oracle from Kreis. Our responsibility is only to execute it, not to ask why,�� said Dadatis. ��The n is simple. Altrus��s whereabouts have always been a secret. He knows that many people have be very jealous of him, and he��s paranoid at almost all times to prevent an assassination. Since he has to always execute Commodus��s order, Commodus bes the only person who knows his whereabouts.��


    ��So you want me to get close to Commodus and get to know Altrus��s whereabouts?��


    ��Yes, that��s right,�� Dadatis said. ��Commodus isn��t like the other emperors. He likes to interact withmoners, especially with the diators. You can use this fact to your advantage to get close to him... gradually get to know him better. Consider it as making a new friend.��


    Zhang Heng thought for a while before asking, ��If Iplete this task, that would mean I pass the test, right? Can you promise me that you will not bother me again?��


    ��Yes. If you get it done, you will be my sessor and be the Bnce de��s core member. As I said before, our management is actually very loose and free. Until the next oraclees, the members of the organization can do whatever they want.��


    ��Until the next oracle arrives?�� Zhang Heng asked rhetorically.


    Dadatis rolled his eyes and said, ��I know what you are thinking. You don��t have to worry about it. You are not the only core member of the Bnce de. They will not necessarily call upon you to carry out the order. Although it is not a written rule, the same member will usually not perform two consecutive tasks under normal circumstances. However, I can��t guarantee that it will not happen in the future.��


    Zhang Heng wasn��t too worried about the future. Once hepleted his main quest, he would get to leave this dungeon. Even if the Bnce de were extremely powerful, they would not be able to cross over to the real world to hunt him down. Besides, Zhang Heng felt that Dadatis had given him his best to teach Zhang Heng everything he knew. It would not be ethical for him to ignore and abandon him. So, Zhang Heng considered it as a repayment for thebat knowledge that Dadatis taught him. He decided to help Bnce de to find the whereabouts of Altrus.


    After a while, Zhang Heng said, ��Leave this matter to me.��

 Chapter 789 - Sartonilos

    <h4>Chapter 789: Sartonilos</h4>


    Zhang Heng had been to Mark Reuss��s domus before, and the interior decorations were a clear statement of luxury. When hepared Mark Reuss��s domus with Dior��s, however, he realized that it wasn��t much different from roadside squatters.


    This was the gap between the nouveau riche and the noble families.


    Mark Reuss, master of a diator school, had to put on a smile when he came here. Since he was not qualified to enter for dinner, he could only wait in the front hall with his ves. Apart from him, several masters from other diator schools were here as well. Some diators had evene from far away from different parts of the empire.


    The entire front hall looked like a mini ethnographic expo.


    Needless to say, Zhang Heng��s height was not prominent among all the other diators, and he would be buried among the crowd when he stood in the corner. Bach was considered the most muscr neer, but he did not look all that burly anymore standing among the veteran diators.


    Zhang Heng even saw a taller guy than the ck cksmith in the Red Nose Smithy, standing there like the giant in the myth. All the diators here were extremely hot-blooded, which meant that they were not going just to stand there and not do anything about their opponents. After a while, the friction between them started to worsen.


    Other than that, the masters of these diator schools were also divided into different factions. First of all, diator schools outside of Rome would nevermunicate with Roman schools. Clearly, the one inside the city of Rome was stronger, which had caused the schools outside Rome to unite and work together. Some of these, however, were friendly to other diator schools within the city of Rome. Still, it was inevitable that a tense rtionship with the other diator schools would crop up. For example, the master of the Hunahpu Arena who wanted to hurt Zhang Heng had a very poor rtionship with Mark Reuss. The moment they met, they started to ridicule each other.


    Stioli bought a group of powerful barbarians three months ago. He wanted to win a good ranking for his diator school in uing grand diatorial performances. When he looked at Bach and others, his eyes were filled with disdain. However, when he paused when he saw Zhang Heng. And his expression became gloomy.


    ��Let me remind you of something, Mark Reuss. You��d better keep a few good diators. Otherwise, if all your people are killed by my people, I am worried that no one will buy your arena tickets next time. By that time, your Victor Arena will be over.��


    When Mark Reuss heard what he said, he put on a smile. ��Stioli, you are still as stupid as ever. What��s the matter? Afraid of me before the fight even begins? Are you trying to trick me into reserving my strength? Do you think you can fool me like this? After this performance, you should really think about the future of the Hunahpu Arena.


    Mark Reuss then turned to Zhang Heng and others. ��You don��t need to show any mercy to the diators from Hunahpu Arena. Kill all of them if it is possible.��


    Stioli let out a cold snort when he heard those words. He turned to his diator and said furiously, ��Did you hear what our opponents just said? If you don��t want to die, go all out to kill all of them.��


    ��...��


    Other than old rivals like Mark Reuss and Stioli, both sides did have good rtionships with some other diator schools. For example, after Mark Reuss and Stioli had argued with each other, both sides talked to the smaller schools to exchange thetest information.


    At the same time, a minor fight was happening on the other side.


    A diator from a school outside Rome walked up to a bearded diator sitting on the steps and asked, ��Are you Sartonilos?��


    The bearded diator did not lift his head when he heard the question, saying instead, ��Get lost.��


    Te diator, however, did not leave just because Sartonilos asked him to get lost. Instead, he walked half a step further and said, ��I heard that after Sets, you care the most famous diator in Rome. Do you know what I think?��


    Sartonilos did not answer. He looked drunk and weak.


    ��That��s because the people in this city have never seen what a real diator looks like. My school goes on a tour every year. We travel all over the country to fight with local diators, and we have seen all kinds of powerful diators. These men constantly hone their martial arts. We are different from you. We are not toys for the noble and youngdies. We are the real warriors,�� the diator proimed proudly.


    It was apparent that many diators around him agreed with what he said. This was actually quitemon. Although everyone here was a diator, those who lived in Rome were generally worth a lot more. They generally had better living conditions and were not short of admirers as well. If they were talented, the school��s owner would not mind spending a vast sum of money to nurture them. On the contrary, the diators from outside the city of Rome, especially the ones who traveled to various ces, not only lived in worse conditions but even received less reputation and gifts. It was understandable why they disliked any diator that came from the city of Rome.


    The diator from outside of Rome felt a little strange when he saw so many people supporting him. However, none of them said a word about it. And a few diators that stood close to him had started taking a few steps back.


    The diator named Sartonilos finally raised his head at this time.


    ��Then why the f*ck did you enter the city?��


    ��I��m here to teach you a good lesson and let you know who the greatest diator really is...�� Before he could finish speaking, Sartonilos, who seemed drunk earlier, suddenly rose up and leaped toward him. The diator was paying attention to his hands, not expecting Sartonilos to tackle his face with his head.


    And the people around him could hear the sound of his nose bone cracking. Soon after that, blood gushed out from his nostrils, and simultaneously, his body leaned back, and he fell to the ground. After that, Sartonilos jumped on him and raised his fist.


    Thest picture that the diator saw was the smirk of Sartonilos.


    Don��t worry about your nose because I can guarantee that you won��t get to use it again.�� After Sartonilos finished speaking, hended his fish on the diator��s face. And thetter immediately passed out.


    But Sartonilos did not stop there. He continued to punch him until the diator��s head turned into a pile of mush. Sartonilos then raised his head again and tidied its hair with his blood-covered hands. And at the same time, he used his hand to wipe off the sweat from his face. This action made his face looked even more hideous.


    Afterward, Sartonilos patted the dust off his body and stood up from the ground, ��Now, it��s finally quiet.�� His gaze swept across the foreign diators around him before he asked, ��Anyone else wants to teach me a lesson in his ce?��


    All the foreign diators were silent after they heard the words. Among them, the strong man who looked like a giant seemed to be a little eager to fight with him, but his master quickly forbade him.

 Chapter 790 - Meeting Commodus For The First Time

    <h4>Chapter 790: Meeting Commodus For The First Time</h4>


    Before the departure, Zhang Heng received some information provided by Mark Reuss. Among them, the opponent he needed to pay attention to was a man named Sartonilos.


    Thetter was a diator of the same age as Sets. When he began gaining fame, Sets happened to be at the peak of his career. Hence, Sartonilos��s name was entirely overshadowed by Sets. Displeased by such injustice, he decided to challenge Sets.


    However, the two belonged to different diator schools. In other words, they could not meet up to fight with each other. If Sartonilos wanted to challenge Sets, both diator schools needed to agree.


    But at that time, Sets was already going downhill. Hence, Mark Reuss did not want him to lose his hard-earned reputation to other diators from different schools. Because of that, Sartonilos��s school doubted if he was powerful enough to defeat their Sets. Besides, since they had already heard the rumor about Sets�� impending retirement, they would let him do that first. By that time, Sartonilos would be able to im the throne. It was the safest approach.


    On the contrary, if the two fought against each other, and Sartonilos defeated Sets, his reputation would skyrocket. However, if he lost to Sets, who was about to go on retirement, it would significantly affect Sartonilos��s reputation since he was in his prime. Besides, his school still expected that he would earn them a lot of money in theing years.


    Considering that the risks and returns were unproportional, the diator school did not agree to the battle in the end.


    But it was undeniable that Sartonilos was indeed the most powerful diator after Sets. After Sets�� retirement, some people thought that he was the greatest diator in Rome. Recently, however, some negative rumors revolvrf around Sartonilos. It seemed he had sprouted a new addiction to alcohol and had not participated in any diatorial performance for a month.


    When the rest saw him today, it turned out that the rumor was true.


    That said, his glorious battle record was something that would remain unchanged. Many diators in Rome were still very jealous of him. As for those hillbillies from the diator schools outside of Rome, they knew nothing about Sartonilos, which was why they dared to provoke him so recklessly.


    The unfortunate diator that Sartonilos killed served as a lesson for everyone that they should not mess with him. Not only was his face destroyed, but it also seemed like he could no longer participate in the subsequent diatorial performances. This was something that his diator school had to worry about.


    After Sartonilos turned around and sat back on the steps, a ve immediately carried the dead diator on the ground out of the door. When the other diators looked at Sartonilos again, they were awe-inspired.


    Because of this episode, the noisy front hall had be quieter, and the diators had be more cautious of him. After all, the grand diatorial performance was about to begin and it was only logical that one should avoid all possible conflicts at this time. Nobody wanted to be disqualified by the organizer before the battle began.


    Not long after that, a servant walked out of the back room and walked directly to the ce where all the diator school��s owners were. After hearing what he said, Mark Reuss and the others put on their best look and immediately summoned their respective diators to stand in the front hall.


    They had been waiting for quite some time tonight, and were growing impatient. After all, they were like emperors in their respective diator schools and waiting for others was umon for them. However, when they saw a group of men and womening out of the dining hall, they had to try their best to squeeze out a smile.


    As Mark Reuss said, the people who came here tonight represented the most powerful individuals in the entire Rome. Every single one of them was powerful to cause an impact on the political situation in Rome. For diator school owners like Mark Reuss, those were the people that they did not dare to offend.


    And at the center of all those influential people were a young man and a middle-aged man.


    Among them, the middle-aged man was the host of this dinner��Dior. The Senate wasposed of more than six hundred people, and he controlled fifty seats. The other one-hundred seats had to show him great respect as well. In other words, before carrying out any proposal in the Senate, one had to seek his approval first. For those proposals that he objected to, they would never get to see the light again.


    Such a well-respected and powerful figure was now treating a young man with respect.


    Without the introduction by others, Zhang Heng already knew who the young man was.


    Other than the emperor of the Ancient Roman Empire, no one could make Dior lower himself. Although the others were quite powerful, they could only humble themselves in front of the two of them.


    ��Your Majesty, this is the warrior I have found for tomorrow��s diatorial show,�� Dior said.


    A group of nobles walked down the steps, looking curiously at the diators in the front hall as if they were picking goods in a shop. From time to time, some of them would pat the diators�� shoulders and pinch their chests.


    ��They all look very strong. There should be a good show tomorrow.�� A strange look shed through the young emperor��s eyes, especially when he saw the diator that looked like a giant. He reached out and wanted to touch his skin but before he couldplete his action, something seemed to cross his mind. So, he retracted his hand. He then coughed twice and put on a serious expression, ��You have done well. The people will thank you, Dior.��


    ��Thank you for yourpliment, Your Majesty. What I have done here is nothingpared to your great achievements. You have solved the troubles caused by the barbarians at the border. You brought back the long-lost peace to Rome again. This is something that your father could notplete when he was still ruling. It is an honor for the Senate and me toplete these trivial matters for you. Rest assured, everything will be executed perfectly. Nothing will go wrong in the performanceter. The people of the entire city of Rome will be grateful that they are able to enjoy such a high-quality diatorial performance.��


    ��If that is the case, it��s great then,�� said the young emperor. ��I know that I still have a long way to go to be as good as my father. I��m just following his teachings and his example. My father always said that being with a wise man will also increase my wisdom. I think you and all the members in the Senate are the wise men that he talked about.��


    ��You really tter me.�� Dior bowed slightly, but seemed a little hesitant to speak.


    ��What��s wrong?�� the young emperor asked.


    ��I hope you don��t get me wrong, Your Majesty. Your father is undoubtedly a great emperor. Losing him is the loss of the entire Rome. But, fortunately, we still have you here with us. Since you call me a wise man, then maybe I can also give you a small suggestion.��


    ��I��m all ears.��


    ��I heard that some people in the military do not support the truce that you made with the Germanic tribe. They think it goes against your father��s will, but I hope you know that the Senate will always be on your side. You made the right choice. As I said, your father is great, but maybe it��s time for us to look forward. You are the emperor of Rome. Sometimes you don��t have to keep thinking about what your father will do in such a situation or what he expects you to do. You have done a good job about the armistice. The people of Rome are happy with the decision you��ve made. So, try to give yourself a break sometimes,�� said Dior.

 Chapter 791 - Provocation

    <h4>Chapter 791: Provocation</h4>


    ��What do you mean by letting loose sometimes?�� The young emperor was a little puzzled.


    Dior smiled, ��You like diatorial fights, don��t you?��


    ��No, I just watch it asionally to rx,�� denied Commodus. ��I am too busy and have a lot of things to do every day. In fact, I am thinking about issuing new coins before leaving. What I meant is that I want the people of Rome to get to know me through these diatorial performances. As for those living in more remote ces, however, I��ll need to let them know that the empire has a new emperor. Hence, I n to ask someone to cast coins with my head on them. The emperors ofte have done simr things too...��


    ��Yes, yes, I can understand that you need to rule such a big country. You must be exhausted now. All the more you should loosen up and enjoy yourself in this rare time of leisure, right?�� Dior said. He beckoned the servant to bring two more sses of wine before taking one and handing the other to the young emperor.


    ��You need to rx. We won��t talk about politics tonight.��


    The young emperor hesitated and took the ss of wine and drank it, ��Okay, let us take a good look at the warriors here.��


    The owners of the diator schools had been waiting a long time. After getting permission, they stepped forward to pay their respects to Dior and Commodus. After that, they began to introduce their diators.


    ��Your Majesty, this is the giant Terufelos. He is a Sarmatian. He was sold to the northeast of the empire when he was still a boy. I found him in a very remote copper mine and bought him over. At that time, he was so skinny because he did not have enough food every day. But I knew he was born to be a diator. Once fed and the iron pickaxe in his hand reced by a weapon, he would be a great diator. And he did not disappoint me. I took him on tour, and no one could defeat him. His body contains infinite power, just like a beast,�� said an old man that looked like a dried corpse. He then nodded to Terufelos, and thetter walked out of the crowd.


    Admittedly, his gigantic figure must have exerted a great deal of pressure on the people around him. Seeing him making a move, Commodus��s guards immediately tensed and drew out their weapons one after another.


    ��It��s okay,�� Commodus said, ��Let��s see what he is going to do.��


    Terufelos did not speak. Instead, he walked towards the fountain in the center of the front hall. He rubbed his hands, bent down, and with only one hand, he picked up the marble statue in front of the fountain, the height of a person.


    Upon witnessing the scene, all the guests who hade for the banquet tonight eximed in amazement. His master was ted as well. On the contrary, the owners of the other diator schools had a solemn look on them. Since they had experience dealing with the diators, they knew that it was easy for their diators to defeat him. There were many diators with outstanding strength, but they could not do what Terufelos just did. With this overwhelming power, he was ted to be a strong contender for that diatorial show��s championship.


    Terufelos then swung the marble statue twice and put it back to its original position, before returning to where he stood.


    ��If I hadn��t seen it with my own eyes, I wouldn��t have believed that such powerful people even exist!�� Commodus eximed in excitement. ��Your nickname is Giant, isn��t it?��


    Terufelos nodded.


    ��It suits you well. I wish you good results in the diatorial performanceter.��


    Commodus seemed to have released his long-repressed interest. He then followed Dior to talk to the next diator.


    ��His name is Exois, from Diati. He achieved a proud record of neen consecutive victories. And he is very good at using the trident...��


    ��Danaus, a Thracian diator. Everyone is aware that Thracians give birth to many outstanding diators, and among them, Danaus is the best one. He is especially good at slicing his opponent��s throats...��


    ��Julicia, a Celtic. His body is amazingly flexible, and no one can beat him in closebat...��


    ��...��


    As Dior and Commodus continued to walk, they saw more and more diators. All of them had their own legendary tales, and they were the trump cards of their respective arenas. Since they were a lot of them here, there was not much time to introduce themselves.


    Except for the Sarmatian, who had a unique look, Commodus could not remember the names of most of the diators. He would only look at each one for a short while before moving on to the next. Zhang Heng knew that if this went on, he might just notplete the task assigned by the Bnce de. Although he had made a name for himself during this period, coupled with the way Mark Reuss promoted him, lots of people in Rome now knew his name.


    Zhang Heng was, however, still a rookie, and his battle record was nowhere nearly as glorious as veteran diators who had fought for many years. Strictly speaking, although he was the talk of the town, he wasn��t even close to bing a legendary diator. And his biggest disadvantage was that Commodus had juste back from the frontline, and he happened to miss the time of his rise to fame. The emperor also needed to attend to many things, so it was only logical that he had never heard of his name.


    Zhang Heng knew that he had to find a way to attract Commodus��s attention.


    At present, Commodus had suddenly stopped in front of a diator, pointed, and gasped in surprise. ��Are you Sartonillos?��


    ��Yes, your honorable majesty. I didn��t expect you to know my name,�� Sartonilos bowed.


    ��Of course, I know your name! I went to see your diatorial show with my sister before leaving Rome. More than once, they said that Sets is old and that you are the strongest diator in Rome right now. What do you think? Are you confident enough to win the battle this time?��


    ��I will dedicate all the victory and glory to you,�� Sartonilos said.


    Just when the two parties were talking happily, Commodus heard someone speaking in disdain.


    ��I don��t think His Majesty would take a liking to someone that lies.��


    Sartonilos��s face changed suddenly. He looked in the direction where the voice came from and found that the person who just talked was an Oriental man. Sartonilos did not remember that he had seen this Oriental man before. Earlier, when the diators were gathered at the front hall and were waiting, thetter made no moves that attracted attention. Sartonilos, too had no idea why Zhang Heng would provoke him now.


    Sartonilos wasn��t the kind that allowed someone to provoke him. He respectfully said to Commodus, ��Your Majesty, can I deal with this matter?��


    Commodus figured what he was going to do. If it were ced in the past, he would probably reject Sartonilos��s request because his father was with him. This time, though, he remembered what Dior told him. There was no need to be too serious since he was here to have fun this evening.


    So he smiled and said, ��Of course.��

 Chapter 792 - Battle In The Front Hall

    <h4>Chapter 792: Battle In The Front Hall</h4>


    Nobody had expected that somebody would so brazenly provoke Sartonilos in such a tant manner after witnessing what happened to the unfortunate diator.


    The diators in the city had heard of Zhang Heng��s name before. They knew that Zhang Heng was the neer who imed the twelve-man mixed fight championship at Victor Arena. However, he hadpleted too few battles; hence, no one knew too much about him. Those diators from outside the city had never even seen Zhang Heng before, nor did they know where he came from.


    Sartonilos turned around immediately after getting Commodus��s permission and walked towards Zhang Heng. The diators who were present could feel the raging anger in his eyes, and he had the oriental man clearly in his sights.


    Immediately, Habitus quietly moved a little away from Zhang Heng. Although the two belonged to the same school, Habitus did not like Zhang Heng very much. This was alsopletely normal. Initially, Bach was the only ace diator thatpeted with Habitus to be Victor Arena��s trump card. However, Bach was not fully mature yet. Hence, Habitus was confident that he could overtake Bach in the first half of thepetition. If he managed to do that, he would have more chips in hand to negotiate with the diator school.


    But now, his n was ruined. The oriental man who had been keeping quiet had suddenly unleashed his entire force, and he managed to achieve a wless victory in his first battle. After he killed Nasika, Mark Reuss began to pay attention to him. Since then, Habitus could clearly feel that the diator school no longer treated him as well as before. Besides, he came across another unfortunate matter after that. He decided to ept Dadatis��s proposal to fortify his position, but thetter told him that the n was canceled.


    Although Habitus had no evidence, his intuition told him that Zhang Heng had something to do with it. And that was why he hated Zhang Heng.


    The other diators from the Victor Arena, save for Bach, were all old men. These men were closer to Habitus. Seeing that Habitus had made it clear that he did not want to get involved in this issue, they had all decided to do nothing. On the contrary, Bach was not afraid of him at all. He, too, had just arrived in Rome not too long ago, and he had never gotten the chance to witness Sartonilo��s most glorious moment. He was all too ready to beat him up.


    But then he heard Zhang Heng��s voice. ��Stand still. It��s none of your business.��


    Bach was furious when he heard what Zhang Heng said, and he almost started a fight. When he remembered that he could not beat him, however, he could only stand down. That said, he had made a lot of progress recently. Even Gaby praised him. It made Bach want to rechallenge Zhang Heng. But when Bach witnessed Zhang Heng��s previous diatorial performance, he finally realized that it would be impossible to catch up with Zhang Heng for now.


    After the two talked, Sartonilos walked up to Zhang Heng. The two were very close, and Zhang Heng could already smell the alcohol on Sartonilos. However, Zhang Heng knew very well that Sartonilos��s alcohol addiction was not that serious. It was a disguise of his. The diator school that he was in ced great importance on this performance, and they started to use this strategy a month ago to lower his opponents�� guard.


    He might be able to fool others with this disguise but not Zhang Heng.


    Zhang Heng could see that Sartonilos was in his best condition after a month of intensive training. The second most powerful diator after Sets was actually quite strong. Now, Commodus and the entire Rome��s ruling ss were here. In such a case, Zhang Heng would not be able to use any weapons. In other words, Zhang Heng would not be able to make use of his Lv4 swordsmanship.


    All he could do was rely on was his physical strength and some boxing skills that he learned from the Deductive Reasoning quest. After Zhang Heng analyzed the situation, he felt that he should be able to cope with it.


    Zhang Heng was left with no other option. It would be challenging to impress Commodus tonight with conventional means. Hence, he could only take advantage of Sartonilos. Although the method was old-fashioned, the stronger individual would eventually prevail. Such was the rule of the diator world. If a neer wanted to rise to the top, he had to first step on the veteran��s head. If he could win in this battle, no one would say a word about him.


    ��Kid, were you the one that talked to me just now?�� Sartonilos asked coldly, bringing his face closer to Zhang Heng.


    Zhang Heng did not rush to answer. Instead, he looked at Commodus that standing not far away from him. Unsurprisingly, the young emperor seemed very interested in Zhang Heng, and he was asking Mark Reuss about Zhang Heng��s origins.


    Mark Reuss was sweating profusely. Before he came here, he had prepared a speech to introduce his famous diators, especially Zhang Heng. Seeing Commodus walking toward him, he was ready to tell Commodus everything about Zhang Heng. However, he did not expect Zhang Heng to provoke Sartonilos.


    But at this point, there was nothing he could do about it. He could only bite the bullet, introduce Zhang Heng to Commodus, and pray that Zhang Heng had the situation under his control.


    But the thing that Zhang Heng said nextpletely shattered his dream, ��Yes, I guess you are so old that you need me to repeat everything that I had just said to you.��


    Sartonilos then smiled slyly, ��Interesting. I haven��t shown up for a month. And some rubbish is bold enough to provoke me.��


    ��Have you ever considered that such a thing happened because you are a garbage dump?�� Zhang Heng wasn��t intimidated by Satonilos��s gaze. Instead, he looked back at him calmly.


    In the end, it was Sartonilos�� fist that greeted him.


    His fist flew at breakneck speed. Seeing how close the two were, Sartonilos did not expect that his first strike would fail tond on Zhang Heng.


    Zhang Heng dodged his fist by just turning his head. Right after that, he began to strike back. And Zhang Heng��s fist uratelynded on Sartonilos�� right cheek and knocked him to the ground. It was a very embarrassing scene for Sartonilos. Zhang Heng, however, knew that Sartonilos�� injuries were not that severe. He still had enough strength to strike back.


    Since they were not allowed to use any weapons, it was not easy to tell who would win this battle by swinging their fists.


    Sartonilos, who had fallen to the ground, quickly stood up again. This time, he seemed furious. Without saying a word, he rushed towards Zhang Heng again. And Zhang Heng also moved his fist to prepare for the next round of battle.


    The two were embroiled in a fierce fight in the front hall, and the other diators had to evade them whenever they got close.


    On the contrary to what most imagined, Sartonilos seemed like getting more beat by the second. On average, Zhang Heng got to punch him three times before he could return the punch. Moreover, Zhang Heng, on the opposite side, seemed to be able to neutralize half of Sartonilos��s strength whenever he attacked him.


    Zhang Heng utilized a rather strange way of moving in this battle as if he could integrate his steps and his breathing. And he was incredibly agile.


    After fighting for a while, the expression on Sartonilos��s face had changed. He was calmer now. A veteran diator like him would rarely be affected by anger. Most of the time, his anger was just a disguise. When he calmed down, he immediately realized that he had encountered a formidable opponent.

 Chapter 793 - This Is It

    <h4>Chapter 793: This Is It</h4>


    Sartonilos slowed his attacks, delegated more energy to his defense before finally managing to keep the battle under his control. But soon, he was struck by another piece of bad news. Zhang Heng��s stamina seemed to be better than him. After the two fought head-to-head for so long, Zhang Heng��s breathing rate did not change much. In other words, if he dragged the battle any longer, the situation would be even more unfavorable for him.


    Immediately, Sartonilos frowned. He did not expect that Victor Arena had quickly managed to cultivate such an annoying neer after Sets retired. Since Zhang Heng attacked him first, Sartonilos would not hesitate to get back at Zhang Heng if he could choose again. After all, with so many big shots presented here tonight, backing down would be inappropriate.


    Just like how a lion would defend its territory when it saw another lion crossing the line, so would a diator. No matter how strong you were before, in this world where the strong preyed on the weak, you would be torn apart by the hyenas that swarmed toward you once you showed your vulnerable side.


    And the current battle situation was only slightly disadvantageous for Sartonillos. In his long career as a diator, he had fought many battles that were unfavorable to him. He had the most scars on his body among all the diators here, and since he was still standing, those scars had be his past glory, symbolizing the epic battles that he had won andpleted.


    Hence, the battle tonight would be no exception for him.


    Just then, Satonilos received another punch in his mouth. But this time, he retaliated with a kick. He then spat out a bloody tooth and sneered, ��What now? Is that all you can do?��


    At that time, Zhang Heng had also gotten up from the ground. He could have avoided this kick, but after calcting the damage that he would receive, he concluded that he would end up worse if he did not dodge. Therefore, Zhang Heng chose to take the damage. And the reason was that he knew what the audience liked. By avoiding the kick, Zhang Heng would be able to showcase his strength and agility. However, it was still not as attractive as using the blood-to-blood and fist-to-fist fighting methods.


    For thousands of years, the spectators�� preference had never changed in whateverpetition. Everyone was always more inclined toward the so-called ��tough guy.��


    Defeating Sartonilos was never Zhang Heng��s goal. All he wanted to do was to attract Commodus��s attention. The young emperor was now watching the battle between the two with excitement. The guests spontaneously formed a circle to surround Zhang Heng and Sartonilos. At first, Commodus seemed a little reserved. After a while, he took the lead to cheer for his favorite diator.


    And the diator that he supported was Sartonilos. After all, he knew thetter before he left Rome, and Zhang Heng was the first to provoke him. In terms of justice, Zhang Heng should not have the advantage here. However, as the fight continued, Commodus��s perception of Zhang Heng had improved to a certain extent. He felt that although this Easterner was reckless, he was still a real man. Hence, when Zhang Heng performed well, he would cheer and apud too.


    And when Sartonilos heard that the emperor was cheering for Zhang Heng, he was triggered. Sartonilos knew that he had to make a decision.


    As early as a month ago, the diator school and he had begun preparations for the diatorial show in the Amphitheatrum vium. For this reason, the diator school did not hesitate to let him stop fighting for a month, not to mention the tons of money they spent to create the image of a women and alcohol addict. When the spies from other diator schools saw what he had be, they would surely let down their guard.


    And Sartonilos used this month to heal the hidden wounds on his body and adjusted his mind and body to tip-top condition. Only a few people knew that he was now better than he ever was. Initially, Sartonilos wanted to hide his strength until he encountered a potent enemy. Still, he did not expect that he would be forced into a corner by an easterner that he had never seen before, even before the diatorial show started. Sartonilos was not being forced to make an important decision on whether or not to use his trump card.


    After all, it was not a formal diatorial performance now. If he lost in this fight, it would not affect his odds of winning the grand battleter. But at this moment, the emperor and other powerful individuals were watching the battle. Sartonilos could not imagine the negative impact that might befall him and the diator school he attended.


    Therefore, he gritted his teeth and decided to tear off his disguise. Anyway, even if he showed his true strength now, he could still win the diatorial championship.


    The next moment, he wiped the blood from his mouth.


    The spectators next to him had a vague feeling that Satonilos��s momentum seemed to have changed, and Zhang Heng, his opponent, could sense the change in him almost instantly. His expressions switched, and he knew that Satonilos was desperate. Since Zhang Heng was one of the few people who knew that Sartonilos was using a disguise, he had been expecting him to reveal his true strength. And he was prepared to deal with it.


    However, Zhang Heng realized that he had underestimated Sartonilos. Seeing that his chest was exposed again, Zhang Heng subconsciously punched it. However, Sartonilos blocked his fist with one of his hands. The spectators were shocked when they saw what happened in their battle.


    Zhang Heng tried to swing his hand, but he could not retrieve his fist.


    ��You were jumping up and down like a monkey before. It��s time for you to have a taste of my fist,�� Sartonilos said while swinging his other fist to smash at Zhang Heng��s head. However, Zhang Heng managed to squat in time, dodging the attack. Right after that, Zhang Heng hurriedly mped Sartonilos��s arm with his legs before Sartonilos could throw the second punch.


    The two fell to the ground together into a cloud of dust. Unfortunately, Zhang Heng had not learned the locking technique from Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. Otherwise, he would be able to lock Sartonilos and restrict his movement while the chaos took ce. Hence, the two could only step away from each other again.


    Sartonilos did not expect that Zhang Heng would almost get to control him. Not too long after they were separated, Sartonilos wanted to use the same trick to attack Zhang Heng again, but Zhang Heng did not go on a head-to-head battle with him this time. Instead, he used the newly learned assassin��s steps and slipped behind him like a phantom.


    This change in the rhythm had obviously made Sartonilos a little ufortable. After that, he felt a chill under his left neck, but fortunately, he did not suffer any major injuries. Zhang Heng managed to use his nails to leave a blood mark on Sartonilos��s neck. Immediately, Sartonilos turned around and wanted to fight Zhang Heng again. To his surprise, Zhang Heng took two steps back and said, ��Let��s stop here today.��


    Sartonilos was startled when he heard the words. What did that mean? Did the Easterner just surrender? But the battle was not over yet. He had just begun to use his full force. For now, the two sides were tied.


    So Sartonilos said no without hesitation, ��It��s still early. Next time, you won��t be lucky enough to escape me.��


    But it was then that he heard another voice.


    ��I think what he said makes sense. Two of you gave us a wonderful performance tonight. Let��s wait until the diatorial performance topete against each other again.��

 Chapter 794 - I Have A Good Nose

    <h4>Chapter 794: I Have A Good Nose</h4>


    It was the emperor of the Roman Empire, Commodus, who spoke. Hence, Sartonilos could not disobey the order. He then red at Zhang Heng with his murderous stare and returned to where he stood helplessly.


    Sartonilos felt that although Commodus stopped the battle, it seemed he was leaning a little more towards Zhang Heng. However, he was not an idiot. He quickly figured out why Commodus stopped the battle. At thest moment of the fight between the two, Zhang Heng transformed his hand into a hand knife. And he slit his neck with it. If he held a knife or a sword in his hand, Sartonilos would have been dead by now.


    Sartonilos suspected that Zhang Heng used a dirty trick on him just now. After all, the two were only fighting with their bare hands. Naturally, Sartonilos would not guard against any ded weapons. Although Zhang Heng might inflict more severe injuries on him if he did not use that trick on him when he was not paying attention, it was still difficult to cause any lethal attacks. In other words, the two would have to fight for a long time before someone would im the victory.


    And he could not say anything about it. On the contrary, Zhang Heng seeded in changing Commodus��s first impression of him. Earlier, he provoked Sartonilos recklessly, but he fought well during the battle. While he had the upper hand, Zhang Heng stopped the battle decisively. This was indeed a rare quality for a diator.


    After the battle, Commodus patted Zhang Heng��s shoulder and said, ��Your name is Zhang Heng, right? I heard that you are from the Far East, the ancient empire that produces good quality silk. You fought well. I��ll be remembering your name. I look forward to your performance in the arena during the uing diatorial performance.��


    ��As you wish, your majesty,�� Zhang Heng said.


    Commodus seemed to want to say something, but he hesitated and decided not to say it in the end. After witnessing such an exciting battle, he felt satisfied. Afterward, he was a little absent-minded andcking in interest when he heard the introduction of other the new diators. Dior noticed his reaction and waved his hand to signal all the diator schools�� owners to retreat.


    ��I asked someone to prepare desserts and fruits, and a group of outstanding dancers is readied to perform for us...��


    ��Oh,�� Commodus raised his eyebrows, ��I have been out for a while. Thank you for your generous hospitality, and Christina is not feeling too well tonight. I think we should make a move first.��


    ��Of course,�� Dior said, ��It��s important for the queen to get well soon.�� Upon that, he personally sent Commodus and Christina out of the door. After that, he stood at the door and chatted privately with the young emperor for a short while.


    Zhang Heng tried to eavesdrop, but he could not hear what they said because he was standing quite far away. In the next moment, he heard a slightly hoarse andzy voice, ��Heh. So, you are the Easterner who gained fame in the Victor Arena some time ago?��


    When Zhang Heng looked up, he saw a woman who looked like she was in her thirties. However, her skin was well maintained, like a teenage girl in this era. She had slightly cherub cheeks, which made her looked like an innocent teenage girl. From time to time, she had this ruthless aura exuding out from her eyes. And her slightly curved lips showed that she was of extraordinary status. It could be seen from the way other female guests treated her.


    While watching the game earlier, the other female guests were standing beside her and Queen Christina. She wore a skinny metal mesh on top of her head. It helped to lift up her hair. Apart from the metal mesh cover and the wedding ring on her right hand, she had no other body essories.


    Zhang Heng had figured out the identity of thisdy. It was not the best idea to get involved with her. However, the thing did not go as Zhang Heng wished. Thedy did not leave Zhang Heng alone even after seeing that Zhang Heng had no intention to talk to her. She then moved closer to Zhang Heng. Immediately, Zhang Heng could smell the scent of rose petals on her body, and the heat exhaled from her mouthnded on Zhang Heng��s ears.


    ��Hehe... do you really think that all of us here are idiots? I can see through your thoughts. Tell me, easterner, what is your purpose of approaching my brother? Be careful, don��t lie. Or I will ask the guards to drag you out and behead you. You should know who I am, right? Then you should also know that I am not trying to scare you.��


    Zhang Heng was helpless, and at this point, he could only answer, ��Yes, dear Augusta.��


    The woman that stood in front of Zhang Heng was the noblest in the entire Roman Empire. She was the eldest daughter of Aurelius, and the sister of Commodus, Luci. She was also the only woman given the title ��Augusta�� after her mother��s death.


    The title Augusta was rted to Augustus. Its meaning was roughly simr to a queen. And it was also the highest title that a woman in the entire Roman Empire could get. Luci was the wife of Lucius when she got this title. During that time, Rome was ruled by Lucius and Aurelius. Lucius, however, died of illness not long after that, and Aurelius arranged for Luci to marry Pompeo.


    However, rumors were saying that Luci was not very satisfied with the second marriage. Although her current husband was an influential figure in the military, her status was still iparable when she was married to Lucius. Luci��s current status was downgraded from a queen to the governor��s wife. Fortunately, she got to keep her Augusta title.


    And she seemed to value this title very much. When she heard Zhang Heng calling her Augustus, her face finally showed a smile, and her tone was eased. ��You haven��t answered my question yet, diator.��


    ��What do you think a diator wants most?�� Zhang Heng asked rhetorically.


    ��Freedom?�� Luci raised her eyebrows, ��All diators want freedom, but no, I don��t think this is your purpose in approaching my brother.��


    Zhang Heng��s eyelids twitched. He almost thought that something must have gone wrong with Dadatis, and it caused his identity to be exposed. But Luci quickly continued, ��People whoe here tonight, rich or poor, only have one goal,�� she paused and slowly spat out the two words, ��Power. Admit it.


    ��You want more than freedom. You must have heard about my brother��s story. Hmph! He always has some unrealistic expectations for the people at the bottom, and now the two most trusted advisors around him are not even nobles.��


    ��You have a pair of sharp eyes,�� Zhang Heng admitted.


    ��No, I just have a good nose, and I can sniff out the scent of people who want more power.�� Luci exhaled, ��But, there are a lot of people around my brother now. If you want power and freedom, you might need to change your n.��

 Chapter 795 - Amphitheatrum Flavium

    <h4>Chapter 795: Amphitheatrum vium</h4>


    Seeing the intimate conversation between Zhang Heng and Luci, the other diators were envious of him.


    After all, she was the most respectable and powerful woman in the entire Roman Empire. Although she hat hit her early thirties, Luci��s face and figure were well maintained. Although some diators were somewhat hesitant to sell their bodies, no one would be able to resist it if the woman was Luci.


    However, Zhang Heng was careful while dealing with the beauty in front of him. And the reason was simple. ording to history, Luci would be involved in the assassination of her brother, Commodus, in a little over a year��s time.


    Theter generations were puzzled by the assassination. Luci was the former emperor��s daughter, the current emperor��s sister, and the only blood rtive of Commodus. She had everything that she could ever ask for. The assassination that she led did not bring many benefits to her.


    And in terms of nning, there were many ws. For example, she did not include her husband in her n. One should know that thetter was a powerful figure in the military, and if he were included in her n, she would have a way out of whether the n seeded or failed. Her husband Pompeo Nuss, however, was kept in the dark from beginning to end. Luci chose her cousin Omidius Kuvatratos to work with her.


    Thetter was a senator, his position in the senate second only to Dior. He also had influences on more than one hundred seats. Technically speaking, he was indeed very influential in the political field. However, the assassination n that came up by him and Luci was not that great.


    The two hired Quintianus, Pompo Nuss�� nephew, as the killer. This was also the biggest mistake of the whole n. This man was an absolute idiot. Before executing the n, he spoke to Commodus and shouted, ��The senate wants you dead...��


    As a result, he rmed the nearby guards, and they caught him red-handed. And he did not manage to survive the cruel interrogation. During the interrogation, he told Commodus that Omidius and Luci were the masterminds of this assassination. After that, one of them was executed, and the other, exiled to Capri Ind and executed not long after that. This was also the real reason why Zhang Heng did not want to be close to Luci.


    Not only was this woman a lunatic, but she was also brainless. Getting too close to her would most likely result in him getting dragged into her problem. That being said, after Zhang Heng talked to her for a while, he figured that Luci might not be as stupid as how history described her. On the contrary, this woman was actually very smart and somewhat unpredictable. These characteristics suited her identity more.


    She was, after all, the daughter of the former emperor, married to the emperor, and a powerful figure in the military in two separate marriages. All this while, she had been staying at the top of power. How could such a woman be stupid?


    Zhang Heng could not figure out why she nned that stupid assassination more than a yearter. That was why Zhang Heng did not want to have anything to do with this woman.


    The dinnersted untilte at night. In addition to the diator disy, there was singing, dancing, and bard recitations. The thing that happened after that had nothing to do with the diators. Considering that the diatorial battle would begin tomorrow, all the diators returned to where they stayed after visiting the ce. They needed to recharge and prepare for tomorrow��s battle.


    ...


    Early the following day, before dawn, Zhang Heng, Bach, and others were awake, and they took a donkey cart to the Amphitheatrum vium, where the diatorial battle was performed. In the future, the people could only admire the remains of the Amphitheatrum vium. Half of the outer ring structure had been destroyed, and only some arch ribs made of bricks and weeds all over the ground inside remained. The tourists that visited this ce would imagine the past glory that happened in this building. Right now, Zhang Heng was standing under it, looking up at theplete Amphitheatrum vium.


    Spectacr! This was everyone��s first impression when they saw this building.


    The early morning sun shone on the gold-ted bronze Nero statue. Reflecting the light, it looked like it was shining bright. The bronze statue was located in the center of the square, where it was filled with colorful gs. And behind it was the Amphitheatrum vium that looked like a great mountain.


    The viam Amphitheater consisted of four floors, with a height of forty to fifty meters. The bottom three floors had huge arcades. Statues of different looks were in the arcades, and each statue was bigger than the statues in Dior��s front hall. Besides, countless shields and ribbons were hung at the arches as if weing the heroes that had imed victory from the war.


    Of course, the most attractive thing was the top of the Amphitheatrum vium. A bunch of poles was inserted there, at least hundreds of them. These poles were tied with long cables and propped up the giant circle at least one hundred meters above the ground. Tarps made of thin linen cloth were ced on top of this giant circle, creating a huge cover to shade the spectators from the sun.


    Considering its size, the roof alone weighed at least twenty to thirty tons. In order to control the height of the roof, the empire had to mobilize a thousand well-trained sailors to do it.


    The stones used to build the arena had been transported from the Albraille quarry in the outskirts of Rome. Each piece had an astonishing weight. During that time, the Romans adopted some really extreme methods to build the arches. Unlike the pyramids, the Amphitheatrum vium was hollow, and its skeleton was like a bridge, supporting each other. More than two thousand years had passed, and it still magically stood strong.


    Interestingly, the Bernab��u Stadium could only amodate eighty-thousand people, and the Amphitheatrum vium that was built two thousand years ago could amodate ny-thousand people.


    ��No wonder they called it the diator��s temple,�� Bach murmured. ��You have to admit that these Romans are quite good at construction,�� the Germanicplimented his enemies reluctantly.


    It was still early in the morning, and no spectators had entered the arena yet. One could imagine how grand the scene was when this arena waspletely filled with people. While fighting under the watchful eyes of ny-thousand people, the not-so-brave diators would feel their calves and stomachs trembling. As long as one imed the victory, the winner could enjoy the waves of cheering from tens of thousands of excited audience.


    Such a sight made the diators feel extremely excited just by thinking about it.


    In fact, this did not just apply to the two neers like Zhang Heng and Bach. Even the veteran diators like Habitus were in awe when he saw the Amphitheatrum vium. A series of desires shed through his eyes. Except for Zhang Heng, no diator could resist the temptation of fame and fortune.


    It had been more than a year since Sets retired, and although the diator school had pushed out many powerful neers during this time, it was still impossible to create a second Sets. Not even Sartonilos could recreate Sets��s legendary achievements. And now, every diator was presented the fair opportunity of bing the best diator in Rome.

 Chapter 796 - Mark Reuss’s Worry

    <h4>Chapter 796: Mark Reuss��s Worry</h4>


    The person responsible for weing the diators from various diator schools was a disabled v.


    He led the crowd to gather in the arena to let them familiarize themselves with the venue. After everyone arrived, he reiterated the battle rules. In the morning, the beastmaster��s performance would be held first. The arena had collected all kinds of exotic beasts from all over the country. During the performance, the beastmaster could showcase their beast-taming skills on those exotic wild beasts, or they could showcase their appetite to the audience.


    Come afternoon; it was the diators�� turn to present themselves. Like the show Zhang Heng experienced in the Victor Arena earlier, the Amphitheatrum vium was divided into different types of fights. No matter the kind of fight, only the victorious diators were qualified to advance to the next battle.


    For the final battle, the arena would select seventy-two best diators to participate in the final mixed-fight. The situation was very simr to the twelve-man mixed fight that Zhang Heng participated in at the Victor Arena earlier. This time, however, instead of fighting in pairs, the diators were asked to do a one-on-one fight. And the ultimate winner would be the champion of this diatorial show.


    On the surface, this looked like a fair way of fighting, but in fact, that was not the case. As we all knew, there were many types of diators. Even the most popr twelve-man mixed fight in the Victor Arena did not include all kinds of diators. That was because certain diators were more powerful than the rest. For example, Andabata and Eques would generally overpower the other types of diators. The former was equipped with a horse, and thetter was given a chariot. Other than that, Sagittarius could use bow and arrow to kill their enemies.


    Under normal circumstances, these special diators would only fight against the diators with the same professions, such as andabata vs. andabata and eques vs. eques.


    However, in order to increase the enjoyment, the diatorial performance would, for the first time, bring in all types of diators to fight against each other. In other words, if the popr diators who were previously favored by the public were to fight against a profession that bettered his, the famous diator might lose the battle. However, if they somehow managed to beat the diators with a more powerful profession, the fame that they received would surely multiply.


    When Zhang Heng was familiarizing himself with the venue, he met several old acquaintances. One of the diators was given the nickname Giant. His real name was Philos, and he possessed immense strength. The second diator was Thracian Danaus from the Isaiah Arena. And the third one was the diator that he just offended, Sartonilos. Thetter had been ring at Zhang Heng coldly. Zhang Heng believed that he would not hesitate to kill if he came across an opportunity in the performanceter.


    Also worth noting were also some special diator professions.


    After Zhang Heng and others did some warm-up exercises, they were taken to the lounge on the side. There, they were asked to wait until it was their turn to fight. Fortunately, the arena had prepared breakfast and lunch for them, and they could also make use of the two small training rooms next to them.


    Afterward, Mark Reuss arrived at the Amphitheatrum vium to boost the morale of his diators. ��Everyone, it��s time to test the promises you made and uphold the honor of the Victor Arena. When you stand in the arena, you are not just representing yourself but the arena behind you. So no matter who your opponent is, don��t be afraid. Show your strength and courage. Nemesis, the goddess of revenge, will always look after you!��


    After Mark Reuss finished speaking, he took a special look at Zhang Heng, who also nodded at him.


    When Mark Reuss saw that, he felt a little relieved. And he wiped the sweat from his forehead. Although he was not the one about to fight these diators, he realized that the battle tomorrow might affect the diator schools for at least ten years. In other words, his ie would be significantly affected if his diators lost in the fight tomorrow. That was why he did not even sleep wellst night.


    And now he finally understood what Gaby told him earlier. It wouldn��t be easy to control Zhang Heng.


    Last night, the conflict between thetter and Sartonilos was definitely something he did not want to see. Fortunately, the oue was a tie, with Zhang Heng having a slight upper hand. When Mark Reuss weighed the risk-benefit of that battle, he thought that the unexpected battle waspletely unnecessary. Winning would bring him little benefit. However, if Zhang Heng lost the battle, Sartonilos would definitely smash his head to a pile of mush. In this case, before the diatorial performance began, Victor Arena would be losing a lot of money since their trump card was gone.


    Besides, he could also see that Zhang Heng wanted Commodus to favor him, which was in line with his interests. Mark Reuss hoped that the young emperor, Commodus, would notice his diator school and visit Victor Arena to watch performances more often. The fact that the emperor visited his arena would be more effective than any publicity attempts so far. However, Zhang Heng did not discuss this matter with him beforehand. He improvised the whole incident instead. At the same time, Mark Reuss felt that Zhang Heng wanted to get close to Commodus and quit his diator school. And it made Mark Reuss a little ufortable.


    But now, he needed Zhang Heng to win this battle for him. He had to suppress all the thoughts and doubts that he had in mind right now. As for other things, they could only be dealt with after the show was over.


    If Zhang Heng won the championship, he would be able to step further away from Mark Reuss��s control. Mark Reuss thought that this was the kind of trouble that he was happy to deal with.


    Mark Reuss did not stay in the diator��s lounge for too long. After encouraging his diators, he made a move to the stand reserved for him. And he would watch the diatorial show from there.


    As soon as Mark Reuss left, another man appeared in front of Zhang Heng.


    When Sartonilos got up and walked toward Zhang Heng, the guards in the lounge immediately drew out their weapons and warned Sartonilos. It was strictly forbidden for the diators to engage in a fight in the arena lounge. No matter the grudge between the two, they were only allowed to sort it out on the battlefield.


    However, Sartonilos ignored those warnings. He walked towards Zhang Heng and said, ��I will pray for you, easterner. I want you to win the battles and get promoted to the final brawl. As long as I get my hands on my weapon, whatever happenedst night will never happen again. ��


    ��This is true,�� Zhang Heng nodded. ��If we all had weapons, what happenedst night would have never happened.��


    The lounge guard was forced to call hispanion not far away due to the pressure brought by Sartonilos. However, when the other guard arrived in the lounge, Sartonilos had returned to his seat and had stopped ring at Zhang Heng.


    And it did not take long for everyone to hear the footsteps and noiseing from above their heads. They knew that the audience had begun to enter the arena.


    This time, the diatorial show was funded by the royal family and prepared by the senate with the goal of entertaining the people of the city of Rome. Hence, they did not charge any fees from them. Although the arena had ny-thousand seats, it was still not enough to fit all the people in Rome. That was because the poption of Rome was 1.5 million.


    Among them, the nobles had their own designated seats. Themoners, on the other hand, would be given a domino block with their seat number, gate number, and zone engraved. It was somewhat simr to the concert tickets ofter generations. It was to ensure that everyone could enter the arena in an orderly manner.

 Chapter 797 - Bet On Him

    <h4>Chapter 797: Bet On Him</h4>


    The first person who showed his face in the arena was the Roman Emperor, Commodus, who also happened to be the diatorial show��s main sponsor. He stood on a carriage, wearing a flower crown, and wore his morous emperor costume. He walked around the arena, and at the same time, the servants and guards around tossed bread and copper coins at the stands. His generous gesture quickly triggered tsunami-like fanfare from the tens of thousands of spectators.


    Commodus��s face was filled with excitement because at this moment, he could intuitively feel that the people were with him, and they supported his rule. So he frequently waved his hands to greet the audience in the stands.


    And his wife, Christina, who was at the lower-level stands had her eyes filled with excitement and admiration at the scene. Every woman wanted their man to be a hero that everyone admired, and here, her husband was the emperor of the entire Roman Empire.


    On the other hand, Luci��s expression in the other box was worth pondering upon.


    Although she was smiling, too, the corners of her mouth showed a hint of sarcasm. She then said, ��He is quite enjoying the moment, isn��t it?��


    ��Huh?�� With all that noise around, her husband sitting beside her could hardly hear what she said.


    Instead of repeating herself, she yawned, ��Is the show going to start any time soon? I��ve been waiting for so long.��


    ��Oh, should be soon. We have to wait for our emperor to finish with the parade. After that, the diators would step into the arena,�� said Pompeo Nuss with a smile. He knew his wife��s temper well enough.


    Many people admired him for marrying the daughter of Aurelius to be the son-inw of the previous emperor and the brother-inw of the current emperor. Luci was a famous beauty. Although this was her second marriage, she was still young and beautiful enough to be every men��s dream.


    However, Pompeo Nuss knew very well that the bond between the two served the political means. When they were at home, they seemed estranged, rarely talking to each other. Their rtionship was more like host and guest. Luci inherited her mother��s seductive temperament and charm. Pompeo Nuss, on the other hand, had rtionships with other women.


    Pompeo Nuss waspletely fine with the way they lived right now. A man of his position knew very well what he needed the most. After marrying Luci, his position in the political field was further fortified. Hence, he had noints about his current circumstance.


    ��How much did you bring?�� Luci asked afterward.


    ��Now? I only have some change, maybe forty or fifty Aureus?�� Pompeo Nuss searched his pocket and said.


    Aureus was a Roman gold coin. One Aureus was roughly equal to one hundred Sestertius. In other words, Pompeo��s change was equivalent to four or five thousand Sestertius. He paused and asked, ��You need more money? If it��s not enough. I can ask the servants to go home and get more.��


    ��No. It��s fine. I��ll go and look for a money lender.�� Luci waved, and immediately a maid went to look for the moneylender.


    diatorial performances were always paired with gambling. Hence, the moneylender was like a shark that scented blood in the arena. One could always count on them showing up.


    Soon a moneylender with a mouthful of yellow teeth came over and bowed respectfully, ��Is there anything I can do for you, Dear Augusta?��


    ��I need to borrow money to bet on my favorite diators. I can return the money to you after the show is over. How does the interest work?�� Luci asked.


    ��How much do you want to borrow?��


    ��Let��s start with five thousand gold coins first,�� Luci said lightly.


    The money lender��s face changed slightly when he heard the amount. He had been to hundreds of diatorial performances and never encountered someone who asked to borrow such a tremendous amount of money. This alone would even exceed what he lent to the entire audience that attended the show.


    However, he was relieved when he was reminded of the woman��s identity in front of him. The other party was Augusta, the emperor��s sister. This would be a considerable amount of money to anyone, but for the royalty, it was no more but small change they used for gambling.


    ��Since you will return it after the performance is over, the interest will be a hundred gold coins.�� the lender said, ��But I can��t lend you so much money alone. I have to look for other money lenders to gather five thousand gold coins for you.��


    ��Whatever.�� Luci waved her hand, ��Hurry up and write up a contract for me. Don��t dy me from watching the show.��


    ��Yes.��


    The moneylender quickly put together all the gold coins beforeing to Luci with the contract. At that time, the diators had already begun to enter the arena one after another while holding their heads high. And the tens of thousands of spectators were cheering for them.


    And from the cheers, one could also tell how famous a diator was.


    The spectators cheered the loudest, for instance, when Sartonilos appeared on the stage. Habitus, too, enjoyed the screams of many female audiences. As for Zhang Heng and Bach, the cheers were not as much as those famous diators. It was totally normal. Take Zhang Heng as an example. He had onlypleted a couple of performances. No matter how outstanding he was, he could notpare with those veteran diators who have umted poprity for several years. Bach did even worse than him.


    Luci��s eyes lit up when she saw Zhang Heng. She then pointed at him and said to the maid beside her, ��Bet on him.��


    ��How much?��


    ��Everything.��


    This time, Pompeo Nuss could not help but look at Luci. Even for people like them, five thousand gold coins were not a small amount of money. He did not expect Luci to bet all of them on one diator. He then asked curiously, ��Are you confident that he can win?��


    ��Have you not seen his performancest night?��


    ��What performance?�� Pompeo Nuss was a little lost when he heard what she said. Last night, he was busy talking to a few veterans about the cement of the armies. After all, now that the war between the Roman Empire and the Germanic tribes was over, the Roman Empire��s border was rtively peaceful. After moving the armies away from the border, they needed to think of a ce to ce them. The final solution was the result of a decision made by multiple parties.


    Pompeo Nuss had been busy with this matter recently. The banquetst night was a perfect opportunity for him to look for some partners to work with him and exchanged information. Hence, he did not watch the fight between Zhang Heng and Sartonilos.


    ��A boring man. All you can think of is politics all day.�� Said Luci while holding her chin.


    Pompeo Nuss was not bothered by what she said. He just shrugged slightly, ��This is who I am. I can��t change it. But I believe in your decision since you think he can win the final championship, then I��ll bet on him too. But not that kind of money. I��m only willing to bet forty-six Aureus.��


    ��Don��t me me if you lose the bet.�� Luci stared at him.


    ��You don��t even care about your five thousand gold coins. My forty-six Aureus is just the amount of money to bet for fun. If you win, I will pay for your interest.�� Pompeo Nuss grinned.

 Chapter 798 - Thanks, But I Don’t Need That Kind Of Thing

    <h4>Chapter 798: Thanks, But I Don��t Need That Kind Of Thing</h4>


    The morning performance had nothing to do with Zhang Heng and the others. After showing up, the group of diators returned to the lounge, waiting for their turn to fight.


    Blood and death were stirring the nerves of the spectators in the stands all the time. The spectators�� shouts and cheers made the wooden nks above their heads creak, where dust escaped the gaps and fell on everyone��s hair and shoulders, not unlike ashes from a raging fire. The lounge, however, was extremely quiet, as if it were another world.


    However, if one thought that the beast was asleep, the person would be making a grave mistake.


    There theyy in the dark, grinding their teeth and sharpening their ws, waiting for their turn to kill. But until thest moment, no one knew who the prey or hunter was.


    With continuous bursts of cheers and screams, the beastmasters�� show finally came to an end. The excellent beastmasters ughtered one hundred grumpy bison. Some, however, were gored by the bison��s horns, and some were trampled to death by them.


    The blood of humans and beasts stained the arena��s yellow sand. Before the audience could admire the heroic posture of those beastmasters, the next event had begun. The moment that belonged to the diators had finally arrived.


    The vendors shuttled through the stands, peddling snacks such as pine nuts, walnuts, figs, olives, and small bread. In addition, they soldfortable cushions and rose water with a charming fragrance. After shouting for a long time, the vendors�� voices became hoarse. During this short break, the spectators would visit the nearest fountain to relieve their thirst so that they could continue to cheer for their favorite diators.


    Out of the seven yers from the Victor Arena, the first diator that fought the first battle was Habitus. He did not look too happy. Being the first one to fight was actually quite important. If he won the first game, he would be able to inspire and boost the diators�� morale after him. However, since he was one of the strongest diators from the Victor Arena, it was not his role to do such a thing. He should be in Zhang Heng��s position, which was to fightst. If he was not allowed to do that, he should at least take Bach��s position.


    Instead, Mark Ruess had arranged for him to fight first by Mark Reuss. In other words, he was only the third most crucial diator to Mark Reuss. Naturally, this insulted Habitus. The most important thing for him to do right now was to im the first victory. Even if he did not care about Victor Arena, he had to take care of his reputation at least.


    Earlier, Habitus had gone to look for his trainer for a warmup and a mental state adjustment. Until his name was called, he followed the person in charge of the elevator under the arena. The whole battlested for about fifteen minutes. From time to time, the crowd would cheer until the end of the battle. After that, Habitus walked back to the lounge alone. His left arm and chest had a stab wound, but it was not that severe. After he dealt with his injuries, he returned to his seat.


    His return caused many to look at him enviously. One had to know that the diators who qualified to participate in this battle were not weak. Since Habitus managed to end the battle in such a short time and only suffered some minor injuries, it reflected his extraordinary strength.


    After Habitus sat down, several diators from the Victor Arena also congratted him. Right now, the diators that he cared about the most were Bach and Zhang Heng. And he found that Bach had gone to the training room long ago. As for Zhang Heng, he was holding the two Persian swords that Mark Reuss gave him and was taking a nap in the corner.


    ��Is he underestimating his opponents?�� Habitus sneered. The one thing that a diator should avoid was carelessness. No matter how strong a diator was, he would eventually lose the battle if he let his guard down.


    Sartonilos shared the same thought too. As of now, he had also ended his first battle. The trump card of a small diator school, the opponent that he fought against was quite powerful. After some twists and turns at the end, Sartonilos still managed to defeat him without much hassle. His opponent was lucky enough to surrender in time, and the spectators decided to spare his life because he fought well. Immediately, he left the arena. The battle after that had nothing to do with him.


    But unlike Habitus, Sartonilos did not want Zhang Heng to be eliminated before he fought him. He wanted to face him again and redeem himself from the shame he experienced from the battlest night.


    As time went by, fewer and fewer people were left in the lounge.


    Except for Zhang Heng, the other six fighters from Victor Arena had alreadypleted their first battle. Four of them won their first fight, and the others suffered great losses. One of them managed to keep his life, and the other was killed on the battlefield. Apart from that, one of the winners was seriously injured. At the moment, he was receiving treatment in the medical room. No one knew if he could participate in the next battle.


    Mark Reuss was somewhat satisfied with this result. After all, the participants in thispetition were the elites of the diator school. It was quite a huge achievement for Victor Arena to achieve more than 60% of the winning rate. He was pleased to see that Bach and Habitus defeated their opponents easily.


    However, the diator that he paid the most attention to was still Zhang Heng and his performance. To wait for Zhang Heng to appear on the fighting ground, Mark Reuss even forgot to drink water, and the corners of his lips were blistered.


    ...


    ��Zhang Heng, Cincinnati, it��s your turn.��


    When Zhang Heng heard someone calling his name, he woke up, yawned, and walked towards the elevator with his two Persian swords. A kind diator behind him reminded, ��You forgot your helmet.��


    ��Thank you, but I don��t need it.�� Zhang Heng waved his hand.


    His figure then disappeared outside the door.


    Such brazen arrogance caused the quiet lounge toe alive again. However, it did not take long for their noise to be overwhelmed by the burst of cheers from the stands.


    Sartonilos frowned, and he was a little puzzled. Looking at the time, the two should have just stood in the fighting ground not too long ago. With Zhang Heng��s current poprity, it would be impossible that he could get so much support during his introduction. Even if the audience was cheering for him, it was not possible for the cheers tost for so long.


    However, the shock in his heart at this moment was not as great as Zhang Heng��s opponent, Cincinnati.


    Thetter was now kneeling on one knee, looking at the broken trident in his hand, with a look of fear and disbelief.


    Just when the judge waa to introduce the two of them to the audience, Zhang Heng interrupted him. Cincinnati then heard Zhang Heng spoke, ��You can do it when the fight is over.��


    After he finished speaking, he rushed towards Cincinnati, and what happened next was something Cincinnati would never forget.


    Zhang Heng��s feet stepped on the ground, bent his calves slightly, and he leaped into the air. He then bent his body like a crescent moon, his strength and bnce well-calibrated. Cincinnati, however, did not have the time and the mood to admire him.


    Zhang Heng��s swords were about tond on top of his head. Cincinnati slid half a step back in ordance to his previous fighting habits, and then blocked the attack with his trident.


    A few secondster, he saw Zhang Heng��s swords cut his trident into half, and stop in front of his forehead.


    After that, Zhang Heng put away his sword, ignored the dumbfounded referee, turned around, and walked towards the lounge.


    The audience went silent for a while before letting out a deafening roar, the craziest apuse since the show��s beginning. No matter which diator they had been supporting, all of them were awe-inspired by the easterner and his arrogant way of ending the battle.

 Chapter 799 - He’s Good

    <h4>Chapter 799: He��s Good</h4>


    Everyone in the lounge could only hear cheers and screams outside, but they did not know what happened out there. Fortunately, they weren��t left hanging for too long because Zhang Heng had reappeared at the lounge��s door.


    ��Are you... Are you back here to take your helm?�� the diator who kindly reminded Zhang Heng to take the helmet asked innocently.


    ��No, the battle is over.�� Zhang Heng said as he sat back in his seat.


    ��Ended?��


    All the diators were in an uproar upon hearing this. They had imagined all kinds of possibilities, but they had never expected that the battle would end so soon. Habitus had been considered to havepleted his battle quickly when he took a quarter of an hour. However, whenpared to Zhang Heng��s performance, it was as if Habitus had taken a century toplete his battle. Zhang Heng��s time spent fighting was just enough for a diator to enter and exit the arena.


    This meant that his battle with Cincinnatus had ended in an instant.


    Cincinnatus was no stranger to diatorial battles. Hailing from the Hunahpu Arena, he might not be as strong as quasi-ace diators such as Habitus, but he was considered a first-ss diator in Rome. However, not even a strong diator like him could survive Zhang Heng��s first strike. Everyone was wondering how powerful Zhang Heng really was.


    All the other diators�� hearts, Sartonilos included, sank.


    ...


    The cheers and screams from the audience stands did not go away as Zhang Heng left. On the contrary, the shouts and cheers only got louder and louder, causing the diatorial performance to be put on hold temporarily. When it came to how they fought, the fight between Zhang Heng and Cincinnatus was not as exciting. There was no muscle-to-muscle collision, no blood-spill, and no dramatic way to end the battle. With a single sword and Zhang Heng��s non-dy fighting style, he managed to conquer 90,000 spectators by walking off the arena after the battle was over.


    All the diators who stepped into the arena today were masters from various diator schools. They all had unique characteristics and signature skills. And they were here to present a visual feast for the audience. However, most of the audience had gotten used to watching different kinds of dramatic fighting scenes. Any ordinary fighting could no longer stimte their nerves.


    Even Habitus and Sartonilos received only slightly more fanfare than an ordinary duel. Right now, the arena waspletely overwhelmed by the continuous cheers. Today, Ancient Rome and its people had seen the minimalist fighting style for the first time in this arena. The audience could not wait to hear the judge��s verdict. They had been asking the people around them about the origins of this mysterious oriental man. As for those who had witnessed Zhang Heng��s previous battle, they started to describe Zhang Heng��s heroic posture in those battles to theirpanions. And they were still trying to figure out his mysterious origin.


    It seemed that Commodus was also infected by this fanatical atmosphere. Although he was still working hard to maintain the emperor��s majestic aura, the sh of appreciation in his eyes could not be concealed, especially after Zhang Heng broke his opponent��s trident into half. He was the first one that stood up and apuded.


    On the other hand, Luci was calmer. It seemed that this oue was something that she expected. Even if all the people around her stood up when Commodus stood up, she still sat on her seat, held her chin, and muttered, ��If this were to go on, how am I to make money?��


    ��This man is amazing.�� Pompeo Nuss was also apuding at this time, with a look of surprise on his face, ��If I had known it, I would have taken out all the money I saved and bet it on him. With that, I don��t have to work hard to make more money for three years.


    ��No, you won��t. He hasn��t won the championship yet. As long as he hasn��t won the championship, there is a risk, and you won��t bet all your chips on something as risky as this.��


    ��Am I this kind of person?�� Pompeo Nuss was surprised. After he thought about it for a while, he nodded. ��It seems like this is the case. My wife knows me best. So, what about you? If it was you, how are you going to make the decision?��


    ��I am different from you. I trust my instinct. My instinct tells me that he will be the ultimate champion of this diatorial show. So no matter how much money I have, I will bet it all on him. Women are born emotional.��


    Pompeo Nuss tutted, ��But you have never lost, have you?��


    ��Yes, probably because my luck has been good,�� Luci snorted.


    Seeing that the audience was still unwilling to calm down, the subsequent diatorial performance could not be carried out, and there was a possibility of riots in the stands. Commodus had to wave his hand to signal everyone to calm down. But this was only a temporary solution. Commodus knew that if he could note up with a solution to satisfy everyone, it might cause an even greatermotion.


    Commodus discussed with several consultants around him. Someone proposed to distribute gifts or coins again. However, Commodus felt that this method was not going to be effective. It would make it seem like the only thing he knew was to use money and bribe his people. Commodus wanted toe up with a solution that could showcase his charm and wittiness.


    Clint bowed and said, ��Your Majesty, to solve this, you must look for the person who caused thismotion. If you can persuade Zhang Heng to fight again, he might just meet the needs of the people.��


    ��Fight again?�� Commodus raised his eyebrows, ��But ording to the regtions, the winner of a diatorial fight shall not be asked to fight again until the second round ofpetition. Isn��t it unfair to him?��


    ��This rule is to let the diator have enough time to rest and recover. However, he did not use much strength in the previous battle. Hence, there will be no problem for him to continue to fight,�� Clint said.


    ��That sounds logical. But let��s send someone to ask him for his opinion. If he doesn��t want to fight, we can��t force him because it will destroy fairness. I want people to know that under my rule, fairness and justice will be maintained.��


    ��Of course, your majesty.�� Clint hurried back to the lounge to look for Zhang Heng after that.


    On the other hand, Commodus asked the band to perform to calm the audience stage down. Fortunately, Zhang Heng decided toe to the center of the arena with the elevator. He had agreed to fight again. And Clint had not gotten back to his stand.


    Seeing Zhang Heng reappeared, the cheers from the audience became even louder. Zhang Heng then bowed at Commodus. Next, the audience started to cheer for the emperor. Commodus felt good when he heard the cheer that was meant for him. At the same time, Zhang Heng became more and more pleasing to his eyes. He began to think that it would be perfect if Zhang Heng belonged to him since he was highly skillful at fighting and knew how to put himself into others�� shoes.

 Chapter 800 - Opponent

    <h4>Chapter 800: Opponent</h4>


    The previous battles had all been arranged by the arena long ago. To ensure that the final battle��s excitement and poprity could be kept up, the most powerful diators would not meet during the early phase of the battle. But now, Zhang Heng had appeared in from of the audience while they were cheering for him. It also brought out a new problem. His opponent hadn��t yet been decided. The organizer did not know what to do at a time like this. Zhang Heng, however, walked to the judge and talked to him, to which thetter looked very surprised. He repeatedly asked, ��Are you sure?��


    ��Of course, I won��t y around with my life,�� Zhang Heng said.


    The judge then hurriedly told Zhang Heng��s proposal to Commodus in the front row. And the young emperor also had a strange look on his face when he heard what Zhang Heng said, ��He said that?��


    ��Yes, Your Majesty, I asked him twice.�� The judge affirmed.


    Commodus thought for a while, ��Then we should trust him. He is a man who can always perform miracles, and I think this time is no exception.��


    Commodus gave the order, and soon, more and more people in the stands knew which opponent Zhang Heng would face in the next battle.


    The results shocked the audience, especially when they saw Zhang Heng handing over his two Persian swords. They started a fervent whispering to each other. Although Zhang Heng had presented overwhelming strength in the previous battle, not many people were optimistic about his next. Considering the opponent that he was going to face, his fighting skills, strength, and speed would not give him an advantage in this battle. And the worst part was that he actually nned to fight his enemy with his bare hands.


    Of course, this was just what the audience thought about him. Not nning to use any weapons, Zhang Heng, who proposed this fight, did not feel that his decision would cost him his life. The only item that he requested was only a rope.


    He first tested the strength of the rope before tying it into a knot to make a noose. He felt like he was back in the 19th century wild west of the United States with thesso across his shoulder.


    Next, his opponent was released from the cage.


    He was met with a full-grown adult bison. With a length of more than two meters and a weight of around one ton, it was no wonder the audience thought Zhang Heng couldn��t win this battle. With its weight, it was impossible for a regr human to stop its attack. If it did run into someone, the poor soul��s bones would probably be crushed and shattered.


    Moreover, the bison��s skin was thick and tough, and its pair of horns was almost indestructible. If it felt that a group of lions threatened its life, the bison would risk its life to fight against the lions. A lot of times, when a pride of lions went on a hunt, the bison would nt its tusks into the lion��s stomach and kill it on the spot.


    Reality was different from the movies. In reality, diators and beastmasters were twopletely different professions. Under normal circumstances, the two professions would not exchange opponents. The fighting skills that a diator learned and trained for were used to deal with another diator, which also meant they had never learned how to deal with beasts. On the other hand, the same applied to the beastmasters as well. These two professions would never cross paths with each other.


    That was why the judge was taken aback when he heard that Zhang Heng was about to challenge the bison. After that, the judge got even more shocked when he heard that Zhang Heng did not need any weapons other than a strong rope. The audience in the stands could not imagine how he was going to defeat the bison. With his fists and teeth?


    But just when everyone was puzzled, the battle had already begun. The beastmaster poked a sharpened rod into the bison to provoke it. Immediately, the bison locked on Zhang Heng with its pair of big copper bell-like eyes. After that, the bison lowered his head and revealed the deadliest weapon on its head before rushing toward Zhang Heng.


    On the other hand, Zhang Heng did not rush to throw thesso at the bison.


    When he was a cowboy, he tended to many bulls and had dealt with many disobedient ones. However, this was his first time dealing with such arge bovine, and there was no horse for him to ride either, so he had to be more cautious. Fortunately, the method that one used to capture a bison was the same method used to tame a bull. All the experience that he had umted earlier could be put to use right now. Zhang Heng did not rush tosso it because the beast was so powerful that even if thessonded on its neck urately, Zhang Heng would probably be the one that dragged around.


    So he chose to dodge the bison��s attack for the time being. He rolled on the ground to avoid the bison��s tackle. However, the bison had locked on to him, and it was determined to kill Zhang Heng. Once it realized that it missed, it quickly turned around and ran towards Zhang Heng��s back, seeming as if it was ready to deal a lethal blow.


    Seeing that the bison was less than half a meter away from Zhang Heng, the audience began to worry about him. And Queen Christina could not bear to watch the performance anymore. She quickly plunged her head into her husband��s arms. Commodus��s heart sank. Although he said he wanted to believe in Zhang Heng, he was also skeptical about dealing with the bison empty-handed. Seeing that Zhang Heng��s life was at stake, he could not help but suspect that the diator would meet his end here.


    It would be a pity if this oriental man really lost his life here. Commodus had started to like Zhang Heng, and he wanted to look for an opportunity to chat with thetter. After the previous battle, Zhang Heng��s odds soared in the betting business. It meant that everyone was very optimistic that he would win the championship. If his arrogance caused him to lose his life here and failed to join the final battle, his wless victory in the first round of his battle would be a joke.


    Pompeo Nuss, on the other side, also shook his head while watching and said to his wife, ��It seems like your five thousand gold coins are about to disappear soon. How are you holding up? Is your private money enough to pay for the loan? Do you need me to help you to pay some of it first?��


    ��What a caring man.�� Luci smiled upon hearing this, ��but the battle is not over yet, isn��t it?��


    As if he had a pair of ears growing behind his head, Zhang Heng knew what was going on behind his back. Instead of looking back, he moved a little to the left and dodged the brutal sneak attack. The two sharp horns touched his arms, and the bison would nt them into Zhang Heng��s body if he made the wrong move. After that, Zhang Heng did something so crazy that no one had expected.


    Soon after he had escaped death��s ws, he took the initiative to reach out to grab a horn and lightly tapped his toes on the ground. The next moment he leaped onto the back of the bison, and there was a burst of apuse from the stands. The audience was shocked, bewildered by what they saw.


    However, Zhang Heng��s n also fell through. The bison��s back was so bumpy that he could not string thesso around its neck. After that, the bison charged at the rope at the edge of the arena, trying to throw Zhang Heng off his back. Fortunately, Zhang Heng managed to figure out its intention in time. Leaving with no other option, he had to jump down from the bison��s back, roll on around and escaped another round of trampling.

 Chapter 801 - Bullfighting Performance

    <h4>Chapter 801: Bullfighting Performance</h4>


    This would be the day the Romans would remember for many years toe.


    Not only did they get to enjoy a grand diatorial show to celebrate the enthronement of the new emperor of the empire, but they even got to witness an authentic western cowboy bullfighting show in the Amphitheatrum vium for the first time.


    This might not be rare entertainment for theter generations. After all, the golden age of western pop culture had subsided in the 21st century. However, in the second century AD, watching the bullfighting performance was as shocking as witnessing a Quidditch game oring across a wild Pikachu in a park.


    This was especially true after seeing Zhang Heng dangerously evading the attacks from the bison again and again. Zhang Heng even leaped into the air and rode on the bison in front of everyone. This scene had managed to capture everyone��s heart. Almost every person at the stand was awestruck by Zhang Heng��s performance as if an invisible hand was manipting the audience��s emotions in the stands. Sometimes, they were amazed by what they saw, and sometimes, they are worried about Zhang Heng. And then sometimes they overjoyed.


    And Commodus was one of them. Mark Reuss, however, was the one that worried Zhang Heng the most. As Zhang Heng and the diator school owner, he had been in this business for quite some time and had seen thousands of diators, but none of them couldpare to Zhang Heng. The thing this Asian man could do had way exceeded his imagination.


    In less than a day, he provoked Sartonilos, his rival, for no reason. It caused Mark Reuss a tremendous headache. Then, after half a day, Zhang Heng put down his identity as a diator and asked to fight with a bison. Mark Reuss almost copsed and was on the verge of yelling at Zhang Heng.


    ��Can��t you win the damn championship without causing any troubles? Why do you have to initiate so many unnecessary things? What good will it do to you?!��


    Zhang Heng was his most valuable asset right now. And Mark Reuss realized that he cherished Zhang Heng more than his wife and daughter. But Zhang Heng did not seem to appreciate it at all. He repeatedly challenged Mark Reuss��s bottom line, causing him to lose the confidence he had when he talked to Gaby. He began to realize that no one, not just him, could ever control people like Zhang Heng. Even Commodus himself would also find it extremely difficult to tame this beast.


    And his face was darkened now. However, Mark Ruess still had to rely on Zhang Heng to win the championship for him. Once Zhang Heng won the championship, he would inevitably be more and more out of his control, which worried Mark Reuss.


    After several rounds of fights with the bison, Zhang Heng gradually figured out the beast��s battle pattern. And at the same time, he figured that the audience should now be satisfied by what they had seen. So he prepared himself to end this battle.


    With Zhang Heng��s current speed and strength, all those risks that he just took were actually unnecessary. Or perhaps it should be said that it was thanks to his existing skills that allowed him to make the whole performance look so thrilling without threatening his life substantially. It was like a y made deliberately in a movie, its purpose to stimte the audience and deeply satisfy them.


    And the method Zhang Heng used to end the battle would be dramatic as well. When the bison charged towards him again, he jumped on the back of the bovine, causing it to keep iling its hind legs. It was doing everything possible to flick Zhang Heng off its back. When all conventional methods failed, it rushed towards the edge of the arena again.


    But this time, it failed to get what it wanted. When the side of its body collided with the big, Zhang Heng had already moved to the other side of its body and was firmly holding onto its fur to prevent himself from falling.


    And there was a burst of apuse from the stands. When the bison ran back to the center of the arena, Zhang Heng freed his hands to put the rope on the bison��s head. The more the bison struggled, the tighter the rope was. And the rope almost strangled it. After running a while, the bison��s gasping became louder and louder. Although it was not willing to give up, it had to surrender eventually in order to survive.


    Zhang Heng then loosened the ropes a little. However, the bison broke out again, moved even more violently, trying to throw the nasty human off its back. Fortunately, Zhang Heng had experienced dealing with this kind of violent creature. Hence, he was more than ready when he saw that the bison was about to run wild. After another round of fierce wrestling, the bison knelt down again. This time, it could not fight back anymore, and it had to keep on kneeling on the ground because Zhang Heng used a rope to tie its legs.


    In the end, the bison had no second option other than surrender.


    And when Zhang Heng got down from the back of the bison, he received the biggest cheer since thepletion of Amphitheatrum vium. Every single audience, including Commodus, stood up. The cheering sound flooded the entire arena to the extent that no one except Queen Christina could hear what Commodus was talking about.


    Sprinkles of flowers and copper coins rained down from the stands. This exhrating, novelty bullfighting performance would definitely be the most popr topic of discussion in Rome for some time toe. And those who had the honor to witness this fight would be revered. This trip was worth it.


    Because of this performance, a new form of entertainment would emerge in a future Rome. And that was bare-handed bullfighting. However, without professional training, many brave ve bullfighters would be killed by bison. It would also turn out to be the performance with the highest mortality rate.


    Zhang Heng did the same thing after he defeated the bison. He did not stay in the arena for too long. After bowing at Commodus, he turned and walked toward the lounge. Until now, Zhang Heng��s goal had been over-fulfilled. After these few battles, Commodus��s interest in him had also risen to its apex. When the performance was over, Commodus would definitely contact him. After that, he would need to figure out how to ask the whereabouts of Altrus.


    ...


    Unlike what happened outside, there was a deathly silence in the lounge at this moment.


    Inside, the diators had different expressions. Habitus and Sartonilos were no fools. Although they had not seen the bullfighting performance, they knew from the outrageous cheers that Zhang Heng hadpletely conquered the arena. And now, the diatorial performance had not even ended yet. They had no idea how Zhang Heng did it.


    The people who would fight on the stage after Zhang Heng had it the worst. Zhang Heng hadpletely snatched their limelight. Now, they did not know what they should do to capture the spectators�� hearts, and this greatly frustrated them.

 Chapter 802 - Only Somewhat Alike?

    <h4>Chapter 802: Only Somewhat Alike?</h4>


    The diatorial performance on the first day, in all fairness, was a rather remarkable spectacle. The participant diators were rather formidable fighters, and they were also quite famous in their respective schools or the ces they hade from. During their fight, they would not hesitate to use their signature skills to deal with their opponents. All in all, the spectators were pleased by what they saw.


    Those battles had all happened before Zhang Heng stepped into the arena.


    Both of Zhang Heng��s performances managed to elevate the spectators�� experience to another level. Hence, the diators who fought after him were unlucky. No matter how hard they fought or how much blood they spilled, they still could not get the audience to cheer for them. That was because most were still indulging in the previous bullfighting performance.


    When they turned their attention back to the diatorial performance, they found that those battles were not as exciting as before. Since they had made Zhang Heng return to the arena for the second time, it would not be nice to ask him to return for the third. After the performance ended, Rome��s people started inquiring more into things rted to this mysterious Eastern diator.


    So on this day, only one name echoed in the streets and alleys of Rome. The audience hadpletely ignored all the other diators who fought on that day. Unfortunately, the inte did not exist in this era, or Zhang Heng would have be famous throughout the Roman Empire with only two fights.


    Zhang Heng even weed an unexpected guest after the performance on the first day ended.


    The unexpected guest was Commodus.


    ording to Zhang Heng��s original n, he expected Commodus to visit him two days after the performance. He did not expect that after watching the bloody bullfighting performance, Commodus was unable to calm down for a long time. On that night, he traveled to where Mark Reuss��s diator school was located.


    Since this was a private visit, Commodus had put on ordinary clothing and brought only four guards. When he showed up, he almost scared Mark Reuss to death. The diator school owner then hurriedly asked someone to prepare refreshments, only to be refused by Commodus.


    Commodus then rubbed his hands in glee. ��I��m here to find Zhang Heng. Is he here?��


    ��Of course! I will send someone to summon him, Your Majesty,�� replied Mark Cruz respectfully.


    ��No, no, no, I��m a guest. I should go and find him. You can look for someone to lead me to his residence. I want to chat with him alone.��


    ��About that...�� Mark Reuss was stunned when he heard what Commodus said. The thing he dreaded most had happened. Zhang Heng had now captured Commodus��s attention and interest. Controlling him from now would be extremely hard, to say the least.


    Mark Reuss was still in the diator School and had not returned home. He came to see Zhang Heng take advantage of the fact that he had not gained the emperor��s full attention by winning the championship, and he wanted to find a way to bring him under his control again.


    For now, Mark Reuss was not going to treat Zhang Heng as his personal cash cow. As long as Zhang Heng was willing to work for him for three years, he was willing to return his freedom to him. There was no second option. Although it was a painful decision to make, Mark Reuss had to admit that after repeated evaluations, this might be the best one at this moment.


    On Zhang Heng��s side, he was not worried that Zhang Heng might reject his offer because he was still the master of Zhang Heng. He was the one that controlled Zhang Heng��s life and death. Even Commodus could not say no to this. If things went south and insisted on killing Zhang Heng, the judge would still rule that he did nothing wrong even if this case was brought to Basilica Julia.


    Although this was legally right, it did not mean that Mark Reuss would dare to offend Commodus, the emperor of the Roman Empire. Both were on a different level altogether. In the diator school, Mark Reuss was like a king. However, when he stood in front of the royalty, everything that he said carried no weight. If Commodus dide tonight, Mark Reuss could still pretend that he knew nothing about it. Since Commodus was nowhere in sight, Mark Reuss��s n could take a different turn now.


    In other words, Mark Reuss had now lost hisst chance to threaten Zhang Heng. These were the thoughts that shed through his head. Mark Reuss would never dare to refuse Commodus��s request, so he quickly found someone to lead Commodus to see Zhang Heng.


    When Commodus stood outside Zhang Heng��s house, Zhang Heng��s ve girl happened toe out to collect clothes. Since the emperor and his guards wore nothing that revealed their identity, the ve-girl thought that they must be Zhang Heng��s avid fans, and they must be trying to sneak in to see their favorite diator.


    These things had happened before. As the hottest idol of this era, diators would inevitably encounter all manner of harassment. The ve girl was unqualified to watch today��s diatorial performance, but she heard that Zhang Heng had done amazingly well. While she felt proud of him, she also felt the burden on her shoulders bing heavier.


    The time she lived with Zhang Heng was also her happiest. Born in Rome, her family was not wealthy, but they were not considered poor as well. However, the good times did notst long. Her fathermitted a crime not long after she was born. When he passed on, and his wife and daughter were sold as ves.


    She never thought her life was miserable, though. Maybe she was too young to feel the pain caused by the significant change. She had been a ve since she became a little more mature, which was why she could ept her current circumstance easily. At one point, she could even foresee her own fate. So when she was assigned to serve Zhang Heng, much mental preparation had already been made.


    However, she did not expect her new owner to be someone this special.


    Zhang Heng might look cold from the outside, and he said little when he came home. Recently, he had asked her if she felt cold when she slept on the floor. After that, Zhang Heng took out the time to build a small bed for her. And she was ttered. Since then, she had been smiling for several days. She decided that she would take even better care of Zhang Heng.


    So she stood very firm in front of Commodus and others, and she said fiercely, ��Stop, stop, who are you, and where are you from? Do you know that outsiders are now allowed toe here?��


    ��Who are we?�� Commodus raised his eyebrows, and she amused him. He then took out a Sestertius from his pocket and threw it to the ve girl.


    ��You can��t bribe me.�� The ve girl saw the coin, and she was unmoved by it.


    ��It��s not a bribe. Look at that coin. This is a sample coin. If everything goes well, all the new coins will be minted ording to this sample coin.��


    ��Huh?�� The ve girl looked down at the copper coin in her hand, wondering, ��Now why does this person on the coin look like you... somewhat?��


    ��Just somewhat?�� Commodus frowned, ��It looks like I have to make a few more versions topare.��

 Chapter 803 - Attack Me

    <h4>Chapter 803: Attack Me</h4>


    Zhang Heng heard the quarrel outside, and he immediately recognized Commodus��s voice. So he walked out of the house.


    ��Your Majesty.��


    ��Your Majesty?�� The ve girl was taken aback. ��Wait. Are you really...��


    ��No one in Rome dared to pretend to be the emperor.�� Commodus waved his hand for his guards beside him to step aside. And Zhang Heng also asked the ve girl to go back to the house first.


    ��Your majesty, why did youe to visit me at such ate hour?��


    This was a good question. Not even Commodus knew why he wanted to see Zhang Heng so much.


    After watching the bullfighting show in the afternoon, he was unable to calm himself for a very long time. Zhang Heng��s heroic figure, standing behind the bison, kept cropping up in his mind. Other than that, he had just received bad news. It seemed some from the Senate weren��t very happy with him. Some greeted him with a smile when they saw him, but were in fact, colluding against him in private, scheming something malicious. Feeling a little irritated, Commodus left the pce and walked here.


    Of course, he would not tell these things to an outsider. Commodus was about to congratte Zhang Heng for his great achievements in the previous diatorial performances. But before he could speak, Zhang Heng continued, ��Your Majesty seems to be having some trouble.��


    ��How did you know? Do you know how to read minds?�� Commodus asked in surprise.


    Zhang Heng did not answer the question. Instead, he turned around and walked back to his house. After a while, he took out two training swords, throwing one to Commodus.


    ��Huh?�� Commodus grabbed the wooden sword, somewhat surprised.


    ��Attack me,�� said Zhang Heng, the other wooden sword in his hand.


    ��Uh, I don��t know how to fight.�� Commodus was anxious, and he immediately wanted to return the wooden sword to Zhang Heng as if he had picked up hot iron.


    ��You are the one who led the army. You should have practiced how to fight.��


    ��Of course!�� Commodus seemed quite proud of it. ��A qualified emperor needs to learn how to lead his soldiers in battle. Although I don��t need to go on the battlefield to fight most of the time, I��m confident enough to say that mybat skills are actually quite good. I can take down two ordinary soldiers alone. Although my fatherplimented me about it, I am still nowhere as good as you.��


    ��That��s fine.�� Zhang Heng then put on a defensive posture. ��I don��t know what troubles you, but I think I can help you forget your troubles temporarily.��


    ��No, no,�� Commodus waved his hand, ��I can��t; I��m the emperor. I shouldn��t do this kind of thing. If someone else sees it...��


    ��There is no one else here. As long as I don��t tell others, no one will know. Come on, a fight with me shouldn��t be harder than going to Dior��s house for dinner, right?��


    Commodusughed. ��Haha! Senator Dior is the most powerful person in the Senate. If I want my reign to be stable, I will need his support. However, I don��t like him at all. This old fox wants to take more power from me. But this is how politics works, doesn��t it? What��s the matter? Did I not put on a good show that night? How did you see through my acting? By the way, I remember that rumors were swirling around that you were a prince or general of the Han Empire. Is this true?��


    ��Those sorts of things are not important anymore. Now, I am only a ve in the city of Rome,�� Zhang Heng said.


    ��Okay.�� Commodus finally made up his mind. He held the wooden sword in his hand. ��Then, let��s fight for a while. Let me first tell you something. I still have a lot of things to do, and I can��t stay here for too long.��


    ...


    Commodus did not expect that he would spar with Zhang Heng for an hour.


    It was a fact that he could not beat Zhang Heng. This fight could not be considered a diatorial battle. Instead, it was like a diatorial lesson. Commodus never thought it was as dull as the sword training he had gone through before. On the contrary, he felt a force pushing him, motivating him to learn more from Zhang Heng, and it made him forget the passage of time. During the fight, Zhang Heng deliberately controlled his strength, using only a little more than Commodus.


    Since Commodus felt that he was close to iming the victory, he kept trying to figure a way to beat Zhang Heng. He would constantly reflect on his wrong moves and how he could make further improvements. When he finally figured out his mistake and reaped the satisfaction, there would be a new challenge waiting for him.


    It was a pity that Commodus would never get to y ��Sekiro Died Twice.�� Otherwise, he would find out that the difficulty of the challenge he was encountering highly coincided with its difficulty curve. Not only that, Zhang Heng, a person who understood history quite well, knew that Commodus liked to fight. One of the main reasons why Commodus gave up on himself and decided to go all out to be a diator was because of Luci��s betrayal. Still, his love for diators had been in him since he was a child. It was hard trying to hide something like this. Even Dior could see itst night, let alone Zhang Heng.


    When Commodus dropped the wooden sword in his hand and copsed on the ground due to exhaustion, he realized that the time had flown by. And as Zhang Heng said before, most of his worries had indeed disappeared, reced by a sense of satisfaction after he discovered his improvements.


    ��This is my first time finding out how interesting it is to be inpetition!�� Commodus gasped.


    Commodus, however, did not know about the grueling process a ve had to go through before he became a real diator. Most diators in the schools were ves, and they had to risk their lives when they performed a fight. Then, they would be eliminated if they did not perform well during the training. The unfortunate ones would be sent to mines. All of them had to try really hard to survive, so no one could genuinely enjoy diatorial teaching like Commodus would.


    Zhang Heng did not say a single thing. He could see that Commodus was in the mood and wanted to utter nothing that would ruin the atmosphere. At the same time, Zhang Heng gradually figured out Commodus��s temperament during the time that he spent with him.


    History might have remembered him as a tyrant, but Zhang Heng noticed that the twenty-year-old Commodus disyed no traits of harming the country and the people. On the contrary, the current Commodus was working hard to be a good emperor. Having a father that excelled in ruling the empire, he had been living all this while under his old man��s shadow. No matter what happened, the first thing that would cross his mind was what his father would have done.


    In an attempt to keep the vow he made when his father died, his goal was to be a qualified leader and continue the glory of Rome. However, he did not know how to do it. Aurelius did train him well, but at that time, he was still under his father��s wing. Hence, everything had gone by smoothly. However, once Aurelius died, Commodus realized that the political situation there was far moreplicated than he thought upon his return to Rome from the front lines.


    He needed to deal with pressure and probing from all the parties alone, and the worst part was that his sister was now his only family left in this world. Thetter, unfortunately, seemed to have no interest in helping him. His mother was gone before his father died. In other words, there was no one to advise him on how he should deal with the political situation here. It was the reason why Commodus always hesitated when he made a decision. Sometimes, he would even doubt himself.


    Zhang Heng now understood why the Bnce de had to kill Altrus.


    Under this circumstance, the advisors and friends around Commodus had a great influence on him. Zhang Heng did not believe in the oracle at all. Obviously, some people thought that Altrus�� influence on Commodus was too significant. That was why they wanted to hire Bnce de to get rid of him.

 Chapter 804 - Conspiration

    <h4>Chapter 804: Conspiration</h4>


    After the battle, Commodus felt more rxed physically and mentally. After he changed into a new set of clothes, the emperor hurriedly left the diator school in the dark. After Zhang Heng watched his back disappear, he turned around and walked back to his house. He then saw his ve girl peeking at them through the door��s crack.


    Since the ve girl had gotten used to Zhang Heng��spany, she was now more rxed around him, no longer reserved like when she met him for the first time. When she realized that Zhang Heng had caught her, she did not blush. Instead, she asked curiously.


    ��Wow! Is that man really the Roman emperor?��


    ��Don��t you have the copper coins he gave you?�� Zhang Heng asked.


    ��Hmm, I looked at it again, and the person in the coin looks very simr to him.�� The ve girl nodded, ��I can��t believe it. Even the emperor hase to see you. How famous are you now? Ah, have you caught up with Sets?��


    ��Not yet,�� Zhang Heng said, ��Sets��s reputation is one umted over the years.��


    The ve girl heaved a sigh of relief. She knew that Mark Reuss valued his trump card very much. If Zhang Heng became even more famous, Mark Reuss might send him more female ves. By that time, she might have been already sent off to serve other diators.


    Before she got to enjoy the happiness, Zhang Heng added, ��I should be able to surpass Sets��s poprity by winning the championship of this diatorial show.��


    ��Huh?�� The little ve girl almost jumped up, ��So fast?!��


    ��Well, it��s the grand diatorial show held at the Amphitheatrum vium after all. Many spectators will attend it, and they will help spread around news about my victories,�� Zhang Heng said. ��What��s the matter? What are you thinking about?��


    ��Nothing... Nothing...�� the girl ve shook her head quickly and denied. She did not dare to speak out her thoughts.


    And after that, Zhang Heng did not ask her any more questions. He then reminded her, ��I��m fine that you are now more rxed around me, but the next time someone visits me, you shouldn��t peek at us again. Some people��s identities are very sensitive, especially the powerful ones. They might kill you even if you only hear a few words from them.��


    ��Is it really that bad?�� The ve girl didn��t know why and she felt a little frustrated in her heart. Clearly, she did not want Zhang Heng to know what she was thinking but was very disappointed when she saw that Zhang Heng did not care much about her.


    Perhaps she was no different from the other ve girls. Even if she were to be reced one day, Zhang Heng might not even notice it. As she dwelled deep in her thoughts, Zhang Heng had already gone to fetch water by himself. He took a quick cold shower to wash off all the sweat and went to bed early in anticipation of the diatorial show the next day.


    ...


    Compared with the first day, the atmosphere of the arena on the second day was obviously different.


    Even Sartonilos, the giant Teruelos, and the Thracian Danaos, who were in the limelight on the first day, could feel that the audience��s enthusiasm for them had reduced by a lot. Afterst night, they knew what Zhang Heng had done to his opponents in both of his earth-shattering battles.


    They all knew that they would not be able to do what Zhang Heng did yesterday. Other than the speedy victory hr achieved in the first round, he also defeated a bison with his bare hands. In the spectators�� opinion, those were some incredible feats. As a matter of fact, even the most arrogant Sartonilos could feel a strong sense of crisis.


    Zhang Heng had now be their biggest obstacle to winning the championship. Judging from the fact that he had topped the leaderboard and his odds for betting had changed, it was enough to prove that he was everyone��s biggest threat now.


    He used his strength to siphon all the attention that other famous diators should receive onto himself. And he turned it into his one-man show. That was why it was hard for all the other diators to like him.


    Bach was probably the only exception since he was the first diator that witnessed Zhang Heng��s true strength.


    Maybe it was because he had epted the fact that he was never going to be strong enough to defeat Zhang Heng. He did not feel upset that he was never going to win the championship. He came out of the training room and yelled at Zhang Heng, ��I heard that some guys want to join forces to deal with you. You��d better be careful.��


    ��Really?�� Zhang Heng raised his eyebrows and nced at Habitus and others on the other side. If something terrible would happen to Zhang Heng, the diators from the Victor Arena should have sided with him. However, that did not seem to be the case. Zhang Heng had seen Habitus being summoned by another diator. And he returned to his seat after that. Habitus obviously knew that other diators were conspiring against him. However, since he did not remind Zhang Heng about it as he did for Bach, he was very likely involved in it.


    Zhang Heng was not too bothered by it.


    Sometimes, it was hard to make everything go his way. Since he wanted to capture Commodus��s attention with his strength, he would naturally be other diators�� threat. Fortunately, Zhang Heng was confident enough that he could beat all the other diators with his strength. Aspared to when he first entered this dungeon, he was now apletely different person.


    At that time, he might have to consider the measures he should take to reduce other diators�� hostility towards him. But now, even if Zhang Heng knew that Sartonilos and others wanted to join forces to go against him, he was not going to do anything about it for now.


    The reason was straightforward. He was strong enough now.


    Due to the extra 24 hours that he had, Zhang Heng��s growth rate had already surpassed the dungeon��s difficulty level, thanks to the time flow rate��s amplification. In fact, the ordinary dungeon after the Whistleblower��s dungeon was no longer dangerous to Zhang Heng. In this dungeon, he could focus on learning new skills. That was why he chose to join the Bnce de.


    Zhang Heng certainly knew the risks of bing an assassin. But after weighing the risks, he decided to take this risk. This was due to his confidence in his own strength. The final mixed-fight was limited by the rules that the diators could only do one-on-one battle. However, it did not affect Zhang Heng. With his lv4 swordsmanship and the newly learned assassin��s footsteps, Zhang Heng did not think anyone was strong enough to defeat him.


    This was evident in the diatorial performance on the second day.


    Zhang Heng won both of the battles fast and clean. No matter what strategy his opponent adopted, Zhang Heng still could bring despair to his opponents with his two Persian swords. The moment he stepped foot on the arena, every single audience would shout his name rhythmically. And the pressure that he brought to his opponent was immense.


    The diators who earned the right to fight in this arena were star diators from their respective diator schools. They were used to the audience cheered for them. It was rare for them to see themselves as viins. And the worst part was there was nothing they could do about it.

 Chapter 805 - Peacemaker

    <h4>Chapter 805: Peacemaker</h4>


    The diatorial performance on the second day ended peacefully. No drama or unexpected incidents happened during the fight. All the powerful diators that everyone had high hopes for had entered the final list for the third day of the performance. However, ten unexpected diators had also entered the list, differing from everyone��s predictions before the performance.


    Among them, the diators from various diator schools in the city upied most of the positions. As for the schools outside the city, save for Terifelos, the talented Giant, only a dozen of their diators made it to the final battle list.


    This was not the oue the diators from outside the city expected. Just like the unlucky diator who provoked Sartonilos had said, the diators outside the city had to go on a tour to perform and challenge the other diators all the time. Technically speaking, theirbat experience should be more affluent than those ��pampered�� diators in the city. And since their living environment was challenging, they should be tougher than the diators from inside the city.


    However, the reality was often ruthless.


    The diators who had the highest win rate were diators called dies�� toys�� and lived in Rome��s city. This is actually quite normal. The living conditions of these diators in the city were much better than those outside. Naturally, they had more time for training instead of wasting their time and energy, traveling back and forth to perform. This made them better and stronger. Besides, they had specialized doctors to deal with their injuries and illnesses.


    The most crucial point was that diators�� value in the city was generally higher than those outside the city. In terms of average price, their price had doubled against them.


    Therefore, ve traders were naturally willing to sell better and stronger diators to the diator schools in the city. Some diators from outside the city were even sold to the city��s diator schools at a high price after bing famous. In contrast, the diators��bat experience from outside the city was not enough to close the gap between them and the diators from inside the city.


    Therefore, this oue was something that everyone expected. After the performance, Zhang Heng took the school��s donkey cart back to his residence as usual.


    He had deliberately chosen ater time to return home because he wanted to wait for most of the audience to leave the arena first. By doing that, he could avoid the harassment of some extreme admirers. Habitus, Bach, and others were also with him.


    By the end of the second day, only four diators were left fighting for the Victor Arena. They were Zhang Heng, Bach, Habitus, and a veteran diator called Murkazan. Although everyone was from the same diator school, there was not much conversation between them as they made their way home. Perhaps they knew that they would fight against each other tomorrow. Hence, the atmosphere was a little quiet.


    After a while, Zhang Heng did not expect Habitus to speak first.


    ��Sartonilos and Danaos were discussing how to deal with you.��


    Bach sneered, ��Is it a bitte to build a rtionship? Everyone knows about this matter now.��


    ��But you guys don��t know what Sartonilos��s and Danaus��s ns are,�� Habitus said.


    ��Oh?�� Zhang Heng leaned back and readied himself to listen to what Habitus had to say.


    ��I know you don��t like me, and honestly, I don��t like you either.�� Habitus looked into Bach��s eyes, ��If I have a chance, I want to punch your stupid, arrogant face, and you,�� Habitus looked at Zhang Heng again. ��You think you are better than everyone. You look down on us. All of us are from the same school, but Victor Arena��s attendance rate would definitely increase if you win the championship. Although I don��t want to admit it, it will actually do me a lot of good if there is more audience.��


    ��So?��


    ��So I pretended to be a part of Sartonilos��s n, just to see what sort of n they had for you,�� Habitus said. ��They n to mix some herbal medicine that can weaken your body, and they are going to put it in your lunch at noon tomorrow secretly.��


    ��There is such an herb?�� Bach was a little surprised when he heard what Habitus said.


    ��This is Rome, not the poor ce a barbarian like youes from. There are so many things you haven��t seen and heard before,�� sneered Habitus.


    Bach was furious when he heard what Habitus said. ��We barbarians who crawl out of our poor viges do not use dirty tricks on our opponents. A victory like this is meaningless.��


    Habitus did not take it seriously. ��If you have been a diator long enough and have experienced enough battles, you will know that staying alive is the most important thing. And the best way to survive is always to win.��


    ��No wonder I don��t like you when I see you. Although you are quite powerful, you disgust me,�� Bach spat.


    ��You better keep your mouth clean,�� Habitus��s face darkened. ��Otherwise, you better pray that you will not fight me tomorrow.��


    ��Oh, I have been waiting for a long time to repay the grudge that we had when we met for the first time.�� Bach stood up from his seat without fear.


    Another diator named Murkazan saw that the situation was deteriorating and decided to be the peacemaker. He stood up to stand in front of Bach and Habitus and said, ��Okay. Everyone, stop arguing, calm down. If you have any grievances, you can resolve them at the arena tomorrow.��


    Bach snorted. Just when he was about to sit down, Murkazan took a dagger out of nowhere and stabbed it into Bach��s chest.


    ��This has nothing to do with you. You better don��t move,�� Murkazan warned.


    When Murkazan stabbed Bach, Habitus also took out a small razor and rushed to Zhang Heng on the other side.


    All of this happened in a split second. Just a moment ago, Habitus confessed that he had pretended to partner up with Sartonilos and the others to find out how he nned to deal with Zhang Heng. And in the next moment, he attacked Zhang Heng without any warning.


    He and Murkazan had nned this attack earlier. One of them would control Bach, while the other attacked the defenseless Zhang Heng.


    When Habitus looked into Zhang Heng��s eyes, he had a bad feeling because he saw that Zhang Heng was not panicked.


    He was just looking at him calmly.


    Habitus immediately saw the light reflecting from the knife, and two of his fingers holding the razor de fell on the ground. When blood started to gush out from the cut, Habitus began to feel the pain.


    He knew that Zhang Heng was an extremely powerful warrior. Initially, he nned to use his words to lower Zhang Heng��s guard. After that, he would attack him when the Asian man no longer suspected him. However, he did not expect Zhang Heng to mount a counterattack with his lightning-speed swords.

 Chapter 806 - You’d Better Be Closing Your Eyes

    <h4>Chapter 806: You��d Better Be Closing Your Eyes</h4>


    In the blink of an eye, Habitus had lost two fingers. However, he decided to ignore the pain, gritted his teeth, and jumped off the donkey cart. When hended, he could not stand firmly and almost fell into a puddle.


    After that, Zhang Heng decided not to go after Habitus because Bach was still in Murkazan��s hands. Thetter felt that the n would fall apart soon, not expecting that Habitus would fail to kill Zhang Heng. Now that he was left alone and Habitus had escaped, he was stuck in a dilemma.


    He wanted to jump off the donkey cart too. However, Bach, now under his control, was ring at him. Once he retrieved the knife in his hand, thetter would definitely pounce on him immediately.


    Not to mention that Zhang Heng was next to him.


    ��Don��te near me, or I will kill him,�� Murkazan warned Zhang Heng.


    ��I��m not even close to him.�� Zhang Heng slowly drew out another Persian sword as he spoke.


    Murkazan was speechless.


    He knew that Zhang Heng had a good diator friend and that his name was Varo. He did not participate in the diatorial show at the Amphitheatrum vium this time. Before Zhang Heng showed his true strength, the two had spent a lot of time together. Now, if the person in front of him was Varo, he might use him to threaten Zhang Heng. As for Bach, he had been spending most of his time with his Germanic allies. Zhang Heng and Bach did not have too many interactions except for their fight that night.


    When Murkazan came up with the n with Habitus, he wanted to restrain Bach first, worried that Bach would be too stubborn to cooperate with them. Now that the n had failed, Murkazan was stuck in an awkward circumstance. He couldn��t let Bach go because he knew that Bach would definitely beat him up. If he held on to this posture, however, Zhang Heng would stab him with his Persian sword.


    Murkazan was so frustrated that he almost cried. But fortunately, Bach solved this problem for him afterward.


    When Murkazan was distracted, Bach became violent suddenly, and he kicked Murkazan��s chest. Thetter also subconsciously grasped the knife in his hand. As a result, Murkazan fell backward, and at the same time, he was swinging the knife. Murkazan managed to sh Bach��s chest, and fortunately, the knife did not prate deep into the flesh. Though it looked bloody, it did not hurt much.


    Bach could not be bothered by his wounds. He stood up and immediately rode on Murkazan and began to teach thetter a lesson with his fist. An eye for an eye and blood for blood had always been Bach��s way of living.


    However, he was stopped by Zhang Heng after hended a few punches on him.


    Bach frowned. ��Why? This guy has just joined forces with the bastard Habitus in plotting against you. Where is the rage that you had when you fought against the bison? Bring it out now. If you don��t want to get your hands dirty, I can beat him up for you.��


    ��I��m not saying you shouldn��t beat him, but we have something more important to do now. Lift your head and look around,�� replied Zhang Heng helplessly.


    Bach then raised his head, and he found out that the donkey cart had stopped at a random ce. The driver had disappeared without a trace. Their current location was kind of remote. It seemed like they were located behind a few warehouses, and there are no other people nearby them.


    When Bach was about to ask Zhang Heng what just happened, he saw a group of masked men charging at them from the smallne between the two warehouses.


    Bach rolled his eyes when he saw this. ��Do you think it��s funny, Sartonilos? Do you really think that we can��t recognize you just because your face is covered by cloth?��


    The masked man in the lead smiled. ��It doesn��t matter if you recognize me... I��m good as long as no passersby can see my face.��


    Bach was shocked when he heard this. ��You are shameless. You colluded with Habitus and brought us here, but Habitus was unable to do anything to us. So, you brought a group of people to deal with us instead. Are you nning to work together to beat us up? Aren��t you ashamed of yourself? What��s more, you are the most powerful diator in Rome after Sets retired.��


    ��Wrong.�� Satonilos shook his head. ��You are wrong. I am no longer the most powerful diator in Rome. Although the final result has not been released yet, I know that all of us will eventually lose the battle. All the fame we umted over the past few years has now be the stepping stone for others. Now, everyone knows that the man beside you is the most powerful diator in Rome.��


    ��So who are you trying to me? No one asked you to be weaker than others.�� Bach sneered, and he looked at everyone around him. Other than Sartonilos, he recognized a few men that he was familiar with. Bach was secretly surprised by them, not expecting so many famous diators would be willing to put down their honor like Habitus. Most of them were renowned veteran diators. Now they were gathered here shamelessly to eliminate their opponents.


    ��We don��t have a second way out. It��s not right to ask us to sit back and wait. We have to do something about it before the bad thingse to us.�� Sartonilos spread his hands, ��Other than that, you are wrong about one thing. We are not going to fight the two of you at the same time.��


    ��Why? Are you trying to be a gentleman now? Taking turns to fight with us is just as shameless,�� Bach snorted.


    ��No, no, no. We only want to fight him. As for you, you can stand aside and watch us.��


    ��No! Don��t let him go. He knocked out my teeth!!!�� Murkazan, who was under Bach, suddenly screamed.


    Bach then punched him again, and two more of his teeth fell out. Murkazan suddenly became quiet again.


    ��What do you think? As far as I know, your rtionship with him is very ordinary. Right now, the gap in strength is too wide. There is no need to make yourself suffer,�� Sartonilos continued.


    ��Yes. I��m different from the despicable human beings you guys are,�� Bach grinned. ��Besides, do I look like a fool to you? Since you are all determined to eliminate Zhang Heng, I don��t think you guys will keep me alive after you deal with him.��


    Sartonilosughed, ��Habitus was right. You just look stupid, but you are not easy to deceive. It seems like I��ll have to go all out this time.��


    ��Come on!�� Bach picked up his weapon and shield as he spoke and jumped off the donkey cart. When he looked back, he saw Zhang Heng putting away the Persian sword.


    ��Huh? Didn��t you see their determination? Even if you surrender now, they won��t let you go,�� Bach reminded.


    ��I didn��t want to surrender, but there is no need to fight face-to-face,�� Zhang Heng said.


    ��Are you scared?�� Bach asked rhetorically.


    ��Kind of. I��m not worried about myself. If a fight breaks out, I��m afraid I wouldn��t be diverting my attention to you. I am worried that you will be killed by one of them. Besides, these people are still useful to me. What he said before is true. I need them to be my stepping stones and use their honor and fame that they have umted to send me to the top. Thest big show has not started yet. I can��t kill all of them right now.��


    ��Are you going to act so arrogantly before you die?�� Sartonilos sneered, ��Look at your surroundings. There is no way for you to leave this ce now. You have to kill us all if you want to leave this ce safely. But the question is, will you be able to do it?��


    Before he could even finish, Zhang Heng replied to him, ��Who says there is no way out?��


    While Zhang Heng was talking, the shadow from a pair of enormous wings appeared on the wall behind him. And it was slowly spreading out.


    ��You��d better close your eyester,�� Zhang Heng said to Bach, who was still confused by the current circumstance.

 Chapter 807 - God’s Incarnation

    <h4>Chapter 807: God��s Incarnation</h4>


    Sartonilos��s smile gradually solidified at the corners of his mouth.


    The worship of gods was widespread in the city of Rome. There were temples and believers everywhere. Everyone had a god that they believed in. Now, the scene before them had gone entirely beyond everyone��s imagination.


    That pair of wings made of shadows was like a nightmare invading the real world. All the diators, including Sartonilos, suspected that they were dreaming at this moment. However, no matter how they pped their cheeks, they could not wake up from this nightmare. They could only watch the shadow wings spread out. At the same time, they thought they saw a shadow feather falling from the sky. Their mouths were wide open, and they had a look of shock on them.


    Zhang Heng did not stay in the same ce for too long. He did not forget that the pair of wings behind him could only be activated for twelve seconds every day. So the next moment he quickly grabbed Bach with him. Bach felt that he was getting lighter, and eventually, his feet were lifted off the ground. At the same time, his body was rose to the sky.


    Even though Zhang Heng had reminded him about it before this, Bach could not help but let out a strange yelp. The fearless Germanic began to struggle in horror. There were no airnes or hot air balloons in this era. Except for the unlucky ones that had to y Icarus, gettingunched into the sky and falling to their death; no one had ever experienced flight. Bach had been living on the ind since he was born into this world. When he felt that he was lifted into the sky, a great sense of insecurity rushed into his heart.


    It was then that Zhang Heng learned that Bach was afraid of flying. Judging by his current reactions, it seemed like he would rather fight Sartonilos and others, desperately not wanting to leave his belovednd.


    In the end, Zhang Heng had to speak up, ��Stay put. I will let you go once we reach a safe ce.��


    Zhang Heng did not know if his advice actually worked on Bach or because the two were already quite high above the ground. Bach had finally stopped kicking and calmed down. However, his body seemed very stiff at the moment. Bach��s hands clung to Zhang Heng��s arms tightly. Zhang Heng took Bach and flew over the two warehouses. He then found a spot with no one there andnded on the ground.


    After the previous practice, he was now more and morefortable with the controls of the pair of shadow wings behind him. Before he epted this quest, he did practice flying while carrying some heavy stuff. This pair of weightless shadow wings seemed to be quite good at bearing heavy loads. Zhang Heng could carry about 250 kilograms of weight when he took off, which was the weight of almost two ordinary people. And that was the limit.


    Besides, too much weight would affect his flying speed and maneuverability. Take this incident as an example: if people on the ground started to throw weapons at him, Zhang Heng would be forced to use Bach as a shield. Fortunately, Sartonilos and the others seemed to bepletely terrified and stupefied. There they stood motionless, watching the two flying over their heads.


    And as soon as theynded, Bach immediately ran to the wall and started to vomit.


    ��I didn��t expect you to react like this. We didn��t even fly for long.�� Zhang Heng was stunned when Bach vomited. Since Bach was quite heavy, their airspeed was actually rtively low. And since there were no bumps along the way, Zhang Heng immediately realized that this might not be physical difort but his fear of flying.


    And Bach had also unknowingly be the first person to suffer from flying in the second century AD. All that aside, he was still a strong diator. After vomiting for a while, Bach got better, but the way he looked at Zhang Heng had changed. It was a look mixed with fear and reverence.�� Are you... which god incarnate are you? Are you Mars, the god of war? Or Pluto, or Hades, wait... You wouldn��t happen to be the king of all gods, Jupiter, right?��


    Zhang Heng was not at all surprised that Bach would ask such a question.


    After all, there were many incarnations of gods in ancient Greece and ancient Rome. Their history and mythology were mixed, exining why the scene just now had shocked Sartonilos and others so much. Besides telling others that they witnessed a god incarnate, they could find no other exnation to exin what they had just seen.


    This was also the reason why they did dare to go after them until now. They dared to unite and go against a mighty foreign diator, but they would never dare to go against a god.


    Zhang Heng did not answer Bach��s questions. Sometimes, leaving questions unanswered would make the person more credible and deadly. In the end, Zhang Heng just signaled Bach to keep things to himself.


    Not long afternding, the time limit of twelve seconds had passed. And Zhang Heng��s shadow wings retracted, and his body had returned to normal. However, after experiencing flying through the clouds and fog, Bach was convinced that Zhang Heng had to be the incarnation of a certain god.


    And now, Bach had found a perfect excuse of why he could not beat Zhang Heng in the first ce.


    ��You are a god. It is no wonder I couldn��t defeat you. Hold up, no one in this world can defeat you,�� Bach suddenly realized this cold-hard fact, and he quickly, ��Oh, sorry. I forgot about it. I can swear that I will never reveal your true identity in front of others.��


    ��Actually, it doesn��t matter. Today, other than you and our enemies, no one else saw me using my supernatural powers,�� Zhang Heng said. ��Anyway, every diator has their legendary tale. I guess I can count this one in.��


    This was also the reason why Zhang Heng did not mind using his trump cards here. Even if Sartonilos and the others were stupid enough to tell others about it, most people would only think they were making excuses for their ipetence. Zhang Heng figured that he had put the fear of God into them. Still, Zhang Heng could not guarantee that they would not tell others about it.


    After that, Zhang Heng and Bach brazenly returned to the street. No suspicious men came to attack or follow them. The two returned to their residences with no hups. The other diators in the diator school told Zhang Heng that Habitus had also gone home, and he asked someone to inform the school that he would travel to the arena by himself tomorrow.


    Bach sneered when he heard those words. ��This guy still dares to show up tomorrow?��


    ��There is nothing he can do if he doesn��t show up. The contract he made with the school has not been fulfilled, and he can��t leave,�� Zhang Heng said, ��But tomorrow, he will be in big trouble.��


    ��Hmm?��


    ��I��ve cut off two of his fingers. It should affect him greatly. After all, it is impossible for him to hold a weapon tight with only three fingers,�� replied Zhang Heng casually.

 Chapter 808 - The Final Battle

    <h4>Chapter 808: The Final Battle</h4>


    Being one of the diators from outside of Rome city, Terufelos had naturally been discriminated against by the diators native to the city. Sartonilos, however, valued his strength a lot, and he even sent someone to convince him to join his n. After a while, Sartonilos had to give up on him because he received no response. Hence, Terufelos did not participate in the assassinationst night.


    When Terufelos walked into the lounge in the early hours of the morning, he was shocked by the weird atmosphere. The atmosphere in the lounge had always been hostile. Ultimately, he knew that Sartonilos had been recruiting other diators to work on eliminating Zhang Heng. As usual, Zhang Heng calmly entered the lounge. If it were a day before, they would not have hesitated to draw their swords and fight each other. Terufelos could feel the tension in the atmosphere.


    But today, the tense atmosphere was gone.


    Terufelos was a little baffled. When he looked at Sartonilos, he saw that thetter was disappointed and nervous about something. He looked like a rookie that was about to enter the arena for the first time. From time to time, he would move around and touch the things around him.


    ��What the hell is going on?�� Terufelos frowned. After the previous rounds of elimination, the only yers left were the masterful elite diators. The climax of this diatorial show was about to happen soon. Trump cards of the respective arenas would fight against each other. Despite all that, it seemed Sartonilos was unprepared to fight his final battle. One could see that he was distracted.


    And he was not the only one who behaved like that. A few more diators acted as such, too, including champions like Danaos and Aixoys. They looked weak and appeared to have not slept well the night before.


    Zhang Heng, on the other hand, sat there all too calmly. Nothing appeared to have happened to himst night. To Terufelos, this nothing less but a herculean man. He had heard of Zhang Heng��s glorious battle records, and other than fighting the bison empty-handed, he had managed to end his battle almost instantly. So far, no one had been able to make more than ten moves against him. Being a renowned veteran diator, it made no sense to Terufelos that Sartonilos could��ve lost the courage to fight with Zhang Heng.


    Yesterday, Sartonilos and others began distancing themselves from Zhang Heng because they were plotting against him. Now, Terufelos could feel that they must be avoiding him because they were afraid of him.


    It was like the instinctive fear of a mouse meeting a cat.


    Among them, Bach looked the worst. He and Zhang Heng hade from the same arena, but he too sat far away from him. And his face looked so pale as if no blood flowed within his veins. At the same time, he kept cing his right hand in front of his chest.


    Terufelos could not figure out what had happened between them. In just one night, almost every diator in the lounge had changed for the worse. Suddenly, someone ran into his back. Before Terfufelos could say anything about it, the person seemed frightened, and he kept on apologizing.


    When Terufelos turned around, he saw the swollen nose on Murkazan. He then asked in surprise, ��What��s wrong with your face?��


    ��I, I... I fell.�� Murkazan insisted that what happened to him was an ident. Not only because he was afraid of Zhang Heng, but he also knew that if what they did yesterday was exposed, they would be severely punished by the authorities. Upon realizing that they were not strong enough to defeat their opponent, they decided to eliminate their opponents outside the arena. By doing that, it meant they were challenging the iron rule set by the show��s organizer. And the organizer of this diatorial show was the emperor of Rome.


    This problem would not be their concern if Zhang Heng were dead. Unfortunately, Zhang Heng was not dead. Whenever Murkazan thought of what happenedst night, he wanted to cry. Initially, he wanted to work with other diators to eliminate their biggest threat in this show. However, not only did they fail to deal with the threat, they now thought that they had messed with a god.


    The incarnation of the gods in this world was an ancient legend. Other than the demigods, no human beings could apparently defeat such an entity.


    ��You fell down?�� Terufelos��s gaze was filled with suspicion. ��How many times did you have to fall before you knocked out half of your teeth?��


    Murkazan was speechless and could only put on an embarrassing smile. Fortunately, this embarrassment did notst long. Soon, the crippled v, in charge of weing diators from various schools, walked in again. ��Get ready. After the beastmaster��s performance is over, all of you will fight your final battle.��


    Terufelos nodded. He then raised the trident in his hand. ��I��m ready to show you my strength,�� he proimed.


    Now that Zhang Heng was here, the other diators did not dare talk about iming the championship. He was surprised that no one seemed affected by his positive spirit even after having said something encouraging and inspiring. Sartonilos and others were still half-dead. Terufelos started to wonder if they were weeping because their wives had died yesterday.


    ...


    However, no matter how unwilling Sartonilos and other diators were, they had no way of avoiding the final battle. Zhang Heng stood up from where he was sitting, and the time in the lounge paused for a second. After that, Zhang Heng picked up his two Persian swords.


    ��Everyone, see you in the arena.��


    Bach, on the other side, grinned and put on his helmet.


    On the lift, the diators consciously left the middle position to Zhang Heng because they knew who the audience��s focus would be on today. Zhang Heng was probably the first diator who conquered the Amphitheatrum vium before the diatorial show was over.


    The position next to Zhang Heng should have been reserved for Sartonilos, a promising candidate to win the championship himself. Other than Terufelos and Bach, who stood next to Zhang Heng, Sartonilos, Danaos, and others insisted on standing at the outermost area. And at the same time, they kept their eyes trained on Zhang Heng��s movements. They were so skittish to the point they seemed they would jump off an elevator to flee if Zhang Heng made a mode on them.


    Although there were several lines of people between them and Zhang Heng, they still looked anxious.


    Terufelos wanted to ask them if Zhang Heng could suddenly fly to them after standing so far away from him. And the next moment, the elevator began to rise. The ves pulled the winches, sending the day��s protagonists from the gloomy underground to the arena.


    The 90,000 seats in the Amphitheatrum vium were fully upied, and the colorful satin on the poles fluttered in the wind, producing a pleasant sound. Throngs of people without tickets had also gathered outside the arena since early that morning, all there to witness the legend��s birth for the first time.


    The entire city of Rome was empty on this day.


    Not even when Sets was at his peak could bring out such a scene. And when the seventy-two diators finally appeared in the arena, the entire Amphitheatrum vium was flooded by the audience��s cheers.

 Chapter 809 - Damn, SuChapter A Coincidence

    <h4>Chapter 809: Damn, Such A Coincidence</h4>


    The three-day diatorial performance had finally entered its final stage. This would also be the climax of the entire diatorial performance. Seventy-two diators from different diator schools with different skillsets were gathered in the arena today. They wouldpete with each other until the final champion was determined.


    Unlike the previous twelve-men brawl in the Victor Arena, there were more diators this time, and they were stronger. Instead of fighting in a team, they would have to fight one-on-one. The loser team would not be granted a second chance to fight again. In other words, any minor mistakes could cause the diator to be eliminated.


    The audience had been looking forward to this epic battle for a long time now. When the diators appeared on the stage, they screamed and cheered nonstop.


    At this time, Sartonilos and others finally came back to their senses, realizing that they were now standing on the highest pedestal of the diatorial performance. All of them represented their respective diator schools. After going through yesterday��s horrifying events, they were now extremely fearful of Zhang Heng. However, that did not mean that they would give up on the final battle.


    This performance was of paramount importance to all the diatorial schools. It would determine their rise and fall for the next few years or even exceeding ten years. Therefore, the owners of the diator schools had given their diators a fight-or-die order. Other than asking them to fight for the championship, they had set a minimum goal for them as well.


    Sartonilos and other diators had not acquired their freedom. If they failed to achieve their goals, they would also face a lot of pressure. So, they could not give up now. After all, they were powerful and famous diators. Even if they could not beat Zhang Heng, they still had the upper hand against other diators.


    Hence, they only needed to pay attention to avoid Zhang Heng in the next battle. However, when the battle started, the audience in the stands was surprised to find out that the powerful diators they had high hopes on had failed to threaten Zhang Heng��s current position. Their performance was worse than what the spectators were expecting.


    Sartonilos and others were deeply affected by what they saw yesterday. The horrifying experience affected them physically and mentally. Compared with other diators that were fully prepared for today��s battle, most of them were rejuvenated. However, Sartonilos and other diators who had attacked Zhang Heng stayed up the whole night. And theck of sleep had also weakened their mental state. Their reaction and cautiousness had deteriorated to varying degrees. Other than that, they were distracted by Zhang Heng when they fought, worried that they might have to face him in their next battle. Thanks to that, they were unable to unleash their full potential.


    Still, the fear in their heart did not take away the skills that they had mastered. Under normal circumstances, they could control the rhythm of the battle. However, their opponents were not ordinary diators. These were the elites that survived the previous rounds of battles. Even if there was arge gap of strength between them, the difference was not that significant.


    As a result, the audience in the stands was shocked by what they saw. The diators who were well-known in Rome could no longer fight like they used to. Some spectators familiar with Sartonilos and Danaos could not help but wonder if they had decided to lose on purpose during the battle��s early phase. Otherwise, no one could exin their unbearable performance.


    On the other hand, among the group that attacked Zhang Heng yesterday, Habitus performed the best. He lost two fingers and ran away alone after he realized his sneak attack had failed. As a result, he missed the scene where Zhang Heng ascended to the sky. That was why his mental condition was fairly stable. He did not perform as well as he used to because his physical strength had deteriorated. As Zhang Heng said earlier, the loss of two fingers greatly impacted how he handled his weapon.


    However, Habitus found a solution to ovee this problem. He switched to holding the sword in his left hand and holding the shield in his right hand. The hand with fewer fingers was holding a shield. With that, he did not need to perform too manyplex movements with his right hand.


    Of course, he did not dare to use his shield to block his opponent��s attack. He was worried that he might drop the shield if the opponent��s attack was too powerful. Fortunately, he was a flexible diator. Not too long ago, he had learned some footwork from Dadatis, and even though he had not mastered it, it was enough to cope with the current battle. Eventually, he would gain the upper hand in his battle.


    Habitus did try his best to fight this time. Not want the reputation that he had umted over the years to be wasted, he gritted his teeth and exerted all his strength. He even changed some of his previous fighting styles by cutting down some skills to attract the audience��s attention. He had to y safely in his first round of battle. After a while, he finally defeated his opponent sessfully and imed his first round of victory.


    Like others, Habitus was monitoring Zhang Heng��s movement closely as well. Seeing that Zhang Heng was still quite a distance from him, Habitus hurriedly ended the battle and started the next. However, when he saw this second opponent, he was shocked.


    Bach grinned at him, showing his two rows of teeth, ��Oh, isn��t it a coincidence? It seems that the grievances between us can finally be solved.��


    Habitus was only paying attention to Zhang Heng earlier. He hadpletely forgotten about Bach. Paying attention to only one person was his limit. He did not have enough energy to pay attention to two people at the same time.


    Before the incident that happened yesterday, Habitus was afraid of fighting against Bach. Bach��s disadvantage was that he was too young and inexperienced. Compared with Habitus, he had more experience in battling against other diators. And he was at least 70% confident that he could defeat Bach.


    But now, the circumstance had changed. Two of his fingers were missing. Although both his left and right hands could still hold a sword to fight, his left hand was not as flexible as his right hand. Moreover, he barely won the previous tough fight just now. And it forced him to spend a lot of his energy to im the victory. In contrast, Bach had an easy fight just now.


    Bach was determined to fight against Habitus in the final battle. Earlier, he could have imed the victory, but he deliberately dyed it until Habitus finished his fight. He wanted his revenge.


    Habitus then looked at the judge on the side. ��We are from the same diator school. It doesn��t make sense for me to run into him so early.��


    However, the judge ignored him and signaled them to start the fight. Immediately, Bach charged at him with a grin. Although the two did not like each other, Habitus still thought that Bach was almost as powerful as him. When the two met for the first time, he won the fight against Bach easily. However, there were many factors that contributed to his victory. First, Bach was tired and hungry. At the same time, he did not know much about him. And he underestimated his enemy as well. That was why he lost in that battle.


    But this time, Bach came prepared. As soon as the battle started, Bach did not hesitate to deliver a heavy blow to Habitus. Instead of targeting Habitus��s weakness, he intended to make sure that Habitus couldn��t jump to dodge his attack. Hence, he would have to block his attack head-on.


    Habitus was unlucky. Only after blocking two attacks, he felt that he was about to drop his shield. And this time, he did not have a solution to ovee this problem. So, Bach made use of this opportunity and continued to deal heavy damage to him. Bach��s attacks were not fancy, nor could they be considered asbat skills. All he did was used all his strength to attack Habitus brutally.

 Chapter 810 - Legend

    <h4>Chapter 810: Legend</h4>


    In the end, Habitus did not manage to dodge Bach��s attack. His three fingers could no longer hold the shield tightly, and Bach��s brutal force sent it flying away. The thing that angered Habitus was that Bach had no intention to stop attacking him. Instead, he took a step closer and shed his head with his sword. Habitus was helpless. For now, he had to temporarily give up the idea of dropping his weapon and surrendering. He used the sword in his left hand to block the attack, and at the same time, distanced himself from Bach.


    However, just when he thought he had finally earned a chance to surrender, Bach made a shameless move, utterly stunning Habitus. He saw Bach throwing his small round shield aside before charging at him violently with the sword in his hand.


    Habitus was now wholly overtaken by fear. He had to continue to fight because he was worried that the audience would want to execute him if he surrendered. At the same time, he lowered his voice and said to Bach, ��Time to stop. I have already lost the battle. You can now take advantage of me to increase your reputation. All the reputation that I have umted so far now belongs to you.��


    ��Not enough,�� Bach said.


    ��Damn, what else do you want from me? Do you want me to pay you? I��ve been a diator for so many years, and I have saved a lot of money. I can pay you if let you let me surrender. ��


    ��No, no, I have no interest in your money. I just want to end your life,�� Bach replied with sincerity.


    ��Are you f*cking sick in the head?!�� Habitus could not help but yelled atst, ��Don��t forget that we are diators from the same diator school. What are you going to tell Mark Reuss if you kill me?��


    ��Why should I care about what a retarded middle-aged Roman thinks?�� Bach asked.


    Habitus had almost run out of options to stay alive. So he could only lower his posture again and say, ��Listen, we did not target you yesterday. You should know that. I just wanted to stop and prevent you from interfering in our business. As for the first time we met, Gaby asked me to beat you up to discipline you. You can see that there is actually no unsolvable enmity between us.��


    ��It makes sense.�� Bach nodded.


    Habitus was about to turn his sorrow into joy, but the very next moment, he could feel a cold-hard sh on his neck. Bach made sure that he shed him fast enough. When he nodded just now, Habitus put down his guard for a brief moment. That was all it took for his throat to be slit. Thetter knelt on the ground and desperately pressed his bloody neck. His eyes were filled with horror and confusion.


    ��There is nothingplicated about it. I��m just unhappy with you,�� Bach grinned. ��Since we are from the same school, I don��t want to see you wandering in front of me again.��


    ��...��


    Habitus seemed to try to coax out a reply, but he could now no longer speak.


    Just as Bach and Habitus fought fiercely, Zhang Heng had already defeated three opponents. His performance was simr to what the audience had expected. As always, he was invincible, and he achieved wless victory in every battle. No matter who the opponent was, they could not make more than ten moves against Zhang Heng.


    In fact, Zhang Heng spent most of his time waiting for his next opponent to appear. However, when he saw his fourth opponent, the audience was left in a huge shock. For the first time, some of them started to worry for him.


    That was because his next opponent was an archer diator.


    There was no limitation to the type of diators in this performance. Hence, some overpowered diator professions were also mixed in this final battle. And archer diators was one of them. The archer diator��s circumstance was quite unique here. If their opponents were diators that wore heavy armor, they would surely lose the battle. However, if they faced light-armored diators, they would turn into the merciless death that reaped their souls.


    Unfortunately, Zhang Heng was the kind of diator that wore light armor. And the worst part was he did not even have a shield with him. Other than that, he had also left his helmet in the lounge. In other words, he did not have a single piece of defensive equipment on him.


    After analyzing his opponent, the archer diator opposite him had his hopes relit. And he was extremely excited about it. He knew that the diator that stood in front of him was the main attraction of the entire performance. If he could kill Zhang Heng here, he would undoubtedly be famous. Even if he failed to win this show��s championship, he would still be famous throughout the entire Rome.


    Even if he could not be a legend, it was not too shabby to be a legend��s terminator. So when the judge signaled them to start the battle, he instantly drew an arrow and put it on the bowstring.


    But his opponent Zhang Heng, like the previous few battles, made no special preparations. All he did was charge at his opponent. The archer diator could not believe what he was seeing. Why was there such a stupid person in this world now?


    Even though there was a high chance that he would im the victory, the archer diator still decided to be patient and did not fire the arrow until Zhang Heng got closer. When Zhang


    Heng was ten steps away from him. The archer diator knew that there was no way that he would miss the target. So, he fired the arrow at Zhang Heng.


    At the same time, Zhang Heng began to make his move as well. Since he possessed Lv2 archery skills himself, he could roughly judge where the arrow wouldnd from the way his opponent fired. Ultimately, he still relied on his Lv4 swordsmanship. Zhang Heng did not even stop moving. All he did was swing his swords randomly.


    And the next moment, his swords shed the flying arrow with pinpoint uracy.


    The audience heard a loud bang, and they saw Zhang Heng��s sword deflecting the oing arrow.


    On the other hand, the archer diator was left inplete bewilderment. He was wondering how that happened. He did not take hisst opportunity to shoot another arrow. All he did was stood there with an empty mind. It looked like he had given up on fighting back. This was probably the deadliest mistake made by a diator since the start of this final battle. There was not a single audience who med him for giving up fighting back. That was because all the audience who saw this scene were left in shock without exception.


    It was not until Zhang Heng rushed in front of the archer diator and ced his Persian sword in front of thetter��s neck. He then realized that he had been eliminated. Aspared to his defeat, the scene where Zhang Heng deflected his arrow had a bigger impact on him. It even destroyed his confidence andmon sense.


    And this scene further fortified the beliefs of Sartonilos and the others. The oriental man in front of them must be the incarnation of some god. Otherwise, there was no way to exin his outrageous strength. While thinking about it, Sartonilos and the others, who had lost the will to fight, deteriorated even further. They had now almost lost to the ordinary opponents in front of them.

 Chapter 811 - Exciting Performance

    <h4>Chapter 811: Exciting Performance</h4>


    Zhang Heng took a rtively long rest after he eliminated the archer diator. After the rest of the diators watched him performed the magical move against the diator archer, all their hopes were shattered. And none of them wanted to be his opponent.


    In the end, the Giant, Terufelos, decided to stand up.


    He was a heavy-armored diator. Unlike the ordinary heavy-armored diator, his immense strength allowed him to move freely even though he carried a ton of extra weight on his body. His entire body was almost entirely covered in heavy armor. Besides, he was also holding a tower shield.


    He looked exactly like a moving fortress.


    Other than Zhang Heng, he was also one of the best performers in the arena. He had already killed two opponents, and he was unstoppable. However, in the next battle, he knew that he was about to face the biggest challenge of his diator career.


    Terufelos��s expressions turned solemn. Though he took the looks of a lumbering giant, he was certainly not dumb, and he knew exactly how powerful his opponent was. That being said, he did not think that there was no chance to defeat his next opponent. The audience in the stands also began to get excited at this time. Since Sartonilos and others were not performing well, Terufelos was probably the first heavyweight opponent Zhang Heng encountered. All the spectators looked forward to their battle, expecting some dramatic fight to take ce.


    Terufelos did not rush to attack his opponent as usual. He put on a defensive posture and said at the same time, ��What have you done to Sartonilos and other diators? Why do they look so lifeless?��


    ��I did nothing to them,�� Zhang Heng said truthfully. ��I had always thought that the truly terrifying thing is never the thing that brings fear, but the person��s expectation of fear. This expectation will magnify the fear by hundreds or even thousands of times.��


    Terufelos might have actually understood what Zhang Heng was talking about, but he did not bother to dwell on this question. He squatted down and hid his bodypletely behind the shield, leaving only half of his head with helmet exposed. ��Come on! Whether I win or lose in this battle, my trip to Rome will not be in vain as long as I get to fight with you.��


    Zhang Heng had always been very polite to whoever was polite to him. So, he replied, ��The observation hole on your helmet is too big. My sword can pierce it, but rest assured that I won��t be attacking your eyes. That��s it. Other than that, your turning speed is too slow. So, I will focus on your back, especially the gap between your helmet and armor. You��d better be prepared.��


    Terufelos was left in shock when he heard what Zhang Heng said. He had participated in many battles and had never encountered anyone who told his opponents about their battle n. It made Terufelos wonder if Zhang Heng was ying psychological games.


    Before he had time to think about it, Zhang Heng had already rushed towards him.


    Immediately, Tefufelos put up his defense. He found out that Zhang Heng did not use his speed and agility to go behind him, as he had said but instead, charged towards his front.


    Was this going to be a head-on fight?


    Terufelos could not figure out what Zhang Heng was trying to do. Hisbat skills, agility, speed, and bnce were all better than his. The only attribute that he had the advantage of was his strength. He could not understand why Zhang Heng would use his weakness to go against his forte. Could it be that the easterner in front of him was purely arrogant?


    Although his heart was full of doubts, Terufelos was readied to take on Zhang Heng��s attack. With his other hand gripping his weapon tightly, he leaned his shoulders forward and braced himself for the impact. He was going to attack Zhang Heng once Zhang Heng lost his bnce.


    Terufelos knew that he had a very short window to attack Zhang Heng. As long as he could seize this opportunity, however, he might take the initiative in the next round. The next second, he felt that the weight of his shield increased. Instead of attacking him, Zhang Heng jumped up from the ground, stepped on the edge of his shield, leaped over his head, and swung his Persian swords at Terufelos.


    Zhang Heng��s bold change caught Terufelospletely off-guard. By the time Terufelos realized what was going on, Zhang Heng was already behind him. Immediately, Terufelos��s heart sank. But at this critical moment, he remembered what Zhang Heng had told him. At such a critical juncture, he wasn��t bothered to figure out whether or not Zhang Heng was telling him the truth. Without any hesitation, he used his short sword to protect his neck.


    After that, the spectators witnessed something that ultimately left them stunned. They saw Zhang Heng jump over the squatting Terufelos, and before they could cheer at the outrageous move, Terufelos blocked Zhang Heng��s attack with his sword as if a pair of eyes grew behind his back.


    The first round of the match between the two was a very delicate affair. When Zhang Heng realized that he had missed the hit, he took the initiative to step away from Terufelos. After that, the Giant, now drenched in cold sweat, quickly turned his body with hisrge shield. And now, both sides had entered the standoff stage.


    Although it was only a brief moment, the audience in the stands apuded for this epic scene. The emperor and the other powerful people did not hesitate to express their appreciation for the smooth battle that they witnessed. This appreciation was not only meant for Zhang Heng, but it was also dedicated to his opponent, Terufelos.


    The apuding turned Terufelos��s face red like a little girl gettingplimented. On the other hand, Terfufelos knew very well the move that he just performed was not something he thought of. Without Zhang Heng��s reminder, he would have never kept up with his movements. In other words, he would have lost the battle just now if he failed to block the attack.


    At this moment, Terufelos finally understood why Sartonilos and others were so afraid of Zhang Heng. Earlier, it was already very stressful for him to watch Zhang Heng fought from a distance. When Terufelos fought him personally, he knew how powerful Zhang Heng was. Both of them were on apletely different level.


    He felt ridiculous for thinking that he could defeat Zhang Heng. He felt that as long as he went all out and with a little luck, there was still a chance for him to win. However, the cruel reality told him that this was just his dream. Terufelos no longer wanted to fight Zhang Heng anymore. All he wanted to do was toss his weapon aside and surrender.


    However, Zhang Heng suddenly said, ��You want to surrender? You wouldn��t be so weak, right?��


    ��Of course not,�� Terufelos replied angrily, ��but it doesn��t make sense for the fight to continue. I admit that I can��t beat you, but I don��t need your mercy to make my defeat look good.��


    ��Do you think I gave you the advice to make your defeat look good?�� Zhang Heng asked rhetorically.


    ��If not, are you trying to make fun of me?�� Terufelos asked angrily.


    Zhang Heng shook his head, ��Look at your surroundings and the audience in the stands. They waited for so many days to watch a wonderful show. If we can��t satisfy them, they won��t let us go. Initially, I expected Sartonilos to be a little more courageous, but now it seems hopeless to rely on them. So, I can only rely on you now. Come on, let us join forces and give the audience a wonderful performance.��

 Chapter 812 - What Do You Mean By Dramatic?

    <h4>Chapter 812: What Do You Mean By Dramatic?</h4>


    Zhang Heng was willing to guide Terufelos because he had a good impression of him. That was why Zhang Heng wanted to help to grow his reputation. Other than that, he needed a heavyweight fighting performance to help him ascend to the throne of champions.


    Although getting consecutive victories was an enjoyable thing, the audience might get bored if nothing exciting was presented to them. When that time came, the audience would wish for a challenger powerful enough to pose a threat to Zhang Heng. And now Terufelos was ying this role.


    And more importantly, Terufelos found that he could not say no to Zhang Heng��s n. It was not because he could not let go of his fame. Still, Zhang Heng also told him frankly that if he chose to concede when they were evenly matched, the audience would be disappointed by him. There was a high chance that they would be asking the organizer to execute Terufelos.


    Therefore, Terufelos was now left with no other option. He could only continue to cooperate with Zhang Heng toplete this epic battle. The audience in the stands finally got to feast their eyes and appreciate the duel between these two outstanding diators. Among them, Zhang Heng��sbat skills were outstanding, and he was incredibly agile. On the other hand, his opponent, Terufelos the Giant, could not keep up with Zhang Heng��s rhythm, but his battle instinct was extraordinary.


    No matter how Zhang Heng changed his footwork, therge man could alwaysplete the defense setup before Zhang Heng couldnd his sword on him. Sometimes he did not even need to look back, and he could somehow block the attack with his shield. And the audience was bewildered by what they saw. Some even felt that there was something wrong with this battle. The owner of Terufelos��s school, for instance, had heaps of unanswered questions about this battle in his mind.


    He knew Terufelos��s strength better than anyone else. Seeing that he took the initiative to pick Zhang Heng as his opponent, his master was furious. Ever since Zhang Heng showed his true strength in front of everyone, he had given up on iming the championship. He just wanted Terufelos to take advantage of this final battle to umte his game and reputation. If his poprity rose, he would be able to sell more tickets in the future. It seemed like the goddess of fate had started to favor him.


    On the other hand, Sartonilos and the other diators were saddened by what they saw. During this crucial final battle, their performance had deteriorated severely. Some of them were still stuck in their first battle. Therefore, Terufelos��s owner wished that he would not meet Zhang Heng as his opponent so early. It would have been perfect if he could defeat a few more opponents and show off his strength. By doing that, his reputation would bump up in Rome. However, he did not expect that Terufelos would be insane enough to challenge Zhang Heng voluntarily. He did not avoid Zhang Heng like everyone else.


    This posed a huge problem to Terufelos��s owner. He was worried that Zhang Heng would defeat Terufelos within a few moves. All the fame and reputation that he umted for such a long time would be in vain if that happened. It was a shame that this matter had to turn out this way. The owner had no other choice but to pray that Terfufelos would not be defeated so quickly.


    In the end, Terufelos gave him a pleasant surprise. Up until now, Terufelos was the only diator who got to do a real fight with Zhang Heng. Here came the question: was this Terufelos still the same Terufelos he knew?


    He knew his ace diator, Terufelos, all too well. From the moment he bought him, then found him a teacher and helped him discover his potential and talent, it took him a lot of effort and time.


    In other words, he was the only person that watched Terufelos grew to be such a powerful diator. His skills and strength were always better than him. For the first time, the Terufelos in front of him looked like a stranger. Whenever he thought that Zhang Heng would defeat Terufelos, the giant somehow managed to crush his pessimistic prediction with his outstanding performance.


    Did that mean that the giant in front of him had suddenly awakened, or he had been hiding his true strength all this time? Maybe he was always stronger than he appeared to be. The question was, why did he hide his true strength? Could he have been nning to escape from the diator school? Was he going to kill his master? The more he thought about all these questions, the more terrifying it became for him.


    While Terufelos��s owner was dwelling in all those questions, the battle between Zhang Heng and Terufelos became fiercer. When Terufelos took on Zhang Heng��s attack with a shy move again, he finally could not help but ask, ��Are... Are we good now? We have been fighting for a long time. I think the audience should also be satisfied by our performance.��


    And the next moment, he finally heard the reply that he had been waiting for a long time. Zhang Heng nodded and said, ��Well, it��s almost time to stop.��


    Terufelos felt a sense of relief when he heard the words.


    There was never a diatorial performance that could tire him out so much. Though it looked like he was as powerful as Zhang Heng, he no longer felt that he was a diator, but a troupe actor, holding the script in his hand and performed. It was hard for him to get through the whole thing. After the performance was over, he could think about where he wanted to reward himself.


    When the battle had almoste to an end, he realized that his nightmare was not over yet. He heard Zhang Heng saying, ��We need to make the ending more dramatic to impress the audience.��


    ��Wh...What do you mean by dramatic?�� Terufelos had now wholly transformed into Zhang Heng��s obedient student. He just wanted to end this honorless battle as soon as possible.


    ��I will attack youter. I was hoping you could use your shield to block my attack. An ident will happen at around the eleventh strike. My sword will stick to the inside of your shield. At that time, it will be your chance to fight back.��


    ��What? I still have a chance to fight back?�� Terufelos almost cried when he heard that.


    ��Yes, please control the battle first.��


    ��How should I fight back?�� Terufelos asked humbly for advice.


    ��Just follow your usual fighting style.��


    Terufelos wanted to say that Zhang Heng had guided him during the entire battle, and he almost forgot his usual fighting styles. Fortunately, he held back his words and only replied with an ��Understood.��


    ��Don��t worry. It will be over soon,�� Zhang Heng reassured.


    ��That would be great.�� Terufelos doubted Zhang Heng��s integrity. After all, he was forcing him to put on a show. He was probably not the most honest or trustworthy person.


    Zhang Heng then started to do a beautifulbo to end the battle finally. Terufelos also had to stay sharp again and used hisrge shield to block Zhang Heng��s storm-like attack. He initially had some doubts about Zhang Heng��s words, but when he counted the eleventh strike, Zhang Heng��s Persian sword was indeed stuck on his shield. So Terufelos seized this opportunity and charged at Zhang Heng with his shield instead of attacking him with his sword. This was the kind of decision that a top-tier diator would make during an intense fight like this. It was because it would take him longer to swing the sword. And his shield was closer to Zhang Heng. So, he nned to knock Zhang Heng out of bnce first. After that, his sword attack would be more effective.


    Everything that he expected happened right before his eyes. Zhang Heng was knocked down by the shield, and the audience fell into a hushed murmur, worried for him. Immediately, Zhang Heng let go of the Persian sword, fell to the ground, and dodged Terufelos��s attack.


    Terufelos reacted quickly and immediately smashed Zhang Heng with his shield on the ground. Before he attacked Zhang Heng, he gave a polite reminder, ��I will smash you now.��


    He then swung the shield in his hand. At the same time, his body was wide opened for Zhang Heng to attack. The next moment he saw Zhang Heng got up from the ground quickly. Not only did he escape his shield attack, but he also managed to get closer to Terufelos. This time, Terufelos was truly frightened by him. He then shed at Zhang Heng subconsciously. However, he was still half a beat slower than Zhang Heng. When he finally got to move his short sword a few centimeters away from Zhang Heng��s arm, Zhang Heng has already ced his Persian sword in front of Terufelos��s neck.


    The judge looked at their final postures and finally ruled that Zhang Heng was the winner. A burst of suppressed cheers broke out from the stands. As for the loser, not only did Terufelos was not disappointed and sad, but he showed a long-lost smile as if he was the winner.

 Chapter 813 - Do You Know What I Like Most About You?

    <h4>Chapter 813: Do You Know What I Like Most About You?</h4>


    The contest between Zhang Heng and Terufelos was undoubtedly the most exciting performance of today. Both top-tier diators, the battle between them was intense and exciting. And the twists and turns had fully satisfied the audience��s strong desire to watch an earth-shattering battle. In the end, Zhang Heng made a critical move in time to turn the tide around and neutralize his dangerous situation. And it caused all 90,000 spectators to cheer for him.


    Although the performance was not over yet, there was no doubt in the audience��s eyes that Zhang Heng would im the championship this time. Even Terufelos could not beat Zhang Heng with his ��hidden strength,�� and the audience would not expect the weakened Sartonilos and other diators toe up with something to defeat Zhang Heng. And the final result was indeed what they expected.


    After solving the only ��tricky and powerful opponent,�� Zhang Heng decided to deal with the rest of his opponents as quickly as possible. And finally, he won the championship of this diatorial show. When the judge announced Zhang Heng as the final winner, everyone, including Commodus, stood up from their seats, cheered, and gave their blessings to the champion.


    A shower of rose petals came raining from the sky. After that, the judge presented Zhang Heng palm branches andurel crowns that symbolized his victory. Under the gaze of 90,000 people, he put on theurel crown, raised the palm leaf in his hand, and circled the arena.


    ��Congrattions. You made a lot of money this time. You made me a little jealous.��


    Pompeo Nuss looked at Luci next to him. Since she was one of the first ones who bet on Zhang Heng, his odds were still rtively high at that time. Thanks to that, Luci could almost earn twice as much from what she bet on Zhang Heng. In other words, she had just doubled her investment in only three days.


    ��We have to take risks sometimes.�� Luci smiled.


    Pompeo Nuss smiled and nodded. ��You are right.��


    ��Do you know what I like best about you?��


    ��Hmm?��


    ��Even if you disagree with a point of view, as long as your interests are unaffected, you��ll never go against that person. Instead, you will pretend to agree with them. But, deep inside your heart, you think that there��s an 80% chance that person is acting like an idiot.��


    ��What caused my beautiful wife to misunderstand me?�� Pompeo Nuss smiled bitterly. ��I really envy you. You view people and the world so uniquely and courageously. This courage even surpasses those men around you. You��ve just made an ie that even I would be jealous of. How could I...��


    Pompeo Nuss hadn��t yet finished talking when all of a sudden, Luci tapped his lips and nted a kiss on him. Unlike the other women that Pompeo Nuss had met. Luci��s kiss was quite powerful, just like herself��bold and open without hiding her charm.


    The two smooched like there no other people in the stands. While Luci kissed Pompeo Nuss, her eyes were staring at Zhang Heng in the arena. And at the same time, a yful smile appeared at the corners of her mouth. She looked like a little girl who suddenly found a new toy.


    ...


    When the audience��s cheers started to subside, Commodus cleared his throat.


    ��Come forward, brave diator. Let me take a good look at you,�� Commodus said.


    ��Yes, Your Majesty.�� Zhang Heng acted as if they never had the one-on-one trainingst night. He then walked towards Commodus��s pedestal.


    Zhang Heng was bing more and more pleasing to Commodus�� eyes. He thought that his easterner was very powerful, and it was extremely rare that he was brilliant too. Zhang Heng could somehow always figure out his intention. And now, he so happened to becking such an employee.


    To be more precise, Commoduscked all kinds of talented people around him. Although his father left him a group of experienced individuals to assist him, he always felt that it was not as easy as using his own people. Besides, Commodus could feel that although they were very respectful towards him, they did not think that he had the ability to rule the empire.


    All those old-timers kept following the traditions and regtions left by the Aurelius era. Instead of assisting Commodus, they were actually making sure that Commodus would carry out Aurelius��s legacy. For that reason, they would order Commodus to carry out specific demands.


    Earlier, when Commodus wanted to make peace with the Germanic tribe, the higher-ups from the military attempted to stop him, feeling that such a deed would insult the empire��s honor. Since they could defeat the Germanic tribes in just a few years, it did not make sense for Commodus to make peace. And, they were going to pay them as well.


    On the other hand, Commodus felt that the empire had used too many soldiers in recent years. Since he was born, he had witnessed his father dering war in one region after the other. Once hepleted a war, a second war would always break out. Those barbarians were like weeds that choked a field. After they were eliminated, another batch of the insufferable nt would somehow sprout up.


    In other words, there was actually no point in eliminating the Germanic. They would alwayse back to fight again after they had recuperated at a different ce. It was simply better to just end the war now. Besides, Commodus felt that after they fought for so long, the military had earned many merits. The people of Rome, however, were getting increasingly tired of the war. Hence, Commodus was trying to give what Rome truly wanted.


    Simultaneously, the military had been attempting to use Aurelius��s legacy to pressure the new emperor. If Aurelius were still alive, Commodus would have chosen to listen to his order. However, now that he was the Roman emperor and tasted the sweetness of power, he realized that it was hard to get anyone to execute his orders. It made him feel how pointless it was Rome��s new emperor.


    Hence, it was not his top priority to form a team of talented people willing to follow his orders to assist him in ruling Rome.


    Right now, an exceedingly talented young man was standing in front of him.


    ��My people, please tell me. How can I reward him for his wonderful performance?!�� Commodus pointed at Zhang Heng in the arena.


    At first, some shouted ��money,�� and others shouted ��women.�� Everyone was giving out different opinions, but in the end, their voices finally unified. And the word they shouted terrified Mark Reuss.


    ��Freedom!!!��


    This was the thing that every ve diator dreamt of. Without freedom, everything that they possessed would never truly belong to them. However, ording to typical rules, an ordinary diator had to fight in the arena for quite some time and provide the audience with dozens of exciting battles. Only then would the audience ask the arena to grant the diator the freedom he had been dreaming of.


    However, Zhang Heng��s epic performance had caused the majority of the audience to ask the arena to grant him freedom. And the other reason was that Zhang Heng was not their property. That was why they did not mind that Zhang Heng would be a free man again. Mark Reuss was the only person that was going to suffer from this matter.


    Although Zhang Heng had won the championship on behalf of Victor Arena and captured the hearts of Rome��s entire city in one fell swoop, the problem was that Mark Reuss did not have the time to cash out all these honor and attention that Zhang Heng earned. The hen who hadid the golden egg was about to run away.

 Chapter 814 - Winner

    <h4>Chapter 814: Winner</h4>


    Although Mark Reuss was now frightened and angry, there was nothing he could to the spectators, and neither did he dare stand up and interfere with Commodus��s decision. He could only sit in the stands and re at the people around him.


    He could only hope that Commodus was fair and would take his loss into consideration. After all, he was still Zhang Heng��s master. All he did was let his diators perform in the Amphitheatrum vium. Although the organizer had the right to decide if the diator lived or died or if they should grant them their freedom, they had topensate the school that owned the diator after doing so.


    The question was, how much should Zhang Heng cost?


    To Mark Reuss, Zhang Heng was priceless. After Sets, he was the strongest diator in the entire history of Rome. No one could put a price on him. However, that was just his opinion. Generally, this kind ofpensation was determined based on the diator��s first price tag and with reference to how long the diator had been performing. However, it appeared that Zhang Heng had been bought for a low price and hadn��t performed much in the arena either.


    ording to Gaby, the money he spent purchasing Zhang Heng was what an ordinary diator would cost. One of his selling points was his unique race. As for the number of times that he performed, Mark Reuss would suffer the most here. Zhang Heng grew at such an rming rate, transforming from the unnamed diator to one that everyone knew overnight. ording to all these factors, even if Commodus was generous, he would only need to pay him a few thousand Sestertius.


    This time, Mark Reuss had suffered from a significant loss. It was estimated that Zhang Heng could bring more than 30,000 gold coins to the arena in a year. Even if he only worked for three years, he would bring 90,000 gold coins to Mark Reuss. Comparing such arge sum of money to only a few thousand copper coins, Mark Reuss felt that he had lost a massive part of himself.


    Hence, Mark Reuss was now the most nervous person in the entire arena. The only hope that he had in his heart was shattered when he saw what Commodus did next. He had only organized this diatorial performance to win the hearts of the Roman people, so wouldn��t it make no sense if he went against the people��s will? Moreover, Commodus was actually trying to figure out a way to take Zhang Heng away from Mark Reuss. It was rare toe across such a good opportunity. After turning Zhang Heng into a free man, he would hire him to assist him.


    Of course, letting a diator be his confidant would definitely spark massive protests among the senior senators. However, this was not the first time he had done such an absurd thing. The two consultants that he had now weren��t from prestigious families. His aggressive recruitment of new people had proven that he wanted to fight against those senior senators.


    The empire was like an old man entering his twilight years, and it needed some fresh blood to rejuvenate it. Commodus had always believed that it was for the greater good. Hence, he could not be bothered by the feelings of the poor owners of the diator schools.


    After that, Commodus took the training sword symbolizing freedom from his entourage and threw it in front of Zhang Heng. At the same time, he announced loudly, ��This is what you won for yourself.��


    His moves had also triggered a new round of cheers. The people seemed to be happy that their voice was taken seriously. The empire now had a good emperor who loved his people like they were his children. Mark Reuss was so angry that he fainted after he heard what Commodus said to Zhang Heng. When he opened his eyes again, Zhang Heng had already picked up the wooden sword.


    This also meant that thetter had regained his freedom, and he had nothing to do with Victor Arena from now on. Mark Reuss, who had just opened his eyes, fainted again. A second ago, he was the biggest winner of this diatorial show, and he was looking forward to the new future of Victor Arena. And now, he had be its biggest loser.


    Although Sartonilos and others did not perform well in this performance, most of them survived. After this whole thing ended, their reputation would be severely damaged. However, they could still find a way to repair it. Besides, the giant obstacles that stopped them from climbing to the top were now gone. In other words, they would have a chance to get to the throne again in the future. On the other hand, Mark Reuss was in great despair. Although his diator school imed the championship, he had now lost Zhang Heng permanently.


    Life was riddled with ups and downs, and this was a prime example. Perhaps the onlyfort Mark Ruess had was that Bach performed exceptionally well in this diatorial performance. He barely made any mistakes, cing him second only to Zhang Heng and Terufelos. However, Bach could neverpare with Zhang Heng in terms of poprity.


    ...


    Zhang Heng was also a little surprised when he picked up the wooden sword because he knew the arena��s rules. There were hardly any diators like him who were granted freedom after only a few battles. That was because the people of Rome would like to watch more of his performances.


    It seemed the time and ce where he acquired his freedom was unique. Just as everyone discussed what to reward him, the value of those rewards continued to increase as the crowd descended into a frenzy. It was then that freedom, the most valuable prize, was suggested by them.


    The crowd subconsciously followed along and shouted together. In other words, this was premeditated coercion and the use of public opinion.


    The question was, who was behind this n? Zhang Heng then looked at Commodus. He knew that Commodus wanted to recruit him into his team. All this while, Zhang Heng has been deliberately guiding Commodus to act ording to his will. He was undoubtedly a beneficiary of this incident. However, based on Zhang Heng��s understanding of Commodus, he knew that Commodus should not be able to pull such a highly devised n.


    The n turned out to be wless. Whoever had nned and carried it out must have possessed a superb political skillset. They were good at manipting their strengths and knew how to fully utilize them. Clearly, a new ruler like Commodus could nevere up with such a delicate n.


    Zhang Heng thought about it, and the only organization that was politically powerful enough to do something like was the Bnce de. ording to the agreement between the two parties, Zhang Heng was required to help Bnce deplete specific tasks, and Bnce de had to make sure that Zhang Heng could regain his freedom. Although Zhang Heng was supposed to get his freedom after he helped themplete the task given to him, he could not rule out that the Bnce de saw a good opportunity to help him regain his freedom. So, they decided to pay a part of the reward in advance. At the same time, it would also allow him to get closer to Commodus.


    If this was the case, Zhang Heng had just managed to prove some of his previous conjectures. The Bnce de was not as pure as it imed. Maintaining the bnce of the world was not its only mission. It was also a tool in the hands of a certain political force. The members within the organization might not know about it. Or maybe only members like Dadatis did not realize such a hidden agenda. They thought that the political force was to their advantage, but they did not realize that the rtionship between the two parties was actually reversed.


    Other than that, Zhang Heng also received two system prompts. One of them was the 100 game points reward for winning the diatorial performance, and another notification was about the 50 game points reward for restoring the status of a freeman.

 Chapter 815 - Not That Bad

    <h4>Chapter 815: Not That Bad</h4>


    Although Zhang Heng had won the diatorial performance, he had more things to do next.


    Earlier, Commodus awarded him a training sword symbolizing freedom under the eyes of more than 90,000 people. After that, he would need to go to the ��Freedom House�� on Trajan Square with Mark Reuss. There, Ruess was supposed to help Zhang Heng change his status from a ve to a Roman citizen.


    After doing that, he would be considered a citizen of Rome. He had to go back to the ce where he lived before to pack his things, bid farewell to a few acquaintances, and move out of the diator school. And in the meantime, he had to negotiate with Mark Reuss.


    Before Commodus left the arena, he signaled Zhang Heng with his eyes. Since he wanted Zhang Heng to meet him right after he settled down, it was undeniable that he tried to recruit Zhang Heng to be part of his team. Other than that, Zhang Heng also wanted to meet up with Dadatis to determine if Bnce de had nned the whole thing. If they had nothing to do with it, it could mean that other forces were targeting him.


    In other words, he would have more problems to deal with. Fortunately, all those things could be solved one by one. After the performance, Zhang Heng first returned to the lounge, where the other diators were gone except for Bach and Terufelos.


    It seemed the show that Zhang Heng forced Terufelos to put on had caused him a nervous breakdown. Terufelos was a little afraid to see Zhang Heng. After a short moment of hesitation, he decided to stay to express his gratitude.


    He was no fool, knowing how much he had gained this time. With his previous wonderful performances, he had also left a deep impression on the audience��s hearts. Now, his status was second only to Zhang Heng. Especially when Zhang Heng regained his freedom, it would mean that he would be the most famous diator after this performance.


    Until now, Terufelos still felt that he did not earn his rank fair and square. And Zhang Heng seemed to know what he was thinking. He then said, ��What��s wrong with you? You are now the second-best diator after me.��


    Terufelos was taken aback. It was a fact he was unable to deny now.


    He was one of the candidates expected to im the championship. And it happened that Satonilos and other diators did not perform well. Some even failed to pass the first round of battle, and the angry spectators demanded their execution. Teufelos counted the remaining diators with his fingers. Probably no one there would pose a threat except for Bach that was sitting next to him.


    And Bach��sbat style was very simr to his. Both of them relied a lot on their immense strength. However, he was obviously stronger than Bach. If he was asked to fight with Bach, he was confident that he could beat him.


    In a manner of speech, there was no problem with Terufelos��s ranking. The only thing that he was unhappy about was the process of acquiring his current rank. So, why did he dwell in his previous frustration? Terufelos thought about it again and figured it must be because Zhang Heng had shocked him too much. The difference in strength between the two was so great that even Terufelos began to doubt himself.


    ��You are too strong, almost like a monster,�� Terufelos said, ��but you don��t seem to be too old. I can��t imagine how you trained to be so powerful. Fortunately, I don��t have to face you in the arena again. My master has beenining about the high cost of amodation in the city. I guess we will leave Rome tonight.��


    Terufelos stretched out two thick arms and hugged Zhang Heng.


    ��That might not be the case.��


    ��Huh?��


    ��If your master is smart enough, he should consider selling you after this performance.��


    When Terufelos heard what Zhang Heng said, his eyes widened, and he seemed a little surprised. ��No. No. We are very close. And we are not like the ordinary master and ve... more like old friends. We have relied on each other and performed at all kinds of ces, not to mention that I performed well this time. He has no reason to sell me.��


    Zhang Heng was nomittal about the rtionship between the two. He then continued to say, ��No matter how close the two of you are, selling you would be the best decision for him, and it would benefit you as well. After this performance, you will be very famous in the city of Rome. That means you will get many spectators that like you. You can maximize your value and make the most money by staying here, but your master probably doesn��t have the financial resources to move his school here. And the schools here in this city fiercelypete with each other. He can��t possibly keep the school running by just relying on you. Hence, selling you is his only choice.��


    Terufelos wanted to refute Zhang Heng, but he decided not to say anything about it because, though the truth could be cold sometimes, he knew that Zhang Heng was telling the truth.


    ��Don��t worry. You should be able to be sold for a good price. With this money, he can retire and enjoy his life early. And if you stay in Rome, you can get more of what you want rather than wandering around outside,�� Zhang Heng said.


    Although he had epted what was about to happen to him, Terfufelos still wanted to talk to his master about it first. So he hurriedly left without saying anything. After that, only Zhang Heng and Bach remained in the lounge.


    The two were also the only two diators from Victor Arena that survived the diator show. Apart from diators who were eliminated during the early game, Habitus was killed by Bach. The other diator named Murkazan was asked to be executed by the audience because of his poor performance.


    Before Bach could say anything, he heard footstepsing from outside the door.


    The visitor seemed very nervous and anxious. The footsteps sounded messy, and it appeared the person was rushing too. When Zhang Heng and Bach saw the person, they knew that Mark Reuss did not actually need the ves�� assistance in walking. They were surprised to see that Mark Reuss could run on his own and at a rather decent speed at that.


    ��How can they treat me like this?!�� Mark Reuss cried as soon as he saw Zhang Heng, ��This is really tough on me. I bought you with my money, and it took a long time for me to train you into my trump card. It��s close for me to bring back the glory and honor back to Victor Arena. And suddenly I realize that my wish can nevere true! I didn��t mistreat you, right? I gave you everything you wanted! When you told me that you didn��t want to date anyone, I just bit the bullet and rejected all those invitations. Thanks to that, I offended a lot of people. Why did I get such bad returns in the end?��


    Mark Reuss became sadder as he talked, and tears started to flow down from his eyes.


    Zhang Heng had to remind him, ��His Majesty, the emperor, made this decision. If you say something like this, others might think that you are dissatisfied with a royal decree.��


    Mark Reuss finally stopped crying when he heard what Zhang Heng said. Still, he could not hide his sad look.


    ��Actually, it��s not that bad. Even if I��m gone, isn��t Bach still there? His performance was second only to Terufelos and mine.��

 Chapter 816 - Carry Luggage?

    <h4>Chapter 816: Carry Luggage?</h4>


    Speaking of Bach, Mark Reuss was angry at him. Although Bach was not as uncontroble as Zhang Heng, he was not someone that one should mess with. During his previous duel with Rufus, the ck Scythe, Bach was determined to kill him even though he suffered a pretty severe injury. And this time, he did the same thing again. He beheaded Habitus from the same diator school.


    Both of them were the diators that could help Mark Reuss boost the ticket sales in the Victor Arena, especially Habitus. He was clearly more popr than Bach, and the people were more than willing to buy the tickets to watch his performance. And now Mark Reuss had lost Habitus forever.


    However, Mark Reuss could not scold Bach because Bach had achieved a good result in this diatorial performance. Habitus was now dead, and Zhang Heng was free again. Mark Reuss realized that he could only rely on Bach now. He was left with no other options.


    Mark Reuss then stared at Bach for a while, and finally, he sighed helplessly. ��Although he was quite good atbat, his strength was not as good as you. You are the champion of this diatorial show.��


    ��If you really want to create another Sets, I think there is someone who might be able to help you.�� Zhang Heng said.


    ��Who might that be?�� Mark Reuss was taken aback. There was a reason why he could make his school the secondrgest diator school in Rome. He quickly reacted, ��Oh, you are talking about Terufelos. After you regain your freedom, he will be the most powerful diator in Rome. It��s a shame that his school wasn��t set up in the city of Rome. He can��t maximize his value even if he wants to. But the problem is that bringing him in will not be easy. Many diator schools are targeting him right now. If I were his master, I would��ve sold him to whoever that offers me the highest price.��


    ��Terufelos seems to have a good rtionship with his master. They do not have the ordinary master and ve rtionship. You can try to make use of this fact to your advantage,�� Zhang Heng added.


    ��Um, is that right? It��s a useful clue indeed.�� Mark Reuss touched his chin and then sighed. ��Even so, he will still cost a lot of money.�� He said it with reluctance and nced at Zhang Heng, ��Forget it, let��s get your matter sorted out first.��


    Although he was reluctant to do it, he still didn��t dare challenge Commodus��s authority. He was one of the few people who knew that Commodus had sneaked to the diator school to meet Zhang Heng. Since then, Mark Reuss felt that something terrible was about to happen to him. He had a foreboding that this day woulde, but he did not expect it toe so soon.


    Unfortunately, he was not as powerful as Commodus. In the end, he decided to follow the order and went to the ��Freedom House�� on Trajan��s Square with Zhang Heng. After that, he asked the clerk to change Zhang Heng��s status from a ve to a Roman citizen.


    And when he signed his name, apuse burst out from the House of Freedom. Zhang Heng��s current fame had skyrocketed in Rome, with many people from the House of Freedom watching his performance on that day. When they saw that he had be a free man, every single one of them congratted him.


    The scene saddened only Mark Reuss. Regardless of Bach or Terufelos, the twobined were still not as popr as a Zhang Heng. If Zhang Heng were still with him, he would only need to promote him a little more, and his school would be the number-one diator school in Rome.


    And now, all of his dreams were in vain.


    Zhang Heng then patted him on his shoulder, ��I remember that there is a rule in Rome. The released ves still need to spare some time each year to work for the former master.��


    Mark Reuss was a little surprised when he heard that. Non-stated in the code ofw, it was a traditional custom at best. While enjoying freebor from their former ves, the master would have to be the protector of his former ves as well. If the former ves encountered any trouble in their lives, they could always ask the protector for help.


    If Commodus were not involved in this matter, Zhang Heng would not mind asking Mark Reuss to be his protector after regaining his freedom. However, he was about to work for Commodus. In other words, the Roman Empire would be his protector.


    Zhang Heng then continued to say, ��I don��t need you to be my protector. Oh, don��t get me wrong, I just don��t want to get you into trouble.��


    Mark Reuss was speechless. He then red at Zhang, thinking that Zhang Heng must be trying to make a fool of him. After that, he heard Zhang Heng continue, ��I can spare some time every month to fight in one of your diatorial performances. However, it would be best if you told me, my opponent, in advance. And you need to get my consent.��


    ��What?�� Mark Reuss thought that he must have misheard Zhang Heng.


    So Zhang Heng had to repeat his previous sentence.


    Mark Reuss was suddenly overjoyed. He never dreamt that Zhang Heng would be willing to perform in the Victor Arena after regaining his freedom, expecting that he would work wholly for Commodus after he left the diator school. Even if he wanted to earn more money, there was no reason for him to perform in the Victor Arena.


    When Mark Reuss heard the good news, he asked, ��Why? Why are you willing toe back?��


    The next second, he regretted asking the question.


    Fortunately, Zhang Heng had no intention to go back on his words. He just smiled and said, ��Of course, there are conditions if you want me to fight in your arena.��


    ...


    Zhang Heng won the championship at the Amphitheatrum vium. It did not take long for the news to spread throughout the city. And naturally, Zhang Heng��s ve girl knew about it. While she felt proud and happy for her master, she also realized that it was time for the two of them to be separated.


    Like Mark Reuss, she did not expect Zhang Heng to regain his freedom so soon. He had only been in the Victor Arena for two months, and he was probably the fastest diator in history to be a free man. It meant that he was about to move out from the diator school, and his ve girl would again be Mark Reuss��s property. There was no way that she could leave with Zhang Heng.


    When Zhang Heng came back, it was probably thest time the two met. The ve girl��s excitement quickly turned into depression.


    However, it was pointless for her to feel unhappy. After all, she was just a ve girl that no one would notice, and she was no different than other ves.


    Dwelled in her thought, she finally heard the familiar footstepsing from outside. However, she suddenly did not want to see Zhang Heng again. But, it was not toote for her to run out of the house. So, she could only find a ce to hide.


    After that, she heard Zhang Heng walking into the room. It seemed he did not notice that the ve girl who had been with him all the time was nowhere to be seen. He simply walked around, picking up his belongings. The ve girl sighed in her heart. It seemed like she was right about it. However, she started to feel regret for the decisions that she had just made. It was pointless getting angry. And it was very likely that this was going to be thest time the two met. She might miss her chance of saying goodbye if she did note out from her hiding now. But the next moment, she heard the footsteps stop outside the cab where she was hiding.


    Afterward, Zhang Heng knocked on the cab door and said, ��Hey, we��re leaving soon. Aren��t you going toe out to help me carry my luggage?��


    After a while, the cab door opened halfway, and the ve girl poked her head out. Her eyes were still red. She then sniffed and asked, ��What luggage?��


    ��What do you mean? You should have received the news earlier. We are going to move.��


    ��We? But I am no longer your ve,�� the ve girl replied innocently.


    ��Well, congrattions, you are free now. Mark Reuss decided to give you back your freedom because of the hard work that you have done for so many years. But I remember you said that your parents are no longer in this world and have nowhere to go. If so, you should move out and live with me first. You can wait until you find a job and move out. But before that, you have to do the housework in lieu of rent,�� Zhang Heng said casually.

 Chapter 817 - Farewell

    <h4>Chapter 817: Farewell</h4>


    After Zhang Heng packed his things, he brought the ve girl to Varo��s residence.


    In the negotiation between him and Mark Reuss��in addition to a fifth of the profit of each performance, the freedom of the ve girl and Varro would be added in too. Now that he had solved the ve girl��s problem, only Varo��s problem remained.


    Presently, Varo was not at home. Zhang Heng heard his roommate saying that he was at the training ground, so he grabbed the ve girl who was standing behind him and said to her, ��I have something to talk with Varo. Can you please leave us and wait at the door?��


    ��Okay,�� the ve girl nodded her head obediently. She knew that Zhang Heng did not want her to listen to his conversation with Varo, and this time, she would notin about it anymore. That was because she remembered what Zhang Heng had said to her. Sometimes, there were certain things that her master did not want her to eavesdrop on be It was because he was concerned about her safety. With that knowledge in mind, she walked away happily.


    After she was gone, Zhang Heng went to the training ground alone. Unlike the ve girl, Mark Reuss seemed hesitant when Zhang Heng asked him to grant Varo his freedom. However, after considering the amount of money Zhang Heng could bring him from the monthly performance, Mark Reuss gritted his teeth and agreed to let Varo be free again.


    This was also something that Zhang Heng expected.


    With the help of street thugs, Zhang Heng managed to track down the person that turned Varo from an antique dealer to a ve. The person had probably thought that Varo could no longer walk out of the diator school alive and wasn��t bothered to cover his tracks. An investigation with a bit of effort would suffice in bringing out the whole truth.


    However, after learning the truth, Zhang Heng was a little surprised.


    Varo was training hard on the training ground. He did not even know that Zhang Heng had won the championship. Right now, he had only one goal in his mind, and that was to train, train, and train. Varo knew that his talent was below average among all the other diators. There was nothing special about him. A couple of times, he had to rely on Zhang Heng��s help to ovee his threats. At the same time, he realized that he could not rely on Zhang Heng forever. Besides, the two were separated now. If he wanted to leave this ce and get his revenge, he had to work harder than any other diator in this school. Zhang Heng did not wish to disturb Varo when he saw that he was training hard. So he stood at the side and silently watched Varo carry on with his training.


    It was not until a quarter of an hourter that Varo��s practice came to an end. He then saw Zhang Heng standing at the side of the training ground. And he put away the wooden sword and walked over to him. ��The performance is over?��


    ��Hmm.�� Zhang Heng nodded.


    ��Who won the final championship?��


    ��That person is standing in front of you now.��


    ��I knew it!�� Varo felt happy for Zhang Heng from the bottom of his heart. ��No one can beat you, my friend from the East. Now, Mark Reuss has to think of what kind of reward he should give you. You brought Victor Arena fame and glory!��


    ��Actually... Mark Reuss and I are no longer master and ve.��


    ��What do you mean?�� Varo was startled when he heard what Zhang Heng said. ��Did he sell you to another school? I don��t think he will do such a thing. He��s always been thinking about looking for Sets��s sessor.��


    ��No, I am free now. After the performance, the emperor gave me the training sword.��


    ��Are you serious?!�� Varo��s face was full of surprise, ��But you have onlypleted a few performances. Was there ever a neer who gained his freedom as fast as you did?��


    ��Who knows, but I guess everything has its firsts.�� For now, Zhang Heng would not tell Varo his previous conjectures. He said to him, ��After I regain my freedom, Mark Reuss and I came up with a new agreement. I wille back here every month to perform in a diatorial performance once. In exchange, he agrees to let you be free.��


    ��You remembered me?�� Varo blushed when he heard that Zhang Heng fought for his freedom. He remembered that when the two had just met, he euphemistically told Zhang Heng that he could not bring him together to conduct his business.


    However, Zhang Heng seemed unbothered. ��You don��t have to think about what you��ve said to me before. We were not close at that time. Hence, I can understand why you would say something like that. I want to remind you that another person is responsible for putting you here other than your wife and good friend. Do you know this person named Pellegrino?��


    Varo frowned, ��This name sounds familiar. Oh, I remember now. He is one of the senators in the senate. His servant once came to me with two expensive antique vases and said Pellegrino wanted to sell them off for money.��


    ��What happened after that?��


    ��Then I did a thorough inspection on the vases and told the servant that someone might have deceived his master because the two vases were not antiques. However, the servant used me of lying, and he framed me for recing the vases with fakes when I was appraising them. But he was by my side all the time when I inspected them,�� Varo said. ��Later, a few old customers came forward to prove my credibility. After this problem was solved, I didn��t take it too seriously anymore. Why did you mention Pellegrino? Wait, do you mean that he is involved in framing me?��


    ��To be more precise, he is the mastermind behind this whole thing. As for your best friend and your wife, the rtionship between them... hassted for quite some time. They were worried that you would catch them red-handed. With their capabilities, though, they couldn��te with such a well-devised n.��


    ��This is something I don��t understand too,�� Varo smiled bitterly. ��I mentioned before that I never thought that my best friend would lie to me. With the friendship between us, I know that he is not capable of doing something like this. So, you are saying that Pellegrino wanted me gone, and he bribed my best friend and wife? But why? Why did Pellegrino want me gone? I��m just an ordinary antique dealer. Was it because I refused to buy his fake vases?��


    ��It��s probably because the property your family has umted made him jealous.��


    ��Huh?��


    ��I had someone investigate Pellegrino for me. Turns out this isn��t the first time that old bastard has done something like this. Many people have been targeted by him before. Some chose to pay him, while some would end up like you because they disobeyed him,�� Zhang Heng said.


    ��So I was targeted at by a senator?�� After Varo knew the truth, a look of fear shed in his eyes. After all, the Roman Empire��s senate was extremely powerful. For ordinary people, they were someone that they could not afford to offend. Initially, Varo thought that his enemies were just his friend and wife. He never thought that his real enemy was a senator. However, after experiencing the dramatic change in his life, Varo��s mental state had be a lot stronger than it was. His expression quickly returned to normal, and he said to Zhang Heng, ��I have a favor to ask.��


    ��Hmm?��


    ��I don��t want to regain my freedom.��


    ��Oh, why? Haven��t you been working hard to regain it?��


    Varo clenched his fists, ��That��s because I didn��t know who my true enemy was back then. Since Pellegrino is the mastermind, he must have talked to Mark Reuss about it. That was why Mark Reuss ignored me when I told him that I used to be a businessman. If I leave the diator school now, Pellegrino would know about it pretty soon. No, Mark Reuss will likely tell Pellegrino personally. He doesn��t want to offend Pellegrino as well. Yes, I want to be a free man again. I want to breathe the air of freedom again. But this is not the time yet. Before I be stronger and find a way to deal with Pellegrino, I will not leave this ce.��


    Zhang Heng raised his eyebrows in surprise, ��It seems that you have indeed grown a lot during this period. That��s right. This is indeed your best option now.��


    ��You have helped me a lot since we met,�� Varo looked into Zhang Heng��s eyes and said sincerely, ��I don��t know how to repay your kindness, but this is, after all, my business. So next, I hope that I can find a way and solve it by myself.��

 Chapter 818 - Goodbye Dadatis

    <h4>Chapter 818: Goodbye Dadatis</h4>


    Zhang Heng��s previous performances earned him quite a bit of money. Other than that, he also received a lot of gifts and copper coins from the excited spectators when he won his final battle at the Amphitheatrum vium. Although most of those gifts belonged to Mark Reuss, the money he earned was more than enough to pay the rent.


    After Zhang Heng quit the diator school, Commodus almost instantly offered him a job. Simultaneously, he was still working for the Bnce de, so he brought the ve around the town to look at a couple of houses. In the end, Zhang Heng chose the home mostfortable to live in. Its rent, however, was also the highest aspared to other houses.


    The room for two people was located at the south of to Square. When they opened the window, they could see the Tiber River. Other than the excellent scenery, it also reduced the risk of the property catching fire. Initially, Zhang Heng wanted to rent two rooms, but the ve girl insisted on renting just one. She mentioned that it was unnecessary to waste so much money on her, and she did not mind sleeping on the floor.


    Before Zhang Heng could even put together a bed, she had already slept on the floor. That was where and how most ves slept at night.


    ��But you are no longer a ve now,�� Zhang Heng said.


    ��Don��t you want me to take care of your daily life? How am I supposed to take care of you if I don��t stay in the room with you? Besides, we have been staying together for some time now. Is there any problem?�� the ve girl asked while blinking.


    ��Uh, let me ask you a question. After you regain your freedom, have you ever thought about what you are going to do to make a living?�� Zhang Heng asked.


    To Zhang Heng��s surprise, the ve girl nodded again and again after hearing the question. ��Yes. I did think about it.��


    ��Oh? This is unexpected. What do you want to do in the future?��


    ��I want to help you to clean up your ce and take care of your daily life,�� the ve girl replied without hesitation.


    ��...��


    ��Do you need someone to clean and take care of your daily life?�� asked the ve girl.


    ��Well, I think the answer is yes.�� Zhang Heng could not refute her. After all, he lived in the second century, and Rome was by no means a modern country. Living alone and doing everything by himself would prove a little inconvenient. There were no toilets, no washing machine, no running water, and no convenience stores. Even the kitchen downstairs had to be shared among many people.


    It was true that Zhang Heng did survive on a deserted ind, but he did not want to spend too much time maintaining his basic survival needs in this dungeon. Hence, it was necessary to hire someone to take care of that.


    ��I did take care of you for a while, and I did a good job, right?�� the ve girl asked.


    ��Well, that��s true,�� Zhang Heng nodded.


    ��Then, do I get this job?�� The ve girlpleted the perfect deduction.


    ��...forget it. You can do this for now. After that, I will look for a job for you so that you can support yourself.�� Zhang Heng had toe to apromise.


    For now, this problem was solved. Zhang Heng asked the owner to add another bed in the room. He then gave her some money to purchase the essentials. When the two of them had finished cleaning up, it was alreadyte. The ve girl who was the mainborer of this cleanup operation was exhausted. The moment she got on the bed, she fell asleep immediately.


    On the other hand, Zhang Heng was not asleep. He was still l waiting for someone.


    When the moon rose high in the sky, the streets became quieter. The tavern and other entertainment venues had closed one after another. Except for some drunks loitering in the alleys and gutters, everyone else had fallen asleep. The person Zhang Heng was waiting for had finally arrived.


    ��Is this your new residence?�� Dadatis came in from the window like a ghost.


    ��Hmm.�� Zhang Heng nodded, nced at the street downstairs, then closed the window smoothly.


    ��The ce looks good.�� Dadatis looked around, and when he saw the ve girl on the bed, he took another look at Zhang Heng, ��You brought her out too? You really don��t seem as ruthless as you look.��


    ��I never said that I was cruel and ruthless,�� Zhang Heng replied.


    ��But your emotion does not fluctuate very much,�� Dadatis said. ��Very well, this is a trait that all assassins dream of.


    ��You performed well earlier,�� he continued after a pause. ��Not only did you win the championship, but you also sessfully caught Commodus�� interest in you. If everything goes well, he will first give you one or two simple tasks. If you manage toplete them perfectly, he will definitely reuse you. At that time, you can squeeze into his circle and find out the whereabouts of Altrus.��


    ��Before I make those things happen, I want to ask a question. Was the sudden call for my freedom earlier today arranged by Bnce de?�� Zhang Heng interrupted.


    ��So, you noticed it as well.�� Dadatis was a little surprised. ��But I am not responsible for this incident. If you want to know more about it, there is someone who might be able to help you.��


    ��Who?��


    ��The priestess. She wants to see you.��


    Zhang Heng was surprised. ording to Dadatis, the organizational structure of the Bnce de was not thatplicated. Except for a group of auxiliary personnel who provided external services, the core members were a group of top-tier assassins and a priest. There was no nominal leader. Assassins like Dadatis and the other assassins were the sharpest weapons of the Bnce de. Usually, they woulde up with something simr to a council to maintain the organization��s operation. The priestess, however, could use the oracle to mobilize the entire organization.


    To some extent, she could even be regarded as the actual leader of the Bnce de. ording to Zhang Heng��s deduction, the Bnce de should belong to a powerful political force. If this was the case, the priestess of the Bnce de was most likely the voice of that particr political force.


    No matter the truth, the priestess was undoubtedly a very important person. Zhang Heng did not expect that the other party would summon him before proving his loyalty by passing Bnce de��s test.


    Was it because the rtionship between him and Commodus progressed faster beyond expectations?


    Zhang Heng could not figure out the priestess��s intention for the time being. And he also did not know whether the meeting was a blessing or a curse. So he did not immediately agree to it. Instead, he asked, ��Do the other core members of the organization know about this meeting?��


    ��I don��t think so,�� Dadatis shook his head. ��I was also told suddenly that the priestess wants to see you. Under normal circumstances, even the core members of the organization would hardly see the priestess. When there is no oracle, she usually won��t show up.��


    ��So, if she shows up now, does it mean that a new oracle has appeared?�� Zhang Heng frowned.


    ��No, you don��t need to be so nervous. It��s different this time. She wants to see you.�� Dadatis said, ��Also, don��t you want to enter the secret library in the base? Normally, this requires the consent of more than two-thirds of the assassins, but if the priestess is willing to help you, she can take you directly into the library.��

 Chapter 819 - Priestess

    <h4>Chapter 819: Priestess</h4>


    To avoid getting caught by the manager of the inse, Zhang Heng and Dadatis left through the window they came in.


    Dadatis had prepared a small boat on the Tiber River downstairs.


    As Zhang Heng climbed into the boat, he noticed no oars on board, so he asked the old Persian, ��How are we supposed to get out of here?��


    ��Rx, we just have to go down the river,�� replied the old trainer as he undid the moorings.


    The boat then began to drift downstream under the influence of the current.


    Zhang Heng and Dadatis each upied one end of the boat, one at the bow and the other at the stern.


    Even though the Tiber River was submerged in darkness, and the hustle and bustle during the day were absent, the scenery was no less remarkable. Reflections of the stars scattered across the gxy twinkled in the water, like a transparent ribbon studded with agate, and the reflection of the moon trailed the boats, riding the ripples, fracturing one moment before bing whole again the next.


    ��You were right not toe during the day,�� Dadatis, who was at the stern, said suddenly. ��It��s not safe out here anymore, and it��s better we do not meet unless absolutely necessary. And remember to pretend you don��t know me in front of the others.��


    ��Hmm?��


    ��Remember Bnce de��s enemy?��


    ��Oh, you mean the traitor who allied himself with Octavian two hundred years ago? I remember you said that he formed an organization of assassins simr to the Bnce de, specifically to deal with the Bnce de.��


    ��Yes, they call themselves the Hounds,�� said Dadatis. ��We have fought hand to hand against each other over two hundred years, but about sixty years ago, our people caused the Hounds to suffer great loss��we sessfully assassinated most of their core members.��


    ��That means you people did pretty good. What happened after that?��


    ��Then the lucky few who managed to get away disappeared for a very long time until half a year ago when we came across their trail.��


    ��You think they��reing back?�� Zhang Heng asked.


    ��They are noting back; they are already back.�� A troubled look settled on Dadatis�� face. ��We just received news that one of our core members who was investigating a suspected Hound was assassinated in Britannia. And we know nothing of the murderer.��


    ��Is this Hounds�� doing?��


    ��We don��t know for sure yet. But besides the Hounds, we don��t have any other suspects. The assassin who was killed was codenamed ckfish. He may not be the best assassin in the organization, but he is definitely the most cautious one. He was born in Britannia, and he knew the ce and people well. In addition to the organization��s reputation, he also had many personal friends there, so his death was a shock to the other members of the organization.��


    ��You��re worried about this.�� Zhang Heng looked at the Persian in the eyes.


    ��Yes, the Hounds�� return meant that the survivors of the war sixty years ago are nning to level the score. They��ve been quietly regrouping, and after preparing for so long��thiseback won��t be as simple as killing one or two of us. This means that new war ising, a war between Bnce de and the Hound.��


    Dadatis expressed his concern. ��Although Bnce de won sixty years ago, we have been living a little toofortably since then, and we don��t know much about the new breed of Hounds. Our enemies, on the other hand, must have been studying us, and once they make a move, they will hit us where it hurts most.��


    ��But haven��t you already decided to retire?�� Zhang Heng asked. ��In that case, get out while you still can, so you will have nothing to do with whatever happens after that.��


    ��Do I seem like the kind that makes a run for it at a time like this?�� The old Persian looked annoyed. ��Besides, you refused to learn the art of bncing. You��re only interested in the fighting��that is not how it should be. Fighting skills are just a means to an end. Our mission is to maintain the bnce of everything in the world for Kreis�� sake. You need to keep this in mind at all times because it is what distinguishes us from the other assassins.��


    ��Mmhmm...�� Zhang Heng muttered absentmindedly.


    Dadatis let out a deep sigh. This apprentice of his was good at everything, one might even call him the perfect assassin archetype, but the only problem was that he was unable to ept the Bnce de��s beliefs. In the past, Dadatis would not have minded even it took him a long time, as long as Zhang Heng was willing to join the Bnce de. Under their imperceptible influence, eventually, Zhang Heng should be able to blend in.


    But when he received the news about ck Fish��s assassination, Dadatis realized that he may not have the luxury of time either.


    As they were speaking, the little boat had already made its way under a bridge. Dadatis set his thoughts aside, reached out a hand, and knocked rhythmically somewhere on the structure of the bridge. Almost immediately, a ropedder descended from the top of the bridge.


    The Persian gestured for Zhang Heng to take the lead, and Zhang Heng climbed up.


    Waiting for them at the top was a tightly covered, ck, horse-drawn carriage.


    ��Don��t think too much. This is an unusual time. The priestess is very important to the Bnce de; we need to do all we can to keep her safe.��


    ��I understand.�� Zhang Heng epted the ck cloth meant to cover his eyes and climbed into the wagon. While it was a horse-drawn carriage, it was very different from those used in theter generations. This one only had two wheels, and it was not asfortable as its modern counterparts. Itcked any windows or doors as well. Sitting inside, Zhang Heng felt as if he was sitting inside a coffin.


    Even more so when Dadatis sealed the tiny hole that was the entrance.


    ��This is as far as I go. Someone will escort youter on. Remember to show some respect when you meet the priest. She hates people who are disrespectful to Kreis.��


    ��That would��ve been my guess,�� Zhang Heng grunted, wholly aware of the ustrophobic space and coldness around him.


    Fortunately, the journey was a short one. After about half an hourter, they arrived at their destination. But no one called for Zhang Heng to exit the carriage. Instead, four ves came to carry the carriage.


    Zhang Heng counted silently in his head. After about a hundred steps, he was put down again.


    After that, it was all quiet. The ves appeared to have left, and Zhang Heng was seemingly forgotten.


    It wasn��t until a quarter of an hourter that an emotionless voice, frigid as like a block of marble, spoke out. ��You are quite calm. Aren��t you afraid that I might have my people throw you into the river?��

 Chapter 820 - Is This An Oracle?

    <h4>Chapter 820: Is This An Oracle?</h4>


    ��Why do you want to throw me into the river?��


    ��Your teacher told you that I am Kreis��s priestess, right? And I don��t like people who are disrespectful to Kreis,�� said the person with an ice-cold tone.


    ��If that��s the case, you might need to kill everyone in Rome because not many people who believe in Kreis in this city.��


    ��Don��t quibble. They are not our men, but you are. Or maybe you will eventually belong to us in the future... Your teacher has chosen you as his sessor. Not only do you need to inherit his skills, but you��ll need to take over his goal. You are supposed to maintain the bnce of everything in this world.�� The priestess stroked the edge of the carriage with her fingers.


    ��Otherwise, why do you think I took so much effort to approach Commodus? To contribute to the prosperity and stability of Rome?�� Zhang Heng, in the carriage, asked rhetorically.


    ��Don��t try to deceive me. I know that you joined the Bnce de to read books about assassins in the library. No matter how powerful you are, you will eventually be someone that everyone despises if you do not have faith and belief. Maybe I should kill you right here to prevent you from bringing trouble to our world in the future.��


    ��Maybe you should do that. By then, no one would be able to give you the whereabouts of Altrus.�� Zhang Heng said lightly.


    ��Are you threatening me?��


    ��No, you are the one who threatened me first.��


    Zhang Heng did not retreat in the face of the intense pressure of the priestess. Instead, he went against her courageously, and he had no intention to give in. It seemed he wasn��t bothered the slightest by the consequences of offending the priestess. If Dadatis were here, he would have probably rolled his eyes in fury because Zhang Heng did not listen to his advice when they talked earlier on the bridge.


    But after Zhang Heng finished speaking, there was a long silence outside the carriage.


    The priestess outside seemed to be considering whether to ask someone to throw Zhang Heng into the river. But after a while, the cover on top of Zhang Heng��s head was removed.


    He heard the priestess say in an ice-cold voice again, ��You cane out now.��


    Zhang Heng crawled out of the cramped carriage and then pointed to the ck cloth on his face, ��What about this thing?��


    ��Stop your demanding. If you don��t want to die, you��d better keep it on.��


    ��It appears you guys have been facing some problems recently. Otherwise, it would be pointless to live if you have to live so carefully all the time.��


    The ck cloth did notpletely block off Zhang Heng��s vision. The light from outside could prate it, and Zhang Heng could also see a vague silhouette of the person that stood in front of him. It looked like the person was the priestess. However, the priestess was wearing a mask as well. In other words, even if he suddenly took off the ck cloth covering his face, he still could not see how the priestess looked like.


    The true purpose of the ck cloth was to test his loyalty.


    The priestess was nomittal. She said, ��We don��t need to live purposefully. As long as we remember the meaning of each person��s existence, that��s more than enough.��


    ��This is pure faith, and it��s admirable.�� Zhang Heng paused, ��But if this is true, why do you want to see me privately without telling other people?��


    The priestess smiled, herughter as cold as her voice.


    ��You think you know everything, don��t you?��


    ��I have never said something like this before,�� Zhang Heng said calmly.


    ��It seems the rumor is right about you. You are an extremely arrogant man. You think that you have won the championship at the Amphitheatrum vium and unexpectedly regained your freedom, and now you are going to disrespect the Bnce de.��


    ��I don��t think it was an ident that I regained my freedom,�� Zhang Heng said frankly.


    ��At least you are not that stupid. If we can give you back your freedom, we can reim the freedom from you anytime we want. This is a fact that will not change even if you have Commodus on your side,�� the priestess said coldly.


    ��It sounds like your political allies are quite strong. In that case, I can stop worrying. What do you want me to do?��


    The priestess snorted, ��We need you toplete something for us.��


    ��Is this an oracle?��


    ��No.�� The priestess said after a long silence.


    ��Is that an order from the Assassin Council, with the consent of more than half of the assassins?��


    ��Neither.��


    ��Heh... why should I listen to your order then?�� Zhang Heng said.


    While he was on the way here, Zhang Heng wondered why the priestess wanted to meet him suddenly. With her current position, it was not necessary for her to do such a risky thing. And, she also had to hide this meetup from all the other assassins from Bnce de. The two had just met, but she seemed very hostile towards Zhang Heng. It was a little abnormal.


    Zhang Heng carefully recalled that he had done nothing that would offend her before. Hence, there was only one possibility for her to treat him in such a rude manner.


    She needed Zhang Heng to help her with something, but she did not want him to spot her weakness. That was why she came up with such a n. As soon as Zhang Heng showed up, she started to threaten him and tried to dominate the conversation. This was indeed a very clever political skill.


    However, this method usually worked on those assassins who were rtively innocent and had very little political experience. When Zhang Heng was at Nassau, he managed to handle theplicated political environment on Nassau Ind with ease. That was why Zhang Heng was not scared so easily by her.


    The conversation between the two people when they first met was a powderkeg. They were arguing the whole time, and neither of them was willing to take a step back. And in the end, it was a draw.


    Unfortunately, the priestess��s n did not work as intended because she was the one that needed Zhang Heng to help her with something. Once she lost the dominating role, she lost most of her bargaining power in the next negotiation.


    However, Zhang Heng decided not to push her to the corner. After all, he wanted to listen to what the priestess had to offer him. So he said afterward, ��First, tell me what you want me to do.��


    ��I hope you don��t kill Altrus right after you find his whereabouts,�� the priestess said.


    Zhang Heng raised his eyebrows when he heard what she said, ��Wait, did I hear that right? You, the priestess of Kreis, are asking me not to kill the target given by the oracle?��


    ��No, I��m not asking you to spare Altrus. I��m telling you not to kill him so quickly when you find him,�� the priestess emphasized, ��The situation has changed during this period. I need to find out something from him. So I hope that you will inform me when you locate him. I will send someone to talk with him first. But don��t you worry, I will leave him to you after I talk to him. You will be able toplete your test, and you will not lose anything.��


    ��It seems the gods you believe in are not looking at the bigger picture here. After that?��


    ��Don��t you want to enter the library? Due to your beliefs, other assassins in the organization may not agree to let you enter, but I can grant you ess right now, bypassing the vote of the Assassin Council. I help you, and you help me. What do you think about helping each other out to get what we need?�� The priestess finally threw out her bargaining chip.

 Chapter 821 - Visitor

    <h4>Chapter 821: Visitor</h4>


    Since the previous strategy did not work, the priestess�� attitude towards Zhang Heng had changed drastically. Even her tone had softened down. Although it still sounded emotionless, she was at least not as aggressive and rude as before. Now, it looked like she was trying to negotiate, and her offer seemed like it would benefit Zhang Heng a lot.


    However, Zhang Heng did not immediately agree to it. Since they were negotiating now, Zhang Heng wanted to bargain with her. He paused for a while and said, ��One more thing. After Iplete this task, I don��t want to be chosen as the executor of the oracle anymore.��


    ��That��s impossible.�� The priestess shook her head. ��First thing, it��s against the rules. Secondly, even if I am willing to promise you, this is still something that I can��t control. Although I issue the oracle, the executor is selected by the Assassin Council. If everyone thinks you are suitable to execute the oracle, you will be selected to be the executor. Under normal circumstances, the same person will not be allowed to execute the oracle twice in a row.��


    However, an answer as such did not satisfy Zhang Heng. So he continued, ��Then, you can choose not to issue an oracle. Dadatis says there have been cases where no oracle appeared for more than 40 years.��


    ��...��


    The priestess was speechless, ��What do you think of me? I��m just the spokesperson of Kreis. I can��t decide when Kreis will issue an oracle. And you heard about the Hound from Dadatis, right? This is not a peaceful time for us. Even if there is no oracle, you may not be able to sit there and enjoy your life.��


    ��Then what else can you offer me?�� Zhang Heng asked.


    The priestess bit her lip, ��If you must take advantage of this transaction, what about me?��


    Zhang Heng was quite surprised. He did not expect this ice-cold woman would offer herself to him. ��Aren��t you a priestess?��


    ��I am not the saint of Vesta. Kreis��s priestess does not need to keep their virginity. In fact, our doctrine also involves rtionships between men and women. Kreis encourages such a thing. It is part of the bnce.��


    ��Thank you... for your love. Unfortunately, I am not interested in freezing ice,�� Zhang Heng said. Since there was a ck cloth blocking his vision, he could not see the sorrow that shed through the priestess�� eyes. This was probably the biggest insult for a woman.


    But thetter��s expression quickly returned to normal, and she said coldly, ��Then you should name your offer.��


    ��Forget it. I don��t want to make this difficult for you. Besides letting me go to the library, I want you to let Dadatis retire early.�� Zhang Heng changed his terms.


    ��Huh?�� This time it was the priestess�� turn to be surprised by Zhang Heng. She did not expect his second condition to be actually rted to Dadatis.


    ��That man is old. Even though he refuses to admit it, his skills and movement speed are slow as a frozen earthworm. He can only rely on his wittiness to survive. In other words, he is no longer useful to the Bnce de. Besides, now that you have me, you can let that man go on his retirement,�� Zhang Heng said.


    ��You are worried that our war with the Hounds will affect him, aren��t you,�� the priestess suddenly chipped in. ��I didn��t expect him to mean so much to you. Unless he asks to retire and pass his position to you, no one can force him to leave the Bnce de. I think I have an idea. My rtionship with him is quite good. I can find an excuse to deceive him into traveling somewhere remote for a trip. It will be at least a year before hees back here. By that time, you should have taken his ce. What do you think?��


    ��Deal,�� Zhang Heng said.


    The priestess finally breathed a sigh of relief when she heard this. This meeting waspletely different from what she had imagined. From the very beginning, she was never in control of the negotiation. Neither the prison-like carriage nor her subsequent threats allowed her to take the reins of the situation. In the end, she had to pay a higher price to convince Zhang Heng to work for her.


    ��How can I inform you when I find Altrus?�� Zhang Heng asked afterward.


    ��Go to the Perfume Shop Street, find a perfume shop with iris flowers outside, and tell the owner that you want to buy a bottle of unscented perfume. After that, pay one Sestertius to the person who wees you, and he will take you to my people.��


    After they came to an agreement, the priestess��s attitude towards Zhang Heng became ice-cold again, as if she hadpletely lost interest in him.


    So Zhang Heng was smart enough not to stay here any longer. Heid down in the carriage. The priestess then lowered the cover, summoned the ves from outside toe in, and sent Zhang Heng back to the small bridge from which he came. When he arrived there, Dadatis and his boat were gone.


    The priestess was very cautious. She did not disclose any location-rted information to him. Through the ck cloth, Zhang Heng figured out that he was in a small room. Most of the time, he spent his time in that small and damp carriage.


    However, if the other party thought they could hide the information from him, they had clearly underestimated him. Zhang Heng then looked at the watch in his hand. This watch had gone through several quests with him, and the most magical part was no matter what era it was or how cautious the people were, they tended to ignore the existence of this watch.


    It is as if the watch was the blind spot of the world. Although the watch disyed the time in the real world, as long as Zhang Heng multiplied it by the time-flow-rate of the copy, he would get the exact time of the dungeon. When Zhang Heng entered the carriage, he ced the watch beside his ear. He divided the route into equal parts from the tick interval of the second hand.


    He also memorized the time whenever the driver steered the carriage. Through the degree of the bumpiness that he experienced on the road earlier, he remembered the path that he had gone through.


    Considering that the priestess might hide somewhere to observe him after sending him to the bridge, Zhang Heng did not immediately turn around to look for the room where he been to just now. For now, he returned to his residence first.


    Zhang Heng went to bed and slept until the following afternoon. On the other hand, the ve girl got up early and prepared a meal for Zhang Heng. Her master, however, had no intention to wake up. So she could only put the breakfast on the table and wait for Zhang Heng to wake up. At the same time, she put her chin on her palm and stared into nk space.


    In the end, the breakfast on the table became Zhang Heng��s lunch. Zhang Heng got up from the bed and yawned. The ve girl expressed concern about his current situation. ��Although we still have half of the money we used to have, I don��t think we canst another two months if we don��t work. How about I go to theundry house to take up a job.��


    ��Now you remember that there are other jobs avable? Don��t worry. Money is not a problem. Someone will send us money soon,�� Zhang Heng said as he picked up a piece of bread.


    Speak of the devil. They heard a knock on the door almost instantly.

 Chapter 822 - New Job

    <h4>Chapter 822: New Job</h4>


    The ve girl went and opened the door. Instead of seeing the person who would send them money, she saw heavily armed guards, making her a little nervous.


    ��You... Who are you looking for?��


    ��Oh, does the champion of Amphitheatrum vium live here?�� A young man who did not look much older than Zhang Heng squeezed himself through the four guards and came to the front.


    ��Yes, that��s right.�� Zhang Heng��s voice came from behind the ve girl. He then walked toward the young man.


    The ve girl did not want to cause any trouble, so she quickly walked away from the entrance and retreated to a corner.


    Zhang Heng then shook hands with the young man before allowing him to enter the house.


    There was a smile on the young man��s face, ��Hello! I also watched your diatorial performance at Amphitheatrum vium. It was indeed exhrating, especially the battle between you and the Giant. Words can no longer describe how epic the battle was. That was definitely the greatest battle I have ever watched. Maybe I can tell my grandson about it in thirty years... Oh, I haven��t introduced myself to you yet. I��m Clint, the emperor��s advisor.��


    Zhang Heng��s eyes moved slightly when he heard who the young man was. He knew about Clint. ording to the information given by Dadatis, Clint, and his target, Altrus, were the most trusted advisors of Commodus. Known as the Commodus��s right-hand men, one of them worked behind the curtain, and the other one worked in the light. Both of them helped Commodus to govern the country and respond to threats from all sides.


    Earlier, Zhang Heng had figured that Commodus could not wait to recruit him. However, he did not expect him to send Clint.


    With Clint��s current position, there had to be many things that he had to attend to daily. He could have sent his foot soldiers toe and look for Zhang Heng. However, he insisted on meeting Zhang Heng personally. This was obviously a sign of goodwill.


    Once he entered the house, Zhang Heng asked Clint politely to sit by the table. That was the only spot in the house where Zhang Heng could talk to his guests. After that, Zhang Heng asked the ve girl to pour two sses of water for them.


    ��Presumably, you already know what I��m here for. Yes, our emperor admires you very much, and he hopes you can consider working for us.�� Clint wasted no time talking nonsense. Once he sat down, he started to exin his intentions.


    However, Zhang Heng did not immediately agree to it. Instead, he said, ��Of course, I also hope that I can help lighten the emperor��s burden. But as you can see, I am just a diator who has just regained his freedom. Ie from a distant, foreignnd, and I don��t know much about the political situation. I am worried...��


    ��I can understand your worries. Don��t you worry, my friend. The ce that you will work in will be different from the Senate, surrounded by a corrupted atmosphere. There, you find greedy old men everywhere. I am only amoner, and I used to wander in the streets as well. However, I was lucky enough to be recruited by an open-minded and unorthodox emperor. He is willing to make use of people like you and me and give us the opportunities to grow further.�� Clint patted Zhang Heng��s shoulder, ��There��s nothing you need to worry about. So there��s nothing for you to worry about. As long as you are capable, there will always be a position here for you to fill in.��


    ��Then where should I start?�� Zhang Heng asked.


    ��Very well, it seems like you are readied for the new job. Next, let me tell you what we need you to do.�� Clint was still polite and enthusiastic, and it took him a pretty long time to exin in detail his given tasks. He was very patient. Considering that this was Zhang Heng��s first task, his job was not thatplicated. And it had something to do with his previous job as a diator.


    In the second century, there were no surveince cameras and criminal investigation equipment. It was a problem for every ruler to maintainw and order in the city. And the poption of Rome had exceeded one million. Most of them who lived at the bottom rungs of the society were thieves, crooks, killers. They were very active in every street, and crime took ce almost every minute.


    The job of the patrol team was to stop the crime in time and catch the criminal as quickly as possible after the crime happened. The first job Zhang Heng received from Commodus was to assist the patrol team in maintainingw and order.


    ��Of course, you can��t take care of such a big city by yourself. So, you just need to pick an area,�� Clint said as he took out the map of Rome and spread it out on the table.


    But at that moment, a man dressed as a servant walked in from outside and whispered something to Clint. And Clint��s face changed slightly. When he looked at Zhang Heng again, he showed a touch of embarrassment.


    Upon seeing this, Zhang Heng took the initiative to speak, ��Almost everything has been exined clearly. If you have anything urgent to attend to, you should make a move first.��


    Clint seemed to feel bad about it.


    ��His Majesty is very concerned about your affairs. I pushed all the morning arrangements to meet you in person. Initially, I wanted you to personally check out your workce, but a sudden emergency requires my attention. I have to deal with it right away. I have an idea,�� Clint thought about it for a while and beckoned a guard into the house, ��This is Pannonax from the Janissary Guard. He has dealt with the patrol gang before. Regarding picking the area, you can ask for his advice. Don��t worry.��


    Clint lowered his voice a little, ��...It doesn��t matter if you don��t achieve too much. As long as there are no major mistakes, I will speak good things of you to the emperor.��


    ��Thank you so much,�� Zhang Heng replied in kind.


    ��Wee to join us. It is always exciting to see the team grow,�� Clint smiled again. This sunny and cheerful young man seemed to like to smile a lot. ��Let��s join hands to take on senators that look down on people with an ordinary background.��


    After speaking, Clint and left with his servant hurriedly, and three of the four guards he brought with him quickly followed behind him. And the guard with a knife wound between his eyebrows stayed behind. He should be Pannonax.


    As a result, before Zhang Heng greeted him, Pannonax��s face was darkened. He walked toward the table, pointed to an area on the map, and said rudely, ��The area you are responsible for is here. Go and report there before dark.��


    ��Wait, but the master said that he��s free to choose the area he wants to patrol?��


    Before Zhang Heng could speak his mind, the ve girl in the corner started to fight for Zhang Heng��s right.


    Pannonax sneered, red at Zhang Heng, like a vulture staring at its prey, ��Are you here to work or recruit others to work? How about we let you guard the pce?��


    Zhang Heng waved his hand to stop the ve girl from speaking again. He then nodded and said, ��Fine. I will head there.��


    Pannonax was a little surprised when he heard Zhang Heng��s reply. ording to his expectation, Zhang Heng should be fuming right now, and he might even attempt to beat him up. After all, he was the champion of the diatorial performance that was held recently in Rome. Although Pannonax did not watch the performance, he figured that Zhang Heng��s strength should be outstanding.


    People like him usually could not resist the desire to use their strength whenever they encountered trouble since this was the easiest way for them to solve the problem. However, Zhang Heng seemed to have no intention to do so.


    Pannonax did not even see that Zhang Heng was holding on to his anger. Thetter seemed calm as if he had foreseen that such a thing would happen. This made Pannonax a little ufortable, but it did not matter to him. He had set more than one trap for Zhang Heng to step on. He assumed that there was no way Zhang Heng could avoid the next trap.

 Chapter 823 - Working For The Emperor Is Perilous

    Chapter 823: Working For The Emperor Is Perilous


    The ve girl was still irritated after Pannonax left.


    ��What kind of person is that? We didn��t owe him any money. Why would he put on such a stinking look when he talked to us? Look at Clint. He could be so polite.��


    ��Hmm.��


    ��Clint told you that you could choose the area you liked. Why did Pannonax arrange it for you then?��


    ��Ok.��


    ��I think he has bad intentions. He didn��t find a good ce for you, and he doesn��t look like a good guy. Don��t let him...��


    ��Plot against me?��


    ��Yes, I��m pretty sure that he is plotting against you. I heard that the people in the pce are not that simple. They cook up ns to eliminate the people they don��t like.�� The ve girl felt that she performed rather well this time. She could not believe that she could see through Pannonax��s evil n with a single nce. She thought that no one else could see through him except for her. At least for that moment, she was standing on the pinnacle of truth.


    ��Hmm.��


    ��Don��t you have anything else to say except hmm?�� The ve girl was speechless.


    ��Then what do you expect me to do?�� Zhang Heng asked rhetorically.


    ��At least go and look for Clint and tell him what Pannonax has done to you. Clint would not let him off the hook.��


    ��Hmm.��


    ��What do you mean by hmm?��


    ��Do you think Clint would not know what Pannonax had just done?��


    ��What do you mean?�� The ve girl was a little at a loss when she heard what Zhang Heng said, ��But Clint wasn��t present at the time, right? He left in a hurry.��


    ��What you said is quite right. We have no grievances with Pannonax, and we didn��t owe him any money either. So, why did he mistreat me? He even risked getting being beaten by me just to irritate me? Especially considering that I will probably be an important person to the emperor in the future.��


    ��Yes, why?�� The ve girl was puzzled.


    ��Because Clint asked him to do so.�� Zhang Heng smiled.


    ��Huh?�� The ve girl felt that something was not right. After thinking about it, she finally grasped the key point, ��But we have no grudges with Clint, and we don��t owe him money.��


    ��But I might be blocking his path,�� Zhang Heng said lightly. ��A small group like this gets all the authority from the emperor. And although the emperor is the supreme ruler of the empire, he does not possess unlimited power. In other words, if one more person joins the group, the new member will receive part of the power. Of course, it won��t be enough to make Clint target me. It is probably because the emperor visited me privately some time ago. And Clint feels threatened by it.��


    The ve girl opened her mouth wide. She felt like she was listening to a story from another world.


    Zhang Heng decided to exin everything clearly to the ve girl, ��If he goes against me personally, everything will go smoothly for him if he wins. However, if he fails to bring me down, he would be putting himself in a dangerous situation. That��s because he��ll be adding another enemy to his list. For a mature politician, it��s unworthy to take the risk. Due to all these reasons, he chooses to smile at me and act like a good guy.


    ��On the other hand, he lets Pannonax be the bad guy. If things go wrong, he can abandon Pannonax. And I won��t bother him if I turn out to be the winner. On the contrary, he might think that I��ll have a good impression on him because he reaches out to help me in difficult times. At worst, he would get himself an extra political ally.��


    ��Is th- that... the case?�� the ve girl stammered. ��So Pannonax is willing to be a shield for others?��


    ��Of course, he��s not happy about it. It ismon for a person like him to be their superior��s shield if they want to be promoted to a higher rank. If he helps Clint get rid of me, Clint will naturally take good care of him in the future. This is something consensual. With his current position, it is necessary for him to take a little risk if he wants to reap the benefits,�� Zhang Heng said as he picked up his unfinished slice of bread.


    ��He deliberately tried to annoy me earlier. He probably expected me to beat him up. If I did as he wished, he could use that against me. Commodore has a good first impression of me. However, I��m still a diator to him, and he didn��t know whether I can take on the big task. The first task given to me was actually more like a test.��


    The ve girl could not help but shudder. She had never thought that humans could be soplicated.


    The person who smiles at you on the surface might want to stab you in the back. What surprised the ve girl more, was that Zhang Heng was still in the mood to finish his breakfast.


    ��Working for the emperor turns out to be very dangerous. Better don��t take the job. At most, I can go and work at theundry house. We can make some money easily if we want,�� the ve girl blurted anxiously, ��Or we can leave Rome and settle down in Syria? I met a friend when I was in the diator school. Shees from the Syrian province. She told me about the scenery there.��


    ��If I wanted to make money, I can earn a lot from performing in the Victor Arena.�� Zhang Heng finished eating bread and peeled a fig. ��Ah, this is just a small matter. I can handle it. We will stay in Rome.��


    ��But... ording to what you said, the man named Clint has already started to plot against you. Even if he fails this time, he will not stop until he seeds in eliminating you.��


    ��Of course, the area that he asked Pannonax to choose for me is definitely a high-risk zone.��


    ��What should I do then?�� The ve girl looked sad.


    ��Let��s check it out first,�� Zhang Heng finally finished his breakfast and wiped his mouth.


    He did not wait until dark to report to the patrol team.


    It was mainly because of Zhang Heng��s unfamiliarity with the city of Rome. Hence, he needed to do some preparations in advance. It could prevent the patrol team from giving him the wrong information. Besides, he did not know if the patrol team was controlled by Clint.


    However, Zhang Heng was a little worried this time. That was because the patrol team in charge of this area was desperate to make it a better ce. But the problem was that theycked the ability to do so.


    The area that Zhang Heng assigned to was the most chaotic ce in the whole of Rome, with most living in the area being Jews. Other than that, many other ethnic minorities called the ce home as well. They looked different in appearance, but they shared amon characteristic, and that was poverty. Due to poverty, this area was infested with criminal activities.


    Almost more than one homicide took ce every night. The crisscrossed alleys were extremely dark at night. They were the perfect ces to kill someone. After the murder, the murderer could look for a nook to hide, and the authorities would never locate them. With the patrol team��s manpower, it was impossible to figure out this ce altogether. In fact, once darkness befell, the patrol team members would not dare to go out alone.

 Chapter 824 - Let Skinny Monkey Go!

    <h4>Chapter 824: Let Skinny Monkey Go!</h4>


    After the ve girl checked out the ce with Zhang Heng, she finally experienced how chaotic it was. While walking on the street, someone snatched the bag of money that she held tightly and ran away.


    Immediately, the thief ran into the crowd. When the ve girl shouted at him, no onlooker responded to her cries for help. It was as if they were deliberately ignoring the crime that happened right before their very eyes. Everyone��s face seemed stered byyers of numbness and indifference.


    In the end, the ve girl had to stop shouting and could only stand furiously by the roadside. She then asked Zhang Heng, who witnessed the crime happening right beside her. ��Why didn��t you stop him?


    ��There��s not much money in the bag, is there?�� Zhang heng asked in reply.


    There was a division ofbor between the two when they went out. Zhang Heng was the one who carried all the valuable items and gold coins. On the other hand, the ve girl only had some change inside her purse, which amounted to about thirty Sestertius.


    ��But that��s our money too,�� protested the ve girl sullenly. Apart from losing money, she was also worried about Zhang Heng��s new job. If the security here was so bad during broad daylight, she could not imagine what would happen here when night came.


    After that, she heard Zhang Heng leisurely say, ��We can get our money back if you want.��


    ��He is gone now. How are we supposed to catch him?�� The ve girl opened her eyes wide.


    ��Although the person who stole your money ran away, his aplices are still there,�� Zhang Heng said. ��Generally, those who steal money would work in a group or pair. They are given different roles after they select their targets. One would be responsible for stealing the money, and the others would pretend to be passersby on the side. Through that, they can easily support their partner in crime in case of an emergency.��


    While talking, Zhang Heng pointed at one of the youths in the crowd. He was not that tall, and he looked to be about eleven or twelve years old.


    ��Hey, you, don��t run.��


    Thetter saw Zhang Heng pointing at him, and he panicked. Especially when he heard the words ��don��t run.�� Without any hesitation, he turned around and ran away. However, he was still a stepte. He did not know how Zhang Heng could appear behind him in such a short time.


    He had just taken a half-step with his right foot when he was lifted off the ground.


    However, he had no intention to give up on running away. He wanted to take off his clothes and run away topless. Zhang Heng knew he was going to use this little trick to escape, though. Immediately, Zhang Heng used the shirt that the kid just took off and tied it around his neck. If he tried to run again, the shirt would be tighter and tighter, and his breathing would be more and more difficult.


    ��Where are your aplices? Take us to them,�� Zhang Heng said lightly.


    But he soon discovered it was pointless asking the question. Perhaps his aplices saw that Zhang Heng had caught theirpanion, the person who robbed the ve girl��s purse earlier. And he brought two morepanions with him, standing not far away from them.


    The oldest among them was estimated to be around sixteen years of age, while the youngest seemed to be only ten. They were carrying weapons in their hands, and it frightened the ve girl a little.


    ��Let Skinny Monkey go,�� the boy who snatched the ve girl��s purse shouted. He was also the oldest member of the group.


    ��Sure. Return the money that you stole from us first,�� Zhang Heng said calmly.


    ��What the hell are you thinking? We are not negotiating with you. If you don��t let him go, we will attack you!�� The boy raised the dagger in his hand and said viciously.


    The ve girl quickly hid behind Zhang Heng and poked her head out after hearing the boy��s threats. ��How dare you rob us in the street during broad daylight? After being found out, you even started to threaten the victims. Aren��t you afraid that we will tell the patrol about it?��


    ��It��s useless. They don��t give a sh*t about this ce,�� the boy sneered. ��If you don��t want to get hurt, you better hand him over to us. Otherwise, don��t me us for being rude.��


    ��Oh yeah, what are you going to do?�� Zhang Heng kicked the captured young man��s calf and made him kneel on the ground. The leader considered it as a provocation, and he could not stand it anymore. So, he let out a loud roar and charged at Zhang Heng with a dagger.


    It was a pity that their fighting skills were not as proficient as their thievery. Coupled with their young age, theirbat effectiveness was minimal, and they picked the wrong opponent as well. Zhang Heng put them all on the ground with almost no effort. During the fight, Zhang Heng did not even need to use his weapon.


    After that, he squatted down and searched the boy who snatched the ve girl��s purse. Once Zhang Heng found the purse, he returned it to the owner. ��Count it. Is all the money in there?��


    The ve girl happily took over the purse and stuck her tongue out at the group of teenagers that Zhang Heng had just beaten up. She then counted the copper coins in it and nodded at Zhang Heng.


    ��It��s all in there.��


    The smile on her face did notst long. She froze when she saw another group of men appearing on the street next to them.


    Earlier, the passersby ignored her cries for help, but now, they quickly moved to the side when they saw the group of men walking toward Zhang Heng. Those who moved slightly slower than others were pushed to the ground. However, they did not dare toin. Immediately, they got up, lowered down their bodies, and moved to the side of the street. Zhang Heng also noticed fear shing through the teenager��s eye when he saw the group of men approached him.


    ��What��s the matter? Someone here needs help?�� asked the tall but slightly feminine Jewish man that was leading, with a hint of frivolousness in his voice.


    ��No, nothing happened,�� the teenager lowered his head and said. ��We are just ying around.��


    ��Having fun?�� The feminine-looking Jewish man smiled. ��Why not do something productive? Better stop fooling around. Have you collected all the money that I wanted this week? Tonight is the deadline.��


    ��We are still trying to figure a way to collect the money.��


    ��Are you thinking of a way to collect money, or are you thinking of a way to lie and fool around?�� asked the Jewish man. ��I, ck Mamba, am going to remind you again. I heard that you robbed a couple of rich people recently. I hope the numbers that youe up with can satisfy the iron handcuffs. Otherwise, you know what will happen to you. As for you...��


    ck Mamba looked at Zhang Heng and said with a smile, ��You hurt my men. What do you n to do about it?��


    They were different from the group of teenagers that they faced earlier. All the seven people in front of them were adults. And the weapons in their hands looked destructive, including gloves full of iron nails and maces. Some of them even had somebat experience. They used to work as an underground diator or bodyguard.


    Upon seeing that, the ve girl could not help but say nervously, ��What should we do? Did those people that ran away notify the patrol team about it?��


    ��Impossible. Besides, I am a member of the patrol team. I haven��t reported for duty yet, though. I don��t think I have a problem if I start work a few hours earlier.�� Zhang Heng looked like he was not in a rush. He then tapped the teenager��s cheek and reminded him, ��Stay put. I have some questions for you, but I have to deal with them first.��

 Chapter 825 - Villain

    <h4>Chapter 825: Viin</h4>


    Zhang Heng was about to face seven enemies on his own. To ck Mamba, there was no doubt that Zhang Heng was going to lose the fight. For the people that took advantage of the streets like them, bullying the weak and fearing those more powerful than them was a basic survival skill. When they had the advantage, they would magnify their victory as much as possible. And when the situation was unfavorable to them, they would run away.


    Only those who had fully adapted to the environment and acted ording to the circumstance could survive thisnd of insurmountable chaos and evil. If the area from Trajan��s Square to the Royal Pce was a symbol of the light and prosperity of Rome, then this ce represented its dark and dpidated side. The poor people here were struggling to get enough food every day.


    Being merciless in this ce was not something negative. Instead, it was an essential trait to stay alive. Therefore, the enemy with the mace who charged at Zhang Heng had a clear goal in his mind. He wanted to cripple Zhang Heng��s arm first. As long as his hands were destroyed, he would no longer be able to fight back. After that, they could do whatever they want to him.


    The enemy with the mace thought he was merciful by avoiding the most vulnerable spots on Zhang Heng��s body. It was daytime, after all. Although this cecked effective security forces, they could still get into a lot of trouble if they killed someone.


    The enemy saw Zhang Heng charging towards him instead of retreating. In the end, the two collided. Although they weren��t very different in terms of body size, Zhang Heng still managed to send his opponent flying away.


    Ever since Zhang Heng took part in this magical game, he had been actively working out. And he had double the time every day to train himself to be stronger. Now, his physical attributes were above average. Although he wasn��t nearly as strong as Bach and Terufelos, his strength was still excellentpared to ordinary people. Those thugs on the street could never reach him. Besides, he had justpleted Gaby��s hellish training as well.


    Zhang Heng knocked his opponent to the fruit stand on the side, and he crushed the fruit stand. Immediately, the second enemy charged at him. And this time, there was another person who helped him. Both were underground diators.


    The underground diators were referring to diators who did not perform in the arena. They were generally men not strong enough to be official diators. For instance, Roman citizens who failed the final exams weren��t allowed to continue staying in the diator school. The older diators forced to go on retirement would usually choose to be underground diators.


    The venues for their performances were usually very casual. They could just set up a stage or find an alley to hold an underground diator show. The spectators were mostly poor civilians or even ves. Like a formal diatorial show, the organizer would encourage the audience to bet on the diators, and at the same time, loosen some of the rules to make the fight more exciting.


    The unspoken set of rules that the professional diators followed did not apply to them. And they were also allowed to use all kinds of weapons. From time to time, they would hold a death battle for the diator, fighting until one of them was dead. Therefore, underground diators that managed to stay alive throughout their careers were generally very skillful.


    These two underground diators were ck Mamba��s best fighters. They had won a lot of tough battles for ck Mamba before. That was why he had high hopes for them. However, what happened next made his jaw drop.


    The two underground diators ustomed to fighting four or even five enemies had failed to live up to their previous toughness. One of them got a dagger nted in his arm as soon as he charged at Zhang Heng, and he could no longer hold on tight to the short sword in his hand.


    But suddenly, Zhang Heng managed to catch the short sword that was about to fall to the ground, and he used it to block another person��s attack. And finally, he kicked the person��s chest, and it caused him to fall to the side.


    ck Mamba panicked when he saw what happened to his men. Immediately, he waved his hand to ask the rest of the people to charge at Zhang Heng together. Zhang Heng quickly used his unique footwork to iste his enemies. And in the end, he defeated them one after another.


    Thus, the seven enemies were like the Cbash Brothers that attempted to save their grandfather. Not only did they fail to surround Zhang Heng, but they were also defeated and suffered different degrees of injuries. ck Mamba knew that he faced a very powerful enemy this time. Usually, it was impossible for the seven of them to fail in defeating a single enemy. Unfortunately, the enemy they faced this time was powerful enough to defeat all seven in one fell swoop. None of them managed tond a single hit on Zhang Heng. Even the two most powerful underground diators were defeated almost instantly. After the fight, Zhang Heng did not suffer any injuries on him.


    ��Who on earth are you...?�� ck Mamba looked at Zhang Heng in surprise.


    ��Zhang Heng.��


    Zhang Heng had no intention to conceal his identity.


    ck Mamba felt that the name sounded awfully familiar to him as if he had heard it from somewhere. The two underground diators reacted faster than ck Mamba. They were left in fear when they heard his name.


    ��You... Are you the easterner who imed the championship at the Amphitheatrum vium?��


    ��That��s right,�� Zhang Heng nodded.


    ��It��s you!�� ck Mamba took a deep breath. Although these people were not ves, most were unqualified to go to the Amphitheatrum vium to watch the diatorial performance. He had never watched the performance, but almost everyone in Rome had heard of Zhang Heng��s legendary tales in the Amphitheatrum vium after the final battle concluded.


    Whether it was defeating the famous diators within ten moves or tame the bison empty-handed, all these glorious battles were unheard of, not to mention rumors about him being an incarnation of a god.


    ck Mamba now regretted that he did not recognize Zhang Heng earlier. After all, Zhang Heng��s appearance was quite unique in Rome. However, the ce they were at right now was inhabited by people of different races, and many foreigners stayed there. That was why ck Mamba did not think much about Zhang Heng��s appearance.


    Besides, he was extremely unlucky to cross paths with the champion of the Amphitheatrum vium. After knowing Zhang Heng��s identity, ck Mamba had given up the thoughts of fighting back. He realized that he could never defeat Zhang Heng. Although they had an advantage in numbers, it was still impossible for them to defeat the man that had single-handedly defeated a bison. So it would be wiser for them to admit defeat.


    As expected, Zhang Heng did not embarrass him further. After asking for his address, he let them leave the ce. ck Mamba sighed in relief and quickly asked his men to help out those who had problems returning home.


    The ve girl felt a little dissatisfied after she watched Zhang Heng beat them up. She then asked Zhang Heng, ��Why did you let those viins go?��


    ��Viin? ording to the definition of ��viin,�� everyone that lives in this ce is some sort of viin. If we arrest all of them, the imperial prisons will not fit all of them. After that, no one will be willing to do those high-risk-low-return jobs,�� Zhang Heng shook his head. ��Although there are ways to determine whether a person is good or bad, we should also refer to the environment that they live in. The situation here is moreplicated, and it is difficult for a good person to survive here.��


    ��But isn��t it the patrol��s job to eliminate crime?�� the ve girl asked in confusion.


    Zhang Hengughed, ��It is not the patrol��s job to eliminate crime. We are supposed to make criminal activities more controble. Don��t worry. I��ve done this once before. And now I��m just doing the same thing again. Not to mention this time I��m working with the authorities. Well, that��s it for checking the ce out. You should go home. First, I have something to ask him.��


    Zhang Heng pointed at the teenager who snatched the ve girl��s purse.

 Chapter 826 - Patrol Station

    <h4>Chapter 826: Patrol Station</h4>


    As Zhang Heng wrapped up questioning the group of teenagers, the sky had begun to turn dark.


    Zhang Heng did not rush to report to the patrol team for duty. Instead, he found a small restaurant and had dinner there since he still had some time left. He ordered pickled anchovy, grilled meat, and a small piece of goat cheese with a bowl of coarse oatmeal. In total, he spent less than six sestertii on his food.


    As he ate, he learned about how much someone would spend on average at a ce like this. The price of the food here was half of the cost of the food in the city. The portions here were smaller, however, and they tasted terrible. Zhang Heng felt that the grilled meat tasted weird, feeling neither like chicken nor rabbit.


    Considering most people living in this area suffered from poverty, food vor was never a priority. The main reason that prevented people from dining in restaurants was safety, especially after dark. It was only a matter of them before someone got mugged. Some might even lose their lives.


    When Zhang Heng was eating, he saw two diners fighting over a waitress. The winner went to the second floor with the beautiful woman, while the loser left the restaurant while clutching the back of his head. Things like this happened at all kinds of ces. Zhang Heng no longer had any interest in watching it.


    After dinner, he went to the patrol station. Instead of looking like a patrol station, it looked more like a building about to copse. The previous owner was killed by a tenant on the top floor when he attempted to collect rent. His body was hidden under the bed, and it took half a month before someone eventually discovered it. The assant was ultimately arrested, and he was sent to the arena to be fed to the lions. Later, the authorities would find a way to deal with this building.


    Since the deadndlord lived alone and had no wife or children, the building was eventually taken over by the patrol team and became its station. Not only did the members of the patrol team live here, but their families had also moved into this inse without paying rent.


    When Zhang Heng first arrived at the inse, he thought he went to the wrong ce because no signs indicated that this was the patrol team��s station. And there were no facilities like the training grounds. The cramped area had turned into a ce where the families driedundry. And there were also tworge jars of pickles and a half-repaired table.


    ��Stand there, don��t move. I��ll shoot your eyes if you get closer!��


    The person that threatened Zhang Heng was a little boy. And Zhang Heng based his judgment on his clothes. He had short hair and wore a shirt that was too big for him. There were also bruises on his face. He must��ve gotten it from a recent fight.


    He held a slingshot in hand, aiming at Zhang Heng vigntly, with an old dog behind him as well. Zhang Heng raised his hand, indicating that he did not carry any weapons, and asked politely, ��Is this the patrol station?��


    ��Yes, what happened to you? Did someone beat you, or did someone rob your money? Or both? Did youe here to report the crime?�� The little boy continued to ask, and he did not let down his guard. ��You don��t look like you belong here. Why are you here?��


    Before Zhang Heng spoke, a voice came from behind the little boy, ��He is a new patrol team member. Put away your slingshot, Viya. A girl shouldn��t y with this stuff all day long.��


    ��But if I don��t carry the slingshot with me, who will defend the patrol station when you leave?�� Viya asked in an affronted tone.


    ��This is the patrol station. No bad guys will dare toe to his ce.��


    ��That��s not true. We lost two clothesst week. We lost half a bag of wheat the week before that, and...��


    ��There is no way to solve the thefts,�� the man who appeared afterward said helplessly, ��Half of the robbers and thieves in Rome live here.��


    Although Pannonax did not tell Zhang Heng about the situation here, he had almost learned everything that he needed to know about the patrol members in the afternoon. He knew that the man that looked like a typical Roman soldier in front of him was Aris. A man with a burly figure and bronzed skin, he once fought the Maanni with Aurelius and did his best to fight off the enemies. Unfortunately, not too long after the war started, he was shot in the calf. Although the injuries were not life-threatening, he could no longer stay in the army to umte military merit points. So he returned to Rome and joined the patrol team to maintain the city��s security.


    It was said that he was good at fighting. However, due to his leg injury, he found it challenging to fight now.


    Zhang Heng took the initiative and stretched out his hand. ��Zhang Heng.��


    ��Aris.�� Aris also shook hands with Zhang Heng.


    This time it was Viya��s turn to interrupt. She eximed, ��Zhang Heng? Aren��t you the Oriental man who won the championship at the arena?! Wait, are you a new member of the patrol team?�� She turned her head to look at Aris, ��Dad, why didn��t you tell me that the legendary diator in Rome will be joining us?��


    ��Because this has nothing to do with children. Do I need to report every official business of mine to you? Don��t be like your mother, asking questions all the time,�� Aris snorted impatiently.


    ��But this is big! Haven��t you beenining that nobody in the patrol team fights well? And it makes it difficult for you to enforce thew every time.�� Viya was full of excitement. ��Now you have a legendary diator of Rome! No one can defeat us anymore.��


    ��It is not as simple as you think. One person cannot solve the problem here,�� Aris said. ��Your mother is making dinner. Why don��t you help her? Other than that, go and ask those going on patrol tonight to gather downstairs. We are about to set off.��


    ��The excuses you make to drive me away sucks.��


    Although she wasining, she still took the old dog upstairs. She deliberately looked at Zhang Heng twice before she left, like looking at a monkey in a zoo.


    ��Sorry, my daughter is ill-mannered. Well, I guess manners do not apply to this ce,�� Aris said.


    ��It��s okay. Since I won the championship, I have be ustomed to such treatment,�� Zhang Heng replied. ��Fortunately, I won��t lose a piece of flesh just because I get stared at.��


    ��That��s good. To be honest, I didn��t expect that a reputable man like you would be willing to join the patrol in this area.��


    ��I��m just a diator who regained his freedom. I��m not a reputable man.�� Zhang Heng shook his head.


    ��But I heard that the emperor values you, right? I heard the people above say that you want toe here to umte some political capital. If that is true, I regret to tell you that you may have chosen the wrong ce.��


    ��Why do you say that?��


    ��You heard what I said to my daughter just now. Although this hell hole is in Rome, it ispletely different from other ces. This ce is full of thieves, robbers, viins, and all kinds of criminals that you can imagine. This ce can��t be changed by one person, even if you are the champion of the Amphitheatrum vium.��

 Chapter 827 - Principle

    <h4>Chapter 827: Principle</h4>


    Zhang Heng smiled, and he did not dwell on this issue.


    Five minutester, those that were supposed to be on duty tonight had gathered downstairs. The entire patrol team had a total of twelve people. Usually, they were divided into two different teams, where one would be responsible for the day patrols and the other, the night. With such a clear division ofbor, both teams should get enough rest every day.


    However, the twelve-man patrol team was not enough to take care of such arge area, not to mention that they were divided into two teams. Even ck Mamba��s gang had more people than them. Among the patrol team, some were young men, and some were older. Except for Aris, the captain who injured his leg and fought on the battlefield before, the other patrol members did not even have properbat experience.


    In fact, most of those assigned to this area had either made a huge mistake or offended someone powerful. Zhang Heng could also not rule out that some more unfortunate ones were sent here without knowing this ce. Their roles were solely to fill up the shortage. And once they were stationed here, leaving this ce would prove extremely difficult.


    Aris and others had attempted escape before, but their attempts were all but futile. After all, no one wanted to stay in a ce infested with criminals and chaos. Even if their welfare wasn��t a priority, they had to think about their family members.


    But for some well-known reasons, all of their efforts were in vain.


    Aris was considered to be one of the more responsible captains. When he first came here, he thought about bringing sweeping changes to the ce. He had written countless letters to the top until now, telling them about the area��s problems, hoping that they would send more people and allocate more funds. Unfortunately, no one responded to his letters.


    He even attempted to, within his power, try to influence the people around him a little by little, hoping to bring back the order to the chaotic streets. However, this whole ce was like a vast quagmire. No matter who stood in it, moving forward would prove challenging. In the end, the person would only sink deeper and deeper until it engulfed them. Aris did not know how long he could hold on. To him, this was all but a hopeless ce now.


    ��Your circumstance is not looking good,�� Zhang Heng said. He saw Aris taking out his armor and putting it on neatly before the patrol. This was the armor he wore when hest fought on the battlefield. After that, he brought it with him here, and it looked well maintained.


    However, his five subordinates were not so lucky. Some wore wearing rusty armor, some had iplete armor, and some wore no protective gear at all.


    ��Because every time we cest, we get very little funds. They are barely enough to make ends meet, so we have to get our own weapons and armor elsewhere,�� Aris said. ��Do you have armor with you?��


    ��I don��t need that kind of thing,�� replied Zhang Heng.


    ��Trust me. If you have it, you��d better wear it because you are going to need it,�� Aris insisted. ��I know you��re a good fighter, and although I never witnessed your heroic achievement in the arena, I guess you must have beaten up your opponents pretty well. You could even fight two enemies simultaneously, but trust me, this is different from the opponents you encounter in the diatorial performances. diators value honor a lot and will never do anything that will make the audience despise them. These people here are different. You might not get to fight them face-to-face, and it can happen at any time, anywhere. The person next to you might just suddenly draw a knife and stab you. The worst part is you have no idea who the person is and why he wants to kill you.��


    ��Thank you, but I can handle an assassination without armor.�� Zhang Heng raised his eyebrows.


    Having learned and familiarized himself with an assassin��s methods for some time now, if he were stabbed by someone random here, Dadatis��s teaching would be in vain. After that, Aris did not try to persuade him anymore. After all, it was the first time that the two met. Aris had reminded Zhang Heng of the danger of this ce only because they were colleagues. To him, Zhang Heng was an arrogant man, and he did not have high hopes for him.


    Although there were rumors that the emperor attached great importance to Zhang Heng, being assigned here said a lot about him. Out of good intention, Aris reminded him again, ��Have you offended someone recently?��


    ��Yes, for now.�� Zhang Heng smiled again, but he seemed to not want to dwell on the issue. And soon enough, he changed the subject. ��You mentioned the assessment just now. Can you tell me more about its rules?��


    This part was something Zhang Heng could not inquire about earlier. Such information could only be received from the patrol team.


    ��Of course, this is also something that you should know.�� Aris nodded, ��As you can see, each team is responsible for patrolling different areas. Every two months, the higher-ups will send someone to conduct a statistical inspection. Mainly, they will check on the crime rate in different areas, for instance, the number of burries and homicides in each area. They need to know whether the cases have increased or decreased. They would also want to know how many cases we have solved. Finally, they will randomly select residents in the area and gauge their satisfaction on current public security.��


    Aris paused when he said that, ��We are in a special area. I believe you had checked this ce out when you came here. We have arge number of Jews and some from the eastern provinces and immigrants from Egypt or Mauritania. We don��t even know where a number of theme from. In short, this is a veryplicated ce. With so many people from different ces cramped altogether in such a small ce, conflict inevitably breaks out every day.��


    ��Unsurprising,�� Zhang Heng said.


    ��We see a robbery or street fights every day. Sometimes, people of the same race would fight among themselves. And in order not to be bullied, many choose to join a gang. In the end, countless armed gangs are born because of this reason. The smaller gangs have a dozen members, but as for those big gangs, they have at least hundreds of people. And many of them embark on the journey of bing a criminal once they acquire enough weapons. The small-time thugs and the gangsters on the street are backed up by the gangs here. Sometimes, you might offend the entire gang if you catch one of them. And it could cause a lot of trouble... The patrol team can��t do anything about it. After all, the patrol team was led by ame man, and they were abandoned by Rome as well. We don��t even get a full sry.��


    When Aris first came here, he was worried about how the safety of the residents in this ce. However, after he experienced living here for so many years, he had be a little numb by it. To him, no one could solve the problems in this ce unless the government decided to bring in the armies to kill all the people here. Otherwise, this ce would always be a paradise for the thieves, viins, and murderers.


    ��Fortunately, we are just a patrol team. We don��t have much money with us. Under normal circumstances, the criminals will not target us. However, if you want to live here long enough, you have to remember a fundamental principle, that is, don��t be nosy,�� warned Aris.

 Chapter 828 - Let’s Make Money Together

    <h4>Chapter 828: Let��s Make Money Together</h4>


    The first rule that the patrol team should be following was not to be nosy. Considering the terrible situation Aris and the others were facing. It was understandable that they to behaved as such. Unfortunately, Aris did not know that Zhang Heng was about to be causing a lot of trouble to them. Earlier, Zhang Heng caused no problem because he was gathering information from everyone that he met and talked to. Now that he had enough information and had found the right time to take action, it was time for him to execute his n.


    Aris had a headache on how to deal with Zhang Heng, who had just joined the patrol.


    The higher-ups had told him that Zhang Heng would assist him in maintainingw and order in this area, but they did not exin the man��s identity and position to him in detail. It stood to reason that Aris could only treat Zhang Heng like an ordinary new member in this situation. However, Zhang Heng belonged to someone extremely powerful in the pce. It was rumored that Commodus valued him a lot. Although the two had only met for the first time and Zhang Heng had behaved politely, Aris could see that Zhang Heng was not the kind of person who fancied obeying orders.


    ��I don��t know why you want to join the patrol. Are you going to help us with the night patrol, or do you want to maintainw and order during the day with deputy captain Spirata?��


    Initially, Zhang Heng avoided a question like this, but since Aris took the initiative to ask, Zhang Heng replied, ��Actually, I want to borrow your team.��


    ��Borrow my squad?�� Aris was stunned when he heard the words. ��Are you saying that you want to be the captain?��


    Zhang Heng��s request undoubtedly came off as very rude. Since Aris had just returned from the army a few years ago, he had immediately made it clear to Zhang Heng that he was the patrol leader, and that was a fact that could not be changed. However, his temper had toned down a lot after staying in this ce for a long time. To him, the position of patrol captain was not that important anymore. Anyone could sit in this position now. The recement would need to carry a huge responsibility. Not only had the leader take care of the twelve patrol members, but he also needed to protect their families. That was why Aris was not going to hand over the position to someone that he barely knew.


    ��No, you are still going to be the captain. You can do what you usually do. As long as you are willing to listen to mymand during a critical time.�� Zhang Heng said.


    ��What do you mean by critical period?�� Aris frowned.


    ��For example, tonight, I need you to apany me to a tavern.�� Zhang Heng said.


    ��Go to the tavern? What do you want to do there?��


    ��I have some business to be done with a few men over there. Didn��t you say that the funds given by the higher-ups are not good enough because of the low evaluation score?�� Zhang Heng looked around and continued, ��I noticed that many of your men don��t own a set of good armor. ording to what you told me just now, it is not going to be safe for them to patrol the street if they don��t have decent protective gear. One of the major causes of these issues is because you don��t have enough money. In that case, let��s make more money first.��


    ��How can we make money in a tavern? Work as a waiter?�� Someone could not help but interject.


    ��No, just be still,�� Zhang Heng said, ��I can handle the rest.��


    ��How can we make money by just standing still?�� Another person expressed his doubts. In fact, this was the question that everyone wanted to ask.


    They had stayed here for almost half a year. They knew how difficult it was to make money in this ce. Even if they washed dishes in a restaurant, the gang in charge of the area would tax their hard-earned sry. And it might happen more than once. When they heard that they could earn money by just standing still, all of them thought that Zhang Heng must have lost his mind.


    ��It doesn��t make much sense for me to lie to you. My lie will be exposed once we get to the tavern. So, what do you think? Would you like toe with me tonight?�� Zhang Heng��s eyes swept across the crowd.


    When everyone heard the question, they all turned around and looked at Captain Aris. Clearly, they were more willing to trust their captain, Aris, rather than Zhang Heng, an outsider.


    Aris knew this group of people too well. They had suffered from poverty for too long and had to tighten their belts every month. When they heard that there was a chance for them to make more money, they were almost instantly moved. Out of respect, however, they decided to let their captain determine for them. Even if he disagreed with it, it did make much sense for him to use his power to force them to say no to Zhang Heng.


    If he said no this time, could he say no again for the second or third time? Zhang Heng did not have to do anything about it. All he needed to do was to ask this question once every day. Sooner orter, someone would be unable to resist and say yes to Zhang Heng. It was only a matter of time. After realizing it, it was not difficult to understand why Zhang Heng looked so calm on the other side. It seemed like he was not worried that Aris would say no to him.


    So Aris decided not to stop him anymore, ��Okay, then we will be under yourmand tonight.��


    ��Ask the patrol team that is in charge of the daytime patrol toe together with us. They will have more time to restter.�� Zhang Heng said.


    Aris knew that it was important for everyone to use this golden opportunity to make more money. Since he did not stop the first team, he certainly would not stop the second team. He nodded, ��Spirata and the others should be back soon.��


    When Aris was talking, the five people led by Spirata came back from their street patrol. One of them held some wood in his hand. It seemed like he was going to repair the half-repaired table. When they heard their colleagues telling them that they were about to head to the tavern to make money just by standing still, their reaction was simr to that of Aris and others when they first heard the proposal. They found it hard to believe as well.


    They had nothing to lose if Zhang Heng cheated them. It was just an extra trip to the tavern, which was why everyone was willing to join in.


    In the end, Zhang Heng finally gathered all twelve members of the patrol team, and together they walked to the tavern called ckwater Bay.


    However, Zhang Heng did not enter ckwater Bay when he arrived there. Instead, he waited for a while until the teenager and his threepanions who robbed his money in the afternoon ran over from the alley.


    Zhang Heng now knew that their leader is called Seceus, nicknamed Soap.


    Zhang Heng did not know why he had such a nickname. Maybe it was because he was really good at stealing others�� money, and every time he got away with it. It did not matter to Zhang Heng.


    Zhang Heng asked Soap, ��Are the Iron Handcuff and his people inside now?��


    Soap nodded, ��Yes, on thest day of the week, the thieves from the three nearby streets have to report to the Iron Handcuff. They have to hand in the money that they steal or rob to the big boss. The one who robs the most money will be rewarded. And those who robbed the least money will be punished.��


    Speaking of being punished, a look of fear appeared on the teenager��s face, ��The seven people you beat up this afternoon, their leader is ck Mamba, and he is the right-hand man of Iron Handcuff, And he also has a very powerful thug called Broken Finger. All the thieves from the three streets must obey them.��


    ��Hmm. It seems that he is the person that I am looking for.�� Zhang Heng patted Soap on the shoulder and smiled, ��Let��s go in and meet this Iron Handcuff and his men. Don��t be afraid. You are my men from now on. No one will dare to touch you.��

 Chapter 829 - Big Business

    <strong>Chapter 829: Big Business</strong>


    Soap trembled in fear right now because he hadn��t brought a single copper coin to Iron Handcuff. ck Mamba was right. Soap and hispanions had indeed earned a lot of money this week. However, Skinny Monkey had fallen sick, and they had to spend all the money they robbed to bring her to a doctor. The treatment fees depleted their funds, and that included the money they were supposed to give to Iron Handcuff this week.


    In the afternoon, they tried to rob the ve-girl, but it was a failed attempt. Hence, they were forced to confront Iron Handcuff empty-handed. They could already foresee the tragic fate that awaited them.


    Just when they thought they were about to fall into great despair, Zhang Heng expressed his willingness to save them. Soap did not know whether it was a blessing or a curse to follow Zhang Heng, but they seemed to have no other choice. So they bit the bullet and walked into the tavern.


    Tonight, Iron Handcuff��s men had almost entirely upied ckwater Bay. As for the rest of the people, they were burrs from the three nearby streets. Most of them were skinny teenagers like Soap and Skinny Monkey. They hade to report this week��s work to Iron Handcuff, and would also need to hand over the money that they robbed to him.


    Although they had alwaysined in private about this injustice, no one dared to actually disobey him. That was because they knew the consequences of angering Iron Handcuff. All those unfortunate ones that disobeyed him were nowhere to be seen. Hence, even though the rest were unhappy, they had no choice but to pay Iron Handcuff every week.


    Fortunately, they had all grown up at this ce and were ustomed to such things. After all, the strong preying on the weak was something that would never change in this world. Whoever had the power would get to rule the weak, and the weak could only learn how to obey orders.


    Before this, Soap and four of hispanions belonged to the bottom rungs of society. Many thieves knew about Skinny Monkey��s sister��s illness. Initially, they sympathized with Soap and hispanions, but it did notst long, and now, it had disappearedpletely. After that, some thieves evenughed at them.


    After all, these thieves would usually hustle along these three streets. They would work with each other at times but were rivals at most. Besides, it was rare to see anyone loaded with money walking on these streets. Often, these burrs would go for the same target, making peaceful co-existence between them nearly impossible.


    Nheless, they were about to be having one less rival group after tonight.


    ��Damn! You guys are finally here. I thought you and your friend were going to run from me. I was just about to settle my things here and pay a visit to your respective families.��


    The person talking to them was a dwarf, and his role in the gang was to manage Iron Handcuff��s money. When Soap and four of his friends entered the tavern, he was sitting on a waitress��sp. They were chatting, and the waitress wasughing at his jokes. At the same time, she allowed the dwarf to feast his eyes on her body.


    After that, he kissed the waitress on the cheek, jumped off herp, walked to Soap, and stretched out one of his hands, ��Excellent, since you are here, pay us the money.��


    ��I... we have no money,�� Soap replied with a shudder, even hearing the sound of his own teeth chattering in his mouth.


    ��No money?�� The smile on the dwarf��s face gradually disappeared, ��That does not sound right to me. I heard you guys had a good yield this week.��


    ��Yes, but we used the money to take my sister to a doctor.�� Skinny Monkey did not want Soap to be burdened by the pressure alone. So, he gulped and blurted out the truth.


    The dwarf sighed. ��You have not been in this business for long enough. You are, however, considered a veteran now, and you should have known everything about the rules. Of course, it is important to treat your sister��s illness, but you can��t use other people��s money to pay for her treatment. No matter how we look at it, you are at fault.��


    ��I... we will find a way to repay you as soon as possible,�� Skinny Monkey hurriedly said, ��...for the sake of the money that you��ve made for Iron Handcuff, please give us another chance to make up for it.��


    ��Okay,�� the dwarf nodded. ��We are not unreasonable. Even if you deceive us first, our boss, Iron Handcuff, is willing to trust you again. After all, you are the best thief in these three streets.��


    When Skinny Monkey and others heard this, they were overjoyed. They did not expect that Iron Handcuff, who had always been known for his cruelty and brutality, would show them mercy at a time like this. The thieves around them looked very surprised when they heard what he said.


    After that, they saw the dwarf drew his dagger and stuck it on the wooden table.


    ��We have a small problem. Unfortunately, we are only allowed to forgive three people. It seems you guys will have to make a decision here.�� A vicious smile appeared on the dwarf��s face.


    Soap and his friends were left in shock. The other thieves, on the other hand, were relieved when they saw what had happened. That was the Iron Handcuff that they were familiar with. They would need to pay the price when they made a mistake.


    Now, everyone in the tavern was looking at Soap and his friends. They wanted to know who they would choose in the end. After a while, Soap said, ��Wait, we don��t have any money, but we have to discuss with Iron Handcuff��s boss about a business n.��


    He finally made up his mind. He knew that he was about to cut ties with Iron Handcuffs and the gang when he said that. Even though Soap greatly doubted that Zhang Heng could to cut a deal with Iron Handcuff, he had no other options but to do what Zhang Heng asked him to do.


    ��Business?�� A yful look spawned across the dwarf��s face. ��What business n can four thievese up with? Or are you trying to buy yourselves some time?��


    The next moment, an unfamiliar voice came into his ears, ��What he said is true. He wants to discuss a business n with your boss.��


    The dwarf was a little surprised. He did not know where Zhang Heng hade from. In fact, he could not even remember when the Asian man had entered the tavern. And he had never seen him before. Hence, he had no idea why a stranger wanted to stick his nose in his business.


    On the other side, ck Mamba and his men, drinking, had their expressions change drastically they saw Zhang Heng. He then asked, ��Why are you here again?!��


    ��Why? Do you know him?�� The dwarf was taken aback when he heard ck Mamba shouting.


    The incident that had happened that afternoon was too embarrassing to be told by ck Mamba. Seven of his men were beaten up by a single person, and they were left with swollen noses and faces. Considering that Zhang Heng didn��t belong here, and they had no way to defeat him, they decided not to look for revenge. It was rare that they would make peace with a stranger that had just beaten them up.


    None of them expected that Zhang Heng was still around and follow them to this tavern. ck Mamba suddenly felt aggrieved. He did not know why Zhang Heng hade to the tavern tonight. And he thought that he was here for him. After the fight, ck Mamba heard Zhang Heng say that he would let them go, and he thought the man was going to keep his promise. Zhang Heng��s very presence made him believe that Zhang Heng broke the promise on purpose. A diatorial champion usually wouldn��t be that perfidious. The ones he had beaten up did not seek him, but the ones who beat them up came knocking at their door.

 Chapter 830 - It’s Not Our Business Once We Get Off Work

    <h4>Chapter 830: It��s Not Our Business Once We Get Off Work</h4>


    ��We had a good time earlier. I��m not here to meet you tonight, so take it easy,�� Zhang Heng told ck Mamba, whose re was on Zhang Heng and was ready to fight him. After that, he looked around the tavern, and his attention eventuallynded on a ck man at the corner.


    The ck man looked like a regr customer of this tavern. He was neither surrounded by subordinates like ck Mamba nor surrounded by beautiful women like the dwarf. And the food on his table looked quite pathetic as well. He was only eating half a piece of bread and drinking a bottle of wine. From the way he looked, he definitely did not look like a man of power.


    Zhang Heng then asked, ��You appear to be Iron Handcuff.��


    ��Why would you say that? I don��t think we��ve met before,�� the ck man asked rhetorically.


    ��In this tavern, you are the only one that sits the farthest from anyone else. On the other hand, no one dares to approach you. Obviously, they are afraid of you. And the dwarf just subconsciously looks at where you are sitting. Of course, the main reason is that Soap has told me about your appearance and other relevant information.


    ��You were a ve before, and you ran away from your master several times. Every time, they managed to catch you and put on iron handcuffs. I also know that you have suffered from great torture. This is where your nicknamees from. One day, your former master was found dead in his own barn. A pitchfork had pierced his heart. They suspected you were the murderer, but they stopped suspecting you due to theck of evidence. After that, your former master��s son sold you to other families. Two yearster, your new master was also involved in an ident. However, he made a will before his death and decided to free twenty of his ves. You are lucky to be one of them. After you regained your freedom, you moved here and worked as an apprentice in a cksmith shop. With this job, it was difficult for you to make more money. So you worked with a group of people and controlled all the thieves that lived in the three streets nearby. At that time, you forced them to ept your protection and made them pay you on a regr basis. Am I right?��


    ��Since you know who I am, why do you dare to stand up for them?�� Iron Handcuff red at Soap and his friends. After living under his reign of terror for so many years, Soap and his friends suddenly felt it difficult to breathe.


    ��I��m not standing up for them. As he said earlier, wee to discuss a business n with you.��


    Zhang Heng walked towards Iron Handcuff, pulled up a chair opposite him, and sat down.


    ��We?�� Iron Handcuff caught the point.


    ��Yes, my twelve brothers and I. As a sign of courtesy, I came in to greet you first. They are still standing outside and waiting. If you have no objection, I will let them in now.�� Zhang Heng then found an empty ss, blew away the dust inside it before picking up the wine bottle, and pouring himself a ss of wine.


    ��Twelve people? I am afraid that��s not going to be enough,�� Iron Handcuff snorted.


    ��No, it is. After all, we are only here to discuss business.�� Zhang Heng smiled and said to Skinny Monkey, ��Let theme in.��


    Skinny Monkey then took a quick peek at Iron Handcuff. He seemed to be in a bad mood now, and it looked like he was about to kill someone. However, Skinny Monkey was left with no other option even though he knew what he was about to do would further anger Iron Handcuff. He then ran out and notified Aris.


    In fact, Aris felt very nervous now. Having been responsible for this area��s security for some time now, of course, he knew all about the small andrge forces here. When he saw ckwater Bay tavern, he knew that Iron Handcuff and his men were inside. Aris couldn��t understand why Zhang Heng woulde here to make money.


    If there was money to be made, Iron Handcuff and his men would have had taken advantage of it a long time ago. Fortunately, no sounds of fighting came out from the tavern after Zhang Heng talked to Iron Handcuff. When Skinny Monkey came out from the tavern, the other patrol members could not help but feel nervous. In the end, Aris made up his mind. ��Come on. Since we are here, we can��t turn around and leave now. Anyway, we are the patrol team here, and we shouldn��t be afraid of the gangs.��


    Some of them could not help butin. If fear was not an issue, why did Aris tell them to not be nosy at all costs? Although theyined about it in their heart, they still followed Aris to enter the tavern.


    When they appeared at the door, the atmosphere in the tavern was frozen.


    The patrol team��s presence in this area had always been insignificant. Aris knew that they would never be powerful enough to solve the problems here. Hence, it was wise to keep a low profile. Still, they were the only armed force around the area responsible for enforcingw and order. Thus, everyone in the tavern had seen them before.


    Iron Handcuff was surprised. ��Did you report a crime here?��


    ��No, I am a patrol member,�� Zhang Heng smiled.


    ��You are from the patrol team? But I haven��t seen you before. Are you a neer? What business n do you want to discuss with me?�� Iron Handcuff quickly calmed down after the initial shock. After all, this was still his turf. Although he was engaged in different kinds of crimes, he was not afraid of the patrol team. To them, the patrol team was no more than a mascot.


    Without the help of local forces, these patrol teams could not carry out the investigations even if they received a report. That was becauuse no one would cooperate with them. For a very long time, they hadn��t even caught a single thief. And the most embarrassing part was the thieves actually visited the patrol team��s residence several times.


    ��Big business,�� said Zhang Heng as he finished drinking the wine and put down the ss. ��A full 30% of your current ie.�� He then looked at Soap. ��You should tell him the details.��


    Ever since Zhang Heng sat opposite Iron Handcuff, Soap had been praying for the two to forget about him. But now, it seemed his prayers were not working. Seeing Iron Handcuff ring at him again, Soap could only bite the bullet. ��The business n is very simple. The patrol team can help maintain the security of these three streets, and you, as local residents, only need to pay them 30% of your ie.��


    ��Are you kidding me? You want to take 30% of my ie?�� Iron Handcuff was so furious that heughed hysterically. Initially, he thought that Zhang Heng had a big business n to discuss with him. Technically speaking, Zhang Heng wasn��t lying. It was indeed a big business that involved 30% of their current ie. However, the only thing was they would be the party that would be paying the patrol team.


    ��Open your eyes and take a good look. Do you think you must maintain the security of these three streets? Your manpower is less than half of mine... and look at you. You don��t even have a set of decent armor. You like the beggars on the roadside. Thank you, but we shall reject the patrol team��s kind offer. We can manage the turf by ourselves. You should carry on with patrolling the ce.��


    Iron Handcuff caused everyone in the tavern to burst out inughter. The patrol team was a joke in this ce. They were famous for being useless. In the past two months, they had not been able to solve a single case, forced to watch criminals walk free before their eyes since neither passersby nor the victim was willing to testify against them. And the evidence was destroyed as well.


    The thing that Iron Handcuff said had deeply embarrassed all the patrol members. Although they had been living in vain here, they were stillw enforcers. And they still had the dignity ofw enforcers in them. They were furious when they heard Iron Handcuff insults but they could not refute him. And some people even started to me Zhang Heng.


    They all thought that Zhang Heng��s n was going to work. And now they were here standing there and letting Iron Handcuff embarrass them. Zhang Heng did not speak until theughter in the tavern settle down, ��Fine. Although you criticized us, asw enforcement officers, we don��t care about these things. We will still do what should be done. You can count on us to maintainw and order around here.��


    ��Why are you embarrassing yourself? Didn��t you hear what I just said? I��m not paying you a single coin.�� Iron Handcuff sneered.


    ��I heard it, but I believe you will change your mind. From tomorrow, we will only patrol the three streets nearby us. You are right. This ce is too big, and we have too few people. I think it��s time to tell you the main points. We have twelve people, and we will only patrol three streets.


    Other than that, we will only work during the day. Don��t worry. We will definitely be able to take care of the three streets this time. I can guarantee that all crimes on these three streets will be eliminated. Of course, once we are off work, anything that happens after that is not our business anymore.��

 Chapter 831 - Don’t Overdo It

    <h4>Chapter 831: Don��t Overdo It</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    After Zhang Heng said what he wanted to say, the tavern became really quiet. All theughter was gone. ck Mamba, the dwarf, and the rest all took a deep breath. The patrol team hade up with an effective strategy to go against them. Since they could not handle past cases because no one was willing to cooperate with their investigation, they wouldn��t stop crime from happening on the spot if they focused on only three streets.


    This would happen to all of Iron Handcuff��s turfs if they chose not to ept Zhang Heng��s offer. After all, those responsible for earning money for Iron Handcuff were just underage kids.


    And as Zhang Heng said, if they focused on patrolling only three streets, the twelve members of the patrol team could make all the thieves lost their jobs. In other words, Iron Handcuff and his men would receive no ie every week.


    Iron Handcuff felt that something was not right.


    The group of men in front of him was supposed to be thew enforcers of this area. However, they had now disregarded allws. To be more precise, they were still talking about the rules, but they used their authority to seek personal gain. Right now, they did not look like patrol teams to Iron Handcuff anymore. They were no different from the others gangs in this area.


    This was no business talk. Zhang Heng was tantly ckmailing Iron Handcuff.


    No matter what words Zhang Heng would use to exin their behavior, they could not hide the fact that they were about to take advantage of Iron Handcuff��s gang. Iron Handcuff and the dwarf had been living here for some time now and they were all too familiar with such a practice. In order to not be taken over by other forces and survive, they often had to pay protection fees and donations to other more powerful gangs. However, this time, the group of people that ckmailed them was the patrol team.


    For a moment, Iron Handcuff, the dwarf, and others suddenly came to a realization. It seemed like the neighborhood that they lived in had degraded severely. Even the patrol team was now involved in the extortion business. As criminals, they even began to care about the spiritual development of their surrounding area.


    Everyone in the tavern dwelled in their thoughts. No one spoke for a long time. And when they came back to their senses, everyone turned around and looked at Iron Handcuff. Clearly, they were waiting for him to make the decision. However, Iron Handcuff was still hesitating.


    The patrol team had been the mascot of this ce for a long time. No one paid any attention to them, and they were greatly respected in the past. Suddenly, the patrol team that seemed useless to the public was now threatening them with their fangs. They were about to dominate Iron Handcuff��s gang. It was difficult for Iron Handcuffs and the dwarf to ept such drastic change.


    On the other hand, Iron Handcuff knew that Zhang Heng was telling the truth. The business that Iron Handcuff operated now was quite unique. Once the patrol targeted those thieves, it would be difficult for them to steal more money. As a chain reaction, their ie would indeed be significantly reduced by that time.


    What should they do? Were they going to fight them?


    In terms of numbers, they had the advantage even if the thieves were excluded. The number of men that Iron Handcuff had was twice that of the patrol team. And some of them were good at fighting. On the patrol team, they had to pay attention to Aris and the Oriental man they were unfamiliar with. If they start a fight now, they should be able to win.


    But the question was what they should do afterward?


    No matter how useless Aris��s patrol team was, they were still the onlyw enforcers in this area. If they beat them up, would the government send more powerful people to maintainw and order of this ce? After all, this was not the only patrol team in the entire empire. They were scattered in various parts of the city, and If all of them worked together, they might be able to bring this ce down. That would also mean they could eliminate Iron Handcuff��s team easily.


    After all, they are just the bad guys that lived at the bottom of this slum. And they had a difficult time looking at the bigger picture. How could they have known of the dirty things that the patrol team had done? Aris and his men were exiled to this ce. Even if he knew about it, he would not know how other teams would react after beating Aris and his men. As for Aris, he had no idea about it as well. And he did not want to get to the bottom of it. If the other patrol teams knew what they did here, every single member from his team would be fired.


    Although their lives were miserable, they still had a meager sry to make ends meet and provide for their families. If they were to lose their job here, they would probably be consumed by this ce. Therefore, when Iron Handcuff was hesitating, Aris and the other patrol members felt very nervous too. They had one hand ced on their weapon. Iron Handcuff��s men were ready to strike too. They were waiting for their boss to give the order to deal with the patrol members that knew no bounds.


    The situation in the tavern became really tense. Only Zhang Heng could remain calm in such moments. He even leaned back to wait for Iron Handcuff��s reply.


    Iron Handcuff noticed that ck Mamba was signaling him with his eyes as if something he wanted to tell him. However, Iron Handcuff did not have the time to discuss anything with his most reliable subordinate. He had kept silent for quite a long time, and it was time to speak up. Otherwise, his men and opponents would know his confidence was shaken.


    ��30% is too much.��


    Iron Handcuff chose to settle this matter through peaceful means. After all, they were just a small gang, and he did not wish to go against the patrol team. This was the most significant concession that Iron Handcuff had ever made. Next, they were supposed to enter the time of negotiations.


    However, he did not expect Zhang Heng that was sitting opposite of him, to shake his head when he heard those words.


    ��Thirty percent, non-negotiable.��


    ��Impossible! We don��t get to keep all the money too.�� Iron Handcuff was so furious that he almost jumped up from this seat. But in the end, he suppressed his anger and exined, ��I have to pay half of my ie to a more powerful gang. We can only get half of what we earn. And I have to pay my men too. At most, I can give 10% of my ie to your patrol team.


    Some of the patrol members could not help but gulp when they heard Iron Hancuff��s offer. Looking at how Iron Handcuff and his men spent the money they earned, they clearly had a better life than the patrol members. Even if they took 10%, they would still make more than what they earned currently.


    The patrol team wanted to yes to them immediately, but they did not expect Zhang Heng to reject their offer, ��30% is the final offer. No more, no less.��


    ��Don��t push me.�� Iron Handcuff finally could not stand Zhang Heng, and he said sternly.


    ��Pushing you? We are just a patrol team that helps maintain public order on the streets. There��s nothing wrong for us to catch a few thieves.�� Zhang Heng shook his head and said, ��It seems that you haven��t figured out the situation. From now on, without our permission, you can��t continue carrying on with your business. You won��t be able to make a single Sestertius. I don��t mind if you don��t want to cooperate with us, though, I believe that some of your men are.��

 Chapter 832 - Please Ask

    <h4>Chapter 832: Please Ask</h4>


    After Zhang Heng and the patrol team walked out of the tavern, a young patrol team member named Barbir could not help and shout in excitement,


    ��Wow! I can��t believe it! This is amazing!!! This is just one night. No, it��s less than that. We didn��t even do anything. All we did was stand in the tavern, and we earned six Aureus just like that. You should have seen Iron Handcuff��s face...��


    This was probably his most memorable night since he joined the patrol, especially when Zhang Heng said to Iron Handcuff, ��Thirty percent, no more, no less.�� Everyone in the tavern could hear Zhang Heng��s unequivocal powerful statement.


    It was as if hundreds of patrol members were waiting outside the tavern to ambush them. At Zhang Heng��s order, they would rush in and kill everyone. Iron Handcuff experienced the most pressure since he sat right opposite Zhang Heng. To him, they were no longer the ordinary patrol team. He felt like he was talking to the three most powerful bosses in this area. A man like that could decide his fate in just one sentence. During the negotiation, Iron Handcuff��s forehead was drenched in a cold sweat. And he found that he could not refuse Zhang Heng��s proposal.


    It was not until Zhang Heng and the patrol members left the tavern that he woke up from his nightmare and noticed that his right hand under the table was shaking slightly.


    .....


    Zhang Heng did not walk far. He stopped shortly after leaving the tavern and opened the coin purse with six gold coins. He divided the money into fourteen shares and distributed it to twelve patrol members, each of whom would get about forty-two Sestertius.


    To the patrol members living on a meager sry, forty-two Sestertius was a huge amount of money. And that was only a week��s ie. ording to Zhang Heng and Iron Handcuff��s agreement, Iron Handcuffs had to pay 30% of their ie every week to the patrol team. The money was supposed to serve as a token of gratitude to the patrol team for maintainingw and order in this city.


    And they did not mind that Zhang Heng took a double share. After all, Zhang Heng was the one that struck a deal with Iron Handcuff. No one thought that Zhang Heng could make so much money off the gang here. They even felt that Zhang Heng took too little for himself. Even if he took a little more, they wouldn��t have said anything about it.


    Nheless, Zhang Heng did not need so much money for now. He was still receiving the performance ie from the Victor Arena. He took one more share because he wanted to set the rules for the future division of money. Since he intended to take over the patrol team, he first established clear rules about dealing with mary matters. Otherwise, the team would not be able tost long.


    ...


    While they happily took the money from Zhang Heng, the way they looked at Zhang Heng had changed too. They no longer regarded him as a new member. Right now, they respected and admired him more. However, Aris looked at Zhang Heng in a slightlyplicated way. He did not take his share right away.


    Instead, he said, ��I actually wanted to ask you something just now, but you were still negotiating with Iron Handcuff. Since you are one of the patrol members, I couldn��t embarrass you. I think I can ask you the question now.��


    ��Please ask,�� replied Zhang Heng.


    ��What is the difference between those bastards and us?�� Aris asked.


    His words poured over the patrol members like a bucket of cold water. The lively and cheerful atmosphere was now gone. And now, all the patrol team members who took the money from Zhang Heng looked a little embarrassed.


    Especially the two young people who just joined the patrol team. Since their hope for this ce had not been consumed by the terrible reality here, they bowed their heads with shame. No matter how careful Zhang Heng chose his words or how grandiose they were, it could not change the fact that they had just ckmailed them.


    They had used the fact that they were patrol members to extort Iron Handcuff and his men, which granted them a huge sum of money. This was no different from Iron Handcuff and his men collecting cash from those thieves. However, they recognized that they were the viins of the area and felt no guilt when theymitted such crimes. The patrol members, on the other hand, were thew enforcers in this area.


    They were supposedly different from the criminal organizations in this ce. After the patrol members received the money from Zhang Heng, they had forgotten how he acquired that money. When Aris brought up this matter, everyone had to re-examine their role in this incident.


    However, Zhang Heng��s expression did not change. He nodded when he heard what Aris said, ��Good question. I��m going to ask you a question now. What do you think is the most important duty of the patrol team?��


    ��Maintainingw and order here and catching criminals,�� Aris replied without hesitation. As the captain of the patrol, he was certainly no stranger to his duties.


    ��No offense, but before I came, how well did you do?��


    Aris was silent when he heard the question. After a while, he spoke again. ��We are not doing very well. That bastard Iron Handcuff is right about us. No one is afraid of us when we patrol this ce.


    ��The residents here will not cooperate with us. This has caused the patrol team to carry out their duties ineffectively. We don��t have enough manpower and funds, and we can��t do anything. All we can do is watch the situation get worse and worse. As the captain of the patrol team, I carry the most responsibility. However, I have been telling the new members not to be nosy.�� Arisughed at himself, ��I know I look like a coward in your eyes.��


    After hearing what Aris said, the patrol members felt sad, reminiscing the state the patrol team was in during their early days. Aris wasn��t exaggerating.


    ��Although life is hard, we still cling on to it. And we haven��t done anything that breaks thew.��


    ��It��s admirable. I��m serious. Given the situation that you are in, it��s amazing that you can do that,�� Zhang Heng said. ��...but... if you really want to carry out your duties well, I��m afraid you need a sacrifice some of your self-esteem and pride. Maintaining your moral superiority will not make this a better ce. You have been here for so long. I believe you should understand what I just said better than myself.��


    ��I know how to be flexible,�� Aris frowned, ��ckmailing Iron Handcuff can make us rich, but I don��t see how it can make this a better ce. After losing so much money, Iron Handcuff will make his thieves work harder. In other words, the security of the three streets around here will further deteriorate.��


    ��For now, this is my n. However, please don��t think that I��m only here to help the patrol members earn pocket money. This is just the beginning,�� Zhang Heng said lightly, ��When we unite all the big and small forces here, we can formte a new set of orders and rules.��

 Chapter 833 - Same Goal

    <h4>Chapter 833: Same Goal</h4>


    ��You want to unite all therge and small forces here?�� Aris was frightened by Zhang Heng��s n. It wasn��t just him; the other patrol members were just as shocked.


    After all, ckmailing Iron Handcuff anding out with a new set of rules to govern this chaotic ce were twopletely different things.


    The number of people in Iron Handcuff��s gang was just a speck of dust in this ce. Iron Handcuff could rough up this area��s thieves, but he was only a small-time gang boss in this entire ce. There was nothing he and his men could do in the face of other bigger forces. On the other hand, Iron Handcuff��s manpower was twice that of the patrol team. If they had started a fight in the tavern just now, 80% of the patrol team would be unable to deal with all of them.


    It was hard dealing with a small-time gang boss like Iron Handcuff, let alone dealing with the bigger gang. Thus, Aris and other patrol members started to doubt the authenticity of Zhang Heng��s n. Unlike Aris, they probably expected Zhang Heng to lie. Although what Aris had said was the right thing to do, most of the patrol members still hoped to make more money with Zhang Heng. It was, however, also important that they did not lose their lives for the sake of making money.


    ��Yes. We��ll have to do this step by step,�� Zhang Heng said, ��As a patrol member, we are the perfect candidate to collect security fees from those gangs. However, we mustn��t stick our noses in their fights. At least that��s the case for now. If we are careless, the other gangs might oppose us and, worse, join forces to eliminate us. For now, we need to take down Iron Handcuff and his gang. We��ll use them as the foundation to absorb and cultivate smaller forces willing to swear loyalty to us. After we umte enough strength, we canunch an attack on the medium forces in this ce. And finally, therge forces...��


    Zhang Heng exined his action n as simple as possible.


    However, everyone still looked baffled after they heard his n. After a while, Barbier spoke, ��Can you tell us what we need to do next?��


    ��I just said that we need to take down Iron Handcuff and his men first.��


    ��Uh, haven��t we already done that?�� Babil asked in confusion.


    ��Oh, you seem to have misunderstood something. We just took money from them. Do you really think that Iron Handcuff and his people will give in to us so easily? Taking 30% of their ie is too much. It��s enough for them to risk their lives to fight with us.��


    ��What?�� The patrol members were greatly taken aback.


    ��Don��t worry. He doesn��t want to make things worse. Otherwise, he would have attacked us at the tavern just now. After this, he will only target me alone,�� Zhang Heng said. ��If he is not stupid, he should know that I��m the mastermind. After all, the patrol team had always behaved well before I arrived. As long as they eliminate me, their problem would be automatically solved.��


    ��Is he going to kill you?�� Barbier��s expression tightened.


    ��That��s not necessarily true. I am also a member of the patrol team, after all. The best solution for them is to teach me a lesson and drive me out of this ce.�� Zhang Heng said calmly.


    As a result, not long after he finished speaking, a patrol member named Marcus suddenly said, ��I��m with you.��


    It had been two years since Marcus joined the patrol. He did not speak much during normal times and seemed to prefer to be alone. He would spend most of his time thinking about his affairs. That was why he did not have many friends from the patrol. Although he did not mind joining the group��s activities, he was still not very active overall.


    No one expected that he would act so righteously tonight. To everyone��s surprise, he was willing to side with someone he barely knew for a day. He seemed to be nning to deal with the uing troubles with Zhang Heng.


    Marcus exined, ��I didn��t do this entirely for justice. You did a great job in the tavern earlier. And you are smarter than all of us. Since you know that insisting on asking for 30% of Iron Handcuff��s ie will force them to make a move on you, you must have thought about how to deal with themter on. I think you are a more qualified leader than Aris. Instead of saying that I��m going to help you, it is better to say that I want to follow you.��


    Zhang Heng was a little surprised. He learned about the patrol earlier. And he did not care much about other people except for Aris. Other than that, he also did not mind if they were willing to work with him since he might drag everyone into the troubles that he caused. And strictly speaking, Zhang Heng only wanted to gain the patrol member identity. He did not care much about the other patrol members.


    To his surprise, he found a treasure here. Although this young man named Marcus spoke little, he had a clear mind, possessed great calmness, and at the same time, wasn��t indecisive. When he was required to make an important decision, he would never hesitate. With some training, Zhang Heng would be able to put him to great use.


    Zhang Heng wanted to integrate all therge and small forces here. He certainly could not do it alone. He would need someone to help him. Zhang Heng��s original n was to select suitable talents from the powerful gangs here to help him. However, it would be perfect if he could find someone great from the patrol team instead.


    After all, the people in the team had the same goal as him. With Marcus taking the lead, several people on the team expressed their willingness to stand on Zhang Heng��s side and work with him to deal with Iron Handcuff and his men. This meant that the patrol team had begun to divide.


    This seemed unbelievable at first nce. It had taken Aris many years to gain his team members�� trust and make his way up thedder to be a captain eventually. However, Zhang Heng broke it in less than half a night.


    This was actually an expected oue. After all, the thing that Zhang Heng did in the tavern was so impressive that it shocked everyone. Of course, the most important thing was that he proved that those who followed him would never be short of money.


    Although they were patrol members, most people do not possess such high moral standards as Aris, especially after staying here for a long time. They would be influenced by the culture here to a certain extent. When Aris questioned Zhang Heng earlier, some of the patrol members did not argue with Aris because he was, after all, their captain. In their opinion, since they did not rob the money from anyone on the streets, it was totally fine for them to take it. Besides, Iron Handcuff and his gang were the viins of this area. Some of them even med him for saying such a thing and stopped them from taking the money.


    But to everyone��s surprise, Aris said afterward, ��Let��s stop fighting. Zhang Heng is a member of the patrol team. His business is the patrol team��s business. How can we stand aside and watch someone attack him?��


    After speaking, he stretched out his hand.


    ��What?�� Zhang Heng raised his eyebrows.


    ��My share of the money,�� Aris demanded. ��You won��t feel good if I don��t take the money, right?��


    Zhang Heng knew Aris had figured out something. It was unsurprising that he was being assigned here. Aris knew that someone more powerful was trying to make his life difficult. Besides dealing with the gang problem here, Zhang Heng also had to look out for someone plotting against him in the dark. It was true that the thing that Zhang Heng did now was not legal. And, of course, Zhang Heng realized it too. He was cautious with the words that he used. There were a lot of things that he did not n to do by himself.


    But in any case, he would not reject the fact that Aris proved to him that he would never betray him.


    ��I will always keep one eye on you to see if you can fulfill your promise,�� Aris said after taking the money.


    ��Wee.�� Zhang Heng said, ��Actually, I don��t n to change my final goal because I don��t intend to stay here too long.��

 Chapter 834 - Growth And Test

    <h4>Chapter 834: Growth And Test</h4>


    Late in the night.


    Two days and one night had passed since Zhang Heng led the patrol team to collect security fees from Iron Handcuff.


    In the meantime, Iron Handcuff also managed to figure out Zhang Heng��s identity. In fact, it was not hard to find out that Zhang Heng was the diatorial champion of the Amphitheatrum vium since it was currently the hottest topic of discussion in the entire city of Rome. This man had captured the hearts of manydies.


    Everyone regretted that they allowed Zhang Heng to regain his freedom so early since it meant they wouldn��t get to watch him fight in the arena anymore. Fortunately, Mark Reuss��s diator school advertised that Zhang Heng would perform once in Victor Arena every month. And they were now epting ticket bookings.


    The ticket sales of Victor Arena skyrocketed, showering Mark Reuss in joy. Not only did Zhang Heng��s return significantly increase Victor Arena��s exposure level, but it also allowed Mark Reuss to slowly gain the upper hand in negotiation when he purchased Terufelos, the Giant.


    Until now, Terufelos had not been sold. His owner had received dozens of offers. Basically, all the diator schools that could afford to purchase Tefufelos had made their offer. These offers were only getting higher and higher. The more offers Terufelos��s owner received, the more hesitant he became. He thought he could sell Terufelos at a higher price if he were willing to wait a little longer.


    After all, the seller had the greater advantage in the market now. After Zhang Heng was freed, Terufelos, who made an impressive performance in the final battle, became the best-selling diator in Rome.


    However, when they heard that Zhang Heng would be performing in Victor Arena every month, the demand for Terufelos finally began to cool down. The diator schools did not make any new offers after that. It was now their turn to hesitate since going all-in on a diator could be a precarious business, not to mention that once Zhang Heng started to perform in Victor Arena, Terufelos would also lose the title of the strongest diator.


    One should never underestimate how different the first and second diators could be. Take Sets and Sartonilos back then, for instance. Although Sartonilos had many followers himself, he did not sell as many tickets as Sets. Zhang Heng��s return would turn Victor Arena into the top arena in the city of Rome. In order topete for second ce, how much were the diator schools willing to pay?


    At this time, the only diator school owner still willing to make a higher offer was Mark Reuss��. However, Mark Reuss had also mentioned that he would only allow Terufelos��s owner to think about it for a night. Once the time was up, he would cancel his offer and withdraw himself from the biddingpetition.


    Finally, after thinking about it for an entire night and coupled with the persuasion of Terufelos, he epted Mark Reuss��s offer. And he left Rome with the money before dawn. The other diator schools had no idea that Victor Arena had purchased Terufelos until the afternoon. Marco Reuss now possessed the top three diators in Rome. His greed had caused all the other diator school��s owners to take a deep breath.


    ...


    On the other hand, Iron Handcuff was taken aback after learning that Zhang Heng was the strongest diator in Rome, especially after ck Mamba told him that Zhang Heng had singlehandedly defeated all of his men. It also proved that Zhang Heng��sbat skills were as powerful as how the rumor described him. However, it did not stop Iron Handcuff from getting his revenge. Losing 30% of their ie was unbearable for them. After all, they were just a small gang in this area, and there were lots of bills to be paid. And typically, at the end of all that, not have much money would be left in their pockets.


    He could still hang on to the sudden loss of 30% of his ie in the short term. However, he would definitely reduce the number of people under him over time. Their situation would deteriorate even further in the long run, and they would either be reced or annexed by other forces.


    Thus, Iron Handcuff was determined to drive Zhang Heng out of this ce, now that he had found the reason that had changed the patrol team��s usual behavior. As long as Zhang Heng was gone from this ce, the patrol team would return to its previous state. In thest two days, they were preparing to exact revenge. Considering Zhang Heng��s terrifyingbat abilities, Iron Handcuff decided to avoid head-on conflict as much as possible even though he had the advantage in numbers.


    In the meantime, he also found out where Zhang Heng lived. For some reason, Zhang Heng did not live in the patrol station but rented a room on the next street alone. He spent the night alone there for the past two days, giving Iron Handcuff and his men a great start to their revenge n. Of course, not all of them were confident that their n could work. ck Mamba, for instance, was one of them. Traumatized after Zhang Heng beat up his men, he felt that something must be wrong with this coincidence. Deciding to retaliate against Zhang Heng had thus presented a golden opportunity. It was as if they hit the jackpot.


    It was toote for them to step back now. They had to strike Zhang Heng while they were still able to do so. Iron Handcuff arranged two of his men to watch the patrol team��s movements. Aris and his men were the only people who might rush to protect Zhang Heng. As long as they did not make any moves there, Iron Handcuff would not have to worry about any unexpected incidents.


    And they deliberately chose to do itte at night. At this time, most of the people were asleep. No matter how powerful Zhang Heng was, there was no way that he could figure out their n in his sleep. At the same time, Iron Handcuff had also found a guy who excelled at picking locks. As long as they could enter Zhang Heng��s room quietly and get a few men to pounce on him simultaneously, that would be the end of him.


    Iron Handcuff��s n was well formted. They first got to the ground floor of Zhang Heng��s residence. Iron Handcuff then assigned most men to block all the entrances and exits before putting the dwarf inmand. As for him, he led eight men upstairs, ck Mamba included, and asked the expert to pick the lock silently.


    The eight people held their breath together and looked at the figure lying sideways on the bed. It appeared the target was in a deep sleep. Seeing that the other party did not respond, a touch of joy appeared on Iron Handcuff��s face. He then took the lead, followed by his seven men, and walked up to Zhang Heng��s bed.


    Zhang Heng looked down at Iron Handcuff��s men moving around outside his residence on the roof of the building. After that, a ghostly figure quietly passed through their seemingly indestructible line of defense. Iron Handcuff did not even notice that someone walked past them and went upstairs. It was as if the darkness had blinded them.


    Zhang Heng made silent apuse andplimented, ��That��s not bad. You are still quite good at what you do.��


    ��Stop talking nonsense. I��ve already killed the people watching the patrol team as you requested.�� The man helping Zhang Heng was none other than Dadatis. ��Just a handful of useless grunts... and they are scattered all over the ce. We can kick all of their asses in a few minutes. Do we really need outsiders to help us? Besides, the people on the patrol team don��t seem to be useful to us.��


    ��Well, they need to grow up. How can they grow without opportunities? They are not useful now. It does not mean that they will not be useful in the future. After all, I won��t be staying with them for too long,�� said Zhang Heng. ��I underestimated the patrol team. I didn��t expect that there��d be some valuable people on the team. I simply wanted to see which ones were worthy of my training.��

 Chapter 835 - The Fight Begins

    <h4>Chapter 835: The Fight Begins</h4>


    Dadatis stared at Zhang Heng for a while and let thetter touch his face.


    ��Why?��


    ��You know that many in the organization disagree with me choosing you as my sessor, right? However, I still insist on doing so.��


    ��Hmm.��


    ��But I am a bit confused now, whether or not this is the right or wrong thing to do. I realize that I don��t seem to know you quite well. Every time I meet you, you show me something I didn��t know about. Like right now, I have never seen this side of you before. I never knew that you had such an excellent political skillset. To be honest, I am a little afraid of you now.��


    ��What are you afraid of? Anyway, you are going to retire soon. Whatever happens after that has nothing to do with you anymore,�� Zhang Heng replied casually.


    ��You are right,�� Dadatis seemed to be relieved. After a while, his expression became solemn again, ��However, if you wrong Bnce de in the future, you better watch out for your life. No matter where I am and how old I will be, I wille back and find you. You��d better stay alert every time you eat and sleep because I will pierce your throat with my dagger when your guard is down.��


    ��Don��t be so angry, old man.�� Zhang Heng was calm. ��You know me. The reason I joined Bnce de was that I wanted to read the books stored in the secret library.��


    ��...��


    Dadatis was left speechless, ��Your talent blinded me at the beginning. I knew that I should have gone for someone else as my sessor. Forget it, how long will it take to deal with things on your side?��


    ��If you are asking about Iron Handcuff, we can solve this problem by tonight. If you are asking about the security situation here, it will take at least two months before Commodus notices the changes.��


    Dadatis was shocked. ��You can integrate all the big and small forces here in two months?��


    ��Not so fast. The situation here is veryplicated. Even I have to spend some time to sort out the problems here. But after two months, we should be fit enough to handle the assessment,�� Zhang Heng said.


    The problems were rooted deeply in the heart of this ce. It was not easy to get to sixty points from zero. However, it was definitely easier to get from zero to thirty points than sixty to ny points.


    They would still fail the assessment, but they could not deny that it was a great improvement. Zhang Heng hadn��t forgotten his purpose here,ing to prove that he could lighten the young emperor��s burden by joining his side. Of course, he would not break the promise he made to Aris and other patrol members. He wouldplete the integration of the big and small forces here, and other than preparing himself to receive a promotion, he also wanted to look for someone that he could rely on during critical moments.


    He needed someone that was neither Bnce de nor under the control of Commodus. And this was the perfect ce for him to look for someone like that. Therefore, when Zhang Heng found out that Clint had purposely assigned him to his ce, he was thrilled. The ten years spent in the ck Sail dungeon had provided him the experience needed to handle the chaotic situation here with ease. Besides, Zhang Heng had also identally discovered a cheating device when Sartonilos and others ambushed him.


    It could help him skip the most troublesome part of this quest and speed up the whole process.


    ��I don��t care what you do next, but you��d better spare two weeks for me, and I only need to meet up with you during the evening. An old friend has asked me to help him with something. I guess I��ll be away for quite some time. Before I leave, I want to teach you everything that I know.��


    Zhang Heng knew that the priestess had fulfilled the agreement she made with him. Hence, he nodded, ��Okay, we can start with the meetup tomorrow evening.��


    .....


    At the same time, Iron Handcuff and his men realized that their ambush had failed after discovering the person sleeping on the bed wasn��t Zhang Heng. The person that they pressed on the ground was a trembling stranger. ording to him, he was the only tenant in this building, and he did not know why he ended up here and got attacked by them. Iron Handcuffs and his men felt that something terrible was about to happen. It seemed that their n was going to fail miserably. So Iron Handcuffs made a decisive decision and prepared to evacuate the location.


    But at this moment, the men assigned to guard the entrances and exits sent them a signal. They saw that the heavily armed patrol was approaching the building, and they were led by Aris. The two men that Iron Handcuff sent to keep an eye on the patrol team had disappeared.


    Iron Handcuff was not afraid of the patrol team. After all, he knew what they were capable of. Besides, they had an advantage in number as well. What really worried him was Zhang Heng. He had no idea where Zhang Heng was right now. When nced at the patrol team, he saw that Zhang Heng was not among them. Immediately, he was hit by fear that surged from the bottom of his heart.


    His worst nightmare was about toe true. When he walked out of the room with his men, he saw Zhang Heng at the end of the corridor. He held two Persian swords, waiting for Iron Handcuff and his men to walk past this corridor. Iron Handcuff had never seen Zhang Heng fighting before. Currently, he believed that eight of them was more than enough to deal with Zhang Heng. And if they could not win, he could simply run away. On the other hand, ck Mamba was trembling in fear.


    Before he could warn Iron Handcuff about Zhang Heng, they saw thetter charging them with his swords. At a critical moment like this, Iron Handcuff had to show his courage to his men. He knew that Zhang Heng defeated ck Mamba and his seven men, and as gang boss, if he failed to lead by example, everyone would surrender without putting up a fight. Fortunately, his right-hand man, Broken Finger, would be fighting by his side.


    ck Mamba��s status in the gang was slightly higher than that of Broken Finger. He was better at getting along with his subordinates and others. In terms of strength, Broken Finger imed the first spot in their gang. Iron Handcuff had spent a lot of effort making Broken Finger sumb to him during the early days. Still, fortunately, Broken Finger had repeatedly proven that his efforts were not in vain on almost every critical moment.


    Thus, Iron Handcuff firmly believed that this time, Broken Finger would prevail as well. The two attacked Zhang Heng simultaneously, one on the left and the other on the right. A secondter, the two knelt in sync.


    Zhang Heng had no intention to spare their lives because Iron Handcuff and Broken Finger had grievances with him. Even if he managed to make them sumb to him, Zhang Heng doubted that they would be of any use. It would be better to choose another person to take over the gang. No matter who Zhang Heng chose, he still had to eliminate Iron Handcuff and Broken Finger. Otherwise, the new boss might risk killing by them. Therefore, Zhang Heng showed them no mercy and slit their throats without hesitation.


    ck Mamba and others were low in morale in the beginning. Theirst ounce of courage to fight with Zhang Heng disappeared when they saw what happened to their boss. Immediately, they turned around and wanted to run away. They would rather jump off the building, risking broken legs, than face Zhang Heng. And Zhang Heng was not in a hurry to go after them. He first went downstairs to check the situation.


    In terms of numbers, the patrol team was still at a disadvantage. And theirbat skills might be weaker than their opponents as well. However, since Iron Handcuff��s n failed miserably, his men had lost the will to fight. They did not even get to carry out their backup n. The sudden appearance of the patrol team had caused panic within them. Iron Handcuff had brought all the elites to go upstairs to deal with Zhang Heng, while the dwarf was left downstairs to lead the battle. Unfortunately, fighting wasn��t his best suit.


    When they saw ck Mamba and the rest of the gang members jumping down from the buildings, theirst hope was crushed. They were almost frightened to death, and they shouted that Iron Handcuffs and Broken Figner were dead. This bad news had caused the rest of the gang members to put down their weapons and surrender.


    And this marked the first victory of the patrol team.

 Chapter 836 - I’m In

    <h4>Chapter 836: I��m In</h4>


    Aris actually had some worries before tonight��s battle. As captain, he knew about the strength of his patrol team reasonably well. Although they trained every day, theirbat experience was still not enough to handle a real battle. Besides, they hadn��t even fought with those small-time thugs that caused trouble on the street, not to mention that Iron Handcuff��s gang had more people than them.


    However, the course of the battle afterward went beyond his expectations. The patrol team did suffer some losses when they fought with them, but since Iron Handcuff��s men did not expect that the patrol team would appear suddenly, they were caught off guard. They fought very carefully and did not take the opportunity to attack them aggressively.


    When the patrol team gradually got used to the battle rhythm, their previous training finally showed some results. Of course, everyone performed differently. Some people were determined to execute Aris��s orders step by step, while some felt ufortable when they saw blood, and it slowed them down a lot. In contrast, the others seemed to have turned on a switch somewhere in their bodies, causing them to fight without fear.


    Among them, Marcus and two other young men who had only recently joined the patrol team spontaneously formed a small group to watch each other��s backs during the fight. They even ignored Aris��s orders. They left the patrol team and charged at the spot with most enemies after they had a taste of blood.


    Marcus took the lead and charged at the dwarf with both his short swords. The fear kicked in, and the dwarf immediately summoned three of his men to stop Marcus. And Marcus managed to kill one of them. However, it bought the dwarf more time to bring in more reinforcements. By the time Marcus realized it, he was already surrounded by more enemies. Marcus wiped a random enemy��s blood off his face and formed a triangle formation with the other two patrol members. They then went into frenzy mode and killed all the enemies that charged at them.


    At this time, the dwarf was determined to go all out to deal with the three of them. He vowed to give these three patrol members who dared to mess with him a valuable lesson. Just when the three of them were about copse, ck Mamba and his men jumped down from the building. It was at that time that the people downstairs realized that Iron Handcuff and Broken Finger were dead. Immediately, everyone lost their will to fight.


    Marcus and hisrades took this time to catch a breath. At the same time, Aris and the other patrol members had caught up to them. They then started to hunt down the rest of Iron Handcuff��s gang members that were on the run. Among them, Marcus managed to kill the dwarf. ck Mamba hurt his legs when he jumped down from the building. However, he was lucky enough to have one of his men help him get to an alley. Not too long after that, ck Mamba heard a series of footstepsing from behind him.


    Soap and the other patrol members seemed to be more nervous than ck Mamba. After all, there was a huge gap of strength between them. A single word from ck Mamba could seal the fate of Soap and the others. However, fate yed a cruel joke on them. It was Soap and the others�� turn to hunt them down.


    Looking at the few teenagers in front of him, ck Mamba��s men were furious. ��Do you wish to die now? Why are youing after us?! Get lost!��


    Soap and others were taken aback, but they did not turn around and run. Instead, they walked a few steps forward, and at the same time, pulled out the daggers from their waists.


    ��Boss ck Mamba, I��m sorry,�� Soap confessed. ��Our task tonight was to kill you.�� After saying this, he seemed to have found some courage. He then looked at the other person, ��As for other people, as long as they surrender, we will not kill them, and they will continue to receive ie.��


    ��Receive ie? Iron Handcuff is gone. Who else will pay us?�� ck Mamba��s men protested furiously.


    ��Me.�� Soap pointed at his nose and said in a soft tone, ��I will take over Iron Handcuff��s business and manage the thieves in these three streets.��


    ��You?!�� ck Mamba��s men were exasperated.


    ��Of course, I can��t do it alone. The people in the patrol will help me,�� Soap said. ��The only requirement is that I have to kill ck Mamba first.��


    ��You are a puppet of the patrol team!�� ck Mamba��s man suddenly realized.


    It would be inappropriate for the patrol team to manage those thieves. If they wanted to make more money, they had to support the person taking over Iron handcuff��s business. And that person was Soap. Soap was young, and his strength average. And he had no experience in managing people. Hence, it was difficult to convince anyone to obey his order. He was definitely not the best candidate to inherit Iron Handcuff��s business. But on the other hand, he was easier to be controlled. The other reason Zhang Heng valued him was that he had a small appetite, and it was easy to satisfy him for now.


    It was not surprising that Zhang Heng chose him as Iron Handcuff��s sessor. Of course, Soap was just a puppet to him and Zhang Heng intended to hand over the gang to Marcus. ck Mamba finally realized that the patrol team��s true intention was to take over the gang.


    Such a thing was ubiquitous in this ce, especially among the small forces. There were gangs and people being wiped out every day. During the early days, Iron Handcuff and his men fought hard to take over the business of controlling the thieves in these three streets. However, the people that attacked them this time were the patrol members. And it was something that had never happened before.


    ck Mamba grinned and smiled miserably. ��I lost the fight. I won��t deny that. But don��t have to kill all of us. I am different from Broken Finger and Iron Handcuff. I have always been a very peaceful person. Instead of killing me, you might as well let me assist you. With my help, you will be more likely to master the business left by Iron Handcuff. Besides, I also know where Iron Handcuff hides all his ie over the years. I will use all those money to buy my life. You can keep this money for yourself, and I will cooperate with you to keep it a secret.��


    Soap and others were shocked when they heard ck Mamba��s offer. Since they were just ordinary thieves, their families were not very rich. Earlier, Skinny Monkey��s sister had fallen ill, and they had to use the money they stole to pay for her treatment. Now, with such arge sum of money ced in front of them, they also realized that Iron Handcuff must have earned tons of money after running the gang for so long. With this money, they could even consider moving out of this slum.


    Soap and others looked at each other.


    ck Mamba added another sentence at the right time, ��If you want to know more,e over. I can tell you more. Don��t worry. I have no weapons.�� ck Mamba raised his hands while talking.


    Soap knew that he might be lying but could not resist the temptation of money. So he walked toward ck Mamba. He then bent down and said in Soap��s ear, ��Listen, Iron Handcuff hides his money at...��


    When he spoke halfway, he drew a short knife from his cuff. ck Mamba knew that the only person that could fight a little was Soap. He was going to turn into an adult soon. As long as he dealt with Soap, he could eliminate the remaining three people easily. Besides, he still had his subordinate with him. Although he hurt his foot and could not catch up with others, he still possessed the strength to eliminate the remaining three people.


    But ck Mamba did not expect a dagger to pierce his back in the next moment.


    ��Sorry, boss.�� ck Mamba turned around with hisst straw of strength. And he saw his subordinate apologized to him. ��Although you treat me well, I am really short of money. Since the new boss is still willing to pay us, I don��t mind having a change of management.�� He then drew his dagger and nodded at Soap, who was almost frightened to death. ��He��s lying. Iron Handcuff gambled away all his money. I will join your gang now, boss.��

 Chapter 837 - Changes

    Chapter 837: Changes


    With the death of ck Mamba, the clean-up officially came to an end. As promised, Zhang Heng appointed Soap as the new boss and took over the gang left behind by Iron Handcuff. On the other hand, Marcus was responsible formunicating with Soap.


    Both knew that Zhang Heng intended to make Marcus the actual boss of the gang. However, since Marcus was still a patrol member, he was unsuitable to take over the gang. That was why Zhang Heng assigned Soap as the new boss. With that, Zhang Heng could guarantee the safety of Marcus to a certain extent.


    Neither of them had any objections.


    From a lowly thief, Soap had turned into a gang boss overnight, breaking away from the life requiring him to steal every day. It was definitely a huge jump and transition for him. What Marcus valued more, however, was not the newly minted power but getting Zhang Heng to notice him. He seemed to have made up his mind to bet everything he had on Zhang Heng. When the time came, he could withdraw from the patrol and take charge of the gang.


    But Zhang Heng did not agree to his request, at least not now.


    While waiting to end this matter altogether, Zhang Heng looked up, and Dadatis was long gone.


    Zhang Heng retracted his gaze and pped his hands to attract everyone��s attention. He then said, ��I��m very grateful to everyone for helping me tonight. All of you have fought valiantly and defeated a lot of enemies. I am proud of you. To express my gratitude, I want to invite everyone for drinks. I wonder if anyone is interested.��


    ��Now?�� Aris was surprised. ��Although we won the battle, many of us still have injuries...��


    Before he could finish, he heard someone say, ��Those injuries are nothing. We have just endured such an epic battle. How can there be no alcohol?! Don��t me us for breaking your walletster.��


    His words immediately triggered the approval of many. After this battle, the patrol team��s confidence had increased tremendously, as if they were reborn from ashes. All that umted frustration was now gone, and everyone��s faces were filled with confidence and pride. Not only did they show no signs of exhaustion, but they even seemed to run out of ces to spend their extra energy. So, Zhang Heng suggested buying them drinks to let the alcohol drain all that unused strength.


    In the end, Aris did not get to say that they still needed to patrol the street tomorrow. And he did not want to make everyone unhappy. However, when Aris looked at his team members again, he found out that he suddenly found out that they looked like strangers to him.


    Especially Marcus and others, the looked at Zhang Heng was as if they worshipped him. After all, anyone clever enough would know that although the patrol team performed well tonight, the key to victory was that Zhang Heng got rid of Iron Handcuff and Broken Finger. And at the same time, he had put enough fear in ck Mamba and other gang members to care only about themselves and eventually flee this ce. Zhang Heng predicted almost every step that Iron Handcuff and others made. From there, he formted a corresponding n to deal with them. Coupled with his previous outstanding performance in the tavern, he quickly gained his first batch of hardcore followers.


    Aris knew that Marcus��s small group still respect him. However, if his order conflicted with Zhang Heng��s order, Marcus and the others would definitely choose to obey Zhang Heng.


    If they acted in such a way, what about the others? Perhaps they were still willing to obey his orders now, but if this went on, Aris was sure that it would not be long before he lost all his power as a captain.


    Still, Aris chose not to say a word about it because he had neither the ability nor the intention to prevent this from happening. When he was the captain of this patrol team, the patrol team was the embarrassment of this ce. Although external environmental factors contributed to such a failure, Aris, as a captain, was partly responsible for it.


    Now that someone was more qualified than him to captain the patrol team, he was more than willing to take a step back. However, Aris did not know how Zhang Heng would shape the team��s future and what would be of them.


    The change had already begun tonight.


    After Zhang Heng promised to buy the team drinks, he pulled Soap aside and whispered something into his ears. Immediately, Soap had a shocked look on his face. And he kept on nodding after that.


    Soap did not expect that Zhang had no intention to stop after taking over Iron Handcuff��s gang. Immediately, Soap was given a second goal, and he only had two days to settle down his gang members. It was at that time that Soap felt the pressure bearing down on his shoulders.


    Only then did he realize that it was not easy to be a puppet. He figured that he might need to go through a battle of arger scale in the future. And he did not know how long he could live. Soap was reminded of ck Mamba��s surprised look before his body slowly fell to the ground. He could not believe that he felt sad for ck Mamba.


    Would this be his fate in the future? Since he had entered this line of work, he now had to endure the dangers that came with it. Only by constantly and relentlessly climbing up would he have a sense of security.


    After realizing this, Soap felt that he had to make some changes as well. Perhaps after dodging ck Mamba��s attack, his mind had undergone some subtle changes. He was very close to Skinny Monkey and the others, and although they were not blood-rted, they were like brothers. In order to save Skinny Monkey��s sister, he had gone against Iron Handcuff��s orders and used the stolen money to pay for her treatment.


    However, when Soap looked at Skinny Monkey again, it made him wonder if Skinny Moneky would stab him if he too went on the path like ck Mamba one day.


    Soap thought that Skinny Money would not do it for the money. However, if someone ced more bargaining chips on the scale... Soap shuddered, and he did not want to think about it anymore.


    Skinny Monkey, on the other side, felt happy that their lives were transformed. He was dancing and singing happily. When he saw Soap looking over, he smiled and shouted at him. He then winked. ��Boss, what are we going to do next?��


    ��Marca and his men run the prostitute business at the two streets nearby us. Our next goal is to absorb them.�� Soap tried hard to recall the way Iron Handcuff behaved and talked, and he unconsciously imitated it. However, in actual fact, he wanted to emte Zhang Heng. Unfortunately, Zhang Heng��s temperament was too unique, hence Soap felt it more logical to imitate Iron Handcuff.


    ��Marca and his thugs are very powerful, and they are way stronger than ours.�� Skinny Monkey was startled when he heard the n, and he was worried.


    ��It doesn��t matter if they are more powerful than us. We will always find a way to defeat them,�� Soap said afterward as though patting himself on the back. After that, he repeated it again, with a firm tone. ��We will definitely find a way.��


    ...


    Iron Handcuff and his gang of thieves were just an inconspicuous, tiny force. Hence, the change of boss in the gang did not attract too much attention. After Soap took over the position, he did not reduce the gang members�� ie. So, it did not matter to them who the boss was anymore. However, the changes in the patrol team were witnessed by many residents.


    The main reason was that they had changed their spirits. When they patrolled the street, they were no longer fearful of the thugs. Instead, they hold their heads high, and they even got themselves a set of new weapons and armor. Now, and they finally looked like a formal patrol team.

 Chapter 838 - Farewell

    <h4>Chapter 838: Farewell</h4>


    Recently, Zhang Heng experienced his tightest schedule ever. During the day, he had to deal with the expansion of his power. When they first took over the Iron Handcuff��s gang, they were just a small and inconspicuous force. But afterward, the newly appointed boss, Soap, discarded his cowardice and transformed himself into a mad dog. He began to provoke the nearby gangs and dered war on them. Once, he even provoked two more powerful gangs on the same day. Hence, Soap was supposed to be killed by his enemies when he headed for lunch. Fortunately, the patrol team that was waiting at the side managed to stop them in time, eventually saving him. Simulteneously, all the gangsters who attempted to kill Soap were taken down, and they were charged with attempted murder.


    That night, someone came to attack the patrol station. If it were the old station, they would have been forced to release the captured gang members, and Aris might have had to apologize to the gang boss. But now, the patrol team had gathered their family members in a unit on the top floor. After that, the rest put on armor, took up weapons, and silently guarded behind the gate.


    A short whileter, Soap received news that another gang would attack the patrol station. So, he quickly rushed over with his men and greeted the gang boss with a grin. Before the enemies could figure out what was going on, Soap and his men had drawn their weapons, readied to attack. And on the other side, the patrol team opened the gate, and Aris led his men to charge at them. Soap and Aris attacked them from both sides. In a blink of an eye, they defeated the enemies. The enemies were then forced to drop their weapons, kneel, and surrender.


    This scene was simr to the night they defeated Iron Handcuff��s gang. Although the enemy outnumbered them, they did not expect that they��d be working with the patrol team to mess them up. This was the second time Soap and the patrol team set a trap for them to step in. They had lost so thoroughly this time that getting back up again would be very hard.


    ...


    In just two weeks, Soap��s gang had expanded six-fold, and they were almost at their limit. His gang hadn��t been built on a good foundation, much like a premature, deformed baby. Before he even learned to walk, he had started baring his fangs, attempting to chew at his enemies, hunting down all that stood in his path. Under the care of the patrol team, however, he prevailed.


    Presently, they had now almost made all the money that they could make.


    Now everyone knew that Soap��s gang was under the protection of the patrol team, naturally causing the other gangs to be more careful. They had to make sure that the two sides would not work together to attack them. Earlier, Iron Head had sent a team of people to attack Soap, but they failed miserably. After that, they sent another team of people to attack the patrol station but were yet defeated. Basically, a situation like this would not happen anymore.


    On the other hand, Soap also needed some time to digest what he had swallowed recently. Whether it was the area he took over or the gang members he had, he could not even remember his men��s names. Naturally, there was no sense of unity among them. If he was not paying them, his men would have run away and joined other gangs. Besides, he just killed another gang boss and had no idea what the new members would think of him. When he learned that Zhang Heng had decided to give him a two-week leave to deal with his internal affairs, Soap was relieved.


    Zhang Heng was also a little surprised by Soap��s performance. It was much better than he expected. Considering thetter��s background, Zhang Heng initially thought that he could expand his power by two or three times, but he did not expect that he would exceed the limit of growing further.


    Nheless, Zhang Heng had no intention to change ns. He summoned the group of gangsters who helped him investigate Varo��s enemies, and he was preparing to create a new gang. For now, Zhang Heng had no n to ask Soap to expand his gang. That was because his gang was close to growing into a medium-sized one. And they had also joined forces with the patrol team. It began to draw the public��s attention.


    So Zhang Heng intended to create a new gang. This time the patrol team would not help them so tantly. The new gang also had an advantage, however. At the same time, Zhang Heng just finished his first performance at the Victor Arena. That day, the stands were filled to the brim with spectators. Mark Reuss, the greedy diator school owner, sold 50% more tickets than the arena��s capacity, leaving the audience to worry if the stand would actually copse.


    Fortunately, the performance would undoubtedly be a huge sess. Zhang Heng again proved his poprity as the number one diator in Rome, and ording to the agreement between him and Mark Reuss, he also received arge sum of money.


    Zhang Heng used half of his money to form the new gang. He also nned to use the threat posed by the patrol team and Soap, the Mad Dog, to force some small gangs to join his new gang. After that, he would turn his man into the boss of the new gang. And now, the embryonic form of this alliance had begun to take shape.


    Zhang Heng had been very sensible. He chose to absorb the gangs at the bottom of the pyramid and avoid touching the powerful ones. When those big gangs realized what was happening, they would find that the bottom of the pyramid had gone through a huge change.


    Other than that, the patrol team had also started recruiting more soldiers after their big windfall. Of course, the new recruits were not considered patrol members just yet. They could only be regarded as informants who assisted the patrol members in arresting criminals. However, these informants could also turn into thugs when necessary.


    This ce was full of poverty and sin. However, one good thing dide out of the poor conditions. As long as one was willing to spend the money, they could recruit as many as they liked to work for them. Zhang Heng��s n to integraterge and small forces was steadily advancing. His real focus, however, was not here.


    It took two weeks for Dadatis to finish all the lessons, and since he memorized everything that Dadatis told him, Zhang Heng gained a Lv1 assassin skill. After he had fully understood and mastered those things, his skill should be upgraded to Lv2. It would take him two months to do so, however.


    The time to say goodbye hade.


    Dadatis told Zhang Heng that he had taught him everything he knew. He had been procrastinating for quite some time, and it was time to hit the road to aplish what the priestess entrusted him with. So when theirst training session ended, the two said goodbye by the Tiber River. And Zhang Heng also brought a bottle of wine to bid him farewell.


    Dadatis asked after he took over the wine, ��How about Commodus? Did he visit you again? With the interest he has in you, shouldn��t hee to visit you once? After all, it has been a long time since you won the championship.��


    Zhang Heng shook his head. ��I think the people around him are stopping him from seeing me. When I resolve the matter here, I will return in Commodus��s sights. ��


    ��That��s good, get rid of Altrus as soon as possible, and you can be a Bnce de core member sooner.�� After Zhang Heng told him his n, Dadatis no longer had any doubts about him. He then uncorked the wine bottle and took in a whiff. ��This wine is not bad, worth at least three gold coins.��


    ��I��m d you like it.��


    Zhang Heng was not short of money now.


    Dadatis then pushed the cork into the bottle again, and he sighed. ��Do you remember what I said before, where the Hound killed one of us? They have not done anything for a long time, and that��s not a good sign. I��ve been a little nervous recently, and I feel that something big might happen soon.��


    ��Did your god not tell you the answer?�� Zhang Heng asked rhetorically.


    ��Watch your mouth. The priestess often tells me that you are rude and disrespectful.��


    Dadatis was displeased.


    ��Then, did she tell you that she nned to throw me into the river?��


    ��Anyway, you are going to be one of us soon. Try to get along well with yourpanions. Given the distrust that the other members have toward you, you can only talk to the priestess if you have any questions. I will tell you how to contact herter,�� Dadatis said.


    Zhang Heng shrugged. ��You have the final say.��


    ��I thought I could stay with you a little longer and arrange everything for you, but it now seems that you can only rely on yourself.�� Dadatis sighed again.


    ��Don��t worry. I can handle the tasks given to me. Don��t be long-winded. Hurry up and go your way. You are so old. It will take you much time to get to your destination,�� Zhang Heng said.


    ��...��


    ��In that case, let��s say goodbye here.�� Dadatis stopped walking. ��I also left a gift for you. Due to your bad attitude, I decided not to tell you where I ced it. Figure it out yourself.��


    Dadatis finished hisst sentence and felt a lot morefortable. He winked at Zhang Heng again before he jumped on the boat by the river.

 Chapter 839 - Your Heart Jumps Too Fast

    <h4>Chapter 839: Your Heart Jumps Too Fast</h4>


    Although Dadatis did not tell Zhang Heng where he hid the gift, it wasn��t difficult figuring out the answer. Dadatis was a very cautious person. The two usually met at night, and they had only been to a couple of ces. All he needed to do was go to each of those ces and cross them out one by one.


    After sending Dadatis off, Zhang Heng went to a small bathhouse, which was very close to where he lived. Considering it was only open during the day, Dadatis selected it as their temporary training ground at night. After making some deductions, Zhang Heng figured Dadatis would have most likely hidden the present here.


    Zhang Heng was very familiar with this ce. He climbed over the wall and bypassed the ce where the guard slept. The bathhouse was not that big, but there were still heaps of ces for Dadatis to hide the gift. Considering the fact that he might not be able to find it immediately, the gift would not be hidden in a ce the ordinary person would identallye across. Hence, Zhang Heng eliminated the spots where the ordinary customers would go to.


    After that, the first ce that he thought of was the locker area. Usually, the customers would store their clothes in the locker. At most, they could store their belongings there for a day. When the bathhouse closed for the day, they had to clear out all their stuff. However, the regr affluent customers would rent a long-term locker for themselves.


    Zhang Heng then walked to where those long-term lockers were and checked the names written on them. Unexpectedly, he could not find Dadatis or his own name on them. To be safe, he opened the lockers and checked one by one. It was confirmed that Dadatis��s gift was not ced here.


    So Zhang Heng could only continue to consider other possibilities. He circled the bathing area, and when he walked to the cold-water zone, he noticed the twelve pirs there. Eight of them were supporting the roof, and the other four pirs served as a decorative piece.


    He moved around and found a crack on the top of a decorative pir.


    ��Did Dadatis think that he is still young and strong?��


    Zhang Heng tried the firmness of the pir, and he used his hands and feet together to climb up the pir. He then put his hand into the crack. The next moment, he heard a system notification,


    [Game item found��Heart of Kreis (unidentified)]


    Zhang Heng took the game item and slid it down the pir. After that, he took a good look at the fingernail-sized sapphire in his palm. Although it had not been identified yet, he could figure out the item��s function when he back on the ground. He noticed that his senses had be sharper, and hisnding much lighter than before, his breathing almost inaudible.


    If he was right, this item allowed its user to conceal the sounds the user made while on the move or hiding. Kreis was supposed to be the God of Assassins, and this was the perfect item for Zhang Heng, who had just started to work as an assassin. After that, Zhang Heng unfolded the little papyrus wrapping the Heart of Kreis.


    Only one sentence was on the paper. ��Now you, believe me, right?��


    Zhang Heng smiled. After ying so many games, he had be more and more aware of the nature of those gods. Instead of saying that God created humankind, it was more like humankind created those gods to satisfy their needs. In the early days, when productivity wasn��t that developed yet, many worshipped gods to strengthen their reign, or because they were afraid of death and disease. They had to make sure that the stability of the social structure was upheld.


    The existence of gods could exin many unknown phenomena. With the improvement of productivity and the spread of popr culture, more and more things that looked mysterious in the past could now be exined by science. And humans no longer relied on their prayers to win battles or reap good harvests. Hence, the group of ancient gods began to weaken. And the new gods started to surface. For example, Zhang Heng suspected that he encountered the God of Technology in the Apollo quest and the God of Lego in the Lego World.


    However, Zhang Heng did not expect that Kreis would be selected to be one of the gods because she was not as popr. It seemed there were more assassins in Rome than Zhang Heng thought.


    After that, Zhang Heng put away Dadatis��s gift and left the bathhouse.


    .....


    The patrol team was still working on the integration of the bottom forces.


    Simultaneously, the anti-patrol alliance on the other side was in its full force while Soap took the time out to deal with his gang��s internal affair. During this time, the small forces in this area began to choose a side actively and passively. As a result, the situation on the street worsened. Sometimes, two different gangs would just randomly fight on the street.


    However, Zhang Heng had no intention to stop them from having conflict. Instead, he wanted to make use of the conflict to eliminate some of the unstable forces. With that, his people would have better control over their forces.


    His n had been going on smoothly and faster than he expected. Unfortunately, an ident still happened in the second week.


    When Zhang Heng and Marcus were patrolling the street, they were told that a patrol member on his off day had been blocked by a group of masked men while buying a loaf of bread in a bakery. However, the member was no longer a sack of potatoes to be kicked around. When he saw the masked men, he threw away his bread immediately and drew out the weapon he carried.


    Despite his brave performance, the enemies still had the absolute advantage in numbers.


    Several people rushed up at him and snatched his weapon, and started to beat up the patrol member. Zhang Heng and Marcus quickly put aside whatever they were doing when they got the news and ran to where the patrol member was.


    When the incident happened, Zhang Heng and Marcus found out that onlookers had surrounded the bakery.


    Marcus was standing in front of the crowd, and Zhang Heng got into the crowd from behind, trying to squeeze forward. At this moment, a dagger quietly pierced into Zhang Heng��s heart. Surrounded by so many people, his body was in close proximity to them, not to mention how noisy the surroundings were. Logically, there was no way Zhang Heng could guard against this fatal blow.


    The assassin was obviously very satisfied with his silent attack. To him, Zhang Heng was surely dead by now. He had worked as an assassin for so many years, and he had never missed his targets. He was confident in his strength, and he initially wanted to attack Zhang Heng head-on. However, his employer had repeatedly emphasized that he should be careful of Zhang Heng. Hence, he finally came up with this n.


    It could be said that he had perfect control over the environment and his target��s mental state.


    However, he did not expect that his perfect strike would fail in the end.


    A second ago, Zhang Heng was still in front of him. And the next second, he had lost sight of him. After that, he felt a stink on his wrist, and now the dagger had gone to Zhang Heng��s hand.


    ��Who is your teacher? Didn��t he teach you not to keep staring at your target before you assassinate him? I can see through your n now. Besides, your heart beats too fast when you wanted to attack me.��

 Chapter 840 - Uninvited Guest

    <h4>Chapter 840: Uninvited Guest</h4>


    The assassin didn��t expect that he��d miss his target. And the worst part was that it took him a long time toe up with this n. Fortunately, he was not a new assassin. He realized that it was not the time to be consumed by ego even though Marcus was not with Zhang Heng.


    When the assassin discovered that Zhang Heng was the champion of the Amphitheatrum vium, he knew that he would not stand a chance against him. So, he did not hesitate to run after he missed his target, pretty confident in his stealth ability.


    Almost every assassin had worked hard to perfect their stealth ability. Not only would it help them to approach their targets silently, but it could also help them to escape, thus saving their lives.


    And as the assassin ran, he deliberately created more chaos in the crowd. He pushed and kicked the people around him. The people he chose to mess with looked like they had bad tempers, instantly angered when the assassin irritated them. The assassin, however, made sure that the men that he annoyed wouldn��t know that he was the culprit. Since they could not find the instigator, these hotheads had to vent their anger on the people around them. Soon, more people had started fights, making the whole ce even more chaotic.


    The assassin turned around, looked back, and saw that Zhang Heng did note after him. He just stood still and watched quietly from a distance. This gave the assassin a little relief.


    He did not lower down his guard and stop running, however. After escaping the mob, he plunged into the nearby alleys, running across four in one go. Only then did he slow down a little. Next, he changed clothes quickly, walked out of the alley, and pretended to be a customer in front of a small stall while actually scrutinizing his surroundings. After confirming that there were no suspicious people around him, he stood up.


    But what he did not notice was that a pair of eyes were trailing him from the other side of the roof. Zhang Heng wasn��t in a hurry to rush to a confrontation since the man below him was just a hired assassin. In other words, the things he knew would be very limited. In all fairness, however, his skills as an assassin were pretty good. Zhang Heng figured that he could be one of the best assassins among his peers.


    In terms of assassin skills, he was currently better than Zhang Heng. However, the potential of the two wasn��t something that could bepared. Zhang Heng��s teacher was Dadatis, and he was among the world��s best assassins. For now, Zhang Heng had not yet mastered everything that Dadatis taught him. Fortunately, assassin skills weren��t the only skill that he learned. He also had the Heart of Kreis with him, a perfect item to track someone down since it allowed him to move around without a single sound.


    Zhang Heng tailed the assassin all the way, wanting to see who he woulde into contact with next. Considering how he had taken such a long time to prepare and execute this n, then failed miserably, he would obviously need to give his employer a good exnation.


    After that, the assassin walked into aundromat. Zhang Heng knew that it belonged to a small gang from this area. Having also joined the anti-patrol alliance, this gang was one of the more aggressive groups that had always promoted violence. Their goal was to curb the patrol��s growth.


    However, Zhang Heng made no moves when he entered theundrette. After that, he waited for about a quarter of an hour before the assassin came out of the shop, personally escorted out by the small gang��s boss. Zhang Heng then waited for his target to walk for a considerable distance and began tailing him again.


    If it was someone else, they might have thought that the small gang��s boss was the one that hired the assassin to kill Zhang Heng. After all, Zhang Heng was working his way to bing a full-fledged assassin. Earlier, he had learned from Dadatis about how an assassin��s mind worked.


    Excluding the ipetent ones, most assassins would have a handler. The handler would help them to scout for more business opportunities, and at the same time, negotiate with their employers as well. When the sry was agreed upon, the employer would tell the handler they wanted the assassin to eliminate. Afterpleting the task, the handler would take part in the assassin��s reward as his pay. Their pay was about 10% to 20% of the assassins�� reward.


    This was done to protect the employer. Even if the assassin was caught while carrying out the mission, they couldn��t tell who their employers were. Secondly, doing this protected the assassin and prevented the employer from killing the assassin afterpleting the task.


    And this assassin who dared to attack him was good. Obviously, it wasn��t the random lyncher that one could pick off the streets. It made no sense for him to contact his employer after he had personally failed the mission.


    At the same time, Zhang Heng was very patient about it. He followed him for about half an hour before the assassin walked into a butcher shop. The butcher shop��s owner obviously knew him, seeing how he did not ask his customer what he wanted to buy. After confirming that there was no suspicious person behind him, he opened the side door and allowed him to enter the backyard. Once he got there, he put down his guard entirely andined, ��What kind of job did you pick for me?��


    In the backyard, a Samaritan who was blind in one eye dangled a bag of gold coins. And there was a wonderful melodying out from it. He raised his head when he heard the question, ��He is the champion of the Amphitheatrum vium! Didn��t you say you can deal with him? I asked for three hundred gold coins from the person so you couldplete this task. You can go on retirement once youplete this job, and I can also make a lot of money. How did it go? Please tell me that you havepleted the task!��


    There was a touch of eagerness in Samaritan��s eye.


    ��It��s a pity that I brought you bad news this time. I failed the task.�� The assassin shook his head.


    ��How is that even possible?! You are my best assassin. You said that the diatorial champion possesses only a strong frontal fighting ability, and he was no different from ordinary people?!�� The Samaritan had a hard time epting the bad news.


    ��I don��t know how he dodged my fatal attack. He even took the dagger from me, and I don��t feel too good about it,�� the assassin hesitated. ��It seems he and I are the same kinds of people.��


    ��What? Are you from the far and mysterious Eastern Empire, too?�� the one-eyed Samaritan asked.


    ��I��m not talking about where hees from. For a moment, I thought he was also an assassin.��


    ��Do you think he is an assassin too? Then why would he give that up and transform himself into a diator?��


    ��I know it sounds a bit ridiculous. Forget it... Maybe I��m wrong,�� the assassin muttered. ��And I��ve also managed to lose him and put on a show to confuse him before Ie here.��


    Before he could finish his sentence, the one-eyed Samaritan on the opposite side had his eye wide open as if he saw a ghost.


    So the assassin also turned around, followed where the Samaritan looked and saw Zhang Heng standing by the wall.


    ��I heard you talking about me, and I just have a few questions to ask. So please forgive me for the uninvited visit.��

 Chapter 841 - Suspected Assasination

    <h4>Chapter 841: Suspected Assasination</h4>


    When the assassin saw Zhang Heng, he was terrified. He was supposed to be a master of stealth, yet failed to realize that he was being followed. And he had been followed for a long time, from theundry shop all the way to the meat shop. And Zhang Heng had waited until the assassin met his handler before showing up.


    When the assassin was reminded of the strange feeling he got earlier, he could not help but ask, ��Are you... are you also an assassin?��


    ��Unfortunately, it��s still my turn to ask the questions.�� Zhang Heng raised his eyebrows, and he turned around to look at the one-eyed Samaritan. ��It appears you are his handler. If so, you should know the person paying you for this service, right? Tell me. Who wants me dead?��


    The Samaritan had quickly calmed down after his initial bout of panic. He simply shook his head, and said, ��I don��t know what you are talking about; I��m just the boss of this meat shop; I don��t know what the heck assassination is.��


    ��Really?�� Zhang Heng did not rush him after he heard his reply. Instead, he drew the two Persian swords from his waist.


    ��What are you going to do to me? Arrest me and bring me back to the patrol station?�� The one-eyed Samaritan raised his voice, ��Do you have any evidence that I am his handler?!��


    ��Arrest you? I think you justplicate the whole thing. It seems you have no idea how the patrol team works recently.�� Zhang Heng said, ��I was very careful when I came over here. No one on the street noticed that I entered your meat shop. In other words, no one will know that I kill you here.��


    The one-eyed Samaritan was left in shock when he heard what Zhang Heng said. He did not expect Zhang Heng, a patrol team member responsible for maintaining the area��s order, would break thew. To him, Zhang Heng was no longer aw enforcer. Now, he was just a robber.


    Immediately, the Samaritan turned around and looked at his assassin to seek help. At that time, the assassin was looking around as well. It seemed he was looking for a viable way to flee from this ce as well.


    He was just an ordinary assassin. After all, his forte being sneak attacks and assassinations. It wasn��t possible for him to defeat a diatorial champion. Fortunately, the burly butcher from the meat shop walked into the backyard. He was the Samaritan��s bodyguard. Selling meat was just his side job. His real job was to ensure the safety of the Samaritan.


    Earlier, the Samaritan had deliberately spoken louder. It seemed effective enough to summon his bodyguard toe and rescue him��the butcher rushed over with a sharp knife the moment he spotted Zhang Heng, while the assassin on the other side was caught in a dilemma. He wanted to take advantage of this rare opportunity and run away. However, when he thought about Zhang Heng��s extraordinary tracking ability, he became unsure if he could get away. Besides, he had a good rtionship with the one-eyed Samaritan. Thetter had been his handler for four or five years, and it would be hical to betray him at such a critical moment.


    Thus, the assassin gritted his teeth and rushed forward to help the butcher attack Zhang Heng. With the butcher in front of him, he could adopt his bestbat strategy. He believed that the two of them would stand a chance to defeat Zhang Heng.


    While the fight ensued, the Samaritan jumped up from his chair, turned his head, and ran towards the house. Knowing how dangerous his business was and the number of haters he had, he was well prepared to face such life-threatening situations. Not only did he have the butcher as his bodyguard, but he also had a secret tunnel hidden under his bed. It led to the alley outside the shop.


    When the Samaritan entered the secret tunnel, he suddenly felt a sharp pain in his right foot.


    Zhang Heng had nailed his feet to the ground with his Persian sword!


    ��Where are you going? You haven��t even answered all my questions. Stay for a while, please.��


    Zhang Heng then blocked the butcher��s knife with another Persian sword while dodging the assassin��s sneak attack. It resulted in the assassin moving half a beat slower when he stepped back, and Zhang Heng almost shed his stomach.


    When the Samaritan saw the three of them finally fighting together, he wanted to escape again. However, after two attempts, he still failed to pull out the Persian sword stuck in his foot. Instead, the excruciating pain caused him to scream and sweat profusely. On the other hand, the butcher he had high hopes for was losing the battle. He had finally got to experience the true strength of the diatorial champion. If it were not for the assassin, he would have already lost the battle. Now, he was stuck in a tough situation, and it was only a matter of time before Zhang Heng beat him to the ground.


    At the same time, the assassin who partnered up with the butcher also realized that the situation was worse than he had imagined. Even though the two teamed up against Zhang Heng, they were still no match for him. Now, the assassin couldn��t flee from this ce. That was because Zhang Heng did not spend too much of his effort to deal with the butcher. Most of the time, he focussed on dealing with the assassin.


    The assassin realized that he could not leave even if he wanted to. No matter where he moved, Zhang Heng would seal his retreat in advance with his sword.


    His forehead was covered in sweat. Since he was about to lose the battle, the assassin pulled his trump card. He threw the weapon in his hand to the ground, took a half step back, and raised his hands, saying, ��I surrender!��


    And Zhang Heng pointed his sword at his nose. The Samaritan, on the other side, almost cried when he heard that. Earlier, he had endured excruciating pain and pulled out the sword stuck in his foot. After the Samaritan heard that the assassin was going to surrender, he could not help but shout, ��You should have surrendered a little earlier! If you did that, I wouldn��t have had to pull out the sword in my foot!��


    After that, he looked at the butcher and shouted at him, ��Stop fighting. We can��t beat him anyway. We will surrender this time.��


    The butcher hesitated for a while and finally dropped the sharp knife in his hand.


    Zhang Heng did not intend to kill him anymore. He took his other Persian sword from the Samaritan. Thetter quickly asked the butcher to get him a cloth to bandage the wound on his foot. The Samaritan had suffered a lot this time. He was carried back to the chair by the butcher and assassin, and heined nonstop about it.


    ��So you want to know who hired me to kill you? I��m afraid I��ll have to disappoint you because I don��t know the person who contacted me. I have never seen him before. I don��t think he is from around here.��


    ��And?��


    ��And... that��s it.�� The Samaritan looked a little innocent. ��We don��t ask questions that do not concern us. I negotiated the price with him and collected his money to execute his order. We didn��t talk much. I don��t even know how he found me. By the way, he even specifically told me to make it look like the gang killed you. From here, you can know that the gangs were not the ones that ordered your death.��


    ��Don��t force me to stab your left foot,�� Zhang Heng warned, ��I have a way to check if you are lying. If this is it, why did you attempt to run away just now?��


    There was a frustrated look on the Samaritan��s face, and after a moment, he said, ��Well, the next thing that I��m about to tell you is just spection. Although he hid it well, some of his small habits betrayed him. I think he is from the military. I always felt that this is an extremelyplicated matter. Thest thing I want is to get involved in any political events.��


    ��So why ept the deal, then?��


    ��Because the other party paid me too much,�� the Samaritan confessed.


    ��Your hunch is correct. For your safety, you��d better not tell anyone that you��ve told me this,�� replied Zhang Heng, indifferent. ��Also, find someone to paint how the person looks like and show it to me.��

 Chapter 842 - Let Him In

    <h4>Chapter 842: Let Him In</h4>


    Zhang Heng was a little surprised that the person who wanted him dead was an Imperial Guard. Considering that he had spent most of his time here taking down gangs, it was not surprising that the bigger gangs wanted him dead. However, it was bizarre that an Imperial Guard wanted him dead.


    The person he first suspected was Clint. After all, Clint had a conflict of interest with him. Commodus now favored him more than anyone else, and if he was asked to work by Commodus��s side, there was a high chance that Clint��s position would be affected. In other words, if he died here, Clint would benefit the most.


    And Clint had done something like this before. Earlier, he appointed Pannonax to make things difficult, not to mention that Pannonax was also an imperial guard. This time, it seemed Clint was eager to get rid of Zhang Heng once and for all after seeing how he improved the patrol team.


    Zhang Heng also knew that he could be mistaken. Although assassination was the most effective method to get rid of someone, politicians never used this method unless it was theirst resort. That was because if their target survived the assassination, they would have to bear a lot of risks.


    After Zhang Heng talked to Clint, he proceeded to profile him. As expected, he was indeed full of jealousy and thirst for power. Once the situation worsened, he would not mind hiring someone to assassinate Zhang Heng. Most of the time, he was a rtively cautious and conservative politician.


    This was evident in the way he dealt with Zhang Heng. More ustomed to hiding himself behind the scenes and twisting the existing rules to y to his advantage, assassinating Zhang Heng was not something he would do right now. This would just make it easier for his rivals to go against him. As of now, Zhang Heng was not toorge of a threat. Taking such a huge risk wasn��t worth it.


    After that, Zhang Heng received the portrait given by the Samaritan and found that the person was not Pannonax. It was someone that he had never seen before. For now, Zhang could investigate this matter no further. The only thing he could do was ask the Samaritan to scrutinize the imperial guard that struck a deal with him. He didn��t put much hope in this one either. The person who wanted him dead clearly tried his best to cover his tracks, not wanting anyone to know about him. After discovering that the assassin had failed to kill him, Zhang Heng figured that he would not contact the Samaritan again.


    If he wanted to keep investigating, he had to wait until he returned to Commodus��s side. By that time, there would be more opportunities to contact the imperial guards.


    Although Zhang Heng��s attempted assassination not life-threatening, it was a stark wake-up call for him. Now, he knew that someone was watching him from the dark.


    This, however, did not affect the next step of his n. Zhang Heng��s wanted to integrate allrge and steadily advancing smaller forces.


    After all the bottom forces had chosen their sides, Zhang Heng soon started a new war. This time, he used the excuse of investigating a patrol member assaulted on the street to attack a medium-sized gang. Of course, Zhang Heng knew that the medium-sized gang was not the one responsible. Previously, the assassin had already confessed how he nned the assassination. After its failure, the assants at the bakery quickly fled from the scene. The member of the patrol team suffered some minor injuries.


    But it would be a pity for them not to take advantage of this incident, especially after Zhang Heng noticed that one of the aplices belonged to the medium-sized gang. He managed to locate the aplice and went ahead to n the dramatic revenge.


    The patrol team attacked the medium-sized gang after they refused to hand over the aplice. While the gang boss was still trying to figure out what was going on, the other patrol team had alreadye knocking at his door.


    The current patrol team had gone through a huge transformation. They were no longer the useless puppets they were a month and a half ago. Every single one of them had showered in the enemies�� blood before, and they had been recruiting soldiers as well. Combined with the people they had spent money on to hire, they now had more than fifty people. With Zhang Heng leading the team, they were now stronger than ever.


    The medium-sized gang had a lot of members, amounting to more than a hundred people. However, they seemed tock teamwork, working all over the ce around the area. It was difficult for them to gather at the same time.


    Zhang Heng had stated that it was a grievance between the two parties. However, none of them informed Soap about it. ording to the rules, it was difficult for other forces to intervene in a matter like this. In the end, he could only watch the medium-sized gang getting defeated by the patrol. Zhang Heng did not kill the gang boss this time. He was willing to show him mercy.


    But even so, he received an invitationter. Someone had asked him for a drink at a tavern in five days.


    Zhang Heng could not reject this invitation because it came from a person from one of the three major forces in the nearby area. And Zhang Heng figured that the other two major forces would be there as well. In other words, these gangs had reached their limits and wanted to stop what Zhang Heng did. If everything went well, they would attack him tonight.


    If the patrol team could survive the attack, it meant they could continue to develop in the future. Strictly speaking, most of Zhang Heng��s goals had been achieved. With the patrol team and the other small forces under his control, he was confident that he could pass the assessment two weekster. However, if he wanted toplete all his ns, he would need to work hard for it.


    To everyone��s surprise, Zhang Heng paid Clint a visit.


    The two talked for about an hour in Clint��s study, which surprised his wife. She had rarely seen her husband, known for his efficiency, chatting with a person for so long. And he even sent Zhang Heng to the door personally after that.


    After Zhang Heng left, Clint asked an old servant who served the two in the room just now, ��What do you think of this?��


    ��Haven��t you decided that you��d suppress him?�� the old servant asked, ��If that is the case, why would you help him?��


    ��Because, he turned out to be such an interesting person,�� Clint smiled. ��And I can hardly refuse the bargaining chip he offered.��


    ��Why, wasn��t he asking for a favor?��


    ��Yes, but that��s not the whole picture. I believe he has a backup n,�� Clint said. ��A person like him would not put all his chips on one person.��


    ��But you suppressed him before, and then there is that incident. Aren��t you afraid that he might retaliate when he gains power? Besides, you keep saying that the emperor values him a lot, and he just asked you about his current situation, right?��


    ��There are no absolute friends in politics, and naturally, no absolute enemies either.�� Clint smiled. ��I��m beginning to think that it��s not so bad having one morepetitor. After all, we have the same opponent, and that person is Altrus, the emperor��s most trusted person. He even gave his ring to Altrus. In the past two years, I have been sitting in a tough spot. Instead of hanging on, it��ll be better that someone new be brought in to cause more chaos. He looks like a smart man, and he should know who his real enemy is.��

 Chapter 843 - Trial

    <h4>Chapter 843: Trial</h4>


    The day to meet up had finallye.


    Zhang Heng was not the only one who received the invitation. On this day, all the high-level leaders of all the big and small gangs were there. In the morning, almost not a single soul hung around in the nearby streets. Instead, a group of fierce-looking strong men guarded the tavern and took control of the two streets nearby them.


    Regardless of the size of their gang, the invited person could only bring two subordinates to the meeting. By doing that, they could prevent someone from taking this opportunity to make trouble. The mixed settlement of Jews and other foreigners in the southeastern part of Rome had been filled with chaos since Hadrian��s time. Thieves, assassins, robbers, and viins loitered around, and they were unregted by thew.


    Most of the time, they were more ustomed to dealing with their problems using their fists. After all, this was a world where the strong preyed on the weak. At times, however, they would actually talk it out if they thought a war was not worthwhile. Most of the time, a negotiation would only involve a maximum of two to three parties. On the other hand, a negotiation led by one of three major forces would only happen once in six or seven years.


    When everyone was summoned to this meeting, it could mean that a major event had taken ce and had affected the vast majority of the forces. This time was no exception. Everyone who received an invitation knew the purpose of this gathering.


    Many of them were waiting to see Zhang Heng and his patrol team unfold the drama before them.


    Many, especially the small forces bullied by the patrol team, looked forward to returning to the good old days. They hoped the big forces could uphold justice for them, wanting them to restrain the patrol team and stop the patrol team from doing anything wrong. It would be perfect if they could make the patrol team return to their previous state.


    Among them, one person showed the most eagerness. His eyes were filled with hatred. Everyone here knew about him. He was the medium-sized gang that was beaten up by the patrol team recently. The unlucky boss��s nickname was Copper Arm.


    After being defeated by the patrol team, he immediately ran to the Jewish��s turf. The Jews had upied the southeast part of this area. And at the same time, the most powerful gang in this region belonged to the Jews. With thergest number of members, they controlled almost half of the business in this area. Under normal circumstances, the Jewish gangs never interfered with the affairs of the smaller forces.


    Considering the criminally rich environment in this ce, there was never a shortage of the brave. The recement of the bottom forces and turf battles was amon urrence that happened almost every day. As long as the new sessor could continue handing in money to the higher forces, they would not care who helped them manage their businesses.


    Bronze Arm��s status in this ce was somewhat. A member of the Jewish gang, he dabbled in the money lending business in an underground arena belonging to the Jewish gang. He used this rtionship to get to know a lot of underground diators who could fight well. After that, when he came across a golden opportunity to form his gang, he did it without hesitation. Since the Jewish gang backed him, he managed to grow his gang extremely fast. Within two years, he became a well-known medium-sized gang.


    But just five days ago, his good days came to an end. Before he could figure out what had happened, he was told that one of his members was involved in beating up a patrol. After that, Zhang Heng had raided his turf, using the excuse of him refusing to hand over the aplice. When Copper Arm saw that the situation had gone sour, he decided to hand over the person responsible. However, he found out that the person was gone. In the end, he did not even get a chance to surrender to Zhang Heng. It caused him to lose his turf. And after that, he only managed to recruit less than twenty people.


    In just one night, he lost everything and returned to the period where he had nothing. Bronze Arm had to ask the Jewish gang to help him this time. He thought that the three major forces would punish Zhang Heng and the patrol team during the gathering in the afternoonter. But this wasn��t the Basilica Julia, and they were not about to follow Romanw. The three major forces were the ones who set the rules of this ce.


    To Bronze Arm, Zhang Heng wouldn��t be walking out of the tavern alive this time.


    ...


    It was almost time for everyone to gather at the tavern, but Zhang Heng still hadn��t shown up. Soap and his men were close to thest ones to arrive. This time, he did not bring his best friend, Skinny Money. Instead, he brought two burly men with him.


    But even so, Soap still felt a little guilty. Since he was a child, he had heard of the Jewish gang, and his previous dream was to join them as a member. If he managed to achieve his dream, he would no longer need to live under the Copper Arm��s control anymore. And now, not only did he not get to join the Jewish gang, but he had also be their enemy.


    Fate really was amazing sometimes.


    When Soap walked into the tavern with his men, the way the others gave him looks filled with hostility. It was no secret that Soap and the patrol team were very close. When the two sides first cooperated, they used this rtionship to take down many small forces, the reason why a new-rising force like him could grow so quickly.


    And the price he had to pay was to be poorly treated by other forces. When Soap walked into the tavern, he kept hearing the word ��traitor�� being thrown around. Some people even swore right in front of him. After all, he was only a thief. Although he performed rtively well some time ago and started to feel that he was slowly bing a true boss, many here still had more influence and bigger territories than him.


    When he saw that everyone was staring at him, it was inevitable that he started to fear his life. And his biggest backup, the patrol team, was not here yet. Even if they were here, they might not be able to protect him if a fight broke out.


    After Soap received the invitation, the first thing he did was run to Zhang Heng and ask him what he nned to do. However, the only thing Zhang Heng told him was not to worry.


    But how could he not be worried? They were now facing all the forces in the southeast city, united to strike at them. Soap could not figure out how Zhang Heng would neutralize a huge threat like this. Fortunately, his worries were not reflected in his expressions.


    Soap might not make him look calm, but he could at least a straight face. He did not have the guts to fight with the people that swore at him, so he went to a secluded corner with his subordinates and sat down.


    After waiting for a while, almost everyone had arrived, except for Zhang Heng and the patrol team.


    Soap saw a middle-aged Jew walking downstairs. He wasn��t of low status in the Jewish gang, and he was also the person in charge of this meeting. He then walked towards Soap and spoke.


    ��Is it so difficult to invite the people from the patrol team toe here? All the older and more powerful gangsters have arrived early. Only they have not appeared yet. Are they trying to make Mr. Lockeed wait for them?��

 Chapter 844 - Disobeying The Rules

    <h4>Chapter 844: Disobeying The Rules</h4>


    Lockheed was the leader of the Jewish gang. No one on the southeast side of the city had the guts to make him wait.


    Except for his favorite woman and his children, no one else could do something like this to him.


    When Soap heard what he said, he could not help but stand up and apologize. ��Sorry, I think something must��ve caused them to bete. Would you like me to have someone look for them?��


    ��Is there anything else more important than this afternoon��s meeting?�� the middle-aged Jew snorted unceremoniously. ��We��ve notified them five days in advance! Even if they have business to attend to, they should have gotten them done within that five days.��


    ��About that...��


    Soap did not know how to answer the question. He wiped away the cold sweat from his forehead.


    ��You guys have done lots of bad stuff recently. Do you really think we are blind? We invited him here to give him a chance to exin his intention. If he refuses to exin himself, we are more than happy to enter the next phase.��


    The middle-aged Jew was clearly threatening them. Soap had no idea what he could say since he knew nothing about Zhang Heng��s n. Hence, he did not know how he could help improve the situation.


    Fortunately, Zhang Heng finally made his appearance at the tavern right at this critical moment.


    The people in the tavern had been waiting for them for a long time and were all too ready to give them their hostile res like how they did Soap earlier. However, when Zhang Heng and his men showed up, they realized that they could no longer do as they wished.


    That was because the three people outside the tavern were wearing brand-new uniforms, armor and were carrying sharp weapons. They were armed to their teeth.


    This was especially true for their leader, Zhang Heng. When he nced at everyone in the tavern, no one dared look back at him. They lowered their heads subconsciously and thought of the unpleasant things that had happened. As of now, the patrol team was the kryptonite of all the small and medium forces in the area.


    Initially, they wanted to put some people on the patrol team. However, they realized if Zhang Zhang survived the judgment, he would probably retaliateter. Hence, the crowd had to swallow their pride and anger.


    The atmosphere in the tavern turned cold for a while, with Copper Arm the only person that was still ring at Zhang Heng and his men. He had nothing left anyway, and naturally, he was no longer afraid of the patrol team.


    ording to the Jewish gang��s rules, even if they decided to back him up, he would no longer be able to get back what he lost. Thus, the best oue for him right now was for Zhang Heng and the patrol team to be driven out of this ce. The middle-aged Jew frowned. He did not expect Zhang Heng and his men to make such a powerful appearance.


    ��Are you here for a fight or meeting?�� he asked.


    ��Of course, we are here to attend the meeting. But don��t you forget that we are still the patrol members. It��s our responsibility to maintainw and order of this ce. We must not forget our responsibilities. In fact, we had just finished patrolling the nearby streets, and we rushed here immediately,�� Zhang Heng took off his helmet as he spoke.


    The leaders of the various forces in the tavern quietly scolded Zhang Heng in their hearts when they heard what he said. Everyone knew that he was lying. If it were not for the patrol team and Soap��s gang, the southeastern part of the city wouldn��t have fallen into such chaos. Let alone enforcingw and order, the security and safety of this part of the city were no better than before.


    Fights constantly broke out on the streets now. After seeing what happened to Bronze Arm, the other bosses were forced to bring bodyguards whenever they headed out. At times, they even felt insecure in their own turf. Think about it. If the criminals felt insecure about the ce, there was no wayw and order could be adequately enforced.


    The middle-aged Jew was also taken aback when he heard what Zhang Heng said. Sure, he said nothing wrong. He shouldn��t have been the one to say something like this. Since the Jew represented the Jewish gangs, he had no intention to dwell on such a small issue. He could always hold them ountable anyway if there were more timeter. Hence, he simply nodded at Zhang Heng��s excuse. ��Since you are here, please take a seat.��


    Zhang Heng thanked him politely and led Aris and Marcus to sit at the table beside Soap.


    Immediately, a waitress poured wine for the three of them.


    Just then, the middle-aged Jew came to the center of the tavern too. He first nced at the leaders from different forces.


    ��Thank you, everyone, for taking the time to attend this meeting,�� he said. ��I will not waste any time talking about anything useless. The situation here is getting worse, and I believe it has affected the bosses�� businesses. Some people have called for Mr. Lockeed to set this right, but it has always been the principle of the Jewish gang to allow everyone to handle their own issues. I don��t think you guys want us to stick our nose into your business. Evidently, the situation is gradually getting out of control, thanks to the unruly behavior of a small group of people. So, the Jewish gang is obliged to get things back on track.


    His remarks were immediately supported and apuded by everyone. On the other hand, Soap was sitting on the needle.


    Everyone knew who the small group of people that the middle-aged Jew had just mentioned was. He then looked at the patrol team. ��We are reasonable people. As the party of concern, do you have anything you��d like to exin and add on?��


    The middle-aged Jew went straight to the topic they wanted to discuss today. The situation in the tavern was like a trial now, and the subject on trial seemed to be Zhang Heng and his patrol team.


    ��What do you mean by unruly and out of control?�� Zhang Heng asked indifferently as if he did not feel the vainly tense atmosphere. ��As a patrol team, is it not normal that we catch criminals and tackle criminal activities? Since Mr. Lockeed invited me to this meeting, he seemed to consider the patrol team as one of the gangs here. ording to the rules of your Jewish gang, you shouldn��t stick your nose into gang business, right?��


    ��The problem is that you are not normal, especiallypared to a month and a half ago,�� the middle-aged Jew confessed coldly.


    ��I think we couldn��t be more normal than we were a month and a half ago. At that time, the patrol teamcked the strength to operate normally. Because of that, we could not perform our duties. Everyone treated us as nonexistent. Now that we have the strength, we, of course, have to carry out our responsibilities.��


    ��So you mean you were just fulfilling your duties?�� The middle-aged Jew pointed at Soap, ��Well, as far as I know, you are pursuing criminals on the surface. However, you secretly colluded with his gang to deal with other forces. After you eliminate the other bosses, he will take over all their turf and gang members. Is this also your responsibility?��


    Zhang Heng said, ��So you want us to arrest all the local criminals and throw them in jail? By doing that, you will wipe out all the criminal activities in this ce. The reason why we did what we did is that we respect the Jewish gang a lot. Yes, we only catch first offenders, but we do not stick our noses into the affairs of others. And we will not change the way the gangs conduct their business. When the time is right, we will also find the right person to take over the gang. The ie of the Jewish gang will not decrease. So, when you describe us as out of control, I hope you��ll take into ount the concessions we��ve made to maintain the order here.��

 Chapter 845 - Ultimatum

    <h4>Chapter 845: Ultimatum</h4>


    The middle-aged Jew was speechless. He did not expect that Zhang Heng, a diator, could be so eloquent in debating. It was true that the patrol team had been working together with Soap to eliminate and take over all the gangs nearby them. However, Zhang Heng managed to make it sound like they were doing the right thing.


    ording to Zhang Heng��s statement, the Jewish gang was supposed to be grateful for the patrol team��s efforts to safeguard their interests. The key issue was that Zhang Heng insisted it was the patrol team��s duty to fight the crimes on the street. In other words, their behavior and motives werepletely different from those forces that were present here. And the Jewish gang would not be able to apply their rules on the patrol team.


    The middle-aged Jew realized this too. He had prepared lots of materials to prove that the patrol team and Soap��s gang had colluded to bring down the other small and medium gangs, not to mention the suspicious financial exchanges. He even found out the secret rtionship between the patrol team and the anti-patrol alliance. However, if Zhang Heng insisted that all he did was to be a part of the patrol team��s duties, the questions and evidence would be invalid.


    Therefore, he acted decisively and dwelled no further on this topic. Instead, he said, ��No matter how you quibble, you can��t deny that security in the southeast of the city during this period has further deteriorated because of your actions! Everyone��s business is now affected.��


    ��About that... Sometimes if we want to achieve something bigger, we��ll have to pay a small price,�� Zhang Heng said.


    As soon as he said that, everyone in the tavern booed. That was because the reason sounded ridiculous. Previously, everyone had a good life and lived well here, and there was no need to make this ce better. And no one knew if the changes would turn out good for everyone. It was something that required a lot of further discussions.


    Copper Arm then shouted, ��Don��t talk nonsense with them anymore. Let them pay for their shameless behavior!��


    The atmosphere was filled with righteous indignation, and some even drew their weapons. Soap had only gotten even more nervous. He quickly ced one of his hands on the dagger around his waist, and his palms were full of sweat.


    The middle-aged Jew waited for the boos to tone down before speaking again, ��Look, no one here is willing to believe your nonsense. How long have you been in this neighborhood? You have absolutely zero ideas about their beliefs, living habits, and what they actually want. You are unqualified to talk about the future that they want.��


    ��What do they want?�� Zhang Heng asked.


    ��It��s very simple. We just want to live our lives peacefully and undisturbed,�� the middle-aged Jew said. ��Do you know how our ancestors came to Rome? They were enved, discriminated against, and killed by the crazy emperor. And we endured everything silently. After all the hardships, we finally gained our precious freedom and obtained this neighborhood where we could settle down. We know that this ce is criminal heaven in the eyes of outsiders. This ce also reeks of poverty and evil. However, this is a ce where we can call home. Most who are here in this tavern grew up in this neighborhood. We have our set of rules and regtions that might conflict with the Romanws, but these rules help us survive this ce. This is the lifestyle we choose, and outsiders are unqualified to make decisions for us.��


    His statement was unanimously approved by everyone in the tavern.


    ��With the power of the Jewish gang, we could have driven you out immediately. We could��ve made you suffer, but in the end, we chose to resolve this issue as peacefully as possible. That��s how Mr. Lockeed treats his guest. Of course, we will only lean toward this solution if you are still willing to be our guest,�� the middle-aged Jew warned. ��I will give you a week toy off all the patrol team��s expansions, return to us the turf that you took over recently, and we want you to resign from the patrol and never step foot in this ce again. If you can do all that, we can forget about everything you have done.��


    Bronze Arm was obviously unsatisfied with this decision. After all, the patrol team was the one that caused him to lose everything. He hoped that the Jewish gang could impose a heavier punishment on Zhang Heng and others. However, he also knew that he had no right to interrupt the meeting in his current position. Therefore, he could only re at Zhang Heng fiercely. He believed that he still could deal with Zhang Heng after he resigned from the patrol team. Since the Jewish gang could not avenge him, he could only do it himself.


    As long as Zhang Heng was no longer part of the patrol team, Bronze Arm would be able to do more harm.


    Soap��s heart was still agitated. Was the big fight inevitable? The Jewish gang finally gave Zhang Heng an ultimatum. Indeed, this was also a dilemma they had to face. No matter how well Zhang Heng could exin the motives of the patrol team, this was not Basilica Julia, after all. There was no need to abide by anyw. The only rules that worked here were the rules that the three most potent gangs came up with. And the Jewish gang was leading them.


    This decision was made before they invited everyone. Giving Zhang Heng a chance to exin himself simply just a formality. The Jewish gang was determined to restore the situation to how it was a month and a half ago.


    Soap would not be able to ept this decision. A month and a half ago, he was an ordinary thief on the street, and he had never thought of bing a gang boss. But now that he had tasted power. Marcus and the patrol team were still the ones that controlled the gang. However, his outstanding performance during this period had allowed him to more decisions on his own. That was why he was unwilling to hand over his power.


    Of course, the bigger problem was that he had recently been following Zhang Heng��s orders to fight with the other gangs. Thanks to that, he had offended a lot of people. Still, his gang was growing bigger, and he was backed by the patrol team. Once he fell from his current position, he believed that many woulde forward and make him pay for what he did to them.


    Thus, after the middle-aged Jew finished speaking, Soap and others turned around and looked at Zhang Heng. But Zhang Heng��s expression remained unchanged. After listening to the middle-aged Jew, he said, ��Very well. Don��t try to justify yourself since you are the bad guy here. It��s good that you gave me an ultimatum.��


    ��I don��t mind if you see us this way,�� the middle-aged Jew said lightly.


    ��Then I won��t beat around the bush anymore. I appreciate all the efforts you have made to maintain your lifestyles and traditions,�� Zhang Heng looked around again. ��But, unfortunately, I can��t do the three things that you asked. In fact, you should be grateful for everything I��ve done because the old order has copsed. Either you wee the new world with me, or you can go down with the old order.��

 Chapter 846 - You Are Not In Charge Here

    <h4>Chapter 846: You Are Not In Charge Here</h4>


    ��Are you threatening us?�� The middle-aged Jew acted like he just heard a hrious joke. ��With your current patrol team and the gangs that currently side with you or are secretly controlled by you, how many people can you gather against us? Do you know how many members the Jewish Gang has? If we want, we can even turn the 30,000 Jews living here into our people. You have nothing you can use to threaten us.��


    ��The threat I��m talking about won��t being from us,�� Zhang Heng said. ��I believe that some of you have heard the fantastic news recently. Our young emperor has just returned from the battlefield and has imed the throne. He is desperate to do anything that can win him the praise and support of the people. Holding a diatorial performance was only his first step. Next, he intends to turn his attention to public security. The emperor has noticed the southeast city��s extrajudicial status and is concerned about the people living in that ce. No matter what you think, you are ultimately the citizens of this empire and to the emperor. And the conditions of this ce have indeed affected the surrounding areas. Otherwise, why do you think I joined the patrol team?��


    Zhang Heng paused.


    ��My arrival here is only the first step. If I fail to improve the security, then a thousand guards will be stationed here to take over the security and defense work. By that time, you will face the spears and daggers of the Imperial Guard. Are you sure you still want to drive me away?��


    Zhang Heng��s words immediately caused an uproar.


    None of them expected that this incident would involve the Imperial Guard, especially after hearing that the newly appointed emperor was preparing to take action on the southeast��s security problem. Everyone��s heart skipped a beat. Previously, they could bully the poor patrol team, but if one thousand imperial guards reced them, all gangs in this area would surely suffer a great deal.


    As for a powerful gang like the Jewish Gang, they could indeed mobilize 30,000 Jews. However, let��s not talk about whether these civilians could actually defeat the imperial guards. Even if they did, were they prepared to rebel against the emperor? Although they were all criminals and had engaged in multiple crimes in the city of Rome, their goal had always been to make more money and ensure that they wouldn��t go hungry. None of them wanted tomit treason. The Spartacus gang was a living example.


    Currently, Roman national power was at its peak, and the war with the Germanic had ended. The group of veterans who had been at war had returned to Rome. It was not a problem for them to deal with the gang problem in this ce.


    However, everyone was skeptical about this matter. The southeast��s security problem had existed since the first group of Jews settled in Rome, way before even the history of the Jewish gang. None of the emperors could solve this problem. It was not because they could not, but that it was simply unworthy of their effort and attention.


    Although the southeast was the worst part of Rome, it also provided a steady stream of cheapbor. Sometimes these desperate people were sold for prices lower than ves. After all, when the ves died, the masters would lose a fortune. In this part of the city, however, no one cared about the life and death of its residents. The people responsible for cleaning the sewers and theborers who unloaded goods at the Tiber River were all from the southeastern urban area.


    Most of those cheapborers were controlled by the criminals like the Jewish gang. If they wiped out all the criminals here, forget whether it could be done or how many people were left, it was estimated thatbor costs in the city of Rome would definitely skyrocket. This was something the businessmen and the nobles did not want to see.


    Therefore, the problems that Rome��s southeastern part faced had been put on hold for a long time. But now that Commodus was on the throne, most people still could not figure out what he wanted to do to make Rome a better ce. In other words, chances were he could decide to eliminate the criminal forces here once and for all.


    The three major forces had conducted an investigation on Zhang Heng��s background. They knew that he was someone that Commodus valued. It was strange that the emperor would assign him to this ce. If Commodus wanted to deal with the crime problem here, it did make sense that he appointed this job to Zhang Heng.


    A thousand Imperial Guards? If there were a thousand Imperial Guards stationed here in the future, they might be unable to continue their businesses. Therefore, all the leaders in the tavern began talking about it when they heard this unexpected news.


    When the middle-aged Jew saw how the crowd reacted, he coughed to signal them to shut their mouths. He then shook his head. ��Do you really think that you can trick us with this kind of fake news? I have been through many storms. In the end, this ce will always belong to us.��


    ��Whether I��m bluffing or not, you know better than anyone,�� Zhang Heng responded calmly. ��I believe you have spent a lot of money to build a good rtionship with the Senate. This is the main reason why no one touches this ce. In that case, your men must have already passed the news to you.��


    ��It��s not even a proposal. It��s just something the emperor spurted on a whim a few days ago. How could the Senate approve something so ridiculous? There��s an 80% chance that this will be intimidation. After being invited, didn��t you go to Clint��s house? This news popped up after you went to his house...�� The middle-aged Jew was furious, but he soon after he blurted those words, he realized that he had made a mistake.


    After he said that, he had basically helped Zhang Heng confirm that what he said. As expected, after he said that, everyone in the tavern had a worried look on their faces.


    Although they had to deal with the recent troubles caused by the patrol team, they were undoubtedly more reluctant to see the Imperial Guards stationed. The very presence of those guards could be simply devastating.


    After the young emperor sent the Imperial Guards to this ce, he might realize that there was nothing to be gained after a while. By that time, he might consider bringing in the cheapbor again. By that time, how many of them would be left there?


    Even if it was just a possibility, it was still worrying.


    This was also the purpose of Zhang Heng��s visit to Clint some time ago. He proposed a n to Clint where it could benefit both sides. Zhang Heng realized that after he caused all those troubles in the southeast, it was only a matter of time before the three major forces led by the Jewish gang paid attention to him. And Zhang Heng��s solution to this problem was very simple. All he needed to do was to apply pressure on them and make them focus on something that might cause them more devastation.


    On the surface, it seemed difficult for the patrol team to grow in Rome��s southeast because theycked manpower and money, and there could not afford to offend the big forces over there. However, the actual reason was that the patrol team and the criminal gangs did not share the same interest. That was why the patrol team would not fit well there.


    If this problem were not resolved, they would not be able to grow and expand. So, Zhang Heng needed Clint��s help to create the news that a thousand guards would be stationed in the southeastern part of the city. And Zhang Heng did not mind giving Clint some of the credits. Heck, in the end, he gave most of the credit to Clint. All he wanted was toplete the test and return to Commodus��s side.


    And Clint would receive a great political achievement without having to do anything. And the public would see that he worked with Zhang Heng to solve the overdue security problem of Rome��s southeast. Of course, he could also choose to stand aside and stab his potentialpetitors in the back, but as Clint said, he believed that people like Zhang Heng always had a backup n. Zhang Heng knew that Bnce de had something to do with Rome��s political situation as well. If Clint refused to help him, he could go and look for the priestess for help. But if that were the case, he might have to pay a hefty price. Hence,ing up with a mutual-benefit n with Clint seemed the better option.


    Zhang Heng looked at the middle-aged Jew, ��You are not in charge of this matter. Why don��t you ask Mr. Lockeed and other powerful people toe down here and talk to me? Or should I bring my men to the second floor?��

 Chapter 847 - The Master Of Southeast City

    <h4>Chapter 847: The Master Of Southeast City</h4>


    The big and small forces from the southeastern part of the city of Rome were gathered in this tavern today. It was crowded, and it looked very lively.


    However, Zhang Heng knew that those powerful enough to make decisions were not here. They were sitting on the second floor. He instructed the middle-aged Jew to conduct the meeting while quietly listening to their quarrels and conversation downstairs. They would onlyment during critical times and would be the ones that would decide the fate of this ce. And Zhang Heng was hoping to hear from them.


    The middle-aged Jew sneered when he heard the words, ��Do you really think you can meet Mr. Lockheed whenever you want?��


    However, as soon as he finished talking, a young girl came down from the second floor, looked towards Zhang Heng, and curiously asked, ��You are the diatorial champion of the Amphitheatrum vium, the mysterious oriental man from the distant empire?��


    ��That sounds like me,�� Zhang Heng nodded.


    ��There are rumors that you are the incarnation of a certain god, with wings on your back, and you can soar in the sky, but you seem to be no different from the ordinary.�� The girl seemed a little disappointed.


    ��In order not to scare my friends, I put my wings away.��


    The girlughed when she heard this, ��You men like to talk nonsense. Since you treat us as friends,e on, my grandpa wants to see you.��


    ��After you.�� Zhang Heng stood up from his chair and followed the girl to the second floor.


    The middle-aged Jew had a look of frustration on her face, but he knew the girl, and he knew that Lockheed decided to meet Zhang Heng. And the most important rule of being a member of the Jewish gang was never to question Lockheed��s decision. So, he closed his mouth and said nothing. After that, he respectfully watched the two go upstairs.


    The girl whispered to Zhang Heng as she walked, ��My grandpa hates dishonest people the most, so don��t lie when you see himter.��


    ��Thank you for the reminder, but I always like to tell the truth,�� Zhang Heng replied.


    ��Well... I think we will know soon.�� The girl smiled.


    The two arrived on the second floor fairly quickly. Contrary to what Zhang Heng expected, there were only four people on the vast second floor.


    Three of them were sitting at a long table. On the main seat was an old man in his early sixties. He had a distinctive Jewish look and had short brown-ck hair, but most of his hair had turned white. He also had a broad forehead, aquiline nose, and a pair of deep-seated eyes. It seemed like he could see through everyone��s heart.


    Needless to say, he should be the current boss of the Jewish gang, Lockheed. He was the most important figure in the entire southeast city. The rise of Lockheed was a legendary tale in this ce. Born of an ordinary Jewish family, his father died young, and his mother had to sell her body to support the three children in the family. As the eldest son, Lockheed had to work from a very young age to make more for the family. He used to be a thief, an apprentice in a cksmith shop, urine collector, and sewer cleaner.


    In short, he had done all kinds of jobs that could make him money. It was not until he joined the Jewish gang that his life gradually got better at sixteen. But at that time, fate would make a cruel joke on him. His mother and sister died in gue one after another, and his only remaining brother also died in a gang conflict.


    And until the age of thirty, Lockheed was just a small and inconspicuous character in a Jewish gang, with only five subordinates at most.


    Then there was the legendary battle. At that time, the leader of the Jewish gang was betrayed by his own men. Someone wanted to assassinate him, so he fled all the way to the temple. There was no one around him, and at that time, Lockheed happened to bring his two men to collect money at the market in front of the temple.


    The three of them protected the boss. No one knew how they fought against those enemies while severely outnumbered, but when help arrived, the three of them were soaked in blood. Lockheed��s two men did not manage to hang on until the doctor came to help them. Lockheed was the only one that survived the battle. After that, his bravery was recognized by the Jewish leader, and his rank in the gang rose to new heights. And after the death of the leader, he was chosen as sessor, taking over thergest gang in this southeastern city.


    All the children on the streets of the Southeastern District regarded Lockheed as their idol. They wished that, like Lockheed, they too would be able to achieve something great.


    On the left-hand side of Lockheed was a Sikabri who was about his age. He was meditating, and his eyes were closed. He was the boss of the secondrgest gang of the area, Golden Crown. His business included money lending and rent collection. Although he didn��t have as many members as the Jewish gang, he was richer. More than half of the real estate in the southwestern city belonged to the Golden Crown.


    On Lockheed��s right-hand side was a young man. Unlike the two people around him, he looked very young, about the same size age as Zhang Heng, and came with an innocent smile on his face. He looked like the family member of the bosses here. He was actually the spokesperson of Beehive, which was the thirdrgest force in this city.


    No one knew who Beehive��s boss was, and no one knew exactly how many members Beehive had and what kind of business they conducted. The only thing they knew was that.


    Beehive was the oldest gang in the southwest city. They were everywhere, and anyone could be a member. Even Golden Crown and the Jewish gang had members from Beehive. Hence, no one could hide anything from the Beehive gang. Other than that, it was rumored that all the assassins in the southwestern city were rted to them too.


    The young man here was one of the few from Beehive in charge ofmunication and negotiations with other gangs. His nickname was Cornu.


    As for the fourth person, instead of sitting at the table, he stood aside and poured wine for the three important personnel like a waiter in a tavern. However, Zhang Heng stared at him the longest because he realized that he could not gauge his true strength.


    It was no wonder that the three of them could sit so casually on the second floor, with no guards protecting them.


    ��Zhang Heng, in the southeast city, no, it should be told that the whole city of Rome is talking about you.�� The first person who spoke was Cornu from Beehive. With a smile, he said, ��Two months ago, you were still the diators from the Victor Arena. After you regained your freedom, you immediately began to work for the emperor. It is said that the emperor values you a lot. When you were a diator, he visited you privately. Naturally, you don��t want to mess up your first task.��


    ��So when you joined the patrol team, you started to work on your task right away. First, you forced Iron Handcuffs and his men to attack you. After that, you appointed the thief called Soap to be your puppet. It is a smart move. You know that it is not right for the patrol team to take over those gang members and territories. Otherwise, you would have attracted our attention long ago. And you are very cautious. You looked for the five gangsters that you knew previously and formed an anti-patrol alliance. With that, you can make sure Soap will not grow too fast. Second, you can take the opportunity to get rid of the unstable factors in the two gangs. After that, you started to expand your patrol team aggressively.


    ��Your series of actions have sessfully attracted the attention of Mr. Lockeed. We extended an invitation to you, but unfortunately, you went to look for your political ally, Clint. After that, the Senate started to spread the message that the emperor wanted to do something about the southeastern city. Am I right? By the way, you had Focia with honey for breakfast. You don��t like the bread because it was overbaked.��

 Chapter 848 - True Purpose

    <h4>Chapter 848: True Purpose</h4>


    It had to be admitted that of the four people on the second floor, Zhang Heng paid the least attention to this young man named Cornu because he had the lowest sense of existence among them.


    As soon as Cornu opened his mouth, however, he immediately attracted everyone��s attention. Zhang Heng had also heard a lot of things rted to the Beehive from Soap and Aris. He knew that the most mysterious force in the southeast city was extremely good at collecting information.


    What surprised Zhang Heng most was not the fact that the other party knew what he had for breakfast but that he paid attention to him. From the surface, Cornu showed that top forces in the southeast city had the ability to monitor his every move. And at the same time, they were warning him not to try to lie to them.


    On the other hand, Zhang Heng also noticed that Cornu emphasized the close rtionship between Zhang Heng and Commodus. And Clint was considered as Zhang Heng��s political ally. The only w in Zhang Heng��s n was that the rtionship between him and Clint was not strong. He provided Clint with a win-win solution, and he also believed that Clint would be willing to ept his proposal. Since this method was working, it would mean that the major forces in the southeast city led by the Jewish gang could also use the same method to make Clint side with them.


    After Zhang Heng analyzed the situation in the southeast city, he found out that the top forces here had political ties with the government. The Jewish gang, the Golden Crown, and the Beehive had used more than violence to rule this ce. They spent an obscene amount of money every year to pay the Senate��s influential. The purpose was to maintain their status as semi-rulers of this ce.


    This was probably the reason why Lockheed and others were not as panicked as the people below after hearing that a thousand imperial guards were about to be stationed here.


    But even if Zhang Heng knew that Cornu had done that out of good intentions, he had to fight back to make sure that he put on aplete show. After Cornu was done talking, Zhang Heng said, ��You were busy hanging out with a womanst night. Hence, you woke up in the afternoon, and you had your lunch after that. You ate olives and grilled fish for lunch. While you had your meal, you engaged in a fight with someone. Other than that, I have reason to believe that you did not seem too very satisfied with your performancest night. So, you are looking for ways tost longer in bed.��


    Cornu��s face turned pale. He then hurriedly said to the girl next to Zhang Heng, ��Don��t believe what he said. That��s nonsense. He��s just trying to get back on me after I exposed him.��


    ��Don��t worry, of course, I believe you more.�� The girl shed a sweet smile.


    At this time, Lockheed had also finished hisst piece of venison. As if he didn��t hear the conversation between Zhang Heng and Cornu, he put down his fork, pointed at a seat, and said, ��Sit down.��


    Zhang Heng sat down, and the girl who came up with him sat down by Lockheed��s side again. But she quietly shifted her hips, moving a little farther away from the other side of Cornu.


    Lockheed did not use the napkin on the table to wipe the oil stains off his mouth. This was his eating habit all these years. When he was young, there was nothing for him to eat at home. Reluctant to eat the food he stole outside, he often licked the food twice to make sure that some residue would be left in his mouth, pretending to have eaten. After that, he would return home and distribute the food to his brother and sister. Over time, he developed the habit of eating and not wiping his mouth.


    Although his life had gradually improved since and had be the leader of the Jewish gang, he could never change this habit. For this reason, his wife and children had startedining.


    ��What do you want?�� Lockheed looked at Zhang Heng on the opposite side and asked directly.


    ��The three major forces and the patrol team have joined forces to establish a new order for the southeastern urban area,�� Zhang Heng replied.


    ��It��s impossible.�� Lockheed shook his head.


    However, he did not exin why it could not be done. He just waved his hand and asked the waiter to pour Zhang Heng a cup of wine. He then continued, ��I can understand that you want to get your first task done perfectly. However, I��m not very satisfied with the approach you have taken. And I don��t want to dwell on these trivial matters anymore. I was hoping you could dismiss the people hired by the patrol team. I promise that the security in the southeast city will be improved. By the time you leave here, you will get the achievements you need, and we can all end this farce as soon as possible.��


    In all fairness, the conditions provided by Lockheed were eptable. He did not mention what Zhang Heng had done, nor did he intend to pursue the damage Zhang Heng caused to the order of the southeast city. And he was even willing to send Zhang Heng away with glorious achievement.


    However, what he did not expect was that Zhang Heng insisted on sticking to his n. ��Sorry, I am not going to give up my n.��


    Lockheed frowned. ��Do you know that even if you and Clint manage to persuade the emperor to station the Imperial Guards here, you still need the approval of the Senate? I am willing to treat you with courtesy, not because I am afraid of the one thousand Imperial Guards, but I just don��t want to give the Senate��s insatiable senators more money. If we continue to fight, the only people that will benefit are the senators. Let��s take a step back. Even if you win in the end and you get the senators�� approval, then what?


    ��You are not the first who wants to destroy us, nor will you be thest. The dynasty is constantly evolving, and the emperor��s head on the gold coins has changed so often. But we are still here. Of course, you can use the army to arrest us or even kill me and ruin the Jewish gang. As long as the people here are given enough time, they will rebuild everything we have built.�� Lockheed paused. ��We are all old people, and old people always wish that all the problems can be solved by rtively peaceful means. At the same time, we are not afraid of death too.��


    ��Uh, sorry for the interruption. I��m young, and I��m quite afraid of death,�� Cornu said, ��But you can just ignore me. I��m just a nobody that delivers messages.��


    After listening to Lockheed��s words, Zhang Heng said, ��You have misunderstood me. I personally respect you very much. I have no intention of destroying you or the Jewish gang, nor will I change your way of life. I just hope that the patrol team can be included in managing this ce instead of being spectators like before.��


    ��It turns out that what you want is not just to score political points, but you also want to cultivate your strength in this neighborhood.��


    Lockheed��s words revealed Zhang Heng��s true purpose.


    And Zhang Heng did not hide it. In fact, he generously admitted to it, ��I have heard your story about how you started from scratch and eventually became the uncrowned king of the southeast city. I, like the other young people in this neighborhood, am deeply inspired. So, I wish to create my own business here too.��


    ��You��re quite honest,�� Lockheed nodded when he heard Zhang Heng��s exnation. ��It��s good for young people to be ambitious, but your identity is the big problem here. You were not born here, and you rely on the patrol team to help expand your territory. This is not a fairpetition. Hence, I can��t just sit there and watch you grow.��


    This time it was Zhang Heng��s turn to frown. He did not expect Lockheed to be so stubborn. This old man possessed the skill to make peace with the nobles in the Senate. Why couldn��t he tolerate the existence of a new force that wouldn��t be much of a threat to the Jewish gang?


    At this moment, the boss of the Golden Crown, who had been closing his eyes meditating, opened his eyes. ��Mr. Lockeed is saying that if you want to establish your influence here, you first need to prove that you belong to this ce. So that we can consider epting you.��


    ��How can I prove it?��


    ��It��s effortless. After you return to the emperor��s side, we want you to kill someone for us.�� At this point, Lockheed finally told Zhang Heng the true purpose of asking Zhang Heng to go to the second floor.


    Zhang Heng raised his eyebrows when he heard the request. He almost thought that his rtionship with Bnce de was exposed. Fortunately, Lockheed on the opposite side added, ��Veteran Divo Braille, we need you to find a way to end his political career and strip him of his position as a senator. He is too greedy, and we can no longer satisfy him. In exchange, we can allow you and your patrol team to develop here, but you can��t go overboard as before. If you agree, then we can talk about the ces that the patrol team is allowed to govern.��

 Chapter 849 - Set In Stone

    <h4>Chapter 849: Set In Stone</h4>


    No one thought that the gang gathering initiated by the Jewish gang with the three major forces in the southeast city to sanction the recent crimesmitted by the patrol team led by Zhang Heng could now be forgotten.


    Those who were waiting to see the patrol team were all dumbfounded.


    They all thought that Zhang Heng must have fed magical potions to Lockheed and forced him to obey his order. In the end, the three major forces fully recognized the territory that the patrol team took over recently, including Soap��s gang and the anti-patrol alliance. The Jewish gang also nodded and showed everyone that they allowed the patrol team to carry on with whatever they were doing right now. In other words, they had now approved their existence in this ce. Soap and others breathed a sigh of relief when they heard what Lockheed said.


    Other than that, the three major forces did not prevent the patrol team from expanding their territory in the southeastern city. However, they did agree on only hiring a maximum of 120 patrol members. A lot of gang leaders were taken aback when they heard the number. Although 120 members constituted a medium-sized gang, this would undeniably be a nightmare for all the street gangs except for the three major forces with the patrol team��s nature.


    Fortunately, Lockheed did put the emotions of the other small and medium gang leaders into consideration. To make sure that everyone was happy with the decision he made, he reached a series of agreements with Zhang Heng. From now on, the patrol team��s power would be restricted. Unlike before, where they could just find an excuse to raid a gang, Lockheed promised everyone that something like this would not happen again. The patrol team would resume their duties to maintainw and order in the neighborhood.


    Of course, considering the special circumstances of the southeast urban area, almost every gang was involved in some criminal activity. The patrol team couldn��t catch all of them. Therefore, it would be more urate to say that the patrol team was there to deal with some sudden or rtively vicious crimes. At the same time, the gangs around the area would need to provide them with assistance if the patrol team asked for their help.


    In addition, from now on, all the gangs had to ensure order on their respective territories. Once the chaos reached a certain level and affected the lives of ordinary people around the area, the patrol team would intervene to deal with the situation.


    The purpose of this particr rule was to let Zhang Heng brush up on his political achievements. However, no one knew that Lockheed had already wanted to implement such a rule quite some time ago. As we all knew, Lockheed came from the bottom society, and no one knew the bottom society��s life better than him. All this while, he had always wanted to do something for the people that were living here. A man with his position was required to consider all the possibilities and consequences whenever he wanted to make an important decision. Sometimes, it was inappropriate for a man like him to carry out a certain task. Since he was now working with Zhang Heng, he might make use of the patrol team to achieve something that he wanted to do for a long time.


    ...


    In the short span of half an hour, Zhang Heng and Lockheed argued about a series of important issues. They were testing each other��s bottom line, each showing their points of argument, and at the same time, theypromised with each other��s request. In the eyes of ordinary people, such a scene would be somewhat dull because this was not a fist-to-fist fight. But for those who could look at a bigger picture, this negotiation was far more exciting than the battle on the street.


    Lockheed, the uncrowned king of the southeast city, had held onto the dominating role firmly since he spoke the first word. He said a lot, but every word uttered from his mouth proved a strong point. And at the same time, he kept applying pressure on Zhang Heng��s shoulders.


    The boss of the Golden Crown had known him for a long time, and he cooperated with him very well. Their biggest advantage was that they knew the southeast city very well. Besides, Beehive was constantly feeding them with information. It allowed the two old men to gain the upper hand in the negotiation.


    But what surprised Lockheed was that Zhang Heng had never allowed himself to fall to the disadvantageous side, whether it was the way he acted in front of everyone or the content they debated on.


    He was alone in a ce surrounded by many enemies yet still managed to maintain his calm from beginning to end. His confidence level and the way he talked gave Lockheed the impression that this couldn��t be his first time dealing with something like this. However, when he was reminded of his age, Lockheed thought that his deduction was ridiculous.


    Lockheed remembered when he was as old as Zhang Heng, he was just a nobody in the Jewish gang. Whenever he saw the leader of the Jewish gang from a distance, his legs would tremble. However, Zhang Heng managed to respond to them calmly and confidently.


    On the other hand, it was not easy for Zhang Heng to handle something like this. Although he had done a lot of preparation work earlier, he still realized that he had underestimated the legend of the southeast city.


    Lockheed was more difficult to deal with than he thought. So Zhang Heng also realized that his previous n to integrate all the southeast city forces might change. Although he could easily rece Lockheed, that would mean that he had to spend more energy and time in the southeast city.


    This time, the situation was different from that of ck Sail. At that time, Zhang Heng was trying to stay alive when he announced that he wanted to retrieve Jackdaw and attempted to be the King of Nassau. But this time, he had to put more energy into learning. His main goal was to visit the library containing all kinds of ssic assassin books.


    The southeast city was just a transition to him. Even if he wanted to grow his power here, Zhang Heng did not want to invest too much of his resources and energy in this matter. Hence, he was willing to ept Lockheed��s proposal and seek a stable coexistence with multiple parties.


    However, Zhang Heng would not reveal his true intention prematurely in the negotiation. On the contrary, he still adopted a rather offensive approach in the argument, especially when he realized that Lockheed was willing to meet him because he hoped to find a new political ally. After they wanted him to eliminate the blood-sucking nobles for the Jewish Gang, Zhang Heng found out that he had more bargaining chips than before.


    So the negotiation between the two became more intense.


    When Lockheed and Zhang Heng reached an agreement on the final issue, the old man held up a ss of wine. ��Although you are an outsider, I have to say you just aspetitive as the people that are born and bred here. And you are eager to grasp on to everything in front of you.��


    Zhang Heng to a drink to that. ��Is that a good thing or a bad thing?��


    ��It��s both a good and a bad thing. It depends on how you look at it. If I can be twenty years younger, I might want to fight with you longer. And I will not limit that to negotiation only.�� Lockheed drank his ss of wine and stood up from his seat with the help of his granddaughter.


    Golden Crown, on the other side, stood up as well.


    Lockheed put down the empty wine ss, ��Next, let��s hand over the time to the young people. For more specific details, you can talk to my granddaughter. Old men like us will not bother you anymore.��


    After Lockheed finished speaking, he walked up the stairs with the Golden Crown boss and the waiter next to him. He was, after all, an old man. Although he showed his domineering side during the negotiation just now, in the end, he could not hide the fact that age had taken a toll on him. When everything was set in stone, he did not have the energy to wrestle with Zhang Heng on the details anymore.

 Chapter 850 - What Do You Mean By That?

    <h4>Chapter 850: What Do You Mean By That?</h4>


    The skies were already dark when Zhang Heng and Lockheed��s granddaughter finished going over all the details.


    So far, the patrol team had finally gone through their biggest crisis yet. The other forces, however, had mixed feelings after receiving the news. In the eyes of outsiders, Zhang Heng had undoubtedly won the negotiation this time. On the other hand, as an outsider and as a patrol team member, Zhang Heng had gained the approval of three major forces to grow and develop his power here. It was indeed a miracle.


    The good news was they did not have to worry about the patrol team raiding their gangs out of the blue. Since someone had put a shackle on this wild beast��s nest, they could finally sleep peacefully. When they were told that a thousand Imperial Guards might be stationed in the southeastern city, everyone except for Copper Arm, who hated the patrol team, found it uneptable. To them, Zhang Heng had taken advantage of everyone��s fear of the Imperial Guards to gain approval from the three major forces.


    But Zhang Heng realized the price that he had to pay after being given the opportunity to continue growing here. He even suspected that Lockheed was trying to use him to solve the problems caused by the Jewish gang.


    Of course, as far as the final result was concerned, the two parties were using each other, each taking what they needed.


    Through this negotiation, Zhang Heng also understood why Lockheed, among all his children, chose his daughter toe here with him. This girl might look innocent, but if someone thought she was just a decorative piece, they��d better be prepared to suffer a lot.


    Although her performance wasn��t as good as her grandfather during the negotiation, Zhang Heng could see that Lockheed had trained her for some time now, and she knew her strengths and how to utilize them fully. After the negotiation ended, she swapped back to her innocent look, even inviting Zhang Heng for dinner at her home. In the end, though, Zhang Heng declined her goodwill.


    Zhang Heng had been negotiating with Lockheed for the entire afternoon, and he was exhausted. Besides, he still needed to meet an important person. Afterward, Zhang Heng asked Marcus and Aris, who came together with him, to go back first. He then picked a random direction and walked toward the street under the night sky.


    He didn��t have to walk too far before he spotted Cornu, who had left the tavern before him in an alley ahead.


    Thetter was ying mud with a group of children, and he was having a good time. However, when he heard footsteps, he drove those children home. He then dusted off his hands, stood up, and said in surprise, ��What a coincidence?��


    ��The legendary Beehive knew what I had for breakfast. Why are you so surprised to see me here?�� Zhang Heng asked rhetorically.


    Cornu smiled. ��Just like the rumor, you really are difficult to deal with. It seems I have been overthinking. Even if I don��t help you, you could deal with the situation smoothly.��


    ��No, the information you gave me when we met helped me a lot in the subsequent negotiations.��


    ��You were ruthless when you used me of something that I didn��t do.�� Cornu smiled bitterly, ��I��m pursuing Lockheed��s granddaughter. What you said about me might have cost me my chances.��


    ��I believe a love expert like you will find a way to salvage the situation,�� Zhang Heng said, his expressions remaining the same.


    ��Well, I still have some small tricks up my sleeve, but those are my trump cards. I initially nned to use them when I get caught cheating after my marriage,�� Cornu said with a smile. ��By the way, you must be curious about why I helped you earlier?��


    ��Are you going to tell me the reason?��


    ��Of course. Ie from the same ce as you,�� Cornu replied mysteriously.


    ��So, are you also from the mysterious and distant East?�� Zhang Heng asked.


    ��No, you know what I��m talking about.�� Cornu looked around and confirmed that no third party was present. He then whispered into Zhang Heng��s ear, ��May everything in the world be bnced. You and I are both Kreis��s daggers.��


    ��What does it mean?��


    Cornu looked at Zhang Heng as if he wanted to find traces of a lie on thetter��s face, but he failed in the end. Zhang Heng looked like he had never heard what he said before. His brows slightly frowned, and his eyes reflected a hint of doubt.


    Cornu then smiled again, ��Nothing, forget it. I just made a joke. Don��t take it to heart. The truth is that Beehive is very interested in you. Although you are in trouble now, we believe you will soon be able to return to Commodus��s side. Beehive feels that you will be a new star in the Roman political arena and is willing to bet on you and pay you with some of our kindness in advance.��


    ��Then, you are quite generous,�� Zhang Heng said. ��What do you want from a future star like me?�� he added.


    ��For now, you don��t have anything that interests us. However, when you advance a little further, then, I think we can find more things to talk about.��


    ��I never thought that Beehive is interested in the politics outside the southeast city.�� Zhang Heng raised his eyebrows.


    ��We are unlike the Jewish Gang and the Golden Crown. The southeast city is not the only ce we pay attention to,�� said Cornu. However, it seemed he did not want to exin further. He then smiled again. ��Anyway, I��m d to meet you. I believe we will meet again soon.��


    After speaking, he squatted down again and continued to y with the mud, apparently attempting to finish the mud pce he had built with the children.


    As for Zhang Heng, he continued to walk down the street after bidding farewell to Cornu. For now, the patrol team��s troubles were solved. It was time for him to have a good break. He had an appointment with the ve girl tonight, and he was supposed to go home for dinner. So, he would temporarily leave the southeast city for one night.


    And shortly after Zhang Heng��s figure disappeared, another figure walked up to Cornu and asked, ��How is it? Is he from there?��


    ��I don��t think so. I used the Bnce de��s doctrine to test him, but he hardly reacted to it.�� Cornu said truthfully, ��It��s like he hasn��t heard about it before. What should we do? Should we continue to keep an eye on him?��


    ��Forget it, let��s withdraw our people first. We don��t need unnecessary attention. After all, he was the diator that imed the championship at the Amphitheatrum vium. And he is also the only person who can fight Lockheed. This is the critical period of the n. If we seed, we can wipe out the members of the Bnce de. That being said, there is no need to dwell on one person. Let him go first,�� the person said.

 Chapter 851 - Upcoming Assessment

    <h4>Chapter 851: Uing Assessment</h4>


    From the moment Dadatis became Zhang Heng��s teacher, the first request made by the old man was for Zhang Heng to not reveal that he was rted to Bnce de.


    ording to Dadatis, that was how an assassin survived.


    Two hundred years ago, a traitor destroyed the Bnce de��s n to assassinate Octavian. At the same time, the traitor had also exposed all the core members of the organization. All of them were top-tier assassins worldwide, and each possessed extraordinary assassination skills. However, once their identities were exposed, they were surrounded by the government, and the Hounds hunted them down after that. Only a few survived this disaster.


    After that, Bnce de also learned a lesson from it. The core members no longer disclosed their identities to each other. Only the speaker of the Assassin Council and the priest of Kreis knew the identity of all the members. However, the organization did not prevent the members from associating with each other privately. If they found someone trustworthy, they were free to disclose their identities to each other.


    ��You have already met the priest, and now the speaker of the Assassin Council is my old friend. He is known as Faceless. The two of them know your true identity. Other than them, one more person knew who you are. Her nickname is Hyacinth.��


    ��Hyacinth, who is he?�� Zhang Heng asked.


    ��You should be asking who she is. You haven��t passed the test and are not officially one of us yet, so I can��t tell you too much about her.�� Dadatis gave a weird expression when he mentioned Hyacinth. He looked warm and wary but mixed with a hint of guilt. ��We don��t have much contact, but she went to see you not long ago. That was because I needed more people to encourage you to join Bnce de. Hyacinth has a huge socialwork in the organization. And she has at least three votes in her hand from her admirers and herself.��


    ��Huh?��


    ��Anyway, you don��t have to care about her too much. She doesn��t like me, and she probably won��t like you too. But rest assured that she will not sell your identity,�� Dadatis said. ��Except for the three people I mentioned above, no one else in the organization knows your identity. The only information I have released about you is your potential and that you are a non-believer, especially your attitude toward the Bnce de. I can��t and should not hide it.��


    .....


    Although it had been a while since Dadatis left the city of Rome, Zhang Heng hadn��t forgotten Dadatis��s instructions. Cornu, on the second floor of the tavern, had unexpectedly elected to stand by his side. And Zhang Heng also guessed Cornu most likely came from the Bnce de as well. When Cornu tried to test Zhang Heng with the Bnce de��s doctrine, Zhang Heng denied his knowledge immediately.


    This was mainly because Zhang Heng did not intend to get too involved with the Bnce de, especially when the two rivals, the Bnce de and the Hounds, were about to go to war. For Zhang Heng, he did not intend to intervene in this war that had nothing to do with him. Dadatis had been sent to a ce far away from Rome, which also meant Zhang Heng had no one he cared about in the Bnce de.


    Hence, he didn��t intend to discover Cornu��s true identity. He did not even ask the priestess to verify him. That was why, a weekter, Cornu and others concluded that Zhang Heng was not from the Bnce de. In the past, the members of the Bnce de were required to have good faith and a sense of belonging to the organization. They did not expect that someone got to join thor organization without knowing their doctrine and belief well.


    While the fight between the Bnce de and the Hound was ongoing, another matter concerned Zhang Heng.


    It had almost been two months since he arrived in the southeast city. In other words, the next round of assessment was just around the corner.


    Zhang Heng had been preparing to make sure that he could pass an entire week��s assessment. The result of this assessment would determine whether he could return to Commodus��s side.


    Although a lot of work was still needed to grow the new forces he formed in the southeast urban area, Zhang Heng had helped them clear their most significant obstacle that could hinder growth. He believed that Soap, Marcus, and others should be able to cope with the situation. That would mean he could withdraw from it and start investigating the whereabouts of Altrus.


    So in this assessment, Zhang Heng needed to pass with flying colors.


    The person responsible for assessing the work of the patrol team was a young nobleman in the Senate named Fabino. Known for his integrity and selflessness, he was unanimously elected as the assessor.


    Firstly, everyone felt that he was the only one who could do this job since he was not afraid of offending anyone. Secondly, sending him away could prevent him from finding faults in the Senate.


    Half a month ago, Fabino began assessing the patrol team��s work in various neighborhoods. He had basically traveled around Rome to assess different ces, leaving only the southeast area as thest stop.


    The southeast city had been put at the bottom of his list because Fabino felt that there was nothing worth assessing over there. Everyone in Rome knew that southeast city was a hell hole. The ce was filled with criminals and viins, and most would avoid the ce at all costs. However, when Fabino became an assessor, he had heard many rumors about the ce, but he did not know how bad it was. Hence, he only brought two guards to inspect the ce.


    As a result, they were robbed before they could reach the door of the patrol station. The two guards were no match to the gangsters over there. Not only did Fabino lose all his valuables, but he even received two punches in his stomach. After that, the patrol team also failed to help him to catch the criminals and retrieve his personal belongings.


    It was no surprise that Fabino gave the lowest scores to the patrol team in the southeast city again and again. In all fairness, he wasn��t trying to avenge himself. Whenever Fabino gave the lowest score to the ce, he felt that he hadmitted a misdemeanor. After he saw the condition of the ce, he wished that he could give them an even lower score.


    ��The ce is doomed and hopeless. And the Senate has no intention to do anything about it. I bet someone there must have epted bribes. That��s why they turned a blind eye to this situation,�� Fabinoined to his friend. ��I really don��t want to go to that hell hole anymore.��


    Despite saying that, the responsible Fabino would go there to pollute his eyes every two months. And he had learned his lesson well; whenever he came here to inspect the ce, he would bring a group of armed guards with him in addition to the two patrol team members that were assigned to him. This was to ensure that the previous tragedy would not happen again.


    So early that morning, Fabino appeared on the streets of the southeast city with his armed guards.

 Chapter 852 - Do You Want To Take A Look?

    <h4>Chapter 852: Do You Want To Take A Look?</h4>


    The streets of the southeast city still looked as bad as ever.


    The road was muddy and filthy, mixed with urine and human feces. The stench was unbearable, where children with dirty clothes ran around barefooted. Their fathers worked in an even harsher environment. After their mothers finished their housework, they would stand at the side of the street to see if they could find any potential customers that might look for their service.


    Fabino quickly took out the handkerchief he had prepared earlier to cover his mouth and nose to avoid being overwhelmed by the smell. Thew actually prohibited the residents from pouring their waste products on the street, but it seemed thew did not apply here.


    After that, Fabino remembered that a deadly gue was unleashed unto this ce about five or six years ago, taking away with it a third of the lives here. Initially, Fabino thought that there would be fewer people here. At that time, this ce did look a bit lifeless. However, he did not expect an influx of new immigrants and the birth of a batch of newborns. It became even livelier than before.


    Fabino had to admit that the life force in this ce was indeed extremely tough.


    But when he cast his gaze on the distant street, his mood took a worse turn.


    Because that was the ce where he was robbed and beaten up when he visited the southeast city for the first time. Fabino was the only son in the family, and he was well protected. Ever since he was a kid, no one had scolded him, let alone getting beaten up. During that time, he was being pinned to the ground and beaten up by the thugs. In a panic, he seemed to have swallowed a few mouthfuls of mud. It took Fabino half a year to convince himself that he should just ignore whatever that was contained in the mouthful of earth that he ate.


    However, every time when he visited this ce, the traumatic experience would stille back to haunt him. Fortunately, whenever he felt ufortable, he could regain his lost sense of security by turning around and looking at the guard behind him.


    However, when he turned his head around, the sense of security that he just gained was lost again.


    ��What��s going on?!�� Fabino��s expression changed drastically, ��Has the public security in the southeast city deteriorated so badly? The robbers here have just evolved into a group of armed soldiers! All this just to rob me?!��


    He saw a group of people in armor, armed to their teeth with weapons in their hands, appearing from the other side of the street, steadily approaching Fabino.


    After Fabino expressed his concerns, the guards around him became nervous too. Immediately, they drew their weapons as if they were going to fight an epic war. Since they were chosen to be the guards of the Fabino family, they were definitely not of the mediocre breed. Many among them had joined the army before, which was precisely why they could see that their enemies were hard to deal with.


    Not only were they equipped with high-quality weapons and armor, but they also wore a very unusual temperament. Clearly, they were the kind of people that had bathed in blood before. Although they had almost the same number of people on both sides, it was still unclear if they could win the fight.


    The captain of the guard was very conscientious. He lowered his voice and said to the two guards from the patrol team, ��You two will take Sir Fabino to a safe ce first. We will stop the enemies.��


    So Fabino, in huge shock, caught between the two guards, was about to flee for his life. He had even thought about filing aint against this ce to the Senate before going home. He wanted to tell everyone that therge and small forces in the southeast area were ready to rebel.


    One of the men from the opposite armed forces stepped out and said respectfully, ��Master Fabino, where are you going?��


    ��A... Aris?�� Fabino was stunned and finally recognized the person.


    Earlier, when the sunlight shone on the armor, it blinded his eyes, and he could not see what they looked like. He had never thought that the armed forces in front of him were the patrol team. When they met Aris and his patrol members for the first time, they looked poor. They did not have proper equipment nor the money to improve their team��s condition. They looked more like a group of beggars. Now they looked like elite armored guards. This was something he could never have imagined.


    It had only been two months. The man who was helpless about the situation in the southeast city had now returned to his prime. What surprised Fabino was that the other patrol members had also changed a lot. No longer consumed by fear, they were now filled with confidence. And Fabino started to feel that he could now rely on them.


    Fabino shook his head and quickly drove this absurd idea out of his head.


    ��No! No! No! This is an illusion! It must be an illusion!��


    He was not looking down on them. Since he was the assessor, he knew the difficulties Aris and the other patrol members were facing. Fabino knew that he could not me Aris for it. There was no one who could solve the problems here. The southeast city had been in chaos for a very long time, and several emperors had failed to bring changes to this ce. It was unrealistic to hope that Aris could save it.


    However, he could not let his emotions overtake the job. Fabino still had to give them a score ording to the actual situation here. As for allocating funds and manpower to the patrol, that was something out of his control tool.


    Fabino was acting in a rather awkward way now. After he saw that the armed guards were his allies, he decided not to run anymore. He could not help but ask, ��What the hell are you doing? Where did you steal all these armors? Hurry and return them to their owners! I know that you want to score well in this assessment, but that��s not the right way to do it.��


    ��Master Fabino, you have misunderstood us. This is our armor,�� Zhang Heng stepped out of the crowd and said.


    ��Oh, you are the diator who came to help the patrol team... I have seen your performance. You are really amazing.�� Fabino did not hesitate to praise Zhang Heng. ��...especially when you dealt with that crazy bison. You defeated it with only a rope! You are the best diator I have ever seen. But have you offended someone? Why were you assigned here for your first mission?��


    ��No, Ie here voluntarily after I learned about the situation in the southeast city from Clint. And I want to do something about it,�� Zhang Heng said.


    ��What do you want to do for this ce? Burn it to the ground?�� asked Fabino. ��Only fire can purify the evil of this ce.��


    ��No, I want to bring order back.��


    ��Hahaha... Then I want to build a pyramid for myself,�� Fabino smiled halfway, but he quickly put it away and asked again, ��wait, are you serious?��


    ��Yes, I am.�� Zhang Heng took a wooden box out of his arms and handed it to Fabino.


    Thetter��s face sank, and he waved his hand, ��No, no, I��m different from the other people in the Senate. Didn��t Aris tell you? I won��t take the bribe. Since this is your first run, I will hold you responsible. But if you dare to bribe me next time, I will definitely ask someone to arrest you.��


    ��No, you have misunderstood me. This is not bribery. I��m returning your belongings,�� Zhang Heng said.


    ��Huh?�� Fabino raised his eyebrows and took the wooden box doubtfully. After opening it, he was taken aback. It was the engagement ring he had lost six years ago, as well as some misceneous items. All the items he had lost in the robbery were now back in his life.


    ��In addition, we also caught the group of robbers who robbed you, but unfortunately, three of them have died, but the mastermind is locked up in the prison of the patrol station.�� Zhang Heng added, �� Do you want to see him?��

 Chapter 853 - Facing The Nightmare

    <h4>Chapter 853: Facing The Nightmare</h4>


    When he heard thest sentence that Zhang Heng uttered out, Fabino wondered if he had gone to the wrong neighborhood. Was this still the southeast city that he had been to six years ago? Was it still the chaotd that was filled with criminals and viins withoutw and order?


    ording to Fabino��s impression of this ce, criminal activities were supposed to be rife on the streets of the southeast city all the time, and the patrol team only managed to crack a few of the cases. Even for homicides... they were usually left unsettled. As for the robbery that happened six years ago, Fabino was the only person that provided useful information to the patrol team. At that time, Fabino was furious. He could still remember that he was swearing most of the time rather than describing what happened. In other words, catching the robbers was close to impossible.


    If it weren��t for the wooden box in his hand, Fabino would��ve probably patted Zhang Heng��s shoulder,ughed, and told him that he told a good joke. It would not help with the assessment, but Fabino was now looking at the box. He was pretty sure that the thing inside was the ring that he lost six years ago. And for this reason, he almost messed his marriage.


    Afterward, he spent a lot of effort attempting to retrieve it. Of course, he did not rely on the useless patrol team. Instead, he mobilized the family guards, and he sought help from the Vigiles. In total, he dispatched almost two hundred people to search for his ring, enough to be considered a small army. Unfortunately, the search yielded no result.


    This was proof that neither the Vigiles nor his family guards could carry out any investigation at this ce. They did not get any help during their investigation. This ce had its own set of operating rules, and the people here were obviously very xenophobic. Otherwise, the patrol team would not have lived in such a state for so many years.


    No matter how upset Fabino was, he could only admit that he had bad luck. Considering the woman he married came from a rather prominent background, he had to spend a lot of time appeasing his future wife. And at one point, he became theughing stock of the upper society.


    Fabino did not expect that one day he would be able to retrieve the lost engagement ring. He closed the wooden box in his hand and took a deep breath, ��Of course, I have been looking forward to this reunion for a long time.��


    Fabino followed Zhang Heng and others to the patrol station.


    At this time, the assessor found out that the patrol had actually moved from the previous dangerous building without an owner to a new house that had just been built. Not only was the buildingrger, but it also appeared studier too. But considering the special circumstance of the southeast city, the patrol team��s family members still lived with them. It could ensure that they were always safe.


    Aris�� daughter Viya was patrolling outside her new home, but she was not carrying a slingshot this time. It had been reced by bow and arrow. The short bow on her back was given to her by Zhang Heng. Zhang Heng had also taught her archery. After his meeting with Lockheed, the tense situation had now eased. Strictly speaking, Viya was not patrolling; she was just practicing archery at the front entrance of the new building.


    ��Master Fabino,�� Viya remarked politely when she saw the assessor from a distance. And she quickly put away her bow and arrows.


    ��Huh? Are you Viya? Is there something wrong with my memory? You seem to have something extrapared to two months ago.�� Fabino knew about Aris��s daughter. She had always been rude whenever they met. She would dress like a boy, hiding at the patrol station��s corner, ambushing strangers that walked in. After that, she would yell and threaten to blind their eyes with her slingshot.


    This was, of course, not a good thing for people who came to the patrol station to report crimes. Fortunately, Fabino realized that no sane person in this ce woulde to the patrol station to report crimes. Hence, Fabino did not have a bad impression towards Viya, who was always readied to ambush someone.


    He noticed that Viya was still alive and well, but whenever she looked at Zhang Heng, her eyes would always show a touch of admiration. Fabino finally knew what the extra thing that he found on Viya��s body was. It seemed like someone finally managed to tame the wild monkey.


    Fabino certainly knew who brought the changes to the patrol team. Aris had been the captain of the southeast city patrol team for a long time. He knew exactly what he was capable of. The possibility of catching the person who robbed him six years ago and retrieving the engagement ring was not something he could pull off.


    So there was no doubt that the current changes in the patrol team were brought by the oriental man next to him. Fabino found that he became more and more interested in the diatorial champion of the vian Amphitheatre. Still, Fabino had to meet an old friend before getting to know Zhang Heng more.


    ��Is he being locked here?�� Fabino followed Zhang Heng into the backyard of the patrol station. There was a row of bamboo poles for drying clothes. The house behind the bamboo poles was originally Copper Arm��s and his men��s torture room. After the patrol team took over the ce, they modified it into a simple prison.


    ��Yes.�� Zhang Heng pushed open the door of one of the cells.


    The room was a little dim, and six years had passed since the incident, but Fabino still recognized the man in the room at a nce, the man who had brutally robbed and beat him on the street six years ago.


    It was this bastard who forced him to open up his hand and snatched his ring. He was undergoing a lot of pain at that time. Before the man left, hended two punches on his stomach. The physical pain was nothing, but the feeling of humiliation and helplessness had scarred Fabino��s life.


    And now, he was finally standing in front of his nightmare again, like Batman walking into the bat cave for the first time, facing his fear, and crushing it fiercely.


    ��Your name is Sotheby, right? Do you still remember me, bastard?�� Fabino stepped forward two steps and sneered.


    The man named Sotheby curled up in the corner like a frightened old dog. He then raised his head when he heard someone calling out his name. However, he put on a nk look when he saw Fabino.


    Fabino frowned and asked Zhang Heng behind him, ��Did you torture him?��


    ��No, he was already in this state when we found him. In a gang fight about two years ago, someone hurt both his legs. He was not allowed to stay in the gang anymore, and he couldn��t find a job. His wife and children left him after that, so he had to live on the streets, making a living by picking up leftovers. But you know, there are not many leftovers in this kind of ce,�� Zhang Heng said lightly.


    ��How could this be?�� Fabino was a little lost for a while. He had imagined how to deal with him countless times when he found him in the future and washed away the humiliation he suffered in the past. However, when he saw him in this state, he felt that he hit a cotton ball after he clenched his fist.

 Chapter 854 - Belated Justice

    <h4>Chapter 854: Bted Justice</h4>


    Fabino anticipated his second meeting with Sotheby to be dramatic.


    Sotheby and his men should still be thinking about robbery. Fabino had also imagined that they would be captured by thew enforcement officers when about to rob someone. It would be better if he was the one to lead thew enforcement officers. If that was not the case, he wanted to wait for the day where Sotheby was captured. He would question him in a deep voice to see if he still remembered him.


    Sotheby should feel a little confused at first, and when he remembered who Fabino was, he would be terrified of him, worried that the other party would use his power to make him pay for what he did to him. After that, Fabino would walk up to Sotheby and stand face-to-face, allowing Sotheby to experience the fear and humiliation he had experienced that day.


    This was the ssic example of an ��eye for an eye.��


    However, when Fabino looked into Sotheby��s eyes, he realized that whatever he had imagined was something that he would never do. Brutus�� men would never abuse their power and bring harm to the weak. This was the difference between Sotheby and him.


    It was also the difference between a good person and a bad person. Besides, Fabino knew that it was pointless to do something like that. Sotheby was already living a miserable life. No matter what he did, bringing him any further shame would be impossible. And Sotheby could not even recognize him anymore. So when Fabino walked out of the cell, he transformed into Aunt Xianglin and kept on repeating how this happened to him.


    And Zhang Heng, beside him, also had to speak up, ��I don��t know what you are thinking right now, but his situation is still quitemon around here.��


    ��Quitemon?�� Fabino repeated Zhang Heng��s words nkly.


    ��Yes, this ce gas a shortage of everything of everything, but not young people who want to improve themselves and their lives. As long as you have the money, you can continue recruiting to expand your territory. Everyone in this neighborhood has heard of the legend of Lockheed. But for so many years, there is only one Lockheed in the southeastern city. Most of them end up like Sotheby over there. They firmly believe that they would be the next Lockheed. So, they actively participate in all the gang fights. They are, however, considered cannon fodder by their leader, and when they can no longer work for the gang, their gang will abandon them and recruit new and younger people at lower prices. As I said, this ce is short of everything, but there is no shortage of young people who want to be more powerful.��


    Zhang Heng paused and continued, ��When you were robbed, Sotheby had already robbed over sixty or seventy people on the street and had participated in no less than ten gang conflicts. It was only a matter of time before he became like this.��


    ��But, I haven��t made that bastard feel the fear and humiliation I felt,�� Fabinoined, dissatisfied.


    ��Sorry, what did you say?�� Zhang Heng raised his eyebrows.


    ��Forget it, forget it.�� Fabino waved his hand in a disappointed manner. He was not stupid, but he had been struggling with this matter for a long time, and he could not snap out of it. Now he finally understood the message that Zhang Heng delivered to him. He and Sotheby were born in apletely different world. Sotheby was born in a world full of crime and sin.


    Sotheby had seen and done a lot of horrible things. After he robbed a nobleman, he was not worried that the nobleman woulde back and seek revenge. This was why Sotheby forgot about himpletely when he met him again.


    To Fabino, losing the engagement ring and being beaten up was the most traumatizing part of his life. But if they were to exchange positions, where Sotheby was the one who was beaten and robbed by Fabino, the most he would do was curse at Fabino and forget about it after that.


    He had more important things to worry about, such as how to fill up his stomach, please his boss, and how to live to see tomorrow.


    ��Damn! Why did I hold the grudge for so long?�� Fabino kicked a small stone on the ground. Instead of saying that he was annoyed by the fact that Sotheby had changed so much, it would be better to say he is unhappy with his immaturity.


    The revenge ns that he came up with were nothing more than a joke.


    Fabino raised his head again after venting, and he looked at Zhang Heng again, ��Anyway, thank you for helping me retrieve my engagement ring, especially considering that this matter happened so long ago. It must have taken you a great deal of effort to do something like this.��


    ��That��s not true,�� Zhang Heng said truthfully.


    As Fabino said, the incident happened six years ago. Zhang Heng would have to spend a long time catching the person behind it if he went through routine investigation procedures. However, with the cooperation of the Jewish gang, getting back the ring and finding the assant wasn��t too troublesome. The three major forces in the southeast city now hadmon interests with Zhang Heng, and they needed to help him get back to Commodus and deal with the senator, Diwoblyat, as soon as possible.


    Technically speaking, Zhang Heng wasn��t the only one that had worked hard to make sure the ce could pass the assessment. The entire southeast city now worked with him.


    ��Personally, I am very grateful for this, and I have decided to invite you to my house for dinner one day afterward. To be honest, some of my younger sisters and an aunt are very interested in you, but...�� After expressing his gratitude, Fabino��s expression became solemn again. ��You should have heard some rumors about me. You know what kind of person I am. I will not let personal rtionships affect my work. Since the Senate chooses me as the assessor, I shall perform the assessor��s duties faithfully. I will give you the appropriate score based on what I see here.��


    ��Of course, it is our job to solve the case and catch the criminals.�� Zhang Heng nodded and said, ��The patrol team should be mostly responsible for the justice that came six yearste.��


    ��You don��t have to be so humble,�� Fabino waved his hand. ��I still know the general situation here. It is great that you helped me find the ring. With or without personal feelings, I would still give you an extra point here. If you are ready, let��s start.��


    ...


    After receiving Zhang Heng��s order, Aris gathered the patrol team members in the open space outside the building.


    Fabino walked in front of them, carefully inspecting their weapons and armors that dazzled him earlier. He then nodded and said, ��The appearance and equipment maintenance are all done well. No, I should be saying they are almost perfect. I think I can give you full marks for this section. That��s right. Now they look like Imperial Guards. Before that, they looked like a beggar.��


    The veteran patrol members such as Aris and others almost cried when they heard thepliment. It was just a simplepliment. Yet, they had not heard anyoneplimented them ever since they were transferred here.


    Although Fabino knew about the situation here, he did not criticize them too much whenever he came and inspected themst time. However, the look of contempt on him had deeply hurt their self-esteem. They were so used to being at the bottom and getting the lowest score to the point that they had almost forgotten what it felt like to be praised.


    Afterward, Aris showed the training results to Fabino. Although Fabino was not that proficient in martial arts, he was still quite observant. He saw that the patrol team��sbat technique had improved a lot. Fabino was very surprised. He thought that they did not know how to fight. If it wasst time, they might even lose to the kids on the street.

 Chapter 855 - The Lucky Oriental Man

    <h4>Chapter 855: The Lucky Oriental Man</h4>


    Although Fabino witnessed how much the equipment and morale of the patrol team had changed, he still found it difficult to believe that the security situation in the southeast city had improved.


    After that, Fabino went on the street with Zhang Heng and the patrol team. He saw all the passers-by, whether men or women, young or old, stopping what they were doing and greeting them in a different ent.


    When an old fishmonger stopped in front of Fabino and gave him an expressionless greeting, he was instantly weirded out.


    ��Well, what the hell is going on? Are they trying to lower our guard so they can secretly assassinate us afterward?��


    ��No. Out of politeness, they just want to say hello,�� Zhang Heng said.


    ��This is weird,�� Fabino touched his chin. ��If I remember correctly, the people here have a bad attitude towards outsiders; the people here feeling that they hade to take advantage of them. Although in reality, it is this city that has taken advantage of them, I believe they are more likely to spit at us rather than say hello.��


    ��It won��t be easy for them to change their old habits, but at least they are trying to make a change. Anyway, saying hello is a good start, isn��t it?��


    ��Hmm... I think we will know the answer to this question soon.�� Fabino seemed nomittal.


    Fabino had an instinctive suspicion of everything in the southeast city. He had always felt that what he saw now only an illusion, but he also firmly believed that he would find out the truth as long as he paid enough attention. He did not know how Zhang Heng managed to make the southeast city natives standing before him cooperate with him and together, creating a harmonious scene. However, the southeast city was a vast ce. Fabino did not believe that Zhang Heng could take care of the entire city.


    After they spent half a day walking on the street, Fabino was in a state of great shock. Not only did he fail to find any evidence that Zhang Heng had forced the residents to work with him, but he actually found signs that the security in the southeast city was indeed improving.


    Although this ce was still poor and dirty, the criminal activities on the street had greatly reduced, and some order had been restored. Wherever the patrol team went, Fabino could see that criminals were actually afraid of them.


    And from the records handed to him by Aris, it was apparent that the cases solved by the patrol and the criminals they arrested had dramatically increased. This exceeded a zero-to-one improvement, where the number of criminal cases solved by the patrol team had topped all the other regions of Rome. However, considering the unique environment here in the southeast city, the number of criminals caught by the patrol team was just the tip of the iceberg that this ce was.


    Including Zhang Heng, only thirteen people were in the patrol team. Ironically, among all the other patrol teams from other regions, their team had the fewest members, but they were responsible for thergest and mostplicated neighborhoods. Even a strict assessor like Fabino could not find why he should not give Zhang Heng and the others a high score for what they had done for this ce.


    ...


    The changes that the patrol team brought to this ce were rather noticeable. Anyone with a pair of eyes could see that it all began with the arrival of the former diator champion named Zhang Heng.


    Early the following day, Fabino��s assessment report was sent to Commodus. After the young emperor read it, he put down the report and asked Clint beside him. ��What do you think?��


    Although Commodus tried his best to maintain a stern look, the excitement in his tone revealed his current thoughts.


    Clint bowed, ��It seems our diator champion is not only good at fighting, but he has also proven that he can be helpful to you. Your Majesty, I think you can consider recruiting him to lighten up your burden. Apart from that, your Majesty, this also proves that you are very good at judging a person.��


    ��I knew it!�� Commodus pped the table. ��I knew he was the one I was looking for!��


    A sh of jealousy appeared in Clint��s eyes, but he hid it well. When Commodus looked at him again, Clint showed a touch of relief, as if happy that he had found someone capable of working with him.


    ��The security problem in the southeast city has bothered the emperors for a long time. Even my father could not solve it, but he did what all the predecessors could not do, and it only took him two months to achieve something so great. He did not ask for funding and more manpower from us!�� Commodus gushed in excitement.


    ��Yes, single-handed, courageous and strategic, very rare indeed.��


    Clint praised Zhang Heng without the slightest hesitation.


    ��Don��t overpliment him.�� Kang Maode smiled when he heard Clint praising Zhang Heng. ��About being single-handed... You are the one that spread the news about a thousand Imperial Guards are going to station in the southeast city, right? Without this news, I don��t think he can deal with the old and powerful gang leaders over there. And I heard that you had participated a lot in this n, but you didn��t mention a word about it.��


    ��This is probably what I like most about you, Clint,�� The young emperor patted the advisor on the shoulder. ��Many are blinded by power. They were once good people before they tasted power and wanted to do something for the people. But gradually, their minds became corrupted. They wanted more and more power until their hearts werepletely upied by jealousy. I have seen many people like that around my father, but I can be sure that you are not such. The empire is fortunate to have an upright and humble person like you.��


    ��Your Majesty, yourpliments are making me nervous. I am just fulfilling the vow I made when we first met. I wanted to be your eyes, to help you uncover more truths.��


    ��Yeah, you are my eyes, and Altrus is my hand. And Zhang Heng, let me see what I can get out of him!�� Commodus rubbed his hands in glee while he spoke. ��Bring him to me.��


    ��Yes, Your Majesty.�� Clint bowed, turned, and exited Commodus��s study room.


    When he came to the hallway, the smile on his face disappeared. Although Zhang Heng was now his political ally, Clint still felt ufortable when he heard Commodus praise a person like that. He knew the emperor all too well. Earlier, Zhang Heng had proposed to let him participate in the public security restoration n of the southeast city, and he was even willing to let him lead the n. Although Clint agreed to it, he did not adopt Zhang Heng��s original n. Instead, he withdrew. The only thing that he did was spread the news in the Senate.


    He believed that it would work on Commodus, and at the same time, maintain his humble and non-power-hungry image in front of the emperor. Clint knew very well that Zhang Heng was the key to help him stabilize his position at Commodus��s side. And that was the truth.


    Butpared to what Zhang Heng got from this n, Clint was still considered a side character. But now, he could not be bothered by it anymore. Thepetition between him and Altrus had almost reached its climax. And Commodus obviously favored Altrus more. Bringing Zhang Heng to Commodus��s side might not help him eliminate Altrus, but he could at least distract Commodus and give him more time to prepare for it.


    ��Damn it, what a lucky Oriental man,�� Clint muttered in a low voice and left the pce.

 Chapter 856 - Clint’s Whisper

    <h4>Chapter 856: Clint��s Whisper</h4>


    Zhang Heng did not expect that Commodus woulde to him so soon. Logically speaking, it would take at least two days for the report to reach the emperor after it was delivered. Meanwhile, Zhang Heng took a break. He brought the ve girl to wander around Rome.


    They first went to Perfume Street.


    The ve girl was a little curious. She saw Zhang Heng opening a bottle of perfume on the shelf and put it back after sniffing it. ��Why did you put it back? Don��t you like it?�� the ve girl blinked her eyes and asked.


    ��Oh, no. I just needed a little whiff,�� he said, picking up a bottle and paying for it. He then tossed the bottle of perfume to the ve girl. ��I��ll give it to you.��


    ��Really?�� The ve girl took the perfume joyfully. While Zhang Heng was not paying attention to her, she opened it and applied the perfume to her hair.


    Next, the two walked out of the perfume shop. They went to Matius Square for a quick walk before heading to the Portico of Octavia. Located at a good distance from the city center, there were no markets or inse in this area. Instead, the ce was covered byrge areas of green grass, temples, and sculptures. It was an excellent location for leisure and travel.


    The monumental portico surrounded the verdant atrium. In the center of it was the temple of King Jupiter and Queen Juno. The frescoes and sto portraits at the portico told ancient myths and legendary tales rted to them. From afar, they could also see Alexander��s bronze statue. Travelers and believers that crossed the portico and stopped in front of the statues could feel the solemnness and tranquility of the ce.


    The ve girl found a spot on the grass and sat down. She then took out the lunch that she prepared earlier and chatted with Zhang Heng. When the ve girl worked in the Victor Arena, she had never thought about the meaning of happiness. But at this moment, she felt that she could reach out and grasp it.


    ��Are things going well with the patrol team?�� the ve girl asked while taking a bite of the bread.


    ��Well, although there have been some hups, everything did go ording to my n,�� Zhang Heng said. ��You can perhaps say that it is going way smoother than I thought.��


    ��So, are you going to work for the emperor next?��


    ��That would be the case if there are no more hups to my n,�� Zhang Heng nodded.


    ��That��s great! You can expose Clint��s true nature to the emperor then.��


    The ve girl was still thinking about Clint, the two-faced viin.


    Zhang Hengughed when he heard what she said. ��It��s not that simple. It doesn��t mean the emperor will believe me.��


    ��I believe you. Fully,�� the ve girl said with conviction. ��You are more credible than Clint. No, I shouldn��tpare you to him because he isn��t worthy of that.��


    ��That��s because you have lived with me for a long time.�� Zhang Heng shook his head and said, ��You don��t have to worry about me. I am not afraid of Clint. I��m not his target. In the future, we will even have more opportunities to work together.��


    The ve girl had a lot of questions after she heard Zhang Heng��s exnation. She then pursed her lips and was about to say something, but she suddenly saw Clint. He was walking towards her with a few guards. The ve girl was taken aback, thinking that Clint must be dabbling with witchcraft. She assumed that he had heard everything that she had just said about him and was now about to arrest her. Hence she hurriedly ran and hid behind Zhang Heng.


    ��It seems like you get to rx today. It is truly enviable, but I am afraid you will now have to say goodbye to a day like this,�� Clint said to Zhang Heng with a smile.


    ��Hmm?��


    ��His Majesty, the Emperor is delighted with your performance in the southeast city. So, he asked me to take you to the pce to meet him. Finding you was rather difficult. I went to your residence, and I saw no one. After that, I went to the patrol station, and they told me that you were on an outing. So, I thought you might be here. It seems I��m in luck. Come with me. Don��t make the emperor wait for you,�� Clint said.


    Zhang Heng stood up from the grass and said to the ve girl behind him, ��That��s it. I think we have to end the day here. You can head home first.��


    ��Okay. Watch out for yourself,�� the ve girl whispered into Zhang Heng��s ears, stealing a nce at Clint.


    After that, Zhang Heng entered a carriage with Clint, and they went on their way to the pce. But before they could enter, Clint asked the coachman to park the carriage in a ce where no one would notice.


    Clint then cleared his throat and said, ��I know you��ve heard some rumors...��


    ��What rumors?�� Zhang Heng raised his eyebrows.


    ��For example, only the unlucky ones who have offended the higher-ups or those without proper background would be sent to the patrol station in the southeast city. It is like a ce you get sent to if you��re exiled from Rome..��


    ��Oh, I...��


    Before Zhang Heng could speak his mind, Clint interrupted him.


    ��This is true. Although this statement is inurate, it is not far off. The problem in the southeast city has been around for a long time. Honestly, neither the emperor nor I expected anyone to solve the trouble there.��


    ��Neither did I. I reached an agreement with the major forces there, hoping to reduce crime,�� Zhang Heng said.


    ��You are too modest. In short, I wanted to send you to the Tiber River��s north bank because it has the best security in Rome. You can easilyplete the tasks assigned by the Emperor. But as you know, I was forced to make a move when we were talking halfway that day. I had something urgent to deal with. So I had to leave Pannonax in charge of this. A few dayster, I got shocked when I learned you were assigned to the southeast.��


    Clint��s face showed a touch of guilt, ��Forgive me. I didn��t look for you after that because I didn��t know how to face you. I��m trying to say that the Emperor had put me in charge of this matter because he trusts me. However, you were assigned to the southeast area in the end. Undoubtedly, I share a great deal of responsibility when ites to this. For the next few days, I did not stay idle. I did something for you instead.


    ��Is that so?��


    ��Yes, I investigated Pannonax, and guess what?��


    ��How did it go?��


    Clint lowered his voice and moved closer to Zhang Heng��s ear. ��I found out that he works for Altrus. He hides it well. They onlymunicate via correspondence, and the letters are burned once read. So, my people tried their best, intercepting a letter that Pannonax could not send out in time. Read it.��


    Clint stuffed a papyrus with the wall of words on it into Zhang Heng��s hand. He also handed Zhang Heng a letter written by Pennonax to his family. It allowed Zhang Heng topare the handwriting. He then asked with concern, ��If I may I ask, any grudges between you and Altrus? I don��t know why he��s targeting you.��


    ��I don��t have a clue,�� Zhang Heng said, ��I heard that Altrus is a very mysterious person. No one has really seen him before. I don��t even know what he looks like. How can I offend him?��


    ��That��s what I thought,�� Clint nodded, ��Just be careful. Although we all serve the emperor, some would inevitably brew malicious thoughts. You should always pay attention to your safety. I heard that some who work for Altrus hide in the shadows, supposedly doing his dirty work. If you encounter any trouble in the future, you cane to me. I am hoping I canpensate for what I��ve done to you.��

 Chapter 857 - Goodbye Commodus

    <h4>Chapter 857: Goodbye Commodus</h4>


    Regardless of the tone or the expression on his face, Clint appeared very sincere. And Zhang Heng had two in his hand as evidence. If another person talked to Clint, that person might trust 70% of what he said, even if they couldn��t believe him entirely. Unfortunately, the person sitting in the carriage was Zhang Heng.


    When Clint showed up for the first time, Zhang Heng had already known what his n was. And from what Clint said just now, Zhang Heng now confirmed that Clint and Altrus were the emperor��s right and left hands. Both his most important consultants, their rtionship was not as harmonious as it seemed on the surface. Otherwise, even if they hadmon interests, Clint might not be willing to help Zhang Heng ovee his difficulties.


    As of now, Clint��s current intention was very obvious to Zhang Heng. He hoped that Zhang Heng could work with him to deal with Altrus.


    In all fairness, Clint dide up with a solid n. Not only did he attempt to get rid of Zhang Heng��s suspicion towards him via the two letters, but he even directed the attention to his political enemy, Altrus. At the same time, he managed to set up a trap for Zhang Heng.


    The smile on his face did notst long, though, and his expressions became frozen in the next moment.


    It was because he saw Zhang Heng taking out two flint stones from his pocket before slowly lighting the two papyrus.


    ��Uh, what are you doing?��


    ��Let the past be the past. There is an old saying in my country. One should solve the conflict but not worsen it. I think it makes perfect sense here,�� Zhang Heng said lightly.


    Clint��s goals ovepped Zhang Heng��s goals in a sense, which was why Zhang Heng had told the ve girl he might work with Clint in the future. However, this did not mean that Zhang Heng would pick a side so soon. It was no doubt that Clint carried sinister intent when he handed the letters to Zhang Heng.


    If Zhang Heng could not hold back and handed the two letters to Commodus, it would mean that a war between him and Altrus would spark off immediately. Although Commodus had a good impression of him and contributed a lot to the stability in the southeast city, Zhang Heng believed that Commodus would still take Altrus�� side, thetter of whom he had worked side-by-side with for a long time. Besides, the political resources Altrus possessed would never allow him to be destroyed by two mere letters. If this matter continued, the person who would suffer the most, in the end, would be Zhang Heng.


    Besides, if the first thing Zhang Heng did after entering the pce was to report to his colleague, this would undoubtedly give Commodus the impression that he was the disagreeable kind. It did not matter whether the matter was fabricated. As an advisor of Commodus, his political achievements and capability were not as crucial as Commodus��s attitude towards him.


    And the emperor��s attitude towards a person could change anytime. Maybe he liked you a lot when he first met you, but the next second, something insignificant could have him treat you differently. Such a thing was ubiquitous in history. Few people that the emperor valued ended up well.


    When Commodus��s impression of Zhang Heng deteriorated, Clint would step forward to say a few good things about Zhang Heng. Then, perhaps, Zhang Heng could continue staying by Commodus��s side. However, that would mean Zhang Heng would need to obey Clint��s order to stay alive, just like Pannonax.


    And if Zhang Heng had kept the letters he received from Clint and chose not to hand them to Commodus, it meant he passed the first level. However, this was still not a good decision because Clint would definitely find a way to expose Zhang Heng to Altrus. If that happened, Zhang Heng would be Altrus�� enemy because of these two letters.


    It was undeniable that Clint��s n was almost perfect, but he did not expect Zhang Heng to burn the two letters in front of him.


    ��Didn��t you say that the emperor is waiting anxiously to meet me? Better not let him wait too long.�� Zhang Heng stepped on the burning letters, killing off thest mes, and smiled.


    ...


    Commodus had indeed waited for Zhang Heng for a long time, but he did not just sit there and do nothing. As the emperor of the empire, he ruled over a vast territory with a poption of millions. This also meant something for Commodus to do, especially since he inherited the throne when he was still very young. Facing the huge political legacy left by Aurelius, not everyone wanted to assist the young emperor wholeheartedly.


    This was also the reason why Commodus was so anxious to expand his manpower. When he returned to Rome, he found out the situation he faced here was no easier than when he fought the Germanic tribes at the River Rhine��s bank.


    Before Zhang Heng walked into Commodus��s study, he heard the young emperor��s roar in the corridor, ��What did Dior promise me again?! He told me that the Senate would handle this matter, but is that how they handled it? They did not include me when they talked about rewarding the soldiers. After that, they told everyone that the Senate was the one rewarding those soldiers. What now?! My soldiers think that their emperor doesn��t value them at all! My god! When I made peace with the Germanic, many senior officers in the military criticized me. And now the Senate has given them an excuse to slit my throat while I am asleep...��


    Clint and Zhang Heng knew that Commodus was furious. Hence, they chose not to talk to him at this time. It was not until the conversation in the study was over that Clint reached out and knocked on the door.


    They could hear Commodus��s angry reply from inside. ��Come in!��


    Clint pushed the door, walked in with Zhang Heng, bowed, and said, ��Your Majesty, Zhang Heng is here.��


    Commodus��s mood improved a little after seeing Zhang Heng. He then squeezed out a smile and said, ��Long time no see. You never fail to disappoint, don��t you?��


    When Zhang Heng stepped into the study, he took a quick nce at the entire room. To his surprise, Commodus was the only person there. In other words, if the emperor was sane and wasn��t venting his anger at the air, it meant another person must��ve been in the room not too long ago. And that person had left the study only after Clint��s knock on the door.


    Did the person leave through the window?


    Zhang Heng noticed that the study��s windows were open, and the wind was blowing at the curtains. He, however, did not think that the individual had left through the windows since there was a small garden right outside. Before entering the study, Zhang Heng saw two gardeners cutting flowers and trees.


    Since the other party chose to avoid them, he would not want the gardeners to spot him. Therefore, Zhang Heng deducted that there had to be a secret passage somewhere in this study. It allowed the second person in the room toe and go freely. Considering how cautious every emperor was, the person that talked to the emperor just now had obviously gained the emperor��s full trust.

 Chapter 858 - New Task

    <h4>Chapter 858: New Task</h4>


    Clint was unsurprised by such a situation. He did not even look at other ces after bringing Zhang Heng into the study room. All he did was step aside automatically.


    ��I have read the assessment report provided by Fabino. You did an excellent job in the southeast city. Although there are more foreigners in that ce, they are also the people of the empire. They deserve the protection it offers. When my father was still in reign, I suggested that we do something about the southeast city, but at that time, the nobles at the Senate strongly opposed this idea. They said that this ce has always been like this, and no one can change it. But now, you��ve proven them wrong. Very well. The empire has been following the rules for too long. We need some fresh blood to do the impossible.��


    Commodus spoke about it passionately. The anger and depression caused by the betrayal of the Senate seemed to have blown away. He did not know why whenever he saw Zhang Heng, he would feel better. This was probably because the two had met several times when Commodus was in a bad mood.


    ��Given your outstanding performance, I want to appoint you as my adviser. Your job is to offer advice and suggestions to me. I wonder if you are willing to ept this job?�� Commodus asked while staring at Zhang Heng with his piercing eyes.


    And Zhang Heng did not disappoint him. He bowed and said, ��If you need me, of course, I shall contribute my modest strength in any way possible. However, I am just an outsider. More than a month ago, I was just a diator in the arena, without a noble background.��


    ��I don��t care about a person��s background.�� Commodus came over and patted Zhang Heng on the shoulder. ��Don��t worry about this kind of thing. Look around you. Clint and Altrus are not from famous families either. They do have some royal blood flowing in them, but they are my distant cousins.��


    Clint, on the other side, started to talk, ��Yes, my family has fallen for a long time. By the time it reached our generation, we were no different from the ordinary. We all grew up in the city, and we eat like ordinary people. And we also wore what ordinary children would wear. If I didn��t get the chance to meet your majesty, I think I would be breaking my back in exchange for a meager ie. At the same time, our ordinary background allows us to have a clearer picture of the bottom part of the world. That part of the world is something that the stubborn senators can��t see.��


    ��You heard what he said, right? I am not the kind of emperor who discriminates against anyone. And I don��t care what others think of you. Hence, you don��t have to worry about such a thing.�� Commodus said, ��Besides, I kept hearing the people in the town saying that you were a noble from the empire you came from, right?��


    ��That��s just a rumor, your majesty,�� Zhang Heng said.


    ��One can say anything they want. However, it is hard for a person to fake his character, manners, and behavior. After getting to know you better, I believe those rumors about you are true.�� Commodus returned to the table and signed his name on a piece of papyrus that was drafted a long time ago. After that, he tossed the papyrus to Zhang Heng. ��This is your appointment letter. I wee you to join us. From this moment on, you will be my consultant. You will be responsible for assisting me in handling various government affairs and offering advice and suggestions. I believe you are capable of handling this job.��


    ��Congrattions, brother. You just got the most tiring job in the world. Believe me, when you get really busy, you will miss the leisure time that you once had.�� Clint, on the other side, smiled and congratted Zhang Heng. At the same time, he clenched his fist secretly behind his back.


    At this moment, Commodus��s temperament still remained unchanged. That was before he experienced the assassination that his sister nned. Not long after Aurelius��s death, Commodus did what he was supposed to do as an emperor under the influence and motivation of the responsibilities on his shoulder.


    After appointing Zhang Heng as his consultant, he quickly changed topics and began to discuss his next task with Clint. At the same time, he did not ask Zhang Heng to leave the room. Clearly, he had already regarded thetter as his trusted consultant.


    ��I don��t know if you��ve heard of it. We were fooled by the Senate recently. When an emperor inherits the throne, he should give the soldiers gifts to gain their support. I just led them to fight a war thatsted for a few years, and I have just returned to Rome. And I can��t afford to disappoint them. However, the Senate told me that I shouldn��t worry about this matter. After all, I just inherited the throne, and there is much on my te. The Senate said that they are willing to help me to choose the best gifts for them. In a way, they are trying to lessen my burden.��


    ��Yes, I also saw those notices on the road just now. It is saying that those gifts came from the Senate, but they did not mention your name, your majesty,�� Clint said.


    ��Damn it! The senators tricked me! Now all my soldiers will think that their emperor doesn��t care about them. And the Senate is the only one that cares about them!�� Commodus looked a little flustered.


    ��Did senior Dior do it?�� Fortunately, Clint managed to keep his calm.


    ��I will go to the Senate and question him in person in the afternoon,�� Commodus said, ��anyway, it has already impacted us. And we need to fight back.��


    ��This is a battle of public opinion,�� Clint said. ��We need to let the people and the soldiers know who the ruler of this country is.��


    ��Altrus said the same.�� Commodus nodded. ��The matter of dealing with the Senate can be postponed, but the fight for public opinion cannot be dyed. Holding a diatorial show is just the beginning, and it is far from enough. How does it go with the new copper coin casting?��


    ��It��s going well. The first batch should be ready for use next month, with your avatar printed on them.��


    ��Very well, this matter will be your top priority. You are responsible for it. Make sure everything goes well. You��d better live nearby and keep an eye on those craftsmen.�� Commodus paused and looked at Zhang Heng on the other side, ��As for you, my friend from the East, I have another job for you. I have asked someone to cast a batch of bronze statues to send to the different parts of the city, but I heard that its progress is far from desirable. Can you go there to help me solve this problem?��


    ��Of course, I will make sure those bronze statues are delivered as scheduled,�� Zhang Heng nodded.


    ��Great!�� Commodus said, ��After you join us, I should host a banquet to wee you. However, we are now facing a critical situation. It seems that I can only make up for you after this matter is over. By that time, I will summon all the consultants and introduce you to them. From now on, you are all colleagues. If you have any questions, you canmunicate and help each other,�� Commodus said.

 Chapter 859 - Necklace

    <h4>Chapter 859: Ne</h4>


    Clint and Zhang Heng left Commodus��s study room one after the other.


    Zhang Heng walked down the stairs just like how he got to Commodus��s study. He then heard a giggle nearby as he walked through the front courtyard garden.


    When he stopped, he caught sight of Queen Christina and Commodus��s sister, Luci, walking out from behind a garden of flowers, holding hands while chatting andughing. When they saw Zhang Heng, the two women stopped. A yful twinkle appeared in Luci��s eyes. ��Oh, what a good day! We are fortunate enough to meet the diatorial champion here.��


    Queen Christina was impressed by Zhang Heng as well, but being more reserved than Luci, she merely gave Zhang Heng a few words of encouragement, nning to move on after that. But the next moment, Luci pulled Christina to her side. ��Haven��t you alwaysined to me about how boring it was to be living in the pce?��


    ��Yeah, Commodus is as diligent as his father. He is a good ruler. He has been worrying about all kinds of things. He is worried that his people will go hungry, he is worried that the soldiers fighting for the empire hadn��t got enough rewards... So, he didn��t spend much time with me after we got married.�� Although Christina tried to say good things about her husband, one could still hear a hint of resentment in her tone.


    ��Well, such are men. They care only about power and politics, which is why we women have to learn to have fun on our own,�� Luci chipped in.


    ��What kind of fun?�� asked a puzzled Christina.


    ��We have the diatorial champion in front of us right now. Are you afraid that we won��t get to have fun with him?�� Luci��s eyes moved from Zhang Heng��s face to his chest.


    ��Sorry, but I am no longer a diator,�� Zhang Heng said.


    ��Yes, my brother gave you freedom, but I also heard that you just performed at the Victor Arena two weeks ago,�� Luci said casually.


    ��I have an agreement with Mark Reuss. In order to make up for his loss, I will perform once every month at the Victor Arena. If you want to watch my performance, I can give you two tickets for the next one. I believe the Victor Arena will be honored by both your presence,�� Zhang Heng replied with humility.


    ��Oh, how sweet of you! But what if we want to watch the performance now?�� Luci had no intention of going down the steps. Instead, she stood up and walked half a step forward, drawing herself closer to Zhang Heng.


    ��Today? Not today, I still have work to do.��


    Zhang Heng��s expression remained unchanged.


    ��What manner of work could be more important than performing for us?��


    Luci wanted to move forward, but before Zhang Heng could speak, Christina, on the other side, rushed to reply, ��My husband mentioned you to me more than once, and he wanted you to be his adviser. Have you gotten your appointment letter?��


    ��Yes, my queen.��


    ��Congrattions. It seems you really have something to do,�� said Christina before she turned to Luci. ��Commodus has arranged a task for him. It should be extremely important. We should let him go today.��


    ��Wow, you are really my brother��s good wife. How considerate!�� Luci raised her eyebrows and gazed at Zhang Heng. ��Well, since the queen has spoken for you, it would be insensitive of me to stop you from leaving. When you havepleted your task, please don��t forget to look for us.��


    As she spoke, Luci untied her ne from her neck and threw it to Zhang Heng. ��Here, in the previous diatorial show, I bet that you��d be the diatorial champion and make lots of money. I bet on you to win, and I made a handsome amount thanks to you. Consider this ne your reward. If you encounter something that you cannot solve in the future, you cane to me with this ne.��


    Zhang Heng took the ne that still lingered with Luci��s warmth. When he looked up again, Luci and Christina had already walked past him.


    And Zhang Heng did not stay there any longer. He put the ne away and left the pce.


    ...


    After solving the problems in the southeast city, Zhang Heng came to Commodus as the emperor wished, and he was appointed his advisor. However, Zhang Heng did not get to meet his target. Altrus was more cautious than he thought. Earlier, Zhang Heng and Clint had heard Commodus yelling at someone and cursing the Senate. If he was right, that person should be Altrus.


    But when Zhang Heng entered the room, Altrus had been long gone. Zhang Heng figured that there should be a secret passage in Commodus��s study that allowed Altrus to freely enter and exit the room. In other words, since Commodus gave Altrus so much liberty to enter and exit his study, it could only mean that Altrus had to be more than a mere consultant to the emperor.


    One should know that the study room was a forbidden ce for all men. Even Queen Christina herself wasn��t allowed to enter the study without Commodus��s consent. It was no wonder Clint felt threatened and wanted to recruit Zhang Heng to help to deal with Altrus. On the other hand, Bnce de wanted Altrus dead as well.


    Altrus had been around Commodus for many years, and he had done a lot for him in the light and the dark. And he had offended many people as well. Clearly, he knew that his life was in danger at most times, which was why he hid so well. His whereabouts were extremely secretive. Not even his subordinates knew where he was. It was not easy to find him.


    For now, Zhang Heng had no idea how to look for him too. He could only continue investigating after he solved the bronze statue��s problem. Earlier, Commodus had also mentioned that he would hold a weing banquet for Zhang Heng uponpleting his given task. All of the emperor��s advisors had also been invited to the dinner. Zhang Heng hoped that Altrus would be there as well.


    The ce where they cast the bronze statues was in the suburbs, far away from the city. Hence, Zhang Heng summoned a carriage to get him there.


    After receiving the task, Zhang Heng did some research. Born in the Calradia family, the person responsible for this matter was named Decius.


    Calradia was someone who had relied on his military merits to enter the Roman noble circles. Because of Aurelius, Decius�� father was able to join the Senate. Hence, the Calradia family had always been a hardcore supporter of the royal family. If they weren��t, Commodus wouldn��t have put them in charge of casting the bronze statues.


    However, the Decius, who Zhang Heng was going to meet next, was not an important figure in the Calradia family. Technically speaking, he was not even a royal family member, his mother being a maidservant. Besides, the Calradia family had grown so fast that its foundation and background were far from solid. In other words, Decius��s status was just slightly higher than an ordinary civilian. This task was vital to him. Zhang Heng deduced that if Decius were sane, he would never sabotage this task.

 Chapter 860 - Binota Mine

    <h4>Chapter 860: Binota Mine</h4>


    While Zhang Heng was looking at Decius, Decius was also peeking at Zhang Heng.


    He had read Zhang Heng��s appointment letter and knew that the Asian man in front of him was the newly appointed consultant of Commodus. He made the trip here to investigate the reason why the construction of the bronze statue was dyed.


    Decius wiped away the cold sweat confidently, proiming, ��There is no problem with the craftsmen. We have already cast all the models. All we need to do next is to pour the molten bronze into the model. After that, we��ll just need to wait for it to cool down before shattering the outeryer. Unfortunately, the Binota mine that has been supplying us with copper ore has recently encountered an ident. The mine tunnel copsed, burying more than twenty ves. The remaining ves are still cleaning the mine tunnel. I don��t know when they can resume their work. Without the ore, we can��t proceed with our work.��


    ��How about seeking another mine to supply you with the ore? Do you have a backup n?�� Zhang Heng asked.


    ��Yes, there are four mines at the outskirts of Rome. Binota is just a small one. We also have an agreement with another mine. If Binota can��t supply us with enough copper ore, then the other mine will deliver theirs. But...�� Decius stopped halfway.


    ��But what?��


    ��But recently, His Majesty, the Emperor, is casting arge number of new copper coins. Copper ore produced by other mines has been given orders to prioritize the coin minting. Hence, they do not have any extra copper ore to deliver to us,�� Decius said.


    ��What about the mines from other cities?��


    ��Coupled with the cost of transportation, the price of copper ore is nearly doubled. And it takes time to transport them over. I am afraid that we might not be able to meet the dateline.�� Decius seemed very helpless. He wasn��t of pure blood and wasn��t allowed to inherit his father��s seat in the Senate. To ensure that he would not starve to death, his father had to pull many strings to get him this job. Initially, he thought that as long as he worked hard, Commodus would appreciate him and grant him a stable job in the future.


    It was almost impossible to fail this task, but now it seemed like it was on the verge of falling apart. Decius was frustrated that he could do nothing about it. First, he did not ask for any kickback. Secondly, he had never treated his workers harshly. He had always been very cautious when carrying out his given tasks, but somehow, this time, he failed. Recently, it seemed his luck had taken a great dive.


    However, Zhang Heng did not seem to agree with what he said. He then asked Decius after he heard that it would be inevitable that the delivery of the bronze statue would be dyed. ��You said that there was an ident at the Binota mine. Did you see it with your own eyes?��


    ��Huh?�� Decius was a little taken when he heard Zhang Heng��s question. ��Do I really need to go there and assess the situation myself? ording to the contract, if they fail to deliver the goods to us before the deadline, they will have to pay a fine.��


    ��How much?��


    ��Well, it��s about twenty Aureus per day. This is not a small amount. They have dyed the delivery for a couple of days, and I am afraid they��ll be earning no profit this time. If they drag it any longer, they will start losing a lot of money.��


    ��Twenty Aureus a day... even if the mine cannot afford it, there will be someone in this city that can,�� Zhang Heng said casually. However, he did not go on about the battle between Commodus and the Senate. This wasnt something a nobody like Decuis should know about.


    ��Do you know where Binota mine is? Let��s take a trip there together.��


    ��Now?�� Decius felt terrible, ��but it is not time yet to get off work.��


    ��Are you working now?��


    ��No... no,�� Decius answered honestly.


    ��Then prepare the carriage,�� Zhang Heng said.


    ��...��


    Although Decius did not understand why Zhang Heng had to go to the mine, he still did his best to introduce the Binota mine and its owner to Zhang Heng. ording to the information provided by Decius, Binota Mine��s owner was a powerfulndlord named Cobb.


    Hailing from a very ordinary background, he was just a powerless civilian. However, he fell in love with a girl named Mania, whose father was extremely wealthy. He owned arge field and two mines. Binota Mine happened to be one of them. Mania��s father despised Cobb and was always against his daughter from courting this pauper boy. However, the man died of illness before he could choose a son-inw that he liked.


    Afterward, Mania married Cobb as she wished. Since her father had no other children, Cobb became the new owner of thisrge field and two mines. Hence, he was also given the nickname Lucky Cobb.


    ��I have known Lucky Cobb for some time,�� Decius said. ��I��ve bought a batch of grain for my family from him. He doesn��t talk much, but he is pretty reliable. I don��t think he will lie to me about the mine idents. Besides, he won��t gain anything from lying.��


    Zhang Heng was nomittal when he what Decius said. Instead, he kept asking.


    ��Then, do you know who he usually interacts with? And who is his biggest customer?��


    ��Well, Cobb spends most of his time patrolling the farnd or wandering around the two mines. Although he is not a bad person, he is not the kind who likes to make friends. As for his biggest customer, I heard that he sold all the wheat he cultivated to the senator, Divo Braille. More than half of the grain shops in Rome are run by Divo Braille.��


    ��Who?��


    ��Divo Braille. Know who he is?��


    Zhang Heng raised his eyebrows. He did not expect to hear about someone he knew here. Divo Braille was the one that the Jewish Gang and the Golden Crown had asked him to deal with. Zhang Heng promised that he would get rid of him in exchange for the patrol team��s growth in the southeast city. The three major forces in the southeast city even helped him to pass the assessment perfectly.


    However, Zhang Heng couldn��t be certain for now if this incident was rted to Divo Braille. And if it was, how deep was Divo Braille involved in this? Zhang Heng��s intuition told him that he might be able to take advantage of this incident to bring Divo Braille down.


    On the other side, Decius looked like he was envious of Zhang Heng. He now treated Zhang Heng as his idol. He was born as a diator, but he had managed to climb his way to bing a consultant. And he seemed to have quickly gotten to know arge number of powerful men in a short time after entering the political world. Although Divo Braille was not as influential as Dior in the Senate, one should not underestimate him.


    Moreover, the cunning Divo Braille would choose not to choose a side unless it was hisst resort. Hence, he did not offend too many people in the political yground. As a result, he ended up having many allies and friends in the Senate.


    Decius was thinking about getting Zhang Heng to introduce him to Divo Braille as a backup n after he was done with this job. He did not want to end up a plebian.


    But before he could talk to Zhang Heng, the carriage had already driven out of the path in the woods, and their destinationy before them.

 Chapter 861 - Details

    <h4>Chapter 861: Details</h4>


    From what Zhang Heng saw, the Binota Mine was undoubtedly in trouble. The mine��s gates were tightly locked, and there was no cart transporting ore. Even the guards who patrolled the mine to prevent nearby farmers from stealing the ore were nowhere to be seen.


    Decius then put on an I-told-you-so expression and said, ��Cobb has no reason to deceive us. Lying to us will do him no good.��


    ��Whose side are you on, my friend?�� Zhang Heng looked at Decius and asked.


    ��Hmm?��


    ��If you still want to finish your work and get those bronze statues delivered on time, you��d better pray that Cobb cheated you.��


    ��But... If he really didn��t lie to me...�� Decius said in a soft voice.


    ��Then I shall congratte you on messing up your first job given by His Majesty the Emperor,�� Zhang Heng said lightly.


    Decius�� expression changed. He knew that Zhang Heng was intimidating him, but he had to admit that what he said was indeed irrefutable.


    ��If you have figured out your situation. Let��s get to work,�� Zhang Heng said.


    After that, Zhang Heng climbed the fence and went over to the other side of the mine. Decius hesitated for a while before hurriedly following Zhang Heng.


    The two walked down a muddy path, climbed a dirt slope, and finally saw the mine at the back. A group of ve miners entered and exited the mine, carrying out baskets of rocks and sand and dumping them outside the cave. A man that looked like an overseer saw Zhang Heng and Decius. So, he quickly approached them. He seemed to know Decius.


    ��Why did youe here?�� asked the overseer in a surprised tone.


    Decius then introduced the two to each other. Now, Zhang Heng knew that the young man in front of him was Cobb��s eldest son, Krasai.


    Krasai stretched out his hand and shook hands with Zhang Heng. ��I��ve seen your performance before. It was exhrating. You are indeed the most powerful man I have ever seen!��


    Although he sounded polite, there was a trace of cautiousness in his behavior and actions.


    ��Oh, Zhang Heng is now an adviser to His Majesty the Emperor. He is responsible for the construction of the bronze statue,�� Decius added afterward.


    ��Why didn��t you continue with the statue��s construction? Why are you here in my mine?�� While Krasai spoke, another group of ves came out of the mine. However, they did not return immediately after they dumped the gravel. Instead, a dozen of them just stood there and watched them. They all had burly figures and held iron pickaxes in their hands.


    ��Uh, we don��t have enough copper ore. So, we have been shutting down for a while now. Now, we are here to take a look at the situation on your side and see how long it will take to resume mining.��


    ��As you can see, the mine has copsed, and we are still clearing it. I am not sure how long it will take before we can resume mining. I��ll remember to inform you immediately once the operation resumes.��


    ��Of course, we believe you. We just wanted to see what we could do to help. Besides, the air in the countryside is fresher.�� Decius nodded and looked at Zhang Heng. He was trying to use his eyes to tell Zhang Heng that he should be satisfied with what he was seeing and that they should leave this ce right away.


    ��There is no fresh air in this hell hole. There are only a group of stinky ves and a pile of broken rocks,�� scoffed Krasai. ��No one wants to stay here. Once I deal with the problem here, I��m heading to the brothel in the city and reward myself with a good long break.��


    ��Yes, we can have a drink together. By that time, I guess I should be jobless.�� Decius sighed and looked at Zhang Heng.


    Thetter raised his eyebrows, indicating that he had no more questions. Immediately, Decius sighed in relief.


    Krasai and a dozen ves watched on as Zhang Heng and Decius left the mine.


    After walking for a while, Decius could not help but ask, ��I didn��t want to mention it at first, but now, you should believe that the mine is really in trouble. Cobb didn��t mean to dy the whole thing.��


    ��It��s hard to say whether the mine is really in trouble. One thing��s for sure. You are now in big trouble, my friend,�� Zhang Heng said.


    Decius started to feel worried when he heard what Zhang Heng said. ��I know, but this was an ident. I hope you can truthfully reflect the situation here to his majesty.��


    ��This is not an ident.�� Zhang Heng shook his head.


    ��How is it possible? We saw it with our eyes...�� Decius widened his eyes as though he did not believe that Krasai had lied with a straight face.


    ��All you see are the ves taking out sand from the mine and Krasai��s men blocking the hole to prevent us from entering. Besides, I heard that the Binota Mine��s miners are not only made up of ves. There are supposed to be some poor people nearby who asked to work for them. But this time, we only saw ves, not those poor people.��


    ��Well. What could it mean?��


    ��ves are the property of the master. It is difficult for them to betray their master. On the other hand, the poor people are not the master��s property. So, if they are thinking of doing something bad, it wouldn��t be wise to let the poor people get involved,�� Zhang Heng said, ��and...��


    ��What else?��


    ��...did you notice that the ves who were supposed to clear out the mine didn��t have much sweat on them? This shows that they had only just started working. And do you remember the muddy road we passed by before going uphill?��


    ��Hmm...��


    ��I don��t know if you paid attention to Krasai��s shoes and trousers. They have wet dirt on them. This shows that he had just walked the path that we walked earlier. This guy came here shortly before us. They are just putting up a show for us. Besides, when I went to look for you just now, I spotted some sneaky men outside your door. If I��m right, those are the people Cobb had sent to keep an eye on you. They saw that I went to look for you. So, they quickly ran to inform the people at the mine. That��s how they prepared everything so quickly.��


    After Zhang Heng finished speaking, he turned his head and looked at Decius. He saw that thetter had his mouth wide open, with a look of disbelief on his face.


    ��Oh my god! Who are you? How could you see so many details that no one else would notice?!��


    ��You know me. I was a diator, but my observation ability happens to be better than most.��


    Zhang Heng had no intention of exining more. As a tenant of 221B Baker Street, such deduction ability was indeed not something worth fussing about.


    ��Okay, what do we do next?�� Decius asked. ��I mean, even if we know that the people at the Binota Mine are lying to us about deliberately shutting down the mine, technically speaking, they have not vited the contract, and they are still paying us. I still don��t know why Cobb would do something like this. It does him no good.��


    ��Of course, Cobb doesn��t have the guts to do something like this. So next, we��ll need to find the mastermind behind him,�� Zhang Heng said casually.

 Chapter 862 - Messenger

    <h4>Chapter 862: Messenger</h4>


    Decius had never been to East District before, but he had heard a lot about this ce. Even the coachman was a little reluctant to take them when he heard that Zhang Heng and Decius wanted to travel there. In the end, Zhang Heng had to pay an extra fare to make the coachman bring them to their destination.


    While they were on the way to the East District, Decius held back and did not say a word. However, after he got off the carriage, he could not help but ask, ��Didn��t you say you want to find out who the mastermind behind Cobb is? Why are you here? As far as I know, everyone living in this ce is either a criminal, a viin, or a pauper. I don��t think there��s anyone here that can make Cobb obey orders.��


    ��Yes, you are right, but they are our goal.��


    ��What? Are you saying that our targets are the criminals and viins?�� Decius asked, puzzled.


    ��No. Our goal is the poor people here.��


    ��Poor people?��


    ��Yes, I told you before. Mines like those need a lot of manpower. The ves alone are not enough to meet theirbor needs. Besides, a strong, healthy, and capable ve does note cheap. If the ve dies, the master will lose a lot of money. On the other hand, if they hire the poor, they don��t have to worry about this problem.��


    Decius finally came to a realization, ��You want to find the poor people who worked in the mine?��


    ��That��s right.�� Zhang Heng nodded.


    But Decius soon frowned again, ��But this ce is vast and chaotic. How can we find individuals that worked for the Binota Mine before?��


    ��That��s something you needn��t worry about,�� Zhang Heng said with a wave of his hand. A kid that was ying with hispanions on the street quickly ran to Zhang Heng. However, when the kid saw Zhang Heng closing in, he wanted to run away. Unfortunately, he could not do as he wished. In the end, he had to walk towards Zhang Heng obediently.


    Zhang Heng whispered a few words into his ear and ced a copper coin in his palm.


    Thetter then grabbed the copper coin and ran away.


    ��Uh... I don��t think he��ll be back.�� Decius watched the kid running away from the back.


    ��Yes, he won��t.�� Zhang Heng nodded in agreement.


    ��Then what should we do next?��


    ��You can go around, enjoy yourself, or something. I will visit a friend to see if there are other ces where you can get the copper you need. I am used to making backup ns. Let��s meet at the ckwater Bay tavernter. Then, we will meet the people that worked in the mine,�� Zhang Heng said.


    ��I... I don��t think we should act separately.�� Decius was startled and had broken out in cold sweat. He did not even have time to ask Zhang Heng how he would spot a mine worker in the ckwater Bay Tavernter. He felt really anxious. So, he hurriedly said, ��You are not a Roman. Maybe that��s why you don��t know how insane this ce is. Fabino of the Coruna family was hired as the assessor to appraise this ce. He brought two guards with him when he came here for the first time. However, he ended up getting robbed on the street, and he was beaten badly. His engagement ring; lost as well. You are the diatorial champion of the Amphitheatrum vium, and you may not be afraid of the people here, but once we are separated, I��m not sure if you��ll see me again.��


    ��Rx, my friend, you came with me, and many people on the street saw it too. No one will mess with you. I promise,�� Zhang Heng said.


    ��How do you guarantee that?�� Decius did not believe Zhang Heng��s words. He held on to his money bag as tightly as he could. At the same, he became suspicious of everyone heid his eyes on. He could not help but think that the bad guys would suddenly emerge from the crowd, kicking and swarming him and taking all his belongings.


    Zhang Heng did not know what to do with him. Fortunately, at this time, they happened to run into a passing patrol team. The patrol team was currently made up of talented people led by two official patrol members. Zhang Heng then stopped them and asked them to apany Decius. With that, Decius finally agreed to move separately.


    But even so, Decius still did not dare wander around the ce on his own. He asked the two patrol team members to take him to the patrol station right away. When he saw that the time was almost up, and asked the patrol team member to escort him to the ckwater Bay Tavern.


    Decius was trembling in fear all the time. He bowed his head and stared at his shoes, afraid that looking at the wrong person would cause him some serious trouble. And when he arrived at the ckwater Bay Tavern, Decius saw countless fierce-looking men that were best not trifled with. He felt like a little white rabbit that strayed into a weasel pack.


    After that, Decius hurriedly ordered a ss of wine and looked for a corner to nest up. Fortunately, Zhang Heng��s figure appeared at the tavern��s entrance before he had to wait for too long.


    Decius suspected that he was hallucinating. When Zhang Heng entered the tavern, everyone seemed to keep quiet for a moment. No one dared to make a sound. It was not until Zhang Heng made a gesture that the tavern became lively again. After that, Zhang Heng came to Decius�� table and sat down.


    ��Are you done with your business?��


    ��Uh-huh,�� replied Zhang Heng.


    ��How did it go? Did you manage to find other sources of copper ore?�� Decius seemed very concerned about this matter. After all, no one knew when Binota Mine could resume operations. This had everything to do with whether Decius couldplete the task given by Commodus on time.


    ��It��s not that easy. Recently, someone has been secretly purchasing copper ore in Rome. The price of copper ore has soared, but this is not the biggest problem. The main problem is that it seems copper ore has run out of stock everywhere.��


    ��Does that mean we can only rely on Binota Mine?�� Decius looked a little frustrated.


    ��So, this is the case.�� Zhang Heng took the wine he ordered from the waitress. His expression was as anxious.


    At the next moment, two men in worn, old clothes and solemn looks walked into the tavern, heading right toward Zhang Heng. The older one of the two asked, ��Are you looking for us?��


    ��Yes, please sit down.�� Zhang Heng pointed at the seat opposite him. He then took out two gold coins and tossed them to the men. ��Don��t be nervous. I just want to ask you a few questions. Please answer them truthfully. This is your reward.��


    ��Wait, who are they?�� Decius asked with a look of surprise.


    ��We are workers from the Binota Mine.��


    The elderly miner was overjoyed when he received the gold coin from Zhang Heng. He then thanked Zhang Heng and responded. It was a huge sum of money for the vast majority of people living in the southeast city. When he received such arge sum in front of everyone, he was supposed to worry if he could keep the money before someone snatched it away from him. However, since Zhang Heng was the one that gave him the money, it meant no one would dare to take this from him.


    But Decius, on the other side, was really nervous. He quickly asked the two of them to put away the shiny gold coins. And at the same time, he looked around to make sure that no one was paying attention to them before he spoke.


    ��You are the miners of the Binota Mine? But how is this possible?�� Decius turned to look at Zhang Heng. ��You found them with the help of a single copper coin?��


    ��Of course not. I didn��t spend a single copper coin. That is my token,�� Zhang Heng said as he took the copper coin, he gave to the kid from the old miner��s hand. This token was given to the ve girl by Commodus. However, the emperorter discarded this version, with the remaining coins remelted and recast. Hence, Zhang Heng used this one and only copper coin as his token. Basically, whoever held this copper coin would be his messenger.


    As for the entire southeast city, no one would dare to ignore what he said.

 Chapter 863 - The Person With The Red Birthmark

    <h4>Chapter 863: The Person With The Red Birthmark</h4>


    ��How long have you been working at the Binota Mine?��


    Zhang Heng then beckoned the waiter to bring two more sses of wine to the miners.


    ��I have been working at the Binota Mine for five years. However, I did change jobs for two years, in between. I loaded and unloaded goods at the wharf. The work there was a little easier than in the mine, but the ie was also lesser. Later, I had a fourth daughter and needed more money. So I went back to the mine,�� the older miner exined. After that, he pointed at the younger miner beside him.


    ��He is my nephew, and he came to work with me in the mines this year. He is a good boy, neverins about anything. All he does is work hard.��


    ��Well, when did you stop work working this time?�� Zhang Heng then asked.


    ��It was about half a month ago,�� the old miner recalled.


    ��16 days ago, to be precise,�� his nephew added, ��We went to the mine as usual in the morning, but the supervisor told us that there was an ident and the mine had copsed. We couldn��t start work until they cleaned the ce up. So, everyone was asked to go home and wait for the news.��


    ��Did you check the mine out after the incident?��


    The old miner and his nephew looked at each other.


    ��We said we could help with the clean-up. After all, our wages are paid on a daily basis. And we have to feed our families. It��s torture not knowing when we can resume work. We hope we can continue as soon as possible, but the supervisor did not allow us to go into the mine. Even after we told him that we would do it for him for free, he insisted that the ves could handle this matter. And he asked him not to worry about it. But now... we have been out of work for two weeks. As of now, we can only work random jobs and continue to support our families. If it weren��t for the gold coins you gave us, we were ready to borrow money from the loan shark.��


    ��Did anything unusual happen before you stopped working? Had anyone you��ve never seen beforee to the mine?�� Zhang Heng leaned back, switching to a morefortable posture.


    ��Cobb��s eldest son, Krasai. He doesn��t like the mine and us, but he suddenly went to inspect the mine a few days before the ident. We saw him chatting with the supervisor for a long time, and he avoided all the other people. And a day before the mine copsed, nothing happened in the tunnel. Also, it didn��t rain that night. That was why so everyone was so surprised when the mine copsed the next day,�� the old miner went on saying.


    ��What else? Is there anything else worth noting?��


    Until now, what the old miner said proved that the copse of the mine might be intentional. However, they provided no clues rted to the mastermind behind this incident. Since this was the case, Zhang Heng had to pay Krasai or Cobb a visit again.


    The old miner shook his head. Nheless, Zhang Heng noticed a hesitant look on the young miner��s face.


    ��If you feel that the money is not enough, I can pay you three more gold coins,�� Zhang Heng added.


    ��Oh no, you misunderstand. The two gold coins are more than enough, and we can��t ask for more. I haven��t said this to anyone before because I didn��t want to cause trouble to the person who told me about this,�� the young miner said.


    ��Hmm?��


    ��I have a friend. She is a servant of the Cobb family...��


    The young miner hesitated.


    ��A ve?��


    ��Yes, she had actually heard about something a few days before we were forced to stop working. She told me about it, but I didn��t tell anyone else. And I told her not to breathe a word about it anymore.��


    ��Don��t worry. You have my word. We won��t disclose this information to others, right?�� Zhang Heng looked at Decius, who immediately nodded his head with a solemn look.


    ��I keep my mouth shut all the time, and I never talk nonsense.��


    ��Well, I believe you.�� The young miner finally made up his mind and said, ��One week before the incident, someone visited Cobbte at night. The two stayed in the study room for almost the entire night, plotting something. In the midst of it, he called the ve to pour them more water. It was at that time; my friend heard Cobb say that this was simply too dangerous a matter. And they asked the mysterious person to pay them more. The visitor then told them that all they needed to do was dy the casting of those bronze statues. After that, my friend left the study room.��


    ��Did your friend see the visitor��s face?�� Zhang Heng raised his eyebrows.


    ��Yes, she told me. It was the kind of face that she could never forget. She said that there was a red birthmark on the left of the man��s face, like a ball of me.��


    ��Oh, this narrows the scope,�� replied Zhang Heng. ��There are not too many people in Rome with red birthmarks on their faces. And there are not too many people who dare to dy the casting of the bronze statues either. I believe it shouldn��t be too difficult to find out who the person is.��


    After that, he took out two more gold coins and threw them to the young miner. ��You don��t have to reject the reward. You did me a great favor. You deserve it. I have nothing else to ask. You can go now.��


    The young miner collected the money, thanked Zhang Heng again, and left the tavern with his uncle.


    On the other side, Decius showed a nervous look and an awkward smile. He put down the wine ss in his hand and asked Zhang Heng, ��Did we just... get involved in something serious?��


    ��What do you think?�� Zhang Heng asked rhetorically.


    ��I��m just a nobody. Why do such things happen to me?�� Deciusined bitterly, ��Why would anyone mess with the bronze statues? By dying their casting, what can the person gain other than destroying my life? And we are talking about the bronze statue of His Majesty the Emperor. Who would dare to mess with the emperor?��


    Zhang Heng was nomittal. ��It��s toote now to talk about such things. If you don��t want to take the me, you can join me and solve this problem. You heard what the young man said, right? I think you should know some of the people in the Senate. Do you know anyone with a red birthmark on his face?��


    ��I don��t think there��s anyone in the Senate with a red birthmark on his face... As for the senators�� subordinates,�� Decius frowned. ��With my identity, the number of senators I can meet is very limited. But I have a friend who is a rainmaker. He works with the approval or rejection of a certain proposal. In other words, he has seen everyone��s face. If there��s someone with a red birthmark on his face, my friend should know who he works for.��


    ��Very good, let��s visit your friend next.�� Zhang Heng said. After finishing the wine in the ss, he put down six copper coins to pay for the drink.


    And Decius was relieved to hear that he could finally leave the southeast area. But at the same time, he also felt a little strange. That was because no one hade to bother them since they arrived. Was this still the same southeast city where someone snatched Fabino��s engagement ring and beat him up after that?

 Chapter 864 - Do You Mind If We Go In And Sit?

    <h4>Chapter 864: Do You Mind If We Go In And Sit?</h4>


    When Decius stood outside the rainmaker��s house, he felt that something was not right. He wondered how the whole thing got to where it was today.


    It was supposed to be a job that did not require much effort. All he needed to do was to sit still and keep an eye on the workers. Once he got his job done, he was supposed to be appreciated by the emperor. However, he ended up looking for a man with a red birthmark all over the city with Zhang Heng. But as Zhang Heng said, at this point, the only way out for him was to look for the mastermind behind this matter. Otherwise, if he angered Commodus, he would not only lose his job, but it might also affect the emperor��s trust in his family.


    Unlike him, Zhang Heng looked calm and rxed from the beginning to the end. He even took out the time to see the tenants in the corridor. Decius was a bit unsure of what was going on with Zhang Heng. He thought that Zhang Heng would have to bear a part of the responsibility if he failed to ensure that the bronze statues were delivered on time. Or was he preparing to push all the me to Decius? If that were the case, Decius would be living a miserable life after that.


    Decius was so nervous that he continued to knock on his friend��s door. Thetter was still taking a nap, but the continuous knocking on his door woke him up. Getting up from the bed, he groggily slipped on his clothes. While he was walking around in the house, Zhang Heng and Decius could hear the creaking of the floorboards. After that, he hurriedly opened the door and poked his head out.


    ��It��s you, aren��t you supposed to be busy with casting the bronze statue? Why are you here looking for me?�� Decius��s friend was a little surprised when he saw the people outside the door.


    ��We are in a bit of a pickle, and we need your help.�� Decius nced at Zhang Heng quickly, not knowing how much information he should reveal to his friend. However, Zhang Heng did not say a single word. So, in the end, Decius asked the most crucial question: ��We are looking for someone with a red birthmark on his face.��


    ��A person with a red birthmark on his face?�� Decius��s friend shrugged, ��Uh... I haven��t heard of such a person, is there anything else?��


    ��Huh?�� The reply startled Decius. ��No... nothing else.��


    ��Then I hope you can find the person that you are looking for as soon as possible.�� Decius��s friend was about to close the door as he spoke.


    But the next moment, a hand jammed the door that he was about to close.


    ��Mind if wee in and sit down?�� Zhang Heng asked.


    ��To be honest, my house is a mess,�� Decius��s friend rubbed his disheveled hair and said.


    ��It doesn��t matter. We are not here to build a rtionship with you.�� After Zhang Heng finished speaking, he stepped into his house.


    Decius��s friend wanted to stop him, but his small body was quickly pushed aside by Zhang Heng.


    ��Ah, who are you?! I don��t even know you! Why did you break into my house?�� Decius��s friend screamed.


    Zhang Heng ignored him and looked around his ce. As its owner had said, the room was an awful mess, with wine bottles and dirty clothes everywhere. Two drunk women were also on the bed. Apart from that, being a unit on the second floor with a balcony, the rent was expensive. The ce could bepared to Zhang Heng��s ins by the Tiber River.


    ��Uh, this is Zhang Heng, the diatorial champion of the Amphitheatrum vium. He is also an advisor to His Majesty the Emperor.�� Decius tried his best to calm the situation. ��This is my friend, us. He is a rainmaker and works for the senators.��


    ��diator? No wonder you solve your problems with brute force. I am not like you. I rely on my brain and mouth to eat,�� us sneered.


    ��If you are smart enough, you should��ve been more polite. If you had upset me, I��d probably have thrown you out of here,�� Zhang Heng said casually.


    When us heard that, his expressions changed. Not daring to look at Zhang Heng, he turned to his friend, Decius, instead. He was clearly irritated. ��What is going on? Can you give me an exnation?!��


    ��This is a misunderstanding... a misunderstanding,�� Decius quickly exined, ��We are tracking down a man with a red birthmark on his face. Consultant Zhang Heng thinks that he should be working for a high-ranking person in the Senate. I know you know a lot of people in the Senate. That��s why I came to you.��


    ��You are really good at making trouble for your friends.�� us pulled the sheets and covered the two women on the bed. ��I made it very clear when you were outside the door. I have no idea about the person that you are talking about.��


    ��Uhh... think about it again. This matter is essential to us,�� Decius coaxed with a smile.


    And Zhang Heng, on the other side, also spoke up, ��I heard Decius say that when a bill is submitted to the Senate, your job is to persuade those who originally agree or disagree with the bill to change their mind.��


    ��Uh-huh. What does that have to do with this matter?�� us had no intention to treat Zhang Heng politely because he was worried that Zhang Heng would throw him downstairs. Hence, he did not dare to say anything provocative anymore.


    ��I believe there��s something fishy about this incident. Should I appoint two guards to follow you all the time?��


    ��How can you do that?!�� us snarled.


    ��Because I am the emperor��s adviser. It is my job to investigate the corruption of the Senate and ensure that the empire develops better.��


    ��So, you want to investigate the corruption within the Senate. Even if you are the emperor��s advisor, I don��t believe that you dare offend so many nobles,�� us scoffed.


    ��Who told you I��m going to offend those nobles? I just want to find a right reason to send someone to keep an eye on you,�� Zhang Heng said indifferently. ��I don��t care how corrupt the Senate is, nor do I care about what your colleagues do every day.��


    us was frightened and furious. He finally knew what Zhang Heng was nning to do. For people like them who help their employers do private deals, staying low-key was their way of survival. If two guards were keeping an eye on him all the time, he would not be able to move freely. Besides, thepetition in this line was very fierce. If he did not perform well, he would be reced by other rainmakers in a month or two.


    ��If I were you, I would answer his questions honestly,�� Zhang Heng pointed at Decius.


    us��s expression changed. He then walked to the table and poured himself a ss of water. After drinking it to calm himself down, he asked, ��Why are you guys looking for such a person?��


    But this time, before Zhang Heng opened his mouth, us spoke, ��Forget it, don��t tell me, I don��t want to know.��


    ��You are indeed the rainmaker, a wise move.�� Zhang Heng praised.


    us quickly wrote down an address on the papyrus and handed it to Decius. ��The person you are looking for is also a rainmaker like me. Forgive me for not telling you where he lives. Being nosy is taboo in our line of job. It is better to keep ourselves out of unnecessary troubles.��


    ��I can understand that.�� Decius epted the note and apologized, ��I��m sorry about this time. I will buy you a drink when the matter is over.��


    ��No. I will be grateful if you can forget about me.�� us replied with a sullen face.

 Chapter 865 - Short Of Time

    <h4>Chapter 865: Short Of Time</h4>


    It had been half a day since Zhang Heng and Decius met for the first time. The two traveled around Rome, from the Binota Mine to the southeast city, then to us��s ins. They had been constantly on the move.


    As the investigation continued to deepen, the truth about the shutdown of the mine gradually emerged. The key person of this incident was the man with the red birthmark on his face��Amidio. As the middleman, he met Cobb and came up with the whole n. Finding him meant finding the mastermind behind him.


    And now Zhang Heng and Decius were standing outside of Amidio��s ins.


    The sun was about to set.


    Amidio��s lived in a more remote location than Kraus. Although nowhere nearly as chaotic as the southeast city, it was a shanty slum. Most who lived here were short-term tenants, having to pay the rent once a week. If they failed, they would be kicked out of the ins. Although not as famous as us, as a rainmaker for the Senate, it stood to reason that he shouldn��t be living in such a ce.


    With his ie, he could have easily afforded a better residence. There was only one reason why he��d choose to live here, and that was to keep a low profile.


    He knew what he was doing wasn��t something that could see the light of the day. Hence, he wanted to attract as little attention as possible. With all that in mind, Zhang Heng deduced that he was not a permanent resident of this ce. In other words, Amidio constantly changed residences from time to time.


    Decius did not like the atmosphere on the street. At the same time, his stomach was making some weird noises, reminding him that time for dinner was way overdue. In the past, he would have finished his work at this hour. He would��ve returned home, sitting at the dining table, and waiting for the servant to bring him some steaming hot food.


    But he knew that they had now arrived at the critical point of the investigation, and it was no longer a matter of whether he was going to lose his job. It was directly rted to the future of his family. So, he chose not toin. Instead, he asked Zhang Heng, worried, ��Shouldn��t we call some guards over? That guy is unlikely to cooperate with us.��


    After dealing with us, Decius hade to an understanding that it was not easy to get these rainmakers to cooperate with them, especially when asked to betray their employer.


    ��To tell you the truth, I was only appointed as an advisor not too long ago, and I haven��t figured out how to deploy the guards. But it doesn��t matter. I have you by my side. You are like my Watson,�� Zhang Heng said.


    ��What am I to you again?�� Decius couldn��t understand what Zhang Heng said.


    ��Watson... Don��t mind me. I just said it for fun,�� Zhang Heng said. From downstairs, he looked up and saw the approximate location of Amidio��s room. An ins designed for the poor, there was no balcony on the second floor. The only ce where fresh air could enter was via a small window. However, it was now closed tightly. No one could see what was going on inside the house. Other than that, the wall was tilting. It seemed the building had not been maintained for a long time.


    Zhang Heng patted Decius on the shoulder and said, ��Let��s go upstairs and meet this, Mr. Amidio.��


    ��Oh, okay.�� Decius tried to dig through his memory, confirming that he had never heard of such a person named Watson. He then moved forward and followed Zhang Heng up the stairs.


    The two walked through the dark corridor before stopping outside Amidio��s house.


    Decius reached out and knocked on the door. In following Zhang Heng��s teachings, he said, ��We are thendlord��s people;ing to collect rent.��


    However, there seemed to be no movement in Amidio��s unit. On the other hand, the tenant beside Amidio��s unit opened their door first. And a man walked out of it and said in surprise, ��The rent was collected two days ago, wasn��t it?��


    Decius looked at Zhang Heng with a look of embarrassment. However, Zhang Heng did not change his expression, ��The rent has increased. And now it��s time for him to pay up.��


    ��But the rent was just increasedst month.�� The man looked incredulous, ��Only a few days have passed.��


    The man had a rather boomy voice, and tenants from other units came out to see what was going on. After all, a rent increase was undoubtedly something that everyone cared about. Zhang Heng knew that he couldn��t continue keeping up with the lie. Amidio��s room was extremely quiet too. So far, he heard no sounds of movement at all. Hence, he winked at Decius, signaling him to step aside. He then proceeded to kick on the door of the room.


    ��Oh my god! Is that even necessary? All he did was he forgot to pay the rent once. Besides, you guys increased the rent on him again! This is...�� The man in the next room stopped talking suddenly, and his eyes widened.


    The sight in front of him caused him to inhale sharply. He saw a skinny man lying motionless on a round table. His clothes were dyed red with blood, and the blood was still dripping to the floor. Immediately, everyone instinctively took a step back upon witnessing this bloody scene. Only Zhang Heng��s expression remained unchanged. He then stepped forward and walked into the room.


    He had seen simr cases while being Holmes�� assistant, and he was numb to such a scene. First, Zhang Heng walked toward the round table. He reached out and touched the man��s nose to confirm that he had stopped breathing. After turning the corpse over, he took a look at the dagger stuck in his chest. After that, he saw the red birthmark on the corpse��s face.


    ��Hmm... It seems like this is the man we are looking for,�� Zhang Heng said to Decius.


    ��He... is he dead?�� Decius��s face had already be as pale as a sheet.


    ��Yes, and the time of death should be only a few minutes ago,�� Zhang Heng looked at the bloodstains. No part of it was solidified yet. ��It seems someone was in a rush to visit our target before we could. We walked up the stairs earlier. Maybe we walked past the murderer.��


    ��Huh?�� Decius tried to think of the people he met at the stairs, but he could not remember anything. With a nk mind, all he could think of was that he must��ve gotten himself involved in something big.


    What he couldn��t understand was that he was a mere nobody responsible for casting a bronze statue for the emperor. Why would anyone mess with him?


    At that time, the man from next door finally recovered from the shock. ��There has been a murder case! We should get the patrol team!�� he yelled.


    After hearing what the man said, everyone quickly went back to their houses, leaving only Decius standing at the door.


    Zhang Heng waved at him, ��What are you doing? Come in. We don��t have much time. The patrol team should be here soon.��


    ��What do you mean by that?�� Decius asked doubtfully. ��Amidio is dead. What else can we ask?��


    ��People like Amidio do business in the dark. In other words, he carries many secrets with him. He��ll definitely be watching out for assassins. Clearly, the murderer was poorly prepared this time. I checked the corpse, and I can tell you that he was killed with a single blow. No other surface wounds are visible, which means the murderer had no time to torture and interrogate Amidio. If we are lucky, we can still get the information we want without Amidio talking to us.��

 Chapter 866 - Clue And Ambition

    <h4>Chapter 866: Clue And Ambition</h4>


    Although the second century Decius did not know who Watson was, he yed the role of Watson with due diligence. Although he felt quite ufortable with the corpse in front of the round table, Decius still mustered his courage, entered the room, and quietly closed the door.


    In the old days, there was no such thing as protecting the crime scene. So Decius had no objection to what Zhang Heng wanted him to do next. After he looked around the room, he did not make a move immediately. Instead, he turned to ask Zhang Heng again. ��Uh... Although I understand what you said earlier, what are we looking for exactly?��


    ��Pay attention to all the corners where things may be hidden. Check whether there are any notes or inconsistencies with Amidio��s identity.��


    As he spoke, Zhang Heng came to a cab. He then stretched out his hand to open the cab door, and he started to pull out all the clothes from the wardrobe. After that, he bent down and looked under the cab. So, Decius quickly copied what Zhang Heng did. He began to search Amidio��s residence with Zhang Heng.


    Unfortunately, neither of them could find the thing that Zhang Heng mentioned before the patrol team arrived.


    ��Maybe he ced the items at his friend��s ce?�� Zhang Heng asked.


    By the time the patrol team arrived, Zhang Heng and Decius had already left Amidio��s residence, leaving the messy crime scene behind them for the patrol team. They were taken aback when they saw how unkempt Amidio��s residence was.


    ��It��s bad. We don��t know Amidio that well. So, we don��t know which friend he chooses to trust.�� Decius said bitterly, ��And us will not help us anymore.��


    ��It��s okay. The one who should be feeling anxious now is the enemy. Now, they had killed Amidio. If that thing is with Amidio��s friends, he will find a way to deliver the thing to the person that could help to avenge Amidio��s death.��


    ��Who can avenge him?�� Decius asked.


    ��Me.�� Zhang Heng said, ��Since the enemy doesn��t want me to meet Amidio, they definitely don��t want me to know who the mastermind is. So, all I have to do now is tell Amidio��s friend to deliver the thing to me.��


    Zhang Heng waved his hand, beckoning a painter drawing an advertisement on the wall not far away from him. Thetter then put down his brush and paint and walked over to Zhang Heng.


    Zhang Heng asked the artist, ��How much does it cost you to paint a picture?��


    ��One Sestertius, sir.��


    ��I��ll give you 1 Denarius.�� Zhang Heng threw a silver coin at the painter.


    ��I need you to write something on this ins��s wall: Zhang Heng, the Emperor��s advisor, is responsible for investigating the murder of Amidio. Pleasee to us for clues. Meet me at the Tiber��s bank.��


    ��That��s it? It��s not supposed to cost you so much.�� The painter received the silver coin and said.


    ��Just words. However, I want you to fill the walls of the building so every passing person can see it.��


    ��No problem.�� The artist epted therge sum of money and immediately began to put in work. He put a pause to his previous job first and tried his best toplete the task given by Zhang Heng first.


    ��Will this be useful?�� Decius looked at the big letters on the wall with doubt.


    ��Well, I think we should know about it tomorrow.�� Zhang Heng patted Decius��s shoulder again, ��Let��s stop here today, Watson. Let��s go home for dinner. After a day of running around, I need a good rest, and we will continue tomorrow.��


    After being reminded by Zhang Heng, Decius remembered that his stomach was grumbling. Due to the incident that he went through earlier, he had forgotten that he was feeling hungry. And now, he realized that he had lost his appetite. With a worried look, he asked, ��Do we really have to investigate this matter? We have already witnessed the death of someone. Who knows what will happen next? Will we also be targeted by the enemy?��


    Zhang Heng nodded when he heard Decius��s concern, ��I can��t rule out this possibility, but I am a diator champion, the Emperor��s adviser, and not a nobody like Amidio. It would be more difficult to kill me. Besides, they would have to face lots of trouble after they kill me. So strictly speaking, you will be in danger next. Not me.��


    ��...��


    ��But don��t worry, you are my Watson. As long as I��m still alive, it doesn��t make much sense for them to kill you.�� Zhang Hengforted.


    Decius sighed again when he heard Zhang Heng��s reply, but he did not say anything more after that. In the end, he went home looking worried.


    By the time he returned home, it was already over his meal hour. Decius was not the son of a first wife. Hence, he did not expect anyone to wait for him toe back for dinner. However, when he walked to the kitchen with a hungry stomach, he was told that no one had saved any food for him.


    After a busy day, Decius had all but anger stored in his stomach. After that, he nned to look for the servant who cooked the dinner and vent his anger on him, but all his anger disappeared the moment he saw another person in the kitchen.


    That man was an old servant dedicated to serving his brother, Nino. Decius knew immediately who the person targeting him tonight was. His mother was just a ve, and he was the product of his father��s one-night stand. In other words, his position at home had always been very awkward. He was constantly looked down on by his half-brother and mother.


    Decius knew that he would be the one to suffer from this quarrel in the end. So, he did not say a word after that. He turned around and went back to his residence, where his wife bought him dinner from outside.


    Decius asked his wife while eating, ��Did Nino harass you again today?��


    Decius��s wife hesitated and finally nodded. ��It��s no big deal. All he has is his potty mouth.��


    ��That bastard, his good life won��tst long,�� Decius sneered.


    Decius��s wife seemed to worry that his words would be overheard. Hence, she looked around and whispered softly, ��He is your younger brother, after all. If you happen to cause some big trouble, who do you think your father will favor?��


    ��I don��t care what the old man thinks. Anyway, I will never be a member of this family,�� Decius said.


    ��Don��t say that. He is responsible for all our living expenses, and he also found you a job.��


    ��It��s only temporary.�� Decius hugged his wife. ��But don��t worry. I have found a way, and I will be able to enter the Senate soon. Then, we won��t have to rely on anyone anymore.��


    ��The Senate? But you are not his official son.��


    ��I��m not going to rely on that old man. I have my own way of doing things,�� Decius said secretively, and he took his wife to the bed, ��but before that, I will continue to y the useless big brother role in this family. I��m sorry that you have to suffer because of me.��


    ��Then, how will you make it up to me?�� Decius��s wife bit her lip and gazed at her husband with affectionate eyes.


    ��I will give myself to you tonight,�� Decius said with a smile.

 Chapter 867 - Return That Thing To Me First

    <h4>Chapter 867: Return That Thing To Me First</h4>


    Decius waited until his wife fell asleep before he got up from bed and got dressed again. He gazed at his lover on the bed again as if he had made a strong determination. After that, he walked out of the room quietly.


    With tiptoes through the dark front hall, he tried not to awaken the sleeping ve, waiting until he walked past the house��s domus before he let out a sigh of relief. ncing left and right, he made sure he wasn��t being watched, then moved all the way to the south. However, he did not go too far since most who lived in this area were Roman upper-ss nobles.


    Being the most expensive area in Rome, money simply wasn��t enough to buy a house here. The buyer had to have a certain status in society before a purchase could be made. Decius��s family had moved here too after gaining more power. Their domus, however, was smaller than most around them.


    In contrast, the ce where Decius was going now was more luxurious. It indicated that the owner of this domus was quite famous in the Senate. Hence, Decius had to tidy his clothes before visiting the owner.


    Before he knocked on the door, a familiar voice came from behind him.


    ��From a friend��s standpoint, I don��t rmend you doing this.��


    Decius was taken aback, especially when he realized whose voice it was. It almost scared him to death.


    ��You! When did youe here?��


    ��I have been here for a while now,�� Zhang Heng answered. ��I have to say. It has a very decent environment. And I like the small fountain outside your house. It��s cute.��


    ��Why didn��t I see you just now?�� Although Decius tried to appear as calm as possible, his heart thumped wildly in his chest.


    ��Because I don��t want to scare you. However, in the end, I almost scared you to death, I think,�� Zhang Heng admitted regretfully. ��It��ste. Why are you here instead of sleeping at home?��


    ��Uh, I��m a little... I can��t sleep. You know... lots of things happened today. That guy named Amidio still got killed right before we entered the house. I...��


    ��Have you never seen prisoners getting executed in the arena?�� Zhang Heng asked curiously.


    ��I��ve seen it before, but that��s apletely different thing,�� Decius said. ��Besides, we might also be in danger following Amidio��s death.��


    ��Hmm. You carried much thought with you when you came out for a walk, and you even identally wandered to the aedile, Andrea��s residence,�� Zhang Heng said. ��It sounds reasonable to me.��


    Decius was left silent after he heard what Zhang Heng said. He then raised his head and asked Zhang Heng, ��Why are you here again?��


    ��I��m here to prevent you from doing stupid things. And I want to solve the bronze statue problem with you.��


    ��And how do you n to do that?�� asked Decius in surprise. ��Do you know who the mastermind is?��


    Zhang Heng did not answer Decius��s question. Instead, he stretched out a hand. ��Give it back to me first.��


    ��What is it?�� Decius��s heart clenched, but he still did not spill the secret.


    ��The ne you stole from Amidio��s room.��


    ��I stole nothing... Wait...�� Decius appeared to realize something all of a sudden. With widened eyes, he gasped, ��You ced the ne there on purpose?!��


    ��Yes. Do you now understand why I stopped you from meeting Andrea? If you had used this ne to negotiate with her, I��m worried you��d really follow in Amidio��s footsteps, ��Zhang Heng blinked and said. ��The ne is not a piece of evidence left by Amidio but, uhh... a gift from someone else. I am the one who threw it into the cracks of the bed frame.��


    Since Zhang Hengcked few good options at that time, he could only throw his game item there if he didn��t throw the ne that Luci gave him.


    ��You set a trap for me?�� Decius seemed to be in disbelief. ��But when did you suspect me?��


    ��I didn��t set a trap for you. There are three possibilities here. The first possibility is that you did not perform Watson��s duty well enough, overlooking the ne. If that were the case, nothing would happen after that. Second, you found the ne, and you notified me about it. I really hoped you would have gone for that because I would��ve praised you for it. Third, our current situation: you took the ne behind my back, and I need to stop you in time from doing anything stupid.��


    Zhang Heng continued, ��As for when I started to suspect you, I trusted you fully at the beginning. Your family became nobles with the support of the former Emperor, Aurelius. They have always been hardcore supporters of the royal family, so logically, you should have sided with us in this bronze statue affair. When I got to know you better, however, I discovered that your family background was rather interesting.


    ��Your mother was a ve, and... I must first apologize, for whates next mighte off a little harsh. Your birth was actually an ident. Your father had sex with your mother after he got drunk. After she gave birth to you, she was kicked out of the house by your father��s wife. I can imagine that you didn��t have a happy childhood. In fact, up until now, your position in this family is more to that of a leech. Fortunately, you have a wife who loves you dearly, and she is very considerate as well. Unfortunately, your brother is a b*stard. He harasses your wife when you are not there. So, do you really have a sense of belonging in this family?��


    ��Did you investigate me before you came to see me?��


    Decius looked serious.


    ��No, I came to look for you right after I left the pce,�� Zhang Heng said.


    ��But we didn��t spend much time together. When did you...��


    Decius was startled as a sudden realization came to him. ��At the southeast city, you said you were going to find a friend to help us to solve the ore problem. At that time, we were apart for a while...��


    ��Yes. You are really smarter than you seem on the outside. I know a guy. The force behind him is said to be everywhere, specializing in collecting all kinds of information. They don��t just nest in the southeast city. So I asked for your background information from him,�� Zhang Heng said,


    ��And this solves my biggest doubt. Suppose the bronze statue doesn��t get handed over on time, your family will undoubtedly suffer losses, especially new aristocrats like your father, who relied on Aurelius to join the Senate. Once he loses the Emperor��s favor, your family will start to deteriorate. But I guess this is not bad news for you since you and your family��s interests do not align.��


    Zhang Heng paused. ��Of course, I��m not saying that you stand in a different position with your family when ites to the copper mine incident. Strictly speaking, I started suspecting when you brought us to meet your friend, us.��

 Chapter 868 - Drag You Down

    <h4>Chapter 868: Drag You Down</h4>


    ��When we went to see us, did I do anything that made you suspicious of me?�� Decius asked.


    ��No. Strictly speaking, it wasn��t you. Do you remember what I did before we walked into the house?�� Zhang Heng asked.


    ��You were looking around, looking at the people in the corridor... Oh, you saw Andrea��s man,�� Decius said.


    ��I don��t know who those people are, and I��m not even sure what their purpose is. But my southeast city friends told me that those guys have been following us for some time, and the murderer killed Amidio a few minutes before we arrived. In other words, someone realized that we were about to uncover the truth. So, they hurriedly killed Amidio to prevent him from talking to us. Herees another problem.��


    ��Even if they were following us, how did they know our movements so well?�� asked Zhang Heng in return.


    ��Have you been suspecting me since then? Was that why you made something up and told me that Amidio was likely to leave evidence behind?��


    ��Well, this isn��t something I made up. The likelihood of something like this happening is very high,�� Zhang Heng said.


    ��Aren��t you afraid that I��d find the evidence he left behind and hide it from you?�� Decius could not help but ask.


    ��We were in the same room, my friend. Do you think you can hide anything from me?�� Zhang Heng sighed.


    Decius was rendered speechless.


    ��The only remaining question that bothers me now is��how deeply you involved in this matter?�� Zhang Heng looked at Decius. ��I��m tending to think that there��s an agreement between you and Andrea. However, your understanding of the whole thing is limited. As the situation developed, your shocked expressions didn��t seem faked��unless you are an outstanding actor, of course.��


    ��I think your childhood experience contributed a bit to your acting career. However, you are still not good enough to deceive me. When we saw Amidio��s body, the fear and shock you presented in front of me were real. Therefore...�� Zhang Heng snapped his fingers, ��...I was a little surprised that you did not hesitate to hide my ne afterward.��


    Decius finally spoke up after staying silent for a long while. ��You only know me by hearsay. You don��t know what my actual life is like. If I get the opportunity to take my beloved one and leave my family, you can be sure I��ll be taking it.��


    ��Before you can do all that, though, you��ll be needing chips to bargain with Andrea. And why are you so sure that you won��t end up like Amidio?�� Zhang Heng raised his eyebrows. ��I��m also curious about the promise that Andrea made to you. How did he make you side with him?��


    ��He told me that as long as I don��t get involved in this matter, he would provide me with a stable and decent job when it��s all over. So that my wife and I can move out from here,�� Decius exined.


    ��That sounds good. It��ll help if you did what he said. Leave the ne alone, stay by my side, and continue to y the role of Watson,�� Zhang Heng sincerely replied.


    ��But I want more. I want to achieve greatness and be a senator. When that timees, I��ll be able to lift my head high in front of my father and that b*stard brother of mine! If that ne is important physical evidence left behind by Amidio, I have my bargaining coin to negotiate with Andrea.��


    Decius clenched his fists.


    ��Your courage ismendable,�� Zhang Heng praised before turning around and denouncing him. ��Unfortunately, you don��t have a brain.��


    ��...��


    ��Well, I probably understand your position in this matter. Let us solve the ore matter together.�� Zhang Heng pped his hands.


    ��Are you going to confront Andrea?�� Decius asked.


    ��Amidio is dead. If you were Andrea, would you admit that you were the mastermind?��


    ��I probably won��t,�� Decius said truthfully.


    ��Yes. Even if you and I confronted him together, he will not admit to anything. And strictly speaking, all he told you was not to be nosy. He didn��t instruct you to do anything. Besides, you just took the ne spontaneously.��


    ��Then how are you going to convince him to restart the Binota Mine?��


    ��After knowing who the mastermind behind this whole incident is, it isn��t that hard getting the mine to resume operations. I don��t need him to admit that he did it. I just need to take advantage of his weakness. Let him have a taste of his own medicine.�� Zhang Heng smiled. ��It��s better that you stay oblivious to the details of the n. You can continue fulfilling your agreement with Andrea. Don��t be nosy.��


    ��I... don��t quite understand.�� Decius looked a little confused. ��Are you not going to hold me ountable for this matter?��


    ��Yes. You��ve been my Watson for a while, after all. It��ll do me no good to hold you ountable,�� Zhang Heng said. ��Be also rest assured that even if Andrea knows that I��m going against him, I won��t make you look suspicious. But from now on, you��ll have to update me on any news you receive. I might have something for you to doter on. You want to join the Senate, right? Maybe I can help you.��


    ...


    After knowing who the mastermind was, Zhang Heng immediately formted a counterattack n. But before that, the was one important thing he needed to do, and that was to make this an even more chaotic affair by dragging someone into it.


    Early the next morning, Zhang Heng visited the senator, Divo Braille.


    Divo Braille was still very cautious. Since he remained neutral in the Senate, he had heard about a group of people who were against the new emperor that just inherited the throne.


    Hence, in adherence to his consistent attitude of not offending anyone, he weed Zhang Heng, the new emperor��s advisor, into his house. However, he didn��t seem too enthusiastic. They chatted for a while in the front hall, where Zhang Heng proposed that they head to the study to examine Braille��s collection. Feeling that it would be inappropriate to reject Zhang Heng��s request, Braille agreed, and the two proceeded to the study room.


    Soon, Zhang Heng got bored. Hence, he took the initiative to say goodbye to Divo Braille.


    Divo Braille was relieved. He then sent Zhang Heng to the front hall and watched him leave his domus.


    Zhang Heng headed straight to Cobb��s residence on the city��s outskirts, spending a long time there. It made Andrea, who had been secretly monitoring Zhang Heng��s whereabouts, very nervous. He knew that Divo Braille was Cobb��srgest buyer.


    Earlier, he had asked Amidio to negotiate with Cobb. He was willing to help Cobb pay the liquidated damages of the mine, and in addition to that, pay an additional sum of money to Cobb. However, the mine was only a small part of Cobb��s business. His main ie source was still his farm. If Divo Braille got involved and used his identity as thergest buyer to pressure Cobb, Cobb would probably reveal the contents of all his transactions.


    But Andrea still did not think that he was doomed. After all, the cunning Divo Braille had stayed neutral for a long time. It��d made no sense for him to stick his nose into this matter suddenly. Of course, Andrea was not afraid of Divo Braille. After all, Andrea was just an executor that worked for someone even more powerful. Otherwise, Andrea, a small aedile, would never dare to challenge the emperor.


    And Divo Braille would not transgress them either. Otherwise, from tonight, he��d be clutching Commodus��s thigh tightly. Andrea thought perhaps Zhang Heng was just trying to scare him.


    Another day passed, and Andrea received bad news. Last night, the sewer pipe in the area under his jurisdiction had been damaged by an unknown person.

 Chapter 869 - I’m Not Close To Him

    <h4>Chapter 869: I��m Not Close To Him</h4>


    The aedile originated in the Roman Republic. At first, this position could only be held by the civilians. They were mainly responsible for the maintenance of the temple and the management of the archives. Later, with the development of society, the nobles could also work as an aedile. And at the same time, the power and responsibilities of an aedile had gone through some changes.


    From managing the archives and maintaining temples to being responsible for the city��s municipal administration, they maintained public facilities and even did public security work. In the republican era, the aedile was not paid. Often, they had to dig into their own pockets to pay for certain items. Like Caesar, he used to be an aedile. He ended up bankrupting himself, racking up considerable debt and was even prevented from leaving Rome by the loan sharks.


    Of course, Caesar was no fool. He would not do something that was not going to benefit him.


    Working as an aedile was one of the most effective ways to gain public favor and political capital. For example, if you built a road for everyone with your own money, it was only logical that they would be grateful to you. Caesar had umted a considerable reputation during his tenure as aedile, and it was all done with the help of his money. So, it was not difficult to understand why Caesar went bankrupt at that time.


    Other than that, bing an aedile would pave the road for the person to be a financial officer and magistrate in the future. Although it wasn��t mandatory for someone to be an aedile before they could be a financial officer or a magistrate, most financial officers and magistrates, ording to statistics, had worked their way up from an aedile. It was simply how the politics of that era worked.


    Andrea had served as an aedile for three years, and this year, he was expected to be promoted to financial officer. At this most critical juncture, he certainly did not want to make any mistakes. Hence, when he heard that the sewer pipe was damaged, he quickly rushed to the scene as soon as he could. The good news was that the damage was not severe, and it could be repaired within two days. The bad news was that if he did not want this matter to taint his career, he would need to pay for the repairs.


    Of course, he could afford the fees, but the problem was that Andrea did not know who damaged the sewer pipe or whether the group of people would continue to damage it after it was fixed. As an aedile, he could mobilize some of his men to keep an eye, but the area he was responsible for was huge��almost half of the city. It would be impossible to get his people to guard every section of the sewers. It was a stupid thing to do. Besides the sewer, there were many public facilities in the city.


    What Andrea worried about the most was that someone might be targeting him. If that were the case, his enemies would have plenty of options to mess with him. And it would be impossible to guard all of them. Right now, Andrea faced the same problem Zhang Heng was facing. He needed to find out who the mastermind was before formting a strategy to ovee this problem.


    So, Andrea spent the entire afternoon making a list of people he might have offended. And he found the recently famous Oriental man to be at the top of his list. Besides, Zhang Heng had just visited Divo Braille yesterday. He then proceeded to Cobb��s residence right after that. Andrea had no choice but to begin to ept that whatever he did to the mine had now been exposed.


    And the way the enemy was opposing him seemed familiar, just like the situation in the Binota mine.


    Would the cunning Divo Braille start to take a side?


    Earlier, Andrea had only suspected Zhang Heng. After receiving the ��secret report�� from Decius, he was 70% confident that his guesses were right. Decius had told him that Zhang Heng did not ask him to tag along when he looked for Divo Braille. Before leaving, he even told him that it was better that a nobody like him didn��t participate in such an event.


    This was also the real reason why Andrea felt that Divo Braille had betrayed him. With the way the cunning Divo Braille usually worked, he would never want to attract too much attention if he ever colluded with Zhang Heng. Everyone knew that he would gain more if he kicked Decius aside.


    It appeared that an opportunity to confirm his conjecture further had presented itself. In the afternoon, Zhang Heng came to his domus.


    Zhang Heng was no longer what he used to be. Instead of entertaining others with his life as an arena diator, he was appointed to be Commodus��s advisor. In other words, he had now stepped into the world where most of the powerful politicians nestled. Even if the two were enemies, Andrea had to let Zhang Heng enter his domus.


    Initially, Andrea wanted to have a quick chat with him. He did not expect Zhang Heng to speak first.


    ��Shall we go to your study?��


    Andrea subconsciously wanted to say no, but he suddenly remembered that someone had damaged the sewer pipe. So, he eventually agreed to Zhang Heng��s request.


    The two soon came to Andrea��s study. Andrea then closed the door. They were the only people in the study room. After a while, Andrea spoke first, breaking the silence. ��So, to what do I owe the pleasure of your visit?��


    ��Oh, I heard an ident happened to the sewer pipes not long ago. I was shocked at how awful it was. I happened to be passing by your domus, and I wanted to see if I could offer my help.��


    Before Andrea asked Zhang Heng to take a seat, Zhang Heng pulled the chair out and sat down.


    ��Advisor Zhang Heng, you are too kind.�� Something was shing in Andrea��s eyes. He then said coldly, ��My people have total control of the situation, and I believe it will be fixed soon. There is nothing for you to help.��


    ��That��s good. I came to Rome not long ago. Two months ago, I was just a diator. There are so many things for me to study every day... So, if I make any future mistake, I hope you can forgive me.�� Zhang Heng paused and continued, ��A friend told me that it is not tooplicated to gain a foothold in Rome��s political ground. Just get one thing done, and I��ll be able to gain a friend. If today your friendes across trouble, and you extend your helping hand to him, my friend will naturally lend me his when I��m in a rut myself.��


    ��What are you trying to say here?�� Andrea frowned.


    ��I��m working hard to make friends, as he said.�� Zhang Heng spread his hands. ��You should also know that I am now in charge of the casting of the bronze statue, but I��m encountering a little problem right now. The Binota Mine happens to have copsed, and our ore supply is cut off. Work there has been suspended for some time now. I want to resume the work as soon as possible.��


    Zhang Heng looked at Andrea��s eyes as he spoke.


    Andrea then sneered, ��What does this matter have to do with me? Besides, don��t you already have friends? Let Divo Braille helps you.��


    ��I didn��t say you have anything to do with this. As for Divo Braille, I am not too close to him. I went to look for him yesterday, but he refused to help me.�� Zhang Heng shook his head. ��So I could onlye to you and try my luck here.��


    Andrea almost yelled at Zhang Heng when he heard what he said. At this point, Zhang Heng still refused to acknowledge his rtionship with Divo Braille. Without Divo Braille��s help, how could he havee to his domus the very next day?


    Previously, Andrea had only suspected Divo Braille��s involvement in this matter. Now, he firmly believed that Divo Braille had indeed picked a side after Zhang Heng denied his rtionship with him. It was also because he could sense that Zhang Heng possessed Divo Braille��s unique aura, where he dared not admit whatever he did. And at the same time, he did want to offend anyone too.

 Chapter 870 - Reward

    <h4>Chapter 870: Reward</h4>


    ��If Divo Braille is unwilling to help you, what makes you think I would?�� Andrea asked coldly.


    ��You know, after I was free from the arena, I joined the patrol team in the southeast city for a period of time. I��ve investigated far too many criminal cases. ording to my umted experience, cases like vandalizing public facilities would surely happen more than once. And the next time, I��m afraid you won��t be getting it repaired in a day or two.��


    Andrea felt a chill when he heard what Zhang Heng said, knowing that he was being threatened. Just as he would never admit his connections with the Binota Mine, Zhang Heng would never admit that the damage to the sewer pipe was rted to him. So, he gave Andrea a fair reminder.


    Andrea knew what Zhang Heng was trying to tell him, though. If the Binota Mine problem could not be resolved, Andrea would never get his peace as an aedile. And this was the critical time for him to be promoted to financial officer. Even if he had political allies propping him up, he would still lose the support of the people if he did not do his job well.


    And once he lost the support of the people, no matter how powerful his political allies were, they wouldn��t be assisting his promotion to be a financial officer.


    Andrea knew at that time that Zhang Heng had gotten a hold of his weakness. As of now, he had two options to choose from. He could insist on sticking to his original n. If he did that, Zhang Heng would neverplete his task. However, he might lose his entire political career. There were more than a person or two who were against Commodus now. Although everyone was secretly fighting the emperor, each person had their own agenda.


    Some people wished that they could control the young emperor to gain more power, and some wanted to show Commodus that they were not afraid of him. Some adopted the soft and hard approach, ensuring that they could keep their existing power. Then there were some who wanted toplicate the situation and take advantage.


    As for Andrea, he chose this side so he could cozy up to certain core political figures and benefit from them. At the same time, he weighed the pros and cons of his decision. For now, if he insisted on following his n, his personal interests would be greatly affected. Hence, being so stubborn was simply meaningless.


    On that ount, Andrea could only choose the second option. He responded after a moment of silence. ��You don��t have to worry about the mine. I heard that the ident wasn��t that serious. Another one or two... no. They can resume work today.��


    ��Very well.�� Zhang Heng nodded and said, ��I know some people from the patrol team. I can ask them to keep an eye on the sewer pipe. If someone dares to do damage it, we will help you to catch the culprit.��


    ��Thanks for your hard work.�� Andrea gritted his teeth and muttered a thanks.


    And Zhang Heng pretended that he did not hear the man grinding his teeth. Instead, heughed and said, ��I��m d we finally reached a consensus so that the matter can be resolved peacefully. I won��t bother you anymore. After this, I��m going to tell Decius the good news. Since the mine can resume operations tonight, I believe he will want to gather the craftsmen in advance.��


    After Zhang Heng finished speaking, he got up from his seat. ��We have lost a lot of time. It��s time for us to hasten the pace if we still want to meet the dateline.��


    Andrea struggled for a moment, finally reaching out his hand before Zhang Heng left. ��I��ve seen your heroic appearance in the arena, but I didn��t expect you to y so well in the political world too. If someone looks down on you in the future, I believe they will surely regret it.��


    Zhang Heng discarded his aggressive manner too and shook hands with Andrea. ��I am also amazed by the importance of the public facilities to you. I believe you will be a financial officer smoothly.��


    ...


    It only took three days for Zhang Heng to restart the construction of the bronze statue, which had been suspended for a long time. And finally, the works were allpleted before the deadline.


    Fifty-two freshly-made Commodus bronze statues stood out in an open space on the outskirts of Rome. The rising sun ted the statues with a golden coat. The young emperor, apanied by his wife, reviewed the bronze statues, and he was pleased that each one looked as majestic as they stood. The statues looked just like him.


    When these statues were transported to various provinces, especially the more remote ones, the people from there would have a chance to admire the emperor��s likeness.


    ��You did an excellent job. Once again, you perfectlypleted the task I gave you. You will never let me down, won��t you?�� Commodus then patted Zhang Heng on the shoulder and looked at his wife. ��What kind of reward do you think I should give him?��


    ��It��s my responsibility toplete all tasks you ask of me, Your Majesty.�� Zhang Heng bowed slightly.


    ��It is also my responsibility as the emperor to reward those who do well,�� Commodus responded wittily.


    Queen Christina thought for a while, and she said, ��I heard from Luci that you still perform in the Victor Arena. That means you shouldn��t be short of money. Since you used to be a diator, I don��t think you need any ves at home. However, you don��t have a wife yet. ��


    Commodus��s eyes suddenly lit up when he heard that. Helping someone to pick a partner was a skill set all emperors possessed.


    Zhang Heng was also taken aback and hurriedly spoke before Commodus said something, ��...I actually have a lover.��


    ��Oh, is it? Which girl?�� Queen Christina was curious.


    ��She��s a spectator of my shows, and she is a civilian. We have been engaged in a private rtionship for a while now.�� In order to prevent Commodus and his wife from finding him a wife, Zhang Heng had to make up a love affair spontaneously.


    Christina wanted to ask more questions, but she noticed the impatient look on her husband��s face. Hence, she hurriedly suppressed her curiosity and returned to the elegant posture a queen should have had.


    Commodus then continued, ��I heard that you now live by the Tiber River. The scenery there is good, but it is too far away from the pce. Sometimes I need my advisor by my side as quickly as possible. And you are renting a house. If you want to integrate into this city fully, you need to have your own house. Since this is the case, I will give you a domus.��


    ��That��ll be too expensive, Your Majesty,�� Zhang Heng said.


    ��No, this is what you deserve. You did a good job with the southeast city. Working as an advisor is your job, but it is not a reward. Strictly speaking, the house is not a reward too. I��m just giving you a ce to stay. Later on, I will pick a fief and reward you,�� Commodus said happily, ��However, all the fiefs near the city of Rome are now upied by others. There are still lots of fiefs in the local province, but they are too remote. You will have to find someone to take care of it for you. I will pick a fief for you afterward.��


    Zhang Heng had to admit that although future historians portrayed Commodus as a worthless, bad-habited emperor with��and he died in an extremely embarrassing as well��the young emperor standing before Zhang Heng did treat his men quite well, for now, at least.


    Zhang Heng was actually thinking about finding a fief for himself. Once he was given one, it would mean he��d bepletely separated from the plebians and became a nobleman. Considering that he had freed himself from very only four months ago, the speed of him being promoted was almost like riding a rocket.

 Chapter 871 - New Domus And Visitor

    <h4>Chapter 871: New Domus And Visitor</h4>


    ��Wow, is this our new home?�� The ve girl ran into the new house excitedly.


    ��No, it��s my new home. You are just staying here temporarily,�� Zhang Heng said.


    ��Hmph! Stingy!��


    ��...��


    The Domus given to Zhang Heng by Commodus was not in the area where Decius��s family lived, but it was a well-known upmarket area in Rome. And, as Commodus said, it was closer to the pce and more convenient for Zhang Heng to travel there from his residence.


    Since Zhang Heng was the only person that lived in the domus, Commodus did not give him a house withrge space. Even so, it was about the same size as Mark Reuss��s domus, especially therge and well-lit front hall. There was also a long and narrow rain-collecting pond. The domus was also fully furnished as well. Lastly, Commodus sent Zhang Heng two servants to help him upkeep the house.


    The ve girl was immersed in the joy of moving to a new house. She ran around the courtyard and touched everything she could touch. On the other hand, Zhang Heng asked the two servants to move the luggage into the house. He then turned around, walked into the study room, and took out two bottles of wine from the cab before pouring himself a ss.


    After solving the mine problem, he could finally rx. With Decius keeping an eye on the project, he did not need to go there every day to monitor its progress. Other than the monthly diatorial performance, he would asionally return to the Southeast District to deal with the problems Soap and Marcus couldn��t solve. After that, he would spend the rest of his time digesting the assassin skills Dadatis had taught him.


    Now that his assassin skills had been upgraded to Lv2, it meant he had almost reached the threshold of a first-ss assassin. Coupled with Kreis�� Heart, an item known as the perfect assassin��s costume, Zhang Heng��s true strength in an assassin was close to the top assassins in the world. Once he digested everything that Dadatis taught him, he needed to umte experience like his assassin counterparts and polish his skills to improve as an assassin.


    He had a shortcut, however.


    And that was the Assassin��s Library of the Bnced de. It housed various assassin ssics since the establishment of the Bnced de. If he could stay in the library for some time, he was confident that he could further improve his assassination skills. He had even reached an agreement with the priestess��after he killed Altrus, he would be granted ess to the library.


    Currently, this was Zhang Heng��s main goal. On the other hand, being close to Commodus also meant that he could get in touch with people from the royal guards and start investigating who had actually hired an assassin to murder him.


    This problem had Zhang Heng very concerned. Enemies that were hiding behind curtains were usually the most dangerous. His rise to fame had been too quick. It was only normal that someone got jealous. And Zhang Heng also realized that he had offended a number of people. Nobody in this world hated him to the point they wanted him to disappear except for the bosses of several small gangs he had previously eliminated.


    Typically, it was hard for this type of people toe into contact with the royal guards. In other words, there was no other suspect on his list for now.


    From a motive standpoint, Zhang Heng could not find a reason for anyone to kill him. He also knew that, at times, the murderer didn��t necessarily have a reason to eliminate their targets. Some serial killers, for instance, had psychological issues, while others would kill by impulse. Looking for the individual that wanted to assassinate him would be a gargantuan task.


    The only clue that Zhang Heng had now was the portrait. It appeared that he would need to meet the royal guardster on.


    ...


    At the same time, Zhang Heng did not expect his first guest to be Luci after moving to his new domus.


    From the time the two first met, Zhang Heng did not want to get too close to the woman that possessed the intention to kill her brother. ording to historical records, it took two years for her to assassinate her brother. By then, Zhang Heng would��ve already left this dungeon. Aftering in touch with Luci, he realized how crazy she could get at times, frequently executing her actions in defiance ofmon sense. Since he could never figure out what she would do next, it was best he kept his distance from her.


    If it were someone else, Zhang Heng would have warned her not to get too close to him. However, Luci had an outstanding status in Rome. Even her husband was required to treat her respectfully. Not one person in the entire empire could hold her down except for Commodus. Although she crossed the line sometimes, most people turned a blind eye to her. And just like the others, Zhang Heng couldn��t refuse her request as well.


    Therefore, in return for receiving the ne, Zhang Heng gave her and Queen Christina a ticket to his diatorial show as promised.


    Unsurprisingly, Queen Christina declined the invitation. It was something that Zhang Heng expected. Christina grew up in a prestigious family, after all, and special attention had to be paid to manners and character. She was also now married to Commodus and had be a queen. Hence, she had to make sure that she acted like a queen. She could no longer go crazy as she liked and did all those things she wished.


    As for Luci, she was very interested in Zhang Heng��s diatorial performance. So, she epted the ticket. However, she did not show up on that day. Mark Reuss was left in an awkward spot since he had prepared a wee speech for her.


    After that incident, Zhang Heng thought that Luci��s enthusiasm for him had faded, but he did not expect that the woman would suddenly show herself in front of him after disappearing for two months.


    Luci did not inform him before she came over. She walked into the domus just like that. And she also encountered the same obstacles as her brother visited Zhang Heng for the first time. The excited ve girl stopped her.


    Luci wasn��t as nice as her brother, though. She signaled the guard behind her with her eyes. With a solemn face, the tall knight walked toward the ve girl.


    The ve girl suddenly became very nervous. There was just too much of a difference between her height and sizepared to the knight. To her, Luci��s guard was like a small hill. However, this was her home, and she was half-master. So, this time, she insisted on not taking a step back.


    That was how the ve girl thought, but she did not expect her subconscious to force her to retreat. After that, Zhang Heng came out of the study room and picked her up by her cor. He then put the terrified girl down behind him while nodding at Luci.


    ��Augusta.��


    ��Just call me Luci.��


    Luci smiled at Zhang Heng and waved at her guard as if she had done nothing to the ve girl before Zhang Heng came out of the study room.


    Of course, Zhang Heng wasn��t expecting Luci to admit her mistake. He simply asked the aggrieved ve girl to go to the second floor before asking, ��To what do I owe this pleasure, Augusta?��


    ��Call me Luci. I don��t want to repeat it the third time.�� Luci still wore her smile. ��You men are such unsympathetic animals. You haven��t seen me for so long. I would��ve forgiven you if you told me you didn��t miss me, but how dare you ask me why I came looking for you?��


    ��...��


    Zhang Heng did not know how to answer the question. So, he chose to maintain his silence.

 Chapter 872 - Banquet

    <h4>Chapter 872: Banquet</h4>


    Fortunately, Luci did not dwell on the previous conversation. She looked around, nodded, and said, ��This is a good ce. My brother seems to value you a lot.��


    ��His Majesty graciously rewards those who have helped him and rightly punishes those who go against him. He has always treated his men well,�� Zhang Heng said.


    Luci smiled nonchntly when she heard what Zhang Heng said. ��I heard you are the first to solve the public security problem in the southeast city. And right after that, you made sure that the bronze statues were delivered on time. I believe that these two achievements made my brother really happy.��


    ��It��s all part of my job.��


    ��Let��s put aside the fact that this is your job. I have to admit that you are indeed quite capable. I wonder why you keep trying to avoid me.�� Lucy paused. ��You know who I am, and I can give you something my brother can never give.��


    Zhang Heng remained silent.


    ��Do you know what I��m most curious about?�� Luci continued.


    ��I appreciate further details.��


    ��You approached my brother to gain more power. You don��t have to deny that. That night at Senator Dior��s domus, you deliberately provoked Sartonilos to attract Commodus��s attention. At one point, I thought that you were no different from the others. But what��s interesting is that you have no intention to get close to me. If you be my friend, there is no doubt that it will be useful to your political career. But you don��t seem to think so?��


    A glint shed in Luci��s eyes, ��Either I am that ugly that it makes you sick, or I��ve misjudged you from the beginning. You are not simply approaching my brother to gain more power. It seems like you have another agenda in your mind.��


    Zhang Heng��s heart clenched when he heard what she said. He did not expect that this seemingly unreliable woman would have such extraordinary observation skills. Indeed, Luci had asked the right questions this time.


    If Zhang Heng had indeed approached Commodus to gain more power, he would have worked hard to gain Luci��s adoration as well. The real reason why Zhang Heng approached Commodus was that he wanted to know Altrus�� whereabouts. And Luci had nothing to do with Altrus. Hence, Zhang Heng had no reason to please her.


    Fortunately, Zhang Heng��s advantage in understanding history could be brought into y at this time.


    After a moment of silence, Zhang Heng said, ��Your beauty is distinguished across thend of Rome. And no man can reject your invitation... I didn��t dare to approach you because I heard rumors that your rtionship with his majesty is not as good as everyone thinks.��


    Luci raised her eyebrows. She was a little surprised, ��Who told you about that?��


    Zhang Heng shut his mouth, making it clear that he did not want to answer this question.


    Not wanting to delve into it, Luci put away the smile on her face and said casually, ��Since you have entered this power circle, you should know that unverified rumors are something that will always be around. These rumors are the weapons politicians use to attack each other. I��m the only remaining blood rtive of Commodus. How could I go against my only brother? Commodus��s real enemy is the one souring our rtionship.��


    Zhang Heng bowed, ��I have learned my lesson here. I am the emperor��s advisor, after all. I have to maintain my loyalty to his majesty no matter what, even if unpleasant rumors circte me...��


    Luci interrupted impatiently without waiting for Zhang Heng to finish his sentence. ��You are a conscientious man. I��m overjoyed that my brother has finally found a decent person to work with. He needs an undespicable person to lessen his burden. If that��s the case, I won��t interrupt you putting on a show with your loyalty.��


    Zhang Heng took out the ne that Luci gave him some time ago.


    ��Keep it. I don��tck jewelry. Besides, I do not take back items I gave out.��


    After Luci finished speaking, she seemed to have lost her interest in Zhang Heng. She turned and walked out of the front hall with her guard. Zhang Heng followed her and respectfully sent Luci out of the door and waited for her to leave. When she got to the street, she stopped again, turned to Zhang Heng, and said, ��Don��t think that no one knows what you are doing. I will keep my eyes on you.��


    Zhang Heng frowned, wondering what Luci meant. At the same time, thetter had already gotten into her carriage.


    And the ve girl ran down from the second floor when she saw that everyone had gone.


    ��Is she the emperor��s sister? She doesn��t look like a nice person.��


    ��What makes you say that? Is it because she ordered her guard to get rid of you?�� Zhang Heng asked. ��Also, what did I tell you about blocking people from entering the house? You don��t even know who the person is.��


    ��I can��t be letting people into our house as they please, can I?!�� the ve girl replied angrily.


    ��It��s my home. I don��t mind. You don��t have to get angry. If a simr thing happens again, ask the servant to deal with them. If you can��t stop them, just let theme into the house. Don��t go and stick your nose into their business.��


    ��Okay.��


    Seeing that the ve girl was still a little unhappy, Zhang Heng took out a gold coin, gave it to her, and said, ��Go to the tailor��s shop and bring back the clothes I ordered. I will wear it for the evening dinnerter. By the way, use the rest of the money to get yourself a set.��


    ��Are you going to the pce to attend the dinner party?��


    Making the ve girl happy again was a breeze. She immediately felt better once she received the coin. Zhang Heng had recently discovered that the ve girl liked money a lot.


    ��Yes. I��m going to the pce to attend dinnerter. I have worked as an advisor for a while now, but I have not met most of my colleagues. It��s time for me to meet them,�� Zhang Heng said casually.


    ...


    Luci��s visit was an expected event. Zhang Heng needed to attend the uing dinner. It was the banquet that Commodus had dedicated to him, weing him into his small political group. ording to Commodus, his advisers and other hardcore supporters would be there tonight as well.


    Of course, what Zhang Heng cared about most was Altrus. He had never seen him before. Zhang Heng could have killed Altrus at the dinner party, but he promised the priestess that he would hand him over to her for a while before he killed him.


    Since this was the case, he wouldn��t be able to kill him at the banquet. Besides, if Altrus died there, he would get into trouble as well. Although Zhang Heng was confident that he could make the death look like an ident, he would look as if he had something to do with Altrus�� death since he was the main protagonist of the night.


    Hence, Zhang Heng decided to put a temporary hold on his n and use this opportunity to get to know Altrus a little more. He would look for chances afterward to eliminate him. And he had to make sure that no one would suspect him.

 Chapter 873 - Make Rome Great Again

    <h4>Chapter 873: Make Rome Great Again</h4>


    Zhang Heng rushed to the pce before dark. And now he got closer to the guards outside the pce. They knew that he was someone that the emperor valued. So, they no longer stopped him when they saw him entering the pce.


    However, it would be better if Zhang Heng was given ess to a secret passage that led directly to Commodus��s study room, like Altrus. Unfortunately, he realized it would be something he would never get.


    Commodus��s trust in Altrus had reached a level that no one could match, greatly surpassing the rtionship between the emperor and an advisor.


    From this standpoint, Zhang Heng could understand why the Bnce de, which had considerable political resources, had to eliminate Altrus. Other than assassinating him, there was no other way for them to separate him from Commodus.


    At the same time, Zhang Heng became a little curious about which side the Bnce de was on. Killing Altrus would surely weaken the emperor��s influence and leave Commodus no one to rely on. Perhaps they did not want Altrus to continue bewitching Commodus.


    This matter had nothing to do with Zhang Heng. He was simply thinking about it while traveling in the carriage. After that, he handed his Persian short swords to the maid beside him and followed another maid into the pce.


    The hall was already filled to the brim with people. However, Commodus was not there yet. Zhang Heng, too, hadn��t seen anyone that remotely resembled Altrus. On the other hand, Clint had arrived early and was walking through the crowd. Zhang Heng could see that he was quite popr among his peers. Everyone seemed to respect him a lot. When Clint saw Zhang Heng, he gave the young man he was talking to a pat on his back and walked over to Zhang Heng.


    ��Wee, I heard about the mine. You handled it very well. The batch of bronze statues was delivered as scheduled,�� said Clint before lowering his voice. ��Did you find out who the mastermind was?��


    Zhang Heng shook his head, ��I have no idea as well. I asked Senator Divo Braille, hoping he could provide me with some help. Unfortunately, he refused to help me. Anyway, the matter was resolved afterward.��


    ��Divo Braille?�� Clint raised his eyebrows, ��That cunning old fox! It��s not surprising that he refused to help you. That man would always stay neutral because he doesn��t want to offend anyone. However, why did he secretly help you in the end? Could he have done it in good faith?��


    Clint seemed a little baffled.


    ��I heard that you encountered some troubles recently.�� After Zhang Heng realized that he had drawn Clint��s attention to Divo Braille, he quickly changed the topic.


    ��Oh, someone wanted to interfere with the introduction of the new copper coin. I killed some of them. After that, the rest of the people began to fall in line obediently,�� Clint said with disapproval. ��Some people in the Senate are living sofortably that they have forgotten who grants them their power. His Majesty��s father was too tolerant of the Senate when he was still on the throne. And some of them are way over their heads now. We need to change the way they work. If I��m right, I believe that will be our next task.��


    Clint had inadvertently revealed some of his ns to Zhang Heng. It was his way to gain political allies. The two chatted for a while before Clint stopped talking about politics. He then started to talk about the food, the drinks, and enjoying himself. He rmended several famous restaurants in Rome to Zhang Heng. Writing it down, Zhang Heng nned to take the ve girl to those ces. This was his only chance to dine at Roman eateries of the second century. He also wanted to know if he could gain any points from it.


    After a while, Commodus finally walked into the hall.


    The crowd stopped talking and paid their respects to the young emperor. Thetter seemed to be in a good mood tonight. He waved his hands and chirped, ��The purpose of our banquet tonight is to wee a new friend! There are no outsiders here, so you are free to loosen yourselves.��


    After speaking, he looked at Zhang Heng.


    Upon seeing this, Zhang Heng walked toward Commodus. The young emperor immediately put his hand on his shoulders. He then said with great enthusiasm, ��Next, I will introduce my new advisor! I believe you are quite familiar with him. The entire city of Rome knows his name! He makes all the women go crazy for him! He was the champion of the Amphitheatrum vium, and he can defeat a bison empty-handed! He is Zhang Heng from another far-eastern empire!��


    Commodus deliberately raised volume when he said Zhang Heng��s name, and a festivus round of apuse rumbled through the banquet hall.


    As the apuse died down, Commodus continued, ��I��m betting that all of you herebined may not be enough to defeat Zhang Heng. Never for a second should you think that he is simply a man that knows only violence to solve problems. In fact, his wisdom amazes me. All of you here know about the southeastern city. The public security problem there has existed for at least a century or two. Countless emperors have attempted to improve the area, but none have yielded any result. And indeed, most believe that the area no longer has hope. Zhang Heng spent only two months there, and he greatly improved the security situation. Compared to hisbat skills, his intelligence is more valuable to me. My father told me constantly that the brain is always better than the sword.��


    Everyone nodded when they heard the emperor��s speech.


    Commodus took two sses of wine from the waiter, gave one of them to Zhang Heng, and raised the ss in his hand. ��Let��s pay our respects to this mystical oriental man who will never let us down! Let��s wee him to join us. Let us all make Rome greater together!��


    When he heard that, Zhang Heng raised his ss too and said, ��His Majesty; under your leadership, Rome will be filled with glory!��


    ��To our emperor and Zhang Heng, our new friend!�� everyone toasted and hollered.


    After that, Commodus asked Clint to take Zhang Heng to meet the people that attended the banquet.


    Zhang Heng then shook hands with the guests one by one. As Clint continued introducing the guests, his heart gradually sank because he discovered that Altrus was not there.


    Almost all of Commodus��s men were there tonight, except for the mysterious Altrus.


    This also meant that Zhang Heng��s previous n was now nullified. He realized that he wouldn��t be approaching Altrus anytime soon.


    If Altrus was so cautious that he even refused to attend a banquet his colleagues attended, it meant that no one else could see him except for Commodus. The difficulty of assassinating him would be very high, not to mention that Zhang Heng needed to hand him over to the priestess for some time before he got to kill him.


    After that, Zhang Heng did not bother making any new friends. He had a different purpose from everyone here. After all, he was just a passer-by in Rome during the second century AD. It would be pointless for him even if he were promoted to Clint��s position.

 Chapter 874 - Surprise Meetup

    <h4>Chapter 874: Surprise Meetup</h4>


    The banquet ended in a rxed and happy mood. Only halfway through the function, Commodus had already made a move. Zhang Heng wanted to leave as well, but considering the personality he had created for himself, he had to wait until the end of the banquet before he could leave the ce. Luci��s visit this afternoon also reminded him that as he became more and more famous, more people would be paying attention to him now.


    It was crucial that someone like him attended such an evening banquet. It allowed him to exchange conversation and make friends with powerful political allies. If Zhang Heng wanted to maintain his power-hungry persona, it would be unwise for him to leave too early.


    Although Zhang Heng was not interested in socializing, he had to pretend that he was fond of talking to them.


    He did not remember how many sses of wine he drank that night. The Roman nobles liked to drink their wine with lead sses. Besides, red lead could effectively reduce the sourness in wine. Other than that, the water containers that supplied the water to everywhere in the city were made of ceramic and lead. Smaller items like tableware, kitchen utensils, jewelry, and cosmetics contained lead, not to mention that Romandies liked lipstick that contained lead or cinnabar (red mercury sulfide).


    It was not hard to understand why the Roman nobles found it difficult to bear children. Zhang Heng was not bothered by it, though, considering he would only be in this dungeon for a year and a half. When he returned to the real world, his physical state would be restored to the state before he entered the dungeon.


    So, in theory, as long as Zhang Heng did not drink himself to death within a year and a half, chronic lead poisoning was not a big deal to him. However, he suddenly felt dizzy when he was drinking a ss of wine with a young man.


    An ordinary person would have thought that Zhang Heng might have consumed too much alcohol that night. However, for a well-trained assassin like Zhang Heng, it was easy for him to realize something wrong with the wine. Not to mention that when Zhang Heng met Dadatis not too long ago, thetter used the same method to doze him off. That was why Zhang Heng was extra cautious when he encountered a simr situation.


    Hence, he reacted immediately after taking the first sip. He saw a honey pot and vomited the rest of the wine in his mouth. After that, Zhang Heng pretended that he was drunk and dropped the honey pot on the ground. Immediately, a maid went over to clean up the shattered pieces.


    The other maid who helped Zhang Heng up said, ��His Majesty mentioned that if you are drunk, you can rest in the room upstairs.��


    Zhang Heng mumbled a few vague words. Although he vomited most of the wine, he could still feel that the small sip he took had started to take effect. Not only did he be dizzy, but his breathing began to elerate as well. His pupils became dted. Fortunately, Zhang Heng could still manage to control himself. He figured that he had around 80% of his strength left. If he drank all of the wine in the cup, he would have lost all his mobility, and others could do whatever they want to him. Now, he still had enough strength to protect himself, at least.


    Zhang Heng was a little surprised at the beginning because he was at the royal pce. And it was probably the most difficult ce for someone to poison others. Not to mention that many guests attended the banquet tonight. Now it seemed like he was the only victim, which meant that the person that poisoned him had control over the maids. And the person had also prepared a room for him.


    In other words, Commodus probably knew about it. Even if he did not know anything, it seemed he wasn��t opposing it from happening. Since Zhang Heng had already known who did this to him, he actually felt relieved.


    The maid helped him to get to the room upstairs. Unlike the magnificent banquet hall below, the room was empty, with only two chairs facing each other. The maid put Zhang Heng on one of the chairs, then turned on the light and walked out.


    Zhang Heng immediately closed his eyes. He made use of the time he had to feel the state of his body and analyzed what he had consumed earlier. With that, he would be able to act like he had drunk the entire ss of wine.


    Beforeing into this dungeon, Zhang Heng possessed the Lv1 herbalism skills. Other than that, Dadatis also taught him a thing or two about poisons. Judging by how his body reacted after taking a sip, Zhang Heng figured that his ss of wine most likely contained Scopolia.


    The ordinary person might not know what Scopolia was, but most people should have heard of the name ��Truth Serum.��


    The original Truth Serum was discovered by an obstetrician. It was used to reduce the pain of the parturient women. He injected some alkaloids extracted from scopmine into the parturient women��s bodies. After that, with no opposition whatsoever, the parturient women would subconsciously answer all the questions truthfully. There was also a precedent for using Scopolia to treat mental illness and relieve pain for Chinese medicine.


    Scopolia affected the respiratory center, causing those who had consumed to have dted pupils and a significant inhibitory effect on the cerebral cortex. It matched Zhang Heng��s previous body response. The smell of it was covered by something else. Luckily, the tingling sensation on his tongue would not deceive him. In addition, Scopolia itself was highly toxic. Logically speaking, if one directly consumed Scopolia to achieve the Truth Serum��s effect, the dosage should be enough to kill them. However, Zhang Heng��s sixth sense told him that drinking the entire ss of wine should not be enough to poison him.


    In other words, the other person��s purpose was not to take his life. The culprit had somehow found a way to eliminate the poison.


    The above was the information Zhang Heng got during this period of time.


    After that, he heard someone calling his name.


    Zhang Heng then opened his eyes, but he did not see anyone sitting on the opposite chair. The voice came from behind him.


    ��Don��t worry. I just want to ask you a few questions,�� the person behind him said.


    ��Who are you? What��s wrong with me?�� Zhang Heng muttered. He tried, but he could not seem to turn his neck.


    ��You drank too much wine. I think you should take a good rest. Don��t worry. I will take care of you. As for me, you should have heard of my name before. I am Altrus. Just like you, we are the emperor��s advisors.��


    ��You are Altrus, the mysterious man that everyone talks about? You have never shown your face to anyone before.��


    Altrus smiled when he heard what Zhang Heng said. He did not seem to be bothered by Zhang Heng��s offensivements. He then responded, ��Yes, I know about what others are talking about me. I don��t care. Both you and I are the advisors. We should know that our work serves the emperor. As long as the emperor trusts us, the opinions of others are not important.��


    Altrus paused and then said, ��Well, enough chit-chat. Let��s get to the topic.��


    ��What��s the topic?��


    ��As I said, I want to ask you some questions. You just have to answer me truthfully. Let��s start with the southeast city. You have done a beautiful job there, but I want to know what agreement you made with the Jewish gang? I know Lockheed is not afraid of us sending one-thousand imperial guards over there. So, I want to know what you promised Lockheed. Did you promise him that he could run the ce without the interference of the higher authority or something else?��


    Lockheed��s desire to get rid of senator Divo Braille was supposed to be ssified. Only the four people present at the time knew that Lockheed had made Zhang Heng swore that he would never tell anyone. Otherwise, with Divo Braille��s power, he would cause a lot of trouble to the southeast city.


    Initially, Zhang Heng wanted to make up a lie to deal with Altrus, but in the next moment, he suddenly remembered what Luci said to him before he left. At the time, it sounded like a threat that came from her frustration. Especially the first half of the threat, she told Zhang Heng that some people knew what he was up to.


    But now Zhang Heng suddenly realized that Luci was probably reminding him, especially since a man from the Beehive called Cornu was also there. And Zhang Heng did not know whether he was someone from the Hounds or Bnce de.


    Zhang Heng realized that he had to make a choice here. If Altrus was testing him with this question and he answered incorrectly, Altrus might soon discover that Truth Serum was not working. After a moment of silence, Zhang Heng answered, ��They asked me to deal with someone.��


    ��Who?��


    ��Senator Divo Braille. He is too greedy. Lockheed doesn��t like him. I shouldn��t tell you about it. I promised Lockheed that I would keep it as a secret.��


    Altrus snorted, and Zhang Heng tried to judge from Altrus��s tone whether he had known about it a long time ago. But unfortunately, Altrus did a good job at concealing his emotions. After hearing Zhang Heng��s answer, he said softly, ��It doesn��t matter. I will keep it a secret. Are we friends?��

 Chapter 875 - Gift And Trouble

    <h4>Chapter 875: Gift And Trouble</h4>


    ��Are we friends?�� Zhang Heng asked in a daze.


    ��Of course, we are advisors of the emperor. So, that makes us friends.�� Altrus��s voice sounded as sincere as a man could get. Making someone believe him would be a breeze. Coupled with the Scopolia alkaloids, an ordinary person would have opened up to him immediately.


    At the same time, Altrus was also very satisfied with Zhang Heng��s current reaction. He continued asking, ��I heard that youe from a faraway Eastern empire, and there are rumors saying that you are a nobleman there. Why didn��t you enjoy yourfortable life over there? Why did you leave your home ande to Rome, and thousands of miles away?��


    ��Oh, that��s a long story. I was from a once prominent family. My father was a general of the empire, but he was used of something that he didn��t do. He was imprisoned by the authorities after that. In the next political warfare, my family waspletely defeated by our political enemies. I lost all the people and things that I cared about. In the end, I was the only one left alive. I was forced to leave my country and head west. I didn��t know where I would end up. I just needed to... escape from there. The past is like a nightmare to me. I didn��t know that I woulde to Rome at that time, and I don��t want anyone to know about my previous life.��


    Zhang Heng knew that Altrus could never verify any story he would tell him. Hence, he could make up a story like this with confidence. At the same time, the tale doubled up as an exnation as to why he had such outstanding skill and political experience.


    ��Understandable,�� Altrus nodded, ��You are a citizen of Rome now, and this city will be your new home in the future.��


    ��I hope so.��


    ��Let��s continue to talk about what happened after you arrived. When did you first meet His Majesty?�� Altrus asked.


    ��The first time I met His Majesty was at the dinner at Dior��s domus,�� Zhang Heng said.


    ��I heard about what happened that night. You provoked Sartonilos and attracted His Majesty��s attention. Did you do this because someone wanted you to do it?��


    ��No, I did this because I wanted to be free and enter the upper ss of society,�� Zhang Heng��s voice began to waver, sounding a little murky. ��Trust me, my background makes me no stranger to this kind of thing. If I��m looking for someone that I can lean on, of course, I have to choose the most powerful one I can find.��


    ��A wise choice,�� Altrus paused. He then asked another question, ��What do you think of Luci?��


    ��Who?��


    ��The emperor��s sister, Augusta Luci of the Roman Empire.��


    ��She wants to sleep with me,�� Zhang Heng blurted without hesitation.


    Altrus seemed amused, and heughed out loud. ��You are right! Luci behaves just like her mother in private. Men are like her trophies. You are the diatorial champion of the Amphitheatrum vium. You are still very interesting to her. I��m not surprised that she is interested in you. However, this is not what I wanted to ask. I want to know, what is your opinion or impression of her?��


    ��I can��t see through her,�� Zhang Heng said truthfully, ��I heard some rumors about her. Her rtionship with His Majesty the Emperor is not as good as it seems on the surface. Hence, I have been trying my best to stay away from her. No one likes a man that sits in the middle of the wall.��


    ��You are smart, smarter than most people,�� Altrus raised his eyebrows. ��Last question. Have you heard of the Bnce de?��


    ��Bnce de? What is that?�� Zhang Heng wondered out loud.


    ��An ancient assassin organization that believes in Kreis. Its members believe that they are responsible for maintaining the bnce of the world.��


    ��Kreis, I seem to have heard this name somewhere.�� Zhang Heng showed a thoughtful look. ��There is a person that goes by the nickname Cornu that seemed to have mentioned Bnce de and other things to me. But I don��t really care about these things. I just want to mind my business, and I don��t want to cause any trouble. Wait... Am I in any trouble?��


    ��For now, no,�� Altrus said. ��I am quite satisfied with this conversation. I like honest people. I hope you can continue to maintain this precious quality. Please forgive me for being cautious. It has been quite eventful recently. As the emperor��s most trusted advisor, I have the responsibility and obligation to find out about everyone��s background. Since this is the first time we are meeting, let me present you a gift.��


    ��What��s the gift?�� Zhang Heng yawned.


    ��You will know soon.�� Altrus smiled when he heard Zhang Heng��s question. However, he did not borate on it. He then said softly, ��You are very tired tonight and have drunk too much wine. Why not have a good night��s sleep?��


    ��You��re right. I��m going to sleep now,�� Zhang Heng muttered sleepily. His eyelids were getting heavier and heavier. And he finally fell asleep on the chair.


    Altrus waited for a while and pped his hands to signal the waitress waiting outside the room toe in.


    Altrus then said, ��Take care of him. And when he is a little more awake, send him home safely.��


    ��That��s it? What if he wakes up and remembers that we drugged him and wants us to pay for what we did?�� The maid frowned.


    ��No, he won��t remember a single thing after he drank that ss of wine,�� Altrus said confidently. ��Besides, even if he remembers it, he will dare to do nothing to us. That��s because I know a lot of his secrets now.��


    ��What about Clint? He doesn��t like you, right? You two appeared by Commodus��s side at almost the same time. However, you have always managed to gain more of Commodus��s favor. Clint was jealous of you. He was willing to let this Easterner be Commodus��s adviser because he wants to work with him to deal with you. Don��t you want to solve this problem?��


    Altrus still remained indifferent when he heard the concern. ��Clint��s is insignificant. He treats me as his biggestpetitor that stops him from climbing up the ranks. However, I have never treated him as an opponent. He is just a self-righteous fool. I��m never worried about him.��


    The maid fell into silence when she heard Altrus��sment. Altrus then reminded the maid, ��I will do my part, and you��d better do yours too. Let��s deal with the Bnce de first.��


    ��We are fully prepared this time,�� snorted the maid. ��It��s time for the people from the Bnce de to pay off the blood-debt they owe us. This time, we don��t n to let any of them live.��


    ��Very well. This assassin organization is too dangerous. There is no need for it to exist. It is better to destroy it.�� Altrus also agreed, ��And now they are trying to get rid of me. If that��s the case, we need to make a move to get rid of them first.��

 Chapter 876 - Speculation

    <h4>Chapter 876: Spection</h4>


    The unexpected meeting with Altrus that night didn��tst too long. From the beginning to the end, Zhang Heng did not see Altrus��s face. This however did not stop him from collecting information about him through other means.


    Although Zhang Heng was also affected by Scopolia, he could still control his body well. All five of his senses were still working. At the same time, his calm mind also provided him with an objective and urate analysis.


    Judging from Altrus��s voice, Zhang Heng knew that Altrus was not that old. He was estimated to be as young as him or Commodore, which was around twenty years old. Zhang Heng was a little surprised by how cautious Altrus was. Zhang Heng thought he should be at least 27 or 28 years old in terms of maturity, but he did not expect him to be so young.


    Unlike the rumor, Altrus was different from someone like Clint, who had climbed from the bottom of the pit to where he was today. Although thetter was now a nobleman and he had learned their manner of speech and way of life, his choice of words and how he constructed his sentences still contained traces of bad habits he cultivated when he was a child. Clint would roll his tongue when he pronounced some words because his former elementary school teacher was a Cappadocia.


    However, Altrus did not have a problem like this. His ent was pure, and he could show that he was a true noble from his word choices and how he constructed his sentences. Zhang Heng had strong reason to believe that he had grown up in a very decent environment. The possibility that he grew up in arge family couldn��t be ruled out too.


    But in this way, he could not exin why Commodus trusted him so much.


    Judging from Commodus��s attitude towards the Senate, it was apparent that he was not that stupid. From the moment he inherited the throne, he had always guarded against the nobles and was also why he was dared to use neers from a humble background like Clint and Zhang Heng. If that was the case, he should not allow the descendants of a great noble family to enter and leave his study room freely.


    Other than that, Zhang Heng also noticed how Altrus��s footsteps sounded unique. They seemed feathery and light. If he hadn��t gone through stealth training as Zhang Heng had, it would indicate that his weight was also very light. Zhang Heng estimated that he weighed only sixty to seventy catty. Even for ady, he would be too light, not to mention that Altrus was a man.


    Zhang Heng figured that Altrus might have some kind of disease and it was incurable in this era. Thetter was also dragging his right foot on the ground when he walked, which also proved Zhang Heng��s deduction. Other than that, Altrus also held a cane to assist him in walking.


    Judging from that, Altrus had not shown his face because he did not want others to see his current physical condition, apart from the fact that the Bnce de wanted to assassinate him. It was interesting to know that the most mysterious and trusted advisor of Commodus had some physical disabilities. A great many people would be shocked if he were exposed.


    Zhang Heng also learned Altrus��s identity from the subsequent dialogue between Altrus and the maid. The maid who helped him was probably from the Hounds. Coupled with the previous encounters that Zhang Heng experienced, Cornu, from the Beehive, was suspected of being a Hounds member. In other words, the influence of the Hounds in the city of Rome was probably quite insignificant.


    It was very likely they had secretly mobilized their men to the city of Rome. And it was very obvious that Altrus was working with the hounds, and the two sides nned to join forces to deal with the Bnce de.


    And that wasn��t even the worst-case scenario yet. The worst part was that it seemed like the tragedy that happened to Bnce de during the Caesar era was likely to happen again. And Zhang Heng now had enough reason to suspect that there is a traitor in the Bnce de. It was not only because of how much Altrus and the Hound knew about Bnce de; more importantly, Zhang Heng was more concerned about the attitude disyed by the Bnce de��s priestess.


    There was no doubt that she or the political forces behind her wanted to get rid of Altrus. Otherwise, she would not issue an oracle like this. After that, she found Zhang Heng through Dadatis and reached an agreement with Zhang Heng privately. She wanted Zhang Heng to hand over Altrus to her first before he killed him.


    Zhang Heng suspected that the Priestess might have also discovered the traitor not long ago. On the other hand, Altrus had probably identified the traitor as well, or at least the information rted to the traitor��s identity. With that, everything could be exined perfectly now.


    The oracle that the Priestess issued to kill Altrus could not be withdrawn. Hence, she was forced toe up with a contingency n. She wanted to get the traitor��s name from Altrus first before letting Zhang Heng kill Altrus.


    Zhang Heng was originally not interested in the war between the Bnce de and the Hound. However, with how the current situation developed, the Bnce de was in a tough spot. Although Zhang Heng did not get any sense of belonging from the Bnce de, he had to consider the problems that might drag him down after the Bnce de fell from its grace.


    So Zhang Heng decided to remind the Priestess about it.


    Early the next morning, he traveled to the southeast city and went through theplex terrain to get rid of the possible people that followed him. After that, he used his Lv2 makeup skill toe up with a new disguise for himself. Once that was done, he left the southeast city and came to Perfume Street. As promised, he looked for a perfume shop with irises outside.


    Zhang Heng told the shopkeeper that he was going to buy a bottle of perfume that had a very light smell. After that, he paid a Sestertius to the shopkeeper. The shopkeeper felt a little surprised initially. After he heard about the perfume that Zhang Heng requested, he thought that he was here to mess with him. However, after he received the copper coin given, his expression changed, and he quickly led Zhang Heng to the storeroom at the back of the perfume shop.


    After a while, a woman with a veil on her face appeared and said, ��Have you found the whereabouts of Altrus?��


    ��Not yet, but I have a clue. As long as I��m in the right direction, I should be able to locate him soon.�� Zhang Heng said.


    However, the woman wearing the veil was indifferent when she heard Zhang Heng��s update. She frowned and asked, ��Since you haven��t found Altrus, why are you here?��


    ��Because I want you to pass some words to the priestess.��


    ��Sorry, this is not within my responsibility. But I can help you make an appointment with her,�� the woman wearing the veil said coldly, ��You can talk to her in person when you meet her.��


    ��We didn��t get along well when we met for the first time. I don��t think it is necessary for me to meet her again. Anyway, let me tell you something important. As for whether you want to tell her about it, it has nothing to do with me�� Before the woman could say anything, Zhang Heng continued to talk.


    ��Altrus is working with the Hounds. I guess they have most likely moved their core members to Rome. And they may attack us at any time soon. As for the traitor, I think you should have known about it a long time ago. I hope all of you have prepared to handle this trouble.��


    The woman wearing the veil seemed a little surprised when she heard what Zhang Heng said. She was not surprised by the news that Zhang Heng told her but the fact that Zhang Heng knew about the traitor shocked her. This changed her attitude toward Zhang Heng slightly because she now discovered that Dadatis did not make any exaggeration. There was something special about the oriental man in front of him.


    So her tone also eased up a little. ��We knew about what you just told us quite a while ago. You can rest assured that we are different from two hundred years ago. Now, except for the speaker and the Priestess, the members of the organization do not know each other��s identities. Hence, the damage that the traitors can cause is also limited.��


    Zhang Heng was nomittal when he heard what she said. ��Better be. Altrus and the Hounds seem to be very confident that they can destroy Bnce de this time. If I were you, I wouldn��t talk too soon.��


    ��Don��t worry. Strictly speaking, you haven��t fully joined us yet. So you don��t know how powerful Bnce de is. We have faced many enemies throughout history, but we are still standing here.�� The woman wearing the veil said confidently, ��There will be no exceptions this time.��

 Chapter 877 - You Might Need To Travel Somewhere Far Aw

    <h4>Chapter 877: You Might Need To Travel Somewhere Far Away</h4>


    Zhang Heng contacted thedy in the perfume shop ording to how the priestess instructed him. As a result, he gained nothing other than thedy telling him that the Bnce de was confident that they could deal with their enemies this time. It left Zhang Heng with a bad feeling.


    The woman wearing the veil was right. It was a fact that Zhang Heng did not know the true strength of the Bnce de. However, he had juste into contact with Altrus not too long ago, and he knew that people like Altrus were not easy to deal with. What more, Altrus had now made it clear that he was teaming up with the Hounds, preparing to take down the Bnce de together.


    In Zhang Heng��s initial prediction, the battle between the Bnce de and the Houndssted for more than two hundred years. In other words, telling who would win this time would be pretty challenging. Through this, the candidates of the Bnce de would get to observe their opponents before the battle of the century began.


    Zhang Heng felt like he might have overestimated the Bnce de��s leader��s abilities. At the same time, he also underestimated theeback of the Hounds. If Cornu was indeed from the Hounds, that could mean that Beehive was probably the Hounds�� peripheral organization.


    And this also meant that the Hounds had probably been operating in Rome for quite some time. The previous assassination in Britannia was probably just the Hounds�� way of diverting attention. The Bnce de knew nothing about the powerful opponents that grew under their noses. And as we know, this made it hard for Zhang Heng to believe that the Bnce de had the upper hand in this battle.


    And once the Bnce de was defeated, it would be hard for Zhang Heng to survive alone. Zhang Heng knew that some preparations had to be made to prevent the situation from deteriorating further. ording to Dadatis, only four people in the Bnce de, himself included, knew Zhang Heng��s identity. But from that moment on, Zhang Heng also needed to prepare a backup n if his identity was leaked.


    However, he did not intend to give up his n of assassinating Altrus. In addition to his need to enter the secret library of the Bnced de, eliminating Altrus would allow him to lessen the Bnced de��s burden.


    With Altrus��s cautious character, there were few opportunities for him to reveal his ws. This time, he did not expect that Zhang Heng hadn��t actually finished the ss of wine and that he could still stay awake to answer his questions. He was obviously not expecting Zhang Heng to extract so much information by simply listening to his tone, diction, and pace. If he knew Zhang Heng was capable of something like that, he would have nevere to meet him in person.


    Next, Zhang Heng might have to race against time.


    ...


    ��What? You��ve gotten your fief? And it��s in the province of Mesopotamia! Where is that ce?�� The ve girl was taken aback. She had been a ve in Rome since birth and had never left the ce. She had heard of the nearby provinces, but not the ces further than that.


    ��Well, the province of Mesopotamia is located southeast of Rome. It is thousands of miles away from us. You have to travel by carriage, then a boat, and go on another carriage to get to the final destination. It is probably going to take a few months to get there,�� Zhang Heng said.


    ��That��s far. But I thought you couldn��t leave Rome?�� The ve girl was puzzled. ��Then how are you going to manage your fief?��


    After she finished speaking, she noticed Zhang Heng looking at her. The ve girl was bewildered for a moment. After that, she understood why he was staring at her. Her face turned pale immediately, ��Are you... Are you trying to ask me to go there to take care of your fief?!��


    ��Yes. I might need your help.��


    ��But... But, didn��t you say that it is thousands of miles away?�� The ve girl waspletely terrified.


    ��Nothing to worry too much about. I��m in no rush anyway. Take your time and enjoy the scenery along the way and have a taste of the delicacies from abroad. I will give you enough money for your expenses. You haven��t left Rome before, right? This is your best opportunity to check out some other ce.��


    ��But I don��t want to leave... Rome.�� The ve girl almost blurted out that she did not want to leave Zhang Heng. Fortunately, she quickly reced the word ��you�� with ��Rome�� at thest moment.


    ��I know. Just consider it as doing me a favor. I don��t have anyone else I can trust now.��


    ��But I��ve been a ve since I was a child. I don��t know how to manage a fief!�� The ve girl finally came up with another valid reason to not travel to the fief. She then quickly added, ��I��ll stay by your side. I��ll wash and cook for you, take care of your daily life. I��m the best at this.��


    But she did not expect Zhang Heng to react colder than she thought. After that, Zhang Heng heard what she said. He replied, ��It��s okay. If you lose money in the business, just write me and ask for more money. If you make money, you can spend it on yourself.��


    ��That��s okay?�� The ve girl waspletely stunned by Zhang Heng��s open-mindedness. Later, she wanted to tell Zhang Heng that that was not the point. However, before she could say anything, she heard Zhang Heng saying in an incontrovertible tone, ��You should go and clean up, leave the day after tomorrow, and get on the road early. Otherwise, it will be winter when you arrive in Mesopotamia.��


    The ve girl fell to the bottom of her heart when she heard Zhang Heng��s reply. There was nothing else she could say after hearing that Zhang Heng wanted her gone as soon as possible. She then walked away with her head bowed low.


    Zhang Heng knew that the ve girl would return to her room and cry.


    But this wouldn��t change any of his decisions. Commodus had initially wanted to choose a fief near Rome, but Zhang Heng requested his fief to be located somewhere remote. He mentioned that he wanted morend. However, that was just an excuse he used to send the ve girl on a long trip.


    There was no mobile inte or telegrams in this era. When someone traveled to a faraway ce, they would be unable to contact those back at home. No matter what happened in Rome, the ve girl would not be affected. In other words, Zhang Heng had just sent the person closest to him out of the whirlpool.


    As for the farewell, it would happen sooner orter. Even if nothing happened, Zhang Heng would leave this dungeon after one year. Instead of separating after one year, it was better for them to part ways now before they spent more time together. Zhang Heng also gave all the money he made during this period to the ve girl. After sending thetter away, he was finally able to do as he wished.


    That night, with the help of Kreis�� Heart, Zhang Heng sneaked into the temple where the citizens�� archives were stored and found the list of nobles born twenty years ago. He was a little surprised, though, by the results. After taking about a week to go through the list, he realized that Altrus was not among them.


    This was a little strange. Either Altrus had taken away his files, or Zhang Heng was looking in the wrong direction. As the rumor said, Altrus was not a nobleman. However, this couldn��t exin the habits that he got from the noble family. Secondly, there were more noblespared to civilians. It was not possible for Zhang Heng to collect each and every file of civilians that were born twenty years ago.


    Zhang Heng felt that he might be missing out on something.

 Chapter 878 - Altrus’s Gift

    <h4>Chapter 878: Altrus��s Gift</h4>


    While Zhang Heng was still investigating the true identity of Altrus, he did not expect to receive a gift from him. Earlier, when the two met for the first time, Altrus promised Zhang Heng that he would give him a gift.


    However, he did not receive anything from Altrus after waiting for a few days. Zhang Heng thought that he must have forgotten about the gift. After all, Altrus mentioned that Zhang Heng would not remember a single thing after he drank the ss of wine that contained scopmine alkaloids.


    Technically speaking, no one would know whether he had fulfilled his promise. However, someone as noble as Altrus would never break his promise, even if the person might not remember it. Around two weekster, Zhang Heng received a card at noon. There was no signature, and there was only a sentence written on it.


    [Your gift has been delivered; I hope you like it.]


    In the afternoon, a piece of shocking news broke out from the Senate, saying that senator Divo Braille was suspected of epting bribes and involving a tremendous amount of money. epting bribes was a severe crime in Rome. The amount of money a person took determined their punishment. The offender could receive the death penalty or exile from Rome. Usually, such a crime would only bemitted by lower-level officials.


    The nobles usually had a way to clear their names after epting bribes, let alone a powerful man like Divo Braille. He would nevere forward to take the proceeds in person, so even if something went wrong, the authorities could only trace it back to the men that worked for Divo Braille. Otherwise, Lockheed would not need to worry that Divo Braille was getting greedier and greedier.


    There was nothing that Lockheed could do about it, which was why he agreed with Zhang Heng. He was willing to let the patrol team and Soap continue to expand their power, but in return, Zhang Heng had to help them to deal with Divo Braille.


    But this time, Zhang Heng learned that Divo Braille was not in a good spot. The authorities collected detailed evidence, more than enough to expose Divo Braille. Besides, there were many witnesses. At the same time, most of the bribery offenses were carried out when Divo Braille was a financial officer.


    This amount of money was also closely tied to a new park in the city of Rome.


    The park was built by the former emperor Aurelius tomemorate his deceased wife. The royal family was responsible for most of the fundraising. Other than that, the former emperor received a lot of donations from the nobles as well. ording to thetest news, Divo Braille had embezzled one-third of the money. When he used the money for his personal gains, it meant that he had offended all the nobles that donated their money to the former emperor. The situation was not looking good for him.


    However, those selected to join the Senate consisted of more simple-minded folk. Everyone could see that someone was targeting Divo Braille because the evidence presented by the other party was too perfect and convenient. It seemed like the whole thing had been premeditated. The senators in the Senate had to admit that whoever was targeting Divo Braille had to be indeed very powerful.


    Even if all those pieces of evidence were fabricated, the person would have to be of great influence to execute such aplicated n. Generally, the senators from the Senate would choose to stand by Divo Braille��s side. After all, if the person could do such a thing to Divo Braille, it meant they could also pull the same trick on other senators. No one was squeaky clean in the Senate. Besides, Divo Braille had always been neutral, and he rarely offended the people around him. His character made him a very popr and likable person in the Senate.


    To everyone��s surprise, none of them expected that only a handful of people would step up to support Divo Braille this time. On the one hand, the incident happened so suddenly that no one could receive any news beforehand. The evidence and allegations were brought forward by a young senator who had no sense of existence in the Senate. Everyone had yet to figure out the powerful people that supported him secretly. On the other hand, nobles who had donated their money to build the park fell into a foul mood when they learned that their money had fallen into Divo Braille��s pockets. It made no sense for them to support him right now.


    Other than that, Divo Braille chose to side with Commodus during the Binota mine incident, causing others to resent him. The neutral image that he worked hard to build had now been weakened. At that time, they did not have enough evidence to put him under the spotlight. Hence, no one came forward to trouble him.


    On the contrary, senators who were close to the royal family stood up and defended Divo Braille. It seemed the rumors of Divo Braille siding with the royal family were further confirmed with their support.


    Now, there were not many options left for Divo Braille. With the previous rtionship that he built in the Senate, no matter who made the waves, he could always get insider news in advance. The waves were clearly targeting him this time, and he did not receive anything in advance. Completely kept in the dark, he was indeed terrified.


    ...


    Zhang Heng might be one of the few people in Rome who knew the person targeting Divo Braille. At the same time, he also knew that Altrus showed kindness to him while simultaneously sounding a fair warning. Altrus yed the whole thing perfectly. While fulfilling his promise, he had also used this opportunity to show Zhang Heng what he could do.


    In just two weeks, Altrus was able to unearth most of Divo Braille��s dark secrets. It made a powerful senator lose almost all of his reputation overnight, and the incident had surely embarrassed him. His ability to n and execute was top-notch. He deserved to be the chief adviser of Commodus. Clint had always regarded Altrus as hispetitor. However, Zhang Heng thought that the gap between the two parties was probably bigger than he expected. Both of them were not on the same level. Although the outside world called the two of them the right-hand men of Commodus, the influence they had on the emperor was very different.


    When Zhang Heng thought of this, his expression suddenly changed, and he realized what he missed out on earlier was. It was actually something self-evident. However, Zhang Heng��s understanding of Roman history caused him to rule out this possibility immediately.


    There could be only one exnation to how he was born a nobleman, and Commodus still trusted him unconditionally.


    He must be Commodus��s rtive!


    And Altrus was not just some distant rtive of Commodus. Instead, they shared the same father and mother as Luci. At the same time, unlike Luci, his physical disability would never allow him to walk on the stage like Commodus. Hence, he could only assist him in the dark.


    Only after all the above conditions had been met did Commodus trust Altrus unconditionally.


    Zhang Heng soon thought of someone: Commodus��s twin brother.

 Chapter 879 - Trap

    <h4>Chapter 879: Trap</h4>


    In written history, Commodus��s only family member after he inherited the throne was his sister, Lucillia. But this did not mean that he had no other siblings. In fact, Aurelius had many children, but most of them failed to reach adulthood. And eventually, only two children were left after his death.


    If Aurelius��s dead children were included, Commodus was supposed to have many brothers. And among them, the one closest to Zhang Heng��s age was Commodus��s twin brother who died at the age of four. Aurelius held a funeral for him, and the Senate stopped working for a day to express their grief.


    The ordinary citizens in the city of Rome still remembered it fondly until today.


    As far as everyone knew, Commodus��s twin brother had indeed passed away.


    This was also the reason why Zhang Heng did not think of this in the first ce. Of course, these were just his spections. If he wanted to prove that Altrus was indeed Commodus�� dead twin, more evidence needed to be collected.


    Considering the special nature of the pce, almost all the political forces would secretly nt their men here. Hence, there were no secrets in this building. It was obviously impossible for a prince to keep living in the pce for so many years and not be discovered by anyone after his death. So if Aurelius wanted his child to continue living hidden from the world for whatever reason, he could only send him away from the pce. The safest option was to send Altrus out of the city, and the farther away, the better.


    It was like Zhang Heng sending the ve girl away on a long journey. The good news was with the disability that Altrus had; it was impossible that the people at the ce where he lived and grew up hadn��t the slightest impression of him. As long as he could find who Aurelius��s most trusted person sixteen years ago was and the nobles that possessed the most remote fief, Zhang Heng would be able to confirm his conjecture when he visited the ce.


    But the bad news was that Zhang Heng realized that he did not have the time to do so.


    After that, Zhang Heng went to the perfume shop again. He discovered that the shop had a new owner and the shopkeeper he had previously talked to was now gone. It was then that Zhang Heng knew that he had been abandoned.


    It did not mean that the Bnce de had thrown him to the Hounds. Instead, the war between the Bnce de and the Hounds was likely to break out soon. The situation on both sides was extremely tense. Besides, the Bnce de found it hard to ce their trust in Zhang Heng as their backup core member. Coupled with the fact that there were traitors in the organization, they decided to put aside the vtile factor during this critical time.


    If that were the case, Zhang Heng wouldn��t be bothered by it. In his original n, the only thing he nned to do was observe how the whole thing developed. Hence, it was not a big deal getting ignored by them. Afterward, Zhang Heng had to face a new problem when he heard an order given by Commodus. Commodus nned to inspect a military camp twenty miles outside the city of Rome. Other than Clint and him, Altrus was asked to apany him as well.


    The politicians in Rome were not unfamiliar with this name. However, no one had seen what Altrus looked like. The owner of this name had been living in the dark for a long time. Altrus was probably the second most powerful person in the city of Rome, second only to the emperor, Commodus.


    Under such circumstances, the emperor would be easily jealous of him. Be that as it may, Commodus seemed to have great trust in his chief adviser, and he had never doubted him before. This made Clint and other consultants extremely envious of him. And this time, Commodus had announced in a high-profile manner that Altrus would be one of hispanions. It seemed the emperor was gradually pushing the man who worked behind the scenes to the front stage. This caused this routine inspection to attract a lot of attention.


    Not only did the nobles and senators want to catch a glimpse of the emperor��s chief advisor, but Clint and the other advisers were extremely nervous too, threatened by his presence. Up until now, Altrus had been working in the dark, and they had already witnessed how powerful he could be. Once he stepped onto the front stage, he could begin to use his power and influence to make more friends, form his own forces, control the Senate or even the entire country in the near future.


    What Clint and others did not understand was why Commodus allowed such a thing to happen. No matter how much he trusted Altrus, what he might do would undoubtedly damage Commodus��s power.


    Clint had even assembled a group of people who had a good rtionship with him and prepared to persuade Commodus together.


    And Clint did not forget about Zhang Heng, the neer that Commodus had recently been fond of. The speed of Zhang Heng��s rise to fame during this period was something no one had achieved in the entire history of Rome. From ve to civilian to an advisor, to the noble that was given a fief��this usually required three generations to achieve. Zhang Heng, against all odds,pleted it in just over half a year. And now Clint regretted introducing him to Commodus so early.


    However, Clint now had a more troublesome opponent to deal with. Hence, he had no time to take care of Zhang Heng.


    When he left Zhang Heng��s domus, his face turned gloomy. Clint did not expect that Zhang Heng would reject his proposal. Although he did not regard Zhang Heng as his political ally, theirst cooperation worked out pretty well, and Zhang Heng had shown intention willing to join forces with him to deal with Altrus.


    That was the reason Clint agreed to help Zhang Heng using the imperial guards to give the major forces in the southeast city a good scare. Not long after that, Zhang Heng broke up the alliance agreement with him and made it clear that he did not intend to deal with Altrus together.


    Clint almost failed to maintain his usual gentle image, pping the table in frustration before he left. However, he did not want to make a new enemy at this critical time, so in the end, he gave Zhang Heng a cold stare, turned his head, and left.


    In all honesty, Zhang Heng had hoped Clint would win this battle. This matter was clearly a trap they had set to deal with the Bnce de. Zhang Heng was one of the few people who knew Altrus��s physical condition. He knew that Altrus would never show up in front of the public. At the same time, Zhang Heng also knew very well that Clint and others had no chance of winning this time.


    The final result fell within Zhang Heng��s expectation. Clint and others were unable to persuade Commodus not to bring Altrus along. Two dayster, Commodus still insisted on bringing Altrus with him, as if he wanted to tell the world how much he trusted Altrus.


    And Zhang Heng also realized that he had to meet the priestess before the inspection.

 Chapter 880 - Enemy

    <h4>Chapter 880: Enemy</h4>


    The Bnce de had unterally cut off all connections with Zhang Heng, but that did not mean that Zhang Heng would never find them anymore. A while ago, Zhang Heng was lying blindfolded in the carriage to travel to where the priestess was to meet her. Along the way to the destination, Zhang Heng silently made mental notes about the sounds he could hear on the path that the carriage traveled on and its condition. After that, he reached an agreement with the priestess, and he was busy working as an advisor for Commodus. Hence, he did not look for the secret location at that time.


    And now he needed to reconnect with the Bnce de. The only way to achieve such a goal was to look for their secret location. Later, Zhang Heng looked for Marcus and asked thetter to get a carriage for him. In order to reenact the scene on that night as much as possible, Zhang Heng even ordered a carriage that was exactly the same as the one he hadid in before. Once that was done, Zhang Heng asked Marcus to drive to the arch bridge by the Tiber River in the middle of the night.


    This was the spot where Zhang Heng got on the carriage that night. If he wanted to retrace the path he traveled on, he had to start his journey from the exact same spot. After that, he would need to dig deep into his memory and look for the ce where he met the priestess.


    However, that night��s first attempt ended up in failure. This was because it rained in the afternoon and the water had changed the road��s condition. Even if there were only a slight deviation, it would greatly affect the location of the bumps and the sound that he heard on the paths. So, Zhang Heng had to wait until the next day to do it again. The day after tomorrow was the day for him to inspect the barracks with Commodus. In other words, Zhang Heng could not afford to fail again tonight. Otherwise, he would not be able to contact the Bnce de before he inspected the barracks.


    Fortunately, he was quite lucky today. Not only did it not rain, but the sun in the afternoon was quite strong as well. Without the moisture, Zhang Heng��s memory was no longer affected by external factors. Hence, Marcus drove the carriage, and Zhang Hengy in the carding and instructed Marcus at the same time.


    But even so, it took them four hours to look for the final destination, apanied by constant trial and error.


    Zhang Heng got off the carriage, looked at the domus in front of him, and asked Marcus on the side, ��Do you know whose house this is?��


    Marcus had apparently done some research in advance. He immediately replied, ��The owner of this domus is Stucas, a young man from the Corasu family. It is said that he rarelyes here for about two years now. There is only an old servant who lives here.��


    Zhang Heng nodded, ��I can do the rest alone. You can go back now.��


    Marcus did not ask much after that. He turned around and left with the carriage. This was what Zhang Heng admired about him the most. He knew very well what he should be asking and what he shouldn��t. While waiting for Marcus to leave his sightpletely, Zhang Heng put on a hood.


    This was a special time. Let��s not talk about whether there were Bnce de��s members in the domus. Even if this ce was a secret stronghold for the priestess, Zhang Heng decided it was better he covered himself up after knowing that there were traitors in the Bnce de.


    After that, he jumped over the wall andnded in the front hall.


    And as soon as hended, the hair on his body stood on its ends. He could feel that someone was about to stab his waist with a dagger. Fortunately, Zhang Heng��s reflexes were fast enough. Earlier, he had been working hard to improve his footing, and his hard work allowed him to dodge the attack in time. However, the enemy had no intention to stop, bing even more aggressive instead. He drew another dagger to charge at Zhang Heng again.


    And Zhang Heng also drew out his two Persian swords and flicked them backward. Theynded urately on the attacker��s dagger. Zhang Heng��s response to the attack managed to stun the attackers for a split second. And Zhang Heng did not n to waste this rare opportunity. When he finally turned around, he and saw the face of the attacker.


    There was a veil covering the attacker��s face, and although Zhang Heng could not see the other person��s appearance, he recognized that it was the veiled woman from the perfume shop.


    When the two met for the first time, Zhang Heng knew that this woman was also an assassin. However, he did not expect her to be so skillful. After fighting with her for a few rounds, he realized that her assassination skills were way better than Dadatis��.


    Zhang Heng also spected that she was most likely a core member of the Bnce de.


    The woman on the other side seemed to recognize Zhang Heng as well��not through his appearance but his moves.


    ��It appears Dadatis values you a lot. He taught you all his unique skills,�� the woman said. ��Of course, you are a fast learner as well. I saw how you fought in the Victor Arena when you were still a diator. Technically speaking, you shouldn��t have avoided my attack just now.��


    Zhang Heng immediately thought of something. Dadatis had once told him that there were only four people who knew his identity. The woman in front of him was obviously not the priestess nor Faceless. So, there was only one possibility left. Zhang Heng raised his eyebrows.


    ��Are you Hyacinth?��


    ��It seems Dadatis has mentioned about me,�� the woman wearing the veil said. ��I��m very curious. What does he think of me?��


    Zhang Heng could sense that Hyacinth and Dadatis had a ratherplicated rtionship. They were surely more than just friends. Therefore, Zhang Henng decided to help out Dadatis by saying something good.


    ��He said you are the best assassin ever.��


    Hyacinth sneered when she heard what Zhang Heng said. ��Save it. I know him well enough that he will never say such a thing. He did tell me about your unlimited potential. You are like an unpolished gem. If someone put in some hard work to train you well, you will surely be the strongest assassin in Rome.��


    ��Well...��


    Zhang Heng was interrupted by Hyacinth before he could say anything. ��But now it seems he was exaggerating. You haven��t been able to kill Altrus for so long. Even if you are a talented young man, you are definitely not limitless.


    ��If I remember correctly, didn��t you guys fail to get rid of him for a long time, too?�� asked Zhang Heng. ��You don��t even know what he looks like.��


    ��That was in the past. Now, we have found the opportunity to assassinate Altrus. In other words, you have failed your test. As for whether the organization will ept you in the future, you��ll need to wait for the evaluation after this event,�� Hyacinth said casually.


    ��The opportunity that you are talking about is when Commodus inspects the barracks tomorrow, right? But as far as I know, Altrus��s physical condition does not allow him to appear in public.�� Zhang Heng was not bothered by Hyacinth��s sarcastic tone.


    ��We know that the Altrus, who go with Commodus tomorrow to the barracks, is a fake.�� Hyacinth��s answer surprised Zhang Heng. She paused at this point and continued, ��Not only do we know that Altrus is fake, but we also know why the real Altrus would do something like this. Other than baiting us, he wanted to cover his true purpose as well.�� Hyacinth put away her dagger while talking.


    ��Anyway, it��s impressive that you managed to find this ce. Thank you for the information, especially the fact that Altrus is physically inconvenient. We will verify it when we find our target. Other than that, do you still have anything else you��d wish to talk about?�� Although Hyacinth��s tone was still polite, her mannerism indicated that she did not want Zhang Heng to stay here any longer.


    It was not because she was unhappy with him or anything. She actually had a more important thing to attend to.


    After Zhang Heng saw the reactions from her body, he stopped talking. He just nodded and said, ��Then I wish you all the best tomorrow.��

 Chapter 881 - Herto

    <h4>Chapter 881: Herto</h4>


    In the second meeting with Hyacinth, Zhang Heng learned what the Bnce de thought of him. Even if he took the initiative to warn Hyacinth that Altrus, who would be appearing next to Commodus tomorrow, was a fake, Hyacinth would be still unwilling to disclose more information about their next n. She had made it clear that she did not fully trust Zhang Heng.


    And there was nothing Zhang Heng could do about it. This was probably the negative impact of his disbelief in Kreis. It had caused the Bnce de to doubt which side he was on in the uing war. Considering that he mingled with Commodus now, whether he was willing to abandon everything to join the Bnce de to help them to maintain the bnce was also a question worth discussing. And the Bnce de clearly wasn��t willing to bet on Zhang Heng��s loyalty at this critical time.


    There was nothing wrong with that. If Zhang Heng were in their shoes, he too wouldn��t have trusted a neer who did not have much sense of belonging to the organization. That would mean Zhang Heng had now be an outsider.


    After that, Zhang Heng came to the pce to report on time the next morning. Unlike before, Clint seemed to have missed his arrival this time. He was still talking to his colleagues around him. When the others saw how their leader, Clint, had treated Zhang Heng, they started to do the same.


    Zhang Heng knew that this was Clint expressing his dissatisfaction over his refusal to persuade Commodus with him. However, he had all his attention diverted to the war between the Bnce de and Altrus and the Hounds. Since Zhang Heng had no intention to work as an advisor for the rest of his life, he was not bothered by how he was being treated. Thus, he looked for a corner and stood there alone.


    After a while, the generals of the imperial army responsible for the emperor��s safety showed up. The emperor��s departure from Rome was a major event. The security detail had to be perfected no matter what. Fortunately, Commodus was heading was only twenty miles outside the city, and there was also a military camp there.


    Therefore, it was not necessary for him to bring too many guards with him. Sixty elite guards were more than enough to deal with all kinds of emergencies. However, to be safe, the general assigned nine teams of soldiers to protect Commodus, exceeding one hundred people in total.


    Other than protecting the emperor, Commodus, they were tasked to protect Altrus as well. After all, thetter��s identity was very sensitive. There had always been rumors that he was on the target list of assassins. Besides, this was the first time he showed up in public. This time, the imperial army had to pay extra attention to their surroundings.


    The leader of the imperial army was the civic officer, Sebutul. Fully covered in armor, he wielded a sword as well. With a red cloak behind his back, he gave off a majestic look. And he had even brought two centurions as deputies.


    When Zhang Heng saw one of the centurions, he was a little surprised. He realized that the man looked very simr to the portrait given to him by the one-eyed Samaritan. Zhang Heng had been a target for assassination while he worked in the southeast city. He pursued the assassin, and the assassin led him to the middleman. He learned that the person who hired the assassin was probably someone from the imperial guards. But at that time, he did not get the opportunity to get close to the imperial guard. Hence, he was forced to pause the investigation.


    After Zhang Heng became an advisor, he dide in touch with the imperial guards. However, their base camp wasn��t was not in Rome. These guards were tasked to protect the pce, and the emperor adopted a shift system, where a new batch woulde into the pce to rece the old guards from time to time. It meant Zhang Heng was only looking at the most recent batch of imperial guards. And he did not find his target among them.


    This time, the guards were said to be directly transferred from the base camp. As for the guards in the pce, they still stayed there to protect the queen and others who lived there.


    Zhang Heng didn��t know the name of the centurion behind Sebutul. As of now, he had been boycotted by Clint and the other advisors. It would be impossible to extract any information from them for the time being. That being said, it was not that hard to solve the questions that he had in mind. He simply had to walk toward Sebutul.


    The civic officer had just arrived at the pce, and he still did not know the bitter rtionship between Zhang Heng and Clint. Seeing Zhang Heng walking towards him, he seemed quite excited. He knew that the Oriental man in front of him was a new rising star. However, he was puzzled to see that Zhang Heng standing alone in the corner. Before Sebutul figured out the reason, he saw Zhang Heng walked towards him.


    Thus, Sebutul also took the initiative to reach out and shake hands with Zhang Heng, before the two exchanged a few words. Strictly speaking, Sebutul and Zhang Heng belonged to different systems. However, that did not mean that he did not need political allies, especially those always by Commodus��s side and knew what the young emperor had in mind.


    And after Sebutul chatted with Zhang Heng, he did not forget to introduce his two important subordinates. And he found out that Zhang Heng seemed to be interested in one of his centurions, namely Herto.


    Zhang Heng looked into Herto��s eyes while shaking hands. ��Are you from Thracian?��


    ��Yes.�� Herto did not seem to want to look at Zhang Heng. After a short moment of eye contact between the two, Herto looked away.


    ��Have we met before? I think you look kind of familiar.��


    Herto was taken aback, ��Have I? I don��t think so. I usually stay in the barracks and don��t go into the city very often.��


    Sebutul was the kind of person that took good care of his subordinates. Seeing that Zhang Heng was interested in Herto, and how Herto did not seem to be very good at talking, Sebutul tried to help Herto out. ��Herto is an honest man. He doesn��t talk much, but he fought valiantly in the battle. He once participated in the Roman Parthian War with General Pompeanus and achieved outstanding feats. Later, he followed General Pompeanus back to Rome, and he was asked to join the imperial guard. Actually, it is a waste of his talent serving as a centurion. Sooner orter, my position will belong to him.��


    Herto was not particrly excited after hearing what Sebutul said. Instead, his expression changed slightly. He took a quick peek at Zhang Heng saw that his expressions remained the same. It relieved Herto a little.


    Then Zhang Heng said, ��I didn��t expect centurion Herto to be so brave.�� He then started to talk about another centurion. And the four chatted for a while afterward. They then saw Commodus and a man with secutor��s helm walking down the stairs together.


    The crowd, too, had also calmed down. This time, Commodus was no longer the protagonist in the house. Most of the people had their attention focused on the mysterious man beside him.


    The secutor��s helmet was designed to protect his head. Therefore, the materials used to craft it was extremely tough, leaving only two observation holes.

 Chapter 882 - Assassination

    <h4>Chapter 882: Assassination</h4>


    Commodus did not even have to make an introduction��everyone already knew that the man under the helmet was Altrus.


    Even with his face hidden, there was no doubt that this was the closest the people had ever been to Commodus�� most mysterious advisor.


    Right now, Zhang Heng was probably the one among the crowd who knew that that person was Altrus.


    It wasn��t that anyone was unaware that Altrus could��ve probably used a substitute, but that no one believed that he would actually use one.


    This was the day that he would step out of the shadows and into the limelight, something that would earn him unparalleled authority.


    In life, there were always moments, such as the crowning ceremony of a prince or on a newlyweds�� wedding night, where there was just no way anyone would let someone else take their ce. Clint knew this very well. If he were Altrus, he would be there in person no matter what.


    What more, Altrus was but a name. Whoever showed up and stood next to Commodus would naturally be Altrus��the Altrus everyone recognized. Even if he was a fake, it was true that he would be the second most powerful person next to Commodus from now on.


    Clint looked at the figure with an inexplicable expression on his face, fists clenched. He knew that if Altrus revealed his face, it would basically mean that he had already lost this battle.


    Even though the majority was on his side, Clint knew it was only because Altrus never showed his face. So, the closer they were to Clint, the closer they would be to the center of power. In a sense, Clint was a representation of Commodus�� will.


    But starting from today, it would no longer be that way since there was someone who better embodied Commodus�� will, where all power and authority would forever have a center. Soon, all these people behind him would be Altrus�� followers.


    And it was because of this that Clint feared that Altrus woulde forward.


    But it would appear that there was nothing he could do to prevent this from happening.


    Zhang Heng, on the other hand, conjectured that Altrus would most likely use a stand-in. But when Altrus�� stand-in really did show up, Zhang Hend had a strange feeling that there was some part of Altrus�� ns that he had yet discerned.


    Due to his condition, Altrus could not appear before the people. It was simply not a question if the person standing next to Commodus would be him. Moreover, if Zhang Heng was right, if Altrus were to die, he could not be brought back to life again.


    But using a substitute would alsoplicate things. Just like everyone present thought, once Altrus�� stand-in came forward, in addition to Commodus�� endorsement, he would be the real Altrus. Even if Altrus were to reim his identity right now, no one would believe him. Of course, with Commodus present, it would not turn out too bad.


    Since all of Altrus�� power came from Commodus, Commodus could also take it all back, which would greatly limit the substitute. However, the problemy in the fact that if the substitute were to reveal his face to the public, Altrus couldn��t wield his authority as freely as he could before. He would have to go through the stand-in and give orders on his behalf.


    This extra little coupling in the middle was not insignificant since it would make it seem that Altrus�� cane had suddenly doubled in length. Altrus would undoubtedly find a cane of such length unbearable.


    Zhang Heng did not know how Altrus nned to finish this show. There was also something else that caught his attention. The person who assassinated him was none other than Luci��s husband Pompenus, which surprised Zhang Heng since Pompenus had always kept to himself.


    He had fought alongside Aurelius and gradually climbed the army��s ranks to be a general under Aurelius. And after his marriage to Lucillia (she was said to be a bad wife and rumors were rampant about her in Rome), Pompenus became one of Aurelius�� people.


    As a result, he was often handed important duties.


    When Aurelius passed away, Pompenus became the top horse in the military. But even at such a propitious position, he remained the same. He was still as conscientious, humble, and gentle as before, still respectful towards his wife, Luci. He allowed her to go around and do as she pleased, turning a blind eye to her misconduct��it was the one thing he had inmon with Ole.


    Zhang Heng could not wrap his head around why this military bigshot would want Altrus killed for no reason. Altrus had practically no association with Pompenus at all, and he had never done anything to harm Pompenus in any way...


    As Zhang Heng was trying to piece the puzzle together, Commodus finally introduced ��Altrus�� to everyone present, but he allowed nobody to get to know him. Instead, he immediately set out for the barracks outside the city.


    Sebutul quickly gathered the troops to guard Commodus�� carriage.


    As for ��Altrus,�� he did not share Commodus�� carriage, electing to ride behind instead. However, considering his special status, the Praetorian Guard had also assigned a small troop to escort him; and the rest apanied by two small squadrons.


    This was during the early days of Commodus�� reign. The war had just ended and coupled with the gifts the young emperor had distributed to solicit the hearts of the people when he ascended to the throne, the civilians in the city generally led a decent life. Public order had also improved, so naturally, no one wanted to cause trouble to the emperor.


    Having heard that the emperor was traveling, arge group of civilians had gathered on both sides of the street, cheering for him. Commodus waved back at the people from the carriage, maintaining the image of an emperor in touch with his people. However, it resulted in the troops having to move slowly. They only left town at noon.


    Fortunately, once they left the city, they could pick up speed.


    Sebutul, the military tribune, breathed a sigh of relief. The civilians were too enthusiastic, and it was a little too chaotic for his liking, but Commodus did not allow him to use harsher means to disperse the civilians, so he was distraught. Fortunately, there were no major mishaps in the end. They would be much safer once they were outside the city. There were several military camps nearby, and the whole area was secure.


    Just as the military tribune thought so, the troops suddenly stopped. He rode to the front and found that a donkey cart carrying smoked fish had overturned and blocked a section of the road in front of the small bridge. Other than the military, there were also a few travelers, including a group of Jews.


    The military tribune, knowing that the young emperor enjoyed showing hispassion, ordered a few of the soldiers to help the owner of the donkey cart. However, as they were doing so, his gaze fell upon the group of Jewish people, and he could sense that something was wrong.


    The Jews were covered from head to toes, and their waists bulged. Sebutul had some military experience and was about to warn the soldiers around him, but the Jews were too quick. They had already removed their overcoats, revealing the armor underneath.


    Then, one after another, they drew out their weapons.

 Chapter 883 - Unexpected Event

    <h4>Chapter 883: Unexpected Event</h4>


    ��Protect His Majesty the Emperor!��


    The civic officer was shocked and furious. Yelling, he rushed to Commodus��s side with his horse. He wasn��t expecting someone bold enough to attack Commodus less than ten miles away from the barracks.


    Fortunately, the number of assassins disguised as Jews was only less than twenty. The imperial guards had an absolute advantage in number. However, they were more scattered, and they were at a disadvantage in some areas. This was also a very skilled group of assassins. They attacked together, managing to eliminate the group of imperial guards tasked to protect the emperor at the front line. After that, they started to approach Commodus��s carriage.


    They killed the imperial guards who came midway before they could line up and organize themselves. When Sebutul saw such a scene, his back was drenched in a cold sweat. He suddenly realized that his horse seemed to be running a little too fast. Although he was a civic officer with somebat experience, he could only obtain his position thanks to his family. As a general, he did not need to fight very often. Sebutul now regretted not practicing his swordsmanship a little more.


    Fortunately, the imperial guards he brought with him this time were well-trained. The two centurions were extremely powerful, especially Herto. Being the nearest to Commodus, he swiftly led his team and rushed to the emperor��s carriage. Although they could notpletely block those assassins, they managed to dy them, allowing the subsequent squads to get there in time. However, the factor that changed the course of the battle was not the imperial guards.


    Zhang Heng discovered the abnormalities among the Jews earlier than the imperial guard, but he did nothing about it. It wasn��t until the group of assassins was about to attack Commodus, that Zhang Heng jumped off the horse and pulled out both his Persian swords.


    One of the assassins had also noticed Zhang Heng��s quick reactions. He did not pay much attention to him, however, since he wasn��t dressed like one of those imperial guards. The attacker waved his short sword casually and attempted to drive Zhang Heng away.


    However, he did not expect that such a simple move would cost him his life. Zhang Heng leaned back slightly to avoid the assassin��s attack. Taking advantage of the moment when his enemy waved his arms, he thrust his Persian sword and nted it into the assassin��s heart.


    One hit, one kill!


    The assassin did not even realize that Zhang Heng had stabbed him. After that, Zhang Heng pulled out the sword as the corpse fell backward. He then walked toward the second assassin.


    After learning the lesson from hispanions, the second assassin was clearly more cautious. He also noticed that Zhang Heng was about to attack him. Just when he was thinking about performing a more effective charge, Zhang Heng had moved against him first.


    Zhang Heng shed at the neck of the second assassin with his sword, but thetter reacted quickly, immediately raising his sword to block Zhang Heng��s sword. The attacker was ted when he realized that he was strong enough to block the diatorial champion��s attack, feeling that Zhang Heng was no stronger than an ordinary fighter. His joy, however,sted only half a second. The next moment, all the assassin could see was a cold light shing before him��Zhang Heng had already cut his throat with another sword.


    Zhang Heng killed the other two assassins in just a few breaths, rushing toward the front line andpleting the feat easily. By the time he stopped the third assassin, the two teams of imperial guards had finished organizing themselves and quickly rushed to Commodus��s side.


    At this point, Commodus��s imperial guards had gained the upper hand. The remaining assassins had been either stuck with Herto, or attacked by the imperial guards that had just organized themselves. Spears stabbed the flesh of the enemies from all directions.


    When everyone felt that they had regained their control over the situation and almost killed all the assassins that came out of nowhere, nobody would have thought that the donkey cart owner, trembling in fear earlier, would pull out a bow from the side of the overturned cart.


    When the imperial guards saw that, they hurriedly gathered up and shielded Commodus with their bodies. The donkey cart, however, was not aiming for Commodus. Instead, he fired an arrow at the ��Altrus�� on the other side. The civic officer realized that they had just made a mistake. These assassins disguised as Jews were a decoy to attract their attention. Their real target was Altrus, who was following Commodus from behind.


    It was already toote by the time he realized it.


    Altrus was hit by the arrow.


    His body started to sway before falling off the horse. On the other hand, the donkey cart owner immediately put down the bow and arrow in his hand and jumped into the river beside him.


    ��Get out of the way!�� An angry voice came from the crowd.


    The civic officer advised in a hurry, ��Your Majesty, we don��t know if there are more of them. You should...��


    He was, however, interrupted by Commodus before he could finish. ��I have to know whether my best adviser is still alive or dead.��


    ��...I��m sorry, Your Majesty. Advisor Altrus has stopped breathing,�� said the other centurion, who was right beside Altrus. When the arrow hit Altrus, he was the first person who checked on him. The arrow had pierced squarely into Altrus��s chest. Although he wore a helmet, he had no armor on his body. His heart had already stopped beating before he even fell off the horse.


    As soon as the centurion finished, an uproar erupted.


    This ambush came aspletely unexpected. Today was supposed the day Altrus emerged from the shadows. His presence was enough to change the political structure of Rome��s upper-ss. Everyone was left in a massive shock and disbelief after seeing how Altrus was assassinated so quickly after he stepped out of the castle.


    It happened so fast that even Clint, who had always wanted Altrus to die, was stunned. He could not believe what he saw.


    After the ambush, Commodus wanted to inspect the barracks no further. With thest two assassins captured, he hurriedly returned to Rome. The young emperor vowed to make the murderer who killed Altrus pay for the crime. The first thing he did upon returning to the pce was to order Clint and Zhang Heng to interrogate their caught assassins. They needed to extract the mastermind��s name from these captured assassins.


    After leaving the pce, Clint took a deep breath and looked at the moon above him. He could no longer hide the joy in his eyes. He then said, ��Fate is really an interesting thing, isn��t it?��


    It was also Clint��s first time taking the initiative to speak to Zhang Heng today. However, Zhang Heng did not answer Clint.


    Clint seemed unbothered. He then continued, ��I have looked down on you. You are more mature than I thought. I have to admit that you are smart enough to choose the right team. You chose the side that is impossible to lose. I almost lost, but the world is unpredictable, isn��t it?��


    After that, Clint patted Zhang Heng on the shoulder again. ��Let��s go. We are going to get busy tonight,�� he said with augh.

 Chapter 884 - Reminiscence And Interrogation

    <h4>Chapter 884: Reminiscence And Interrogation</h4>


    The two assassins they had caught were tougher than they imagined. The guards at the dungeon used various methods to get them to speak, but it yielded no result. However, that did not affect Clint��s good mood. He and Zhang Heng were now sitting in the guard room, munching on a freshly baked suckling pig, listening to the screams from the torture room at the end of the corridor.


    ��Interesting!�� Clint put down his knife and fork. ��I don��t think Altrus would have thought that after he was assassinated, I��d be the one to help him track down the killer.��


    Clint thought that Zhang Heng would not speak to him. Thetter had not said anything since he came down to the dungeon, sitting there alone with his eyes closed. No one knew what was going on in his mind.


    After Altrus��s death, Clint assumed that Zhang Heng would go into full panic mode. After all, Zhang Heng did not persuade the emperor with him earlier. It was only logical for Clint to think that Zhang Heng had chosen to side with Altrus. And Zhang Heng��s new support was now dead in less than half a day after he showed up.


    Clint felt that he could understand the grief in Zhang Heng��s heart. However, he did not expect him to open his eyes, asking, ��When did you and Altrus meet? ��


    ��Well, about four years ago.�� Clint was in a good mood, so he did not mind answering Zhang Heng��s questions. In fact, he also needed someone to help him remember the toughest opponent he had encountered in his entire life.


    He then dly borated, ��At that time, I just started to work for His Majesty. We were fighting against those d*mned Germanic tribes by the Rhine. His Majesty mentioned a man named Altrus and said that he was brilliant and loyal. I have never seen him before, though.��


    ��Was Altrus by His Majesty��s side when you were fighting the Germanic?��


    ��No. To be precise, Altrus would not be in the barracks like the rest of us. Instead, he stays in Rome to take care of His Majesty��s affairs. We have a clear division ofbor. From time to time, he would question and express his opinion about the battle on the frontlines. It seems he understands the people��s hearts very well, especially the thoughts of the Roman civilians. It was him who had told His Majesty that the people were tired of the long war that hadsted years. And that strengthened His Majesty��s will to put an end to the war.��


    Clint paused and continued, ��It seemed like it was Altrus��s forte to collect valuable information. I��m not surprised that he knew what the civilians thought about the war. He could have spent some money to ask someone to gather opinions. What surprised me the most was that he knew what the nobles thought about the war as well. It is something I still can��t figure out. He even knew about some of the darkest secrets no one else would know. He made it look like he had mastered some witchcraft that allowed him to get inside someone��s head. This, too, is among the reasons why I don��t like him.��


    Seeing that Zhang Heng was listening to him attentively and that there was nothing else to be done right now other than to eat the roasted pork and chat with Zhang Heng, Clint then continued, ��However, His Majesty believed in himpletely. To be honest, I have never seen His Majesty put so much faith in a man. His Majesty and I have been getting along well, but I know that he would never trust me like he trusts Altrus. I admit that I am a little jealous of that man. However, even the smart Altrus made some mistakes before.


    ��About three years ago, His Majesty returned to Rome for a short time to marry Queen Christina. So, Altrus arranged a boat trip for them at the Tiber River. Mainly, he wanted to give them some space since they were newlyweds. Hence, His Majesty did not bring a single guard with him. And both of them were traveled in casual clothes. However, they did not expect to encounter a group of boatmen at the pier asking for payment. They blocked the river and caused a massive ruckus. Fortunately, in the end, both His Majesty and the queen were fine. When they returned to the pce, His Majesty was a little unhappy with Altrus. It was because Altrus hadn��t informed him in advance about such big news.


    ��That was one of the few times Altrus made a mistake. After so many years of fighting with him, I have never managed to take advantage of him. And this time, I knew that he was about to defeat me again. However, I did not expect to die at the hands of a group of assassins. This is really ironic. Altrus, the man who knew almost everything, suddenly died, pierced by a sharp arrow thatnded on him.��


    Clint then picked up a piece of meat with his fork.


    ��To our old friend! Although I have always regarded him as my adversary, I still think that perhaps we could sit down and have a meal together one day. However, I don��t think it will evere true.��


    Right after Clint finished talking, a prison guard bathed in blood walked up toward them and said respectfully to Clint and Zhang Heng, ��Masters, one of the prisoners has decided to speak, but he insists that he wants to tell you in person.��


    Clint curled his lips. He then saw the sunlight falling on the stairs. ��Is it already dawn? When you start talking about the past, time flies. Okay. Let��s go and hear what he has to tell us.��


    .....


    It was the younger assassin, a female actually, who had decided to speak. However, after numerous rounds of brutal torture, her body was in such a bad state that no one could tell that she was a woman.


    Clint took a quick look at her and looked away immediately. He did not want to spit out the roasted pork that he had just eaten. After that, he said softly, ��We actually don��t want to torture you too much. After all, you are just a tool. Tell me who the mastermind is, and I will look for a doctor to check on your wounds.��


    The assassin, however, merely put on a sad smile. ��I know it��s impossible for me to survive my injuries, right?�� she croaked in a barely audible voice.


    ��Well, at least I can make your death morefortable,�� Clint shrugged.


    The female assassin nodded. ��Come closer, and I will tell you who the mastermind is.��


    Clint then looked at the prison guard who tortured the female assassin and nodded, indicating that she was incapable of hurting him.


    Hence, Clint moved his head closer to the dying girl. ��Well, I have done what you ask me to do.��


    Instead of the answer, however, he was greeted by a blob of the assassin��s bloody spit. ��Stop dreaming, you can destroy my body, but Kreis will take away my soul! There is bnce... hidden among all things... everywhere!��


    ��D*mn you, woman!!!��


    Clint was furious. However, there was nothing he could do. He had lost his chance to get his revenge. The assassin had mustered herst straw of strength to talk to Clint, and she died shortly after that.


    ��Didn��t I tell you not to kill her?!��


    Clint vented his frustration on the prison guard in charge of torture. ��Do you know how angry His Majesty was when Advisor Altrush was assassinated? If we can��t find the mastermind, you will not get to stay here anymore. I will make sure that you will be sent to the Rhine��s border to spend time with those smelly Germanics!��


    While he spoke, Clint pulled out a handkerchief and wiped off the drool and blood on his face. He then asked Zhang Heng, ��What did she sayst? Kreis and something about bnce. , there are ghost things like bnce hiding among all things. Do you know what that is?��


    Clint had asked casually, not expecting an answer out of it. To his surprise, Zhang Heng answered him.


    ��Well. I know a little about it.��

 Chapter 885 - Arrow And Scimitar

    <h4>Chapter 885: Arrow And Scimitar</h4>


    When Zhang Heng stayed in the southeast city, Cornu tested him with the Bnce de��s doctrine once. After that, Zhang Heng told Altrus about this matter, which was why he could not lie to Clint in the dungeon.


    At the same time, Zhang Heng also realized why Commodus ordered him and Clint to interrogate the assassins. It seemed the ambush wasn��t some random event. They wanted Zhang Heng to expose the existence of the Bnce de.


    In other words, the assassination that took ce on the bridge that afternoon hadn��t been led by the Bnce de. It was a n that Commodus and Altrus hade up with together. Altrus had no intention to use a representative on the front stage. The person who pretended to be him was supposed to sacrifice himself and put the me for the assassination on the Bnce de. With that, they would have a reason to use the empire��s resources to get rid of Bnce de once and for all.


    The whole thing far more dramatic than Zhang Heng imagined.


    When Clint and Zhang Heng reported the information obtained from the female assassin to Commodus, he immediately issued an arrest warrant to all the Bnce de��s members. In order to avenge his most trusted adviser, Commodus even withdrew one hundred thousand gold coins from his vault as a reward.


    The Senate also expressed their concern about this matter. A group of nobles led by Dior expressed their condolences for the assassination of Altrus immediately. Since it was inappropriate to use the funds from the treasury as a motivation to capture the murderer, the nobles donated a total of two hundred thousand gold coins to the reward pool.


    With all that aside, many were actually happy that Altrus was dead.


    Altrus had worked by Commodus��s side for a long time and was regarded as the emperor��s right-hand man alongside Clint. With the death of Altrus, Commodus had lost one of his most trusted advisors, which meant he would have to rely on the Senate more often in the future.


    Such a situation was undoubtedly what the group of nobles led by Dior would like to see. However, their happiness onlysted for less than half a day, soon to be taken aback by what they would discover. They realized that they had underestimated the young emperor. With the death of Altrus, Commodus began to purge the high-ranking generals.


    Except for civic officers like Sebutul, who had escaped the fate of losing his job because he protected Commodus during the ambush, all the other noble officers were either transferred to other ces or retrenched. They were reced by a group of soldiers who had fought alongside Commodus against the Germanic tribes. Regardless of their different background, they all had one thing inmon��their absolute loyalty to Commodus.


    In the end, except for the highestmander of the imperial guard, every middle and high-level general was reced. In other words, Commodus now hadplete control over the military forces in the city of Rome. It was already toote when the Senate realized that Commodus had made the changes. Dior and others could only stare at each other.


    However, Zhang Heng did not have much time to care about this political turmoil for the time being. Five days had passed since Altrus�� assassination, and the Bnce de still hadn��t contacted him. For the past five days, nothing happened on his side. This morning, however, Commodus summoned him.


    Apparently, he had done well to protect Commodus during the ambush at the bridge, killing three assassins in total. Commodus decided to reward him with a piece ofnd again. Thus, thendmass Zhang Heng owned now surpassed many noble families who had lived there for a few generations.


    The only downside was that thend he owned was quite a distance from Rome. In the event of a future war, hisnd might turn into a battlefield. Still, his good fortune had made many jealous of him. After all, every advisor had different achievements.


    Everyone now knew that Clint would rece Altrus as chief advisor, and Zhang Heng would be the next Clint. Before that, Zhang Heng would need to find a way to fix his conflict with Clint. Clint was now waiting for Zhang Heng to bow at him. Although he still felt that Zhang Heng was a threat, it did not stop him from enjoying the victory that he achieved currently. However, the thing that embarrassed him the most was that Zhang Heng did not look for him for the next few days. He had no idea what Zhang Heng was up to since thetter was away from home most of the time.


    But that night, Zhang Heng finally returned to his domus. He stretched out his hand to open the door, then walked toward the front hall when he suddenly halted in his steps. He had sent the ve-girl away almost a month ago. Now, only he and the other two servants who came bundled with the domus as gifts were supposed to be here. The two new servants hadn��t been living with Zhang Heng for a long time, and they had nothing worthy of his attention as well. However, they did do a good job at taking care of the domus.


    In the past, when Zhang Heng came home, one of the servants woulde out to greet him. Now, he realized how the house was eerily quiet. As he stood in the front hall, he saw moving ripples in a rain puddle shimmering on the wall, reflected by the moonlight.


    He even heard the shrill sounds made by the shing of some kind of sharp weapon. Zhang Heng moved his foot forward and in microseconds, an arrownded at the spot where he stood just a moment ago. Zhang Heng did not need to raise his head to know that the archer was hiding on the second floor. It was probably the same assassin that assassinated Altrus.


    Zhang Heng could never forget his archery skills. He dashed to the marble pir beside him. Just when he was about to approach the pir, he stopped abruptly. A scimitar came from behind the cylinder, aiming squarely for his face. If he had not stopped moving just now, he would have been sliced in two.


    The threat was not over yet. Although he managed to escape the premeditated ambush by relying on his inhuman hearing and reaction, he did not forget that there was a masterful archer on the second floor. Clearly, he would not miss a golden opportunity like this tond a critical shot on Zhang Heng. As expected, when Zhang Heng started to make a move, the archer took advantage of the split-second he had and released his bowstring.


    Hence, Zhang Heng wasn��t only facing the scimitar in front of him, but he also had to deal with the second arrow flying towards him. Without any hesitation, he made a critical decision. Since the scimitar was approaching his chest, he had to deal with it first. He swung his Persian short sword, and at the same time, ced his other hand on the hilt of the second.


    The moment Zhang Heng blocked the scimitar, the deadly arrow was about to pierce through his body. The Batt��jutsu was performed with lighting speed once he drew the second Persian sword at thest moment. After that, he used the same method he used to deal with the archer diator at the Amphitheatrum vium. In the end, he managed to deflect the feather arrow aiming at him.


    The two assassins had never seen Zhang Heng��s previous diatorial performance. When they witnessed this miraculous scene, they were left in bewilderment. This was not something an ordinary human could achieve.

 Chapter 886 - Surrounded

    <h4>Chapter 886: Surrounded</h4>


    The moment the assassin with the scimitar got distracted, Zhang Heng��s retrieved the Persian short sword he used to deflect the arrow, then performing a quick sh in the air. When the assassin with the scimitar snapped back to reality, he saw the blood on Zhang Heng��s weapon. When he was not paying attention, Zhang Heng had shed his neck and chin.


    ��It��s not a good habit to get distracted during a battle.�� At that time, Zhang Heng had retreated to the marble pir. After that, the assassin with scimitar copsed on the ground slowly. Zhang Heng fought two enemies at the same time, and he seeded in killing one of them. Not to mention that the ambush was premeditated. Since these assassins decided to get rid of him tonight, it meant that his identity was finally exposed. To make matters worse, it could also mean that the Bnce de waspletely defeated in the war with the Hounds and Altrus.


    And unlike the cannon fodder assassins he dealt at the bridge earlier, the assassins who ambushed him at his domus tonight were highly skilled, probably the Hounds�� core members. In terms of strength, the Hounds�� assassins were slightly worse off than the Bnce de��s assassins. However, they were still be considered top-tier assassins around the world. Zhang Heng still could not keep up with these experienced killing machines when it came to assassination skills. That said, he still had his Lv4 swordsmanship with him. Once his opponent missed the first hit, there was a high probability that they would defeat him in a head-on battle.


    The bad news was that his opponent had the intention of facing him one-on-one tonight. After Zhang Heng killed the scimitar assassin, two more assassins came out from the other two marble pirs. They looked at each other and moved slowly to where Zhang Heng was hiding.


    Since there was an archer on the second floor, Zhang Heng could not stick his head out to observe the situation. In other words, he would not be able to see the two assassins that were approaching him quietly. When the two assassins arrived at the pir when Zhang Heng was standing, they swung their daggers and tried to deliver a fatal blow to Zhang Heng. However, Zhang Heng was no longer standing at that pir.


    Fortunately, the two of them reacted quickly. They immediately raised their heads and looked above them, seeing a shadow under the eaves. The space was wide enough for a person to climb over without being noticed by others.


    One of the assassins immediately reminded the archer, ��Be careful, God��s Eye! The target has left his original position. He may be heading towards you.��


    The heart of the archer on the second floor named God��s Eye tightened when he heard what his allies said. He had witnessed how Zhang Heng fought at the bridge, killing three assassins with a clean hit. He did not even perform a second move on them. Earlier, the scimitar assassin had also been killed by him in a split second. It could only be said that the diatorial champion of the Amphitheatrum vium had lived up to his reputation. As an assassin that was excellent in using the bow, thest thing he wanted was to be close to Zhang Heng unless he had a death wish.


    Therefore, he did not hesitate after hearing the reminder from hispanions. Immediately, he began to pay extra attention to his surroundings while maintaining a squatting posture. He then began to move quietly.


    He knew that the previous two arrows he fired earlier had exposed his position, and staying here any further would prove extremely dangerous. His decision had saved his life. Zhang Heng moved quietly to the second floor like a ghost. Thetter��spanion did not discover him until his shadow fell on the spot where the archer assassin squatted earlier.


    It was then that the archer assassin had moved away, and he immediately turned around and aimed at Zhang Heng. He thenpleted his next action in one go with not a single second wasted. Unfortunately, Zhang Heng was only quicker. The moment he released the bowstring, Zhang Heng had already sliced the wooden bow with a single sh. Without the supporting force, the arrow fell straight to the ground.


    However, Zhang Heng couldn��t do anything to the archer assassin after that because another assassin dashed out from the next room to stop him. Thetter had been waiting quietly for him over there. Since Zhang Heng was wearing the Heart of Kreis, the assassins had failed to detect his movements. Hence, the assassin missed the opportunity to attack Zhang Heng with the archer assassin.


    And Zhang Heng did not expect that the Hounds would regard him as a powerful opponent. To make sure that they could kill him, they dispatched at least five top-tier assassins to deal with him. Zhang Heng also wasn��t sure if other assassins were waiting to ambush him in his domus. Though he failed to kill the archer assassin, he got to at least destroy thetter��s weapon.


    The next moment, Zhang Heng dashed to the two assassins downstairs before climbing up to the second floor. With the Persian swords in his hand, Zhang Heng managed to push back the opponent in front of him. After that, he ran and rolled into the room where the ve girl lived before. Fortunately, there were no other assassins in the room.


    Zhang Heng pried open a piece of the wooden floor as fast as possible and took out the Pestilence Bone Bow and Paris Arrow that he had hidden in the floor. When the assassins dashed into the room and saw Zhang Heng holding a bow and arrow, they ran out immediately.


    Under normal circumstances, the assassin would think that he was now safe, but the arrow that flew out of the room took a quick turn and flew toward him. And itnded on his forehead.


    After that, Zhang Heng approached him and retrieved the Paris Arrow from the corpse. Right after that, he kept walking and jumped directly onto the roof. As expected, it seemed the Hounds were determined to kill him, having ced their men on the roof to ambush Zhang Heng. They blocked off all the possible exits.


    However, Zhang Heng didn��t panic when he saw the enemies, simply looking at them approaching from all directions. He then jumped directly into the air and spread out the huge pair of wings behind him. They were expecting him to be affected by the gravity, but Zhang Heng flew past the dumbfounded assassins and plunged into the distant darkness.


    It wasn��t long before the Hounds�� assassins came back to reality and realized that they had failed the mission. They were not thinking about exining the failure but were thinking about the magical scene they just witnessed.


    Some of them heard some rumors about Zhang Heng, but none took it seriously until they witnessed it with their eyes.


    The leader assassin then said, ��The Bnce de is gone. It��s not a big deal to let him, a core member, escape. Whether he is human or something else... it doesn��t matter anymore. When the sun rises tomorrow, his wanted portraits will be all over the streets and alleys. If he is smart, he should leave Rome tonight. He will have no ce to stay in Rome anymore.��


    The harsh words made the magical scene less impactful now. However, the assassins could still see the doubt and anxiety in each other��s eyes. Since they had the victory in hand, they decided to suppress their doubts, for now, trying their best to forget what just happened.

 Chapter 887 - Night Visitation

    <h4>Chapter 887: Night Visitation</h4>


    That night, Luci��s residence.


    Luci had been living in the pce since her father became the Roman emperor. Later, she married her first husband, Lucius, whose father ruled the Roman empire with another emperor at the same time. Hence, Luci could naturally continue living in the pce.


    However, when Lucius died, Luci was asked to marry her second husband, Pompeanus, by her father. That would mean she had to move out of the pce. Fortunately, her father asked the Senate topensate her. Hence she was awarded the title Augusta. Although Pompeanus was not as powerful as her previous husband, he had an impable attitude toward her. After they were married to each other, they were not as affectionate as other newlyweds, but they got along harmoniously.


    Pompeanus would usually stay at the barracks and not interfere with Luci��s private life.


    Therefore, in the eyes of others, Luci had a married life that most women envied.


    She constantly held banquets at her domus and usually provided an endless flow of wine, apanied by many hunks. But tonight, neither of these things could make her happy. In fact, Luci��s mind seemed to be absent from the beginning of the banquet. It was as if she had been traumatized before. Theziness and pride she had in the past were now gone. When her maid asked if she would cancel the banquet tonight, Luci told her that everything was business as usual.


    When those handsome men invited her to dance, she rejected every single one of them without exception. After that, Lucy got up and left her seat, telling the maid that she wanted to head back to her room for a change of clothes. However, after undressing, she did not go to the closet to get a new set.


    Instead, she stood in front of the bronze mirror and stared at herself in the mirror motionlessly. She seemed to be obsessed with the person in the mirror. She started to stroke her skin with her palm, bit her lip, and reached into a drawer on the side. Among all the perfume bottles, she picked a small verdant jade bottle.


    When she picked up the bottle, an indecisive and unwilling look shed in her eyes. But in the end, she removed the cork. When she tried to bring the jade bottle to her lips, she heard a coughing sound from behind her.


    Luci was startled, and the jade bottle in her hand also fell to the ground.


    ��They said that Cleopatra VII learned that her death was approaching after the Battle of Akshin. So she asked her maid to hide a poisonous snake named Aps in a basket of figs. After that, Cleopatra VII let a poisonous snake kiss her chest, and she ended her splendid and legendary life just like that. Her death also meant the end of the Ptolemaic dynasty. Eventually, Egypt was annexed by Rome and became a province under Rome...��


    ��When did you show up here?�� Luci turned around and saw the person that talked to her.


    ��Sorry, I actually just arrived here not long ago.�� Zhang Heng wiped the blood off his two Persian short swords with the silk bed sheet, ��I faced some troubles just now. I came here to look for you right after I dealt with my problem. To be honest, I didn��t expect you to take off your clothes as soon as you came in. I wanted to wait for you to change before talking to you to avoid an embarrassing situation like this, but...��


    ��They got to you too, didn��t they?�� Luci��s expression changed slightly.


    ��Uh-huh,�� Zhang Heng nodded and inserted the cleaned Persian short swords back into their sheaths. ��It looks like your toy is broken.��


    Luci did not argue with Zhang Heng when she heard what he said, ��We lost this war. In fact, we lost not only this war but everything else as well.��


    ��I can��t agree with thest statement. You still have me. You really shouldn��t have kept it from me from the beginning,�� Zhang Heng said.


    ��...��


    ��It��s toote now.�� Luci shook her head. She then asked, ��How did you find this ce?��


    ��Augusta of the Empire, the emperor��s sister, is the Priestess of the Bnce de, the mysterious assassin organization. It must be admitted that people with no imagination would have never connected you and Bnce de. When you yed the Priestess of Kreis, you were so different from who you are right now...�� Zhang Heng paused. ��Uh... why don��t you find a dress to wear first, and we will continue talking.��


    ��I don��t think it is necessary.�� After the initial panic, Luci quickly calmed herself down and stood in front of Zhang Heng, naked. ��Are you not interested in me? I remember you rejected me more than once before.��


    ��Well, if you are not afraid of catching a cold, you can just be like this...�� Zhang Heng rubbed his nose and continued what he was trying to say. ��The time you met up with me as the Priestess, you were wearing a mask, and you soundedpletely different from now. However, you overlooked one detail, which is the smell of the perfume on your body.��


    ��The smell of the perfume on my body?�� Luci frowned. ��I didn��t overlook this detail. Every time I yed the Priestess of Kreis, I would bathe first and put on a different perfume.��


    ��Yes, but the two kinds of perfumes that you use are the perfumes from the pce. In the beginning, I didn��t suspect that you were with the Bnce de. I thought that the Priestess was hiding in the pce as a court maid. The day I started to suspect you were when you visited me in my new domus. When you left, you said something inexplicable to me. I thought you were threatening me, but Altrus looked for me that night, and he asked some questions. It was at that time when I finally understood what you said to me.��


    Luci nodded. ��On that day, I was told that Altrus might meet you. It was toote for me to summon you as the Priestess of Kreis. Hence, I could only go and look for you personally. Fortunately, I have quite some rumors surrounded me. It is not umon for me to like a diator. However, I don��t think you identified me as the Priestess with just one sentence, right?��


    ��Yes. After that, I found the ce where we met that night,�� Zhang Heng said. ��That house belongs to Sktus, a young man from the Ksu family. A friend of mine told me that he rarelyes here for two years now. Out of curiosity, I investigated Sktus and found that two years ago, there were rumors that he was one of your secret lovers. That was where you had an affair, right?�� Zhang Heng said as he stared at Lucillia in front of him.


    ��This is something I still can��t figure out. At that time, your eyes were covered, and you were put in the carriage. How did you manage to find that ce?�� Luci asked in surprise.


    ��This is a little trick taught to me by an old friend of mine from Baker Street. If he were the person who was loaded into the carriage that night, he would��ve figured out the route a lot sooner than me,�� Zhang Heng said.

 Chapter 888 - Is Our Agreement Still In Effect?

    <h4>Chapter 888: Is Our Agreement Still In Effect?</h4>


    ��So now, you found me after everything has settled. It��s just you and me now, the two remaining remnants of the Bnce de. Oh. And maybe your teacher is still alive. But considering his age, I don��t think he��ll be getting to the ce I sent him,�� Luci chuckled. ��We are the only surviving members of the Bnce de now. Admit it. We have already lost the fight. If I were you, I won��t waste my precious time on a dying person. You should leave Rome overnight before they catch you.��


    ��Maybe.�� Zhang Heng was nomittal. ��What about you? Why don��t you leave this ce?�� he then asked.


    ��Because I am the daughter of Aurelius, the wife of Lucius, and Augusta of the Roman Empire. I will not run away. No matter where I escape to, someone is bound to recognize me,�� Luci continued. ��They won��t do anything to me for the time being because I��m the only blood rtive of Commodus, and they must take this face into consideration.��


    ��So, you n to end your life here just up like this?�� Zhang Heng pointed at the jade bottle on the ground.


    ��As I said, we lost this time. And I ept this result, but I will not put my fate in the hands of others. Now, I have to die with dignity.�� Luci puffed her chest and continued, ��Don��t underestimate a woman��s determination. Cleopatra has her viper, and I have mine as well.��


    ��It��s admirable, but I��d like to correct something. You lost the battle, not us,�� Zhang Heng said. ��I haven��t lost yet.��


    ��Have you lost your sanity after what happened tonight?�� Luci frowned. ��You are not even qualified to participate in this war. You have no right to talk about winning or losing!��


    ��Sometimes, a bystander sees more, �� Zhang Heng replied. ��Oh, and I��m not talking about your naked body. However, there��s something I want to confirm with you first.��


    ��What is it?�� Luci asked.


    ��is our previous agreement still valid?��


    ��Our agreement?�� Luci was puzzled.


    ��I��ll help you get rid of Altrus, and you take me to the secret library of the Bnce de,�� Zhang Heng said. ��As you said, we are the only three remaining members of the Bnce de. Given that I have no idea where my teacher is, it seems you are the only person that can bring me to the Bnce de��s secret library. I believe you know why I didn��t escape the city tonight and came to look for you instead.��


    Zhang Heng looked at Luci, ��I need you to be alive until I enter the library at least. Unfortunately, I��m afraid I will be making some losses here. Not only will I have to kill Altrus for you, but I��ll also have to help you deal with the Hounds.��


    ��You are alone now, without anypanions and support. And you want to fight two powerful enemies at the same time? What are you nning to do?�� Luci asked with a puzzled look. ��Just you wait until the next morning. Even if the Hounds fail to hunt you down, a warrant for your head will be all over the streets and alleys of this city.��


    ��Well... Since we are an assassin organization, let us solve this problem the assassin��s way,�� replied Zhang Heng said. ��After all, the person who taught me these skills always emphasized the importance of keeping the tradition alive.��


    ��Let��s not talk about the fact that you haven��t passed the assessment to be a real assassin. How can you kill them without knowing who or where the target is?�� Luci continued to ask.


    Zhang Heng smiled and took out three copper coins from his pocket and ced them in the palm of his hand one by one. ��Bnce de, Altrus, and Hounds. If I can��t see what is on the back of any of these coins, I will follow your advice and escape Rome overnight. After that, you won��t get to see me anymore. I wonder if this answer satisfies you?��


    ��Do you know where Altrus is hiding? And do you also know who the Hounds�� leader is?�� Luci��s eyes widened, ��How is this possible? The Bnce de has been investigating this matter for so long, but we haven��t heard of a single answer. Otherwise, we wouldn��t have failed so badly.��


    ��As I said, sometimes a bystander sees more than the insider. And I must admit that it took me a lot of time to investigate this matter. With a little luck, I managed to sort out all the problems. I��m d that my luck is still working well.��


    Zhang Heng stood up from his seat as he spoke. ��If you don��t mind, I will start to work on it next.��


    After that, he walked to the balcony, and he stopped in front of a pot of cosmos.


    ��By the way, I do have a question that I haven��t figured out quite yet. Who is the traitor in Bnce de?��


    Luci shook her head when she heard the words, ��There are no traitors in the Bnce de. After the tragedy two hundred years ago, we have strict requirements when ites to selecting members. We need to make sure our members are loyal and faithful to us. People like you are unique. This is also the reason why we find it hard to ept you into our organization.��


    ��Oh, I understand now. The so-called traitor is something you peoplee up with to bait Altrus? In that case, the previous agreement you came up with me was just to confuse the enemy. The Bnce de didn��t need to extract any information from Altrus. When you guys asked me to get close to Commodus, the Bnce de actually tried to use me to distract the enemy. None of you expected me to locate Altrus, right?�� Zhang Heng raised his eyebrows.


    ��Yes, that��s right,�� Luci sighed. ��That��s because Altrus��s whereabouts are too secretive. We wanted to nt someone that could gain Altrus��s trust. However, but it turns Altrus will never trust anyone. In the end, our people were used by him to convey the wrong information to us, which eventually caused the Bnce de to lose the war.��


    ��If you hear about Altrus��s childhood, maybe you won��t get your hopes up,�� Zhang Heng said.


    ��What was his childhood like?��


    ��Altrus is the twin brother of Commodus. He contracted a strange disease when he was five years old. From what I know... Uh, I believe the disease is called ��polio�� in our country. The condition can cause its sufferer physical paralysis. However, the priest in the pce said that this child was cursed and would bring bad luck to the family. For the sake of this country and people, the priest told the emperor that he had to kill this child. I believe you know about the story better than I. After all, you were a teenager when it happened, and it took me a long time to find out the backstory.��


    ��Yes, that��s right, my father asked someone to kill the child, iming that he died of disease,�� Luci said. ��I still remember this tragedy. I can��t forget the way the child looked at me when I said goodbye to him.��


    ��Actually, your father didn��t kill the child. Instead, he sent him away secretly and entrusted the child to someone he trusted. The person that cared for the child was someone that guarded the border. There is no one who knows about it.��


    ��Is he my brother?�� Luci asked in disbelief.


    ��Yes, you still have time to change your mind. You can show him mercy. After all, he is your brother.��


    ��No. Kill him,�� Luci said firmly. ��Between him and me, only one person can live. If he doesn��t die, it will have to be me. As for his story, you can tell me more after you kill him.��


    ��Now I like doing things for the royals. At least, none of you are indecisive.��


    Zhang Heng shrugged.

 Chapter 889 - Owl And Bad Luck

    <h4>Chapter 889: Owl And Bad Luck</h4>


    Zhang Heng jumped off the balcony andnded gently on the ground.


    On his left, the guests in Luci��s domus were still singing and dancing. When the musician plucked the lyre��s string, its melodious tune coupled with theughter of the guests broke through from the other side of the wall. It was as if the happiness would never end.


    But inparison, the street outside the domus was quieter.


    It was past midnight. Hence, no pedestrians were walking around the street.


    This was not good news for Zhang Heng since assassins usually preferred chaotic environments like crowded markets or an arena full of spectators or a tavern or brothel with a constant flow of customers. In ces like these, Zhang Heng could make an assassin disappear easily.


    Fortunately, the moon was not too bright tonight, and the darkness could provide Zhang Heng with some disguise. He didn��t go looking for Altrus right away after leaving the domus, heading back to the southeast city instead to change into a set of ck clothes, one more suitable for what he was about to do. He also heard the sound of footsteps in the corridor when he added some arrows to his quiver.


    They were almost silent, and if it were not for the zero-maintenance floor of this apartment, Zhang Heng would find it hard to hear footsteps through a door even with his excellent hearing. These footsteps could only belong to an assassin.


    Zhang Heng was not surprised to find an assassin following him. It was no secret that he had formed a new force in the southeast city. Besides, the Hounds had Beehive collecting all kinds of information for them in Rome. After Zhang Heng foresaw his identity might be exposed, he asked Marcus from the southeast city to arrange several safe houses for him. However, now it seemed the Hounds also controlled the location they were at.


    In addition to the assassins that ambushed him at his domus, the Hounds had also arranged for some personnel to deal with Zhang Heng here.


    The footsteps from the hallway finally stopped outside his house. Still counting the arrows in the quiver, Zhang Heng pretended that he did not hear him. He even packed two figs to snack on during his journeyter.


    The assassins in the hallway, on the other hand, were probably ready to attack Zhang Heng. He quietly unlocked the door. However, when they entered the room, they found out that there was no one inside. They could not help but nce at each other.


    In the room opposite his, Zhang Heng put on his hood and looked back again to make sure that he left nothing behind. After that, he stuck his body out of the window and climbed the brick wall to the top of the building. Upon arrival, he jumped from the top of the building to the slightly lower apartments next door. When hended on the ground, he walked into a dark alley and disappearedpletely.


    The safe house Zhang Heng had arranged with the help of Marcus was to bait the Hounds. Later, he asked Soap to find a few trusted locals to rent the opposite unit quietly. It would serve as Zhang Heng��s real hideout in the event of a crisis.


    After losing the assassin behind him, Zhang Heng set off to the first ce that he wanted to go tonight.


    That ce was Rome Square.


    Every city has its center, and Rome was no exception. Its center was located at Rome Square. More than a dozen centuries ago, it was but a deste, mosquito-ridden swamp, with not a single soul inhabiting the ce. There were even Romans who buried their dead rtives here. However, several centuriester, arge drain was built, draining away all the water from the valley, and turning the ground. hard


    At that time, Rome was still in its Republican phase. The people who lived there paved the way and built the temples and Basilica, making it more and more prosperous as time went by. Gradually, it formed a huge square. When the Empire era arrived, the continuous expansion of the territory caused an explosion in poption. The original Rome Square could no longer meet the people��s needs, so a total of five new squares were built around it, one after another.


    But there was no doubt that the Roman Square was still the most central area of Rome. The former emperor Marc Aurelius once gave a speech about how he felt about Caesar here. The pir coated in gold in front of the podium was the starting point for all roads leaving Rome. Hence the saying, ��All roads lead to Rome.��


    However, Zhang Heng was not here tonight to visit Roman Square. He walked through the huge arch built by Augustus and passed through the center of the square, where a vine, an olive tree, and a fig tree were nted. They were known as the sacred trees of Rome. After that, Zhang Heng looked up and saw the temples on Capitoline Hill, where the gods of Rome were enshrined.


    Among them, the two most majestic temples stood on the top of the mountain, one on the left and the other on the right. They were the temples of King Jupiter and Queen Juno. Knowing that Altrus had to be in one of the two temples, Zhang Heng wasted no time and ascended the wide stone steps.


    During the daytime, the Roman Square was the busiest ce in the entire city of Rome. Crowded with people, the devoted believers would line up in front of therge and small temples. At the same time, the beggars took the opportunity to ask for food or copper coins. Vendors, too, would sell their products in the stalls around the square. One could always hear the constant haggling among vendors here in Basilica.


    But now, after entering the night, everything fell silent. Only the holy fire of the Temple of Vesta was still burning. Zhang Heng did not encounter any obstacles along the way and quickly made it up to the top of the mountain.


    After a short bout of hesitation, he went up to the Jupiter Temple on the left. The me on the altar had been extinguished, leaving only some charred bones and gands around. Zhang Heng walked around the altar and came to the closed bronze gate. He then picked up a stone and threw it at the gate.


    After Zhang Heng waited for a while, the bronze gate opened slowly. A young priest rubbed his eyes and stuck his head out of the temple. However, after scanning his surroundings, he saw no one. He strained to look a little further before eventually seeing an owl standing on the wall. He could not help but curse.


    Owls had always been a symbol of bad luck in Rome. Hence, spotting one was not a good thing.


    The young priest did not dare to look around anymore. He retreated and closed the gate again. While he looked at the bird, a person slipped into the temple silently. Recently, Zhang Heng had been practicing his stealth ability assiduously. Coupled witKreis�� Heart��s blessing, it was difficult for an ordinary person to notice him unless he was spotted.


    Zhang Heng was not in a hurry. He waited for a while on the ceiling. It was not before the young priest walked back to his residence that Zhang Heng returned to the ground, closing up on Jupiter��s marble statue.


    His attention was not focused on the lifelike idol, a magnificent work of art on its own right. Instead, he was looking at the stone seat under the idol. He knelt down and touched the hole with airing out of it.

 Chapter 890 - Altrus’s Ear

    <h4>Chapter 890: Altrus��s Ear</h4>


    Located at the back of the statue, those vents were not that easy to spot. If one did not walk to the back of it, they would be impossible to find. Other than the vent holes, the stone b under the idol was also movable. In other words, the space underneath the stone b was not filled, built with an arched structure like the Amphitheatrum vium.


    Zhang Heng removed the te and saw only a tiny room beneath it, a space that could only fit a child under fourteen. He also found some bread crumbs and a bowl of unfinished water in it. And that was all he found. Hence, he walked around to the back of the temple, where the priests were living.


    The young priest who opened the door to wee him earlier had now gone to bed again and was asleep. Besides him, two older priests and six attendants were doing some chores. Zhang Hengpleted a search of their residence without waking them. The search yielded little results, though, so he retreated to the hall where the statue was located, opened the bronze gate, and quietly left the temple.


    A quarter of an hourter, Zhang Heng stood in front of the temple of Queen Juno, getting ready to use the same trick to get the gate opened. He threw the stone in his hand, and the next moment, the temple��s gate suddenly opened by itself.


    A woman dressed as a priest came out with a group of children. There wasn��t time to climb onto the roof, so Zhang Heng could only roll to the side in a hurry, and that was when he got to the edge of the cliff. When the gate was fully opened, he hung his body on the cliff and climbed the rock wall with one hand.


    He did move as fast as he could, but the whole thing happened so suddenly that the first child who stepped out of the temple saw Zhang Heng moving. The child stopped and looked at the cliff where Zhang Heng was hiding with some doubts.


    ��Priestess Vera, I believe I see something.��


    The priestess named Vera nced in the direction shown by the child and found nothing unusual. She then said, ��It��s just wind, Mosmir, let��s move quickly. You will need to get up early tomorrow.��


    Blinking, Mosmir did not think that he saw the wind. However, he still obeyed the priestess��s order and continued to walk forward while the other children followed him.


    When the children left, the bronze gate did not close immediately. Instead, a male priest walked out from inside the temple. Compared with the priestess, he paid little attention to etiquette. After watching the children leave, he walked to the edge of the cliff, unbuttoned his pants, and was about to urinate.


    Unfortunately, the liquid that flowed out from his body was not urine but his blood. A shadowy figure that breathed death came from behind him, slit his neck, and hugged his falling body at the same time. With that, the priest could not scream when he died. He stretched out his hand and grabbed the killer��s sleeve as if he did not want the killer to escape. However, hested only a few seconds before he lost his strengthpletely.


    Afterward, Zhang Heng ced the priest��s corpse aside and grabbed his right hand to examine it. There were many calluses on the index finger and thumb. And there were also scars on the arm. Clearly, he had endured tough military training and might have participated in the war as well. Although he was dressed like a priest, he carried a demeanor that was more akin to a soldier.


    And judging from his appearance and skin, he was not born in Rome. If Zhang Heng spected correctly, he should be one of the elites that Altrus had brought from the frontier to Rome, and he also belonged to the group of guards that he trusted most.


    It was at that time; Zhang Heng figured out that he was at the right ce. Speaking of Zhang Heng��s ability to find Altrus��s hiding ce, he had to thank Clint for the information he revealed while they had a long chat at the dungeon. Without him, Zhang Heng would��ve never found this ce.


    Clint described Altrus as someone that could read minds. Since Zhang Heng was drugged by Altrus before, he knew that Clint was talking about Altrus using a truth serum on others. However, using nt alkaloids like scopmine to force the truth out of someone had a big problem. One of the problems was toxicity. Zhang Heng did not know the method Altrus had used to neutralize some of the toxicity in the truth serum. However, he was certain that Altrus did not make the toxin disappearpletely. At Zhang Heng��s current fitness level, he was not affected after he drank the poisoned wine. This might not apply to the average person.


    In terms of efficiency, this was not a good way to gather intelligence. Altrus needed to convince the target to drink the poisoned wine and look for a ce to bring the target there for questioning. In that case, he could only interrogate seven or eight people in one day at most. It was impossible for him to know the secrets of every civilian or noble, as Clint had said.


    And Zhang Heng did not think that Altrus would waste his truth serum on the civilians. He should have other means to gather the information. The serum was more like his special move to respond to certain emergencies. Besides, Clint had also mentioned that Altrus made a huge mistake three years ago. The dockworkers on the Tiber River were asking for wages, and they paralyzed the traffic on the river. Zhang Heng was surprised that Altrus did not receive such big news in advance.


    It did not make sense no matter how one tried to exin it. However, when Zhang Hengbined all the facts that he knew, he saw the answer.


    Altrus was gathering intelligence through the temple.


    Temples and public bathhouses were probably some of the few ces open to the poor and nobles. And these were also the two ces where people like to discuss secrets. When the believers prayed, they would not hesitate to say out their most secret wishes. Simrly, many would discuss business and personal matters in the public bathhouse as well.


    What made Zhang Heng eliminate the public bathhouse was the embarrassment that Altrus received these three years. Altrus did not receive any news about the dockworkers in advance because most of the dockers were Jewish. They either believed in Judaism or Christianity, which meant they would note to the temple to pray to the Roman gods.


    There was another reason why Zhang Heng was more inclined to the temple. And that was, Altrus was sentenced to death by the priest in the pce. If it weren��t for his father��s final act of mercy by sending him away, he would��ve been dead when he was four years old. In the end, he lost his identity as a prince, and even though he survived the death penalty, and he would never be able to show his face to the public again.


    After many years, he returned to Rome and regained power. Zhang Heng did not believe that he would not retaliate against the priests in the temples. Through this, he could control these temples and transform them into a ce for him to gather intelligence.


    The hiding ce that Zhang Heng found under the stone seat of the Jupiter statue was the best proof for his theory. And the group of children who were taken away by the priestess should be the ears of Altrus.

 Chapter 891 - Backfire

    <h4>Chapter 891: Backfire</h4>


    Zhang Heng dealt with the priest who came out to pee as fast as possible. After that, he went to the temple��s door and took a quick look at the temple��s interior. Aspared to the Temple of Jupiter, the ce was enveloped in darkness. The Temple of Juno, on the other hand, was well lit.


    Zhang Heng saw two servants helping a priest tidy up something. They looked like they were dealing with some valuable information they had obtained from the children just now. The three men were positioned quite far away from the door. Zhang Heng figured that it would be almost impossible to sneak past the three of them, so he removed the Pestilence Bone Bow from his back.


    The first arrow urately pierced the throat of one of the servants. Before the servant could say a word, his body copsed onto the marble pir behind him. Immediately, the other servant beside him was alerted by the sound of the arrow prating his ally��s body. He then drew his weapon, opened his mouth, and was about to warn the others loudly, but thest thing he expected was to end like the dead servant beside him. The second arrow came faster than he thought, and it prated his heart.


    In order to get rid of those two servants in the shortest possible time, Zhang Heng used ordinary arrows for his first shot and the Paris Arrow for the second. He took a quick aim at his targets at released the arrows without any hesitation. The moment the Paris Arrow left the bow, it corrected its flying path and went for the target��s weak point.


    When the two servants fell on the floor, the priest focusing on sorting out the papyrus, realized that something had gone wrong. The moment he raised his head, Zhang Heng��s Persian short sword was already ced on his neck.


    ��Where is Altrus?�� Zhang Heng asked in a low voice.


    ��Who?�� The priest looked a little panicked, ��I don��t know who Altrus is. This is the temple of Queen Juno. We don��t have much money with us. If you want to rob someone, you should go to the nobles that live under the mountain.��


    ��You know I didn��te here for the money,�� Zhang Heng said.


    As soon as Zhang Heng finished talking, he heard footstepsing from behind the statue room. The priest��s face showed a touch of joy, knowing that someone wasing to save him. That could mean the mysterious man in front of him would have to surrender soon.


    However, he did not expect Zhang Heng to push the short sword into his neck after hearing the footsteps. The priest looked at his blooding out of his throat, and he felt surprised that Zhang Heng would make such a move. After that, Zhang Heng quickly moved to the side of the corridor��s entrance.


    Before the owner of the footsteps walked out of the corridor, he saw the priest pressing his neck with his hand. Subconsciously, he wanted to walk closer and check on him, but before he could do that, a shadowy figure appeared in front of him and inserted a dagger into his heart. So far, Zhang Heng had eliminated five enemies. All of them were killed with only a single move. It prevented the dead from making too much noise and attracting too much attention.


    Zhang Heng was not on a whim to pursue a five-star achievement for killing his enemies stealthily. It was because he knew that Altrus had a secret path that could lead to Commodus��s study room. The entrance of the secret path could very well be located at this temple. Besides, Zhang Heng did not know if other exits were in the middle of the secret path.


    In order not to cause too much trouble for himself, Zhang Heng hoped that he could deal with Altrus before he entered the secret passage. That was why he chose to eliminate his enemies as stealthily as possible.


    So far, there was no hup in his n. Although he did not extract any information from the priest about Altrus��s whereabouts, he was fortunate that the temple was not that huge. Zhang Heng then put away his arrow and continued towards the corridor. The oilmp on the stone walls was not as bright as the one outside the hall. Zhang Heng��s quivering shadow was cast on the wall, distorting and looking a little scary.


    Zhang Heng walked past a couple of old-looking stone chambers in the corridor. He spected that these chambers were once rooms of the priests�� hundreds of years ago. However, after the temple went through several expansions, the priests�� now lived in their new residences. Hence, the stone chambers were now used as a ce to store files and sundries.


    After Zhang Heng walked for a while, he realized that something was not right. First of all, he had walked a long way, and he could feel the altitude was getting lower and lower. Secondly, he saw that there were more stone chambers than the Jupiter Temple next door. Most of the stone chambers were connected, like a maze. So Zhang Heng had to remember the paths he walked on while searching for what he was looking for. Suddenly, he heard a loud rumbling noise. Turning around, he saw a huge boulder appearing out of nowhere on the path he had walked on.


    At the same time, he heard Altrus��s voiceing from behind him.


    ��Who sent you to kill me?��


    Zhang Heng turned his head and looked at the ce where the sound came from. However, all he saw was a stone wall with no one standing there. Altrus then spoke again, ��Don��t waste your time. You can��t see me. Do you know what ce this is?��


    ��I would like to know more about it,�� Zhang Heng said as he walked toward the stone wall and looked up.


    ��This is the underworld,�� replied Altrus��s ghostly voice. ��Except for those who have died once like me, no living being can leave this ce alive...��


    ��Hmm.�� Zhang Heng knew that the underworld was more than a myth. There was an actual underworld beneath the Roman Square.


    Right beside the golden pir that symbolized the beginning of all roads, there was a small building. The Romans regarded the upper part as an umbilical cord, and the lower part was the underworld. Romans believed that a crack connected the living world on the surface of the Earth to the underworld beneath the ground. The underworld would open its doors three days a year, and these three days were considered bad days.


    Zhang Heng would never believe in such a thing, though. After a while, he found what he was looking for on the stone wall. It was a copper pipe hidden in the cracks of the stone. Altrus��s voice hade from this pipe, and he had used the underworld legend to put fear in Zhang Heng��s mind.


    Zhang Heng then leaned closer to the copper tube and mumbled a few words. He knew that Altrus was paying attention to what he had to say. After that, Zhang Heng took out his dagger and scratched the copper pipe a few times. Altrus, on the other side, was impacted by the enhanced screeching. He almost vomited out his dinner after Zhang Heng attacked him with the sound wave.


    Zhang Heng wasn��t simply messing with Altrus out of boredom. This time, Altrus had been outwitted. The rock that he lifted to throw at Zhang Heng had nownded on his foot. He wanted to use the underworld��s legend and talk through the copper pipe to scare off Zhang Heng, but it turned out to be a failed attempt.


    One had to admit that it was indeed a powerful technique in this era. Coupled with the truth serum that he used earlier, Zhang Heng felt that it was a waste of talent for Altrus to work as Commodus��s advisor. He should have been an inventor or scientist of the second century AD. His ideas could have enlightened humankind.


    Unfortunately, his ingenious ideas did not work on Zhang Heng, who hadpleted nine years of education in the modern world. Besides, Zhang Heng was baptized by science as well. Such a childish technique would never work on him. Judging from the volume of Altrus�� voice, Zhang Heng knew that thetter was not too far away.


    With the soundwave attack, Zhang Heng was hoping that he managed to provoke Altrus. He also wanted Altrus to stay put and wait for him to knock on his door.

 Chapter 892 - Altrus’s Death

    <h4>Chapter 892: Altrus��s Death</h4>


    There was also a reason why Altrus did not escape right away. Not only was Zhang Heng wearing a ck suit, but he had also put on a hood. Although Altrus did notice Zhang Heng��s arrival in time, he did not know who sent the assassin to deal with him.


    ording to the news that he received, the Bnce de was now dead. There was only one backup member left. Even if he was still alive, Altrus figured that he would be overwhelmed by the troubles he had to face, and he should not have time toe here to assassinate him. Although the Hounds was his ally, Altrus would not trust thempletely. The two had only formed an alliance because they had amon enemy, but now that the enemy was gone, their ally-rtionship would be dismissed naturally.


    Altrus was not too surprised if the Hounds sent this assassin. Other than that, he had made a lot of enemies throughout the years. He had to find out the identity of the assassin as soon as possible. And how did the enemy find his hiding ce? Hiding at the temple was Altrus��s greatest secret. If this secret were exposed, his most important channel of intelligence would be cut off. Although Altrus was quite capable, losing the temple was like a magician losing his magic wand.


    If possible, Altrus still wanted to keep this secret safe. That was the reason why he took the risk to talk to Zhang Heng. Altrus had always been a very cautious person, but at the same time, he was also very conceited. Most of the time, he was very confident with the tricks in his sleeve. By making use of the legend of the underworld, no matter how determined enemies were, they should have been nervous about the whole thing.


    To his surprise, Altrus received a small gift from Zhang Heng, and it did anger Altrus at the beginning. He wished to crush the bastard who scraped the copper pipe with a knife. However, after he recovered from the effects of the screeching, he gradually calmed himself down. And Altrus realized that it might not be safe for him to stay here anymore.


    He regretted that he did not leave as soon as he realized that there was an intruder. Fortunately, it still wasn��t toote to leave; hence Altrus did not hesitate this time. He grabbed his cane and said to the guards around him, ��Let��s go to the tunnel.��


    The moment the guards received his order, they quickly surrounded him and formed a protection circle. After that, they left through the side door to another room. However, after taking only two steps forward, the guards positioned at the back of the team suddenly knelt on the ground. His heart was shot through by a sharp arrow. And it caused the remaining guards to be nervous. They spontaneously divided into two teams. One team stayed back to stall the enemy, while the other team continued to protect Altrus and moved towards the underground path with stone rooms.


    While getting panicked, Altrus, who had a physical disability, fell and dropped his cane. However, Altrus did not have time to pick it up. Although the copper pipe was good at transmitting the sound, it would get quieter once he got too far away from it. In order to listen to what Zhang Heng was saying, he chose to enter a stone room that was closer to Zhang Heng. However, the price he had to pay was that he could not enter the tunnel from that particr stone room. He had to walk for another fifty meters to get to the tunnel.


    Altrus felt that the fifty meters were the longest distance that he traveled in his life. Right after he fell, two guards would quickly get to his feet. After walking for another thirty meters, the guards carried him to run towards the final destination. Altrus faintly heard the sound of fightinging from behind. However, it did notst too long.


    After the fighting sound disappeared for a few seconds, a glimpse of hope reappeared in Altrus�� heart. The six soldiers that stayed back to fight with Zhang Heng were brought over here by him from the front line. Logically speaking, they were not supposed to be trounced by the enemy. Their odds of killing the assassin were greater. However, Altrus did not stop moving. He continued to run towards the stone room.


    And now, he was only less than two meters away from the stone room. But the next moment, he felt a st of air passing over his ears. And the guard on his left fell to the ground with an arrow prating his body. It caused Altrus to lose his bnce. The guard on his right attempted to draw his weapon to protect Altrus.


    However, the assassin with the Persian short swords cut open his chest without much effort. After that, Zhang Heng walked to Altrus��s side, who was still crawling on the ground. Thetter was extremely close to touching the stone room��s door. However, he heard the assassin next to him saying,


    ��Your sister asked me to send her regards to you.��


    At that moment, Altrus had finally lost all his pride andposure. He pleaded, ��No, this is impossible. How much is she paying you? I can double it! No! I can pay you ten times her offer. Don��t kill me!��


    ��I feel your sincerity, but I��m sorry. You can��t give me what she paid me,�� said Zhang Heng as he grabbed Altrus��s hair.


    The fear in Altrus��s eyes gradually turned into anger. He kept repeating, ��No, I have escaped death once! I won��t die here! I won��t die here! I won��t die here!��


    ��It��s a pity. This time you will die for real. But the good news is that everyone heard of your death five days ago. I also attended the funeral held by his majesty. It was pretty good.�� Zhang Heng slit Altrus��s throat as he spoke.


    Thetter��s fear and anger eventually turned into unwillingness, forever enshrined in his eyes.


    .....


    Zhang Heng had eliminated his first target of the night. However, he ran into a bit of trouble when he attempted to get out of the stone chamber maze. Since his way in was blocked, Zhang Heng had to take a long route before he could get back to the ground. By the time he left the maze, the sky had turned bright.


    After that, Zhang Heng saw his wanted portrait posted on the streets. Immediately, he put on his hood when there were not a lot of people around him. The first thing that he did was to return to the southeast city. There was still one person on his assassination list. It was someone that had managed to hide well.


    The person was the Hounds�� leader.


    So far, Zhang Heng had not obtained any information about him. Altrus was mysterious enough, but most of the people from the upper ss had heard of his name before. However, when onepared him with the leader of the Hounds, no one knew if he was even a real person. If it weren��t for the coincidence, Zhang Heng would��ve never known who the Hounds�� leader was.


    Initially, Zhang Heng wanted to assassinate the leader after killing Altrus, but he was identally trapped in the maze. Last night was the best time to eliminate him. Unfortunately, he missed the window of opportunity. When his wanted portrait was posted everywhere on the street, Zhang Heng��s actions were also greatly affected. Fortunately, since Zhang Heng knew who the Hounds�� leader was, he knew the best time to eliminate him. Zhang Heng ceased all his actions and waited quietly for his target to approach him.

 Chapter 893 - Leader Of The Hounds

    <h4>Chapter 893: Leader Of The Hounds</h4>


    Although Luci gave up the thought ofmitting suicide after Zhang Heng talked her out of it, her heart was still full of anxiety, especially the next morning when she saw Zhang Heng��s wanted warrants posted almost everywhere in the city. Let alone getting close to the target. It was now getting very difficult for him to even walk on the street.


    And with the passage of time, Zhang Heng��s circumstances would only be more and more dangerous. The two had lost contact since that night. Luci did not know if Zhang Heng was still alive and how long he could hide if he were. She knew that Zhang Heng was somewhat influential in the southeast city, and with him on the wanted list, the bounty alone was enough to turn anyone into a traitor. Besides, the people that lived in the southeast city had no sense of honor. As long as someone paid them enough, the poor people would betray their fathers. Zhang Heng was no longer Commodus��s advisor too, which meant he had the least control over his life now.


    Luci could not figure out how Zhang Heng would restrain his subordinates so they would not betray him. In fact, she felt that Zhang Heng had more likely already escaped Rome by now. This was the only reason to exin why he did not look for her or get caught. Luci��s heart sank at the thought of this.


    Suddenly, a hand wrapped around her waist, and Pompeanus��s voice came from behind her, as gentle as ever. ��What��s going on? Are you not feeling well?��


    Luci retracted her gaze from the street downstairs, and she barely smiled. ��It��s nothing. I was just thinking; it��s Saturnalia in a few days.��


    ��Oh, yeah, Saturnalia,�� Pompeanus nodded. ��I heard that a grand celebration will be held on Trajan Square that day. Maybe we can go there and have some fun.��


    ��Yeah, that��s right.��


    Luci dealt with her husband with an absent mind.


    ��But now, my dear, we are going to the Victor Arena to watch the diatorial show!�� Pompeanus picked up the ne on the table, put it on for Luci, and tidied her hair. ��It��s a pity that your favorite Easterner can no longer perform in the Victor Arena. Fortunately, we still get to watch Terufelos the Giant. We have to hurry up, or we won��t make it to the show.��


    ��I��ll be done soon. Why don��t you go downstairs and wait for me first.��


    ��Okay.�� Pompeanus smiled and kissed Luci on the forehead before opening the door.


    However, after he took a step forward, he stood there, stunned. And he slowly retreated into the room. Luci frowned when she heard the footsteps behind her. She then turned back to ask, ��Did you forget something?��


    However, the next moment, she saw a servant holding a dagger against Pompeanus��s chest. And a chill suddenly crept up in Luci��s heart. She had never expected the Hounds�� assassin toe so quickly. ��I��m your target,�� she said. ��This has nothing to do with him. He doesn��t know anything.��


    ��No. I��m afraid this has something to do with him.�� The assassin dressed as a servant opened his mouth, and Zhang Heng��s voice came out.


    ��You still haven��t left Rome?�� Luci was taken aback.


    ��Yes, our agreement hasn��t been fulfilled yet. Of course, I won��t leave Rome,�� Zhang Heng said. ��I killed Altrus for you, but the Hounds�� leader usually spends his time in the barracks. It will not be easy to kill him. And after I kill Altrus, he would definitely be more cautious. Fortunately, I know an excellent opportunity topletely avoid all his men and guards. And that window of opportunity is when he returns to his home from the barracks.��


    ��Hold on. Are you are saying that my husband is the leader of the Hounds?�� Luci looked incredulous, ��How is this possible? This is just a lie you made up so you can enter the library, right?��


    ��Unfortunately, no. To be honest, I had never doubted him before, because he had an almost perfect disguise. He is Aurelius��s crony, your husband, the number one figure in the military, and has always been known for his gentle personality. At the same time, he hardly participates in any faction wars. Under normal circumstances, no one will associate him as the Hounds�� leader, and neither would I.��


    Zhang Heng continued after a short pause, ��But a few months ago, when I was still in the southeast city, I was targeted to be assassinated. At that time, I was more inclined to think that Clint was the one that sent the assassin because he had always felt jealous of Commodus��s favor for me. Until a few days ago, I saw a centurion named Herto, and I realized that he had served under your husband for a long time. And he seemed a little flustered when someone mentioned his rtionship with your husband. This made me believe that your husband may not be as simple as he seemed.


    ��But until then, I still didn��t think he would be the leader of the Hounds. Firstly, the person who wanted to assassinate me was not from the Hounds. And secondly, my identity was not exposed when I was being targeted. No matter who hired the assassin, the person didn��t want to kill me because I was a backup member of the Bnce de. In fact, I still haven��t gotten an answer to this question,�� Zhang Heng said as he cast his gaze on Pompeanus in front of him.


    Thetter, however, merely listened quietly and did not say a word about it.


    So Zhang Heng continued, ��Through that incident, I found out that the man behind Herto is your husband. At that time, I only knew about Altrus and your identity. And I still could not figure out who the Hounds�� leader was. Hence, I didn��t n to stay in Rome anymore.


    ��I have a friend named Varo. It��s my... Well, I met him in the diator school. He was an antique dealer before he became a ve. His wife and his best friend teamed to set him up. Afterward, I hired someone to help him investigate his property. I found out that this matter was not as simple as I thought it was. Whether his wife or friends, they were hired by someone else. The mastermind behind the whole thing was a senator named Perret. And this is not the first time he has done this kind of thing.��


    ��What are you trying to say here?�� Luci did not know why Zhang Heng suddenly mentioned a civilian.


    Zhang Heng continued, ��Don��t worry, you will understand after I tell you everything. After the assassination of A�� fakeltrus, the Bnce de did not contact me. I knew that you weren��t in a good situation, so I waited for another two days, and I was ready to escape. At that time, I thought since I��m running away, I might as well help my friend to get rid of his troubles. After all, Varo and I got along with each other quite well in the diator school. Consider that myst favor for him.��

 Chapter 894 - Love

    <h4>Chapter 894: Love</h4>


    ��I went to Pellegrino��s domus and eliminated six of his six guards. By the way, I didn��t break a sweat throughout the whole thing. I even took the time out to walk around his domus. To my surprise, Pellegrino, who was always busy bringing in more money, lived way simpler than I thought. There were not many ves in his domus, and there was nothing particrly valuable. Considering that he makes a lot of money every year, I doubted Senator Pellegrino valued money more than anything else.


    ��When I kicked on the door of his room and put my dagger on his neck, he was so scared that he knelt in front of me and kept begging for mercy. However, he didn��t mention anything about using his money to buy his life. It was rather strange. ording to my experience, no matter how stingy a person is, they are usually more than willing to spend some money when they are about to lose their lives. Unless... ��


    ��Unless the money he earned over the years is no longer in his hands.�� Luci raised an eyebrow. ��He is making money for others.��


    ��Yes. Something interesting came up next. After that, I asked him who he gave the money to. He told me that he gave all his money to a centurion. And this reminded me of something else.��


    ��What was it?��


    ��Rome had always been the Bnce de��s territory. It wouldn��t be easy for the Hounds to ask their assassins to infiltrate this ce. Besides, my teacher and other assassins that work alone, would need external support as well. The middleman is not the only person they talk to. They would need an efficient intelligence channel that could provide them with all the useful and updated information. And a ce like that would need a lot of money to operate. There is an organization called the Beehive in the southeast city. It is a very mysterious organization. And their influence is not limited to the southeast city and the Senate. It seems that there are some of them in China, and it��s pretty obvious that they have spent a lot of money to collect intelligence.


    ��But unlike the other two forces, the Beehive does not have any ie. Or, to be more precise, they earn no apparent ie on the surface. In other words, its owner needs to keep bleeding money to keep it running. And as far as I know, the Beehive��s owner was the Hounds. Their spokesperson was a guy called Corne. He once tested me with the Bnce de��s doctrine. From then on, I started to cast my doubts on your husband.


    ��After that, I did a thorough investigation on your husband. I looked for information about him when he was still young.�� Zhang Heng looked at Pompeanus, ��You came from a famous family. However, your family started to deteriorate by the time your father became the head of the family. In order to revitalize your family, you joined the army and began to follow Aurelius to go to a different war. At first, you were just an unremarkable centurion. However, you started to put more effort into making more contributions. Aurelius began to appreciate you more and regarded you as his confidant in the end.


    ��Your situation, however, is kind of simr to mine. Although Aurelius valued you very much, you were not the only young general that he favored. You had a lot ofpetitors, and many people are better than you. But in the next two years, those younger generals who were better than you died one after another for various reasons. In the end, you became the most dazzling rising star, and Aurelius became more and more dependent on you.��


    ��Although there were many people in the military who were older than you and more powerful than you, they were are all too old to pose a threat to you. You were the only one who could threaten yourself.��


    ��Lucius!��


    Luci suddenly thought of something, and her expression changed drastically. She was standing in front of her dressing table, but took two steps back and moved away from Pompeanus when she heard what Zhang Heng said.


    ��Yes, the younger brother of Aurelius, Rome��s co-ruling emperor Lucius,�� Zhang Heng said, ��The first man in the military at the time, with outstanding achievements. He was at his prime. Logically speaking, he should be the one to rule the army for a long time. And he, like Aurelius, was the emperor of Rome as well. With him being alive, you will always be his subordinate. After that, Lucius was killed by the gue when he was returning to Rome from the frontline. He did not even make it back.��


    ��You bastards killed my first husband?�� Luci looked at Pompeanus. Seemingly to have forgotten her fear, she started yelling at him, ��I could have continued to be a queen in the pce! After my father��s death, Lucius was supposed to be the only emperor in Rome, and our child was supposed to be the next ruler of the Roman Empire, not my stupid brother!��


    Pompeanus only smiled but made noment whatsoever. Instead, he looked at Zhang Heng and finally said, ��Enough. Stop here. You don��t know me at all. You said you didn��t understand why I sent an assassin to assassinate you. The reason is very simple. It was because of jealousy.��


    ��What?�� Zhang Heng raised his eyebrows. He felt a little surprised.


    ��Oh. I do not envy your transformation frommoner to a nobleman or the fact that you gained Commodus��s favor... I don��t care about such things. The jealousy I��m referring to is my instinct as a man and a husband.��


    ��You mistakenly thought I was your wife��s lover?�� Zhang Heng suddenly realized, ��Let��s not talk about whether I��m your wife��s lover. As far as I know, your wife has had many lovers. You shouldn��t mind about these...��


    ��Do you know where they are now then?�� Pompeanus asked casually. ��I can even kill the Roman emperor, Lucius, to get her, let alone the toys she��s gotten tired of ying and has thrown away.��


    ��But if this matter bothers you, why didn��t you stop her in the first ce?��


    ��Oh. You��ve gravely underestimated her. Luci has never been the woman that would live under someone��s control. Even her father can��t control her. If she did it to acquire the sheer pleasure of cheating, why would she let the entire city of Rome know about it? Clearly, she was trying to dere war on her father, who used her as a political bargaining chip to marry her to someone. She wants to trample on the royal honor that her father valued. To me, she is like an out-of-control me, incinerating everything on every path that she travels on. And that��s why I can��t stop loving her.��


    Pompeanus smiled. ��With my status, I need to spend no effort to find a gentle and obedient woman. Of all the women I met, none of them have her charm. She is made up of wild vehemence, rapacity, beauty, and debauchery. She is the epitome of perfection. I fell in love with her the first time Iid my eyes on her. I can��t change her, and I don��t want to.��

 Chapter 895 - Long Distance Traveling

    <h4>Chapter 895: Long Distance Traveling</h4>


    ��You are lying,�� Luci took a deep breath. ��You only said that to make me forgive you for what you did.��


    ��Perhaps.�� Pompeanus did not argue too much on this issue, nor did he panic. From the moment his identity was exposed, he had kept a calm expression as if oblivious to the dagger pointed at his chest. He then continued casually, ��No matter how much you hate me, there is at least one thing you can��t deny. I am indeed the best person for you in this world.��


    ��No. You are just a liar that tells all kinds of lies.�� Luci then looked at Zhang Heng, who was watching the drama unfold before him. She seemed to have finally made up her mind. Hence, with gritted teeth, she growled, ��Kill him! Kill him! I��ll tell you the location of the Bnce de��s library.��


    ��Deal.��


    Zhang Heng was very straightforward. He had been waiting for Luci to drop the order. Without any hesitation, he thrust the dagger cleanly into Pompeanus�� chest.


    ��That��s why I like you.��


    Still staring at Luci at thest moment of his life, Pompeanus smiled. ��Don��t worry, my dear. Even death can��t separate us.��


    ��What does that mean?�� Luci��s expression changed slightly.


    Pompeanus could no longer answer her because he had stopped breathing.


    Zhang Heng pulled the dagger and said, ��He is dead, and I have fulfilled the agreement with you. It��s your turn to fulfill your part.��


    ��Wait, what did hisst sentence mean?�� Luci frowned.


    ��I can��t answer your question. My understanding of him is limited to the part that he was rted to the Hound.�� Zhang Heng said, ��Perhaps, it is something you should be asking yourself. After all, you and he have been a couple for so long.��


    Luci looked uncertain. In the end, she decided not to dwell on this question anymore. Instead, she said, ��You seem to have a way to hide well in this city. Can I hire you to be my assassin? In this war, I lost all the assassins from the Bnce de. However, we can always recruit new ones. You can be the Assassin Speaker. You can freely use all the resources left behind by the Bnce de. Other than that, I will pay you a huge sum of money.��


    Zhang Heng seemed indifferent when he heard her offer. He then wiped the blood from the dagger. ��Sorry, I am only interested in the whereabouts of the library.��


    Luci had a sullen expression on her face, but she soon sorted out her emotions. She still had many political allies, and she was also the emperor��s sister. The destruction of the Bnce de had indeed weakened her power a lot. She was d that Zhang Heng had managed to kill Altrus and exposed Pompeanus��s identity. Although it was a pity that Zhang Heng did not ept her offer, Luci did want to make a more powerful enemy at a time like this.


    So she nodded and said, ��That��s a shame. Hold on.��


    After that, Luci walked to her dressing table, took out one of her makeup boxes, and took out a map from the hiddenpartment.


    ��Where is this?�� Zhang Heng took the map, looked at it, and asked with confusion.


    ��Egypt,�� replied Luci. ��The secret library of the Bnce de was originally located in Greece. However, the tragedy that happened two hundred years ago forced us to relocate it. It was for security reasons. The library is now located in a desert in Egypt.��


    ��Hmm. It seems I can enjoy my long-distance travel next. I hope the scenery along the way is not too bad,�� replied Zhang Heng with his eyebrows raised.


    ...


    After killing Pompeanus, Zhang Heng was done with all the tasks in the city of Rome. Before he left, he returned to the southeast city to make some final arrangements.


    Luci was curious of why Marcus, Soap, and others did not betray Zhang Heng for the considerable reward. The answer was simple. It was not because of Zhang Heng��s charm. He revealed his Shadow Wings to them, causing a significant impact on their mental state. Zhang Heng had no idea how long his trick wouldst. However, it was definitely enough for him to survive theplex situation in the meantime.


    Thest ce Zhang Heng headed to was the Red Nose cksmith shop to withdraw the game items he deposited here. If he were right, he would not be returning to Rome anymore after his journey to Egypt. He employed his Lv2 makeup skill to join a team leaving the city, sessfully going past the city gates. After that, he took ast look at Rome behind him.


    In just six months, he went from being a ve to a diatorial champion to being favored by the emperor. He was granted the status of a free man, and he worked his way up to be a nobleman with a fief. In the end, he became a wanted criminal by the entire empire. Probably no one could beat his life experience.


    However, Zhang Heng was not too emotional about it because he was just a passer-by in second-century Rome. To him, the scenery of the city was more interesting than bing a noble. Zhang Heng withdrew his gaze after that. He had less than a year of game time left in this dungeon. It seemed quite long, but considering the logistical difficulties he would have to face on the path, he might have to spend a long time traveling from Rome to Egypt. If he chose thend route, he would need at least a couple of months to get to his destination.


    Fortunately, he could take a ship across the Mediterranean Sea. And the current wind direction favored his journey. So, Zhang Heng found a grain ship at the pier that was about to make a return. Many modern folks believe that Egypt had always been made entirely out of desert and pyramids. During the second century AD, however, Egypt was known for shipping grain to Rome. Every year, the grain from Egypt fed at least half of the poption of the Roman Empire.


    After paying a gold coin for the ship ticket, Zhang Heng sessfully found himself a bed on the ship. The moment he returned to the sea, he felt a sense of familiarity. It did not take him long to mingle with the sailors. The captain even wanted to keep Zhang Heng on the ship and give him a job after arriving in Egypt. However, thetter declined the offer.


    Zhang Heng had not forgotten the purpose of his trip. After he arrived in Egypt, he took two weeks to check out the famous ces in Egypt. After that, he spent some money to buy thirty camels and prepared seven months�� worth of food and water. Lastly, he hired a few local guides and started his journey to the marked location on the map.

 Chapter 896 - Dusk Of The Empire (End)

    <h4>Chapter 896: Dusk Of The Empire (End)</h4>


    Although Zhang Heng had a map in his hand, there were no satellites in this era. Besides, the uracy of the hand-drawn maps was limited as well. Basically, Zhang Heng only saw the rough location of the library on the map. Other than that, the dunes in the desert would constantly move due to the strong desert winds. Hence, he could not find anyndmark for him to refer to in this vast desert.


    In the end, Zhang Heng spent an entire month in the desert before finding the stele that Luci mentioned to him. Once Zhang Heng spotted the stele, he would be able to see the library��s entrance. While he was traveling in the desert, he identally ran into a group of robbers. Although he managed to eliminate the group of robbers, he still lost two camels and a local guide.


    The local guide died because of his bad luck. When the robbery happened, he was far away from Zhang Heng. One of the robbers shot an arrow at him, and itnded on his forehead. He died on the stop. Zhang Heng had no choice but toe up with a sum of money and entrusted hispanion to bring the money back to his family.


    On the other hand, two camels had run away in fear. It wasn��t a big problem. As long as he found the right ce, he could always go to the nearby towns to replenish his food and water.


    When Zhang Heng arrived at his final destination, he bid the remaining two local guides goodbye before setting up a tent beside the stele. In the evening, by the time he finished his open-air barbecue, the moon had already risen above his head. After that, Zhang Heng followed Luci��s instructions, and he waited patiently for a while. When Zhang Heng saw that it was midnight, he extinguished the bonfire and walked about fifty steps in the direction indicated by the stele��s shadow.


    Zhang Heng knew that the stele��s shadow was not as reliable. Fortunately, Zhang Heng still had his secret item with him, and that item was his watch. Zhang Heng knew that the time now was midnight after converting the time that he saw on his watch. However, the next problem that he had to face was the moon that hung in the sky. The moon��s perigee constantly changed with different seasons, and everyone��s had different steps as well.


    Zhang Heng thought that the Bnce de��s predecessors were rather mean when designing the library��s entrance two hundred years ago. They were clearly showing off how secure their design was. It was not easy for the people from theter generation to enter the library. All that being said,ining would be pointless. Hence, after finding the right spot, Zhang Heng started to pick up a shovel to dig the ground. After half an hour of digging, the shovel finally hit something hard.


    After all, the Bnce de was just an organization made up of assassins. No matter how powerful they were, it was still impossible for him to create a library out of thin air under the sand. Therefore, Zhang Heng realized a natural cave beneath him, discovered by the Bnce de two hundred years ago. After that, they did some modifications to the cave and put up a stele to mark the ce.


    Now that Zhang Heng had found the cave, the next thing that he would find was the cave��s entrance. Zhang Heng tossed the sand into the sky with his shovel, letting them blow away with the wind. Soon, he unveiled the bronze gate. Zhang Heng then threw the shovel away and drew his dagger. After that, he used the dagger to knocked the four directions of the bronze door in a specific order. As for thest step, he took out a movable iron piece in the lower-left corner of the bronze door and inserted his dagger into the slot to trigger the mechanism.


    [Ding! Sessfully found the Bnce de��s secret library. +50 game points. Head to the character panel to view the rted information...]


    Afterpleting the above steps, Zhang Heng heard a system reminder. At the same time, he also heard a rumbling sounding from the ground. It was the sound of the iron te opening the bronze gate. Zhang Heng took two steps backward and looked at the bronze gate slowly opening in front of him. He knew that a new world was beckoning at him behind this gate.


    ...


    ...


    [The return deadline has been reached. Missionplete...]


    [You have cleared the Empire��s Sunset dungeon. Your ninth round of the game is over. You will be sent back to the real world...]


    ...


    Zhang Heng received the reminder to return to reality on the 560th day. Before that, he had spent seven months and eleven days in the secret library.


    Of course, Zhang Heng did not stay there all the time. He would go out of the library from time to time for some fresh air after spending a long time reading the books stored in the library. Sometimes, he would go to a nearby town to have a different variety of food. Although it was not easy to find the library��s entrance and Zhang Heng didin about the entrance��s design, he had to admit that the Bnce de members had put a lot of thought when they built this library two hundred years ago. They had used every bit of knowledge at their disposal to master to perfect the design.


    Upon entering the library, Zhang Heng found that he could y around with the library��s mechanism. He moved a piece of rock with holes to the entrance to maintain the air cirction in the library. And at the same time, no passers-by would discover this underground library. That was why Zhang Heng was quite happy to stay there.


    By the sixth month, his assassin skill had been upgraded to Lv.3. And this was probably the skill that he spent the least time to reach Lv.3. When Zhang Heng was in the ck Sail dungeon, it took him many years to upgrade his sailing skill from Lv.2 to Lv.3. Thanks to the secret library, he spent less than a year upgrading this assassin skill.


    In total, he earned 292 game points from this dungeon, and he even acquired a game item called Heart of Kreis. It was quite a fruitful journey for him.


    When Zhang Heng opened his eyes again, he had returned from the desert to the lounge on the second floor of Sex and the City.


    Zhang Heng got up from the deck and walked towards the bartender.


    ��I can finally pay back the 71 game points that I owe youst time. And I have an item for you to identify as well.��


    Previously, Zhang Heng almost spent all his game points recasting the Ordinary de. Before he started his ninth round of the game, he only had 21 game points with him. He could not even afford to pay for the ritual of inheriting the remaining power from the Shadow Set. Luckily, the bartender was kind enough to allow him to pay the remaining game points that he owedter.


    So the first thing Zhang Heng did after the end of the dungeon was to pay back the points he owed. After that, he passed the unidentified Heart of Kreis to the bartender. Although he had figured out the function of this item, he was not sure if he missed something. Anyway, it did not cost Zhang Heng too many game points to identify the items, and Zhang Heng could afford it.


    ��Congrattions, it seems it was a fruitful trip for you.�� The bartender epted the sapphire, took out the tablet, and clicked on the payment interface. Zhang Heng took the tablet without the bartender��s reminder and entered his yer number, deducting 74 game points.


    ��It appears that our transactions are as pleasant as always,�� the bartender said with satisfaction. ��I will help you identify this game item as soon as possible. By then, your de should be readied. Do you want me to send it to your school, or do you want to pick it up yourself?��


    ��I��lle and get it,�� Zhang Heng replied without hesitation. The previous game items that he asked the bartender to identify were rtively small. Zhang Heng did not want to attract any unnecessary attention. He was not worried that the guard might confiscate his de, knowing that the logistic service that the bartender used would make sure that he received the item on time, even if he was on the moon. The problem was that Zhang Heng had no ce to hide the de at school. It would cause a lot of unnecessary misunderstandings if Chen Huadong and Wei Jiangyang found out about it.

 Chapter 897 - Vacation

    <h4>Chapter 897: Vacation</h4>


    After Zhang Heng returned to school, thest words of the bartender still lingered on his mind. She had spoken to him the moment he was about to leave the bar.


    ��There have been many weird people around recently. You better stay away from the person with Ahoge.��


    ��Someone with Ahoge?��


    Zhang Heng thought for a while, and the only person with Ahoge was Nanako Mukaichi, the apprentice that Chen Huadong had epted earlier.


    Nanako Mukaichi was Hayase Asuka��s junior and had arrived in China as an exchange student not too long ago. Zhang Heng had met her once, and he helped her find the books that she wanted to buy in the bookstore. At that time, Zhang Heng was interrupted by the old man in a Tang suit. Not knowing where he had popped out from, Zhang Heng said goodbye to Nanako Mukaichi and Chen Huadong.


    Therefore, Nanako Mukaichi and Zhang Heng did not have a chance to get to know her better. And based on the situation of that day, Nanako Mukaichi seemed to be behaving quite normally. Zhang Heng, however, also believed that the bartenderdy wouldn��t have said something like that without supporting evidence. The old man in a Tang suit showing up indicated that something was wrong with Nanako Mukaichi.


    Although the old man looked like he had nothing to do on the surface, Zhang Heng analyzed him again and realized he wouldn��t show up without reason every time. Except for that time he showed up to sign a contract with Zhang Heng, he would only appear whenever Zhang Heng was in trouble. When Moresby came to this world, for instance, they met for the second time. And the third meeting because Zhang Heng crossed paths with the goddess of justice. And thest time Zhang Heng met him was in the bookstore not too long ago. The old man in the Tang suit was there to take away a book on the shelf that should not be there.


    It seemed that the reason that the book appeared there was probably rted to Nanako Mukaichi.


    After realizing this, Zhang Heng wanted to remind Chen Huadong and let him pay extra attention to his safety whenever he spent time with Nanako Mukaichi. However, when he saw Chen Huadong put on a silly smile when he talked on the phone, he knew that his reminder would probably be pointless. Fortunately, Nanako Mukaichi was probably targeting Zhang Heng, so logically, she would not do anything to harm Chen Huadong.


    .....


    Since the start of the Agent Wars, Zhang Heng had obviously be busier. The time between each quest had shortened by a lot, not to mention that June wasing soon. In other words, it was time for the final exam again. Previously, Zhang Heng spent a year and a half in ancient Rome. Without a doubt, it certainly had affected his memories.


    Fortunately, he had 48 hours a day. Even if the final exam came without warning, Zhang Heng still had double the time to prepare for the exampared to Chen Huadong and Wei Jiangyang. And Zhang Heng discovered that his memory seemed to be better than before after acquiring the deduction skillset. When he was living in London, he tried to build a memory pce in his brain, ording to what Holmes told him, and after which, he collected all kinds of information and stored it there. When he needed those memories, he could head to his memory pce to search for them.


    It was also the reason why he could quickly find all those hidden connections in the several seemingly unrted things in Rome. And now, this memory pce had also saved him a lot of time to relearn all those things he learned in school. It allowed Zhang Heng toplete his revisions a lot faster than expected.


    Just as Zhang Heng entered the library and turned on his learning mode, a Te Model S rolled silently into the campus, stopping in front of Zhang Heng��s dormitory after capturing everyone��s attention. When the driver��s door opened, the first thing emerging out of the car was a pair of perfectly curved, beautiful legs. Immediately, all the males in front of the buildingnded their gazes on the legs. The driver soon exited the car and took off her sunsses.


    Han Lu looked at Wei Jiangyang, who had just packed his lunch and was about to go back to his dormitory.


    ��Oh, great! You are the ssmate who yed basketball with Zhang Heng, right? Could you please help me tell him toe downstairs?��


    Wei Jiangyang opened his mouth and spoke after being left speechless for a while, ��Weren��t you driving a Lexus?��


    ��I have more than one car. Besides, I have given away that car. Compared to my life, that Lexus is nothing. Strictly speaking, Zhang Heng was the one who saved me that time.��


    ��Zhang Heng saved your life?�� Wei Jiangyang felt like a paparazzi that carried all kinds of equipment, staking out outside a celebrity��s house.


    However, Han Lu did not seem to have any intention of continuing this topic. So, she just smiled and said, ��Can you ask him toe down? Don��t tell him that I��m here. I want to surprise him.��


    ��Oh, no problem, but he is not in the dormitory now. He should be in the library,�� Wei Jiangyang stammered. He could not help but feel nervous every time he talked to Han Lu. Mainly, it was because of her reputation. Having been engaged in capital operations for a long time, she had forged within her a decisive temperament. Wei Jiangyang could not figure out how Zhang Heng got along with such a strong woman.


    From his point of view, Han Lu was gorgeous, but a man would suffer if he stayed with her long term. After that, Wei Jiangyang looked for a random reason to ask Zhang Heng toe down from the library. Before he walked out of the gate, he saw the Model S parked in front of the library through the ss. Han Lu lowered the window of the co-pilot seat and said to him, ��Get in the car.��


    Zhang Heng raised his eyebrows and handed theputer and notebook in his hand to Wei Jiangyang, asking his help to bring them back to the dormitory. After that, he opened the car��s door, sat down, closed the door, and asked, ��Where are we going?��


    ��Hawaii, a friend of mine just bought a yacht there. I asked him to lend it to me for a few months.��


    Zhang Heng shook his head when he heard what she said, ��Hawaii is too far away, and I still have final exams.��


    ��How about Japan? There are lots of pretty inds there. It only takes three or four hours by ne,�� Han Lu chirped. ��You said you are about to take the final exam, but you have to make sure you bnce study and rest. We can find a small ind over there and stay for two nights. I heard Shen Xixi saying that you are quite busy recently. Although she refused to tell me what you are doing, I happened to have finished my work for now. So, I thought maybe we could have a vacation together.��


    ��Why didn��t you call me in advance?��


    ��Because I didn��t want you to find a reason to reject my invitation.�� Han Lu had already set up the autopilot to get them to the airport. She then turned to Zhang Heng and said, ��You saved my life. I know you may think it��s no big deal, but I can��t pretend that it didn��t happen to me. And I want to do something for you. For starters, we can take a vacation together.��

 Chapter 898 - Okinawa Trip

    <h4>Chapter 898: Okinawa Trip</h4>


    Han Lu looked at Zhang Heng, seemingly waiting for thetter��s reply. However, Zhang Heng was looking at the road ahead and reminded her, ��The Buick on the right is about to changene.��


    ��Okay.��


    At this stage, Te��s autopilot was only at Lv2, far from what was advertised. It could operate normally in some rtively empty ces, but when it came to the cities, especially those with severe traffic jams, the driver had to take over the car when the road conditions became a little moreplicated. Han Lu switched back to manual mode.


    ��But I have to at least get my passport when I travel to other countries. My passport is in my hometown, and there I need to take care of my visa as well,�� Zhang Heng said. ��Other than that, I didn��t bring any clothes with me, so I don��t think we can leave today.��


    ��Don��t worry. I called Xiao Xia to ask your grandfather to mail your passport here. Someone will help you with the visater. All we need to do is to wait at the airport. As for the clothes, it��s a problem that can be solved easily. We can buy you some clothes when we arrive in Japan,�� Han Lu said.


    ��...��


    ��It looks like I have no reason to reject your invitation. Thank you,�� Zhang Heng responded politely.


    ��No. With you beside me, I can be more rxed when are on a vacation. I don��t want to endure being unable to sleep for a few days again.��


    Han Lu seemed to have some lingering fears on her.


    The unknown danger was extremely frightening. Even a social elite like Han Lu could do nothing in the face of supernatural forces. For people like her who were ustomed to controlling everything, such a loss would make her extremely ufortable.


    Han Lu could not help but nce at Zhang Heng in the passenger seat. She could not figure out how people like Zhang Heng and Shen Xixi, who had been living in that mysterious dark world, resisted the feeling of losing control of a certain aspect of their lives. Zhang Heng, especially, always looked calm andposed.


    Even when he was in danger, he would be able to hold himself together, as if what he faced was no different than sitting in a ssroom listening to a teacher talking or ying on a basketball court. Han Lu had read countless people over the years, but she had never met a man like this. The time the two spent time together was a strange and fresh experience for her. She had done so many things that she would never do and said a lot of things that she would��ve never said.


    Especiallyst night, she realized that this was probably thest night of her life. Her emotions hadpletely copsed, and she even told Zhang Heng that she wanted to have sex with him. There was nothing wrong with her request. After all, Han Lu had been single for so long, and she was not short of money. She must have tried some other methods to deal with her physical needs, but such methods did not quench her psychological needs.


    The circumstance on that night was different. After considering that Zhang Heng was Xiao Xia��s son, she felt that she had somehow betrayed her best friend.


    Fortunately, the two did not mention this matter again after the incident. Zhang Heng seemed to havepletely forgotten that she had said something like that. Han Lu, on the other hand, tossed herself back to her work, hoping her busy work schedule would get her back on the right track. The two had not contacted much after the death dream incident.


    However, Han Lu discovered that the trick he took pride in seemed to have failed this time. After a rare hesitation for two days, Han Lu contacted Xiao Xia and asked for Zhang Heng��s passport. An insensitive woman like Xiao Xia would not notice that there was anything wrong with it. She even praised her for being so generous to her son, pleased that Han Lu had taken good care of her son. Unfortunately, herpliments amplified the sense of betrayal in her heart.


    But in the end, Han Lu still decided to drive her Model S to Zhang Heng��s school, and the two of them were on the ne to Okinawa four hourster. Han Lu would always be Han Lu. The moment she took her ce in the first-ss lounge, most of her distracting thoughts drove themselves out of her mind.


    Sometimes, it was useless to overthink things. She felt that it was better for her to go with the flow. And she did not want to go against her wishes because of her friendship with Xiao Xia. At the same time, she was not expecting any pleasant oue. In fact, she had discovered that Zhang Heng rarely showed his emotions when she spent time with him. This trip had proved that she was right all along. Although Zhang Heng was sitting next to her, she felt he would disappear whenever she closed her eyes.


    This was the sixth sense of a woman.


    Han Lu picked up the cup in front of her and chatted casually. ��Where is the girl that was with you before? Not Shen Xixi, but the girl who drove my Lexus.��


    ��Fan Meinan?�� Zhang Heng asked. ��I have no idea. It��s been some time since Ist contacted her. When I saw herst time, sheined that your car is too expensive to maintain and asked me when you could take it back.��


    After Zhang Heng returned from Rome, he did try to contact Fan Meinan but all he got was an automated call from the service provider, telling him that thetter��s cellphone was turned off.


    ��I never take back things I gave out. If she doesn��t like it, she can sell it at a lower price. It is actually not a bad idea for her to keep using it. I could��ve reimbursed her for the follow-up maintenance,�� Han Lu said while taking a sip of water. She then said, ��After all, she almost lost her life because of me.��


    ��I will tell her about it.�� Zhang Heng said.


    ��Are you worried about her?�� Han Lu raised her eyebrows and asked.


    ��A little... Mainly because the man that supports her isn��t her ideal partner. His record is not exactly good,�� Zhang Heng admitted. Fan Meinan was Loki��s agent, and he was famous for causing troubles in Norse mythology.


    In reality, his agents were not to be messed with as well. Fan Meinan was not too bad, but her sister with sunsses had caused great havoc to the three major guilds. He reced the Dreand of Death with a few pieces of sticine. And in the end, Dreand of Death fell into the hands of Seth, the God of Chaos. He then made multiple copies of Dreand of Death. Although the three major guilds worked hard to collect all those dangerous game items, some of them would inevitably slip out of their hands.


    Zhang Heng did not think that this level of chaos would satisfy Seth. He had not heard anything from Seth and Loki for quite a long time, and that was not a good sign.


    However, Zhang Heng could not tell this kind of thing to ordinary people like Han Lu. So, Zhang Heng thought for a while, changed the subject, and said, ��You have always had a good rtionship with my mother. Did she tell you about the scientific expedition in Greend?��

 Chapter 899 - Adventure And Vacation

    <h4>Chapter 899: Adventure And Vacation</h4>


    ��Scientific expedition to Greend?�� Han Lu frowned. ��I have a vague memory of it. I remember her mentioning it to me a long time ago, saying that a Greend local had found some ruins. It was said that murals rted to primitive worship could be found there.


    ��The guy reported it to the authorities, which caused a great stir at the time. It garnered the interest of many schrs, so they organized two scientific expeditions to the area mentioned by the locals. They went search of the ruins, but found nothing in the end. After that, everyone began to use the local man who imed to have found the ruins. They felt that it was a story he had made up. Although the locals insisted that they weren��t lying, they could not find enough evidence to support their im.


    Gradually, they all started to forget about this. Your mother, however, had always kept her interest in it. From the description that locals provided, she believed the ruins were likely rted to Mesopotamian, Celtic, and Egyptian mythology.��


    Zhang Heng seemed a little surprised. ��Why can��t I find these things online?��


    ��Oh, the news is about 70 or 80 years old. It was quite a humiliation to the archaeologicalmunity at that time, so it was only published in some local newspapers. Xiao Xia had found the piece of news in the old British Library, and during that time, she was writing her thesis. Although the news had little to do with her research, she became obsessed with it ever since.


    ��Later, we both graduated, and we were busy with our own affairs. In the beginning, Xiao Xia and I kept in touch with each other by phone. Later on, our work became more tedious, so we changed ourmunication method to emailing each other. We usually talked about the recent events in our lives. And then one day, Xiao Xia suddenly told me that your dad and she met a man called Time in some salon. He ran a travel agency, and he happened to fancy expeditions as well. So, he came up with an expedition team. And he was thinking of going deep into the uninhabitednd of Greend.


    ��Xiao Xia told him about the 70-year-old piece of news. Time was very interested in it and decided to invite your parents on the expedition. I persuaded Xiao Xia that she shouldn��t ept the invitation so soon, let alone the perils that came alongside the harsh environment. She was also traveling with a group of strangers that she would meet for the first time. And here, she was about to ept an invitation from a stranger to explore a destend.��


    ��However, Xiao Xia told me about how rare of an opportunity it was and that your dad would also be going with her. But your mother...�� Han Lu put down the ss of water, seemingly pondering on what she should say next. ��As far as I know her, she is actually not that courageous. From what I know, she is afraid of the pain of childbirth and the cold. When we studied together, she would lie in bed, munch on chips, and binge on soap operas whenever it started to snow. She didn��t even want to get out of bed. I don��t know why she was so obsessed with the ruins in Greend. Since she was ready to brace the extreme cold and face the danger, I knew that she was desperate to go there.


    ��Finally, she got to join the expedition with your dad as she wished. Because of their participation, the team became a de-facto scientific expedition. They were in Greend for quite some time. Well, we didn��t contact each other for about two months, but when she talked to me again, she told me that they had safely returned to their ce of origin. I asked about the scientific research and whether she had managed to find the ruins she had been raving about.


    ��She said that she had found something she didn��t know how to describe. If those things were published, they would probably cause an uproar among every theological and archaeological circle and even impact existing scientific processes. I thought she might have exaggerated the whole thing at the time, but I could hear the excitement in her voice. That being said, I have never seen her publishing the results of that particr expedition until now. After that conversation with her, she never mentioned that expedition again.��


    Han Lu went on, ��In order to make sure that she was emotionally sound, I never asked her about the expedition again. However, I still have to say that her decision at the time was made without much consideration. You were only two years old, and she didn��t even return to her country to hand you over to your grandfather. Instead, she asked one of her colleagues to take care of you for a few months. The worst part was she didn��t even tell me about it. I didn��t know that she gave birth to a son until she returned to China. To be honest, that did make me feel a little ufortable.


    ��I��m her best friend. We used to talk about everything. Although we didn��tmunicate as frequently as we did at school, it didn��t affect our friendship. She should��ve told me that she had a son. Sheter exined that she didn��t want to annoy me because I had just split with my fianc��e at that time. However, she should know me well enough that I would not be bothered by such a thing.��


    Han Lu paused and then curiously asked, ��Why are you so interested in Xiao Xia��s trip to Greend, and why don��t you just ask her or your father?��


    ��I asked my father about it, but as you said, they don��t seem to want to talk about it,�� replied Zhang Heng. ��Anyway, thank you for telling me what you know.��


    ��It��s not a big deal.�� Han Lu smiled. ��But you better not tell Xiao Xia that I told you these things because I don��t know why she hides it from you. I feel as if we are going behind her back at the moment.��


    ��I won��t tell her.��


    After a while, the stewardess walked over with the menu, and with a smile, requested their orders. Han Lu chose a Japanese meal and a ss of plum wine. However, she did not finish her main course. Instead, she finished the dessert and fruit. After she drank about half a cup of plum wine, her cheeks became slightly flushed. She then started to about the vacation.


    ��Where do you want to go and have fun tomorrow?��


    ��I haven��t been to Okinawa. It��s your call,�� Zhang Heng said.


    Han Lu said nothing in response to that. Almost immediately, she suggested, ��Let��s go diving. Have you ever dived before? Are you good at it?��


    ��Well, I��m okay.��


    ��I have dived in Cape Maeda and Wreck�� 92. Let��s go to Yonaguni Ind this time. It is said that if you are lucky, you could see hammerhead sharks and humpback whales,�� Han Lu gushed. ��But we might encounter strong currents if we dive there. If you are a beginner, or if you have not dived much, we can head somewhere beginner-friendly.��


    ��It doesn��t matter. Just go where you want to,�� Zhang Heng said.

 Chapter 900 - Tool

    <h4>Chapter 900: Tool</h4>


    Although the flight didn��tst too long, it was already night when the two arrived at Naha International Airport, including the time spent waiting at the airport.


    Han Lu contacted the local guide in advance to pick them up at the airport exit. Around twenty minutester, they arrived at the Hyatt Hotel, and Han Lu booked two rooms for herself and Zhang Heng. And early the next morning, Han Lu fulfilled her promise made before they went diving. The first thing she did was to apany Zhang Heng around the nearby shopping mall to get a change of clothes and buy some necessities.


    Seeing Zhang Heng walking out of the fitting room, wearing beach pants and a T-shirt, Han Lu could not help butpliment him. ��You look good in this,parable to advertisement models, I believe.��


    ��Is that right? But we have already bought two sets. Let��s forget about this one,�� Zhang Heng said.


    ��No, no, no. I like this set. Trust me.�� Han Lu took out her credit card. ��Yonaguni Ind is located at the westernmost point of Japan, and there are no big shopping malls on the ind. So, we have to prepare a few sets of clothes, right?��


    Herst question was meant for the local guide beside her. Thetter was a handsome, Chinese-Japanese young man. Whenever he smiled, the people around him could feel the breath of summer. That was why he charged a lot for his service fee. The standard local guide��s service fee was 1,000 to 1,500 yen per hour. However, the local guide that Han Lu had hired charged her 4,000 yen per hour. And he was in high demand as well.


    But when he put on his signature sunny smile to pick up Han Lu from the airport, he saw her frowning. That was because Han Lu did not expect her assistant to be so careless. Under normal circumstances, she wouldn��t mind hiring a handsome local guide to keep herpany. After all, everyone liked attractive people.


    But this time, she was on vacation with Zhang Heng. It did not make sense if she got herself a handsome local guide. Since the decision was made, Han Lu would not dismiss him. If she had done that on the spot, everyone would be able to see that she was trying to hide something. So, she could only bite the bullet and ept him as their local guide.


    Unfortunately, the person that suffered the most from this matter was the local guide. Though he was the one that provided the service, no one would pay double the price just to get a standard local guide��s service. He was supposed to enjoy the sun, sea, and beach with her. asionally, he would talk to his client about life. That was where the value from paying the extra money came from.


    Especially this time, when the local guide saw Han Lu walking out of the airport, he felt his heartbeat slowing by two beats. After that, he saw Han Lu frowning at him. This was his first experience getting rejected by his client. Fortunately, he only needed to send the two to the hotel that night, and he left without speaking much with them. It wasn��t until the next day before he realized that he was only a tool to them.


    Han Lu would only speak to him when she needed trantion service or tell him when she wanted to go next. As for the rest of the time, she would treat him like he was invisible. Even though the sky was clear and the sea breeze embraced Naha today, the local guide��s mood was as bad as a blizzard ravaging the ind. After taking Han Lu��s order, he squeezed out a smile and a ��Yes.��


    ��Pay with my card.�� Han Lu finally made a decision. In fact, she did not bother to listen to the local guide��s opinion. She just wanted to make use of him to convince Zhang Heng.


    As expected, Zhang Heng did not say no anymore. Neither he nor Han Lu was short of money, so he would not dwell on whether to buy the set of clothes that he was wearing.


    ...


    No matter how old a woman was or what a woman worked as, they always had great enthusiasm when it came to buying stuff in a shopping mall. Although they were here to buy clothes for Zhang Heng, Han Lu would take the opportunity to buy the clothes she liked too. In the end, the two ended up spending their entire morning shopping.


    Not only did Zhang Heng buy five sets of clothes, but Han Lu had also bought a ton of cosmetics, shoes, and bags for herself. As she walked out of the mall, the local guide��s hands were filled with shopping bags.


    ��It��s gettingte. Let��s find a ce for lunch,�� Han Lu said while looking at the depressed local guide.


    ��What are some of the special restaurants nearby?��


    ��I don��t know.��


    The local guide shook his head.


    ��You don��t know?�� Han Lu frowned, ��You charge 4000 yen an hour, and you didn��t even bother to do some research for us?��


    Now that Han Lu had mentioned it, the local guide started to get angry. He did charge Han Lu 4,000 yen an hour. However, he was not happy when she made him carry everything that she bought. With his handsome appearance, he could easily find another client. It was not necessary for him to stay here and work for them to get the hard-earned cash.


    There were still many young and beautiful girls in this world waiting for him to fill the emptiness in their hearts. Upon thinking about that, the local guide stood straight and said, ��Sorry, Miss Han. I don��t feel well today. I don��t think I can work as your local guide any more.��


    Without waiting for Han Lu to speak, he continued, ��I will refund all the fees I have received. And I apologize for all the trouble that I made.��


    After finishing talking, he put down all the shopping bags on the side of the road. At that moment, he felt really proud of himself. Hepared himself with the Chinese poet, Tao Yuanming who refused to lower himself down for five buckets of rice.


    ��Of course, you are free to go. I don��t need you to refund the money to me as well. But, you have to at least wait until another local guide to take over your job.�� Han Lu was displeased with his service from the beginning. After paying him 4,000 yen per hour, he still failed to provide her with the most basic service. And when he was working, he looked weak, and he looked like he had no intention to serve them at all, which was why she been looking for an excuse to fire him. She did not expect he would take the initiative to quit the job.


    ��Let��s find a restaurant for us first.�� Han Lu took out her mobile phone to contact her assistant to get her a new local guide. In the end, Zhang Heng talked her out of it.


    ��It��s okay. We are going to travel to the ind soon anyway. I can be your trantor to trante some of the basic conversations.��


    Zhang Heng stopped an old couple who was about to cross the road and politely asked them to rmend some good restaurants nearby.


    When the local guide heard the conversation between Zhang Heng and the old couples, he was taken aback. Usually, a tourist hired a local guide because they did not speak theirnguage. Otherwise, they could go wherever they wanted to if they couldmunicate with others in theirnguage. Previously, Zhang Heng did not show he was capable of speaking in Japanese. He would remain quiet whenever the local guide did the trantion for them.


    That was why the local guide assumed that Zhang Heng did not understand Japanese. To his surprise, Zhang Heng was well-versed in Japanese, and he even carried a Tokyo ent. He started to think that maybe Han Lu did pay him that 4,000 yuan per hour to help her carry shopping bags. Had he misunderstood them from the beginning?

 Chapter 901 - Yonaguni

    <h4>Chapter 901: Yonaguni</h4>


    ��There is a yakiniku restaurant in about 700 meters. They serve Ishigaki beef in an Okinawan style. What do you think?�� Zhang Heng turned to ask Han Lu after thanking the old couple.


    ��Sure,�� Han Lu said. After that, she no longer talked to the bewildered local guide that stood beside her. She then curiously asked Zhang Heng, ��I have no idea that you can converse in Japanese. What is going on...��


    ��Oh no... I learned it myself.�� Zhang Heng knew what Han Lu meant. So, he quickly exined.


    ��You know too many things. Don��t you need to sleep?��


    ��I need to sleep too, but I have 48 hours to spend every day.�� Zhang Heng waved his hand, stopped a taxi, put all the clothes and shoes he bought into the trunk, and opened the rear door.


    ��Hehe.��


    Han Lu thought that Zhang Heng was telling a joke. She merely shook her head and got into the car.


    Zhang Heng had got in the co-drivers seat and told the driver where they wanted to go when he received a WeChat message. When he opened the message, he thought it was Fan Meinan who replied but saw a photo from the bartender instead. Judging from the setting of the shot, it should be in the bar��s lounge.


    There was no one in the photo. Only a de was ced in its holder. Zhang Heng figured out that the de in the picture was the Ordinary de that he had spent many game points on so the bartenderdy could find someone to recast it for him. After doing some calctions, Zhang Heng realized that six days had passed since the end of hisst quest. ording to the bartender��s promise, she was supposed to update Zhang Heng about the de two days ago.


    Since the swordsmith needed to ce the entire de into the furnace for recasting, Zhang Heng did not insist on retaining its original shape. And now, the look for the de was simr to the Heng Dao from one of the four types of des made in the Tang Dynasty. Zhang Heng had wanted his new de to look like a Heng Dao since the Changdao was mainly used to deal with cavalry. The Zhang Dao was too short, however. As for thest de, Yi Dao was usually used for decoration. So, Zhang Heng chose the Heng Dao as his new de��s final form since it was mostmonly used by the soldiers in the Tang Dynasty.


    The shape of the Heng Dao was very simr to the Tachi, except that the de was straight and extremely tough. However, its sharpness couldn��t bepared to a Tachi; hence Zhang Heng found a bnce between the two des. But strictly speaking, Zhang Heng��s new de neither adopted the crafting technique of the Tang Dao or the Tachi. It did, however, inherit some of the characteristics of the des in terms of their appearance.


    The light in the photo was kind of dim. However, Zhang Heng could still see some of the extraordinary features of the new de. Although it didn��t look that shy, Zhang Heng felt that his blood flow speeding up after staring at it for a while. Afterpleting so many quests, Zhang Heng believed that he controlled his emotions well, and it was rare that he would be affected by external factors. It was rare that he had a physiological reaction to a photo.


    For some reason, Zhang Heng also felt a strange sense of familiarity from the de. So, he sent a message to the bartender. ��Is this a sess or a failure?�� he asked.


    Thetter replied after a while, ��Well, it��s your de. I��m not particrly eager to instill my opinion on an item that the owner has not imed. So, let��s wait for you to see it for yourself. Also, remember to bring me a souvenir from Japan.��


    ��Sounds good to me.��


    Zhang Heng was relieved after listening to what the bartender told him. Since I had casually asked for a gift, it meant that the de��s recast had probably had a decent oue. There was a high chance the de would turn out to be a Grade-C game item, meaning that the 4,000 game points he spent on recasting the de could��ve been well worth it.


    If he wanted to examine the de, Zhang Heng had to wait until he returned to China. After lunch, Zhang Heng and Han Lu returned to the hotel to clean up and check out. After that, they headed to Naha Airport.


    Yonaguni Ind was where the two were heading, and it was located within the Yaeyama Inds of the Ryukyu Inds, at the westernmost point of Japan. However, the ind was actually closer to Taiwan, which was only about 60 nautical miles away. And they could even see the mountains on the opposite side.


    Since the ind was sparsely inhabited, Naha had no direct flights to Yonaguni Ind, so the two had to fly from Naha to Ishigaki Ind. From Ishigaki Ind, they would board another flight for forty minutes before they reached their destination.


    Getting to such a spot turned out to be quite the hassle. When they arrived at the ind, however, they realized that all the hard work that they put in was worth it. Yonaguni Ind was quite small, with an area containing less than thirty square kilometers. Having a poption of less than two thousand, the ind boasted a pristine and well-preserved ecology.


    Other than being surrounded by hallowed waters for diving, it also ranked the world��s second-best marlin fishing waters. This ind would attract throng sea fishing enthusiasts each year, including marlin fishingpetitions held from time to time. Still, the ind was visited by few tourists, where one could walk a long distance without seeing a soul. Zhang Heng and Han Lu were surrounded byrge empty beaches and ck volcanic rocks. And they also spotted wild Yonaguni horses that were free to roam around the ind. They were not afraid of people.


    The waters surrounding this ind were as clear as a transparent sapphire without any impurities. Zhang Heng felt like they had arrived at the edge of the world. Han Lu was tired of walking, so she found a ce to sit and rest while the sea breeze embraced her. And she also saw a lighthouse nearby. She then stretched her bodyfortably.


    ��I��ve wanted toe here a long time ago. This is what I call a vacation. I don��t need to think about anything else, and I can avoid seeing the people I don��t like.��


    ��Yeah.�� Zhang Heng nodded, removed his shoes and socks, and walked among the rocks in his beach pants.


    ��What are you doing?��


    ��Preparing for dinner.��


    ��Dinner? Here?�� Han Lu was taken aback. She thought Zhang Heng must be joking. ��But we have nothing here, and it��s almost dusk now. We won��t be able to get back to our hotel before dark.��


    ��Don��t worry, there are horses everywhere on this ind, and they are short-bred. It means they have a good temper. We can look for two horses and ride back to the hotelter.��


    ��...��


    Han Lu clearly did not believe Zhang Heng��s words. However, she watched on curiously as he prepared their dinner by the beach.


    Zhang Heng did all these things on a whim. He remembered the first dungeon he entered and survived for more than five hundred days alone on the deserted ind. Right now, his circumstance was different from the deserted ind. Although he prepared no tools for dinner preparation, he saw myriad things he could use here on this beach. Besides, he had even brought a fishing rod.


    Zhang Heng first collected some oysters from the reef as a starter. After that, he spotted some Gazami Crabs in the sea. A crustacean that had arge body packed with flesh, it was known as the best-tasting sea crab that could be found on the beach. As for king crabs and snow crabs, they usually hid under the deep sea. Zhang Heng also managed to reel in a few fish as the main dish. He skewered them with wooden sticks and grilled them on the fire.


    Soon Han Lu smelled the roasted seafood. She took a few whiffs, and her stomach started to grumble. However, she still managed to keep a sane mind. She then asked, ��Are you sure these things are not poisonous?��


    ��Don��t worry. I picked non-toxic fishes, and they are very meaty as well,�� Zhang Heng replied. After that, he handed Han Lu two oysters.


    ��It��s okay to have them raw.

 Chapter 902 - Relationship Advice

    <h4>Chapter 902: Rtionship Advice</h4>


    Han Lu had been to Japan a number of times for vacation, and she tried most of the dishes it had to offer. However, this was her first time tasting such a natural dinner at the seaside. And she did not see Zhang Heng using any condiments while he cooked. To her surprise, the seafood actually tasted good.


    Although she could still smell the food, the umami vor of the seafood was well-preserved due to Zhang Heng��s simple cooking method.


    ��A friend told me that nature is like a treasure house. No matter where you are, as long as you pay attention to your surroundings, you can always find shelter and food to fill your stomach,�� Zhang Heng exined.


    ��Well, if the world suddenly ends, I��m sure your friend will be thest to die,�� Han Lu replied as she filled the lid of the thermos with some seafood soup and blew at it.


    It was almost dusk and the sun was about to sink into the sea. With its glow coating the sky with gorgeous blush and the fishing boats returning from afar, the scenery was absolutely breathtaking. The seafood soup in Han Lu��s hand was starting to get cold. After taking two sips of it, she said, ��I have decided that from now, I��m going to make time ande here for a few days every year. How about you? Do you want toe with me?��


    ��I��m not sure if I can make time for it,�� Zhang Heng replied candidly.


    In fact, he had already realized something huge during New Year��s Eve. After the conversation with Han Lu on the n, he had confirmed the crazy conjecture that he had earlier.


    There was a high possibility that he was not blood-rted to his current father and mother. Zhang Heng did not know how others would react to such news. A lot of kids had heard their parents making jokes about picking them up from the trash can or that they were a free gift from a mobile credit top-up. After that, the kids would feel sad for the whole day, feeling that something very precious had been taken away from them.


    Fortunately, it wouldn��t be long before their parents picked the kids up and told them that it was just a joke. At that moment, the relieved kids would see the sunshine pouring into their window again.


    However, sometimes, the story did note with a happy ending.


    For example, Zhang Heng now could clearly feel his emotions gradually leaving his body. And it became harder and harder for him to feel the changes in his feelings. Even so, he could still feel the long-awaited sadnesse rushing at him.


    This sadness was not that strong,parable to when a student failed a subject in his final exam. At best, it was just a surface wound. However, the wound would stay there permanently without receiving any healing.


    Zhang Heng was also now forced to face a new problem.


    Who was he, or what was he?


    There was no doubt that the scientific expedition to Greend eighteen years ago was rted to him. If his current parents picked him up from no man��snd, it would be impossible for a human baby to survive in such a harsh environment.


    The old man in a Tang suit, or Cronos, had nned the encounter between his parents and him. In other words, he obviously knew what would happen afterward. Zhang Heng did not know if Cronos had done anything to him while he was growing up. If that was the truth, that would mean someone had put in a great effort to arrange his life., just like Truman in ��The Truman Show.�� And what was his guardian angel, Chronos��s purpose in doing such a thing to him?


    Zhang Heng faintly felt that all of these questions would be answered after his next trip to Greend, but they might not be the answers he expected. This was also the reason why Zhang Heng promised Han Lu toe on a vacation with her. This was probably thest time he could calmly appreciate the natural scenery and rx entirely without any distractions.


    ��Your biggest shoring is that you��re too honest,�� Han Lu remarked while drinking the seafood soup from the lid of the thermos in one go, ��And you are my best friend��s son.��


    ��...��


    ��Forget it. I know that we bothe from very different worlds. I have to admit that your mysterious aura and sense of danger are the biggest reason why I��m attracted to you. No. I��m not the only one. The girls named Shen Xixi and Fan Meinan are like the moths helplessly flying toward the me...�� Han Lu said. ��I��m just curious, is there anyone in this world who can truly understand you?��


    Zhang Heng went silent for a while.


    ��Something has happened to me. I��m trying to figure it out. Before that, I can��t deal with the emotional problems.��


    ��Hmm,�� Han Lu snorted with a noittal tone. ��Have I told you the story of my first love?��


    ��I don��t think so.��


    ��If you are willing to lend me your ears, I��m willing to tell you all about it. During high school, I liked a boy in my ss. He wasn��t tall or handsome, and he didn��t seem to have any outstanding abilities. But I don��t know why I liked him so much. He, for no reason, was extremely pleasing to my eyes, especially when he talked to me.�� Han Lu closed her eyes. ��His voice is like the sea breeze here, blowing at my face gently and warmly.��


    ��I was on cleaning duty one day after school. After cleaning the ssroom, I turned off the lights, checked the doors and windows, and locked the door before leaving the ssroom. After that, I saw him standing at the corner of the second floor. He stopped me, and I could see him was blushing. He then gave me a book of aption of Borges�� poems. I thought that he must��ve liked Borges as well. Although it sounds silly now, that book was not the point. The point was that I found the note that he hid in the book. I was guessing that note was the love letter that he wrote me.��


    ��Did you ept the love letter?��


    ��No.�� Han Lu shook her head.


    ��Why?��


    ��Because I felt I wasn��t ready yet. We were too young, and I wanted to explore the world and escape my mother��s control. I wanted to... be better,e backter, and ept the love letter confidently.�� Han Lu paused.


    ��At that time, I was busy making ns for our future. However, I forgot that sometimes we would not be able to meet the person again once we missed them. And to be honest, even if he is still waiting for me now, I don��t think I like him that much anymore. Looking back now, he was indeed quite ordinary. After returning to China, I asked someone to inquire about him. Apparently, he failed his college entrance examination. After graduation, he used his family��s influence to enter a state-owned enterprise. He��s now probably a small-time leader or something. It��s not a bad achievement for an ordinary person, but he doesn��t appeal to me anymore...


    ��However, I still think of him from time to time, thinking what it would��ve been like if I had epted that letter. Of course, I know that a rtionship between a young couple would notst long. We would probably break up like other couples. However, I just couldn��t stop thinking about it. If we really managed to walk to the end of the tunnel, got married, have children, and live a dull life together, it��s actually not that bad.��


    Han Lu stretched her feet into the sea and stretched her waistfortably, ��I��m just giving you a piece of advice. Never go and deal with some other things first before you take care of your rtionship. A rtionship is like ice cream. If you don��t eat it, it will melt eventually.��


    ��Thank you,�� Zhang Heng said. He could not exin that his problem was rted to his feelings. With the current situation, no matter who he chose, his feelings would still disappear in the end.

 Chapter 903 - Dive

    <h4>Chapter 903: Dive</h4>


    After finishing up the special dinner, Zhang Heng found a pair of wild horses nearby. Han Lu stared on in shock as Zhang Heng briefly trained and tamed them. He then asked Han Lu to mount the smaller horse. As for him, he rode the bigger one.


    Han Lu looked a little nervous. She had ridden horses before and practiced equestrianism for a period of time. However, she was riding a well-trained horse withplete equipment such as saddles and reins at that time. This was her very first time riding a wild horse with no proper equipment.


    While sitting on the steed, she did not even know where to put her hands and feet.


    ��Just grab the horse��s mane. Once you do that, they won��t run on their own,�� Zhang Heng exined while leading the way. The two horses that he found should have a mother-child rtionship. With the mother leading the way, her child would follow obediently.


    In the end, the two managed to return to their hotel before the sunpletely descended below the horizon. And early the following day, Zhang Heng and Han Lu came to the pier after a simple breakfast. They then rented two sets of diving equipment and a boat.


    Han Lu wanted to see humpback whales and hammerhead sharks, one of the signature sights on this ind. With luck, one could see hundreds of hammerhead sharks swimming past above your head all at once.


    These sharks had a strange T-shaped head with an eye and a nostril at each protrusion end. It made the hammerhead shark look unique. Known to be an extremely aggressive species, there have been cases of hammerhead sharks attacking humans. The sharks attacked only because they had been spooked. Under normal circumstances, as long as the diver did not attack first with a harpoon, the sharks mostly left the divers.


    The humpback whales, on the other hand, had a gentler personality. They looked simr in appearance to the Kun in the game advertisements everywhere on the Inte, or maybe Kun was designed based on the appearance of humpback whales. Sometimes, these whales would jump out of the water, a spectacr sight to behold, especially when they did it in a group.


    The humans had never figured out why the humpback whales behaved as such. As of now, the only exnation for this particrly unique behavior was that the humpback whales did that for social purposes. Besides, the male humpback whales would show off their masculinity by jumping out of the water to attract their potential mates or express certain emotions. Other than that, some said that the whales leaped out of the water to breathe.


    Whether it was hammerhead sharks or humpback whales, their behaviors were often cyclical. Usually, the people on the ind would encounter near Yonaguni Ind from January to March each year. Unfortunately, Zhang Heng and Han Lu traveled here on a whim, and it was now June. Even though the uncle who drove the boat tried very hard to look for them, the search yielded no result. Han Lu seemed a little disappointed, and in the end, she could only look for a shallow spot near the coast to dive under. Although the corals and the undersea gave a breathtaking view, they weren��t too different from the spots she had dived in earlier.


    Seeing that Zhang Heng and Han Lu were not too happy with the diving spot, the uncle who drove the boat took the initiative to talk to Zhang Heng since he received a generous service fee from Han Lu.


    ��Why don��t I bring you guys to see the undersea ruins?��


    ��What underwater relic?�� Zhang Heng asked.


    ��About half a century ago, a diving guide found some ancient ruins near the sea on the west side of Yonaguni Ind. It looked like a pyramid or a city. Some people said it was evidence of the existence of Mu, but others said it��s the magical work of nature. No matter what the legend is, the ce is worth seeing.��


    Zhang Heng tranted what the uncle told him to Han Lu, who nodded after listening. ��I believe I have heard of such a thing. Since we can��t find hammerhead sharks and humpback whales, it might be worthwhile to go and check out the ruins. However, we have been diving for quite a long time. Let��s go there tomorrow and prevent ourselves from getting fatigued.��


    The ecology on Yonaguni Ind was well preserved. Obviously, the ind��s natives loved their ind a lot. However, the economy here wasn��t very developed, with only two industries keeping the ind alive, and they were fishing and tourism.


    It was the tourist off-season right now. As soon as the fishing boats went out for their deep-sea fishing run, literally not a soul would be at the docks. If the two went to explore the undersea ruins, chances were they wouldn��t be meeting other divers. Han Lu��s diving wasn��t that awful, having just got her AOW certificate, and she had used up to sixty bottles of oxygen.


    However, she was still an amateur. As for Zhang Heng, Han Lu did not how good he was at diving. Zhang Heng had mentioned that he would not hold her back. However, before they went diving in the morning, Zhang Heng still read the diving manual, and at the same time, asked her lots of questions about diving equipment.


    Considering how dangerous undersea ruins could be, Han Lu decided to hire a diving guide for safety reasons. Zhang Heng made no objections. Although he was confident with his diving, he would feel safer if someone more experienced looking after them.


    So in the afternoon, the two of them came to the diving club on the ind. And she learned her lesson this time. Han Lu hired a female diving guide, whose English name was Nellie. She seemed to be younger than Zhang Heng. Due to the long-term exposure to the sun, her skin was tanned. She looked to be in the best of shape, though. It was said that she had started diving with her father before she was even twelve. Having eight years of diving experience under her belt now, she was a responsible diving guide.


    The two parties quickly agreed on the fee, and the next day, the three met again at the pier. After that, they sat in the same boat and went to where the ruins were located.


    Nellie possessed a cheerful personality. While talking about diving precautions, she could not help but get Zhang Heng to ask Han Lu what skincare products she used. She seemed to be envious of Han Lu��s skin. Although Nellie was younger than Han Lu, the harsh environment caused her to have worse skin than her.


    Han Lu was ted when she heard Nellie asking her about the skincare products she was using. And she even mentioned that she would give Nellie a set of skincare products when she returned to the ind. The three chatted throughout the entire journey, and they finally arrived at their destination after a while.


    The uncle parked his boat at a safe spot. Today came with great weather, where the wind and waves were calm, and the sun shone brightly on them. Looking down from the boat, they vaguely saw a huge ck shadow under the sea. It seemed the ruins were located right beneath them.


    The three of them rechecked their diving equipment. After confirming everything was fine, they put on fins and masks and plopped into the water one after the other. When everyone was in the water, Nellie made a gesture, signaling them to prepare to dive. After Heng and Han Lu responded with an okay sign, the three began their dive toward the ruins.

 Chapter 904 - Underwater Ruins

    <h4>Chapter 904: Underwater Ruins</h4>


    It was June, and the sunlight was still reasonably sufficient. The three felt a little stuffy in their wetsuits, but the stuffiness somehow disappeared the moment they entered the sea. As they dived deeper into the ocean, the temperature around them began to drop as well.


    With a much higher thermal conductivity than air, a human would lose more heat in the water than onnd. Fortunately, their diving suits helped them fight off the cold. Usually, casual divers like them would not dive too deep into the sea. Every ten meters deeper, the pressure would turn up a notch. After diving deeper than thirty meters, they risked suffering from nitrogen intoxication. The ordinary diving cylinder would typically be filled withpressed air consisting of 21% oxygen and 79% nitrogen. Under high pressure, nitrogen would enter the diver��s body, and at the same time, breathing pure oxygen under a high-pressure environment for too long would cause oxygen poisoning.


    The undersea ruins that Zhang Heng and the others were about to explore this time were probably located at a depth of about 25 meters. Diving to such depths was usually not risky, and with Zhang Heng��s swimming and diving skills he had honed in the ck Sail dungeon, he could dive to this depth in a single breath without any diving equipment. However, he would not be able to stay underwater for too long, still needing to emerge to catch a breath after taking a nce at the ruins.


    Strictly speaking, this was not Zhang Heng��s first dive. When he was a child, he followed his parents to see corals in Sanya. It was a purely parent-child leisure activity, though, where the dive depth was less than eight meters. The time he spent underwater was also very short, which was only twenty minutes. Throughout the entire diving experience, he was apanied by a coach.


    Zhang Heng��s only long-duration dive with diving equipment was when he entered the Apollo training camp. NASA had made use of an underwater environment to simte a zero-gravity environment. Not only did Zhang Heng have to stay underwater for a long period, but he was required toplete a series of given tasks.


    Hence, Zhang Heng did not feel unfamiliar when he went underwater again.


    Whether it was the zero-gravity environment or the quietness, the seawater almost isted all the noise. In the midst of a dive, each diver could only hear their own breathing, especially during exhtion, where the sound of the bubbles exiting the tube could be somewhat rxing.


    Nellie behaved very professionally. She would stay no more than two meters away from her clients throughout the entire dive, paying close attention to their physical and mental conditions. After confirming that they were encountering no troubles during the dive, she pointed to the ruins that weren��t too far away and signaled them to follow her.


    In fact, there was no need for her signaling. The moment they dived into the sea, it was difficult for them to ignore the sight in front of them. The ruins appeared to be a vast underwater pce taking the shape of a pyramid. With a rotting, decrepit exterior, the structure was said to date back to about 10,000 BC.


    If these ruins were built by the people who lived here, they might have mastered the building techniques the Egyptians possessed when building the pyramids. However, the Egyptians had only started building their first pyramid around the third millennium BC.


    This was why many experts firmly believed that the stone structure in front of them was simply a masterpiece of nature. After witnessing the well-aligned stone steps and the smooth and square stone wall, however, Han Lu was more inclined to believe that a mysterious lost civilization must��ve left them behind.


    She even spotted some structures that looked like gates and roads. Nellie then gestured to Zhang Heng and Han Lu to get closer to the ruins while she picked up the underwater camera to take a photo of them with the ruins in the background. After that, they swam towards the gate.


    Han Lu followed Nellie with her video recorder, while Zhang Heng looked at the time and direction on the diveputer and followed them. The three soon passed the stone gates.


    These structures were supposed to serve as the city gates, but they turned out to be made of giant stones stacked together. Schools of tropical fishes of all manner of color scooted around them. Zhang Heng Heng even saw a tiny sea hare.


    As its name suggested, this sea creature appeared as cute as a little rabbit with ears, though it did not mean that there were no ugly sea hares. Not even an irondy like Han Lu or a young girl like Nellie could resist such a cute creature; hence, they started snapping pictures wildly like a photographer shooting Victoria��s Secret models on a runway.


    In the end, they stayed there for about a minute before moving forward. After that, the three of them swam through a narrow spot. Only two people could fit side by side in the narrowest spot in the ruins. Once they swam through that, their vision suddenly widened, as though they had entered to an underwater pce.


    They saw walls made of rocks and the seawater above them reflecting the sunlight when they looked around. Nellie, who led the way in the front, stopped moving, put her left and right hands together, and quickly moved her thumb up and down. She was trying to tell them that there were turtles in front of them. Han Lu then swam towards Nellie, and that was when she saw two turtles between the stones. So, she too signaled Zhang Heng behind toe over quickly.


    However, it seemed Zhang Heng was lost in his thoughts and did not see Han Lu beckoning at him. For some reason, when he first saw the underwater ruins, the feeling of d��j�� vu struck him. It wasn��t too strong at first, but the feeling resurfaced when he arrived at this huge open space. And this time, Zhang Heng knew where his d��j�� vu came from.


    He had a weird dream in the alien quest before. In the dream, he came to a seaside town with a gloomy atmosphere. After he gathered the Shadow Sets, he returned to that seaside town again. He was feeling right now as when he traveled back to the seaside town for the second time.


    Considering what happenedter in that small town, this was not a good sign.


    Being a well-known diving spot that weed throngs of tourists each year, there were no recorded idents here so far. Still, Zhang Heng did not want to doubt his instinct.


    After that, he decisively gave Han Lu and Nellie a thumbs up to tell them that he wanted to surface. Nellie felt a little strange, not knowing why Zhang Heng wanted to go up so suddenly. She then gestured to him, asking what difficulty he might be encountering. Han Lu, on the other hand, was more experienced in dealing with a situation like this. She and Zhang Heng had experienced the death dream together, and after that incident, she trusted him unconditionally. She also knew that there was a crazy and dark world beneath the ordinary one.


    Therefore, upon seeing this, she did not question why Zhang Heng made such a decision. Instead, she quickly made an upward gesture as well. However, they saw that Nellie��s face had suddenly changed, and she was anxiously making a downward gesture.

 Chapter 905 - Red Tide?

    <h4>Chapter 905: Red Tide?</h4>


    During diving, there were different probabilities that one would encounter the sea current, depending on the diving location. As the name suggested, the descending current was also known as the down-current. Supposedly, the air bubbles exhaled from the diver��s mouth would ascend to the surface of the sea. However, if there were currents around the divers, their air bubbles would disperse around them in a ring shape. After that, the air bubble would drag to the bottom of the ocean by the down-current. The two turtles not far away could sense that something was not right. So, they quickly swam back to the crack between the rocks. And at the same time, the three��s vision began to be blurry.


    Fortunately, except for Zhang Heng, the other two were experienced in dealing with down-current. It was not the first time Han Lu has encountered ocean currents. Therefore, she did not be panic as a neer would. She quickly attached her body to the stone wall, grabbing whatever she could find like a gecko.


    Nellie turned on her portable shlight, shed at the big rock closest to Zhang Heng, and signaled Zhang Heng to swim towards it. As for herself, she quickly swam towards the big rock as well. Their descending speed was not that fast, indicating that the ocean current they encountered was not that strong. Upon realizing that, Nellie was relieved. On the other hand, Han Lu and Zhang Heng managed to keep calm as well.


    The most dangerous thing when one encountered an ocean current was to fall into panic mode. Not only would it not help with anything, but the random struggle would elerate the consumption of oxygen, and the wrong moves would most likely cause more trouble. Han Lu had experienced diving before; hence, Nellie was not too worried about her. The person she was really anxious about was Zhang Heng. The moment he asked to go back up, they were hit by the undercurrent.


    But fortunately, Zhang Heng did not panic so far. The moment he received Nellie��s instructions, he quickly swam to the big rock with her. About a minute and a halfter, Nellie felt that the ocean current had begun to settle down. So she gestured to ask Zhang Heng how much oxygen he had left.


    Zhang Heng then nced at the residual pressure gauge, and it showed that he still had about 120 bar of oxygen. The three of them did not stay underwater for too long, and they did not dive below 25 meters. Therefore, the oxygen in their cylinders was still sufficient. It was nowhere near the warning line.


    But now that Zhang Heng had decided to ascend, Nellie, as a dive guide, certainly had no reason to continue diving. But before they ascended, the two needed to meet up with Han Lu at the stone wall first.


    Before the ocean current hit them, the seawater was crystal clear. However, after the undercurrent swept their diving spot, there was now a lot of sand and impurities floating in the water. Therefore, it caused their visibility to drop drastically. So, Nellie quickly turned on her shlight again. However, it seemed like her shlight was running out of power. It shed a few times before it became stable.


    However, when Nellie moved the shlight to the rock wall where Han Lu was supposed to locate, she found out that Han Lu was gone. Nellie blinked her eyes, and she could not believe what she just saw. When the ocean current hit them, Han Lu was the first person to find a ce to stabilize herself. At that time, she was supposed to be out of danger. After that, the three of them were separated for less than two minutes. In such a short time, it did not make sense for Han Lu to leave her position.


    Nellie then shone the shlight in other directions. They were trying to look for Han Lu, but it yielded no result. And at this moment, Nellie saw Zhang Heng gesturing to her and pointed to the top of her head. Nellie thought that Zhang Heng had discovered where Han Lu was. But when she looked up, she saw a strange sight that she had never seen in her life before as a diver. The seawater above them was turning red at a speed visible to the naked eye.


    Was that a red tide?


    Nellie lived by the sea. Although she had never seen red tides in person, she had heard about this natural phenomenon before. The red tide was generally caused by the phytonkton, bacteria, or protozoa in the sea. The seawater would turn red when it exploded or multiplied within a short period of time. It was very harmful to the environment.


    However, this sea area was a famous diving spot on Yonaguni Ind. The residents of the ind had always ced great importance on the ecological environment. For so many years, there had never been a red tide in the nearby sea. Under normal circumstances, the red tide would appear at the upper levels of the sea. However, Nellie saw that the red tide was approaching them fast.


    Soon the two of them were surrounded by red seawater. The color of the red seawater was actually very close to human blood. The worst part was that their visibility had further deteriorated. Nellie could only see less than two meters in front of her. She could barely see Zhang Heng��s figure.


    Even with Nellie��s rich diving experience, she couldn��t help but feel a little anxious now. It was mainly because this weird ��red tide�� had appeared at the wrong time. It had made their search for Han Lu became even harder no.


    Nellie wanted to take Zhang Heng to ascend to the surface first ande back to look for Han Lu by herself. It was because Zhang Heng requested to ascend before they encountered the ocean current. However, it would take quite some time to get back to the surface because the pressure at different depths was different. The deeper the divers dived, the more nitrogen would dissolve into their blood.


    There was a possibility that they might suffer from nitrogen intoxication. If they went up too fast, the pressure would decrease rapidly, and the nitrogen in the blood would precipitate and cause thrombosis. If a diver suffered from such aplication, their lungs would burst in the worst-case scenario.


    Therefore, one needed to take a break during the ascension to the surface of the seawater. It would take as long as seven minutes for Nellie to send Zhang Heng back to the boat and return undersea to look for Han Lu. Let��s not talk about whether she could return to the exact same spot while being affected by the red sea water. She did not even know if Han Lu was still nearby her. Besides, the remaining oxygen in her gas cylinder might not be enough to support her to search for too long.


    Under normal circumstances, Nellie could choose to bring Zhang Heng to search for Han Lu. Due to the red seawater, she might not be able to see Zhang Heng if he went a little too far. In such a bad situation, Nellie did not have the confidence to take care of Zhang Heng while looking for Han Lu.


    Han Lu was now gone, and he did not want to lose Zhang Heng too. After some thoughts, Nellie decided to bring Zhang Heng back to the boat first. Besides, she was hoping that Han Lu had returned to the boat on her own. Maybe she would be able to see her again when she resurfaced. And to be honest, even if she took Zhang Heng to risk finding Han Lu now, the only thing that she could rely on was her luck.


    Just when Nellie was about to bring Zhang Heng back to the boat, she seemed to spot a dark shadow shing past her left eye.


    Could it be Han Lu? The hope in Nellie��s heart was lit up once again. Although the shadow passed by quickly, she saw that the person was wearing a diving suit.

 Chapter 906 - Flashlight

    <h4>Chapter 906: shlight</h4>


    It was not the peak season for diving in Yonaguni Ind. This could be seen from how well the diving shops were doing. Zhang Heng and Han Lu were only the second group of tourists to dive here in the past week. And as far as Nellie knew, the first group of divers would be flying home at noon.


    If she were right, the three of them would be the only divers in this area. It was precisely why Nellie figured that Han Lu was the person that had just passed. A fourth person wasn��t present in these waters, so Han Lu was probably only two or three meters away from them. Thus, Nellie had high hopes that Han Lu was fine. And she even subconsciously ignored how the shadow moved earlier.


    A human couldn��t swim so fast in the sea. However, at this moment, all Nellie cared about was to locate Han Lu. Even if she noticed the figure��s unreasonable speed, she tried to convince herself that it was the ocean currents. And because of that, Han Lu needed their help more than ever.


    Nellie then gestured for Zhang Heng to follow her. However, she saw him stretching out his hand to stop her there. After that, Zhang Heng clenched and crossed his fists in front of his chest. He then pointed in the direction where the dark shadow had just disappeared with his fist.


    Zhang Heng was trying to tell her that she was about to do something extremely dangerous. Since Nellie spotted the ck shadow, Zhang Heng certainly didn��t miss it with his exceptional observation ability. And unlike Nellie, Zhang Heng��s eyes actually captured the ck shadow��s movement. Although it appeared for less than a second, Zhang Heng had already figured out what it was.


    That shadow was the half-man and half-mermaid monster he encountered in the mysterious and hazy seaside town during the trial of the Shadow Set. Zhang Heng did not expect to see a monster like that in the real world. The situation now also differed from the time he fought against hundreds of enemies alone. When that particr monster entered the water, they would stop flopping clumsily, and they would start swimming like a fish.


    Afterpleting the ck Sail quest, Zhang Heng had be quite the swimmer. At least he could now swim faster than the people that did not live by the sea. Unfortunately, no matter how good he was, he would never be able to beat the gically mutated offspring of humans and monsters.


    They possessed the biological characteristics of many marine creatures. The webbed fins that looked like diving flippers were actually the creature��s feet. Andpared to human divers, they did not need oxygen cylinders, relying on their gills to breathe in the water. And their movement speed was at least twice as fast as onnd.


    On the contrary, Zhang Heng wasn��t as agile as he was onnd. He felt the resistance of the water restricting his every move. At the same time, he needed diving equipment to stay underwater. All these meant it wouldn��t be that easy for him to gain the upper hand here. Zhang Heng could still handle one of them, but if they swarmed at him like what happened at the seaside town, he would be in big trouble.


    Hence, the reason he was so vignt now.


    After seeing Zhang Heng��s gesture, however, Nellie mistakenly thought that the red tide had caused him to be nervous and that he wanted to go up. Nellie could put herself into his shoes. Initially, Nellie wanted to bring Zhang Heng back to the boat too. However, she made that decision before she saw ��Han Lu.�� Now that she knew ��Han Lu�� was nearby, Nellie would feel really bad if she gave up searching for her right now, especially when the amount of oxygen in the cylinder was still sufficient.


    So Nellie tried to calm Zhang Heng down while telling him through hand gestures that Han Lu was nearby them. However, Zhang Heng was still showing her the same gesture. And Nellie started to get a little impatient. The red seawater around her caused her to be more irritable than usual. Suddenly, when she saw a shlight shing from a distance, Nellie immediately turned on her shlight to respond. After that, she nned to swim toward the light source.


    But as soon as she turned around, Zhang Heng quickly pulled her back. And the suppressed anger in Nellie��s heart finally exploded. She did not know what Zhang Heng and Han Lu��s rtionship was, but since the two were vacationing at Yonaguni Ind together, they were definitely not simply ordinary friends. Now, when Han Lu was in danger, not only did Zhang Heng refuse to rescue her, but he also tried to stop Nellie.


    Nellie tried to put herself in Han Lu��s shoes, and she felt a chill run down her spine when she thought of what Zhang Heng had just done. So she broke free from Zhang Heng��s grip in a fit of anger and swam toward the direction of the other shlight.


    At this moment, her heart was filled with rage. And she even forgot to ask Zhang Heng to keep up with her. In fact, there were no other thoughts in her mind now. All she wanted to do was to swim forward as an evil spirit possessed her.


    Nellie was a reasonably good diver, but unlike Zhang Heng, who always paid attention to his surroundings, she just wanted to find Han Lu. So, the two soon separated in the red seawater. Zhang Heng was a little helpless. He noticed that Nellie was emotionally abnormal, but he could not do much underwater, and he couldn��t knock her out as well. As for Zhang Heng, he was not sure whether it was because of his gradual loss of feeling or something else. He seemed to be immune to the surrounding red seawater.


    And after losing Han Lu and Nellie, Zhang Heng became calmer and calmer. That was because he knew those half-human, half-mermaid monsters were targeting him. Just like in the strange dreams and the Shadow Set��s trial, he was always the target.


    However, Zhang Heng did not give up looking for the whereabouts of the two women. Since he was on vacation in Japan, he did not bring most of his game items. And even if he did, using them underwater would be difficult. There was no Lego for him to assemble here, and he could not fire his Paris Arrow underwater.


    However, Zhang Heng was lucky that he brought his Filter Lens and Betty��s Shell with him. These two items were now in the thigh pocket of his diving suit, and the pockets were sealed with Velcro.


    Hence, he opened his pocket and first took out the Filter Lens. It was the game item that he needed the most right now.


    [The field of vision within 300 meters is not affected by factors including light, natural environment, etc.]


    This did not sound like an impressive effect, and it was not lethal as well. However, anyone who had yed real-time strategy games knew the importance of vision, especially in the current circumstance where Zhang Heng could see nothing.


    Zhang Heng took a deep breath, took off the mask, equipped the Filter Lens, and put the mask back on again. He then raised his head slightly, pressed the upper part of the mask with his fingers, and started to exhale with his nose. The bubbles soon gathered at the upper part of the mask, squeezing the out seawater from the bottom. After repeating it twice, the seawater in the mask was drained.

 Chapter 907 - Wall Carving

    <h4>Chapter 907: Wall Carving</h4>


    When Zhang Heng opened his eyes again, he regained his vision, and it was clearer than before the red tide appeared. This was the first time he used his Filter Lens underwater. Initially, he was worried that the red tide did not fall under the natural category, but now, it seemed that the lens worked well in this red tide.


    The red tide disappeared before him, and the seawater became transparent to him within 300 meters.


    Zhang Heng soon found Nellie, who had separated from him earlier. Thetter now swam toward the ruins. And in front of her, Zhang Heng��s old friend, a half-man, half-fish-frog monster, was holding a shlight, shing at Nellie to draw her closer to him.


    Zhang Heng did not spot other monsters beside him for the time being.


    The other good news was that after a short observation, Zhang Heng noticed the red tide did affect the monster. However, its visibility in the red tide was still higher than that of humans, and he could probably see three to four meters in front of him.


    This was also why he could see Nellie, but Nellie couldn��t see the monster.


    However, Zhang Heng still could not see Han Lu nearby.


    After Zhang Heng took a good look at the ce, he saw there was no other ce for Han Lu to hide. He also knew that Han Lu��s disappearance must be rted to the monster. If he followed this monster, he might be able to find Han Lu.


    Zhang Heng did not hesitate anymore, swimming toward Nellie the moment he put on his mask. At the same time, he paid attention to the distance between himself and the monster in front of him, keeping himself out of its field of vision.


    Zhang Heng saw that Nellie, led by the monster, hade to the stone wall where Han Lu was standing earlier. Just when Zhang Heng thought that they had no way to go, the stone wall began to tremble. The one-foot-wide crack that could only fit a turtle began to expand, just like a giant beast opening its mouth. The half-man, half-fish-frog monster who led the way entered the crack. After that, he took out a shlight to continue to draw Nellie closer to him. No matter how dumb Nellie was, she felt that something wasn��t right once the crack widened in front of her.


    She hesitated for a moment outside the crack, but her desire of finding Han Lu overpowered her fear. Hence, Nellie gritted her teeth and swam to the crack. However, the light disappeared soon after she entered.


    Nellie��s mind began to sober up after being affected by the red seawater for quite some time. It was then that fear started to kick in. The diving guides were not life-saving talismans for the divers. It was true that they were responsible for helping the divers to deal with some threats, but they couldn��t deal with all of them.


    When these threats were too dangerous for them to handle or that they knew they might lose their lives over it, the guides needed to know that it was time to let go. This was just a job, after all, and a specific price had to be paid if they wanted to y the hero. The current situation was obviously beyond what Nellie could handle. She was in an unfamiliar tunnel, surrounded by strange rocks, and the visibility was very low.


    Nellie did not know how long this tunnel was, whether there was a fork in the path, or where it would take her. After she swam for a short distance, her divingputer reminded her that she was going deeper into the ocean. And that was not a good sign. Suddenly, Nellie remembered she left Zhang Heng outside.


    This was also one of the main reasons why she decided to turn around.


    But when she returned using the same way she entered the crack, she discovered something that frightened her. The crack on the wall was now closed again, returning to a width of about only one foot. Nelly could no longer stay calm this time. She tried to squeeze her hands into the gap to attempt to widen the crack. Since it did expand earlier, it meant that walls were probably movable.


    The reality, however, was always harsh.


    No matter how hard she tried, the crack remained unmoved, as if it had never expanded before. Nellie consumed a lot of oxygen as she used all of her strength in an attempt to free herself. The fruitless attempts left her with frustration. But fortunately, she was an experienced diver, and she had dealt with underwater crises before. Even in such a harsh environment, she did not copse like one of those rookies.


    After realizing that the crack in front of her would not open again, Nellie calmed herself down, checked her residual pressure gauge, confirming her direction with her diveputer, and continued to swim along the underwater tunnel.


    Now, she could only hope that there were other exits ahead of her. Nellie turned on the shlight, illuminating the paths ahead to look for an exit. At the same time, she hoped her shlight could get in touch with ��Han Lu�� again.


    Instead of seeing Han Lu, though, she saw something else. The underwater ruins on Yonaguni Ind caused a great sensation when they were first discovered. Since there was still no critical evidence to prove that the ruins were left behind a lost civilization, they thought that the neatly built brick walls and steps were just something that nature had formed.


    In order to prove that the ruins were actual, some enthusiasts even forged ancient coins and pottery, decorated with fancy patterns that they designed. These fake relics, however, wouldn��t be able to pass modern scientific tests. Nellie now knew that what she was seeing couldn��t possibly have been forged by modern people.


    The carvings on both sides of the stone wall were old. Simple to understand and concise, it told the story of mermaid-like creatures hunting sea beasts. Other than that, some of the pictures told of love stories between humans. At least, that was how Nellie deciphered it.


    The mermaid gifted something to the woman on the shore. After the two married, the woman gave birth to a couple of kids, who returned to the sea after they grew up. Nellie had heard of a few mermaid legends, and she thought them to be quite romantic.


    The carvings on the wall mesmerized a stunned Nellie. Even though the carvings had been baptized by time and current, they still looked incredibly real. If she were not in danger, Nellie would definitely want to stop and enjoy it.


    In fact, she had already taken out her underwater camera to snap a couple of pictures of the carvings. These carvings were tantamount to ending the ancient ruins�� debate on Yonaguni Ind, whether it was the magical craftsmanship of nature or something made during early civilizations. Any of those pictures could cause a huge uproar on the shore.


    Before she could do that, however, she had to think of a way to keep herself alive.

 Chapter 908 - Changes And Weapons

    <h4>Chapter 908: Changes And Weapons</h4>


    The fear of death diluted Nellie��s joy of her wall carving discovery.


    She did not stay in the same ce for too long. After snapping photos she wanted of the wall carving, she continued to swim forward. However, the wall carving��s story did not end there. Although Nellie was focussing on finding a way out, she nced at the wall carvings from time to time. Unless she kept her visionpletely dead ahead, she��d inadvertently catch a glimpse of those carvings.


    The diveputer showed that she had arrived at a depth of 35 meters. This ce was also nearly ten meters deeper than the ce they were previously at, meaning that the water pressure had also increased considerably. Nellie had also almost depleted all the oxygen in her tank.


    At the same time, the content of the wall carvings had turned from romantic to gloomy. The multitude of grown-up children had now returned to the sea, where they were gathered at a ce. After that, they chose to follow one of the two leaders. One of them looked like the monster that Zhang Heng spotted earlier, but it wasrger in size. The second leader was a giant snake with nine heads.


    Speaking of Hydra, after the famous viin organization in the Marvel universe, the second most famous Hydra had to be the monster in Greek mythology. Later, it was reflected in the wall carvings. Under the leadership of the huge monster mermaid and the Hydra, the creatures caused a lot of trouble and held many disgusting rituals. They went as far as to use fishes and some sort of gold to earn the opportunity to reproduce with them.


    These monsters paid most of their attention to the reproduction of their offspring. They had no idea why they could not reproduce among themselves; hence they had to deceive humans to get what they wanted. Sometimes, they would pretend to be pirates, attack coastal towns, and kidnap their residents.


    Nellie felt a little disgusted after looking at the wall carvings. She no longer felt that their actions were romantic. What really frightened her, however, were the following carvings: the mermaids prayed and summoned something to disorient the pearl divers, then lured them to theirir for coption.


    When she saw that, Nellie felt a chill sent up her spine. She started to be lost in panic, paralyzing fear hitting her like a massive tide. Although the wall carvings had no color, Nellie knew what the mermaid had summoned.


    It was the red tide.


    In other words, she was now experiencing the same phenomenon the pearl divers had experienced, just like what the carvings depicted. Even though Nellie knew she needed to stay calm when encountering danger underwater and that she had been telling other divers the same thing, remaining calm at this moment seemed almost impossible. Her hands couldn��t help but tremble as they held the shlight.


    Compared to dying here, it was undoubtedly more terrifying to be forced to reproduce with those monsters. Nellie did even want to go forward anymore. Still, there was only 60 bar of oxygen remaining in her cylinder. As a professional diver, Nellie knew that every second she dyed would reduce her chances of returning to the shore alive. Despite all that, she could not get herself to start moving.


    The thing in front of her had been waiting for her for a long time. When the monster shed the shlight at Nellie again, fearpletely overtook her mind. With her reflexes taking over, she automatically turned around and fled before she even knew it.


    But the monster could clearly see that Nellie was attempting to make a run for it. A ck shadow began to swim towards Nellie from the end of the tunnel, much faster than her speed. As the creature gracefully moved its flippers, the water around it would be automatically dispersed. Although it hade up behind Nellie, it did not immediately attack her.


    Instead, it kicked the water and passed Nellie. It then turned its head around and gave Nellie a creepy smile, almost causing the poor girl to suffer a cardiac arrest.


    When Nellie saw what the creature looked like, she almost screamed out loud. She then saw an arm stretching out from the rock next to the monster. It grabbed the monster��s by the fin on its back and smashed its head against the rock. The massive impact stunned the ugly monsterpletely, especially after its head was smashed on the rock. The grim smile on its face was frozen in ce.


    Due to water resistance, it didn��t suffer any serious injuries. Instead, the attack only served to provoke its bloodthirst. Attempting to free itself, it kicked the rock with its legs and swung its ws behind it to attack its assant. Zhang Heng, however, clearly moved faster. Seeing the monster in a confused state, he quickly jumped on its back.


    After that, he grabbed a sharp stone with his hand and stabbed the monster��s eye, blinding one of its eyes immediately. And before the monster could react, Zhang Heng swiftly stabbed another eye. This final stab blinded the monsterpletely; the intense pain it experienced caused it to roll around. It started iling wildly on its back, causing the two to hit the rock wall.


    Nellie waspletely astounded by the sight before her eyes. She recognized that the person who saved her was Zhang Heng, but she did not know how he appeared here. Zhang Heng appearing here was even more surprising than seeing the monster. Nellie didn��t sense anyone following her, not to mention the fact that Zhang Heng had tried to dissuade her from going after the beam.


    Nellie also knew that it wasn��t the time to dwell on such questions. Now, although Zhang Heng had blinded the monster as soon as he showed up, he got into some trouble after that.


    If Zhang Heng, who had just obtained Lv.3 assassin skill, had fought this monster onnd, he would��ve trounced it. However, he was now fighting with it underwater and weaponless at that. His every move was tremendously slowpared to onnd, and spontaneously grabbing weapons around him to damage a monster covered in scales and thick skin would prove more than daunting.


    Fortunately, Nellie, who was beside him, had also noticed this problem. So, she immediately tossed her diving knife to Zhang Heng. The knife Nellie carried wasn��t meant to be used for underwater fighting but to deal with tangled seaweed,s, or ropes. Little did she expect that it woulde in handy in such a critical situation.


    Zhang Heng decided he wouldn��t dismount the monster��s back because it wasn��t currently in a frenzied state. If he came down from its back right now, there was a high probability the monster would injure him. So, while distracting the struggling monster beneath him, leading it to the wall, he caught the knife thrown by Nellie.


    Before the monster could hit the stone wall again, Zhang Heng stabbed its heart with the knife.


    The razor-sharp stainless steel de proved more lethal than the stones, piercing the monster��s skin with rtive ease. The monster then struggled for a while before spurts of its blood dyed the surrounding waters red.


    Soon, the monster gradually struggled less, and in the end, stopped movingpletely.

 Chapter 909 - Thrones

    <h4>Chapter 909: Thrones</h4>


    Zhang Heng got rid of human-frogfish monster with the knife. After that, he checked his diving equipment, especially the oxygen cylinder, and confirmed that it was not damaged when the monster threw him around earlier. After all these werepleted, Zhang Heng gestured to Nellie and asked if she was fine.


    Nellie was a little confused, but she could not ask all those questions underwater. However, she did feel good to meet her partner again. If it were not for Zhang Heng��s interference, Nellie believed she would��ve died or ended up like one of those pearl divers where they were snatched by those hideous and terrifying monsters.


    Unfortunately, this was not the time for her to feel relieved or express her gratitude to Zhang Heng. Nellie had consumed a lot of oxygen when she attempted to open up the crack on the rock wall with her hands. She also figured that Zhang Heng too must have used up a considerable amount of oxygen during the fight with the monster earlier. The two were still trapped in the tunnel and if they failed to return to the surface before they exhausted all the oxygen in the cylinder, they would die here with all those terrifying wall carvings around them.


    Nellie had initially thought that Zhang Heng would develop a gentlemanly demeanor, that he��d take the initiative to find a way out for them. To her surprise, however, Zhang Heng gestured to her to go first. It seemed he intended to continue hiding behind her. It exined why he followed behind her earlier and refused to show up. Clearly, he was using her as bait.


    But Nellie wasn��t stupid. She quickly realized why Zhang Heng did such a thing to her. She had seen the human-fish-frog monster swim faster than the Olympic champion. If it weren��t for the sneak attack just now, and even if Zhang Heng could hurt that monster, he couldn��t stop it from escaping, let alone kill it.


    Though Nellie managed to find out the truth, she still couldn��t get rid of the fear ravaging her mind apart. She has been an avid diver for so many years, and she had encountered her fair share of strange underwater creatures. However, this was her first time encountering a real monster under the sea��a part fish, part human monster. Whenever she thought of the creepy smile the monster shed her, Nellie could not help but shudder. What she saw and heard during this dive hadpletely subverted hermon sense and cognition.


    Part of the reason why Nellie chose to be a diving guide was her father��s influence. The other was her passion for diving and the underwater world. There were many hidden beauties under the sea, waiting to be unfurled by divers. To Nellie, every dive was a new sweet encounter.


    Those were Nellie��s thoughts about the ocean before she encountered this human-frogfish monster. Now, she had witnessed first hand the horrors hidden in the calmness of the ocean. As long as she remembered that monsters still lurked at the bottom of the sea, she was unsure if she could muster enough courage to go into the sea again.


    As of now, she could not afford to think of such a thing. All she had to do right now was to move forward and find a way out. Fortunately, she now knew that Zhang Heng was behind her and that he would rescue her whenever she was in a crisis. Unconsciously, it gave her a touch offort. When she saw how calm Zhang Heng was, the courage in her heart was reiterated.


    Nellie could not figure out how Zhang Heng did not feel afraid when he fought with the monster. Considering that Zhang Heng almost had zero diving experience, most people would��ve allowed fear to petrify their bodies. It was great that Zhang Heng did not run away. Nelliepletely did not expect Zhang Heng to stand up against the monster, and that he showed no hesitation when he attacked it with only a stone that he picked.


    Nellie could not help but wonder about Zhang Heng��s identity. Was he a soldier or policeman? Or, was he a frogman who received special underwater training? He certainly didn��t look like a military man. In fact, when she took a good look at him, Nellie found she couldn��t figure out what temperament Zhang Heng possessed. He was like a drop of water that could blend into the sea anytime, anywhere.


    Other than that, Nellie also wanted to apologize for her previous misunderstanding of Zhang Heng. At that time, all she wanted to do was to save Han Lu and she believed he had stopped her out of selfishness. She now realized that Zhang Heng��s motive was pure and simple. He was simply trying to remind her of the threats she was about to face. Nelly regretted not listening to Zhang Heng��s advice. If she did that, she wouldn��t have exposed herself to unnecessary danger.


    Those thoughts ran through Nellie��s mind as she swam ahead.


    Considering how little oxygen remained in the cylinder, she neither swam fast nor slow. Nellie��s anxiousness crept up again when the diveputer reminded her that the depth was increasing.


    Fortunately, when she reached about forty-five meters deep, she felt that she was swimming upward in the tunnel, which also meant that they had finally stopped diving deeper into the ocean. At this point, Nellie knew that she could not turn around anymore. Even if the crack opened up miraculously, she probably wouldn��t make it to the surface before she exhausted all the oxygen in the cylinder. Hence, she could only hope that there was another way to go back to the surface at the end of the tunnel.


    Compared with Nellie��s anxiety, Zhang Heng, who followed behind, was much calmer. Looking at the wall carvings, these half-human, half-fish-frog creatures would abduct ordinary people to reproduce with them from time to time. Since the people they abducted could not stay underwater as long as they could, they would��ve definitely found a secret ce to store them.


    Since these creatures were targeting him, it was obvious that they were using Han Lu to threaten him. If they wanted to do that, they had to keep Han Lu alive. That was also the reason why Zhang Heng deduced that the end of the tunnel was not a dead end.


    And he was right about that.


    The two swam a little further, when Nellie suddenly realized that her vision had widened suddenly. At the same time, the red tide gradually disappered. When Nellie nced at her surroundings, she realized that she was in a building. It was a magnificent underwater pce. Unlike the ruins that they hade across before this, this pce was manmade at first nce.


    The ancient stone pirs were supporting the dome of the pce. Those stone pirs were so big that they required at least three to four people to circle them. They were at least twenty meters tall, and there were dozens them around the pce.


    Other than that, the top of the pce was upied by a giant stone carving. It was different from the easy-to-understand wall carvings that she saw earlier. The carvings on this stone were more obscure and iprehensible. It looked like an interster map or just some unintelligable graffiti. The frantic drawings seemed like they were going to break the stone wall. Nellie stared at it for a while, and she felt dizzy. So, she had to withdraw her gaze quickly.


    After that, sheid her eyes on the two thrones behind the hall.


    They were made of some kind of gold-like metal, still shining bright after thousands of years. Since they were as big as the stone pirs, Nellie knew that they were not meant for humans. Then, Nellie remembered the leader of those human-frogfish monsters that she saw on the previous wall carvings.


    These two thrones were meant for them.

 Chapter 910 - Memory Fragments

    <h4>Chapter 910: Memory Fragments</h4>


    Those human-frogfish monsters were scary enough. Butpared with the other two monsters on the wall, they were probably as cute as a Mickey Mouse mascot taking photos with tourists in Disnend. Nellie couldn��t acquire an intuitive understanding when she looked at the wall carvings. Now that she saw the two thrones, she finally gained a better understanding of the size of the creatures that were supposed to sit on the thrones.


    Even on the vast seabed, they could definitely be considered giants. Nellie felt like a mouse breaking into a cattery. Fortunately, the owner of the cattery was not home today. Hoping that they would nevere back, she even started to worry about Yonaguni Ind. Considering that evil of such magnitude lurked beneath the ind, it was a miracle that Yonaguni Ind remained unharmed for so many years.


    But seeing these two thrones was not without good news. Nellie had been worrying about whether there was an exit at the other end of the tunnel, and she could finally breathe a sigh of relief. That was because no matter how wide the crack expanded, the giant creatures would never be able to fit through the entrance or the exit.


    So there had to be another exit here. Nellie quickly looked around with her shlight, and she soon found that exit. Located on the right side of the throne, it happened to be blocked by two stone pirs. Since those pirs were so massive, they could only be found if someone paid close attention to them.


    It was a big ck hole, enough for an adult sperm whale to swim through. When Nellie stood close to it, she could feel the ocean current. In other words, it must be connected to the outside world. Nellie��s eyes lit up immediately when she saw it. Thepressed air in her cylinder was running low, with only less than 30 bar left.


    She would never see the sun tomorrow if she failed to find an exit. Before she entered the cave, Nellie looked behind to make sure that no one was in the hall. Zhang Heng, too had also swum out of his hiding spot. However, she did not feel too good about the current circumstance.


    Looking at the magnificence of this underwater pce and based on his previous understanding of those monsters, Zhang Heng didn��t think that this ce could only have one guard. That being said, they never encountered a second monster while they were on their way out. Either they were lucky enough toe when those monsters were out hunting, or those monsters were hiding at the end of the exit, waiting to ambush them.


    Of course, Zhang Heng hoped the former conjecture was what really happened. He did, however, prepare for thetter situation as well, having already taken out Betty��s Shell from his pocket. This was the second game item he had brought with him other than the Filter Lens. Unlike the Filter Lens, Betty��s Shell was designed to be used underwater.


    This game item originated from a certain Celtic ancient god in the ck Sail quest. It would consume the user��s anger and summon a storm at sea for fifteen minutes. The power of the storm was directly connected to how angry the user was.


    Actually, this game item had be more and more useless to Zhang Heng. It was because his feelings were gradually disappearing. Whether anger or joy, not much of it was left in him. Even the empathy he possessed before was slowly leaving him as well. In the recent quest hepleted, Zhang Heng no longer carried the shell with him. This game item was simply an object representing one of his life��s milestones, and he had also had it for more than ten years. Hence, Zhang Heng did not want to sell it for money, hoping that he could make a final use of it this time.


    Besides, he had also noticed the two thrones, which gave him a strong sensation of d��j�� vu. This time, some memory fragments even permeated Zhang Heng��s mind. It seemed this wasn��t the first time he had been here, standing in this pce.


    And during that time, the king and queen did not sit on the thrones. Instead, they were crawling at his feet, almost as though they were his most devout believers. The human-frogfish monsters, on the other hand, couldn��t even get close to this hall. Just looking up at the great figure in the center of the hall would plunge them into eternal madness and frenzy.


    This was a strange feeling, especially when Zhang Heng found that he was looking down from a higher-up spot. In order not to ruin the pce, he had to lower crouch on his back. From his perspective, the king and the queen looked like a pair of toddlers that had just learned how to walk.


    Zhang Heng deliberately looked at the queen a few more times because thetter gave him a stronger sense of familiarity as if he had met her before. This sense of familiarity did note from the memory fragments but it came from Zhang Heng himself. Before he could delve deeper into the memory, Nellie��s gestures snapped him back to the reality.


    Zhang Heng nodded, knowing that there was very little oxygen left in his and Nellie��s cylinders. They had to give it a go no matter whaty in front of them. So next, Nellie went first and Zhang Heng followed behind her. They then dived into the big hole in the wall that symbolized theirst hope.


    Unlike the narrow tunnel, this tunnel behind the cave was spacious enough. The numbers counting the depth of their location on the diveputer were also rising steadily. After the previous traumatizing moment, their luck seemed to be improving. The hope of getting out of trouble was right in front of them.


    Nellie could not help but start to speed up, and the blurry light above their heads became clearer and clearer. After swimming up for a certain distance, the diveputer showed that they were only twelve meters from the surface. Nellie went around a huge coral reef and found the missing Han Lu.


    Han Lu wasn��t looking too good. Appeared to be entangled in a discarded fishing, she couldn��t seem to get rid of it with her own strength. Fortunately for her, her breathing equipment still worked as intended. Just like the other two, she was still alive.


    Upon seeing this, Nellie hurriedly swam to Han Lu��s position. She looked at Han Lu��s residual pressure value first, and she found out that there was only less than five bar left. In other words, if they hade a few minutester, Han Lu might��ve suffocated to death.


    So Nellie gestured tofort Han Lu, and at the same time, began to help thetter untangle the fishing. However, when she swam to Han Lu��s side, thetter panicked even more and started to struggle desperately. At the same time, she kept tapping Nellie on the shoulder as if she wanted her to turn around.


    Nellie turned her head around with some hesitation. Although the oval tunnel exit looked pitted, like a honeb, nothing was out of the ordinary. It was quiet and within reach. Nellie knew that as long as she swam for another twelve meters, they would be able to get out of trouble and see the sunlight again.


    But the next moment, cruel reality shattered all her beautiful fantasies.


    Arge number of ck shadows charged out of the beehive-like tunnel, like worker bees leaving the hive. They were so many of them that they blocked the sunlight from reaching her, plunging her world into darkness again.

 Chapter 911 - Critical Moment

    <h4>Chapter 911: Critical Moment</h4>


    Nellie waspletely terrified. She had never seen such a horrible sight in her life. It was like a school of sharks that had detected blood around them. Those ck figures emerged from the caves where they lived. There were so many of these monsters that theypletely surrounded Nellie, Han Lu, and Zhang Heng. They stretched their hideous scaly bodies and swam freely in the sea. Nellie��s heart sank, and she was hit by despair immediately.


    She could not imagine how the three of them could survive a situation like this. Earlier, Zhang Heng had almost used up all of his strength to deal with one of them. And now there were at least hundreds of them swimming on top of them right now! They could easily tear them into pieces.


    Unlike sharks, these monsters thought and behaved like humans. No, it should be said that these monsters were more cunning than humans. They knew how to use Han Lu as bait to lure Zhang Heng and Nellie into this desperate situation step by step. Nellie��s calf was trembling, but when she looked back subconsciously, she saw that Zhang Heng was swimming towards her instead of fleeing.


    Zhang Heng did not stop as he passed the two women, throwing the diving knife back to Nellie. It seemed he wanted her to continue cutting off the fishing that entangled Han Lu. While facing this amount of enemies, the diving knife would not make a difference. After that, Zhang Heng continued to swim towards the terrifying sea of monsters above him.


    To Nellie, what Zhang Heng just did was no different from killing himself. The moment he moved, hundreds of monsters above him were trigged into a frenzied state. They huddled and gathered into a tornado-like school and charged towards Zhang Heng. The leader of the human-frogfish monsters flew like a ck arrow toward Zhang Heng��s chest.


    However, Zhang Heng��s expression remained unchanged, as cold as the reef in the sea. Although Zhang Heng and the monsters were approaching each other, the difference in speed between the two of them was just too great. These monsters were born to live in the sea. Zhang Heng, on the other hand, sawm no faster than a turtle in his diving suit.


    At first nce, Zhang Heng seemed to be the one preyed on right now. Nellie could not bear to look at Zhang Heng anymore. In the blink of an eye, Zhang Heng and the leader were less than two meters apart, and he could see the wrinkles on the enemy��s face. Under the tremendous pressure, Zhang Heng��s courage was shaken, and he thought of turning around and escape.


    This was not a wise choice in Nellie��s eyes. Due to the difference in speed between the two parties, Zhang Heng might not even be able to swim for half a meter. The very next second, however, Nellie thought that she must be hallucinating. She actually saw a pair of huge wings spread out behind Zhang Heng��s back.


    Nellie initially thought that the pair of wings would tear through Zhang Heng��s diving suit, but upon closer inspection, she realized that the wings behind him were just a shadow. At this point, Nellie had gotten a little numb. In the past twenty minutes, she had witnessed too many things that defiedmon sense. She did not know which party shock her more now.


    Was it the human-frogfish monsters or Zhang Heng with a pair of shadowy wings that appeared behind him suddenly?


    The human-frogfish monsters were about tond their ws on Zhang Heng, but none of them expected that he would suddenly elerate with his Shadow Wings.


    This was Zhang Heng��s trump card, saving his life during a critical moment like this. It could be used without the help of any game items. It was almost equivalent to a supernatural ability. In the past, Zhang Heng had used these to soar in the sky.


    Since the Shadow Wings were not made of feathers, their unique texture made them 100% effective underwater. After Zhang Heng sped up, he managed to draw a short distance from the monsters again.


    So far, the entire thing turned out just as Zhang Heng expected. Just like the gloomy seaside town, those monsters were all targeting him. Whether they were trying to kidnap Han Lu or confuse Nellie, their ultimate goal was to force Zhang Heng to show up. And once he showed up, they would immediately shift their attention to him. None of them paid attention to Nellie and Han Lu on the side, as if they were two pieces of ordinary rocks.


    As of now, Zhang Heng was trying to draw as many as those monsters to one side. By doing that, he hoped to clear up the sea area above Nellie and Han Lu��s head. After he did that, Zhang Heng turned his body, drew an arc in the water, and returned to Nellie��s and Han Lu��s side.


    Nellie had been paying attention to Zhang Heng��s situation. However, she did not forget what she was supposed to do. She grabbed the knife that Zhang Heng had thrown at her and cut the fishing that entangled Han Lu.


    Not long after she cut the fishing, she was picked up by Zhang Heng. At the same time, Zhang Heng also picked up Han Lu on the other side. He held the two women with both of his hands. Zhang Heng now looked like he had just boughtrge bags of items from a supermarket. After that, he rushed to the surface before the monsters reacted.


    The three of them were now at a depth of about 12 meters. Strictly speaking, they were supposed to make a final stop at a shallower spot before they got out of the sea. Fortunately, Zhang Heng and Nellie did not swim up too fast earlier, and Han Lu, being used as bait, had stayed at the same spot for quite a long time. Although there was still a risk of suffering from diving sickness since they ascended so rapidly, it was not life-threatening.


    Aspared with being caught by the monsters, getting of diving sickness was all well worth the risk. Nellie��s diveputer��s rm beeped wildly, but the three of them did not have the time to be bothered by it. Nellie��s attention waspletely on the monsters behind her.


    Initially, Zhang Heng, who spread his wings, could swim faster than them. Now that he was holding two people in his hands, however, his speed had naturally slowed down. Hence, the monsters were now getting closer to them once again. In order to lessen Zhang Heng��s burden, Nellie and Han Lu inted their BCD (buoyancy adjustment device).


    And Zhang Heng, on the other side, was also calcting in his mind how long his Shadow Wings couldst. Fortunately, his Shadow Wings shouldst long enough to support the three of them out of the water. Looking at the exit of this tunnel, Zhang Heng saw some reefs around the area. As long as they could get to the reef, the three of them would no longer need to rely on their gas cylinders. Other than that, once those monsters left the sea, their agility would be greatly reduced. That was when Zhang Heng would be able to deal with them easily.

 Chapter 912 - Falling

    <h4>Chapter 912: Falling</h4>


    Nellie had been watching her back nervously. The monsters were closing up to them at an ungodly speed.


    On the other side, however, the three of them were getting closer and closer to the sea above their heads.


    For thest part of their escape route, both sides were charging at each other at full speed.


    Nellie saw those human-frogfish monsters pouring in from all directions as they were going to drown them.


    But the next moment, she realized that she was out of the water and was looking at the sun again.


    Nellie had never thought that the sun she saw every day could look so adorable.


    When the sunlight fell on her skin, the warmth felt like something she never felt before.


    The three of them had now left the sea. Just when Nellie thought that they were out of danger, an exceptionally strong ck shadow suddenly leaped out of the water. It used itspanion��s back as aunching pad, allowing it to jump higher in the water, managing to grab Zhang Heng��s ankle.


    Zhang Heng��s Shadow Wings could only afford to carry two people. Fortunately, Nellie and Han Lu weredies and were rather lightweight ones at that. They were, however, lugging around aplete set of diving equipment with them. The moment Zhang Heng left the water, he could feel himself getting gradually harder to fly.


    His flying speed dropped again, but he was still ascending steadily. However, when the monster grabbed onto his body, Zhang Heng��s Shadow Wings could no longer support the weight. The three of them soon began to fall back to the surface.


    Even at this moment, Zhang Heng still maintained absolute calmness. Immediately, he gauged the distance between the nearest reef and himself.


    Zhang Heng then swung Nelly and Han Lu to the nearest reef. After the twonded, the burden on the Shadow Wings was lifted. But before Zhang Heng could fly higher, more and more shadows sprang out from the water, grabbing onto the first monster holding Zhang Heng��s leg.


    After that, Nellie and Han Lu saw a scene that they would never forget. At that moment, there were at least seven or eight monsters hanging on Zhang Heng��s body, and at the same time, more monsters were jumping out of the sea. The worst part was that Zhang Heng��s Shadow Wings had reached ten seconds of usage, and before he knew it, it suddenly disappeared without any warning.


    Just like that, Zhang Heng fell into the sea again, like a drop of water falling into a pan of hot oil. Those human-frogfish monsters went into frenzy mode the moment Zhang Heng dropped into the ocean. Surrounding him quickly, they dragged him all the way down the huge undersea tunnel. It was as if he was entering the gates of hell. Han Lu, who witnessed the scene, was about to jump back into the sea again to find Zhang Heng. However, she was stopped by Nellie immediately.


    ��Are you crazy? Your cylinder is running out of oxygen!��


    ��For the sake of saving us, those monsters got to him and dragged him back into the ocean,�� Han Lu said. ��If he were alone, he would have easily escaped this ce even if he couldn��t beat them.��


    As she spoke, Han Lu turned around and looked at Nellie. ��Let me use your tank,�� she asked.


    ��I don��t have much oxygen left as well. You need to calm down. We can��t help him if we return to the water in our current state.��


    There was one more thing Nellie failed to mention. There wasn��t much air left in Zhang Heng��s tank either. Even if he managed to survive those monsters�� attacks, the probability of him surviving after being dragged to the bottom of the sea was close to zero. All she could do now was to persuade Han Lu not to do anything stupid. Otherwise, all the previous sacrifices Zhang Heng had made would go to waste.


    Fortunately, Han Lu was not the kind of woman who would kill herself just to be with the person she loved, unlike how most romantic TV series�� depicted a woman. The reason why she wanted to go back into the ocean was her instinctive reaction after witnessing Zhang Heng getting dragged into the water by those monsters.


    After Nellie attempted to persuade her, she managed to calm down again. She knew that Nellie was right. In their current state, even if they entered the water again, there was nothing they could do to help Zhang Heng. Instead, she would risk getting killed by those monsters.


    As of now, Zhang Heng had saved Han Lu twice. Hence, she didn��t mind sacrificing her life to save Zhang Heng. However, if she were about to risk her life only to achieve nothing, it would be meaningless.


    She realized that she had to stay alive to figure a way to rescue Zhang Heng. Unlike Nellie, Han Lu had actually thought about their gas tank problem. Thanks to the death dream incident, she had a chance to pry into the world Zhang Heng lived in. Thus, she still had some hope left.


    Although Han Lu also knew that the tiny me of hope she held on to was more of a way tofort herself, she was still willing to do her best to keep it alive.


    Han Lu asked Nellie beside her, ��I heard that there are troops stationed on Yonaguni Ind, right?��


    Nellie was taken aback. ��Yes. There is a Self-Defense Force base, but very few personnel are there right now. Do you want them to help us find Zhang Heng?��


    Speaking of that, Nellie seemed to think of something else. She then took out her camera. ��Although I couldn��t take pictures of the monsters below, I did take some pictures of the wall carvings earlier. We may be able to convince the personnel at the base with them.��


    Han Lu looked at the underwater tunnel again. At this moment, it looked extremely calm, and she did not spot any monsters, as if everything she had just gone through was a hallucination. And Han Lu was expecting Zhang Heng to return from the bottom of the sea, but that never happened. After that, Han Lu withdrew her gaze desperately and said, ��It��s not toote. Let��s go now.��


    ...


    Han Lu and Nellie used the direction they got from the diveputer to look for the boat they took toe to this diving spot. The captain had used his mobile phone to Google the magical phenomenon where the sea turned red suddenly.


    He immediately greeted Han Lu and Nellie when he saw them. ��I��m d that you guys are fine. I am worried that the red tide would affect your diving experience...��


    The captain suddenly stopped and asked, ��I thought there were three of you? Where��s the boy with a Tokyo ent?��


    ��We have encountered some... terrible things,�� Nellie said. ��We need to head back to the ind now and find someone to help him.��


    ��Roger that.�� From how they were reacting, the captain could see that the situation was dire. So, he quickly put away his smiling face and said solemnly, ��It��s good to have one more person help the two of you. Do not hesitate to ask for my help. I can mobilize the people from the Fisheries Association. As long as everyone worked together, we can ovee all kinds of difficulties.��


    A wry smile appeared on Nellie��s face, ��I am afraid that ordinary people can��t handle this matter. Anyway, let us go back to the ind first.��


    Whenever Nellie thought of the monsters she saw earlier, she did not want to stay at sea any longer.


    After that, she looked at Han Lu again, who was sitting in the stern at the moment, not knowing what she was thinking.

 Chapter 913 - Discussions

    <h4>Chapter 913: Discussions</h4>


    Han Lu and Nellie did not stop and rest after returning to the shore, running all the way to the Self-Defense Forces�� base. They rejected the captain��s proposal to ask the Fisheries Association for help, and they did not seek help from the police station.


    This was because there was no one could deal with those things underwater except the army. When it came to this matter, Nellie felt more nervous than Han Lu. Other than the fact that Zhang Heng had rescued her earlier, she could not imagine the ind she lived in would be surrounded by arger group of monsters.


    Yonaguni Ind had was sparsely popted. Most of them were civilians with very littlebat experience. Nellie had not forgotten the wall carvings that she saw earlier, where the monsters would ambush the human towns. Yonaguni Ind was her hometown, where her friends and rtives lived. She had to protect it at all costs.


    Nellie and Han Lu finally arrived at the gate of the military base. The two soldiers guarding the gate immediately raised their rifles and sounded a stern warning.


    ��This is a restricted military zone. No entry is allowed without permission!��


    When they saw that Han Lu was a tourist, they repeated their warning in English.


    Nellie raised her hands, showing that she carried no weapons, saying at the same time, ��We have urgent matters to discuss with the person in charge here.��


    After listening to her request, however, two soldiers appeared indifferent. Instead, they simply repeated, ��This is a restricted military zone. You have to obtain permission to enter. Otherwise, I��m afraid that we will have to ask you to leave.��


    ��Please, this is probably a major event that has to do with the very survival of Yonaguni Ind!�� Nellie pleaded anxiously.


    Yet, the two soldiers pretended that they did not hear her, and at the same time, raised their rifles a little higher.


    ��Do you know anyone in here? Maybe we can ask him to take us in,�� Han Lu asked. She could see that it was almost impossible for them to enter the military base.


    Nellie shook her head. ��These soldiers are not from this ind. Other than military exercises and training, they hardly leave this base. Normally, we don��t socialize with them. But...��


    ��But what?��


    ��The people from the Fisheries Association are connected with them, regrly delivering seafood to the base. You are right! The person in charge of the seafood delivery may know someone in the base,�� Nellie replied. ��We should try to talk to them.��


    Nellie then contacted the man who captained the boat earlier. About a quarter of an hourter, a rather aplished man in his forties in military uniform walked out of the base.


    ��Are you looking for me?��


    ��Are you the person in charge?�� Nellie asked with expectation.


    ��No, I��m just a naval chief. I am mainly responsible for the external procurement of the base,�� the man said while walking out of the gate. The soldiers on both sides then saluted him with their guns.


    ��Can you take us to see the person in charge here?��


    ��Let��s talk about what you are doing here first.�� The naval chief did not agree to help them, but neither did he refuse them as well.


    ��Well, I know it sounds crazy, but we were diving towards the underwater ruins earlier, and the sea suddenly turned red. After that, we encountered the ocean current. When the current was gone, one of ourpanions disappeared. Hmm... She is Ms. Han Lu. To look for her, we entered an underwater pce.��


    ��You both?�� the naval chief raised his eyebrows.


    ��Oh, yes. There were initially three of us. I was the diving guide of the diving club on the ind, and the other two were tourists who came to visit this ind,�� Nellie exined.


    ��Well. Go on.��


    ��I don��t know how to describe the scene I saw afterward. A monster that looked like thebination of a man and a fish attacked me. However, one of ourpanions managed to kill it. Uh... After that, we continued to swim ahead, and we found the missing Ms. Han Lu. However, we also encountered more monsters. I could see there were at least hundreds of them... I don��t know their exact numbers... To save us, one of ourpanions was dragged to the bottom of the sea by those monsters. And now we don��t know if he is still alive...�� Nellie��s voice started to tremble at the end.


    ��So, you are saying that you people were attacked by a group of mermaids?��


    ��No. They weren��t mermaids. With those hideous looks, they have nothing to do with mermaids. And I��m not talking about fairy tales. They are real. I saw it with my own eyes. I... I was too scared at the time, and I didn��t take a picture of them. But I did take a picture of some wall carvings at the entrance.��


    Nellie passed the camera to the naval chief while talking.


    The naval chief took it and studied it for a while. However, he did notment on it. Instead, he asked, ��Have you shown these photos to anyone else?��


    ��No, we came here as soon as we arrived at the shore,�� Nellie admitted. ��Sir, please trust us. We know the consequences of lying about such things.��


    Upon hearing that, the naval chief remained speechless for a while. He seemed to be thinking about everything Nellie had just told him. After a while, he nodded. ��Well, this is the base of the Self-Defense Forces. It is indeed true that you are not allowed to enter the base without permission. For the sake of Tanaka, the chairman of the Fisheries Association, I will let my superiors know about this. But I can��t guarantee that he will believe you. I will show him the pictures that you took as well. The photos should make your story a little bit more convincing.��


    ��Thank you for doing us a favor. This is about the survival of Yonaguni Ind. I hope you can persuade your superiors to take this matter seriously.�� Nellie bowed with tears.


    While the naval chief turned around and walked back to the military base with the camera, Han Lu asked Nellie again in English, ��What did he say?��


    ��The naval chief said that he would tell his superiors about it. If we can make the Self-Defense Forces take action, we might be able to kill all those monsters.��


    Nellie did not tell them about rescuing Zhang Heng because two hours had passed since they came out of the sea. Zhang Heng��s hope of returning was too slim. However, as long as the Self-Defense Forces were willing to take action, they could kill those monsters and avenge Zhang Heng. At the same time, they could also save the residents on Yonaguni Ind.


    When Han Lu heard what she said, there was no joy on her face. Instead, she said, ��Something is not right. Did he just take away your camera?��


    ��Yes. The naval chief said that he would show the photos to his superior. Those photos will prove what we had gone through was real.��


    Under normal circumstances, there was nothing wrong with it. However, Han Lu didn��t know why she felt anxious, especially when she saw the naval chief. She even began to wonder ifing to the Self-Defense Forces for help was the right decision.


    That being said, since she was now in a foreign country, she did not have too many options to choose from.

 Chapter 914 - Hallucination

    <h4>Chapter 914: Hallucination</h4>


    The two waited for about half an hour, after which the gate of the military base opened again. The naval chief walked out, and Nellie immediately greeted him. She came with huge expectations, but the naval chief only disappointed her greatly with his reply.


    ��I told your story to my superiors, but it was so absurd that he found it hard to believe.��


    ��What about the photo? Did you show him the photos?��


    ��Of course,�� the naval chief nodded. ��Those were shocking photos, but they only prove that the underwater ruins near Yonaguni Ind are real. And this is something that the archaeologicalmunity should be worrying about. We also don��t know if these photos are fake or real.��


    When Nellie heard the naval chief��s reply, her heart sank. After that, she heard the chief continue.


    ��Nevertheless, we have just queried the hotel, airport, diving shop, and the boat that took you back, and we learned that you did have apanion who failed to make it back with you. In the spirit of humanity, the Self-Defense Forces has agreed to deploy some personnel to help you to search the nearby waters.��


    Those words rekindled Nellie��s hopes.


    ��How many of them?�� she asked.


    ��Two patrol boats. Including me, there will be 25 members of the Naval Self-Defense Force.��


    ��That��s not enough,�� Nellie shook her head. ��With such a number, it will be impossible for us to defeat all those underwater monsters.��


    ��Unfortunately, this is the maximum number of personnel we can deploy to conduct the search for your friend,�� the naval chief said. After a pause, he continued, ��We will bring some weapons. This is the most I can do for you within my authority.��


    Nellie realized that this was as much help as they were ever going to get.


    Perhaps only after seeing the underwater pce, these Self-Defense Forces soldiers would change their minds. Just when Nellie was about to express her gratitude to the naval chief, she suddenly heard Han Lu asking in English, ��Where is the camera?��


    ��It��s with the man behind me. I will return the camera to you after we get on the boat.�� Without waiting for Nellie��s trantion, the naval chief replied in English and looked at Han Lu. ��Any other questions?��


    Although Han Lu still felt something amiss, she could only shake her head. Perhaps, as Nellie had said, those soldiers would start believing them after seeing the undersea tunnel and the monsters.


    ��Saving lives is like fighting a fire. Let��s depart now,�� the naval chief said.


    ...


    They arrived at the navy��s dedicated pier and were greeted by the endless expanse of the sea. Nellie could not help but feel a sense of nostalgia. After the traumatizing event she had endured, she was never the same anymore. She found it hard to love the sea anymore. She even had to shake her head vigorously to drive the fear out of her mind.


    The two Self-Defense Forces�� patrol boats, filled with soldiers, were on the ready. Other than the regr navy sailors, some frogmen with diving equipment were sitting in the patrol boats.


    Nellie was relieved when she saw their determined faces. The chief led the two of them onto one of the patrol boats and arranged for them to sit in the cockpit to lead the way. Han Lu then asked again, ��Can you return the camera to us now?��


    ��Of course,�� the naval chief replied. He then made a gesture, asking a soldier to get Nellie��s underwater camera and return it. However, Han Lu��s expression changed soon after she took the camera.


    ��Where is the SD card?��


    ��We took the SD card. As I said before, we need to verify the authenticity of the photos,�� the chief attempted to exin. ��We will return the card to you after weplete our verification. If you need it, I can return it to you first, but it will be a nk card.��


    ��Why not copy the photos to yourputer and return the card to us?�� Han Lu asked.


    The naval chief heard what she said and red at her. However, he did not answer her question.


    In the end, Nellie stepped up to calm everyone down.


    ��It��s okay. Anyway, the Self-Defense Forces have sent someone to take care of the situation. We can take the card backter. We all have the same goal here, which is to solve this crisis as soon as possible.��


    Han Lu red at the soldiers outside the cockpit who were armed to the teeth and said nothing.


    The speedboat hurriedly arrived at the diving spot in question. After that, Nellie and Han Lu also found the reef where Zhang Heng dropped them. Before the frogmen dived, they could already see that there was no underwater tunnel.


    In fact, there is basically a reef beach. Other than the reefs exposed out of the water, the seabed was filled with reefs. Let��s not talk about a sperm whale entering and exiting the tunnel. From what they saw, even a dolphin would be stuck in it.


    Nellie��s eyes widened, ��This... how is this possible?! We obviously escaped from here in the afternoon!��


    ��Are you sure you remember correctly?�� The naval chief asked.


    ��Yes, I remember that rock. It looks like... a saddle, and the rock next to it looks like an onion,�� Nellie insisted.


    ��It��s here,�� Han Lu confirmed in English. ��I will never forget this ce.��


    ��But where is that underwater pce you were talking about?�� the naval chief quizzed.


    ��We should be able to see it after passing through that huge undersea tunnel. And underneath of it is that mysterious and terrifying undersea pce.�� When Nellie thought about what happened earlier, she could not help but shiver.


    The naval chief shook his head. ��When you first told me that story, I honestly didn��t believe it. Let��s not even start with the strange things you told me. We should talk about the underwater tunnel and the pce you mentioned. You are a diving guide here. You should know that this area has always been a trendy diving spot. We wee a lot of divers here during the peak season. If there is really an underwater tunnel and pce, don��t you think someone would��ve found it by now?��


    ��About that...�� Nellie was taken aback. She had to admit that what the chief just said made perfect sense. But she did indeed escape from here just a few hours ago.


    Now, it seemed as though she had been hallucinating all along.


    Could the red tide have affected her? But she could not exin how she shared the same hallucination with Han Lu. And where did Zhang Heng go after that? Was that part of her hallucination as well?


    Nellie looked around nkly. She could not tell which part of it was reality or hallucination.


    The naval chief was very patient. He then said in English, ��The reason why I still brought my men here although I knew you were lying was that I found out that yourpanion is missing. But if you keep telling me about monsters or undersea pces, believe me; it won��t help you find yourpanion.��


    He looked into Nellie��s eyes. ��I really want to help you, but first, you have to tell me what happened underwater.��


    Nellie opened her mouth, but she could not say a word.

 Chapter 915 - Rescue

    <h4>Chapter 915: Rescue</h4>


    The cockpit fell into a strange silence. Just when Nellie began to question whether everything that she saw before was fake, Han Lu spoke.


    ��Sorry, mypanion disappeared when he went diving. We were worried that we would not convince the Self-Defense Forces to save him if we said that it was just a simple ident. That��s why we fabricated such a bizarre story. I hope it can attract your attention. The photos were forged by a friend very skilled at Photoshop.��


    ��Now it makes sense.�� The naval chief nodded when he heard the words, ��Although you lied to us, as I said, for humanitarian reasons, we are still willing to help you to look for your friend. Now, you can tell me where did yourpanion go missing?��


    ��Of course.�� Han Lu pointed the direction.


    The patrol boat then turned around and drove in the direction that Han Lu pointed. When they arrived there, several divers grabbed their diving equipment and dived into the sea. However, it was now sunset, and they still could not locate Zhang Heng.


    The naval chief said to Han Lu and Nellie, ��It looks like we��ve had a fruitless search today. We will pay close attention to the nearby coastline. Maybe the tide will send yourpanion��s body to the beach. By the way, how many days are you nning to stay on the ind?��


    ��I will stay until my visa expires,�� Han Lu said.


    ��Okay. I will send someone to the hotel to notify you as soon as I have something new,�� the naval chief replied.


    After that, the patrol boat sent Han Lu and Nellie back to the ind. Nellie then looked at Han Lu. There were a lot of things she wanted to ask, but she did not know where to begin. She hoped that Han Lu could take the initiative to exin to her what was going on with whatever she had told the naval chief.


    The Self-Defense Forces were their best hope in finding Zhang Heng. However, Han Lu had pointed out a random spot to them. As for the photos that she took, Nellie finally came to a realization. If everything she saw was a hallucination, then there was no way she could exin the carvings she saw on the tunnel��s wall.


    And now that those photos were in the hands of the Self-Defense Forces, Nellie realized that the only evidence that could prove she wasn��t lying was no longer with her. And now, she understood why Han Lu cared so much about those photos. Han Lu, however, never mentioned those photos again, and it puzzled Nellie.


    Nellie hoped that Han Lu could exin her actions, but instead of that, Han Lu said, ��It��s gettingte. I��m going back to the hotel. You should go home too. Thank you for your help today.��


    Those words took Nellie by surprise.


    ��Just like that? What do you n to do after this?��


    ��As I said, I will stay here for a while and wait to see if there is anything new,�� Han Lu said.


    ��Then... good luck. You cane to see me if you need any help. You know where to find me,�� Nellie said. In the end, she did not ask the questions that she wanted to ask. So, she went home like a worrywart.


    And Han Lu also turned around and walked back to the hotel.


    After returning to her room and closing the door, Han Lu immediately took out her mobile phone and found Shen Xixi��s contact information from her address book. Zhang Heng had introduced her during the death dream incident; hence Han Lu could only contact her now because she was the only other person who knew about the dark world besides Zhang Heng. As for Fan Meinan, Han Lu did spend a few days with her, but she did not leave any contact information.


    Shen Xixi was the only person Han Lu could count on right now.


    Fortunately, not long after she dialed the number, Shen Xixi picked up the call. Han Lu could hear Shen Xixi��s voice on the other end.


    ��Hello?��


    Han Lu quickly drew the curtains, walked into the bathroom, turned on the faucet, and made sure a third person couldn��t hear her voice. Only then did she tell Shen Xixi everything that had happened on the ind.


    Shen Xixi listened to Han Lu without the slightest interruption.


    She could, however, hear Shen Xixi��s breathing bing more rapid. Thetter seemed to be adjusting her emotions. After a while, she said, ��It seems you have indeed encountered a supernatural event. And your suspicion is not unreasonable. The men from the Self-Defense Forces on the ind are probably siding with those monsters. I suggest you take the first flight tomorrow and leave there as soon as possible.��


    ��No, I need to look for Zhang Heng first...�� Han Lu paused in her tracks. ��...it doesn��t matter if he is dead or alive.��


    ��But from what you��ve told me, you are not safe. Let us deal with it. If you are still worried about Zhang Heng, you can wait for us to update you at Ishigaki Ind,�� Shen Xixi persuaded.


    ��If you know me, you know I never sit idle and wait for news,�� Han Lu said. ��Embrace risk, control the risk, and benefit from the risk��this is my motto. I will not wait here quietly. You still need me to lead you guys to the underwater pce.��


    Shen Xixi knew that Han Lu was telling the truth; hence she agreed. ��In this case, you have to take care of your own safety at least before we arrive and stop contacting the Self-Defense Forces. Um, be careful of other people on the ind as well.�� Shen Xixi said, ��We will be there as soon as possible.��


    ...


    After hanging up the call, Han Lu sat in a daze by the bathtub.


    She had done everything she could, but she still could not ept the reality that Zhang Heng was dead. Looking at the water rushing from the tap, the scene where the three of them flew out from the sea reyed on Han Lu��s mind. After which, Zhang Heng tossed her and Nellie onto the reef. In the end, Zhang Heng was dragged back to the sea by those monsters.


    Han Lu lost track of time. Suddenly she heard someone knocking on her door.


    ��Who is it?�� Han Lu turned off the faucet, got up, walked out of the bathroom, and looked out on the peephole.


    The other side of the peephole, however, waspletely dark, and she couldn��t see a single thing. After that, Han Lu opened the door, and the lights were still turned on in the corridor. And there was no one standing outside her room.


    At the same time, Han Lu noticed that someone had stuck a band-aid on the peephole.


    This made Han Lu a little nervous.


    Although she had told Shen Xixi that she wanted to stay on the ind until Zhang Heng was found, she would be alone before Shen Xixi and her allies arrived. Not only did she have to face the monsters at the bottom of the sea, but she also had to deal with a strangely-behaving Self-Defense Forces.


    Han Lu did not know who else she could trust on this ind.


    This was why she was not willing to exin the whole thing to Nellie.


    Han Lu stayed in the hallway for less than half a minute and tore the band-aid off the peephole before returning to her room.


    This time she made sure the door was closed and bolted.

 Chapter 916 - Knocking

    <h4>Chapter 916: Knocking</h4>


    After Han Lu locked the door, she stood behind the door for a while and looked out the peephole to observe the situation in the corridor. There was no one knocking on the door, and no one passed by her room.


    After that, she walked to the windows again, checking if they were tightly closed. She even read the English fire prevention instructions on the wall. Even though Yonaguni Ind looked quiet at night, Han Lu could always feel a sense of anxiety in her heart for some reason.


    Nellie once told her that Yonaguni Ind had always been very safe, and almost no crimes took ce on this ind. The ind was so small that everyone knew each other. If someonemitted a crime, the assant would never be able to escape if the authorities set up a roadblock at the airport.


    Hence, this small ind had always been the safest ce in Japan.


    Han Luforted herself with such a thought. Although she discovered that the garrison on the ind was likely connected to the monsters at sea, she believed they shouldn��t be taking any drastic measures against her and Nellie for the time being after observing how they responded. So far, they had tried to eliminate evidence by taking her SD card and figuring out how to make the undersea tunnel disappear.


    This was also the reason why Han Lu deduced that she would still be safe for the time being. If the other party wanted to do something to her, they could have detained or killed her when she and Nellie walked out of the military base. Dealing with her afterward would be pointless.


    However, Han Lu was indeed a little restless tonight.


    In order to eliminate the anxiety, Han Lu turned on the TV and randomly picked a channel broadcasting a reality show. Although unable to understand thenguage, it did help rx Han Lu a little.


    The program deliberately set up obstacles for some young lovers to ovee, to which, the host and celebrities would observe how the couple solved the obstacles. The young lovers wouldin, and others wouldugh at them. All this while, such reality shows received good ratings in Japan.


    However, Han Lu did not really like this kind of show. She had only watched it because there were a lot of people talking andughing. Since she was all alone now, this was exactly what she needed. After a while, she wasn��t paying attention to the show anymore; staring nkly at the television, her mind drifted with other thoughts.


    When it was almost ten o��clock, the front desk called her and told her that there might be heavy rainter in the evening and reminded her to close the doors and windows.


    Han Lu then thanked her. At about 10:30, she took a quick bath, mostly to wash away the salt on her skin and hair. From the time she finished diving until now, she hadn��t had time to clean up. And she could not drag on any longer since she needed to sleep soon.


    Han Lu kept the door open when she took her shower. By doing that, movements outside her room would be audible to her.


    At a quarter past eleven, Han Lu finally finished her shower and dried her hair. After that, she got into bed. She hesitated for a while before finally deciding not to turn off the television.


    The reality show had ended, and the channel was now running a soap opera.


    Han Luid on her back on the bed, and she could hear the thunder rumbling outside. After a while, raindrops started to fall from the sky, knocking the windowpane with a repetitive pitter-patter. Han Lu gradually felt a little sleepy after listening to the sound of rain and TV dramas.


    Overall, she had a terrible day. Whether underwater or onshore, she was exhausted. After falling asleep, Han Lu had a nightmare, dreaming that Zhang Heng was being eaten by those monsters. And she could not even find his corpse.


    Just when she was thinking about what she should tell Zhang Heng��s parents about this tragedy, she was awakened by a soft knock on the door.


    Han Lu immediately sat up from the bed, not knowing whether the voice hade from reality or a dream.


    It took only less than half a minute for her question to be answered. She heard a knock on the door again.


    Han Lu came down from the bed, without slippers, and walked barefoot to the door. She tried her best to make as little noise as possible. After that, she leaned over the peekhole and looked into it.


    Immediately, she felt a bitter chill run up her spine from the bottom of her feet.


    Just like thest time, she saw nothing through the peekhole. It was pitch ck outside. She knew the person that knocked on her door had to be the one that stuck something on the peephole.


    And this time, Han Lu felt that the person had ill intentions towards her. If it weren��t for the storm, she would have considered jumping out of the window now. Han Lu then looked around to search for something that she could use as a weapon while retreating backward. However, she did not expect that the person outside her room would go ahead to unlock her door.


    After that, the person used a knife to open thetch on the side of the door.


    Han Lu was so scared that she started to scream. Upon hearing her scream, the uninvited guest outside her room barged in and covered her mouth. He then pulled off his poncho hat.


    It was Zhang Heng, the person that Han Lu thought was long gone.


    She could not believe her eyes!


    Although she always had a glimmer of hope that Zhang Heng might still be alive, she realized deep down inside that his chances of being alive would beparable to a miracle.


    And now, the miracle that she hoped for hade true.


    Zhang Heng gestured Han Lu to stay quiet. He then walked around the room and found several coin-sized bugging devices. He then threw them into his room next door, closed the door, and dragged an unconscious man into Han Lu��s room.


    ��Who is this?�� Han Lu asked.


    ��Someone from the Self-Defense Forces. He was the one who knocked on your door and covered your peephole,�� Zhang Heng exined.


    ��Huh?�� Han Lu was taken aback when she heard Zhang Heng��s exnation. She did not expect her deduction to be wrong. ��Aren��t the people from the Self-Defense Forces trying to conceal the existence of those monsters? Why are they attacking me?��


    ��That was their n previously, but now the circumstance had changed. After I got out from the underwater pce, they wanted to continue to use you to threaten me.�� Zhang Heng said.


    ��How did you escape from the bottom of the sea?�� Han Lu was puzzled. ��We didn��t manage to find you after we got back on the boat. Nellie said that your gas cylinder was probably emptied. We all thought that you were dead.��


    ��It��s a long story.�� Zhang Heng blinked, ��We��d better leave this ind first.��

 Chapter 917 - Deep Sea Terror

    <h4>Chapter 917: Deep Sea Terror</h4>


    Ten hours ago, Zhang Heng��s Shadow Wings disappeared. And there were still several monsters hanging on to his body. After that, he fell into the sea again under the influence of gravity. His presence had caused those monsters beneath him to go into a frenzied mode as if they were waiting for the carnival to begin. The moment Zhang Heng dropped into the ocean, they started to rush at him like they had lost their minds. In less than half a second, Zhang Heng��s vision was blocked. His arms, chest, back, and legs were covered by those monsters.


    Since the other monsters at the back arrived toote, they had no ce to hang on. Hence, they could only grab onto theirpanions. In the end, Zhang Heng waspletely wrapped inyers of monsters. Betty Shell wouldn��t be much help in such a critical situation because the monsters were too close to him.


    The thing that surprised Zhang Heng the most was that the monsters did not immediately attack him after they pounced on him. On the contrary, they carefully put away their teeth and ws. It was as if they were afraid that they might hurt him identally.


    At the same time, they took him all the way down to the bottom of the ocean. He could not check on his diveputer because his vision was blocked, but he could feel that he was going deeper and deeper into the ocean.


    At the same time, Zhang Heng was doing a rough estimation of the remaining amount ofpressed air in his diving cylinder. There were probably only a few bars of air left now. And this amount of air was enough for him to breathe for two more minutes at most.


    Even after he counted the time he could hold his breath, his circumstances wreren��t looking too good. Although Zhang Heng remained very calm, he had to admit that his chances of survival this time weren��t great. After another minute and a half, his breathing had be a littleborious. At this time, even if the monsters let him go, there was not enough air left for him to swim back to the surface.


    But at this time, Zhang Heng had given up on strugglingpletely, and he was calm. He rxed his body and allowed the monsters to take him to an unknown location. After about half a minute, he had finally stopped moving. At the same time, the monsters that surrounded him seemed to be reducing as well.


    When the monsters wandered away, Zhang Heng saw the familiar scene again.


    He is now back in the underwater pce again.


    But unlike when he came here just now, he was now leaning back against the dome in the center of the pce. Not far away were the two empty thrones, and behind him were the huge astrbe-like stone carvings. The group of monsters that brought him here had now retreated to one side. All of them were looking at him from a spot that was lower than where he was. It seemed like they were afraid that Zhang Heng would escape. Hence, they were still surrounding him.


    Zhang Heng felt that they were overthinking because his diveputer was beeping frantically. Thepressed air in his diving cylinder had beenpletely exhausted. In other words, Zhang Heng could not go anywhere. All he could do right now was to stay in this huge underwater pce and wait for his demise to befall him.


    The good news was that he was not going to die alone. There were a lot of monsters nearby him. The bad news was that he did not get to meet the real masters of the thrones at the final moment of his life. Zhang Heng suspected that at least one of them had something to do with his previous encounters in that hazy seaside town.But now, it did not matter anymore.


    Due to theck of oxygen, Zhang Heng��s consciousness began to fade out. He looked at the huge astrological map behind him and wondered if it was part of his hallucination before his death. Zhang Heng felt that the astrological map was slowly turning.


    He wanted to take a good look at it again, but his body did not allow him to do so. So, Zhang Heng used thest straw of his strength to remove the respirator from his mouth and closed his eyes. The next moment, Zhang Heng felt like he was back in his mother��s womb.


    It was a feeling of unparalleled tranquility and security. He no longer needed to breathe through his nose and mouth. It seemed like there was an invisible expectation that connected him to the sea; the entire sea had turned into his centa.


    Zhang Heng even started to think that the sea was where he came from but not thend. The azure water wrapped around him gently. All of his pores were stretched out in the water


    He had even forgotten how long the time had passed.


    Initially, Zhang Heng thought that this was his final hallucination before his brain went through hypoxia. It was said that all life on earth was originated from the ocean, and human beings were no exception. When death arrived, the person��s soul would return to the ce where it all started.


    However, when Zhang Heng opened his eyes again, he realized that he had neither entered heaven nor hell. Instead, he was still staying in this underwater pce. The only change that he noticed was that the strong suffocation feeling caused by ack of oxygen had disappeared. And it was reced by the wonderful feeling of being able to breathe again.


    Zhang Heng hesitated and then took off the mask on his head. And his eyes did not feel any irritation or difort. Zhang Heng saw that the half-man and half-fish-frog monsters nearby him were smiling when they saw him reopened his eyes.


    However, they had no intention to open a way for Zhang Heng. They still stood in a circle, enclosing Zhang Heng in the center. At the same time, the astrological map was still moving slowly. And Zhang Heng felt very different aspared to when he came to this water pce earlier.


    Zhang Heng vaguely aware that the changes in his body were most likely connected to the astrological map that was rotating behind him. It stood to reason that this astrological map granted him the ability to breathe and move underwater. Zhang Heng thought that he should wait here until the astrological mappleted its rotation.


    However, Zhang Heng sensed that there was an imminent threat getting closer to him. If he waited until the astrological map stopped rotating, the bad things that he anticipated would probably happen right after that.


    hence he made a decisive decision and decided to leave this underwater pce.


    He took out Betty��s Shell from his pocket. Earlier, he did not have a chance to use it. But now, it finally came in handy for him.


    Soon the calm sea became violent, and Han Lu, that was saying in the hotel currently was notified by the front desk, telling her that a storm might hit the ind tonight. The staff asked her to close all the doors and windows tightly.


    Betty��s Shell would consume the user��s anger and create a storm at sea. However, no matter how powerful a storm was, the destructive power would reduce gradually at the deeper part of the sea until it disappearedpletely.


    However, Zhang Heng realized that he did not need to provide too much anger to his Betty Shell when he triggered its effect. And its area of effect had expanded from the surface of the sea to the bottom of the sea.


    Zhang Heng could even direct the ocean currents to sweep away a couple of the monsters nearby him. And there was an opening that appeared around the encirclement. Zhang Heng seized the opportunity and quickly left the siege through the gap with the help of the underwater current.

 Chapter 918 - Breaking Out

    <h4>Chapter 918: Breaking Out</h4>


    When the monsters saw that Zhang Heng was about to leave the dome, they became very anxious all of a sudden, quickly going after him to bring him back. However, Zhang Heng was now different from when they dragged him into the sea.


    Although he still couldn��t swim as fast as those monsters, it was undeniable that he swam a lot faster than before. He also knew how to control the ocean currents. Not only could he elerate or stop the enemies froming after him, but he could also stir up the sand at the bottom of the sea to make the seawater muddier.


    Speaking of which, such a strategy was inspired by the red tide created by those monsters. With the help of the Filter Lens, Zhang Heng could always prevail in this chaotic situation. However, when he swam past theyers of the monsters and returned to the surface of the sea, he realized that it was already dark outside.


    Zhang Heng was a little surprised. He didn��t manage to look at his watch at the bottom of the sea, but as far as he was concerned, the time between him falling to the bottom of the ocean to when he started suffocating and being able to breathe again after taking off his respirator; Zhang Heng did not expect it tost so long.


    He seemed to havepletely lost the concept of time at the underwater pce.


    When Zhang Heng looked at his watch, he found out that the time was ten at night.


    The boat that brought him here was long gone.


    There was still some distance away from the ind. Under normal circumstances, Zhang Heng would bepletely exhausted even if he could swim back to the ind. In order to get rid of the monsters that came after him, the wind and waves on the sea were so strong they prevented him from swimming forward.


    But now, Zhang Heng could dive to the bottom of the ocean again and send himself back to the ind with the help of the underwater current.


    There were a lot of monstersing after him, but they were now in their nest. Once they left the undersea tunnel, it would be difficult for them to surround Zhang Heng in the vast sea.


    Therefore, Zhang Heng did not take too long to return to Yonaguni.


    This was not the first time Zhang Heng fought with those monsters. Their first fight happened in the hazy seaside town; hence he understood those monsters quite well. And when he went diving this time, he saw their history carved on the wall.


    Zhang Heng knew that those monsters liked to deceive the nearby humans and tourists who visited Yonaguni Ind. For so many years, none had found out about them. To say that they did not have people that sided with them on the Yonaguni Ind, Zhang Heng would never believe in such a thing.


    Zhang Heng initially suspected it was the ind��s fishermen who sided with the monsters because fishing was the backbone of Yonaguni��s economy. The vast majority of men on the ind were fishermen, and in order to support their families, Zhang Heng would not be surprised if they made some kind of trade with those monsters in exchange for the abundant fishes.


    And Yonaguni Ind had the world��s secondrgest marlin fishing ground, which might just prove his conjecture. Therefore, Zhang Heng did not stop the storm after he returned to the ind. On the contrary, he concealed his whereabouts under the cover of the heavy rain to avoid being spotted by the fishermen on the ind.


    Coupled with Zhang Heng��s stealth technique and bad weaather, no one would notice him.


    But when he arrived at the hotel where he had stayed before, he soon discovered that someone downstairs was watching Han Lu.


    Moreover, from the way the man behaved and the equipment he used, he seemed to be from a military background. Zhang Heng knew that the Self-Defense Forces had a base on the Yonaguni Ind, but it was said that the soldiers there had been very low-key, and they interacted little with the ind��s poption.


    That was why Zhang Heng did not suspect them earlier.


    But now, it seemed like they were the ones that sided with those monsters on the ind. Since the military base was a restricted area, it was not easy for others to notice the changes in their appearance. This was why they rarely interacted with the residents on this ind. Just like the hazy seaside town, they were the party with overwhelming force, and they could protect the undersea pce.


    Zhang Heng put himself into Han Lu��s shoes, guessing that she would��ve looked to the Self-Defense Forces for help after he was dragged underwater by those monsters. They were the people with the closest proximity to Han Lu where she could seek help.


    Unfortunately, she had asked the wrong people this time. To further prevent a dramatization of the situation, the enemies did not act on her for now, and they chose to only observe her. However, once they discovered that Zhang Heng was out of the sea, Han Lu��s life might be at risk again.


    Zhang Heng figured that those monsters had already contacted the Self-Defense Forces when he returned to the ind and asked them to capture Zhang Heng. Therefore, Zhang Heng did not stay downstairs any longer. He borrowed a poncho from the nearby resident and knocked out the man watching Han Lu at the hotel��s side entrance. From there, he slipped into the hotel, bypassed the front desk, and came to the floor where Han Lu was.


    Then Zhang Heng met the man who stuck the tape on her room��s peekhole in the hallway.


    With Zhang Heng��s Lv.3 assassin skills, it was easy for him to deal with the man.


    Until he walked to the man��s back, the man didn��t realize someone approaching. He held a knife in one hand and inserted the key that he got from the front desk into Han Lu��s door with the other, waiting to surprise the woman. Zhang Heng did not forget that he was now in the real world. Just like those Self-Defense Forces men, he did not want to raise the rm.


    So he knocked out the man outside Han Lu��s room with a stone. After that, he knocked on Han Lu��s door, but she did not open the door. So, he twisted the key he inserted in the door, picked up the knife and pried the lock to break in.


    That was what Han Lu saw earlier.


    .....


    Zhang Heng led Han Lu downstairs, but at that moment they also heard a series of footsteps under the stairs.


    Zhang Heng figured that the men who were tasked to keep an eye on Han Lu had discovered that they had lost contact with two of theirpanions. However, Zhang Heng had no intention of retreating when he saw the enemies. There were a lot of people in the Self-Defense Forces, and dragging it on would be more unfavorable for them.


    Once they called more men to surround the hotel, it would be more difficult for them to break out.


    Zhang Heng asked Han Lu to stand against the wall on the left side for a while. He then paid attention to the sound of footsteps beneath them and silently counted the number of peopleing from downstairs and the distance between them. When the enemies were about to climb upstairs, Zhang Heng jumped down and kicked away the weapon from the hands of one of the men. By the time he reacted, Zhang Heng had already knocked out the other enemy.


    After that, it was easy for Zhang Heng to end the battle.


    The enemies thought that they were well-trained, and they decided to underestimate Zhang Heng. They thought that the reason their allies lost to Zhang Heng was that he had ambushed them. When they fought against him for real, they quickly realized that he was a lot faster than their allies.


    The assant did not manage to see what Zhang Heng did to him. By the time he came to a realization, a knife was ced under his neck.

 Chapter 919 - Flying Into The Storm

    <h4>Chapter 919: Flying Into The Storm</h4>


    Zhang Heng did not do anything harsh. All he did was knocking his target out. After that, he said to Han Lu, who was standing in a daze, ��Let��s go.��


    And Han Lu quickly came back to reality like she just woke up from a dream. She found out that she would get to know him better every time she came into contact with Zhang Heng. But in the end, Han Lu would realize that her understanding of Zhang Heng was only the tip of the iceberg.


    There were too many secrets hidden in this man.


    Every time Han Lu caught one of Zhang Heng��s secrets, there would always be more secrets waiting for her. Han Lu even started to doubt whether anyone in this world could fully understand Zhang Heng. The floor that they were on was not too far away from the ground floor. Hence, the two managed toe downstairs pretty fast.


    They still left the hotel through the side door, and Zhang Heng had to eliminate the three guards first.


    The previous battle with the monster happened so fast that Han Lu did not manage to see what Zhang Heng did to defeat the monster. This time, she finally saw how Zhang Heng knocked out the guard. Zhang Heng first approached a target silently. The target stood rtively inside, half of his body remained in the corridor, and he was a little far away from his twopanions. Zhang Heng took advantage of the enemy looking out and circled behind the target��s back. Zhang Heng did not make a single sound throughout the whole process.


    It was as quiet as a Persian cat stepping on the carpet.


    After he got close to the target, he stretched out his hand to cover the opponent��s mouth, dragged the target into the corridor, and knocked him out. After that, Zhang Heng deliberately made a little noise to attract the other two enemies. When they turned to the corner, they saw theirpanion lying on the ground. They became very nervous suddenly, and they quickly raised their weapons. They were facing the stairwell. What they did not know was that the threat came from a ce beyond their sight.


    After that, what happened to theirpanion reenacted on the two enemies. Zhang Heng knocked out one of them. And the remaining enemy wanted to use his close-quarterbat skill to beat Zhang Heng up. Unfortunately, there was a considerable gap between the two. Clearly, Zhang Heng was the better one here.


    After the three guards were knocked out, Zhang Heng took Han Lu and left the hotel smoothly.


    ...


    ��How do we leave this ind?�� Han Lu asked when they arrived at a slightly safer ce.


    ��Airport.��


    ��Airport? But there are not a lot of flights on Yonaguni Ind, and the nes thate here usually fly during the day.�� Han Lu was puzzled, ��Besides, it��s raining heavily now. The nes are not allowed to depart even if there are flights avable right now.��


    ��Don��t worry about the heavy rain. It will stop when we find the ne.�� Zhang Heng said.


    Han Lu did not know how Zhang Heng found the ne. Earlier, she used her mobile phone to search for the avable flights, but it yielded no result. The results showed that there were no flights for today and tomorrow. In fact, there was only one flight to Ishigaki Ind three dayster.


    However, Han Lu did not think that they could wait until that time.


    Yonaguni Ind was not that big. Even if they escaped from the hotel, Zhang Heng could make use of the natural ingredient on the ind to keep them alive. However, if the Self-Defense Forces decided to search the entire ind, they would have nowhere to hide.


    So the more realistic way to leave the ind now was by boat. The nearest ce for them to dock would be Taiwan Province. However, the dock was now heavily guarded by the Self-Defense Forces. Other than the visa issues, they might encounter the monster again at sea.


    Han Lu was right. There were very few people at the airport, and the waiting hall was dark. Hence, the Self-Defense Forces did not arrange too much manpower over there. Zhang Heng climbed over the barbed wire fence and caught Han Lu, who jumped off from the fence.


    Thetter was now wearing Zhang Heng��s raincoat. Due to the heavy rain, her hair was still wet. The rainwater dripped onto the ground from the sleeves and hem of the raincoat. Han Lu wiped the rainwater off her face, looked around for a while, and asked, ��What shall we do next?��


    Zhang Heng pointed to a private airne in the distance, ��Let��s get on that ne and leave.��


    Han Lu was at a loss when she heard what he said, ��But where are we going to find a pilot.��


    After that, she heard Zhang Heng said, ��It��s okay. I��ll fly it.��


    ��Do you have a pilot license?��


    ��I used to have one, but it was from thest century. I guess the validity period has already passed. Don��t worry. I have flown many nes, and their control systems are not too different usually. I will send us to somece safe.�� Zhang Heng said. After finishing speaking, he nced at his watch again.


    It was very closed to midnight.


    Zhang Heng wasted no time. He opened the ne��s door with a paperclip. After that, he got into the pilot��s seat, while Han Lu took the shotgun seat. She then watched Zhang Heng fastened his seat belt. And Zhang Heng was quite lucky. There is a spare key hanging on the lower left side of the cockpit.


    And Zhang Heng was not lying. Compared with fighter jets, the control system of private airnes was much more straightforward. Even though decades had passed, the design of the dashboards and key switches had not changed much. The control systems that seemed highlyplicated to ordinary people were not thatplicated to Zhang Heng.


    He skillfully carried out various inspections. After that, he turned on the main switch and navigation lights, let the fuel pump started filling, waited three seconds, and then turned on the elerator, turned the key, and Han Lu heard the roar of the engine.


    Han Lu could not believe what she saw. She looked at Zhang Heng, who was turning on the electronic device switch and controlling the ne to taxi on the runway. After thinking for a long time, she asked, ��Does your mother know that you can fly a ne?��


    ��You know her. If you let her know that I can fly a ne, she will definitely pester me and ask me to fly her everywhere. Maybe she will ask me to fly her to the North Pole to see the aurora or something.�� Zhang Heng said while elerating the ne on the runway, ��So, please keep this matter a secret for me.��


    At this time, the men from the Self-Defense Forces at the airport also discovered that a private airne was running wild on the runway.


    They obviously had a hard time believing that Zhang Heng and Han Lu could leave the ind with a ne under such extreme weather.


    At this moment, the squally wind and lightning in the sky seemed like they were never going to stop. The heavy rain was smashing on the windshield of the private jet. Zhang Heng then slowly flew the ne up and left the ground. Due to the initial chaotic airflow, Zhang Heng had to maintain the ne��s bnce in the air carefully. The ne looked like it was going to crash. For a while, Han Lu was getting really panic.


    Soon, just like what Zhang Heng predicted, the seemingly menacing rainstorm suddenly stopped as if someone pressed the pause button. All the whistling winds disappeared, and the dark clouds above them were dismissed as well. The night sky was calmed once again. And Zhang Heng had already flown the ne over Yonaguni Ind.

 Chapter 920 - Night Flight

    <h4>Chapter 920: Night Flight</h4>


    After setting up the autopilot, Zhang Heng took out two bottles of red wine from the passenger cabin at the back and a box of sleeping pills that could help one sleep better during long-haul flights. He then poured a ss of red wine before popping a pill into the ss. Once the pill had dissolved, Zhang Heng handed the red wine to Han Lu in the cockpit.


    Although the two were temporarily out of danger, Han Lu still seemed a little worried. She took the wine ss and asked, ��Will the Self-Defense Forces send their men after us? And if they call the authorities, we will be arrested the moment we touch down at the airport. However, we can take advantage of diplomatic channels. I can find a few friends to contact the people at the embassy to see if they can help us... Earlier, I thought something bad happened to you. So, I notified Shen Xixi about this, and she should be on her way to Yonaguni Ind now. Since we��ve left the ind, we have to notify her to prevent her from getting into the dangerous situation...��


    However, she was interrupted by Zhang Heng before she could finish.


    ��Those monsters have no intention to make things worse. They won��t call the police. As for our pursuers, they mighte after us. But you don��t have to worry about them. They won��t be able to catch up with us. As for Shen Xixi, I will contact her to exin in personter... Hey, you��ve been through a lot today. It��s almost midnight. Why not take a nap after that ss of wine? We will talk about the rest when you wake up.��


    ��Alright.�� Han Lu did not say no to Zhang Heng��s suggestion. Although she wanted to know why the enemies couldn��t able to catch up with them, Zhang Heng seemedpletely unworried. Hence, she picked up the ss of wine and drank it. She then frowned, ��Ugh... it appears the owner of this ne has no taste. The wine tastes weird. I think the liquor seller must��ve cheated him, and he bought a bottle of fake wine.��


    ��Let me open you another bottle,�� Zhang Heng said as he took out another bottle of wine.


    However, Han Lu shook her head, ��It��s fine. I��m not in the mood to drink, and honestly, I��m not in the mood to sleep either.��


    ��You can lie down at least. Close your eyes, and take a nap,�� Zhang Heng said.


    Han Lu nodded. ��Let me take a ten-minute nap. I still have lots of questions for you. When I wake upter, you must first tell me how you get rid of those monsters underwater and how you returned to the ind...��


    Han Lu walked to a small bed in the passenger cabin. Not too long after sheid down, she felt powerful drowsiness hit her. With a long yawn, her eyelids became heavier and heavier.


    Zhang Heng got up and put a small nket on her. He then looked at his watch again.


    It was only less than half a minute before midnight. He would soon enter the world that stood still.


    This was why Zhang Heng wasn��t worried that the enemies woulde after them.


    If Han Lu was not with him, Zhang Heng could have holed until midnight and left the ind.


    Han Lu vaguely heard an inexplicable but reassuring voice when she was half-asleep. It said, ��Good night. Everything that happened before is just a nightmare. Everything will be fine when you wake up.��


    She wanted to listen more, but her consciousness became more and more blurry. Secondster, she finally fell asleep.


    ...


    Han Lu did not know how long she slept, but she could feel she was lying on the bed.


    And it wasn��t the small bed in the private airne. She was now lying on a big bed, and the light was pouring into the room.


    Was she at a hotel? Had they arrived in Naha? How did Zhang Heng convince the authorities to let themnd at the airport? How did he got rid of the pursuit?


    While thinking about those questions, her eyes suddenly popped wide open.


    That was because she realized that she was not in Naha. Instead, she had returned home, lying on her bed. Han Lu quickly grabbed the phone beside her bed, and the thing that surprised her the most was the time. It was June 13th, and less than six hours had passed since they left Yonaguni Ind.


    Considering the distance between China and Japan, six hours were enough for them to fly home.


    Then here came the question again. Zhang Heng did not have a flying license, and she could not exin where he got the airne. In other words, flying back to China would only cause him more trouble. When Han Lu turned on theputer, she was relieved when she saw no news about a private airne illegally entering the airport.


    The Inte was no different from the past. The hot search was filled with news about different celebrities, new TV dramas, variety shows, and some sensational articles that were good enough to capture the readers�� attention. The world still looked the same.


    While Han Lu walked into the living room, she saw a note on the coffee table.


    [Thank you for the vacation. There is breakfast in the kitchen. I hope to exin what exactly happened on that ind, but I��m still investigating the matter. Perhaps I shall wait until I find out about everything in the future before telling you the truth, even if the truth may not be what you want.]


    Zhang Heng left his signature on the note.


    Putting down the note, she walked into the kitchen and turned on the rice cooker.


    She saw a bowl of douhua that had been kept warm and two freshly fried dough sticks.


    At that time, Zhang Heng had gone to the lounge on the second floor of the bar.


    Since it was almost dawn, there were no other yers in the lounge. The bartenderdy was so bored that she was ying with her mobile phone behind the bar.


    Zhang Heng and the bartenderdy had known each other for a long time. There was still something he did not understand about her.


    ording to thetter, she worked several jobs to make money. In other words, she was also working during the day. When Zhang Heng met the old man in the Tang suit for the first time, he saw her there too. At night, she would manage the game checkpoint.


    Zhang Heng had never seen her getting sleepy. Although she did not seem particrly passionate about her job, she had never nodded off during work.


    While Zhang Heng walked in from the front door, the bartenderdy ying with her mobile phone seemed to have noticed something. Her nose moved twice as if she smelled something weird.


    ��Where have you been recently?��


    ��I went to Yonaguni Ind. I spent some there with my friends.�� Zhang Heng replied.


    ��Yonaguni Ind... no wonder.��


    The bartenderdy seemed a little surprised by Zhang Heng��s reply. However, she had no intention to exin her reaction. She just nodded and said, ��You came for the de and the game item, right?��


    Zhang Hen nodded. ��Yes.��


    Other than the Ordinary de sent for recasting, Zhang Heng had also asked the bartenderdy to identify Heart of Kreis. It was time for him to im them.


    ��Hmm.�� The bartender turned around and took out onerge and one small wooden box made of tule wood and ced them in front of Zhang Heng.


    ��Here are your game items. Which one do you want to see first?��

 Chapter 921 - New Blade

    <h4>Chapter 921: New de</h4>


    Zhang Heng first picked up the smaller tule box, which contained the game item that he received from hisst quest. It was also a gift Dadatis had given him before he left Rome.


    [Name: Heart of Kreis]


    [Quality: D]


    [Effect: It can significantly reduce the sound of the user��s footsteps, heartbeat, and breathing. At the same time, it will lower the enemies�� vignce within 3 meters.]


    The Kreis of Heart��s effect was no secret to Zhang Heng. However, thest effect mentioned by the system was something that he did not know about before. Since he carried it with him all the time, his stealth skills were getting better and better. On Yonaguni Ind, even without Heart of Kreis, Zhang Heng still managed to approach the Self-Defense Forces�� soldiers easily. Since he did not interview the targets he knocked out, he would never know his enemies�� feelings about his sneak attack.


    And this was why he asked the bartenderdy to identify it even though he knew its effects pretty well. Other than that, Zhang Heng also noticed how the heart��s two effects were described differently. The system mentioned that sounds made by the user would be greatly reduced as for the second effect mentioned that it would be only slightly lower the vignce of nearby enemies. Clearly, both of the items were not on the same level. However, these two attributesplimented each other very well. It was indeed worthy of being crowned the title of The Assassin��s Holy Grail.


    And this was probably the reason why it was considered a Grade-D item.


    After checking out Heart of Kreis, Zhang Heng moved his gaze to another wooden box. This was the game item he cared about most. Zhang Heng had always wanted to find a ded weapon that suited him best. A while ago, he made a deal with Scarlet Sword, and it earned him the opportunity to enter a dungeon that allowed him to take a sword out. It was a special dungeon, simr to the Lego dungeon that he entered a long time ago. There was no penalty for failure, and the yer could obtain a game item upon clearing the dungeon.


    Zhang Heng challenged a handful of dojos in Kyoto. In the end, not only did he acquire the two famous swords, Juzumaru and Kiku-ichimonji, but he also received a nameless sword from Akane Koyama. These three swords were also his copy. These three-ded weapons were the best melee weapons that he could find in that dungeon.


    If he was right, then the first two swords were Grade-C game items. As for the sword Akane Koyama gave him was the hardest sword that one could acquire in the dungeon. Zhang Heng spected that it might be a hidden reward. Hence, it should be of respectable quality.


    ording to the dungeon��s rule, Zhang Heng could only pick a sword to be brought out of the dungeon. Just when he was about to choose one, he met someone he suspected of being the dungeon owner. Thetter proposed to trade one sword with three of his. After a short consideration, Zhang Heng epted his proposal.


    In the end, Zhang Heng only received an Ordinary Sword with an ��F�� quality.


    However, after checking out the attributes of this sword, Zhang Heng decided to spend another four thousand game points to recast it. This amount of game point was an astronomical figure for a single yer. Since Zhang Heng spent double the time in every dungeon that he entered, it was not that hard to earn such a huge amount of game points.


    However, it still cost him all the game points that he had saved up. And he had to sell off some items he didn��t use to gather all four thousand game points. It was not until the end of thest quest that Zhang Heng��s game points returned to a surplus state.


    And now, he could finally shed some light on the long-awaited question.


    Even Zhang Heng felt nervous about it, but that did notst long. After that, he stretched his hand and happily opened the box. He had caught a glimpse of this de from the photo sent by the bartender before, and it was now his first time getting a closer look at the sword.


    Aspared with the Ordinary Sword that he receivedst time, it looked like it was nowpletely reborn.


    After being recast, its de was now shortened by half an inch, but its weight wasn��t reduced. On the contrary, it became slightly heavier now. Zhang Heng felt good when he held it in his hand like it was a part of his body. It was at that time that Zhang Heng realized that the sword paired well with him.


    Other than its length and weight, the material used to make the sword waspletely different from before. Now, it looked like it was made of an unknown alloy with a darker color. Its physical appearance was not that fancy. However, this de could easily slice the steak knife that was given to him by the bartenderdy to test the sharpness of his new de.


    Under its harmless appearance, Zhang Heng could feel the ferocity hidden within it. Other than that, the de��s handle was engraved with a V, which seemed to be a signature left by the forger.


    [Name:? ? ? ]


    [Grade: B (upgradeable)]


    [Function: Forged with the hardest material in the world. It is extremely difficult for it to be damaged. The wound caused by this de cannot be healed. Since the phnx of a certain deity is mixed in the forging process, the wounds caused by this de will continue to rot. Other than that, it will also deal extra damage to mythical creatures. The forger has deliberately left some room for the user to upgrade the de. The owner of this de has to look for a way to upgrade it.]


    Zhang Heng obtained this third Grade-B game item after the Infinite Building Block and Pestilence Bone Bow.


    It was also the fiercest Grade-B game item that he��d evere across.


    The description of its function was simple yet straightforward. This de only had three effects, but these three effects were extremely brutal. When Zhang Heng sent the de for recasting, he suspected that the mysterious alloy used to forge the sword might be very unusual. However, he was still surprised to hear that the de was made of the world��s strongest material.


    In other words, no matter what weapon shed with this de in the future, its opponent would surely suffer. The worst part was that the opponent��s wound couldn��t heal; hence if the de made a small cut on the finger, it would be impossible for the opponent to stop bleeding. If Zhang Heng managed to inflict a more severe wound on his opponent, it would be a matter of time before they would be sent to meet their maker.


    Fortunately, this de was not too sharp. Otherwise, not even a demaster like Zhang Heng would dare to keep it by his side. When Zhang Heng was told that the de would make the wounds rot, his expression became a little strange.


    This was not the age for the gods to battle among themselves. ording to the old man in the Tang suit, the disputes between the gods were supposed to be resolved by this mysterious game. The way to solve it was no longer as primitive and bloody as in the past; hence the gods didn��t fall as frequently.


    The only deity known to have died recently was one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. He was killed by Zhang Heng. After Zhang Heng killed him, thetter��s body also disappeared immediately.


    It looked like his corpse might have fallen into the hands of the craftsman who recast the de. He added his phnx into the de when he recast it. That was why the wound inflicted by the de would decay. This exined why Zhang Heng felt a sense of familiarity when heid his eyes on it.


    The most brutal effect of this de was itsst effect, allowing the wielder of this de to deal extra damage to mythical creatures. Of all the enemies Zhang Heng had dealt with, the most powerful enemies were the supernatural creatures. Almost every single one of them had different abilities. When the old man in the Tang suit fought against Moresby, even he needed to use a spear that can summon thunder and lightning.


    And the de that Zhang Heng was holding now was just like the spear.

 Chapter 922 - Exam Week

    <h4>Chapter 922: Exam Week</h4>


    As far as Zhang Heng knew, there were many types of game items. However, items that allowed its user to deal extra damage to mythical creatures had always been rare. Even the old man in the Tang suit did not possess such a game item. He wouldn��t have borrowed the spear to deal with Moresby if h did. If Zhang Heng was right, then the old man��s spear was probably the famous Holy Lance, also known as the Spear of Destiny, the spear the soldier had stabbed Jesus with.


    And now, the de in Zhang Heng��s hand was on the same level as the Holy Lance.


    Zhang Heng then asked the bartenderdy beside him, ��Why are there question marks on his name?��


    ��Because it��s fresh out of the furnace. The craftsman is supposed to name it, but he refused since he said he wasn��t the one who made the de. Strictly speaking, all he did was give the de a new body that suited it better.��


    The bartender continued after a pause, ��I guess what he tried to say is that he forged this de with one more man. In other words, none of them are qualified to name it. Besides, this is your de. So, I��ll let you name it. You can call it whatever you want.��


    Zhang Heng thought for a while before saying, ��Let��s call it Shrouded Sheath.��


    This de was immensely powerful. If the wounds it inflicted were deep enough, there would be no cure for whoever it hurt. Another reason why Zhang Heng named it Shrouded Sheath was to remind himself never to use this de unless it was hisst resort.


    With his current skillsets, using a Grade-B weapon to deal with his enemies would be overkill, and thus, he swore only to unleash his Shrouded Sheath to deal with overwhelmingly powerful enemies.


    After that, Zhang Heng spent another ten game points to order a scabbard made of tule wood from the bartender. As for the upgrade, Zhang Heng also consulted the bartender about it.


    ording to the bartenderdy, there were not many upgradable game items in existence. Most of them were either Grade-E or Grade-F items. It was the first time sheid her hands on an upgradable Grade-B game item. Different game items, however, required different upgrading methods. So, it would be difficult for her to provide Zhang Heng any useful tips. Even if he expressed his willingness to pay a certain amount of game points, the only advice the bartender could give was for him to sh a few people with it.


    ...


    After leaving the bar, Zhang Heng temporarily stored his Shrouded Sheath and Heart of Kreis in the trunk of his Polo. Once that was done, he went back to the school to take a shower.


    In the next few days, he stopped wandering around, and instead, stayed in the library revising, preparing for the exam next week. Zhang Heng also met Shen Xixi several times in the library, thetter, busy with her revisions as well. After the dismissal of the union, Shen Xixi did not need to deal with so many things, and she had a little more time for herself.


    As for Fan Meinan, Zhang Heng wondered why she never mentioned anything about her school even though she looked to be his age. At this age, she should be studying in college. However, she never talked about it, nor did she talk about her majors or ssmates.


    Zhang Heng was a rtively quiet person in the university. Even though he disliked taking part in group activities, he still fancied hanging out with Chen Huadong, Wei Jiangyang, and others that lived in the same dormitory. In contrast, Fan Meinan would always be alone.


    During the Lego quest, Zhang Heng knew that Fan Meinan��s family lived in Yangcheng. She had a father, a mother, and a younger brother. Other than that, thedy with sunsses who stole the Dreand of Death from the auction under the nose of the three major guilds seemed to be Fan Meinan��s long-lost sister too.


    Beyond that, Zhang Heng��s understanding of Fan Meinan was very limited.


    Fan Meinan might look cold-blooded and did not care about a single thing in this world, but Zhang Heng could feel that this was simply a facade she used to cover up her true nature, especially when the two met for thest time. Fan Meinan still smiled when she talked to Zhang Heng, but she seemed worried about something.


    And the two had been out of touch since then.


    ...


    Zhang Heng was a little distracted when he was taking his exam. However, after he gulped, he quickly focused on his test paper and put a full stop to hisst sentence. And that marked the end of his semester.


    After that, he put down the pen in his hand and rechecked the answers. He seemed to have identally dropped his pencil on the ground, so he bent over and it up. After that, he tidied up his things, got up, and handed the test papers to the podium.


    At the same time, Chen Huadong, who was six seats away from Zhang Heng, took advantage of the invigtor paying attention to Zhang Heng. He immediately leaned over and picked up the eraser that rolled to his feet. He then took off the eraser��s cover and saw two rows of answers written on it, almost causing him to cry out loud.


    Chen Huadong had always imed that he only needed to dost-minute studies to pass exams. However, his rtionship with Nanako Mukaiji had been getting better recently. He had spent most of his time with his girl, and he was in no mood to do any revision. Thus, a little extra midnight oil had to be burned to take care of his previous papers. As for thest paper, he could barely squeeze out the time to study for it.


    Thus, he could only seek Zhang Heng��s help. Zhang Heng promised Chen Huadong that he would write down the correct answers for the multiple-choice questions on an eraser and throw them to him. However, something unexpected happened before the test started. The invigtor suddenly asked Chen Huadong to swap his seat with a girl. So, he was forced to move to a seat that was further away from Zhang Heng.


    Chen Huadong instantly turned pale. He felt like he had been just handed a death sentence.


    Fortunately for him, Zhang Heng was much more skillful than he thought. He still managed to urately throw the eraser to his feet from such a long distance, and he even created an opportunity for him to pick up the eraser.


    Chen Huadong suddenly felt that the two Pizza Hut meals he promised to buy were absolutely worth it. He did not waste this rare opportunity, instantly copying the answers to his answer sheet. Then, he started to make up something to answer the essay questions.


    The final score of this paper was divided equally among the multiple-choice questions and the essay questions. Combined with Chen Huadong��s other results, he would not fail this paper as long as he did not get zero marks on his essay questions. Of course, he did not dare to copy all answers to the multiple-choice questions that Zhang Heng had given him. He was smart enough to fill in some wrong answers. He still had to find a way to get some points for his essay questions.


    In the end, Chen Huadong managed to fill up all the nk on the test paper. Other than the fact that he wanted to test his luck, he also wanted to impress his teacher by showing that he put a lot of effort into finishing the exam paper. However, he did not know if this strategy would work well for him.


    When the invigtor asked the students to stop writing and collect the papers, Chen Huadong felt that he had performed exceptionally well in this test paper. So, he breathed a sigh of relief.

 Chapter 923 - Changes

    <h4>Chapter 923: Changes</h4>


    ��When are you going home?�� Wei Jiangyang asked the three people in the dormitory after the exam.


    ��Oh, you know my situation at home. As usual, I have to work during the holidays, so I won��t be going back to my hometown,�� Ma Wei said. As soon as the exam was over, he immediately took out the high school textbook and at the same time boiled a pot of water, sat down, and started to study what he needed to teach during the summer holiday.


    The boy tutored by Ma Wei was said to have made a lot of progress during this semester. So, his parents decided to hire Ma Wei as a permanent tutor and doubled his hourly sry. Of course, Ma Wei wouldn��t let such a rare opportunity slide.


    What surprised Wei Jiangyang was that Chen Huadong, who was the most eager to go home every time, would say, ��I��ll be staying in school for a while because Nanako wants to know more about the city. As her Chinese teacher, I have to stay by her side and exin everything to her.��


    ��Hmm.�� Wei Jiangyang raised his eyebrows, ��It seems someone haspletely fallen under Nanako��s spell. All you ever talk about is Nanako.��


    ��You have no right to say that about me.�� Chen Huadong rolled his eyes. ��When you and your girlfriend show off your lovey-dovey moves in front of me, I didn��t even ask for anypensation to cure my fragile heart.��


    ��However, a huge barrier still separates you both. What do you n to do when Nanako stops being an exchange student and returns to Japan?�� Wei Jiangyang didn��t sound too optimistic about their future.


    ��We will find a way to deal with it when the timees. Didn��t you see me pouring my heart out to learn Japanese? I can always move to Japan with her to teach Chinese there after graduation, or she can stay here and teach Japanese.�� Chen Huadong nced at Zhang Heng. �� Young Master Zhang secretly managed to master his English. I can do it too.��


    ��Young Master Zhang has scored nearly 700 points in his Level Six English Test. I have never seen you score such a high score in a foreignnguage.��


    ��...��


    ��This is different. This time, I have the power of love with me.�� Chen Huadong gritted his teeth.


    It was true that he reduced his gaming time recently, and he had somehow be less enthusiastic about watching dramas. Recently, he devoted most of his time to learning Japanese. And his Japanese had improved a lot.


    ��I think you read too much manga.�� After Wei Jiangyang finished speaking, he looked at Zhang Heng, ��What about you, Young Master Zhang?��


    ��When I finish dealing with the things at hand, I will probably go for a trip during the holiday,�� Zhang Heng said.


    ��Are you going to go on a trip with that rich woman again?�� Chen Huadong probed.


    ��No, just me this time.��


    ��Ah, what��s the point? Even if you don��t like that rich woman, you can ask Hayase Asuka to go with you. I heard Nanako saying that Hayase Asuka has been talking about you. If you ask her to go on a trip with you, she will definitely say yes.��


    With Nanako being his informant, Chen Huadong had be quite well-informed recently. He scratched his head and said, ��Seriously, Hayase Asuka is a pretty good girl. You should just go be with her. If that happens, we can work as Chinese together in Japan, and we can be neighbors too. I have always wanted to visit Akihabara.��


    ��There��s an 80% chance that you will be disappointed,�� Zhang Heng said.


    ��Uh, what are you talking about? Bing your neighbor or going to Akihabara together?��


    ��Both.��


    While chatting with the three people in the dormitory, Zhang Heng turned on theputer. The school exam was over, but there was still one more exam waiting for him to take.


    Zhang Heng logged in to the official website of the organizingmittee and looked at the rankings. The first round of the proxy war was halfway done. And the rankings had changed a lot. Zhang Heng was no longer in the first ce. The person that now topped the leaderboard was Pegasus, the president of the Silver Wing.


    He took the lead with 2203 points, followed by the Arc of Light��s vice president, Mu Ren, ranked second with 2176 points. And most of the yers that ranked below him came from the three major guilds, once again proving that the three major guilds were extremely powerful. As for Zhang Heng, since he hadpleted only one round of the game, his rank had dropped to 49th.


    Zhang Heng was not bothered by the fact that he was no longer in first ce. It was because he did not feel the need to fight hard to maintain his honor or build a reputation like the yers from the three major guilds. ording to the bartenderdy, the top 500 yers were qualified to enter the next stage of the game. And the top fifty yers would receive a small gift. Hence, there was no difference between getting first ce or the 50th.


    Right now, Zhang Heng only needed to make sure that he would be ced in the top-50 category.


    Since it was not the deadline yet, and his current rankings would still undergo changes. However, Zhang Heng figured that he did not need toplete all three rounds of games. As long as hepleted one more round of the game, he would not fall out of the top-50 category.


    When Zhang Heng entered Fan Meinan��s yer number into the search bar, however, it yielded no result. When Fan Meinan told Zhang Heng that her sister used some kind of method to scam the Dreand of Death from the auction, she had also mentioned that her sister hacked the character panel, resulting in both of them being banned from ying the game. Butter, the organizingmittee seemed to have forgiven them, or they had found some new loopholes. When Fan Meinan invited Zhang Heng to enter the Lego dungeon on New Year��s Eve, the ban on them had obviously been lifted.


    However, Zhang Heng did not see Fan Meinan join the proxy war.


    Fortunately, when Zhang Heng logged into the yer forum, he did not see any news rted to her.


    Recently, most of the yers were focusing on the proxy war, especially the yers who were rtively high in the rankings. They became the topic to discuss on the yer forum, analyzing who among them was the strongest.


    Most of the posts were just hypothetical discussions. Their theories could only be proven when the yers that were beingpared went on a real fight and see who would prevail till the end. Even then, there was no way to judge the strengths and weaknesses of the two fairly. That was because different yers had different development priorities and game items. At the same time, they were also greatly affected by the environment and teammates. An all-around yer like Zhang Heng, who was capable of taking care of everything, was probably rarer than a unicorn.


    However, it did not stop the yer fromparing them enthusiastically. It was human desire topare with each other. No matter what game it was, the introduction of the leaderboard into the game had always been something huge.


    Zhang Heng then quickly looked at the hotter posts in the forum, and few of them were dedicated to him. However, since he had always been alone, he left very little information to the other yers. Hence, the other yers could only make spections about him. Unlike Pegasus, with a lot of his information released to the public, they soon stopped talking about Zhang Heng.


    And Zhang Heng thought this was a good idea. He could y his second game a day before the deadline, helping him to keep his profile as low as possible. After that, he could go ahead toplete his ordinary round of game in July. Once that was done, he could set off to fly to d to look for more information about himself.


    In that huge wastnd, there was something waiting for him.


    Especially after escaping from the underwater pce on Yonaguni Ind, Zhang Heng noticed that his body started to change again. Not only did he have the ability to breathe underwater, but he also became more and more fond of water. At the same time, he could control the water flow to a certain extent.


    Different from the pair of Shadow Wings that he had on him. Zhang Heng could feel that the abilities he mastered this time seemed to belong to him. When he manipted the ocean currents on the bottom of the sea, it was as natural as eating and drinking.

 Chapter 924 - Catching Up

    <h4>Chapter 924: Catching Up</h4>


    After returning to shore, Zhang Heng did some tests on his new abilities. The test included how long he could breathe underwater, his ability to move underwater, his limitation, the limits of manipting water flow, and so on.


    Still, Zhang Heng could not find a clear answer to those questions. After taking off his breathing equipment in that underwater pce, he stayed there for at least seven to eight hours, and he did not feel any difort.


    Upon returning, Zhang Heng found a swimming pool and tried to stay in it for 24 hours. He found out that his newfound ability did not only apply to the sea. He could also breathe unrestrictedly under the dead water in the swimming pool. Therefore, Zhang Heng now knew that there were no restrictions to his underwater breathing ability.


    In other words, he could no longer drown. Other than that, Zhang Heng also found out that the resistance in the water was way smaller than before, probably one-fifth of the initial resistance he experienced. He was now a lot more flexible underwater. However, it could not bepared with how he moved onnd; what he could do had already gone beyond the limits of a human being.


    After returning to the world where time flowed normally, Zhang Heng went to the market to buy a few fishes and let them loose in the swimming pool. After they swam for less than five minutes, they were caught by him again.


    If Zhang Heng had this ability when he entered the novice dungeon, he wouldn��t have to work so hard to look for food. If he was hungry, he could just jump right into the sea and grab whatever marine creatures he desired. The entire sea would be his personal seafood stall that was open 24 hours a day.


    However, when it came to manipting currents, his most powerful skill was controlling ocean currents. He did try to shape the current into a certain shape, such as a water arrow. Unfortunately, the attempt failed. The most he could do was to make the ocean current extremely thin. It would not cause any damage, and at most, give the target a tingling sensation.


    Zhang Heng gave up after several attempts. He figured that a dagger coupled with his body��s flexibility should suffice in defeating all kinds of underwater opponents easily.


    Zhang Heng had also figured out how to stir his coffee without a spoon how to use the least amount of water while bathing.


    Despite all of that, however, he still found it difficult to be happy.


    It was because he did not know if he was even considered human. As the game progressed, he became more and more unfamiliar with himself. Such an unfamiliarity did not limit his external strength growth, but he also noticed some internal changes.


    Zhang Heng instinctively sensed that something was not right about it.


    ...


    On the other hand, the bartenderdy had finished her night shift at the game checkpoint and was taking a break at the maid cafe. She ignored the manager��s whinny gaze. In one of his hands was a mobile phone ying a soap opera, and her other was messing with something. She grabbed a pepper bottle on the side and sprinkled some of it into her passion fruit drink, before adding a spoonful of oil and vinegar after she stirred the drink.


    The waitress on the side then fetched this freshly made hellish drink to a fat customer at a table. Thetter was taken aback after seeing the drink he ordered. After holding back for some time, he finally asked, ��What��s wrong? I... I remember the drink I ordered thest time wasn��t this color.��


    ��I��m sorry, master. Let me ask the bartender.��


    The maid looked very considerate. She returned to the customer in less than half a minute. And she repeated what the negligent bartenderdy told her to the customer. It was some kind of nonsense that the waitress did not believe in. ��Our bartender said that this is a special secret drink. Not everyone can earn the right to have it. Only our regr customers have the opportunity to have a taste.��


    As for the second part of what the bartenderdy said, about her poking a straw into the customer��s skull and forcing him to drink his own brain juice if he kept interrupting her drama, it was excluded by the waitress out of her kindness.


    ��Is that so?�� the fat customer showed a hint of joy on his face when he heard what the maid said. He then eagerly picked up the drink in front of him. Before the waitress could warm him, he was choked by theyer of pepper that was floating above the drink. He sneezed, and when he had a taste of the oily vinegar, his whole face turned green.


    Just when he wanted to question the maid angrily, his eyes suddenly lit up.


    That was because he saw a cutedy who he thought could only be seen in the anime stepping into the maid coffee shop. The appearance of the girl looked like a ssic, beautiful anime female character.


    She was 1.5 meters tall. She had silver hair, a pair of cute eyes that looked like she just woke up, and an anti-gravity bang on her head. It swayed from left to right as she walked. And the fat customer almost shouted ��I��m going to die�� out loud.


    When the girl smiled at him, he felt as if something hit his heart hard. He had to gulp down several mouthfuls of the special secret drink to make his heart start working again.


    A maid then greeted her and asked enthusiastically, ��What can I do for you, master?��


    ��No. I��m here to look for someone.�� The beautiful Japanese girl pointed at the bartenderdy watching soap operas behind the bar.


    ��Oh. Make yourself at home.�� The maid seemed to feel regret for not being able to serve such a cute girl, but she still put on a smile.


    After that, the beautiful Japanese girl walked towards the bartender and greeted her. ��Hi, long time no see.��


    The bartenderdy did not look up. Instead, she saidzily, ��Before I finish watching this episode of ��The Great Master,�� you better get away from me.��


    However, the beautiful Japanesedy sat down on the tall stool in front of the bar as if she had not heard what the bartenderdy said. She thenmented, ��You��re still as bad-tempered as ever. Have you parted ways with the good-tempered side of yours?��


    The bartender��s eyelids twitched. A ferocious gaze shed across her eyes, and she finally lifted up her head and looked at the girl in front of her.


    ��Are you looking for a fight?��


    ��No. I��m just a messenger.�� The Japanese beauty shook her head and continued, ��If possible, I prefer not to resort to violence.��


    ��That��s because you can��t beat me.�� the bartenderdy sneered, ��Are you running errands for your master again? Your master is probably not as powerful as you are now, right? There are only a handful of people remember its name now.��


    ��Goodmunication starts from showing politeness.�� The Japanese beauty blinked, ��No matter how weak it is now. It is still the entity that created us, including your master. To me, it is my father.��

 Chapter 925 - Not Buying You A Drink

    <h4>Chapter 925: Not Buying You A Drink</h4>


    If Chen Huadong were now in the maid cafe, he would have instantly recognized the beautiful Japanese girl that attracted everyone��s attention. That girl was none other than Nanako Mukaiji, and at that moment, she was still learning Mandarin from Chen Huadong.


    However, she did not sound like someone had just started learning Mandarin. Her pronunciation bettered Uncle Zhang��s, who had been living in the alley next door for seventy years.


    ��It��s your father, not mine.�� The bartender finally put down the phone and looked at Nanako Mukaiji, ��I��ve lived here longer than any one of you.��


    ��But you are one of us now,�� Nanako Mukaiji smiled. ��Thank you for the birth of literature, movies, animations, and games. It spread faster than any known religion in this world. All those obscure stories carved on the stone bs can never bepared with the modern entertainment culture. All those popr videos on YouTube and Station B have tens of millions of views. We needed at least tens of thousands of preachers to spend several years to achieve such an achievement back in old times. Let��s take you as an example. You are just a tiny, insignificant part of the original divine system. You are supposed to y the stepping stone for all the heroes that would achieve great things. However, with Marvelics and movies gaining more and more fame, your name has be something that everyone has heard of.��


    ��Yes. That��s right. Thanks to pop culture, my identity has undergone changes too.�� The bartenderdy��s tone turned cold. ��Be one of you.��


    ��Something like this happens from time to time,�� Nanako Mukaiji nodded. ��In fact, all myths and legend undergo all sorts of changes when passed down from generation to generation. Sometimes they change to adapt to local customs, and at times, change due to fights between different religious sects. The winner will get the right to reinvent the stories. They do it for entertainment sometimes or just to mess with others. As long as they are given enough time, you will realize stark differences between a new legend and its original tale. As long as you are willing to spend some time and effort to do some digging, people will realize how messy our backgrounds can be.��


    ��So, why does the messenger of the Three Pirs of God look so ridiculous now?�� The bartender sneered, ��And you no longer rely on deception to lure mankind into despair to gain joy? I can see that you��ve transformed yourself into this stupid, cute-looking girl. You are quite suitable for the maid caf��. Would you like me an opportunity to make some extra money? Or should I just introduce a couple of sugar daddies to you?��


    Nanako Mukaiji was not angry when she heard what was said about her. Instead, she just blinked. ��Thank you. But, I don��t think I want topete for business with Kama.��


    ��Then what are you doing here?��


    Nanako Mukaiji sighed, ��I don��t know the reason for your hostility. I��m just doing my job. I��m a messenger. Once the old god wakes up, I need to start running around and do some propaganda work in advance. Besides, the most powerful existence in our divine system is about to be awakened. Half of all popr horror culture today is rted to him. His existence has inspired tens of thousands of creators. We can see his presence in games, movies, and novels. Although World of Warcraft is getting less popr, there��s still Bloodborne, Hearthstone, and Dota. DC and Marvel have referenced him in theirics and movies, and their best-selling merchandise is rted to him. And the most important thing is that the entire divine system is named after him. In other words, we all work for him.��


    ��What��s your point?�� The bartenderdy��s expression remained unchanged.


    ��He is very powerful, and he knows where our poweres from. One is our existing description, and the other is our poprity. Unfortunately, he excels in both of them. And ording to popr culture, his power is still increasing. In just a few decades, the power that he possesses has overpowered most of the ancient gods. When the Jewish gods decided they wouldn��t participate in this game, no ancient god wast gods were more powerful than him. Although the new gods seem unstoppable in terms of poprity, they also have weaknesses. Without exception, almost all of them are not good at fighting... To this point, I believe you understand why so many people don��t want him to be awakened.��


    ��Otherwise, why do you think I��m sticking with him?�� A fierce gaze shed across the bartenderdy��s eyes. ��Do you really think that I��m working this hard so I can earn more money to buy a Fourth Ring Road house? Why do I torture myself squeezing into the overcrowded subway every day?��


    ��I am not worried about you. You are his follower, so it is impossible for you to harm him. I am talking about someone else.��


    ��Who are you talking about then?��


    ��Kronos. I know you��ve made some agreements with him in private, but you know that he cannot be trusted, right?�� asked Nanako Mukaiji. ��He has a good rtionship with all the other ancient gods. During the previous few games, he had sided with the ancient gods. He fought for their interests. I don��t think we should let him intervene in our affairs, especially in such a major event.��


    ��Interestingly, Kronos also warned me to not fully trust you because you are only loyal to Azathoth. He also said that you are Azathoth��s most loyalckey. You have always wanted to help Azatoth to regain the throne, haven��t you?�� The bartenderdy continued lightly, ��Compared to you, at least Kronos got him back.��


    ��Don��t be silly, Little Snake.�� Nanako Mukaiji shook her head. ��Does Kronos look like someone who likes to help others? He must have his own agenda. The old man who seems harmless to humans and animals has always been the most ambitious god among the ancient gods.��


    ��I don��t know what Kronos has in mind. On the other hand, I can see the petty moves that you made. Earlier, at the bookstore, why did you ce that book in front of him?�� The bartenderdy squinted her eyes While holding an empty ss. It seemed as though she would throw the ss on Nanako Mukaiji��s face if she gave the wrong answer.


    Nanako Mukaiji put on an innocent look and shrugged.


    ��Just like you, I miss our old friend, and I want to see him sooner.��


    ��You��d better not do something so dangerous anymore,�� the bartenderdy warned her. ��He will return when the time is right. All we have to do is to wait patiently, and you better stay away from him.��


    ��Sounds like reasonable advice to me.�� Nanako Mukaiji nodded, and a cute smile appeared on her face. ��I��m done talking business. It��s time to talk about personal affairs. Shouldn��t you buy an old friend a drink after meeting her?��


    ��Forget about it,�� the bartenderdy replied casually. ��Everything you drink here will be deducted from my sry. Besides, I know your true form. So, you should stop acting cute in front of me.��

 Chapter 926 - Bodyguard

    <h4>Chapter 926: Bodyguard</h4>


    Zhang Heng booked the flight ticket to Greend and hotel in advance. He even hired a local trantor online.


    The officialnguage of Greend was Greendic. Having a sixth of their poption being Danish descendants, a good number of them conversed in Danish. Unfortunately, although Zhang Heng had mastered eightnguages, these twonguages were not on his list.


    Thus, to ease his traveling experience in Greend, he would need at least one trantor to help him converse with the locals.


    Zhang Heng selected several resumes from travel websites. After that, he used the Gaussian distribution method to pick a girl named, Songjia. Zhang Heng looked at her resume and found out that she a girl with mixed ancestry, with a Chinese grandfather and an Eskimo grandmother. Hence, she was a quarter of Chinese descent.


    In other words, she had three ancestries in her: Chinese, Danish, and Eskimo. Still studying for graduate school, she had a spotless resume and was currently working as a trantor to earn extra cash to buy a second-hand car. So Zhang Heng gave her a call and told her about the services he needed, and they discussed her rates as well.


    After hanging up the phone, Zhang Heng spent a few days purchasing some materials that he might need in Greend. When he looked at the time, he realized that only a little more than one day was left before the end of the proxy war. And thedder match had also entered a fierce stage.


    Pegasus, who was at the top of the leaderboard before, had now dropped to ninth ce. The yer who ranked first was the Arc of Light��s leader, Eryue Weicheng, with a score of as high as 2892 points. At the same time, the yers that ranked second and third were the Arc of Light��s members as well. And it caused an uproar on the forum.


    Among the three major guilds, Silver Wings was the oldest. Having thergest number ofbatants as well, their members equaled the sum of the other two major guilds. However, the other two major guilds were not to be underestimated too. The Arc of Light was thest to be established and had the shortest history among them. Other than the war they fought against Shen Xixi��s union, the Arc of Light had always remained low-key. The Arc of Light��s leader possessed a high-level execution ability. In the real world, Eryue Weicheng was an executive of a bigpany. Having designed an extremely effective hierarchy system, everyone under him had a set of clear responsibilities. The yers that joined Arc of Light worked more like employees rather than guild members, unlike theid-back yers from some random guilds.


    By joining such a well-organized guild, they had to sacrifice some of their freedom. However, the Light or Arc��s offered the best welfare among the three guilds, and that had attracted many ambitious yers with good potential in recent years. Hence, there were no yers who dared underestimate them.


    The yer base hadn��t expected Arc of Light to have secretly grown so fast in strength. Arc of Light��s yers had now clinched the top three ces on the leaderboard, with the yer ranked fourth being from another guild. Ever since the Dreand of Death killed the Silver Wing��s leader, the guild��s overall strength was greatly affected. They had only two members who got into the top ten on the leaderboard, and both of them were ranked ninth and tenth.


    This was why Pegasus decided to finish three games as early as possible. He knew that he might notpete with the yers from the other two major guilds. Hence, he wanted to gain everyone��s attention by upying the top position of the leaderboard during the early phase of the game. By doing that, he would be able to boost Silver Wing��s reputation. However, when the otherpetitors started topete in the game, his position at the top of the leaderboardsted only a short while.


    As for Zhang Heng, he also fell out of the top-50 on the leaderboard. Now ranked 89th, the yer base no longer talked about him. Since Zhang Heng��s score did not change, some of the yers suspected that he had died in his final quest.


    At the same time, Zhang Heng carried his new de with him and entered the lounge on the second floor of the bar. He greeted the bartenderdy behind the bar and sat on his usual deck.


    The time was now 23:55. The familiar dizziness hit him, and Zhang Heng began his second proxy war quest.


    ...


    [Verifying yer��s identity...]


    [Verificationpleted. The identity of the agent is confirmed. yer number 07958 is wee to join the proxy war. This is your second game of this proxy war. A quest is being randomly selected for you]


    [Drawpleted. Your current quest is Bodyguard]


    ��Attention, you are now entering New Shanghai 0297. New Shanghai 0297 is a federal demonstration city invested and constructed by Shengtang Morgan Group. Please ensure that everything that you do in this cityplies with itsws and regtions. Meanwhile, we hope you will enjoy the charm of this city. New Shanghai 0297 is a young, prosperous, stable, and generous new technology city.��


    [Task objective: Earn as many points as possible. You will get 10 points for each shec record you collect.]


    [Mode: Single]


    [Time flow rate: 240] (1 hour in the real world is equivalent to 10 days in this game. After 30 days, the yer will be forced to return to the real world)


    [Friendly reminder, the game will officially start in five seconds, please be prepared.]


    ...


    Zhang Heng was also a little confused by the introduction of the game��s background that sounded more like an advertisement. After listening to the introduction, he managed to acquire some information. Firstly, the New Shanghai 0297 seemed to be a newly established city. The second was that the city was invested and constructed by a corporate group, and it was hard to imagine that apany was rich enough toe up with such arge amount of investment. Thirdly, it looked like the city belonged to a certain federation. There were still many countries using the federal system.


    Countries like the United States of America, Russia, Germany, Belgium, and all used federal systems. It was difficult to imagine that among them, the newly constructed city would be named Shanghai 0297.


    Before getting more information, Zhang Heng could not make further inferences for the time being.


    Other than the game��s background, the way he could earn points in this dungeon also seemed very confusing. Thebat mission that he had during his previous round of the game was now changed to a quest that required him to collect specific items to earn points. It looked like the difficulty of the game had reduced a lot. However, Zhang Heng did not think that it would be as simple as he thought.


    The difficulty of the Proxy War dungeon had been discussed a lot of times on the forum. From the yers�� feedback that yed in the Proxy War quest, it was undoubtedly more difficult than the ordinary quest. That was because all these dungeons were designed for agents with supernatural powers.


    Moreover, most of the agents yed in teams, and they had reliable teammates. It was rare that the yers chose to y the game alone like Zhang Heng did. It meant that the difficulty that Zhang Heng faced was undoubtedly the highest among all the other yers. Even if he had extra twenty-four hours every day, he had to stay vignt at all times.


    Judging by the name of this quest, it seemed Zhang Heng was supposed to protect someone. However, the system mentioned nothing about it. Something was not right. This was where Zhang Heng had to pay extra attention.


    As the countdown ended, Zhang Heng opened his eyes again.


    He found himself standing in a ce with a graceful environment. In front of him was a white building that looked like Tokyo Dome. Instead of being a stadium, however, it was an apartment building. Every household had a balcony and floor-to-ceiling windows. nts of all manner dotted their balconies, and under the dome was arge greenwn.

 Chapter 927 - Looking At The Emails Randomly

    <h4>Chapter 927: Looking At The Emails Randomly</h4>


    The faucet on thewn sprinkled water in a circle. Zhang Heng looked up at the sky and found that today��s weather was good. There was plenty of sunshine and wind. asionally, a few white clouds would drift by him. However, Zhang Heng noticed those white clouds; movement looked a little dull.


    When Zhang Heng checked his body, he realized that he was carrying all the game items with him, including his Pestilence Bone Bow and his new de, Shrouded Sheath. His current appearance made him looked like one of those bad people.


    If he walked on the street with such an appearance, the authorities would probably bring him back to the bureau for questioning. However, Zhang Heng realized that the residents of thismunity did not show much surprise when they passed him, as if it was normal for someone to show up in such a state.


    Zhang Heng also noticed one more peculiar thing. He saw that everyone was wearing a bracelet, including himself. If he was right about it, this bracelet should be his terminal. The weight of the bracelet was very light, probably only less than 50 grams or so, and it was made of titanium. This personal terminal could project images mid-air. Its technology was too advanced.


    Zhang Heng saw a young couple navigating to a restaurant with their bracelets, and a woman looking like a housewife also went shopping with it.


    So Zhang Heng followed them and used his fingerprints to unlock and summon his terminal projection. In a way, this titanium bracelet worked just like a mobile phone, a piece of equipment with a unified operating system with various functional modules.


    The first thing that Zhang Heng checked was his mailbox.


    Since his emails were arranged by date, the first email was usually the most important one.


    From: G7Z Security Company


    Time: March 15, 2077


    Attention: Zhang Heng (G7Z security employee E group 3-07958)


    Subject: Work notification (read)


    [Hello Zhang Heng, employee E3-07958, thepany hereby asks you to Room 3094, Unit 12, Yacheng Apartment, Area D, 3rd Floor, before 14:00 on March 15, 2077, to work as a bodyguard. Your target person is Xu Qian (photos). You are required to protect her for two weeks. The mission ends at 14:00 on March 29, 2077. During this period, please ensure the safety of the target. You can discuss the specific details with the target. If you have any questions, you can also contact thepany.]


    [I wish you great sess inpleting the task.]


    ...


    Sure enough, when one did not know what to do, it was always the right move to read the emails. The title for this round of the game was Bodyguard; hence, the contents of this email had to be rted to Bodyguard as well. The email gave Zhang Heng a set of clear instructions and revealed his current identity. Now an employee of the G7Z securitypany, he received a notice to protect a person named Xu Qian for the next two weeks.


    After that, Zhang Heng looked at the time disyed on his wristband. He still had half an hour left before 14:00. When he looked at the warning sign on thewn, he realized that he was now at Yacheng Apartments.


    That said, Zhang Heng did not rush upstairs to meet Xu Qian.


    Instead, he spent some time searching online for some information before finally managing to figure out the background of this quest.


    The year was 2077, but this world did not share the same timeline from where he came from. The background of this quest was simr to the American drama ��The Man in the High Castle,�� albeit not that dark. Everything looked rather positive so far.


    U.S., China, and the Soviet Union still won the final victory, and the world still suffered a huge loss from World War II. Human beings learned a precious lesson, so they finally decided to set up a union, and it became a huge federal state after that. They also shared all of their technology and culture with others. This exined why the system mentioned that the new Shanghai 0297 belonged to the federation.


    The establishment of the federation had brought mankind into an unprecedented era of peace. With disappearing wars, the people here could develop and build the city with peace of mind. Coupled with the sharing of science and technology and culture, human development on this timeline was slightly more advanced than Zhang Heng��s world.


    After the elimination of trade barriers, the new economy also ushered in unprecedented prosperity. Monopolization and capital��s pursuit gave birth to several huge conglomerates, Sheng Tang Morgan Group. Meanwhile, humans weren��t satisfied that they had to keep staying on the earth. So, they started to make a n and explore space.


    New Shanghai 0297 was born under this background.


    It was a huge space station city. The centrifugal force generated by the center rotation simted gravity. And to control the Coriolis Effect, such a space station city was usually built on an enormous scale.


    ...


    After that, Zhang Heng closed the web page and checked all the other emails he received. Most of the emails were advertisements rmending a variety of products and their discount information. Unfortunately, Zhang Heng could not find the information about shec records mentioned by the system earlier.


    Other than that, he saw that the senders of a couple of emails were his friends and family. The friends that he had were the employees of the G7Z securitypany as well. As for his family, Zhang Heng��s parents were still alive.


    And Zhang Heng also found out that he had a sister in this timeline; his wristband containing his family��s photos and videos. Never having seen these people before, they had nothing to do with his family members in the real world.


    The three who were on earth and wouldmunicate with him once a month. Zhang Hengstmunicated with them about a week ago, so as of now, he did not need to worry about this matter.


    The above was the information he collected in twenty minutes.


    For now, he did not see any possible threats that he would face in this quest. ording to the information he found on the Inte, the third floor of New Shanghai 0297 was very safe, having a very low crime rate. Zhang Heng traveled back to when he was still a high school student in the first Proxy War��s dungeon. And it did not take long for him to discover the alien creatures hidden in human society. After learning his lesson, Zhang Heng would not take the quest lightly this time.


    He looked at the time and realized that there were only ten minutes left until 14:00. Without wasting any time, Zhang Heng turned off the projection of his bracelet and decided to meet his target named Xu Qian first. He wanted to learn more about the mission.


    Since his main quest did not require him to protect Xu Qian, theoretically speaking, even if Xu Qian died in front of him, it would not affect his quest. Zhang Heng could even walk away after he met Xu Qian and asked for a leave of absence from thepany.


    And after that, he could focus on collecting the shec records. With a total of 240 days of ying time, Zhang Heng believed he would be able to find all the shec records in New Shanghai 0297. Could this quest really be that simple?

 Chapter 928 - Meetup

    <h4>Chapter 928: Meetup</h4>


    Zhang Heng walked to the gate of the dome-shaped building and looked at the security door. Just when he was thinking about contacting Xu Qian, his bracelet automatically connected to the door��s system secondster.


    ��Wee, visitor Zhang Heng. Ms. Xu Qian, Room 3094, Unit 12, has granted you temporary ess to the Yacheng Apartment��s security door for two weeks. If you have any questions, please contact the apartment management.��


    After the friendly female voice talked to him, both sides of the apartment��s doors were opened. Zhang Heng��s bracelet shed twice, and an email icon popped up. If he was right, then the apartment management system must��ve just sent him a mail.


    This was not Zhang Heng��s first time entering a dungeon with a futuristic background. In the Whistleblower quest, he entered a future ruled by CTOS. However, the future in the Whistleblower dungeon was only twelve years apart from the real world. The Bodyguard��s dungeon, inparison, was clearly more technologically advanced.


    As he walked into the apartment, the surveince camera on the ceiling was the first thing he looked at. After that, he started to look around.


    Just like the outer environment, the apartment��s interior had a very decent design too. Red Persian carpets covered the circr corridor, and the center of the building was a vast space with huge ss walls around it. The floor above him was arge flowerbed. And the floor above therge flowerbed was the resident��s private balcony. The ce was well-lit, and its residents could enjoy a good amount of privacy.


    Just as he raised his head, squinting to identify the nts growing on the second-floor balcony opposite him, the elevator door beside him suddenly opened, and a woman with heavy makeup and fiss emerged from the elevator. She looked at Zhang Heng, stopped moving, and raised her eyebrows. ��What is yourmunication ID?��


    ��Are you Xu Qian?��


    ��No. But as long as you give me a thousand credits, I can be anyone for you.�� The woman licked her lips.


    ��Oh, I am not a resident here. And I��m here to work just like you,�� Zhang Heng replied politely.


    ��That��s a shame. I was about to give you a 20% discount,�� the woman said. She then took out something that looked like an electronic cigarette from her pocket, took a puff, and started walking towards the door.


    And Zhang Heng walked into the elevator that the woman walked out from earlier.


    The elevator wasn��t that spacious and could only fit three to four people at the most.


    ��Please state the room you want to go to.��


    When Zhang Heng walked into the elevator, he heard the familiar female voice again.


    ��Unit 12, 3094.��


    ��Since you are taking the elevator for the first time, do you want to set this room as your default room number?��


    ��Okay.��


    Five secondster, the elevator door was closed, and the elevator car, which looked like a ss marble, elerated upward. Right after the elevator that Zhang Heng was in started moving, another elevator moved to his earlier position, ready for the next rider.


    This design saved the passengers a lot of time, and there was no need to wait for another passenger to get out on a certain floor. In total, sixty-four simr elevator doors were on the entire first floor. Such massive numbers of elevators could easily meet the demands of the morning and evening peak hours. Zhang Heng had no clue as to how many of them this apartment actually had.


    About 20 secondster, the elevator stopped on the 30th floor. However, its doors didn��t open, but it began movingterally instead, sending Zhang Heng directly to room 3094.


    ��ess permission obtained,�� the cordial female voice could be heard again, ��Wee home.��


    As soon as he got out of the elevator, Zhang Heng was already standing in front of room 3094. It was a small apartment unit with two small bedrooms and one living room, designed for singles or small families. As of now, Zhang Heng should be standing in the living room.


    The ce wasn��t looking too good, though. It looked like someone had ransacked the unit, and things were strewn all over the ce. The drawers and shoe cabs were ajar, with clothes and socks messily tossed around the coffee table and sofa. Zhang Heng also noticed lipstick and skincare products on the floor. The whole ce looked more like a crime scene.


    Since Xu Qian had just hired a bodyguard from the G7Z securitypany, Zhang Heng didn��t dare take the incident lightly. Immediately, he took out his Pestilence Bone Bow and ced the Paris Arrow on the bowstring.


    A few secondster, Zhang Heng heard a rustling sounding out of the bedroom. He quietly walked over to the bedroom. Just as he was two steps away, the system seemed to detect his arrival, and the door automatically opened for him.


    A girl in extremely skimpy clothing was squatting on the ground, looking through the cab. She had heard the door opening, and she was taken aback when she saw Zhang Heng.


    However, it wasn��t him entering the room that shocked her but the weapon that Zhang Heng held in his hand.


    ��Bows and arrows? Why are you so primitive? Aren��t there equipped with technological stuff? Micro bombs? GPS? Or super metal?��


    ��Neither. They are just ordinary bow and arrow.�� Zhang Heng said. After seeing the girl frowning, he added, ��the arrows are applied with a biochemical agent.��


    ��Oh, now that��s is quite rare.��


    ��Sorry.�� Zhang Heng returned to the ce where the girl could not see him. ��I didn��t mean it. I thought someone broke into your house and robbed you. By the way, I��m...��


    ��I know who you are. You are the Bodyguard sent by the G7Z securitypany to protect me. I received the message saying that you have arrived and you��ve walked past the door. You should sit outside for a while,�� Zhang Heng heard her voiceing from the bedroom, and she did not sound embarrassed about the whole thing.


    ��Hmm.��


    Zhang Heng looked around the sofa. However, the sofa was piled with things, and he did not have any ce to sit.


    About fifteen minutester, the girl had changed and walked out of the bedroom.


    ��...��


    After seeing how she dressed herself up, Zhang Heng was rendered speechless. The clothes that she wore right now were no different from what she had on her. If he had topare the two sets of clothes, Zhang Heng had to admit that the clothes that she wore right now were more extreme.


    Still as skimpy as she was, her hair was now dyed gold, and she wore a ck cor around her neck. A cat��s tail also sprouted from behind her. The tail had to be a high-tech device of some sort, being able to swing and tilt ording to her movements. It looked real.


    Zhang Heng also couldn��t help but notice her well-crafted facial features. Undeniably, she was a gorgeousdy.


    The girl did not seem to realize anything wrong with her current outfit. She then reached out her hand to Zhang Heng and said, ��Xu Qian, online streamer.��


    ��Zhang Heng, your security detail for the next two weeks.�� Zhang Heng shook hands with Xu Qian.


    ��Can you tell me why you wanted to hire a bodyguard?��


    ��Of course, but you have to wait a while,�� Xu Qian said. ��I just took an urgent order. I searched all over my ce, and I couldn��t find my cat ears. They should be here... Ah, forget it. It��s toote. Zhang Heng, right? I need to work first. Let��s talk in 45 minutes?��


    ��Okay.��


    Xu Qian hurriedly walked to another room where she worked. Zhang Heng saw the camera, some audio equipment, musical instruments, live streaming equipment, and a virtual background wall.


    Just when Xu Qian entered her workroom, she seemed to think of something and pped her hands. A housework robot that looked like BB-8 from ��Star Wars�� rolled out of the bedroom and began to clean up Xu Qian��s messy living room and bedroom.


    ��Clean the sofa first, then make a pot of tea.��


    After Xu Qian finished speaking, she locked the door to her studio. And Zhang Heng saw that the word ��LOCKED�� was disyed on the digital door lock.

 Chapter 929 - Level

    <h4>Chapter 929: Level</h4>


    The housework robot quickly cleaned up the sofa, and Zhang Heng finally had a ce to sit down.


    While Xu Qian was working, Zhang Heng took the time out to check his character panel.


    Name: Zhang Heng


    Gender: Male


    Age: 20


    yer Number: 07958


    Number of gamespleted: 9


    Current game points: 217


    Possessions: Shrouded Sheath (B), Infinite Building Blocks (B), gue Bone Bow (B), Death Vision (C), Heart of Kreis (D), Filter Lens (D), Paris Arrow (D), Lucky Rabbit Feet (E), Oath Ring (F), Marble Soda (F)


    Skills: Swordsmanship lv4, Sailing lv3, Shooting lv3, Assassin lv3, Language Proficiency lv2 (eightnguages are good enough for dailymunication), Lego Assembly lv2, Archery lv2, Field Survival lv2, Driving lv2, Modification and Maintenance lv2, Aerospace lv2, Hacking lv2, Criminal Investigation lv2, Makeup lv2, Cowboy lv2, Piano lv1, Skiing lv1, Rock Climbing lv1, Herbology lv1


    Evaluation: The yer inherits the power of shadows, is proficient in eightnguages, and possesses incredible swordsmanship. As an opponent, you don��t want him toy his hands on any ded weapon during the battle. At the same time, he is also a Lego master, sharpshooter, an assassin lurking in the shadows, a highly-skilled cowboy, an investigator with excellent criminal investigation skills and camouge abilities. He has a slightly higher chance of encountering enemies than the ordinary person. He is a messenger of Pestilence with a fierce de and excellent sailing experience. Proficient at using bows and arrows, he can drive cars, airnes, spacecraft, and other vehicles. Other than that, he can adapt well to the wilderness. The yer possesses multiple skillsets, abat expert, and abides by his promises, a rarity among yers.


    ...


    After all the effort Zhang Heng put into the Ancient Roman��s quest, he finally increased his previous zero game points to 217. And the game items that he carried with him this time were different from before. he reced the White Horse Crown and Hunter��s Blessing with Shrouded Sheath and Heart of Kreis. With these two items, he was not better atbating coupled with his lv3 assassin skill.


    However, when Zhang Heng read his evaluation, he found out that for some reason, the system did not mention his ability to breathe underwater and manipte ocean currents upon acquiring them there after his trip to Yonaguni Ind. On the contrary, the Shadow Wings that he obtained not too long ago was mentioned in the first sentence of the evaluation.


    Fortunately, everything was normal on his character panel so far.


    Zhang Heng had been sitting on the sofa for more than 45 minutes, and he had lost count of the cup of tea he drank; the studio��s door, however, remained locked. It was not until after an hourter that Xu Qian walked out of the room with an exhausted look on her face. After she came out, she lifted the teapot and gulped down the remaining tea before sitting down beside Zhang Heng.


    ��Uh, why don��t you go back to the bedroom and change?��


    ��No, I��ll start streaming again in an hour. I��ll change after that,�� Xu Qian said, stretching her body. ��By the way, what did we talk about just now?��


    ��I was asking why you hired a bodyguard.��


    ��Oh, it��s no big deal, actually,�� Xu Qian replied. ��I just felt as though that some time ago, someone was following me.��


    Zhang Heng raised his eyebrows. ��Managed to catch a glimpse of his face?��


    ��No. I��m not even sure if I��m really being followed.�� Xu Qian hesitated, ��It��s just a hunch. I have this feeling when someone is watching me. Oh, yes. There was this once when I came home. I discovered that someone moved my cup. I am left-handed, so the handle of my mug has always been facing the left. On that day, I realized that the ear of my mug was facing my right.��


    ��Well... did you find anything else unusual besides this?�� Zhang Heng continued to ask.


    ��No,�� Xu Qian leaned against the sofa after shifting her body. She did look like a cat now. ��The rm didn��t go off. There were no visitors recorded for unit 3094 at the security door downstairs. I even went to look for the apartment management to check the elevator��s security camera footage. Well, I found nothing unusual. So, maybe I was just hallucinating. To be honest, I��ve been a little nervous recently.��


    ��Because of what?��


    ��Work matters,�� Xu Qian sighed. ��The ie of this job is not bad, but thepetition is too fierce, especially for mid-level streamers like me. Most of the time, thepany would invest most of its resources in those super-famous streamers. There is never a shortage of young and beautiful girls waiting to climb the ranks. My viewers have been declining in numbers for four consecutive months. The number of VIP customers willing to spend money on a personal chat with me is reducing too. I recently got one VIP subscriber, though. So, I spent a long time chatting with him.��


    Xu Qian shook her head. ��Sorry, I shouldn��t beining about these things to you. In short, I know that pressure is likely to be the reason for my paranoia. I have been unable to sleep for consecutive nights. When I went on a walk earlier, I saw yourpany��s advertisement. So, I contacted your people to hire someone as my bodyguard for two weeks.��


    ��It doesn��t sound like a big thing. Why didn��t you look for your friends to help you first?�� Zhang Heng asked.


    ��Friends?�� Xu Qian looked at Zhang Heng when she heard his suggestion.


    ��What��s the matter?��


    ��It��s nothing. I haven��t heard of this word for quite a while now,�� Xu Qianmented. ��The people in this industry spend most of their time on the inte. In real life, they don��t have much time and energy to make friends. I have lots of colleagues, but all they do is backstab. There are only so many resources, and others will get less if you take a huge chunk of it. So, it��s not easy to maintain a superficial friendship with others. Even if someone were willing to help me, I wouldn��t dare to ept the favor too. If I do ept the help, news of a streamer going haywire would appear on the inte next morning.��


    ��This line you��re in seems like a tough one.��


    ��It��s never easy. However, if it weren��t for this job, I wouldn��t be living on the third floor and renting an apartment like this.�� Xu Qian��s words indicated that she was proud of herself.


    Of course, her curvaceous body was one reason she was so good at her job. While Xu Qian was streaming, Zhang Heng did not stay idle. He continued to collect more information about this world on the inte, especially information rted to this city. Zhang Heng now knew there were a total of five levels on the New Shanghai 0297.


    There was no ss division in this city. However, due to the huge gap in housing prices, the five levels of New Shanghai 0297 divided the citizens into five categories.


    The poorest citizens would live at the lowest level and the billionaires on the top floor. The higher the level, the better the infrastructure, living environment, education quality, and public security. The third level that Xu Qian lived in was mainly upied by university professors, part of the city��s higher-ie public officials, and middle-level members ofrgepanies. Basically, all of them were social elites.


    This situation would undoubtedly cause dissatisfaction among the people that lived at the bottom level. But fortunately, it was not that hard to go up a level. And there was a considerable fluidity between the sses. Hence, no major incidents happened.


    Xu Qian asked the housework robot to add some hot water to the teapot. ��When I first came to New Shanghai 0297, I lived on the fifth level. At that time, I was a nobody. I worked as a waitress in a small restaurant. My daily job was dealing with a couple of idiots. After that, apany��s scout found me. He thought I was rather charming and good at dealing with people; hence, we signed a contract, and I got introduced to this streaming job. After that, I put in a lot of effort to get to where I am today, step by step.��

 Chapter 930 - The Life I Want

    <h4>Chapter 930: The Life I Want</h4>


    ��It looks like you are doing pretty well now.��


    Thanks to the ie she got from this work, Xu Qian now owned more than one hundred lipsticks, not to mention her myriad skincare products, clothes, handbags, and shoes. Although Zhang Heng was unfamiliar with those brands, all he needed to do was to search them up on the Inte, and he would find out the approximate prices of those items. There was no doubt that these were luxury goods.


    The price of a small lipstick was equivalent to a month��s living expenses for those who lived at the bottom level.


    It seemed that no matter which timeline he was in, women were always fond of this kind of thing.


    ��Since we are talking about your friend, can you briefly introduce the rtionship of other people in your life to me? Your parents, rtives, spouse, andpetitors at work.�� Zhang Heng continued to ask.


    ��Okay,�� Xu Qian nodded, ��You should know that New Shanghai 0297 waspleted only 30 years ago. This is an extremely new city. Compared with the overpopted earth, this ce is full of opportunities. So, I, like the other youths who came to earn more money, came over here with my sister after saving enough money for the tickets.��


    ��So, you have a sister here?��


    ��Yes, a distant cousin. We studied in the same school when we were young. We shared a good friendship. However, ever since thepany recruited me, I became more and more famous. After moving out of the bottom level, we almost stopped contacting each other.��


    ��Does the difference in ss between you both make her feel inferior?��


    ��Well... personally, I think it��s more than just jealousy.�� Xu Qian shrugged. ��At that time, the scout was looking at other girls too, including my distant cousin. However, only one of us would be recruited. You can imagine what happened after that. I defeated otherpetitors, got this job, and moved up from the bottom level. Unfortunately, other people weren��t as lucky as me, my cousin included. They had to stay on at the bottom level of this city.��


    While talking, Xu Qian took off her contact lenses and fake eyshes. And her hair gradually returned to its previous color��ck.


    ��The problem is that there may be some differences between the views of two people on this matter. In my opinion, most of the time, opportunities will not deliver to your doorstep. It alwayses withpetition. You need to fight hard for it. The position I am in today is what I strive for. I pay and get rewarded. This is how society works, but my cousin obviously doesn��t think so. She thinks that if I��m not there, then she would be the winner.


    ��Everything I have today, my clothes, my apartment, my lipstick, and perfume��these apparently also belong to her. She feels I am a thief who stole her life from her. Therefore, we had a big quarrel the night before I moved out of the bottom level of this city. After that, we stayed out of each other��s life.��


    ��Do you think she might be the one following you then?�� Zhang Heng asked.


    ��Her? Impossible.�� Xu Qian shook her head. ��She doesn��t know where I live, and even if she did, shecks the courage to do so. She is just a pathetic woman whoins about everything. In the beginning, when we worked as waitresses at the small restaurant, she didn��t even dare speak out after the boss took advantage of her.��


    ��Understood.��


    ��As for spouses, getting married means retiring in our line of business. Once the news spreads, the streamers will lose many fans, especially those streamers that y innocent. Streamers like that could possibly lose all their fans in one night.�� Xu Qian hesitated at this point and finally said, ��But I am in a rtionship with someone. Please keep this a secret.��


    ��Hmm?��


    ��He has a small factory that specializes in researching sensors or something... Ah, I am not familiar with these things. Anyway, all those high-tech gadgets look the same to me before they leave the factory,�� Xu Qian said, ��The most important thing is that he lives on the fourth level in this city. We met through my stream. At that time, he rewarded me with a lot of money... It really was a lot of money. Although I��m quite famous in this line, no one has rewarded me with the kind of money he did. And after that, he subscribed to my VIP membership. We talked for the whole night, and we said lots of stupid things. Unlike others, I don��t feel tired talking to him. That��s how we met.


    ��Since then, he bought a couple more chat services. We talked more and more. Then one day, he asked to meet up with me. I agreed to it. He drove here to pick me up. We went to an extremely fancy and expensive French restaurant on the fourth level. And then we went to watch a symphony performance. I didn��t understand what those guys were doing on the stage. No one sang. It was just a group of people ying musical instruments nonstop. But I guess it was a perfect date. It was probably the kind of date that all girls dream of.��


    Xu Qian picked up the filled teapot and poured the tea into her cup. She then continued, ��He is quite decent. Although he is ten years older than me, a little out of shape, and he likes to brag, at least he has a good temper, and he is funny too. Living at the fourth level. Huh... I know what you are thinking. This woman got into a rtionship with him because of his money.��


    ��I never judge the life choices of others,�� Zhang Heng said calmly.


    ��It doesn��t matter.�� Xu Qian drank a sip of tea, ��It��s about money anyway. The main reason I choose to be with him is because of his money. Although my work allows me to earn a lot of money, I can only work until a certain age. I have to make a n for my future, especially now that the number of viewers in my stream has been declining. I don��t want to go back to work at the small restaurant at the bottom level. I want to marry him. Although I can��t make money through streaming anymore, I can at least move to the fourth level and be a rich wife. I have been to his residence. He has a small independent vi right by theke. it��s got a great view, and it��s very different from the first to the third level. At the fourth level, there are four seasons.��


    Xu Qian closed her eyes, ��Now, imagine that in summer, we can get on a boat at theke and stop in the middle of theke when we are tired. I can rest on hisp. At night, we can barbecue a meal by theke...��


    ��Sounds good.��


    ��Yes, this is the life I want.�� Xu Qian opened her eyes with a smile on her face, ��I��ll tell you another secret. In fact, he has already proposed to me, but I haven��t said yes to him yet. That��s how a man works. If they get what they want too easily, they will not cherish it. I told him that I want to think about it first. It just so happens that he has to attend a business meeting on earth. All my problems will be solved if I move in with him, and I wouldn��t need to hire a bodyguard to protect me.��

 Chapter 931 - Streets

    <h4>Chapter 931: Streets</h4>


    ��Congrattions.�� Zhang Hengplimented.


    ��Thank you.�� Xu Qian epted Zhang Heng��s blessing, took two more sips of tea, and put down the teacup. ��As for mypetitors, there are a lot of them, and I can give you all their names. All streamers who are almost as popr as me are to be consideredpetitors of mine. And as for those small-time streamers waiting to get to where I am today, there are countless of them. However, ourpetition isn��t too fierce. My only fiercepetitors are those who adopt the same streaming style and as popr as me. I can give you their names.��


    ��Hmm?��


    Xu Qian tapped her bracelet and quickly selected a few business cards from the address book and sent them to Zhang Heng.


    ��I considered this possibility before. If one of them decided to stalk me, I figured they would have hired someone to do it. The person could be a private investigator. I bet they are trying to dig up dark stories about my past. Once found, they would post these on the inte to make my poprity drop. Sometimes, those in this line will do whatever it takes to get the upper hand.��


    Zhang Heng clicked on the email and looked at it, making noments.


    ��Is there anything else you want to ask?��


    ��That��s it for the time being. I will investigate the list you gave me first,�� Zhang Heng said.


    Xu Qian widened her eyes. She seemed a little surprised. ��In addition to guarding my personal safety, the bodyguards of G7Z are also responsible for investigating my stalker?��


    When Zhang Heng was asking the questions previously, some doubts emerged in Xu Qian��s heart. This was her first time meeting a bodyguard that tried to collect such detailed information about her. Instead of looking like a bodyguard, Zhang Heng looked more like a private detective. Initially, she thought that he needed all that information to develop a protection n for her. She did not expect Zhang Heng to take the lead and investigate this matter.


    Zhang Heng��s expression remained unchanged. ��Oh, haven��t the people in thepany told you about my working style? I prefer to take the initiative to attack instead of sitting back and wait for the enemies to arrive.��


    ��Uh... I didn��t ask too many questions. All they did was give me a price list and the cost of each service. Anyway...�� Xu Qian seemed to think of something, but she did not continue. She added after a pause, ��Anyway, I havepleted the payment. It��s up to you. You can investigate it if you want, but you can only go out when I��m streaming. And you have toe back at night. When I go out, you have to stay by my side to ensure my safety.��


    ��No problem,�� Zhang Heng said.


    Other than wanting to help Xu Qian solve her problem, he also wanted to take this opportunity to find the whereabouts of the shec records. Although he had 240 days of extra game time, this quest didn��t seem to contain any threats at the moment.


    Xu Qian was satisfied with Zhang Heng��s answer, ��Very well. I��ll have to ask you to live with me for theing two weeks. The master bedroom is my room, and the second bedroom is for work. I��m afraid you will need to sleep on the sofa. However, my sofa is a high-end product, morefortable than the beds on the first and second floors. The sofa can be reassembled,pletely ttened, and it can be controlled via your bracelet.��


    ��Okay.��


    Zhang Heng did not care much about where he lived. He had slept in a constantly moving hammock on a ship and the little hut that he built. he wasn��t here for a vacation, after all. All he needed was a ce that could shelter him from the wind and rain.


    Xu Qian stood up from the sofa and stretched her waist. ��I have already ordered some bedding products for you. The express delivery will arrive in a while. You can buy your necessities and a change of clothes for yourself. I will start my streamingter. ording to our agreement, you can go out during that time, but you��ll have to be back before midnight. That will be all.��


    Xu Qian stretched out her hand after she was done talking. ��I hope we can get along for the next two weeks.��


    ��I will find out who is stalking you.�� Zhang Heng and Xu Qian shook hands.


    ��That��s would be the best.��


    The truth was that Xu Qian didn��t believe that Zhang Heng could deliver his promise. ��There is still some time left before my next stream. I��m going to take a short nap. Do as you wish.��


    Xu Qian walked into the master bedroom, and the door disyed the word, LOCKED.


    A quarter of an hourter, a drone carrying a package flew toward the window, and Zhang Heng instantly received an item confirmation on his phone. After Zhang Heng clicked confirm, the upper part of the floor-to-ceiling window opened up, allowing the drone to fly in.


    The drone dropped the package by the wall in the living room, yed some music, and flew out the window. About twenty minutester, Xu Qian walked out of the bedroom, yawning. She then looked at the parcel in the corner. ��The parcel is here? You can head out now.��


    ��Well, if you need anything, just call me.�� Zhang Heng picked up the Shrouded Sheath and Pestilence Bone Bow at his feet and said goodbye to Xu Qian.


    ...


    On his first day out, Zhang Heng did not immediately start an investigation. He wanted to get himself familiar with the city first. He walked out of the apartment and came to the street outside. Xu Qian��s unit was inside the dome, and the floor-to-ceiling windows were not facing the street. So this was Zhang Heng��s first time seeing the outside world.


    The entire third level��s design was technological oriented. With tall buildings at every corner, both the sidewalk and the main roads were very spacious. Unlike the futuristic city in the de Runner movie, Zhang Heng saw no flying cars. The cars on the road still ran on four wheels. However, gasoline used to power vehicles had now been reced by a new energy source.


    The air, on the other hand, was reserved for the suspension railway, which was also the main public transport on the third level of this city. It led to every corner of town. Other than that, billboards that could be found in de Runner were used here. Its projection technology allowed the billboards to show different advertisements to different people continuously.


    From the automatic shaving razor to the chocte cake, the advertisements tempted the consumers to purchase them. Generally speaking, the weather on the third level of this city was mainly sunny. When Zhang Heng looked at the people that walked on the street, everyone looked quite confident. Striding along with their chests up, they looked like they were in a mighty rush. They appeared very optimistic about the future that wasing at them.


    The nts that were nted on both sides of the road were done very well. Coupled with the extremely realistic sky mimicry, residents here did not feel depressed at all.


    Dusk wasing soon; hence, the sky��s brightness was dimmed ordingly. Zhang Heng stood at the crossroads, thinking about where to eatter. He had been fiddling with his wristband for a while, and he had figured out all of its functions.


    The good news was that although science and technology in this quest were far more advanced than the real world, it wouldn��t be too difficult for Zhang Heng to get the hang of it. It was only the year 2077, after all, and it meant that the criminal investigation methods that Zhang Heng had mastered so far could stille in handy.

 Chapter 932 - Help

    <h4>Chapter 932: Help</h4>


    When Zhang Heng stood in front of the elevator, he heard the woman in fis stockings talking about credit points. The credit point was the official currency of the Human Federation. Almost all goods and services were bought and sold with credit points.


    Zhang Heng then saw his current credit point bnce from the bracelet.


    962 points.


    It was not a lot; clearly, not enough to pay for the service offered by the woman in fiss, and it wasn��t enough for Xu Qian to buy a new bag either. However, it was more than enough for Zhang Heng��s food and necessities. Take his beef ramen as an example. A bowl of that would cost around 25 credit points, which meant his 962 credit points were enough toplete this two-week mission as long as he did not spend them on anything unnecessary.


    Zhang Heng did not know whether his sry was paid on a monthly basis or if he would get paid for each task hepleted. Right next to the noodle shop where he had his dinner was a shop selling all kinds of audio equipment. Thus, once he finished his meal, he took a walk there.


    ��Shec record? Never heard of it.��


    The owner of the audio equipment store was a man with long hair, and he looked quite artistic. When he heard Zhang Heng��s question, he shook his head. ��Although I don��t know what you are looking for, I can tell you that all physical records were discontinued in 2039. Only digital audio is avable now. You can download them from the inte, and they sound better too. But...


    ��There are indeed some people who like to collect antiques. I will give you an address where you can try your luck.��


    ��Thank you.��


    After receiving the address, Zhang Heng navigated to his destination with the navigation function on his bracelet. It was a grocery stall called House of Old Things. It wasn��t far from the audio equipment store, but the location was slightly remote, and it was in the middle of twomunities. The grocery store was not facing the road, while an unpopr pastry shopy next to it.


    Although the sky had not turned dark, the House of Old Things had already put up a closed sign on their window. Just like its name, the shop had a very retro exterior. It still had the ssic wooden ss door from the end of the 20th century. Here, Zhang Heng found a rare sense of familiarity in this technologically advanced city.


    Unfortunately, he came at the wrong time. Seeing that the owner had gotten off work early, Zhang Heng could onlye again at another time. However, just when he turned around to leave, the wooden ss door of the House of Old Things suddenly opened.


    A young man of around sixteen years old ran out of the shop. He had a guitar on his back and an old stereo under his arm, shouting at his friend while he ran. ��Hurry up, hurry up! That old man might wake up any time now!��


    His friend was about the same age as him, and he held an electric oven and two routers with antennas. However, he looked a little sad. ��Wang Gan, do you really think that we can sell these for money? We still haven��t found buyers for the stuff we stolest time.��


    ��We can ask the museum. If they don��t want to buy them, we can sell them back to the old man. Isn��t this a sh*t ce that buys and sells old things?�� said the young man.


    Before the young man at the back could respond to hispanion, Wang Gan stopped running suddenly. Caught off guard, he almost ran into Wang Gan in front of him.


    ��What��s wrong? Didn��t you say you want to get away from this ce as fast as possible?�� the teenager behindined. However, when he raised his head and looked past hispanion, he immediately became nervous when he saw Zhang Heng. The three stood there and looked at each other for about four or five seconds.


    After that, the young man named Wang Gan asked, ��Who are you?��


    ��Bodyguard.�� Zhang Heng replied.


    ��What?!�� The two teenagers were shocked when they heard Zhang Heng mentioning his job. ��We are just picking up some random garbage. Is it really necessary for the old man to hire a bodyguard to deal with us?��


    ��You seem to have misunderstood,�� Zhang Heng said, ��I am not the bodyguard of this shop��s owner.��


    Wang Gan breathed a sigh of relief, ��What a relief. You scared me to death.��


    ��But... It is not right to steal the property of others. Besides, I��m pretty sure that security cameras recorded what you just did. Once the shop owner calls the police, you��ll be spending your time behind bars.��


    ��It doesn��t matter. There are no security systems installed in the old man��s shop. And he is a weirdo. He doesn��t trust the police,�� the young man behind Wang Gan said quickly. After he said that, he quickly realized that he seemed to have said too much.


    Wang Gan red at him before turning to Zhang Heng. ��Since the matter has nothing to do with you, you should get out of our way.��


    ��Or what?�� Zhang Heng asked rhetorically.


    ��Or...�� Wang Gan gritted his teeth, put down the speaker under his arm, and pulled out a fruit knife from his pocket. ��Otherwise, don��t me us for being rude.��


    Zhang Heng did not respond to Wang Gan��s threats. All he did was look at the Shrouded Sheath on his waist. And the two teenagersnded their gaze on Zhang Heng��s Shrouded Sheath as well. Immediately, their face turned pale. They were not professional robbers in the first ce. They had only stolen all those old things because they were too bored and looked for some fun. Besides, earning some extra cash would earn them bragging rights in school. Since they didn��t expect to sell those old things anyway, they shouldn��t be able to afford any decent weapons as well.


    When theypared their weapons with Zhang Heng��s de, any person could see that their de was shorter.


    Upon seeing this, the two looked at each other and obediently put down the knife.


    Zhang Heng stepped aside too. ��Off you go. And don��te back again. If I see you again next time, I won��t be letting you off the hook so easily.��


    After scaring away the two teenagers, Zhang Heng bent over to pick up the pile of things they dropped on the ground.


    Right after that, the door to the House of Old Things opened again, and an elderly man who appeared to be in his sixties emerged with a shotgun in hand. ��Hands up! You damn thief,�� he shouted.


    ��Uhh... actually, the thieves were just driven away by me. Since this is not their first time robbing you, you should know them quite well,�� Zhang Heng exined. ��I was nning to send these things back to your store.��


    ��You can��t lie to me, the boy with a bow. I know you robbed those robbers.�� With cheeks flushed red, the old man gasped, ��You followed the two little bastards to my shop and waited to ambush them. They stole my treasures, and you robbed them.��


    ��It makes sense.�� When the old man was speaking, Zhang Heng smelled alcohol in the air. Hence, Zhang Heng stopped talking, put down the router and speakers in his hand, and made his move.


    The old man saw a quick sh in front of him, and when he reacted, Zhang Heng was already holding his shotgun.


    Seeing Zhang Heng pointing his own gun at him, he suddenly sobered up and nodded.


    ��Well, I believe you are here to help.��

 Chapter 933 - Shellac Record

    <h4>Chapter 933: Shec Record</h4>


    Zhang Heng remained unbothered by the old man��s reaction. When he opened the shotgun��s barrel, he found out that there were no bullets in it. So, he returned the shotgun to the old man. After that, he picked up the things he ced on the ground earlier and followed the old man into his shop.


    ��Where do I put these?��


    ��Well, you ce them anywhere you like. I��ll clean it upter.�� The old man��s attitude seemed to have improved a lot after Zhang Heng pointed at him with his shotgun.


    So, Zhang Heng put the pile of old things on the table and started to look around. The House of Old Objects was a concentration camp of paraphanelia from the past century. The goods here were ancient, with old routers, old teapots, stamps,memorative coins, and even a cooker hood. Among all those old things, the items that filled up the shop were books. There were all kinds of books and old newspapers and each one was carefully preserved.


    At first nce, the shop actually looked like a library.


    In the end, Zhang Heng��s attentionnded on a car model. ��How much for the car model?��


    The old man looked in the direction that Zhang Heng pointed and said, ��Oh, this is a building block toy from the past. It was produced by the first toypany that produced building blocks. The people were once crazy about it. At that time, the building blocks were nothing more than building blocks. Later, some otherpanies started to produce smarter toys. And that building blockpany started to follow suit. Unfortunately, it eventually shut its doors due to poor management. It��s wasn��t easy for me to acquire this treasure. It is undeniably amemorative piece of toy. I have to sell it at 800 credits.��


    ��That��s far too expensive.�� Zhang Heng walked toward the car model while bargaining. He found the familiar Lego logo on the building block. After picking it and giving it a careful look, he felt instantly relieved. Initially, he thought the timeline change would��ve caused the Legopany to cease to exist.


    If that was true, the Infinite Building Block that he brought with him would be rendered useless. With this Lego car model, he would be able to use his Infinite Building Block to deal with some of theplicated situations.


    ��Good things nevere cheap,�� the old man said. He then frowned. ��Did youe to my shop just to buy Lego blocks?��


    ��No. I also want to inquire about the whereabouts of shec records.�� Zhang Heng said, ��The owner of an audio equipment store told me that I coulde to you to try my luck.��


    ��You havee to the right ce,�� the old man said. ��There are very few who know about the shec records. It is an audio medium that was born at the beginning of thest century. After the shec ate the leaves, they would secrete purple resin. Combine the purple resin with y, cotton fiber, and other mixtures and you will get a shec record. It dominated the market until the end of World War II. Later, Japan invaded the birthce of its main raw material, and vinyl records were invented. The shec record was then reced by the vinyl record. Not long after that, vinyl records were reced by CDs. And now, most audio is in digital format.��


    ��It is said that there are still some small factories producing CDs and vinyl records to satisfy a small part of the demand. As for shec records... No one produces them anymore, which makes them very rare. To be honest, the shec record is not very suitable for storing audio. A single shec record can only store a few minutes of audio. And the sound is not well preserved too. Why are you interested in shec records anyway?��


    ��Well, we have to find new hobbies for ourselves from time to time,�� answered Zhang Heng. ��So, do you have shec records here?��


    ��Hah!�� the old man snorted, but he didn��t answer Zhang Heng��s question immediately, folding his arms and staring at him. ��You have to bargain with the building block��s price with me. I don��t think you can afford the shec records. How would I know if you are not going to grab the records and run away like those two little bastards.��


    ��Because I need a lot of them. I��d like our business to be long-term, and robbing you will do me no good,�� Zhang Heng said. ��You seem to have many ways to collect these old things. I want to buy every single shec record in this city.��


    ��It��s impossible. Do you know how much they will cost you? Besides, you can��t buy all the shec records with only money.�� The old man scoffed and shook his head as if he just heard a joke.


    ��It doesn��t matter. I have time. We can take it slow.��


    ��Oh, if I were you, I wouldn��t be so sure, but for the sake of you helping me retrieve the stolen goods, I can indeed sell you a few shec records.�� The old man did not blink. He then told Zhang Heng its price. ��Three thousand. Three thousand credits for one shec record.��


    ��One hundred.�� Zhang Heng did not blink as well.


    ��Are you here to mess with me?�� the old man growled angrily.


    ��You started it first,�� Zhang Heng said. ��You��re the one who said not many know about shec records these days. And there are even fewer collectors. If I��m not mistaken, you have a difficult time selling your shec records. It��ll do you better to sell them to me at a lower price.��


    ��You know nothing about shec records! You don��t even know their value. I might as well take them to the grave and listen to them myself.��


    ��Do you really want me to wait for your death and dig your grave?�� Zhang Heng asked.


    The old man was so enraged that he started tough. However, something else seemed to cross his mind, and the anger on his face faded a little. ��You are right. Other than you, no one else will be interested in buying shec records. I can sell them to you at a low price, or I can even give them to you for free.��


    ��But?�� Zhang Heng raised his eyebrows.


    ��But you have to provide me with something I need in exchange.��


    ��What do you need?��


    ��Although your outfits are a little exaggerated and over-the-top, I have to admit that you look like you can fight well. I want you to be my bodyguard and apany me to meet someone. He lives at the bottom level of this city. That ce is not that safe, especially if I go alone.��


    ��I��m afraid that won��t be possible because I��ve just taken a job as a bodyguard for someone else. You will need to wait two weeks before I can protect you,�� Zhang Heng said.


    ��No, I don��t need you to protect me all the time. I just need you to apany me to meet someone. Can you spare some time for me? It will only take four to five hours.��


    ��If that��s the case, I can do that for you.��


    Xu Qian would stream every day, especially in the evening, which usuallysted until midnight. ording to the previous agreement between the two, Zhang Heng only needed to get back to her before midnight.


    ��Wait here.�� After Zhang Heng replied to him, the old man turned around and walked to the side of a bookshelf. He pulled out an iron box from the side, opened it, took out a paper bag, and handed it to Zhang Heng.


    Zhang Heng knew the contents of the paper bag without even opening it. The system had just informed him that he had found a shec record and it earned ten game points.

 Chapter 934 - Shopping

    <h4>Chapter 934: Shopping</h4>


    At midnight, Xu Qian finished her routine stream. Upon wishing her fans good dreams, she quit the streaming tform and yawned. She did not get up in a hurry, going instead to check the credits she made today.


    Since her live stream viewers had been declining recently, the gifts that she received had also reduced. Hence, her ie didn��t look too good. Aspared to in her primetime, her ie had been reduced by at least half. However, Xu Qian saw the two sweet text messages her boyfriend sent her a few hours ago. He told her to rest early, and he also told her that there would be surprises for her tomorrow.


    Her mood improved a lot, and she began to feel that it wasn��t too bad of an idea to quit her job and get married to her boyfriend. So she walked out of her studio and went to the refrigerator to get a bottle of beer. When she turned around, she saw Zhang Heng ying with his building blocks on the sofa.


    ��You are back. How did it go? Did you find anything?�� she asked while opening the bottle.


    ��Well. I just ruled out two people on the list that you gave me. But...��


    Xu Qian waved her hand and interrupted Zhang Heng, ��I don��t care why you ruled them out. You just need to do your job well and show me the results.��


    After she took two sips of beer, her irritability seemed to tone down a little. So, she took the initiative to apologize. ��Sorry. I talked a lot on my stream just now. I am really not in the mood to talk anymore.��


    ��Understandable.�� Zhang Heng nodded.


    After that, the two stopped talking. Xu Qian turned on the projection and watched the hottest series on the Inte. However, she did not watch it for too long. After she drank all the beer in the can, she got up and went to the bathroom. After another half an hour, the washroom��s door was unlocked.


    Xu Qian walked out of the bathroom with a towel wrapped around her, and her hair had just been blown dry. ��I��m going to bed first. Don��t sleep toote. I��m going out to buy some clothes tomorrow morning.��


    ��Okay, see you in the morning.��


    ��See you in the morning.��


    Xu Qian turned around and walked into her room.


    After Xu Qian left, Zhang Heng tried the sofa mentioned by Xu Qian earlier. It was indeed morefortable than a normal bed. Although Zhang Heng had no requirements for his living environment, he would notin if he could sleepfortably. He ced his de at his side, and soon he fell asleep on the pillow.


    ...


    Early the next morning, Xu Qian ordered two takeout breakfasts, which were delivered by the drones. Zhang Heng had also noticed that although there was a small kitchen in Xu Qian��s apartment, it seemed like she had never used it before. In fact, by 2077, there were very few people who still insisted on cooking their food. That was because all the restaurants used drones to deliver food to their customers. The drones were incredibly convenient, and the restaurants had to abide by strict sanitation and health standards. Other than that, the price of the food was reasonable and affordable.


    The vast majority of people would opt to take out three meals a day so they would have more time to do other things. With its absolute necessity diminished, cooking became more like a hobby. Most of the stock of vegetables and meat would be supplied to the restaurants. Of course, people could still buy them from the supermarkets; they came at way higher prices now. Besides, most people did not have a kitchen in their homes. The apartment unit that Xu Qian rented had a kitchen because the original owner was a cooking enthusiast. Xu Qian now used it as a utility room.


    Zhang Heng wanted to pay for breakfast, but Xu Qian refused his money.


    ��Although the agreement didn��t mention anything about living with me or providing you meals, I have to eat every day anyway. So I don��t mind paying for your meals since it doesn��t cost much.��


    Xu Qian shared half of her meal with Zhang Heng as she spoke. Although there were various technological methods to help with weight loss, maintaining a bnced diet was still the better method to keep in shape. Fans nowadays were not stupid. The moment they found out that their streamers used the help of some kind of technological method to slim down, the streamers would start losing many fans.


    In the end, Zhang Heng did not insist on paying for his meals. He did not have many credits, to begin with. It was always a good thing to be able to save more credits.


    The Lego building blocks that he had with him were rented from the old man.


    Yes. He was renting it, not buying.


    Although the old man was willing to let him exchange service for shec records, he still insisted on Zhang Heng paying 800 credits for the Lego bricks. And he was not willing to lower the price. So, Zhang Heng suggested to the old man about renting it temporarily. However, it was different from the shec records. He would only get to use the Lego bricks in this quest. He could not bring it with him after the quest was over.


    So, in the end, Zhang Heng obtained the right to lease this set of Lego bricks at the price of ten credits per month. Both parties were very satisfied with the deal. In addition, Zhang Heng paid half a year��s rent to the old man, costing him a total of 60 credits to get the Lego bricks that he wanted.


    ...


    After breakfast, Xu Qian called a taxi and went to thergest department store on the third level with Zhang Heng. Across the roads, Zhang Heng could see the dynamic advertisements on the outer wall of the mall. A wide variety of products were being advertised, including clothes, cosmetics, various technological gadgets, and a newly released game.


    Xu Qian saw a young girl promoting sports earphones in the advertisements, and she was envied of her.


    ��That��s Qiu Wei, the top-streamer of thepany I work for. She is two years younger than me, and she worked in this industry for only a year and a half. However, her annual ie has reached eight figures. So manypanies want her to endorse their products. I have to say that she is thepany��s well-deserved cash cow. Now, she lives on the fourth level of this city. When she celebrated her birthday this year, thepany invited about one hundred streamers to join her birthday party. I was there, and I received a limited-edition lipstick when I walked in. It costs about 6,000 to 7,000 credits. There were drinks, male escorts, and other forms of entertainment. It was said that the cost of the birthday party exceeded one million credits.��


    ��Yeah.�� Zhang Heng sat in the co-pilot seat and responded to Xu Qian. However, he was focusing on paying attention to his surroundings. He did not forget his bodyguard��s duties.


    The department store area was the most prosperous ce on the third level. Stores lined the entire street, while throngs of people entered and left the ce. It was indeed very lively. As a former assassin, Zhang Heng knew that this was also the ce where something bad was most likely to happen. No matter who the perpetrator was, they could easily make themselves disappear into the crowd.


    This time, Zhang Heng did not bring his Pestilence Bone Bow and Shrouded Sheath with him. The reason why he dressed like a normal person was that he wanted to draw the stalker out. Xu Qian was not concerned about whether she could find the person who stalked her. She just wanted to sleep peacefully at night. Then, when her boyfriend returned to her, she would not need to worry about her safety anymore. And perhaps, she could even take advantage of this matter and move to the fourth level, living the life of the rich wife in advance.


    On the other hand, Zhang Heng ced a lot of importance on his first job. If he could catch the stalker, he would be able to solve Xu Qian��s troubles once and for all. After all, the title of this quest was Bodyguard. Of course, Zhang Heng could do his job minimally toplete the task, but his instinct told him that this matter was not as simple as it seemed.


    From the information he gathered so far, Xu Qian was indeed a very ordinary streamer. She was good-looking, and she had a small reputation. However, she could be materialistic at times, and she had a bad temper too. The good thing was she would admit her mistakes. All she could ever think of was to marry a wealthy man and live a better life. And she did not interact with too many people in real life. It was difficult to imagine that someone like her would get involved in something serious.

 Chapter 935 - Stalker

    <h4>Chapter 935: Stalker</h4>


    Once Xu Qian got down from the car, she headed directly to the luxury stores on the mall��s first floor. Not long after that, she spent roughly ten thousand credits on the clothes. Although this was the city��s third level, very few people made purchases in these luxury shops. Hence, there were way fewer people in this kind of store.


    Zhang Heng could see that Xu Qian was a regr here. The store assistantdy greeted her enthusiastically as soon as she walked in. She proceeded to rmend her the new arrivals in the store. Xu Qian then picked a few of them and went to the fitting room at the back for a try.


    Zhang Heng, like the other men in the store, found a corner and stood there. One of the men beside him was ying with his bracelet, and the other eyed the gorgeousdies that passed the store while his girlfriend was away.


    However, thetter��s eyes were quickly attracted by the figure that had just walked out of the fitting room. Xu Qian had just changed into a new set of clothes, which looked like Scarlett Johanson��s outfit in the movie Ghost in the Shell. It was simple in design yet looked technologically advanced. Besides, the outfit also highlighted Xu Qian��s curvaceous figure. Coupled with her sweet appearance, the force of the powerful juxtaposition immediately attracted the stares of arge group of men. Thus, the store assistant couldn��t help butpliment her.


    ��I want this set,�� Xu Qian said after taking a picture in the mirror.


    And right after she finished this sentence, a boy, influenced by his friend, finally mustered enough courage and walked towards her. Blushing, he muttered, ��That... Hello. Have we met before?��


    Unfortunately for him, Xu Qian did not answer his question.


    Instead, she looked at Zhang Heng. And Zhang Heng knew that he had to carry out his bodyguard��s duty. Hence, he walked over, stood in front of the two, and said kindly to the boys, ��Hello, what can I do for you?��


    The boy then nced at Zhang Heng��s figure and appearance and chose to give up on talking to Xu Qian.


    After the boy��s bold advances, Xu Qian wanted to stay in this store no longer. She returned to the changing room to change back her clothes and asked the assistant to pack the new clothes quickly. After that, she put on her sunsses, paid for the clothes, and left in a hurry.


    Right after she walked out of the store, Xu Qian said to Zhang Heng, ��You did a good job just now.��


    Zhang Heng knew what Xu Qian meant. It was inevitable that she would encounter such a thing whenever she headed out. Since she was a public figure and was supposed to behave like a sweet girl in front of everyone, she could never resort to any violent means to deal with such trouble. If the incident were to be recorded and posted on the inte, she would lose many followers indefinitely. If the person made a big deal out of it and if it wasn��t handled well, it could trigger a series of serious consequences.


    This was why Xu Qian was remarkably satisfied with Zhang Heng��s gentle and polite approach. Later, she headed to several other stores, eventually spending a total of 60,000 to 70,000 credits before she finally decided to call it a day. It was almost noon now. To express her gratitude, she invited Zhang Heng for some Huaiyang cuisine.


    As the two rode the esctor, Zhang Heng suddenly whispered into Xu Qian��s ear, ��It seems someone is following us.��


    Xu Qian instantly became nervous. ��Then what should we do?!��


    ��It��s okay. Pretend you don��t know anything and just keep walking. I will take care of the rest,�� Zhang Heng said as he reached his hands into his backpack.


    Since he wanted to draw the stalker out, he did not bring his Pestilence Bone Bow and Shrouded Sheath with him. However, that did not mean he would let down his guard, especially when he did not know the opponent��s strength. The Infinite Building Block and the pile of Lego parts that he carried in his backpack were used to deal with a situation like this.


    Besides, Zhang Heng had been observing the stalker for some time now. The stalker thought that he was extremely cautious. With the crowds in the mall and the distance between the two parties, the stalker assumed that Zhang Heng would not be able to spot him. He did not know that Zhang Heng��s observational ability had be extremely good afterpleting the Deduction Reasoning quest. Other than that, he was now the master of stealth. It would be an epic failure if he did not manage to detect that someone was following them.


    On the contrary, after Zhang Heng observed the stalker for a while, he found that the stalker had amateurish abilities. Apart from the good job covering his face, he didn��t make any extraordinary moves.


    Thus, Zhang Heng did not bother to make any more wild assumptions. He decided to confront the stalker directly. Xu Qian, on the other side, did what Zhang Heng told her to do. She tried her best to control her walking, neither too fast nor slow. She pretended that she did not notice anything and continued to walk normally.


    On the other hand, Zhang Heng put his hand into his backpack, pretending to be looking for something. At the same time, he quickly assembled a stun gun with the Lego blocks. After that, he inserted the Infinite Building Block into the stun gun to materialize it.


    Based on Zhang Heng��s initial observation, the stalker looked extremely weak. Technically speaking, he could easily bring him down with his bare hands. However, he remembered that this was a proxy war dungeon, and being cautious was always advantageous.


    At this time, they arrived at a corridor on their right. It connected the second floor of this mall with the second floor of another smaller mall opposite them. It allowed patrons to head to the other mall without going downstairs and crossing the road.


    Xu Qian pretended that she wanted to go to the other shopping mall. So, she turned and walked towards the corridor. And Zhang Heng made sure that he stayed by her side. Soon, the two disappeared behind the corner store. Once they saw that they were in a blind spot, they stopped moving forward, and they learned their backs against the wall.


    Zhang Heng believed that with the stalker��s vignce and anti-reconnaissance capabilities, he would never have thought that someone would ambush him here.


    And when he walked to the point where he could see Zhang Heng and Xu Qian, the distance between them would be around three to four meters at most. By that time, it would be impossible for him to run away from Zhang Heng.


    Xu Qian was a little nervous because they were still in public, and many people were walking around them. She didn��t look afraid of what would happen next, but she saw Zhang Heng frowning the next second. Before she could say anything, Zhang Heng had already gone after the stalker.


    After calcting the time, Zhang Heng figured that the stalker should be approaching them really soon. He waited for another two seconds, but he still could not spot the stalker. So, he immediately realized that the situation might have changed. When he rushed out of the store, he saw the target running away from him in the crowd, and the distance between the two was starting to grow.


    Zhang Heng then took out the stun gun. Compared to a pistol, however, the stun gun had a closer ranger. In other words, Zhang Heng would not be able to shoot him from where he stood. Xu Qian was still by his side, too, and he could not leave her alone. After Zhang Heng chased him over a short distance, he stopped and watched the stalker disappear into the crowd.


    ��What��s the matter?�� Xu Qian looked confused.


    ��He managed to get away,�� Zhang Heng said as he put away the stun gun.


    ��Didn��t you say that he wouldn��t spot us?�� Xu Qian asked.


    ��That was what I thought as well.�� Zhang Heng said.


    ��Then why did he run?��


    Zhang Heng did not answer her question. He looked up at the surveince camera above his head.


    ��We will find out.��

 Chapter 936 - Livestream

    <h4>Chapter 936: Livestream</h4>


    After realizing that the stalker was real, Xu Qian��s originally rxed emotions tensed up again. That afternoon, she received a surprise from her boyfriend. He bought her a sports car that cost 600,000 credits. The dealership sent the car to her apartment, and the sales representative handed her the keys and flowers. Compared with those gifts, however, Xu Qian actually hoped that her boyfriend was by her side.


    However, thetter was still busy having business meetings on earth at the moment, and he would only be back by next week at the earliest. Initially, Xu Qian hired a bodyguard to help her sleep better at night, but she was now grateful that she hired one for protection.


    After the two returned from the mall, Zhang Heng did not go out again. Xu Qian had already started her stream in her studio room, and ording to the agreement, Zhang Heng was allowed to leave the apartment. However, he chose to stay in the living room to make her feel safe.


    In the meantime, Zhang Heng did some investigation.


    He was lucky that G7Z Security Company was thergest securitypany in New Shanghai 0297. It had a wide range of business. In addition to providing high-end services such as private bodyguards, it also provided general security for public ces such as shopping malls and theaters. The two had gone there in the morning, where the G7Z securitypany did the security work of thatrge shopping mall.


    Without having to sneak into the monitoring room, Zhang Heng could acquire the surveince footage by filling up an internal application form. After filling out an application form online, and an hour��s wait, the surveince footage was sent to his personal terminal. Zhang Heng then connected his bracelet to the projection equipment in the living room to y those videos.


    It was easy to find the stalker in the crowd. Paying extra attention to the stalker��s behavior, he saw that he did not have verbal or physical contact with other people in the mall. The surveince footage now showed Zhang Heng and Xu Qian hiding behind the corner shop.


    At this time, the stalker lowered his head to click on something on his bracelet. However, he used an external monitor connected to his bracelet and the crowd as his cover. Hence, Zhang Heng could not see what he was doing on the external monitor. Soon after that, he kept away the external screen and started to run as fast as he could. After a few seconds, Zhang Heng realized something wrong, and he jumped out from behind the store before pursuing the stalker. However, Zhang Heng was worried about Xu Qian, so he stopped going after him, and the stalker eventually managed to escape.


    A Hacker?


    After Zhang Heng watched the video, he touched his chin. This would exin why there were no visitor records when the stalker invaded and why the rm did not go off as well.


    ...


    Xu Qian followed Zhang Heng��s advice. She said nothing about her brush with the stalker during her livestream. However, this incident could arouse the protective desire andpassion of her male fans, and if they sympathized with her, she might just be able to coax out some gifts from her fans. Since she was thinking of quitting soon and had just received the small gift that cost 600,000 credits from her boyfriend in the afternoon, Xu Qian did not care much about the money.


    After she got off from her stream, she walked out of the room. To her surprise, she found out that Zhang Heng had also just exited her livestream.


    ��Were you just watching my livestream?�� Xu Qian asked with raised eyebrows.


    ��Well, I didn��t expect that you could dance,�� Zhang Heng said.


    ��Hmm. There is a dance studio next to the ce where I lived when I was young. My mother knew the teacher there, and I learned dancing there for a while. However, it requires too much hard work, and I couldn��tst that long. So when I be a streamer, I have to pick up dancing again. It��s useless to look only pretty these days. You have to be talented too.��


    After the livestream, Xu Qian was not as irritable as before. It was probably because of what happened in the morning. Seeing Zhang Heng gave her a sense of security. Opening the refrigerator door, she took out two cans of beer this time and tossed one to Zhang Heng.


    ��You dance very well.�� Zhang Hengplimented after he took the beer.


    ��Thank you. I know that you are just nice. However, I am far from being a professional dancer, and the people who watch my livestream weren��t admiring my dancing skills. They are only paying attention to my body,�� Xu Qian said.


    ��At least, this shows that you are in good shape,�� Zhang Heng said calmly.


    ��I ept thepliment.��


    Xu Qian sat down on the sofa next to Zhang Heng, took a long sigh of relief, and opened the beer in her hand, ��To be honest, I didn��t expect you to watch my livestream.��


    ��Why do you say that? Who usually watches your stream then?�� Zhang Heng asked rhetorically and opened his beer.


    ��All kinds of people, but most of them are lonely people who can��t get any satisfaction from the real world. You don��t look like that kind of person,�� Xu Qian said. ��I heard there was once a country worried about its rapid poption growth. About 50 or 60 years ago, the federal poption entered a negative growth stage, and everyone seemed to prefer to live alone.��


    ��Well, in primitive societies, our ancestors all lived inrge tribes, hunting, foraging, and raising children together. If the individual leaves the tribe, it would be impossible for the person to survive. When overproduction happened and living conditions improved, they started to leave the tribe and form their families.


    ��Then we havee to an era of unprecedented convenience. All of your basic needs can be fulfilled through the telephone and the Inte. We no longer have the need to connect to society. And so, we have more time to pursue personal freedom and self-actualization. During this process, the position of the family in society is also being challenged.


    In fact, this trend got more and more popr in the world we live in, especially in the neighboring countries, where the fertility rate kept getting lower. Many single men and women preferred to be alone because they didn��t want to tolerate another person. Without children, they would have a better quality of life. This phenomenon has gotten worse in 2077.


    ��This is why bing a streamer seems so popr in this era. There are different types of streamers, from gaming, telling jokes, chatting to talent showcasing. Some of the streamers would even act cute to gain more views. They are there to meet all the reasonable and unreasonable requirements of their fans.


    ��Well, it makes sense. I still have to find myself a long-term job to feed myself,�� Xu Qian sighed, ��Especially when I am young and beautiful. You can grab a man on the road and ask him what kind of woman he likes. They will tell you all kinds of answers like virtuous, gentle, and h, h, h. All those are nonsense. There is only one truth. Men are very dedicated animals, from eight to eighty years old, they all like young and beautiful girls. If your goal is to look for someone to marry, no matter how much you improve yourself, as you grow older, you will not have the advantage when you are young. I will not make such a mistake. I marry myself to someone while I am still valuable.��


    Xu Qian then finished the beer in the can.

 Chapter 937 - Second Job

    <h4>Chapter 937: Second Job</h4>


    After that, the two chatted for a little longer before Zhang Heng asked Xu Qian if he could join the fan chatroom. She dly agreed, even letting Zhang Heng be an administrator. It was midnight, and Xu Qian finally felt the exhaustion hit her. She ended the free-of-charge chat with Zhang Heng, got up, took a bath, and went to sleep.


    On the second day, Zhang Heng stayed with Xu Qian for the whole day without going anywhere. What surprised her was that Zhang Heng actually fulfilled his duty as an administrator, warning those who broke the chatroom��s rules. He also resolved the conflicts between her fans. He seemed to be having fun with it. This time, it was Xu Qian��s turn to feel embarrassed to ask Zhang Heng about the investigation��s progress. She even started to consider if she should pay Zhang Heng an extra sry.


    On the third night, when Xu Qian was livestreaming, Zhang Heng finally went out alone. She had also added another physical lock to the studio room��s door.


    Before leaving, Zhang Heng reminded Xu Qian again. Considering that the stalker might be a hacker, there was a possibility that he was now using another��s ID. Thus, Zhang Heng told Xu Qian that even if she received a message from him, it was best to ignore it since he would only return to her apartment right after she ended her stream.


    Once Zhang Heng left the apartment, he called for a rental car and headed to the House of Old Things. Old Man Geng contacted him yesterday and asked him to pay for the shec record, and he also promised to give him another afterpleting the task.


    So Zhang Heng had to put the stalker case aside now and apany Old Man Geng to the bottom level of this city.


    ��Leave your de and bow with me first,�� Old man Geng said. ��We are doing business, not fighting.��


    ��Didn��t you say you wanted me to be your bodyguard?�� Zhang Heng frowned.


    ��Yes, but that��s just in case. We should show our peaceful side first. Don��t worry. I will ce your de and bow in my secret basement. All the goodies are hidden there. I will never lose it.��


    Left with no other option, Zhang Heng passed his Shrouded Sheath and Pestilence Bone Bow to Old Man Geng.


    Old Man Geng then took a good look at Zhang Heng, and he was happy with him. ��Let��s go. Don��t you have toe back here before midnight? By the way, are you a female high school student? Why do you have to go home on time every day? ��


    ��...��


    ��Forget it; I have no interest in your other jobs. If everything goes well, I will be able to get my job done very soon,�� Old Man Geng said.


    The two then took a shuttle in the center of the city.


    From here, one could take a shuttle back and forth between the different levels of this city. And, this was also the only way for one to travel around. However, the people who lived in the city��s lowest level had to register themselves if they wanted to ascend to a higher level. Usually, the application could be approved quickly if the person had no criminal record. However, there were only allowed to travel to a maximum of two levels above them. So, if they wanted to go to a higher level than that, they would need someone at that level to invite them.


    However, if the person��s workce and residence were on different levels, they could apply for a long-term pass at their workce. All they needed to do was to renew them every six months, after all. By doing that, they were allowed to travel freely among different levels, avoiding the trouble of making an application every time.


    Other than that, moving homes was also very simple. Each level had an asset threshold. If one passed the threshold, the person could move to a higher floor, live there, and enjoy the benefits that came with it.


    Alternatively, the individual could provide corresponding validation to prove that they would have a substantial and constant cash flow. Upon reaching the required amount, even if the person��s assets did not meet the moving requirement, they could still proceed with the move.


    This was how Xu Qian moved to a higher level. She lived there for almost two years before applying to move to the third level. After the application was approved, she took the central shuttle to the second level.


    It was almost time to get off work now, and the central shuttle was crowded with people who had just finished work and were waiting to go home. Fortunately, the shuttle had quite an impressive capacity. There were four tracks in total. During peak hours, the shuttle would depart every three minutes on average, and it could amodate up to 10,000 people at a time.


    The people were lining up in their respective waiting rooms, waiting for the group of people in front of them to get into the shuttle. Once the group in front of them left, they would need to enter the corresponding waiting room immediately, find a seat, fasten their seat belts, and wait for the next shuttle to arrive.


    Each waiting room had about fifty seats. All of which were passengers that wanted to go to the same level of the city. And all those waiting rooms were small units that could be detached and connected again.


    When the shuttle arrived at the corresponding spot, there would be a total of two hundred waiting rooms assembled during extreme cases in just seven minutes. And these waiting rooms that were meant for people that just got off the train would be transferred to the arrival hall. After that, the waiting room modules would assemble at a different position ording to the number of levels reached.


    Although many people were waiting to go home, everything seemed to be in order.


    Zhang Heng and Old Man Geng waited less than a quarter of an hour before boarding a shuttle. After another ten minutes, they arrived at the destination of their trip.


    It was the first level of New Shanghai 0297.


    Unlike the modern and technologically advanced third floor, the first floor appeared far more dpidated. Whether it was the buildings or the streets, it was said that this level was the first to be built in the entire space station city. It was also the ce where the construction workers lived before. After that, it became the ce to earn more money for the young people and the low-ie earners who had just moved to New Shanghai 0297.


    This level had thergest poption in 0297 in New Shanghai. However, the municipal council appeared to have invested little in this level, including the sky above them. All they got was the simple day and night, and they did not get to look at the stars at night. Zhang Heng raised his head and looked at the sky. All he could see was the moon. The facilities here could never bepared with what others had on the third level of this city, let alone the change of temperature and the four seasons.


    To put it in simple terms, public facilities here were simply adequate to meet the most basic survival needs of the residents. If one wanted a better life, the person had to move to another level. At the same time, public security on the first level was the worst in the entire New Shanghai-0297.


    This was also the reason why Old Man Geng took Zhang Heng with him. After he got off the central shuttle, he looked a little nervous. He was holding a very old-school briefcase and constantly looked around.


    Zhang Heng, beside him, had to remind him, ��If you do this, you are showing that you are holding something valuable. Basically, you are asking to be robbed.��


    ��Then what should I do?�� Old Man Geng asked.


    ��Just act normal, like an ordinary person,�� Zhang Heng said. ��Where is the person you are looking for?��


    I don��t know.�� Old Man Geng epted Zhang Heng��s suggestion, put down the briefcase as he tried to prevent attracting unnecessary attention.


    ��What do you mean?�� Zhang Heng raised his eyebrows.


    ��He only asked me toe to the first level, and he wille to me when the timees.�� Old Man Geng replied.


    Finally, Zhang Heng had the opportunity to avenge himself.


    ��What are you? Are you a female high school student waiting for your boyfriend to take you to the nightclub?��


    ��...��


    This time it was Old Man Geng��s turn to take a hit.

 Chapter 938 - Lowest Level

    <h4>Chapter 938: Lowest Level</h4>


    The two did not stand by the roadside for too long. Soon enough, they were being targeted. A few viin-looking men surrounded them. However, after considering the number of people here and the guards that were not too far away, they decided not to do it immediately. Instead, they seemed to be waiting for Zhang Heng and Old Man Geng to go to a more remote ce to rob them.


    Old Man Geng became nervous again when he noticed the robbers. He then asked Zhang Heng in a low voice, ��What should we do? Can you handle so many of them at the same time?��


    ��I can deal with them easily, but I don��t need to take action,�� Zhang Heng said while looking at a woman in a cheongsam across the road.


    Thetter did not seem to be someone who lived on this level.


    Her facial features weren��t outstanding, but she did look slightly prettier than most of her counterparts. In other words, her looks would not attract too much attention on this floor. However, she did have a very unique and strong temperament.


    Xu Qian had a good temperament because she had practiced dancing before. However, when Zhang Hengpared her with Xu Qian, he felt that thetter overshadowed her. Even the top streamer of Xu Qian��spany, Qiu Wei, who had tens of millions of fans and was featured in an advertisement, still had a temperament slightly inferior to that of thedy he had just seen.


    It was undeniable that Qiu Wei was prettier and younger. However, when the two stood side by side, Qiu Wei looked more like an ugly duckling. A bizarre feeling struck Zhang Heng. It was as if an angel was trapped in her mortal body.


    It was truly a shame. If she had Qiu Wei��s facial features and worked as a streamer, she could��ve easily be an inte sensation, gaining hundreds of millions of rabid fans. But, other than her look and temperament, Zhang Heng also paid attention to her left arm.


    For some reason, her left arm was missing. Instead, it was reced by a prosthetic limb, and there was no artificial skin attached to it. The white titanium shell was visible to everyone.


    It looked thin and slender, but Zhang Heng did not dare to underestimate it. The information that Zhang Heng collected earlier about this era before was rted to mechanical prostheses. That was why he paid special attention to it.


    As early as 2019, when he was currently living, the research and development of mechanical prosthetics had always been a hot topic. And many rted products were being invented. Not only could these products greatly improve their quality of life, but they would enable the disabled to do things that the ordinary could never dream of. Not to mention the rapid technological development of the dungeon that he entered this time.


    Some extremists took the initiative to rece some of their body parts with the corresponding mechanical parts to pursue greater strength and speed. Of course, this was strictly prohibited byws and regtions.


    Zhang Heng did not know what kind of abilities the cheongsam woman��s mechanical prosthesis gave her, but judging from the saber hanging on her waist, the mechanical hand was more than just holding chopsticks and arranging flowers.


    While waiting for the signal light to turn green, the cheongsam woman crossed the road and walked in front of Zhang Heng and Old Man Geng.


    Going straight to the point, she said, ��Follow me.��


    She then turned and walked towards another intersection. With her appearance, the men who thought of robbing them quickly retreated into the crowd.


    ��It seems the person that you��re looking for at this level is not as simple as we thought,�� Zhang Heng said to Old Man Geng.


    ��New Shanghai 0297 was invested and constructed by the Shengtang Morgan Group. These people were a group of profit-oriented bastards. They clearly have the ability and technology to manage the city well, but they deliberately treat all five levels differently. They adopted a semiissez-faire attitude toward the first level, with their main reason being reducing expenditure. The other reason was to stimte more people here to work hard and generate more wealth. However, no matter whatnd it is, there will always be a ruler. And this ce is no exception. Shengtang Morgen has already given up on this ce. Naturally, there will be more powerful people to fill in the gap they left. We are actually going to meet the ruler of this ce,�� Old Man Geng exined.


    Zhang Heng frowned when he heard this. He then stopped walking. ��Why didn��t you tell me earlier that the person you wanted to meet is the ruler of this ce? Are you for real? For two shec records, you made mee to this extremely dangerous ce?��


    ��We won��t be in any danger. You are just my contingency n.�� Old Man Geng wiped the sweat on his forehead to defend himself. He felt a little nervous at the thought of going to meet such a powerful man. ��I��m not here this time for a transaction. My role is to bring two parties together to discuss their potential transaction. I am just the intermediary.��


    ��In other words, killing you will be no big deal to them,�� Zhang Heng said lightly.


    ��They won��t do that.�� Old Man Geng then looked at the cheongsam girl who stopped moving and red at them from a distance. He felt anxious. ��Boy, can��t we go back and talk about this? We haven��t even met the person we were supposed to meet, and here we are fighting among ourselves. They must think we two are nothing more but clowns! Besides, you did promise to be my bodyguard. So fulfill your promise.��


    Zhang Heng was unmoved when he heard what Old Man Geng said. ��That��s because you concealed important information. You only paid me to deal with the goons. Now, you want to defeat the boss for you?��


    ��What do you want?��


    ��Either we re-negotiate a reasonable price, or we part ways and go on our own,�� Zhang Heng said.


    ��How much do you want?�� Finally, old Man Geng helplessly relented.


    ��If you weren��t lying this time, I want ten shec records.�� However, Zhang Heng did not take advantage of him. Instead, he offered him a more reasonable price after reassessing the risk.


    Upon hearing that, however, Old Man Geng was reluctant to take the offer. He then asked, ��How about I give you three more shec records?��


    Zhang Heng didn��t bother to respond.


    ��Alright. Let��s do it. Ten shec records it is then.�� Old Man Geng finally sumbed to Zhang Heng. Other than the fact that he couldn��t find anyone to be his bodyguard at the moment, he also felt that the price that Zhang Heng was asking for was reasonable. Even if he hired other people in advance, the price would be the same.


    The cheongsam girl on the other side was listening quietly to their bargain, and she did not speak a word while they were arguing. Instead, she only talked to them after the two finalized the transaction.


    ��You two don��t have to worry about anything. You are guests, after all. Mr. G will not hurt his guests. ��


    ��I know, I know.�� Old Man Geng nodded hurriedly, ��Mr. G��s ountability has always been renowned. I only hired a bodyguard to protect me on the way back and forth.��


    The cheongsam girl did not reveal the obvious lie that Old Man Geng just told. Instead, she asked, ��Do you have anything else you might want to deal with? If not, let��s continue our journey. We don��t want to keep Mr. G waiting.��


    ��Of course. Please lead the way.�� Seeing the cheongsam woman turning around again, Old Man Geng grabbed the briefcase and followed her.

 Chapter 939 - Movie

    <h4>Chapter 939: Movie</h4>


    The three of them did not walk too far before they came to a movie theater.


    Since today wasn��t a holiday, there were not many people in front of the cinema. The ticket inspector outside nodded respectfully at the cheongsam girl, and thetter also nodded in return. However, she did not stop in front of the gate. Instead, she continued walking on before turning into an alley on the side of the cinema.


    There was an irondder facing a security door on the second floor of the theater.


    The cheongsam girl walked at the front, arrived in front of the safe door, opened the door, and two men stood behind it, looking like bodyguards. Zhang Heng had a very decent physique. Ever since he started his first game, he had maintained the habit of staying fit. The strength of his arms, waist, and abdomen had significantly increased. To maintain flexibility, though, he also had to control his muscle growth. He did not want to grow too big like the two ripped bodyguards in front of him.


    All they did was stand there and intimidate whoever came through the entrance.


    Old Man Geng felt the same too. When hepared Zhang Heng and the two bodyguards, he thought it wasn��t worth paying Zhang Heng with the ten shec records. On the contrary, however, Zhang Heng wasn��t affected by them.


    The two brawny bodyguards searched Zhang Heng and Old Man Geng when they arrived in front of them. They were taken aback when they saw the pile of Lego bricks in Zhang Heng��s backpack.


    Old Man Geng wanted to dig a hole and hide in it. He did not expect Zhang Heng to like those bricks so much that he would carry them while at work. Was he nning to y with his Lego whenever he was bored?


    Fortunately, the bodyguards did not make fun of their building blocks, not when they were there, at least. ��Please stretch out your hand,�� the cheongsam woman said after scanning their belongings.


    Zhang Heng then stretched out his left hand.


    The cheongsam girl, however, looked at him and shook her head. ��The other hand, the one with the bracelet.��


    Zhang Heng then showed her his right hand again. The cheongsam girl then put on another smaller ck bracelet on his right wrist, exining, ��Don��t worry, this is just a signal blocker. It will block all signals that originate from you. In order to avoid unnecessary misunderstandings and troubles, please don��t take it off until you leave this ce.��


    After that, she did the same to Old Man Geng. Once that was done, the cheongsam girl signaled them again. Now, Zhang Heng quickly realized that Old Man Geng��s task might not be as simple as he put it to be.


    ording to thetter��s statement, Mr. G was the ruler of the first level. He was supposed to be the uncrowned king, at least in his territory. Hence, he did not need to worry about his safety. In other words, the purpose of the search that was conducted on them earlier was not to ensure Mr. G��s safety. From Zhang Heng��s perspective, they were actually worried that Zhang Heng and Old Man Geng would leak the news.


    After putting on the bracelet, Zhang Heng and Old Man Geng walked through the entrance. Zhang Heng noticed that the poorly wired was turned on when he walked past the door. It went out after a while. He looked back at the two burly bodyguards and the cheongsam girl behind him and found that they seemed oblivious to it.


    The bodyguards were still guarding the entrance, and the cheongsam girl walked up from behind to lead the way. The three of them walked for about twenty meters before the cheongsam girl told Old Man Geng, ��Mr. G is waiting for you in VIP Hall 6. Just go straight to the end.��


    Old man Geng nodded and nced at Zhang Heng.


    ��We will make sure to treat your bodyguard well. You can meet up with him again after the meeting is over.��


    ��Thank you,�� Old Man Geng replied.


    Although he did not want to separate from Zhang Heng, he realized that it was not a good idea to let an outsider listen to what he would be discussing. Anyhow, if they wanted to harm him, they first had to take Zhang Heng into their consideration if he were here. So although Old Man Geng did not know what Zhang Heng was capable of, he, at the very least, gave him a sense of security.


    He noticed how calm Zhang Heng was at all times. Even after he was told who he was about to meet, he did not see any fear shown on Zhang Heng��s face. Old Man Geng was less nervous when he saw that.


    After the two separated. Old man Geng continued walking forward, while Zhang Heng took a turn under the cheongsam girl��s lead. Soon, he arrived at a screening room.


    No movies, however, were being shown currently. He and the cheongsam woman were the only ones in the empty hall.


    ��What do you want to drink?��


    ��Water will be good,�� Zhang Heng said.


    ��What movie do you want to watch?�� the cheongsam woman asked again.


    ��Oh, that��ll be unnecessary.��


    ��You��d better choose something to watch because I��m afraid they might take a long time to verify all the information,�� insisted the cheongsam woman.


    ��Okay. Do you have any rmendations?��


    This time, the cheongsam girl did not speak anymore. Instead, she walked out of the screening hall. Five minutester, the screening hall becamepletely dark, and the projector was turned on. A film titled ��Symbolic Exchange and Death�� began to y.


    In this era, where holographic projection was widely used, this movie was still 2D. Its excessively dull-looking content showed a bald old man with a pair of sses and white temple hair sitting in front of a wooden table, smoking and talking into the camera.


    His speech was very random, saying whatever he wanted to say without a solid topic. His ramblings revolved around society, its organizational structure, its modus operandi, production and reproduction, consumption, and some other things.


    Later, the cheongsam girl returned to the screening room with a jug of water and two cups. She sat down beside Zhang Heng and poured him a ss.


    Neither of them talked.


    Zhang Heng did not know why the cheongsam girl��s attitude towards him changed slightly after he passed through the door and went to the second floor. He faintly felt a sense of intimacy from her. Aspared to the main character, Old Man Geng, she behaved very formally towards him.


    After that, Zhang Heng turned to look at the cheongsam girl next to her. Thetter was watching the movie at the moment. She seemed to notice Zhang Heng was looking at her. She then frowned and warned him, ��Watch the movie.��


    Although it was an imperative tone, it sounded more like a teacher scolding naughty students. However, her speech did not carry any threat or hostility.


    So Zhang Heng raised his eyebrows and focused on the movie again.


    The two watched the lengthy and boring movie thatsted three hours until someone walked in and informed them that the meeting was over.

 Chapter 940 - Gift

    <h4>Chapter 940: Gift</h4>


    The cheongsamdy got up and sent Zhang Heng out of the screening room, all the way to the corridor.


    At the very end, the VIP 6 room��s door was opened. However, Old Man Geng was not the one who came out first. The first person that Zhang Heng saw was a middle-aged man of about 40 years old. He wasn��t particrly tall, standing at only 1.7 meters. This made him half a head shorter than Zhang Heng. Although he was short, he was not the kind of person that one should mess with.


    Whether it was the long scar on his face or the two missing fingers on his right hand, they all told what he had gone through. This was also the era where mechanical prosthetics were extremely well developed. He, however, still chose to keep his physical ws.


    If he was an ordinary person, he might not have enough money to buy himself a mechanical prosthesis. Zhang Heng had already figured out the man��s identity. He was the uncrowned king of this ce, and he obviously had no financial troubles.


    When Zhang Hengid eyes on him, the uncrowned king was also stared back. However, when he saw the cheongsam girl and Zhang Henging out of the screening room together, he seemed a little surprised. He soon thought of something, before proactively stretching out his hand. Smiling, he said, ��Ah, you are the bodyguard. I am the owner here. Everyone calls me Mr. G.��


    Zhang Heng then shook hands with Mr. G.


    At the same time, Old Man Geng walked out from behind. He no longer felt the tension he had earlier. He then muttered, ��I��ve spent a lot of unnecessary money this time. If I know you and your man are so polite, I wouldn��t have spent the money to hire a bodyguard.��


    Mr. G said in a nomittal tone, ��Danger will nevere to you when you are well-prepared. As for the purpose of hiring a bodyguard, they do more than simply assist in the event of a threat. Their existence alone can eliminate a lot of dangers. It is apparent that the bodyguard you hired is a very capable person. And I dare to guarantee that no matter how much money you spend on him, it is never a failed investment.��


    ��Him?�� Old Man Geng continued sullenly, ��He might be capable of dealing with the two stupid students on the third level. If it weren��t for your people showing up on time, we might��ve been robbed by one of those gangsters in front of the station.


    ��Oh, it seems that I haven��t introduced her to you.�� Mr. G stretched out a hand, and the cheongsamdy immediately ced her genuine hand onto Mr. G��s palm.


    ��The person who brought you here is F, my fianc��e. She doesn��t like to introduce herself, so let me do the honor of introducing her to you guys. Mr. G and Miss F, I guess we two freaks are a good match,�� Mr. G teased.


    ��Are you engaged? Congrattions! Both of you are a match made in heaven,�� Old man Geng said. However, he did not agree with him. Although Mr. G was short, he had never felt the need to grow taller to pursue the women he liked. As the ruler of the first level, he could have women of all manner surrounding him. Although Miss F was outstanding in temperament, she stillcked in the appearance department.


    Since ancient times, heroes were supposed to be paired up with beauties. Mr. G was no doubt a hero, but Miss F was no beauty. However, the two parties seemed to be quite satisfied with their significant other; hence Old Man Geng would never stick his nose into their business. He nced at Zhang Heng and said, ��Let��s go. Aren��t you still in a hurry to go home?��


    ��Then I will ask F to take you to the station,�� Mr. G said.


    ��No need. Although I am old, I think I still remember the route to the shuttle station. We can go back there by ourselves. You and your wife needn��t worry about us.��


    Old Man Geng walked to the security gate as he spoke. Zhang Heng was about to follow him when he heard the cheongsam woman say, ��Hold on. I have a gift for you.��


    Immediately, Old Man Geng stopped walking, and he looked ttered. ��You don��t have to be so polite. I��m just a middleman responsible for making connections.��


    ��I��m not talking about you.�� Miss F looked at Zhang Heng and repeated, ��I have a gift for you.��


    Zhang Heng looked at Mr. G, who shrugged. ��You better ept her gift. No one here can refuse her, me included.��


    Zhang Heng nodded, not because of Mr. G��s half-threat-half-joke remark, but the faint kindness he felt from Miss F when he was in the screening room.


    Miss F then turned around and walked to another room. She came out of the room after a while and put the thing in Zhang Heng��s hand.


    ��Here you go.��


    Mr. G raised his eyebrows.


    ��Oh, golden hamster. This little thing is cute. It��s easy to raise, like a pet, and it doesn��t take up much space. Just feed it on time.��


    Old Man Geng was a little confused, oblivious as to what Miss F��s gift meant. After all, Mr. G was the uncrowned king of this ce. He had all kinds of rare weapons and mechanical prostheses. Even if he reluctant to give those things away, he could have gifted them credits where it suited their identities more. But a hamster? Zhang Heng looked far from a person who liked to raise small animals.


    This surprised Zhang Heng quite a bit as well. However, he still took the hamster cage from Miss F.


    ��Thank you.��


    After that, Miss F stopped talking and stood beside Mr. G quietly. And Zhang Heng also carried the newly acquired hamster and caught up with Old Man Geng. The security guards at the security gate took off the signal-blocking bracelets they were wearing and returned them to Mr. G. After that, Zhang Heng and Old Man Geng walked down the stairs.


    When they arrived outside the theater, the old man finally breathed a sigh of relief. He looked like he was in a good mood. Hence, he did not dwell on the fact that he needed to pay Zhang Heng ten shec recordster. He even suggested to look for somewhere nearby to have a drink. However, heter dismissed the idea, deciding to return to the third level as soon as possible.


    Zhang Heng certainly would not object to such an idea. So, the two of them followed along and walked towards the central shuttle.


    It was past peak office hours, And there were very few people left on the street.


    The two of them crossed a quiet road. While Old Man Geng wasining that the moon on the first level was designed perfunctory, Zhang Heng suddenly stopped moving forward and reached out his hand to stop Old Man Geng.


    ��What?�� Old Man Geng looked a little lost.


    Zhang Heng then asked again, ��What are the consequences of killing someone on the first level?��


    ��Consequences? What do you mean? Who are you going to kill...�� He then saw two teenagers skateboarding towards them before he could finish his sentence. When they saw Zhang Heng and Old Man Geng, they came down from their skateboards, reached into their pockets, took out guns, and approached them.


    ��Are they here for me?�� Old Man Geng��s hairs stood up when he saw them.


    ��If not? Do you think they are here to rob me?�� Zhang Heng said casually.

 Chapter 941 - Biker Gang And Human Shield

    <h4>Chapter 941: Biker Gang And Human Shield</h4>


    The two skateboarders soon arrived in front of Old Man Geng and Zhang Heng.


    And their target was Old Man Geng. One of them raised his gun and pointed it at Old Man Geng.


    ��Don��t move. Come with us,�� he warned.


    A chill ran up from Old Man Geng��s feet to his spine, and he raised his hands unconsciously. Before he could speak, he heard a gunshot.


    For a moment, Old Man Geng thought someone had shot him. But the next moment, he saw the skater boy who pointed the gun at him falling to the ground with surprise written across his face.


    And Zhang Heng didn��t just stop there, killing the other skater boy with the pistol he had just assembled with Lego.


    Stunned in paralyzing shock, Old Man Geng stammered, ��Were... were they sent by Mr. G?


    ��Did you hide anything from him? Or, have you lied to him before?�� Zhang Heng asked.


    ��No. We��ve all said what we wanted to say. I told him the truth, and I did not lie.��


    ��They don��t look like they were sent by him. He could have just sent someone to ask you to go back to him, and he knew that you would not disobey.��


    ��Yeah.��


    Old Man Geng nodded repeatedly. ��Wait, where did your gune from?�� he reacted after a while.


    ��It��s a secret. Noment,�� replied Zhang Heng, bending over and picking up the gun on the ground.


    Old Man Geng saw the two pools of blood, and his heart rate began to rise again. He saw Zhang Heng still standing there after checking his gun.


    ��This is not the time to do that. Let��s run... quickly,�� he could not help but urge.


    Zhang Heng, however, only shook his head. ��You can��t run away. Do you really think that those motorbikes in front and behind us are just bystanders?��


    Listening to what Zhang Heng said, Old Man Geng suddenly realized that a group of biker gangs had surrounded them.


    With at least more than thirty riders, the biker gang turned up in a mighty legion. Each bike had two riders, where the front onemandeered the bike, and the pillion carried all sorts of weapons.


    The gang had seen the two corpses on the side of the road, which was why they did not charge at them in the first ce.


    However, the situation was still extremely unfavorable for the duo.


    Although Zhang Heng had a gun in hand, he still needed to fight them alone. The nearest building that could be used as cover, on the other hand, was ten meters away. Evidently, they were here to kill Zhang Heng, with two of them already aiming their guns at him. One held a gun with an automatic tracking function, a weapon that could lock onto the target with a thermal imaging map, adjust bullet trajectory, and kill its target with one hit.


    Just before the biker could pull the trigger, Zhang Heng suddenly rushed to Old Man Geng��s side, instantly lifting thetter and cing the old man in front of him. By doing that, the thermal images of the two had nowpletely ovepped.


    Having done a considerable amount of prior research, Zhang Heng understood the weapons and equipment of this era to a good degree. It was the only way he could prevent himself from getting killed by unknown attacks in the next possible battle. He was using Old Man Geng as a human shield but wasn��t about to sell him out.


    Judging from what the skateboarders said, they weren��t going to kill Old Man Geng. Instead, they wanted to ask him some questions. For them to do that, they would need him alive. This was very important information to Zhang Heng since it meant he needn��t worry about Old Man Geng��s life during the battle. By keeping Old Man Geng close to him, Zhang Heng was basically invincible.


    Old Man Geng soon realized that he had be Zhang Heng��s shield. After ensuring his safety, Zhang Heng first killed the gunman behind him. Later, he dealt with the mohawk with aser crossbow beside him. Lastly, he turned around to send the third bullet into the man��s chest with the automatic-tracking gun.


    Seeing hispanion getting shot, the remaining bikers charged at Zhang Heng instead of running away. Nevertheless, afraid that they��d identally kill Old Man Geng, Zhang Heng��s strategy was still effective. So this time, they chose to use a melee weapon to attack Zhang Heng. A sharp Taito was about to strike at his waist.


    Coupled with the speed the bike was traveling at, the Taito shed at a rate that exceeded human limits.


    But even so, Zhang Heng still managed to avoid it.


    Confident in his body��s movements, the assassin training he received in Rome greatly improved his agility. It had also strengthened his ability to detect threats, enabling him to react a lot quicker in advance.


    The problem was that he had to face more than just the two enemies on the motorcycle. Zhang Heng had just dodged the Taito when another fist mmed into his face. The puncher wore a glove with sharp spikes that gleamed in the night. If the enemy managed tond his fist, Zhang Heng��s head would surely be filled with holes that spurted a lot of blood.


    Zhang Heng moved right before the man could hit his face, killing the rider in front of the man who was about to punch him. Quickly, the motorcycle lost control and swooshed past Zhang Heng��s side, the dead rider and the pillion sent flying in the sky a secondter. The out-of-control motorcycle continued its rampage, ramming another motorcycle that was approaching Zhang Heng, causing a serious traffic ident.


    Zhang Heng then took advantage of this critical time to kill two more riders. Old Man Geng, who was beside him, waspletely dumbfounded. Initially, he was angry at Zhang Heng for using him as a meat shield, especially when he saw the enemies pointing their guns. His heart almost stopped beating.


    He thought that he and Zhang Heng would die here. Butter, he saw Zhang Heng killing off the enemies, even eliminating six bogeys in one go.


    And that wasn��t the end. It was only the beginning.


    Since they were worried that they might kill Old Man Geng identally, the bikers had to keep away their guns. After that, they became wary about Zhang Heng killing their riders again. So, they unknowingly slowed down their motorcycles, making them easy targets.


    After losing four more allies, the leader finally signaled his gang. Instead of retreating, he ordered his men to spread out and look for cover. They had learned their lesson this time, and they stopped aiming at Zhang Heng��s head. This time, they went for his legs. All they had to do was to ensure Old Man Geng was alive. Nobody mentioned anything about him being unscathed. If they aimed at Zhang Heng��s legs, there would be no worries about identally killing Old Man Geng.


    Thus, Zhang Heng brought Old Man Geng to a closed grocery store twenty meters away. He broke the ss with a shot before the two sought refuge behind the counter.

 Chapter 942 - Memory Encoder

    <h4>Chapter 942: Memory Encoder</h4>


    ��How could this happen?�� Old Man Gengid down behind the counter, panic written across his face.


    Although he wasn��t the target of the bikers, he was so frightened that his legs became soft since he stood right beside them, the spikes and desing way too close forfort when the fight was going on. Then, in the midst of it all, some blood sttered across his face. Old Man Geng could not imagine how Zhang Heng could withstand wave after wave of attack.


    The thugs too couldn��t believe that Zhang Heng managed to gain the upper hand with so many fighting against him. And he even killed quite a number of them as well. Unfortunately, it did not make their situation better for the duo. For now, the attack had temporarily stopped, but at the same time, the roar of motorcycle engines became louder and louder. It meant that more and more were enemiesing at them.


    ��What deal did you help him with?�� Zhang Heng frowned.


    He had emptied the pistol��s clips that he picked up from the ground earlier. After throwing that gun aside, he had only the gun made of Lego bricks. It still had many bullets in it, but they were obviously not enough to deal with so many enemies.


    The hamster given by F was now running around frantically in its cage, looking very anxious. Old Man Geng still hesitated after hearing what Zhang Heng told him. He seemed to be really reluctant to mention anything rted to the meeting just now.


    Hence, Zhang Heng did not force him, saying instead, ��I don��t want to get myself into this big trouble. And I��m not the least interested in your transactions. But if you want to return to the third level alive, you��d better tell me everything. Let me know, at least��if they can��t capture you in the end... will they kill you? Of course, you can also choose to say nothing and risk your life.��


    Upon hearing that, Old Man Geng��s expression changed. He finally chose to save himself instead of keeping secrets. ��I don��t know where those people came from,�� he blurted in a jiffy. ��The trade between the two parties revolved around a memory encoder.��


    ��A memory encoder? Is it simr to a device that can create a new memory in a person��s mind?��


    ��It��s more than that. The memory encoder can delete and rewrite memories. If the human brain is aputer, then the memory encoder is equivalent to programming software. It is usually used with human cloning technology, where it can provide a constant flow of cheapbor for variouspanies.


    ��To make it sound simpler, they first produce the clones they need through gene cloning. These clones are like amodity. Once the hardware getspleted, the memory encoder will begin to program the clones, assisting in setting their personalities, skills, experiences, and so on. In short, the clones produced in the end are almost indistinguishable from ordinary people, and they require way fewer resources to train. This is because they could grow them in a petri dish until they are 18 or 20 years old. All they need to do in the end is to write a set of memories of their lives into their brains before they turn 20, and they can start working immediately without any form of training.��


    There was a hint of suspicion in Old Man Geng��s eyes when he talked about cloning technology.


    ��The first batch of clones have been experimentally put to use as early as twenty years ago. About six years ago, a lot ofpanies began to use clones. Of course, It didn��t go well at the beginning, valiantly opposed by thebor union. But now it��s a major industry, and everyone knows it.��


    ��I... just came.�� Zhang Heng said.


    ��...��


    ��In short, the technology rted to human cloning has always been the Federation��s top-secret technology. The memory encoder is no exception. There is only one memory encoder in the entire New Shanghai 2097,�� Old man Geng said.


    ��And the ones who own it n to sell it?�� Zhang Heng raised his eyebrows.


    ��Of course not. No one can touch the memory encoder. It is ced on the 27th floor of Shengtang Morgan��s headquarters. It is extremely well guarded, with almost wless security over there. And the memory encoder is equipped with a self-destruction program triggered in the case of an emergency. Hence, no one will think of stealing it. The one that they traded is an experimental prototype memory encoder from the earth. It is a very old model, and it has some ws. It is, however, still usable. The prototype was supposed to be destroyed, but the seller managed to figure out a way to get his hands on it,�� Old Man Geng said.


    ��And you acted as the middleman of this transaction? I know that the business at the House of Old Things is not very good, but don��t you think that the role you yed put you in too much danger?��


    ��Of course, I know. I am not blind! I saw the mob outside the building just now.�� Old Man Geng sounded a little annoyed.


    ��Otherwise, why would I hire a bodyguard?��


    ��Seriously, you should��ve hired an armored division rather than a bodyguard,�� Zhang Heng replied. ��Now that I have a better understanding of the situation, the good news is that they too should be curious about the identity of the seller when they attempt to capture you. They won��t kill you unless it��s theirst resort. The bad news is that you justmitted a crime, and we can��t ask the police for help.��


    ��Well, what should we do then?��


    ��Let��s wait.��


    ��Wait? There are a lot of enemies outside the shop!�� Old Man Geng almost stomped his feet. They had hidden in there for a short while, and many new motorcycles were now parked outside the shop. It was hard to imagine how many more enemies wouldeter.


    ��It��s useless for us to make a breakthrough now. There are only two of us. And you are not invincible. They realize now that they are allowed to hurt as long as they are still alive. In other words, they will not hesitate to shoot at us if we go out now. The best thing we can do right now is to wait for our allies to save us.��


    ��Who are our allies?��


    ��Whoever wants to buy that memory encoder through you is our ally. After all, this is Mr. G��s territory. I bet he should��ve been informed that we are being ambushed at this moment. Let��s just hold on for a little longer. The calvary will be here soon. And I bet our enemies know about it too. If I��m right, they willunch a second wave of attacks soon,�� Zhang Heng said as he handed the hamster cage to Old Man Geng.


    ��Help me take care of my new roommate.��


    ��Huh?�� Old Man Geng held the hamster cage with a dull expression.


    The next moment, the bikersunched another round of attacks at them. They were still worried about killing Old Man Geng by mistake. So they put away their guns and switched to melee weapons. This was the exact oue that Zhang Heng had been hoping for.


    While the first enemy stepped on the counter of the grocery store and hurriedly jumped down, Zhang Heng quickly pulled the trigger sending him to his maker. He then caught the knife that fell from the enemy��s hand.


    ��Oh. They really shouldn��t give me the weapon I want most.��

 Chapter 943 - God Of Murder

    <h4>Chapter 943: God Of Murder</h4>


    With a de in his hand, Zhang Heng��s killing mode was officially activated. He felt that he had returned to the night of the bloody battle at Bakumatusu Kyoto. An endless wave of enemies poured in from all directions like a raging tsunami.


    In terms of swordsmanship, this group of bikers could never bepared with the samurais he foughtst time. Once they started to make a move, Zhang Heng could see that their movements were full of vulnerabilities. There was also no teamwork among them, where they solely relyed on numbers alone.


    However, they held other advantages as well, especially the weapons they owned. Although they couldn��t use their guns, they had all kinds of melee weapons. Some of them were also equipped with mechanical prostheses.


    In the beginning, Zhang Heng suffered a small loss. Although he saw someone charging at him with raised fists, he chose to ignore it for now. He had to first handle the enemy holding a stun baton on the other side. Right after Zhang Heng shed him with his de, he quickly turned around to deal with the enemy that wanted to punch him. However, the enemy didn��t seem affected when the dended on his fist. All that could be seen were the sparks flying from the contact.


    Zhang Heng also almost dropped the de due to the powerful recoil. Although he failed to hurt his opponent with his de, it did change the trajectory of the fist. In the end, the enemy��s fist went past Zhang Heng andnded on the grocery store��s wall.


    The wall cracked due to the force delivered by the fist, dust flying into the air and raining down onto them. Fury shed across the man��s eyes, and he attempted to punch Zhang Heng, getting up immediately to attack the second time. The moment he lifted his fist, however, Zhang Heng was well prepared to strike him first. This time, he wouldn��t be giving him any opportunities to attack. Before his fist coulde in contact with Zhang Heng, Zhang Heng had already sliced off his head without any hesitation.


    The head then rolled towards Old Man Geng��s side, leaving thetter and the hamster in his handspletely terrified. Before his fear could even subside, Old Man Geng felt his cor getting pulled up by someone, and he was about to be dragged away from the counter. Fortunately, Zhang Heng, on the other side, had been paying attention to the Old Man Geng. While he was fighting with the two new opponents that charged at him, he had quickly drawn his gun and killed the man who tried to take advantage of the chaotic situation.


    As thetter��s body mmed on the counter. Old Man Geng quickly ran back behind it. On the other hand, Zhang Heng drew an arc with his de in the air, bypassed the enemy that made a defensive posture in front of him and stabbed his chest with his de.


    The bikers stopped attacking after they saw what Zhang Heng did to their allies. None of them expected Zhang Heng to have such good marksmanship and also fearsome swordsmanship. In the blink of an eye, three of the bikers were sent to meet their maker.


    At the same time, the bikers knew that there was not much time left for them. So, they just took in a deep breath, bit the bullet, and continued to charge at Zhang Heng.


    Judging by how they were behaving, it seemed they were nning to sacrifice themselves to capture Old Man Geng.


    As a result, the pressure bearing down on Zhang Heng��s shoulders amplified instantaneously. So far, he had no problem fighting against them. The biggest problem he had was that he needed to take care of Old Man Geng on the other side. After he emptied the Lego gun��s clip, he could no longer save him from a distance. As a result, he had put away the Lego gun, grab another de, and switch to double-de mode. In the end, he barely managed to protect Old Man Geng.


    Even for him, it was not easy to maintain such an intense close-range melee fight, especially when the enemy in front of him did not care about casualties. Fortunately, Mr. G��s men were here just in time. Only less than eight minutes had passed since the battle started. The ruler of the first level had organized and assembled nearly a hundred subordinates to help them. It exceeded the expectations of the bikers, and they were covered in despair.


    The first to rush to the battlefield was Miss F. As Mr. G��s fianc��e. She did not act like a queen who knew nothing aboutbat but rather like a military general. When she drew the saber with her mechanical arm and jumped at the enemies, she looked like a ferocious tiger descending from a mountain.


    Her attack speed was faster than Zhang Heng��s. She fought so well thanks to her mechanical arm and the special alloy sword, not to mention Zhang Heng��s Shrouded Sheath was not with him right now. Still, it was undeniable that her performance was amazing.


    And Miss F��s present hadpletely destroyed the bikers�� morale. Initially, they were relying on the time difference. Otherwise, they wouldn��t have waited until Old Man Geng met Mr. G before they made their move. At that time, Old Man Geng had already handed over the information in the briefcase and closed the deal between the two parties. Usually, the level of their vignce was the lowest at a time like this.


    Everyone was caught off guard by their sudden attack. Unfortunately, they did not expect that Zhang Heng was there to protect Old Man Geng. As a result, they failed to kidnap Old Man Geng. And the calvary was here to rescue them. If they wanted to survive, they had to flee now.


    Miss F put away her alloy sword, and she did not even bother to look at enemies that fled from her. She walked towards Zhang Heng and Old Man Geng and asked, ��Are you okay? It��s our fault for letting such a thing happened on our territory. We were negligent, and I apologize on behalf of Mr. G.��


    Zhang Heng threw the de aside, shook his head, and said, ��It��s okay. Anyway, neither of us got harmed.��


    Old Man Geng did not think that he was doing fine. He was surrounded by dead bodies, and there was blood on his face. Fortunately, the blood did not belong to him. Though he was not physically injured, it did not mean that he was not mentally scarred. Later, the expression on his face became more and more in sync with the hamster in his arms.


    His brain could still process the information around him logically. He now knew that the two people in front of him were the Gods of Killing. When the two talked, he kept quiet for the first time. At the same time, he prayed that the god would forget the impolite words he had said.


    Miss F nodded. ��The attackerse from a medium-sized gang that has recently gotten out of our control. Most of the members are runaways, and there is something wrong with their brains. Clearly, they cannot be the mastermind. Someone bribed them and promised them that he would help them move to a higher floor. Otherwise, they wouldn��t have dared to fight us in the open. Rest assured, I guarantee that none of them will escape.��


    After that, she paused for a while. And she looked at the corpses around her. A look of surprise shed across her eyes. However, she did not ask any questions about it. Instead, she said, ��I��ll get two sets of new clothes for two of you. You can choose to stay here or return to the level you came from.��

 Chapter 944 - True Me

    <h4>Chapter 944: True Me</h4>


    Old Man Geng hesitated and decided to return to the third level, his main reason being better public security. At least they wouldn��t be encountering street fights on the third level. Of course, the more important thing was that he had to give the seller feedback after he discussed the transaction with Mr. G.


    And Zhang Heng had to return to Xu Qian��s apartment as well. So, Miss F sent four men with a clear background to escort Old Man Geng back to the third level.


    At the House of Old Things, Old Man Geng paid Zhang Heng fifteen shec records in one lump sum. This was the reward for his protection. Coupled with the records that served as the deposit, Zhang Heng received six extra shec records. These were a token of gratitude from Old Man Geng for protecting him from the violent mobs.


    ��These are all the shec records I��ve collected. That��s all I have.�� Old man Geng handed over the records to Zhang Heng. His tone was more polite than before. After all, he did witness Zhang Heng singlehandedly killing the mob. ��I will give you those building blocks as well. You don��t have to pay rent anymore.��


    Zhang Heng did not reject all those gifts. After he took those records, he heard a system notification reminding him that he had earned another 150 points.


    ��Do you have any other ways to collect more shec records?�� Zhang Heng asked afterward, ��I can find a way to raise money to buy them, or, as in this case, provide my services as a form of payment.��


    ��Why are you so enthusiastic about shec records?�� Old Man Geng eyeballed at Zhang Heng curiously. ��There are now extremely few left in this city. It��s not that easy to collect all of them. Usually, they are collected by rich individuals from the fourth and fifth levels. I do want to help you. If this transaction goes smoothly, I guess I will leave New Shanghai 0297.��


    ��Why do you want to leave this ce?�� Zhang Heng raised his eyebrows.


    Old Man Geng, however, seemed hesitant to tell Zhang Heng the reason.


    ��Forget it. I have no interest in exploring your personal affairs. Just tell me who I should be looking for to collect more shec records after you leave.��


    Old Man Geng thought for a while before replying, ��This is my trade secret. If I decide to leave here, I will send you his name and contact information the day before I depart.��


    ...


    Zhang Heng returned to the Yachengmunity at about 11 at night. Xu Qian wasn��t done with her livestream yet.


    Zhang Heng ced the golden hamster that Miss F gave him on the table. After that, he took a bath, cleaned up the bloodstains on the skin, and walked out of the bathroom with his newly bought bathrobe. He then got himself a ss of water, sat on the sofa, turned on the projector, and entered Xu Qian��s livestream room like what he��d done for the past few days. At the same time, he clicked into the fan chatroom.


    In her streaming studio, Xu Qian had just finished dancing, and her cheeks were flushed. Now, she was chatting with her fans about a game that had just been released. As far as Zhang Heng knew, Xu Qian had no interest in ying games. However, after looking at most viewers�� backgrounds, he realized that they were mostly made out of avid gamers. So about half a month ago, Xu Qian started to talk about the trendy games to prevent her fans from declining. And for this reason, she had deliberately learned a bunch of gaming jargon from the inte.


    Her strategy was proven to be very effective after a while. When a cute girl like her began using gaming jargon while chatting, she��d be irresistably attractive to the gamer. As a result, for the first time ever, Xu Qian managed to stop the decline of her fans. In fact, her livestream viewers had even started increasing slightly.


    After realizing how effective the method was, Xu Qian officially decided to adopt this strategy. Every night, she would chat about games on her stream. However, after a while, more began to realize that she was merely a fraud and deliberately learned all that gaming jargon. Hence, her viewers started to criticize her, and the number of her viewers began declining again.


    Butpared to the rate of her previous viewer drop, the decline had indeed slowed down by a little. Thus, Xu Qian ignored all those haters in her livestream room.


    She also talked about this when she was chatting with Zhang Hengst night. In her own words, people were contradictory creatures. The audience who came to her livestream room always mentioned that they wanted to see the true her. But that was actually not true.


    Xu Qian gave an example, saying that she did not understand how things worked in this line when she first signed the contract. She was just a rookie back then, and whenever she went live, she would just make use of the natural lighting and put on her usual makeup. She even wore a dirty sweater and wrapped herself tightly in it. Usually, her topics revolved around a female.


    Since she was a rookie, she was always full of confidence. At that time, she studied all those famous streamers and thought that they were hypocrites. At first nce, she saw that they were not acting like themselves. She felt that they were not as sincere as her.


    She also believed that the fans would prefer to watch a streamer willing to show her true side. As a result, reality hit her hard. The number of people that watched her livestream was pathetic. And some of the streamers who started at the same time as her had already recruited throngs of fans by relying on the innocent personality they had crafted for themselves. Some even gave themselves a coquettish personality.


    So Xu Qian decided to put away her naive thoughts and used her first month��s sry to buy a set of expensive cosmetics, gifting them to a veteran streamer on the verge of retirement. The veteran streamer saw that she had bought a meal and costly cosmetics. Hence, in return, she rted her experiences and routines umted over the years working as a streamer to Xu Qian. Since she was about to retire, she had no intention of taking those trade secrets to her grave. And Xu Qian did benefit a lot from her.


    Xu Qian then relied on these experiences and routines that she learned and gradually established her own personality, dressing style, and chatting skills. Finally, she was slowly climbing towards the peak of her career.


    ��All the people you see on the Inte are not real,�� Xu Qian said. ��Do you really think that I like wearing cattails and pose in front of the camera in all kinds of stupid postures? And why would I want to force myself to talk about those games that I don��t care about?��


    ��Sometimes, I feel that there is no difference between me and a product on the store shelf. We are created by market demand and data. The packages are beautifully packaged ande in different types of packaging to cater to different needs. Sometimes, when youy your eyes on a product, you somehow think it is very special. Still, it is just a product designed in a way to attract customers with special needs. And once a specific product bes popr, countless products will follow suit, appearing in the market like mushrooms after the rain.


    ��I still remember the first sentence the veteran streamer said to me that night. No one cares what kind of person you are. When people enter your livestream room, they already have a purpose in them, even if they don��t realize it sometimes. Either they are lonely, feel the need to satisfy their primitive impulse, or want to fantasize about a pure and innocent person. Find those desires, give them what they want, and then you can get what you want.��

 Chapter 945 - Let Me Ask Another Question

    <h4>Chapter 945: Let Me Ask Another Question</h4>


    While Zhang Heng watched the livestream, the golden hamster on the table finally regained its stamina after a long rest, and it started to run on the wheel. It looked like it wanted to go out for a stroll. Unfortunately, no matter how fast it ran, it could never leave the cage.


    After a while, it got tired from running. So, itid down in the cage again and began to y dead.


    Zhang Heng looked at it, and a sudden thought crossed his mind. The studio��s door opened at a quarter past twelve, and Xu Qian walked out. Seeing that Zhang Heng was still watching the livestream, she could not help but ask, ��Do you have any updates about the stalker?��


    ��Well, I have a couple of suspects right now.��


    ��That fast?�� Xu Qian was bewildered. Although she asked Zhang Heng about the investigation��s progress, she wasn��t expecting any results. She only wanted to remind Zhang Heng. He was, after all, paying a great deal of attention to her stream and managing her fans. This caused her to be a little ttered. Still, Xu Qian was paying the securitypany to ensure her safety.


    ��Yeah,�� Zhang Heng nodded. ��I took a look at the mall��s surveince footage. The stalker is good at hacking. He hacked the mall��s cameras and escaped before we could catch him. However, it looks like he hasn��t done anything like this before. And could also be his first time risking arrest. He must be extremely nervous right now since he isn��t sure if he made a mistake.��


    ��So?��


    ��So, he will try to find out how much information we have about him.��


    ��Do you think he will watch my livestreamter or join my fan group? No wonder you made me stay silent about me being stalked on the livestream. Are you trying to draw the stalker out? And you have been on my livestream and fan group for a rather extensive amount of time recently. You are trying to look for the suspect, right?��


    Xu Qian realized that she had probably misunderstood Zhang Heng��s actions before this. She treated him as one of her ordinary viewers who watched her livestream every day. In order to make up for her mistake, she took the initiative to offer some help. ��Is there anything I can help you with?��


    ��Of course.�� Zhang Heng circled a few IDs in the fan chat room.


    ��Do you recognize these people?��


    Xu Qian squinted when she looked at the names. Three of them had joined the group after the day she was being followed in the mall. Two of the members shepletely did not recognize, but as for the other member, Xu Qian remembered that he sent her a lot of gifts before. However, she still knew nothing about his background.


    But when she saw thest name, she was taken aback.


    ��Him? Does he have any problems?��


    The ID with the handle ��E-Goat�� circled by Zhang Hengst was the creator of this fan chat room.


    Xu Qian was quite familiar with E-Goat because he was with her the longest among all the other fans. He had been watching her livestream since the first day she started streaming. She had only a handful of fans at that time; hence she could remember all their names.


    However, E-Goat usually spoke little in the chat room. Hence, Xu Qian thought that he should be a very timid person. He would often watch her stream in silence and send her gifts from time to time. E-Goat once ranked as the top viewer that sent her the most gifts. But as Xu Qian became more and more popr, he fell from the top spot since there were more wealthy individuals who joined her fan group.


    Despite that, he had noints at all. He still offered to help Xu Qian with some background work, including establishing a fan chat room and helping her with her publicity. E-Goat had done so much for her, which was why she had a good impression of him. She could not figure out why Zhang Heng would include him in his list.


    ��I heard a fan majoring inputer science mention that E-Goat��s is aputerwork expert. There was this once, he helped your fan solve a question his teacher failed to in one night,�� Zhang Heng said.


    ��But you can��t be treating everyone with excellentputerworking skills as stalkers, right?�� Xu Qian reasoned. ��And I know E-Goat. He seems to be awork engineer of apany, and he is a very good person.��


    ��You are right. But you can��t exin why he didn��te to the chat room in the past two days.��


    ��Hold on. You are confusing me. I remember that you told me that the stalker woulde to my chat room very often. And now the reason why you suspect E-Goat was because he didn��te to my chat room for the past two days?��


    ��There are two possibilities. If a neer joins the chat room, he would most likely stay all day long. But for E-Goat, the first to join the chat room when it was first established, guilt might cause him to stop talking in the chat room. Instead, he would appear offline and pay attention to everyone��s messages,�� Zhang Heng exined patiently.


    But Xu Qian still found it uneptable.


    ��Well, let��s go and ask him tomorrow,�� Zhang Heng suggested.


    ��Hmm?��


    ��Theputer science major in the chat room said that he knows E-Goat��s address. After E-Goat helped him solve the problem, he invited him for dinner, and he also ordered two bottles of beer. However, he did not expect E-Goat to have an extremely low tolerance to alcohol. He got drunk after drinking half a bottle of beer. After that, he kept calling your name. Left with no other option, theputer science major had to send him home. And that��s how he acquired his address.��


    ��I don��t think it��s a good idea�� Xu Qian still seemed a little hesitant. E-Goat had been with her for a long time, after all. He witnessed her rise and fall. It was why Xu Qian no longer treated him as an ordinary fan. Instead, she considered him as a good friend who she had never met before. Now, they were about to meet for the first time for all the wrong reasons. Zhang Heng suspected that E-Goat was the one that had been stalking Xu Qian.


    Zhang Heng seemed to know what she was thinking. So, he added, ��We can choose not to talk about the stalking matter. Anyway, you are going to quit the streaming line soon. Why don��t you take this opportunity and say goodbye to him.��


    Xu Qian was finally moved by Zhang Heng. After that, Zhang Heng asked the fan to make an appointment with E-Goat. However, he did not mention that Xu Qian would tag along with him.


    After finishing the work at hand, Zhang Heng looked at Xu Qian again. He was thinking of the right way to phrase the question he was about to ask: How much do you know about human cloning?


    ��What?�� Xu Qian did not expect Zhang Heng to suddenly ask such a question.


    Zhang Heng��s expression still remained very calm. ��Let me rephrase my question. Am I a clone?��

 Chapter 946 - I Am A Human Clone

    <h4>Chapter 946: I Am A Human Clone</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    The proxy war dungeon��s difficulty had been one of the hottest topics in discussion among the yers. Although the agents on top of the leaderboard didn��t share their experience in the proxy war dungeon, the yers who scored too low and failed to enter the next round of the game were more than willing to share theirs.


    ording to their descriptions, the proxy war dungeon��s content could be bizarre at times. The one thing that the yers agreed on, however, was that it was a lot more difficult than an ordinary dungeon. The Alien quest Zhang Hengpleted was one of the most challenging quests he had encountered. As for his current quest, Zhang Heng had not encountered anyplications until tonight.


    The person he was supposed to protect, Xu Qian, was just an ordinary girl. She lived at the third level of the city with good security, and although she had encountered some minor problems before, they did not seem a major issue.


    As of now, Zhang Heng had acquired a good deal of information about the man who stalked Xu Qian. His investigation was steadily progressing. If this went on, he couldplete this two-week bodyguard mission easily. It also meant that he��d still have half of the game time left uponpleting this task. He never expected that this quest with the title, Bodyguard, would have nothing to do with this bodyguard mission.


    Until tonight, he still did not know where the threats coulde from.


    It wasn��t until Old Man Geng told him about the memory encoder and human cloning that Zhang Heng vaguely noticed something wasn��t right. Previously, he had searched up information rting to New Shanghai 0297 but found nothing about human cloning. ording to Old Man Geng, the residents of New Shanghai 0297 were supposed to be aware of the existence of human clones.


    Being a yer put Zhang Heng at a disadvantage. It made sense that he waspletely oblivious that he was a clone. However, when he thought about Miss F��s attitude towards him when they first met and the hamster who could never get out of the cage, Zhang Heng finally realized his identity in this quest.


    Although Xu Qian did not answer him, Zhang Heng had gotten the answer he wanted from her facial expressions.


    ��Interesting. Did someone mess with my mobilework? When I search the inte, I can��t seem to find any information rted to human cloning.��


    Xu Qian was horrified. She then took two steps back.


    ��I, I don��t know.��


    ��Someone told me that the memories clones have were generated by the memory encoder. That means all the contacts in my address book and the emails in the mailbox are fake. This also exins why my rtives are not here in this city. Uhm... they were supposed tomunicate with me once a month. In other words, my memory would very likely be reset at least once a month. No wonder you wore so casually when we first met. As far as I know you, you asionally dress skimpily during your livestream, but you are actually quite conservative in private, especially considering that you are about to get engaged.��


    Zhang Heng finally found the loophole in this quest.


    If he failed to realize his identity as a clone during the two weeks of protecting Xu Qian, then the next thing that awaited him was probably a memory reset. He might even forget that he had been ying for fourteen days. As for the worst-case scenario, others might discover that he was an outsider when they rewrote his memory.


    ��We shouldn��t talk about this kind of thing.�� Xu Qian had backed up to the wall. She looked a little overwhelmed, with both hands behind her back.


    ��Why? Is it because somews and regtions prohibit you from talking about human cloning in front of a clone?�� Zhang Heng paused, then continued, ��Are you trying to contact a securitypany? Report my anomaly? I strongly advise against it.��


    Xu Qian��s intention was exposed by Zhang Heng. And she could not help but panic even more. Considering the difference in strength between the two and the time needed by the personnel from the securitypany toe here, she finally stopped what she was doing. Waving both of her hands in front of her, she asked in fear, ��What do you want?��


    ��Nothing. I just want to have a chat with you.�� Zhang Heng stretched out his hand and signaled her to sit down.


    Xu Qian hesitated for a moment when she saw it and finally sat down on the sofa aside. She used to sit here and chat with Zhang Heng about her problems. Back then, the circumstance was different. She knew that Zhang Heng��s memory would be rewrittenter. So, she did not have to worry about anything. In other words, she could say anything to him without holding back. But now, the situation had be veryplicated for her.


    Xu Qian subconsciously tightened her neckline.


    ��Don��t worry. I��m not going to hurt you.�� Zhang Heng said.


    ��We have been staying together for so many days. I know what kind of person you are, and I am deeply sympathetic to your discovery,�� Xu Qian said. ��But you should know... You can��t escape them. I think you should take the initiative to make a confession at yourpany.��


    ��Really? How did they deal with the clones who discovered their identity? Rewrite their memories? Or destroy them outright?�� Zhang Heng asked rhetorically.


    ��I��m sorry. I can��t tell you anything. Once they capture you and check your memory, they will find out that we had this conversation,�� Xu Qian replied.


    ��You are right. There are indeedws and regtions that prohibit me from telling you anything rted to human cloning.��


    Upon hearing that, Zhang Heng did not make anyment. Instead, he continued to ask, ��What is the difference between clones and ordinary people?��


    Xu Qian wanted to stop talking about it, but for some reason, she felt that Zhang Heng��s temperament seemed to have changed. Earlier, his presence seemed oblivious to her, and now she could feel the pressure from him.


    So after going silent for about half a minute, Xu Qian said, ��As far as I know, the body of a cloned human is no different from an ordinary human. The only difference is that there is a special fluorescent mark on the back of the clone��s neck. That is your serial code, and it can be seen under ultraviolet light. In addition, there is a tracking device in your body.��


    Xu Qian��s words also exined why Miss F��s attitude towards him changed in the screening room. If Zhang Heng was right about it, the light above him was an ultraviolet light when he stepped into the building through the door. It was also at that time that Miss F discovered he was a clone.


    Zhang Heng was more concerned about another issue now.


    ��Tracking device? Where is it?��


    ��Your... Underneath the cerebral cortex.��


    This was bad news for Zhang Heng. It meant he couldn��t remove the tracking device by himself. And the hospital in New Shanghai 0297 would not provide such a surgery on a clone.

 Chapter 947 - I’m Afraid You Might Need To Get A New Boyfriend

    <h4>Chapter 947: I��m Afraid You Might Need To Get A New Boyfriend</h4>


    Zhang Heng was not too worried about the fluorescent marking on him. All he needed to do was to use a scarf or his shirt��s cor to cover it. Usually, no one would notice it. In contrast, the tracking device in his body was more troublesome to deal with.


    As long the tracker was in his body, he would eventually be captured by others no matter where he hid. By then, he would need to face a steady stream of enemies. However, Zhang Heng did not panic. This was the fourth day working as a bodyguard to protect Xu Qian. As long as she did not report his abnormality to the securitypany, he still had about ten days to solve this problem.


    So the first thing he needed to do right now was to reach a consensus with Xu Qian.


    ��If you don��t report my abnormality to mypany, what kind of punishment will you get?�� Zhang Heng asked.


    ��I don��t know... I just want to get on with my life peacefully, ept my boyfriend��s proposal, and move to the fourth level. I don��t want to get involved in any trouble, please,�� Xu Qian begged.


    ��Well, sometimes a rtionship has to go through some twists and turns to beplete,�� Zhang Heng reminded. ��You��d better answer this question truthfully because we are now thinking of ways to lessen your troubles.��


    ��It��s useless. Once you are caught, they will look at your memories, and then they will know about the conversation that has taken ce tonight,�� Xu Qian said. ��No matter how perfect you n the whole thing, the end result will always be the same. ��


    ��If that��s the case, I��d better try my best not to capture by them.�� Zhang Heng said, ��Has there been a simr situation like this where a clone went of control?��


    ��There have been several cases like this, but they managed to keep the situation under control within 24 hours.�� Xu Qian hesitated and exined, ��In the early days, it was said that they did not hide the identity from the human clones. Instead, they instilled in them the belief that they should serve humans unconditionally. Other than that, they also programmed them in a way that they��d be were highlypliant to the human to ensure it��d be safe to use the clones. But...��


    ��But?�� Zhang Heng raised his eyebrows.


    ��But no matter how much the clones believed that they were born to serve humans when they left the factory, and how gentle and honest their characters were designed, many began to gradually resist their employers after long-term usage. After all, they have the same DNA as humans. I guess resistance is one of their instincts.


    ��Due to the security issues, these clones can��t be put intorge-scalemercial use. Other than that, ordinary people are also afraid of clones. Some extremists had even started recruiting to hunt and kill all clones. So the scientists had to keep looking for other ways to salvage this situation.��


    ��Is that why they decided to give those clones a fake identity?�� Zhang Heng asked.


    ��Yes. Scientists have found out that the clones�� behavior would be the most stable in this situation. They have to make sure that the clones did not know that they were clones. Other than the users and thepanies behind them, no one else would realize that they are clones. Naturally, there would be no conflict. And at the same time, thepanies have shortened their single-use duration.��


    ��Rewrite their memories once a month?��


    ��It doesn��t have to be once a month. It only applies to those who can fight well like you. Once someone like you realizes that they are a clone, it may cause great harm to society. Hence, the memories of a clone like you would be rewritten once a month,�� Xu Qian replied with a trembling voice.


    ��Well, how many clones are there in New Shanghai 0297 now?�� Zhang Heng continued to ask.


    ��I don��t know. I really don��t know. The number of clones has always been apany secret.�� Xu Qian became more and more anxious, ��I... I have told you too much. I can��t go on. Once they find out that I had this conversation with you, my citizen ID will be included in the control list. The federal government will start to monitor me all the time and all thepanies will refuse to provide me any form of information. As for the damage you will cause after you lose control, I have to bear at least one-third of the responsibility. My boyfriend does illegal business sometimes. He absolutely wouldn��t want his significant other to be on the watch list all the time. I will lose him because of this. So please...��


    ��Oh. That��s too bad,�� Zhang Heng said.


    ��Yes. You know my current situation. This marriage is very important to me,�� Xu Qian nodded.


    ��No. You misunderstood what I meant,�� Zhang Heng said. ��What I mean is if someone captures me and reads my memory, you might have to change your boyfriend.��


    ��What do you... mean?�� Xu Qian could not understand what Zhang Heng had just told her.


    ��I killed about 30 people at the lowest level just now,�� Zhang Heng said indifferently. ��ording to you; you have to bear at least a third of the responsibility for the losses I caused after I lose control. But you don��t have to worry too much about it for the time being. Since you lived at the first level before, you must have heard of Mr. G��s name. His men will help me deal with the aftermath. To make that happen, I have to make sure that no one can capture me and read my memory.��


    ��What?! You just killed more than 30 people?!�� A chill rushed up Xu Qian��s spine, and she started to shiver as if she was drenched in a basin of ice water, ��This... This is impossible. Are you trying to scare me and prevent me from reporting your anomaly?��


    Zhang Heng did not reply to Xu Qian. Instead, he emailed Miss F in front of her, asking to send him some photos of the aftermath.


    It sounded like a weird request, but Miss F did not ask any questions.


    Half a minuteter, Zhang Heng received ten photos of the dead bodies. Other than that, there was also a short video. The person that recorded this video clip stood at a good distance. Hence, the video quality wasn��t that good. But one could see that the person in the middle was Zhang Heng with two des. He killed a mohawk guy while being attack by three or four people.


    From the video clip, Zhang Heng slit the mohawk guy��s throat. The victim attempted to use his hand to stop the blood from gushing out. Unfortunately, his blood still poured out from the gap between his fingers. Xu Qian watched half of the clip, and she started to cover her mouth. Immediately, Zhang Heng passed the trash can to her with his feet.


    Xu Qian then vomited in the trash can.


    At the same time, she started to cry, not knowing whether she felt sorry for the people who died in the videos and photos or was she crying for her precarious marriage.


    Xu Qian cried for about ten minutes, before gradually stopping her sobbing. She wiped her tears and said to Zhang Heng, ��I have never done anything bad to you, nor have I treated you harshly because you are a clone. Why do you treat me like this?!��


    ��I didn��t expect to involve you in this matter,�� Zhang Heng said. ��The good news is, the matter hasn��t been discovered so far, which is why I said we need to talk about it.��

 Chapter 948 - Tang

    <h4>Chapter 948: Tang</h4>


    ��What do you want me to do?�� Xu Qian asked.


    ��It��s very simple. Just pretend that nothing happened. Forget about tonight. I can even help you continue to find the stalker. All I need is nine days. After nine days, you can contact G7Z. Report what happened to me. Tell them that I found out that I am a clone, and I killed more than 30 people at the lowest level of this city. You can tell them whatever you want. Just make sure that they don��t suspect you. After that, you can continue to be with your rich boyfriend, get engaged, and even marry him. After that, you can move to the fourth level and live your life as a rich wife.��


    ��This is impossible. As long as you are captured, they will know that I am lying. Didn��t you listen to what I said? You can��t hide it from them,�� Xu Qian desperately pleaded.


    ��Yes, but only if I am caught.�� Zhang Heng said calmly.


    ��No rogue human clone can escape the authorities. I told you that almost all defective clones are captured within 24 hours.��


    ��Not everyone. I know that a clone is still alive, and no one could capture him so far,�� Zhang Heng said.


    ��How��s that possible?�� Xu Qian looked at Zhang Heng in disbelief, ��The longest a defective clonested before being captured was three days. The only exception is a female clone named Tang.��


    ��Tang?��


    ��Of course, this isn��t her real name. It��s just her online handle that she uses on the inte. She and I belong to the same entertainmentpany, and she could be considered a senior of mine. Even when I was at my peak, I couldn��t catch up with her. After that incident, thepany deleted all the information rted to her. However, I still managed to find her photos on the inte.


    ��It was said that when thepany created her, they looked the hundred most beautiful actresses in the entire Federation. They then selected the most beautiful parts of each of them, singled out the corresponding genes for those parts, and merged them together. Finally, Tang was born. Some say she was the epitome of perfection. Every inch of her skin and expression is wless. With only one look, even the man with the hardest heart will fall for her. On the first day of her livestream, her viewer numbers set a historical record. And the number of her fans increased every single day. Until now, no one can surpass her.��


    ��What happened to her afterward?�� Zhang Heng asked.


    ��Some powerful people from the fifth level were involved in this matter. The official report says that she was invited to a manor on the fifth level to attend a private dinner one night. Suddenly she lost control and killed the host of the banquet and two guests. Another guest was seriously injured. Thetter also cut off one of her arms when he fought against her. However, there have been lots of rumors about this matter circling around the inte. Although Tang hasn��t been a streamer for a long time, she still has formidable numbers of diehard fans who think the guests attending the banquet that night covered up the truth. Until now, no one knows what happened in that manor that night.��


    ��What happened to Tang after that?�� Zhang Heng raised his eyebrows.


    ��She suffered from serious injuries that night, but she still managed to escape from the manor. And she didn��t get caught by the bodyguards.��


    ��Where did she escape to?��


    ��She... chose to burn herself alive and stream the whole thing online,�� Xu Qian said. ��Although the authorities cut the stream shortly after she lit herself, the police managed to locate her with the tracker she had in her body. You see, the only way to escape all this is death.��


    ��Thank you for your suggestion, but I am alive and well. And I n to continue to stay alive.�� Zhang Heng grabbed a handful of melon seeds from the coffee table and fed it to the hamster in the cage.


    ��In short, this matter did not end with her death. A series of conflicts broke out after that. Her fans even attacked our entertainmentpany and the rted departments. But at that time, I had note to New Shanghai 0297. So I am not sure what actually happened. This matter has be taboo, one that cannot be mentioned within thepany. All the information that people received came from the inte. Ever since that incident, ourpany has stopped hiring cloned streamers.��


    Xu Qian looked at Zhang Heng after she was done talking, ��Do you now know why I told you that it��s impossible for you to escape?��


    ��I can understand what you are trying to express, but I am not Tang,�� Zhang Heng calmly responded. ��It��s your choice. If you report the abnormality to G7Z now, there is no doubt that you will also face a big problem. You will need to take part of the responsibility for my murder spree, and our conversation tonight will be discovered too. ording to what you told me, you will lose your boyfriend, cause him a lot of trouble, or...��


    ��Or what?��


    ��Or you can take a leap of faith and do what I say. We have ten days left in our service contract. After nine days, you can contact the securitypany. As long as you follow what I teach you, you will be able to me everything on me. They will believe that I learned about my identity through other channels but not from you. After that, I make my escape. As aw-abiding citizen, you immediately report it to mypany. So as long as I��m not caught, you won��t have any trouble. And if you��re lucky, you can even get married.��


    Xu Qian looked like she was deep in thought after hearing this.


    Zhang Heng was not in a hurry. So, he continued to talk slowly, ��I know you don��t think I can escape, but with the second option, at least you��ll have high hopes of going to the fourth level, right?��


    ��If they know I worked with you to help you escape, there will be more troubles waiting for me,�� Xu Qian smiled bitterly.


    ��Benefits are always apanied by risks. I believe no one knows that better than you. You said that what you are best at is to seize the opportunities at the right time. This is how you could climb from the lowest level to the third level. And now, there is no doubt that a good opportunity has presented itself in front of you,�� Zhang Heng said.


    Xu Qian closed her eyes, seemingly thinking through Zhang Heng��s proposal. After a while, she opened her eyes again. ��You are lying to me, right? Although you keep saying that I have a choice, I, in fact, don��t have any. Who is the person that sent you those photos and video? A clone should have no friends or rtives.��


    ��Oh, she is a friend I just made tonight. You are right. If you choose the first or the second option, but you suddenly regret it halfway, no matter which level you are at, she will find you,�� Zhang Heng said.

 Chapter 949 - Suspect

    <h4>Chapter 949: Suspect</h4>


    After realizing that she had no options left, Xu Qian was no longer as scared as she was in the beginning. Such was the nature of human beings. When there was only one option left, they would stop thinking too much about it. However, Xu Qian still didn��t sleep well that night. Her eyes looked a little red and swollen the next morning. It was obvious that she had been crying in her room all night long.


    However, after she put on some makeup, she looked normal again. Xu Qian ordered two takeaway breakfasts as usual, and they were delivered by drone. However, she only took two bites, and she put down her chopsticks. She then looked at Zhang Heng sitting opposite her. She looked like wanted to ask him what he nned to do next.


    ��Yesterday, I contacted E-Goat with the help of a fan from the group. We will be meeting E-Goat at two in the afternoon. After breakfast, I��ll do a background check on him. After that, we will go over and meet him together,�� Zhang Heng said. Wiping his mouth after finishing his food, he said, ��If we want to keep this secret from mypany, we will have to behave like we always have. As I said, I will continue investigating the stalker for you. It��s crucial that we do this together. Once this is done, no one will suspect you after you report my anomaly nine dayster.��


    Xu Qian didn��t believe that Zhang Heng could escape the authorities, but she was impressed by hisposure, especially after he realized he was a clone. There was almost no emotional fluctuation on him. If an ordinary person encountered such an incident, there was a high chance the person would experience aplete mental breakdown. Coupled with the existence of the memory encoder, the person would start to doubt their own memories or even deny their existence.


    Zhang Heng, however, didn��t encounter any of these problems. Being a clone was his identity in this dungeon, and he had no idea who the rtives and friends in his contract list were too.


    He didn��t need to take public transport this time when he went out, driving the sports car Xu Qian��s boyfriend gave her instead. And he did not return to Xu Qian��s apartment until 1 pm to pick her up.


    After that, the two headed to the apartment where E-Goat lived. Like Xu Qian, E-Goat also lived on the third level and worked as awork engineer. However, the area he lived in wasn��t nearly as luxurious as Xu Qian��s area, not to mention it was a little further away from the city center.


    The fans in the group had contacted E-Goat in advance as per Zhang Heng��s request. He chose to meet him at a small restaurant below his house. This was also the ce E-Goat had his meals after he got off work. The familiar environment should help him be a little less vignt.


    E-Goat headed down ten minutes early and walked into the small restaurant.


    ording to the information that Zhang Heng collected, E-Goat was 29 years old this year. Formerly known as Li Chong, he had been living on the third level for five years. In the beginning, he had a roommate who was supposed to be his ssmate. After thetter got himself a girlfriend, he moved out to live with her. Since then, E-Goat had been living alone.


    During this period, he hadn��t made any friends of the opposite sex. Although his appearance and ie were decent, and some of the young girls in hispany had shown interest in him, E-Goat had always treated them coldly. Soon, all thedies in hispany began to realize that E-Goat was a weird person. After that, no one bothered him. Thus, E-Goat continued to live his peaceful life alone.


    There were even rumors saying that E-Goat was a person with no emotions. However, Zhang Heng knew that people who rarely expressed themselves had the tendency to acquire an unhealthy obsession over something or someone they loved.


    E-Goat had been paying attention to Xu Qian since the first day she started livestreaming. He witnessed Xu Qian grow from an unpopr streamer to one with a considerable fan base. And E-Goat had never missed Xu Qian��s stream before. Hence, it was logical if anyone thought that he was madly in love with her.


    The more Zhang Heng investigated, the more suspicious E-Goat became to him.


    He and Xu Qian were in the car now, monitoring E-Goat in the restaurant through the miniature camera hidden in the flowerpot. Thetter had just found a seat at a corner, and the waiter apparently knew him and was excited to serve him. He said hello, but E-Goat responded coldly. He red at the waiter before turning his attention somewhere else.


    While Zhang Heng kept his eye on E-Goat, he also paid attention to other customers in the small restaurant. He appeared to be eliminating all potential threats. Then, suddenly, E-Goat turned around andnded his attention on Xu Qian��s sports car.


    Although the ss surrounding the car had been specially treated, and no one was supposed to be able to look inside, Xu Qian could not help but feel anxious. ��He doesn��t know, right?�� she asked.


    ��What do you mean?��


    ��Know that we are here to ambush him.��


    ��If he knows, he would��ve never headed to the restaurant.��


    Having said that, Zhang Heng did not wait any longer. His preliminary investigations proved E-Goat had the motives to stalk Xu Qian. And from the follow-up observations, E-Goat��s figure also matched the stalker he met in the mall a few days ago. Hence, Zhang Heng had to do something about it. He sent another message to the fan who helped him, asking thetter to tell E-Goat to order some food first.


    The fan helping Zhang Heng didn��t suspect anything and immediately sent E-Goat an email. He happened to cooperate so well with Zhang Heng because he told him that Xu Qian was very grateful to E-Goat, her number one fan who had stayed with her all these years. Apparently, she wanted to express her gratitude by giving E-Goat a surprise.


    The situation caused that fan to be immensely jealous.


    When E-Goat received the email and started to order his food, Zhang Heng and Xu Qian had already got out of the car and were walking towards the small restaurant. Compared with Zhang Heng��s calmness, Xu Qian was deep in thought. She even thought about who she should call for help if E-Goat beat Zhang Heng in a fight or if the two were evenly matched.


    But it turned out that she overthought the whole thing.


    E-Goat was just awork engineer, after all, not a professionally trainedbatant. Although he was vignt, he was no match for Zhang Heng. Before he raised his head, Zhang Heng had already sat beside him with a small knife pointed at his waist.


    When E-Goat realized what was happening, he raised his head. Seeing Xu Qian on the opposite side, his expression changed drastically. His reflex told him that he should get up and flee. However, Zhang Heng ced his hand on his shoulder, realizing that his body could not move. He then heard Zhang Heng��s voice,


    ��Hi, E-Goat. I think we need to introduce ourselves properly.��

 Chapter 950 - Lies And Truth

    <h4>Chapter 950: Lies And Truth</h4>


    E-Goat��s breathing became more and more rapid. Zhang Heng then noticed that his condition wasn��t triggered by the knife on his waist, but because of Xu Qian on the opposite side.


    He seemed to be unable to look at Xu Qian. His cheeks turned red after a nce at her, and he hurriedly looked away.


    Xu Qian��s expression wasplicated. After a while, she said, ��Do you know who I am?��


    E-Goat hesitated but finally nodded.


    ��I... thank you very much for your support for me over the years. To be honest, I thought about meeting you a long time ago, but I didn��t expect to meet you in this situation.�� Xu Qian lifted her hair while talking.


    E-Goat did not reply.


    ��You should know why I came to you. Don��t worry. You can tell me the truth. I promise you that I will not call the police. And I will not ask my... uh, bodyguards to avenge me.��


    E-Goat then looked at Zhang Heng beside him. And Zhang Heng had already lifted his hands from his shoulder, and the knife pointing at him was gone as well.


    With the distance between the two, it was impossible for E-Goat to run away. Previously, Zhang Heng was using the knife to remind him not to make any stupid moves. Seeing that E-Goat did not react irrationally, Zhang Heng put the knife away. After that, he waved at the waiter and ordered a pot of scented tea.


    The three of them did not talk to each other while waiting for tea.


    Until the waiter brought the pot of scented tea over, poured a cup for each of them, and stepped aside, E-Goat said in a low voice, ��What kind of truth do you want to know?��


    ��Four days ago, was it you who followed me in the mall?�� Xu Qian looked into the eyes of E-Goat.


    Thetter opened his mouth to answer but was stopped by Zhang Heng before he could speak.


    ��Wait, let us do a small ritual before you answer the question.��


    ��What kind of ritual?�� E-Goat frowned.


    At the next moment, Zhang Heng cut E-Goat��s thumb with a knife. And E-Goat wanted to retract his hand subconsciously, but Zhang Heng grabbed it first. After that, Zhang Heng picked up an empty cup next to him and drew some blood from E-Goat��s wound.


    When Zhang Heng got what he needed, he proceeded to cut one of his fingers, squeezed a few drops of blood into the cup, and mixed them. Once that was done, he took out a piece of parchment paper that he brought from Old Man Geng that morning and wrote, ��I swear that I would never lie.��


    ��What is this? Indian Witchcraft?�� E-Goat asked coldly.


    ��Something like that.�� Zhang Heng did not care what he said. He then took out the Oath Rings, gave one to E-Goat, and put one on himself so that he would know whether E-Goat was lying.


    After Zhang Heng was done with the ritual, Xu Qian silently handed each of them a band-aid.


    ��Now, you can answer her question,�� Zhang Heng said.


    E-Goat went silent for a moment before nodding. ��Yes, I was the one who followed you in the mall.��


    After speaking, he deliberately looked at Zhang Heng again, but Zhang Heng made no response. He signaled him to continue talking.


    ��Why are you following me?�� Xu Qian then asked.


    ��Because... I have a psychological problem. I am a stalker.�� E-Goat lowered his head.


    To which Zhang Heng quickly said, ��You are lying.��


    ��I��m not,�� E-Goat defended himself.


    ��This is another lie,�� Zhang Heng took a sip of the tea in front of him and said slowly.


    ��You can tell me the truth. I told you that no matter what the truth is, I won��t hold you ountable,�� Xu Qian pleaded sincerely from across the table. She hesitated and reached out and held E-Goat��s hand.


    Thetter��s body trembled.


    Even Zhang Heng, who was sitting next door, could feel E-Goat��s heartbeat speeding up, and his breathing had be even faster. However, Xu Qian did not rush him.


    After another two minutes, E-Goat finally raised his head. The expression on his face looked a little distorted as if he wasughing and crying at the same time.


    ��You said you want the truth? But I don��t think you want to hear it.��


    Xu Qian seemed to think of something. She then wanted to let go of E-Goat��s hand, but the next moment, E-Goat took the initiative to grab hers. And thetter��s palm became hotter.


    What he was about to say would give Xu Qian a huge shock.


    ��I follow you because... I like you.��


    ��This is the truth,�� Zhang Heng said while drinking the tea, ��but you might want to consider letting go of her hand first. Ms. Xu Qian is my employer. If you hold her like this, I will have to take action.��


    E-Goat finally let go of her hand. And he seemed to have exhausted all his strength to tell her the truth. He then leaned his body on the back of the chair.


    The look on Xu Qian��s face was a little awkward. She retracted her hand and said casually, ��But, but... I have a boyfriend.��


    Once again, E-Goat gave no response.


    ��And we are about to get engaged. He lives on the fourth level. Other than that, he also owns a small factory and a beautiful little vi by theke. We have agreed that we will go boating on theke after we get married. I��ve always thought of you as my friend and brother.


    ��I have always wanted to tell you this for a while now,�� Xu Qian addedter.


    E-Goat still did not say a word. He looked like he had lost his soul.


    ��Sorry,�� Xu Qian blurtedst.


    ��Do you have anything else to ask?�� Zhang Heng then asked.


    ��No, no more.��


    Although she found the person stalking her, Xu Qian did not feel as relieved as she thought she would. On the other hand, E-Goat��s sudden confession made her feel like she was sitting on pins and needles. While this problem was solved, she still needed to deal with Zhang Heng��s problem. That was what gave Xu Qian a headache.


    She even started to regret that she had hired a bodyguard.


    ��You are finished, but I still have a few technical questions I want to ask him.��


    Zhang Heng did not intend to evaluate the rtionship between the two. He put down the teacup and said to E-Goat, ��You are awork engineer. Can you tell me how you hacked into Xu Qian��s apartment?��


    Zhang Heng asked this question because he wanted to prepare himself for his escape in the future. He had an Lv2 hacking skill, but the technology in this dungeon was more advanced. And technology forwork security had improved as well. Zhang Heng wanted topare his hacking with E-Goat��s.


    However, E-Goat shook his head when he heard Zhang Heng��s question. ��I only followed her once in the mall. I have never hacked into her apartment.��


    What surprised Zhang Heng was not E-Goat��s answer but Oath Ring��s reaction. It was not hot, which could only mean that E-Goat was telling the truth.

 Chapter 951 - Coincidence

    <h4>Chapter 951: Coincidence</h4>


    The first thing Xu Qian did after getting in the car was to take out a pack of cigarettes from her bag. In order to protect her voice after she started working as a streamer, she was determined to give up her smoking habit. However, she had no idea why she still bought a pack of cigarettes and a lighter from the vending machine downstairs before leaving her apartment that afternoon. Perhaps Xu Qian had a foreboding of what would happen next.


    She knew that E-Goat liked her a lot, yet none of them had talked about it before. For E-Goat, once he confessed to Xu Qian, he would have to bear the risk of losing her and staying by her side. As for Xu Qian, she could continue to enjoy letting E-Goat work for her without feeling any guilt.


    But this tacit understanding finally disappeared after E-Goat confessed to her. Since then, Xu Qian appeared to have be a little absent-minded. She did not even listen to the conversation between Zhang Heng and E-Goat. When the two talked halfway, Xu Qian looked for an excuse to go back to the car.


    Xu Qian lit the cigarette in her hand. Since she had not smoked for quite some time, she choked on the first puff. And about a quarter of an hourter, Zhang Heng also left that small restaurant. He then opened the car door and got into the driver��s seat.


    Xu Qian then took a quick look at E-Goat in the small restaurant through the car window. Thetter was sitting in a chair alone, and she did not know what he was thinking.


    Xu Qian also handed Zhang Heng a cigarette, but thetter refused.


    ��About you being stalked and discovering that your home was invaded, can you provide me with more details?��


    ��What do you mean by details?�� Xu Qian put away the cigarette and frowned, ��I thought this matter is over. Haven��t we already found the person who stalked me?��


    ��E-Goat was the one who followed you in the mall, but as far as I know, that was his first stalking experience. In other words, there is another person who spied on you and invaded your house. In fact, now I have reason to believe that E-Goat was just someone who took the me for the real stalker. After you left, I chatted with him for a while and found out that after he chatted with someone named Walk The Moon, he decided to stalk you.��


    ��This... Maybe it��s just a coincidence?��


    ��I don��t think so,�� Zhang Heng said. ��Did you tell anyone else about going to the mall?��


    ��No.�� Xu Qian shook her head, but after a thought crossed her mind, she hesitated a little before adding, ��I mentioned it to my boyfriend. Why? Are you going to suspect my boyfriend now?


    Zhang Heng did not answer her question. Instead, he said, ��I asked E-Goat, and he told me that Walk The Moon seems to know you well, including some of your small habits and hobbies. This is why he decided to follow his advice. Other than that, Walk The Moon was the one that told him that you went to the mall...��


    ��You don��t know my boyfriend,�� Xu Qian interrupted Zhang Heng. ��I can be certain that he has nothing to do with this incident. My God, how could you say that?! You have never seen him, and neither do you even know what he looks like.��


    ��Yes. That is why I asked,�� Zhang Heng said lightly.


    ��I have nothing to say about my boyfriend. He went to the earth a long time ago, and he is no longer in New Shanghai 0297. He has no reason to ask E-Goat to follow me,�� Xu Qian replied, taking in two drags. ��Your witchcraft is useless. Can��t you see that E-Goat is lying to you? He is aworking expert. He must have figured out a way to locate me. He just doesn��t want to admit it.��


    ��Then why did he admit that he followed you at the mall a few days ago?��


    ��I don��t know. I think he got too nervous when we approached him just now. It could be why he simply made up a lie that didn��t make sense. Or, maybe I was just hallucinating. Perhaps no one followed me all this while except for that one time at the mall. And perhaps no one broke into my apartment as well,�� Xu Qian said.


    ��Do you really believe yourself there?�� Zhang Heng asked rhetorically.


    ��Then what do you want me to believe in?�� Xu Qian finally broke down. She threw away the cigarette in her hand and said anxiously, ��Isn��t it a fact that E-Goat was the one that stalked me? He admitted it just now. And you told me that he wasn��t lying. So shouldn��t we stop here? I��m just a small-time streamer, and I don��t go out very often. It doesn��t make sense that so many people actually stalk me.��


    ��I��m trying to figure out the whole thing now.��


    ��But you can��t even save yourself.�� Xu Qian blurted out. But she regretted it almost immediately. After a moment��s silence, she added, ��Sorry, I didn��t mean that. You have helped me identify the stalker. It��s time for you to deal with your problems so that no one will suspect me when I report you to the authority eight dayster.��


    Zhang Heng listened to her with raised eyebrows. In the end, he decided not to say a word about it.


    The two of them returned to their residence after that. As soon as Xu Qian returned to her apartment, she locked herself in the studio and began to prepare for the night��s livestream. Meanwhile, Zhang Heng sent an email to Miss F, asking her if she was avable.


    Miss F��s replied him in less than half a minute. Instead of answering his question, she sent him an address.


    Zhang Heng looked at the location and found out that the ce was not far from the movie theater where the two first met. Including the time when Zhang Heng asked Miss F to send him the photos, this was the second time he had to bother her. Hence, before leaving, he went to the mall and bought a gift for Miss F.


    After that, Zhang Heng took a taxi to the Central Shuttle Station. While waiting for the shuttle, he searched for Xu Qian��s boyfriend on the inte.


    Although Xu Qian had made it clear that she wanted Zhang Heng to investigate no further, Zhang Heng had no intention to give up. After meeting E-Goat, his interest in this matter had only be even greater.


    The person with the name Walk The Moon acted very differently from E-Goat. Clearly, he was better at it than him. Not only did he stalk and monitored Xu Qian, but he also made use of E-Goat to distract Zhang Heng when he realized that he was being investigated. This was not something an enthusiastic fan would do.


    As Xu Qian said, she was just a small-time streamer. Except for extreme fans like E-Goat, who had liked her for a long time, it stood to reason that no one would do such a thing to her. It only made Zhang Heng even more curious about Walk The Moon��s true identity.

 Chapter 952 - F And Tang

    <h4>Chapter 952: F And Tang</h4>


    ��All passengers, please take note. You have arrived at the first level. Please check your personal belongings and disembark in an orderly manner. Thank you for taking this shuttle. We look forward to serving you next time...��


    The shuttle soon slowed to a halt, and its passengers finally arrived at the destination of this trip. Zhang Heng waited until the arrival carriage moved to the arrival area. He then unfastened his seat belt and walked out of the station with the other passengers.


    He noticed that the atmosphere on the first level was very different from when he camest night. Although the mood in the city was still humdrum, there were now herds of riot police patrolling the streets. Such a scene was extremely rare on the first level where its state was almost always in total anarchy.


    The heavy police presence was obviously rted to Zhang Heng��s previous fight with the biker gang. Dozens of people had died from the battle after all, and it would be considered a serious incident no matter where it happened. Miss F was serious when she promised Zhang Heng that she��d help him deal with the problem. When Zhang Heng showed up in front of the riot police, they made no move. Instead, they just watched him walked past them.


    After that, Zhang Heng headed towards the rendezvous point.


    The rendezvous point was a residential area. However, unlike the third-level residential area, the only ess control system was broken, and no surveince cameras were installed. So, Zhang Heng took the elevator to the 22nd floor and knocked on the door of 2204.


    After a while, the electronic lock was unlocked, and Miss F��s voice came from inside.


    ��Come in. Close the door.��


    ��Hmm.��


    Zhang Heng did what she asked and walked into the room.


    Unlike what he expected, this ce was not like the secret base on the second floor of the cinema. It was an actual residence. The furniture and furnishings weren��tparable to Xu Qian��s apartment, but the hangings on the wall and the decoration in the house showed that there was indeed someone living here.


    Besides, Zhang Heng had also seen a little girl sitting on the carpet in the living room. She was about three to four years old and an adorable one as well. As of now, she was ying with a toy duck. Zhang Heng said hello to the little girl, but she just looked up at him and did not say a word. After that, she lowered her head and continued to y with her toy duck.


    And Zhang Heng sat down on the sofa opposite her. About five minutester, he heard Miss F��s voiceing from the kitchen, ��Help me clean up the table.��


    ��Okay.�� Zhang Heng got up and cleared the books and papers on the dining table next to him.


    After a while, Miss F came out of the kitchen two tes of stir-fried vegetables.


    ��I usually only eat vegetables at night. Since you are here, I have cooked an extra te of shredded pork with green peppers for you tonight. It��s in the kitchen. You can bring it out.��


    ��Thank you,�� Zhang Heng said, and he looked at the little girl on the carpet. ��Does she belong to you and Mr. G...��


    ��No, she is my friend��s child. She asked me to take care of her temporarily,�� Miss F said, ��Her mother will get off work soon and will pick her up.��


    ��Oh.��


    Zhang Heng then walked into the kitchen and took out the te of shredded pork with green peppers and the two bowls of rice on the side.


    Other than that, Miss F also filled the bowls with congee. She then ced the chopsticks and spoon beside the bowl. At the same time, she asked the little girl on the carpet to y in the room next to her.


    Once the two were seated, Zhang Heng passed the gift that he had just bought to Miss F, who sat opposite of him, and at the same time, thanked her. ��I didn��t expect that you would let mee to your house.��


    ��Why do you say that?�� Miss F took the gift and found that it was a box of choctes. When she saw the chocte brand, her hand froze for a short while


    ��Once I return to the securitypany, this memory of mine would most likely cause you some trouble,�� Zhang Heng said. ��Thank you for showing me the movie. The part about social surrealism is impressive and profound. Oh, and the hamster you gave me. I didn��t understand what it meant until I got home.��


    ��That��s impossible,�� Miss F frowned. ��It is never easy to doubt one��s self-existence. Even the best philosophers would not be able to figure out your identity so quickly, not to mention that you have epted it in such aposed manner. And you did not even doubt it.��


    ��Uh, this is probably because recently, I happened to be thinking about who I really am,�� Zhang Heng said.


    ��Do you have an answer now?��


    ��No, but I at least already know that I am a clone.��


    ��Due to the existence of the memory encoder, the memories possessed by the clones are all forged.�� Miss F used her chopsticks to take some vegetables for Zhang Heng. ��You need a little time to adapt to your new identity and think about who you are, what you live for, and how you want to live.��


    ��You are right. But before that, I still have one important thing to do,�� Zhang Heng said while pointing at his head. ��I have to take out the tracking device under my cerebral cortex. ��


    ��Is that why you came to me?�� Miss F seemed a little curious. ��How do you know I can help you?��


    ��Because I know who you are,�� Zhang Heng said. ��If there is another person in this world who can solve the trouble I��m encountering, it is you. You have encountered the same thing as me, and the world thinks that you are dead. And now you are sitting across from me. I��m not sure whether I should continue to address you as Miss F or Tang.��


    Miss F��s pupils contracted when she heard what Zhang Heng said. But soon, she returned to normal. If Zhang Heng had not been paying attention to her eyes all this time, he wouldn��t have captured the split-second emotional change on her.


    After that, Miss F calmly said, ��Tang is dead, or to be more precise, she has never existed before. She is just an idol created to meet the entertainment needs of the public. She has no rtives, no friends, no freedom of thought, and precious memories that truly belong to her. She is just an... empty and beautiful toy.��


    ��But now you have those things,�� Zhang Heng said. ��I came to you for no other purpose. I just want to know how you extract the tracking device out of your head back then?��


    ��Sorry, I can��t help you with this matter.�� Miss F shook her head.


    ��Huh?�� Zhang Heng raised his eyebrows.


    ��I was rescued by someone back then, and you have seen the person who saved me.��


    ��Mr. G?��


    ��Yes. So, if you want to remove the tracking device from your head, you can only ask him for help. As far as I know, he is also the only person in New Shanghai 0297 who can remove the tracking device from your head.��


    ��Then what price should I pay? Wait... In order for him to help you, you are required to marry him?��


    ��You have misunderstood us. I want to marry him because that��s what I want. Mr. G didn��t force me to do anything. Otherwise, we wouldn��t have dyed until now to get engaged.�� Miss F then touched the engagement ring on her hand.


    ��But you have to know that even if it is him, the risk of helping you is very high. He may ask you to do him a favor in return. But don��t worry. I will help you to convince him.��

 Chapter 953 - You Are Special

    <h4>Chapter 953: You Are Special</h4>


    The meeting with Miss F went smoother than Zhang Heng could��ve imagined.


    The fact that Miss F was Tang was actually Zhang Heng��s wild guess. After all, everyone knew that Tang was dead. The police found her body and chips after she set herself on fire. Tang was also a celebrity clone built by an entertainmentpany with a lot of money. She was supposed to have the perfect facial features. On the other hand, although F wasn��t unsightly, she could only be considered ordinary-looking. She wouldn��t be grabbing anyone��s attention when she walked on the street.


    The only thing that could connect F and Tang were their mechanical prosthesis. ording to the rumors circting on the inte, Tang lost an arm when she escaped from the fifth level. Other than that, the reason why Zhang Heng thought F was Tang was her temperament.


    Zhang Heng had always wondered how the ordinary-looking F would possess such an amazing temperament, where not even the celebrities on the billboards could bepared. And now he finally found the answer. As the most celebrated female clone streamer at that time, she had broken a lot of records in the streaming industry. And no one could surpass her until now. The level of her confidence and temperament were way better than Xu Qian and other streamers.


    However, neither the mechanical prosthesis nor the temperament could prove that F was Tang. Even if Zhang Heng connected the two together, Miss F could easily deny it. Zhang Heng��s current identity was still a clone trying to escape from the authorities, after all. If thepany captured him and read his memory, he would put Miss F at great risk.


    It was hard to imagine the courage that she had back then. She had to endure so much pain before she could escape that manor. After that, she had to fake her death just to live the life of an ordinary person.


    He would definitely not admit that she was the clone that faked her death if the two exchanged positions. When Miss F promised to help him convince Mr.G, Zhang Heng could feel the kindness she had for him. Zhang Heng asked Xu Qian about the number of clones in New Shanghai 0297. One could only imagine the number of clones that were working for humans right now. And Zhang Heng did not know why Miss F valued him so much.


    It was as if Miss F knew what he was thinking. She then exined, ��Do you know how many clones achieved self-awakening in New Shanghai 0297?��


    ��Please enlighten me.��


    ��Ever since the city was built, there have been no more than one hundred,�� Miss F said lightly. ��And most of them have been traumatized like me. Only a handful of them survives the hardship. For so many years, I have been trying to awaken other clones. Due to thews and regtions and the risk of memory being read, I can only hint at them about it secretly. Most of them do not respond to my hints. A small number of them would doubt their identities. Before they could think more about it, their memories are reset. Hence, there is only a handful of us realize our true identity.��


    ��What happened to them after that?�� Zhang Heng asked.


    ��Without exception, they all broke down.�� Miss F said, ��I have never seen someone like you. Maybe I can find the answer I��ve been looking for a long time from your body.��


    ��What answer?�� Zhang Heng raised his eyebrows.


    ��An answer to liberate our kind.��


    ��I��m afraid I might disappoint you. As you said, my situation is indeed very special. I don��t think I��m worthy of being promoted,�� Zhang Heng said honestly. He did not know how many clones there really were anyway. However, he knew that he was the only yer in the entire New Shanghai 0297.


    Miss F was nomittal. She then said, ��Let��s eat. The dishes are going to get cold.��


    After a while, the two did not talk to each other anymore. And they finished the dinner together just like that. While they were eating, Miss F��s friend came over and picked up the little girl ying in the bedroom.


    Zhang Heng had witnessed the way Miss F killed her enemies, but he didn��t expect her to be an excellent cook as well. Although the three dishes on the table were simple home-cooked food, they were very delicious, especially the stir-fried shredded carrot. Zhang Heng realized that the thickness and length of each slice of carrot were almost the same.


    Zhang Heng could not help but gobble down another bowl of rice. When he put down his chopsticks, he realized that Miss F had finished her food a long time ago. There was not a single grain of rice left in her bowl. After that, she got up, picked up the dishes, and put them in the dishwasher. Zhang Heng, on the other hand, was sensible enough to take the initiative to clean the tabletop.


    ��Let��s go.�� After everything was done, Miss F put on her coat and picked up the saber.


    ��Okay.��


    Zhang Heng came here to ask for something. So he did not bring any weapons except for Infinite Building Block. He followed Ms. F to the underground parking lot before she started her second-hand off-road vehicle remotely. She then entered the driver��s seat and left the other to Zhang Heng.


    Once they got into the car, she set the destination with the navigation system. The ce was located southwest of this level. Close to the edge, it was quite some ways from where they were.


    After the car started moving, Miss F spoke again. ��Thank you for the chocte. I can see that you did a lot of research before you came here. However, I don��t eat this brand of chocte anymore.��


    ��Why? Are you worried that your memory of liking this chocte might��ve also been forged?�� Zhang Heng asked.


    Miss F did not answer, seemingly acquiescing to this statement.


    ��Even if it��s a fake memory, the most important thing is that you feel good when you eat it. Am I right?��


    ��I just simply don��t want to remember any memories of being Tang,�� Miss F mildly said. ��Not everyone can ept the fact of being a clone as calmly as you. That��s why you are so special.��


    ��I��m quite special, but I��m afraid I��m not as special as you expect.��


    ��It doesn��t matter. Anyway, Mr. G will be the person who will be negotiating with youter. Just need to make sure that he is interested in you.��


    Miss F turned on the speakers in the car while talking.


    ...


    About forty minutester, the two arrived at their destination. It was a toy factory. Miss F ignored the group of burly security guards at the entrance and entered the factory with Zhang Heng. After that, they walked towards the second workshop. This factory was huge, but there were very few people working in it. Apart from the security guards, only engineers responsible for maintaining the equipment were present. Machines hadpletely reced all the workers at the assembly line.


    But as soon as he walked into the second workshop, Zhang Heng saw two people, and one of them was someone he knew.


    The leader of the biker gang was now handcuffed against production machinery. There were wounds all over his body. Zhang Heng could see the flesh and bones beneath his skin being exposed. And there was a pool of blood under his feet. He looked like he was dying.

 Chapter 954 - Courier

    <h4>Chapter 954: Courier</h4>


    This unfortunate man in front of Zhang Heng had his consciousness getting fuzzy. Even when Zhang Heng walked past him, he did not show any reaction, as if he did not recognize Zhang Heng at all.


    ��Are you torturing him to find out the mastermind behind the attackst night?�� Zhang Heng asked.


    ��No.�� Mr. G��s voice came from the second floor, ��I know who the mastermind is. I��m just using him to send a warning.��


    ��A warning?��


    ��Yes. Don��t get me wrong. I am not a sadist or a tyrant. I just don��t want what happenedst night to happen again. The person who attacked my guest on my turf must pay the price. I need to make sure everyone bears that in mind.��


    Mr. G gestured to the two bodyguards next to him to drag the two dying men outside and get rid of them. After that, he walked down the second floor and raised his head when he stood in front of Zhang Heng.


    ��When we met for the first timest night, I had a hunch that we would see each other again. However, I didn��t expect this day toe so soon.��


    ��I��m here to ask for your help,�� Zhang Heng bowed slightly.


    ��I heard what my fianc��e said,�� Mr. G smiled. ��She thinks highly of you.��


    ��Miss F thinks too highly of me.��


    ��I don��t think so. Before we discuss other matters, the fact that you single handedly fought against a dozen enemies before my men arrivedst night and protected the middleman, ensuring that the transaction was uninterrupted isn��t something that everyone can do. To be more precise, I should say that no second person in the entire New Shanghai 0297 could do what you didst night. After that incident, I have been thinking about how to thank you.��


    Zhang Heng knew that Mr. G had not finished speaking. So, he did not reply in a hurry, waiting quietly for him to continue speaking.


    Sure enough, Mr. G continued. ��I think Miss F should have told you that it is not easy to extract the tracking device in your head. And given the strict control of human cloning in New Shanghai 0297, this is a very risky matter. If it��s any other day, I don��t mind operating on you right away. However, I��m in the midst of a very important transaction. I must first secure the transaction.��


    ��May I ask about how long your transaction will take?��


    ��Initially, we nned to do it in two weeks. However, the main problem we are facing now is that we can��t find a suitable courier. As you can see, I am the actual ruler of the first level. I have a lot of men who are good atbat. And I also have men with cool heads or strong adaptability. However, I don��t have anyone that possesses all the traits I just mentioned.��


    Mr. G, went on, ��It��s a bad sign that the middleman gets targeted even before the transaction happens. When the transaction is officiallypleted, there will definitely be some troublemakers who wille looking for me. For confidentiality, this has to be as low-key as possible of a transaction. So I can��t assign too many people to carry out this task for me. I hope to hire a man with multiple talents to be my courier. F is supposed to be the most suitable candidate for this task. However, there is another task that requires her attention. This problem has been a headache for me until I saw your fighting videost night.��


    Mr. G paused, then continued, ��I don��t know how much time you have left, but if you are willing to be the courier for this transaction, then I can arrange for it to be carried out within five days. As long as you bring the goods back to me, I will immediately help you to solve your troubles.��


    ...


    Simr to when he came, Miss F drove Zhang Heng to the shuttle station when he wanted to leave.


    The two of them did not speak anymore while they were in the car. Zhang Heng turned his head to look at the regressive streets and buildings through the car window, as well as the passers-by with different looks. The scenery at the first level was monotonous. The sycamore trees were the only nts being nted in the green zone, and the exterior walls of all the buildings were painted with drab colors. However, the number of billboards here was more than the third level��s. There were all kinds of advertisements being disyed 24 hours a day. It reminded Zhang Heng of the endless pop-up advertisements from certain rogue antivirus softwares.


    No matter what era it was, if one wished to watch less advertisements, the person had to spend more money. Miss F parked the car next to a convenience store, and the opposite was the waiting area of the shuttle central.


    Zhang Heng then unfastened his seat belt and thanked Miss F again. ��Thanks to you for everything today.��


    Thetter shook her head. ��All I did was bring you to meet Mr. G. You were the one that talked to him about the whole thing. There is no need to thank me again.�� Then she reminded Zhang Heng, ��You should avoid causing any new trouble for now because we will be contacting you soon, when we are ready.��


    ��Understood.��


    Although Zhang Heng verbally agreed to it, he still drove to where E-Goat lived an hourter. Zhang Heng had sent an email to E-Goat, but thetter did not reply to him. Thus Zhang Heng checked on the navigation application and marked several bars nearby his ce.


    A quarter of an hourter, he found out that E-Goat was drinking alone in the corner of one of the bars. Zhang Heng then sat on the sofa opposite E-Goat. Thetter looked up at him and looked away immediately. It was as if he had seen a stone on the side of the road. He had no interest in talking to him at all.


    ��Aren��t you curious why I came to you again?��


    ��It doesn��t matter,�� E-Goat��s voice sounded a little hoarse. It was probably because he had been drinking too much. ��If you are here about the stalking matter, I advise you not to waste your energy. I don��t want to talk to you anymore. You can call the police and let them arrest me.��


    ��Rx, haven��t we already told you that day? We won��t call the police to arrest you,�� Zhang Heng said.


    ��Get the hell out of my face then!�� E-Goat raised the wine ss in front of him and drank all of its contents.


    ��The woman you like is about to marry another man. I know you must be feeling very ufortable now.�� Zhang Heng was not angry when he heard the way he spoke to him, but remained very patient with him.


    ��Why would youe here to bother me? You know I��m going to scold you.�� E-Goat red at Zhang Heng.


    ��Actually, you know very well that chances for the two of you to be together is very small, right? And you also know that the day she confronts you wille sooner orter. But even so, you are still willing to love her unconditionally. Tell me, why did you do something that you knew won��t end well?�� Zhang Heng asked rhetorically.


    ��You are sick. Did youe here just to taunt me?!��


    ��Of course not. I just want to confirm how much you are willing to contribu

 Chapter 955 - Cooperation

    <h4>Chapter 955: Cooperation</h4>


    The second meeting between Zhang Heng and E-Goat was not pleasant. It ended with E-Goat spilling beer on an innocentdy behind Zhang Heng. His move almost caused amotion in the bar. When Zhang Heng came to the Central Shuttle Station early the next morning, he saw the gloomy E-Goat outside the gate.


    ��Good morning. You haven��t had breakfast yet, right? �� Zhang Heng greeted him and handed a bag of Polo buns to E-Goat.


    ��Were you anticipating me?�� E-Goat did not take the bag of buns from Zhang Heng and grimaced. ��You are just despicable. You knew that I wouldn��t have sat back and watched when I found out that Xu Qian is in danger.��


    ��You overthink the whole thing. I just bought two Polo buns for breakfast. Since you are here, I don��t mind giving one to you,�� Zhang Heng said. ��Besides, if I remember correctly, I told you that Xu Qian might be in danger.��


    E-Goat looked caught in a dilemma. But in the end, he still reached out and took the Polo bun from Zhang Heng. ��Let me tell you something first. The only things that I care about are rted to Xu Qian. If I find out that you want me to do things for you in the name of Xu Qian, I will turn around and leave.��


    ��No problem,�� Zhang Heng nodded. ��You fill in the application form first.��


    ording to New Shanghai 0297��s regtions, when the upants of lower-level wanted to take the central shuttle to the higher level, they would need to submit an online application first. After that, they were allowed to purchase the tickets only after their applications were approved. Fortunately, the process was not thatplicated. And for the people with no criminal record, the authorities would usually approve the application. If the applicant wanted to travel with another person, they needed to fill in thepanion��s ID on the application form.


    After hearing what Zhang Heng said, E-Goat suddenly became alert again. ��Why don��t you apply for it yourself?�� he then asked.


    ��Because I want you to be useful.��


    ��...��


    Zhang Hengter exined, ��No matter who is monitoring Xu Qian, the person is obviously well-prepared. When I started to investigate this matter, the person had already noticed me. That was why he used you to take the me. So in the follow-up investigation, we must be extremely cautious. Since I am Xu Qian��s bodyguard, my presence will be more conspicuous. As for you, you can move in the dark.��


    ��But, ording to your statement, if Walk The Moon is the one that is spying on Xu Qian, he should know me as well.�� E-Goat doubted.


    ��It��s okay. Your presence shouldn��t bother him.�� Zhang Heng patted E-Goat on the shoulder.


    ��...��


    ��Oh, I don��t mean that you are insignificant. Everyone knows that you are just Xu Qian��s crazy fan. Once you craft such an identity for yourself, the enemy would not be too wary of you. By the way, Do you have any rtives or friends living at the fourth level?�� Zhang Heng asked afterward.


    ��No.��


    ��How about ssmates?��


    ��Neither.�� E-Goat shook his head.


    ��People you know?��


    ��Apany on the fourth level is ourpany��s client. He bought aplete set of equipment recently. I go to them from time to time forwork maintenance.��


    E-Goat frowned.


    ��Very good. Just use this reason.��


    Although E-Goat was a little unwilling to listen to Zhang Heng��s order, he was left with no other options since it was rted to Xu Qian��s safety. In the end, he obediently filled out the application form, and as Zhang Heng said, he received approval less than five minutester.


    The two bought their own tickets and boarded the shuttle to the fourth level.


    At the barst night, Zhang Heng had only revealed to E-Goat that Xu Qian might be in danger, but he did not specify what kind of threat it was. Besides, E-Goat was in a bad moodst night, and he did not ask for more details from Zhang Heng.


    He struggled the whole night, and it wasn��t until dawn that he made up his mind toe to the station. He initially thought Zhang Heng would tell him all the details when he got on the shuttle, but thetter seemed to have forgotten about the matter. Zhang Heng did not say anything to him after they boarded the shuttle.


    Until the shuttle arrived at the fourth level, E-Goat could not help it anymore and stopped Zhang Heng after they stepped out. ��Did you forget about something?�� he tried to remind Zhang Heng.


    ��What did I forget?��


    ��We have now reached the fourth level. All you did was make me prepare this and that. You haven��t even told me what we are doing here,�� E-Goat snorted.


    ��Oh, I want to visit thispany.�� Zhang Heng handed a note to E-Goat.


    ��New Shanghai Zhuorui Sensor Co. Ltd?�� E-Goat took the note and looked at it. ��What does this ce have to do with Xu Qian?��


    ��You should ask what the boss of thispany has to do with Xu Qian.��


    Zhang Heng took back the note.


    ��Wait... Could it be that...�� E-Goat seemed to think of something, and his expression suddenly changed.


    ��You guessed it right. The boss of thispany is Xu Qian��s boyfriend, or more urately, her fianc��. He��s already proposed.��


    ��Did Xu Qian say yes?�� E-Goat was feeling anxious.


    ��No. He went on a business trip recently, but he��ll apparently be back soon, and that��s when Xu Qian will agree to his marriage proposal,�� Zhang Heng said. ��The good news is that we should have a few days left. So you treat this operation as yourst chance.��


    E-Goat did not show any joy after he heard what Zhang Heng said. On the contrary, he hesitated even more. ��I... I followed Xu Qian once earlier, and now I am going to her boyfriend��spany. If she finds out about this, she��ll definitely block me permanently.��


    ��Believe me. Your current situation is no better than being blocked by her,�� Zhang Heng said. ��And you don��t have to worry about this issue. We are not going to enter thepany looking like this.��


    From what Xu Qian told Zhang Heng, her boyfriend was supposed to be at the earth right now. Still, Zhang Heng decided to use his Lv2 makeup skill to change their appearance just in case. When they stepped into thepany, the two had transformed into the buyers of an electronic disypany. E-Goat then handed over the newly-released electronic business card to the receptionist at the front desk.


    After the receptionist looked at the names on the card, she asked, ��Mr. Wang Hao and Mr. He Tian, have you made an appointment?��


    ��No. Ourpany needs to purchase a batch of sensors, and they sent us here to visit the manufacturer. However, yourpany is not included in our initial inspection list. We found yourpany��s information by ident on the Inte, and it happened that we were nearby. So, we came here to take a look.�� Zhang Heng said.


    ��Oh. I see. Please waitfortably in the second reception room. I will contact the manager right away.�� The receptionist took Zhang Heng and E-Goat to the lounge and made two cups of tea for them. After bowing, she left.


    Right after she walked out of the room, Zhang Heng pretended to look around before he blocked the surveince camera at the upper right corner, allowing E-Goat to take out his micrputer from his bag.


    But E-Goat did not expect the table in the room was transparent. After he took out the micrputer, he did not know where to put it. In the end, Zhang Heng threw his backpack on the table, blocking the micrputer under the table.

 Chapter 956 - Secret

    <h4>Chapter 956: Secret</h4>


    ��It��s nice to meet you two. I��m Liao Ming, the manager of the marketing department.��


    Five minutester, a tall man in a suit and a pair of leather shoes walked in from the door and shook hands with Zhang Heng and E-Goat.


    E-Goat looked a little nervous. Since he held the micrputer with one hand under the table, he could only sit on the chair and give Liao Ming a handshake with his other. Unfortunately, he did not look like someone who came here to discuss business with the overly serious expression on his face. Instead, he looked like he was here to find fault.


    As the marketing manager, Liao Ming had read through countless people and dealt with all kinds of monsters. Hence, not about to be bothered by E-Goat��s expressions, he still enthusiastically exchanged electronic business cards with the two.


    ��You two are from...Qitong Technology Group?��


    ��Yes. To be precise, we are just a subsidiary of the mainpany. We were only established recently,�� Zhang Heng said.


    The two electronic business cards forged by E-Goat were very detailed. Taking into ount the possibility that the other party might do a background check on them, E-Goat decided to use the information of a realpany. The mainpany was about the same size as Shengtang Morgan, where it had thousands of subsidiaries under it. E-Goat had selected a newly established subsidiary to increase the authenticity of its business card. It also allowed them to whip up something on the spot.


    Liao Ming nodded, ��As far as I know, Qitong Technology Group also has apany in the sensor business. No. I should say that Qitong Technology Group��s sensors are very popr in the industry. So why not just order the sensors from thatpany?��


    Of course, Zhang Heng had already prepared the answer to this question.


    ��Oh, their sensors are indeed very popr. That��s why they need to deal with a lot of orders. And we need those sensors urgently and we have very little time left. Besides, we don��t have high requirements for the sensors... We actually hope to lower costs...��


    ��Understood. Let me introduce our product lineup to both of you,�� Liao Ming said while connecting his bracelet to the projection in the living room.


    E-Goat��s breathing only got faster than before.


    Zhang Heng discussed the possibility of hacking the bracelet when he met E-Goat for the first time. ording to E-Goat, the bracelet was a must-have personal device for everyone in this era. It had multiple functions and was also used to store personal information. In other words, the security that was used to protect the bracelet had to be top-notch. It also meant that it was almost impossible to hack the bracelet through the inte. Even the top-tier hackers would take considerable time to hack into the bracelets of other citizens.


    No matter how secure the system was, however, there would always be loopholes. So, E-Goat came up with an idea. He would use the short-distancemunication method toplete the hacking. Before Liao Ming��s bracelet was connected to the projector in the meeting room, E-Goat would first shield the projection signal and disguise his micrputer as the projection device. Then, when Liao Ming connected his bracelet to the projector, he would not realize that he was actually connected to E-Goat��s micrputer. Without using any brute-force attack, E-Goat would be able to ess Liao Ming��s bracelet easily.


    Of course, this simple and crude method wasn��t without its shorings.


    First of all, when Liao Ming connected his bracelet to E-Goat��s micrputer, the real projector would not receive any signal. If Liao Ming weren��t a fool, he would very quickly realize something amiss. Fortunately, this was an easily solvable problem. As long as E-goat connected his micrputer to the projector, he would be able to project whatever Liao Ming wanted to show them. The biggest problem was that Liao Ming��s bracelet would disy a safety reminder when it was connected to a new device.


    This was not a serious matter because they did encounter this message from time to time. Most people do not care too much about this security reminder. However, they could not rule out some cautious people who would notice the subtle difference.


    Liao Ming, for instance, now had a look of surprise on his face when he received the security reminder. As the marketing department manager, Liao Ming had to take care of his customers all the time. This was not the first time he used the second meeting room, nor was it his first time connecting his bracelet to the projector. Hence, he was surprised to receive the security reminder.


    On the other side, E-Goat��s heart had almost jumped out of his throat. He was worried that that Liao Ming would find out about it. But, on the contrary, Zhang Heng remained calm and asked, ��Why? What��s the matter?��


    ��Oh. It��s nothing. It��s probably because I just upgraded the system two days ago.�� After seeing Heng seemed to be in a rush, Liao Ming didn��t want to overthink things. He simply clicked OK, and his bracelet was connected to E-Goat��s micrputer. About two secondster, the projector started working and projected thepany information Liao Ming had stored in his bracelet.


    At this point, Liao Ming was relieved, and he began to introduce their lineup to the two. He talked for about a quarter of an hour, during which he would pay attention to Zhang Heng��s and E-Goat��s expressions from time to time. He seemed to be studying their behavior. However, to his disappointment, Zhang Heng almost had no expression on his face. E-Goat, on the other hand, seemed to be more rxed than before. In the end, Liao Ming could not read anything from them.


    After Liao Ming finished his presentation, Zhang Heng asked a few more frequently asked questions by the buyers before asking, ��Can we visit the production workshop?��


    ��Of course. Wait a minute. Let me contact them first.��


    Liao Ming made a phone call. After that, he brought Zhang Heng and E-Goat downstairs. Then, they walked to the workshop behind the office building and visited the assembly line.


    Zhuorui��s production workshop was simr to the otherpanies on the fourth level, where no workers were on the assembly line. Liao Ming had said that the entire Zhuorui Sensor Co. Ltd. had less than forty people. The R&D and marketing departments were where most of the workers worked. As for other departments, there were only two to three employees in each.


    After turning around, Zhang Heng and E-Goat found nothing anything suspicious. At least on the bright side, Zhuorui was a small technologypany that operated like any other technologypany. As for the dark secrets they might be harboring, Zhang Heng and E-Goat had to check out the information they copied from Liao Ming��s bracelet.


    When it was all over, Zhang Heng shook hands with Liao Ming.


    ��We have a better understanding of the whole thing now, but we still need some time to study andpare the quotations. I will contact you as soon as possible once we make the decision.��


    ��Thanks for your hard work. You can call or email me if you have any questionster!��


    Liao Ming sounded as enthusiastic as ever.


    After leaving Zhuorui, Zhang Heng and E-Goat went into a cafe and asked for a corner seat. After that, E-Goatpiled the data that he copied and sent to Zhang Heng, including Liao Ming��smunications records, emails, photos, two months�� worth of location information, and consumption records.


    It took an hour for E-Goat to sift through all those information. As he read further into it, he became more and more disappointed. That was because the data stored in Liao Ming��s bracelet was nothing out of the ordinary, just like the workshop the two visited earlier. Other than the inappropriate rtionship with a female employee, he did not seem to be hiding any secrets.

 Chapter 957 - Best Employee

    <h4>Chapter 957: Best Employee</h4>


    ��We just wasted all of our efforts. Xu Qian��s boyfriend turned out to be clean.��


    E-Goat turned off his micrputer and leaned his body back on the sofa, looking frustrated.


    He hesitated for the whole night before making up his mind toe to the fourth level with Zhang Heng and sifted through the information obtained by illegal means. But, unfortunately, it turned out that it was just a false rm. Anyone would be disappointed by such an oue, especially E-Goat. At first, E-Goat was nning to use the information obtained from this investigation to prevent Xu Qian from getting engaged with her boyfriend. Now, it seemed all of his hopes were lost. Hence, he had now returned to his previous state of despair.


    Zhang Heng, who was sitting opposite him, did not say a word. He was still flipping through the copied materials in his hands. As the manager of the marketing department, Zhang Heng and E-Goat had the highest chances to meet up with him. Due to the nature of his work, he had to deal with various inquiries from the customers. Hence, arge amount ofpany-rted information was stored in his bracelet. From these data, it could be seen that Zhuorui��s business was nothing more than ordinary. They would take orders from otherpanies every month, and the orders could be big or small. And most of the time, Zhuorui would deliver its products on time.


    As for Liao Ming, the marketing manager��s activities in recent months, he could not find anything wrong with it as well. Other than daily activities, most of his contacts were customers who wanted to order sensors from Zhuorui. After Zhang Heng checked hismunication records and location information, the thing that impressed him the most was his work attitude.


    In essence, he was more than diligent. Liao Ming got married very early, his wife being his ssmate from the university that he attended. However, the perfect couple that everyone expected tost a lifetime did not have a smooth life after the marriage. After seven years of marriage, their rtionship was forced toe to an end. Liao Ming chose to leave her and took away his four-year-old daughter.


    One could see that his failed marriage impacted him greatly. Although Liao Ming was messing around with some heterosexual partners due to his physical needs, he never had the idea of remarrying. At the same time, to make up for his daughter��sck of motherly love, Liao Ming decided to give his daughter a high-standard and materialistic life.


    Although he was living on the third level, he paid a hefty price to send his daughter to the boarding school on the fourth. That way, she got to enjoy the high-quality educational resources the level had to offer. The pocket money he gave her and the money he spent on her clothes and toys wereparable to the other students in the boarding school. In addition to that, every year, he would save a future education fund for her underage daughter to prepare her to leave New Shanghai 0297 to study further on earth.


    To maintain such a life would undoubtedly cost Liao Ming a great fortune, which probably exined why he worked so hard in thepany. He spent more than 14 hours with his customers every day. Besides the need to constantly look for new clients, he also needed to maintain a good rtionship with his existing ones. Liao Ming��s notebook was filled with various customer personal information, including their children��s birthdays, the cosmetic products their wives liked, and even what food their pet dogs enjoyed. It allowed him to establish an intimate rtionship with his customers in the shortest time possible and make a breakthrough in his business.


    Such a person could be regarded as a model employee no matter whichpany he worked in.


    E-Goat thenined, ��Maybe he will contact someone from Qitong Technology Company to check on our background now. He seems to be quite familiar with Qitong. He should have some friends over there. We should leave before he exposes us on the fourth level.��


    ��Well, if you are worried, you can go first. I will stay here for a while,�� Zhang Heng finally said.


    ��Why? Do you know that we are only allowed to stay here for less than ten hours? ording to the regtions, we will need to leave the fourth level before six o��clock in the evening.�� E-Goat frowned.


    ��Thank you for reminding me. I will pay attention to the time,�� Zhang Heng replied, then beckoned to the waitress of the coffee shop.


    ��Wait. Are you nning to leave me alone and do something bad?�� E-Goat looked nervous when he heard what Zhang Heng said. He seemed to want to say something but was forced to shut his mouth when he saw the waitress walking over.


    ��Bill, please. Thank you.��


    ��Okay. I will send you the e-bill now. All you need to do is click pay when you confirm that everything is stated correctly,�� the waitress smiled and returned to the other side after speaking.


    While waiting for her to leave thempletely, E-Goat continuedmenting in a low voice, ��Can you stop making trouble everywhere? I was the one that filled out the application form. If you cause any trouble, I will be in big trouble too.��


    ��Don��t worry. I won��t cause any trouble,�� Zhang Heng said. ��I will go back after I meet up with someone.��


    ��Who else do you want to meet?��


    Zhang Heng did not answer his question immediately this time. Instead, he raised his eyebrows and said, ��If you really want to help, I do have a favor to ask from you.��


    ��What��s the matter?�� E-Goat asked.


    ��Can you pay the pill, or we can go with AA.��


    ��...��


    After that, E-Goat saw the bill forwarded to him by Zhang Heng. They had ordered two cups of coffee and one cookie from the cafe, and after staying for an hour and a half, they spent a total of 300 credits. Zhang Heng was the one that asked E-Goat to help him, and he did contribute a lot at Zhuorui Company. It was only right for Zhang Heng to buy him a cup of coffee. Unfortunately, he just started the quest, and he had less than a thousand credits with him when he first came here. Now he was only left with six hundred credits.


    It would cost him half of what he had now if he paid for the meal. Left with no other options, Zhang Heng had to ask E-Goat to pay for him first. As a result, thetter looked at him contemptuously and paid the bill.


    The price of the items on the fourth level was way higher than that of the third level. Although E-Goat��s ie as awork engineer was not as good as that of Xu Qian, he still earned a considerable amount of credits every month. Hence, he could still afford to pay for this meal.


    However, when E-Goat followed Zhang Heng to the next ce, he found out that he had deceived him. Zhang Heng did not continue to investigate Xu Qian��s boyfriend. Instead, he went to the elementary school where Liao Ming��s daughter studied.


    Zhang Heng checked the background of this school on the inte earlier. Even on the fourth level, this school had a good reputation, was well-known for its strict management and teaching quality. Therefore, this school was favored by many parents.


    Zhang Heng then used his old tricks again. He bought a package of snacks from the nearby supermarket, disguised as a friend of Liao Ming, and met Liao Ming��s daughter��s ss teacher with the reason of wanting to give her the snack.


    He chatted with her ss teacher for about five minutes. He then handed the snacks to the ss teacher and left the school. After that, he reunited with E-Goat that waited for him outside the school. Thetter looked confused, ��This is it? What the hell are you doing? You came here just to give Liao Ming��s daughter some snacks?��


    ��Yes, that��s right.�� Zhang Heng nodded.


    ��And then?��


    ��It��s gettingte. Let��s go back to the third level first. Thank you foring here with me today... After I go back, I have to investigate a few more things, and I��ll ask you for a coffee after I figure out everything.�� Zhang Heng said.

 Chapter 958 - Wish

    <h4>Chapter 958: Wish</h4>


    Zhang Heng worked on thr matter until around ten at night. After that, he returned to Xu Qian��s apartment. And when the elevator door opened, Zhang Heng saw Xu Qian sitting in the living room. She was supposed to be livestreaming at this hour.


    Thetter had no makeup on. Sitting on the carpet in her pajamas, she was watching a shopping advertisement on the TV. There was a te of chicken feet, melon seeds, and two cans of beer beside her.


    ��You��re back.�� Xu Qian��s mood seemed to have lightened up aspared to two days ago. She even took the initiative to greet Zhang Heng.


    ��Did something good happen?�� Zhang Heng asked.


    ��Yes. I just received a call from my boyfriend. He told me that he��s almost done with his business on earth, and he estimates that he will be back in two days,�� Xu Qian eximed excitedly.


    Before that, she was a little hesitant about getting married so early. But, after experiencing so many things recently, from the continuous decline in viewer numbers to getting stalked to the bodyguard her hired bodyguard who had recently discoreved his clone identity, she had be a little overwhelmed by all these misfortunate events.


    Now she realized how precious it was for her to have a shoulder to lean on. She had prayed more than once for her boyfriend toe back to her.


    Now, her prayers were answered. He was going to return to New Shanghai 0297 earlier than expected.


    This was the only piece of good news Xu Qian received during this period of time. So, she decided to give herself a day off and take a break. Seeing Zhang Heng��s frown, Xu Qian waved her hand again. ��Don��t worry. I still remember the agreement between us. I never told him a thing about you.��


    ��That��s good.��


    Zhang Heng then put his backpack on the floor.


    ��How about you, have you found... uhh... a solution to your problems?��


    ��Well. I contacted a friend, and she said she would help me,�� Zhang Heng replied.


    Xu Qian nodded, but the excitement on her face had reduced. Zhang Heng��s reply wasn��t to her satisfaction. In fact, Xu Qian wasn��t as hopeful when it came to this. To her, it was impossible for Zhang Heng to go against the corporation that owned him. It was only a matter of time before he was caught. Xu Qian��s only hope was that Zhang Heng could hold on a little longer, at least until she got married.


    Initially, her boyfriend wasn��t supposed to be returning this early. However, he suddenly told Xu Qian that he was almost done with business on earth, and it gave Xu Qian a glimmer of hope. She then pointed to the chicken feet in front of her.


    ��Do you want some?��


    ��No. I had dinner before I came back,�� Zhang Heng replied.


    ��You look exhausted. Did you go to lots of ces today?��


    Seeing Zhang Heng rejecting her offer, Xu Qian picked up a chicken foot for herself.


    ��Well, I��m tracing the whereabouts of Walk The Moon.��


    Zhang Heng��s words froze Xu Qian��s expressions. And it took a while for her to squeeze out a smile. ��I thought we reached a consensus on this issue. You are not supposed to investigate this matter anymore. Didn��t you tell me that the investigation was purely an act to conceal the fact that you have discovered your identity? You caught E-Goat, and you have gotten what you want. So why continue to investigate?��


    ��Because I am very interested in this matter.��


    ��Interested? Why? I don��t n to pursue it anymore. Why are you still interested in it? And shouldn��t you focus on your affairs now?�� Xu Qian asked.


    ��I��m dealing with it,�� Zhang Heng said, ��Are you free tomorrow? I want you to go somewhere with me.��


    ��Uh... I��m afraid I don��t have that kind of time to go out.��


    ��Don��t worry. I won��t be long, and it can be done during the day.��


    ��But I have to prepare for the livestream tomorrow evening. Tomorrow��s stream is very important to me because that is probably myst,�� Xu Qian said.


    ��Yourst livestream?��


    ��I told you before. Most female streamers quit their job once they get married. As soon as this news spreads, the poprity of the streamer would instantly go downhill. And I am in a lot of trouble now. I estimate that I will not be able to start another livestream after tomorrow. So, it is better I say goodbye to my fans as early as possible.��


    Although Xu Qian��s words were rtively euphemistic, Zhang Heng understood what she meant by trouble. Once Zhang Heng, an awakened clone, was caught, Xu Qian would fall into a series of legal troubles ording to the currentws and regtions. This was why she wanted to marry herself off as soon as possible.


    ��My boyfriend actually discussed this matter with me a month ago. He also hoped that I could retire early. You know, he is not short of money, and he could be quite conservative too. He does not wish his wife or girlfriend to work as a streamer,�� Xu Qian said.


    ��So, your boyfriend is the one that wants you to retire?��


    ��No, it is the result of our mutual discussion. I just made up my mind, and I��m sure he will be delighted when I tell him about this decision. Why... is there any problem?��


    ��No matter what I say now, you probably won��t believe it. So, the easiest way for me to convince you is to make youe with me tomorrow,�� Zhang Heng said. ��This matter is of grave importance, even more, important than your retirement. You better take some time out tomorrow.��


    ��You... won��t hurt me, right?�� Xu Qian seemed a little worried, and she started to step back.


    She knew that the people who were driven to a dead-end would often make some crazy decisions, having the idea of ��Since I am going to die anyway, I should do something crazy before I die.�� They would even drag in other innocent people to achieve their end goal.


    Although Zhang Heng��s mood was fairly stable so far, Xu Qian did not know what was on his mind. So, Xu Qian acted very carefully during this time. She did lose control once when Zhang Heng suspected her boyfriend. Other than that, Xu Qian would treat Zhang Heng politely most of the time.


    At the same time, Xu Qian was d she didn��t mistreat Zhang Heng when she first met him. She knew that some people in New Shanghai 0297 did not treat the clones as human. But Xu Qian was not that kind of person, and she did not want to get into any trouble because of it. Unfortunately, she still got herself into big trouble in the end.


    Zhang Heng did not answer Xu Qian��s question, but instead, he asked, ��What is your biggest wish?��


    ��My biggest wish?�� Xu Qian seemed a little confused. She couldn��t understand why Zhang Heng suddenly changed the topic to a life goal.

 Chapter 959 - Utopia

    <h4>Chapter 959: Utopia</h4>


    ��My biggest wish is to live a better life,�� Xu Qian confessed after thinking a little. ��I have stayed on the first level before, and although I have always wanted to forget that part of my life, it turned out unforgettable. Throughout the time I lived there, I swore every night in my heart that if I leave that ce one day, I would never go back.��


    ��So, you haven��t been back since you left, have you?�� Zhang Heng asked.


    ��Yes. Any problem with that?�� Xu Qian asked. After a pause, she continued, ��I havee so far, and I worked my way up to where I am today. Now, I just need one more step forward, and I can make my dreame true. I know what you think of me��a female streamer who loves money more than anything else. I don��t deny that. It��s crucial that I be a fourth-level resident, not to mention that my boyfriend is also a very nice man. He is definitely qualified to be my life partner.��


    Zhang Heng was nomittal when he heard those words. Instead, he said, ��It��s gettingte. Let��s go to bed early. We have to go out tomorrow.��


    Xu Qian nodded and groggily stood up from the ground. At the same time, she asked the housework robot to clean up the unfinished snacks on the ground.


    She then said to Zhang Heng, ��If you have any sexual needs, I can pay someone to find... professionals to help you to deal with that. For the sake of the times we got along well, I hope you will not hurt me.��


    ��Oh. You think too much,�� Zhang Hengmented. ��I am your bodyguard. And our contract is not even over yet?��


    ��Yeah. Anyway, um... thank you for helping me to find the person who stalked me in the mall.�� Xu Qian put her arms together and walked towards her bedroom, ��Also, about that... Good night. ��


    ��Sweet dreams.��


    After Xu Qian returned to the bedroom and closed the door, Zhang Heng did not lie down and go to sleep immediately. Instead, he came to the floor-to-ceiling window of the living room. When the sensor detected someone standing here, the curtains would automatically retract to reveal the night view outside the window.


    Xu Qian��s apartment was located close to the city center. Zhang Heng could see half of the third-level city from Xu Qian��s apartment, where the colorful street lights and electronic billboards twinkled beneath his feet. Although it waste at night, many cars were still moving on the street. The suspended monorail whizzed by under the circr track, and on both sides of the track were the futuristic office buildings with their lights still turned on.


    A group of elite white-cor workers had just solved a challenge they encountered on their project. They were walking out of the office building while talking andughing. Although they looked exhausted, the excitement on their faces was evident. Instead of returning home to sleep, they decided to meet up to have supper together to celebrate the victory.


    Now, although Xu Qian alwaysughed at herself for being a materialistic small-time streamer, it was understandable why she was desperate to move to a higher level afterparing the first level and third level.


    Compared to the bleak, jam-packed, and chaotic first level, this was indeed a ce full of positivity and vitality. In addition to the huge gap in education, living environment, and consumption levels, the most important thing was that everyone on this level seemed to be filled with hope for a better future.


    Convenient and trendy tech gizmos were disyed all over the shelves of the department stores. With clean and tidy streets, and coupled with the breathtaking night sky, even the most demanding critics had to admit that this might be the most ideal future habitat for humankind.


    And this was only the third level of New Shanghai 0297. The fourth and fifth levels were definitely more beautiful and dreamier. In the end, Zhang Hengid his eyes on the huge shuttle track that prated the sky in the city center. Like the Tower of Babel described in the Old Testament, it was supposed to connect heaven and earth.


    Later, he turned off the light in the room and bid the hamster on the table goodnight.


    ...


    Although Zhang Heng promised that he would never hurt her, Xu Qian still looked a little nervous the following day, especially when she had breakfast. She tried to make Zhang Heng tell her where they were heading next, but he said nothing in the end.


    Xu Qian couldn��t help but feel nervous. It wasn��t until the two arrived at the station that Xu Qian saw the e-tickets Zhang Heng bought and realized where they were going next.


    ��We are going to the lowest level?!�� Xu Qian looked incredulous. ��I told you that I would never go back there again.��


    ��Rx. I��m not asking you to settle down over there. It��s just as a short trip,�� Zhang Heng persuaded.


    ��I don��t want to travel there because it��ll remind me of the life I had.��


    ��I forgot who said it, but someone once said that if we want to understand the present, sometimes we need to face the past,�� Zhang Heng said. ��Anyway, I have already bought you a ticket. As long as youe with me once, I promise that I won��t bother you again.��


    Xu Qian hesitated. A series of events that had happened on the first level made her reluctant to return. Besides, the first level was not as safe as the third, which also meant that it was easier for Zhang Heng to do whatever he wanted to do to her.


    Of course, if Xu Qian yelled for help from the guards at the station, they would immediately get her out of trouble. Zhang Heng would very likely be arrested and recalled by thepany in advance. However, once his memory was read by them, she would get into big trouble, which would undoubtedly affect her engagement.


    In the end, her intense desire to ascend to the fourth level overwhelmed her fear. So, Xu Qian chose to ept Zhang Heng��s arrangement and boarded the shuttle to the first level.


    ��You said that when you first moved to New Shanghai 0297, you worked as a waitress in a small restaurant. Do you remember where that restaurant was?�� Zhang Heng asked Xu Qian on the shuttle.


    ��Of course.��


    Xu Qian shifted slightly after she strapped her seatbelt on. Even though she had already made up her mind, an inexplicable sense of despair still nudged her heart once she realized that she was approaching the first level. She just wanted to get up from her seat and leave the shuttle immediately. However, since the shuttle had started moving, she wouldn��t be able to unbuckle the seatbelt. So, left with no other option, Xu Qian had to sit tight till the end of the journey.


    After a while, she frowned again. ��So, you n to get me to go to the small restaurant I worked at? Why? I don��t like the boss there and don��t want to see him again.��


    ��You are more sessful than him now. Don��t you want to go back and avenge yourself?��


    ��What��s the point in doing that? It��s in the past.�� Xu Qian shook her head, continuing, ��Besides, with his thick face, there is an 80% chance that he would ask me to take a picture with him and advertise his small restaurant. I don��t want to let him take advantage of me anymore.��


    ��You don��t have to worry about that. I am here now. If you are displeased with him, I can beat him up for you,�� Zhang Heng said.


    ��This n of yours sounds good.��


    Xu Qian managed to squeeze a smile.

 Chapter 960 - Buying Happiness

    <h4>Chapter 960: Buying Happiness</h4>


    No matter how unwilling Xu Qian was, the shuttle would still arrive at the first level. After walking out of the station, Xu Qian first raised her head and looked at the dull sky above her head. It was unlike the third level. Although the sky on the first level also had clouds, they would not move. After watching it for too long, it could even cause difort to some people. Other than that, only two preset temperatures were avable during the day and night. These two presets never changed over time.


    Xu Qian let out a long sigh. ��I don��t know how in hell��s name did I live in this hellhole for almost a year.��


    ��Do you still remember this ce?�� Zhang Heng asked.


    ��How could I not? When I moved to the second level as a streamer, I had a nightmare. I dreamt my viewers kept dropping in numbers, and eventually, I was forced to move back here. Thank you for making that nightmare a reality.�� Xu Qian looked at the small stalls around the station, and a look of contempt shed across her eyes. She then pulled out her coat worth 20,000 credits.


    ��Let��s go. Didn��t you say you wanted to go to the small restaurant I worked at? We can go back earlier if we are done with what we are supposed to do here.�� Xu Qian finally thought through the whole thing. Since she could not say no to this trip, it was better for her to cooperate with Zhang Heng and end this nightmare as soon as possible.


    Before getting off of the car, Xu Qian took out a pair ofrge sunsses from her bag and put them on. It covered half of her face. After that, the two drove to the small restaurant Xu Qian had worked at. As soon as they got out of the car, they saw two young girls in short skirts standing by the door of the small restaurant. They surrounded a man, trying to convince him to dine at the restaurant.


    The upper body of one of the girls waspletely attached to the man. ��We have Cantonese, Sichuan, and Huaiyang cuisine! You can also enjoy a 30% discount when you top up our membership card...��


    However, she was shoved away before she could finish.


    ��Go away. Don��t stand in my way.��


    After that, the man wanted to continue walking, but he did not expect another woman to stop in front of him. Furious, he was about to swear, but when he saw how the woman dressed, he immediately swallowed the swear words he was about to spit out.


    ��There��s no need for you to push others if you don��t want to eat here,�� Xu Qian snapped coldly.


    ��Why? Are you with them? Are you guys here to sell food or make money by scamming others?�� the passerby asked angrily.


    ��I don��t know them. All I know is that they are just doing their job,�� Xu Qian said as she walked up to the girl the man had pushed away. ��Hey, are you okay?�� she asked the employee. ��And why did you get so close to the man? Did your stupid [BEEP] boss make you do this? Why listen to him?��


    The girl smiled and whispered, ��I��m fine.��


    Xu Qian checked her arm and confirmed that there was no bruise on her before she stood up. After that, she said to the passerby, ��You are lucky that she is not hurt. Apologize to her right now.��


    ��Apologize to her? Why?��


    And the girl who was being pushed by the man quickly said, ��No need. I��m at fault. It has nothing to do with this gentleman.��


    ��No. You misunderstood me. It has nothing to do with you either. I just want to hear him saying sorry,�� Xu Qian said lightly.


    ��Where did this mad womane from? What��s wrong with you?�� The man wasughing even though he was furious. He was a man with a short temper. Otherwise, he wouldn��t have pushed the girl in the short skirt earlier. In fact, if Xu Qian did not dress so well and Zhang Heng was not beside her, he would have resort to violence again.


    Xu Qian did not refute him. She then activated the projection of her own bracelet, entered three thousand credits in the transfer interface, and said to the man, ��Apologize, and the money is yours.��


    Not only the man who pushed the girl was taken aback, but the two girls in short skirts next to him were also shocked beyond words. One of them moved her mouth as if she wanted to say something, but she decided not to say it in the end.


    ��Is it true? Are you trying to mess with me?��


    The man was a little skeptical about whether he did not believe that such a good thing would happen to him. The average monthly sry on the first level was only two thousand credits, way lower than the credits Xu Qian offered if he apologized.


    ��It��s just three thousand credits. So why would I need to lie?�� Xu Qian said and looked at the two girls. ��They will be our witness.��


    The man hesitated for a moment. He was not considering whether to apologize to the girl. Instead, he was worried Xu Qian might break her promise. However, he figured out that he had nothing to lose if he apologized. So, the man decided to do what Xu Qian asked and apologized to the girl he pushed.


    ��I��m sorry.��


    After that, he turned and looked at Xu Qian. However, she did not make any moves. Instead, she asked the man, ��Aren��t you going to apologize to me too?��


    Seeing the man was a little puzzled, Xu Qian reminded, ��You called me a crazy woman just now.��


    ��...��


    ��I��m sorry.�� He had done it once. So, he did not mind apologizing again.


    When he was done apologizing for the second time, Xu Qian spoke to him. ��Reach out your hand.�� She then shed her bracelet at the man��s bracelet and then entered the password. A few secondster, three thousand credits had been added to his ount.


    The man gulped, and he almost called Xu Qian insane. When Xu Qian looked at him, she knew what he was thinking at the moment. It seemed like he was worried that she might regret her decision. After receiving the transfer, he started to run away as fast as possible.


    Xu Qian nodded at the two girls and asked, ��Aren��t you girls supposed to bring in more customers?��


    The two employees quickly snapped back to reality. One outside the restaurant continued to attract more customers, while the other smiled and led the way.


    ��Please,e inside.��


    Although this small restaurant named Fu Ji could cook all kinds of dishes, its area was really small. In total, it could only fit four tables. The two girls in short skirts were both ushers and waitresses. Other than that, one more girl was responsible for cleaning, and thedy boss worked as a cashier. As for the boss, he was now working as a cook in the kitchen part-time.


    While the girl walked away to bring them the menu, Zhang Heng said to Xu Qian, ��If you give those three thousand credits to the girl who was being pushed, she should feel happier.��


    ��Why should I do that? She didn��t even sustain any injuries. And I��m not her mother. Why should I pay her?�� Xu Qian said. ��I did say that I feel unhappy because he didn��t apologize to the girl after he pushed her. I spent the three thousand credits to buy happiness for myself.��

 Chapter 961 - Chaos

    <h4>Chapter 961: Chaos</h4>


    Zhang Heng could understand why Xu Qian would stand up for the girl in the short skirt. What happened outside the restaurant earlier probably reminded her of all the grievances she had to endure when working as a waitress. She must have very likely gone through what the girl experienced.


    At that time, Xu Qian could only endure it silently, like what the girl intended to do. So, she had to bite the bullet and keep the matter to herself. Instead of saying that she spent three thousand credits to make the man apologize to the girl he pushed, it was better to say that she was buying the long-overdue life and apology that she deserved.


    ...


    The waitress, on the other side, quickly took the menu and asked respectfully, ��What do you want to eat? We have Cantonese, Sichuan, and Huaiyang delicacy in the restaurant. If you don��t like Chinese food...��


    Xu Qian, however, interrupted her halfway. ��I want Chinese Yam in Hot Toffee, squirrelfish, stir-fried snow peas, and a pot of fruit tea. Get rid of the yam skin. Also, tell the chef not to use dead squirrelfish. Oh, and don��t you serve me leftover fruit tea.��


    The girl in the short skirt looked baffled. ��Have you... Have you visited our restaurant for a meal before?��


    ��Oh. I��ve dined here a couple of times before,�� Xu Qian said.


    The girl in the short skirt had misunderstood what she meant, thinking that she was just a regr customer. Hence, she quickly apologized, ��I��m sorry. I��m sorry. I haven��t been working here for long, and I still can��t recognize all of the regr customers.��


    Xu Qian had no intention to exin the whole thing to her. Instead, she waved her hand to signal her to leave her alone. After that, she started to look around the restaurant.


    ��How is it? Anything��s changed since you left?�� Zhang Heng asked.


    ��There are some. However, most things remain the same.�� Xu Qian curled her mouth and pointed at a stain on the wall. ��I still remember this particr spot. I wiped it with disinfectant for an hour after the restaurant closed for business. Unfortunately, I failed to clean it. Thedy boss scolded me after that before proceeding to deduct half month��s sry. I remembered I cried the whole night. Then, there was another time when a customer ordered the wrong dish, but they refused to admit that they did. So, I was forced to pay for it in the end. I happened to have to pay the rent that day...��


    Revisiting the restaurant reminded Xu Qian of the darker days of her life.


    ��No wonder you are so reluctant toe back here.�� Zhang Heng took two pairs of chopsticks from the chopstick box and rinsed them in the teacup.


    Xu Qian then sat up straight. ��So, you brought me back here just to hear about my tragic past?��


    ��Well, I really want to know more,�� Zhang Heng said while handing Xu Qian a pair of washed chopsticks.


    At the same time, the girl in the short skirt brought the Chinese Yam in Hot Toffee and fruit tea to them. She also fetched Zhang Heng a new cup of tea.


    ��You can always ask me. Coming all the way to the first level ispletely unnecessary.��


    Zhang Heng made noment. Instead, he asked, ��Is that so? How much do you believe in your memory?��


    ��What do you mean?�� Xu Qian raised her eyebrows, ��I don��t deny that human memories change over time. Some of the good memories will be further enhanced, and some of the bad memories would worsen. There might be some deviations in the details. But... Our memories are generally credible. Otherwise, why would we need them then?��


    Xu Qian seemed to have thought of something when she said that. She paused and continued, ��Oh, I��m sorry. I know you must have suffered a lot during this period of time. However, I don��t know which memories are true and which are fabricated. If this happened to me, I think I will break down.��


    ��Really? I don��t think it��s that serious.��


    While the two chatted on, the waitress in a short skirt also brought over the dishes Xu Qian ordered. When thest dish, the squirrelfish, was served, the owner, who had been cooking, walked out of the kitchen in his apron. He then wiped his hands and said with a smile, ��I heard that a regr customer is here today. I had toe out of the kitchen to say hello.��


    He walked to the table where Xu Qian and Zhang Heng at. However, he was taken aback when he saw them.


    Saying nothing, Zhang Heng picked a piece of toasted sweet potato and put it in his mouth as if it had nothing to do with him.


    Xu Qian sneered, ��Why? Never thought I��de back?��


    ��You are...��


    The boss seemed a little overwhelmed.


    Xu Qian then took off her sunsses. ��Now, I don��t need to introduce myself anymore.��


    As a result, the boss had gotten even more confused. He then smiled and said, ��If it��s not too much trouble, do you mind introducing yourself to me?��


    ��Have you be so old that you forgot about me? Don��t you remember me?�� Xu Qian snorted.


    ��Should I... remember you?��


    The dispute between the two had attracted the attention of thedy boss at the counter. Thetter looked at them suspiciously, causing the owner to panic even more. With a wry smile, he said, ��Miss, please don��t spout nonsense. This is really my first time meeting you.��


    ��Interesting. Who was the one that hinted to me as long as I am willing to sleep with you, I��m allowed to do only half of the work in the restaurant?��


    When the boss heard what she said, the hairs all over his body stood up. He could feel his wife was giving him the gaze of death from behind him. He was so anxious that he quickly coined something up. ��I am the owner of a small restaurant, and I��m that capable. Usually, I tease my waitresses, but I would never dare say such a thing to you. Besides, I don��t think you are from the first level. I can��t afford to do that to you.��


    Before he could say a word more, thedy boss furiously bellowed, ��Okay! I saw you flirting with those two bitches earlier! Are you cheating on me?!��


    ��No. No. I just told you that the most I would do is to tease.��


    The owner realized that he said something wrong, so he quickly defended himself.


    But at the moment, thedy boss waspletely soaked in wrath. As the owner had said, thedy boss did not believe that her husband would dare to provoke a woman dressed so fancily. However, the way Xu Qian dressed made her think twice about throwing a tantrum. Zhang Heng was sitting beside Xu Qian too, and unless she were blind, there was no reason she��d allow the owner to take advantage of her.


    In the end, the waitress in the short skirt had to take the me. Thedy boss threw a teacup at her without thinking twice. Although it did not hit her, the shattering ss shocked her immensely, and she quickly hid in the corner. She was trembling, but thedy boss had no intention to let her go. The enraged woman rushed over and tried to grab the waitress��s hair. In the end, the whole restaurant became a hot, piping mess.

 Chapter 962 - Accident

    <h4>Chapter 962: ident</h4>


    The boss was about to cry. He felt sorry for the waitress in the short skirt, but he was afraid to stop his wife. He could only stomp his foot, yelling at Xu Qian, ��Look at what you��ve done! I have never wronged you! Why are you messing with me?!��


    ��I��m messing with you?�� Xu Qian eximed, ��I��m just telling the truth. You��ve done so many bad things to me when I worked for you. Do you want me to say them out loud one by one?


    ��You��re sick!�� The boss widened his eyes. ��When did you work for me? I don��t even recognize you!��


    Thedy boss on the other side, who was busy teaching the waitress a lesson, raised her head and asked, ��You worked in my restaurant before? When was that?��


    ��Three years ago,�� Xu Qian said. ��Rest assured. I didn��te here to mess with you. You guys can stop pretending to act like a bunch of crazies in front of me.��


    ��Pretend to be a bunch for crazies?�� Thedy boss had gotten even more furious now. ��I think you are insane. Look at yourself! How can our small restaurant hire someone like you?��


    ��At that time, I wasn��t as rich as I am now, and I just moved to New Shanghai 0297. The first job I got with my cousin was to be a waitress at your restaurant. Thanks to you, you��ve made me understand that if I want to take control of my destiny, I will have to be desperate enough to climb higher,�� Xu Qian sneered.


    ��What nonsense are you talking about?�� The boss looked confused. ��You��ve got the wrong person.��


    ��How is it possible? You are still the same person.�� Xu Qian said.


    ��We did hire an usher three years ago, but now she��s gone to be a waiter at the bar on the next street,�� thedy boss snorted contemptuously. ��Thedy wasn��t serious about the job. However, she only wanted half of the usual sry we offer, so we decided to hire her temporarily. After a year working for us, she resigned.��


    ��You are lying!�� Xu Qian became agitated. She then got up from her seat and took off the 20,000 credit coat. And she did not stop there. She pulled the singlet that she wore and revealed her cleavage.


    Although the boss wasining about the unsuspecting disaster that had befallen him, he could not help but look at Xu Qian.


    Xu Qian then pointed at the scar on her chest and said, ��Look at this scar! One of the customers�� girlfriends was upset that day. So, she poured the hot fruit tea on me. However, you still forced me to apologize to her. I will never forget that moment.��


    ��But the problem is that I haven��t done something like that before.��


    The owner seemed upset by the fact that Xu Qian was using him of something that he had apparently never done before.


    For a moment, Xu Qian started to doubt her memories. If they served her well, she remembered that the owner of this restaurant was greasy and disgusting. And his acting skills were never this good.


    After that, she saw thedy boss acting like she had received a revtion.


    ��You... Are you...��


    As if suddenly remembering thews and regtions, she quickly covered her mouth with her hands.


    Xu Qian then said angrily, ��Do you think I am a clone? Why don��t you shine an ultraviolet light at the back of my neck?��


    Thedy boss was shocked, and she looked embarrassed. After that, she winked at her husband beside her. He hesitated for a while, went back to the kitchen, and grabbed the ultravioletmp he used for disinfection.


    Xu Qian did not move. She just stood there and red at the two of them.


    The owner cautiously approached her with the ultraviolet light in one hand and a pot lid in the other. Thedy boss, not to be outdone, looked as though she was standing in the face of a formidable nemesis. She even had her hand with the bracelet behind her back, preparing to contact the police.


    After that, the owner pressed the switch to the light with his trembling fingers. At the same time, everyone in the rest restaurants subconsciously held their breath.


    The boss��s pupils shrank suddenly, and he started to take a step back.


    ��Well?��


    Thedy boss had her heart stuck in her throat.


    ��Nothing,�� the owner confirmed honestly.


    ��Then why did you take a step back?�� thedy boss eximed.


    ��I was reminded of the Tang incident,�� the owner said. After realizing that it was a false rm, he breathed a sigh of relief as he put down the lid.


    Meanwhile, Zhang Heng, who had been sitting silently, finally said, ��Sorry. My friend here has encountered a severe traffic ident before. It affected her head greatly. I hope you don��t take her words to heart. We will pay you to double for this meal.��


    The boss looked like he was crying without tears, ��If your head is sick, go for treatment. Don��te here to make a scene out of nothing. Besides, even if you pay me double the money, you can��t make up for the damage you caused to my marriage.��


    Xu Qian opened her mouth and wanted to say something, but Zhang Heng stopped her by ring at her. Zhang Heng then said, ��What do you guys want?��


    The owner looked at his wife, thedy boss, beside him. Thetter thought for a while and looked at the coat Xu Qian took off. She then gulped, ��If you want to make it up to us, you will have to pay us. Five, oh no, ten times the cost of this meal.��


    ��Okay. Deal.�� Zhang Heng nodded.


    Thedy boss almost dropped her jaw. She knew Xu Qian was rich, but she did not expect her to be this rich. if she knew, she would��ve asked them to pay twenty times the cost of this meal.


    When thedy boss was thinking of all the money that she could earn, she heard the waitress in the short skirt in the corner suddenly asking, ��What... What��s a clone?��


    ��Darn! It was too fu*cking chaotic just now. I totally forgot about you,�� moaned the owner.


    He then said to his wife again, ��We have no other options. Let��s just call thepany.��


    The waitress was still confused and was oblivious as to what had happened to her. Less than five minutester, a blue car that operated on new energy sources stopped in front of the restaurant. The car was no different from the other cars on the street, and the four people who got out of it also looked ordinary, just like any other ordinary office worker.


    The three men escorted the waitress to the car. And the other man said to thedy boss, ��I will send the bill to your mailboxter.��


    Thedy boss looked pained. ��We didn��t mean for this to happen. We know the rules. It was a slip of the tongue. Can you give us a discount?��


    ��I��m afraid that��s not going to work,�� the man said.


    ��Also, can you change her character again? I don��t want her to be so flirtatious. My husband has very poor self-control. He can��t control his lower half.��


    ��Weren��t you the one who chose this character for her? You wanted her to attract more men, right?�� the man asked rhetorically. He then nced at Xu Qian and Zhang Heng in the restaurant. ��We shouldn��t talk about such things in public. Let��s talk about the specific details by e-mailter. Or you can visit our ce tomorrow if you have the time.��


    ��Good, good,�� thedy boss nodded repeatedly.

 Chapter 963 - Revisiting Old Place

    <h4>Chapter 963: Revisiting Old ce</h4>


    ��Why are they so reluctant to admit that I worked here?!��


    After leaving the small restaurant, Xu Qian was stillining.


    Zhang Heng, on the other hand, didn��t answer her question. ��Next, let��s go to the house you rented before,�� he said instead.


    ��Oh, so you are really here to listen to my tragic story?��


    ��No. I just need to further confirm some matters,�� Zhang Heng said.


    ��And, what are those matters?��


    ��Let��s wait until you go to the house you previously rented.��


    Zhang Heng waved a taxi down as he spoke. Xu Qian nced at him, and she did not get in the car right away. Instead, she said, ��You have been keeping it a secret sincest night. Why don��t you just tell me everything? What do you want me to do? Our current rtionship... is like two ants on a hotpot. Are you still worried I��ll betray you? When those men came into the restaurant just now, I didn��t ask for their help. During this period, I have been doing what you asked me to do��cover for you.��


    ��It��s not that I don��t believe you. It��s just hard for me to exin the whole thing. Also, ordinary people might find it hard to believe. I think it��ll be better if we make slow and steady progress.��


    ��Then why not tell me the conclusion first? From there, we can move forward step by step?��


    ��Well, I think you should try to stay away from your boyfriend,�� replied Zhang Heng after thinking for a bit.


    ��What?��


    ��As I said, it��s hard for you to ept the conclusion.��


    ��I just don��t understand. Being with my boyfriend has nothing to do with my past.��


    ��This is what I want to prove to you next.��


    Zhang Heng then gestured for Xu Qian to get into the car.


    Although Xu Qian still had a ton of questions, she finally decided to do what Zhang Heng said, especially since the taxi driver was getting impatient and had started honking. Thus, she quickly hopped into the backseat.


    Ten minutester, they arrived at the ce Xu Qian rented when she first moved to this city. It was a small ten-story residential building. It was said to have ten floors, but the original building had only six. So the top four floors were additional floors that were built on top of the original building. Not only that, the first floor had been transformed into shop lots and was rented out to the people who lived there.


    Xu Qian pulled Zhang Heng to the side, found a safe passage, opened the door, and saw many shop lots. But, unfortunately, there was only a small passage in the middle that could amodate one person.


    It seemed like Xu Quan knew what Zhang Heng was thinking, so she said, ��This is the first floor. No one cares about this kind of thing. These stores refuse to spend their money renting warehouses. So, they store all of their merchandise here. They have been doing this since I moved here. As for what happens if this ce catches fire, I guess that we can only pray that it��ll never happen.��


    Xu Qian led Zhang Heng through the piles of items while she talked. They came up to the elevator on the second floor and pressed the button to go up. Unlike the convenient single-person elevator in Yacheng District, these looked more like the elevators Zhang Heng was familiar with. The apartment elevators in China still used buttons, and the entire car would vibrate slightly when it moved.


    Xu Qian pressed the button to the seventh floor. The first thing he saw after the elevator doors opened was many clothes left hanging in the corridor to dry. Xu Qian bent down, walked through the drying rack, and came to a house that had a half-missing number.


    ��This is the ce I used to rent. What shall we do next?��


    Xu Qian stopped outside the door.


    ��Are you sure this is the ce? Do you remember who moved here after you?��


    ��Before I moved out, the tenant came to check out the ce, and she even ced her luggage in the house. However, this apartment has a very high turnover rate, and after this long, I��m not even sure if she still lives here,�� Xu Qian said.


    ��Let��s take a look first.��


    Zhang Heng knocked on the door of the room.


    After a while, the door was opened from the inside, and a man in only a pair of beach pants appeared. In an ominous tone, he asked, ��Who are you looking for?��


    ��Jiang Hong, does she still live here?�� Xu Qian asked.


    The man red at Zhang Heng and frowned.


    ��There��s no one called Jiang Hong here. Youe to the wrong ce.��


    He was just about to shut the door in their faces but didn��t expect that someone��s hand would block it.


    ��The next time you lie, don��t pause. Others will know that you areing with something that would benefit you,�� Zhang Heng said as he stepped into the house. The expression of the man in the beach pants changed.


    ��Hey, boy, don��t bring trouble to yourself,�� he growled.


    As he said, he tackled Zhang Heng with his shoulder, trying to push him out of the house. Obviously, he had overestimated his strength and underestimated his opponent. Zhang Heng did not even dodge the attack, allowing the man to tackle him instead. The end result of that��Zhang Heng��s body moved a little, but the beach pants man was being pushed back by the ground reaction force. Pushed away from the door, he could only watch Zhang Heng walk into the house.


    Xu Qian hesitated before following Zhang Heng into the house. As soon as she entered, though, she was immensely shocked at the sight before her. A naked girl was cuffed to the bed, and she had bruises all over her body. One of her eyes was swollen as well.


    ��Jiang Hong?�� Xu Qian froze for a while before she could recognize thedy.


    Zhang Heng grabbed the bedsheets and put them on Jiang Hong��s body. He then looked at the beach pants man and said, ��She is a tenant here. Who are you? Thief? Robber? Did you suddenly decide to attack the girl while trying to steal her money?��


    ��What the hell are you talking about? I��m her husband!!!�� the man yelled. ��Who the hell are you guys? Why break into my house?!��


    ��Consider us the good Samaritans.��


    Zhang Heng looked at the handcuffs on Jiang Hong��s hands and realized that an electronic lock was underneath it.


    ��What is the password?��


    ��What makes you think I will tell you the password?�� sneered the man.


    Zhang Heng did not respond. Instead, he immediately turned off the light bulb above his head and smashed it at the corner of the table while everyone looked at him in a surprised manner. He then pressed the man��s head against the wall, about to stab his eyes with the broken light bulb.


    ��You don��t have to do that. I will give you the password. The password is 8672.��


    Seeing that the broken ss was less than a centimeter from his eyeball, the man was startled and quickly told Zhang Heng the password.


    Xu Qian entered the password and unlocked the handcuffs. After that, she took out the clothes from the closet on the side for Jiang Hong to put on. The man wanted to speak at that moment, but he shut his mouth again when he saw the broken light bulb in front of him. It was not until Zhang Heng put down the bulb and Xu Qian and Jiang Hong were out of the house that he spoke again.


    ��Where are you taking my wife?��


    ��Take care of your own affairs.��


    Zhang Heng put the gun back in his bag.


    ��Do something a husband should do. You could start by recing the broken light bulb.��

 Chapter 964 - How MuChapter Do You Believe In Your Memory

    <h4>Chapter 964: How Much Do You Believe In Your Memory</h4>


    Xu Qian went to the nearby clinics to look for a doctor to treat Jiang Hong��s bruises.


    On the other hand, Zhang Heng took the chance to buy a cup of hot tea, two bottles of mineral water, a pack of cigarettes, and a lighter from a nearby vending machine. He then put the cigarettes and the lighter in his pocket and returned to the clinic.


    He passed the cup of hot tea to Jiang Hong.


    Thetter repeatedly thanked him.


    Xu Qian, on the other side, took a bottle of mineral water, unscrewed it, and took a sip. ��Is he really your husband?��


    Jiang Hong lowered her head and mumbled something softly.


    ��Did he always abuse you?��


    Before Jiang Hong could say anything, the old Chinese doctor on the side said, ��Yes. This is the third time she hase to me this month.��


    ��Then why don��t you call the police or get a divorce?�� Xu Qian frowned.


    ��Because she still has a younger brother who works under her husband. If she gets divorced, her younger brother will also be unemployed.��


    The old Chinese doctor was familiar with Jiang Hong��s family situation. And perhaps he did persuade Jiang Hong to divorce before.


    Jiang Hong raised his head and squeezed out a smile, ��I��m fine. I��m used to it. Thank you for what you��ve done for me today. You both are good people. And you were willing to stand up for me even when you didn��t know me.��


    ��What are you talking about?�� Xu Qian was taken aback. She then took off her sunsses. ��It��s me, Xu Qian, the previous tenant that stayed in your current house. I met you when you wanted to rent the house two years ago. At that time, you weren��t married yet.��


    ��Really?�� Jiang Hong looked a little dazed when she heard what Xu Qian said.


    ��Why? Don��t you remember me? Two years ago, you left your luggage with me in advance. To thank me, you even invited me to dinner. I still remember we had roasted duck at the street next to us.��


    ��Did we eat together?�� Jiang Hong looked as though she did not remember a single thing.


    After experiencing the incident at the small restaurant, Xu Qian also noticed something was wrong this time. She then asked, ��Did you move here two years ago?��


    ��Yes, that��s right.�� Jiang Hong agreed to what she said.


    Her answer made Xu Qian felt a little relieved, ��Do you still remember the tenant who lived here before you?��


    Xu Qian looked into Jiang Hong��s eyes while talking, expecting thetter to say, ��It��s you,�� but Jiang Hong��s reply shocked her once again.


    ��The tenant before me was a family of three. I still remember them. The man was an elementary school teacher, and the woman was a housewife. They also had a son who was about six or seven years old. After that, they moved to the second level,�� Jiang Hong replied.


    ��You are lying! Why are all of you behaving like this? I have never wronged any of you, not to mention we just saved you. Why are you lying?�� Xu Qian��s expression was getting a little aggressive. She then grabbed Jiang Hong��s arm. However, she used too much force to grab her, and she identally touched Jiang Hong��s bruise, causing thetter to grimace in pain.


    Zhang Heng, on the side, had to make a move to separate the two of them.


    After that, Xu Qian started to re at Jiang Hong, ��You know the boss and his wife at Fu Ji, right? They must��ve contacted you just now and asked you to lie to me.��


    After a while, the old Chinese doctor could no longer hold back and interrupted them. ��I can vouch for her. I have also seen the family that she mentioned. Before she came, the child of that family had a fever one night, and the family of three came to me for Gua Sha. They told me that they were going to move to the second level.��


    ��But this does not prove that they are the tenants of 714. I am the tenant of 714. The person who lived there before Jiang Hong was me. I remember your clinic. I passed your ce every day after I got off work. However, I have never entered your clinic before,�� Xu Qian said.


    The old Chinese doctor said, ��But I remember that they told me their house number that night. It was 714. They also invited me to visit their house whenever I am avable. They are a very warm and polite family.��


    When the two were arguing, Zhang Heng suddenly chipped in. ��Thendlord.��


    ��Huh?��


    ��You can ask thendlord this question. He should have a record of the tenants that lived in this building,�� Zhang Heng added.


    ��You��re right.�� Xu Qian seemed to see hope again. She clicked on the address book in the bracelet, but she remembered that she had deleted everything rted to the first level after checking it.


    Jiang Hong said weakly, ��I have thendlord��s number.��


    ��Okay. Send it to me...��


    Xu Qian suddenly stopped talking, showing a hint of hesitation. Zhang Heng knew what she was worried about. So, he said, ��You can go to the shops downstairs. You should be able to get thendlord��s number from someone.��


    Xu Qian epted Zhang Heng��s suggestion and went to the shops downstairs. Five minutester, Zhang Heng saw that Xu Qian had finished the call and was standing alone on the side of the road.


    ��Thank you for answering our questions,�� Zhang Heng said to Jiang Hong. He then nodded at the old Chinese doctor on the side, ��I will make a move first.��


    Zhang Heng pushed open the clinic door, looked to his left and right for traffic, and crossed the road.


    He walked towards Xu Qian and asked, ��How did it go? Did you get the answers you want?��


    Xu Qian did not hear what he said. Instead, she stayed there for half a second before reacting. ��You nned everything, right? You contacted everyone and asked them to lie to me.��


    ��But before today, you have never told me your past on the first level. I don��t know where you worked before. How could I have contacted everyone to lie to you?��


    ��Then how am I supposed to exin what is happening now,�� Xu Qian asked, ��I just called thendlord and paid her 1,000 credits to help me check the tenant that lived 714 three years ago.��


    ��What did she say?��


    ��She said exactly the same thing as Jiang Hong. They must havemunicated in advance. Did you see Jiang Hong calling anyone when I asked for thendlord��s number?��


    ��I��m afraid not. She just sat there, and she didn��t do anything,�� Zhang Heng said.


    ��Then they must have other means ofmunication,�� Xu Qian said anxiously. ��If you are not the one who pranked me, then who is messing with me? What is the person��s agenda? Why does the person want to make me think that I��ve never lived on the first floor before?��


    ��Calm down first.�� Zhang Heng took out the pack of cigarettes he had just bought, handed one to Xu Qian, and lit the cigarette for her. After a couple of puffs, she continued, ��Remember the question I asked you before? How much do you trust your memory?��


    ��So, you think that there is something wrong with my memory?�� Xu Qian seemed like she just heard an extremely absurd thing. She then shook her head. ��That��s quite impossible. Only cloned humans have forged memories. I am a citizen of New Shanghai 0297, and I came here three years ago. I have lived here for a long time.��


    ��How can you be so sure?��


    ��Because all the clones here don��t know the existence of cloning technology. That��s how they remain stable. And they have a tracking device in their heads and numbers on the back of their necks. This is something that everyone knows,�� Xu Qian said. ��You saw what happened in Fu Ji just now. That waitress is a clone. She was taken away just because she heard the word ��clone.�� And you, there is also a serial number at the back of your neck, right?��


    ��So, if someone creates another batch of clones and allow them ess to information about cloning, they wouldn��t need the serial number on the back of the neck and the tracking device in their head. In other words, they would be more stable than the first batch of clones. And they will never suspect that they are clones,�� Zhang Heng said casually.

 Chapter 965 - Second Type Of Clone

    <h4>Chapter 965: Second Type Of Clone</h4>


    Zhang Heng��s exnation left Xu Qian inplete shock for two full seconds, and she even forgot to breathe. Until she choked on the smoke she had just inhaled, she said with a cough, ��This is too ridiculous. If what you said is true, there will be a lot of clones living in New Shanghai 0297 right now. Other than those clones with serial numbers on their necks, there are also clones like me... What did you say earlier? You said there��s another batch of clones without serial numbers living in New Shanghai 0297.��


    ��That��s right,�� Zhang Heng nodded.


    ��How did youe to this conclusion? From the moment the boss and thedy boss of Fu Ji refused to admit that I had worked there, Jiang Hong and thendlord insisted that the previous tenant of 714 was a family of three? So, you think I��m not the only one, and there are many clones like me in this city?��


    ��You are not the only one who faced a situation like this,�� Zhang Heng said calmly.


    ��What?��


    ��I went to your boyfriend��spany two days ago.��


    ��Wait, you��re still investigating him and you didn��t tell me?��


    Xu Qian sounded a little angry.


    ��I��ve said it many times, haven��t I? The investigation is no longer needed.��


    ��I heard what you said, but that��s got nothing to do with you being followed. It��s just my personal interest,�� Zhang Heng said. ��I investigated your boyfriend��spany, and I met a marketing manager there named Liao Ming.��


    Xu Qian did not know what to say after she heard Zhang Heng��s exnation. He was free to investigate anyone he liked as long as it wasn��t rted to her. After that, Xu Qian took a deep breath and calmed herself down.


    ��I seem to have a bit of an impression of this person. I met him when I went to my boyfriend��spany. My boyfriend said that he is the backbone of thepany and that he is a very responsible man.��


    ��Yes, if you read his resume, you will find that he is the perfect employee allpanies dream of.��


    ��And?��


    ��Do you know why Liao Ming works so hard? He still has a daughter and ex-wife. Maybe it��s because he feels that the divorce caused his daughter to lose her mother and has always carried that guilt with him. Therefore, he tries to make up for theck of a mother by giving her a materialistic life.��


    ��What are you trying to say here? Does Liao Ming��s daughter actually exist?�� Xu Qian asked.


    ��His daughter exists. She is the fruit of his effort, and the two meet from time to time. She has to exist so that Liao Ming has the motivation to work like a machine,�� Zhang Heng paused, ��but you are right about one thing, there are indeed people who don��t exist.��


    ��Who?��


    ��Liao Ming��s ex-wife,�� Zhang Heng said. ��Liao Ming brought his daughter to New Shanghai 0297 after the divorce. So, there are no friends and rtives who know him and his ex-wife in this city.��


    ��Isn��t that normal? When we first met, I told you that this is a young city. A lot of peoplee here to look for jobs and a better life. Of course, there are also some who hope to start a new life here.��


    ��Yes. I did ask Liao Ming��s daughter��s ss teacher about it. Since Liao Ming��s daughter transferred to this elementary school a year ago, her mother has not visited her, not even once.��


    ��Well. That doesn��t sound right. But as far as I know, some women cut off all contact with their previous families after they remarry,�� Xu Qian said. ��Maybe Liao Ming��s ex-wife is that kind of person. She left all her past behind, and wees everything new into her life. It��s scary when a woman hardens her heart.��


    ��Yes. You are probably right. In order to verify this deduction of mine, I visited another person on the second level afterward.��


    ��Who is that person?��


    ��Liao Ming has a female subordinate. She has always admired Liao Ming, and they have developed something... a little more than just colleagues.��


    ��Office romance?��


    ��Almost. I checked their chat records. The female subordinate was willing to change her job for Liao Ming and promised to treat his daughter as her own. However, Liao Ming was still reluctant to admit their rtionship. It agitated her a little, and she asked Liao Ming if he had contacted his ex-wife. Liao Ming��s reply was��when we met thest time, she told me that she would remarry and wanted me to treat her as if she was dead. After that, I didn��t bother to contact her anymore.��


    ��Doesn��t this prove my previous conjecture?�� Xu Qian asked.


    ��That looks to be the case. The person who knows you best is not your friend but your enemy. After the visitation, I got more details of the meeting that day, including the time and ce, what happened, and what they talked about. With this information, not only did I manage to locate the cafe where the incident happened, but I also found the owner of the cafe. What��s interesting is that the owner of the cafe does not remember that Liao Ming and his ex-wife visited his cafe. Does that sound familiar?��


    ��But this is normal. The cafe receives so many visitors every day, and it happened so long ago.��


    ��And you are also right about that. From what I know, the meeting between Liao Ming and his ex-wife that day did not go smoothly. During that time, the two had a fierce quarrel. Liao Ming��s wife made it clear that she would never move to New Shanghai 0297, nor did she want to meet Liao Ming again. After that, she grabbed a steak knife on the table and shed Liao Ming with it. Liao Ming��s arm was cut badly, and he was bleeding... The caf�� owner surely wouldn��t be encountering this kind of thing every day. Later, I figured out a way to talk to several waiters who worked in the coffee shop that day. And they didn��t remember him too.��


    Xu Qian went silent for a moment. She then looked up again, ��Do you think this marriage of Liao Ming was faked? And he is a clone?��


    ��Unfortunately, ording to the current standards of identifying a human clone, he is not one,�� Zhang Heng said. ��When he took me for a walk around the factory, I secretly took a picture of the back of his neck with an ultraviolet shlight... and there was no serial number on it.��


    Xu Qian��s fingers that were holding the cigarette couldn��t help but start to shake. However, she was still unwilling to ept Zhang Heng��s idea of the so-called second type of human clone existing in this city.


    ��Your deduction is too outrageous. There has to be some other exnation. Let��s take a step back and assume what you said is true where the second type of clone is no different from a real human. Why do you want to tell me these things? As long as you don��t doubt the authenticity of the memory, I can pretend that I��m the real human being and live normally.��


    ��I��m afraid you can never live like an ordinary person...�� Zhang Heng said, ��A human clone is born to serve. And since they are just tools, they have to consider the probability of themselves malfunctioning. You have seen how they treat ordinary clones. Once something goes wrong, they instantly get sent back to the factory for recalibration. For clones who cannot be calibrated, you too know the kind of fate that awaits them.


    Zhang Heng looked at Xu Qian as he spoke.


    ��Tell me, during your time with your boyfriend, have you ever doubted his purpose of approaching you? When you were being followed and monitored, did you really never suspect him? You don��t want me to continue investigating this matter. Is it because you subconsciously don��t want to ept the results of the investigation? ��

 Chapter 966 - Garden And Bees

    <h4>Chapter 966: Garden And Bees</h4>


    ��What are you trying to say?�� Xu Qian asked.


    ��I remember you telling me that your livestream viewers have been on a steady decline.��


    ��What about it?��


    ��It was at that time when you suddenly met your prince charming, one that��s perfect from every aspect. Not only that, he could give you what you have been longing for, which is to move to the fourth level. If I��m right, once you agree to his proposal and announce it in your final stream, you will no longer appear in front of the public. And this is exactly what they want. No matter what happens to you next, no one will know.��


    ��How is that possible? Even though my viewers have been declining, more than 400,000 people still watch my stream at any given time,�� Xu Qian said.


    ��But once you retire, all those viewers will go and watch other streamers. You should know this better than anyone else. During the first few weeks, theizens would talk about you, and there will be news in the newspapers reporting that you married into a wealthy family. Once the heat goes down, most of them will forget your name, save for diehard fans like E-Goat.��


    Xu Qian was taken aback. As a neer who worked hard to be a famous streamer, she certainly knew how cruel this line was. The most abundant thing this job had to offer were the throngs of new streamers waiting to be famous. Let alone her. Even though Tang was once a star and had unbeatable achievements, nobody really talked about her anymore.


    However, Xu Qian still found it difficult to ept Zhang Heng��s deduction, especially when she realized that on her right hand was the life he had been longing for and on her left was the abyss of horror. Nevertheless, it was not difficult for her to make a decision.


    Xu Qian took two steps back and said to Zhang Heng, ��I have already seen what you want me to see. it��s time to go back.��


    ��But there��s still something I want you to see,�� Zhang Heng said, ��You think Fu Ji��s boss, Jiang Hong, and thendlord were working together to mess with you? Why not go and talk to your distant cousin? You said she used to work with you at Fu Ji, and you cut all connections with her because of the streamer incident. No matter what, she is still rted to you. Why don��t we go to her for confirmation next?��


    ��I won��t go looking for her. You are right. We have cut off all the ties, and we will never see each other again in this life,�� Xu Qian grunted while throwing the spent cigarette before stepping on it, ��Okay. I don��t care who you are going to find next. Anyway, I don��t want to stay in this hell hole for another second. The buildings and air here are terrible. I��m going back to the third level.��


    After that, Xu Qian waved a taxi down. She seated herself at the front seat and said to the driver, ��Go to the shuttle station as soon as possible. I can pay you double the fare if you can get me there within ten minutes.��


    On the other hand, Zhang Heng did not try to stop Xu Qian. He just stood there and watched the taxi move away from him.


    Less than two minutester, a ck SUV stopped in front of Zhang Heng.


    The front passenger window wound down, revealing Miss F, who went straight to the point.


    ��Get in the car. Mr. G wants to see you.��


    An hourter, the ck SUV arrived at the edge of the first level, finally stopping in front of a huge sshouse. Zhang Heng and Miss F got out of the car and started to look around. The ce looked like a private garden that upied an area not too big nor small.


    Such gardens were not umon on the third and fourth levels. It was, however, a rare urrence on the first level. Here, the people were more concerned about bread and milk. When Zhang Heng walked into the garden, he saw all kinds of flora and fauna. The person that owned this ce even kept some rare bees. And there were swarms of them.


    As soon as the door was opened, Zhang Heng could hear the loud droning sounds. Thousands of bees buzzed around the flowers, collecting the day��s nectar. They would return to their hives once their maximum load was reached. The bees were more than happy to repeat this process. In front of the hives stood a man with a straw hat, busy taking out a nesting frame from the colony. He began to scrape off the honebs with a knife before carefully cing them one by one into a wooden barrel on the side.


    When he was done with everything, he inserted the frame back into the hive. He then stood up straight and walked towards Zhang Heng.


    ��Wee, we meet again.�� Mr. G took off the straw hat with a veil on his head, and handed it and his knife to his bodyguard, and shook hands with Zhang Heng.


    He seemed to be in a good mood today. Seeing that Zhang Heng was still looking at the beehives behind him, he smiled.


    ��A temporary hobby of mine,�� he said.


    ��Do you produce your own honey?�� Zhang Heng asked.


    ��No, no, no, honey is just a by-product. What I like is the beekeeping itself, especially observing these little fluffy things with wings. Have you ever learned about bees? Their habits, social structure, and poption characteristics?��


    ��Appreciate further details.��


    ��Bees and humans have a lot inmon. We both need to produce and reproduce. In order to make these two things more efficient, we havee up with a social division ofbor. You must have heard of a bee colony��the responsibilities of different bees.��


    ��Well. I know a thing or two.��


    Mr. G took the water bottle handed by the bodyguard, took a few sips, and then happily said, ��The queen bee��the one and only in each colony. Their main responsibility is to reproduce, and the queen does not need to be engaged inbor work. All she needs to do is to liefortably in the hive and wait for the worker bees to feed her every day. That��s what it��s like to stay on top of the pyramid. Under the queen are the drones. Life is good for her. She doesn��t need to do any heavybor. After all, it is impossible that one person does all the reproduction work. Even the queen needs someone to help her.��


    ��But the problem is that only one male bee is allowed to mate with the queen. Before that, they need to fight with each other to determine a winner. However, the winner dies immediately after the mating process is over. It doesn��t sound too good. Every bee has its specific role in the hive. Finally, let��s look at the worker bees.��


    Mr. G stretched out his hand and stopped a flying bee. ��


    These are located at the bottom of the pyramid. The worker bees have the most numbers in the hive. These ones have the heaviest responsibilities. From collecting honey to incubating the eggs, cleaning the incubation room, feeding the queen, herrvae, the drones, and the guards... They work almost all the time. Their fate has been sealed since they were born. So they firmly believe that what they are doing is extremely important. But the truth is they are also the most expandable bees in the entire hive.��


    Mr. G suddenly squeezed the bee on his fingertips without warning.


    ��Look, nothing happened. It��s business as usual for the bee colony.��

 Chapter 967 - Test

    <h4>Chapter 967: Test</h4>


    ��Although some may think that the bees have an unfair social structure, they can��t deny it does help them operate in an orderly fashion. They all perform their duties faithfully and produce a steady stream of honey. Human society runs on a simr structure. Although it is moreplicated than the bee colony, it runs on essentially the same concept.��


    Mr. G took out a handkerchief and wiped off the remains of the dead bee on his finger.


    ��Is New Shanghai 0297 also a beehive capable of producing a steady stream of honey?�� Zhang Heng asked.


    ��Good question. In my opinion, thepanies, cities, and even the defunct national systems are part of the beehive. However, our social structure looks different from the outside.�� Mr. G spread his hands and continued, ��We humans have been working hard for thousands of years, looking for more efficient production and reproduction methods. From the use of basic tools to the numerous industrial revolutions, our productivity greatly improved thanks to the emergence of the global division ofbor. Then, our lives have be more and more abundant. Take a look at the world around you. Our lives are so much better than the lives of our ancestors.


    ��At the same time, however, we are bing more and more like our creation. The vast majority of people have lost their unique individuality. Just like these worker bees, they all look the same and are receable. We forget what our true desires are. Deceived by society, we gradually be the tools of production. We are put together with different responsibilities to make the world go round. However, the more productive we are, the more we appear like tools. Until the emergence of clones, everything had to be pushed to the extreme.


    Mr. G paused.


    ��When the clones were born, someone predicted that humans would gain a more advanced and efficient production method. Do you know how much it used to cost to raise a child in ordinary families in the early years? Not to mention that when they get older, they would still receive social insurance when they quit the production link. That means they would continue consuming society��s resources. The emergence of human clones perfectly solves these problems.


    ��When they are still at their juvenile phase, you can raise them inrge quantities like pigs. You only need to feed them to keep them alive, and you don��t need to provide them anything other than food. Then, when they grow up, just give them some fake memories. The false memories you give them mold them into the tools you need. Just like you, molded to be a bodyguard. A clone could also be a cook or a good employee, ready to work in the production line. When they get older and their efficiency drops, we can go ahead and destroy them. This is the perfect tool that could help us excel in productivity. They are like the new type of worker bee that needs neither food nor drink.��


    As he spoke, Mr. G waved his hand at his bodyguard to lift the barrel with the honeb.


    ��Do you know what��s the problem that humans and bees share? In the beginning, these bees exist to keep their kind alive. However, after that, they��d forget their most fundamental purpose. They start to collect honey for the sake of collecting honey. And thus, honey overflows in their beehive. In the end, the beekeepers take advantage of them.


    ��Oh. I just talked so much without paying attention to the time. Forgive me. I went on and on about bees till I almost forgot about the real business. I came to you this time for the express delivery. The day to carry out the transaction has been set in stone. It��s the night after tomorrow. I hope you won��t be offended��I watched the clip of your previous battle, and I also saw how you singlehandedly protected my middleman from a group of bikers. This is why I��ve chosen you as my courier. However, I hope you can also understand that this transaction is very important to me, and I must make sure that nothing goes wrong.��


    ��What do you mean?�� Zhang Heng asked.


    Mr. G did not answer the question immediately. Instead, he watched his two bodyguards bring a table and two chairs, put a tablecloth on the table, arrange the tableware, and ce a bottle of wine before he continued.


    ��Before you actually start working for me, I hope I can see what you are capable of doing with my own two eyes. I��d like to know whether the person I spent so much money hiring is reliable. Is this request too much?��


    Mr. G reached out to Miss F. ��And you, my beautiful fianc��e, can you enjoy afternoon tea with me?��


    Miss F frowned when she heard what he said.


    ��This is not what we agreed on.��


    ��Yes. This is the part I spontaneously decided on. I like our friend here as much as you do. Because of this, I don��t want him to have any idents when he delivers for me the day after tomorrow.��


    Miss F wanted to say more, but she heard Zhang Heng say,


    ��It��s fair. What��s the test?��


    ��Since your job is to help me to deliver the item, please help me deliver this honeb bucket to the storage room at the back of the garden. Other than that, bring my fianc��e��s favorite croissant from the kitchen. Be careful. This garden holds many dangers. I nted lots of thorny flowers.


    ��Pay attention. You have only 20 minutes toplete the task. If you run out of time or lose your life during the mission, it��ll be considered a fail.��


    Mr. G then set a countdown timer on his bracelet.


    ��Any other questions?��


    ��Can I borrow your sword?�� Zhang Heng requested Miss F.


    ��Why? Don��t you like your de?�� Mr. G asked.


    ��My de is too sharp. I��m worried I��ll hurt your men,�� Zhang Heng said casually.


    Mr. G smiled upon hearing this. ��You needn��t worry about this. Your opponents are real bad guys. I don��t mind if they die. I��ve made an agreement with them. If they manage to kill you, all of their debts will be canceled. Even if they don��t die in your hands, I��ll kill them myself sooner orter. So please, be very careful. Oh, and you can give up and quit the test at any time.��


    Having said that, Miss F still took off the sword on her waist and threw it to Zhang Heng.


    ��Take it; my sword is made of tungsten steel alloy. You should make good use of it.��


    A strange look shed in Mr. G��s eyes, but he said nothing. Instead, he just nodded at Zhang Heng and said, ��Good luck.��


    ��Thank you.��


    Zhang Heng took the sword, lifted the bucket of honey on the table, and walked towards the back of the garden.


    After only walking less than twenty meters, Zhang Heng met his first enemy. A muscr man who had modified his left arm into a chainsaw was waiting for Zhang Heng under a palm tree. The moment he saw Zhang Heng, he turned on the chainsaw and charged.


    Zhang Heng stood there and did not make a move. He waited until the muscr man came close enough before he swung his sword.


    It was a quick sh.


    From swinging the sword to keeping the sword away, the entire process took less than 0.2 seconds. The attack was so swift that it was almost impossible to catch a glimpse with the naked eye.


    Later, the muscr man��s chainsaw slipped from his shoulder and hit his toe. The sharp spinning teeth instantly sliced off four of his toes, leaving the muscr man wondering if he should be more about losing his arm or toes.

 Chapter 968 - Garden

    <h4>Chapter 968: Garden</h4>


    Zhang Heng didn��t look at the muscr man who had fallen to the ground and was crying out in pain. After putting away the sword, he walked over the man��s body and continued.


    Mr. G��s garden wasn��t that big, but he did nt arge number of nts. Other than the myriad species of flowers, there were a lot of weird trees as well. Among them, there was even a giant tree taller than a ten-story building. The flora around here was randomly nted, and since there were tons of poisonous and thorny nts, it turned the garden into aplicated maze.


    To walk past the garden in the shortest time possible, the easiest way was to undoubtedly follow the paths in the garden. However, the most dangerous thing in this garden was not the flowers and trees. Mr. G then used his bracelet to project the first camera��s image, but the first thing he saw was mud and blood. It appeared the wearer of the camera had been killed.


    ��It seems our courier is really good at what he does.�� Mr. G then asked the bodyguard next to him with raised eyebrows, ��Do you think he can pass the test?��


    Thetter thought for a while and said, ��I watched the video too. It was impressive that he could singlehandedly deal with so many enemies at the same time. However, his enemies were just a group of violent bikers. Since the middleman was close to him, the enemies didn��t dare to go all out. It��s different this time. The people in the garden are some of the most violent people we have ever encountered. We hired them ording to your requirements. Some of them are our enemies, and they have caused us lots of headaches in the past. And you promised them, as long as they kill the target and go through the garden, you��d grant them the freedom they have been longing for and nullify all their debts. In other words, they will be desperate enough to get the deal done. It will not be easy to get past them.��


    Miss F frowned when she heard what he said. She then looked into Mr. G��s eyes and said gravely, ��Aren��t you taking things a little too far? This is not a test. You are making things difficult for him.��


    ��Sorry. But this has nothing to do with personal grievances. I have to know what his limits are,�� Mr. G said. ��I just received something from an informant. Shengtang Morgan will send an emergency response team to stop this deal.��


    ��Emergency response team? Their serial numbers?��


    ��They start with zero. You know what this means,�� Mr. G said. ��All members of this team are clones. Before the age of 16, they received a lot of high-intensity training. Ten of these will be selected from 10,000 clones. The professional personnel would then program all kinds ofbat skills, including reconnaissance, sniping, close-quarters assassination, and intelligence analysis into their brain... Each one is an excellent all-rounder.


    ��They are the perfect killing machine,pleting their given tasks no matter what. I know you value him very much, but he is just a bodyguard clone of a securitypany. And he is alone. For your sake, I��m willing to give him an opportunity. If he can��t even get out of this garden, how can I believe that he canplete the task while he was under the emergency response team��s attack?��


    Miss F went silent.


    ��As I said, he came to me at the wrong time. Otherwise, I really don��t mind helping him and making a new friend. To be honest, I kinda like him.��


    Mr. G then opened the red wine in front of him.


    ��It��s a pity,�� he muttered.


    While talking, he switched the projection to the second and third cameras. The wearers of these two cameras were snipers, and they had found their perfect spots to set up shop. One hid behind a sycamore tree while the other sniper concealed himself within the flower bed.


    There was a saying on the battlefield: if a sniper saw you first, you were dead. Therefore, this was an unfair battle from the beginning. The two snipers chose their sniping spots in advance and pointed their snipers at the only path. They were confident enough that they would kill Zhang Heng the moment that he showed up. And the whole ordeal would end there.


    At this moment, their index finger on the trigger seemed to be announcing that they had won the battle. Mr. G did not think it was possible for Zhang Heng to avoid the deadly duo, especially since the two snipers were sharpshooters. They never missed their shots, not to mention that there were two of them.


    The sniper hiding behind the flower bed could not help, but he got distracted by other things. To him, Zhang Heng was no different than a lump of dead meat. But ording to Mr. G��s promise to them, only the person who killed Zhang Heng could go free. In other words, he needed to kill Zhang Heng before the sniper hiding behind the tree killed him. And doing that wouldn��t be that easy.


    When the sniper behind the flower bed was still thinking about how to win thepetition, he heard an unfamiliar voice say, ��Why are you being distracted?��


    The sniper was startled by the voice, but before he could react, the tungsten steel sword had slit his throat.


    At the same time, the sniper hiding behind the tree also heard the movement. His body quickly reacted, and he turned the muzzle for the first time, aiming at the flower bed. He was looking for his target. However, other than hispanion��s corpse, he could see no one else.


    The sniper then thought about something. Since their target could approach them silently, why should he make a sound when he killed his enemy? Immediately, a chill ran up the sniper��s back. He turned his stiff neck around, and he saw his target standing behind him.


    It was a pity that he did not get the chance to pick up his sniper.


    Zhang Heng wiped the blood from the tungsten steel sword on the back of the corpse. He then turned around, walked to the intersection, and lifted the bucket of honey.


    Indeed, theplex environment in the garden was very conducive for the sniper to hide and shoot.


    At the same time, this was the perfect ce for an assassin to move. In the Roman dungeon, Zhang Heng had increased his assassin skills to Lv3. And it made him an assassin that was on the same level as a Bnce de assassin. That was why he could take advantage of the surrounding nts to approach the two snipers quietly. In fact, Mr. G had hired the two snipers to increase the difficulty of the assessment.


    But everyone knew that this ce held more disadvantages than advantages for Zhang Heng. From the moment Zhang Heng walked on the small path, the prey and the hunter swapped roles. When Mr. G saw that the two snipers were dead through the projection, he finally showed a touch of surprise on his face. The thing that surprised him was not the fact that he defeated the two snipers. After all, Zhang Heng did singlehandedly defeat a group of bikers. It was not a surprise that he could kill the two snipers on his own. Mr. G was surprised by how fast and clean Zhang Heng killed the two snipers.


    ��Interesting. I can��t believe I misjudged him. He is more than just an ordinary bodyguard clone.��

 Chapter 969 - Dangerous Encounter

    <h4>Chapter 969: Dangerous Encounter</h4>


    Killing the muscr man with the chainsaw and the two snipers were just the beginning. Zhang Heng decided not to walk on the garden path after that, choosing instead to walk through the flowerbed. With his sneaking skills and Heart of Kreis, he couldpletely disappear within the grass and trees. After hepleted the novice quest, Bell taught him a thing or two about herbology, so Zhang Heng could identify most of the poisonous nts that he wasn��t supposed to approach.


    Through this, he would be able to use the garden to his advantage. Hooking the tungsten steel sword Miss F gave him on his waist, he picked up the sniper on the ground. And he found the next target quite a distance away. Without waiting for the other party to notice him, Zhang Heng pulled the trigger first. The bullet ejected from the barrel, prating the head of its target dead on. The bullet also hit the camera on his head. This time Mr. G��s projection turned into a ck screen.


    ��So, he knows how to use a sniper rifle?��


    The surprise on Mr. G��s face only intensified. He then asked the bodyguard next to him, ��How is his marksmanship?��


    ��Very impressive. He is at least better than the two snipers he killed. The bullet holes we found on the bikers�� corpses showed that they were killed with one single shot. Considering the situation that he is in, his marksmanship is excellent.


    ��But I don��t know what he is truly capable of. His marksmanship is way better than mine,�� he admitted after a pause.


    ��It��s understandable if he is good at using his pistol. He is a bodyguard, after all. However, it��s a little strange that he is so good on the sniper rifle.�� Mr. G put down the wine ss. ��Why did the securitypany grant him the ability to use the sniper rifle? Is he really a bodyguard clone? I think he is more like a killer clone.��


    Zhang Heng had defeated four enemies while they were talking, each one killed by a single shot. During this period, Mr. G could not even spot Zhang Heng through the camera. Thetter had turned into a ghost in the garden. He approached his target silently and reaped their lives without any mercy.


    As the gunshots got closer and closer, they began to feel the pressure. Mr. G saw the camera shaking slightly. When he turned to the eighth camera, he saw the camera swaying frantically from left to right. Clearly, the person with the camera hadpletely lost it. He could not figure out which direction Zhang Heng woulde from.


    Unfortunately, it was a pity that his 360-degree vignce did not save him in the end.


    As gunfire rang out again, a bullet from an unknown direction sent him to meet his maker.


    ��He is not a killer clone.�� Miss F, who had been staying silent suddenly talked.


    ��But he is acting like a top-notch killer right now,�� Mr. G said. ��Look at the way he moved and his sniping skills. This guy treats my garden as his backyard. He behaves like a tiger charging at a flock of sheep. Now, why does G7Z, a securitypany, want to produce a killer clone? To help them to get more business?��


    ��He is not a killer clone,�� Miss F repeated. ��I have seen several killer clones, and they are almost emotionless. Without emotions, unexpected events were less likely to happen to them during an assassination. Other than that, they would also do whatever they were asked to do. But he is different.��


    ��Why? Doesn��t he also seem to have no emotions?��


    ��Yes. But he doesn��t seem merciless to me. And he is not skeptical towards the world. On the contrary, he has a set of rules to follow. I have never seen a clone with such strong self-awareness, especially after he realized his identity. He still seems to be capable of believing in something, which makes him really special,�� Miss F said. ��This is why I hope you can help him escape the authorities.��


    ��Well, I��m getting more interested in our mutual friend now,�� Mr. G chirped. ��Let��s take a look at his other skills then. All those people he killed were just the appetizers. The real show is about to begin.��


    ...


    Zhang Heng did not deliberately count how many people he had killed. The number of bullets that he had left with him told him the answer. After killing the twelfth enemy, he didn��t encounter another enemy for quite some time. It was only after he walked across half of the garden when he caught a glimpse of his next opponent.


    Unlike Zhang Heng��s other opponents, the enemy did not go into hiding this time. Instead, he stood in the middle of the road, waiting to attack Zhang Heng. And he was wearing something that looked like an exoskeleton. It looked quite cool.


    Zhang Heng wasted no time, swiftly looking for a spot to hide and set up his sniper rifle.


    He ignored the exoskeleton and aimed at the enemy��s head before pulling the trigger.


    At that distance, it was almost impossible for Zhang Heng to miss his target.


    However, as soon as he pulled the trigger, he saw the target��s head suddenly tilting towards him. Putting on a strange smile, he blocked the bullet with his alloy shield on his left hand with inhuman speed. In the end, Zhang Heng couldn��t put him down.


    The sniper rifle bullet failed to prate therge alloy shield, but the huge kic energy still affected him a little. However, it was offset by the exoskeleton the next second. He only took a small step back. After a while, he shouted, ��This is all you are capable of? It��s my turn to perform.��


    The moment he started talking, a series of explosions took ce at Zhang Heng��s hiding spot. Not only did the fire affect the nearby nts, but it also lifted thend. As for the people lying on it, they were dead for sure.


    ��Is this the end? It seems a lot easier than expected,�� the man standing in the middle of the road mumbled.


    And Mr. G in front of the projection on the other side, also had a look of agony on him.


    ��This guy overdid it. How many flowers and nts did he destroyed? There are a lot of rare nts, which I collected over the years. It��s not easy to find them again.��


    But before he could finish his words, he saw a dark shadow suddenly appear in the me. He then dashed towards the small path with lightning speed. A sh of cold light reflected in the air, and Zhang Heng shed the man that stood in the middle of the road!

 Chapter 970 - Attribute vs Skill

    <h4>Chapter 970: Attribute vs Skill</h4>


    Zhang Heng realized that the enemy had located his hiding ce in advance when the enemy blocked his bullet. With Zhang Heng��s current stealth skills, he had a very low possibility of getting spotted. So, there was only one exnation for this situation: the enemy��s exoskeleton might be equipped with a heat detector.


    The opposing man knew Zhang Heng killed all the enemies that crossed paths with him with his sniper rifle. From the very beginning, the man just stood there carelessly in the middle of the road. It was not because he wanted Zhang Heng to kill him. In fact, he appeared to be taunting Zhang Heng, even putting on an arrogant look on his face. If Zhang Heng were to fall for it, he would have been killed by the bombs.


    Once Zhang Heng realized that he missed his target, he quickly vacated his hiding spot, which was why he survived the explosion just now. And afterward, Zhang Heng realized that the heatwave the explosion generated had messed with the heat detector. So, he took the opportunity to dash towards his enemy.


    At that time, he had already ditched his sniper rifle. Although Zhang Heng had excellent marksmanship skills, he still needed some distance to fully utilize his sniper rifle. Since the enemy had a heat detector, it would be suicidal for him to hide at some spot.


    Therefore, Zhang Heng decided to abandon the idea of killing with the sniper rifle, resorting to close-quartersbat instead. And his decision surprised his opponent slightly. An ordinary person would subconsciously avoid frontal contact with the enemy��s exoskeleton, especially after he disyed his enhanced reflexes with it, blocking the bullet with its alloy shield.


    So, when he saw Zhang Heng charging at him, he didn��t panic, but yelled, ��good job!�� instead.


    Suddenly, he threw his right fist at Zhang Heng. Zhang Heng��s movements were already fast enough, managing to escape the fire with only one step. Before he even approached his enemy, he had already pulled out his tungsten steel sword to sh at the opponent��s neck.


    However, no matter how fast Zhang Heng was, there was only so much a human body could do. In contrast, his opponent could surpass the limits of the human body with the help of the exoskeleton.


    His fist nearlynded on Zhang Heng��s chest.


    The previous battle ended too quickly that Mr. G, who was looking at the projection, couldn��t even get to watch how Zhang Heng fought. The cameras were either facing the ground or the screen was aplete ckout. It was rare to be able to witness the whole process. So, Mr. G quickly paid full attention to the fight. He wanted to evaluate Zhang Heng��s true strength through this battle.


    He did not say a word when Zhang Heng missed the shot and almost got killed by the bomb. It appeared that he was confident Zhang Heng wouldn��t die so easily. However, when he saw Zhang Heng charging towards the man with the exoskeleton, he could not help but twitch ufortably.


    ��It��s unwise to charge at an enemy with an exoskeleton.��


    On the other side, Miss F sat silently without saying a word and watched the projection quietly.


    Right before that firstnded on Zhang Heng��s chest, the sword in his hand suddenly disappeared out of thin air. When it reappeared, it magically bypassed the opponent��s arm and struck his opponent��s neck.


    Miss F was taken aback.


    ��Good swordsmanship. To be more precise, I should say he is good at using a ded weapon,�� shemended.


    ��Is his swordsmanship really that good?�� Mr. G curiously asked.


    Ms. F nodded.


    ��Since he is physically weaker than his enemy, he had to rely on his swordsmanship to pressure his opponent.��


    ��So he is programmed to use the sword too? What kind of clone is he?��


    ��No. His swordsmanship is not fabricated.


    ��To be more urate, it is not possible to program such a high-leveled swordsmanship,�� Miss F exined after a pause.


    ��What do you mean by that?��


    ��You should have heard of it. There is still a certain gap between the abilities given by the memory encoder and the abilities that you��ve mastered.��


    ��Well, I have heard of that research topic. It is said that with current cloning technology, two-thirds of the records are maintained by humans rather than clones.��


    ��Yes. And the scientists don��t know the reason behind it. Even if the previous owner��s memories arepletely copied into the clone��s brain, it is still very difficult for the clone to break the previous owner��s record.��


    ��Is it because of muscle memory?�� Mr. G asked with interest.


    ��Muscle memory is a factor, and then there is also a gap in acumen.��


    ��Acumen? Are you talking about the fusion of nature and man? I��ve always thought that such things are fabricated statements in martial arts novels.��


    ��That��s not the case. It is rumored that once real master masters a certain skill set, they have to rely on mental breakthrough if they want to improve it further. Something like that can never be copied and transferred to the clones.��


    ��Are you saying that his swordsmanship has reached such a state? But his memory was reset not too long ago. How could he achieve something like that in such a short time?��


    ��Now, that��s something I still don��t understand,�� Miss F said.


    While the two were talking, Zhang Heng had already fought with the man a few times. The sudden attack from Zhang Heng almost scared the man to death. However, heter realized that Zhang Heng��s tungsten steel sword could only make a scratch on his exoskeleton.


    So he started to act arrogant again, yelling, ��Hahaha! You can��t even prate my defenses. Just what the hell do you think you are doing?! I suggest you let me hammer you to death. I need your head in exchange for freedom.��


    Zhang Heng ignored the man opposite him. Just like before, the actual reason why the man in the middle of the road was so excited was also very simple. Although Zhang Heng could not break his defense, there was nothing he could do to Zhang Heng as well. So, he could only use words to taunt Zhang Heng.


    With the help of the exoskeleton, the man surpassed Zhang Heng in almost everything. However, he still found it hard to end the battle fast and clean. That was because Zhang Heng��s swordsmanship and the way he moved were more superior than him. In other words, Zhang Heng sort of had the upper hand in this battle.


    The man��s current situation was not that great. Although he was now wearing the exoskeleton, he still couldn��ty a finger on Zhang Heng if he were unwilling to make contact. However, his superhuman strength, speed, and responsiveness came with a cost. Although the exoskeleton had its power system, the man still had to withstand a lot of force. They only fought for two minutes, and he was already panting. The man clearly did not want to drag the battle.


    But what he did not expect was that the opponent on the other side had the same n.


    Zhang Heng looked at the time on his bracelet, and he suddenly took two steps back. After that, he nted the tungsten steel sword in his hand into the ground.

 Chapter 971 - Testing Blade

    <h4>Chapter 971: Testing de</h4>


    ��What��s going on? Are you ready to surrender?��


    The man standing in the middle of the road sneered.


    Although he was taunting Zhang Heng, he remained as vignt as ever. After the two fought for so long, his fear of Zhang Heng gradually increased. Now, he didn��t dare underestimate Zhang Heng, looking like he was preparing to face a very powerful enemy. From the start of the fight, he made sure his eyes were locked onto his opponent.


    Of course, he did not forget to taunt Zhang Heng. He now realized that his words had no effect. It was as if Zhang Heng��s emotions would never fluctuate. However, he still didn��t shut his mouth since talking helped him release part of his anxiety.


    After that, Zhang Heng nted Miss F��s tungsten steel sword beside his feet and finally pulled out the Shrouded Sheath from his waist. Due to the overpowering effect of this de, this was Zhang Heng��s first time using it ever since he obtained it.


    Zhang Heng mimicked the skill, Hyakkidou-ri, inspired by Okita Soji. He aimed the tip of his de at the man��s eyes.


    Thetter then blinked and muttered, ��What the hell?! Don��t you dare think you can cut through my exoskeleton with that de.��


    To answer his doubt, Zhang Heng took the initiative to attack. Upon seeing that, the man standing in the middle of the road wasn��t surprised but rejoiced instead. Earlier, he was thinking about how he could force Zhang Heng to fight him face-to-face. To his surprise, Zhang Heng volunteered for the first strike.


    The man in the middle of the road was thrilled, immediately raising his fist to fight again. In Zhang Heng��s hand, the Shrouded Sheath collided with the enemy��s exoskeleton, emitting a loud nk. Soon after that, the nks became more and more frequent. They sounded like raindrops falling on a metal roof.


    The noises made the man more and more nervous, but when he realized that his exoskeleton sustained no damage, he managed to calm down again.


    That said, his current situation was unlike what he had expected. Initially, he thought that once he engaged in close-quartersbat with Zhang Heng, he could take advantage of his strength and speed to get the upper hand. However, he would be too naive to think so. Zhang Heng appeared to have concealed some of his strength. The moment he pulled out the Shrouded Sheath, he was about to give it everything he had to fight against the man.


    Now his attacks gushed onto his enemy like a raging tsunami. The man who stood in the middle of the road thought that the statement was just a metaphor, but now he felt that he might just be drowned by the tsunami. Thest thing that he could rely on was his strength. Hence, he believed that there was no way Zhang Heng could continuously maintain such high-intensity attacks. No matter how good Zhang Heng��s swordsmanship was, he would be the final winner as long as Zhang Heng failed to prate his exoskeleton.


    That was what the man thought in the midst of the fight. However, he heard a more distinct nk, and this one sounded a little harsh. When he looked for the source of the sound came from, he realized that it hade from his right arm.


    Then, he saw something that almost terrified him to death. The exoskeleton of his right arm was covered with dense cracks.


    If he had not seen it with his eyes, he would��ve never believed that an exoskeleton strong enough to withstand a tungsten steel sword could be cut to pieces by a single sh. When he realized that the situation wasn��t in his favor, he tried to withdraw his hand, albeit a little toote.


    After taking in a deep breath, Zhang Heng smashed his target��s exoskeleton with a single stab, the de driving deep into his flesh, cutting off half of his carpal bone along with it. If thetter had not withdrawn his arm, the de would��ve severed off his entire right hand.


    After Zhang Heng managed to wound the man, he dashed away from Zhang Heng at an explosive speed with the help of the exoskeleton. Words would fail to describe the amount of pain and shock he had just endured. And that triggered his primal rage.


    The people who were brought to the garden by Mr. G today were all murderers. All of them had killed at least a dozen people each. Although the injuries on the man��s arm were severe, they did not destroy his will. Instead, the pain motivated him to fight harder. The man fumbled around his waist and found the medical gel, and sprayed it on his wounds. With gritted teeth, he growled, ��It appears that I��ll have to get serious too. I want to see if you can do the same thing to me again!��


    When he was finished, he saw Zhang Heng putting the Shrouded Sheath back into the scabbard. Zhang Heng then pulled out the tungsten steel sword from the ground and said, ��It��s a pity. You can��t see it anymore.��


    ��It��s just a small injury.�� The man licked his lips and smirked, ��Don��t worry. I will make sure you pay for it with your body...��


    The man stopped suddenly because he noticed a pool of blood on his feet. It was blood that wasing from the injuries Zhang Heng had inflicted on him. The man was horrified by what he saw. Although the wound wasn��t fatal, it was indeed deep. If it weren��t patched in time, he would probably die from excessive blood loss.


    Thus, the man pulled out the bottle of medical gel again and sprayed it on the wound on his wrist. Supposedly, medical gels could heal such wounds. However, the strange thing was that he began to bleed even more after applying for the medicine. The wound had even begun rotting, emitting a stench so putrid it overpowered the fragrance of the nearby flowers.


    But Zhang Heng, who was opposite of him, had moved away from where he stood. He lifted the bucket of honebs and continued to walk on the path. Whoever the Shrouded Sheath hurt would eventually be harvested by the reaper.


    Not only would the wound fail to heal, but it would also continue to rot. This effect was thanks to Pestilence��s phnx that was added to the de when recast. The wound was also quite deep, so even if the man lost only one finger, he wouldn��t be leaving the garden alive.


    Not long after Zhang Heng walked away from him, he heard the sound of his enemy falling to the ground behind him. And that marked the end of the battle.


    On the other side of the garden, Mr. G was inplete bewilderment. When Zhang Heng asked to borrow F��s sword because his de was too sharp, Mr. G thought Zhang Heng was ridiculous. The moment Zhang Heng took out his de to cut the exoskeleton, however, Mr. G quickly felt that Zhang Heng was actually too humble.


    The de��s hardness had surpassed any material he knew. However, Mr. G was more interested in the owner of the de. He could not figure out who Zhang Heng was, whether from a human or clone perspective.

 Chapter 972 - Li Mo

    <h4>Chapter 972: Li Mo</h4>


    It took Zhang Heng some time to get rid of the man with the exoskeleton. Fortunately, he managed to find a familiar battle rhythm.


    In all fairness, the goons that Mr. G hired were of very high quality. The enemies Zhang Heng met at theter part of his journey only got stronger and stronger. Mr. G��s mistake this time was to test Zhang Heng��s capability with his garden. The enemies were all scattered as well. Initially, Mr. G expected that they��d hide in the garden to ambush Zhang Heng. Unfortunately, it became a ce for Zhang Heng to showcase all the skills he learned in Rome.


    After Zhang Heng killed the squad and acquired dozens of heat inducers, he no longer needed to worry about the heat detectors his enemies had. Mr. G realized that he was switching the camera frequently again. However, all he saw was the dirt on the ground or a ck screen. In the end, Mr. G didn��t bother looking at it anymore. He turned off the projection after that.


    Afterward, Zhang Heng ran into a small wood with the newly found submachine gun and killed thest three enemies in an ambush. At this point, he finally finished walking the whole path and came to the back door of the garden.


    He remained on guard because he did not know what was on the opposite side of the door. As soon as he opened the door, he threw a smoke bomb and hisst heat inducer at the open space. However, instead of gunshots, he heard someone coughing.


    Thus, Zhang Heng remained as vignt as he could. Holding a submachine gun, he charged in as fast as possible. Behind the garden was a small hotel, so Zhang Heng rushed to the lobby. It was different from ordinary hotels��other than a girl standing no taller than 1.5 meters tall, holding a basin, the ce was empty. She had a basin full of dirty bedsheets and was standing in the middle of the lobby. And Zhang Heng did not see anyone other than her.


    Clearly, she was the one who coughed earlier. Immediately, she raised both hands when she saw Zhang Heng pointing his submachine gun at her.


    ��Are you a hotel staff?�� Zhang Heng asked without putting away his gun.


    The girl nodded. She then pointed at the tag on her chest.


    The tag said Li Mo, Receptionist.


    ��Where are the rest?��


    ��Mr. G said that there might be fighting in the garden. So, he asked everyone to get off work early.��


    ��Why are you still here, then?��


    ��ording to hotel��s regtions, someone has to work in this hotel,�� Li Mo muttered timidly.


    ��So, you are the only one left here now?�� Zhang Heng asked with raised eyebrows.


    ��Yes.��


    ��Turn around.��


    ��Huh?�� Although Li Mo was puzzled, she still obediently turned around.


    Zhang Heng looked around, and he did not see the girl carrying any weapons. And unlike the men that he met in the garden earlier, she wasn��t equipped with a camera. She looked just like an ordinary hotel attendant.


    ��Okay. Let��s turn around and put down the things in your hands first.��


    Zhang Heng waited for Li Mo to put down the bedsheets and handed her the bucket of honeb that he had with him.


    ��Do you know where the storage room is? Bring it there.��


    ��Okay. No problem.��


    Li Mo was about to head to the storage, but she was stopped by Zhang Heng again. ��I will go with you.��


    ��Oh. Oh. Good.��


    So, with Li Mo leading the way, the two came to the elevator and took it down to the storage room on the first floor. They then put the bucket of honeb in it. After he did that, half of the task that was assigned to him waspleted. After that, Zhang Heng asked the girl to bring him to the kitchen.


    The two went through the dark underground corridor and returned to the elevator from the storage room. After that, Li Mo tiptoed and pressed the fourteenth-floor button. While waiting for the elevator door to close, she stood there awkwardly. She did not know where to look. After a while, she heard Zhang Heng speaking.


    ��When are you guys going to assault me?��


    ��What?�� Li Mo didn��t seem to understand Zhang Heng, and she looked lost.


    So Zhang Heng repeated again. ��I asked, when do you n to do it?��


    ��Do what?��


    ��Assassinate me.�� Zhang Heng said lightly.


    ��Huh?!�� Li Mo was taken aback. ��I said I��m just a hotel attendant. Not the kind of person you think I am.��


    ��Your figure is indeed very confusing, especially when men see your petite figure. Coupled with the timid character you have worked so hard to create, men can��t help but put down their guard when they see you. However, there is a w in the identity you created. It doesn��t make sense for them to hire a girl less than 1.5 meters tall as a receptionist in the lobby.��


    ��Oh. About that. You misunderstood me. This is Mr. G��s hotel, and it is usually not open to the public. There is indeed a special rtionship between me and Mr. G, but it is not what you think. Mr. G helped my family a lot. So, I repay him by working as a hotel attendant here,�� Li Mo exined.


    Zhang Heng was unmoved, however.


    ��Really? How can you exin the dirty sheets you were golding when we first met? A receptionist like you were holding the dirty bedsheet? That��s not your job.��


    ��This is Mr. G��s private hotel. We have few employees, and we don��t usually have such a clear division ofbor. We just do whatever needs to be done when we have the time,�� Li Mo replied.


    ��So, you didn��t hide the gun under the storage room table?��


    As Zhang Heng said hisst sentence, the atmosphere in the elevator suddenly became tense. Li Mo, on the other hand, was taken aback as if she did not know how to answer the question.


    ��When I was in the storage room, I saw you ncing at this a few times,�� Zhang Heng said as he drew ady pistol from his waist. ��Are you looking for this?��


    ��When did you... get it?�� Li Mo asked in surprise.


    ��Just now. When we left the storage room, I also noticed that you made a call before entering the elevator. Although you didn��t talk to anyone, I really hope no one else will be waiting outside when the elevator opens.��


    Li Mo��s calves trembled. This time, she was genuinely terrified. It wasn��t an act. She then saw Zhang Heng quickly pressing the button to the thirteenth floor before the elevator reached the fourteenth floor. After that, he pointed the gun at Li Mo and said, ��Get down if you don��t want to die. ��


    Li Mo bit her lip and walked out of the elevator. She then spoke again, ��If you don��t go to the fourteenth floor, you won��t get a croissant, and you can��t pass Mr. G��s assessment.��


    ��Thank you for your concern. I��m still going to the fourteenth floor, but I want to change the route,�� Zhang Heng said as he found the emergency exit.

 Chapter 973 - Croissants

    <h4>Chapter 973: Croissants</h4>


    At the entrance of the garden, Mr. G poured Miss F a ss of wine.


    ��I know you don��t like red wine, but you have to try this bottle. Produced in the year 2000, there are now less than a thousand bottles left in this world. It is hard to find such a bottle of rare wine on earth.��


    Miss F shook her head, and she did not pick up the ss.


    Mr. G, on the other hand, couldn��t be bothered. He then put down his wine ss and asked, ��Are you still worried about him?��


    ��Aren��t the previous battles enough for him to prove his strength? Why are you making him go to your killer hotel?�� Miss F was puzzled.


    ��Because I told you that it��s a veryplicated circumstance this time. Not only do I need an excellent courier, but I also have to make sure that he has good observation and analysis skills. Yes. Hisbat skills are awe-inspiring, even better than mine. He is more powerful than anyone I��ve ever seen. However, being a good fighter is not enough. The killers in the killer hotel may becking to those in the garden in terms of strength, but they are better at seizing opportunities and disguising.��


    ��But you only reminded him to be careful of the people in the garden earlier.��


    ��Yes. I wouldn��t have been able to examine his observation and analysis ability otherwise.�� Mr. G then spread his hands, ��It��s not possible to prepare for every threat every single time. You should know that better than me.��


    Miss F was rendered speechless.


    ��This battle won��t end so soon even if he knows he��s walking into a trap. As long as the killers in the hotel guard the kitchen and drag time as long as possible, he wouldn��t be able to pass this test.�� Mr. G took a sip of the red wine. ��I��m rather curious what he ns to do in such a situation.��


    ...


    The bullet holes left on both sides of the safe passage��s wall showed how fierce the battle was. The assassins on the fourteenth floor responded to the sudden change of circumstance very quickly. Seeing the elevator stopping ahead of time, they knew that their n had been exposed. So, they quickly thought of the safe passage, the only ce connecting the two floors apart from the elevator.


    After that, Zhang Heng, who wanted to go upstairs, ran into a team of killers rushing down to the lower floor. Immediately, a gunfight broke out between the two sides. In the end, Zhang Heng managed to kill two of them. However, there were too many enemies surrounding him, so he had to retreat to the thirteenth floor.


    After that, Zhang Heng prevented the team of killers from trying to charge towards the thirteenth floor. In the midst of it, he killed three more enemies. ording to Li Mo, there were a total of thirty killers in this hotel. Discounting the ones Zhang Heng held hostage, Li Mo, and the enemies he killed in the two battles earlier, there were still twenty-four enemies left.


    If the remaining enemies were scattered, Zhang Heng could kill them one by one, like how he decimated his enemies in the garden. However, if they worked together to guard the kitchen, Zhang Heng could be in big trouble. After they failed to enter the thirteenth floor, Zhang Heng realized that they stopped making any moves. And they seemed to want to keep it like that. They had no intention to rescue theirpanion.


    ��You better give up,�� Li Mo said. ��We have received the order in advance. If our identities are revealed, and we fail to kill you, all the entrances on the fourteenth floor will be sealed off, and the kitchen will be heavily guarded.��


    Right after she finished speaking, the hotel��s power supply cut off suddenly, and the elevator could no longer be used. After that, Zhang Heng heard the sound of something heavy being dragged above his head. Clearly, the people above him were nning to block the emergency exit.


    Zhang Heng didn��t panic. Instead, he said with raised eyebrows, ��When I was in the elevator, I saw that the western restaurant is located on the fourteenth floor. The restaurant has floor-to-ceiling windows. right?��


    ��Are you nning to climb to the restaurant?�� Li Mo frowned, ��I advise that you dismiss this idea. Since you can think of something like this, you can bet your enemies would��ve thought of it too. I think they sent someone to guard the French windows.��


    ��It��s not something you need to be worried about, and thank you for your cooperation. ording to our agreement, I will let you live. Sweet dreams.�� After Zhang Heng got the answer he wanted, he knocked Li Mo out with his gun. He then walked towards the window and stretched his hand to push it open.


    The next moment, a pair of shadowy wings slowly spread out behind him. Li Mo was right. There were indeed a couple of people standing in front of the French windows. They wanted to stop Zhang Heng from climbing up to the restaurant from below.


    However, little did they expect Zhang Heng to use another method to get to the western restaurant. The person standing on the left-hand side saw a dark shadow passing by. However, he could not see what the person looked like. And the next second, a bullet prated the ss andnded on his heart.


    The person that stood next to him did not manage to escape death as well. One second after his partner was killed, a bulletnded on his head. Both of them fell to the ground at the same time. And Zhang Heng had officially dered war on them.


    Immediately, Zhang Heng frantically fired his submachine gun at them. A total of four of them were killed, and two of them were injured. They could not figure out how Zhang Heng suddenly appeared outside of the window without any warning. They thought that he could fly like a bird, flying towards them to fire the bullets. After they lost a couple of men, they realized that they had to search for cover quickly. However, the three didn��t move fast enough, and they were killed by Zhang Heng.


    The people who found their cover began to fight back. However, Zhang Heng did not stay in ce. He was frequently changing his position in the air with the help of the Shadow Wings. It could help him dodge attacks and find the right angle to kill his enemies.


    At the same time, Zhang Heng was also secretly counting the time in his heart. Twelve secondster, hended on the bar counter and killed thest killer that hid there. At this point, other than Zhang Heng, no one else was alive in the western restaurant.


    The killers from other ces started to run towards the western restaurant when they heard the gunshots. However, there were only ten of them, and they were nowhere nearly good enough to cause Zhang Heng any damage. One after the other, they were all killed by Zhang Heng��s Lv3 marksmanship.


    When the gunfire finally died down, Zhang Heng stood up from behind the bar. Shaking off the broken ss on his clothes, he pushed the door open and walked into the kitchen on the other side. Without having to search the ce, he saw the te of croissants on the table. The chef who made it was hiding at the corner, trembling. He could not believe he was looking at the man that just singlehandedly killed thirty enemies.


    Zhang Heng then nodded at the chef and reached out to grab the te of croissants on the table. However, the seemingly harmless chef suddenly put on a fierce look and put his hand into his uniform. Before he could touch the gun, a gunshot could be heard.


    ��Did you really think that I would believe there are only thirty killers?�� Zhang Heng ced the smoking pistol on the dining table and picked up the te of croissants.

 Chapter 974 - Restoration Storage Point

    <h4>Chapter 974: Restoration Storage Point</h4>


    When Zhang Heng returned to the garden gate with the te of croissants, less than fifteen minutes had passed.


    Before Zhang Heng walked towards the table, Mr. G stood up and apuded him.


    ��It��s so amazing... it��s definitely impressive. I have to apologize to you. To be honest, I didn��t expect you toplete this test. Now, it seems I��ve underestimated you. You are indeed the best courier for this transaction. No, it should be said that no one else can be more perfect than you. With you taking the job, I believe this transaction will proceed smoothly.��


    After speaking, he picked the two wine sses with red wine from the table and handed one to Zhang Heng.


    ��Please forgive me for the previous offense.��


    Zhang Heng took the wine ss and put the te of croissants on the table.


    ��I will start preparing now. As long as you help me toplete the transaction, I will immediately help you extract the tracking device under your cerebral cortex.��


    Mr. G toasted.


    After that, Zhang Heng returned the tungsten steel sword to Miss F before saying, ��Thank you.��


    Miss F nodded in kind. Although Zhang Heng��s performance also surprised her, she didn��t ask him any questions.


    ��I will send you back,�� she said to Zhang Heng after taking the sword.


    Zhang Heng drank the ss of wine in his hand and turned to Mr. G. ��Is there anything else you��d like to talk to me about?��


    ��Not for now. I will let F tell you the details of the transaction before you carry out the job.�� Mr. G tiptoed, patted Zhang Heng��s shoulder, and said enthusiastically, ��After you bring back what I want, we will take care of your problem.��


    ��Okay.��


    Zhang Heng put down the wine ss and walked out of the garden with Miss F.


    The ck SUV that sent them here was no longer there. Instead, it was reced by Miss F��s off-road vehicle.


    After the two got into the car, Miss F did not immediately send Zhang Heng to the station. Instead, she asked, ��Do you have time? I will take you to see something.��


    ��Okay.��


    Once Zhang Heng agreed, Miss F stepped on the elerator. The off-road vehicle lurched forward like a raging bull, breaking into a wild rampage on the road. Seeing how F barrelled down the road, other cars automatically evaded it without much protest. Twenty minutester, the vehicle finally slowed down before stopping in front of a KTV named Youhong.


    Zhang Heng then saw the familiar blue new energy car in front of the door, and he took a look at the license te, remembering that this car was parked in front of Fu Ji earlier. The waitress at the small restaurant was taken into this car.


    ��This is a restoration storage point,�� Miss F said.


    ��What?��


    ��A restoration storage point. You know they reset the memories of glitchy clones, right?��


    ��Yeah.�� Zhang Heng nodded.


    ��The memory reset is performed in the Shengtang Morgan��s memory coding room on the fifth floor. In other words, if there are problems with the clones on the first to fourth floors, they will be collected first and sent to the restoration storage point. After six days, all the clones stored there would be sent to the fifth floor for the repair.��


    ��So, all the problematic clones are stored there?��


    ��Not all of them. This is just a restoration storage point. Under normal circumstances, there are multiple restoration storage points on each floor.��


    ��Are there usually so many glitchy clones?�� Zhang Heng raised his eyebrows.


    ��No. Some people are dissatisfied with the clones they hire, such as their personalities or their background. Of course, if you return them to the factory because of these reasons, you will need to pay for the extra service.


    ��Don��t you want to know how they treat those clones?�� Miss F said after pausing.


    ��Hmm?��


    ��Human clones are valuable production tools. It is necessary to take protective measures to prevent damage to those clones. As for the unlucky ones forced to stay here for six days, the employees would ce them in a small prison underground. It is soundproof. No one will hear you, no matter how loud you cry. Other than that, there is a full set of restraints that can fix the clones�� teeth in one position to prevent them from harming themselves. There will be people who feed them on a regr basis. So, it will be impossible for them to go on a hunger strike. Eventually, those clones would be sent to the fifth floor with other clones. After the memory rewriting process ispleted, the clones will forget everything, and they would be remade into efficient production tools once again.


    ��The whole process is no different from shattering your soul. After that, they would be remolded into a different person. And this process will keep repeating for the rest of their lives. The question is how different we are from human beings. We have the same DNA, the same appearance, the same emotions, andnguage. Just because we are born differently, and we do note from the womb, does that mean that we have to ept such a fate?��


    ��Good question. Have you found the answer?�� Zhang Heng asked.


    ��Not yet. But I will soon. We are about to reach the final destination,�� Miss F said. ��I hope you can join in and help us.��


    ��We? Who else? Mr. G?��


    ��Yes. Although he is human, he is our ally and leader. He has always sympathized with the clones, and he is willing to be our liberator. I know that the test just now was too much to bear, and I��m trying to defend him by justifying his behavior. I hope you can understand him. He just did what had to be done in his position. Over the years, we have done a lot of things under the nose of Shengtang Morgan. Most of them are dangerous things. That��s why our rtionship with Shengtang Morgan has only gotten tenser.��


    ��At first, Shengtang Morgan had a different opinion on acquiescing the autonomy of the first level. Sooner orter, they would have to deal with Mr. G and the first level. Our only way out is the deal that happens the day after tomorrow. He needs to make sure that the transaction gets carried out sessfully.��


    ��He wants to get the memory encoder,�� Zhang Heng asked.


    Miss F was taken aback.


    ��It seems you already know the details of the transaction. Did the middleman tell you?��


    Zhang Heng did not answer. Instead, he asked, ��What about you? You have been searching for yourself all your life and trying to be your true self. In that case, why do you still agree to marry Mr. G even though it is against your will?��


    ��How do you know that it is against my will?��


    ��Because I know what it��s like to like a person.�� Zhang Heng looked into Miss F��s eyes. ��You might be grateful to him because he saved you. I also know that you adore him. To you, he is your friend and mentor. You may think he is very reliable, but this is not love. In fact, you know this very well, don��t you.��

 Chapter 975 - Help

    <h4>Chapter 975: Help</h4>


    ��How much do you know about love?�� Miss F asked, ��All your memories are fabricated. The person you love is fake too, and the feelings you have for them aren��t real. How can you really tell how it feels to love someone?��


    ��This is basic human instinct. It has nothing to do with your memory,�� Zhang Heng said.


    ��This answer is too vague.�� Miss F shook her head. ��You don��t know Mr. G. I was left with no other options at that time, and he saved me. I told him that if he likes me, he can marry me, but he told me that there was no need to make a quick decision. He also mentioned that he did like me, but he didn��t want me to make this decision out of gratitude for him. And when I told him that I wanted to abandon the identity of Tangpletely, he looked for a stic surgeon to give me an ordinary face so I could live like a regr person. However, he still prefers my original face.


    ��As the actual ruler of the first floor, he can get all kinds of women he wants. However, he chose to remain single all these years. I know he��s been waiting for me. I��m not sure if this could be considered love ording to your definition, ��Miss F asked rhetorically.


    ��We talked about your love for him, not his love for you. Since you haven��t epted his proposal all these years, why did you suddenly decide to engage him now?��


    ��Because the war ising. I don��t want to leave any regrets, whether mine or his.�� Miss F pointed to a KTV not far away, ��We have amon enemy. They are there right now. What I don��t understand is that you don��t look like a nosy person. Why are you so concerned about my love life?��


    ��I might need your help on something important in the future. So, I need to figure out where you stand,�� Zhang Heng said.


    ��My stand? You want to know how obedient I am to Mr. G, right?��


    Zhang Heng did not deny it.


    ��Once I give him the memory encoder, Mr. G will immediately perform the surgery on me as agreed and extract the tracking device under my cerebral cortex. I hope you will be there during the operation.��


    ��You don��t trust Mr. G. Why?��


    ��That��s not true. I just don��t trust politicians in general, no matter how righteous their slogans are,�� Zhang Heng said.


    The drawback of the single-yer game had finally shown itself in this quest.


    The operation of removing the tracking device required a craniotomy, which meant Zhang Heng would need to receive general anesthesia during the procedure. During that time, he would be unable to keep conscious. What was more troublesome was that this was a quest that allowed others to alter one��s memories. To make matters worse, Zhang Heng would be handing the memory encoder to Mr. G before his operation.


    If he yed this quest with one more yer, he could rely on his teammate to protect him while he was unconscious. But Zhang Heng��s problem was that he was alone now. In all the other previous dungeons, he could make up for the single-yer mode��s caveats by his overwhelming strength and the extra time that he had every day. But this time, no matter how strong he was, once anesthetized, he would lose his consciousness. And that would make him no different from other ordinary people.


    Therefore, Zhang Heng needed to pick someone from this quest to protect himself. However, it was not easy to find someone that he could trust. First of all, the person had to be strong enough to protect him in the event of unexpected situations. Second, he had to make sure that Mr. G. could not buy over this person, which was the most important thing.


    For the second requirement, Zhang Heng had been searching for people he could rely on, and he discovered that very few fit the requirements he set. Mr. G��s fianc��e, Miss F, was also a clone. And Zhang Heng realized that she sympathized with other clones. Hence, he considered her as someone that would stick to her principles.


    The only problem was that the identity of her fianc��e, Mr. G. Zhang Heng wanted to know if Mr. G was capable of affecting her decision.


    ��I can be by your side when you��re being operated on,�� Miss F said. ��I can understand your fears. There are many nights when I wake up suddenly and wonder if I��ve found my true self. Or, is this just another set of memories forced into my mind? So, you can count on me during your operation. I will make sure that no one will mess with your memory. I hope that you will stopmenting on my feelings. I have already made my choice.��


    ��Sorry.�� Zhang Heng apologized.


    Miss F epted his apology.


    ��Be prepared. I am not a lobbyist for Mr. G. For the thousands of ourpatriots living in New Shanghai 0297, and for the people who were brought into this KTV, this transaction will determine if the clones could truly change their destiny.��


    ��I��ll try my best.��


    ...


    Early the following day, Zhang Heng received an email from Old Man Geng, saying that he would arrange for him to have a meal with the supplier at noon. Thetter could help Zhang Heng collect the shec records after Old Man Geng left. So, Zhang Heng left the apartment after he finished his breakfast.


    Only Xu Qian was left in the apartment. She did not know what to do. Yesterday, she went to the first level with Zhang Heng. She thought she would never go back. Although Xu Qian had been saying that Zhang Heng��s spection was nonsense, deep in her heart, she knew that Zhang Heng could be right. It was a terrifying feeling to find out that all traces of her life on the first level had beenpletely erased.


    In her final livestream that evening, Xu Qian did not announce her retirement to her fans as nned. Instead, she bit the bullet and did a regr stream. However, she seemed a little absent-minded. While she was chatting with her fans, she had been thinking about what Zhang Heng said to her. And she made a few jokes about him. One of the fans even said that she looked tennen-boke today.


    ��You look so cute when you are not focused. That��s my girl,�� someone said. And the atmosphere in the livestream became lively suddenly. After that, everyone started to talk about it.


    ��She��s daydreaming. Let me use my pee to wake her up.��


    ��Eat some peanuts too, don��t just drink.��


    In the past, Xu Qian would probably make a shy expression and ask for more gifts, but this time she just squeezed out a smile.


    The more well-known streamers needed to work hard to build and maintain their characters. It could help them increase the number of their fans and viewers. It was something that everyone would do in this line of work. In the past, Xu Qian never thought there was anything wrong with that. However, when she remembered Zhang Heng told her that she might be a clone, she stopped being her usual self. She could not help but think that other clones with different faces must also share the same personality.


    The more she thought about it, the more frightened she became. In the end, she ended the livestream one hour earlier. She still felt a little restless until the next morning. Then, she received an email.

 Chapter 976 - Present

    <h4>Chapter 976: Present</h4>


    Xu Qian never expected her boyfriend, Qiu Ming, to return to New Shanghai 0297 so much earlier than the nned date.


    The email that she received was sent by Qiu Ming. He told her that he would arrive at her ce in twenty minutes. With her boyfriend��s sudden visit, Xu Qian hurriedly asked the housework robot to clean up the house and pack all the morning��s unfinished food. After throwing them away, she rushed to the dressing table as fast as she could. She then started to put on some makeup and tried several sets of clothes. Finally, she chose a very humble-looking dress, one that vaguely outlined her figure.


    After changing, her bracelet reminded her that a visitor had requested to enter the apartment. Immediately, Xu Qian authorized it. Speaking of which, this was Qiu Ming��s first time stepping into Xu Qian��s apartment since he fell in love with her a long time ago. Qiu Ming had always wanted to visit her apartment, but she deliberately controlled the rtionship��s progress to ensure he wouldn��t abandon her after realizing how easy it was to capture her heart. Hence, Qiu Ming was never allowed to step into her apartment. At most, he was only allowed to drop her off in front.


    But this time, Qiu Ming had deliberately rushed back from earth ahead of time to meet her. The first thing he did when he stepped off the spaceship was to look for her. So, Xu Qian thought it would be inappropriate to reject him this time.


    Besides, a lot of things had happened to her while he was gone. She needed a shoulder to lean on. So Xu Qian was overjoyed when she heard that Qiu Ming wasing to meet her. For the first time ever, her boyfriend would be allowed to set foot into her apartment.


    She then turned on the projection and flipped to a movie channel. After that, she messed up her hair a little. Coupled with her light makeup, she looked like she had just woken up. As soon as she sat down on the sofa, the door was opened.


    A handsome, middle-aged man who had gotten a little plump walked in.


    ��You are here.�� Xu Qian stood up, walked to the man, gently helped him take off his coat, and hung it on the hanger.


    Qiu Ming, in return, took out a box of choctes and handed it to Xu Qian. ��I brought you a present.��


    Xu Qian was a little disappointed when she saw chocte. However, the disappointment onlysted for split seconds in her eyes. After that, she put on a happy look and said, ��How do you know that I like chocte?��


    ��Don��t all girls like chocte? All the choctes from this shop are handmade. Open it and give it a go,�� Qiu Ming offered.


    So Xu Qian opened up the outer packaging and opened the chocte box.


    And lo and behold, a diamond-studdeddy��s watchy inside.


    Overwhelmed with excitement, Xu Qian covered her mouth with one hand. ��Oh god! Is this Patek Philippe��s retro model? It costs at least one million credits!��


    ��No matter how expensive the watch is, it can never bepared to you.�� Qiu Ming picked up the watch from the chocte box as he spoke and put it on Xu Qian��s wrist.


    ��This is too expensive.��


    Xu Qian was ttered.


    ��For my future wife, I don��t think so.�� Qiu Ming put the watch on Xu Qian��s wrist and kissed her. He then went to the sofa, sat down, and loosened his tie.


    ��What would you like to drink,�� Xu Qian asked.


    ��Oh, water is fine,�� Qiu Ming said. He then looked around Xu Qian��s apartment again before asking, ��Do you live here?��


    Xu Qian did not ask the housework robot to help. Instead, she poured the water for Qiu Ming personally and fetched him the water cup. ��Are you looking down on the ce where the poor people live?��


    ��That��s not what I mean. I wanted to say it��s very warm and fuzzy here.�� Qiu Ming took the water and drank it all in one go. ��It��s just the ce is kinda small. There is no swimming pool, no home cinema, no nanny room.��


    ��I don��t live on the fourth level!�� Xu Qian pretended to be angry and shoved Qiu Ming a little.


    To which, thetter smiled. ��So when do you n to say yes to my proposal and move to the fourth level to live with me? I��ve asked my servants to get your room ready. My vi needs a hostess.��


    ��Why are you so desperate for me to move in with you? What do you really need? A hostess or a maid to help you warm your bed?��


    ��To be honest, I need both.�� Qiu Ming said, reached out, and held Xu Qian��s waist.


    ��Behave yourself...��


    Xu Qian pped her boyfriend��s hand.


    ��I am behaving myself. You are the one who isn��t. I thought we havee to an agreement?�� Qiu Ming sat upright. ��You told me that you would announce that you were getting married soon during the livestreamst night and quit this job afterward. However, when I watched your livestreamst night, you didn��t say a word about it. And a few nasty guys were calling my future wife their wife.��


    ��I...�� Xu Qian paused, ��I need some time. Well, after all, I have been in this line for so long. It��s hard for me to quit just like that.��


    ��Why not? I told you that after you retire, I will take good care of you,�� Qiu Ming said as he grabbed a handful of melon seeds and fed them to the hamster on the table. ��Is this your pet? I never heard you saying anything about it?��


    ��Damn it. Can��t you give me a little more time? You are not the only one who has a career...�� Xu Qian couldn��t tell him that Zhang Heng��s remarks had actually made her hesitate her choices. That was why she did not announce that she was going to retire during the livestreamst night.


    ��Of course, you can have a career. But didn��t you mention that there are still a lot of things to prepare before the wedding? For example, who you want to invite, the venue, the wedding dress... You said you might not have time to do livestreams anymore.��


    ��Did I... say that?�� Xu Qian squeezed out a smile.


    ��Yeah, I remember it clearly. Just two days ago. Did you forget?��


    ��No. I��ll pour you another ss of water,�� Xu Qian replied as she picked up the ss and headed to the kitchen. Sticking it under the water dispenser, she pressed the hot water button and folded her arms.


    Xu Qian now wished she never followed Zhang Heng to the first level yesterday. If that were the case, she would��ve dly epted the new watch Qiu Ming bought her, lying happily in his arms instead of getting paranoid.


    ��Did something happen?��


    Qiu Ming��s voice suddenly came from behind, and it gave Xu Qian a huge shock. She had to hold onto the stove behind her to prevent herself from falling to the ground.


    ��Are you okay? Am I hallucinating, or... you seem a little weird today.��


    Qiu Ming frowned.


    ��I��m fine. I just didn��t expect you toe into the kitchen.��


    ��Oh, it��s because I just remembered something. In the afternoon, there is an opera performance in the Blue Theatre. I��ve reserved two seats, so we can go and watch it together. Are you okay with it?��


    ��I��m fine.�� Xu Qian handed the cup of hot water to Qiu Ming and said, ��We can go and watch the opera performance together.��


    ��Very good. And what do you n to eat at noon? Why not go to thest French restaurant that we went to have our lunch? The foie gras is not bad,�� Qiu Ming said. ��Additionally, I��ve also prepared another gift for you.��

 Chapter 977 - Negotiation

    <h4>Chapter 977: Negotiation</h4>


    Old Man Heng and Zhang Heng met in a hot pot restaurant on the first level. Outside the restaurant was a huge Chaoshan Beef Ball signboard. However, the entrance was not that big. After entering the restaurant, Zhang Heng saw the stairs in front of him. To get to the hot pot restaurant, he had to go to the second floor.


    As soon as Zhang Heng got out of the car, he saw a few men sneaking around the restaurant, posing as passers-by or small-time entrepreneurs. Without exception, they paid full attention to the movement outside the hotpot restaurant. Prior to what happenedst time, these men had been sent by Mr. G to protect Old Man Geng.


    Since thest time they separated, Zhang Heng and Old Man Geng had not seen each other for a while now. Thetter was the middleman in this transaction, helping to build a bridge between buyer and seller. He knew every single detail about the deal. It was no wonder so many people targeted him. After being attacked by mobsters, Old Man Geng returned to pack everything he needed and moved to the first level. It was for the sake of his safety.


    Zhang Heng ignored the people around him and walked up the stairs.


    Old Man Geng and his supplier friends arrived early, and they had ordered a couple of dishes.


    When Zhang Heng showed up, Old Man Geng immediately got up and waved at him. He then passed the menu to Zhang Heng.


    ��Check out the menu and see what you want to eat. You��re wee. The bill is on me, included in the reward for protecting me earlier. ��


    Unlike the previous meetings, Old Man Geng was obviously more enthusiastic this time. It was because he had already witnessed Zhang Heng��sbat skill. No matter what, it was always a good thing to be more polite towards a formidably powerful individual, let alone Zhang Heng saving Old Man Geng once.


    ��It��s fine. I��m fine with whatever you guys order,�� Zhang Heng said. He pulled out the chair and sat down.


    After that, Old Man Geng ordered another te of beef and shrimp paste and returned the menu to the waiter.


    While waiting for the dishes to be served, Zhang Heng raised his head and looked at the man next to Old Man Geng. Slightly younger than Geng, he looked like he was in his early forties. With a well-maintained figure, his muscr arms appeared to be a result of his job that required a lot of physical strength. The marks on his wrists also indicated that he often wore gloves. His small eyes gleamed with a vignce, showing he did not trust Zhang Heng very much and that what he was doing now might not be legal.


    ��Let me introduce you to my friend over here,�� Old Man Geng said, ��This is my supplier and old friend. He��s provided me with more than half of the merchandise in the House of Old Things.


    After I sell the item, we divide the profit fifty-fifty between us. Of course, you can directly buy whatever you want from him. He is...��


    Old man Geng was interrupted by the man next to him before he finished speaking. He stretched out his hand and said, ��Just call me a Gold Digger. This is how everyone calls me.��


    Zhang Heng stretched out his hand and shook Gold Digger��s hand before introducing himself.


    ��I��m Zhang Heng.��


    ��Listen, Zhang Heng. You��ve been introduced to me by Old Man Geng, which is why I am willing toe here to meet you. But I also have my rules. It is better I make some things clear in advance. When you want to make a deal with me, don��t ask any questions. Whether it��s about where I got the items or if those things are rted to me, you��d better not ask those questions. You pay the money, and I deliver the goods. That��s all fair and reasonable. If I find out you tell anyone about our transaction, I will terminate the deal immediately,�� Gold Digger said.


    Zhang Heng nodded.


    ��Sounds reasonable.��


    ��Very good.��


    Gold Digger was very satisfied with Zhang Heng��s cooperation. And he lowered down his guard a little.


    ��That��s great,�� Zhang Heng said calmly.


    Old Man Geng, on the side, did not manage to interrupt them. His forehead was sweating profusely. Now, although he had repeatedly reminded Gold Digger to be polite to Zhang Heng before they got to the restaurant, thetter obviously had little intention to heed his advice. In fact, he was using his old tricks to deal with Zhang Heng. Judging from his expression, he felt that he was in control of the situation, and he was quite happy with it.


    Old Man Geng had learned his lesson. He knew that Zhang Heng would never be someone easily controlled. The only reason why he behaved so politely was probably that Gold Digger had said nothing to arouse his interest.


    Before Old Man Geng could even remind his old friend about it, their dishes were served.


    Gold Digger started to consider himself host and asked Zhang Heng to enjoy the meal. Zhang Heng, on the other hand, continued behaving politely. The three of them quickly finished two tes of beef. Gold Digger was eating happily, and he started to unbutton his shirt. He then shouted at the waiter to lower the air-conditioning before finally, entering the topic that he wanted to discuss today. ��Old Man Geng told me that you are collecting... Shec records.��


    ��Yes.�� Zhang Heng put the sweet potato chips into the pot. ��Can you find them for me?��


    ��That��s is no easy task,�� Gold Digger said. ��I��m pretty sure Old Man Geng told you that shec records are very rare, especially in a ce like this. Although I can find them for you, you might need to pay a hefty price. However, since you are Old Man Geng��s friend, I won��t overcharge you. Just... four thousand credits for one.��


    ��One hundred.�� Zhang Heng did not look at Gold Digger.


    ��What?!�� Gold Digger thought there was something wrong with his ears.


    ��One hundred credits for one,�� Zhang Heng insisted lightly.


    Old Man Geng smiled bitterly on the other side. He remembered that when the two met for the first time, he initially wanted to sell the shec records to Zhang Heng with the price of three thousand credits. Zhang Heng, however, counter-offered with one hundred credits for one record. Now, it seems that thetter was not against him. He behaved the same to everyone.


    ��Repeat it?�� Gold Digger stared at Zhang Heng furiously.


    ��One hundred credits for one shec record. And I want lots of them. So you��d better find me more.��


    ��Boy, are you messing with me? Didn��t you hear me say that the shec record is a rare thing? I have to pay a great price to get them too!�� Gold Digger pped the chopsticks on the table as he roared.


    ��I heard what you said, but I don��t believe a word thates out your mouth,�� Zhang Heng said. He put down his chopsticks, ��You are a worker at the fifth-level garbage disposal nt. I know that you have been secretly picking up some old things that might seem valuable from the garbage pile. After that, you will pass those things to Old Man Geng and ask him to help you to sell them.��


    ��Did you tell him about me!?�� Gold Digger turned his head and looked at Old Man Geng angrily.


    Seeing how angry Gold Digger had be, Old Man Geng shook his head quickly, ��It��s not me. We have been friends for so many years. When did I ever betray you?��


    ��Then how did he know about me?�� Gold Digger was still suspicious of Old Man Geng after listening to his exnation.


    ��Stop making wild guesses. Your attire exposes who you are. And to be honest, there are only so many ways for a person to acquire items like that. And those usuallye from the fourth and fifth levels. Judging from the way you look, you look like someone that lives on the second level. It is impossible for you to contact upper-level buyers. Other than that, it is imusible the people from the fourth and fifth levels would sell those items for money. So the answer is self-evident,�� Zhang Heng said.


    ��Although you changed to your casual clothes before you came, your all-year-round glove-wearing has left traces on your wrists. Even on a hot day, you have to wear waterproof boots. And you also suffer from a certain hip problem. From the beginning until now, I have seen you stretch your waist at least three times. Your strong arms show that you are not a white-cor office worker. Now, herees the problem. You often wear gloves and boots. You need to bend over all the time, and you always manage to get your hands on the old stuff. I can��t think of any other ces for this kind of work besides the garbage disposal nt. Other than that, the moment I sat down, you warned me not to ask any questions. That means you are not allowed to bring anything out of the garbage disposal nt; the rules and regtions of your workce.��

 Chapter 978 - Negotiation And Reward

    <h4>Chapter 978: Negotiation And Reward</h4>


    Gold Digger��s eyes widened, and his mouth dropped open, oblivious as to what sort of expression he should be putting on. At that moment, he looked like a mime.


    Old Man Geng sighed when he saw his friend��s expression. ��I told you from the beginning that your strategy is useless against him. It��s better toe clean as soon as you meet.��


    ��Didn��t you say that he is just a bodyguard? What was his previous job? A detective?��


    Gold Digger looked incredulous.


    ��Something like that,�� replied Zhang Heng. He then diverted to the earlier topic. ��So one hundred credits. Can we set this price in stone?��


    Gold Digger immediately deted when he heard what Zhang Heng said. ��That... That... is too low of a price. Though most of my things are from the dumpsite, do you know how much garbage is waiting to be recycled? What��s more, I have to take great risks to smuggle those things out. To be honest, I can only smuggle a few things out at most every week. If I bring those shec records with me, I can��t smuggle other things out. And they will scan me when I leave my workce. I have to put those things in my self-made backpack that can block the scanning signal.��


    ��So, if I report you to the garbage disposal site, you will never be able to make that extra money anymore,�� Zhang Heng said.


    Gold Digger��s face darkened the moment he heard Zhang Heng��s threats. However, he figured that this wasn��t the time for him to take a step back. Zhang Heng would��ve continued taking advantage of him, otherwise. So, he gritted his teeth and said, ��As long as I stop doing it, you won��t have any evidence that can be used against me.��


    ��Who told you that? I recorded what you said.�� Zhang Heng then raised the bracelet and clicked y. Immediately, Gold Digger heard their conversation when they met for the first time just now.


    ��What is going on?! How can you do this kind of thing to me?!�� Gold Digger was so angry that he renderedpletely speechless.


    In the end, Old Man Geng had to stand up to calm them down, ��Everyone! Calm Down! Let��smunicate properly.��


    ��How do you expect me to do that?�� Gold Digger said angrily, ��So, this is the big customer that you wanted to introduce me to? He started recording our conversation as soon as he sat down. Clearly, he is here to mess with me!��


    ��I��m just trying to protect myself by preventing you from overcharging,�� Zhang Heng said calmly, ��especially considering that your friend did the same to me.��


    Old Man Geng looked a little embarrassed, ��Uh, four thousand credits for one shec record is indeed too expensive. On the other hand, one hundred credits for one shec record is outrageous as well... For my sake, please renegotiate.��


    ��I think one hundred credits for one shec record is good enough.��


    Before Zhang Heng finished speaking, he saw Gold Digger stood up from the dinner table in anger. It seemed like he wanted to leave the restaurant right now. Then, suddenly, he heard Zhang Heng adding, ��I can pay you a handsome amount of bonus.��


    ��Bonus? What kind of bonus?�� Old Man Geng then pulled Gold Digger back.


    ��Every time you find me twenty shec records, I will pay you twice the price,�� Zhang Heng offered. ��For example, for the first twenty records, I will pay one hundred credits for each. From the twenty-first to the fortieth, I will pay you two hundred credits each. From forty-first to sixtieth, four hundred credits each... and so on. When you reach one hundred and twenty shec records, you will receive 3,600 credits for each one you sell me. This price is very close to what you initially offered.��


    ��But where can I find you so many shec records?�� Having said that, Gold Digger stopped and added, ��And, how do I know this is not one of your tricks? After you pay for all the cheap shec records, you might stop buying them from me after I sold sixty to eighty shec records to you.��


    ��I can assure you that no matter how many shec records you have, I will buy all of them. My purpose ining to New Shanghai 0297 is to buy as many shec records as possible. In order to avoid an infinite price increase, I will set a limit to the shec records�� price. Starting from the hundred and sixtieth record, I will buy it at a price of ten thousand credits,�� Zhang Heng said.


    Earlier, Zhang Heng hade up with this price tag in his mind. He could always threaten Gold Digger. However, the price tag of one hundred credits for each shec record would indeed discourage Gold Digger��s enthusiasm to look for more shec. Hence, a reward had to be offered to motivate Gold Digger to work harder to find those shec records.


    ��I will stay in New Shanghai 0297 for about eight months,�� Zhang Heng continued afterward, ��As long as you manage to find those shec records during this period, you can sell them to me.��


    ��Eight months,�� Gold Digger frowned. He was calcting how much money he could make in those eight months. After that, he looked at Zhang Heng with skepticism. ��If I manage to find one-hundred shec records during this time, how much can you pay me?��


    ��I can vouch for him,�� Old Man Geng chimed in. ��I��ve seen Zhang Heng��sbat skills, and he can make a lot of money if he is willing to work hard. Moreover, Mr. G and Miss F admire him very much. He can always work for Mr. G.��


    Gold Digger hesitated for a moment before finally sitting down again.


    ��Can Mr. G be his guarantor?�� he asked.


    ��That��s impossible,�� Zhang Heng shook his head and said. ��You don��t want our transaction to be known to others. And I will do the same. It��s better if we keep this matter among the three of us.�� Zhang Heng then took a look at Old Man Geng again.


    Thetter raised his hand.


    ��Don��t worry. You don��t have to worry about me. I am not leaving New Shanghai 0297 anytime soon.��


    He then said to Gold Digger, ��Zhang Heng��s proposal might not be pleasing to the ear, but he is the kind that lets you know in advance if there are any problems. The way the two of you worked is quite simr. As long as he makes the promise, he will do this best to fulfill it. That is something that I can guarantee you.��


    ��He promised to be my bodyguard a few days ago. Unfortunately, we encountered a group of violent bikers. They outnumbered us, and they all had all sorts of weapons in their hands. Still, he didn��t leave my side. He fulfilled his responsibilities as a bodyguard as agreed. So, you don��t need to worry about the money. He will definitely pay you well.


    ��All right.��


    Gold Digger seemed persuaded. He picked up the pair of chopsticks that he pped on earlier, gritted his teeth, and said, ��Then, I shall trust you again.��


    ��Thank you.��


    After finalizing the reward, Zhang Heng returned to his amiable demeanor. Gold Digger, however, no longer dared underestimate him anymore. When the two parties negotiated, Zhang Heng��s imposing manner caused Gold Digger to tremble slightly. Even if Old Man Geng had not pulled him back then, he probably would not be able to leave this ce.

 Chapter 979 - Fresh Task

    <h4>Chapter 979: Fresh Task</h4>


    While Zhang Heng was discussing the shec records with a gold digger, Xu Qian, on the other side, followed her boyfriend, Qiu Ming, to a French restaurant on the fourth level. This was also Xu Qian��s favorite restaurant. Not only were its dishes scrumptious, but it had an elegant ambiance as well. The velvet carpet was matched with the gorgeous Baroque ceiling, the white tablecloths, and silver tableware. Since only a dozen tables wereid in the spacious hall, it meant diners�� privacy was fully guaranteed. They could also enjoy the service of a team of handsome French waiters.


    Although the cost of dining here was astronomical, it was still not easy to get a table. One had to book the table a few days in advance to dine here. Qiu Ming��s hadn��t just spontaneously decided to dine in this French restaurant. When they finished the main course and thest dessert was served, the restaurant��s violinists approached their table. After that, Xu Qian seemed to realize something, and she quickly covered her mouth. Qiu Ming suddenly knelt on one knee and took out a small red jewelry box from his pocket.


    While ying the violin, Qiu Ming opened the small jewelry box, revealing the diamond ring. He then asked gently, ��Miss Xu Qian, will you marry me?��


    Xu Qian��s heart was struck by something hard at that moment. Almost every girl would��ve looked forward to such a moment. Qiu Ming was like a knight riding a white horse, wading through the mountains, charging into the battlefield to get to her, and confessing his love for her.


    Especially for Xu Qian, she was extremely eager to marry Qiu Ming and move to the fourth level. Everything that happened in front of her was exactly what she dreamt of. And she had a dream like this more than once. In the dream, apart from the blurry characters, the location of the proposal, the violin��s melody, and elegant and luxurious tableware were exactly the same in her dream.


    Therefore, when her dream became a reality, Xu Qian almost subconsciously took over the ring from Qiu Ming��s hand, under the influence of euphoria. There was also a happy smile on thetter��s face. When he was smiling halfway, Qiu Ming saw Xu Qian��s expression suddenly changed, from happiness to fear. After that, she dropped the jewelry box from her hand like a hot potato. After that, she took a step back.


    ��What��s the matter?�� Qiu Ming got up and wanted to hold Xu Qian, but she shoved his arm away. She then ran to the restaurant door without looking back while holding her skirt. She was so nervous that she almost knocked over another table. The red wine on the table was knocked to the ground by her. The wine poured out of the bottle contaminated the carpet beside her feet.


    Qiu Ming wanted to go after her immediately, but the French waiter in the restaurant stopped him. He then said politely, ��Sir, you haven��t pay for the meal yet.��


    After Qiu Ming paid the bill, he could no longer find Xu Qian.


    ...


    Half an hourter, Zhang Heng found her in an amusement arcade on the third level ording to the coordinates sent to him by Xu Qian.


    Upon arriving at the location, he saw several youngsters surrounding Xu Qian. It seemed they were asking for her phone number. Zhang Heng then walked towards her and draped his coat over her shoulders.


    ��It��s time to go home,�� he said.


    The youngsters looked at Zhang Heng and caught a glimpse of the Shrouded Sheath on his waist. They disappeared in anguish not too long after. However, Xu Qian did not get up. Instead, she grabbed Zhang Heng��s hand and said in horror, ��I can��t go home. He ising to get me! He ising to get me!��


    ��Calm down first,�� Zhang Heng said, without rushing to withdraw his hand.


    ��Who ising to get you?��


    ��My boyfriend, Qiu Ming,�� Xu Qian gasped while looking around nervously as if worried Qiu Ming would appear beside her at any second.


    Zhang Heng raised his eyebrows, ��Your boyfriend is back. What happened? Did he do anything to you?��


    ��He suddenly came back from the earth, and he came to me as soon as the spacecraftnded. He bought me a watch.��


    Xu Qian thought of something, and she quickly took off the watch from her hand. She almost threw it on the floor, only to hesitate at the end.


    ��What happened after that?��


    ��Then I got in his car, and we went to a French restaurant on the fourth level to eat together. He proposed there, and the scene was exactly the same as my dream.��


    ��Shouldn��t you be happy then?�� Zhang Heng asked.


    ��No. You don��t understand what I mean. I mean, the scene there was as though my dream had been projected into reality,�� Xu Qian held her head. ��Everything was perfect, including the violinists. The red wine in the ss, the color of the carpet, and the crystalmps above my head were exactly the same as my dream! At first, I was very moved. Then, after that, I was terrified. I couldn��t control my body. So, I ran out from the restaurant.��


    ��So, you suspect that he knows your memory in advance, and he knows about your most desired marriage proposal. He did that to make it almost impossible for you to refuse him, did he?�� Zhang Heng asked.


    ��I can��t think of other exnations,�� Xu Qian said. ��It��s more than that. After we were separated yesterday, I couldn��t help but think about what you said to me. I told myself over and over again that I couldn��t be a clone. But I just can��t stop thinking about this possibility... I sat here and recalled our rtionship, and I discovered that this is not the first time something like this happened. He seemed to have some kind of magic with him. He always knows what I��m thinking in advance, including what I like to eat or what kind of gifts I like. I originally thought it was a tacit understanding between a couple... he proved that he is the person I��ve always been looking for. But now. I don��t know. I��m just scared.��


    Xu Qian cried while talking.


    Zhang Heng asked for a pack of tissues from the amusement arcade and handed it to Xu Qian. Then, after thetter��s mood calmed down a little, he asked, ��Then what are you going to do now?��


    ��Can I hire you to help me to check whether I am a clone or not? I need an answer. Otherwise, I can��t live like before,�� Xu Qian finally made up her mind.


    Zhang Heng did not immediately agree.


    ��How much are you going to pay me?��


    ��Five hundred thousand credits... I��m used to spending money and I haven��t saved much. This is all my savings,�� Xu Qian said. ��Oh yes. And there is this watch.��


    Xu Qian then put the Patek Philippe that he just received today in Zhang Heng��s hands. ��This watch is worth one million credits, but it was given to me by Qiu Ming. So I don��t know if there��s any problem with it.��


    ��I will find a friend to test it.��


    Zhang Heng took the watch and put it in his pocket, and nodded at Xu Qian.


    ��I ept your request.��

 Chapter 980 - Express Delivery

    <h4>Chapter 980: Express Delivery</h4>


    Although Xu Qian was tortured by her identity, Zhang Heng believed she wasn��t in any danger for now. Compared to clones with tracking devices in their heads and the serial numbers on their necks that might be retrieved by thepany anytime, Xu Qian would at least not end up like the short skirt girl from Fu Ji.


    Xu Qian was, after all, a famous streamer. Although her poprity had been declining recently, she still had hundreds of thousands of supporting fans. Her sudden disappearance would undoubtedly impact the fan base considerably. Otherwise, they wouldn��t have had to go all out to make her disappear by manipting her to get into an engagement with another man.


    Therefore, Zhang Heng advised Xu Qian to live life as she always did. He also asked her to find a logical excuse to exin why she suddenly ran away from the restaurant. For the time being, it would be wise that Xu Qian didn��t take Qiu Ming��s proposal or stop her livestreaming.


    Although Zhang Heng agreed to help Xu Qian, there were still more important things for him to deal with for now.


    The two-week deadline was almost up. If Zhang Heng didn��t extract the tracking device in his head as soon as possible, he would have to face troops sent by G7Z, or he would be forced to fight the entire New Shanghai 0297��s armed forces by himself.


    ...


    Zhang Heng met Mr. G met again on the day the trade was supposed to take ce. After that, Mr. G took Zhang Heng to visit the operating theatre where he would operate on Zhang Hengter. Aplete set of air purification systems had been installed created to create a sterile environment. Operating tables, arge Da Vinci 2070 surgical robot equipment, a disinfection room, an anesthesia preparation room, and other supporting medical equipment were avable as well.


    There were only two doctors who could perform this kind of surgery in New Shanghai 0297. Mr. G had contacted one of them to sent thetter��s information to Zhang Heng.


    ��This is my principle of being human. Once I have made a promise, I definitely stick to that promise. And you were performing an extremely important task for me. Of course, I will have to eliminate your worries too. I will send two teams of bodyguards to guard the gate for you. Look around. Do you have any other questions?�� Mr. G said enthusiastically.


    ��Where is Miss F?�� Zhang Heng asked after flipping through the information that was sent to him.


    ��Oh, I told you, right? She has other things to do today.��


    Zhang Heng looked around and nodded, ��I have no other problems. I only one request, though, and that is for my surgery to be performed only after shees back.��


    ��No problem. As long as you are willing to wait for her.��


    A strange look shed in Mr. G��s eyes.


    ��You don��t seem to trust me very much. Is it because of the previous test?�� he went on after a pause.


    ��No.�� Zhang Heng shook his head. ��I��m not the kind that trusts easily.��


    ��Is that so? It seems I still need to exin the misunderstanding,�� Mr. G said. ��Everyone in Shentang Morgan group has been keeping an eye on us. The biker gang that attacked you was sent by them. Shengtang Morgan promised that they could work in their security department as long as they managed to kidnap the middleman. Other than that, he also promised them permanent resident status on the third level. That was why they are crazy enough to attack you and the middleman at my turf. However, they are nobodiespared to the men you��re about to face next.��


    ��Hmm?��


    ��Have you ever heard of the emergency response team? They are private armed forces trained by Shengtang Morgan group. They do not have the power to enforce thew but don��t underestimate them, especially the team starting with number zero. They are elites among the elites,�� said Mr. G.


    ��Imagine a group of clones with almost perfect physical fitness. Each has been carefully selected, ones who have mastered variousbat strategies, reconnaissance, camouge, sniping, and close-quarterbat... They are capable of doing everything. I should say that they are the perfect hunters. They can either work in a team or work alone to perform the given task. Not long ago, I received news that Shengtang Morgan would be sending a zero emergency response team to disrupt this transaction. In other words, they will be your enemies.��


    As he spoke, Mr. G studied Zhang Heng��s expression. Seeing that thetter��s demeanor remained unchanged, heplimented him. ��I��m d you are not afraid of them. And we are not without preparation. Although Shengtang Morgan knows that we will trade today, they do not know the specific time and ce. So I will send out ten couriers in one go. The other nine couriers are just distractions. You will be the one to close the deal for me. Whether it fails or seeds, I can only count on you.��


    ��What should I do?�� Zhang Heng asked.


    ��It��s very simple. We have already talked about the details of this transaction. All you need to do is pay the seller, and he will give you what I want.�� Mr. G snapped his fingers as he spoke.


    A bodyguard beside him walked to his back and pulled out a metal cylinder that looked like a thermos sk from arge box. Mr. G then picked up the cylinder and ced it in Zhang Heng��s hand.


    ��Be careful. It contains 1g of antimatter. This is the most valuable thing in the entire human civilization. Even with just such a tiny amount, you can easily buy New Shanghai 0297��s first to third levels. To be honest, this transaction is not fair for me. The value of this thing is almost twice as high as the thing I want to get,�� Mr. G mumbled, and there was a painful look on his face.


    ��But the thing that I want is more useful for me. Although antimatter is priceless, it is of no use to me.�� Mr. G waited for Zhang Heng to grab the cylinder with both hands before letting it go. He then whispered to Zhang Heng as softly and quickly as possible, ��The location for the transaction is at the Singrity Bar on the second floor, at 6:45 pm. Pay attention to the signs around you. The one with the Apollo tattoo on the lower abdomen is your trading partner.��


    Zhang Heng frowned upon hearing what he said, ��Lower abdomen. Is that a celestial bar?��


    ��Unfortunately, no. You have to understand that the actual owner of New Shanghai 0297 is Shengtang Morgan Group. Government agencies rely on them to get paid. In other words, they are Shengtang Morgan��s puppets. So we have to be careful. You have to figure out how to find your trading partner.��


    Mr. G patted Zhang Heng on the shoulder again after speaking, ��I know this shouldn��t be a problem for you, right?��


    Zhang Heng did not say a word. Instead, he put the metal cylinder into his backpack.


    ��Good luck, my friend. I will be here waiting for your good news,�� Mr. G said.

 Chapter 981 - Second Level

    <h4>Chapter 981: Second Level</h4>


    Zhang Heng did not leave immediately after obtaining the location and time of the transaction and declined the transportation and lounge Mr. G provided. Instead, he found himself a small hotel toplete his transformation.


    When he left the hotel, his appearance had changed considerably. He had turned into this shaggy busker with a bowler hat and a huge guitar case on his back.


    He put the metal bottle and the game items he might needter inside the huge guitar case, but he could not carry his Pestilence Bone Bow and Paris Arrow due to its limitations. Other than that, Zhang Heng also rented a pug from a pet shop to follow him around.


    Now, he looked exactly like the vagrant singer at squares and stations. The most amazing part was that not only had his appearance changed, but he had also undergone a massive temperament adjustment.


    Zhang Heng learned his makeup skill from the Deductive Reasoning quest, which improved dramatically after hebined it with the assassin and camouge skill he learned from the Roman dungeon. Although he did not increase the skill to Lv3, his current transformation was almost wless.


    After that, Zhang Heng and the dog quietly blended into the crowd.


    ...


    Zhang Heng arrived at the second level at 5:42 pm.


    There was still an hour and three minutes before the trade was ted to take ce.


    The location was somewhat different from what he imagined. When he arrived at the central shuttle station on the second level, he realized that the ce was nothing out of the ordinary. There was no increase in the number of security guards at the station, and they didn��t check the passengers as well. Instead, most of the guards strolledzily in the waiting hall, chatting aboutst night��s drinking gamest night and eyeballed attractive female passengers that passed by them.


    Although Mr. G repeatedly emphasized the strength of the emergency response team before Zhang Heng departed, there were only ten of them. Moreover, without knowing the transaction details, it was impossible for them to spot Zhang Heng. Hence, they would need the assistance of peripheral personnel.


    With Shengtang Morgan��s power in New Shanghai 0297, the city��s armed forces could be quickly mobilized with the help of the government agencies. The armed forces were also the most powerful force in the entire second level. However, what surprised Zhang Heng was that the zero emergency response team didn��t make use of them.


    This might not necessarilye as good news considering they might have other means to identify the courier. It also appeared that they had a lot of confidence in their means.


    If Mr. G was the uncrowned king of the first level, Zhang Heng��s opponent this time owned the entire New Shanghai 0297. So, not only did they have the trump card up their sleeve, but they also had unlimited resources courtesy of Shengtang Morgan.


    ...


    This was why Zhang Heng had to be extremely cautious.


    As soon as he exited the station, he turned off his bracelet and put on a signal jammer on it. He had asked Miss F about the feasibility of removing the tracking device without going through the surgery but by using a signal jammer instead. Unfortunately, ording to Miss F, an awakened clone had thought of this method before. So, the manufacturer included a self-fusion function in the tracking device.


    Once the transmission signal was blocked for more than eight hours, the tracking device would automatically melt down, causing severe and irreversible damage to the cerebral cortex. Therefore, Zhang Heng��s idea of blocking the tracking device��s signal was no longer viable.


    But the good news was that the signal blocker could indeed make him untraceable for a short amount of time. Thus, eight hours should be more than enough toplete the transaction and return to the first level.


    Zhang Heng had checked out the location of the Singrity Bar when he was on the shuttle. It was quite a distance from the station, but Zhang Heng didn��t choose to take a taxi there. That was because it did not match his current identity as a street performer. Fortunately, there was plenty of time left, so he decided to walk to his destination with his pug. And at the same time, he could also find out if he was being followed.


    This was the peak time for the people to get off work; hence many people were walking around. The streets bustled with activity.


    The second level was probably the most overlooked level in the entire New Shanghai 0297. The elite white-cor employees on the third level were nowhere to be seen, and it wasn��t as luxurious and mysterious as the fourth and fifth either. Public security here, however, wasn��t as bad as the first level.


    Most residents living on the second level were blue-cors. In 2077, very few blue-cors engaged in repetitive manualbor. Most of them were technicians, each possessing a specific set of skills that would help them excel in their workstations. However, once they left thepanies, it would be hard for them to survive in society.


    Just like this high division ofbor in production, each individual was a trivial cog. Only whenbined would they be transformed into a highly efficient machine. Hard work andpliance were probably the second-level residents�� most notable trademarks.


    Xu Qian also lived at the second level for a while when she started to work as a streamer. ording to her, this was an incredibly dull ce. The people here did not understand the value of entertainment. All they knew was work, which made them no different than robots.


    However, this was clearly an inurate statement. Once its residents got off work, the second level roared to life. Crowds in work attire fervently discussed their next destination to rx after work. Many fancied dining at the first level because the food there was cheaper. Second-level residents also made it a point to know the prices at different ces, enabling them to find the most cost-effective route for their strained pockets. Such was an essential skill for all second-level residents.


    There was an old saying in New Shanghai 0297: If you want to know which store sells the lowest-priced, highest-quality items, just look for a second-level resident.


    Other than the young guns who were eager for dinner, singing, and ying games together, many married middle-aged individuals traversed the streets as well. Seemingly more mature and stable, most of them would rush home after work. Some even bought small gifts for their daughters and sons.


    After walking for some distance, Zhang Heng did not see anyone following him. As for the emergency response team, he spotted not a single one. Thetter seemedpletely unaware that the courier had reached the second level. However, Zhang Heng never thought this was all his enemy was capable of.


    Earlier, when he apanied Old Man Geng to meet with Mr. G, mobsters ambushed him shortly after leaving the cinema. And they were at Mr. G��s turf. With the level of intelligence disyed by the other party, it would make no sense that they knew nothing about the deal.


    Since he did not know the enemies�� n, Zhang Heng had no other option but to follow the n and head to the rendezvous point.

 Chapter 982 - Feng Zi

    <h4>Chapter 982: Feng Zi</h4>


    The Singrity Bar was located in an alley behind arge appliance repair shop.


    It was originally a small fan club organized by a group of football-loving workers from the repair shop. However, more and more people joined the club afterward, so it was transformed into a bar opened to the public. Later, due to the overflowing guests, the bar��s owner had to rent the two nearby shops to expand the bar. And finally, it became the bar Zhang Heng visited today. Other than the workers from the factory, some non-football fans visited this bar from time to time.


    The interior and design of this bar, however, made it a typical football-fan bar.


    Its founders hardcore Pandaren fans, the bar��s walls were covered with Pandaren football stars, including current and retired yers. There were pictures of their favorite football yers who scored their goals. Other than that, the bar would also sell some Pandaren merchandise, including the team T-shirts and keychains. The names of the dishes in the restaurant were inspired by themon words used by the Pandaren fans. Any Pandaren fan would instantly feel at home the moment they stepped into the bar.


    And whenever there was a Pandaren game, the bar would go through its busiest time. The bar owner would use arge projector to broadcast the game. Zhang Heng came to the bar at 6:16, which happened to coincide with the football match today.


    Tonight, the flow of people in the bar was three times as usual. Almost every corner was crowded. Those that camete would not be able to get a seat, and those that came earlier had no intention to leave as well. Zhang Heng looked around and estimated that there must be at least two to three hundred people in the bar now. It was not easy to find the trader among so many people, especially because he knew nothing about the trader other than the tattoo on the lower abdomen.


    Since there were so many people in the bar, Zhang Heng had to squat down and lift the pug from the ground. As soon as he got up, a guy dressed as a bartender walked towards him. Thetter did not speak but pointed at the door. The sign said no pets were allowed inside the bar.


    Before Zhang Heng could speak, he heard someone talking, ��Forget it, Xiao Wu. They are also fans of the Pandaren. They came all the way here to watch the game.��


    ��You guys know each other?�� Xiao Wu asked the person that talked to him.


    Thetter nodded, ��I have seen him a few times.��


    Xiao Wu did not say a word after that. He turned around to deal with a table of drinkers who just ordered the snacks.


    After Xiao Wu left, Zhang Heng said to the person who helped him earlier, ��Thank you.��


    It was a tall woman with ear-length hair, and she had no makeup on her face. However, the foundation on her face was good enough for her. Her skin did look a little rough. Zhang Heng also noticed that there was grease on her hands like most men in the bar. At the same time, a set of wrenches hung on her waist, clinking as she walked along.


    ��You��re wee.�� The short-haired woman raised the wine ss in her hand.


    ��But have we met somewhere before?�� Zhang Heng asked afterward.


    ��Of course not. I��m just using this method to strike up a conversation with you,�� the short-haired woman said and threw a brooch to Zhang Heng, ��This is the Pandaren team logo. Put it on. If not, that depressed-looking waiter is going to kick you outter.��


    Zhang Heng then took the brooch and pinned it to his chest.


    ��This ce might not allow their customers to bring pets or smoke. However, as long as you are a die-hard Pandaren fan, they will treat you closer than their blood-rted brothers. After that, they would forget about all the rules and regtions.�� The short-haired woman then yelled, ��Pandaren must win!��


    When the crowd heard her yelling, everyone suddenly put a pause to what they were doing. After that, a group of drinkers and bartenders shouted together, ��The Pandaren must win! The Pandaren must win!�� After they shouted, everyone began to sing the Pandaren team song ��We are Pandaren�� in the bar.


    ��A bunch of idiots. Men will never grow up.�� The short-haired woman raised her ss and drank all the beer in the ss.


    She then burped and then pushed the ss to the bartender, ��fill it up, and give this handsome young man that looks like a poet a ss of beer too.��


    The bartender raised his eyebrows when he heard what she said. He then picked up an empty ss from the table, filled it up with stout, and handed it to Zhang Heng. ��Be careful, buddy. Not everyone can handle this woman.��


    ��Oh, so cute. Are you feeling jealous because I didn��t like you?�� The short-haired woman took the ss of beer before Zhang Heng and drank half of it before handing it to Zhang Heng, ��Feng Zi .��


    ��Huh?�� The noise around them was getting louder because the boss had just turned on the projector. And the two announcers on the screen were introducing the teams.


    ��Feng Zi. Feng means the peak of a mountain. People around me sometimes call me a lunatic.�� Feng Zi approached Zhang Heng��s ear and said.


    ��Oh, I��m Simon.�� Zhang Heng took the beer ss from thedy.


    Feng Zi raised her eyebrows, ��What kind of name is that? Is that your stage name? Feng Zi is my real name. My full name is Xia Fengzi. But it doesn��t matter. Why are you here, Simon? You are clearly not a Pandaren fan.��


    ��Just tired of walking, and I want to find a ce to have a drink.��


    ��Huh,�� Feng Zi looked at Zhang Heng with a faint smile.


    ��What��s happening?��


    ��Nothing.�� Feng Zi had no intention to continue to talk. She then grabbed the ss that was refilled with beer from the bartender. Thetter warned, ��Hold your horses, sister. The game hasn��t even started yet.��


    ��Nosy, I don��t drink for the game.�� Feng Zi looked like she was in a good mood. She then casually hummed a short tune.


    Since Zhang Heng was so close to her, he heard a few intermittent lyrics. It was an English song, and it sounded like a song that one would sing during hunting. Basically, the song talked about the prey falling into the hunter��s trap, and it also talked about the good harvest. It amused Zhang Heng greatly.


    The bartender on the other side looked at Zhang Heng with an aggressive look, and then deliberately asked loudly, ��Sister Feng Zi, what about the college student that you met before? You said that he is as meek as a little sheep. Are you still together with him?��


    ��I broke up with him a long time ago,�� Feng Zi waved her hand. ��We drank all night that night, and we woke up in the same bed the next morning. I didn��t say a word about it. And he started to cover his face and cry, saying that he had disappointed his girlfriend. What a sissy. He��s an eyesore to me.�� Finally, Feng Zi seemed to have thought of something and red at the bartender. ��Mind your own business. Don��t you have better things to do?�� she growled.


    ��Yes. Yes,�� The bartender quickly turned around and went to serve other customers.


    After that, Feng Zi nced at Zhang Heng next to him and raised his ss, ��Come on, let��s drink. Bottoms up. I have drunk half of it earlier. You should be able to handle the rest of it.��


    ��Hmm.�� Zhang Heng raised the beer ss in his hand and said, ��Cheers.��

 Chapter 983 - Small Excitement

    <h4>Chapter 983: Small Excitement</h4>


    Feng Zi said nothing when Zhang Heng showed up. The first thing she did was make him drink two pints of beer. Fortunately, Zhang Heng was used to chugging rum when he was in the ck Sail dungeon. It was mainly because of theck of clean water on the ship after spending a long time at sea. Rum was alcohol, after all, and it could be stored longer in the barrel. Drinking two pints of beer would not affect Zhang Heng.


    Despite his high tolerance, Zhang Heng did not forget that he was still in a dangerous situation and that there was a mission that needed to bepleted. Still oblivious to the exact location of the emergency response team, Zhang Heng did not continue drinking after the two pints.


    Feng Zi frowned, looking very disappointed.


    ��You are not as poetic as you seem.��


    ��Why do you say that?��


    ��A long time ago, I met a street singer like you. He was an extremely good drinker. Have you ever seen a buffalo drinking water? I personally haven��t, but I think a buffalo drinks water like how he drank his beer. It was as if he put his head into the barrel and drank as much as he could. Then, as he got tipsy, he started bemoaning loudly, telling me about his first love. Afterward, he yed a song he wrote her. That scene... was really poetic.��


    ��If you want to listen to me talk about my first love, I am afraid you will be disappointed,�� Zhang Heng said.


    ��Why?�� Feng Zi asked, ��Don��t you have a first love?��


    ��That��s not the case.��


    ��Tsk tsk... I see. You are the kind who buries all your stories in your heart, right? I have time. As long as one has had enough alcohol, I believe he��d open up eventually .��


    Feng Zi ced another pint of beer in front of Zhang Heng. ��Come on, let��s continue.��


    However, Zhang Heng did not reach out to grab the beer. Instead, he looked at the Pandaren team championship clock on the wall.


    The time now was 6:26. In less than twenty minutes, he was supposed to carry out the transaction with the seller. However, Zhang Heng did not even know who the seller was. Moreover, after the match started, most people in the bar were focused on the game. Therefore, spotting the seller through observation would be extremely difficult.


    It seemed Feng Zi was determined to sleep with Zhang Heng tonight. She crept up real close to him and said, ��If you don��t want to talk about your first love, we can talk about something else. What��s your dog��s name?��


    Zhang Heng made up a name casually.


    ��Wednesday.��


    ��Ha! Now, that��s quite unique.��


    Feng Zi scratched the pug��s chin. She then started to call it Wednesday repeatedly, but it did not respond. It was as if the pug had Alzheimer��s.


    Feng Zi teased the dog for a while and quickly turned her attention to Zhang Heng. She fanned her face with her hand and asked him. ��Aren��t you feeling hot? I don��t know why, but I am feeling a little hot now.��


    At the same time, the pundit��s voice suddenly turned high-pitched.


    ��...Guo Song! No. 11 Guo Song has broken into the penalty area with the ball! A quick dodge and Baker fails to get to him. Facing veteran Gaboudia, Guo Song chooses not to go for a breakthrough, but he immediately passes the ball back to Ma Liang. Ma Liang doesn��t stop the ball, resorting for a long shot! Oh, what a pity! The ball hits the goalpost... But! It��s not over yet. The ball bounces back to Guo Song... Guo Song��s not hesitating... he raises his foot to kick the ball! Aaannnd.... the goalkeeper fails to recover!!! Goal! Goal! Less than eight minutes into the game, Pandaren has scored their first goal!��


    The fans who had been biting their teeth in bated breath erupted in a mighty cheer the moment Panderan scored their first goal. The entire Singrity Bar transformed into a sea of joy.


    Zhang Heng��s eyes suddenly lit up. Instantly, he nted a kiss on Feng Zi��s face and said, ��Thank you.��


    ��Thank you? What are you thanking for? Haven��t you already thanked me for buying you a drink? And you should know what I really want. That kiss wasn��t all that bad.�� Feng Zi touched her cheek and broke out a silly smile.


    ��If you want to sleep with me, then wait until I return. I have some unfinished business.��


    Zhang Heng did not wait for Fengzi to answer, but he smashed the beer ss in his hand on the ground.


    When the ss shattered, everyone almost unanimously turned their attention to Zhang Heng.


    The bar owner was about to say something, but Zhang Heng suddenly jumped onto the bar and tore off his shirt. After that, he raised his hand and shouted, ��Victory belongs to Pandaran!!!��


    The first person that reacted to Zhang Heng��s silly stunt was Feng Zi. She was probably the only person in the bar who knew his secrets. She felt a little strange when she saw what he did, not sure as to why Simon, a non-Pandaren fan, would suddenly turn into a team die-hard fan. That said, she was no a fool. She knew Simon pulled such a stunt for a reason.


    Feng Zi suddenly took off her coat and threw it aside. She then jumped onto the bar counter and shouted with Zhang Heng, ��Pandaren must win!!!��


    With Zhang Heng taking the lead and Feng Zi following suit, the whole bar ignited with joy. The crowd rushed to jump on the table, took off their coats as well, and shouted Pandaren��s victory slogan with Zhang Heng.


    At the same time, Zhang Heng took the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to take a good look at the bellies of the crowd, trying to spot anyone with Apollo tattoos. He then lowered his voice and said sincerely to Feng Zi, ��Thank you, you helped me again.��


    ��No big deal.��


    Feng Zi raised her eyebrows, not bothering for a second the lewd gazes of the men. Instead, she licked her lips and said to Zhang Heng, ��Remember your promise to sleep with me.��


    ��...��


    Although the Singrity Bar hadpletely broken into pandemonium after Pandaren��s score, Zhang Heng still managed to employ his excellent observation ability and take a good look at everyone in the shortest possible time.


    Now, although he didn��t spot anyone with Apollo tattoos, this didn��t mean what he just did was meaningless. On the contrary, it helped eliminate arge number of people, enabling Zhang Heng to focus on a few suspicious targets.


    But before Zhang Heng had time to walk over, he saw the bar owner, a middle-aged man with gloomy eyes approaching him.


    Zhang Heng initially thought that the bar owner would reprimand him for breaking the ss, jumping the bar, and causing the insanity. However, the middle-aged man stopped five meters away from him and nodded solemnly. He then tore off his shirt, revealing a tattoo of Pandaren��s crest on his chest and the top ten yers of the Pandaren team. Then, without warning, he broke into a roar, jumping onto the side of the table at the same time.


    Feng Zi smiled and said, ��See? I told you. From the owner to the bar��s patrons, they are just a group of kids. As long as you support Pandaren, you are considered their brother from a different mother.��


    ��I feel this brotherhood now,�� Zhang Heng said.


    ��...��

 Chapter 984 - The People You Look For

    <h4>Chapter 984: The People You Look For</h4>


    Less than eight minutes into the game, Pandaren scored a goal, plunging the entire Singrity Bar into a sea of jubtion. Zhang Heng took advantage of the fans�� enthusiasm, causing most of the men in the bar to take off their shirts. Finally, he managed to lock onto three suspected targets.


    Ranked highest to lowest possibility, there was; first, an office worker wearing a white shirt, drinking alone. His briefcase was between his back and the chair, and although he was rxing in the bar, he seemed particrly concerned about the briefcase. With his back upright, he leaned as close as he could on the chair, ensuring no one would slip away with his bag away while he was drinking.


    Then, there was this young woman in a red dress who sat in the corner. Bringing nothing with her, all she did was order a ss of juice, and she looked to be waiting for someone. During this time, several men attempted to chat her up, but she rejected them all.


    As for the final suspect��an old man looking to be about 70 years old. He was also the oldest person in the whole bar. Dressed like an intellectual, he had been ncing around since he stepped into the bar. He was one of the few not paying attention to the ongoing match.


    ��Are you serious?�� Feng Zi followed Zhang Heng��s gaze. ��You��re more interested in an old man than me?��


    ��I said, I have some business to attend to first.��


    Zhang Heng put down his beer ss.


    ��What��s the business? Are you nning to drag the poor old man out of the bar, all the way to where there is no one, and rob all of his belongings?��


    ��Something like that,�� Zhang Heng replied.


    After a pause, Feng Zi suddenly put on an over-the-top expression and let out an incredulousughed.


    ��Aren��t you afraid? If you invite me to your home for the night, I might do the same to you,�� Zhang Heng said.


    ��Hmm, that��s it? After thinking on it for so long, you��ve only managed toe up with the worst excuse for me to give up sleeping with you? I think you should just stop dreaming.��


    Feng Zi put her thigh on Zhang Heng��s legs. She then stretched out her hands and stroked thetter��s chest, ��Why do you think Ie to this bar every night? Am I really here to look for someone to settle my physical needs? I have a pair of hands with me. What I am looking for is an adventure; an adventure that allows me to forget the smell of motor oil on my body and my mundane life. Can you give it to me?��


    ��If you are here to take risks tonight, then you might havee to the right ce,�� Zhang Heng said. ��Do me a favor. Can you find a way to get the man in the white shirt over there to take off his shirt in ten minutes?��


    ��What is this? Is it a test?��


    ��Perhaps.��


    ��Wow... It��s really not easy to sleep with you. I��m like a knight who wants to marry a princess. And now I��m going throughyers of tests,�� Feng Zi bit her lip and smirked. ��But I��m willing to ept your challenge because it��s a piece of cake.��


    Feng Zi put on her coat again and walked towards the office man with her beer ss. The two spoke for a while, but the office man shook his head. Feng Zi wasn��t angry but she then said something to the other men around her. After that, everyone started to cheer for him, and finally, the office man had to take off his shirt under peer pressure. After that, the two began to y the drinking game. Zhang Heng had witnessed Feng Zi��s alcohol tolerance, and even if she were ced among men, she could easily outdrink most. But at the end of the first round, she lost to the office man and took off her shoes.


    Zhang Heng stopped looking at them afterward. He knew that Feng Zi could easily beat the office man. She lost the first game on purpose because she wanted to control the game��s flow, lower the opponent��s guard, and give her opponent false hope that he could win the game. Zhang Heng then focused on the old man on the other side.


    He did not follow the order and check on the young woman in the red dress first because the next thing he was about to do did not apply to females. Zhang Heng moved behind the old man and waited patiently until a bartender passed by before he stretched his leg to trip the bartender.


    The bartender lost his bnce, spilling all the drinks on the tray onto the old man. Capitalizing on the chaos, Zhang Heng quietly left where he stood. By the time the bartender realized what happened, he had lost sight of the person that tripped him. On the other hand, the three sses of beer hadpletely soaked the old man��s shirt.


    At that time, the bartender wasn��t bothered to look for the culprit. The first thing that he did was to apologize to the old man quickly. The old man had a cool temper, and he did not me the bartender for what happened to him,forting thetter instead. It looked like he could not stay in the bar anymore. So, he grabbed the towel from the bartender, wiped his clothes, and left the bar.


    Although Zhang Heng could not see his lower abdomen, the fact that he was leaving the bar meant that he was not the seller.


    On the other hand, the battle between Feng Zi and the office man had already entered a white-hot stage. Judging from the clothes they had on them, it was apparent who the winner was.


    Although Zhang Heng had seen the office man��s lower abdomen, Feng Zi had no intention of stopping the drinking game. It seemed she had gotten very excited, determined to make the office man take off every single piece of his cloth on his body.


    Zhang Heng did not want to interrupt her. He had caught a glimpse of the office worker��s lower abdomen, and there was no Apollo tattoo on him. So far, two out of the three targets were eliminated. In other words, there was only one target left for him to check on.


    Now that there were only less than five minutes left before the start of the transaction, Zhang Heng walked up to the woman in the red dress.


    Before he started to talk, thetter said, ��I know what you want to say, but I have already had a date tonight. So if you can let me be here alone, I will be very grateful...��


    However, Zhang Heng did not leave her alone like other men. Instead, he pulled out the chair and sat down. The woman in the red dress shook her head, ��Why bother? Doesn��t thedy over there like you very much? I saw she getting very close to you. You know she��s going to eat you up tonight. So why not go and look for her?��


    ��Because she is not the person I am looking for tonight,�� Zhang Heng replied.


    ��And what makes you think that I am the person you are looking for?�� the woman in the red dress asked.


    ��It��s up to you to tell me.�� Zhang Heng said, ��You said you are waiting for someone. When is your appointment time?��


    ��Why should I answer your question?�� The red dress woman frowned.


    ��Because I want to know how long I can sit here. That��s not too much of a request, is it?�� Zhang Heng said.


    ��The person ising soon.��


    The woman in the red dress crossed her arms.


    After that, her gaze also fell on the Pandaren team��s championship clock, and the hands finally pointed at 6:45.

 Chapter 985 - Red

    <h4>Chapter 985: Red</h4>


    The woman in the red skirt retracted her gaze and looked at Zhang Heng. ��Have you found the person you were looking for?��


    Zhang Heng did not answer, asking instead, ��What about you? Have you met the person you��ve been waiting for?��


    In the end, it was the red skirt woman who surrendered first. She gave up going around in circles and went straight to the point.


    ��So you are the courier?��


    Zhang Heng nodded.


    ��Are you the one supposed to trade with me?��


    ��Yes. You can call me Red,�� replied the woman in the red skirt. Afterward, she seemed to know what Zhang Heng was thinking. So, she added, ��I am not a seller. Just like you, I��m just a courier.��


    ��Simon.�� Zhang Heng stretched out his hand and shook Red��s hand. Red wasted no time and cut to the chase.


    ��Did you bring the payment, Simon?��


    ��I brought it, but I don��t see you carrying anything,�� Zhang Heng said.


    ��Don��t worry. The thing is not on me right now. You know Shengtang Morgan is trying to intercept this transaction, and I have to be more cautious,�� Red said. ��Hand me the payment first. After I check on it, I will bring you to get the item you want.��


    However, after she finished talking, she realized that Zhang Heng wasn��t budging.


    ��This is not what we agreed on.��


    ��What do you mean by that?��


    ��I was told before I set off that I should pay and receive the goods at the same time,�� Zhang Heng said.


    ��Don��t be silly, Simon. The content of the transaction has already been negotiated. We are just couriers. Don��t make a fool of yourself. Hand me the 1 gram of antimatter, and I will take you to get the goods. After that, we can call it a day and go home. We can allplete our own work.��


    ��I don��t know your trading style, but we, couriers, should stick by the agreement. Only by doing that, will we be able to proceed smoothly.��


    Zhang Heng remained unmoved.


    Since Red could do nothing about Zhang Heng��s stand, she took a deep breath and finally gave in. ��Well, I respect your professional ethics. Let��s go to the ce where the goods are. Once we get there, I will check the antimatter. Are you happy with that?��


    ��Yes.��


    ��Very well. Let��s not wait any longer,�� Red said as she stood up from her seat. Zhang Heng, who was sitting opposite of her, however, reminded her about something.


    ��You forget one thing.��


    Red was surprised.


    ��What thing?�� she asked.


    ��Let me see the tattoo on your lower abdomen.��


    ��Really? Here?��


    Red raised her eyebrows.


    ��You got a problem with that?��


    ��Of course. Can��t you see that I��m wearing a dress?�� Red snapped coldly.


    ��Oh, if you find it inconvenient, we can go to the toilet together.��


    ��Even if I have no problem with it, aren��t you worried your girlfriend will get jealous of us?�� Red then looked at Feng Zi.


    Having already won the drinking game, thetter left the office worker in only his underwear. However, when she turned her head and looked at Zhang Heng, the joy of winning suddenly disappeared. She looked disappointed. While she was putting on her socks, she looked at Red with a hostile stare. It seemed like she was going to question her after she put her clothes on.


    ��She is not my girlfriend.�� Zhang Heng said, ��Besides, my rtionships are not your concern.��


    Red seemed to be caught in a dilemma. Finally, after a long while, she gritted her teeth and pulled down the zipper on her back, and pulled the dress to his waist, exposing the Apollo tattoo on her lower abdomen.


    ��Are you happy now?�� she growled, her tone icy.


    Her bold move had garnered the whistles and wolf calls of many men. No one in the bar expected how exciting things would get tonight. Earlier, Feng Zi had just allowed the men to feast their eyes on her body. And now, they received another big gift.


    As the pioneer for showing the men a good time, Feng Zi was irritated when she saw what Red did. She thought Red was taunting her. Unbothered about her undone shoces, she rushed over to Red with long strides.


    However, Zhang Heng, who was in the center of the conflict, appeared calm. He stared at the Red��s tattoo for two seconds and said, ��Okay, I��ve finished reading it. It seems like the zero emergency response team is no threat to me.��


    ��What did you just say?�� Red��s pupils shrank suddenly.


    ��I heard that you are all elites selected from tens of thousands of clones. Their body proportions are supposed to be perfect. And they are not supposed to have extra fat on them.��


    ��Just because of my great figure, and you suspect that I am from the emergency response team?�� Red sneered.


    ��Of course not. I noticed you a long time ago. You sat at one of the few spots in the bar that��s out of sight of the snipers. I know that you have a lot of counter-sniper experience in your memory. So choosing this spot upon entering the bar has be your instinctive reaction.��


    Red��s face changed slightly upon Zhang Heng��s deduction, never expecting her excellent instincts for risk aversion would actually expose her identity.


    Zhang Heng continued, ��You have been keeping an eye on me for some time, right? YOu might��ve thought you were stealthy, but I still noticed you observing me. I actually tripped the bartender earlier to see your reaction. No doubt, you��ve noticed it too. However, you didn��t mention it once I sat opposite you. Is it because you didn��t want me to find out about your outstanding observation ability? At the same time, you put on an act that you were annoyed by me so I��d underestimate you, right?��


    ��You have a wonderful imagination; I can��t help but apud you.��


    Red regained her calm after a brief gaffe.


    ��Unfortunately, the tattoo on my lower abdomen proves that you are delusional. ��


    ��Are you serious about that tattoo?�� Zhang Heng asked rhetorically, ��You really think I can��t tell whether your tattoo has been pierced or is simply a temporary print?��


    Red��s look finally changed this time. She then pulled out a pocket pistol from her inner thigh at an incredible speed and aimed at Zhang Heng��s chest. The entire series of moves was done in one go. At this time, the bar��s patrons were still apuding her unrestrained behavior. Only a few realized that soon, there would be bloodshed.


    Unfortunately for Red, her opponent was not an ordinary person. Just as she drew her gun, Zhang Heng had also moved and grabbed a knife on the table. As Red was raising her gun to aim at him, she saw a sh of light. Before she could pull the trigger, Zhang Heng had pinned her hand to the table with the knife.


    Red growled while enduring the red-hot pain pulsating in her hand. But the next moment, a fierce look shed across her eyes. She pulled up the knife and shed at Zhang Heng��s throat with it.


    ��It��s unwise, using a knife to fight me!�� Zhang Heng jerked to the side, escaping the lethal strike. His bodynded at the seat next to him. Immediately, he grabbed a steak knife from the table.

 Chapter 986 - Knife vs Knife

    <h4>Chapter 986: Knife vs Knife</h4>


    Red forced Zhang Heng back with a knife, but she did not follow up afterward. Instead, she threw away the knife in her hand. Her goal was obvious. Wanting to end the battle with the pocket pistol on the table, she threw the knife at Zhang Heng to buy her more time.


    However, if one underestimated the power of that throw, the person would have to pay a painful price.


    In fact, every single member of the emergency response team, starting with the number zero, was a true all-rounder. With a skillful throwing technique, the knife was sent flying at Zhang Heng��s heart. It was fast and urate, and they weren��t very far apart from each other either. If Zhang Heng failed to dodge the knife, he could die here.


    Red was very confident in her throwing skills. However, she also believed that even if Zhang Heng could dodge the knife, he definitely wouldn��t stop her from taking the gun.


    The expression on her face, however, froze the next moment.


    Zhang Heng did not slow down at all, the steak knife in his hand fluttering and revolving at his fingertips like performing magic. He then caught the flying knife midair.


    Red stared on with bulging eyes. Highly confident in her throwing skills, almost every known sword skill was programmed into her memory, more than sufficient to help her cope with whatever situation fate threw her way. However, when she looked through her memory, she could not find Zhang Heng��s knifey method.


    In fact, the moment Zhang Heng started to y with the knife, she had failed to identify the skill that Zhang Heng was using. Red instincts shot her neurons with a strong sense of crisis. Reacting almost instantly, she gave up picking the pistol on the table because the n to block Zhang Heng had failed. In this short half-second, she figured she couldn��t pull the trigger before Zhang Heng approached her.


    So, Red made a decisive decision to kick over the table in front of her. After that, she held on to her injured hand and plunged into the crowd beside her.


    And it was not until then that the onlookers in the bar realized what had happened.


    They did not expect that the scene that looked like a young couple arguing with each other would eventually turn into something so bloody.


    The moment Red took out the pocket pistol from her thigh, the situation wentpletely out of control. After Zhang Heng pinned Red��s hand to the table with a knife, Red pulled out the knife to throw at Zhang Heng. The entire bar had plunged into chaos. None of them knew who they should help.


    However, Red, as a female, still had the advantage at this time. After all, Singrity was mostly a male-dominated bar. When men didn��t have a clear idea of what was going on, they��d usually take the women��s side. There were several strong men prepared to pin Zhang Heng on the ground.


    Feng Zi was taken aback, and the sorrow on her face had disappeared. Not only did she show no fear, but she looked rather happy. This time, she got even more excited when she looked at Zhang Heng.


    Since there were too many people in front of her, she took a lot of time to squeeze through the crowd. Fortunately, after all that, she finally managed to get closer to Zhang Heng. Just as she was about to open her mouth to say something, she realized that she had lost track of Zhang Heng, and he was nowhere to be seen.


    Feng Zi rubbed her eyes hard and took a good look at her surroundings again. Zhang Heng had indeed disappeared right in front of her. Just like her, the few drunkards who were prepared to pin Zhang Heng down were left baffled too. Everyone was looking around, trying to spot Zhang Heng.


    Suddenly, Feng Zi��s heart tightened. She was worried that Zhang Heng would take the opportunity to leave the bar at this time. Tonight, she finally found the kind of adventure that she dreamed of, and her woman��s intuition told her that Zhang Heng was a man with many stories to tell. Thest thing she wanted was to let go of him so easily.


    Feng Zi had no idea that when she looked around anxiously, trying to find Zhang Heng, a figure quietly approached her from behind.


    As soon as Red rushed into the crowd, she took off her wig and stuck a paper-thin mask on her face. Of course, such a disposable mask would be useless upon closer inspection, but it proved extremely useful in such a chaotic environment.


    After that, Red took off her red dress and wore it inside out. The red dress had now be a ck dress, allowing her to blend into the crowdpletely. After doing all that, she tore off the corner of her dress and wrapped it around the wound on her right hand to stop the bleeding. Finally, she let out a sigh of relief.


    Strictly speaking, Red didn��t engage in close-quartersbat with Zhang Heng. As a member of the zero emergency response team, Red had a considerably potent close-quartersbat skill, typically resorting to this method in such a situation. However, after she witnessed Zhang Heng��s swordsmanship, she had to admit that her confidence was shaken.


    This was also her first time fleeing her opponent, even before the fight began. Although she felt that Zhang Heng��s swordsmanship was far more superior than hers, it didn��t mean she was afraid of him. It was because Red could use more than just one type of weapon.


    Since she could not defeat Zhang Heng at close quarters, she would be better off changingbat methods.


    Such was the forte of the emergency response team. Each was equipped with dozens ofbat skills, allowing them to deal with all situations with rtive ease. Then, a chaotic bar situation was undoubtedly the most suitable ce for a killer to execute their task.


    After a deep breath, Red had already switched herself into killer mode. However, she also realized that she had lost track of Zhang Heng. Just like her, Zhang Heng also took advantage of the crowd to hide.


    Despite all that, Red was in no rush. She had a way to force Zhang Heng to show up.


    Red then quietly walked behind Feng Zi.


    To draw their targets out, most killers usually set up a decoy. Thus, Red now intended to turn Feng Zi into her decoy. Although she wasn��t sure what rtionship Zhang Heng and Feng Zi shared, the two obviously knew each other. Hence, it meant Zhang Heng would definitely care about Feng Zi��s life and death.


    It was more than enough for Red. She had already grabbed a table knife when she passed by a table. As Red crept closer, she nned to stab Feng Zi��s belly with the table knife. The specific spot that she wanted to stab was the upper left side of the abdominal cavity. If it went well, the knife should rupture the spleen and cause hemorrhage.


    At that time, Feng Zi would cry for help and lose consciousness for a short time. She believed that as long as Zhang Heng was still in the bar, such an incident would definitely attract his attention. By that time, Red would��ve figured out Zhang Heng��s position.


    In such a short time, Red had cooked up an entire n in her mind. Soon afterward, Red got closer to Feng Zi. When she quietly raised her knife and aimed at Fengzi��s spleen as nned, she felt a small knife touching her neck.


    Red did not know when the knife appeared on her neck. When she reacted, her neck had already been shed. After that, she heard Zhang Heng��s voice again.


    ��I told it��s not the wisest idea to use a melee weapon to fight me,�� Zhang Heng paused for a while and added, ��It��s the same with assassination.��

 Chapter 987 - An Email

    <h4>Chapter 987: An Email</h4>


    Feng Zi was still standing on tiptoes, looking around for Zhang Heng. Then, suddenly, someone tapped her shoulder. After that, she heard someone speak to her.


    ��Let��s get out of here first,�� the voice said.


    Feng Zi was overjoyed when she heard Zhang Heng. However, when she turned around, she saw an unfamiliar face. Earlier, Red had to mix into the crowd by putting on a mask and changing her clothes. As for Zhang Heng, his solution was simpler. All he needed to do was to wipe off his makeup and restore his original appearance.


    ��Huh?�� Feng Zi reacted quickly. ��So this is how you really look? What about that woman? Aren��t you going after her? Wait, are you the one going after her or is it the other way round? By the way, are you guys assassins?��


    ��This matter has nothing to do with you. Just leave this ce, go home, and have a good night��s sleep,�� Zhang Heng said.


    The moment she heard Zhang Heng asking her to go home to have a good sleep, Feng Zi regained her energy. ��Sure, let��s go to bed now. Tell me your stories when we are on the bed,�� she said with a nod.


    ��...��


    ��That��s not what I meant.�� Zhang Heng was speechless.


    Although Red was dead, Zhang Heng didn��t lower his guard. On the contrary, he knew he was in serious trouble tonight.


    The emergency response team came here, pretending to be the courier to ambush him. However, after seeing the tattoo on Red��s body, Zhang Heng realized that his enemies had figured out the exact time and ce of the transaction, as well as the characteristics of the courier. It meant the details of the transaction must��ve been leaked to the enemies in advance.


    All the while, the enemies had been waiting for him to show up.


    Zhang Heng still didn��t know if it was the seller or Mr. G who leaked the transaction details to the enemy. Zhang Heng preferred to think that there was a mole in Mr. G��s gang. That was because he and Old Man Geng were ambushed when they were on the first floor, proving that there were indeed moles in Mr. G��s n.


    However, Zhang Heng didn��t specifically remind Mr. G about this matter because he believed thetter surely was capable of figuring this problem out. He expected Mr. G to deal with the mole before the transaction.


    Zhang Heng now realized that he was wrong. Mr. G knew that there was a mole in his n, and he could have dealt with it easily. However, he had no intention to settle the problem. Instead, he wanted the moles to leak the transaction information to the enemies.


    If Zhang Heng was right, then he was supposed to y the bait in this transaction. Mr. G wanted him to fight with the emergency response team to draw attention.


    Moreover, Mr. G still didn��t trust Zhang Heng, an outsider. It wasn��t possible that he would hand such an important task to him. The so-called test was actually a disy for the moles to see. After Zhang Heng thought through the whole thing, everything made sense to him now. Hence, only one questiony unanswered. What was Miss F��s role in this transaction? He wasn��t surprised by the fact that Mr. G betrayed him and used him as bait, but based on what he knew about Miss F, he believed Ms. F knew nothing about it. She wouldn��t have brought him to check out the restoration storage point otherwise.


    In other words, Mr. G wanted to hide this n from his fianc��e. Mr. G trusted his fianc��e, but he also knew that she would definitely tell Zhang Heng all she knew.


    In order to verify his doubt, all Zhang Heng needed to do was to find out if Ms. F was among the ten couriers Mr. G sent tonight. Undeniably, this transaction was extremely important to Mr. G. If Ms. F had nothing else to do, she would��ve definitely been assigned to oversee this transaction.


    Those, however, were things Zhang Heng would only deal withter. His top priority now was to deal with the emergency response team. His fight with Red in the bar just now could be regarded as testing the team��s capability. Just like what Zhang Heng expected, everyone in the team an expert in variousbat-rted skills.


    If one were to measure their power level, Red��s swordsmanship and assassination skills should be at the peak of Lv2. It was also safe to say that she��d be achieving Lv3 very soon. The most important thing was that they hardly needed any training. All their employer had to do was to program all these skills into their memories. It was no wonder they were called the monsters.


    It was a pity that these monsters met Zhang Heng, a far scarier monster than all of them. Zhang Heng��s Lv4 swordsmanship and Lv3 mid-stage assassination skillspletely overpowered Red. Thetter probably never dreamed that someone would possess richer and more profoundbat skills than her.


    Unlike the mass-produced clones, Zhang Heng had actually put in a lot of hard work to master those skills. Even among the yers, Zhang Heng was unique. Only by enduring up to ten times the quest time would Zhang Heng��s skill bars break the character panel. All those skills were burned into his memories, something he would never forget till the day he died. Even though the emergency response team mastered all those skills with little effort whatsoever, they could neverpare to Zhang Heng.


    However, Zhang Heng��s other problem was that Red wasn��t his only opponent. There were nine other clones like her. Besides, with Shengtang Morgan��s massive hold over New Shanghai 0297, Zhang Heng would be too na?ve to think the emergency response team would only send one enemy.


    Thus, after Zhang Heng slit Red��s neck with a knife, he immediately held on to her, covered her mouth, dragged her to a corner, and draped her body with some clothes, hoping to buy more time.


    After that, he had to persuade Feng Zi to go home. Thetter had helped him a lot tonight. Even if he wanted to thank her, it would be inappropriate to continue dragging her into his problem.


    So after the two of them walked out of the bar, Zhang Heng said straightforwardly, ��I have other things to do tonight. It would be best if you go home first. I will find youter.��


    ��You are a liar,�� Feng Zi shook her head. ��I��ll never believe what a man tells me. Whenever they tell me that they wille looking for me, 80% chance they��ll never contact me again.��


    ��...��


    ��You saw what just happened. I still have to fight lots of enemies. You are going to end up dead if you keep sticking with me,�� Zhang Heng exined patiently.


    ��There will be risks involved if I want more adventure,�� Feng Zi said. ��Don��t worry. I won��t slow you down. And with one more teammate, your chances of winning should be higher.��


    ��This is not a game. And you don��t know who my enemy is. Even if you don��t lose your life, you will lose your job and everything you have,�� Zhang Heng warned.


    ��Anyway, I don��t care too much about those things.�� Feng Zi shrugged and put her hand on Zhang Heng��s shoulder.


    ��Come on, bring me along, Mr. Assassin. Or, we can go back to my house and have a nap.��


    Zhang Heng did not say a word. It was then that Feng Zi��s bracelet suddenly vibrated, reminding her that she had received an email.


    After ncing at the email��s title, she ignored it. She was still racking her brain about how to trick Zhang Heng into going home with her. However, the next moment she heard Zhang Heng ask, ��Aren��t you going to read the email you just received?��

 Chapter 988 - Wanted By The Entire City

    <h4>Chapter 988: Wanted By The Entire City</h4>


    ��Oh, that email is from the trade union. There��s an 80% chance the email is talking about the distribution ofbor insurance supplies or changing my working hours.�� Feng Zi didn��t seem to care too much about it.


    ��Does your union usually send these messages to the entire group of people?�� Zhang Heng asked afterward.


    ��That��s how they usually work. What��s the matter?�� Feng Zi was a little confused by Zhang Heng��s question. She looked up, only to discover that almost everyone��s bracelets were vibrating right now. Through the bar��s ss window, Zhang Heng could see that the Singrity Bar��s patrons were looking at their bracelets and checking the email that they just received.


    Feng Zi frowned. ��What��s going on?�� She then clicked on the email that she received and instantly froze.


    There was a video attached to the email.


    The video showed her leaning onto Zhang Heng��s body, pressing her thigh against his, and stroking thetter��s chest while saying something.


    ��That��s what I did to you at the bar earlier.�� Feng Zi did not blush after she watched the video. Instead, she was rendered speechless. ��Whoever that recorded us must��ve had nothing better to do. Why did the person send the clip to the union? And why did the union send it to everyone?��


    On the other hand, Zhang Heng had located the camera��s location from the shooting angle. It was the seat where Red sat on. Zhang Heng then looked at Feng Zi. ��Do you really like your current life? I am afraid you are about to say goodbye to itpletely.��


    ��What do you mean?�� Feng Zi received another email from the union as soon as she finished asking. This one had an emergency tag on it.


    Subject: Looking for the man and a woman in the video


    To: All workers


    Contents: This man and woman stole our factory��s trade secrets and hid them on the second level. We are now requesting all second-level employees to find out the whereabouts of these two people. Those who can provide us with any leads will be rewarded a three-story apartment, your current sry doubled, and a one-off, 100,000 credits will be awarded to the person that locates them. (Note: They are both extremely dangerous. You should not approach them once you find them. The targets may have the ability to disguise themselves. You can check their true identities through your bracelet)


    The citizen IDs of Zhang Heng and Feng Zi were posted at the bottom of the email.


    Feng Zi��s eyes bulged after she read it.


    ��We are wanted?! What kind of trade secrets did you steal from the factory? It seems serious enough for them to issue a reward. And it��s a huge one at that. I am afraid the workers from the entire factory wille looking for us.��


    ��Not just the factory you work at. All the factories from the second level wille looking for us,�� Zhang Heng corrected. ��Some people on this street are not from your factory, but I bet they received the same email like everyone else.��


    ��Have you stolen trade secrets from other factories?�� Feng Zi was surprised.


    ��The trade secrets they mention are just a cover. It��s better for you not to know about the details of this matter. Also, we��d better leave here now.��


    Zhang Heng noticed that passerbys were already ncing at them suspiciously, constantlyparing them to the man and woman in the video. Other than that, customers from the Singrity Bar were also looking at them through the ss window.


    Zhang Heng had to admit that he had underestimated the emergency response team. After he fought Red, he did aprehensive evaluation of thetter��s abilities. He thought he knew them well enough. Little did he expect that they would coin up such a n.


    Zhang Heng recalled the scene of his fight with Red. When he slit her throat, Red did not subconsciously cover her neck with her hands to stop the bleeding like most would��ve done. Instead, she decided to take a short walk forward. She then dropped the knife in her hand to the ground, and Zhang Heng quickly held onto her and covered her mouth to prevent her from calling for help.


    Unfortunately, Red��s bracelet was out of Zhang Heng��s line of sight. She had probably sent out an SOS signal at that time.


    The other members of the emergency response team responded in mere seconds. Earlier, Zhang Heng wondered why Shengtang Morgan did not utilize the second-level police force to capture them. Now, he finally got the answer. Almost all the residents from the second level were blue-cor workers. Therefore, no organization here was more powerful than the union.


    Shengtang Morgan knew very well that no matter what the police did, they would never be as effective as mobilizing the entire second-level. They didn��t want to let anyone know about the memory encoder, so they told people that Zhang Heng stole some trade secrets.


    ��Uh, well, we have to leave now.�� Feng Zi also noticed the bystanders who had started to surround them.


    Someone took pictures of them with their bracelets. Feng Zi immediately covered her face and hastily followed Zhang Heng to the other side of the alley. The moment they started to run, they exposed their true identities. The bystanders immediately became very excited. In the face of irresistible temptation, they even forgot that the two were supposedly extremely dangerous. The crowd of people then started to go after them. The two people in front of them also stretched out their hands to prevent Zhang Heng and Feng Zi from leaving.


    In the next moment, Zhang Heng grabbed one of their arms and broke his ulna. Thetter let out a scream like a pig for ughter. The scream calmed the people blinded by the rewards a little. The other person that tried to stop them from leaving quickly took a step back. He then watched as Zhang Heng and Feng Zi ran past him. However, he did not want them to run away just like that. He continued taking their pictures and sent emails while trying to keep some distance behind them.


    ��What should we do?�� Feng Zi asked while looking at the people that wereing after them.


    ��Since you work here, do you know anyplicated terrain nearby?��


    ��Complicated terrain?�� Feng Zi thought for a while, ��There is a night market in front of us, with stalls that sell all kinds of things. Usually, the ce is crowded every night.��


    ��Very well. Lead the way. We will go there.��


    Five minutester, the two arrived at the night market. Not only did they fail to stop the people from chasing them, but they started to attract more and more attention.


    ��No way. Did the people here also receive the email?!�� Feng Zi asked in disbelief.


    ��As I said, I estimate that all the workers in the entire second level received the email,�� Zhang Heng said. ��But it doesn��t matter. We will get rid of them soon.��


    As he spoke, Zhang Heng plunged into the night market with Feng Zi. While running, he picked up two wigs from a small stall. After that, Feng Zi saw the items in Zhang Heng��s hands constantly increasing, from shirts to knee pads. However, those things did not stay in Zhang Heng��s hands for too long. The two hurriedly slipped on all those items as they went along.


    After that, Zhang Heng used makeup brushes, eyeliner, and powder puff to change their appearances. Then, he threw away the guitar case and transferred the contents to his backpack. He also held the Shrouded Sheath in his hand. The two hadpletely changed their appearances, and they finally temporarily getting rid of the people going after them.

 Chapter 989 - Asking For Help Through Email

    <h4>Chapter 989: Asking For Help Through Email</h4>


    Feng Zi stopped and panted as she leaned on the streetmp on the side of the road. The work clothes on her body were gone, reced instead by a Lolita dress with a pair of small leather shoes and a bow on top of her head. It transformed her from an unruly mechanicdy into a shy and lovely Lolita.


    Not even her co-workers could recognize her if she was standing in front of them. Feng Zi walked towards the mirror at the stall next door and took a look at her current appearance. Suddenly, she felt her stomach churn, and sheined to Zhang Heng, ��Why did you make me look like a little girl?��


    ��...��


    ��Weren��t you supposed to be a woman originally?��


    ��Have you ever seen a woman who can fix a hydraulic pipe and put thirty kilograms of mechanical parts on her shoulder?�� Feng Zi sneered.


    ��That is precisely why I had to transform you into a Lolita. The stronger the contrast, the harder it is for you to be recognized by others,�� Zhang Heng reminded. ��The way you act should also match your outlook. Don��t put your feet on themp post anymore. Try to stand with both of your legs close together.��


    ��Next, do you want to ask me to add eek, eek, eek to every sentence that I said?��


    ��No harm trying, I guess.��


    Feng Zi rolled her eyes.


    ��Forget it. I would rather let them catch me.��


    ��Trust me. You don��t want to fall into the hands of those people,�� Zhang Heng said. ��They are willing to use whatever means necessary to draw me out.��


    Zhang Heng was not trying to scare Feng Zi. If he hadn��t shown up in the pub just in time, her spleen would��ve suffered severe bleeding by now.


    ��So, who exactly did you provoke?�� Feng Zi curiously asked. ��The entire second-level is trying to catch us now.��


    ��The Shengtang Morgan Group.��


    ��Shengtang Morgan?!�� Feng Zi raised her eyebrows, and she was about to put on her iconicughter. However, when she saw that Zhang Heng did not look like he was telling a joke. The smile on her face gradually disappeared. ��Do you know that New Shanghai 0297 was built by Shengtang Morgan? Although the federal government governs this ce, Shengtang Morgan Group is actually the true ruler of this entire city.��


    ��I know about that too.��


    ��Why did you provoke the king of this city then?��


    ��If I had a choice, I wouldn��t have gone this far,�� Zhang Heng said. ��Shengtang Morgan might not be my only enemy. I��m sorry to involve you. Initially, I just wanted you to help me with two small favors.��


    ��Hmph,�� Feng Zi snorted.


    ��So... don��t you have anything to say?��


    ��What do you want me to say?�� Feng Zi was puzzled. ��Haven��t you asked me a simr question before, and I have given you the answer.��


    Zhang Heng knew that Feng Zi was talking about the warning that he gave her earlier. Once she got involved in this problem, she might lose her job, life, and everything she had. However, thetter��s reply at the time was, ��I don��t care much about those things anyway.��


    ��I don��t know if you feel this way,�� Feng Zi loosened the cor of her dress. ��This city is like a huge cage, imprisoning everyone who lives in it.��


    ��Why do you feel like that?��


    ��I don��t know. Consider me having a little too much to drink tonight,�� Feng Zi paused. ��Have you ever seen those clones? It is said that they are raised like animals before they be adults. After that, they will be given a set of memories and the tasks they are supposed toplete. They are like the blindfolded donkeys that keep spinning around the millstone.��


    ��Hmm.��


    ��In fact, when you think about it, ordinary people like us are the same too. The difference is that our goals are given by society. It defines our sess, what is good and what is bad, what we need, and what we don��t need. Those media advertisements and news propaganda always affect how we judge our values, constantly reshaping us. They are like a piece of cloth blinding our eyes, making us believe that we should live like this. And the funniest part is that some of our memories are not as good as the clones�� memories.��


    Feng Ziughed at herself and looked at Zhang Heng. ��I am actually a person without much courage. I came up with ideas to end this predetermined life countless times, but I always fail to take the first step. So, I can only wait for someone to show up in the small bar, hoping that the person can give me the courage to take risks. Strictly speaking, I should probably thank you for ruining my life.��


    ��I did more than just ruin your life,�� Zhang Heng said. ��You really got into big trouble this time. If we can��t solve this, not only will you fail to return to your original life, but it will also be impossible for you to start a new one.��


    Feng Zi was taken aback, ��Is it really that serious? But I didn��t do anything. All I ever did was flirt with you in the bar.��


    Even though Feng Zi received an email from the union earlier, she was not too worried about it. To her, it was just a misunderstanding. At most, she would lose her job if the authorities caught her. If that happened, it would make her more determined to change her life. However, after she heard what Zhang Heng told her, the whole thing seemed moreplicated than she thought.


    ��Do you have a way to solve this trouble?�� Feng Zi asked.


    ��It��s just a rough n. We need a bit of luck. Since the enemies made their move already, of course, we have to fight back,�� Zhang Heng said while removing the signal blocker. He then sent a simple message to Mr. G.


    [I��m being targeted by the emergency response team. The parcel has been transferred to other couriers. I will continue to attract the attention of the emergency response team.]


    After he finished typing the message, Zhang Heng clicked send and put on the signal blocker again.


    ��Are you asking for help?��


    When Zhang Heng typed the message, he did not mind letting Feng Zi take a look at it from the side. Thetter was confused, and she did not understand what Zhang Heng meant by couriers and the emergency response team.


    ��No. This email is not meant for the recipient,�� Zhang Heng said.


    Now that the emergency response team had known his citizen ID, it should be easy for them to intercept his emails. Therefore, Zhang Heng was actually sending the email to them. He did not expect an email was enough to make them give up on chasing him and look for other couriers instead. Without having to face the entire emergency response team alone, Zhang Heng would be less pressurized.


    At the same time, the message would also affect Mr. G��s wishful thinking. Thetter wanted to use him as bait to attract the attention of the emergency response team so that his men could sessfullyplete the transaction. When the emergency response team intercepted Zhang Heng��s email, they would surely go and look for the other couriers. And Zhang Heng��s real purpose was to make sure the memory encoder stayed at the second level.

 Chapter 990 - Fork

    <h4>Chapter 990: Fork</h4>


    Less than five minutes after Zhang Heng and Feng Zi left the Singrity Bar, a shuttle stopped outside the bar. A teenager took off his baseball cap, and walked into the bar while chewing gum.


    He then walked past the hardcore Pandaren fans who were watching the football match. Not saying hello to anyone, he directly walked towards a corner on the west side, where a person was sleeping on the deck.


    The noisy environment in the bar did not seem to affect his sleep at all. Even though there were many people around him, he still managed to sleep soundly, and he even covered his head with clothes.


    The boy in the baseball cap stretched out two fingers, mped the cor with it, and removed the clothes from the person that was sleeping, revealing Red��s body underneath the clothes. Thetter��s eyes were open, and an angry look of disbelief was permanently stered on her face.


    ��Tsk... Tsk... You should have agreed to be my girlfriend. You could��ve at least tasted of the joy of being a woman before you died.�� The boy in the baseball cap muttered while chewing the gum in his mouth.


    He then put the coat aside, picked up Red��s injured hand, and looked at it, ��The depth of this knife wound shows that a steak knife caused it. The person that hurt her is very good with a ded weapon, and he sure can move fast. There are wounds on her index finger too. It looked like she was pierced by the knife when she wanted to grab the gun. The opponent that she encountered was unexpectedly fierce, and he showed no mercy even to a beauty like you.��


    The boy in the baseball cap paused for a while and said, ��And this outfit on her. After she was hurt, she realized that she was not powerful enough to defeat his enemy. So, she nned to blend into the crowd immediately. It seemed like she managed to pull that off sessfully. When ites to the assassination skill, it looked like she was no match to her enemy as well.��


    The boy in the baseball cap raised his red chin as he said, and his eyes finally moved to the wound on Red��s throat, ��Ah. That��s a merciless sh. Not even our captain could pull off such a clean kill. It is no wonder Red had such a look on her. Red, I don��t think you expect to face someone so powerful here. You turned from a hunter to prey. The captain had already told you that your pride would kill you sooner orter. You should have wiped your memory for good. Look what happened to you now. Your life is gone because of your pride.


    ��Well, this is how it ends. Dead, unhappy, and useless. Come on, let��s take a selfie. Although you have never admitted it, you are still my first love.�� The young man leaned his body against Red��s chest and deliberately pulled down thetter��s dress to show her cleavage. After that, he made a V gesture and pressed the camera button on his bracelet.


    Almost at the same moment, he received a call request. The boy in the baseball cap epted the call, and a deep voice came from the headset, ��What��s going on? What happened to Six?��


    ��It��s a pity that she is dead, but the good news is that she didn��t refuse to take thest photo with me.��


    ��Don��t talk nonsense. I want something useful.��


    The voice on the other end of the bracelet did not speak in a harsh tone. However, the boy in the baseball cap changed his previous frivolous attitude and said seriously, ��The enemy is a master at using a ded weapon. And his attack was fast and clean. However, the two did not fight for too long. And Six made a quick decision to get away from her opponent. This shows that the gap between the two is probablyrge. The wound that caused her life was the wound on her throat. Her throat was slit by a knife��a ssic, typical way for an assassin to eliminate his target. The expression on Six��s face is wonderful. It meant she didn��t realize that her opponent had gotten closer to her before her throat was slit.��


    ��A master?��


    ��He is absolutely a master. No. 6 won the jackpot,�� said the boy in the baseball cap. ��The time of death was probably... well, ten minutes ago. In other words, the man that killed her hadn��t gone far yet. I didn��t expect that the man named Mr. G still has such a powerful subordinate. This man is even better than the woman named F.��


    The captain, on the other end, did not make anyments. Instead, he said, ��Got it. I received a message from the union saying that they are moving in the direction of Wufang Street. There is a night market there. I think they are heading there to get rid of the people going after them.��


    ��Understood. I��ll go there and check it out, captain.�� The boy with a baseball cap responded respectfully.


    ��Yes. Remember not to mess around, and don��t make any rash moves. No. 7 and No. 5 will rush there to meet you soon.��


    ��Understood.��


    The boy in the baseball cap hung up the call and stood up, only to find that others had surrounded him.


    After he lifted the clothes covering Red��s corpse, the people nearby noticed the murder that took ce here. They were taken aback, and they quickly called the police. After that, several stronger Pandaren fans surrounded the boy, who looked like the biggest suspect.


    ��Oh, are you all blind?�� The boy in the baseball cap sighed. ��You guys let the real murderer left the bar under your watch, and now you are trying to stop me from going after the murderer.��


    ��Anyway, you are the closest person to the corpse. We can��t believe what you told us. The police are on the way anyway. Why don��t you wait until the policee here and exin to them that you are innocent? If you are right, the police will naturally let you go.�� The owner of the bar walked out from behind the crowd and said.


    ��That��s a reasonable proposal,�� the boy in the baseball cap nodded. However, he changed the conversation��s direction immediately, ��But, I don��t have time to y this game with you guys.��


    After speaking, he grabbed a fork from the table and looked at it twice, ��Now, I am politely requesting you to make way for me.��


    ��What if we don��t?�� the boss asked, ��Are you going to kill everyone in the bar with this fork?��


    Everyone wasughing at the threat that he made.


    ��I won��t go as far as to kill you guys, but it will help you guys learn a lesson.�� After the baseball cap boy finished talking, he blinked at the bar owner, ��If it hurts too much, remember to shout it out.��


    At the next second, the fork in his hand had already prated the bar owner��s thigh. After that, the boy in the baseball cap pulled out the fork and used it to stab the person��s fist that wasing at him. One after another, the people in the bar started to scream. Within ten seconds, more than a dozen people were hurt by the young man in a baseball cap. Immediately, the rest of them retreated after witnessing how bad the situation turned out. Finally, they made their way and let him leave.


    The boy in the baseball cap shook off the drop of blood on the fork, looked at the bar owner who was lying on the ground, holding his thigh, and asked, ��Why?��


    Thetter was quite tough. He was the only one that did not scream. However, he did not dare to talk back this time. The boy with a baseball cap walked past the crowd to the bar entrance and put down the fork on the table. He then smiled at the people behind him, ��Thank you for your hospitality. Hope we will meet soon.��

 Chapter 991 - Stakeout

    <h4>Chapter 991: Stakeout</h4>


    ��What should we do next?�� Feng Zi asked Zhang Heng after he sent the email.


    ��Give me your bracelet.��


    ��Hmm?��


    Although Feng Zi was a little puzzled, she still took off her bracelet and handed it to Zhang Heng. He then put her bracelet on his wrist, right next to his. It was close enough for the signal blocker to cover both bracelets.


    ��Let��s find a safe ce first,�� said Zhang Heng.


    ��Okay, uhh... we can go back to my house or my sister��s house,�� Feng Zi suggested after thinking for a bit.


    ��No. Your ID is already in their possession, which also means that they have all your information. In other words, you can��t go back to your home, your sister��s house, or your colleague��s and friends�� ce. Besides...�� Zhang Heng paused.


    ��...it��s you. Not us. I still have things to do. I��m going to send you over first.��


    ��Wait. So, you want me to find a ce to hide like some useless heroine in a clich�� movie? After that, I��m supposed to wait for everything to be over and show my face five minutes before the finale. Then, I will need to act all surprised and wee you home, overjoyed and all? No, I don��t want that. I can help you. Didn��t you rely on me to help you make everyone take off their shirts in the bar?�� Feng Zi asked.


    ��Being a useless heroine is better than dying. And the situation is different this time. The next battle is going to be a big one. I may not be able to protect you.��


    ��The good news is that I don��t need your protection. You haven��te to the second level before. That means you are unfamiliar with the streets here, and you don��t know anyone here. I don��t know what you want to do next, but I��m pretty sure you��ll be needing a trustworthy local to help you with the directions. And that person is me.�� Feng Zi pointed at her nose.


    Zhang Heng hesitated for a moment and finally made a concession. That was because Feng Zi was right. Having a local by his side could indeed increase the sess rate.


    ��Okay. But you have to promise me that you will do exactly what I tell you.��


    ��No problem,�� Feng Zi quickly agreed. ��What do you want me to do next?��


    ��We still have to find a safe ce to make it our safe house,�� Zhang Heng said, ��so that if we are somehow separated, we can meet at the safe house.��


    ��I understand, but we have to go back to my factory before looking for a safe house,�� Feng Zi said.


    ��...��


    ��You just agreed to do as I said,�� Zhang Heng raised his eyebrows.


    ��Yes. I didn��t vite the agreement. I just made a small modification. We will go to the safe house, but I have to go back to the factory to get my equipment before that. You said that you might not be able to protect me. So, I have to find a way to protect myself.�� Feng Zi blinked innocently.


    ��Are those equipment important to you?��


    ��They are very important to us. Those are the tools that I made myself. Believe me. Those tools will definitely be of use. And it won��t take too much of your time to take a trip to the factory. At this time, all the workers have left the factory. So all we have to do is sneak into the factory, grab my tools, and sneak out. No one will know,�� Feng Zi said.


    ��Well. Let��s go to your factory first. After that, we will look for a safe house.�� Zhang Heng was not a stubborn man. As long as Feng Zi could give him a reasonable reason, ns could always be changed ording to the situation.


    When the two were about to leave the night market, Zhang Heng suddenly stopped moving forward.


    ��What��s wrong?�� Feng Zi asked.


    ��We are being watched again.��


    Feng Zi��s eyes widened. ��No way. Look at my attire. How can those bastards recognize me? Do you really want me to add eek... eek... eek... to every sentence I say?��


    ��It��s useless. The people who watch us this time are not the bystanders we met before. All of them are pros. So no matter how much you eek, it won��t affect them.��


    After all, this time, Zhang Heng had only disguised himself with whatever clothes he could find at the night market. Hence, it was not as effective as before. Feng Zi was also with him now. Her temperament and the Lolita costume were more than enough to get rid of the eyes of ordinary people. When it came to the pros, however, they were as conspicuous as gold bars lying on the road.


    Nheless, the stalker was also discovered by Zhang Heng. Although the former perfectly blended himself in the crowd, he still failed to hide. Zhang Heng also noticed that the enemy kept a good distance from him. Zhang Heng figured that they must��ve discovered Red��s body. In other words, the enemies were aware of his strength, the reason why they took a rather conservative approach. Despite that, however, Zhang Heng believed that they wouldn��t remain that way for too long.


    Judging from the way the enemies watched them and hid, Zhang Heng realized that the person could also be a member of the emergency response team. After all, the emergency response team had the numbers advantage. Even if many couriers needed dealing with, only a couple could bring them real trouble. That meant their advantage in numbers would still help them efficiently achieve their goal.


    The enemy had not attacked them, probably because he was waiting for his partner.


    ��What should we do? Do we have to move ces? I know a crowded ce not far from here,�� Feng Zi proposed.


    ��No. No matter where we go, it is going to be difficult for us to get rid of that guy,�� Zhang Heng said. ��ording to the original n, I remember another alley at the other side of the bar.��


    ��Yes, but the alley leads to a school. I don��t think there��s anyone at the school.��


    ��Great. We shall go there.��


    ...


    The boy in the baseball cap noticed that his targets had suddenly quickened pace, and his heart clenched a little.


    Had he been discovered?


    However, they seemed like they were in a rush somewhere, and he did not see Zhang Heng and Feng Zi turning their heads around to check on him. Since they were about to leave the night market and the crowd had be less dense, the boy waited again for good measure. It wasn��t until the two parties were thirty meters apart that the boy quickly followed them.


    The boy cautiously tailed them for about a mile. After a while, Zhang Heng and Feng Zi didn��t seem to realize that he was following them, and he believed that they were genuinely in a rush somewhere. So the boy followed the captain��s orders and updated histest status in the chat group. When Zhang Heng and Feng Zi disappeared at the entrance of an alley, the boy hesitated for a moment. He then lowered the brim of his baseball cap, pretended to be a passerby, and walked towards the alley.

 Chapter 992 - Professional And Cautious

    <h4>Chapter 992: Professional And Cautious</h4>


    The boy in the baseball cap walked steadily to the alley and nced with the corner of his eyes. He felt a little surprised because Zhang Heng and Feng Zi had disappeared.


    The boy was taken aback, not expecting toe across such a circumstance. However, being a professional, He quicklyposed himself, raised his head, and looked at the school in the distance as he stood in the dark.


    Just when he thought if he should get closer, he received a message from the group chat. No. 7 and No. 5 wereing to assist him. As they asked for his coordinates, they also told him that they would get to him within a quarter of an hour.


    So the boy immediately sent the address of the school to his allies. After that, he opened the navigation application and checked the nearby street map. He realized that the school had two doors. The side door was facing the alley while the other was facing the main road.


    The boy frowned. Judging by their actions, he quickly figured out the duo��s n. They wanted to pass through this school, enter through the side entrance and leave by the front door. This was indeed a handy method to get rid of pursuers. However, it did not mean that they realized that someone was following them. Precisely, it was an effective way to get rid of any potential stalkers.


    The boy knew that Zhang Heng��s stealth ability was excellent after he examined Red��s body. Hence, he was not surprised that his opponent would also possess anti-reconnaissance awareness. If Zhang Heng behaved normally, the boy would think that he had been discovered.


    Then, now, he had to face another problem. Knowing that Zhang Heng and Feng Zi were going to use the school to get out of their sticky situation, he thought whether he should obey the captain��s orders, which was to stay here to wait for No. 7 and No. 5 or go after them himself.


    He did not hesitate for too long before he made a decision, swiftly deciding to enter the alley after them. Zhang Heng and Feng Zi might be gone by the time No. 5 and No. 7 got here. By that time, the three of them would only be staring at each other, with nothing more to be done about the problem.


    After witnessing how Zhang Heng killed Red, the boy was slightly afraid of Zhang Heng��s swordsmanship and assassination skills. In his opinion, as long as he did note into close contact with Zhang Heng, he should be safe.


    Right after that, the boy took out a pistol from his waist. The next moment, he turned into a cheetah, walking against the shadow of the wall, and entered the school with his dextrous movements.


    The boy was in no hurry to make a move, carefully observing his surroundings instead, ensuring he scanned all possible hiding spots. After that, he designed the best route he could take in his mind. The route allowed him to avoid all the potential hiding spots as much as possible. He also had to confirm he had enough time to pull the trigger if he got ambushed.


    On the rooftop of the teaching building, Zhang Heng and Feng Zi, lying on their stomachs, witnessed a magical scene.


    They saw the boy in the baseball cap trotting along, turned sideways, stood up, and looked around. With a gun in hand, he barely walked in a straight line. Although the destination was less than thirty meters away, he trotted in a big circle and walked a few times diagonally before getting to where he wanted to go.


    ��What the hell has he been he smoking? Is he here to entertain us?�� Feng Zi was puzzled.


    ��He��s not having a convulsion or performing. He��s worried that I might ambush him. The way he��s moving allows him to eliminate every potential threat. Other than that, he is constantly changing his field of vision while observing ces he couldn��t see before,�� Zhang Heng exined. ��He is actually quite professional and cautious.��


    ��Professional and cautious? I think you are trying to say he has a good imagination,�� Feng Ziughed.


    Zhang Heng did not exin further. He had already picked up the stun gun he had just assembled with Lego. After that, he inserted the Infinite Building Block to materialize the stun gun.


    Feng Zi was left in bewilderment when she saw what he did.


    ��What kind of ck technology is this? Is it modr technology? Transformable material? Memory metal? I have never seen such a transformation before.��


    ��Neither. It��s a supernatural force,�� Zhang Heng admitted.


    Feng Zi harrumphed, ��It��s fine if you don��t want to tell me. It��s not like I��m going to steal your skill anyway...��


    But less than half a secondter, she regretted what she said and asked curiously, ��Well, I want what you have. Where did you get such a good thing? Can you let me study it for two days?��


    ��Sorry. You won��t learn a single thing from it even if you study it for a lifetime.�� Zhang Heng then raised the stun gun in his hand and aimed at the boy in the baseball cap downstairs.


    Just before Zhang Heng pulled the trigger, the boy fell to the ground.


    ��Did you manage to hit him?�� Feng Zi asked on the side.


    Before she finished speaking, Zhang Heng pushed her down, and the guardrail in front of them was hit by flying bullets, creating a string of sparks.


    Feng Zi inhaled sharply, asking, ��How did he know we are hiding here?��


    ��The reflection of my gun barrel probably exposed our spot. The moon at the second level is quite bright,�� Zhang Heng said.


    ��Just because of that small reflection, he managed to find out where we hid?��


    Earlier, Feng Zi thought that the boy was acting funny, but she dared not underestimate him anymore. With wide eyes, she stammered, ��What kind of marksmanship is that?��


    As soon as she finished, she saw Zhang Heng lifting the stun gun. He bent down, walked to the firedder, saying, ��Wait for me here. Remember not to raise your head no matter what you hear. After I deal with him, I will signal you toe downstairs.��


    ��What are you doing?��


    ��There is only one tranquilizer shot in the stun gun. I have to make sure I hit him,�� Zhang Heng said casually.


    ��What do you mean by hitting him?��


    ��Inyman��s terms, it means I have to get closer to him.��


    ��Are you crazy? Didn��t you see how he was shooting?! He almost killed us!��


    Feng Zi could not understand why Zhang Heng had to take such a deadly risk. First, there was only one bullet in the stun gun. Then, considering the enemy��s remarkable marksmanship, and since the tranquilizer round was more powerful than an actual bullet, the best thing they could do right now was to stay and wait for the enemy toe upstairs.


    However, Zhang Heng knew that the emergency response team had more than two members.


    ��Don��t worry. I can handle him.��


    Zhang Heng climbed down the firedder.


    Not long afterward, Feng Zi, on the rooftop, heard a few gunshots again. Every gunshot made her more and more nervous. However, she still remembered Zhang Heng��s warning. So, she resisted the urge to lift her head to check them out.


    After that, she heard the gunfire getting more intense on the first floor. Half a minuteter, the gunshots stopped.


    Feng Zi��s heart crunched up in a bunch, wondering if Zhang Heng was dead or alive.

 Chapter 993 - Aiming Assistance

    <h4>Chapter 993: Aiming Assistance</h4>


    Zhang Heng jumped off the firedder with his stun gun on his back. He then lowered himself in front of the window in the corridor, raised his head, and looked downstairs.


    In a split second, he ducked again. Almost as soon as he lowered his head, a bullet shattered the ss in front of him and hit the painting disy wall behind him, leaving a hole behind. During the previous fight in the bar, Red��s hand was pinned on the table before she could grab the gun to shoot Zhang Heng. After that, she tried to grab the gun with her other hand, but it was a failed attempt too. In the end, she resorted to assassinating Zhang Heng. Unfortunately, she did not get to showcase her marksmanship.


    During this battle, Zhang Heng witnessed for the first time the marksmanship of the emergency response team members. It seemed the baseball cap boy��s marksmanship had reached the peak of Lv 2, and he was close to getting to Lv 3. With more than decent reflexes and uracy, Zhang Heng realized that the enemy��s aiming speed was quicker than his.


    It was not something a human could pull off. Zhang Heng was now located on the fourth floor of the elementary school building. The entire floor had more than thirty windows facing the side. Even if the boy figured out that Zhang Heng had left the rooftop in advance, locking on to Zhang Heng and firing at the right window so quickly was still impossible.


    Thinking about his enemy��s unbelievable aiming speed, Zhang Heng was more inclined to think that the boy must��ve employed some sort of technology to improve his aiming speed. In order to confirm this conjecture, Zhang Heng quietly changed his positions and performed a quick squat while silently calcting the time in his heart. The result was the same as thest time. Not long after he squatted, he saw a bullet flew past his ear.


    His uracy and shooting speed was inhuman, but that didn��t worry Zhang Heng one bit. After confirming his deduction, he continued downstairs.


    ...


    The boy, on the other side, was leaning against the flowerbed, hiding his body entirely in the bushes. He stared at the teaching building in front of him intently and continuedmunications with No.7 and No.5 via headset.


    ��Where have you been? I met the target in the school. We have engaged in a shootout, and he has me trapped in the teaching building.��


    The voice from the other side of the headset sounded a little dissatisfied.


    ��You have already started shooting at him? Didn��t the captain ask you to wait for us?��


    ��Well, you guys were too slow. I checked the map, worried he might move to another street through the school. So, I decided to go after him alone. He fired at me first, so I��m just fighting back.��


    ��Did you manage to hit him?�� another voice asked.


    ��No. I must say that he is capable of moving extremely fast. Even my assisted aiming program can��t catch up with him,�� the boy in the baseball cap blinked.


    If someone was standing close enough to him and got a good look at his face, they would see a strange blue light glowing from the corner of his left eye. Looking to be a contact lens, it was a military device secretly developed by a weaponspany under the Shengtang Morgan Group. It featured a built-in micro-motion sensor that allowed him to capture moving targets in a very short time.


    This was also the reason why the boy had such swift aiming speed. His marksmanship was remarkable as well. With this device, he was confident enough to fight with the world��s best shooter. Zhang Heng was, after all, just a courier to him. If his captain didn��t warn him, he would��ve rushed into the building without waiting for No.7 and No.5.


    ��Wait for me. I just killed a courier on my side, but I didn��t find the thing we wanted on him. Estimated time of arrival at your location in 5 minutes,�� No.7 said.


    ��Same here,�� No.5 concurred.


    ��You guys might have to move faster. I��m afraid the battle would be over by the time you guys arrive,�� the boy licked his lips.


    The moment he hung up, he saw Zhang Heng moving around the third floor to the second floor. Unfortunately, Zhang Heng had an absolutely rapid movement speed. Even with the help of the assisted aiming program, the boy still failed to hit the target.


    ��Tsk... Tsk... It seems like he is really strong!�� the boy in the baseball cap praised, ��but...it��s a pity that you met me tonight.��


    The next moment his assisted aiming device issued an early warning. Immediately, the boy in the baseball cap quickly aimed his gun at the top of the stairs on the first floor. Without thinking twice, he pulled the trigger, and bullets poured out of the gun with smoke.


    This time, the target was not as lucky as before; his head was sted by the bullet. Right after the shot, the boy felt that something was not right. He realized that the ��person�� he had fired at was just a coat that hung behind the wall of the stairs. When the wind blew at it, the coat flew up a little.


    There was cold sweat on the enemy��s forehead. He realized that he might have made a fatal mistake. After he fired his gun, Zhang Heng quickly rushed out from the south side of the teaching building.


    He then quickly lifted the stun gun in his hand and calmly pulled the trigger.


    From the beginning, Zhang Heng never paid much attention to the so-called assisted aiming device. Even though the boy had sessfully used this little device to improve his aiming speed and did something inhuman, Zhang Heng figured out that the little device had a fatal w.


    That fatal w was its aiming speed was too fast. The baseball cap boy��s aiming speed had exceeded his judgment and reaction ability. In this case, the gunner did not have the time to finish processing his thoughts before pulling the trigger.


    This might not be a problem in ordinarybat, but it would be fatal if he encountered a master.


    All these times, the assisting aiming device was the thing that was leading him. Once Zhang Heng figured out the mechanism of the assisted aiming device, he could easily use it against the boy. And this was what did. He used the coat and window to trick the baseball cap boy sessfully andpleted this counterattack.


    The stun round urately hit the boy��s shoulder, and the anesthesia immediately began to release into his body. However, before the process waspleted, the boy gritted his teeth and pulled the stun round out of his shoulder. When he wanted to hold the gun, he found out that he could no longer control his arm.


    So the boy quickly used his other hand to grab the gun. But, unfortunately, Zhang Heng had gotten to him by that time. He then saw Zhang Heng abandon the rifle in his hand, draw the de from his waist, and shed his gun in half.


    Upon seeing that, the boy in the baseball cap recalled the wounds left on Red��s body. His instincts told him that he should now distance himself from Zhang Heng immediately.


    However, his body was out of his control. The boy in the baseball cap wanted to stand up, but he failed toplete such a simple action. In the end, his feet went soft and fell to the ground. Thest thing he saw was Zhang Heng picked up the stun round on the ground and inserted it into his leg, releasing the remaining anesthetics into his body.

 Chapter 994 - Deduction

    <h4>Chapter 994: Deduction</h4>


    Feng Zi had been drowning in fear on the rooftop for a long time. After the series of gunshots, she didn��t know who won or lost.


    Until Zhang Heng��s voice came from downstairs.


    ��Okay. You cane down now.��


    Feng Zi poked her head out cautiously after she heard what Zhang Heng said. When she looked down, she saw Zhang Heng and the baseball-capped boy lying on the ground beside him, not knowing whether he was alive or dead. Only then did she confirm that the battle was over. She then breathed a sigh of relief from the top of the building and ran to Zhang Heng.


    After that, Zhang Heng picked up the boy��s torso.


    ��Didn��t you say you walk around the factory carrying heavy objects?��


    ��Yes. Why ask?��


    ��Help me carry his lower half.��


    ��What are you going to do?��


    Although Feng Zi was puzzled, she still did what Zhang Heng told her, lifting the boy��s lower half. Since thetter wasatose, Zhang Heng and Feng Zi lifted him effortlessly.


    ��His aplice mighte over anytime soon. We have to leave this ce quickly,�� Zhang Heng said. He then picked up the stun gun he had dropped on the ground and put it in his backpack.


    ��Wait, we are taking him with us? Didn��t he just try to kill us earlier? So why not just kill him here?�� Feng Zi asked while helping Zhang Heng to move the boy.


    ��He��ll be of use to us if we keep him alive.��


    That was why Zhang Heng had assembled a stun gun using the Infinite Building Block instead of a sniper. If Zhang Heng used a sniper rifle to fight, the battle would have ended long ago, regardless of whether the enemy had an assisted aiming device or not.


    ��He can be useful?��


    ��Well, if all goes well, I have to get in touch with the people who rely on him. Let��s go and find a car first. Then, after we put him in the trunk, we will go to your factory to get your stuff.��


    *****


    The moment Zhang Heng and Feng Zi left the school, another figure came from outside. Looking like a rugby yer, the man didn��t step into the school right away because he had tried to contact the boy half a minute ago. The boy, however, had failed to answer his call. At the same time, the school was eerily quiet, making him more and more anxious.


    The rugby yer finally chose to stay at the school gate. Two minutester, another taxi stopped in front of him, and a man in a suit came out. Thetter mmed the door and rushed to the rugby yer.


    ��What��s the situation now?�� he asked after a nod.


    ��Lost contact with No.9, and there��s no movement inside the school. I suspect No.9 has been killed by the enemy,�� the rugby yer announced solemnly.


    ��Who the hell is that guy?! Is he really that powerful? He killed two of us, one after another.��


    A look of surprise appeared on the face of the man in the suit. The emergency response team rarely suffered casualties since its establishment, let alone the loss of two members in a single operation.


    The rugby yer was a little unhappy.


    ��The captain explicitly warned No.9, telling him to wait for us before making any moves.��


    ��His worries were not without reason. This school has two gates. If he just keeps an eye on one, the target might escape through another door. I heard that the guy��s ability for disguise is exemry,�� the man in the suit bemoaned. ��No.9 is not stupid either. Since he knows his opponent is an excellent swordsman and assassin, I��m sure he��ll be well-equipped before dealing with such an enemy. Isn��t he carrying the new military device? When ites to the gun, no one is a better marksman than him.��


    While the man in the suit talked, he had already drawn his gun. The rugby yer, too, drew his weapon. After knowing what happened to No.6 and No.9, they became extremely wary when entering the school.


    It took them a full half-hour to search the entire school, including the balcony and yground. After they confirmed that no one besides them, they stopped in front of the flower bed where the baseball-capped boy once hid; after they took a look at it, the man in a suit received a call from the captain.


    Thetter answered the phone and reported, ��No.7, and I have reached the ce andpleted the preliminary investigation. Looking at the traces that we found at the scene, No.9 was fighting with our target.��


    The man in the suit hesitated when he said that.


    ��Spill it,�� the captain on the other end of the phone asked.


    ��I don��t know if it��s appropriate to say what I want to say. Strictly speaking, we only found traces of No.9 firing his gun here. From the rooftop to the first floor, his opponent did not seem to have fired any shots. He was hiding most of the time. No.9 did most of the shooting at the entrance of the first floor. We suspect that they fought there. However, something is not right.��


    ��What do you mean by that?��


    ��Thetest set of footprints are found on the south side of the teaching building.��


    The captain on the other end of the phone said casually, ��This is not surprising. The target has been hiding on the south side of the teaching building. He might have used hispanion or something as bait to make No. 9 to shoot at the stairway. After that, he came out from the south side of the teaching building and killed No. 9. After all, No. 9 relied on his assisted aiming device too much.��


    Although the emergency response team captain did note to the scene, he came up with his deduction based on the information provided by the man in the suit. After hearing it all, the man in the suit and the rugby yer came to a realization.


    The man in the suit continued, ��No blood was found on the first floor. I don��t think he used the woman named Feng Zi to bait him. No.9��s position was quite a distance from the south side. Even if he was misled once, he should be able to react before the enemy attacked him. So, it seems that there can only be one exnation. The opponent used a non-lethal, long-range weapon against him. If this is the case, we won��t know whether the enemy��s marksmanship is good or bad.��


    ��His marksmanship is remarkable,�� the captain who had been listening said. ��There is no doubt about this. A poor marksman wouldn��t have figured how to use the assisted aiming device fight No.9.��


    The captain��s exnation shocked the man in the suit and the rugby yer.


    ��Doesn��t this mean that the target��s swordsmanship, assassination skills, disguise ability, and marksmanship are excellent as well? Who is he? A veteran that defected from the emergency response team?��


    ��Not that guy.�� The captain went silent for a moment, not seeming to have any intention to exin more. He then paused and said, ��You guys shoulde back first. Don��t go after him for the time being to avoid meaningless casualties. No.3 and No.4 have blocked the station, and they are monitoring it. He can��t escape. Let��s kill all the other couriers first. After that, we will deal with him together.��

 Chapter 995 - Feng Zi’s Travel Bag

    <h4>Chapter 995: Feng Zi��s Travel Bag</h4>


    As Zhang Heng stood guard for Feng Zi in the car, he simultaneously looked out for any suspicious people behind the factory. Ten minutester, Feng Zi carried a big travel bag and walked toward the iron fence.


    ��Why are you looking at me? Come and give me a hand!��


    Feng Zi waved at Zhang Heng. She then lifted the travel bag with all her strength and threw it over the iron fence. After that, she quickly climbed over it.


    Zhang Heng then walked out of the car and lifted the travel bag that Feng Zi tossed over the fence. The moment he lifted the bag, his entire body was drawn towards the ground. It must��ve weighed at least twenty to thirty kilograms. No wonder Feng Zi was sweating profusely.


    After that, Zhang Heng put the travel bag in the back seat. By that time, Feng Zi had already climbed over the iron fence and hadnded on the ground. She then wiped away her sweat with her Lolita dress.


    ��What��s in it?��


    ��The handheldputer you wanted. And the rest of it is small things that I made and repaired during my break. I used all kinds of scrap electrical parts as material for those items.��


    Feng Zi got into the car, opened the travel bag, and took out a radio and a round coin before throwing it to Zhang Heng.


    ��This bug has a range of fifty meters.��


    Then, Feng Zi took out a palm-sized metal box. ��This smoke generator can be used as a smoke bomb. It takes a while for the smoke to generate. This device has a built-in battery and doesn��t have to be connected to a power source.


    ��And this is a heat inducer device. I made it from scratch too. When you drop it hard, a human-shaped balloon will pop up with hot air.��


    Feng Zi then took out a coke can from her bag.


    ��I have aser gun too. I added a magnifying ss to an industrialser cutting gun to amplify its power. However, I can��t give it to you. I need it to defend myself...��


    One by one, Feng Zi took out the things in the travel bag, exining their functions enthusiastically.


    Initially, Zhang Heng did not care much about Feng Zi��s return to the factory to grab her stuff. He simply needed the opportunity to ask her to bring him a handheldputer. However, when Feng Zi opened the travel bag, he had to admit that most things in the bag intrigued him a lot.


    ��So, you invent all these creations whenever you have nothing better to do?��


    ��Yes, I told you I��ve been waiting for an adventure. Of course, I have to be prepared,�� Feng Zi said. ��If you give me more time, I can even make you an exoskeleton.��


    ��I don��t doubt it.��


    Zhang Heng started the car, nced around, and stepped on the gas the moment he confirmed there weren��t any suspicious people around. ��Let��s go. The show has just begun. Next, we have to step down to let other actors perform.��


    ...


    In order to ensure the sess of this transaction, Mr. G had sent a total of ten couriers to do the job. Since nine of them were there to confuse Shengtang Morgan Group, only one courier would be responsible for the transaction.


    Although the emergency response team had received the news in advance from the mole and had their sights on Zhang Heng, he, as leader of Team Zero, would never ce all his bets on one side. So, he nned to take out all ten couriers in one fell swoop.


    By doing that, he could prevent all unwanted idents. He also had lots of confidence in his team. Admittedly, though, he still underestimated Zhang Heng. The mole had greatly exaggerated Zhang Heng��sbat skills, causing No.6 to be asked to masquerade as the trader. She was supposed to paralyze him, drag Zhang Heng out of the bar, and attempt to hold him until her ally joined her in killing Zhang Heng together.


    However, little did he expect that No.6 would fail to leave the bar. In the end, Zhang Heng exposed her and sent her to her maker. After that, 0 made another mistake by sending No.9 to track Zhang Heng��s whereabouts. Unfortunately, No.9 disappeared as well.


    Fortunately, judging from the photos sent by No.7 and No.5, there was a high probability that No.9 was still alive. Currently, he was being held hostage by Zhang Heng.


    To be honest, Zhang Heng��s move surprised 0. It was because e showed no mercy when he killed No.6. Clearly, Zhang Heng was not affected by the fact that No.6 was a female. The knife wound on her throat also indicated his resolve. In the subsequent battle at the school, however, Zhang Heng behaved differently. Risking getting shot, he approached No.9 just to capture him. The change in attitude puzzled 0 a little. Then, when he thought of the email that he intercepted earlier, something came to his mind.


    In the end, he ordered No.7 and No.5 to stop investigating the disappearance of No.9 and deal with other couriers first.


    With help of the union��s powerful influence, they managed to locate and kill five couriers in less than half an hour. Those five couriers were pretty good but way weaker than Zhang Heng. None would defeat the emergency response team members if they had a one-versus-one battle.


    In the end, four were killed, and one was severely wounded. After being tortured, the ailing courier did not live long as well. Although they still failed to get their hands on their targeted item, the emergency response team had temporarily sealed off the central shuttle station on the second level. Therefore, 0 believed that it was only a matter of time before the real courier would be caught.


    On the other side, Zhang Heng had found a temporarily unupied apartment with Feng Zi��s help. They decided to use it as a safe house. The apartment belonged to her ex-colleagues boyfriend, and since thetter now worked on the third level, he would only return on Wednesday and Friday. Considering he wasn��t here today, and that Feng Zi and her colleague used toe here for hot pot, she decided to borrow this ce temporarily.


    Feng Zi looked around and confirmed that there was no one around. She then took out something like a barcode scanner and swept it across the apartment��s door. The next second, the doors on both sides of the apartment opened automatically.


    After that, Zhang Heng made the tranquilized baseball-capped boy look like a drunkard, carried him, and walked into the apartment with Feng Zi. The three rode the elevator to the 11th floor. Feng Zi did the same and opened room 1105.


    Finally, it was a little safer for them. She closed the door and turned on the light while Zhang Heng put the boy on the carpet and checked the rope he tied on him. Before Feng Zi could say anything, Zhang Heng suddenly spoke up.


    ��Pretending to be unconscious is useless. I know you��ve gone through drug-resistance training. The stun round is supposed to put ordinary people to sleep for at least four hours. However, its effectsst approximately only an hour for you. If you want to wait for the right time to retaliate, it��s entirely up to you. Since you don��t want tomunicate, I will seal your mouth with glue.��

 Chapter 996 - Working Together Again

    <h4>Chapter 996: Working Together Again</h4>


    The eyebrows of the baseball-capped boy trembled, and he finally opened his eyes. When he looked at Zhang Heng, clear hints of fear shed across his pupils.


    ��Who the hell are you?��


    ��Who do you think?�� Zhang Heng asked rhetorically.


    ��We did a background check on you. You are just amon bodyguard clone produced by the G7Z securitypany. Your memory is nothing out of the ordinary. They wouldn��t put too much attention on a clone like you. I know they also gave you a default memory temte. You were not supposed to be able to connect with the rtives and friends that you have. Anyway, they just needed to make sure that you wouldn��t doubt your identity temporarily. You do indeed have better fitness than ordinary people, and you should only possess basic bodyguard defensive skills. How did you get so good at fighting? Where did you learn your marksmanship, assassination skills, and camouge skills? Did someone privately give you some special memory? How can you exin your physical fitness? Why is it so much better than the description?��


    The boy raised a series of questions, but Zhang Heng answered none of them. Feng Zi, on the other side, was taken aback.


    ��Are you a clone?��


    ��If you are referring to a standard-configuration clone, I do have the serial code on the back of my neck and the tracking device under my cerebral cortex, �� Zhang Heng said.


    ��How is this possible? I��ve had a few cloned co-workers before��you arepletely different from them. They are like... like the blindfolded donkeys I told you about. However, I don��t feel that about you. In fact, when you stepped into the bar, I felt that you were more real than ever. You are more real than a clone and even more real than the ordinary people around me,�� Feng Zi said.


    ��My situation is moreplicated. I will exin it to youter when I have the opportunity.�� Zhang Heng said. He then turned his attention to the boy in the baseball cap. ��It��s now my time to ask the questions.��


    While talking, Zhang Heng took out the Oath Rings and a piece of parchment from his backpack. Afterpleting the pre-ceremonial rituals, Zhang Heng began to ask questions.


    It took him about an hour to find out who the members of the response team were, and their location on the second level. Zhang Heng asked all the questions in detail, with Feng Zi by his side lending assistance. When the Oath Rings showed that the boy was lying, Feng Zi would teach him a lesson with theser gun in her hand.


    After a few times being hit by theser gun, there were a few more bloody holes appeared on the baseball cap boy��s thigh. He could also smell his own flesh cooking. Realizing that it would do him no good if he continued to lie, he eventually chose to cooperate obediently.


    However, Zhang Heng knew that this information could only be used for reference. The emergency response team would make corresponding adjustments once they realized that the boy had been captured. So, while Zhang Heng asked the questions, Feng Zi followed up with the union��s movements on the handheldputer.


    She noticed that there were only four rewards left, she and Zhang Heng included. It also meant there were only three couriers left.


    ��Last question.�� Zhang Heng looked at the boy in the baseball cap. ��You should have amunication channel between your team, right?��


    ��That��s right, but you threw away my bracelet,�� the boy winced.


    ��It doesn��t matter. You should remember how to contact your captain.��


    The boy with a baseball cap hesitated for a moment but quickly nodded after ncing at Feng Zi��sser gun.


    ��Yes.��


    ��Give me his contact information.��


    After that, Zhang Heng took the handheldputer from Feng Zi and sent Mr. G an encrypted email. The password was Miss F��s birthday. And the other party did not disappoint him. He received a reply three minutester.


    The email contained the address of a chat room.


    Zhang Heng joined the chat room, and he received amunication request from After he clicked ��confirm,�� Mr. G��s voice could be heard from the other side almost immediately. And he was furious.


    ��What��s your previous email supposed to mean? You know the team will see that email, don��t you?��


    ��I am the real courier. Isn��t it normal for me to sacrifice other baits to get out of trouble when people from Shengtang Morgan target me?�� Zhang Heng said casually.


    After he finished, Mr. G, on the opposite side, was also speechless. Since Zhang Heng was the real courier, there was indeed no problem for Zhang Heng to do what he did. However, Mr. G also realized that Zhang Heng might have realized that he was being betrayed by him when he sent the email. So Mr. G��s voice finally returned to normal, without any anger.


    ��Since we both are wise men, let��s not beat around the bush. I admit that I lied to you about the transaction because, like Miss F, I still can��t trust you. However, everything I told you about the operation is true. No matter what role you y in this transaction, as long as you make it back alive, I will fulfill my promise and extract the tracking device in your head. However, you ruined everything with an email. You choose to go against me. So don��t expect me to perform the operation on you,�� Mr. G snarled.


    ��I��m against you? Then I must admit that quite a few people must be against you right now,�� Zhang Heng said. He then took a quick look at the screen and paused.


    ��I noticed. Apart from me, you have only two couriers left. It seems like without me helping you stall the emergency response team. Not looking good for your other couriers.��


    ��My people are good enough.��


    ��I don��t doubt that, but it seems they aren��t half as good as the emergency response team,�� Zhang Heng chuckled.


    ��What are you trying to say?�� Mr. G asked after a moment of silence.


    ��Your transaction isplete, right? But it looks like your people are in trouble now. I noticed that they are about to be caught by the emergency response team. But luckily, I��m still here.��


    ��Would you like to help my people get back to the first level?�� Mr. G asked.


    ��It depends on what you are willing to offer.��


    Mr. G, on the other side of the phone, thought for about three seconds, and he seemed to be weighing Zhang Heng��s proposal.


    ��If you can help my people get back to the first floor, then our previous agreement will still stand. I will arrange someone to do the operation for you, and I won��t hold you ountable for the email that you sent me,�� he said after a while.


    ��An additional five million credits,pensation for betraying me,�� Zhang Heng said lightly.


    Mr. G sounded a little angry when he heard Zhang Heng��s request.


    ��Better don��t go overboard, you.��


    ��It��s just a tiny, reasonable request. It can��t a big sum to you, isn��t it?.��


    Mr. G hesitated for a moment.


    ��Well, I will let the courier with the goods contact youter. You must protect his safety,�� he finally said.


    ��Deal.��

 Chapter 997 - Maitreya

    <h4>Chapter 997: Maitreya</h4>


    ��Are you done negotiating? Are we going to keep helping Mr. G protect his deliveryman?��


    Feng Zi found two bottles of C in the refrigerator and threw one to Zhang Heng.


    ��No. He won��t trust me.�� Zhang Heng hung up the phone and grabbed the C. ��Well... I don��t trust him as well. He wants to keep using me as bait.��


    ��Huh? Why did you email him?��


    ��There were certain things I needed to confirm,�� Zhang Heng said. ��Although he was furious when I talked to him earlier, he did not sound panicky. From the surface, it appeared the emergency response team almost had him. The interesting thing is that he doesn��t seem to think so. He finally agreed to my proposal not only because he wants to keep using me as bait, but therger reason is that he doesn��t want me suspicious of him.��


    ��What do you mean by that?��


    ��Everyone says that Mr. G is the uncrowned king of the first level. More than half the forces and gangs on the first level are rted to him. However, his power has always been limited to the first level. He was actually afraid of the actual ruler of New Shanghai 0297. However, I don��t think someone like him will stay obediently on the first level,�� Zhang Heng said as he popped the C. ��He never actually ced his faith in me since the beginning. I believe he has another trump card.��


    ��What do you n to do next?�� Feng Zi asked.


    ��I n to reveal it,�� Zhang Heng replied casually.


    .....


    At 10:45, Zhang Heng came to a small pharmacy ording to the address on the email. It waste at night, and save for the pharmacist and female cashier ying with her phone, there were only five customers in there.


    A couple picking pregnancy test strips in front of the counter was closest to the cash register. An old man who looked almost eighty years old was asking a pharmacist to grab him some Chinese medicine. There was also another man who seemed to have caught a bad cold. The man, wearing a mask, was sitting on a chair, reading the medicine��s instructions.


    Zhang Heng looked around, and his gaze lingered on the masked man for a moment. After a while, he stopped looking. At that moment, the pharmacist on the other side was done helping the old man prepare his Chinese medicine. He then walked over to Zhang Heng.


    ��Do you need any help?�� he asked.


    ��Oh. I��m fine. I just need some vitamins. I��ll look for them myself.��


    ��Okay, no problem,�� said the pharmacist. ��Vitamins are located at the left of the second row of shelves. Help yourself.��


    ��Thank you.��


    Zhang Heng thanked him and walked over.


    About two minutester, a man wearing a motorcycle helmet and leather jacket walked into the pharmacy. The man also looked at the people in the store, and his gazended upon the masked man.


    The helmeted man then stepped up and sat down beside thetter. ��Do you have a peach-vored electronic cigarette?�� he asked.


    Snorting, the masked man cursed, ��Go away, you f*cking gay!��


    The man in the helmet was taken aback. However, receiving no reaction from the helmeted man, the masked man stood up, patted his pants, and walked out the drugstore.


    After that, the helmeted man saw an ordinary guy in work uniform, looking to be a resident from the second level, walking toward him. Immediately, the helmeted man turned to his back and put on a defensive posture.


    He then heard the other party say, ��I don��t have peach, but if you are willing to pay me 100 credits, I can get you a cocoa-vored e-cigarette.��


    ��That would be great, �� replied the man wearing a motorcycle helmet in joy and relief. He stood up and followed Zhang Heng out of the pharmacy until they left the surveince camera��s range. It was only after that did the helmeted man reach out. ��Hello, I am Maitreya, the courier responsible for this transaction. Are you here to protect me, Zhang Heng?��


    Maitreya��s extended hand stayed in the air for two seconds. Then, after seeing that Zhang Heng did not react, he retracted his hand in embarrassment. ��Mr. G told me about you. I can understand your dissatisfaction. However, the important thing now is to leave here and send the goods back to the first level.��


    ��Did you bring the goods?�� Zhang Heng asked.


    ��It��s with me,�� Maitreya nodded and tapped on his helmet. ��But the problem is that the emergency response team has blocked the station, and there are only three couriers left. So, they only sent three members to track our whereabouts. The rest have gathered at the station to prevent us from leaving.��


    ��Let��s go back to the safe house and discuss how to leave this ce,�� Zhang Heng said.


    ��Okay,�� Maitreya replied with no objection. ��Mr. G said that you are the strongest clone he has ever seen. He asks me to do what you ask. And I believe you will bring me out of this ce.��


    Zhang Heng was nomittal when he heard what he said. He then took Maitreya back to the apartment on the 11th floor.


    As soon as the door was opened, Maitreya saw a young man with a baseball cap tied up. He then quickly reacted andplimented, ��This is an emergency response team member that you have held hostage! So, you��re as good as I��ve heard. Even the elite armed forces of Shengtang Morgan Group can��t match up to you. By the way, didn��t you have a femalepanion? Is she here?��


    ��It��s just a woman I met in a bar. I asked her to help find me a ce I could use as a safe house. Afterward, I killed her to conceal my location.��


    ��If I were you, I would��ve done the same.�� Maitreya nodded and sat down on the sofa.


    ��What would you like to drink?�� Zhang Heng opened the refrigerator.


    ��Oh, whatever. We are still on the run, and I��m not picky,�� Maitreya said. ��By the way, we are safe now. Can you tell me how we are going to return to the first level?��


    ��We will make use of this hostage,�� Zhang Heng said while kicking the baseball-capped boy.


    Maitreya hesitated. ��That��s good thinking, but I have to remind you that these guys from the emergency response team are determined toplete their missions. Compared to the safety of theirpadre, they always consider their mission is more important. I... I don��t think they��re going to let us leave just because we threaten them with their ally,�� Maitreya said euphemistically.


    ��No. This hostage is just a bit. We are going to use the hostages to draw them away from the station. Only then can we break through their barricade.�� Zhang Heng picked up the pistol on the table. ��And if they send us a small number, I don��t mind helping them with a membership reduction exercise.��

 Chapter 998 - The Third Path

    <h4>Chapter 998: The Third Path</h4>


    ��Now that��s a good idea!�� Maitreya��s face finally showed a touch of joy. ��Mr. G was right. As expected, no matter what troubles you face, you always find a solution.��


    ��Really, what else did he tell you?�� Zhang Heng put away the gun.


    ��It is true he��s at fault this time. He shouldn��t have lied about the job. When we return to the first floor, Mr. G said that he would personally apologize to you. Not only would he operate on you and pay you five million credits, but there are otherpensations too. Basically, he would do anything to make sure that you are satisfied,�� Maitreya respectfully said.


    ��That��s mighty kind of him. He only thought of me when he was forced into desperation.�� Zhang Heng said casually.


    Maitreya smiled, not denying what Zhang Heng said. ��Anyway, it is better to be useful than useless. So only those who are skillful will be used by others, and those who are as skillful as you are allowed to control your fate.��


    ��What about you?�� Zhang Heng sounded nomittal. ��Why are you willing to risk your life to be courier for tonight��s transaction.��


    ��I want a better world where there are no ss differences, exploitation, deception, and everyone can find the meaning of their existence...�� A yearning look appeared on Maitreya��s face.


    ��With all due respect, no matter the society you live in, there will always be ss division and exploitation,�� Zhang Heng said. ��As for the meaning of self-existence that you mentioned, most ordinary people wouldn��t be able to find it, whether clone or not. ��


    ��That��s really pessimistic. No wonder Miss F said that you are not an idealist.�� Maitreya sighed. ��Your life must be very boring. Even though you have strength that everyone envies, you can��t find a reason to put it to good use. You are like a knight with a sword, but there is no lord for you to serve.��


    ��I have seen many idealists. Under normal circumstances, there are only two paths presented in front of them. Either they are defeated by reality and forced to give up their idealism, or they will choose to stick to their idealism and die in despair.��


    ��Fortunately, we will not take either of the two paths that you mentioned because we have an outstanding leader,�� Maitreya smiled.


    ��I haven��t finished,�� Zhang Heng said. ��Very few will take the third path. Those who choose the third path will realize the huge energy contained in their idealism, and they would start making good use of that energy. If the person is a perfectionist, they could be very convincing at the time. Some of them would start to gather their believers in the name of their idealism. After that, they would gather their believers and trick other perfectionists into serving him. In the end, their blood would pave the way for the person to im the throne.��


    After Zhang Heng finished, the room fell into silence. And after a while, Maitreya said, ��Heh, that��s quite a refreshing idea. But I believe Mr. G is not like that.��


    ��This is just random off-the-mill stuff. Don��t take it too seriously. You don��t have to admit anything.�� Zhang Heng then looked at the time again. After that, he pointed at the baseball-capped boy on the ground. ��It��s almost time to contact the emergency response team. Bring him with us. We have to move. This ce is not suitable for us to contact them.��


    ...


    Zhang Heng was supposed to meet the emergency response team at an amusement park. Maitreya and Zhang Heng drove there, and they saw the locked gate. Under normal circumstances, the amusement park��s staff would leave work at nine o��clock, leaving only one old security guard to guard the gate. Obviously, thetter could not defeat Zhang Heng and Maitreya.


    After knocking out the old security guard, Maitreya found a set of keys from his duty room. He then opened the gate, and the two drove into the amusement park. This was thergest amusement park on the second level, equipped with various interesting rides. Children usually loved toe here. Zhang Heng parked the car at the racing kingdom located at the southwest corner. The ride featured dozens of car models that were identical to their real counterparts. If the real cars were parked here, spotting the clone would be almost impossible if not tested individually.


    Zhang Heng and Maitreya agreed that if too many emergency response team members attacked them, they would return to this spot and drive away from the amusement park. After that, Maitreya installed Feng Zi��s self-made high-definition camera on the highest spot in the park, the Ferris wheel. Other than that, he also did some preparations at the spot Zhang Heng requested.


    At twelve o��clock, a zero-emissions car pulled up outside the amusement park. Two men and a woman got out of the car. Wearing bullet-proof suits and armed to their teeth, they walked to the gate, looked at the lock, and were about to use brute force to break the lock when they heard Zhang Heng��s voiceing from the speaker in the front gate.


    ��Just leave the car outside. The small door is unlocked. Just enter from there.��


    The man and woman then looked at the man leading the way. Seeing thetter nod, the three walked through the open small door. After they entered the amusement park, they started searching around vigntly. The woman among them raised the heat detector in her hands and checked the rides around them to see if there was an ambush.


    It took three twenty minutes to walk to the center of the amusement park. But even afterbing the ce, they still didn��t see Zhang Heng and Maitreya. Unexpectedly, though, they found the baseball-capped boy who had disappeared earlier. Strapped to the Ferris wheel��s highest point, they didn��t know know if he was alive or dead.


    The leading man made a gesture, and the other man got into the control room and looked for the start button.


    Maitreya then looked at the feed from the camera. He felt a little nervous. After that, he said to Zhang Heng, ��There are three enemies. Should we fire or flee?��


    ��We can��t escape. They still have eight people. Since the three of them are here, that means there are five of them guarding the station. So we can��t possibly break through their barricade. In other words, we have to deal with the three enemies here first. It will force them to send the rest here.


    ��How is your marksmanship?�� Zhang Heng asked after a pause.


    ��I served in the Marine Corps before. That was where I learned to shoot. And I got excellent results. I guess my marksmanship is better than most, but I��m definitely not as good as those monsters out there,�� Maitreya smiled bitterly.


    ��Then you should find a ce to hide in the next battle. Look at the screen and update me with their movements in real-time,�� Zhang Heng said.


    ��Understood.�� Maitreya did not try to force himself to fight with them.


    After Zhang Heng assigned the task, he climbed onto the pirate ship ahead of him, holding his Lego Baretta. Being about two kilometers away from the Ferris wheel, even the thermal detector couldn��t detect him.


    Zhang Heng set up the gun on the pirate ship, measured the wind speed, and looked at the temperature, humidity, and atmospheric pressure. After that, he aimed at the leader and pulled the trigger without hesitation.


    The bullet whizzed through a distance of two kilometers and hit the target��s chest on point before a gunshot rang. The gunshot was so powerful; his whole body was sent flying as if someone threw Thor��s hammer directly on him.

 Chapter 999 - Determination

    <h4>Chapter 999: Determination</h4>


    The leader��s body hit the base of the Ferris wheel pretty hard. His back collided with the steel bracket. And it looked really painful. With raised eyebrows, What Zhang Heng saw surprised him. With the power of Barrett��s bullet, the target��s body should be torn into half after Zhang Hengnded his shot urately on him. Logically speaking, he shouldn��t be sent flying as if hit by a lotive. And Zhang Heng also noticed that the leader could still move after his body collided with the metal frame.


    Enduring the pain, the leader got up from the ground and turned to the other side. Although his twopanions had already determined the approximate location of the sniper through the shot, it was too far to attack Zhang Heng. So, he had to look for a cover to hide first.


    Simultaneously, Maitreya��s voice could be hearding from the radio, ��He may be wearing thetest generation bulletproof vest. Not in mass-production yet, there have been reports in the news saying that the vest can disperse the energy of a bullet and distribute the force throughout the entire body. That is why yourge-caliber ammunition can��t hurt him.��


    ��I noticed that too,�� Zhang Heng said, ��But if he gets shot for the second time, his ribs cant possibly withstand the force.��


    When Zhang Heng was speaking, the man hiding in the control room had made his move. He opened his backpack and took out a ck box filled with dozens of rifle parts. He then skillfully assembled all those parts together into a rifle. Only two-thirds the length and size of a normal rifle, it looked extremely lethal.


    After that, he carefully took out a box of ammunition at the bottom of the box. There were only twelve rounds, but they were made of special material. He then put them into the magazine one by one. Once that was done, he got up quickly and took a deep breath.


    Aspared to an ordinary sniper, he hardly aimed, check out the wind speed, or paid attention to things like humidity and air pressure. All he did was hastily firing a shot at the pirate ship and quickly squat down.


    The next moment, a violent explosion rocked the pirate ship. Soon, mes engulfed the entire cabin.


    If one had not seen it with their eyes, no one would have thought that a bullet would actually cause such a terrifying explosion. It wasparable to the destructive force of an RPG. Maitreya was taken aback after he saw the explosion. Zhang Heng chose to snipe his target from two kilometers away because he wanted to ensure his safety as much as possible. At this distance, only top-tier snipers couldnd a sessful hit. Even if there were a sniper on the enemy��s team, it would be difficult for them tond a hit on Zhang Heng.


    However, no one thought that the three emergency response team members who came with so few items were carrying heavy weapons. Since they could not determine the exact location of Zhang Heng, they went ahead and blew up the entire pirate ship.


    Looking at the pirate ship engulfed by mes, Maitreya could not help but worry about Zhang Heng. Although Zhang Heng��s location was not at the center of the fire, the wood and parts that were sent flying around when the pirate ship exploded were extremely deadly. Zhang Heng could die if the debris hit him.


    Maitreya hesitated. He wanted to check out Zhang Heng��s situation, but he remembered Zhang Heng told him that he should stay at where he was and keep an eye on the three people under the Ferris wheel.


    Upon hearing the explosion, the man in the control room poked out his head to take a look at the situation. Simultaneously, the femalepanion did the same thing too. After they confirmed that it was safe for them toe out from their cover, the leader cautiously emerged from hiding.


    He then gestured to his twopanions beside him, asking them to go to the pirate ship to confirm that the target was dead. The next moment, however, they heard the terrifying gunshot again. And the man in the control room saw his leader��s body flying again. This time, he was not as lucky as before, although the bulletproof vest saved his life once again. After he took the first shot, his ribs were on the verge of fracture. After Zhang Heng fired the second shot at him, his ribs no longer withstood the impact.


    The leader��s body was mmed into the base of the Ferris wheel again. This time he had at least broken four or five ribs. Although he gritted his teeth and went back to his cover, he clearly seemed way more sluggish than before. He had lost half his strength, at least.


    At the same time, the three tensed up again. The man in the control room fired another shot in the direction the bullet came from, blowing up a merry-go-round. The explosion should be powerful enough to kill whoever hid there.


    Maitreya��s surprised voice came from Zhang Heng��s earphones.


    ��It��s great that you are alive! How did you escape the explosion?!��


    ��I was not on that ship.��


    Knowing that his opponents had good marksmanship, Zhang Heng did not stay in the same spot after he fired his first shot. He immediately ran to a different spot. Of course, he did not expect the explosion. When the explosion happened, he was close to the merry-go-round.


    Now, Zhang Heng was on the move to his next spot. The three enemies under the Ferris wheel suddenly felt the pressure.


    Like a ghost, a sniper who constantly changed his spot after firing a shot pressure his enemies tremendously. No one knew where Zhang Heng was right now and when they heard the gunshot again, the three could do nothing but hide behind their cover.


    They could not let it go on like this. Apart from the man in the control room, the other two enemies were not in a closed environment. Sooner orter, Zhang Heng would move to a spot where he could shoot at them easily. As of now, the leader was not looking good. If he were shot for the third time, it would not be possible for him to breathe again, even if he had the bulletproof vest on him.


    Just as Zhang Heng was looking for the next shooting point, he suddenly heard Maitreya talked to him. This time he only said one word, ��Sorry.��


    After that, Zhang Heng heard an explosioning from the southwest corner of the amusement park. That was where he parked the car earlier. However, his expressions remained unchanged. ��What do you mean?�� he asked calmly.


    ��About twenty minutes ago, the emergency response team killed the eighth courier. So now we are their only target. They sent three more people to the amusement park, as well as two police teams. But don��t worry, I will stay here to deal with them with you.�� Maitreya said.


    ��It seems like you are ready to sacrifice yourself. Since you are going to stay here with me, who is going to deliver the goods back to the first floor?�� Zhang Heng asked.


    ��That is not important anymore,�� Maitreya said. ��Sorry, I know you don��t believe in what we are doing, but I can assure you that everything is worth it.��

 Chapter 1000 - Surprise Move

    <h4>Chapter 1000: Surprise Move</h4>


    When Maitreya apologized to Zhang Heng, two more police cars stopped in front of the amusement park��s gate. Other than the two federal police with guns, there were three more people that dressed exactly like the people under the Ferris wheel. Needless to say, they were also members of the emergency response team.


    After seeing those three entering the amusement park, Maitreya breathed a sigh of relief.


    The responsibility thatid on his shoulders wasn��t light tonight. He needed to use Zhang Heng to draw the response team away from the station so the goods could be safely transported back to the first level. In order to ensure the n��s sess, another courier made the sacrifice. Maitreya received the news twenty minutes ago. The other courier tried to enter the station by blending himself into the crowd. Unfortunately, the emergency response team spotted him, and he was killed instantly.


    Once the courier at the station was killed, he and Zhang Heng were the only couriers left to transport the goods back to the first level. Logically speaking, the emergency response team would assign almost all of their members to bring them down.


    The nine fakes and one real courier were just lies told by Mr. G. Among the ten couriers, Maitreya was the one responsible for meeting up with the seller andpleting the transaction. However, he was only responsible forpleting the transaction. Once hepleted his task, the goods were no longer with him. In other words, all the ten couriers were just bait, sacrificialmbs for the mission. There was, however, another mysterious person that delivered the goods back to the first level.


    Maitreya��s final task was to pave the way for this mysterious person.


    ��I��m sorry, my friend,�� Maitreya apologized to Zhang Heng again. ��What happened tonight was not what Mr. G and I intended. Unfortunately, the situation forced our hands. Shengtang Morgan Group has too much power in New Shanghai 0297. Only fearless sacrifice and courage can get us the light of hope. Although we have not been together for long, I can feel that you are a good person. We may not be friends, but at least we are fighting the same enemies together. No one will remember our names when the world bes better. However, whatever we do today will be passed down for generations!��


    ��You are too optimistic.��


    When Maitreya gave his passionate speech, Zhang Heng received a message from Feng Zi, thetter sending him only one sentence.


    [It has started.]


    After that, Zhang Heng connected his handheldputer to the amusement park��s surveince system. And at the same time, he turned off Maitreya��s viewing rights. He then said, ��Do you really think that are the only ones that can pull such a trick?��


    ��What do you mean?�� Maitreya was puzzled.


    ��What I mean is that after you watched my previous battle with those three people, you automatically assumed that the three who came afterward were from the emergency response team. Don��t you think that you were too sloppy?��


    ��Of course we are not. Our people near the station noticed that the emergency response team left.�� Maitreya suddenly paused, and he thought of something else. Immediately, the expression on his face changed. After that, Zhang Heng heard him attempting to send an email.


    ��You better not contact your allies at the station because they probably won��t have time to reply to your email now,�� Zhang Heng reminded in kind.


    Long before Zhang Heng went to the pharmacy to see Maitreya, he had already contacted 0, the captain of the emergency response team, informing him that Mr. G might have other armed forces hiding at the second level. The two then even came up with a n to work with each other. An entire show put together by Zhang Heng and the emergency response team made Mr. G��s men think that the response team had already left the station. By doing that, they managed to draw out the real deliveryman.


    The response team had no reason to refuse the cooperation. Most of their members were still guarding the station, and Zhang Heng��s proposal didn��t change their defensive n either. All Zhang Heng did was ask three of their members to pretend to leave the station.


    At the same time, Zhang Heng realized that 0 might have figured out his n. However, he did not think that Zhang Heng could achieve his crazy goal.


    ��Hey, kid.�� Zhang Heng picked up Barrett and said to Maitreya, ��Anyway, you have to contact Mr. G to report on the new emergency situation here. Help pass on my words to him.��


    ��Did he get my permission to change the world?�� Zhang Heng asked casually after a pause.


    ...


    Both Zhang Heng and the emergency response team knew that the cooperation between the two parties was only temporary. As long as they drew out the armed force hiding at the second level, their coboration would cease to exist. In other words, the three people under the Ferris wheel, the federal police team, and the three newly arrived inclothes were here to kill Zhang Heng and Maitreya.


    Earlier, 0 had pondered a long time about how many team members he should send to the amusement park. The best oue was to eliminate Mr. G��s hidden armed forces, locate the goods, and kill Zhang Heng, who killed and kidnapped his team members.


    In the past, he did not need to face such a difficult circumstance because the entire emergency response team was elites. It was almost impossible for them to lose in a one-on-one battle. Unfortunately, they were facing Zhang Heng this time, and he had already caused the team to lose two of their members. Hence, 0 was having a hard time dealing with the situation.


    If Zhang Heng sent too few people to the amusement park, he could surely kill all of them, but on the other hand, if he sent too many, the ones left at the station might not be enough to stop Mr. G��s men.


    In the end, 0 decided to ce his focus on the station. His team��s goal tonight was to find the goods, after all, so he sent three team members and two teams of federal police to deal with Zhang Heng. In his opinion, the people he sent to deal with Zhang Heng should be more than enough. Logically, they should have higher chances of winning as well. When Mr. G��s men appeared at the station, 0 couldn��t help but be thankful that he left enough men to guard the station.


    When the fight broke out at the station, the battle at the amusement park kicked off as well.


    After Zhang Heng said thest sentence, he cut off the connection with Maitreya and entered the giant castle at the amusement park. He chose this spot because the buildings were strong enough to withstand the impact of the explosion. In addition, the building itself was built on higher ground, second only to the Ferris wheel and the space shuttle. It also held the perfect vantage point for a sniper to kill his enemies.


    Zhang Heng��s Barretta, made of Lego bricks, had only five bullets left in the magazine. Once empty, he wouldn��t be able to reload it. Thus, he had to make sure that he wouldn��t waste those precious bullets. Hence, when Zhang Heng dealt with ordinary enemies, he chose to use other weapons.


    He then turned on Feng Zi��s homemade smoke generator and slowly filled the castle with white smoke. After that, he took out the Filter Lens and put it on.

 Chapter 1001 - Stalemate

    <h4>Chapter 1001: Stalemate</h4>


    The pistol Zhang Heng was holding belonged to the boy in a baseball cap. Other than that, he found a half-magazine with 29 bullets. Previously, the boy had fired some when he fought against Zhang Heng at the school.


    He currently had to face two federal police squads plus three inclothes, a total of 27 people. Other than that, the three emergency response team members were still alive, and they were also the most difficult enemies for Zhang Heng to deal with. Bullets might also be ineffective against them. However, this wouldn��t be too much of a problem since he still had his Shrouded Sheath.


    The group of people that just arrived went to the Ferris wheel as soon as they entered the amusement park. From there, they gathered with the emergency response team members. Surprisingly, they did not attack the castle right away.


    It was because they were afraid of Zhang Heng. Thus, they decided to deal with the most difficult opponentst, heading to deal with the weakest one first. Zhang Heng could hear gunshots from the northwest direction of the amusement park. At first, they were scattered. Then, they became more frequent. The exchange of firested for a short while before it all fell silent.


    Taking the opportunity, Zhang Heng contacted Feng Zi and asked her about the situation at the station. In fact, he was more concerned about the battle at the station than the amusement park situation. After realizing that he was the bait, Zhang Heng had only one goal. He would snatch the memory encoder from Mr. G and Shengtang Morgan Group.


    The memory encoder would be the biggest bargaining chip in his negotiation with Mr. G. Zhang Heng was grateful that Ms. F presented the opportunity to extract the tracking device from his head by dealing with Mr. G. However, Mr. G was the one who broke the promise first. From that moment on, Zhang Heng had no intention to resolve this matter through peaceful means.


    After hisst time contacting Mr. G, neither party had any intention to work together again. Mr. G wanted to continue to use him as bait, and Zhang Heng wanted to force Mr. G to show his trump card through the emergency response team. Hence, the essential thing for Zhang Heng right now was to find out where the memory encoder was.


    Compared to the other two parties, Zhang Heng was undoubtedly at a disadvantage. From his standpoint, he had to first ensure that Mr. G��s forces on the second level did not break through the response team��s line of defense and bring the memory encoder back to the first level. It was the reason why Zhang Heng contacted 0 to work with him. He, too, didn��t want Mr. G��s men to be killed by the response team so quickly. If they were defeated, it meant he would need to face Shengtang Morgan Group alone.


    Those were just small matters, though. Zhang Heng was most worried that 0 would head straight to the fifth level after getting his hands on the memory encoder. That was why Zhang Heng needed Feng Zi to help him keep an eye on the situation at the station. In the meantime, he had to end the battle at the amusement park side as soon as possible.


    Fortunately, Feng Zi told him that the current battle between the two sides had reached a deadlock��the situation Zhang Heng desired the most. Sure enough, Mr. G did not disappoint. No one knew how he did it. He actually hid a special operations team consisting of fourteen people at the second level, with each of them equipped with an exoskeleton. Thest part of the transportation was supposed to bepleted by this special operations team. And Shengtang Morgan knew nothing about it.


    It was no wonder Mr. G was so confident in his team rather than Zhang Heng, a clone that had appeared out of nowhere. In fact, faced with such overwhelming firepower, the emergency response team almost didn��t survive the battle. The station was only guarded by 0 and another team member. Even with the help of the station��s security personnel and the four police teams responsible for the blockade, Mr. G��s men defeated them almost instantly.


    Fortunately, the other three members of the emergency response team were nearby and they managed to get to a high ground ahead of time. Even after using heavy firepower, they barely overcame the first wave of offense. With five emergency response team members working together, the goddess of victory seemed to be, once again, in their favor.


    Although Mr. G��s special operations team��s equipment was on par with that of the emergency response team, even slightly better, in fact, they could neverpare to the elite clone fighters built by Shengtang Morgan Group. Once they managed to survive the unexpected first wave of attack, the emergency response team led by 0 would move in like a cunning shark, eroding the opponent��s advantage bit by bit.


    Although the two sides were now in a stalemate, if Zhang Heng were there, he would be able to see that the emergency response team had taken over the rhythm of the battle. It was only a matter of time before they defeated the special operations team.


    Feng Zi, of course, could not see such detail from the battle. Judging by her description, Zhang Heng could imagine the situation perfectly. It was pointless to feel anxious now. After advising Fengzi to be careful and not get too close, he drew out his Shrouded Sheath and prepared for the battle.


    After the three emergency response team members and the two federal police teams killed Maitreya, they started to approach the castle. The leader that was shot twice by Zhang Heng moved towards the castle cautiously by looking for covers everywhere he went. He knew that his body could not afford to take another bullet.


    But what surprised him was that Zhang Heng did not take the opportunity to snipe at anyone. Everyone arrived in front of the castle safely. After that, No.3 fired a shot at the castle. When the bullet hit the outer wall, it caused an explosion, apanied by smoke and fire on the wall. The stones on the wall were blown away, exposing the reinforced concrete inside.


    No.3 shook his head at his twopanions.


    ��It looks like he wants us to go inside to fight him,�� No.8 said.


    ��If we don��t go in, can we surround him from the outside?�� asked No.2, who was shot twice.


    ��No. This castle is too big. We have too few people to surround the entire castle. Once we are scattered, it will give him a better chance to kill us one by one,�� No.8 said.


    ��We should go in,�� No.3, who had not spoken before, said suddenly.


    ��Why say that?��


    ��You have seen his sniping skills before. I don��t need to remind you how dangerous it is to allow such a sniper to run loose. On the other hand, his sniping ability would be rendered useless in this castle. Besides, we outnumbered him greatly. For some reason, he didn��t shoot us when we approached the castle. We should not encourage him to use the same tactic to fight against us.��

 Chapter 1002 - Battle At The Corridor

    <h4>Chapter 1002: Battle At The Corridor</h4>


    The three emergency response team members did not take too long to reach an agreement to enter the castle together. No.3 was right. Zhang Heng gave up moving around and switched to defensive tactics. Since Zhang Heng abandoned his greatest advantage, they now had a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to attack him. They had no reason not to seize this golden opportunity. At the same time, the three also realized that Zhang Heng had to have a reason for making such a decision.


    Therefore, prior to entering the castle, the three did a lot of preparation work. When they noticed the smokeing out of the castle, they quickly used their thermal detectors to look for Zhang Heng. At the same time, they were also paying attention to the traps that might be lying around in the castle.


    Clearly, they had overthought the whole thing. Zhang Heng had only given up guerri warfare because he only had two bullets left in his rifle. He also wanted to end the battle as fast as possible.


    Compared to sneak attacks in an open space, it was indeed more dangerous to fight inside the castle. However, it saved Zhang Heng a lot of time to look for the enemies. It was a perfect strategy since he wanted to get to the station as fast as possible.


    ...


    After they prepared everything that they needed, all thirty people from Shengtang Morgan Group cautiously walked into the castle. They formed a total of five teams with six men in each. The distance between each team was about three meters. By doing that, they would be able to prevent themselves from dying at the same time if they stepped into a trap. Simultaneously, they could also support each other in times of need.


    In addition to the one heat detector carried by No.2 in the emergency response team, the other two federal police squads were also equipped with heat detectors. And No.8, as themander, redistributed those three heat detectors. The leading group was responsible for exploring the way got one, and the group following them on the right tasked with checking blind spots overseen by the previous group got another.


    As for thest heat detector, it was given to No.2. He wasn��t given any special instructions by No.8, and he could check out the whole ce freely. Although the heat detector could only detect a certain distance ahead, it could cover quite a big area when all three were used together.


    When the first team walked into the castle, there were no gunshots. The castle was silent as if no one was there, and they saw nothing on the heat detector too. After that, the second team followed suit. They quickly worked with the first team to secure the ce. With the fifth team entering the castle, all thirty people from Shengtang Morgan Group were now inside.


    Whether it was the first or second group that walked into the castle or No.2 that followed behind them, none could locate Zhang Heng.


    No. 8 and the two groups of federal police conducted a general search of the first floor. After confirming that it was safe, they moved to the second floor. Like the previous strategy, the first team took the lead, and the rest followed suit. As soon as the first team walked past the stairs, they heard a gunshot. A federal policeman walking at the front was shot. Fortunately, the three men that pretended to be emergency response team members were all wearing thetest generation bulletproof vests. One of them had taken off his vest and put it on the federal police who was walking at the front. Thetter survived the gunshot thanks to that.


    Hispanions around him took a risk and dragged him back. Immediately, everyone started returning fire and scattered for shelter. At the same time, the opposite side also started to shoot at them.


    For a short while, loud gunshots echoed in the hallway. After shooting at each other for a while, the three emergency response team members noticed something was wrong. No.8 then gestured to the federal policeman standing at the front and asked if he had seen Zhang Heng. The federal policeman told him that there was too much smoke in the corridor, and his vision was obstructed. The moment he turned around, he was hit by a sniper rifle.


    The heat detector in his hand, however, did react, indicating that there was a figure at the other end of the corridor. However, instead of feeling relieved after hearing what the federal police said, No.8 felt even more uneasy. He then signaled everyone to cease fire and retreat to the blind spot where Zhang Heng could not see them. However, the other party did not stop shooting at them.


    At this time, the three emergency response team members realized that they had stepped into a trap. If ordinary people were under stress, they might not be able to stop firing. But for a master like Zhang Heng, it was impossible for him to do something like that. That was a rookie mistake. They might have fired at each other violently earlier, but so far, no one was hit except for the federal police with a bulletproof vest. The rest of the people were still alive and kicking.


    No.8 didn��t belittle the capabilities of those federal police officers. When hepared them with Zhang Heng, however, he realized their skills were clearly not good enough to fight against Zhang Heng.


    ��Let��s see what��s going on,�� said No.3.


    No. 8 nodded. The three of them called the other three federal policemen to go with them to check the corridor again. This time, they got closer. And the three emergency response team members heard more details from the gunshots, including some sounds that did not align with the environment.


    ��Recording?�� No. 3 asked.


    After that, No.2 also found the humanoid target in the heat detector to be motionless. Later, No.8 sent two federal police officers to cautiously approach their target. They quickly discovered that it was an intable heat inducer standing at the end of the corridor. There was also a recording pen next to it.


    No. 8 immediately thought of something, and his expression changed, ��Everyone,e to me!��


    After counting the number of people, cold sweat started to drip down from No. 8��s forehead. He did not expect that he would lose ten men on his side in such a short time. The two missing teams were standing at the back earlier. Since they checked the first floor and confirmed that Zhang Heng was there, and the battle mainly took ce in the corridor, the three emergency response team members did not pay much attention to the situation at the back.


    They did not expect that Zhang Heng would get rid of the people at the back by distracting them. When the federal police officer was shot, Zhang Heng was actually standing at the end of the corridor. He deceived everyone with the recordings and heat inducers. Everyone��s attention was then drawn to the gunshot that they heard in the corridor. While everyone was distracted, Zhang Heng figured out how to avoid the three heat detectors and quietly went to the first floor.


    When No.8 led his men people back to the first floor, they saw the floor strewn with corpses. The fatal wounds on their bodies were all stab wounds, and they were killed by one blow without getting the chance to struggle or call for help.

 Chapter 1003 - Missing Body

    <h4>Chapter 1003: Missing Body</h4>


    ��Pay attention to your surroundings. He may still be here,�� No.3 reminded.


    Everyone was extremely cautious.


    After going from the second floor to the first floor, they confirmed Zhang Heng wasn��t on the second floor anymore. In other words, there was a high chance that Zhang Heng was on the first floor.


    Whenever they thought that a horrifying killer might be lurking around them, everyone started to feel very nervous. And the person holding the heat detector immediately began to scan his surroundings. No.2, however, did not do so. She raised her head and looked at the ceiling before raising the heat detector in her hand. Her twopanions beside her were on the alert, holding their guns with bated breath.


    After they scanned the ce one time, Zhang Heng was nowhere to be found.


    ��Did he escape from the gate?�� No.3 asked.


    ��I can��t rule that out.��


    No.8 frowned, but then he saw a federal policeman approaching him.


    ��What happened?��


    ��I just counted the corpses. We lost ten allies, but I found only nine bodies.��


    When No.8 heard what he said, his pupils shrank suddenly. He then pointed his gun at the federal policemen not far away from him and shouted, ��Everyone, don��t move. Raise your hands!��


    No.2 and No.3 were slowed by half a beat, but they all reacted quickly after that. They did what No.8 did and turned their guns on their allies.


    Ten people were missing, but there were only nine corpses in the hall. There was a reason why such a thing happened. These federal police officers were all appointed to help them arrest the ��dangerous suspects,�� and they had very little information about their targets. Hence, it was pointless torturing the information out of them. The possibility that the federal police officer being kidnapped by Zhang Heng was very small. Therefore, the tenth person couldn��t have possibly survived the attack. Zhang Heng ignored the other nine corpses and hid one of them... This made No.8 quickly think of a certain possibility.


    Even he had to admire Zhang Heng��s boldness.


    But this time, the n might backfire.


    ��Everyone! Form a circle and check whether you know the person beside you!�� No. 8 ordered.


    All the policemen were taken aback. Their colleagues had just been killed, and they were still grieving. And the policeman who had been shot earlier saw the corpse of the inclothes he had handed the bulletproof vest. They were killed only because the top had sent them to assist the three emergency response team members in catching the felon.


    Not only did the other party fail to apologize, but they turned around and raised their guns at them. In this case, no matter how good-tempered they were, they would inevitably feel dissatisfied. So, none of them did what No.8 asked.


    But then they heard a gunshot. No. 2 had raised his pistol and fired a shot above his head. He then said abruptly, ��Everyone, don��t make me repeat what I just said. This is for your safety. The criminal you are facing this time is more barbaric and cunning than you thought. Not only did he kill your colleagues, but he also blends into our group. If you don��t want to be the next corpse, you better listen to my orders.��


    The federal police officers fell into silence. After a while, someone finally made a move, followed by the second and the third... They formed a small circle in ordance with the requirements of No.8.


    The three emergency response team members stood in a triangle position, each of them looking in a different direction. Once they spotted Zhang Heng, they would pull the trigger and kill him immediately, not giving Zhang Heng any chance to escape again.


    This was why No.8 said that Zhang Heng��s n might backfire this time.


    In the white smoke, everyone��s face looked blurry, and only those that stood within half a meter of each other could see the other��s face.


    No.8��s gaze swept across the circle of federal police officers. Never had he been this focused before. He believed that the prey had gotten into the hunter��s trap, and it was time to reap what he sowed.


    The federal police officers carefully identified the people around them. They even reached out their hands and touched each other��s faces to confirm that the person beside them wasn��t wearing a silicone mask. However, the oue surprised No.8.


    None of the seventeen federal police officers present were fake. All of them passed the verification in the end.


    Did they make a mistake? Zhang Heng killed ten people and dragged away one of the corpses. If he did not do it for the uniform, why would he do such a thing?


    No.8 was also a master of assassination himself, and when he put himself into Zhang Heng��s shoes, he still could not figure out the answer to this question. Yet, at the same time, No.8 felt like he was missing out on something important.


    Suddenly No.8��s eyes widened, and he looked at the seventeen federal policemen in front of him. ��Wait, who among you ran to us and told us that there was one missing body?!��


    All the federal police officers looked at each other, but no one answered No.8��s question.


    And No.8��s heart gradually sank to the bottom of the ocean.


    Even after realizing that Zhang Heng had blended himself among the group of federal police officers, No.8 still missed a person without his knowledge, and that was the policeman who reminded him of the missing body. No.8 did not treat thetter differently from other officers since it was a police officer that reminded him of this matter. Subconsciously, he slipped through No.8��s suspicions.


    Afterward, most of his attention was focused on the seventeen federal policemen not far away, and he overlooked the closest person around him. No.8 realized that he had no impression of thetter��s final move.


    He was trembling in fear, and his hands and feet were ice-cold. He was supposed to be programmed to withstand extreme fear, but he felt the long-lost sense of dread at this moment.


    Immediately, he rushed to a police officer as fast as he could, snatched the heat detector from thetter��s hand, and aimed at where No.2 and No.3 stood earlier. However, he found out that they were no longer there.


    No.8 couldn��t believe that the two would run around at such a terrible time. They didn��t even inform him before they walked away. Hence, the two had most likely encountered an ident.


    After seeing what happened to No.6, No.8 did not dare to underestimate Zhang Heng��s assassination ability. However, he still could not believe what he just witnessed. With No.2 and No.3��s skillsets, they weren��t supposed to make a sound when they were killed.

 Chapter 1004 - Retreat

    <h4>Chapter 1004: Retreat</h4>


    No.8 began to realize that fighting with Zhang Heng in the castle was probably not the wisest decision. Only ten minutes had passed since they entered, and they lost almost half their people. Although they still outnumbered him, losing No.2 and No.3 made No.8 feel horrible.


    Although this operation was supported by two federal police squads, No.8 knew all too well that the only ones he could really rely on were the twopanions around him. All the emergency response team members led by 0 werebat geniuses that were on a different levelpared to ordinary federal police officers. Even though the two federal police squads were made up of federal police elites, they could only assist the emergency team members in the battle. The ones that decided the flow of the battle were still the emergency response team.


    These were things No.8 had deduced earlier, but now he was a little shaken by his assumption. Zhang Heng eliminated both of his allies cleanly, without them making any noise. Like a ghost hidden within the smoke, No.8 couldn��t figure out how Zhang Heng knew where everyone was, even if he was equipped with a thermal detector. And at the same time, he coulde and go freely as if he waspletely unaffected by the smoke.


    And at this time, he also realized that he was the only member out of the three emergency response team members who were still alive. And that was no ident wither. Compared with No.2 and No.3, he was shot twice with a sniper rifle, significantly affecting his strength and speed. That was why Zhang Heng did not kill him first. But the question was, how did the other party identify everyone so clearly in the thick smoke?


    Combined with the loss of No.6 and No.9, No.8 started to doubt his n tonight. And now, he had to ept that his n had failed. No.8 wanted to retreat, but before he could speak, he heard the gunshots again.


    This time, the gunshot was real, and it was not recorded. No.8 could hear that the person who fired the shot was near him, and he was moving at high speed. So, No.8 immediately started shooting at the ce where the gunfire came from. At first, he felt a little strange. Judging from Zhang Heng��s previous attacks, it could be seen that thetter always had a clear goal and priorities in his mind.


    Logically speaking, after No.2 and No.3 were gone, No. 8 should be the most valuable target to him. However, Zhang Heng did not target him first. But soon, No. 8 thought of something, and his nerves were tightened up again.


    He now figured out what Zhang Heng��s target was in this attack!


    It was the thermal detectors!


    Before entering the castle, the team was equipped with a total of three heat detectors. In a smoke-filled environment, the thermal detectors were their eyes. Needless to say, Zhang Heng had now taken away the thermal detector No.2 was holding. In other words, there were only two detectors left. Technically speaking, they only had one thermal detector left. Zhang Heng must have killed another police officer holding thest one.


    So, No.8 quickly made a decisive decision. He did not want his men to retrieve the thermal detectors. Instead, he directed his men to continue shooting while backing out of the castle. Zhang Heng did not y any tricks this time. By relying on the excellent vision provided by the Filter Lens, he managed to dodge the rain of bullets. And every time he raised his hand and pulled the trigger, he would take a life away, just like the Death wielding a sickle.


    On the other hand, his opponents had to rely on their instinct and hearing to retaliate at will. The only threat to Zhang Heng was No.8. However, Zhang Heng did not put too much pressure on them because of stray bullets flying around.


    Even so, after they left the castle and No.8 counted the people around him, he found out that the number of people that were left alive was reduced from thirty to only six.


    No. 8 could no longer rely on them to deal with Zhang Heng. He ordered the remaining six people to spread out, find cover, keep an eye on the castle��s entrance, and stop him from leaving the castle. On the other hand, he told everyone that he was going to look for help. However, it was just an excuse that he came up with to run away from this ce while others were not paying attention.


    Now No.8��s goal had changed from killing Zhang Heng to staying alive. Soon after he left, he heard the gunshots from behind again. No.8 did not stop running. To him, the federal police officers were the cannon fodder of this operation. Since they failed to encircle Zhang Heng earlier, the least they could do was buy him some time to escape.


    The gunfirested for less than two minutes.


    No.8 felt terrible for them, but he also knew the stark difference in strength between the two sides. This result wasn��t unexpected. At the same time, No.8 also realized that he had to run faster. He even forgot about his broken ribs and started to run like a cheetah.


    On the other side, after Zhang Heng dealt with the federal police officer, he realized that No.8 had escaped, but he was in no hurry to go after him. He threw away the pistol in his hand, returned to the second floor, opened the window on the south side, and he aimed his Barrett at the figure that was almost turning into a tiny ck spot.


    Instead of rushing to shoot at him, Zhang Heng adjusted his breathing first, felt the wind speed and direction before holding the sniper rifle in his hand.


    At this time, the distance between the two reached 2,300 meters, way beyond the Barrett��s maximum effective range. No.8 breathed a sigh of relief and started to slow down a little. He was preparing to run towards the door.


    But the moment he turned around and looked behind him, Zhang Heng, who was 2300 meters away, finally pulled the trigger in his hand. The next moment, No.8 was sent flying again, but he was not as lucky as the first two times. Although the bullet did not prate the bulletproof vest, the bullet��s huge impact shattered his ribs, its fragments puncturing his lungs.


    No.8 did not die immediately. Lying in front of the burger shop, and attempted to get up and run again. Despite his best efforts, however, Zhang Heng��s remarkable marksmanship hadpletely destroyed his courage, causing him to trembled in fear uncontrobly, unable to recuperate. Not wanting to fight Zhang Heng anymore, all he wanted was to run as far away as he could. However, he realized that he could no longer stand up from the ground, and at the same time, breathing became more and more difficult.


    While No.8 wheezed and choked, he stretched his hand to his waist, trying to grab the emergency medical injection, but his vision became more and more blurry. If someone were by his side, the person would see that his face had turned red, and veins had started popping up from beneath his skin. That was the sign of hypoxia.


    Finally, the emergency medical injection in No.8��s hand fell to the ground, and his body stopped movingpletely after several convulsions.

 Chapter 1005 - Observer

    <h4>Chapter 1005: Observer</h4>


    Humanity��s love affair with exoskeleton technology went back a long way.


    Mechanical prostheses could provide an individual inhuman speed and strength, but other than the disabled or human modification fanatics, most ordinary people weren��t about to remove a part of their bodies and rece them with some mechanical part, even if their mechanical ears could automatically y ��Symphony No. 5 in C minor,�� and wake them up on time every morning.


    Thus, exoskeleton wearables became the first choice in the ingredients of building super fighters. From where Zhang Heng came from, the militaries of various countries had already mooted studying exoskeleton technology. And in this quest, the exoskeleton was mass-produced and widely used by the military.


    The guy who blocked Zhang Heng earlier in Mr. G��s private garden, for instance, was wearing a set of exoskeleton equipment. It was, however, of an older model. Tonight, the special operations team that raided the Central Station on the second level were all equipped with thetest generation exoskeleton, with this particr model rolling off the assembly line only this year.


    After realizing that, 0 put on a solemn look. The military exoskeleton was strictly controlled by the federal government, and civilians couldn��t possibly purchase such a piece of equipment. Even with Mr. G��s power on the first level, he could only get his hands on a set or two of first or second-generation exoskeleton equipment.


    Now, the team that attacked them had fourteen people, and each was in a set of fourth-generation exoskeleton equipment. Though it was unusual, this wasn��t the time to figure out where Mr. G acquired those exoskeletons.


    Other than the battle. 0 did not care much about other matters, especially politics. What he cared about was that his short-term cooperation with Zhang Heng had produced results. The show the two put on had finally reached its climax, with Mr. G��s trump card hidden on the second level finally revealed. Although the opponent��s firepower exceeded his expectations, the emergency response team was also equipped with many heavy weapons at the station.


    The emergency response team did indeed face losses during the first attacks, but he survived after losing a couple of federal police officers. After that, 0 finally began to show his leadership ability. With the four teammates and the remaining federal police officers, they swiftly managed to establish a defensive line again.


    With thebination of anti-material weapons and high-explosive bullets, not even the exoskeletons could withstand such destructive force. Soon, a sniper at a higher position destroyed the power system of an exoskeleton. It exploded a few momentster, with mes engulfing its wearer.


    However, the remaining exoskeleton fighters did not back down when they saw what happened to their allies, maintaining their previous attack formation as if they did not suffer any losses.


    Although they were way less effective than the emergency response team, they had impable discipline. Even 0 had to admit that his enemies were like the clones t unafraid of death.


    0 felt a strong determination from them, and as a clone, he was envious of such determination.


    But this had not changed 0��s n to snatch the goods and kill them. That was why the emergency response team existed.


    ...


    When the emergency response team was fighting with Mr. G��s special operations team, a pair of eyes were watching them.


    It was Feng Zi.


    Entrusted by Zhang Heng, she had rushed here from her residence, avoiding as many pedestrians as possible along the way. Then, coupled with the disguise Zhang Heng made for her, she finally seeded in getting into a hotel.


    Feng Zi did not book any rooms from the front desk. Instead, she looked for a way to climb onto the roof of the hotel. She then took out a pair of high-powered binocrs from her bag and started watching her targets. Feng Zi remembered Zhang Heng��s advice��she selected an observation point far from the station so that neither side would notice her.


    After Feng Zipleted her mission, she emailed Zhang Heng as soon as the special operations team appeared. She then continued to y the role of a war journalist, paying attention to the battle situation and sending the first-hand news to Zhang Heng. However, after the battle in the castle started, Feng Zi had not received a reply from Zhang Heng.


    She had always had confidence in Zhang Heng��s strength, but after witnessing the battle at the station, she could not help but start to worry about him. That was because thetter caused quite a lot of trouble this time. Both sides had powerful armed forces, let alonebining them together. It was probably not an easy task to grab food from the tiger��s mouth, even for someone like Zhang Heng.


    After observing the battle for a while, Feng Zi saw that the men in exoskeletons seemed to be in bad shape. In ten minutes, they lost another two men, leaving only eleven people. Although the emergency response team lost more people than them, they still had abundant manpower, especially the two snipers perched above the high-rise buildings. They were such formidable marksmen that their opponents didn��t dare to poke out their heads.


    Upon seeing that, Feng Zi became more and more cautious. She hid in the shadow behind the air conditioner. After a while, the emergency response team was slowly gaining victory. However, it seemed like 0 made a wrong move. The emergency response team nearly attacked the waiting hall.


    Feng Zi��s heart skipped a beat. She still remembered Zhang Heng��s instructions. Once Mr. G��s crew rushed into the station, she would need to contact him immediately. But soon, those exoskeleton fighters from the special operations team were forced out from removed from the station. And this time, they suffered heavy losses, losing four of theirpanions. The remaining people immediately stopped fighting. One of them was protected by six exoskeleton warriors, and they began to retreat in an orderly manner.


    0 and his team finally showed their true color. The previous mistake that he made was a trap he set for his enemies. It was used to trick the enemies that had good discipline butcked excellent decision-makers. In the end, it was a risky tactic, but it was a huge sess. he managed to kill four of them in one fell swoop.


    After that, he did not give the remaining seven people any chance to catch a breath. Together with the two snipers on the roof, heunched a more violent attack. They kept on firing their weapons at the exoskeleton. It sounded like a symphony made of iron and fire.


    Soon three more members of the special operations team were killed by the bullets. Two of them died on the spot, and the other enemy��s exoskeleton was paralyzed. His allies wanted to drag him away, but he refused. So, in the end, only four members of the special operations team rushed into the mall opposite the station.

 Chapter 1006 - A Relaxing Night

    <h4>Chapter 1006: A Rxing Night</h4>


    Feng Zi could clearly see the four men wearing exoskeletons entering through the mall��s east gate from the hotel rooftop. After that, they broke the window on the third floor, came out of it, andnded on a flyover to the north. Immediately, they started to run as fast as they could.


    Thanks to the powerful enhancements the exoskeleton provided, they ran in excess of sixty kilometers per hour. Whether it was a convenience store or apartment building, nothing could slow them down.


    Feng Zi kept observing them with the binocrs, and she didn��t even dare blink, afraid she might lose them. But even so, the targets were moving so fast; she would probably lose sight of them in approximately three minutes.


    And Zhang Heng never told her what to do when something like this happened. So the safest thing she could do was to stay on the hotel��s rooftop and observe the four special operations team members until they were gone. After that, she could tell Zhang Heng which direction they were headed in.


    However, Feng Zi hesitated. In the end, she did not stick with the safest option. Instead, she quickly put the binocrs back into her backpack and ran downstairs along the fire escape to the parking lot on the side of the hotel and found a shared car. She pulled the door, entered the driving seat, and quickly fastened the seat belt.


    She then pointed at the camera inside the car with her right hand. However, when Feng Zi saw her bare wrist, she could not help but swear. Everything happened so fast. When she hurriedly got down from the roof, she forgot that she had handed her bracelet to Zhang Heng at the night market. Now, she could only use the handheldputer she found in the apartment to contact Zhang Heng. The handheld didn��t contain her ID information. Hence, the emergency response team would not be able to track her.


    Using the shared car would be impossible without the bracelet. Just when desperation hit Feng Zi, she saw a red new energy vehicleing in and parking in the lot next to hers. Then, a man dressed as apany executive came out the driver��s side, walked around to the other end of the car, and opened the door.


    A girl, young enough to be his daughter, dressed in a bunny suit, stepped out of the seat, put her hand in the man��s hand, and giggled.


    The next second, the man��s expression stiffened, and he fell to the ground. Behind him stood a Lolitady carrying a brick. Stupefied for three seconds, the bunny girl asked, ��Are you here to steal my customer?��


    ��No. I��m here to rob him.�� Feng Zi then took out the homemadeser gun, pointed it at the bunny girl, and ordered, ��Move him into the passenger seat.��


    Still having not entirely figured out the situation, the bunny girl stood motionless.


    So, the next moment, Feng Zi squeezed the trigger without hesitation, burning one of the bunny ears. Spooked to the bone, she hurriedly took off the headgear, bent down, and used all her strength to carry the man into the car.


    At the same time, Feng Zi, who was racing against time on the other side, was already in the driver��s seat, unlocking the bracelet with the man��s finger. She then started the car with the bracelet. Then, said to the bunny girl beside her, ��He has something to do tonight. I��m afraid he can��t have fun with you. Although this is force majeure, you��d better refund half the money he paid you. Although the transaction couldn��t bepleted, you still honored the deal by being honest. Other than that, you are not allowed to discriminate against Lolita. We are both not in the same line of work!��


    After Feng Zi stepped on the gas, the car rushed backward and almost hit another car behind it. Fortunately, Feng Zi was quick enough to grab the wheel to steer the car away. Still, she identally hit another car when she drove towards the exit.


    After such a long dy, Feng Zipletely lost track of the four special operations team members. Fortunately, she didn��t intend to follow them. Zhang Heng had warned her more than once about it. The two groups of forces that she observed tonight were extremely dangerous people. She had also watched the fierce battle unfold before her.


    Whether it was the special operations team or the emergency response team, Feng Zi always made sure to keep a safe distance. And she did not intend to do otherwise. Hence, she was going to follow the police cars.


    The current situation was that the four members of the special operations squad ran away from the emergency response team. Except for that one response team member who got injured in the previous battle, the team had four members going after them. The federal police did not act that fast, but with 0��s lead, they were not worried that they would lose the targets.


    As for Feng Zi, she followed thest police car, driving as carefully as she could.


    Since she was afraid of being discovered, Feng Zi did not dare get too close. Fortunately, the beacons of the patrol car were shing, which made it quite conspicuous on the road.


    Feng Zi felt the adventurous blood in her veins boil. Holding the wheel with one hand, and pulling the man over with the other, she confirmed the owner��s authority through an iris scan and shared the car��s real-time position with Zhang Heng.


    After doing all that, Feng Zi felt her body was heating up, so she took off her upper bodysuit and threw it out of the window. When she turned around, she saw the man that she knocked out earlier staring at her. The two looked at each other for a few seconds, and the man asked with some doubt. ��Why are you changing? And we are already at the hotel? Why are you driving my car?��


    ��Sorry. Your car has been requisitioned by me.�� Feng Zi blinked at him and put on a sullen smile,�� and your fun night has also been canceled.��


    Feng Zi then kicked the man��s chin. Worried that one kick wasn��t going to be enough, she kicked him two more times. In the end, thetter passed out again.


    When Feng Zi turned her gaze to the front again, she realized that the police car was nowhere to be found. Frowning, she stepped on the elerator again, trying to go ahead to see what had happened.


    If Zhang Heng were here, he would��ve definitely reminded Feng Zi that such a thing happened because the enemies wanted to know if they were being followed. Unfortunately, Feng Zi was only a repair shop worker. She wouldn��t know about such things.


    When she sped up, she suddenly saw the two police cars in her rearview mirror. They suddenly appeared from behind arge truck with their lights turned off, rushing toward her from the left and right.

 Chapter 1007 - Brake

    <h4>Chapter 1007: Brake</h4>


    It was Feng Zi��s first time encountering such a situation. Since she was caught off guard, she could only m the elerator hard, trying to get rid of the two police cars behind her. However, when the police officers saw her speed up, they too elerated after her. Slowly, the distance between the two closed up.


    Anxiety and fear built up in Feng Zi��s heart when she saw the police cars getting closer. Immediately, she attempted to get rid of them by switchingnes. However, several attemptster, she almost ran into an oing car and caused an ident. Unfortunately, all that dangerous maneuvering failed to increase the distance between her and the police officers. A secondter, the two police cars were that close to touching her taillights.


    One of the policemen began shouting Feng Zi through a loudspeaker, ordering her to slow and stop by the side of the road. The woman, however, seemed to have no intention of surrendering. Then, she suddenly remembered a trick that she saw in a movie. She was about to swerve violently and ram into one of the patrol cars. However, when she gritted her teeth and was ready to bite the bullet, the handheldputer reminded her that there was a call request.


    Feng Zi then connected theputer to the car��s speaker, and Zhang Heng��s voice came on.


    ��Go on. Don��t worry about the guys behind you.��


    For some reason, after hearing Zhang Heng��s s calm tone, Feng Zi��s anxiety began to dissipate slowly; her hands no longer shaking when she held the steering wheel. She then asked joyfully, ��Are you nearby? Did you manage to get rid of all the enemies at the amusement park?��


    ��Yes.��


    ��Did you receive the message I sent you? The group that attacked the station earlier is left with only four members now. The rest are dead. I think they should be not far ahead.��


    ��I saw it. Let��s get rid of these police officers first.


    ��Thank you for keeping an eye on the situation here,�� Zhang Heng added after a pause.


    ��You are wee. I actually didn��t help that much. All I did was update you on the situation from time to time.��


    ��No. You really helped a lot tonight,�� Zhang Heng said.


    This time, Zhang Heng tasted the many inconveniences caused by theck of a teammate. Fortunately, some people were willing to help him in this dungeon. In addition to Old Man Geng and Miss F, he was quite lucky to meet Feng Zi at the bar tonight. Of course, he might be able to get his hands on the memory encoder all by himself, but doing it alone was undoubtedly much more difficult. And Zhang Heng might have to bet on his luck.


    When the two were talking, the two police cars had already sandwiched Feng Zi��s car. A policeman with a pistol tried to force Feng Zi to stop her car. At the next moment, the three cars bumbled side by side into the underground tunnel ahead of them.


    Feng Zi��s vision was temporarily disabled due to the sudden change in brightness. After that, she heard a series of gunshots, and something hit her car. Thank goodness she managed to keep her hands steady on the wheel. When she looked back, she saw one of the police cars slowing down abruptly. It seemed someone had shot its tire, causing the officer to lose control and hit her car.


    Afterward, Feng Zi saw another police car that she had not seen before speeding up from behind. Her heart sank, but then she heard Zhang Heng��s voice again.


    ��Step on the brakes.��


    Without hesitation, Feng Zi stepped on the brakes without any hesitation, drastically slowing down the speed of the red new energy car. Under the influence of inertia, she was flung to the front violently. Fortunately, the safety belt prevented her from getting any injuries.


    On the other hand, the man at the co-pilot seat did not end well. He was thrown from his seat, hitting his head on the windshield. Feng Zi could feel the pain just by looking at him. The police car beside her did not expect her to stop abruptly. Initially, the police officer wanted to stop in front of Feng Zi��s car. He then saw a police caring out from nowhere and approached them.


    Zhang Heng swerved to the right without any warning. The officer, on the other hand, saw a lot of space on his right side. Responding to his reflexes, he subconsciously swerved to the right to dodge the police car that wanted to hit him. Unfortunately, he failed to realize the obstacle that was in his way, driving right into an emergency parking zone and hitting the concrete block in front of him.


    By now, the two police cars had stopped going after Feng Zi.


    After exiting the tunnel, Zhang Heng found a ce to park the car and waited for Feng Zi to get out of the vehicle. Then thetter left the red new energy car and entered Zhang Heng��s car��s co-pilot seat. As soon as Feng Zi got into the car, she saw a wide variety of weapons.


    ��Did you just rob a weapons storage?�� she couldn��t help but mutter.


    ��No, they brought these here.��


    Zhang Heng killed three emergency response members and two federal police teams during the battle at the amusement park. He finally solved the problem ofcking weapons and ammunition at the second level. Besides, a police car was usually filled with a lot of weapons. He also managed to collect some useful equipment from the corpses of No.3, No.8, and No.2.


    As soon as Feng Zi got in the car, Zhang Heng handed her a new bulletproof vest, one that could withstand the rounds of a sniper rifle. Putting it on was equivalent to gaining an extra life.


    After that, Zhang Heng stepped on the elerator again and moved ahead.


    In the meantime, Feng Zi put on the bulletproof vest. She could not help but start to feel worried. Following the police car in front of her earlier was equivalent to grasping the whereabouts of the special operations team. Since both the police cars had been put to a stop, Zhang Heng and Feng Zi hadpletely lost their target for now.


    Feng Zi looked at Zhang Heng and saw how calm he still was. He seemedpletely unbothered about this matter. Before she had time to ask, themunication device in the car answered her question.


    ��The target ran into the Four Continents Hotel. Everyone in charge, request assistance to block all entrances and exits of the hotel!��


    ��Roger!��


    ��10-4!!��


    ...


    After the police officer was done talking, the car became quiet again. Zhang Heng then exined, ��The emergency response team has done a good job at securing theirmunication channel. However, they are working with the police force this time. Hence, they have to use the same channel for this operation. In other words, they would inevitably share some of the important information.��


    ��Why do you look like you know everything?�� Feng Zi had put on a rich expression. ��I see you have ratherpetent driving skills.��


    ��Well, you��re only about to experience those skills.�� After Zhang Heng got the destination address, he reminded Feng Zi to fasten his seat belt. Then, he stepped on the elerator as hard as he could, causing Feng Zi to feel like she was on a rocket. The powerful inertia pinned her firmly on her seat.


    The numbers on the speedometer began to increase rapidly. The next moment, Feng Zi started to wonder if the car was flying. She held on to the side grips for dear life.

 Chapter 1008 - Final Battleground

    <h4>Chapter 1008: Final Battleground</h4>


    0 saw the four special operations team members rushing into the hotel in front of him.


    As soon as they entered the hotel, 0 asked his men to seal the building. He then notified the federal police to set up a perimeter around the hotel.


    However,pared to those ordinary policemen, 0 was still more willing to trust his own team. There were three emergency response team members left beside him, and if they fought the special operations team face-to-face, they were confident that they would win. However, after seeing the men with exoskeletons, 0 knew that he would need to assign someone to secure the ce, lest it would be difficult for the federal police to stop those well-trained enemies. Since 0 and the emergency response team were here, they had more than enough manpower to deal with the situation.


    At this time, 0 also began to think about the three people he sent to the amusement park. If all went well, they should��ve rescued No.6 by now and killed Zhang Heng. If they could get back in time, his next battle would be foolproof.


    However, 0 did not receive any reply from them since he sent them a message five minutes ago. On the other hand, the federal police acquired a new update, saying that a red new energy vehicle followed them and the two police cars had gone ahead to sandwich the red car.


    To their surprise, another police car appeared from nowhere. The officers mentioned that an unknown police car had attacked them before quickly disappearing at the tunnel entrance. 0 frowned. He had a bad feeling that something must��ve happened at the amusement park. Even he had to admit that he was caught off guard. Initially, he thought that three team members and more than twenty federal police were more than enough to deal with Zhang Heng. But now, it seemed he had underestimated his opponent. The three team members who were sent to the amusement park might have ended up dead.


    That said, 0 was confident that he was slowly gaining control of the situation and that the remaining four members of the special operations team were now the rats in a cage. However, he did not expect Zhang Heng to eliminate the emergency response team that he had sent. This caused him a headache.


    When Zhang Heng came to him with a proposal of working together, 0 agreed without any hesitation. It was because the first task that he received was to intercept the goods. He was intrigued by the man who killed two of his team members, one after the other. However, he did not take it to heart. In his opinion, there some conflict must��ve broken out on Mr. G��s side, and it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the emergency response team toplete their task. No matter how one looked at it, the cooperation Zhang Heng proposed would cost them nothing.


    In order for a business deal to be carried out sessfully, both parties had to ensure that they would get something out of the transaction, or at least they had to think that said business would be profitable. 0 sort of figured out what Zhang Heng��s purpose was. He also believed that Zhang Heng��s n was a pipe dream at most. He was unlikely to carry out his n sessfully.


    This seemingly impossible n, however, was about toe true. Whether he liked it or not, 0 had to admit that the current situation was developing in the direction Zhang Heng wanted. A new yer had been added to the game in this prey hunting business, a very dangerous hunter.


    0 also felt a long-lost sense of urgency in his veins. Taking pointers from his earlier mistake, he finally determined that he��d overthrow the recently made battle n, deciding that he did not want his men to be scattered everywhere.


    This time, both sides changed positions. 0 was the one that arrived at the destination first, giving him time to make some arrangements in advance. Although half of his men had been killed, 0 had gathered a lot of information rted to Zhang Heng, which was why he was confident he could get rid of him this time.


    The game had just begun, and the one who had thestugh would be the real winner.


    ...


    On the other side, the police car driven by Zhang Heng stopped in front of a food stall. After the next intersection, the end of the trip was the Four Continents Hotel. Feng Zi remained silent for a long time until the car stopped; her hand was still tightly grasping the grips. Her knuckles had also whitened from the force she exerted on them.


    It was not until Zhang Heng unfastened her seat belt that Feng Zi seemed to return to her senses. ��Are we there yet?�� she asked in a daze.


    ��Well. Yes. How are you?�� Zhang Heng asked.


    ��I��m d to be alive. I never want to experience something like that for the second time.��


    Feng Zi looked like she just escaped death. She had always assumed that she was an incredibly courageous woman, not only among her kin but also among the men. She had never been sandwiched between two police cars before, and she was ready to sacrifice her life to get rid of them. In the end, she ended up sitting in the same car as Zhang Heng. She almost screamed her lungs out several times when Zhang Heng was driving, and until now, her heart still palpitated as though bursting from her ribcage.


    Zhang Heng then grabbed a set of police uniforms from the back seat and changed into them. He then took another two pistols and carried them along with the small rifle he acquired from No.3. As for the Shrouded Sheath, he temporarily handed it to Feng Zi.


    ��This police car is too conspicuous. Don��t stay in it anymore. Remember the mahjong ce we passed? Wait for me there. By the way, keep an eye out on the hotel��s peripheral area for me. Let me know if more police officers drive toward the hotel.��


    ��Understood.��


    Feng Zi suppressed the nausea in her gut as she watched Zhang Heng pull out a few more magazines. She then paused and said, ��Hey, you still owe me something. Make sure youe back alive to sleep with me.��


    ��I n to do more than just staying alive. I��m going to surprise them,�� Zhang Heng said casually.


    After selecting weapons and equipment, Zhang Heng walked towards the hotel. As expected, he did not see anyone from the emergency response team. The person in charge was a sergeant of the Federal Police Department on the second level.


    Zhang Heng had roughly figured out 0��s n. Thetter must��ve opted for the less risky move, giving the federal police full authority over the blockade outside the hotel. The risk of the maneuver was that if the special operations team realized that the periphery defense had weakened, they might attempt to break out from the hotel.


    However, that wasn��t actually a big deal to the emergency response team. Since 0 could force them into a cage, he was confident that he could do it again. So, this was a risk that No. 0 could take. In addition, the four remaining members of the special operations team were mentally and physically exhausted after they went on a run for so long. And they might not want to go on a run anymore. So, rather than being treated like a mouse, they would prefer to try their best to fight back.


    Hence, there was a high probability that this ce was the venue for the final battle.

 Chapter 1009 - Elevator

    <h4>Chapter 1009: Elevator</h4>


    In just a short while, the peripheral area of the Four-Continents Hotel was surrounded by police; the lobby was controlled by the authorities too. Outsiders were no longer allowed to enter the hotel, and guests weren��t allowed to step outside as well. The hotel was inplete lockdown.


    Zhang Heng looked into the hotel and gave up his n of entering the safe passage through the lobby. He observed the crowds of passersby standing on the side of the road, and before long, spotted a man with a wide-brimmed hat, holding a camera.


    So, Zhang Heng walked to the man and spoke to him for a while. He then shook hands with him and walked around to the hotel��s back door in his police uniform. This entrance was not meant for guests, and the staff usually used it to move goods. Still, there was someone keeping an eye on it now. Fortunately, there weren��t many people keeping an eye on the back entrancepared to the front.


    Zhang Heng walked to the door at a steady pace before giving the team of policemen in charge of guarding the backdoor a nod. ��The sheriff asked me to go in and ask the chef something.��


    ��I haven��t seen you around before.��


    The team leader did not just let Zhang Heng enter the hotel after hearing what he said. Instead, there was a look of confusion on his face.


    ��Oh. I am a neer who just got here. I usually listen to what the sheriff tells me. You can go to the sheriff to verify my identity,�� Zhang Heng said calmly.


    ��Is that so?�� The team leader looked at Zhang Heng with doubts in his eyes and raised his chin, ��I don��t need to ask the sheriff anything. First, let me see your police identification.��


    ��Okay.�� Zhang Heng pretended to activate the bracelet on his left hand.


    However, the team leader��s face suddenly changed in the next moment. He stretched out his finger and pointed at a man behind Zhang Heng. ��Hey, what are you doing?! Which newspaper do you work for? Didn��t I say you are not allowed to take any pictures?!��


    Before the police officer could finish, the opposing man put his camera up and took two more pictures. The reporter then ran away when he saw that the situation was going to turn sour. The police officer could not be bothered by Zhang Heng��s affairs anymore. Telling Zhang Heng to wait here, he quickly brought someone and went after the reporter.


    However, Zhang Heng did not care about what he said. Soon after the police officer left, he opened the back door and walked into the hotel. Although some policemen were still standing at the door, no one there could call the shots. They looked at each other, but no one took the initiative to stop him from entering the hotel.


    As soon as Zhang Heng entered the hotel through the backdoor, he quickly locked it. He then drew a pistol from his waist, held it in his hand, and walked forward.


    His footsteps were very light. Thanks to the assistance of Kreis��s Heart, Zhang Heng moved like a cat. Entering the hotel was only his first step. The real challenge was yet toe. His goal was to look for the memory encoder currently held by the four members of the special operations team. The exoskeleton fighters weren��t the only enemies he had to fight. There was the emergency response team that needed dealing with too.


    This was especially true for the leader, 0, where Zhang Heng had obtained lots of information rted to him from No.9. Even if they were all clones with the same memories, programmed with skills to turn them into super fighters, the gap in strength between them would widen over time.


    In No.9��s own words, ��0 is different from us. He belongs to another species, a brand-new species, a creation that existing human cloning theory simply couldn��t exin. Honestly speaking, the two of you are quite simr. If both of you cross paths with each other, I can imagine that the whole thing will be very interesting, like Godzi meeting Ghidorah.��


    No.9 licked his lips as he spoke. The Oath Ring, on the other hand, did not react to what he said. In other words, he was telling the truth.


    Zhang Heng��s cautiousness perked up as soon as he entered the hotel. He did not go in the direction of the lobby because there were a lot of police officers over there. ces like the elevators and safe passages were heavily guarded by the police officers. And it was not possible to use the same method to trick the officers again.


    So, Zhang Heng walked into the kitchen without much hesitation. Although there were still some half-cooked vegetables in the pot and cut ingredients on the chopping board, there was no chef in the kitchen at this time. It looked like they were summoned to the lobby by the police officers.


    Zhang Heng knew that some multistorey restaurants would install a dumbwaiter at the back kitchen. It allowed them to deliver the prepared meals to the upper floors as quickly as possible, ensuring the customer wouldn��t have to wait too long. Luckily, the exact same elevator had been installed at the back kitchen of the Four-Continents Hotel.


    Initially designed for food delivery, the dumbwaiter was obviously too small to fit a person. Basically, whoever wanted to ride the dumbwaiter would have to curl and contort themselves into a most unnatural position. Despite the difort, it allowed Zhang Heng to avoid all the police officers directly to another floor.


    Zhang Heng looked at the dumbwaiter��s buttons and saw only two floors for him to choose from, one of which was the thirteenth floor, and the nearest delivery point was the fifth floor. In other words, as long as he rode the elevator, he could get to the restaurant on the fifth or thirteenth floor.


    Soon, Zhang Heng made up his mind. As the doors on both sides of the elevator slowly closed, he ascended towards the thirteenth floor.


    However, something unexpected happened when the elevator reached the fourth floor. The speed of the dumbwaiter reduced. There was only one possibility for such a thing to happen��someone on the fifth floor also pressed the button!


    After that, without waiting for the door of the dumbwaiter to be fully opened, guns started firing a rain of bullets into it. Just by the sound alone, one could imagine the number of bullets that were being fired. Considering the cramped space inside the elevator, it was not possible for the person to dodge the bullets. The only fate that awaited the person in the elevator was being shredded into pieces.


    At the same time, 0��s eyes flickered.


    No one would have thought that the emergency response team members did not hunt down the special operations team members upon entering the hotel. Instead, they all stayed quietly in the restaurant on the fifth floor and stared at the elevator in front of them.


    0 actually did not pay much attention to the remaining four special operations team members. In his opinion, their fates were sealed, and they wouldn��t besting long in this hotel. So it was just a matter of time before they were killed. On the contrary, after losing contact with his three men in the amusement park, 0 was now extremely apprehensive of Zhang Heng. For this reason, he even put aside his priorities��instead of looking for the goods, he decided to eliminate thepetitor, Zhang Heng, first.


    Once Zhang Heng had been killed, he still had time to search the ce.


    So, upon making the decision, 0 put himself into Zhang Heng��s shoes and considered several possible ns Zhang Heng would make. After that, he contacted the sheriff on the first floor to make various ns and arrangements for the police officers outside the goal. The ultimate goal was to lure Zhang Heng to a dead end.


    And now, his n seemed like it was destined to seed. 0 had to admit that such a method was indeed unfair. Although Zhang Heng was a master, it was unlikely he could do anything about the bullets pouring into the elevator.


    This battle was never about thepeting of strength; the battle result of the duel between two masters would eventually be determined by some minute detail. When 0 thought that he could finally eliminate his biggest enemy, he could not help but let out a sigh. However, when the doors of the dumbwaiter opened, his pupils suddenly shrank.


    There was no one in the dumbwaiter!

 Chapter 1010 - Hide And Seek

    <h4>Chapter 1010: Hide And Seek</h4>


    The gunshots on the fifth-floor restaurant stopped abruptly. As they looked at the empty elevator, the emergency response team members had rather rich expressions on their faces.


    Finally, when the bullethole-ridden doors were closed, the elevator continued to ascend towards the thirteenth floor. At the same time, all the team members looked at 0, who stood at the side.


    It was rare that 0 would make wrong moves. Fortunately, the surprise in thetter��s eyessted only a few seconds. After that, he returned to normal. Immediately, 0 contacted the sergeant for the first time, asking him to send someone to the kitchen and pay extra attention to the hotel��s entrance, sealing Zhang Heng��s two escape routes.


    However, Zhang Heng was nowhere to be seen at the back door or in the kitchen. Thetter seemed to have disappeared out of thin air. On the contrary, the gunshots just now had exposed the location of the emergency response team. With their enemy hiding in the dark their location being made known, it was the worst thing that could happen to them right now. So, 0 made a decisive decision and took the three teammates around him, immediately withdrawing from the restaurant.


    And about two minutes after they left, the two pitted elevator doors opened again, but this time, forcibly, by someone from the inside. A hand was stretched out the elevator, and Zhang Heng climbed out.


    0 now considered Zhang Heng his number one enemy. Zhang Heng too had also ced great importance on 0. From the very beginning, Zhang Heng deduced that the hotel��s peripheral line of defense would eventually lead him to do something that could lead to his demise. Although he pressed on the thirteen-floor button, he did not get into the elevator. Instead, he waited for the elevator to ascend first. After that, he got into the shaft and started to follow the moving elevator by climbing up. Thus, the spot where the emergency response team fired was actually very close to Zhang Heng��right on the top of his head. 0, however, did not expect Zhang Heng to pull off such a bold move. Even after realizing that there was a problem with the elevator, he still chose to get into the elevator shaft.


    After exiting the shaft, Zhang Heng did not leave in a hurry. Instead, he squatted on the ground and carefully observed the bullet marks on the elevator door. He managed to roughly restore the ballistic trajectory at that time and inferred how many were firing their guns.


    Zhang Heng wanted to know if the emergency response team had gained control over the monitoring room.


    In order to ensure the safety of the guests and avoid unnecessary disputes, most hotels often installed countless surveince cameras in the hotel. As long the monitoring room had someone in it, the entire situation in the hotel could be observed. Before Zhang Heng entered the Four-Continents Hotel, he had checked the building��s blueprint and found out that the monitoring room was on the seventh floor, which was not far from where he was.


    Judging from the ballistic trajectory, at least four people had fired at the elevator earlier. Since they suspected that Zhang Heng might be in a police uniform and attempt to blend into the crowd, the emergency response team stationed all the federal police on the first floor, leaving only four emergency response team members. In other words, the emergency response team left no one in the monitoring room.


    If that was the case, there could only be one exnation for such a scenario��the four special operations team members had destroyed all the monitoring equipment in the monitoring room. For Zhang Heng, this was half the good news. Among the three parties, he was thest to enter the hotel. If the monitoring equipment could still operate normally, it would definitely affect his next actions.


    Now, the three parties in the hotel did not know the other��s location.


    Hide and seek? Zhang Heng raised his brows. It happened to be his best game.


    ...


    The four members of the emergency response team retreated all the way from the restaurant to the seventh floor. ording to 0��s original n, if they failed to stop Zhang Heng at the elevator, they would return to the monitoring room. It was because 0 believed that Zhang Heng would think about the existence of surveince. In such cases, most people would choose to check the surveince room for any remaining footage of the special operation team members that could indicate their hiding spot.


    At least, that was what he thought. When he arrived here, he found out that all the monitoring equipment had been destroyed. After that, No.4 went to check on the smashed hard disk. It was so severely damaged that salvaging any data would be virtually impossible. Therefore, it was pointless to go to the monitoring room anymore.


    But Zhang Heng, who was thest to enter the hotel, did not know about it. Thus, if they prepared well, the emergency response team could ambush Zhang Heng over there. 0 had always been very confident in his judgment, but he started to doubt his next move after he was greeted by an empty elevator.


    He realized that Zhang Heng was more cunning and cautious than he expected. Whether Zhang Heng could see through the trap in the monitoring room like how he saw the trap at the elevator, 0 wasn��t too sure about anything anymore.


    No.5 saw that 0 was in deep thought, and he looked at No.7 and No.2 on the other side. His lips moved as if he wanted to say something, but in the end, he decided not to say it out.


    After that, the three hid behind the monitoring room and the drinking fountain ording to 0��s n, quietly waiting for Zhang Heng��s arrival.


    After a quarter of an hour, nothing happened.


    No.5 finally could not help but remind 0 euphemistically, ��Captain, should take possession of the package first? There are four of us, after all. Is it really necessary to pay so much attention to one man?��


    No.5��s words made 0e to a realization. He immediately realized that he had ended up in a dead-end. It seemed he had been paying too much attention to Zhang Heng. Since Zhang Heng killed half of his team, 0 regarded Zhang Heng as his biggest enemy. There was no problem with this attitude and judgment, but the party that held the biggest advantage in the hotel was still the emergency response team. Even Zhang Heng couldn��t fight the four of them at the same time.


    Therefore, there was no need to take such an extreme defensive strategy to guess where Zhang Heng would show up. On the contrary, as long as they killed the four remaining members of the special operations team and obtained the package, Zhang Heng would naturally force them to go to them.


    Now that he knew where the problem was, 0 swiftly made adjustments to his strategy and outlook of the entire picture. Of course, he still regarded Zhang Heng as his biggest threat, and he was still cautious of him, but he no longer gave him excessive attention. Instead, he began to actively take advantage of their formidable force, taking the initiative to engage their enemies. Soon, the emergency response team began to move into the hotel.


    While the emergency response team ambushed Zhang Heng in the monitoring room, Zhang Heng discovered something interesting.

 Chapter 1011 - Room 936

    <h4>Chapter 1011: Room 936</h4>


    Zhang Heng did not know that people from the emergency response team were waiting to ambush him in the monitoring room. After all, he was not omniscient and omnipotent. Zhang Heng knew that it was pointless to check out the monitoring room after looking at the number of shots on the elevator door. Besides, the monitoring room was the most noticeable location of the hotel. So, Zhang Heng did not want to join them to have fun over there.


    Unlike 0, although Zhang Heng also attached great importance to the four members of the emergency response team, and he wasn��t about to change action ns because of them. The emergency response team had the advantage in strength, and if Zhang Heng stopped making a move right now, they would eventually catch up to him. The thing would worsen if they located the memory encoder before him and brought it downstairs to regroup with the federal policemen downstairs. By that time, Zhang Heng would be ced in a passive position.


    So, when the four emergency response teams were nestled in the monitoring room, Zhang Heng had already begun to move.


    The Four Continents Hotel was a medium-sized hotel with a total of 14 floors and 832 rooms. It would take anyone a lot of time to search each room since the surveince system had been destroyed.


    But fortunately, Zhang Heng did not need to search all the rooms.


    The four members of the special operations team were all wearing exoskeleton equipment. The exoskeleton equipment provided them with great strength, speed, andbat ability. But on the other hand, they would leave behind a lot of traces when they moved.


    Zhang Heng saw the potholes on the wall left by the suspected exoskeleton collision on the ninth floor. The height of it was slightly above the head of an ordinary person. The body part that caused the pothole was the exoskeleton fighter��s shoulder. Other than that, Zhang Heng also noticed a patch of motor oil below the pothole. Zhang Heng then figured that one of the exoskeleton fighters suffered a very violent attack before it fled to this hotel. Although they managed to escape into the hotel, their exoskeletons were severely damaged. And it was most likely that the exoskeleton equipment had stopped functioning.


    Zhang Heng continued to walk along the corridor, and soon he found the second and third patches of oil stains... oil stains that extended all the way to Room 946 at the end of the corridor.


    Zhang Heng then thought for a moment, but in the end, he decided not to enter Room 936. After that, he took a few steps back and entered the linen room by elevator. Usually, all the hotels would have a linen room. It was mainly used to store some bedding items and cotton towels. Zhang Heng noticed that the linen room door was slightly opened when he passed by. It meant that someone was in there.


    Immediately, Zhang Heng drew his gun, leaned his back against the outer wall, stretched out his hand to gently push the door open, and threw a smoke bomb into the linen room. He then counted ten seconds before wearing the Filter Lens to enter the linen room.


    The moment he entered the linen room, Zhang Heng tried to move as fast as possible. He rolled on the ground, trying his best to avoid all the possible attacks. At the same time, he quickly looked at his surroundings. In the end, he only saw a hotel staff coughing violently.


    Thetter curled up at the corner of the linen room, and his body was shaking in fear.


    Considering someone had just thrown a smoke bomb into his workce, her reaction was totally understandable. However, it seemed like she had been curling up there before Zhang Heng even threw the smoke bomb. Zhang Heng only threw the bomb because he did not hear someone moving in the linen room earlier.


    Then the hotel staff in the linen room felt that someone was grabbing her arm. Zhang Heng pulled her up the ground and led her out of the linen room to the corridor.


    The hotel staff finally saw Zhang Heng��s appearance. When she saw him wearing a set of police uniforms, the fear in her eyes dissipated. She was just about to rush into Zhang Heng��s arms while crying. However, she did not expect that Zhang Heng would take a step back.


    Zhang Heng then asked, ��What did you see earlier?��


    ��Hmm?��


    Zhang Heng was very patient, and he repeated, ��You should��ve just witnessed something terrifying. That��s why you hide in the corner of the linen room.��


    ��Oh, yes,�� the hotel staff gulped and gestured, ��I saw a man covered in metal running out of the safe passage. At that time, I was about to change the bedsheets and towels in a guest room.��


    ��You saw only one man?�� Zhang Heng frowned.


    ��Yes. Only one man,�� the hotel staff nodded affirmatively. ��I was so scared that I couldn��t move, and I copsed in the corridor, but I had a good look at him.�� After a pause, she said again, ��he doesn��t look like he was in good condition. He stumbled while walking.��


    ��Did he escape into room 936 afterward?��


    ��Yes. He did.��


    Based on what the hotel staff told him, it seemed like the exoskeleton fighter in Room 936 had left the team. Or, it was because his exoskeleton was too severely damaged, and he decided to leave the team to avoid dragging their feet. If that was the case, the memory encoder was not with him. Therefore, it was most likely that he was readied to sacrifice himself as well.


    ��Has anyonee to you before me?��


    ��No...��


    ��Is that right,�� Zhang Heng then asked the hotel staff again, ��You should have strong detergent in the linen room, right?��


    ��Huh? Yes.��


    ��Take a few bottles out and clean up the oil stains in the hallway.��


    ��Huh?�� Although the hotel staff was puzzled by Zhang Heng��s request, she still obeyed his order because he was a policeman. She then turned around and walked into the linen room. She tried to look at the two bottles of detergent in a smokey environment. After that, she returned to the corridor.


    Zhang Heng looked at the time and spent a few minutes with the hotel staff to clean up the grease in the hallway. Judging from what the hotel staff told him earlier, he figured out the emergency response team had note here. So, Zhang Heng nned to set a trap for them.


    0��s observation and reasoning ability were also outstanding. Although he might not be as good as Zhang Heng, the gap between him and Zhang Heng should not be too big. Zhang Heng believed that if 0 was here right now, he would draw the same conclusion simr to his. There was a high chance that 0 would not go to Room 936 first. What Zhang Heng had to do now was to disrupt his judgment.


    The detergent would remove some of the oil stains, but a small amount of it could still be seen on the wall. And there were potholes on the wall. When 0 came here, he would be able to notice all the obvious signs left behind by his enemies. However, he would have a hard time figuring out what was going on in Room 936.


    Of course, to achieve this goal, there was onest step for him to do.


    Zhang Heng then packed the empty detergent bottles and looked at the hotel staff on the side. Then, it happened that she was spying on him too.


    ��Come with me.��


    ��Okay. Are you going to bring me in for questioning?�� the hotel staff asked.


    ��Don��t worry about that. We can do thatter. You should have the key to the guest room, right? I still need to do some investigation, and I might need your help.�� Zhang Heng continued to y the role of a police officer.

 Chapter 1012 - Go Up

    <h4>Chapter 1012: Go Up</h4>


    Zhang Heng brought the hotel staff, a waitress on the ninth floor away, not wanting 0 to know what happened in Room 936. He didn��t mind having a guide to lead the way, especially in areas he was unsure was safe. He could always ask the staff to check whether the path was dangerous. Of course, doing so would put her in danger, but it was highly unlikely that anyone from either side would harm her.


    That being said, it couldn��t hide the fact that Zhang Heng was using the waitress as a guinea pig. The waitress didn��t realize that, of course, but she soon noticed Zhang Heng pausing between steps, crouching in front of a wall, or suddenlyying down on the ground, and his actions piqued her curiosity.


    After a while, she couldn��t hold back, asking, ��Mr. Officer, are you investigating this matter alone?��


    ��Hmm... What? Why ask?��


    ��Nothing. It��s just that usually, at least two officers will investigate the same case...��


    ��There are two of us investigating this, but my partner is busy with other things,�� Zhang Heng said.


    ��Oh... I see.��


    The waitress nodded, but after a while, she asked again, ��Then, Officer, can you tell me what we are looking for now?��


    ��Yes. You saw the guy wearing exoskeleton equipment earlier. I��m looking for his aplices. There should be three other men that look like him.��


    ��There are three of them that look like him?�� The hotel staff��s eyes widened. ��Can you deal with them alone, Mr. Policeman, sir?��


    ��I shouldn��t face any problems dealing with one. Dealing with two at the same time, however, could be challenging. If three attack me simultaneously, I don��t think I��ll be able to handle them,�� Zhang Heng confessed.


    ��Then what should we do when we meet them?��


    The hotel staff was dumbfounded.


    Zhang Heng did not answer her question. Then, suddenly, they heard an explosion. It came from under their feet. The st was so violent it was audible on the twelfth floor. The entire hotel shook and rattled on its foundations.


    The waitress almost lost her bnce. She tried to grab Zhang Heng��s arm to stabilize herself. However, thetter dodged her again. Retracting her hand awkwardly, she asked, ��What��s the matter?��


    ��The man in Room 936 fought with someone,�� Zhang Heng said.


    ��Who is it? Isn��t he fighting with the police?�� The hotel staff was puzzled.


    ��We are not from the same department.��


    ��...��


    ��Uh, is the rtionship between your department and other departments so different?��


    The waitress reluctantly squeezed out a smile on her face.


    ��No. It��s just I don��t know them well,�� Zhang Heng said casually. While he spoke, he squatted down again, studying the flower pot that had been knocked over in the corridor.


    He knew the man in Room 936 was prepared to sacrifice himself to eliminate his enemies, and he had deliberately allowed the emergency response team to deal with him. He never thought that 0 and the emergency response team would actually fall for this trap.


    The special operations team couldn��t win the battle at the station when all their members were still alive, after all. There was now only one person in room 936, about to reach the end of his road. With his exoskeleton equipment severely damaged, it would be impossible for him to go against four emergency response team members. However, Zhang Heng did not expect that thetter would eventually detonate the exoskeleton equipment��s power core.


    The previous frightful explosion had been caused by the detonation of the power core. Zhang Heng figured that even 0 had to be shaken up by a st of such magnitude, something which actually bought Zhang Heng more time.


    Zhang Heng had been flowing breadcrumbs left behind by the three special operations team members, the broken flower pots in the corridor indicating they had passed here. Although he also found the same breadcrumbs on the tenth-floor corridor, he discovered that the three switched to a different, safer route in the end.


    This time around, Zhang Heng found no such a trace at the door of another safe passage. In other words, the three members of the special operations team were most likely hiding on this floor.


    This oue surprised Zhang Heng too. Initially, he thought that the three would most likely go to the rooftop. Compared to the hotel room, the roof gave them a better chance at setting up a defense line. Moreover, based on Zhang Heng��s understanding of Mr. G, he suspected that it wasn��t a coincidence that the remaining members of the special operations team escaped into this hotel.


    It would be unsurprising if some flying equipment were prepared for them at the rooftop to help them get away from here.


    However, it now appeared that the remaining three members of the special operations team would fight their enemies here. Although their courage wasmendable, it also meant that their mission had failed. It was no longer possible for them to bring the memory encoder back to the first level.


    ��What shall we do next?�� asked the hotel staff on the side. The explosion that came from downstairs gave her a good scare. Besides, Zhang Heng mentioned to her that there were three other exoskeleton fighters. Even she noticed that the threat was getting closer to them. And she finally realized that she was a guinea pig.


    ��There��s nothing for you to do anymore. You can leave now.�� Zhang Heng thought for a moment and looked up.


    The waitress was taken aback when she heard what Zhang Heng said. She did not expect that she could leave so easily.


    After that, Zhang Heng told her again, ��A fight will be breaking out here. If you stay here, it��s about to get very dangerous. And you better don��t go downstairs. Whether you are taking an elevator or a safe passage, it��s not safe for you. There is a high possibility that you might be identally hurt.��


    ��Where should I go then?��


    ��Go up,�� Zhang Heng said. ��It��s safer if you go to a higher floor. You can go to the fourteenth floor and stay there. I will bring you away from this ce when the battle is over.��


    ��Oh, thank you, Mr. Officer.��


    After thanking him, the waitress went upstairs as fast as possible. Zhang Heng, too, finally started to act ordingly after watching her leave.


    He took the key the waitress left him, unlocked an empty room in the middle of the corridor, and put down his backpack.


    He had found the location of the remaining three special operations team members before 0. His next step was to acquire the memory encoder. His original n was to work with the three special operations team members to deal with the emergency response team because they were the strongest among the three parties. Thus, Zhang Heng was confident that he could convince them to work with him. After eliminating the emergency response team, the two sides could work something out to resolve their conflict.


    However, for some reason, Zhang Heng knew that this n was not going to work anymore. A chaotic fight was about to break out here, and his goals had changed as well.

 Chapter 1013 - Explosion And Fire

    <h4>Chapter 1013: Explosion And Fire</h4>


    0 looked at the unrecognizable room 936 in front of him that was bombed. All the furniture inside had been decimated, the halved bed frame was still burning, and the windows were blown to pieces at the moment of the explosion. In the wall was also a gaping hole, of which the wind came pouring in.


    The central point of the explosion copsed half of the roof, and under the pile of cement and bricks were broken exoskeleton equipment, with some of its parts andponents blown out of the room. To be cautious, 0 wouldn��t let any of his men open the door. Instead, he did the same thing that Zhang Heng did, and that was to find himself a little white mouse before the explosion to explore the way ahead of him. However, 0 employed more straightforward methods, not even bothering to tell the person that he was a policeman. All he did was point his gun at a hotel guest to make him open the door.


    Needless to say, this unfortunate hotel guest was the first to bear the grunt of the explosion. He was engulfed by a wall of searing mes the moment he opened the door. Momentster, he fell to the ground and stopped breathing. Even No.5, standing about seven or eight meters away from him, suffered the effects of the explosion.


    And now No.2 and No.7 were busy dealing with No.5��s shoulder and chest injuries. A finger-sized piece of metal shrapnel had struck No.5��s right shoulder, eventually getting lodged in his shoulder de. No.5 was now biting his shirt hard, watching No.2 gouge out the shrapnel from his shoulder. After that, No.7, on the other side, quickly disinfected the wounds, stitched, and sprayed on some medical gel. The whole procedure was so perfectly executed that they could easily bepared to hospital surgeons. These were all thanks to the emergency surgical knowledge incorporated into their memory.


    Meanwhile, 0, on the other side, had walked over the corpse in front of Room 936 and entered it.


    He looked around for a while before his gazended on the rubble. He spotted a ckened arm poking out from under mangled steel bars and some twisted metal upper limbs. 0 looked at it for about two seconds, then moved to another spot. No other corpses were in the room, proven by the explosion at the scene. Looking at the damage caused by the explosion, 0 deduced that the st should��ve been caused by a meltdown of the exoskeleton��s power core. Only one power core, however, had been detonated. Room 936 would��ve copsedpletely otherwise.


    0 quickly realized that he had been tricked.


    In room 936, a special operations team member decided to leave his team after his exoskeleton suffered severe damage, the reason why he chose to stay here and make his death worthwhile. 0 never considered this possibility before. He could see what Zhang Heng spotted on the wall but quickly noticed that the oil stains had been cleaned by some stain remover. Hence, his spection was shaken.


    If Room 936 was a death trap, then the person who set the trap had no reason to conceal his traces outside the room. That was because the other party��s purpose was to attract someone to take the bait. Zhang Heng had also taken away the hotel staff, who happened to be the most important witness. That caused 0 to make a wrong judgment.


    This was also 0��s second time making a wrong judgment. This time, his wrong decision caused No.5 to be injured by the explosion. Although the injuries were not life-threatening, thetter��s right arm would be out of service tonight.


    s, a rare rumble of rage ignited in 0��s heart. He had figured out the person that wiped away the stains on the wall. Although the special operations team members were disciplined and unafraid of death, they weren��t capable ofing up with such a n. There was only one person who could pull off such a move.


    And that person was Zhang Heng.


    Zhang Heng got here one step ahead of them, and he deliberately sabotaged the scene to cloud 0��s judgment. 0��s patience was almost exhausted, and he did not want to y the game with Zhang Heng anymore. He then turned around and asked No.2 beside him, ��Is the thing I want here yet?��


    Thetter nodded.


    ��It��s already installed on the elevator.��


    ��Very well. Since they like to hide so much, let��s allow them to continue hiding,�� 0 sneered.


    ...


    Zhang Heng was the first to smell that strange smell in the air. After a quick sniff, he confirmed that it was the smell of gasoline. Immediately, he realized what 0 wanted to do. He was going to destroy the floor that they were on.


    To be honest, Zhang Heng did not expect that after he tricked the emergency response team on the ninth floor, he would make 0 give up his search n. Of course, 0 never made such a decision out of anger. Someone like him would never let his emotions cloud his judgment.


    0 had actually made such a decision because both the special operations team and Zhang Heng were one step ahead of him, and they must��ve made all necessary preparations. Also, the emergency response team that arrivedst would be the most passive.


    With 0��s n to burn down the floor, he would force the special operations team and Zhang Heng out from hiding. After that, the emergency response team would be able to regain control of the situation.


    This n, however, wasn��t without its price. Other than the special operations team and Zhang Heng, there were also other guests on the twelfth floor. Although it wasn��t arge number, once the fire started, it would inevitably affect the innocent. That said, such a problem was something for the federal police downstairs to deal with.


    0 proceeded to block the elevator and another safe passage before igniting the gasoline on the ground with a lighter. When they were about to retreat into another safe passage, something unexpected happened.


    A figure wearing an exoskeleton suddenly emerged from 0��s right. Holding a rifle, the person started shooting at the four emergency response team members. Following that, another exoskeleton abruptly appeared on No. 0��s left side, partnering up with its ally to shoot at the four emergency response team members.


    0 reacted to the attack immediately, rolling sideways into the safe passage, avoiding the first wave of bullets. After that, No.2 and No.5, who were behind him, also began to fire back. Both sides were fighting fiercely in the corridor. In the meantime, the fire that 0 ignited earlier had begun to spread. Eventually, it triggered the hotel��s smoke rm.


    The emergency response teams�� marksmanship was clearly better than the two exoskeleton fighters, but the exoskeletons withstood the bullets with ease, leaving no injuries on their bearer except for a spark. After that, No.7 picked up a sniper rifle and aimed at the control panel of one of the exoskeleton fighters.


    Right before he pulled the trigger, the other party retreated into the room.

 Chapter 1014 - Last Man

    <h4>Chapter 1014: Last Man</h4>


    The sudden rm started the prelude to the battle, breaking the calm of the twelfth floor. Most of the residents on this floor were asleep, but now they were awakened from their dreams by the rm. After realizing that there was a fire, many didn��t even bother dressing up, running out of their rooms as quickly as they could. As a result, the situation in the hallway turned extremely chaotic. To make matters worse, two groups of people that came out of nowhere were shooting at each other.


    Bullets flew everywhere in the corridor, apanied by the billowing smoke. The innocent residents didn��t know whether they should return to their room or exit the building.


    On the other hand, the two special operations team members were clearly well prepared. They had already pushed the tables and refrigerators to the door as their line of defense before 0, and the others arrived here. Those items were used as their covers. When they wanted to pull the trigger, they would lean forward. As for the rest of the time, they would hide behind their cover, cing great importance on protecting the vital part of their exoskeleton.


    Although the emergency response team members had the advantage in marksmanship and firepower, they still had a hard time getting rid of their enemies.


    But even so, 0 still believed that it was only a matter of time before winning the battle, and he wasn��t worried about the two opponents in front of him. On the contrary, he was more concerned about Zhang Heng, who had not shown up until now. He was also concerned about thest special operation team member.


    If he was right, then the package should be with thest special operations team member. It would make no sense for his two teammates to engage in such a fierce battle with them otherwise. And he had not shown up until now. 0 believed that the other party wouldn��t be holding his breath for much longer.


    As the fire burned everrger, many residents started to cough and choke. Even though bullets still rained in the corridor, some still decided to escape through the safe passage. A few stronger men attempted to push the door, but their attempt was all but futile. Since it required considerable strength to push the door, it would undoubtedly increase oxygen consumption. This made a lot of them inhale a good amount of smoke.


    Seeing the men copsing while holding onto their throats, the remaining ones became more and more frightened. Finally, some of them could no longer bear the heatwave and began to rush toward another safer door.


    A woman about forty years old had not fallen asleep at such ate hour. Wearing a pair of high heels and her office suit, she looked like the rather capable sort and should be somepany executive. She came to the second level on a business trip. Before the explosion happened, she was working on writing a report. She did not expect to encounter such an unfortunate event.


    As she ran forward, she raised her hands, expecting that the people on both sides would cease firing after seeing civilians running past them. However, the reality was cruel, and the members from both parties were not exactly polite and kind.


    None of them paid any attention to her.


    No.5, No.2, and No.7 received an order that they were not supposed to let anyone live to see tomorrow on this floor. And the two special operations team members were tasked to bring the memory encoder back to the first level. Therefore, in the end, no one ceased fire.


    A stray bullet hit the poor woman in her thigh. She then staggered a few steps, trying to stand straight, but the next moment, more bullets hit her chest. And finally, she fell to the ground and stopped breathing.


    This brutal scene diminished the hopes of those thinking of escape. The fire, however, only grewrger, causing those who were trapped on the floor to be more anxious and frightened. On the other hand, the special operation team members were in an increasingly worse state. They were like sitting ducks in the center of the fire. Their exoskeleton could withstand bullets, but it certainly didn��t protect them against a zing inferno. Moreover, since the exoskeleton was made of an alloy, it was the perfect conductor for heat.


    Eventually, their exoskeleton��s temperature was higher than that of the corridor. Both of them were now sweating profusely as if they were fished out of the water.


    What was more deadly than the heatwave, however, was the dense smoke that came along with thebustion. The exoskeleton did not have an air filtration system, so the two were also breathing in the poisonous air like the residents in the corridor.


    Thanks to the excellent fire protection system in the city, and in order to save costs, most hotels on the second level did not have a gas mask ced in each room. Just as the battle was taking a bad turn for the two special operations teams, 0 received a call from a sergeant, saying that he had discovered the whereabouts of thest person of the special operations team.


    Thetter finally had to show up because he could not stand the heatwave. He crawled out of his room��s window and proceeded to crawl downstairs with the edge of the window. However, as soon as he opened the window, he was spotted by the federal police.


    This was undoubtedly good news for 0. If he deduced it right, the package was with the man outside the window. What made 0 feel a little uneasy was that, as of now, Zhang Heng��s whereabouts hadn��t yet been found.


    Considering the moves Zhang Heng pulled earlier, he was way too quiet now, leaving 0 to wonder what Zhang Heng was thinking.


    In fact, when he reached the twelfth floor, 0 was expecting Zhang Heng to join forces with the three special operations team members. No matter the conflict between Zhang Heng and Mr. G, Zhang Heng was still one of the couriers involved in this transaction. It was usible that both parties would join forces due to the critical situation.


    However, it seemed Zhang Heng didn��t pull such a move. Seeing that the special operations team members were about to lose the battle, 0 still did not know where Zhang Heng was. However, this time, 0 also learned his lesson. He no longer focused on what Zhang Heng was going to do; instead, he turned to find the optimal strategy from various situations.


    The fire in the corridor was getting fiercer, and at the same time, the two special operations team members were almost at their limit. 0 estimated that his men would be able to take them down within five minutes. However, the man who stood outside the window was their top priority of this mission. If Zhang Heng got his hands on the package first, it would be pointless for them to fight the two special operation team members in front of them.


    In the end, 0 made a decision and said to the three people around him, ��You guys stay here. If that guy appears, don��t think about how to kill him. Just make sure he can��t step through the door. Can you guys do it? ��


    ��Of course. We��ve actually wanted to meet that guy a long time ago to see if he is that powerful,�� No. 7 said.


    ��Don��t make any rash moves. After I leave, switch to a defensive formation. If we can dy him, we will win the battle.�� 0 then paused for a while before continuing, ��This fire will solve all problems for us.��

 Chapter 1015 - Armed To The Teeth

    <h4>Chapter 1015: Armed To The Teeth</h4>


    Although the federal police outside the hotel mentioned that they saw no one else climb out of the window except for thest special operations team member, 0 now had reason to suspect that Zhang Heng was no longer on the twelfth floor.


    The main reason was that the fire over there was getting bigger and bigger. If Zhang Heng continued to stay in the room, it would not end well for him. The longer he stayed on the twelfth floor, the less likely he would be able to get himself to safety. 0 would be impressed if Zhang Heng still hadn��t made a move on the twelfth floor.


    But even so, 0 still left all of his manpower on the twelfth floor. As for himself, he went hunting thest special operations team member alone. It was not because he was confident enough to deal with Zhang Heng alone.


    On the contrary, 0 chose the most conservative and safest strategy. If Zhang Heng was still on the twelfth floor and eventually joined the battle, even if three of his men failed to eliminate him, the fire would stop him from entering the safe passage. On the other hand, 0 would kill the special operations team member as quickly as possible and head back there to help his team. Even if he did not return, the raging fire would be enough to kill Zhang Heng.


    In addition, 0 had considered the possibility that Zhang Heng had left the twelfth floor. If that happened, his goal would change too. Instead of looking for a way to get his hands on the package as soon as possible, he would first deal with Zhang Heng and prevent him from getting the package. 0 was confident that he��d be able to do it. He only needed to drag on until three of his men eliminated their targets. They would thene to join him to take down Zhang Heng together. As for thest special operation team member, he shouldn��t cause much trouble to them.


    The biggest advantage of thisbat strategy was that it was flexible enough. All possibilities had been carefully ounted for, and no matter where Zhang Heng was, the one who would win the battle, in the end, would be 0 and his emergency response team.


    After arranging the next battle n, 0 received a report from the federal police downstairs that thest special operations team member had escaped into a guest room on the eighth floor.


    So, 0 hesitated for a moment before quickly rushing to the eighth floor.


    His departure made the two special operations team members feel slightly relieved. In addition, No.5, No.2, and No.7 had adopted the defensive strategy ording to the orders 0 gave out. They could clearly feel that the firepower on the opposite side had weakened, but the pressure on them had not been alleviated as of yet.


    Even though the firepower had weakened, the fire on the twelfth floor had only grown in intensity. A lot of residents lost consciousness after inhaling all that smoke. With the gruesome thought of being burned alive looming, more and more people decided to give what the female office worker did a while ago a go. Many attempted to cross the invisible bullet wall. After all,pared to being burned alive, getting shot was a relief.


    Unfortunately, none of them were able to leave the twelfth floor alive. Now, the corridor where the two parties exchanged fire had be purgatory on earth, with charred corpses strewn everywhere.


    The two special operations team members found it harder and harder to breathe. Their vision started to be blurry, and their shooting uracy deteriorated further.


    No.2 was the most courageous and the best at seizing the opportunity among the three emergency response team members. Although 0 mentioned that they should focus more on defending after he left, No.2 found it difficult to hold back after their enemies revealed their ws. Coupled with the fact that Zhang Heng had not shown up for so long, No.2��s guard was lowered. He felt that even if Zhang Heng was still on the twelfth floor, there was an 80% chance that he would be burned to death. So, he chose to shift to another position that allowed him to shoot better in the end. He silently aimed at one of the exoskeleton fighters�� control panels that the enemy carelessly exposed.


    But the next moment, No.2 did not expect that the room��s door in the middle of the corridor would suddenly open without warning. After that, No. 2 saw a man with an oxygen cylinder and an oxygen mask wearing a fireproof suit charged out.


    No. 2��s eyes snapped open. Although the person was almostpletely wrapped up, No. 2 instantly recognized the person��s identity from the small rifle in his hand. The rifle originally belonged to No.3. However, they received news not long ago that Zhang Heng eliminated the three emergency response team members at the amusement park. In other words, the person that was holding the small rifle was Zhang Heng.


    What made No. 2 curious, however, was where Zhang Heng acquired this set of professional firefighting equipment?!


    The police officers in charge of the blockade outside the hotel were not blind. It could be possible that Zhang Heng entered the hotel in police uniform, but it made no sense with such arge bag of things and an oxygen cylinder. Earlier, they thought that Zhang Heng had breathed in too much poisonous gas and had copsed. However, when they took a good look at him, they figured that he could stay here for at least an hour or two.


    The firefighting equipment that puzzled No.2 was actually made out of Lego bricks. The Barrett he assembled earlier with his Lego bricks had expired and had returned to its brick form. So, when Zhang Heng realized that 0 would set the entire floor on fire, he assembled a set of firefighting equipment with the Lego bricks.


    This was why the Infinite Building Block was so powerful. As long as Zhang Heng had a set of Lego bricks with him, he could deal with various environments and battles, not to mention how easy it was to carry around. When the Infinite Building Block was inserted into a Lego model, even an X-ray scan couldn��t tell if it was fake.


    Zhang Heng did not grant No.2 any time to react. After rushing out of the room, he instantly pulled the trigger of the rifle.


    He waited patiently for so long just to wait for the three emergency response team members to put down their guards and make a mistake. In order to snipe one of the special operations team members, No.2 chose a rtively dangerous position, which happened to be within Zhang Heng��s field of vision. Once he spotted him, it was already toote.


    The next moment a bullet urately hit his chest.


    No.2 originally wanted to block this bullet with his new-generation bulletproof vest on his body. Still, he never expected that Zhang Heng had no intention to show them any mercy. As soon as he came out of the room, he fired the special explosive bullet at him. Instead of stopping the bullet, the bulletproof vest exploded a secondter.


    Not only was thetter sent flying away by the explosion, but even No.5 and No.7 were also hit. Right after that, Zhang Heng wasted no time and aimed the small rifle at the special operations team.

 Chapter 1016 - Racing With Time

    <h4>Chapter 1016: Racing With Time</h4>


    The two special operations team members were taken aback when they saw No.2 being blown up.


    They had inhaled too much smoke, and it caused their thinking to be more sluggish. Besides, Zhang Heng was now wrapped up tighter than the mummy, the reason the team could not recognize him in the first ce. Initially, they thought Zhang Heng was someone that hade to help them.


    Until Zhang Heng pulled out his guns and aimed at his enemies, the two still couldn��t figure what just happened to them. And the next moment, Zhang Heng had already pulled the trigger without hesitation. He fired the explosive bullet at the special operations team member that was closest to him.


    Thetter��s exoskeleton provided its user with great defense. As long as the vitals weren��t hit, it could even ward off rounds from an ordinary sniper rifle. Unfortunately, the special high-explosive rounds were kryptonite to the exoskeleton. After the bullet made contact with the exoskeleton, it would explode, and the me would quickly engulf its wearer.


    In fact, if No.3 hadn��t been sent to the amusement park to deal with Zhang Heng, and the federal police hadn��t underestimated the special operations team��s firepower, the oue of the battle at the station tonight would��ve been very different. And if that happened, the four special operations team members wouldn��t even escape into the Four Continents Hotel.


    Now, Zhang Heng had taken possession of No.3��s gun. Without hesitation, he killed two enemies in front of him. It did not matter if they belonged to the special operations team or the emergency response team. His brutality alone was enough to make them all fear him.


    This was just the beginning. In total, Zhang Heng had three high-explosive rounds with him. After killing two of them, Zhang Heng left no room for hesitation and fired thest bullet at the final special operations team member. With that being said, all the special operations team members on the twelfth floor had been annihted.


    At this point in the battle, Zhang Heng no longer had any intention to work together with the special operations team members. He did not expect the other party to help him deal with the emergency response team��s firepower. Besides, the two special operations team members were about to die. They were no longer good enough to fight against the emergency response team members. And Zhang Heng could notpletely trust them as well. When he fought against the emergency response team, he would be distracted by them. Hence, Zhang Heng decided to deal with them first.


    After firing the three special bullets, Zhang Heng reloaded the gun with ordinary bullets and dashed towards the safety exit.


    The fire in the hallway had now spread all over the ce. With the entire floor filled with heavy smoke, it provided Zhang Heng with the perfect cover. Among the three emergency response team members, No.2 was killed by the explosive bullet beforending on the ground. On the other hand, No.5 and No.7 suffered only minor injuries because they stood quite far from No.2. And they immediately fired their guns at Zhang Heng, but Zhang Heng��s firepower soon suppressed them. They could not even poke their heads out.


    However, the two were clone warriors Shengtang Morgan Group had built at a high price. They possessed the perfectbat skills. Even if No.5��s arm was hurt, the line of defense they had built still managed to stop Zhang Heng from moving forward.


    No.7, however, knew all too well that they would not be able to stop Zhang Heng forever.


    Zhang Heng was totally immune to the fire. This was something that they did not expect. With the fire spreading so quickly, No.7 and No.5��s only gas masks were at risk of burning. On the contrary, Zhang Heng was fully equipped to withstand the fire, and he walked freely within the mes. The emergency response team members even started to wonder if Zhang Heng was the one that set the fire.


    No.7 immediately informed 0 downstairs about Zhang Heng��s showing up. After receiving the news, 0 asked them to hold out a little longer. It wasn��t without reason that 0 made such a decision.


    0 didn��t stay idle when Zhang Heng showed up and started killing his enemies. He managed to force thest special operations team member to a dead end. As long as he got the package first, he would deliver the package to the fifth level andplete this task.


    As for the life and death of No.7 and No.5, although both were members of his team,pleting the task was always their priority in the three years they had been with him. This was the number one rule programmed into their brains. There was no doubt about it.


    Therefore, after hanging up the call, 0 wasted no time, moving quickly toward the conference room in front of him.


    ...


    On the other side, Zhang Heng attempted to break No.5 and No.7��s defenses, but it was fruitless. Although the two were at a disadvantage, it wasn��t a problem focussing on stopping Zhang Heng from crossing their line of defense. After 0 left, the two followed his instructions strictly, trying to hold Zhang Heng off as long as possible. They knew that the special operations team member downstairs was no match to 0. Thetter woulde and join them after he dealt with him.


    But what surprised the two was that Zhang Heng started to slow down after he failed to break through the blockade twice. He then started to adopt a positional warfare strategy, slowly grasping the details that he missed in this battle.


    The advantage of this strategy allowed Zhang Heng, with Lv3 marksmanship, to defeat No.7 and No.5. However, it would take a longer time for him to get the result that he wanted.


    Considering that both sides were now racing against time, No.7 and No.5 were happy to see that Zhang Heng had resorted to such a strategy. That said, they soon had a taste of Zhang Heng��s powerful marksmanship. Zhang Heng stopped firing his guns at them, deciding instead to capture the right opportunities and only fire at the right time. With Zhang Heng moving constantly, No.7 and No.5 didn��t dare poke their heads out anymore.


    Zhang Heng��s marksmanship was simply too good. Most of the time, the bullets would fly past their cheeks. If they had lowered their heads half a secondter, they would��ve been killed instantly.


    This made No.7 and No.5 think carefully about every move they made because any small mistake would cost their lives. Over time, the psychological pressure on them grew bigger and bigger.


    In just a short time, the two were shot several times. Fortunately, the bulletproof vests they wore helped them take the brunt of the bullets. Since they could not poke their heads out, they hadpletely lost track of Zhang Heng. Theirbat experience told them that their circumstance had just gotten more dangerous. They were now blinded. It meant Zhang Heng held power to attack them whenever he wanted.


    When No.5 was about to risk it and check out the situation, he felt something warm sshing on his arm. No.5 then turned around, and to his horror, saw that No. 7��s body had fallen to the round. He could see a small bullet hole in his temple.


    It was at that time, No. 5 realized that he had lost all advantage. However, the desperate situation inspired the bravery in his heart. Immediately, he grabbed his gun and jumped out of the bunker. He then fired his gun in the direction where the bullet came from. The ferocious fire burning down this ce made him look like he was in the midst of purgatory.


    But in the end, Zhang Heng killed him with a single bullet. His lifeless body fell to the ground and turned into the fuel for the fire.

 Chapter 1017 - Fourth Person

    <h4>Chapter 1017: Fourth Person</h4>


    On the eighth floor of the Four Continents Hotel.


    Zhang Heng had already taken off his slightly bulky firefighting suit and temporarily ced it at a corner. After dealing with hisst opponent, he looked for battle traces left on each floor. And they finally led him here.


    The bullet holes in the wall and the broken door showed that a fierce battle happened here not long ago. But now that the battle was over, the corridor had gone all quiet again.


    If anyone else was in Zhang Heng��s shoes, their hearts must have sunk by now. It could mean that 0 had killed thest special operations team member, and thetter must have gotten the memory encoder ahead of him.


    After that, 0 didn��t rush to the twelfth floor to meet No.7 and No.5, which meant that he might have decided to abandon his two team members and left the hotel. Considering that Zhang Heng was a step behind 0, it was almost impossible for him to get past the federal police��s blockade and prevent 0 from boarding the shuttle to the fifth floor. Such difficulty was enough to make anyone despair.


    However, Zhang Heng himself did not seem affected. His expression hardly changed, and he had no intention to put his guard down. On the contrary, he was now more cautious than before, having to assume that 0 was on the same floor as him.


    The next moment, Zhang Heng��s ears moved, and a bullet whizzed out from behind the conference room��s half-open door. It was as though a rattlesnake hiding among the rocks had suddenly attacked its prey. However, it looked like Zhang Heng was anticipating his appearance. Zhang Heng managed to dodge the bullet one step ahead of time. He then dashed toward the door in front of a room and used the protruding wall as his cover. As for the ce where he stood earlier, there was now a bullet hole on the wall.


    0 snorted, and his voice came from the conference room. He sounded anxious.


    ��How did you know I��m still here?��


    ��I killed almost all the members of your squad. Of course, I have to assume that their captain will avenge them,�� Zhang Heng said.


    ��You��re lying. You know the package is not here, right?��


    0 did not believe a single word Zhang Heng told him. The reason was simple. Zhang Heng did not look like he was in a rush from the very beginning. Whether it was the battle at the higher floor or the time of his arrival at the eighth floor, they were longer than 0 estimated. And Zhang Heng acted slow and steady. He definitely did not look like he was racing against time.


    0 then tried to think like Zhang Heng again. If he were Zhang Heng, he would try to go down to the eighth floor to grab the package while the two special operations team were fighting with No.2, No.5, and No. 7. The fact that Zhang Heng was on took 0 by surprise.


    ��What��s going on? Did you not find the package? That��s a real shame,�� Zhang Heng said as he fired two shots at the conference room. One of the shots hit the door panel, and another shot flew into the door��s crack. Unfortunately, it failed to hit the target.


    ��How did you know that the package is not with the special operations team?�� After a while, 0 spoke again.


    This was also the thing that puzzled 0. There were four special operations team members who fled into the Four Continents Hotel. And now, all four of them were dead. However, the package was still nowhere to be found. Among them, the man in Room 936 did not want to live anymore. And he wanted to bring a few enemies down with him before he died. That said, the package was definitely not with him. And the two special operations team on the twelfth floor were prepared to sacrifice themselves as well. They wanted to buy more time for theirst ally. After staying in the sea of mes for so long, their fates were sealed. From this point of view, thest special operation team member should be carrying the package. However, after 0 killed him, it turned out the package wasn��t on him.


    Nothing made sense to him thus far. Could it be the special operations team had gone crazy and ced the package with the man who was about tomit suicide in Room 936?


    Something suddenly struck 0. ��The guy who died in Room 936... Is he from the special operations team?��


    After that, 0 tried to recall the situation in the room at that time. The explosion was indeed caused by the detonation of the exoskeleton��s power core. And they found the body in the ruins too. Unfortunately, the person was standing at the center of the explosion. Hence, his face waspletely unrecognizable. They could only identify the person as a female. Under such a circumstance, everyone would assume the deceased to be a special operations team member.


    As he racked his brains, 0 suddenly realized that the exoskeleton could be taken off from the user. So, if there were another person in the room when the explosion happened, everything would make perfect sense.


    In other words, the number of the special operations team who died in the battle was not four but three. Thest member was still alive. The package was definitely with that person.


    Zhang Heng did not answer 0��s question. As he talked, he fired another two bullets at him.


    0 had gotten the answer that he wanted.


    There was nothing 0 could do about it. Zhang Heng had gone to the ninth floor before him. Thus, 0 realized that Zhang Heng must have found something other than the oil stains on the wall.


    However, it was toote to think about such a thing now. 0 had to focus on the battle between him and Zhang Heng. He had to get rid of Zhang Heng first before going after thest special operations member and retrieving the package.


    However, 0 also knew how difficult it could be. No one in the entire New Shanghai 0297 knew how strong Zhang Heng was other than him. As thetter said, he almost killed the entire emergency response team by himself. Such a tragedy had never happened in the history of the emergency response team.


    Now that 0 had lost all his team members, the battle n he came up with was scrapped. This final battle had be a heads-up match between him and Zhang Heng.


    However, 0 did not lose confidence. As the captain of the emergency response team, he was the strongest among all the team members. By strongest, it did not just refer to his overall strength but also hisbat abilities.


    As team trump card, 0 naturally had to act like one. The next moment, he raised the gun in his hand again and fired at Zhang Heng. Neither side spoke to each other anymore; only the constant bangs and pops of the guns were audible.

 Chapter 1018 - 0.1 Seconds

    <h4>Chapter 1018: 0.1 Seconds</h4>


    The battle between Zhang Heng and 0 was less intense than the previous battle. However, its circumstances were far more dangerous. Like Zhang Heng, 0 too should have reached Lv3 marksmanship. The only thing that ced Zhang Heng at a disadvantage was his slower shooting speedpared to 0. Zhang Heng first learned how to shoot from Simon, but the ce he got to practice his marksmanship was the quest he got sent to western America. From there, he learned how to draw guns and fire them as fast as possible.


    In the first two minutes of the battle, Zhang Heng and 0 were evenly matched, where both sides adopted the same strategies and rhythm. Even the consumption of bullets was simr. After that, Zhang Heng chose apletely differentbat strategy against No.5 and No.7. He deliberately increased his rate of fire. In contrast, 0��s reaction was slower than usual. After being pressured by Zhang Heng, he realized that Zhang Heng had disrupted his battle rhythm. He, too, started intentionally slowing down his firing rate, intending to buy himself some time and regain the judgment and precision he had in his previous battle.


    The battle between the two was no longer about their marksmanship. It now leaned more toward their ability to read their opponent and control the game.


    But what surprised 0 was that Zhang Heng��sbat experience wasn��t inferior to his. Unlikebat skills, although battle experience could be written into their memory, it provided nothing except the ability to use those skills, especially the rhythm of battle and the ability to read it. All these abstract things were difficult to exin through a single battle.


    After all, written memories did not make a person omnipotent. If the person who wrote the memories for themckedbat experience, it also meant their creator would have no way to make the clones understand what they did not know how to describe and define.


    0, however, was a rare clone who had broken through his shackles. In addition to his solid learning ability, he hadpleted hundreds of missions that provided him with enoughbat experience. 0 always felt that he was the clone with the mostbat experience until he met Zhang Heng.


    Although 0 still failed to figure out what had actually happened to Zhang Heng, the impact of that wasn��t as big as this battle. It had even shaken his worldview. 0 could not imagine how Zhang Heng umted so muchbat experience at such a young age. He looked like he had started fighting since he was born, with decades ofbat experience.


    Although 0 had worked as hard as he could and perfectly executed all his given tasks, he still felt that Zhang Heng was slowly gaining victory. And there was nothing he could do about it.


    He also felt like he was stepping into a swamp, and he could only let himself sink further. 0 knew that both sides were reaching their limit soon. The gap in their strength would then determine the course of this battle.


    The real turning point of the battle came from the breaking of the conference room��s door. The door was already damaged during 0��s battle with thest special operations team member. After another onught of bullets, it was nowpletely destroyed.


    Instead of retreating, 0 chose to move forward, not looking for cover before charging out of the conference room. He realized that if he decided to fight against Zhang Heng with an orthodoxbat method, the battle would go nowhere. Instead, he decided to risk his life by moving quickly and unpredictably to dodge some of the bullets. As for the bullets, he couldn��t dodge. His bulletproof vest would absorb the damage.


    At the same time, 0 was getting closer to Zhang Heng, and he also realized that he could lose his life. In order to not get hit, he moved in an extremely bizarre way. It caused him to be unable to control the direction he moved, and any stray bullets that came his way could potentially end his life.


    But tonight, the God of Destiny seemed to be on his side. 0 dashed all the way to a spot only ten steps away from Zhang Heng. And he wasn��t hit by any bullets. At the same time, he counted the number of shots that Zhang Heng had fired. When he counted to a certain number, 0 made an extremely crazy move: he suddenly stopped moving.


    Zhang Heng wasn��t one to let such a golden opportunity slip off his hand. The next second, 0 stretched out his right hand to grab a piece of the metal shell from the exoskeleton to block Zhang Heng��s shooting.


    After that, he pulled the trigger again, but he found out that there were no bullets left in his rifle.


    0��s eyes lit up. He knew that the golden opportunity he had been waiting for was finally here. He threw away the alloy shell in his hand, and at the same time, aimed his gun at Zhang Heng. And he was about to pull the trigger.


    Given another 0.1 seconds, he would��ve been able to eliminate Zhang Heng.


    Unfortunately, 0 did not have the chance to make use of that 0.1 seconds.


    Zhang Heng remained unworried after realizing that his rifle was out of bullets. He directly drew the pistol from his waist, a trick he performed many times in the quest hepleted.


    The cowboys�� duel was all about speed, and Zhang Heng would always be the fastest person to draw a gun. This time was no exception.


    The moment 0 was about to pull the trigger, Zhang Heng had already sent a bullet to the spot between 0��s eyebrows.


    This 0.1 second had determined who lived and who died in this battle.


    The joy in 0��s eyes was forever frozen, and he would never be able to pull the trigger. After ending this mentally exhausting battle, Zhang Heng let out a long sigh of relief. In all fairness, the emergency response team did bring him a lot of trouble, especially 0, their captain. It was rare that a one-on-one battle could bring so much threat to Zhang Heng.


    However, it was not the time for him to rx yet because Zhang Heng had not gotten the memory encoder yet. But the good news was that he knew where to get it. Zhang Heng then put on the fire suit again. The fire had nowpletely spread to the entire floor, not only on the twelfth floor but also on the two adjacent floors.


    Zhang Heng climbed up to the fourteenth floor. The fire there was not too widespread yet. However, the smoke on this floor was very thick. After that, Zhang Heng went around and searched room by room, but he did not manage to find the female hotel staff that came to this floor to seek refuge. And he finally cast his gaze on the small door to the rooftop.


    Zhang Heng tried to push it from below, managing to open it easily, and he saw her hiding behind the water tower. The terrifying fire had traumatized her, and she did not know where else she could hide. When she saw Zhang Henging to her while taking off his oxygen mask, her eyes lit up, overjoyed.

 Chapter 1019 - Opportunity

    <h4>Chapter 1019: Opportunity</h4>


    ��Is the battle over, Mr. Policeman?�� the hotel staff asked.


    ��Yes. The battle is over, but you should also know that I am not a policeman.�� Zhang Heng paused and then said, ��Where is the package?��


    ��What package?�� The waiter was at a loss.


    ��The goods to be traded tonight. All your three allies are dead. In other words, the package is definitely with you.�� Zhang Heng said casually.


    The hotel staff��s expression changed slightly when she heard what Zhang Heng said. She then took a short step back and calmly said, ��I don��t know what you mean, Mr. Policeman... I am a waitress at the Four Continents Hotel, and I have more than threepanions.��


    ��No. You are not hotel staff,�� Zhang Heng said. ��I was suspicious of you the first time I met you. Although you did not show any fear and panic, your temperament was nothing like hotel staff.��


    ording to your statement, you ran into a man wearing an exoskeleton in the corridor, but the other party ignored you and let you go. This is very strange. If the exoskeleton fighter wanted the death trap to work in Room 936, he wouldn��t be letting you live.��


    ��Maybe... because I��m just a hotel staff that nobody cares about. I carry no threat. I think he showed me mercy and let me live,�� the hotel staff smiled reluctantly.


    ��Impossible. Those men are all fanatical believers of Mr. G. They are willing to sacrifice their lives to achieve the ideal world that Mr. G wants to create. It makes no sense for them to care about the life or death of an insignificant person,�� Zhang Heng said. ��To further confirm that you are no more than a hotel staff, I asked you to go to the linen room to get the stain remover.��


    ��And I did do that for you.�� The waitress widened her beady eyes, looking innocent.


    ��Yes, but you took too long toplete such a simple task,�� Zhang Heng said. ��If you are really a staff, you should know where the detergent is. Even if the smoke in the room had not dispersed, you took too long to get what I asked for.��


    The girl was finally speechless this time.


    Zhang Heng continued, ��But at first, I didn��t expect you to be one of the four who fled into the hotel. I originally thought you were the person Mr. G assigned to help the special operations team in the hotel. After that, I found out that the other three special operations team members didn��t go to the rood. Instead, they stayed on the twelfth floor even though it would cost their lives. It was at that time I started to doubt your identity.��


    The hotel staff did not speak. Instead, she waited for Zhang Heng to continue.


    And thetter did not disappoint. He continued, ��Now, I can probably deduce what happened after the special operations team fled into the hotel. At that time, your exoskeleton equipment was seriously damaged. You did think of sacrificing yourself to buy your allies more time. However, you changed your mind after that because you realized that even if you sacrifice yourself, you still can��t change the fact that this was going to be a dead-end for you guys.��


    ��When the special operations team was in a disadvantaged position, and your guys had no way to escape, you or apanion of yours came up with a dangerous move. Since all four of you can��t escape the hotel, it would be better to die here together,�� Zhang Heng said. ��Of course, you don��t really want to die here. No one would be able to send the package to the first floor otherwise. One of you would feign death to confuse the enemies. If it went well, the package would be delivered to the first floor. And this delivery person is you.��


    ��Why me?�� the staff asked.


    ��I don��t know which of the four of you are better or who is more courageous. The reason your team chose you to be the courier is very simple. You are the only woman among the four, making it easier for you to exchange identities with the hotel staff. In addition, your exoskeleton has been severely damaged. You had enough reason to leave your team and detonate the exoskeleton. The corpse in Room 936, however, is not you. It belongs to the real hotel staff on this floor.


    ��You either knocked her out or killed her. After that, you put your own exoskeleton on her body. Then, one of your tech-savvypanions modified the detonating device to turn the power core into a state that can be remotely detonated. Once that was done, you changed into the hotel staff��s clothes, who you either knocked out or killed. That��s how youpleted the identity exchange. As for the three people on the twelfth floor, they were left here to die. Whether it was the two members who stayed to fight the emergency response team or the one who climbed out the window and escaped, they were all trying to cover up the fact that you are still alive. But you are too naive.��


    ��What do you mean?�� The hotel staff frowned.


    ��I know what you did on the ninth floor. You probably took the initiative to tell them about the situation in Room 936 when the emergency response team came up to make your identity more believable. You should be thankful that you met me. Although your n was not bad, the execution of it was rather poor. If I can see through you, I bet 0 could do the same as well. If you didn��t meet me, you would��ve fallen into the hands of the emergency response team.��


    ��So should I thank you for saving me?�� The hotel staff sneered. ��I know who you are. You are one of the ten couriers. I heard Miss F values you very much. I bet she will be disappointed if she knows what you did. If it weren��t for your cowardice and despicable means to divert the attention of the emergency response team and send them to us, it wouldn��t be too hard to execute our n.��


    Zhang Heng was nomittal. ��I respect your personal choices and all the efforts you have made to change the circumstance. I don��t want to judge the paths that you chose as well. In fact, I didn��te to you for a fight. Considering Mr. G and I have a lot of conflicts and misunderstandings, I just want to have a good chat with him.��


    ��Well, you can start by protecting me. We can go back to the first level together. And you will get the chance to see Mr. G again.��


    ��I��m sorry. For the sake of Ms. F, I once epted the opportunity offered by Mr. G. But as you can see, it did not end well for me.�� Zhang Heng raised his eyebrows, ��So, now it��s the time to change the way ofmunication with him. It��s my turn to offer him the opportunity. And you seem to have misunderstood something. I will go back to the first level, but I don��t n to take you with me.��


    The hotel staff��s face changed. ��Then I have no reason to hand over the goods to you.��


    ��No, you will hand over the goods to me.�� Zhang Heng said calmly. Just as the two were talking, the fire had spread to the rooftops.


    ��You can��t leave this ce anymore. Just hand me the package. At least Mr. G still has the opportunity to negotiate with me. If you fail to deliver the package, it will be burned down alongside you. Even if you call Mr. G now, I bet he will ask you to hand over the package to me.��

 Chapter 1020 - You Will Know Soon

    <h4>Chapter 1020: You Will Know Soon</h4>


    Zhang Heng��s words caused the staff to grit her teeth in anger.


    But she had to admit that what Zhang Heng said was the truth. The special operations team��s only goal tonight was to bring the package back to the first floor. To achieve this goal, they were even willing to sacrifice their lives. This was indeed a very noble idea.


    However, she did not expect that this belief would one day be turned into a weapon against her. Zhang Heng made it clear that he had no intention to bring her back to the first floor. He also told her that she would die here tonight. Hence, he asked her to hand over the package.


    What frustrated her even more, was that she found that she had no reason to refuse Zhang Heng��s offer. After holding back a long time, she finally asked, ��After I pass the package to you, are you sure you can get past the federal police��s blockade?��


    ��This problem doesn��t concern you,�� Zhang Heng replied casually.


    She was rendered speechless, but she had no intention to give up. ��Promise me that you will deliver the goods to Mr. G.��


    By this time, she had softened up. And Zhang Heng felt that she was begging him.


    He, however, shook his head. ��I won��t guarantee anything. Okay, time��s almost up. Give me the package.��


    At this time, the mes had already spread to the rooftops. The thick smoke that came with the fire almost surrounded the entire Four Continents Hotel. This greatly frustrated thest special operations team member. After all, they had paid a huge price and sacrificed countless allies to get to where they were now. They were only one step away frompleting the task, but in the end, everything that they had done was in vain. She was also unhappy that Zhang Heng was the one to reap what they sowed. To her, he was someone selfish and without belief. Logically speaking, she had to hand over the package to Zhang Heng. However, she still had not made any move.


    And Zhang Heng seemed to have figured out what she was thinking. He then raised her eyebrows and said unceremoniously, ��Do you really think you guyssted until now because of those so-called lofty ideals? Without me, every single one of you would��ve been wiped out at the station.��


    After hearing what Zhang Heng said, she lost all her strength like a deted balloon. This was perhaps the thing that bothered her. They had been working hard from the beginning to the end, and they were not afraid of death. But, unfortunately, their effort did not help much in this matter. As Zhang Heng said, the entire emergency response team was killed by him singlehandedly. The special operations team could not do anything about them.


    They outnumbered the five members of the emergency response team at the station, yet still failed to defeat them. Eventually, they were being forced to flee into the hotel. If Zhang Heng had not arrived in time, Shengtang Morgan Group might have taken possession of the package.


    Thest special operations team member did not say a word about it. Instead, she climbed up the water tower, grabbed a finger-sized metal rod from the top, and ced it in Zhang Heng��s hand.


    This surprised Zhang Heng a little.��This is it?��


    ��It seems you know what��s in the package. The memory encoder��s core is only this big. However, its internal structure is quite sophisticated. As of now, there is only onepany capable of producing it. You will need to use it with a piece of certain equipment. Fortunately, the equipment is not that hard to manufacture.��


    ��It seems you guys have spent a long time preparing for this.��


    Zhang Heng epted the finger-sized metal rod and put it in his backpack without inspecting it.


    He was not worried that she would give him a fake. As Zhang Heng said, the fire had spread to the rooftop, and it was the end of the journey for her. If she did not hand over the memory encoder to Zhang Heng, it would most probably be destroyed in this fire.


    For those determined to change New Shanghai 0297, the entire n would fall apart if the memory encoder turned to ashes. Unfortunately, this was a price they could not afford to pay.


    After handing over the memory encoder to Zhang Heng, she seemed relieved. She knew that she had done everything she could tonight, and as for whether Zhang Heng would give the memory encoder to Mr. G or what deals he would strike with him, those things were no longer under her control.


    After she came to her senses, the pressure on her shoulders was lifted. She looked at Zhang Heng again. ��You have got what you want. How do you n to leave this hotel?��


    ��You will know soon.��


    Zhang Heng then took out a gas mask he acquired from the emergency response team from his backpack. He then tossed it to the special operations team member and said calmly, ��I told you that I wouldn��t bring you with me, but you and your people have helped me preserve the memory encoder until now. The emergency response team did not even get toy their fingers on it. Consider this gas mask as a gift from me to you. However, the fire is now out of control. Even if you have this gas mask with you, your chances of surviving are no more than 20%. So, I wish you good luck.��


    After Zhang Heng finished, he took off his oxygen mask.


    And the special operations team member saw a scene she would never forget. She witnessed a pair of ck wings suddenly stretching out from Zhang Heng��s back.


    When she first saw it, the special operations team member thought that the poisonous smoke caused her to hallucinate. But the next moment, she realized that the pair of wings did exist, and they were made of shadows. They looked as if they��d been created by some very realistic projection technology. However, when she wanted to take a closer look, Zhang Heng had moved the pair of ck wings behind him. After that, he jumped off the roof and flew into the thick smoke.


    She did not expect Zhang Heng, who seemed extremely sensible, would make such a suicidal move. And she was shocked to her core, especially when she thought that the memory encoder was still with him.


    So, she rushed to the side of the rooftop with the risk of inhaling the poisonous smoke. She then looked down. However, the entire Four Continents Hotel was now surrounded by thick smoke and she couldn��t see a single thing. After sticking out her head for a few seconds, she started coughing violently. In the end, she had to step back, pick up the gas mask on the ground, and put it on.


    On the other side, Zhang Heng had already flown a great distance in the thick smoke. In order to avoid being spotted by the federal police downstairs, he deliberately flew higher. Protected by an oxygen mask made with the Infinite Building Block, he also had the Filter Lens that allowed him to navigate urately in the thick smoke.


    Finally, Zhang Heng left Hour Continents Hotel secretly without anyone knowing. Twelve secondster, the Shadow Wings on Zhang Heng��s back disappeared, causing him tond on the roof of the office building next door.

 Chapter 1021 - Third Passenger

    <h4>Chapter 1021: Third Passenger</h4>


    Only two hours after the zing inferno on the roof of the Four Continents Hotel was put out, the police officerspleted the investigation on all the survivors. While the fire burned, the Four Continents Hotel was surrounded by police officers. There was no second exit, so by subtracting the survivors from the people who entered the hotel, the police would get the number of fire casualties.


    In the end, the authorities determined that the four special operations team members and the four emergency response team members, Zhang Heng included, were killed in the fire. Other than that, all residents on the twelfth floor had been killed, and some on the thirteenth and fourteenth floors.


    The authorities were still counting the number of casualties in the fire, and during the preliminary investigation, they found that at least sixty people had been killed. Some bodies were lost forever, while others were difficult to identify. The authorities could only identify them through a DNA test.


    The newspapers sent their reporters to the scene as soon as they got the news. This was probably the biggest fire in New Shanghai 0297 since itspletion. Generally, after an ident of such a magnitude, the public hoped to find the quarters responsible for the fire. The authorities, however, still hadn��t identified the arsonist, and the party that they could me right now was the poor fire-suppression system on the second level. For some unknown reason, the always efficient fire brigade was almost an hourte to the scene.


    Therefore, many media had already thought about the following headline for the next few days: the fire protection system. After another hour, the lockdown at the station was finally lifted, and the central shuttle began to resume its operations as well.


    Zhang Heng then bought two tickets with a fake citizen ID and traveled back to the first level with Feng Zi.


    Before arriving at the first level, Zhang Heng sent an encrypted email to Mr. G to inform him of their location in advance.


    As a result, as soon as the two left the arrival hall, a ck MPV was parked in front of them.


    When the car door opened, a group of heavily armed men in ck came out of the car and surrounded the two of them. Immediately, everyone else at the station stopped what they were doing and moved towards Zhang Heng and Feng Zi. At least one hundred people were estimated to be watching.


    Feng Zi looked around and raised her eyebrows, ��Don��t you have the thing with you? I thought the people here would wee you.��


    ��They do wee us. However, their way of weing us is special,�� Zhang Heng said. Unlike Feng Zi, he did not look at other people. He had his eyes set on the man who came down from the co-pilot seat.


    Thetter was one of Mr. G��s most trusted bodyguards. Besides protecting Mr. G, he was also responsible for managing other bodyguards and helping Mr. Gplete essential tasks. The people around Mr. G called him Director Zheng.


    Director Zheng gave a slight bow at Zhang Heng and Feng Zi. ��Mr. Zhang, Miss Xia.��


    ��How do you know my name?�� Feng Zi looked a little surprised.


    ��You are our guest. When you came to our level as a guest, we, of course, had to investigate you in advance. Moreover, your name has spread throughout the second level tonight. So it is difficult for anyone not to know about you,�� Director Zheng replied.


    ��Really? Is that a good or a bad thing?��


    ��It depends on how you look at this,�� Zheng Zheng said.


    ��How should I put it. I am now wanted by the entire city, and I can never return to the second level. I don��t think there are any positive aspects.��


    ��You may have been abandoned by the old world, but because of what you��ve done, you can board the ship that sails to the new world.��


    ��And where is this new world?�� Feng Zi rolled her eyes.


    Director Zheng then pointed at the ck MPV behind him. ��We have been working hard to build it. If you want, we can show it to youter.��


    Feng Zi looked at Zhang Heng. After getting thetter��s permission, the two got into the ck MPV together. After that, all the armed men were dismissed after Zhang Heng and Feng Zi entered the car.


    ��I��ve heard people talk about Mr. G before, and I heard that he is very powerful on the first level. He is so powerful that even the Shengtang Morgan Group can��t do anything about him. I thought he was some kind of hero. To my surprise, his way of doing things is no different from a gang leader. He relies on the many men he has to drive fear into others,�� Feng Zi said directly.


    Director Zheng was not angry when he heard what Feng Zi said. Instead, he exined patiently, ��From the ancient time to the present, every deed we do is inseparable from people. The most important thing for someone who has a grand n is to unite and organize his people first. With more people being gathered, it will prove that the person is extremely capable.��


    Feng Zi was rendered speechless. Zhang Heng, beside her, answered, ��If gathering more people makes Mr. G more powerful, he doesn��t have to see me again tonight. He could have just waited for his people to bring the memory encoder back to him.��


    This time, it was Director Zheng��s turn to be silent. After a while, he said candidly, ��This time, we did something wrong. Whether you believe Mr. Zhang or not, I did try to persuade Mr. G to let you be the person in charge of this express delivery. However, it was hard for Mr. G too... A man in his position has to be cautious in everything. There are only a few people who he can trust because betrayal is somon now.��


    Zhang Heng was toozy to argue with Director Zheng on this. So, he said directly, ��Let Mr. Ge and talk to me.��


    ��Of course. We are here to pick you and Ms. Feng from the station tonight. After that, we will bring you to meet Mr. G. But before that, I don��t know if you two mind if I take a little detour and pick up another person?��


    ��Feel free to do so,�� Zhang Heng said lightly.


    Fifteen minutester, the ck MPV stopped in front of a residentialplex��s gate. Director Zheng bowed at Zhang Heng and Feng Zi to excuse himself. After that, they got out of the car with the driver drawing his guns from his waist.


    After a while, Zhang Heng heard two gunshots, followed by a woman��s hysterical scream. Another gunshotter, the screams died, and the ce regained its previous tranquility.


    Five minutester, Director Zheng and the driver dragged a man with tied hands and feet out of the darkness. Together, they tossed the man at Zhang Heng��s and Feng Zi��s feet. They then pped their hands and said, ��Everyone is here now.��


    Zhang Heng then looked down and found that the hapless guy lying on the ground turned out to be another bodyguard who used to work for Mr. G. It looked like he was sleeping in his house when they grabbed him. He had never expected his ex-colleagues to break into this house, kill his family members, and tie him up.

 Chapter 1022 - Chances

    <h4>Chapter 1022: Chances</h4>


    ��So he��s the mole Shengtang Morgan Group nted?�� Zhang Heng asked.


    When Zhang Heng asked the question, Director Zheng and the driver had returned to the car. After closing the door, Director Zheng looked a little surprised. ��It seems you already know what��s going on. Initially, I nned to let Mr. G tell you about it.��


    ��Yes, that��s right, he is the mole, he continued after a pause. ��Although many people work for Mr. G, not every one of us believes in the future Mr. G wants to build. We are now walking on a road of thorns, and the faith of some would inevitably be shaken. Other than the first level, our opponent, Shengtang Morgan Group, could draw resources from the entire Shanghai 0297. They often offer bargaining chips hard to refuse.��


    Director Zheng nced at his ex-colleague on the ground.


    ��Unfortunately, his conviction was not firm enough, and he eventually lost to his greed.��


    ��I told you that I��m not driven by greed. They found me first and threatened me with my daughter, son, and wife. I was forced to work for them!�� The bodyguard on the ground became emotional. ��We have known each other for so long. You should have known what kind of person I am. I will not betray Mr. G because of money. As for you guys, you know that the people from Shengtang Morgan approached me, right? As a result, not only did you not provide me with protection, but you used me to provide false information to them. You even killed my daughter, son, and wife afterward!��


    Director Zheng shook his head. ��We did give you a chance to confess your crime. Just the day after Shengtang Morgan Group bought you over, I asked you several times if you have had any trouble in your life recently. But all you told me was you��re arguing with your wife if you should send your child to the elementary school at the third level.��


    ��A weekter, we went to investigate the Bosozoku. I once again hinted at you euphemistically. I told you that no matter what mistakes you��ve made, it is not toote to turn back. However, you have no intention to tell us everything honestly. And you even asked me why I became so naggy recently. Two hours ago, I emailed you and asked you to have barbecued food with me at a restaurant. However, you told me that you wanted to put your daughter to sleep.��


    ��Stop lying that I never gave you a chance to turn back to us. Your family could have survived, but in the end, they died because of you. That��s right! You are the real murderer who killed them. Not me or Mr. G.,�� Director Zheng said coldly.


    His words were like a sharp knife stabbing the chest of the man on the ground. In the end, he broke down and cried, ��I... I really didn��t expect this matter would take a worse turn.��


    ��Yes. We always assume that we can get lucky. This is one of the ws in our human genes. In the end, we all need to pay the price.��


    ��Give me another chance,�� the man on the ground pleaded, ��I am not afraid of death, but I am not willing to die as a traitor. I would be embarrassed to face my family if I die like that. Like everyone, I firmly believe that that day wille. My faith is just as strong as everyone. I don��t expect to return to Mr. G to continue to protect his safety, but now it��s time you guys need more manpower. I believe that there will be a job that suits me. Yes, even if I have to sacrifice my life, I will not take a step back!��


    ��I can��t call the shots on this matter. I��d better wait for you to meet Mr. G and ask him directly,�� Director Zheng said, ��My task tonight is to send you to him.��


    Feng Zi, on the side, waspletely surprised by the conversation between the two. After a while, she pulled someone��s clothes and whispered, ��What the hell is going on? I thought the promise of a better future is just a slogan that they use to deceive outsiders?��


    ��No, what they are saying is true. But the future is probably not as good as most of them think,�� Zhang Heng said casually.


    ...


    The ck MPV finally stopped outside a private garden that Zhang Heng had visited before.


    And Mr. G was sitting at the table where he met Zhang Hengst time. He was holding a teacup in his hand. Although it waste, he was still neatly dressed, and there was not a hint of sleepiness on his face.


    What was going to happen tonight was too important to him. Even if he was lying in bed, he would not be able to shut his eyes, especially when thest person on the special operations team lost contact with him. At that time, not even Director Zheng dared to approach him.


    It was not until he received another email from Zhang Heng that Mr. G��s mood improved again. And now, when he saw Zhang Heng again, the look in his eyes became a little moreplicated. He had too many questions to ask Zhang Heng. For instance, how did thetter kill all of the emergency response team by himself, how did he forcibly snatch the memory encoder from his special operations team, and how did he get out from the burning Four Continents Hotel? However, all these questions didn��t seem that important anymore. In the end, Mr. G only said three words.


    ��Please sit down.��


    Director Zheng pulled the chairs out for Zhang Heng and Feng Zi. After that, he pushed the bodyguard who betrayed Mr. G to his feet. However, Mr. G did not look at thetter. He ced his hands on the table and looked into Zhang Heng��s eyes.


    ��Well, I admit that you have won this round. Let��s negotiate.��


    ��I need you to extract the tracking device from my head.��


    ��No problem,�� agreed Mr. G. ��You deserve it.��


    Zhang Heng then pointed at Feng Zi. ��She is wanted in the city now, and she needs a new identity to start over. Other than that, you��d better help me prepare a new identity as well because one of my friends might need it. ��


    ��Are you talking about the female streamer you live with? No problem, in fact, as long as I get what I want, not only can I give them new identities, but I can also let them live on the fifth floor.��


    ��Lastly, I want fifty shec records. Collect them for me before you make any move,�� Zhang Heng continued.


    This time, Mr. G was taken aback, ��Shec records... what are those?��


    After that, Director Zheng whispered something into Mr. G��s ear. Mr. G then frowned. ��You are collecting this kind of outdated records? Why?��


    ��There is no reason why. I just want them. They make me happy,�� Zhang Heng said.


    ��I��m fine with all your conditions so far. As for thest one, I am not sure if I can find so many shec records for you in such a short time. Although they are not valuable, they are indeed scarce. Maybe you can give me more time to find the shec records for you.��


    ��No. You seem like you need a better idea of what��s happening right now. I am not here to negotiate with you.�� Zhang Heng did not avoid Mr. G��s gaze, ��Earlier, you gave me a chance to be your courier. Now, I��m also giving you a chance to do these three things that I asked for. After that, I will consider giving you the memory encoder.��

 Chapter 1023 - Threatening

    <h4>Chapter 1023: Threatening</h4>


    Zhang Heng��s words silenced the entire garden.


    The polite look on Mr. G��s face disappeared as well. Instead of answering Zhang Heng immediately, he looked at the traitor bodyguard at his feet and said to thetter, ��You have been with me for three years. You know I hate traitors the most. Why would you do something like that to me? I��m very disappointed in you.��


    ��I know that I made a mistake, and I��m not asking for your forgiveness. I just want you to give me another chance to make up for my mistakes,�� the traitor bodyguard pleaded.


    ��But what you have done is not a small mistake,�� Mr. G said casually. ��You were here the other day, and you witnessed Mr. Zhang Heng defeating all my men toplete the test. However, even if Mr. Zhang Heng performed so well due to your existence, I still couldn��t hand over this important task to him. In the end, lots of misunderstandings happened between us. We can��t even trust each other.��


    ��I...�� The traitor bodyguard was left speechless.


    ��It��s not that I��m not willing to give you another opportunity, but you should��ve been very clear about how important it is for us to acquire the goods. In fact, without the goods, our n can��t go on. How could I give you another chance?�� Mr. G put down the teacup he held.


    The traitor bodyguard looked panicked.


    ��In addition, I would like to remind you that you have asked the wrong person. Mr. Zhang Heng next to you is the key to the survival of our business. Begging him will be better.��


    The traitor bodyguard��s hopes to live reignited. Immediately, he cast his expectant gaze on Zhang Heng. Before he could say anything, Zhang Heng said calmly, ��I really like that phrase I heard while I was on the way here. We all need to pay for what we have done.��


    After talking, Zhang Heng made a please gesture.


    Mr. G squinted, not saying a word. He then drew the pistol from Director Zheng��s waist and fired at the traitor��s bodyguard��s head before everyone could react.


    Thetter��s body fell to the ground, the guard��s blood sttering at the corners of Zhang Heng��s clothes. After that, Mr. G pointed his gun at Feng Zi.


    ��Mr. Zhang, your heart is harder than I thought. What about her? I heard she helped you a lot tonight?��


    ��If youy a finger on her, you will never get to see the memory encoder again.�� Zhang Heng��s tone remained calm. However, everyone knew that he was threatening Mr. G., And it was no doubt that he would stick to his words.


    ��I hate that this matter is going in this direction,�� Mr. G said. ��Whether you believe it or not, I personally hate violence very much. However, sometimes, when the road to peace fails, we have to try to resort to violence.��


    ��When you say that your so-called road to peace is not going to work, does it mean that your request was rejected?�� Zhang Heng asked rhetorically.


    Mr. G said coldly, ��Should I remind you? It was you who sent me an email saying that you want to talk about the memory encoder. I agreed to it. I even asked someone to pick you up at the station and invite you here. I agreed with all your requests, and I showed you my sincerity as well. On the other hand, you showed me zero politeness when you negotiated. Let me remind you that you are at my turf.��


    ��Well, I can see that you work very hard here,�� Zhang Heng ignored the gun in Mr. G��s hand. He then lifted the teapot on the table and poured a cup of tea for Feng Zi and himself before continuing.


    ��You are worried that I might hide the memory encoder when I returned to the first level. That��s why you sent your men to the station��s entrance to make sure I can��t y any tricks. While I was on the way here, your men took a detour to the traitor bodyguard��s residence. By killing his family, you indirectly warned me of what would happen if I go against you. After that, you med your bodyguard for the fact that you can��t trust me. The traitor bodyguard was hoping that I would show him mercy. After you found out that I didn��t sympathize with him, you decided to kill him and threaten my friend to threaten me indirectly. I guess that��s what going on right now.��


    Zhang Heng paused and continued, ��But unfortunately, the memory encoder is not with me right now. To be more precise, I will not bring it back to the first level until youplete my three requirements.��


    ��You left the memory encoder on the second level?�� This was the first time Mr. G lost his temper tonight. He was so furious that he did not even realize that he knocked over his teacup.


    He did not expect that Zhang Heng would take such a significant risk. He gave up the opportunity to bring back the memory encoder after he defeated so many enemies.


    ��You are right. This is indeed your turf. I thought about it too. So, it��s safer for me to leave it at the second level,�� Zhang Heng said casually. ��It turns out that I made the right decision.��


    ��You shouldn��t have done this. Where did you put the memory encoder on the second level? Is it safe? Does anyone else know...�� Mr. G talked like a machine gun.


    ��Don��t worry. The federal police thought I had died in that fire.��


    ��But once you turn off the signal blocker, the tracking device in your head will tell the Shengtang Morgan Group that you are still alive.��


    ��Indeed. This is why you better arrange the operation for me as soon as possible,�� Zhang Heng said.


    Mr. G was amused. ��You didn��t bring the memory encoder back with you, and you want me to remove the tracking device in you?!��


    ��Yes. You should do that if you still want to get your hands on the memory encoder,�� Zhang Heng said.


    Mr. G did not answer. Suddenly they heard an engine roaring outside the private garden. A red motorcycle was rushing towards them from the distant street. It did not slow down until it approached the garden.


    The two bodyguards outside the garden stepped forward and attempted to stop the rider. When they saw who the rider was, however, they stopped moving unanimously. In the end, the motorcycle smashed the garden��s ss door. And the person stopped elerating and braked right before it hit Mr. G��s table. The bike drew a semicircle on the ground and finally came to a stop.


    Miss F took off her helmet with her mechanical prosthesis and threw it in front of Mr. G.


    ��I will exin this to youter.�� Mr. G said.


    Nevertheless, Miss F ignored him. In an emotionless tone, she said, ��Code F haspleted the task tonight, Mr. G.��

 Chapter 1024 - Surgery

    <h4>Chapter 1024: Surgery</h4>


    Mr. G sighed and wanted to say something, but in the end, he chose not to say it out. He just nodded instead.


    ��Thank you, F.��


    ��I have kept the promise andpleted my task. And now, I don��t know if you can keep the promise to others like me,�� Miss F said casually. ��I remember you once said that once a person no longer keeps their promise, they are no longer worthy of being trusted.��


    ��It��s a long story...�� Mr. G looked a little helpless. ��Furthermore, ording to our agreement, he has to first give me the memory encoder before I can find someone to perform the surgery on him.��


    ��But at that time, he also believed that you wanted him to be the courier for this transaction, rather than using him as bait,�� F said, not mincing her words.


    ��How did you know all these things, especially when you just came back? Who told you about this? ck, or Miyata and his gang?��


    ��Why ask? Are you going to treat them as moles and kill them?�� F asked rhetorically.


    ��No. That��s not what I intend to do. I don��t keep secrets from you. I wasn��tpletely honest with you this time only because I wanted to trick the Shengtang Morgan Group,�� Mr. G exined.


    ��Let��s put business aside first and extract the tracking device from his head,�� F pointed at Zhang Heng on the side.


    ��So, does that mean that you are going to choose him over me?�� Mr. G said after a moment of silence. ��You are not forgetting about your past, right?��


    ��Yes, I will never forget my past, but this has nothing to do with that. If you want the memory encoder, he is the only person that can give it to you. You better fulfill his conditions, just like when he needed you to perform the operation on him and epted the test you gave him. I thought you could understand such a simple matter. Or, has your pride and self-esteem affected your ability for basic judgment?�� F asked unceremoniously.


    Mr. G did not answer immediately. His eyes flickered in the night as if thinking about what F had said. Finally, he took a deep breath and looked at Zhang Heng, who had not spoken yet and was drinking his tea in a rxed manner.


    ��This time, I broke my promise first. It��s understandable that you don��t trust me. I have already contacted the doctor who is in charge of the surgery as agreed. He is waiting for you in the hospital we visited before. He can perform the surgery on you anytime you want. By the way, F will go with you. Although you don��t have to worry about me rewriting your memory while the doctor works on you, you might feel more at ease if she is there.��


    Mr. G then paused at this point. ��I will prepare the new identities for your two friends right away, as well as the fifty shec records you requested.��


    ��When you havepleted all the tasks, I will hand over the memory encoder to you.�� Zhang Heng put down his teacup.


    ��No need,�� Mr. G said. ��You too, join us and witness the birth of a new world. F is right. Other than the memory encoder, I also need your strength.��


    Zhang Heng wanted to reject the offer, but Mr. G continued to talk before Zhang Heng could say anything. ��Even if the tracker is removed from your head and yourpany can no longer track you, are you nning to remain anonymous and live forever in the darkness on the first level? ��


    ��I don��t mind it at all,�� Zhang Heng shrugged.


    ��What about your friends? Those of you who are still living in the dreams of lies, ignorance, and being used as tools? You should also be aware that the revolution is not going to move by itself, right?��


    Zhang Heng smiled upon hearing the words. ��After what happened tonight, are you still expecting that I will help you to bring forward the new world? You might as well just wash up and sleep earlier.��


    ��I don��t need you to bring forward the new world,�� Mr. G said. ��Actually, I have been preparing for this grand scheme for so many years. I have almostpleted it now. After you hand me the memory encoder, I will be able toplete the puzzle. By that time, the new world will be upon us, and you don��t need to do anything. All you need to do is to witness it.��


    ��However, everything new is extremely fragile at its inception. What��s more, we are now carrying out a revolution. Even after the n is executed sessfully, there are still a lot of problems to be solved. If we are not careful, we may fall into a deeper abyss. By that, it means we will need your strength. Not to expand our territory, but to protect it.��


    ��Don��t say no to me first. Anyway, you still have lots of time to consider.��


    At the same time, F also said, ��Let��s proceed with your surgery first.��


    After speaking, she did not look at Mr. G again, turning and walking out of the garden instead.


    ...


    F then started the ck MPV parked by the entrance and brought Zhang Heng and Feng Zi to the operating room.


    And this time, Mr. G finally kept his promise. The surgeon was there waiting for Zhang Heng. Since the tracking device was located under the cerebral cortex, it made it extremely difficult to remove; its difficulty ranking first among all surgeries. It required the use of thetest generation Da Vinci surgical robots, and there were only so many capable of performing such surgery in New Shanghai 0297, two in this case.


    Dr. Gu, who was standing in front of Zhang Heng now, was one. The director of the three-story central hospital, he was in his fifties, but his body was well maintained. His youthful appearance, however, made him looked like he was in his forties.


    Zhang Heng wondered how Mr. G managed to invite him here to perform the surgery on him. Dr. Gu, too, didn��t ask any questions unrted to the operation. Instead, he acted like he did not know Zhang Heng was a clone. While they were talking, Dr. Gu used another word to rece the ��tracking device�� word. After that, the assistant asked Zhang Heng to do a series of checkups to determine the surgical n.


    Meanwhile, Zhang Heng, on the other side, had already shaved off his hair, changed into a surgical gown, and hadid on the operating table.


    He did not talk to F anymore, and thetter never promised him anything either. The two just nced at each other.


    F then said to Feng Zi on the side. ��The surgery could get very bloody. You��d better go out.��


    ��How about you?��


    F did not answer the question with words. Instead, she answered this question with her actions. She took her saber and stood at the side of the operating table near the entrance. By standing there, she could stop anyone that tried to interrupt the surgery.


    ��Since you are not afraid, then I am not as well.��


    Feng Zi was a bold woman. After hearing what F said, she opened her eyes wide and watched curiously as the anesthesiologist gassed Zhang Heng.


    When the anesthesia started to take effect, Dr. Gu marked the incision line on Zhang Heng��s head, fixed it on the head frame. He then made an incision on the scalp with a scalpel, all the way down until the skull was exposed. He then proceeded to open up the skull using an electric drill and a milling cutter,pletely ignoring the two women in the operating room.

 Chapter 1025 - Apologize

    <h4>Chapter 1025: Apologize</h4>


    The tracking device in Zhang Heng��s was fully optimized the moment it left the factory. Once the signal transmission had been blocked for more than eight hours, it would automatically trigger the meltdown process, causing irreversible damage to the user��s cerebral cortex.


    When Zhang Heng fought his enemies at the amusement park, he temporarily removed the signal blocking device because it was approaching the eight hours time limit. However, from the moment heid down on the operating table, only five hours were left before the tracking device started to meltdown.


    In order to ensure that Shengtang Morgan Group did not know Zhang Heng was still alive, Dr. Gu needed toplete the operation within five hours and extract the tracking device under Zhang Heng��s cerebral cortex.


    Even for Dr. Gu, who was known as one of the only two people in the new Shanghai 0297 who could perform this surgery, it was still a very challenging task for him.


    Four hours had now passed, and Doctor Gu��s back waspletely soaked in sweat, prompting his assistant beside him to wipe the sweat off his forehead countless times. Since this surgery required a high degree of concentration, Dr. Gu often could not blink for a long time. His eyes were bloodshot.


    Not far away, Feng Zi had fallen asleep against the wall. She was not afraid to watch the surgery, but she waspletely exhausted after undergoing so many high-adrenaline events. Both her body and mind had reached their limits. And she fell asleep before the sunrise.


    As for F, on the other side, she remained the same from the beginning to the end. She stood there like a stone statue by the operating room entrance, kept the same posture, and had not spoken a single word. The nurse in the operating room started to suspect that she was a robot.


    Finally, after four hours and thirty minutes ofplicated surgery, Dr. Gu controlled the surgical robot to extract a piece of metal wire only tens of microns in diameter from under Zhang Heng��s cerebral cortex.


    The microscopic object was designed to continuously transmit the clone��s location information to the data center. It could help them to locate their clones whenever it was necessary. It acted as a choke chain around the clone��s neck, prohibiting them from running away.


    ��This thing is like the thread used by the puppet master to manipte his puppet,�� muttered Dr. Gu while looking at the wire under the tweezers.


    F��s pupils shrank when she saw the piece of wire.


    After that, she drew the saber around her waist for the first time and cut the wire in the hands of the surgical robot into two.


    ��How long till the surgery is over?�� F put the saber back to her waist and asked Dr. Gu.


    ��Soon. I just need to stitch him up.��


    ��I shall let you continue.�� F bowed slightly.


    Dr. Gu returned the courtesy, and his gaze fell on F��s mechanical prosthesis. He seemed to be in deep thought for a moment before a sh of sorrow shed in his eyes. But in the end, he said, ��You have a lovely left arm.��


    ��Thank you, doctor.��


    ...


    Forty minutester, in Zhang Heng��s ward, F lit a cigarette and looked at the blurry street outside the window, not knowing what she was thinking.


    The next moment, a voice came from behind. ��Smoking should be banned in wards.��


    F then turned around and saw Zhang Heng with his eyes opened on the hospital bed. She was a little surprised, ��I didn��t expect you to wake up so early. I thought it would take some time for the anesthesia to subside.��


    ��Well, I asked the anesthesiologist to reduce the amount of anesthetic for me.�� Zhang Heng then touched his head.


    ��Why did you do that?��


    ��If the surgery fails, I will have some time to deal with the police officers and assassins sent by the Shengtang Morgan Group. Anyway, the worst oue for my action is to watch the doctor fix my skull while I��m awake,�� Zhang Heng said while attempting to sit up from the bed.


    ��I thought you wanted me to protect you.��


    ��Yes. But I��m used to preparing for the worst.�� Zhang Heng put on his clothes. And he was not worried that Mr. G would do something terrible to him. After all, he was the only person that knew the whereabouts of the memory encoder. At least before he handed over the memory encoder to him, Mr. G would not harm him. He might even protect him.


    Strictly speaking, this arrangement was way better than the first agreement set between the two parties. Zhang Heng was now more cautious about the Shengtang Morgan Group. If they realized that he was not dead, they would not hesitate to send more powerful men to deal with him.


    Although the emergency response team starting with the number Zero, was Shengtang Morgan Group��s strongest armed force, Zhang Heng was not naive enough to think it was the only one. After all, his enemy was the owner of New Shanghai 0297. Not only did he own this new city, but it was also a well-respected behemoth in society.


    As the actual ruler of the first level, Mr. G could be regarded as the overlord in New Shanghai 0297. However, to Shengtang Morgan Group, he was no different than an ant. Zhang Heng had a problem that he still could not figure out. Even if Mr. G managed to effectively promote the revolution in New Shanghai 0297, Shengtang Morgan Group would not hesitate to send their armed forces to retake New Shanghai 0297 once they felt their interests were threatened. By then, how would Mr. G n to deal with them?


    Zhang Heng had a hunch. Maybe the answer to this questiony in the memory encoder.


    ��Sorry.��


    F��s voice pulled Zhang Heng back from his thoughts.


    ��Why say that? You weren��t the one who broke the contract,�� Zhang Heng said. He had previously suspected F was involved in it, but F was not there among the ten couriers and the special operations team. It was then that Zhang Heng realized that F had nothing to do with this matter.


    After that, thetter even broke into Mr. G��s garden on a motorcycle, arguing with her fianc�� over Zhang Heng, an outsider.


    ��You chose to ept this job because you trusted me. So, I am also responsible for introducing you to him. He is my fianc�� anyway, and I naturally have to bear half of the mistakes he made,�� F said.


    ��Are you disappointed in him tonight?��


    ��Why do you ask?�� F raised her head and looked at Zhang Heng.


    ��Everyone would make mistakes,�� she added after a pause. ��Compared to others, he has done a great job. He is an excellent leader. After I reminded him, he realized his mistakes, and he is willing to make up for them. You heard what he said. I think the both of you should let go of your hostility and focus on what��s important. After such a long time of preparation, we finally managed to piece all the puzzles together, and we can begin to take the first step.��

 Chapter 1026 - Woman’s Sixth Sense

    <h4>Chapter 1026: Woman��s Sixth Sense</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    Feng Zi was awakened from her sleep by the smell of Yuxiang shredded pork. As soon as she opened her eyes, she saw Zhang Heng sitting at the table eating his food. The sight and smell of the food almost made her drool. Then, suddenly, she yelled, ��Where is my food?! Did you buy me some?��


    ��Well, I also bought you a set.��


    Zhang Heng then ced another lunch box opposite him.


    Feng Zi quickly got up from the bed. ��I��m starving to death. I stayed with you all night. Not only did I skip dinner, but I also didn��t have breakfast.��


    ��You have been sleeping a long time.�� Zhang Heng handed out a pair of disposable chopsticks to Feng Zi.


    Thetter took the chopsticks and opened the lunch box as quickly as possible. She took a whiff of the food in front of her, and at the same time, she did not forget to ask about F.


    ��Where is the woman with mechanical prosthesis and great temperament?��


    ��Well, she had gone back to where she came from.�� Zhang Heng said.


    ��Speaking of which, what is the rtionship between you and her?�� Feng Zi curiously asked, ��When you had your surgery, she stood by the door, and she didn��t drink or eat. It looks like she cares about you a lot.��


    ��We are just friends. She has a fianc��, and he is the man that we saw in the gardenst night.��


    ��That dwarf?�� Feng Zi raised her eyebrows. ��His name is Mr. G, right? I don��t like him. And judging from the scene when they metst night, I don��t see any love in the woman��s eyes. But I can see that the man loves her very much. Does their rtionship make you feel a little awkward?��


    ��What do you mean by that?�� Zhang Heng frowned.


    Feng Zi did not mind the low-cut shirt that she was wearing. She leaned close towards Zhang Heng and said in a low voice, ��She is your friend, but you want to kill her fianc��, right?��


    ��...��


    Zhang Heng then put down his chopsticks, and for the first time, felt how magical a woman��s sixth sense was.


    ��Look, I was right?�� Feng Zi sat back triumphantly.


    ��No, I told you to stop thinking nonsense.�� Zhang Heng said casually.


    ��You lied. The woman in the red dress at the bar was gorgeous, and you pinned her hand to the table with a knife without any hesitation. Why are you hesitating to deal with a not very good-looking man now?��


    ��I don��t kill based on how someone looks,�� Zhang Heng said helplessly.


    ��That being said, most men would hesitate to hurt a good-looking woman.�� Feng Zi split the chopsticks and rubbed them against each other to get rid of the splinters. ��You are such a weird man, but I have to say that you are very good to your friends. Forget it, I won��t sleep with you for now, mainly because I��m afraid that I can��t help but think about your brain when you��re lying in bed... I have to admit, no matter how good-looking you are, it��s not very attractive to see your brains exposed.��


    ��Thank you.�� Zhang Heng finished hisst bite of the meal and threw the lunch box into the trash can at his feet.


    After that, they heard a knock on the door. Zhang Heng opened the door and saw the driver who picked them up at the stationst night. Thetter greeted him politely and took out three bracelets.


    ��Mr. G asked me toe. The new citizen IDs you asked for are ready. These identities belonged to some dead guys. Rest assured, as long as no one digs deep into them, you will be fine. Other than that, payment and personal verification functions are also avable. When you want to use those functions, you can activate them with your fingerprint. Of course, this is only temporary. When that dayes, you, me, and everyone can live freely under the sun.��


    ��Thank you.�� Zhang Heng took the three bracelets and tossed one of them to Feng Zi. He then activated the bracelet on the spot and put the other bracelet away. After that, he noticed that the driver did not leave.


    ��Anything else?��


    ��Oh, Mr. G also said that he would like to wee you to join us.��


    ��His wee is well received by me.��


    ��Are you avable now? I can drive you around the city to get a better understanding of what we are doing. And you can meet and greet the others.�� The driver did not expect Zhang Heng to agree after seeing the tension between him and Mr. Gst night. Hence, he expected Zhang Heng would refuse Mr. G��s arrangement without hesitation. Instead, Zhang Heng nodded.��


    Okay. Anyway, I��m recovering from my surgery. It��ll do me well to go out for a walk.��


    ��I want to go too!�� Feng Zi, on the other side, also shouted. After the nap, she, too, seemed to have rejuvenated. And she did not seem to be bothered by her current situation. However, she had now obtained a new identity. Thanks to what happenedst night, she could no longer go back to her past life. It was no longer possible to step foot on the second level anymore. Although she had many friends there, she did not look like she was bothered by the fact that she could not meet them again. She quickly finished the food in her lunch box and put down the chopsticks in his hand.


    ��Wee. We always wee new blood to join us,�� The driver said.


    The three entered the ck MPV, but this time, in the passenger seat was no longer Director Zheng, but Zhang Heng.


    The driver introduced himself to them while driving, and Zhang Heng raised his eyebrows when he heard his code name.


    ��You are ck. Were you the one that told Miss F about the situation herest night?��


    ck nodded and confessed. ��That was me.��


    ��Aren��t you afraid of ending up like the man you guys tied up and tossed into the carst night?��


    ��Why say that?�� ck looked a little puzzled, and he said in a solemn voice, ��He is a traitor and Shengtang Morgan Group bought him over. He deserves to die. I just told Miss F what happened here in ordance with her request.��


    ��Even if Mr. G wants you to keep it a secret?��


    ��Miss F is not an outsider.��


    ��Oh, because she is Mr. G��s fianc��?��


    ��No. That��s not the reason. Of course, everyone is thrilled to see them finally get together, especially Mr. G. Everyone has seen his contribution to this cause. That��s not why we trust Miss F. The reason why we trust her is that she is a very trustworthypanion.��


    ��Is that right?�� Zhang Heng��s eyes flickered, ��Is this thought personal, or do the others think the same of her as well?��


    ��As far as I know, most people do.��


    ��How strange. I thought she��s usually distant and a woman with very few words. She doesn��t have too many friends too.��


    ��Actions are more powerful than words. Indeed, when she first came, everyone thought she was difficult to get along with. And Mr. G took her very seriously. At that time, there were some, uh... rumors.


    ��Although Mr. G��s statement was very firm, those rumors did not disappear. As time passed, more and more people saw the beating heart under her cold shell and saw what she liked. At that time, we started to ept her as one of us, especially among the young people. The boys secretly admired her, and girls imitated her. The more you understood her, the more you couldn��t resist her charm. That��s why she is the perfect match for Mr. G.��

 Chapter 1027 - Visiting The Factory

    <h4>Chapter 1027: Visiting The Factory</h4>


    Most of the time, ck was a very man with very little work to do during his working hours. However, he could be very talkative after he got off from work. Maybe, he had received orders from Mr. G so that whenever Zhang Heng asked a question, ck would try his best to answer them.


    Afterward, ck brought Zhang Heng and Feng Zi to visit a weapons factory. New Shanghai 0297 had rtively loose control of weapons, and residents were allowed to carry their weapons. However, the ruling only applied to the residents on the first and second levels, where the public security wasn��t as good. They were also limited to the kind of weapons they could carry. Thus, if one wanted to acquire a powerful weapon, one had to obtain it through smuggling channels.


    Mr. G was about to start a revolution, and the armed forces he needed were unprecedented. Smuggling alone could no longer meet his needs for weapons. So, he had gone ahead to purchase several factories, retooled the production lines, and started to mass-produce bulletproof vests and guns.


    Now, ck was bringing Zhang Heng and Feng Zi to visit one of those factories. Before they entered, they saw arge group of security guards with guns standing in front of the gate. They immediately picked up their guns whenever they saw a vehicle approaching the factory. One of them signaled ck to stop the car.


    However, when ck showed them his pass, the security guards put their guns away again. After that, they took a look at the other two people in the car and opened the door.


    While the guards were verifying their identities, Zhang Heng also observed the group of security guards outside the car. He found out that they all had the same tattoos on their bodies, indicating they must belong to the same gang, and were now working for Mr. G in this weapon factory.


    ck knew what Zhang Heng was thinking. He then took the initiative to introduce them to him, ��Oh, all these security guards are from the Greyhound gang. The Greyhound gang is a small gang that specializes in guarding the nightclubs and KTVs.��


    ��Did Mr. G hire them to guard the factory?��


    ��No. They volunteered to help us. In fact, we didn��t pay them a single penny. Building a new world requires the effort of everyone. Some choose to donate their money to Mr. G, and some offer their service. That��s how we, together, make the new world a reality. If you know that the world is not good enough and you do nothing, it will only get worse and worse.��


    ��Well said, but although I can see people offering their service, I don��t see anyone donating money to this great cause,�� Feng Zi interrupted ck.


    ��Yes. Mr. G owns many properties and has a lucrative ie. However, when ites to his expenditure, all his properties and ie are not worth mentioning. For example, in this transaction, the cost of 1g of antimatter is astronomical. If converted into mary value, you can buy New Shanghai��s first to the third level. Other than that, the raw materials needed to produce those weapons are purchased and provided by Mr. G alone. Besides that, Mr. G has to handle countless other expenses. So, please don��t think Mr. G is taking advantage of everyone��s desire for a new world for his personal gain. He has paid more than anyone else, and he also makes sure that every single penny is being spent on this revolution.��


    Feng Zi was speechless.


    At that time, the ck MPV had entered the factory. ck then turned off the engine and left the driver��s seat. After Zhang Heng and Feng Zi got out of the car, he pped his hands and attracted the factory floor��s attention. Then, once he got the people��s attention, ck grabbed the loudspeaker hanging on the wall.


    This factory was different from the generic factories that relied on machines to help with production. The factories Mr. G purchased were quite old, thus requiringrge manpower to run the production lines. At least one hundred workers worked in this factory right now.


    After ck dropped his first sentence, all the workers stopped what they were doing and looked at ck.


    ��Today, I want to introduce you to two newpanions,�� ck said as he took two steps back, allowing Zhang Heng and Feng Zi to step forward. ��That��s right. The two people here are our newfound allies. They risked their lives to get us an extremely essential object from Shengtang Morgan��s emergency response team. Without this, we will never be able to carry out our n. Now, they are our heroes.��


    After ck was finished, the workers fell into silence. Then, right after that, came a burst of enthusiastic cheers and apuse.


    The sudden enthusiastic apuse made Feng Zi, who had always been carefree, a little embarrassed. When she thought about it, she felt that she did not do muchst night. After all, Zhang Heng was the one that killed the entire emergency response team. The memory encoder he had with him would be used for the revolution, but instead, Zhang Heng wanted to use it to ckmail Mr. G. That was why Feng Zi felt that they don��t deserve the praise and apuse. Her cheeks were flushing.


    On the other hand, Zhang Heng��s expression next to her had hardly changed. Feng Zi noticed Zhang Heng was not looking at the people that were cheering for them. Instead, his attention wasnded on graffiti on the factory��s ck wall.


    ��Who is that? The old Mr. G?�� Feng Zi followed Zhang Heng��s gaze and looked at the graffiti.


    ��No, that��s Baudrird,�� Zhang Heng said.


    ��Who?�� The name was unfamiliar to Feng Zi.


    ��He is a sociologist,�� Zhang Heng said. ��He remembered the long and dull movie he watched with Miss F in the screening hall. All the unanswered questions that he had in mind were now answered.


    ��So... are you going to tell me about him?��


    ��No. If you still want to return to your normal life, it��s better that you don��t understand his theories,�� Zhang Heng said.


    ��Huh... Sounds so mysterious.�� Feng Zi was skeptical.


    When the cheers came to an end, and the workers returned to their posts, ck led Zhang Heng and Feng Zi around the factory. Like the Greyhound security guarding the factory, the people who worked in the factory were volunteers as well. They were not paid a single penny, and they came from different ces. There were cooks, couriers, and even pregnant women. The one thing they shared was their extreme dedication to their work.


    There was no supervisor in the entire factory because hiring someone to watch over them was unnecessary. Everyone was doing their best as though something silently motivated them. When Feng Zi heard Zhang Heng talking to some of them, she could feel the fire that burned inside their hearts.


    Feng Zi was envious of them. At least at this moment, she felt that it was not a bad thing to be one of them, especially for someone who had struggled to find her life goals for such a long time now. A life with a clear goal was exactly the life that she longed for.


    It made Feng Zi want to take off her coat now and join the production line. When she saw the outdated production line, she had already started toe up with many ns in her mind to improve production efficiency. So, Feng Zi asked ck, ��Can I stay here for some time?��


    ��Of course, this is exactly what we desire.��


    ��How about you?�� Feng Zi looked at Zhang Heng again.


    Thetter was still unmoved. Upon hearing that, he said, ��I��m still recovering from my surgery. Let��s continue to walk around.��

 Chapter 1028 - Happy Nursing Home

    <h4>Chapter 1028: Happy Nursing Home</h4>


    After leaving Feng Zi at the weapons factory��s production line, Zhang Heng continued with ck on the factory tour. As they went along, he saw lots of people who worked day and night to wee the arrival of the new world. Although many were Mr. G��s cronies, most workers were still made up of ordinary people who worked hard in their respective positions.


    Like those workers in the weapons factory, they hade from different ces and worked various jobs. And now, they were working towards the same goal. They were like drops of water, gathering together, eventually converging into a turbulently surging river.


    But what disappointed ck a little was that Zhang Heng��s expression remained the same no matter what he saw during the tour. He was like a massive boulder in the middle of a river. No matter how the water rushed towards it, the boulder remained unmoved. It was hard for anyone to see through Zhang Heng��s mind.


    At dusk, the two finally arrived at thest ce.


    Unlike the factories they previously visited, this factory was neither a weapon factory nor Mr. G��s secret base. Seeming to have nothing to do with the so-called New World, this should be, on the contrary, the most deste ce in New Shanghai 0297.


    It was a nursing home.


    ck parked the car outside the nursing home��s gate, but he did not get off this time. He then said, ��I am delighted to be your temporary driver and introduce you to ourpanion. But now, you should go and meet yourpanion.��


    Zhang Heng raised his eyebrows and said nothing. After that, he opened the car door and walked towards the nursing home.


    The gates looked like they haven��t been maintained for years. However, Zhang Heng did not expect the interior design of the nursing home to be quite beautiful. There was a small garden that looked very cozy, with flowers and trees that were neatly trimmed. Fountains and fish ponds had also been built.


    After walking through the garden, he came to the back of a four-story white building.


    The sensor door opened automatically in front of him. Zhang Heng noticed that a light on his head shed once, followed by the sound of taking pictures. Not long after that, he saw a young nurse in a blue uniform working hard in the duty room. She then ran out and gave Zhang Heng a card. ��Here you go. The old man you��ll be taking care of is in Room 219. Your responsibilities and things needing attention are written on the card. Read it whenever you can. By the way, wee to Happy Nursing Home, and I hope you can be happy too.��


    Seeing Zhang Heng still standing there, the nurse exined, ��Oh, that��s it. Our nursing home pursues a happy elderly care approach, paying special attention to the emotional state and mental health of each elderly person. We want to encourage them to do what they really want to do. Other than that, we want to deliver as much happiness to them as possible.��


    ��Deliver happiness?��


    ��Yes. We believe that happiness can be passed on. Therefore, the staff of nursing homes should also pass on their happiness to the elderly living here. It may sound a bitplicated, but the actual process is very simple. Just make yourself happy first and pass the joy to the elderly that you are taking care of.��


    The nurse patted her head. ��Ah, I almost forgot. I haven��t introduced you to the nursing home, right? Let��s go. Let me tell you a little bit about the facilities here.��


    After speaking, the nurse grabbed Zhang Heng��s hand and walked to the other side of the corridor. She then pointed to a spacious and bright room with a row of dining tables and stools. It looked like a banquet hall.


    ��This is the dining hall. You can tell the chef what you want.��


    ��What do I want to eat? Or are you talking about the elderly in my care?��


    ��Yes. I��m talking about what you want to eat. This is the staff canteen. All the elderly people in our nursing homes usually eat in their rooms. So after the staff finished their meals here, they need to bring their food to their room. Simple, right?�� the nurse said while beaming sweetly.


    ��Yes... It��s simple.��


    After the two came to another room, the nurse continued to talk. ��This is a game room where you can y some of the newly released video games. If you find out that some of the old games are not avable, you can always inform us, and we will ask our people to purchase them. Here, you can choose to y against each other. Of course, you can also y on your own. Other than that, the game room is also equipped with a beverage machine. Don��t worry. It��s free.��


    ��So, you guys allow the elderly in your nursing home to y video games as well?��


    ��No. This game room is designed for our staff only. The elderly here have their yrooms, and neither side interferes with each other,�� the nurse replied. ��Let��s go up to the second floor and have a look. There is also a basketball court and badminton court.��


    ��Those are staff facilities as well, right.�� Zhang Heng had already thought of something.


    ��No. The basketball court is meant for the elderly.�� Seeing Zhang Heng��s eyebrows raised again, the nurse burst out inughter. ��Just kidding, of course, it��s for the staff. The elderly here will do, uhm... less intensive workout. In addition, I also strongly rmend the spa at the third level. Believe me. You must try it at least once. After that, you will never be able to live without it.��


    ��Don��t you think the employee benefits of your nursing home are too good?�� Zhang Heng asked.


    ��Well, you are not the first person to ask this question, and I don��t think you will be thest. I have to admit that it might look a little strange, but do you still remember our motto here? We are supposed to pass on our happiness to the elderly here. We believe that only when our staff truly feel happy can they pass on their happiness to the elderly here...��


    ��Thank you, Xiao Yi. You can leave the rest to me,�� a voice came from the other side of the corridor, and Miss F walked out of there.


    ��Okay, Sister F.�� The nurse named Xiao Yi stuck out her tongue and went back to the duty room to start gossiping with other nurses.


    After she left, Miss F nodded at Zhang Heng, ��You are here.��


    Zhang Heng paused and said, ��You know what you are doing here is actually meaningless, right?��


    ��It appears that you already know the purpose of this nursing home.�� Miss F did not answer Zhang Heng��s question. Instead, she signaled him to go upstairs with her.


    ��Well, you sympathize with those clones who have been treated as tools. So, you rented them from theirpany. From the surface, you make it look like they are here to work, but the truth is you want them toe here for a good rest. The people that we take care of in this ce are not the elderly but the clones. The so-called passing on the joy is just an excuse to prevent theirpanies from finding any anomalies when they read their memories. But...��


    Zhang Heng paused.


    ��You should know that these clones are programmed to do odd jobs. They are considered the lowest-tier of clones. Every time they return from work, their memories will be reset. After that, they will never remember their past. What you do to them here is a waste of time.��


    ��I disagree with you. Otherwise, I wouldn��t have shown you that movie when we first met.�� Miss F shook her head and said solemnly, ��They may not remember their memories here, but this experience is real, and their happiness is real. Even if it onlysts for a short time, they at least get to live like a normal person in this world.��

 Chapter 1029 - Meaning Of Life

    <h4>Chapter 1029: Meaning Of Life</h4>


    ��So, is this why you support Mr. G so much, not only because he is your fianc��, or to repay him for saving you, but you want to rely on him to change clones�� fate?�� Zhang Heng said.


    ��Yes.�� Miss F nodded and confessed. ��As you can see, even if I try my best, all I can do is to open a few more nursing homes like this. You��re right, in a way. I can��t change the fate of our entire poption, so I need him. Mr. G is one of the few willing to treat clones and ordinary humans equally. He promised me that in the new world he created, there will be no tracking devices, memory encoders, or serial numbers; a world where clones can enjoy the same rights as ordinary people.��


    ��And you believe him?��


    ��I believe in everything worthy of trust,�� Miss F said. ��It��s you. I don��t know what you believe in so far. I was worried about you at one time, especially when you first awakened. I knew what you felt because I experienced a simr thing as well. You know what troubles you will encounter next, but you don��t seem to be a person in trouble at all.��


    ��My situation is special.��


    ��Well, that��s what you have been saying. I might have doubted you before, but now I choose to believe you. That is because the ordinary clones can��tplete Mr. G��s test, nor can they defeat the emergency response team. You even got the memory encoder from them. Don��t get me wrong. I don��t want to dig up your past, nor the secrets behind you. I just hope that you can find your direction.��


    Zhang Heng listened to Miss F quietly.


    ��You are the most powerful clone I have ever seen, and unlike me, youpletely broke the shackles on your neck, singlehandedly. In other words, you broke the tragic cycle the clones are destined for and gained the freedom we all longed for. At least a part of it. What next? What do you n to do after you gain your freedom?��


    ��I n to focus on collecting shec records.��


    ��I��m not talking about your newly developed hobby,�� Miss F said. ��I��m asking about the ultimate question of your life. What is the meaning of your life, and what goals you��d wish to aplish in your next phase of life? I��m not talking about the goals programmed into your mind. I��m talking about what you really want to do.��


    ��Do you want me to help you to liberate other clones?�� Zhang Heng raised his eyebrows.


    If that were the case, this journey would make perfect sense for him. Earlier, Mr. G showed Zhang Heng his grand scheme, trying to inspire him through the collective appeal disyed by the society��s bottom level. And for thest stop, Miss F was there to persuade him from a simr perspective.


    Even Zhang Heng had to admit that it was indeed a very effective method. If he were really a clone, coupled with his rtionship with Miss F, it would be difficult for Zhang Heng to ignore the fate of other clones. However, Zhang Heng didn��t expect Miss F to shake her head.


    ��No. I did have such a thought before, but I have given up on it.��


    ��Why? Have you found out that I am not easily persuaded?��


    ��No, because I don��t want to be one of those people.��


    ��What people?��


    ��Those people who write the memories for us,�� Miss F said. ��What I have been trying to do is to liberate mypatriots from the false life goals. Hence, I will not try to instill the idea of something that you don��t want to do in you.��


    ��You encourage me to do what I want to do, but you have to carry the burden of liberating the entire poption? Don��t you think this is self-contradictory?��


    ��I am different from you. It is indeed my goal in life to liberate our kind. Oh... the expression on your face, I know what you are thinking. You must be thinking that I am also one of Mr. G��s fanatics influenced by him. That��s why I��m devoted to what I do now. But this time, you are wrong. The reason I chose this path has nothing to do with him.


    ��After being rescued by Mr. G, I also experienced a long period of confusion. To be honest, I didn��t expect that I would survive the surgery until I opened my eyes, especially after discovering that my previous wishes and memories were all false. I lost one of my arms too, and I once doubted whether I had enough courage to live on.��


    ��For a short while, I suspected I��d never escape from that nightmare. After I ran out of the manor, I was quickly located by the people from thepany. They rewrote the memories in my mind, making me think that I��m out of control and regained freedom. The moment I lowered my guard, their people would suddenly appear in front of me, enjoying the desperation on my face.��


    ��It��s reasonable. This is what they are good at. In that manor, these sorts of things happen again and again. Due to some ident, I got out of control that night. I live in the same fear every day. This fear and torture almost drove me mad until I start to contact our kinds in my life actively.��


    ��Why?��


    ��In the beginning, I was just trying to find out if anyone had gone through the same experience as me. From there, I tried to specte when my nightmare wille again. However, once I get to know them in-depth, the desire to do something for them bes stronger and stronger. It even overrides my fear of the future. I don��t have a family, and I don��t know who my parents are. But, through them, I can feel a sense of intimacy. By then, my emotions had stabilized.��


    ��Because of this, Mr. G bought this nursing home while he was on the verge of bankruptcy and gave it to me, so I could use it as a secret base to contact other clones. From there, I modified the ce and turned it into a clone paradise. In the midst of it, I finally found my goal in life. I want to do more for them and grant them freedom. This is the belief that keeps me moving forward, and how I gained the strength I have today,�� Miss F moved her mechanical arm while speaking.


    ��But this is my life��s goal, not yours. Thus, it would be best if you found the meaning of your existence. This may be difficult, especially for a clone, but definitely worth a try.��

 Chapter 1030 - Changing Minds

    <h4>Chapter 1030: Changing Minds</h4>


    That night, at the weapons factory.


    The workers on the assembly line had gotten off work and had gone home. However, Feng Zi and several engineers were still at the workshop, studying more about machine optimization. A few of them were arguing about recing a certain part of the machine. Feng Zi was pping her hands on the table, and the others�� faces were burning red. However, their argument seemed only limited to technical issues. In fact, after spending an entire afternoon with them and coupled with Feng Zi��s carefree character, she had gotten along well with everyone in the factory.


    And now, everyone considered her as one of them. Besides, Feng Zi was very knowledgeable when it came to the machinery, and the suggestions she provided had been very valuable so far. However, they still needed to do some tests on her ideas to see if they would work well.


    Feng Zi and the engineers didn��t realize how time flew until the roars of an engine broke the tranquility of the night. The security then released a red motorcycle, and the rider drove into the factory and finally stopped in front of Feng Zi.


    As the rider removed its helmet, a look of surprise appeared on Feng Zi��s face.


    ��I thought the woman named F is here to deal with me. Why is her motorcycle with you?��


    ��I met her just now. So, I asked to borrow her motorcycle to ride around,�� Zhang Heng said. ��What��s going on? Are you ready to call it a day?��


    ��Hmm, since you are here, let��s go back together,�� Feng Zi said. After saying goodbye to the engineers discussing with her, she sat on the motorcycle��s backseat.


    Zhang Heng twisted the throttle, the motorcycle made a roar, and they sped out of the weapons factory.


    Zhang Heng did not speak all the way, but Feng Zi couldn��t hold back and asked, ��You...have nothing to say?��


    ��What do you want me to say?�� Zhang Heng��s voice sounded muffled by the wind that was sting them.


    ��I know you have always disliked Mr. G and the vision he��s portrayed. So... you probably won��t like what I did in the factory this afternoon.��


    ��You have nothing to worry about because I never interfere with other people��s life decisions, nor do I ask the people around me to do as I please,�� Zhang Heng said.


    ��I kind of understand why Mr. G and you are so ipatible. Both of you are at extreme ends,�� Feng Zi said.


    ��Let me correct you here. I am not ipatible with Mr. G. Our only contradiction is only about the transaction. He broke the agreement between us, and it upset me. So, now, I��m using the memory encoder to ckmail him into doing things for me. He should be distraught now. That��s it.��


    ��So, you will give him the memory encoderter?��


    ��After he finishes what I want him to do, I will return him the memory encoder,�� Zhang Heng said.


    ��Then, do you still want to kill him?�� Feng Zi asked again.


    Zhang Heng did not answer immediately. He seemed to be thinking about the question. It was only after a while that he said, ��No. When this matter is over, I will concentrate on collecting shec records no matter who wins or loses.��


    ��You changed your mind. Why? I thought you were the kind that makes decisions without being affected by others.��


    Since Feng Zi asked, Zhang Heng had no intention to hide anything from her anymore. He then said bluntly, ��The reason I wanted to kill him had nothing to do with the new world that he was going to create. Although I was personally skeptical about the beautiful vision he outlined, I don��t actually care much about this kind of thing. I just know that he is not as generous as he presents himself to others. See, he has only treated me politely now because he needs the memory encoder that I have with me. Once I hand it over to him, I��m not ruling out the possibility that he will make me pay the price. So, I wanted to kill him before he could kill me.��


    ��...��


    Feng Zi did not know what to say. So she paused and asked again, ��Now how do you know that he won��t make you pay the price anymore?��


    ��I don��t know that. I saw that many people rely on him, hoping to change the world. Even if I still hadn��t identified his end goal, at least the enthusiasm of these people is true. I don��t want to take away their hopes. My stand remains the same, and I do not intend to join them. I have no reason to stop you from helping him too. It is better that I leave as soon as possible to do the things I want to do. No need to worry about me. Since the tracking device has been extracted from my head, no one in the entire New Shanghai 0297 would be able to locate me if I choose to go into hiding.��


    ...


    Zhang Heng and Feng Zi had been living on the first level for three days now. During this period, Mr. G had always been very polite towards them. He would send his people every day to ask them what they needed and gave them enough credit points to cope with their expenses.


    Feng Zi was now working at the weapon factory, reporting to work on time every day, while Zhang Heng continued to heal his injuries. With the help of thetest generation of medical gels, his surgical wounds healed very quickly. Soon, there was only a faint scar left. After that, Zhang Heng bought a wig for his head. By doing that, no one would be able to notice the scar.


    Later, Zhang Heng asked ck to inform Mr. G that he would leave the first level for some time. Mr. G then had a video call with Zhang Heng, during which Mr. G told Zhang Heng about the current situation of New Shanghai 0297. After what happened that night, Shengtang Morgan Group could no longer stand the forces that were not within their control.


    Even if this force could help with the stability of the first level, reducing their management costs, ever since Mr. G started to execute his n, the trouble he caused exceeded the benefits Shengtang Morgan Group could reap from it. Hence, the atmosphere on the first level had only grown tenser.


    Shengtang Morgan Group had sessively deployed more police from the other four levels to the first level. In the name of maintaining public security, the police trigged minor skirmishes with Mr. G, and although both sides had not done something out of line at this stage, no one knew how long it wouldst.


    After telling Zhang Heng the current situation, Mr. G also euphemistically hinted that it was safer that he stayed on the first level, especially considering that Zhang Heng would still need to bring the memory encoder to him from the second level. Mr. G could not afford to let something bad happened to his benefactor at this time.


    Zhang Heng, however, still insisted on leaving. And at the same time, he rejected the bodyguard sent by Mr. G. Considering that the rtionship between the two parties was still in their honeymoon phase, and Zhang Heng was strong enough to protect himself, Mr. G said nothing anything, in the end, agreeing for Zhang Heng to leave the first level temporarily. Afterward, the two reached an agreement that Zhang Heng could only leave for a maximum of three days. At the same time, if something bad happened and caused the situation at the first level to deteriorate rapidly, Zhang Heng had to bring the memory encoder back immediately.

 Chapter 1031 - What Do You Mean By Huge Chance?

    <h4>Chapter 1031: What Do You Mean By Huge Chance?</h4>


    Four days had passed since Zhang Heng left the third level. In order to make sure that everyone thought he was dead, Zhang Heng did not contact anyone during this period. Meanwhile, the news stated that he had been killed in the fire at the hotel.


    It was why Mr. G had hoped that Zhang Heng could continue to stay on the first level because once Shengtang Morgan realized that he was still alive, they would know that the memory encoder had returned to the first level. By then, the fragile bnce at the first level would be tipped.


    Zhang Heng did promise to help Xu Qian find out what happened to her, especially considering thetter��s boyfriend had now returned to New Shanghai 0297. Hence, Zhang Heng decided to go back to the third level with makeup as soon as possible after the tracking device was extracted from his head.


    Instead of going to Xu Qian��s apartment immediately, Zhang Heng went to look for E-Goat first. Thetter had gone to the fourth level to investigate Xu Qian��s boyfriend after Zhang Heng motivated him. Other than experiencing the difference in the gap between the two levels, they found nothing else. Before they separated, Zhang Heng promised to contact him once he acquired new updates. E-Goat, however, had not received a single email from Zhang Heng. Now, he felt what it was like to be taken advantage of.


    At the same time, that trip caused him topletely give up on Xu Qian. He still felt sad after returning to the third level, but as time passed, E-Goat gradually got over the anguish of giving up on someone he loved.


    Without relying on alcohol to dissipate his sorrows, E-Goat still looked taciturn. However, he did enroll himself in a Hulusi ss for the first time ever. Seemingly nning on cultivating a new hobby other than programming, he wanted to get out of his sadness as soon as possible.


    On this day, after he came back from his Hulusi ss, someone tapped on his shoulder. E-Goat then turned around, and he saw a somewhat strange-looking man. Immediately, E-Goat dug through his memory, and he did not remember where he met someone like that. Just when he was about to ask what the other party was doing here, the strange-looking man spoke first.


    ��The time to test how deep your feelings for Xu Qian are hase.��


    ��It��s you!�� Upon hearing the ghoulish voice, E-Goat shuddered, almost dropping the Hulusi that he held in his hand. ��It��s the same trick again,�� he growled in angst. ��You are relentless, aren��t you? How does such a wicked person like you exist in this world? Why do you have to appear in my life every time after I crawl out of the abyss? You are going to push me off the cliff again. Don��t worry; this time, I will not trick you anymore.��


    After E-Goat was done talking, he pushed Zhang Heng��s hand away from his shoulder, turned around, and continued walking towards the residential area.


    Zhang Heng then talked to E-Goat again. ��Well, I initially wanted to tell you your golden opportunity has arrived, but since you��ve chosen to give it up, I have to respect your decision. I hope you find someone you like as soon as possible.��


    Zhang Heng also turned and walked to the other side of the road. However, when he stopped and waited for the traffic light to turn red, the expression on E-Goats�� face changed a lot. He then stomped the ground, turned around, and ran towards Zhang Heng. ��You mentioned the golden opportunity. What do you mean by that?��


    ��I thought you were going to give her up?��


    ��You haveplete control over me now. Are you happy now?�� E-Goat gritted his teeth.


    ��I haven��t thought about it like that. I just wanted to try my luck with you. After all, you are one of the few people I know willing to help Xu Qian,�� Zhang Heng said sincerely.


    ��But the fact is you are now controlling me!�� E-Goat cried angrily.


    ��...��


    ��I didn��t want to run toward you in the first ce, but I don��t know why my legs wentpletely out of control.��


    ��Anyway, since you are here, why don��t you hear me out. The good news is that I didn��t lie to you. You really do have a huge chance to win Xu Qian��s heart this time.��


    ��What do you mean by that?�� After being repeatedly disappointed by Zhang Heng, E-Goat had learned his lessons by paying attention to Zhang Heng��s choice of words.


    ��You might be able to get into a romantic rtionship with Xu Qian.��


    Zhang Heng then saw E-Goat looking at him as if he was treating him like an idiot.


    Zhang Heng then spread his hands, ��What promise do you want me to give you? Will Xu Qian change her mind and like you? Would you believe this kind of thing? Don��t be stupid. I��m not Cupid. How can I tell Xu Qian who she should like?��


    ��So, this time, you still n to use Xu Qian as an excuse to let me work for you for free?�� E-Goat sneered.


    ��No, I will help you get rid of your biggestpetitor. After that, Xu Qian will surely be affected. When that happens, she will be in her most vulnerable state. You, my friend, will happen to be by her side. If you still fail to win her heart, I would advise you to give up on her.��


    Although E-Goat��s rational mind told him Zhang Heng was most probably trying to deceive him again, the irrational part made it difficult for him to refuse such a rare opportunity. And finally, he spoke.


    ��First, tell me what you want me to do?��


    After E-Goat finished his sentence, he instantly regretted it because he knew he had lost.


    ��It��s very simple. First, send an email to Xu Qian to confirm her safety.��


    ��Why didn��t you do it?�� E-Goat asked rhetorically.


    ��Dude, haven��t you watched the news recently? I��m already dead,�� Zhang Heng said.


    E-Goat was baffled. He wasn��t one to pay much attention to the daily news. The only thing that interested him was the technical stuff. He then searched the news with his bracelet and found the news that Zhang Heng was killed in a fire.


    ��What��s going on?��


    ��That��s not important. You are not pursuing me anyway,�� Zhang Heng said. ��Send an email to Xu Qian first.��


    ��But I stalked her not long ago, and she found out about me. Since then, we have not contacted each other. Will she call the police if I email her?�� E-Goat asked, embarrassed.


    ��It depends on what you send her. You can tell that you know she is about to get engaged, and you decide to congratte her. After that, attach 10,000 credits to her as a gift.��


    ��Isn��t that too generous?�� E-Goat hesitated.


    ��How do you think she sees you? And don��t worry, she won��t take the money because her engagement is going to be a fluke.��


    ��Really?�� E-Goat was suspicious.


    Nevertheless, he still wrote an email ording to what Zhang Heng said, with 10,000 credits attached, and sent it to Xu Qian. Then, about less than five minutester, he received a reply. E-Goat clicked on the email, and the response surprised him.


    ��What happened?��


    ��She replied to me saying thank you and epted the money. Didn��t you say that she would not ept the money?��


    ��She took it?�� Zhang Heng also seemed a little surprised. ��That��s not good.��


    ��What��s wrong? She just made 10,000 credits in the blink of an eye.��


    ��Because it means she is probably in trouble.��

 Chapter 1032 - Zhuge Liang And Zhou Yu

    <h4>Chapter 1032: Zhuge Liang And Zhou Yu</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    ��She��s in trouble? What kind of trouble are you talking about?�� asked a puzzled E-Goat. ��She has an outstanding online loan? Or did she lose too much money while doing stock trading?��


    ��I mean the kind of trouble that restricted her personal freedom,�� Zhang Heng said.


    E-Goat showed a look of contempt. ��Your excuse this time is too ridiculous. Even if you are trying to deceive me, you should make up a better story.��


    ��I didn��t make up the story. Xu Qian is probably a clone,�� Zhang Heng said bluntly. ��You have joined her stream probably longer than anyone. You should know that the number of viewers has been declining. I��m pretty sure of that. The decline in the number of her viewers has caused herpany to bring her back and ??recycle her... I have always suspected that her boyfriend, Qiu Ming, was assigned to bring her back to herpany. Otherwise, I could not exin why such a perfect man would appear before her when her career is failing. It sounds like a fairy tale. Now, I have also found out that Xu Qian��s proof of life at the first level does not exist.��


    E-Goat��s mouth dropped wide open, and he froze for at least half a minute. Then, with a tone of admiration, he said, ��Even if I��m fantasizing about sleeping with her every day, I would, at most, wish that her boyfriend��spany would be bankrupt, penniless, and live on the street. And I want him to grab my trousers and beg for money from me. After that, I would kick him away. I have to say that your imagination is wilder than mine.��


    ��...��


    ��I��m not kidding,�� Zhang Heng said sternly.


    E-Goat was left in surprise. ��You are her bodyguard. You should be able to identify whether she is a clone. Just take a picture of her neck and see if there is a serial number.��


    ��Well, I have done some investigations, and I have reason to suspect that there is another batch of clones with no serial number at the back of their necks in New Shanghai 0297. Do you remember the marketing manager we met at Zhuorui Sensor?��


    ��That guy named Liao Ming?��


    ��Well. Didn��t you hack into his bracelet and copy his personal information? After that, I followed the breadcrumbs and did a quick check on his background. I found out that his memory doesn��t match reality, especially the memory of his ex-wife.�� Zhang Heng took out a USB sh drive, continuing, ��This is the result of my investigation. With it, you can tell whether I��m telling the truth.��


    ��...��


    E-Goat grabbed the USB sh drive suspiciously, took out the handheldputer from his bag, and stood by the roadside to check all the audio, video, and text data stored in the USB sh drive.


    Zhang Heng then added, ��There is no serial number behind Liao Ming��s neck.��


    ��How could this be?�� E-Goat expression finally changed. He seemed to think of something, and he subconsciously reached out to touch his neck.


    ��Yes. This possibility cannot be ruled out,�� Zhang Heng said, ��If you have time, you can also check your memory.��


    E-Goat opened his mouth and wanted to say something, but he closed his mouth again and looked around nervously. Finally, he lowered his voice. ��Do you know what it means if your guess is true?��


    ��Let me think. Everyone in New Shanghai 0297 will be in danger?��


    ��Yes, because everyone is used to relying on the serial number at the back of the neck and the tracking device in their heads to distinguish clones between human beings. If this method is no longer reliable, mass hysteria will break out in the city.�� E-Goat then paused again. ��Do you know how many clones like that exist in New Shanghai 0297?��


    ��I don��t know, but this is what you and I need to find out next, not just for Xu Qian, but also for yourself,�� Zhang Heng said.


    E-Goat wiped the sweat from his forehead with his hand. ��This is huge. You need to give me enough time to think about it.��


    ��I don��t mind at all, but I don��t know how long Xu Qian can wait.��


    The expression on E-Goat��s face changed again. Zhang Heng did not know whether he felt fear, was frustrated, hopeful, or ecstatic. About half a minuteter, though, he seemed to have finally made up his mind. He cut off the Hulusi in his hand and threw it in the trash can. He then gritted his teeth and said, ��I will do it.��


    ��Very well. I didn��t lie. If we can rescue Xu Qian this time, there is a high chance you both will couple up. However, I don��t know if you mind the fact that she is a clone.��


    ��I don��t mind if she is a clone or an ordinary person because what I like about her is her true self, not her identity,�� E-Goat confessed without thinking twice. However, he then hesitated again. ��I��m just awork engineer. Even if I manage to save her, I don��t know how to protect her from herpany. Or perhaps we can go to herpany and talk to her superior. Maybe, I can use my sry to make up for the money she could��ve earned.��


    ��Do you think herpany will ept this offer?��


    E-Goat could not help but feel discouraged after he heard what Zhang Heng said. Zhang Heng then patted his shoulder, ��Don��t worry. Maybe it won��t take long for us to resolve the problem. New Shanghai 0297 is not exactly peaceful. Soon, something bad will happen to this city. Before that, we have to rescue Xu Qian first.��


    ��Well, what do you want me to do next?�� E-Goat asked.


    ��Let��s go to Xu Qian��s residence first. It��ll be best if she��s there.��


    ...


    The reason Zhang Heng was recruiting was because he had already died once, and E-Goat was good with all that technical gizmo. Although Zhang Heng was also tech savvy, he was responsible for fighting with the enemies. Hence, it would be nice if there was someone there to back him up and share his burden.


    Soon the two came to the downstairs of Xu Qian��s residence. E-Goat waited for a while, and when fewer and fewer people entered and exited the building, E-Goat took out a maic card with anime stickers from his pocket and secretly swiped it on the keypad.


    Following that, a pleasant female voice could be heard. ��Wee, Zhuge Liang and Zhou Yu, owners of Unit 12, Room 3094. You have returned to the Yacheng apartment. You two have administrator rights, and the monitoring system will not record your entry and exit records. All the security footage with you in it will be deleted as well.��


    ��Done!�� E-Goat put away the maic card and found that Zhang Heng was looking at him and touched his nose, ��What��s wrong?��


    ��Zhuge Liang? Zhou Yu? Do you have to be so ostentatious? Did you really think nobody would think that we are using fake names?��


    ��Sorry, naming is my weakness. It��s much harder than programming,�� E-Goat apologized politely. After that, Zhang Heng did not criticize him anymore. The two then walked into the apartment building and got on the elevator.


    Zhang Heng took out the pistol from his waist, checked the magazine, and turned on the safety. E-Goat was calm initially, but he suddenly became nervous when he saw Zhang Heng drew the gun.


    ��Don��t be afraid. It��s for emergencies,�� Zhang Heng said causally.

 Chapter 1033 - Change Of View

    <h4>Chapter 1033: Change Of View</h4>


    The elevator soon arrived in front of Room 3094. As the doors opened, E-Goat subconsciously tried to retreat behind Zhang Heng. However, when he realized that Xu Qian might be in her apartment unit, he decided not to sumb to fear. This was the time to show how manly he was.


    As a result, the scene in front of him surprised him. The living room was now as clean as the Heiwu Shopping Mall��s shelves. They could not even find a roll of toilet paper in the unit. Xu Qian was not there, and the furniture in her apartment was gone as well. Other than the air-conditioners and heaters that came with the apartment, not a single thread was left in the living room.


    Zhang Heng then checked the bedroom, Xu Qian��s studio, kitchen, and bathroom. The conditions were exactly the same as the living room. So, he put away the pistol in his hand.


    ��Did she... move away?�� E-Goat asked. Other than moving away, he could not figure out what could cause the scene in front of him.


    Zhang Heng did not answer this question immediately. Instead, he said, ��hack into the ess control system of the apartment to see when she left.��


    ��Oh, okay.�� E-Goat took out his handheldputer and quickly began to work on it. On the other hand, Zhang Heng took advantage of this time to search the entire apartment thoroughly, looking for clues that he might have missed.


    After about ten minutes, E-Goat spoke again, ��I found something.��


    ��Hmm?��


    ��The ess control system records show that a movingpany called EasyMove visited this apartment this morning, and they probably moved out all the furniture.��


    ��Did Xu Qian leave the apartment at that time?��


    ��No, Xu Qian left way earlier. She left yesterday morning.��


    ��Did she leave with her boyfriend, Qiu Ming?��


    ��No, she left alone. I found the surveince footage. She did leave alone. I can also see that no modifications have been made to the footage. After this, I will send this to one of my professional friends to check for its authenticity. Well, she looked a little panicked in the video. You mentioned that you told her that her boyfriend is suspicious. Maybe, she is afraid of him and decided to look for a temporary ce to hide. Or should I send her an email and ask her in person? Considering what I did to her before, it is understandable if she has a hard time trusting me. But we can tell her that you are still alive, and she should believe you.��


    ��It��s not a good time for me to show myself. So don��t drag me into this. If she wants to go into hiding, why would she contact the movingpany to move away from all the furniture?��


    ��Because... she��s moving to her new residence?�� E-Goat guessed, ��It doesn��t make sense. She decided to move because she was afraid? She picked a ce yesterday, and she contacted the movingpany to move all her furniture away. So, we only need to contact thepany and ask them where we can find her.��


    Zhang Heng was nomittal upon hearing what E-Goat said.


    ��Any questions?��


    ��When I took this job, Xu Qian told me that she was being followed by someone mysterious. There was this once she realized that someone had messed with her things after she came home. However, there were no records of the person entering and leaving the apartment.��


    ��You suspect that someone like us hacked into the apartment system and came to Xu Qian��s residence to kidnap her. But in the surveince video, she did leave the apartment alone.��


    ��The intruder didn��t need to use force to make Xu Qian leave the apartment. All he needs to do is leave some traces in there to cause her to panic. By doing that, she��ll leave the apartment voluntarily,�� Zhang Heng said. ��When I checked the house just now, I found the buoyancy valve of the toilet broken. There is also a foreign object under the sink in the kitchen. Other than that, I spotted a man��s handprints on the window as well. Xu Qian left her apartment voluntarily and abruptly yesterday. It was probably because someone was threatening her. Otherwise, she wouldn��t have found a movingpany to move the furniture this quickly. If you are free and are willing to watch all the surveince videos from the previous day, you should find out that some footage has gone missing.��


    ��Indeed, your analysis is more logical, but why did the other party choose to go through all these troubles? He can just kidnap Xu Qian from her apartment and delete all the surveince footage.�� E-Goat scratched his head.


    ��The recovery of the second type of clone is not as simple as the first type. You are right. If the existence of the second type is known to the public, it may cause mass hysteria. Besides, Xu Qian is half a public figure, and she has a lot of fans too. This is why the other party came up with a n to make her think that she would marry a rich man. From there, they expect her to announce her retirement to her fans. When all that is done, they could easily make her go away silently afterward.��


    Zhang Heng paused and went on, ��Because of me, Xu Qian has begun to doubt her boyfriend and has not announced her retirement in her livestream until now. I am afraid that the other party has no intention to continue dragging.��


    After all, they would need to spend a lot of money to maintain such a perfect boyfriend. So, Zhang Heng did not rule out that they decided to change their strategy after evaluating the existing situation.


    ��If the n of getting her married to a man and retirement is not feasible, the mental pressure thates with her streaming job and eventually leads to mental health problems is also a good reason to make her quit bing a streamer. And it is very simple to pull this off. All they need to do is to publish the news that is rted to her mental health problem on the inte.��


    Upon hearing that, E-Goat immediately went on the inte and skillfully retrieved all the information rted to Xu Qian. It did not take long for him to find out something about Xu Qian. The news came from a well-known paparazzi website known for its timely and urate news. The headline of the day was that a female streamer was suspected of suffering persecution delusion. A short clip was attached, showing Xu Qian walking on the road and constantly looking behind her though there was nothing.


    The readers did not seem to believe in this news. Some of Xu Qian��s fans thought it was wrong to say that she suffered from mental health problems based on this short clip. Maybe someone was really following her at the time.


    However,st night, another anonymous person replied to the following post by uploading the surveince video. In the video, Xu Qian��s expression was flustered and frightened. She kept shouting at the ess control system to close the gate. It was as if someone wasing after her. However, after she left the elevator fifteen minutester, the surveince video did not show a second person walking out of the elevator.


    As soon as this video was uploaded to the inte, her public opinion had changed drastically. More and more people began to believe that Xu Qian was suffering from mental health problems.

 Chapter 1034 - The Truth About Xu Qian’s Disappearance

    <h4>Chapter 1034: The Truth About Xu Qian��s Disappearance</h4>


    After seeing the news on the Inte, E-Goat became extremely nervous, seeing things going as Zhang Heng had said. Xu Qian��s fans began to persuade her to take a break or even change jobs altogether.


    E-Goat became angrier as he read the news. And soon, he could not stand it anymore. He had to reply to ament left by a cynicalizen that said, ��It��s all just an act.�� However, as soon as he typed the first two words, Zhang Heng stopped him.


    ��What are you doing?��


    ��Exin the whole thing to everyone,�� E-Goat said angrily. ��You can��t just allow them to insult Xu Qian like that.��


    ��So, you want to tell everyone that Xu Qian is a clone?�� Zhang Heng asked rhetorically.


    E-Goat was left speechless.


    ��And now we are not supposed to focus on debunking rumors. We must first rescue Xu Qian. If I��m right about it, I think someone is controlling her.��


    ��Is she still alive?�� E-Goat thought of something, and it clearly left him very unhappy.


    ��I can��t confirm my spection now,�� Zhang Heng told the truth. ��Her reply in the email is too short. It is impossible to know if she had sent it or not. However, based on my understanding of Xu Qian, during this period, after she knew that you were the one that stalked her, she shouldn��t collect any money or gifts from you anymore.��


    It had been a while since Zhang Heng left the third level, and he did not expect that the other party would move on Xu Qian so quickly. However, her whereabouts were unknown now, and he had to bear part of the responsibility for that. Zhang Heng had, after all, previously epted a new task from Xu Qian. Before he could conduct any further investigation, Xu Qian disappeared. Zhang Heng had to find out what happened to Xu Qian to make up for his previous negligence.


    ��We have to find Xu Qian before those guys hurt her,�� E-Goat eagerly said. ��But where will she be now?��


    ��I don��t know, but I know someone who can answer your question.��


    ...


    Xu Qian��s hands were trembling all the time. She looked at the man on the other side of the sofa. She used to think that she knew him, but now she felt that he was a stranger to her.


    ��Are you done considering?�� Qiu Ming asked, still as gentle and elegant as ever.


    ��I won��t make the retirement videos you asked me to do.��


    Although she was terrified, Xu Qian insisted on not doing it because she still remembered Zhang Heng��s reminder before leaving: stay within the public eye. So, Xu Qian insisted on streaming every night until yesterday morning when she went to the toilet and found the broken buoyancy valve. However, she remembered that it was fine just before she fell asleep.


    This discovery caused Xu Qian��s heart to skip a beat. She then noticed that her electronic toothbrush��s head disappeared for some reason. Xu Qian immediately realized that someone might have broken into her apartment. It was at that time, the fear in her heart rose to an all-time high.


    She did not know if the intruder had left her apartment or if he was still hiding somewhere in her apartment. Xu Qian did not dare to go to another room. So, she hurried back to her bedroom and put on a dress. After that, she rushed into the elevator without makeup and shouted at the smart panel to close the elevator doors. She was terrified for a while, even after she had run out of her apartment, constantly looking back and speeding up her pace.


    She was confused at the time, and she did not know where to go. When she opened up her address book, she did not know who to contact as well. When she saw Zhang Heng��s name, her fingers paused, and she remembered the news that she read yesterday. Immediately, her heart sank.


    Xu Qian did not expect Zhang Heng would die so suddenly. When she read the news for the first time, she felt a chill. To her, Zhang Heng��s death was too much of a coincidence. Soon after he agreed to help her to investigate her matter, it was hard for Xu Qian not to connect Zhang Heng��s death with her affairs.


    And this not-so-beautiful misunderstanding also made Xu Qian, who was already extremely nervous, feel even more uneasy. What actually happened that night was still unclear to the public. Different versions were circting on the inte, where more than one person said they saw a group of police officers and exoskeleton fighters fighting each other, destroying a lot of public facilities as they went along. Many bullet marks had been left at the central station on the second level. Xu Qian did not know how she caused both sides to fight fiercely against each other.


    She had been thinking about it for the past two days, and since no solid evidence could be found, every idea she came up with was no more than conjecture. This incident caused her to lose the only person that she could rely on.


    Xu Qian ran through the address book and found that she could not find anyone to help her apart from Zhang Heng. In the end, Xu Qian had to settle down at a small hotel. While preparing for the livestream at night, she thought about what she should do next.


    Unfortunately, her n was forced to be canceled after a ss of free orange juice the hotel provided. When Xu Qian opened her eyes again, she found out that she was already in Qiu Ming��s vi. Since Qiu Ming did not use any violent means to deal with her, Xu Qian finally calmed down a little. She then added, ��I don��t have any mental illness. My fans know that. So, you made it up. No one would believe a lie.��


    Qiu Ming didn��t answer her immediately. Instead, she smiled and asked, ��Do you know Baudrird?��


    ��Who?��


    ��This name was once a taboo in human society, and now there are not many people on earth who recognize this name.�� Qiu Ming said as he took out a knife from his pocket.


    Xu Qian suddenly became nervous, staring intently at the knife in Qiu Ming��s hand.


    He then picked up an apple from the fruit te and peeled it with a knife. At the same time, he said casually, ��Baudrird came up with a very interesting and very pessimistic theory. He believes that as society continued growing, the truth will eventually disappearpletely and be reced by a set of made-up and well-designed theories. All those theories wouldpete with each other, constantly imitating the truth. There might be a certain truth hidden in those theories, tempting us to believe in them. However, we will never know what the truth is.��


    ��What do you mean by that?��


    ��Open your bracelet and look at your social ount.�� Qiu Ming said.


    Xu Qian did what he asked and logged into her social ount. Seeing a fan asking her to stop streaming and take a break, she was left inplete shock. Xu Qian then scrolled down the message board and saw that everyone was wishing for her speedy recovery.


    ��You faked the fake news and told everyone that I was mentally ill?�� Xu Qian was shocked and angry.


    ��Remember the theory that I said earlier? I personally don��t rmend you use the term fake news because the content and videos I posted are real. And I never said a word from the beginning to the end that you have a mental illness. I even added the word ��suspect�� to the title. Theseizens believe whatever they want to believe without any hesitation.��

 Chapter 1035 - Advice

    <h4>Chapter 1035: Advice</h4>


    ��I don��t care about your bullsh*t theory. This is fake news because I don��t have any mental problems. You know this very well,�� Xu Qian growled.


    Qiu Ming wasn��t angered when he heard what she said. Instead, he cut the apple in his hand, handed it to Xu Qian, and said softly, ��You seem to be obsessed with distinguishing the truth from the false. Perhaps this is why we havee to this point in the end. Initially, I prepared aromatherapy, wine and covered the bed with rose petals. Earlier in the restaurant, if you didn��t run away when I took out the engagement ring, leaving me there like an idiot, we could have had a very pleasant and unforgettable night.��


    A p could be heard after Qiu Ming answered her question.


    Xu Qian did not pick up the apple. Instead, she pped Qiu Ming.


    She could not control her anger anymore when she heard Qui Ming talking about a pleasant and unforgettable night. After Xu Qian pped him, she felt the fear again. So, she quickly stepped back. Fortunately, Qiu Ming did not threw a tantrum after she pped him. Instead, he lifted the apple in his hand and waited quietly.


    Half a minuteter, Xu Qian could not bear the increasing pressure and reached out to grab the apple.


    However, Qiu Ming did not let go of the apple. Instead, he extended the other hand and cut the apple in half with the knife that he was holding. Qiu Ming then retracted his hand, and he did not forget to urge Xu Qian, who was almost scared to death.


    ��Eat it. This apple is quite sweet.��


    Xu Qian was not in the mood to eat the apple at this moment. She quickly checked the hand that held the apple, and she was relieved to see that there was no wound on it.


    ��Are you scared of me?�� Qiu Ming asked rhetorically, ��Actually, you don��t need to worry. People are emotional. We have been together for such a long time. I even know your menstrual cycles. If there is one person that cares about you in this world, that will be me. So eat. I��m afraid you won��t be able to eat such a delicious apple in the future.


    Qiu Ming had already bitten the apple in his hand while talking, indicating that there was no poison in it.


    ��How are you going to deal with me?�� Xu Qian asked while gritting her teeth.


    ��Well, even if you know the answer, what��s the point? You can��t change anything.�� Qiu Ming spread his hands.


    ��Will you kill me?�� Xu Qian asked. ��It is said that when an old clone can no longer generate enough value, it would be dragged to a ce for euthanasia.��


    ��You already know who you are...�� Qiu Ming said with a smile, ��No, no, you are still young and beautiful. It will be a shame if you die like that. We don��t waste resources.��


    ��Then what do you want to do to me? I am a public figure. You can��t just rewrite my memory and throw me back to society. My fans will recognize me.��


    ��Not here, but at other ces where no one knows you. You can still start a new life there. Of course, it won��t be as beautiful anymore.��


    ��What does it mean when you said where no one knows me?�� Xu Qian was puzzled.


    Qiu Ming did not intend to exin further. He ate the apple and pped his hands. ��We��ve talked a lot. Usually, this kind of thing should end easily once you ept the engagement ring and announce your retirement. After that, we will have a good night together. This memory of yours will stay, but it will notst too long. Eventually, you willpletely forget about this life.


    ��Speaking of which, you are the only one who gets to chat with me before leaving.�� Qiu Ming said, ��How about that? I treated you pretty good, right?��


    ��What if I insist on not posting a retirement video?�� Xu Qian gritted her teeth.


    ��You wouldn��t do that.�� Qiu Ming shook his head. ��You know that you have no chance of winning if you continue to fight. It is only a matter of time before you surrender. Moreover, even if you don��t announce your retirement, the previous news and video that I spread will do the job. So far, this matter is being controlled within an eptable range. Your hostility towards me is too great. Instead of treating me like an enemy, you should regard me as a friend that helps you.��


    ��What kind of friend would deceive me and make me think that I��m getting married to a rich man, erase my memory, and dump me at some random ce?�� Xu Qian was irritated by Qiu Ming��s shamelessness.


    ��Perhaps you should look at this matter from another angle. You are a streamer. It should be clear to you that no streamer can remain popr forever. So, this kind of thing will happen sooner orter. My existence is to make this process more humane. Take a look at this life of yours. You built your career from scratch. You started from working as a waitress in a small restaurant at the first level. After that, you eliminated yourpetitors and got signed by an entertainmentpany. After that, you relied on your efforts to pave your way to be a popr streamer. And finally, you achieved all of your life goals. You get to marry a handsome and brilliant man. It��s perfect, isn��t it? You can also finish your curtain call in the enviable eyes of others.


    ��Of course, we can make it hard for you. For example, now, everyone thinks you can no longer work in this line of work because of your unstable mental condition. And now you look scared and helpless. Look at you. The moment you opened your eyes, you look like a chick that��s been blown out of the nest by a strong wind, shivering. You will be happier if you know nothing about it.��


    Qiu Ming could not stop talking about it. Other than letting Xu Qian knew that her memory would be rewritten soon, he decided to tell her everything honestly, ��Like what I told you earlier, even if you choose to continue to dig deeper, you will never be able to really find the truth. Even if you feel that you have known the truth now, what you really get is actually a narrative that you believe in.��


    ��Then what is the truth?�� Xu Qian asked, ��Just be honest, tell me, and I will shoot the retirement video as you said.��


    ��To be honest, I don��t know. And I can only see the side that I am willing to believe.�� Qiu Ming said sincerely.


    ��Aren��t you curious at all? Aren��t you worried that what happens to me, will happen to you one day?�� Xu Qian asked unwillingly.


    ��This is the difference between you and me. I am not obsessed with the truth,�� Qiu Ming smiled. ��Because the truth is painful and can never be reached. Instead of bing a puppet that is constantly searching for the one that pulls the threads, it would be better to be a puppet that focuses on performing and enjoy what you have. This is thest piece of advice I will give you before you leave.��

 Chapter 1036 - What You Said Touched Me Slightly

    <h4>Chapter 1036: What You Said Touched Me Slightly</h4>


    Qiu Ming was humming a pop song that Xu Qian loved singing during her live broadcast. He was frying the steak in the kitchen. His control of the heat was perfect. The steak was tender and juicy. After serving it on a te, Qiu Ming sprinkled some ck pepper on it, adding two slices of broli with boiling water.


    He then took two steps back and admired his masterpiece before pouring himself a ss of red wine. Then, he held the ss in one hand and carried the steak out of the kitchen with the other, ready to celebrate the sessfulpletion of the work.


    But what he saw next stunned him.


    He found that there were two more people at his dining table.


    Qiu Ming didn��t know who one of them was, but he recognized the other person.


    ��Where is Xu Qian?�� E-Goat asked with a dark face. With a puffed chest, he tried to make his voice sound more fierce.


    ��F*ck!��


    Qiu Ming couldn��t help but swear, but he quickly apologized.


    ��I��m not targeting you. I just didn��t expect Xu Qian to tell someone else about her. This will make the whole thing moreplicated. By the way, didn��t you break up with her because you stalked her? Why still care about this?��


    ��Even though she said she doesn��t want to see me again, and I��ve decided to wish her happiness. If she��s in danger, I won��t sit idly by,�� E-Goat vehemently proimed.


    ��...��


    ��Dog licking is a real b*tch!��Qiu Mingmented.


    Seeing E-Goat��s drastic change in expression, Qiu Ming gestured for him to calm down. Then, he walked over and ced the steak and red wine on the table before Zhang Heng pulled out the chair opposite E-Goat and sat down.


    ��It��s challenging for me to do this. By the way, how much do you know about Xu Qian? Have you told anyone else?��


    ��Why? Do you think you��re going to kill us to silence us?��Epsilon added a few scornfulughs. In the end, neither Zhang Heng nor Qiu Ming cooperated with him. Again, Epsilonughed dryly before awkwardly shutting up. Then, he seemed to have thought of something, and his expression changed. ��You want to silence me? Am I a clone too?��


    ��I don��t know why you all care so much whether you��re clones or not?��Qiu Ming blinked.


    ��Isn��t that obvious?�� E-Goat said. ��If Xu Qian weren��t a clone, there wouldn��t be such a thing after that. Regardless of the viewer decline in her livestream, who she married, whether she��s retired or not, no one woulde looking for trouble with her. If I weren��t a clone, you wouldn��t dare to do anything to me, right?��


    ��Well...�� Qiu Ming touched his chin. ��That��s what you think.��


    ��What do you mean?�� Qiu Ming��s ambiguous attitude made E-Goat feel a little baffled.


    ��But I can��t me you because everyone thinks so,�� Qiu Ming smiled. ��This is the reason why new Shanghai 0297 can function normally.��


    E-Goat became more and more confused, but he didn��t forget the pressing issue. He said to Qiu Ming, ��Stop talking nonsense. Get to the point and hand Xu Qian over!��


    ��Sigh, programmers are so simple and crude. They don��t have any mood at all. It��s strange that I��m in the mood to chat today,�� Qiu Ming sighed. ��You guys are even worse than Xu Qian. At least she��s still a little obsessed with the so-called truth.��


    ��Truth? What truth?��


    ��It doesn��t matter anymore,�� Qiu Ming said. ��Unfortunately, you guys arete. Xu Qian has been sent away. You guys will never be able to see her again. However, the slightlyforting thing is that she left a video of her leaving. Later, I will use her social media ount to post it. You guys cane with everyone to bless her.��


    ��You bastard!�� E-Goat was really mad this time. He stood up from his seat, scoffing, ��Are you nning to kill her? Just because the number of people in her live stream has decreased?!��


    ��Well, let��s just understand it ording to what you believe,�� Qiu Ming said. ��Clones are purely production tools. The efficiency of production tools has decreased. Of course, we have to rece them with new ones, so what we did was very reasonable.��


    Qiu Ming��s words caused E-Goat to be a little speechless. But then E-Goat said, ��Aren��t you guys just doing this to earn money? Give me a number. Even if I can��t fork out so much on my own, Xu Qian��s fans aren��t just me. If we all pool together, we��ll be able to gather enough.��


    ��I��m a little touched, but believe me, your n is useless.��


    ��Are you forcing us to use violence?!��


    E-Goat��s patience had finally run out, especially when he thought of Xu Qian suffering somewhere. His heart ached, and he didn��t want to dy any longer.


    ��We can try.�� Qiu Ming still looked indifferent.


    In terms of their figures, E-Goat undoubtedly had the advantage. Although he was awork engineer, his figure was maintained well. There were even a few muscles on his arm. Inparison, Qiu Ming looked more pampered. He had even put on a little weight, as if he did not exercise enough every day.


    Therefore, E-Goat didn��t even exert full strength in his first punch. He only clenched his fist and smashed it at Qiu Ming��s face. However, Qiu Ming did not react at all. He only smiled when the fist was about to reach his nose. Then, his right hand suddenly bounced from the table at a speedpletely inconsistent with his figure.


    Then, Qiu Ming��s nose took a punch from E-Goat.


    Because at thest moment, Qiu Ming��s right hand that had bounced up was forcibly pushed back to the table by Zhang Heng. Qiu Ming couldn��t care less about the pain in his nose, his left hand automatically pulling the pistol hidden under the dining table. The entire sequence was performed with the smoothness of practiced ease.


    In the end, he was still one step toote. Before he could point the gun at Zhang Heng, thetter��s knife was already at his throat.


    It was only then that Qiu Ming��s expression changed slightly. He looked at Zhang Heng in surprise. ��It looks like I��ve misjudged you this time. How can a programmer who basically has no social interaction find such a powerful friend? But I��m a little confused. He��s only involved in this mess because of love. Why are you doing this?��


    Zhang Heng did not answer Qiu Ming. Instead, he asked, ��Xu Qian should have left your ce not long ago. Where has she been sent?��


    ��I don��t know.�� Qiu Ming shook his head. ��We belong to different departments. My job is to make the target disappear from New Shanghai 0297 in a reasonable manner. As for where they go after they disappear, that has nothing to do with me.��


    ��Is that so? But from what you said, you don��t seem like an honest bloke,�� Zhang Heng said. He raised the knife half a centimeter higher and cut Qiu Ming��s skin.

 Chapter 1037 - E-ID, Work ID, and Fingerprints

    <h4>Chapter 1037: E-ID, Work ID, and Fingerprints</h4>


    Qiu Ming��s skills were not bad. Although he still fell short of the standards of the emergency response team, his job wasn��t too dangerous. In addition to his harmless appearance, his current skills were more than adequate.


    This was also why Qiu Ming��s vignce was somewhatcking. He had been a hunter for too long, so long that he thought he could always control the situation. Even if Zhang Heng and E-Goat came knocking on his door, Qiu Ming��s first reaction would be that of no surprise. It wasn��t to take the two of them out but to deal with the aftermath. He didn��t expect that he��d sink this time, so he couldn��t help but say a few more words. Thest thing he expected was that he would end up in trouble.


    Now that the de was almost touching his trachea, Qiu Ming could scent death. However, even in such times, he still had reins over his emotions, not breaking down or revealing too much fear. This had garnered E-Goat��s admiration.


    ��Ipletely understand your concerns, but please believe that I��m doing this for your own good. You��re already in a precarious situation, and it will bring you no benefit if you pursue this,�� Qiu Ming said sincerely.


    ��Why? Are you worried that we will expose the existence of the second type of clone, causing public insecurity and eventually forcing you to publish the entire list of clones?�� E-Goat asked rhetorically.


    ��Hmm... it��s an awful and regrettable result, but believe me, there are worse things than this,�� Qiu Ming forbade. ��So why don��t we stop here? It��ll be better for both of us. I can assure you that Xu Qian won��t be in any danger.��


    ��Why don��t I believe a single word out of your mouth?�� E-Goat sneered. ��You��ve been lying to Xu Qian from the very beginning, making her think that you��re the right man for her. In the end, you turned around and sold her out. Now, you expect us to trust you, a professional liar?��


    Qiu Ming tried to defend himself. ��This is my job. There��s nothing I can do about it. In fact, if you knew how we spent thest few hours together, you would know that I treated her quite well.��


    ��Don��t tell me you...?!�� E-Goat��s expression changed.


    ��No, no, no... it wasn��t as good as you think. We had a rtively frank, albeit a little unpleasant conversation. I didn��t touch a single strand of hair on her from the beginning to the end, and I even patiently answered many of her questions. In the end, the video of her retreating was taken voluntarily,�� Qiu Ming raised his hands in rification. ��In other words, you can also say she decided to leave on her own.��


    ��Do you take us for fools?!��


    Absolutely enraged by Qiu Ming��s absurdity, E-Goat grabbed thetter by the cor.


    ��Take us there,�� Zhang Heng said. ��If you find Xu Qian, you��ll be able to survive. Otherwise, we��ll kill you and continue looking for her.��


    After saying that, he lowered his knife a few millimeters.


    ��I don��t think I have a choice,�� Qiu Ming smiled wryly. ��Fine, if you insist, I can take you to her. But we have an agreement. I will need your unconditional cooperation. Do whatever I say, or we��d all be in big trouble. Also, be mentally prepared for what you��re about to see.��


    ��You don��t have to worry about that. What era is this? There are so many weird things on the Inte,�� E-Goat said. ��I��ve never been scared before.��


    Qiu Ming didn��t exin further. Instead, he nodded and said, ��That��s good.��


    Zhang Heng took Qiu Ming��s gun and searched him. After confirming that he carried no weapons on him, the three got into Qiu Ming��s car. Qiu Ming, however, didn��t immediately bring Zhang Heng and E-Goat to look for Xu Qian. Instead, they went to a video game city first.


    This was how Qiu Ming exined it to E-Goat: ��The ce I��m taking you to has a rigorous entry and exit system. In addition to verifying your electronic ID, you need a work permit and fingerprint verification. These three can��t be forged, so we need the real thing.��


    Qiu Ming then pointed at two people ying a racing game. ��Do you see them? They should have their wristbands and work permits on them.��


    ��Wait, what about the fingerprints?�� E-Goat asked. ��I know a device that can print fingerprints...��


    ��No, we need living fingerprints. Just cut them off,�� Qiu Ming said inly. ��Don��t worry. I have a way to preserve them. Whether body temperature or the degree of expansion of sweat nds, they can be maintained. I guarantee that when you use them, they will be as fresh as they came.��


    E-Goat was stunned. After a long pause, he asked, ��Aren��t they colleagues of yours?��


    ��Yes, but not really. I just happen to know that they have a habit of staying in the game city. Please, I��m helping you find the pass now. You should thank me for sacrificing my colleagues, right?�� Qiu Ming said.


    On the other side, Zhang Heng wasted no time and was ready to make his move. He handed E-Goat a gun and asked him to keep an eye on Qiu Ming. Then, he bought a milkshake at the service counter. As he passed the two of them, he poured the milkshake on the plump guy, who quickly flew into a rage and stood up from the racing console.


    Zhang Heng apologized, but to no avail. The chunky dude gave Zhang Heng a shove, but before anything happened, the game city��s security soon arrived. The fat guy and hispanion looked at each other before gesturing Zhang Heng to the bathroom. They would deal with the spilled milkshake problem there.


    The two had practically forced Zhang Heng into the bathroom, but only three minutester, Zhang Heng came out of the bathroom alone and threw a stic bag containing two fingers to Qiu Ming.


    ��It��s so efficient,�� Qiu Minguded.


    E-Goat felt nauseous when he saw the two bloody fingers, but he did not forget the pompous words he had uttered before this. ��It��s just a severed finger,�� he forced himself to say. ��It��s not like I haven��t seen it before. What��s to be mentally prepared for?��


    ��Oh, you��ve misunderstood! That was not what I was talking about,�� Qiu Ming said in surprise. ��Don��t tell me you��re having trouble epting such a small incident?��


    E-Goat was speechless.


    Fortunately, Zhang Heng quickly helped him out of his predicament. He handed over a bracelet and work permit to E-Goat, and at the same time, said to Qiu Ming, ��Don��t waste any more time. You��ve already gotten what you want. Hurry up and find Xu Qian.��


    ��Okay.��


    Qiu Ming didn��t waste any more time and left the game city with the two, returning to the car.


    This time, the three drove directly to the central station before buying tickets to the fifth floor.


    ��Are we going to New Shanghai 0297��s magnificent Shengtang Morgan headquarters?��


    As he thought about this, E-Goat became nervous.


    Qiu Ming, however, replied, ��No, the headquarters is just for decoration... well, I��m not at liberty to divulge, but the secret of the fifth floor is really not there.��

 Chapter 1038 - The Fifth Floor

    <h4>Chapter 1038: The Fifth Floor</h4>


    Unlike the other four floors, there were very few residents on the fifth floor.


    Having an officially registered poption of less than 2,000, the fifth floor was more like private territory. Travel requests were difficult to apply for, and other than employees, very few people from other floors came to visit.


    However, with Qiu Ming around, Zhang Heng and E-Goat��s applications were approved very quickly.


    After receiving the tickets, the three of them followed the instructions and entered the corresponding waiting hall. The ce was also very quiet. Apart from them, only six or seven people were preparing to go to the fifth floor.


    ��Don��t look around,�� Qiu Ming reminded E-Goat, who was ncing about. ��Don��t forget your current identity. Many of those who actually go to the fifth floor are employees of thepany. Don��t let them see any ws.��


    ��You��re quite kind, but are you really thinking for us?��


    E-Goat was skeptical but still retracted his gaze and refused to look at Qiu Ming.


    ��Of course, I��ve seen countless people, and I��m very clear about my current situation. If I have any inappropriate measures, this friend of yours must have slit my throat or made a hole in the back of my head before they take effect,�� Qiu Ming said. ��I like my job, and I��m very grateful to thepany that gave it to me, but my life is more important inparison.��


    ��Quite self-aware, you,�� mocked E-Goat.


    ��Recognizing danger is one of the most important survival instincts of a living creature. Let alone humans, even paramecia know how to avoid harmful stimuli through pressure, and the results tend to be favorable,�� Qiu Ming said. ��On the other hand, I��ve tried to persuade you many times, but still, you insist on going to dangerous ces. It��s really not very wise.��


    ��Isn��t that because you kidnapped Xu Qian?�� E-Goat shot Qiu Ming an using gaze.


    Qiu Ming realized the situation and tactfully shut his mouth.


    Not long after, a shuttle in its ascending state entered the station. The mechanical arm beside the tform also began to move. Itpleted the assembly as swiftly as it could and loaded the three people waiting in the hall into the shuttle.


    ��Wee to the fifth floor. I wish you a pleasant journey.��


    An elegant female voice sounded, but it sounded a little creepy in the empty carriage.


    ...


    About six minutester, the shuttle stopped moving again. The mechanical arm prepared earlier grappled the car once more and ced it in the arrival hall.


    Qiu Ming unfastened his seat belt and obediently followed Zhang Heng and E-Goat out of the station.


    Unlike what E-Goat had imagined, the station on the fifth floor didn��t give off a luxurious vibe. Although the building was more elegant than the four floors below, there didn��t seem to be any other differences, not to mention how unusually deserted the station was. Passengers and the staff were both pitifullycking in this area.


    ��Where��s the taxi?�� E-Goat looked up at the sign, but he couldn��t find the taxi stand.


    ��There are no taxis on the fifth floor,�� Qiu Ming said. ��All the residents have a car, and those with more mundane jobs have shuttle buses to take them to and from work. They are not allowed to wander around. More than two-thirds of the fifth floor��s area is private territory.��


    ��It��s all very shy, I must say. What should we do, then? Are we going far? Can we walk there?�� muttered E-Goat.


    ��Don��t worry. Ourpany has parked some cars in the station��s parking lot for the employees to use. We can just drive there,�� Qiu Ming said.


    The three of them then took the elevator down to the parking lot. Qiu Ming turned on his wristband and activated the car mode. Half a minuteter, a silver-gray car left its parking space and drove to their front.


    Qiu Ming opened the door and made a gesture of invitation. E-Goat got in first, followed by Qiu Ming. Finally, Zhang Heng sat in the front passenger seat.


    ��It��s a rare trip. Do you want to take a simple tour of the fifth floor?�� Qiu Ming asked as he adjusted the front and rear mirrors.


    ��No, just take us directly to Xu Qian. Don��t y any more tricks,�� E-Goat warned.


    Qiu Ming looked at the pistol at Zhang Heng��s waist and nodded. ��It��s up to you.��


    This was also E-Goat��s first timeing to the fifth level. It would be hyperbole to say that he wasn��t curious, but since all his attention was on rescuing Xu Qian, he wasn��t in the mood to enjoy the scenery.


    Even so, when Qiu Ming drove through the city, E-Goat couldn��t help but peer out of the window.


    The result, however, turned out a little disappointing. Just like the station, the fifth floor was much simpler than he imagined. Nevertheless, he kept feeling that something was missing on the street. At first, E-Goat thought it was the pedestrians, but after looking at it a few more times, he realized he was weirded out because he did not see any billboards.


    Whether it was the first floor or the fourth floor, many billboards lined both sides of the street. Coming in different shapes and sizes, the products they featured varied as well. As a technology enthusiast, E-Goat often took advantage of event discounts to purchase rted products. It was only that on the fifth floor, the entire ce was devoid of advertisements, the city was abnormally clean. Therge white walls made E-Goat a little ufortable as if he was walking on a wastnd.


    As if he knew what he was thinking, Qiu Ming said, ��It��s not so lively here usually.��


    ��Why?��


    ��Because when we work... We need to focus and avoid making unnecessary associations,�� Qiu Ming exined.


    ��Unnecessary connections? What are unnecessary connections?��


    Qiu Ming didn��t answer the question. He drove the car up a beautiful hill and saw a private area in the distance. There was a sign that said no one was allowed in without an invitation.


    Qiu Ming ignored the sign and drove on. Soon, he arrived at the first sentry post.


    The electronic eye scanned his ID and work card and happily let the car pass. Qiu Ming continued driving. Three minutester, he arrived at the second sentry post. This time, not only Qiu Ming, but Zhang Heng and E-Goat had to also show their work cards. Only then was he allowed to pass.


    ��You can see how annoying this system is. In fact, the regr Monday meetings are a nightmare for me,�� Qiu Mingined as he passed the second sentry post.


    Then, he drove the car up the hill. There was a vi above them. Qiu Ming didn��t stop, bypassing the vi and continuing forward until the terrain became t and started to descend. It was then that E-Goat and Zhang Heng finally saw their destination.


    In the valley at the back of the hill stood a huge gray building, upying an area of more than ten airports. It had a strange design, like a giant ship preparing to sail in the wind. In addition, there was a tunnel in the hillside on the other side that connected to the buildingplex. Under the transparent tunnel, a train of trucks constantly rumbled along, looking extremely busy.


    ��What is this ce? Is it a secret base hidden by the government? Or is it an extraterrestrial research institute?�� asked E-Goat.


    ��Neither. This is the real headquarters of the magnificent Shengtang Morgan��s New Shanghai 0297,�� said Qiu Ming leisurely.

 Chapter 1039 - Science and Technology Brings Happiness

    <h4>Chapter 1039: Science and Technology Brings Happiness</h4>


    ��Shengtang Morgan��s real headquarters?��


    E-Goat was skeptical when Qiu Ming said that the Shengtang Morgan��s fifth-floor building was merely decoration. It was not until he saw the strange giant ship-like building before him that he finally believed thetter.


    ��But why did Morgan build their headquarters in such a hidden ce? In any case, New Shanghai 0297 is their territory. Isn��t it better to just openly work in the building?��


    ��It��s inconvenient we disclose our work to the ordinary people outside,�� Qiu Ming said. ��The reason why we��re hiding here is for everyone��s good. What do you say? Are you ready to go in together?��


    It was fine if he didn��t mention it, but once he did, E-Goat couldn��t help but be nervous. The main reason for his anxiety was that the geographical location of this building was so hidden, and it was apparent that it was a highly confidential ce. In addition, judging by the upied area and busy traffic flow, it seemed that the ce should��ve been crowded. On the other hand, there were only two people on their side.


    Although Zhang Heng had excellent skills, E-Goat wasn��t naive enough to think that Zhang Heng alone could pick off the entire Shengtang Morgan base. In other words, once their identities were exposed, it was highly likely that they would end up dead. Thus, not only would they not be able to save Xu Qian, but they would also die inside.


    However, the power of love knew no bounds. Thinking about how Xu Qian��s life and death were unknown, E-Goat felt that they had to go and explore regardless of whether it was a dragon or tiger��s den ahead. However, to be on the safe side, he asked again, ��I��m not a clone. So if Shengtang Morgan finds out, they shouldn��t do anything to me, right? At most, I��ll be kicked out and fined a bit more, right?��


    Qiu Ming looked at E-Goat with a strange expression. He stared at him for a long time before tactfully saying, ��I��m afraid... It��s not that simple. Once you enter the door in front of you, your whole life will change. But, of course, the prerequisite is that you have to be able toe out of it.��


    ��Otherwise, how are you going to treat me?��


    ��To be honest, I don��t know. There��s never been such a precedent before. But, no, that��s not right either. There was this once when an outsider entered the headquarters...��


    ��And then?��


    ��Then, he became one of us,�� Qiu Ming continued.


    ��Don��t worry, I won��t join you guys�� dirty work,�� E-Goat said. ��We��re not interested in what Shengtang Morgan is doing here. We��ll leave after we rescue Xu Qian, so hurry up and lead the way.��


    Upon hearing this, Qiu Ming did not say anything else. He drove down the hill and all the way to the parking lot outside the gate.


    After the three of them got out of the car, Zhang Heng ced the gun��s muzzle on Qiu Ming��s waist and covered it with his clothes. ��Don��t say a word,�� he warned, ��and don��t make any gestures or expressions that will cause misunderstandings.��


    ��Understood.�� Qiu Ming nodded. Then, he passed two small five by ten-centimeter boxes to Zhang Heng and E-Goat. ��The fingers are inside. You can take it out if you need itter. ��Don��t look around and don��t wander around. Pin your work card on your chest. Don��t worry. There are lots of employees inside. Most people won��t look at the photo on the work card. Also, we have an agreement. I will only help you find Xu Qian. It��s none of my business whether she wants to go with you or not.��


    ��Are you kidding me? Even if I��ve followed her before, it��s impossible she won��te with us in this situation, right?��.


    Qiu Ming shrugged. After Zhang Heng and E-Goat were ready, the three of them walked out of the door.


    It was probably because they had already gone through two security checks that Qiu Ming��s wristband was detected this time. Thus, there was no need for any additional operations as the door automatically opened to both sides.


    However, Qiu Ming then reminded the two of them, ��This door is easy to enter but hard to exit. When you want to leave, you must not walk out directly. It will trigger the rm. You need to register your fingerprints and scan your work ID on the machine over there first.�� Qiu Ming pointed to an object that looked like an attendance machine inside the door.


    Although E-Goat had chosen the hero��s path, saving the damsel in distress, it would be a lie to say that he was not nervous. Especially after entering the huge ship-like buildingplex, his heart rate had already climbed all the way to 120, almost like after a round of intense exercise.


    Fortunately, E-Goat saw no men with hatchets waiting to ambush him.


    The first thing that came into his sight was a blue marble wall with the Shengtang Morgan��spany logo printed on it, as well as a slogan����technology brings happiness.��


    The wall of the entire hall was actuallyposed of a giant curved screen. With no splices in the middle, and coupled with the mirror-like floor under his feet, it would cause iparable cultural shock to anyone.


    The curved screen yed the history of the Shengtang Morgan Corporation; its inception, born from the ruins of the war, to how it defeated itspetitors step by step, then won over its allies, looked for political allies, before finally growing into an unprecedented business behemoth.


    In front of the wall was a streamlined front desk. Two young girls sporting the best figures, dressed in professional attire, stood at the back. They looked like a pair of twins, save for a mole at the corner of one of their mouths. Other than that, there was almost no difference in their facial features. They looked like mirror images of each other. They were both absolute beauties.


    Standing in the spacious and Bright Hall, they greeted Qiu Ming with a smile when they saw him. ��Commissioner Qiu, Why Are You Here?�� they chirped. ��Didn��t you say that you would apply for a week��s leave after this job is done?��


    As they spoke, their gazes fell on Zhang Heng and E-Goat, who were behind Qiu Ming. Although they also greeted him politely, a hint of confusion marred their eyes. It was evident that the two left little impression on them.


    Just as they were about to turn their gaze to the work passes on their chests to see what their names were, Qiu Ming unexpectedly took over the conversation. As expected of a professional actor disguising as an eligible bachelor to bait his target, he still appeared calm andposed even though he was being held hostage with a pistol at his waist. From his appearance, it was impossible to tell that he was nervous at all. He was also a pathological liar.


    ��Of course, I wanted to rest. I had already booked a hotel and entertainment program, but I just received a notification that a Level 4 incident had happened. I rushed back with my two equally unlucky friends.��


    After hearing the words ��Level 4 incident��, the smiles on the two receptionist��s faces faded slightly. They no longer had time to pay attention to the origins of Zhang Heng and E-Goat. Furthermore, the three of them had already passed the previous inspection and were here now. ��In that case, we won��t disturb your work anymore,�� they ended with a nod.


    ��Of course not. I can��t wait to be disturbed by you guys every day.��


    Qiu Ming winked at the two girls after he said that. Then, he led Zhang Heng and E-Goat to the center of the hall. After the three of them had sound footing, one of the girls tapped twice on the screen before her, and the floor beneath their feet began to sink.

 Chapter 1040 - The Structure of the Company

    <h4>Chapter 1040: The Structure of the Company</h4>


    As soon as they left the hall, E-Goat asked Qiu Ming nervously, ��What did you mean by blinking? Were you trying to tell us something?��


    ��Please, brother, rx. All that blinking was merely me unting the charms of my masculinity to help you resolve the crisis,�� Qiu Ming said. ��Actually, you don��t have to be so nervous. I brought you here. If I were to be discovered, there��s no way I��m going to escape this. So, we��re actually in the same boat.��


    ��I remember I warned you not to do anything unnecessary, right?�� Zhang Heng, who was standing at the side, said lightly.


    ��Okay, fine. It��s indeed my fault. I apologize for acting on my own ord.�� Qiu Ming carried a fine attitude, and he didn��t find any excuse for himself.


    ��Don��t do it again.��


    Zhang Heng knew that Qiu Ming wasn��t lying this time. It wasn��t because of thetter, but because Qiu Ming��s daily work was basically a lie. This made Zhang Heng, who had an excellent observation, unable to tell whether Qiu Ming was telling the truth. Thus, his attention was actually on the twin receptionists opposite him. After Qiu Ming blinked, there was no sign of nervousness on their faces. On the contrary, their spirits rxed, and one of them even giggled with her hand over her mouth.


    As it turned out, Qiu Ming��s manly charm proved quite effective. Of course, it was also true that he liked to act on his own. Furthermore, he was a little too calm after being threatened, as if he believed that Zhang Heng and E-Goat wouldn��t do anything to him. Zhang Heng had no idea where his confidence came from.


    As the three of them were talking, the floor continued to descend. Zhang Heng and E-Goat saw the situation below.


    Unlike the empty reception hall, this floor bustled with activity. Conservatively, at least 300 to 400 people were on this floor, divided into several rows of workstations, stretching all the way to the back. Men and women in business attire sat in their respective seats, made calls, or were searching for something on the screen in front of them. Everyone looked very busy.


    ��Customer Service Department,�� Qiu Ming introduced. ��Thepany��s secondrgest department is mainly responsible for customer service. It collects all kinds of reasonable and unreasonable customer needs and gives feedback to the product department and Design Department to produce better products. It also epts all kinds of customizations and also provides free on-site guidance.��


    Just as Qiu Ming was speaking, a young man ended the call. He got up, put on his clothes, and walked toward the three people. Then, he nodded and rose to the next level.


    ��No wonder there are so many people. I remember that Shengtang Morgan has many subsidiaries in New Shanghai 0297. They are all over many industries, so there should be quite a number of people buying your products,�� said E-Goat.


    ��No, the customer service department you mentioned is in the Shengtang Morgan building outside. The customer service department here is not for individuals, but for thosepanies that have moved into Shengtang Morgan��s building.��


    ��Companies?��


    ��Yes. Of course, it��s not like those off-the-shelf roadside pop-ups and neighborhood convenience stores on the first and second floors. It��s for bigpanies and all kinds of well-known brands, such as the Shenzhouputer you use, the Chinese motherboard, or the girls�� Dillingkou. New Shanghai 0297 is the next generation city that Shengtang Morgan is investing in. You can think of it as arge shopping mall. After it��s built, it needs merchants to move in before it can be active. In addition to Shengtang Morgan��s subsidiaries, it will also recruit other merchants. In return, those new cities that otherpanies invest in will also be open to Shengtang Morgan and invite them to move in.��


    ��Is it like signing a multteral trade agreement?��


    ��Yes.��


    ��If that��s the case, thosepanies will then bepelled to purchase a certain product from Shengtang Morgan. What kind of product?�� E-Goat frowned.


    ��A necessary means of production.��


    ��Energy?��


    ��Something simr.��


    Qiu Ming did not borate further. Instead, he led Zhang Heng and E-Goat through the massive customer service department area to the end of the corridor before swiping his work permit, which opened the frosted ss door.


    This time, the path before the three of them had branches. On the left was a flight of stairs, and on the right was a staff rest area. There was a gym, a cafe, and a reading corner. However, instead of choosing one of the paths, he pointed at a high-security door at the end of the corridor and said to E-Goat, ��To go to Xu Qian��s area, this is the fastest way through. However, you��ll be needing your precious finger.��


    Thetter took out the small box that he received from Qiu Ming, and, ording to his instructions, pressed the button at the back. A part of the finger came out, but no one knew how the box was made. The finger had really maintained its original temperature inside as if it was still connected to the hand.


    E-Goat checked the wristband and work card and then entered the fingerprint. The heavy door in front of it opened backward. As soon as it opened, E-Goat felt the temperature change and immediately realized what was behind it.


    ��Is this the server room?��


    ��That��s right.�� Qiu Ming nodded.


    E-Goat should��ve considered this ce his own backyard. When he saw then endless clusters of equipment, however, he remained stunned, nheless.


    ��How... how many servers are there?��


    ��About a million. It��s on this floor and the 12th floor below.��


    ��Shengtang Morgan hid a million servers here. Why? Why do they need so muchputing power?��


    ��It��s not easy maintaining New Shanghai 0297��s normal operations. We need to collect information from all aspects to ensure that every part works properly and every anecdote can be told as it was supposed to be. These anecdones connect with each other to minimize appearing bugs during the operation.��


    ��Why do I understand every word you say, but when you put them together, I have no idea what you��re talking about?�� E-Goat asked curiously.


    ��It doesn��t matter. You��ll know once you continue walking forward,�� Qiu Ming said as he strode toward the door at the other end of the engine room.


    E-Goat, filled with a million questions, and a silent Zhang Heng followed behind him.


    Ten minutester, the three passed through theputerb and arrived at another door. E-Goat opened it and took the elevator to the third floor.


    ��Where is this?�� E-Goat asked Qiu Ming before opening the door.


    ��The design department,�� Qiu Ming answered. ��All the design procedures before production are finalized here. We��ve hired the best writers, philosophers, and a team of more than 100 experts to provide the corresponding design consultation. Together with the information stored in the server, we are able to design the most perfect products.��

 Chapter 1041 - Human Resources Department

    <h4>Chapter 1041: Human Resources Department</h4>


    ��Wait a minute, what kind of goods are you producing?��


    When they passed the customer service department, E-Goat could already feel that something wasn��t quite right. However, when he saw the excessive number of servers below, the feeling only became even stronger. It wasn��t until Qiu Ming introduced it to the design department (no matter how slow E-Goat��s reaction was) that he finally guessed what kind of goods Morgan produced.


    ��Clones? Is this ce your clone production base?��


    To E-Goat��s surprise, Qiu Ming shook his head.


    ��No, it��s not.��


    ��If it��s not a clone production facility, then what is it? Could it be arge-scale live-action online game?��


    Qiu Ming didn��t say anything. Instead, he swiped his card and entered the design department.


    Unlike the previous two ces, the department had a different style. The first thing they could sense when they entered was silence. Probably to serve creators, it was designed as a ss room, able to automatically adjust the opacity of the ss until it waspletely invisible from the outside. In addition, special soundproof ss was used. Even if the noise levels hit 100 decibels, it could not be heard from the inside.


    In addition, the E-Goat also saw a few ywriters looking for inspiration. They pulled out a video of a block from the server before carefully looking at the lives of everyone inside. ��Try to filter out any usable material.��


    E-Goat even saw a huge video room on the other side of the corridor. There were thousands of screens ying the living conditions of all the residents in the neighborhood.


    ��Such level of video surveince definitely illegal, right?�� E-Goat��s expression changed slightly.


    ��No, it��s not against thew,�� Qiu Ming rebuked. ��Everyone in the video has been recorded voluntarily. They have all signed an agreement of voluntary information collection.��


    ��How could there be such a thing? I��ve never heard of it.��


    ��There are many things you��ve never heard of,�� Qiu Ming said. ��However, they��re all real.��


    ��I know that Morgan is producing and selling clones. It��s no secret.�� E-Goat forced himself to remain calm. ��I��ve just never seen the production process... So, is that how their memories are written?��


    ��No, their main memories are written ording to the needs of their customers. What they��re doing now is just integrating them into society as perfectly as possible without self-awareness and other people in society. After that, they��ll have to conduct a consistency test to ensure that their life experiences don��t conflict with others in the same living area.��


    ��Is it really that troublesome to write a clone��s memory?�� E-Goat asked. ��I��ve heard that most clones directly use a fixed temte. In any case, if there��s a problem, we just need to rewrite it.��


    ��Well, the situation you mentioned does exist, but it��s usually handled by the Shengtang Morgan Tower outside.��


    ��Then, are you producing types two clones here, like Xu Qian, for instance, who doesn��t have a locator or a code on the back of her neck and looks just like an ordinary human?��


    ��ording to your understanding,�� Qiu Ming nodded.


    E-Goat was a bit anxious. ��Are you doing this deliberately? You brought us to visit each department. We don��t care about your production of clones. We just want to take Xu Qian away as soon as possible!��


    ��I��m just trying to help you understand the situation you��re in before you meet Xu Qian. I��m not lying. This is indeed the fastest and safest way to meet Xu Qian. You just need to be a little patient.��


    As Qiu Ming spoke, he led Zhang Heng and E-Goat through the ss cubicles, either bright or dark. He then pointed to a gray door. ��This is the quality inspection department, but since we��re in a hurry, we won��t go in. You should be able to guess what��s inside anyway. In short, it��s a test of the product��s personality, skills, and emotional fluctuations.��


    ��To be honest, I think you guys are jerks. There��s not much difference between a clone and an ordinary person, right? It��s just that one is born from a machine incubator, and the other from natural birth. We all have the same physical and DNA structure,�� E-Goat said, ��But you treat the former as a puremodity and tamper with their memories wantonly.��


    ��Well said, but I have to correct one point. We have never forced anyone to do anything,�� Qiu Ming spread his hands.


    The three of them had unknowingly approached the transparent tunnel they had seen before. After passing through two doors and an esctor, without Qiu Ming��s introduction, E-Goat had already seen the sign in the distance.


    It read: Human Resources Department.


    E-Goat couldn��t help but start to worry again. They had already passed through many departments and seen many employees working here. However, other than the trouble they had encountered with the twins at the front desk, the work ID on their chests hadn��t been exposed yet.


    Everyone who worked there seemed to be quite busy. They didn��t seem to have the time to care about other people, let alone other departments. However, the human resources department was definitely the department that knew its employees best in anypany.


    If Zhang Heng and E-Goat were to have entered recklessly, they might be recognized as not being employees here. However, Qiu Ming didn��t seem nervous at all. ��Don��t worry. The human resources department manages the existing employees on the ninth floor. This ce is mainly responsible for recruiting new employees.��


    ��Recruiting new employees?�� E-Goat initially thought that Qiu Ming��s so-called recruitment of new employees was just a small-scale job fair, but when he walked in, he was shocked.


    There were at least five to six hundred people sitting in the waiting room, and there were actually as many as twenty of such waiting rooms. In other words, more than 20,000 applicants had alreadye for the interview today.


    ��How many vacancies are there in yourpany?�� E-Goat asked Qiu Ming.


    ��That depends on which department. Previously, the departments you saw were all recruiting very few people, mainly because there were very few internal changes. Still, there has been a department that has been very short of manpower.��


    ��What department?��


    ��The city residents department,�� Qiu Ming said leisurely. ��The job seekers you��ve seen are all applicants who have applied to settle down here in New Shanghai 0297. Of course, when they start their jobs, they have to sign a correspondingbor contract. There are all kinds of rights and obligations, but the most important point is that they have to be willing to ept memory rewriting. The main reason is to improve their professional skills ording to the requirements of thepanies, as well as to improve their personalities and erase their original memories. The reason for thetter is that research has shown that only people who truly believe they are city dwellers can be more productive.��


    ��What the hell are you talking about? Are you out of your mind?!��


    E-Goat��s eyes bulged in horror.

 Chapter 1042 - The Future of Mankind (Part One)

    <h4>Chapter 1042: The Future of Mankind (Part One)</h4>


    ��Unfortunately, I have to undergo a mental stress assessment every year. So far, my mental state is not bad,�� Qiu Ming shrugged.


    E-Goat looked at the group of calm applicants in front of him. Then as if rushing to grab thest straw, he asked impatiently, ��So they are actually clones and not real humans, right?��


    ��I think there��s no need to worry about the production method that brought you into this world because there is no difference between a clone and an ordinary person,�� Qiu Ming said. ��A while ago, severely declining fertility rates aroused the concern of all parties. As a result, in coboration with several pharmaceutical giants, the federal governmentunched an artificial reproduction program. They decided to use machines to simte the human uterus to breed babies to increase the poption. You are actually right. There are no physical and genome differences between natural childbirth or a new human born of a machine. Thus, since the beginning, the federation has decreed that these two kinds of people be given same political and survival rights.��


    ��Are you kidding me? Why are clones and ordinary people treated so differently in New Shanghai 0297 then?�� asked E-goat.


    ��Don��t you get it yet?�� Qiu Ming sighed. ��In New Shanghai 0297, the so-called clones are still ordinary people. You just have to treat them as different upations. They��ve been artificially segregated by us to meet differentbor needs. However, there is no difference in the nature of the people who engage in these two upations. Let me put it this way, have you ever bought luxury goods?��


    ��What do you mean?��


    ��There is a huge difference between the price of a luxury shirt and an ordinary shirt, but there is no difference in the material used. It��s just that one of the shirts has a luxurypany��s logo printed on it. Simrly, the clones of New Shanghai 0297 are the same as ordinary people. Whether it��s the locator or the code on the back of the neck, it just serves as a logo to convince the people living here that their values are different. It��s that simple.��


    ��Then only can the clones�� memories be rewritten? Is that a lie?��


    ��It was like that at the beginning,�� Qiu Ming nodded. ��Clones, or new humans, hatched by machines, were raised by the federation. Regarding this, there have always been experts who have expressed some concern. This was because these people had shared a simr living environment since childhood, and they were raised together as well. They were worried that the individuals would be too identical due to this kind of social behavior that they grew up in.


    ��In addition, people have been arguing about how to raise them. The first batch of new machine-hatched humans was just like ordinary people. They received all kinds of education since they were young, but they lived together and were separated from their families. Apart from the overly simr problems mentioned before, there were also character defects brought about by the absence of the original family. In addition, the cultivation cycle was very long, and the investment in education was also huge. It also cost the taxpayers a lot of money. It didn��t take long before civil protests arose, and the federal government��s finances began to crumble.


    ��At this time, somerge corporations like Shengtang Morgan offered to set up a fund to support the artificial reproduction program. In this way, the federal government wouldn��t need to invest more public funds, and the poption problem could be solved. The two sides hit it off, and everyone was happy. Not long after, these big corporations came up with a new training program.


    ��Memory coding?�� Zhang Heng raised his eyebrows.


    ��That��s right. This technology was sessfully developed under such circumstances. In the beginning, it was to solve the problem of the machine-hatched-homo-evolutions bing too simr due to prolonged exposure to identical living environments. At the same time, the first mate reduced the investment in education. Memory coding could give the homo-evolution different personalities and memories, making them just like ordinary people, unaffected by simr growth backgrounds.


    ��After that, the corporations thought that since they had achieved this, they might as well go one step further andpile their skills. Through this, when they leave the cultivation base and enter society, they��d be able to find better jobs.��


    ��What was the result?�� E-Goat asked.


    ��The result was, of course, a great sess,�� Qiu Ming said. ��At least, that was the case at first. The artificial reproduction program was initially sponsored by theserge corporations who were very familiar with their own employment needs. Of course, they knew what skills needed to bepiled for the new humans that were hatched by machines, especially for certain high-end specialties. There has always been a shortage of jobs in the talent market. Everyone was fighting over people, but they were still unable to meet their employment needs.


    ��However, when memory coding technology appeared, this problem no longer existed. Other than some special professions that relied heavily on inspiration and talent, high-end talents that were purely technical could be mass-produced. Moreover, the new humans that were hatched by machines were also humans. Of course, there would be some very talented and inspired people among them. In addition, they would have a firmer grasp of basic knowledge, in turn elerating their development.


    ��Very soon, many of the management and technical backbones of thepanies on the market were upied by these new humans. Moreover, many of them had better personalities and were more obedient. They were even willing to work overtime. As a result, the boss naturally knew what to choose. By the time the ordinary people reacted, they would realize that their supervisor or their immediate boss had already be a new human.��


    Qiu Ming paused, ��But on the other hand, the emergence of these new humans did elerate the development of the economy and technology, giving human society unprecedented prosperity. This was a period of abundant talent reserves that had never been seen before in history. Even though many ordinary people had begun to protest at that time, feeling that high-end employment opportunities were being crowded out and it was getting harder to get promoted, these objections became powerless in the face of rapid economic growth.


    ��From the perspective of the federation, it is impossible for them to reverse the course of history, stop the artificial reproduction program, and allow mankind to return from this once-in-a-thousand-years golden era to the primitivity of inefficiency and retardation. A backward productivity rate will inevitably be reced by advanced productivity, just like the unemployment wave caused by the emergence of machines. This is the social consensus in itself.


    ��Humanity has already experienced three industrial revolutions. Well, this is the fourth. More and more voices cried out in this manner. At the same time, they criticized those who were protesting. They felt that they were just maggots, blinded by envy. They were not willing to properly learn and hone their skills to be better. Instead, they were jealous of others. This was simply the fury of the ipetent. In addition, the federation has been sparing no effort to promote coexistence between ordinary humans and new humans. Soon, the voice of opposition became much smaller, and the entire human society began promoting memory coding technology more and more.��

 Chapter 1043 - The Future of Mankind (Part Two)

    <h4>Chapter 1043: The Future of Mankind (Part Two)</h4>


    Outside the waiting room was a huge station square.


    The tunnel that the three of them saw on the hillside led to this ce. E-Goat also saw an endless stream of lorries at that time, but when they walked in, they saw that what came out of those lorries weren��t goods but teams upon teams of people.


    Qiu Ming continued to talk about the previous topic.


    ��In the beginning, memory encoding technology was applied to ordinary people. Some rich people or top middle-ss families hoped that their children could win at the starting line. Therefore, when their children were very young, they secretly used memory encoders topile many skills for them, some even giving them the character and qualities of leaders.


    ��As expected, the children whose memories were re-encoded immediately stood out among their peers, far surpassing them. When they grew up, whether it was starting from scratch or taking over the family business, they would quickly soar, defeating onepetitor after another andpleting the crazy umtion of wealth.


    ��It��s like the golden finger that has opened up life,�� Qiu Ming sighed.


    ��Along with their sess, the upper ss has also set off a memory coding craze. More and more people decided to let their sons and daughters ept the memory coding, even if it wasn��t to let them be winners in life. At least, they didn��t want to lose at the starting line.


    ��At the same time, the middle and high-end skill talent market has finally be saturated due to the continuous influx of new humans. The demand for this part of talent from variouspanies and enterprises is bing lesser. Thus, big groups like Shengtang��s Morgan have finally adjusted the direction of cultivating new humans, from the technical backbone to the production of hard-working blue-cor workers who don��tin at all.��


    E-Goat��s eyes widened when it heard this. ��Wait, what about those ordinary people?��


    ��That��s a good question. Just as you guessed, as the major corporations changed the direction of cultivating new humans,panies began to hire arge number of new blue-cor workers in thebor market to rece thezy and inefficient ordinary workers. More and more people lost their jobs and lived on welfare. Many families broke down because of this. Although some lucky people were not immediately fired, they knew that if this continued, they would lose their jobs sooner orter.


    ��By relying on primitive learning methods and carrying all kinds of ws in their personalities, they failed topete with the new humans for jobs. What��s even more tragic is that they know that when their children grow up, there is a high chance that they will repeat their mistakes. At the same time, they are not the only ones who have this kind of trouble. The next generation of new humans who are doing well now will also face the same trouble.


    ��And there is only one way to solve this problem.��Qiu Ming paused, ��That is to ept the memory code and do what those rich people have already done to their children. ��It doesn��t matter who the first ordinary person to ept the memory code is. In short, in order to survive, to support their families, and to avoid being maggots of society, more and more ordinary people choose to walk this path and ept the memory code, just like the once popr craze for external beauty.��


    ��If beauty can change a person��s ws in appearance, then the memory code can change a person��s ws in the soul. Laziness, selfishness, arrogance... these can all be fixed. But more precisely, it can even be fine-tuned ording to your upation. The workers in the assembly line can be more tolerant of boredom, and management of apany can be more charismatic.


    ��In the beginning, their strategy did work. As long as they were willing to make up their minds and add a sum of money, ordinary people could use memory coding to be more powerful than the Homo-evolutis. But soon, the Homo-evolutis also realized the challenges they were facing, and they too began to spend money to recode their memories, giving them a more perfect personality and a stronger ability to work.


    ��Things started to get crazier and crazier. Everyone was like an app update, constantly updating themselves through the memory encoder. Thepetition was endless, and the conglomerates were aware of this. At this point, the poption growth rate had already returned to normal. No, it should be said that not only did it return to normal, but it far exceeded the nned growth rate. However, due to the prevalent culture of reducingbor costs, the conglomerates never stopped their artificial reproduction ns.


    ��In order to settle the remaining explosive poption, the major groups have also begun to look into space. New Shanghai 0297 was built under such a background. You can consider the vast majority of the residents here employees of the Shengtang Morgan conglomerate. After applying for a job in this new city, they perform memory rewrites ording to variouspanies�� requirements before they work. You don��t have to feel sorry for them losing their original memories, because the vast majority have already experienced dozens of memory rewrites. They have long forgotten what their original memories are.


    ��The rewriting of their memories before starting a job is actually for their own good. It can help them integrate better into their new job and life. Whether it��s a clone or an ordinary person, they actually only have onemon identity here, which is the means of production, the most perfect means of production.


    ��Of course, considering that the products produced must be sold, they will also y the role of the consumer at the same time. Whether it��s the division of the fiveyers of space or the continuous rolling advertisements, they are all to stimte their consumption. Only when consumption and production are constantly increasing, can society prosper.��


    When E-Goat heard this, he felt as if he had fallen into an ice cer. He could even hear his teeth grinding. ��But what��s the point of all this? What did we gain from this process, other than bing less and less like ourselves?��


    ��Good question.�� Qiu Ming snapped his fingers, ��But who asked the wheel of history to move forward forever? Perhaps we should��ve made another choice. Back when the artificial reproduction project had just begun, humans would choose to close Pandora��s box and strangle everything at the source. Unfortunately, there were no ifs in this world. Once productivity began to develop, those who fell behind would inevitably be eliminated.


    ��This isn��t something an individual can stop. You can��t, I can��t, and not even Shengtang Morgan��s board of directors. This is because Shengtang Morgan has many equally powerfulpetitors. As far as I know, certain people on the board of directors have even experienced over a hundred memory recodes.


    ��I��m actually very envious of you. After your memories are rewritten, you can live in this city without any doubt and believe what you want to believe. But for the people in other departments of thepany, we don��t even know what to believe,�� Qiu Ming said, ��It��s like... if what I��m telling you now is the truth, or is there another version of the truth? I don��t know. I spent a long time stopping myself from thinking about this problem. I sincerely hope that you won��t experience the troubles I��ve endured.��

 Chapter 1044 - The Soil of Lies and the Flower of Truth

    <h4>Chapter 1044: The Soil of Lies and the Flower of Truth</h4>


    Before the trio left for the valley, Qiu Ming had warned Zhang Heng and E-Goat more than once that they should stop pursuing the matter before it was toote.


    Therefore, before E-Goat even entered, he had already imagined many terrifying scenes.


    For example, a heavily armed team waiting behind the gate to take them down, or Shengtang Morgan hiring a group of scientists to secretly carry out some bloody human experiments. They could��ve even locked up a group of extraterrestrial creatures in the base without public knowledge.


    But no matter what kind of spection it was, it was not as crazy and dark as what he had seen with his own eyes. Clearly, E-Goat had only seen the mostmonpany structure along the way, each and every one of the extremely ordinary departments, but with all of it pieced together, and the final truth revealed, E-Goat felt his world spin.


    He looked at the peopleing out of the van. Each of them looked healthy, but in ces where his eyes could not reach, their souls had long been riddled with patches.


    E-Goat couldn��t even see their faces because they all seemed to look the same. What horrified him the most, though, was that he knew he was one of them.


    Once he realized this, it was hard for him not to think about a question. If all his memories had been written, what was he initially like?


    E-Goat tried his best to recall, but his head felt like it was exploding when he thought about it. No matter how hard he racked his brain, he still could not remember anything. What was even sadder was that even if he recalled any bits and pieces, he couldn��t be sure if that was the real him or remnants of old memories left behind after a memory was coded.


    He did not know where he came from nor where he should go. His past had been marred by countless upgrades, and he was oblivious as to what sort of lie he would be living in the future.


    E-Goat didn��t even know if his feelings for Xu Qian were real or fake. Thetter was the woman he had loved so much, but if even he was fake, how credible then were those feelings?


    He stood in the middle of the station square, stuck in a daze.


    When Qiu Ming finished his speech, he was also silently observing E-Goat and Zhang Heng. E-Goat��s reaction was within his expectations. Qiu Ming saw an amalgamation of fear, pain, confusion, and disbelief in his eyes.


    This was not difficult to understand because E-Goat��s worldview had copsed entirely at that moment. Qiu Ming knew that his heart must be filled with questions, but he did not know who could answer them.


    This was how most normal reacted.


    On the other hand, Qiu Ming could not understand Zhang Heng. Although there was surprise on his face, such a revtion was like witnessing a traffic ident on the road. No matter how tragic the scene was... it never really affected the passing cars.


    This made Qiu Ming feel a little incredulous. After realizing that he had been living a lie and had long lost himself, it was impossible for anyone to be as indifferent as Zhang Heng.


    If possible, Qiu Ming really wished to pry open Zhang Heng��s skull to read his memories and see what he was thinking.


    ��Xu Qian is just ahead.��


    After waiting for a while, Qiu Ming said again, ��We��ll be there soon after passing through the station, but I don��t know if you guys still want to keep looking for her.��


    Qiu Ming��s words confused E-Goat even more. Other than the fact that he couldn��t determine if his feelings for Xu Qian had been pre-coded, if Xu Qian��s identity was also fabricated, then was he saving her so she could keep being a version of herself that wasn��t true?


    E-Goat, however, didn��t expect Zhang Heng to remain relentless.


    ��Take me to her.��


    This time, it was Qiu Ming��s turn to be surprised. ��Even after knowing everything, you��re still prepared to take Xu Qian away?��


    Zhang Heng nodded. ��I don��t care what this world is like. A promise is a promise. I��vee to an agreement with her to help her investigate her matter. Now that I��ve more or less understood the situation, it��s time for me to report to her. As for whether she��s willing to leave with us, it��s her own choice.��


    ��What an admirable professional attitude,�� Qiu Ming said. ��What About You?�� he asked, turning to E-Goat.


    E-Goat seemed to be in a lot of trouble. He thought for a full minute before finally gritting his teeth, saying, ��The voice of reason beseeches me to turn around and leave this damned ce. But I don��t know which ba*tard wrote my memory, so I��ve never been rational when it came to Xu Qian. So, yes, I still want to see her.��


    ��I��ve underestimated you,�� Qiu Ming apuded. ��After realizing that your personality and memory might have been encoded, you persevered.��


    ��What can a dog really do,�� E-Goat moaned in self-depreciation.


    ��Actually, you don��t have to be so pessimistic. The memory coding work that we carried out waspleted before you entered New Shanghai 0297. Other than a small number of residents who yed the role of clones, most people��s memories weren��t adjusted after that. Xu Qian came to New Shanghai 0297 after you, so all of your memories and feelings about her hadn��t yet been written. You might have actually fallen in love with her,�� Qiu Ming said.


    ��You mean to say that I became an a*s licker voluntarily?�� E-Goat��s expression wasplicated. ��So, is this good news or bad news?��


    ��This means that even from the soil of lies, real flowers can bloom,�� Qiu Ming went on.


    ��But I still don��t understand. Since Xu Qian is not a clone, why did you take her away?�� E-Goat asked.


    ��Think of this as an internal shift in thepany. We monitor everyone��s performance. For people whose performance continues to decline, thepany will consider changing their positions. Of course, since Xu Qian is a public figure, it will be more troublesome to deal with her. This is what I have been doing all along. In order to facilitate management, under normal circumstances, for some special positions, we will set a goal in advance when encoding the employee��s memory.


    ��This goal will be the employee��s deepest desire. In order to achieve this goal, the employee can ept such sacrifices as giving up his career and moving out of his original ce of residence. I am good at dealing with female employees who have love and marriage goals. In addition, I have colleagues who are good at other types of work. After minimizing the impact, we will hide it from the public and send them to other unconnected cities.��

 Chapter 1045 - Seeing Xu Qian Again

    <h4>Chapter 1045: Seeing Xu Qian Again</h4>


    ��How many cities are like new Shanghai 0297?�� E-Goat frowned.


    ��I can only say that there are far more than you know. In order to facilitate management, each group will divide the city into different living circles, but I��m not clear about specific situations. I��m just like you, an ordinary staff of Shengtang Morgan��s New Shanghai 0297 branch,�� Qiu Ming said as he led Zhang Heng and E-Goat through the crowd at the station.


    The three of them took the esctor to the fourth floor. There were no more candidates here. Only some staff members in blue uniforms drove forklifts in and out, transporting some two-by-one-meter metal boxes to the station downstairs. Two security guards were also standing outside the door.


    Qiu Ming showed his work ID before the three of them were let in. He then pointed to a small house in front of them. ��Xu Qian is there. You came at the right time. If you hade anyter, her memories would��ve been rewritten, molded into someone that can adapt to the next job. After that, she will be put into one of those boxes that you saw and sent to other cities. Then, you will never see her again.��


    Although the road from the door to this ce was not too far, E-Goat felt like he had been walking for several years. He looked at the door in front of him with mixed feelings.


    Zhang Heng didn��t rush him. He just stood at one spot and waited quietly. E-Goat took ten seconds to calm himself down. Then he took a deep breath and opened the door with the bracelet he wore.


    The room was muchrger than he had imagined. In fact, it looked more like a hotel suite than a prison cell. Xu Qian was sitting on the sofa, watching a soap opera projected on the screen.


    She had even made herself a cup of longan-red date tea and was hugging her knees. Because she was so focused, she didn��t even notice that someone had entered the room.


    When E-Goat saw this, he let out a sigh of relief. Although Qiu Ming had previously assured him that Xu Qian wasn��t hurt, he wasn��tpletely relieved until he had personally confirmed this.


    For E-Goat, the despair and helplessness he felt in the short span of twenty minutes had already surpassed the sum of his memories. However, when he saw the figure on the sofa... when he saw Xu Qian��s long hair draped over her shoulders and the tip of her small nose, he felt the warmth of the world that he hadn��t felt for a long time.


    At this moment, E-Goat didn��t even bother about whether his feelings for Xu Qian were real or fake. It was as if he had returned to every lonely and long night. He had dutifully stood in front of the projection just to see the face in front of the camera... he had listened to her talk about all the trivial things that she had encountered that day.


    ��I bought Patchi��s chocte today. It was really delicious. I ate one in the morning, and I was filled with vitality all day!��


    ��AH, KGC team lost again. Seriously, they clearly had a wonderful performance in the early stages, but they were unable to hold on to this advantage.��


    ��Ay, I don��t know where... but I heard a song in the afternoon... but I can��t remember the name. It should go like this...��


    ��Last night, I had a dream about a panda, but it kept chasing me. But I��m not bamboo, so who knows how to interpret dreams? Can you tell me what this means?��


    .....


    This time, E-Goat was the same as before. He didn��t know what to say. He turned to Qiu Ming and Zhang Heng for help, but they didn��t respond. It was apparent that they were waiting for him to speak first. Qiu Ming even gestured for him to open his mouth.


    But it was then that E-Goat became nervous again. His mind was a mess.


    Although the process waspletely different from E-Goat��s fantasy, it was, strictly speaking, a rescue borne of true love.


    E-Goat was like the prince riding a white horse in a fairytale. He vanquished demons and ghouls all the way to the castle where the princess was kept. This was probably the most glorious moment in his life. The blood on the dragon-ying hero hadn��t dried yet, his sword glistened with a cold light, but he did not know what to say to begin the reunion.


    Should he be saying, ��Do you know how many difficulties I��ve had to ovee in order to find you?��


    No. This kind of affectionate confession sounded like he was taking credit for something.


    Or, ��Do you know that our memories are actually fake?��


    But it seemed a little too depressing to get straight to the point.


    He might as well just say, ��I��m here.�� The three words were short and concise, but she might feel it was a little too pretentious.


    After thinking for a while, E-Goat finally mustered up his courage and blurted out, ��What... What movie are you watching?��


    ��...�� Qiu Ming covered his face, unable to bear to watch the carnage happening before his eyes.


    Regardless, Xu Qian��s attention was finally pulled back from the projection. Noticing the three new people in the room, she didn��t immediately answer E-Goat. Instead, she looked around at the three of them.


    When she saw Qiu Ming, Xu Qian had aplicated expression on her face, as if she didn��t know whether to hate or thank him. Then, she turned her eyes to E-Goat. Her gaze moved slightly, but she didn��t say anything. She just nodded at thetter and finally looked at Zhang Heng. Looking confused, she asked, ��Who are you?��


    ��A friend of yours that��se to fulfill our agreement. But it seems that you already know what happened to you,�� Zhang Heng said.


    ��It��s you!�� Xu Qian yelped in surprise. ��Aren��t you supposed to be dead? The news said that you died in the fire!��


    Because Zhang Heng��s disguise was so good, Xu Qian didn��t recognize him at all. In fact, even now, she was still skeptical.


    ��I��m sorry. I was involved in some things before, and it��s only now that I��m done. I immediately rushed over to see you,�� Zhang Heng exined.


    ��After reading the news, I sent you a lot of messages, but I didn��t receive a single reply. That was when I was in my most panicked and helpless state. I even hated you a little,�� Xu Qian paused and continued, ��But after I learned the truth about all of this, I actually didn��t care. Even if you were by my side at the time, it wouldn��t have changed the oue, right?��


    ��To make up for my negligence, this time, E-Goat and I have deliberatelye to take you away from here.��


    ��Leave? Where?�� Xu Qian asked back, ��I can��t be a broadcaster anymore, and I��ve lost my previous life. Even if I escape, nothing will get better. There is no ce for me in New Shanghai 0297, but the good news is that other jobs are waiting for me elsewhere.��


    ��But by that time, your memory will be rewritten, and you won��t be yourself anymore. You��ll forget everything here,�� E-Goat pleaded.


    ��Anyway, this isn��t the real me.��


    Xu Qian didn��t seem to care.


    ��I don��t know what you were like in the beginning, just like I don��t know what I was like in the beginning. But now, we really exist,�� E-Goat blurted after holding it in for a long time.

 Chapter 1046 - Qiu Ming’s Distress

    <h4>Chapter 1046: Qiu Ming��s Distress</h4>


    E-Goat was forced to say the previous sentence, but when he found that everyone was looking at him, he suddenly became nervous again. ��That... I, I just said it casually, you don��t have to take it to heart,�� he muttered bashfully.


    ��No, you��re right,�� Qiu Ming nodded. ��I didn��t expect you to figure out this problem in such a short time. It made me look at you in a new light. Humans are indeed a species with infinite possibilities. Even if your memory has been rewritten to be a nerd with Super High Network technology, you don��t always live ording to the established path. For example, falling in love with Xu Qian, or breaking into the Shengtang Morgan��s secret headquarters... saying such words thatpletely deviates from your character...��


    ��Morgan has also done a lot of research in this area, and they finally found that even the most excellent memory encoding could not prevent such things from happening. You can control a person��s past through memory encoding, thus affecting his present. You can never, however, fully control his future. Thepany had to even set up a special department to deal with such things.��


    However, to everyone��s surprise, Xu Qian shook her head and insisted, ��I��m sorry, I Can��t go with you.��


    ��Why?��


    E-Goat couldn��t understand what he was hearing.


    ��Because I don��t want to live on the run every day for the next few days. I don��t know when I��ll be caught. I��ve already experienced enough fear... I live in fear every minute and every second. Maybe you don��t believe me, but when Qiu Ming found me, the stone in my heart fell. Although I��m still afraid and don��t know what will happen to me next, at least I don��t have to worry about when the sword of Damocles will fall.��


    Xu Qian looked into E-Goat��s eyes. ��I��m very touched that you rushed all the way here to save me. I regret that I didn��t get to know you well before. When I really realized this feeling, I had no time left. You��ve done all kinds of things for me all this time. At least, let me do one thing for you. I won��t go with you and be a burden to you. If I do, Shengtang Morgan will also target you.��


    ��I don��t care,�� E-Goat insisted resolutely.


    ��But I do care. I really do. Don��t think that your life isn��t important because your current memories are made up. You can start a new life anytime. As far as I know, the next job for a declining productivity employee won��t be as easy as it is now. No matter what, your life is pretty good. You shouldn��t have given up everything for me... and yourself.��


    Xu Qian turned to look at Zhang Heng. ��You��ve helped me a lot too. At least you��ll be able to let me see the truth when ites. Even though it��s only for a short while, this is probably my most sobering period since I entered New Shanghai 0297. Unfortunately, I��m afraid I won��t be able to pay you the money I promised you.��


    ��So this is your final decision?�� Zhang Heng asked.


    ��That��s right,�� Xu Qian nodded. ��I��ve made my decision.��


    E-Goat wanted to say more, but Xu Qian pointed at the paused projection. ��I want to finish watching this movie. Can you apany me?��


    E-Goat looked at Qiu Ming reflexively, then at Zhang Heng. When he finally confirmed that Xu Qian was talking to him, he couldn��t help but feel ttered. Nervously, he walked to the sofa and chose the seat on the right-most side, then sat down with his hands in front of his knees, staring straight ahead.


    ��Why are you sitting so far away? It��s not like I��m going to eat you up,�� Xu Qian said from the side.


    E-Goat then shifted slightly and moved to a spot one body��s length away from Xu Qian. Unexpectedly, Xu Qian directly stood up and sat beside him. E-Goat��s body instantly stiffened. What was even more unexpected was that Xu Qian actually leaned her head on his shoulder.


    Due to their extremely close proximity, E-Goat could even smell the shampoo��s fragrance on Xu Qian��s hair.


    Qiu Ming and Zhang Heng looked at each other. Then, Zhang Heng took the lead and walked out of the room. Qiu Ming followed behind and conveniently closed the door.


    When they were outside, Qiu Ming took out a pack of cigarettes from his pocket and handed it to Zhang Heng, only to be refused by thetter.


    Thus, Qiu Ming took a cigarette and put it in his mouth. After lighting it with a lighter, he smiled. ��I have a headache right now.��


    ��Is it because your ex-girlfriend is watching a movie with another man in the room?��


    ��...��


    ��It��s not because of that. I��m only getting close to Xu Qian because of work. I don��t have any other motives,�� Qiu Ming said. ��What��s troubling me now is whether or not I should pretend not to know who you are.��


    ��Hmm... then why don��t you continue pretending?�� Zhang Heng asked calmly.


    ��Because I don��t want you to think that I��m some self-righteous fool. I don��t want things to develop in a direction that I don��t want,�� Qiu Ming confessed. ��You can even handle the Emergency Response Team. There��s no reason that you don��t know that I��ve already discovered your identity.��


    Although Xu Qian and E-Goat did not mention Zhang Heng��s name throughout their conversation, Qiu Ming, who had been paying attention to Xu Qian all this time, naturally knew about Xu Qian��s newly hired clone bodyguard. Furthermore, as an employee of Shengtang Morgan New Shanghai 0297 branch, Qiu Ming naturally knew about the fire that happened on the second floor that night.


    Zhang Heng��s incredible fighting strength had already attracted thepany��s attention, but there was no clue from his entry file. He was like most job seekers who hade to new Shanghai 0297. They had no personality or characteristics but were just pure production material.


    However, as the investigation delved deeper, more and more doubts began to surface. The interviewer, for instance, didn��t think much of Zhang Heng that day, and the surveince video pulled up ording to the date found no trace of Zhang Heng from the beginning to the end. To make matters worse, the securitypany that hired him, G7z, had no other traces other than a file. He was like a ghost that had magically materialized in New Shanghai 0297.


    However, because Zhang Heng hadter died in the fire on the second floor, Shengtang Morgan could not continue the investigation.


    Qiu Ming had initially thought that the matter would end here. Although he was very curious about Zhang Heng, he was not so curious that he had to get a result. Zhang Heng��s abnormality had to be something Shengtang Morgan��s top management should be worried about. It had nothing to do with an ordinary employee like Qiu Ming. Never would he have thought that his great luck would bump him into a big prize this time.

 Chapter 1047 - The Prodigal Son and the Strongest Clone

    <h4>Chapter 1047: The Prodigal Son and the Strongest Clone</h4>


    ��Are you afraid?�� Zhang Heng asked.


    ��It would be a lie to say that I��m not,�� Qiu Ming said with a wry smile. ��At first, I thought that this matter could be resolved peacefully. If it had been someone else, I would have had the confidence to convince the other party not to kill me afterward. But with you, I don��t have any confidence at all. Previously, due to work, I did some research on you, and I came to the conclusion that I couldn��t see through you at all.��


    Qiu Ming paused for a moment before continuing, ��No wonder you didn��t react much when I told you the truth about New Shanghai 0297. Did you already know about this? ��Speaking of which, how did you get into New Shanghai 0297? What is your purpose? No, forget it... don��t tell me. I want to live longer.��


    ��I promised you that if you cooperate, I won��t kill you,�� Zhang Heng said calmly.


    Qiu Ming didn��t say anything. He took two more puffs of his cigarette. From the look on his face, he obviously didn��t believe Zhang Heng��s promise. Thus, he had been weighing his options.


    After about five minutes, Qiu Ming seemed to have made up his mind. ��Are you working for Mr. G now?�� he asked again.


    ��Yes?��


    ��Mr. G and I have known each other for a long time. When he was still in the emergency response team and was known as the strongest clone among them, I gave him a USB drive with a movie in it.��


    ��Symbolic exchange and death?��


    ��You know about the movie,�� Qiu Ming said. ��I was born in a rather famous family. One of my uncles was a board director of Shengtang��s Morgan, and he didn��t have many material worries since young. In addition, I��m not the sessor of the family��s main force, so I don��t have that muchpetitive pressure. Therefore, although I��ve received a lot of memory coding, most of it was skills, and I didn��t do too much in terms of character. This also allowed me to keep some bad habits unique to young people.


    ��At that time, I had juste to work in new Shanghai 0297. My job was to supervise my brach��s regr operations, especially the day-to-day running of the ce, reporting to the board of directors, and so on. In fact, the management of the department would also write to the headquarters on a regr basis, so this was just an idle job to dismiss a young, ignorant and ipetent man like me. The power was not big or small, but it was easy enough.


    ��In the beginning, everything here was very new to me, especially when I saw so many people having to sign contracts with thepany in order to survive. They then have to y a role in the city, living another identity without knowing anything. It was quite interesting. In fact,pared to the lifeless world outside where everyone was exactly the same, this ce is more like a real, breathing world. What do you think? Doesn��t that sound a bit ironic?


    ��... it seems a bit far-fetched to say that it will be the New Shanghai 0297. Everyone here believes that one can not choose one��s birth, but hard work can change one��s fate. However, in reality, everyone��s birth has been artificially chosen. Whether you be a beggar on the first floor or a senior executive on the third or fourth floor might have just been a slip of the staff��s mind.


    ��For those who find it really hard to choose, we might as well roll the dice and make that decision for them. Even if it��s a role that has already been assigned, I can use the power in my hands to change it. Once, out of mischievousness, I threw a beautiful girl who was supposed to be sent to an entertainmentpany to be the wife of a 300-pound butcher. I have to admit that doing so gave me a strong sense of satisfaction. I was like a god, able to manipte the lives of others at will.


    ��But no matter how good a game is, a time wille when I will get bored. And as time goes on, I get less and less pleasure from ying games manipting someone��s fate. At the same time, I get a lot of resentment from some of my branch managers because I��m always messing around. I didn��t take it to heart, though, because I was craving new thrills at the time.


    ��In the end, I shifted my attention to Mr. G. At that time, he didn��t go by that name. He was the captain of the emergency response team and was deeply convinced that he was a clone. Therefore, he didn��t dare to betray the person who gave them the task because the emergency response team had been treated quite well. In order to allow the team to learn and grow, they wouldn��t erase their memories on a regr basis. Therefore, I watched Mr. G work hard for Shengtang Morgan, wiping his ass everywhere for such small benefits. If there were specific situations that were more dangerous and difficult to deal with, thepany��s people would throw these at him and let him solve the troubles.


    ��I thought he was cute and stupid, like a dog, and gave him the USB drive on his birthday. To be honest, now that I think about it, I don��t know why I did it. It was probably just for fun. Baudrird��s theory has been banned by the federation. His books and movies have been destroyed. I found the movie on the USB drive from my family��s collection. I didn��t expect Mr. G to see so many things from this movie.


    ��In short, because of me, he became suspicious of his own identity. He finally managed to reach the fifth floor, killing his way up here. This is the first time since New Shanghai 0297��s establishment that an outsider has entered this ce, an incident which resulted in the death of more than 60 employees in the base. If you are familiar with the style those guys above work, you should know that no matter what, they will find a scapegoat as quickly as they can, then push all the responsibility onto that person.


    ��Unfortunately, it was my turn to y this role. I gave Mr. G the sh drive, which ultimately led to this disaster. The board of directors considered this an extremely frivolous and irresponsible act. My uncle was very disappointed in me and announced on behalf of the family that he would sever all ties with me. My status as a special agent was also revoked, and I became the most ordinary employee. However, the irony was that the culprit who caused all of this, Mr. G, had a good attitude after his arrest, and the board of directors happened to need someone to help them manage the hierarchy and reduce costs. Therefore, in the end, he actually changed his status and was directly incorporated into the management department.


    ��After that, he went to the first floor alone. I didn��t expect that within a few years, everyone would know his name there. After a few years, people began to call him the underground emperor of the first floor. He brought a special order to the first floor, and the management was very satisfied with his performance.��

 Chapter 1048 - Dogs and Wolves

    <h4>Chapter 1048: Dogs and Wolves</h4>


    ��But in recent years, the situation has started to change,�� Qiu Ming said. ��Someone on the first floor secretly spread Baudrird��s theory, and it was found out by the management of the branch, so they went to Mr. G for ountability. Mr. G promised to investigate, and a few weekster, he handed over the disseminator. But it was said that those unlucky fellows had be corpses because of their fierce resistance upon their rearrest. The management couldn��t get anything out of them. After that, Boubaudrird��s theory still spread everywhere on the first floor.


    ��Mr. G��s exnation was that it was very difficult topletely kill a theory. Even if you killed all the spreaders, the people behind you might continue to spread it. However, Mr. G also promised to try his best to contain the development of the situation, so the management epted his way of handling things.


    ��However, things did not go smoothly after that. ording to the management��s statistics, more and more people began to hear about Baudrird��s name on the first floor in the past few years. Although Mr. G handed over more and more corpses, it at least showed that his efforts had little effect. Thus, the management gradually lost patience with Mr. G.


    ��If it weren��t for the fact that the first floor had been managed so well by Mr. G over the years, the second floor might have fallen into chaos after losing him, and the cost of management would have increased significantly. The management should have taken Mr. G down by now, but the rtionship between the two sides has deteriorated and be tenser and tenser. The police force controlled by first-floor management has had many conflicts with Mr. G��s people. The management knows what Mr. G is nning, and it��s only a matter of time before the two sidespletely fall out.


    ��Some time ago, there was news that Mr. G had ordered something from a smuggler on Earth. This made the management very nervous. Since you��re involved in this, you should know very well that if you��re standing here now, it means that Mr. G has gotten what he wanted.��


    ��What are you trying to say?�� Zhang Heng asked.


    ��What I��m trying to say is that you don��t have to worry about me telling thepany��s management that you��re still alive because we��re actually on the same side,�� Qiu Ming said. ��Mr. G woke up because of me. Of course, courtesy of this incident, I was severely punished, demoted to a recycling specialist. I didn��t me Mr. G for that, though. In fact, after he took over the first floor, the two of us still kept in close contact.


    ��These contacts were kept from the management. Otherwise, how could he have so urately gauged the management��s tolerance? He kept wandering on edge but was only verbally warned. Until this incident, the management couldn��t agree on how to deal with him.��


    ��You��re taking massive risks by doing this, right? Why are you helping a person who demoted you?�� Zhang Heng continued to ask.


    ��I told you before��when I was still a special agent, I yed all the games I could think of. I was starting to get tired of this city until I gave the USB drive containing ��Death and Symbolic Exchange�� to Mr. G. Everything that happened after that made this world interesting again. I wanted to see what kind of fruits this tree I nted with my own hands would bear.


    ��On the other hand, even though I��m tired of my previous job, it��s still a little infuriating to just let someone take me down like that. I have to admit that there��s a part of my personal grudge in this. After all, I��ve kept many of my bad habits, and I can��t continue to contribute to the development of this beautiful city.��


    After Qiu Ming said that, he turned to look at Zhang Heng with anticipation.


    However, thetter��s reaction was beyond his expectations. Zhang Heng shook his head and said, ��Unfortunately, I��m not on your side.��


    ��You��re not on Mr. G��s side either. Could you be a mole nted by the management?�� Qiu Ming��s expression changed slightly. ��This exins why you could appear in New Shanghai 0297 without anyone noticing.��


    ��Stop guessing. I��m not a member of the management, either,�� Zhang Heng replied calmly. ��I only care about my own business and am not on anyone��s side. I only work for Mr. G because I have a deal with him.��


    ��We are both quite simr then,�� Qiu Ming heaved a sigh of relief.


    ��No, I��m different. I Won��t change someone else��s life just to satisfy my own bad taste. I won��t treat such things as a sport.��


    ��In this era, it��s rare to see people like you who still have a bottom line and moral sense.�� Qiu Ming was surprised. ��When you can��t even be sure whether you��re yourself, there naturally won��t be any moral restrictions. You can only confirm that you��re still alive through stronger and stronger stimuli.��


    ��Is Mr. G like this too?��


    ��No, Mr. G is different. His self-control has always impressed me. When you know that the world you live in is full of lies and deceit, it is not easy to maintain self-control. This must mean that his heart holds an even more grandiose goal. To be honest, he grew at a really amazing rate. When I gave him ��Death and Symbolic Exchange,�� I originally wanted to see how the strongest clone would copse mentally.


    ��However, to my surprise, he quickly epted his situation and turned Baudrird��s theory into his most powerful weapon. He used it to unite his followers and gave them faith. He is a natural leader.��


    ��Since you are his ally, then you should also know his n to rebel against the management?�� Zhang Heng asked.


    ��I��m afraid I��ll have to disappoint you. I don��t know what his n is. In fact, even if he told me himself, I��m not sure if I can believe him. Just like how I can��t see through you, ever since he became the uncrowned king of the first level, I can��t see through him either. But what I can tell you is that he must have a deep motive, much more profound than everyone thinks.


    ��The biggest mistake this management idiots have done these few years was to underestimate his ambition. They thought that he was just like how he was in the emergency response team back then, a dog that would be satisfied wagging its tail everywhere after we threw it a piece of meat. Little did they know that his appetite had changed a long time ago. Dogs were originally domesticated from wolves. When its owner could no longer feed it, it would stir up the wolf��s nature hidden in its bones. In order to fill its stomach, it wouldn��t even mind eating its own owner.��

 Chapter 1049 - Escape

    <h4>Chapter 1049: Escape</h4>


    Forty minutester, E-Goat walked out of the hut where Xu Qian was.


    His eyes were filled with sadness as if he had lost his soul.


    Qiu Ming looked behind E-Goat and found that he was the only one. He looked stunned. ��Where��s Xu Qian?��


    ��Didn��t she say that she decided to stay?�� E-Goat choked.


    ��I��m not deaf. I heard what she said. How did you persuade her?��


    ��...��


    ��Wait, brother, did you really watch the rest of the movie with her?��Qiu Ming asked suspiciously.


    ��I couldn��t say anything about the atmosphere at that time. She was leaning on my shoulder. We were very close...�� E-Goat replied weakly.


    ��I finally know how all the sad and beautiful love stories are developed,�� Qiu Ming sighed.


    ��So... Should I have done something?�� E-Goat asked humbly.


    ��What else?��Qiu Ming patted E-Goat��s shoulder. ��I��ve been dealing with women because of my work, and I��m quite experienced when ites to these things. Most women can make decisions in a hurry because of their emotions. The key is to master the skill is to persuade her.��


    ��How do I master this kind of skill?�� E-Goat almost pulled out his notebook.


    ��There��s no need to go through so much trouble,�� added Zhang Heng. ��Just knock her out and take her away. Anyway, it��s toote for you to learn now. In the near future, New Shanghai 0297 will probably undergo a drastic change. By then, her worries will probably be gone.��


    ��Is that true?�� E-Goat couldn��t help but jump in joy when he heard that. However, his expression quickly became nervous again. ��But how are we going to get her out of here?��


    ��Don��t worry, I��ll solve this problem,�� Qiu Ming said. ��Isn��t that why you brought me along?��


    Qiu Ming��s n was very simple. Xu Qian was such a big person, and she was in aa. There was no way she could be carried out of the house like that. Therefore, a container that could store her would be required, and one that was inconspicuous as well. The metal boxes transported by the forklift truck were the most suitable because they were meant to transport people who were transferred to other cities.


    After confirming the n, the three of them split up. Zhang Heng returned to Xu Qian��s house and was responsible for knocking her out. E-Goat followed Qiu Ming to drive the forklift truck and carry the metal boxes. Then, the three of them regrouped outside Xu Qian��s house. They put the unconscious Xu Qian into the metal boxes.


    These special metal boxes were prepared initially for long-distance transportation of living people, so there was no need to worry about oxygen. Then, Zhang Heng drove the forklift with the metal boxes into the freight elevator at the side and went down to the station below.


    After waiting for about ten minutes, E-Goat and Qiu Ming slipped down from the top. At this time, Zhang Heng had already found a truck without a driver. He put the metal box containing Xu Qian on it, and E-Goat went into the cargo box to apany Xu Qian, while Qiu Ming took his ce in the passenger seat.


    After Zhang Heng started the car, Qiu Ming spoke.


    ��This tunnel leads directly to a hidden dock. Shengtang Morgan built it to dock the spaceship used to transport job seekers. In addition, these metal boxes will also be sent to other cities.��


    ��I don��t n to leave New Shanghai 0297 for the time being. We��ll get off midway,�� Zhang Heng said.


    ��That��s what I n to do as well, but this tunnel was built to connect the dock and the base. It��spletely sealed off, and there��s no other exit in the middle.��


    Zhang Heng didn��t say a word. He waited quietly for Qiu Ming to continue.


    ��But the good news is that there��s a maintenance point for this tunnel every certain distance. Normally, the maintenance point is locked, but a very serious traffic ident happened a few days ago. Thus, one of the maintenance points was opened, and we can leave from there.��


    ...


    Half an hourter, the car arrived at the ce Qiu Ming had mentioned.


    As expected, there was a sign that was being repaired. Zhang Heng parked the car in front of the sign, but then he realized that the gate of the maintenance point was actually closed.


    Qiu Ming��s expression changed slightly. ��Normally, the maintenance cycle for an ident of this level takes three days. It��s only been two days, so there��s no reason for it to be repaired so quickly.��


    E-Goat was carrying Xu Qian out of the metal box. When he heard this, he poked its head out of the car and asked anxiously.


    ��Then what do we do now?��


    Qiu Ming also looked a little helpless. ��If we can��t leave here, then we can only think of other ways to leave. However, the problem is that it��s very difficult for us to drag the unconscious Xu Qian through so many departments. Furthermore, to leave through the main door, everyone needs to verify their fingerprints, work ID, and electronic ID.��


    Zhang Heng then pointed at a piece of ss in front of Qiu Ming and asked, ��What if we just break it into pieces?��


    ��This is made of special explosion-proof ss, and it has a certain degree of sticity. Even a car won��t be able to break it. Of course, if we��re prepared, it��s not like we can��t cut it.��


    ��What can we use to cut it open? Aser knife?��


    ��Militaryser knives can be used, but we don��t have that kind of equipment on hand.��


    ��Who said that?��


    Zhang Heng returned to the car and took out some Lego blocks to form a militaryser knife. He then inserted the Infinite building block into it. When he appeared in front of Qiu Ming and E-Goat with the real militaryser knife in his hand, they were dumbfounded.


    ��Where did this thinge from? is your real identity Doraemon, and do you have a four-dimensional pocket?!��


    Zhang Heng did not answer. He had already picked up theser knife and cut the explosion-proof ss in front of him. It took him about 15 minutes to finally cut a small opening that could allow one person to pass through. Meanwhile, E-Goat had also carried Xu Qian out of the metal box.


    The four of them passed through the small opening that Zhang Heng had cut and drilled out of the tunnel. Even when they saw the sky above them, the E-Goat still could not believe that they had really escaped from the secret base of the magnificent Tang Corporation.


    Xu Qian, who was lying on the ground behind him, was breathing steadily and was sleeping soundly. E-Goat��s arm was a little numb, but he still did not move, fearing he would wake Xu Qian up from her sleep.


    Zhang Heng and Qiu Ming had already started to search for cars in the surroundings. Finally, Zhang Heng found an extended antique oil truck in a manor and drove the four of them to the station.


    It wasn��t until the shuttle left the fifth floor that the four of them were truly out of danger. Zhang Heng used a fake ID to open two guest rooms on the second floor, one for E-Goat and Xu Qian, and the other for Qiu Ming and himself.


    ��When can I leave?�� Qiu Ming asked Zhang Heng carefully in the guest room.


    ��Wait until the change happens,�� Zhang Heng said. Although Qiu Ming had always been very sincere and had been very cooperative, Zhang Heng still didn��t fully trust him. Because of his previous promise, however, he did not kill Qiu Ming.

 Chapter 1050 - A Great Commotion

    <h4>Chapter 1050: A Great Commotion</h4>


    The four of them spent the next few days in the hotel.


    Xu Qian woke up that night. After realizing the situation she was in, she reacted rather calmly. However, she looked at E-Goat in a ratherplicated way.


    She had initially chosen to stay in the base because she didn��t want E-Goat, Zhang Heng, and the others to be implicated. However, now that she had been brought out, there was no point in going back. Xu Qian still looked a bit lost, though. She could no longer be a live streamer, and although Shengtang Morgan had yet to issue her warrant for arrest, they must have already discovered Xu Qian��s escape.


    Xu Qian didn��t know if someone was secretly tracking her whereabouts, and was oblivious to what awaited her in the future. Although E-Goat had promised her that something big was about to go down in New Shanghai 0297, Xu Qian wasn��t sure how this matter would impact her life.


    After all, for New Shanghai 0297��s residents, the Shengtang Morgan conglomerate had always been like an unshakable behemoth. Xu Qian thought that there was nobody that could shake Shengtang Morgan��s dominance through resistanc, especially after seeing what happened in that secret base,


    In fact, at this time, like Xu Qian, most citizens knew nothing about what would happen in the future, especially on the upper floors. Everyone stillmuted every day to make a living, busy with their families and careers. Everything seemed the same as before.


    One day, people suddenly found that Shengtang Morgan had issued a blockade order on the first floor.


    From this moment on, all the central shuttle stations no longer sold tickets to the first floor to individuals. At the same time, the central shuttle on the first floor also stopped selling tickets to the other floors.


    The situation suddenly became grim. Most people didn��t know what happened. They only noticed that the police on all floors had begun to assemble and head to the first floor in teams.


    The next night, the media received photos and videos from the first floor.


    In a video that quickly spread on the inte, a group of rioters with guns ambushed two police security squads. Both sides exchanged fire, and the scene was very bloody. In the end, at least ten rioters were killed. There were also casualties on the police side. One of the policemen was unlucky when he peeked behind the explosion-proof shield and was hit in the eye by a stray bullet. Rioters then dragged another officer into a building.


    Five minutester, when the police stormed into the building, the officer had already been killed.


    Riots. This was an extremely unfamiliar term to the residents of new Shanghai 0297. Since the city��s inception, it was the first time that such a thing had happened. Although the security situation on the first floor had always been quite bad because of the high levels of poverty, there were violent incidents from time to time, but the most serious was the gang war. It had never escted to the level of a riot.


    Many people were shocked by the cruel scenes shown in the video. At the same time, the media also condemned the rioters.


    Qiu Ming turned off the television.


    During this period, his life was not veryfortable. In order to avoid investigation after the Shengtang Morgan crackdown, Zhang Heng ordered everyone not to leave the hotel unless there was an emergency. Three meals a day were ordered and delivered by drones. E-Goat wasnt in such a bad state��he could share a room with the girl he loved.


    ording to Qiu Ming��s observation, there was psychological progress between the two over the past few days. Nothing, however, physically happened. But no matter what, sharing a room with a beautiful girl was a happy feeling.


    In contrast, Qiu Ming was miserable. Zhang Heng did not do anything excessive to him. He just lived a normal life, eating, sleeping, and did not even restrict his activities. However, the scary thing was that Qiu Ming realized that no matter what he did, he couldn��t hide it from Zhang Heng.


    Even when he woke up in the middle of the night, Zhang Heng looked like he was fast asleep. His movements were light enough, standing silently beside Zhang Heng��s bed and observed him for ten minutes to make sure that thetter wouldn��t wake up. Then, he tiptoed to open the door before lighting a cigarette in the corridor.


    The following day, when the two of them were having breakfast, Qiu Ming saw Zhang Heng putting the ashtray in front of him without saying anything.


    In the end, Qiu Ming couldn��t help but say, ��I don��t smoke in the morning.��


    Zhang Heng nodded and took a sip of tofu pudding with fried dough. ��I know, but since you smoke three cigarettes a day, why don��t you finish it earlier? You��ll sleep better at night. I don��t care anyway.��


    Qiu Ming broke out in a cold sweat. He had caught his smoking habit when he was twenty years old, and he hadn��t changed it using memory coding until now. However, he only smoked two cigarettes during the day, with the third cigarette when he got up in the middle of the night.


    In other words, since Zhang Heng knew that he smoked three cigarettes a day. He also knew that he had snuck out to smoke in the middle of the night. However, Qiu Ming had been observing Zhang Heng at that time, and he clearly remembered that thetter was still in a deep sleep. Qiu Ming even searched the entire house for Zhang Heng��s hidden surveince camera, but unfortunately, he couldn��t find anything.


    However, after this incident, Qiu Ming didn��t dare to take any chances. He knew that no matter what he did, he couldn��t hide it from Zhang Heng.


    In addition, he also noticed how disciplined Zhang Heng lived his life. Even if he could not leave his room, he would still exercise regrly every day. Qiu Ming had once suspected that Zhang Heng was also from some emergency response team, amercial spy sent by other groups to New Shanghai 0297.


    However, this period of close contact had overturned Qiu Ming��s conjecture. Zhang Heng obviously did not serve any organization or organization. As he said, he was only loyal to himself. Not only was he different from the role-ying residents of New Shanghai 0297, but he was alsopletely different from the management and even the board of directors of Shengtang Morgan.


    Qiu Ming did not know how such a person could exist in such an era, or if he had any scientific skills. If it was not through memory coding, how did he get it? There were too many mysteries about this man, and Qiu Ming found himself somewhat fascinated by Zhang Heng��s past.


    ��The photos and videos were spread online by Mr. G��s people,�� Qiu Ming said. ��Shengtang Morgan has chosen to seal off ayer of space to prevent this matter from expanding. I understand the thoughts of the management team very well. They��re not worried that this will get out of control, but if the loss is too great, then their financial statements for this quarter will be very ugly.��

 Chapter 1051 - Mr. G’s Call

    <h4>Chapter 1051: Mr. G��s Call</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    ��What do you think?�� Zhang Heng asked Qiu Ming.


    ��It depends on what you��re asking about.�� Qiu Ming continued his fine performance, and he was now telling everything he knew.


    ��No matter how long Mr. G has been preparing, how strong his mobilization and brainwashing abilities are, and how powerful his armed forces, his opponent is Shengtang Morgan. Thetter has nearly unlimited resources. Even if the police are beaten up, they still have the emergency response team and other armed forces deployed. Even if Mr. G��s little universe breaks out and these armed forces are eliminated, Shengtang Morgan can still recruit candidates, directlypiling memories to make them soldiers, not to mention the support from the headquarters.��


    Qiu Ming paused for a moment, ��Of course, if it reallyes to that, New Shanghai 0297��s management team can forget about continuing work. Today is their tomorrow. In order to keep their position, they will definitely try their best to minimize impact. I don��t know what Mr. G is nning, but I guess the most direct purpose of starting this riot is putting pressure on the management team. The management clearly knows this as well, so it won��t be easy for him to achieve his goal...��


    While Qiu Ming was analyzing the situation, Zhang Heng received an unknownmunication request.


    Zhang Heng gestured to Qiu Ming to wait for a while before he clicked ept. Then, he heard Mr. G��s voice from the other end. ��How��s your businessing along?��


    ��It��s almost done,�� replied Zhang Heng.


    ��Where is it? Is it with you now?��


    ��Yes.��


    ��You��ve seen the news, right? We��ve already started a war with Shengtang Morgan, so ording to our agreement, you��ll need to bring that thing back to the first floor,�� said Mr. G.


    ��What do you want to do with it? Mass-produce soldiers for you?��


    ��Answering questions is not part of our agreement,�� said Mr. G. However, his tone was much better than before, and he added, ��You��ve also learned about our business, so you should know that we��re different from Shengtang Morgan. We don��t change clones�� memories at will, so you don��t have to worry that I��dy my hands on yourpatriot. Besides, she��ll also be monitoring my actions now. Even if you don��t trust me, you should trust her.��


    If he had not followed Qiu Ming into Morgan��s secret base and had known about Mr. G��s past, it would have been easy for him to believe his words. Zhang Heng, however, already knew Mr. G��s true identity and that thetter had not told the people around him the truth about New Shanghai 0297. In a sense, he had even continued to help Morgan maintain their lies about clones and ordinary people, using it to deceive everyone, including Miss F.


    This was also why Zhang Heng had always been wary of Mr. G. Nheless, he said nothing else and asked directly, ��When do you need that thing?��


    ��The sooner, the better. The current situation is changing day by day, so we have to make early preparations,�� said Mr. G. ��However, Morgan has already sealed off the entire first floor. Do you have any troubleing back?��


    ��I can handle this small matter.��


    ��That would be the best,�� said Mr. G. ��I��ve made the mistake of underestimating you. I can assure you something like this will not happen again. I look forward to your return to the first floor as soon as possible. We��ll talk about the details when we meet again.��


    ��Alright, see you then.��


    After saying that, Zhang Heng hung up the call. He did not deliberately avoid Qiu Ming this time, so thetter also heard the conversation and asked, ��Are you going back to the first floor?��


    ��Not me, but us,�� Zhang Heng said. ��E-Goat and Xu Qian can stay here, but you have toe with me.��


    ��I don��t have a problem with that, but are you sure you want to take me with you?�� Qiu Ming asked, ��Although I don��t know what game Mr. G is ying this time, I��m one of the few people who knows his background the best. He also knows that I know his background, so if you take me with you, you��ll likely be in danger.��


    Zhang Heng did not immediately answer Qiu Ming��s question. Instead, he asked, ��Have you met him many times over the years?��


    ��Well, to be honest, it��s very rare. Ever since thepany sent him to the first floor, we have beenmunicating via encrypted emails. After reading them, we delete them without leaving any trace. After all, he doesn��t want anyone to know that he��s in contact with Shengtang Morgan��s people, and I don��t want the management to know that I��m still in contact with him.��


    ��There shouldn��t be any problems then. As long as he can��t recognize you, your worries won��t exist. I��ll put makeup on you before I leave. In addition, you need to change some of your small habitual movements as much as possible and lower your voice a little. In this way, it��s basically impossible for him to recognize you.��


    ��I��ll listen to you,�� Qiu Ming shrugged. ��But how do you n to take me back to the first floor?��


    ��Although the central shuttle station doesn��t sell tickets to the public anymore, Shengtang Morgan has been sending people to the first floor. I think they won��t mind lending us two ces.��


    .....


    Zhang Heng told E-Goat about what he needed to pay attention to after leaving and told him and Xu Qian to keep a low profile.


    Normally, Xu Qian��s escape would be a big deal for Shengtang Morgan. However, at this time, the management��s attention was attracted by the riot on the first floor, so they did not have much energy to manage Xu Qian��s side for the time being. They could only monitor the inte first to prevent Xu Qian from spreading what she saw on arge scale.


    In contrast, the threat brought by Mr. G was much greater and had a wider influence. Just as Qiu Ming said, management itself was also under a lot of pressure. If this matter could not be quickly resolved... they would also face an awkward situation where they could not answer the board of directors. Therefore, E-Goat and Xu Qian were in a rtively safe spot.


    Meanwhile, Zhang Heng and Qiu Ming, who had put on makeup, went to the police station on the second floor.


    Shengtang Morgan had already dispatched a lot of police forces from each floor to the first floor. The remaining police even found it somewhat difficult to maintain daily order. Fortunately, it was not a long time now, and the other floors were not as chaotic as the first floor. There was no big mess for the time being


    On the other side, thepany did not have any intention to stop here. Soon, the third transfer list was sent to the police station on the next floor.


    Zhang Heng hacked into the second floor��s police system, found the list, and locked onto the two targets on it.

 Chapter 1052 - The Car

    <h4>Chapter 1052: The Car</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    Zhang Heng had his eyes on the two recruits who had recently joined the police force. As they had only been on the force for a week or so, most of the people in the station were unfamiliar with them. They were supposed to be partners with two old police officers to familiarize themselves with their work but were caught up in the riot on the first floor. Their partners were among the first batch of officers to arrive on the first floor; thus, the two of them had no choice but to take over the patrol work early.


    Through this, they would spend less time at the station during the day, and fewer people would be familiar with their faces.


    This time, Zhang Heng was nning to borrow their names. Of course, he wasn��t going to use their names directly. After all, no matter how new they were, they wouldn��t be able to change their faces without being discovered. Zhang Heng nned to secretly change the names of the two people on the list before they left before using two new identities to rece them. With their presence in the police station, they should be the least likely to be discovered.


    However, the first thing he had to do was to let the main character stay at home. Zhang Heng and Qiu Ming drove to visit the two rookie police officers one after another. Qiu Ming was responsible for knocking on the door and ringing the doorbell. He greeted the female rtive of the target politely before the mark left the house in a rage. When the target was about to hit someone, Zhang Heng, who was waiting at the side, would hit the back of the target��s head.


    Qiu Ming stood in front of the target and admired the way he fell to the ground.


    Zhang Heng had controlled his strength. He didn��t hit the target hard, but he promised that the target would be unconscious for at least half a day. Then, the two of them took off the target��s clothes and changed into them. Half an hourter, they had put on their police uniforms and guns, turning into two second-floor policemen.


    At least on the surface, there were not many ws.


    However, the real test was still toe. The police station requested that the third group of people on the list gather in front of the central station before 4:20 PM.


    Zhang Heng and Qiu Ming deliberately set the time to 4:15 pm before they drove to the station. By then, the 50 policemen on the list had basically all arrived, leaving only three people who had not arrived.


    Zhang Heng parked the car and walked over with Qiu Ming. The sergeant in charge of leading the team frowned when he saw the two of them. He didn��t think too highly of the two police officers in front of him, but they didn��t look guilty at all. On the contrary, it was as if they were really the people who hade to gather.


    This was especially when they were three steps away from him. Qiu Ming remained standing at attention and saluted him. The sergeant had no choice but to return the salute. He then asked, ��What are you here for?��


    ��We��ve been notified to help the officers on the first floor.��


    ��You��ve been notified?�� the sergeant leading the team asked suspiciously. ��But I didn��t see your names on the list. Are you two from our station?��


    ��Of course. I��m Luo Hao, and he��s Sun Chen. We��re neers and have just arrived,�� Zhang Heng said as he showed his fake police ID.


    The sergeant in charge opened the name list and found the two names. However, this was not his first time looking at the name list. He had not noticed the presence of these two names before, of course, but as the sergeant, he was also quite busy. There were more than 1,000 police officers on the second floor, so it was impossible for him to know everyone, especially the recruits. Zhang Heng��s exnation made sense, of course. In the end, what convinced him was the attitude and temperament of the two.


    There was no need to mention Zhang Heng. After going through so many dungeons, he had long developed a strong nerve that would not change his expression even before Mount Tai copsed. Coupled with his Lv2 makeup skills, and even if the person being reced stood by his side, Zhang Heng was more like a police officer by his appearance and temperament alone. On the other hand, as a professional liar, Qiu Ming��s acting talents shouldn��t be discounted. He could convincingly turn into whatever character he wanted.


    Therefore, even with the police chief��s keen observation, he failed to find any ws in the two.


    In the end, the police chief chose to trust his intuition, which he had trained for many years. He nodded at the two and said, ��Return to the team.��


    Therefore, Zhang Heng and Qiu Ming sessfully blended into the police officers heading to the first floor. The two of them stood at the end of the line quietly. At this time, the police chief also received a phone call saying that thest person had a bad stomach because he had eaten something wrong and was currently on a drip at the hospital. After hanging up the phone, the police chief looked at the time and decided not to wait any longer. He waved his hand and led the group of police officers into the station.


    The central shuttle station had arranged a special waiting hall in advance for the police officers heading to the first floor. After everyone entered, they found their seats and sat down.


    The police chief leading the group used thest seconds to mobilize a pre-war sortie. He described the rioters on the first floor as a band of cold-blooded, cruel, armed thugs. He then introduced their organizer and leader, Mr. G, and finally announced the goal of this operation��to eliminate the leader of the rioters��Mr. G!


    After he finished speaking, the waiting hall fell into silence.


    Although Mr. G��s story was mainly heard around the first floor, it was impossible for the police officers on the second floor not to hear of the former��s name. They knew that he was an absolutely ruthless character because of the blockade order, and most of the media did not know the current situation on the first floor. However, the police station had already deployed more than half of their police force to the first floor. In the end, in less than two days, they had to send people down again. Clearly, the battle situation was not very good.


    Their team clearly did not have as many people as the first two batches. Even if they added in the other floors, it was estimated that they would have at most 200 people. It was extremely difficult to take down themander on the opposite side directly.


    The captain of the team swept his gaze around and took in the expressions of the police officers. Then, he spoke again, ��You don��t have to worry. We are not the main attackers this time. We only need to be in charge of some peripheral surveince and reconnaissance missions. I only have one request, and that is to make sure that everyone is worthy of the badge on their chests.��


    After saying that, the sheriff sat down and fastened his seatbelt. Coincidentally, the central shuttle that everyone had been waiting for for a long time had also arrived at the station. The robotic arm skillfully loaded the waiting carriage onto the shuttle. Then, it did not stop and drove all the way to the first floor.


    The atmosphere in the carriage was a little tense. The main reason was that the police on the second floor usually focused on maintainingw and order. The criminals they were dealing with were at most a few dozen people, and they had never faced more than this number of enemies. ording to some news leaked by the media, the number of criminals had probably reached tens of thousands. Therefore, when they reached the first floor, they would most likely face a war. The police officers were a little uncertain.


    No one spoke up until they got off the carriage. However, the crowd then noticed the other five carriages that had been dismantled from behind them.


    There were five floors in New Shanghai 0297. Police officers were sent to every floor except the first floor, but there were only four cars in total, so the remaining two vehicles should have something else in them.

 Chapter 1053 - Type-VI Hunting Robot

    <h4>Chapter 1053: Type-VI Hunting Robot</h4>


    The police officers stood in the hall and watched as the two carriages behind slowly opened. Then, a silver humanoid metal robot around 3.2 meters in height walked out.


    Its upper body was human, but its lower body was spider-like. It had eight legs, and the bottom of each leg was sickle-shaped, emitting a cold metallic glow. One of its left arms was loaded with a 14.5 mm heavy machine gun. The gun barrel was equipped with a hydraulic buffer, and on its right arm was an alloy greatsword measuring over 1.9 meters long.


    Looking from afar, one could not help but feel a chill run down their spine. There were still 23 robots like this, and they came out of the two carriages one after the other, giving out a strong sense of oppression and shock.


    Qiu Ming��s expression changed when he saw this.


    ��How do you know about these things?�� Zhang Heng had previously searched this dungeon��s weapon systems on the inte, but he found no simr robots.


    ��That��s right. This is a Type-VI Hunting Robot, Shengtang Morgan��s trump card in New Shanghai 0297. It��s a pure killing machine. Since this thing usually acts as a guard in the base, there are only 25 of them in total. In other words, those management guys sent almost all their robots in one go. It appears they really want to end this quickly.��


    ��How many do we need to stop this thing?��


    ��We can��t.�� Qiu Ming shook his head. ��We might figure a way to stop one or two, but if we send out 24 at once, no one on the first floor can stop them.�� Qiu Ming paused, worried that Zhang Heng couldn��t understand how scary these things were.


    He then exined, ��You��ve fought with those guys from the emergency response team before, so you should know how strong they were. An emergency response team that starts with zero can probably hold off a Type-VI together. If a second Type-VI joins the battlefield at this time, it would be a pure massacre. These things move extremely fast, have urate marksmanship, and the metal on their bodies can self-heal to a certain degree. It��s not something that the flesh and blood of a human body can withstand.


    ��Back then, when Mr. G arrived at thepany��s base, normal security guards couldn��t stop him at all. It wasn��t until these robots came out that the battle ended in three minutes. If it weren��t for management wanting to spare his life, Mr. G would have died at the hands of these guys long ago. You have some kind of deal with him, right? After you give him the thing, we��ll leave the first floor as soon as possible.��


    Most of the time, Qiu Ming looked like he didn��t care at all. After he fell into Zhang Heng��s hands, he would go east when Zhang Heng told him to, and he would go west when Zhang Heng told him to. Only this time, he took the initiative to make a proposal.


    However, to Qiu Ming��s disappointment, Zhang Heng didn��t answer him immediately. Thetter was looking at the silver robots, and his eyes shed. It was unknown what he was thinking. After a while, Zhang Heng opened his mouth again, ��Let��s find Mr. G first andplete the transaction.��


    Qiu Ming naturally had no objections to this. After that, the two didn��t have to wait too long before they were given the opportunity to leave the station. The captain gathered the forty-eight police officers on the second floor and divided them into four teams, with each team assigned two Type-VI Hunting Robot.


    Zhang Heng��s mission was not to kill the enemy but to cooperate with the Type-VI Hunting Robots to the greatest extent. They would help thetter transport the ammunition andplete the preliminary investigation.


    Even though it was a little embarrassing, the police officers heaved a sigh of relief when they saw the silver robots. Unlike Qiu Ming, they did not know what the robots were, but they could tell they were not to be trifled with. At least, this meant that they were not alone in this operation.


    However, they had clearly underestimated the power of the silver robots.


    Not long after they left the station, the eyes of the silver robot in front of Zhang Heng suddenly glowed red. Then, it raised its left hand, and the heavy machine gun let out a loud thud as it swept toward a grocery store not far away. In just two seconds, it had knocked down the seven people inside.


    Then, before the police could react, another silver robot had already rushed into the grocery store. It knocked open the door to the basement of the grocery store and stabbed the giant sword in its right hand. When it was pulled out, it was already covered in blood.


    Only then did the team leader order four police officers, Zhang Heng and Qiu Ming included, to investigate the situation. In the end, not a single person was left alive. All had lost their breathing and heartbeat, whether it was the seven people who were shot or the guys who hid in the basement.


    They looked no different from ordinary citizens, but after searching their bodies, Zhang Heng found that the weapons they were carrying were manufactured at the military factory he had visited previously. Needless to say, they were all Mr. G��s men. Pretending to be grocery store customers, they monitored the movements of the police at the station. However, what surprised Zhang Heng the most was the people in the cer.


    It was a woman. From the looks of it, she should be the owner��s daughter. She was also the only person who did not carry a weapon, but she was still found and killed by Type-VI Hunting Robot.


    ��These robots seem to have activated their maximum killing authority,�� Qiu Ming said after looking at the cer. ��This time, the management has really been forced into a corner. Even if they have to pay the price, they have to get rid of Mr. G and his followers. To them, these people are like cancer cells. They will continue to replicate and eventually spread Baudrird��s theory everywhere. Rather than wait until the day when everything is irreparable, it��s better to take the initiative to cut off their flesh now.��


    Zhang Heng��s face was expressionless as he stood up from the ground. ��We have to think of a way to get rid of these two robots. Otherwise, I��m afraid we won��t be able to leave the team. Do you know what their weaknesses are?��


    ��No, they��re formed from a single body. The energy source, the center, and so on are all sealed inside. It��s very difficult to destroy them, but...��


    ��But what?��


    ��But they��re acting ording to long-rangemands. They can try to block the signal. That way, they��ll enter escrow mode and carry out thestmand they received. When thestmand can not be carried out, they��ll switch to retreat mode and leave the battlefield while defending.��


    Qiu Ming had a surprising understanding of these robots.


    After the two finished inspecting the grocery store, they gave a simple report to the team leader. Then, they returned to the back of the team. Zhang Heng took out a shield ring and handed it to Qiu Ming.


    ��What?�� Qiu Ming was stunned.


    ��One for you and one for me,�� Zhang Heng said.


    ��I can��t do something like that,�� Qiu Ming shook his head, seeming very resistant. ��This is too dangerous. If I��m slow by a mere second, a sword might just slice me in half.��


    ��You don��t have a choice,�� Zhang Heng said calmly. The two robots were quite a distance apart. One was at the back of the team, and the other was almost at the head. No matter how fast he moved, it was impossible for him to ce a shield on both robots simultaneously.

 Chapter 1054 - Support

    <h4>Chapter 1054: Support</h4>


    Zhang Heng had made the necessary preparations before he made his move. He knew that if he fell out with Miss F, and even if he sessfully dealt with the robot, he would still have to face the attacks of the other police officers around him. Hence, Zhang Heng sent their coordinates and bearings to Miss F and agreed on the location of their meeting.


    This wasn��t an easy location to choose because once the two drifted apart, Miss F wouldn��t be able to support Zhang Heng and Qiu Ming in time. However, if they were close enough and entered the alert area of the two Type-VI Hunting Robots, Miss F and the people she brought would be in grave danger again.


    Therefore, they had to urately gauge the distance between them.


    Twenty minutester, the police squad arrived at a rtively dense residential area. Because severalrge factories were nearby, many workers had settled in the area for easymute. Conservatively, at least 20,000 to 30,000 people were crammed into such a small area. With the buildings of different heights, the entire area looked like a reinforced concrete jungle.


    The police unit entered the ce and perked up. After walking around 50 meters, Zhang Heng shot Qiu Ming a look. Thetter sighed and walked toward the team.


    The team leader heard footsteps behind him and turned to look. ��What��s the matter?��


    ��Captain, I have something to report,�� Qiu Ming said. ��Luo Hao and I saw some suspicious guys on the road behind us.��


    ��Suspicious guys? Where are they?�� The squad leader became nervous when he heard that. He then looked at the robot beside him, but thetter remained motionless.


    ��They��re unarmed. They��re just following us quietly,�� Qiu Ming lied without even blinking. ��Luo Hao is watching those guys now.��


    ��I��ll go take a look. Stay sharp!�� the squad leader instructed the other officers. As soon as he left, Qiu Ming moved toward the robot in front of the squad and quietly took out the shield bracelet Zhang Heng had given him.


    Qiu Ming knew the power of the killing machine in front of him, so he tried to slow his movements and showed no signs of aggression. Due to his current police status, the robot was obviously not very vignt when it came to him. Thus, in the end, Qiu Ming managed to sessfully approach the target.


    However, he still faced a very serious problem.


    The signal transceiver of the Type-VI Hunting Robot was located around its left chest. Although it was a humanoid android, its left and right hands were full of weapons, and it couldn��t wear a shield ring. Then, at almost twice the size of an ordinary person, the ring couldn��t be worn on its legs either, something that might cause it to exceed the range of the shield. Therefore, Qiu Ming only had one choice left.


    He was to target the robot��s neck. This was also why Qiu Ming felt like he was putting a cor on a tiger. He was already 230cm tall, but the robot��s neck was a good 280cm above the ground, hence he needed to figure out a way to cover the 50cm gap.


    Qiu Ming thought about finding a chair to cushion himself, but the police officers around him wouldn��t give him the chance. Besides, he didn��t have much time left before the squad leader reached the end of the line. Zhang Heng would put the shield ring on the robot at the end of the line, and if Qiu Ming hadn��t finished his work by then, he might never actuallyplete it.


    Thus, Qiu Ming gritted his teeth and took advantage of the fact that no one was paying attention to him. He jumped onto the calf of the Type-VI Hunting Robot in front of him and stepped on the back of the two knives. Now although he wasn��t as good as Zhang Heng or the emergency response team, he was still much better than the average person.


    Qiu Ming clipped the shield bracelet on the robot��s neck as fast as he could. Then, without even checking if it was fastened, he jumped down again. Just as his body was about to fall to the ground, a huge metal sword brushed past his head. If he had moved half a secondter, Qiu Ming would have been cut in two.


    But the good news was that the shield bracelet automaticallytched itself aftering into contact with the robot��s neck.


    Qiu Ming rolled again after hended on the ground. Until then, most of the police officers didn��t know what had happened. Just as he turned his head to this side, Qiu Ming didn��t stand on ceremony. He stood up and raised the rifle in his hand, directly pulling the trigger on the closest officer.


    Oodles of blood spurted out from thetter��s forehead, and his body fell backward.


    When the other officers saw this, they felt a chill in their hearts. They couldn��t understand why their teammates would suddenly kill their colleagues in anger. Moreover, it was done in such a cold-blooded fashion. In order to avoid a precedent, however, they too raised their guns and fired back at Qiu Ming.


    Qiu Ming, on the other hand, took no credit for the shot he fired. Immediately, he took arge stride and ran to a car by the roadside. When the remaining officers reacted, they opened fire, but he had already disappeared behind the car.


    Although Qiu Ming wasn��t killed, his situation wasn��t any good either. He had trapped himself into a dead-end by jumping behind the car. Five police officers had already surrounded him. He could hear this from the approaching footsteps and the sound of bullets.


    This caused a rare nervousness to appear on his face. Fortunately, in the next moment, the police officer who was running at the front started swaying and stumbled forward, limp.


    Sniper!!!


    His fourpanions were shocked when they saw this, not expecting a sniper ambush to be nesting up nearby. They immediately stopped in their tracks. Having no time to deal with Qiu Ming anymore, they started to look for cover.


    Qiu Ming finally let out a sigh of relief. He knew that the people that Zhang Heng had contacted had finally made their move. At the same time, the Type-VI Hunting Robot on the other side also stopped in its tracks. It was likely that Zhang Heng had also seeded. If that were the case, then they would only have to deal with the few remaining officers. Additionally, with the help of Mr. G��s men, the whole process should be elementary.


    The situation was indeed as he imagined. Thest order the two robots received was to follow the police officers. Meanwhile, the police officers had stopped and were scattered all over the ce, while the two Type-VI Hunting Robots had also stopped moving. With the loss of police officers, victory seemed to creep ever closer.


    However, Qiu Ming did not expect that one of the robots would suddenly move without warning. Shocked, he risked it and poked his head out to take a look. In the end, he found that the robot was noting for him, but was charging towards the police captain instead.


    No one knew what was wrong with thetter. He suddenly attacked the Type-VI Hunting Robot, activating thetter��s self-defense system. Qiu Ming��s expression, however, immediately changed. ��Hurry up and kill these officers!�� he yelled.

 Chapter 1055 - The Last Order

    <h4>Chapter 1055: The Last Order</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    Qiu Ming had already figured out what was wrong with the squad leader. As if confirming his suspicions, the leader��s voice rang out in the public channel once more as he gave the final order.


    ��Everyone, attack the robot��s neck!��


    Zhang Heng reacted even faster than Qiu Ming. Having long realized where the real dangery, he had already taken out three targets. In addition, F, armed with a sniper rifle on the rooftop, had already taken out one person, while Qiu Ming ambushed another. In fact, he had already taken out half of the team members.


    However, Zhang Heng did not expect such a swift reaction from the other side. After losing control of the robot, Shengtang Morgan immediately contacted the team leader. Only then did thetter start firing at the robot.


    His goal was crystal clear��destroy the shield bracelet on the robot��s neck.


    However, his marksmanship still needed to be improved. Although he fired a barrage of bullets, not many actually hit the robot��s neck. The only few shots that really did hit couldn��t disable the shield bracelet.


    Moreover, the robot moved much faster than he had imagined, arriving in front of him in the blink of an eye. The next moment, one of the mechanical legs directly pierced his chest, and he was sliced vertically open. His guts spilled all over the floor, and the gunshots stopped abruptly.


    However, his final order had already been issued.


    This might not be the strongest batch of police officers, but they sure were disciplined. Moreover, they knew that they were already in a desperate situation, and if they were unable to regain control of at least one robot, then the remaining four people would definitely die.


    Therefore, even though they witnessed the death of their captain, the remaining people still stuck their heads out and started shooting at the robot.


    This, however, also turned them into living targets. Both Zhang Heng and Miss F on the roof did not give up this opportunity. They pulled the trigger. At this time, Qiu Ming did not hide anymore. He squatted down and aimed at one of the police officers, sending a bullet into the back of his head.


    At this point, other than Zhang Heng and Qiu Ming, who were the two spies, the entire squad was wiped out.


    However, before Qiu Ming could catch his breath, gunshots rang out again. This time, it was even more violent. The car in front of Qiu Ming seemed like it had been bludgeoned by a giant hammer. The body of the car shook non-stop. Not only were its windows shattered, but the bullets actually prated the car and struck the concrete floor.


    Qiu Ming did not need to look to know where the bullets came from. Other than the heavy machine gun on the Type-VI Hunting Robot��s left hand, no other gun had such great power.


    He had no choice but to quickly curl up his body and roll under the car. Only then did he barely manage to save his life. However, Qiu Ming knew that this was only temporary. Being targeted by the robot, he couldn��t imagine any other way to escape.


    Could it be that he was going to die here today?


    Qiu Ming never thought that death would be so close to him. He was already a little tired of everything in New Shanghai 0297, but now that he was really about to die, Qiu Ming realized that he still had lots of things to do. Unfortunately, it seemed he didn��t have much of a chance.


    Just as Qiu Ming was thinking, he heard the sound of metal scraping against the ground. It was the sound of the robot moving its legs. Then, Qiu Ming heard a series of gunshots.


    However, this time, it wasn��t the roar of a heavy machine gun but the sound of a rifle. Furthermore, it wasn��t too far away from Qiu Ming.


    A look of surprise appeared on his face. Of course, he knew who the attacker was. Now that all the other police officers had died, Zhang Heng was the closest to him. Only Zhang Heng could still fire. Qiu Ming, however, didn��t expect Zhang Heng to save him at such a critical moment. He didn��t even hesitate to draw the attention of the hunting robot to himself.


    After the hunting robot was hit by the bullet, it immediately changed its target. It gave up on Qiu Ming, who was still on the ground, and turned to aim at Zhang Heng. However, thetter had already moved into a building ahead of time, leading the hunting robot to also rush into the residential building.


    When the horrifying sound of friction gradually faded away, Qiu Ming crawled out from under the car. When he raised his head, he saw another hunting robot standing beside him. He was shocked.


    Fortunately, thetter did not react. It did not attack Qiu Ming nor retreat to the station. It just stood there quietly. What surprised Qiu Ming was that the shield bracelet on its neck was still intact. In other words, the hunting robot that had regained control did not help itspanion escape immediately.


    Logically speaking, its operator would not make such a low-level mistake... unless...


    Something crossed Qiu Ming��s mind, and he quickly said to Zhang Heng through the radio, ��The shield bracelet on the neck of the robot that was chasing you is probably not damaged.��


    ��Hmm? Why did it attack you then?�� On the other end of themunique, Zhang Heng��s voice was still rtively calm, but it was audible that he was moving at high speed.


    ��The police who shot at it earlier activated its self-defense mode, and since more than four people fired at it, it also activated its group identification mode. It should have marked all the police officers as enemies. We were also included because we were wearing police uniforms.��


    After Qiu Ming calmed down, he finally exined most of what had happened. At that time, the hunting robot suddenly went berserk and attacked him, which was absolutely strange to him. Now that the robot beside him had stopped moving, he confirmed that thetter still recognized him as a police officer. Qiu Ming finally understood why he had suddenly be a target.


    However, this made things even more troublesome.


    If the Type-VI Hunting Robot was under the control of a person, it might have retreated when it saw the bad situation. However, the robot that had entered self-defense mode would not leave until the attacker was eliminated. Therefore, there was only one path in front of them now.


    Qiu Ming said to Zhang Heng, who was fleeing on the other side, ��Give me some time. I��ll think about what to do.��


    Zhang Heng did not answer because he was getting real close to the hunting robot. Thetter was indeed Shengtang Morgan��s trump card��its attributes all very explosive.


    The speed and small range movement that Zhang Heng was proud of did not have any advantage in front of absolute technology. The eight legs of the robot moved together quickly, allowing it to easily pass through all obstacles. When necessary, it could even climb over the roof, just like a real spider.


    If this continued, it was only a matter of time before Zhang Heng was caught up.

 Chapter 1056 - The Game of Cat and Mouse

    <h4>Chapter 1056: The Game of Cat and Mouse</h4>


    Zhang Heng lowered his body and sped as fast as he could through the corridor in front of him.


    Just as he dodged around the corner of the stairs, a string of bullets followed his body and hit the wall on his right, leaving behind a row of holes.


    The wallpaper that had been torn to tatters by the bullets flew all over the floor. The dense bullet holes almost turned the wall into a ho��s nest.


    In less than three seconds, the culprit, a robot with the upper body of a human and the lower body of a spider, jumped from the opposite building and hooked onto the railing of the corridor with its four legs. It then climbed in easily and aimed the heavy machine gun in its left hand at the stairs.


    However, there was no sign of Zhang Heng.


    Thetter had just reached a house downstairs. The front door was wide open, and the hostess was about to leave the house with her headphones on. The next moment, however, a stranger rushed into her house and was about to scream. Zhang Heng beat her to it and knocked her out.


    He tossed the unconscious hostess onto the sofa before crossing the living room and jumping out the kitchen window. Finally, hended on the balcony on the third floor. Without stopping, he slid down the drainage pipe to the ground.


    Of course, he wasn��t naive enough to think that he would be able to shake off the hunter robot. In reality, Zhang Heng only wanted to use this time to get through the most dangerous part of the journey.


    The road in front of him led to a rtively empty area. About 100 meters away from the next intersection, the entire journey would take about 10 seconds. Normally, it wouldn��t be a big deal, but now, those 10 seconds could prove fatal.


    However, Zhang Heng knew that the longer he waited, the more dangerous it would be for him. Therefore, as soon as hended, he immediately started running forward.


    On the other side, after the Type-VI Hunting Robot lost sight of Zhang Heng, it didn��t follow the steps of the stairs. Instead, it spread its eight legs and climbed up the roof along the outer wall. It did not take long before it rediscovered Zhang Heng running down the stairs. However, at the same time, Zhang Heng also noticed the movement on the roof and was about to bend down to avoid it.


    Unexpectedly, the next moment, the bullet from the sniper rifle had already hit the heavy machine gun on the robot��s left arm. Although the bullet failed to destroy the heavy machine gun, the powerful kic energy it generated shifted the machine gun��s muzzle, causing the shots to immediatelynd behind Zhang Heng.


    Zhang Heng used this opportunity to run another ten meters forward. Finally, he sessfully reached the next intersection and hid in another building. At this time, Qiu Ming��s voice sounded again. ��There is a substation 1.2 kilometers away from you. We might be able to use the high voltage electricity there to deal with it.��


    ��1.2 kilometers is too far.�� Zhang Heng shook his head.


    ��Then what��s your n?�� Qiu Ming had no other choice but to scratch his head and ask.


    Zhang Heng did not answer. Instead, he looked at the other red dot on the electronic map. That was Miss F��s location. The two of them were only about 400 meters away from each other.


    Furthermore, thetter had started to approach him without hesitation. It looked like he had given the sniper rifle to someone else. Zhang Heng could only look at the map for a short while before the robot had alreadynded on the ground from the top of the building.


    It used the fastest method of descent known to man��free-falling from the top of the building!


    There was a loud bang when itnded. With nothing to cushion its fall, the machine��s eight legs plunged deep into the road, leaving eight over 10 cm deep holes in the ground. The powerful impact seemed to have no effect on its metallic body at all��it only needed to adjust its body slightly before rushing out of the building where Zhang Heng was.


    The two sides started another intense cat-and-mouse game.


    Zhang Heng basically maintained his high-speed movement state and rarely fought back. The main reason was that the rifle in his hand was not very effective on the Type-VI Hunting Robots. Thus, he ran to the back to reduce his weight, even going as far as to throw the gun away.


    Even so, it was still difficult to make up for the gap between the two sides.


    There were a few times when a bullet almost brushed past Zhang Heng��s ear. If he was one stepter, he would end up with the same fate as the pockmarked wall behind him.


    At the same time, because most of the fighting between the two sides took ce inside the building, the sniper not far away wasn��t of much use at the moment. So perhaps the only good news was that Miss F was already very close to him.


    Qiu Ming, on the other hand, came over after some hesitation. However, he did not dare to get too close. He raised the gun in his hand a few times but put it down again. Then, before he could raise it again, he saw Zhang Heng escape from a shop on the first floor that faced the street. Thetter directly smashed the ss of the shop, and he looked rather disheveled.


    The robot was now less than ten meters away from him. Fortunately, however, the bullets in its heavy machine gun had finally run out. It had lost its fellow policemen, and there was no one to carry its ammunition anymore. Nevertheless, it still had the giant sword in its right hand and its eight scythe-like legs.


    Qiu Ming was actually quite impressed with Zhang Heng. Put up against the brutal killing machine before him, an average person might not even survive the first round of attacks. Zhang Heng, on the other hand, was actually able to deal with it until now. And he was barely injured. Qiu Ming really couldn��t think of anyone else who could do this.


    Unfortunately, it was useless to continue hiding. This battle had been unfair from the start. Every weapon used to kill the Type-VI was fatal to Zhang Heng. He, on the other hand, didn��t have a weapon that could harm the robot.


    Therefore, Qiu Ming wasn��t optimistic about the oue of this battle. He had already nned to escape. Although he was grateful to Zhang Heng for saving him, he knew his own strength very well. If he stayed, he would only be buried with Zhang Heng.


    However, just as Qiu Ming was about to turn around, he saw a figure at the other end of the street.


    It was a woman. She appeared particrly delicate in front of the Type-VI robot, but written on her face was rock-like determination. When she saw the killing machine in front of her, not only did it not run away, it even charged forward, at the same time, the mechanical prosthesis on her left arm was pressed on the alloy sword at her waist.


    Draw the sword!!!


    The alloy sword shed with a cold gleam, and without hesitation, shed one of the Type-VI��s legs. Although it was unable to cut off the leg in the end, it offset the robot��s center of gravity, causing it to lose its bnce slightly. It staggered two steps.


    Then, Miss F threw the thing on her shoulder to Zhang Heng.

 Chapter 1057 - A Saber Called Hidden Scabbard

    <h4>Chapter 1057: A Saber Called Hidden Scabbard</h4>


    Miss F��s timely arrival finally allowed Zhang Heng to catch his breath.


    He stopped in his tracks and took the item that the former had thrown at him. He tore off the oilcloth on top and revealed the Hidden Scabbard.


    Before Zhang Heng left for the third floor, he had requested Miss F to take care of the inconvenient items to carry. When both parties met, Zhang Heng had asked Miss F to help him bring the Hidden Scabbard over. It was also why Zhang Heng had taken such a significant risk to approach Miss F.


    This knife was the real reason why he was challenging the Type-VI robot.


    Qiu Ming didn��t know if he imagined things, but his entire temperament changed when Zhang Heng held the Hidden Scabbard. The previous awkwardness disappeared, reced by an unrivaled and powerful presence.


    Qiu Ming even felt that the position of the prey and the hunter had changed.


    And that wasn��t the only thing that surprised him. On the other side, the woman with the mechanical prosthetic arm and the robot had actuallye to a stalemate.


    Although only less than ten seconds had passed, the two sides were evenly matched.


    Whether strength or speed, Miss F��s mechanical prosthetic arm matched her opponent equally.


    However, because there were too many weapons that could attack the robot, Miss F did not find a good opportunity to attack. She only managed to leave two shes on its leg.


    Her alloy sword was already hard enough, but when it shed the robot in front of her, it only left neither a deep nor shallow dent. Not long after, the dent disappeared.


    This was the first time Miss F had seen a metal that could heal itself. Her expression turned slightly solemn.


    With this, her hopes of gaining advantage through her cooperation with Zhang Heng were ruined. At this time, Zhang Heng��s voice came from behind her. ��Leave this to me.��


    ��Don��t you need to rest a little longer?�� Miss F asked. She could see that the chase had consumed a lot of Zhang Heng��s energy.


    In the end, thetter only uttered one word. ��Enough.��


    Hence, Miss F used the momentum from the fight with the robot in front of her to roll backward. Seeing this, the Type-VI stepped forward, wanting to pursue the victory, but it was unexpectedly blocked by a knife-wielding Zhang Heng.


    Unfortunately, its central control system could not read the difference between the current Zhang Heng and his previous iteration.


    Therefore, it swung the giant sword in its right hand. This time, Zhang Heng did not dodge like before. Instead, he chose to receive the sword head-on, forcing him to retreat several steps.


    With a human��s strength, it was not realistic to hope to contend against a machine.


    However, Zhang Heng did not intend to win this confrontation. He only wanted to test how much harder the Hidden Sheath waspared to the Type-VI Hunting Robot. He also wanted to see if the Hidden Scabbard��s non-heal effect was still effective against the strange metal before him.


    The two-centimeter-long gap at the bottom of the giant sword exined everything.


    Zhang Heng moved his slightly sore wrist and raised the Hidden Scabbard in his hand again. This time, when the hunting robot��s giant sword came at him again, Zhang Heng chose to bow to avoid it. Two more metallic sickle legs, however, came shing at him.


    At that moment, Zhang Heng also pushed his pace to the limit. His calf tightened, and he leaped over the first sickle. Then, he swung the Hidden Scabbard in his hand.


    The knife was so fast that Qiu Ming��s eyes couldn��t keep up. By the time he reacted, he saw that one of the robot��s legs had already left its body, spinning toward the sky before finally piercing through the wall of the building next to it.


    Qiu Ming inhaled sharply. Thest thing he expected was such results. Each of these robots was made from the strongest materials, after all. He was already surprised that Miss F��s alloy sword could leave a mark on the robot��s body, but to cut off one of its legs like this was a bit too much.


    And this was only the beginning. Zhang Heng��s sessful attack didn��t give the robot a chance to catch its breath, and he quickly cut off the second leg.


    Unfortunately, the Type-VI had never encountered such a situation before. Nevertheless, seeing this, it still stretched out its leg to meet Zhang Heng head-on, thus losing another leg in just ten seconds. Then came the third, the fourth...


    Losing its scythe-like legs not only made it lose its weapon but slowed the robot down considerably. Now, it had be Zhang Heng��s meat on the chopping block, unable to cause any more trouble.


    Zhang Heng was like a skilled chef, quickly dismembering the eight legs of the Type-VI. All too quickly, thetter lost all its power and could only rely on its two hands to crawl.


    It was only at this point that Qiu Ming finally woke up from his dream. He reminded, ��Its control center is in its lower abdomen.��


    Zhang Heng did not panic. He first took some time to chop off the robot��s shoulder, making it unable to move. Then, he aimed the Hidden Scabbard at the robot��s abdomen, cut through the outer shell seven times before finally destroying the control center inside, thus ending the battle.


    Qiu Ming, who was standing at the side, was filled with a stupor and awe after witnessing everything.


    He looked at the once formidable killing machine, now reduced to a pile of scrap metal on the ground, then at Zhang Heng, who still had his saber sheathed. After a long time, he managed to reorganize his words and eximed, ��How is this possible? You single-handedly took out a TYpe-VI Hunting Robot? ! Are you also a simtion robot?��


    Zhang Heng did not answer his question. Instead, he pointed at the robot that followed behind Qiu Ming. ��What��s going on?��


    ��I didn��t want this to happen,�� Qiu Ming said innocently, ��Do you remember what I told you before? After losing the signal, this thing will continue to carry out thestmand received. Thestmand it received should be the other police officers who followed the team. Now that all the police officers in the team are dead, only the two of us are left. It followed me closely.��


    Zhang Heng looked at Miss F, who nodded and said, ��I��ll take you to see Mr. G now. We can also bring this robot back with us. Let our engineers study it. Many of ourrades have already died at the hands of these things.��

 Chapter 1058 - Three Minutes

    <h4>Chapter 1058: Three Minutes</h4>


    ording to Qiu Ming himself, this was the first time he came to the first floor.


    As a special agent, he had basically lived on the fifth floor until he was demoted. He finally began to run around the floor. However, at that time, his rtionship with Mr. G was more sensitive. In order not to arouse the suspicion of the management, he never took the initiative to step into the first floor.


    Therefore, Qiu Ming��s understanding of the first floor had been mainly gained through images, data, information, as well as memory reading. This time, he personally came to the first floor and felt very fresh about everything here. Sitting in the back seat of the SUV, he looked out of the window with great intrigue.


    However, the ce he was looking at now was no longer as chaotic and vigorous as in the video. Shops were practically closed, and far fewer pedestrians could be seen on the road. It looked like a depression. There were many man-made obstacles, with sentry posts set up at almost every corner. When they saw Miss F��s car, however, the people in the sentry posts moved the obstacles away in advance and let them pass.


    Qiu Ming also saw many armed men and women. Some were patrolling the streets, while some hid behind windows, aiming their guns at the street. They were, however, mostly armed with light weapons.


    ��If I were yourmander, I would��ve evacuated the sentry posts and the people upstairs,�� Qiu Ming said. ��They won��t be a match for the Type-VI robots. You��ve seen the power of those things before. These people can��t even be considered militia, and the weapons they carry are the mostmon. Against those droids, they��ll be a piece of cake.��


    ��We also never expected Shengtang Morgan to be harboring such a powerful weapon,�� Miss F said. ��I��ve already reported the situation here to Mr. G.��


    ��And then, I didn��t see your men retreat or retreat... and I personally suggest that you don��t wait for Mr. G��s order.��


    Upon hearing this, Miss F frowned and nced at Qiu Ming before speaking seriously, ��We��re in a state of war now, so everyone has their own responsibilities. We can��t retreat just because we want to. Mr. G is our leader, so he��ll order us to retreat when he has to. But you, where did youe from? Why are you telling us what to do?��


    Before this, everyone��s attention was on the Type-VI robots. Miss F did not have the time to pay attention to Qiu Ming. When Zhang Heng ended the battle, and everyone got into the car, Qiu Ming also got into the car. However, sitting at the side quietly seemed to be not present. It wasn��t until then that his words were remembered.


    ��He��s a police officer I just met on the second floor. He helped me a lot when I was able to make it back to the first floor.�� Considering that they would meet Mr. G, Zhang Heng didn��t reveal Qiu Ming��s true identity.


    ��This is me, a man who has turned his back on the dark side.�� Qiu Ming raised his hand. ��So please don��t doubt my position just because of my police uniform.��


    Miss F looked deeply at Qiu Ming but said nothing more to him. She turned to Zhang Heng and asked, ��Have you brought that thing?��


    Zhang Heng nodded. ��But can you give me some time before meeting Mr. G? I want to talk to you first, privately.��


    Miss F looked at the other people in the car and said, ��Let��s talk about it after this matter is over. Every minute now could cost more lives.��


    ��My matter is also very urgent. I don��t think we can drag this out any longer,�� Zhang Heng insisted.


    Miss F seemed to fall into a state of hesitation. However, half a minuteter, she said, ��Okay, I��ll give you three minutes. No more.��


    After that, she patted the back of the driver��s seat in front of her. ��Stop in the middle of People��s Square for a moment.��


    ��Roger,�� the driver nodded. At the same time, he stepped on the elerator and sped up.


    About ten minutester, the SUV arrived at the People��s Square. Normally, this was a lively flea market, where many gathered to sell off things they didn��t need. Now, the ce was empty, with only a few sheds that hadn��t been demolished still standing.


    Miss F opened the door and jumped out, followed by Zhang Heng.


    The two walked a distance away from the SUV and came to a shed in the square. Miss F looked at the bracelet on her wrist and reminded, ��You only have three minutes.��


    Zhang Heng looked into Miss F��s eyes. ��This time, I left the first floor and identally entered Shengtang Morgans��s secret base in New Shanghai 0297. As a result, I found out that Mr. G is also an employee of thepany.��


    However, to Zhang Heng��s surprise, Miss F did not have much of a reaction after hearing this. She still stood there.


    ��You��ve known about this?��


    ��It wasn��t that early. After you left, Mr. G gathered his most trusted people and told everyone about his identity. He said that he once stayed in thepany��s emergency response team for a period of time, but I didn��t realize that he was one of us, just like you and me. No wonder he was so friendly to the clones and was willing to ept them as citizens of this city.��


    ��Is that all?��


    ��Of course not, but it doesn��t matter anymore. We��ve agreed to continue letting him lead the uprising. It doesn��t matter what his identity is, but what��s important is that we have the same goal. He could have kept it from us because he said that once the war started. Morgan would use all means to discredit and attack him and spread rumors about all of us. You should have seen the news these few days. You should have seen how they ndered us in public, distorted and covered up the truth.��


    Miss F paused for a moment before continuing, ��You called me out to tell me that Mr. G had betrayed us a long time ago? But how do you know that what you saw and heard was not what Shengtang Morgan wanted you to hear or see? You said that you entered the Shengtang Morgan��s New Shanghai 0297 secret base by chance. Don��t you have a bit of doubt in the depths of your heart? Wasn��t your chance a mere coincidence? It just so happened that at this time, you discovered a secret base that no one knew about, and then you found some evidence that Mr. G had betrayed us.��


    ��You think I may be a spy Morgan sent to drive a wedge between you two?�� Zhang Heng raised his eyebrows.


    ��No, I��m just saying that we can��t rule out the possibility that you��ve been deceived by Morgan,�� said Miss F. ��I believe you. Although we haven��t known each other for a long time, Zhang Heng, this is a war, and both sides will use all means at their disposal.��


    ��If you saw what I saw, you would know that what I said is true.

 Chapter 1059 - Advice From a Friend

    <h4>Chapter 1059: Advice From a Friend</h4>


    ��Unfortunately, I can��t see it,�� said Miss F. ��If you were me, what would you choose? On one side is the man I��ve known for several years, who once saved me and is now my fianc��, our leader. On the other side is our enemy, the Shengtang Morgan. He��s using every means at his disposal to nder us.��


    ��If you��re willing, I can prove it to you,�� Zhang Heng said patiently.


    ��Do you want that Shengtang Morgan employee in the car to convince me?��


    ��...��


    ��This is the first time I��ve seen a surprising expression on your face. Are you surprised that I know more than you think? I gave you a chance in the car to ask him who he is.��


    ��...and I told you that he was a police officer that I met by chance on the second floor.��


    Miss F sighed. ��If you want to convince someone to believe you, the best choice is to tell the truth from the beginning.


    ��The thing that surprised me was not that you knew more than I thought, but that he had prepared so well. I have to admit that I underestimated him this time,�� Zhang Heng whispered. ��You��ll never be able to reach the truth. All you��ll get is a different narrative method. Mr. G is indeed Baudrird��s most outstanding disciple. He haspletely turned Baudrird��s theory into a powerful weapon.��


    ��Your three minutes are up.�� Miss F looked at the time. ��It seems you still haven��t been able to convince me.��


    ��Yes.��


    ��But you don��t have to worry. I won��t leak these words between us to a third person, including the guy��s identity in the car. In fact, Mr. G isn��t sure if Morgan will send someone to the first floor with you.��


    ��What��s the condition?��


    ��The condition is that you must keep an eye on him and don��t let him sow discord between us and Mr. G. And you, too. When you see Mr. Gter, give him the thing. He has already fulfilled the agreement and has collected 50 shec records for you. It wasn��t an easy task, and even he has mobilized all the manpower he can. Especially at this juncture, you should be satisfied with being able to divert your attention to do such a thing,�� said Miss F.


    ��I know you had a lot of problems before, and he should not have broken your previous agreement, so your wariness and hostility toward him were justified. But this time he did everything he could, and fulfilled all your requirements without any discount, including the previous efforts to show you what we are doing. Thus, I hope you can join in and be one of us.


    ��You, however, don��t seem moved at all. But, of course, this is your freedom, and I respect it. This is what I have been working so hard for. I hope that in the future, our kind can have the freedom to make choices like you. However, since you are so close to your goal, you should try not to cause any more trouble.��


    ��Is this a warning?��


    ��No, just advice from a friend,�� Miss F said. ��It��s gettingte; we should get back on the road.��


    ...


    An hourter, the SUV arrived outside Mr. G��s private garden.


    However, after getting out of the car, Zhang Heng realized that the garden door was locked, and there was no one inside.


    Then, he looked at the other car parked outside the door and saw manager Zhenging down from it. He was carrying a white metal box in his left hand and a ck leather box in his right.


    He walked straight to Zhang Heng and nodded at him. Then, he put down the white metal case and opened the leather case in his right hand.


    ��Fifty shec records. They��re all here. You can count them,�� manager Zheng said.


    ��No need to trouble yourself.�� Zhang Heng took the leather case. After all, he didn��t collect shec records from listening, and the system would automatically help him calcte how many records he had collected this time.


    After receiving the notification that his game score had increased by 500 points, Zhang Heng took out a metal rod about the size of a finger from his pocket and handed it to supervisor Zheng. Thetter took a look at the things inside, then opened the metal box on the ground, revealing in it a drone.


    Supervisor Zheng carefully ced the metal rod into the drone��s abdomen.


    Zhang Heng asked, ��Where��s Mr. G? Is he not here yet?��


    ��That��s right. He thinks highly of you and has always wanted to recruit you. However, it seems that you don��t really want to join our cause. Since that��s the case, Mr. G doesn��t have any reason to contact you anymore. Anyway, I canplete the transaction with you. Oh, right...��


    As director Zheng spoke, Zhang Heng received another notification on his wristband.


    Zhang Heng opened it and saw that his ount had just received a transfer of three million credits.


    ��Although your shec records are hard to find, they are still far from the value of the thing you gave us. Therefore, this three million is an extra gift from Mr. G. It is alsopensation for the unteral breach of the agreementst time. So please, ept it.��


    After saying that, supervisor Zheng activated the drone and took half a step back. He watched it rise into the air and fly into the distance. It became smaller and smaller until it disappeared behind the buildings in the distance.


    ��At least, our cooperation this time ended smoothly, right?�� Supervisor Zheng smiled. ��I have left the car over there for you. You can go wherever you want to go. We have to go back to our work.��


    After saying that, supervisor Zheng followed the others into the SUV that brought Zhang Heng and Qiu Ming over, leaving the two of them behind.


    Miss F also took onest look at Zhang Heng, her expressionplicated. She opened her mouth and only uttered two words. ��Take care.�� After that, she also got into the car.


    Half a minuteter, only Zhang Heng and Qiu Ming were left outside the garden gate.


    A momentter, thetter broke the silence and said, ��So, let��s call it a day... on the first floor.��


    Zhang Heng did not answer. Instead, he said, ��You lied to me.��


    ��I lied to you? When?�� Qiu Ming was somewhat baffled.


    ��Mr. G��s mole from Shengtang Morgan is not you, but someone else.��


    ��How is that possible? I��ve been secretly passing information to him all these years.�� Qiu Ming looked incredulous. ��Why do you say that?��


    ��You haven��t contacted him since I kidnapped you, right?��


    ��That��s right.�� Qiu Ming nodded with certainty.


    ��But he knows that you��re with me,�� Zhang Heng said. ��That��s why he admitted to the others that he��s a member of Shengtang Morgan.��


    ��He told everyone the truth?�� Qiu Ming��s eyes widened.


    ��No, it was only a small part of the truth, but it was enough to prove his innocence. In addition, he guessed that I would bring you here in advance, which further reduced the authenticity of my words.��

 Chapter 1060 - The Original Plan

    <h4>Chapter 1060: The Original n</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    ��I swear, I really didn��t know that he had other spies in thepany,�� Qiu Ming said with a wry smile. ��Even though we��ve been in contact all these years, he hasn��t told me anything about this.��


    ��No, this is something I should have thought of long ago,�� Zhang Heng said. ��When he was on the second floor, he sent out a whole team of exoskeleton warriors. They were all equipped with thetest generation military exoskeleton equipment. Obviously, someone was secretly supplying him with these sophisticated weapons. In addition, we may have underestimated his armed forces beyond the first floor. It seems that he doesn��t only have that one team. If that��s the case, then everything can be exined.��


    ��What makes sense?��


    ��ording to you, he once broke into Morgan��s base and fought with these Type-VI Hunting Robots, so others wouldnt know of their existence. There��s, however, no reason for him not to know. Therefore, it��s impossible for him to exclude the influence of these robots when heunched this riot. No, to be more precise, his target is most likely these robots.��


    Qiu Ming reacted, ��You mean to say that he deliberately used a riot to attract these robots to the first floor because he knew very well that the management could not tolerate a long period of unrest on the first floor? If that��s the case... now is also the time when the defense of the base is at its weakest. There is only one robot and about 200 security guards there. As long as there are two exoskeleton teamss, they can break into the base.��


    ��But what is their target?�� Qiu Ming frowned. ��The most valuable and well-guarded ce inside the base is the memory encoder. There are several teams of guards guarding it, and at critical moments, they can cut off the power supply and use a metal wall topletely seal it. They can even destroy it remotely.��


    ��It��s not the memory encoder,�� Zhang Heng said. ��He already has the memory encoder. It��s on the drone just now.��


    ��The thing he got through the transaction is the memory encoder?�� Qiu Ming gasped. ��Is his target the management of thepany in New Shanghai 0297? He wants to re-encode the management��s memory?


    ��Indeed, this is his only way out. He incited the residents of the first floor to fight against thepany. No matter how you look at it, there is no chance of victory. Even if he really is the military god that leads a group of civilians who have not received strict military training, he used the light weapons he produced to eliminate all the Type-VI��s. He severely crippled the management��s armed forces in New Shanghai 0297, but he was unable to deal with the attack from the magnificent Tang Morgan headquarters. Most importantly, he hid the true truth of new Shanghai 0297 from his subordinates. He certainly doesn��t want to really attack the fifth floor��s magnificent Tang Morgan��s secret base.��


    Qiu Ming suddenly thought of something and his expression changed, ��Since he knows that I��m with you, he must know that we��ve already guessed his n. No wonder he doesn��t want to meet with you. Besides, he��s dealing with the management now, so he put us aside. When he��s done with the matter at hand, he��ll definitely turn around and deal with us. We have to leave the first floor as soon as possible. No, it��s best to leave new Shanghai 0297. We can go to the Shengtang Morgan��s headquarters to find my uncle and tell him what��s happening here.��


    ��Or we can try to solve the problem ourselves,�� said Zhang Heng lightly. ��I still have friends on the first floor. Once Shengtang Morgan��s headquarters decides to intervene, not only will Mr. G suffer, but my friends will also be implicated. Also, do you know how Shengtang Morgan will deal with us in the future?��


    ��Your friend? Is it that woman just now? But between you and Mr. G, she seems to be more willing to believe thetter. Haven��t you already tried? Do you have any other way to convince her?��


    Zhang Heng shook his head. ��I won��t try to convince anyone else, so let��s stick to my original n.��


    ��Original n?�� Qiu Ming was a little confused. If Feng Zi were here now, he would��ve probably understood what Zhang Heng meant.


    ��I��ll kill Mr. G and help him turn the beautiful new world that he��s been promoting into reality.�� Zhang Heng used the calmest tone to say these earth-shattering words.


    ��Are you crazy?! Just the two of us? Here? How are we going to deal with Mr. G and his men?�� Qiu Ming suspected that something was wrong with his ears. ��We don��t even know where he is right now. You said yourself that since he��s using a drone to deliver goods, he doesn��t want you to know his location.��


    ��It��s okay. I��ve installed a locator in the memory encoder��s metal barrel,�� Zhang Heng said as he opened the electronic map on his wristband. Sure enough, he saw a red dot constantly changing its position, moving toward the east of the city. ��As for manpower and weapons, don��t we have a ready-made helper?��


    Qiu Ming looked in the direction of Zhang Heng��s chin and saw the hunting robot standing quietly at the side.


    This robot was quite loyal to Qiu Ming. It followed themand of the SUV all the way here.


    ��You want to control this robot to fight for You?��


    ��Why not? I��ve seen the structure of the same type of robot I killed before. The other structures and systems might be moreplicated, but it��s still quite easy to reprogram the signal receiver. However, I still need to find someone who can control it remotely.��


    ��How am I doing?�� Qiu Ming queried.


    In the end, Zhang Heng only nced at him and didn��t say anything.


    ��Alright, it seems that even after everything we��ve been through, the trust between us hasn��t reached this level yet.�� Qiu Ming was still very self-aware.


    ��I already have a candidate for the operator. Let��s go meet up with her first. Also, we need her help with the modification of this robot.��


    .....


    Zhang Heng didn��t drive the car that supervisor Zheng left behind. Instead, he and Qiu Ming walked two streets to find another car. After that, they rushed to a small factory. Feng Zi was already waiting there, poking her head out from the roadside. A sneaky look was on her face.


    Upon seeing the hunting robot, she immediately yelped in surprise. As if she had seen a beloved toy, she couldn��t wait to surround it. However, because she was too close to it, the robot aimed the heavy machine gun on its left arm at her.


    Seeing this, Feng Zi took two steps back, but there wasn��t much fear on her face. Instead, she clicked her tongue in wonder, ��I used to draw my own designs when I had nothing better to do, so I did draw something simr. I didn��t expect that Shengtang Morgan to have already mass-produced it. The technological prowess of arge corporation is certainly a lot more than what��s on the surface.��


    ��We��re in a hurry. Have you found the thing?�� Zhang Heng interrupted her and asked straightforwardly.


    ��I��ve found it. It��s a tungsten steel te, 5cm thick. It��s definitely not as good as the original, but it can still be used.��Feng Zi grinned.


    ��Well then. Let��s begin, shall we?��

 Chapter 1061 - Gearing Up For Battle

    <h4>Chapter 1061: Gearing Up For Battle</h4>


    Zhang Heng found a secluded spot and waited for Feng Zi and Qiu Ming to find a ce to hide. Then, he pulled out the Hidden Scabbard from his waist.


    This time, since he wasn��t in hisbat state right from the start, Zhang Heng had more time to prepare and adjust. He held the saber with both hands and slowly raised it above his head, forming a starting position.


    On the other side, Qiu Ming��s eyes were wide open. He didn��t want to miss Zhang Heng��s attack like before.


    However, even though Qiu Ming focused all his attention, he still couldn��t catch Zhang Heng��s attack trajectory. All he saw was a blur. Then, sparks flew from the position of the Type-VI Hunting Robot��s control center. A 20-cm-long gash sliced open in the metal shell.


    This sh was also immensely powerful, instantly cutting halfway through the heavy shell of the robot.


    The Type-VI that had been attacked immediately switched to defensive mode. Its left arm moved to aim at Zhang Heng, and at the same time, the sickles on its two legs tried to sh at him.


    This time around, Zhang Heng didn��t use the Hidden Scabbard to cut them off. He needed to maintain the robot��s integrity as much as possible so it could unleash its full power in the uing battle.


    ordingly, Zhang Heng chose to increase his movement speed, using the technique to dodge the two scythe-like legs. At the same time, he shed out a second time before the heavy machine gun could aim at him.


    If Qiu Ming hadn��t seen it with his own eyes, he would��ve never believed that a man��s knife techniques could��ve reached such levels.


    The point of impact of Zhang Heng��s high-speed swing perfectly and urately coincided with the first cut. It was pinpoint precise as if measured with a ruler!


    Qiu Ming even wondered if this was just a coincidence in probability. As if to answer his question, Zhang Heng followed up with a third, then a fourth... each cut precisely administered at the perfect spot. Although the next few cuts weren��t as strong as the first, little by little, they still cut through the robot��s metal shell.


    And this time, Qiu Ming saw it clearly enough. He realized that the most troublesome self-healing function of the Type-VI had actually failed. The metal around the cuts Zhang Heng made had obviously changed, and for some unknown reason, was unable to heal.


    Zhang Heng��s knifended like a storm on the robot��s metal shell. This time, he only used five shes topletely cut through the metal shell. On the other side, the Type-VI had already put away the heavy machine gun in its left hand.


    The main thing was that Zhang Heng was right in front of it, the distance between the two now less than half a meter. At such close proximity, the artificial logic of the Type-VI would prioritize melee weapons��the giant sword in its right hand and the eight legs under its body attacked.


    Zhang Heng, however, did not give it another chance.


    On the sixth cut, Zhang Heng used the Hidden Scabbard to probe the 20cm-long wound, cutting off the main circuits next to the control center. Suddenly, the Type-VI seemed to hit a pause button the next moment, all of its movements freezing abruptly.


    One of its sickle legs was less than an inch away from Zhang Heng��s chest, but in the end, it could no longer move forward.


    He then cut open the robot��s chest with the Hidden Scabbard and took out its signal receiver from within. When all of that was done, Feng Zi and Qiu Ming walked out from behind the cover once more.


    ��I��ll go reprogram the signal receiver,�� Zhang Heng said to Feng Zi. ��I��ll leave this to you. Help change the circuits that I cut off, but don��t hurry to reconnect them. Wait for me to put the signal receiver in before reconnecting it. It��s the same as thest tungsten te welding.��


    ��Whatever you say, boss.�� Feng Zi removed the wrench from her waist and asked curiously, ��How can you be so sure that I will stand on your side and not Mr. G��s? After all, I was doing well in the military factory.��


    Feng Zi blinked a couple of times, seeming as if she really wanted to hear someone say something tender and affectionate. After all, in most movies and novels, this was usually the most opportune moment for the male lead to express his deep love for the female lead beforeunching his fatal attack. Sweet words were usually uttered, for instance, ��I know your heart will be with me�� or ��Love has given me the answer.��


    However, Zhang Heng only said calmly, ��Mr. G has pointed a gun at you.��


    ��...��


    ��What saddens me the most is that I can��t seem to refute you,�� Feng Zi said with a sigh. ��I do like the new world he describes... I like the people working hard for this dream in the military factory. But I don��t have a good impression of Mr. G himself. It doesn��t matter to me whether he��s in the future or not. Besides, I believe in you, and I��m willing to believe everything you say.��


    ��Thank you,�� Zhang Heng replied.


    ��Actually, I can tell that the woman named F also believes in you,�� Feng Zi continued. ��She just has too many things to carry on her shoulders... the gratitude Mr. G showed her for saving her life, the fate of her own kind, and the people who had fought alongside her. This makes it impossible for her to make a choice like mine.��


    ��I know,�� Zhang Heng said calmly. ��It doesn��t matter. I��ll help her fix everything.��


    ..


    Half an hourter, Feng Zi started to rewire the Type-VI that had been rewired with a signal receiver. Before that, Zhang Heng had already removed the shielding wristband from the Type-VI��s neck and waited for Feng Zi to connect the circuit. He also used his bracelet to order the robot in front of him to enter standby mode.


    Feng Zi then welded the tungsten te to its chest. This could cover the two wounds on its body and protect the control center and the signal receiver behind it.


    Zhang Heng handed over control of the Type-VI to Feng Zi. Thetter controlled her new toy, making it jump and roll. It made all sorts of movements and became a novelty of sorts.


    ��Find a safe ce to hide. It��s good as long as you support us from a distance. Don��t let Mr. G��s people find you.��


    After that, Zhang Heng turned to Qiu Ming.


    Qiu Ming looked a little helpless. ��I still prefer the suggestion I gave you, but from the looks of it, you��ve already made up your mind to kill Mr. G no matter what, so I don��t seem to have a choice.��


    If Qiu Ming had a choice, of course, he didn��t want to take the risk with Zhang Heng. After all, he was quite happy that Mr. G and the management team were at a disadvantage, so it wouldn��t hinder him from watching the show. He didn��t forget his own situation as well, knowing he was still Zhang Heng��s captive and had little power to decide.


    ��Stop worrying so much. If you don��t die this time, you might just get back your lost position...�� said Zhang Heng. ��But you��ll have to change your service provider.��

 Chapter 1062 - Signal Tower

    <h4>Chapter 1062: Signal Tower</h4>


    Zhang Heng stepped on the elerator and drove Qiu Ming to the red dot on the electronic map.


    That was the location of the locator, and it had been parked there for a long time. If everything had gone ording to n, Mr. G should be there.


    On the other side was Qiu Ming in the passenger seat. He fastened his seatbelt, grabbed the armrest, and leaned back. Initially hoping the operation would be exhrating, he never expected it to be so exciting before the battle even began.


    As Zhang Heng drove the car onto the main road, however, Qiu Ming��s attention finally shifted from the vehicle��s speed to another ce.


    Previously, because their police team had taken a slightly different route, other than the group of people who had been scouting the police at the grocery store, they had only encountered seven or eight enemies behind them. As a result, it wasn��t a very intense battle.


    Now, this street should be the area Mr. G��s men had set up their defenses. With a sentry post every 100 meters, many armed forces had also been deployed to guard it in an attempt to stop anyone from passing through.


    Unfortunately, they could not stop anyone now.


    Even with Qiu Ming��s mental endurance, he could not help but frown when he saw the scene along the way.


    The entire street was dead silent like a cemetery. Corpses were everywhere on the roadside, in the sentry posts, and in the nearby buildings. Not only were the rioters who followed Mr. G lying on the ground... there were even several unarmed civilians who had lost their breath. Only the bullet-riddled bunkers, broken ss windows, and the burning vehicles told the story of what happened here not long ago.


    ��I thought my heart was tough enough. After all, what I��m doing now is equivalent to erasing a person��s soul. Compared to Mr. G, however, I��m still far from that,�� Qiu Mingmented, ��For his own goal, he even sacrificed tens of thousands of people. Moreover, these people would probably still believe in him until the day they die. This is because they believe in the future that he��s promised.��


    ��You created him,�� Zhang Heng reminded.


    ��No, I only opened the door, so he saw the outside world. As for whether a demon or angeles out from behind that door was never something I could control,�� Qiu Ming shrugged.


    ��At least now you have a chance to put the devil you released back into the box.��


    ��I hope I live to see the end of this,�� Qiu Ming said as he checked the rifle in his hand.


    .....


    After driving only two blocks, Zhang Heng already saw the end of the trip through the car window.


    It was a white signal tower, about 400 meters tall. It provided the signal exchange service for the entire first-floor space. Since, ording to the official records, the height of the entire first-floor space was only 486 meters, it meant this signal tower was already close to the foundation of the second floor.


    And now, right above the top of the tower, there was actually a huge thread probe that was about 20 meters in diameter. From top to bottom, it drilled through the projection screen that simted the sky.


    ��F*ck!�� Upon seeing this, even Qiu Ming couldn��t help but curse.


    ��Even this f*cking works?!��


    As everyone knew, New Shanghai 0297 was divided into fiveyers of space, and the only thing that connected them was the central shuttle in the city center. However, Shengtang Morgan had long since suspended the central shuttle on the first floor, and it was only when police were transported to the first floor would a vehicle be authorized to pass through. At the same time, heavy troops were also deployed at the station on the first floor.


    In Qiu Ming��s previous spection, Mr. G used the riot to attract the Shengtang Morgan��s Type-VI Hunting Robots to the first floor, thus creating the condition for a sneak attack on the base. However, even if his team of exoskeleton warriors really seeded in capturing the management, it wouldn��t be easy to take a captive back to the next level and encode the memory.


    But now, Mr. G had shown Mr. Qiu that his fears were misced.


    Mr. G��s men did not choose to take the central shuttle back to the first floor. Instead, they directly drilled a hole in the second floor with the drilling machine, and it was facing the ce where the memory was encoded. Whether it was from the perspective of imagination or the angle of operation, Qiu Ming was astounded.


    After the drill broke through the ground, it was pulled back up again. Then, two softdders hung down from above. Qiu Ming saw someone climbing down thedder, but because of the distance, he could not see the person��s face clearly.


    After that, he clearly felt the car speed up again. This time, even if he closed his eyes, he could feel his heart jumping out of his throat.


    At the same time, Zhang Heng lowered the window on the other side. Holding the steering wheel with one hand, he stuck a gun out the window with the other before firing a salvo of rounds at the sentry post in the middle of the road ahead.


    The checkpoint had also been baptized by the Type-VI robot. The people who initially manned the checkpoint had already died, but Mr. G had probably sent another team to restore order in the surrounding area. Just as the group was setting up a new roadblock, who would have thought that a car would suddenly appear from the other end of the street.


    The car was speeding, and in the blink of an eye, it was right in front of them. Before they could determine if it were a friend or a foe, the people on top had already opened fire.


    Zhang Heng remained merciful. He had basically aimed at their lower bodies. Those who had been shot would not have died, but at least, they would not be able to move now. Lying on the ground, groaning in pain, they could only watch as the car pass through the checkpoint and sped forward.


    Despite all that, however, they did not panic. They knew they were merely the first group of guards. There were other people behind them, and unlike them, having just arrived at the checkpoint, the roadblocks there had already beenpletely restored. If the car that had appeared out of nowhere tried to break through those, it would only end in destruction and death.


    Furthermore, when the car passed them by, they saw only two people. Heaving a sigh of relief, they quickly ryed the news to the people behind them.


    Zhang Heng didn��t slow down at all after passing through the first checkpoint. One kilometer ahead, the people there had already gotten the news and had prepared in advance. They took cover and set up their guns.


    However, before they could see the target vehicle, another Asura-like demon was already there.


    A ck figure with eight legs and the shape of a human jumped down from the mall next door andnded behind them. Without saying a word, it swung the giant sword in its hand at them.


    They werepletely caught off-guard.


    Two unlucky men were sent flying on the spot by the giant sword. Suffering several broken ribs, they rolled on the ground a good bit before losing consciousness.


    The rest of the guards did not care about the car anymore. They hastily turned their guns and pulled the trigger on the killer droid in front of them. However, when the bulletsnded on the robot��s body, other than sparks, they caused almost no damage to it.

 Chapter 1063 - Decoy Trap

    <h4>Chapter 1063: Decoy Trap</h4>


    After Feng Zi ordered the Type-VI Hunting Robot to send everyone flying, she removed the obstacles in the middle of the road to allow Zhang Heng��s car to pass by. Then, she charged the robot to move forward again.


    With the massive droid ahead of him, clearing the way like a snowplow, Zhang Heng rushed through four sentry posts in one go. Finally, he was getting closer and closer to the white signal tower. However, this was also the furthest he could go. After passing the fourth checkpoint, the excavator directly cut off the road in front of him.


    Zhang Heng stopped the car and alighted with all his equipment.


    A little further ahead, the Type-VI Feng Zi was controlling was already engaged in a battle with the guards. The sound of gunfire and the shouts of some people could be heard. Soon, nheless, everything returned to normal.


    Qiu Ming followed closely behind with a gun in his hand. He got up and ran with Zhang Heng, ducking in and out and to the left and right through the road that had been dug out, keeping a lookout for their surroundings.


    So far, everything was going smoothly. With the modified Type-VI, the two of them didn��t encounter much trouble. All that said, the situation wouldn��t be so optimistic in the future.


    In fact, Qiu Ming had already seen a destroyed Type-VI. In order to kill this robot, Mr. G��s side had obviously invested a lot of money. They used an unknown amount of explosives to directly blow up a massive 10-meter-crater into the ground. Other than the robot in the center being directly blown up, many human corpses were also strewn around the surroundings. It seemed that they were unlucky ones who didn��t make it to safety in time, buried together with the machine.


    At this moment, the two heard the sound of an explosion in front of them. It wasn��t that terrifying, though, and should indicate that the Type-VI Feng Zi was controlling had got hit by a rocketuncher or something. Fortunately, with the droid��s defensive and self-healing abilities, there shouldn��t be too much of a problem.


    Sure enough, not long after that, the sound of the explosion quickly disappeared.


    Feng Zi, who was 30 kilometers away, was now in herplete bloodthirst mode. She sat cross-legged in an underground warehouse, surrounded by all kinds of cheap pirated dolls. Beside her feet was a bottle of coke she bought from the vending machine, but because she had been fighting, she didn��t have time to drink it.


    Admittedly, Feng Zi had been cautious when she first took over the robot. More than once, she would subconsciously give the order to dodge an attack, and as time passed, and she experienced more and more battles, she finally understood what Zhang Heng meant when he said, ��Don��t worry, just focus on the attack and not the defense.��.


    Because of the Type-VI Hunting Robot��s exceeding robustness, Feng Zi realized that normal attacks would cause it to suffer little or no damage. Even if it took a rocketuncher hit, the deformed metal shell would quickly recover.


    Feng Zi couldn��t be med for being overly cautious. She had seen Zhang Heng fight the Type-VI before, and from the looks of it, Zhang Heng had only used a knife to cut the robot into pieces. Thus, she had some doubts about the robot��s strength in the beginning.


    She was, however, experiencing apletely different thing now. She felt like a brave warrior who had picked up a god��s equipment in a game, gone from being a noob in the beginner vige to a ruthless experience harvester. This excited herpletely��themands were bing more and more unrestrained, and she had unknowingly pulled away from Zhang Heng and Qiu Ming.


    As Feng Zi continued to drive the Type-VI Hunting Robot on a test run, Zhang Heng and Qiu Ming finally encountered their first battle. As they walked, Zhang Heng suddenly opened his mouth and said to Qiu Ming, ��Squat.��


    Although thetter did not know why Zhang Heng said that, Qiu Ming, unlike Feng Zi, clearly understood Zhang Heng��s strength. Therefore, as soon as Zhang Heng opened his mouth, he immediately squatted without hesitation.


    The next moment, a sniper roundnded on the concrete road behind him.


    Sniper!!!


    Qiu Ming had already found some cover and crawled into it without needing Zhang Heng to remind him. On the other side, Zhang Heng was also hiding behind a stone b.


    ��Do we need to recall the robot?�� Qiu Ming asked.


    ��No need. We can solve this small problem ourselves.�� Zhang Heng shook his head. Then, he took out Lego blocks from his bag and spent two minutes assembling them into a sniper rifle. Upon inserting the Infinite Building Block, hepleted thest step of its materialization.


    Qiu Ming��s eyes almost popped out of their sockets when he saw this. He didn��t know what words to use to describe his feelings anymore. He was already beyond shocked to see Mr. G��s men drill a hole in the second floor, but at least he knew how the other party did it. Zhang Heng��s building block turning into a sniper was the real wild card. He had no idea how it worked.


    With a gun in his hand, Zhang Heng immediately set a simple trap. He took off his coat, put it on the barrel of the gun, and pushed it out of his hiding spot. About three secondster, a bullet pierced the coat and left a hole in it.


    Zhang Heng had roughly figured out the other party��s position from the hole and the previous shot. He then gave Qiu Ming a look, asking thetter to help him attract attention.


    Therefore, Qiu Ming extended his gun-wielding hand out of cover and fired wildly in the direction of the bullets. This time, the sniper from afar did not fall for the decoy. He ignored Qiu Ming, who was shooting away happily. Instead, he turned the muzzle to the area Zhang Heng was hiding and held his breath.


    In the end, his efforts paid off. In the next moment, he saw a figure jump out from behind the stone b.


    ��Got you!�� The sniper��s eyes shed with joy as he pulled the trigger in his hand.


    However, when the bullet from the gun��s barrel hit the target, the sniper was shocked to realize that it was still just a coat. There was no one underneath it.


    For a moment there, he felt smug, thinking he had seen through Zhang Heng��s tactic. He did not expect to trip over the same stone twice in the next moment. Furthermore, this trip would actually prove fatal.


    After the gunshot, Zhang Heng had already dashed out from the opposite direction. He spent a second and a half locking onto the target in the distance, and another half a second to adjust his posture and breathing.


    Then, he pulled the trigger.


    Zhang Heng aimed at the sniper��s arm, but because of the terrifying kic energy the bullet generated, not only could the sniper not shoot again, but he could also lose his entire arm. If he was sent to the hospitalte, he might even die from excessive blood loss.


    However, considering how he hadn��t been polite with his previous three shots, Zhang Heng had already shown mercy on ount of Miss F.

 Chapter 1064 - Bullet Rain

    <h4>Chapter 1064: Bullet Rain</h4>


    After dealing with the sniper, Zhang Heng called out to Qiu Ming. The two continued forward and encountered two more waves of ambushes. Although there were quite a number of them, they were not as good as the previous sniper, and in the end, they did not encounter any danger. As for therger group of enemies, Feng Zi had dealt with them in advance with the Type-VI Hunting Robot.


    Ten minutester, the two arrived outside the signal tower and met up with the robot again. Just as they were about to attack the east gate of the signal tower, the ss door opened automatically on both sides.


    Director Zheng, already changed into hisbat uniform, walked out. When he saw Zhang Heng, he bowed politely before asking, ��Is there something wrong with our previous deal?��


    ��No, the deal went quite smoothly this time,�� Zhang Heng replied.


    ��Are there any areas that we fared poorly during the transaction that might have offended you?��


    ��No, I��m very grateful to Miss F for her timely assistance. I received a good amount of shec records from you, and in addition, received Mr. G��spensation of three million dors.��


    Manager Zheng nodded and continued, ��Then I don��t understand. We��ve clearly shown enough sincerity from the beginning to the end. You��ve fulfilled every request and didn��t do anything wrong. Why did you turn around and start a massacre and chase us all the way here?��


    ��Because I thought about everything that happened after I came here, and I suddenly understood a principle.��


    ��What��s that?��


    ��My biggest weakness is that I��m too reasonable,�� Zhang Heng said calmly. ��So this time, I��m not going to be reasonable. My deal with Mr. G has beenpleted. What��s going to happen next is just a personal grudge.��


    ��Do you really realize what you��re doing? If you insist on stepping through this door today, what will happen next will far exceed your personal grudge between Mr. G. Miss F is your friend, isn��t she? Aren��t you afraid of hurting her heart? And Miss Xia Fengzi... even though she has chosen to stand on your side, from what I know, she has been enjoying herself these past few days. She has made many friends too. Other than that, many more people you don��t know look forward to living in the New World. Some of them have already sacrificed their lives, while others are still fighting for their ideals somewhere. Do you want to be their enemy too?��


    ��It doesn��t matter. I��m just a passerby anyway. I don��t have time to earn any reputation,�� Zhang Heng said.


    Supervisor Zheng didn��t know what he meant, but he saw Zhang Heng reach out his right hand to grab the knife��s hilt. Thetter was using his actions to express his position.


    ��That��s really regrettable,�� supervisor Zheng sighed, but then his temperament changed. He was no longer as polite as before, and his gaze turned extremely cold. ��Since you��re not giving any room to be reasonable, we won��t be polite to you anymore.��


    With that, he snapped his fingers. In the next moment, Every spot that could hide a man in the signal tower��s hall popped out with guns. At least 50 guns simultaneously before finally converging into a me and shattering the ss curtain wall.


    Swarms of bullets rained with a fury toward Zhang Heng and Qiu Ming. There was no cover where the two of them were standing, but there was no panic on their faces. They immediately jumped onto the Type-VI��s back and used its massive body almost twice the size of an ordinary person to block the rain of bullets.


    Meanwhile, Feng Zi controlled the Type-VI, raising the heavy machine gun in its left hand before firing wildly at the hall.


    This time, she wasn��t in the mood to show any mercy. The main reason for that was that there were simply too many enemies. Some people even carried rocketunchers��the grenades that were fired exploded on the robot��s body, causing it to continuously retreat. Able to withstand the onught of such overwhelming firepower, the Type-VI was indeed worthy of being Shengtang-Morgan��s top-notch piece of tech. Moreover, once the heavy machine gun began to exert its power, the enemy would immediately be turned upside down.


    A 14.5 mm machine gun bullet could easily punch through a steel te, not to mention an ordinary bulletproof vest. Faced with the destructive power of a bullet of such arge caliber, the bulletproof vest on the enemy��s body was renderedpletely useless. Being hit basically meant certain death.


    On the other side, Zhang Heng and Qiu Ming took advantage of the retreating robot to roll into a flower bed at the side. Zhang Heng took out his sniper rifle from his back and started firing back. Although he didn��t fire that frequently, a target would fall every time his finger touched the trigger. It was as precise as the call of death.


    Furthermore, Zhang Heng chose enemies with heavy weapons such as rocketunchers and heavy machine guns to attack first. In addition to the Type-VI that was on a killing spree, the enemy��s firepower quickly weakened. It was then that Qiu Ming could stick his head out and start shooting.


    However, after Zhang Heng had dealt with the most threatening targets, he turned around and realized that director Zheng had disappeared. Zhang Heng frowned. Director Zheng��s attack seemed to be quite fierce, but for Zhang Heng, who had the Type-VI robots to kill, it was actually not much of a threat.


    On the contrary, more than half the men he ambushed had died in the short span of two minutes. Although the remaining men were still fearless and did not back down, it was only a matter of time before they were eliminated.


    As someone who had personally fought the Type-VI and had just blown up one of them, Mr. G shouldn��t have made such a mistake unless he had other ns from the very beginning.


    .....


    In the revolving restaurant on the middle floor of the signal tower, the projection screen was broadcasting the battle situation below. However, the person in charge was not Mr. G, but Hei, who had driven Zhang Heng��s car before. He saw that his side had suffered heavy casualties, he was redirecting manpower from various ces to continue the battle below.


    However, the situation was still not optimistic. The Type-VI wasn��t something ordinary people could stop. Previously, they had used arge amount of explosives to kill one, but since they were below the signal tower this time, they naturally could not use explosives. Fortunately, after killing over a hundred people, the heavy machine gun on the Type-VI finally ran out of bullets. There was still the huge sword in his right hand, though, making him invincible among the crowd.


    ck��s forehead was covered in sweat. Obviously, he was under a lot of pressure after losing so many people. However, he still had a trump card in his hand. Previously, a team and a half of exoskeleton warriors had directly descended from the second level. Hence, Mr. G had also given him their assignments. Now, he had used up all his bullets to kill the Type-VI. Whether or not he could really block that crazy robot would now be up to these exoskeleton warriors.

 Chapter 1065 - Kitchenware and Weapons

    <h4>Chapter 1065: Kitchenware and Weapons</h4>


    Seeing on the screen that the Type-VI was out of bullets, ck turned to look at the special ops team repairing itself.


    Not long ago, they finished a fierce battle on the fifth floor and had lost half of their men. Every Special Ops team member was more or less wounded, and in the end, rested for less than 20 minutes before entering the heat of battle again.


    They did notin, though, nor did they have any expression on their faces. The team leader nodded at ck and led his team members to the elevator.


    However, just as they were about to board, a voice came from behind.


    ��Wait.��


    Miss F stood up from the sofa. ��I��ll go with you.��


    ck was a little surprised. ��Aren��t you and Zhang Heng friends? Mr. G has informed me that you can stay out of this.��


    ��If he thinks that I��m someone who puts personal feelings above the organization��s survival, then he doesn��t know me that well yet,�� Miss F said calmly. ��Besides, your special ops might be able to stop that robot, but they won��t be able to stop Zhang Heng. You need me.��


    After a pause, she added, ��Also, never do anything like this again. If Mr. G wants me to take action, just give me an order. There��s no need to use a dead person to provoke me.��


    ��...��


    This time, ck��s back was drenched in cold sweat. He opened his mouth to say something, but at that moment, Miss F and the Special Ops team were already in the elevator.


    The battle below was nearing its end. Zhang Heng and Qiu Ming had already dealt with two waves of reinforcements, while Feng Zi��s Type-VI finally charged into the hall.


    Zhang Heng, on the other hand, suddenly stopped in his tracks. He looked up and saw more than a dozen figures descending from the steel frame outside the signal tower. As theynded, they released the steel cables around their waists.


    They wore the exact attire as the two exoskeleton warriors Zhang Heng had met in the hotel corridor. Each of them was the military��stest generation exoskeleton equipment, and their movements were well-coordinated.


    However, after the groupnded, theypletely ignored Zhang Heng. Most of them were focused on the Type-VI Hunting Robot in the lobby. Only one of them was focused on Qiu Ming, who was on the other side.


    Zhang Heng did not move either because his gaze waspletely focused on the other figure above him��Miss F.


    She didn��tnd on the ground with the others. Still standing on the steel frame, she held the steel beam beside her with one hand and her alloy sword with the other. Her figure was blurred by the smoke.


    Like Zhang Heng, she didn��t pay attention to the battle elsewhere. Her eyes were fixed on him.


    The two of them stared at each other for about two seconds.


    Then, Zhang Heng saw Miss F switch the alloy sword to her normal hand. After doing that, she took a step forward and fell from the steel frame!


    There was no steel cable around her waist like the members of the special forces. In fact, she didn��t have anything on her other than a sword. She simply jumped straight down from the steel frame.


    Her body continued to elerate under the force of gravity. Other than one mechanical prosthetic limb, her other organs were still that of an ordinary human. She would definitely die if she jumped down like that.


    However, there was no fear on Miss F��s face. Seeing that she was only 20 meters away from hitting the ground, she started to move, using her mechanical prosthetic limb to hold the outermost steel pir.


    The next moment, sparks flew everywhere where her palm made contact with the steel pir.


    However, at the same time, Miss F��s did slow down. In the end, she bent her knees slightly to remove the remaining strength and finally stood before Zhang Heng safe and sound.


    It had been less than two hours since thest time the two of them met.


    At that time, Zhang Heng and Miss F were still working together to deal with a Type-VI that had gone beserk, but now, the two of them had be enemies.


    Miss F looked at Zhang Heng with aplicated gaze, but she quickly regained herposure. She did not ask Zhang Heng why he was here, nor did she ask him for an exnation. Instead, she only said three words, ��Draw your knife.��


    However, she did not expect Zhang Heng to shake his head. ��This knife is not meant to be used against friends.��


    After saying that, Zhang Heng inserted the Hidden Scabbard into the empty space beside his feet and said to Miss F, ��Wait a moment.��


    Miss F frowned, but she did not say anything. She just stood there and watched Zhang Heng walk into a restaurant that was already closed. Three minutester, Zhang Heng walked out again with a full bag of knives of different shapes.


    ��This is a kitchen utensil, not a weapon,�� Miss F reminded a certain someone.


    ��To me, this is a weapon,�� Zhang Heng replied.


    ��I have a tungsten steel alloy sword. It��s incredibly hard, and it��s not something an ordinary weapon can withstand, not to mention the knives in your hands.��


    ��I know. That��s why I took such a big bag.��


    Zhang Heng wrapped the knives in cloth and hung them on both sides of his body. He first picked out two boning knives from inside and held them in his hands. Then, he gestured for Miss F toe over.


    Thetter did not waste any more time, switching the tungsten steel sword back to the mechanical prosthesis. Then, her body started to move, and she shed at Zhang Heng��s right arm.


    Like her people, Miss F��s swordsmanship was not fancy. It was purely a demonstration of speed. With the help of modern technology, her movements had already exceeded the limits of the human body. From drawing the sword to swinging it, it only took 0.1 seconds, where the whole set of movements waspleted in one go.


    An ordinary person facing her attack might not even have time to blink before being hit by the sword.


    However, this time, her opponent was Zhang Heng. With a ding, Zhang Heng used the boning knife in his hand to block Miss F��s lightning-fast sword.


    Then, Zhang Heng��s body moved. The other boning knife drew a strange arc in his hand and stabbed towards Miss F��s throat. However, thetter had already retracted her tungsten sword, and the two swords shed again!


    After a short pause, it was time for an even fiercer attack!!!


    Miss F��s tungsten sword had already turned into a ball of green light, and the nging had also be denser. Finally, after blocking the attack about four times, the boning knife in Zhang Heng��s left hand let out a mournful cry, and itpletely broke. The boning knife in his right hand followed closely behind, he followed in the footsteps of hispanion, but Zhang Heng was still unflustered. As he retreated, he reached into the bag and pulled out two more cooking knives to meet Miss F��s sword once more.

 Chapter 1066 - No Room For Negotiation

    <h4>Chapter 1066: No Room For Negotiation</h4>


    In the battle between Zhang Heng and Miss F, the person who felt the most heartache was probably the owner of the Western restaurant next door.


    This was because all his kitchen knives had practically been used by Zhang Heng, leaving behind an astounding trail of damage. In just two minutes, Zhang Heng had already used more than a dozen knives.


    Even though he had lots of knives with him, he couldn��t withstand such a rate of scrappage.


    This also proved Miss F was not holding back. She had, after all, taken out a Type-VI Hunting Robot on her own before, though she was out of ammunition and the battle had notsted long.


    But at least for that half a minute, Miss F still showed her strength.


    This was especially true for her mechanical prosthesis, a contraption made of obviously the most advanced technology. The exoskeleton warriors that Zhang Heng had fought before also used equipment to increase their strength and speed but paled inparison to Miss F��s overpowering mechanical prosthetic.


    That said, Miss F wasn��t someone who relied solely on her attributes to overpower others. She had clearly put in a lot of effort in her knife skills��although her moves seemed very rudimentary, it was only because her fighting style looked like that. In actualbat, Zhang Heng realized that her prediction and reflexes were quite outstanding.


    These were not qualities a mechanical prosthesis could bestow upon her. They could onlye from the hard work she had put in the day after tomorrow. She had gone from being the most popr female live streamer on the inte to her current strength. How much sweat she had put in during this period��only she could��ve known how many setbacks she must��ve encountered.


    After the other three virtues saber in Zhang Heng��s hand was cut off, there were only three sabers left on Zhang Heng��s body.


    However, Miss F suddenly stopped what she was doing and said, ��I can give you onest chance to pick up your own knife.��


    To her surprise, Zhang Heng shook his head. ��Thank you for your kindness, but I said that the knife is too dangerous and is not used to deal with friends.��


    ��But I��ll never consider you a friend anymore.�� Miss F��s eyes turned cold. ��Our n is about to seed. Presently, I can��t let Mr. G die in your hands no matter what.��


    ��I know what you��re doing,�� Zhang Heng said as he took out a small knife from his bag, ��You used this riot to attract Shengtang Morgan��s armed forces and then kidnapped the management team. You n to encode their memories so that they can help you realize the future you want. This is a brilliant move, and it won��t attract the attention of Shengtang headquarters.��


    ��This is also the only way to give clones the same rights and benefits as ordinary people,�� Miss F rebuked. ��So, you should know how important this matter is to me, in New Shanghai 0297, at least.��


    ��I understand,�� Zhang Heng nodded.


    ��We need Mr. G, not only because he has led us all the way here, but also because we still need his leadership after this. Even if management relents and is willing to grant the clones the same rights as ordinary New Shanghai 0297 people, this will not go smoothly. The people here are already used to the clones�� existence and treating them as objects that can be arbitrarily altered, rather than residents that share an equal rtionship. It will not be easy to change their views, and this will be a very long process.


    ��Yes, but Your New World deserves a better leader.��


    ��Who, you?�� For the first time, Miss F looked at Zhang Heng with a hint of disappointment.


    Zhang Heng bothered to exin nothing. He simply said, ��Your strength is not bad, but you��re still a littlecking if you want to stop me.��


    ��Is that so? Then let me see your true strength,�� grunted Miss F as she tightened her grip on the tungsten sword.


    The two closed the distance again. Miss F focused her attention like before and swung the tungsten sword. This time around, after paying the price of more than a dozen des, Zhang Heng did not receive the sword head-on. Having had basically figured out Miss F��sbat habits, he dodged the sword, then quickly took a big step forward to dash in front of Miss F.


    While Zhang Heng was studying her, Miss F was also trying to figure out Zhang Heng��sbat style. Thetter��s knife skills were flexible. Even though nowhere as rapid as her mechanical prosthetic limbs, Zhang Heng was always able to rely on his excellent foresight and the initiative to reduce the range of his defense to block her attacks.


    Zhang Heng��s main defense area was about a foot in front of him. Because there was enough space for him to defend, his des would need to travel a shorter distance. To a certain extent, it made up for his disadvantage in terms of speed, and although the situation sometimes looked dangerous, he always turned the situation around.


    However, after fighting for so long, Miss F had a rough idea of Zhang Heng��s speed and strength. She didn��t know if she was imagining things, but when the two of them fought again, miss F was surprised to find that Zhang Heng��s speed was much higher than before.


    Miss F��s first reaction was that Zhang Heng had hidden his strength, but she quickly realized the real reason. Therge bag of knives that Zhang Heng had tied around his waist was also quite heavy.


    However, as the battle continued, more and more broken knives were thrown away by Zhang Heng, and the number of knives in the bag decreased. The weight on his body naturally became lighter, so his movement speed became faster.


    The next moment, the distance between Zhang Heng and Miss F was less than half a meter. At this time, the shorter knife in Zhang Heng��s hand finally began to show its true power.


    On Miss F��s side, because she had misjudged Zhang Heng��s speed, she did not have time to react. By the time she realized what had happened, Zhang Heng was already close to her. Even though Miss F did not panic at all, she immediately withdrew the tungsten sword in her hand in an attempt to force Zhang Heng to retreat again. However, A hair��s breadth had already separated the two.


    Other than speed, what surprised Miss F more was that Zhang Heng��s fighting style had changed. No longer was he agile, and his moves were bing more and more mysterious.


    In Miss F��s opinion, this was almost impossible. The formation of a fighting style wasn��t something that happened overnight. Everyone had their own fighting style that they were more familiar with and proficient in, and save for Zhang Heng, who had yed in various training halls in the capital, probably no one else could so freely swapbat styles.


    Although Miss F was already trying her best to salvage the situation, making a mistake would be inevitable in the face of this huge contrast. When her next sword was taken by Zhang Heng, she knew that things were not going well. Sure enough, the knife in Zhang Heng��s left hand was already aimed at her heart.


    At thest moment, Miss F had no choice but to drop the tungsten steel sword in her hand and reluctantly put her mechanical prosthesis back in front of her chest. However, the next moment, the knife in Zhang Heng��s hand suddenly disappeared��Miss F felt a heavy blow to her head. Her vision darkened, and everything around her became ck.

 Chapter 1067 - Memory Coding Room

    <h4>Chapter 1067: Memory Coding Room</h4>


    On the projection screen, ck witnessed the entire battle between Miss F and Zhang Heng. Even though he wasn��t sure what transversed between the two, he could tell that Miss F hadn��t held back.


    However, the final result was still a loss to Zhang Heng. Furthermore, it was under the circumstances where the weapon had the upper hand. After that, ck saw Zhang Heng pull out the Hidden Scabbard from the ground and walk towards the hall.


    Over there, the Type-VI Hunting Robot controlled by Feng Zi was engaged in a bitter skirmish. Though the 15 exoskeleton warriors of the enemy were no match for the Type-VI Hunting Robot in a one-on-one fight, their speed and strength were still above that of ordinary people. The exoskeletons they wore also provided them with decent defense, and with their outstanding coordination, they were finally able to suppress the Type-VI before them.


    However, the Type-VI��s terrifying self-healing ability gave them a headache too. Without using explosives,pletely eliminating this enemy in front of them would prove a daunting task. Fortunately, they came prepared for this��alloy chains.


    Under the circumstances where they could not destroy the Type-VI, the Special Ops team would take the second-best option. They chose to use the chains to restrict the movements of the target. Of course, it was not easy to do this, especially considering that the Type-VI had eight legs and was very flexible. However, after the team��s tireless efforts, all but three legs of the Type-VI had been chained.


    A Special Ops team member sneaked to the back of the robot and was about to put a chain on his fourth leg when something cut his waist. He did not expect to be targeted first but finally realized that he had been attacked.


    However, when he determined that the enemy��s weapon was only a knife, he rxed again.


    From what he knew, the defense of the exoskeleton equipment wasn��t as good as the Type-VI robot, but it wasn��t something a cold weapon could break. He probably wouldn��t have thought so if he had watched the previous battle between Zhang Heng and the Type-VI.


    He quickly paid the price for his carelessness.


    After being attacked, he hesitated for a moment before deciding to stick to his original n. After binding one of the Type-Vi��s legs with the chain, he wanted to turn around and deal with the attacker behind him, but he realized that he had lost control of his exoskeleton��he waspletely unable to move.


    It was only then that he realized that his control center had been destroyed.


    Zhang Heng did not stand on ceremony. Facing his immobile opponent, he stabbed the Hidden Scabbard into his stunned eye. After pulling out the bloody de, Zhang Heng started to search for his next prey.


    .....


    ck watched the members of the Special Ops team fall one by one. With Zhang Heng sharing the burden, the previously suppressed Type-VI robot finally regained its energy. A new lease of life invigorated ck. More and more cold sweat broke out on his forehead. Then, before he coulde up with a solution, the projection screen in front of him turned ck.


    This was because the camera set up below had been found and destroyed by Zhang Heng. This time, ckpletely lost control of the situation. Not caring anymore about Mr. G��s instructions that he was not to be disturbed, he hurriedly ran to the elevator at the side. Because he was too nervous, he even pressed the down when he was supposed to go up. Then, he quickly canceled the press again.


    As early as two months ago, Mr. G hadpleted the transformation of the signal tower. He used the top floor to build the memory coding room, but memory coding was veryplicated and focused work. Mr. G had set strict rules that no one else was allowed to enter the memory coding room on the top floor without permission.


    Therefore, ck was also very nervous on the way up. He knew that he had technically disobeyed Mr. G��s orders, but he had no choice but toe because he was afraid that he would be a littlete due to the current situation. The people standing outside the door were Zhang Heng and his Type-VI robot.


    ck trotted out of the elevator and ran all the way to a metal door at the end of the corridor. Then, he pressed the doorbell in a panic. About half a minuteter, Mr. G��s face appeared on the security screen. ��Didn��t I tell you to lead the battle? Don��t disturb me,�� he growled and frowned.


    ��I��m afraid you have to know this,�� ck said anxiously. ��I followed your n, and Miss F finally agreed to take action. However, she and the Special Ops team were unable to stop Zhang Heng and the robot... The rest of them won��t be able to hold out much longer. Perhaps in a few minutes, the enemy will arrive.��


    There was no expression on Mr. G��s face. ��Is that all you have to say?��


    ck was a little dumbfounded. He didn��t know what Mr. G meant. Zhang Heng was about to attack, and his first target was Mr. G, but when thetter received the news, he still seemed a little impatient. He seemed to think that ck was making too much of a fuss over such a trivial matter.


    ��I understand.�� Mr. G saw through Hei��s confusion and added, ��You can continue with your work.��


    ��Err... but I don��t seem to have anything else to do now.��


    ck was both ashamed and afraid. The people Mr. G had entrusted him had all been killed. To make matters worse, in the end, they couldn��t stop Zhang Heng. Besides, he didn��t know what else he could do other than wait for his death.


    Behind the door, Mr. G seemed to ponder for half a second before saying, ��Forget it, you cane in.��


    After he said that, the metal door of the memory encoding room opened. ck took two steps back to make room for the door to open, and he walked in.


    This was the first time he had walked into a room Mr. G ssified as top secret.


    However, as soon as he entered the room, he was shocked by the scene before him. He even temporarily forgot about the fear that Zhang Heng was going to attack him.


    He saw arge hall surrounded by countless screens, bothrge and small. Each yed a video��its main character: a middle-aged man in a suit was yed on one screen, while on the left-hand screens, he was sitting at a dining table and eating a steak. Then, on another side, he was having a meeting in a conference room.


    ck even saw a strange-looking base in a valley. It looked like a giant ship sailing in the wind. Countless ovepping sounds could be heard in the room��the honking of cars, the rustling of paper, chewing gum, and the sound of news broadcasts��all gathering to the point they were going to drown him out.

 Chapter 1068 - Half For Each

    <h4>Chapter 1068: Half For Each</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    ��Are all of these a person��s memories?��


    ck was stunned for half a minute before he asked.


    ��All of his memory? No, this is only a small part of it,�� Mr. G said. ��What you see is less than a week��s worth at most. It��s not easy to find the particr memory we need to modify. We need to constantly fish in the sea of memories. Most ordinary people do not have any patterns in their memory storage. Moreover, sometimes we have to distinguish between the target��s imagination and reality.��


    As Mr. G spoke, he pointed to a screen. There, Mr. G was kneeling at the feet of the middle-aged man, begging for thetter��s forgiveness with tears in his eyes. ��See? This is his imagination. He��s probably dreaming about this day. Unfortunately, he��s now lying in my memory coding room.��


    ck also noticed the five people lying on the ground nearby. He initially thought they were all corpses but realized that they were merely unconscious when he walked in.


    In addition, on the screen was a single bed was in the middle of the room, where on ity the middle-aged man. He was wearing a somewhat ridiculous helmet that almost covered his entire face. At the same time, a tube had been inserted at the back, connecting all the way to a peculiar oval-shaped six-meter in diameter machine.


    There were four people in blue uniforms sitting around the machine. All four of them were wearing the same funny helmets.


    ck had heard of memory coding before, but this was the first time he witnessed the process. Needless to say, the four people in blue uniforms were the staff responsible for memory coding.


    Just as ck wanted to observe the machine more carefully, an electronic synthesizer buzzed.


    ��R9041. Memory. Re-search... Keywords: board of directors, artificial reproduction n.��


    As a core member of Mr. G��s organization, ck knew more about his n than anyone else. He knew that to sessfully realize New Shanghai 0297��s uprising, he still needed to solve the problem from Shengtang Morgan��s headquarters. It was also why Mr. G went to so much trouble to kidnap the management here.


    Through memory coding, branch management could be on their side from now, finding a reasonable excuse for the change of New Shanghai 0297 to deal with the board of directors at the headquarters. But he didn��t know what the artificial reproduction n thing meant.


    A secondter, he noticed that the screens around him suddenly turned ck, but after about five seconds, they lit up again.


    This time, the scene before ck became a little difficult to understand. Everyone was looking for job opportunities in a city with an exploding poption and extreme division of wealth, asking where the new city was built. In order to get a job, they were willing to ept memory coding. Shengtang Morgan��s financial report, where the middle-aged man was, had been increasing year after year, repeatedly hitting a new high.


    The management team was celebrating thepletion of the new project��New Shanghai 0297. Shengtang Morgan had touted this as a paradise, a ce eager applicants could get multiple job opportunities. Not only would they be able to reside in this New Shanghai 0297, but if lucky, could reach the third or fourth floor, directly living the life of an elite. Throngs rushed to sign up, racking their brains to enter New Shanghai 0297. Meanwhile, the middle-aged man had also been sent here to work.


    ��This is also his imagination, right?�� ck couldn��t fully fathom the content of the images, but he still felt a chill as if grasping at a life-saving straw. He could not wait to ask.


    However, the few words Mr. G uttered next were like a hammer hitting his chest. ��No, this is reality. What you are desperately trying to overthrow is exactly what the people outside are extremely envious of.��


    ��How is this possible?�� ck found it hard to understand. ��Wait, have you already known about these things?��


    ��That��s right,�� Mr. G admitted bluntly. ��I know New Shanghai 0297 is just a city made of lies.��


    ��Why then, are you still leading us to resist that unfairness?��


    ��I used to be like you, a member of this city. I yed my role conscientiously in the day-to-day cycle until someone above me, due to some kind of prank, woke me up from this long nightmare, allowing me to see the real way the world worked. However, at that time, I didn��t have the ability to change everything. In order to let the current me live, I came to an agreement with Shengtang Morgan to y the role of Mr. G here and manage order for them. But now that I��ve seen the real world, I can��t stay in this false paradise forever.��


    Mr. G shook his head. ��What you��re pursuing is still too small. Of course, it��s not your fault because you can only see what��s in front of you. But I, I have a bigger blueprint. New Shanghai 0297 is just my starting point. Since they can use memory coding to control ordinary people to work for them, I can also use it to make them work for me. Not only the management of the New Shanghai 0297 but also the board of directors, the entire Earth Federation... and in the process, I will also need some like-minded partners.��


    ck was still trying to digest the news when he heard thest sentence.


    ��Are you inviting me to be your partner?��


    ��No, he��s talking to me.��


    A voice came from the door.


    ck turned around and realized that Zhang Heng was standing behind him. He was shocked. Previously, he had been so absorbed by the images on the screen that he had forgotten about the battle downstairs. Even though the oue was already set in stone, Zhang Heng��s arrival still surprised him.


    As if knowing what he was thinking, Zhang Heng exined, ��The battle downstairs is not over yet, but since the rest should be able to deal with the Type-VI, I took the liberty toe up.��


    Mr. G nodded. ��I��m very cautious myself in choosing my partners. As the only two people who��ve broken into Shengtang Morgan��s secret base in New Shanghai 0297 since its establishment, you��ve proven your ability to be my partner. Moreover, since you already know the truth about this city, you should also know the meaning of my actions. We don��t need to dwell on past grudges because the real new era still awaits us.��


    ��You have quite the bold idea,�� said Zhang Heng. ��Before this, I only knew that you had other ns, but I didn��t expect you to have such a big goal. You even wanted to use the memory encoder to control all of Shengtang Morgan��s top management.��


    ��The riot this time definitely can��t be hidden. The top management will send people to investigate this matter. At that time, with the help of branch management, we can easily encode their memories and make them listen to us. When they return, we can trick more top management toe here,�� said Mr. G. ��As long as we do it discreetly, we have a good chance of winning. As far as I know, in addition to New Shanghai 0297, there are 15 new cities under Shengtang Morgan management. We can split them 50-50.��

 Chapter 1069 - It’s Getting Late

    <h4>Chapter 1069: It��s Getting Late</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    It could be said that Mr. G��s offer of cooperation sounded very sincere. Even ck couldn��t help but be moved by his gesture.


    He had initially found it difficult to ept Mr. G��s deception. Still, after hearing thetter��s broader picture of the future and looking back at what had happened in New Shanghai 0297, his initial feelings didn��t matter that much anymore.


    New Shanghai 0297 was a city built on lies, and Mr. G had only added one more. If what he saw on the screen was true, then even if they had followed the original n, they would still be living another lie.


    Mr. G had now, however, provided a real way out of this city of lies. Then, after leaving, instead of living like most ordinary people on the screen, he could control his own fate and even the fate of thousands of people. The mere thought of such power was already an exciting prospect.


    This was perhaps why Mr. G wasn��t worried about Zhang Heng from beginning to end. He was simply confident enough that he could convince thetter to join his cause.


    To ck��s surprise, Zhang Heng shook his head.


    ��Sorry. Not interested.��


    ��Why?�� Mr. G was also stunned. ��You��ve been to Shengtang Morgan��s secret base yourself, so you should know the situation. Are you willing to live a lie the rest of your life?��


    ��It doesn��t matter. I won��t be staying here long anyway.�� Zhang Heng Shrugged. ��Speaking of which, I have to thank you. After your unremitting efforts, you provided me with 50 shec records in the shortest time possible. My goal here has been aplished... so whatever happens next is purely my personal preference.��


    ��...��


    Mr. G��s biggest mistake was to treat Zhang Heng as an average person from the beginning. At first, he treated Zhang Heng as one of the thousands of residents who diligently yed their role in the city. After that, he ced Zhang Heng in the same position as himself; hence he really could not think of any reason for Zhang Heng to reject him.


    However, Zhang Heng was different from anyone he had ever met. If New Shanghai 0297 was just a fabricated lie in the eyes of Mr. G and Shengtang Morgan, then in Zhang Heng��s eyes... everything from Shengtang Morgan to the so-called outside world was just a dungeon. Therefore, to him, there was no essential difference between here and the outside world.


    He had obtained 50 shec records from Mr. G and 16 from Old Man Geng. He had already obtained 660 points from this dungeon, enough to advance to the next round of the game. Moreover, if nothing unexpected happened, he could smoothly enter the top 50 and receive the small gift the bartender mentioned.


    Naturally, there was no need for Zhang Heng to risk it and open up a new map. Moreover, even though Mr. G said it was easy, it was, in reality, nowhere near that. In the era of memory coding, the board of directors would not be helpless against such a crisis. Mr. G��s move might work in new Shanghai 0297, but it might not in the face of a higher existence.


    Even if he seeded, it would be useless for Zhang Heng to be assigned to eight new cities. After all, he would still leave when the game time was up.


    Mr. G obviously could not understand Zhang Heng��s obsession with shec records, just as he could not understand how a personcked any thought whatsoever about power. Nevertheless, he still did not give up trying to convince Zhang Heng. Before he could open his mouth again, however, Zhang Heng had already waved his hand to stop him from continuing.


    ��It��s gettingte. After this matter is settled, I still n to take a good look around the city.��


    Zhang Heng held the Hidden Scabbard in his hand and smiled at Mr. G. ��Next, please try not to get hit by me.��


    .....


    Miss F didn��t know how long she had been unconscious. When she opened her eyes again, she found that the signal tower not far away had be a sea of fire. The people below were busy putting out the ze, but since the elevator had been burned to a crisp, they were unable to find any other way to get up, leaving most of them anxious.


    ��You��re awake?��ck saw Miss F open her eyes and said happily.


    The first thing Miss F said after she woke up was, ��Where is he?��


    ��Mr. G is still up there. He did not escape.�� ck thought Miss F was asking about her fianc��, and his eyes dimmed.


    ��I��m not talking about him.�� Miss F paused. ��Wait, you said Mr. G is still up there. Is he dead?��


    ��Although I too hope for a miracle, the possibility of him surviving the fire is indeed close to zero.�� In order to avoid Miss F��s excessive grief, ck tried to put it more tactfully.


    ��Were you there as well? What exactly happened up there?�� Miss F asked.


    ��Everything was going ording to n. Mr. G was almost done coding the management��s memory, but Zhang Heng barged in at that moment. There was a big fight between the two of them. Mr. G told me to take the management and leave first. He blocked Zhang Heng, but when I sent him to a safe ce, this ce... this ce would have turned into a sea of fire.��


    Even though ck��s words were reasonable, Miss F still felt that something was wrong. However, when she looked into ck��s eyes when he spoke, she could not find any signs of him lying. In other words, everything he said was true. At least, he believed that everything he said was true.


    ��Where is Zhang Heng Now?�� Miss F asked again.


    ��I don��t know. I haven��t seen him since I came back. He should have left already, right?�� ck looked a little lost. ��You��ve finally woken up. What should we do now?��


    He didn��t know whether the uprising was a sess or not. They had kidnapped the management team ording to the original n and coded thetter��s memory. Although a sess, their leader, Mr. G, had unfortunately perished in the fire. They had no idea what happened after that.


    ck said to Miss F, ��Everyone is waiting for you to make a decision.��


    ��Wait for me to make a decision?�� Miss F frowned. ��Why? where is Chief Zheng?��


    ��Chief Zheng��s body was just found in the sewer across the street. We suffered heavy losses this time. The rest of the people have already discussed it and hope that you can lead us. Not only is your prestige now at its highest, but you are also Mr. G��s fianc��e. He has been guiding us all this time and has finally given his life for our cause. No one can rece his position in our hearts. Therefore, no one other than you can inherit the legacy he left behind.��


    ck paused for a moment, probably worried that Miss F had just woken up from hera and was still in a daze, so he reminded her again. ��The most important thing now is how to get the police to rescue the management team in a reasonable manner. Also, we need to take revenge for Mr. G. Please issue an open-ended death warrant for Zhang Heng. The initial reward will be set at five million, and it will be increased by one million credits every month. Although we are not his match, New Shanghai 0297 is so vast, in it lurk crouching tigers and hidden dragons. As long as the reward is high enough, there will naturally be people who can deal with him.��


    Miss F fell silent. She had always felt that there was something wrong with him, but she simply couldn��t put her finger on it. Finally, after a long silence, she nodded.


    ��Let��s do it.��

 Chapter 1070 - Bodyguard [ End ]

    <h4>Chapter 1070: Bodyguard [ End ]</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    In a small hotel on the second floor.


    Feng Zi��s wristband vibrated twice. It showed that she had received an email. After seeing the title, she instantly jumped up from the bed, bending to pick up the clothes that had been thrown everywhere.


    The man on the other side also opened his eyes and saw Feng Zi��s back that had not the slightest tripe of fat and the beautiful curves that followed. He, however, couldn��t appreciate it for long. Thetter had already put on her pants and shirt and tidied up her hair.


    ��What time is it now?��


    ��Six o��clock,�� Feng Zi replied as she poured two sses of water��one for himself and the other for the man on the bed.


    ��Why so early?��


    ��On the surface, I��m swamped this morning. I just received a big order, and I have a flower arrangement ss at 10 o��clock.��


    ��Flower arrangement ss? Are you serious?��


    ��What��s wrong? Can��t I learn how to arrange flowers with my wrench hand?��


    ��You know that��s not what I meant.�� The man took the cup. ��By the way, how��s your machine repair shop businessing?��


    ��It��s okay. So-so. Last week, I beat up two shifty-eyed guys that asked us to fix their partner��s robot doll.��


    ��If you don��t want to fix it, then don��t fix it. Why did you have to beat them up?��


    ��Because they thought I was an idiot and couldn��t see that they were actuallying for you,�� Feng Zi sneered. ��They thought I would really treat them like little white rabbits just because I brought apanion doll. Also, the real reason why I had to leave at six in the morning was that I didn��t want to see a few burly bounty hunters rush to my bed again.��


    ��That was an ident... and didn��t I kill them all?�� The man took out the pistol under his pillow and shook it twice. ��I killed all the people who saw you naked, not a single one.��


    ��Heh.��Feng Zi snorted coldly.


    ��What? I remember you loved looking for thrills.��


    ��That was because I could only live ording to the established path, and every day was boring,�� Feng Zi said. ��But now, Shengtang Morgan has announced a series of new regtions, allowing the clones to enjoy the same rights and interests as ordinary people. They havepletely removed the restrictions on the first and fourth floors, raised the minimum wage and basic living security, reduced advertising, and tried to limit the expansion ofrge enterprises and protect the rights and interests of small and medium-sized enterprises... Everyone has found a new direction of life.��


    ��Sounds good,�� the man said.


    ��What about you? Are you really not going to see her before you leave?��


    ��See who?��


    ��Miss F. You know she��s been waiting for you, right?�� Feng Zi said. ��Why are you still unwilling to tell her all the truth and exin what happened on the top floor of the signal tower that day? At first, you said you were worried she��d just taken over Mr. G��s position and was still unstable. You had to put up a bounty to kill you to show your attitude and get the people below to ept her. But now, she��s in a stable enough position, right? Why are you still not going to see her?��


    ��I didn��t tell anyone the truth,�� the man said calmly. ��And I said that since Mr. G kept saying that he wanted to create a new world, I��d help him. Isn��t he doing well now? Everyone who has a new life is remembering him. Now, he can rece Baudrird and be the most popr and respected person in this city. Last week, I went to buy a mug with his face on it.��


    ��...��


    ��You��ll never reach the truth. All you��ll get is a set of carefully designed narratives.�� Feng Zi put on her clothes, but she didn��t leave immediately. Instead, she sat back on the man��s body and wrapped her arms around his neck. ��I was delighted when I slept with you for the first time, but sleeping too much seems to be the same thing. But I��ll probably still miss you after you leave.��


    ��In that case, why don��t you just close the shop today?�� the man asked.


    ��Good idea, but I don��t think you canst that long.�� Feng Zi raised her eyebrows.


    .....


    An hourter, Feng Zi still left the small hotel, and the man was no longer sleepy. He got up, took a shower, made a phone call, and went downstairs for breakfast. He then drove around the city with a trunk full of shec records in the trunk.


    After making a few turns, he drove to Grand Central Station, bought a ticket to the first floor, and checked all the shec records in the trunk.


    Ten minutester, the man walked out of the station.


    He hadn��t been here since he killed Mr. G, the main reason not wanting to cause trouble for himself. After all, Mr. G had always been a totem-like figure on the first floor. He was even more powerful after he died, many young people who idolized him even chose to tattoo his head on their bodies to show their nostalgia and longing for him, he was nowpletely portrayed as a revolutionary pioneer who exuded idealism and humanistic care.


    ��Reality is always more absurd than literary works.��When the man walked to a coffee shop, a voice sounded behind him.


    Qiu Ming, wearing a windbreaker, handed the two cones in his hands to the man opposite him. ��Try it. It��s Mr. G��s 44th birthday special. Unfortunately, the number is not very auspicious.��


    The man took the ice cream, but he did not eat it. Instead, he directly threw it into the trash can at the side.


    ��As expected, you still don��t trust me at all. How heartless. I have already helped you with so many things.�� Qiu Ming smiled bitterly. ��I��ve been keeping an eye on the management team for you, and the people sent by headquarters were also sent by me. I thought you already regarded me as a friend.��


    ��Forget about friends. You��ll be thankful if you don��t cause any trouble after I leave,�� the man said.


    ��I wouldn��t dare! You��re the famous Zhang Heng. Even Mr. G died at your hands. Furthermore, in the next year or so, not a single bounty hunter was able to kill you and receive a bounty. This is the first time I��ve seen someone who can singlehandedly kill a Type-VI robot. If I screwed up, who knows where you��lle from to kill me,�� Qiu Ming said with a shrug. ��Besides, no one gave me amemorative ice cream after my death.��


    ��After I leave, you��ll be the only one who knows the truth behind New Shanghai 0297,�� said Zhang Heng.


    ��That��s not true. There��s also E-Goat and Xu Qian.�� Qiu Ming paused. ��To be honest, I didn��t expect you to make such a choice in the end.��


    ��They have already sacrificed enough and deserve the future they look forward to, regardless if this future is based on lies. As for whether someone will break into the secret base of Shengtang Morgan, it��s none of my business,�� Zhang Heng said. ��Also, remember, you��ll never reach the truth. All you��ll get is a set of meticulously designed narratives.��


    Qiu Ming opened his mouth, a confused expression on his face.


    However, Zhang Heng did not exin further. Instead, he walked into the cafe, followed by Qiu Ming. Zhang Heng picked a table by the window and sat down, just in time to see the movie theater outside.


    A figure wearing a qipao and a mechanical prosthesis on her left arm walked out about twenty minutester. She was talking to the person next to her, but her footsteps suddenly stopped. She seemed to have sensed something and looked up at the coffee shop across the street, only to see a man with a stunned face, staring at the empty seat in front of him with his eyes wide open.

 Chapter 1071 - Lunatic Leaderboard

    <h4>Chapter 1071: Lunatic Leaderboard</h4>


    There were less than 24 hours left before the first round of the Proxy War dungeon officially ended.


    The enthusiasm of the yers was also at an unprecedented high. Some, having nothing better to do, even checked the official website every two minutes to see if there were any changes in the rankings. After that, they took a screenshot and posted it on the forum.


    However, as the deadline was approaching, the rankings, especially those at the top, had gradually stabilized. The first ce was still the guild leader of Arc of Light, February Siege, with 2,892 points. Second ce, however, was surpassed by a yer called Tchaikovsky from the Second Front. Garnering a score of only 65 points lower than February Siege��s, his appearance also broke Arc of Light��s monopoly on the top three.


    However, other than Tchaikovsky��s sudden appearance, there were no other changes to the top ten. Silver Wing��s guild leader, Pegasus, initially ranked tenth, had been pushed out of the top ten. He was ranked eleventh with 2,240 points. Although the rewards for the top 50 were the same, for arge guild like silver wing.., not being able to enter the top ten was a failure in itself. It would bring a series of adverse effects.


    For example, there were already people gloating over Silver Wing��s misfortune on the forums, arguing they had actually fallen behind Arc of Light and Second Front ever since the previous guild leader��s death. Falling into the second tier, it was suggested that Silver Wing be expelled from the big three guilds. However, very soon, a few Silver Wing members hade out and refuted the suggestion. The two sides began to engage in a war of words. The exchange was lively, and gradually, the topic was diverted��they began to turn to the boring question of how many Pegasus�� would be needed to fight February Siege.


    However, it was then that a respawn party suddenly discovered that the top 10 on the leaderboard had been refreshed again. Everyone, including February Siege, had lost one ce. The first ce had now been reced by a yer called Beta.


    This was an earth-shattering moment. After everyone realized that the three major guilds had collectively remained silent on this matter, none made a sound. It could only mean that this yer named Beta did not belong to any guild.


    Independent yer? That strong?!!


    Although the inte did not have any memories, it had only been a short while. Very quickly, someone remembered that this Beta was one of the only two yers who had scored more than 1,000 points in the first proxy war dungeon. There was also another yer named Simon��he had obtained the highest score of 1,475 points in the first battle. Up until now, nobody actually knew how he did it.


    They could onlyment that he must��ve used a cheat.


    But after that, Simon��s score was forever fixed at 1,475 points, and as time passed, more and more believed that he must��ve met with an in-game ident; thus, no one paid attention to him anymore.


    As for Beta, everyone only realized that his ranking had changed a few hours ago, and he had quietly reached 37th ce. Then, half a minute ago, he had jumped to the top of the rankings again.


    Just who was this guy?! And he evenpleted two dungeons back to back without a break?


    The people on the forum could not help but ask about this yer named Beta. Unfortunately, no one could tell his background. In fact, after the first game had ended, when his score exceeded 1,000 points, he attracted the attention of many. Just like his score, he was also famous for his mysteriousness.


    This guy named Beta seemed to have jumped out of a rock. No yer had ever met him in real life or in the game, and naturally, no one could gather any information about him.


    However, just as everyone wasmenting that the first ce in the first round of the proxy war dungeon had actually been taken by some extremely mysterious independent yer, no one expected the top 10 positions on the ranking list to be refreshed once again.


    That mysterious yer named Beta had only stayed in first ce for less than 15 hours before he was reced by another yer.


    At first, everyone thought that the three great guilds hade up with some sort of ultimate move. However, when they saw the name of the yer in fist ce, everyone was stunned. This was because the person who was currently ranked first was actually a familiar ID.


    ��Simon: 3025 points.


    Additionally, due to Beta��s sudden appearance, some bored people had also looked up Simon��s ranking. They could prove that just a few minutes ago, Simon��s score was still stuck at 1475 points in the first round. In other words, this guy who had only yed two proxy war dungeons so far had already bumped his ranking to first ce. Moreover, he was the only yer with more than 3000 points, which was 27 points higher than Beta, in second ce.


    If the onlookers were still amazed by the sudden rise of Beta, they didn��t know what to say about Simon��s sudden appearance.


    ��this TM is a stone hammer, isn��t it?!


    Spokesperson: Merry-go-round


    ��if he really got 1,475 points in the first game, it wouldn��t be surprising if he gets 1,550 points in the second game. More precisely, he couldn��t get such a high score in the second game, which was why the Stone Hammer cheated him.


    Spokesperson: Madrid is incredible


    ��you joking, buddy?! Isn��t this cheating?!!!! Try to f*cking get more than 1,000 points in one match for me to see.


    Spokesperson: Monkey Seeley


    ��just because you can��t do it doesn��t mean that others can��t. Didn��t that guy called Be also get more than 1,000 points in one match? And the President of the Arc of Light, February Siege, also got close to 1,000 points in one match.


    Spokesperson: Madrid is incredible


    ��but isn��t his 3,000 points for two games a little too exaggerated?! Are we really ying the same game?!!!!


    Spokesperson: Xiong Wu spreads his wings


    .....


    As more and more people noticed the long-lost name at the top of the leaderboard, the forum waspletely blown up. The main thing was that this guy named Simon hadpletely exceeded their range ofmon sense. If the 1,400 points in the first game could be exined by chance, then the 1,500 points in the second game had proven that this wasn��t a chance at all.


    However, the problem was that no one knew how he did it. Not to mention that mysterious Beta, even February Siege, was now recognized as a top expert by all the yers. Moreover, the entire Arc of Light guild served him well, where the average score for each of the three rounds did not exceed 1,000 points, especially for those who participated in the game. Everyone knew that the further into the game, the harder it was to earn points. Simon was 500 points ahead of February Siege in every round. This was a little too much.


    Very soon, a post popped up on the forum.


    ��On whether yers can achieve an average of 1,500 points per round�� was bumped up to the most popr spot. There were all kinds of whimsicalments below, but no one coulde up with a convincing n. The reason for that, however, was actually very simple.


    After all, Zhang Heng had stayed in the previous dungeon for 270 days. Even though he did not collect any more shec records in theter stages, because of the previous agreement with the gold diggers, he would continue providing him with shec records. This was especially the case when the dungeon time had been dragged long enough. The number of shec records that he had umted became very substantial. Therefore, when Zhang Heng left the dungeon, he realized that... he had unknowingly returned to the top of the list.

 Chapter 1072 - Instant Noodles and Fruit Juice

    <h4>Chapter 1072: Instant Noodles and Fruit Juice</h4>


    Zhang Heng wasn��t really struggling with the rankings. His goal was to be in the top 50, and unlike other yers, had only yed two proxy war dungeons.


    However, the points from these two games allowed him to return to the top of the leaderboard.


    As soon as Zhang Heng left the lounge on the bar��s second floor, he received several messages. Most of them were congrattory in nature. The first was from ck Swan, and it was full of hints as usual.


    ��I��ve opened a bottle of red wine for you at home, handsome. Would you like to join me for a drink?��


    The second message was from Rabbit.


    ��Hahaha! I really want to see the faces of the people from the besieged city in February. Are you for real? Aren��t you a little too strong? You��ve only yed two games in the first round of the proxy war dungeon, and you��ve already surpassed everyone? Also, do you know the origin of that Beta below you? He looks mighty too. I can��t take it anymore. Just thinking about it makes me happy. Those Arc of Light guys also have this day. I have to order a midnight snack behind my mother��s back. I also have to tell this good news to that guy, Li Bai!��


    Considering the conflict between the Union and Arc of Light, Rabbit was obviously not unhappy without reason. The third message was from D4 of Fortune Building, and only one sentence was written.


    ��Brother, you��re amazing. We have a new batch of props. I��ll send you the introductionster and see if there��s anything you need.��


    Other than that, there was also a message from Shen Xixi��its contents much more spartan, she merely congratted Zhang Heng. In the end, however, she couldn��t help but sigh with emotion. ��It��s one thing to get 3,000 points in the first round, but how did you manage to get a 3.9 GPA at the same time?��


    Zhang Heng scrolled downwards and found a message from Chen Huadong, which surprised him a little. He had thought that Chen Huadong already knew about it, but in the end, the contents only said, ��When youe back tomorrow morning, pass the overpass next to the school and bring me a pancake and fruit... plus a sausage.��


    After that, Zhang Heng pulled up the information list to two days ago, but he still didn��t find any information about Fan Meinan. In addition, she didn��t appear on the list. Even though everyone had entered their ID, countless very bored people had already scoured the list over the past few days.


    Other than extremely mysterious people who didn��t reveal any information like Beta, the rest could already be identified. Fan Meinan, however, wasn��t one of them.


    Considering thetter��s identity as Loki��s agent, there was no reason for her not to participate in this proxy war. There were two possibilities. Either Fan Meinan didn��t make it into the top 500, which seemed a bit impossible. Fan Meinan��s strength might be unknown, but with her superb deception, there was no reason for her to be eliminated in the first round. Furthermore, the one standing behind her was Loki, the foremost evil god in Norse mythology. And thanks to Manway, everyone now knew the names of him and Thor, his brother.


    From this standpoint, this Beta that appeared out of nowhere must very likely be rted to Loki. But if Beta was Fan Meinan, then there was no reason for her to not contact him after the first round of the game.


    Zhang Heng recalled that thest he met Fan Meinan was about two months ago. Since then, she had never contacted him again. Thus, Zhang Heng was more inclined to think that Fan Meinan was in some kind of trouble.


    To put it more urately, Fan Meinan had been in trouble since early that morning. This was also why she had left home and traveled thousands of miles to live alone in this city. Even during the new year, she never returned home.


    Thanks to the influence of the woman in sunsses, Fan Meinan was still on the bounty list of the three major guilds. Thus, she had to be careful in her daily affairs; her whereabouts kept a tight secret. Previously, Zhang Heng had been in contact with her through phone and WeChat. Now that those two channels were unavable, Zhang Heng did not know how to find Fan Meinan for the time being.


    At that moment, Zhang Heng��s phone vibrated again, indicating that he had received a message.


    Unlike the previous messages he received, there was nothing except a location. Zhang Heng looked at the number, but that too was a number he did not recognize.


    However, after seeing the address, Zhang Heng raised his eyebrows as though something crossed his mind.


    .....


    After putting on her clothes, Fan Meinan walked through the dark corridor outside the door. Tiptoeing all the way to the stairs, she tried her best not to disturb those who were sleeping on the side of the corridor. She turned around to make sure that no one had noticed her before she slipped down the stairs with ease.


    After passing through a small garden and parking lot, Fan Meinan saw the back door, which meant she was very close to her destination.


    Knowing she might get spotted, Fan Meinan pulled down the hood of her coat to cover her face. She walked past the security guard on night duty in the on-duty room, turned a corner, and finally saw the lights of the 24-hour convenience store.


    She pushed the door open and walked in.


    It was four in the morning, and there was no one else in the convenience store except for a salesperson. Fan Meinan walked around the shelves, first picking a packet of shrimp and fish-vored instant noodles before grabbing a packet of spicy sticks. After hesitating for half a minute, she sighed and returned the spicy sticks back on the shelves. She changed that with a juice bottle and picked a packet of five-vor fish and tofu along the way before finally heading to the cashier to pay the bill. She also requested the cashier to get her some hot water for the instant noodles.


    Fan Meinan took the instant noodles to the dining corner. While waiting for it to be cooked, she opened the packet of fish and tofu and ate two slices. A few secondster, she opened the lid of the steaming noodles and took a whiff, letting out a satisfied sigh. Feeling thirsty, she tried to open the fruit juice again, not expecting that the bottle wouldn��t open despite twisting the lid.


    Unable to believe her eyes, she brought the fruit juice in front of her and tried again. However, she still failed to open it. At that point, the cashier seemed to have noticed the situation and offered her help.


    ��Miss, do you need help?��


    ��I��m good. I can handle this small problem,�� Fan Meinan grunted almost subconsciously. She wrapped the bottle cap with her clothes and tried a third time. Yet, the bottle cap still did not budge.


    Fan Meinan felt a little awkward at this moment. She realized that she really couldn��t open the bottle. However, she had just rejected the cashier��s help. Thetter had already sat down and was ying with her phone. Now, Fan Meinan was too embarrassed to ask for the cashier��s help again.


    So she could only put the bottle back on the table. After the incident, she suddenly lost her appetite for the noodles in front of her, surrounded by an unprecedented sense of loss and powerlessness.


    She did not expect that she had lost so much strength, to the point she couldn��t open a bottle of juice. If this went on for a week, she wouldn��t even be able to sneak out for a bowl of instant noodles.


    Fan Meinan lowered her head. No one knew what she was thinking.


    But in the next moment, a pair of hands picked up the juice in front of her, twisted the bottle cap open, and ced it back in front of her. ��How long do you n to hide from me?��

 Chapter 1073 - The Test

    <h4>Chapter 1073: The Test</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    Fan Meinan raised her head and was shocked to see Zhang Heng standing in front of her.


    ��Why are you here?!��


    ��I went to your room earlier, but you weren��t there, ��Zhang Heng said. He grabbed a bottle of Coke from the shelf beside him and walked over to the counter to pay. ��I came in from the front door and came out the back door to look for you.��


    ��I��m not asking how you found this convenience store, but how you knew I was here?��


    Zhang Heng didn��t answer the question. He opened the Coke can and took a sip. Then he pulled the chair next to Fan Meinan and sat down. ��How serious is it?�� he asked as he looked into her eyes.


    ��How serious is what?�� Fan Meinan looked a little guilty, ��I just came here for minor surgery. I don��t want everyone to know about it, especially when I think about how I might have to ept your hypocritical greetingster.��


    ��You must have been sick for a long time. The second time we met, I carried you on the run to hide from Zavier. At that time, I realized that you were much lighter than a normal person. This is also why you always wear baggy clothes. Later, to save Han Lu, you tried to telepathically find your sister. You took off your shirt in the bathroom, and I noticed that your body was indeed much smaller than a normal person��s. Also, thest time we met at Mcdonald��s, you didn��t look well. Your condition must have progressed again. You have a band-aid on the back of your hand. You don��t want me to find the needle marks left on the back of your hand, right?��


    Zhang Heng paused for a moment, ��Actually, I should have realized this earlier. I went back to your house with you when you were in Lego. You were clearly different from your sister, and there was nothing wrong with your rtionship with your parents. However, in the real world, you still chose to leave home alone and run to another city thousands of miles away. You didn��t return even during the new year because you didn��t want your parents to see you like this...��


    ��You don��t know anything!�� Fan Meinan interrupted Zhang Heng coldly. ��You came herete at night without sleeping. You sat in front of me, acting like a famous detective Conan, humming in my ear, showing off your observation skills, and peeling at other people��s scars as if everything was under your control! Why can��t you just mind your own business? Aren��t you still participating in that proxy war?��


    ��My score is currently at the top,�� Zhang Heng said calmly.


    ��...��


    ��Then go find something else to do. Go find that rich investor of yours or that cherry blossom girl of yours. They might even be willing to throw a party for you to celebrate your victory. Perhaps, even Shen Xixi can do it too. I think she probably likes a self-righteous guy like you,�� Fan Meinan snapped. ��One of you represents justice, and the other represents arrogance. You two are a perfect match. You can even y that sweet trick of yours and help a girl unscrew the cap. I bet on the surface, she��s calm, but on the inside, she��s happy.��


    ��This isn��t my first time meeting you. I know you can be quite mean sometimes, but today, you��ve broken your own meanness record. Those words really left a deep impression on me.�� Zhang Heng didn��t get angry and took another sip of his Coke. ��But I don��t think I��ve offended you recently.��


    ��Of course not. You��re right, handsome. I��m just a vicious and mean little liar. Unlike a decent person like you, I spend every day figuring out how to trick the next person... So, can you please do me a favor and stop disturbing my work? It wasn��t easy for me to get into this hospital. I��m brewing some kind of shocking conspiracy, and I��m nning to show off my skills. If you want to know what��s happening next, wait to browse the forums like everyone else... waiting to admire my heroism.��


    ��Okay.��


    Zhang Heng��s straightforward answer startled Fan Meinan. However, she waited for half a minute, but the man still showed no sign of getting up, so she pulled a long face.


    ��Interesting. I don��t remember the chairs covered in glue.��


    ��I��ll be leaving soon,�� Zhang Heng said. ��As long as you answer one question honestly. Why didn��t you participate in the first round of the proxy war?�� Zhang Heng nced at his starfish mechanical watch as he spoke, ��You should know that the first round of the game will end in less than 18 hours, right? Did that temperamental boss of yours fire you?��


    ��Hehe. I just realized that you��re really good at pissing people off.�� Fan Meinan was a little distracted by the sudden appearance of a certain someone, so she put down her fork and turned to look at Zhang Heng. ��Sure, if you want to know the reason, I��ll tell you the reason.��


    ��That would be great.��


    ��Loki is different from any other god. If you��ve read Norse mythology, you should know that he has always been a very special existence. As the son of a giant, he has lived with Protoss, but he has never been very sociable and has always been outside the rules. This is also why he has two agents, me and my sister. However, ording to the rules of the organizingmittee, a god can only choose one agent to participate in the proxy war. At first, we didn��t take this rule seriously. We thought that he woulde up with a way for both of us to get in, but when the game started, Loki told us that only one of us could participate in the proxy war.��


    ��Then what will the other person do?�� Zhang Heng asked.


    ��He will be eliminated,�� Fan Meinan exined. ��He said that to be fair, he will give each of us a test. The first person to pass the test will be officially chosen as his agent, and the other person will no longer have anything to do with him from then on. The power he gave us previously will also be taken back.��


    ��So you��re the one who failed the test.��


    ��That��s right.�� Fan Meinan smiled self-deprecatingly. ��Aren��t you curious about what my test was?��


    ��Even if you don��t tell me, I can guess a little. You��re not stupid. I told you toe to me for help if you needed anything, but you never came to me this time. Instead, you deliberately stayed away from me. It seems that your test is most likely rted to me,�� Zhang Heng said. ��I��m just a little curious. Why is Loki suddenly so interested in killing me?��


    ��He��s the god of tricks. He likes to see his target��s ugly behavior when he��s fooled. No one could ever really guess what went on in his mind,�� Fan Meinan said. ��Anyway, this kind of thing doesn��t matter anymore. I lost, and my sister won. It��s that simple.��

 Chapter 1074 - Magic

    <h4>Chapter 1074: Magic</h4>


    It was 4:37 am. There weren��t many cars on the street, and there weren��t many pedestrians. Zhang Heng and Fan Meinan were the only two customers in the convenience store. Meanwhile, the male shop assistant had put on his headphones and was gaming on his mobile.


    The whole city fell silent as if fallen into a deep sleep.


    ��What about your illness?��Zhang Heng finished the coke in his hand and put the empty aluminum can aside. ��You want to be Rocky��s agent because you hope he can cure you, right?��


    ��I have a very rare illness. Back then, just to find out the cause, my parents took me all over the country and spent almost all of my family��s savings. During that time, every time I opened my eyes, I could see my father��s serious face and my mother secretly wiping away tears.��


    ��You always look unhappy (# ��o��). This must be the origin of your WeChat handle, right?�� Zhang Heng thought of something and raised his eyebrows.


    ��That��s right. After the diagnosis, I found out that my illness could not be cured with current medical technology. Furthermore, subsequent treatment would be very high on the expenses. In addition, my brother is still in school, so there are many things for my family to spend money on. I don��t want to be a burden to my family and drag down the people I care about the most. Therefore, I ran away from home with this thought in mind.��


    ��At that time, I had not yete into contact with the world we are in now, so I did not have any extravagant hopes for treatment,�� Fan Meinan said. ��I just wanted to like as far as I could from the city where I could live as freely possible and spend the rest of my days alone in peace. I also bought the ticket casually, so it was purely a coincidence that I came here.


    ��Moreover, I almost ran out of money a few days after I came here, but my luck was not bad. Before myst penny was spent, I happened to find a job in a restaurant that provided food and amodation. I was mainly responsible for the cashier and the invoice. From then on, my life gradually stabilized. Of course, I didn��t have the money to continue the treatment. Sometimes, I would lie in the dormitory and wonder if I would die quietly in a strange city alone or if there was a worse situation. Before that, I would gradually lose the ability to move and be unable to work to support myself.


    ��To prevent getting sent to the hospital for resuscitation and someone contacting my family, I made a decision. If it really came to this, I would end myself first. ��However, making up my mind to die and facing death head-on are twopletely different things. Even if I had prepared everything and imagined the worst-case scenario, I still couldn��tpletely ept the fact that I was going to die.


    ��That feeling was like someone had ced a clock in my body, and a countdown clock was continuously ticking. I knew that it would one day return to zero, but I didn��t know when that would happen. It just kept on ticking away. As time passed, I couldn��t get used to nor ept it. Instead, I became even more afraid. There was a time when I was in a poor mental state, and I couldn��t sleep at night. asionally, I would have nightmares when I fell asleep.


    ��As a result, my working condition during the day became worse. I made a few miscalctions, got verbal warnings from the boss, and even lost my sry. That��s when she found me.��


    ��Your sister who was taken away from you when you were a child? Yes, I remember you saying about the telepathic connection you have had between you since young,�� Zhang Heng said.


    ��That��s right. One day, she came to find me. However, at that time, I didn��t know her identity. I even thought that my illness had affected my brain and that I was hallucinating. She walked into the restaurant where I worked and booked thergest private room for herself. Then, she ordered every single dish on the menu. The boss was rmed and suspected that she was here to cause trouble. However, she immediately took out her credit card and paid for all the meals in advance.


    ��The boss immediately put on a different expression and urged the kitchen to cook for her. She even pushed back the dishes for the other guests. Then, she went up to her and asked if she had any additional instructions. In the end, she pointed at me and asked me to eat with her. I wanted to say that I was just a cashier, but the boss quickly pushed me into her private room. After everyone left, she told me that she would perform a magic trick for me next.


    ��I asked her what the trick was, but she didn��t want to continue. She just gave me an address and told me to go there after work. She also told me that she knew that I was already on Death��s list and that once I was on that list, I wouldn��t be able toe down again, but she also said that there was a great existence in the world that could fool everyone, even death. After saying that, she didn��t answer any of my questions. She only told me that we had about 20 minutes to eat.


    ��After 20 minutes, she used the excuse of going to the bathroom and never came back. After another 10 minutes, the boss realized that something was wrong. He searched the entire restaurant but couldn��t find her. After that, the boss realized that the money he had received for the meal was also missing. He was outraged and immediately called the police. I also went to make a statement, but I hid the address that she gave me.��


    ��Did you see him after that?��


    ��Who? My sister?��


    ��No, I��m talking about Loki.��


    ��I don��t know. ording to Norse mythology, he can transform into anything. I��ve never seen his true face. The day we first met, I saw a Scottish fold. It didn��t speak, mainly because my sister spoke. After that, it gave me a contract for a trial period and a night to think it over. ��But considering my situation at the time, I didn��t have much room to think. As long as there was a way to cheat death, no matter how slim the chance was, I had to try. So I epted the contract and became his agent like my sister. But now, I��ve ruined everything.��


    Fan Meinan drank a mouthful of juice and looked out the window at the street. A little ck cat had just entered the green belt, ��Actually, I knew from the beginning that I wouldn��t be a match for my sister. She��s more like Loki. She��s as cunning and cold as he is, and she can manipte her target without realizing it. Loki will undoubtedly admire her more. After bing Loki��s agent, she did a lot of big things, especially during the auction. She fooled the three major guilds and the Chamber of Commerce that participated in the auction.


    ��Inparison, everything I��ve done can only be considered a small matter. I��ve also taken a lot of me for some unknown reason. So, this time, I can be considered to have lost wholeheartedly. There��s nothing toin about. ��You don��t have to feel guilty or touched. Even if I had made up my mind to grit my teeth and kill you, I probably wouldn��t have been a match for you. Moreover, my sister��s side might have alreadypleted the test long ago. Now that I think about it, I don��t have much of a chance of winning from the start.��

 Chapter 1075 - Sky-High Transaction Price

    <h4>Chapter 1075: Sky-High Transaction Price</h4>


    Zhang Heng quietly listened to Fan Meinan��s story and made noments. Instead, he asked, ��How much time do you have left?��


    ��What do you mean? My condition? It��s deteriorated to stage four about two months ago. If I��m fast, it��ll only be two to three months. Optimistically, I probably still have another six months,�� Fan Meinan said. ��Why? Do you still want toe to my funeral?��


    ��I��ve been busy with some things recently, so I don��t think I��ll be able to find the time.�� Zhang Heng threw the empty Coke can into the trash can and pulled out his phone. He typed something on it, and as soon as the first email was sent out, he wrote a second one.


    Fan Meinan was stunned for a moment, but he quickly continued, ��Then forget it. Initially, I wanted to ask you to help me take care of some of my belongings. I also prepared a few game props as payment, but I don��t think you��ll like them. After all, you��re already at the top of the list for the proxy war, so I��ll go find someone else.��


    ��Besides me, do you have any other friends here?�� Zhang Heng asked.


    ��...��


    ��I can post a reward on the forum.��


    ��Then, when the person you hired saw your current state, they probably snatched your props away.�� Zhang Heng didn��t raise his head. ��Why don��t you push back time and wait til I��m free to die?��


    ��Do you think I don��t want to live?�� Fan Meinan mmed the stic fork in her hand. ��But I��ve already been abandoned by Loki. I��ve lost all my abilities. I can��t use sticine to make anything, and I can��t participate in this proxy war because the organizingmittee has banned me from even entering normal dungeons. How can you, the number one person on the list, possibly understand me?!!��


    ��I��m no longer a person from your world. Other than the few items left, I��m no different from a normal person. Even the money I spent on the hospital was scammed from the past, and I��m almost out of it. Just like Cindere, once the clock strikes twelve, my crystal shoes, pumpkin carriage, and prom dress will all disappear. I��ll return to the normal girl who sleeps in the restaurant dormitory and can only watch as death slowly creeps up on me.��


    ��I don��t think all of your things have disappeared,�� Zhang Heng said. ��Don��t you still have me? Since supernatural powers do really exist, there must be a cure for your illness.��


    ��Do you think I haven��t thought of that? ��I��ve contacted hundreds of chambers ofmerces, but they don��t have the items I need. It��s the same at the auction. On the first day of the game forum, I posted a request for items in the tool trading zone, but until now, no one has contacted me.��


    ��Have you ever considered that you didn��t offer them enough chips? Also, your ID doesn��t have any credibility. If such items really do exist, they must be very valuable. Most people would keep them for themselves. No one knows when they, or their important family and friends will need them. Even if they were to sell them, they wouldn��t contact a stranger on the forum.�� Zhang Heng checked the items he had written, then pressed the send button.


    ��That��s not important anymore. I can��t afford the this thing anyway,�� Fan Meinan sighed. ��My disguise is no longer effective.��


    ��Good news. It turns out I can.�� The moment Zhang Heng said that, his phone lit up, indicating he had received an email. The sender was D4, and there was only one sentence in it.


    ��Is this true?!!!!


    The five exmation marks behind it fully disyed the shock in his heart. Zhang Heng replied,


    ��That��s right. Send it ording to this.


    Then, D4 replied almost instantly.


    ��No problem. ording to the request, if had someone else entrusted us, we would have to check the goods first. We, however, can fully trust Mr. Simon��s words. You just have toe to our headquarters in two weeks. Tthis is also a wonderful advertising opportunity for us.


    ��Thank you for the great effort.


    After Zhang Heng sent the message, he put away his phone and turned to Fan Neinan.


    ��Let��s go.��


    ��Where are we going?�� Fan Meinan appeared a little lost.


    ��To talk to your former employer,�� replied Zhang Heng calmly.


    ....


    At the same time, the yers forums on the other side were once again in an uproar.


    There was a fierce battle on the leaderboard tonight, and the turn of events was even more exciting than the TV series. First, beta single-handedly suppressed the three major guilds and ranked first on the leaderboard. In the end, it was not long before Simon overtook them. Moreover, someone quickly dug up the shocking news that Simon had only yed two rounds in the first round of the proxy war, causing the yers to quarrel over whether Simon had any cheats. The traffic on the forums tonight had already set a record. Many of the usual diving parties had also been blown out.


    And at this time, the official ount of Fn, which had been verified by the forum, actually posted another post. It made Simon. He had already been the subject of the curiosity of hundreds and hot discussion, once again stood at the forefront of the storm.


    ��Requesting to purchase a healing type item or solution: must be able to cure ate-stage rare disease. Payment: 200,000 points (the customer currently does not have enough points. ording to the rules, a B-grade item will be used as a guarantee. If the payment can not bepleted, the B-grade item will be used toplete the transaction)


    Two hundred thousand points as a reward for the transaction and a B-grade item as a guarantee?!!


    The entire forum was in an uproar!!!


    One had to know that a normal dungeon could only earn a few dozen points at a time. Two hundred thousand points was an astronomical figure for any yer, not to mention a B-grade item.


    Up till now, only two A-grade items had appeared. Considering how one of them had disappeared very quickly, a B-grade item was basically the strongest item a yer could obtain. Additionally, B-grade items were also pitifully small in number. There were almost no V-grade items in cirction on the market. Dreand of Death��s appearance at the auction earlier waspletely unexpected. The threerge guilds could not decide who would possess it, so they had no choice but to choose the method of public auction; moreover, it was almost inevitable that Dreand of Death would fall into the pockets of one of the guilds. It was just that they did not expect to be cheated by the woman in sunsses.


    Simon obviously did not have 200,000 points on him, which meant that he would probably use that B-grade item to pay for it. This was also the first time that a yer had traded a B-grade item publicly, and the person who traded it was the current number one yer on the leaderboard, Simon.


    Very soon, the traffic record that the forum had just set was broken once again. More and more posts began discussing this matter.


    Icy Shrimp��Simon wants to buy a healing item. Could it be that he has a terminal illness?


    Ball Lightning��Not necessarily. It could be a rtive or friend. After all, it was a bit unrealistic to have such a fierce terminal illness.


    Tiny Tail��Willing to take out a B-grade item. This person must be very important to him.


    y the Youth��As expected of the number one yer on the leaderboard, he was too bold. Although everyone had guessed that he had a B-grade item on him, this was equivalent to him admitting that he had a B-grade item on him. He did not belong to any guild as well. Was he not afraid of being targeted?


    Little Tail��Could anyone in this world really dares to have a beef with Simon?


    Revolver��In theory, no. After all, no one wouldin about their own long life. It was a B-grade item, after all, and Simon was only one person. At most, there was nock of people in this world who wanted to gamble with his teammates.

 Chapter 1076 - She Was In Her Room!

    <h4>Chapter 1076: She Was In Her Room!</h4>


    Fan Meinan noticed that the huge transaction reward post on the forum was because her post suddenly had lots of replies a few months ago.


    After Fan Meinan received the reminder, she went to the forum and opened her post. She thought that someone had contacted her, but in the end, she found that there was a group of archaeologists watching the post. Not only did they not offer any help, but they also did not help. Instead, they kept asking her about her rtionship with Simon.


    After Fan Meinan exited her post, she saw the post that was currently buzzing with activity. She also saw the amount of money and the transaction coteral.


    ��Are you crazy? !��Fan Meinan raised her head and looked at Zhang Heng.


    ��200,000 points is a very reasonable price,�� Zhang Heng exined, ��If someone really owns such a tool, the chances are that it��s a B-grade item. Even though we only borrowed it once, the owner wouldn��t be interested in anything lower than this.��


    ��But where do we get 200,000 points? Or are you really going to give away a B-Grade item instead?��


    ��That��s none of your business,�� Zhang Heng said. ��The transaction reward itself is only a backup option. Our priority right now is to find Loki. If he can cure you, then I can ask Fowler to withdraw the transaction. Do you know where we can find him?��


    ��I don��t know.�� Fan Meinan shook her head. ��Loki has many enemies. The Nordic gods don��t like him very much, and he seems to have caused other trouble. Many Greek and Roman gods are looking for him, so his whereabouts have always been mysterious. In addition, he is very good at disguising himself, especially when he turns into various animals. Unless hees to find you himself, it is almost impossible for you to find him. In fact, the few times I have met him, he was the one who took the initiative to appear in front of my son.��


    ��But now he has chosen a representative. If he wants to continue ying this game, he has to make sure his representative lives as long as possible,�� Zhang Heng said.


    ��Are you talking about my sister?�� Fan Meinan looked troubled. ��The rtionship between us sisters has always been very ordinary. Back then, thanks to Han Lu��s incident, we caught her once. After that, our rtionship worsened, and we never contacted each other again. But no matter what, she is my biological sister. If possible, I don��t want to hurt her anymore.��


    ��Don��t worry, our target this time isn��t her, but Loki. If possible, we can talk to her first. After all, you��re her sister. How��s your health? Can you lead me to her again?��


    ��I��ll give it a try.��


    Fan Meinan hesitated for a moment before agreeing to Zhang Heng��s suggestion. As she had said, even though she was prepared to ept her fate, she could only watch as death befell her. All her efforts were in vain, and she was still unwilling to ept it.


    After that, Zhang Heng brought Fan Meinan to a hotel and opened a couple��s room with a bathtub.


    Likest time, Zhang Heng first filled the bathtub with half of the hot water, then added cold water to the normal temperature. After testing it with his hands, he said to Fan Meinan, ��It��s done.��


    Thetter started to take off her clothes with her back facing Zhang Heng. This wasn��t the first time Fan Meinan had done something like this. Compared to when she was in Han Lu��s bathroom, her movements were much faster. The atmosphere, however, was still a little awkward. Fan Meinan quickly took off her coat, leaving only a tight vest behind. Then, she sat down in the tub.


    She looked thinner than thest time, and there was almost no blood under her skin. Fan Meinan did not seem to want Zhang Heng to see her current weak and ugly appearance, but all she could do was hug her arms around herself in shame.


    Thankfully, Zhang Heng��s gaze did not linger on her for long. He asked, ��So? Are you ready?��


    Fan Meinan nodded. In contrast to diving, she tried her best to exhale all the air from her lungs before burying her entire body in the water.


    Soon, she started to struggle due to theck of oxygen. The survival instincts of a living creature kicking in, she tried to poke her head out of the water. On the other hand, Zhang Heng pushed her back down until her struggles became weaker and weaker... When Fan Meinan fell into aa, Zhang Heng immediately carried her out of the bathtub and ced her on the towel.


    He then stared at the time in his hands. Fan Meinan��s condition was already horrible. This time, he did not wait four minutes to start CPR. Instead, he started pumping her heart in two and a half minutes.


    However, Fan Meinan��s body only started to respond after a full minute. Her pulse gradually returned to normal, and after another half a minute, she spat out a mouthful of water. Finally, she opened her eyes again and breathed inrge mouthfuls of air. Her face filled with fear, she screamed, ��She��s in the room! She��s in the room!��


    ��Calm down.��Zhang Heng draped a towel over Fan Meinan andforted her. ��I��ve always been by your side. There��s no one else in the room.��


    ��No, I��m not talking about the room here. She��s in the hospital where I was previously. She has a knife on her. I don��t know what she��s up to.��Fan Meinan gripped Zhang Heng��s arm tightly. ��How did she know which hospital I��m in?! Wait, did she use our telepathy as well? Is she trying to kill me? Why?��


    ��Alright, I��ve got the situation under control. The worst part is over. You can rest for a while and leave the rest to me,�� Zhang Heng said.


    ��No, I want to go with her. I need to know why she killed me. I don��t understand. She has already won, so why is she still trying to kill me?�� Fan Meinan said excitedly.


    ��Are you sure? Your body...��


    ��My body isn��t that weak,�� Fan Meinan interrupted Zhang Heng and said firmly.


    ��Alright, you can change first. It��s fine. There��s still time. This ce is very close to your hospital, so you��ll be there in ten minutes. Since she��sing for you, she won��t leave until you return to the ward,�� Zhang Heng said. ��She won��t be able to escape this time.��


    .....


    Fifteen minutester, Zhang Heng and Fan Meinan stood in front of thetter��s room again.


    Fan Meinan��s expression wasplicated. She nced at Zhang Heng and pushed open the door.


    The first thing that came into her sight was the fruit knife inserted into the bedside table. It made her shudder, but there was no one else in the room other than the woman who was still sleeping soundly on the bed next door.


    Zhang Heng roughly checked his surroundings and said, ��She just left. She should still be able to catch up.��


    ��What does she mean... by doing this? Is she warning us?��Fan Meinan looked at the fruit knife on the bedside table and asked in confusion.


    ��Only she herself can answer this question card.��

 Chapter 1077 - The Chase

    <h4>Chapter 1077: The Chase</h4>


    In the hospital ward, a woman in a ck tennis suit threw her gloves and mask into the trash can downstairs. Then, she looked up at Fan Meinan��s room window and turned to walk into the night.


    Two minutes after she left, Zhang Heng and Fan Meinan arrived at the door of the ward and walked up. However, the woman in the ck tennis suit had already reached the back door.


    Five minutester, Zhang Heng ran over and asked the security guard on duty, ��Master, did you see a woman just now?��


    ��A woman?�� The security guard looked at Zhang Heng suspiciously.


    ��Oh, she��s my girlfriend. We just fought her medical fees.��


    The security guard was enlightened. He had worked as a security guard at the hospital and had seen many simr incidents. Hearing that, he rxed his guard. ��The woman in the tennis uniform is your girlfriend, right? She came out from here before.��


    ��Did you see where she went?��


    ��Was she heading east along the street? I don��t know where she went after that. You can call her and ask. Women rely on coaxing.��


    ��Thank you. She blocked my number.�� After thanking him, Zhang Heng bode farewell to the security guard at the hospital��s back door and went running along the street. Tonight, Fan Meinan��s sister came to kill her. However, no matter what transportation she chose, she would definitely not stop near the hospital because it might cause her trouble after the incident. This was also why Zhang Heng felt that he could still catch up to her.


    At this time, the woman in the ck tennis attire had almost reached the intersection at the end of the street. Instead of crossing into the street after that, she turned into an old-fashioned residential area on her left. Three minutester, she came riding out of the neighborhood on a red electric scooter. Then, looking behind and ensuring nobody suspicious was in the vicinity, she turned into another street.


    The sky had begun to brighten up, but there were still very few pedestrians on the road. The street seemed empty. The woman in the ck tennis uniform rode for about 500 meters, and just as she was starting to rx, she suddenly saw a Polo in the rearview mirror.


    Although it was not time to go to work yet, some cars would asionally run by on the road. Strictly speaking, that Polo was no different from other cars, neither fast nor slow. Based on its current speed, it would pass by her in approximately ten seconds. However, the woman in a ck tennis uniform somehow had a feeling that the other party wasing for her.


    So the next moment, when the Polo was less than thirty meters away, the woman made a prompt decision. She maneuvered the electric bike and turned onto the sidewalk at the side. She saw that the Polo didn��t slow down, driving past her.


    Was it a false rm?


    The woman breathed a sigh of relief, and she did not look at the driver in the car. The driver��s face was concealed by a baseball cap. The Polo didn��t look like it wasing for her since it drove straight through the intersection and turned onto another road.


    Hence, the woman in the ck tennis attire also got off the sidewalk on her electric bike. She was about to continue her journey home, but when she arrived at the next intersection, she saw that the Polo she suspected had actually turned back. This time around, she did not hide her intentions. She sped up and rushed toward the car.


    She could already hear the droning of the engine, leaving her no time to ride the e-bike onto the sidewalk. Thus she made a prompt decision. She jumped off the moment the Polo was about to hit her. Rolling around on the ground, she got up immediately and ran.


    As she looked back, she hoped that the Polo would slow down after it hit the e-bike and that it would cause another traffic ident. Thest thing she expected was the Polo avoiding the bike at thest moment, then continue driving toward her unscathed. It was then that she finally saw the driver clearly��the man who had worked together with Fan Meinan to capture herst time.


    The woman in the ck tennis uniform felt her heart tighten. No one except her knew how powerful Zhang Heng really was. After that, she did not follow Zhang Heng��s advice and tried to contact the Horseman of the Apocalypse again, only to find that thetter hadpletely disappeared. Not long after that, the news started reporting the disappearance of a ��Director Kuang.�� The woman in the ck tennis uniform had no choice but to ept the reality that Pestilence, one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, might��ve really been killed by Zhang Heng. In the best-case scenario, he would��ve been seriously injured.


    To injure a god with the power of a mortal... not to mention that it wasn��t one of those weak ancient gods that had retired from history��s stage. It was the Pestilence, a god well-known by everyone. The woman had no idea how Zhang Heng did it, but it was clear that this was enough to put him in danger.


    The woman cursed silently in her heart. She didn��t expect to meet this demon god again. After getting up, she immediately climbed onto the sidewalk and ran toward the shopping mall next door. However, when she was at the shopping mall entrance, she realized that it was still locked because it was not yet opening time.


    For her, though, it didn��t seem that difficult. She took out a key from her pocket. Not caring if the key matched the hole, she directly stabbed it in. A magical scene then happened��when the key came into contact with the keyhole, it adjusted its shape ording to the grooves, allowing the woman to unlock the door seamlessly. Then, she plunged into the shopping mall.


    Zhang Heng��s Polo soon stopped outside the mall. He followed in close pursuit, rushing into the shopping mall, where soon, he thought he saw the target running along the second-floor esctor.


    The results of his long hours of fitness training and long-distance running were clearly disyed. In addition to the natural advantage of gender, the distance between the two parties was shrinking.


    When Zhang Heng rushed to the second floor, he could still see the back of the target one second ago. A secondter, however, the target vanished. The woman in the ck tennis uniform seemed to have disappeared into thin air. Just when nobody else seemed to be on the second floor, the woman in the ck tennis uniform appeared behind a jewelry counter on the first floor.


    She picked up a ma that she had thrown on the floor and put it back into her pocket. However, instead of moving immediately, she picked up her ears and listened carefully to the movements upstairs.

 Chapter 1078 - A Misunderstanding?

    <h4>Chapter 1078: A Misunderstanding?</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    Just as Zhang Heng was looking around the second floor for the woman in the ck tennis uniform, thetter reappeared behind the counters. As she reached out to pick up a ck ma from the floor and ced it back into her pocket, she allowed it to be sucked into another white ma.


    She then squatted down and tried her best to make no sound as she walked along the counter. First, she saw the bathroom sign. When she walked in, however, she realized that there was only one exhaust fan connected to the outside. The woman in the ck tennis uniform moved a trash can and stepped on it. She looked outside and found that it was an open parking lot.


    Under such circumstances, the parking lot would have a passage leading directly into the mall. In other words, as long as she found this passage, she could quickly leave the parking lot. This was not difficult for the woman. In fact, when she came out of the washroom, she walked to six more shops, and on her right was a fire escape that led to the parking lot.


    The woman in the ck tennis uniform hastened her pace, knowing that she had little time left. As long as Zhang Heng was not stupid, he should be able to find the surveince room of the mall soon. From there, he could easily get situational awareness of the mall. Clearly, she needed to leave before that happened.


    The fire escape was also locked, but it wasn��t a problem for the woman. She took out the key from before, and the results were simr to the main entrance. The key in her hand started to automatically adjust its shape when it was inserted into the lock, easily opening the door in front of her and enabling her direct exit into the parking lot.


    She then calcted the time. Zhang Heng had probably just discovered the location of the surveince room and was on his way there. As long as she ran past thest fifty meters, she would be able to leave the parking lot.


    However, to the woman��s surprise, Zhang Heng didn��t even bother looking for the surveince room. Instead, he climbed up to the rooftop of the shopping mall. At that moment, he was standing on the rooftop and looking down.


    Almost all shopping malls had doors and passageways connected to the outside, making it difficult to tell which door the target would leave by once she was lost. Furthermore, game items still existed globally, and Zhang Heng had an item that could melt the walls in his hands. Hence, he didn��t try to guess where the woman in the ck tennis uniform would leave. After all, no matter where she left from, she would have toe out the mall��s main exit, and he could clearly see her from the rooftop.


    Of course, even so, most people wouldn��t choose to climb up to the rooftop at this time. After all, it would take a long time to catch up to her, then descend from the roof. Then, once he left the mall, the target would probably have already run off somewhere.


    This was, however, a non-existent problem for Zhang Heng.


    He saw the woman in the ck tennis uniform crossing the parking lot. The next moment, he jumped down from the rooftop. As his body fell, a pair of shadowy ck wings on his back spread out.


    The woman in the ck tennis uniform only felt a ck shadow pass over her head. When she looked up, however, she saw nothing strange in the air. She thought that she was too nervous and must be hallucinating. I the end, just as she ran out of the parking lot, she bumped into someone.


    The woman in the ck tennis uniform took a few steps back. When she regained her bnce, she realized that the person she had bumped into was none other than Zhang Heng.


    However, she could not understand why Zhang Heng would magically appear in front of her half a minute ago when he was still in the mall, not to mention that she had been very careful along the way and had paid extra attention to her whereabouts. She wasn��t exposed until she walked out of the parking lot.


    ��Actually, you don��t have to worry. I just have something to ask you,�� Zhang Heng said.


    ��What is it?�� The woman in the ck tennis uniform asked warily.


    ��I know that you and your sister are currently in apetition, and you should be aware of her physical condition.��


    ��Yes, that��s right. I know that she doesn��t have much time left to live, so what do you think? As her sister, should I give in to her ?�� The woman in the ck tennis uniform raised the corners of her lips and a mocking smile appeared on her face.


    In response, however, Zhang Heng shook his head. ��You should have your own reasons for wanting to be Loki��s agent, so there��s no reason for you to give in for your sister. I��m not here for thepetition between the two of you. The reason I��m here is to ask you for a small favor. Tell me where Loki is, or if there��s any way to contact him.��


    The woman in the ck tennis uniform had a strange expression on her face. ��You��re asking me where Loki is?��


    ��You��re his agent, so of course I have to ask you this.��


    ��Are you making fun of me? Oh, I see. No wonder you men are always the idiots who get fooled. Is that what my dear sister told you? That I won thepetition?��


    ��What do you mean?�� Zhang Heng frowned.


    ��If you didn��t fall so hard for my sister��s charms, someone who has nobody at all, why didn��t you use your brain and think about why I went to the hospital to look for her tonight? Was it to consolidate the fruits of my victory? Or was it to make some kind of deration in front of her as the winner?�� The woman in the ck tennis uniform sneered.


    ��Are you saying that she��s actually the winner of thispetition? But you used your supernatural power to get rid of me in the mall just now, right?��


    ��What else? As for my supernatural power... about a week ago, Loki had already taken back the power he gave me. Those tricks in the supermarket were only thanks to the items I had,�� the woman in the ck tennis uniform said as she took out a key and two mas from her pocket. She waved her hand in front of Zhang Heng before continuing.


    ��The three major guilds haven��t been able to do anything to me before. If I still had my ability to disguise myself, how could you have caught me so easily? What do you think? Are you starting to think that my sister isn��t as innocent as she appears to be? If you want to hear more about her, I can tell you more of her story. I guarantee you you��ll be shocked. No one in this world understands her better than I do. After all, the two of us have a telepathic connection.��


    However, Zhang Heng, who was standing across from the woman in the ck tennis uniform, remained unmoved after hearing her words. He only uttered a few simple words.


    ��I believe her.��


    After a pause, Zhang Heng continued, ��I��ve known your sister for quite some time now, so I know what kind of person she is. Therefore, you��d better put away that little trick of yours to sow discord. However, from the looks of it, some misunderstanding might��ve really broken out between the two of you this time.��

 Chapter 1079 - Truth and Lies

    <h4>Chapter 1079: Truth and Lies</h4>


    Twenty minutester, Zhang Heng returned to the hospital Fan Meinan was warded.


    He parked his car in the parking lot and led the woman in the ck tennis uniform into the hospital building. He met the nurse on duty at the station this time, not expecting visitors to arrive so early. ording to the rules, Zhang Heng and the woman in the ck tennis uniform had to register before being allowed in.


    Fan Meinan was clearly a little scared when she saw the woman in the ck tennis uniform entering her ward. In particr, she was probably reminded of the knife that was stuck on the bedside table not long ago. She took half a step back but still called out softly, ��Sis.��


    ��Don��t. I don��t deserve that. You and your little boyfriend have already caught me twice,�� the woman in ck tennis uniform said calmly. ��I��m just tonic for your love life. When you��re in a bad mood, you catch me to y with.��


    ��It��s not like that,�� Fan Meinan exined. ��We just want to ask you for a favor.��


    ��What? At this point, are you still going to keep up your act?�� the woman in the ck tennis uniform sneered.


    Then, Zhang Heng suddenly chimed in. ��It seems it��s going to be difficult for you two to trust each other in such a short time. If this goes on, it will be difficult for you to make any substantial progress in the conversation.��


    ��Do you have any suggestions then?�� the woman in the ck tennis uniform asked.


    Zhang Heng took out the Vow Rings and a piece of parchment from his pocket.


    ��This is an item. Next, all you have to do is cut your finger to fuse the blood together and write an oath on this parchment that you will not lie. After that, you will each wear a ring. Once the other party lies, the ring on your finger will heat up.��


    ��Oh, I believe I have yed this game before,�� the woman in the ck tennis uniform said as she took one of the copper rings and slipped it on her finger. ��I have no objections.��


    ��Me either,�� Fan Meinan said as she put on the other ring.


    After the two wrote down their vows on the parchment ording to Zhang Heng��s instructions, they each handed the hand with the ring on it to Zhang Heng, the adjudicator.


    ��You can first ask a question that you know the answer to.��


    ��Then I��ll go first,�� Fan Meinan said and asked the woman in the ck tennis uniform opposite her, ��What��s your name?��


    ��Cheng Sihan.��


    ��No problem,�� Zhang Heng said. He could feel that Fan Meinan��s ring remained cool, which meant that Cheng Sihan was indeed the woman��s real name in the ck tennis uniform.


    Next, it was Cheng Sihan��s turn to ask a question. However, a hint of malice shed in her eyes as she said, ��It��s not a coincidence that you met Zhang Heng for the first time.��


    Fan Meinan��s pupils constricted. After a moment of silence, she nodded. ��Yes.��


    ��The truth.�� Zhang Heng��s expression did not change. ��You��ve sessfully passed the test. You can now ask your own questions.��


    However, Cheng Sihan did not change the topic to thepetition. Instead, she continued, ��You approached Zhang Heng because of Loki.��


    Fan Meinan was silent for half a minute. ��Yes,�� she replied with a little difficulty.


    ��The truth.��


    ��Are you finding it hard to answer, my dear sister? I was just getting started,�� Cheng Sihan said with a smile. ��It��s such a rare opportunity for everyone to be so honest. I can expose all your dirt to your boyfriend.��


    It was Fan Meinan��s turn to ask the question. She tried to calm herself down so that she wouldn��t be influenced by her sister. She then asked, ��Why did you kill me?��


    ��I don��t like you,�� Cheng Sihan said with a shrug.


    ��That��s a lie.�� Zhang Heng could feel the heating from Fan Meinan��s ring, so he reminded Cheng Sihan, ��You��d better tell the truth.��


    ��Ok. Loki asked me to do that,�� Cheng Sihan said.


    ��The truth.��


    Cheng Sihan continued to ask, ��Have you been jealous of Loki��s favor on me all this time? You want to rece me, even though I��m your guide. Back then, I saw how pitiful you were and rmended you to Loki.��


    ��I didn��t.�� Fan Meinan shook her head. ��But I do envy you because you did everything that Loki asked you to do well. He only asked me to do one thing, and I didn��t do it well.��


    ��The truth.��


    Cheng Sihan was surprised.


    But soon, Fan Meinan asked again, ��Why did Loki ask you to kill me?��


    ��Because this is my test. Although it��s a littlete, if I pass this test, Rocky won��t have any other choice but to choose me as his agent,�� Cheng Sihan replied calmly. She then finally became a little more serious. Not wanting to expose Fan Meinan��s dirty secrets, she thought for a moment and asked, ��Why did you catch me this time?��


    ��To find out Loki��s whereabouts.�� Fan Meinan looked very surprised. ��Wait, did you not pass Loki��s Test?��


    ��What else? If I passed his test, would you still be standing here talking to me?�� Cheng Sihan sneered. ��If my ability hadn��t disappeared, you would have caught me so easily.�� She paused and continued, ��If you want to know where Loki is, why don��t you ask him directly?��


    ��Because I��ve lost contact with him for a long time. He took back the power he gave me,�� Fan Meinan said.


    ��The truth.��


    At that moment, Cheng Sihan��s expression changed. She had even forgotten that one-person-one-question rule. ��Did you also fail your test?�� she asked.


    Fan Meinan nodded. ��Your test was to kill me, and my test was to kill Zhang Heng... It seems we��ve both made our choices.��


    ��It seems you really like him.��


    For the first time, Fan Meinan didn��t answer. After a moment, she asked, ��I wanted to be Loki��s agent to cheat death, but you never told me how you became Loki��s agent.��


    ��The same reason as yours, but I did it to save my foster father,�� Cheng Sihan said calmly. ��He has terminal cancer, and he doesn��t have much time left.��


    ��Then why did you give up halfway?��


    ��Now that I��ve lost my ability to disguise, I don��t feel confident that I can handle the police investigation. The risk is too great. I thought about it and decided to let go,�� Cheng Sihan said casually.


    ��Liar.��


    ��There are only a dozen hours left until the end of the first round of the proxy war. If we don��t pass the test, What will Loki do? Isn��t he worried that he wouldn��t have a proxy?�� Fan Meinan asked, confused. ��Or does he want to quit the game?��


    ��Loki loves excitement so much that it��s impossible for him to quit the game.�� Cheng Sihan��s face turned grave. ��This guy probably fooled us from the beginning to the end. Could he have already chosen his own agent outside of us?��

 Chapter 1080 - Blood Oath

    <h4>Chapter 1080: Blood Oath</h4>


    Compared to Fan Meinan, Cheng Sihan had been with Loki longer, so she knew more about thetter.


    As the god of mischief and lies in Norse mythology, Loki was the most freewheeling Norse god. He did not have an obvious concept of good and evil, and he did things purely based on his personal preferences. At the same time, he had great power, in a sense, was like a naughty child holding a rocketuncher.


    Whether good or evil, they came without reason. Cheng Sihan had experienced this countless times. In Fan Meinan��s eyes, Cheng Sihan was Loki��s most favored follower, and the two had a lot inmon. Cheng Sihan, on the other hand, knew very well that she might inherit part of Loki��s power, but she would never inherit his inherent cruelty and naivety.


    Fan Meinan and Cheng Sihan, for instance, had been tortured by the so-called test, constantly interrogating their own souls, before finally making a painful choice. They quickly realized how everything was just a cruel joke, especially after it turned out that the two had never been on Loki��s list of consideration from the very beginning. Cheng Sihan could already imagine how happy Loki, who was hiding at the side, would be.


    But at the thought of this, she suddenly thought of something and said to Zhang Heng, ��Did you really kill the gue Horsemen of the Apocalypse by yourself?��


    Zhang Heng nodded. ��The process at that time was actually quiteplicated, but in terms of the result, it was like this.��


    Cheng Sihan looked conflicted when she heard that. After hesitating for a moment, she said, ��I mean, if I��m willing to help you find Loki, can you ask him to fulfill one of my requirements then?��


    ��You want to save your foster father?�� Zhang Heng raised his eyebrows. ��That sounds fair.��


    ��No, you have no idea how dangerous this is,�� Cheng Sihan said. ��Even if you��d killed Pestilence, Loki is our opponent this time. In a direct confrontation, Loki might not be much stronger than the horsemen, but there aren��t many who are a match for Loki in terms of trickery. So there��s a high chance that we��ll end up with nothing and even offend Loki. ��Believe me; you definitely don��t want to be remembered by Loki, so a verbal promise isn��t quite enough to ask for my help. I still need a guarantee.��


    ��How do you want my guarantee?�� Zhang Heng asked.


    ��Give me your blood. Not too much, just 5ml. I have a tool that can make a binding blood oath. Once you break your oath, your blood will boil for a whole minute,�� Cheng Sihan said.


    Zhang Heng shook his head. ��Just like how you don��t trust me, it��s hard for me to trust you. I don��t know if the tool on your body has any other effects, so I won��t give you my blood.��


    ��You can ask me directly if this tool has any other effects.�� Cheng Sihan waved the ring on her finger. ��I��m still wearing the small tool on your hand.��


    ��I��m sorry, such a strange blood oath is not within the scope of my guarantee,�� Zhang Heng said.


    However, just as the two were in a stalemate, Fan Meinan, who had been silent for a long time, spoke up again, ��Um... can I take the oath? This matter started because of me, and Zhang Heng��s involvement is also because of me. If he breaks the oath, then the consequences should be borne by me.��


    Fan Meinan paused, looked into Cheng Sihan��s eyes, and continued, ��I believe in him, and I��m willing to vouch for him with my life. You��re my sister, and I trust in you. I believe that there are no other problems with your blood oath, so I am the most appropriate to take it.��


    Cheng Sihan frowned after hearing this. She had hoped that Zhang Heng would personally take the oath, but Fan Meinan��s words left her unable to refute her. Indeed, if it weren��t for Fan Meinan, Zhang Heng would have had no reason to get involved in this matter. If that was the case, then there was no reason for Fan Meinan to break his promise.


    Now that Zhang Heng��s attitude was firm, it was clear that he wouldn��t make any blood oath, so Cheng Sihan had no choice but to back down. ��Fine, you can do it too.��


    Fan Meinan saw that Cheng Sihan had nodded in agreement, so she picked up the knife on the bedside table and cut open his index finger. However, it wasn��t easy to collect 5 ml of blood, so Fan Meinan spent a lot of time on it, Filling up the case of the silver pocket watch that Cheng Sihan took out. Her forehead covered in sweat, she looked even paler now.


    Cheng Sihan closed the pocket watch, picked up the pocket watch band, and roasted the silver pocket watch on the lighter for a whole minute and a half until the blood inside began to boil. Then she handed the silver pocket watch back to Fan Meinan.


    ��Swear it. Just say that if Loki cures your illness, he��ll cure my foster father��s cancer as well. Then press your thumb in the middle of the case. Remember, if you can��t do it, your blood will boil.��


    ��I understand.��Fan Meinan took the pocket watch and swore word for word ording to Cheng Sihan��s instructions. She pressed her thumb down again, and the red-hot case instantly scalded her finger.


    Zhang Heng instinctively felt that this blood oath was a bit inappropriate, but he looked into Fan Meinan��s eyes and knew that she had made up her mind. When Fan Meinan finished everything, and Cheng Sihan took the watch back, her expression finally eased up a little, but she didn��t say anything. Instead, she took out her phone, opened the memo, and typed a line of words.


    ��Loki should be nearby.��


    After that, seemingly worried that Zhang Heng and Fan Meinan wouldn��t understand, she added, ��based on my understanding of him, he definitely wouldn��t miss an opportune moment to witness the despair and pain he made us feel. It��s like a painter admiring his newlypleted work. No one can resist such temptation.��


    After Cheng Sihan typed this sentence, she raised her head to look at Zhang Heng and Fan Meinan. Then, the three of them shifted their gaze to the fourth person in the room.


    Yes, that��s right. Fan Meinan was staying in a double ward. There were two beds in total. Other than her, there was also a 70-year-old woman staying in the hospital bed by the window. At this age, her body was actually not bad, just a little deaf. She was hospitalized because there was a benign tumor on her stomach that required surgery to remove. Now that the surgery had been sessfullypleted and she was recovering well, he was expected to be discharged soon.


    Fan Meinan had never doubted her before because her behavior was really too normal; no different from other elderly people who were hospitalized. She had a son who was working, so he should be a small leader or something. He was swamped every day. However, he woulde to visit her after work. Other than that, he also found an escort. Now, he was sleeping in the corridor outside the ward.


    The Auntie was still in a deep sleep. Because the three of them had lowered their voices before, and because of her deaf ears, she was not affected at all.

 Chapter 1081 - Sudden Change

    <h4>Chapter 1081: Sudden Change</h4>


    Zhang Heng nced at the room card in front of the other window and saw the woman��s name on it.


    ��Wang Lirong.


    Just like her, this was amon name. She had been admitted to the hospital after Fan Meinan. ording to Fan Meinan, the original patient on the bed was a female teacher who had been discharged from the hospital almost two weeks after Fan Meinan got admitted. After that, it was Wang Lirong who had moved in.


    As she was still on the wanted list of the threerge guilds, Fan Meirong remained vignt even when treating her illness. She would pay special attention to the people around her and even took the time to investigate Wang Li Rong��s background.


    With Wang Li Rong��s age, it was impossible for her to be a yer. Moreover, after Fan Meirong��s investigation and probing, she also ruled out the nurse and her son she hade into contact with having the possibility of being yers. Hence, Fan Meirong waspletely relieved.


    In addition, Wang Lirong had a good temperament. Seeing that Fan Meinan didn��t have many people to visit her, they would often share the fruits and milk that her son brought. Eventually, the two of them shared a very harmonious rtionship. Meanwhile, since Wang Lirong was a little hard of hearing, she didn��t know that Fan Meinan had usually pulled off some neat tricks, such as sneaking out to have instant noodles in the middle of the night. He could be said to be the perfect roommate.


    Consequently, Cheng Sihan suspected Wang Lirong. Fan Meinan found it hard to believe, but she also knew how good Loki��s disguise was. Back then, even the gods had been fooled by Loki. Thus, although Cheng Sihan had only obtained a small portion of Loki��s power, she could already fool the three guilds. Therefore, Wang Lirong, who looked normal on the surface, could really just be Loki��s disguise. It wasn��t impossible.


    But now, there was a problem. Even if they suspected that Wang Lirong was Loki��s disguise, they didn��t seem to have any means to prove it.


    Zhang Heng��s observation, which he had always been proud of, might not be of much use this time. In terms of skill levels, Loki��s disguising skill would probably be Lv5. Standing beside the real person, even if the target��s own son were standing there, he probably wouldn��t be able to tell the real and fake one apart.


    Although Zhang Heng still had the Oath Ring on him that could detect lies, it was only an F-Grade item after all. Of course, it was effective to ordinary people, but against a god of Loki��s stature, it might simply be insufficient. Loki was the god of lies and pranks, after all, an expert at manipting lies.


    As for the Oath Rings, it was an item probably from an ancient god with loyalty affixes. Even if it hadn��t been forgotten, it wouldn��t be in a good situation. It would be difficult for Zhang Heng to confront Loki head-on.


    Zhang Heng turned to Cheng Sihan as if asking with his gaze how confident she was.


    Thirty percent.


    Cheng Sihan thought about what to type for a good half-minute, definitely not the best disy of confidence, typing for half a minute, but considering Loki was her opponent, thirty percent confidence didn��t seem that bad. However, the trouble was that with Loki��s vignce, the three probably only had one chance. If they picked the wrong person and Loki found out, apprehending him again would be very difficult.


    ��Do you have any other suspects?�� typed Zhang as he took Cheng Sihan��s phone and typed.


    ��Yes. The young nurse who asked us to register when we came in, the head nurse on this floor, and my sister��s attending physician.


    Cheng Sihan listed the three people who were the easiest to get in touch with Fan Meinan.


    ��How are you so sure he��s in the hospital?


    Fan Meinan couldn��t help but ask.


    ��Not necessarily. Nothing is certain when ites to Loki, but the probability of him being in the hospital is indeed the greatest because this is the best ce for him to watch the show. He can observe your emotional changes every day while you��re here, and it was up to you to decide if youplete his test or not. In addition, the test he gave me was to kill you. So if I wanted toplete my test, I had toe to the hospital. With his personality, he would definitely save a seat for himself at the first opportunity. Whether I kill you at the end, or the two of us realizing that we had been deceived, it would all be very interesting for him.


    ��There��s one more person left on your list of suspects, Zhang Heng said.


    ��Who?��


    ��She��s been staying by Fan Meinan��s side as an escort for Wang Lirong. In addition,pared to Wang Lirong, she was more easily overlooked because of her status as an escort.


    ����This significantly expands the range of choices...�� Cheng Sihan frowned as she continued typing.


    In fact, other than these main suspects, there were also the security guards of the hospital and the patients in the next room. Even the geckos outside the wall and the stray cats in the vicinity could have been transformed by Loki.


    Regardless of which one was Loki, there would be a tough battle ahead. I need to go to the car to retrieve my weapon. You guys can stay here for now and try not to arouse his suspicion. If anything happens, feel free to contact me.


    Zhang Heng finished typing thest paragraph and put away his phone. It would definitely be useless against Loki��s ordinary weapons. Until now, Zhang Heng still did not know how if it was because he had killed an Apocalpyse Horseman. He only guessed that it had something to do with the strange power that was awakening in his body, but he was still unable to master this power. Inparison, the weapons in his hands were more reliable, especially the few B-grade items.


    Both the Hidden Scabbard and Pestillence Bone Bow should cause damage to Loki.


    Before leaving, Zhang Heng hugged Fan Meinan. Seeing this, Cheng Sihan frowned and shifted her gaze elsewhere.


    ��I��ll give you two sisters some time to finish what you need to say, then we��ll go look for Loki.��


    After saying that, he walked out of the ward, leaving only Cheng Sihan and Fan Meinan and Wang Li Rong, whose true identity was unknown, in the room.


    The atmosphere became a little ufortable. Fan Meinan still had to cooperate with Zhang Heng to continue the act, so after a while, she asked Cheng Sihan, ��Do you want something to drink? I have water and milk here.��


    ��Water, please.�� said Cheng Sihan absent-mindedly. Her attention was on Wang Li Rong, who was sleeping soundly by her side.


    Therefore, Fan Meinan turned around and walked to the bed counter. She opened the cab and found a disposable stic cup inside. Then, she bent down to pick up the Thermos sk on the floor.


    At that moment, something strange happened. Cheng Sihan retracted her gaze from Wang Li Rong and quietly walked behind her sister. She picked up the fruit knife that she had left on the counter earlier before she called out softly, ��Handsome.��


    Fan Meinan turned around and asked curiously, ��What is it?��

 Chapter 1082 - Senior Sister

    <h4>Chapter 1082: Senior Sister</h4>


    All of this happened too quickly. Having no time to dodge, and before Fan Meinan could react, the sharp pain in her chest transmitted from her nerves to her brain. Her eyes bulged wide, and her pupils filled with shock and confusion. Her lips moved, seeming as though trying to spew something out.


    In the next moment, however, her vision turned ck, and her body fell backward. First, she hit the table, knocking over the kettle and cup. Then, leaning against the table, she slid down bit by bit. Finally, her head tilted to one side, and she became motionless.


    Blood gradually dyed her pullovers red, and her eyespletely lost their luster.


    Cheng Sihan stood in front of her sister as she looked down at the lifeless body on the ground with aplex expression. Wang Lirong, who was lying on the other bed, was finally awakened by the sound of the kettle falling to the ground.


    She opened her eyes and turned her head, but the sight that greeted her was a dead Fan Meinan with her eyes wide open. Shocked to the core, she asked Cheng Sihan, ��Eldest daughter, what happened?!��


    ��I killed her,�� Cheng Sihan confessed calmly. ��Ipleted the test.��


    ��What test?�� Wang Li Rong looked at Cheng Sihan with gripping panic, never expecting such degree of ruthlessness toe out from someone so gorgeous. Instead of running away after stabbing someone to death, she just stood there, looking as fearless as the first time they met.


    Wang Lirong wanted to call for help, but she was afraid Cheng Sihan would get mad and attack her before any assistance could arrive.


    ��I��vepleted the test you gave me to kill my sister,�� Cheng Sihan said. ��Now it��s your turn to fulfill your promise.��


    ��I asked you to kill your sister?��


    Wang Lirong lookedpletely confused by Cheng Sihan.


    ��Do you still n to continue acting at this point?�� Cheng Sihan asked.


    ��What act could I have possibly pulled?!�� Wang Lirong was getting more terrified by the second. She could see that the girl in front of her was not in her right mind. She had actually killed her sister and even wanted to push the me on her.


    ��Isn��t it you?��


    Cheng Sihan frowned. Then, she opened the door of the ward. ��Well, you��re just in time to call someone. Call your escort in.��


    This should be something that Wang Lirong wished for. No one wanted to be in a cramped room with a murderer who had just killed her own sister, not to mention that Wang Lirong and Fan Meinan had been patients for a long time and they had developed a healthy friendship over that period. Fan Meinan��s body, on the other hand, was not far away from her now.


    When Cheng Sihan opened the door, however, she did not hear Wang Lirong��s screams.


    Half a minuteter, Cheng Sihan closed the door of the ward again and slowly turned around. She found that the expression on Wang Lirong��s face had changed. She no longer looked as panicked and scared as before. She blinked, and the crystal tears faded away. All that was left was cunningness.


    Wang Lirong waved her hand and stopped Cheng Sihan from bowing.


    ��I��m not him.��


    Cheng Sihan was a little surprised.


    ��But I know you, and your sister, of course.�� Wang Lirong stole a nce toward Fan Meinan��s corpse on the ground. ��I know you��ve been together for a long time, but I didn��t expect to meet under such circumstances. I should call you senior sister, but now it seems that I only have one senior sister left.��


    ��Are you the agent Loki chose?�� Cheng Sihan��s expression changed.


    ��I know you��re not convinced, but I still have to say that he has good taste,�� Wang Lirong said. ��My score in the first Proxy War dungeon currently ranks second among all yers, second only to the handsome guy who just came downstairs.��


    ��You��re Beta?��


    ��Yours truly.��


    ��But weren��t you still in the game recently?�� Cheng Sihan asked, ��and Wang Lirong stayed with my sister for two whole weeks... wait, the person in the hospital was really Wang Lirong. You simply reced the real Wang Lirong with yourself. It was why my sister found no problem with Wang Lirong after her investigation.��


    ��Bingo. As expected of senior sister. You guessed it right,�� Betamended. ��I just came to the hospital not long ago, and to be honest, I had no time to study Wang Lirong. Fortunately, it��s not difficult to pretend to sleep.��


    ��Did Loki send you? Why didn��t hee himself? Isn��t he supposed to fancy incidents like this where we sisters fight each other?�� Cheng Sihan asked.


    ��You really know him well. You know his bad taste,�� Beta said with a smile. ��Unfortunately, tonight is not a good time. He has other things to do, so he sent me here. Of course, my goal is different from his. I came here tonight to meet my biggestpetitor, Simon, or rather, Zhang Heng. My teacher seems to be very interested in him. Although I have never seen him so interested in anyone, honestly, he has disappointed me.��


    Beta paused for a moment before continuing, ��I knew that Fan Meinan was no match for your sister, so I helped her find a powerful helper. I was the one who sent Zhang Heng a message to rush here, but I didn��t expect you to kill Fan Meinan right under his nose. His status as the number one yer didn��t seem to live up to his name. Rumor has it that the White Rider, one of the Four Horsemen of the apocalypse, also fell to his hands. Could it be that he was strength type? But in terms of strength, he shouldn��t be as strong as Pestilence... Nevertheless, senior sister, your ruthlessness and decisiveness have indeed exceeded my expectations. I pity your bad luck to have met me.��


    Cheng Sihan was unmoved when she heard this. She could only quietly look at Beta.


    Thetter continued, ��Without me, teacher should have chosen you to be his representative. ��Unfortunately, because of my existence, no matter how hard you try, there��s no point. It��s impressive that you managed to kill Fan Meinan right under Zhang Heng��s nose, but that doesn��t change anything. I thought you would understand this simple logic. The first round of the proxy war will end in a dozen hours. Even if teacher has a way to get you into the game, there��s a high chance that you won��t be able to challenge him three times in a row, let alone surpass me.��


    Cheng Sihan refused toment. All she said was, ��Take me to see him.��


    ��And then?�� Beta asked.


    ��I won the test he gave me. Now it��s his turn to fulfill his promise,�� Wu Sihan repeated.


    ��Interesting. We all know that our teacher has many virtues, but keeping his promise is definitely not one of them.��


    ��That��s something for him to answer. Who do you think you are?�� Cheng Sihan snapped coldly.

 Chapter 1083 - Tracking

    <h4>Chapter 1083: Tracking</h4>


    Beta did not get angry when she heard that. She nced at Fan Meinan, who was no longer angry, then shifted her gaze to Cheng Sihan in front of her. Then, she said slowly, ��I can understand how you feel and your despair and anger, but I��m actually doing this for your own good. There��s no way to change things. If you go to see teacher again in your current state, not only will you be unable to save your foster father, but if you offend teacher, you��ll also have to suffer...��


    ��This is my business and is not for you to worry. What you need to do is take me to see him,�� Cheng Sihan interrupted Beta rudely. ��Stop stalling. Zhang Heng went back to the car to retrieve his weapon, and he��ll be back soon. When he sees Fan Meinan��s body, will he think that one of us is the murderer?��


    ��As expected of senior sister. nned to frame me before you killed him?�� Beta raised her eyebrows, and her eyes lit up. ��That��s more like it. At least I won��t be so bored this morning. Fine, I can take you to see teacher.��


    ��Don��t say I didn��t warn you. Don��t y any tricks on the road. When I started lying, you were still sucking on milk.��


    ��The one who starts the race may not necessarily reach the finish line first,�� Beta said. She shrugged. ��But I ept your warning.��However, she didn��t move immediately after she said that. Instead, she took out her phone and waved it in front of Cheng Sihan��s face, ��Before you leave, do you mind if I take a few photos as evidence for you toplete the test?��


    ��Do as you wish,�� Cheng Sihan said without a single modicum of expression.


    In response, Beta switched on the camera mode and selected a few different angles to photograph the bloody murder scene. ��That was a clean cut. Is this my sister��s final act of Gentleness?�� she sighed with a click of the tongue.


    When she finished taking the picture and put away her phone, she was about to poke the corpse��s eyes when Cheng Sihan, who was waiting impatiently, spoke up again, ��Had enough fun yet? Did you really think that Zhang Heng relied solely on luck to get rid of Pestilence? If we don��t leave now and wait for him, none of us will be leaving.��


    ��Alright, since the picture is already taken, there��s really no need for putting ourselves in danger anymore,�� Beta immediately stood up and said.


    Cheng Sihan, on the other hand, did not look at Fan Meinan��s corpse from the beginning to the end. It was as if the one lying there was not her own sister but a bag of trash.


    .....


    Just as the two of them left the ward, Zhang Heng had already brought the Pestilence Bone Bow and Hidden Scabbard to the entrance of the inpatient department. Zhang Heng, however, didn��t enter the room immediately. If anyone saw the equipment he was wearing, they would definitely call security. The security guards at the hospital were definitely no match for Zhang Heng, but since he didn��t want to cause any unnecessary trouble, he climbed down the drainage pipe to Fan Meinan��s room.


    As he climbed through the window and entered the room, he saw Fan Meinan lying in a pool of blood and the fruit knife sticking out of her chest.


    However, Zhang Heng��s expression didn��t change, showing no sign of sadness or despair. He only looked at the time in his hand.


    Ten secondster, Fan Meinan��s body and the blood on the ground disappeared. Only the fruit knife fell from the sky. At the same time, another Fan Meinan, who was hiding in the bathroom, also walked out.


    Death Illusion.


    This was a prop that Zhang Heng had obtained from 1810. Its purpose was to create an illusion that mimicked an actual object andsted 15 minutes. During that time, it could not be touched, or it would lose its effect. Before leaving the ward, Zhang Heng had given this prop to Fan Meinan when he hugged her.


    This n had been agreed upon by the three of them since they couldn��t determine Loki��s identity in the hospital. Even the most suspicious person, Wang Lirong, Cheng Sihan, only had a 30% chance of sess. Zhang Heng did not like this kind of pure gamble, so he came up with another n.


    Cheng Sihan would kill Fan Meinan using Death Illusion andplete the test to attract Loki to reveal himself. Compared to the F-grade Vow Rings, Death Illusion was a C-grade item. Even Loki wouldn��t be able to see through it so easily. And even if he did, it didn��t matter. ording to Cheng Sihan��s understanding of Loki, if he really saw through the trick created by Death Illusion, he would��ve probably jumped out and exposed everything.


    However, neither Cheng Sihan nor Zhang Heng expected that Loki wouldn��t be in the hospital tonight. Instead, Beta, his agent, had appeared in his ce. The good news was that Beta��s eyes couldn��t see through the illusion created by Death Illusion, but the bad news was that the three of them were unable to find Loki immediately.


    Fan Meinan came out of the bathroom and told Zhang Heng what had happened in the room. ��My sister wants to use Beta to find Loki, but I have a feeling that Beta isn��t going to be so honest.��


    ��It doesn��t matter. Your sister has already initiated a location sharing. We can follow her. If we really can��t find Loki, we can still take down Beta, his agent. Unless Loki can find a new agent in such a short time and let him participate in the Agent War Dungeon, he definitely can��t give up on Beta,�� Zhang Heng said.


    After that, the two split up. Zhang Heng climbed out of the window while Fan Meinan left the building through the safe passage. Five minutester, the two met up in a parking lot and sat back in Zhang Heng��s Polo.


    Zhang Heng ced his phone on the car stand.


    The dot that represented Cheng Sihan was currently moving northeast. She wasn��t moving very fast, probably on foot. Zhang Heng noticed that there was a subway station 500 meters away from her. It seemed that she and Beta were nning to take the subway next.


    Therefore, Zhang Heng also found a map of the subway line. When Cheng Sihan started moving faster, he circled the subway line that the two were on.


    However, probably because the signal in the subway wasn��t very good, the information about Cheng Sihan��s location started to be intermittent. Fortunately, with the map, Zhang Heng didn��t follow the wrong direction. About 20 minutester, Cheng Sihan��s signal returned to normal. She had probably gotten off the subway and had started moving again on the street. In the end, she stopped moving.


    However, when Zhang Heng drove to the ce, he couldn��t help but frown because it was actually a mobile phone repair shop. Zhang Heng got off the car and walked into the mobile phone shop with Fan Meinan. In the end, he saw a shifty-eyed man bargaining with the repair shop owner, and the phone in his hand was Cheng Sihan��s phone.

 Chapter 1084 - The Difference

    <h4>Chapter 1084: The Difference</h4>


    ��What do you mean?��


    In the subway car, Cheng Sihan looked at Beta��s outstretched hand and asked.


    ��There are othermunication devices on the phone. For now, allow me to take care of it,�� Beta said with a smile. ��It��s not just you... you should know that teacher has always been very cautious. Many people are looking for him now... not only you and your sister but some other guys, including those guys in Greek and Roman mythology. It��s always good to be careful.��


    Cheng Sihan frowned, but she still reached out her hand from her pocket and handed over her phone after a moment. ��Don��t lose it. I still have a lot of important things on my phone.��


    ��Of course,�� Beta promised, but after she took the phone, she held it for less than ten seconds before conveniently stuffed it into the backpack of a sneaky-looking man next to her. The man was standing next to an office worker. He sneaked his hand into the office worker��s pocket and took out thetter��s wallet. After he got it, he immediately moved to the car door. It seemed that he was going to get off the car and take another subway.


    Cheng Sihan��s eyebrows twitched, and a murderous look shed in her eyes.


    ��Do you have another electronic device that can record the location ormunicate with the outside world?�� Beta asked with a smile.


    ��No.�� Cheng Sihan tried hard to suppress the anger in her heart.


    ��What about the game items?��


    ��No.��


    ��Do you mind if I search your body?��


    ��You��d better not be too greedy.�� Cheng Sihan��s gaze darkened.


    Beta shrugged, looking very innocent.


    ��It won��t happen again.�� Half a minuteter, Cheng Sihan still chose to give in. She stood up straight and signaled Beta to start.


    In the end, thetter walked up to her but did not immediately put her hand into her pocket and bag. Instead, she circled around her first. At the same time, she clicked her tongue and praised, ��Senior sister, your figure is really good. I really envy your boyfriend.��


    ��Are you testing my limits?��


    ��No, no, no. I��ll start working now.�� As Beta spoke, she finally began to inspect Cheng Sihan��s personal belongings. However, her hands didn��t behave honestly. They randomly move around Cheng Sihan��s body from time to time, groping ces that should not be touched.


    At first, Cheng Sihan��s eyes looked like they were about to spit fire, but soon, the anger in her eyes disappeared. She regained her calm and allowed Beta to touch her body. She just watched coldly from the side.


    Beta also noticed the change in Wu Sihan��s mood. Her eyes showed some appreciation, and her hands finally began to restrain themselves. She took out two mas from Cheng Sihan��s bag, looked at them, and then took out the silver pocket watch. ��Is this the Blood Oath item?�� she asked with intrigue. ��I��m actually quite curious. If the person who swore the blood oath is already dead, will the blood of the corpse still boil after breaking the oath?��


    ��If you want to know, you can try taking an oath yourself,�� Cheng Sihan said indifferently.


    ��And then you��ll kill me to verify it?�� Beta smiled sweetly, but her smile, coupled with Wang Lirong��s wrinkled face, looked indescribably awkward.


    ��I don��t mind helping you with this,�� Cheng Sihan said.


    ��Unfortunately, I��m not your sister.��


    ��...��


    Seeing Cheng Sihan remain silent, Beta seemed to be very happy, ��I��m sorry, I shouldn��t have brought up your sad matter. But on the bright side, at least you��ll be able to see your teacher again. If I Were you, I��d think about how to persuade your teacher to save your foster father, or... you can choose to forget about this matter and ask for some other reward from your teacher.��


    ��Do you always talk so much?��


    ��It��s a long journey. I thought you��d like someone to talk with to relieve your boredom or something.��


    ��I prefer to travel with a mute person.��


    ��What a strange habit... but I guess you��ll miss me soon.��


    The train announced that that they had arrived at Jyu Pond Station. When the doors to the car opened on both sides, the shifty-eyed man got off the subway with the other passengers. Then, a new batch of passengers got on the train.


    Cheng Sihan saw an extra seat, so she sat in front of a little ghost. Then, she looked at the depressed little ghost proudly.


    ��Childish.�� Cheng Sihan snorted.


    ��I��m just used to finding some random entertainment.�� Beta made a face at the little ghost. In the end, the little ghost was so angry that he cried and buried his face in his mother��s thigh.


    Meanwhile, his mother was still seriously lecturing him that the subway should give priority to the elderly.


    But at this time, the culprit had turned his gaze back to Cheng Sihan. ��Senior sister, do you know why teacher chose me instead of you?��


    ��Didn��t you just get second ce in the first round of the proxy war? Are you going to keep bragging about it, or are you waiting for me to give you an award?�� Cheng Sihan mocked.


    ��It��s not just because of your strength.�� Beta shook her head. ��Of course, since you mentioned this, I will reluctantly ept your praise. But then again, do you really not know the reason why your teacher abandoned you?��


    ��Tell me.��


    ��You are too obsessed with saving your foster father,�� Beta said. ��That��s why you epted the teacher��s invitation and became his agent, right? For so long, you��ve been trying your best to imitate the teacher, learning his ability for disguise and deceit, his brutality and ruthlessness. You��ve tried your best to see and make choices from his point of view in every aspect. You��ve worked together with Seth and caused chaos in the three big guilds. You��ve done an excellent job. However, it��s not because you really want to do it, but because you think that you can win teacher��s favor. However, as far as I know, teacher didn��t praise you in the end. You are like a pug wagging its tail in front of its master, trying everything but getting nothing.��


    Cheng Sihan did not speak but clenched her fists.


    ��So, your problem is that you didn��t really get satisfaction and happiness from the pranks and tricks. It��s just like a top student. Even if he gets first ce in an exam, it��s all based on knowledge, and not a bit of his own soul. This is the biggest difference between us. You��re the most stupid and pitiful part in the teacher��s eyes. Of course, at least you��re not as hopeless as your sister. This is also the reason why the teacher sent me to the hospital tonight. If you can give up the idea of saving your foster father and devote yourself to it, enjoying the happiness brought by cheating, you can still be one of us.��

 Chapter 1085 - Platform

    <h4>Chapter 1085: tform</h4>


    Cheng Sihan was silent for an exceptionally long time this time. Her body was shaking slightly along with the subway car. The billboard outside the wall shed brightly as if ying a silent film.


    ��If I give up the idea of saving my foster father, will I be able to see Loki and regain my ability?��


    ��Of course,�� Beta nodded. ��Although the game organizingmittee stiptes that the gods can only choose one agent. You know teacher. He has never taken those rules seriously.��


    ��Okay, then I��ll give up on saving my foster father,�� Cheng Sihan said calmly.


    ��I knew you would say that,�� Beta said with a smile. ��Come with me.��


    Beta stood up, and the subway train arrived at the station again, and the doors opened.


    She got off the train, but she did not take Cheng Sihan to the exit, nor did she take the elevator to the train change tform. Instead, she walked to the end of the tform and waited for the train to leave before she jumped off the tform. When the staff was not paying attention, he shed into the tunnel at the side.


    Cheng Sihan hesitated for a moment before she jumped down with him.


    Then, Beta hopped forward. At the same time, she did not forget to remind Cheng Sihan, who was behind him, ��Be careful of your feet.��


    Cheng Sihan snorted and quickly followed. The two of them did not walk far before they heard the vibration of the tracks, which was getting louder and louder.


    Cheng Sihan��s heart tightened. ��The train is here,�� she reminded.


    ��I know.�� Beta smiled, but she did not have any intention of dodging. Instead, she stood in the middle of the tracks with one foot and closed her eyes. After about ten seconds, a speeding train emerged from the dark and brushed past her body, flinging her hair a little.


    The whole scene was thrilling but not dangerous.


    Beta opened her eyes and blinked. ��Look, it��s the car from next door.��


    ��You can��t be so lucky every time,�� Cheng Sihan said coldly.


    ��It��s not luck. Our car just passed, so I know it��s definitely the train from next door,�� Beta said. She then grinned and added, ��But this time, it��s our train.��


    Then, she jumped off the track and leaned against the wall behind her. Cheng Sihan followed her example and leaned against the wall of the tunnel. The next moment, the train shook violently again.


    Another train drove out of the darkness. Beta was right. This time, the train was from their side. The high-speed train whizzed past Cheng Sihan��s ears, and the airflow in the middle made her face hurt slightly.


    When the subway drove past, Cheng Sihan spoke again, her tone cold. ��I asked you to take me to see Loki, not to y some train guessing game here.��


    ��Don��t worry,�� Beta said. ��We��ll reach our destination soon.��


    After walking for about two minutes, Beta finally stopped and pointed at an iron door on the wall in front of them. ��That��s it.��


    As she spoke, she walked to the iron door and took out an iron key from her pocket to open the lock on it. Then, she took the lead and climbed down thedder.


    Although the iron door that suddenly appeared in the tunnel looked suspicious, Cheng Sihan had no other choice since the next train was about to arrive would arrive. So she could only grit her teeth and climb down the rusty irondder.


    Cheng Sihan was a little surprised by the scene that greeted her below.


    No one had expected that there would be a tform under the subway tunnel. However, it seemed to have been abandoned for a long time or, more precisely, had never been put into use. There was a lot of construction waste inside. The dust under their feet had umted to an unknown depth.


    Beta switched his phone to shlight mode and looked around. ��There was originally a subway line in the original ns, but that changed halfway through construction, and this line was abandoned.��


    ��I think I��ve heard simr stories. I thought it was just an urban legend, but it turned out to be true.�� Cheng Sihan frowned.


    ��Well, many rumors have a source,�� Beta said. ��But not many can find it.��


    ��Has Loki been hiding here recently?��


    ��No, no, no. Teacher doesn��t like this kind of dark and abandoned ce. He��s just here to visit a friend. I told you that he didn��t see you tonight because he had other things to do. In fact, if you hadn��t insisted, I wouldn��t have brought you here.��


    ��Who did hee all the way here to visit? Who would live in such a ce?�� Cheng Sihan asked in bewilderment.


    ��To be honest, I don��t know and don��t care,�� Beta shrugged. ��You asked me to bring you to him, so I brought you here. I have already fulfilled our agreement, so you have to walk the rest of the way on your own.��


    However, Cheng Sihan didn��t seem to want to let her go at all. Instead, she took out a small knife from her body and held it in her hand.


    Beta was a little surprised because she didn��t find the knife when she searched Cheng Sihan��s body.


    Cheng Sihan said calmly, ��I thought about what you said on the subway and found that what you said made sense. I do like someone to talk with me to relieve my boredom, and you like to talk so much. It��s perfect.��


    ��But I��ve already said what I should have said tonight, and I��m a little thirsty now, so I��m in a hurry to buy some water.�� Beta spread her hands.


    ��It��s okay. You won��t die even if you drink a little less water,�� Cheng Sihan said as she moved toward Beta. However, in the next moment, Beta turned off the shlight function of his phone, and the entire tform fell into darkness again. Only a tiny bit of light from the billboard above the iron gate was visible.


    Cheng Sihan used this bit of light to see Beta jump off the tform and run toward the tunnel ahead. Without hesitation, she chased after her. However, after about 20 meters, it became darker and darker, and she could barely see the road in front of her.


    Cheng Sihan didn��t want to go deeper into the darkness because she instinctively felt a sense of danger. However, she might lose Beta if she stopped. She knew Zhang Heng��s n very well. If she couldn��t find Loki, his agent Beta would be the best bargaining chip to lure Loki out.


    Therefore, Cheng Sihan only hesitated for a moment before continuing her chase. At this time, she couldn��t see anything, and she was stumbling. Fortunately, Beta��s situation wasn��t optimistic either, so neither of them could increase their speed. Thus, they chased each other in the darkness and were thrown about 200 meters away. Cheng Sihan was about to catch up with Beta in front, but the next moment, the sound of Beta��s footsteps suddenly disappeared.

 Chapter 1086 - The Tunnel

    <h4>Chapter 1086: The Tunnel</h4>


    In the dark and deep tunnel, only the sound of Cheng Sihan��s heavy breathing could be heard.


    With only silence around her, it was as if she had been abandoned at the end of the world. However, Cheng Sihan did not panic. The sound of Beta��s footsteps had disappeared. She had very likely stopped moving.


    If nothing untoward happened, she shouldn��t have gone too far. She should be somewhere nearby.


    It was only at this moment that Cheng Sihan realized Beta wanted her to hand over her phone and search her body. Not only was it to prevent her from getting help and exposing her location but to ensure that there was no light source on her body. In other words, she had been preparing for this moment for a long time.


    However, if this was how she wanted to escape, she would be underestimating Cheng Sihan.


    Since Cheng Sihan could hide a knife on her when she was not paying attention, she could also hide something else. In the next moment, Cheng Sihan took out a phone from her bag.


    This phone was not hers. It belonged to a female high school student in the car. There was a cute cat��s head hanging from it. Cheng Sihan had seen her gossiping about celebrities with her phone and memorized her password. Then, when she put the phone back into her pocket and was about to get out of the car, she stole her phone.


    Of course, all of this happened after Beta finished searching her body. Cheng Sihan had used the phone to send a location message to Fan Meinan before Beta left the iron gate. However, when Cheng Sihan turned on the phone��s shlight function, she couldn��t help but frown.


    Unlike what she had imagined, she couldn��t see Beta anywhere near her. It was as if Beta had really disappeared into thin air. Cheng Sihan raised the phone to her face and rechecked the surroundings, but she didn��t find any hidden passageways or exits nearby. At the moment, she was in an abandoned tunnel with thick concrete walls on both sides.


    Beta��s disappearance was like a magic trick.


    However, for Cheng Sihan and her world, such a thing was not impossible. Cheng Sihan had yed a simr trick in front of Zhang Heng not long ago. Beta was, after all, the second-ranked yer in the first round of the proxy war, and since she was also Loki��s personal agent, it would be strange if she did not have any trump cards to escape.


    However, Cheng Sihan couldn��t understand why Beta did not use it when she was in the hospital and on the road. She had to wait until here to use it. Perhaps, the items she was carrying could only be used here? Or was it purely to bring her here? Also, were some of the words she said on the subway true or false?


    Cheng Sihan looked at the seemingly endless tunnel ahead, then at the phone in her hand. Perhaps she was too deep underground that the phone had no signal, and she couldn��tmunicate with the outside world.


    Cheng Sihan hesitated for a moment and decided to go back the same way she came. She would wait for Zhang Heng and Fan Meinan toe over and discuss what to do next.


    Fortunately, she didn��t go too far ahead. ording to Cheng Sihan��s calctions, she had only run for about four to five minutes in the dark, and since she couldn��t see the road beneath her feet, she wouldn��t be moving that fast. Thus, as a result, it should only take her two to three minutes to turn on the shlight and go back.


    However, Cheng Sihan walked for a full six to seven minutes, but she still couldn��t find the tform she came from. What was even stranger was, this time, Cheng Sihan paid extra attention to her surroundings, and in the end, found no difference between this ce and the tunnel that was in use. Additionally, there were no forks in the middle, ruling out the possibility that she had taken the wrong path when she returned from the original path.


    Cheng Sihan didn��t overthink when she pursued Beta, but now that she was gone, she was the only one left in the tunnel, her heart sank. At the same time, the light from her phone cast her shadow on the tunnel��s walls. Warped and elongated, it looked looking abnormally strange.


    The Darkness before and behind her was bottomless, leaving only her lonely figure in the tunnel.


    .....


    On the other side, Fan Meinan had also received a message from Cheng Sihan. She rushed to the subway station with Zhang Heng, but they ran into a bit of trouble when they passed the security check. Zhang Heng��s equipment, whether the Hidden Scabbard or Pestilence Bone Bow, were too eye-catching. Thus, he had no choice but to find an extrarge travel bag to pack them all up. At the same time, he also managed to create a minor disturbance at the entrance, attracting the attention of two security guards not far away.


    After that, he and Fan Meinan swiped their cards through the gate, walked down the stairs, and arrived at the tform.


    Fan Meinan looked around, but there was no sign of Cheng Sihan or Beta, so he said, ��This is thest ce my sister sent me. What do you think she means? Does she want us to take the subway here?��


    ��It doesn��t look like it. This is the subway line that we first tracked. However, your sister��s phone somehow ended up on that thief��s body. She changed subway lines in the middle, but your sister and Beta should still be on the tracks at that time, so they should have gotten off here instead of getting on the train. However, if they were just leaving the station, your sister wouldn��t have taken the risk to send a message. Also, when they reached the tform, there��s a high chance that they��re still here.��


    ��I��ll go take a look in the toilet,�� Fan Meinan said.


    ��Okay, then I��ll try to find a way to adjust the surveince cameras.�� Zhang Heng raised his head to look at the few cameras on the wall. These cameras basically covered the entire tform. If he could find the video, he should find out what was going on here.


    However, Fan Meinan was a little worried. Unlike the security guards at the gate, the people in charge of monitoring in the surveince room would normally stay inside no matter what happened. Furthermore, there were more than one or two people in the surveince room.


    Of course, these peoplebined would be no match for Zhang Heng, but if he really used violent methods to get his hands on the video, it would cause quite a stir. This was, after all, the real world and not a pocket dimension.


    Logically speaking, this should have been the time for her to make her move. If she still had the ability to disguise herself, she could have pretended to be the leader of the subway station and swaggered in to watch the video.


    That ability had now disappeared, and even though Zhang Heng��s makeup skills were good, they were not good enough to disguise himself as another person without being recognized by his friends and subordinates.


    Nheless, Zhang Heng wasn��t too concerned about this.


    Fan Meinan spent less than five minutes watching the toilet. She then headed upstairs to the surveince room.

 Chapter 1087 - Surveillance Room

    <h4>Chapter 1087: Surveince Room</h4>


    Fan Meinan hesitated for a moment before reaching out to knock on the door of the surveince room.


    ��What��s the matter?�� An unfamiliar male voice came from inside the room, leaving Fan Meinan surprised. She believed Zhang Heng had already taken care of everyone inside, but instead, the employee in charge of the surveince camera was still there. Fan Meinan almost thought that Zhang Heng was no longer inside.


    However, she soon heard Zhang Heng��s voice. ��He��s okay. He��s a friend of mine.��


    After waiting for another five seconds, the door in front of Fan Meinan opened. A slightly chubby employee wearing sses popped his head out from inside and greeted Fan Meinan warmly. ��Come in quickly.��


    ��Ah, okay.��


    Fan Meinan was stunned for a moment before walking in.


    He saw Zhang Heng looking up at the video on the monitor and saw Beta jumping off the tform on the screen. Cheng Sihan hesitated for a moment before she took out her phone and quickly typed a few words before jumping off as well.


    The bespectacled staff member was also stunned by this. This... Thissted for a long time before he suddenly snapped back to reality. He grabbed the phone at the side as fast as he could, trying to sound the rm, but his hand was quickly pressed down by Zhang Heng.


    The bespectacled worker was taken aback.


    ��Leave this matter to us,�� Zhang Heng said. ��We��re here to handle this. Don��t worry, we won��t let you be responsible.��


    However, the bespectacled worker was obviously not at ease. After all, if something really happened, he would be severely punished for not reporting it.


    Zhang Heng added, ��This happened 25 minutes ago. If something did really happen, it would have happened a long time ago. Have there been any idents on the trains recently?��


    ��Now that you mention it, I remember. Previously, a driver reported that he saw someone on the tracks next door. However, after that, he said that he didn��t see anyone, so everyone thought that the driver was mistaken,�� the bespectacled worker said.


    However, he quickly added, ��But we can��t just leave this matter alone, or it��ll be all over if someone loses their life.��


    ��I know, I��ll take care of it,�� Zhang Heng reassured the guard. ��You wouldn��t have noticed anything if I didn��t check the surveince anyway, so just pretend that I didn��te.��


    ��Well...�� the bespectacled worker looked troubled.


    Then, after a moment, he said, ��You��re the person Inspector Han rmended. Of course, we��re willing to cooperate with Inspector Han, but we have our own rules and regtions here, so it��ll be very difficult for me if I deal with you like this.��


    Zhang Heng didn��t force the bespectacled worker. Instead, he asked, ��How do you usually deal with it, then?��


    ��This matter has to be reported to the leader. We��ll wait for the leader��s instructions, and under normal circumstances, the subway on this line has to stop,�� the bespectacled worker said.


    ��Okay, then we��ll do as you say,�� Zhang Heng said as he released his grip.


    Then, he left the surveince room with Fan Meinan. After closing the door, Fan Meinan finally asked the question she had been holding back for a long time.


    ��How did you convince him to let you watch the video? And who is this Superintendent Han?��


    ��I found a friend to help me contact the local police station,�� Zhang Heng said.


    He had found the person through Han Lu��s connections but he never expected Cheng Sihan and Beta to jump off the tform. ording to the bespectacled worker, the two of them must have found a way to leave the tunnel. No driver would have seen them otherwise.


    ��We need to take a look at that tunnel,�� Zhang Heng said. ��I��ll make another call. Even if we can��t go down alone, at least we can go with the subwaypany when they stop the line for inspection.��


    Zhang Heng didn��t know how Han Lu did it. Ten minutester, the subway really stopped running. Then, thepany called in the inspection team most familiar with the tunnel. Their routine work usually startedte at night. After thest train arrived at thest station, it was their turn. They would ride a trolley loaded with cranes, maintenance tools, and materials along the track to inspect the bolts along the way.


    Thus, they became the ones responsible for the search this time. The patrol team��s leader, a man from the northwest, named Ma Lu, found Zhang Heng and Fan Meinan. He looked like he was in his early forties. He spoke little and had that very calm look on his face.


    ��Are you guysing too?��


    ��Yes.�� Zhang Heng nodded.


    ��Okay, then follow me.�� Ma Lu wasted no time and said directly. Then he handed Zhang Heng and Fan Meinan a shlight.


    Zhang Heng carried therge travel bag and followed the patrol team down the tunnel. Other than the road, there were two other young men. Of course, they weren��t the only ones in the entire subway patrol team. It just so happened that they were on the night shift, a time where the others were still sleeping at home.


    It was only one station��s distance to the next station, so they had more than enough men.


    Without needing instructions, the two young men had already spread out to check the tracks. For the time being, they found nothing wrong. Very soon, they arrived at the iron door.


    The young man in front shone a shlight on it, and it shed past quickly.


    But at that moment, Zhang Heng noticed something.


    ��Wait.��


    ��What��s Wrong?�� Ma Lu stopped in his tracks.


    ��Is the lock on this door usually open?�� Zhang Heng asked Ma Lu.


    Thetter moved the shlight to an escape door and was stunned. ��Here? It��s been locked since I came to work here.��


    ��Is that so?��Zhang Heng looked at the dust on the door. It had indeed umted for a long time, but not long ago, traces of it being opened and fingerprints had been left on it. If nothing went wrong, Cheng Sihan and Beta were the ones who opened the door. So Zhang Heng continued to ask, ��What��s down here?��


    The two younger inspectors looked at each other in confusion, but Ma Lu, who had worked the job the longest among the group, knew something. ��Actually, I��ve never been down there before, but I heard from some of the older workers that there��s a subway line down there.��


    ��A subway line? I��ve taken the subway a lot, but I��ve never heard of it. It doesn��t appear on the map either,�� Fan Meinan said.


    ��That��s because the subway line has been abandoned before it��s actually built. The higher-ups apparently changed the construction n,�� Ma Lu said. He then turned to look at Zhang Heng. ��Do you think they��ve gone down there?��


    ��Very likely, from the looks of it,�� Zhang Heng said. ��But I don��t suggest you go down there. You can continue to check other ces along this road. Just let us search the rest of the ce. That way, you can resume your operations as soon as possible.��


    However, Ma Lu was clearly a responsible person. ��I��ll go down with you,�� h. Weresponsibleut hesitation,

 Chapter 1088 - Rescue

    <h4>Chapter 1088: Rescue</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    Ma Lu insisted on going down, but Zhang Heng could not find a suitable reason to refuse.


    He also knew that without his own people following the subwaypany, there was a high chance that they would not be allowed to run around in the tunnel. Therefore, Zhang Heng and Fan Meinan looked at each other and agreed to Ma Lu��s request.


    After that, Ma Lu asked the other two inspectors to continue searching along the tunnel while he took the lead and climbed down the irondder.


    The trio stepped on the rusted iron rails that creaked as it flexed, breaking the peace of the underground world below.


    When he first saw the abandoned tform, Ma Lu actually had the same feelings as Cheng Sihan. Although he had worked for the subwaypany for twenty years and had heard some sporadic rumors during that time, this was also his first time seeing this abandoned subway line.


    Afternding, he turned on the shlight in his hand and looked around carefully.


    This tform looked very simr to the tforms on the serviceable lines, but upon careful inspection, there was still a difference. It made sense. To meet the increasing passenger volume and modern travel needs, the tform above had undergone several upgrades throughout its lifespan.


    However, probably because of the sudden construction halt, this tform had perfectly retained its original appearance, retaining many features of a time gone by.


    While Ma Lu was looking at the buildings around him, Zhang Heng observed the footprints on the ground. Because no one had been here for a long time, a thickyer of dust had settled on the tform. An observation as such might appeal to those obsessed with cleanliness, but for Zhang Heng, it was because of the very presence of the dust that he was able to record Sihan and Beta��s movements perfectly.


    Zhang Heng could even infer from the footprints the two of them were standing and their movement speed. Following the footprints left by the dust, Zhang Heng turned his shlight toward the tunnel entrance not far away.


    ��Did they run there?��Ma Lu also noticed the footprints on the ground.


    ��One chased and one fled, yes,�� Zhang Heng said. ��And there are no footprints nearby, so they either left on another tform through this tunnel, or they are still in the tunnel.��


    ��Great! Then let��s go find them quickly.�� Ma Lu��s face lit up with joy.


    However, Zhang Heng was not as rxed as Ma Lu. Instead, he frowned slightly.


    ��What��s wrong?�� Fan Meinan noticed Zhang Heng��s serious expression.


    As far as she remembered, Zhang Heng was calm most of the time. A man with little expression on his face, he seemed to find a solution no matter how dangerous and harsh the environment was. This was her first time seeing Zhang Heng��s face produce such an expression. ��Did you sense Loki nearby?��


    ��I don��t know,�� Zhang Heng said. ��I just vaguely sensed that there was something in this tunnel. As for if it was Loki or someone else, I��m not sure.��


    Zhang Heng noticed that Ma Lu had already rushed into the tunnel, so he said to Fan Meinan, ��Let��s go. Your sister and Beta have already gone in. No matter what��s inside, we have to go for a while.��


    Leader of the patrol team, no one was more familiar with the tunnel than Ma Lu was. A regr person might be a little afraid and hesitant to enter that dark tunnel expanse in front of them, but all he could feel was a sense of familiarity. So, without hesitation, he stepped into the tunnel.


    As he walked, he shouted at the top of his lungs, ��Is anyone there?! I��m here to get you out!��


    The only response he got was echoes of his own voice. Despite the circumstances, however, Ma Lu wasn��t too discouraged. It had been almost 40 minutes since the two girls had jumped off the tform, and if the two of them had walked along the tunnel, they would have already been way ahead. Hence, he strode forward, calling out to them constantly.


    Zhang Heng and Fan Meinan were about two meters behind him.


    Under such circumstances, it was best for the three of them to remain silent. Since they did not know what dangery ahead, it was a bad idea to expose themselves too early.


    However, just like how difficult it was to stop Ma Lu from descending, Zhang Heng also found it hard to stop Ma Lu from yelling. After all, if this was a normal search and rescue operation, Ma Lu��s actions were more logical. On the other hand, Zhang Heng and Fan Meinan, who did not say a word, seemed rather inexperienced.


    Despite the ineptness of hispanions, Ma Lu did notin about the two of them. In fact, he did not know who they were since the higher-ups had asked for their participation in this rescue operation. Initially, Ma Lu was a little worried that Zhang Heng and Fan Meinan were the bossy kinds that liked to give orders blindly. Fortunately, the two of them had been very cooperative throughout the entire journey. They let him organize the work, but he followed quietly behind them. He did not interrupt them much, and he even reminded him to notice the locks and footprints on the iron door.


    Up until now, the rescue work had been going smoothly, even exceeding Ma Lu��s expectations. Next, they only needed to find the two girls who had jumped off the tform in this tunnel, and they would be able toplete the mission sessfully. Thus, Ma Lu cared little about the details, like Zhang Heng and Fan Meinan would follow him and shout.


    Fan Meinan showed Zhang Heng her phone, indicating that there was no signal. This also exined why Fan Meinan did not respond when she sent a message to Cheng Sihan.


    The three of them walked for about forty minutes before Ma Lu suddenly stopped and muttered, ��Strange.��


    ��What��s strange?�� Fan Meinan asked.


    She had been paying attention to her surroundings along the way. It had to be said that this tunnel gave people a rather gloomy feeling. Perhaps it was because it had been abandoned for too long that there was no sign of life at all. Moreover, the most amazing thing was that she did not even see a rat after walking for so long. Considering that there was no food or water for rats to live by, it was the most usible exnation.


    However, this was the most annoying thing.


    At least until now, Fan Meinan hadn��t seen anything special or noteworthy, but the scenery along the way was a little monotonous.


    ��We have walked a long distance, but why haven��t we seen the next tform?�� Ma Lu asked with a puzzled look.


    He was a subway employee and patrolled the line every day. Therefore, he was naturally more familiar with the tform-to-tform distance than the average person. The subway was originally built as a mass public transport tool to facilitate travel. Except for some special lines like the airport line, the distance between the stations wouldn��t be too great. They had, however, already walked for a full 40 minutes. Logically, they should have arrived at the next tform long ago.

 Chapter 1089 - Subway and Rumors

    <h4>Chapter 1089: Subway and Rumors</h4>


    ��This shouldn��t be an airport line either. Whether it��s the old or new airport, they��re not in this direction,�� Ma Lu muttered. ��What were the designers of this line thinking? Why did they make this section so long?��


    After he spoke, he turned to look at Zhang Heng and Fan Meinan behind him and apologized profusely. ��I didn��t expect the two stations to be so far from each other, and I didn��t bring any water. If you��re thirsty and tired, you can head back first. While you��re at that, might as well help me inform the higher-ups about the situation here and ask them to send a couple more people down.��


    Zhang Heng, however, shook his head. ��We��re not heading back until we find the missing people.��


    Ma Lu was stunned. He saw that Zhang Heng and Fan Meinan had been following silently the entire time, and they showed no signs of anxiety. He thought that they didn��t have much to do with the missing people, or at least weren��t rtives or friends. However, for some reason, he had no choice but to join them in the search.


    Thus, Ma Lu kindly suggested that the two of them go back. The main reason was that they had been gone for so long, and there was no cell connection down there. Hence, contacting the higher-ups was necessary, thus making it a win-win situation. He never expected Zhang Heng to reject it.


    After that, he heard Zhang Heng continue, ��I think you should go back. You��ve been shouting for so long, and you��re starting to sound a little hoarse. You need some water to rest.��


    ��I��ll be fine.�� Ma Lu shook his head. ��The sooner we find the two missing girls, the sooner we can be at peace.��


    After that, he saw that Zhang Heng and Fan Meinan had no intention of leaving, so he raised his shlight and continued forward. However, Zhang Heng was right. Ma Lu had been shouting for 40 minutes, and his mouth was getting dry. He stopped shouting after they left.


    The three of them walked forward silently.


    After about five minutes, Zhang Heng spoke again. ��Master Ma, you��ve worked for the subwaypany for quite some time, right? How much do you know about this line?��


    ��This is my first time here. In fact, I don��t think anyone from thepany has been here before,�� Ma Lu exined. ��Construction here stopped before this ce waspleted, so it was never handed over to the subwaypany. I don��t know its length, direction, and its number of tforms. To be honest, I didn��t even expect this tunnel to be so long. In fact, this section is basicallypleted. The construction materials seem fine, too. It��s a pity they just abandoned it like this.��


    ��Hmm... What about the rumors?��


    ��What?�� Ma Lu thought he had misheard Zhang Heng��s question.


    ��I remember you mentioning something about this ce in the past. Could you tell us about it?��


    ��Now? You want to hear about the rumors now?��


    ��Is there anything inconvenient about it?�� Zhang Heng asked.


    ��Well, because most of the rumors are ridiculous, and we happen to be in this tunnel right now. Even though I��m not superstitious, there are things that we should avoid.��


    ��Yes, but we have nothing to do now,�� Zhang Heng said. ��After walking for so long, everyone should be a little tired. Chatting eases the fatigue a little.��


    Ma Lu nced at Fan Meinan, who was standing beside him. He realized that the skinny girl didn��t show any fear, so he nodded. ��Okay, where do you want to start?��


    ��Why don��t we talk about why this subway line was abandoned,�� Fan Meinan began.


    ��The official story is that a change in administrative nning caused this line to be obsolete, so they stopped the projectpletely.��


    ��But in reality?��


    ��No one knows the actual situation,�� Ma Lu said. ��But when I first entered thepany, I did hear some old employees saying that the real reason this line was abandoned was that none of their workers were willing to continue work. From the construction of the project to the remaining third of the ce, people began to fall gravely ill. In the beginning, no one paid too much attention to it, though, thinking that it must be the workers themselves.


    ��At that time, machinery and equipment weren��t that advanced, and work was verybor-intensive. It was not umon that these workers usually suffered health problems. Typically, they would just recuperate for a while. But soon, when a second person fell ill... and then the third, the constructionpany began to pay attention. They reduced thebor intensity and increased venttion in the tunnel. They even went as far as to change the cooks at the construction site, but it was no use. More and more people kept falling ill. At this time, the diagnosis report of the first person who got sent to the hospital was also out.


    ��It turned out that it was not possible to find out the cause of the illness from routine examinations. His body functions were normal, but he showed signs of severe weakness, memory decline, and even developed cognitive impairment. Not only him, but several workers who were sent to the hospitalter also showed simr symptoms to varying degrees,pletely ruling out the possibility of a gic disease.


    ��The report did nothing to dispel the workers�� doubts and worries. Moreover, as the number of ill increased, the rest of the workers would start to panic one day. In the end, under the leadership of a few leaders, they went on strike together and were unwilling to continue work. The constructionpany had no choice but to transfer teams from other ces to rece the workers who went on strike. In addition, they even found experts to conduct inspections.


    ��The experts stayed here for two weeks, but unfortunately, found nothing. Eventually, they took some samples and left. Fortunately, there was a new batch of workers, and the project could finally continue. The good times didn��tst long, though. About half a monthter, another worker fell ill, and the symptoms were the same as the previous batch of workers.


    ��Moreover, this batch found out about the previous batch of workers from god knows where. Furious that the constructionpany hid the actual situation from them, they too went on strike after that.


    ��What��s worse was that this matter gradually spread among the workers. It wasn��t long before the constructionpany couldn��t find any workers who were willing to continue construction. At the same time, this matter had also alerted the higher-ups. After some research, they finally decided to abandon the railwaypletely,�� Ma Lu sighed.


    ��What about the sick workers? What happened to them after that?�� Zhang Heng asked.


    ��I don��t know. There are no more rumors about them,�� Ma Lu replied. After a pause, he added, ��But it��s said that this wasn��t the only thing that happened during the construction. Before the first worker fell ill, there were already workers who had gone missing.��

 Chapter 1090 - Unsolved Case

    <h4>Chapter 1090: Unsolved Case</h4>


    ��Missing?�� Zhang Heng raised his eyebrows.


    ��Yes. It is said that thest time a worker saw the missing person, it was around 2 am. He sat up from his bed and muttered a few words. Then, he put on his clothes, got up, and walked out of the room. At that time, his roommates thought that he had just gone out to use the toilet. They never expected him not to return.


    ��Later, the constructionpany gathered people to look for him. Only then did they find his hard hat and wallet in the half-built tunnel. However, they were unable to find him. It was as if he had disappeared into thin air. This incident also caused a small riot because the subway tunnel they were building did not have any forks. The end was also a dead end. No one could think of where to hide him.��


    Ma Lu hesitated for a moment before continuing, ��It��s because our city has been regarded as the dynasty��s capital for the past few centuries. At that time, there was a rumor circting in the construction team that this subway line had destroyed the underground dragon vein. The disappearance of that worker was a warning. This rumor became more and more popr after more and more people fell ill for no reason. However, the management of the constructionpany was more inclined to the idea that the missing person had actually been killed by the enemy. The safety helmet and wallet in the tunnel were just a trap set up by the murderer. As for why no one was found alive or dead, the murderer threw the body into the blender and mixed it with the concrete.


    ��A spection of this sort is indeed more realistic, especially since the missing person had an emotional dispute with another worker on his team. The two happened to be from the same vige, and the suspect liked a girl from there. The dowry was originally agreed upon, but the missing person interfered and added 30,000 yuan to the dowry. As a result, the two became enemies, and the suspect had a credible motive for murder. Later, the police conducted an investigation, but perhaps due to outdated testing at that time, they were unable to find any substantial evidence and had no choice but to release the suspect.��


    Zhang Heng nodded. ��Do you know what the missing person said before he left the house?��


    ��The worker who lived with him didn��t hear it clearly because he was half-asleep. He said that he only heard one sentence, something that sounded like the water was a little cold.��


    ��The water was a little cold?��


    ��It was quite strange because it was summer at the time. It hadn��t rained for a few days, and there weren��t manykes and rivers nearby. Perhaps he dreamt of his hometown while he was sleeping.�� He didn��t really believe in such things, though, and usually only heard it in casual chats after dinner.


    But as he had said, the three were now in this subway tunnel, and they hadn��t seen the next tform even after walking for so long. Combined with the rumors he had heard, Ma Lu couldn��t help but shudder, no matter how big he was.


    However, the culprit that caused all of this didn��t seem to have much of a reaction.


    Furthermore, to Ma Lu��s surprise, Zhang Heng opened his mouth and said, ��I��m close to understanding what happened to the missing worker.��


    Ma Lu was stunned when he heard that. After a moment, he said, ��What?�� ��What are you saying? That��s just a legend. Furthermore, it��s been so long since we were at the scene that night. The police at that time were unable to investigate the matter, so how do you know what happened?��


    ��It��s simple. Because we��re experiencing the very thing that��s happened to him,�� Zhang Heng said calmly.


    His words seemed to have caused the temperature in the tunnel to drop by a few degrees.


    Ma Lu��s heart turned cold, and he forced a smile. ��Now is not a good time to joke around.��


    ��Indeed,�� Zhang Heng admitted. ��Unfortunately, I��m not joking around.��


    As he spoke, he stopped and picked up a coin from the ground in front of him. ��I dropped this coin 30 minutes ago.��


    ��What do you mean?�� Ma Lu was a little confused.


    ��It means we��re going in a circle,�� Zhang Heng said.


    ��How is that possible?�� Ma Lu��s eyes widened, ��There are no forks in this tunnel, and we haven��t turned back. We��ve been walking in one direction. Even if we did go in a circle unknowingly, we should have seen the tform we came from.��


    ��Logically speaking, yes,�� Zhang Heng said. ��But the situation we��re facing now can not be exined bymon sense.��


    ��My friend, have you gotten too engrossed in the story I told you earlier?�� Ma Lu smiled bitterly. He turned his gaze to Fan Meinan, hoping to get some support from him; however, Fan Meinan��s face showed that he hadpletely epted Zhang Heng��s exnation. After that, he asked with a serious expression, ��Did you find anything else?��


    ��Time is still ticking.�� Zhang Hengpared the starfish on his wrist to the time on his phone, and he found that the timing was the same.


    Even though the starfish watch was a birthday present from Zhang Heng��s parents, it had a lot to do with the old man. Whether it was in the pocket dimension or the real world, its speed remained the same. Therefore, as long as it waspared to the phone, it was easy to see a problem with the time.


    In addition, Zhang Heng was also keeping an eye on his physiological condition. Up until now, at least, his metabolism had remained at a normal level. In other words, what they were facing now was not a problem simr to a time loop, more like someone had unwittingly picked out a section of the tunnel from the beginning and connected it to the end, forming a closed loop.


    Was It Loki��s doing?


    It sure sounded like his style butbined with the story before this. Zhang Heng didn��t think it was Loki��s doing, or at least it wasn��t to deal with them. This had, after all, happened more than 50 years ago when the subway line had just been built. If nothing went wrong, the missing worker had been trapped in this tunnel with no exit or entrance.


    However, the other party was different from them. He seemed to have been summoned to enter the tunnel. Before he left, he mentioned water, which should be a key information point. However, the scope was too wide, so Zhang Heng didn��t have any leads at the moment.


    ��So, is this a hallucination?�� Fan Meinan asked as she reached out to touch the wall. The feeling on her fingertips was extremely real. She could even clearly feel the roughness and coldness of the stone wall. Then, Fan Meinan picked up a small stone and threw it on the other side of the stone wall. It bounced off and did not pass through the wall.

 Chapter 1091 - The Endless Tunnel

    <h4>Chapter 1091: The Endless Tunnel</h4>


    Seeing Zhang Heng and Fan Meinan��s reaction, Ma Lu became a little shaken himself.


    However, he still found it hard to ept these surreal things. The concept of an endless tunnel sounded utter ridiculous.


    However, he did see Zhang Heng pick up the one-dor coin from the ground. Logically speaking, no one had entered this tunnel since it was abandoned 50 years ago, and at that time, this one-dor coin hadn��t even been designed yet. This indicated that the coin had been tossed not too long ago.


    Of course, there was another possibility, and that was the two people who had jumped off the tform earlier. Thinking of this, Ma Lu��s eyes lit up again. He felt that he had found the only possible exnation. He, however, did not understand why Zhang Heng would lie about this matter. After contacting the other party, he insisted on listening to him talk about the rumors here. Zhang Heng appeared to be deliberately turning the atmosphere into a scary one.


    It was only then that Ma Lu remembered that he actually did not know the identities of Zhang Heng and Fan Meinan. Previously, he did not care much about this matter. After all, as long as one was not a neer in the workce, they would know that it was better to avoid unnecessary trouble. Zhang Heng and Fan Meinan were arranged by the higher-ups to participate in the rescue operation, and Ma Lu had always been very polite to the two of them.


    But now, he couldn��t help but feel a little apprehensive about Zhang Heng and Fan Meinan��s true identities. They had been behaving from the start, and their focus was different from that of ordinary people. What surprised him more was what happened next. Ma Lu saw Zhang Heng put therge backpack he had been carrying on the ground.


    He opened the zipper on the top and took out a longbow from inside.


    Although the bow was wrapped in white cloth, Ma Lu instinctively felt a chill. When Zhang Heng untied the white cloth and revealed the authentic appearance of the bow, Ma Lu inhaled sharply.


    It was the first time he had seen such a cool-looking longbow. The body of the bow looked like it was made of bones. It had a pale white luster that was unique to bone stubble. Coupled with its ferocious appearance, it reeked of ominous tellings.


    Since he already had a bow, it was impossible he didn��t have arrows.


    Ma Lu then saw Zhang Heng pull out an arrow pouch from his bag. He took out an antique-looking arrow from it and ced it on the white bone bow.


    When the arrow was pointed at Ma Lu, he felt all his blood rushing to the top of his head. For some reason, he felt like he had nowhere to hide. Fortunately, Zhang Heng opened his mouth and asked politely, ��Ma Lu, can you give me some space? Move aside, please.��


    Ma Lu was frozen solid for a good half-minute before he finally reacted and hurriedly moved away.


    Zhang Heng actually didn��t know if this method would work. Now that the three of them were trapped in this endless tunnel, they couldn��tmunicate with the outside world and couldn��t use their navigation. If they continued to walk like this, the end result would be simr to the fate suffered by those who disappeared more than 50 years ago.


    Therefore, Zhang Heng had no choice but to do something about it. He studied the items on his body and realized that the most likely one toe in handy in this situation was the Paris Arrow.


    This arrow featured a capability of automatically hitting the target��s weakness after it left the bow.


    On the surface, this characteristic did not seem to help the three of them in their current predicament. However, during the battle against Zavilcha, Zhang Heng had used the Paris Arrow to find out the real body of the monster.


    It was also at that time that he discovered that the Pris Arrow also had a certain navigation bonus. Of course, this bonus wasn��t that easy to activate. Previously, when Zhang Heng used the Paris Arrow, the target must be within his line of sight, or at least within his line of sight before the arrow left the bow.


    In other words, if Zhang Heng could not see the enemy, he could not use the arrow to track them. However, there were exceptions. When he was dealing with Zavilcha, for instance, Zhang Heng had aimed at the melted wall. The Paris Arrow, however, led him to Zavilcha��s real body in the library.


    In other words, whether ventriloquist or puppet, it would be recognized as a part of the real body, which triggered its weakness attribute. However, Zhang Heng was not sure how great its range was.


    He wasn��t even sure if what they were experiencing was an illusion or something else. Zhang Heng only decided to use the Paris Arrow to try out its effects here. If it didn��t work, he would consider other options.


    In order to observe thending point and direction of the Paris Arrow, Zhang Heng didn��t fully draw the bow. When he released his finger, the arrow left the bowstring and flew forward without hesitation.


    Fan Meinan observed the trajectory of the arrow with her shlight nervously. In the end, he realized that the Paris Arrow was flying straight forward. There was nothing out of the ordinary about its trajectory, then, and when its kic energy was exhausted, it was pulled down to the ground by gravity.


    Did it fail?


    Zhang Heng walked to the spot where the arrow hadnded and picked up the Paris arrow from the ground. After hesitating for a moment, he did not put it back into his travel bag. Instead, he put it back on the Pestilence Bone Bow and raised it. This time, Zhang Heng did not point the darkness in front of him but aimed directly at the wall to his right.


    Ma Lu blinked. He had no idea what Zhang Heng was trying to do. It was already strange enough that he had shot an arrow into the darkness for no apparent reason, but now, he was targeting the wall of the tunnel. Perhaps he hoped that this arrow could make a hole in the wall and lead everyone out of here.


    Just as these thoughts ran through Ma Lu��s mind, Zhang Heng loosened his grip on the arrow. The arrow on the white bone bow flew out again, but then Ma Lu saw something that almost made his eyes pop out of their sockets��just before the arrow was about to hit the wall, it suddenly turned around for no reason and continued to fly forward,nding about 30 meters away.


    What the heck was that?! This time, Ma Lu was genuinely shocked. If the one-dor coin from before could be exined, he really couldn��t exin what was happening before him. This arrow thatpletely defied physics caused his back to be soaked by streams of cold sweat.


    Zhang Heng, too, was a little surprised, never expecting the Paris Arrow to have really worked. Before it flew forward, it was because the target was really in front of it. After that, Zhang Heng changed direction, and the Paris arrow automatically corrected its trajectory. Zhang Heng continued to work hard, repeating the action of shooting and picking up the arrows. He paid special attention to keeping the arrow in his field of vision every time.


    In the end, after about fifteen minutes, the three of them actually walked out of the tunnel and saw another tform.

 Chapter 1092 - The Strange Sound of the Station

    <h4>Chapter 1092: The Strange Sound of the Station</h4>


    Ma Lu finally heaved a sigh of relief when he saw the tform. The main thing was that what had taken ce tonight was indeed a little too bizarre.


    Whether it was the two people that jumped off the tform and disappeared, the ridiculously long tunnel, the dor coin Zhang Heng picked up along the way, or the extremely retro equipment that he was wearing now... all were unheard of by Ma Lu.


    Coupled with Zhang Heng��s conclusion that he had fallen into a loop, even an atheist like Ma Lu couldn��t help but feel a little shaken. It was not until he saw the tform that his heart rate, which had been rising, gradually slowed down.


    This time, Ma Lu was careful. He first looked at the tform in front of him. He was sure that this tform was not the same as the one they hade down from, even though the shape and appearance of the two were almost identical, but upon careful inspection, he could still see some differences.


    First of all, there was no irondder above this tform that could go to the tunnel above their heads. Secondly, there was no pile of construction waste on the tform this time, which made it seem mainly empty. Moreover, miraculously, there was no dust on the ground. Instead, it was shining as if something was constantly rubbing against it. However, Ma Lu was disappointed that he did not see the two missing people on the tform.


    He nced at the dark tunnel entrance not far away and hesitated, which was rare. It was mainly because the previous stretch of road was too long, and Ma Lu did not know if the tunnel would be as long as the previous one.


    When he led the search team, he never expected the missing person toe here. He was not well-prepared, and he did not bring any food or water. After shouting for so long, he was thirsty, and even if they did find the missing person, they would still have to walk a long way before they could return. After some thought, Ma Lu had no choice but to adjust his original n. He suggested it to Zhang Heng and Han Lu.


    ��The situation seems a little out of our control. Let��s go back and tell the higher-ups about what��s happened here.��


    However, to his surprise, Zhang Heng shook his head and insisted that they would not leave until they found the missing person. Then, Zhang Heng looked at him and added, ��I advise you not to turn back.��


    ��Why?��Ma Lu was confused.


    However, Zhang Heng found it to exin. The tunnel they walked through was obviously problematic, and all who entered would fall into a certain repeating loop. Zhang Heng did not know if Cheng Sihan and Beta were also trapped in this cycle. Although he could use the Paris Arrow to get out, it was impossible for him to return to the tform he had just arrived at.


    No matter what caused the anomaly, it was at this end of the tunnel and not the first tform. The Paris Arrow could lead him here, but not to his starting point.


    In other words, Zhang Heng and Fan Meinan had no other choice. Whether they wanted to find the missing Cheng Sihan or return to the surface, they had to find the owner of this ce first.


    Hearing no exnation from Zhang Heng, Ma Lu pursued the matter no further. No matter how slow he was, he could still sense that something was wrong with the situation here. Although he still did not quite believe in this loop idea, he also felt that it was better not to act alone at a time like this.


    ��Should we continue forward like this then?�� Ma Lu illuminated the tunnel ahead with his long shlight. It was still dark there, and it was impossible to see where it led to.


    ��No.�� Zhang Heng pointed at the tform beside him. ��Let��s go up.��


    Thest Paris Arrownded in the direction of the tform, which meant that the thing should be hidden in this station and not the tunnel ahead.


    As Zhang Heng spoke, he climbed up the tform easily and retrieved the Paris Arrow. Then, he reached out to Fan Meinan, wanting to pull her up as well. However, at that moment, a rumbling sound came from above his head. It sounded like thunder, shaking the entire station to its core!


    ��Is it an earthquake?!�� Ma Lu��s heart tightened.


    However, the tremors only happened once, but then there was an even stranger noise. It was as if something was dragging a train across the ground.


    Just hearing the sound made Ma Lu instinctively fearful. Fortunately, the sound quickly disappeared, and after about half a minute, the station returned to normal.


    Having juste back to his senses, Ma Lu realized that Zhang Heng had pulled back his Pestilence Bone Bow. He knelt with one knee on the ground and aimed at the stairway.


    ��What was that thing just now?�� Ma Lu��s heart rate rose again. He had believed that after witnessing so many strange things, nothing could scare him anymore. He now realized that he was still too optimistic.


    ��I don��t know,�� Zhang Heng said. ��But it��s obviously a big thing.�� He paused and added, ��Let��s go. We��d better follow it.��


    ��Are you serious?��Ma Lu was shocked by Zhang Heng��s next n. His voice was already so scary, but Zhang Heng still wanted to see the real thing? For the first time, Ma Lu began to doubt whether it was a wise decision to follow the two of them down here.


    Zhang Heng, on the other hand, was very considerate. He even said, ��If you��re worried, you can stay on this tform and wait for us toe back. Just don��t wander off.��


    Before Ma Lu could reply, he heard a rustling sound again, but it was a very soft one this time, like something brushing against a piece of paper. If it hadn��t been for the silence in this godforsaken ce, Ma Lu might not have been able to hear it.


    He could barely tell that the sound came from the tunnel ahead. Therefore, Ma Lu turned his shlight over and saw a ck figure crawling out of the tunnel entrance.


    With the light from the shlight, Ma Lu could tell that it was a small snake. It was probably a verymon brocade snake. It was not poisonous and was about a meter long. It slithered swiftly with its forked tongue constantly probing the air in front of it. When the shlight shone on it, its body stiffened, it stopped moving.


    Ma Lu did not usually like snakes, but looking at this tiny one, he felt that it was somewhat delicate and pretty.


    The main reason was that he really did not know how things would turn out based on the strange atmosphere tonight. Terrified that something unknown would crawl out of the tunnel, his heart could bear no more stimtion. This was also the first other creature they had seen in this seemingly forgotten world. Ma Lu could not help but feel a sense of familiarity in his heart.


    However, the small silk snake opposite him did not seem to think so. It did not stay stiff for long before it coiled up and put on a vignt look.

 Chapter 1093 - Colossus

    <h4>Chapter 1093: Colossus</h4>


    The small snake tried its best to straighten its neck, attempting to give itself a more menacing countenance.


    This was also the mostmon posture of serpent-like creatures when encountering an enemy. However, because it wasn��t thatrge and wasn��t poisonous, it was just a bluff no matter how much it changed its posture.


    From the expression on Ma Lu��s face, it could be seen that he did not take the small snake��s threat seriously. However, his ease onlysted for a few seconds, and then he heard a rustling sound.


    If the rustling sound before was like someone shaking a piece of white paper, now it was like tens of thousands of pieces of white paper being shaken together. The sound was not loud, but when it gathered together, it made one��s hair stand on end.


    Ma Lu felt all the blood in his body freeze, especially when he saw the scene in the tunnel through the light of the shlight.


    He saw that the walls and the ground of the tunnel were now crawling with densely packed snakes. Not only were they snakes, but they were pit vipers, pythons, cobras, water snakes... Ma Lu had never seen so many snakes in his entire life. It was as if he had walked into a snake museum. Moreover, many of these snakes had different habitats and living environments. He did not know how they gathered in this abandoned subway line from all over the world.


    And how would they hunt and obtain food when so many snakes lived together?


    But this was obviously not the time for this because those snakes were already scrambling toward the tunnel entrance as if supporting the small snake. Moreover, they did not stop after crawling out of the tunnel. Very soon, they crept towards the three of them again.


    ��What do we do now?��Ma Lu was so anxious that his forehead was covered in a cold sweat.


    He didn��t really care if it was a single serpent, but there was clearly a wave of snakes in front of him. There was nock of venomous snakes either, not to mention therger pythons. As long as they were bitten by the former, considering the length of the tunnel. Ma Lu didn��t think that he would be able to walk to the surface to receive treatment. As for pythons, they were even scarier. These snakes could even swallow water buffaloes. They either gorged on their prey until they overate or died from overeating. It had always been the rule for pythons to hunt.


    Zhang Heng didn��t immediately answer Ma Lu��s question. Instead, he reached out to pull fan Meinan up the tform. He then said to Ma Lu, ��Looks like you have no choice but to follow us upstairs.��


    Ma Lu instinctively resisted when he thought about the loud rumbling and the dragging sound that followed. Reason told him that it was better to stay away from that thing, butpared to the snake tide that was right in front of him, the unknown threat was still further away.


    It might be dangerous to go up, but staying here was definitely a dead end. Therefore, Ma Lu didn��t need to hesitate to know what to do. He buried his head in Zhang Heng and Fan Meinan��s heels and ran up the stairs.


    The three moved as fast as they could. Since the tform itself was of a certain height, the first batch of snakes couldn��t climb up for the time being, and the three of them had already reached the stairs. However, Ma Lu didn��t expect Zhang Heng to stop after running a few steps.


    Ma Lu wanted to ask what had happened, but he soon saw the situation in front of him. Something was blocking the exit of the stairs. It was huge, and it had gray skin. Looking like an elephant lying on the ground, it had to be some sort of creature.


    Ma Lu thought there must be something wrong with his eyes. He was looking at an elephant in a subway station that had been abandoned for fifty years.


    Typically, he would have tried to figure out what was going on, but he hadn��t forgotten that he was running for his life. Without saying anything, Zhang Heng and Fan Meinan turned around and ran toward another staircase.


    However, unlike this staircase, the other staircase was closer to the snake tide. Now that some of the snakes had climbed onto the tform, the three of them had no choice but to speed up.


    Ma Lu was originally at the back of the group, but he turned around and ran in front. Of course, if Zhang Heng really released his maximum speed, he would surpass Ma Lu very quickly. However, to ensure the well-being of Fan Meinan beside him, not only did he not move faster, but he deliberately slowed down.


    Even so, Fan Meinan still found it very difficult to keep up with him. Compared to thest time they met, she was in a way worse condition. Having walked through a very long tunnel, Fan Meinan had used up quite a bit of her energy, and she was panting heavily after just two steps.


    Zhang Heng simply took off his Pestilence Bone Bow and squatted down in front of her. ��Get on my back.��


    Fan Meinan knew that this was not the time to be unreasonable. Without hesitation, she climbed onto Zhang Heng��s back and took the Pestilence Bone Bow from Zhang Heng��s han without hesitationds.


    With this dy, Ma Lu had pulled the two of them about twenty meters away.


    He took the lead and rushed up another flight of stairs right before the sea of snakes convergedpletely. He ran toward the second floor, but when he turned around, he realized that Zhang Heng and Fan Meinan were no longer behind him.


    Ma Lu��s heart sank. He thought that he had been abandoned, but he soon saw Zhang Heng running toward them with Fan Meinan on his back. However, there were already a lot of snakes climbing up the stairs in front of them and were about to lose their footing.


    Therefore, Ma Lu started to worry about the two of them again. However, he could only stare at them from above. There was nothing he could do,


    On the other hand, Zhang Heng��s face showed no signs of panic.


    Zhang Heng held the travel bag in one hand and used the other hand to pull out the Hidden Scabbard from his waist.


    With a sh of a knife, a soldering iron head in front of him was cut into two pieces. Zhang Heng stepped on the body of the soldering iron head and ran up the stairs. The Hidden Scabbard in his hand did not stop. Soon, he cut off another tiger snake that tried to attack him.


    At the same time, Zhang Heng found the secondnding spot and stepped on it with his sneakers. The surrounding snakes started to move, but before they could do anything, they were already cut into two.


    Zhang Heng then danced the Hidden Scabbard into a light screen to protect himself and Fan Meinan. He blocked the snakes that were about to attack them while clearing the path for himself.


    In Ma Lu��s eyes, Zhang Heng was like a meat grinder. He had killed countless snakes along the way, and no snakes could get close to him and Fan Meinan. Even the snakes that tried to attack him from behind were easily decapitated by him.


    Finally, Zhang Heng carried Fan Meinan on his back and met up with Ma Lu again. The three of them arrived at the second floor of the station and saw the thing blocking another staircase. However, they realized that it was not an elephant at all, it was a humongous sperm whale!

 Chapter 1094 - Desperate Snaketide

    <h4>Chapter 1094: Desperate Snaketide</h4>


    The only thing more ridiculous than an elephant appearing in a station was a sperm whale.


    If he hadn��t seen it with his own eyes, Ma Lu would��ve never believed that such a massive beast that thrived in the vast oceans would be stranded in an abandoned underground railway station. The sperm whale in front of him was actually still alive, probably a little dispirited after leaving the ocean. Lying on the ground, it had little strength to struggle anymore.


    Ma Lu recalled the rumbling sound he had heard earlier, as well as the earthquake that disappeared as suddenly as it appeared. Now, it seemed that it wasn��t an earthquake but something else that had thrown this huge whale here. Weighing in at over 60 tons, the colossal mammal fell to the ground, causing the entire station to tremble.


    The size and weight of a whale far exceeded that of any othernd creature. Ma Lu didn��t dare to think about how big the thing that had dragged it here should be.


    Zhang Heng also noticed the sperm whale, but he didn��t have the time to deal with it at the moment. Even though the three of them had run up to the second floor, they weren��t out of danger yet. The most important thing now was to keep a distance from the snaketide.


    Zhang Heng looked around the second floor. On his left and right, two tunnelsid side by side. These should correspond to the four entrances and exits of the subway station, but the tunnels in different directions were quite a distance apart. Zhang Heng had already made the wrong choice once before, so he wasn��t in a hurry this time. He calmed himself down and thought carefully for a moment.


    In the end, he chose the two tunnels on his right because the thing that had thrown the sperm whale on the second floor had left in that direction. Zhang Heng heard the loud dragging noises from that direction; even though that thing was probably more dangerous than the snake tide, at least it proved that this path could be taken.


    However, just as the three of them were about to reach that ce, they saw a despairing scene. They saw another dense mass of ck shadows surging out from the two passageways.


    ��How could this be?!�� Ma Lu felt unstable as he felt the world around him spinning wildly.


    They didn��t know how to deal with the snake tide behind them, much less expect a new wave of enemies. Moreover, the three of them were caught in the middle of the two waves of snake tide so that they couldn��t advance or retreat.


    Ma Lu had never been in such a desperate situation before. He looked around at the densely packed snakes as if going to drown the entire station. Ma Lu really couldn��t imagine what the three of them could do to survive such a situation.


    Just as he was about to give up and resign himself to fate, he heard Zhang Heng say to him, ��What are you waiting for? This way.��


    Ma Lu saw Zhang Heng Run to a pir, put fan Meinan on his back, and then open his travel bag. So, Ma Lu also rushed over. He had hoped that Zhang Heng��s travel bag would contain some killer weapon; in the end, all he saw was Zhang Heng pouring out a pile of Lego parts.


    ��...��


    Ma Lu didn��t know what to say. Thest thing he expected to see was Zhang Heng in the mood to y with Lego blocks at a time like this, especially after knowing that a few snakes were approaching.


    Zhang Heng, however, acted as if he didn��t see them. He continued to focus on the Lego blocks in his hands. It wasn��t until the snakes were less than half a meter away from Ma Lu that Zhang Heng pulled out his Hidden Scabbard again. With a single sh, the snakes were decapitated.


    Ma Lu, however, was not optimistic. Compared to the swarm of snakes in front of him, the ones that Zhang Heng had dealt with were just a drop in the bucket. Furthermore, Zhang Heng dealt with the snakes that were already swarming over him with one hand while his other was still piecing together the blocks.


    Ma Lu really did not know what kind of magical attraction those blocks had. They were making Zhang Hengpletely disregard his life.


    As the number of snakes in front of them increased, it started to be impossible for Zhang Heng to defend himself with a single de. Fan Meinan and Ma Lu had no choice but to join in the battle, but they did not have any weapons in their hands and could only use their shoes to kick the snakes away. Fortunately, Zhang Heng chose a good spot. The three of them had their backs against the stone pirs, so they only needed to deal with the enemies on three sides. They did not need to guard their backs anymore.


    However, the situation was only temporary. As more and more snakes crawled out from the two tunnels not far away, it was getting harder and harder for the three of them to see the space around them.


    ��Buy me two minutes,�� Zhang Heng said to Fan Meinan without raising his head.


    ��Okay.�� Fan Meinan wasted no time and pulled out a piece of chocte from her pocket. Even though her special ability had disappeared, she still had a few game items on her. This piece of chocte was one of them, and it was just the right item for this situation. Previously, she was pinching it when she was lying on Zhang Heng��s back. However, Zhang Heng had told her that she didn��t need any help for the time being, so she put it back into her pocket.


    Now, Fan Meinan broke off a piece of chocte the size of a fingernail and threw it into the group of snakes. Then, all the snakes started to go crazy. Theypletely forgot about the three and swarmed toward the chocte. A snake that had almost reached the feet of the three of them was in a hurry to turn around and snatch the piece of chocte. Unfortunately, they were toote.


    The piece of chocte was swallowed by a corn snake as soon as itnded on the ground. However, before it could savor the taste of the chocte, another green bamboo snake beside it bit into its body. Due to the protection of the scales, however, the bamboo green snake was unable to bite the corn snake��s flesh. However, its angry action seemed to have pushed some buttons.


    Then, thepanion next to the corn snake seemed to have suddenly woken up and rushed to bite it... not long after, the corn snake waspletely eaten up. Not even a bone was left. The snakes regained their calm, too, turning around again to slither towards the three of them.


    Fan Meinan did the same thing again. She broke off another piece of chocte and threw it over, causing the snakes to fight for the food again. The good news was that every time she threw the chocte, it would buy the three of them about 20 seconds of safety. The bad news was that the bar of chocte in her hand was getting smaller and smaller.


    Until she threw out thest piece of chocte, the group of snakes experienced another period of restlessness. Fan Meinan wanted to throw the chocte again but found only some residue left in the tin foil.


    Fan Meinan threw the remaining residue and the tin foil into the distance, but she snakes didn��t seem so obsessed, probably because there was not so much chocte this time. After the tin foil was swallowed by a snake, the snakes next to it did not attack it anymore. Instead, they surrounded the three people from all directions.

 Chapter 1095 - T-148

    <h4>Chapter 1095: T-148</h4>


    Fan Meinan subconsciously took half a step back. She had no way of stopping the snake swarm after using up that piece of chocte. Although she still had two items on her, they weren��t of much use at a time like this. Ma Lu, on the other hand, was an ordinary person, and she couldn��t count on him. In fact, it was impressive enough that he hadn��t been scared shitless already.


    Fortunately, Zhang Heng��s voice came from behind them.


    ��Alright, leave the rest to me.��


    Ma Lu turned around and realized that the pile of Lego bricks in front of Zhang Heng had disappeared. In its ce were two metal canisters that were as tall as a person. They were connected to each other and had a pressure monitor and safety valve on top. At the bottom was a hose connected to something that looked like a methrower.


    Now, the nozzle was in Zhang Heng��s hand.


    After Ma Lu and Fan Meinan retreated behind him, Zhang Heng pulled the trigger and a terrifying pir of fire shot out the muzzle. The terrifying, over-60 meter-long inferno engulfed almost everything in front of it. Wherever the mes passed, many snakes were directly roasted. Some were even burnt to charcoal, and the air was filled with the smell of burnt flesh.


    When Zhang Heng finished his first me injection, there were almost no other living creatures within 25 meters of them.


    The T-148 methrower was manufactured by the Italianpany TIRENA. First appearing in the 1980s, it was used to deal with arge number of enemies and strong fortifications. In other words, it was a piece of equipment that was used on the battlefield to gnaw on the toughest bones. It was an extremely powerful weapon, not to mention that Zhang Heng had also expanded its fuel capacity.


    The standard T-148 methrower could shoot up to 18 times, while the ��plus�� version that Zhang Heng had assembled with Lego and Infinite Building Blocks could be used at least 30 times. When he pressed the trigger, Ma Lu, who was a meter behind him, could also feel an astonishing heatwave, causing his hair to curl involuntarily.


    What surprised Ma Lu more was that he had no idea where Zhang Heng got this set of equipment. Just a few minutes ago, Zhang Heng had been lying on the ground ying with his pack of building blocks.


    However, too many unbelievable things had happened that night, and Ma Lu was already somewhat numbed by it. He knew that even if he opened his mouth, Zhang Heng might not be willing to exin it to him.


    After burning at least a few hundred snakes in one go, Zhang Heng put down the airbrush and picked up the Hidden Scabbard by his feet. He started to deal with the new batch of snakes that were crawling toward them. With a swing of his knife, the few snakes quickly followed in the footsteps of theirpanions, and when the snakes behind them gathered again and increased in number, Zhang Heng picked up the airbrush again.


    After repeating this a few times, the whole station looked as if it had been roasted in a furnace. Although there were still snakes slithering out of the tunnel, it was unknown if it was because they werepletely terrified of the corpses of theirpatriots, or because they did not like high temperatures that fewer and fewer snakes wereing toward them.


    On the contrary, the body of the sperm whale was already crawling with all kinds of snakes, densely packed together. These snakes were constantly eating the whale��s flesh, as though enjoying a feast. In addition, there were also snakes crawling into its head through its pores.


    ��This is...�� Ma Lu too was attracted by this cruel scene. He even temporarily forgot that they weren��tpletely out of danger yet.


    ��That��s right. This sperm whale is here because something wanted to feed the snakes in this ce,�� Zhang Heng said lightly as he casually cut off a ring snake that was trying to crawl to his feet.


    He then dusted it with the T-148. He could basically confirm that although the snakes in front of him were a mixture of different species, some even endangered or dered extinct, they were essentially just ordinary snakes with no mutation.


    As for why the three of them were targeted by the serpents, it wasn��t because someone was behind the scenes, secretly controlling the swarm, or if the group of snakes really wanted to support the small snake. It was purely because the three of them were unlucky. They just happened to be at the dinner time of the snake group and were mistaken for food along with the sperm whale.


    ��Who? No, what kind of thing feeds a whale to a snake?�� Ma Lu was shocked.


    He only asked this question subconsciously because he had already asked Zhang Heng once during the earthquake. Zhang Heng did not know what they were up against, so Ma Lu didn��t expect to get an answer.


    However, Zhang Heng actually answered him this time.


    ��I can roughly guess whose territory we are in.��


    ��Who?�� Fan Meinan raised his eyebrows.


    ��You��ve been Loki��s agent for some time, so you should have done some research on him. You know that besides his wife, Sigurn, Loki also had three children with the female giant, Angelboda. These three children are much more famous than his and Sigurn��s two children.��


    ��The earth-shaking monster Fenrir, the earthly Python Jemengard, and the goddess of death, H. They��re simr to the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. When they appear, it means the end of the world is nigh!�� Fan Meinan replied fluently before a look of realization appeared on his face. ��We met Jemengard?��


    Jemengard, the second child of Loki and the female giant Angelboda, was Fenrir��s younger brother, H��s older brother, Thor��s sworn enemy, and the rumored Python with a huge body. As soon as Jemengard was born, he was regarded as a major threat to Asgard by the main god Odin. It was a disaster that would befall Asgard.


    Therefore, Odin threw him into the bottomless sea of the mortal world when he was young. When he grew up, his body became bigger and bigger. He stretched his body and bit his tail, enveloping the entire mortal world, therefore, he was also known as the giant snake that surrounded the atrium.


    In the twilight of the gods, Jemengard met his mortal enemy Thor. A fierce battle broke out between the two of them. In the end, Thor hit Jemengard��s head with his hammer, and Jemengard injected the venom into Thor��s body. The two eventually died together.


    .....


    ��I should have thought of it earlier. The Ouroboros itself means both the beginning and the end. It has the meaning of an endless cycle. That��s why we were trapped in that endless tunnel. There were also those construction workers who suffered from strange diseases. They must have been unknowingly poisoned by Jemengard��s poison. It was also Jemengard who brought this sperm whale, which was originally roaming in the deep sea, here to feed the snakes in the tunnel,�� Zhang Heng said.

 Chapter 1096 - Song of the Whale

    <h4>Chapter 1096: Song of the Whale</h4>


    While Zhang Heng and Fan Meinan were talking, Ma Lu didn��t say a word. But now, he couldn��t hold it in anymore. ��I��m sorry, but what you said about Loki and the female giant are all code names, right?��


    Middle-aged men like Ma Lu, who had grown and young children, were mostly busy earning money to support their families. They didn��t have much free time left, and their usual entertainment was very simple. They just watched football with their brothers and friends and drank a few bottles of beer. He didn��t go to the cinema or read any novels, so he didn��t know much about mythology, especially western mythology.


    Therefore, the names that Zhang Heng mentioned were unfamiliar to him, but he could tell that the characters in the story were not ordinary people, especially people like Thor. It was just like the folk legends of thunder and lightning that he had heard when he was young.


    Now that Zhang Heng and Fan Meinan were discussing the monsters in the legends, Ma Lu could not help but feel a sense of absurdity.


    Zhang Heng did not exin in detail. He only said, ��You just have to treat our opponent as a giant snake.��


    ��How big is the giant snake?��


    ��I don��t know yet, but it��s definitely not as big as the legend says,�� Zhang Heng consoled.


    Yemengarde was also known as the giant snake that circled the atrium.


    However, if it was really as big as the one recorded in Norse mythology, its body should circle the Earth once. This was obviously not possible. In fact, the supernatural creatures Zhang Heng had seen so far were not as powerful as the original story. Otherwise, even ten Avengers would not be able to save any of them.


    However, to drag a sperm whale to the station... this Yeomengard was definitely not small. Furthermore, based on the rumors that Ma Lu had told him about the abandoned subway line, it was already certain that this Yeomengard could also spew poisonous fog, as the legends said. In addition, it seemed to be able to control people��s minds to a certain extent.


    The worker that went missing more than 50 years ago was summoned into the tunnel by Nightmare Gad. The Endless Tunnel that the three of them had just passed through also had a certain hallucinogenic attribute. Other than that, there was also the group of snakes that it reared.


    If these snakes were randomly picked out, even the most poisonous of poisonous snakes wouldn��t cause much trouble. Even an ordinary person like Ma Lu would be able to deal with them as long as they paid attention. However, with such arge group of snakes charging at them��if Zhang Heng did not have the Infinite Building Block, he would have probably died before he even saw the real thing.


    However, the current situation was not entirely a bad thing for him. Although Zhang Heng had arrived at dinner time of the snakes, the snakes had also arrived at Zhang Heng��s Barbecue Party.


    Zhang Heng did not have any intention of saving fuel. After all, the T-148 in his hand would turn into Lego building blocks again in an hour. Thus, when he saw that the snakes had given up on attacking them and were gradually moving away from the high-temperature area, he did not n to let them go. He asked Ma Lu to assist him in dragging the two oil cylinders forward by about 50 meters and arrived in front of the sperm whale.


    Thetter was now like the piece of chocte that Fan Meinan had thrown out, firmly attracting the snakes. Its huge body was crawling with colorful snakes. Almost no skin was exposed, making it look like a tall snake mountain, where tens upon tens of thousands of snakes crawled on it. It was indescribably bizarre.


    For some reason, its originally hard and rough skin had be as soft as jelly, allowing the poisonous snakes with only two fangs to devour its flesh and blood with ease.


    Zhang Heng��s approach to the sperm whale also caused amotion among the snakes. Therefore, some of the snakes that couldn��t squeeze onto the whale��s back wanted to find another ce to eat, but what awaited them was the sharp de of the Hidden Scabbard.


    Ma Lu also noticed that not only was Zhang Heng��s knife skills outstanding, but when he used the Tang knife-like weapon to sh at the snakes, it was like cutting butter with a hot knife. He easily sliced the target in half without any resistance��some of the snakes did not even realize that their heads had been cut open. They continued to crawl forward until their heads fell to the ground after another two steps.


    Just as Ma Lu was marveling at the sharpness of the Hidden Scabbard, Zhang Heng, who was in front of him, let out a soft exmation of surprise.


    Zhang Heng walked closer and realized that the sperm whale, which had been reduced to a group of snakes for lunch, was notpletely dead. Its eyeballs had been eaten long ago. However, the two bloody holes were still slightly undting, and there was a steady flow of blood flowing out of them. It was as if it was crying for its own fate.


    Zhang Heng stopped in his tracks and raised the T-148 in his hand. ��Looks like you��re not willing to be eaten just like that. In that case, let me send you on your way.�� With that, he pulled the trigger of the spray gun again, the thick pir of fire mercilessly charged toward the dying sperm whale.


    Feeling the heatwave from behind, the snakes that were still eating started to feel uneasy. There was even amotion. Some of the snakes stopped their mouths and stood up in alert. However, in the face of the oing fire, this instinctive action did not work.


    Soon, the snakes were engulfed by mes. Because the body of the sperm whale was too big, Zhang Heng even turned the muzzle a few times to ensure that the fire burned every inch of the whale��s skin.


    The fuel used by the T-148 was extremely mmable, and the whale��s body was rich in blubber. All Zhang Heng had to do was light it up. Under the burning pir of fire, the whale quickly turned into a huge candle. Even though Zhang Heng had moved the methrower, the mes on its body did not go out. Instead, they burned brighter and brighter.


    However, the sperm whale did not show any signs of pain. In fact, it even let out a whale��s cry in the midst of the raging mes.


    This was the first time Ma Lu had heard a whale��s cry, and it was at a subway station. No one would believe it even if they heard it.


    The voice sounded melodious and low as ifing from the depths of the deep ocean. It contained a faint sense of loneliness. However, Ma Lu did not know if it was his own misconception��he detected a hint of undetectable joy from the loneliness. It was as if the sperm whale assassin hadn��t reached the end of its life but had returned to the deep sea and swam freely in the ocean.


    Zhang Heng also heard the whale��s cry, but his hands didn��t stop moving. He continued to burn the open space around the giant whale with a pir of fire. There were still many snakes that hadn��t been able to climb up the sperm whale��s body before. If nothing went wrong, they might have to face off against Yermenga in the future. Zhang Heng didn��t want to face a sea of snakes at that time, so he used this opportunity to clear out the monsters before the boss battle.

 Chapter 1097 - PeaChapter Flavor

    <h4>Chapter 1097: Peach vor</h4>


    In the end, Zhang Heng was unable to finish the fuel in the two oil cylinders.


    Because the station was almost surrounded by thick smoke and fire, the reinforced concrete built the station didn��t burn easily. The station had also been abandoned before it was used, and since it wasn��t renovated, nobustible materials had been installed either. However, as the sperm whale was set aze, the situation began to change, and with the corpses of the snakes on the ground, the fire gradually grew.


    Nheless, at the moment, most of the snakes had been dealt with by Zhang Heng. There were still a few hundred that escaped the, but they wouldn��t be causing much of a stir. As a result, the three of them retreated into the tunnel not far away with the T-148.


    Until then, Ma Lu was still in a daze. He looked as though he could not believe that the three of them had really survived the snake tide. When he saw the sea of serpents twenty minutes ago, Ma Lu thought that he was dead for sure. In the end, not only did they survive, but with the tool of an arsonist in front of him, Ma Lu��s confidence had greatly increased.


    Even though Zhang Heng said there was still a huge snake waiting for them, from Ma Lu��s point of view, no matter how big the snake was, it would not withstand such a ferocious artificial methrower. As long as there was still fuel in the tanks, they would be invincible. However, Zhang Heng, who was beside him, was not as optimistic.


    Yeomengard was not the first supernatural creature that Zhang Heng had dealt with. Zhang Heng did not forget that when he first became the agent of the elder in the Tang suit, they worked together to kill the monster called Moresby. Thetter turned out to be the totem of a tribe called the Arkoz in Papua New Guinea. After the Arkoz was destroyed, Morseby was basically forgotten by the world.


    However, that battle was still filled with peril. Even if the Tang-suited elder borrowed a tool suspected to be the spear of fate, it was still only a narrow victory. Of course, Zhang Heng was still an ordinary person at that time and didn��t have as many skills and top-tier tools as he used to. The old man was the main damage dealer in that battle, so Zhang Heng was just a bystander.


    Then, he met the vic mythological creature Zavilcha. He could control the wall to attack, but Zhang Heng found his real body and used time freeze to kill him. However, the previous battle had been tough, and these were only small characters that were almost forgotten by the world.


    The most powerful enemy Zhang Heng had encountered so far was Pestilence, one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. He had been sent to the resuscitation room with just a light touch, and his heart had stopped beating for a moment. Pestilence, however, was also the one who had died the most unjustly among his many opponents. Until now, Zhang Heng still had not fully figured out how he killed the White Knight.


    However, after that incident, Zhang Heng was certain that he was hiding some secrets. After going through the alien dungeon and the trip to the ind, he had unlocked a part of his power. However, it was still far from the level of fighting Pestilence.


    Zhang Heng did not like the feeling of fate being out of control. Furthermore, this time, the enemy he was facing was not some minor character, a Midgardian snake, as famous as the White Horse Knight. Like the giant monster that appeared in the twilight of the gods in the final chapter of Norse mythology, Yemengard��s name was also widespread. Even to this day, its presence could still be seen in several literary and film productions.


    Therefore, the following battle would not be easy either. Zhang Heng did not choose to chase after the giant snake immediately, even though he could guess that Cheng Sihan, who had entered first, would not be in a good situation right now. He did not know whether she was alive or dead, but since they were already so far behind, Cheng Sihan probably did not mind waiting a little longer.


    Zhang Heng used this time to make some preparations, the main reason being waiting for the one-hour usage time of the Infinite Building Block to pass. Then, under Ma Lu��spletely befuddled stare, he dismantled the T-148 that had turned back into Lego building blocks.


    It wasn��t that Zhang Heng hadn��t considered using the T-148 to deal with the Nightmare Gad directly or that he could further assemble some heavy weapons with greater single-point lethality, such as an RPG-29 rocketuncher, an anti-material sniper rifle, or even portable anti-air missiles. In the end, he gave up on this tempting idea.


    Because no one knew how effective these modern weapons would be against supernatural creatures, especially when dealing with a mythological behemoth like the Nightmare Gad, Zhang Heng wouldn��t be surprised if the giant snake��s skin could withstand fire or even missile attacks.


    Thus, the T-148 might not be as effective in the following battles as before. But, on the contrary, the Hidden Scabbard, Pestilence Bone Bow, and Parris Arrow on his body were easier to deal damage to.


    Of course, the safer method was to use modern weapons tounch long-range attacks on Nightmare Gad first. Then, if the effects were not enough, he would switch to other tools to fight. However, the Infinite Building Block required an hour to deplete each time it was used. Only then could it be reassembled into something else.


    Zhang Heng didn��t think that Nightmare Gad would give him that much time. Furthermore, as someone who had read Norse mythology, Zhang Heng held a deep impression of Thor��s death.


    Although Thor used his own hammer to kill Nightmare Gad in the end, he himself had died from inhaling too much poisonous fog during the battle. Zhang Heng had to be prepared for this, and after some thought, he decided to put the Lego bricks into a gas mask and put it in his travel bag. However, he didn��t rush to insert the Infinite Building Block.


    ��How��s your condition? Can you still walk?�� Zhang Heng asked Fan Mei.


    Thetter was leaning against the wall, taking the time to close her eyes and recover her lost energy. Hearing that, she opened her eyes and nodded. However, Zhang Heng could tell that Fan Meinan wasn��t in a current condition.


    The loss of energy was secondary. The three of them had been on the abandoned subway line for quite some time. During that time, they had not replenished themselves with any food or water. In addition, Zhang Heng had just lit a huge fire, causing the temperature at the station to rise continuously. This caused Fan Meinan to appear slightly dehydrated. In reality, it was not just her; Ma Lu��s mouth was also blistered with dried and cracked skin.


    However, Ma Lu was in generally better health, so he was fine.


    ��Wait for me for a while,�� Zhang Heng said to the two of them. Then, without waiting for Fan Meinan to answer, he stood up and walked back to the hall on the second floor. Zhang Heng walked back with arge bag of snake corpses that hadn��t been roasted due to the smoke.


    He first used the remaining Lego blocks to make a bottle of mineral water. He inserted the Infinite Building Block and poured in the water. If the water were drunk, it would turn back Lego bricks in an hour.


    Then, Zhang Heng used a knife to cut open the snake��s body. He took out the bile and squeezed it into the bottle. He repeated this action until the bottle was filled with bile.


    ��Don��t tell me you��re going to let me drink this.��Fan Meinan��s expression changed slightly when he saw the bottle of bile. ��Although I��m thirsty, I��m not that thirsty.��


    ��Don��t worry, I��ll add some seasoning for you,�� Zhang Heng said as he took out a small bottle cap from his bag and ced it on the bottle. The next moment, a miracle happened, the bottle of bile, which looked suspiciously rich, turned into a pink soda.


    ��You��re in luck. This time, it should be peach-vored.��

 Chapter 1098 - Death, Underground Cave

    <h4>Chapter 1098: Death, Underground Cave</h4>


    [Name: Pinball Soda]


    [Quality: F]


    [Effect: When this cap is ced on any container, the liquid within can be turned into a pinball soda with a random taste.]


    After Zhang Heng obtained this F-grade item, he tried it out a few times and realized that the taste of the soda was indeed very random. It was not just normal soda like the apple and strawberry that had appeared on the market before. Some weren��t verymon, such as durian and bitter melon. There was nothing wrong with drinking them, just that it tasted neither good nor bad.


    After giving Fan Meinan the drink, Zhang Heng made two more bottles for Ma Lu and himself.


    Ma Lu��s bottle was slightly overturned, and it was tomato-vored. Zhang Heng received a bottle of sea salt-vored soda. The trio waited for a while more until the Infinite Building Block��s cooldown was over before they set off again.


    Fan Meinan��s face had regained some color, but from the sweat on her forehead, it could be seen that she was not at ease. This was also the day she worked out the most since her illness had worsened. However, she gritted her teeth and did notin.


    The tunnel was not long, and it was supposed to lead to the surface, but the end had been sealed by cement. Even though Ma Lu had already predicted this oue, this subway line had been abandoned for decades, and other than the tform they came down from, it wasn��t easy to find a direct path to the outside world. When he saw it with his own eyes, he was still a little disappointed.


    However, his eyes soon turned to the huge hole in the ground in front of him. Ma Lu was sure that this hole was not in the original n. Thest thing any designer with a brain would do was dig a trap for the transiting passengers in the exit tunnel of the subway station.


    Furthermore, the shape of the hole didn��t seem to be regr. It didn��t look like it had been dug by a machine. Instead, it looked like something had broken through the concrete structure and drilled out from underneath.


    Ma Lu found it hard to imagine what creature could actually breakthrough a few meters of solid concrete. What kind of terrifying power was that? While he was trying his best not to let his imagination run wild, Zhang Heng and Fan Meinan were already standing by the side of the tunnel. Zhang Heng shone his shlight down.


    It was clear that the tunnel was very steep. It was almost 70 degrees from the ground��s surface, and one could not see the bottom. The bottom side was quite smooth, making it look like a huge slide.


    Zhang Heng thought of the ground on the tform that he had seen before. It was the same as this hole. There was no dust there, and it was shining. Now that he thought about it, it was probably the result of the snakes crawling over it.


    Zhang Heng used the Hidden Scabbard to cut out a fist-sized stone and threw it into the hole. Not long after, he heard the sound of the stone falling to the ground. He estimated the depth of the hole to be about 30 meters, meaning it was definitely not possible to jump down just like that. Fortunately, it was only smooth on the bottom side. The two sides of the stone wall were full of potholes, so it should be easy to climb down from there.


    However, to be on the safe side, Zhang Heng, who had Lv1 rock climbing skills, decided to give it a try himself. Zhang Heng first stepped on a protruding piece of cement stone. He loosened his grip on the wall after he steadied himself and moved his other foot to another climbing point.


    Everything had gone smoothly up to this point, and Zhang Heng did not encounter any trouble.


    However, just as he moved hisst arm away from the hole and was about to continue to extend his leg downward, an ident happened. The ce where Zhang Heng��s other foot was standing suddenly copsed, and immediately, the support point on Zhang Heng��s left hand also shattered from within.


    Based on Zhang Heng��s climbing experience, the ces he had chosen were all excellent. Furthermore, considering the sturdiness of the cement, logically speaking, it should not be able to withstand such a small amount of strength.


    However, now was obviously not the time to dwell on such things. Amidst Fan Meinan and Ma Lu��s exmations, Zhang Heng��s had already started to fall. However, there was not much panic on his face, even though he was not wearing any safety ropes.


    Zhang Heng had his own way of coping. As he fell, he took a deep breath and pulled out the Hidden Scabbard from his waist. Then, he thrust it forcefully into the cement wall above his head.


    The result was out of his expectations. The resistance from the de was not as strong as he had imagined. Of course, this was due to the sharpness of the Hidden Scabbard. However, the main reason was that the cement wall did not have the hardness that it should have. Zhang Heng immediately realized something when he connected it to the previously broken support point.


    Yemengarde clearly had some method to corrode the target and change its internal structure on a molecr level. Not only the cement wall in front of him but also the sperm whale that had been reduced to food for the snakes. Its body had also be extremely soft, like arge blob of jelly. It could only be eaten by the snakes.


    As the Hidden Scabbard was inserted into the wall, Zhang Heng��s fall gradually came to a stop. Then, he reached out to grab a new support point.


    Zhang Heng tried it out. In fact, as long as he didn��t focus all his weight on one support point like before, the situation where the support point suddenly shattered wouldn��t happen again.


    As he stabilized his body, Fan Meinan��s concerned voice came from above. ��How are you? Are you hurt?��


    ��I��m fine,�� Zhang Heng immediately reported. Then he paused and continued, ��But it looks like both of you won��t be able to climb down.��


    ��It��s okay. We can find another way down. Or you can use LEGO blocks to help us build adder.��


    ��Actually, I have a better suggestion,�� Zhang Heng said.


    ��What is it?��


    ��How about the two of you stay up there? I��ve already cleared out the snakes nearby. There shouldn��t be any danger up there for the time being.��


    ��Then, you��re going to deal with Nightmare Gad Alone?�� Fan Meinan frowned. ��Are you worried that we��ll be a burden to you? I can still be of use. Have you forgotten that I was the one who bought you time to deal with the snake tide?��


    Ma Lu opened his mouth to say something, but after thinking about it, he realized that he had not been of much help, so he could only shut his mouth again.


    ��...��


    ��No, I��m just more used to fighting alone,�� Zhang Heng exined patiently.


    He knew that with Fan Meinan��s personality, he would not let him face Nightmare Gad alone. Moreover, Fan Meinan was probably not trying to be brave when he said he could help him. Fan Meinan had once said that even though she had lost the power that Loki had given her, she still had three game items on her. Other than the piece of chocte that she had used previously, she should still have two props in her hands. However, Zhang Heng did not want Fan Meinan to get involved in the subsequent battles. With Fan Meinan��s current condition, it would be too difficult for her to handle such a high-intensity battle.


    Zhang Heng��s original n was to walk a little further and find a safe ce to knock Fan Meinan out so that Ma Lu could take care of her. However, with this hole in the ground, he could stop Fan Meinan from walking any further.

 Chapter 1099 - Vanishing From the Face of the Earth

    <h4>Chapter 1099: Vanishing From the Face of the Earth</h4>


    Zhang Heng climbed down the uneven wall toward the bottom of the pit. As he had to maintain his weight bnce during the climb, he couldn��t move too quickly. The 30-meter-distance wasn��t too great either, and he quickly reached the bottom of the pit. After taking a quick look at his surroundings to ensure no danger, he waved his shlight upward.


    This was the signal that Zhang Heng and Ma Lu had agreed on. When Ma Lu saw the light from the shlight, he knew that Zhang Heng hadnded safely. He then tossed his bag down.


    Zhang Heng heard the sound of falling from the top of his head. He moved aside and waited for a muffled sound before his bag fell to the ground beside his feet.


    Zhang Heng picked up his bag and dusted it off. Only then did he start to look at his surroundings carefully.


    In front of him was an underground pit with a diameter of about 60 meters. Other than the tunnel he came down from; there was no other entrance. However, there was a pool in the middle, but strangely, there was no sound of watering from the surroundings. The entire pool was unusually quiet. Not even a single ripple was visible on the surface of the water.


    Zhang Heng shone his shlight down, but he could only vaguely see the outline of a huge shadow.


    Due to the distance and theck of light, Zhang Heng was able to make out what that thing was. Hence, he took out his Filter Lens. This time, however, the Filter Lens that had worked so well before failed as well. It did not allow Zhang Heng to see the true face of the thing below.


    However, to be on the safe side, Zhang Heng made preparations in advance for the battle.


    After the incident with the ind, he had identally gained the ability to breathe underwater and control water flow. Now, he did not need any oxygen equipment to stay underwater for a long time and controlling the flow of water allowed him to move faster, or he could use the flow of water to disrupt the enemy��s movements.


    Even the best diver in the world could not move underwater as freely as he did now. However, Zhang Heng knew very well that if he were topare it to the legendary nightmare that had always lived at the bottom of the deep sea, his underwater ability would not be able to gain many advantages.


    Furthermore, his primary offensive weapons, be it Hidden Scabbard or Pestilence Bone Bow or the Parris Arrow were all equipment that needed to be ced onnd for maximum effectiveness. Therefore, Zhang Heng preferred to ce the main battlefield on the ground.


    Therefore, the first thing Zhang Heng needed to do was lure Gad��s nightmare out of the pool.


    Since there was no one else around, Zhang Heng took off all his clothes and ced them in the corner of the pit along with the props in his bag. These were not professional diving suits. They could not maintain his body temperature after entering the water; the loose clothes would increase his resistance in the water and slow his movement speed.


    Even though this wasn��t a great distance��considering the opponent he was facing this time, any small difference could affect his life and death. In the end, Zhang Heng only chose to bring a Hidden Scabbard to protect himself.


    In any case, if everything went as nned, he would soone out of the pool. He hid the Pestilence Bone Bow and Paris Arrow behind a rock closest to the pool so he could retrieve them as soon as he came ashore.


    After that, Zhang Heng returned to the pool and tested the temperature of the water with his foot. He realized that the water wasn��t as cold as he had imagined, and he did not feel any difort after waiting for a while. Thus, Zhang Hengpletely submerged his body into the water.


    Tying the Hidden Scabbard around his waist, he controlled the flow of the water to allow himself to sink toward the shadow below. Zhang Heng was unsure if it was just his imagination, but after jumping into the pool, he didn��t feel as nervous as before the great battle. On the contrary, when the water surrounded him, he felt a vague sense of familiarity. Zhang Heng could also feel slight changes in his body. Ever since he returned from the ind, he had be more and more fond of water.


    This reminded him of the huge astrbe-like dome in the pce on the ind. The half-man, half-fish creatures wanted to use him for some kind of ritual, but he interrupted them halfway and escape. Zhang Heng, however, knew that something had already begun.


    In fact, after returning, Zhang Heng had dreamed of the underwater ruins several times. In the dream, he had crossed the underwater tunnel alone and returned to the underwater pce. He raised his head to look at the dome.


    The stars were rotating continuously there as if responding to a certain desire in his heart.


    .....


    Zhang Heng collected his thoughts and pulled himself together from his memories. He had already dived about ten meters, but there was still some distance between him and the shadow. The shadow did not react. It was as if he did not realize that an uninvited guest had arrived at his house.


    Therefore, Zhang Heng intentionally increased his diving speed to avoid attracting the other party��s attention. He soon realized he was wasting time.


    As the depth grew, Zhang Heng was finally able to see what the thing at the bottom of the pool looked like.


    It was a huge snakehead almost the size of the pool! It had a pair of cunning and evil eyes, sharp teeth, and a-shaped grayscale. Its mouth was wide open, and it maintained its hunting posture as if it was going to jump up from the bottom of the pool in the next moment and swallow the prey on top.


    When Zhang Heng first saw it, he was shocked as well. He thought that ye Mengadde was waiting for him to fall into the trap and almost controlled the current to send him ashore. However, after he rose five meters, he realized that the snakehead below showed no reaction. It was still eager to pounce, so Zhang Heng stopped again.


    After a moment of hesitation, Zhang Heng pulled out his Hidden Scabbard and tried to slow himself down again. This time, he finally saw the real face of the snakehead.


    It was not a living thing at all, but a stone statue!


    However, the extremely realistic carving gave off a lifelike feeling, especially when its two red eyes were directly iid with rubies. If Zhang Heng hadn��t seen it with his own eyes, it would have been hard to believe that there was such arge ruby in the world. Its diameter was more than two meters, and it gave off an indescribable feeling of evil luster under the water.


    Zhang Heng slightly increased his speed of diving. Allowing himself to get close to the stone carving snakehead.


    Only by standing in front of it could one realize how outstanding its carving skills were. It was not inferior to the masterpiece of any artist in the world. However, when Zhang Heng saw that his gaze had shifted away from the snakehead and looked around the bottom of the pool, there was no sign of its owner.


    If everything went ording to n, it would return to the pool after dragging the sperm whale to the station. Unless it simply disappeared into thin air, it should still be here.

 Chapter 1100 - The Red Island

    <h4>Chapter 1100: The Red Ind</h4>


    Zhang Heng spent some time searching the bottom of the pool once more to confirm that Jermaine Gardner was indeed not here. Just like the pit above, there was no other entrance or exit to the pool.


    Thus, Zhang Heng shifted his gaze to the head of the stone carving snake. This time, Zhang Heng was no longer attracted by the pair of ruby eyes. He no longer paid attention to the lifelike carving techniques, focussing his gaze instead on the mouth of the snake.


    Zhang Heng��s heart skipped a beat. He suddenly understood what this stone carving was used for.


    It was not an underwater sculpture of a work of art but a door!


    The entrance to this door was in the snake��s mouth, which was wide open.


    However, even if an ordinary person realized this, it would probably be difficult for them to ovee the fear in their heart and really swim into the snake��s mouth. This was especially so when coupled with the outstanding knife skills of this stone carving, not to mention the pressure that the snake��s mouth was exerting.


    However, Zhang Heng did not have such concerns. Ever since he joined the game, he had been losing his emotions, especially when it came to fear. It had been a long time since Zhang Heng had experienced what fear felt like.


    Before entering the snake��s mouth, he carefully examined the stone carving. After confirming that there were no traps or traps on it, he grabbed the Hidden Scabbard and swam in.


    What greeted Zhang Heng was darkness.


    Since the Filter Lens couldn��t be used, Zhang Heng could only illuminate a small distance in front of him with his shlight. Furthermore, the moment he entered the snake��s mouth, he was sucked into a turbulent flow.


    This surprised Zhang Heng as well. The pool didn��t seem to have any fluctuations from the outside, and during his descent, he didn��t encounter natural currents other than the ones he had created himself. With Zhang Heng��s current control and perception, he could clearly feel that the pool waspletely stagnant.


    However, after entering the snake��s mouth, it was as if he entered another world. The current suddenly became faster, and it was apparent that there was more than one. Zhang Heng felt as if his body was being pulled by countless hands.


    He tried to control the current to counteract the impact and stabilize his body. However, thanks to the irregr current, the variance, and the power in each force, the only thing that remained was that there was no sign of it appearing or disappearing. Zhang Heng himself found it difficult to shake off the influence of the water thoroughly, so he could only try not to crash into the walls around him.


    He did not know how much time had passed, but he was carried along by the flow of water until a hole appeared in front of him, which ended the exciting roller coaster ride.


    Zhang Heng noticed that the flow of water around him slowly slowed down until it disappeared, and he even saw a glimmer of light he hadn��t seen in a long time.


    Had he already returned to the outside world from the abandoned subway line?


    If he had known that he would be able to leave here, Zhang Heng would have asked Fan Meinan and Ma Lu toe down as well. Even though they both couldn��t breathe underwater as he could, Zhang Heng could easily make a diving suit with the Infinite Building Block around. Thus, he brought the two of them out one by one. Of course, it wasn��t toote. He could turn around and pick them up.


    However, since he was already here, Zhang Heng decided to explore the surroundings first. At least he knew where he was now. He looked at the starfish in his hand. It had been about 15 minutes since he had entered the snake��s mouth. By multiplying the speed of the current, he could calcte how much distance he had traveled. The environment he was in now was different from before; it was very spacious.


    This way, Zhang Heng could lock onto the reservoir or the river near the station.


    But then, Zhang Heng was stunned because he noticed the figure approaching him not far away.


    This was the first time he had seen a living creature after entering the tunnel. The one swimming toward him was a fish, a verymon one at that. However, ording to Zhang Heng��smon sense, this fish should not be here.


    ��because it was a clownfish.


    The clownfish got its name from the white stripes on its face, much like a Beijing Opera clown. However, the problem was that it was a tropical saltwater fish, and it could not survive in freshwater.


    Could this clownfish be an illusion created by Yemengarde? Zhang Heng swam forward for a while, but he saw more saltwater fish. Other than that, there were corals and sea anemones. This further confirmed that he was indeed in the ocean.


    However, just 15 minutes ago, he was still in the underground pit of the abandoned subway line, at least 200 kilometers away from the nearest coastline. Zhang Heng noticed that this ce did not look like any coast that he was familiar with. At the moment, Zhang Heng was a little confused about where he was.


    He brought himself out of the water by controlling the current and saw a red ind in the direction of his right hand. It was about six to seven kilometers away. This distance was not a problem for Zhang Heng. However, he was not in a hurry to leave.


    The current situation had deviated from his previous n. Zhang Heng had originally entered the pool to lure Yemengard ashore to deal with him. Unexpectedly, he did not even see Yemengard��s shadow under the pool. Instead, he inexplicably came to this ocean.


    If everything went ording to n, the small ind in front of him should be Yemengard��s nest.


    Zhang Heng now had two choices. He could either go to the ind and fight Yemengard or return to the pool and wait for Yemengard to reappear. The advantage of thetter was that Zhang Heng could try to ambush Yemengard once. With the Pestilence Bone Bow and Paris Arrow in hand, he still had a considerable sess rate in ambushing Yemengard.


    Zhang Heng quickly ruled out thetter option. Based on his information, Yemengard went to the abandoned subway line to feed the snakes there. Snakes in the wild could eat a second meal every ten days or half a month after one meal.


    That said, Zhang Heng, Fan Meinan, and Ma Lu could not wait that long. Even though Zhang Heng had solved drinking water, he did not have any good ideas for eating. He couldn��t be eating snake for every meal, right? So, the earlier the war started, the better the situation would turn out for the three of them.


    Instead of rushing onto the ind, Zhang Heng didn��t rush onto the ind. He first turned back to the pond and took the clothes and props that he had left there. Then, he followed the flow of the water back to the ocean. After another half an hour, Zhang Heng finally stepped onto the red ind.


    Before sunset, Zhang Heng spread his clothes and arrows on the rocks beside the ind to dry them in the sun. Only when there was almost no water on them did he put on his clothes properly and end his celestial state.


    While he was drying his clothes, Zhang Heng also started to observe the ind. The entire ind looked extremely deste. There were no animals or nts on it, only red soil.

 Chapter 1101 - Pebbles and Handwriting

    <h4>Chapter 1101: Pebbles and Handwriting</h4>


    It was a world devoid of life.


    When Zhang Heng first saw it, he thought he had returned to the Moon. Other than the bumpy surface, there was nothing else save for a deathly stillness and destion.


    Whether it was soil or rocks, they were all dark red. It was as if someone had deliberately painted them with fuel. Furthermore, when Zhang Heng tried to cut off a piece of rock with the Hidden Scabbard, he noticed a viscous red liquid flowing out from the bottom of the cut. It was as if blood was flowing through his blood vessels.


    There were lots of these red rocks on the ind. Scattered all over the ce, they were covered with red pebbles. However, these pebbles were generallyrger than normal pebbles, they looked fuller, but they actually looked more like... eggs.


    Zhang Heng picked one up and hit it against the Red Rock. In the end, a corner of the rock was knocked off, but the egg-shaped pebble was unscathed.


    So Zhang Heng used the Hidden Scabbard again. This time, it took a bit of effort to cut open the red pebble, revealing what was inside.


    It was a newly formed snake embryo, and surprisingly, it was still alive. At least, when Zhang Heng cut open the pebble, it was still alive. Its body twisted a few times, but it was clearly not mature enough to break out of its shell. Because it was released early, it could no longer absorb nutrients from the egg. It struggled on the ground as if trying to crawl back into the cut red pebble, but Zhang Heng stepped on its tail the next moment.


    Zhang Heng wanted to see what the little snake in the red pebble was capable of, but in the end, the little snake��s struggle became slower and slower. After less than a minute, ity on the ground and stopped moving.


    After that, Zhang Heng tried to kick the little snake with the tip of his foot, but thetter did not respond. Considering its age, he basically ruled out the possibility of faking its death. Therefore, Zhang Heng stabbed the tip of his Hidden Scabbard into the little snake��s abdomen. From there, he went all the way up until he cut open its upper jaw.


    Zhang Heng squatted down and examined the snake��s body. He found that other than living inside the incredibly hard red pebble, its physiology did not seem to be different from that of an ordinary snake.


    This came as good news to Zhang Heng.


    There were many Red Rocks on the ind, and there were countless red pebbles around the rocks. If each pebble contained a small snake, and these small snakes had some kind of special attack method, then when they broke out of their shells, even with the T-148 in his hands, Zhang Heng��s only option was to jump into the sea and escape.


    However, at least it seemed that this worry would not happen. The other dead snake reminded Zhang Heng of something. He closed his eyes and thought for a moment. He put the Hidden Scabbard back on his waist and continued to walk toward the center of the ind.


    Zhang Heng had a feeling that something was waiting for him there.


    .....


    Inside the station.


    Even though Fan Meinan had no choice but to agree to Zhang Heng��s request and stay up there, she didn��t intend to just sit and wait. Even if this station wasn��t the home of the Nightmare Gad, it was still its important ce of activity. Fan Meinan still hoped to find some clues to deal with the Nightmare Gad.


    The gods and creatures that appeared in Norse mythology were probably the most human-like of all the myths. Almost every one of them had all kinds of emotions, jealousy and anger. At the same time, they also had weaknesses. Just like humans, and some seemingly powerful gods or creatures even had instant death weaknesses.


    The most famous one was probably Bader, whom Mistletoe had killed. One day, Bader, the god of Light, dreamt that he died. His mother was terrified when she found out, so she asked everything in the world to swear to her: never Hurt Bader. Weapons, stones, even diseases, and flowers had all sworn to her.


    Mistletoe, however, was too weak and was not required to swear. This matter waster found out by Loki. So Loki, who felt that the matter was not big enough, urged the god of darkness, Hodel, who had always had a conflict with the God of Light, to throw a mistletoe at Bader. In the end, the God of Light, Bader, was pierced through the chest and died, and Loki was also expelled and punished by the gods because of this matter. In the end, he became enemies with the gods. But these were all things that wouldeter.


    In short, this story seemed to imply that the Nordic gods each had their own Achilles Heel.


    Fan Meinan recalled the Norse myths rted to Jemengard, finding thetter��s weakness while checking the station. Ma Lu also wanted to help but was rejected by Fan Meinan. The main reason was that even if thetter joined in, he did not know what to investigate.


    However, Fan Meinan also found some work for a bored Ma Lu. She made him rummage through the snake corpses and see if he could find long enough snake corpses to climb down the pit.


    Thus, the two of them began to move separately.


    Ma Lu rummaged through the snake corpses on the second floor while Fan Meinan returned to the first floor. She held her shlight and swept through every corner of the station bit by bit, not letting go of any traces. In the end, her web-like search really paid off.


    Fan Meinan found a mark behind a load-bearing pir. At first, she didn��t pay much attention to that mark, thinking that it was just normal wear and tear during the construction process, but fan Meinan noticed the pattern contained in those marks when she took a second look.


    These marks were not caused by ident but were deliberately left by someone. Fan Meinan tried to wipe away the umted dust on the pir, revealing a line of crooked handwriting below.


    ��it��s there. It��s dangerous!


    It��s there, it��s dangerous?


    Fan Meinan did not expect to see other people��s handwriting here. Considering that this ce had been abandoned for more than 50 years and had beenpletely turned into a snakepit, this line could probably be traced back to more than 50 years ago when it was still under construction.


    Who could its owner be, some construction worker back then? Fan Meinan remembered the missing worker in the story of Ma Lu. He wondered if this line of words was left behind by him as a warning to future generations.


    However, this sentence was a bit too vague. He didn��t know who it was referring to. Was It Yemengadde? And he didn��t know where it was in the second half of the sentence.


    But Fan Meinan read from this sentence that someone had been here before them, and thest dangerous word was carved very hard. It could be seen that the person who left this sentence was nervous at the time. It was as if something terrible was about to happen to him.


    While Fan Meinan was squatting there studying the words on the load-bearing column, a pair of eyes was quietly sizing her up in the tunnel on the other side of the tform.

 Chapter 1102 - Cats

    <h4>Chapter 1102: Cats</h4>


    At this moment, Fan Meinan seemed to know nothing about the unexpected guest behind her.


    She seemed to bepletely attracted by the words on the load-bearing pir and ignored the other things around her. In the next moment, Fan Meinan suddenly turned around without any warning. At the same time, she turned the shlight behind her.


    The ce that was hit by the light beam was empty.


    She didn��t let her guard down. Not long ago, a feeling of being spied on arose in her heart. Considering where she was now, it was apparent that the intruder was not a kind person. However, Fan Meinan did not show any panic-stricken expression like an ordinary person.


    On the contrary, she continued to pretend to observe the words. At the same time, she quickly turned around when the guy behind her gradually let his guard down and became numb. Unfortunately, this trick did not help her catch the peeping Tom.


    Was it an illusion?


    Fan Meinan did not think so. She raised the shlight again and shone it on the tunnel that the snakes had rushed out of earlier.


    Fan Meinan was a little hesitant. She felt that the person who wrote the words on the load-bearing column earlier probably referred to this tunnel. It was different from the endless loop they had taken when they came. Since snakes could freely climb out of this tunnel, it should not be a problem for them to be trapped. However, there might be other dangers inside.


    Just as Fan Meinan was hesitating whether she should go in and take a look, she heard a clinking sounding from behind her.


    The sound was very close to her. It was less than two meters away. Fan Meinan��s vignce had also reached its peak. Without hesitation, she rolled forward and pulled away from the person before turning around.


    However, she was immediately stunned because what appeared in front of her was not a terrifying monster but a white kitten.


    The white kitten��s Fur was neatlybed and was without a trace of color. Its nails were carefully trimmed, and there was a small yellow bell around its neck. The tinkling sound from before came from there.


    When Fan Meinan turned to look at the little white cat, it also looked at her. The human and the Cat��s eyes met, and the little white cat licked its paws leisurely.


    Fan Meinan vigntly took another half step back.


    The subway line had been abandoned for more than fifty years, and no one hade down during that time. They had not seen any creatures in the tunnel they had walked through previously, and the other tunnel was the nest of snakes, so where did this little white cate from?


    Moreover, it did not look like a stray cat running around on the road. It was abnormal for a well-taken care of domestic cat to appear here.


    Fan Meinan had recalled the Norse myths and records rted to Jemengarde. When she saw this white cat, she suddenly remembered one of the stories.


    It was said that Thor had visited the giant kingdom once. The Giant King knew that Thor was born with divine power and was the strongest among the gods, so he tested him with a question to make things difficult for him. He wanted Thor to raise his cat.


    Thor was also very confident in his own strength. When he heard this, he walked up confidently. However, no matter how hard he tried, he could only lift one of the cat��s legs. This made Thor very surprised. After he asked, again and again, the Giant King finally told him the truth. He said that the cat was actually transformed by the strongest monster of the giant race, Jemengarde.


    This was also the first time Thor and the giant Python had met.


    Thinking of this story and looking at the little white cat in front of him, Fan Meinan��s hair stood on end.


    .....


    It had been two hours since Zhang Heng arrived on the ind. Of course, he spent most of his time drying his clothes and equipment, and he had only left the beach forty minutes ago. He had taken some time to study the red pebbles, and thankfully, the ind wasn��t particrlyrge, and Zhang Heng had picked up the pace. By now, he was almost at the center of the ind.


    It wasn��t that he was hasty or anything, but he didn��t want to take things one step at a time. Other than the rocks and pebbles, there was nothing else on the ind. The scenery on the road was pretty much the same, so there wasn��t much for Zhang Heng to study even if he wanted to.


    He decided not to waste any more time. After another 15 minutes, a huge red mud wall appeared in front of Zhang Heng. The wall was about seven to eight meters high,pletely surrounding the center of the ind.


    Because the wall was located in a low-lying area, it wasn��t easy to see it outside the ind unless one walked here.


    However, Zhang Heng circled the wall for half a circle and did not see the entrance there. It was not until he reached a small hill that he unexpectedly met a human.


    It was an old man with a white beard and ragged clothes. He had not showered for an unknown period of time, and his hair and beard were stuck in clumps, sticking to his tanned skin. However, he looked fine, and he was not surprised to see Zhang Heng. Instead, he nodded at Zhang Heng.


    ��You��re here?��


    ��You know me?��


    ��No.�� The old man shook his head. ��But I know why you��re here.��


    ��Oh?�� Zhang Heng raised his eyebrows.


    ��To see it, you need to go through the maze behind me.��


    Zhang Heng was a little surprised. ��You know why I��m here, but you��re not going to stop me?��


    ��Stop me? No, my job is to provide guidance to the people on the ind and help them find what they��re looking for.��


    ��Other than me, do you think there are other people on the ind?��Zhang Heng caught the old man��s main point.


    ��Of course. Do you know Kekule, the German organic chemist? He came to this ind before, and not long after he returned, he discovered the simple structure of benzene. Beethoven, who came earlier, wrote the famous ��Fifth Symphony in C Minor�� here, and Van Gogh... well... his condition wasn��t too good. Not long after he returned, he was admitted to a mental hospital. However, it was also there that hepleted ��Starry Night.�� However, all of this happened before I arrived on the ind.��


    The old man paused. ��During my time here, I received a total of 16 guests. Unfortunately, more than half of them failed to pass through the maze behind me. Three of them were eaten by it, but the remaining three returned home with great rewards. I bet you��ve heard of them, but ording to the agreement, I can��t tell you their names.��


    Zhang Heng realized that the old man might have misunderstood something and mistook him for a disciple of Yemengard. It seemed that the giant Python was also unwilling to be left alone. It had been using some method to attract ordinary people to this ind, and it had made some deal with them.

 Chapter 1103 - Guest 17

    <h4>Chapter 1103: Guest 17</h4>


    Simr methods were used quitemonly among gods. Through dreams, they could establish a preliminary connection with selected potential believers, allowing them to arrive at a specific location. Then, through performing miracles, they turned potential believers into true believers. There were basically simr stories in different mythological systems.


    As one of the most established Norse mythological monsters, it was not surprising that Jemengard would use such a method to select believers. Moreover, the death rate of its potential believers was shockingly high.


    ording to the old man, he had contacted a total of 16 potential believers. In the end, only three of them managed to leave the ind and return to human society. The remaining people would either be lost in the maze forever or swallowed whole by Nightmare Cadet.


    And now, he regarded Zhang Heng as the 17th potential believer on the ind.


    This was not his fault for being careless. The main reason was that the ind was unusually deste. There was nothing on it, and sometimes, no one woulde for more than ten years. As the most ferocious monster of the giant race, Nightmare Gad had always been the only one who targeted others. No one had ever provoked it.


    The old man never expected that there would be such a person in this world, so he firmly believed in Zhang Heng��s identity.


    Since that was the case, Zhang Heng decided to ept his new identity. He asked the old man politely, ��Is this maze difficult to walk through?��


    The old man nodded. ��I know what you��re thinking. This is not a big ind, and the central maze takes up even less space. No matter howplicated the maze, as long as you try the dumbest method, you��ll always find the right path.��


    ��Is that so?��


    ��A normalbyrinth might be like this, but if you use this method in the one behind me, you��ll never find the right path.��


    ��Huh?��


    ��Thisbyrinth keeps changing,�� the old man added, ��So the wrong way to go back and try the wrong way again won��t work here. Moreover, not only will the ce you walk through change, but thebyrinth in front of you will also keep changing.��


    ��So it��s purely a matter of luck?��


    ��No, it is actually to test if you have a strong enough mental connection with it. The previous three people who passed through the maze didn��t really put in much effort. The slowest one took less than half an hour, and the fastest one only took ten minutes,�� the old man said, ��As long as your mental connection with it is strong enough, the moment you step into the maze, you��ll naturally know where to go.��


    This was not good news for Zhang Heng because he was not a true believer. There was no spiritual connection between him and Yemengard. The only connection between the two was that Zhang Heng nned to go in and kill it. If Cheng Sihan was still alive, he could save her, then leave the subway line with the Fan sisters and Ma Lu. If possible, he could get Loki��s whereabouts from Yemengard.


    However, Zhang Heng didn��t show any signs of anxiety or depression. Instead, he continued chatting with the old man.


    The old man seemed to have stayed on the ind for a long time. Typically, it was difficult for him to meet people, so he was happy to continue chatting with Zhang Heng.


    He wasn��t sure if it was because of Zhang Heng��s identity as a potential believer, but his attitude was also very good. He answered almost every question he asked. After all, if Zhang Heng passed the maze, he would be a believer, and from then on, he would be one of them, and if Zhang Heng did not pass through the maze and hang himself inside, then the things he knew would not reach the ears of a third person.


    But even so, the old man still chose to avoid answering some of the more core questions.


    For example, Zhang Heng asked the Old Man How Big Yemengarde was, how often it moved, how often it left the maze, and so on. Once the old man heard such questions, he would shut his mouth.


    Therefore, Zhang Heng changed his direction and started to talk to the old man about his own matters. This time, the old man��s words were clearly more frequent.


    ��I��ve been on the ind for 51 years. Before I came here, I was a construction worker. Our team was fast, and the build quality was good. We won many awards and even appeared in the newspapers. At that time, when the capital was going to build a subway, our construction team was the first thing the leaders thought of. In the end, the noise during the construction attracted its attention. After that, it summoned me here and to be a receptionist.��


    Even though Zhang Heng had already guessed the old man��s identity, this was the first time thetter had personally admitted that he was the missing worker from more than 50 years ago.


    The old man��s expression becameplicated as he talked about the incident.


    It was clear that he missed the old days. Even though that was over 50 years ago when resources were scarce, and there was neither telephone norputer, but no matter how scarce it was, it was still much better than this small red ind with nothing. Furthermore, he still had his family and friends back then. Now, many of them were no longer around.


    However, after such a long time, he seemed to have epted his fate. The nostalgic look on his face disappeared for a moment, and he returned to his usual self.


    ��Have you entered this maze before?�� Zhang Heng asked,


    ��Unfortunately, I��m not qualified. I can only do some menial work outside,�� the old man said, ��I know you��re probably feeling a little apprehensive right now. Maybe you��re scared by the numbers I mentioned earlier and are hesitating whether to enter the maze or not. But in fact, I don��t think you need to be so worried because this might be the biggest opportunity in your life. It has always been very picky, and not many people can catch its eye. I��ve been here for more than 50 years, and I��ve only received 17 people, and that includes you. Thest time I received a guest on the ind was 12 years ago.��


    ��Twelve years ago?�� Zhang Heng raised his eyebrows.


    ��That��s right, and that guy is a hothead. He looked like he was in some kind of trouble. We only talked for less than five sentences, and then he plunged into the maze,�� the old man said, ��He��s also the person I told you about who only took ten minutes toplete the maze. I don��t know how he��s doing now, but he was still an unknown singer when he came to the ind. He sang in a bar. If you can pass through the maze, I��ll tell you his name. I��m actually curious about how everyone on the ind is doing after they leave, but I can only ask the next person about them.��


    Zhang Heng thought about it for a moment before asking another question. ��Can we use tools to get through this maze?��


    ��Tools?�� The old man was taken aback. ��What tools? Ladders? But you don��t have anydders... in this regard, it hasn��t made any requests, so I won��t stop you if you need any tools.��

 Chapter 1104 - Labyrinth

    <h4>Chapter 1104: Labyrinth</h4>


    Zhang Heng didn��t avoid the old man deliberately, opening the bag in front of him and taking out the Lego instead.


    The thing he was trying to piece together this time wasn��tplicated, so it didn��t take long. Very quickly, he reached the final step and inserted the Infinite Building Block into it.


    The next moment, a brand new drone appeared in his hand.


    The drone took off under Zhang Heng��s control, and under the old man��s stunned gaze, he flew to the top of the maze. From there, he could clearly see the entire maze and see the changes in there. Zhang Heng silently calcted the time of each change, trying to n a path from the middle to the center while factoring in his own speed into the maze.


    UAVs had actually been around since the 1920s. Initially, they were primarily used for military purposes or scientific research and mapping missions. It wasn��t until about 10 years ago that they were opened up to the consumer market. In recent years, they finally became widespread and epted by consumers.


    The old man had arrived on the ind more than 50 years ago, and thest person he had met was also 12 years ago. Furthermore, the two of them had only spoken a few words, so he had never seen a UAV before meeting Zhang Heng.


    When he saw the drone rise from Zhang Heng��s hand and fly all the way to the top of thebyrinth, he thought he had just witnessed a supernatural phenomenon. After that, he noticed the image on the remote control in Zhang Heng��s hand. The expression on his face became even more shocked.


    Previously, when Zhang Heng asked him if he could use tools, his understanding was still limited to things likedders, and he didn��t pay too much attention to it. In fact, not to mention that Zhang Heng didn��t have adder, even if he had, he wouldn��t have been able to pass through the maze because the changes weren��t just the movement of the red mud walls. Even the ground beneath his feet moved slowly. In other words, even if you stood still, your position would change constantly.


    This was also the reason why the old man wasn��t worried about Zhang Heng using tools.


    However, the drone in front of him was clearly not what he had expected.


    With this drone upying the high ground, Zhang Heng would directly obtain a map of the maze. He would be able to observe the results of every change, and he would keep track of his position at all times. This also made it possible for him to reach the maze��s center without relying on his connection to Jemengard.


    The old man subconsciously felt that this matter was inappropriate, but he was also at a loss. He didn��t know what to do now. Jemengard��s order was to wee the potential believers to the ind in front of thebyrinth. However, it didn��t give him the right to search the potential believers or seize any items.


    Furthermore, the old man could tell from the scabbard and longbow on his back that this young man was unlike the others who hade to the ind before. Even though he looked very polite, this did not mean that he would always be so polite. In fact, the old man could quickly usually tell the identity and upation of every new visitor, but for Zhang Heng, from the first time he saw him, he was still unable to figure out who he was.


    Hence, the old man did nothing in the end. He just stood by the side and allowed Zhang Heng to operate the drone to study the maze from high up in the sky.


    Jemengard and his ushers were at a disadvantage because of theirck of culture. In fact, many of the tests and rituals of older gods were no longer suitable for modern society.


    For example, when Jemengard built thebyrinth on this ind, he did not expect humans to invent something like the drone one day. Of course, as time went by, some of the more open-minded gods would adjust themselves as the society progressed and developed. For example, Chronos, who Zhang Heng had met before, had even worn a tang suit to open up to the eastern market. Of course, thebination was a little out of ce.


    Or perhaps the self-proimed Einstein that Zhang Heng had met in the Apollo Dungeon was a god. Thetter was born with modern technology, and his power grew with the development of science and technology. On the other hand, some ancient gods were gradually forgotten by mankind as technology progressed.


    However, the situation of the Nightmare Gad was more special. Its name was not forgotten by the world. Zhang Heng could not even tell whether its power had be weaker or stronger than when it was at its peak. Because of the unprecedented development of entertainment and media, its poprity had increased more than in the past.


    However, the problem with Jemengard was that in the original Norse mythology, it was a monster trapped in the deep sea. It did not really emerge until the twilight of the gods. Thus, it belonged to the type of autistic yer who was rtively far away from human society in current terms.


    Although it had not been forgotten to select believers from the humans over the years, there was nothing impressive about the speed and number of believers. After all, only 16 people hade to the ind in 50 years, which was a little too shabby. It had also eaten three people. In the end, only three of its followers had left the ind. It was hard to say how much its understanding of modern society had improved from such a small number of people. This led to the very retro construction of the maze.


    About half an hourter, Zhang Heng put away the drone. He tried to simte his move a few times and sessfully reached the center of thebyrinth. The time it took varied, mainly due to the uncertainty of thebyrinth��s changes.


    However, in general, the difficulty of the maze was greatly reduced with his field of vision opening.


    After waiting for another ten minutes, Zhang Heng rereleased the drone, and he finally stepped into the maze himself.


    Zhang Heng moved extremely swiftly. As soon as he entered the maze, he started running immediately. The main reason was that the maze would change every 90 seconds, so he needed to re-n the route to the center.


    Even for Zhang Heng, it would take time to n the route. Through this, he would use even less time to move the time he could use to move, making every second between each change extremely precious to Zhang Heng.


    With the drone as an eye, Zhang Heng��s initial movement was rtively smooth. Soon, he was less than half a distance away from the center of the maze. However, following that, the speed of the change in the maze actually increased, and the interval between the changes was shortened to only 60 seconds. This was a new situation that Zhang Heng had not encountered during the simtion test. It was also a challenge because he had less time to n his route and move.


    Fortunately, the situation was still under Zhang Heng��s control. Even if the time was reduced to 60 seconds, he was still moving toward the center of the maze. However, at this time, Zhang Heng did feel a sense of wariness rise in his heart because he was not sure if the time would change as he continued to move forward.

 Chapter 1105 - Reunion

    <h4>Chapter 1105: Reunion</h4>


    Even though the old man did not enter the maze with Zhang Heng, he could still hear the constant rumbling from the outside. He knew that it was the sound of the red mud walls changing their positions.


    Not long after, the interval between the rumbling became shorter. The old man had been a receptionist here for more than 50 years. Of course, he knew what this meant. He just did not expect Zhang Heng to finish half of the maze in only three and a half minutes. At least for the first half of the journey, his speed was unparalleled, even faster than the one whopleted the maze in 10 minutes.


    In the past, this kind of situation usually meant that the people in the maze had a very close spiritual connection with Jemengard. However, the old man was a little confused this time because the flying machine was still hovering above the maze. He didn��t know whether Zhang Heng��s current sess was due to the spiritual connection with Jemengard or the strange machine.


    On the other hand, Zhang Heng��s footsteps didn��t slow. Although the changes in thebyrinth were elerating, the number of calctions he needed to do as he continued advancing was also decreasing. After half the journey, he only needed to consider the changes in the second half of the route. Thus, he was still able to cope until now.


    However, after he walked another 400 meters, the changes in the maze elerated again. This time, the changes on the red mud wall were shortened to 15 seconds. Zhang Heng did not have time to think.


    Zhang Heng did not know whether this was the rule of the maze itself or the chain reaction caused by the use of the drone. He could also feel the repulsion of the maze.


    However, Zhang Heng was now less than 50 meters away from the center of the maze. Putting aside if he could leave the maze safely if he turned around, he wouldn��t give up on such a short distance.


    As a result, not only did Zhang Heng not retreat, he even quickened his pace. At this point, he no longer needed to figure out how to get to the center of the maze because time didn��t allow it. By the time he was done, it was almost time for the next change. Therefore, he used the drone above his head to determine the direction of the center before he ran straight in that direction.


    His reckless move quickly brought about its consequences. Not long after, Zhang Heng ran into a dead end. A red mud wall appeared in front of him, and there was no other path on either side. Other than turning back, there seemed to be nowhere else to go.


    However, Zhang Heng did not seem to have any intention of turning back. Not stopping, he pulled out the Hidden Scabbard from his waist, took a deep breath, and directly hacked at the red mud wall in front of him.


    At thest moment, Zhang Heng abandoned all his calctions and predictions and chose to use the simplest and most violent method to crack the maze in front of him!


    In front of the Hidden Scabbard, not to mention a mere mud wall, even a steel bar like Zhang Heng could cut through it.


    However, just as Zhang Heng forcefully cut down a door that could allow ess, there was another red mud wall behind the door.


    Zhang Heng did not feel discouraged or surprised by this scene. From the looks of it, the center of this ever-changing maze should be their of Jemengard. Even though it might not know the existence of drones, it shouldn��t be unprepared for such a destructive attack.


    This was also why Zhang Heng didn��t attack thebyrinth directly in the first ce. Even though thebyrinth didn��t take up much space, the distance between the entrance and the center was about a kilometer. If this distance were covered in red mud walls, Zhang Heng would be worn out, even if the Hidden Scabbard could withstand it.


    But now... Zhang Heng had already swung the Hidden Scabbard in his hand once more. He shed at the second red mud wall in front of him, revealing the third wall behind him, then the fourth wall... and just like that, Zhang Heng cut through fifteen red mud walls, forcibly traversing thest twenty meters, before finally arriving at the center of the maze.


    Unlike the barren and lifeless ind, the Maze��s center was actually a garden full of flowers.


    .....


    Fan Meinan looked at the white kitten in front of her, and her whole body tensed. Although she tried her best to control her expression and show no signs of fear, her trembling bones betrayed her true thoughts.


    At that moment, Fan Meinan heard another set of footsteps. The footsteps did note from Ma Lu on the second floor but still came from the tunnel behind her.


    Fan Meinan did not know if she should continue staring at the little white cat in front of her or turn around to face the new uninvited guest.


    Unexpectedly, the owner of the footsteps spoke first. She let out a softugh. ��Why? Does senior sister not want to see me?��


    Fan Meinan was stunned when she heard that. Then, she turned her head and saw the figure walking out of the tunnel.


    It was a pure and sweet-looking girl she had never seen before. When she smiled, two dimples appeared. Her eyes, however, were especially cunning.


    Seeing Fan Meinan��s surprise, she added, ��Senior sister, you and I were friends for a night. Have you forgotten me so quickly?��


    ��It��s you!��


    Fan Meinan finally realized who this girl who suddenly appeared in front of him was. Previously, she hade to the subway station with Cheng Sihan. She was Loki��s third representative and also Loki��s chosen representative��Beta.


    ��If you��re here, then where��s my sister?�� Fan Meinan frowned.


    ��Ah, I know what you��re thinking with that expression, but strictly speaking, you were the ones who lied to me first. In order to find my teacher in the hospital, you worked together to put on a show of faking your death. But I have to admit that it was quite wonderful. At that time, I was really deceived by you. It seems that I underestimated you before. After losing the strength that teacher gave you, you were still able to deceive me. That alone is enough to make you proud.��


    ��Did Loki choose you because you��re narcissistic enough for him?�� Fan Meinan asked coldly.


    ��Hmm. Interesting. Has anyone ever told you that although you and your sister look like two different types of people on the surface, there are actually quite a few simrities between the two of you? Both of your mouths are quite vicious. They��re practically the same.��


    After saying that, she bent down and half-squatted, letting the white kitten with the bell jump onto herp. The kitten then jumped onto her arm and was finally carried in front of her.


    ��Are you afraid of it? Don��t worry. It��s not that python.��


    ��Huh?�� Fan Meinan raised her eyebrows.


    ��You and your sister joined hands to deceive me just to see teacher again. Not only did I forget about the past, but I also fulfilled your wish. Now, don��t you owe me a thank you?�� Beta blinked and said.

 Chapter 1106 - Snake in the Atrium

    <h4>Chapter 1106: Snake in the Atrium</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    Fan Meinan��s expression changed again. She shifted her gaze from Beta to the white kitten in her arms. Coincidentally, the kitten was also looking at her, but there was no expression in its green pupils. They looked like two green agates without any impurities.


    Fan Meinan knew that Loki was the world��s most outstanding transformation master. When Cheng Sihan brought her to meet Loki for the first time, the kitten had transformed into a Scottish fold.


    Thus, it would be unsurprising if Loki transformed into a little white kitten and appeared here tonight. In fact, this was also why Fan Meinan couldn��t recognize Beta immediately. Beta entered the abandoned subway line with Cheng Sihan. At that time, she didn��t bring the cat with her, and Beta never went out again. The chances of her picking up a cat here were basically zero.


    Of course, if the cat were Loki, then it would be a different story.


    However, faced with Fan Meinan��s questioning gaze, Beta neither admitted nor denied it. She just smiled. ��Teacher knows why you came to him. You probably don��t have much time left. Tsk, tsk. How pitiful. You hope teacher can find you a way to cheat death.��


    Fan Meinan didn��t deny it. What happened to her wasn��t a secret, to begin with. She had known from since she first met Loki, but Loki��s stance had always been very ambiguous until now. He didn��t say if he had a way to help her, nor did he say that he couldn��t help her.


    Fan Meinan wanted to fight for the agent position because she knew that if she became Loki��s agent, Loki would definitely not let her die. If she died on the hospital bed before fighting with other agents, Loki would be in big trouble.


    However, Fan Meinan didn��t know why Loki would help him. Loki had already withdrawn the power he had given her, and had chosen his agent. Based on Fan Meinan��s understanding of Loki, although he did at times help strangers just for fun, deceiving the Grim Reaper, for instance, it was impossible for him to do it on a whim or out of concern for their previous friendship.


    Moreover, judging from the test he gave to Cheng Sihan to kill her own sister, Loki really didn��t care about her life just because Fan Meinan had been his agent for a period of time.


    However, Fan Meinan didn��t expect Beta to continue. ��The goddess of death, H, is teacher��s daughter. No one in this world knows H better than him, so if anyone can help you, it has to be teacher.��


    After saying that, Beta looked at Fan Meinan, hoping to see the fervent eyes or excitement on thetter��s face. It was as though an oasis suddenly appeared in front of a traveler who had been trekking in the desert for two whole days without a drop of water, or a shipwreck survivor spotting a passing ship��enough to rekindle their hope of survival in a time ofplete destion and despair.


    To Beta��s surprise, although Fan Meinan��s eyes lit up, she quickly regained her calm.


    ��What��s the price?��


    ��It��s a relief to talk to senior sister,�� Cheng Sihan said. ��But don��t worry, it��s different from the previous test. What teacher asked you to do this time is very simple. It��s a piece of cake for you. A piece of cake in exchange for your life. There��s no better deal than this, right?��


    ��Is that what you and my sister said?�� Fan Meinan asked in return. She nced at the white cat in Beta��s arms, ��If Loki has something to do, why not just send you to do it? Or find my sister. She��s much better than me. Wouldn��t it be safer to hand it over to her?��


    ��Teacher isn��t Santa us. He rides a reindeer carriage on the roof of every child who wishes for something. Then, he goes down the chimney and puts the gift into their socks,�� Beta said. �� Teacher has especially provided you with this transaction, and only you canplete it. As for your sister...��


    Beta paused, ��Teacher has some opinions about her this time. It��s not because she wanted to force me to find him, and she even showed disrespect to teacher... you know, teacher has never cared about these things. If we can really deceive teacher one day, he will definitely be happy for us. What made teacher unhappy this time was your sister��s stubbornness. You have sufficient reason for wanting to be an agent, but your sister lives for others. After such a long time, she still hasn��t improved, after all. Otherwise, teacher wouldn��t have lost patience with her ande to me again.��


    ��I don��t think living for others is a sad thing,�� Fan Meinan said inly.


    Beta shrugged. ��I don��t intend to argue with you, senior sister, because we��re not here tonight to discuss some philosophical proposition. Why don��t you listen to what teacher wants you to do?��


    Fan Meinan was silent for a moment. ��Before agreeing to your request, I need to ask you a few questions.��


    Beta was stunned for a moment, then nodded. ��Sure, I��m not in a hurry anyway, but I��ll only answer the questions I know. If your question is beyond my understanding, then there��s nothing I can do.��


    ��My sister came down with you. Where is she now?��


    ��Ahh... this...�� Beta scratched her head. ��I don��t know. We were separated in that infinite loop tunnel before. I thought your sister would be trapped in that tunnel, but I went backter and found that she was no longer there. As for where she went, I��m not sure if she��s still alive. You should know whose territory this is now. I��m actually just a guest here like you guys.��


    ��Then how did you get out of that endless tunnel?�� Fan Meinan asked.


    ��I��m sorry, this is my secret. Just like how I know that you actually have a very powerful tool hidden on you, ready to give me a fatal blow at any time, but I won��t ask you how you n to kill me. I Can��t tell you how I got out of that tunnel.��


    ��What��s under the hole on the second floor?��


    They couldn��t get any valuable answers about Cheng Sihan, so Fan Meinan changed the question.


    ��It��s a pool,�� Beta said honestly. Before Fan Meinan could ask her any more questions, he continued, ��You��ll definitely ask me what��s under the pool, but I don��t know. The water is a little cold, and I didn��t bring my swimsuit, so I didn��t have any intention of going down for a swim. But I know your boyfriend went down, and he didn��te out. He must have found something down there.��


    ��Jemengard is at the bottom of the pool, right?��


    ��Jemengard?�� Beta��s face showed a hint of amusement. ��Of course the snake of the atrium is in the atrium.��

 Chapter 1107 - Giant Waves

    <h4>Chapter 1107: Giant Waves</h4>


    Previously, Zhang Heng could see the garden at the center of the maze through the drone��s camera even before he entered it.


    However, if he hadn��t stood there himself, it would have been hard to believe that such a beautiful garden could be hidden amid a deste red ind that had nothing but snake embryos in the pebbles.


    It was like an oasis in the desert.


    When Zhang Heng reached the entrance of the garden, the rumbling sound behind him disappeared.


    As if realizing that it was impossible to stop Zhang Heng, the red mud walls stopped changing. The entire maze returned to its initial state of stillness. Just then, a gentle breeze blew past, and the nts in the garden started swaying as if weing a new guest.


    However, Zhang Heng didn��t seem to be a guest at all. He put the Hidden Scabbard back on his waist, removed the Pestilence Bone Bow from his back, and ced the Paris Arrow on the bowstring, maintaining a half-drawn posture. He then walked into the garden.


    The fragrance of flowers greeted him, the air mixed with the scent of jasmine and osmanthus.


    These two nts had different flowering periods, and it was rare to see them blooming simultaneously. However, the garden seemed to contain some kind of magic. In fact, Zhang Heng didn��t just see just jasmine and osmanthus, but he even saw tulips, roses, and other flowers a little further away. Moreover, each flower seemed to be in good condition, and there was no sign of decay.


    However, as Zhang Heng went deeper, he could still smell a faint fishy smell in the air. It wasn��t overbearing, but even the scent of flowers in the yard could not hide it.


    To Zhang Heng, this fishy smell was the best signpost, guiding him into the depths of the flowers.


    He noticed that the deeper he moved, the lower the terrain became. At the same time, the flowers and trees around him grew in lushness. Some tree branches extended to cover a radius of a hundred meters. The drone overhead could no longer provide any vision, so Zhang Heng simply put it back into his travel bag.


    After walking for about five minutes, the stench only became stronger, prompting Zhang Heng to raise his alertness. The opponent he was about to face this time was the famous Norse mythical monster, the giant python Jemengard. Now in itsir, Zhang Heng naturally wasn��t naive enough to think that Jemengard would be oblivious to his arrival and treat him like the old man outside the maze, a potential believer of the new ind.


    So far, the giant python has made no movements. It either didn��t care and was waiting for Zhang Heng toe over and give it more food, or it was hiding somewhere in the garden, quietly observing the new enemy.


    Inparison, Zhang Heng naturally hoped that Jermengard would choose the first option. ording to legend, the power of the giant python was unrivaled. Coupled with its cautious and cunning personality, this battle would probably be more difficult than expected.


    Zhang Heng was about to pass through more than half of the garden. Due to the sinking terrain, he estimated that he should be reaching sea level by now. Zhang Heng even heard the sound of the waves hitting the reefs. After another 20 meters, the trees and nts in front of him finally disappeared.


    It was only then that Zhang Heng realized that the center of the red ind was actually hollow. In front of him was a reef beach. Clearly, there was a passage connecting the reef beach to the outside world where seawater could flow through that passage to this ce.


    However, Zhang Heng had already forgotten about this matter. Right in front of him, there was a red reef that was connected together. It was exceptionally huge, like a throne that stood tall amid the vast sea. Right now, that throne was upied by its monarch��a giant ck python.


    Zhang Heng estimated that the creature was already over 400 meters long, and although it wasn��t as endless as the legends said, it could still form a circle around the school��s track. No wonder it could hunt sperm whales in the deep sea, easily dragging the behemoth all the way to the station.


    Its head was bigger than a lotive. A pair of yellow eyes stared back at Zhang Heng. He could feel the strong malice in its eyes. With a body lined with ck scales, they rubbed the red rocks when it slithered, making a heart-wrenching sound.


    Zhang Heng did not stand at on ceremony. He immediately pulled the bowstring. This kind of thing only happened in wuxia novels. In actualbat, the one who had the upper hand was obviously the one who had the upper hand. Considering the ck python��s exaggerated size, Zhang Heng did not need to aim much, and he aimed the arrow at his opponent.


    Moreover, the Paris Arrow had the ability to lock on to its target, and there was no need for Zhang Heng to make adjustments before he released his finger. The next moment, the Paris Arrow left the bowstring.


    Zhang Heng did not use a normal arrow to test it out first because the ck Python��s body scales could not be prated by a normal arrow. Therefore, Zhang Heng did not waste any time and used the Paris Arrow.


    Even though the Paris Arrow was only a C-grade item and had the lethality of a normal arrow, it produced amazing effects in previous battles due to its unique characteristics. Zhang Heng did not expect the arrow to hurt the giant ck python, but as long as he could find the weakness of the snake, the C-grade item would be considered to havepleted its mission.


    However, Zhang Heng did not expect that the Paris Arrow, which had always been a hit, had actually failed in front of the snake.


    The arrow was aimed at the monster, but for some reason, it lost all its power when it was about five meters away, fluttering weakly to the ground.


    Zhang Heng did not even have time to retrieve it from the sea. The ck python on the reef had also made its move. It did not expect the tiny human to be the first to attack. Even though the arrow did not hurt it, it did manage to provoke it.


    Its yellow eyes seemed to be burning. The python twisted its body and climbed down the reef. It did not evenunch an attack. When its body fell into the sea, the huge wave that it created was already aimed at Zhang Heng.


    However, the ck Python was surprised to find that the human before it did not run away as it had expected. Instead, it stood where it was and reached out a hand. When the huge wave came into contact with Zhang Heng��s palm, it actually split in two!

 Chapter 1108 - Black Calamity

    <h4>Chapter 1108: ck Cmity</h4>


    If Zhang Heng had encountered this huge wave before his trip to the ind, he probably wouldn��t have had any other choice but to retreat. However, now that he had grasped the basics of controlling the water flow, he could still handle this small situation, although he might not be as powerful as the deepwater overlords like Jemengard.


    Zhang Heng used his ability to control water to split the wave into two, brushing past his body and hitting the trees and nts behind him. In the end, the flowers that had been blooming were all destroyed by the oing wave. However, Zhang Heng, who was standing in front, was safe and sound.


    The ck python was obviously surprised as well. Although it didn��t seem to understand how the human before it could separate the wave, that didn��t stop it from doing what it was about to do next.


    After it fell into the water, the ck python didn��t stay in for long, immediately swimming towards the shore. Although its huge body weakened its agility to a certain extent, its straight-line speed was greatly enhanced. When it moved, it was like a high-speed train. It didn��t need to n its path as well. Regardless of coral or reef, nothing could block its path. It was mercilessly crushed.


    At that moment, it was like a moving ck catastrophe!


    Zhang Heng took a few steps back, but he was not intimidated by the opponent��s imposing manner. He had already prepared himself after all, once he realized who his opponent was. Zhang Heng was already mentally prepared. For now, other than the Paris Arrow, everything was useless. The rest didn��t stray too far beyond Zhang Heng��s expectations. He had only retreated to drag Jemengard as far as possible from the water.


    Since normal arrows could not prate the ck python��s scales, Zhang Heng temporarily put away the Pestilence Bone Bow and pulled out the Hidden Scabbard from his waist. This was the only weapon he could rely on for the rest of the battle.


    In the blink of an eye, the head of the ck python had already reached the shore. The next thing that came out of the water was its huge body. When its abdomen touched the ground, the entire ind started to shake.


    Zhang Heng seemed to have lost his bnce due to the sudden earthquake. Of course, the ck python wouldn��t let go of this rare opportunity. Half of its body had just reached the shore, and it could not wait to reach its head over.


    Normally, when a python was on the hunt, it would first approach its prey. After opening its mouth to bite the target, it would quickly coil its body around the target. By forcefully squeezing and cutting off blood supply, the target��s brain and heart would be ischemic. This would cause the target to quickly lose the ability to resist and then slowly swallow the target.


    However, Jemengard was simply too big. It might have been able to use this method to deal with the sperm whale at the bottom of the sea, but against Zhang Heng, it would be unrealistic for it to wrap its body around the target. However, this did not cause it any trouble. Without even adjusting its posture, Jemengard charged straight at Zhang Heng, who had lost his bnce.


    Considering its shocking weight, even if Zhang Heng had not turned into a meat paste, most of his bones would still be intact.


    However, in the next moment, the ck python suddenly realized that it had lost sight of Zhang Heng.


    Its head pressed down on a patch of flowers. Not only did it destroy the nts growing inside, but it had also knocked down a few nearby trees. However, the human who had provoked it was nowhere to be seen.


    The ck python turned its yellow pupils and used the dimple between its nostrils and eyes to lock onto Zhang Heng��s position. To its surprise, the target that had been unstable not too long ago actually dodged its attack.


    Not only was the ck python fast, but considering the size of its head, Zhang Heng would need to move at least five meters to escape its attack range.


    This meant that not only did the monster have to be explosive, but it even regained control of its body. The ck python realized that it had been fooled by this rude human again, causing the fire in its eyes to burn even brighter. It chased after the monster without hesitation.


    On the other hand, Zhang Heng was unprecedentedly calm after enteringbat mode. Although he still had time toplete at least one counterattack when dodging the monster��s attack, Zhang Heng was not in a hurry to make a move. This was because the body of the giant ck python had not yetpletely left the sea and crawled back tond.


    If the situation was unfavorable for the giant ck python, it would most likely turn around and swim back to the sea. It would be difficult for Zhang Heng to find it again. In that case, he would still be unable to solve the problem of the tunnel cirction; returning to the surface, Zhang Heng still hoped to lure the giant ck python back to the surface. It was best to stay as far away from the sea as possible, so up until now, his actions had been mainly focused on dodging.


    The man and snake chased each other and returned to the garden. However, this time, the nts along the way were all destroyed. Almost all the nts in the path of the ck Python were destroyed and crushed. The garden was no longer as peaceful as it used to be.


    However, after chasing it for a while, the snake suddenly stopped for some reason. It turned around to look at the path it had crawled through, and a rare look of apprehension appeared in its eyes. At that moment, it was like a child who suddenly realized that they had done something wrong.


    Zhang Heng did not know why the giant python was so concerned about the garden, but from the looks of it, it seemed to be hesitating if it should continue chasing it. Zhang Heng then did some calctions and realized that the two of them were about 500 meters away from the reef. Of course, this distance could not be considered safe, but at the very least, Jemengard could not turn around and return to the sea.


    In order to avoid any further idents, Zhang Heng finally stopped in his tracks.


    The man and the snake fell into a stalemate, and this time, Zhang Heng made the first move.


    It was obvious that Jemengard didn��t expect the target, who was originally in a sorry state, to take the initiative to attack it. However, this was exactly what it wanted. Subconsciously, it wanted to sweep its tail at Zhang Heng, but when it saw the flowers and trees around it, it stopped in its tracks.


    In the end, it decided to meet Zhang Heng with its head. It swung its head at Zhang Heng once more, and this time, Jemengard finally saw how Zhang Heng managed to dodge its trump card. Thetter��s body suddenly switched from high-speed movement to a static state. Then, it suddenly exerted force in the opposite direction, and in just one second, it actuallypleted the change in direction.


    The whole process was not a waste of time. It was a perfect transition from movement to static to movement. This also meant that Zhang Heng��s control over his muscles had reached a state where he could do whatever he wanted.

 Chapter 1109 - Poisonous Mist

    <h4>Chapter 1109: Poisonous Mist</h4>


    This was the change brought about by the Lv4 knife skill.


    Level 4 skills were almost at the limit of what humans could achieve in terms of skills and when it came to fusion and application of strength and spirit.


    The battle with Secretary-General Okita had pushed Zhang Heng to an unprecedented level.


    His understanding of the path of the de and the unity of his body and spirit had entered a whole new world. This was also the reason why Zhang Heng was able to control his muscles so perfectly.


    Even though Jemengard was fast, it was still impossible to cover up Zhang Heng��s movements. Not only that, but it had also exposed its weakness due to its aggressive pounce.


    Zhang Heng, who had been waiting for a long time, would not let go of this weakness. Not only did he avoid the snake head that had descended from the sky, but he also used the remaining time to circle the left side of the face of the monster.


    At that moment, the monster mmed its head into the ground, creating a huge gust that blew up a rain of pebbles.


    Zhang Heng��s Hidden Scabbard shed its fangs in the rain of pebbles and shed down on the monster��s face without hesitation!


    The Hidden Scabbard, however, which could cut through concrete and steel, finally met its match. The hardness of the ck scales exceeded Zhang Heng��s expectations. He tried his best, but it was unable to cut through the scales. Only a half-finger-deep cut could be seen.


    The shpletely ignited Jemengard��s anger. It did not expect to be cut by a mortal, and although not injured, the cut on the scales would remain until the next skin change period. It would be its humiliation.


    At that moment, the monster no longer cared about the flowers in the garden. It swished its tail in one fell swoop across the ce, leaving a mess. It even touched the red mud wall at the edge of the maze, obliterating them.


    However, when its tail swept past Zhang Heng��s position, thetter had already left. Before leaving, though, Zhang Heng gave it a second sh. This shnded on its neck, leaving it with a second scar. Undoubtedly, this caused Jemengard to enter berserk mode.


    It started to shake crazily, and the entire ind started to shake along with it. The garden at the center became a disaster area. Trees were uprooted, and flowers and nts were crushed into the soil, causing Jemengard to unleash its destructive power to its heart��s content. However, in this apocalyptic scene, there was a figure that was like a small boat in a raging sea. It floated up and down with the waves, but it was never swallowed by the storm. Moreover, as long as it found an opportunity, it would leave a cut on the ck python��s body.


    As time passed, Jemengard became more and more frustrated. The battle��s progress was something it had never expected, and the opponent was clearly a weak human. There was practically no way to threaten it, and it could not do anything to it. It had a body full of godly power that it was proud of, but it could not hit its target at all.


    Moreover, by the time Jemengard came to its senses, it realized that Zhang Heng cut the scales on its left cheek bit by bit and couldn��t even remember when this had happened.


    Zhang Heng had chosen a particr spot to strike. He did not attack Jemengard��s scales at the first moment. This way, as long as the ck python was not too stupid, it would be able to sense his intention. On the contrary, Zhang Heng had been consciously diverting his attacks to create an illusion for Jemengard.


    The illusion in question was that his attacks were not targeted or targeted. He only saw an opportunity to counterattack while dodging. However, in reality, during these scattered attacks, Zhang Heng had not given up on cutting the piece of scale on Jemengard��s left face.


    Up until now, he had already cut it seven times, and his hard work had paid off. The scale was about to bepletely sliced open, and when the time came, the skin underneath would be exposed. Jemengard probably did not know what this would mean.


    Zhang Heng was preparing to make the final cut during his next move, but at that moment, the initially violent ck python suddenly quieted down, stopping its twists and turns. Suddenly, a red mist drifted over from Zhang Heng��s side.


    Zhang Heng had seen the miserable state of the sperm whale on the tform on the second floor, so he was naturally wary of the poisonous mist.


    In the Norse mythological final twilight of the gods, Thor was killed in the poisonous mist in the battle between Thor and Jemengard. Therefore, Zhang Heng had long used Lego blocks to put together a gas mask, and it so happened that the Infinite Block��s cooldown time was also up. The drone in his travel bag had already turned back into a building block; therefore, Zhang Heng immediately pulled out the Infinite Block from the inside and inserted it into the gas mask that had already been put together on the other side.


    Meanwhile, on the other side, Nightmare Gad was still trying its best to spit out the poison mist. It could be seen that it didn��t really want to use this move. Initially, it thought that it would be able to easily deal with the threat in front of it with its huge body. However, Zhang Heng��s knife skills made it feel a sense of danger that it hadn��t felt for a long time.


    Therefore, the ck Python was forced to use its trump card. In its eyes, Zhang Heng was definitely going to die this time. This was because, unlike the previous pounce and swing of its tail, there was no way to avoid this poisonous mist, even if Zhang Heng managed to pull away from it before the poisonous mist spread, as long as he still wanted to attack it, Zhang Heng would have to step back into the poisonous mist.


    However, after breathing out the poison fog, Jemengard��s expression became a little dispirited. Compared to before, when it had been jumping up and down for a quarter of an hour, it was still alive and kicking. This time, it only spat out a small piece of the poison fog, and its eyes dimmed. Fortunately, all of this was valuable. At least, after the appearance of the poison fog, it was already in an invincible position.


    After doing all this, Jemengard was about to close its mouth when it felt a slight pain in its upper jaw.


    An arrow the size of a toothpick flew into its mouth when it attempted to spit out the poisonous mist. That was one of the few ces on its body that was not protected by its scales.


    However, that was just an ordinary arrow. Other than offending the ck python, it could not really cause it any harm. At least, that was what the ck python thought. Considering that its scales were already covered in cuts, the serpent was no longer as angry as it was.


    On the contrary, after the Paris Arrow hit it, Jemengard��s heart was filled with joy. This meant that Zhang Heng was still in its poisonous fog. In that case, the other party should have already been poisoned by it, and it wouldn��t be long before it lost all of itsbat power.

 Chapter 1110 - Third Attribute!

    <h4>Chapter 1110: Third Attribute!</h4>


    Poison Mist was Jemengard��s ultimate move. The creatures that inhaled it looked no different from usual, but the internal damage would be very serious. Under the corrosion of the poison, they would continuously lose their strength until they died. Moreover, the stronger the creature, the shorter the duration of the process would be.


    This was a poison that could turn a god into a mere mortal!


    During the battle between Thor and Jemengard, he lost his life due to the excessive amount of poisonous fog. On the other hand, it had dragged the sperm whale on the second floor of the tform from the depths of the sea. Although still conscious, it was unable to fight back. It could only watch helplessly as it was reduced to dinner for a group of snakes.


    From what he could see, Zhang Heng��s fate after inhaling the poisonous fog was simr to that of the sperm whale. He should be feeling the energy draining from his body very quickly, and he would feel weaker and weaker, just like... the current him.


    At first, Jemengard didn��t take this matter to heart. This was because the poisonous fog was usually stored in the poison sac in its abdomen. It was released once a month and, this time, used on the sperm whale. It wasn��t because the sperm whale was challenging to deal with, but because it needed the poison fog to dissolve the whale��s body enough for the snakes to feed. At the same time, the lethal poison he injected was also an excellent tonic for the snakes, just like how catnip attracted cats.


    Jemengard had already used up all of the poisonous mist from this month on the sperm whale, so it had been using its body to deal with Zhang Heng until it realized that the situation was turning against it; thus, it had no choice but to spit out more poisonous mist. However, this time, the toxic mist it had secreted had consumed quite a bit of its energy. After spitting it out, it immediately felt as if its body had been hollowed out.


    Fortunately, Jermengad was mentally prepared for this. After killing its opponent, it had plenty of time to recuperate. However, the serpent did not expect to feel particrly fatigued this time. Immediately after, its senses seemed to have be dull.


    This came as extremely strange for the ck python. Being a sea monster, it had an extremely sturdy body and had never been sick since it was born. Thus, it did not know what it felt like to be ill and only felt that its current physical condition was a little strange.


    It wanted to immediately return to the sea to rest. But the battle was not over yet. Although its human opponent should have already inhaled its poisonous fog and could not create any waves, it still felt that it should confirm the other party��s condition before leaving. Moreover, for this hateful human who dared to provoke it and leave a mark of shame on its body, Jemengard decided to swallow him in one gulp.


    It would try to eat him as slowly as possible because only then would it give the other party more time to savor the impending death. With this thought in mind, it poked its snake head forward again. It searched for its target in the poisonous fog.


    Even though the poisonous fog before its eyes had affected its vision, snakes were not known for their good eyesight. It also had sensors on its cheeks that could sense nearby heat changes. Hence, when it locked onto its target, it didn��t take long to locate Zhang Heng. However, it didn��t expect the target to be so close to it, the distance between them being less than ten meters.


    And just as it was in a daze, the distance between the two became even closer.


    The target was actually closing in on it? Was it a struggle before death?


    Before Jemengard could figure out the situation, it heard a crisp grinding, simr to the sound of metal colliding. However, its sluggish mind was unable to figure out where the sound came from in the first ce. It was only when it felt a sharp pain on its left cheek that it suddenly realized that a scale on its face had been cut off. Meanwhile, a guy wearing a strange mask had already stabbed his knife into the skin under the scale.


    Zhang Heng did not hold back with his knife, the depletely piercing into the monster��s flesh, leaving only the hilt outside. Furthermore, Zhang Heng had to stir it inside before he pulled out the knife.


    Even with the snake��s size, the de managed t severely injure it. It raised its head and rolled on the ground in pain. However, pain was pain. Even though the de had injured the snake, it would��ve, at most, scratched the muscles under its skin.


    With the snake��s physique, such a small injury shouldn��t cause it any trouble. At least, that was what it thought when it was first stabbed. At the same time, the fury of revenge quickly took it over, where even the fatigue and dullness from before seemed to havepletely subsided. Jemengard began an even fiercer salvo of attacks on Zhang Heng. Even the surrounding sea creatures seemed to sense danger, all fleeing deeper into the sea.


    Zhang Heng decisively switched back to his defensive stance and began to contend with the python before him.


    After a while, Jemengard finally realized that something was wrong. After the anger of revenge subsided, the tiredness and sluggishness returned. It felt powerless, and the wound on its cheek showed no signs of improvement. Not only was it continuously bleeding, but the pain was getting more intense.


    This confused Jemengard. Even though Zhang Heng had practically stabbed the knife into it,pared to its size, the wound on its left cheek was still so small that it could be ignored. At best, it was equivalent to an ordinary person having their finger cut open.


    However, it was this tinyceration that tormented the deep-sea monster. It could no longer ignore the pain on its cheek, especially when it shifted its gaze there discovered that the affected part had started to fester. The pus inside still spread in all directions.


    And this was the masterpiece of the Hidden Scabbard.


    After Zhang Heng received the knife, he also received the bartender��s appraisal of it. The sturdiness of the de and the non-healing properties of the wound were all eye-catching. Zhang Heng, however, had most of his attention on thest one: the bonus effect it inflicted on mythical creatures.


    With Zhang Heng��s current skills, it was almost impossible for ordinary people to threaten him. However, ever since he met the old man in the Tang suit, Zhang Heng realized that there were so many mythical creatures living in this world��in particr, many of the mythical creatures�� ordinary weapons had no effect on them at all. However, the appearance of the Hidden Scabbard made up for thisst shoring.


    The battle with Jemengard was also Zhang Heng��s first time using the Hidden Scabbard��s third attribute.


    Not only was this knife sturdy and had a bleeding effect, but it was also a true god-ying weapon!

 Chapter 1111 - The Atrium

    <h4>Chapter 1111: The Atrium</h4>


    Jemengard was shocked and infuriated. This was the first time it had suffered such a huge loss since it gained consciousness. Although it was unwilling to admit it, it did feel the threat of death.


    However, until now, Jemengard could not believe that the pressure of death was brought on by this seemingly insignificant human.


    However, the de of the other party��s knife was indeed stained with his blood. It looked exceptionally ferocious, as if it was reminding him of the source of the wound on his cheek. What confused him even more confused was that the target was clearly in his poisonous fog, but he was still alive and kicking. On the contrary, Jemengard was bing weaker and weaker.


    Even Jemengard began to wonder who it was that it really poisoned.


    Zhang Heng did not attack after the sh. He mainly dodged and dodged the python��s subsequent roll and furious counterattack. During that time, he even tried to shoot another arrow with his Pestilence Bone Bow.


    From Jemengard��s current actions, it was obvious that the arrow he shot into the Python��s mouth was still effective, even though it was just an ordinary arrow. However, the Pestilence Bone Bow��s effect of infecting blood with two to five types of gues was still effective.


    After that, Zhang Heng could clearly feel Jemengard��s movements slowing. This also made it easier for him to dodge. However, this time, Jemengard did not give him another chance. His second arrow did not manage to hit the wound on the python��s cheek, but the surrounding scales deflected it.


    At that moment, the nightmare guardian hadpletely retracted its initial contempt for Zhang Heng. It started to panic because it realized that it could not catch its target or unleash its full potential even though it had invincible strength. Its poison fog, which had always been effective, seemed to have little effect on its target either.


    After this round, it really did not seem to be able to do anything to Zhang Heng. Seeing that the human in front of it was getting ready again, Jemengard raised its head and used its tail to p the ground repeatedly, appearing as though it was preparing for a big move.


    In the end, Zhang Heng had just raised his guard and was ready to deal with the ck python��s next big move. He didn��t expect thetter to twist its body and escape to the reef beach not far away without looking back.


    Zhang Heng was stunned. He didn��t expect the majestic python, the famous Norse mythical monster, to really run away without a shred of dignity.


    Most importantly, based on Zhang Heng��s previous investigation, Jemengard had not used all of its attacks. Even though its pouncing and poisonous fog had not been effective, it should still possess a mind control skill, or there was no way to exin why the old man outside the maze had voluntarily walked into the tunnel to this ind for more than 50 years to be its guide.


    Zhang Heng had also been on guard against the onught of Jemengard��s mental attacks during the previous battle, but he had not expected the other party to be so decisive without even giving it a try. This went out of Zhang Heng��s expectations too. He had a vague feeling that something was not right, but at this moment, he could not dwell on the problem anymore. Seeing that the ck python was about to escape, he immediately chased after it.


    .....


    In front of the tform.


    Fan Meinan frowned. ��The atrium? where is it?��


    Beta didn��t answer her. Instead, she stroked the little white cat in her arms and asked, ��Do you know where this abandoned subway line originally leads to?��


    Fan Meinan tried hard to recall. Before she and Zhang Heng climbed down thedder, they didn��t know a subway line. After they came down, their phones lost their signal, and they couldn��t find any relevant information; therefore, Ma Lu told them about this subway line.


    However, it all happened more than 50 years ago, after all. The relevant files had been sealed, and Ma Lu didn��t know many details, including where the line led to. Many people had forgotten about it after so many years.


    However, Beta pulled out a picture from her phone photo album and showed it to Fan Meinan. ��You��ll have to make do with this. This document is more than 50 years old. I took a nning map from it.��


    Fan Meinan erged the picture and looked at the route marked on the map. ��This is... The Forbidden City? Was the end of this subway line the Forbidden City at that time?! Wait...�� Fan Meinan widened his eyes. ��...the atrium... could it be referring to...��


    ��Guan Zhong entered and stood with a double screen. The public does not speak. When entering the atrium, the public does not speak,�� Beta took back the mobile phone and said slowly. ��This phrase is from ��Kuang in the pipe.�� The so-called atrium is the middle part of the steps in front of the temple. It is where the ministers stand when they hold a court meeting or when they are knighted.��


    ��Are you kidding me? We all know that the snake in the atrium does not mean that,�� Fan Meinan said, ��Yggdrasil, the world tree in Norse mythology, has nine kingdoms above it. The world where humans live is called the Atrium.��


    ��You��re right,�� Beta nodded. ��There��s only one problem. We don��t live on Yggdrasil.��


    ��...��


    ��You have to find a ce for our friend Jemengard to stay, right?�� Beta appeared as if there was nothing she could do. ��Below the Forbidden City is the ce closest to the mythical atrium. Back then, when the subway line was built, it was awakened, and a series of things took ce. Well, strictly speaking, it didn��t wake up. It just opened its eyes a little. But this time, thanks to your boyfriend, it looks like it��s really going to wake up.��


    ��You said that Jemengard is under the Forbidden City? Then what was it that dragged the sperm whale to the second floor???�� Fan Meinan asked doubtfully.


    ��ording to Norse mythology, Jemengard could only wake up from its sleep when the poisonous dragon Niddhog finished eating the roots of the world tree at dusk of the gods.


    ��So, of course, it has to find some trustworthy subordinates to deal with the outside matters for it. Otherwise, why do you think it raises so many snakes here?�� Beta replied. ��It is to nurture generations of servants and ensure that there are always people who can serve it. Legend has it that it has a small ind specially used to incubate snake eggs, but I��ve never been there before as for the thing on the second floor. It��s its current generation of servants. ��Don��t look down on that fellow. It��s just like Jemengard��s sub-ount. Although it��s a weakened version in all aspects and its brain isn��t very good, it is still very strong and robust.��


    Seeing Fan Meinan��s expression change slightly, he waved his hand. ��Don��t worry about your boyfriend. How can such a small character be his opponent? He ran to the ind like that. The one who should be worried is that stupid snake. That guy has stayed in that kind of dipsh*t ce for too long. He probably forgot how dangerous the world is. It��s time to pay the tuition fees.��

 Chapter 1112 - Monster Party

    <h4>Chapter 1112: Monster Party</h4>


    Fan Meinan was not relieved. Instead, he raised his guard. ��Wait, what did you say? What do you mean by my boyfriend��s blessing?��


    ��Why? Isn��t he your boyfriend?�� Beta deliberately looked surprised.


    ��...��


    ��You know that��s not the point.�� Fan Meinan was speechless. ��ording to you, Jemengard will only wake up at the twilight of the gods when the poisonous dragon Niddhog has finished eating the roots of the world tree.��


    ��That��s right. That big snake is a monster that only appears at the end of the world.�� Beta nodded before she grinned with a meaningful smile. ��But Niddhog is not the only one in this world who can bring about the end of the world.��


    ��What are you hinting at?�� Fan Meinan frowned. ��If you like to y charades so much, why don��t you be the Sphinx��s agent?��


    Beta ignored Fan Meinan��s provocation and only smiled. ��No matter what, I��ve answered all your questions truthfully. Now, it��s time to talk about the deal between teacher and you. It��s not safe here. After all... Jemengad is about to wake up, and we probably don��t have much time left. But if we��re lucky, we might be able to see two apocalypse-level monsters fighting each other.��


    ��What the hell are you talking about? Isn��t there only one monster in this ce?��


    ��Oh, Jemengard isn��t the main character tonight. Whether it��s in the twilight of the gods or now, its position is only a footnote. However, it��s not entirely impossible for it to win tonight. After all, its opponent is far fromplete. It might be able to destroy the arrangement that that annoying old Guy Chronos has been nning for a long time. That would make things even more interesting.�� When Beta spoke about this, her eyes lit up. She looked as if she wanted the world to be in chaos.


    Fan Meinan could understand a little. ording to Beta, there seemed to be more terrifying monsters appearing tonight, so she asked her, ��So all of this is actually Loki��s arrangement, right? But isn��t Jemengard his child? Would hepletely ignore Jemengard��s life and death?��


    ��You know how teacher is. He has never really cared about anyone. Even as his agent, if he can make things more interesting, he probably won��t mind letting me die as well. After all, he��s a mad bastard. His parents don��t like him very much,�� Beta winked yfully.


    .....


    On Red Ind.


    The old man stood on a huge rock and looked at the man and snake fighting in the sea.


    The ck python was determined to escape, but Zhang Heng was unable to leave it onnd. However, the ck python was not having an easy time either. The scales on its body had been cut by Zhang Heng, so it had two more wounds. Another wound had been inflicted by an arrow. Conservatively, it was estimated that there were at least four types of gues on its body.


    However, its body was indeed strong. An ordinary person would find it difficult to even stand at this time. The python��s escape speed was not much slower than before. Of course, this was also because it waspletely terrified and couldn��t muster up the courage to face the frightful human behind it again. It only wanted to focus on returning to the sea, to find a ce where no one could find it, and plunge into it, never toe out again.


    Besides throwing away all of its dignity, its tail-between-its-legs battle strategy had indeed yielded significant results.


    The giant ck python had sessfully escaped back to the reef beach. However, this time, it did not climb up the huge reef like a throne and dominated the world. Instead, it fiercely plunged into the water.


    There was an underground passage under the reef that connected to the sea outside. The giant ck python had previously returned to the ind from this passage. However, after staying at home for a short while, it had no choice but to use this passage to escape to the sea again.


    After returning to the water, the giant beast��s mood calmed slightly. In its eyes, the possibility of the human following it into the water was very small. Although it had previously appeared a little pathetic onnd, it was still an ocean overload, an existence that could hunt down sperm whales.


    Back in the ocean, it would only be stronger than onnd. On the other hand, as a human, no matter how strong Zhang Heng was, his physiology was not adapted to the ocean environment. Once he entered the water, he had to solve the breathing problem first. His movement speed would also be significantly reduced. Therefore, from the perspective of the ck python, as long as Zhang Heng was not stupid, he would definitely not enter the water with it.


    However, it was true that it was afraid of being beaten up by someone, and it was worried that someone would shoot it from the shore. It didn��t stop after diving into the water and immediately swam out of the ind along the tunnel.


    Aftering out of the tunnel, the ck python finally feltpletely at ease.


    However, to be on the safe side, it still looked back and saw the scene that scared it out of its wits.


    The hateful figure was still following behind it like a piece of ster. It didn��t decide to let it go just because it had escaped into the sea. What puzzled the ck Python was that Zhang Heng��s movement speed in the water was even faster than onnd. At the same time, the other party didn��t seem to want to breathe at all.


    If it were at its peak condition, the ck python would not have been afraid topete with Zhang Heng in speed. However, it had already umted seven gues on its body. As the abscesses around the areas stabbed by Hidden Scabbard continued to spread, even with its physique, it was still unable to hold on. In addition, the wave of desperate escape on the shore had exhausted its remaining strength. The ck python realized with sorrow that it was a deep-sea monster, but it could not outrun the humans behind it in the ocean.


    Zhang Heng had obviously calcted this point, so he followed the ck python into the ocean. Very quickly, he caught up with the dispirited serpent and rode on its back before mercilessly thrusting the Hidden Scabbard into the snake��s flesh to make it bleed again.


    Jemengard writhed in pain in the ocean, but there was nothing it could do about the humans on its back. At this moment, itpletely lost its previous prestige and looked like it was at the end of its rope.


    The old man did not expect the giant ck python to be so cowardly. Judging from its appearance, if it had legs, it might have knelt and begged for mercy. However, the next moment, the old man��s tightly knitted brows suddenly rxed. Not only that, a hint of joy even appeared on his face.


    It was because he felt a special throbbing in his heart. In the past, this kind of situation would only appear when the great being under the Forbidden City took the initiative to contact him. This time, the throbbing was unprecedentedly intense.


    No one knew better than the old man what this meant! He couldn��t help but shed tears of excitement.


    Fifty-one years had passed since he first heard that voice!!!


    He had changed from a youngd to a white-haired old man. However, even in his boldest dreams, he didn��t dare imagine that he could really wait until this day appeared in his lifetime, to be able to see with his own eyes that imposing and terrifying figure appear on this piece ofnd, to be able to watch it set off endless huge waves and devour the entire world, what a magnificent and heart-stirring scene!

 Chapter 1113 - The Boss and the Worker

    <h4>Chapter 1113: The Boss and the Worker</h4>


    The old man was excited by the magnificent scene that was about to unfold.


    On the other side, the life and death of the ck python were no longer important to him. Now, Zhang Heng, who was riding on the back of the snake, had be a dead man in the old man��s eyes. He firmly believed that as long as the figure under the Forbidden City could wake up, any enemy could only tremble under its terrifying might.


    At that time, even the Asgardian gods would wee their final dusk, what more, a regr mortal being.


    And as the bearer of that great existence, he would also have the honor of witnessing the arrival of the end of the world with his own eyes as a mortal. It was the final battle that no words could describe.


    The old man sobbed in excitement as he bent down and kissed the ground beneath him. However, azy voice came from in front of him.


    ��What��s wrong? Did your boss call you again?��


    The old man froze and moved his lips away from the red soil. He looked up and saw the uninvited guest in front of him.


    It was a woman in a t-shirt and jeans who looked a little cold. She was holding a Boston Scheck pot in her hand and she appeared to be busy adjusting some drinks not long ago, but she received an urgent message. Having no time to put down the work in her hands before she ran out in a hurry.


    The old man was surprised to find that he didn��t know when she had sneakily arrived on the ind. Moreover, there was clearly no means of transportation around, which made the old man feel like he had hit a ghost. Could this woman in front of him have descended from the sky?


    As if she could see through his thoughts, the woman of unknown origin said, ��Don��t guess blindly. I swam up on my own. Fortunately, I caught up.��


    ��Caught up to what?�� The old man asked subconsciously.


    ��Caught up to this party,�� the woman from an unknown background sung.


    However, the old man found it difficult to believe her words because the woman in front of him was neatly dressed. She did not look like she was soaked. Unless she had taken off her clothes and swam over with both hands raised, it was still difficult to exin her current state. She looked like she had taken a taxi directly after work.


    ��Who are you?�� The old man asked cautiously.


    ��As you can see, I��m just a bartender. My name is not important.��The woman of unknown origin shook the Boston Scheck pot in her hand. ��What��s important is that I��m just like you. I��m just a worker who works for the boss.��


    ��You��re too modest. I can see that you��re much better than me,�� the old man said sincerely. Although he could not see through the woman��s true strength, he could still sense that she was no ordinary person. The woman just stood there casually, but the pressure she was exerting on him was on par with the figure under the Forbidden City. This was the most unbelievable thing in the old man��s eyes.


    ��You guys have been isted in this ce for too long. You don��t even know what you��re capable of. It��s the end of the world. Even if your boss wakes up from the Forbidden City, he��ll be beaten up once he goes out.�� The unknown woman shook her head. ��Many stronger beings are out there. You don��t even know that you��re being used as a hired gun.��


    The old man didn��t say anything, but the expression on his face clearly showed that he didn��t believe the other party��s words.


    However, considering the other party��s strength, he still tried his best to probe using a polite tone. ��It looks like... you��re not its enemy. Since that��s the case, why don��t you stand aside and quietly wait for his lordship? When that timees, even if there are any powerful enemies, his lordship can help you test their strength.��


    ��No.��The woman decisively refused without thinking.


    ��Why?�� The old man found it hard to understand. Then, he seemed to have thought of something, and his expression changed. There was a hint of hostility in his eyes as he sized her up. In a deep voice, he said, ��Could it be that you are a certain lord of Asgard?��


    The people of Asgard and Jemengard were mortal enemies. If it were not for the existence of those gods, Jemengard would not have needed to ce the ind where it hatched its servants and received its believers in such a remote ce. Could the Asgardians have also sensed something and sent people to stop Jemengard from waking up to dy the arrival of the twilight of the gods?


    This seemed to be the most likely exnation.


    However, the woman of unknown origin shook her head when she heard this. ��I have nothing to do with those Asgardians. No, strictly speaking, I have some grudges with the enemies of your boss, but I don��t really care about it.�� She paused and continued, ��I told you before. I��m here because of my boss, right?��


    ��You have a boss?��The old man was stunned. He didn��t know who was qualified to be the boss of this woman before him.


    ��Of course, and you��ve already met him.��The woman of unknown origin sighed. ��He killed your boss��s next batch of servant candidates who were still in training. In addition, it looks like he��s going to kill this batch of servants soon. So if your boss wakes up, there will definitely be a battle between him and my boss given his temper. This is also what those arranged this would like to see.��


    ��Now, that...�� the old man was speechless. He looked at Zhang Heng, who was grappling with the ck python in the distant ocean. He could not believe that the creature in front of him was also a mythical creature. Her boss was actually a mortal.


    Even though this mortal��s strength had exceeded the old man��s understanding entirely, it still did not seem to reach the level of this woman before him.


    ��I can��t reveal the specific reason to you. I can only say that the current him is far from showing his true strength. Believe me, you definitely wouldn��t want that to happen either,�� said the woman. ��Thus, I came to the ind in order to give you a peaceful option before the situation turns out to be out of control.��


    ��You think too highly of me. I��m just a weing party that can��t even be considered as a believer,�� the old man said. ��I can��t control its decision. I can only ept its orders andplete them unconditionally.��


    ��You��re too modest. In my opinion, your position is much more important than those believers. There was a small garden in the center of the maze, but the python didn��t know how to appreciate flowers. So, it was obvious who the garden belonged to. Although the so-called servant��s strength had been improved, his body had be bigger, and he had learned how to spit poisonous fog. Due to the body structure of the snake, it was difficult for its intelligence to be raised to a satisfactory level. Therefore, the stupid snake on the ind is, at best, a tool or a weapon. You are the real brain of Jemengard in the outside world. Only you canmunicate with him and convey his orders. You are very important to him.��

 Chapter 1114 - New Life

    <h4>Chapter 1114: New Life</h4>


    The old man did not expect that the woman would see through his identity.


    However, after a moment of silence, he said firmly, ��Even if you are right, the awakening of our Lord is a foregone conclusion. No one can stop this.��


    ��Who said that? I came here to stop this.�� The woman of unknown origin raised her chin. ��However, I need a little help from you.��


    ��What do you want me to do?��


    ��Get in touch with that thing under the Forbidden City. You should have a way to do it, right?�� said the woman as she took out a palm-sized bone flute.


    ��What is this?�� The old man looked vignt.


    ��It doesn��t matter if I tell you. This is the Siren Flute. I killed about a hundred sirens in the deep sea and made this item with their hyoid bones. As long as this flute is yed, the mortals who hear it will bepletely lost in the sound of the flute. There is a high chance that they will never wake up again but worry not. To your boss, this flute will look at most calm his restless heart a little and let him return to his sleep.��


    ��You��re lying,�� the old man shook his head and said. ��Sea monsters are very rare. There might not even be ten sea monsters in the entire ocean. Where can you find more than a hundred sea monsters to make a flute?��


    ��I know.�� The anonymous woman licked her lips and said with a smile, ��because they were all killed by me. Up until the 19th century, there were actually quite several sea monsters. Although they were far from catching up to humans, there were still a few hundred of them. They would use songs to confuse the seafarers, causing their ships to collide with the reefs, directly luring those poor sailors into the sea. It was because of this that I used their hyoid bones to make a game item.


    ��In order to collect the materials, I killed more than a hundred sea monsters. I originally nned to return with the materials, but when I saw the eyes of the remaining sea monsters, I knew that they would most likelye to seek revenge on me in the future. Although I wasn��t worried about this, I hated trouble, so I simply killed all of them together.��


    The old man was the host of the giant python, Jemengard. He served a famous evil Norse mythological monster, but even he could not help but feel a chill in his heart when he heard the words of the woman opposite him. The most important thing was that she looked rxed the whole time when she was telling the story, as though gossiping about celebrities.


    However, this proved that she was not from Asgard. Even if those hypocritical gods really did such things behind their backs, they would never dare to bring it up.


    The anonymous woman continued, ��You don��t have to worry about me harming your boss. Although we haven��t met before, we can be considered half of the same race. I wouldn��t go so far as toy my hands on it.��


    After saying that, she bent down to pick up the two red pebbles and knocked them against each other. As a result, the two red pebbles shattered, and the snake embryo inside rolled on the ground, twisting its body and continuously struggling. However, because it had arrived in this world too early, its organs were not fully developed. It was still unable to adapt to the cruel environment outside. In the end, its struggling became increasingly powerless, and it looked like it was about to lose its life.


    However, the old man saw the unknown woman open her mouth and spit out a green mist in the next moment. That mist enveloped the two small snakes on the ground. Not long after, their bodies began to tremble violently. At the same time, the color of the skin patterns also began to change.


    The original red gradually became red and green. When the entire change waspleted, their bodies also stopped trembling andy on the ground motionless.


    However, the old man knew that the two small snakes weren��t dead. On the contrary, they miraculously survived. Not only did they survive the danger of being born too early, but they also became more full of vitality than ever before. Even the old man found it hard to ept this exuberant vitality. They stopped moving now because the strange evolution from before had exhausted their physical strength.


    After resting for half a minute to recover their strength, they immediately began to eat the red pebble fragments inrge mouthfuls. Moreover, after fighting for thest piece, they still seemed a little unsatisfied. Their eyes turned around before finally set their eyes on the other red pebbles beside them.


    One of the snakes bit on an intact red pebble beside them, but thetter did not move at all. Its two baby teeth were almost broken, but it did not give up even after suffering such a heavy setback. It continued to think of ways to open the red pebble.


    Seeing this, the old man couldn��t help but waver. It wasn��t because he had been convinced by the unknown woman, but because he realized that the other party��s strength seemed to be stronger than he had imagined. He had no choice but to consider the consequences of making an enemy out of the other party, not to mention that there was Zhang Heng in the sea.


    At this moment, the ck python��s iling strength was getting weaker and weaker. It looked like it was at the end of its tether, and it wouldn��t be long before it lost its life.


    The old man thought for a moment before suggesting, ��Why don��t you ask your boss to spare Ah Hei��s life first, and then we can continue the discussion?��


    ��Ah Hei? is that the name of the ck python?��The woman of unknown origin sighed. ��When have you ever seen a worker giving orders to his boss? ��And even if I speak now, I won��t be able to save that stupid snake. From the moment it was shed by my boss��s knife. It was a dead end. If you have the time to plead for it, you might as well think more about your boss.��


    Speaking up to this point, the woman from an unknown background��s tone turned cold, ��It��s true that I came to the ind with the goal of peace, but if you really decide to remain stubborn all the way until your boss wakes up, then I��ll kill you, then join forces with my boss, so Jemengard tastes what it��s like to fight two against one.��


    .....


    The battle between Zhang Heng and the ck python wasing to an end. The sea��s surface had once been battered by the ck python��s struggles, but now the waves were gradually dissipating, and the sea returned to its calm state. The only difference was that the nearby seawater had been dyed red by the ck python��s blood.


    However, due to the ck python��s past prestige, the sea creatures that lived here had fled the area at the start of the battle. They still didn��t dare return, whereas even sharks had taken the initiative to go around them. This ce had be a stage for a man and a snake.

 Chapter 1115 - Golden Scales

    <h4>Chapter 1115: Golden Scales</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    The battlested longer than Zhang Heng expected.


    Twenty minutes ago, he noticed that the ck python had almost reached its limit. Thetter��s wounds were more than two. Even though the Pestillence Bone Bow was no longer effective after entering the water, Zhang Heng continued to deal damage to the ck python with the Hidden Scabbard.


    Up until now, the ck python had suffered dozens ofrge and small wounds. Under the effect of the Hidden Scabbard��s damage bonus on mythical creatures, the pain caused by these wounds far exceeded their size.


    However, the ck python��s body was simply too huge. An ordinary person would have long fallen to the ground even if they did not die immediately after being struck by so many knives. Moreover, if one of the knives hit a vital point, their life would be in danger.


    However, even if Zhang Heng stabbed the hilt of his Hidden Scabbard into the python��s body, it would still be very difficult to hit its vital point. Furthermore, those seemingly horrifying wounds were insignificantpared to its imposing size.


    Fortunately, because there were enough wounds, Zhang Heng managed to win this difficult battle.


    After the huge snake leaped out of the water once more, it was no longer able to stir up any waves. It justy quietly in the sea and stopped struggling.


    However, Zhang Heng could feel that it did not die immediately. It was not until about fifteen minutester that the ck python finally lost all signs of life.


    At that moment, Zhang Heng also felt a wave of exhaustion. This was not the most thrilling battle he had ever faced, but it was definitely the most exhausting battle. After fighting for so long with an enemy that was hundreds of timesrger than him, fromnd to sea, the amount of physical and mental effort required was unimaginable.


    After confirming that the ck python was really dead, Zhang Heng did not want to do anything else. He put the Hidden Scabbard back into the sheath at his waist and sat on the ck python��s corpse to recover his strength.


    A whileter, Zhang Heng saw a wooden boat approaching him. The person rowing the boat was none other than the old man he saw on the ind earlier.


    When the boat approached, Zhang Heng ced his palm back on the hilt of the knife.


    ��I mean you no harm.�� The old man raised his hands to indicate that there was no weapon in his hands. After a pause, he asked, ��Is it dead?��


    Zhang Heng nodded, but his palm did not move away from the hilt.


    ��I really mean no harm,�� the old man repeated, ��I just didn��t expect you to be able to kill a monster that appeared in the twilight of the gods. However, I��m not here to take revenge on you. This is also a good thing for me because this means I can finally leave this ind and return to human society, even though most of my rtives and friends are gone.��


    ��Do you take me for an idiot?�� Zhang Heng asked calmly from the back of the snake. ��This fellow isn��t even Jemengard.��


    ��Why do you think so?��


    ��Although it had respectable strength, it had not reached the level of a mid-court snake. The most important thing was that its brain wasn��t very good. Furthermore, it was previously timid in the garden. On that ind, I��m afraid its status is not as high as yours.��


    Another thing that Zhang Heng did not mention was that when the Parris Arrow shot toward the ck python, it turned around halfway. It was then that Zhang Heng started to suspect that the python was not Jemengard.


    He paused for a moment before continuing, ��Let��s cut to the chase. Stop beating around the bush. where is Jemengard? ��Whether the Red Ind or the abandoned subway line, it should be the ce where it nurtures its poption. I killed all of its hatchlings. Doesn��t it want to take revenge on me?��


    ��It does want to take revenge on you, but unfortunately, it��s still in a deep sleep and has no way to rush here,�� the old man said.


    ��Deep sleep?��


    ��Since you��ve read up on Norse mythology, you should know that up until the dusk of the gods, Jemengard was sleeping in the deep sea, right? Therefore, I��ll be handling the matters outside for it,�� the old man said politely.


    ��Then how do you n to handle this matter?��


    ��You��ve already killed ckie, the strongest snake king among the snakes. He has half the purity of Jemengard��s bloodline. And just as you said, you��ve also killed this batch of snakes. Before the next batch of snakes break out of their shells and produce a snake king, I don��t have any good ideas for you. So it seems that I��ll have to send you away,�� the old man said.


    ��That��s it?��Zhang Heng was a little surprised.


    ��That��s it. And you don��t have to worry. As long as you don��t return to this mountain, even if a new snake king is born, I won��t be able to do anything to you...�� The old man hesitated for a moment before continuing, ��Also, count downward from ckie��s left eye. There��s a small golden scale underneath the third scale. You should take it too. That thing should be of some help to you.��


    Zhang Heng followed the old man��s instructions and used the Hidden Scabbard to cut open the third scale under the ck Python��s Left Eye. In the end, he did see a small golden scale underneath. Zhang Heng cut off the scale and felt a cold sensation in his hand. The amazing thing was that no matter how long he held it, the temperature of the scale would not rise. Unfortunately, at only the size of two fingernails, it was too small. Otherwise, he could have skipped the air-conditioning during the summer.


    Even without the bartender��s appraisal, Zhang Heng could confirm that this was a game item.


    ��These things are yours too, right?��The old man then returned the Parris Arrow that fell into the water to Zhang Heng along with therge travel bag that someone had left on the ind earlier.


    Zhang Heng roughly examined it and found that there was not a single thing missing from it. After closing the zipper, he asked the old man, ��You��ve helped me so much behind Jemengard��s back. Aren��t you afraid of himing after you when he wakes up?��


    ��Of course, this isn��t free help. I want to trade these things for my own life. Surviving is always the most important thing,�� the old man said, ��And it��s the same for it. I can only continue to serve it if I��m alive. It has greater value. It��s not impossible to choose another person to receive it, but it definitely won��t be as convenient as mine, especially at a time like this...��


    ��Do you know how to return to the human world? I still have twopanions at the subway station. I want to take them with me.��


    ��No problem.�� The old man nodded.


    ��There��s also a woman named Cheng Sihan. She��s probably trapped in that circr tunnel. She��s the one I want to take with me.��


    The old man thought for a moment. ��That��s not a big problem.��


    ��Then I have onest question. Do you know where Loki is?�� Zhang Heng asked the old man.

 Chapter 1116 - Workplace Environment of the New Era

    <h4>Chapter 1116: Workce Environment of the New Era</h4>


    ��Loki?�� The old man was stunned. ��Is Loki here too? When?��


    The nk look on his face didn��t seem fake, which meant that he hadn��t seen Loki for a while.


    Of course, this didn��t mean that Loki hadn��t been here before. Considering his transformation ability, he could easily turn into a bird or an insect and sneak onto the ind without the old man noticed. He might even find the ce Jemengard was sleeping at.


    However, Zhang Heng and Fan Meinan��s original n was going to fall through. They wouldn��t be able to find Loki��s whereabouts from the old man.


    In fact, although Beta had lured the three to this abandoned subway line, Zhang Heng could still sense Loki��s shadow from the back. However, Zhang Heng didn��t quite understand Loki��s purpose.


    Was the other party targeting him? Because Fan Meinan couldn��t make a move on him, Beta had lured him here, hoping to use the ck python on the ind to kill him? If that was the case, wasn��t rocky looking down on him a little too much? Or did rocky just want to use him to kill the ck python so that he could be enemies with Jemengard?


    At present, this appeared to be the most likely conclusion.


    However, as a monster that appeared in the twilight of the gods, Jemngard already had many enemies. There wasn��t a single god in Asgard who didn��t want to kill it and if it wasn��t for Zhang Heng��s bad luck that he happened to appear in itsir, Jemengard probably didn��t have any intention of seeking revenge on Zhang Heng.


    When Zhang Heng was fighting the ck python, he had once suspected that Jemengard would descend in some way after he killed the ck python. But now, the old man��s words had overturned this possibility.


    This time, Zhang Heng could not see through Loki��s intentions. Loki��s n now seemed somewhat anticlimactic.


    But then, Zhang Heng��s expression changed, and he seemed to have thought of something. He asked the old man, ��Did someone elsee to the ind just now?��


    The old man��s expression changed slightly. He thought of the anonymous woman��s exnation and wanted to deny it on the spot. However, he knew that his first reaction must have been seen by Zhang Heng. If he denied it now, it would only make things worse, therefore, he was a little embarrassed and didn��t know what to say. In the end, he could only remain silent.


    ��...��


    Actually, the old man was even more confused than Zhang Heng. He was already confused about the rtionship between the woman of unknown origin and Zhang Heng. ording to the former, Zhang Heng was her boss, and this time, he was here to solve her boss��s problems; however, she had been busy for so long, and it seemed that she did not want her boss to know about her existence. Before she left, she specifically told the old man not to tell Zhang Heng about her arrival on the ind.


    The old man could only sigh that he had been on the ind for too long, and he could no longer adapt to theplicated workce environment of the new era.


    Fortunately, Zhang Heng did not continue to ask. He knew that he could not get an answer from the old man, so he closed his eyes and rested for about half a minute. Then, he jumped off the snake corpse and sat on the small wooden boat.


    The old man could not help but heave a sigh of relief. This was the tragedy of a tactician. Even though he was the brain of Jemengard in the outside world, he was responsible for taking care of everything outside while Jemengard was asleep, however, after the death of the ck python, he could not defeat anyone now. He could not offend the woman of unknown origin, nor could he offend Zhang Heng in front of him. He could only walk between the two of them like walking on thin ice.


    After Zhang Heng boarded the boat, he quickly rowed the wooden boat to the side of the underwater tunnel that connected to the pool. Then, he took out two sets of old-fashioned scuba gear from the boat and handed one of them to Zhang Heng. However, thetter rejected him with a wave of his hand.


    ��I don��t need these things.��


    The old man was not surprised. After all, since Zhang Heng coulde from here, he could also return from here. Furthermore, not long ago, the other party had fought ckie in the sea for more than 40 minutes, and ckie had once dived to the bottom of the sea, but he still couldn��t escape.


    So the old man put on his diving equipment. His movements were a bit rusty, and he even studied the use of the breathing apparatus. At the same time, he didn��t forget to exin to Zhang Heng, ��This tunnel is only used by ckie to feed the snakes. As for the believers, there are other ways to enter and exit the ind. I didn��t expect anyone toe out here, so at first, I thought you were a believering to the ind.��


    Zhang Heng nodded and didn��t say anything. He grabbed his bag and followed the old man.


    Then, the two of them entered the underwater tunnel together. When they arrived, there was a lot of turbulence in the tunnel, but the general direction of the flow was from the pool to the sea. Zhang Heng had thought that it would be more difficult to go against the current when they returned, he had even nned to use his ability to control the current to send the two of them back.


    However, he did not expect that after swimming less than half a meter into the tunnel, the direction of the turbulence changed miraculously. It changed from internal to external flow to external to internal flow. Not long after, the two of them were sent back to the head of the snake carved on the stone.


    As soon as they reached the pool, Zhang Heng heard Ma Lu��s voice. There was a hint of urgency in his voice.


    ��What��s Wrong?��Zhang Heng asked Ma Longdao, who was lying at the entrance of the cave. Ma Lu looked like an ant on a hot pan. The moment he saw Zhang Heng, he asked anxiously,


    ��Miss Fan is missing!��! ��Not long after you went down, Miss Fan told me that she didn��t want to sit there and wait. She wanted to see if she could find anything that could help you. I wanted to help too, so she told me to find a way to make a rope. After that, we split up. I was on the second floor, and she was on the first floor... about twenty minutester, I went down to look for her, but when I reached the first floor, I found that she was missing. I shouted loudly, but no one answered.��


    Ma Lu��s first words made Zhang Heng��s heart sink. He turned to the old man behind him and asked, ��Is there anything else here?��


    The old man shook his head, ��No, this subway line has been closed for decades. No one hase in. We use this ce to feed the snakes. In fact, the snakes usually stay in the tunnel very quietly. They onlye out when they��re eating. They��re very obedient.��


    However, Zhang Heng knew that it was not as if no one hade in here before. The snakes in the tunnel had already been cleaned out by him, and the rest could not cause much trouble. Therefore, the possibility of Fan Meinan��s disappearance had nothing to do with the snakes, however, Zhang Heng did not forget that Loki��s agent, Beta, had once entered this ce before them. He had not seen Beta leave the surveince footage, so thetter was most likely still here.


    If there were anyone who was most likely to attack Fan Meinan, it would be Beta.

 Chapter 1117 - A Small Favor

    <h4>Chapter 1117: A Small Favor</h4>


    Zhang Heng was about to assemble a Lego motorcycle and let the old man lead the way. He searched the entire abandoned subway line, but he did not expect to see Fan Meinan��s figure again at the entrance of the tunnel.


    Fan Meinan was not injured. Other than her pale face, her condition didn��t change much from before they separated.


    Ma Lu was ted to see this. ��Where did you run off to? I��m so d you��re okay.��


    ��Oh, I heard some movement from the tunnel earlier, so I went in to take a look and I identally wandered off,�� Fan Meinan mumbled. Then, she turned to look at Zhang Heng and asked with concern.


    ��You��re back? Did you run into any trouble down there?��


    ��Yes, I did run into some trouble on the way, but it��s been taken care of now.�� Zhang Heng gave a brief ount of his battle with the ck python. Then, he pointed at the old man behind him, ��He��s Jemengard��s guide. He can take us away from this subway line. In addition, he can also find your sister from that circr subway line.��


    ��My sister is no longer there.�� Fan Meinan shook her head.


    ��Hmm?�� Zhang Heng raised his eyebrows.


    ��The movement I heard earlier should havee from my sister.�� Fan Meinan lied, ��The movement came from the tunnel at the other end. I picked up my sister��s phone chain there, so I continued chasing after her. Unfortunately, I couldn��t find her.��


    ��Is that so?�� Zhang Heng was a little surprised. He asked the old man, ��Where does the tunnel that the snakes are lead to?��


    ��Do you mean the tunnel on the first floor? That tunnel is about three kilometers long. It��s a dead-end, and there��s nothing at the end,�� the old man answered truthfully.


    ��Is that so?�� Zhang Heng thought about it and inserted the Infinite Building Block into the Lego motorcycle. ��Let��s go take a look.��


    The two spent about 15 minutes searching the tunnel where the snakes were, but unfortunately, they couldn��t find Cheng Sihan. When they returned, they met up with Fan Meinan and Ma Lu and walked into the infinite loop tunnel.


    The old man took out an old-fashioned kerosenemp from the waterproof cloth. However, the fuel inside was not kerosene but something like dried cow dung. He lit the kerosenemp and held it in front of his face. Then, he reminded the three people beside him, ��Don��t leave the range of the lightter. As long as the light hits the ce, it will not fall into a cycle. If yourpanion is in this tunnel, we should be able to meet her on the way.��


    The old man made a solemn promise to Zhang Heng. Nheless, the four walked to the tform they had just entered, but they still could not see Cheng Sihan.


    ��Is there any other ce to hide people here?�� Zhang Heng asked the dumbfounded old man.


    ��There are quite a lot of ces to hide people. After all, more than half of the subway line has been built, but this is the only part of the road that will cause people to fall into a cycle.�� The old man did not seem to have expected such an oue. He had promised Zhang Heng that finding thetter��spanions would not be a problem, but he did not expect him to go back on his word. He sorted out his emotions before replying.


    Fan Meinan, who had been silent the whole way, also spoke up, ��Actually, we don��t have to worry too much about her. Since my sister isn��t trapped in this tunnel, she shouldn��t be in any danger. She just left without saying goodbye to us. If you��ve known her for a long time, you��ll know that she��s always been like this. She does things her own way and rarely cares about other people��s feelings.��


    ��Then, do you have any way to contact her? I��m afraid we won��t be able to find out where Loki is. In that case, we only have Beta left,�� Zhang Heng said, ��If your sister really left in a hurry, it��s most likely because she��s chasing Beta. We need her to lead us to Beta.��


    ��I��ll try to contact herter, but we��ve been through a lot today, and I��m a little tired. Why don��t we call it a day? I��ll contact you if there��s any news,�� Fan Meinan said, ��Thank you. To be honest, I didn��t expect you toe looking for me, and you��re even willing to find a way to cure my rare disease. Most people would avoid hearing Loki��s name. After all, most people might not agree with his style of doing things, but they definitely don��t want to make things difficult for him.��


    ��He provoked me first,�� Zhang Heng said, ��I��ve been targeted by him ever since he sent you to find me. No matter what I do, it won��t change his attitude toward me, so naturally, I don��t have to worry about his attitude.��


    After a pause, Zhang Heng added, ��Since you��re tired, go back and rest. You don��t have to worry too much. Loki isn��t the only one who can cure your illness. I��ve already posted a reward on the forum. There might be news soon.��


    ��Are you really going to trade 200,000 points or a B-grade item for my life?�� Fan Meinan asked after a moment of silence.


    ��That��s a fair price,�� Zhang Heng said calmly.


    ��I��m not talking about who loses and who gains...�� Fan Meinan opened her mouth. ��To be honest, I don��t think my life is worth that many points.��


    ��You��re right.�� Zhang Heng nodded. ��So you��d better think about how you��re going to pay me back after you��re rescued.��


    ��...��


    After that, Zhang Heng turned to Ma Lu. ��Master Ma.��


    ��Yes, what is it?�� Even now, Ma Lu still couldn��t believe that he had really escaped. When he saw the irondder going up, he almost cried out in excitement. Then, he was immersed in the joy of finally being able to return home.


    A few hours ago, he would never have imagined what he would experience on this trip. In fact, even now, he still felt like he was dreaming, whether it was the endless tunnel (Ma Lu deliberately looked at the time and realized that it was indeed much shorter when he returned than when he went in), or the crazy snake swarm, the sperm whale on the second floor of the station made him feel incredibly magical.


    Not to mention Zhang Heng��s magic trick of using blocks to make real objects, enough to turn his worldview upside down. It was not until Zhang Heng called his name that he was able to recall reality from his memories.


    ��Can I trouble you to do me a favor?�� Zhang Heng asked.


    ��Of course.�� Ma Lu agreed without hesitation. He knew very well that if it were not for Zhang Heng, he would not have been able to return to the ground and see his wife and children again, so he had already made up his mind, no matter what Zhang Heng wanted him to do, no matter how difficult it was, he would not refuse.


    In the end, he heard Zhang Heng continue, ��Very good. I��ll have to Trouble Master Ma to forget what happened down there then.��


    ��What?��

 Chapter 1118 - Farewell

    <h4>Chapter 1118: Farewell</h4>


    After leaving the station, Zhang Heng made a trip to the gaming station and passed the golden scales he had cut off from the ck python to the bartender for identification.


    When he pushed open the door to the lounge, he happened to see the bartender working on a new drink at the bar.


    Recently, the bartender had been gettingzier andzier. When Zhang Heng saw her, she would either be reading manga or ying catch-up on her phone, or she would be in a high-intensity online conversation with an unknownizen on a two-dimensional forum. She didn��t even want to do her job anymore. If someone ordered a drink, she would make it hastily or, if she was even more unreasonable, she would simply pass the order to the bartender downstairs. When the order was ready, she would ask someone to bring it up. The only thing missing was the word ��fool�� written on her face.


    However, today, contrary to her usual behavior, she didn��t continue to fish for money. Instead, she finally returned to her long-lost devotion to her job and developed a new drink for the lounge.


    The bartender added a small spoonful of sea salt into a ss of blue-green liquid toplete her improvisation. Then, she handed the drink to a yer at the bar before turning around. Turning around, she wiped her hands with a towel and said, ��It��s been less than 24 hours since you leftst time. Why, are you already eager to start the next round of the game?��


    ��No, I just got an item that needs your appraisal,�� Zhang Heng said as he took out the golden scale from his travel bag.


    The bartender took the scale and sniffed it, ��Hmm... it��s quite fresh. It seems that you just had an intimate date with the owner of this thing. You��re quite lucky. I happen to have nothing to do recently, so I can give you the results tomorrow.��


    After saying that, she raised her head and found Zhang Heng staring at her.


    ��Why? Do I remind you of the poor girl you yed and abandoned in the dungeon?�� The bartender raised her eyebrows.


    Zhang Heng also looked away and said lightly, ��Well, I just didn��t expect you to be so efficient.��


    ��Don��t look at me like that. I have rent to pay, and I have a lot of pets.��


    ��Cats?��


    ��No, I like fish. I just ordered a 20-meter-long aquarium online, and I was going to raise two electric eels,�� the bartender said as she brushed her hair by her ear.


    Zhang Heng nodded. ��Good luck then.�� After he paid the appraisal fee, he left the lounge with his bag.


    As soon as he left, the bartender sighed in relief. The energy in her body disappeared, and she returned to her previous half-dead state. At this time, another yer came over to order a drink, but the bartender said to wait.., she then passed the list to the bartender at the bar below, while she took out a book called ��Chess Soul�� and continued to flip through it.


    She found the page that she had seen not long ago and was about to continue reading, but she stopped in the next moment.


    On the right page, where her fingers had just pressed, there was a faint red mark. That red mark was very light, and only the bartender could see it.


    Then, the bartender seemed to have thought of something. She reached out and touched her hair, and found a few red grains of soil on it.


    It was then that she knew that something bad had happened. She had been extremely cautious on the way to the ind, and her body had not been stained with seawater or anything else. It was almost exactly the same as before she left, but in order to show that she had no ill intentions towards Jemengard, the bartender picked up two red pebbles and crushed them, allowing the snake embryo inside toe into the world ahead of time.


    It was also at that time that she got the soil on her hands, and she had the habit of flipping her hair. The soil probably came into her hair at that time. If it was an ordinary person, then so be it. She probably would not have noticed these details.


    However, the bartender was facing Zhang Heng. Thetter��s observation and analysis skills were almost unrivaled among yers, so the bartender did not take any chances. She knew that Zhang Heng must have noticed that she had been on that ind before.


    ��Damn it.�� The bartender rubbed her temples and sighed, ��Why do I feel like a scumbag caught by his wife having an affair? I was only there to protect him, but in the end, I had to carefully hide it. Tsk, tsk, tsk. What a thankless job.��


    As she wasmenting, the door to the lounge was pushed open again.


    This time, it was a waitress who came in with a cocktail that the bartender had just cked off. However, that yer had already forgotten the wine he had ordered, because his eyes were only focused on the waitress.


    Logically speaking, he had experienced quite a number of dungeons, and he had encountered many different types of girls. However, when he saw this girl in front of him, he still felt that she was iparably stunning. Her appearance wasn��t perfect, but she carried an innocent and innocent temperament. It was very easy to arouse a man��s desire to protect her. At the same time, she was also a mixed-blood. Her eyes and hair had a bit of an exotic charm. The yer who ordered the wine just wanted to hug her and love her.


    However, before he could say anything, the bartender grabbed the cocktail from the waitress tray and threw it in front of him with a dark face.


    ��Here��s your wine!��


    The yer who ordered the wine was stunned. He didn��t know what he had done to offend the bartender. However, he was also a regr customer of this game, so he knew the boss here. Seeing the bartender��s unfriendly look, he didn��t stay any longer, obediently carrying his wine back to the booth.


    After he left, the bartender looked at the waitress and frowned.


    ��Why are you here again? Did you not understand what I saidst time? You have be like this. Are you tired of being a cherry blossom girl?��


    The waitress smiled. ��Don��t worry. I��m here to bring you good news.��


    ��No good news is as good as you disappearing from my sight,�� the bartender said coldly.


    However, she didn��t expect the waitress to nod. ��It seems you already know what the good news is before I even open my mouth.��


    This time, it was the bartender��s turn to be stunned. ��You��re preparing to leave?��


    ��That��s right. You told me not to get close to your bossst time. I thought about it and felt that what you said was very reasonable, so I decided to follow the good advice. Not only do I want to get lost, but I also n to get far away and directly get out of the country. At least for the time being, I won��t be an eyesore in front of you.��The waitress blinked, ��I��ll use this new identity to say goodbye to you now, Little Snake.��


    ��Where are you going?��The bartender did not let down her guard.


    ��Greend.�� The waitress smiled sweetly. ��I just got a job there. I should be able to earn a little money as a trantor.��

 Chapter 1119 - Conjecture and Exchange Rate

    <h4>Chapter 1119: Conjecture and Exchange Rate</h4>


    Zhang Heng did not expect the bartender to have been to the Red Ind, and not too long ago.


    The mud on thetter��s hair was the best evidence. Even though there was a lot of red mud in other ces, only the mud on the ind was dark red, as if it had been doused with paint. Moreover, Zhang Heng had already sensed that the old man��s attitude had changed significantly.


    Zhang Heng had also suspected that someone had sneaked onto the ind while he was fighting the ck python. In addition, this also answered the biggest question in his mind, which was why Loki��s actions were loud but it didn��t cause too much trouble.


    Now, it seemed that it wasn��t that Loki didn��t pay enough attention to him, but it was because the bartender��s sudden appearance had disrupted his n. Otherwise, after defeating the python, he would very likely have to face Jemengard��s main body.


    But this caused a new problem to arise. Was that why the bartender wanted to help him?


    Zhang Heng thought back to the one year he had known the bartender. All the interactions between the two were limited to the current business scope of the game point. He was the one who paid for most of it, and the bartender was the one who provided the service. There didn��t seem to be any deep friendship between them.


    Furthermore, the bartender��s help this time waspletely Lei Feng-style. She sneaked onto the ind behind Zhang Heng��s back, and after dealing with the crisis, she quietly left. After she was done, she disappeared, hiding her achievements and fame. She didn��t mention anything about the fees at all, differingpletely from her previous style of doing things.


    However, her way of doing things reminded Zhang Heng of another person. That person was Kronos, who had given him the watch. Thetter had always considered himself his guardian angel and often appeared when he was in trouble to help him solve his problems.


    At first, it was Yamolesbee who came from Papua New Guinea. Later, when he faced the goddess of justice, Justitia, it was Kronos who stopped time to help him avoid conflict. Also, the recent incident at the bookstore, although Zhang Heng did not know what the crisis was, Kronos��appearance was obviously to help him solve it.


    Zhang Heng had been guessing Kronos�� real purpose. ording to the information he had, Kronos had been eyeing him since he was very young. He had sponsored his parents�� scientific expedition, but after that, there was no news, it wasn��t until he was 19 that he reappeared and signed a contract with him, making him his agent.


    Kronos had given him the address of the game��s checkpoint. Zhang Heng was no longer a newbie who knew nothing. He knew that there were more than 20 checkpoints in his city, but Kronos had chosen this one. Zhang Heng wouldn��t be surprised if there was a connection between the bartender and Kronos.


    However, this caused Zhang Heng to be even warier of Kronos. The other party didn��t seem as simple as he portrayed himself to be. Although he was just an ancient god who had been impacted by modern technology, at the very least, he had connections in the game��s organizingmittee that weren��t of low stature. In addition, Kronos did not seem to have been idle for the past dozen years. He had unknowingly created a huge that covered Zhang Heng��s life.


    Zhang Heng did not know the rtionship between the bartender and Kronos, nor did he know who else was rted to Kronos. This did not feel good, as if someone in Galgame had chosen all the dialogue options for him in advance, pushing him step by step toward an inevitable conclusion.


    Zhang Heng knew that his trip to Greend could not be dyed any longer.


    He nned to leave afterpleting the regr dungeon for the month ahead of schedule. In the next few days, he could start preparing for his visa and other preparatory work.


    The other issue was Fan Meinan. With Zhang Heng��s observational skills, he could see the change in Fan Meinan��s mood after he returned from the Red Ind. He then contacted Ma Lu, who had said that thetter had gone missing. Even though Fan Meinan hadter exined the reason for her departure, there were actually quite a few suspicious points. It was just that Zhang Heng didn��t continue to ask.


    Beta and Cheng Sihan��s disappearance also meant that their previous n to lure the snake out of itsir had failed. It was likely that they would be unable to find Loki again in the short term. As such, they could only hope that there were other ways to cure Fan Meinan.


    Zhang Heng went to the forum to look at the posts he had posted on his behalf. In just half a day, he had already received thousands of replies. It took him an hour to finish reading all the messages, and in the end, he realized that most of them were just bystanders. Only a small number of people were analyzing the possibility of a cure, and until now, no one had been able toe up with a truly reliable solution.


    Despite all that, Zhang Heng still decided to make preparations nheless. He first called D4 to inquire about the status of the exchange of points and cash.


    After the call connected, D4��s weary voice came through.


    It was a transaction reward worth 200,000 points, after all, and it involved a piece of B-grade equipment. There were still many people asking about it. Not only were there messages under the post, but there were also many private messages. D4 had not done anything for the entire day, chatting with all sorts of people.


    Arge portion of them were people who wanted to take advantage of the situation. They were thinking about whether they could use a trade loophole or some swindling method to directly swindle 200,000 points, or at least get a deposit or something. This also gave D4 a lot of work in identifying whether it was real or fake.


    ��Exchange points? What exchange points?�� D4��s head seemed to be stuck for half a minute. He was still stuck on his previous work, but he quickly came back to his senses, ��Oh, you want to exchange 200,000 points in advance? Right now, because the year-end auction is still some time away, the exchange rate of points isn��t at its peak. However, because of the opening of the Agent War Dungeon, the various unions are engaged in an arms race, which has indeed pushed up the exchange rate to a certain extent. It��s about 39,001 points.��


    D4 paused for a moment before continuing, ��Normally, our trading firm would give a certain discount forrge-scale exchanges. However, your scale is really toorge. Our existing points reserves aren��t enough to meet your transaction needs. However, you don��t have to worry too much. We can contact a few other brother trading firms. If we pool together and purchase a portion, we��ll be able to gather this amount of points for you. However, the price might be a little higher, but it can basically be kept below 40,000... the question now is, how do you n to pay such arge sum of money?��

 Chapter 1120 - Fund-Raising

    <h4>Chapter 1120: Fund-Raising</h4>


    D4 did not know much about Zhang Heng. In fact, not many people knew the truth about Simon, who ranked first in the first round of the proxy war.


    Although Zhang Heng was not as mysterious as Beta, very little information about him could be found on the inte.


    Inparison, D4 had known Zhang Heng for quite a long time. Moreover, Zhang Heng had once done an exchange at the fortune building and at that time, exchanged 50 points with 1.85 million. From the looks of it, Zhang Heng��s financial situation was not too optimistic, at the very least, didn��t seem like a person who could afford such arge sum of money.


    200,000 points. ording to the exchange rate of 40,000 points, even without considering the service fee, it would still cost 8 billion. To most yers, this was an astronomical figure. In reality, even the three big guilds would have difficultying up with this amount of money.


    Even though the game had progressed to this point, many yers would have one or two items on them. If they were to really exchange for money, they would have millions worth of wealth. With this, it seemed like they only needed to find a few hundred or a few thousand people toe up with 8 billion, however, assets and cash were twopletely different things.


    In reality, the cash and points exchange business that the various chambers ofmerce had started was all small and medium-sized without exception.


    Most yers would participate in the exchange for two reasons. Firstly, yers like Li Bai, who weren��t in the best financial situation, would use a portion of their points to exchange for cash after the game to improve their lives or their family members. There was also a portion of yers who belonged to the RMB Warriors in the game. Their financial situation was very good, and they were willing to spend money to buy more points to upgrade their equipment or to buy the services of the game points.


    However, whether it was buying or selling, the amount shouldn��t be toorge. This was because the seller could not sell all the points. If their strength stagnated too much, they might not be able toplete the next round of the game. They might even be kicked out by the team, and the buyer would not invest too much cash to buy points. After all, strictly speaking, the game was only conducted in the underground world, and life in the real world still had to continue.


    Up until now, thergest exchange order came from, February Siege, leader of Arc of Light. Not only was he the guild leader, but he was also a director of two publicpanies. He invested less than 80 million for an exchange of 2,000 points, and at that time, had caused a ratherrge stir in the yer circle.


    However, apart from increasing his own strength, February Siege��s action also had the nature of advertising to the Arc of Light youths. After that, private transactions never exceeded that figure. After all, no one��s money came from the wind. Inparison, yers could still earn points from each round of the game, but money could only be obtained from the real world.


    Although some game items and skills could make it easy for yers to earn money, no matter how fast an individual��s earning ability was, it was still very difficult topare to the mature capital operations of the outside world. In addition, although the organizingmittee did not strictly restrict yers from earning money through supernatural powers, in theory, considering the current external environment, once this number exceeded a certain level, it would inevitably attract the attention of society. Not only would that court trouble in the real world, but the biggest danger was that other yers might target them and hunt them down like prey. In this way, not only would the money and equipment earned benefit others, but they would also lose their lives, it might even implicate their families.


    Therefore, even though the financial situation of almost all the yers had improved since the game started, very few people made big money in the real world. Most yers still tried their best to keep a low profile in real life.


    Like Zhang Heng and Shen Xixi, they continued to study in university, preparing for the final exam and level 4 and 6 like the other students. Shen Xixi even consciously led the rumor that she was being kept by a rich man to the point she wanted to find a reasonable excuse to leave school often.


    This was also the reason D4 suspected that his ears were wrong when he heard that Zhang Heng had a 200,000-point exchange requirement. He thought that the 200,000 points was just a gimmick to attract the attention of the yers. Thus, Zhang Heng was prepared to use a B-grade item to pay for this transaction.


    ��I��ll think of a way to pay,�� Zhang Heng said. ��It��s not like you guys canplete the acquisition of points in one go, right? I should be able to pay in stages, right?��


    ��That��s right. Considering the huge amount of points you need, and the fact that we also need to maintain normal business activities, even if we contact other firms, it��s estimated that the entire acquisition willst for at least two to three months,�� D4 confessed. ��You don��t have to pay us any money at the beginning. I can first make a verbal agreement with the other firms, then wait for the first batch of cash to arrive before paying in batches ording to the status of the acquisition. Only then can we keep the exchange rate below 40,000. Of course, if you��re in a hurry, we can also shorten the whole acquisition time, but in that case, the exchange rate may rise to a certain extent, and I personally don��t rmend you do that.��


    On the other end of the line, D4 hesitated.


    ��What��s wrong?�� Zhang Heng asked.


    ��Actually, there��s another way. Guilds, especiallyrge-scale guilds, tend to haverge amounts of game points in reserve, especially during the proxy war. If you can convince a few guilds to sell their points to us, we should be able to gather the amount you want very quickly.��


    ��Don��t contact the guilds,�� Zhang Heng refused. ��I also need some time to raise funds, so I��ll purchase them from other trading firms and yers.��


    Zhang Heng had previously asked Fan Meinan. With her current condition, she could still wait for two to three months. This period of time was also a good time for Zhang Heng to think of ways to raise money and earn points. As for the guilds, Zhang Heng did not want to cause any more trouble.


    ��Okay.��


    D4 did not have any objections. He was only giving Zhang Heng advice on behalf of the building. In the end, it was still up to Zhang Heng to make the final decision. In the end, he reminded Zhang Heng once more, ��Mr. Simon, please make sure to make a trip to our headquarters within two weeks. We will appraise the Grade-B item you provided andplete the guarantee. Don��t worry, no data from the appraisal will be leaked.��


    ��Okay, I understand.��


    Zhang Heng hung up the phone. He would think of a way to get the funds and points for theter stages, but considering that he still had a pressing trip to Greend, he needed to find someone to pay for the first batch of funds in the early stages, Zhang Heng had already prepared the funds in advance, and he was still in contact with the building before he did this.


    Not long after he hung up the phone with D4, he received a message from Han Lu. ��I already have a n for the money, but this isn��t something that can be exined over the phone. Let��s talk face-to-face. Are you free tonight? I��ve already asked my assistant to reserve a restaurant. Let��s meet at Yi Garden Vi at 7 pm.��

 Chapter 1121 - Directions

    Chapter 1121: Directions


    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion


    After Zhang Heng went back to school for a shower and haircut at a nearby saloon, he discovered that he had received a WeChat friend request.


    He initially thought it would be a tea girl or a fairy dance, so he intended to reject it directly. However, after seeing the name of thement, he changed his mind and epted it.


    It didn��t take long for the other party to greet him first.


    ��Hi.


    Zhang Heng replied politely with a ��Hi�� as well.


    ��I hope I��m not disturbing you. I��ve calcted the time. It should be in the afternoon on your side, right? Thest time you said you woulde around in July, and it��s about time now. So, do you have a specific itinerary on your side?


    The person who added Zhang Heng��s WeChat was none other than Songjia, the female trantor he had previously found on the travel website. Thetter had reached an initial hiring intention with him, responsible for providing Zhang Heng with trantion and guide work for his uing trip to Greend.


    Zhang Heng typed,


    ��Do you frequent WeChat too? Yes, I��m already preparing to set off. For the time being, I can��tpletely confirm the schedule, but I n to hire you for a month. I��ll decide where to go during this month. Even if it��s not a month, in the end, I��ll still pay you for the month.


    ��Is that so?


    The other side replied with three words. Zhang Heng could feel Songjia hesitating. Even though Greend was her hometown, she was only a female student after all. She had to spend a month with another male stranger, and considering she didn��t know the exact schedule, she naturally couldn��t help but mutter.


    Zhang Heng didn��t rush her. He waited for her to make a decision.


    After about half a minute, Songjia��s battle of ideas finally came to an end. She still found it hard to reject Zhang Heng��s generous offer, so she replied,


    ��WeChat was rmended to me by a previous employer. I also wanted easiermunication with my employer, and at the same time, opening a window to learn more about your country. If it��s inconvenient to tell me the details of your trip, can you give me a rough idea of the purpose of your visit to Greend? Is it for business, pleasure, or property purchase?


    ��Scientific exploration


    Zhang Heng replied.


    ��Oh, you��re here to study ciers, right? How many people are on your team? There are also research teams from other countries here. Do you want me to introduce them to you?


    Song Jia seemed to have misunderstood something. After hearing Zhang Heng��s answer, not only did she heave a sigh of relief, but her enthusiasm seemed to increase. After all, researchers were a rtively high-quality group, so it would be safer and less troublesome to receive them.


    ��I don��t have a team, and I��m not going to study ciers. However, my expedition does have some rtionship with ciers.


    ��Is it climate?


    ��No.


    Song Jia could tell that Zhang Heng was reluctant to dwell on this topic, so she asked no more questions.


    ��A scientific expedition? Okay, I understand. I��ll make some preparations in this regard. We��ll talk about the specifics when we meet.


    ��Okay.


    Zhang Heng ended the conversation with Song Jia, and he headed to look through her WeChat moments.


    Songjia had probably started using WeChat a year and a half ago. Other thanmunicating with her employer in advance, she had probably kept in touch with many people. From time to time, she would post some scenery or selfies on her WeChat moments. They all looked quite normal; they also matched her student status.


    Every photo had a date on WeChat, which ruled out the possibility of a rush job. However, Zhang Heng still did notpletely ignore his vignce because many people were eyeing him now. There was no need to mention Chronos or Justitia. The bartenders and even Loki seemed to be very interested in him.


    These individuals were by no means easy to deal with, and at this level, many of the usual criteria were no longer applicable. Zhang Heng had no choice but to raise his guard. Sonja was his chosen trantor, and so far, although nothing seemed out of the ordinary, Zhang Heng wasn��t about to blindly trust them just like that.


    However, this matter could wait until he arrived in Greend. For now, he still had to settle the issue of the first sum of money that he had to pay to Furou.


    Zhang Heng nced at the starfish. There was still some time before dinner, so he decided to go to the library to sit for a while. He found a book rted to cier exploration and flipped through it. At the same time, he also sorted out the rewards from the previous dungeon.


    The agent war dungeon itself did not have any items or points that could be obtained. Therefore, for normal yers, it was basically impossible to learn new skills. However, due to Zhang Heng��s own dungeon��s time extension effect, he still had to improve himself even afterpleting the main storyline mission.


    However, as he continued to clear the game after game, the skill system on his body became more and more perfect. There was probably no one in the world who had more skills than him. He had dabbled in everything fromnguages to driving machines,bat techniques, make-up, reasoning, and even art appreciation.


    Compared to the vast science and civilization of mankind, his current knowledge was only a small part. There were still endless fields to explore. However, the improvement in his strength was bing less and less obvious.


    This was also thew of development. To put it inyman��s terms, Zhang Heng had reached an impasse. Although he could still improve himself in the future, the marginal returns were decreasing.


    Therefore, Zhang Heng spent a lot of time thinking about his next step in the bodyguard dungeon.


    Feng Zi, who was bored, also gave him some suggestions from the perspective of a bystander.


    She pointed at him. ��You��re the strongest person I��ve ever seen. There��s no one like you, and you almost have no weaknesses. Even the memory-encoded clone soldiers of Morgan��s Emergency Response Team are no match for you. Your reaction, judgment,bat skills, and analytical ability are among the best in the world. However, due to the limitations of the human body, you��re almost touching the ceiling ofbat power.��


    ��So, are you going to suggest that I undergo the next step of body modification?�� Zhang Heng opened a can of beer and took a sip.


    ��No.�� Feng Zi took the can of beer from a certain person��s hand and sat down beside him. ��I suggest that you... consider training your spirit.��


    ��I am training my spirit,�� Zhang Heng said.


    In the end, in the capital dungeon, if he didn��t train his spirit and gain an epiphany from the final battle with Secretary-General Okita, his knife skills wouldn��t have been able to break through to Lv 4. In reality, anybat technique had to be trained to the extreme. Basically, it was the unification of the spirit and the body. This was probably what the ancients called the unification of ten thousand techniques.


    However, Zhang Heng didn��t care as much about training his spirit as he did about his skills. After all, this sort of thing sounded very mysterious. It was far less intuitive and practical than the changes in skill levels. In addition, Zhang Heng was also different from ordinary people; he had lost most of his emotions, so he was naturally resistant to all kinds of negative emotions. As a result, he did not even need to train or study to be able to maintain hisposure in times of crisis.


    This way, the mental training would not be of much use to him.


    However, Feng Zi seemed to be particrly persistent on this matter. He took a sip of his beer and said, ��Haven��t you ever thought about finding those lost emotions one day? Have you ever thought about how to fight in that state?��

 Chapter 1122 - Yi Yuan Villa

    <h4>Chapter 1122: Yi Yuan Vi</h4>


    Zhang Heng never thought that he��d ever regained those lost feelings. By now, he was getting more and more used to the current state of almost no emotional fluctuations.


    Although this had caused him to lose a lot of happiness, under this state, his analysis, observation, and crisis dealing ability had indeed improved to a certain extent. This could even be considered as his second cheat other than the time freeze.


    Think about it. In the event of sudden danger, many people might be unable to react in time due to fear, or at least not in the first ce. However, Zhang Heng did not have such a problem. Emotional stability helped him maintain stable control of his body. His thinking processes could be quicklypleted, thus enabling him to take the most rational response. Therefore, it could only be said that there were pros and cons to everything.


    Of course, if he had a choice, Zhang Heng still hoped that he could regain his lost feelings.


    Although this might weaken his strength on abat level, Zhang Heng still felt that he could truly be aplete version of himself only by having feelings.


    Especially after going through the bodyguard dungeon, Zhang Heng also began to think about the existence of the self. For example, for the residents of the new Shanghai 0297, every time they went through a recode, it was equivalent to killing themselves. Although everyone was constantly upgrading, they had alsopletely lost themselves in the countless iterations of the version.


    This was perhaps why Feng Zi suggested that Zhang Heng focussed on his mental training as his next step.


    ��After knowing the truth, what I��m most afraid of is that one day, someone will use a simr memory coding method to secretly change my memory. I hope that someone finds a way to recover all the deleted memories, and at the same time, identify the fake memories in my head. ��I know this may sound like a fantasy, but if there��s anyone around me who can do this, it��s you,�� Feng Zi said as she looked into Zhang Heng��s eyes.


    ��...��


    Zhang Heng still remembered the conversation they had. It was also from that day that he began to devote more time to mental training. He had a ready-made method of training, and it was the mantra of the Small Mountain Bright Heart that he had obtained from the moribund capital dungeon.


    When he had firste into contact with the Small Mountain Bright Heart, Zhang Heng had actually not paid much attention to it. This was because it was a small sect that lived up to its name. Even when Xiao Shan Qian��s father was still alive, it was not very famous. It could not bepared to the likes of the Big Stone Divine Shadow Stream, the Beichen Single de, or the Fragrant Divine Path, all famousrge sects.


    They did not leave behind any traces in history, which was unsurprising. Without Zhang Heng, Small Mountain Bright Heart would have been basically cut off by Xiao Shan Qian��s generation.


    This was not without reason. Xiao Shan��s school of thought focused on seeing the heart clearly, and the de moved ording to the heart. It did not have much to offer in terms of de techniques, and it emphasized the training of the state of mind. However, the state of mind was too intangible. It was difficult to describe.


    Zhang Heng only realized the importance of the state of mind, or rather, the training of the mind, after he reached Lv 3 in de techniques. In addition, at that time, he had been ying around in the capital, so he had seen many schools. There were even fewer things that could be seen after he learned from the various schools. On the other hand, he gained new insights when he looked at the Yama Heart stream.


    Even after he sessfully advanced to Lv 4, his mental training still basically followed the method of Yama Heart stream. However, because there was no way for him to advance after Level 4, Zhang Heng gradually cked off on his training in knife techniques.


    It was only when Feng Zi mentioned him that he started to pay more attention to it. He continued to use this method to train his mind. Although he didn��t find the method to fight against memory encoding as Feng Zi had hoped, the unity and coordination between his body and mind had indeed improved. It was just that this kind of thing wouldn��t be disyed in the form of numerical values on the character interface.


    However, Zhang Heng had a feeling that he would use this period of training sooner orter.


    Zhang Heng summarized the results of the previous dungeon. He looked at the time and registered the book on cier Exploration. Then, he walked out of the library and drove his Polo to the address that Han Lu had given him.


    Yi Yuan vi was located at the edge of the second ring road, in an unremarkable alley. However, after entering, Zhang Heng realized that it was quite big inside. Furthermore, when he parked his car in the parking lot on the side.., he realized that other than his polo, there were basically luxury cars worth more than 600,000 to 700,000 yuan inside. Among them was Han Lu��s Model S.


    When the parking lot security guard saw Zhang Heng��s Polo, he deliberately double-checked to ensure that he had note to the wrong ce. Zhang Heng didn��t overthink it. As usual, he calmly found an empty parking space, parking his Polo between an A8 and a Panamera. Then, under the guidance of the waiter, he walked into a restaurant nearby.


    The owner of Yi Yuan Vi rented the nearby eight courtyard houses and redesigned them to be private kitchens. Located in a very hidden spot, there were no advertisements, except for small-scale rmendations from customers. There was no lobby inside, but only private rooms. This was because those who came to Yi Yuan Vi for dinner mainly were business people, and through this, privacy was guaranteed.


    The waiter directly led Zhang Heng into the private room that Han Lu had reserved.


    It was arge private room that could seat more than a dozen people, but Han Lu was the only one inside. She was on the phone at the moment, and when she saw Zhang Heng, she nodded. After talking for about two minutes, she hung up.


    ��You��re here.��


    ��Yes.��


    Zhang Heng pulled out a chair, but then Han Lu said, ��Why are you sitting so far away from me? Are you afraid that I��ll eat you?��


    Han Lu paused and continued, ��Business here is usually good. You need to book at least a week in advance. Therge private room I booked at that time was originally to entertain a group of guests from Macau, but there was an ident over thereter. However, I��ve already paid the deposit, so I thought of getting you to join me for a meal.��


    ��Thank you.�� Zhang Heng found a seat next to Han Lu and sat down.


    Han Lu was as swift and decisive as usual. She didn��t waste any time and went straight to the point after the waiter left, ��I thought there wouldn��t be any more problems for you. You��ve been helping me for so long. With that country ind and the Dreand of Death thest time... you��ve already saved me twice. It��s finally my turn to help you this time.��


    Speaking of serious matters, Han Lu��s expression turned serious, ��I��m an investor. I rarely leaverge amounts of money lying around, so I don��t have much liquid capital on hand. Fortunately, I��m preparing to invest in a project. I have around 20 million in cash that I can take out immediately. Other than that, I still have some fixed assets, shares, and misceneous things. I can take out a portion of it to find a bank loan. The number hovers around 100 to 150 million. You Don��t have to worry about the interest. I can help you pay it back. Also, I��ve been in this circle for so long, so I still have some friends. How much do you want first?��Han Lu said.


    ��In the early stages, I want to ask for one billion, but I can split it into three batches. The first batch will be 500 million,�� Zhang Heng said after some thought. ��Is it difficult?��


    ��In my experience, raising money can be difficult, or not difficult at all. The key is to see how you raise it,�� Han Lu said.

 Chapter 1123 - Greed

    Chapter 1123: Greed


    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion


    ��If you want to obtain 500 million just by borrowing, it won��t be easy even for me. Everyone knows how difficult it is to get back any lent money. Besides, from what you said, 500 million is only the initial capital.�� Han Lu picked up the teapot on the table and poured Zhang Heng a cup of Biluochun. ��How much more do you n to ask forter?��


    ��I��m not sure yet, but the total amount is likely to reach eight billion,�� Zhang Heng frankly told Han Lu.


    An ordinary person might have been paralyzed with fear when they heard this number, but Han Lu was a well-known venture capitalist after all. It wasn��t like she hadn��t seen an enormous amount of financing when she was still working at an international investment bank. Thus, when she heard this, she didn��t show too much of a surprised expression. She only said, ��Looks like you��ve already thought about how to repay thatrge sum.��


    ��Yes, I do have a preliminary n, but I��m not absolutely sure. Furthermore, I��ve been quite busy recently, so I can��t take care of this matter for the time being,�� Zhang Heng said.


    When Zhang Hengmissioned D4 to post the transaction, he had naturally thought about how he would be able to fork out such arge sum of money. B-grade items were only used as coteral, and Zhang Heng did not intend to use B-grade items toplete the final payment unless absolutely necessary.


    However, forking out 8 billion yuan was definitely no easy task, even for the likes of Zhang Heng. Even though he had the time freeze ability, it was impossible for him to sneak into the bank vault without anyone noticing. The severe consequences of such a matter were also worth considering. It was almost inevitable that the police would intervene, attractingrge-scale public attention. Furthermore, this was out of line with his usual style.


    Therefore, Zhang Heng did not overthink it and passed on this method. Then, he turned his gaze elsewhere.


    The ck Sail dungeon was the longest one he had ever experienced. At the beginning of the dungeon, he was intercepted by a pirate ship and boarded the pirate ship of Edward ��ckbeard�� Teach. He followed thetter to Nassau, a legendary pirate kingdom that eventually became the King of the Seven Seas. It witnessed the final glory of piracy in the 18th century.


    Over the past ten years, Zhang Heng had be friends with many famous pirate captains in history or fought with them. As a result, he learned of numerous secrets, including the whereabouts of some of the pirate treasures.


    Because of his involvement, the fate of some of the pirates had changed, and the final location of the treasure might have changed as well. However, it was not easy for the pirates to choose the treasure��s location, and after considering all the factors, Zhang Heng believed that there were still some treasures that remained in his memory.


    In addition, Zhang Heng still had the route of a Spanish treasure ship and the sunken ship��s location. Thetter was known as the shiniest pearl in the treasure-hunting world, with initial value estimates of the treasure on the ship to be worth over 13 billion yuan, even though Colombia had announced not long ago that they had found the Spanish treasure ship.


    Nheless, Zhang Heng also browsed through the news from that year and found that the sunken ship announced by Colombia was not on the route of the Spanish treasure ship. Moreover, Colombia had not organized any salvage operations until now, thus causing Zhang Heng to be inclined to think that this was just a publicity stunt. The actual Spanish treasure ship was still somewhere in the ocean, sleeping with the treasure ship, waiting for the day that it was discovered.


    If he could find the treasure ship, Zhang Heng could basically solve funding once and for all. However, this wasn��t such a simple matter. In the ck Sail instance, Zhang Heng had participated in the attack on the Spanish treasure ship, meaning it was very likely that the location of the treasure ship would be affected to a certain extent. Therefore, he probably needed to follow the route of the ship to search again. Considering that almost 300 years had passed, and he had to take into ount the ocean currents and wind direction, this was not an easy task.


    In addition, transporting the treasure after finding it was also a big problem. If it was not appropriately resolved, the issue might escte into an international dispute. However,pared to moving the bank vault directly, the impact would be much smaller. Furthermore, it could also be controlled within a specific range.


    However, even if everything went smoothly, Zhang Heng would not get 8 billion in a short span of three months. This was also the reason why he had asked Han Lu to raise the money first.


    And Han Lu did not disappoint.


    ��If you want to borrow such arge sum of money, even with my guarantee, it is impossible because no one would lend such a sum to someone they don��t know or understand. However...�� Han Lu paused. ��...It��s different when ites to investment. Capital will always chase after profit. As long as there are good investment projects, you don��t even need to ask. Naturally, countless people will rack their brains to give you money.��


    ��But I don��t seem to have any valuable investment projects in my hands.�� Zhang Heng frowned.


    ��It doesn��t matter. As long as you can convince the capital market that your projects have a profitable future, you can still receive an endless stream of funds,�� Han Lu said, ��And I happen to be the person who is best at this kind of thing. However, investors nowadays are not fools. The era where you can raise funds purely by telling stories has passed.��


    ��Then what should we rely on? Fine products?��


    ��No, we should rely on telling better stories,�� Han Lu said while fluttering her eyes. ��Your luck is not bad. This just so happens to be an era where traffic is king. Initially, only veteranpanies would dare to use loss-making strategies to seize the market and rely on burning money to defeat their opponents. But now, almost all of the emergingpanies have be unusually bold and aggressive. No one gives a damn about the profit margins of unicorns. That was something from thest century. As long as the churned-out data was good enough and the prospects were attractive enough, they would naturally find investors to inte the valuations, finally entering the secondary market continuously. Everyone gets something like this.


    ��Fine, I��ll get to the point. The point is that the current environment is very conducive to what we��re going to do next. The more money we burn, the easier it will be for you to hide the final flow of funds. So, what we need now is a convincing story. This might be difficult for others, but for you, I don��t think it��s a problem.��Han Lu��s face revealed a sly smile.


    On the other side, Zhang Heng had already guessed her intention. He raised his eyebrows and said, ��You want me to take out a prop to sell?��


    ��That��s right. Currently, the market favors science and technology. I��ve been looking for a suitable project, and it��s time for the other investors to experience the charm of ck technology. I��ll be taking the angel��s wheel.. Eighty million in exchange for 10% of the shares. Isn��t my offer a little too greedy?��

 Chapter 1124 - Investors

    <h4>Chapter 1124: Investors</h4>


    Zhang Heng already knew what Han Lu was nning to do.


    From the very beginning, thetter did not n to raise funds through loan help. Instead, she aimed at her old profession, preparing to make money directly from the capital market.


    Zhang Heng even suspected that this was not the first time Han Lu was thinking about this. This probably had something to do with her professional habits. When she came into contact with new things, she would subconsciously think about the investment value and development prospects. After Han Lu survived the death dream incident, Zhang Heng also opened a new door for her. He allowed her see the gold hidden behind the door.


    Ordinary people might only be able to make a small amount of money by using the characteristics of game items in their daily lives, but for Han Lu, who was an investor, this was an out-and-out gold mine. As long as it was properly operated, this was a return of tens or even hundreds of times. After all, nowadays, ppt could be used to build cars, and Han Lu had the real thing in her hands. Naturally, she could tell the story better.


    Unfortunately, after Han Lu tried twice, she found that Zhang Heng did not seem interested in making money. In addition, she had already been saved by Zhang Heng twice, so she was too embarrassed to ask for more money.


    In the end, she did not expect Zhang Heng to deliver himself to her. When she heard that Zhang Heng needed arge sum of cash, Han Lu was not surprised. Instead, she was happy. At the same time, she also threw out the financing n she had been nning for a long time.


    Han Lu, on the other hand, was very calm and straightforward, ��I��ve been thinking about this for some time, and this business is only for us. It��s a perfect match. You have a tool with supernatural powers that can break through current technology, and I��m a professional investor. I know how to maximize the use of the tools that you provide to raise funds. You want to keep a low profile as much as possible and not let others know about the existence of the tools, and I��m the same. If magic can be seen through, it��s not worth much.��


    ��Here��s what I��m going to do. You give me a game item, and I��ll get some experts in the field to package it into a new science with a theory that��splex enough that testing will be difficult. Well, to make it as realistic as possible, it��s not going to be over the top, but it��s going to be a big hit in the capital markets, and it��s going to be a big hit for all investors.


    ��This requires a certain degree of control. No one is more suitable than me. Furthermore, I��m well-known in the investment circle. With me leading the round, it��s equivalent to endorsing your project. After that, I can help you handle the next few rounds of financing. If you trust me enough and don��t want to show up at all, I can even find someone to rece you.��


    Zhang Heng thought about it and asked, ��Will there be enough time for financing?��


    After all, the amount of money he needed was not small, and time was tight.


    ��No problem,�� Han Lu said confidently, ��Investors are the most impatient creatures. Back then, JD spent 20 years in the capital market, but it took them less than three years to finish. Moreover, the market value now exceeds their value. The capital market will only be more anxious than you. Moreover, with me around, I will help you speed up the financing process. You don��t need to worry about these things. All you need to do is to give me a suitable item.��


    Because there was a limit to the number of items a person could bring along, and in order to cover the recasting cost of the Hidden Scabbard, Zhang Heng had previously converted all the unused items into points. Therefore, he did not have too many items on him right now.


    First of all, those B-grade items could be eliminated first. Since Han Lu needed to attract investors and demonstrate to them, then this item would basically have to leave Zhang Heng��s side for a long time. Furthermore, the three B-grade items he had on him, namely Pestillence Bone Bow and Hidden Scabbard, were purely weapon-type equipment. Obviously, they were not suitable. He could not let Han Lu show everyone how to spread the gue on arge scale, right.


    The Infinite Building Block, on the other hand, was a little too high-tech. It waspletely beyond the scope of the current scientific exnation. Entering the scope of magic, it would be difficult toe up with any theories.


    Among the remaining items, the Fileter Lens was actually the one that could meet Han Lu��s requirements the most. It was already shocking enough just to advertise the automatic light supplement function. At the same time, it did not seem to be too far away from the current scientific system. Themercial prospects were vast, and once mass-produced, it would have an unimaginable market. No investor would be unmoved by it.


    However, the story of the Filter Lens was difficult to continue. This was because Han Lu only had one lens from the beginning to the end. She could not even take out a second sample. If this continued, investors would definitely have doubts.


    Inparison, the Marble Soft Drink was much better. As long as Han Lu found someone to build a machine that looked very scary, then ce it on the machine��s mechanical arm, she could find a few bottles that wererge enough to produce a continuous stream of various vors of pinball soda. The cost was low, but the prospects were not as enticing as the Filter Lens, she might be unable to raise the funds that Zhang Heng needed in the limited time.


    There was another problem with the Pinball Soda. It was not found initially by Zhang Heng, but as a part of the payment that 1810 and the others granted him when they invited him to help solve the Sphinx incident. In other words, he wasn��t the only one who knew about the Pinball Soda��s effects.


    If Han Lu��s project became popr, it was very likely that someone would link him to the project. Zhang Heng didn��t want to cause trouble for himself, and more importantly, he didn��t want to cause Han Lu trouble. Therefore, if there was a condition, he still hoped that he could choose from the items he had brought from the dungeon.


    However, he did not seem to have any particrly suitable items on hand.


    However, Zhang Heng was not in a hurry. He still had a piece of newly obtained golden scale that was currently being appraised. In addition, he was about to enter the next round of the regr dungeon. There was still a high chance that he would obtain a new item there. If it really did not work out, he could still use the trading firm to purchase some unappraised equipment and gamble on his luck.


    Zhang Heng then went through the general financing process with Han Lu and listed the timing of each financing. Zhang Heng also gave Han Lu D4��s contact information so she could transfer the money to the other party.


    After everything was done, Han Lu had the waiter open a bottle of red wine and raise the wine ss in her hand. It could be seen that she was very excited tonight because she knew that she was already standing in front of the mine. The next step was to mine the countless gold below. ��To celebrate our cooperation! From today onwards, I am also your investor.��

 Chapter 1125 - The Invisible Enemy

    <h4>Chapter 1125: The Invisible Enemy</h4>


    In order to make time for his uing Greend trip, Zhang Heng didn��t have much rest this time. After meeting Han Lu to discuss the financing, he returned to the game��s checkpoint the next day.


    At this time, the school was basically on vacation. The number of students in the bar had obviously increased, and the air was filled with the scent of hormones. Zhang Heng squeezed through the crowd and came to the irondder. He showed the yer number on his arm before he walked up.


    When he pushed the door open, he saw the bartender sitting behind the bar counter, as usual, paddling and ying NS. When she saw Zhang Heng, she raised her eyes slightly. ��You��re here?��


    ��Yes.��


    The two acted as if the incident on the Red Ind had never happened. From the beginning to the end, Zhang Heng had never questioned why the bartender was there, and thetter had no intention of exining at all.


    However, after the monster in front of her was killed, the bartender finally put down the game console in her hand and stood up again. She took out a tule tree box from under the bar counter and pushed it in front of Zhang Heng.


    ��Your new item has been appraised.��


    Zhang Heng opened it and saw the golden scales inside. On top of that, there was a card with the appraised result on it.


    [Name: Earthly Scale]


    [Quality: C]


    [Effect: The wearer would absorb the earthly scale into his body. When required, the user will receive arge increase in strength. However, after using it, there will be some side effects, mainly being exhaustion. After resting, the wearer can recover.]


    The effect of the Earthly Scale was very simple and direct. It was the mostmonly seen strength-enhancing equipment in RPG games, in line with Jemengard��s positioning. However, it had to be said that such a rough attribute enhancement was best for practical use.


    Whether it was inbat or in special circumstances, this item had strategic significance. However, after looking at the effect��s attributes, Zhang Heng still had some objections to the description.


    ��What does it mean by incorporating it into the body? I��m not a snake, fish, or any other scaly animal. I Can��t let this scale grow on my body, can I?�� Zhang Heng asked.


    ��That��s easy,�� the bartender said. ��Show me your chest.��


    Zhang Heng took off his T-shirt. The bartender��s gaze wandered over his chest and abdominal muscles. She whistled and stopped at his heart. ��Let��s do it here. This scale can also provide some protection for your heart.��


    After saying that, she used the scale to cut open the skin on Zhang Heng��s left chest. The wound was very shallow, so even if the scale was ced on top of it, it would not prate more than a millimeter. However, the next moment, something miraculous happened, the golden scale seemed toe to life, and it actually began to burrow into Zhang Heng��s chest.


    The whole processsted for about a minute. In the end, the golden scalepletely sank into Zhang Heng��s body, and he could no longer see it from the outside. During this period, Zhang Heng did not feel any pain.


    Another half a minute passed, and even the wound disappeared.


    The bartender pped her hands. ��Alright, when you��re using it, hit your chest three times and recite Jemengard��s name in Luenwen.��


    After saying that, the bartender demonstrated the pronunciation twice for Zhang Heng to remember.


    Zhang Heng knew that Luenwen was anguage used by the Nordic Germanic race, but it waster reced by Latin and gradually died out. However, now that it was discovered, some people began to use Luenwen for divination.


    After Zhang Heng received the Earthly Scale, he was about to head to the booth when he was stopped by the bartender.


    ��Wait, there��s one more thing for you.��


    ��Hmm?�� Zhang Heng was a little surprised when he heard this. This time, he only had one more item to be appraised by the bartender. It was the Earthly Scale on his body.


    ��The first round of the proxy war has ended. The top 50 people get a small gift. Have you forgotten?�� The bartender said as she took out another box from behind the bar counter.


    Zhang Heng had really forgotten about it. He didn��t expect the game organizingmittee to be so efficient. The first round of the proxy war had just ended two days ago, and the gift had already arrived.


    Zhang Heng looked at the size of the box and asked, ��What��s inside?��


    ��It just came this afternoon. To be honest, I don��t know either.�� The bartender was also very curious.


    Hence, Zhang Heng directly opened the package in front of her. In the end, he saw a brand-new PS4 Pro inside.


    ��...��


    ��Is this a game item?�� Zhang Heng asked the bartender.


    ��No, this is just an ordinary game console,�� the bartender said. She looked a little deted, and she pulled herself back behind the bar counter. ��This doesn��t have any supernatural powers attached to it, but the organizingmittee has said before that the top 50 gifts are only formemorative purposes. This thing is worth at least 2,000 to 3,000 yuan. If you don��t want it, you can just drop it on salted fish.��


    ��Then I��ll leave this thing with you for now. I��ll take it with me when I leave.�� Zhang Heng handed the PS4 Pro back to the bartender. He finally reached the booth he frequented, then set a time as usual andy down.


    As the rm rang, the familiar feeling of dizziness assaulted him again.


    [yer identification...]


    [Authentication passed. Random 10th dungeon drawing for yer 07958...]


    [Drawplete��current dungeon is ��Invisible Killer��]


    ��They��re like stars in the sky, shining all day long! We should spread them all over the country. They��re extremely safe��M.A. Stiricovic.��


    [Mission objective: Find the key person ]


    [Mode: Single yer Cooperative]


    [Time flow: 1440 (One hour in the real world is equivalent to 60 days in the game. There is no specific time limit for this round. Afterpleting the mission, you can return to the real world)]


    Friendly Reminder, the game will officially start in five seconds. Please get ready.


    The dungeon��s name and introduction were unprecedentedly abstract. Almost no valuable information was given, but Zhang Heng could still smell something unusual from the strange dungeon time.


    This was the first time he had seen a dungeon with no time limit. This meant that the yers could stay in the dungeon as long as they wanted. It was practically an official benefit. This was because almost all the yers knew the importance of game time. Not only would increasing game time increase the sess rate of the main mission, but it would also allow them to fully train their skills. However, Zhang Heng did not think that things would be that simple.

 Chapter 1126 - Single Player Cooperative

    <h4>Chapter 1126: Single yer Cooperative</h4>


    Other than the bonus game time, Zhang Heng also noticed that this time��s dungeon was in a single-yer cooperative mode.


    This was a mode that he had never experienced before, but he had had a better understanding of the various mechanisms since the start of the game. He knew that all single-yers were in single-yer mode, with the suffix representing the rtionship with other yers.


    For example, he had experienced two single-yerpetitive dungeons before, so he and other yers werepetitors in the dungeon. This time, the single-yer mode seemed more inclined to allow yers to work together to clear the dungeon, which seemed to further reduce the game��s difficulty.


    Zhang Heng could not dig out any more helpful information from the background notifications for the time being. He would only know the details after entering the dungeon.


    The five-second countdown did not take long, and Zhang Heng��s vision soon returned to normal.


    He realized that he was standing in a rtively small room. There were two machines on his left. About the height of a person, some unknown numbers were disyed on them. Other than that, there were also two chairs and six other people in the room.


    The small room was obviously not expecting so many guests, so it was a little cramped.


    The seven people in the room looked at each other with a hint of wariness.


    Zhang Heng did not know what the others were looking at. Anyway, what he saw were six foreign men and women wearing white clothes and white hats. Some were short, and all of them were white. There were four men and two women.


    They were all staring at each other.


    After about half a minute, a man in his twenties with dark eyes and brown hair asked carefully, ��yers?��


    His voice was shallow and deliberately vague. At first nce, it sounded like an unconscious moan from someone who had caught a bad cold. In addition, he was a foreigner with a tall and red nose who spoke in Chinese, which was ratherical.


    However, he did not expect to hear the others chime in.


    ��yer!��


    ��Me too!��


    ��...��


    Since this dungeon was a coborative one, at least the yers in the same dungeon had the same goal. Although it could not be ruled out that some people with ulterior motives wanted to kill and steal, however, before that, everyone had to at least see the light of dawn. Therefore, the yers had a rtively peaceful rtionship. This was why the dark-eyed, brown-haired young man was willing to be the first to reveal his identity.


    After him, Zhang Heng and the rest also revealed their identities.


    There was no mirror here, so Zhang Heng did not know his actual appearance. However, his basic skin color and height could still be seen. Like the other six yers, he was now a white male, probably not even thirty years old. He had a thick stubble.


    In order to fully guarantee the privacy of the yers, the game organizingmittee would adjust the appearance and body shape of every yer in the dungeon that had other yers. Previously, Zhang Heng had also changed his appearance in the Apollo project dungeon; therefore, he was not surprised by the current situation.


    A blonde girl wearing sses and looking a little weak suggested, ��Since it��s a coborative dungeon, we��ll have to work together if we want to clear it. Why don��t we introduce ourselves first so that we can get to know each other better? It��ll be easier for us to work togetherter. It doesn��t have to be tooplicated. Just tell us your code name and what you��re good at.��


    ��Sure.��The young man with dark eyes and brown hair was the quickest to respond. He said straightforwardly, ��My code name is young man Zhanfu. My specialty is electronic intrusion and helicopter piloting.��


    The blonde girl nodded. ��Young man Zhanfu. Why does this name sound so familiar to me? I feel like I��ve heard it somewhere before.��


    Young man Zhanfu��s face turned red when he heard that. ��I... I like the water yer forum. Usually, if I have nothing to do, I��ll always hang up my ount. I��ve leftments under many posts.��


    ��No wonder.�� The blonde girl understood suddenly. ��Now that you mention it, I also remember. You��re Simon��s fan, right? In the post about Simon, I saw you and the people from the three big guilds scolding each other. You single-handedly scolded four people on the opposite side. You scolded them for a total of five pages.��


    ��I��m ashamed. I��m still too young. I can��t control my hands. My ount often receives the small ck room set meal.��The youth said this, but there was no shame on his face. It was clear that he was proud of his one versus four.., in the end, he was proud of the glorious battle record of the four people running away with their heads held high.


    Following that, the blonde girl introduced herself, ��My code name is Master Kui. I��m good at the directional explosion, Latin, and Jeet Kune Do.��


    When her code name was revealed, spirits were shaken. There was nothing they could do. The main thing was that Master Kui��s muscr image was too deeply rooted in people��s hearts, utterly ipatible with her blonde hair and blue eyes. In addition, her skills were also very fierce. Not only did she practice Jeet Kune Do, but she also used directional explosion. Everyone could not help but take a second look at her.


    ��Doctor, skills are the same as surgical medicine. If everyone identally loses a limb, I can help everyone reattach it as elegantly as long as conditions allow,�� a tall, thin, and gentle-looking man was the third to speak. However, his humor couldn��t rx the atmosphere.


    It was mainly because of the unknown dungeon that everyone was still on guard when they first entered. Hearing him mention the broken limb, they could not bring themselves tough.


    Three of them started, and the rest of the people also exchanged code names and skills that they were good at. Of course, many people would hide something from them. After all, no one would reveal all their trump cards the moment they entered,


    ��Simon, detective, vehicle piloting, and knife skills...��


    When it was Zhang Heng��s turn, he casually picked a few skills to talk about.


    When he finished, he realized that the room was silent.


    Those two simple words seemed to have some kind of magic, causing everyone to stop what they were doing simultaneously. As for the young man, his mouth was wide open. He looked as if he could swallow two pancakes and two sesame paste pancakes in one gulp.


    After a long while, he regained his speaking ability and subconsciously asked again, ��Who are you?!��


    ��Simon.��


    ��Oh my God, I actually met the number one god in the national server in a single row!!! You��re Simon, you��re really Simon?!�� The young man gushed in excitement. ��Does this mean that I can totally win this time?!��


    The expressions on the other yers�� faces were also different. If one were to talk about who was the most popr in the yer circle, nine out of ten people would say Simon. He overpowered the three big guilds and the mysterious beta, obtaining the highest score in the first round of the proxy war. Thus, the critical point was that Simon only used two games, which was ridiculouspared to the others.

 Chapter 1127 - Open Door

    <h4>Chapter 1127: Open Door</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    No one had expected to encounter the legendary Simon in this dungeon, not to mention in the coborative dungeon mode. When they realized what was happening, their faces were filled with the same joy that beheaded the youth.


    Indeed, this dungeon had the number one yer, Simon, presiding over it. This was equivalent to reduce the dungeon��s difficulty significantly. In addition to the nearly unlimited game time, no one could think of any reason for their side to roll over. In addition, they did not have to worry about being robbed by influential yers when the dungeon was almost over. Since Simon could offer a reward of 200,000 points, it was unlikely that he would take a fancy to the three melons on them.


    From the looks of it, they had hit the jackpot in this dungeon. The nervous expressions on everyone��s faces rxed, and some of them even began to chat happily.


    Zhang Heng was not in the best mood. The conditions of this dungeon were unbelievably rxed, but because of that, it gave off a strange aura, primarily when rted to its name��the invisible killer. It was inevitable that bad premonitions about unknown danger waiting for them ahead would surface.


    Thus, after introducing himself, Zhang Heng immediately began to study the room they were in. There were no windows, but only a door. Furthermore, it was locked from the outside. They could not open it from the inside, and they could not see what was happening outside. However, they could hear the soundsing from the outside, including the whirring of the machines and the sound of water flowing through the pumps. Coupled with the two seemingly sophisticated machines in the room, they could deduce that they were currently in a factory.


    Meanwhile, the other yers didn��t idle around. Even though they were lucky enough to bump into Simon this time, they wouldn��t be pulling this off if they really wanted to survive. In fact, in this day and age, very few yers dared to y single-yer mode, one that had a way higher risk. Not only did they have to deal with all sorts ofplicated environments, but they also had to facepetition from other yers. If they were not careful, they might get into trouble. If they really wanted to y, it would be more convenient to y as a team.


    Therefore, although the atmosphere had be rxed, everyone did not really idle around. On the contrary, they had a tacit understanding to spread out and collect clues on their own.


    The young man with the code name Mouse took off the white hat on his head and pinched it twice. ��Does the white clothes we wear hint that our professions in this pocket dimension are all doctors?��


    ��Well, not necessarily,�� the Doctor said. ��The white coat was indeed invented by a 19th-century surgeon named Liszt. The founder of modern microbiology, Louis Pasteur, once put forth a theory that microbes were the main cause of human and animal diseases. Liszt heard Pasteur��s theory and began to advocate for doctors to wear white coats because it was difficult to hide dirt and was more hygienic.


    ��However, as more and more people epted the existence of microorganisms, some researchers and workers on special asions also started to wear white coats. Everyone mainly valued the rtively hygienic characteristics of white coats, and althoughpared to modern protective clothing, white coats were actually not very hygienic.


    ��Finally, to answer your question, I don��t think we carry the identities of doctors in this dungeon because I don��t smell the familiar scent from this coat.��


    On the other side, a yer with the code name of repairman was squatting on the ground, studying the two machines in front of him. After the doctor finished speaking, he said, ��These things are ancient.��


    ��Is that so? But I think they are quite new,�� Kuiye said.


    ��I��m not talking about their age, but the manufacturing date. It seems to be something from thest century.��


    ��This means that our dungeon was in the 20th century?!�� The doctor raised his eyebrows. ��It seems we are in good luck. In the 20th century, the greatest danger to humanity was the first and second world wars. Could war this Invisible Killer?��


    ��Correction, war is still visible,�� Mouse said. ��What is invisible should be human greed.��


    ��But we don��t look like we��re in a war,�� another girl, Coconut, said. ��Besides numbers, there are letters on the machine. It doesn��t look like English. Do you know what those words are?��


    ��Latin is ruled out,�� Master Kui said.


    ��Rule out French and Japanese too,�� added the Doctor.


    ��It doesn��t look like Italian or Spanish either...��


    ��It��s Russian,�� Zhang Heng, who had been silent all the while, said.


    ��God... have you learned Russian before?��The young man��s eyes lit up. ��It��s rumored on the forums that you have a nearplete skill reserve. One person is equal to a small party of yers, so when you y the game, you will always be in a single row, and you won��t form a party with other yers.��


    ��No, I haven��t learned Russian either.�� Zhang Heng shook his head, ��If I could understand what the words meant, I would have known where we are by now. ��In fact, I used the same elimination method as you. In addition, with our appearance, I think we are now in Russia, or more urately, in Soviet territory.��


    ��Cold War background?��The boy began to rack his brain. ��Could we be a group of scientists that America has sent to infiltrate some secret Soviet factory to steal research data?��


    ��If that��s the case, then the main mission��to find the key people��matches,�� Master Kui said, ��What we need to do is to find the person who has the core information toplete this mission. It sounds quite simple.��


    ��Yes, during the Cold War, was there anything that the Americans coveted in the Soviet Union?��


    ��There��s a lot. Space technology such as artificial satellites, armed technology such as missiles and airnes, and heavy industry technology. The key is that none of us understand Russian. After we get out, we need to find a trantor first.�� Someone had already started to n their next move.


    However, because Simon was there, everyone only made suggestions. Then, they all turned their eyes to Zhang Heng as if hoping that he would make the decision. Undoubtedly, Zhang Heng did not stand on ceremony.


    ��Since there��s no time limit for this game, let��s leave this ce first before we make any ns.��


    For some reason, as Zhang Heng listened to the sound of machines and water pumps outside, he felt that dwelling in this ce for a long time wasn��t the best idea.


    ��No problem, I��ll open the door,�� the youth volunteered.


    Even though the yers were locked inside the room, a mere door was not enough to stop them. The youth took out a piece of wire from his pocket. When he held the wire in his hand, it felt like it hade alive. The tip of the wire was probing around, and the youth hoped that would put his face on it.


    ��Stop fooling around. I was hoping you would do something serious,�� the young man reprimanded. ��Open the door for me..�� With that, he stuck the piece of wire through the crack in the door.

 Chapter 1128 - Factory Workshop

    <h4>Chapter 1128: ��Factory Workshop��</h4>


    The wire reached out from the gap of the door. It first twisted left and right a few times, looking rather excited, like a dog that had gone out to have fun. However, it did not forget what it wanted to do, soon looking for the keyhole.


    The people in the room heard the sound of the front of the wire scratching the door. After about half a minute, the wire seemed to have found the position of the door lock. After going in and fiddling around inside for a while, with a click, the door that was locked from the inside was finally opened again. The young man was quite pleased with himself as he put the iron wire back into his pocket.


    He was about to push the door open when he was stopped by the repairman. ��We don��t know what��s going on outside. Should we discuss what to do if we encounter a battleter?��


    ��What��s there to be afraid of? We have Simon on our side,�� the young man said confidently. ��No matter what enemies are outside, we��ll just trample them.��


    Zhang Heng initially thought that the repair union would refute him, but thetter actually nodded in agreement. ��That makes sense.��


    ��...��


    Fortunately, Master Kui was more reliable. With a frown, he said, ��Don��t be silly. If you want to chase after a star, you should wait until you get out.�� After a pause, he turned to Zhang Heng and said, ��I didn��t mean to offend you.��


    ��No, you��re right,�� Zhang Heng said as he took his Pestilence Bone Bow off his back.


    With him leading the way, everyone else was ready for battle. Zhang Heng nodded at the young man before he pushed the door open.


    The young man was obviously a veteran. Even though he imed that Simon was the best in the world, he knew that he had to worry about his own life. After he pushed the door open, he immediately moved to the side.


    Zhang Heng stood on the left side of the door. After he opened the door, he raised the Pestilence Bow and aimed directly in front of him. He saw a small balcony, where a man dressed like them was there. He wore a white coat, and at that moment, was looking down, as if checking the equipment below.


    He heard the sound of the door opening, and he raised his head to look in the direction of the seven people.


    Many thoughts shed through Zhang Heng��s mind at that moment, but in the end, the man who had rushed to the balcony turned his gaze to the front and quietly put the [ gue bone bow ] behind him, then, he heard the man across from him open his mouth and shout something at him.


    Zhang Heng didn��t understand Russian, but from his expression, he could tell that the man wasn��t calling for a guard or anyone else. He was just a little surprised at why he was there.


    ��What do we do? Do we go out?�� the young man asked in a low voice.


    ��Yes, three people should go out first to check on the situation. Leave four people in the room,�� Zhang Heng said.


    After that, he, Zhanfu, and Master Kui walked out of the small room. Finally, they could see more of the outside world.


    This was indeed themon factoryyout. Surrounded by concrete walls, iron frames, and some machinery as far as the eye could see, the most intriguing part was at the bottom of the factory. There was a huge round lid, with a diameter of about 15 meters. The amazing thing was that the lid wasn��t in a piece but divided into small cubes. There were about 2,000 pieces of those cubes. This number was calcted from the rows and columns on the side. In addition, some of the cubes were painted with different colors, and others with numbers on them.


    ��What is that?�� the youth asked.


    ��I don��t know. Is it some kind of maze?�� Master Kui guessed.


    Those stainless-steel cubes looked like the cubes in the Huarong Road game they had yed before, and it was inevitable Master Kui would have such thoughts. Besides that, he also noticed that on the left side, opposite the balcony, there was also an office. Through the ss window, he could see the two workers inside, and these were all the people in the factory.


    Without the guards that the yers were worried about, they didn��t even run into any decent armed forces. The seven of them seemed to be continuing their good luck from when they first entered the game.


    ��Is that all you have?�� the youth in the uniform said eagerly. ��Give me three minutes, and I can take them all down.��


    ��I��ll only need two and a half,�� Master Kui said calmly.


    ��How is that possible? They are quite far away from each other,�� the young man in the zhanfu said indignantly. ��It takes a lot of time just to run there. But then again, it seems that we are indeed in the production workshop of the factory. No wonder there are no security guards... but why don��t I see a few workers? Is the productivity of 20th-century Soviet Union really so high?��


    While the two of them were talking in low voices, the man on the balcony opposite them shouted a few more words. The three fake foreigners in white clothes across from them wouldn��t say anything other than ��wo.�� Of course, they couldn��t give him any answers either, so the man on the balcony shouted a few times, but no one paid attention to him. Thus, he had no choice but to walk over.


    ��I��ll take him down. You go deal with the two in the office.�� Master Kui began to assign tasks.


    ��Why?�� The teenager was quite dissatisfied with this arrangement. ��The office needs to run a few steps, okay? And who knows if there��s an rm button inside. If you miss and alert the people inside, I��ll be the one to me.��


    ��What else? Don��t you want to move these little fish and shrimp? Do you want your idol Simon to do it?��


    ��Of course not. I��m the one who��s going,�� the young man said. After a while, he came back to his senses. ��Wait a minute, aren��t we supposed to assign tasks to each other?��


    ��You��re really annoying,�� Master Kui said impatiently. ��If I ask you to do something, why don��t we switch ces? Do you have a way to control that guy so that he doesn��t make any noise and alert the two people behind the ss window?��


    The young man was speechless. In the end, he had no choice but to look to Zhang Heng for help. Eventually, he found that Zhang Heng had been staring at the big metal lid below.


    ��Is there a problem?�� the young man asked.


    ��Oh, I��m wondering what this workshop is for,�� Zhang Heng said.


    ��What is it for? Speaking of which, it does seem to be a problem,�� the young man asked curiously. ��Although this ce also has a few machines, why are they all installed against the wall? The empty space in the middle only has arge manhole cover. Could the production line is below?��


    All of a sudden, a tremor came from beneath his feet. Immediately after, the entire ��factory workshop�� started to shake as well. The three of them discovered that the metal cubes underground suddenly started to move, jumping up and down like the lid of a pot that was lifted by boiling steam.


    At first, there were only a few cubes, but soon, almost all of the cubes were running up and down crazily. The round lid now looked like a distorted human face.

 Chapter 1129 - Explosion

    <h4>Chapter 1129: Explosion</h4>


    ��What the hell?�� The youth in the Zhanfu was shocked by the sudden vibration. ��Is this a normal childbirth process?��


    He still had a sliver of hope in his heart, but in the end, he saw the man who was initially walking towards them on the balcony suddenly stop in his tracks. The expression on his face became iparably terrified as if he had seen an iparably terrifying scene. Then, ignoring them, he rushed toward the spiral staircase.


    ��I don��t think it��s a good idea to stay here any longer,�� Master Kui said with a severe expression.


    Although she had just entered the dungeon and hadn��t figured out what the factory was for, she could tell that something terrible was about to happen.


    ��Follow him,�� Zhang Heng said.


    With that, he took a step forward, and the yers in the room followed behind him as they ran toward the helix.


    As the yers ran, they looked down at their feet, only to find that not only were the cubes jumping more and more. Even the instion boards around them were bent by the impact, it was as if a terrifying demon was sealed under the round lid, and thetter was about to break free from its cage, bringing forth disaster to the human world.


    Without Zhang Heng��s warning, everyone realized the danger and quickened their pace. They rushed down the spiral staircase and came to a passage about ten meters above the ground.


    The group had juste out of the room, so they were familiar with the ��factory.�� In fact, they didn��t know where to run to for safety. Under such circumstances, they had few options. The safest option was to follow the man on the balcony. No matter what, thetter was a serious factory employee. He wouldn��t do something like that to himself... right?


    However, to be honest, everyone wasn��t too sure. Moreover, they had lost sight of their target as soon as they entered the tunnel. Fortunately, they heard the sound of the door opening from the left side. Judging from the sound, the door should be quite heavy. The man on the balcony seemed to be struggling a little.


    At the same time, they heard the sound of air behind them. Something that looked like a safety valve was opened, releasing a stream of white steam. It seemed to have relieved some of the pressure on therge manhole cover, but it didn��t take long before the valve broke, and the noise under the circr manhole cover grew even louder.


    The group didn��t dare to dy any longer. They rushed to the left. There, the man standing on the balcony had already opened a safety door that looked like a bank vault, squeezing his body through it,


    Zhang Heng was the first to arrive, but he wasn��t in a hurry to squeeze in. Instead, he pulled the door open a little more, so that at least two people could pass through, greatly reducing the group��s travel time.


    After that, Zhang Heng, the engineer, and the young man worked together to close the safety door. However, not long after they closed the door, they heard a loud bang from the other side.


    The entire ��factory�� shook.


    ��Did something explode down there?�� the young man asked nervously as he continued to run. ��I was so nervous just now. It was too close a call...��


    However, before he could finish his sentence, he heard an even more terrifying explosion. This time, it wasn��t the nt that shook, but it felt as if an earthquake before the end of the world. Unable to even stand properly, the youth was directly jolted to the ground. He saw that the wall to his right had a few cracks, to the point the steel bars inside were revealed. Themppost above his head had also been jolted down.


    The air was filled with a thick haze of dust.


    The young man��s ears rang. After a while, he regained his hearing. He shook his dizzy head and asked, ��Is everyone okay?��


    The yers responded one by one. There was a safety door separating them. At the same time, they ran a distance forward. At least, the terrifying explosion did not directly affect them, therefore, there was no loss of yers in the party.


    Zhang Heng��s attention was now on the man who had been standing on the balcony not too far away. Although the man had fallen, he did not seem to be in any danger. However, there was no joy on his face, the fear bing even more intense. He muttered a single word repeatedly. Then, he got up from the ground and staggered toward the corridor in front of him.


    Zhang Heng didn��t know what that word meant until a long timeter.


    ��What do we do now? Do we continue to follow?�� the repairman said as he dusted off his clothes.


    ��There��s no need,�� Coconut said. ��From the looks of it, that guy is probably going to inform the others. He��ll probably call for the factory��s security or something. If we go up there, there��s an 80% chance that we��ll be exposed. Even if we don��t, there��s a high chance that we��ll be dragged to the fire rescue or something. Of course, I��ll still follow the leader��s orders.��


    Previously, when Zhang Heng revealed his code name, it attracted a wave of gasps. However, other than the fanboy, the other yers still treated Zhang Heng with more respect than trust. After all, they didn��t have much interaction with Simon before, only knowing that he was strong enough. They knew nothing about his character and moral standards. Furthermore, they couldn��t rule out the possibility that Zhang Heng was using Simon��s name to cause trouble.


    Therefore, even though most of the yers were very polite to Zhang Heng on the surface, they were still wary of him in private. They would listen to Zhang Heng��s arrangements as long as it really went against their ns. However, after Zhang Heng��s action of pushing open the safety door, everyone could at least confirm that he was not the kind of person who waspletely selfish and did not care about the lives of others.


    This also made many yers have a good impression of Zhang Heng. People like Coconut had already started to view Zhang Heng as the leader of this team. They were no longer the kind of rag-tag gang that would randomly pull people on the road. Everyone had their own ulterior motive.


    Zhang Heng looked ahead. At the end of the corridor, about a hundred meters away, there was a room that looked like some control room. The man who had been standing on the balcony earlier had run there.


    Zhang Heng also went there to take a look. He should be able to gather some clues rted to the two explosions earlier. Unfortunately, none of the seven yers who participated in the game knew Russian. Even if the clues were right in front of their eyes, they probably wouldn��t be able to see it, leaving Zhang Heng to merely say, ��Let��s leave this ce first.��


    The yers didn��t have any objections when they heard that. The earlier explosion had shattered the ss in the corridor. ss shards were scattered all over. It looked like a mess, but from here, they could see what was below. Not only were the floor filled with rubble, but there were also glowing objects that looked like burning charcoal. There was also the distant door.


    ��Good news! At least we��ll be able to leave this damned ce soon,�� Mouse said. ��I��m almost choking to death from the smoke and dust here. Also, what is that smell? Why does my mouth have a metallic taste?��

 Chapter 1130 - Chernobyl

    <h4>Chapter 1130: Chernobyl</h4>


    Mouse��s words changed the doctor��s expression drastically.


    In fact, it wasn��t just Mouse. Almost all the yers could taste a metallic taste in their mouths. Other than that, they could also smell the strong smell of ozone. Many people��s temples were tense, their eyelids were stinging, and their chests burning.


    However, this dungeon was basically filled with experienced yers. It wasn��t the first time they had faced danger, so no one would make a fuss over such a small matter. Moreover, there had just been an explosion here, and many ces were still burning. Of course, no one expected the air quality to be good, but thoughts toward the possibility of some chemicals burning began to materialize.


    Until the doctor said one word, ��Nuclear radiation!!!��


    ��Huh?�� Master Kui frowned.


    ��We are suffering the effects of high-intensity radiation poisoning. No, to be more precise, we are still in the midst of intense radiation!�� The doctor looked extremely nervous. His voice could not help but tremble.


    ��How are you so sure?��


    ��Radioactive iodine. Radioactive iodine produced by nuclear radiation has a metallic taste. In the recent Fukushima nuclear ident, many of the interviewees mentioned that they had tasted metal when they were exposed to radiation.��


    ��Wait, we��re in 20th century Soviet Union. The plot of this game shouldn��t be...��


    Although Mouse did not say the name in the end, it was no longer important, because all the yers present knew what he was going to say.


    Chernobyl!


    The worst nightmare of hundreds of thousands of people, the worst and most terrifying nuclear ident in human history. The first international nuclear ident was defined as a level seven ident, and the other level seven nuclear ident was the Fukushima nuclear ident in 2011. At the most dangerous time of the Chernobyl nuclear ident, it almost pushed the entire European continent into the abyss.


    ��We are at Chernobyl!!!�� The repairman��s expression also darkened. ��This ozone smell is the smell of air ionized by high-energy nuclear radiation, just like during a thunderstorm. We Are Here, April 25th, 1986, or the 26th. I can��t remember, but we are here! This is Chernobyl��s reactor No.4, the one that exploded just now.��


    While he was talking, two more explosions came from the other side of the metal door. However, this time, the explosion was not as violent as the previous one. The corridor only shook a little.


    Mouse waspletely dumbfounded. ��We were exposed to nuclear radiation just now? And it was at the center of the explosion. Are we going to die soon?��


    ��I heard that the radiation level of Chernobyl��s No.4 reactor after the explosion was 30,000 roentgens per hour.�� The maintenance worker��s face turned extremely pale. ��No living creature can withstand such a high level of radiation.��


    ��The situation is not that bad. 30,000 roentgens should be the total amount of radiation. The specific amount of radiation will vary greatly depending on the region. Although we are very close to the reactor, we were inside the building when the explosion happened.�� The doctor gradually calmed down at this time, and he continued to exin. ��Although the concrete can not help uspletely iste the radiation, it can indeed help me resist a considerable portion of the radiation. If we die, we are definitely dead, but we should still have some time.��


    ��How long?��


    ��I can��t say exactly how long, but it has something to do with everyone��s physical condition,�� the doctor said. ��A few days, a few weeks, a few months. If we��re lucky, we might live for a few years... of course, there are also people who will die in a few hours. We don��t have any equipment, so we can��t detect the current radiation level. But we can be sure that the sooner we leave this ce, the better.��


    ��No wonder this dungeon is called the invisible killer, and there��s no time limit for the quest.�� Coconut gave off a messed up expression.


    Right now, everyone felt as if there was a time bomb embedded in their hearts. The numbers on the dial were ticking, representing their remaining lives. No one knew when the needle would return to zero.


    Just a few minutes ago, most people had thought that this would be an easy and enjoyable experience-grinding trip. With Simon leading the team, it did not matter who their opponent was. However, no one had expected the situation to turn for the worse in an instant.


    They were about to face an invisible and deadly enemy. Under such circumstances, no matter how powerful Simon was, he could not do anything against such an enemy. Therefore, the yers were no longer as rxed and cheerful as before. However, even though their morale was low, the yers still epted reality in the shortest time possible.


    Zhang Heng asked the doctor, ��Is there any way to extend our survival time?��


    ��I��ll try to exin our current situation in simple terms. Nuclear radiation from nuclear fission reactions, or more urately, ionizing radiation, includes all kinds of rays, such as alpha rays, beta rays, gamma rays, x rays, and neutrons. These rays can be roughly divided into two categories. One is a high-speed particle flow dominated by alpha rays, beta rays, and neutrons, and the other is a high-energy electromaic wave like x rays and gamma rays.��


    The doctor sped up his speech, ��Regardless of whether it��s the high-speed particle flow or the high-energy electromaic waves, the most fundamental cause of damage to the human body is the transfer of energy.


    ��Matter is made up of atoms, and our bodies are no exception. The energy carried by the high-energy electromaic waves will be absorbed by the atoms after entering the body, and then released in the form of kic energy, thus destroying the structure of the molecules. The high-speed particle flow is even more powerful because the mass can directly break the molecr bonds.


    ��The cuticles and proteins are fine. Even if they are destroyed, they can gradually recover. However, the most fatal thing is that the DNA is destroyed. This is because the gic information carried by the DNA is guiding the activities of all the cells in the human body. If the DNA is destroyed, it will cause our cells to malfunction.


    ��Unfortunately, even with our technology in the 21st century, there is nothing we can do about this kind of damage on the molecr level. Therefore, the treatment in the hospital can only help you to alleviate some of the pain or prolong your life through equipment, but...��


    ��But what?��


    ��We can��t do anything about the external radiation. We can only try to avoid ces with high radiation values, but we can still find ways to reduce the internal radiation. The metallic taste we��re tasting nowes from iodine 131. Iodine 131 will enter our bodies through breathing and food. Eventually, it will umte in the thyroid. To solve this problem, we can inject some iodine in advance,�� the doctor said. ��It��s like going to a restaurant and booking the table in advance, so next I suggest we go to the hospital and get some iodine pills, which should help.��

 Chapter 1131 - Blue Flames

    <h4>Chapter 1131: Blue mes</h4>


    Since they had discussed their next destination, the seven naturally did not want to stay in the nuclear power nt and continue to be exposed to radiation.


    In fact, the nuclear powernt had already be aplete purgatory at the moment. The fire caused by the explosion began to spread wildly, and sirens ominously red one after another. Shattered ss flew everywhere...


    The seven soon found the stairs that led down and were about to run down the stairs when to their surprise, they saw the door of the room at the end of the corridor, which looked like a central control room, opening again. Three people wearing white clothes ran out. Two of them looked very young, looking like they were in their early twenties, and the person behind them was none other than the man who had escaped the reactor explosion with the seven of them. He was standing on the balcony.


    As they were quite a distance away, there was a lot of dust floating in the air. In addition, the three of them seemed to be a little unsettled. It was as if they had not noticed the yers at the first moment.


    Hence, when the yers saw this, they hurriedly retreated into the stairway. The youth and Master Kui looked at each other. Thetter made a knock-out gesture. The youth nodded, but the yers did not expect that the three of them would not turn around when they passed the stairway. They did not even nce at the stairway and just walked straight ahead.


    The youth was stunned. ��What do you mean? Where are they going? There shouldn��t be any other stairways behind them, right?��


    He wasn��t the only one puzzled. The others were as well.


    ��Could it be that they want to go to the reactor?�� Although Master Kui said those things, it appeared from her expressions that she did not really trust this deduction.


    After all, it was understandable that the yers didn��t know how powerful the reactor was when they first entered the dungeon. However, the man standing on the balcony was obviously an employee of the nuclear power nt. He also seemed to be in charge of the reactor. Judging from his frightened look at that time, it was impossible that he didn��t know what had happened.


    And now, he didn��t want to leave this ce as soon as possible. Counterintuitively, he actually turned around and walked back to the reactor. Did he not know what was waiting for him after he opened the safety door?


    As if answering the yers�� questions, the three of them really came to the safety door. They even seemed like they were preparing to open the door.


    ��Are they crazy?�� the young man in the Zhanfu who stuck his head out asked in surprise.


    ��Don��t bother with their matters. Let��s leave this ce as soon as possible,�� the doctor said with a solemn expression. ��If they open the door, the radiation will definitely rise.��


    As expected, everyone lost interest in watching the show. They continued to run down the stairs, and along the way, they met a few people in white coats. They were all workers from the nuclear power nt, filled with panic and confusion. However, they did not run out. Some were busy rescuing the injured, some were busy putting out the fire, and some remained at their posts.


    Regardless of what the nuclear power nt workers were doing, none of them wore any protective equipment. Be it protective clothing or breathing masks that could prevent radioactive dust from falling on their skin, they were basically dressed as they usually did at work.


    However, what was even more unbelievable was what the yers saw after they ran out of the building.


    They saw that the roof of the reactor building they were previously in had beenpletely blown apart by the explosion. Half of the wall facing the road had also copsed. Broken bricks, concrete, and some ck substance flew everywhere, some still cindering when theynded on the asphalt pavement. The steel bars and pipes that were initially buried in the building were now exposed. A massive pir of fire soared into the sky, emitting a faint blue luster under the effects of Cherenkov��s radiation.


    However, behind this beautiful luster was an iparably terrifying danger.


    Without the protection of the protective cover and concrete, the high-intensity radiation was spreading from the damaged core in all directions!


    At this moment, the yers only wanted to do everything possible to leave this radiation hell. However, the sharp-eyed Mouse saw a figure appear from within the ruins.


    It was the man who had been standing on the balcony. He had returned to the building where the reactor was located. He was climbing up the ruins, and below his feet was the damaged reactor core. At this moment, his body was enduring an unimaginable amount of radiation. His skin burned by the nuclear radiation became darker and darker, and his eyes swelled.


    He crawled using both his hands and feet while shouting something intelligible.


    ��Who is he shouting at?�� the teenager asked subconsciously.


    ��His colleagues, I think,�� Zhang Heng said. ��Didn��t we see the workers of the other two nuclear power nts in that building? The direction he is heading to is the office where the two workers are.��


    However, the yers only took one look before they averted their gazes. ording to the Doctor, after leaving the building, the radiation doses they received would increase significantly. Considering the distance between them and the core, every second they stayed here increased their risks exponentially.


    This time, the maintenance worker ran at the front and rushed toward the door. Coconut was right behind her. However, after running for about 50 to 60 meters, Coconut let out a muffled groan. A chaotic set of circumstances, it was also in the night, and she couldn��t see the road under her feet. She stepped on a piece of construction waste and fell to the ground.


    Mouse, behind her, immediately stopped and helped her up. ��Are you bleeding?��


    ��It��s just a scratch. It��s not a big deal,�� Coconut said. There was a ck stone where she fell just now, which had grazed her palm. Coconut, however, didn��t take this minor injury to heart. Instead, she tried walking a few steps only to discover that she had sprained her ankle. She was limping a little.


    Then, the mouse and the teenager lifted her and continued to run toward the gate.


    ��There��s a bus over there. Let��s get on the bus first,�� the doctor said. He pointed at a bus parked not far away from the gate. The maintenance man got on the bus first before the driver waved his hands and feet in excitement, attempting to tell him something. However, he was interrupted by a punch from the maintenance man before he could say anything.


    Master Kui followed him onto the bus. He nced sideways and saw that the maintenance man was holding onto the driver��s neck. Thetter��s face was flushed red from holding his breath.


    ��Are you nning to kill him to silence him?��


    ��No, I just want him to be quiet,�� the maintenance man exined; the muscles in his body tensed.


    In the end, Kui grabbed the driver��s hair and knocked thetter��s head against the iron handrail. The bus driver immediately rolled his eyes and fainted.


    ��Now he��s quiet.��

 Chapter 1132 - Countdown

    <h4>Chapter 1132: Countdown</h4>


    When thest yer climbed onto the bus, the doctor immediately called for everyone to shut the doors and windows.


    The repairman was already sitting in the driver��s seat, holding the steering wheel. However, the next question he asked left all the yers dumbfounded.


    ��The hospital... which way?��


    Previously, everyone had decided their next n in the corridor, preparing to go to the hospital to get iodine tablets. However, they had neglected the most crucial problem: they did not know where the hospital was. They were now certain that this dungeon��s background was Chernobyl, and based on their historical knowledge, they knew that Pripyat was the nearest town to the nuclear power nt.


    However, they were clueless about the more detailed information, such as the number of avable hospitals in Pripyat and where they were located.


    They could not be med for being careless, though. The main reason was that it was never difficult to find a ce for those who lived in the informationden 21st-century and were already familiar with the inte. All they had to do was take out their mobile phones and search for a location. Now, not only was there no inte, but even though the yers wore white skins, no one knew and spoke Russian.


    In the end, it was Zhang Heng who reminded them.


    ��Ambnce.��


    He didn��t exin much because after observing the game for a while, he realized that although most yers in this round were single-yers without guilds, their average skill level was still pretty good. Even though they were a little dazed from the first nuclear explosion, he believed they had notpletely lost their ability to think and understand what he meant.


    There would definitely be injured people after the explosion at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power nt, so there would definitely be someone who would call for an ambnce. By then, as long as they followed the ambnce, they would naturally find the hospital.


    The first ones to arrive, however, weren��t the ambnces but the firefighters.


    In fact, before the yers had even run out of the building, the first batch of firefighters had already arrived at the scene only two minutes since the explosion. Subsequently, the second and third teams of firefighters arrived at the scene within five minutes.


    Almost as soon as the fire engine came to a stop, the firefighters on board hastily jumped down the truck and rushed into the sea of fire with water guns in their hands.


    A few workers in white coats had been fighting there for some time. They had used nitrogen to rece the hydrogen in the generator in the turbine hall to prevent an explosion before transferring the diesel supply from the turbine fuel tank to the emergency water tank above the reactor unit.


    All the work was done under unimaginable radiation doses of 500-15,000 roentgen per hour. Thanks to their valiant actions, the turbine hall was saved from being engulfed by the mes. If the fire spread to the other reactors, this would lead to an evenrger disaster.


    The firefighters climbed to the roof through the fire escape and began to think of ways to fill the reactor with water. Like the workers at the nuclear power nt, the firefighters weren��t in any radiation protective gear. They were only wearing their ordinary fire uniforms and werepletely exposed to the radiation. Some of them even took off their helmets because they were too hot.


    Though the smoke from the burning asphalt on the roof severely blurred vision and made breathing a chore, the firemen still tried to get as close to the fire as they could.


    At the same time, fire engines wereing in from all directions, not only from around Chernobyl but also from Kyiv and other areas, after receiving the call for help.


    Under the doctor��s guidance, the maintenance workers drove the bus to a wall to prevent it from being continuously exposed to radiation.


    Until they could no longer see the scene inside the nuclear power nt, the hearts of the yers still could not calm down for a long time. Most of them had heard of the name of Chernobyl more than once, but the disaster that year was too far away from them, and most hadn��t even been born at that time.


    All of their knowledge of Chernobyl came from news and anecdotes, novels, and games on the Inte. Never in their wildest dream had they ever thought that someday they too would be involved, witnessing one of the most tragic disasters in human history. And from such close proximity as well.


    ��I feel terrible now...�� Mouse said. He sat on the chair of the bus and panted heavily. However, it was not because of the intense exercise just now, but purely because of the physiological reaction after heavy palpitations. When he thought about the reactor scene that had just exploded, Mouse��s legs went weak.


    ��Who isn��t? I thought it was a welfare book, but I didn��t expect it to be a life-ending book after I came in,�� the maintenance man said with a wry smile. ��No wonder the mission time is unlimited. Who would want to stay here? I can��t wait to go back now.��


    ��The situation isn��t that bad. At least we don��t have to worry about the aftereffects.��Master Kui had calmed down at this time, ��We are in a game after all. Compared to the firefighters and the workers of the nuclear power nt, as long as we can return to the real world alive, our physical condition will return to normal.��


    As soon as she finished her sentence, Coconut, who was sitting in the back seat of the bus, suddenly vomited.


    ��Are you okay?�� Mouse had been following her and carried her all the way to the bus. As a result, the two had drawn close. Seeing how unwell Coconut was, he asked with concern.


    ��Vomiting is one of themon adverse reactions brought about by radiation overdose,�� the doctor said.


    ��Because lots of cells die when exposed to this much radiation, new cells need to be divided to make up for them. To produce cells, you need water and energy. This will lead to an insufficient blood supply to your stomach, which will eventually lead to vomiting.��


    ��I��m fine.�� Coconut wiped the vomit from his mouth with his hand and smiled weakly at Mouse.


    ��You don��t have to exin everything in such detail. It makes me want to vomit myself,�� the boy said.


    ��Sorry, I like to keep talking when I��m nervous.��


    After waiting for a few minutes, the ambnce finally appeared. A doctor ran down from the ambnce and injected some tranquilizer into an unlucky person hit by a crossbeam during the explosion. He did some simple triage, then ordered his men to carry the injured man into the ambnce while he stayed behind to deal with burn victims and mildly injured.


    The yers were also cheered up when they saw the ambnce because this meant that they could finally leave this godforsaken ce.


    When the ambnce drove out of the main entrance with the injured, the maintenance worker stepped on the elerator impatiently. The bus returned to the road from under the wall and followed the ambnce in front, heading toward the nearby town of Pripyat.


    Zhang Heng turned back to look in the direction of the nuclear power nt. A few brave firefighters had climbed up to the roof of the reactor and were attempting to fill it with water. Under their feet was a huge crack, where the melted core was spewing out a vast amount of radioactive particles.


    The invisible me had burned everyone present.

 Chapter 1133 - Pripyat

    <h4>Chapter 1133: Pripyat</h4>


    The wheels of the bus rubbed against the asphalt surface, making a dull grinding, its roaring engine particrly clear in the silence of the night.


    The yers had obtained a watch from the unconscious bus driver, so they finally knew the exact time.


    It was 1:44 a.m., and ording to Zhang Heng��s calctions, the explosion should have happened 15 to 20 minutes ago.


    There was still a long time before daybreak. For the town of Pripyat, three kilometers away from the nuclear power nt, most of the residents were still sleeping soundly, having none the explosion��s shockwave had already sent a portion of the core��s material into the sky, forming arge masses of strong radioactive particles.


    At first, the mass only wrapped around the nuclear power nt, but it quickly began to expand and spread in all directions with the wind.


    The residents of Pripyat who first noticed the explosion were probably a group of night anglers.


    The nuclear power nt would drain the cold water from the steam turbine��s pre-heat exchanger into the Pripyat River on the side. Because the water was warm and attracted fish, it was an excellent fishing spot, not to mention that it was just in time for the spring fish spawning season, thus anglers came here one after another. Even at night, there were many people.


    The people came as close to less than 300 meters from reactor No. 4. When the maintenance workers drove past them in a bus, the yers saw some anglers looking up at the thick smoke in the direction of the reactor. Some were only beginning to pack up, but more people chose to stay where they were.


    They seemed to believe that the fire would not spread to where they were, especially after a few fire trucks had just arrived, convincing the anglers that the fire would be brought under control soon. Some, thinking that witnessing the heroic firemen putting out the fire up close would be a fine tale they could brag to their friends about, continued to hold their fishing rods and stayed by the river.


    In addition, a young couple was even secretly tasting the forbidden fruit by the river. They turned a blind eye to the explosion behind them and were tightly entangled together. Further away, several workers patrolling the railway bridge had also stopped to watch.


    ��Heh, it looks like we��re the only ones who are busy running for their lives within a hundred miles,�� Master Kui said cynically.


    ��They��ll pay the price,�� the Doctor droned as he put on a serious note. ��The radioactive dust above the nuclear power nt has already drifted here andnded on their skin. With every breath they take, it enters their lungs. When they recall it in the future... if they still have a future, this will be the moment they will regret the most in their lives.��


    ��What exactly are these people thinking? How can you be indifferent to the explosion in the nuclear power nt when you are moving around it?!�� Mouse��s face was filled with disbelief.


    ��I don��t know. I��m just a surgeon, not a psychiatrist.�� the doctor shrugged.


    ��Will the radioactive dust drift into the town?�� At this moment, Master Kui was concerned about another question.


    ��Without a doubt, this is already happening.��


    ��So, if we stay in the town, we��ll continue to be exposed to the radiation?�� Mouse asked.


    His words sank the hearts of all the yers.


    Moreover, unlike the anglers and lovey-dovey couples by the river, the yers knew that toplete their quest, they had no to stay in the town even if they knew that there was a risk of radiation.


    Thus, the carriage fell into silence. A momentter, coconut began to vomit again. However, because she had already vomited all her dinner before, she could only vomit non-stop now. It was the rats that were taking care of her.


    ��Sorry, I still feel a little carsick,�� Coconut said.


    ��I��ll try to drive steadily, but this isn��t a very smooth section of the road,�� the maintenance man said. As he spoke, he saw a few passing cars from the opposite side. There were fire engines that followed them, as well as private cars. One of them even honked at them, as if wanting them to stop.


    However, the maintenance man would not listen obediently. He turned the direction, bypassed the car, and continued to drive forward. He looked at the rearview mirror and saw that the owner of the car had already walked down. Seeing that the bus was far away, he seemed a little helpless. He had no intention of continuing to chase after them, however.


    After about five minutes, the ambnce and the bus drove past the safety zone near the nuclear power nt and finally entered the town one after the other.


    Everyone��s impression of Pripyat was basically inseparable from the word ��ghost city.�� After the Chernobyl incident, the city became deste and no longer had any people. In addition, Ukraerunched an adventure tourism program, which basically confirmed Pripyat��s identity as a ghost city.


    Tourists held radiators in their hands and wore protective clothing as they walked between the abandoned school and the stadium. Listening to the creaking of the counters, they seemed to be able to feel the terrible disaster that happened here decades ago, at the same time, they enjoyed a ghost city��s destion.


    However, at this time, Pripyat looked no different from other towns. In fact, it was more urate to say that Pripyat looked more beautiful than most of the towns in this era.


    The town was built before the Chernobyl nuclear power nt in the east. After the n for the nuclear power nt was approved, the dormitories of the workers and the office buildings of the administrators were built first. As the project progressed, the families of the workers also moved to the town. People named the new town after the Pripyat River.


    As the number of residents in the town increased, there were more and more houses. There were shops, schools, stadiums, even buses and railways. When the No.1 reactor of the nuclear power nt was put into operation, the workers of the nuclear power nt and their families also moved into the town. After that, the construction of the reactor continued. After the No.4 reactor, the No.5 and No.6 reactors went into intense construction.


    The number of residents in the town also increased. So far, there were more than 50,000 people. Moreover, unlike thosepact and crowded old cities, Pripyat was a typical Brezhnev-like city. The streets were wide, neat, and geometrically distributed, and the houses were well-arranged. There was also a magnificent pce for teenagers and the 11th Cinema of the Soviet Union.


    Whether it was the design or the nning of the city, everything was determined by top Soviet leadership. It also showed the bloc��s ambition for the use of atomic energy. Everyone who came to Pripyat was fascinated by its charm. In order to get a living witness here, people fought over it.


    But now Pripyat was still in deep sleep. Only a few people noticed the light of the distant nuclear power station.

 Chapter 1134 - Changes

    <h4>Chapter 1134: Changes</h4>


    The ambnce stopped outside Pripyat��s medical center. The nurses, who had been preparing for a long time, immediately carried the injured into the emergency room and began to treat them.


    At this time, the maintenance workers had already parked the bus in the parking lot of the medical center and the yers got off the bus. At this time, there were not many patients in the medical center. It looked a little deserted, but everyone knew that it would not be long before the doctors and nurses here would be swamped.


    ��The clothes we��re wearing now are still from the nuclear power nt. They��re too eye-catching. Moreover, there��s quite a lot of radioactive dust on them. Let��s go and change our clothes first,�� the doctor suggested.


    No one had any objections.


    Therefore, the yers quietly bypassed the outpatient building and arrived at the inpatient department at the back. There were two young nurses on duty there. When they saw the yers walking in, they were stunned.


    One of them stood up and asked, but in the blink of an eye, the group of uninvited guests in front of her restrained her. Herpanions were no exception.


    Master Kui killed the two people cleanly. After that, the yers found two unupied rooms. The male and female yers were each given one room and the youth in the Zhanfu found the ce where the patient gowns were kept.


    The yers each took a set. Just as they were about to go to the room to change, they were stopped by the doctor. ��Wait, I see a bathroom at the end of the corridor. Let��s go take a shower first. Although 80% of the radioactive elements have already umted in the granryer under our skin, it��s still useful to use water to wash them down.��


    The twodies, Coconut and Master Kui went to wash up, followed by the maintenance worker and Mouse. Zhang Heng and the young man in the uniform were in line behind them.


    Zhang Heng walked to the sink and took off his clothes and shoes first. Then, he turned on the tap and heard the young man in uniform praise him, ��Idol, you have a real good figure. You probably spend a good deal of time working out, right? Or are you some soldier king or special force or something in the real world?��


    ��What��s a soldier king?�� Zhang Heng asked as he sshed water on his arm.


    ��It��s the kind of soldier king that... When the god of war returns home and sees his daughter living in a doghouse, he orders 100,000 soldiers to go to the battlefield,�� the young man said with a sneer. But it didn��t seem to have any effect on Zhang Heng.


    Zhang Heng turned to look at him and said calmly, ��Aren��t you going to take a shower?��


    ��I��ve already been exposed to radiation, so I don��t care about this half a minute. I��ll shower with the doctor,�� the young man said with a wave of his hand.


    ��Suit yourself.�� Zhang Heng washed his hair and back after washing his arms. ��Also, stay away from me. I don��t want my skin to be contaminated with radioactive dust again.��


    ��Okay, no problem.�� The young man took half a step back andmended. ��As expected of my idol. He��s always so cautious.��


    ��...��


    After the Doctor and the young man had showered and changed, the team of yers transformed from nuclear power nt employees to patients in the medical center.


    With the help of the fluorescent lights in the ward, everyone noticed the changes in their bodies. Their previously exposed skin had turned red, and ording to the doctor, was because their stratum corneum had disintegrated after being exposed to the high-intensity electromaic waves, exposing the cells under their skin.


    Other than that, a portion of the yers also felt a headache and nausea. However, the most serious one was the coconut. Her hand, which had been grazed by the high-energy electromaic waves, had actually started to swell up. Moreover, the wound had even split open, any slight movement would cause severe pain. In addition, her lips were also slightly swollen.


    The doctor��s expression changed slightly. ��Did you touch anything that you shouldn��t have touched before?��


    However, when Coconut heard this, she suddenly exploded for no reason. ��What��s something that you shouldn��t have touched? Is there anything that you should have touched in that nuclear power nt?�� she exploded.


    Her sudden anger also confused the yers. Among them, the maintenance worker and the young man in the Zhanfu showed a hint of displeasure on their faces. It was clearly not the time to be petty, although they had be closer after experiencing the explosion of the nuclear power nt and escaping together, and they had begun to act like a small team. In the end, they had only known each other for less than an hour, no one would coddle anyone unconditionally.


    In the end, it was one of the doctors who came out tofort the others. ��It��s okay. This is not her intention. She should be suffering from radiation induced mania in the nervous system now. Such an illness only appears extremely severe in the beginning.��


    ��What happens after that?�� The dissatisfaction in the maintenance worker��s eyes disappeared when he heard that it was the illness.


    ��After that, it will turn into a deep depression. It��s fine. We��ll get some anti-depressantster,�� the doctor said and looked at Coconut. ��How��s your hand?��


    ��What do you think? I feel f*cked right now. It��s like someone is constantly slicing through my palm with a knife,�� Coconut said. ��And my mouth is swollen. I want to cut it with a knife.��


    ��When you fell at the nuclear power nt, you probably encountered some powerful radiation. That��s why your hand became like this.�� The doctor took gauze from the nurses�� station and wrapped twoyers around Coconut��s injured hand. ��After that, when you vomited, you covered your mouth with your hand, so your mouth was also exposed to a high dose of radiation.��


    The other yers�� expressions froze when they heard this. They had thought that the radiation they had suffered from being so close to the core of the reactor was already very high. They had not expected that there would be such a dangerous thing in the nuclear power nt.


    ��Let��s find a wide-range radiation measuring instrument to test it. This kind of instrument can measure the nature and degree of radiation inside and outside.�� The doctor paused for a moment before adding, ��In the future, it would be best if we all take a test together. At the very least, we can know how much radiation we have been exposed to.��


    After that, everyone left the ward and went to the outpatient building. What the yers did not expect was that they could not find the kind of measuring instrument that the doctor had mentioned even though they had searched several ces to ce the instruments, at this moment, more and more injured people were sent to the hospital. Among them, there were quite a number of people who had suffered from severe radiation.


    The Doctor suggested that the hospital check their radiation dose, but it turned out that the hospital only used a rtively simple measuring instrument to perform a simple radiation test on the iing patients, after confirming that they were all radioactive, the Doctor gave them a bath, changed their clothes, and injected them intravenously.


    The doctor was also surprised. ��That��s it?��


    ��Why? Is there something wrong with their methods?�� Zhang Heng asked.


    ��There are still a lot of problems. The medical equipment that I mentioned before is not particrly advanced, so it should be avable in this era. Furthermore, this hospital provides medical services to nuclear power nts. At the very least, you should know how much radiation your patients have absorbed. In addition, the number of patients that have been sent here has also increased. Logically, the hospital should be ssifying the patients ording to the progress of acute radiation syndrome. However, all the patients that I��ve seen have been mixed together, and the medical staff��s protective gear is not in ce.��

 Chapter 1135 - Potassium Iodide

    <h4>Chapter 1135: Potassium Iodide</h4>


    The doctors were surprised by theck of preparedness of the Pripyat Medical Center for acute radiation sickness.


    In particr, theck ofrge-range radiometers meant that the yers had no way of determining how much RAD of radiation they had absorbed in the previous explosion. This meant that they had no method of estimating how much time they had left.


    However, the good news was that they had found potassium iodide injection in the hospital.


    ��The best time for this thing to take effect is before your exposure is to radiation. It is, however, still effective even after you are exposed to radiation.�� The doctor gave the yers, including himself, an IV drip. WIth drip stands in hand, coupled with the hospital gowns, they looked no different from patients now.


    When they were done, the hospital was finally bustling with activity. The wounded had been streaming in from Chernobyl, and many had their skins turn dark brown, and their bodies swelled. As they were being carried out of the ambnce, they couldn��t stop moaning. Some became hysterical. They looked very manic, but soon, his severe hups forced him to calm down.


    Zhang Heng and the others also saw a familiar face among them. It was the man who had stood on the balcony in front of the reactor.


    His condition was also the most serious of all. Because he was too close to the reactor, all the skin on his body had almost been burned off. The strips of skin hung on his body, exposing the flesh underneath. His entire body was swollen beyond recognition, and he could not move at all. Even moving his fingers proved impossible.


    In order to relieve the poor man from the excruciating pain he was experiencing, people in the same ward had to find some vodka for him to drink. However, before he could even swallow any, he retched it out violently. His condition did not look good, and it seemed that he had little time left to live.


    The off-duty doctors and nurses had also mobilized. There were also people borrowed from the nuclear power instationpany, mainly aunties, cleaning the corridors and wards over and over again.


    Considering that each of the injured from the nuclear power nt contained a lot of radiation, the yers and their team had all left the medical center with IV bottles. However, they did not return to the original bus, finding a jeep instead.


    After witnessing the current state of the medical center, everyone could not help but worry about their future, especially Coconut. The doctor had to give her a sedative to calm her down.


    ��Now that we��ve obtained the potassium iodide, what��s our next step?�� Master Kui asked.


    ��Of course, we have to hurry andplete the main storyline,�� the maintenance man said without hesitation. He didn��t want to stay in this dungeon a second longer.


    ��What do you guys think about the main storyline quest, then? Let��s hear it,�� Zhang Heng said.


    ��Okay, I��ll go first.��To everyone��s surprise, the first person to raise his hand this time was unexpectedly the server youth. ��I feel that the situation in this dungeon is actually not that bad. Hmm, even though everyone��s survived a nuclear explosion, it looks like they don��t have much time left to live.��


    ��Your definition of ��not that bad�� is quite ingenious,�� Master Kui mocked.


    ��No, the first part isn��t the main point. What I want to say is that this mission isn��t too difficult. Finding the key person should mean we have to find the key person that caused this disaster. And don��t forget that we have an advantage in this.��


    ��What advantage?��


    ��We don��t need to really investigate this ident because we��re from the 21st century. We��ve all read some information rted to Chernobyl.��


    ��I haven��t really read much about it.�� Coconut yawned. Because of the sedative, she couldn��t feel the pain in her palms and lips anymore. However, the side effect was that her senses would be dulled, and she��d feel a little sleepy.


    ��Alright, most of us should have seen it.��


    The young man immediately corrected himself. ��What we need to do now is to find the most responsible person for this ident based on the information everyone has. Then, we can find him and directlyplete the mission and leave this damn ce.��


    ��I remember that this ident seems to be due to some safety test. The person in charge of this test was the deputy chief engineer of the reactor. His name is Otlov or Totorov... It��s tough to remember Russian names,�� the maintenance workerined.


    ��Gatlov,�� the doctor said, ��And the foreman on duty and an operator at that time. But I don��t remember their names. In short, the three of them should be the main people responsible person for this disaster.��


    ��Did their mistakes lead to the ident?�� Master Kui raised her eyebrows.


    ��No, I remember a passage saying that there was something wrong with the design of the reactor itself. Their experimental operation that night was the cause,�� the maintenance man said.


    ��So, if it��s the second possibility, do we have to find the designer of the power nt?�� Mouse asked anxiously. ��Does he live in Pripyat or nearby?��


    ��Who approved tonight��s safety test?�� Master Kui asked again.


    ��The chief engineer, the director of the nuclear power nt?��


    ��Don��t you think they should be more responsible for the ident?��


    ��Yes, that makes sense, but then we��ll have to add names to our list.��


    ��We should list all the suspects and prioritize them ording to their importance. We should first take care of the people who live here or nearby,�� Zhang Heng said, ��Also, the most important thing right now is to find a trantor. Otherwise, our actions will be too limited, be it investigating or integrating into the city.��


    ��Finding a trantor is not a problem, but how can we guarantee that he won��t betray us?


    ��We don��t understand Russian, after all, so we rely on trantors tomunicate with the outside world. Furthermore, we have a cold war background now, so we might be treated as spies sent by the West.��


    ��I��ll solve this problem,�� Zhang Heng said.


    ��That would be the best.��


    With Simon��s words, the yers could finally heave a sigh of relief. The next step was to find a trantor. Pripyat was the newly built atomic city of the Soviet Union,plete with all manner of facilities. However, there was also a problem. This city had only been developed because of the nuclear power nt, and most who settled here were also rted to the nuclear power nt. They were either builders or staff at the nt. There were few around who worked in other professions, even more so for those who tranted for a living.


    It was not easy to find apetent trantor in the massive city of Pripyat.

 Chapter 1136 - Whispers

    Chapter 1136: Whispers


    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion


    ��If I��m not mistaken, there are quite a few countries in the Soviet Union and there should be more than onenguage, right?�� Mouse asked.


    ��Yes, the Soviet Union is an alliance of 15 countries, and there are quite a few ethnic groups in each country. Therefore, there are quite a fewnguages. Russian is the mainnguage ofmunication, and the government has been working hard to poprize it. However, there are stillnguages in different ces. For example, in Ukraine, where we are now, everyone can speak Ukrainian. Do any of you know Ukrainian?�� the doctor asked.


    In the end, the yers looked at each other, but no one answered.


    Even though Zhang Heng had mastered ninenguages, there was, unfortunately, no Russian or Ukrainian among them. Just as everyone was staring at each other, Coconut, who looked sleepy, suddenly said, ��I have that kind of... tool that canmunicate with your mind.��


    ��What?��


    ��I��m not joking,�� Coconut said as she took out an earring from her pocket. ��Here, this is it.��


    Just when everyone was overjoyed, Coconut opened her mouth and swallowed the earring.


    ��What drug did you inject her with?�� Mouse angrily scolded the doctor. ��Don��t tell me that her mental disorder is also due to nuclear radiation? !��


    The doctor��s expression changed slightly as if he thought of something, but he didn��t say anything.


    ��It��s none of his business.��


    Coconut swallowed with difficulty and gulped the earring before she spoke.


    Her expression was very calm. Although she looked a little dull under the effect of the tranquilizer and her eyes were lifeless, she didn��t seem to have lost her basic ability to think. After that, she stretched out her uninjured hand and opened it.


    Mouse saw the earring on her hand and heaved a sigh of relief. ��So you didn��t eat it. Then what was that? Did you do a magic trick?��


    ��No, the earring is a pair. I swallowed one just now, and there��s another one here,�� Coconut said.


    ��It seems like you still don��t trust us.�� The doctor sighed.


    ��Since everyone dares toe out to y single-yer, of course we have to be careful. I don��t intend to harm others, but I don��t want to die for no reason. Furthermore, my current situation isn��t good, and I��m a burden to the team. If I take out a valuable game item at this time, it��s hard to say if people won��t have other thoughts,�� Coconut said.


    ��Then why did you reveal that you have a telepathic item?�� Zhang Heng asked.


    ��Because I��m part of the team, and we��re all on the same boat. Naturally, I want to help the team clear this dungeon. Seeing that everyone is in trouble, and I happen to have a solution, I can��t just sit still,�� Coconut said.


    ��So you swallowed that earring.��


    ��That��s right, the earring is a pair called Whispers. People who hold Whispers canmunicate through thoughts... though there are still many limitations to this. First, both parties need to agree. And just like you sending and receiving messages, you need to focus your mind to convey what you want to say, then ept the other party��s words.��


    ��You swallowed an earring, so as long as you give the other earring to the ��trantor�� we��re looking for, you��ll be able to talk to him. In this way, the team won��t be able to leave you behind, right?��


    ��That��s right. As expected of the number one yer, he��s very organized,�� Coconutmended.


    Mouse was dumbfounded. He didn��t expect Coconut��s seemingly irrational actions to actually contain a calm n.


    ��I have no objections,�� Zhang Heng said. After that, he looked around at the other yers in the car. In the end, everyone shook their heads.


    The maintenance worker muttered softly, ��You��re asking for it.�� However, he didn��t say anything else after that.


    With Whispers, the matter of finding a trantor became much easier.


    The crowd didn��t waste any more time. They directly dragged one of the two young nurses who had been knocked unconscious in the inpatient department into the car.


    In order to seize every second and buy as much time as possible, the yers did not even wait for the young nurse to wake up by herself. Instead, they went to fetch a basin of water. They first put an earring on her ear before pressing her face into it.


    Stimted by the cold water, the young nurse woke up. Then, she saw that she was being imprisoned in a jeep by a group of people. These were the same people who had knocked her unconscious previously.


    The nurse wanted to scream, but then she was covered by someone.


    So she could only use her big ck eyes to pray that the bandits in front of her would find their conscience and let her go home. However, her beautiful wish was destined to fail.


    The nurse saw a woman with slightly swollen lips in front of her and pointed at her head, indicating for her to focus.


    However, the young nurse waspletely scared silly at this moment. She could not concentrate at all, and her mind was a mess. All her thoughts were busy guessing where this group of people came from and what they would do to her. Her entire body was constantly trembling.


    Hence, after trying for a while, Coconut got tired. ��No... this coordination is too bad.��


    ��Do we need to use some tricks?�� the maintenance man asked.


    ��It��s useless. She was scared to begin with. If you scare her again, it will only make things worse. Let��s move on to the next one,�� Coconut said calmly.


    Thus, Master Kui had no choice but to knock the little nurse unconscious again and drag her colleague over.


    The second little nurse looked much taller and bigger. When she was subdued, she still wanted to resist. This was also the reason why the yers wanted the first little nurse to be the trantor.


    Unfortunately, the first nurse��s mental strength was too weak, while the second one was much better.


    Coconut took less than five minutes to connect with the girl. She learned that the girl��s name was Besnova, a Ukrainian who came to Pripyat three years ago after graduating school. She became a nurse at the medical center and had no other rtives there except a roommate who shared a room with her. The other was a new boyfriend who worked at the train station as a ticket inspector.


    ��Tell her that as long as she does as we say, we won��t hurt her, and it��ll be good for her and her boyfriend,�� Zhang Heng said.


    Coconut closed her eyes and passed the message to Besnova, who quickly nodded in agreement. She was a smart girl, and she could tell that she was no match for these people. Since that was the case, she had to work with them first, that was the only way to save her life.


    ��Okay, let��s ask her the first question first. There��s a parchment seller in town....�� Zhang Heng said.

 Chapter 1137 - The Old Bookstore

    Chapter 1137: The Old Bookstore


    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion


    The team searched through the town��s grocery stores and shops before they found a notebook wrapped in parchment. Zhang Heng used the parchment and Besonova toplete the Vow Rings ceremony.


    If Besnova harbored any bad intentions toward them, Zhang Heng would be the first to know and stop her.


    Of course, it would be best if such a situation didn��t ur.


    To make Besnova realize this, Zhang Heng even invited her to y a little game. He allowed her to think about anything.


    Besnova thought about her boyfriend and whether the hospital would send people to look for her after they found out that she was missing. Zhang Heng didn��t respond. However, once she thought about how to escape, a small knife was ced on her neck.


    The chill from the de caused goosebumps to sprout on her neck. Even with Besnova��s boldness, she was shocked by the sight. The way she looked at Zhang Heng changedpletely.


    ��She said you��re the devil,�� Coconut, who was in charge of tranting, said.


    ��Okay, let her think I��m the devil then,�� Zhang Heng said lightly. He paused before continuing, ��Ask her if she knows about Jartolov.��


    Coconut closed her eyes and said after a while, ��She said that she has heard of the name. She knows that Jartolov is the deputy chief engineer of Chernobyl reactor No.4. Some of the nuclear power nt workers who used to go to the hospital for treatment used to chat about Jartolov in private.��


    ��Is that so? What did they talk about?��


    ��Most of the time, theyin that Jartolov wasn��t easy to get along with. He is always shirking his responsibilities. He often shouts in meetings and is dissatisfied with everything, stubborn, and does not socialize much. In addition, there is a worker who came to see the dentist who said that he likes to be corny. Most of the physicists hired are from the Far East, where his old boss lives.


    ��The foreman called Jartolov a despicable b*stard because before the reactor unit even started operating, he had a chance to study, but Jartolov didn��t give it to him. He said that he had enough knowledge and didn��t need to study anymore, so he sent two other people to do it. However, during the final assembly and start-up phase, those who didn��t study did most of the hardest work, and they didn��t get paid as much as those who went to study. The foreman angrily went to Jartolov to demand an exnation, but Jartolov told him that those people had gone to study, but he didn��t; hence it was reasonable for those people to get a high sry. He was so angry that he scolded them for the whole morning.��


    ��It may sound like a jerk, but as long as thepany and organization arerge enough, there will always be such inappropriate leaders,�� Zhang Heng said. ��Now that we know that our deputy chief engineer of Jartlov is not very popr at the nuclear power nt, we can��t me him for the ident. We need to meet with him to understand the details of the ident.��


    Zhang Heng nced at the watch that he had taken from the bus driver. It was 5:30 in the morning. It had been four hours since the explosion. After a night of heroic fighting by the firefighters, the fire in the direction of the nuclear power nt seemed to have been put out. At least there was no pir of fire that soared into the sky. However, the crisis did not pass as smoothly as most people thought.


    The doctor stood on the second floor of the old bookstore and looked out of the window, looking very worried.


    At this moment, the sky had begun to turn white, and the sun was ready to take over the position of the moon. It seemed it would be another bright and sunny morning. On the balcony of the residential houses opposite,undry and sheets were fluttering in the wind, and some early women had already started preparing breakfast for their husbands and sons in the kitchen. The flower beds downstairs were in full bloom.


    For the residents of Pripyat, the day seemed no different than usual.


    People woke up from their warm beds, opened the windows, poured themselves a ss of water, kissed their loved ones, and contemted the day��s work. They thought about the weekend, on whether they should go fishing, set up a pic, or just go hunting in the forest across the river.


    In fact, it was May Day in a few days, a holiday for workers around the world. All factories and units would be on holiday, and cities would hold grand celebrations, with throngs of people flooding the streets. The whole city would be beaming with joy. No one, however, realized that their lives had already beenpletely different since the explosion at 1:23 a.m.


    The radioactive fallout had drifted into Pripyat with the wind, sticking onto their clothes that had been hung out to dry, and into the room as the windows opened, onto everyone��s skin. Adults, children, and the elderly could not escape, where particles even made their way into uncapped cups and breakfast tes, filling the air with plutonium, cesium, strontium, and massive amounts of iodine-131, not to mention the huge radioactive cloud that was slowly drifting in the sky.


    Unfortunately, these real dangers could not be seen with the naked eye.


    ��They should evacuate the residents here as soon as possible,�� the doctor sighed.


    ��I saw the news on the inte. It was said that Soviets only began evacuating the residents here after 34 hours,�� the maintenance man said.


    ��Is it because it takes time to gather vehicles?�� Mouse asked, confused.


    ��Yes, it takes a lot of vehicles to transport 50,000 people, but it shouldn��t have taken that long. Also, apparently, ordinary people haven��t been notified since the ident,�� the repairman said as he looked at Besnova.


    As expected, Besnova was confused. She didn��t seem to understand why the yers looked like they were about to face a great enemy. Everyone was fully dressed, trying not to leave their skin exposed. They also wore gloves on their hands, and masks over their faces.


    Zhang Heng also tossed a ��protective suit�� to Besnova. They were quite lucky. Previously, they had passed a fire supply store and found a respirator and breathing apparatus, but now that they were quite far away from the radiation source, they didn��t have much use for it. The mask could stop somerge particles of radioactive dust from entering their mouths.


    ��Although this might sound cruel, it��s actually a good thing for us. Since the main culprits on the list are still here and haven��t been dragged to Moscow or anywhere else, it��ll be easier for us to investigate,�� the young man said, blinking his eyes.


    ��Yes, the owner of this old bookstore is about to wake up. He��ll probably be here soon, so it��s about time for us to leave,�� Zhang Heng said.. He then nced at Coconut, thetter started to vomit again after finishing the conversation with Besnova.

 Chapter 1138 - Looking for Katarov

    Chapter 1138: Looking for Katarov


    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion


    In fact, Coconut was not the only one in the party who vomited. The maintenance guy and Mouse had vomited twice, but their condition wasn��t as severe as Coconut.


    The wound on her hand, which had been bandaged by the Doctor, seemed to be unable to heal. Fresh blood kept oozing out, and she needed to change the bandage every once in a while. Even under the effect of the tranquilizer, Coconut did not seem to be feeling very well. Her lips also seemed to be on the verge of cracking.


    All that and not to mention the lingering nausea: the yers could basically feel it, but the degree of severity was different. There was also a faint sour smell in the air, but it was not that obvious.


    The yers had already left the bookstore and got back into the jeep.


    Zhang Heng walked behind them and said to Coconut, ��Help me tell her that she can call her boyfriend and ask him to stay at home for the day. But don��t say anything unnecessary. If she tries anything funny, I��ll find out.��


    Coconut rinsed her mouth with the water from the old bookstore��s canteen. She nced at Zhang Heng and asked, ��Do you want to tell her the reason?��


    ��Yes, tell her the truth about the nuclear power nt explosion.��


    Coconut nodded.


    A momentter, a look of surprise appeared on Besnova��s face. She seemed to be in disbelief, but there was not much fear in her eyes. Zhang Heng guessed that she did not know the severity of the situation at all, just like the night anglers they saw on the road.


    Zhang Heng did not exin, though. Firstly, Coconut, who was the middleman, looked very tired. Zhang Heng did not want to trouble her with any more words. Secondly, Zhang Heng had already done his best by asking Besnova to call her boyfriend. If she was unwilling or did not believe him, Zhang Heng would let her be.


    However, after thinking for a moment, Besnova actually used the bookstore��s phone to call her boyfriend. In fact, she was very obedient the whole time. Not long after, she seemed to get a little angry and mmed the receiver on the phone.


    ��She said that her boyfriend didn��t listen to her and insisted on going to work at the train station. He also told her not to say anything. He said that a colleague of his had received the news, that there was an explosion at a water tank at the nuclear power nt, and the ident was under control,�� Coconut said.


    ��...��


    Anyone who had been to the scene and had any sense wouldn��t have thought it was just a water tank explosion. However, Zhang Heng didn��t say anything and just got into the car with Besnova and Coconut.


    Because the maintenance man was feeling a little dizzy, the driver was now Master Kui. After everyone had arrived, she asked, ��Do any of you know where Katarov is now?��


    ��I think that guy has already run. He��s the deputy chief engineer of reactor No.4, and unlike the ordinary people in town, he should know a lot about the reactor. Therefore, he must know that the reactor has already exploded. If he stays there, he will be exposed to even more radiation.��


    ��Don��t let him get caught already,�� the maintenance man said with a frown. ��Then we��ll have to think of a way to get him out of the police station.��


    Zhang Heng was not in a hurry toe to a conclusion. ��Let��s go to his ce first,�� was all he said.


    Although Besnova did not know where Katarov lived, the man wasn��t a nobody in Pripyat, so it wasn��t that difficult to find out. She got out of the car and made two phone calls; a friend married to a gas line operator at the power nt. Hence, she quickly got the address.


    Under Besnova��s human navigation, Kuei drove the car to Katarov��s door. However, to his disappointment, Katarov did note back after the explosion.


    ��He didn��te home... Did he just run away?�� Mouse asked.


    Zhang Heng thought about it and turned to look at Coconut, who looked a little pained. ��Ask her if she knows any of the family and workers of reactor No.4. See if you can get any information about Katarov��s whereabouts from them.��


    Coconut took two deep breaths and closed her eyes.


    Then, she saw Besnova shake her head. After a moment of hesitation, she nodded again. She got out of the car again and walked to the public phone booth. This time, it took her a long time, but Zhang Heng was watching her from the side, and during that time, she did not feel any change in the Vow Ring she was wearing.


    After about half an hour, the public phone rang again. Basonova only said two sentences before hanging up.


    ��She asked someone to contact Victor Grigorievich Smagin, the shift leader of the No.4 reactor unit. Smagin is the shift leader of the No.2 reactor unit. He was in charge of the day��s work and went home at night. In the end, he was picked up by a van not long ago. Apparently, he went back to the nuclear power nt to help. ording to Smagin, Katarov left the nuclear power nt about three hours ago. ording to the people at the administrative building, he went to the civil defense headquarters,�� Coconut said.


    ��Three hours ago? In other words, he stayed there for at least two hours after we left the nt. Why? Does he want to die?�� the maintenance man asked in confusion.


    ��The three-hour civil defense meeting should be over. Katarov was in the control room when the ident happened. He was not far from the reactor, so he should have been exposed to a lot of radiation,�� the young man said. ��If he really stayed there for another two hours, the radiation dose would have increased. He should probably be feeling very unwell by now.��


    ��The hospital!�� Mouse and the maintenance man said in unison. ��Katarov is probably in the hospital now.��


    ��It��s not just him. The people in the control room that night are probably in the medical center as well,�� Zhang Heng said. ��We should be able to meet a lot of people on this trip.��


    Zhang Heng was right. When they returned to the medical center, they realized that it waspletely different from the first time they came.


    The number of patients had increased by at least fivefold, most being firefighters and employees at the power nt that night. Not only were there people from reactor No.4, but there were also people on duty from reactor No.3 next door. The other night anglers also noticed that they were not feeling well when the sun rose. Their breathing was rapid, and their lungs looked as if they had been burned by fire. Their skin was sunburned and had turned dark, caused by the nuclear fire.


    The sound of coughing rose and fell in the ward. There was also a radiation detector. The rm was constantly beeping, so the cleaner had to disinfect the corridor and the ward. He threw away all the clothes of the wounded, all to no avail to the beeps of the Geiger counter. No one realized that it was actually because of the radioactive dust floating in the air.


    At this moment, there was no ce without radiation in Pripyat.


    Some of the patients seemed to be in a serious condition, but most of them could still bear it. At least for now, it seemed that their physical and mental conditions were still normal.. Some of them were still chatting, and little did they realize that their bodies might rot bit by bit in a few days.

 Chapter 1139 - New Plan

    Chapter 1139: New n


    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion


    Besnova worked as a nurse in the medical center. With her around, the yers�� movements in the hospital became more convenient. Besnova even helped them get the names of the patients in each ward.


    However, after that, another problem was ced in front of the yers.


    That was how to make contact with the target.


    Currently, the medical center��s wards were practically full. Every ward was filled with patients, and the corridors were filled with people.


    For a town of only 50,000 residents like Pripyat, the hospital itself did not have too many wards.


    This major ident at Chernobyl caused over a hundred patients to flood into the hospital at once, instantly putting the limited medical resources under great strain. Despite the hospital having already arranged for the normal patients to be sent to the two clinics in Pripyat, the situation didn��t look too optimistic. This was only the beginning. The fallout had already reached the town, and more sick patients woulde to see themter.


    There were already militia setting up a cordon in front of the hospital, blocking the families of the firefighters and power nt employees who had rushed over after hearing the news. Only Zhang Heng was among the yers, and Coconut had followed Besnova in.


    However, it was not easy to get Katarov out of the crowd.


    Of course, considering that the militia did not have any weapons and there was no armed force in the hospital, it was not impossible for the yers to rob people. However, themotion was definitely not a minor one. Kartarov, however, was only the first person on the list. Behind him were the shift leader, Alexander Akimov, and the advanced reactor control engineer, Leonid Toptonov.


    At this stage, the best solution was to pack them up and take them away. However, Akimov and Toptonov��s condition was much worse than Katarov��s. Their skin hadpletely turned dark brown, and they looked like they were in great pain, having no choice but to rely on powerful sedatives to alleviate their suffering.


    Zhang Heng did not know if the two of them would be able to withstand the pain. Furthermore, there was another problem with taking the three of them away. It would alert those who were behind the list but were not in the hospital. If the three of them were excluded, it would be even more difficult to investigate those not on the list.


    The best way was to have a conversation with the three of them at the hospital. They would try their best not to cause any trouble. The yers only wanted to know what had happened in the control roomst night, and who was responsible for the ident. However, even without asking Zhang Heng, he knew that the three of them would not cooperate obediently. After all, the yers were just uninvited guests who had suddenly appeared here. They did not even have any identities, so it would be strange if Katarov were willing to pay attention to these suspicious people.


    Therefore, he had to think of another way.


    Coconut and Besonova were waiting for Zhang Heng��s decision. At that moment, Akimov and another nt employee suddenly broke into an argument in the ward. Zhang Heng raised his eyebrows and asked Coconut, ��What are they arguing about?��


    ��Besnova said that they were arguing about the explosionst night. Sitnikov said that he had just checked all the ces, and the reactor was gone. There were graphite blocks all over the floor. Akimov said that he was mistaken. Sitnikov said that the experts would being soon, and they will find out.��


    ��Experts?��


    ��Yes, they did mention that word.��


    Zhang Heng thought about it and said, ��Got it. Let��s leave this ce for now.��


    .....


    After listening to Zhang Heng��s introduction of the situation in the hospital, all the yers realized the seriousness of the situation. They started to discuss the next step of the n in the car.


    Some people supported the idea of directly robbing people, while others suggested finding other targets first and putting the three at the end of the investigation. That way, they wouldn��t be afraid even if the situation got out of hand.


    ��I��m afraid we don��t have much time left,�� Zhang Heng said after everyone had finished speaking. ��We just received another piece of news at the Medical Center. Moscow��s Hospital No.6 has sent doctors here. They��re probably preparing to transfer the patients.��


    Although Pripyat Medical Center was thergest hospital beside the nuclear power nt, it hadn��t faced such a challenging situation since it was built. The doctors had previouslyined about theirck of inspection and treatment methods, and the hospital did not even have the equipment to check how much radiation everyone had been exposed to, so they had to call for help from the hospitals in Kiev and Moscow.


    When the doctors from those hospitals arrived, they would realize how serious the condition of the patients were, and they would definitely transfer them away.


    ��Let��s talk to Katarov and the others first,�� Zhang Heng said. ��I have a n. Maybe we don��t have to kidnap them from the hospital.��


    ��What n?��


    ��Moscow seems to have sent a team of experts to this ce.��


    Mouse was stunned. ��You mean you n to disguise yourself as part of that team?��


    ��That��s right,�� Zhang Heng said. ��We share a simr goal. We want to investigate what happened at the nuclear power nt. We can use their identities so that no one will suspect our actions.��


    ��This... will this work?��


    ��Let��s give it a try. Since we��re all Soviets in this dungeon, we��ll use force if we can��t do it,�� Zhang Heng said.


    ��But we don��t know Russian, so we can��t talk,�� the doctor said with a frown. ��We��re experts from Moscow, but we don��t speak Russian. No one will believe this, right?��


    Zhang Heng nced at Besnova. ��She can speak, and she can speak on our behalf. Also, I was outside the ward for a while. It��s very noisy there now, so as long as we keep a distance, they won��t hear us talking in private.��


    ��She��s just a nurse. How can she do such a thing? Besides, many people in the hospital know her.��


    The doctor was still skeptical about Besnova��s new identity.


    ��I can help her put on makeup and teach her some manners and words so that she appears capable of being an expert,�� Zhang Heng said. ��Besnova is talented and a quick learner. She��s a smart girl, so the only problem is...��


    Zhang Heng looked at Coconut. ��The rest of you can stay in the car, but you have to go. Only you canmunicate with Besnova and adjust your questions ordingly. This conversation will probably take a long time. Can you handle it?��


    Coconut nodded without hesitation. Even though her face looked terrible, she still said, ��I��m probably the person who��s most eager for this dungeon to end as soon as possible, so as long as I can leave this godforsaken ce a minute earlier, I��ll do anything you want me to do.��


    ��In that case, let��s go to the clothing store to buy some clothes and toiletries.. We��ll be back in an hour,�� Zhang Heng said.

 Chapter 1140 - The Experts

    <h4>Chapter 1140: The Experts</h4>


    An hourter, a ck Volga sedan stopped at the entrance of the medical center.


    Four people stepped out of the car, two men and two women, all looking very serious and wearing formal clothing. One of the men, in particr, had an expressionless face the entire time. Looking to be in his forties, the people who stared at him could not help but feel their hearts skip a beat. They lowered their heads, daring not to look him in the eye.


    It was evident that he usually held a lot of power at work, the reason he could develop such an autocratic temperament. Inparison, the three people around him looked much worse.


    One of them, in particr, wore sses and looked like a schr. Some even noticed that one of her legs could not help but tremble slightly. This poor girl appeared to have been ��bullied�� by that detestable boss many times along the way.


    The other two people were much more normal. However, one of the women wore a mask and did not look very well. She seemed to be feeling ill or something.


    The four of them attracted the attention of many people as soon as they got off the car. Saying nothing, they directly walked toward the medical center.


    In the end, the captain of the militia team in charge of the patrol hesitated for a moment, but he still extended his hand to stop the four people because he had received the order to not allow other unrted people to enter the hospital.


    The leader of the militia squad felt that he should still obey the order, but the middle-aged man who looked like a leader did not say a word. He only gave him a cold nce, and the leader immediately regretted his actions.


    Fortunately, the bespectacled girl who seemed to be easier to talk to stood up and said to him, ��We are the expert team from Moscow. We received an order to investigate the ident at the Chernobyl nuclear power nt. We are here to talk to the staff on duty that night.��


    ��A team of experts from Moscow? They came so quickly?�� The captain of the militia team was stunned. ording to the rules, he should check the documents of the four people next, but he saw that the girl wearing sses kept winking at him. At the same time, the middle-aged man, who looked very mean and challenging to get along with, showed an impatient look, as if trying hard to suppress the anger in his heart. Thus, the captain of the militia team finally gave in. He saluted and allowed the four people into the medical center.


    Besnova heaved a long sigh of relief. Although it was a brief confrontation, her heart almost jumped out of her chest. Fortunately, she managed to muddle through in the end. As long as she passed through the outermost defense line, naturally, no one in the hospital would dare stop them. Thus, the four fake experts swaggered their way into the inpatient department.


    However, when they entered the inpatient department, Besnova��s heart started to race again. She had been working here all this time, and all the doctors and nurses knew her. She was afraid that her identity would be exposed.


    After deceiving the captain of the militia unit downstairs, Besnova knew that she hadpletely fallen into the trap. If their identities were exposed now, she was afraid that she would be assigned to Zhang Heng��s group as well. Losing her job was certain, and she might even be sent to prison if unlucky. She certainly didn��t want to y the expert with Zhang Heng and Coconut if she had a choice.


    Unfortunately, from the moment she fell into the yers�� hands, she no longer had any freedom. She could only pinch her nose and ept Zhang Heng��s makeup. After that, she spent half an hour learning all kinds of posture and speech skills.


    Zhang Heng did not expect Besnova to be a genius overnight, so he arranged for her to be a nuclear physicist. She was more of a research-oriented person, so she shouldn��t be too exposed to the ways of the world. In addition to him and Coconut, a doctor was also present. Their doctor��s identity was a radiation specialist. This was the role he was most familiar with, so he wouldn��t be easily found out.


    After entering the hospital, Besnova felt a little nervous, but she quickly realized that her former colleagues couldn��t seem to confirm her appearance. She even deliberately walked around in front of her best friend, to which thetter had no reactions either.


    Meanwhile, the head nurseined, ��Where did Besnova and Daysa go? Weren��t they supposed to be on dutyst night? Why haven��t I seen them until now? The hospital is currently short of manpower. Can someone please call them back?��


    ��I think I saw Besonovae back. Perhaps something happened at home, and she left again,�� Besonova��s good friend exined in a low voice.


    Neither of them expected the person they were looking for had just walked past them. It was only then that Besnova realized just how good Zhang Heng��s makeup skills were.


    She knew which ward Katarov was in, but she didn��t forget her current identity. She coughed twice and asked the head nurse beside her, ��Are Anatoly Stepanovi?, Comrade Katarov, and Alexander Akimov Here?��


    ��You are?�� The head nurse looked at Besnova and felt that the person in front of her seemed a little familiar, but she could not tell how. She then looked at the serious-looking middle-aged man behind her and was also shocked.


    ��We are the team of experts from Moscow. We have received orders to investigate the ident at the Chernobyl nuclear power nt. We needed to talk to the staff on dutyst night,�� Besnova repeated what she had said to the captain of the militia team.


    ��They appear to be big shots from Moscow,�� the head nurse thought to herself. She received a call early in the morning and went back to work. She had heard the power nt staff that had been sent over talk about this matter before dawn. Therefore,pared to the militia team downstairs, she did not doubt the identity of the four people at all. She hurriedly said, ��Come with me, but some of them are not in good condition. You��d better be mentally prepared.��


    Even though the head nurse was a little afraid of the middle-aged leader, she mustered up her courage on the way to the ward. ��There are a bunch of good people inside. Really, some of them are my neighbors. Sometimes when I get off workte, his wife will ask my children to have dinner at their house. This ident is a tragedy, and no one wants it to happen, but fortunately, I heard that it has been controlled.��


    ��The expert group is here to investigate this matter. We will definitely find out the cause of the ident, and when the timees, we will naturally clear the name of an innocent person.�� Besnova tried hard to recall whatever Zhang Heng had told her with a straight face, as calmly as she could.


    Sure enough, the head nurse did not dare say anything else. She led them to a ward and knocked on the half-open door. ��Mr. Katarov, the group of experts is here to see you.��

 Chapter 1141 - Deputy Chief Engineer

    <h4>Chapter 1141: Deputy Chief Engineer</h4>


    A tall, thin man with grizzled hair sat on the third bed in the ward.


    He had his back to the door and was looking out the window at a pine tree. It was hard to tell what he was thinking, but when the head nurse called his name, he paused for a few seconds before slowly turning his head around.


    This was also the first time Zhang Heng had seen Katarov (he had only nced at him from the corridor outside the ward.) This was a name that would be inescapable once Chernobyl was mentioned in the future, with many news editorials regarding him as the first person responsible for the ident at the nuclear power nt. In those articles, he was described as an arrogant, greedy, and stupid leader.


    However, Zhang Heng could not see much from Katarov for the time being. The man in front of him had a well-defined face, deep-set eyes, and a dull gaze.


    Like his colleagues, Katarov had been exposed to high doses of radiation. His skin was red, and there were traces of vomit on the cor of his hospital gown. He looked at the five people who had entered the room without saying a word.


    The head nurse had no choice but to repeat, ��Mr. Katarov, the expert team is here to see you.��


    ��I heard that,�� the deputy chief engineer said.


    The room fell silent. Not long ago, everyone was talking about the expert group, but in the blink of an eye, the expert group had arrived in Pripyat. This also showed the significance that the higher-ups attributed to the ident.


    Everyone couldn��t help but worry.


    The atmosphere suddenly became a little weird.


    Besnova was the first to break the silence. ��I��m Dalia, an engineer from the Atomic Energy Alliance. Beside me are acute radiation specialist Evelyn, nuclear physicist Valijingna, and... senior assistant prosecutor, Mr. Sergey.��


    The doctor and Coconut nodded at Katarov as a greeting, but Zhang Heng did not move. He merely stared coldly at the deputy chief engineer in front of him, like a venomous snake staring at its prey before a hunt.


    That cold gaze made Katarov feel very ufortable, and his stomach sent a signal to his brain. He quickly picked up the trash can beside his bed and started vomiting again. Zhang Heng noticed Coconut trembling as well. Katarov��s actions had obviously made her sick, but fortunately, she overcame her physical difort with her will. She gritted her teeth and left the mask on her face.


    Katarov did not vomit anything either. His stomach had already been emptied several hours ago, and there was nothing left except gastric juice.


    Jartolov retched for a while and rinsed his mouth with saltwater. Then he raised his head again and said weakly, ��What do you want from me?��


    ��Everything you know about this ident, Comrade Katarov,�� Besnova said with a serious expression. After the initial nervousness, she gradually entered her own role. Zhang Heng was not wrong about her. This girl was indeed a very talented actor.


    She was initially a nurse at Pripyat Medical Center, and Katarov was the deputy chief engineer of the Chernobyl reactor units 3 and 4. He was also a big shot in the atomic city. Besnova would never dare to speak to him in such a tone.


    But now, she felt a strange feeling that she had never felt before. It was as if her hands were really in control of Katarov��s fate, and she knew that thetter also knew this.


    Perhaps because he knew that he had made a big mistake, that Katarov did not ask the expert group in front of him to show their identification, nor did he go to the chief engineer, Fuming, or the person in charge of the nuclear power nt, Bulihanov, to verify. Of course, more importantly, he did not expect that someone would impersonate the expert group. Courage was secondary. The main reason was that this method would not bring any benefits.


    As a result, Katarov nodded. ��Okay, I will tell everyone what I know.��


    Besnova turned to the head nurse.


    ��Find us a ce where we can talk.��


    ��Uhh, the hospital wards are all full now,�� the head nurse said awkwardly.


    ��Isn��t there still a dressing room for the nurses?��


    Besnova immediately regretted herst words. She had always worked here and was too familiar with this ce, especially after hearing the head nurse said she had thought of a solution. However, her current identity was Dahlia, an engineer of the Atomic Energy Alliance. Obviously, she wouldn��t be familiar with the dressing room of the medical center.


    As expected, the head nurse��s face revealed a strange expression. Nheless, she said nothing and led the group to the changing room.


    Before she left, Besnova said to Akimov and Toptonov, ��After you finish chatting with Mr. Katarov, it will be your turn. Therefore, better make use of this time to make some preparations in advance.��


    The on-duty foreman and the advanced reactor control engineer looked at each other. They could read the anxiety and worry in each other��s eyes.


    Three minutester, only Katarov and the four members of the ��expert group�� were left in the changing room.


    The doctor took out a tape recorder from the shopping mall and ced it on the table, pressing the recording button.


    On the other side, Besnova had already walked to the deputy chief engineer. She was in an exceptionally good condition now. She looked into Jartolov��s eyes and said in a gentle tone, ��Don��t be nervous, Comrade Katarov. We will start with a rtively simple question.��


    ��You are Anatole Stepanovi? Katarov, deputy chief engineer of the Chernobyl nuclear power nt��s reactor No.4, right?��


    ��That��s right. It��s me.�� Katarov appeared to be a little uneasy. He crossed his hands in front of his chest, and his voice sounded a little hoarse.


    ��Can you briefly exin how you came to be here?��


    ��Here, Chernobyl? Oh, I used to be in charge of a physicsboratory in the far east.�� Katarov sorted out his thoughts and continued, ��To study... the physical characteristics of the core of a small reactor.��


    ��Yes.��


    Besnova pretended to nod. In fact, she did not understand a single word about Katarov��s research, but that did not stop her from continuing to ask.


    ��So, is your work here going well?��


    ��Generally speaking, it is rtively smooth, although there have been some minor problems with the reactor before.��


    ��Such as?��


    Katarov hesitated for a moment but still said, ��In the previous report, we have actually mentioned that it is mainly about some leakage situations, most of which are in the drainage ditches and vents. The leakage of radioactive wastewater is about 50 cubic meters per hour. There are also some waste treatments. In addition, the main part of the cement structure of the nuclear power nt also needs to be strengthened. But as I said before, these are all minor problems.��

 Chapter 1142 - Katarov’s Memories

    <h4>Chapter 1142: Katarov��s Memories</h4>


    ��Let��s talk about what happened early this morning.��


    After a few questions, Besnova gradually shifted to the main topic.


    Katarov subconsciously looked at the three yers not far away. He could already tell that the expert group was led by the three people on the other side. They stood on the other side of the room as if ying the role of a jury, whispering to each other to exchange opinions from time to time. They spoke in a low voice, but there was a distance between the two sides, so he did not know what they were talking about.


    Thus, the deputy engineer could only look away and rewind his thoughts to a few hours ago.


    ��In the early morning of the 26th, we were conducting a safety test,�� Katarov recalled. ��You should be clear about the content of the experiment because in January today, factory director Breuhanov reported the test procedure to the Institute of Hydroelectric Engineering...��


    However, he was rudely interrupted by Besnova, ��Comrade Katarov, you just need to tell us the details in full uracy. As for what we already know and what we don��t know, you don��t have to worry. In addition, if possible, please exin clearly the principles involved. Dr. Evelyn also hopes to understand the incident.��


    ��Alright.��


    Although Katarov was a little puzzled by Besnova��s words and did not understand why the experts of acute radiation disease would want to listen to the analysis of the ident, he still agreed. He organized his thoughts and continued, ��In short, we were scheduled for a safety test. The original time was scheduled for April 25th, before the reactor was shut down for maintenance. As you know, the reactor needs to be shut for regr maintenance, and we could take the opportunity to do a straightforward safety experiment.


    ��Chernobyl uses a graphite-moderated boiling water reactor. Using the electricity generated, the water pump of the nuclear power nt can continuously pour cold water into the reactor, producing steam to drive the generator to generate electricity. At the same time, the high-temperature wastewater is carried away from the reactor to ensure that the core doesn��t melt down.


    ��I believe you can also see how important the water pump is in this process. We need to do everything possible to ensure the normal operations of the water pump.


    ��In an emergency, even if all the power in the nuclear power nt is cut off, we still have a backup diesel generator to power the pumps, but it takes a little while for the diesel generator to start, which means we have to keep the pumps running for a short period of time.��


    Katarov tried to be as detailed as possible to ensure that even ayman like Dr. Yevreem could understand.


    ��This safety experiment is to solve this problem. We are considering using the inertia of the steam turbine��when the power is cut off, steam is still being produced, and the turbine still runs. This can generate electricity... and borrowing this part of the electricity can help us get through the difficulties.


    ��At 1:00 p.m., we lowered the power of the No.4 reactor to 1,600 megawatts ording to the original n and shut down a steam turbine. At 2:00 p.m., we cut off the emergency core cooling system and the multiple forced cirction circuits and were ready to carry out the safety experiment designed by Chief Engineer Fomin. However, at this time, we received a call from Kiev, saying that there was an ident at a small power station there, and the power supply in Kiev was tight, so we were asked to postpone the shutdown of the reactor.


    ��What could I have done? I could only suspend the experiment.�� Katarov spread his hands, ��I also went home and slept for a few hours during this time. When I came back, it was already 11 p.m. And an hour ago, I received permission to continue reducing the power. For this, I contacted the on-duty foreman of the reactor at that time, Yuri lliekub, and Akimov, who would take over from him. I clearly told them to continue reducing power from 1,000 to 700 megawatts ording to the requirements of the experiment.


    ��After arranging the tasks, I left the control room and looked around to observe the situation before the power went out. Then, at 12:30, I returned to the control room. At that time, Akimov, Toptonov, Stoliarchok were in the control room. Tregov, who was supposed to be off work, was also there, along with a few other interns and someone else.


    ��I noticed that the power of the reactor had dropped to 30 megawatts, far below the 700 megawatts required for the test. I asked Akimov what was going on. He said that shutting down the local automatic control system and switching to manual control should solve this problem, so I approved him to continue increasing the power.


    ��After that, I left the control room again to observe the situation at the turbine. When I came back, the power of the reactor had risen to about 200 megawatts. We finally decided to conduct the test under this power. I called all the participants to give a briefing, then asked them to return to their posts to get ready.


    ��The safety experiment started at 1:23:04. Everything went smoothly, and all the operations were carried out ording to the regtions. I was busy studying the readings on the instruments, and I heard Akimov say he would shut down the reactor. With that, he reached out and pressed the emergency power reduction button. Not long after that, I heard the sound of an explosion.��


    ��What happened?�� Besnova asked.


    ��That��s what I want to know,�� Katarov said. ��After the explosion, I immediately left the control room to inspect the situation outside. In the end, I found that for some unknown reason, the emergency water tank of the protection and control system had exploded. That water tank was veryrge, 110 cubic meters. Such an explosion would have blown the roof off. If it were serious, it would blow up the entire reactor unit. Fortunately, the reactor below was still intact. I immediately ordered water to be injected into the reactor to keep the reactor stable. After that, I joined the rescue with the others.


    ��Around three o��clock, I received a call and went to the civil defense headquarters to report the ident to factory manager Bulihanov. Then, because I was not feeling well, I came to Pripyat Medical Center for treatment. That��s all I know.��


    ��The reactor was safe and sound. Are you sure, Comrade Katarov?��


    ��Yes, I am sure,�� the deputy chief engineer said with affirmation. ��I have been around the reactor since the ident.��


    ��What about the radiation?��


    ��Gorbachenko��s radiometer showed that the background radiation was 1,000 micro roentgen per second.��


    ��It doesn��t sound good.��


    ��Yes, there��s no doubt that there was a radiation leak, but fortunately, it��s still under control. We��ll get through it,�� Katarov said.


    ��Is that so? But as far as I know, 3.6 roentgen happens to be the upper limit of small-scale radiometers,�� Besnova said coldly. ��Why doesn��t the nuclear power nt have one of arger range?��


    Katarov was silent for a moment. ��Yes, there is one. We have a measuring instrument with a range of 1,000 roentgen, but it was locked in a safe and buried under the debris of the building. ��But the values shouldn��t be too far off. After all, it only blew up a water tank.��

 Chapter 1143 - The Reactor Burns Like A Furnace

    <h4>Chapter 1143: The Reactor Burns Like A Furnace</h4>


    The conversation with Katarovsted about half an hour.


    Besnova had done her best. Not only did she have to convey Kartarov��s words to Coconut with her mind, but she also had to ask him questions she received from Coconut. The trip was taxing, in particr, the many technical terms that confused her a lot. But in order to y her current role, she had to act as if she knew everything.


    That said, she had actually taken the opportunity to learn about the power generation principle of the nuclear power nt and some rted knowledge.


    As a person who lived in Pripyat, Besnova naturally knew that the existence of this city was inseparable from the nuclear power nt three kilometers away. After all, the first residents here were nuclear power nt construction workers, and their lives revolved around the construction and operation of the nt. Since then, we have long been ustomed to the existence of nuclear power nts.


    As for the safety of nuclear power nts, the vice-chairman of the National Nuclear Energy Utilization Commission N. Come in. That��s what Sinev said.


    ��a reactor is like a furnace, and the reactor operator is like a furnace driver.


    Therefore, ording to the understanding of Besnova and most of the regr folk, the Chernobyl nuclear power nt was simply arge furnace, not unlike other thermal power nts.


    The exploration and utilization of nuclear energy in both the Eastern and Western world were now decades old, and the technology had increasingly matured. The unfortunate nuclear ident not long ago on Three Mile Ind, Pennsylvania, notwithstanding, nuclear power nts were typically safe, especially in the Soviet Union itself. Besnova had hardly seen any reports of nuclear power nt idents before.


    The construction of nuclear power nts had progressed steadily, theirpletion greatly easing the electricity shortage everywhere in the Soviet Union. Just like the bulk of Soviets, Besonova was also proud of her country��s achievements in the use of nuclear energy.


    After listening to Katarov��s answer to the group of experts, however, Besnova realized that the nuclear power nt didn��t seem as safe as she had always imagined. At least, Chernobyl��s reactor wasn��t quite the same as a boiler, but although the steam turbines that generated electricity were all driven by steam, this was perhaps the onlymonality between the two.


    Fortunately, ording to Katarov, although the nuclear ident seemed quite serious, the final oue was not that bad. A water tank had been blown up, the roof was destroyed, and there was a radiation leak at the scene, but the dose was not toorge and was basically under control.


    However, the yers kept asking Katarov repeatedly if the reactor was really as intact as he said. Besnova also smelled something unusual.


    .....


    After interrogating Katarov, the yers did not immediately go to Asimov and Toptonov. Instead, they first exchanged opinions. The most important thing was to let Coconut take a breather. Thetter had already taken off her mask. She hugged the trash can and started to vomit.


    ��What do you think?�� the doctor asked.


    Of course, he was not asking Zhang Heng what he thought about the current situation at the Chernobyl nuclear power nt because everyone from 30 yearster knew that it was the reactor that had exploded in the early morning of April 26th and not some bullsh*t water tank. Furthermore, they had been there at the time and witnessed the tragic scene with their own eyes. They, too, had been exposed to lethal doses of radiation. Coconut��s had only scratched her hand a little, but the bleeding had not stoppedpletely. The situation was getting worse and worse.


    Zhang Heng thought about it, ��Katarov lied, that��s for sure, but for the time being, we still don��t know which parts of his story are true and which parts are fabricated. Let Coconut rest a while. After that, we��ll have a chat with Akimov and Toptonov. We canpare testimonies after we get them.��


    Unfortunately, now that the Vow Rings were being used on Besnova, Zhang Heng could only rely on observation andparison to detect lies.


    After a pause, he continued, ��We do have an advantage in investigating Chernobyl becausepared to the people of today, we already know the results in advance, and there are many analyses and spections in the future. However, we also have a disadvantage on our side. The biggest problem is that none of us are nuclear physicists or nuclear power nt designers.


    ��I also listened carefully to Katarov��s introduction just now, including the working principle of the graphite-moderated boiling water reactor and also this time��s safety test. Although I have a general understanding of what they were doing, this knowledge is far from enough for us to figure out what happened in the reactor at that time and the reason for the Chernobyl ident.��


    Coconut was almost done puking. She looked up and said weakly, ��We��ve talked to Katarov, but I haven��t received any system notifications. What about you?��


    ��Me neither.�� The doctor shook his head.


    ��Does that mean we can exclude Katarov?�� Coconut asked, ��At least it means that he is not the main person responsible for the ident. Although I don��t like him very much, that bastard always intentionally or unintentionally pulled himself out of the middle of the story. He was ��coincidentally�� not at the scene at several key points. Whether it was when the reactor power was rapidly decreasing or when he pressed the emergency power reduction buttonter, he was either outside inspecting the work or looking at the dashboard. But no matter what, the system did not react after talking to him.��


    ��It��s hard to say right now.��


    The doctor frowned, ��The description of the main mission this time is exceptionally simple. There��s only one sentence��find the key person. But whether it��s ��find�� or ��key person,�� there are actually many definitions, especially the word ��find.�� If we��re referring to our investigation identifying the main culprit, then the conversation just now was clearly not enough to achieve this. Because ording to Jartolov��s own description, his responsibility in the ident is not that great.��


    Coconut used her uninjured hand to punch a nearby locker. ��Call Akimov and Toptonov.��


    ��Are you sure? You��ve only rested less than five minutes. We still have time,�� Zhang Heng said.


    ��No. I��m fine.��


    ��Okay, if you really can��t take it anymore, we can stop the interview for now,�� the doctor said. Then he signaled for Besnova to call the next person in.


    A hint of worry shed across Besnova��s eyes. She didn��t know what the yers were talking about, but she could tell that the first conversation didn��t go as they had expected. In fact, the female nurse was a little lost at the moment. From the moment she was kidnapped, she had been trying to guess the identity of Zhang Heng��s group, but until now, she hadn��t the slightest clue.

 Chapter 1144 - Safe and Sound

    <h4>Chapter 1144: Safe and Sound</h4>


    At first, Besnova thought that the yers were bandits who had appeared out of nowhere. However, the other party didn��t rob any of her belongings, and although they secretly pry open the doors of several shops during the night, they only took some emergency change. Most of them were daily necessities that could be used, and they did not take too much either.


    In addition, they all looked Ukrainian or Russian, but strangely, none of them could speak thenguage. Besnova had initially thought that she could infer their identity from this.


    This was most likely a group of Americans or Europeans who lived in the Western world but had Russian and Ukrainian blood. They were specially selected to carry out secret espionage activities by infiltrating the Soviet Union. However, Besnova thought about it again, and the more this didn��t seem to make sense. How could a spy infiltrating an enemy country not learn theirnguage? What kind of infiltration was this? Moreover, this group of people didn��t speak English. She didn��t know which country��snguage it was.


    However, they were indeed particrly interested in the nuclear power nt. They even disguised themselves as experts to talk to its engineers. That being said, Besnova soon discovered that they didn��t seem to be interested in the technology of the nuclear power nt, but the ident that happenedst night. In other words, these people who pretended to be experts were indeed doing what the expert group in Moscow was supposed to do.


    Thus, Besnova waspletely confused. She had no idea where the yers came from. She even had the illusion that they were standing together with the residents of Pripyat.


    On the contrary, the nuclear power nt seemed to be hiding something.


    Although Besnova knew next to nothing about nuclear physics, she was a nurse in the medical center after all, and she knew a little about radiation sickness. Seeing that the yers had all been exposed to different doses of radiation, she recalled the scene when they first met. The yers had rushed into the ward wearing the clothes of the nuclear power nt staff.


    It happened to be shortly after the Chernobyl ident. Besnova remembered very clearly that because of the huge fire at the time of the explosion, the nurse on duty with her even pulled her to the window to look. They were guessing what happened to the nuclear power nt at that time, and not long after that, they were all captured by the yers.


    In other words, they were most likely at the scene when the nuclear power nt explodedst night. Did they discover something? Was that why they started to investigate? However, Besnova did not know what would happen even if they found out the results. She could tell that some of the yers were not in good condition. Although the doctors could provide some treatment, they basically only focused on alleviating pain.


    Coconut, in particr, was in an even worse condition than some of the nuclear power nt workers who were sent to the hospital. Right now, what she needed the most was to receive proper treatment, not forcing herself to carry out some investigation here.


    However, Besnova also knew that her words would not have any effect on the yers. She did not forget her current identity, that she was still a captive.


    Besnova followed Coconut��s request and called Akimov after Katarov. Akimov was the foreman on duty at reactor No.4st night. Aged 33, he wore sses and had a head of thick curly hair. He looked quite strong, but now he was extremely weak. His skin had beenpletely burned by the radiation and had turned dark brown. His face and hands, and even his tongue were swollen. Even speaking seemed a mighty chore.


    His radiation situation was much worse than Katarov��s because, ording to his own ount, after the ident, he had run with Toptonov to the reactor to try to restore the water supply.


    When he said this, he was interrupted by Besnova, who, as she had once confronted Jartlov, confronted the foreman on duty. ��Are you sure the reactor is still intact?��


    Akimov obviously hesitated. He began to tremble. At the same time, he kept repeating what he had been repeating when he first entered the room, ��Everything we did was right. We followed the rules in the operating manual. We didn��t make a mistake, really...��


    ��Calm down, Comrade Akimov. We are not here to hold you ountable, at least not now. We just want to know the specific situation of the reactor to provide a scientific basis for the next decision of the higher-ups. So, you just need to tell us what you saw.��


    ��I...�� Akimov opened his mouth. ��We experienced a serious radiation ident... but fortunately, the reactor is still safe and sound.��


    It took a lot of effort to say this, but he obviously felt better after saying it.


    ��What was the radiation value at that time?��


    ��1,000 microroentgens per second.�� Akimov adjusted the sses on his face. ��After the explosion, the most important thing was to inject water into the reactor to prevent the reactor from melting due to the high temperature. Therefore, we prepared to open the No.2 emergency water pump and began to inject water into the reactor ording to the request of chief engineer Fomin.


    ��However, because we lost the power supply, the gate valve could only be opened manually. So, Toptonov and I rotated the handle along the line. We spent a few hours opening the regting valves on the two branches, but for some reason, the reactor seemed to be leaking. At that time, we werepletely exhausted and were sent to the medical center by ambnce. Our recement was Smagin.��


    Akimov��s ount sounded as if it was full of guilt and self-me.


    Besnova could see that the man in front of her had be really upset about the trouble he��d caused, but he didn��t seem to know what he��d done wrong. He could only repeat that he didn��t do anything wrong. Everything was in ordance with the rules and so on to try to make her conscience feel better.


    At one point, Besnova didn��t even have the heart to ask any more questions. She continued to exert pressure on the poor man, forcing him to recall all the details of the incident. All she knew was that this wasn��t a matter she could decide��Zhang Heng and the others had no intention of interrupting or pausing the conversation at all.


    However, they did learn something. At least, from Akimov��s answer, they discovered something different from what Katarov said. For example, when the power went down, ording to Akimov, Katarov was also in the control room at the time. He was so angry that he scolded Toptunov. He then rampaged on a senior reactor control engineer before demanding that Toptunov increase the power, only to Toptunov��s refusal.


    Thus, Katarov brought up the safety regtions, saying that if the power levels dropped below 80%, it could only be increased after 24 hours. Now that the power was below 50%, nowhere in the safety regtions was it stated that the power couldn��t be increased immediately.

 Chapter 1145 - The Voice of Reason

    <h4>Chapter 1145: The Voice of Reason</h4>


    ��In order to counteract the leak, we have taken out some control rods one after another. The power of the reactor increased to 200 megawatts.��


    ��How many?��


    ��What?��


    ��How many control rods have you taken out?�� Besnova asked.


    ��I don��t remember very clearly. The specific operation waspleted by Toptunov.�� Akimov gulped hard. He looked very nervous, and his breathing was rapid as if he was about to drown.


    Besnova had to find a pack of cigarettes and lit one for him. Akimov took a puff and began to cough non-stop. The hand holding the cigarette was trembling. However, half a minuteter, he took two deep puffs, and his emotions calmed slightly.


    ��28. In the end, there are still 28 control rods left in the reactor. This is the bottom line stipted in the safety manual. The core needs at least 28 to 30 control rods to remain inserted during the fuelbustion process. We follow the safety manual to operate, so there should be 28 control rods left in the core at that time.��


    ��Okay, then let��s talk about the explosion.��


    ��Uh, okay.�� Akimov nodded. His eyes looked a little dull, but he still forced himself to recall the situation at that time, ��At 1:23, Toptunov first noticed the increase in reactor power. He told me that there was an energy surge, which meant that the nuclear fission reaction in the reactor had be very intense. Therefore, ording to safety regtions, I pressed the Level-5 emergency power reduction button, and all the control rods extracted previously were reinserted into the core of the reactor.


    ��Can you briefly exin the operation of the control rods to Dr. Yevreem?��


    ��Of course, the control rods are used to stop the fission reaction. They are made of boron, which canpletely absorb fixed neutrons. We can adjust the power of the reactor by adjusting the number of control rods in the reactor. ��When I press the level five emergency power reduction button, all 211 control rods will be inserted back into the core of the reactor, which will rapidly reduce the power of the reactor.��


    Akimov looked a little perturbed. He paused at this point and raised his head to look at Bensonova, ��Why are you asking this? The reactor is not damaged. What exploded was only the water tank. We did everything we could to continue supplying water to the reactor. Because of this, mypanions and I were also exposed to quite a bit of radiation. Don��t misunderstand. I��m not taking credit for myself. This is what we should do. I just thought, I just... I, I...��


    ��Calm down, Comrade Akimov.��


    Seeing that the shift leader��s entire face had turned red and he was beginning to speak incoherently, Besnova quicklyforted him. ��It��ll be fine. The fire has been controlled. We��re just doing a routine check, reporting to the higher-ups, and discussing the repair n. It won��t be long before you and your colleagues can go back to work, so you don��t have to be nervous. Take two puffs of smoke and slowly exhale. Yes, that��s right... that��s it. Alright, you can leave now. Our conversation has ended. Thank you for your cooperation, Comrade Akimov.��


    ��Thank you, thank you.�� Akimov looked relieved. He stood up from the stool and left the locker room with a hole-riddled body.


    After that, the yer spent another 15 minutes chatting with the operator that night, Toptunov. He was very young, only 26. He looked terrified and finished the conversation almost in tears.


    The contents of his story were basically the same as what Akimov had said. Toptunov had repeatedly sworn that all the operations were done ording to the safety manual. When it came to the part rted to Katarov, it was obvious that Toptuunov was a little afraid of the deputy chief engineer, so he had been vague about it.


    When Zhang Heng and the others left the hospital, it was already 10:30 am. They drove the Volga ��borrowed�� from DW��s office to meet up with the other four and shared the results of their trip to the hospital with them.


    Mouse��s eyes widened. ��Are they blind? Why are they still talking about the explosion of the water tank at this time? They are all experts in nuclear power nts! How could they be so Shameless?��


    ��People will lie to themselves when faced with unsolvable difficulties and responsibilities. Just like many people who run away from a hit-and-run, they know the consequences of doing so are very serious, but they still take the chance to gamble on that one-in-a-million chance. The same goes for the people at Chernobyl,�� Zhang Heng said lightly. As they talked, he could clearly sense the different degrees of entanglement in their hearts.


    It was especially true for Toptonov, the youngest among them. This young man was suffering all the time, even though they kept saying that the water tank had exploded and the reactor was safe. Apparently, only such an answer would make them feel better and relinquish their minds of the fear of the future, but somewhere in their hearts... a weak voice from science and reason was constantly reminding them of the real truth, the cruel reality that they refused to believe in.


    The doctor also added. ��Also, don��t forget that almost all of our current understanding of the dangers of a nuclear ident came from this Chernobyl incident. Before this, people couldn��t have imagined that such a serious ident would happen at a nuclear power nt. Most of these people didn��t even believe that the core would explode, even with all that graphite blocks everywhere.��


    ��This is an all-out disaster. We just passed by the school gate and saw a group of children carrying school bags. They were even buying food by the roadside.��


    The maintenance worker handed Zhang Heng and the others a bag of biscuits and a bottle of mineral water for breakfast. They no longer dared to eat outside, nor did they dare to eat any fresh ingredients. Only the puffed food that was isted from the packaging gave them a slight sense of security. Although it did not taste good, they would not be picky anymore at a time like this.


    Zhang Heng and the Doctor endured the difort in their stomachs and finished the biscuits. However, Coconut only took a few bites before she put it down. She had finished the bottle of water. Because she had vomited too much earlier, she was short of water and urgently needed to replenish some.


    Meanwhile, Master Kui didn��t care about the lives of the 50,000 residents in the town or whether they would be exposed to radiation. She frowned, ��So, you��ve asked the three people at the hospital, but they didn��t give us the missionpletion notice. Then, we��ll have to look for the person behind the list. Who Is it again?��


    ��Chief engineer Fomin and factory manager Bulihanov,�� the doctor said. ��ording to deputy chief engineer Katarov, when he left, Fomin and Bulihanov had already arrived at the administrative building No.1 of the nuclear power nt.��

 Chapter 1146 - Returning To The Nuclear Power Plant

    <h4>Chapter 1146: Returning To The Nuclear Power nt</h4>


    ��We��re going back to the nuclear power nt?�� Mouse��s expression changed slightly.


    ��There��s a distance between the administration building and the reactor, and we don��t have to go back all the way,�� Zhang Heng said. ��If you��re worried, I��ll go with Coconut and Besnova.��


    ��I��ll go this time too,�� Master Kui said. ��My health isn��t too bad either. Are you guys still going to pretend to be experts?��


    ��I��m afraid that won��t work this time. Fu Ming and Bulihanov are in contact with Moscow, so they might even have a list of experts. Furthermore, they��re not in the hospital, so they can check with Moscow at any time,�� Zhang Heng said. ��Fortunately, we��ve chatted with Katarov, Akimov, and Toptonov, so this time, we can be a little rougher.��


    ��Let��s go together, then.�� The doctor hesitated for a moment before saying, ��Let��s work together so we can take care of each other.��


    However, he didn��t expect Zhang Heng to shake his head. ��The nuclear power nt has been locked down, but I don��t want a direct confrontation with the town��s armed forces for the time being. After all, we don��t know how long everyone will be staying here. If possible, I want to sneak in, so it��s easier to move with fewer people.��


    Zhang Heng turned to look at Coconut. ��Your body...��


    ��My hand f*cking hurts.�� Coconut raised her injured hand. She had just changed the bandage, but when she tore off the old bandage, the skin on her hand peeled off along with it. Coconut was also surprised. When she saw this, she was still stunned. She didn��t seem to understand why her skin had peeled off so easily.


    ��But I��m still alive, so of course I can go to the nuclear power nt with you,�� she said as she reached out her hand to the repairman.


    Thetter raised his eyebrows. ��What?��


    ��When we were in the supermarket, I saw you steal two bottles of vodka from the shelf,�� Coconut said, ��Let me have a sip.��


    ��This is not something a woman should drink. Are you sure you want to drink it?�� the repairman muttered skeptically.


    ��Be straightforward. Don��t be so wishy-washy. I��ve already been exposed to radiation. Why would I be afraid of a mouthful of vodka?�� Coconut scolded.


    ��Alright.�� The maintenance man took out a bottle of vodka from his bag. ��The Doctor said that you have nuclear mania in your nervous system. I won��t lower myself to a patient��s level. I��ll give you this bottle. I won��t dare to drink it even if your mouth touches the bottle��s mouth.��


    ��Don��t worry. If we don��tplete the main mission, everyone will die. It��s just a matter of time,�� Coconut said lightly. ��If you dieter, it simply means that you��ll be suffering more than I am.��


    ��...��


    ��Then it��ll just be the four of us this time,�� Zhang Heng said. ��You can send us to the vicinity of the nuclear power nt. We��ll set up a time and ce, and you can pick us upter.��


    Mouse sighed with a worried look on his face. ��Sigh, I wonder when we��ll be able toplete the mission and leave this godforsaken ce.��


    The maintenance worker drove the jeep back to the nuclear power nt. The bad start at the medical center made everyone realize that the main mission this time was not as simple as it seemed. So far, they had not received any hints. Everything came from their own fumbling, and they did not even know if they were heading in the right direction. It was as frustrating as the radioactive cloud not far away.


    Especially when it came to the background of this game, the yers felt that they were powerful but unable to use it. They had experienced more than one round of the game, and they had encountered all kinds of opponents, but none of the challenges had made them as powerless as they were now. They could not even find a target to retaliate. It waspletely one-sided.


    The maintenance workers drove the jeep carefully away from the disturbing cloud, but the residents of the town clearly did not think so. Children rode their bikes from there, all the way to the small bridge near the Yanov train station. From there, one could clearly see the destroyed reactor. Of course, the radiation in that ce was also terrifyingly high.


    There were also people who deliberately moved a rubber mat on the roof and stretched their limbs to lie on it. Under the radioactive cloud, they looked at their skin getting suntanned bit by bit and were probably quite satisfied. After all, the effect of the sun today wasparable to a month��s worth of sunbathing. And they didn��t even have to spend any money.


    After the initial shock, the yers had gradually be numb to this scene. They were used to it. Not too long ago, Zhang Heng saw a few people fishing by the river at the hospital. In real history, one of themter appeared on the cover of a foreign magazine and became famous throughout Europe.


    In his own words,


    ��If you are ignorant, then curiosity will only get you into trouble, especially when you have no sense of responsibility.


    At that moment in Pripyat, it was true that very few people, out of their ignorance or theckadaisical official response, realized what had happened, and those who had relevant knowledge were terrified. For some reason, they simply didn��t want to believe what their eyes saw.


    Considering that there was still action to be taken, Coconut only drank a few mouthfuls of vodka to slightly ease the pain on her hands and mouth. Then, she closed her eyes and leaned against the back of the chair. There was not a single grain in her stomach now, but she still felt incredibly nauseous. To make matters worse, the metallic smell had already drifted from the nuclear power nt to the town. Fortunately, the yers had already injected potassium iodide.


    The maintenance workers drove the jeep back to the nuclear power nt with ease. However, the nuclear power nt was very different from when they left. The militia had set up a cordon and did not allow outsiders to enter, but they still behaved amicably. However, when they were asked what had happened, they said that they did not know and were waiting for notification from their superiors.


    The firefighters had also finished their work and left, but most of them were sent to the hospital. The maintenance workers drove the jeep around the nuclear power nt and noticed that the security at the no.5 reactor, which was under construction, was rtivelyx.


    A group of workers stayed there. They had arrived early in the morning and noticed that there was something wrong with the no.4 reactor. They didn��t continue with the construction, but no one seemed to have informed them to leave, so they just stood there, discussing something.


    Zhang Heng brought Coconut and Besnova out of the car and asked Coconut, ��What are they talking about?��


    ��How bad is the radiation situation? How long can they work here? In addition, they want a higher reward aspensation for working in such a dangerous environment,�� Besnova said truthfully.

 Chapter 1147 - Radiation Levels Are Off the Charts

    <h4>Chapter 1147: Radiation Levels Are Off the Charts</h4>


    Zhang Heng had the three women wait by the side of the road. He sneaked into the side room while the workers gathered to discuss what to do next.


    This was where the construction workers usually took their lunch breaks. Currently, there were only three people in the room. One was the chef and his assistant, and the other was sleeping soundly on the table. Zhang Heng lowered his body and under the cover of the dining table, quietly slipped into the room to take a few sets of work clothes from the wire bed. He changed into a set first. During this time, he even heardints from the chef. Then, he heard footsteps approaching the room.


    Zhang Heng quickly looked around and finally rolled under a wire bed by the door.


    Through the gap between the bed��s board and the floor, he saw a pair of boots walk in from outside the door. Judging from the style of the boots, it should be the assistant. He came in and mumbled something before walking out again. Just as he left, Zhang Heng rolled out from under the bed.


    During the whole process, he had perfectly controlled the strength of his body. With the help of Kries��s Heart, and even though the distance between the two was less than half a meter, the worker didn��t realize that there was someone behind him. Zhang Heng even nced at the thing in his hand. It was a box of mints.


    The chef took it from the worker and opened the box as he continued toin. He grabbed a handful of mints and threw them into his mouth to soothe his throat.


    Five minutester, Zhang Heng returned to the three women with his work clothes. Master Kui raised his eyebrows. ��I now believe that you��re really the number one Simon on the leaderboard.��


    On the other side, Besnova had witnessed how Zhang Heng had managed to sneak into the building under the watchful eyes of a group of workers. He then came out with his clothes in his arms. The workers looked as if they had gone blind,pletely unaware of his existence. Besnova had no idea how Zhang Heng managed to do it. When she recalled how he had read her mind, she began to believe that Zhang Heng must be the devil himself.


    However, Zhang Heng did not seem to feel anything. It was as if he had done something insignificant. He told the three of them, ��Change your clothes. We��re going to meet Fu Ming and Bulihanov.��


    After going through the Roman dungeon, Zhang Heng��s assassin skill had reached Lv.3. This level of stealth was no longer a problem for him.


    In reality, if they had still been wearing their white clothes when they first entered the dungeon, it would have been easier to disguise themselves as workers from the nuclear power nt. However, considering the radiation sufferedst night, the yers had already thrown those clothes away. Now, they could only settle for the second-best and change into the construction worker��s clothes.


    After the three women changed, Zhang Heng and the others passed through reactor No.5 that was still under construction. They climbed over the guardrail by the roadside and entered the nuclear power nt.


    ��Where is the No.1 Administrative Building?�� Master Kui frowned.


    ��Find someone and ask. Just say that we��re the worker representatives and we��re here to ask if the construction of reactor No.5 is still going on,�� Zhang Heng said to Coconut.


    Thetter nodded andmunicated with Besnova through Whispers. However, before the group could find anyone, they saw a figure walking toward them from afar. A tall and strong man, the muscles on his body and the movements of his hands and feet showed he once served in the military.


    He opened his mouth from a long distance and said with a serious expression, ��You shouldn��t be here. Leave now!��


    ��Sir, we are the construction workers of reactor number five. We are here to see nt manager Bulihanov to ask if our work is still going on as usual.��


    ��Since when did reactor number five have female workers?�� the person frowned.


    ��Uhh... actually, we are the management staff of the construction site,�� Besnova appeared a little flustered and stuttered.


    Fortunately, the person who came did not dwell on this point. He just waved his hand to chase the four away. ��I don��t care where youe from, just leave this ce as soon as possible. The further the better.��


    He waved the equipment in his hand and said with a straight face, ��I am S.S. Vorobyov, the director of the Civil Defense Department of the Nuclear Power nt. I have just measured the radiation value of the nuclear power nt. The radiation here is very strong. In many ces, it has exceeded 250 roentgen.��


    ��250 roentgen?�� Besnova was surprised. ��Didn��t you say that the measuring limit of the instrument is only 3.6 roentgen?��


    ��That��s a normal measuring instrument.�� Vorobyov looked very angry. ��They still have a measuring instrument with a range of 1,000 roentgen, but it��s buried under the ruins. The one in my hand is from the Civil Defense Department, and it has a measuring range of 250 roentgen.��


    ��That��s great. Did you tell the others about this result?��


    ��I reported it to Bulihanov, but he said that my instrument had a malfunction, so it��s impossible for it to have such a high radiation value. He also asked me to throw the equipment into the garbage.�� Vorobyov shook his head, ��He and Fomin have both lost their minds. The situation here is very critical. You should leave immediately.��


    ��But we haven��t received the order. The workers are still waiting at the construction site,�� Besnova pretended to insist.


    ��Then get them to go home together. The current radiation level is not suitable for outdoor work. I��m nning to go to the DW��s office. I have to warn the others.�� Vorobyov disyed the inherent integrity of a soldier.


    ��But this job is very important to us. I still hope to meet with factory director Bulihanov before I leave,�� Besnova pleaded.


    ��You guys are really...�� Vorobyov was a little speechless, but in the end, the director of the Civil Defense Department still gave in. ��Alright, I��ll take you to Bulihanov. I know that the radiation at the nuclear power nt is rtively low now, so you will get less exposure if you follow me. But remember, once you meet Bulihanov, call your people immediately, and no matter what he says, leave the nuclear power nt.��


    It could be seen that Vorobyov was already starting to distrust nt manager Bulihanov. The conversation between the two parties must have been unpleasant, and this was not surprising. With Vorobyov��s headstrong and stern personality, he was clearly more willing to believe the readings his eyes saw.


    Everyone carefully passed through the two buildings in front of them. The explosions spewed fuel and graphite everywhere, not only on the ground, but also on the roof. In addition, they had also caused a few small fires elsewhere. Fortunately, the workers of the nuclear power nt put them out immediately. The yers now knew what the ck objects on the ground were.


    It was the graphite that wrapped the fuel rods. If they were close enough, they could even see the grooves or the holes in the middle of the fuel rods. Without exception, these graphite blocks were quite very radioactive. ording to Vorobyov, if you got close enough, the meter would go off the charts.

 Chapter 1148 - The Death Journey of a Nuclear Physicist

    <h4>Chapter 1148: The Death Journey of a Nuclear Physicist</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    Wolobiyov also noticed that among the strange group of workers, only Besnova kept talking to her. The others had been silent or whispered from a distance.


    If it were any other time, Vorobiyov would have been suspicious of the identities of the four of them, but now his mind was not on it. He did not have the time to care about the origins of the four on the team. All he could think about was how to solve this matter quickly. After that, he went to the DW office to warn the others that Pripyat might have already been exposed to radiation, and the people in the town might not even know anything about it.


    When Vorobiyov thought of this, he too became angry. Bouluhanov was simply lying through his teeth, turning a blind eye to the numbers on the radiation meter. For the factory director to do this, it was better not to have any at all.


    The five of them were preupied, so they did not talk much on the way.


    The director of the Civil Defense Department brought the four of them to the front of administrative building No..1 and said, ��Burhanov is in the underground bunker of the administrative building. Go down the stairs directly, and you will find him soon.��


    Vorobiyov��s words meant that he intended to break up with the four of them here. It seemed that he did not want to see Burhanov��s face again.


    At that time, a figure staggered out of the administrative building.


    The person��s skin was red, and he was apanied by a violent cough. It was obvious that he had just been exposed to high doses of radiation. However,pared to his physical condition, the worse thing was the state his mind was in. He looked very absent-minded, and when he walked to the front of the steps, his legs went soft, and he sat directly on them. At the same time, he muttered, ��It��s over, it��s all over.��


    ��Anatoly!�� Warlow Biyov recognized the person and said in surprise, ��Why are you here?��


    Hearing this, Anatoly raised his head. His eyes seemed to be a little hesitant. Then, after a moment, he recognized the person in front of him and squeezed out a smile that was uglier than a cry. ��Warlow Biyov, are you still here?��


    ��Yes, I just measured the radiation values in various ces again and recorded it down to prepare to go to the DW office to warn the people in town. You look very ufortable. Did Something Happen?��


    Anatoly sighed, ��Sigh, you reported the radiation meter explosion to Breuhanov and warned him that there was a serious nuclear ident and that the reactor was leaking radiation, but Breuhanov didn��t believe it, so he found me after that. He told me that he wanted me to be one of the most experienced physicists in the nuclear power nt. Moreover, I��m the Deputy Chief Engineer of the first phase of the construction project. I��m considered a neutral outsider in this ident. He asked me to climb to the roof of area V to see what was going on in the central hall.��


    ��You promised him?�� Vorobiyov was shocked. ��The radiation near the reactor is too high. I can��t get close to it. Just a little closer, and the meter won��t stop buzzing.��


    ��I can��t refuse. After all, he is the nt manager, and most importantly, I want to know what happened and whether there are any problems with our current response n,�� Anatoly said. ��I passed through the unit and went to the central hall. I knew that the reactor was doomed. But to further prove this point, I climbed up to the roof of area V ording to Breuhanov��s request. I saw that the reactor��s lid had been blown open by the explosion. It probably flew over the roof and smashed down the concrete wall.


    ��Only half of the reactor is still covered. The reactor is still burning down there, and the nuclear fission reaction is still happening. Vorobiyov, my bones can feel it,�� Anatoly smiled bitterly, ��It��s the scariest thing I��ve seen. I saw graphite everywhere on the roof. The graphite came from the reactor core. It��s not a water tank, but the core of the reactor exploded!��


    ��Did you tell Breuhanov what you saw?��


    ��Of course, I told him everything I saw, but he was very angry. He just... refused to believe that the core had been destroyed. He and Fomin were still getting people to fill the reactor with water, but from what I saw, all the low-level watermunication lines had been blown off. In order to restore the water supply, Akimov, Toptonov, and the others worked down there for a few hours. Their courage wasmendable, but unfortunately, the water flowed into the undergroundpartment, flooding the cable room and the high-voltage switchgear. Instead of fixing things, it might have just caused the other three reactors to lose power as well.��


    ��Brekhanov and Fomin are no longer reliable. We should inform the others immediately,�� Vorobiyov said seriously.


    ��Baldasarov has already shut down reactor No.3. Although Fomin did not allow him to do so, he shut it down anyway when he noticed that the water level in the degassing tank getting lower. Fomin is probably furious about this, but he will thank Baldasarov one day. If Baldasarov had not shut down reactor No.3, its core would��ve melted down by now.��


    As Anatoly spoke, he coughed violently again. ��It��s so ufortable. I feel like my lungs are on fire. Vorobiyov, I don��t think I can survive this.��


    ��Hang in there, buddy. I��ll take you to the medical center now.�� Vorobiyov no longer cared about Zhang Heng and the others. He stepped forward and helped Anatoly up, letting thetter lean on his shoulder. They then walked quickly toward the parking lot.


    The yers looked at each other. Even though they had more or less realized that Breuhanov and Fomin were suspected of negligence, this was still beyond everyone��s expectations, in particr, the fact that Breuhanov had sent his top nuclear physicist to investigate the reactor with his life. However, once the results were different from what he had imagined, he refused to believe the facts before him.


    On the other hand, Vorobiyov and Anatoly��s words shocked Besnova even more. Even though Zhang Heng had told her that the reactor had exploded when they first met, she did not know nuclear physics at that time, so she had no idea how serious the situation was.


    As she came into contact with more and more nuclear power nt workers, from Katarov to Anatoly, her understanding of the reactor grew deeper and deeper. However, it was still far from beingparable to those nuclear physicists. Nevertheless, it was also because of this that she understood what she was facing now.


    This was a catastrophe of apocalyptic proportions!


    And now she was following the yers, trying to piece together the cause of this disaster like a jigsaw puzzle.

 Chapter 1149 - Bryuhanov

    <h4>Chapter 1149: Bryuhanov</h4>


    After Vorobyov and Anatoly left, Zhang Heng and the other two walked into administration building No.1.


    Compared to the usual, the administration building looked a little deserted, especially the part on the ground. There were almost no souls left.


    The underground bunker, on the other hand, was still quite busy. Due to the radiation, many people who worked there had moved to this ce. Besnova pulled a passing woman who looked like a secretary and asked her where Bouluhanov and Fomin were.


    ��There are two offices at the end of the corridor. One is for Chief Engineer Fomin, and the other is for factory manager Bryuhanov.�� The woman who looked like a secretary adjusted the sses on her face and sized up the four of them. She asked, puzzled, ��Who are you?��


    ��We��re from the constructionpany. We��re asking when reactor No.5 can start work.�� Besonova had beenpletely corrupted by the yers, not blushing the least even though she was lying through her teeth.


    ��Then I��ll help you ask.�� The woman who looked like a secretary turned around and walked to Bryuhanov��s door. However, before she knocked on the door, she heard a voiceing from inside. Bryuhanov seemed to be talking to someone.


    His posture was very low, and his voice sounded like he was trying to curry favor, ��Okay, I got it. Don��t worry. The situation is not serious. We are supplying water to the reactor. Currently, the number of deaths caused by the ident is two. I know, I��m definitely responsible...��


    After saying this, Bulihanov paused. ��And the thing I said earlier, just in case, you see...�� However, before he could finish his words, he was interrupted by the other party. After that, he heard Bryuhanov repeatedly say yes.


    The atmosphere in the corridor was a little awkward.


    The woman who looked like a secretary waited until the call ended. Then, she stood outside the door for about half a minute before she knocked on the door.


    ��Come in.��


    ��Factory manager, the workers�� representative from reactor No.5 is here to see you... he wants to ask if the project on your side is still going on?��


    ��Didn��t I tell their supervisor to wait for the news? We can��t be sure yet.�� Bryuhanov sounded very tired. He had rushed to the nuclear power nt right after the explosion, first calling the Secretary of the Central Nuclear Energy Department, Marlin, who was still at home. Then he reported the news to the Ministry of Energy and Electricity. He was also the one who had contacted the Ukrainian side.


    Not only was he looking for people, but people from different departments were also looking for him after the explosion. They asked him what exactly happened and Bryuhanov had no choice but to exin to appease them again and again. Thus, he hadn��t caught a wink of sleep until now... he didn��t even have time to eat breakfast. He was in a terrible mood, and he really didn��t have the energy to care about the workers at reactor No.5 anymore.


    However, as soon as he finished speaking, he heard a scream from his female subordinate.


    ��Factory manager Bryuhanov hasn��t let you in yet.��


    However, no one paid attention to her. Zhang Heng and the others had already squeezed past her, and Master Kui was at the back. After entering, he even closed the door behind him.


    ��What are you guys trying to do?�� Bryuhanov was stunned.


    Behind the desk was a short man with curly hair. He looked quite smooth, and his skin was slightly tanned. There were many wrinkles on his face, probably due to his dizziness from the morning, and it wasn��t until Grandpa Kui gave him a sinister smile that he realized something was wrong. He picked up the phone next to him and prepared to call the nuclear power nt security. However, he didn��t expect his head to be pressed against the table first.


    Zhang Heng stuck the knife he had gotten from the shop in front of Bryuhanov��s face, less than a centimeter away from his eyes.


    The secretary-like woman wanted to scream when she saw this, but the next moment, her mouth was covered by Master Kui. She attempted to struggle, only to be warned quickly by Kui. ��If you value your life, don��t move.��


    ��Who exactly are you people?�� Bryuhanov looked at the knife that was about to cut open his eyelids and asked in fear.


    ��Tell him that we just want to ask him a few questions. After that, we��ll check with chief engineer Fomin, so he��d better be honest. Or else...��


    Zhang Heng reached out to grab the knife on the table again and cut off a part of Bryuhanov��s finger.


    Bryuhanov��s eyes widened in disbelief. He could not believe that he had be a disabled person so quickly. The pain from his broken finger made him want to scream, but at least he had not lost his mind. Seeing Zhang Heng cing the bloody knife against his throat, he swallowed the pain.


    Then, Besnova tranted Zhang Heng��s message to Bryuhanov.


    The bridge of Bulihanov��s nose was starting to sweat from the pain. He only looked at his severed finger. He couldn��t even hear what Besnova was saying.


    Coconut took out a pack of gauze from her pocket and tossed it to Bryuhanov. Thetter quickly wrapped it around his bleeding severed finger. Then, he raised his head and looked at Zhang Heng��s group once more.


    He now knew that the other party hade with ill intentions. The ferocity of this group of people was beyond his imagination.


    In that short span of time, many guesses shed through Bryuhanov��s mind. Most of them were rted to the origins of the four people. He even thought of a certain secret department, but he could not understand why Chernobyl was worth the trip.


    ��Who were you on the phone with?�� Besnova asked.


    ��Ah, ohh... I was on the phone with Shelbina, the vice-chairman of the Soviet Council of Ministers,�� said Bulihanov. ��In fact, he called me to ask about the current situation of the nuclear power nt.��


    ��What did you tell him?��


    ��I just told him the truth,�� said Bulihanov. ��The water tank exploded, and we have been supplying water to the reactor ording to the instructions from above. Chief engineer Fomin is in charge of this work. If you don��t believe me, you can ask him.��


    ��You��re lying!�� This time, before Coconut could pass the question to Besnova, thetter exploded first. ��The reactor is finished! Didn��t Vorobyov tell you the readings of the measuring instrument? and Anatoly, who was sent to his death by you, was sent to the roof ording to your orders. Why don��t you want to believe it?!


    ��You are the director of the nuclear power nt. Shouldn��t you do something?


    ��Your wife and children are also in Pripyat Town, right? Do you want to see them being exposed to radiation with your own eyes?!��


    ��What can I do?!�� Bulihanov looked sad. ��I just proposed to Shelbina to evacuate the residents of Pripyat, but he rejected me. He told me not to cause panic.��

 Chapter 1150 - Life-Saving Straw

    <h4>Chapter 1150: Life-Saving Straw</h4>


    ��Did you tell him the real situation here? Did you tell him what the explosion of reactor No.4 reactor means?�� Besnova asked.


    ��The explosion of the reactor? That��s impossible. Nothing like this has ever happened before. The reactor is not an atomic bomb. How could it explode?�� Boulihanov shook his head.


    ��Then how do you exin the graphite fragments on the ground?��


    ��I don��t know. There is still some graphite in storage at the iplete Reactor No.5. Maybe it came from there,�� Boulihanov quibbled.


    ��Then why did you suggest to Shelbina that he should evacuate the residents of Pripyat?�� Besnova continued coldly, ��Is it because of a voice in your heart telling you that it wasn��t the water tank that exploded but the reactor itself? You don��t believe your own nonsense, do you?��


    ��I asked Dyatlov and the shift leader Akimov that night. They told me that it was the water tank that exploded, and the radiation was 3.6 roentgen. I��ve confirmed with them again and again that they are all experienced engineers in the power nt. When it came to such times, I needed to trust my subordinates. After that, I called Moscow. The higher-ups told us to continue pouring water into the reactor, and we have been doing that ever since.��


    Bryukhanov looked very aggrieved. ��I called Moscow every hour to report the reactor��s situation. Fomin was also trying to find water to pour into the reactor. Then, suddenly, Vorobyov came to me and told me that the radiation was over 250 roentgen. Now, who do you want me to believe? My men? Or the cold instrument in Vorobiyov��s hands?


    ��If you��ve been working in my line long enough, you��ll know that machines break down from time to time. That��s why we hired experienced engineers.��


    ��F*ck your experienced engineers!�� Besnova didn��t resist her urge to swear. ��Didn��t you send Anatoly to his death? He��s also an experienced engineer, so why didn��t you listen to him?��


    ��I...��


    Bulihanov was speechless.


    While Besnova was asking questions, Zhang Heng was also observing Bryukhanov coldly. Like Katarov and Akimov, Bryukhanov��s heart was obviously suffering. His rationality had already detected what had happened at the nuclear power nt, but he refused to admit it.


    In particr, it was too difficult for that man to reverse what he had just said a few hours ago, in front of his boss. He simplycked the courage to do so.


    It wasn��t as if there hadn��t been some minor ident at the previous nuclear power nt. Because it was not too serious, Bulihanov��s suppressed the issue using some little tricks of his own. This had made his resume very beautiful, and he had been working hard recently. He wanted to go further. Thus his heart was more inclined to trust what Katarov and Akimov said.


    He keptforting himself in his heart. It was just that the water tank had exploded. Although he drove around the reactor once and saw the terrible situation there, Katarov and Akimov��s exnation was like a life-saving straw to him. Once he grabbed it, he could not let go anymore.


    He could only repeat the original lie over and over again until he waspletely overwhelmed by it.


    When he realized that the radiation was more serious than he had imagined, he finally summoned up his courage and proposed to Moscow that they should evacuate Pripyat. This was also probably the only useful thing he did amid the lengthy time after the explosion.


    Shelbina, however, rejected him. With the reactor intact and the radiation under control, the state wasn��t willing to evacuate Pripyat. In his view, this was fabricating nuclear panic, not to mention that this stab in the Soviets�� push for nuclear energy was likely to trigger public resistance to it. The energy n that had been previously drawn up would probably have to be put on hold for a while.


    This was also the reason why Shelbina had rejected the evacuation proposal from Bryukhanov. However, even after receiving the ��whitewashed�� report from Bryukhanov, Moscow still immediately set up an ident investigationmittee.


    ��Ask him about the group of experts,�� Zhang Heng said to Coconut.


    ��The first group of experts boarded the ne at 9 am. I just received news that they have already arrived at the Kiev Airport and are rushing to Chernobyl. The leader is the chief engineer of the Atomic Energy Alliance, B.Yaprussens. Other than that, there is also the vice-chairman of the foundation, Ignajenko, the vice-president of the Hydroelectric Engineering Research Institute, V.S.Kowitz. The reactor design and the Atomic Energy Research Institute have also sent people. There are also some other people.�� Bryukhanov was very honest on this matter.


    After a pause, he continued, ��The second group is of a higher rank. Among them are senior assistant prosecutors, civil defense ministers, chemical warfare forcemanders, and several other ministers and academicians. Their ne will take off in half an hour. But I have received news that it is not easy to contact them during the weekend, and the takeoff time may be dyed. ��It��s said that Shelbina will fly over after he��s done with work.��


    ��Then, how are you going to exin all this to them?�� Besnova sneered.


    ��Enough.�� Zhang Heng Interrupted Besnova. After realizing that the team of experts would arrive at any moment, he didn��t want to waste any more time.


    Zhang Heng didn��t forget that their goal was to investigate the cause of the nuclear power nt explosion. He could understand Besnova��s anger at the fact that Bryukhanov had concealed the truth. She was a true-blue Pripyat resident and lived in that beautiful town. Her friends and loved ones all resided there, and now, just because of Bryukhanov��s refusal to believe the truth, these people were exposed to deadly radiation.


    However, this was not a problem that the yers were concerned about. Compared to the disaster Bryukhanov had condemned Pripyat and the nuclear power nt workers to, Zhang Heng was more concerned about his role in the explosion.


    ��Ask him how much he knows about the safety experiment,�� Zhang Heng said to Coconut.


    Thetter nodded, and after a moment, Basonova spoke again.


    Bulihanov hesitated for a moment, ��The safety test was designed by chief engineer Fomin. I��m actually not too sure about the specific steps, and I just briefly understood what the experiment was about. We wanted to simte an emergency power cut and use the inertia of the steam turbine to power the pump. We��ve done this test before, but it didn��t seed. It didn��t cause any danger, though, and since Chief Engineer Fomin felt that the conditions were right, he wanted to try again. I swear I didn��t know it would turn out like this, or I would have stopped the test before it even started.��

 Chapter 1151 - The Elimination Method

    <h4>Chapter 1151: The Elimination Method</h4>


    ��You don��t know why the explosion happened?�� Besnova demanded.


    ��I told you that the safety test was designed by Chief Engineer Fomin. I��m only responsible for submitting its procedure to the Institute of Hydropower Engineering and the Nuclear Safety Committee,�� Breuhanov said as he nced at Zhang Heng. He appeared very nervous, haunted by thoughts that Zhang Heng would cut off another of his fingers if he was unsatisfied with his answer.


    ��What did the Institute of Hydropower Engineering and the Nuclear Energy Safety Committee reply to you?��


    ��I didn��t receive any reply from them.��


    Seeing that Besnova was about to get angry again, Breuhanov hurriedly added, ��You can��t me me for that! They��re very busy... I don��t know how long they��ll have to wait for the reply, and the reactor is about to be shut down for maintenance. If we miss this time, we��ll have to wait until the next cycle before we can carry out the test. We��ve done this several times before, and we haven��t encountered any problems.��


    After Breuhanov finished, he saw Zhang Heng, Master Kui, and Coconut whispering to each other. They even nced at him from time to time, which gave him goosebumps. Thus, he took the initiative to plead. ��I know I��ve made a mistake, so I��ll go back to Moscow with you. I only hope that you��ll let me say goodbye to my family.��


    ��Who��s taking you to Moscow?�� Angered by Breuhanov��s words, Besnovaughed.


    However, after that, her expression changed and she said to Breuhanov with a straight face, ��The cause of the ident has not been found out yet. We will not go back. Don��t mention to anyone else that we came to look for you, understand?��


    ��Understood. Understood.�� Breuhanov nodded repeatedly.


    ��The others I��m talking about also include the expert group and themittee members after that.��


    ��Of course.�� Buruhanov almost patted his chest.


    ��Your secretary?��


    ��I��ll take care of it. I��ll make sure she keeps her mouth shut.��


    ��Your finger?��


    ��I was too worried about the ident at the nuclear power nt, so I cut myself while cutting an apple.�� Clearly, Bryuhanov understood. However, his excuse was too ridiculous, and Besnova was speechless.


    After that, Zhang Heng left Master Kui behind to look after Bryuhanov, and he took Besnova and Coconut to look for Fomin, who was next door.


    Unlike Bryuhanov, the tactful and worldly-looking factory manager, Fomin possessed a square face, sharp corners, deep eyes, and a pleasant voice. Sounding a baritone singer, he was clearly usually very efficient in his work.


    But now, he was the first person in the nuclear power nt to copse. Zhang Heng and the others could hear him shouting, ��Where else can I find water?! Where else can I find water?��


    Apparently, the chief engineer was having a headache over how to carry out the orders of the higher-ups to continue supplying water to the reactor, even though there was no longer a need for water there.


    Zhang Heng and the others said nothing. They pushed the door open and walked in. After that, Fomin received the same treatment as Bryuhanov, and he was pressed on the table by Zhang Heng.


    So far, the yers had already talked to the four people on the list, but they still hadn��t received any system notifications, so only Fomin was left at the top of the list.


    ording to Dyatlov, Bryuhanov, and the others, the safety experiment that triggered the reactor explosion was designed by Fomin, so he was obviously responsible. Fomin must have realized this, which was why he had be so stressed.


    Like Bryuhanov, he insisted on blowing up the water tank instead of the reactor, because only then could he possibly survive the current crisis.


    Thus, he spent most of the morning figuring out how to fill the reactor with water. After the water in the spare water tank was used up, he even contacted the fire department and asked them to bring more water over with fire trucks.


    Zhang Heng and the others returned to the nuclear power nt. Although they were led by Vorobyov, they were still exposed to some radiation along the way. Normally, it wouldn��t be that serious, but because they were already at the scene of the explosion, and now had absorbed a good amount of radiation at close range, Coconut didn��t look too good either. After entering Fomin��s office, she threw up in the trash can for a while.


    However, when she raised her head and looked at Fomin, her eyes were filled with hope. Fomin felt his hair stand on end under her gaze. He didn��t understand why this strange woman was looking at him like she was her savior.


    The chief engineer had no idea what to do with the current situation. Furthermore, his mental pressure had reached a critical point. As long as Zhang Heng exerted a little pressure on him, he wouldn��t even need to do anything before exining everything honestly.


    However, after a round of questioning, Fomin repeatedly stated that he didn��t understand why the explosion had happened. He insisted that there was nothing wrong with the design of his test. Even after Zhang Heng stabbed the knife into Fomin��s thigh and he wailed in pain, he still couldn��t figure out what went wrong with the safety test. He only med everything on the two who were on dutyst night.


    In the end, Zhang Heng only released his grip when he realized that he could not ask any more questions. By then, Fomin waspletely paralyzed on the table. Snot and tears were streaming down his face.


    On the other side, Coconut looked exhausted. She sat on the sofa in her office and covered her face with her hands. No one knew what she was thinking.


    The office fell into a strange silence.


    Coconut spent a full six to seven minutes to barely suppress the disappointment in her heart. She opened her mouth again. ��Did we just ask all the people we can ask but still fail toplete the main mission? What should we do next? Who else should we look for, the designer of the nuclear power nt? What should we do if he doesn��t have any effect? Have we been heading in the wrong direction from the start?��


    Coconut��s tone was filled with frustration and entirely devoid of faith. As the names on the list were removed one by one, the remaining ones were either not easy to find, or the ones who seemed to have less responsibility. Coconut��s mood became more and more irritable. She was the most exposed among the yers, and if nothing went wrong, she had the least amount of game time left. She could even feel an invisible hand slowly strangling her neck harder by the second.


    ��I can console you that our mission is almostplete, but you��re also a yer, so you should know very well that we��re still in the investigation stage. We can��t rule out other possibilities, so we can only choose the most likely path and go down to take a look,�� Zhang Heng said. ��We can��t get any more clues from the nuclear power nt. Let��s go and meet up with the others first. Tell them about the situation here, and then we��ll discuss what to do next.��

 Chapter 1152 - The Next Step

    Chapter 1152: The Next Step


    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion


    It was already 12:20 p.m. when the yers regrouped.


    Almost 11 hours had passed since the explosion, and Zhang Heng had already questioned everyone involved in the ident at the nuclear power nt. He finally understood why Pripyat had waited for more than 30 hours to organize an evacuation, but the main mission that the yers were most concerned about still seemed a little silent.


    It wasn��t just Coconut. The other yers couldn��t help but mutter to themselves.


    ��We��ve already seen Dyatlov, Akimov, Toptunov, Bryuhanov, and Fomin, but none of them triggered the main missionpletion prompt. Could it be that the explosion really had nothing to do with them?�� Mouse asked as he raised his finger.


    ��There��s definitely something wrong with Fomin and Bryuhanov,�� Zhang Heng said. ��They started the safety experiment without obtaining the approval, something Bryuhanov had said himself.. It��s hard to tell about the others, but the two leaders definitely won��t be escaping.��


    He had just finished changing his clothes and threw the work clothes he had worn to the nuclear power nt into the dustbin at the side.


    The doctor also added, ��The main mission this time is to find the key people, but actually, it didn��t say how many there were. Previously, we misunderstood and felt that we should find the person with the greatest responsibility. But could it be possible that we actually need to find all the parties involved in this ident in order toplete the mission?��


    ��If that��s the case, then we��re in big trouble.�� Master Kui frowned. ��We don��t even have an exact number of people, so how do we know if someone is missing? We don��t even know how many we��ve found or how many we��re missing.��


    ��Who else is on the list?�� the maintenance man asked.


    ��Uh, the designer of the nuclear power nt, or more urately, the designer of the graphite-moderated boiling water reactor. But the problem is we don��t know who he is, and he doesn��t look like he in Pripyat either,�� Mouse said.


    He seemed a little flustered now. Previously, everyone expressed their opinions and worked together to perfect the list of suspects. However, in reality, they focussed most of their attention on the first few names on the list. Never had they thought that things would develop to this stage.


    As the first names were eliminated one by one, the remaining names were all unlikely, and finding them would be very troublesome.


    Under normal circumstances, it would have been fine. At most, everyone would do a little investigation. However, what the yers in this dungeoncked the most was time.


    Although the yers were still in an okay condition, Coconut notwithstanding, ording to the doctor, this was probably a temporary illusion. They were beside the reactor when it exploded, so they must have absorbed a lot of radiation. The radiation had destroyed their DNA, causing the cells to be unable to continue to replicate usually. Once these cellsplete their life cycle, what awaited them next would be death.


    And in the doctor��s words, that was probably the most painful and cruel death of all known methods.


    ��What should we do? Are we going to Moscow next?�� the young man asked. ��But when we arrive in Moscow, where should we start looking?��


    ��I asked Bryuhanov. The Chernobyl Nuclear Power nt was designed by the Institute of Hydroelectric Engineering. The first group of experts after the explosion included people from the Institute of Hydroelectric Engineering. The deputy director of Nuclear Power nt Safety, V. S. Kowitz, was the one who came,�� Zhang Heng said. ��He should know who designed the RBMK.��


    ��That��s great,�� Mouse sighed.


    All the yers heaved a sigh of relief. It was not that they did not want to go to Moscow. In fact, considering Pripyat��s current radiation situation, no one wanted to stay here any longer. However, based on past gaming experience, main storyline quests rarely required crossing cities toplete. Moreover, it was easy to leave Pripyat. When that time arrived, it would not be so easy to return.


    In another 20 hours, after Moscow realized what had happened in Chernobyl, the militarypletely overtook the ce. Everyone living there would be forcibly evacuated, and it was bound to be an empty city.


    In fact, everyone had already seen the empty buses entering Pripyat one after another in the morning. The roads near the nuclear power nt were also guarded by the militia. In addition, militia groups from other ces were gathering at the Yanov station.


    It might sound hard to believe.


    Apparently, after the ident at Chernobyl, the first people to realize the danger were not experts led by Bryuhanov and Fomin, but Pripyat militia, who first took over the site from the fire brigade. They then began to block the road to the nuclear power nt, especially the favorite fishing sites.


    They even set up a temporary emergencymand center, quickly mobilized under the leadership of the Deputy Minister of the Interior, Hennadii Vasilievich Berdov, which was why when the evacuation decision was made, it was carried out so quickly.


    Berdov arrived at the scene of the explosion around 5 a.m. By 7, 1,000 people from the Ministry of Interior had already arrived at the location of the ident. Berdov then contacted the transport department in Kiev, asking them to provide 1,100 vehicles for possible evacuationter.


    Unfortunately, although the deputy minister smelled danger, he still did not know how dangerous the invisible opponent he was facing was. Thus, the 1,000 internal affairs militia present, like the firemen, did not take any protective measures. They were exposed to a great deal of radiation for a long time. Still, because they guarded the dangerous area, the danger was significantly reduced, or rather, greatly reducing the risk of others entering the nuclear power nt. Of course, this also caused some trouble for the yers in their search for Fomin and Bryuhanov.


    Ultimately, after receiving the news that the reactor was safe and sound from Fomin and Bryuhanov, Pripyat��s DW Office did not issue an evacuation order. They even refuted the rumors that first secretary A. S. Kamanyuk was still waiting for the decision from the higher-ups.


    However, the condition in the hospital couldn��t be hidden. In the morning, people were still rtively optimistic and went to work and school as usual, but as noon arrived, more and more people felt unwell. As they coughed away, rumors and gossip of all manner began to spread.


    When Zhang Heng and the other two came out of the nuclear power nt, they could see that the pedestrians on the road back to Pripyat had obviously be serious and worried. Some had even left Pripyat without waiting for official notice, by themselves or by train.

 Chapter 1153 - Hope

    Chapter 1153: Hope


    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion


    No matter what, the yers finally had a n of action for the next step.


    The reality was, no matter what kind of disaster, hope was humanity��s most advantageous weapon.


    After finding a new direction, everyone, including Coconut, temporarily calmed down. Then, everyone began to discuss how to get close to Kovitz.


    ording to Bryuhanov, the expert group had arrived in Kiev an hour and a half ago. Factoring in the time on the road, they should have reached Pripyat by now. However, they did not know how they got there. Did they take a train, a car, or a ship?


    Moreover, they did not know where they would go after they arrived and how their schedule for the day should be arranged. The yers, however, knew where the expert group would be staying at night��the Pripyat Hotel, which was the only hotel in town. With a pleasant environment and good service, it was usually employed to receive tourists from all over the world.


    .


    Besnova was certain that if the expert group stayed in Pripyat, they would definitely stay in that hotel.


    ��This will save us a lot of trouble. We can just wait at the hotel,�� Kui said. ��When the timees, we can let Besnova take a look at which room Kovitz is in. If we��re lucky, we won��t even have to alert the others.��


    Her suggestion was also agreed upon by all the yers. Hence, the maintenance crew started to drive toward the Pripyat Hotel. Everyone seemed to have regained their energy.


    However, Zhang Heng knew very well that this energy was only temporary. Once he received an unsatisfactory answer from Kovitz, Coconut and many people��s emotions would probably be crushed.


    Unlike the people of this era, Zhang Heng and his group of yers were very clear about the horrors of nuclear radiation.


    In a sense, mankind��s true understanding of the crisis actually came from the disaster. Perhaps only an intuitive incident as such could attract everyone��s attention and vignce.


    The Chernobyl ident was like a heavy punch into everyone��s stomachs, not only the ordinary people who knew nothing about nuclear physics but even the engineers and workers who worked at the nuclear power nt. Before this, thanks to their 30 odd years�� smooth path of nuclear utilization,cency and paralysis somewhat took over everyone. Thus, when disaster really struck, many people lost their sense of danger.


    This was also an important reason why, in the eyes of many people in the future, people seemed to be a little slow in dealing with this matter. To put it bluntly, both Soviets or the United States had never dealt with a situation where a reactor core exploded. So until now, 11 hours after the explosion, multitudes of people werepletely oblivious to the enormity of the situation they were faced with.


    .....


    Just as the yers rushed to the hotel, on the other side, the group of experts from Moscow had finally arrived from Kiev by car. Some headed directly to the nuclear power nt, where they spoke to Bryuhanov and Fomin in the bunker to understand the situation, while others headed to the Ministry of Internal Affairs to find an MI-6 helicopter. They also found a photography agency and binocrs, intending to fly above the reactor to see what was going on.


    When the helicopter approached the reactor, they werepletely stunned by the scene below.


    The original position of the reactor was nowpletely in ruins. The drum separator had long left the ce where it was supposed to be, and even the pipes below had been ripped out. The gathering pipes stretched out from the external wall of the auxiliary system, proudly pointing to the sky. Crushed stones and ck graphite were strewn everywhere, and the reactor core was glowing with a blue luster. The air was also filled with a strong metallic smell.


    The amazing thing was that in this terrible mess, the water tank of the emergency control system that Bryuhanov and Fomin had reported didn��t seem to have suffered much damage. The wall that it was on was still standing there.


    The experts on the ne were also a little dumbfounded. The situation at the scene was far too different from the information they had received. On the way here, they were already thinking about how to repair the damaged part of the reactor as quickly as they could, reconnecting the reactor to the grid to generate electricity.


    But now, even the most optimistic person would not think that reactor No.4 reactor could continue generating electricity.


    The experts led the helicopter in a hover over the right side of the reactor before asking the cameraman to capture the scene under their feet. Everyone��s heart and eyes were beating wildly.


    Even without a measuring instrument, they could sense how powerful the radiation was, especially when they looked at the ruins of the reactor. They could see the deep red color below. Those on the helicopter instantly knew what that meant, but they said nothing because the prospects of that would be simply too horrifying.


    It would condemn not only the Chernobyl nuclear power nt to its doom but also the 50,000 residents of Pripyat. Ukraine, Brus, and even further would be affected. In fact, they were only flying near the reactor, and they were exposed to an insane amount of radiation. Only because they were responsible for the investigation did the experts not let the helicopternd immediately.


    However, when they saw Bryuhanov and Fomin in the bunker, they did not expect them to still continue clenching their teeth, insisting that the water tank had exploded and that the reactor was safe and sound.


    Bryuhanov and Fomin had already figured out that they had no way out, no matter how much they tried to shun responsibility for the reactor exploding. As the main person in charge of the nuclear power nt, they could not escape responsibility, and the only way to survive now was to drag the experts sent by themittee down with them. Then, they would figure out how to cover up this big lie.


    The experts who had seen the reactor were speechless. They looked at Bryuhanov and Fomin with a hint of sympathy, thinking that the two of them must��ve gonepletely crazy.


    However, after all, the first group was only responsible for investigating the ident and a solution. They did not have the right to directlymand and issue orders, even though everyone who saw the situation of the reactor felt that they should immediately evacuate the nearby residents.


    However, they still waited for the members of the identmittee to arrive on the second ne, especially Boris Yevdojimovic Scherbina, the vice-chairman of the Council of Ministers. He also happened to be the first person to be in charge of handling the Chernobyl ident this time.


    He had been promoting the construction of nuclear energy in Second World War for all these years. Previously, Bryuhanov had proposed that he should evacuate the residents of Pripyat, but he had rejected it without hesitation. Having arrived in Pripyat around nine at night, he rushed to the meeting room without taking a breather.


    ��How��s the situation?�� Scherbina rubbed his sore thigh and sat on a chair in the conference room.


    ��It��s awful. The reactor has beenpletely destroyed. I propose that we should evacuate the residents of Pripyat immediately,�� Marlin, the person in charge of the Soviet special investigationmission said with a solemn voice.

 Chapter 1154 - The Grand Pripyat Hotel

    <h4>Chapter 1154: The Grand Pripyat Hotel</h4>


    At the Grand Pripyat Hotel, the yers had already arrived before the identmittee.


    As usual, Besonova arranged a room with the front desk.


    Master Kui and Besnova shared a room, mainly so thetter could be supervised. The doctor shared a room with Mouse, Zhang Heng shared a room with the maintenance man, and thest two were Coconut and the young man.


    However, after the young man received the key, he pulled the repairman to a corner. After half a minute, the key in his hand had been changed to a room with Zhang Heng.


    At the same time, Zhang Heng also received his own key. At the same time, the system notification rang in his ears.


    [Ding! Sessfully checked into the Pripyat Hotel. Game points: +3. Please check the relevant information on the character panel...]


    Even though the atmosphere in the dungeon was tense, the game points were still hidden and distributed as usual.


    Zhang Heng looked around. Other than the server and the server who were busy changing keys, the others�� expressions also changed. They had obviously received the system notification.


    Furthermore, most of the yers were already used to the method of obtaining points. Previously, they had witnessed the explosion of the Chernobyl nuclear power nt but hadn��t received any points. Now, they had just randomly checked into a room and received 3 points.


    Zhang Heng��s gaze turned around and finallynded on the young man in the uniform. Thetter strolled quickly towards him.


    ��Idol.�� The young man waved the key in his hand and said excitedly, ��We can live together now.��


    ��How did you convince the maintenance worker to exchange rooms with you?��


    ��I promised to pay him 1 point when I get out.��


    ��40,000 yuan just to share a room with me?�� Zhang Heng raised his eyebrows.


    ��My family is doing well. I have two office buildings for rent, so this amount of money is nothing,�� the young man said nonchntly. ��You haven��t seen those little girls who chase after celebrities outside. In supporting their favorite traffic celebrities, they even bought goods worth hundreds of thousands of yuan. If 40,000 yuan was enough for them to stay with their idol for a night, they would definitely fight over it.��


    ��Unfortunately, I��m not a celebrity,�� Zhang Heng said.


    ��The name Simon is enough to overshadow all celebrities in the yer world. And I��m not the only one paying attention to you, my idol.�� The youth in uniform blinked and then looked around, lowering his voice, ��Before this dungeon, I just received a piece of gossip. February Siege, leader of the Arc of Light guild, is also secretly investigating you. It��s said that he has also mobilizedrge funds within the guild. I wonder what he��s up to.��


    ��Hmm...�� Zhang Heng frowned.


    He did not expect February Siege to target him as well. Previously, he had some friction with one of the three big guilds, Arc of Light, because of Shen Xixi, but he did not reveal his identity. This time, February Siege paid attention to him, most likely because of this proxy war. Speaking of which, the person who suffered the most losses on the rankings was probably Arc of Light. Although initially, they had sessfully dominated the rankings, who would have thought that in the end, it would be him and Beta that would��ve to ruin it.


    However, if February Siege wanted to kill him because of such a thing, it would seem like they were making too much of a fuss. Therefore, Zhang Heng could not guess what Arc of Light was thinking. However, he still nodded as a gesture of thanks to the youth who provided him with the information.


    Thetter patted his chest. ��It��s no big deal. I have long disliked those guys from the three major guilds on the forums. If I find out that their people are up to something, I will definitely inform you immediately. So, you see... my idol, should we add each other on WeChat or QQ so we can contact each other more easily?�� The youth rubbed his hands in glee.


    ��I��m sorry, I don��t like to be disturbed,�� Zhang Heng bluntly rejected. ��If you want to find me, you can send me a private message on the forum. My ID is Saturn V.��


    ��Roger that. All experts have their own personalities.�� The young man gave him a thumbs-up as if he knew what he was talking about. Initially, he did not have much hope of getting Zhang Heng��s phone number or QQ. The only reason he asked was so that he could y a few games first. He was already very satisfied with Zhang Heng��s Forum ID. This meant that he could look at Simon��s posts and replies in silence.


    ��I often hang out on the forum, so I��m very well-informed,�� the youth added. ��I can see many posts that were deleted not long after they were posted. If you want to know anything, you cane to me.��


    ��Okay, okay.��


    .....


    After the yers received the keys to their room, they did not rush upstairs but first assigned the order of duty.


    Of course, they would not forget the purpose of staying here. They needed to know when the experts from themittee woulde to the hotel. However, this job did not require too many people. They only needed to leave one person in the lobby to watch the door while the rest could go back to their rooms and wait.


    Thus, everyone arranged a shift. Everyone stayed downstairs for two hours, and after that, the next person was reced. Taking into ount Coconut��s current condition, the yers removed her from the duty roster.


    The first person to stay on duty was the maintenance worker. After that, the rest of the group took the elevator to the sixth floor, where the guest rooms were, and returned to their respective rooms.


    The yers had been in a hurry since the moment they entered the dungeon. Previously, they wanted to escape the Chernobyl Nuclear Power nt that had an ident as quickly as they could. Then, in an attempt to quicklyplete the main mission and investigate the cause of the ident, they had been running around for more than ten hours. Only now did they have some time to rest.


    At least, before Kovitz arrived at the hotel, they had nothing else to do but wait.


    Before leaving the elevator, the doctor reminded the yers to stay alert and open the windows. They had to be careful of the radiation outside. Then, the yers separated in the corridor. The young man found the room where Zhang Heng and Kovitz stayed and inserted the key into the keyhole.


    When he opened the door, he saw a spacious guest room.


    Although the furniture was old and looked like it was from the 1980s or 1990s, everything looked fresh and new. Just like Pripyat, the hotel hadn��t been built for long and had only just opened for business; however, the facilities were perfect, and the environment was beautiful. This also reflected the ambitions of Pripyat��s builders and managers.


    Not only did they aspire for Pripyat to be an atomic city, but they also wanted it to be a famous tourist attraction. Therge amusement park had been built early on, and the second hotel had been approved and was about to start construction. If not for the sudden nuclear ident, this beautiful town might be just crowded with tourists in many years.

 Chapter 1155 - Speculation

    <h4>Chapter 1155: Spection</h4>


    As soon as the young man entered the room, he tossed the bag in his hand onto the sofa. He walked over to the wine rack and grabbed a bottle of vodka and two wine sses.


    ��Would you like to try some authentic Soviet vodka?��


    ��No,�� Zhang Heng said as he walked over to the window. He first checked if it was closed before picking a shaded spot near the door and moved a chair to sit there.


    On the other side, the young man had already poured half a ss of vodka for himself. He took a sip andmended, ��Yes, it simply tastes perfect. Even though I��ve never tasted authentic vodka before, I don��t know what authentic vodka tastes like. Are you sure you don��t want a ss, my idol? At least you can be disinfected. After all, ording to the doctor, the cells in our bodies have probably be abnormal.��


    ��Vodka can��t cure your radiation sickness,�� Zhang Heng said calmly.


    ��Alright, it��s just a Soviet joke.�� The uniformed youth scratched his head. He could see that Zhang Heng didn��t seem to have any interest in chatting now, so he didn��t bother him anymore and returned to enjoying the vodka he had just got.


    Having calmed down, Zhang Heng finally had the chance to check his character interface.


    Name: Zhang Heng


    Gender: Male


    Age: 20


    yer number: 07958


    Number of rounds yed: 9


    Current game points: 216


    Items: Sheath (B), Infinite building blocks (B), Pestilence Bone Bow (B), Earthly Scales (C), Heart of Kreis (D), Filter Lens (D), Parris�� Arrow (D), Lucky Rabbit��s Foot (E), Oath Rings (F), Pinball Soda (F)


    Skills: Knife Lv. 4, Sailing Lv. 3, Shooting Lv. 3, Assassin Lv. 3, Lego Assembly Lv. 3, Language proficiency Lv. 2 (Ninenguages at dailymunication standard), Archery Lv. 2, Field Survival Lv. 2, Driving skills Lv. 2, Modification and Maintenance Lv. 2, Aerospace Lv. 2, Geek Lv. 2, Criminal Investigation Lv. 2, Make-Up Lv. 2, Cowboy Lv. 2, Piano Lv. 1, Skiing Lv. 1, Rock Climbing Lv. 1, Herbbalogy Lv. 1


    Evaluation: this yer has inherited part of Shadow Power, is proficient in ninenguages, and possesses incredible knife skills. As an opponent, you would not want him to touch any knife in battle. He is also a Lego master and a spear expert, an assassin lurking in the shadows, a cowboy with superb skills, excellent detective and camouge abilities, and possesses slightly better luck than ordinary people and a higher chance of encountering enemies. He is the emissary of gue, armed with fierce des, has excellent sailing experience, is proficient at bows and arrows, can drive cars, fly airnes, spacecraft, and other vehicles, and adapts well to wild environments. He has a rich reserve of skills, keeps promises, and bursts with fantastic strength at critical moments. In addition, he is also a pinball soda fan. All in all, he is a nearly perfect yer.


    This time, Zhang Heng slightly adjusted the item he carried with him in the dungeon. Death Illusion had been used by Fan Meinan not long ago, and in its ce was the new Earthly Scale that he had obtained. Other than its practical effects, this item��s biggest advantage was that it did not take up any space and was directly hidden inside his body. Other than that, Zhang Heng also brought along Pinball Soda.


    In addition, after going through thest round of the dungeon, his skills had also undergone some changes. Although hisnguage proficiency was still at level 2, it had increased to ninenguages. This meant that the Finnish he had been studying before had also reached the level of dailymunication. His Lego assembly skill had also been upgraded from level 2 to 3.


    It was a significant upgrade, of course. This was because the skill had been stuck at level 2 for quite some time, and even though Zhang Heng didn��t delve into it intentionally after leaving the Lego dungeon, he still managed to achieve a breakthrough in the bodyguard dungeon because he had used it many times.


    This was the fifth level 3 skill he was possessing. The evaluation that followed had also been updated ordingly. Zhang Heng was already familiar with the previous content, where thement of the pinball soda fan at the back was probably because he brought along the corresponding item. The focus was actually on thest half of the sentence.


    This was also a summary of the character. Before this, Zhang Heng��s description was stated as ��rarely seen among yers�� and had not been updated much. It was only until this dungeon that this half of the sentence finally changed, to ��almost perfect gamer.��


    Zhang Heng wondered if there were other yers who had received such ament.


    On the other side, the young man in the uniform was silent for a while before he could not help but ask, ��Idol, what are you thinking about?��


    ��I��m thinking about who the god behind this dungeon is,�� Zhang Heng replied.


    The young man nodded. ��Indeed. There has been a saying among the yers that there is a god behind every dungeon. They will set up obstacles in the dungeon to screen out the agents that fit their needs. This dungeon is rted to Chernobyl, which means... the god of disaster is behind it? Or the god of nuclear energy, if there is such a thing. Hmm... is there any meaning in finding out the owner of this dungeon?��


    ��Most of the time, there is no meaning to it,�� Zhang Heng said. ��But we don��t have any other clues at the moment. I��m just saying, don��t take it to heart.��


    ��How can you not take it to heart? You��re Simon, the number one yer among yers. You��ve cleared many dungeons by yourself. If it were anyone else, it would be fine, but you definitely wouldn��t be shooting off your mouth. Did you find something?��


    The youth in uniform seemed interested.


    ��No, any investigation will start with a lot of assumptions. Most of these assumptions will be quickly eliminated as the investigation progresses,�� Zhang Heng said. ��Don��t think too highly of me. The information I have now is basically the same as yours.��


    ��You��re being too modest, idol,�� the young man in the uniform said unhappily. ��Two games and you��re already number one on the leaderboard. I don��t know who else can do it other than you. Unlike the others, I��ve always believed that you can help us clear this dungeon.��


    ��Yeah, maybe I��m overthinking things. After all, this is just a normal dungeon, so the difficulty shouldn��t be that high. When we find Kovitz, we should be able to recreate the nuclear ident. Hopefully, we will sessfullyplete the main storyline mission by then,�� Zhang Heng said. ��I��ll take a nap first. I��ll probably be busy at night.��


    ��Hurry up and go to sleep, my idol. Don��t worry, I��ll wake you up if anything happens.��


    The youth raised the wine ss in his hand. Since he was going to be the maintenance man��s next shift and couldn��t rest immediately, he volunteered to be the rm.

 Chapter 1156 - An Unexpected Situation

    <h4>Chapter 1156: An Unexpected Situation</h4>


    Zhang Heng slept until around 8 pm. The sky outside the window had darkened, and the traffic on the street downstairs had also increased significantly. Almost all of the cars were heading out of the city. Forming a long line, the road waspletely choked, not to mention the steady stream of cars joining in along the way.


    Although there was no official evacuation announcement, more and more people chose to leave Pripyat. In fact, the school had already announced the suspension of sses in the afternoon, and students were required to stay indoors. However, the hotel had just sent people to check room by room, and all hotel services, including the restaurant, were not affected.


    However, the seven yers did not dare to eat the freshly baked bread and sausages. Even though they looked delicious, Zhang Heng and the others still chose to eat canned food in the packaging. They only used the hotel��s kettle to boil two bottles of mineral water to drink.


    8:40 pm.


    Zhang Heng took over from the previous doctor on duty and sat in the lobby of the Pripyat Hotel. He took out a newspaper, but in reality, he observed the peopleing in and out of the door.


    ording to the hotel receptionist, the current Pripyat Hotel was at more than half of its upancy rate. Guests mainly came for travel and business, including a small number of foreign guests who came to admire the modern atomic city.


    It could be seen that the guests were also worried about the current situation. Some were already considering whether to leave early, but some decided to stay.


    At around 10:15, Zhang Heng saw a group of people walk in from outside. There were more than 20 of them, and each of them was dressed in a suit. Some of them were even dressed in military uniforms. They escorted a short but agile man into the hotel.


    When the waiter saw them, he quickly went up to wee them. However, before he could say anything, he was interrupted by the short man in the middle. He waved his hand impatiently, and the waiter immediately became silent, not daring to say anything else. He quickly led them to a restaurant at the side.


    It seemed that the head chef had been informed in advance and had already prepared the meal. However, it had been a while, and the temperature had dropped. Most importantly, there was already a lot of radioactive dust on the surface, but the group of people did not seem to notice. After they had prepared their own food, they found a ce and started wolfing it down. There was almost no conversation during the whole process. It was clear that they were all worried, and many of them looked exhausted.


    Zhang Heng knew that he had finally met the right person.


    Although he had never met the people from themittee, the clothes and behavior of the group in front of him, other than themittee members and experts who had just arrived in Pripyat, seemed out of ce. The short man in the middle, if nothing else, was the chairman of the identmittee, Shelbina.


    ording to Bryuhanov, the short man was a serious and stuffy man with a strong sense of control. Whenever he gave an order, there was no room for negotiation. This was why Bryukhanov was so afraid of him. Even now, the Chernobyl nuclear power nt director was still insisting that the water tank had exploded.


    However, the experts who had arrived first realized how serious the situation was. After dinner, they split up. Shcherbina and the other two took the elevator, but the rest did not return to their rooms. Instead, they turned around and left the hotel.


    Zhang Heng hesitated for half a second before standing from his seat. He picked up the newspaper and followed Shcherbina.


    If everything went as nned, the people who left would return to work. Shcherbina and the other two would probably take a break first. However, when they entered the elevator, Zhang Heng saw him press the button for the top floor.


    Zhang Heng chose the lower floor. When the elevator arrived, he left the elevator with the newspaper in hand. He took three steps to ensure that the people in the elevator could no longer see his position. Then, he immediately sped up and ran to the safety corridor, following the stairs to the top floor of the hotel.


    Zhang Heng poked his head out to look in the direction of the corridor. Shcherbina and the other two had just walked out. However, they did not go to any rooms. Instead, they went up the fire escape to the rooftop of the hotel. There, a helicopter was already waiting for them.


    Although Shcherbina had been persuaded by the experts at the previous meeting to agree to the evacuation, he still wanted to see for himself the real situation of the reactor.


    Zhang Heng didn��t expect themittee to have a quick dinner upon their return to the hotel after such a long trip. They didn��t even return to their rooms to rest before they went back to their own work. However, Zhang Heng wasn��t in a hurry. He knew that those people woulde back to sleep sooner orter. Furthermore, they had gotten the keys to their rooms while they were eating and had asked the waiter to carry their luggage to their rooms. In other words, he could already find Kovitz��s room from the waiter.


    Therefore, Zhang Heng went to Coconut��s room. He was about to ask her to continue tranting and discuss with Besnova how to get the room number. He didn��t expect that he��d receive no response after knocking on the door.


    Zhang Heng frowned. Among the yers, only Coconut and the maintenance worker lived alone. He couldn��t rule out the possibility that she was sleeping and didn��t hear the knocking at the door. Therefore, Zhang Heng emboldened himself, but the door next door opened first. The maintenance guy poked his head out and asked, ��What��s wrong?��


    ��There��s no movement in Coconut��s room,�� Zhang Heng said.


    ��What a troublesome woman. Should I call the uniformed boy to open the door?�� the maintenance guy muttered. He had a deep impression of the lively iron wire of the boy.


    ��No need. This kind of lock is very simple. I can open it too,�� Zhang Heng said. He had checked the door lock the first time he checked in, and he was very familiar with opening it now. However, before he entered the room, Zhang Heng still shouted, ��We��re in.��


    After saying that, he pushed the door open. However, just as he stepped into the room, he smelled the sour smell of vomit.


    Zhang Heng took out a mask and put it on. When he entered the room, he saw the Coconut lying on the floor. Her face was nowpletely red. Zhang Heng touched her forehead and realized that it was frighteningly hot. She was probably suffering from a high fever and had fainted from it. Perhaps the only fortunate thing was that she hadn��t eaten much previously, which prevented her from dying from choking on her own vomit.


    Zhang Heng turned to look at the stunned maintenance worker behind him. ��What are you still standing there for? Go get the doctor!��

 Chapter 1157 - First Member Reduction

    <h4>Chapter 1157: First Member Reduction</h4>


    As the yers had previously visited Pripyat��s medical center, the doctor took this opportunity to collect a batch of medicines that mighte as useful. Not only were there anti-radiation medicines like potassium iodide, but there were also some anti-inmmatory drugs and tranquilizers. Now, these medicines had finallye in handy.


    About 20 minutester, the sweating doctor came out of the room, leaving only Kui and Besnova to take care of Coconut.


    ��How is she?�� Zhang Heng asked.


    ��Not very optimistic.�� The doctor took a cigarette from the repairman��s hand and took two puffs. ��The deterioration of her body is faster than I expected. Her body temperature is around 38 to 39 now. Hair loss, ulcers, body swelling... but these are all minor. The real problem is that the radiation is destroying her immune system. After that, any kind of bacteria floating in the air could be fatal to her.��


    The doctor paused for a moment before asking Zhang Heng, ��Did youe into contact with any radioactive sources when you returned this time?��


    ��There was radiation everywhere at the nuclear power nt, but we met someone from the Ministry of Civil Defense there. He had a detector in his hand, so we followed him. We tried our best to avoid ces with high levels of radiation.��


    ��Is that so? That could be because the amount of radiation umted in her body before was already very high. In short, her current condition is very bad. I just thought of a way for her to have some physical cooling, and I also applied some ointment on her festering wound, but this is only to relieve her a little. From the doctor��s point of view, I suggest that we send her to the hospital because, considering the development of her condition, she needs a sterile ward and, if necessary, a bone marrow transnt. This won��t save her life, but it will allow her to live a little longer. If we��re lucky, she might be able to live until weplete the main mission.��


    ��Wait a minute,�� the maintenance man said. ��We have to send her to the hospital? But who will be the next interpreter with the Ukrainian woman?��


    ��Given Coconut��s current condition, we might be able to have a chat with her and ask her to lend us the other earring. We��ll return it to her afterpleting the main mission,�� Zhang Heng said. He then turned to ask the doctor. ��Is she conscious now? Can she speak?��


    The doctor nodded. ��She��s still conscious, but her lips have festered and her skin has fallen off. It��ll probably be very painful for, so if you want to talk, make it really brief.��


    At that moment, the uniformed boy interjected, ��We... will be like this in the future?��


    He also came out of the room after hearing themotion, and when he saw Zhang Heng and the others standing in the corridor, he asked curiously.


    ��Yes, it��s very possible, but logically speaking, it shouldn��t have developed so quickly.�� The doctor��s expression became unprecedentedly grave. ��I don��t know if it��s because of the design of the dungeon or some other reason, but I estimated that we still had a week to move out. But now, it seems that I was a little too optimistic. We need toplete the main mission as soon as possible.��


    ��You don��t have to tell me. I��ve been dreaming of leaving this ce,�� the maintenance man grumbled.


    Zhang Heng didn��t say anything else. Just as he was about to walk into the room, he saw Master Kui walking out. Not only that, she was holding an earring in her hand.


    ��You��ve already gotten it? So fast!�� The maintenance man eximed in surprise. ��We were just discussing this matter. How did you convince that self-saboteur to hand over the earring? And isn��t it in her stomach? How did you get it out?��


    ��What are you thinking? How could it be in her stomach?�� the doctor asked. ��Coconut kept vomiting. If the earring had been in her stomach, it would have thrown it up a long time ago. Even if she didn��t, it would have gone into the sewer along with the feces. This item is so important to her, so how could she have swallowed it in one gulp? She only used a small trick and showed her attitude in the car.��


    ��You saw it, but you didn��t tell us?�� The repairman asked unhappily. However, when he looked at the faces of Zhang Heng and the young man, he realized that there was no change in their expressions. The repairman was stunned, ��No way. Am I the only one who doesn��t know? But didn��t you agree to her request back then?��


    The repairman was asking Zhang Heng.


    ��Yes, she was very emotional at the time, and I just needed an interpreter. It doesn��t matter who the interpreter is, so there��s no need to provoke her anymore,�� Zhang Heng exined.


    On the other side, the uniformed young man also consoled the maintenance man. ��Even if you say that you��re the only one who doesn��t know, that��s not the full extent of it. Mouse probably didn��t notice it either, but I think he likes Coconut a little, or maybe his hormones have dulled his brain.��


    ��...��


    ��In any case, Coconut now understands that she can��t continue to act as the team��s trantor due to her physical condition. She��s not an unreasonable person, so she agreed to lend her Whispers to us for now,�� Master Kui said. ��However, there��s a condition. Among all the yers, she only trusts Mouse, so she hopes that the Whispers can be ced in Mouse��s hands. Of course, since she has already handed them over, there��s nothing she can do if we disagree.��


    ��I have no objections,�� Zhang Heng said. ��Like I said before, I just need a trantor. It doesn��t matter who bes the trantor.��


    ��I support my idol unconditionally,�� the young man said quickly. Then, the doctor nodded in agreement.


    The maintenance worker looked at the crowd and muttered, ��What, do I look like a bad person? ��I just don��t like her defensive attitude towards other yers. This is not a one-man team dungeon. At least before the main storyline quest ispleted, everyone should stick together and stop suspecting each other, right?��


    ��You��re right.�� the youth nodded. ��So in order to resolve the small unhappiness between the two of you, I��ll have to trouble you to make a trip and send her to the hospital.��


    ��I want to send her. Why?��


    ��Of course it��s because the car keys are with you. Don��t worry. I, Mouse and Besnova will go with you. At least, I��ve helped her with the admission procedures.��


    The doctor also said at this time, ��You��d better go there as soon as possible. Pripyat Medical Center doesn��t have much experience in treating radiation diseases. I reckon that they will gather the injured together and send them to a big hospital in Moscow. The medical resources there will be better, whether it��s the professional doctors or sterile wards. If there��s enough time, Coconut would be able to catch the flight.��


    ��What a bother,�� said the maintenance man. But in the end, he gave in and went downstairs to start the car.

 Chapter 1158 - Intruders

    <h4>Chapter 1158: Intruders</h4>


    Kovitz felt physically and mentally exhausted.


    Even before dawn, almost all of the first experts who arrived were woken up by the phone. They hurriedly dressed and rushed to gather at the airport. On the way, they studied the report submitted by Bryuhanov and Fomin, discussing how to restore the power supply to the nuclear power nt as soon as possible.


    However, when they arrived at the scene of the explosion, they realized that the severity of the problem was far greater than they had imagined. The previous ns were all based on the reactor being safe and sound. Now, they were all useless, so they had to collect information and find new solutions.


    Before Scherbina arrived, the experts had argued for a long time about how to put out the fire in the reactor. After that, they waited for him to take a helicopter to the reactor to inspect it before returning to the DW office and continuing the previous debate.


    Water was the mostmonly used fire-fighting material. However, water could not put out the nuclear fire. Instead, it would only elerate the pollution of the surrounding area after it evaporated. In the end, the scientists decided to use sand to put out the fire. However, getting the sand into the reactor was also a troublesome problem. It was not until around 3 am that Scherbina found the air force general in Kiev to borrow pilots and helicopters that could carry out the mission from thetter.


    Due to theck of manpower, some people had to stay behind to help transport the sand, including a few deputy ministers. Kovitz got lucky, though, managing to get himself a few hours of rest. He dragged his tired body back to the hotel.


    After opening the door lock with his hey, he did not even have the strength to brush his teeth and wash his face. He just wanted to lie on the bed and sleep.


    However, the next moment, something cold pressed against his throat, causing him to shiver uncontrobly. He instantly became a little more awake.


    Kovitz then heard the sound of the door closing behind him. After about half a second, the light in his room lit up. Kovitz saw a woman sitting on the sofa.


    ��Hello, Deputy Director.��


    ��Who are you people? Why are you in our room?�� Koviz asked with a trembling voice.


    ��It doesn��t matter who we are. The important thing is that we don��t mean you any harm,�� Besnova said. She was wearing a gas mask, so Kovitz couldn��t see her face.


    In reality, this was also to protect Besnova. After the mission waspleted, the yers would leave this ce, so it didn��t matter if they would be targeted. Besnova, however, was a native of this dungeon, so if her identity was exposed, dealing with her wouldn��t be too difficult with the power Kovitz yielded.


    Besnova understood this, so she was very grateful when she heard Zhang Heng asking her to put on the mask. Furthermore, with her previous experience, she was bing more and more adept at this kind of thing.


    At least now, from Koviz��s point of view, he would never believe that the woman in his room was just a nurse.


    ��Then why did you sneak into my room?��


    Kovitz did not seem to believe Besnova��s words, especially considering how Zhang Heng��s knife was still at his throat.


    ��We just want to ask you for a small favor,�� Besnova continued.


    ��Do you want money? I��m in a hurry this time, so I only brought around 100 rubles. If it��s not enough, you can take my watch too,�� Kovitz said as he took off the watch on his wrist.


    ��No, keep the watch. We just want to ask you a few questions about Chernobyl.��


    Kovitz��s body trembled slightly when she heard the name. ��Chernobyl? Who are you people? Why do you care about Chernobyl?��


    ��You just need to answer our questions truthfully. We have the same goal as you. We all want to find out about this ident,�� Besnova said.


    After a pause, she continued, ��You are the deputy director of the Institute of Hydropower Engineering in charge of nuclear power nt safety. As far as I know, the Institute of Hydropower Engineering was responsible for the overall design of the nuclear power nt.��


    ��That��s right.�� These things were not very secret, so Kovitz did not deny it.


    ��So the design of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power nt was also done by you guys?��


    ��Uh, yes, but strictly speaking, this design was done before I became the director of the design department of the Nuclear Power nt.�� Kovitz wiped the sweat on his forehead. ��I was still doing hydropower designs at that time.��


    ��Then, ording to what you know, were there any omissions in this design?�� Besnova continued to ask.


    ��Omissions?


    ��Oh, of course, but such things are inevitable. I mean, design is one thing, but when the nuclear power nt is actually operating, it��s another thing. We��re a little behind in the treatment of radioactive waste, and now it seems the pipelines are buried a little densely, not separated...��


    ��Mr. Deputy Director, I��m not asking about such a small problem, but a design w that could cause an explosion of the nuclear power nt,�� Besnova interrupted Kovitz.


    ��A w that could cause an explosion at the nuclear power nt?�� Kovitz��s mouth was wide open. It was obvious that his surprise was not faked. ��Do you think that the explosion at Chernobyl��s reactor No. 4 could be due to a design w?��


    After a long while, the deputy director squeezed out six words from his mouth. ��This is too ridiculous!��


    ��The Chernobyl Nuclear Power nt was built in 1970 and put into operation in 1977. It has been nine years since then, and it has been safe and sound until now. How could it be a design problem The workers on duty that night must��ve not followed the safety manual, causing improper operation. I��m not the only one who thinks so. The other members of the expert group also think the same. Unfortunately, we heard that they were very exposed to radiation, so we couldn��t ask them in person.��


    Seeing that Besnova did not seem to believe him, Kovitz added, ��I know what you��re thinking, but I��m not saying this to shun responsibility. The RMBK reactor is found everywhere in the Soviet Union. You can take a look around. Their performance has always been good.��


    Besnova made noment and continued to ask, ��Who is the designer?��


    ��What?��


    ��The RMBK reactor that you mentioned. Who designed it?��


    ��It��s academician Dorezali.��


    ��Dorezali? Where can we find him? Moscow?��


    A strange expression appeared on Kovitz��s face when he heard that.


    ��Academician Dollezhal led the design of the RMBK reactor in 1947, then built the first Soviet nuclear power nt. But now... he is no longer there.��

 Chapter 1159 - Everyone Has Their Opinions

    <h4>Chapter 1159: Everyone Has Their Opinions</h4>


    ��What do you mean, he��s gone?��


    ��He has... passed away,�� Kovitz said.


    After a long period of silence, Besnova spoke again.


    ��Then where else can we find people who know about reactor design?��


    ��We actually have many people who know about reactor design, but if you��re looking for people who can find fatal ws in reactor design, I��m sorry. As far as I know... there really isn��t such a person. Our duty is to provide the overall design for the construction of the nuclear power nt, and at the same time, take responsibility for the safety of the nt after it ispleted. If we really find a design problem, we will definitely correct it at the first moment,�� Kovitz said.


    After a pause, he added, ��Of course, the ident this time is extremely serious. There will definitely be more in-depth investigations after that. At that time, there may be a reassessment of the risks in the design. However, we need to first get theputer in the control room and study the various parameters recorded on it before the explosion so that we can recreate the situation of the reactor at that time.��


    ��How long will it take?��


    ��It��s hard to say. At this stage, our focus is still on dealing with the ident, including evacuating the crowd and putting out the fire in the reactor. The investigation of the cause of the ident will be der.�� Kovitz noticed that his kidnappers seemed particrly concerned about the design of the reactor. After giving it a bit of thought, he reluctantly gave a timeframe. ��At the very least, it will take a or two months.��


    ��A month or two?�� Mouse, who had taken over Coconut��s job as a trantor, inhaled sharply when he heard that. With a look of despair, he said, ��One or two months. When the results of the investigation are out, how many of us will still be alive?��


    Kovitz felt the emotions of the intruder on his right hand fluctuate violently. After he said thest sentence, the intruder��s breathing had immediately hastened. However, unable to understand what the intruder was saying, he could only stand there in confusion.


    Then something hit the back of his head. Kovitz��s vision went ck, and he fell to the ground.


    Then Zhang Heng opened the door. Other than Coconut, sent to the hospital, all the other yers came to Kovitz��s room five minutester.


    Zhang Heng gave a brief introduction of thetest intelligence he had received from the deputy director.


    ��This is the situation,�� he then said.


    As expected, almost all the expressions of the yers changed when they heard this.


    ��Are we walking into a dead end?�� the maintenance man asked.


    ��That��s not necessarily the case. The dungeon doesn��t have an unsolvable situation,�� Zhang Heng said. ��Either our direction was wrong from the beginning, or we left something behind.��


    ��Could it be that this dungeon is actually testing who can live the longest after such radiation exposure?�� The doctor frowned.


    ��It��s hard to say for the others, but if that��s the case, then Coconut is dead for sure,�� said the youth in uniform.


    ��Will we still be alive after two months?�� Master Kui asked the doctor.


    ��I don��t know. As I said, everyone��s physical condition is different, so their survival time will also differ ordingly,�� said the doctor. ��Moreover, Coconut��s body is deteriorating rapidly. To be honest, it has already exceeded my expectations, so it��s hard to estimate how the others would do.��


    ��Then what should we do?�� Mouse was already in a daze. He stuttered in a panic, ��Do we really have to wait for two months? What if the investigation results are out in two months, but the main mission is still notpleted?��


    ��It��s definitely impossible to just wait. We have to try heading in another direction,�� Master Kui said.


    ��Wait, do you mean that we still have to stay here?�� the maintenance man objected. ��You heard what the doctor said. This dungeon might be apetition to see who can live longer in the radiation. We��ve already absorbed obscene amounts of radiation from the explosion, and now the whole town is contaminated. Don��t you think that leaving this ce is the wisest choice?��


    ��If you can��tplete the main storyline mission, it doesn��t matter how far you run. Where can you run to?�� Master Kui asked in return.


    ��But the problem is that we don��t even know what the main storyline quest is!�� The repairman said, ��From the beginning of the explosion until now, we��ve been continuously absorbing radiation without thinking about it. We even returned to the vicinity of the nuclear power nt. In the end, what did we get? The main storyline quest hasn��t moved at all.��


    ��This is why we have to stay in Pripyat,�� Master Kui said. ��You��re also a yer, so you should know very well that very few quests arepleted outside the initial city.��


    ��But in less than ten hours, the entire city will be evacuated!�� The maintenance worker said. ��The residents here will be forcibly evacuated, and the injured will be sent to Moscow. So what if we stay? By then, this ce will be a ghost town!!! We won��t be able to find anything.��


    ��Well, although I can��t bear the pain of running around, I have to admit that what he said makes sense,�� the uniformed youth said. ��After the evacuation, all we can do is wander around the city. Other than absorbing the radiation, it doesn��t seem to be of any use. We might as well leave.��


    ��Have you ever thought that the so-called key people might not be the ones who caused the Chernobyl ident, but the key people who will provide disaster reliefter?�� Master Kui interjected.


    ��That��s possible.�� The boy nodded.


    The maintenance man was displeased. ��Whose side are you on?��


    ��I��m not on anyone��s side. I��ll listen to whoever makes sense. Of course, I��ll still listen to Simon in the end because what he said must be the most reasonable theory so far.�� The boy shrugged.


    ��In short, if we want to find the key figure in the disaster relief, we need to continue staying in Pripyat,�� Kui added.


    ��This is just conjecture, just like what the doctors and I have guessed. This dungeon is apetition to see who can live the longest after radiation exposure,�� the maintenance man said.


    ��You��re right, but I��m different from you guys. Rather than waiting passively, I prefer to be the master of my own fate,�� Master Kui said. ��I��ll stay.��


    ��Then, I choose to leave this godforsaken ce immediately.�� The maintenance man did not budge an inch as he swept his gaze across the other yers. ��Is there anyone who wants to leave with me? We can drive ourselves out of here before the evacuation. We first head to Kiev, then find a way to board a ne from there and fly as far as we can from this contaminated city.��


    ��Save it. You won��t be getting anywhere without an interpreter,�� Master Kui said calmly. ��Even if the investigation reportes out in two months and you��re still alive, what can you do? If you can��t even understand it, why are you looking for key figures?��


    ��The Soviet Union is a massive ce. I don��t believe that we can��t even find a single English interpreter,�� the maintenance man said.


    ��Brothers, we��re splitting up now. Are we taking sides?�� the uniformed boy spread his hands. ��We haven��t reached that stage, have we?��

 Chapter 1160 - Disagreements

    <h4>Chapter 1160: Disagreements</h4>


    ��I��m not trying to split up. I��m just giving my opinion,�� the maintenance man said. ��Since we don��t know what the main mission is, why don��t we each choose a direction and do our own thing to increase the chances ofpleting the mission?��


    ��What an excellent n: finding yourself a safe ce to hide while letting us investigate and risk radiation. If weplete the main mission, you can leave with us. If we go in the wrong direction, you can continue to wait until the official investigation results are out,�� Master Kui said coldly.


    ��That��s right, that��s what I thought,�� the maintenance man admitted generously, ��But I didn��t stop you guys from leaving with me. And after leaving, I didn��t do nothing like you said. I just chose to ensure my own safety before thinking about the next step.��


    The doctor hesitated for a moment and said, ��From my professional point of view, thetter��s n is indeed safer.��


    ��You��re just afraid. After seeing Coconut��s condition, you��re just worried you��ll be like that,�� Kui spat.


    ��Who wouldn��t be?�� the maintenance man defended. ��We��re facing nuclear radiation in this dungeon. Think about its name: the Invisible Killer. We��re facing an enemy that we simply cannot defeat. The most important thing is to try our best to save our lives.��


    ��I��ll stay behind and help you guys with the trantion,�� Mouse said to Master Kui. ��We can��t wait for the official report. The sooner weplete the main mission, the better Coconut��s chances of surviving.��


    When he finished speaking, the eyes of all the yers turned to Zhang Heng.


    Only Simon remained silent.


    Simon was the most famous of all the yers. Even though Zhang Heng did not admit it, after entering the dungeon, he did assume the role of leader of the temporary party. Furthermore, he had a fanboy willing to kill the youth, thetter already expressing his unconditional support for Zhang Heng��s decision. In other words, one vote for Zhang Heng was equivalent to two votes.


    However, Zhang Heng��s mind did not seem to be on the argument between Master Kui and the maintenance man. He stood in front of the ss window and looked out at the night sky. No one knew what he was thinking.


    Just as the maintenance man and the others were about to lose their patience, Zhang Heng said, ��I will stay here.��


    Master Kui, Mouse, and the others heaved a sigh of relief when they heard this.


    ��Of course, it��s up to you whether you want to leave or stay. If anyone wants to leave Pripyat, I won��t stop them,�� Zhang Heng continued. ��But from a personal point of view, I don��t rmend that anyone leave.��


    ��Why?�� The repairman was stunned. He had already made up his mind to leave. Zhang Heng��s decision didn��t affect him, but he found it hard to ignore thetter��s suggestion. After all, Simon was the number one yer in the game. The repairman wouldn��t be surprised if he discovered something that no one else had.


    However, Zhang Heng didn��t have any intention of exining himself. He only asked, ��Is there anything else?��


    ��No, there��s nothing else.��


    ��Then that��s it.��


    This also marked the end of that night��s argument. The repairman and doctor looked at each other and left the room together. After that, Master Kui and Mouse walked to the door. Kui said, ��I��ll see you in my room in 15 minutes. Let��s discuss what to do next.��


    ��Okay, but let��s dy the time. How about an hourter?�� Zhang Heng said.


    ��No problem. We can also use this time to pack our things. After tonight, we probably won��t be able to stay at the Pripyat Hotel anymore.��


    After saying that, Master Kui and Mouse walked out of the room. Finally, only Zhang Heng and the young man were left. The young man��s face immediately revealed an expression of discovery. He rubbed his hands together and said excitedly, ��Idol, did you discover something?��


    ��I told you not to think too much of me. I��m just like the other yers, still trying to figure out the main storyline mission,�� Zhang Heng said. He pointed out the window. ��Do you see it?��


    ��What?�� The young man walked to the window and looked down.


    At this time, Pripyat was still in a deep sleep. The streets looked deserted, and even the most dedicated shops were not open yet. However, on the street opposite the hotel, a group of people dressed like militia was following a sprinkler truck to do the sanitization work.


    ��We need their clothes,�� Zhang Heng said. ��Once the official evacuation order is issued, we��ll have to change our identities to stay in this city.��


    ��Do you want me to go get their clothes?��


    ��Can you do that?��


    ��There are exactly four drivers and the people behind them. I can handle two at a time.��


    ��Yes, I can handle the other two,�� Zhang Heng said. ��Let��s go. They��re about to leave this ce.��


    To avoid alerting the receptionist, the two of them jumped out of the empty room on the second floor andnded on the floor. Then, Zhang Heng and the young man put on their gas masks. One was to iste themselves from the radiation dust outside. At the same time, they also covered their faces.


    Before leaving the room, the young man grabbed a bottle of vodka from the bar counter. He held the bottle and walked toward the sprinkler with his head lowered.


    One of the three militiamen behind noticed the sudden appearance of the uninvited guest. He said something to the young man and gestured for him to leave. He was probably trying to persuade the young man to go home.


    However, thetter seemed to have not heard the militiaman��s words and continued to walk towards the four of them with his head down. He even quickened his pace when they were less than fifty meters away.


    Although the militia felt that the neer was a little strange, they did not think too much about it. After all, there were four of them on their side, and there was only one on the other side. No matter how they looked at it, it did not pose a threat to them. Moreover, when the uniformed youth walked into the militiamen, they also saw the wine bottle in his hand.


    This seemed to exin the youth��s abnormal behavior. Thus, a militiaman walked up and wanted to ask if the battle uniform youth needed help. However, when he was almost in front of the uniformed youth, he felt that something was wrong. He couldn��t tell what was wrong either until the two of them were less than half a meter apart.


    The militia realized what was wrong. Although the other party looked drunk, there was surprisingly no smell of alcohol on his body. However, just as he was about to warn hispanions behind him, the beheading youth had already made his move. At this moment, he was no longer drunk. He directly threw the wine bottle in his hand at the head of the militia in front of him. Thetter was smashed to the ground.


    This sudden scene also made the twopanions behind him stare nkly.

 Chapter 1161 - New List

    <h4>Chapter 1161: New List</h4>


    The two militiamen did not expect that the drunkard in front of them would suddenly attack someone. However, seeing theirpanion fall to the ground did not raise their vignce. They still treated the young man in front of them like an ordinary drunkard, a man out of his mind andwless. There were several such people in Pripyat. A bottle of vodka in one��s stomach would make one oblivious to the enormity of Heaven and earth.


    The two militiamen felt that it was necessary for them to help the drunkard change his habits. They ced the disinfection equipment on the ground and charged towards the young man in the uniform. However, thetter��s movements were much faster. Before the two militia could finish surrounding him, the young man in the uniform had already ducked and bent his legs. Then, like a hunting dog, he dashed in front of one of the militia.


    The beheading youth should have used a move simr to Muay Thai in closebat. No one knew if he had practiced it in a dungeon or in real life, but it was obvious that he had spent a lot of effort on it.


    Although the militiamen in front of him had received some military training, it was clear that they could not withstand such storm-like fists. If it were not for his sturdy physique, he would��ve probably failed to withstand the first round of attacks. However, he did notst much longer than hispanion, who had his head shot by a bottle. He was kicked in the abdomen and fell backward.


    At this time, the third militia had just charged forward.


    The uniformed youth did not expect his luck to be so good this time. He had seeded in his first sneak attack. After that, the two of them did not react quickly enough. Like how the Gourd Doll had saved his grandfather, they lined up one by one to deliver vegetables, allowing the youth to exceed his level��s performance andplete a one versus three feat.


    The first two people had already been knocked to the ground by him, and after losing the risk of being surrounded, the third person was no longer a difficulty, though thetter had finally be vignt after seeing hispanions fall one after another.


    On the other side, the driver on the sprinkler truck had also noticed the situation behind him. He jumped out to help, but when he saw hispanions struggling under the uniformed young man��s series of attacks, he thought about his own fighting strength. He realized that even if he rushed up now, there was an 80% chance that he would not change the final oue.


    Thus, he decisively turned around, running to a car preparing to drive away for help. Unfortunately, he had just turned around to the front of the car when the door unexpectedly opened itself. Unable to stop his footsteps, he hurriedly got in but hit his head against the door before he knew it.


    Before he lost consciousness, he vaguely saw a figure appear in the driver��s seat. However, he had no recollection of when the figure had got in.


    When the driver fainted on the ground, Zhang Heng also jumped out of the car. Moreover, unlike when he came, there was an extra item in his pocket. Clothes and other items were indeed needed forter operations, but it was not necessary to snatch them now. There was still some time before the official evacuation announcement.


    Zhang Heng had actually set his eyes on this group of militia because of the things in the car.


    At this time, the battle on the other side was nearing its end. As expected, the remaining militia was no match for subjugator. They might still be ordinary people when they first entered the game, but now, after its baptism, even the most ordinary people would continue to evolve.


    Furthermore, Zhang Heng could see that the young man��sbat level surpassed normal yers. His Muay Thai was probably level 2.


    The young man did not rush forward. He dragged on until the opponent in front of him revealed a w due to overexertion. Only then did he use a perfect strike to end the not-very-intense battle. Looking at the three enemies besides his feet, a look of pride appeared on his face.


    Following that, the young man and Zhang Heng removed the uniforms and boots from the four of them and dragged them into the sprinkler truck. Zhang Heng then drove the truck into a rtively remote alley. It would be at least a few hours before the four woke up or were discovered. By then, the yers should have already left the hotel.


    After all that was done, Zhang Heng and the young man knocked on Master Kui��s room.


    Thetter hadn��t been idle for a long time. After packing up his things, he started to n his next move, including drawing up a new target list and a timetable.


    Master Kui didn��t waste any time. As soon as Zhang Heng and the young man entered the room, she stuffed a letter into their hands, ��Our current course of action has changed. We��ve gone from looking for the culprit to finding the person who solved the crisis. Of course, if you guys have any better ideas in the future investigation, you can bring them up. I��ve made a rough list. If any of you know more about the Chernobyl ident, I��ll have to trouble you to help me improve the list.��


    Zhang Heng nced at the names on the list. The person in the first ce had changed from Dyatlov to Scherbina. He was the chairman of the Committee and the person Moscow had sent to deal with the ident. He was also the one who gave all the orders and decisions for disaster relief, so there was no problem for him to be in this position. However, the second person after him was much more difficult to choose.


    The firefighters who put out the fire outside the reactor in time, the Deputy Minister of the Interior, Beldorf, and his militia, or the first group of experts who arrived, the Air Force pilots who were busy transporting sand to put out the fire... these were all important figures to the disaster relief, but their contributions were difficult to quantify.


    ��I remember in the original history that in order to prevent the core from burning through the floor anding into contact with the water in the basement which would cause a steam explosion, a few nuclear power nt engineers risked breathing in lethal radiation to open the water valve to drain the water. If not for them, Ukraine and Brus would probably have been finished, and the whole of Europe would have been affected. So I think they should be in second ce.��


    Master Kui nodded and made a note on the paper. ��And?��


    ��And the miners,�� Zhang Heng said. ��In order to prevent the reactor��sva from sinking and contaminating the groundwater, even the nearby rivers, the Soviets dug a tunnel to inject liquid nitrogen to cool the reactor. In addition, the work of collecting the graphite ejected from the explosion back into the reactor was also very important. It was done by the Soviet military, but now we have a problem.��


    ��What��s the problem?��


    ��A lot of work wasn��t done by one person, so how are we going to find the key person? Are we going to see who is the leader or whose contribution is more prominent?


    ��This also brings us back to the original question. How do we quantify everyone��s contribution?�� Zhang Heng asked. ��Furthermore, the disaster relief has only just begun, and many things have yet to happen. I��m afraid we��ll have to continue waiting to find those on the list.��


    #

 Chapter 1162 - Evacuation

    <h4>Chapter 1162: Evacuation</h4>


    Even before the break of dawn, buses were already lined up on the highway beside Yanov train station. One after the other, the line extended a total of 20 kilometers. From afar, they looked like a long line.


    However, for reasons unbeknownst, the authorities did not immediately organize an evacuation after dawn. Instead, they began to broadcast continuously through the town��s radio, telling all citizens to stay in their residences and not to leave. At the same time, they also reminded people to close their doors and windows. A group of health workers distributed potassium iodide pills everywhere. Short-handed, they had also recruited a group of female high school students to help.


    Meanwhile, representatives of the town��s businesses and organizations were gathered in the DW Building, where the Ministry of Internal Affairs exined the details of the evacuation.


    Many people were in disbelief. They had already felt unwell yesterday and had left Pripyat with their families, but there were still many people who chose to remain since the sky in Pripyat was still as clear and blue as ever, not to mention the crystal clear river. Other than a faint metallic smell in the air, everything looked the same as usual. How did the situation develop to the point of a sudden evacuation? Moreover, the experts were vague about when they would be able to return.


    Thus, there was a lot of dispute at the meeting. However, in the end, the representatives of the enterprises and organizations chose toply with the arrangements of the DW and assisted in the evacuation that involved the entire city.


    The official time of the evacuation was set at 2 p.m. Although Beldorf had already transferred 1,100 transport vehicles from Kiev and other ces, for the remaining residents of Pripyat now, these 1,000 vehicles were far from enough to transport the belongings of Pripyat��s residents. The government also wouldn��t allow anyone to take anything that had been contaminated by radiation.


    Thus, at noon, the radio broadcast told the residents who were still in the city that the evacuation was only temporary. It would be around two to three days, and they would be back soon, so there was no need to bring too many things. The officials suggested that only a small amount of daily necessities was enough. Unfortunately, but unsurprisingly, cats, dogs, and other pets were not allowed to be brought.


    Most people did the same. They packed some change andundry in stic bags. It was all the luggage they had. Even though the atmosphere in the town was already very tense, no one thought that this would be an eternal farewell to their beloved home.


    Most chose to believe the official story, optimistic that they would be back in a few days, which in their view was not even a bad thing since it also freed them from work. Three days of time was almost equivalent to a small holiday.


    Some children even jumped in excitement despite the militia��s repeated exhortations, but there were still people who came downstairs in advance and talked to their neighbors. Some women wore only thin pajamas without even holding their passbooks because the radio said that as long as the doors and windows were locked, the militia would help them take care of the property in the house and ensure no thieves would enter.


    When the time was nigh, the buses drove in one by one into Pripyat and parked under different residential buildings. The militiamen kept urging people to speed up their actions. There were also a few minor incidents, but they were all quickly quelled. The buses started again, carrying full loads of people to an unknown destination.


    Behind the bus were also many cats and dogs. They seemed to have realized their fate of being abandoned by their owners. They ran and cried. Some even tried to force their way into the bus but to no avail. Although some owners opened the windows despite their dissuasion, they could only look at their pets with tears in their eyes. They shouted their names and said goodbye to them. Because of the government��s ban, these pets could not leave with their owners.


    Eventually, the dogs and cats were tired of running, so they could only stand by the roadside and watch their owners leave, their eyes filled with sorrow.


    Zhang Heng also heard the barking of the dogs from the nearby streets. He was now in the town��s gymnasium with Besnova, Master Kui, Mouse, and the uniformed youth. The gymnasium had been closed since the afternoon of the 26th, but the lock on the door could not block the steel wire in the young man��s hand. There was no one else here, and there was a sealed room, perfect for them to use as a base.


    The doctor and the maintenance worker left around dawn. Even though they were a little worried about Zhang Heng��s final suggestion, they still decided to follow the original n after some discussion. The two of them couldn��t imagine how dangerous it would be to leave this ce, and theirnguage barrier had been partially resolved.


    Since the Pripyat Hotel would asionally receive foreign guests, there were also people who could speak English there. Even though only elementary level, it was roughly equivalent to a primary school student. In the future, however, to a certain extent, it would solve the urgent problem of the doctor and the maintenance worker. Before they left, they hijacked the English-speaking waiter to act as their interpreter. At least, they wouldn��te off as not understanding a single word.


    The group also divided up the resources they had plundered earlier. Not only were there food and protective equipment, but the doctor left some tranquilizers and fever medicine for Zhang Heng and the others. Although the two sides previously had some unpleasant disagreements about the direction of their next move, the break-up was still rtively harmonious. After splitting the loot, the doctor and the repairman drove the newly stolen car into the traffic and out of Pripyat City.


    Although the seven yers had only known each other for less than two days, experiencing this crisis together caused a bond to form between them. This was especially so after they had just lost their Coconut. After that, the repairman and the doctor also chose to leave. Now, there were only four people left on the team. Moreover, there was still no news of the mission. This made the remaining people somewhat depressed.


    However, they still had to do what they had to do.


    After a simple lunch, Kui suggested investigating the pilot responsible for transporting sand to the reactor. After all, whether the miners or the engineers went down to open the drainage valve, there was still no sign of them because the authorities had notunched any action yet. Scherbina, the number one person on the list, was still there. However, his identity was more special.


    It was not impossible to sneak into his room and interrogate him as he did with Kovitz. However, cleaning up after that wouldn��t be easy. Therefore, the yers still preferred to postpone the investigation of him a little. Through this, the pilots were the better targets for investigation. They risked being exposed to radiation and flew over the reactor, again and again, dropping sand to put out the fire. Clearly, they yed a significant role in the relief of this disaster.


    #

 Chapter 1163 - Confidence

    <h4>Chapter 1163: Confidence</h4>


    Zhang Heng and the others spent the whole afternoonpleting the investigation of the pilot. Unfortunately, there was still no hint of the main mission being triggered.


    The falling of the night saw the town of Pripyat fallpletely silent.


    It was hard to imagine that just a few hours ago, there were still tens of thousands of people living here. Now, the city had be empty. Other than the team of experts in charge of disaster relief and the militia, there was no one else. All the shops and public facilities were basically closed and even pipes were no longer supplying water.


    Before the operation in the afternoon, Zhang Heng found a militia uniform for Besnova. The five of them were now wearing uniforms and driving a military vehicle. At first nce, they looked no different from the other militia in the city.


    As they drove past a residential building, they heard gunshotsing from there.


    Zhang Heng knew that the militia was shooting the pets that their owners had left behind in the town.


    Although it sounded cruel, the pets had also absorbed a fatal amount of radioactive particles just like humans. The radioactive dust fell on their fur and moved around with them, making them a mobile source of radiation. If left unchecked, they might even carry the radiation further away. The radiation poisoning might even make them go crazy, just like the mad Coconut.


    Coconut was human after all, but she was also a yer who had experienced many dungeons meaning she still had a strong sense of self-control. Inparison, the cats and dogs would be uncontroble after exposure to such extent of radiation. After the residents of the town evacuated, the militia began to clean up these potential safety hazards.


    Apanied by the sound of gunshots, the cats and dogs that were previously alive and kicking dropped to the ground one after another. The militia dragged the corpses onto the car and waited for them to be sent to a specific location to be buried. In order to prevent the radiation from their bodies from contaminating thend, their graves would have to bepletely sealed with cement.


    General Zhang Heng drove to the front of a supermarket. In the early morning of the 26th, they had swept through the goods in Pripyat, but at that time, they did not expect the main mission to be so difficult toplete. Only taking about three days�� worth of food and water, they then gave a portion to the doctors and maintenance workers and they sorely needed to replenish their supplies now.


    However, when the five of them entered the supermarket, they found that most of the goods on the shelves were still in their original positions, except for the food that was missing.


    The young man in uniform shone his shlight on the empty food shelves. ��Someone came here before us.��


    ��Those militias and the experts andmittee members who are staying at the Pripyat Hotel... they all need to eat, so the food here should have been packed away by them in advance,�� Kui said.


    ��If that��s the case, doesn��t that mean we won��t be finding any food in other supermarkets as well?�� Mouse asked anxiously.


    Now that the water supply had been cut, the entire city waspletely paralyzed, meaning they needed to solve the problem of food and drinking water on their own. The food which they collected thest time would onlyst them a day or so, and even if they ate sparingly, they would probablyst two more days at best. After that, they would probably go hungry.


    It was only then that the yers realized the seriousness of the problem. Pripyat had not only lost people, but also its basic social security. Water and electricity were things usually ignored, and it was probably only after losing them that people began to realize how precious they were.


    Fortunately, Zhang Heng spoke up, ��It��s fine. The residents of the evacuated the town in a hurry, so they didn��t take much with them. There should be a lot of food in their fridges and kitchens. The militia probably didn��t touch those things. As usual, try to pick processed food with sealed bags. If you can eat the food in the fridge, then eat it.��


    ��I saw an apartment building when I came here earlier. It��s not far from the supermarket. We can go there to look for food,�� Master Kui suggested. ��Let��s split up. It��ll be more efficient. We��ll gather in front of the supermarket in an hour.��


    Hearing that, everyone agreed. They divided the area ording to the floor and split up to search.


    Zhang Heng also entered a house through the window. It was clear that the owner had left in a hurry, having no time to put the tes back on the shelves, and there were still a lot of clothes left on the sofa and on the bed. He then opened the fridge. Inside, he found an unopened bag of sausages and two boxes of canned meat. Unfortunately, there was only one bottle of beer, and half of it had been drunk.


    Finding an empty bag from the cab, he threw in the bag of sausages and the two boxes of canned meat and headed to the second apartment.


    One hour was not enough for the yers to thoroughly search the entire apartment building, especially considering that not everyone had a special lock-picking tool like Zhang Heng did. It took a lot of time to break down doors.


    Nheless, despite all that, the yers had more or less gained something after one round.


    Zhang Heng stuffed the bags in his hands to the brim and had no choice but to take two new bags. Furthermore, he had identally gained five points during the search, probably because he had received a bag of snacks most popr among the local under-12 youths.


    When the group gathered, they counted the items they had obtained. The results were quite encouraging. Conservatively, this batch of food couldst them for another four to five days. It could be considered a preliminary solution to the food and water crisis they faced.


    The young man coughed as he moved the half box of milk he had found into the car.


    Zhang Heng noticed that his arm seemed to be a little swollen.


    ��How do you feel now?��


    ��Just like that.�� The young man remained as heartless as ever. ��Didn��t the doctor say that we��ve all been exposed to lethal radiation? Therefore, our health will definitely deteriorate. Furthermore, this city is filled with radiation now. We can��t avoid it even if we wanted to.��


    ��Then why didn��t you leave this ce with the doctor and the others before? Didn��t you support the maintenance worker��s opinion back then?�� Zhang Heng asked.


    ��Becausepared to them, I trust you more. Idol, I believe that I will definitely survive this dungeon with you.�� The young man��s confidence in Zhang Heng was even greater than Zhang Heng��s confidence in himself. He proimed with certainty, ��You can even defeat an agent war dungeon. There��s no reason you��d be finding a daily dungeon too difficult.��


    However, this time, Zhang Heng was unusually silent. He patted the young man��s shoulder. ��Rest early tonight. There are still lots of things to be done tomorrow.��


    #

 Chapter 1164 - New Guests

    <h4>Chapter 1164: New Guests</h4>


    April 30, 1986.


    Nearly five days had passed since the reactor explosion.


    Over the past few days, Zhang Heng and the others had been investigating the various parties involved in the disaster relief, trying to find the key people. Unfortunately, despite their very positive actions, even risking a huge risk by running back to the nuclear power nt twice, the main mission still did not get any better.


    Not only that, but the health of the yers was only bing worse. After losing the doctor, no one knew exactly how much the radiation had affected them, but they could still feel the changes in their bodies.


    The youth��s arm that had swelled up was now a full size bigger than before. It could not fit into his sleeve, and the only thing they could do was to open a hole in the clothes. Other than that, ulcers had appeared on his tongue and cheeks, andyers of mucous membranes fell off, making it difficult for him to speak.


    Mouse wasn��t in too great of a condition either. One of his legs had turned bluish-purple. Not only was it swollen, but it was even a little shiny. It was very smooth to the touch, and there were blisters on the inside, causing excruciating pain upon every movement. On the fourth day, it was already difficult for him to move, and on the fifth, he could only sit in the car.


    On the other hand, Master Kui was in a slightly better condition than the other two. Her face was swollen, and her eyes were somewhat bloodshot, and she also started shedding hair. It wasn��t only her hair that was falling off but her eyebrows as well.


    Inparison, Zhang Heng��s condition was the best among the four. He only had dark brown patches of different shapes on his skin that would cause constant pain, but it basically didn��t affect movement.


    In addition, the five of them, including Besnova, felt different levels of fatigue. The doctor had mentioned this��it was probably nuclear fatigue.


    The five of them had just returned from the cement mixing nt. To be honest, they didn��t have much hope when they went there. Although the work there was also important, it was obviously not that important. The only reason they went there to investigate was that there was no other ce to go.


    At this point in the operation, even Kui, who had been the most determined, couldn��t help but waver. He started to wonder if he had made the wrong decision to stay in Pripyat. Even though there were many names on the list that hadn��t been investigated yet, that would be for the rescue work rtivelyter in time. Everyone knew that the most valuable thing was actually themittee chairman, Scherbina, who ranked first on the list.


    Previously, the four of them had decided to postpone Scherbina��s investigation, worried that it would cause too muchmotion. Zhang Heng had also managed to obtain the estimated duration of Scherbina��s stay in Pripyat from the DW��s office. Thetter was prepared to wait until the reactor fire waspletely extinguished and would only return to Moscow once the situation was under further control. The earliest they could do so would be in May, so the yers were not in a hurry.


    However, as time passed, the yers seemed to have made an agreement. They started to talk less and less about the investigation of Scherbina. It was not because they were worried about stirring up any trouble, but simply because he was the yers��st hope. If they could not get any clues about the main mission from Scherbina, they wouldn��t know what to do next.


    On the way back, the atmosphere in the car became very quiet.


    Zhang Heng drove the military vehicle past one empty building after another. asionally, he could see some militia squads hunting animals. They shed past the car window with guns in their hands. Initially, the crowd was worried that the militia would notice them, and they stopped their cars and allowed themselves to be interrogated. But now, in this empty city, seeing the same kind of people that happened to appear by chance gave the yers a sense of kinship.


    Zhang Heng parked the car outside the stadium.


    He looked up at the sky. The sun was about to set, and it was almost dinner time. However, when Zhang Heng opened the stadium��s door and walked into the room where they had stored food and water, he found that it was a mess.


    The ss bottles used to store water were broken, and the biscuits and sausages had been eaten. Only the packaging and residue were left on the ground. The only things that were still intact were the few bottles of canned fish.


    ��What happened? Did the militia discover this ce?�� Master Kui asked.


    ��No, it was another guest.��


    Zhang Heng bent down and picked a box of canned food beside his feet. He saw the row of teeth marks on the metal box.


    ��Stray Dogs?�� The youth in the uniform asked in a muffled voice.


    Although the militia had started to clean up the pets left in the city on the day of the evacuation, there were still quite a few that escaped the. During the past two days, the yers had also encountered a few stray cats and dogs. Under normal circumstances, when they saw the animals from afar, they would use stones or something to drive them away. After all, there was quite a lot of radioactivity in these animals now.


    And when the cats and dogs sensed the danger, they would immediately run away without waiting for the stones to hit them. However, there were asional exceptions, especially when the cats and dogs would be hungrier. Some hungry dogs began to hunt down the stray cats in the city, swallowing them to satisfy their hunger.


    However, the dogs would soon be agitated due to the increased radioactivity, and they would start attacking the humans in the city. Some of the militia teams responsible for hunting were bitten by the mad dogs.


    The yers had encountered them because they had been active in the city, but fortunately, they did not encounter any danger.


    In terms ofbat power, the mad dogs were not particrly strong. However, since they had run into the stadium, the yers could not leave them alone. If the dogs sneaked in during the night, and anyone was bitten, there would be no shots here to fight tetanus.


    Thus, when Zhang Heng saw this, he took out the Pestilence Bone Bow on his back. He pulled out another arrow from his quiver and ran along with the paw prints on the ground.


    This level of pursuit wasn��t that difficult for Zhang Heng. The culprit obviously hadn��t thought about how to disguise himself. After feasting on the food, he swaggered out of the stadium. His trail was practically everywhere along the way.


    Zhang Heng found thetter��s nest without much effort. Outside the changing room of the badminton hall on the top floor, there was a shepherd dog. Its health did not look good. Just like the humans, it had been severely affected by radiation and had lost a lot of fur. Its body looked like patches of alopecia, but what was worse was the wound on its backside.


    It seemed to have fought with the teams responsible for hunting animals, but it miraculously survived after being shot. The bloodstains on its chest fur showed that it had swallowed some small animals to satisfy its hunger. It was unknown whether it was a stray cat, a mouse, or a dead bird nearby.

 Chapter 1165 - Stray Dog

    <h4>Chapter 1165: Stray Dog</h4>


    Zhang Heng raised the Pestilence Bone Bow in his hand and aimed it at the sheepdog that was lying on the ground, seemingly asleep.


    At this distance, he was confident that he could kill the sheepdog with one shot. He would shoot directly in the head, inflicting as little pain as possible to it. Leaving this world in its sleep was probably thest thing Zhang Heng could do for it.


    However, the next moment, just as Zhang Heng was about to release the bowstring, the shepherd dog suddenly opened its eyes.


    Man and the dog looked at each other for about half a second. Then, the dog let out a low growl, as if trying to stand up from the ground.


    However, an arrow pierced through its head!


    Although Zhang Heng couldn��t send the shepherd dog away in its sleep as nned, his arrow still hit the target cleanly. The hound fell to the ground after being hit by the arrow.


    Zhang Heng then put away his Pestilence Bone Bow ] and turned to leave.


    However, just as he took a step forward, he stopped.


    Because Zhang Heng heard the movement behind him. The shepherd dog that his arrow hit almost died on the spot. It was already a corpse. Zhang Heng saw it clearly, so the movement was definitely not from the dog.


    He turned around and saw another poodle trotting out of the badminton stadium��s changing room.


    Zhang Heng frowned. He had not expected that there would be more than one dog in the stadium. Previously, when he had chosen this ce as their base, he, Uncle Kui, and the others had searched the ce thoroughly. At that time, they had not found any other animals. This meant the two dogs should have onlyeter.


    However, for some reason, they hade here. Other than the room where the yers stored their items, there wasn��t much food in the stadium. Logically speaking, it shouldn��t have attracted the dogs. Could the militia��s hunting outside have driven them here? After all,pared to the streets and the wild, the stadium was indeed safer for stray dogs.


    These thoughts shed through Zhang Heng��s mind, but he didn��t dwell too much on them. He took off the Pestilence Bone Bow on his back again and pulled the bowstring.


    Zhang Heng didn��t know what the rtionship between the poodle and the shepherd was, but it seemed like the two dogs knew each other. He expressed regret for killing the poodle��spanion, but for the sake of safety, he wasn��t nning to let the poodle go just because of that.


    However, just as he was about to fire the second arrow, he saw another dog walk out of the changing room. It was a spaniel, and it looked much more powerful than the poodle outside.


    This was not the end. Behind the spaniel was a bulldog, followed by a Great Dane and a mixed-breed.


    Zhang Heng had already sensed that something was wrong. He also heard movementing from the window behind him. A few stray dogs were squeezing in through the half-closed window, and in the direction of the bathroom. Stray dogs were also the stairway that Zhang Heng hade up. They surrounded Zhang Heng in the middle, as if to seek justice for their deadpanions.


    If it were anyone else, they would have been scared out of their wits by now. Even though the hounds weren��t particrly strong, not to mention a good number of small pet dogs among them, once gathered, practically no one in this abandoned city could rival them.


    Only Zhang Heng was able to maintain his calm. He did a rough count and found that already more than twenty dogs surrounding him, and even more were joining in.


    If everything went as nned, this was probably thergest pack of dogs in Pripyat. A few days ago, many of them were goodpanions for humans, goodpanions for the house guards, but now, they looked at Zhang Heng as if he was prey.


    It was obvious that these dogs had been hungry for some time, and they had not been at peace recently. They had been chased around by the gunned militia, causing their impression of humans to take a turn for the worse. As if not enough, Zhang Heng had just killed one of them. From the looks of it, the dead shepherd dog was probably the leader of the pack.


    Old and new grudges gathered together. It would be strange if these stray dogs could be polite to Zhang Heng. In fact, before they even reached Zhang Heng��s side, they had already begun to growl, falling and rising in session.


    In the end, the head of the bulldog second closest to Zhang Heng was pierced by an arrow in the blink of an eye, following in the footsteps of itspanion. Zhang Heng had no intention of being polite. It was obviously impossible to resolve the situation peacefully. Thus, he did not wait for the dogs topletely gather, taking the initiative tounch an attack.


    After shooting the arrow, his hands did not stop as he pulled out a second arrow from his quiver. However, at that moment, the dogs started to elerate and charged at him.


    Zhang Heng kicked the poodle that was closest to the dog that barked the loudest earlier and sent it flying. Then, the second arrow nailed the spaniel that was already in the air to the ground. However, perhaps because the radiation had affected the nerves of the dogs and witnessing the death of two of theirpanions, that the remaining ones showed no signs of backing down. Instead of retreating, they pounced on Zhang Heng even more valiantly.


    Zhang Heng could feel the fervent atmosphere among the dogs. He turned sideways to avoid the two from the front, but the three on his right had also jumped up from the ground. There were also sneak attacks from behind and on his right hand.


    This situation was indeed a four-pronged attack for Zhang Heng. Even if there was a militia team with guns, there was a high chance that they would not be able to withstand such a fierce attack.


    However, just as the two dogs were about to bite Zhang Heng��s thigh, the enemy standing in front of them suddenly disappeared.


    The two dogs missed their target and fell from the sky. Then, amid wondering where the enemy that was right in front of them had gone, their lives were unexpectedly reaped by a rain of arrows that fell from the top of their heads.


    At the critical moment, Zhang Heng opened the shadow wings on his back and flew straight into the air. He created some distance between himself and the dogs, but he did not rise too high. After making sure that he wouldn��t be bitten again, he began to draw his bow and arrow, taking advantage of the 12 the Shadow Wings provided to harvest the dogs below him.


    Zhang Heng��s Level-2 archery skills saw a dog falling to the ground and die each time the bowstring was thwacked. Moreover, Zhang Heng picked the bigger strays, which were more inclined to be fierce. In a short while, more than half the hounds were dead, and the rest were mostly small toy dogs.


    #

 Chapter 1166 - Big Trouble

    <h4>Chapter 1166: Big Trouble</h4>


    In twelve seconds, Zhang Heng had shot out a total of seventeen arrows. Basically, none of them missed, and more than half of the dogs were killed or injured as a result.


    When hended on the ground, he leaned back against the wall of the badminton hall to avoid being surrounded again. Then, he pulled out the Hidden Sheath on his waist and easily killed another six dogs. The remaining dogs finally started to feel fear and stopped charging, scattering with tails between their legs.


    Zhang Heng did not chase after them. Firstly, the dogs would probably be too afraid toe back after the incident. Secondly, the battle just now had almost depleted the stock in his quiver.


    After that, he searched the badminton hall again to ensure that there were no other stray dogs inside. Only then did he return to the room where the food was stored.


    Master Kui had already started cleaning the residue on the ground outside the room. He had even sorted out the food that was barely enough for tonight. Seeing this, Zhang Heng suggested, ��After we finish dinner, we can go to the nearby houses to collect some food.��


    However, Master Kui shook her head.


    ��There��s no need.��


    ��Hmm?��


    ��Let��s go back to the Pripyat Hotel tonight,�� Master Kui said decisively.


    ��Are you guys going to investigate Scherbina?�� Zhang Heng raised his eyebrows, ��But the experts haven��t noticed that the reactor might melt through the concrete base and cause a thermal explosion when ites into contact with the pool. The three engineers who opened the drain valve haven��t even appeared, and the miners haven��t arrived in Pripyat yet.��


    ��Undoubtedly, their work is of utmost importance; they can even be called heroes, but frankly, I don��t think they��re the ones we��re looking for,�� Kui replied.


    These few days, she had watched herpanions and her own health deteriorate little by little. In addition, until now, she hadn��t received any news rted to the main mission. Master Kui finally started to doubt the direction she had chosen.


    ��Even though I don��t want to admit it, the truth is that we haven��t made much progress in the past few days in Pripyat. Our current work is just a waste of time, and every day we dy will increase the amount of radiation we inhale. Perhaps the repairman and doctor are right. We should leave this ce early and find a safe ce to wait for the official investigation results.��


    ��Are you going to look for the doctor and the repairman?�� Zhang Heng asked.


    ��Perhaps,�� Mouse said. ��To be honest, we don��t know where they are now. After we leave this ce, we can go to a hospital for a checkup first.��


    It was an era where no such thing called a mobile phone or WeChat existed. Everyone relied on letters andndlines to contact each other. However, before the maintenance man and the doctor left, they did not decide where they would go. The Soviet territory was so awfully vast; there was a high possibility both parties wouldn��t meet again in this dungeon.


    ��This is only the result of our preliminary discussion,�� the young man said. ��We also want to seek your opinion. Personally, I will go wherever you decide. If you still want to stay here, I will stay with you.��


    Even though the young man��s physical condition was the worst of the three, and he looked like he needed urgent treatment, he seemed to have made up his mind to follow Zhang Heng until thest moment of his life.


    Seeing that the somewhat tragic atmosphere, Mouse attempted to ease the tension.


    ��Actually, the situation might not be that serious. Scherbina is themittee chairman and is in charge of the disaster relief work, so there��s a high possibility he��s the key person. Perhaps we��llplete the main storyline mission tonight, and everyone will be able to return to the real world safely. Coconut will also be saved.��


    Of course, this would be a happy result for everyone, but after experiencing disappointment after disappointment, the yers felt a little uncertain.


    At this time, Master Kui noticed that there were only two arrows left in Zhang Heng��s quiver, so she asked, ��Did you run into some trouble?��


    ��No, I didn��t run into any trouble but a group of stray dogs at the badminton hall. But I��ve already taken care of them,�� Zhang Heng said calmly.


    ��A group of stray dogs? Are they here?�� Uncle Kui was a little surprised.


    Most of the stray dogs in the city were hungry, trying their best to find food. There was no food near the stadium, so logically speaking, it shouldn��t attract stray dogs. There were so many of them; they even found the room the yers stored their food.


    Zhang Heng asked, ��Who was thest one to leave today?��


    ��Me, it was me.�� Mouse raised his hand.


    ��Did you close the door when you left?��


    ��Uhh... I can��t remember. I woke up in the morning, and my leg was in a lot of pain. At that time, my mind was focused on how to make my leg feel better. Later, when I went out, I realized that I had forgotten to take my gas mask. I even turned back, so I probably forgot to lock the door when I came out again,�� Mouse said. ��I��ll pay attention next time, although I guess there won��t be a next.��


    The yers didn��t me Mouse for this matter. Although most of their food and drinking water had been contaminated by stray dogs, from another perspective, this matter had finally prompted them to make up their minds. They would no longer go around in circles and face the final oue.


    After tonight, Master Kui would also find out if she was heading in the right direction.


    After the yers hastily finished their dinner, theyid down in their hammocks to recover their energy and prepare for tonight��s operation. Although they had decided to leave Pripyat if there was still no progress and wait for the official investigation results, everyone knew in their hearts that this was just another distant hope.


    If they had left with the maintenance workers and doctors back then, they might have been able to hold on until that day. However, now that they had chosen to stay in Pripyat and continue to receive radiation, everyone��s physical condition had deteriorated to different degrees. It was probably toote to wait for the official investigation results.


    Simrly, everyone had already ced their bets on tonight��s operation. Now that the answer to the riddle was finally about to be revealed, everyone��s hearts were filled with anxiety.


    Mouse hadined about the difficulty of this dungeon more than once. Not only did he suffer a nuclear explosion when he went out, but the main mission was so vague that there were no hints at all. Furthermore, he had tried two directions in a row, but there was still no result. Mouse even began to suspect that the god behind this dungeon was attempting to y them to death.


    Zhang Heng was probably the only one of the four who wasn��t paying attention to his actions at night.


    He had an even bigger problem to solve.


    #

 Chapter 1167 - Entering Parallel Dungeon

    <h4>Chapter 1167: Entering Parallel Dungeon</h4>


    Zhang Heng nced at the starfish on his wrist. It was getting closer and closer to the point where they had stayed in the dungeon for a full five days.


    This was not good news for Zhang Heng.


    This time, the time flow of the dungeon was precisely one hour to 60 days. Zhang Heng entered the dungeon at 23:55 in the real world as usual, which meant that there were only five minutes until the pointer pointed to 24. This meant that the dungeon time was exactly five days.


    If he subtracted the five seconds before entering the dungeon, it meant that he would be able to enter the extra 24 hours in less than five days.


    The extra time in the previous dungeon had helped him a lot, which was also why his skills had improved so quickly. However, this time, the 24 hours would put him in an extremely dangerous situation.


    This was because the 24 hours converted into the time of the dungeon was about four years. Typically, four years would not be a problem for Zhang Heng, but this time, he had been exposed to radiation at the start, and even though his current physical performance was the best among all the yers, Zhang Heng was not sure if he could survive the four years.


    Especially considering the situation with the young man and mouse, each of them looked weaker than thest. They might not evenst a month.


    Of course, there were other yers in this dungeon. Unlike Zhang Heng, who usually cleared dungeons alone, the system would probably choose to reopen a parallel dungeon and throw him in alone. That was how the system had dealt with him back in the Apollo program training camp. As long as he could survive four years in the parallel dungeon, then return to the current dungeon, he should return to his physical condition before entering the parallel dungeon.


    This was half good news for Zhang Heng. Of course, the prerequisite was that he could survive the four years in the parallel instance dungeon.


    Zhang Heng didn��t have any good ideas on how to deal with this. He still had a mission failure exemption card with him, and he had spent 400 game points to buy this card from the bartender; its purpose was to help the holder escape the punishment of mission failure.


    In other dungeons, Zhang Heng couldpletely ignore the main storyline mission. He could just find a cat anywhere and wait until the game time was up before returning to the real world. However, this time, the game was a rare time-free dungeon, and he could only leave afterpleting the quest. Thus, it meant Zhang Heng had entered an endless loop.


    What was bound toe would stille. At 11:23, the familiar feeling of dizziness assaulted him.


    At the same time, a familiar system notification sounded in Zhang Heng��s ears.


    [Ding! Parallel dungeon has been activated. This dungeon is the Invisible Killer transition dungeon. yer count: 1. Mission Target: None. Time: 1,440 days. Attention, yer!]


    Zhang Heng��s vision suddenly darkened. At the same time, a popr song, ��Night in the Moscow suburbs,�� started ying in his ears.


    This song had be a well-known Soviet ssic ever since it won the gold medal at the 6th World Youth Festival in 1957.


    However, the music did notst long. Zhang Heng felt the light from the outside world again, and he opened his eyes.


    Finding himself standing beside a river, he quickly recognized it.


    The Pripyat River had always been very special. It was slightly brown because it had once flowed through the peat swamp of Boryspil, which was full of fatty acids. The river also flowed rapidly and violently, just like the young city built next to it. It gave people a sense of vitality.


    However, the city behind Zhang Heng still looked very different from before. It was not only because it had regained its vitality but also because the residents who lived here had returned to their homes. The streets were filled with traffic, where young men drove their beloved Volga sedans and madly honked the girls on the street.


    Zhang Heng also noticed that the buildings here were newer than when he first arrived, and there was no Ferris wheel in the park. He knew that he hade to the town of Pripyat, but he was not sure what year it was.


    Pripyat had been under construction since 1970, and judging from its current size, it should have been built some time ago. Moreover, from where Zhang Heng was standing, he could see the tall cooling towers of the nuclear power nt in the distance. ording to Bryuhanov, reactor No. 1 of the nuclear power nt had been in operation since 1977. Therefore, Zhang Heng could roughly guess that he was probably in the timeline between 1977 and 1986, before the explosion.


    This was already a tight margin, and Zhang Heng was not in the mood to tour the atomic city at the moment. He wanted to know what kind of radiation he was exposed to, so he followed his memory and first went to the Pripyat Hotel. There, he found the waitress who spoke English.


    He even grabbed a few wallets from passerbys on the way to the hotel, which enabled Zhang Heng and the waitress to finally agree on a sry��with a high price of 10 rubles a day, he sessfully persuaded the waitress to be his Ukrainian and Russian teacher. At the same time, she agreed to take Zhang Heng to the hospital in Kiev for a check-up.


    The two of them arrived in Kiev, the capital of Ukraine, by train that night, where Zhang Heng would receive a full check-up at the city��s biggest hospital. Unlike the medical center in Pripyat, aplete set of equipment to test the radiation dose was avable.


    The test process didn��tst long, but for Zhang Heng, the waiting for the result did indeed feel a little draggy.


    The doctor in charge of attending him was a woman of serious countenance in her fifties, especially apparent when she received Zhang Heng��s test report.


    ��Are you his family member?�� she asked the hotel receptionist,


    Thetter nodded. ��I��m his wife. My man is a mute. He hasn��t been able to speak since he was born.��


    ��What does he do?�� the doctor went on asking.


    ��He works at a nuclear power nt, dealing with nuclear waste.��


    ��That exins.�� The female doctor tried to sound as gentle as possible. Softly, she continued, ��I��m afraid I have some bad news for you, madam. I hope you��re mentally prepared.��


    ��What?��


    ��It��s very likely that your man came into close contact with the nuclear waste, which caused him to absorb a lot of radiation.��


    ��How much?�� The hotel receptionist asked nervously.


    ��About 450 roentgen.�� The female doctor looked at Zhang Heng with a hint of sympathy. ��He has third-degree radiation sickness, and he needs to be hospitalized immediately. We need you to sign the admission form first, madam.��

 Chapter 1168 - Admission

    <h4>Chapter 1168: Admission</h4>


    ��Third-degree radiation sickness? Is it serious?�� The receptionist tried her best to act like a wife who was afraid of losing her husband.


    The female doctor did not answer the question directly.


    ��We will do our best to treat him.��


    ��Then can you tell me how long he can live?�� The receptionist did not forget Zhang Heng��s advice and asked the most important question.


    ��I can��t tell you the exact time, madam. Radiation sickness varies from person to person,�� the female doctor said.


    ��I beg you,�� the waitress pleaded. In order to earn a generous reward, her acting skills exploded. ��We still have three children. I can��t raise them all by myself. I need Dima,�� she cried and sobbed.


    ��He��ll be fine, madam,�� the female doctor quickly consoled. ��Although I can��t give you any guarantees, I will do my best to treat him. Also, considering his current condition, I think it��s best if you keep a certain distance from him, madam.��


    ��What? You mean I can��t apany him to the hospital?�� The receptionist was anxious when she heard that. Her sry was calcted by the day.


    ��Yes, the hospital has a dedicated nurse. We will take good care of your husband. He has suffered from high levels of radiation. For the sake of your health, you should take some time away from him.��


    The receptionist hesitated. In fact, when the two first met, Zhang Heng had told her about his illness and how it would affect her, but she knew nothing about radiation and didn��t think it was a problem. There was also nothing wrong with her body during the journey.


    This caused the receptionist to rx a little. It wasn��t until the female doctor brought it up again with a serious look on her face that she had to pay attention to this problem.


    However, Zhang Heng��s offer was too generous. 10 rubles a day, 300 rubles a month. Having a monthly sry of a measly 100 rubles, this job paid three times that. This was an offer she simply couldn��t refuse.


    Thus, after thinking about it, the waitress unwillingly asked the female doctor, ��Will I be infected to death?��


    ��Not necessarily so,�� the female doctor exined patiently. ��His illness is not an infectious disease. It��s just that he hase into contact with a radiation source and absorbed a rtivelyrge amount. His body may produce unstable radionuclides. In addition, there may be some radioactive aerosols on his body, so those who stay by his side may also absorb the radiation.��


    ��What?�� The receptionist was confused.


    ��Are you pregnant now?�� The female doctor changed the question.


    ��Oh, I��m�� I��m not pregnant.�� The receptionist blushed. She had never been in a rtionship before, and this time, she was willing to pretend to be Zhang Heng��s wife to earn some extra money. This was her limit, though, and she became a little shy when asked such a direct question.


    Fortunately, the female doctor was not a sharp person, and she failed to notice Mrs. Dima��s abnormality. After hearing the receptionist��s answer, she nodded. ��That��s good. Otherwise, we��ll have to do another check-up on you and the fetus.��


    ��So, if I��m not pregnant, can I stay by his side?�� the receptionist eagerly asked.


    ��No, madam, you don��t understand what I��m saying,�� the female doctor said. ��I don��t mean that it doesn��t matter if you��re not pregnant. I just mean that this can eliminate the effect on the fetus, but if you��re by his side, it��s still possible����


    ��I don��t understand your professional jargon, doctor,�� the receptionist interrupted the female doctor, ��I��m just a receptionist working in a hotel. I simply want to know if I��ll die if I stay by my poor husband��s side and take care of him.��


    ��You won��t die, but you��ll be exposed to radiation.��


    ��I don��t know what radiation is, but I know that my husband needs me right now. Without me, he won��t be able tomunicate with the outside world! He also won��t be able to cooperate with your treatment.�� The receptionist��s gaze became firm again. This was because she saw Zhang Heng extend his finger, indicating that her wage had just increased from 10 to 30 rubles a day. In addition, the female doctor had clearly stated that she would not die. This also relieved the biggest burden in her heart.


    Only in a month��s time could she earn almost 1,000 rubles! Even professors and schrs in universities didn��t make such a sry. The waitress did not know when she would encounter something so good again if she missed this opportunity.


    Moreover, learning anguage wasn��t easy. Conservatively speaking, it would take at least half a year for Zhang Heng to be barely able to have a daily conversation. In other words, she could earn at least 5,000 rubles from Zhang Heng. This was a huge sum of money, to say the least.


    One had to know that thetest Volga sedan only cost 7,000 rubles. 100 rubles could buy an imported mink cor coat, 100 Soviet choctes, or four bottles of French perfume. After finishing this job, she could go on a trip for two or three years beforeing back to work.


    ��Please, doctor, please do me a favor and let me stay here to apany my man,�� the waitress pleaded. ��I don��t want to regret in the future and let my Dima leave alone at thest moments of his life! I have already left my three children with my friends, so I have plenty of time to stay here.��


    ��Well���� the female doctor��s expression also became a little hesitant.


    Because of work, the waitress had seen countless people and knew that she had a chance in this matter. Thus, she stepped up her efforts and secretly wiped her tears.


    ��Alright, Alright.�� Although the female doctor had seen many such incidents, she could not help but soften her heart.


    ��I��ll talk to the inpatient department to allow you to stay with your man. However, it��s best if you don��t interact with him anymore. If you really just stay at the side, the problem won��t be too serious. Also, you must remember not to be intimate with him during the treatment period.��


    The receptionist��s face flushed red when she heard that. She subconsciously wanted to open her mouth to refute, but she quickly remembered the role she was currently ying. She could only swallow her words silently.


    Then, the female doctor called for a nurse to assist them with the admission procedure. She even emphasized that she wanted to give Zhang Heng a separate room. Thus, Zhang Heng became a patient at the Kiev People��s Hospital; the start of his treatment journey.

 Chapter 1169 - Deterioration and Subduction

    <h4>Chapter 1169: Deterioration and Subduction</h4>


    In the ward of the Kiev People��s Hospital.


    A young nurse with freckles on her face inserted an IV line into Zhang Heng��s body. She then adjusted the curtains in the ward.


    After the nurse left, Zhang Heng was finally able to get his diagnosis from the receptionist.


    Some of the medical terms were too professional, so she had no choice but to flip through the dictionary and try to figure out Zhang Heng��s condition. It took about 15 minutes before she managed to exin his condition to him. Unfortunately, the doctor was not here right now, and he did not know whether the result of the radiation sickness was good or bad.


    Furthermore, as his ��wife,�� the receptionist was unable to get any information from the female doctor about how long he could live, so Zhang Heng could only receive treatment while he continued to observe his own body.


    Fortunately, unlike the other unlucky ones who had been exposed to radiation, he did not have to worry about cancer it would cause. For Zhang Heng, as long as he could survive the current crisis, he would basically be out of danger. When the parallel dungeon was over, his body would return to its state before entering the parallel dungeon, and he would also be able to know the changes in his body at every stage.


    For the current situation, this could be considered good news.


    However, unlike the other patients, Zhang Heng could not stay idle even if he was hospitalized. He still needed to use this time to learn Russian and Ukrainian. If he could solve thenguage problem in the parallel dungeon, then investigating when he returned to the official dungeon would be more convenient.


    Therefore, Zhang Heng said to the waitress beside him, ��Let��s begin.��


    ��Okay, where do you want to start?�� The receptionist straightened her back. She knew that she needed to present a service befitting the generous payment.


    ��Okay. Let��s start by teaching some words and sentences that can be used in a hospital setting. That way, if I have to go through some tests alone in the future, at least I��ll know what the doctors are talking about.��


    ��..


    Zhang Heng��s body temperature was measured on the first day he was admitted to the hospital. At that time, it was 37.8 degrees, which meant he had a slight fever. Two dayster, his temperature rose to 38.9 degrees. The doctor performed a lumbar puncture on him, where four samples of bone marrow were taken from his sternum and pate for analysis.


    On the sixth day, Zhang Heng could feel some pain in his stomach, throat, and mouth. The mucous membranes had begun falling off, making it difficult for him to speak. It was also at this time that he began to suffer from insomnia and developed anorexia.


    However, when the doctor asked him if his mental condition had started to deteriorate and if he was feeling agitated and anxious, Zhang Heng said no. This was probably one of the few benefits after losing his emotions.


    However, Zhang Heng could indeed feel that it was bing more and more difficult for him to speak. His eyelids had started to twitch involuntarily, and his body had started swelling.


    Even worse was his immune system that began to fail due to the reduction of granulocytes. On the ninth day, the hospital injected him with bone marrow cells donated by volunteers. Then, they moved him to a ward sterilized with ultraviolet rays.


    Zhang Heng had no choice but to stop hisnguage study. However, the receptionist sent an English-Russian dictionary to his ward after it was sterilized. Other than allowing him to continue studying, it also helped distract him from the pain.


    This was also the advice of the female doctor, but she thought that Zhang Heng was using the dictionary to learn English.


    Therefore, for the rest of his life, Zhang Heng would have to lie on a tall, curved hospital bed with a rib-shaped heatingmp on top to keep his body warm. All of his clothes were taken away by the nurses, and the pain that swept through his body would be with him almost all the time. Intravenous injection could improve his condition, but the only one which really worked was the nitrous oxide anesthetic.


    However, what surprised the female doctor was that the man in front of her seemed to have an extraordinarily high tolerance for pain. Under such circumstances, a normal person would��ve probably been screaming and begging the doctor to end his pain. However, Zhang Heng, who was on the hospital bed, remained calm.


    To the female doctor, this was an unbelievable thing. Before this, she hade across a few patients with strong mental fortitude. Among them were public servants, professional soldiers, and even some people on the verge of death. Compared to normal patients, these people were indeed better at controlling their emotions and were able to endure higher levels of pain.


    Nheless, when the doctor looked at them, she could still clearly sense that they were in pain from their expressions and eyes. However, when she looked into Zhang Heng��s eyes, they were like the deepest ocean��other than the huge shadow at the bottom of the ocean, she could not see anything else.


    Zhang Heng did not even take the initiative to use nitrous oxide to relieve the pain.


    In fact, if not for the fact that his condition was deteriorating by the day, the female doctor would have suspected that the misfortune before him had happened to other people, and Zhang Heng was just a bystander.


    Thetter did not even give up on his study n. The nurse taking care of him found a stand for him and ced the English-Russian dictionary on it. This way, he did not have to lift it with his own hands, and he could read it as long as hey on the bed.


    Was that man unable to feel any pain whatsoever?? The female doctor thought so.


    Of course, this thought was not urate. To Zhang Heng, he had indeed lost most of his emotions, but he had not lost his basic sense of his body. Therefore, the pain in his body was now being transmitted to his brain. However, Zhang Heng��s long periods of training had finallye in handy.


    Through Xiao Shan��s heart flow mantra, he was able to lower his consciousness and gradually reach a state of oblivion, shielding himself from the painful feelings to maintain his inner peace.


    Therefore, in a sense, the female doctor��s feelings were not wrong. Zhang Heng was indeed like a bystander, but when he deliberately sank his consciousness, he was surprised to see�� something else.


    It was a familiar cold and sticky feeling. A vast and blurry shadowy in a huge underwater pce. The pce was several times bigger than the one he saw on the ind, making thetter look like a toy.


    Zhang Heng could not see the face of the thing in the pce, only able to see countless tentacles wrapping themselves around the stone pirs.


    It was a strange and strong instinct to know that the thing was sleeping without even getting close. What was even stranger was that after Zhang Heng died, he realized that he knew the thing.


    It kept calling Zhang Heng��s name in its sleep like calling out to a child that had left home.


    However, Zhang Heng��s footsteps eventually stopped outside the pce door.


    ��Now is not the time.��


    A familiar voice whispered in his ear, but Zhang Heng could not remember where the voice came from.


    ��Wait a little longer, wait a little longer. You��ll be back soon. You just need to�� maintain patience. Just like before, the star minion and the deep sleeper are also awaiting your return.��

 Chapter 1170 - The Signal

    <h4>Chapter 1170: The Signal</h4>


    The nurses would appear regrly in Zhang Heng��s ward to feed him food and water, turn him over, and also deal with his excrement.


    On the twelfth day or so, Zhang Heng basically only ate liquid food. Because he was suffering from an intestinal syndrome, his abdomen constantly growled, and the sound of fluid flowing could be heard in the Caecum area. In addition, the mucous membrane in his mouth had fallen off, making it impossible for him to swallow solid food. He could only survive by eating some rice paste that had been boiled and injected with nutrient solution.


    Even so, on the 14th day, he still began to have blood in his stool. It was filled with mucus and blood, and he also began to lose arge amount of hair. The female doctor had already declined other house calls and focused all her efforts on Zhang Heng.


    She spent most of the day in the ward, watching Zhang Heng��s progress through the ss window and making treatment ns ordingly.


    In order to stimte the growth of Zhang Heng��s bone marrow cells, the doctor injected him with the newly developed bone marrow cells. However, just as the doctor had said when he first entered the parallel dungeon�� Currant human medicine had no effective treatment for radiation because the damage was on a molecr level. All the hospitals and doctors could do was prolong the patient��s life as long as possible and treat all kinds ofplications as best they could. At the end of the day, all they could do was pray that the human body��s powerful self-repair ability would help the patient ovee the crisis.


    On the twentieth day, the doctor wore a protective suit and entered the sterile ward to closely observe his condition.


    When she entered the ward, she found thetter lying on the bed with his eyes wide open. He did not move at all and looked like a corpse.


    Shocked, the doctor quickly turned to look at the equipment beside her and saw that Zhang Heng��s electrocardiogram was still normal. When she saw that his eyes were moving again, she realized that it was a false rm.


    ��You��ll be fine,�� the doctorforted him.


    Perhaps because she was impressed by Zhang Heng��s heroism in the face of such pain, that the doctor had a good impression of the patient before her. Even though her mission as a doctor was to save lives and heal the wounded, she did have her own selfish intentions and likes and dislikes. At that moment, however, she had a strong desire to save the man before her.


    However, because she had been by Zhang Heng��s side for a long time, her impression of Mrs. Dima had decreased. She still remembered that when they first met, Mrs. Dima had begged her with tears in her eyes. She didn��t want to part with her husband, hoping that they would be able to stay together in the ward. This had greatly moved the doctor��s heart.


    She had indeed done so a few days ago, but after Zhang Heng was transferred to the sterile ward, Mrs. Dima��s true colors began to show themselves. The doctor noticed that while Dima was still in a battle for his life with the Grim Reaper, his wife was outside flipping through a fashion magazine. She seemed to be figuring out which coat and bag to buy. This was uneptable to the female doctor.


    Fortunately, Mrs. Dima was still very concerned about her husband��s life. She would ask the doctor about Zhang Heng��s condition almost every day.


    The doctor did not know how to evaluate the couple��s rtionship. She knew that she should not get involved in the private affairs of others, but now that she was standing beside Zhang Heng��s bed, she could not help but have an evil thought. She wanted to tell Zhang Heng what she had seen in the corridor only to quickly feel that it was too cruel.


    Perhaps this man was trying so hard to survive because of his wife and child. If she told him about it now, wouldn��t it do him more harm? In the end, the doctor swallowed the words back into her mouth and turned around to leave the ward.


    Zhang Heng did not know that he had almost suffered an on-the-spot split with his wife. At that moment, his attention was focused on his body and the shadow in the depths of his consciousness. Regarding the former, he had no good solution, and could only continue to receive treatment in the ward.


    Considering theyout of the ward, Zhang Heng sometimes felt like an old vampire who had been dragged from a coffin into the sunlight. Fortunately, for now, he still didn��t feel the threat of death although his condition was deteriorating.


    As for the shadow in the pce, Zhang Heng had his consciousness submerge a few more times. However, just like the first time, he still couldn��t get a clear look at it. He also considered entering the pce, but once this thought appeared, he couldn��t get it out of his mind. However, at every critical moment, Zhang Heng would always remember the voice that urged him to wait. Thus, he kept wandering outside the pce.


    30 days had passed since Zhang Heng was admitted to the hospital. He had also been suffering from his illness for a whole month. He had lost a lot of weight because he could not eat and had to be injected with nutrient fluids. Now, he weighed less than 90 kilograms and looked like a skeleton.


    Other than that, his liver, kidneys, and other organs had also suffered some problems. Fortunately, he managed to survive. That being said, no one knew if this strong man would be able to survive the next phase.


    Even the waitress who yed his wife felt a sense of despair. Watching Zhang Heng��s health deteriorate, she felt that she might not be able to get her future sry and that she was getting further and further away from her dream of traveling. Perhaps the only good news was that the money she earned so far was enough to buy an imported coat.


    However, from the 34th day, Zhang Heng could start feeling his body showing signs of improvement. This change was so subtle that even the female doctor who had been scrutinizing his condition didn��t notice it. However, with Zhang Heng��s current control over his body, he could instantly feel the change.


    And from that moment on, Zhang Heng heaved a sigh of relief, because he knew that he had already survived the most difficult hurdle.


    After another week, the doctor finally noticed that Zhang Heng��s condition was improving. This surprised and delighted her. Before this, she had been worried that he might not hold on, but reality proved that the man before her was stronger than she had imagined.


    This was akin to a signal that Zhang Heng��s body, which had been passive all this time, was finally starting to blow the counterattack horn.


    In the following days, Zhang Heng started to recover rapidly. By the 49th day, he could already get out of bed and attempt walking by leaning against the wall. Four dayster, he started on some solid food, enabling his body to absorb more energy. As his stomach adapted, Zhang Heng started on his road to recovery.


    He healed at an incredible rate. On the 56th day, Zhang Heng moved out of the sterile ward. After another week, he even started to lift some dumbbells to recover his muscles.

 Chapter 1171 - Discharge

    <h4>Chapter 1171: Discharge</h4>


    Seventy-two days had passed since Zhang Heng��s admission to the hospital.


    The female doctor flipped through the test report in her hands, still unable to believe the numbers on it. Although there were still some variances between the numbers and ordinary people, this was because Zhang Heng��s body had been bombarded by nuclear radiation, one that would permanently leave traces on his body. Other than that, there were other changes that required more time to observe.


    However, for the time being, even with the most cautious scientific attitude, the female doctor had to admit that Zhang Heng was recovering very well. Most of his vitals had returned to normal, and his bodily functions were improving every day. As of now, he had already reached the stage where he was eligible to be discharged.


    The female doctor nodded at Mr. and Mrs. Dima.


    ��Congrattions, you can now go through the discharge procedures. However, it��s best youe here once every six months for a check-up. We still have a lot of things that we haven��t studied clearly about radiation sickness. It might just re-up in the future, so we can��t let our guard down just yet.��


    As the female doctor spoke, she nced at Mrs. Dima. Thetter��s face was filled with surprise. If it wasn��t for the series of things she had done after Dima was admitted into the sterile ward, the female doctor would have been shocked. Now, she really looked like an excited wife, thankful for her husband��s safe discharge from the hospital.


    However, for a person like the female doctor who ��knew the inside story,�� she somehow felt ufortable when she saw the joy on the receptionist��s face.


    The receptionist didn��t know that she had been cklisted by the female doctor. At the moment, she was in high spirits. Since Zhang Heng was still alive, it meant that the agreement between the two of them was still valid and her job as a trantor andnguage teacher could continue.


    She was not worried that Zhang Heng would ditch her after she lent him the dictionary because even if he understood Russian through self-study, he wouldn��t be able to open his mouth. In the end, it was up to her to teach him spoken English.


    Therefore, the receptionist continued to y the role of a good wife and thanked the female doctor profusely.


    ��You don��t have to thank me. There��s not much I can do. It was your man who defeated the god of death with his strong willpower and amazing physical fitness,�� the female doctor said lightly. ��I hope you can love your man as much as he loves you.��


    The receptionist was a little confused by the doctor��sst sentence, but then she did not intend to exin herself. She turned around and walked out of the ward until Zhang Heng was discharged. She didn��t tell Zhang Heng about what she saw in the corridor. Perhaps being a doctor, she had gotten used to white lies, but she didn��t know if what she was doing was the right thing.


    After the doctor left, the receptionist helped Zhang Heng pack up his things while thinking about the doctor��s words.


    What did she mean by loving him as much as her man loved her? Wasn��t their rtionship purely financial? Since when did Zhang Heng show his love for her?


    In order to confirm this question, the receptionist turned to look at Zhang Heng, only to find that his expressions remained the same as usual.


    Could it be that when he was in the sterile ward, Zhang Heng felt that he would die, and he told the doctor about his feelings for her, no holds barred? But that didn��t make sense. When she was admitted to the hospital, she had already told the female doctor that her man was mute to solve the problem of Zhang Heng being unable to speak.


    The receptionist couldn��t figure it out, no matter how much she thought about it. She stuffed the fashion magazines that she had bought into her suitcase and helped Zhang Heng with the discharge procedures.


    When the two of them walked out of the hospital and arrived at the street in front of the door, Zhang Heng subconsciously raised his hand to block the dazzling sunlight. Looking at the busy street, he couldn��t help but feel like a lifetime had passed.


    In the past 70 days, he had already been on the brink of death one time too many.


    ��Where are we going next?�� the waitress asked.


    ��Back to Pripyat,�� Zhang Heng answered without hesitation. ��But there��s no rush. Coming to Kiev is a rare thing, so let��s just treat it as a trip. Let��s go around the city first. By the way, do you know where Kiev��s biggest shopping mall is? I saw you reading that coat in the magazine.��


    ��Oh, I haven��t decided if I should buy it or not,�� the waitress said with some hesitation. ��I really like its color and style, but in terms of price�� it��s still a little too expensive.��


    Although the waitress had already earned her first pot of gold from Zhang Heng, enough to buy the coat, and that thetter had been discharged from the hospital sessfully, which meant a steady stream of ie, she was still considered to have be rich overnight and hadn��t changed her mind about spending.


    ��It��s okay. I��ll give you a ride,�� Zhang Heng said. ��Consider it a reward for your recent performance at the hospital.��


    Actually, the main reason was that Zhang Heng��s medical treatment and the receptionist��s sry had already depleted most of the money he had previously earned. Zhang Heng nned to find a few more wealthy customers at the mall and borrow their wallets for a while. The fee for thetter part of the trip would cost a lot, after all, so he had better be prepared.


    ��Really?!�� The receptionist was ted. No matter the time, the things she bought with her own money would definitely not be as good as others bought with theirs. Since Zhang Heng was willing to pay, of course, she would not worry about the price anymore. Hearing that, she immediately hugged Zhang Heng��s arm happily.


    The next afternoon, the two returned to Pripyat by train. With the help of the receptionist, Zhang Heng chose a small-ish but well-furnished apartment. It would be his ce of residence for the next four years.


    After that, he started to learn a foreignnguage from the receptionist.


    Zhang Heng first learned Russian. Since Russian was the official Sovietnguage, he couldmunicate with people wherever he went. Thus, he spent about half a year focusing on learning thenguage.


    In the past half-year, he lived and ate with the waitress, and he had managed to practice his Russian to a level where he couldmunicate with others fluently.


    The waitress had helped him correct some of his intonation problems, making his pronunciation sound more standard, almost on par with the Russians. Coupled with his skin color, Zhang Heng was finally able to perfectly blend into this parallel dungeon.


    This also allowed him to proceed with the next step of his n.


    ��What? You��re really going to work at the Nuclear Power nt?��The receptionist was shocked when she heard someone��s next step.


    ��Yes, I want to truly understand Chernobyl. Not only from the future news or interviews with the parties involved, but I also want to fully understand the design and operation of the nt,�� Zhang Heng said in a tone the receptionist could not understand.

 Chapter 1172 - Interview

    <h4>Chapter 1172: Interview</h4>


    Zhang Heng was no stranger to Administration Building No. 1 of the nuclear power nt.


    This was because nine months ago, he, Coconut, and the others had a ��friendly�� conversation with the nt manager, Breuhanov, and the chief engineer, Fomin, in the underground bunker of this building.


    Now, Zhang Heng was here again. Wearing a suit, leather shoes, and slicked-back hair, he followed the receptionist to the small conference room on the fourth floor.


    There were already many people dressed like him sitting in the corridor. Zhang Heng found the corresponding seats ording to his number. From the arrangement, it could be seen that there were four people in front of him and three people behind.


    Including Zhang Heng, the eight people were all here to apply for jobs at the nuclear power nt. Each wore different expressions; some were nervous, some shook their legs, some closed their eyes to rest, and some were constantly wiping their sweat.


    Zhang Heng seemed to be the most rxed of the eight. Taking advantage of the fact that the person in front of him had entered the meeting room, he stood up and went to the water dispenser at the side to get a ss of water. As he drank, he looked out the window.


    The nuclear power nt now looked like it was thriving. All kinds of buildings were lined up neatly. The three reactors built one after another were in good condition, providing a steady stream of electricity to Ukraine. Also, the construction of reactor No. 4, which would cause a disaster in the future, was about to bepleted. This was also the reason the Chernobyl Nuclear Power nt had to start absorbing new blood.


    Of course, the new recruits would not immediately be in charge of the operation of the new reactor. Instead, they would first go to other reactors to practice and umte work experience.


    Zhang Heng finished his ss of water, took another ss, and returned to his seat. He handed it to the man beside him who looked rather nervous. He had already begun biting his fingernails.


    The man thanked him and hastily took the ss.


    ��How shall I address you?�� Zhang Heng stretched out a hand.


    ��Yevgeny.�� The man also stretched out his hand, but halfway through, he realized that he was still holding the ss in his hand, so he stretched out his other hand and shook Zhang Heng��s hand in an awkward position, ��I used to work at the Beloyarsk nuclear power station.


    ��I��m Ivan. I��m from the Zapolloge Thermal Power Station No. 1,�� Zhang Heng introduced.


    Hearing Zhang Heng��s words, the man seemed to heave a sigh of relief, and the tension on his face lessened significantly.


    Zhang Heng knew why Yevgeny would rx. The eight people sitting in the corridor were technicallypetitors. They werepeting for four jobs, and the passing rate was exactly 50-50. It would be considered high in the future, but there was still no such situation where hundreds of people werepeting for one job.


    The recruitment process for nuclear power nts usually followed the model of rmendation. First, there would be rmendations from various parties. Then, the recruitment department of the nuclear power nt would send the candidate list to the Central Council of Nuclear Power for review. After passing, the nuclear power nt would organize an interview to confirm the final list. After that, it would be reported to the Central Council of Nuclear Power for approval. Then, the entire recruitment process would bepleted.


    It was apparent that the final recruitment list had been agreed upon by the nuclear power nt and the Central Council of nuclear energy. The Central Council of nuclear energy would also be in charge of the background checks, but this was not a problem for Zhang Heng, who was an illegal resident.


    Instead of using his identity, he directly found a candidate who was simr in size to himself and used thetter��s identity. The candidates for the nuclear power nt came from all over Soviet territory and were unfamiliar with the ce in Pripyat. There was no fingerprint collection system back in that day, so it was only a resume and a photo when submitted. Something like that would be quite easy to be forged.


    As long as the photo confirmed that there was no one who had seen him recently among the interviewers at the nuclear power station, Zhang Heng would be able to deal with them with his Level-2 make-up skill. Furthermore, his identity was real, so even if the Central Council of nuclear power called the ce where he used to work to verify his identity, it wouldn��t be a problem.


    Simply speaking, he had actually reced Ivan for an interview at the nuclear power nt. From his resume, Ivan was actually not that outstanding of a person. Unlike Yevgeny, who had worked at a nuclear power nt before, Ivan had only worked at a thermal power nt. Yevgeny was obviously aware of this, that was why he felt that he had already eliminated apetitor.


    However, Zhang Heng had chosen Ivan not only because he had the most simr build to him, or it would have been meaningless to choose someone who would definitely be eliminated. In fact choosing Ivan had a lot to do with his work experience.


    Yevgeny did not chat with Zhang Heng for long. Although thetter had brought him some water and the rtionship between the two had be more harmonious, Yevgeny did not forget that the two were stillpetitors. They chatted very cautiously; all about matters outside of work.


    After a while, as the candidates at the front entered the meeting room one by one, it was finally Yevgeny��s turn. Zhang Heng wished Yevgeny a smooth interview, and Yevgeny also politely expressed his gratitude. Then, he adjusted his tie, he walked in.


    After a full 20 minutes, Yevgeny walked out of the meeting room. When he came out, he no longer felt nervous. There was still a faint smile on his face, and he even encouraged Zhang Heng, ��It��s your turn, Ivan. Do your best and perform well.��


    ��Thank you, I will.��


    Zhang Heng stood up and walked past Yevgeny, pushing open the door to the meeting room.


    There was an oval-shaped wooden table inside, and behind it sat three people.


    Zhang Heng recognized two of them. One was Bryuhanov, and the other was Fomin. Both of them looked quite well,pletely different people from the shells that remained after the explosion. Fomin��s square face was well-defined, and as he sat there, his deep and lively eyes seemed to be able to see through all the candidates. Bryuhanov, on the other hand, had a gentle face and an amiable smile. The upward corner of his eyes showed that everything was under his control.


    As for the third person on the right, Zhang Heng searched his memory and found that he did not have any recollection. Whether it was before or after the ident, there was no sign of the third person. He should have left the Chernobyl nuclear power nt before 1986.


    At this moment, he was looking at the resume in his hand with a slight frown.


    ��V.G. Ivan, you are from Crimea. You are 25 years old this year.��


    ��That��s right.��


    ��Previously, you worked as a steam turbine engineer at Zapolloge Thermal Power nt No. 1?��


    ��Yes.�� Zhang Heng nodded


    ��Then why do you want to work at the Chernobyl?��


    ��Because everyone says that thermal power represents the past and the present, and nuclear power, a clean energy source, represents the future. I want to embrace the future,�� Zhang Heng answered smoothly.

 Chapter 1173 - Layman

    <h4>Chapter 1173: Layman</h4>


    The third interviewer did notment. All he did was flip through Zhang Heng��s resume.


    ��I admire your courage to try new things, but I noticed that you have no previous experience working in a nuclear power nt. This is a whole new field for you.��


    ��I can learn,�� Zhang Heng replied. ��My learning ability is very strong.��


    ��I know, I don��t doubt that. I can tell from your resume that you��ve been promoted from assistant engineer to full-time engineer within a short period of time after graduation. You��re very suitable for the job at the thermal power nt, so my suggestion is that you continue to stay there. To be honest, the sry we offer is not much higher than what you get at the thermal power nt. There��s no need for you to give up what you��re familiar with and start from scratch.��


    Zhang Heng didn��t really care much about the sry, but in order to y the role of the candidate, he did learn a bit of it. The third interviewer wasn��t targeting him; it was simply that the sry at the nuclear power nt was indeed not much higher than that at the thermal power nt. However, if there was a choice, there were still many people who were willing to jump to work at the nuclear power nt.


    This was mainly because under the Soviet Union��s vigorous promotion of nuclear power generation, the status of nuclear power nts was higher than thermal power nts, and it would be easier for them to be promoted in the future. Of course, this only applied to the management, but for the people below, working at a nuclear power nt would also be more prestigious and respected than working at a thermal power nt. Furthermore, the construction of nuclear power nts had been in full swing, and there was a huge demand for talents. Their chances of being promoted would also be greater.


    However, this matter could not be brought to the surface. That was why Zhang Heng��s answer to embrace the future was given. However, it was obviously not the first time the third interviewer had heard such an answer, and thus, he tried his best to persuade Zhang Heng to give up on the idea.


    Zhang Heng fell silent upon hearing that.


    As if worried that Zhang Heng did not understand, the third interviewer simply made it clear, ��The job of a nuclear power nt is not easy. I know how the public propagandizes it��peaceful atoms, clean energy, but in reality, the atoms in the reactor are not peaceful. We need experienced engineers to deal with all kinds of situations to prevent the worst from happening.��


    Zhang Heng remained silent, but on the other side, Fomin spoke first. He coughed twice and then said in his pleasant baritone voice, ��Oleg, I think you��re making a big deal out of nothing. It��s been more than 30 years since the first nuclear power nt was built, and there haven��t been any major idents. I think this is enough to prove the problem. Otherwise, the higher-ups wouldn��t have pushed for the construction of the nuclear power nt.��


    ��We��re just lucky. The nuclear ident that those Americans caused at Three Mile Ind will happen to us sooner orter,�� Olegmented anxiously.


    ��You��re too pessimistic. The reactor designed by Academician Dorezari is very safe,�� Bryuhanov said at this time. ��It��s precisely because of these nuclear power nts that we can export more oil and gas to our allies in Eastern Europe and the greedy western world.��


    ��Academician Dorezari also warned us not to build nuclear power nts in densely popted areas, but look at Pripyat. It��s only three kilometers away from us.��


    ��This is the decision of the higher-ups; they may have their own considerations. Oleg, you know that this is something we can��t control. We just need to do our job well.�� Bryuhanov tapped the table, looking a little helpless. ��Gentlemen, can we focus on the recruitment first? Reactor No. 3 is about to be put into operation. We need people.��


    ��Yes, we need nuclear power nt workers with rich experience. Only such people are qualified to work in nuclear power nts,�� Oleg insisted.


    ��There is a Russian proverb that says; you don��t need a god to burn pottery pots. We only need a steam turbine engineer, and now you have a steam turbine engineer.�� Fomin pointed at Zhang Heng on the other end of the wooden table.


    ��What are you talking about? We��re recruiting for a nuclear power nt. Isn��t it a prerequisite to know about this job? What��s wrong with that?��


    ��Ivan not only knows about this job, but he��s also very experienced. He used to work in a thermal power nt, so he knows a lot about high-power generation systems, distribution systems, and transmission lines. And just like he said, he��s very young. He has plenty of time to learn and grow,�� Fomin said. ��I think he��s the person we��re looking for.��


    ��He doesn��t know anything about reactors other than thermal reactors, and that��s the most important thing about working in a nuclear power nt,�� Oleg insisted. ��We need experts, nuclear energy experts, not amateurs who have to learn everything from scratch.��


    As soon as he said that, not only did Fomin��s face turn cold, but Bryuhanov also became a little unhappy, ��Before Fomin came here, he worked at a thermal power station. Before I came here, I also worked at the yanskaya coal-fired power nt. ording to you, we should be all amateurs, but aren��t we doing pretty well now?��


    ��I didn��t mean that, Bryuhanov.��


    Oleg realized that he was too anxious just now and said something wrong, so he quickly apologized.


    Bryuhanov, the nt director, seemed to be very amiable most of the time, like a good man, but he did have some taboos. What he hated the most was the experts who secretly said that he didn��t understand nuclear energy.


    Then, as if in a fit of anger, he promoted Fomin, who also worked in the thermal power nt, to the head of the electrical department. Not long after, he promoted Fomin to the Deputy Chief Engineer in charge of the Assembly and Operation Department, and when the chief engineer left, Fomin was promoted to chief engineer of the nuclear power nt.


    Although the energy department clearly opposed the appointment and preferred another candidate who had worked at the nuclear power nt, Bryuhanov then used his political connections; the Ukrainian side came forward and said that Fomin was the leader they really needed. He was tough, had extremely high standards for work, and was more suitable for Chernobyl than the other candidate. In the end, Moscow gave in, the Central Council of Nuclear Energy approved the appointment, and Bryuhanov also got his right-hand man.


    ��I respect your professionalism, Oleg. I can understand your concern about safety.�� Bryuhanov softened his tone, ��But we need to consider all aspects when recruiting people. It��s good to understand nuclear energy, but that doesn��t mean that other aspects aren��t important. Besides,pared to skill proficiency, I think work attitude is more important. If a person��s attitude isn��t correct, then no matter how good his work ability is, it��s useless. Do you think I��m right?��


    ��That��s true, but����


    ��There are no buts,�� Bryuhanov interrupted Oleg with a wave of his hand and turned to Zhang Heng. ��Ivan, How��s Your Work Attitude?��


    ��If I can get into the nuclear power nt, I��ll definitely study hard and never ck off,�� Zhang Heng said.


    ��Very good,�� Bryuhanov said with satisfaction, ��That��s the attitude you need. Next, Fomin will ask you a few professional questions to test you. You have to answer them properly, but don��t be nervous. Fomin��s questions are all rted to your previous work.��

 Chapter 1174 - Entry

    <h4>Chapter 1174: Entry</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    Next, Fomin conducted a ��professional�� assessment on Zhang Heng. Thetter��s answer went smoothly. Since Zhang Heng had decided to assume Ivan��s identity, he had naturally done his homework and learned in advance about Ivan��s life. In addition, Zhang Heng didn��t know much about nuclear power, but he wasn��tpletely clueless about engineering.


    On the contrary, after going through the Apollo training camp dungeon, he became someone who could even repair a space shuttle. A mere steam turbine wouldn��t be a problem for him. Furthermore, his engineering knowledge improved after going through the leakers�� dungeon, and at the very least, had top-notch engineering knowledge among the applicants.


    Thus, Fomin and Bryuhanov were both delighted with the final assessment result. Even Oleg, who was standing at the side, had nothing to say. The way he looked at Zhang Heng had also changed, and he shut his mouth.


    Seeing this, Fomin was in a good mood. A rare smile appeared on his square face.. He said to Zhang Heng, ��Not bad, let��s call it a day. Thank you foring for the interview. We��ll contact you again when the results are out.��


    Zhang Heng shook hands with each of the three and walked out of the meeting room. He knew that he could settle now.


    He had chosen Ivan not only because of his stature and ss but also because he was unmarried and had more interpersonal rtionships. The most important reason, however, was that Zhang Heng noticed where Ivan worked before.


    Zapolloge Thermal Power Station No. 1. The name sounded familiar.


    He quickly recalled where he had heard this name before.


    Fomin, the current Chief Engineer of Chernobyl Nuclear Power Station, hade from Zapolloge No. 1, and Zhang Heng thought it was no coincidence, even though Ivan said he and Fomin had no connection. However, when Zhang Heng was questioned by Oleg in the meeting room, it was indeed Fomin who spoke up for him first.


    ....


    The nuclear power nt still acted very quickly. It was apparent that they sorely needed manpower since reactor No. 3 was about to start operating, and should have decided on the name list on the same day, instantly reporting to the Central Council of Nuclear Energy.


    Zhang Heng received his job offer on the third day.


    However, when Zhang Heng entered the nuclear power nt, he realized that there was no Yevgeny who had previously worked at the Beloyarsk nuclear power nt among the people who had passed the interview. Thetter looked as if he had won the interview and expected to be hired in the end. He was probably a little dumbfounded when he received the result himself.


    Unlike Yevgeny, Zhang Heng had already received the names of all the candidates before the interview. He was familiar with the basic information of everyone on the list and knew that only three of the eight candidates had experience working in a nuclear power nt. During the interview, there should have been an interviewer who expressed admiration for Yevgeny.


    If everything went ording to n, this person was Oleg, the deputy chief engineer of nuclear energy. This was also the reason why Yevgeny was so ambitious. Unfortunately, the people who decided the final list were Bryuhanov and Fomin.


    From this point of view, Zhang Heng should be grateful to the two of them.


    Although in the future, it would be ridiculous to think that two engineers from a thermal power nt would be the number one and two frontmen of a nuclear power nt, the reality was that simr things were beginning to happen around the Soviet bloc. It was no longer 30 years ago when the first nuclear power nt was built, and each and every industry practitioner had excellent professional qualities. They had unlimited enthusiasm for the nuclear power industry and were able to solve sudden and dangerous situations in a timely manner.


    In fact, this was the result of many factors working together. Firstly, because the Soviets were vigorously promoting nuclear power nts and solving energy problems, the cultivation of new professionals was unable to not keep up with the expansion of the industry. Secondly, the reputation and chance of career advancement when one entered a nuclear power nt attracted increasing numbers of ��outsiders�� into the industry. Thirdly, and most importantly, the Soviets hadn��t had any major atomic idents in the past 30 years, and some minor problems had been deliberately downyed by the higher-ups, causing confidence in nuclear energy safety to swell to an unprecedented level.


    Although the recent ident at the Three Mile Ind nuclear power nt in Pennsylvania rmed some, the President of the Soviet Science Academy included, who had previously emphasized that nuclear power nts were safe enough, at a conference a year before the Chernobyl ident, he said with a worried expression, ��Comrades, we should thank fate because it has been kind enough to us. Because the same thing in Pennsylvania hasn��t happened to us yet. Yes, I am serious.��


    It wasn��t difficult to see the huge change in his attitude from the beginning to the end. However, the ident happened in the distant United States, and most people still had a hard time empathizing with it. As a result, the nerves of the whole industry became more and more rxed, and industry practitioners gradually lost their sense of danger.


    Zhang Heng could also feel this more clearly after entering the nuclear power nt. People like Breuhanov and Fomin, for instance, started to hold high positions. They treated the nuclear power nt like a piece of cake, cultivating their own trusted aides while pushing away the true experts.


    But to be fair, Fomin treated Zhang Heng quite well. On the first day of his appointment, Fomin came to visit him and chatted with him about the situation at the thermal power nt. At the same time, he warmly expressed that he coulde to see him if he needed anything.


    Having braved through so many storms, Zhang Heng naturally knew what Fomin��s real purpose was. Fomin was inspecting this batch of new recruits to see who valued being nurtured and recruited under hismand. Zhang Heng was also a skilled man, and like Fomin, a member of Zaporro��s No. 1 thermal power nt. Naturally, Fomin would favor him more. In addition, during the interview, Fomin had stood up for him, perhaps, causing him to bebeled in the eyes of others as a part of Fomin��s faction.


    Zhang Heng himself didn��t mind. Faction battles were the eternal theme of humanity. As long as more than three people were in a group, society would instinctively start forming factions. There were still four years before Fomin��s imprisonment, so he did not worry about any negative consequences. With Fomin protecting him, it would be easier for him to get things done at the nuclear power nt.


    During their previous meeting, Zhang Heng had expressed to Fomin that hecked basic knowledge in the field of nuclear energy. If there was a chance to further his studies in the future, he hoped that Fomin would consider his wish. Fomin seemed slightly surprised, not expecting Zhang Heng to be bold, but this did not trigger his angst. After all, it was customary for young people to be ambitious. Knowing what Zhang Heng wanted would also make it easier for him to control the other party.


    Fomin, however, disagreed immediately. He only said that he would consider it. He did not want to be too nice to Zhang Heng and would only give him whatever he decided. This would only increase Zhang Heng��s appetite. Therefore, his n was to dy it for a short while. After that, he would wait for Zhang Heng to get anxious, then, he would send him to attend the next training session. This way, not only would he be doing Zhang Heng a favor, but he was sending a clear message that Zhang Heng could not live without him.

 Chapter 1175 - Safety Tests and Accident Cause

    <h4>Chapter 1175: Safety Tests and ident Cause</h4>


    Fomin calcted well. A training session was going on right now, but it wasn��t aimed at a neer like Zhang Heng. Rather, it was for the older workers who had been at the power nt for some time, equivalent to a refresher course. Those who were on the list were more likely to be promoted after the training ended.


    Fomin did not greet the chief engineer of Zhang Heng��s department, but when he received the list, he realized that Ivan��s name was also on it.


    Shocked, Fomin didn��t know if he shouldugh or cry when he saw that. He had thought that Zhang Heng wouldn��t mention this, but he went straight to the head of the department, and he pulled the wool over Zhang Heng��s eyes. Many people already knew that he had spoken up for Zhang Heng during the interview and spoke to Zhang Heng in private afterward.


    Fomin initially wanted to show his approachable side and win over the people��s hearts, but he didn��t expect to be used by Zhang Heng instead. Furthermore, thetter didn��t even say anything about it, only hinting that the head of the department had added his name. After all, as the chief engineer of the Nuclear Power nt Operation Department, no department wanted to offend him.


    Even those who didn��t like him usually avoided shing with him over something so trivial. It was just a training spot, and no one even came to him to ask for credit. This was also why Fomin did not know that Zhang Heng was on the list until he received it.


    However, the list still needed his approval in the end. Fomin��s pen paused on Ivan��s name for a moment before it finally moved to the bottom right corner. He wrote the word ��agreed�� and left his signature.


    Even though Fomin was slightly unhappy with Zhang Heng��s decision, his intention to recruit him had not changed. Not greeting Zhang Heng was one thing, but taking the initiative to cross out his name was another. Doing that would��vepletely shunned Zhang Heng to the opposite side. Thus, Fomin finally pinched his nose and epted the matter.


    Reality proved that Zhang Heng, who had been baptized by the Pirates in the cksail quest, could easily handle the factional struggles of a mere nuclear power station. Even if there were ten Fomin, they wouldn��t be a match for him.


    In less than a year and a half, Zhang Heng had already figured out all the relevant physics, reactor design and principles, and even all the equipment and circuits of the entire nuclear power nt. Furthermore, in his second year at Chernobyl, he received a safety test proposal designed by Fomin and even witnessed the failure of the first safety test.


    During the day, he worked at a nuclear power nt. At night, when he returned to his residence, he would continue to learn Russian and Ukrainian from the receptionist. In addition, Zhang Heng also took the time to go to the hospital in Kiev for two checkups. Probably because he was young and strong enough, that his body seemed to be recovering quite well. No malignant tumors were also detected, at least for now.


    After Zhang Heng practiced his Ukrainiannguage to a level where he could normallymunicate, hisnguage proficiency skill, which had been quiet all this time, was finally upgraded from level 2 to level 3. At this point, including his mother tongue, Zhang Heng had reached a level where he couldmunicate in 11nguages daily.


    Furthermore, this parallel dungeon had also allowed him to gain another skill in nuclear engineering, which was now at level 2. Of course, Zhang Heng��s biggest gain was still understanding the ws in Fomin��s safety experiment and reactor design.


    It had to be admitted thatpared to pressurized water reactors used by most countries, the RMBK had a natural w from the inception of its design��itpromised a part of its safety in exchange for faster construction and lower operating costs. It could be recharged without stopping the reactor and was also able to produce military-grade plutonium.


    In the people��s eyes at that time, if there was any w in the RMBK reactor, it would have to be its slightly more radioactive emissions, and it was not as clean as the VVER-type pressurized water reactor.


    However, the more serious problem was the design of the control rod. Previously, Dyatlov had said that control rods were used to regte the nuclear fission reaction because the boron it was made up of could absorb neutrons and thus reduce the reactor��s power. However, the problem was that there was still a tiny graphite section at the bottom of the control rod. The graphite acted as a neutron moderator, which was the opposite of boron. This element was used to slow down fast neutrons to increase the reactor��s power.


    Of course, the previous designers did not design this so that reactor operators would be caught by surprise by the reversal. The graphite at the bottom also had a role��because graphite could significantly slow down neutrons, it could also appropriately use reduced-purity uranium fuel, thus saving costs.


    This wasn��t a problem from an economic standpoint, but the low-enriched uranium fuel would react unstably, especially when the reactor was operating at low power. At that time, the graphite at the bottom of the control rod could y a role��it would allow the reactor to be better controlled.


    However, this design brought with it a potential risk. When the control rod was removed entirely from the reactor and then reinserted quickly, the graphite would firste into contact with the reactor core instead of boron. At that time, not only would the reaction power not decrease, but it would increase exponentially, even though just for a brief moment.


    What surprised Zhang Heng was that ording to the information he had gathered, before the ident at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power nt, other nuclear power nts had already discovered the problem of the power suddenly rising before decreasing when control rods were reinserted into the reactor. Although reports had been made to the relevant authorities, it was probably because no idents had happened yet that it was not taken seriously.


    On the other hand, it had to be acknowledged that the designers of the RMBK reactor had also made a lot of efforts to ensure its safety. The safety manual, for instance, clearly stated that during any given moment of the reactor��s operation, at least 28 to 30 control rods had to be inserted.


    In addition, the reactor was equipped with an emergency core cooling system. When the void coefficient in the reactor increased, the water tank of the emergency core cooling system would immediately open and inject water into the reactor. However, in order to prevent the cool water from entering the high-temperature reactor and causing heat shock, Fomin disconnected the device, which could save lives at critical moments, through the multiple forced cirction circuits during the experiment.


    After seeing Fomin��s first failed experiment, Zhang Heng was almost certain that the people in the central control room did not follow the safety manual as they had previously said.


    The situation on the night of the explosion was also much moreplicated than the first experiment because the safety test did not go ording to n. Previously, the reactor had been operating at low power for quite some time and had fallen into the iodine pit. In order to climb out of the iodine pit, the operator pulled out too many control rods, eventually causing the reactor power to rise rapidly. The people in the central control room could only hurriedly insert all the control rods back into the reactor��s core. They wanted to suppress the fission reaction, but because the safety system was cut off, it could not take effect immediately.


    They did not expect that the design w of the reactor would eventually lead to the entire nuclear power nt dering a GG.

 Chapter 1176 - White Mare

    <h4>Chapter 1176: White Mare</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    Zhang Heng changed his clothes, got off work from the power nt, and returned to his residence.


    When he opened the door, he saw that the receptionist was busy killing some fish, preparing to make a Squirrel Mandarin dish. She had learned this dish from Zhang Heng. Of course, there was no Mandarin fish in Ukraine, so she could only rece it with other fish caught in the Pripyat River.


    ��How was work today?�� the receptionist asked Zhang Heng in Ukrainian while scraping the fish scales.


    ��Well, it��s still the same.�� Zhang Heng ced the paper bag in his hand on the table. ��The pickles and jam you wanted. I got them for you on my way home from work.��


    ��That��s great! Just in time,�� the receptionist chirped happily.


    .


    When Zhang Heng bought the pickled cucumber, he unexpectedly gained another 2 points. Up until now, he had already gained 192 points in the parallel dungeon, and the skills that needed to be upgraded were almost all upgraded. As for the Chernobyl ident, even though Zhang Heng was not in the central control room at the time, with the conversation he had with the person involved, he could basically reconstruct the events of that night. However, the strange thing was that there was still no movement from the main storyline mission.


    During this period, none of the system notifications Zhang Heng received had anything to do with finding the key person for the main mission. It was as if the system hadpletely forgotten about it.


    ��Are you resting tomorrow?�� The receptionist poked her head out from the kitchen. ��Can you drive me to my grandmother��s house? They live in the countryside, so it��s quite a distance from here.��


    ��Okay,�� Zhang Heng said.


    He had almost finished investigating the reactor, so there was nothing else he could do for the time being. Zhang Heng didn��t mind being the receptionist chauffeur, and he thought of it as a way to rx in the countryside. At the same time, he also thanked the waitress for her hard work throughout this time.


    The following day, the two of them woke up early. After breakfast, Zhang Heng drove the second-hand Lada to meet the grandparents of the pretty receptionist.


    In fact, this area had been inhabited long before constructing the nuclear power nt and Pripyat.


    More than 10,000 people lived in the central city of Chernobyl, while the remaining 40,000 people lived in various viges. At that time, the poption density was very low, and not a single family could be seen for dozens of kilometers. The farmers in the vicinity mainly relied on farming for a living, but some hunters and fishermen were also there.


    The gray Lada plodded along a muddy dirt road. The surroundings were filled with short pines. It was already winter, and it had just snowed heavily three days ago. There was still a lot of white snow on the pines, and the temperature had already dropped below zero. The air outside the window, however, was very fresh.


    Unlike the town, everything here was still natural and primitive. The forest was filled with mud and moss, and Zhang Heng could see small animals foraging for food from time to time. Along the way, he saw two wild deer.


    They didn��t need to hibernate. By autumn, they had shed their thin coverings and changed into long coats of thick fur. In addition, they had umted enough fat under their skin to help them withstand the cold and harsh winter. Typically, these wild deer would hide in the depths of the forest, but perhaps the heavy snowfall made them bolder, causing them to run to the edge of the forest.


    Zhang Heng got out of the car and washed his face with cold water when they passed a small stream. When he looked up, he saw that a mare had appeared across the creek.


    Its fur was snow-white, without a trace of impurities. Its slender body and strong muscles were filled with power and elegance. If not for theck of sharp horns on its head, it could have easily passed off as a unicorn from the legends.


    The beautiful beast was standing quietly by the river, looking at Zhang Heng.


    When thetter was about to stand up, the white mare raised its hooves and turned to run into the forest.


    ��Did you see it?��


    Zhang Heng walked back to the car and asked the receptionist in the passenger seat. Thetter was confused.


    ��What did you see?��


    ��That white horse? It was standing by the river just now.��


    ��Oh, I��m sorry. Maybe I woke up too early this morning, so I��m still a little sleepy.��The receptionist yawned. ��I think I took a nap just now, but I didn��t see anything. Is it a white horse? It��s probably from a nearby vige.��


    ��It doesn��t look like one. It should be a wild horse,�� Zhang Heng said.


    ��A wild horse? That��s impossible. I grew up here, and since I was a kid, I��ve never seen any wild horses around here.��The receptionist shook her head. ��Perhaps you were mistaken?��


    ��It��s possible.��


    Zhang Heng didn��t bother to differentiate. He sat back in the driver��s seat, started the car, and drove past the stream in front of him. When he washed his face, Zhang Heng took a look around. The water level here was very shallow, so he didn��t have to worry about it flooding the intakes.


    After crossing the river, Zhang Heng even took a look at the spot where the white mare had stood earlier. In the end, he realized that there were no hoofprints there. It was as if the previous scene had never happened before. The white mare had appeared and disappeared without a trace like a ghost.


    Around 10:30 am, Zhang Heng and the receptionist arrived at their destination.


    Thetter��s grandfather, grandmother, sister, and brother-inw warmly weed them. At noon, they were served red cabbage soup and pork sausages. After lunch, the receptionist��s brother-inw proposed to go hunting in the forest.


    ��We can hunt rabbits and wild deer. That way, we can have barbecued meat for dinner,�� the receptionist��s brother-inw said. ��By the way, Ivan, do you know how to use a gun?��


    ��What were you thinking? Svena said that Ivan works in a nuclear power nt and is cultured, but it doesn��t matter. You can teach him when the timees. Maybe he will like hunting too,�� Svena��s sister said enthusiastically.


    ��We have to find a shotgun for Ivan.��


    ��I remember my grandfather has a double-barrel shotgun,�� the receptionist said.


    ��That was the gun my father gave me. I used this in World War II fighting Germans. But about six years ago, I wasn��t in such good health, and when I was repairing the roof, I stepped on a piece of broken wood and fell down, breaking my leg. After that, I put the gun away,�� the old man said. ��But I take it out for maintenance every month. You can bring it with you if you want to go hunting. It probably misses the days when it was outside.��


    ��Great, let��s hurry up and leave now,�� Svena urged. When they returned to the ce where she had lived in the countryside, the receptionist was also very excited. She had long abandoned the reserved atmosphere in the city and wanted to run out for some wild hooliganism right away.

 Chapter 1177 - Hunting

    <h4>Chapter 1177: Hunting</h4>


    ��Over here! Come quickly; I��ve found a rabbit hole!�� Svena shouted excitedly. ��My sister and I will smoke it out. You guys take aim and shoot.��


    However, after the waitress lit the cigarette, the rabbit did note out. Then, just as she was feeling disappointed, she heard Zhang Heng say, ��3 o��clock, under that tree.��


    ��I see it!�� Svena��s brother-inw was also a frequent hunter in the forest, so he immediately saw the target.


    When a rabbit dug a hole, it typically wouldn��t only leave one exit. This was also the origin of the saying, ��A cunning rabbit has three burrows.�� The fire that the receptionist and her sister lit finally worked, and it smoked the rabbit out of another hole.


    Her brother-inw immediately raised the shotgun in his hand. His marksmanship was not bad, and one could tell from how he held the gun that he had practiced quite a few times. Considering the current tension between the Soviet Union and the Western world, no one knew when the war would start again, so there was no harm in a bit of marksmanship practice.


    This was also why her sister told Zhang Heng that her man could teach him how to hunt.


    However, this time, his opponent was also very alert. Aftering out of the hole, he only stood there for a moment. As if he had sensed something dangerous, he immediately dashed out again.


    Almost at the same time, the sound of a gun was heard.


    The bullet grazed its fur and hit the short pine beside it.


    ��Damn it!�� Svena��s brother-inw cursed. The first bullet missed, and he hurriedly reloaded the gun. However, by the time he raised the gun again, the wild rabbit had already run quite a distance away. Probably shocked by the loud gunshot, it hadn��t stopped running for its life.


    Facing the moving prey, Svetlena��s brother-inw had no choice, especially since the hare��s fur and the color of the snow on the ground were very close, making it almost impossible for him to aim.


    Just as he was about to give up, he heard a gunshot.


    ��It��s a hit!�� Svena cheered.


    When she saw the rabbit with her own eyes, her body shook, and she fell to the ground. ��Vesta, how did you be so good at shooting after a few months?!��


    ��I only fired once.�� Vesta was also confused. He turned to look at Zhang Heng, who had already put away the antique double-barreled shotgun.


    ��Ivan was the one who fired the shot just now.�� Svena��s sister was standing between Vitas and Zhang Heng, so she clearly heard where the second shot came from. She asked curiously, ��Ivan, you must��ve practiced shooting before, and you��re so urate.��


    ��Yes, I met a hunter from the mountains. She taught me how to shoot,�� Zhang Heng said.


    Vitas found it hard to believe. ��What kind of hunter could teach you to shoot like that? Or is it because you have a talent in shooting?��


    ��No, she taught me well. She��s much better than me,�� Zhang Heng answered truthfully.


    From the expression on Vitas�� face, it was apparent he didn��t believe a single word Zhang Heng said. ording to Zhang Heng, the hunter who taught him how to shoot was probably unbeatable. However, since Zhang Heng was a guest, after all, he did not question him directly.


    Svena ran to pick up the rabbit that had been shot, and the four of them continued to walk into the mountains.


    On the way, Zhang Heng was also chatting with Vesta, asking him about the white mare.


    ��A pure-white horse? I��ve never seen one before,�� Vesta shook his head. ��There aren��t many people who raise horses in the vige. The only two families that do raise working horses. The kind of horse you��re talking about should be costly, not something the people here would raise.��


    ��Okay.��


    Of course, Zhang Heng had guessed what Vesta would say, but to be on the safe side, he still asked again. Zhang Heng himself could not imagine the origin of the white horse, so he could only try his luck with Vesta. The other thing was to see if they could run into it again during the hunt.


    Unfortunately, although the four of them had gained a lot after that, they had caught two rabbits and a deer. The white mare Zhang Heng had met by the stream would never appear again.


    After catching the deer, the four of them looked at the sky and decided not to go any further. Vitas and Zhang Heng carried the prey into the trunk of the car.


    ��I know a way to get home as soon as possible, but����


    ��But what?��


    ��When you pass a ce in the middle, you��d better slow down,�� Vesta said.


    ��Hmm?��


    ��Is it Aunt Sauk��s residence?��Hearing this, Svena interjected. ��Her temper has always been bad. It is said that the man died very early. After that, she lived alone and did not interact much with the people in the vige. The only thing she kept a close watch on was her vegetable patch. I remember when I was young, some children went to y in her field. She directly rushed out with a gun, scaring the children and their parents! My mother even used her to scare meter. How is she now? Is she any better?��


    ��No, it��s even more exaggerated. A week ago, a car passed by her door, and she directly shot through her window. Fortunately, the people inside were fine. After that, she said that she heard wrong and thought that the vigers were driving a tractor to steal her vegetables.��


    ��That scary? We��d better not pass by her door, then,�� Svena said worriedly.


    ��It��s fine. We just need to stay away from her. Although that old woman has a heart of stone and a weird personality, it��s a good thing that her marksmanship isn��t as good as Ivan��s. If we go that way, we can go home before nightfall.��


    ��It��s decided then,�� Zhang Heng finally decided.


    About 20 minutester, Zhang Heng drove the car to the edge of a field. Vitas pointed in a direction. ��Look, that��s where Aunt Sauk lives.��


    Zhang Heng looked in the direction he was pointing and saw a dpidated small house. The side of the house was half-copsed, and it looked like a cave. It was hard to imagine that anyone would want to live in it.


    ��Aunt Sauk��s man died early, and they didn��t have a child. The vigers saw her and wanted to help her repair the house for free, but after the gun incident, it was over. She��s been living here alone ever since. ��Speaking of which, she��s in her eighties. Everyone thinks that she won��t survive the winter, but they��ll still see her next year. At least she��s in good health.��


    ��Is that so?�� Zhang Heng looked at the small house again. Although the ce looked dark and run down, it was of quite the grand design. Whether the floor area or the height of the building, it was bigger than the average house in the vige. It was also why Aunt Sauk could still live in the house, although half of it had copsed.

 Chapter 1178 - The Return Journey

    <h4>Chapter 1178: The Return Journey</h4>


    Zhang Heng followed Vesta��s instructions and slowed the car down. The gray Lada slowly rolled past Aunt Sauk��s door. Fortunately, the thing that everyone was worried about didn��t happen. The house was very quiet, and there was almost no movement.


    Although it wasn��t night yet, the sky had already started to darken. Zhang Heng looked in the direction of the window. It was pitch-ck there, and the curtains were tightly drawn, covering the inside. No one knew what the weird old woman called Sauk was doing inside.


    Zhang Heng took a look, and then he heard the voice of Svena behind him. ��Let��s go. We��ll go back early to eat barbecue.��


    Zhang Heng nodded and looked away. Then he stepped on the elerator, and the car started to speed up, leaving the hut on the hillside behind.


    ��..


    Zhang Heng and Svena, the receptionist, spent two days in the countryside. Other than hunting, they also went fishing by the river.


    Initially, she wanted to show off in front of Zhang Heng. Hunting was a male-dominated sport, after all, and she had been fishing with her grandfather since she was very young, so she had pretty respectable skills.


    However, never did she expect that she couldn��t beat a certain someone when fishing.


    Zhang Heng seemed to have picked a random ce and dropped the bait. Soon, a fish would bite the hook. After a whole morning, she looked at the fish in Zhang Heng��s bucket and then looked at the fish in her own bucket; the Kiev meat pie prepared by her grandmother instantly lost its fragrance.


    ��This is too unfair.�� Svena threw away the fishing rod and protested, ��It��s one thing to learnnguages so quickly, but how are you so good at hunting and fishing?��


    ��I don��t have any tricks. I just practice a lot.�� Zhang Heng lifted the fishing rod, took the freshly caught fish from the hook, and put it into his wooden bucket. Previously on the ind, if he weren��t good enough at catching fish, he would have starved to death.


    He had to admit that life in the countryside was quitefortable.


    Other than the white mare he had met by the stream and the old woman named Sauk, who lived alone in the west of the vige, Zhang Heng didn��t encounter anything strange.


    Everything here was beautiful. The people were simple, and the air was fresh. It was no wonder that many residents of Pripyat were willing to go to the nearby viges to rx during weekends and holidays.


    Unfortunately, in less than two years, nuclear radiation would contaminate the ce and be deste. Even the wild animals would be cleaned up by the militia as a mobile source of radiation until decadester, where only animals would return to settle down. Trees and vegetation would grow again. Some residents, having greatly cherished their homnd, even ignored warnings and secretly returned to settle down here.


    However, the radiation would also gue thisnd for a long time, like a curse.


    With the bread and sausages made by Svena��s grandmother, she and Zhang Heng set off on their return journey.


    There were still about 400 days left in the parallel dungeon, and Zhang Heng had basically learned everything he could from the nuclear power nt. Due to his excellent skills, he even managed to be the director of the Steam Turbine Department.


    After that, Bryuhanov also spoke to him, hinting that once he had umted another three to five years of experience, he would be promoted to the vice chief engineer position in the operations department. At that time, Zhang Heng was only in his early thirties, and such a promotion rate could be considered heaven-defying. He would also be the youngest vice chief engineer in the history of the nuclear power nt.


    However, Zhang Heng himself was not too interested in the appointment. He entered the parallel dungeon to look for a solution to the main mission, not to y the role of Du L��s promotion. The reason he wanted to be the director of the steam turbine department was also to be part of the higher-ups of the nuclear power nt. Only then would essing core documents be more convenient.


    Now that his work at the nuclear power nt was basicallypleted, he naturally didn��t care about whether he was promoted or not. Furthermore, ording to Bryuhanov, the parallel dungeon would have already ended by that time, and he wouldn��t be here anymore.


    Thus, in the following days, Zhang Heng also announced that he had be a salted fish. The work within his scope was still very well done, but he didn��t really care other than that.


    The waitress was pleasantly surprised to find that Zhang Heng seemed to have a lot more time since returning from the countryside. The two of them would wander around the town whenever they had nothing to do, from shopping malls to restaurants, and Zhang Heng even led her on a tour of the newly built amusement park.


    Furthermore, when they went shopping, the waitress realized that she was no match for Zhang Heng. Thetter would often walk around for a whole day, not even sparing some corner of the town. In addition, Zhang Heng seemed to be particrly concerned about the construction of the city. Whenever he heard that a construction project had started, he would run over to take a look.


    She found it hard to understand the innate passion that men had for excavators. However, overall, she was quite satisfied with her current life. Even though Zhang Heng hadpleted hisnguage studies, he was still paying her sry on time, which made her feel a little embarrassed. She took the initiative to do all the grocery shopping and housework.


    However, she would asionally see Zhang Heng standing by the window in the middle of the night, looking at the city under his feet. It was hard to tell what he was thinking.


    Once he stopped calcting the time on purpose, time would fly by.


    In the blink of an eye, Zhang Heng had stayed in the parallel dungeon for the 1440th day. That morning, she and her friends went to the stadium to watch the game, leaving Zhang Heng alone at home. He looked at the clock on the wall.


    He looked at the starfish in his hand again. There was only one second left until 24 o��clock. Zhang Heng adjusted his breathing andy down on the sofa.


    When he opened his eyes again, he was back in the hammock, and a sense of weakness washed over him.


    ��it was the long-awaited nuclear fatigue.


    Zhang Heng knew that his physical condition had been reset back to before he entered the parallel dungeon. The good news was that he already knew his current physical condition, including the schedule for the subsequent deterioration. Still, the bad news was that he had to experience the pain of his body being destroyed by the nuclear radiation again.


    Zhang Heng did not want to experience what he had experienced in the hospital room again. Even though he could endure and handle the pain better than the average person, he was unsure if the treatment would be as smooth this time. No, in fact, Zhang Heng was almost certain that this time would not be as smooth as thest. Therefore, he needed to clear the dungeon quickly before his body deteriorated to the point he could not move.


    However, Zhang Heng knew that it would not be an easy task. Fortunately, after the four-year parallel dungeon, he was ready.

 Chapter 1179 - The Final Mission

    <h4>Chapter 1179: The Final Mission</h4>


    At that moment, the room became exceptionally quiet.


    Everyone knew all too well that tonight��s mission was a gamble. Scherbina was theirst hope ofpleting the main mission.


    If there were no results even after they investigated him, they could still choose to leave Pripyat and wait for the official investigation.


    However, considering everyone��s current physical condition, only Zhang Heng, who was in the best shape, could still wait until then. Thus, for the other three yers, tonight��s actions would be equivalent to the final verdict.


    Probably because no one had spoken for too long, Mouse could not stand the silence, and he took the initiative to start the conversation. ��I wonder how Coconut is doing now.��


    It would be all fine if he didn��t speak, but when he opened his mouth, the atmosphere became even more solemn.


    After a moment, the youth in the uniform waved his arm that was almost unable to be raised. ��Good question. I��ll help you take a look after I go in too.��


    ������


    ��Sorry, I��m just a little nervous,�� Mouse apologized.


    ��Who isn��t? I feel like I��m now back to the day of the college entrance exam.��


    ��This dungeon is too strange,�� Mouse said. ��I��ve never encountered a dungeon with such a vague main storyline quest. It��s like����


    ��It��s like the dungeon��s designer deliberately doesn��t want the yers to find the answer,�� Master Kui said.


    ��Is that really okay? I feel like the difficulty of this dungeon is far higher than that of a normal dungeon,�� the youth in the uniform frowned.


    ��There��s no need to feel anything. I just participated in the proxy war dungeon.�� Master Kui��s eyes shed. ��I can very responsibly say that the difficulty of this dungeon has far surpassed the proxy war dungeon.��


    ��Is there a bug in the game?�� Mouse asked. ��But it seems that up until now, no yer has encountered any bugs.��


    ��Whether it��s a bug or not, we have no choice now. We only have the path ofpleting the mission,�� Master Kui said. After saying that, she looked at the watch on the wall. The time was now 11:37 pm.


    When they arrived at Pripyat Hotel, it should be almost midnight. Scherbina should have returned to his room, which meant that they could start to move.


    ��Bring your things. If everything goes well, we probably won��t have toe back,�� Master Kui said.


    ��Even if it doesn��t go well, we probably won��t have toe back too.�� The uniformed boy still maintained the attitude of making the best out of a bad situation.


    ��I��ll put the rest of the food and water into the traveling bag by the wall,�� Mouse reminded.


    ��I��ll take it,�� Zhang Heng said lightly. He was the only one in good health among the four of them. The young man��s arms, Mouse��s legs, and even Master Kui had vomited a few times not too long ago; therefore, the task of moving things fell to Zhang Heng.


    ��You guys go downstairs first. I��ll be right behind you,�� Zhang Heng said.


    Five minutester, the four of them gathered in front of the Volga. Zhang Heng threw the bag and his Pestilence Bone Bow into the trunk. Then, he sat in the driver��s seat and started the car, the seal hanging on the rearview mirror swaying along with it.


    Then, Zhang Heng drove the car onto the road.


    During the day, the entire Pripyat looked empty and deste, but at night, the loneliness became even more apparent. All the buildings were pitch ck, and there was almost no light on the streets except for the headlights. In addition, it was a moonless night, so everyone��s line of sight was limited to the headlights.


    This feeling was very simr to a horror movie where they were sweeping around with a shlight, not knowing what would appear in front of them in the next moment.


    They did not know if it was to fulfill the yers�� ominous premonition, but then they saw something really appear in front of the headlights.


    It was a white mare with not a single hair on its body. It was as beautiful as a statue, standing quietly in the middle of the road with its neck raised.


    No one knew when it appeared there. When they found it, the car was less than 10 meters away from the white mare. It was already toote to step on the brakes. The Volga was about to hit the white mare, and what awaited them was the destruction of the car.


    Mouse, in the passenger seat, had his eyes go from shock to confusion to fear. He reached out to prepare for the impact, but the expression on Zhang Heng��s face did not change.


    He did not slow down immediately. As if he did not see the white mare in front of him, he turned the steering, and at the same time, waiting for an opportunity to pull the handbrake. He held the rear wheel tightly to reduce theteral grip of the car.


    The Volga��s body drew an arc, almost brushing past the white mare��s body. In the end, it came to a safe stop on the road ahead.


    When Zhang Heng got out of the car and turned on the shlight, he saw that the white mare had disappeared just likest time.


    ��Is�� is that thing a horse?�� Mouse asked, still in shock.


    ��That��s right, but I��ve never seen a horse like that before. It��s looking at us like it��s a human,�� Master Kui said.


    ��Think that horse is the god behind this dungeon?�� The boy asked. ��Is it a horse god? But why would it appear in the Chernobyl dungeon to protest against human destruction of the environment? It��s quite environmentally friendly.��


    While everyone was discussing the scene before them, Zhang Heng had already returned to the car. He did not say anything. He just switched off the shlight and started the car again.


    After he drove the Volga back on the road, the other three people��s expressions became a little strange.


    ��Uh�� Don��t you want to say something?��


    ��Say what?�� Zhang Heng asked.


    ��That horse, that��s a supernatural phenomenon, isn��t it?��


    ��Yes, it should be. A normal horse wouldn��t appear and leave so suddenly, and it didn��t react much when we were about to hit it. This isn��t in line with biological instincts.��


    Mouse really wanted to say, ��You don��t fit with biological instincts either.�� Then, when they were about to hit, he nced at Zhang Heng and realized that thetter��s expression was almost as calm as the horse��s. However, he held himself back in the end and said, ��Don��t you think that the horse��s appearance might mean something?��


    Zhang Heng shook his head. ��I know what you��re thinking, but since it can appear in front of us when we��repletely unaware, then we won��t be able to find it when it doesn��t want to appear in front of us.��


    ��Hmm, I just think that it might be rted to the main storyline mission that we haven��t made any progress on yet.��


    ��That��s not ruled out,�� Zhang Heng said with a nod.


    ��So����


    ��I can promise you that even if we turn back now and do a thorough search, you won��t be able to find any trace of the white horse.��

 Chapter 1180 - Old Friend

    <h4>Chapter 1180: Old Friend</h4>


    00:04 pm.


    Zhang Heng parked the Volga outside the entrance of the Pripyat Hotel. Other than the white mare that had appeared again, the group did not encounter any other strange incidents along the way and sessfully arrived at their destination.


    There were no security measures outside the hotel. Although many important people were inside, after Pripyat DW announced the evacuation, most of the chefs and service staff had boarded their cars and left, not to mention the guards and security guards.


    In fact, even if there were still people there, they wouldn��t be squatting on the streets to soak up the radiation. In addition, the entire city had been evacuated, and the only ones that remained were in charge of disaster relief. Thus, in the eyes of Scherbina and the others, their living quarters weren��t in any danger.


    However, tonight, Pripyat Hotel will be weing a group of uninvited guests.


    Zhang Heng got out of the car, taking out the Pestilence Bone Bow from the trunk and slinging it over his back, followed by Master Kui and the young man in ck. After that, Besnova held onto Mouse.


    The five of them remained silent. They walked past the red carpet outside the door and entered the hotel lobby.


    It was pitch ck now, and there was no one around. Zhang Heng deliberately shone his shlight at the front desk. The doctors and maintenance workers had already taken Svena away before they left. Even if she didn��t leave, she wouldn��t have remembered what had happened in the parallel dungeon.


    Zhang Heng only took one look before turning away. He was about to continue forward when he suddenly stopped.


    ��What��s Wrong?��Master Kui asked.


    ��There��s something missing here.��


    ��Something? What is it?��Mouse looked around, but he couldn��t figure out what Zhang Heng was talking about, so he asked, ��Could those people have taken it away when they left?��


    ��Impossible, that thing can��t be taken with them.��


    Zhang Heng walked to the front desk as he spoke. He held the shlight in front of his eyes and waved it inside. Soon, he found the target.


    Then, he reached out and took out a phone receiver from behind the potted nt.


    Mouse was still a little confused, but Master Kui and the young man changed their expressions when they saw this.


    The earpiece was not attached to the base. In other words, if someone used a room��s phone to call the front desk switchboard, then turned the switchboard��s earpiece toward the outside, they could hear themotioning from the lobby.


    ��Looks like someone knew we��reing,�� Zhang Heng said calmly as he reattached the earpiece.


    ��Someone from themittee?�� the uniformed teenager asked. ��Is it because we��ve held Kovitz hostage before, so he was alerted?��


    ��Kovitz is just a technician. Even if he was alerted, he wouldn��t be able to do that,�� Zhang Heng said. ��For someone to be able to use the receiver to listen in, he has to possess investigative and anti-investigative abilities.��


    ��Then who is targeting us?�� Master Kui frowned. ��Could it be that the people from that ce are really here?��


    Even though Master Kui didn��t give a name, Zhang Heng and the others knew what she was talking about. The Soviet Intelligence Agency, better known as the KGB, was as famous as the CIA, MI6, and Mossad. Previously, Zhang Heng had used KGB��s tiger g to scare Bryuhanov and Dyatlov. Could the real KGB agents have reallye to Chernobyl this time?


    ��If it��s just to deal with us, isn��t it making a big deal out of nothing?�� Mouse asked hesitantly.


    Even though the yers weren��t exactlyw-abiding ever since they entered the dungeon��stealing, threatening, kidnapping., they had done it all��but so far, they had not caused too muchmotion in the town. At most, it was a two-star bounty by GTA standards, so there was no reason for the KGB to take action.


    ��Since we can��t figure it out, we might as well go up and take a look.�� Zhang Heng was still as calm as ever.


    However, considering that their actions might have already been discovered by the higher-ups, Zhang Heng changed ns slightly. He split up with the other four and climbed up the third floor from the outer wall. After that, they would meet up at the entrance of the fire escape��if there was an ambush there, Zhang Heng would be able to kill them in advance.


    After agreeing on the next step of their n, Master Kui and the others waited for about two minutes before walking up the stairs. They didn��t walk very fast, mainly because Mouse��s thighs were swollen like carrots, and although he had Besnova��s support and found a walking stick, he still walked with great difficulty.


    If it wasn��t for the fact that he still needed to be the interpreter, he would have been waiting in the car. And when he thought of the possibility that the legendary KGB was waiting for him above his head, Mouse became even more anxious. If the battle wasn��t going well, he didn��t know whether he would escape.


    The four of them carefully explored the second floor with their shlights. Fortunately, they didn��t encounter any danger. Just as they wanted to continue climbing up, an ident happened.


    Master Kui and the young man in the uniform had only taken two steps when they heard Mouse and Besnova behind them here breathing heavily.


    The two of them turned around and saw a man tightly wrapped windbreaker and a hat. He held a TT-33 pistol in one hand and pointed it at Mouse��s temple while his other covered Besnova��s mouth. This stopped thetter from screaming.


    The attacker should have been hiding behind the stairs on the second floor, and it wasn��t until the four had passed him that he quietly jumped out and held two hostages.


    When Master Kui saw this, she was about to ask the other party about his intentions when he unexpectedly spoke up. He said in a low and hoarse voice, ��Don��t speak loudly. It��s me!��


    Master Kui felt that the voice was a little familiar. Then, Mouse reacted first, eximing in joy and surprise.


    ��Doctor?!��


    ��That��s right.��


    ��Didn��t you leave Pripyat? Why are you back? You��re here. Where��s the maintenance man? Is He back too?�� the young man asked.


    ��He��s in the hospital and didn��te back. In fact, if you see him, you��ll know why he didn��te back,�� the Doctor said.


    The Doctor put away the pistol in his hand and took off his hat as he spoke. When they saw the face under the hat, they couldn��t help but gasp.


    It couldn��t even be called a face anymore because it had swelled to 1.5 times its normal size. Moreover, the skin had begun to fester, hanging on it one by one, as if it was severely burned.


    It was only then that the others noticed that the Doctor��s two hands were also wrapped in bandages. Obviously, his face wasn��t the only part festering.


    ��Didn��t you and the maintenance worker leave Pripyat? How did you end up like this?��


    ��I��m afraid you��ll have to ask Simon about this.�� Anger and pain shed in the doctor��s eyes.

 Chapter 1181 - That Was A Good Suggestion

    <h4>Chapter 1181: That Was A Good Suggestion</h4>


    ��Simon?�� Mouse couldn��t understand what the doctor��s current state had to do with Simon. Previously, both parties had gone their separate ways. Simon stayed with them in Pripyat to continue the investigation while the doctor left with the maintenance worker. Although he sympathized with the doctor��s current state, no matter how he looked at it, he could not ce the me on Simon.


    ��It seems that your condition has been deteriorating.�� The doctor wasn��t in a hurry to exin. Instead, he first looked around. His gaze swept past the teenager��s swollen arm and Mouse��s legs. Then, there was also Master Kui��s slightly pale face.


    ��What is that supposed to mean?�� Master Kui��s expression changed.


    ��Do you still remember what I said? With Coconut��s condition back at the nuclear power nt, she shouldn��t have deteriorated so quickly. Even if her palm came into contact with the graphite on the ground, it only took less than a day for her from passing out from a high fever to almost losing her life. Such rapid progression does not conform to medical knowledge at all.��


    ��You suspect that someone could��ve done something to her?��


    ��The first person who found out that something was wrong with her that night was Simon,�� the doctor said coldly.


    The teenager shook his head. ��But that doesn��t mean that Simon did something to her. Besides, Simon isn��t some omnipotent God. How could he aggravate Coconut��s condition?��


    ��It��s graphite.��


    ��What?��


    ��I��m answering your question. How did he aggravate Coconut��s condition? Because he secretly ced the graphite core next to her.��


    ��Do you know what you��re saying?�� Kui asked.


    ��Of course, because he treated me and the maintenance man the same way. He warned us not to leave Pripyat, but we didn��t listen to him. So before he left, he put a piece of graphite in our backpacks,�� the doctor cried in grief and indignation, ��We only found out two dayster that the maintenance man had been carrying that bag the whole time. When we arrived at the hospital, he was directly sent to the emergency room�� and you saw my situation.


    ��I wasn��t hospitalized because I knew that since Simon would make a move on Coconut and us, and he would definitely not let you go. So, I rushed back to Pripyat overnight to warn you, but I didn��t know where you were, so I could only stay by Scherbina��s side and wait for you toe over.��


    After the doctor had said what he wanted to say, the stairwell fell into silence.


    The main reason for that was the explosive piece of news they received. Everyone had always thought that the deterioration of their physical condition was due to the radiation they had received, but they did not expect that a human factor could actually be involved.


    Moreover, the yers who dared to choose a single row were basically not fools. After careful consideration, they realized that the doctor��s words were very credible. It was not just because of the two things he had said, but the most important thing was that up until now, only Simon had remained in rtively good physical condition.


    If someone was really ying tricks in the dark, Simon was undoubtedly the most suspicious one among them.


    However, the uniformed teenager still found it difficult to ept it. ��Simon�� why did he attack us? Even if you don��t trust his character, isn��t this dungeon a one-on-one mode? yers are teammates and not enemies.��


    ��We��ll have to ask him that,�� the doctor said.


    Master Kui��s mouth dropped open to say something.


    ��What do you want to say?�� the youth asked.


    ��You all saw the post that Flo posted on Simon��s behalf. Simon offered 200,000 points as a reward, but he clearly didn��t have that many game points on him. He could only use a B-grade item as coteral,�� Master Kui said. ��He��s very short of points right now.��


    ��Are you saying that he ns to kill us and steal our items to make up for a portion of his points?��


    ��You have to admit that it is indeed the fastest way to earn points.��


    ��What about the main storyline quest? Up until now, we haven��t had any leads. Doesn��t that just lower his hopes of killing us andpleting the main storyline quest?�� Mouse said weakly.


    ��You��re right. However, we don��t have any leads. Perhaps he already knows how toplete the main storyline quest. That��s why he��s starting to deal with us. Once he kills all of us, he��ll be able toplete the main storyline quest by himself. After that, he��ll return with a full load,�� the doctor suggested.


    As soon as he finished speaking, another voice came from upstairs.


    ��That��s a good suggestion.��


    The yers�� faces darkened when they heard that because they recognized that it was Simon.


    Zhang Heng slowly walked down the stairs from the third floor. He looked at the yers who looked like they were about to face a great enemy, and then said to the doctor, ��You yed a good diversionary tactic.��


    ��No, I can��tpare to you,�� the doctor said with a sneer. ��Who would��ve known that the great Simon is actually someone who ys a game of hide-and-seek on the surface?��


    Zhang Heng shook his head. ��I��ll correct you on two points.��


    ��What?��


    ��First, I don��t need to act in a superficial manner and hide behind the scenes. If I really had the intention to kill people and steal their items, then all the other yers in this dungeon would not be able to stop me even if they joined forces.��


    Zhang Heng did not purposely use a threatening tone in his words. He only said it in a normal tone, but everyone felt a strong sense of oppression. Even the doctor opened his mouth but failed to say anything in the end.


    Simon had always been very easygoing and had kept a low profile in this dungeon. Whenever he took action, he would ask for everyone��s opinion in advance, never once using his position as the team leader to force anyone to do anything. After some time, everyone even forgot that he was the number one yer that suppressed the experts of the threerge guilds to take the number one spot on the leaderboard.


    ��Second,�� Zhang Heng looked at the doctor and continued, ��I sympathize with your plight, but unfortunately, you��ve found the wrong person.��


    The doctor did not seem to believe Zhang Heng��s words. He said, ��Let��s not talk about me and the maintenance worker for now. How are you going to exin the fact that everyone else��s condition is deteriorating at a faster rate than normal?��


    ��You may have picked the wrong person, but there is one thing that you��re right about. Someone is secretly increasing the amount of radiation we��re exposed to. However, that person is not me. As for why I��m in better condition than you guys, it��s just because I��m more alert.�� Zhang Heng waved the thing in his hand.


    ��What��s this?��


    ��A portable radiation measuring device. I got it from a militia sprinkler earlier. The measuring range is very small, and the upper limit is only 3.6 roentgen. However, it��s enough to help me get through dangerous ces and items,�� Zhang Heng exined. ��After Coconut was sent to the hospital, I took the meter back to her room. I found that the radiation in her room was indeed abnormal. In many ces, my meter was off the charts. This means that someone nted a strong radiation source in her room.��


    The uniformed boy was startled. ��At that time, you asked me to go with you to snatch the clothes. Was it really to get the meter?��

 Chapter 1182 - Invisible Man

    <h4>Chapter 1182: Invisible Man</h4>


    ��Are you trying to say that you weren��t the one who secretly ced the graphite in our backpacks?�� The doctor pointed the gun at Zhang Heng.


    ��That��s right,�� Zhang Heng said calmly.


    ��That��s impossible,�� the doctor said firmly. ��Everyone else��s health is deteriorating rapidly. If you weren��t the one who ced the graphite in our backpacks, then he would only be letting you off easy. This doesn��t make any sense.��


    ��That doesn��t make any sense,�� Zhang Heng nodded.


    Master Kui and the other yers were surprised. They didn��t expect Zhang Heng to admit it so readily. Zhang Heng continued, ��Unless�� the person who secretly put the graphite in your bag isn��t a yer.��


    ��Not a yer�� What do you mean?�� Mouse was confused.


    The doctor said, ��After we split up, the maintenance man and I drove away from Pripyat. We were cautious along the way and tried not to interact with outsiders. I��m sure no one touched our bag during this period, so the graphite was in our bag before we split up. At that time, all of us were together. Other than our own people, it was impossible for anyone to slip something into our bag without us knowing unless that person waspletely invisible.��


    Zhang Heng ignored the doctor��s final taunt and asked, ��Do you still remember the name of this dungeon?��


    ��Invisible Killer? What��s wrong with that? Didn��t we already conclude that the invisible killer refers to nuclear radiation?�� Grandpa Kui said.


    ��Nuclear radiation does indeed fit the definition of an invisible killer. Furthermore, we encountered a nuclear explosion as soon as we entered the dungeon, so it��s instinctive to think in this direction. At first, I tried to find an answer in this direction, and I followed the steps to investigate the cause of the ident, but in the end�� As you can see, the main mission hasn��t changed at all.��


    ��Then what else can the invisible killer refer to?��The young man asked.


    ��Nothing, just the literal meaning,�� Zhang Heng said. ��The background of this dungeon has been deliberately misleading us, making the whole thingplicated.��


    ��The literal meaning? Don��t tell me you really think an invisible killer is lurking around us?�� Mouse shivered and looked around with a panicked expression.


    ��Are you treating us like fools?�� The doctor didn��t fall for his trick at all. Heughed in anger. ��Are you really going to push all this on an invisible man?��


    Even the uniformed teenager, who had always supported Zhang Heng unconditionally, found the statement hard to ept. ��An invisible man�� It��s a little too sci-fi.��


    ��No, you��ve misunderstood me,�� Zhang Heng said. ��The teacher who taught me assassin techniques once told me that the best way to disappear quickly in this world is topletely blend into the surrounding environment and be a part of it.��


    ��So�� for now, what��s the fastest way to blend into the environment?�� Master Kui asked.


    ��Pretend to be a yer.��


    Zhang Heng replied calmly, ��The dungeon��s mode is single-yer cooperative, which means that the yers in the dungeon are all in a cooperative rtionship. Although we can��t rule out the possibility of some yers killing others for their goods, overall, the rtionship between the yers in the single-yer, cooperative dungeon is rtively harmonious. Furthermore, the background of this dungeon is the famous Chernobyl ident. From the first second of the game, the shadow of death has been looming over our heads, especially when we have no clue about the main storyline quest. It��s almost impossible for us to suspect thepanions around us.��


    Zhang Heng paused for a moment before continuing, ��As I said before, this dungeon has been deliberately misleading us from the very beginning. When we first entered the dungeon, there were seven of us in the same room. When we realized that we were surrounded by yers, we naturally assumed that all seven of us were yers. This is a form of mental inertia.��


    ��But after that, we introduced ourselves. At least I didn��t find anything wrong with it. Even if the NPC in the dungeon could blend in with us, it would be difficult to imitate our tone and mannerism. Most importantly, it would be our understanding of the real world.�� Despite saying that, she began to think about the possibility.


    ��Of course, ordinary NPC can��t, but someone can do it.��


    ��Who?��


    ��The master behind this dungeon,�� Zhang Heng said calmly.


    ��The master behind this dungeon? Your story is getting more and more ridiculous,�� the doctor sneered. ��I can��t rule out the possibility that some gods will appear in the dungeon, but I��ve never heard of any gods personally participating in the game.��


    ��Others may not, but I know someone who will. In fact, I��m not surprised at what he does,�� Zhang Heng said.


    ��Do you already know which God is behind this dungeon?�� Grandpa Kui��s eyes moved.


    ��That��s right. Loki, the God of lies and tricks in Norse mythology, is the one hiding among us and ying tricks,�� Zhang Heng said. ��This is very consistent with his style of doing things.��


    ��You said the God behind this dungeon is Loki? Where��s the evidence? So far, all we��ve heard is your nonsense,�� the doctor snapped rudely, clenching the TT-33 in his hand.


    ��The evidence is hidden in every corner of the dungeon. Although Loki has always appeared as a person who can ignore the rules and tease people everywhere, he can indeed break many restrictions. This is also the reason why this dungeon is so unique. However, ording to my spection, he still needs to follow some basic rules in the game. For example, he can��t set up an unsolvable dungeon. He can increase its difficulty to a certain extent, but he also needs to leave the answer to the riddle.��


    ��Where is the answer?�� the boy asked.


    ��ording to Norse mythology, Loki was an outstanding shapeshifter. He appeared in different stories as a seal, a salmon, a white mare, a fly, and an old woman named Sauk.��


    ��A white mare? The one we met on the way to the hotel?�� Mouse asked in surprise.


    Zhang Heng nodded, �� The olddy named Sauk lives in a small vige not far from Pripyat. The building she lives in is taller than the average residential building because, in Norse mythology, she belongs to the giant tribe. Half of the other building has copsed, corresponding to the cave she lives in in the story.��


    ��The dolphin, is it the chain hanging on our car?�� Master Kui quickly thought of the dolphin interior hanging on the rearview mirror of the Volga.


    ��If it��s salmon, it can��t be referring to the canned salmon that we stored, right?�� Mouse��s ability to draw inferences from one example was also very strong.

 Chapter 1183 - The Truth Was Never Pleasant To The Ear

    <h4>Chapter 1183: The Truth Was Never Pleasant To The Ear</h4>


    ��So you think the God behind this dungeon is Loki�� that Loki?�� the Doctor asked, bemused.


    ��Yes, and there has always been a view in the academic world that Loki is not only the god of lies and trickery but also the god of fire, which corresponds to the fire at Chernobyl,�� Zhang Heng said.


    To be honest, he had never expected that Loki would be the mastermind behind this dungeon. Although Zhang Heng and Loki had never met before, they had secretly crossed swords once thanks to the Jemengarde incident. It was then that Zhang Heng learned from Fan Meinan that Loki had also been targeting him for a long time.


    Therefore, when he realized that he had entered Loki��s dungeon in this game round, Zhang Heng did not think it was a coincidence. As for the others, they could only say that they were unlucky to be involved in the dungeon that Loki had designed to deal with him.


    The expression on the Doctor��s scary face kept changing. Obviously, he was also thinking about what Zhang Heng had just said. Although he didn��t want to, he had to admit that Zhang Heng��s spection carried with it a certain degree of credibility. That was because not long ago, he and the maintenance man had also seen that mysterious white mare.


    However, he did not move the TT-33 in his hand away from Zhang Heng��s chest. He only slightly pulled away from Mouse beside him.


    ��The god of lies and trickery is between us at this moment. This is not the exnation I want to hear,�� the Doctor said.


    ��The truth is never pleasant to the ear,�� Zhang Heng said.


    After he said that, the atmosphere became more subtle.


    Almost all the yers present simultaneously assumed defensive positions because no one knew if Loki was standing right next to them.


    This was Loki, not some ancient god that was about to be forgotten or a new god still in the learning and growth stage. He was a traditional god that had existed for thousands of years, was extremely powerful, and was still in the rising stage.


    Any god was not easy to deal with, let alone Loki, infamous for his tricks and lies.


    ��ording to you, Loki is the key person to be found in the main mission. If I put a bullet in each of your heads, will I be able to find out who Loki is and clear this dungeon?�� the Doctor growled.


    ��I advise against it,�� Zhang Heng said.


    ��Why? Loki is a god, and gods can��t be killed by mortals, right? So I��ll shoot you, and we��ll know the result very soon.�� The Doctor loaded the pistol in his hand.


    ��Who told you that gods can��t be killed by mortals?�� Zhang Heng said lightly. ��I��ve killed more than one.��


    ������


    ��That��s good. If we kill Loki, all us yers will be able to clear the level,�� the Doctor said.


    ��Although gods aren��t impossible to kill, they��re not something you can kill with a TT-33,�� Zhang Heng said. ��You can��t kill me with this gun, so if I were you, I��d put the gun down. Loki would love for you to do that. He��s good at stirring up suspicions and disputes.��


    The Doctor fell into a state of hesitation when he heard that. He saw the young man pull out the military dagger from his waist and throw it to his feet.


    As usual, he was the first person to respond to Zhang Heng. He raised his hands to indicate that he did not have any other weapons, ��Simon is right. Since we know that Loki is behind this dungeon, we can use peaceful means to find him among us.��


    ��I think so too,�� Mouse agreed immediately. He quickly threw down the weapon in his hand as if throwing a hot potato.


    But to everyone��s surprise, when it was Kui��s turn, she simply said, ��I refuse.��


    The Doctor immediately turned his gun and pointed at Kui.


    ��You��re Loki?��


    ��Did the radiation damage your brain? How do you know I��m Loki?�� Kui said coldly.


    ��Then why are you objecting?�� The Doctor said seriously. If Kui couldn��t give him a satisfactory exnation, he would pull the trigger without hesitation.


    ��We need to have a good talk, but we can��t abandon our weapons because we still need them to deal with Loki. Don��t forget that this is his dungeon. Even if we join forces, we might still be at a disadvantage,�� Master Kui said.


    ��You have a point.�� Mouse quickly picked up the weapon he had left behind. The young man in the uniform nced at Zhang Heng. Seeing thetter nodding, he bent down to retrieve his military dagger.


    The yers looked at the Doctor, who thought for half a minute before finally putting away the pistol. However, he did not put the TT-33 into the holster. Instead, he kept the gun in his hand, pointing the muzzle at the ground.


    ��If you want to talk, then let��s talk. I��m not Loki. This is obvious. Otherwise, I wouldn��t have ended up in this state,�� the Doctor said. ��Then, after we separated, your bodies began deteriorating at an elerated rate. This is enough to prove that I��m not the one who��s ying tricks in the dark.��


    ��Uh, don��t misunderstand. I��m not saying that you��re Loki,�� Mouse said. ��I��m just stating my own opinion. Everyone knows that Loki is an excellent shapeshifter, so he canpletely disguise himself as someone who��s suffered from severe radiation exposure. In fact, apart from Simon, most of us don��t seem to be in good condition. As for the problem that our bodies deteriorated after you left�� Although you said that you came back on the third day, we don��t know how long you��ve been gone. If you were Loki, you might not have left Pripyat at all and have been following us in secret.��


    After the Doctor tried to prove his ��innocence,�� the boy in the uniform also spoke up.


    ��I��ve always admired Simon. He defeated the three guilds and that mysterious Beta and took first ce on the scoreboard of the first round of the proxy war. After that, I began to collect all kinds of information about him on the forum. Because of that, I had quite a few verbal battles with the people from the three guilds. Master Kui said that my code name was a bit familiar. I think he must have seen the posts where I argued with other people on the forum. Of course, I know that Loki can also choose to pretend to be Simon��s fanboy, but he probably won��t have the time to spend on the forum like me,�� the boy in the uniform mocked himself.


    ��Is it my turn next?�� Mouse looked around and asked nervously, ��I��m not Loki; there��s no doubt about that. Otherwise, Coconut wouldn��t have given me those [Whispers] before she was hospitalized. I mean, if I were the one who harmed her, she wouldn��t have trusted me so much.��


    Editor��s note: All game items mentioned will now have a ��[ ]�� symbol in ordance with the original script.

 Chapter 1184 - Trickery

    <h4>Chapter 1184: Trickery</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    ��Anything else?�� The doctor yed with TT-33, sizing up Mouse in front of him with an unfriendly expression, ��Coconut gave you [Whispers], but who knows if it��s because you��re too good of an actor that you fooled her first. It seems that the possibility of you being Loki is even higher.��


    Mouse was a little intimidated by the doctor��s stare, and the sweat on his forehead began to seep out. He tried hard to think of any other evidence that could prove that he was not Loki, but the more anxious he was, the more his mind went nk, and he could not think of anything. After a long while, he finally managed to say, ��If I were really Loki, I wouldn��t be as easy to see through as it is for me. He is the god of lies and tricks, so his lies should be wless.��


    The doctor was stunned. He obviously did not expect Mouse to think in the opposite direction when he was cornered. ording to him, the more unlikely it was for Loki to be Loki��s man, the more likely it was for him to be Loki��s man. So who was the most unlikely person to be Loki��s man now? The doctor thought about it and realized that it was him. He shouted angrily, ��No nesting!��


    But after Mouse said that, everyone realized that the problem seemed a little unsolvable. If they really yed real-life werewolf, all the yersbined wouldn��t be a match for Loki.


    At that moment, Zhang Heng said, ��I have an idea.��


    ��What idea?��The doctor asked.


    ��I have an item in my hand that can increase the damage of mythical creatures,�� Zhang Heng said as he pulled out the [Hidden Scabbard] from his waist.


    The doctor looked rmed. ��You��re not thinking of using this knife to cut us, are you?��


    ��It��s not that exaggerated. I just need to cut your fingers a little,�� Zhang Heng said.


    ��What happens if you get cut?��


    ��Ordinary people will be fine, but supernatural creatures will continue to bleed,�� Zhang Heng said. ��This is the only way to find out which one of us is Loki.��


    The doctor hesitated, but in the end, he shook his head and said, ��I won��t let you cut my hand with an unknown game item.��


    ��It doesn��t matter. You canest. We��ll cut first. If you find Loki in the middle, you won��t need to be cut. If you don��t, you won��t need to be cut either,�� Zhang Heng said. He didn��t care whether the doctor agreed or not. He turned to ask, ��Who wants to go first?��


    The young man had always been Zhang Heng��s staunch supporter. This time, he didn��t disappoint Zhang Heng. Hearing this, he immediately reached out his hand. Zhang Heng used the [Hidden Scabbard] to gently slice the tip of his thumb.


    Not long after, blood dripped from the wound. Zhang Heng tossed the young man a bag of cotton swabs, and thetter pulled one out to plug the wound.


    The atmosphere at the scene also became tense. About half a minuteter, the young man removed the cotton swabs and raised his injured thumb again.


    The wound on his hand had already scabbed, and no more blood dripped out.


    ��Ha.�� Zhang Heng raised his eyebrows.


    ��How is it? Does this count as passing the test?�� Master Kui asked. She rolled up her sleeves. ��It��s my turn now, right?��


    ��Okay, reach out.�� Zhang Heng pressed his palm on the hilt of the [Hidden Scabbard] as he spoke. However, the next moment, something unexpected happened. Without warning, Zhang Heng suddenly exploded. The [Hidden Scabbard] left the scabbard with a sh of cold light and shed toward the left at a speed untraceable to the naked eye.


    The doctor was shocked by this sudden scene. He finally understood why Zhang Heng had said that a TT-33 would not be able to kill him. With the distance between them, the doctor might not have had the time to shoot. The [Hidden Scabbard] had already cut off his hand that was holding the gun.


    Just like now, the Doctor waited for Zhang Heng��s de to fall before he raised the pistol in his hand and pointed it at Zhang Heng again. ��What is the meaning of this?��


    Zhang Heng did not answer. He only looked at the young man in the uniform not far away.


    His attack just now had been unexpected. The speed of the de was extremely fast, and he had even used his sword techniques. However, the young man in the uniform that he targeted had dodged it. No, to be more precise, he almost dodged it.


    Although the young man had dodged very quickly and disyed incredible speed in the moment of life and death, his opponent tonight was Zhang Heng, who had level 4 de skills. The de of the [Hidden Scabbard] cut through his clothes in the end, as well as the skin under his clothes, leaving a shallow wound on his chest.


    The young man looked at Zhang Heng across from him with a strange expression on his face.


    Most of the yers were still in a daze. They didn��t know why Zhang Heng would attack the young man, but Master Kui seemed to have thought of something. He quietly moved to stand next to Zhang Heng.


    The young man lowered his head and thought for a moment, as if he didn��t see the wound on his chest, ��Your de... has the ability to heal wounds, and it also has the ability to deal additional damage to mythical creatures. Yes, it��s the feeling of powerlessness from the withdrawal of power.��


    Zhang Heng did not answer. He slowly made a starting position.


    He did not dare to be careless when dealing with the famous evil god Loki. Zhang Heng actually had a tool on him that could be used to detect lies��[Vow Rings]. However, Zhang Heng did not need to take it out to know that this F-grade item would be useless against Loki, the god of lies, Loki.


    Furthermore, considering the time Loki was born, he should be able to see the effect of the item in the yer��s hands with just a nce, except for the [Hidden Scabbard].


    Although the [Hidden Scabbard] was born from the [Ordinary Knife], after being reforged, there was almost no simrity between it and the previous one. Other than its forger, only Zhang Heng and the bartender knew about the properties of this knife. Among them, the bartender was sure that after the incident with Jemengarde, she was intentionally trying to get close to Zhang Heng, but it definitely had nothing to do with Loki,


    the forger who was hired for the reforging was also a person who kept his mouth shut, ording to the bartender. Therefore, Zhang Heng was still inclined to believe that Loki did not know enough about this knife. But even so, Zhang Heng did not tell the truthpletely.


    He did not even hide the [Hidden Scabbard��s] characteristics. He only ssified the bleeding characteristic as a bonus damage to mythical creatures. It was precisely because of this that the teenager was subdued, or more urately, it was Loki who took the bait in the end.


    ��What a brilliant trick.�� Loki did not seem to be angry. Instead, he praised, ��But, how can you be sure that I��m willing to let you cut off my finger?��


    ��Because you��re Loki, and you always think you��re the smartest person in the room.��

 Chapter 1185 - Mission Change

    <h4>Chapter 1185: Mission Change</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    Before Zhang Heng could finish his sentence, the doctor, Master Kui, and the others received a system notification.


    [Ding! Congrattions onpleting the first phase of the main storyline mission��searching for key characters. Game Points: +100. You can go to the character panel to view relevant information��]


    [Due to thepletion of the first phase of the main storyline mission, the second phase of the main storyline mission has been automatically activated. Please confirm.]


    [Main mission update��]


    [Main mission has been updated. It has been changed to��kill Loki.]


    [Will return after the main mission ispleted��]


    After hearing the new system notification, master Kui almost cursed out loud. How could they f*cking y like this! They had clearlypleted the main mission and could leave the dungeon, but they did not expect the system to go back on its word. Halfway through, it changed the main mission and forced all the yers to stay in the dungeon.


    Moreover, the content of this second phase of the main storyline mission was too ridiculous. What did it mean to kill Loki? If Loki was so easy to kill, the Nordic gods would not have been helpless against him for a long time. They had been watching him jumping up and down, causing trouble all over the world.


    Loki��sbat strength was not the strongest in Nordic mythology, but he was definitely the most difficult to kill.


    The corners of Loki��s mouth curled up slightly. His gaze swept across the entire scene, taking in all the expressions on the yers�� faces as if enjoying a y.


    But the next moment, the smile on his face froze.


    -LSB- warning! Warning! An unknown external force has been detected interfering with the game. The difficulty of the main mission is abnormal. Emergency response mechanism activated.]


    [Emergency response mechanism activated��]


    [The main mission has been modified and corrected. The main mission remains unchanged after killing Loki. The new mission restrictions are as follows. During the mission duration, Loki is not allowed to leave Pripyat. Killing the five great avatars of Loki will weaken Loki��s strength. Within 12 hours, Loki is not allowed to attack yers. Loki can choose a building in the city as his stronghold. After 12 hours, Loki will remain in the stronghold and can not move again.]


    ��Tsk�� tsk�� are you really going to treat me like the boss?��


    A hint of yfulness shed across Loki��s face. ��Alright, it��s rare that I get the chance to exercise my muscles, so I��ll y this game with you guys.��


    After saying that, he turned to look at Zhang Heng. He was about to say something to Zhang Heng before he left, but unexpectedly, Zhang Heng did not give him a chance at all. The next moment, [Hidden Scabbard] was already shing at him. Loki snorted, without caring about his posture. He hurriedly rolled on the ground to dodge Zhang Heng��s attack. The pride that he had worked so hard to bring up earlier was gone.


    Zhang Heng didn��t give up on chasing after him after missing his attack. Instead, he stuck close to rocky like a maggot on a tarsal bone. [Hidden Scabbard] kept colliding with the cement floor, making nking sounds. Loki couldn��t get up at all and could only roll like a rubber ball.


    He kept rolling down.


    ��This is too much!�� Loki was so angry that he almost got stabbed several times. Although he didn��t know how he managed to stop the bleeding, it was clear that he was still quite afraid of the [Hidden Scabbard] in Zhang Heng��s hands. Obviously, he didn��t want to add another wound to his body. He could only keep yelling, ��If you don��t put away the knife, you��ll regret it!��


    Zhang Heng ignored Loki��s threat. After hearing about the mission restriction, he realized that this was an opportunity. Besides killing the incarnation, which could weaken Loki��s power, Zhang Heng also noticed the rule that Loki couldn��t fight for 12 hours.


    This rule was meant to give yers time to kill the god. Zhang Heng, however, had used it to bypass the process of killing the god. It seemed that he wanted to kill Loki, who couldn��t fight back, right here and now.


    Furthermore, as Zhang Heng hacked, he called out, ��What are you waiting for? Do it.��


    The yers on the side finally came to their senses. Doctor Mang Liang raised the TT-33 in his hand and aimed at Loki, who was on the ground and pulled the trigger. Thetter was now suppressed by the [Hidden Scabbard], so there was no other choice but to choose the lesser of two evils. He took the bullet in his lower abdomen.


    Seeing that Master Kui and Mouse were also about to rush over to join the battle, Loki had no choice but to make up his mind. Gritting his teeth, he reached out his left hand and grabbed Zhang Heng��s [Hidden Scabbard].


    As expected, four of his fingers were directly cut off by Zhang Heng. However, at the cost of this, Loki finally bought some precious time. He reached out his other hand and snapped his fingers.


    When the [Hidden Scabbard] fell down again, Loki had already disappeared from where he stood.


    Zhang Heng pulled out the de embedded in the wall. Hearing the sound of footstepsing from above his head, he chased after him.


    Due to the new rules, Loki could not attack yers yet. Therefore, Zhang Heng did not have to worry about this being a trap. He ran straight up to the roof and saw Loki standing on the edge of the rooftop.


    Loki did not seem to realize that he had been cornered. Stopping in his tracks, his face dark as if he had something to say to Zhang Heng.


    Zhang Heng, who had caught up to him, took out the [Pestilence Bone Bow] on his back and put on the [Parris Arrow]. However, this time, Loki had learned his lesson. Before Zhang Heng could shoot the [Parris Arrow], he snapped his fingers and disappeared again.


    And this time, he hadpletely disappeared. Zhang Heng looked around again, but there was no sign of Loki.


    Zhang Heng was not disappointed. He knew that the god of lies and trickery would not be killed so easily, and the battle just now was not without meaning. Even if he could not kill Loki on the spot with the [Hidden Scabbard��s] unique bleeding and damage bonus on mythical creatures, it would definitely be enough to make him suffer.


    If he could kill five more of his avatars, it would further weaken Loki, and the final battle would increase the yers�� chances of winning.


    Zhang Heng put the [Pestilence Bone Bow] back on his back. Just as he was about to go downstairs, he saw a militia truck driving toward him on the street in the distance.


    ��What��s going on?�� At this time, Grandpa Kui also went up to the rooftop. She was in the second-best physical condition among the yers, so she followed Zhang Heng up. Unfortunately, the battle ended before it even started. Nheless, Master Kui also noticed the two trucks.


    Zhang Heng seemed to have thought of something, so he didn��t say anything. He just turned around and ran downstairs again. Along the way, he ran into the doctor and Mouse, who had rushed over. In the end, the two of them saw Zhang Heng running toward the room where Scherbina was on the third floor.


    Zhang Heng directly knocked open the door and saw the vice president lying in a pool of blood in the living room. The vice president was no longer breathing, and even his body had cooled down. It looked like he had been dead for at least a day. Then, Zhang Heng noticed the flies surrounding Scherbina��s body.


    ��Close the door!�� Zhang Heng screamed to Master Kui and the others.

 Chapter 1186 - The Fly

    <h4>Chapter 1186: The Fly</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    Just as the main storyline mission had changed, the yers noticed that there was a countdown at the bottom right corner of the mission panel. It was exactly 12 hours, and three and a half minutes had already passed.


    In other words, they had to deal with Loki��s five avatars in the remaining 11 hours and 56 and a half minutes. Only then would they be able to weaken Loki��s strength to the maximum.


    This duration... was quite a tight one.


    Mouse and the others were still thinking about where to start, but they didn��t expect Zhang Heng to have found Loki��s first avatar. They weren��t fools either. As soon as Zhang Heng reminded them to close the door, they immediately reacted.


    ��The Fly, one of the avatars of Loki in Norse mythology.


    In the story of searching for the golden-haired man, Loki made a bet with the dwarf. In order to win the bet, he transformed into a fly and bit the dwarf, Brock��s hand when he pulled the bellows,?but unfortunately, still lost the bet. But with Loki��s usual cunning, he escaped punishment in the end.


    Kui was quick-witted. She closed the door before the first fly could fly out of the room. And this was not the end. He then used a towel to block the gap in the door. The others were not idle either. They followed suit. Someone had checked the windows, blocked the air-conditioning vent, making sure to leave all the flies in the room.


    However, after all the preparation work was done, the two military trucks stopped downstairs at the Pripyat Hotel.


    Zhang Heng looked out the window. If everything went as nned, the militia should havee for Scherbina, but he didn��t know if they had received the news of the Vice President��s death.


    ��What should we do?�� Mouse asked anxiously. Originally, Sherbina��s death had nothing to do with them, but because they had to kill the flies in the room, they couldn��t let the militia break-in. Furthermore, given the current situation, if they really opened the door, even if they said that Scherbina��s death had nothing to do with them, no one would believe them.


    Zhang Heng knew that this was a huge trap that Loki had set for them. If the yers shed with the militia, there might be trouble waiting. However, this kind of thing was an open conspiracy. Even if they knew that it was a trap, in order to get rid of Loki��s incarnation, they had to stop the militia at the door at this critical moment.


    Therefore, Zhang Heng said, ��Leave the people downstairs to me. You guys stay here and take care of these flies.��


    After saying that, Zhang Heng walked to the door. After confirming that there were no flies following him, Master Kui removed the towel that blocked the door. Then, Zhang Heng quickly opened the door and left.


    It was useless to reason at a time like this. Therefore, Zhang Heng skipped this step and found a room with a window facing downstairs. Then, he drew his bow and nocked an arrow.


    The leader of the team was waiting for his team members to gather. However, in the next moment, an arrow flew out of nowhere and shot him in the right chest. Zhang Heng didn��t go too far. There was no enmity between them; the main reason being the wounded needed someone to take care of them, but they didn��t need a corpse.


    Zhang Heng��s goal was to stall the two carriages as much as possible to buy time for the yers in the room to get rid of Loki��s avatar. Therefore, it was naturally a better choice for him to wound them.


    Zhang Heng��s arrow had not only made the leader lose his ability to fight but two militia members, risking being shot, dragged their leader to the back of the truck to take care of him. This meant the militia squad downstairs had lost three members.


    After Zhang Heng��s sessful attack, he quickly nocked a second arrow. He looked down and locked onto a squad leader from the crowd before he quickly released the bowstring.


    The scene from before repeated itself. After the squad leader fell to the ground, his men also dragged him to a safe ce. At the same time, the militia finally found Zhang Heng��s location and raised their guns to fight back.


    However, Zhang Heng had already left the room and ran down the fire escape to the first floor. He happened to see a squad of militiamen entering the lobby under the cover of fire.


    However, their luck wasn��t very good. They met Zhang Heng head-on. This time, thetter used the continuous arrow technique and shot three arrows in one go. Although they all hit the target, their uracy wasn��t as good as before��one of the arrows hit a militiaman��s abdomen, and the other hit a militiaman��s thigh.


    However, the rest of the people stopped in their tracks and started to look for cover. Zhang Heng ran to the front desk as well. After the residents of Pripyat evacuated, the power in the town was cut off. The hotel lobby, which had been brightly lit before, was now shrouded in darkness, making it easier for Zhang Heng to move.


    Zhang Heng fired two more arrows in the dark and finally forced the squad that had entered the lobby to retreat.


    However, at that moment, the headlights of one of the trucks lit up, illuminating the lobby as if it was daytime. Then, two more groups of militiamen took over the duties of the previous squad and charged toward the hotel lobby.


    Zhang Heng did not leave immediately. Instead, he continued to lurk behind the reception desk, listening to the approaching footsteps outside.


    After counting silently for three seconds, Zhang Heng drew his bow again, leaned out, and shot two arrows consecutively. The militiaman who was closest to him was shocked and subconsciously squatted down. In the end, the enemy who had never missed before actually missed this time, the two arrows failing to hit him in a row, leaving the militiaman��s heart to be instantly filled with joy.


    However, his joysted less than half a second, and the two arrows that brushed past his body hit the target urately��the lights of the truck. The hotel lobby dimmed again.


    Then, Zhang Heng pulled out a knife and jumped out from behind the front desk.


    He fell into the crowd. The militiamen outside and inside the lobby were afraid of theirrades, so they were unable to fire again. However, the knife in Zhang Heng��s hand was able to dance freely. In addition, he paid special attention to shooting the headlights of the other car. It only took him half a minute to take down the two squads that had entered the lobby. He even took a hostage.


    Worried that the militia squad might be carryingrge-scale explosive weapons like grenades, Zhang Heng did not retreat to the front desk. Instead, he retreated into the fire escape. Before he left, he even released the militia that he had captured. Of course, thetter was also wounded, so he could not continue fighting.


    In the blink of an eye, Zhang Heng had taken down three squads. However,pared to the total number of people who hade to the hotel, the number of wounded was less than one-third. The militia outside had the strength to continue their attack but, perhaps they were shocked by Zhang Heng��s terrifyingbat power, and coupled with the fact that themander had been killed the moment he arrived, that no one dared to enter the lobby, even though they had already seen Zhang Heng retreat into the fire escape.


    Zhang Heng, who was focused on stalling for time, was naturally happy to see the stalemate. He did notunch another attack.. Taking advantage of the chaotic melee earlier, he took out two rifles and sessfully returned upstairs.

 Chapter 1187 - Sheathing The Blade

    <h4>Chapter 1187: Sheathing The de</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    After switching to the rifle, Zhang Heng��sbat power was strengthened once more. With his level-3 marksmanship and [Filter Lens], no one would be able to attack from here as long as he guarded the fire escape.


    The militia then organized two more attacks but were both repelled by Zhang Heng. Furthermore, there were many new casualties. However, through the window, Zhang Heng could also see new military trucks approaching from the distant street. Compared to the first group of people, the second group was probably more well-prepared. Other than that, there was also a helicopter flying toward them. It seemed to be preparing to upy the roof and attack from there.


    Zhang Heng estimated the time. The second group should arrive in three minutes.


    Then he looked at the mission panel. This time, the mission was no longer a minimalist route. Not only was there a countdown, but even the number of Loki��s remaining avatars was shown. It was still five-fifths, or in other words, the battle with the doctor had not ended yet.


    Zhang Heng frowned, put away the rifle in his hand, and went to the door of Scherbina��s room. He knocked on the door, to the answer of Master Kui��s alert voice.


    ��Who is it?��


    ��It��s me,�� Zhang Heng answered.


    ��Wait a moment.��


    About ten secondster, the door opened again, and Zhang Heng walked in. Scherbina��s body was still lying on the floor, and the blood under his body had long solidified. However, this time, there were no more buzzing flies around him.


    The results of the doctor and the others were quite remarkable. In a short period of time, they had basically eliminated all the flies that could be seen in the room. However, there was no sign of Loki��s incarnation among them.


    Mouse and Besnova opened the closet in the bedroom and were rummaging through the clothes and towels inside, searching carefully with their shlights. Before Zhang Heng came in, Master Kui and the doctor weren��t idle either. One was in the bathroom, while the other in the living room. However, they didn��t find anything for the time being.


    They knew that they couldn��t stay here for too long. In order to help with the disaster, Scherbina had mobilized many militiamen. Now that the militiamen were constantly on their way, every minute they stayed here would bring them greater dangers.


    However, the more anxious they were, the more they couldn��t find their target.


    Even though they had sealed off the scene and made it into a situation where they could catch a turtle in a jar, due to the small size of the flies and the fact that the hotel was in a state of a power outage, the lights in the room couldn��t be turned on. Thus, they could only rely on their shlights to light up the ce, making it extremely difficult to find them.


    The doctor was frustrated. The festering skin on his body had caused his body to lose heat. His body temperature had been maintained at around 39 degrees, and his patience had dropped significantly, ��What should we do? Why don��t we just burn this ce to the ground?��


    Zhang Heng was nomittal. He recalled Norse mythology and the part where Loki transformed into a fly. In the story, in order to destroy Hindley��s forging, Loki had transformed into a fly and attacked Brock, who was responsible for pulling the bellows. First, he bit Brock��s palm.


    Then, Zhang Heng walked over to Scherbina��s body. Mr. Vice President had been in charge of the Soviet energy construction before his death. He promoted the use of nuclear energy with an iron fist, cleaned up the opposition, and built nuclear power nts all over the Soviet Union. In order to rush the project, he had even neglected the project��s safety to a certain extent. After the Chernobyl ident, Scherbina was also the first to rush to the scene to lead the disaster relief work. When he realized the seriousness of the problem, he once again disyed his iron-blooded side, mercilessly urging the various departments to step up the pace of relief work. This was also the reason why there were many controversies about him intter generations.


    The corpse of this important figure, however, nowy on the floor, and no one cared about it.


    The yers were busy searching for Loki��s incarnation, so they did not care about anything else. Only Zhang Heng squatted in front of the vice-chairman��s body.


    The cause of Scherbina��s death was clear, and there was no dispute. Anyone who wasn��t blind could tell that he had died from a knife wound. A sharp knife more than 40 centimeters long had pierced his back, prating his heart; the murder weapon, left on Scherbina��s back.


    At the time of the incident, the vice-chairman was probably drinking water in the living room. He didn��t even have time to change out of his suit, and the ss of water slipped out of his hand after he was stabbed. However, because the floor was carpeted, the ss didn��t break. It rolled to the side of the coffee table, the vice-chairman following suit and falling to the ground.


    Zhang Heng only took a nce to reconstruct the situation at the scene, including the position of the murderer at the time, the angle and strength of the knife... However, that wasn��t his main focus. Zhang Heng lifted the vice-chairman��s left hand to take a look. He didn��t see anything unusual, so he lifted his right hand. This time, he finally found something. Under the back of Scherbina��s right hand, he saw a wound, as if it had been corroded by something.


    This wound was almost negligiblepared to the fatal knife wound on his back, but it matched with the part where Loki transformed into a fly and bit the dwarf bullock for the first time ording to Norse mythology.


    Then Zhang Heng checked Scherbina��s neck. This was where Loki transformed into a fly and bit bullock for the second time. Sure enough, he found the same wound, and the third time was when Loki finally seeded, he had bitten the spot between Bullock��s eyes and eyebrows.


    Zhang Heng turned the Vice Chairman��s corpse over and looked at thetter��s eyes and eyebrows.


    There, he saw a bloody hole the size of a peanut. The hole was very deep, and he could already see the wall of the eye below. And in the mass of fleshy a ck figure.


    It was a fly, but several timesrger than an ordinary fly. It looked as if it had been mutated by radiation.


    Just as the yers wanted to take a closer look, the fly suddenly spread its wings and flew up from the corpse. Its speed was incredibly fast. Like a bullet, it shot up into the sky with a whoosh, then, pped its wings and kept changing directions.


    Master Kui and the others hurriedly adjusted their shlights, trying to keep up with the fly��s movements. However, the fly��s flight path was too strange. After a few arcs, they lost track of it.


    However, just as the fly was about to leave after ying around with the yers, they saw a sh of light.


    The next moment, Zhang Heng had already returned the [Hidden Scabbard] to its sheath.


    A system notification sounded in everyone��s ears.


    [Sessfully killed 1 Loki avatar. 4 avatars remain. Loki��s strength has been reduced by 10%. Obtained 20 points. Head the character interface to check the relevant information....]

 Chapter 1188 - The Second Incarnation

    <h4>Chapter 1188: The Second Incarnation</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    It got solved just like that?


    After hearing the system notification, Master Kui and the others were in a daze. They couldn��t believe their eyes. It wasn��t until they found the fly��s corpse on the ground that they finally realized that Loki��s first incarnation had really been killed.


    They hadn��t expected that the fly, which seemed to move swiftly and elegantly, would send them to the spring so quickly after a series of tiger-like maneuvers. Zhang Heng, who had killed it, didn��t even turn on his shlight. He simply shed into the darkness, ending the not-so-intense battle.


    In addition, he had previously forced Loki to roll on the ground with a single sh. Although there was a reason for this, the others believed that they could not do it. Regardless of their strength, they did not even have the courage to attack Loki, who was in his best condition. One had to know that thetter was the famous god of lies and trickery.


    Ordinary yers would unconsciously lower their imposing manner when facing Loki, doubting whether they would unknowingly step into thetter��s trap. How would they dare to plot against Loki himself?


    So was it the strength of the first ce on the proxy war rankings then?


    Master Kui, the doctor, and Mouse were in a daze for a moment. The previous step-by-step investigation was not apparent. They even felt that Simon��s strength was not as strong as the rumors had said. Until tonight, however, they finally realized how insurmountable the gap between them and Simon was.


    However, they did not spend too much timementing. Besnova had already pointed out the window to remind them. In just a short while, four more military trucks stopped outside the hotel entrance. Not only were militia on the trucks, but also regr soldiers. And this time, they brought heavy weapons with them.


    Zhang Heng only took one look before deciding that it would be difficult to break out of the encirclement. ��Let��s go upstairs,�� he said.


    After what happened earlier, the yers didn��t even ask where they should go after going upstairs. They all followed Zhang Heng.


    Ever since Zhang Heng returned to Scherbina��s room, it had been a long time since he had appeared downstairs. Fortunately, the threat he had left behind was still there. When the second group of people arrived, they didn��t immediately attack but instead thought of sealing the hotel and preventing the people inside from escaping. This also bought time for the yers to move.


    The five of them did not stop. They ran straight up to the rooftop. Coincidentally, the helicopternded on the rooftop. However, just as the pilot stopped the helicopter, he heard a gunshot. Then, he felt a pain in his chest and slumped to the side of the seat.


    The remaining ten yers quickly took out their weapons. However, at this time, the second wave of attacks from the yers had already arrived. Zhang Heng gave the rifle that he had snatched to Mouse. Together with the TT-33 in the doctor��s hand, they had some firepower.


    However, the shooting skills of the two of them were basically still at level 0, or at most were level 1 beginners. They could only aim and fire. As for whether they could hit the target would depend on the distance and luck of the two parties.


    In the end, other than Mouse, who was slightly luckier and hit a militia soldier in the calf, the bullets that followed the two of them either flew away or hit the door of the helicopter.


    However, even so, the enemy continued to fall. Zhang Heng used the water tank on the rooftop as a cover to continuously hit the target. Although Mouse and the doctor did not hit the enemy much, they helped Zhang Heng divert a lot of attention, helping his battle be more rxed.


    On the other side, Master Kui finally performed to her standards. During the gunfight between Zhang Heng and the people in the helicopter, she lived up to her code name, sneaking to the aircraft��s side from another path. Master Kui had never practiced marksmanship, but as a female, her closebat skills were exemry. Her attacks were ruthless, and she wasn��t at a disadvantage in terms of strength.


    Sheunched an attack from behind and broke the neck of one of the militiamen. Then, she used a dagger to sh at therade next to the militiaman. She was only discovered after killing two people, but only three enemies were left in the cabin, including a wounded soldier who had lost his fighting ability. Master Kui was quick-witted. She kicked away the gun in one of the men��s hands, then fell into the arm of another man.


    By the time Zhang Heng and the others arrived, the battle inside had already ended. Master Kui climbed into the helicopter��s pilot seat. When she had introduced herself, she admitted that she had helicopter flying skills and naturally took over the position of the pilot. In addition to the battle just now, she was relieved. She felt that they were finally no longer just essories around Simon.


    ��Where are we going?�� Master Kui asked as he grabbed the steering wheel.


    ��We fly east, about 120 kilometers from here. There��s a small vige. Loki has an avatar there,�� Zhang Heng said. He didn��t fight for the pilot��s seat with Master Kui, sitting at the back with the doctor, Mouse, and Besnova.


    The person he was directing Master Kui to look for was that old woman called Sauk. She was also Loki��s avatar that he had met when he and the hostess had returned to the countryside in the parallel dungeon. If it was at the beginning of the dungeon, the doctor, Master Kui, and the others would have probably asked Zhang Heng how he knew where Loki��s avatar was.


    This was because, other than the doctors and maintenance workers who had left, the rest of the people had been working in groups during this period of time. Apart from the Chernobyl nuclear power nt, they had not been to any other ce outside of Pripyat, not to mention the small vige 120 kilometers away. How would Zhang Heng be sure where Loki��s avatar was?


    Despite all that, no one questioned Zhang Heng��s judgment.


    Previously, Zhang Heng had driven for about two hours to reach the small vige. This time, he was taking a helicopter, and because he did not need to take a detour, it took him less than 40 minutes to reach the destination.


    From the air, he could already see the half-copsed dpidated house, standing alone on the slope. It was no different from the first time Zhang Heng saw it.


    At this time, the viges near Pripyat had also begun to evacuate. However, the vige where Svena��s grandfather lived, 100 kilometers away, was not included. The people were still living as usual, but most residents had already fallen asleep at this time. The lights in Sauk��s room, however, were still on.


    Master Kui maneuvered the helicopter andnded on the ridge next to them. But the next moment, loud gunshots suddenly rang out without warning.


    A tall and slightly hunched old woman was lying on the hay behind her house. She pointed her gun at the helicopter in the sky and seemed to be cursing.


    Kui felt a pain in his right arm, and she subconsciously pulled the control stick. The helicopter, which was still flying well, began to spin around its tail like a cat. It even dove downwards, and it looked like it was about to crash.. At this critical moment, a hand reached out from behind Master Kui and grabbed the control stick, stabilizing the out-of-control helicopter.

 Chapter 1189 - Murals

    <h4>Chapter 1189: Murals</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    It only took a few seconds for the helicopter to recover from the loss of control.


    However, the people on the aircraft felt like they had been through a century. Seeing Master Kui, the only pilot shot, many people felt like they were going to die this time. However, other than searching for support to stabilize their bodies, there was nothing else they could do, and they could only watch the helo fall from the sky.


    Unexpectedly, at the critical moment, it was Simon who took over the helicopter��s controls and stabilized the fusge. At the same time, Zhang Heng and the wounded Master Kui switched seats and took the pilot��s seat.


    However, the old woman named Sauk also cursed and reloaded the shotgun.


    This time, she took aim at Zhang Heng. Sauk was clearly not as crazy as she appeared to be. She knew very well that as long as she killed the pilot, none would be able to escape the helicopter.


    However, this time, she encountered an opponent. Although they could fly the helicopter, Master Kui and Zhang Heng��s piloting skills werepletely different. Master Kui��s piloting skills were learned from a dungeon, but due to the limited time in the game, she had only learned the basics. She spent half a month learning how to fly from point A to point B, but that was all.


    Zhang Heng, on the other hand, had spent half a year training with the ace pilot Armstrong in the Flight Dynamics Lab under NASA. Zhang Heng��s shooting skills were also at level 3. With just a nce at Master Kui��s injuries, Zhang Heng could roughly estimate Sauk��s shooting skills. She should be at the peak of Level 2, so as long as he couldnd steadily, Zhang Heng was confident that he could kill Loki��s second incarnation.


    Thus, when Zhang Heng took over the helicopter, he first pulled the joystick to the left and tilted the aircraft to block Sauk��s shooting angle. At the same time, he pulled down first and then raised the throttle main lever. The helicopter nodded downward, but it was only a ruse to fool Sauk. Before thetter could open fire, the aircraft continued to pull up. Sauk��s second bullet grazed thending gear of the helicopter and ricocheted away.


    Zhang Heng didn��t risk descending, continuing his climb to a rtively safe height before flying to the other side of the field. It was not until he was out of the shooting range of the hunting rifle that he finally found a suitable ce tond.


    After the three minutes of shock, many people were still unable to catch their breath. They were dazed by a certain someone��s extreme maneuvers, but they now looked at Zhang Heng in an even more admirable way.


    Although they were not Simon��s fans, they had seen several posts rted to Zhang Heng on the forums during this period. There had been rumors that Simon might have no weaknesses in his skills, a rare all-rounder. That had to be the only exnation for why he had been single-tasking all this time.


    However, most people were skeptical of this theory because it was well known that their time and energy were limited. It was hard to believe that someone could do something that a team would usually do. It was ridiculous, of course, but they all believed it after personally arranging a dungeon with Simon.


    Zhang Heng first took a look at Kui��s injury. Thetter had been shot in the right arm by Sauk. Her condition wasn��t looking too good; the ce where she had been shot was a bloody mess. There was a lot of blood, but fortunately, the position was not fatal. It was a blessing in disguise.


    The doctor was already helping her bandage up. So Zhang Heng said to Mouse, ��Your legs are in no condition to move. Stay here and protect them. Leave Loki��s avatar to me.��


    Mouse was very self-aware, so he didn��t try to be brave. Instead, he nodded. ��Okay, we will guard this ce well and try not to drag you down, God.��


    Zhang Heng looked around to make sure that there was no danger. Then, he took out his [Filter Lens] and put it on. He bent down with the rifle in hand and hid his body in the wheat field, moving toward Sauk��s ce.


    It took him about 15 minutes to reach Sauk��s house again. The lights were still on, but after the haystack, Sauk was nowhere to be seen. Zhang Heng was not in a hurry. It had only been an hour since the mission��s second phase began, and there was still plenty of time. He took a detour and sneaked in from the south side.


    When he was close, he first smashed the window with a stone. Then, he pressed his body against the wall on the other side. However, there was still no movement in the house. Zhang Heng heard the sound of the stone hitting the ground and rolling around before crashing into another wall; he stopped. Almost simultaneously, he broke through the door and rushed into the room.


    Because there was still a kerosenemp burning in the room, he didn��t need the [Filter Lens] to see everything inside. Unlike ordinary residences, therge room was empty. There was nothing but a wooden table. Zhang Heng couldn��t even find a bed inside. It was really no different from a cave.


    Other than that, a mural was on the wall. It was drawn with charcoal, depicting the five avatars of Loki. One was a corpse and a fly. Seeing that the body was very simr to Scherbina��s, Zhang Heng��s heart skipped a beat. He looked at the other paintings. One of them was an old woman running in the forest, and a ck shadow with a gun was chasing him. If he wasn��t mistaken, the old woman was Sauk herself, and the ck Shadow was Zhang Heng.


    There was another painting on the wall that Zhang Heng had seen before. It was of a horse drinking water by a stream, and there was a Lada parked on the other side of the river. Zhang Heng quickly scanned through the other murals and memorized the contents. These murals were obviously simr to the hints in the game, pointing the way for the yers to find Loki��s avatar.


    Of course, Zhang Heng didn��t wholly believe the contents of the murals. Based on his understanding of Loki, he didn��t think that the guy would be so kind and considerate of the yers. In fact, it was bizarre that these murals would appear here, especially the one about the white mare. It was a scene that happened in a parallel dungeon.


    The Lada that appeared in the murals wasn��t a coincidence. The person who painted it had obviously seen this scene with his own eyes, but this also meant that Loki had entered the parallel dungeon with him. Zhang Heng recalled what had happened in the parallel dungeon and realized that other than Loki��s two other avatars that appeared in the middle of the dungeon, he didn��t believe that the other people he hade into contact with were Loki��s disguises.


    Furthermore, looking at the young man in the uniform, it was evident that he was also engrossed in killing the werewolves.. He did not expect Zhang Heng to suddenly attack him. Could the mural on the wall have been painted by someone else?

 Chapter 1190 - Room 302

    <h4>Chapter 1190: Room 302</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    Loki looked a little disheveled.


    Although his four severed fingers had grown back, they still looked a little different from the original one on his other hand. His skin color and size were simr to that of a newborn.


    The blood flow on the spot where Zhang Heng had cut his chest had also stopped long ago. The [Hidden Scabbard��s] non-healing attribute seemed to have no effect on him. However, if one looked closely, one would see that his wound had notpletely healed, but it had be so small blood could no longer flow out. There was also a small wound on his severed finger. As for the gunshot wound on his abdomen, it had already recovered.


    Loki looked like a middle-aged man who had just been retrenched by thepany. He was walking home with a sad face, sighing, and seemed to be having a headache about how to face his wife and children who were waiting for him to get off work.


    He deliberately slowed down and dawdled for a while, stopping in front of a clothing store for a moment. After changing into a new coat, he continued on his way.


    During this time, he heard the sound of a helicopter flying over his head. He looked up at the ne flying out of the city and made a shooting gesture. After entertaining himself for a while, his mood seemed to have improved. He regained his brisk pace, hummed a little tune, and hopped forward. Finally, he arrived in front of an apartment building.


    Like the other apartments in the city, there was nothing special about this one. Because of the evacuation, it also looked deserted.


    Loki also met a cat downstairs. Unlike the stray cats that the yers had encountered before, which had been exposed to radiation and had be deformed and skinny due tock of food, this one looked very beautiful and leisurely. Its fur was shiny, its body round. It licked its paws as it squatted beside the flower bed.


    Loki walked to the cat��s side. He squatted down and scratched the cat��s chin. The cat also showed afortable expression. At the same time, its body began to change. It was as if it was made up of cubes. If a yer nearby saw this scene, they would probably gasp in shock, because this cat looked exactly like the one in Minecraft.


    Loki also clicked his tongue. He left a can of fish for the cat that had be a cube, then got up and continued walking forward.


    At the gate, he met another man dressed like a mercenary. He was not the kind of mercenary who was active in local wars to make money for the warlords, but instead, a mercenary dressed in medieval attire in the world of swords and magic.


    He wore a set of chainmail and carried two swords on his back. One was made of steel and the other was made of silver. The long scar on his left eye showed that he had richbat experience, but none of those were as eye-catching as his golden pupils and white hair.


    When Loki saw the white-haired man, he sighed. ��He said I didn��t follow the rules. Didn��t he go even further? He even made Wizard.��


    The white-haired man across from him also spoke, his deep, husky voice full of masculinity. ��You look terrible. Your day didn��t go well. Why? Did you quarrel with your girlfriend?��


    ��Typical Geralt humor.�� Loki shrugged. ��But I have a good rtionship with my wife and lover. Thanks to your boss, I was almost killed.��


    ��So you came here to get back at me?�� the white-haired man said as he ced his hand on the hilt of the silver sword behind him.


    ��Rx, demon hunter,�� Loki said. ��I just came here to greet the creator of this world and offer my humble respects.��


    ��I can smell conspiracy and intrigue from you from ten miles away. You��d better be as honest as you say, evil god. Otherwise, the sword in my hand is for you,�� the white-haired man said coldly, but after staring at Loki for half a second, he still moved away.


    ��Thank you so much,�� Loki said politely. As he passed by the white-haired man, he whispered into the man��s ear, ��If you ever get tired of all this and the feeling of being controlled by someone, you cane to me if you want to change your job.��


    ��Stop your devil��s whispers. I��ve been through the trials of the grass, and my will is firm,�� the white-haired man replied.


    Loki did not mind. He nced behind him again. There seemed to be a hooded figure hiding in the shadows. Loki waved at the man, but seeing that the man did not respond, he was not angry. He strode forward, he continued to walk upstairs.


    He climbed up to the third floor and finally stopped in front of Room 302. He knocked on the door, but there was no response.


    ��I��ming in,�� Loki said with a smile, then pushed open the unlocked door.


    After all the residents of the city had left by car, no one had expected that there would be a ten-year-old boy in Room 302. His parents should have left with the convoy and there were also traces of them rummaging around the house before they left.


    However, the careless couple had forgotten to take their child with them, leaving thetter alone in the abandoned city. God knew how he hade here all this way by himself.


    However, when he was discovered by Loki, he did not cry. He was much quieter than the average child, sitting on the floor with his back facing the door.


    Loki seemed to be worried that he would scare the little boy. He quietly walked behind him and saw the little boy ying go with him. One hand was holding a white chess piece while the other was holding a ck chess piece. They were having a great time killing each other on the chessboard.


    The abandoned little boy seemed to havepletely immersed himself in the game of go. Even when rocky walked behind him, he did not notice it until rocky coughed twice and said, ��I��m just curious. If you win in the end, do you lose or win?��


    ��To me, winning or losing is far less enjoyable than ying chess.�� The little boy looked at the bottom right corner of the chessboard, where the ck-and-white chess fight was most intense. He answered casually when he heard Loki��s question, his voice filled with childlike innocence.


    ��It seems we still have some simrities.�� Loki licked his face to get closer to him.


    Unexpectedly, the little boy shook his head and said, ��No, you and I are two different kinds of people. I respect the rules of the game, because in most cases, you can only have the most fun ying under the rules. This is also the reason why rules exist.. They are not only a constraint, but also a source of fun.��

 Chapter 1191 - What A Pity

    <h4>Chapter 1191: What A Pity</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    ��I admit that I��m not naturally interested in rules. I only care about getting the results I want. As for the methods and the trouble it will bring, that has never been my focus.�� Loki spread his hands, ��It��s my fault for always having the power to ignore the rules.��


    The little boy nodded. ��God of pranks and lies, you��ll be a good character to y Texas hold��em. Let��s y when you��re free.��


    ��I don��ty eggs like to a hen, and even if I win, you��ll suspect me of cheating, right?�� Loki said as he opened the fridge and found a bottle of beer. But because the power had been out in the city for a while, the beer had long warmed to room temperature.


    The little boy reached out and Loki handed him the beer. When he took it back, the beer was already emitting cold air, and ayer of fine water droplets had even formed on the ss bottle.


    ��Cool!�� Loki whistled. ��Did you change the code of this beer bottle in the background just now? When will I learn this trick of yours? I don��t have to show my face in the dungeon, and you set it as a gatekeeper boss.��


    ��I��m not targeting you. It��s just that your power is too strong for this dungeon. You need to make numerical adjustments. Only in this way can the game be bnced,�� the little boy said expressionlessly.


    ��Bnced?�� Loki��s face showed a half-smile, ��I��m not the only one in this dungeon with a data overflow, right? You��re ignoring the guy with the cheating device, and you��re still talking about bnce? Don��t tell me you don��t know anything about the underhanded tricks of Kronos.��


    ��We reached an agreement at the beginning of the game. Every God will bestow an ability on the agent they value. All the actions of Kronos and his agent up to now are within the rules of the game,�� the little boy said with a serious expression.


    ��Rubbish!�� Loki looked disdainful. He opened his beer and took a sip, ��In the words of the white-haired man downstairs, I can smell the PY from ten miles away. You turned a blind eye to it because Kronos helped you build the game��s time system.��


    The little boy didn��t deny it. ��Not only Kronos, but many other people contributed to the process. That��s why we set up the organizingmittee to manage these game worlds. Without their help, I wouldn��t have been able to create so many realistic and charming worlds. Speaking of which, I once invited you to help design the main storyline mission, but you didn��t ept it.��


    ��I��m a busy man, so I don��t have the time. and aren��t you worried that I��ll mess up your beloved game world?�� Loki pretended.


    ��I can give you a certain amount of free space to unleash your creativity. In the end, I��ll handle it. I��m confident that nothing will go wrong,�� the little boy said. ��I know what you��re worried about. I can also persuade the other members of the organizingmittee to try to ept you. Of course, in view of your unpleasant past, it will be difficult to wipe your te clean. But at least it��s not a problem to maintain a cooperative state in this matter. You can also use this as an opportunity to repair your rtionship with them.��


    Loki was angered by the boy��s words. However, the boy��s final promise lit his eyes up. He seemed tempted. Just as he was about to agree, however, his expression changed and he grinned. ��I refuse. Do you really think I care about what other gods think of me?��


    The little boy was not surprised. ��What a pity,�� he simply said.


    ��No, it��s not.�� Loki scratched his chin. ��If you hadn��t appeared here tonight, I wouldn��t have known that you had your eyes on him.��


    ��I only appeared here because I received a major error report.��


    ��Tsk, Tsk, Tsk. What did I just say? Don��tpare eggs with hens. I won��tpare Texas hold��em with you, so you��d better not lie in front of the god of lies.��


    Loki grinned, but his smile stopped halfway through.


    ��Damn it, how long has it been? My second incarnation was killed too!��


    .....


    Zhang Heng silently memorized a few murals on the wall, turned to leave, but he stopped the next moment.


    He walked to the only furniture in the room and reached out to pick up the kerosenemp. Almost at the same time, a system notification sounded in his ear.


    [Discovered game item��Old Kerosene Lamp (Unappraised)]


    Zhang Heng felt that the kerosenemp was ced too deliberately. It happened to be at the golden dividing point of the entire room. Of course, if it wasn��t for his keen observation and sense of space, he would probably only have noticed it after measuring it step by step with a ruler.


    However, Zhang Heng was able to observe themp��s position with his naked eye. Thus, on his way back, he picked up a game item, the kerosenemp, and examined it. However, he couldn��t find anything special about it. The item was still in its unappraised state, and Zhang Heng hadn��t seen it used before, so he couldn��t figure out its use. Thus, he had no choice but to put it into his backpack.


    Then, he left the hut and went to the haystack. It was then that he noticed the footprints on the ground.


    Because of Sauk��s weird personality, she had almost no contact with the people in the vige. She lived alone in a corner of the vige, so the footprints on the ground were all left by her alone. It was very convenient to chase after her, where Zhang Heng could tell from a nce which of them were fresh.


    The footprints that had just been left stretched all the way to the forest behind them, also the direction of Sauk��s escape.


    Zhang Heng chased after them with his rifle. The forest at night was quiet. Only the scattered moonlight fell on the ground. The huge shadows of the trees covered most of the area, making the view very bad. However, this didn��t affect Zhang Heng��he was wearing the [Filter Lens], thus he could see everything around him.


    With this D-grade item, he did not have to worry about being ambushed by Sauk. In addition to the time he had spent in the hut, Zhang Heng did not slow down. He ran to the two pine trees that were about to stick together, however, Zhang Heng suddenly stopped in his tracks.


    At this moment, Sauk was holding her hunting rifle and hiding behind a rock 50 meters away.. He pricked up his ears as if he was waiting for something.

 Chapter 1192 - The Spectator

    <h4>Chapter 1192: The Spectator</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    Sauk tried her best to suppress the sound of her breathing. There was a reason why she had chosen to escape to this ce.


    50 meters away, she had personally dug the bear trap. The pit was four meters deep, six meters long, and three meters wide, and there was also a sharpened wooden stake at the bottom.


    Only a thin wooden board in the middle could be used to walk. Sauk had attached soil to the board so that it couldn��t be seen from the outside. If Zhang Heng followed her footsteps, he would be doomed if he made the wrong step, and even if he didn��t, it would be useless to traverse the thin wooden board.


    Since the wooden board had been carefully selected by Sauk, it could bear her weight. With Zhang Heng��s weight, however, it would definitely break, which meant that Zhang Heng would still fall into the trap, and he would end up gutted.


    As if to prove Sauk��s hypothesis, the next moment, she really heard the sound of the wooden board breaking. Something had fallen into the trap!


    A hint of excitement shed across Sauk��s cold, vicious eyes. However, she wasn��t in a hurry. Instead, she stuck her head out from behind the rock and quickly looked outside to ensure that she didn��t see Zhang Heng anywhere nearby. At that moment, her heart calmed.


    Holding her shotgun, she approached the trap one step at a time. She checked her harvest, but all she saw was a rock.


    Sauk��s face filled with shock. At the same time, a bad feeling rose in her heart. However, it was already toote. A figure silently jumped down from the tree behind her.


    Zhang Heng didn��t even shoot. He merely kicked the hawk into the trap that it had dug herself.


    Thetter��s chest, arms, and neck were pierced by the sharp wooden stakes. She died a miserable death.


    The next moment, the other yers in the wheat field received a system notification.


    [Sessfully killed one Loki avatar. Remaining avatars: 3. Loki��s strength has been reduced by 20%. Obtained 20 points. Please check the relevant information on the character interface...]


    Up until now, Zhang Heng had already killed two Loki avatars. Each time he lost one, Loki��s strength would be reduced by 10%. In other words, once he killed five of Loki��s avatars, his opponent would only have 50% of his strength left.


    Of course, Loki at 50% of his strength was still not easy to deal with, but it was at least much better than facing Loki in his full form. Thus, Zhang Heng remained dissatisfied even after he��d killed Sauk. He simply packed up and returned to the helicopter, moving toward the location of Loki��s next incarnation.


    The murals in Sauk��s room also pointed him in the right direction. However, before that, Zhang Heng had to find a safe ce to send the wounded Kui.


    ��Let��s go to the medical center. The bullet in her body needs to be removed immediately,�� the doctor suggested. ��The people in the town evacuated in a hurry, so there should be beds, medicine, operating theatre, and medical equipment. I can work on her there.��


    ��Okay.��


    Zhang Heng flew the chopper to the hospital. Coincidentally, the third avatar he was looking for happened to be there.


    .....


    Loki wore an ugly expression on his face. After all, anyone who suddenly lost 20% of their strength would be very unhappy. Even in the game, he could not help butin, ��What kind of stupid rule is this? I can only watch as my avatars get wiped out one by one. And then it��s my turn?��


    The boy shook his head. ��It was you who changed the main storyline mission to killing you halfway. The organizingmittee once warned the gods of the dungeons not to go down on their own, especially to participate in the main storyline mission. You see, this is the meaning of the existence of the rules.��


    ��Tsk. Your long speech sounds like an excuse to protect the yer with the number 07958. interesting. Even you are interested in him?�� Loki wasn��t angry, rubbing his hands in excitement instead. ��Then the next thing will be even more interesting.��


    ��What exactly do you want to do?�� Little boy frowned and said warily. He finally put down the chess piece in his hand and looked at the god of lies and trickery.


    ��Don��t worry, I��m just here to have some fun. You know me, I just can��t stay idle. When I saw that old bastard Kronos being so sneaky, I couldn��t help but want to deal some damage... well, I can��t consider it damage. Maybe one day, that Zhang Heng will thank me. Besides, didn��t you spend so much effort to gather all the agents together just to see who is more powerful? To resolve the dispute among the gods and to get a cut of the cake of the new market? What a clich�� method. You have no intention at all.��


    ��So?��


    ��So I��ll do you a favor and help you share some of the workload. It��s a very simple thing, to begin with, and there��s no need to make it soplicated. It��s divided into one round, two rounds, three rounds, and so on...��


    Loki looked as if he was saying, ��I just want to criticize thisplicated and lengthy bureaucratic system.��


    However, he said with conviction instead, ��There��s no need to serve desserts anymore. Just bring the main dishes to the table and get the carnival started!��


    The little boy��s face darkened. He finally stood up from the ground. Standing at only 1.4 meters tall, his shadow filled the entire room when he stood up. And under the intense pressure, even Loki looked three centimeters shorter.


    That indifferent smile, however, still remained on thetter��s face. A figure wearing a hood and a sleeve sword on his arm quietly moved behind him from the kitchen, and in the direction of the bedroom, the real Kratos also walked out with his Leviathan ax on his back.


    Loki whistled.


    ��The weing effect is not bad.��


    The little boy said calmly, ��It is said that Odin once tied you up with your son��s intestines and let poisonous snakes continuously spit venom on your face. And I can keep you in my game world forever without these things.��


    ��I don��t doubt that. You��re the most powerful new god at the moment, and there��s no doubt that you can do whatever you want to me, but I also believe that you won��t,�� Loki said with a smile, ��Don��t forget that I��m also the boss guarding this dungeon. Without me, the yers won��t have any monsters to fight. You Can��t send your muscr man and assassin to rece me, right? Although it��s not impossible, it��s like dipping lychee in sesame oil. It stinks, okay?��


    ��Other than that...�� Loki paused, smiled even more happily, and spread his hands, ��... it��s useless even if you force me to stay. What should have happened will still happen. By the way, even you know about the game organizingmittee by the gods. Don��t tell me you think I��m still working alone?


    ��Although my ally isn��t in the best mental state, he��s a very hardworking and good person. He��s basically done all the preparatory work. As for me, I��ve only helped him a little during this period of time. I mainly used my smart brain to formte and perfect his n. However, the next part isn��t something that I can control.. I��m just a spectator that brought his own stool and melon seeds.��

 Chapter 1193 - The Vortex

    <h4>Chapter 1193: The Vortex</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    Zhang Heng parked the helicopter beside the Pripyat River. Next to it was the outlet of the nuclear power nt.


    The cooling water would first flow through the steam turbine��s pre-heat exchanger, taking away a portion of the heat before being discharged into the Pripyat River.


    Because the water there was rtively warm and rich in microorganisms, it attracted a lot of fish. Previously, when the yers escaped from the nuclear power nt, they saw a few anglers fishing here.


    Of course, due to their slow reaction, they failed to leave in time, resulting in them absorbing a lot of radiation. They were bedridden in the hospital now, and they weren��t in the best condition. If given another chance, they probably would not choose to stand here and continue watching the expensive show.


    Zhang Heng used the portable radiation meter to measure the radiation value in the water. It was about 3.4 to 3.5 roentgen. This was a very high dose, almost approaching the limit of the portable radiation meter. Fortunately, the yers did not have to worry about the consequences of the radiation.


    After the main mission update especially, Zhang Heng had decided to kill Loki within 12 hours, so what he had to do was to keep his body in peak condition in that duration. After going through the parallel dungeon, he had a good grasp of the radiation level and knew that he could go into the water.


    Thus, he did not hesitate to take off his clothes.


    This was where the Loki Salmon Avatar was depicted in the murals. In Norse mythology, Loki��s avatar was Loki himself after he instigated Hodel, the blind God of Darkness, to kill Bader with Mistletoe. Not only did he not restrain himself, but he even went to the banquet to provoke the gods. In the end, he was chased by the Asgardian gods and had no choice but to turn into a salmon and jump into the river, trying to cheat his way out.


    However, his trick was eventually seen through by the gods. The Asgardian gods�� method of dealing with him was simple. They ced arge upstream and pulled it all the way down, clearing out all the rocks in the river. In the end, Loki had nowhere to run. He could only jump out and be caught by Thor.


    However, myths were myths, after all. The Asgardian gods had the ability to make that huge fishing, and at the same time, they could cover the entireke. However, in reality, Zhang Heng had no ce to look for such arge. Even if he found it, he would not be able to use it. Furthermore, Loki��s incarnation wasn��t the only fish in the Pripyat River.


    There was a reason why this ce was regarded as a holy fishing ground by anglers. Fortunately, although the Pripyat River was filled with fish, there weren��t any salmon. It would have been too illegal otherwise.


    However, it wasn��t easy to find a salmon in such arge body of water. What was even more difficult was finding a way to catch it. There was no need to think about fishing rods��no matter how one looked at it, the salmon Loki transformed into wouldn��t be stupid enough to bite the bait on the hook. Using a fishing was simply unrealistic. Even using electric fish sounded a little more reliable. However, putting aside how Zhang Heng was going to find electric fish, the Pripyat River was very deep in this part. If the salmon Loki had transformed into was hiding at the bottom, there was an 80% chance that they would not be able to electrify it even if there were tools.


    Most yers would have given up by now, but since Zhang Heng had flown the helicopter over, he had already thought about how to find Loki��s avatar in the river.


    After taking off his clothes, he jumped into the river without taking anything with him.


    There was no cooling water discharged into the river, probably because reactor No. 4 had exploded. The river wasn��t as warm as he had imagined, but the fatty acids in it were still abundantly rich. The water was light brown, meaning these fatty acids were now highly effective coagnts, transporting radioactive particles and fission fragments further away.


    Zhang Heng put on his [Filter Lens] and continually submerged himself until he finally stopped about five meters from the bottom of the river.


    Returning to the water made him feel extremely rxed, like he was lying on his own couch in his living room.


    However, Zhang Heng did not allow himself to be immersed in thefortable atmosphere. He did not forget his purpose ining down, especially since the Pripyat River was still filled with radioactive particles and danger was everywhere. Having that in mind, Zhang Heng decided to finish up as quickly as possible.


    The next moment, he closed his eyes and stretched out his hands, one on the left and the other on the right. Slowly but firmly, he clenched his fists. Following his movement, the speed of the surrounding water started to increase.


    At the same time, about ten meters away from Zhang Heng, the swirling water formed two vortexes.


    These were the things that Zhang Heng used to deal with the Loki salmon incarnation. A natural automatic fishing machine, the faster the vortex spun, the more it stirred up the originally calm Pripyat River. The suction force caused by the vortex began to pull on the surrounding aquatic creatures, and as the whirlpool grewrger, the nearby fish were sucked into it. It was like riding a roller coaster, to which this was an endless version. They were being tossed around until they were dizzy.


    Zhang Heng did not stop until the two whirlpools were more than seven meters in diameter. This was almost his limit. He started to feel that the whirlpool was getting harder and harder to control, and the surrounding water was crazily pulling on his body. The whirlpools were now seven meters in diameter, and the area of attraction became evenrger. Even Zhang Heng did not dare to remove one of the whirlpools, lest he be sucked into the other one.


    Carefully maintaining his bnce, Zhang Heng started to move in the river. This time, the aquatic animals in the nearby waters were all in trouble�� whether foraging for food or staying put, even those hidden in the corners and crevices of the rocks were mercilessly sucked into the vortex, forcing the magic of love to circle around them.


    As Zhang Heng moved, he observed the nearby movements, and not long after, he saw arge fish with a blue head but a red body. It had sensed the danger before the whirlpool had even approached and tried to leave in advance... and it had almost seeded.


    However, because the area covered by the two whirlpools was toorge, it could not escape with all its might. Its movements slowed down under the pull of the current. That said, it was indeed one of the few underwater creatures that could contend with the whirlpool, actually managing to pull away from it slowly.


    Unfortunately, it was immediately targeted by Zhang Heng. As Zhang Heng began to move toward it, it was eventually unable to escape from the powerful suction force of the vortex. It was mercilessly sucked into the vortex and spun around with the other fishes in it, it spun faster and faster, but the process did notst long.. Soon, the water around it disappeared.

 Chapter 1194 - David and Goliath

    <h4>Chapter 1194: David and Goliath</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    The red salmon perked up again, realizing that it had finally escaped. It wanted to continue running for its life, but when it moved its fins and tail, it found its body out of its control as though it was drunk.


    At first, the red salmon thought it had been running in circles for too long and that its sense of bnce had been lost. However, it soon discovered that it wasn��t the case. The other fish around it that hadn��t beenpletely knocked out were all running for their lives in a panic. It was the only one that remained where it was. The real reason for that was the turbulence that had bound it there.


    Then, a hand grabbed onto its body. The red salmon struggled desperately because it saw that the human had actually no intention of bringing it to shore. Instead, he held onto it with one hand, and with the other, directly untied the small knife that he was wearing on his calf.


    In the next moment, the doctors and others at Pripyat Medical Center received another system notification.


    [Sessfully killed one Loki Avatar. Remaining avatars: 1. Loki��s strength has been reduced by 40%. Obtained 20 points. You can check the relevant information on the character interface...]


    The doctor, Master Kui, and the others looked at each other. After a long while, it was Mouse who spoke first. Sighing, he said, ��This is too fast. Only half of the 12 hours have passed. Loki only has one avatar left.��


    ��Could this be the strength of the number one yer?�� It hadn��t been long since Master Kui��s surgery, and the anesthetic hadn��t worn offpletely. She still looked a little tired. ��I��ve also experienced many dungeons, but none of them are like this one. From the beginning to end, it��s been like a pendant.��


    ��It should be said that fortunately, we met Simon in this dungeon, or else we would have been in trouble.��Mouse��s heart was still filled with fear, ��You have to know that the god behind this instance dungeon is Loki. Although we can��t beat the Avengers, it should be more than enough to deal with us.��


    After he finished speaking, he realized that Master Kui and the doctor did not agree. They looked at each other instead.


    ��What?�� Mouse couldn��t understand.


    ��Did you notice it too?�� The doctor smiled bitterly, ��The difficulty of this dungeon is obviously abnormal, and everyone should have received a system notification before. If nothing went wrong, Loki must��ve secretly changed the difficulty of the dungeon, which is why the subsequent restrictions appeared. Although Loki��s reputation among the gods has never been good, I still have self-awareness. To be honest, I don��t think I��m worth to be yed by him like this.��


    ��Me too,�� Master Kui nodded. ��I... I hid something from you guys when I first entered the dungeon. In fact, I��m also an agent, and the god behind me and Loki had some small conflicts. When I first saw Loki, I did suspect that he wasing for me, but when his identity was exposed by Simon, he didn��t even look at me. I could feel that all his attention was focused on Simon.��


    ��You mean... Loki was actuallying for Simon?�� Mouse was not stupid. After Master Kui and the doctor spoke, he quickly realized something. ��So this time, we got unlucky, and got caught in the middle of a fight between gods?��


    ��It seems so,�� the Doctor said helplessly. ��Who do you think will win in the end? Simon or Loki?��


    ��Of course, we hope Simon will win. After all, whether we can leave this dungeon alive depends on him,�� Master Kui reminded.


    ��But this time, the famous Loki is on the other side.�� Mouse��s face still showed some worry. Although Simon had been praised as the number one expert by many people, he was still a yer, and Loki was a god. He also happened to be the infamous god of lies and trickery that was full of legendary colors.


    ��So we can��t just sit and watch the show. We have to find a way to help Simon,�� said Kui. Although she was severely wounded, had just undergone surgery, and her body extremely weak, she didn��t seem to feel that her dungeon trip was over just like that. Instead, something seemed to be burning in her eyes.


    ��Uh, I��m not against helping. After all, this is our dungeon, but... can ordinary yers like us really help in this kind of celestial game?�� Mouse said hesitantly, ��Don��t drag Simon down instead.��


    ��You should all have heard the story of David killing Goliath with a stone. So, those who y dragons don��t necessarily have to be heroes.��


    ��But David was the King of Israel. He should be considered a hero,�� Mouse muttered softly.


    ��It��s fine as long as you understand what I��m talking about. Don��t dwell on such details,�� Master Kui waved her uninjured hand and grunted impatiently.


    The doctor did not doubt Master Kui��s determination, and he simply frowned. ��From a doctor��s point of view, I still have to say that your current physical condition is unable to withstand an intense battle. No, that might not be appropriate. To be more precise, as long as you exercise a little, the wound might split open.��


    ��I told you before, right? I��m a surrogate, and every surrogate has a supernatural ability,�� Master Kui said. ��I just haven��t used my ability yet. Besides, the god behind me and Loki have a small score to settle.��


    .....


    After killing the red salmon, Zhang Heng returned to the riverbank. He put on his clothes and looked at the time.


    He had sessfully killed four targets by now. With only one left, he would be able to finish off all of Loki��s incarnations. When the final battle came, Loki would only have half his strength left.


    However, Zhang Heng would run into a bit of trouble with thest target: The white mare, Loki��sst incarnation and the only one whose location was uncertain.


    The mural on the wall about the white mare described the scene where it first encountered Zhang Heng in the parallel dungeon.


    After killing Sauk, Zhang Heng flew there in a helicopter. Unfortunately, he didn��t get anything. Earlier, in the town of Pripyat, Zhang Heng drove the doctor, Master Kui, and the others Pripyat Hotel and encountered the white mare again.


    In Norse mythology, the story of the white mare was also very interesting. Legend had it that during a battle, the city wall of Asgard was razed to the ground. The gods were unable to resist the attack of the old enemy giants, and just as they suspected, a craftsman came to the outside of the city and offered them a deal. He said that he could repair the city wall in six months at the cost of the gods�� sun and moon, and the goddess Freya as his wife.


    The gods thought that it was impossible for the craftsman to repair the city wall within this period, and they wanted to pay for the fruits of hisbor. So they agreed to the deal at Loki��s instigation. But they didn��t expect the craftsman to find a stallion to help, and the progress of the construction was very fast. Seeing that the restoration work was about to bepleted within the construction period, the gods began toin about Loki. But Loki wasn��t in a hurry. He turned into a white mare before the city wall was repaired and lured the workman��s stallion away.


    After that, he got pregnant and was left with a pony, which waster Odin��s mount, Sleipnir.

 Chapter 1195 - The Final Incarnation

    <h4>Chapter 1195: The Final Incarnation</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    In the game dungeon, Loki��s white mare appeared and left very suddenly.


    Even with Zhang Heng��s perception, he had no idea where Loki hade from or where he had run off to. Thus, he had given up on catching up to the white mare a long time ago.


    Furthermore, it was different from the situation when he was dealing with the red salmon. Onnd, Zhang Heng couldn��t control the water flow, so he could only try to use his gun and bow to deal with the white mare.


    However, with the white mare��s mysterious and unpredictable movements, Zhang Heng had to maintain his bow or shooting posture. The white mare would��ve disappeared from his sight otherwise.


    Of course, this didn��t mean that Zhang Heng was utterly helpless against the white mare. He simply hadn��t found the key to deal with it yet.


    Zhang Heng now regretted not bringing the [White Horse��s Crown] into the dungeon. With that item, he could summon the White Horse Knight��s mount. Perhaps it couldpete with Loki��s white mare, but he could only bring a limited number of items each time, so he had to choose from among them. The [White Horse��s Crown] was not that adaptable, and being a C-grade item, it could only be used three times.


    With Zhang Heng��s current strength, it was almost impossible for the normal dungeon to force him to use the [White Horse��s Crown]. That was why he did not bring this item with him.


    There was no point in dwelling on this matter anymore, so Zhang Heng shifted his attention back to the present. He recalled the story between Loki and the cksmith, especially the details.


    The mare that Loki had transformed into finally led the cksmith��s stallion, Swaddill Farley, into the forest. This was also in line with the scene when the two first met. Zhang Heng had seen the white mare by the stream in the woods.


    So the question now was, why did the white maree to town when the two had recently met? What did the two encounters have inmon?


    Zhang Heng��s expression changed when he thought of this.


    In Norse mythology, the white mare Loki transformed into was equivalent to a seducer. It suddenly appeared at the critical period of the construction and lured the artisan��s stallion, Svaldil Farley, away.


    Of course, there was no stallion in this dungeon. In fact, ording to what the hostess had said, not many families in Pripyat and the surrounding area had horses.


    Then, the white mare��s appearance was obviously not to attract the stallion. Zhang Heng had met the white mare twice. The time, ce, and people around him were all different. The only simrity was that he had driven a car.


    Considering that the stallion, Svaldil Farley��s role in the myth was to carry the stones used to build the city for the craftsmen, it was a function that had indeed been reced by a car in modern society.


    So was a car the key to attracting the white mare?


    And it was not just a car. Zhang Heng had driven a car more than once in the dungeon. However, the number of times he had seen the white mare could be counted in one hand. This meant that there should be some additional conditions.


    Taking Svaldil Farley as a reference, the biggest characteristic of this stallion was not only its speed but also its strength. This was because it could drag a boat full of stones yet walk like a bird, never getting tired.


    Previously, when the hostess returned to the countryside, Zhang Heng��s Lada was filled with gifts she had bought for her grandparents, brother, and sister-inw. After all, she had earned quite a lot of money from Zhang Heng, and of course, she wanted her family to have a better life. Not long ago, when they went to the hotel, there were five people in the car who were quite heavy, but since Zhang Heng had driven fiercely before he met the white mare, the speed trigger condition should be fulfilled.


    Was it eleration by weight?


    Zhang Heng thought about it and decided to find a car to try again. This time, he decided to find an SUV��a Lada Niva.


    Produced by Volga, the Soviet Union��srgest car manufacturer, its first generation was released in 1977. It featured a full-time four-wheel-drive system and was considered quite powerful for its time, capable of handling extreme weather and road conditions. Upon its release, it sold like hotcakes, not to mention export to China. It was a vehicle that bore the proud symbol of socialist industrial might. Of course, with the copse of the Soviet Union, the fate of the Volga car factory took a turn for the worse, almost to the point of bankruptcy.


    However, the Lada Niva was still very popr at the moment. A car was hard toe by. Zhang Heng had to walk around half the city before he found one outside the gate of the youth pce.


    The car��s original owner should have left in a hurry with the convoy a few days ago, abandoning the vehicle in this abandoned city forever.


    Zhang Heng did not have the keys, but that did not pose a problem. Car locks in this era were easy to jack, after all. Of course, in order to save time, Zhang Heng eventually chose a simpler and more violent method. He directly smashed the car window with a stone, reached into the car, and opened the door. Then, he started the engine by connecting the wires.


    Zhang Heng drove the newly acquired Lada Niva all the way to the ��October�� hotel. This was the second hotel under construction in the town. The rapid development of Pripyat attracted increasing numbers of tourists, and the Pripyat Grand Hotel that had been built previously was already unable to meet demand. Thus, the Pripyat city government decided to build a second hotel. However, after the explosion of reactor No. 4, the hotel was destined never to bepleted.


    Fortunately, Zhang Heng did note here to stay. He parked the SUV beside a pile of bricks at the construction site and loaded them into the car to increase its weight. He didn��t carry too much, roughly estimating the weight of the bricks he had used to drive to the countryside and drive the yers to the hotel. He chose a middle value and ced bricks of the same weight at the back of the car.


    After doing all this, the body of the Lada Niva slightly sank.


    He returned to the driver��s seat and restarted the car. The engine roared to life, seemingly showing off the muscles of the steel beast.


    Zhang Heng drove the SUV to the main road of Pripyat��s city center. Because Soviet city leaders believed that the city would develop rapidly and be filled with cars soon, they had nned the streets to be very spacious at the beginning of the construction. In addition, few people were in the city now, so it was very suitable for racing.


    Zhang Heng removed the annoying door on the left side of the car. He held the steering wheel with one hand and the [Pestilence Bone Bow] with the other. As for the [Paris�� Arrow], he bit it in his mouth with his teeth.. After making all the preparations, Zhang Heng stepped on the elerator.

 Chapter 1196 - Death By Collision

    <h4>Chapter 1196: Death By Collision</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    The Lada Niva sped forward. As Zhang Heng cycled through the gears, the SUV��s wheels spun ever faster.


    The wind blew into the doorless driver��s seat. Zhang Heng looked at the numbers on the dashboard. He was doing about 100 kilometers per hour, and he had already engaged fifth gear, but since the white mare still didn��t appear, he continued stepping on the gas until it got to 120 kilometers per hour.


    This was also the highest speed Zhang Hen reached when he drove the doctor, Mouse, and the others to the Pripyat Hotel not long ago. However, this time, the white mare was still nowhere to be found.


    With the help of the [Filter Lens], Zhang Heng could clearly see his surroundings. There would be asional eyes peeking at the road in the isted buildings, but before the SUV could reach them, they would scatter in all directions.


    Zhang Heng had no other choice but to continue speeding up. Fortunately, this car was in better condition than the other cars he had driven before. He could feel that the engine had not reached its limit, even though the needle was already close to the far right of the speedometer.


    140 kilometers per hour.


    Considering the additional load on the car, the Lada had basically nothing left to hold back. As a driver, Zhang Heng could also feel that it wasn��t impossible if he continued to speed up, but he would face the risk of a cylinder explosion.


    Therefore, Zhang Heng chose to maintain this rtively safe speed. Compared to the previous two speeds, he should have reached the speed limit this time. Next, it was time to test whether his previous deduction was urate.


    The Niva sped down the main road in front of the Youth Pce.


    At this time, the sky was already turning white, and the darkness was receding like the tide. This seemed to prove that the Earth would still spin normally the next day no matter what happened. Even though Pripyat was now empty, that did not stop the sun from spreading its rays over the vast and lonelynd 149.6 million kilometers away.


    The first ray of sunlight broke the clouds.


    At the end of the horizon, a white mare had started its four hooves and charged toward Zhang Heng.


    It ran at an unbelievable speed, arriving in front of Zhang Heng in the blink of an eye. Furthermore, it did not show any signs of slowing down. It seemed like it was nning to use its body of flesh and blood to ram a streel creation of a human.


    Thebined speed of both parties was conservatively estimated to be over 400 kilometers per hour. If they were to collide at this speed, the white mare would almost certainly die. As for the probability of Zhang Heng surviving... it was probably not that optimistic.


    Thus, this was a deadly collision worthy of its name.


    At this time, Zhang Heng was no longer in a hurry to slow down. Even if he could kill the white mare right now, he would not avoid this collision. He had also considered using drift to prevent it likest time, but a telephone pole and a bus parked on the roadside on the left and right sides of the white mare.


    Zhang Heng did some quick calctions and realized that it would be very difficult for him topletely avoid the white mare. Therefore, he realized that it was not a coincidence that the white mare chose this time to charge at him. Even though the charge was a suicide mission, the white mare was only an incarnation of Loki.


    To kill him at the cost of sacrificing an incarnation��Loki would have no reason to refuse this deal.


    Many thoughts shed through Zhang Heng��s mind at that moment. The next moment, he slipped the Niva into a drift. With a series of dazzling maneuvers, Zhang Heng urately controlled the front of the car to avoid the white mare��s impact, and at the same time, avoiding the telephone pole on the right side. Unfortunately, this was also the limit of his technology.


    Due to theck of space, the car��s rear end was eventually grazed, causing the high-speed vehicle to lose control. First, it crashed into a trash can and a curb, and then it rolled six times in a row, rolling far away. It fell to the ground, and the bricks stacked by the backseat were also thrown out.


    This time, the white mare did not leave immediately. Instead, she put away her hooves and stood in ce quietly. She looked at the off-road vehicle that was overturned not far away as if wanting to know the driver��s fate inside.


    For this reason, she even took two more steps forward, looking forward to seeing the driver seriously injured, bleeding non-stop, and even dying on the spot. However, when she really walked in front of the wrecked SUV, she was surprised to find that there was no one in the driver��s seat.


    At almost the same time, an arrow that looked quite old flew out from the other side of the street. This arrowpletely defied thews of physics, drawing a strange arc in the air and urately hitting the white mare��s ear.


    The white mare raised its front hooves, let out a mournful cry, and turned around, trying to escape.


    However, after being shot, it seemed to have lost its ability to appear and disappear like before. It only ran two steps like an ordinary horse, and its body was still swaying. Golden blood flowed down its left ear and dripped on the ground.


    Unfortunately, it only managed to run a few steps before it was hit by another arrow. The second arrow hit its hind legs, turning it into a cripple. The horse had also be slower. Thus, following the trajectory of the arrow, it finally saw where the enemy was.


    At this moment, Zhang Heng was standing on the utility pole that the SUV had crashed into. Like a king looking down from the city wall, a pair of shadow wings spread out from his back, the wings that saved Zhang Heng from that tragic ident.


    After realizing that the Niva was out of control, Zhang Heng decided to abandon the car immediately. He used the shadow wings to cancel out the terrifying impact speed and arrived at where he was standing.


    However, Zhang Heng did not stand there for long. Seeing that the white horse had lost its movement speed, he pped his wings again and dived down from the sky. At the same time, he pulled out the [Hidden Scabbard] from his waist and cut it down!


    The sharp de cut into the back of the white mare��s neck without hesitation, like a hot knife stabbing into butter.


    When both of Zhang Heng��s feetnded on the ground, the white mare staggered past him. From the look in its eyes, it seemed that it was still d that it had escaped this disaster.


    Even though the white mare did not know how it had miraculously survived that sh, there were indeed no wounds on its body.


    It continued to run forward, but the humans behind it did not chase after it this time.. The horse did not understand why Zhang Heng was so merciful until it ran another seven or eight steps when its head fell off its neck just like that.

 Chapter 1197 - Meeting Loki Again

    <h4>Chapter 1197: Meeting Loki Again</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    [Sessfully killed one Loki Avatar. Remaining avatars: 0. Loki��s strength has been reduced by 50%. Obtained 20 points. Head to the character interface to view relevant information...]


    [Congrattions, all five avatars have been killed. Loki��s strength has been further reduced by 10%. Additional 200 points have been obtained. Head to the character interface to view relevant information...]


    After Zhang Heng beheaded the white mare, he received two more system notifications.


    The first was expected. Loki��s strength had been reduced by half. The second was a hidden reward. After he killed thest avatar, the 200 points would be secondary. At the same time, Loki��s strength had been reduced by another 10%, so, in other words, Loki only had 40% of his strength left.


    He had be unprecedentedly weak.


    On the other hand, Zhang Heng��s body had been affected by the radiation he had absorbed over the past few days, but his condition was not serious at the moment. He still maintained about 90% of hisbat strength, and since his Shadow Wings had been used against the white mare, it would take 24 hours to be used again. In other words, there was no hope for him in the battle after that.


    Other than that, Zhang Heng was in fair physical and mental condition. Even though he had gone through a few battles earlier, he wasn��t injured. Having only used up some of his energy, it took him two hours to recover, and he also replenished himself with food and water.


    After he was fully prepared, Zhang Heng began his final battle journey.


    Less than three hours were left in the 12-hour countdown, but Zhang Heng did not go to the medical center to meet up with the doctor, Master Kui, and the others.


    Because the three of them were not in good health and Master Kui had been shot and injured, he could do little to help. In addition, this dungeon was an undeserved disaster for them, and since he inadvertently caught up in Loki��s arrangements for Zhang Heng, he did not n to ask them to join the final battle.


    Alone, he drove a newly-found car on the quiet roads of Pripyat.


    The system had modified the main mission to restrict Loki��s movements to the city. In other words, the god of lies and pranks could not leave Pripyat, and after the 12-hour countdown ended, Loki would be forced to stay in a building in the city.


    However, Zhang Heng did not want to wait until the 12-hour period was over before looking for Loki. This gave Loki time to choose a location for the final battle and then make arrangements.


    Although the name of the god of lies and pranks had always been well-known, and when Mouse and the others heard that the god behind this dungeon was Loki, their expressions changed drastically. In reality, Loki��s battle record was as deceiving as his own.


    Sure, he could gain an advantage when facing most of his enemies; there was almost no positive description of Loki��s battles in the entire Nordic mythology.


    When facing a powerful opponent, Loki usually lied to deceive the opponent or use tricks to defeat the target. There was only one enemy who indeed died at his hands, and that was his brother, who bore a famous name, Heimdall.


    Those who had watched Marvel��s ��Thor�� series should have some impression of this name. Heimdall was the guard of the Rainbow Bridge, the God of Dawn, Son of the Nine Mothers, and the Guardian of the Gods. His gaze could pierce through the darkness, and whether day or night, he could see everything within 300 miles.


    Zhang Heng even suspected that the [Filter Lens] in his hand was the work of Heimdall. Other than that, Heimdall could also hear the sound of vegetation and hair growing. Completely tireless, and with him guarding the Rainbow Bridge, he would immediately blow his horn and summon the gods once he found traces of giants.


    Heimdall was Loki��s mortal enemy. The two had already formed a grudge before the twilight of the gods, and they had perished together during the twilight of the gods. It seemed that Loki��sbat strength was on the same level as Heimdall, the guardian of the gods.


    But people who knew the process of the battle didn��t think so. Not long after the two exchanged blows, Heimdall seized an opening and chopped off Loki��s head, but it unexpectedly bounced back up after falling to the ground. He bit the dagger and stabbed Heimdall in the stomach before both of them died.


    Although the ending was the same, Loki still relied on his little tricks and risked his life to kill Heimdall.


    Thus, Zhang Heng estimated that Loki��s powers shouldn��t be too strong in Nordic mythology. He should be in the lower echelon. In addition, the system had cut the god��s strength by 60%, so Zhang Heng wasn��t worried about Loki confronting him head-on. On the contrary, he really needed to be wary of the small movements behind Loki��s back.


    If it was not ast resort, Zhang Heng did not want to wait until 12 hours had passed before fighting Loki. This was his n from the beginning. Therefore, as soon as he recovered his strength, he began to search for Loki��s whereabouts.


    Zhang Heng searched in the direction where Loki had escaped for thest time. Fortunately, although Pripyat was a city recognized by Ukraine, it only had 50,000 people, and it wasn��t toorge. In addition, after the evacuation, the ce was basically deserted, making it more convenient for Zhang Heng to search.


    However, Zhang Heng still didn��t expect to find Loki in less than half an hour.


    Thetter wasn��t hiding at all. He brought a sofa out of nowhere and sat in the middle of the road as though waiting for Zhang Heng to arrive.


    Zhang Heng did not stand on ceremony. He stepped on the elerator and sent the sofa flying. Unfortunately, Loki, who was on the sofa, snapped his fingers before he was hit and appeared on the other side of the road, his face filled with helplessness.


    Zhang Heng also stepped on the brake, but he did not turn off the engine. Instead, he shifted into park, pushed open the car door, and got out.


    ��Congrattions, yer. After a not-so-hard battle, you have cleared all the minions and the five mini-bosses of this dungeon. You havee before the great god of lies and pranks, Loki. Tremble, mortal, for points have been increased by 100,000. You can check the relevant information on the character panel...��


    Loki imitated the voice of the system, ��Isn��t that how you put it? You like this game, don��t you, Zhang Heng? It was these rounds that turned you into the current you. Oh, by the way, I forgot to congratte you on winning first ce in the proxy war dungeon.. I hope it��s not toote to send my blessings.��

 Chapter 1198 - Why Me?

    <h4>Chapter 1198: Why Me?</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    Zhang Heng ignored Loki��s blessings and frowned. ��What did you do to me? How did you get me into your dungeon?��


    ��Hey, don��t you have a better question? I��m the god of lies and pranks. These things are a piece of cake for me,�� Loki said proudly while puffing out his chest.


    Unfortunately for him, Zhang Heng ignored his nonsense and took the [Pestilence Bone Bow] from his back.


    Seeing that Zhang Heng was ready to attack again, Loki could only say helplessly, ��Stop, stop, stop. Even if we��re going to attackter, we should at least listen to what the other party has to say first. I��m sitting here waiting for you at the risk of radiation poisoning and getting hit by a car.��


    ��You��re the god of lies and pranks. Is there even a need to listen to a word you say?�� Zhang Heng raised his eyebrows.


    ��I��m the god of lies and pranks, but I��m not always lying.�� Loki spread his hands, ��You��ve also read the Nordic myths, so you should know that I��ve done some good things in there. Although the Asgardian gods hate me, many have received my favor. It��s only because I��m the son of a giant that they��ve never really treated me as one of their own. This is really a sad story. It��s heartbreaking, really��


    ��So you dragged me into your pocket dimension to tell me about the discrimination the Asgardian gods have shown you and the unfair treatment you��ve suffered?�� Zhang Heng asked calmly. ��I suggest you look for that yellow-haired man on Twitter. He has spent his whole life fighting for the cause of eliminating racial discrimination and has achieved remarkable results. He might be interested in this matter of yours.��


    ��No, I��m listing these old stories and digging my own wounds for you to see. I just want to tell you that we are actually the same kind of people,�� Loki said emotionally. ��The same kind of people who have no one to rely on and are treated as outliers. I don��t know who to believe...��


    ��I don��t have a tragic story like yours. My family is very good to me, and I have many friends. Thank you.��


    ��You only say that because you know nothing about what��s going to happen.�� Loki licked his lips, ��I know that you don��t believe me because of my past reputation. It��s okay, you don��t have to. You just have to ask yourself. I dare to bet that somewhere in the depths of your heart, you must have also wondered why Kronos could be so good to you. Not only did he choose you to be his agent, but he was also willing to use most of his divine power to make that little cheating device for you. Are you his illegitimate son, or his old lover?


    ��Or are you really willing to believe his nonsense about guardian angels?��


    ��Get to the point.�� Zhang Heng was unmoved.


    ��The point is that Kronos has designs on you, and there are people around you... who have designs on you. No matter which side they belong to, they all want something from you... Forgive me for being blunt, but it looks like your situation isn��t too good. Brother, when I was in Asgard, everyone didn��t like me either, but I��ve always been the one to plot against others, and very few people have been able to plot against me. So,pared to you, it looks like I was in a better situation.��


    ��What��s your n, then?��


    ��What?�� Loki blinked with innocence.


    ��You just said that everyone who approaches me has a n for me. Then you must have a n for approaching me,�� Zhang Heng said.


    ��Of course.�� Loki didn��t try to deny it. Instead, he admitted it openly. He whistled happily, ��I��m also one of the people who sneakily approached you. It��s just that my purpose is different from others. There��s an instinct in my body, and it��s this instinct that has led me here.��


    ��Your instinct is to wreak havoc everywhere?��


    Loki pretended not to hear him and continued, ��First, I must apologize to you. Your previous guess was right. I did tamper with your body and pulled you into my game, but rest assured that this won��t happen again, because even if it��s me, it��s not without a price. Besides, some guy who hates me seems to have patched up this loophole.


    ��And the reason why I chose this way to meet you is to avoid Kronos and prevent that old schemer from ying any time tricks. I want to have a simple face-to-face chat with you, that��s all. If you want, I��ll also prepare coffee, beer, tea... oh, and some cookies I just baked myself. They��re very cute. I��ve got kittens, puppies, and pandas. If you want, you can have a few.��


    As he spoke, Loki pulled out a te of biscuits from a bag by the side of the road.


    Zhang Heng didn��t reach for it, and asked instead, ��What do you call this?�� ��Do you call this a simple face-to-face conversation? You chose an active ID on the forum that��s interested in me. You disguised yourself as the yer behind the ID to get close to me. You lowered my guard and stayed by my side. If you really want to talk, you could have revealed your identity when we first entered the dungeon, instead of waiting until our identities were exposed.


    ��Not to mention, during this period of time, you even secretly stuffed the graphite from the core of reactor No. 4 into the bodies of others.


    ��Just before we left for the Pripyat Hotelst night, you stuffed a piece of graphite into your travel bag for food, but I threw it away.��


    Loki gave his most innocent look. ��There��s nothing I can do. The main mission of the dungeon is like this. I need to let you absorb as much radiation as possible while you��re not carrying it, and you have to find me before your condition deteriorates. This is the rule of the dungeon. Even I can��t vite it and reveal my identity to you in advance. Speaking of which, you really are vignt. I��m already so close to you, and this dungeon is a one-on-one mode, yet you��re still on guard against me. I didn��t even get the chance to find you,�� Lokimended.


    ��Is that so? But I see that you��ve quite happily changed the main storyline mission of the dungeon.��


    Zhang Heng mercilessly exposed Loki��s lie.


    ��Who said that? Didn��t I just roll over? I didn��t expect that guy toe personally.�� Loki sighed, ��And I really never meant you any harm. I just took this rare opportunity to make a keener observation of you.��


    ��Then what about the incident that happened in the abandoned subway line? Your agent led us to the territory of Jemengarde. You want that python to kill me, right?�� Zhang Heng asked.


    ��I admit that the idea is tempting, but the real reason is that I want to see if you can wake my son up.��


    ��Why me?�� Zhang Heng��s expression changed.


    ��Because no one is more suitable to represent the end of the world than you,�� Loki smiled.

 Chapter 1199 - The New Apocalypse

    <h4>Chapter 1199: The New Apocalypse</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    ��I represent the apocalypse?�� Zhang Heng frowned. ��I��m just a mortal. Why would I have anything to do with the apocalypse? And speaking of the apocalypse, the twilight of the gods should be rted to you.��


    ��The twilight of the gods is only the apocalypse of the Nordic Gods,�� Loki said. ��I have to admit... Hmm... from more than 2,000 years ago, that war was quite grand and magnificent. The Bards sang about it, and many famous people wrote many beautiful poems to mourn the fall of the gods. They sang about Thor and Odin��s battle heroism, the Asgardian gods�� valor, and indomitable spirit... h, h, h. You can me me for that, but unfortunately, they��re too old.��


    ��What do you mean?��


    ��I��m not targeting those older brothers. Really, I quite like some of them. I even collected some of their bones and made some furniture out of them as souvenirs. But with the productivity of that era, the craziest thing you could imagine was a red-haired, bearded, muscr drunkard who hammered from east to west with a big hammer. And what was his mount?��two goat-drawn chariots, two ridiculous andical goats!��


    Loki repeated, ��Do you understand what I mean? This was the limit of the imagination of the people at that time, and now, you can pick any person, and he can say a hundred cooler and more awesome things than this. You have Ferrari��s, Long March 5, and not to mention the sky carriers... But we can��t me them, their material conditions limit their imagination, and those poor guys have done their best.


    ��Whether it��s the twilight of the gods or the judgment of the apocalypse, all these doomsday stories, these elegant poems, they... how should I put it? They��re like a peerless beauty, unable to resist the erosion of time. They��re no longer in line with their once-mighty reputation, just like us old things.��


    As Loki spoke, he took out another bottle of champagne from God knew where, uncorked it, and said to Zhang Heng, ��Want a ss?��


    Zhang Heng shook his head. ��I need to stay sober before I kill you. I don��t n on drinking.��


    ��Alright, then I��ll drink a small ss myself. Leave the rest here. I��ll drink it after you kill me.�� Loki was very reasonable. He poured himself a ss and drank it in one gulp. Then, he raised the ss.


    ��Here��s to the good old days.��


    Zhang Heng was unmoved.


    ��Speaking of which, some of us should thank television,ics, online novels, or more specifically, Marvel, Netflix, Sony... After the reprocessing by modern creators, some of the old stories havee back to life. I happen to be also one of the beneficiaries. Although I want nothing to do with that idiot with the hammer, and by the way, in Nordic mythology, I��m actually Odin��s brother, not Thor��s, but I guess no one cares about that kind of thing.


    ��All in all, I��ve recovered quite a bit of my strength. It��s is a good thing. It means that humans are still unable to escape lies and deceit,�� said Loki, ��But most of the old Gods didn��t have a good life. It��s not too much to describe them as struggling to survive. In order to recruit a believer, they had to use all their strength. But as I said, few people nowadays would think that a guy riding two goats is more handsome than a guy waving money, driving a Lamborghini. In contrast, a group of new Gods had risen. They were young and powerful.


    ��The god of media, the god of luxury, the god of the second dimension, the god of air-conditioning... Sometimes I don��t understand humans either. Some of them believe that air-conditioning is mankind��s greatest invention for summer, and air-conditioning saved their lives. Compared to us, the new gods have a more flexible way of absorbing faith. They don��t have to pray, they don��t have to sacrifice, and they don��t even care if their believers have respect for them. This was unimaginable in the past. Those old antiques would punish those sphemers for some trivial matter, but now, who the f*ck would think of the god of air-conditioning in the winter, and at the same time, the simplify the ceremony?


    ��A lot of old guys haveined to me that the threshold has been lowered. Some time ago, I met a guy on the road. He owns a few websites that everyone likes. One of them is called P Station. His believers are all over the world; they have all kinds of people. He also gains believers in a very crude and violent way. The old gods can not imagine it at all. All you need to do is to post one of those small videos that he provides online andplete the ritual.


    ��He is simply the Einstein of the gods, aplete genius. From the day he was born, his followers have been growing rapidly. Moreover, they are incredibly sticky. Basically, as long as you log on to his website and be his follower, you will never be able to leave him. You will only provide him with endless faith. This thing is even more effective than the most stringent blood oath.


    ��However, new gods have their own troubles as well. Most have powerful divine power, but they lost the killing and fighting instinct of the old gods. Take the gods of Asgard as an example. When we were born, we faced all kinds of enemies. We had a mortal enemy, the giant tribe. There was also a civil war between the god tribes. At one point, we were on the verge of extinction. Later, at the dusk of the gods, we really died in battle... we basically never had peace. Every period of time was filled with blood. We fought against strong enemies or each other. If you couldn��t fight, you would be killed.


    ��However, the new gods in modern society are not like this. Other than a few who have the ability to fight, most of them are the younger brothers that I mentioned above who open websites. They are very good at collecting beliefs, but they do not know how to fight at all. In addition, many old gods think that they only have faith in their eyes and have abandoned the dignity and honor that a god should have. Moreover, their various actions have seriously disrupted the market, so many old gods view them as a cancer in the industry.


    ��But just as I said before, there are some unusual creatures among the new gods. I have to say that humans have never let me down on the road of courting death. This time, they have actually yed a new trick on me��fear. It has always been the most primitive and purest human instinct. They have also developed many forms of entertainment to deal with fear, but most of them are just small things until they set their sights on the apocalypse. As I have said, whether it is the apocalypse or the twilight of the gods, they are all antiques that can not keep up with the trend of the times.. Humans have long lost their fear of the inferno painted by the pathetic imagination of their predecessors. They want to create new fears, thus, the exciting and magnificent new apocalypse of the 21st Century!��

 Chapter 1200 - Good News

    <h4>Chapter 1200: Good News</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    ��Have you noticed the problem?�� Loki asked. ��Let��s summarize all we know so far. The old gods werepetitive and brave, and theirbat techniques were outstanding, but they were too old. Even the god of time himself could not resist the erosion of time. The new gods were very powerful, and their methods of gaining faith were flexible and varied. But deep down, they were like a group of hippies from the new era. Don��t expect them to go to the battlefield.


    ��Then, with a pat on the head, the humans created another guy, giving him something that other new gods didn��t have. Not only did he have the genes to kill, but also the seeds to destroy. Imagine this new guy feeding on fear, spreading crazily through the new media and the Inte, like a virus replicating itself. His way of collecting beliefs was as flexible as a new god. He didn��t even need to show up, and you didn��t even need to know his name. He was just lurking in the movies and novels you saw, ying games. When you felt fear, Congrattions, you had be his follower, providing him with endless nourishment.


    ��His original creator even considered that as time passed, his creation might return to the old ways of the old gods and fall behind the times, so he used a lot of white space in his depiction. Such things are like creating an engine, but you didn��t set a speed limit, so what you need to do next is to step on the elerator hard and let the speed continue to increase. Soon you will experience the feeling of being as fast as lightning.


    ��If someone was willing to step on the brakes at this time, they might be able to avoid the tragedy of the car being destroyed. Unfortunately, after a period of time, when people noticed the excellent performance of the car, no one wanted it to stop. Instead, everyone wanted to sit on it and step on the elerator.


    ��This is the tragedy of the inte era. When a hot topic appears, people will spontaneously chase after it and hype it up. However, these people do not actually know the consequences of their actions. The thing they worship and feed is an unprecedented monster. This is different from the ancient gods and the new gods. Moreover, the most terrible thing is that its original creator gave it the attribute of destruction.


    ��Of course, in most people��s minds, they were just having fun with this. It��s like an unconscious collective carnival, but unfortunately, the guy at the center of the carnival doesn��t think so. He��s still faithfully fulfilling his mission��to bring an unprecedented apocalypse to this world that many have been looking forward to.


    ��With every increase in its power, we will be one step closer to this predetermined ending.�� After saying that, Loki took another sip of champagne, a hint of tipsiness materializing on his face.


    Unfortunately, Zhang Heng, who sat across him, did not react much after hearing that. He only said lightly, ��Good story. If you don��t go to Qidian to start serialization, it will be the loss to all the readers.��


    ��You think I��m lying to you?��


    ��I don��t know, and I don��t care. At this stage, my mission is to kill you andplete the main mission of this dungeon. We��ll talk about the restter,�� Zhang Heng said as he pulled out [Paris�� Arrow] from the quiver behind him and nocked it on the bowstring. At least on the surface, rocky could not tell that Zhang Heng��s emotions had changed because of what he had just said.


    ��Tsk, tsk. I almost forgot. You don��t have much feeling left, do you?�� Loki did not panic when Zhang Heng pointed his bow at him. Instead, he rubbed his chin with interest. ��Don��t you want to know what will happen when you lose all your feelings?��


    ��I actually have some good news for you.�� Zhang Heng did not answer Loki��s question. Instead, he said, ��Even if there is a new apocalypse, you don��t have to worry because you won��t be around then.��


    ��I��m d that your sense of humor is still intact.�� Loki��s eyes shed. ��Otherwise, I might not like you as much as I do...��


    Before he could finish, Zhang Heng released the bowstring, and [Parris�� Arrow] shot toward Loki. Zhang Heng aimed at Rocky��s heart, but the arrow drew an arc halfway through, turning toward Loki��s neck.


    In the end, the god of lies and pranks just stood there calmly, not moving at all. It wasn��t until [Parris�� Arrow] flew in front of him and was about to pierce his neck that he smiled and suddenly stretched out his hand, catching the flying arrow aiming at him.


    ��Paris Arrow, grade D. It��s used to hit the target��s weakness after leaving the bowstring. It��s a very useful small item. Many people are confused by its grade, but if used well, it��s not inferior to a top-tier C-grade item. However, it also has a weakness. Although it has its own weakness to aim at, its lethality is no different from an ordinary arrow,�� Loki said unhurriedly. ��Also, do you like what I just did? This is something I learned from ��The Avengers.��


    Zhang Heng didn��t answer because he had already taken out a new arrow from his quiver. This time, he shot out four arrows in one shot, each one with an interval so short it was as if they were connected. At the same time, there was a slight change in the angle, it enveloped Loki��s body, giving him no room to escape.


    ��Good archery,�� Loki praised. This time, he didn��t dare to use his hands to receive it. He snapped his fingers and disappeared from the spot.


    When he reappeared, he was already standing behind Zhang Heng. However, before he could say a few more dirty words, his expression suddenly changed. It was because Zhang Heng had already turned around, as though he had been waiting there in advance, pointing his bow and arrow at him.


    Then, arrows rained down.


    Did he predict the direction of his teleportation? Loki was also amazed by Zhang Heng��s sense of smell on the battlefield. This time, he was almost hit by the arrow before he could snap his fingers. Fortunately, at thest moment, he snapped his fingers and moved his body to dodge the arrow. However, the embarrassing scene reminded him of some bad memories.


    Previously at the Pripyat Hotel, he was forced to roll around like a marble after Zhang Heng exposed his identity. This time, he finally gained some face. However, even if he grabbed [Parris�� Arrow] with one hand, he still did not dare to be careless, even if Zhang Heng only shot him with the ordinary arrows he got from the shop.


    But Loki recognized the bow in Zhang Heng��s hand��the [Pestilence Bone Bow], belonging to the White Horse Knight, one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. This B-grade bone bow was also a reminder of the fate of the White Horse Knight.. If he didn��t want to go in the direction of Pestilence��s fate, he needed to keep his spirits up at all times.

 Chapter 1201 - Coins

    <h4>Chapter 1201: Coins</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    ��You��ve read Norse mythology, so you must know something about my deeds,�� Loki said as he dodged Zhang Heng��s arrows, ��I do like to cause trouble everywhere, so when the gods encounter a problem, their first reaction is to wonder if it was me. But after they��ve ruled out this possibility, they stille to me. Do you know why?��


    Zhang Heng didn��t answer. He continued to draw his bow and shot two arrows at Loki. Thetter snapped his fingers helplessly and dodged them again. At the same time, he answered his own question. ��Because they know I can solve their problems. I helped Thor get his hammer back. Sifo lost her golden hair. I asked the dwarves to use gold to create more beautiful hair for her. They would be even more beautiful than her original hair. So, you see, I��m not always busy destroying things. I can solve problems, but only difficult questions others can��t solve...��


    Before Loki could finish, he was forced to leave by Zhang Heng��s arrows.


    ��Hey, why do you keep shooting when you know you can��t hit me?�� Loki was speechless. ��Do you expect me to break my fingers identally when I snap them?��


    Zhang Heng finally stopped what he was doing. In just two minutes, he had finished shooting three quivers. The high-intensity shooting made his arms a little sore, and he needed to rest for a while. But just as Loki said, none of the arrows hit the target. He had simply snapped his fingers and dodged all of them.


    It looked like he was wasting his energy. It was as if he was doing it purely to disgust Loki. But Zhang Heng was not a boring person. He was actually trying to test Loki��his ability to teleport to save his life was too much of a bug.


    If Zhang Heng wanted to kill Loki, he had to find a way to break his ability or find its limitations. The three arrows Zhang Heng used up weren��tpletely useless; the good news was that Zhang Heng had already calcted that Loki��s maximum teleportation distance was around 20 meters based on his constantly changing position. This wasn��t too much of an exaggerated distance, and it would be difficult to lose him if he was in an open space. The bad news was that there didn��t seem to be a limit to how many times Loki could use this ability.


    This meant that he could snap his fingers all the time and even do some Dan Brown exercises here if he wanted to. Other than that, Zhang Heng still had not figured out whether Loki��s teleportation ability was something he possessed or was he actually replying on some game item? If this was his original skill, Zhang Heng could think of no other way to kill Loki other than sneak attacks andrge-scale AOE damage.


    Furthermore, he had already made sneak attacks once at the Pripyat Hotel. With Loki��s cunning, it was almost impossible for him to give him a second chance. As for AOE damage... There was a ready-made opportunity right now because the engineers of the three nuclear power nts had not yet infiltrated reactor No. 4��s basement to open the drainage valve, and theoretically, they could destroy the basement roof and allow the radioactive magma to flow down. This would trigger a steam explosion.


    ording to the scientists�� estimates, an explosion of such magnitude could destroy entire Ukraine and Brus, so destroying Pripyat, which was next to the nuclear power nt, was not a problem. However, if that happened, someone would have to sacrifice themselves. Unless absolutely necessary, Zhang Heng did not want to choose this path.


    Furthermore, when Zhang Heng recalled how Loki was described in Norse mythology and Marvel Comics, he did not remember seeing his teleportation ability in them. Thus, Zhang Heng was more inclined to believe that Loki��s teleportation ability originated from a certain item. This could also exin why Loki could still use teleportation without scruples even after his strength was reduced by 60%.


    Therefore, what Zhang Heng needed to do next was find this item, then think of a way to destroy or take it away from Loki. That way, Loki could only choose to face him head-on.


    He took out two new quivers from his travel bag and reced the emptied quivers. At the same time, he casually said, ��What, are you nning to help me solve my problem?��


    ��Since I��m here to look for you, of course, I��ve thought about how to solve your problem,�� Loki said slowly. A sly smile appeared on his face. ��But not now.��


    ��Hmm?��


    Loki removed a coin from his pocket and tossed it. Zhang Heng saw Lenin��s head on its front and the national emblem on its back as it gleamed in the sunlight.


    ��This contact is just a self-introduction and an initial exchange of intentions. I know you don��t believe what I say, so of course, you won��t ept any of my offers now. Even if this seems sincere enough an offer to me, you��ll probably still think that Loki is a bastard who only knows how to take advantage of the situation. So why don��t we wait a little longer? ��When you��re at your wit��s end, and all options have been weighed, you��ll suddenly realize that the honest Loki is the kinder one.��


    ��How are you brazenly associating your name with the honest one?�� Zhang Heng asked. He nced at the coin in Loki��s hand before shifting his gaze away as if he hadn��t noticed it at all.


    Loki continued tossing the coin in his hand, grinning as he said, ��You think you��re smart enough to know who��s the enemy or friend, but it��s sometimes better to be a little less confident.��


    After Loki tossed the coin again, Zhang Heng suddenly shot two more arrows without warning. This time, Loki didn��t snap his fingers. Instead, he contorted in a somewhat awkward angle, dodging an arrow while reaching out to grab another.


    But before he could catch his breath, he saw a third arrowing. This time around, Loki discovered that Zhang Heng��s target wasn��t him but the coin in the air.


    The third arrow urately hit the coin in the air and sent it flying. At the same time, Zhang Heng threw away the bone bow in his hand, pulled out the [Hidden Scabbard] on his waist, and charged at Loki.


    A hint of panic appeared on Loki��s face. He never expected this to happen. He turned to run, but Zhang Heng was too fast, having He taken only one step when he felt a chilling from behind. However, when he saw that he was about to die under Zhang Heng��s knife, the fear and panic on his face disappeared.


    He grinned instead, snapped his fingers, and disappeared on the spot.

 Chapter 1202 - Code

    <h4><i>Chapter 1202</i>: Code</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    Loki wore a smug look on his face. He was the god of lies and pranks, so his obsession with them was an innate instinct. Back in Asgard, he had to enjoy dancing on the edge of a de, but in the end, he had everyone under his control.


    Hisbat power had never been the strongest among the gods, let alone Thor, the number one warrior of Asgard. But even Thor had toe to him when he was faced with a problem that he could not solve. His brain was what he indeed relied on.


    Loki knew what Zhang Heng was up to from the moment he met him. He also knew that Zhang Heng had shot him with an arrow to test and understand his teleportation ability. He wanted to find a w in his ability, but Loki did not expose it, even deliberately disying how far he could teleport to Zhang Heng.


    He also knew that Zhang Heng must be trying to find an item that could��ve been used for teleportation. Thus, Loki had deliberately used an ordinary coin, acting as if he could not use his teleportation ability once it left his hand. He tricked Zhang Heng into attacking him, but he took the opportunity to teleport, sneaking behind Zhang Heng.


    He had already obtained [Parris��s arrow] from Zhang Heng, and now that he had picked up the [Pestilence Bone Bow], the two items could be matched together. This B-grade item from the White Horse Knight left Loki rather curious, and he wanted to take it and y with it.


    However, as soon as he reached out to touch the bone bow, he realized that something was wrong. Just a moment ago, the [Hidden Scabbard] had been shing at where he was standing, but now, it was closing in on his back like a ghost.


    Loki immediately realized that he had been tricked by Zhang Heng again. Zhang Heng had never believed that the coin was the key to his teleportation, so when he contacted Zhang Heng, who had deliberately thrown away the [Pestilence Bone Bow] before drawing his sword, Loki was certain that Zhang Heng had been nning this attack for a long time.


    Back at the Pripyat Hotel, Loki had already experienced the power of the [Hidden scabbard]. The non-healing properties of this knife and the damage it dealt with divine creatures were something that Loki would be afraid of, even if he were at his peak. This was not to mention that his strength had been suppressed by 60%.


    Zhang Heng��s level-4 de technique was also among the reasons why Loki was unwilling to face Zhang Heng head-on. Although there were many gods in Asgard whose strength far surpassed that of a mortal like Zhang Heng, the Norse gods basically walked the path of one strength against ten. In terms ofbat techniques, most of them were brats. When it came to de techniques, they were not much better than mortals. And among mortals, Loki had never seen anyone who could surpass Zhang Heng.


    And this time, Loki could feel that Zhang Heng��s knife was over twice as strong as before, his skills almost reaching the limits of an ordinary person.


    Loki was shocked. He did a rough calction in his mind and realized that he might not have enough time to snap his fingers and escape. He could only pounce on the spot like before and dodge the knife from behind. But if he did that, he would be entangled with Zhang Heng, and the script would be simr to the fight at the Pripyat Hotel.


    Next, he would probably have to roll around on the ground. His posture wasn��t elegant, but the most important thing was that Zhang Heng would probably not give him another chance to snap his fingers.


    Loki was not wrong. Zhang Heng had indeed been nning this attack for a long time.


    To kill Loki, he had to first destroy his teleportation ability. Zhang Heng had initially nned to find the item on Loki��s body and destroy it. Still, he also knew how difficult it would be because the god of lies and pranks was the most cunning among all gods, and Zhang Heng knew that his intentions couldn��t be possibly hidden from Loki.


    Once thetter was prepared, it was almost impossible to destroy or take the item away. So after some thought, Zhang Heng decided to give up on this option.


    Although Loki was cunning, he was not without weakness. In fact, as Zhang Heng fought more and more supernatural creatures, he came to learn more and more about them. These self-proimed gods were born out of the faith of mankind, and in the past, relied on bards�� tales and stories carved on stone tablets to spread their faith. Now, with the advent of new media, they had a bountiful method to spread their religion. Games, novels, and even rock and roll had made some gods even more powerful.


    They had an almost unlimited lifespan, a power beyond the imagination of mortals. Because of this, many increasingly feared them, thinking that they were invincible.


    However, in Zhang Heng��s eyes, these gods were no different from the high-level NPC in a game. Their power was strong, but they had lost their most precious thing��freedom��the stories and deeds they relied on to spread were like shackles that bound them tightly. They were likeputer programs��no matter how open-minded the game world was, they couldn��t betray the lines of code that were hidden behind them.


    Loki was the god of lies and pranks, for instance, and stirring up trouble was his biggestbel, an instinct rooted deep within his soul. Thus, when Zhang Heng realized that this was Loki��s dungeon, the first person he suspected was the subjugator. The reason was simply that the subjugator was too close to him.


    Even though the subjugator��s words and actions didn��t reveal any ws, and to eliminate his suspicion, Loki even obtained a real ID from the forum, but that didn��t change his behavior. It was something rooted deep in his bones.


    Was there any benefit in using coins to trick Zhang Heng? Strictly speaking, there was none. Loki had only picked up the [Pestilence Bone Bow] because Zhang Heng had thrown it away, and he didn��t really care about this B-grade item that all yers coveted. Picking it up and ying with it was one reason, but the bigger reason was that Loki wanted to see Zhang Heng hopping mad after losing the precious bow and enjoying the pleasure of messing with his opponent.


    If it were any other sane person, they probably wouldn��t have put themselves in danger for such a boring reason, but Loki would do it, and he did it with relish because he was the god of lies and pranks. Thus, he was destined to be unable to dodge Zhang Heng��s attack.


    Furthermore, Zhang Heng had used the new C-rank item he had just obtained, [Worldly Scale]. This item from the ck Python could greatly increase Zhang Heng��s strength in a short period of time, and in theory, directly increase his strength to the limits his body could take. But considering the aftereffects, Zhang Heng didn��t do so.. [Hidden Scabbard] was already sharp enough, and as long as he doubled his strength to sh Loki��s body, even more strength would be wasted.

 Chapter 1203 - Stalemate And Bet

    <h4>Chapter 1203: Stalemate And Bet</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    [Hidden Scabbard] had already cut through Loki��s jacket. It was about to continue splitting its owner into two when Loki suddenly disappeared again.


    When he reappeared, he was standing on the roof of aundry 15 meters away from Zhang Heng. He looked like he was still in shock.


    Zhang Heng frowned. He clearly saw that this time, Loki did not have the time to snap his fingers, but he still managed to teleport at the critical moment. In other words, his ability to teleport had nothing to do with snapping his fingers. This guy had been putting on an act from the very beginning. Through hints, he had linked the snap of his fingers to his teleportation, even taking a knife from Zhang Heng and had a few of his own fingers cut off.


    However, his bitter act was finally put to use, saving him from Zhang Heng��s knife.


    And this time, Loki was really scared. His jacket was cut in half and could no longer be worn. Looking at the garment split in the middle, Loki knew that if he had been a little slower, he would have ended up like the jacket and a look of lingering fear couldn��t help but show on his face. ��Tsk, tsk, tsk. It was too dangerous. I really can��t be distracted when facing you.��


    Zhang Heng didn��t continue to chase after him. Although he only used one sh, he didn��t hold back. It was a peak-level sh after merging his mind and body. It consumed a lot of energy, and he also used [Earthly Scales], but fortunately, Zhang Heng had given himself some leeway. He had only doubled his strength, so he was not in a weakened state.


    However, he needed to take a breather. The most important thing was to find a way to continue dealing with Loki.


    The previous strike was notpletely fruitless either. Other than unraveling Loki��s little trick, Zhang Heng had also finally found the secret to Loki��s teleportation.


    Thetter��s repeated jumps were actually due to a dagger.


    After Zhang Heng cut open his jacket, the dagger emerged from his waist. The main reason was that its appearance was so familiar that Zhang Heng recognized it at a nce.


    [Escape Dagger], also known as Kohler��s dagger in the game, was a popr game item. It had once had a rtively high appearance rate in a certain MOBA game, and Zhang Heng had only seen it for the first time at an auction.


    As a rare Escape-type item, it was quite attractive to almost all yers. In the end, it sold for 2,050 points. If it weren��t for Zhang Heng having too few points on him at the time, he would have wanted it for self-defense.


    In addition, Zhang Heng remembered that the [Escape Dagger] he had seen at the auction had a limit of three uses. It wasn��t like Loki, who would teleport whenever he had nothing to do, this guy must have done some strange modifications after getting this item.


    When Loki saw Zhang Heng��s gaze fall on his [Escape Dagger], he admitted it openly, ��That��s right. I used this gadget to dodge your attack. Now that you know, it��s a pity that I won��t take the risk to get close to you anymore. So what do you n to do with me next?��


    Loki looked at Zhang Heng with intrigue, causing thetter to fall into silence.


    After a moment, Zhang Heng opened his mouth again. ��You want to make a deal with me, but why did you change the main mission of this dungeon to killing you? If that��s the case, then only one of us will survive, right?��


    ��What you said makes sense,�� Loki nodded, his face full of annoyance. ��I just couldn��t help but feel an itch. Who told you to attack me without saying anything? Not taking revenge is not my style. I forgot about it in a hurry.��


    Zhang Heng didn��t believe a certain someone��s nonsense. He was facing Loki, not Thor. How could he give up on his original n simply because of a moment��s hot-headedness?


    However, he didn��t think of any way to deal with Loki. Thetter had already been plotted against twice by him. As the god of lies and pranks, this was probably the first time in his life, and with Loki��s IQ, it was almost impossible to trick him a third time. So Zhang Heng could only pick up the [Pestilence Bone Bow] that had fallen to the ground and carry it on his back.


    Loki seemed to have noticed that Zhang Heng no longer had any means to threaten him, so he returned to his usual smiling and rxed expression and asked.


    ��Are we in a stalemate now?��


    ��If you��re not nning to make a move on me, I think so.��


    ��You don��t have to think of all sorts of ways to trick me into getting close to you. I��ve learned a lot about you. Don��t forget that I nted a little nail next to you. What do you think? She��s quite cute, isn��t she? It��s a pity that you don��t have much love left. Otherwise, the two of you might have been able to put on a show together. However, I��m quite surprised that you��re willing to do this for her. You��re not really going to trade a B-Grade item for her life, are you?�� Loki jabbed.


    ��Do you really want to stay on the roof and enjoy the freezing wind?�� Zhang Heng asked instead of answering.


    ��Of course. Considering the fate of the White Horse Knight and the other poor friends, I suddenly feel that it��s not too bad to stay on the roof and enjoy the cold wind. At least I don��t have to be afraid.


    ��Also, I don��t need to risk a move on you. You��ve been exposed to radiation since the beginning of this dungeon. With the amount of radiation your bodies have absorbed, it��s toote for you to leave Pripyat and find a hospital. As long as I wait until you��re all dead, I��ll consider myself the winner.��


    Loki paced excitedly on the roof, then he suddenly looked down at Zhang Heng.


    ��But I still decided to give you another chance. How about we make a bet?��


    ��Nah,�� Zhang Heng said lightly.


    ��Don��t be so heartless. At least listen to the bet.�� Loki stopped and put his hands on his waist, ��If you win, I��ll let you clear this round of dungeon. In addition, you know that my daughter is H, the goddess of death. After the god of light, Baldr, died, the Asgardian gods sent messengers to find my daughter, begging him to resurrect him. But because I didn��t seed in interfering, you came to me because of this story, right? You want me to go to the goddess of death and talk about Fan��s girlfriend. I can agree to that.��


    Loki blinked and said, ��No matter what, H is my daughter, so she has to give me some face. I can��t guarantee that I��ll be able to save your little girlfriend, but at least there��s a good chance that I might. How about that? It��s a good reward isn��t it?��


    ��What do you want to bet?�� Zhang Heng asked after a moment of silence.

 Chapter 1204 - Ambush

    <h4>Chapter 1204: Ambush</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    ��Very simple. Let��s bet on how long those three canst,�� Loki said with a smile as he pointed at a building in the distance.


    Zhang Heng looked in the direction he was pointing at. It was an apartment building, about a dozen stories tall. There were three figures on the rooftop, and they seemed to be looking in their direction as well. One of them was holding a telescope in his hand, but due to the distance, he could not see their faces clearly, he could not see their faces clearly.


    However, Zhang Heng could guess who those three people were. Currently, in Pripyat, other than the militia responsible for disaster relief, only Loki and the yers were left. Although Zhang Heng had told the others after taking care of Sauk, he told them to stay in the hospital and protect themselves, but it seemed that they did not listen to his advice.


    There were three figures on the rooftop. Two were men and one was a woman. One of them had wrapped himself up tightly, one had trouble with his legs, and the other had an injured arm. All bandaged up, it seemed like he had just finished surgery. Needless to say, the three of them were the doctor, mouse, and Master Kui.


    Zhang Heng was also a little helpless. He knew that the three of them had good intentions. They were worried that he wouldn��t be able to deal with Loki alone, so they rushed over to help. Moreover, they were very cautious and didn��t get too close. Instead, they first observed the situation from the neighboring apartment building, as though waiting for an opportunity to strike.


    This seemed to be the safest and safest method.


    Unfortunately, their opponent this time was Loki. Zhang Heng could already hear the sound of car engines and tires rubbing against the ground. He didn��t know how many military trucks were pulling the militia toward the ce.


    Scherbina��s body had already been discovered by the militia that had arrived after they left the Pripyat Hotel. This incident had caused an earthquake that was even stronger than the explosion of the reactor. Scherbina was the vice-chairman of the Soviet Council of Ministers. He was definitely a big shot. He was sent here to take charge of the disaster relief work. Just as the disaster situation was gradually under control, the vice-chairman identally died in his hotel room.


    Moreover, he was assassinated, clear from the wounds on his body or the thugs who attacked the militia in the hotel after that. After receiving the news, Moscow was also shocked. It was even a little hard to believe. The rtionship between the Soviet Union and the United States had once been tense, but after Gorbachev came to power, there were already some signs of warming up. However, with the death of Scherbina, all kinds of suspicions and conspiracy theories quickly returned, and the political impact of this matter was likely to be beyond everyone��s imagination. Gorbachev could already foresee that some people would use the death of Scherbina to make a big deal out of it, they might even push the already fragile rtionship between the two superpowers into the abyss.


    Thus, the most important thing was to catch the murderer first and figure out what was going on as soon as possible. This was also thetest order given by Moscow to Pripyat. So, this time, the Ministry of Internal Affairs dispatched about 700 militiamen, with every single one fully armed.


    In addition, because Zhang Heng had left a deep impression on them during the previous battle, Beldorf had also borrowed several armored vehicles from Kiev. Now, these armored vehicles had also arrived and surrounded the residential building with the convoy, as if they weren��t just fighting three people but an entire army.


    By the time the doctor, Master Kui, and the others realized that something was wrong, it was already toote. Although there was still some time before the convoy arrived, every street and road that could be used for escape was blocked by the Internal Affairs Department, prompting Beldorf to give his men a death order. They could not let any of their targets go tonight.


    ��Yourpanions don��t look too good.�� Loki had just seen a few military trucks passing by on the street. In order not to be discovered, he lowered his head and waited for the vehicles to leave before he spoke with schadenfreude.


    ��Although you don��t know each other before this dungeon, you��re brothers who survived the nuclear explosion together, so... shall we make a bet. Let��s see who can guess the time more urately. If you win, I��ll let you clear the dungeon and solve your girlfriend��s problem. If I win, however...�� Loki rolled his eyes. Smiling, he said, ��I won��t ask you to do anything too difficult. You just have to share a pot of boiled mutton with me.��


    Zhang Heng knew that things were not as simple. The reward Loki was offering was not proportional to the price he had to pay. Zhang Heng had not met many people who could take advantage of Loki. This guy was obviously plotting something, and most importantly, Zhang Heng knew that it would be difficult for him to win the bet.


    Because Loki had obviously leaked the location of the doctor and the others to the Internal Affairs Department. He should have been nning this since he first killed Shelbina, and since Loki could call people over, of course, there were ways to get the militia to leave. Thus Zhang Heng could not guess the time at all.


    But regardless of whether Master Kui, Mouse, and the others were dead or alive, Zhang Heng wouldn��t be able to oust Loki. If he didn��t crack thetter��s teleportation ability, the current situation would be a dead-end for Zhang Heng.


    Loki wasn��t in a hurry at all. He simply sat down on the roof of theundry shop, crossed his legs, and looked at the scenery while waiting for Zhang Heng to make a decision. He saw a falcon hovering above his head, seemingly looking for rats to satisfy its hunger, prompting Loki to wave his hand to let the Falcon fly down.


    The falcon��s body froze. It pped its wings and flew down from the sky. Finally, itnded on Loki��s arm. It didn��t look like a bird of prey at all. It was as obedient as Loki��s pet parrot, but its eyes were still searching for the rat on the ground.


    ��Do you always think about eating?�� Loki scolded with a smile. ��Unfortunately, all the rats in the city are contaminated. If you eat them, you��ll soon go crazy.��


    The falcon didn��t understand at all. It was still thinking about what to eat, so Loki said to Zhang Heng, ��Can you help me throw some of the biscuits I baked up? I want to feed this bird.��


    Zhang Heng nced at Loki and the falcon on his arm. Without saying anything, he turned to get the biscuits.


    ��Remember to throw them away. I��m afraid you might suddenly plot against me,�� Loki said cheerfully.


    Zhang Heng poured the te of biscuits into a bag and threw it to Loki, who in turn didn��t actually take it. He watched the biscuits fall to his feet and waited for half a minute before bending down to pick them up. When he looked up.., he saw Zhang Heng raise the [Pestilence Bone Bow] in his hand and pointed it at him coldly.


    ��Again?!�� Loki couldn��t help but roll his eyes andugh. ��Are you sure you won��t be annoyed? Or are you going to shoot my bird to vent your anger because you can��t hit me?��

 Chapter 1205 - Unforeseen Circumstances

    <h4>Chapter 1205: Unforeseen Circumstances</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    As soon as Loki finished speaking, the Falcon that had been standing on his arm suddenly spread its wings and flew up again.


    Loki was a little surprised. Not only was he good at shapeshifting, but he was also an excellent magician. A bird of prey like the Falcon naturally wouldn��t just fall on someone��s arm. He had taken the bird down from the sky with magic, and although not very profound, it was more than enough to deal with such a brainless beast.


    The Falcon probably didn��t know why, but it suddenly saw that Loki was particrly amiable, so it couldn��t help but fall into Loki��s hand. It withdrew its sharp ws and hard beak, bing as docile as a pet.


    But it was thispletely tamed bird that was now out of Loki��s control.


    Before Loki could figure out what was going on, Zhang Heng��s arrow arrived. The first arrow was aimed at Loki��s chest, but thetter grabbed it. At the same time, when Loki saw Zhang Heng��s second arrow, he didn��t hesitate to attack, having little choice but to use his teleportation ability again.


    But the next moment, Loki realized that he was still standing there. He hadn��t moved an inch. The next arrow was already at his neck. At the critical moment, Loki instinctively used his right hand to block. His palm was pierced by the flying arrow.


    The pain in his hand was secondary. What really frightened Loki was the fact that the [Escape Dagger] at his waist was missing.


    Then, as if thinking of something, Loki looked up at the Falcon above his head only to see himself lose his life-saving tool from the Falcon��s mouth.


    Loki realized he had been tricked, even though he still hadn��t figured out who had tricked him. After all, Zhang Heng��s long-nned sh hadn��t hit him, so it seemed like there was nothing he could do about it. The remaining three yers were trapped in the distant apartment building. They were the only ones who had a motive to kill him in this dungeon. After being eliminated, Loki couldn��t find anyone else to suspect.


    In his panic, he even thought of the little boy ying chess in his room. However, Loki knew that there was no need to go through so much trouble if thetter really wanted to deal with him. He was already in the other party��s territory; moreover, the item [Escape Dagger] was also made by the other party.


    In fact, there wasn��t much point in guessing whose Falcon it was anymore. The most important thing now was to get the [Escape Dagger] back. Otherwise, he would be shot like a hedgehog by Zhang Heng.


    So, while enduring the pain, Loki crouched down to dodge Zhang Heng��s arrow rain and used a more powerful spell.


    The Falcon, which was spreading its wings, felt its body stiffen again. This time, the stiffness didn��t disappear immediately, but it became more and more intense. Soon, it realized that it couldn��t even p its wings. It could only fall from the sky with the [Escape Dagger] in its mouth.


    Loki was delighted. He wanted to reach out to retrieve his [Escape Dagger], but seeing that his uninjured left hand was about to grab the dagger again, he had no choice but to unsheath it halfway...


    Because the [Hidden Sheath] had already followed closely behind and shed towards it!


    Zhang Heng came very quickly. After Lokiy down, he had already put away the [Pestilence Bone Bow] and stepped on the trash can to climb to the top of theundry room. However, Zhang Heng didn��t care about the [Escape Dagger] that had been giving him a headache. Instead, he reached out to catch the Falcon that had fallen down.


    Then, he unsheathed his sword with his other hand. This also made him slower than Loki by half a step. However, after a simple calction, Loki sadly realized that although he could grab the [Escape Dagger] first. He did not have time to activate it, and his left hand would be cut off by Zhang Heng��s sword.


    This was also the reason why he had no choice but to withdraw his hand. After that, he saw that Zhang Heng didn��t pick up the C-grade item. Instead, he turned his de and shed at him again.


    Loki could only continue to retreat. He reached out and used magic to condense the air in front of him, forming an air wall to block the menacing Zhang Heng; as for himself, he was already thinking about how to take the opportunity to retrieve the item he had thrown away.


    Unfortunately, the air wall didn��t evenst three seconds in front of [Hidden Scabbard]. This also caused Loki��s n to be foiled before it could be carried out. The god of lies and pranks had no choice but to think of another way.


    Only at that moment did the battle between Zhang Heng and Loki truly begin.


    Previously, Loki relied on his CD-free jumping knife and the number of times he had used it to run around. He hadn��t fought Zhang Heng head-on at all. Now that he had lost his teleportation ability, Loki could only use his own strength to deal with Zhang Heng.


    A name might lie, but a clergy wouldn��t. As the god of lies and pranks, Loki��s fighting style was indeed the same as his. He rarely fought Zhang Heng head-on, employing all sorts of strange tricks to harass and fight instead. In addition, he was trying to find a way to retrieve his [Escape Dagger].


    This was the thing that truly made Loki feel at ease. Therefore, although he kept retreating, he had already made a detour unconsciously and was ready to quietly return to the ce where the [Escape Dagger] fell.


    However, he was very pleased with his little n. He didn��t expect to see a scene that made his face turn ashen in the next moment. He saw the Falcon that had been caught by his spell. After being caught by Zhang Heng, it was casually ced on the ground. Now that the spell duration was over, it was alive and kicking again.


    He used his ws to grab the [Escape Dagger] again. Then, with a p of his wings, he flew up into the sky. From the looks of it, it was preparing to fly away. Seeing this, Loki became anxious and wanted to use the same trick to make the bird fall again; however, Zhang Heng didn��t give him a chance, and his attacks became even more fierce.


    As a result, Loki could no longer pull out his hands. Right now, he was already having a hard time dealing with Zhang Heng��s [Hidden Scabbard]. He had no time to deal with the Falcon and could only watch it fly away.


    Loki knew that he would never be able to get his dagger back. What was worse was that he would not be able to block Zhang Heng��s attacks. No matter how many tricks he used, he would eventually run out of them, not to mention Zhang Heng��sbat skills; Loki��s moves would not work after he used them once. He had to rack his brains toe up with new tricks in order to buy himself some time to struggle.


    At this critical moment, Loki could only use his verbal skills again, shouting, ��Stop, stop, stop!!! We��re not going to bet this time. Let��s just make a deal. Don��t you have a fewpanions? They��re about to be killed by the militia, and I can make them stop.. I can also make you clear the level directly, as long as you��re willing to stop attacking me.��

 Chapter 1206 - The Death Of Loki

    <h4>Chapter 1206: The Death Of Loki</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    Zhang Heng heard Loki��s suggestion, but his hands didn��t stop moving. Instead, each sh was faster than thest.


    Rather than hoping that the god of lies and pranks would keep his promise, it was better to kill Loki on the spot andplete the main mission. This was the safest way to clear the dungeon. As for the doctor and Mouse, Zhang Heng wasn��t too worried. Even though the militia had surrounded the building they were in and were attacking it from above.


    With the firepower of the Doctor and the others, it was obviously impossible to withstand the militia��s attack, but the Falcon was already flying toward them. Speaking of which, he had to thank Loki. If it weren��t for the [Escape Dagger] he provided, it was almost impossible for the three upstairs to escape under such circumstances.


    Thus, Zhang Heng was indifferent to Loki��s suggestion. At this moment, he waspletely immersed in the world of knife skills, ignoring all the noise around him. Unlike Loki��s various fighting styles, when Zhang Heng��s de was in his hand, his movements became simpler. However, when he swung his de, it often gave Loki a feeling that there was nowhere to run.


    The god of lies and pranks felt like he was surrounded by de shadows, enveloping his body. In order to turn the situation around, Loki tried to raise a cloud of sand, but when Zhang Heng took out his [Filter Lens], Loki��s sand also lost its effect. But taking advantage of the time he had bought, Loki hurriedly conjured a flock of pigeons to stand between him and Zhang Heng.


    However, he had underestimated Zhang Heng��s knife skills. Although the flock of pigeons had sessfully blocked Zhang Heng��s line of sight, Zhang Heng��s outstanding perception and hearing still firmly locked onto Loki��s position. On the other hand, Loki himself was affected, and he didn��t see Zhang Heng��s knife.


    By the time he nced at the knife light from the corner of his eye, it was toote. Loki couldn��t dodge in time, and a long wound was cut on his chest. A strange blue liquid like frost flowed out of his chest, and when itnded on the ground, turned into pieces of ice.


    The appearance of the wound made Loki��s movements even slower. In just two minutes, he was cut three more times by Zhang Heng. His hair was disheveled, and he looked like he was at the end of his rope.


    But at that moment, Loki stopped shouting, because he could feel Zhang Heng��s determination to kill him. After taking the fourth cut, Loki waved his hand, and the pigeons flew away, he saw Zhang Heng again, but thetter didn��t rush to swing his next cut. Zhang Heng looked at the embarrassed Loki.


    ��Do you know how to find the goddess of death, H?��


    ��Do I... know?�� Loki wiped the blood off his face, rolled his eyes, and chuckled. He was nowpletely forced into a desperate situation, but the expression on his face had changed from the initial panic to his usual frivolity.


    Zhang Heng knew from the look of this guy that he had no sincerity to negotiate, so Zhang Heng didn��t waste any more words with Loki. He directly raised the [Hidden Scabbard] in his hand.


    As if realizing that he couldn��t dodge this attack, Loki didn��t resist. He just stood there with a smile on his face, ��You must think that I��ve brought you a lot of trouble now, but in fact, after killing me, your trouble has only just begun. Remember to protect yourself for a while, because... Chaos has arrived, and this will be the prelude to the end of the world.��


    The answer he got was a sh of saber light!


    [Hidden Scabbard]��snding point was precisely the neck of Loki, which [Parris��s Arrow] had pointed at. This was also the position that Heimdall had chosen to kill Loki in the twilight of the gods.


    After Zhang Heng cut off Loki��s head, he deliberately took two steps back to prevent thetter��s head from exploding and hurting people after it fell to the ground like in the legends. However, in the end, Loki��s head only rolled half a circle on the ground before it stopped moving, the smile on his face frozen forever, the slightly raised corners of his mouth looking a little strange.


    At almost the same time, Zhang Heng also received a system notification.


    [Ding! Main Mission sessfullypleted��kill Loki. yer will return to the real world in one hour. Game Points +300. You can check your status on the character panel.]


    Zhang Heng was slightly surprised. He did not expect the famous god of lies and pranks to really die at his hands. He stood there for another three minutes to make sure that nothing else happened, and the countdown on the mission panel also disappeared. He walked to Loki��s body and reached out to touch it.


    The first thing he obtained was the piece of iron wire used to cut open the door for the youth.


    [Discovered game item��Strange Iron Wire (unappraised)]


    Zhang Heng also touched a leaf.


    [Discovered game item��Leaf of a certain tree (unappraised)]


    Zhang Heng was very familiar with Norse mythology, not only because his parents had told him these stories as bedtime fairy tales when he was young, but after bing a yer, Zhang Heng had carefully read the relevant information in order to understand this mysterious and dangerous world.


    There were many famous treasures in Norse mythology, but Zhang Heng couldn��t find anything close to the two new items in his hands, and Norse mythology also didn��t describe the treasures that Loki possessed, so he stopped trying to guess what the items in his hands were.


    He stuffed the two new items into the travel bag that he had been carrying the whole time. He was ready to go out and ask the bartender to appraise them. Then, he sat at the door of theundry shop. Half an hourter, the doctor, Mouse, and Besnova, who was disguised as Master Kui in bandages, walked over from the other side of the street.


    Above their heads was arge bird. It was the falcon that Zhang Heng and Loki had encountered not long ago. This time, itnded on the ground before it began to change and expand; the feathers on its body began to rustle and fall. Instead of being blown away by the wind, they miraculously gathered together and eventually turned into a feather cloak the size of a palm.


    The body of the Falcon turned into a woman. It was none other than Master Kui, who had run off to god-knows-where. She reached out her hand, and the feather cloak flew into her body.


    Zhang Heng threw his coat to Master Kui, who stood up from the ground. At the same time, a thoughtful look shed across his eyes. ��Are you Freya��s agent?��


    Freya was the goddess of love and beauty in Norse mythology. She was also in charge of war and magic. Her beauty had captivated many gods. Even giants and monsters wanted her, one of the rewards that the craftsman asked for in the story of repairing the city for the gods was Freya.. Later, when Loki��s hammer was stolen, the monster Lord who stole the hammer also named Freya as his wife, in these two stories, she had a feud with Loki.

 Chapter 1207 - The Feathered Cloak And The Frost Giant’s Son

    <h4>Chapter 1207: The Feathered Cloak And The Frost Giant��s Son</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    Zhang Heng could tell that Master Kui was rted to Freya because of her feathered cloak.


    Although this feathered cloak wasn��t as famous as Odin��s weapon Gungnir or Thor��s hammer Mikhail, it had appeared many times in Norse mythology. As long as one wore this cloak, they could transform into a falcon, not to mention it was a disguise that even the gods could not see through. Now, it seemed that Freya had turned this item into a supernatural one and given it to her agent.


    Loki obviously did not pay much attention to the remaining three yers other than Zhang Heng because all three of them were injured. Other than the doctor, who could barely move, one of Mouse��s legs was so swollen that he could barely walk. As for Master Quinn, he was the most miserable. After being shot by Loki��s incarnation, Sauk, and after the surgery, it was a miracle that she could get out of bed immediately.


    Moreover, Loki had revealed their location to the Internal Affairs Department. They were surrounded by hundreds of militiamen, and it looked like death was the only way out. Loki had be careless because of this; he didn��t expect Master Kui to let Besnova disguise herself. Furthermore, after Master Kui transformed into a falcon with his feather cloak, he was no longer affected by his injuries.


    She watched the battle between Zhang Heng and Loki from the sky and realized that she had first to destroy his teleportation ability if she wanted to kill Loki. Besides that, Master Kui also hinted to Zhang Heng about his flight path, asking him to join her. However, the two of them never found an opportunity to do so because Loki��s teleportation ability was too buggy. Not only was there no limit to the number of times he could teleport, but he also didn��t even need to snap his fingers.


    In other words, as long as he couldn��t subdue Loki in an instant, Loki could use teleportation to escape immediately. Just as Master Kui was worrying about what to do, she didn��t expect Loki to be so bored that he wanted to y with the birds. With a wave of the hand, he summoned Master Kui��s falcon form from the sky.


    However, the magic he used wasn��t very powerful. It wasn��t a problem for him to control a bird of prey that didn��t have much intelligence, but it didn��t have much of an impact on Master Kui��s mental state. Instead, Master Kui��s trick fell on Loki��s arm. Zhang Heng, who was downstairs, also understood. He suddenly took out his [Pestilence Bone Bow] and pointed it at Loki.


    Loki��s attention was attracted by Zhang Heng��s action, and Kui took the opportunity to steal the [Escape Dagger] from Loki��s waist with his mouth. Then, under cover of Zhang Heng, he spread his wings and flew away, forcing Loki to choose a frontal battle with him. And in the end, Zhang Heng cut off his head.


    That was the general summary of the previous battle.


    ....


    ��Unfortunately, Freya isn��t here. She has always wanted to see this.�� Grandpa Kui walked to Loki��s corpse, squatted down, and looked at Loki��s lifeless eyes.


    Mouse noticed the obvious drop in temperature around him and asked curiously, ��Can gods be killed? And isn��t Loki the God of Fire? Why is his blood blue?��


    ��Because even though he��s Odin��s foster brother, he��s the son of Frost Giant Fabuty and Laufey,�� Master Kui said. ��So in terms of bloodline, this guy is indeed a frost giant.��


    On the other hand, Zhang Heng did not join in the discussion. He was thinking about what Loki had said before he died. Thetter had mentioned that chaos wasing... although, with Loki��s personality, he could not rule out the possibility that he made up some nonsense before he died. However, Zhang Heng was more inclined to believe that it was true. He just did not know what Loki meant by ��chaos.�� Also, Loki seemed to know a lot about his background.


    His words about the apocalypse did not seem to be made up. However, at that time, the two were fighting, and in order to not let Loki��s words affect him, Zhang Heng did not believe or doubt him. Instead, he chose to put Loki��s words aside and focused on the battle first. but now that the battle was over, Zhang Heng began to think about these things again. He only looked up when he saw the doctor standing in front of him.


    The doctor looked a little conflicted, but he still handed the [Escape Dagger] to Zhang Heng.


    ��This item should belong to you. You defeated Loki. Without you, we wouldn��t have been able toplete the mission. We also gained a lot of points from the previous incarnations.��


    Even though he said that the doctor was still reluctant to part with it, after all, it was a C-rank item, and it had been magically modified by Loki. There was no limit to the number of times it could be used and the number of CDs it had; in a sense, its value had already surpassed that of a B-grade item. It could even bepared to the legendary A-grade item. It would be a lie to say that it was not heartbreaking to hand it over just like that.


    However, this was something that they had already discussed on the rooftop. On the way back, the doctor had more than once thought of running away with this item. With the invincible nature of this item, it was impossible for others not to catch up to him. After the remaining 20 minutes passed, they would return to the real world, and the doctor would be able to keep the dagger for himself.


    It would be a lie to say that they were not tempted, but the doctor knew that Zhang Heng could have prevented Master Kui from bringing the dagger to them. At that time, Zhang Heng could have ignored the falcon that she had transformed into and let it fall to the ground; he could have taken the opportunity to catch the [Escape Dagger] and not care about the lives of the remaining yers. After all, they were not rted, and they did not even know their real names.


    However, Zhang Heng still chose to save them in the end, even though it was a piece of cake for Zhang Heng.


    The doctor wanted to keep the item for himself, but he was not thick-skinned enough to do so. Zhang Heng had saved them more than once, and the doctor had wronged Zhang Heng before. In the end, thetter did not seem to take it to heart. He could not bring himself to do so, so in the end, he still gave the dagger to Zhang Heng as promised.


    Zhang Heng epted the dagger from the doctor without hesitation. The doctor could not find any expression of joy on Zhang Heng��s face. In fact, Zhang Heng��s expression did not change at all; it was as if he was buying pancakes from a roadside stall, which the doctor found hard to understand.


    Anyone who obtained the dagger would have an undying body. Furthermore, with Zhang Heng��s strength, other than items like [Dreand of Death], there was nothing else that could threaten him from now on. Zhang Heng seemed to know what the doctor was thinking. He shook his head but did not exin.


    Soon, an hour passed. The yers had all received the system notification that they could leave this dungeon that had been shrouded in the shadow of death. Only then did they finally rx, their figures disappearing from the streets. However, after everyone left, Zhang Heng realized that he was still standing where he was.


    Then he saw a little boy, apanied by a white-haired man, walking toward him.

 Chapter 1208 - Sturdy Backpack

    <h4>Chapter 1208: Sturdy Backpack</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    ��Are you here for this?�� Zhang Heng waved the [Escape Dagger] in his hand.


    The little boy nodded and said, ��There��s something wrong with the value of this item, and it has affected the game��s bnce. It needs to be adjusted. Can you show me the dagger?��


    His voice was not loud, but Zhang Heng could clearly hear every word, just like the system notification.


    ��Of course.�� Zhang Heng didn��t refuse. If everything went ording to n, this little boy before him was the reason why Loki was restricted after changing the main storyline mission. It was also because of him that he was able to defeat Loki tonight. More importantly, this little boy was able to keep him in the dungeon. Zhang Heng knew that if he didn��t agree to hand over the dagger, there was a high chance that he wouldn��t be able to leave.


    However, when Zhang Heng pulled out the dagger, he still tried to sound him out. ��This thing was yours to begin with, wasn��t it?��


    The boy did not answer. He only looked at the white-haired man beside him. Thetter shrugged. ��I��m starting to feel like I��m your radish.��


    However, after saying that, he still walked up to Zhang Heng.


    ��Butcher of Bravekan? Nice to meet you.�� Zhang Heng handed the dagger over.


    ��I��ve never really liked this nickname,�� the white-haired man said. ��But thank you for your cooperation.�� He took the dagger and examined it before handing it over to the little boy.


    Thetter nodded at Zhang Heng. ��One moment.�� He then started to fiddle with the dagger.


    Zhang Heng saw with his own eyes that the dagger in the little boy��s hand had been broken down into a series of characters. They were about a few hundred thousand bytes long, and they were ovepping each other.


    Half a minuteter, the little boy returned the dagger to the white-haired man��s hand. He gestured for thetter to return it to Zhang Heng, and at the same time, he exined, ��I��ve already changed the number of times this item has been used three times, but this bug has nothing to do with you. You didn��t use this bug for your own benefit, so you��re at a disadvantage by changing it. I should make it up to you. First, do you have anything you want?��


    Zhang Heng thought about it and said, ��I have a friend who has a rare disease, and she doesn��t have much time left. If possible, I��d like to know if you have anything that can cure her.��


    ��I do, but I can��t give it to you,�� the little boy refused without hesitation, but then he patiently exined, ��I��m here to fix the bug, so it��s impossible for me topensate you for something as valuable as that dagger. Also, I left that item in a certain dungeon, and I needed toplete a series ofplicated missions to obtain it. The point is that a long time has passed, and I can��t remember which dungeon it is.��


    He saw Zhang Heng and the white-haired man beside him turn to look at him, and he frowned, ��Why? Do you know how many dungeons I manage? How can I remember everything? I wouldn��t have set up a game organizingmittee otherwise...��


    ��No matter what, you shouldn��t throw such important things around,�� the white-haired man said in a deep, maic voice.


    ��I didn��t leave it lying around. I told you, I left it in a dungeon. To get it, you need toplete a series ofplicated quests, just like the god of war series. If someone really manages toplete these quests, not only will they get the B-grade item, but they��ll also be able to grow as well. This is also the reason why we have to y the game.�� The little boy did not seem to like being lectured, annoyed.


    ��Can you send me into that dungeon?�� Zhang Heng asked.


    ��No, even though your strength is more or less enough, other than some special dungeons, the rest of the regr dungeons can only be randomly selected. If you want to enter that dungeon, you can only try your luck. Moreover, with the difficulty of that dungeon, it��s almost impossible for you to encounter it in the first 30 rounds.��


    ��I can��t wait that long. Looks like I��ll have to think of another way,�� Zhang Heng said.


    The little boy opened his mouth, but he swallowed what he was about to say in the end. He said, ��You can change yourpensation n.��


    ��I can��t think of anything else that I want,�� Zhang Heng said. ��Then let��s just forget about it. Send me out of this dungeon. I��ve already gained enough this time.��


    He wasn��t being polite. In addition, Zhang Heng had already obtained four game items from this [Escape Dagger] dungeon. Adding on the 800 plus game points, it could be said he had a bumper harvest.


    However, the little boy insisted, ��No, we can��t just forget about it. The ones who don��tpensate for the bugs are the ones who don��t pay.��


    ��...��


    ��What you just said should be engraved on the stone tablet and be thew.�� The white-haired man looked like he couldn��t agree more.


    ��Then keep it for now,�� Zhang Heng said. ��I��lle to you when I think of what I want.��


    ��That��s the only way.�� The little boy looked a little helpless. ��You can contact me through the prize you won in the first round of the proxy war.��


    ��That PS4 Pro?�� Zhang Heng raised his eyebrows. ��How do I contact you? Add your PSN ount?��


    ��You��ll find it. This is also part of the game.�� This time, the little boy did not give a definite answer to a certain person. He only said vaguely.


    ��Alright, then I��ll see youter,�� Zhang Heng said.


    In the next moment, the familiar system notification finally rang in his ear again.


    [You have reached the return deadline. Missionpletion confirmed...]


    [Invisible killer cleared the dungeon. Round 10 of the game has ended. You are about to return to the real world...]


    [Congrattions, you have cleared ten consecutive rounds of the game. It has been detected that you have been in single-yer mode all this time. Reward: one Sturdy Backpack (authenticated)]


    Before Zhang Heng left the dungeon, he used thest bit of time to nce at the attributes of the sturdy backpack.


    [Name: Sturdy Backpack ]


    [Rarity: F]


    [Function: it��s just an ordinary backpack. Please don��t be fooled by its name. It��s not too sturdy.]


    This thing looked just like its function described. It was apletely ordinary backpack, but Zhang Heng knew its value and wasn��t fooled by its F-grade. This was because it was a rare storage item.


    As everyone knew, due to the game��s mechanism, yers were unable to bring non-item items into and out of the dungeon. There was no such thing as an unscientific portable space that could be found everywhere in the game; therefore, they could only carry all the items themselves. The smaller items could be kept in their pockets, but therger items could only be carried in their hands. This restricted the ability to bring all the items into the dungeon without restrictions.


    Normal yers could carry the items, but the guild leaders and vice-guild leaders ofrge guilds could only carry as many as they could carry.


    This [Sturdy Backpack] solved this problem to a certain extent. At the very least, it provided Zhang Heng with something that could fit a portion of the items inside.. Of course, it could not bepared to the storage space, however, it could at least keep his hands free forbat and emergency situations.

 Chapter 1209 - The Endless Journey

    <h4>Chapter 1209: The Endless Journey</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    Zhang Heng wasn��t sure if the newly acquired [Sturdy Backpack] was rted to the little boy at the end of the dungeon.


    Since he hadn��t decided whatpensation he would get from thetter, the little boy gave him a rare storage-type item, a piece of cake for thetter.


    Zhang Heng had also guessed the Little Boy��s identity. ording to the old and new gods, thetter should belong to the new, and he was close to the game god in terms of ability. However, the little boy did not answer his question. He ignored his probing.


    This time, Zhang Heng went back and took apart the PS4 Pro that he had won as a prize. He also bought a new one online forparison. The result was almost the same. The only difference was that the ps4pro that the game organizingmittee had given him had an extra gamepared to the original.


    ����Endless Journey��


    Zhang Heng looked it up on Baidu and found quite a few games with this name online, but most of them were crude and ancient. On the contrary, Zhang Heng opened the ��Endless Journey�� on the game console; he found that the game��s graphics were quite good. It should have been built with thetest generation of engines, and it seemed to be quite generous in the CG department. It had basically reached a ��death-stranded�� level.


    However, there was no signature from the gamepany. Moreover, it was hard to believe that such a heavyweight triple-A masterpiece had not been promoted in the early stages. It seemed that the creator had not considered the issue of distribution at all.


    Zhang Heng enjoyed the opening CG and did not skip it. Unlike the stunning scene, ��Endless Journey�� was normal in terms of storyline, basically following the traditional RPG game��s hero ying the dragon to save the world routine.


    However, it was probably due to the target yer group this time that the theme was changed to a Xianxia setting that was more eptable to eastern yers. The opening CG was about the birth of demons that wreaked havoc in the human world, the background story that caused the people of the mortal world to have a hard time living. After that, the camera turned to the main character, a disciple of the Immortal Pce, who was ordered to leave the mountain to gain experience.


    After that, Zhang Heng realized that he could manipte characters, talk to NPCs, ept quests, and level up by killing monsters.


    Coincidentally, he was also waiting for the appraisal results of the four items in this dungeon. Before that, he had nothing to do, so he decided to stay in his dorm and y an endless journey.


    The result was different from what Zhang Heng had imagined. This game was not as difficult as he had imagined. No matter how he looked at it, it was no different from a regr game. The experience and rewards from killing monsters were also quite generous; a bit like Diablo 3 in terms of gamey.


    However, the game flow was much longer than Diablo 3. Zhang Heng had yed for two days. In addition to the time that he already had, he had umted more than forty hours of game time. He spawned a decent set of equipment, although still not managing to finish ying the game that was certainly worthy of its title, ��Endless Journey.��.


    Although the storyline was mediocre, the excellent graphics and smooth fighting ensured the quality of the game. This was an excellent game to most people, but as a yer, Zhang Heng had personally experienced all kinds of dungeons, and any one of them couldn��t bepared to a console game through the screen. Thus it didn��t actually feel too amazing.


    Two dayster, the bartender sent him a message saying that all four items had been appraised. Zhang Heng put ��Endless Journey�� aside and drove to the bar to get his new equipment.


    The first item that Zhang Heng received from the bartender was the strange iron wire.


    [Pet Wire]


    [Rarity: D]


    [Function: what can it do? This depended on its mood. Basically, you needed to raise your pet iron wire like a pet, feed it iron regrly, take it out for a walk, and even... y music for it? Although no one knows how useful this is, as the rtionship between you improves, you canmunicate with it and have it do all sorts of things for you. PS: Don��t underestimate this wire; it can do more than you think].


    After reading the introduction of [Pet Wire], Zhang Heng was stunned. Compared to the other items on him, this wire was far from powerful, but it was definitely the most magical item. As a wire, it was actually a small life form, and it had to be raised like a pet.


    When Loki held it in his hand, it looked particrly lively,pletely ignoring the fact that it was only a wire. However, the description of its function was rtively vague. Zhang Heng only knew that he could use this wire to unlock the lock, just like Loki. As for the other functions, it could only be cultivated.


    Zhang Heng held the [Pet Wire] in his hand. He could feel that thetter wasn��t in a very good mood. It lowered its head and looked like it was in love with anyone. Zhang Heng guessed that it had been in the tule tree��s wooden box for too long and was a little bored, so he asked the bartender beside him, ��Do you have any unwanted metal tools here?��


    The bartender thought about it and took out an iron bucket with ice cubes. ��It��s yours.��


    Zhang Heng took the Iron Bucket. He did not know how to feed the [Pet Wire] in his hand, so he first threw the iron wire in and then looked at the next item.


    [Name: Explorer��smp]


    [Quality: C]


    [Function: a kerosenemp that will never go out. It is a piece of top-tier equipment that explorers yearn for. Not only can it provide you with a source of light, whether onnd or underwater, but it can also control the temperature around you. By borrowing the brightness of the explorer��smp, you can adjust the ambient temperature within the range of the light.]


    This was the kerosenemp that Zhang Heng had found in Sauk��s hut. Compared to the somewhat baffling [Pet Wire], its function and positioning were apparent. Just like its description, thismp was specially made for explorers.


    The inextinguishable feature was not too bad. Nowadays, many shlights could also approach this effect. The real power was the temperature adjustment functionter on; in other words, even if you only wore a tank top and shorts, you could still try to challenge Mount Everest with thismp. You could definitely carry themp with you.


    However, there were pros and cons because it would never go out. Themp could only be dimmed through the knob on the base, but it could not bepletely switched off. In other words, the person carrying it would be very eye-catching; however, the [Sturdy Backpack] that Zhang Heng had just obtained could be put to good use. When not in use, he could just put the light into the [Sturdy Backpack].. Naturally, it could block the light and cause unnecessary trouble.

 Chapter 1210 - Invisible Killer [End]

    <h4>Chapter 1210: Invisible Killer [End]</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion <strong>Editor: </strong>EndlessFantasy Trantion


    After looking through the first two items, Zhang Heng shifted his gaze to the third item. This was also the item he was most familiar with. He had already seen its rough attributes at the auction; furthermore, bought and used it more than once in the game.


    [Name: Escape Dagger]


    [Rarity: C]


    [Effect: Teleport to a designated location within a 20-meter radius. Remaining usage: 3. Cooldown: 60 seconds. Wear the dagger and lock onto the target location. Focus and activate.]


    This was the jumping dagger that Zhang Heng was familiar with. He had previously disyed this C-grade item at the auction. In the end, it was sold for more than 2,000 points. In exchange, it was quite expensive for only a 3 three-time usage item. However, even though Ding Si onlymented that there was a slight premium in trade, when it came to using it, no one felt that the price was not worth it.


    In the game, the jumping knife was usually used as a tool to quickly cut into the battlefield, and once it was attacked, the jumping knife could not be used. However, as a tool with supernatural powers, [Escape Dagger] did not have such a restriction; thus, it became the real [Escape Dagger].


    Not only could this C-grade item be used to quickly cut into the battlefield andunch sneak attacks like in the game, but it could also be used to escape in times of danger. It was the perfect life-saving tool that almost all yers dreamed of. After all, no matter how valuable the points were, it was not as valuable as their own lives.


    By now, Zhang Heng had finished looking through three game items, two of which were C-grade and one D-grade. It wasn��t a bad harvest, but one had to know that he had killed Loki, the famous god of lies and pranks in Norse mythology, and thus, in terms of poprity, was more than half a bar higher than the White Horse Knight, one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.


    However, the drop rate he had disyed was far inferior to that of gue, the White Horse Knight. After killing gue, he had provided Zhang Heng with a B-grade item and a C-grade item, while Loki had only dropped two C and one D-grade. More importantly, it was all unclear for [Pet Wire]. At least two C-grade items, [Escape Dagger] and [Adventurer��s Lamp], didn��t seem to belong to him.


    Therefore, Zhang Heng picked up the fourth item and frowned.


    [Name: Leaf full of life (Fake)]


    [Rarity: F]


    [Effect: A drink made from the leaf would help its drinker feelfortable. If there are any illnesses, they can be slightly alleviated. There will also be a small increase in spirit, but in reality, it will not make the drinker healthier. The effectsts one hour. PS: No Matter who the Creator is, it will be very boring.]


    This F-grade item was the one that Zhang Heng bought that suited Loki��s style the most. He believed that no one else would be shameless enough to create something like this to y with others other than the god of lies and pranks. All the descriptions were basically useless.


    After Zhang Heng took it, he immediately soaked it in a cup of water and drank it. He had to admit that the appearance of this leaf was pretty good, especially when it was in the cup. It looked very elegant when fully stretched out, not to mention how green it remained even after it was put in the cup. It did not seem to be affected by the hot water at all.


    However, after Zhang Heng took a sip, he realized that the effect of this thing was too weak. Not to mention using it as a temporary adrenaline, even if he wanted to use it as a temporary Yunnan Baiyao, it was difficult to achieve the desired effect by relieving the pain in one��s body when one was injured. As described in the description of the medicine, it could only be used to make people feelfortable.


    Zhang Heng even suspected that the reason for its existence was that Loki had created it to mock the various health supplements that were now flying around everywhere.


    However, when he thought of this, Zhang Heng��s expression changed because he realized that he seemed to understand how to use this item.


    So, Zhang Heng said goodbye to the bartender and reached into the metal bucket at the side, taking out the [Pet Wire] that he had thrown in earlier.


    He discovered a row of teeth marks at the bottom of the metal bucket, and the other parts of the area seemed thinner.


    ��You have no teeth on a piece of metal wire. How did you manage to gnaw on it like that?��


    Of course, [Pet Wire] didn��t know how to speak. It was still aszy as before, but it was no longer listless due to boredom. It was more like it didn��t want to move after it had had its fill.


    Therefore, Zhang Heng was about to throw it back into the tule wooden box to be left alone, but he was stopped by the bartender. ��I��m unfamiliar with its habits, but I can sense that it doesn��t like to be locked in a confined space. If you really want to develop a rtionship with it, even though I think it��s a bit silly... it��s best that you don��t lock it in the box.��


    ��Thank you.��


    After saying that, Zhang Heng copied Loki and stuffed [Pet Wire] into his pocket. Then, he took the other three items that had just been appraised.


    At this time, the bartender said, ��This time, youpleted the regr dungeon much earlier than before. After that... do you have something to do?��


    ��Summer vacation ising. I��m ready to go home, so I��ll finish ying this month��s game ahead of time.��


    Even though the bartender had helped him in the abandoned underground subway line before, Zhang Heng still didn��t fully understand the rtionship between the two, so he didn��t reveal his uing Greend trip.


    So the bartender gave him another deep look and stretched. ��Alright, looks like we��ll see each other again in a month or so.��


    ��Have a good holiday.��


    ��Have a good holiday. I��m going to buy a new ice bucket after work,�� the bartender muttered.


    When he walked out of the bar, Zhang Heng knew that everything coulde to an end temporarily,?whether it was the proxy war or the regr dungeon. He was finally going to wee the long-prepared trip to Greend, which was the beginning of everything. All signs pointed to the ce where his parents had met him.


    In other words, that was probably his hometown. Although the ce where the expedition team had gone was said to be devoid of any human habitation within a hundred-mile radius, it was hard to imagine that a baby could survive such a harsh natural environment, and because of that, Zhang Heng needed to go there personally to find out the answer.


    He had a feeling that this trip would change his lifepletely. However, Zhang Heng also knew that he had no way out. His emotions had been exhausted, and some things could not be avoided just because he wanted to.


    Before that, though, he still had onest thing to do.

 Chapter 1211 - Beverage Shop

    Chapter 1211 Beverage Shop


    When Zhang Heng arrived at Han Lu��s ce, thetter was curled up on the sofa, applying a face mask and watching a soap opera. She didn��t have the image of a powerful female investor at all, and she was still depressed over the retarded plot in the television series.


    Then, she heard the doorbell ring. The nanny put down her half-pressed clothes, stood up, and walked to the door. She nced outside and saw that it was Zhang Heng, so she quickly opened the door.


    ��You��re here, ��Han Lu greeted him. The two of them were already very familiar with each other. Furthermore, Zhang Heng had saved her twice, so she acted very casually. She didn��t even take off her mask. She only pointed to the seat beside her, she asked Zhang Heng to sit down.


    ��I��m going to leave for a while,��Zhang Heng said.


    ��Oh, is it because you��re going home during the summer vacation?��Han Lu raised her eyebrows.


    ��Yeah, something like that.��Zhang Heng had already made up his mind to keep his trip to Greend a secret, so even Han Lu didn��t reveal it. It wasn��t because he was worried that Han Lu would leak it out, it was purely because the situation was moreplicated now and he didn��t want to bring unnecessary trouble to thetter.


    ��Give my regards to your grandfather for me,��Han Lu said as she sat up from the sofa. She took off the mask on her face and turned to the nanny beside her, ��Aunt Zheng, cut some fruits. After that, help me go to the flower market to buy a pot of fugui bamboo.��


    ��Okay.��The nanny knew that Han Lu had something to discuss with the visitors and did not want to be overheard by a third person.


    Therefore, after she cut the watermelon, Caramb, and lotus mist, she changed her clothes and left Han Lu��s residence.


    When the sound of the door closing was heard, only Han Lu and Zhang Heng were left in the room. Han Lu reached out and picked up a piece of watermelon with a wooden fork. She put it into her mouth and said, ��Tell me, you can��t havee to me just to tell me that you��re going home, right? You can just call me for such a thing.��


    ��Yes, the investment matter that you told me about earlier is getting closer,��Zhang Heng said, ��Our original n was to make an article about science and technology. This way, it would be convenient to use sophisticated and high-end theories as packaging and disguises to attract more investment.��


    ��MM-HMM.��Han Lu leaned back and ced her slender legs on the coffee table at the same time.


    ��I went back to take a look at the props in my hands. In the end, there was only one USB drive that barely met this requirement. Its function is to make the IP of thatputer untraceable when it is plugged into theputer.��


    ��Is thework safe?��Han Lu thought for a moment, ��This market has been hot for some time. Although it��s not a hot topic, the demand has been there for a long time. However, if it��s only to ensure that the IP can not be traced... the imagination space is still too small. Also, can your USB stick only ensure that the IP of aputer is untraceable?��


    ��Yes.��


    ��In that case, it��s hard to tell a long story. Even if you can raise money, it won��t be too much. The most important thing is that it��s not easy to ount for the publicity and operating expenses. After all, ordinary people can��t use this thing, and the investors won��t ept it if the marketing costs are too high.��Han Lu frowned.


    ��What about this?��Zhang Heng took out a wooden box from his bag. He opened the box, and inside was a leaf.


    ��This thing... does it have any technological content?��


    If it were any other entrepreneur, Han Lu would have probably told them to scram by now. However, since it was Zhang Heng who took it out, she still took a closer look, in the end, other than finding the leaf pretty, she didn��t find anything special about it.


    ��Let me show you directly,��Zhang Heng said. ��Have you been feeling unwelltely?��


    ��I have a regr physical examination every year. Mytest physical index is normal, but I haven��t been resting very regrly these past few days. I��m probably a little angry.��Han Lu shrugged.


    Zhang Heng didn��t say anything. He just ced the leaf into the cup that Han Lu drank from. After soaking it for a while, he gestured for Han Lu to drink the water in the cup.


    Thetter didn��t suspect anything and picked up the cup ording to Zhang Heng��s instructions.


    Unlike what Han Lu had imagined, the taste of the water in the Cup didn��t change much. However, after drinking it, she didn��t know if it was a psychological effect, but she did feel a little better, her breathing did not seem to be as hot as before.


    ��What Kind of panacea is this?��Han Lu asked in surprise. ��It��s not a panacea, ��Zhang Heng said, ��There won��t be any changes in your body. The symptoms of burning won��t be alleviated. Strictly speaking, it��s just that you feel a little better, but the feeling will continue to fade until itpletely disappears after an hour.��


    Han Lu didn��t feel disappointed when she heard that. Her eyes lit up instead, because she had already seen a huge amount of hype from it. However, there were some questions that she had to ask in advance. ��Are there any side effects from this thing?��


    ��No.��


    ��Can the ingredients inside be detected?��


    ��I don��t know. You can find someone to test it, but based on my past experience, this kind of supernatural item is very difficult to detect with current technology.��


    ��Then how many times can this leaf soak in water? How many milliliters of water can it soak in each time?��Han Lu continued to ask.


    ��I just got this item not long ago, so I haven��t had the time to experiment yet. But regarding your previous question, generally speaking, props without a standard number of uses can be used indefinitely,��Zhang Heng said.


    ��No number of uses? Then this thing is very interesting. ��Han Lu thought for a moment, ��The scale of the health care product market is not small. Although it is about to be the Red Sea, a powerful product is still very easy to open up the situation. As long as one is not blind, one can see the value of this thing... If you are worried about being noticed by others, we can add some Chinese herbs or other things into it and talk about ancient recipes. Anyway, in this day and age, everyone does this. After that, we can build a processing factory and sell it online like Shancun. No, this kind of ystyle is too petty. It is impossible to raise the money you need within the stipted time. It is better to open a beverage shop. There are all kinds of herbal vors. The main focus is health care. Offline procurement, renovation, and marketing expenses can be tampered with in more ces.�� ��Wouldn��t the costs and risks be too high offline?��


    ��It��s precisely because the costs and risks are high that we have the reason to attract more investment, ��Han Lu said, ��People in this industry are not fools. If the profitability of a project is good and the risks are low, and my own capital is enough to burn, why would I give this golden cake to others?��


    Han Lu paused, ��Don��t worry, leave this project to me. I��m confident that I can raise the money you need. And if nothing goes wrong, everyone will be happy in the end. Everyone will go public and earn money together.��

 Chapter 1212 - Departure

    Chapter 1212 Departure


    Zhang Heng entrusted Han Lu to handle the financing. Thetter told him that the first sum of money would be transferred into the ount provided by Fu Lou in three days at the earliest to be used for the purchase of points.


    Unfortunately, Fu Lou still didn��t have any clues that could cure fan Meinan��s prop. Although thements under the previous post had already exceeded 1,000 pages, it was still mainly for onlookers. Some wanted to fish in troubled waters, after the investigation by Fulou, they were all filtered out.


    Therefore, there was no other way but to continue waiting.


    On the other side, the visa for Greend was finally processed. After Zhang Heng received the visa, he made a trip to Fulou��s headquarters ording to the agreement. There, he appraised the ( gue bone bow ] andpleted the guarantee.


    Fulou��s headquarters was very interesting. From the outside, it looked like an ordinary consultingpany. There was a front desk and a work station, but the people working inside were all ordinary people.


    Zhang Heng only found out about the normal business of Fn after he went there. It was probably to provide cover for the other part of the service provided to the yers.


    In order to ensure that his identity was not exposed, especially since he was already a household name in the yer world, Zhang Heng went there after putting on makeup. However, for other yers, Fn also had a corresponding method to protect their privacy. There were no surveince cameras in the building, and before they left, the building would send a message to remind the yers to try their best to wear masks.


    mes


    After entering the building and taking the elevator, they could take out the mask and put it on. Then, they entered the password and went straight to the top floor, which only yers could go to.


    Although this method could not bepared to the automatic mosaic function of the game point, it was more than enough for ordinary yers. Furthermore, the building would asionally conduct a sweep of the outer area to prevent people with ulterior motives from keeping watch nearby, safety was ranked at the top even among the Chamber of Commerce. Furthermore, Zhang Heng had brought a B-grade item with him, so Fn had purposely raised the security level.


    The entire appraisal process was very fast. It was said that the appraiser had been hired from a game point in the city, and it took less than an hour toplete the appraisal, this also made Zhang Heng suspect that the bartendingdy had not been doing her job properly and had been fishing in the water all day.


    After the appraisal, Zhang Heng signed a contract with the owner of the restaurant. The owner of the restaurant even offered to treat Zhang Heng to a meal, but Zhang Heng declined politely. The owner did not insist and personally walked Zhang Heng out of the door, shaking his hand to bid him farewell.


    Zhang Heng found a safe ce to store props like ( hidden scabbard ) and ( gue bone bow ) that could not be brought on the ne and immediately took a taxi to the airport.


    Since there were no direct flights to Greend, Zhang Heng chose to fly to Copenhagen first before connecting to Greend in Copenhagen. Taking into ount the long flight time, he booked first ss, this way, the journey would be morefortable.


    About nine hourster, the nended. Zhang Heng also arrived in Denmark��s capital, Copenhagen. Because the next ne would take off four hourster, Zhang Heng casually ate something at the airport, after that, he continued to stay in the VIP lounge.


    He had already slept on the ne, so he was not sleepy anymore. He picked up an English version of his travel guide to Greend and flipped through it. In the end, he had only read it for less than half an hour, a notification sounded on Zhang Heng��s phone.


    a


    Zhang Heng opened it and saw that it was an unfamiliar number.


    The content was a strange sentence �� make this boring game more interesting, followed by a web address.


    Was it a prank, or was it some kind of mass-posted gambling advertisement?


    Zhang Heng��s first reaction when he saw the content was that he had received a spam message, but then he remembered Rocky��sst words before he died: ��Chaos has arrived, and this is the prelude to the end of the world.��.


    So he thought for a moment, walked to aputer in the lounge, and entered the URL of the message in the browser��s address bar. In Zhang Heng��s mind, the worst oue would be a virus or a trojan horse, this was also the reason why he didn��t use his phone, but the publicputer in the lounge.


    But what he didn��t expect was that the URL was invalid.


    So, was he overthinking things? This time, the message was really just a prank.


    However, what Zhang Heng didn��t know was that the forums had exploded.


    The first round of the proxy war had been over for quite some time. Whether it was the number one yer, Simon, Beta, or the silver wing guild that seemed to be on the decline... the discussion started to drop, after everyone finished eating their melons, they started to return to their daily lives and went about their own business.


    After all, the normal dungeons were still ongoing. The yers were still more concerned about the matters in their own small plot ofnd. The posts of forming teams to look for teammates, or items to purchase, had once again be the mainstream of the forum.


    It wasn��t until a new post appeared with the title �� what did I see?


    The poster was an ID that asked you to think about peach. The content was very simple. It meant that he had just received a mischievous text message. There was an inexplicable sentence followed by a web address, as a result, he had been working continuously for an entire day. His mind was a little dazed. He actually directly clicked on the web address, and then he jumped into a very crude web site, there was only one button that could be clicked on, and it was called the summary of yers��real information.


    Although you knew that you shouldn��t click on it, but you were thinking that peach also admitted that this title was too scary. He couldn��t help but feel itchy, and after hesitating for half a minute, he still clicked on it. In the end, he opened a form.


    Inside was really all kinds of personal information, including names, gender, phone, address, real-life upation, and in addition to that, there were also corresponding nicknames and forum ids.


    When you thought about peach, he couldn��t help but open his mouth when he saw this form. He subconsciously thought that it was impossible. The form was fake, but before he could look at it carefully, the website could no longer be uploaded.


    Then you thought about peach, and he posted on the Forum as quickly as possible to record today��s supernatural event. However, he didn��t expect that right after his post was posted, many people started gossiping that they had also received that strange message.


    Then, there were more and more posts about this strange message on the forum. In the end, everyone discovered that all the yers had received it. Moreover, there was someone who was faster than you thought that peach hadpleted the search first, in the end, they discovered that their identity information was on the form, and there was no error at all.


    This result made the person who checked the form break out in a cold sweat on the spot, and he only vaguely realized that if the form were to get out, it would cause some trouble.

 Chapter 1213 - Identity Leak

    Chapter 1213 Identity Leak


    Zhang Heng had no idea that the forum was already in an uproar.


    However, not long after he checked the website, he received two more wechat messages. One was from Shen Xixi, and the other was from Fu Lou.


    Zhang Heng first read Fu Lou��s message, which was probably sent in a group, reminding the yers to pay attention to their personal safety recently. After reading it, Zhang Heng frowned, and then saw Shen Xixi��s message. �� where are you?


    Zhang Heng replied.


    -�C holiday trip �� that��s good.


    On the other side, Shen Xixi seemed to heave a sigh of relief. After a moment, she sent another message.


    -�� have you logged on to that website?


    When Zhang Heng heard Shen Xixi��s question, he spected that the other party had received the same prank message as him. It was also at this time that Zhang Heng realized that things might not be as simple as they seemed. However, before he could reply to Shen Xixi, he received another new message.


    This time, it was another unfamiliar number. Zhang Heng evenpared it with the number that sent the prank message. The result was different, and the content of this message was no longer confusing, because there were only two words.


    �� Simon?


    �� who are you?


    Zhang Heng typed back a question.


    �� is it really Simon?! Oh My God, I��m a small fan of yours. I just didn��t expect you to be a student like me?! And our schools are quite close to each other. When you��re free, Can Ie to your school to y with you?


    The owner of the unfamiliar number appeared very excited.


    However, in the previous dungeon, Zhang Heng had already been baptized by a wave of fans. Loki��s disguised beheading youth had almost fooled one of their yer teams, causing Zhang Heng to have a shadow over his fans and whatnot, and he was more concerned about another problem.


    �� why do you have my contact information?


    �� hehehe, I was just lucky.


    The owner of the unfamiliar number said.


    �� but you don��t have to worry, I mean you no harm. But Simon, ah, no... Brother Zhang, you still have to be careful of the people from the three major guilds, especially the arc of light.


    Just as Zhang Heng finished reading, he received another message.


    �� Zhang Heng? Your parents are in our hands. If you want them to live, you can mail a b-grade equipment to this address below. Money first, peopleter..


    Zhang Heng flipped through the vicious-sounding kidnapping message expressionlessly, but his heart did not waver. He was now certain that his identity had been leaked by someone, but he did not know where the source of the leak was, so what if it was leaked.


    But at least for now, the person who sent the message to threaten him didn��t know anything about his family. Rather than calling it a threat, it was more like a scam. Otherwise, he should have paid more attention to the address, at the very least, he should have picked a foreign address.


    That was because his parents weren��t even in the country, and they were nowhere to be found. Even Zhang Heng himself didn��t know where the two were fooling around at the moment, kidnapping them was like winning the lottery.


    Even though he knew that his family wasn��t in any danger, Zhang Heng didn��t rx. After all, any yer would be in grave danger if their identity was exposed.


    When he first joined the game as an agent, D4 had warned him about this. ording to D4, at the beginning of the game, the yers were actually quite friendly with each other, they would also share information and help each other in raiding dungeons. Not long after, they would specifically hunt each other and snatch items and points for each other.


    That was the bloodiest and darkest period in the history of the yers. Basically, everyone was in danger. Other than racking their brains to get through the rounds of dungeons, they also had to deal with assassinations in the real world, those who were lucky enough to survive had no choice but to choose to hide their identities.


    Until now, all yers had basically used code names to call themselves. Unless they were teammates and trusted friends who were in a dungeon together, they would not reveal their real identities to the other party, and everyone gradually got used to this method ofmunication. Especially after the appearance of the yer forum, it provided everyone with a rtively safe tform to share information. The number of hunters who targeted other yers also decreased significantly


    However, Zhang Heng knew that this did not mean that the rtionship between the yer groups had be harmonious. Once his identity was exposed, danger would still be everywhere in this mysterious world, furthermore, he had just revealed that he had a B-grade item through a post by fortune building. This was enough to make anyone envious. From this moment on, he knew that he could no longer return to his previous life.


    However, the current Zhang Heng was alsopletely different from a year ago. If it was him back then, facing such a dangerous environment, he would probably only have a dead end, however, the current him had aplete skill system that no one could rival. Other than that, he also possessed all sorts of powerful items. Even if a god was in front of him, he could still fight. Although his identity would be exposed severely.., however, it was not the end of the world for him.


    However, the most important thing now was to find out how his identity had been exposed.


    Normally, in such a situation, it was more likely that something had happened to the people around him. However, after a simple search, Zhang Heng did not find anyone who had enough motive to do such a thing. Furthermore, after contacting the strange message he had received earlier.., as well as the message that seemed to have been sent by a group of people, Zhang Heng realized that he might not be the only one who had fallen for the trap.


    Therefore, he used theputer in the lounge to log into the yers��forum. The banner on the front page of the yers Forum had a reminder, hoping that the login could find a safe ce and not log into the forum in public. However, Zhang Heng was currently in Denmark, so there were not many Chinese people around him, the website was also written in Chinese, so there was no need to worry about being discovered.


    Zhang Heng opened the website and didn��t even need to look for it. The entire yers��forum was filled with posts discussing the matter. It took Zhang Heng two minutes to figure out the ins and outs of the matter.


    Only then did he realize that the website had hidden yers��information. He hesitated for a moment before getting up to look for hisputer. He was dyed for a while, so he didn��t get to the time when the website was still open.


    The time in between was actually not particrly long, so the forums were all guessing how many people had actually seen the form, and whether it was possible for the form to be downloaded.


    At this moment, a few people who had seen the form had already spoken up one after another. They all said that they hadn��t seen the download button. At the same time, the atmosphere in the forum had also be a little strange. The few ids that had been active before.., some of them were unusually silent at this moment. They were clearly worried that their identities would be exposed and that they would be targeted.


    From the words, one could feel the anxiety and pressure of the yers. From the newbie who had just entered this hidden world to the level that they had gradually grown to today, the vast majority of people had already gotten used to this kind of double-sided life, some people had quit their jobs to focus on raiding dungeons. However, for many people who had families, their choice was to maintain a normal life without raising any suspicions while taking risks in the game world.


    They can��t imagine what would happen to their daily lives if their real identities were revealed, and whether it would put their families at risk.

 Chapter 1214 - Chaos Had Arrived

    Chapter 1214 Chaos Had Arrived


    This was destined to be a day that no yer could sleep peacefully.


    It wasn��t that the forums had never dropped any sensational news before, but this was the only time that this matter was closely rted to every yer. Although the threerge guilds had never been well-liked by ordinary yers.., usually, they were often criticized for being overbearing, but at critical moments, they had disyed a certain amount of spirit.


    Less than 20 minutester, he had already issued a joint statement. It was ced at the top of the forum, forbidding anyone from spreading the contents of that form under any circumstances, at the same time, he called on the yers who had saved the contents of the form to delete it as soon as possible. In addition, he also issued a stern warning at the end of the statement.


    He said that in the next four months, the threerge guilds would dispatch no less than 100 experts to investigate the deaths that had urred among the yers. Once they discovered that there was a human factor involved.., regardless of whether or not the dead were members of the threerge guilds, they would spare no effort in apprehending the culprits.


    This new announcement had also slightly eased the atmosphere in the forum, which had caused everyone to feel anxious. However, a shadow still hung over the hearts of most people, they did not know how much of a deterrent the threerge guilds��announcement would have on the hunters, nor did they know what the yers would do after the four-month deadline.


    However, at the very least, at this moment when everyone was facing a great enemy and was extremely pessimistic about the future, the three guilds��announcement still had the effect of calming the sea.


    After the yers were freed from their despondent and fearful emotions, their minds finally began to work again. Hence, the variousrge guilds suddenly discovered that their membership applications had increased!


    Under the threat of their identities being exposed, everyone had to think about how to protect themselves. It was also a human��s instinctive reaction to band together in the face of danger. Previously, they did not like the distribution system of the big guilds, or the independent yers, who had all sorts of restrictions, realized that they might not be able to survive this crisis on their own and began to seek to join the organization.


    Of course, the most popr among them were the veteran powerhouses like the threerge guilds.


    The Mailbox of the Guild staff responsible for recruiting yers almost instantly filled up. Even the silver wings, which had performed well in the proxy war, was no longer teased.


    After all, although the threerge guilds had said that they would treat all non-guild members equally and protect their safety, they were all adults. Naturally, they would not ept such a promise, if the members of the threerge guilds were killed and the ordinary yers outside the guilds were killed, even a fool would know which side the threerge guilds were more concerned about.


    Moreover,pared to whether or not they could catch the yers, everyone was more concerned about how they could stay alive. With the protection of therge guilds, it was naturally safer. Hence, it was not surprising that the recruitment of the guilds had be so popr.


    There were even some conspiracy theorists who suspected that this was a conspiracy of therge guilds. They had forged a list of names, and their own people hade out to y a double act, deceiving everyone to vote for them.


    However, this kind of spection did not have much of a market. Even though everyone was used to discrediting the three big guilds, because everyone on the Forum had received the previous message.., the yers knew very well that even the three big guilds could not do this. This in itself meant that the person who sent the message had everyone��s phone numbers in their hands.


    Meanwhile, the group of independent yers led by Professor appeared to be very anxious. This was because if this continued, there would probably be no more independent yers in the future. All the yers would be taken over by the major guilds, even small guilds would not be able to survive. Therefore, professor and the others ignored the example of Shen Xixi��s united body being destroyed by the arc of light and began to call for the establishment of a new independent Guild Alliance.


    Unlike guilds, the professor and the others emphasized that the unspecialized alliance was only to help everyone get through the dangerous period and then disband automatically after the incident had passed. However, no one knew how long it would take for the incident to pass, the forums were now inplete chaos.


    It was only then that Zhang Heng realized that the leak was not aimed at him.


    However,pared to ordinary yers, his situation was indeed more dangerous. The reason was very simple. Because he was more famous, many people would search for his name when they first saw the form. Simrly.., there were also the three guild leaders. The two unfamiliar messages he had received earlier were the best proof. Zhang Heng didn��t know how many other people already knew his identity. More importantly.., who was behind this.


    In an unremarkable apartment building on the outskirts of the city.


    A man dressed in a variety of clothes, sses, a punk haircut, a two-dimensional t-shirt, slippers, and a green water ghost was curled up in front of aputer, he looked at the tall and strong figure in front of him with fear. The figure exuded a violent and chaotic aura.


    ��I��ve... done what you said. You should be satisfied now, right?��He said as he held his head with a pained expression, ��I��ve caused such a big mess. The game organizingmittee won��t let me off.��


    ��You don��t have to worry about those stupid things in the organizingmittee. You should worry about how you��re going to get past me first.��The figure in front of himughed sinisterly, ��That bastard Loki is right. You New Gods are just trash who are strong on the outside but weak on the inside. I can beat you with one hand in a two-on-one fight. You��ve Wasted Your Amazing Divine Power.��


    The light cast his shadow on the wall. The part above his neck was not a human head, but a head that looked like a jackal, which made his face look unusually ferocious.


    He stepped on another unconscious person on the ground and mocked, ��What Bullsh *t phone God? 100 million pixels, Snapdragon processor, can 5g connect block my punch?��


    ��It��s possible if Nokia is still around, ��the man dressed in a variety of clothes said with a wry smile, ��You��ve already gotten what you wanted. There��s no point in torturing us anymore. Besides, the people from the organizingmittee should be back soon. Our priesthood doesn��t have the attribute of violence, but not all new gods are like us who aren��t good at fighting. Although you��re very strong, you��ve already passed the peak period. There are many New Gods and Old Gods in the organizingmittee who can fight better than you.��


    ��What��s the rush? The game has just started.��The headman grinned, revealing a row of sharp teeth, ��It was just an appetizer before. Next, use the ount of that guy with the codename Pegasus to post that form again. Also, set the post to highlight the top, and it can��t be deleted. ��Aren��t you some Inte God? This kind of thing is very simple for you, right?��


    ��This... This will cause great chaos among the yers, ��the man dressed in all kinds of clothes said with a trembling voice.


    ��Nonsense, I��m here to spread chaos, ��the headman said coldly.

 Chapter 1215 - Go Against The Wind

    Chapter 1215 Go Against The Wind


    It was already past 12 am, but the number of yers on the forums was still quite high.


    Because their real identities had been revealed, the atmosphere on the forums became very tense. However, after the threerge guilds released their joint statement, the situation had slightly improved. Considering that the mysterious website had only existed for a short period of time, and there was no download button on the form, many people still felt that they were lucky, this was especially true for those ordinary yers who were not famous. They felt that if they were not especially unlucky, no one would have noticed them.


    In addition to the warning from the three major guilds, there were indeed many yers who were fantasizing that this incident would not affect their normal lives.


    However, no one expected that in less than ten minutes, the joint statement from the three major guilds that would protect ordinary yers would disappear.


    In its ce was another top post.


    Title:e in and take a look


    Poster: Pegasus


    Content: I know that many people are feeling apprehensive and panic right now. I can understand this feeling because I experienced that dark era, that bloody period of history that many of you have never experienced. I was there, i was one of them. I witnessed the fall of countless experts with my own eyes. Death and hatred were the eternal theme of that time.


    This is why some of us,ter on, spent so much effort and energy, establishing order among the yers, carefully maintaining this fragile peace.


    an


    But now is the time to face reality, my friends.


    We all know that we were chosen for a reason.


    From the moment we joined this mysterious game, there was no going back. Competition is the eternal theme of this world. Some people may want to refute me, saying how I know what those mysterious beings want us to do.


    It is very simple, look at the newly opened proxy war dungeon, as the game progresses, the confrontation between yers will continue to intensify, each of us is a chess piece, we have no choice, the vast majority of people would eventually die, and before this day arrived, we had to think of ways to increase our strength. Only in this way could we increase our chances of survival, even if the chances were slim.


    I know, I know that you have always done the same, but it��s not enough. There are some things that the people of therge guilds won��t tell you. My Silver Wing was once a member of them, but you all know that, because of the recent series of events, Silver Wing��s strength has been greatly reduced. So now, we have be underdogs and need to catch up.


    Then, let me tell you some things that others won��t tell you. The so-called peace is just a conspiracy that the big guilds have worked together to weave, because the big guilds.., especially those old big guilds that have umted enough advantages. So, peace is the most advantageous choice for them, so that they can maintain their advantage to the end.


    As for the others, as for the underdogs, chaos was the only way to advance.


    With the storm approaching, rather than hiding everywhere, it would be better to go against the wind!


    Pegasus ended his speech here, sharing it with the rest of the yers.


    Many yers could not help but start cursing before they even finished reading the post. This was because Pegasus was clearly trying to make everyone return to the previous era of killing each other in fear. This was something that the vast majority of yers could not ept, this was especially so for those with families. However, the thing that really blew up the forum was actually the form that was attached to Pegasus��post.


    When someone clicked on it, they were shocked to discover that this was the form that had been circted on the mysterious website.


    They did not know how Pegasus had done it, but he had actually downloaded aplete version and even made it public.


    It had to be known that this was not the time when the yers were still doubtful after receiving the information regarding the suspected prank. Most likely, not even one in a hundred people had logged onto that website. However, this time.., pegasus had announced the identities of the yers on the yers��forums. Moreover, it was at such a precarious time.


    Although the number of posts on the forums had not exceeded the number at the end of the first round of the proxy war, everyone knew very well that the number of people online right now was definitely the highest since the establishment of the forums. However, many people had some misgivings, in other words, it was inevitable that the identity of the yers would be leaked this time.


    While Zhang Heng was still reading the posts, his phone was already ringing non-stop.


    On the other side, the president of Arc of light, February fortress, was also woken up from his sleep by a phone call earlier. He kissed his wife��s forehead, which was also woken up by the phone call, and said, ��It��s okay. Go back to sleep. It��s just a small matter at work. I��lle back after I��m done.��


    ��Okay. You also have to take care of your health.��February besieged��s wife did not open her eyes. She turned around and hugged February besieged��s pillow, continuing to sleep. Meanwhile, February besieged gently pushed the door open and went to the study on the second floor.


    He had just turned on hisputer and listened to the upper echelons of the guild report to him on the current response measures. He also saw the joint statement issued by the three guilds. At the same time, the work group was still assessing the extent and impact of the leaked list.


    As expected of the strongest executive in the threerge guilds. Even after encountering such a serious emergency, at the very least, the management was able to maintain theirposure and carry out their work in an orderly manner, even the previous joint deration had been written by the light arc. At the same time, the light arc had contacted the other two guilds to sign their names. Only then had they been able to release the deration as soon as possible and use the fastest speed possible to calm the yers��emotions.


    Even someone as strict as February siege could not find a single mistake in it. However, he had other things to do. As the leader of one of the three great guilds, arc of light.., february siege needed to think more thoroughly about the consequences of this matter. He was a sessful entrepreneur himself. Of course, he would not feel like the sky was falling just like ordinary yers. He also knew that danger often coexisted with opportunity, whether it was a blessing or a curse, sometimes it only depended on the manager��s response and actions.


    February siege was thinking about how arc of light would profit from this crisis. He did not expect that the top post would be reced. He frowned.


    The yer forums were led by the three big guilds. Hence, there were three super moderators. There were also several administrators. In other words, the three guilds could all manage the posts, meanwhile, the new top post had been sent by Pegasus. In other words, silver wing��s actions.


    February siege opened the post, but even with his self-control, his expression could not help but change. He immediately contacted one of the moderators, Swordfish, and asked with a dark expression, ��What��s the meaning of this?�� ��Ask silver wing what they mean.��


    Swordfish could hear a rare hint of anger in February siege��s tone. He was also reading Pegasus��Crazy Post. The more he read, the more cold sweat he broke out on his back. He knew where February siege��s anger came from.., before he could put down the phone, he heard a gunshot from the other end. His heart followed the gunshot and rose to his throat.

 Chapter 1216 - Black Pot

    Chapter 1216 ck Pot


    After the gunshot, Swordfish heard the sound of February siege��s cell phone falling to the ground.


    He felt as if time had stopped.


    After learning that there was a risk of a yer��s identity being exposed, the management of the arc of light had already considered the threat that guild members faced, especially the more famous yers in the upper echelons, the safety of February siege was of course of utmost importance.


    In reality, they had already contacted three seven martial seas. One emperor-ranked expert had gone to protect February siege city. In addition, February siege city was also an emperor-ranked expert. It was practically impossible for a hunter toe and gnaw on such a tough bone.


    However, Swordfish did not expect the unexpected to happen faster than he had imagined. It had only been half an hour since the mysterious website had appeared, and Pegasus had only posted less than three minutes ago, someone had already made a move against the guild leader of Light Arc!


    After all, that was the guild leader of February siege, the leader of the three major guilds! The third-ranked expert in the first round of the proxy war!


    Although many people had ridiculed February siege being overtaken by Beta and Simon at thest minute, most people were just feeling jealous. After all, apart from beta and Simon.., below them were a group of arc of light experts led by February siege. The power of February siege and arc of light could be seen clearly.


    Hence, even if chaos really came, February siege and his arc of light would not be the first to suffer. On the contrary, there was a high chance that they would have thestugh.


    However, the prerequisite for all of this was that February siege did not die at the beginning. Even the arc of light, which had a strong executive power, was not beheaded the moment it arrived.


    Swordfish was very clear that although light arc had a lot of talents right now, acting as if it was the leader of the three great guilds, other than making some important decisions, the management of February siege had also basically delegated authority to them. However, swordfish was definitely not a dispensable person, light arc��s rapid development over the past two years could not be separated from its open and tolerant attitude. As a result, many of the experts it attracted were also very individualistic. Only February siege could suppress them.


    Therefore, the situation of the arc of light losing the encirclement of February was different from the situation of silver wing losing its former guild leader. After Silver Wing lost its former guild leader, Pegasus took over. Although its strength had suffered some damage, it had actually not suffered any serious injuries, therefore, swordfish did not really understand the intentions behind Pegasus��post. And once the arc of light lost the encirclement of February, it would truly be in a life-and-death crisis. Those experts would not submit to each other, and they would definitely want to be the new guild leader. Civil War was unavoidable, and the disintegration of the arc of light would most likely be right before their eyes.


    ��Guild Leader, Guild leader? Are You Okay?��Swordfish��s mind went nk. It was only after a few seconds that he regained his senses and asked in a trembling voice.


    However, there was dead silence on the other end of the phone.


    Swordfish could only hear his increasingly rapid breathing. After another half a minute, he heard footsteps approaching.


    ��Is... is that you, guild leader?��Swordfish was rekindled with Hope.


    However, the person did not say anything. The footsteps stopped in front of the dropped phone. After a few seconds, the person reached out, pressed on the screen, and hung up.


    Swordfish��s heart felt like it had fallen into an ice cer. He was stunned for a long time before he frantically tried to contact the other higher-ups of the arc of light. However, his fingers swiped through the names in the contact list. He wanted to dial the number, but he withdrew his hand, he nced at the work group and did not dare to directly post it. It was not until he found a vice guild leader who was also loyal to February siege city that he used his trembling fingers to dial the other party��s number.


    Just as Swordfish was in a state of shock and panic, Silver Wing��s Guild leader, Pegasus, had a nk expression on his face.


    When he saw that the post that he ��Wrote��had appeared on the forum, it caused a huge wave and was cursed at by countless yers. Probably no one would have thought that the real owner behind the ID was more dumbfounded than anyone else.


    And this was not the end. After that, the guy who controlled his ount directly started to scold the person who scolded him. At the same time, he continued to spread his theory that chaos was adder, and even scolded until the point where it was rising.., he even started to threaten those who held different opinions, saying that their residences would soon be visited by silver wings. Pegasus was so angry that his entire body was shaking.


    was


    This was F * cking ridiculous!!!


    His ount had been stolen, and it had to be at such a critical juncture! The other party had used his ount to post such a post, revealing all the yers��identities and information. Needless to say, this debt was now being med on him.


    Pegasus was, after all, the guild leader of a guild. Even if his vision and knowledge could notpare to February siege city, it was definitely far superior to other yers. He naturally knew that he could not bear this 24k big pot at all, right now, he had already been crazily targeted by angry yers. In the future, if any of his friends or family members were to die, he, as the leak, would definitely be held responsible.


    What was worse was that even if heter said that his ount had been hacked, the big mistake had already been made. Not to mention how many people were willing to believe him, even if what he said was the truth, a dereliction of duty was inevitable.


    Moreover, what made Pegasus vomit blood was that his post had already been posted, but it had actually been highlighted. Although he was the guild leader of Silver Wing, he was usually so busy that he did not have the energy to y around on the forums. He was not a moderator or administrator, in other words, there were probably still people among the moderators and administrators whose ounts had been hacked.


    In addition, Pegasus did not understand how much time had passed. Why did the other two administrators and moderators note out to delete the posts and just let his posts hang there.


    Pegasus rubbed his slightly swollen temples. Right now, he only felt a terrible headache. But no matter what, he had to immediately spread the news that his ount had been hacked and get people to quickly delete that post full of nonsense, so Pegasus picked up his phone, but he was surprised to find that his phone had lost signal at such a critical time.


    Pegasus hurriedly changed his location, but the situation did not improve. His phone was still in a state of no signal.


    Damn it, did someone blow up the base station next to the residential area?!


    Pegasus widened his eyes, but a chill immediately spread from his chest. He had been wondering why no one from the Guild hade to look for him after such a major incident, allowing him, the guild leader, to do whatever he wanted.., now it seemed that it was not that no one hade to look for him, but that no one could contact him at all.


    It was obvious that someone was plotting against him, and it was a chain of events.


    Pegasus did not dare to be negligent. He quickly ran to hisputer, trying to contact the guild��s management through QQ. However, before he reached there, he saw hisputer frantically pop up a website, one after another, it was like a solitaire. In just two to three seconds, it covered his entire screen. It was an extremely spectacr sight.


    F*ck! Pegasus was furious. What was the background of the hacker on the other side? He was so brutal. Not only did he hack his ount, but his phone andputer were also paralyzed. Pegasus could not defend himself even if he wanted to, he could only watch as the me was ced on him.

 Chapter 1217 - First Time In Greenland

    Chapter 1217 First Time In Greend


    After understanding what had happened, Zhang Heng and Shen Xixi turned their phones into flight mode, temporarily blocking all iing messages and calls.


    Of course, he was still paying attention to the developments on the forum. Zhang Heng had already noticed that Pegasus��excitement was a little abnormal, and his tone and style werepletely different from before, therefore, he also suspected that the person behind the ount was not the real Pegasus. However, Zhang Heng was a little surprised that the person from silver wing had note out to rify things after such a long time.


    In addition, the news that the Guild Leader of light arc, February siege, had been killed began to spread on the forums one after another. For a moment, everyone was in danger. Even with the power of light arc, it was still unable to protect its guild leader, the situation of the other yers could be imagined


    It was rare for Zhang Heng to not have to worry about his own safety for the time being. He was already in Copenhagen, and he was about to board a ne to Greend. When that time came, there would probably be no other yers within a thousand miles, it could be said that there were a few lucky people who were outside the vortex when the incident happened. Otherwise, with Simon��s name, the number of people who targeted him would definitely not be less than the number of people who targeted February siege.


    Although the siege of February did not seem like a sudden chain reaction, it was more like a long-nned decapitation operation, in order to coordinate with the release of identity information to push the already anxious emotions of the yers to the extreme and spread chaos, Zhang Heng had to admit that the mastermind behind all of this was only one of a series of arrangements, his thoughts were clear.


    Zhang Heng smelled a familiar scent.


    Loki, the god of lies and pranks, was obviously involved in this. If nothing went wrong, these ns and arrangements were all his handiwork.


    Loki already had a lot of priors. Previously, his agent, the woman in sunsses, had partnered with the three major guilds at the auction. Now, it was just a rey of the future. Even though Loki had already been killed by Zhang Heng in the previous dungeon.., however, the n that he had left behind was still being carried out loyally by someone.


    Zhang Heng knew that one day, he might also have to face this guy. However, that was after all something that would happen after he returned to his country. Right now, he had to focus his attention back on this trip to Greend, this was something that he had prepared for a long time. Now that the trip had already been carried out, there had to be a result.


    Soon, Zhang Hengpleted his connecting flight in Copenhagen. He boarded a Greend Airlines flight and flew to Konkruswager Airport. This was one of Greend��s two civilian airports, and it was also the international hub of Greend Airlines, many visitors to Greend made their first stop here.


    However, even in Greend, which was not very suitable for human habitation, this ce was particrly deste. As early as a few decades ago, this ce, which meant ��The Great Fjord,��was still a no-man��snd, because it was far enough from the coast, it was not easily affected by the weather, so it was chosen as the airport. Even so, only about 500 people lived in this area now.


    The nended in a deste valley. As far as the eye could see, it was surrounded by a continuous range of mountains. asionally, there was a small patch of green vegetation that survived the cold weather and the cold wind, stubbornly taking root between the sand and rocks.


    A few short red and blue bungalows by the runway were basically all the buildings of the airport.


    Zhang Heng followed a few European tourists who were on vacation. They also got off the ne.


    Greend was indeed an ind that was located in the Arctic Circle. Although it was summer now, it was only about seven or eight degrees in the central and western region of Cons Wager. Further north, the temperature would be even lower.


    After Zhang Heng got off the ne, he switched his phone back from flight mode to normal mode. However, he set up an unknown call and refused to answer messages. As soon as he left the airport, he received a call from Songjia, thetter was the guide he had hired for this trip to Greend. On his resume, he was a student, and he used his free time to do odd jobs to earn money.


    ��Hello, I see that your flight hasnded. How is it? Where are you now?��On the other end of the phone, Songjia said politely in Chinese.


    ��I��ve already left the airport.��


    ��Really? Then can you see me? I��m wearing a blue coat next to a red SUV,��song Jia said as she waved her hand.


    ��Okay, I see you. I��ll be right there.��


    Zhang Heng hung up the phone and walked over to song Jia with his suitcase.


    The two had already exchanged photos over a month ago, so they were no strangers to each other��s looks. However, Zhang Heng had to admit that song Jia looked even more beautiful than in the photo, because the mixed-blood had allowed her to inherit the advantages of the various races, her facial features were quite exquisite. At the same time, she wasn��t as delicate as she used to be. The long period of sunlight had made her skin look exceptionally healthy. The only w in her beauty was probably the freckles on her cheeks. However, only by looking closely would one be able to see them. Therefore, Songjia��s appearance was definitely worthy of being called a beauty.


    ��Wee to Greend. I hope you can fall in love with this beautiful ind.��


    The girl gave Zhang Heng a generous hug.


    ��Nice to meet you,��Zhang Heng said. He ced therge suitcase in his hand on the roof of the SUV. However, when Songjia enthusiastically wanted to put the luggage he carried in the back seat, Zhang Heng politely declined, not only did it contain his passport and some cash, but it also contained game props that could be checked in.


    ��I��ll take this bag myself.��


    ��Alright, we��re still some distance away from Nuke. I just want to make your journey asfortable as possible.��Songjia saw that Zhang Heng did not seem to have any intention of putting the luggage in the back seat, so she did not insist, she opened the car door and sat in the driver��s seat.


    On the other side, Zhang Heng also got into the car. However, song Jia took some time to start the engine, so she said with some embarrassment, ��I borrowed this car from a friend. It��s specially used as a guide for this trip, so I might not be very familiar with driving it.��


    ��Yes, I remember you telling me that being a guide is to buy a second-hand car to drive,


    right?��


    ��That��s right. Greend is actually very big, and it��s thergest ind in the world. Because I have to do research and write papers, sometimes i need to travel around the ind. If I can get a car, it��ll be much more convenient. To be honest, I already have my eye on one, and I��ve already negotiated the price with the owner. I��m just waiting for the money to be in ce.��


    As soon as song Jia mentioned the car she was about to get, she became excited. First, she told Zhang Heng about the car she had chosen, and then she talked about the hospitable natives on the ind, then, she expanded on the features of the entertainment and food here,pletely opening up the conversation.

 Chapter 1218 - A Visit

    Chapter 1218 A Visit


    Songjia did not forget her role as a trantor and guide. Along the way, she enthusiastically introduced the local customs and customs of Greend to Zhang Heng.


    However, thetter��s reaction was rather dull. Zhang Heng enjoyed the scenery outside the window while chatting with Songjia, greend was often voted as ��The ten most worthwhile ces to visit in the world��by various media and magazines. It was not without reason that it was one of the ��Holy ces to travel��.


    It does have a beautiful scenery rarely seen in other parts of the world, and perhaps because of the rtively little development, the natural scenery of the ind has been preserved intact, as the territory with the lowest poption density in the world, 80 percent of the ind is covered in ice and snow, with an average of 0.02 people per square kilometer.


    In fact, these people usually gathered in a few cities. Therefore, for Greend, there was no shortage of uninhabited ciers and permafrost.


    ��Last time, you said... You came here for a scientific expedition, right? Are you alone, or will your teammatese one after another?��Song Jia noticed that Zhang Heng did not seem too interested in the beautiful scenery and food on the ind, so, she changed the topic.


    ��No, I��m alone.��


    Zhang Heng looked away from the mountain range outside the window.


    ��Alone? Toplete all the scientific missions?��Song Jia gripped the steering wheel, her eyes widened, ��Uh... I don��t want to seem like a busybody, especially since we��ve only met for less than an hour. However, because there are many uninhabited areas on the ind, many explorerse here to explore every year.


    ��However, as far as I know, there are almost no solo expeditions because you have to face all kinds ofplicated situations on the way. Some difficulties can only be ovee by a partner. So, if you really want to explore, perhaps I can introduce you to a few partners. Nuke also has a club set up by the explorers. There, you can find partners who share the same goal as you...��


    ��I��m used to traveling alone,��Zhang Heng Interrupted Songjia. He paused for a moment before adding, ��Also... There��s no need to rush the expedition. When we reach Nuke, I want you to help me find two people.��


    ��Find people? Do you have friends in Greend?��Songjia asked in surprise.


    ��No, I said in the email that I��m here for a scientific expedition, but to be more precise, I��m here for a scientific expedition that took ce 18 years ago.��


    Since he had already arrived at Greend, Zhang Heng did not hide anything anymore. Furthermore, he still needed song JIA to act as a guide and trantor to help him with his investigation on the ind, therefore, there were some things that he had to reveal to the other party. As Zhang Heng spoke, he took out two photos from his travel bag and waved them in front of song Jia��s face.


    ��Do you know them?��


    ��Uh... Why are you looking for the people in the photos?��Song Jia didn��t answer immediately but asked instead.


    ��Like I said, I��m here to investigate a scientific expedition that happened 18 years ago, ��Zhang Heng said. ��The two people in the photos were involved in that expedition, so I want to find out more about them first.��


    The two photos in Zhang Heng��s hands were found online. One of them was the guide of the expedition team, and the other was a psychiatrist. He was also one of the only two Greendic locals on the expedition team, other than that, Zhang Heng had also found two retired former Navy seals on the expedition team.


    However, both of them were Americans and were not on the ind. Zhang Heng suspected that they might be rted to Kronos, so he did not want to get into contact with them for the time being.


    ��Who exactly are you?��Songjia��s gaze towards Zhang Heng changed. ��Just treat me as a private investigator,��Zhang Heng said.


    ��Private investigator?��The beautiful Greend Girl��s face revealed a hint of worry. ��Will you make things difficult for them?��


    ��I won��t make things difficult for anyone, and I��m not here for them. I just want to investigate what happened back then. After that, I��ll leave, and no one will be hurt,��Zhang Heng said calmly, ��So if you know someone, you can bring me to him directly. Otherwise, I can still find him through other people. It��ll just take a little more time. You should know better than me that there aren��t many people on the ind.��


    Song Jia seemed to be thinking. After a moment, she said, ��Can I take a look at the photo again?��


    ��Of course.��Zhang Heng pasted the photo on the windshield of the passenger seat.


    Songjia turned to look at the photo as she drove. She looked at it very seriously. In the process, she seemed to be trying to recall something. Finally, she said, ��I know the photo on the left. It��s Dr. Baker. My mother knows him. He��s not a native of the ind. He��s British. About twenty years ago, he came to live on the ind. When I was young, I went to his house to y, but I haven��t seen him much in the past few years. As for the other person, I��m sorry, I don��t remember much. Your photo seems to be quite old.��


    ��That��s right, ��Zhang Heng said.


    The photo on the right was of a guide named Sartrus. Unlike Baker, who owned Facebook, Zhang Heng only managed to retrieve information about Sartrus from the official website of the Greend Explorers Association, thest update of this information happened to be 18 years ago. In other words, there had been no news about Sartrus since the end of the expedition.


    Zhang Heng had considered the possibility that Sartrus might have met with an ident during the expedition, but during his simple conversation with his father, thetter had not mentioned any casualties during the expedition, and Zhang Heng had not found any news on this matter, therefore, he was more inclined to believe that Sartrus was still alive, but he did not know why he had suddenly changed his name.


    ��Is Dr. Baker in Nuuk?��Zhang Heng asked.


    ��Yes, his clinic and residence are in Nuuk. After all, this is also the most popted ce on the ind, so it��s convenient for him to practice medicine. Although few people woulde to see him about mental illness, the people here don��t pay much attention to this aspect. Therefore, Baker is actually quite free, and he is also working as a psychological counselor at the University of Greend.��


    ��Okay, then let��s go find him.�� ��Now? Don��t you need to go to the hotel and get some food?��


    ��No, it��s getting dark. It��s not toote to go to the hotel after we meet Baker. As for the food, I��ve already eaten on the ne. If you��re hungry, I can give you ten minutes to eat when we reach Nuke, ��Zhang Heng said.


    ��Forget it, I��m not that hungry right now. Let��s go find Dr. Baker first. It��s been a long time since I��ve seen him. If we��re lucky, we can have dinner at his ce,��song Jia said.

 Chapter 1219 - Dr. Baker

    Chapter 1219 Dr. Baker


    After another section of gravel road, the SUV finally drove into Nuuk��s downtown area.


    As thergest city in Greend and the administrative center of Nuuk, there were about 17,000 people living here. In China, this might be the number of people in two smallmunities, but it could be considered dense on this ind. After all, the thirdrgest city in Greend, Ilulissat, only had 5,000 people There were six police officers in the whole city, in fact, the locals were more used to calling all the cities other than Nuuk as settlements.


    Although Nuuk was small, it had all the organs. Moreover, it was unknown whether it was due to the influence of Denmark, but the colors of the houses on the coast were also varied. There were red, blue, yellow, and purple. It was just like a fairytale world, the city��s various infrastructure was quiteplete. The location of the dock was the liveliest. Fishing boats came and went, sending baskets of fresh seafood that had just been caught onto the shore.


    Fishing and mining were also the backbone of Greend��s economy. Probably because it was summer, the snow in the city had melted, and there were yellow flowers blooming by the roadside, swaying in the wind.


    Song Jia parked the SUV outside a convenience store and bought two cups of hot cocoa to fill her stomach. She drank one cup for herself and handed the other to Zhang Heng, who thanked her and took the cocoa, however, when Song Jia finished her cup, she realized that Zhang Heng had not touched the other cup at all.


    ��Aren��t you going to try it?��Song Jia asked. ��It��s very delicious, especially in winter, when the temperature here will drop below zero degrees Celsius. There��s nothing happier than drinking a cup of hot cocoa then.��


    ��I��m a little allergic to Cocoa.��Zhang Heng made up an excuse to avoid it.


    Greend was apletely foreign ce to him. Furthermore, he was here to investigate something that happened eighteen years ago. Even though he didn��t tell anyone before he left.., however, he wasn��t sure if Kronos would have any means to find out his location. After all, he was the agent of the former, and Kronos considered himself his guardian angel. He had always been elusive.


    In addition, Zhang Heng had investigated Songjia��s resume. He didn��t find anything wrong with the girl after getting off the ne, but he wouldn��t let his guard down either, after all, his current opponents were not only yers but also gods. Therefore, many things couldn��t be judged ording tomon sense.


    ��Oh, I��m sorry. I should have asked you before buying, ��Songjia apologized immediately.


    ��It��s okay. If there��s nothing else, Let��s get back to business.��


    ��Okay, this ce is very close to the University of Greend. Let��s go to the school first and see if he��s there.��


    Song Jia finished her hot cocoa to replenish her energy and drove the SUV outside the University of Greend. However, after asking the students, she found out that Baker had just left this ce after work.


    Although both of them regretted missing Baker, Song Jia also knew where Baker was now. Soon, she brought Zhang Heng to Baker��s house.


    Dr. Baker��s house was close to the sea, so one could see the sunset and sunrise. Because of Greend��s unique geographical location, the ratio of day to night here was also very magical. For example, in the summer, Greend had more than 21 hours of sunshine. Therefore, although it was already six o��clock in the afternoon, the sky did not darken at all. On the contrary.., in winter, Greend would only have three hours of daylight.


    ��Huh?��Song Jia asked after parking the car.


    Zhang Heng, who was standing beside her, also looked around. ��What��s Wrong?��


    ��I didn��t expect his clinic to close so early,��song Jia said before exining, ��Dr. Baker��s residence is with the clinic. The first floor is where he receives his patients, and the second floor is his bedroom.��


    ��Does he have a wife and children?��Zhang Heng asked as he opened the car door.


    ��No, he usually lives alone. It��s said that when he first arrived, he hired a young girl to receive patients. However, when he realized that the clinic wasn��t doing much business, he fired her. With the cost reduction and the additional sry from the University of Greend, he managed to survive.��


    Song Jia turned off the engine and got out of the car. She arrived at Dr. Baker��s tightly shut door. However, she realized that Zhang Heng, who had been very positive about the whole trip, was standing still beside the car.


    Song Jia followed Zhang Heng��s gaze and saw a row of ss windows. ��Oh, that��s a small tavern. Do you want toe here for a drink after you��re done?��


    ��We��ll talk about it then.��Zhang Heng was nomittal. He retracted his gaze and walked over to Song Jia��s side.


    Thetter took a deep breath and knocked on the door.


    However, there was no response from the room.


    ��Could it be that he didn��te straight back after work?��Song Jia muttered under her breath. She increased her strength to ensure that she could be heard by the people inside.


    However, there was still no response.


    Therefore, song Jia went around to the window on the west side of the hut. She ced her hand on the window and looked inside. However, she soon regretted her actions.


    Zhang Heng heard a scream. Then, he saw song Jia quickly take two steps back. However, she didn��t notice the slope under her feet. She almost rolled down from it. Fortunately, at the critical moment, a hand grabbed her back.


    ��Are you okay?��


    ��I... I��m fine.��Song Jia was obviously still in shock, and Zhang Heng quickly figured out the reason for her scream.


    This was because a middle-aged man in his fifties was standing behind the translucent curtain, looking at them coldly. There was no color on his pale face, song Jia probably met his face just now.


    ��Dr. Baker?��Zhang Heng raised his eyebrows.


    ��Yes, that��s Dr. Baker. I didn��t expect him to be at home, and it��s on the first floor. Why didn��t hee to open the door just now?��Song Jia had already steadied herself, she was relieved from her fear. She knew Dr. Baker from the start, but she didn��t expect him to be standing by the window just now.


    Then, Zhang Heng saw Dr. Baker also move. After a while, the door was finally opened, but he didn��t go out. Instead, he stood behind the door and said something in Danish. Zhang Heng didn��t wait for Song Jia to speak, but he spoke in English first, ��I feel like there��s something wrong with my mind. I often feel nervous for no reason, and I can��t sleep normally at night. I even sweat. I heard that you��re the only psychiatrist on the ind, so I asked Song Jia to bring me here to take a look at you.��


    Dr. Baker frowned at Zhang Heng. After a moment, he turned to look at the travel bag in Zhang Heng��s hand. ��You��re a Tourist?��


    ��That��s right. He just got off the ne. I went to the airport to pick him up,��song Jia said.


    ��Come in.��


    Dr. Baker didn��t say anything else and finally moved away from the door.

 Chapter 1220 - Insomnia

    Chapter 1220 Insomnia


    Zhang Heng followed Songjia into Dr. Baker��s room.


    Dr. Baker quickly looked around the room before closing the door.


    Just as Songjia had said, the first floor waspletely decorated by the clinic. There was a small reception area, an old sofa, and a television. The side was separated by a curtain. Behind the curtain, there should be a treatment room.


    Such an arrangement would definitely not be reasonable elsewhere, because meeting with a psychiatrist was a very private matter, especially when receiving treatment, patients might need to confide some of the privacy that they had buried deep in their hearts, so they needed an undisturbed space to gain a sense of security. They could not be separated from the reception area by only a curtain.


    However, because there were very few patients on the ind, Dr. Baker would not let anyone else in after they agreed on a date, so it did not affect them much.


    ��Long time no see, Dr. Baker. You Don��t look too well. Are you sick?��Sonjia asked after she entered the room.


    ��I��m fine,��Dr. Baker answered hurriedly. He did not open the curtain to let Zhang Heng into the treatment room. Instead, he turned around and walked to a wardrobe. He opened the wooden door, and on it were all sorts of bottles and jars, apparently, he used it as a medicine cab.


    Dr. Baker rummaged through it for a while and found a white medicine bottle. Zhang Heng��s eyes were sharp, and he saw the zopiclone printed on the bottle. This was a kind of sleeping pill, and it was alsomonly used on the market,pared to the previous two generations, it was safer, and it was less tolerant and dependent.


    Dr. Baker did not seem to want to help Zhang Heng at all. He just wanted to take some sleeping pills to get rid of thetter. However, when he opened the white bottle, he could not help but curse under his breath, then, he closed the bottle again and put it back on the shelf.


    He moved very quickly, but he still could not escape Zhang Heng��s eyes. He asked, ��Doctor, have you been suffering from insomnia recently?��


    ��Yes, I��ve been under a lot of pressure at work recently, so I��ll take some medicine before I go to bed,��Dr. Baker replied casually. However, even song Jia, who was standing beside him, could tell that he was lying, everyone on the ind knew that Dr. Baker��s clinic hadn��t been doing well for a day or two. It had always been a dismal business at best, and there were very few things happening at school, so how could there be any pressure at work.


    However, Song Jia did not expose him. She watched as Dr. Baker went to the fridge again, took out half a bottle of fudge, and stuffed it into Zhang Heng��s hands, ��Mtonin should be able to improve your sleep. 100 crowns. Go back and eat for a while. If you can��t,e find me.��


    Zhang Heng looked at the mtonin bottle in his hand, which was nearing its expiration date, but he did not rush to pay the bill. He said calmly, ��What if I take it away?��


    ��Don��t worry about me. I��ll restock it.��Baker waved his hand, then stood where he was and red at the two of them. He gave them an expression that said, ��You can leave now.��.


    This made song Jia, who had been emphasizing to Zhang Heng how hospitable the people on the ind were, look very awkward. Especially since she had promised Zhang Heng that she might be able to have dinner at Dr. Baker��s house, however, thetter chased them away like flies. Song Jia Even suspected that Dr. Baker had guessed their true intentions.


    Zhang Heng did not move. He simply ced the bottle of mtonin on the sofa and said, ��This time, other than asking for your help, I actually have something else to do.��


    ��You��re one of them?!��


    It was a simple question, but for some reason, Dr. Baker��s expression changed. He took half a step back, and his already pale face turned even paler.


    Zhang Heng��s gaze wavered. He wanted to follow Dr. Baker��s words, but he did not expect songjia to ask, ��What��s one of them?��


    ��Isn��t that right?��The light in Dr. Baker��s eyes dimmed slightly, but he maintained a vignt posture. At the same time, he urged, ��Take the medicine and leave. We have nothing to talk about.��


    Song Jia was left with no choice but to look at Zhang Heng


    However, to her surprise, Zhang Heng really did not say anything. He only gave Dr. Baker a deep look before turning around to walk to the door.


    Just as he was about to step out of the room, Dr. Baker��s voice came from behind him. ��Wait, you left something behind.��


    As he spoke, he picked up the bottle of mtonin from the sofa and tossed it to Zhang Heng


    Thetter caught it, took out 100 kroner from his wallet, and ced it on the shoe rack.


    Song Jia followed Zhang Heng back to the SUV, confused. She seemed to be wondering why Dr. Baker had be like this. After a moment, she came back to her senses and asked Zhang Heng, ��Where are we going next, to look for the man in the second photo?��


    ��Don��t worry, anyway it��s time for dinner, so let��s eat first, then we��ll go to the hotel and check in.��Zhang Heng is a change of attitude, no longer anxious.


    ��Hey, don��t continue to investigate?��Song Jia Some Doubt Way.


    On the way here, she had been worried that Zhang Heng would do something bad to Dr. Baker in order to investigate, however, after meeting Dr. Baker, she became even more curious than Zhang Heng about what had happened to him.


    However, Zhang Heng said, ��No, thank you for your help. Let��s call it a day. We��ll continue tomorrow.��


    Then Zhang Heng pointed at the bar across the street. ��Is there anything to eat there?��


    ��Yes, there��s beer, bread, fish, shrimp, and seal meat,��song Jia said, ��But if you want to eat vegetables, you have to go to a restaurant. Most of the vegetables on the ind are flown in from Denmark, so the price is...��


    ��It��s okay, just eat there. When in Rome, do as the Romans do. It��ll save you a lot of traveling, ��Zhang Heng said. ��Okay.��


    Even though song Jia had a lot of questions, she still started the car and moved it to the front of the bar. When she left, she seemed to see Dr. Baker standing by the window again, silently watching them.


    After that, song Jia opened her mouth several times during dinner. She wanted to continue asking the question that she did not ask before, but Zhang Heng changed the topic. In the end, the two of them finished their dinner in a somewhat depressing atmosphere.


    ��Are you used to it?��Song Jia asked after dinner.


    ��What?��Zhang Heng raised his eyebrows. ��The food here is very different from your country, right?��Song Jia said. ��Actually, there is a Hong Kong restaurant on the ind. The fried rice there is very delicious. If you are not used to it, we can go there.��


    ��Oh, thank you. I��m already full. Pay the bill and go back.��Zhang Heng put down the knife and fork in his hand and wiped his mouth.

 Chapter 1221 - One Drink

    Chapter 1221 One Drink


    Songjia had booked Zhang Heng a ce not far from Dr. Baker��s clinic. It was called Eagle View Hotel, and it was also located on the coast. It was only a six or seven-minute drive away.


    This hotel was famous for its excellent geographical location and view. It was very popr with tourists. When they checked in here in the morning, they could see the ice sheet in the distance, and at night, they could enjoy the aurora, however, Zhang Heng did note at the right time. The day was long, so the possibility of seeing the aurora was very low.


    After checking in, Songjia directly drove Zhang Heng to his room.


    Greend��s hotels were also different from other ces. Because thend was vast and sparsely popted, there was not much value in thend. Therefore, there were very few high-rise buildings in the city. Rather than calling it a guest room, it was actually a small house, there was a certain distance between them, and they were as brightly colored as the houses in the town. The only difference was that there was a hotel sign hanging on the outer wall.


    Previously, during dinner, Zhang Heng had already stated that he did not want to talk about Dr. Baker. On top of that, he did not seem to be very interested in the cultural scene in Greend, therefore, even the usually warm and lively Songjia did not know what to say. Seeing that they had finally reached their destination, he sighed in relief.


    ��Then I��ll see you tomorrow. By the way, what time do you usually get up in the morning? I��ll pick you up then,�� song Jia asked as she stepped on the brakes.


    However, she did not expect Zhang Heng to say after looking at his watch, ��HMM, it��s still early. Why Don��t youe in and have a drink? We can talk about the schedule slowly.��


    Song Jia��s face showed a hint of hesitation when she heard that. It was not her first time being a guide, and she had also been wooed by many boys back in school, of course, she knew what a man meant when he said that, so she subconsciously wanted to reject him. However, Zhang Heng made a very subtle gesture at her, and song JIA��s expression changed slightly, ��I won��t stay in there for too long, and I hope you won��t Stop Me When I��m leaving.��


    ��Of course, I��ve just arrived in Greend, so I don��t n to stay in the police station for the rest of my time,��Zhang Heng said.


    Song Jia put the SUV in P gear, switched off the engine, and followed Zhang Heng into his room.


    The guest room at Eagle View wasn��t luxurious, but it was decorated in a warm and cozy style. There was a spacious living room with a carpet on the wooden floor, a sofa, a dining table, a television, and othermonly used furniture. The master bedroom and bathroom were also veryrge, there was also a kitchen where they could buy their own ingredients to cook in. The cost of a night��s stay was around 1,000 RMB.


    Even though song Jia followed Zhang Heng into the living room, she didn��t find a ce to sit down. Instead, she maintained a certain distance from Zhang Heng and crossed her arms in front of her chest, ��Alright, I��ve already followed your instructions. Do you have anything to say... HMM?��


    Song Jia didn��t expect someone to be so fast. She didn��t even see how Zhang Heng moved. The next moment, thetter��s body appeared in front of her. Song Jia opened her mouth to scream, however, before she could say anything, Zhang Heng��s hand had already pressed down on her mouth.


    ��It��s nothing. I just didn��t have enough to drink back at the bar, so I wanted to have another drink with you.��


    As Zhang Heng spoke, he grabbed song Jia��s arms with his other hand to prevent her from struggling


    Song Jia felt as if she had fallen into an ice cer. She didn��t think that someone would be so daring to do such a thing in broad daylight and in apletely unfamiliar ce, was it really as he said, that he nned to stay at the police station for the rest of his life.


    After Zhang Heng subdued Songjia, he immediately moved his mouth to her ear and whispered, ��Cooperate with me. We��re being monitored.��


    Songjia��s eyes were filled with doubt. However, when Zhang Heng let go of her hand, she did not shout out immediately. Then, she saw Zhang Heng reach into her purse, he took out a fingernail-sized piece of stic from the inteyer.


    ��When... ��song Jia asked subconsciously.


    ��Right now,��Zhang Heng interrupted song Jia. Then, he walked to the fridge and took out two bottles of beer. When he passed the beer to Song Jia, he quickly whispered in her ear, ��Previously at the bar, when you went to pay the bill, two people on your right side suddenly got into an argument. One was a man and the other was a woman. It looked like they were in a rtionship. The man stood up and was about to leave, but the woman poured the beer on the man��s face. Your attention was also attracted to them. This thing was put into your purse at that time.��


    Song Jia��s eyes widened in disbelief, as if she had not expected something that would only appear in movies to happen to her. However, this time, she managed to keep up with Zhang Heng��s pace, after a pause, she said, ��I don��t think it��s appropriate. I still have to drive back in a while.��


    ��It��s fine. It��s just a drink. It Won��t affect anything, ��Zhang Heng said.


    About 20 meters away from Zhang Heng��s house, a white van followed Songjia��s SUV to the side of the road. There were three young men sitting in the van, if Zhang Heng were here, he would realize that these three people were people he had met at a bar before. One of them was a couple, a man and a woman. The other was the man who sat on the left side of Songjia when she paid for the bill.


    At that moment, the man in the blue jacket was fiddling with some kind of device. Zhang Heng and Songjia��s voices came from the device.


    ��What are they talking about?��


    Another young man with a muscr body and a red face asked.


    ��I don��t know, but what else could it be? Isn��t it just something between men?��A girl with a ponytail sitting in the passenger seat beside her sneered.


    The three people in the car were all typical Inuit. They had yellow skin, a wide nose, and ck hair. They looked a little like Mongolians. The girl also had a bracelet on her hand, which was made of fish bones, there was a strange pattern carved on it, which looked like a deep-sea monster.


    After she said this, the man in the blue jacket showed a hint of joy on his face, ��It��s done. I��ve contacted Professor Peterson. He said that these two speak Chinese. He just found a student from the Chinese department to help us trante.��


    ��That��s great. Let him hear it quickly,��the muscr boy said.


    na


    ��i, did your soul get seduced by that girl named Songjia?��The girl snorted, ��I advise you to give up. That girl doesn��t look like she��s easy to deal with. With your shrewdness, wouldn��t it be like ying a fool if she yed you?��

 Chapter 1222 - Olai And Alicia

    Chapter 1222 i And Alicia


    The boy named i was exposed. His face, which was already red from the sun, turned even redder. He clenched his fists and said, ��Alicia, don��t talk nonsense. I��m just worried about her safety.��


    ��Are you worried about her safety, or are you worried that she��s been slept with?��The boy named Alicia sneered, ��When she saw her follow that man into the hotel, she looked like she was in a daze. From the way she looked like she was familiar with the ce, she might be earning extra money through this.��


    ��Alethea! ! !��i said angrily, ��Stop your nonsense!��


    ��I��m not talking nonsense. What, do you want to fight with me?��Alethea narrowed her eyes.


    ��I don��t Fight Girls!��


    ��You can��t beat me either.��


    When i heard the girl��s words, his anger disappeared. He looked at her and said calmly, ��I get it, Alicia. You must be jealous.��


    ��What jealousy?��This time, it was Alicia��s turn to change her expression slightly.


    ��You��re jealous that Songjia is prettier than you, that her skin is better than yours, and that her personality is better than yours. That��s why you keep ndering her, because you know that any man would choose her between the two of you.��


    Alicia was so angry that her face turned green. ��i, if you have the ability, say what you just said again!��


    ��I say, the two of you... can you stop for a Moment?��The man in the blue jacket sighed and raised his head helplessly, ��The trantor that Professor Peterson helped us find is here. Do you still want to know what the two people in the room are talking about now?��


    i immediately shut his mouth. He was indeed the one who cared about Songjia��s safety the most. Alicia, who was beside him, wanted to say something, but when she saw how focused i was, she finally shut her mouth, she knew that if she opened her mouth to cause trouble now, i would really fight with her.


    She wanted to take this opportunity to beat this bastard up, but it would definitely dy the proper business. Therefore, the three people in the city stopped talking. Instead, the trantor on the other end of the phone began to work, he tranted everything he heard into Danish word by word.


    ��It��s okay. Just one drink. It Won��t dy things.��


    ��Really just one drink?��


    ��Really. As long as you finish this drink, you can leave.��


    ��Okay, then.��


    The three people in the van then heard the sound of Songjia gulping down beer. i clenched his fists even tighter until the sound of the bottle being ced on the table came into his ears.


    ��I��m done drinking. Can I Go Now?��


    ��You can leave at any time, but you haven��t forgotten the purpose ofing here, have


    you?��


    ��What purpose?��


    ��You said that you wanted toe in and discuss with me about the uing itinerary.��


    ��Oh, right. How could I have forgotten the official business? Where do you want to Go Tomorrow?��


    (the sound of the bottle opening)


    ��Don��t worry. Let��s drink and study at the same time.��


    ��Still drinking?��


    ��It��s still early anyway, you don��t have much to do when you go back.��


    Hearing that, i mmed his fist on the car door and scolded, ��Bastard!��


    A mocking smile appeared on the corner of Alicia��s mouth. She wanted to take this opportunity to rub salt on the boy��s wound, but seeing the man in the blue jacket shake his head at her, she could only give up.


    ��Uh, then, then let��s have another drink.��


    The three people in the van could hear that Songjia��s voice was getting tipsy. Under the effects of the alcohol, she seemed to have gradually let down her guard and started to talk more, but her sense of organization was getting worse and worse.., in the end, she could not even connect the words together, but the man beside her continued to persuade her to drink.


    The anger in i��s eyes was about to burst out. Then, he suddenly pushed open the car door. ��I can��t listen to this anymore!��


    As a result, just as one of his feet got out of the car, he was hugged by someone. ��Where are you going? !��Alicia shouted from behind.


    ��That guy obviously wants to take advantage of Songjia. I��ll go and save Songjia Right Now!��i volunteered.


    ��You stupid big guy who is controlled by the primitive instincts of men. Have you forgotten why we are here? We still don��t know why that Chinese man went to find Dr. Baker.��Alicia was amused by the anger.


    ��But you can��t just ignore the crime that happened right in front of your eyes, right?��i��s face was dark.


    ��What crime? How do you know that the two people inside are not consensual?��Alicia snorted coldly, ��Do you really think that if a girl is not interested in the man beside her, she would drink one cup after another at the man��s ce? Besides, it��s a crime for you to rush in so indiscriminately.��


    ��I also think that we should wait a little longer.��The Man in the Blue Jacket also chimed in at this time, ��i, you are a little emotional right now. Why Don��t you go back and rest first? Anyway, your mission has beenpleted. You helped me attract the girl��s attention so that I could sessfully ce the bug on her. From now on, Alicia and I will be here.��


    i looked sullen. As if he had not heard hispanion��s words, he yelled angrily at Aliesia, who was hugging him from behind, ��Let go.��


    Thetter and the man in the blue jacket looked at each other. The man in the blue jacket nodded. ��It��s fine. i is just a little impatient, but he knows what��s important.��


    So Aliesia let go of his hand, and i immediately jumped out of the car. He stood beside the van and looked at the Red House that Zhang Heng lived in. His expression wasplicated, after a while, he walked toward the convenience store in the opposite direction.


    ��I��m going to eat something. I wasn��t full at the bar earlier.��


    The Man in the Blue Windbreaker made an OK sign to Alessia. Thetter also heaved a sigh of relief and continued to listen to the sounds in the room.


    They heard Songjia copse on the sofa after drinking another bottle of wine. Then, with the rustling sound of her clothes being taken off, she walked toward the bedroom on the second floor, however, Songjia��s clothes and her wallet, which was stuffed with a listening device, were left on the first floor.


    ��What should we do?��At this moment, Alicia was also at a loss. Although she had deliberately said a lot of bad things about Songjia in order to anger ole, deep down, she did not want Songjia to be taken advantage of because he was drunk, moreover, the Chinese man was obviously up to no good.


    The man in the Blue Windbreaker scratched his head. ��I��ll call the hotel��s front desk. Tell them that someone is drunk inside and contact the designated driver.��


    ��No, the other party will definitely get suspicious. Besides, it might be toote by the time they get there.��


    ��It��s so troublesome. Why Don��t we just kidnap the person? At least i will definitely like this n.��


    ��What if we kidnap the wrong person?��


    ��If we kidnap the wrong person... let��s just pretend that nothing happened. I��ve already contacted Hans and asked him to bring that thing over. We can take action a little earlier.��

 Chapter 1223 - Uninvited Guest

    Chapter 1223 Uninvited Guest


    In the bedroom, song Jia didn��t look drunk at all. On the contrary, she was as sober as she was when she first entered the room. The water she had drunk earlier was just in white water. She had only pretended to be drunk to act along with Zhang Heng.


    When they reached the upper floor, Zhang Heng conducted another body search on her before saying, ��Alright, you can talk normally now. There��s no listening device on you anymore, but it��s best to be careful. Don��t make too much noise and let it get downstairs.��


    However, as soon as he finished speaking, Song Jia couldn��t wait to ask, ��Who are they?��


    ��That��s what I want to know too.��Zhang Heng went to the window and closed it. After a pause, he added, ��When we went to Dr. Baker��s house, I noticed that someone was watching over there. That should be the reason why Dr. Baker was so nervous and didn��t want to talk to us. I didn��t know how well those people were monitoring Dr. Baker, and I didn��t know if there was a bug or a camera in his clinic, so I didn��t ask further.��


    Songjia came to a sudden realization. ��Dr. Baker said ��You��re their people��before, but I��m still a little confused. It seems that he thinks that we are in cahoots with the people who are spying on him.��


    ��Yes.��


    ��That��s why those people nted a bug on me.��Songjia was very smart. She quickly connected the dots, the most important thing was that she finally understood why she was being bugged when she was just a normal person.


    However, Zhang Heng only exined a part of the story selectively. There was another part that he did not tell song Jia. For example, before he entered Dr. Baker��s clinic, he had already observed the people who were spying on him at the bar, this was also the reason why he suggested going to the bar for a mealter. Song Jia probably could not understand this kind of action of sending herself to the door.


    However, to Zhang Heng, he hade alone to thispletely unfamiliarnd to investigate the events of 18 years ago. He did not even know who his enemy was, and he was not familiar with this city at all, therefore, he did not want to y a protracted battle with the other side because the longer they dragged it out, the more advantageous it would be for the side that had the home-field advantage.


    Rather than testing each other out carefully, it was better to take the initiative to attack before the other side had a clear grasp of his background. Zhang Heng had already nned to fight the other side back at the bar, however, he didn��t expect that the group would only nt a bug on Songjia. However, this was for the best. After all, Zhang Heng was still a tourist. If he really fought with the people on the ind in public.., if he wasn��t careful, he might be sent back to his country.


    It would be more appropriate to postpone the fight a little and ce it in the house where he lived. The reason why Zhang Heng didn��t let Songjia leave was because he was worried that she would be kidnapped on her way home alone, however, before he could discuss with the girl how to lure the people outside into the house, someone was already knocking on his door.


    This surprised Zhang Heng because this group of people had been following them for a long time. It was obvious that they wanted to know why he and Songjia had gone to Dr. Baker, but they still didn��t have an answer to this question, could it be that they had run out of patience, so they decided to use force?


    However, this saved Zhang Heng a lot of trouble. When he heard the sound of the door being broken, he was not worried at all. He even had the time to tell Songjia, whose expression had changed drastically, that.., ��You stay here and don��t run around. I��ll probably need you to trante for meter.��


    After saying that, Zhang Heng pushed open the door to the master bedroom and walked out. When he reached the corridor, he locked the door behind him, pulled out the key, and put it into his pocket.


    At this time, the door that he had left behind had just been pushed open by someone. However, that group of people was still quite cautious. They were probably afraid that there would be some kind of trap, so they didn��t rush in immediately.


    Therefore, Zhang Heng ced the travel bag that he was carrying on the ground and took out a Lego gun from inside.


    This time, because he had to fly through security, and because Zhang Heng didn��t want the bartender to know the destination of his trip, he didn��t use the game point��s shipping service, therefore, he couldn��t bring the ( gue bone bow ) and ( hidden scabbard ] over, but the �C LSB- infinite building blocks ) , which was also a b-grade item, wasn��t affected at all.


    Furthermore, Zhang Heng had bought two boxes of building blocks before boarding the ne. He had already assembled two weapons on the ne to deal with the current situation. He inserted the �C LSB-infinite building blocks ) into thest slot, and the next moment.., a Beretta M92F magically appeared in his hand.


    At the same time, the people below had finallypleted their initial investigation. After confirming that the first floor was safe, they finally entered. Furthermore, they probably did not want to be seen trespassing, so they immediately closed the door, they reached for the stairs.


    Zhang Heng heard the footsteps and realized that there were two people who had entered. He put the Beretta M92F back into his waist. Zhang Heng��s goal was to capture and interrogate them alive, because these people were staring at Doctor Baker, it was very likely that it had something to do with what happened 18 years ago, so the pistol was just a safety measure. If everything went ording to Zhang Heng��s n, he wouldn��t need it at all. Furthermore, with the gun drawing skill that he had learned from the western pocket dimension.., there wasn��t much difference between putting it on his waist and holding it in his hand.


    If he really encountered any danger, he could pull out the gun and grab it at the first opportunity.


    After making his preparations, Zhang Heng carried his bag and headed downstairs. However, he had only taken a few steps when he saw a burly man with a masked face charging at him angrily.


    Even though the man had disguised himself, changed his clothes, and covered his face, leaving only his eyes, to Zhang Heng, this method was a little too crude. This was because the masked man had only changed his upper body clothes, he hadn��t changed his pants or shoes at all, and his figure hadn��t changed much either. Zhang Heng recognized the man from the couple he had seen at the bar.


    Needless to say, his cheap girlfriend was following behind him. The two of them worked well together, pouncing on Zhang Heng one after the other.


    The man was still babbling something, but Zhang Heng didn��t quite understand it. He didn��t know why the man was looking at him with fire in his eyes, as if there was some deep hatred between them, however, the two of them didn��t know each other, and Zhang Heng couldn��t be bothered to guess. After all, he would know after subduing them and getting song Jia to trante for him. Even though it was one against two, Zhang Heng wasn��t flustered at all. He didn��t Dodge at all. He took the punch head-on, and then he took two steps back.

 Chapter 1224 - Battle

    Chapter 1224 Battle


    As Zhang Heng retreated, the masked man also fell down the stairs, almost implicating hispanion. However, his reaction was still in time. He grabbed the stairs and stabilized his body.


    see


    Zhang Heng was slightly surprised. When the two of them exchanged blows earlier, it seemed like he had the upper hand. However, this was because he stood in a better position. When the other party rushed up from below, his body was in the air when he exerted force, that was why he was knocked down by Zhang


    Heng.


    Zhang Heng could also feel the powerful forceing from the other side of his palm. The two steps that he took back looked simple, but in reality, he had taken the opportunity to remove the force from the Masked Man��s fist. If it was anyone else here.., they would probably be sitting on the ground.


    This meant that in terms of pure strength, Zhang Heng was at a disadvantage. Of course, this was because Zhang Heng had not used his ( earthly scale ) , but he had been working out during this period of time, and he had been doing it for twice the amount of time, in terms of strength, he had already surpassed most ordinary people.


    The masked man was able to suppress him in terms of strength, but not just by a little. Either the other party was very talented, or he had been training hard since he was young.


    However, as the masked man charged at him aggressively again, after a few more exchanges, Zhang Heng ruled out thetter possibility. He could already tell that the other party was only strong in terms of strength, but in other aspects, he was very ordinary, there weren��t many moves in a fight, and even the techniques used to exert strength were very crude.


    It was also known as the bastard fist. Relying on his extraordinary strength to deal with ordinary people was enough, especially when fighting with his life, he estimated that even four or five people would be able to take him down. However, against a true expert, it was basically a waste.


    Zhang Heng didn��t even use his saber. He only used the boxing and fighting techniques he had learned from the deduction method to easily deal with the masked man when his strength was weaker than his, the masked man felt like every time he used his full strength, he would hit cotton. This feeling was very ufortable, and it only made him cry out in anger.


    ��Alicia, this guy knows Dark Magic! He must be a servant of the Devil.��


    ��Don��t call me by my real name, i, You Idiot.��The girl behind him, who was also wearing a mask, frowned.


    Earlier, she had rushed in with i because she was worried that Songjia would be taken advantage of. However, unlike i, who was an idiot, Alicia was a much more meticulous woman, when she noticed Zhang Heng��s neat appearance, she knew that Songjia should be fine.


    Instead, a bad thought rose in her mind. The man in front of her seemed to know that they wereing. Could This be a trap?


    Therefore, after i was hit by Zhang Heng, she slowed down and stopped rushing forward. While i and Zhang Heng were fighting, she estimated Zhang Heng��s strength and observed the surroundings, she wanted to find Zhang Heng��s helper who was lying in ambush nearby, but she heard i call her name.


    Alicia wished she could kick the big idiot down the stairs. What were they hiding their faces for? wasn��t it to keep their identity hidden so that they could keep the enemy in the open.


    ��What��s there to be afraid of? He doesn��t understand. ��i was taken aback. He had no idea what Alessia was getting angry about, so he said with some grievance, ��Besides, didn��t you call me by my name?��


    ��How could songjia understand? Are you an idiot? I called you by your name because you called me first. I��m just taking revenge on


    you.��


    ��Songjia was drunk by this bastard. He won��t be able to hear you,��i said as he threw two more punches. Unfortunately, they still did not even touch the corner of Zhang Heng��s shirt, so he became anxious again.


    ��Alicia, what are you standing there for? Are you still angry about what happened earlier? Can��t you settle the scoreter? Help me hold him back so I can give him a good beating!��


    Alicia rolled her eyes. However, she had basicallypleted her investigation. Other than the master bedroom behind Zhang Heng, she didn��t see anyone else hiding. Was She worrying too much? Alessia turned to look at Ole. Thetter was currently being yed by Zhang Heng. His roar was loud and clear, but there was no damage output at all. Alessia finally started to move again.


    Zhang Heng did not understand what the two were talking about, but in reality, he could have let the masked man go a long time ago.


    However, Zhang Heng was not in a hurry to make a move. He had already figured out his opponent��s strength. The masked man was a ssic example of a man who was strong on the outside but weak on the inside. Not only was his fist technique a mess, but his body control was also very poor, zhang Heng was actually very familiar with this situation.


    After the newbie dungeon ended, he returned to the real world from a deserted ind. During that time, his body control was at its weakest. Because his body size and strength had changed greatly in the dungeon, when he returned to the real world.., his body returned to the state it was in before entering the dungeon, so he was not used to it. It was not untilter in real life that he stepped up his training. At the same time, the situation in the dungeon gradually improved. Of course.., the masked man wasn��t as serious as he was back then. If he hadn��t used all his strength to fight him, it would have been impossible to tell.


    However, Zhang Heng was curious as to why the other party wasn��t a yer. Even if he was born with godly strength, he should have had it since he was young and had already adapted to it, unless... he had gotten this strength halfway.


    Zhang Heng thought of the half-man, half-fish frog creatures he had seen in the dream and in the underwater tunnel with the country ind. Those creatures seemed to have gradually changed from humans to that, possessing the ability to live in the water, could it be that the group of people who were monitoring Dr. Baker had also undergone some changes?


    In order to prove this point, Zhang Heng also exchanged a few moves with Alicia, who had rushed up after him. In the end, thetter��s strength level was very ordinary. She might be considered outstanding among women, but she was clearly suppressed by Zhang Heng, her body control and coordination were also far better than herpanion��s.


    In addition, Zhang Heng also noticed the Fishbone bracelet on Alicia��s hand and the huge unknown monster engraved on the bracelet.


    This bracelet did not look like an antique. It should have been made not too long ago, but the carving seemed very primitive. There were only a few lines, but the monster carved out looked very lifelike, it was as if it was going to move on a fish bone.


    Zhang Heng felt that it was about time. He had seen everything he wanted to see, so there was no point in continuing to fight. The rest could be slowly asked by Songjia as a trantor. Therefore, Zhang Heng did not hesitate any longer. He pushed Alessia away first, when i threw another punch, he changed his strategy of fighting in a skirmish and stuck himself in front of i.


    Then, he kicked thetter��s lower abdomen. Poor i did not expect Zhang Heng to suddenly counterattack. He was kicked into the second bedroom on the other side, and his head hit the leg of the bed, when he shook his dizzy head and stood up from the ground, he realized that Alicia had been captured by Zhang Heng

 Chapter 1225 - The Apostle Of The Evil Spirit

    Chapter 1225 The Apostle Of The Evil Spirit


    i saw Zhang Heng Press Alicia down on the floor, grab her hands, and use his knees to press against her waist, making her unable to move. He was shocked and angry, he did not bother to check if his head was injured and immediately rushed over.


    At that moment, he was like a bull, stomping the floor and making creaking sounds. At the same time, he swung his fist. This time, because Zhang Heng was riding on Alicia��s body, one of his hands was still upied, so he could not dodge, therefore, he clenched his other hand into a fist and met i��s fist.


    i was not surprised. On the contrary, he was happy. Other than the first exchange of blows between Zhang Heng and him, the other party had refused to meet him face-to-face. He was as slippery as a loach, and this made him feel extremely angry, i clearly had the advantage in terms of strength, but in a battle, he was unable to convert his hand gestures into battle results.


    Now, Zhang Heng, who knew what was wrong with him, had chosen to sh head-on with him again. Furthermore, this time, he was not in the state of leaping up from the stairs, i was confident that this punch would be able to knock Zhang Heng to the ground.


    However, when the two fists collided, i felt an irresistible forceing from the other side!


    This baffled him. Could it be that the opponent had held back when they fought? However, the opponent��s figure was obviously not as good as his. Where did this terrifying strengthe from? i��s eyes widened in confusion.


    Since Zhang Heng had chosen to receive i��s fist, he naturally would not be unprepared. He had used ( worldly scale ) to increase his strength by 70% . This was the maximum strength he could withstand at this stage, of course, it was not impossible to increase his strength, but it would put a considerable burden on his body. He might even kill 10,000 enemies and lose 8,000 of his own.


    Furthermore, with his current strength of 170% , he had already surpassed i. Thetter had just rushed over when he was knocked back by Zhang Heng. Seeing i��s robust body roll into the second bedroom again.., zhang Heng was also prepared to use this opportunity to knock Alicia out first.


    ise


    He could already tell that i was the kind of person with a hot temper but a simple mind. Inparison, his femalepanion was much more cautious than him. Previously, when i was fighting with him.., alicia did not rush over with him. She was actually still observing the surroundings. It was obvious that she was worried about an ambush.


    Therefore, Zhang Heng knew that if he wanted to get as much information as possible from the two of them, i would be the best breakthrough point. This was also the reason why he controlled Alessia first. Other than that.., it was also because i was more straightforward. If he had grabbed i first, Alessia might have run away when she realized that she could not save herpanions. On the other hand, i would not have run away without rescuing Alessia.


    The result was just as Zhang Heng had expected. However, what he didn��t know was that when he was fighting i, Alicia��s eyes suddenly turned gray, at the same time, her mouth was still opening and closing, but strangely, there was no sounding from her throat.


    At the same time, an eagle standing on a streetmp not far away, looking for food, suddenly trembled. Then, it spread its wings and rushed toward Zhang Heng��s house.


    Zhang Heng��s hand was about tond on the back of Alicia��s neck, but the next moment, the ss at the other end of the corridor was shattered by something. Then, Zhang Heng saw two eagle ws wing at his face, if the ws hit him, his face would definitely be disfigured, and his eyes might even be blinded.


    But even at this moment, Zhang Heng still didn��t let go of Alicia, nor did he dodge. He just waited quietly for the eagle topletely fly in front of his face, and then there was a sh of a knife.


    The Eagle��s head was cut off by a fruit knife! The Eagle��s blood gushed out, drenching Zhang Heng At this time, Zhang Heng also noticed the unusual behavior of Alicia. Following the death of the eagle, Alicia let out a scream! Then, without waiting for Zhang Heng to make a move, she fainted. Zhang Heng was about to check further when the master bedroom door suddenly opened. Song Jia hurriedly ran out and shouted, ��Don��t hurt them.��


    Zhang Heng frowned slightly when he saw that the guide had not stayed in the room like he had told her to. However, he did not say anything. Now that the situation waspletely under his control, Alessia��s little trick from before did not work either, zhang Heng did not ask song Jia to return. Instead, he asked, ��Do you know where they came from?��


    Song Jia shook her head. ��I don��t know, but I heard their conversation just now. They rushed in because they thought you were taking advantage of me and trying to save me.��


    Zhang Heng didn��tment. He only pointed at Alicia, who was lying on the ground, and said to song JIA, ��Go find a rope and tie her up first. Then,e over and help me trante.��


    ��Oh, okay...��song Jia bit her lip. She seemed to think that this was illegal, so she hesitated. However, she remembered that the group had been spying on Dr. Baker, they had even nted a bug in her purse when she wasn��t looking, so she agreed.


    Nas


    Zhang Heng walked toward i, who had gotten up again.


    Thetter was quite strong-willed. Zhang Heng knew that his punch just now would not be easy on the other party. Furthermore, i had also suffered a heavy blow to his lower abdomen. An ordinary person would be lying on the ground, unable to get up, however, i gritted his teeth and stood up again. From the looks of it, he seemed to want to continue fighting with Zhang Heng.


    Unfortunately, Zhang Heng would not give him the chance to do so. He pulled out the Beretta M92F from his waist and pointed it at the masked man before him.


    The masked man��s expression changed when he saw the ck muzzle. i only liked to use his fists to solve problems, but he was notpletely brainless. When the other party pulled out the gun, it meant that he would only be sending himself to his death if he rushed forward again, therefore, i didn��t move after he got up. He only stared at Zhang Heng with his big eyes. He even spat at the side and muttered something.


    ��What is he saying?��Zhang Heng turned to ask Songjia, who was busy looking for a rope. ��Uh, they are using the northern dialect Inupiatun, which should be from the Inuit tribe. If I heard correctly, he said that you should be an apostle of the evil spirit. Uh... is there a misunderstanding?��


    ��An apostle of the evil spirit?����Zhang Heng��s expression changed. ��Ask him why he said that.��


    However, after song Jia ryed Zhang Heng��s question to Ole, thetter only shook his head and did not answer. However, it was obvious that the Inuit boy��s attitude towards song Jia was much better than Zhang Heng��s.

 Chapter 1226 - The Guardian Spirit

    Chapter 1226 The Guardian Spirit


    Zhang Heng was not in a hurry. He had too many ways to deal with this straightforward Inuit youth. After that, he gestured for i to sit on the bed. He walked into the second bedroom and pulled out a chair to face i.


    When he saw that song Jia was still looking for a rope, Zhang Heng reminded her, ��Just use the bed sheet.��


    Song Jia came to a sudden realization and quickly returned to the master bedroom. After a while, song Jia wiped the sweat off his forehead and finallypleted the task that Zhang Heng had given him. After that, he dragged the tied-up Alicia into the second bedroom as well.


    i was excited when he saw the unconscious Alicia. Several times, he tried to get up from the bed, but he was forced back by Zhang Heng. It wasn��t until song Jia told i in Greendic that.., the Inuit teenager across from him quieted down again after Alicia was safe and sound.


    Then, he put on a show of killing me if you dare, and I won��t say a word. He crossed his arms and looked at Zhang Heng with hostility.


    ��He said you can torture him as much as you want, but he won��t say anything. He��ll make you give up.��Songjia looked at Zhang Heng helplessly.


    ��Is that so? Then tell him not to worry. I Won��t torture him, but if he doesn��t cooperate, I��ll kill hispanion, ��Zhang Heng said calmly, he turned the gun around and aimed it at the unconscious Alicia on the ground.


    i couldn��t sit still anymore. He stood up from the bed with a thud. He was still breathing heavily, but because he was afraid that Zhang Heng would pull the trigger, he didn��t dare go forward. He opened his mouth at the same time, he said a series of vicious words.


    Song Jia was a little embarrassed after hearing that. She did not know how to trante it for Zhang Heng.


    Zhang Heng did not mind. ��If he wants to scold me, feel free to do so. You just have to make him remember to answer honestlyter. The life of hispanion depends on his answer.��


    Seeing i sit down again, Zhang Heng took out the ( vow ring ) and the parchment from his travel bag. He cut his finger and dripped his blood into the cup. Then, he handed the knife to the Inuit youth across from him.


    It was obvious that i was very resistant to the pre-ritual of the ( vow ring ) . His disgust was written all over his face, however, for the sake of hispanion��s life, he still had to force himself to write the vow on the parchment with their blood. Then, he put one of the rings on his little finger.


    Zhang Heng put on the other ring and said, ��Let him take off the thing on his face first. Then, ask him what their names are and where they��re from.��


    Song Jia nodded and turned tomunicate with ole.


    Probably because she knew that the two of them had barged in to save her, song Jia had a good first impression of ole. She didn��t want him to suffer any more, so her tone was gentle, hoping to make Ole let down some of his guard, she cooperated with Zhang Heng��s question.


    In the end, Ole waspletely ttered. He didn��t expect the girl he liked to be so gentle. He thought that the other party was interested in him, so his gaze towards song Jia became even more passionate, if not for Zhang Heng still in the room, pointing his gun at his partner, i would have forgotten about his current situation and turned this ce into arge-scale blind date.


    At this time, even if song Jia was slow-witted, she could still sense something. She knew that i might have misunderstood, but she could not back down now. First of all, even though i��s eyes had already fully expressed his feelings.., however, since he hadn��t pointed it out, she couldn��t reject him first. Furthermore, she was worried that i would do something stupid in despair, so she could only pretend that she didn��t know anything, she coaxed i to untie the bandage on his face first.


    After a while, song Jia said to Zhang Heng, ��He said that his name is i, and the girl on the ground is called Alicia. However, even though they both live in the north, they��re not from the same tribe.��Song Jia added, seemingly worried that Zhang Heng wouldn��t believe i��s words, ��Actually, they called each other��s names when they came up. I heard them. It��s these two.��


    ��Okay, then ask them why they are monitoring Dr. Baker��s ce.��Zhang Heng also believed that i was telling the truth, because he did not feel any change in the ( vow ring ) on his hand.


    However, this time, i was not so cooperative. After listening to Song Jia��s question, a hesitant look appeared on his face. He kept looking in Zhang Heng��s direction, obviously, he was trying to think of a lie to cover this up. Unfortunately, he really did not have the talent to lie. After holding it in for a long time, he still could not say a word.


    Song Jia was still trying to persuade him patiently, but Zhang Heng did not want to waste any more time. Therefore, he loaded the pistol in front of i.


    i finally gave in and said, ��Because Doctor Baker had contact with the evil spirit, he was corrupted by the evil spirit. The evil spirit��s Apostles have been stirring up trouble recently. They seem to be nning something big. They are looking for a corrupted human like Doctor Baker to join them. We are not spying on him, but protecting him.��


    i��s answer surprised Zhang Heng. Zhang Heng had always thought that Doctor Baker was acting strangely because he knew that he was being watched. However, ording to i, Doctor Baker was afraid of something else. On the contrary.., i and the others had been keeping an eye on Dr. Baker��s ce to protect thetter.


    Therefore, Zhang Heng thought about it and asked, ��What is an evil spirit?��


    ��An evil spirit... it is an evil spirit, a devil with evil powers. It came here not long ago. It lives at the bottom of the sea and will corrode humans through its sleep. Many of its targets have gone mad or be its apostles. It has many minions, not only in Greend, but also in other parts of the world. Its people are everywhere,��i gestured, at the same time, he nced at Zhang Heng.


    Zhang Heng frowned. He stood up from his chair and walked over to Alessia. i became nervous again. He yelled at Zhang Heng, but Zhang Heng ignored him and squatted down, he took off the Fishbone Bracelet Alessia was wearing and pointed at the deep sea monster on it. ��Is this what an evil spirit looks like?��


    ��He said no. The thing carved on the Fishbone is Alessia��s guardian spirit. It��s sacred.��Song Jia tranted i��s words to Zhang Heng.


    ��Guardian Spirit?��Zhang Heng raised his eyebrows. He recalled the travel notes from Greend that he had read on the ne. There was an introduction to the local religions in Greend. He was suddenly enlightened. ��They are shamans.��


    ��That��s right. i said that he and Arecias are shamans of their respective tribes. Er, no, strictly speaking, they should be the next shamans. They are still learning from their teacher.��

 Chapter 1227 - The Greatest Shaman

    Chapter 1227 The Greatest Shaman


    Shamanism was a primitive religion developed from prehistoric worship. At its peak, it had spread all over the world. The ancestors of East and West Siberia, Mongolia, and even Manchuria had once believed in shamanism, for a long time, the aborigines of Greend only believed in shamanism.


    However, with the invasion of immigrants and religions, most of the people in Greend had converted to Christianity. Only some Inuit tribes in the more remote areas maintained their previous beliefs.


    Unlike the major religions that were popr now, there was no great existence simr to God or Ah in Shamanism. The theoretical foundation was that everything had a spirit, the shamans in the tribe couldmunicate with the spirits of nature through a series of ancient seance rituals, which gave them supernatural powers such as prophecy, dream interpretation, and weather control.


    In fact, the shamans were known in Tungusic as ��People who dance in excitement, ��and the word itself described the shamans��mostmon seance techniques.


    After understanding the two��s origins, it wasn��t hard for Zhang Heng to understand why the Eagle had suddenly flown in from outside the window to attack him. However, ording to i.., even shamans were rarely able tomunicate with the animals around them at any time, let alone ask for their help in times of crisis.


    Especially in the past few years, as more and more people turned to its teachings, shamans could feel their power waning. Many of the dream interpretation and astrology that they could do before had be more and more difficult to do, not to mention controlling the weather andmunicating with animals and nts, many shamans had not been able to make aplete prediction for decades, which formed a vicious circle.


    Alicia was born under such a background.


    ��Alicia was born at midnight, and there happened to be a big earthquake on the ind. My parents said that they had never seen such a terrible earthquake in their long life. It was as if the whole world was shaking, and a huge gully appeared on the extremely solid ice field. One of the gullies happened to pass through the location of the tribe. Some people could not avoid it in time and fell into it, leaving no bones behind.


    ��Other than that, there was also an aurora in the sky. However, it was different from what everyone usually saw. The Aurora was blood red and the stars were very strange. My teacher Gaba��s elves told him that something bad was going to happen, so my teacher asked the people in the tribe to take out their hunting weapons and even organized a patrol team. However, the earthquake soon passed and the Aurora disappeared. Because of my teacher��s warning, many people did not dare to sleep for the whole night. The next day, everyone received the news that about 80 kilometers away from us, after the earthquakest night, Alicia��s tribe was attacked by a group of unknown people.


    ��Those guys��target is the newborn Alicia. Their weapons are just average. Many of them have just learned how to shoot, and some even have a harpoon that they found out of nowhere. However, everyone is crazy and fearless. Coupled with the advantage in numbers, they almost seeded. It was then that Alicia��s teacher struck �� Kunayu, the most powerful shaman of thest 200 years, the Blizzard��s controller, whose height few could reach, even in the distant past.


    ��People said that during that battle, she fought one against a hundred and summoned an unprecedented terrifying blizzard. She almost single-handedly turned the tide of the battle and froze all the invaders to death on this ice field. However, because Alicia was already in the arms of that group of unknown people, people thought that she was dead for sure at that time and was frozen into a popsicle along with them. However, no one expected that when they found her, although she was badly frozen, she still had a heartbeat and breathing. Therefore, Kunayu took her in as a disciple and even said that this girl who had narrowly escaped death would not only inherit her mantle in the future, but also be the greatest shaman among the Inuit.��


    Song Jia waspletely captivated by i��s story. She didn��t expect the girl beside her, Alicia, to have such aplicated story. She was like a protagonist in a TV series or a novel, although she was curious as to why i had suddenly be so cooperative and revealed all the secrets of the tribe, she was nowpletely immersed in the story, she didn��t want to interrupt the Inuit teenager��s story at all.


    Zhang Heng knew what i was up to, because during this process, he had seen i peeking at the window beside him more than once, then, he contacted the person in the bar who had cooperated with i and Alicia to put the bug into Sonja��s wallet. The Inuit teenager was probably hoping that hispanions would realize something was wrong ande to save them.


    However, his method of stalling time seemed a little strange. Most people would think of a way to make up some nonsense at this time. However, i would not lie, so he could only choose to sell his partner again.


    Of course, in terms of the results, his trick did work. Although hisnguage was simple and he did not use any rhetoric, it was precisely because of this that it had a particrly sincere feeling, furthermore, the story itself was strange and interesting enough. At least, Songjia didn��t have the heart to interrupt.


    Zhang Heng hade to Greend this time to investigate his own background. He was still in the stage of gathering clues, so he naturally wouldn��t reject the information provided by OLE. He knew that Ole still had help, but he didn��t care, he even wanted to meet with the other partyter.


    This was because Zhang Heng had already realized that the local shamanism in Greend might be of great help to his future investigation, especially since these Inuit were the local tyrants here. Compared to Songjia, they had supernatural powers, obviously, they would know more. In fact, from the looks of it, they were already conducting relevant investigations. Therefore, both sides had amon goal. The only problem now was how to get the other party to cooperate with him.


    After all, the first impression that both sides left each other when they first came into contact was not very good. Zhang Heng was still pointing his gun at Alicia. Even though he could use the same method to threaten Ole to continue serving him.., however, this was obviously not as good as getting the other party to sincerely help him.


    Just as Zhang Heng was thinking about this problem, OLE��s expression became worse and worse. He had already told most of the story about Alicia, but there was still no news from the other side downstairs.

 Chapter 1228 - The Trio

    Chapter 1228 The Trio


    Ali had always been the most unremarkable of the trio.


    Compared to the powerful and hot-tempered ole, and the quick-witted and meticulous Alicia, who had been full of legends since the moment she was born, Ali was indeed very ordinary, although he had been learning all sorts of knowledge about bing a shaman from the old shaman in the tribe, he had not learned anything in such a long time. Moreover,pared to those mysterious stars and obscure dreams.., he was obviously more interested in rock music and basketball stars. When he had nothing to do, he would run over to Nuuk. He even taught himself rap, started writing songs, and uploaded them to youtube.


    He usually lookedzy, but Ole knew that Eli wasn��t stupid at all. He just didn��t put his energy on the right path. In fact, every time Alicia came up with an idea.., ali helped to perfect it. If Alicia was the decision-maker and i was the executor, then Ali��s position was that of a dog-head strategist.


    i evenined that Ali was a typical Inuit. He was not as honest and hardworking as the Inuit. Instead, his mind was full of tricks.


    But now, i was d that Ali was the one who stayed downstairs. If it was anyone else, i might not be sure if they could sense something was wrong. But as ssmates, he could not believe that Ali knew nothing about their current situation, since they were young, they had yed together. He did not believe that Ali would not know anything about their current situation.


    However, after such a long time, their team��s military advisor did not make a single move. This made i, who was confident that Ali would find a way to save them, Waver.


    Did Ali really do something stupid this time? Or did the other party just happen to have a bad stomach? Thinking of this, i started to feel uneasy again. However, he was someone who could not hide anything. Looking at the conflicted expression on his face, even Songjia realized something. Therefore, she looked awkwardly at Zhang Heng, who was behind her, as if she wanted to ask him what to do next.


    Before Zhang Heng could say anything, the hut they were in suddenly started to shake.


    ��Is... is there an earthquake?��Song Jia asked in surprise. The look in her eyes was a little nervous, because the earthquake hade after she had just heard the mysterious and terrifying story, it was inevitable that she would overthink it.


    However, there had been earthquakes in Greend before. The thought only shed through Songjia��s mind, until she looked out of the window and saw the blood-red Aurora.


    Songjia��s brain exploded with a bang. Then, a strong fear rushed to her and engulfed her whole body in an instant. In the next moment, every finger and hair could not help but tremble.


    The earthquake caused many people to run out of the house, especially considering the possibility of a tsunami. Some people were ready to evacuate from the beach, but it was at this time that they saw the Red Aurora, they could not help but stop and take out their phones to turn on the camera and camera mode.


    The main reason was that the Red Aurora had always been rare, but it still appeared in this month where the aurora did not often appear. It was a pity that they did not leave a souvenir. At this time, the tourists also eximed in admiration, they were d that they had chosen to travel to Greend at this time. This decision could not have been made more wisely.


    Perhaps only the few people in the small house could truly understand the meaning behind the earthquake and the Red Aurora.


    The moment i saw the Aurora, his expression changed drastically. However, he was not as terrified as Songjia. He only muttered to himself, ��The legend is actually true... why did it have to be at this moment? is something going to happen?��


    On the other side, the previously unconscious Alicia had also woken up at this moment. However, her mouth had been sealed by Songjia, so she could only make iprehensible babbling sounds. However, looking at her eyes.., they were filled with a rarely seen hatred. In fact, they had even be a little crazed.


    ��She, she... What happened to her?��Songjia also noticed Alicia��s abnormal behavior aftering back to her senses, and asked i beside her.


    The Inuit youth sighed and said in a deep voice, ��In the story I told you previously, I forgot to mention that Alicia��s parents were killed by that group of unknown people that night. When the incident happened, her father had to protect her with a hunting rifle and deal with dozens of people on the opposite side alone. He stalled them for a full two minutes, allowing her mother to escape with her. Unfortunately, her mother had just given birth and did not have much strength. In the end, she was caught up by someone and was stabbed in the back by a harpoon. Therefore, Alicia and that group of people and the existence behind them also became mortal enemies.��


    ��Is that why you��re trying to track down those people?��Song Jia looked at Alicia with sympathy.


    She hadpletely shifted her focus to the other two. She was about to beg Zhang Heng to let her go, but she didn��t expect Zhang Heng to actually put away the pistol in his hand and walk to Alicia��s side, he used a knife to cut open the bed sheet that was wrapped around her hands and feet.


    i did not seem to have expected Zhang Heng to do that. He was in a daze for a moment, and he even forgot what he wanted to say. After Alicia escaped, she immediately went to herpanion��s side. However, the way she looked at Zhang Heng was veryplicated, the vignce in her eyes was still very strong. Zhang Heng put away the knife and said to song JIA, ��Tell them that I��m not their enemy, and I��m also investigating something like them. Perhaps we can work together.��


    If not for the earthquake and the Red Aurora, Zhang Heng would not have been able to find a suitable opening to negotiate with them, but now.., after realizing that these young Inuit novice shamans had real enemies, this little conflict and misunderstanding between the two sides was nothing.


    ��They said... you already know their identity, but they still haven��t been able to confirm your background.��


    i and Alicia whispered to each other before Songjia tranted.


    ��Like I said, I��m here to investigate something, so how can they believe me? Do I have to swear an oath?��


    ��No, they said they have a sacred object that can detect whether a person harbors malice toward them or their tribe. The sacred object isn��t here right now, but it��s already on its way. If you really want to cooperate with them, you��d better show some sincerity and let them meet up with theirpanions.��


    ��Sure,��Zhang Heng agreed. He wasn��t worried that i and Alicia would go back on their words after meeting up with the people downstairs. Since he could capture the two of them once, he could capture them a second time.


    i and Alicia were worried about Ali��s safety, so they didn��t say anything else. They ran downstairs and saw that their van was still in its original position, however, Ali��s shadow was gone from the van. Instead, there was a pool of blood in the back seat.

 Chapter 1229 - Bloodstains And Murmurs

    Chapter 1229 Bloodstains And Murmurs


    i and Alicia��s hearts sank when they saw the pool of blood.


    Although the two of them wanted to convince themselves that Ali was still fine, the pool of blood belonged to someone else, and it might havee from the person who attacked him. However, the location of the blood was exactly where Ali had been sitting before, moreover, there were traces left on his seat after being hacked by a sharp weapon. In addition, Ali��s whereabouts were still unknown, and they had not contacted him until now, i and Alicia both knew that theirpanion was probably dead.


    Zhang Heng followed them to the van and checked the scene, ��Yes, the blood didn��te from a single wound. The victim was stabbed at least twenty times. His body was also twisting and turning during the whole process, which is why there were knife marks on the seat. This also proves that the perpetrator��s skill isn��t that good. However, from the looks of it, the victim��s movements were restricted. At the very least, his hands and feet were bound, which is why he couldn��t avoid it.��


    ��Is... is he still alive?��Sonja asked.


    ��It��s impossible. With this amount of blood, even if he doesn��t hit his vitals, there��s no hope,��Zhang Heng said.


    Sonja��s expression darkened. She saw Zhang Heng looking into the distance, so she asked, ��What��s Wrong?��


    ��I��m worried that something might happen to Dr. Baker, ��Zhang Heng said, ��i and Alicia said that they were keeping an eye on Dr. Baker��s ce to protect him, but now they think that we��re the apostles of some evil spirit. They followed us all the way here, so no one is watching Dr. Baker anymore.��


    Songjia was shocked. She had only met i��s group of three today, especially i. She had only met him once at a bar. Although she was sad to hear that he might have been killed, she didn��t have any other thoughts, as for Doctor Baker, she had known him since she was young and had interacted with him many times. Song Jia could not help but feel worried for him. ��Then let��s go to his clinic to take a look.��


    ��Okay.��


    After saying that, song Jia looked at i and Alessia beside her and asked if they were traveling together. In the end, the two Inuit shook their heads and i said, ��We told someone to send the sacred relic here. Something has happened to Eli, so we have to ensure the safety of the sacred relic. I��m sorry, we really can��t take care of Dr. Baker, but I��ve already told my teacher to ask the tribe to send more people to help. When the timees, we��ll go find Eli together. If there are extra people, we��ll help you too.��


    i clenched his fists as he spoke. It could be seen that he and Alicia had suffered quite a blow. Ali was a member of the trio and also their closest friend, after realizing that Ali might have been killed, they could not wait to find the murderer and take revenge immediately.


    However, even the most hot-tempered i did not act recklessly at this time. This was because they knew that the safety of the sacred relic was more important, especially when they realized that someone might have already targeted them.


    ��Alright, let��s change our contact details first,��song Jia suggested. She and i exchanged phone numbers in a hurry and then jogged to start the SUV. However, when she was about to reach the front of the car, she realized that Zhang Heng was already sitting on it, and this time, thetter was in the driver��s seat.


    ��I��ll drive this time, so we can get there faster,��Zhang Heng said.


    ��Oh, okay.��Song Jia was startled. Without saying anything, she opened the other door.


    Then, Zhang Heng started the car. The SUV roared and rushed into the street. As the car sped up, song Jia not only fastened her seatbelt, but also reached out to grab the handrail on the roof, she even forgot to ask the question she wanted to ask earlier. She felt the scenery on both sides of the street recede faster and faster, and the sound of the wind filled her ears.


    en


    In less than three minutes, the two of them arrived at Dr. Baker��s clinic. Before they even got out of the car, they saw that the closed door of the clinic was now wide open, this seemed to confirm Zhang Heng��s previous guess.


    He pulled out the pistol at his waist and said to song jia, ��Later, you follow behind me.��


    Zhang Heng originally wanted song Jia to stay in the car, but after thinking about what had happened to Ali, he ultimately chose to bring song Jia along. However, this allowed song Jia to put some distance between them, just like that, the two of them sneaked into Dr. Baker��s clinic one after the other.


    Not long ago, they had just made a trip here. At the time, Songjia had already felt that the atmosphere here was a little oppressive, but now, the feeling of oppression was even stronger. Furthermore, there were medicine bottles scattered all over the floor, the medicine cab was empty, and the table and sofa were overturned on the floor. The most eye-catching and unsettling thing was the line of red scribbled words on the wall. It seemed like someone had cut their finger, it was written in blood.


    Zhang Heng nced at it. It was a very simple sentence, and it was written in English, so he didn��t need Songjia to trante it for him to understand it.


    �� it��sing!


    ��What is it?��Songjia asked, and just as she finished her sentence, she heard the sound of violin musicing from upstairs.


    However, the sound was not connected to a musical score at all. The yers simply pieced together the messy noise, as if someone had scratched a ckboard with chalk, a few simple notes could cause intense physical difort.


    Zhang Heng did not answer Songjia��s question. Instead, he followed the sound of the violin and went upstairs. He saw a stooped figure in Dr. Baker��s bedroom.


    The man was sitting on a chair with his back to them, so Zhang Heng could not see his face. However, he was sure that it was not Dr. Baker himself. Judging from the way he dressed, he looked more like a street musician, with his beloved violin, they wandered in the Sea of music.


    However, listening to his performance, Songjia could understand why he was wandering on the streets. To be honest, calling this kind of thing a performance was sphemy. The girl only felt that her brain was going to be filled with blood if she continued to listen, in addition, she was anxious to find out the whereabouts of Dr. Baker, so she said, ��Hello.��


    Unfortunately, the violinist in the room seemed to bepletely immersed in his performance and couldn��t hear anything else. Song Jia had no choice but to raise the volume again and even knocked on the door, this time, there was finally a reaction from the other side.


    The violinist put down the violin in his hand and turned around.


    Only then did song Jia realize that the other party was actually younger than she had imagined. He seemed to be in his early twenties, but because of his untidy appearance and haggard look, he looked a little old, meanwhile, his eyes were shing with a strange fanaticism.


    ��Who are you? Why are you at Doctor Baker��s Residence?��Sonja asked.


    The person opposite did not answer. Instead, he spoke excitedly in a low and hoarse voice.


    ��Fingeru Magnafuke Suaruke Suaruke Liye Ugynafuke Tan.��


    After saying this, he immediately turned around and jumped out of the window.

 Chapter 1230 - The Key

    Chapter 1230 The Key


    The yer was like a big bird soaring in the sky.


    Except for one thing, he seemed to forget that he didn��t really have wings like a bird, so his body stayed in the air for less than half a second, and then he fell down under the force of gravity.


    What was worse was that his head touched the ground first, and the top of his head made direct contact with the asphalt pavement. Sonja vaguely heard the sound of a broken cervical vertebra, and when the two people went downstairs, they saw the yer, they realized that the yer was dying.


    Song Jia called the ambnce. She still had a lot of questions to ask the yer. For example, where did this guye from, why was he in Dr. Baker��s room, and where did Dr. Baker Go, also, what did he mean when he said that before he jumped off the building.


    Song Jia felt like she had fallen into a huge. Ever since she had picked up Zhang Heng at the airport, strange things had happened one after another. First, it involved the shamans of the Inuit tribe in the north, now, there seemed to be another group of even stranger people... and in just a few minutes, she had alreadye into close contact with death twice.


    Especially the second time, the yer had jumped off a building right in front of her. The distance between the two was very close, and she had watched helplessly as a person had personally ended her life, the other thing that made her feel very uneasy was that at thest moment of his life, there was still a smile on the corner of his lips. It was as if death was an incredibly rxing thing for him.


    Song Jia could not help but shiver. She raised her head and looked at the Strange Red Aurora in the sky. She recalled the story that i had told her before. Could it be that every time this Red Aurora appeared, it would bring disaster and death?


    Song Jia had always been an atheist. However, at this moment, she did feel that there was something inexplicable controlling everything


    ��What should we do now? Should we go to the police station and call the police?����The girl asked.


    ��I��m afraid the police won��t be able to do anything about it, ��Zhang Heng said.


    In fact, Songjia didn��t need Zhang Heng to say anything. Greend��s police force had always been inadequate. On one hand, it was because the financial allocation wasn��t enough, on the other hand, the crime rate here was rtively lowpared to other ces.


    After all, there were not many residents on the ind, and most of them knew each other. There was no ce to run if theymitted a crime. As for the Inuit tribes in the north, they were basically autonomous, if there was a problem, the tribal leaders and shamans would naturally solve it.


    For example, even if the police intervened in this matter, they would probably justbel the performer as a suicide. As for the whereabouts of Dr. Baker, he had been missing for less than an hour, and the police would not even send people to investigate immediately.


    In addition, the police would probably find it hard to believe that a group of strange believers had suddenly rushed into the doctor��s home and kidnapped him without any exnation. Even if they were to solve the case, they would most likely follow the old rules, first, they would start with Dr. Baker��s interpersonal rtionships. They would find out if he had any grudges or arguments recently. Then, they would look at the trajectory of Dr. Baker��s life, he tried to find a breakthrough from some trivial matters.


    However, the opponent they were facing this time was not an ordinary person.


    Fortunately, Songjia knew there was one more person she could count on. She turned to look at Zhang Heng. Even though so many things had happened, thetter was as calm as ever, however, after hearing the mysterious words from the performer, her expression changed slightly.


    Zhang Heng found the sentence very familiar, as if he had heard it somewhere before. He asked Songjia what the sentence meant, but the trantor told him that it was neither Greendic nor Danish, she even wondered if the sentence really had any real meaning, or if it was just the ravings of a deranged person.


    However, Zhang Heng knew that this sentence, which sounded like it didn��t belong to any existingnguage, did indeed have meaning.


    In the pce of Liya, the sleeping Cthulhu was waiting for its revival.


    Just as Zhang Heng heard the crazy performer speak in a low and hoarse voice that didn��t belong to this world, this sentence also surfaced from the bottom of his heart. Zhang Heng couldn��t find its source, i don��t know if it��s from a book I read, or a video.


    In fact, it seems to have been quietly in the bottom of his heart somewhere, until today this moment suddenly jumped out.


    ��FINGERLUFFA MAGNAFUFFA.����FINGERLUFFA Laierluffa.��


    This sentence was like a key that opened something in his body. Zhang Heng recalled his previous dreams. In the Chernobyl dungeon, he had to fight against the pain caused by radiation disease, he had tried to sink his consciousness, and at the end of the sinking journey, he saw a huge underwater pce and the shadow inside.


    Could That Be Cthulhu and its pce, Liye? Why would it appear in his dream? What did they have to do with the seaside town he had visited in the previous dream, and the underwater ruins on the country ind, were those half-human, half-fish, and half-frog monsters also followers of Cthulhu?


    Zhang Heng had many questions in his mind, but when he noticed Songjia looking at him, he temporarily stopped thinking and focused his attention back on the present.


    He rushed to the side of the fallen performer before the ambnce arrived. Thetter��s face was as sickly pale as Dr. Baker��s, zhang Heng could tell that he had been suffering from insomnia recently, and the dark circles under his eyes were very obvious.


    His neck was broken, but he was still breathing. He should be in pain, but there was no pain in his eyes. Instead, there was a strange joy and a faint sense of relief.


    Zhang Heng believed that if the yer could open his mouth now, he would probably tell Songjia to stop trying to save him. He had gotten what he had always wanted �� eternal peace.


    Zhang Heng then squatted down beside the yer. Before the ambnce arrived, he searched his clothes, took his phone and wallet, and found a small notebook and a supermarket receipt, he also found an exquisite-looking pen.


    During this time, Songjia was a little nervous. She kept looking around. Fortunately, it was already veryte, and the poption of Greend was notrge, so there were not many people passing by, after Zhang Heng took the money, he went back to the Doctor��s clinic to take a look.


    Songjia had no idea what Zhang Heng was looking at. She only knew that he had stopped at a few different ces before raising his head and raising his eyebrows.


    ��Dr. Baker, he left on his own.��

 Chapter 1231 - Speculation

    Chapter 1231 Spection


    After searching the clinic, Zhang Heng and Song Jia returned to the street and stood guard in front of the performer who had jumped off the building. Song Jia watched helplessly as the other party slowly died. Her young eyes gradually lost their luster, but there was nothing she could do, in addition, during this period, the ambnce had also been missing.


    Songjia could not bear to see this happen, so she made two more calls to the hospital. Unexpectedly, both calls were busy. It was not until she made a third call that the call was picked up. However, she was told that the ambnce had been dispatched, there was no way for them to rush here.


    The hospital said that this was already the ninth emergency call they had received in a short five minutes. The only ambnce they had was long gone, and there were still emergency callsing in. Without exception, all of them were suicides, normally, they would not receive so many calls for a month or two. The medical staff and emergency equipment were already running out.


    The situation at the police station was simr. The police were also confused about the sudden suicides. They were trying to gather clues from the citizens through the radio, but so far, they had not gotten any results, on the contrary, the police officers were in a mess.


    ��He��s dying, ��Zhang Heng suddenly said.


    After he said that, the heart of the performer finally stopped beating. His pupils dted, and the expression on his face was fixed at thest moment.


    Song Jia Shivered, but when she looked at Zhang Heng, she realized that thetter had already flipped through the notebook that he had found on the performer.


    Most of the notes were music scores, but from his previous performance, she could tell that he had embarked on a very difficult path of art. It was destined to be difficult for him to gain the approval of the secr world. Zhang Heng had also studied piano, in his eyes, this thing could not even be called music, because even a beginner who did not recognize any of the five-line music scores could y it better than this piece of music score.


    Since thetter was just a random patchwork of crazy noises, Zhang Heng nced at the messy score and passed the notebook to Song Jia. ��What else is written on it?��


    Song Jia took the notebook, but after reading a few pages, her brows furrowed. Zhang Heng could tell that she was very resistant to the contents, but even so, she endured the intense difort and finished reading the contents, in some ces, she even read it several times.


    ��The most frequently mentioned word on the notebook is something like ��glorious perfection��. It��s a bit like the doomsday judgment in the Bible or the prophecy of the Mayans. The person who wrote this thing firmly believes that that day wille. When that dayes, there will be no distinction between good and evil in the world, and there will be no legal, moral, or ethical constraints. Everyone will be happy and free on Earth, killing each other and enjoying the joy of ughter and destruction.��Song Jia paused at this point, ��There are also some descriptions of the dreams he had, but most of the sentences don��t make sense.��


    ��Okay.��Zhang Heng nodded but didn��t say anything. He handed the receipt over. ��Take a look at this receipt. where is it?��


    ��This is the receipt from the supermarket. I know the supermarket. It��s about three kilometers away from us,��song Jia answered quickly this time.


    ��Then is this ce also near that supermarket?��Zhang Heng said as he waved the pen in front of the girl��s eyes. Songjia saw the patterns carved on the tip of the pen and the small words hidden inside, she was surprised by Zhang Heng��s strong observation.


    ��This is the abbreviation of the Nuuk Art Museum, ��Songjia said after looking at it carefully, ��It��s also the only private museum on the ind. It was built in 2005, and it has arge collection of art. Not only are there paintings, but there are also various carvings. It��s quite popr with tourists, but it��s only open on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and weekends. Why? Is there a problem?��


    Even though the yer who jumped off the building yed the violin like a ghost, he was still an artist. In Songjia��s opinion, it was normal for him to go to art museums for inspiration.


    Zhang Heng was nomittal, ��Do you still remember the story Aulet told? It was a group of people who attacked Alicia, not just one person. They all came from some mysterious group, and since they were a group, they should have a meeting ce. and Alicia has a blood feud with these people. She must have been tracking them down all these years. Even though there were only three people in her small group, I believe the tribe behind them would have provided them with some help. However, there has been no result. This means that these people have been hiding well over the years.��


    ��Do you think they would hide in an art museum?��Song Jia��s eyes widened. ��An art museum is a very smart choice, because these people seem to have some mental problems more or less. I don��t know if they became believers because they are more sensitive, or if they became sensitive because they became believers. In short, it would be quite conspicuous if they acted together, but if it was an art gathering, there wouldn��t be such a problem. You said earlier that the art museum is private and was built in 2005?��


    ��That��s right.��


    ��Yes, those Inuit people were attacked for no reason, and some of them even died. I don��t think they��re going to let the matter rest so easily. There should be an investigation going on as well. These people must have sensed the danger, so they built this museum. Taking into ount the time it took to build it, it happened to be prepared after the earthquake and the Red Aurora. In addition, it opens three times a week. The rest of the time can be used for internal gatherings,��Zhang Heng said calmly, ��Therefore, after the Doctor left his residence, the most likely ce for him to go was there.��


    Songjia knew everything that Zhang Heng said. Even though she was a native of the ind, she knew more than Zhang Heng. However, if Zhang Heng hadn��t pointed it out.., songjia wouldn��t have been able to piece together these seemingly unrted things into aplete clue.


    In fact, if she hadn��t seen it with her own eyes, she would never have believed that someone could do something that only appeared in novels and television dramas. It was only at this moment that she truly believed in the identity of Detective Zhang Heng, and the purpose of thetter��s visit to Greend.


    However, after learning that Doctor Baker was likely to run to the art museum, Songjia couldn��t help but hesitate. After all, there were only two people on their side, ording to Zhang Heng, the museum was likely to be the gathering ce of that mysterious group. Not to mention the number of enemies inside, just the guards at the museum alone were enough to give them a headache.


    Songjia wanted to call the police to deal with it, but the only thing they could do was Zhang Heng��s guess.

 Chapter 1232 - Meet Again

    Chapter 1232 Meet Again


    In fact, as long as he calmed down and thought about it, Songjia knew that even if he could persuade the police toe forward, it might not be of much use. The security forces on the ind were not strong to begin with, and were even weaker than some of the Inuit tribes.


    Although those Inuit people had used cell phones and televisions over the years... many of them still maintained rtively primitive living habits. They lived by hunting and fishing, so their bodies were quite strong, thinking of this, song Jia thought of i and Alicia.


    Song Jia didn��t know how the two of them were doing. When they were separated, they had said that they wanted to protect the sacred relic first, so they probably wouldn��t be able to free themselves in the short term. Therefore, song Jia put the phone back.


    She looked at Zhang Heng beside her and realized that thetter was still very calm. He didn��t feel like he was facing a formidable enemy at all. It was as if they were going to a park or an amusement park, it was not a dangerous ce.


    Zhang Heng looked at the time in his hand. Greend was ten hourster than Beijing. Thest time he had time-stopped was at two o��clock in the afternoon, Greend time. At that time, he was still at the airport, so if he wanted to use time-stopped to sneak into the art museum.., he would have to wait for another half a day.


    That was a long time. The doctor might not be alive by then.


    Therefore, Zhang Heng decided to take a look at the security at the art museum before making a decision. After all, he still had the -LSB-infinite building blocks ) and other props with hBesidesides, he had not used shadow wings today, even if he ran into some trouble, he could still escape.


    Therefore, Zhang Heng had song Jia Drive him to the art museum first. He took Dr. Baker��sptop down and browsed through the files inside, he tried to find information rted to the scientific research from 18 years ago while he cracked the phone he got from the yer.


    Dr. Baker��sptop was unusually clean. It should have been reced not too long ago, and the protective membrane on the back was not even removed. Zhang Heng could only find a few games to pass the time inside, there was also a folder marked with medical records. Inside it were all the patients that Dr. Baker had seen before.


    The time span was very long, but strangely, there were no recent cases. The most recent case was also two years old. It was just normal postpartum depression, and the rest were also verymon mental illnesses, the patient��s basic information and treatment time were marked on it. There were also no problems with these two items, but Zhang Heng still found some abnormalities.


    Because some of the patient��s medical records had changed midway through, when Zhang Heng looked through the medical records of Dr. Baker when he first arrived on the ind, he found that the same patient, Dr. Baker, was used to arranging his meetings with the other party at the same time as possible. Furthermore, although the number of patients he received each month was different.., the number of patients would not be too different if it was ced in a rtively long period of time.


    However, when Zhang Heng arranged the medical records ording to the time, he realized that there was a period of time when Dr. Baker��s patients were abnormally low. In addition, there were changes in the meeting time, zhang Heng had reason to believe that Dr. Baker might have taken a part of the medical records.


    In other words, the medical records that Zhang Heng currently had were iplete. For example, Zhang Heng had previously suspected that the yer who jumped off the building was also a patient of Dr. Baker, however, he had not been able to find anything rted to the yer in this document��s house. From the looks of it, the medical records that Dr. Baker had taken were probably rted to that mysterious group.


    Before Zhang Heng could check the information on the yer��s phone, Song Jia had already driven the SUV to the entrance of the Museum of Art. At this time, the Museum of art was already closed, but the lights were still on inside, however, the door was locked.


    Zhang Heng didn��t see any security guards or guards there. It seemed like they had also gone home from work. This time, it was song Jia who made the first discovery. She saw Dr. Baker��s SUV in the parking lot of the museum, this seemed to confirm Zhang Heng��s previous guess. After the earthquake, Dr. Baker did indeed run over from where he lived. However, when Song Jia continued driving, she was stunned, that was because she saw i and Alicia��s white van next to the coffee shop across the street.


    ��Are they here too?��


    Songjia took out her phone and impatiently dialed i��s number. However, the phone on the other end informed her that the user��s phone had been switched off.


    Zhang Heng had originally wanted to see if he should wait until the next time freeze, but he had given up on that idea. He hade to Greend to investigate the incident eighteen years ago. Of course, he hoped that Dr. Baker, who was an insider, was still alive.


    As for i and Alessia, even though theirbat abilities were average, the tribes behind them would be of great help to Zhang Heng��s investigation, especially if he nned to head north. There weren��t many cities there, however, there were some Inuit tribes. With the help of the locals, it would be much more convenient to do anything. Furthermore, Alessia seemed to have something to do with Zhang Heng��s investigation.


    Zhang Heng did not want anything to happen to them so soon.


    Therefore, he did not hesitate anymore. He closed theputer and ced it in the back seat. Then, he said to song JIA, ��Wait for me here.�� ��Wait for me here. Remember to keep the car running. If you see anything wrong, run immediately and drive all the way to the police station. Don��t worry about me.��


    ��Are you nning to go in alone?��Song Jia asked in surprise. ��Yes, don��t worry, I can guarantee my own safety.��Zhang Heng did not exin further. He pushed open the door and jumped out.


    He first touched the hood of the van and estimated the time. i and Alicia should have just arrived not long ago. They had only been inside for about three to seven minutes, if they ran into an ambush, if they were lucky, they could hold out until he arrived.


    However, Zhang Heng didn��t go through the front door because there was a real-time surveince camera there. He went around to the side door of the museum. Even though it was locked, there was no surveince camera.


    Zhang Heng took out ( pet wire ) from his pocket. It hadn��t been long since he acquired this item, but he had already fed it a lot of iron products. Furthermore, ording to the bartender, he had kept it in his pocket the whole time, instead of keeping it in a sealed box to cultivate their rtionship, he had almost identally let the fellow chew a hole in the ne, causing a ne crash.


    Even though Zhang Heng himself had the shadow wings, the other passengers on the ne were probably going to suffer. Fortunately, Zhang Heng had discovered it in time, so he had it change its snack before it caused a disaster.


    Now, it was finally the Glutton��s turn to start working. Zhang Heng took out the ( pet wire ] and ced it in front of the keyhole. Then, he said, ��Open it.��

 Chapter 1233 - Old Friend

    Chapter 1233 Old Friend


    The Nuuk art museum was aze with lights, but strangely, there was no one in the exhibition hall.


    Until the sound of hurried footsteps came from the door, and a figure stumbled in from the outside. He went straight through the empty exhibition hall, turning a blind eye to the priceless oil paintings on the wall, he did not touch the gold articles and ornaments on the counter. He just ran all the way to the west side of the exhibition hall where the Inuit handicrafts were hung on the wall.


    He reached out and grabbed a wooden sculpture at the top. The wooden sculpture was a mask. It was exquisitely made and looked quite mysterious. However, the person did not care about it at all. He crudely stuffed it into his handbag, then, he turned around and ran outside.


    However, just as he turned around, a voice suddenly came from not far away. ��It��s rare for you toe back. Are you in such a hurry to Leave?��


    Hearing this, the person��s body stiffened, but his feet did not stop. He continued to run towards the main door. His car was parked in the museum��s parking lot. He only needed to run through the door and run another twenty meters before he arrived.


    However, the next moment, he heard a gunshot, followed by a sharp pain in his leg. The man fell to the ground, and the handbag containing the wooden carving also fell to the ground.


    ��TSK TSK TSK, we are all old friends. I don��t want to do this, but you took my things and wanted to leave without saying a word. isn��t this a little impolite?��The voice continued.


    The person on the ground didn��t say anything. He just struggled to crawl in front of his handbag and took out the wooden mask from inside. Then, he put his finger into the mouth of the mask and pressed down. The forehead of the wooden sculpture opened immediately, a small oval-shaped stone rolled out from inside.


    There was a five-pointed star carved on it, and in the middle of the five-pointed star was an eye. The person raised the stone and spoke to the person on the second floor.


    ��Oh, Old Seal, really? ��You actually hid the old seal in my museum. I have to say that this move is quite impressive. Previously, I sent people to search your clinic and the school��s office more than once, but they were unable to find it. I didn��t expect this thing to actually be right under my nose.��The person who spoke walked down the stairs step by step with a cane.


    A look of despair appeared in the intruder��s eyes. He held the stone that was called the old seal tightly in his hand, as if it was his life-saving straw.


    However, after that, he heard the man with the walking stick tease him, ��Don��t be silly, doctor. This thing might be useful against those divers and Kun Yang, and it can also help you sleep well. However, I��m just an ordinary person like you. This thing is of no use to me at all.��


    The person who had barged into the art museum was none other than Dr. Baker, whom Zhang Heng and Songjia had visited before. He lowered his hand in frustration, but he still held the old seal in his hand.


    ��We��ve known each other for more than 20 years, right? Not counting that Chinese couple, you��re the bravest and most determined person I��ve ever met. Even to this day, I still can��t believe that you would choose to submit to that monster.��


    ��What? Are you nning to use your eloquent mouth to influence me?��The person with the crutch asked, ��Don��t think of me as one of those stupid fanatics. My Mind is very clear. There has to be someone who understands the overall situation. This is the agreement between me and that great existence.��


    ��Agreement, or is it your own delusion?��? That monster did not seem to be the type to make agreements with others. Moreover, you know your own situation. If there is really nothing wrong with your mental state, why did youe to my clinic frequently for psychological counseling after the Scientific Research Expedition?��The Doctor panted heavily, the intense pain in his legs made his forehead full of sweat.


    The person on crutches fell silent upon hearing this. After a moment, he spoke again, ��In any case, in the end, we will all fall into eternal happiness. It��s just a matter of one day earlier and one dayter. There��s not much difference. I��ve only figured this out recently. All these years, in order to prevent myself from falling into greater madness, I��ve been following your instructions to stay in seclusion. I��ve cut off the Inte, I don��t read the newspapers, and I don��t interact with anyone outside. But how long can west? I��ve heard that outside, its name is already bing a household name. It��s only in a ce like Greend that��s isted from the rest of the world that you and I canst until now.��


    The person on crutches paused for a moment before continuing, ��I regret participating in that scientific research expedition every moment. I see that your situation isn��t very good either. Although you��ve closed the clinic, you��re still working part-time at the school. There are even foreign students at your school. Your life must be very difficult.��


    ��It��s alright. If I really can��t do it, I��ll stuff cotton balls into my ears. I��ve also stopped surfing the Inte, ��Dr. Baker said, ��In fact, we should be d that we didn��t read any books about it before we met it, nor have we heard its name. Otherwise, we would have gone crazy at the first sight of it, and we would havepletely lost our rationality as fanatics.��


    ��The more you know, the closer you get to madness. The person who came up with this setting is really a F* cking genius, ��the person on the crutches muttered. ��This way, sober people will never know the truth.��


    Probably because they shared the same fate, after saying this, the two people in the hall fell into silence again.


    But soon, the person on crutches spoke again, ��Doctor, ask yourself, have I taken care of you enough these years? Those fanatics wanted to take you in, but I was the one who stopped them. You refused to hand over the old seal, so I went with you. Recently, you have been very close to our enemies, the shamans of the Inuit tribe, and I have been turning a blind eye to it. So why do you keep testing my bottom line?


    ��That��s right. I can restrain those fanatics to a certain extent, but if they find out that you took away the old seal from me, both of us will be in big trouble. You and I have both seen the scene of those people going crazy. I don��t want to be like that, so I can only let you down.��The man with the cane said as he raised the shotgun in his hand.


    ��Wait.��The Doctor raised an arm in front of his face, ��I didn��t mean to steal the old seal when the fanatics aren��t here. Although I admit that I have such considerations, we have experienced such things before. Earthquakes, Red Aurora, and these abnormal weather disasters will also be more frequent. With our current state, we might not be able to survive. Moreover, this time is different from thest time. Just three days ago, I had a very scary dream. I dreamed that it ran out of the pce below. When that timees, the entire world will be destroyed. We need to do something before everything bes toote.��

 Chapter 1235 - Harpoon Gun

    Chapter 1235 Harpoon Gun


    i parked the van next to the cafe across the street. Then, he got out of the van with Alicia and looked at the art museum not far away.


    ��Is Hans Hiding Here?��


    ��That��s what he said in the message he left us, ��Alicia said.


    ��Then what are we waiting for? The relic is more important. Let��s hurry in and meet him.��


    After saying that, i rushed into the museum in a hurry. However, after running two steps, he found that Alethea was still in the same ce and did not move. So, he stopped and asked in puzzlement, ��What?��


    ��I... I��m not sure if we should just go in like this, ��Alethea said hesitantly.


    ��What else? Wait until Hans is caught by those guys? We have already lost Allie. We Can��t lose Hans, not to mention that he has the relic with him,�� said i, ��We are now racing against time. We have to find him before those people do.��


    ��What if those people already found him before we did?��Alicia asked.


    ��You saw the mark on the wall. Only our people understand the meaning of that mark. If Hans had been controlled and forced to write that message, he wouldn��t have left that mark on purpose.��


    ��Of course I know what you said, ��Alicia said. ��But...��


    ��But what? You suspect Hans?��i��s eyes widened, ��Forget about the others. Hans and you are from the same tribe. His father and brother died in the conflict that night to save you. He has a deep-seated hatred with those guys just like you.��


    ��I don��t suspect Hans. I just think that something is a little strange. Hans was chased halfway. After he escaped, why didn��t he call us directly? Instead, he chose to send me a message and then left a mark on the wall.��


    ��Perhaps... he was worried that our calls were being monitored?��i had also watched the series of ��mission impossible��and ��oo7��, so he suddenly thought of something.


    Alicia rolled her eyes. ��If those guys were that powerful, we would have died countless times already, okay?��


    This time, i did not bicker with Alicia anymore. He looked into the girl��s eyes and said seriously, ��If you��re really worried, we might be able to contact that Chinese guy. You��ve fought with him before, and you know that he��s very skilled. Even if we join hands, we can��t beat him. If he��s willing to help...��


    ��Forget it.��Alicia waved her hand, ��Didn��t he and that girl named Songjia go to the Doctor? Besides, thanks to you, we��ve already exposed all of our secrets. However, we still don��t know his background, nor do we know whether he��s a friend or a foe. At such a critical moment, it��s best not toplicate things. Besides, haven��t you always bragged about how strong you are? Now is the time to put it to use.��


    ��What do you mean by boasting? My guardian spirit is a pr bear. In terms of strength alone, no one...��i paused, feeling a little awkward, because he remembered that he had just been defeated by the Chinese not long ago, and in the end, the other party did not use any tricks and tricks. They only suppressed him in terms of strength, therefore, i was a little embarrassed to say the second half of his sentence.


    ��It��s a pity that I didn��t see any animals around here... ��Alicia muttered.


    Her teacher regarded her as the most talented shaman among the Inuit. She had awakened her talent formunicating with animals at a young age, even though she had yet to learn the ability to predict, in fact, she already had a sense of the impending danger.


    This was also the reason why she was somewhat resistant to entering the art museum in front of her. However, Alicia knew the importance of the sacred relic. In the end, she chose to suppress her uneasiness and followed i into the museum.


    After all, what i said made sense. The Mark left by Hans could only be understood by their own people. If Hans was able to leave this mark, it meant that at least at that time, he was not controlled by anyone.


    Therefore, she could only pray that she and i would be able to meet up with Hans before that group of people.


    The two of them walked to the front door that was ajar. i stretched out his hand and gently pushed it open, easily opening the door that was not locked. i stretched his head in to take a look, but he did not see any danger, then, he called for Alicia to follow behind him. Then, the two of them carefully walked into the exhibition hall that was filled with all kinds of artworks. i was holding a baseball bat, which was the weapon he had taken from the car, he also had a small knife for peeling the skin, which he lent to Alicia for protection.


    Although the museum had been closed for a long time, the lights in the museum were still very bright. However, this light did not give the two of them much sense of security, on the contrary, the lights cast the shadows of the sculptures and artworks on the wall, looking indescribably gloomy.


    Especially those artworks that were already very mysterious, their shadows became extremely strange after being elongated. Even i, who had always been bold, began to feel uneasy. He opened his mouth and tried to call out Hans��s name, however, there was only his echo in the empty exhibition hall.


    ��Hans... could it be that he has already left this ce?��


    i also had the intention to retreat when he saw this. At this moment, Alicia tugged at his clothes and pointed at a ce not far away that was covered by a canvas. ��What��s That?��


    ��I don��t know. You know me. I��ve never been interested in these works of art. I��ve never been to this museum before.��


    Although he said this, i still walked to the canvas and lifted it up. Then, he saw the bloodstains on the floor that had not been cleaned up.


    i sucked in a breath of cold air and could not help but take two steps back. Then, he and Alicia heard the sound of the door not far away closing and locking. ��Be careful!��i turned his head and saw someone emerging from the second floor. At the same time, he held a harpoon gun in his hand and aimed at Alicia��s back. However, when that person pulled the trigger, Alicia was also pounced on by i, the steel fork with sharp spikes flew past i��s back and hit a ster sculpture, shattering thetter into pieces!


    The two people who had narrowly escaped death were shocked and broke out in a cold sweat, especially Alethea. She knew that if i had not found the person who had ambushed her in time, she would have been pierced through by that Steel Fork.


    However, although the two of them had luckily avoided the first round of attacks, their troubles had just begun. After the harpoon gun missed, many people suddenly appeared from the second floor and the gate, surrounding the two of them.


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 Chapter 1236 - Revelry And New Visitors

    Chapter 1236 Revelry And New Visitors


    Alethea recognized them as the fanatics they had been tracking all this time, because they were too easy to identify.


    Their pale faces, their flighty footsteps, and the fanatical and impatient excitement in their eyes.


    But the girl was not happy at all, because the number of the other party hadpletely exceeded her expectations. Alethea had been investigating this group for some time and knew that many of them were difficult to be epted by the secr world, usually, they would choose to hide in the mountains or uninhabited areas. She did not expect that there would be so many hidden in Nuuk, Greend��srgest city, right under their noses.


    They usually used their identity as artists as a disguise, but in the dark, there were probably many secret gatherings and bloody sacrifices Alicia noticed that many of them looked very young, some of them were not even as old as her, and they had obviously just been recruited.


    This made Alicia Shudder. Ever since the attack that year, the fanatics seemed to know that the Inuit were looking for them, so they disappeared for a while, but now it seemed that they did not stop there. Instead, they had been growing stronger in the dark, lurking and plotting something. Until the earthquake and the Red Aurora appeared again, they seemed to have received some kind of signal, they came out in full force once again.


    Alicia saw at least 30 to 40 people at the art museum alone. They quickly surrounded the two of them. Fortunately, other than the harpoon gun from before.., the weapons in the hands of the remaining people were not as lethal. Some of them even took down the spears on the wall of the museum. Moreover, the physical condition of these people seemed to becking in exercise, they were not even as strong as ordinary people.


    However, there were too many of them. Furthermore, Alessia and i only had a small knife and a baseball bat in their hands. i had already turned the baseball bat into a gust of wind. He did not retreat, instead, he gritted his teeth and charged forward.


    i knew that if this group of peoplepletely surrounded them and killed them, then they would only have a dead end. Instead of waiting for death, he might as well take the opportunity before the encirclement closed to see if he could break out.


    Therefore, he chose the direction where there seemed to be the least number of people and smashed the baseball bat towards the head of the person running in front. In the end, the person did not manage to dodge and did not make a timely move to block, just like that, he was smashed by i.


    With i��s strength, this was not something to joke about. The moment the baseball bat touched the head, everyone present heard the sound of bones breaking. In the end, the unlucky person��s head was smashed into pieces, he fell to the ground and was about to die.


    i then swung the baseball bat at another person beside him. That person finally had the time to react. However, when he saw the baseball bating at him, he unexpectedly did not choose to defend against it, instead, he continued to stab the electric drill in his hand at i��s eyes. At the same time, his eyes shed with madness.


    Ole was quite satisfied with his eyes. He did not want to lose them, especially since the other party��s skills did not seem to be that good. Perhaps he would not be able to poke his eyes and instead, he would be able to open a hole in the center of his brows, therefore, he had no choice but to withdraw his baseball bat and Dodge to the right first.


    However, this way, his momentum of charging out was interrupted. After dying for half a second, the others also began to approach him.


    Although i roared repeatedly and used the baseball bat to smash a few people away, in the end, he still couldn��t resist therge number of people on the other side, especially when a 12 or 13-year-old youth caught him off guard and opened his mouth to bite his thigh, i was in pain and wanted to use the same trick again, using the baseball bat to smash the youth��s head, but when he saw the young face of the other party, he hesitated again.


    In that moment of hesitation, he was cut in the arm by another person with a kitchen knife. The baseball bat also fell from his hand. Then, another person jumped onto his back. Those fanatics could see that i was already at the end of his rope, therefore, like a group of sharks that had smelled the scent of blood, they all rushed forward, wanting to share this delicious meal together.


    i was soon pressed to the ground. Even with his divine power, he could not withstand the burly man. Once he fell, he would never be able to stand up again. On the other side, Alicia��s situation was even worse, although she used a knife to kill the two fanatics who were the first to approach her.


    But then, she was shot in the thigh with a blow arrow. What was worse was that the blow arrow was coated with poison. Alicia soon could not feel the left side of her body anymore. She was lifted up by the two fanatics, she was fixed to the wall while the other person stabbed her chest with a spear.


    Am I going to die here today?


    Alicia thought in a daze. However, her parents had not been avenged, and she had not been able to find the mastermind behind all of this. She was not willing to die just like that.


    However, no matter how unwilling she was, she could not stop the spear that was stabbing at her.


    Fortunately, the bullet could!


    With the sound of a gunshot, the body of the fanatic who was holding the spear suddenly stopped, and he fell to the ground weakly.


    Then, another fanatic who was holding an electric drill and trying to figure out where to cut a hole in Ole��s body also went with hispanion.


    There was amotion on the fanatic��s side, because an uninvited guest had appeared in the museum at some point, interrupting the carnival.


    Alicia looked up in surprise and saw a familiar figure in the direction of the side door of the museum.


    It was the Chinese man who had defeated her and Ole!


    Alicia did not expect to see him here again!!!! And she did not expect that she would one day be so ecstatic to see him again, even with tears in her eyes.


    However, after the initial excitement, Alicia��s heart sank again.


    That was because she noticed that Zhang Heng hade here alone. Even including Songjia, who had been following him all this time, it was hard to imagine how the two of them had managed to deal with so many fanatics, in the end, they had only followed in the footsteps of her and i.


    And as if to confirm her guess, the fanatics did not feel fear and fear after seeing theirpanions shot to death. Instead, they became even more excited.


    Death and murder were to them the opiates of the mind, as pleasant to others as to themselves, so that except for a few who subdued Ole and Alethea, the remaining fanatics rushed to the figure in front of the side door.

 Chapter 1237 - Siege

    Chapter 1237 Siege


    Seeing that the closest fanatic had already arrived in front of him, Zhang Heng ignored him. Instead, he raised the Beretta M92F and aimed it at the other person behind that fellow.


    The target had just picked up the electric drill that had fallen to the ground and was about to continue hispanion��s unfinished business. He wanted to see what color i��s brain was, but he did not expect his brain to be the first to spill out.


    A bullet pierced through the crowd and urately hit the center of his brows!


    i, who was on the ground, was also shocked and broke out in cold sweat. This was the second time he had escaped death. Ever since he was pushed to the ground, he knew that he was probably doomed this time. Since he was young, he had been praised for his bravery, even when his body was still weak, he dared to go out to sea with the whaling team and was unafraid of the wind and waves.


    Later on, he hunted seals by himself and stayed in the wilderness for two weeks beforeing back. It was because of this that he was recognized by the Elves and thus had the strength to match this courage.


    i had always thought that he could ovee the fear of death with his valor, but when this moment really came, he realized that he had overestimated himself.


    Listening to the sound of the electric drill turning and closing in on him, i used all his strength to stop himself from screaming, but that was all. So when the terrifying sound finally stopped.., i felt like his body was about to copse.


    Even so, he still gritted his teeth and shouted at Zhang Heng, ��Don��t worry about me. Take care of the opponents in front of you first. Be careful that they don��t gang up on You!��


    Unfortunately, Zhang Heng didn��t understand Greendic. Of course, from i��s and Alicia��s expressions, it could be seen what they were worried about. In fact, even without i��s reminder, Zhang Heng would still ensure his own safety first, however, in the eyes of i and Alicia, the desperate situation was far from the point where he had to sacrifice someone to save someone.


    After Zhang Heng resolved the crisis in i, he turned the gun around and pointed the Beretta M92F at the enemy in front of him. The enemy was almost right in front of him. Zhang Heng took the opportunity to insert the barrel of the gun into his open mouth, he pulled the trigger, and blood mixed with brain matter sttered on the disy cab at the side.


    Just like before, when the other fanatics saw theirrade die in front of them, they did not show any fear of a normal person. Instead, they rushed forward one after another, as if Zhang Heng did not give them a bullet, instead, it was a coupon from the supermarket.


    The thing that i and Alicia were most worried about had happened.


    This group of zealots was obviously going to use the same trick as before to surround Zhang Heng and kill him. Furthermore, Zhang Heng��s situation was different from theirs at the time. Not only did he have to deal with the enemy in front of him, but he also had to pay attention to the situation on their side, he had to divert his attention to pay attention to the situation on their side.


    Zhang Heng fired seven shots, and four of them were fired at the guys who wanted to take the opportunity to kill i and Alicia. Even though he managed to save both of them without missing a shot.., but he was also surrounded by those fanatics.


    Fortunately, Zhang Heng fired three more shots consecutively, killing the three enemies closest to him. Then, he used two more bullets to clean up the remaining fanatics around i and Alicia.


    Alicia��s feet fell to the ground. She didn��t bother to check if she was injured. She rushed to Zhang Heng��s side because she saw him put away his pistol.


    Was he out of bullets? At a time like this!


    Alicia��s heart was in her throat. Previously, Zhang Heng had used his excellent marksmanship to take out almost a third of the enemies, but the number of people in front of him didn��t decrease, this group of fanatics was really not afraid of death. Alethea could not imagine how Zhang Heng would deal with the siege of so many people if he lost his only weapon.


    i saw this and wanted to help, but his injuries were much worse than Alethea��s, especially his waist. Not long ago, he had been stabbed by a fruit knife, and he was still bleeding, i took off his shirt and bandaged it up. He tried to get up from the ground, but he was powerless.


    However, what he saw next stunned him. Zhang Heng, who had put away his gun, was forced into a corner by the fanatics. Then, he pulled out a small knife from the travel bag that he had been carrying.


    When Zhang Heng held the knife in his hand, even the fanatics, who had gone crazy, sensed a sense of danger. The person closest to him did not even see how Zhang Heng moved, he clutched his neck and knelt on the ground. Blood gushed out from between his fingers, and in the blink of an eye, his throat could no longer make a sound.


    This knife was only the beginning. Next, Zhang Heng put down the travel bag in his hand and pulled out a second knife. Then, he stopped retreating and charged straight into the crowd.


    Although the fanatics were still as fearless as before, even at the cost of their lives, they were still too slowpared to Zhang Heng and the others, unable to keep up with the speed and pace of their opponents, they were like cbashes that hade to save their grandfather. In i and Alicia��s eyes, they had taken the initiative to put their necks under Zhang Heng��s de.


    The scene in front of them could not even be called a battle anymore. It was aplete massacre.


    i and Alicia only realized now that Zhang Heng had shown mercy when they had foughtst time. He had not used his full strength, otherwise, their performance would not have been any better than the Zealots before them.


    The Inuit teenager��s eyes widened. If he had not seen it with his own eyes, he would not have believed that anyone could have honed theirbat skills to such an extent. He had been so engrossed in watching that he had even forgotten about the injury on his waist.


    ��Damn it, he keeps giving me trouble. Where did this god of deathe from...��


    On the second floor of the museum, the man with a cane also muttered. He had been drinking in his office while watching the fanatics downstairs through the surveince cameras, watching how they surrounded and killed i and Alicia, however, just as the battle was about to end, he was interrupted by an uninvited guest.


    At the beginning, the man with a cane did not care much. In his eyes, it was just more peopleing to deliver human heads. However, he did not expect the other party to be so powerful. How was this a human head, it waspletely in his territory. Therefore, the person with the crutch didn��t dare to watch the show anymore. He put down his wine ss, picked up the shotgun at the side, and quietly left the office.

 Chapter 1238 - Have You Been Discovered?

    Chapter 1238 Have You Been Discovered?


    Unlike those fanatics who werepletely unafraid of death, even though the man with the cane had already made up his mind to join them and be one of them, he was still a rational and ordinary person until the ceremony waspleted, of course, he didn��t want to risk his life.


    Therefore, he didn��t go downstairs. Instead, he took advantage of the intense battle below to grab his shotgun and sneak into the corridor. He picked a spot where Zhang Heng could be seen without being noticed and set up his gun.


    All these years, he had been gued by nightmares. In order to prevent himself from falling into madness, he did not dare to interact with the outside world. He was afraid that if he learned more about that thing, he would not be able to watch TV or surf the Inte, therefore, hunting became his biggest pastime. In the end, his marksmanship had improved a lot, which was a form of constion.


    However, after witnessing the battle between Zhang Heng and the Zealots, he was still able to divert his attention to i and Alicia��s situation even though they were surrounded. The man with the crutches knew that he was no match for Zhang Heng in terms of marksmanship.


    This was also the reason why he chose tounch a sneak attack. Furthermore, he was very patient. He waited until Zhang Heng��s pistol was out of bullets and put it away before making his move.


    Even though this way, at least a dozen more fanatics would die, it would still further ensure his safety. Since the fanatics themselves did not care about their own lives.., the people with crutches had no reason to worry about them. However, when Zhang Heng started killing with his knife, the people with crutches knew that the opportunity they had been waiting for had finally arrived.


    The distance between the two sides was about 20 meters. At this distance, he might not be able to hit Zhang Heng��s vitals, but it was almost impossible for him to miss.


    In any case, there was no difference. With the power of a shotgun bullet, as long as it hit, the battle would basically be over. Moreover, there were still so many fanatics who were eyeing them like tigers watching their prey. There was no need to worry about not being able to finish them off.


    The man on crutches half-knelt on the ground, reloaded his gun, and aimed at his target. But the next moment, his eyelids twitched, because he saw Zhang Heng suddenly raise his head and look in his direction.


    Had he been discovered?


    The man on crutches was amazed by the man��s terrifying observation, but so what? No matter how good Zhang Heng��s knife skills were, with the distance between the two of them, it was impossible for him to fly over and cut him down. However, the man on crutches also felt a sense of foreboding. He made up his mind at that moment.


    Only one shot! Once the first shot failed to kill the target, he would no longer linger in the fight. He would turn around and run. He didn��t care if those fanatics were dead or alive, but if that happened, his identity would be exposed, he would no longer be able to run the museum.


    Although he was not interested in art, after all, he had been working for so many years, he was still a little reluctant.


    With this thought in mind, he had already reached his finger to the trigger, but then he saw the uninvited guest downstairs put away a small knife and pulled out the pistol at his waist.


    The speed at which the other party pulled out the gun was unbelievably fast. It wasparable to the western cowboy in the movie. He was one step behind him, but his finger was one step ahead of him.


    Many thoughts shed through the man��s mind. He had enough reasons to suspect that the man was bluffing. He had seen it clearly in the surveince footage, zhang Heng had put away his gun after killing about a dozen fanatics. If he hadn��t run out of bullets, he wouldn��t have done it.


    However, after witnessing Zhang Heng��s knife skills, the man with the crutches began to doubt his theory. These thoughts shed through his mind. He knew that he had no time and had to make a decision immediately.


    Therefore, at the next moment, the man on crutches gave up on shooting and fell back to the ground. As his body fell to the ground, a bullet hit his original position.


    The man on crutches felt a lingering fear. He knew that if he had not given up at thest moment, he would have be a corpse by now. At the same time, he was also surprised that the man down there really had bullets in his gun.


    There were a total of 15 bullets in the magazine of the Beretta M92F pistol. Previously, Zhang Heng had fired 12 shots, but now, including this gun, he still had two bullets. This was one reason why he kept these bullets in case anything happened, another reason was that Zhang Heng really did not need them.


    He had only fired to save i and Alicia. After clearing out the fanatics around them, he put the gun away because it was more convenient for him to use a knife. As for the sneak attack on the second floor, Zhang Heng had already been waiting for it.


    i and Alicia had obviously fallen into a trap. i might have been a little reckless, but Alicia was still quite cautious. Logically speaking, the two of them should not have fallen into an ambush like this, it was obvious that they had been set up. These fanatics were not afraid of death, but it would be difficult for them to y any tricks.


    Therefore, there must be amander behind them. Zhang Heng was worried that themander had run away, but at that moment, he realized that someone was secretly aiming at him on the second floor. However, that person��s reaction was quite fast, when he saw that something was wrong, he immediately hid again.


    However, what Zhang Heng did not know was that the person with the crutch was feeling extremely regretful. He could have left quietly while Zhang Heng was fighting with those fanatics, but he insisted on using his cheap hands to shoot the ck gun.


    In the end, the ck gun missed and exposed his position. Therefore, he could only try his best to lower his body and crawl on the ground so that Zhang Heng could not see him. He crawled toward the safe passage.


    In order to climb as fast as possible, he threw away the shotgun in his hand because he knew that after Zhang Heng dealt with the fanatics below, he would not be a match for them in a head-on battle, the only way for him to survive was to leave this ce before the battle ended.


    He did the same thing. He crawled all the way to the safe passage using both hands and feet. Then, he used his crutch to escape to the parking lot. He could not hear anything from the safe passage, so he did not know what was going on outside, he didn��t expect the fanatics to be able to kill Zhang Heng. He only hoped that they could stop Zhang Heng for a little longer so that he could get into the car.


    However, when he went down the stairs to the first floor, he saw a figure at the end of the passage.


    The person with the crutches looked at Zhang Heng in disbelief. He didn��t expect the other party to be so fast, and the fanatics were so useless. They didn��t evenst a minute.


    Just as he was wondering if Zhang Heng would kill him, Zhang Heng raised his eyebrows and called out a name that no one had called out for a long time.


    ��Sachus?��

 Chapter 1239 - The Island Of Ignorance

    Chapter 1239 The Ind Of Ignorance


    When Songjia entered the art museum, she almost lost her bnce when she saw the scene inside.


    Although she didn��t work in art, she hade here several times with her ssmates when she was free. This art museum had a rich collection and a unique architectural style, so it had always been popr among visitors, she liked it, too.


    However, she didn��t expect that when she entered the museum this time, it would turn into a bloody ughterhouse. There were corpses all over the floor, and blood and brains sttered everywhere. Many of the artworks had been destroyed, the paintings that were worth more than a million dors fell to the ground, and the sculptures were shattered into pieces..


    The only people who could still stand in the exhibition hall on the first floor were i and Alicia. They supported each other and slowly moved toward the stairs.


    ��These... these people were killed by you guys?��


    Song Jia was shocked. She answered Zhang Heng��s call and rushed in from the outside. At the moment, she didn��t know what had happened inside. Seeing the scene before her.., she thought that the people here had been killed by the two Inuit. After all, they looked like they had just fought a bloody battle.


    However, Alicia shook her head, ��No, they were all killed by your... Er, employer. Actually, we didn��t help much. He saved us. He and the owner of this museum are on the second floor now. Let��s go up together.��


    ��Oh, okay, okay.��


    Song Jia carefully avoided the puddle of blood on the floor. Then, she followed i and song Jia Up the stairs to the director��s office on the second floor.


    The door wasn��t locked. Song Jia saw ame man sitting on a sofa while Zhang Heng sat behind the desk writing something on the parchment with his blood. When he saw song Jia Walk in, he nodded at her, ��You��re just in time. Help me with the trantion. I need to have a good chat with Mr. Sachus.��


    Zhang Heng pointed at the man on the sofa as he spoke.


    Thetter probably knew that it was impossible for him to escape, so he calmed himself down. Seeing song Jia looking at him, he even smiled at the girl. It had to be said that he had not been a museum owner for nothing these past ten years, his smile looked gentle and gentle.


    However, song Jia ignored him. Instead, she pulled Zhang Heng to the side and hurriedly said, ��What��s going on? Who are those people down there? Why did you kill them? Oh My God, how many people did you kill this time?��


    ��Thirty-seven, but I was only defending myself and saving people,��Zhang Heng said. ��The police won��t believe that you killed thirty-seven people for the sake of defending yourself and saving people,��song Jia said anxiously. ��Are you crazy? Do you know how much trouble this will cause you?��


    ��Rx. As long as we keep our mouths shut, I don��t think the police will care about this,��Zhang Heng said calmly. ��How is that possible? Even if we don��t tell anyone, it��s impossible for the police to not notice the disappearance of 37 people.�� ��That��s true for ordinary people, but this group is different. They clearly belong to some mysterious sect. I��m afraid the police don��t even know of their existence,��Zhang Heng said.


    ��How do you know?��


    ��I��m just about to confirm it with theirmander.��


    ��Where is he?��


    ��He��s on the sofa.��


    After hearing that, song Jia turned her gaze back to the limping man on the sofa. She took a deep breath and calmed herself down before turning to Zhang Heng, ��I��ll help you with thest trantion. You Don��t know what you want to do, but it��s too dangerous to be with you. We��ve only met for less than half a day, but there have already been two consecutive battles. Furthermore, I��ve seen more corpses than I��ve ever seen in my life. I don��t know what else will happen if I follow you. Don��t worry, I��m the one who broke the contract first. I Don��t want my sry anymore.�� Zhang Heng was nomittal. He only said, ��You��ll do the trantion for me first. We��ll talkter.��


    Song Jia didn��t say anything else. She walked over to the crippled man.


    Thetter raised his eyebrows and said with interest, ��Are you done discussing? What do you n to do with me?��


    ��I��m just a trantor,��song Jia said. ��I don��t want to get involved in your mess.��


    ��I��m sorry,��theme man touched his chin. ��I��m afraid you��ll be involved whether you like it or not. In fact, everyone on the ind can��t escape.��


    ��You don��t have to threaten me. I��m not the one who decides your fate,��song Jia said. ��First question, who are you people?��


    Theme man was about to answer, but he was interrupted by song Jia, ��Let me remind you, you��d better tell us the truth. If you��re lying, we��ll find out right away, and then you��ll have to suffer unnecessarily.��


    ��Is it because of this ring?��The crippled man raised his right hand. Zhang Heng had ced a copper ring there when he had entered the room, and he had even cut off his arm to take some blood, ��You two aren��t in cahoots with the two Inuit, are you? I know a thing or two about shamanism. As far as I know, they don��t have the means to do so.��


    ��Just... answer the questions honestly. Don��t ask questions,��Songjia warned again.


    ��Interesting. I didn��t expect such a lively day toe in such a remote ce like Greend,��the crippled man muttered. He then leaned his back against the sofa, ��Ask away. Since I��m already in your hands, of course I��ll cooperate with you. But I advise you not to have high expectations of me. For some reason, I don��t have much information. I��ve been avoiding further contact with those fanatics all these years.��


    ��Why?��


    ��Because we are living on an ind called ignorance, surrounded by a vast ck ocean. Some of us are brave enough to set sail and explore the mysteries of the world. The results they have achieved have promoted the development of human civilization. However, one day, when those isted scientific knowledge is pieced together, it will reveal the most terrifying truth of this world.��


    ��What truth?��


    ��We should never know, because it will bring endless fear and madness, ��the crippled man said solemnly. His expression did not look like he was joking.., even though the wordsing out of his mouth sounded ridiculous.


    After a pause, he added, ��I��m different from those fanatics downstairs, but it��s precisely because of this that I��ve been living especially hard all these years. I��m really trying to persuade you with good intentions. If you don��t want to end up in my current situation, then you should leave this ce while there��s still time.��

 Chapter 1240 - Doctors And Guides

    Chapter 1240 Doctors And Guides


    ��You don��t have to worry about us.��Song Jia obviously didn��t take the Lame Man��s warning to heart.


    After a pause, he said, ��You said that you��re different from those people down there. Then let me ask you separately, who are you and those people down there?��


    ��Those people who died downstairs are voodoo fanatics. Of course, they��re not the voodoo religion that originated in West Africa and yed with corpses as you know them. No, strictly speaking, they are indeed the voodoo religion that you know of. It��s just that they��ve been taken over by someone else.��Theme man was indeed very cooperative, he answered all questions.


    ��A dove taking over a magpie��s Nest?��


    ��Yes, their original God has declined, or rather... it has never been that powerful. In short, it has been reced by an even more powerful existence, so some of the believers have also been transformed. As far as I know, other than the old nest in Africa, many other ces of voodoo are different from the original. In fact, even a small part of Africa has changed.��


    ��Why did those fanatics attack y and Alicia? And where did Dr. Baker Go? I saw his car in the parking lot outside. He should have been here not too long ago.��


    ��They attacked the two Inuit because the Inuit have been trying to track them down, and they��ve been very closetely. As for the Doctor, he dide here to retrieve something, but he left after he got it. I have no idea where he went.��


    The limping man had just finished his sentence when he saw Zhang Heng take out the knife again. Songjia hadn��t even finished tranting yet, so he had no choice but to change his words, ��Alright, I lied earlier. Dr. Baker was indeed here, but he��s already dead.��


    Zhang Heng frowned. Saving i and Alicia was a matter of convenience. The main purpose of his visit to the Museum of art was to find the Doctor and learn about the expedition team from thetter, in the end, he didn��t expect the doctor to be dead. However, fortunately, he caught Sachus here. Sachus used to be the guide of the expedition team, but for some reason, he became the curator of the museum.


    He even changed his name and appearance. If not for Zhang Heng��s observational skills, it would have been difficult to recognize him, no wonder there was no news about him online.


    ��Who killed him?��Song Jia was shocked.


    ��Me.��Since he couldn��t lie, the crippled man could only tell the truth, ��But believe me, I had no choice. After all, Baker and I have been friends for almost 20 years. I actually didn��t want to kill him, but if those fanatics find out what he did, neither of us will have a good ending.��


    ��He��s telling the truth,��Zhang Heng said to Songjia.


    ��You��re still his friend? So you killed an old friend that you��ve been friends with for 20 years? !��Songjia was confused, ��Just because he took something from you, and you��re afraid of being implicated by those fanatics, aren��t you their leader?��


    ��Yes, I��m their leader, but they only listen to me when there��s action. Normally, I can��t control them. They only worship one person and listen to that person. Furthermore, you��ve never interacted with those people before, so you don��t understand their way of doing things. They won��t reason with you. To You, it��s a small matter, but to them, it��s enough to kill. In fact, that group of people enjoys killing, and when they can��t even find a suitable sacrifice, they will attack their own people.��


    The crippled man��s words sent a chill down Songjia��s spine. From the looks of it, it wasn��t a bad thing for Zhang Heng to capture them all at once. However, with so many people dead, Songjia didn��t know how Zhang Heng would end up. Just like what she had said before.., the police might not be willing to believe such a story, and even if they were willing to believe it, Zhang Heng was only a tourist. He didn��t have the authority to enforce thew in Greend, let alone start a massacre.


    ere


    As if seeing through his worries, the crippled man said, ��I can help you deal with the bodies downstairs. As long as you��re willing to spare my life, most of these people are actually not from Greend. A small number of them have lost contact with their rtives and friends after joining Voodoo. They��ve long been treated as dead by their families. So even if they go missing, as long as they��re dealt with properly, it won��t attract the police��s attention.��


    ��But you also killed Dr. Baker!��Song Jia said.


    ��I said I��m sorry, but Dr. Baker is not a local. His clinic has been closed for a while, and he rarely interacts with people. I can find someone at school to help him apply for a long leave. Just say that he... went back to China to recuperate. He can always cover it


    up.��


    ��What disease did Dr. Baker get that made him be like this?��


    ��How should I exin it?��The crippled man thought for a moment, ��On a physiological level, there��s actually nothing wrong with him. At most, he has some anxiety and insomnia. But on the other hand, he and I have been suffering for a long time. Really, if you��re not us, it��s probably hard for you to understand this pain. Especially recently, we��ve hardly slept well.�� ��Why?��


    ��Because that guy wille to us when we are asleep, ��theme man said, ��We can��t get rid of it. It��s like a ghost that has been haunting us for so many years. Dr. Baker and I are looking for a way out of this nightmare, but unfortunately, neither he nor I have seeded, so you don��t have to feel too sorry for him. Death is actually a relief for us.��


    ��Then why are you still so afraid of Death?��Song Jia asked.


    ��Do you think I haven��t thought about killing myself?��Theme man sighed, ��If you have tried tomit suicide, you will know how strong the survival instinct of humans is. No matter what happens tomorrow, it is always good to have one more day to live.��


    ��So you have be like this because of that scientific expedition more than ten years


    ago?��


    The crippled man had been answering Zhang Heng��s questions fluently, but when he heard the question, his expression changed drastically. ��Who are you people? How do you know about the Scientific Expedition?��


    ��Looks like we can finally get to the main point,��Zhang Heng said. ��Let him talk about the scientific expedition that year. Tell him everything he saw and heard. It��s best not to miss a single detail.��


    Song Jia tranted Zhang Heng��s words to the crippled man. ��We know that you were the guide of the expedition team that year. You led them deep into the no man��snd. Where exactly did you see them?��

 Chapter 1241 - The Expedition From 18 Years Ago

    Chapter 1241 The Expedition From 18 Years Ago


    Sachus was not in a hurry to answer the question. Instead, he looked deeply at songjia. Then, he pointed at the wine bottle on the table and said, ��Can I have another drink?��


    ��Help yourself.��


    Hearing this, Sachus picked up the wine bottle again. This time, he did not pour it into the wine ss. Instead, he drank up the remaining half of the bottle in one go. It seemed that only through the tipsiness of the wine could he have the courage to tell the story of the past. ��I am a native of Greend, half Inuit and half Danish. So every year, I would return to my father��s tribe to stay for a period of time. I also hunted fish with them. Many Inuit people live on the ice field, so they are very good at dealing with the bad weather and the environment on the ice field. At that time, I did not like reading, but I was very interested in things like hunting.


    ��Although my marksmanship wasn��t very good when I was young, I learned a lot of survival skills on the ice field from the old hunters in the tribe. In addition, I learned a little English. Because I happened to be a guide for a team of photographers who were photographing pr bears, I didn��t take it to heart at that time. I just wanted to earn some extra money, but I didn��t expect them to rmend me to many friends who wanted toe to Greend to film. At that time, I was already over 20 years old, and I was thinking about what to do, so I naturally entered this industry.


    ��In the eyes of others, this job was hard and dangerous, but I was born to seek excitement. This job suited me quite well. Soon, I made a name for myself in this line of work, and more and more people came looking for me,��Sachus recalled, ��After leading a tour group to see seals, Dr. Baker found me.


    ��Oh, at that time, I had known him for more than a year. He came to Greend for a trip and liked it, so he thought of a way to settle down here. He opened a clinic to do his old job, but his business was not very good. So, he set up an explorer club with his friends and introduced people to explore here. Then, he helped them take care of their amodation and hired guides. It was also at that time that we started to meet.


    ��He came to my ce the other day and said that he had a very lucrative but dangerous job that required an excellent professional guide. He asked me if I was interested. I was in need of money at that time, and the tour was a little boring. The adventure genes in my body started to stir again, so he let him continue.


    ��Beck said that a person named Tam had received news that there was an ancient ruin under an ice sheet in Greend. The person who found it first would not only be famous immediately, but the discovery inside might even rewrite the known history of mankind. So he was going to set up a scientific expedition team.


    ��To be honest, I��m skeptical about things like ancient ruins because if there really was such a thing, the government would have taken action long ago, not to mention that there was an American military base on the ind. Nothing could be hidden from them. But just as Beck said, the reward on the other side was very generous. This trip was basically equivalent to a year of my ie. In addition, it sounded more interesting than taking a sightseeing tour, so I agreed. And this was also the most regretful thing in my life.��


    ��On the day we set out, I saw Dr. Baker on the expedition team. I couldn��t help but feel a little surprised because he was a psychiatrist, not the kind of doctor who could treat people��s physical illnesses. Although he said that he had learned some first aid and bandaging knowledge, but... you know, if you really want to take a doctor on an expedition, there are many better options than him.


    ��So, out of professional ethics, I went to Mr. Tam and told him about my doubts. He��s a very good person. He looks very easygoing and always seems to be in high spirits. The only problem is that he likes to eat sweets. During the exploration, he brought several bags of sweets with him. One bag a day. His mouth hardly takes any rest. Mr. Tam told me that he knows what Baker does. Bringing a psychiatrist is mainly because there are many scientists in the team.


    This is the first time many people have ventured into such a dangerous ce, and he��s worried that some of the team members will have psychological problems, and then Baker will have to deal with them. To be honest, that��s a bit of a stretch, but he��s the one paying for it, i need to exin the situation to the employer, but the final decision is still up to the employer. He says bring Dr. Baker, and we��ll bring Dr. Baker.


    ��In short, after we��re ready, we set off. There are 22 people in the expedition team, including a geologist and his assistant, an archaeologist, a biologist, a meteorologist, and two theologians. They��re a couple from China, ��Sachus said, pausing, he looked at Zhang Heng with some confusion. ��Are you also Chinese? What does that have to do with the Chinese couple?��


    However, Zhang Heng did not answer his question. Instead, he gestured for him to continue.


    ��I have quite a deep impression of the Chinese couple because both of them are very polite, but the other people, Hehe... other than the few people I mentioned above, the rest of them don��t seem like good people. Even though they��ve been trying to hide it all along the way, I can tell that many of them have served in the military before and have hidden weapons with them. At one point, they made me want to give up. We��re going to a no-man��snd, so it��s very likely that we won��t meet many people along the way. Even if we��re worried about some wild beasts along the way, there��s no need to bring so many people to protect our safety. ��But Mr. Tam said that these men were hired by him to help the scientists with chores like finding the way and carrying the equipment, and that the reason he brought in the veterans was because they had better survival skills in the wild. What can I say? The expedition was already on its way, and it wouldn��t be appropriate for me to ask to leave now, so next we took a boat to thending site on the east coast, which was about a third of the way from the maind.


    ��We have enough food for everyone on the ship for two months, as well as some scientific research and drilling equipment, cameras, satellite phones, warm clothing, tents, and gas canisters. As for the water source, we don��t have to worry about it, because we can boil the snow water directly. In addition, we also brought dogs and sleds to transport supplies


    ��The captain of that ship is also an old friend of mine. He sent us to the agreed ce and left. He also promised that as long as we called them on the satellite phone, they would immediately rush to the designated location to pick us up. So, so far, everything is going smoothly. The weather that day was also pretty good. It was sunny and there was almost no wind. We even took a photo together

 Chapter 1242 - Fossils And Dogs

    Chapter 1242 Fossils And Dogs


    ��The Greend ice sheet is thergest ice sheet in the northern hemisphere. It is 2,530 kilometers deep in the north and 2,530 kilometers deep in the south. The widest part is 1,094 kilometers. Moreover, the thickness of the ice sheet is astonishing. The deepest part is more than 3,000 meters and covers a basin. This means that the thickness of the ice sheet gets thicker and thicker as it goes further into the center. There are tworge ice caps on it. The ce we are going to this time is near one of the ice caps. ��In the past few days, the expedition team continued the good luck of the first day. The weather and the journey were very smooth. Because the expedition time was in summer, the edge of the ice sheet had begun to melt. The thickness of the ice sheet in many ces had be very thin. There were ice cubes that fell into the sea from time to time near the seaside. One had to be extra careful when walking on the ice sheet, but the deeper one went, the more stable the ice sheet became.


    ��We also dug up some te and fossils. The geologists and biologists in the team seemed very happy. If they didn��t want to continue moving forward, they would probably be unable to resist studying on the spot. I was a little worried at first because I felt that the configuration of this expedition team was a little strange, but as time passed, those retired soldiers really did as Mr. Tam said and just did what they were supposed to do. Therefore, I gradually rxed and began to enjoy the expedition.


    ��After all, the reward is part of the reason, but what really attracted me to this operation was the love of the ice field, especially the exploration of its hidden secrets, as if unveiling its mystery bit by bit. The most wonderful thing is that every time I feel that I know enough about it, but in the blink of an eye it will reveal a new side to me, as if it is a lover who will never tire of you.


    ��Therefore, I thought that this expedition was really suitable for me. Of course, just in case, I still found Dr. Baker. After all, he was the only one who knew the details of the expedition team. Although the Chinese couple was also good and gave me a good impression, as well as a few other scientists, their people were actually good. But after all, I had only known them for a short time, so of course, I was more willing to trust Dr. Baker.


    ��We agreed that we would advance and retreat together, and at the same time, we would pay attention to the people around us, mainly the ex-soldiers. We would exchange information on a regr basis. Beck felt that I was overthinking things, but he still agreed. After all, there was nothing wrong with being careful. Our team continued to advance, but our good luck seemed to have run out.


    ��The dogs were the first to show signs of abnormality. They suddenly started barking wildly for some reason, and then moved forward with some resistance. Before this, I had never encountered such a strange thing. The Greendic sled dogs were domesticated by the ancestors of the Inuit people. Theypletely lost their wolf nature and became very docile. They were also hard-working and could stay overnight in the wild even when it was more than minus ten degrees Celsius.


    ��Although the temperature began to drop as we went deeper, it was far from unbearable for the Greend dogs. So I didn��t expect the situation of the dogs at that time. I had to ask the expedition team to stop first. Then I spent half a day pacifying the dogs and preparing more food for them. Only then did they want to continue moving forward. However, I could see that they didn��t want to do that in their hearts. It was only because it was my order, and they were used to obeying human orders.


    ��I was a bit surprised about the dogs, but to be honest I didn��t think much of it, because this is an adventure, and no matter how well prepared you are, there will always be problems of one sort or another, and that��s what guides and leaders do, we solve problems and make sure the adventure goes


    on.


    ��After the problem with the dogs, the geologists and biologists had nothing better to do. While they were wandering around, they actually found a new fossil specimen on a rock that was exposed. Then, they quarreled about the age of the fossil. From the perspective of rock formation, the geologists deduced that this thing came from the primordial era, but the biologists held a different view. Because from the perspective of biology, the thing in the fossil had obviously evolved very well. Although it was a little ugly, all kinds of organs looked quite mature.


    ��The biologist felt that this thing should at least be a creature from the Triassic era. Moreover, he did not want to let go of the fossil after holding it. He looked extremely obsessed, as if someone who was learning painting had obtained an authentic painting by Da Vinci. The others watched them arguing, but they could not interrupt. Mr. Tam was still smiling. He only spoke up to mediate for them when the two were about to get angry.


    ��The final agreement is that this fossil belongs to the biologist, and the geologist has the priority to choose the next fossil or rock sample. Moreover, the biologist will lend this thing to the geologist for a period of time after he finishes his research.


    ��Coincidentally, I also solved the issue of the dog group, so we continued on our way. ��However, it��s strange. When the biologist came back with the fossil, the dog group that I managed to pacify with much difficulty felt uneasy again, so I asked the biologist to find a bag to seal the fossil properly. Only then did the dog group��s mood calm down again.


    ��But then, we only walked a few kilometers when the weather suddenly changed. This was the precursor of a snowstorm. After discussing it, we didn��t continue on our way. We decided to set up camp here and wait for the snowstorm to pass before we went on our way. I took a few ex-soldiers and checked the tents that we had set up. We even reinforced them with ice bricks. We also built a fence for the dogs. I originally wanted to build another ice wall for them, but the snowstorm had already arrived, so we had to let the dogs enter the tent with us.


    ��They��re getting restless again, and this time I can feel it very clearly. They seem to be afraid of something, but I don��t have time to think about it before the storm arrives. All we can hear is the howling wind and the sound of ice and snow pping on the tents. I��m d they were reinforced before, or I don��t know if these tents will survive this storm.


    ��Because we couldn��t go out to light a fire, we just ate some biscuits at night. The dogs kept barking, and it was hard for me to fall asleep. I Lay there in a daze for about an hour when I suddenly heard gunshotsing from outside. When I opened my eyes, I realized that the two ex-soldiers who were in the same tent as me had disappeared. Only Dr. Baker and I were left in the tent, staring at each other.

 Chapter 1243 - Gunshots In A Snowstorm

    Chapter 1243 Gunshots In A Snowstorm


    ��We wanted to go outside the tent to see what exactly happened, but there were intermittent gunshots outside. The snowstorm was really big at that time, and as long as we were two or three meters away, we could hardly see anything. We were worried that we would be hurt by stray bullets, so we could only continue to stay in the tent. That kind of feeling was not good, especially when we didn��t know what kind of people or creatures were fighting with those retired soldiers.


    ��The doctor and I could only make wild guesses in the tent. Fortunately, the battle did notst long. After about two minutes, I found that the dogs in the tent had quieted down, and the gunshots outside had also stopped. Strangely enough, after that, the snowstorm had also quieted down. As the whistling of the wind had disappeared, I heard the sound of people talking. So Dr. Baker and I walked out of the tent.


    ��We found out that the people who were talking were the two ex-soldiers who lived in the same tent as us. When they saw us, they shut their mouths and went back to their expressionless faces.


    ��We tried to talk to them, but they wouldn��t say anything, so we had to find other people. During the snowstorm, we set up six tents. Five of them were intact, but one of the tents was missing


    ��I was quite surprised at that time, because as a guide, I was definitely responsible for what happened, but the problem was that after the tents were set up, I personally checked them one by one. I felt that they were not reliable, so I set them up again and reinforced them with ice bricks. Logically, this should not have happened.


    ��The tent that was lost belonged to a biologist. He used to live with the geologist, but because of what happened before, they decided to separate for a day. So he stayed with three ex-soldiers tonight. In addition to the tent, his luggage and some experimental equipment were blown away, and he looked very frightened. His body was shaking all the time, and he kept shouting, saying that we shouldn��te here.


    ��That Chinese couple isforting him. Baker and I also wanted to go over, but we didn��t expect Mr. Tam to find US first. or to be more precise, he came to find Dr. Baker. He was still smiling. He patted Dr. Baker on the shoulder and said, ��It��s your turn to work.��Baker was stunned, and then asked, ��What happened?��. Mr. Tam said it was no big deal, just that the wind had blown the biologist��s tent away, and that there might have been a few hungry pr bears after that, but our people had fought them off.


    So what Dr. Baker was going to do next was to try to calm the biologist down, to get the poor man back to his senses, because he was so scared that he was hallucinating and talking nonsense.


    ��The doctor and I were a little skeptical. Not only because Mr. Tam said it was too easy, but also because we didn��t see the footprints and bodies of the pr bears around us. But the doctor still started working after that. Mr. Tam saw that I was still standing in the same ce and suggested that I make a few cups of hot coffee for everyone to drink. I agreed, but after making the coffee, I found that the expedition team was missing two people.


    ��The three ex-soldiers who used to live in the same tent with the Doctor are now alone. I asked Mr. Tam where the two of them went. He said they had something to do and went back on the way. But when I asked if I should call a boat to pick them up, Mr. Tam told me that it was not necessary. They have their own boat. However, when I was making coffee, I saw a small group of ex-soldiers burying something. I saw something that looked like a human arm there. I wanted to get closer to take a closer look, but I was chased away by the ex-soldiers.


    ��I had a bad feeling in my heart, and when the doctor came back two hourster, he looked terrible. I asked him what had happened, and he hesitated for a moment, saying that the biologist had suffered from too much stimtion and had some mental problems, but he had already given the biologist a tranquilizer, which gradually calmed him down. He proposed to Mr. Tam that they stop the expedition and send the biologist back to the city for treatment, but Mr. Tam declined. Then he encouraged the others with his usual optimistic tone, saying that we were close to the ultimate goal and that victory was in sight.


    ��I was a little impatient. I stared into Baker��s eyes and asked him if he had forgotten our previous agreement. Once one of us discovered something, we would immediately share it with the other person. I was sure that Baker had heard something from the biologist, but now he seemed to be nning to keep the information for himself. This made me very angry. When Baker heard what I said, he could only smile wryly and tell me what he had heard from the biologist.


    ��He said that it wasn��t a snowstorm at all, but a very strange creature. It was difficult to find the right words and vocabry to describe that ugly and terrifying thing. It was just like those randomly growing underwater monsters in prehistoric times. It had organs that looked like both animals and nts. Anyone who saw it would have nightmares at night. The biologist swore that it didn��t look like a species on earth, and its appearance didn��t conform to Darwin��s theory of evolution at all. It was just like something that was randomly pieced together by some creator.


    ��As soon as it opened the tent, it went on a killing spree. It used the tentacle on its head to kill a retired soldier. The biologist waspletely shocked and did not move. However, the other two people in the tent reacted very quickly and immediately got up. Moreover, they did not leave their guns when they were resting, as if they had known this would happen.


    ��One of them pulled out his gun and fired, but the bullet��s damage to that thing seemed to be very limited. It took a few shots to its body, but it didn��t affect its movements at all. Moreover, the two ex-soldiers were also somewhat confused, not knowing where the vital parts of the thing were, and it quickly used its tentacles to snap the neck of the ex-soldier it grabbed.


    ��Then, it extended its tentacle to another person, but was dodged by the ex-soldier who was already prepared. However, that unlucky fellow did not expect that after reaching its limit, that thing could actually split out another five small tentacles. In the end, it was also caught. It seemed that it was too slow to break the neck, and this time, that thing directly used another tentacle to pierce through the body of the ex-soldier. However, at this time, other people who heard the gunshots also rushed over, and some of them even carried rocketunchers.


    ��The thing didn��t seem to want to fight, so it reached out its tentacle to the biologist. The biologist thought he was dead for sure, but the tentacle went around him and rolled over his backpack with the new fossils. Then it disappeared in the snowstorm despite the rain of bullets before the encirclement formed.��

 Chapter 1244 - Attrition

    Chapter 1244 Attrition


    ��At that time, I only felt that the story Baker told was too ridiculous. He didn��t want to tell me what exactly happened, so he used such a ridiculous story to brush me off. I felt that he must have been bribed by Mr. Tam, which made me a little nervous because I couldn��t find anyone to trust in the entire team. I wanted to turn around and directly bid farewell to Mr. Tam. Perhaps I shouldn��t have epted this job from the start, but I hadn��tpletely lost my mind because those ex-soldiers all had guns in their hands. I didn��t want to have a conflict with them, especially now that we were in the wilderness and there was no one around. Therefore, before I found an opportunity, I could only continue to be an honest guide.


    ��After what happened that night, the mood of the scientists was a little low, but I don��t know if it was my imagination, but the expedition team clearly lost two members, but Mr. Tam became even more excited. What surprised me the most was the retired soldiers. They clearly lost twopanions, but they weren��t worried at all. Moreover, there wasn��t any sadness on their faces. They were so calm that it was a little scary. In addition, because I had been paying attention to them these days, I even discovered their little secret.


    ��That is, this group of retired soldiers will also perform a small ritual before the meal, simr to the pre-meal prayer, but not the Christian kind. Moreover, they are very secretive and try to hide it from others. In other words, they might be from a secret sect, which makes me feel a little ufortable.


    ��Although my father is an Inuit, I��m actually more inclined to atheism. However, I��m usually not very resistant to these mysterious things. On the contrary, I would feel curious from time to time. But not now, not in this uninhabited ice field, with a group of sneaky heretics. It sounds like something bad is going to happen.


    ��Although I didn��t believe the story the doctor told me, I had to admit that it haunted me for the next few days. I couldn��t even sleep well. I went to see Mr. Tam again, hoping that he would take the weapon for self-defense, but heforted me that I didn��t have to worry. There were ex-soldiers protecting us in the team. I had no choice but to bring an ice pick with me. It was better than nothing.


    ��We arrived near our destination on the seventh day. Although I didn��t see anything except the undting cier mountain range, Mr. Tam told us in an unusually firm tone that this was the ce. The ancient relic that could bring great fame to the discoverer and even rewrite the history of mankind was here, but it was hidden somewhere, and we needed to search carefully bit by bit.


    ��I carried out my duty as a guide and found a suitable camp for the expedition team. With this as the center, I began to carefully search the surroundings. I prayed that the operation would be fruitless, and that it would be best to leave empty-handed before the food and supplies ran out, so that there would be no more trouble.


    ��However, I realized that I might have underestimated Mr. Tam��s determination to find the ruins. Three dayster, we changed our camp. Mr. Tam gathered everyone together and once again reiterated the importance of what we were doing. He also said that we would not leave this ce unless we found the ruins. If the supplies ran out, he would use the satellite phone to contact another team to transport them for us. His words also caused the expressions of many people, including me, to change. ��I��m even considering stealing a satellite phone to call the police, but Greend doesn��t have enough police, and we��re in the middle of nowhere, so the number of people we can send is probably no match for these ex-soldiers. The doctor seemed to see through my thoughts and warned me not to act rashly.


    ��After that, we continued to search for the ruins. I led a group of people to the north of the camp. The geologist led a group of people to the south. They were still studying the rocks along the way because ording to Mr. Tam, the history of the ruins was very long and had already surpassed the history of mankind. The meteorologists were responsible for observing the weather every day, reminding us when there was a snowstorm and when we should return to the camp. In addition, Mr. Tam and the couple of theologians from China also brought a group of people.��


    ��On the twelfth day, the team of geologists made a new discovery. They found some strange fossils that they had found before, and this time, there were even more. Mr. Tam was very happy, and he even opened a bottle of champagne in the evening to celebrate. However, this time, for the sake of safety, he did not allow anyone to bring the fossils back to the camp. However, to everyone��s surprise, not long after eating and lying down, the strange snowstorm came again.


    ��Before that, the meteorologist announced that it would be sunny for the next two days, so we could continue to explore. Because the snowstorm came too suddenly, I didn��t even have time to chase the Greenders into the tent. As a result, I heard gunshots very quickly. The two ex-soldiers who lived with me rushed out together, just likest time. Meanwhile, I grabbed the ice ax nervously and stayed in the tent with the doctor.


    ��We turned on the camping lights, hoping that the light would give us a sense of security, but then I felt all the blood in my body rush to my head, because when we turned on the lights, we saw a shadow on one of the tents, and that shadow was exactly the same as the story that the Doctor had made up. It looked indescribably twisted and weird. The doctor and I were scared out of our wits, thinking that the thing would rush into the tent and kill us in the next second. What was worse was that the ex-soldiers had already run out to join the battle, which meant that there was no one in the tent to protect us.


    ��That was definitely the scariest half a minute of my life. However, that thing didn��t rush in after that. Even though it had its face pressed against the tent (if that part could be called a face), the barking of the dogs seemed to have attracted its attention. It walked towards that direction. When the snowstorm subsided, I stuck my head out of the door and discovered that there wasn��t a single greender dog left in the kennel. All of them had been killed. Other than that, there were three retired soldiers who had died in battle. One of them was seriously injured. I saw the remaining people carry their corpses to the side and start digging a hole. It was the same scene as thest time I saw it.


    ��But I didn��t expect Mr. Tam to be so Shameless. He still insisted on ming it all on the hungry pr bears, and had no intention of canceling the expedition, even though there were only half of thebat veterans left.��

 Chapter 1245 - Stones, Necklaces, And Rings

    Chapter 1245 Stones, Nes, And Rings


    ��Ever since we saw the shadow on the tent, Beck and I became nervous. We didn��t know what kind of monster that thing was, where it came from, or what it would do to us. Previously, I had been hunting with the Inuit, so I had an illusion that I knew enough about this ice field. However, the shaman of the Inuit always said that one should be in awe of nature, because you don��t know how many secrets are hidden in this world. In the past, I always disagreed with this sentence, but after that night, I realized how shallow my previous knowledge was.��


    ��If it wasn��t for this expedition, I would never have known that such a terrifying creature existed in this world. Most importantly, I don��t know how to deal with it. Its tentacles move quickly, and once it gets entangled, it��s a dead end. However, long-range bullets don��t seem to be able to cause much damage to it. There��s also a snowstorm as a cover. It simply doesn��t seem to have any weaknesses. Every time ites, we can only gamble on luck, but luck can��t always favor us. We don��t even know who will be the victim the next time ites.


    ��It��s not just us. I can feel that the scientists are also panicking. Geologists and meteorologists have gone to find Mr. Tam one after another, hoping to immediately end this expedition and return to Nuuk. However, just like me, their request was also rejected. On the contrary, the theologian couple seemed the calmest. No, using the word ��calm��to describe them might not be urate. I don��t know if it��s my imagination, but the woman��s expression was actually a little excited. She and her man had been chatting about something, but they were speaking in Chinese. Other than the two of them, no one in the expedition team knew what they were talking about.


    ��I don��t know what they��re talking about, but my gut tells me that they��re probably one of the few people on this expedition who really knows what��s going on, especially considering who they are. What��s happening right in front of us is clearly beyond the realm of scientific exnation.


    ��My English is only good enough for some simplemunication. I haven��t reached the level where I canmunicate with people fluently, so I asked Dr. Baker to contact them, hoping to get some information from them. I don��t expect to find a way to deal with the monster from them, at least until I die. But what I didn��t expect was that the Doctor actually gave me a surprise when he came back at night.


    ��That is an ordinary looking oval-shaped pebble with a pentagram carved on it. In the middle of the pentagram is a mysterious eye. The Doctor said that this thing is called an old seal and it has a mysterious power on it. It might be able to protect us from that monster.


    ��To be honest, I was a little skeptical at first because I didn��t know how an ordinary pebble could fight against that terrifying monster. However, considering our situation at that time, we were like people who were about to drown. We needed to hold on to everything we could. It was also strange. I don��t know if it was my imagination, but when I grabbed the pebble and fell asleep at night, I actually didn��t have nightmares anymore.


    ��Although I was woken up in the middle of the night by the Doctor next to me, he told me the next morning that he had another terrible dream about a huge city filled with huge stone pirs, walls full of hieroglyphics and Green, everywhere, sticky material.


    ��After he woke up, the Doctor seemed a little distracted. Mr. Tam saw that he was not in a good state of mind, so he specially came tofort him and let him rest in the camp for a day. However, the others still went out to search as usual. Other than the soldiers who did not show any change in expression and only knew how to carry out orders, the rest of the people were a little anxious. Only the Chinese theologians and their wife were still in high spirits.


    ��I asked to be on their team because of the rocks, which made me feel safer, but Mr. Tam turned me down, saying that I was the team��s guide, and that the person who knew the ice best should have more responsibility, so I had to continue with two ex-soldiers, and then we restricted the search area to the area where the fossils were found, and we broke through the ice with drills and explosives.


    ��However, we didn��t gain anything in the following week. I told the doctor that the stone could prevent nightmares, and then we took turns to use it. This way, we could ensure that we could have a good night��s sleep for two days, and our spirits improved a little. It wasn��t until a weekter that we lost a small team.


    ��That was a team led by a geologist. Other than him, there were three other retired soldiers, but in the end, only one person managed to escape from the terrifying snowstorm. Everyone was silent during dinner, because many people realized that if this continued, it wouldn��t be long before the entire expedition team was wiped out.��


    ��I didn��t expect that when everyone was feeling down, the monster appeared again. This time, it didn��t summon a snowstorm to protect itself and charged towards us. This was also the first time I saw its appearance. I waspletely shocked. Although I had heard the doctor describe its appearance and saw its shadow on the tent, when I saw its true form, I still felt that there was no creature in this world that was more terrifying than this.


    ��Even the demons from Hell described in the Bible are not as ugly and disgusting as this. I was so scared that I stood there, unable to move a single finger, especially when I found out that its target was me. I was so scared that I was dumbfounded. Fortunately, the doctor beside me reacted quickly and took out the pebble from his pocket. Today, it was his turn to carry it. He ced the pebble in front of me, and the next moment, a miracle happened. The Ugly Monster stopped in its tracks and charged towards the Chinese couple.


    ��In the end, the two of them calmly took out a ne and a ring. One of them had the same pattern as the one on the stone, and the other was carved with a string of twigs. When the monster saw it, it turned around again and rushed towards a retired soldier beside it. Thetter fired at it, but just like before, the bullets were not of much use to it. The monster grabbed him and mercilessly pierced his heart with its tentacles.


    ��Then the monster began to look for a new target, it looked at Mr. Tam, at that moment I think it saw that Mr. Tam is our leader, so it also adjusted the strategy, decided to kill Mr. Tam First.��

 Chapter 1246 - The City

    Chapter 1246 The City


    ��Mr. Tam stood still and did not move. However, when the monster appeared, a retired soldier ran into his tent and took out therge rectangr box that he had been carrying. The box was more than two meters long and had been ced with a set of drilling equipment. No one knew what was inside.


    ��It was not until this night that Mr. Tam opened the box and revealed the answer to the Riddle. In the box was a sickle with an exaggerated shape and an extremely long hilt. It looked very funny when paired with Mr. Tam��s slightly plump figure. After he took out the sickle, he muttered, ��I��ll just make do with it. After all, this thing only belongs to me in the modern era.��After he finished speaking, I did not see how he swung the sickle. I saw the ugly monster��s body suddenly split into two and split open from the middle, just like a piece of butter that had been cut by a hot knife.


    ��Mr. Tam took out a handkerchief from his pocket and wiped the red blood-like substance on the scythe. Then he raised his eyebrows and said, ��since you��re here, don��t hide and watch the show.��. I noticed two figures sh past on a small iceberg not far away after he said that. I didn��t know if my eyes were ying tricks on me, because those two figures looked like two big walking octopuses.


    ��Mr. Tam��s body still didn��t move, but I noticed that this time, besides his scythe, there was some dark green liquid on his clothes. During this time, my eyes didn��t leave him at all. God knows how that dark green liquid appeared there.


    W


    .


    ��He sighed and mumbled again. I usually don��t like to fight in front of other people��s homes, so I��ve been holding it in until now. You guys insist on forcing me, so why bother? Fortunately, I moved fast enough, so the guy below shouldn��t be able to sense it. After saying that, he put the scythe back into the box and returned to his previous smiling appearance. He turned his head and happily announced to us that the danger had been eliminated, so there was no need to worry about being attacked in the future.


    ��After that, without waiting for us to answer, I had the four ex-soldiers carry away the monster��s corpse on the ground, pour oil on it, and set it on fire. After they burned the thing, I saw two more soldiers carrying the oil and walking towards the iceberg. Soon, a column of smoke rose from there.


    ��Who wants to have some roasted octopus tentacles tonight? Alright, I was just joking. It was obvious that Mr. Tam was in a good mood. He was still in the mood to tell a cold joke that had no meaning. In fact, the scene just now had scared most of us silly. Until now, we were still unable to react, especially the biologist. The dead monster had probably brought up some bad memories for him, and had scared him so much that he wet his


    pants.


    ��But no one in the campughed at him, because we were all in the same mood. Of course, perhaps that Chinese couple was an exception. I saw that their gazes toward Mr. Tam became a little strange, as if they were sizing up some rare species. I felt that their interest in Mr. Tam even surpassed that of the monster, and they were even whispering their opinions. Once again, I was annoyed that I had never learned Chinese before.


    ��So I begged the doctor to go to them, but this time they didn��t give us any useful information. ��But as Mr. Tam said, after the monster and the thing hiding in the dark died, no one came to stop us, and because we didn��t have to worry anymore, the search became more efficient, and we finally found the entrance to the ancient ruins two weekster.


    ��It was under an iceberg. We drilled there for ten days before we found it. At that time, I couldn��t believe my eyes because we couldn��t find it for a long time. In addition, we lost the geologist Midway. I once suspected that we might never find it again. And speaking of which, we found this ce thanks to Mr. Tam, who pointed out the direction for the exploration team.


    ��After thest attack, I suspected that Mr. Tam had discovered something from the two things hiding in the dark. Before this, we were running around like headless chickens, trying our luck. After that day, he firmly told us to go this way. Even when we encountered icebergs and suspected that we were going in the wrong direction, he simply told us to prepare tools and equipment to break the


    ice.��


    ��We used quite a lot of explosives. One of the ex-soldiers seemed to be an expert in explosives. We only started digging after he finished sting. In ten days, we dug down about 200 meters. Finally, through the iceyer, we could vaguely see a strange city below.


    h


    ��That city has huge stone pirs and twisted buildings. The structures of the buildings inside often do not conform to Euclidean geometry. Whether it is the spatial structure or the size of the buildings, it gives people a strong sense of difort. Just looking at it makes people feel anxious and disgusted. What makes us even more uneasy is that the scene below is very simr to what we saw in the dream.


    ��After seeing the city under the ice, Mr. Tam strictly forbade us to use any more explosives. Everyone could only use an ice pick to excavate bit by bit. Even though it was still quite a distance from the city, even Mr. Tam had joined in, so the others had nothing to say. I could feel the excitement and urgency in his eyes, as if he was afraid of disturbing something below. ��After that, we dug for another week. Blisters appeared on both of my hands, and finally, an ice path that could allow one person to pass through was dug out, all the way to the top of the stone pir. The amazing thing was that even though I didn��t see any building that looked like a dome, there seemed to be something that separated the city from the iceyer above. There wasn��t a single piece of ice under the stone pir.


    ��I can even see Moss on the pir, but everything here seems dead silent, and it��s filled with a damp and gloomy atmosphere.��. Mr. Tam looked around at the people around him, and then his gaze fell on me, Dr. Baker, the Chinese couple, and the climatologist. He then asked, ��Which one of you is willing to go down for me?��?


    ��When he saw that we didn��t speak, he exined that I wanted to go down by myself, but for some reason, I couldn��t do that. My men are the same, so I hope that there are some enthusiastic volunteers among you who will go down to retrieve something for us. I will reward you greatly after that.��


    SOI!

 Chapter 1247 - That Thing

    Chapter 1247 That Thing


    ��After Mr. Tam finished speaking, the group of US looked at each other, but none of us volunteered to go down. Although we didn��t know what exactly was hidden in the ruins below, we could feel a strong difort just by looking at it through the ice, let alone going deep into it. The monster we bumped into previously on the ice field might be its nest below. If I had a choice, I would turn around and run, but the rest of the ex-soldiers were watching us.


    I knew that if I ran, they would pull out their guns without hesitation, not to mention that Mr. Tam was right beside me. Even the monster was no match for him, i didn��t think it was impossible for me to escape from him. Seeing that we were all silent, Mr. Tam��s face gradually showed impatience. At that moment, the Chinese couple spoke again, one of the women said, ��Let��s go down.��.


    ��When the rest of us heard this, we were all stunned. I didn��t expect that someone would actually volunteer. I originally thought that in the end, we would use the method of drawing lots to choose an unlucky person. Mr. Tam appeared very happy. He gave them a thumbs up and repeatedly praised them. The doctor and I looked at each other. I knew that it was time to make a choice.


    ��Personally, I don��t want to go down to the city under the ice, but among us, besides Mr. Tam and his men, only the Chinese couple seems to have some secrets about the ruins. Since they volunteered to go down, does it mean that the ce down there is not as dangerous as we thought.


    ��On the contrary, staying up there seems to be a rtively safe choice, but we have already helped Mr. Tam find his destination. In other words, we are no longer of any use to him. Will he kill us all to prevent us from talking nonsense when we go back?��?


    ��My Heart is in a fierce struggle, and in the end, I decided to continue following that Chinese couple. Because the stone they gave us previously proved to be very useful, and I also want to believe that they still have a way to tide over the difficulties, so I pulled the doctor along and told Mr. Tam that we should go down too.


    ��Both Mr. Tam and the Chinese couple were surprised, especially the man in the Chinese couple, and urged us to reconsider, saying that there might be some unexpected dangers down there, that he and his wife were willing to take the risk because, after weighing the odds, they had a better chance of survival than we did, and that their research did have some bearing on the city down there, which, he said, would help us know where they came from.


    ��I didn��t know what it meant, and the Doctor tranted it for me, and I didn��t know if there was anything missing. In fact, I only cared about the first part of the sentence, which was that he said he and his wife had a higher chance of surviving if they went down, and that��s why I decided to follow them in the end.


    ��When they saw that we had made up our minds, they stopped trying to persuade us. Mr. Tam, on the other hand, couldn��t wait for more people to go down and help him get that thing. When he found out that we were willing to join, the smile on his face couldn��t be hidden any longer. After that, he let the ex-soldiers cook and let us have a good meal. After we finished eating and packed our things, he drove the others aside, leaving only the five of us.��


    ��I asked him what you wanted us to get. He said that he didn��t really know. Although he had done some research before, there were too many targets. He didn��t know what was taken down, but he said that we would know when we saw that thing because it was the only thing in the city that didn��t belong there. He also warned us not to go to the pce in the center of the city no matter what.��


    It was unknown whether it was because the alcohol had subsided a little, but fear reappeared in Sachus��eyes. As for Songjia, she waspletely captivated by his story. When she saw Sachus stop, she immediately asked, ��What did you take out from the city under the ice?��


    Sachus took a deep breath, ��A baby boy, about two years old. We found him on a building that looked like an altar. It was not far from the huge pce. At that time, there seemed to be some strange ritual going on there. Fortunately, no one else was there, but I will never forget that strange scene. The baby was connected to a huge tentacle through the umbilical cord, as if it was absorbing nutrients from it. The owner of the Tentacle had a body that was as huge as a mountain, but it was lying quietly in the huge pce in the center of the city, which was where Mr. Tam warned us not to go.


    ��We couldn��t see what it looked like. We could only see a pitch-ck outline. The doctor and I looked away after taking a look, but we still felt extreme fear. We just wanted to crawl on the ground. ��One of its tentacles reached out of the pce and hugged the baby boy tightly. It was as if they were born as one.��


    ��To be honest, I don��t want to touch that thing on the umbilical cord at all. Although it does look like a human baby boy, its body is intact and there are no abnormalities, and it still has a heartbeat and breathing, but like the other things here, it also makes me feel disgusted and afraid from the bottom of my heart. and through the umbilical cord, I can clearly see that its blood cirction is also connected to the owner of the Tentacle, which means that its body also has the blood of the monster.


    ��If I had a choice, I would just walk away. But because of Mr. Tam��s instructions, I had to endure the difort in my heart and go forward to pull him off the tentacle. The process was easier than I thought. I didn��t even need to cut the umbilical cord, because the other end of the umbilical cord was a spike-like thing that was inserted into the Tentacle��s body. The connection between the two was only imitating the fetus and the mother, but it was not really as strong as the fetus and the mother.


    ��I pulled him off and stuffed him into my bag before running back. After running for less than 20 meters, I heard someone calling me from behind, telling me to stop. The woman of the Chinese couple came over and touched the baby��s chest and nose, saying that we had to go back because the baby��s condition was very bad after leaving the tentacles. His heartbeat and breathing were getting weaker and weaker. If this continued, there was no way he would be able to return to the ground alive.��

 Chapter 1248 - Connecting

    Chapter 1248 Connecting


    ��I��ve always respected them, but this time I��m anxious because this woman is still talking about such insignificant things. I don��t care whether this child is alive or dead, or in the depths of my heart, I can��t wait for him to die just like that. He has the blood of that monster in his body. If he really survives, who knows what kind of trouble he will cause? So My Feet didn��t stop at all, as if I didn��t hear what they said.��


    ��When the couple called me twice and saw that I didn��t respond, they stopped calling me. We continued to run forward with our heads up. After running for a while, I felt that it was a little strange because based on my understanding of the couple, they were both very independent people. They would do whatever they decided and would rarely be disturbed by others.


    ��So I turned around and saw something that shocked me. I didn��t know when, but the woman had grabbed the umbilical cord and inserted the sharp end into her arm. I was so scared that I almost sat on the ground. I asked her, are you crazy? Why are you doing this? Get Rid of that damn thing.


    ��In the end, she just shrugged at me and said Mr. Tam��s name. I knew she was threatening me because this baby was what Mr. Tam wanted, so I also yelled at her. Mr. Tam didn��t say that it had to be alive. We just need to bring this baby up to him and don��t cause any trouble.


    ��Do you want to take a gamble? She blinked and asked me. I admit that I was cowardly at thest moment because I remembered the scene where Mr. Tam used his sickle to cut open the monster that attacked us. In addition, I didn��t think that her action would have any effect. God knows why that baby was about to die. Even if there was no blood transfusion, it most likely needed the blood of the tentacle and not some human blood. Therefore, I eventually acquiesced to her action.��


    ��We continued to run forward. In a short while, I heard the sound of pantinging from behind. In order to escape from this terrible ce as soon as possible, I deliberately quickened my pace. As a woman, she was already at a physical disadvantage. She was still fooling around and connecting the umbilical cord to her body. It would be a miracle if she could feel better now. However, I did not stop because I felt that she had brought this upon herself. I would not pay for her willfulness.


    ��But after a while, I heard her breathing be more even, which surprised me a little. I thought she had finally thrown the umbilical cord away, but when I looked back, I found that she really did not have the umbilical cord on her body, because it was now on her husband��s body.


    ��Two lunatics! I cursed inwardly, but I could only helplessly ept this fact. Moreover, what I didn��t expect was that their purely desperate method actually worked. I could feel that the baby in the travel bag had actually recovered some of its vitality due to the blood infusion. This made my heart very ufortable, but I couldn��t care about this at that time because I felt that something in the city hade to life and was rapidly moving towards us.


    ��This time, I didn��t deliberately make things difficult for the Chinese couple behind me, but I knew that I had to speed up. Fortunately, we were not far from the ice path, but we still had to climb up the stone pir. When we reached thest part of the path, the four of us began to sprint.


    ��And I saw that they all took out something called the old seal and put it on their bodies. I also took out the small stone. Today, it was my turn to wear it. Dr. Baker ran forward with his head in his hands. We almost used all our strength to rush back to the stone pir before the things in the city. There was the rope we left behind.


    ��After that, we grabbed the rope and started to climb up. I saw a scene that made my head go numb. I saw many things that looked like octopus swarming towards us from all directions. I suddenly remembered that on the night of thest attack, I seemed to have seen their figures on the iceberg beside us. At that time, I thought that my eyes were ying tricks on me.


    ��These extremely ugly and terrifying things should be the natives of this city. ��We only climbed about 20 meters before the first monster came in front of the stone pir. I heard the Chinese couple shouting, ��cut the rope!��! My brain paused for a moment. I didn��t understand what they meant. Didn��t we fall down just by cutting the rope? But then I realized that they wanted us to cut the rope under us to prevent the monsters from climbing up.��


    ��I did as they said, but we seemed to have underestimated the climbing ability of these aquatic creatures. They didn��t need any rope at all. They only needed to suck the tentacles filled with suction cups onto the stone pir to climb up. Moreover, their speed was very fast. In just a short while, the first one had already approached the husband of the Chinese couple. He actually still had some strength left, but in order to protect his wife, he deliberately fell behind. When he saw the monster rush up, he took off the ring in his hand and threw it at the other party forcefully.


    ��He was lucky. The old mark carved with a tree branch hit the monster��s body, causing it to let go of its tentacle and fall off the stone pir. However, it didn��t seem to be injured. However, this was still good news for us because it bought us some time. However, before we could be happy, we saw more monsters running out.


    ��When I saw them, I felt a sense of despair. This stone pir was very high, and we had only climbed less than one-tenth of the way. There was no way we could get back to the ice path above our heads before them. Although the old seal seemed to have some effect on them, there were simply too many of them.


    The doctor and I were scared silly. Although we were still climbing up, this was only an instinctive reaction of our bodies, because our minds had long been nk. Then, I saw two more monsters scuttle up the stone pir, they were almost at the Chinese couple. They threw their nes out, but this time, they didn��t hit anything. So, the husband could only use his body to hug his wife tightly, seeing that they were about to be entangled by the tentacles, the next moment, the monsters stopped.


    ��I noticed that they seemed to be afraid of something. I didn��t think too much at that time. I just shouted and took the opportunity to continue climbing up. But before I could climb far, I was stopped by the Chinese couple behind me.��

 Chapter 1249 - The Expedition Ended

    Chapter 1249 The Expedition Ended


    ��The Chinese couple stopped me and told me to slow down because I was the fastest. I was about to reach the limit of the umbilical cord. If I continued climbing for a while, they probably wouldn��t be able to keep the umbilical cord inserted into my body. ��But how could I care about such things? There were more and more monsters down there. My mind was filled with how to get out of this damned ce. After hearing their words, I even sped up.


    ��But then I heard the wife of the Chinese couple warn me that if I don��t slow down, all of us will die here. She said that the reason why the monsters down there didn��t attack them was very likely because of the baby behind me. That child was now living on their blood. Once they died, that child would also die. If that child died, then the monsters would no longer have any scruples. At that time, the Doctor and I wouldn��t be able to live.


    ��When I heard that, my body shook. Indeed, we��ve only climbed a short distance now. With the speed of those monsters, if the Chinese couple dies, then the doctor and I will definitely follow in their footsteps. It��s just a little earlier and a littleter. So, although I wish I could grow wings and fly out of this ce as soon as possible, I still had to slow down and let the Chinese couple follow behind me.


    ��We climbed for a full 20 minutes before we reached the top of the stone pir. During that time, those monsters had been following behind us. However, just like what the Chinese couple said, they seemed to be worried about the baby��s life and did not make a move against us. It was only when we climbed into the ice path that they did not catch up to us at the top of the stone pir. They only looked at US coldly from below. There seemed to be some unseen force restricting them, preventing them from leaving the city under the ice.


    ��However, we didn��t dare to let our guard down. Even though we were physically and mentally exhausted at the time, we still used thest of our strength to rush up from the bottom.��


    Sartrus finally finished telling the bizarre and bizarre adventure story, and the people in the room fell into silence.


    However, the reason for everyone��s silence was different. Songjia thought that Zhang Heng would continue to tell her the questions she wanted to ask, but after waiting for a while, she realized that Zhang Heng hadn��t said anything. She turned her head away, she realized that Zhang Heng was lowering his head, deep in thought.


    She hadn��t been in contact with Zhang Heng for too long, but his calm and collected style had left a deep impression on her, however, this time, after listening to Sartrus��story, Zhang Heng was surprisingly absent-minded.


    Therefore, song Jia turned around and asked herself, ��How did you, uh�� deal with the baby in the end?��


    ��As promised, I handed the baby over to Mr. Tam. He looked ecstatic as he held the baby up and looked around, mumbling something. Unfortunately, my English wasn��t good, so I didn��t understand the meaning of the word. Later, I asked the doctor, and the Doctor suspected that there was something wrong with his own ears because he heard Mr. Tam say the word �� container.��


    ��Container? What Container?��Song Jia raised her eyebrows.


    ��I don��t know. I was very scared at that time, and I didn��t have time to think too much about it. After I came out of the city under the ice, I found that there were no meteorologists and biologists on it. I asked Mr. Tam where they went, and Mr. Tam casually said that there was nothing to do here, so he told them to go back first. But I��m not a fool, so how could I believe such nonsense? Our exploration has reached the end, and they only need to wait for another half a day before they can go back with the main group. Moreover, they are only scientists, not professional explorers. How can they go back in such a snowy ce?


    ��So it��s more likely that Mr. Tam and his men did something to them, and my hair stood on end at the thought of it. Mr. Tam obviously didn��t want what happened here to be known to anyone else. The doctor and I were able to follow the Chinese couple down and escape, but what are we going to do now?


    ��Mr. Tam seemed to be thinking about how to deal with our problem after he was happy. His gaze followed the umbilical cord to the Chinese couple, and a strange expression appeared on his face. Then, he said, ��Fate is always full of magical changes, isn��t it? Perhaps this result is not bad.


    ��However, he did not continue speaking after that. Instead, he looked at me and the Doctor and said that I have always been a person who keeps his promises. I promised that as long as you did what I asked you to do, I would give you a great reward. So, now, let��s talk about what you all want. Don��t worry. I��m like your magicmp, giving you whatever you want.


    ��The Doctor said I don��t want anything but to get out of this hellhole, go home, take a shower, and lie in bed doing nothing. Mr. Tam seemed surprised and asked, are you sure, young man? Is that what you want? ��Yes, that��s all I want,��the Doctor replied with certainty.


    ��Alright, if you insist.��Mr. Tam shrugged as he spoke. He then looked at me. I wanted to say the same, but the Doctor beat me to it. Honestly, considering the experiences we��ve had along the way, there��s nothing that could tempt me more than returning home and having a good sleep on the bed. I only wanted to put the monsters and the city under the ice in my mind. However, looking at Mr. Tam��s regretful expression, I thought that this might really be an opportunity. Hence, I probed and asked if I could ask for two billion kroner.��


    ��You sure have a big appetite, ��Mr. Tam said with a smile. Then he said, ��I can give you two billion kroner, but you haven��t paid that much yet.��. I wasn��t too disappointed after I heard that. I was just making up this figure, so it was normal to be rejected. But then I heard Mr. Tam continue, ��50 million. 50 million kroner is a fair price.��.


    ��After he said this, I noticed that the doctor��s face turned green. He looked extremely upset, as if he didn��t expect Mr. Tam to be so rich. He wanted to change his previous request, but Mr. Tam rejected it. He only had one chance. When Mr. Tam said this, I always felt that he was secretly happy, because he really liked the feeling of fooling others.


    ��With our example, I was curious about what the Chinese couple would want, but Mr. Tam didn��t seem to want others to hear his conversation with the Chinese couple, so he waved me and the doctor away. They chatted for half an hour on the other side, and finally, I saw Mr. Tam reach out and shake hands with the Chinese couple. As if in agreement, I reconnected with the captain by satellite phone, and half a monthter we were back in Nuuk, ending the expedition once and for


    all.��

 Chapter 1250 - The Answer That Can Not Be Touched

    Chapter 1250 The Answer That Can Not Be Touched


    ��Since you have safely returned to Nuuk and said that you want to put the things that happened during the expedition behind you, why do you still want to join such a mysterious cult?��Sonja asked the biggest question in her heart.


    ��Because both the doctor and I underestimated the impact of what we saw below. After we returned, our lives were indeed peaceful for a period of time, but then we had nightmares at night and started to have inexplicable low fevers. The content of the dreams was usually rted to the city under the ice. At first, we thought that it was because the previous scene was too terrifying and left a deep impression on us, so it appeared repeatedly in our dreams. Butter, when we checked the time, we found that the days of our dreams were almost exactly the same, and the content of our dreams were also the same. Only then did we realize that there might be something wrong with us.


    ��After that, we went for a physical check-up, but we couldn��t find anything. Our physical indicators were normal, except that we were a little depressed due to the nightmare. We didn��t know who to save for this kind of thing. Since the end of the expedition, we lost contact with Mr. Tam. It was as if he had vanished into thin air. Moreover, considering what he had done to us, even if I had his contact information, I wouldn��t look for him again.


    ��After that, I called the Chinese couple, and they told me that they were not troubled by simr nightmares. Since the end of the expedition, their physical and mental conditions were normal, and they could not be better.


    ��The doctor and I were very strange. We suspected that it was just our imagination, but when we found the old seal they gave us and put it on our bodies, the situation became much better, but we were not happy about it. Instead, we fell into a great panic, because it meant that the underground city and the monsters below were still influencing us in another way.


    ��And after that, in my daily life, I always felt that someone was spying on me, and so did the doctor, and in order to uncover our secrets, we began our own investigation of the city under the ice, and I noticed that the description in a novel was very simr to that of the city, but the night I borrowed the novel from the library, I had a horrible, long nightmare, and when I finally opened my eyes, I found myself lying in a hospital bed, and the Doctor was looking at me with a sad face.


    ��He forced a smile on his face when I woke up. I asked him why I was here. He said I had been unconscious for a whole day and a half. I was shocked when I heard that. I thought someone had drugged me, but then I remembered something Mr. Tam said to us before he left. He said that ignorance is bliss. Sometimes the more you try to find the answer, the deeper you fall. ��But I didn��t take it to heart at the time, so I went back and checked the water and food in the house, and after making sure there was nothing wrong, I opened the book again and read the first story in it called ��Crazy Mountains��. To be honest, the story was not easy to read, the sentences were obscure, boring, and full of long descriptions of the environment, but the protagonists in the story were very simr to my experience, except that they went to the south pole and Greend was in the Arctic Circle.


    ��But the more I read, the more frightened I became, because I have reason to suspect that the monster in the story is the same species as the one that attacked our camp. They don��t seem to be creatures from Earth. If I had read such a story before this expedition, I would have treated it as a fictional horror story. But now I suspect that the author of the book has experienced something simr. Unfortunately, he has been dead for many years, or I would have called him,�� said Sachus.


    ��After reading the story, I climbed into bed. I had insomnia for a long time and couldn��t fall asleep after tossing and turning. It was around four in the morning when I fell asleep due to exhaustion. After that, I found myself back in the city under the ice. I was scared half to death, especially when the things inside came to life and used their tentacles to strangle my neck. I felt like I couldn��t breathe����


    ��Until I vaguely heard the doctor��s voice calling my name, and then, with all my strength, I finally broke free from that horrible nightmare, only to find myself lying in a hospital bed again, with a catheter and a needle.


    ��Beck said thank God, Sachus. You finally woke up. I asked him how long I slept this time. He said that for a full five days, the hospital suspected that I would never wake up again. During this period, he kept putting an old mark made of a stone on my chest. Thisa also confirmed one thing for me. That is, I can not continue to investigate. The truth will probably only lead us into endless madness and fear in the end.


    ��The Doctor agreed with me because he had done some research, and because he happened to be wearing the old seal, his condition was slightly better than mine. However, he also felt that his mental condition had worsened, and his low fever and nightmares had be more frequent. Therefore, we reached a consensus and stopped there.


    ��At the same time, we also began to turn to some scientific means to stop those nightmares and restore our spirits. We did some psychological treatment, but it had little effect. We tried to forget everything about the expedition, but it didn��t seed. Until one day, a mysterious hybrid visited my house and told me that he had a way to solve the problem that I was facing now.


    ��From the very beginning, I guessed that he was lying, but at that time, I was searching for a way to get rid of the nightmare. No matter what method I tried, I would give it a try. So, I followed him to their church.


    ��At that time, they were carrying out a daily ritual. When I arrived at their base, I felt that something was wrong because the style of decoration there was very simr to that terrifying city under the ice. However, it was toote for me to leave. They forced me to watch their bloody and crazy ritual. Only then did I realize that the object of their worship was the huge shadow in the pce in the city.


    ��After the ceremony ended, they hadpletely fallen out with me and gave me two choices. One was to start working for them from today onwards and join them at the right time to be one of them. They said that I was also chosen and that this was my final destination. The other was to be the sacrificial offering for the next sacrifice. To be honest, I didn��t want to choose either of these two choices, but inparison, the first choice was still slightly better than the second. Hence, I became the leader of that group from then on.��

 Chapter 1251 - It’s You?!

    Chapter 1251 It��s You?!


    ��Then how did you open this museum?��Sonja continued to ask.


    ��Those fanatics had a conflict with an Inuit tribe in the north due to some matters, so the Inuit people started to search for their whereabouts. They had no choice but to break it into pieces. But in the end, there had to be a ce where they could gather, and it was also convenient for them to hold regr ceremonies. So I built this art museum, using the 50 million that Mr. Tam gave me.


    ��In order to avoid suspicion, I changed my name and lived in seclusion. Among the fanatics, there are also very rich people. Among them are two collectors, and there is even a very famous artist internationally. He has a good rtionship with the British Royal Family and was even conferred a Lord by Queen Elizabeth. They have also donated a lot of money and artworks. It is precisely because of this that my art museum has its current scale, ��Sachus said truthfully.


    <b>U</b>


    ��You say you use it as a ce for parties and sacrifices?��Sonja was concerned about another question.


    Sachus knew what she wanted to ask and sighed, ��In order to prevent myself from falling further into madness andpletely losing my mind, I��ve always been trying to reduce my contact with those fanatics. Their sacrifices haven��t been attended much either. But, yes, I know what you��re asking. Their sacrifices usually choose sacrifices. Sometimes, they choose from their own insiders, but most of the time, they choose ordinary people from the outside. But because they��re afraid of being discovered, they rarely attack the residents of the ind. Usually, the ones they target are tourists whoe here to y and some people who are staying here illegally. Most of them are criminals who fled here after being wanted by Interpol.�� ��And you��ve been secretly helping them all these years?��


    ��Like I said, I had no choice. In order to survive, I even had to kill my old friend with my own hands.��When Sachus said this, his face did not even turn red, which made the girl feel extremely angry, ��How do I know that you didn��t deliberately make up such a story to Shirk your responsibility after you killed Dr. Baker? ��After all, the things you said were too strange and weird, and now that everyone is dead, no one can prove it but yourself.��


    ��Just treat it as if I��m talking nonsense when I��m drunk. I hope so too.��Surprisingly, Sachus did not refute.


    At that moment, he saw Zhang Heng open his wallet and take out a photo. He ced it on the coffee table in front of him.


    Zhang Heng did not ask song Jia to trante because the sentence was notplicated. He asked directly in English, ��Is this the photo of your expedition team from back then?��


    Sachus lowered his head and looked at the photo on the coffee table. His expression immediately changed. He eximed, ��Who are you exactly?��


    Previously, Zhang Heng was able to call out his name, which he had not used for a long time, which made his heart tighten. Now, the other party had taken out a group photo of the expedition team. Sachus remembered very clearly that at that time, Kodak was still the one who took the photo, at that time, only six photos had been developed. In other words, there were very few people in the expedition team who had this photo. ��You��re one of Mr. Tam��s Men?��Sachus blurted out subconsciously. The reason he had made such a guess was that only Mr. Sam had the negative, so the probability of the photo leaking out from him was the highest, but soon, he seemed to have thought of something, and his entire body shrank back.


    Songjia did not expect a man to be so frightened, especially considering that he had just killed an old friend that he had known for almost twenty years, furthermore, he had allowed that group of fanatics to perform evil rituals right under his nose. In the past ten years, there had probably been more than a hundred victims, and it was this cold-hearted fellow who was now crying and Snot flowing out of his eyes. His facial features werepletely twisted with fear.


    He stared at Zhang Heng with wide eyes and finally managed to squeeze out a sentence that confused song Jia. ��It��s�� It��s You?!��


    Song Jia could even hear the sound of Sachus��teeth shing against each other. However, Zhang Heng did not seem like he wanted to exin himself. He only kept the photo on the table after getting the answer he wanted, he put it back into his wallet and nodded at song Jia. ��I��ve asked all the questions I want to ask him.�� ��Sorry, can I ask him a few questions?��


    The person who spoke was Alicia. She, i, and Song Jia came to the second floor together. Perhaps it was because Zhang Heng had just saved their lives, butpared to when they first met, their attitude had be much more respectful and polite.


    Even though both of them looked anxious and had a lot to ask Sachus, the two Inuit teenagers stayed obediently at the side. They did not say a word. It was as if they were two blobs of air, however, they had also listened to the strange and strange story of Sachus. During that time, i and Alicia opened their mouths several times, but they held back the words that were about toe out of their mouths. It was not until Zhang Heng finished asking that they opened their mouths again.


    ��Go Ahead, ��Zhang Heng said lightly after listening to Songjia��s trantion.


    Hearing this, Alicia quickly walked up to Sachus. She took a deep breath and asked, ��Where is Hans?��.


    However, Sachus looked as if he had been scared silly by Zhang Heng. After hearing Alicia��s question, he did not react at all. Alicia did not stand on ceremony and pulled out the small knife that i had given her, she ced it on Sachus��neck.


    However, even though the knife had cut through Sachus��skin, thetter did not seem to notice it at all.


    i frowned. ��No Way, did he really be silly?��He grabbed Sachus��cor and pulled him up from the sofa with a look of unwillingness.


    ��What do you want to ask?��Song Jia could not help but ask when she saw the two Inuit��s anxious expressions.


    ��We were set up by our own people. Otherwise, we wouldn��t be in such a sorry state. We almost lost our lives, and that guy even hid the holy relic, ��Ole said hatefully, ��I even spoke up for Hans earlier, saying that he would never betray us. I didn��t expect him to be such a person. He even forgot about the enmity between his father and brother, and ended up hanging out with his own enemies.��


    ��The situation is still uncertain. We can��t jump to conclusions so soon,��Alicia, who had previously suspected Hans, said instead.


    ��What��s there to be uncertain about? Among the people in Nuuk, Eli is already dead. You and I were attacked, and the only person who has the ability to leave a mark is Hans, ��Ole said angrily, ��He has obviously defected to those fanatics. It��s just that I don��t know how long it��s been. It��s all my fault. I shouldn��t have let people take the holy relic out of the tribe. Otherwise, there wouldn��t have been anything after that.��


    ��It��s not your fault. We agreed to do this at that time.��Alicia��s tone suddenly paused when she said this.

 Chapter 1252 - Hamken And The Bar

    Chapter 1252 Hamken And The Bar


    ��What��s Wrong?��i asked curiously.


    ��Nothing, I just thought of something, ��Aliesia said.


    ��What is it?��


    ��Forget it, it��s not important anymore.��Aliesia shook her head. Then, she turned to look at Zhang Heng. Suddenly, she pulled down the fishbone ne from her hand and walked toward Zhang Heng with it.


    ��She said that she was very grateful to you for saving her and herpanions��lives and wanted to give you this bracelet.��Song Jia tranted Alicia��s words for Zhang Heng, ��Take this bracelet to her tribe and you will be the most distinguished guest there. One day, when she bes a shaman, all the Inuit will be your friends. In addition, from now on, you will be protected by Hamken when you sail on the sea. Of course, you have to have it nearby.��


    ��Who is Hamken?��


    ��Uh, it��s the deep sea monster carved on your bracelet. It��s a blue whale. It��s over a hundred years old, and it��s veryrge. Most blue whales like to stay close to the South Pole. I don��t know why it woulde to the North Pole alone. It��s also Alicia��s guardian spirit.��


    Zhang Heng epted the bracelet without any hesitation.


    Aliesia hesitated for a moment before pointing at the frightened-looking Sachus on the sofa. ��What do you n to do with him? If possible, can you hand him over to me?��


    ��You want to take him away?��Songjia looked a little surprised, ��It seems like there��s something wrong with his mental state. We can��t get anything out of him. Furthermore, he killed Dr. Baker. Perhaps we should hand him over to the police.��


    However, when she told Zhang Heng about this suggestion, thetter shook his head, ��We can��t hand him over to the police, at least not now, because we can��t exin what happened tonight, especially with so many bodies down there.��


    At that moment, Alicia spoke up again, ��My teacher, Kuna, is the current shaman of our tribe. He��s also the most powerful shaman of the Inuit in the past 200 years. He canmunicate with spirits and interpret dreams, and he��s also a well-known wise man. Previously, this fellow mentioned many nightmares that gued him. Although he doesn��t seem to be able tomunicate with others now, my teacher might not need him to speak. He might be able to directly start from his dreams and obtain some useful information.


    ��The sacred relic is very important to us. Not only can we tell if outsiders harbor malicious intentions toward our tribe, but it can also help the young shamansmunicate with the spirits of Heaven and earth. Without it, we will most likely be left without a sessor. Especially now that the shamans are getting weaker and weaker, we can��t do without it.��


    Zhang Heng thought about it and said, ��Sure, but I can only give you three days at most. In three days, regardless of whether you have the information you want or not, I will take him away.��


    ��You still want to take him away?��Alicia was a little surprised, ��But didn��t you finish asking all the questions before? Wait, do you want him to take you to the city under the ice?��? ��You heard what he said before, right? Even though I��m not sure if the story is true or not, and whether the monsters that don��t belong to Earth really exist, there is indeed an extremely powerful evil presence in the city under the ice. Our tribe has been fighting against it for years, and I want to take this opportunity to learn more about it


    ��I��ll take him away in three days.��


    Zhang Heng didn��t exin further, but he reiterated his position. He hade to Greend to find out about his background, now, through Sartrus, he knew that he came from that strange and mysterious city under the ice. His adoptive parents and Sartrus had taken him out of there, and the monster��s blood flowed in his body, perhaps this was also the reason why he had the strange ability to control water, as well as the strange dream.


    However, Zhang Heng still did not know who his biological parents were. He was only a year old, so why had he appeared in the city under the ice? What did the monster want to do to him, Mr. Tam, that was also why the god of time, Chronos, had organized people toe all the way here to look for him. After that, his adoptive parents reached an agreement with Chronos, and they actually brought him back to the country, he had raised him as his own child until now..


    Zhang Heng hoped that the city under the ice would answer his questions, or at least some of them. In addition, the word ��Container��mentioned by Mr. Tam also made many connections in Zhang Heng��s mind, but tonight.., he didn��t want to think about these questions anymore.


    He said to i and Alicia, ��Please take care of the bodies downstairs. I still need to stay here for a while. I don��t want to be targeted by the police for the time being.��


    ��Okay.��Alicia nodded. ��We can do this. Leave it to us.��


    ��Keep an eye on this guy. Don��t let him get away.����Zhang Heng pointed at Sachus on the sofa and then turned to Song Jia. ��Is there a bar nearby? I want to go for a drink.��


    ��Now�� Now?��Song Jia was stunned. When she saw Zhang Heng assign the cleaning to the two Inuit, she thought he would have something important to do next, however, she didn��t expect him to just want to find a ce to have a drink.


    ��Yes, that��s right. We can talk about your sry in the future. You��re right. Considering the danger this time, I should pay you more.�� ��That��s not what I meant.��Song Jia started to feel embarrassed when she heard that. It was as if she had said that she wasn��t going to be Zhang Heng��s trantor anymore because of the money. ��You deserve it.��


    ��But I haven��t decided whether or not I should continue to be your trantor and


    guide.��


    Zhang Heng nodded. ��I understand your concern, but let��s talk about the rest after we finish drinking.��


    ��Okay, I know a good bar nearby. I��ve been through a lot today, so I��d like to have a drink too.��


    ��Okay, let��s go.��Zhang Heng stood up and walked downstairs with his clothes on.


    His mood was not as calm as it appeared on the surface. Even though he had a premonition before this trip to Greend, the moment the truth was revealed.., when he realized that he was not the child of his parents, he felt another wave of emotions that he had not felt for a long time. However, this wave of emotions was veryplicated, zhang Heng did not know how to describe his current mood. It was as if he had lost something important.

 Chapter 1253 - Nightlife In A Bar

    Chapter 1253 Nightlife In A Bar


    Although it was already veryte, the bar that Songjia had chosen had been doing quite well on the ind. There were quite a few people inside, some drinking and chatting in groups of twos and threes at the bar counter, some were ying pool at the side.


    Zhang Heng wasn��t in the mood to pay attention to the people around him at the moment. He and Songjia picked a table near the corner and sat down.


    Even though he had said that he wanted toe straight to the bar, he still went back to his room to change his clothes. He changed out of the bloodstained coat and washed his face. He looked much more normal now, after that, he drove to the bar.


    Zhang Heng took the wine list and ordered three bottles of alcohol in one go. They were all very strong alcohol. Then, he passed the wine list to Song Jia, who was sitting opposite him. ��Let��s see what you want to drink.��


    Song Jia heaved a sigh of relief. When she saw Zhang Heng order strong liquor right away, she was rmed. She thought this was another man��s trick, but she didn��t expect Zhang Heng to order all three bottles for her, song Jia then ordered herself a cocktail and a fruit te and returned the wine list to the bartender.


    After the bartender left, the girl couldn��t help but change the topic back to the previous matter. ��Do you really n to go to the northern ice field to find the city under the ice?��


    ��Yes, is there a problem?��


    <b>1111</b>


    Faced with Zhang Heng��s retort, Songjia did not know where to begin. However, after spending more than half a day with him, they could still be considered friends. After some thought, she tried to persuade him, ��Let��s not talk about how reliable that story is. I personally feel that this is just the collective imagination of a group of mentally ill patients. Even if what he said is true, you��ve seen what happened to him and Dr. Baker. Shouldn��t we find a way to get as far away from the underground city as possible? ��Why are you still looking for it?��


    ��I came to Greend to investigate this matter. Since I have a lead, I will continue to investigate,��Zhang Heng said, ��You don��t have to worry too much about me. For some reason, the nightmares that caused Dr. Baker and Sachus to go crazy won��t affect me too much.��


    ��What about the extreme weather and harsh natural conditions? Greend is in the Arctic Circle, and the ce you��re going to is a no-man��snd. It Won��t be an easy journey.��


    ��Thank you for your reminder. I��ll set off once I��m ready,��Zhang Heng said.


    Considering the impact that the city and the things inside had on the spirits of ordinary people, Zhang Heng did not n to hire a guide this time. After all, with his ability to survive in the wild, it would not be dangerous for him to travel alone, as for thenguage problem, it was not very useful in a no-man��snd, and the monsters in the city probably did not speak Greendic.


    However, before that, Zhang Heng still needed Songjia to help him purchase exploration equipment, supplies, and contact the ships. This was also the reason why Zhang Heng promised to increase Songjia��smission, but Zhang Heng nned to discuss thister.


    The bartender was quite efficient. Soon, the drinks and fruit tes ordered by the two of them were served.


    Seeing that Zhang Heng did not seem to be interested in continuing the conversation, Songjia also turned his attention to the cocktail and fruit tes in front of him. It was probably because he had been stimted by the strange and scary story from before, song Jia needed some alcohol to rx and calm herself down.


    So the two of them started to drink. In the end, not only did song Jia finish the cocktail she ordered, but she also felt like she hadn��t finished it yet. After half a day, she had gradually let down her guard against Zhang Heng, so she drank some more of Zhang Heng��s hard liquor, even though it had almost half a ss of ice.


    ��I��m going to the washroom.��After another ss, song Jia got up from her seat and staggered toward thedies��washroom. During this time, she met a man who wanted to strike up a conversation with her, but Song Jia shook her head, the man politely stopped in his tracks and waved the ss in his hand at her, wishing her a happy day.


    Because she felt some physiological changes, song Jia even quickened her pace at thest moment. She dived into the emptydies��washroom and chose a cubicle to release herself. After she was done, she flushed and walked out of the cubicle, she washed her hands and touched up her makeup in front of the sink.


    Just as she lowered her head and applied some hand sanitizer on her hands and rubbed them repeatedly, the bathroom door was pushed open again. A figure quietly walked in.


    If song Jia raised her head at this moment, she would definitely scream out loud.


    Because the person who entered the bathroom at this moment had a face that was exactly the same as her. There was no difference in the way she dressed. Even if she took off her clothes, there was a birthmark on the lower left side of her chest, the shape and size were exactly the same.


    In fact, other than the person��s gaze that seemed a little crafty, even her actions were exactly the same as hers. And this replica of her did not stop after entering the washroom, she walked behind her, reached out, and grabbed song Jia��s neck.


    After about ten minutes, the door to thedies��washroom opened again, and song Jia walked out. Her face was still slightly red, and her footsteps were still a little light, however, after she sat back down, she grabbed the bottle in front of her again, but the next moment, a hand grabbed the bottle of whiskey before she could.


    ��You��ve had a lot to drink tonight, so you should control yourself,��Zhang Heng said. ��I ordered you a ss of lemonade.��


    Song Jia smiled. After drinking, she had a kind of charm that she didn��t have during the day. This smile made many people in the bar turn their gazes over, ��It��s okay, my alcohol tolerance isn��t that bad. Besides, didn��t you drink more than me? I wanted to ask you before. What��s wrong? Is There Something on Your Mind Tonight?��


    Zhang Heng didn��t deny it. ��I am indeed thinking about something.��


    ��Yes, it shouldn��t be about the explorationter. After you entered the bar, you didn��t really want to talk about it. This made me curious. You were so calm in the face of danger earlier. I was almost scared to death, but your mood didn��t change at all. It was as if nothing in the world could affect you,��song Jia said, ��At that time, I began to wonder if this Chinese��s heart was made of stone.��


    ��My Heart is no different from other people��s.��Zhang Heng paused before adding, ��Probably. Also, I was thinking about something at home.��


    ��HMM, are you thinking about your lover?��


    ��No, my parents.��Perhaps it was because they were thousands of kilometers away in Greend, coupled with the fact that they had spent more than half a day together with Songjia, they had gone through so much together, zhang Heng gradually dispelled his suspicion and wariness toward the girl. On top of that, he also wanted to hear other people��s opinions on this matter. Thus, he said, ��I realize that I don��t seem to be born of my parents.��

 Chapter 1254 - Millennium Falcon Or Chewbacca?

    Chapter 1254 Millennium Falcon Or Chewba?


    ��Really? When?��Songjia asked in surprise.


    ��It��s been a while.��


    ��I thought you just found out. Now I��m afraid I��m going to wonder if you��re the mysterious baby from the city under the ice.��Songjia wanted to tell a joke to rx the atmosphere, however, it didn��t seem to work.


    So she ate an apple and asked, ��Then do you know who your biological parents are?�� ��Not yet.��


    ��It��s okay. With your ability, I��m sure you��ll find out soon enough,��song Jia said.


    Zhang Heng didn��tment. He poured himself another ss of wine. He had already drunk two bottles of hard liquor, and the remaining bottle was almost finished with the guide. A rare hint of drunkenness appeared on his face, ��I��ve been searching�� For my origins. Because I believe that only by figuring out where I came from can one know where one should go in the future.��


    ��That sounds very philosophical.��Songjia shrugged.


    ��But now, I don��t know if I really want to know the final answer.��Zhang Heng finished the whiskey in his hand.


    ��I can understand. Your current family must be very happy. Your adoptive parents are very good to you. You have a warm living environment, and you don��t want to lose everything. But it doesn��t matter. You can find your biological parents first. If�� I mean, if you don��t like them, you can just walk past their door without telling them anything. You can turn around and continue living your life.��


    ��It��s not that simple.��Zhang Heng shook his head.


    ��Alright, you��re right. After breaking up with my first love, I��ve told myself countless times that this matter has passed. I should have assumed that there was never such a person before, or that he was killed by a car. However, reality has proven that I still remember the days I spent with him.��Song Jia Sighed, with a wave of his hand, he called the bartender over and poured him another cocktail. ��You just can��t betray the past, can


    you?��


    ��Yes.��


    ��So, are you thinking of giving up Halfway?��Song Jia propped up her chin with her hand and looked at Zhang Heng.


    ��No, I don��t think I have too many choices on this issue. My past hase knocking on my door. I need to find the answer before it��s toote, whether I like it or not,��Zhang Heng said calmly.


    ��It sounds like you��ve been having a hard timetely,��song Jia said as she took a new cocktail from the bartender. She imitated Zhang Heng and finished it in one gulp. Then, she put down the ss and continued, ��But I��ll leave these things to tomorrow. HMM�� I know a ce that��s more interesting than this. However, that ce is only open to young people on the ind. A tourist like you won��t be able to find it even if you open Google Maps. To be honest, I shouldn��t have brought you there. But who cares? We��ve had too much to drink tonight anyway. How about it? Are you interested?��


    Song Jia had a mysterious look on her face, but Zhang Heng said, ��You��ve had quite a bit to drink tonight. You should go home and rest.��


    ��No, I��ve seen more dead people today than I��ve seen in the past 20 yearsbined. In addition to the scary story I heard, I don��t want to go back to an empty room alone. Whether youe or not, I��m definitely going.��


    After that, she rubbed her face and stood up shakily from her seat. She was about to walk out of the bar, but the next moment, her leg seemed to trip over something. Fortunately, she reached out to grab the table in time so she didn��t fall to the ground.


    Looking at her current state, Zhang Heng couldn��t let her wander around alone. So he pulled out a 500-kroner note and ced it on the table before chasing after her.


    ��Are you sure you want to go? We��re both drunk, so we can��t drive.��


    ��It doesn��t matter. The ce is close to here anyway, so we can walk there. Leave the car here.��Song Jia nced at Zhang Heng behind her, ��Has anyone told you that you��re a really strange enemy? You can kill 30 people without blinking, but you don��t want to drive after drinking? What, are you worried about being caught by the traffic police?��


    ��Thew may not be perfect, but its existence has its own meaning. It can help you and others avoid many dangers. I have no intention of challenging thew, but if necessary, I don��t mind breaking it a little. In the end, I��m just weighing the risks of various options and choosing the one with the least risk, ��Zhang Heng said.


    Song Jia tilted her head and thought for a moment, ��Even though I didn��t quite understand what you said, it sounded pretty cool, so you should be a good fit for the ce we��re going. There are plenty of cool people like you there. HMM, even though you guys are different in your cool ways, your attitude toward thew is pretty simr.��


    ��Where exactly are you nning to go?����Zhang Heng frowned. ��Rx, they��re all nice people. The ce isn��t dangerous, or else I wouldn��t have gone there in my drunken state,��song Jia said with a wave of her hand, ��It��s just a secret base built by a group of Nerds and geeks. They asionally break thew, but it��s all online. One of them has a father who manages the dock, and the other one runs an exploration equipment store. If you want to go north, you can use them to find a boat and buy supplies. The price is only half of what it is outside.��


    Song Jia paused for a moment before continuing, ��This is the best I can do for you. I��m not going on an adventure with you. After all, I don��t want to see any more corpses or hear any more scary stories.��


    ��That��s good enough. I��ll pay for the guide as usual until the day I leave Greend, ��Zhang Heng said.


    ��Then I wish you good luck.��Song Jia didn��t decline.


    The two walked down the path behind the bar. After about five minutes, they arrived at a vi. Although the vi was close to the beach, it was still quite a distance away from other nearby buildings, furthermore, the courtyard wall was brickwork. It was about two meters tall, so the people outside couldn��t see what was inside. It was quite mysterious.


    Other than that, Zhang Heng also noticed the two cameras on the outer wall. One of them seemed to have motion sensing function, but it was more of a gimmick than a practical use. Because just now, a few seagulls had flown past, they were also chased by the cameras for quite some time, so they were probably even busier during the day.


    Song Jia walked up, and the motion camera gave up on the seagulls that had already flown away. It turned back to Song Jia, and after a while, a slightly nervous voice came from the speaker. ��Secret signal.��


    ��Millennium Falcon? or Chewba?��


    ��No, this week��s secret signal is the enterprise. It��s from Star Trek, not Star Wars.��


    ��Anyway, it doesn��t make any difference. Didn��t you already see me? Open the door, I brought a guest here,��song Jia said impatiently.

 Chapter 1255 - Special Party

    Chapter 1255 Special Party


    The person behind the camera was caught in a dilemma.


    On one hand, he did recognize Songjia, but on the other hand, he was unwilling to let the sacred rules be broken. However, just as he was hesitating, someone in the room came up to the screen and shouted, ��Hey, isn��t this Songjia? Open the door�� No, don��t open it yet. Let��s clean up.��


    After another three minutes, the electronic lock on the vi��s front door was finally unlocked. Songjia pulled the door open, waved at Zhang Heng, and walked in. Seeing this, Zhang Heng followed behind her.


    The two of them walked through the front yard of the vi. There was a small swimming pool there, but it was probably frozen most of the time, so they could only use it during the summer, other than that, there was also a Gundam made of oldputers and various abandoned parts. Behind the Gundam was a two-story building. Before the two of them could enter, they heard the sound of nginging from inside. One of them even shouted, ��Quick, quick, quick, that�� new magazine, quickly stuff it under the sofa. Whose shoes are these? Put them on the shoe rack.��


    However, when Songjia and Zhang Heng walked in, the ce had already returned to its usual calm state. There were no signs of the previous chaos. Five young boys were sitting in the living room on the first floor, the ce had been transformed into a work-cum-game room. Each of them had aputer and several screens. It was obvious that most of them came from decent families. Their shoes and clothes were limited edition.


    ��Why are you here at this time?��One of the boys who had cut Beckham��s hair stood up and asked. He should be the owner of this vi.


    ��Is there anything inconvenient for you at this time?��Songjia said as she sat on the sofa at the side.


    The hearts of the boys in the room instantly jumped to their throats. Someone looked guiltily at the sofa cushion to Songjia��s left.


    ��No, it��s not inconvenient. You Know Us, we��re just�� talking about technical issues together.��Before the boy with Beckham��s hair could finish his sentence, Songjia pulled out a magazine from under the sofa cushion, the cover girl on it had a pitiful amount of fabric, and she even put on a very seductive pose.


    ��Lars bought it.��In the end, the four of them immediately sold a tall boy.


    ��I��m not your parents, so I don��t care what you read.��Song Jia flipped through the magazine and put it down. Then, she pointed at Zhang Heng and said in English, ��My friend wants to explore the no man��snd, so he needs a boat and a set of exploration equipment. If the price is right, go for the price of an acquaintance.��


    ��Sure, thank God you guys mentioned it early. ��The tall boy named Lars heaved a sigh of relief. ��Because there��s a high chance that there will be more tourists in the future. If the boat is already booked, there��s nothing I can do.��


    ��Why?��Song Jia asked. ��It��s not the peak season yet, right?��


    ��It wasn��t supposed to be, but wasn��t there an earthquake and a red aurora tonight? Someone posted a photo of the aurora online, and I noticed that the search for hotels and airline tickets in Greend has suddenly increased by dozens of times.��


    ��Is that so? Then I��ll pay the original fare,��Zhang Heng said.


    ��There��s no need for that. Since he��s sister Songjia��s friend, he must have paid the price of an acquaintance. Previously, we were caught hacking into the school��s administrative system, and it was sister Songjia who helped us plead with the principal before we were expelled,��Lars said, ��Even though I don��t mind, my parents will probably kill me if they find out.��


    ��There��s no problem with the exploration equipment. Give me your phone number, and I��ll send you an address. But when the timees, you can go to the shop and choose for yourself, or you can ask the staff to help you make it,��another boy in a coconut outfit said.


    ��Well, now that we��re done talking, it��s time to rx.��Sonja waited for them to finish talking and pped her hands. Then she turned to the boy who was doing Beckham��s hair and said, ��n, take out the things.��


    ��Now?��n was stunned. ��The party is every Thursday and Sunday.��


    ��Is that so? Isn��t today Thursday?��


    ��Well, theoretically, today is indeed Thursday�� but it��s Thursday in the wee hours of the morning, or Wednesday night, which is more appropriate,�� said the guy in the coconut.


    ��Oh no, I drank a little too much tonight, and my head is a little confused. I saw on my phone that it was Thursday, and the sky was dark again, so I brought my friends here. I was wondering why only the five of you were here. Where did the others go?��Songjia rubbed her temples in distress.


    ��If you don��t mind, you can wait here until tonight. There are a few guest rooms upstairs, ��n said.


    ��Thank you, but my friend has other things to do after that. He��ll probably be leaving Nuke Tonight,��song Jia said.


    Zhang Heng, however, did not mind. ��It��s fine, you guys just have fun. After all, I don��t like touching drugs.��


    ��No, no, no, you��ve misunderstood. Our party is not the kind of party you think it is�� a party is very scientific and healthy, ��n exined, ��We are only using music, incense, and psychological hints to help you adjust your mood. It is equivalent to a mental massage to release your stress and pent-up negative emotions.��


    ��I don��t have any negative emotions, ��Zhang Heng said calmly.


    II


    11


    ��In short, this thing doesn��t have any side effects. Moreover, after it is done, it will help you focus and react more quickly. The few of us will do it regrly, and we won��t lose our hair if we stay up all night,��Lars added, ��More and more people joined us because of our fame. There were even teachers who wanted to join us, but we rejected them. After all, we held this kind of party because we wanted to get to know some new friends, so it��s still mostly young people.�� Songjia also spoke at this time, ��In the bar, you told me that you were troubled by some things. I Can��t give you an answer, but I can bring you here to let you rx. This�� Well, the emotion regtion ss can let your spirit be immersed. Maybe it can help you see clearly the choices you want to make, but I didn��t expect that I actually remembered the wrong time.��


    n scratched his head, ��Actually, it doesn��t matter. The reason why we set a time for the party is that we can get everyone together to finish it in one go, so that everyone doesn��t have to set a time. Although there��s no harm in doing too many of these things, they��re useless. We can manage it for two or three days at a time. If your friend is really in a hurry, I can also arrange a private party for him.��


    ��Really, that I also want.��Songjia way, ��You do not know what I have experienced today, also umted a lot of psychological pressure, urgent need for a spiritual massage.��

 Chapter 1256 - Mental Relaxation

    Chapter 1256 Mental Rxation


    Seeing that n and the others had already started their preparations, Zhang Heng did not say anything more.


    Ever since he entered the room, he had been observing the five people in the room. It turned out that they were indeed dressed and behaved like students, furthermore, Zhang Heng did not find any strange statues or religious objects in their residence.


    Lars and the others connected the speakers and took out seven yoga mats. n went upstairs to retrieve the incense burner. ording to n, the spices they were burning were also made ording to the form on the inte, other than the ambergris extracted from the sperm whale, they were not valuable. Furthermore, one gram of ambergris could be used to make a lot of mixed spices, enough tost for half a


    month.


    The Man in the coconut opened the music folder, but he didn��t rush to y it. Instead, he said to Zhang Heng, ��This is your first time here, so there are some things that I need to exin to you in advance. Later, you��ll need to adjust your sitting posture and breathing method to match the music, incense, and psychological cues to the best effect. I can give you a demonstration. It��s okay, you can take a look first. If there��s anything you don��t understand or can��t remember, just ask me.��


    After that, he sat down cross-legged on the yoga mat in front of Zhang Heng and took a deep breath to rx his body. Then, he adjusted his breathing rhythm. Two slow and one fast, and there was a half-second pause in between, after that, he took another deep breath and slowly exhaled..


    Zhang Heng read through it and memorized everything


    The Man in the coconut still found it hard to believe. Even though it wasn��t difficult to master this breathing technique, especially when it followed the rhythm of the music, it was still difficult for a first-time user, to memorize it all was a bit difficult.


    However, after Zhang Heng demonstrated it once, the man in the coconut didn��t find anything wrong with it. Furthermore, the man��s sitting posture seemed to be very standard, even more so than his previous demonstration.


    ��Have you done simr mental rxation exercises before?��Song Jia couldn��t help but ask.


    ��No, how long would it take for such a scene to happen?��


    ��Don��t worry, it��ll be quick. It��ll only take forty minutes, ��n said. ��Is everyone ready?��


    ��Mm-hmm, if there are no problems with the new friend, we can begin,��Lars said.


    The boy in the coconut shirt had already lit the incense and returned to his seat. He sat down cross-legged again and soon, the smell of incense wafted into the room. It was a faint fragrance, it was mainly the fragrance of some herbs and flowers mixed together. As n said, the smell of ambergris was almost undetectable.


    This fragrance could indeed calm the mind. n opened the ethereal music in the folder and sat on the yoga mat at the front. He opened his mouth and spoke in a low voice.


    ��Now, look like you��re in the middle of the sea. There are blue waves all around you. The clear sea water sparkles under the sunlight. You can see the beach and the shells below. The sea breeze gently caressed your skin, and your body undted with the waves�� undted�� there are no distracting thoughts in your head, and no one will disturb you. It��s as if you��ve returned to your mother��s womb. This ce makes you feelfortable����


    n��s voice seemed to have some kind of magic, which could make people involuntarily lower their guard and follow his narration into the world he described. In addition, there was the faint sound of the waves in the music, the people in the room felt that they were really in a sea, and they could even smell the fishy smell of the sea.


    However, not knowing if it was because they were toofortable, many people��s eyelids began to fight at this time. They just wanted to sleep deeply in this blue and peaceful sea, and even n��s voice became erratic, and it was intermittent.


    After another half a minute, the boy in the coconut suddenly tilted his body and fell to one side,pletely falling into Dreand. His fall seemed to be the beginning, and the bodies of the rest of the people in the room also fell down one by one, including n, who was at the front. He was only halfway through his story, but he could not resist the growing sleepiness.


    This was something that had never happened at a party before, because this was only a spiritual rxation ss, not a hypnosis ss. Of course, it was not excluded that some people fell asleep because they were too rxed, but for n, who was responsible for psychological hints, he had not fallen asleep yet. Otherwise, this spiritual rxation ss, which was only halfway through, could not continue.


    Could it be that the ss was a littlete today, and he could not bear to stay upte? This was thest thought that rose in n��s mind. Then, like the others, he fell to the ground.


    At this point, everyone in the room had fallen asleep. Only the music from the speakers was still ying, and the smell of incense was getting stronger. After about a minute, song Jia��s eyelids twitched. She opened her eyes and sat up from the ground. There was no trace of sleepiness in her eyes. She looked around and finally stopped at Zhang Heng.


    ��TSK, TSK, tsk. It��s not easy to plot against you once.��


    Song Jia grumbled as she walked up to Zhang Heng. Then, she studied the man lying at her feet. She looked at Zhang Heng with aplicated gaze, and a hint of killing intent shed in her eyes, however, she suppressed it in the end and sighed, ��I can��t kill you yet, or else that snake and its minions will definitely fight me to the death. Honestly, it hasn��t been long since west met, but you seem to have be much more perfect. Now, it��s impossible for me to destroy you in advance. This is going to be troublesome. ��That old guy Kronos has really invested a lot in you. Only that little snake believes that he��s really doing you a favor, Hehe.��


    Songjia hesitated for a moment. ��It seems that we can only carry out n B.��


    After saying that, she stretched her hand to her back. As her hand approached her neck, her body began to undergo drastic changes. Her muscles began to expand, bursting through her clothes, and her bones continued to stretch, her body was at least twice as tall as before. She was more than three meters tall, and she was still growing. Her originally beautiful face was reced by an ugly tentacle. There were no eyes or nose on the tentacle, however, there were two rows of sharp teeth that had split open. Other than thisrgest tentacle, there were also smaller tentacles that were pulled out of her body. At the same time, a third leg grew out of the tailbone.


    After transforming, ��Song jia��inserted a w into the back of her neck and grabbed her second spine. Then, she forcefully pulled it out of her neck.


    Obviously, the loss of a bone for no reason made ��Song Jia��a little unhappy. She moved her tentacle a little before walking into the kitchen. She took out a meat cleaver from the knife rack and returned to the living room.

 Chapter 1257 - XM109

    <h4>Chapter 1257 XM109</h4>


    ��Songjia��walked out of the kitchen with a meat cleaver in one hand and her second spine in the other. However, the next moment, she stopped in her tracks.


    She realized that in less than ten seconds after she left, the living room had changed again. n and the others were still lying on the floor, unable to move a single finger, the speakers continued to y music, but Zhang Heng was nowhere to be seen.


    ��Song Jia��could not help but swear. ��F* ck, how can you run away like that? !��Just as she finished her sentence, the sound of a broken window came from the second floor.


    ��Song Jia��immediately rushed out of the door and into the front yard. Just as she stepped out of the door, a bullet flew toward her face. Song Jia had no time to dodge, she could only brace herself to take the bullet.


    However, she didn��t expect it to be a 25mm high explosive bullet. This bullet could prate 50mm steel tes, and after hitting the target, the explosives inside were detonated. The high temperature and sharp shrapnel scattered in all directions.


    ��Song Jia��was hit by the bullet, and the area above her neckpletely exploded. Fresh blood and minced meat were practically stuck on the wall behind her. Many parts of her body were scratched by shrapnel, and some were directly inserted into her muscles, she looked rather disheveled.


    Zhang Heng, who had fired the shot, was also slightly taken aback. He hadn��t opened his eyes in the living room to avoid suspicion. It was only after ��Songjia��had entered the kitchen that he slipped out, therefore, he hadn��t been able to see ��Songjia��after she had transformed.


    In order to prevent the target from having more time to open fire, he hadn��t looked carefully when he pulled the trigger. He had only managed to make out that the target was probably the person��s head, however, he did not expect the so-called head to be a huge tentacle. The thing that had rushed out of the house was clearly no longer rted to humans.


    However, his reaction was quick. He immediately turned the gun around and aimed at the monster��s chest.


    However, the monster was not slow either. After taking the shot, it took the opportunity to fall to the ground and roll back into the house. Therefore, Zhang Heng��s second bullet only managed to hit one of its legs, in the end, it went from three legs to two legs again.


    However, after being hit by such a terrifying attack, even though the thing looked miserable, it was not dead. It only let out a scream and then disappeared from Zhang Heng��s sight with its broken body.


    At the same time, a ck mist quickly enveloped the vi it was in.


    Zhang Heng frowned. He had just taken out his ( filter lens ) , but he realized that it was useless against the ck Mist. This was not the first time that the [ filter lens ] had failed, after all, it was only a D-grade item. It would have no problem dealing with normal natural environments, but against supernatural creatures, it might not be enough.


    With the ck fog shrouding it, Zhang Heng didn��t rush in recklessly. Instead, he changed his sniper position and continued to aim at the doors and windows with therge-caliber sniper rifle in his hand.


    The Man and the monster fell into a stalemate.


    The XM109 in Zhang Heng��s hand was made out of Lego bricks. He didn��t bring his [ hidden sheath ) and ( gue bone bow ] because he needed to pass security during his trip to Greend, �C LSB-infinite bricks ] naturally became his main weapon.


    The time limit for using the pistol that he had assembled earlier had already expired. This time, because he didn��t know who his opponent was, Zhang Heng chose a weapon that was even more lethal �� the XM109 made by Bartley Company, rather than calling it arge-caliber sniper rifle, it was actually more appropriate to call it a shoulder-fired gun.


    The caliber of this sniper rifle reached an astonishing 25mm. The high explosive rounds it was equipped with were modified directly from the Apache helicopter��s M789 high explosive dual-purpose ammunition. On the battlefield, it could even prate armored vehicles and tanks, it was a true killing machine,


    of course, in contrast to its 15kg weight, it could basically only fight on the battlefield. There was no need to think about moving.


    This was also the reason why Zhang Heng used the sound from the second floor to lure ��Songjia��out. However, he did not expect the opponent��s health bar to be so thick that it survived two rounds of high explosive bullets.


    Just as Zhang Heng was guessing how serious the monster��s injuries were, he did not expect the opponent to speak first. It was still using Songjia��s voice, but now the voice sounded a little angry and sharp, ��Why didn��t you fall asleep? !��


    ��Of course, it��s because I didn��t inhale the thing you released, ��Zhang Heng said.


    ��How is that possible?��


    ��I have to admit that your disguise is really good. I didn��t sense anything strange during the day I spent with you, and I didn��t suspect you.��


    ��Humph, that��s because the person you were with before was indeed Songjia herself.��Since it had already been exposed, the voice in the room was no longer hidden. ��I only switched identities with her when we were at the bar.��


    ��No wonder, was it�� when she went to the toilet?��Zhang Heng thought about it, ��It was also at that time that she left my sight. You wanted to get close to me when I was drunk. That way, my thinking, observation, and judgment would be weakened to a certain extentpared to usual.��


    ��It��s a pity that you drank three bottles of strong alcohol, but it doesn��t seem like you were drunk to the point of losing your vignce.��


    ��It��s not your fault. Very few people know that I can hold my liquor well.��Zhang Heng rarely drank, and even the people around him thought that he couldn��t drink. However, in the cksail dungeon.., because he had been wandering at sea all year round, he couldn��t drink clean water, so he could only drink rum to quench his thirst. Zhang Heng��s alcohol tolerance had also been trained to be very good.


    The monster in the ck fog seemed to have thought of something, and its voice suddenly raised a few notches. ��You Fellow, could it be that you purposely put on that awkward expression and ordered hard liquor to bait me?��


    Zhang Heng didn��t deny it.


    ��You knew that I wasing for You?��


    ��I had no idea who you were. I just wanted to see if anyone was targeting me,��Zhang Heng said, ��Since you know about Kronos, you should also know that he is good at targeting people. Also, we just heard a strange story and saw an earthquake and Red Aurora. I have to be on guard against anything that might be targeting me.��


    ��Have you always been so cautious?��


    ��I��m the same. Your disguise is very good, but you chose to approach me when I was drunk. You used Songjia to lower my guard first and then brought me here to participate in this weird psychological massage. This way, I will focus my attention on n and the incense and music, but they are actually fine. They are just to cover up your little tricks.��

 Chapter 1258 - The Chaos Of Ambush

    Chapter 1258 The Chaos Of Ambush


    ��The real thing that makes people fall asleep is not the music or the incense in the room, but the smell that you release. If I��m not wrong, the smell that we smelled of seawater was your doing. You even cooperated with n��s psychological suggestion. Even if someone smelled it, they would only think that n��s psychological suggestion was effective,��Zhang Heng said, ��That��s too sneaky.��


    ��I can��t help it. You��re the one I have to deal with.��The monster in the ck Fog wasn��t ashamed at all, ��It��s a pity that I didn��t seed even after doing so much. What I can��t understand is that five minutes have passed since I released the smell of seawater and went to the kitchen to get the knife. Why are you still fine?��


    ��Because I��ve trained to hold my breath, ��Zhang Heng said.


    His ability to hold his breath was also trained in the cksail instance dungeon. He could stay underwater for seven to eight minutes, but since he had awakened the ability to breathe underwater, this ability was no longer useful, he didn��t expect that this trip to Greend woulde in handy.


    ��I hate guys who don��t have any weaknesses, ��the monster in the ck Fog said after a moment of silence. Zhang Heng raised his eyebrows. ��I thought you were from this ind, but now it seems that you��re very familiar with me. Did We know each other before?��


    ��Hehe, you can think about it slowly. It��s best to think about the people around you and see who��s more suspicious, ��the monster in the ck Fog said with interest.


    ��There��s no need to go through so much trouble. Just kill you and see who��s missing,��Zhang Heng said lightly.


    ��It��s not enough to kill me with only the three bullets left in your XM109. Unfortunately, that knife isn��t with you. Otherwise, you might have a chance of winning, ��the monster in the ck Fog said with regret.


    At this point, Zhang Heng could confirm that the other party was indeed someone he knew. The monster in the ck Fog had revealed its true form in the living room, but Zhang Heng did not see it. He only nced at it when they foughtter, even though it had only been a short second, Zhang Heng was still able to see a lot of things.


    It was an extremely ugly and deformed monster. It waspletely different from the Songjia it had disguised as before. However, it didn��t match up to the two monsters that Sachus had described, however, in terms of appearance and style, there were many simrities between the three.


    Zhang Heng was certain that there was some kind of connection between the three. However, from what he had said to himself in the living room, it seemed that he was not the same as the master of Underice City, in addition, he was also very wary of Chronos.


    Seeing that Zhang Heng did not speak, the monster in the ck fog asked, ��What, you don��t believe me?�� Unexpectedly, thetter suddenly said, ��You��re Nanako Xiang.��


    This time, the monster in the ck Fog was truly shocked. After a while, it said, ��Did you awaken some kind of divination ability? Can you even guess that?��


    Nanako Xiang was a Japanese exchange student who had juste to China to study this semester. She had a cute appearance, so Zhang Heng introduced her to Chen Huadong as a study partner to practice theirnguage and cultivate their international friendship.


    Zhang Heng had not had much contact with Nanako until Chen Huadong had asked for his help to pick up a book from a bookstore. Zhang Heng found a book on the shelf that did not belong there. Just as he was about to pick up the book, Kronos suddenly appeared and snatched it away, after that, the bartender had warned him to be careful of a person with hair on his head.


    It was only then that Zhang Heng realized that Nanako��s identity was not ordinary. Furthermore, she was definitely not a yer that could alert Chronos and the bartenders. The possibility of her being a supernatural being was even higher, considering her attitude toward Chronos, it was not hard to understand why Zhang Heng would treat her as the prime suspect.


    However, the monster in the ck Fog soon rxed. ��It doesn��t matter anymore. After all, there are thousands of my incarnations, so it��s not a big deal for you to see through one of them.��


    e


    ��Who are you exactly? What do you want to do with me?��Zhang Heng asked.


    ��I��m the god of a thousand faces, the messenger of a foreign god, and the ambushing Chaos Ny totip. I��m also the only foreign god that canmunicate with humans normally,��the monster in the ck Fog said, ��You should be d that you met me, because there are fewer and fewer people who are willing to reason these days.��


    ��I have never heard of your name.��


    ��Of course you have never heard of my name, because you are like A. . . A piece of carefully crafted porcin that has been carefully protected beforeing out of the kiln. The temperature, the oxygen... every process has been set up artificially. There can not be a single error in the process, because only then can a perfect piece of porcin be made,��the monster in the ck Fog said.


    ��So you��re going to tell me that thest time we met, you actually wanted to rescue me from the kiln?��


    ��I��m not that kind-hearted, ��Nara totip sneered, ��I originally nned to destroy you and take it out before the porcin was ready. That way, the surface of the porcin would be full of cracks, and when the water was filled in the future, it wouldpletely explode. However, I didn��t expect that old man Kronos to keep a close watch on you. Moreover, his time ability is too annoying. We��ve only been separated for a month, and you��re already almost ready. It��s impossible to destroy you now. We can only think of other ways.��


    At this point, Nara totip sighed as well, looking troubled.


    ��Do you have any grudges with Chronos?��Zhang Heng asked.


    ��Grudges? No, I have nothing to do with that old man. If he hadn��t insisted on getting involved, I wouldn��t have bothered with him at all. Furthermore, I��m not targeting him, but the owner of the city under the ice.��


    ��He��s Your Enemy?��


    ��No, no, no. We��re not enemies. ording to our strength, he should be the current leader of our group. Moreover, the stronger he is, the stronger our group��s strength will increase. Therefore, from a certain point of view, I rather hope that he will continue to be stronger,��said Ny TOTIP.


    ��However, the problem is that Asatos��position is about to be shaken. It was originally our true boss, the great god of blindness, the primal core of chaos, omnipotent. However, its power is nowpletely iparable to the Master of the city under the ice. As Asatos��most loyal follower, I have to do something for my own boss.��

 Chapter 1259 - Special Container

    Chapter 1259 Special Container


    Whether it was ny totip or azatos, these two names were unfamiliar to Zhang Heng.


    After realizing that he might be involved in a game of gods, Zhang Heng scanned through all the myths and legends avable on the market, however, whether it was Greek mythology, Roman mythology, Norse mythology, or even the ancient Celtic mythology, there was no story rted to these two names.


    However, Zhang Heng knew very well that this was different from the first time he encountered the monster from Papua New Guinea. The tribe that worshipped the monster had already died out in the long river of history, therefore, in modern society, almost no one still knew the name of the monster. It could only survive in the frozen time world.


    However, the opponent Zhang Heng faced this time was obviously not such a trash. When Sartrus told the strange story, he mentioned something that caught Zhang Heng��s attention. He said that mankind was living on an ind called ignorance, and it was surrounded by a ck ocean, however, the ck Ocean was not an obstacle to exploring the outside world, but a form of pity and protection for mankind. Therefore, we should never get close to the truth, because that would bring endless madness and fear.


    And as if to confirm his own story, after he and Dr. Baker came back from the expedition with mental problems, the two tried to find out why, sachus found a novel in the library about the city under the ice, but after reading one of the articles, his mental condition worsened, and the nightmares became more frequent, so the two had to stop their investigation.


    After that, they both chose to live in seclusion, trying to iste themselves from the outside world. Sachus had not watched TV for more than ten years, and he had gone online, this showed that the thing they were afraid of was not a nobody.


    Loki had mentioned before his death that because humans felt that the previous version of the Apocalypse was not exciting enough, they had created a new god by pping their heads. Not only did he have the genes to kill, but he also had the seeds of destruction, this new God fed on fear and spread like a virus through the inte. He reaped the faith and grew at an unimaginable speed.


    If everything went ording to n, this new God would be the master of the city under the ice. The current boss that Ny Totipp mentioned was also the culprit that caused Sartrus and Dr. Baker to fall into madness, however, the strange thing was that Zhang Heng did not know of its existence at all before this.


    This situation was undoubtedly not normal. When he connected it to the porcin metaphor Nara totip had mentioned not long ago, Zhang Heng frowned, ��Someone has done something to my body to prevent me from receiving any information rted to you. Who is the person who did this, Kronos?��


    ��Your intuition is very sharp,��the monster in the ck Fog said, ��That��s right. Kronos, at the request of your adoptive parents, created a protective talisman for you. That protective talisman can cut off the connection between you and the Master of Underice City. At the same time, it can also chase everything rted to it out of your life. Well, you can think of that protective talisman as an escort software simr to Green Dam. It can automatically block out information that is very dangerous to you.��


    ��Danger?��


    ��That��s right. Your situation is very special. The Master of the city under the ice did not stay there voluntarily. It is rumored that it will only wake up from its slumber and bring about the destruction of the world when the astrological sign returns to its position. However, no one knows when the astrological sign will return to its position. This matter originally sounded like a gimmick to trick people. Therefore, over the years, its minions and believers have been looking for new ways to let their master leave the city.


    ��They made many attempts and put in an unimaginable amount of effort. Unfortunately, most of their efforts were in vain. The seal of the constetion was very strong, and their master��s body waspletely unable to leave the underwater city. They could only influence its believers and potential believers through their spirit. Finally, a smart person among them was inspired after a nightmare and found a way that seemed feasible at least in theory.


    ��Since their master��s body can not leave the city, why don��t they create a container and let their master��s spirit descend into that container to break out of that Cage?��? When he told the other fanatics about this method, the fanatics were all excited because they seemed to be able to see the day when their master returned to the Earth.


    ��But this method sounds simple, but it��s not easy at all. Because containers are too difficult to find. This is not something that you can use by simply building pots and pans on the roadside. Their master��s spirit, just from the spirit that he emitted in his sleep, is enough to make ordinary humans fall into madness, fall seriously ill, or even go crazy.


    ��Not to mention epting the arrival of the main body. Although the Zealots regard this as their life��s glory, their spirit will probably be unable to bear it at the beginning of the arrival ceremony, and they will choose to kill themselves. Therefore, choosing a suitable container has be their top priority.


    ��They tried a lot of things, and in the end, they found that among all the test subjects, the newborns had the bestpatibility, not only with humans, but also with all kinds of animals. However, they also took a detour after that. Initially, they set their sights on the newborns who were born with psychic abilities, and for that, they even attacked the Inuit tribe in Greend. Those psychic newborns were indeed easier to ept, but they onlysted a little longer than ordinary people, and they still could not survive the ritual.


    ��The fanatics were very troubled until they got a special baby in Tibet. He was different from the others when he was born. He could still breathe and have a heartbeat. His physiological functions were normal, but he lost his soul. There was no light in his big eyes. He looked like two ss marbles. He was abandoned in front of the temple by his biological parents.


    ��The monks in the temple found him, but they couldn��t help but sigh when they saw him, because they knew that this child should never have been born in the human world. Even if he was born, he was destined to die soon. However, the monks were kind-hearted, so they took the child into the temple and fed him with rice porridge.


    ��However, no one expected that the fanatics in the deep mountains would find out about this news. They attacked the temple on a moonless night. Although they were repelled by the monks in the end, they seeded in snatching the child, the container that they dreamed of.��

 Chapter 1260 - An Unprecedented Accident

    Chapter 1260 An Unprecedented ident


    The monster in the ck fog seemed to be clicking its tongue in wonder, ��Their luck is really quite good. They��ve been tormenting themselves all this while, and they��ve actually been tormented by them to the point of sess. After obtaining that soulless baby, their n would be considered halfplete, and it would be the most crucial half. However, this doesn��t mean that everything will be fine, because they still have a series of preparatory work to do.


    ��First, send the baby into the city under the ice, and then connect it to the owner of the city, because there is no food and environment for the baby to live in, so the fanatics can only simte the environment in the mother��s womb, which is not easy for them, because the fanatics are affected the most, as soon as they get close to the city under the ice, they willpletely go crazy.


    ��Fortunately, although most of the spawns were sealed in the city under the ice with their master, they were not all. There were still some spawns outside. The fanatics found three star spawns and asked one of them to help bring the baby into the city under the ice. As a price, the star spawns could no longer return to the surface.


    ��After that, they used the connection to change the blood of the soulless baby, converting all the human blood in his body into the blood of the Master of the city under the ice. This way, after the descent, their master can continue to use his previous powers. Those fanatics have really put in a lot of effort.


    ��However, the whole blood exchange process took two years, and during that time, the news somehow leaked out and was found out by that old man Kronos. So, that old man organized an expedition team, with his esoteric followers as the base, and a group of scientists, in the name of scientific exploration, came to the no-man��s-Land of Greend and began to search for the city under the ice.


    ��In the end, he really found it. The old man was worried that he would disturb the owner of the city, so he asked a Chinese theologian couple and the guide and psychiatrist of the expedition team to go down and take out the container for him. At that time, Cronus didn��t know what the container was, so he was quite surprised when he saw the four peoplee out with a baby.


    ��However, in the process, there were some unexpected mistakes. Although the four of them sessfully brought the baby out of the city under the ice before the ritual waspleted, in order to save the baby��s life, the Chinese theologian couple took the initiative to transfuse their blood to the baby, and this action led to a series of chain reactions.


    ��First of all, the first change was that the blood in the child��s body was no longer pure, but had been injected with human blood again. This was not difficult to understand, but the second change was something no one had expected. When Cronus examined the baby, he was surprised to find that the baby had a soul.


    ��His life was originally over from the moment he was born. Although he was born without a soul, he still had some physiological activities. In essence, he was just a pile of moving meat. He was no different from a rock by the roadside. However, after being manipted by those fanatics, he was stuffed back into his mother��s body and received a second pregnancy. The Master of the city under ice gave him new blood. If that was all, he would not have obtained a soul.


    ��Because the process of a mammal��s life and nurture can never bepleted by one side. Just like a person needs parents, only thebination of both sides can produce new life. In a sense, the master of the city under the ice is like the mother of the baby, and the Chinese couple who entered the city without permission, gave their blood to the baby, but it was the same as bing his father together.


    ��The blood of a human and the blood of a God merged with each other in his body andpleted thebination. It also miraculously allowed him to re-breed his soul. ��Before this, such a magical thing had never happened before because very few babies lost their souls at birth, and they basically died at a very young age. In addition, no God would use his own blood to exchange blood for that baby, let alone be interrupted when the blood exchange was about to seed and re-injected into the human��s blood.


    ��Only when these extremely harsh conditions were put together would the most extreme result be the recovery of the soul of the baby who had lost his soul. ��I��m sure even Chronos must have been confused at that time. After the ecstasy of obtaining the baby faded away, he probably started to suspect that the fanatics��n had failed.��


    ��What happened after that?��Zhang Heng asked calmly.


    ��After that... Chronos realized that the blood of the Master of the city under ice flowed in the blood vessels of the baby in his hands. Even though some human blood had been mixed into his body due to the final ident, the amount of human blood was very small. Compared to the god��s blood in his body, it was insignificant. As he grew up, the human blood would be thinner and thinner. Eventually, he would lose all human emotions. By then, even though he still had a soul, he could withstand the madness and fear of the descent.


    ��Kronos was finally relieved. After a round, he still got what he wanted. He just needed to wait patiently for a while more. Fortunately, as the god of time, he didn��tck time. Even if the Chinese couple didn��t ask him, he would still make an amulet for the baby.


    ��Considering that the connection between the baby and the Master of underice city is closer than anyone else in this world, he had to make sure that the master of underice city couldn��t sense the baby before he lost all his feelings. At that time, the baby would definitely go crazy because he couldn��t bear the unimaginable fear. ��However, from another perspective, you have to admit that the amulet that he created did save the child��s life.��


    Zhang Heng lowered his head to look at his own body, but he could not find the item that he had been wearing since he was young.


    Nara Totipp seemed to know what he was thinking and smiled, ��There��s no need to look for it. Chronos ced the amulet in your stomach and it��s about to lose its effect. I��m sure you know how much love you have left.��

 Chapter 1261 - An Irresistible Proposal

    Chapter 1261 An Irresistible Proposal


    ��Why are you so kind as to tell me all these things?��Zhang Heng asked in a deep voice.


    ��Because since you haven��t fallen into my trap, and neither of us is confident that we can take down the other, negotiation will be our only option to resolve our differences, ��Ny Totipp said, ��And before we start our conversation, I need to help you understand your current situation.��


    The monster in the ck fog paused and continued, ��All these years, those fanatics and spawns have never given up looking for you. However, that Old Fox Kronos is not a pushover either. He has always hidden you well and ced you in the desert of faith in China. Because of some well-known reasons, it is not friendly to all the gods there. The conversion rate of faith obtained is so low that it makes one��s hair stand on end. Until the start of this game, very few of the gods turned their eyes to that ce.


    ��However, about a year ago, Chronos took the initiative to find one of the masters of the city under the ice. He told them about you and promised to help them turn you into a perfect vessel for the master of the city under the ice to escape in exchange for their friendship. From then on, news of you began to spread among the fanatics and spawns. I believe you��ve already met some of them.��


    Zhang Heng thought of the small seaside town, the half-man, half-fish, and half-frog monsters in the town, as well as the people he had met on the ind. Every one of them looked at him with longing in their eyes, only then did Zhang Heng realize that the desire was not directed at him. What they really wanted was the thing that used him as a container.


    ��They have already found you. Once they realize that you havepletely lost your feelings, they will happily embrace you to ept the arrival, whether you like it or not. On the other side, that old man Kronos is obviously plotting something of his own. Friendship is just a bunch of lies. Kronos is not a fool. He knows that the Master of the city under ice will not have any good feelings for him just because of his help. Therefore, he must have other intentions toward you. As for the other gods.. ��No one would wee the arrival of a madman, let alone someone as powerful as that madman. He has to bring fear and destruction to the world. They might not have any ill feelings towards you, but since killing you is the easiest way to stop that guy from escaping the seal, if you were one of them, what do you think they would choose?��


    The monster in the ck fog chuckled and continued to analyze Zhang Heng��s situation, ��After all that I��ve said, I��m sure you can understand how bad things are for you right now. Even though I��ve always felt that the term ��enemies with the world��is a little silly, I have to admit that it��s the most appropriate term to describe the current you. Even though you might feel a little resentful, you still unknowingly walked into this desperate situation.��


    ��What About You?��Zhang Heng asked. ��What do you want from me?��


    ��You��re a smart person, and I like to be frank with smart people. Of course, I don��t have any good intentions toward you,��Nara totip admitted readily, but then he continued, ��But as I said before, our interests in certain things... are the same. You Don��t want the descent to happen, and I don��t want that guy from underice city toe out andpletely steal my boss��s position. On this point, we have the same goal.��


    ��What will happen to me if the descent happens?��


    ��That��s a good question. Of course, your body won��t be in any trouble, because it was originally raised as a container. As for your soul, it might be considered powerful among ordinary people, but when faced with the powerful spirit of the Master of the city under the ice, it will still be mercilessly crushed, devoured clean, and disappear from this world forever. ��And right now, I��m probably the only one who��s willing and able to protect


    you.��


    Zhang Heng raised an eyebrow. ��How are you going to protect me?��


    However, the room fell into silence again. After a moment, Nara Totipp��s voice rang out again. ��Don��t shoot yet.��


    After he said that, a w slowly reached out from behind the door. That w still held a bloody bone, ��This is my second vertebra. As long as this vertebra is ced in your body, it will be able to help you resist the spiritual attack of that guy after the arrival ceremony begins. I Can��t guarantee that it will seed. After all, that guy is too strong now, stronger than all of USbined. But this time, I have a preconceived idea, so the sess rate... is about 50-50, but it��s still worth a gamble, isn��t it.


    ��Actually, I was busy with the same thing when you pretended to be unconscious. If you hadn��t interrupted me, I would have finished it by now. ��Don��t worry. Even though I��ll have to cut your neck open during the process, I��ll still sew it up for youter. I��ll make sure it��s as good as new. Even Kronos won��t be able to tell. Speaking of which, I��ve put in a lot of effort for you this time. In theory, my body can be regenerated, and the parts that were hit by your sniper rifle can heal themselves. However, there are some critical parts that can��t be easily replicated. For example, my second vertebra. Losing it means losing it.��


    Zhang Heng stood in the courtyard, silently listening to Nara Totipp��s words, but he did not answer immediately.


    The monster in the ck Fog was not in a hurry either. It seemed that he was certain that Zhang Heng would not refuse, because just as he had said, from the moment this young man was born into this world, he did not have many choices.


    Zhang Heng��s life had already been arranged by someone. Whether it was the fanatics, Kronos, Hydra, or him, everyone who approached this young man had their own ulterior motives. For different reasons.., wanton maniption changed Zhang Heng��s life.


    Each of them was not an ordinary person. They had different goals, and at the same time, they all regarded Zhang Heng as a tool to achieve this goal.


    And tools had no right to resist.


    Just like the current Ny Totipp, although it seemed to provide Zhang Heng with the right to choose, he knew the young man before him


    There was no way he could reject Zhang Heng��s proposal, because as long as thetter did not want to bepleted by the Master of underice city, he would have no choice but to cooperate with Zhang Heng. Even though he knew that this was a poison in the guise of honey.., he could only swallow it with a frown.

 Chapter 1262 - Are You Done?

    Chapter 1262 Are You Done?


    Ny totip felt like he had the youngster in his grasp.


    But to his surprise, Zhang Heng didn��t let go of the XM109. ��Do you think I��ll let you stuff that suspicious thing into my body just because of your one-sided story?��


    ��If there��s anything else you want to know, you can ask me. I��ll provide you with any evidence I have. If you don��t have any, I can help you find it. After all, the protective talisman in your body is about to lose its effect. From the moment you entered those mysterious dreams, you��ve established a new connection with the master of Underice City. This means that you can gradually receive information about us.��


    Nara TOTIP, on the other hand, seemed to be very happy, ��I��m different from that old man Kronos. When I do business, I always put a clear price on it. I will never hide it and deliberately make things mysterious. Because I believe that only when you have all the information, can you make the most rational and self-beneficial decision.��


    ��I��ve made a decision. I��m quite satisfied with my spine. There��s no n to change it for the time being.��


    ��Perhaps you don��t know what your decision means,��said Ny totip patiently.


    ��Will I be taken over by the thing in the city under the ice?��


    ��If only things were that simple. It��s a pity that although it��s your decision, it��s never just about you,�� said Ny TOTIP, ��You probably still don��t know what kind of existence is coveting your body. Once he leaves that city under the ice, you won��t be the only one who suffers.��


    ��And that unlucky boss of yours?��


    ��That��s right. My boss and I don��t want to see such a thing happen, because it would make my boss fall off his throne. But in the end... we��re the same as that guy. Even if he gets out of the ice, even if he knows my little tricks, he won��t do anything to us. Because we��re both from the great lord of all things, Asatos. But humans, humans are in big trouble.��


    Ny TOTIP said, ��Once the master of the city under the ice escapes, he will be a new type of natural disaster in the 21st century. Wherever he goes, everything on the Earth will fall into endless madness. Happy killing and revelry will ignite the mes of freedom and joy.��


    ��Aren��t there other gods? You said that they don��t like the lunatics who suddenly barged into the banquet. They will definitely not sit idly by and watch their believers being harvested by that guy. Therefore, it��s better to leave this kind of thing to them to deal with.��


    ��I said that it won��t be so simple. Indeed, other gods wille to stop him. In fact, people from our faction have never been favored by other gods. However, don��t underestimate the destructive power and growth of that guy. Thanks to the rapid development of new media and electronic entertainment, his power has been growing rapidly over the years. Of course, there are gods stronger than him, but you should never release the devil from his cage.��.


    ��The god of our faction... is very special, and he is the most special one among us. Once he escapes, he will immediately cause arge-scale panic in the human world, and these panics will all be his food, allowing him to grow at an even more astonishing speed. His power will rapidly increase like a snowball in an extremely short period of time, and in the end, no one can stop him.


    ��This is the first ce. Greend. There are no powerful gods on this ind. The divine power that the shamans possess has long been reduced to a pitiful level. As time passes, it will continue to decrease. They will not be able to stop him. By then, the tens of thousands of people here will be his fanatics.


    ��And after that, fear will spread through the Inte to the entire human society. What��s worse is that arge portion of them already know of his existence. After these people realize his existence, they will be more easily captured by him and be his believers, providing him with an endless stream of power. At the same time, the number of believers of other gods will rapidly decrease. With this addition and subtraction, the power gap between the two sides will rapidly widen.��


    Ny totip also sounded a little helpless, ��In the end, you will realize that no one has the power to stop him, and the entire world will fall into destruction. You may be able to disregard the lives of others, but your adoptive parents, your grandfather, and those friends and ssmates, none of them will be able to escape this disaster. Their blood will stain your hands. This is not just a metaphor, because you know that your body will be his by then.


    ��I don��t want you to regret not epting my offer tonight, even though your soul would be long gone if that day ever came.��


    Nara TOTIP finished his sentence in one breath and then stopped. He left enough time for the young man outside the room to think, but Zhang Heng still did not respond.


    After a while, Zhang Heng��s voice sounded again. ��Are you done?��


    ��Actually, I still have a lot to say. Like I said before, if you want to prove yourself, I can prove it to you. But I guess that doesn��t mean anything to you anymore, does it? It seems like your feelings have disappeared more than I thought. I��m curious as to how much you still have feelings for this world.��


    ��If you have the time, why don��t you ask me how much trouble the three bullets in my gun will cause you?��


    Just as Ny Totip was telling him that the world was about to end and that the entire human race was on the brink of destruction, Zhang Heng was also trying to figure out how to get into the house shrouded in ck mist, at the same time, he wasn��t affected by the ck Mist. After that, he really dide up with a solution, but whether it would work or not, he would have to give it a try,


    zhang Heng walked to the side of the swimming pool that he had seen before he entered. There was more than half of the water in the pool, and on the other side, there was a tap and a rubber hose for watering thewn, zhang Heng picked up the rubber hose for watering the flowers, then lifted his leg and walked out of the swimming pool. At the same time, he turned on the tap to allow more water to flow in.


    Soon, the water reached his chest, but Zhang Heng had no intention of turning off the tap.

 Chapter 1263 - Surprise Attack

    Chapter 1263 Surprise Attack


    Nara TOTIP did not expect hismunication with Zhang Heng to fail.


    This was a rare urrence in the history of his interaction with humans. Furthermore, Nara TOTIP had already analyzed all the interests involved. Based on his understanding of the young man outside the room.., there was no reason for thetter to reject his help.


    Nara totip suddenly realized that he could no longer understand what Zhang Heng was thinking. He did not know if this was a side effect of the disappearance of his feelings, or if the master of the city under the ice had already started to affect Zhang Heng, either way, it was not good news for him.


    Nara TOTIP lowered his head to look at his broken third leg. In just a short while, a new bone had protruded out of the mangled wound, the flesh and blood on it also began to heal continuously, but it was somewhat miniaturized. At this speed, his third leg would be able to grow back in a quarter of an hour, but if he wanted to return to his original appearance.., he did not know how long it would take. In addition, there was arge hole in his head that had been sted open by a high-explosive bomb.


    This was also the reason why he did not want to fight with the youth in the courtyard.


    In fact, his followers had been growing at a rapid rate over the years. Although they couldn��tpare to the master of underice city, they had long surpassed many ancient gods, however, his best soul and illusion attacks had almost no effect on Zhang Heng, who had already lost his emotions, so he wasn��t affected by the negative emotions at all.


    In addition, that old man Kronos had nned well and gifted Zhang Heng an additional 24 hours per day. By extending the 24-hour wait ratio through each round of the game, it was equivalent to speeding up Zhang Heng��s loss of emotions, however, this had obviously brought some side effects. Because of the long game time, Zhang Heng now had a full set of high-level skills and a god-tier set of equipment.


    Nara TOTIP was not confident that he could take down Zhang Heng in a head-on fight. This was also the reason why he had taken advantage of the fact that Zhang Heng was drunk and disguised as Songjia to bring Zhang Heng here. However, when his n was exposed.., after the failure of the negotiations, Nara TOTIP realized that he could not do anything about Zhang Heng outside for the time being.


    Fortunately, there was still some time before dawn, and the ck Fog could ensure his safety. Nara TOTIP did not retreat immediately. However, he did not expect that he would regret this decision very soon.


    Nara TOTIP was having a headache. He had no idea how to push the spine into Zhang Heng��s body, but the next moment, he felt a chill under his feet.


    Nara totip lowered his head and realized that there was a puddle of water beside his feet. His first reaction was to wonder if he had forgotten to turn off the tap in the kitchen?


    However, he quickly thought of something and his expression changed. The owner of underice city was of the water element, and Zhang Heng��s body was flowing with that Guy��s blood. In other words, after the amulet lost its effect.., zhang Heng had probably inherited part of that guy��s water control ability.


    And as if to confirm his guess, the pool of water stopped spreading to other ces not long after it came into contact with the soles of his feet. Then, it seemed toe to life, it started to follow the soles of his feet and crazily climb up his body.


    In the blink of an eye, the water had already reached his chest. The speed was so fast that Nara TOTIP was dumbfounded. Then, his entire body was wrapped up in a pool of water.


    Honestly, Zhang Heng did not expect his ability to control water to improve so quickly. Thest time he used this ability was when he was in the Chernobyl dungeon, at that time, he could already create whirlpools in the river to capture aquatic animals. However, this time, he came to Greend. Perhaps it was because he suddenly learned a lot about his background, or perhaps it was because he was closer to the Master of the city under the ice that his water control ability, which had be more and more proficient, was greatly enhanced.


    Initially, Zhang Heng only wanted to use the current to determine the location of Ny totip and then use the remaining three bullets in the sniper rifle to severely injure the other party, but when he entered the swimming pool, he found that the water in the pool had almost be an extension of his body. He could even control the current to easily do things that vited the principle of gravity.


    For example, he could use the water flow topletely wrap himself up, take the water out of the pool, and walk into the house to separate his body from the suspicious ck fog, after he used the water flow to locate Nara totip, he directly pulled him into the pool.


    Nara TOTIP obviously didn��t expect Zhang Heng to break into the house that was shrouded by the ck fog. Furthermore, thetter��s control over the water was so strong that his expression turned serious, if someone were to stand outside the house, they would notice that the ck mist had be even denser, almost as if it had materialized.


    Then, the ck Mist began to drill into the water from all directions. A small part of it was dissolved on the spot, but therger ck mist did not dissolve into the water. Instead, it turned into small bubbles, these small bubbles were very active. They wandered around the water, looking for their own kind. When the two bubbles met, they would immediately merge into arger bubble, and as more and more small bubbles gathered together.., finally, a wall of air was formed.


    The wall of air blocked the middle of the living room, separating Nara totip and Zhang Heng once again. When the wall of ck Fog was formed, the water that wrapped around Nara TOTIP finally fell apart, under the influence of gravity, Nara totip fell to the ground.


    However, before Nara totip could catch his breath, a rubber hose for watering flowers flew out from the other side of the wall of ck fog. It wrapped around his neck and dragged him toward the other side of the wall of air.


    The gods of his faction had always fed on the fear and despair of their believers, but they did not expect that the ssic scenes in horror movies would happen to them one day, however, it was just an ordinary rubber hose after all. After realizing what had happened, he only used a fingernail to cut off the rubber hose, preventing himself from being dragged again.


    Then, he did not have any intention of getting back at Nara Toti. He directly retreated to the window on the right. Nara Toti took a deep look at the wall of ck fog and the vague figure behind the wall, he did not care whether the guy inside could hear him or not, and left hisst words.


    ��Do not enter the city under the ice.��


    After saying that, the ck fog wall dispersed, and the water that was blocked by the air wall rushed over quickly. However, there was no sign of Ny totip in the room.

 Chapter 1264 - Burning Streets

    Chapter 1264 Burning Streets


    Zhang Heng found Songjia in the innermost cubicle of the female toilet in the bar.


    Fortunately, the interpreter was only unconscious. Zhang Heng did a general check and found that there was nothing wrong with her body, so he woke her up. However, Songjia looked confused, she couldn��t remember what had happened at all.


    Her memory was stuck at the time she washed her hands after going to the toilet. She didn��t know that she had already been through hell.


    If it wasn��t for the guy who called himself Ny Totip��s original n to stuff the freshly-baked segmental spine into Zhang Heng��s body without anyone knowing, song Jia probably wouldn��t have survived, he should still have a way to smooth things over tonight��s matter.


    However, this time, it wasn��t as if Zhang Heng hadn��t gained anything from fighting Ny TOTIP.


    The improvement in his ability to control water was secondary. What was more important was that he had obtained the final piece of the puzzle about his past from Ny TOTIP��s mouth. Combined with the story that Sachus had told him, and the words that Loki had said before his death, he could finally reconstruct the events that had happened that year.


    Of course, Zhang Heng did not think that Ny Totip was as honest as he said he was. He was telling the truth, in fact, the conversation between the two of them had revolved around how to make him willingly ept the spine.


    The bloody toy was obviously not just to help him resist the mental assault of the Master of the city under the ice. Zhang Heng believed that Nara Totip was hiding something else, but on the other hand.., in order to get him to put the spine into his body, Nara totip was unprecedentedly honest about other things.


    Of course, the most important thing was Nara TOTIP��s attitude. From the beginning to the end, he was very confident, as if he was sure that Zhang Heng had no other choice but to ept his proposal, even after Zhang Heng rejected him explicitly and the two of them exchanged blows again, he left a message to warn Zhang Heng not to go to the city under the ice.


    From Nara Totipp��s point of view, the separation did not mean that the two of them had be enemies. There would definitely be a day when they would meet again, and when that day came, Zhang Heng would believe what he had said earlier, ept the spine again.


    ��What are you thinking about?��Song Jia asked when she saw Zhang Heng frown.


    ��Nothing much. It��s almost dawn. I��ll drive you home first, ��Zhang Heng said.


    ��Oh, okay, thank you.��Song Jia stood up from the floor. She felt her cheeks heat up at the thought of sleeping in the toilet for so long. Sure enough, getting drunk was not a good thing.


    However, just as she stood up, another female customer walked in from outside. The female customer saw Zhang Heng standing there in a daze. About two secondster, she stuck her head out and looked at the sign on it to confirm that this was indeed the female toilet, then, she looked at Zhang Heng and Songjia with a strange gaze.


    Songjia knew what the other party was thinking. If she were in Zhang Heng��s shoes, she would have thought the same thing. However, at that moment, she had no choice but to lower her head and follow Zhang Heng out of thedies��room.


    Zhang Heng drove Songjia��s SUV back to her ce. After that, he went back to his hotel to sleep. After a long night, he also felt a little tired, in addition, he had to digest the information he had gotten from Sartrus and Ny TOTIP, but that was all in the future.


    Zhang Heng had thought that he would sleep until noon, but he didn��t expect to open his eyes soon after heid down. However, when he looked at his right hand, he realized that the starfish he had been wearing wasn��t there, at the same time, light shone through the gap in the curtains.


    Zhang Heng walked to the bed and opened the window. He saw that the entire street was burning. Everywhere he looked, there were mes. The shops, cars, and trees on the street were all lit up, even his hotel room smelled burnt.


    The fire was approaching his bedroom on the second floor. The fire was fierce. Zhang Heng put on his clothes and didn��t go to the stairs because it was already surrounded by mes. He jumped out of the window andnded on the floor.


    Even though Greend��s public finances were average and the various departments that provided public services seemed to be understaffed, it was still strange that the fire had not appeared despite the severity of the fire, zhang Heng looked around and saw that there were almost no houses that were not burning anymore. Moreover, many of the houses were far away from each other. He did not know how the fire spread.


    What was even stranger was that even if the fire did note, there was no reason for the locals to just watch their houses burn. In fact, Zhang Heng realized that he did not see anyone on the street at all, it was not until he walked about 50 meters away and came to an intersection that he finally saw a person. However, Zhang Heng was unable to get anything out of him.


    The poor guy was surrounded by fire. Even though he was still running, he looked like a burning torch. Before he could run past the intersection, he fell to the ground and crawled a few more steps forward, in the end, he did not move again.


    This was obviously a tragic scene, but Zhang Heng did not see any expression of pain on the face of the burned man. On the contrary, the eyes of the torch man were filled with joy and madness. This expression was not unfamiliar to Zhang Heng, because that was how the fanatics in the art museum looked


    like.


    Zhang Heng seemed to have thought of something and raised his eyebrows. Then, he stepped over the corpse on the ground and continued to walk forward. Five minutester, he finally met a new living person, and this time, there was more than one. It was three young men and an old man. The three young men were dressed like students, but they were not holding books but torches and gasoline. The old man was holding a shotgun.


    It was as if they were ying a happy game. The old man used the shotgun to blow a student��s head open, while the other two students poured gasoline on him. The old man turned the gun around and killed another student, however, the other student finally lit a match and set the old man on fire, letting thetter burn together with the street.


    At the same time, the student picked up the old man��s shotgun and aimed it at Zhang Heng, who was walking toward them. However, when he raised the shotgun, he lost sight of the Chinese man.


    Zhang Heng picked up a brokenmp from the roadside and stabbed the end of the shards of ss into the neck of thest student. Then, he didn��t look at the other student��s body but continued walking forward.


    Finally, at the end of the street, he saw a figure.


    The figure sat on the throne made of corpses and looked down at him like a king. At the same time, Zhang Heng also looked up at the person on the throne. Their eyes met, zhang Heng saw that the person had a face that looked exactly like his.


    No, to be more precise, the person sitting on the throne was him. However, the gaze in his eyes waspletely different from his. It was filled with indescribable terror.


    Prev Next

 Chapter 1265 - Boiling

    Chapter 1265 Boiling


    Zhang Heng subconsciously reached for his waist, but it was empty. Only then did he remember that he hadn��t brought the [ hidden scabbard ] with him this time.


    In reality, it wasn��t just the hidden scabbard. The travel bag that he had ced the props in earlier wasn��t with him either. He had practically walked here empty-handed, even though the fire had almost reached his bedroom, however, with his level of calmness, it was almost impossible for him to make such a low-level mistake. Furthermore, the starfish watch that had been on his wrist the whole time was nowhere to be seen. Zhang Heng had already realized that he was most likely in a dream.


    Ny totip had warned him that the amulet that Chronos had given him was gradually losing its effect, and he had started to reestablish contact with the master of underice city, in his previous dreams and subconscious, Zhang Heng had seen the half-man, half-fish, and half-frog monsters, as well as the huge shadow in the huge pce.


    If the seaside town shrouded in haze represented the past, and the huge shadow imprisoned in the pce represented the present, then the scene Zhang Heng saw this time was undoubtedly the future.


    The whole of Greend was engulfed by the raging fire, and the residents of this ce were alsopletely immersed in madness. They grabbed all the weapons they could grab, without hesitation, they turned their guns toward their neighbors, friends, and even rtives. They weed the arrival of the figure on the throne with murder and death.


    Zhang Heng and his other self looked at each other for a moment. Then, his body moved again. He turned around and rushed toward a grocery store on the left.


    Zhang Heng took off his shirt and wrapped it around his elbow as he ran. Then, he used his elbow to smash open the window of the grocery store and jumped in. He took out a fire axe and a hunting rifle that were hanging on the wall behind the counter. Then, he grabbed two boxes of bullets from the counter, and a skinning knife.


    When he walked out of the grocery store, he saw a group of fanatics rushing out from the nearby buildings and surrounding him.


    Zhang Heng��s expression did not change. Even though the number of fanatics in front of him was more than what he had seen at the art museum, judging from their attire, they should have been residents of the ind not too long ago, theirbat ability was naturally limited.


    Zhang Heng held a fire axe in one hand and a hunting rifle in the other. He did not rush into the crowd. Instead, he used the surrounding buildings and his speed to engage the enemy in a skirmish, at the same time, he was approaching the figure on the throne.


    me


    Thetter hadn��t made a move until now, but he still maintained his previous posture. Even his gaze shifted away from Zhang Heng to look further away.


    Although Greend wasn��t small, the number of humans living on it wasn��trge. This vast and sparsely poptednd was obviously not enough to satisfy his appetite, especially since he had just escaped from the city under the ice, he had even changed into a new body and was yearning for more power. At that moment, his gaze had already crossed the vast sea and was looking at the American continent that was the closest to him.


    On the other side, Zhang Heng had unknowingly left the fanatics behind by quite a distance. He did not intend to continue tangling with these people who hadpletely lost their minds, this was because the only way to truly end this was to get rid of the guy on the pile of corpses.


    In reality, Zhang Heng might have chosen a more cautious way of fighting to find out what the other party was capable of, but since he knew that this was just a dream.., zhang Heng treated this battle as a preview. The most important thing was to gather more information and understand his opponent better. If nothing went wrong, he and the owner of the city under ice would have a fight, and it would be a fight to the death.


    Zhang Heng jumped down from the roof of a coffee shop. At that moment, he was less than 20 meters away from the hill that the corpse was standing on. To him, 20 meters was just a blink of an eye, his left foot had already stepped on the back of a corpse. At the same time, he raised the shotgun in his hand again.


    In the Chamber of the gun, the bullets had already been filled. Just waiting for him to pull the trigger, they would shoot towards the figure at the top of the pile of corpses.


    But in the next moment, Zhang Heng suddenly realized that his body could not move.


    That feeling was as if someone had pressed the pause button.


    However, the only thing that stopped in the picture was his body. The mes at the side were still burning, and the fanatics behind him were chasing after him while dancing wildly.


    Then, Zhang Heng felt the blood all over his body boiling!


    This was not a metaphor, but his blood was really boiling.


    Like boiling water, burning every single blood vessel in his body, Zhang Heng had inhaled arge amount of radiation in the Chernobyl dungeon, however, even when his condition had worsened to the worst in the sterile ward, it was not as painful as it was now. Even sinking his perception into his subconscious was no longer effective.


    The veins in Zhang Heng��s body bulged, but he couldn��t even move his pinky finger.


    What made him even more desperate was that during this period, the figure on the pile of corpses didn��t even look him in the eye. It wasn��t until his body fell from the sky that the hunting rifle fell heavily to the ground, the other person on the pile of corpses finally averted his gaze from the west.


    Still, he didn��t say a word.


    He strode toward Zhang Heng, stepping on the corpses one by one. Just as he was about to reach for Zhang Heng��s chest, he suddenly stopped and frowned. This was the first time he had an expression on his face, and it was a little stiff.


    After a pause, he finally gave up on the half-finished action and straightened up. He looked at Zhang Heng lying on the ground expressionlessly, as if he was sizing up amb that had been sent to the ughterhouse.


    It was not until he turned around to leave that Zhang Heng finally felt that he could breathe again. There were no more mes and corpses around him.


    At that moment, he was lying on the bed in the hotel bedroom. The sheets were already soaked with sweat.


    Was It really a nightmare? Zhang Heng looked at his right hand. The Starfish Watch had finally returned to his wrist. However, when he saw the time on it, Zhang Heng was stunned.


    00:35. It didn��t feel like much time had passed, but he had slept for more than ten hours. Without realizing it, the starfish had alreadypleted one round. In other words, he was now in his own world of stillness, this was probably the reason why the other him in the dream suddenly stopped and turned to leave.


    te.


    However, what caught Zhang Heng��s attention was that, unlike before, the time on his watch was not stuck at zero. In other words, his previous nightmare did not end immediately after he entered the world of stillness, it actually extended for another 30 minutes!

 Chapter 1266 - Another Departure

    Chapter 1266 Another Departure


    Zhang Heng did not wake up on time at midnight Beijing time, which was not good news for him.


    This meant that his ability to time-freeze might not be able to fully take effect on the thing in the city under the ice, and this discovery would undoubtedly affect his next n.


    Zhang Heng wanted to go to the city under the ice to take a look, but of course, he was not an iron-head. Whether it was the story that Sartrus told or the warning from Ny TOTIP, they all showed how dangerous the ce was.


    Zhang Heng��s biggest reliance was his ability to stop time. In his original n, he nned to find the city under the ice first and then wait for the extra 24 hours to arrive before going down, as for whether he should investigate and leave quietly after entering, or think of a way to deal with the huge figure in the pce, it would depend on the specific circumstances at that time.


    But now, he might have to reconsider his trip to the ice ins.


    In addition, he had a nightmare on his first night in Greend, which was probably not a good sign. Zhang Heng had already met Dr. Baker and Sachus, both of whom had participated in the scientific expedition 18 years ago, and on their way to find the city under the ice, they began to suffer from nightmares.


    After returning, the situation did not improve. Instead, it became worse. Even though the two of them lived in seclusion and avoided contact with the outside world as much as possible, they continued tonguish. Eventually, one of them died, and the other went crazy.


    Zhang Heng finally began to understand the torment the two of them had suffered over the years. He had slept for more than ten hours, however, Zhang Heng did not feel his mental and physical recovery. It was simr to before he went to bed, and he was drenched in sweat.


    This was because his feelings were almostpletely gone. Otherwise, just the apocalyptic scene in his dream would have been enough to put a strain on his mental state.


    After Zhang Heng woke up, he went to the bathroom to take a shower to wash off the sweat that had stuck to his body. Halfway through the shower, he heard the sound of the doorbell from downstairs. It was not just one sound. In fact, in the past two minutes.., the doorbell rang almost continuously, one after another. It sounded very urgent.


    Therefore, Zhang Heng had no choice but to wrap himself in a towel and go downstairs to open the door.


    In the end, he saw Songjia, Alicia, and i standing outside the door. i was wrapped in bandages and holding the baseball bat in his hand, while Alicia had one hand in her pocket with a vignt look on her face.


    Zhang Heng opened the door, and Alicia subconsciously pulled out a pistol from her pocket. When she saw the person in front of her was Zhang Heng, she breathed a sigh of relief and put the gun away. ��I called you several times and sent you many messages, but you didn��t reply. I thought something had happened to you, and I was so anxious that I almost called the police, but Alicia stopped me,��the trantor said.


    ��OH, I just woke up. I haven��t had time to look at my phone yet,��Zhang Heng replied. At the same time, he turned sideways to let the three of them into the house.


    After that, Zhang Heng spent five minutes to finish showering again. After putting on his clothes, he went back to his bedroom to take out his phone. As expected, he saw more than ten missed calls and about twenty new messages, most of them were from Songjia.


    ��Alethea and i contacted me and said that they��re preparing to leave. They��ve brought Sartrus back to the tribe and asked if you want to go with them,��said Songjia.


    Zhang Heng had indeed promised to lend the Crazy Sartrus to the two Inuit for a period of time, but it was only for three days. Therefore, Alethea and i were already eager to bring Sartrus back to the tribe, they were still hoping to get information about the lost holy relic from Sartrus.


    ��Have you finished with the matter at the Art Museum?��Zhang Heng asked. Last night, he had created more than 30 corpses there in one go. In addition, he had destroyed many valuable exhibits during the fight, it was impossible for the art museum to open normally today. Zhang Heng didn��t want to attract the attention of the police and get into unnecessary trouble, so he needed Alessia and i, the two local tyrants, to deal with this problem.


    Of course, they were only young people after all. It was probably their first time seeing blood that night, so they definitely didn��t have much experience. Fortunately, they still had their own tribes behind them, and the two of them didn��t disappoint Zhang Heng��s expectations of them, that night, they contacted the elders of the tribes and told them what had happened at the Museum of Art.


    After an emergency discussion, the two tribes sent a team to take over the follow-up work.


    Therefore, after Aliesia and i had treated their injuries, they could finally rush back to the tribe to look for Aliesia��s teacher, Kunajoo.


    Aliesia said, ��I also told my teacher that you arrived in time to save usst night. She very much wees you to visit our tribe as a guest. Moreover, if you really n to go to that city under the ice, we can provide you with the best guide in your tribe. With him around, you will never have to worry about getting lost on the ice ins.��


    After song Jia tranted Alessia��s words, Zhang Heng added, ��I��m very grateful for your teacher��s kindness, but there��s no need for a guide. You��ve heard the story that Sartrus told, so you should know that the closer we get to the city under the ice, the easier it will be for ordinary people to be affected. Moreover, the impact will likely be lifelong, and it will be more and more serious as time passes. So, I��m more than enough on my own. Also, I haven��t decided on an adventure yet.��


    ��It doesn��t matter. If you need anything, you cane to us. Not just Alicia��s tribe, but mine as well, ��i said as he patted his chest, ��When my wounds are healed, I cane with you. We��ve been looking for that evil spirit for a long time.��


    Zhang Heng knew that his warning might not have had much effect. Some things were hard to understand without first-hand experience, so Zhang Heng did not say much. He turned to look at Songjia, ��Help me with the trantion for a few more days. I can pay you five times your sry.��


    After leaving the barst night, Zhang Heng had also discussed the sry with Songjia. However, at that time, the trantor had already been reced by Ny Totipp, so the previous agreement could not hold up, zhang Heng had no choice but to talk to Songjia again.


    The trantor looked hesitant. After all, no one wanted to be involved after what happenedst night. However, Songjia also knew that if she were to leave the responsibility here.., zhang Heng could not find a suitable new trantor for the time being, so in the end, he decided to finish hisst shift and go to Alexia��s tribe with Zhang Heng.

 Chapter 1267 - Dog Pulling The Sleigh

    Chapter 1267 Dog Pulling The Sleigh


    After confirming that Zhang Heng and Songjia would follow them back, the two Inuit didn��t waste any more time and immediately returned to the van.


    As i��s injuries hadn��t fully recovered, the driver was Alicia.


    When Songjia opened the back door, the first thing that came into view was Sachus��face. The curator of the Museum of Art gave her a nervous smile and opened his mouth to say something, but he could only make a series of muffled sounds because his mouth was stuffed, his hands and feet were tied, and he was securely fastened to the seat by the seatbelt and two ropes.


    ��He��s not very honest. As soon as you left, he started shouting aboutlaiye... the owner oflaiye is back. This is the only way to make him more honest,��Alicia exined.


    Sachus��smile gave Songjia Goosebumps. The thought of sitting in the same car with him on the road made her even more nervous.


    Fortunately, Zhang Heng, who was behind her, said, ��I��ll sit with him. You can sit in the back of the car.��


    i alsoforted her gently. ��Don��t worry, we won��t be driving for too long. We��ll change vehicles when we get to the ice field.��


    Song Jia got into the car and sat in thest row. Strangely enough, when Zhang Heng sat next to Sachus, thetter suddenly became more obedient. He stopped grinning and mumbling nonsense, and instead, his body shrank back, he was as obedient as a schoolboy who had just met his homeroom teacher.


    Seeing that everyone had gotten in, Alicia also started the car.


    After that, Songjia realized that the car had suddenly fallen into silence.


    Alicia was focused on driving while Zhang Heng sat in his seat, looking out of the window at the street. Even i, who had always been very warm to her, didn��t say a word, sitting in the passenger seat, he seemed to have a lot on his mind.


    What had happened the day before had exceeded his imagination. He had lost his most important holy relic, his closest friend, and then he had been betrayed by his tribesmen and besieged by a group of fanatics, he had almost died in a trap, and then he had heard a strange and terrifying story told by Sachus... Even i, who had always been known for his bravery and fearlessness, could not help but worry, he did not know if the shamans, who were declining day by day, could defeat the powerful evil spirit under the ice field.


    Right now, he urgently needed to consult the wise men, and there was no more suitable candidate than Alicia��s teacher, kuna. Kuna was currently the strongest shaman among the Inuit people. If it was her.., she would definitely be able to find the holy relic and a way to deal with the evil spirit.


    Even though he thought so, i did not know why he felt uneasy all the time. Even when the girl he adored was sitting not far from him, he did not move at all, he was like a wooden block.


    Andpared to Songjia, he was more worried about Alicia beside him.


    After Last Night��s incident, although Alicia still looked the same on the surface, i could feel a fire burning in the depths of her heart, her parents had been killed by a group of fanatics when she was born, even though the fanatics had been frozen into popsicles by the blizzard that Kunayu had summoned.


    But Alessia clearly did not want to let go of the mastermind behind all this. As an adult, she had begun to investigate the whereabouts of her and the evil spirit, and this time, she was closer to the answer than ever before.


    On the other side, i looked at the Chinese man sitting behind him through the Central rear-view mirror. Zhang Heng had always been shrouded in mystery, and i still did not know where he came from, what was the reason that drove this Chinese man toe all the way from that distant eastern country? Fortunately, the other party did not seem to have any ill intentions toward them, and it seemed that he was also the enemy of the evil spirit.


    By the way, Sachus seemed to have mentioned that there were also traces of those fanatics in Tibet, but Zhang Heng did not look like ama, i thought to himself.


    The van had already driven more than 300 kilometers away from Nuuk. At the end of the road was a mine, and from there, there was no more road to be repaired. The speed of the van also began to slow down because the ground had be bumpy, other than Sachus, who was trapped in his seat, the rest of the people grabbed the safety handrail on the roof of the van.


    Alicia drove for another hour. The snow on the road started to increase. Zhang Heng knew that they had reached the edge of the ice field. During this time, Alicia made two more calls. When the van stopped again, Zhang Heng saw a pack of dogs and a sleigh. There were also two Inuit people holding phones.


    i and Alicia jumped out of the car to hug the two Inuit people in turn. They introduced Zhang Heng and Songjia to each other. When they returned to the car to pull Sachus down as well.., however, they realized that thetter had somehow wet his pants.


    ��This is the end of the car. We��re going to take the sleigh for the rest of the road, ��Alicia said.


    Zhang Heng looked at the snowy ground beside him. There were three sleigh rides on it, and correspondingly, there were three groups of dogs. Each group had about fourteen to sixteen dogs. Alicia divided the people into simple groups. She and Songjia would take one sleigh ride, Zhang Heng and Ole would take one, and the remaining two tribesmen would take the Crazy Sachus with them. The other one would not go with them, he was going to drive the van back to Nuuk.


    Although Zhang Heng had ridden a sleigh before, it was his first time riding a dog-drawn sleigh. This was the most primitive form of transportation in Greend, so it was notplicated in principle. Zhang Heng observed for a while from behind, he had basically memorized all of i��s operations, but if he wanted the sleigh to go anywhere, he had to develop a rtionship and rapport with the dogs. This was not something that could be done in a day or two.


    i wasn��t a talkative person, and hisnguage wasn��t the same as Zhang Heng��s, so he just kept driving the dogs forward. From here, it would take about two and a half hours to reach the Arecias��tribe, on the way, there were only six of them left.


    Fortunately, the scenery along the way wasn��t too bad. Even though the ice and snow looked a little monotonous, it was this monotony that made people feel the magnificence of nature. i took a deep breath, his previous worries had also dissipated a little. Shamanism was a sect that paid attention to harmony with nature. Being far away from the human world did not make the Inuit youth feel ufortable. On the contrary, it was morefortable than being in the city.


    PS: Sorry, there was a bug in the previous chapter. It has been fixed. Just open the directory, find the previous chapter, and press the long button to download it again. Sorry for the trouble.

 Chapter 1268 - Stop

    Chapter 1268 Stop


    On the vast ice field, the pack of dogs was running on all fours.


    The hot air from their mouths formed a white smoke in the air, which was then blown away by the cold wind.


    i saw Alessia make a hand gesture to him, telling him that he would reach the end of the journey in 40 minutes.


    However, at that moment, Zhang Heng, who had been very quiet, suddenly reached out and patted him on the back. He even shouted in English, ��Stop!��


    i didn��t stop immediately. He turned around to see what Zhang Heng was trying to do, but when he looked behind him, he realized that Zhang Heng had already disappeared.


    i was shocked. He didn��t expect Zhang Heng to be left on the road by him, or... more urately, the other party had jumped off the sleigh on his own ord.


    The sleigh wasn��t slow at all. It was about twenty-five kilometers per hour. If he jumped down like that, he might fall somewhere. Just as i pulled the reins.., just as he was about to stop the dogs, he heard a gunshot.


    i subconsciously pulled his neck back. After confirming that he was fine, he quickly turned his gaze to Alicia��s sleigh. In the end, he saw that Alicia was also controlling the dogs to stop, she and song Jia were equally confused. i heaved a sigh of relief. Then, he turned his gaze to the other sleigh. He saw that the person sent by Alicia��s tribe to pick them up had fallen to the ground, they were already lying on the sleigh.


    Then, he heard Songjia shouting, ��Get down, get down! Zhang Heng sent me a message saying that there��s a sniper.��


    i��s heart was filled with fear. Before he could stop the dogs, he followed Zhang Heng��s example and jumped down from the sleigh. Hey motionless on the ice field.


    On the other side, Alicia and Songjia were slightly slower than him, but they quickly hid themselves. After about a minute and a half, Songjia��s phone vibrated again. She took out her phone from her pocket and nced at it quickly before her face regained some color.


    ��Zhang Heng said that the sniper has left. He��s in pursuit. He told us to wait on the spot.��


    ��Is he going to be okay? After all, the enemy has a gun.��Alicia was still in shock. ��We can go back to the tribe first and find the hunters in the tribe to help us find the sniper.��


    Songjia also felt that this was safer, but when she sent a message to Zhang Heng, thetter did not reply.


    Because they did not know what the situation on the other side was like, the three of them did not even dare to get up from the snow. If Zhang Heng was really no match for the sniper who ambushed them, the other party mighte back to kill them, however, the three of them did not leave with the sleigh because they were afraid. They left Zhang Heng alone on the Ice Field.


    i and Alicia Bent over to run to the third sleigh. In the end, they realized that the tribesman who hade to pick them up was no longer breathing. As for Sachus, who was behind him, he was safe and sound, furthermore, there was no expression of fear on his face. Instead, there was excitement in his eyes, as if he was happy to see death with his own eyes.


    Although Alethea and i were displeased with Sartrus��attitude, they still needed him to retrieve the relic, so they dragged him down from his seat and threw him on the snowy ground.


    The three of them waited for about half an hour before they finally saw Zhang Heng walking over from not too far away with a rather small rifle in his hand.


    �� Voere S16. This was a lightweight rifle produced by an Austrianpany. Unlike the previous sniper rifles, which focused on range and lethality, this small rifle had a different approach and was extremely portable, it weighed only two kilograms, less than one-seventh of the weight of the previous XM109. In order to reduce its weight, the rifle was made of carbon fiber.


    Of course, its shooting uracy and destructive power were far inferior to the XM109, but it was enough for Zhang Heng. The most important thing was that it was light enough for him to pursue the target.


    After Zhang Heng examined the dead Inuit who had been shot, Alicia asked impatiently.


    ��How is it? Did you find the sniper who attacked us?��Song Jia tranted her question to Zhang Heng. Zhang Heng shook his head. ��No, he ran away. He seems to be very familiar with the terrain around here.��


    i and Alicia exchanged a look. Then, the Inuit teenager clenched his fists and squeezed out a name through gritted teeth. ��Hans!��


    Hans was the one who had been in charge of bringing the sacred relic from the tribe to Nuuk. He was also the one who had left behind a mark that only Alicia and i could understand. He had lured the two of them to the art museum, if not for Zhang Heng��s timely appearance, Alethea and i would have been dead by now.


    i then saw Zhang Heng Reach into his pocket and pull out a small knife. Seeing the knife, Alethea let out a cry of surprise, ��This is Hans��s knife. He always carries it with him. Could it be that he really was the one who attacked us? Why? He even killed Uncle Luke. Luke has always been very kind to him and taught him how to fish.��


    Songjia said, ��Zhang Heng said that it��s best if you don��t take the knife to heart. In fact, he didn��t want to give it to you because he felt that it was left there on purpose.��


    ��On Purpose?��i��s eyes widened, ��Then what about what happened at the museum? Could it be on purpose too? But there are very few people who know about the mark. Hans was lying in ambush here because he wanted to finish what he failed to do that night. He was afraid that we would tell Kunayu about all the good things he did.��


    Zhang Heng shook his head. ��His target isn��t you guys, nor Songjia and me.��As he spoke, he nced at Sachus, who was sniffing snot. ��That guy named Luke must have been unlucky.��


    ��How do you know?��Aliesia asked.


    ��I saw a sh of light in the snow, and I figured that it was the lens of the aiming device reflecting the sunlight. That��s how I found the sniper��s position and the direction he was aiming at. His marksmanship isn��t that good. When I examined Luke��s body earlier, I found that the bullet was fired from the back. In other words, he waited for Luke��s sleigh to pass in front of him before he started aiming... this angle is actually more suitable for shooting at Sachus, who was sitting behind the sleigh, but I didn��t expect to identally kill Luke in the end.��


    After Zhang Heng finished speaking, Alessia and Ole looked at each other in dismay. They did not expect Zhang Heng to analyze so many things from the trajectory alone, not to mention, they still did not know where the light rifle in Zhang Heng��s hand hade from.

 Chapter 1269 - Kunayu

    Chapter 1269 Kunayu


    Due to the attack on the road, everyone became more cautious during the rest of the journey.


    The original 40-minute journey took a full hour and a half. Especially after Luke��s death, there was still a thorny problem that no one could take over his previous job of driving the sleigh. Fortunately, Zhang Heng stepped in at this time, he had been observing how Ole managed the sleigh with the dogs the whole time. Until now, there were no problems with the basic steering, eleration, and deceleration.


    Ole and Alicia had some doubts about this, but after Zhang Heng got the hang of it and practiced for five minutes, they were relieved. Therefore, Zhang Heng took Sachus and Ole took Luke��s body, alethea, on the other hand, had already brought Songjia with her.


    They didn��t encounter any more danger on the way. As they got closer to the tribe, Alethea��s worried heart gradually rxed. When she saw a short building on the Snowy ins.., her spirits werepletely rxed.


    ��We��re home.��


    The tribe Alethea belonged to had more than 200 people. It was one of thergest tribes in the area. Although there had been people moving out to live in Nuuk or other towns on the ind over the years.., almost half of the people still stayed. However, most of them were old people. There were not many young people like Alethea.


    This was something that couldn��t be helped. Young people were always looking forward to the outside world. In fact, even Alicia spent most of her time in Nuuk. She studied there and worked there after graduation, however, she woulde back regrly to learn about shamans from kuna.


    Unlike what was recorded in the videos and books, the houses that Alicia��s tribe lived in were not made of ice. Instead, they were wooden houses that were simr to the ones in the town. They looked very sturdy, however, the colors were not as bright as the ones in the town. Some of the houses had snowmobiles beside them. Zhang Heng also saw grocery stores and even gas stations.


    It could be seen that modern civilization had a huge impact on the Inuit tribe on the ind. Even the people who stayed on the ind had already left the rough-and-ready lifestyle of the past. Their lifestyle had changed a lot.


    ording to Alessia and i, the current Inuit tribe was still very close to each other, but they would no longer raise their children together, regardless of their parents, as in the past, moreover, children would be sent to school to learn cultural knowledge, even if the result was that the young people who hade into contact with the colorful life outside chose to leave thisnd.


    However, Kuna had said that nothing could be forced. If the tribe really did not exist one day, it meant that everyone had lived the life they had chosen. There was nothing wrong with that. In fact, over the years, many small tribes had disbanded on their own, or they hadbined to form arge settlement, developing towards the town.


    Alethea��s tribe might also have such a day in the near future. However, for now, there were still many people who chose to stay here. After seeing Alethea return to the tribe.., the tribesmen all greeted her and i, who was also a frequent visitor here. Basically, everyone in the tribe knew who he was.


    In addition, they were also looking at Zhang Heng and Songjia with curiosity but no malice. Alicia��s tribe was not far from Nuke, and there were usually a few visitors, however, it was rare to see foreigners with yellow skin. As for Songjia, no matter where she went, she would receive a lot of attention from the opposite sex.


    However, they soon realized that there was one person missing. Luke, who had gone out to receive them earlier, was not in the group. When they saw the thing covered by the nket behind the sleigh, many of them realized something, their expressions also became sad.


    ��Kuna is still waiting for you at her ce,��an elderly man walked over and said to Alicia.


    ��Okay, we��ll be there right away.��


    Alicia brought Zhang Heng and the others to a small wooden house. This house was no different from the other houses in the tribe, but everyone who passed by would unconsciously lower their footsteps, a look of respect would appear on their faces.


    Alessia knocked on the door, and soon, a gentle voice came from inside. ��Pleasee in.��


    Hearing that, Alessia pushed the door open and walked in. The others stayed outside for the time being, leaving room for the master and disciple to exchange greetings. Five minutester, the door of the wooden house opened again, and Alessia poked her head out, ��That��s enough. Teacher has invited you in.��


    i had always been ridiculed as a boorish man by his twopanions, but he still had to follow the proper etiquette. Zhang Heng and Songjia walked in front, and he was thest to enter the room. He even closed the door behind him.


    When Zhang Heng entered the room, he saw an old man in his 60s and 70s sitting at a table. However, unlike what he had imagined, the old man was not wearing any strange traditional clothes, she was wearing some strange-looking jewelry. She was wearing a thick gray sweater on top and a pair of cotton pants on the bottom. She looked no different from an ordinary old woman.


    If it were not for Alicia standing beside her with a respectful expression, no one would believe that this old man was the most powerful shaman among the Inuit people.


    Zhang Heng and Songjia saluted the old man as soon as they entered the house. Thetter waved his hand and told them to take a seat at the table. Then, he stood up and took out a pot of freshly brewed coffee from the kitchen.


    ��You guys came at the right time. The Brazilian coffee that I asked someone to buy for me from the Inte has finally arrived. Yves, who went to nuke to handle some business, brought it back for me. We can have a taste together, ��Kuna said with a smile.


    Aliesia took out five teacups from the cab and took the pot of coffee from kuna. She poured it into the cup, and i took one. He looked very ttered and did not care about the heat, he drank it all in one gulp. Song Jia also picked up the cup and sipped. Zhang Heng was the only one at the table who did not move.


    Seeing this, song Jia put down the cup and whispered in a certain person��s ear, ��This is Kuna��s coffee. Even if you don��t like it... you should at least drink some to show your respect.��


    In the end, before she could finish her words, Kuna Yu opened her mouth, ��It��s okay. I can feel that he doesn��t have any malice toward me. He��s just a little more vignt. This ispletely different from his parents. I remember that his mother loves to smile, as if she��s not at all wary of this world. Even in the isted Inuit tribe, I rarely see such a pure smile.��

 Chapter 1270 - Speculation

    Chapter 1270 Spection


    Zhang Heng was startled when he heard song Jia��s trantion. ��You... met my parents?��


    ��Yes, but technically speaking, I saw them in a dream. My little elf found them on a deste ice field and guided me into your mother��s dream, ��Kuna said with a smile, ��Of course, that was 18 years ago. We yed a video game together in her dream. I have to say, your mother is really an interesting person.��


    ��Then how did you know that I was her son?��Zhang Heng asked.


    ��That��s what my little elf told me.��Kuna blinked at Zhang Heng.


    Zhang Heng was obviously not satisfied with such an answer. He said tactfully, ��Your little elf knows too much.��


    ��It does know a lot of things, but there are also some things that I googled myself,��Kuna said, ��Alright, I won��t joke anymore. The reason I recognized you is because you carry my blessing.�� ��Blessing?�� ��That��s right. This is the reward your mother received after she won the video game. I wish her first child the best. No matter what happens, she will always have thest bit of purity in her heart.��


    Zhang Heng opened his mouth.


    ��I know what you��re going to say. What do you think I am? An omnipotent God? ��The shamans��power has been declining for the past 100 years. I wish you a long life and a quick fortune, but I can��t do that either,��Kuna said with a shrug, ��I can only give you this kind of vague blessing. By the way, How Old Are you this year, 16 or 17? Why do you look a little old? Is it because you always stay upte ying with your phone?��


    ��I��m 20 this year.��


    This time, it was Kuna��s turn to be surprised, ��That��s impossible. When I met your mother, she said she didn��t have children yet. How can you be 20? Are you adopted by them?��? ��But my blessing is only effective on children who are rted to them by blood. If you were adopted, you wouldn��t have my blessing with you.��


    ��My situation is special. My parents��blood does flow in my body, but I wasn��t born by them, ��Zhang Heng said.


    ��What do you mean?��Even with Ku Nayou��s experience and knowledge, she was still a little confused. She didn��t understand what Zhang Heng was saying. To make sure that it wasn��t a trantion problem, she even confirmed it with Songjia, who was simrly confused, after that, Kuna Yu managed to find a point of understanding. ��If you were adopted and received a blood transfusion, it would not be counted. My Blessing is directed at the life created by your mother.��


    ��In a sense, my life was indeed given to me by my mother.��


    ording to Ny Totipp, he had no soul from the moment he was born. To the owner of the city under the ice, he was the perfect vessel. Therefore, the fanatics thought of a way to send him to the city under the ice, the blood exchange was about to be sessful, but his parents broke in. Moreover, the two of them were very reckless and injected their own blood into his body.


    In the end, such a series of reckless operations helped him toplete his rebirth and create a soul. In this way, it did not seem to be a problem for Xiaoxia to create him.


    ��Alright, I��m just an old shaman from an isted primitive tribe. I really don��t know how advanced the science and technology outside has be. Let��s end the small talk here. Let��s get back to business. Did you say on the phone that you lost the Holy Relic?��As Kunayu said thest sentence, she looked at Alethea.


    She did not use a reproachful tone, but when Alicia heard this, she could not help but lower her head. She seemed to be ming herself. i, on the other hand, was very loyal. At this time, he stood up and patted his chest, ��This has nothing to do with Alicia. I was the one who asked to borrow the sacred relic. Alicia only listened to me.��


    Kuna did not know whether tough or cry. ��I��m not using you. Why are you taking the me? I just want to know what happened.��


    Zhang Heng pulled song Jia Up and said, ��You��re talking about your tribe��s sacred object. Shouldn��t we leave?��


    ��There��s nothing to leave.��Kuna shook her head. ��That thing can be considered an antique, but if it falls into the hands of an outsider, it won��t sell for much.��


    ��You mean to say that the thing was stolen by our people?��Alethea could read between the lines.


    On the other side, i chimed in, ��Right now, Hans is the most suspicious because he is the person responsible for transporting the holy relic. He also left behind a code that only we can understand and led us into the encirclement of those fanatics. This time, when we came back, we ran into him again. He ambushed us and killed Luke. However, Zhang Heng said that his target was actually Sachus, who was behind the sleigh. He even found Hans��s knife.��


    ��I don��t think it was Hans who did this, ��Alesia, who had been silent all this time, suddenly said. i was a little surprised.


    ��Zhang Heng found Hans��s knife, but he also warned us not to take it to heart because he felt that someone deliberately left it there to mislead us. I actually thought it was a little strange before. If Hans had really betrayed us, he would have just called us directly and asked us to meet him at the art museum. Why would he need to leave a secret signal to make things so troublesome? Until we were attacked just now, I started to think that the person who attacked us wasn��t Hans.��


    ��Why?��


    ��Hans��s father and brother died at the hands of those fanatics. His desire for revenge is no less than mine, so he has been quietly practicing his marksmanship all these years. If the person who ambushed us was really him, then Sachus should already be dead, because Hans couldn��t have missed the previous shot.��


    i thought about it and agreed with what Alessia said. However, he did not know who had betrayed them. He could not call everyone out and have them line up to interrogate them one by one, right.


    Kuna looked at Zhang Heng, who had remained silent, and asked, ��You seem to have an answer?��


    ��Not really. It��s just a guess, ��Zhang Heng said.


    ��Can you tell us about it?��


    ��Of course. I suspect that the one who betrayed you is Ali, who was with you all this time.��


    ��How is that possible? Isn��t Ali already dead?��i��s eyes widened when he heard that. He yelled, ��That��s what you said.��


    ��Yes, I checked the van. The person inside was stabbed at least 20 times. Judging from the blood flow, there is indeed no chance of survival, but I didn��t say that the person in the van was Ali.��

 Chapter 1271 - Deduction

    Chapter 1271 Deduction


    ��If the person in the car isn��t Ali, who else could it be?��i asked.


    ��I don��t know, ��Zhang Heng said, ��I��ve never seen Ali, nor Hans. I only said what I observed at the scene. The deceased was very young, about 176 to 178 centimeters tall, and weighed about 70 kilograms. He was male, had a crew cut, and was left-handed. He had a habit of exercising, and he maintained a good figure. He had just broken up with his girlfriend, ��Zhang Heng said.


    Alessia and Ole looked at each other. ��If this description is urate, then the person who died in the car was indeed not Eli, but it wasn��t Hans either. We don��t know such a person.��


    When Songjia heard this, she couldn��t help but interrupt. ��Forget about the front, but how did you know about breaking up with your girlfriend?��


    ��The deceased��s back smelled of alcohol, mud, and grease. When he struggled, he rubbed himself against the seat. The smell of grease and alcohol in this area should have been left behind in the alley next to the bar after a big drink. This means that he probably drank alone and didn��t call his friends. Obviously, something sad happened to him, and for a boy his age, most likely it has something to do with feelings. This point will be confirmedter.��


    Zhang Heng paused for a moment before continuing, ��When he was struggling, he kicked the chair in front of him, so I also found his shoe print on the back of the chair. I can see that his sports shoes do not fit his feet. This means that the shoes were given to him by someone else, but his family background is not bad. The perfume he uses is a luxury brand, so there is no reason for him to force himself to wear ufortable shoes. Unless the person who gave the shoes to him means a lot to him, but he was drinking alone, so I pushed him to the side and they broke up. He wore the shoes to reminisce about the past.��


    Everyone was stunned by Zhang Heng��s analysis. Ole opened his mouth wide and asked, ��Who are you? Holmes��roommate?��


    It took Alessia quite a while before she came back to her senses and frowned, ��Why did this person appear in our van? What does he have to do with those fanatics? Is he like you, investigating the evil spirit?��


    ��No, he��s a tourist visiting Greend,�� said kuna. She looked at Zhang Heng, ��You��re right. He dide to the Arctic Circle to rx after a breakup. He disappeared two days ago after drinking at a bar.��


    This time, it was Zhang Heng��s turn to be surprised. ��Did your little elf tell you this as well?��


    ��No, I saw the news. ��Kuna pointed at the satellite TV in the living room.


    ��Half an hour before you came back, the police found his body on the beach. They are asking for clues from the people. He is an American. There are 27 knife wounds on his body. The appearance of his body is consistent with what you said, ��Kuna said.


    ��This means that he has been in the hands of those fanatics for the whole dayst night. By the way, Sachus also mentioned that these guys would hold regr ceremonies, and their sacrifices were usually people from outside the ind. But this time, they didn��t kill the sacrifice right away. Instead, they brought him to our van and stabbed him to death. They hoped that we would mistake the dead person for Eli.��Alethea quickly sorted out the whole story.


    ��That��s right. Your analysis is very reasonable and logical. What��s more, it��s rare that you��re not emotional. It seems that you��ve grown a lot this time. But you should also know that you��re using one of our friends and rtives of betraying us. There��s no more serious crime than this, not to mention that the person you suspect is about to take over his teacher��s position and be a shaman.��Kona put down the coffee cup in her hand, his expression also became serious.


    ��Who? Hans is going to be a shaman?��Ole was a little stunned, ��Although he is not stupid, his mind is not on this. His learning speed is not as fast as mine, let alonepared to Alethea. If he wants to be a shaman, it will be at least seven or eight yearster. Besides, how old are we now? ��Bing a shaman is too young.��


    ��There��s no other way. His teacher can��t hold on much longer. GABA��s health has always been poor. He felt that his time wasing, so he was so anxious these years. He wanted to give everything to his students. He had high expectations for Eli, but unfortunately, he chose the wrong method.��


    Kuna sighed again, ��I��ve told him many times not to push young people too hard, especially since Eli is the kind of person who always has his own ideas even though he��s quiet on the surface. I was worried that there would be a rift between the master and disciple, but it doesn��t matter now. GABA doesn��t have much time left anyway. Last month, he went to the hospital for a physical examination and found a malignant tumor in his head. He can��t operate on that location either. Now, he has to mix some herbs and eat them himself. Their tribe can��t go without a shaman for a day, so Eli��s days of bing a shaman are not far away.��


    ��We have to tell his teacher what he has done before that,��Alicia said anxiously, ��Let��s not talk about the hatred between Hans and Luke for now. I��m worried that he has already joined that evil and mysterious sect without us knowing. If he bes the shaman of their tribe, it is very likely that the entire tribe will fall into the hands of that evil spirit. I have seen that fellow��s believers. They have all lost their minds and be crazy. They are also very aggressive. ��Teacher, GABA might not listen to us, but you are the most powerful and respected shaman of the Inuit. If you tell Gaba, he will definitely reconsider letting Ali take his ce.��


    ��This is not a small matter. Although I am willing to believe your deduction, I need more evidence to use a young man of being a traitor.��


    ��Of course, we brought back Sachus. He used to be the leader of those fanatics. uh, strictly speaking, he is only themander of the operation, but he should be aware of the actions of those fanatics. However, there is something wrong with his mental state, and he is unable tomunicate with others normally. Therefore, I am afraid that I can only invite you to take a look in his dream, ��Alicia said, ��Maybe we can find out where the relic is.��


    ��Okay.��Kuna didn��t refuse. ��I��ll make some preparations. You can bring him in.��


    At this time, Zhang Heng spoke up, ��I��m sorry, this is an internal matter of the Inuit. I didn��t want to interrupt, but I have to say, from what I know, that... the evil spirit you speak of is also very good at invading other people��s dreams, so if you want to enter the dreams of his followers, it might be very dangerous.��


    ��Thank you for your reminder, young man.��Kuna nodded, ��Although your appearance looks very cold, it seems that you still inherited a part of your mother��s gentleness and kindness. I will be careful. Moreover, I still have my little elf, she will also protect me.��

 Chapter 1272 - The Little Elf

    Chapter 1272 The Little Elf


    Kuna did not take long to prepare. It took her less than 15 minutes. When she came down from the second floor and changed her clothes, she finally looked like a shaman. Apart from that, she was holding a small bowl in her hand.


    Kuna carefully spilled the contents of the bowl around the sofa. Then, she signaled for Alicia to bring her recliner over. She ced Sachus, who was tied up, on the Recliner and took out the towel that was stuffed in his mouth.


    Sachus looked at the old shaman who was standing in front of him. His eyes were filled with madness.


    Kunayu looked at him and said, ��He has our blood in his body too?��


    ��Yes, his father is an Inuit. He learned his hunting skills from his father��s tribe, ��Alicia said.


    ��I can feel an evil aura from his body. He has been controlled by that evil spirit.��


    ��Can his mind return to normal?��Songjia could not help but ask.


    ��It��s very difficult. It depends on how much his mind has been affected,��Kuna said. ��I heard that he has been entangled with that evil spirit for a long time?��


    ��Eighteen years. Since he went to participate in the scientific expedition eighteen years ago, he has been having nightmares ever since he came back, ��Alicia said.


    ��It��s already amazing that he could hold on until now. His spirit is already considered very strong among ordinary people, ��Kuna said matter-of-factly. Then, she said to Alicia, ��Give him a sleeping pill and let him sleep.��


    ��Yes, teacher.��


    In the end, Alicia ran into trouble at the first step. No matter what, Sachus was unwilling to take the sleeping pill and kept his mouth shut. Even if i helped, he forced open his mouth and stuffed the pill into his mouth without waiting for the water to be poured.., he spat it out again. The two of them worked hard for a long time and sweated profusely. However, Sachus was still energetic and


    lively.


    Zhang Heng could not stand it anymore and said, ��Let me do it?��


    Hearing that, Aliesia handed the pill and the ss of water to Zhang Heng. Zhang Heng walked over to Sachus and reached out to remove thetter��s chin. Then, he threw the sleeping pill into Sachus��s mouth and filled it with water, this time, Sachus was exceptionally obedient. He obediently took the pill and did not cause any more trouble.


    However, after waiting for half an hour, even i, who had been on the run for half a day, felt a little tired. He was still not sleepy and was mumbling something incoherently. Alesia patted her head. ��I forgot. He has been suffering from nightmares and insomnia for a long time. He should have been taking sleeping pills for a long time. He should have developed some drug resistance. I��m afraid we have to increase the dosage.��


    As she spoke, she stood up to get the medicine. However, she heard kuna say, ��There��s no need to go through so much trouble. Leave it to me.��


    The old shaman sat down on the sofa opposite Sartrus and looked at him. Then, he hummed a song softly. The melody was notplicated. There were only a few simple notes that repeated over and over again. However, as Kuna Sang.., everyone in the room felt their spirits rx.


    Songjia could not help but yawn. Kuna Yoo gestured to her to go upstairs and wait.


    After a while, Alethea could not hold on any longer and staggered up the stairs. On the other hand, i was still holding on, but his eyelids had be a little heavy, at the same time, Sachus, who was lying on the recliner, gradually quieted down in the magical bad. He did not even talk nonsense anymore.


    i wanted to wait for Sachus to fall asleep first, but after another five minutes, he was so tired that he fell slowly against the wooden wall behind him. Not long after he fell.., sachus finally closed his eyes.


    Kuna sang a few more lines before her voice gradually died down. She picked up a ss of water from the side and took a sip of the remaining coffee to moisten her throat. Then she looked at Zhang Heng, who was sitting at the wooden table, with some surprise.


    Thetter��s eyes were still clear, as if he had not been affected by her singing. However, Kuna knew that now was not the time to study Zhang Heng. She pointed at i on the ground and then pointed upstairs.


    Zhang Heng knew what she meant, so he stood up and walked over to carry i up the stairs. In the bedroom on the second floor, Songjia had already fallen asleep on the bed. As for Alicia.., zhang Heng did not see her in the bedroom. When he put i on the ground, he walked downstairs and saw Alicia walking in from outside the door.


    From the looks of it, she seemed to have jumped out of the window and into the snow. She washed her face with the snow to refresh herself before returning.


    The old shaman nodded at his student. After that, Alicia closed all the doors and windows and retreated to the side, only Kuna Yoo and Sachus, who had fallen asleep, were left in the area where the water was sprinkled. Kuna Yoo noticed that even in his sleep, Sachus��face was filled with malevolence and joy. It was as if he was running and killing freely in the dream world, and with Zhang Heng��s warning.., the old samurai knew that their trip to the dream world would not be easy.


    So she took out a tambourine made of seal skin from under the sofa and changed the tune as she yed. This time, her tune was very cheerful and filled with joy, the corners of an ordinary person��s lips curled up involuntarily when they heard it. Of course, Zhang Heng did not seem to have any reaction to it.


    However, at that moment, Kuna could not be bothered with him anymore. She used this happy tune to summon her guardian spirit. These little things were like children, they liked to run around for no reason, they were also very sensitive to all kinds of emotions. When they saw something they liked, they would go up to it. When they felt sadness, they would run far away.


    Kuna still remembered the year when she lost her sister due to an ident when she was twenty years old. After that, she locked herself up and did notmunicate with anyone else. She was depressed all day long, the little fairies who used to love to surround her had disappeared without a trace. She did not know where they had gone to hide. It was not until she had recovered from her sadness that they returned.


    When the expedition team was in the wilderness, it was no surprise that the little fairies found Zhang Heng��s mother. The little fairies were naturally fond of people with a pure and optimistic heart. At their age, they probably hadn��t seen many people as heartless as Xiao Xia. They were like bears that had seen honey. In fact, if they weren��t afraid of someone in the expedition team.., they wished they could hold hands and dance around little summer day and night.


    On the contrary, it wasn��t so easy for Kuna to get the elves to help her enter the dream of Sachus, because Sachus gave off a scent that they didn��t like, and they could smell it from far away.

 Chapter 1273 - Awakening

    Chapter 1273 Awakening


    Kuna used the elves��favorite song to summon her guardian spirit to her side.


    It was a pr bear named Gumok. It had snow-white fur all over its body and looked majestic. An ordinary pr bear��s lifespan was around 30 years old, but Gumok had lived for a full 150 years, its teeth were still very good, but because it was getting older, it was getting harder and harder to hunt enough food. So one day, when the sun set, it climbed out of its cave and resolutely walked into the Long Night.


    No one had seen it since then, until a little Inuit girl named Kunayu saw a pr bear basking in the sun by the shore while ying by the river one day.


    Kunayu ran home and told her father about it, but her father and two other hunters came to the river but did not see any pr bear, nor did they find any footprints on the ground, but Kunayu clearly saw the white pr bear lying on a piece of floating ice, floating downstream along the river.


    It just floated under the eyes of Kunayu��s father and the two hunters, but the adults acted as if they did not see it at all. After learning about it, the shaman in the tribe said to Kunayu��s father, ��This child is psychic, let her follow me. From then on, Kuna Yoo was groomed as the next shaman, and the first Elf Kuna Yoo saw, Gumok, also became her guardian spirit.�� He had always protected her as she grew up.


    Although Gumok was very yful and often ran off to God knows where, as long as Kuna Yoo sang a happy song, Gumok would definitely run back, just like now.., the white pr bear dragged its huge body in from outside the house. It shook its fur as if it wanted to shake off the ice and snow on it.


    It squatted beside the old shaman like a child waiting to eat candy. However, when its gaze fell on Sachus, its body shrank back, kuna had no choice but to reach out a hand to stroke the white pr bear��s belly andfort it.


    After gumok calmed down, Kuna started to discuss the matter of entering Sartrus��Dreand with him.


    However, in the eyes of an outsider like Zhang Heng, the old shaman was only gesturing to the air and mumbling to himself. Fortunately, he could tell that Kuna was not mentally ill, even so, Zhang Heng maintained a vignt posture. Seeing him like this, Alicia, who was beside him, also became nervous and reached into her pocket.


    Then, the two saw Kuna close her eyes, and her body copsed on the sofa. Alicia knew that this meant that her teacher had sessfully entered the dream of Sachus.


    However, she could tell that Kuna was not rxed inside. Her brows furrowed slightly, as if she had encountered something difficult. In less than five minutes, Alicia saw sweat oozing out of the old shaman��s forehead and nose, his face was slightly hot.


    n


    Alethea��s heart sank. She realized that her teacher might have encountered some trouble in the dream. Before she could figure out what she should do, she saw the old shaman��s body suddenly start to shake, at the same time, fear appeared on his face. he shouted, ��No, no! This is not the future! You Can��t... Destroy Everything!��


    Alicia finally could not hold it in anymore and rushed forward. She pushed Kunayu��s body and shouted ��Teacher, teacher��at the same time. Thetter did not wake up from her sleep, so Alicia increased the strength of her shaking, she did not expect Kunayu to suddenly struggle violently and kick her to her lower abdomen.


    Alicia was sent flying by the kick and knocked over the table at the side. However, she did not care about the pain in her body. Instead, she looked in Kunayu��s direction nervously.


    Kuna was an old woman after all. Although she had kicked Alethea away, she didn��t feel good either. The leg she had kicked was fractured by the rebound, but she was still not woken up by the pain, her voice became more urgent and sharp instead.


    ��Gumok! Come Back!��She shouted anxiously.


    Songjia and i on the second floor were also woken up by the shock and ran down from the top.


    ��What happened? What Happened?��i asked.


    ��I don��t know. Teacher entered the dream of Sachus. After that, she became what she is now. I��m worried that the evil spirit has also appeared in the dream of Sachus. We have to think of a way to wake teacher up!��Alicia clutched her stomach and climbed up from the ground, she said quickly.


    Some


    ��Okay.��i agreed immediately. However, he was also a little dumbfounded when he saw the old shaman on the sofa. Although he knew some ways to wake people up quickly.., however, Kuna was still the great shaman who was respected by all the Inuit people. She was also Alethea��s teacher. i��s hand could not help but tremble before it even got close to kuna. In the end, he simply froze in midair.


    ��Why are you standing there like a Fool? !��Alethea said, ��Go to the kitchen and fetch a basin of water.��


    ��Oh, OH, AH.��i turned around and ran into the kitchen. Soon, he fetched a basin of water. Alethea ran outside and knocked arge piece of ice into it, turning it into a basin of ice water. Then, she knelt in front of kuna, ��I��m sorry, teacher.��


    After she said that, she had i, who was very strong, hold kuna down. In the end, i did not know how Kuna��s small body could contain such powerful strength. She had even broken a leg.., but her struggle was still very strong.


    Fortunately, i was also full of divine power. He still held kuna down on the sofa and could not move. Then, Alethea pressed Kuna��s face into the basin of ice water.


    Kunayu��s head was choked the moment she entered. She wanted to struggle, but her hands and feet were firmly held down by i. Even so, she was still unable to wake up. i��s arm was scratched by Kunayu��s fingernails, leaving deep bloody marks. One of the fingernails even broke into his flesh.


    i could not help but let out a muffled groan. Seeing that Kunayu��s struggle was getting weaker and weaker, Alethea was afraid that something unexpected would happen, so she had no choice but to move the basin of ice water away from Kunayu��s face.


    However, the old shaman quieted down. Although his eyes were still closed, the corners of his mouth started to curl up strangely, and a simr expression appeared on his face.


    Alethea felt as if she had fallen into an ice cer. She felt her hands and feet turn cold. Just as she was about to despair, Kuna��s body trembled slightly, and her eyelids started to Twitch again. This was a sign that she was about to wake up.


    i, on the other hand, stared at Zhang Heng, who had just stabbed a steak knife into Sachus��Heart!

 Chapter 1274 - Out-of-control Dream

    Chapter 1274 Out-of-control Dream


    Kuna Yu opened her eyes, but there was still a trace of fear in them. When she saw Zhang Heng, her body shook.


    However, she controlled herself very well. Other than Zhang Heng, no one else saw the slight change in her expression.


    ��Teacher, ��Alicia called out in a trembling voice. When Kuna Yu heard this, she reached out a hand and gently stroked her hair.


    Looking at Kuna��s haggard appearance, Alicia��s nose twitched. ��Your leg, it��s all because of me...��


    ��No, it��s not your fault. I lost control.��She then turned to Zhang Heng. ��I have to thank you, young man. You saved my student and saved me. I��m ashamed to say this, but you warned me before.��


    ��You��re wee. I only did what I had to do, ��Zhang Heng said calmly.


    Alicia turned to thank him again and said, ��You said you would only lend him to us for three days, and you wanted him to take you to the city under the ice...��


    ��It��s okay. Something happened in the middle, and I��m considering whether or not I should leave immediately to find the city under the ice,��Zhang Heng said, ��Besides, saving people is more important. He��s not the only way I can find the city under the ice.��


    There were many people who participated in the expedition that year. Even though some of them died on the way, other than Dr. Baker and the guide, Sanchez, there were still many who survived. Even without considering Kronos himself.., there were also the retired soldiers who listened to him. Of course, Zhang Heng actually had the easiest way to find his adoptive parents.


    The two of them were part of the expedition team that year, and they had personally entered the city under the ice. However, Zhang Heng did not want to involve the two of them unless it was absolutely necessary, in fact, after knowing the general direction of the expedition team that year, he could also search in that direction. Based on the connection between him and the owner of the city under the ice, it should not be difficult to find the destination.


    ��Can you tell me what you saw in his dream?��Zhang Heng asked as he pointed at Sachus��corpse.


    ��Of course, with the help of my little elf, Gu Moke, I entered his dream. Before that, I hadn��t seen anything like it... Such a scene was filled with madness and killing. I could see that his mind had beenpletely twisted, but I still managed to get a glimpse of something from those fragmented fragments.


    ��I saw the fight in the art museum. I saw Ali standing with him. They were talking about something, and then Zhang Heng appeared. Ali said he was going down to help, but I didn��t see him again. Other than that, I saw the secret ceremony of the fanatics. They ced the kidnapped victims on the ground and surrounded a ck well.


    ��And then cut open their chests, and let their blood flow to the well, but not let them die at once, and let them scream and watch themselves die, because of a nervous breakdown, while the fanatics gathered round the victims and the well, and took off all their clothes, and writhed and danced.


    ��With all due respect, it wasn��t really a dance at all. It was just a group of people randomly dancing in their own interest. They looked extremely ugly, and from time to time, they would let out beast-like roars from their throats. However, I noticed that there seemed to be something in the ck well. I wanted to take a closer look, but at that moment, those fanatics suddenly stopped their movements and looked towards the ce where I was hiding.


    ��After that, they seemed to have received some kind of order and rushed towards me together. I wasn��t too afraid at that time, because I knew that this was only a dream. They actually couldn��t hurt me, especially with my usual dream experience. As long as my emotions fluctuated violently, I would leave the target��s dream. But this time, the situation waspletely different from before. They caught me, and I couldn��t break free. Then, they dragged me to the well.


    ��A leader-like man walked toward me and cut open my chest with a knife. He ced me next to the offerings. I felt... pain, and my ears were filled with wails. However, I didn��t wake up. It was then that I realized something was wrong. Then, as the ritual continued, I finally saw what was inside the well.��


    ��Did you get a good look at it?��Zhang Heng asked.


    ��Unfortunately, I only caught a glimpse of it. I didn��t get a good look at it, but there��s no doubt that the thing inside is not a human.��


    Even without the ( vow ring ] , Zhang Heng could tell that the old shaman was not telling the truth. When he connected the dots with the look that Kuna had given him earlier, Zhang Heng guessed that the Thing Kuna was looking at in the well was most likely rted to him, however, Kuna chose to hide it. Of course, this would not benefit the old shaman, but it would help the rest of the tribe not turn against Zhang Heng. It was still fine for Alicia. After all, Zhang Heng had saved her life before. However, if the others knew that the evil spirit in the well had his face, even if kuna came forward to exin that the two of them were not rted.., it was likely that the Inuit people in the tribe would also be wary of him. Furthermore, what happened here would not only stay here, but also spread among the Inuit people very quickly, it would also be more difficult for him to move around on this ice field.


    ��What happened after that?��Alesia asked.


    ��Gumok was afraid of the well, but when he saw that I was being bullied, he bolstered his courage and rushed into the well. I knew that he was no match for the thing in the well, so I asked him toe back, ��Kuna said.


    It must have happened at that time when she said, ��Gumok,e back!��.


    ��Did you see anything else?��Alicia continued to ask.


    ��No.��The old shaman shook his head.


    The others might not have thought much of it, but Alethea was stunned when she heard that, because when she was downstairs, she clearly heard a sentence, ��No, no! This is not the future! You Can��t... destroy all of this!��But Kuna did not mention that at all. If it was i��s straightforward temperament, he would have asked the teacher if she had forgotten something. But Alethea did not say that, she just nodded, ��I��ll go to the Doctor first to help you reattach your broken bone.��


    ��There��s no need to rush this, ��Kuna said. ��I want to talk to Zhang Heng. ��After a pause, she added, ��Alone.��


    ��Okay, then we��ll go out first.��Alicia and i looked at each other and said.


    Song Jia, on the other hand, was a little embarrassed. After she tranted the sentence, she asked kuna, ��What about me? Should I Stay?��


    ��Thank you, son. You can go out first. I have a way tomunicate with him,��Kunayu said gently.

 Chapter 1275 - A Gamble

    Chapter 1275 A Gamble


    After everyone had left the room, the old shaman waved at Zhang Heng.


    Thetter walked up to her. Kuna looked at Zhang Heng with aplicated gaze. A momentter, she reached out a hand and gestured for Zhang Heng to ce his palm on hers.


    Their palms were pressed together. Kuna��s hand was only half the size of Zhang Heng��s, and it was very thin. When she held it, it felt like a piece of wood, but surprisingly, it was very warm.


    Zhang Heng held the old shaman��s hand, and the next moment, his vision changed. He was still in Kuna��s room, but a huge figure appeared in the direction of the satellite TV on his left hand.


    It was a snow-white pr bear. It was sitting on the floor, its head almost touching the ceiling


    Zhang Heng knew that this must be Kuna��s guardian spirit, Gu Moke. However, thetter looked a little tired, and there was a bowl-sized wound on its abdomen. Not only was blood oozing out, but the surface of the wound was already rotten, the surface of the wound had already rotted away.


    The pr bear looked like it was in great pain, and its body was trembling. When it saw Zhang Heng looking at it, a look of fear appeared on its face, and it shrank back to Ku Nayou��s side.


    ��I��m sorry, it��s still recovering from the shock.��Ku Nayou��s voice came from Zhang Heng��s ear. This time, Zhang Heng could understand the old shaman��s words without the help of a trantor.


    The old shaman exined as if he knew what he was thinking. ��We��re in a psychic state now, so we canmunicate directly through our minds. It��s just like how I usuallymunicate with Gumok, crossing thenguage barrier.��


    ��I��ve seen a game prop before, and it does have this function.��


    ��Game prop?��Kuna��s expression was confused.


    ��Nothing.��


    Zhang Heng probed and found that the old shaman did not seem to know about the gods��game or the existence of yers. Due to the relevant rules, Zhang Heng was unable to exin it to her. Fortunately, Kuna did not pursue the topic.


    She brought the topic straight to the point, ��Just now, Alessia and the others asked me what I saw in the dream, but I didn��t tell them the truth because what I saw was too shocking and unbelievable.��


    ��What did you see?��


    ��I saw you destroy Greend, where our ancestors lived, and then the whole world, spreading terror to every corner of human civilization. Everything I saw was burning, and people were chasing and killing each other. At the same time, I was filled with joy.��


    ��Is that why your hand under the sofa was holding the gun?��Zhang Heng asked.


    The old shaman was startled. ��Have you always been so observant?��


    ��I thought you would pull out the gun when we shook hands.��


    ��I did think so,��the old shaman said honestly, ��I have to admit, this is a very tempting idea. If killing one person can stop all of this, many people will choose to take a gamble, even though I know I don��t have much hope of seeding.��


    ��Then why did you give up Halfway? You Don��t seem like a person who cares about his own life. If you can be the shaman of the tribe, then you should put the interests of the tribe first.��


    ��I was shocked. If you were there, you would understand where my fear came from.��Kuna looked into Zhang Heng��s eyes, ��I��m not afraid of death, nor of going crazy. At my age, many things that looked scary when I was young no longer bother me. Furthermore, I know where my soul will go after I die, and Gumok wille to fetch me home. That means eternal peace. I can ept such an ending, but... but seeing the people around me die one by one before me, and the things that I��ve been protecting turn into nothingness, and everyone I know turns into demons, these are indeed beyond my limit.��


    ��I understand your concern,��Zhang Heng said. ��If I were in your position, I would also take a gamble.��


    ��No, I shouldn��t do that.��Kuna shook her head. ��From the moment I met you, I knew you were a good kid.��


    ��Forgive me for being blunt, shaman, but you don��t know me. I may not be a bad person, but I��m definitely not a good person. My hands are also stained with blood. Most of the bloodes from viins, but there are also some people... even if they havemitted evil deeds, they don��t deserve to die. Not to mention, there may be some innocent people among them. When a group of people swarmed over, I wouldn��t go through their life histories one by one. Bullets don��t have eyes, evil or kind. In the end, after their hearts were pierced by a bullet, they would stop breathing. Everyone is equal,��Zhang Heng said calmly.


    ��Everyone in this world has a different definition of a good person. It��s true that I don��t understand your past, but I can feel the kindness in your heart towards this world. Even if you don��t realize this kindness yourself, you are your mother��s son. Even though I still don��t understand how your mother created you, there is no doubt that her blood is in your body. Otherwise, my blessing wouldn��t have been effective.��


    Kuna paused, ��I told my students to let nature take its course and not force things, but these are all nonsense. If killing one person can save the world and protect my people, I don��t mind turning into a devil, but what if I��m wrong? What if... I��m not destroying a devil, but creating one myself? ��You helped me. Just a few minutes ago, you woke me up from that horrible nightmare. A little earlier, you saved my student from the hands of those fanatics, and then I turned around and pointed a gun at you and pulled the trigger on you... I suddenly realized that maybe this is what the evil spirit wants me or the rest of the world to do, to kill the part of your body that belongs to a person bit by bit.��


    ��I can understand that this is not a personal grudge.��


    ��No, don��t underestimate the influence this world has on you, child. No matter how hard-hearted you are, we are a part of the world. Your actions are changing the world, and this world is constantly feeding back to you. Kindness is like a weak flower. It does not appear there for no reason, and it can not grow alone. It needs someone to take care of it carefully. If a good person returns kindness to the world, but all he gains is malice, then the flower in his heart will gradually wither. ��Rather than bet on whether your knife is faster or my bullet is faster, I would rather bet that no matter what happens, the flower in your heart will not wither. What I have to do is to pour the first spoonful of water on it.��


    Zhang Heng fell into silence. After a moment, he raised his head. ��Thank you, Shaman.��

 Chapter 1276 - New Car

    Chapter 1276 New Car


    ��You have an extremely difficult road ahead of you. I��ve tried to look at your future, but it��s a mess there. I Can��t see anything, and many people don��t know that the future isn��t fixed. Otherwise, our current efforts will be meaningless. Although I��m unwilling to admit it, my power is too weakpared to the evil spirit on the ice ins. It hasn��t even targeted me. Just the aura it unintentionally released makes it difficult for me and Gumok to resist.


    ��Therefore, there is a limit to what I can do for you. However, I hope you know that you have saved me and Alicia from the hands of that evil spirit. You are the Inuit��s forever friend. No matter what happens in the future, if you need help, you cane find us here. I also wish the flower in your heart will never wither,��Kunayu finished herst sentence, he let go of Zhang Heng��s hand.


    Zhang Heng also stood up and bowed to the old shaman. He and Songjia stayed in Arecias��tribe for the night, and they were treated with unprecedented hospitality.


    The next morning, Zhang Heng borrowed a snowmobile and brought Songjia back to Nuuk. Kunayu had already confirmed Ali��s betrayal through her dream. Next, she would personally inform Ali��s teacher and his tribe, at the same time, Alessia, i, and the others would contact the other Inuit to start looking for Ali and the Holy Relic.


    These were the Inuit��s internal affairs, so Zhang Heng did not interfere.


    ��You said you n to leave?��Songjia was surprised. Just as she was about to quit her job as a trantor with Zhang Heng, he spoke first.


    ��Yes, I booked a flight for tonight.��


    ��Wait, aren��t you going to look for the city under the ice? I thought you were very concerned about it. You said you came here to investigate something rted to it.��


    ��I��ve already gotten what I wanted to know. It��s even more than I originally expected,��Zhang Heng said. ��I��m indeed very interested in the city under the ice, but I won��t be going this time.�� ��That��s a good idea,�� song Jia said happily, ��I��ve also heard the story of Sachus. Even if his story isn��t entirely believable, that ce is indeed very strange. Furthermore, that evil spirit is so powerful that even kuna is no match for it. We should stay as far away from it as possible, shouldn��t we?��


    ��Okay.��Zhang Heng pulled out an envelope and ced it on the table. ��This is your reward for the time you��ve been here.��


    ��Ha, you can just transfer the money to me directly. There��s no need to wrap it in an envelope to make it so mysterious,��song Jia said as she took the envelope. However, when she took it, she was stunned.


    Because it was lighter than she had expected and it didn��t look like a banknote in shape, song Jia tore open the envelope and poured out a car key.


    ��What?��


    Zhang Heng pointed behind her. There were two parking spaces next to the small cafe where the two of them met. A van was parked in one of the spaces, but it blocked the car inside, after entering the cafe, song Jia finally saw the car parked in the other space through the window.


    It was a Volvo. It wasn��tpletely new, but it was obvious that its previous owner had taken good care of it. The car was shiny, and there were no scratches on the body.


    ��How is that possible? How did you know that I was looking at this car?��Song Jia couldn��t take her eyes off the car after seeing it clearly. She rushed out of the coffee shop and came to the front of the car, zhang Heng paid the bill and followed after her.


    ��You��ve mentioned it many times. Although you didn��t mention the name of the seller, there��s a lot of other information. With the description of the car, it was easy to find the owner. Fortunately, he can speak some English, so we settled the deal,��Zhang Heng said.


    ��i was right. You��re not really Sherlock Holmes��s roommate, are you?��Song Jia said. She caressed the body of the car that she had touched many times before. Her eyes were filled with unconceble joy, however, she returned the key to Zhang Heng. ��This gift is too expensive. I can��t ept it.��


    ��You deserve it,����Zhang Heng said. ��You��ve given me a lot of help during this trip to Greend.��


    ��But not that much. You��ll probably be able to do it with another trantor.��Song Jia Shrugged.


    ��You��re in danger because of me. Although the final oue isn��t too bad, I��ll take the extra part aspensation.��


    ��Eh, it��s not that dangerous anymore. It��s just that some of the things I saw and heard scared me.��Song Jia obviously misunderstood Zhang Heng, she thought thetter was talking about the art museum and the things that she had seen at the Doctor��s house, but in reality, Zhang Heng was talking about her being targeted by Nara totip and changing her identity.


    If not for Nara TOTIP��s intention to keep everyone in the dark, the trantor would probably not be in this world anymore. However, since this matter had already passed, Zhang Heng did not exin further.


    For a normal person like Songjia, knowing in advance wouldn��t do anything other than cause her to panic.


    ��I spent 90,000 crowns on this car. Based on thepensation we discussed earlier, I should pay you 20,000 crowns. In addition, this is our first wechat chat. I said that no matter how long this operationsts, I will pay you for a month��s worth of work as long as it��s less than a month.��


    ��That won��t be able to reach 90,000 kroner.��Song Jia shook her head. ��Furthermore, I��ll resign on my own ord halfway through. Of course, our previous agreement can��t be counted on.��


    She saw that Zhang Heng had no intention of taking back the keys, so she added, ��I do like this car very much. Since you��ve already bought it, I don��t think it��s realistic for you to return it again. So, just treat it as if you��re selling this car to me again. I��ll transfer the remaining 70,000 kroner into your ount. I��ve already saved up a sum of money previously, and with this sry, I��ll be able to pay it off.��


    ��Sure.��Zhang Heng didn��t insist and gave the interpreter another hug.


    ��You��re wee to visit Greend again in the future. Of course, it��s best if it��s not as dangerous as this time. What Time Is Your Flight Tonight? I��ll drive you to the airport in my new car.��Song Jia couldn��t wait to drive her beloved car.


    ��10:20 pm, thank you for your hard work.��


    At 10 pm sharp, Zhang Heng was already sitting in the airport waiting room. This also meant that his trip to Greend was nearing its end. Zhang Heng took out his phone from his pocket, and during the process, his finger touched a small pebble, therefore, Zhang Heng took the small pebble out of his pocket as well.


    There was a pentagram carved on the small pebble, and in the middle of the pentagram was an eye.


    This was what Sartrus had called the old seal. Alicia had found it in the Museum of Art��s rubbish bin and had given it to him before she left. However, to Zhang Heng��s surprise.., the object that belonged to Dr. Baker and Sartrus��previous owners was actually his parents.

 Chapter 1277 - The Return Journey

    Chapter 1277 The Return Journey


    Zhang Heng looked at the old seal in his hand, but he couldn��t find anything special about it.


    It was just an ordinary stone. The material was no different from other stones that could be found everywhere on the road. The level of carving on it was also very poor, and it was obvious that it hadn��t been made for a long time.


    When Zhang Heng first saw it, he thought it was a prank carved on it, or perhaps it was a new work that an apprentice sculptor had used to practice, it was hard to imagine that such an inconspicuous object would help Sartrus and Dr. Baker avoid the nightmares for a period of time, and also help them avoid the monsters��attacks.


    Even though it was only useful for that, it was unable to help Sartrus and the others withstand the siege of the monsters in the city under the ice. In the end, the enemy finally stopped, it was only because he was worried that he would die immediately after killing the humans, which would affect the escape of the master of the city. It wasn��t enough to stop them from falling into madness.


    Regardless, this was one of the few things that had been proven to be effective against the monster and his minions. Zhang Heng still hoped to find out how it worked, he was going to bring this thing to the game point to be appraised after he returned to China. However, considering the role of the bartender in this matter, this appraisal was obviously not suitable for her, zhang Heng nned to bring this stone to his hometown��s game pointter.


    The Waiting Hall soon rang with a broadcast, informing the passengers of Zhang Heng��s flight to prepare to board the ne. So Zhang Heng put the stone away again and carried his suitcase onto the shuttle.


    Greend Airlines had a total of 10 passenger nes and 20 helicopters. Although the number was notrge, it was enough to meet their daily travel needs. Zhang Heng was riding on an assault 8-300, this was a passenger ne developed by Canada��s de Havind Aircraft Company in the 1980s.


    It had been some time since then, but fortunately, it was still reliable. There were a total of 56 seats on the assault 8-300, but most of the time, it would not be full because this ind in the Arctic Circle usually did not have a lot of traffic, although the appearance of the Red Aurora had caused many tourists to rush to Greend, there weren��t many people who left at the moment.


    Zhang Heng found his seat ording to the seat number on the boarding pass. Then, he helped a pregnant woman sitting next to him put her luggage on the luggage rack. After receiving the gratitude of thetter, he even took out a bag of potato chips as a thank you gift.


    Zhang Heng took the potato chips and nced at the cabin. By then, most of the passengers had already arrived and were looking for their seats. There was a group of family members who were out on a trip, and there was a couple who were in love, there was also a group of older sisters... Everyone looked normal, and Zhang Heng didn��t see any fanatics among them.


    In fact, the fanatics were easy to identify because they were not in a good state of mind. Their faces were pale, and their eyes were sick. This was why they needed the art museum to hide their identity.


    After sizing up the passengers, Zhang Heng looked at the crew. The flight attendants were all in high spirits. Zhang Heng waved for the flight attendant toe over and ask about the pilots.


    The flight attendant told Zhang Heng that the captain and co-pilot of this flight had more than ten years of flying experience and maintained a zero-ident record. There was no need to worry at all. After that, he wished Zhang Heng a pleasant journey.


    Zhang Heng also nodded his thanks. Very soon, the ne left the runway under the pilot��s control and flew into the sky. Just as the flight attendant had said, the entire process was very smooth. And in the next half an hour.., other than the turbulence thatsted for half a minute, there was nothing else worth noticing.


    When the ne reached the designated altitude, the flight attendants began to work. They handed out drinks and food and gave the pregnant woman a nket.


    After eating the bread and sausage, Zhang Heng lowered his seat slightly. Then, he closed his eyes and prepared to take a nap. However, the next moment, he felt the fusge suddenly shake.


    Zhang Heng opened his eyes. Through the window, he saw that the engine under his left wing seemed to have stopped.


    Then, he heard a screaming from the right side. Someone shouted something and pressed the call button for the flight attendant. Then, all the oxygen masks fell off, and the fusge started to fall.


    All of this happened so quickly that most of the passengers on the ne did not even have time to react. The next second, screams and cries filled the entire cabin.


    The pilot and the co-pilot, who had been chatting casually in the cockpit, sat back in their seats. The 52-year-old pilot��s forehead was covered in sweat. At this moment, he was as confused as his passengers, he did not understand what had happened. The numbers on the dashboard were still normal one moment, but in the next moment, there was an air stop. Moreover, both engines had inexplicably lost power.


    Stopping in the air was very rare in flight. Most pilots would never encounter it in their lifetime, and even if they did, they would not die without a doubt. Although it was dangerous to lose power in the air, but if the posture of the ne was adjusted in time, and the resistance and speed of the ne were coordinated, and the lift force and gravity generated by the wings were coordinated, it was possible to make a sessfulnding. Of course, this will be a very difficult test of the pilot��s operation.


    ����


    The most famous case in this case is the flight of American Airlines Flight 1549 was hit by a bird during flight, and finally seeded innding on the Hudson River in New York, which is a miracle in the history of flight, it waster made into a movie ��Captain Sally,��in addition to the ident of Air Canada Flight 143, and so on.


    The captain of the assault 8-300 was not as famous as Sally, but he was also experienced. After encountering a parking in the air, his hands and feet were cold, but he quickly regained his spirit, he was confident that he couldnd the ne on the sea.


    Therefore, he followed the rules of the flight manual and turned on the APU auxiliary power device at the first time. He was ready to switch to manual operation, but the next moment, his face turned pale.


    This was because he realized that there was no reaction after turning on the APU. He tried the other buttons and found that the other buttons did not respond at all. The dashboard was still lit up, but the numbers on it did not change anymore, it was as if it was frozen in ce by some mysterious force.


    ��Why! Why! ! !��The captain tried several times but to no avail, he smashed the dashboard with his fist angrily, causing cracks to appear on the dashboard. He roared in despair, because the current him could do nothing but Roar.


    And along with his roar, the 8-300 was also like a bird that had lost its wings, diving into the ocean below.

 Chapter 1278 - Plane Crash

    <h4>Chapter 1278: ne Crash</h4>


    The pregnant woman on Zhang Heng��s right started screaming from the first second after the crash.


    It was obvious that she was very concerned about the baby in her stomach. She had been very careful with her movements and followed the recipe strictly when eating, hoping that her baby would be born sessfully, she wanted to see this beautiful world with her. However, she did not expect that this day would nevere again.


    The purser was still trying to suppress the fear in his heart andfort the passengers. However, when she heard the roar from the cockpit, she could not help but cry, this feeling of despair was contagious. It quickly spread throughout the entire cabin.


    In fact, even if the purser was able to remain calm at this point, it would be of no use. The speed of the ne��s descent made everyone realize that they were doomed this time.


    Zhang Heng was one of the first people to notice that the engine had lost power. Furthermore, his seat was closer to the engine, so he could see it better than the captain, there were no birds that had been sucked into the engine. In other words, the sudden stop in the air was like a mistake by the captain.


    However, Zhang Heng took a look at his phone. For some reason, the screen was locked onto the screen that had previously been turned off. It could not be unlocked, zhang Heng immediately realized that the same thing might have happened to the ne.


    This kind of inexplicable pause... was it aimed at all the machinery?


    If that was the case, then this was clearly not an ident, but a premeditated attack. If nothing else, the target of the attack was him!


    Even though he realized the problem at the first moment, it was not easy to solve it. No, it was impossible. Zhang Heng did not know who the person who attacked him was, he also had no idea what the culprit had done to stop all the machinery from working.


    If he was given time, he might be able to figure out the problem, but from the time the ne lost control to the time it crashed, the process was extremely short, not to mention him.., even if there were ten Sherlock Holmes here, it was impossible to solve the problem in such a short period of time.


    Therefore, Zhang Heng immediately unbuckled the seatbelt around his waist. He couldn��t stand firmly on the aisle anymore. Not long ago, a food truck had just flown out and crashed into the tail of the ne. The food and drinks on it spilled all over the floor, as the ne fell rapidly and floated in the air again, Zhang Heng used his arm to lean on a nearby seat to open the luggage rack first. He took out his travel bag and then went to the emergency exit.


    It was very difficult to open the emergency exit when the ne was in the air because as the flight route became more and more crowded, the altitude of themercial airliner also increased. However, flying at high altitude would cause the air pressure to drop, the passengers would also feel ufortable. In order to solve this problem, the ne would increase the pressure on the cabin.


    In other words, there was a difference in air pressure between the inside and outside of the ne. Furthermore, the air pressure inside was very high. The emergency exit door was usually designed to be pulled inward before it could be opened. At the same time, the door itself was very heavy, in other words, during the flight, it was almost impossible for an ordinary person to open the cabin door.


    Zhang Heng was not in a hurry. He calcted the altitude of the ne in his mind. At about 3,000 meters above the ground, the difference in air pressure was negligible, at the same time, Zhang Heng used the [ earthly scale ] on his chest to increase his strength.


    Next, he used only one hand to pull open the emergency exit door. A middle-aged passenger around 40 years old beside him had probably lost his ability to think because he was too scared, he was only focused on escaping from the ne that was about to crash. When he saw Zhang Heng open a door, he rushed out without giving it much thought.


    However, he seemed to have forgotten that his current speed was no slower than the ne��s. If he fell into the water at this speed, he would only end up in a bloody mess.


    The passengers saw the middle-aged man��s body fly out of the cabin with their own eyes. After him, Zhang Heng also seemed to have forgotten that there was a dead end outside. He took a step forward, but halfway through, his body paused again.


    He turned around and grabbed the pregnant woman who was about three inches away from him. They jumped out of the ne together as the woman screamed in despair.


    The pregnant woman felt as if the wind blowing on her face was like a knife cutting through her face.


    She understood that it was because she was falling rapidly, and she could not help but close her eyes. She did not expect that she would not die in a ne crash, but she would die at the hands of a madman, although in terms of results, there was no difference between the two.


    But not long after that, she felt that the wind blowing on her face seemed to have be gentler and less painful. At the same time, the speed of her fall was also slowing down.


    The pregnant woman thought that it was her illusion, until she opened her eyes and found that her falling speed was indeed slowing down, because the assault 8-300 was now under her feet, and had plunged into the sea, then there was an explosion, and the heat wave and smoke quickly rose to the sky.


    Needless to say, under such a huge impact, the people in the ne could not survive.


    The pregnant woman just did not understand why she was still alive. Could it be that she was on the way to Heaven before the others? She subconsciously looked up and saw the man who had helped her with her luggage, the man who had dragged her out of the cabin was holding her hands, and a pair of wings had appeared behind the man��s back.


    However, the wings were different from the pure white wings of an angel in a movie. His wings were made of shadows, and they looked a little dark.


    The pregnant woman was shocked when she saw this, and she asked with fear, ��You... are you taking me to Hell?��


    Zhang Heng didn��t answer her question. He continued to drag her down, but his speed was getting slower and slower. Finally, he threw her onto a piece of wreckage. The next moment, the pair of shadow wings on his back disappeared, he fell into the sea.


    The pregnant womany on the floating wreckage and looked underwater, but there was no sign of the man.


    There was only one person left in the vast sea. She looked around nkly. Everything that had happened before was like a dream to her. In fact, even if she told others what she had experienced.., most likely, no one would believe her. They would only think that the woman who had miraculously survived the ne crash had been so traumatized that her mind had started to hallucinate.

 Chapter 1278 - Plane Crash

    <h4>Chapter 1278: ne Crash</h4>


    The pregnant woman on Zhang Heng��s right started screaming from the first second after the crash.


    It was obvious that she was very concerned about the baby in her stomach. She had been very careful with her movements and followed the recipe strictly when eating, hoping that her baby would be born sessfully, she wanted to see this beautiful world with her. However, she did not expect that this day would nevere again.


    The purser was still trying to suppress the fear in his heart andfort the passengers. However, when she heard the roar from the cockpit, she could not help but cry, this feeling of despair was contagious. It quickly spread throughout the entire cabin.


    In fact, even if the purser was able to remain calm at this point, it would be of no use. The speed of the ne��s descent made everyone realize that they were doomed this time.


    Zhang Heng was one of the first people to notice that the engine had lost power. Furthermore, his seat was closer to the engine, so he could see it better than the captain, there were no birds that had been sucked into the engine. In other words, the sudden stop in the air was like a mistake by the captain.


    However, Zhang Heng took a look at his phone. For some reason, the screen was locked onto the screen that had previously been turned off. It could not be unlocked, zhang Heng immediately realized that the same thing might have happened to the ne.


    This kind of inexplicable pause... was it aimed at all the machinery?


    If that was the case, then this was clearly not an ident, but a premeditated attack. If nothing else, the target of the attack was him!


    Even though he realized the problem at the first moment, it was not easy to solve it. No, it was impossible. Zhang Heng did not know who the person who attacked him was, he also had no idea what the culprit had done to stop all the machinery from working.


    If he was given time, he might be able to figure out the problem, but from the time the ne lost control to the time it crashed, the process was extremely short, not to mention him.., even if there were ten Sherlock Holmes here, it was impossible to solve the problem in such a short period of time.


    Therefore, Zhang Heng immediately unbuckled the seatbelt around his waist. He couldn��t stand firmly on the aisle anymore. Not long ago, a food truck had just flown out and crashed into the tail of the ne. The food and drinks on it spilled all over the floor, as the ne fell rapidly and floated in the air again, Zhang Heng used his arm to lean on a nearby seat to open the luggage rack first. He took out his travel bag and then went to the emergency exit.


    It was very difficult to open the emergency exit when the ne was in the air because as the flight route became more and more crowded, the altitude of themercial airliner also increased. However, flying at high altitude would cause the air pressure to drop, the passengers would also feel ufortable. In order to solve this problem, the ne would increase the pressure on the cabin.


    In other words, there was a difference in air pressure between the inside and outside of the ne. Furthermore, the air pressure inside was very high. The emergency exit door was usually designed to be pulled inward before it could be opened. At the same time, the door itself was very heavy, in other words, during the flight, it was almost impossible for an ordinary person to open the cabin door.


    Zhang Heng was not in a hurry. He calcted the altitude of the ne in his mind. At about 3,000 meters above the ground, the difference in air pressure was negligible, at the same time, Zhang Heng used the [ earthly scale ] on his chest to increase his strength.


    Next, he used only one hand to pull open the emergency exit door. A middle-aged passenger around 40 years old beside him had probably lost his ability to think because he was too scared, he was only focused on escaping from the ne that was about to crash. When he saw Zhang Heng open a door, he rushed out without giving it much thought.


    However, he seemed to have forgotten that his current speed was no slower than the ne��s. If he fell into the water at this speed, he would only end up in a bloody mess.


    The passengers saw the middle-aged man��s body fly out of the cabin with their own eyes. After him, Zhang Heng also seemed to have forgotten that there was a dead end outside. He took a step forward, but halfway through, his body paused again.


    He turned around and grabbed the pregnant woman who was about three inches away from him. They jumped out of the ne together as the woman screamed in despair.


    The pregnant woman felt as if the wind blowing on her face was like a knife cutting through her face.


    She understood that it was because she was falling rapidly, and she could not help but close her eyes. She did not expect that she would not die in a ne crash, but she would die at the hands of a madman, although in terms of results, there was no difference between the two.


    But not long after that, she felt that the wind blowing on her face seemed to have be gentler and less painful. At the same time, the speed of her fall was also slowing down.


    The pregnant woman thought that it was her illusion, until she opened her eyes and found that her falling speed was indeed slowing down, because the assault 8-300 was now under her feet, and had plunged into the sea, then there was an explosion, and the heat wave and smoke quickly rose to the sky.


    Needless to say, under such a huge impact, the people in the ne could not survive.


    The pregnant woman just did not understand why she was still alive. Could it be that she was on the way to Heaven before the others? She subconsciously looked up and saw the man who had helped her with her luggage, the man who had dragged her out of the cabin was holding her hands, and a pair of wings had appeared behind the man��s back.


    However, the wings were different from the pure white wings of an angel in a movie. His wings were made of shadows, and they looked a little dark.


    The pregnant woman was shocked when she saw this, and she asked with fear, ��You... are you taking me to Hell?��


    Zhang Heng didn��t answer her question. He continued to drag her down, but his speed was getting slower and slower. Finally, he threw her onto a piece of wreckage. The next moment, the pair of shadow wings on his back disappeared, he fell into the sea.


    The pregnant womany on the floating wreckage and looked underwater, but there was no sign of the man.


    There was only one person left in the vast sea. She looked around nkly. Everything that had happened before was like a dream to her. In fact, even if she told others what she had experienced.., most likely, no one would believe her. They would only think that the woman who had miraculously survived the ne crash had been so traumatized that her mind had started to hallucinate.

 Chapter 1279 - Water Ghost

    <h4>Chapter 1279: Water Ghost</h4>


    Beneath the surface calm sea water, there was actually an undercurrent.


    The school of fish seemed to have sensed something and fled in all directions! In the next moment, a turbulent current swept across from afar. Those fish that did not manage to escape in time were unfortunately swept into it. They immediately experienced the joy of a washing machine.


    It was not until they were close to the shoreline that the flow of water gradually slowed down. A momentter, the flow of water dissipated, and a man��s figure appeared on a beach.


    It was already four o��clock in the morning in Denmark, and there were not many people on the beach.


    Zhang Heng carried his travel bag and walked out of the sea. His body was drenched, and his hair was stuck to his forehead. The travel bag was dripping with water.


    Six hours ago, when he had just boarded the ne, Zhang Heng would never have thought that his flight would turn into an underwater tour.


    The ne had lost all power for no apparent reason, and all the mechanical parts were no longer working. Zhang Heng immediately realized that even if he rushed into the cockpit and took over the flight, he would not be able to avoid the crash, therefore, he immediately opened the emergency exit and jumped out of the ne. Using his shadow wings, he slowed down the speed of the descent and finally fell into the sea safely.


    Along the way, he also saved a pregnant woman. Unfortunately, this was his limit. Considering the speed of their descent and the distance between them and the surface of the sea, Zhang Heng could not bring another person with him.


    After throwing the pregnant woman into the wreckage of the ne, Zhang Heng fell into the sea. Then, using his water control ability, he swam across the Danish Strait, he arrived at thend closest to the crash site �� d.


    Aftering out of the sea, Zhang Heng did not stay for long. Instead, he walked straight to the nearest 24-hour convenience store.


    The clerk on the night shift was lying on the counter, Drowsy. In his daze, he heard the doorbell ring, and the automatic door opened to both sides. He rubbed his eyes, raised his head, and the next moment, his drowsiness was gone.


    It was four o��clock in the morning, and there weren��t many people on the street. Suddenly, a figure covered in water appeared in front of him and ced a simrly wet travel bag on the counter, he didn��t say a word and just stared at Zhang Heng. Anyone would be scared to death.


    ��Do you speak English?��Zhang Heng asked in English.


    However, the convenience store clerk across from him didn��t move after hearing this.


    Thetter was considering whether it was toote to believe in God and whether he could get on the bus first before buying a ticket. Zhang Heng frowned when he saw this. Without wasting any more words, he grabbed the clerk��s cor and lifted him up, his other hand reached into the clerk��s pocket and touched it.


    The clerk wanted to resist. After all, there were cameras in the store, so even if he was mugged in the end, he would at least look better when he called the police. However, just as he raised his hand, Zhang Heng raised his head and looked at him, the courage that the clerk had gathered with great difficulty disappeared again. His hand froze in mid-air, and a momentter, he touched his own head.


    Zhang Heng ignored him. He took out his phone from his pocket and tapped on the screen. He realized that he needed to unlock it, so he brought the screen to the shop assistant��s eyes and performed facial recognition.


    Then, he dialed 112. This was the emergency call from d. Zhang Heng reported the flight number in English and informed the other party that there was still a survivor. Because the ne crashed very suddenly, it did not deviate from the flight path, as long as d contacted Greend Airlines and sent out the rescue ne or ship in time, they could save the pregnant woman who was currently floating at sea.


    In fact, Greend Airlines should have contacted d, the nearest country, after breaking off themunication with the flight, to request for help and search. With this information, d��s actions should be faster.


    After doing this, Zhang Heng returned the phone to the clerk, bought a bottle of mineral water and two packets of biscuits, put down a wet Danish kroner, and left the convenience store.


    Zhang Heng did not immediately look for a ce to stay. Instead, he returned to the beach. Then, he opened his travel bag and took out everything inside and out of his pocket.


    Without a doubt, the crash of the vanguard 8-300 was because someone wasing for him. The 30-ODD passengers and crew on the ne were purely implicated by him. However, at the moment, he did not know who the culprit was. Also.., zhang Heng was most concerned about how the other party knew about his flight.


    He did not inform anyone else about his trip to Greend, and the final ticket was booked by himself. He only told Songjia to send him to the airport, and the other party had tampered with the ne before he did, this meant that they had information about his flight in advance.


    The first person Zhang Heng thought of was Ny totip, because thetter was one of the few people who knew he was in Greend and had the ability to do such a thing, however, after careful consideration, Zhang Heng felt that the possibility of Ny totip was not high.


    Although Ny TOTIP had always harbored ill intentions toward him, he had never intended to kill him from the start. Whether it was the incarnation of Narako who approached him through the early bird, or while he was drunk to lure him to Songjia and his friends in the secret base, obviously have an intention on him, but the premise of this attempt requires him to live.


    Even when the two fought, Ny totip��s final departure was still warning him to stay away from the city under the ice. There was no reason to turn around and send him a ne crash. However, in this way, Zhang Heng did not know who was the one who did it.


    He spent half an hour going through the items in his backpack, but he couldn��t find any eavesdropping or tracking devices. Zhang Heng finally turned to look at his phone.


    It was well known that the phone itself had a GPS function, and Zhang Heng had used his own phone to book the flight. He had also received a message saying that he had sessfully booked the flight, if there was no problem with Songjia, then the only thing that could have leaked his schedule was his phone. However, Zhang Heng was also a hacker, so he didn��t notice any signs of his phone being hacked.


    However, it had to be known that the world he lived in was filled with supernatural powers. Coupled with the suddenrge-scale leak, his phone number had indeed been leaked, if someone... or something had used his phone number to locate him and sessfully hacked into his phone without him knowing, it wouldn��t be impossible.


    Zhang Heng didn��t hesitate. He smashed his submerged phone with a rock, destroyed the chip and SIM card, and threw it into the sea.

 Chapter 1280 - Valkyrie

    <h4>Chapter 1280: Valkyrie</h4>


    Copenhagen International Airport.


    A flight from Greend to Denmark had just arrived, and the passengers on it were getting off one by one. One of them was a middle-aged man in a wide-brimmed hat who looked like an engineer.


    As he walked, he took out his cell phone and opened the news app. The most prominent spot was a breaking news item.


    Two hours ago, a passenger ne of Greend Airlines suddenly went missing on the flight. It was reported that the passengers and crew of the ne, a total of 41 people, were now missing, greend and d immediately organized rescue teams to begin the search and rescue.


    The middle-aged man, who looked like an engineer, had a strange look on his face when he saw the news.


    It was not the joy of escaping death, nor was it sympathy or pity. When he saw the news, he let out a long sigh of relief, and there was a hint of excitement in his eyes, it was as if he had just aplished something.


    However, he quickly turned off the news client, clicked on a person called car maintenance in his address book, and sent a message over.


    �� I have seeded, you can follow the agreement to delete the record of our contact, and then you do note to me again.


    After saying that, the middle-aged man who looked like an engineer also prepared topletely format the phone, reverting to the factory settings.


    However, to his surprise, the next moment he bumped into someone, the phone also fell out of his hand, was about to fall to the ground, but was caught by a hand.


    That hand looked very beautiful. It was long and slender, but it did not lose its strength.


    The middle-aged man who looked like an engineer had a look of shock on his face. He subconsciously reached out to take back his phone, but he did not expect that the person opposite him did not seem to have any intention of returning the phone to him, he held it in his hand and yed with it.


    The middle-aged man who looked like an engineer raised his head. When he saw the person standing opposite him, his expression suddenly changed.


    It was a woman with the figure of a supermodel. She wore a feathered hat and a long red dress. Her golden hair was braided into a braid at the back of her head.


    ��Valkyrie!��The middle-aged man who looked like an engineer cried out. Then, he took half a step back and tried to reach his hand into his pocket. However, the next moment, his back bumped into a soft object.


    However, the engineer-looking middle-aged man didn��t feel any attraction at the moment.


    Because his two hands were grabbed by someone. They were two women whose figures were not inferior to the woman in front of him. They were both over 1.8 m in height. The same model��s figure was full of strength.


    ��I prefer people to call me by my name, Brunhilda,��the woman in the feathered hat said.


    ��I��m shika-gull,��said the woman holding the engineer-like middle-aged man��s left hand.


    ��Slude, nice to meet you,��said the other woman holding the right hand with a smile.


    ��I��ve heard a lot about you, god of machinery,��said Brunhilda. She just didn��t expect that our first meeting would be like this.


    ��Why are you looking for me?��The panic on the engineer-like middle-aged man��s face disappeared for a moment, but he soon returned to normal. However, his words sounded a bit fierce on the surface, but weak on the inside, ��Is this Odin��s intention? Has he forgotten those ancient and sacred agreements? The gods who have sworn an oath are not allowed to fight each other. The only way to determine the winner is through a game.��


    ��God of machinery... Is it okay to call you that? You New Gods don��t even have a name. It��s really ufortable,��Brunhilda said as she shook her braids, ��This has nothing to do with my father. You know very well why we came to find you, right?��


    ��I don��t know anything. If Odin didn��t ask you toe, then who did?��The middle-aged engineer-looking man forced himself to remain calm.


    ��You vited the rules of the organizingmittee by privately attacking the representatives of other gods. Moreover, the other party didn��t offend you or do anything dangerous to you, so... ording to the rules, I��m afraid I have to ask you toe with us. You have the right to exin, but you have to save it for the members of the organizingmittee.��


    While speaking, Brunhilda took out a gold coin and waved it in front of the middle-aged man who looked like an engineer.


    ��You have no right to do this to me!��The middle-aged man who looked like an engineer screamed, ��I didn��t do anything. You have no evidence.��


    ��Yes, the person who has been secretly contacting you and revealing the information to you in vition of the rules is the god of cell phones. He has the ability to delete all the messages you sent and the phone records you made. As for you, the god of machinery also has a way to delete the information stored in the cell phone until it is impossible to recover. So even if you are caught by us, as long as we bite you to death and you have nothing to do with this matter, then we can��t do anything to you without any evidence... this is what you have nned, right?��


    Brunhilda held the engineer-like man��s phone as he spoke. Thetter became silent upon hearing this.


    ��Unfortunately, you chose the wrong partner,��Brunhilda said, ��You know that the phone God has already been held hostage by Seth, right? That��s why the person behind him is Seth. You Can��t expect the Chaos God to treat his allies with sincerity because chaos itself means that it��s unpredictable. ��I know that you might not want to believe it, but in fact, I myself find it a little hard to believe. Just an hour ago, Seth sent yourmunication records to the organizingmittee.��


    ��What? !��The engineer-like man cried out.


    ��So the things in your cell phone are of no use to us. I exined this to you in advance so that you wouldn��t do anything useless, so that you wouldn��t have to fight us on the roadter and want to take back the cell phone.��


    Shiagull also added, ��We don��t mind returning the phone to you so that you can delete the things in it, but you��re the god of machinery. We don��t want your hands to touch any mechanical objects. Who knows what will happen.��


    As she spoke, she took out a pair of gloves from her bag and put them on the hands of the middle-aged man who looked like an engineer.


    ��The organizingmittee can��t Treat Me Like This!��The man who looked like an engineerpletely lost his calmness and shouted, ��I did this for everyone��s good. I helped you get rid of a time bomb. You should thank me for this. Everyone! Each and every one of you owes me a favor.��


    Brunhilda shrugged, ��I told you that you have the right to exin, but you have to wait until we bring you back. You can defend yourself as much as you want in the courtroom. By the way, it��s useless for you to shout now. We have set up a barrier in advance. Our words will not be heard by the ordinary people nearby.��

 Chapter 1281 - The Second Arrest

    <h4>Chapter 1281: The Second Arrest</h4>


    Just as Brunhilda was blocking the engineer-looking man at Copenhagen International Airport, another arrest was in progress on the other side.


    The person who carried out the arrest was no longer a valkyrie with a supermodel��s figure and angelic face. Instead, it was a burly man with a red beard and hair. His entire body was filled with exaggerated muscles, his XXXL sportswear was filled to the brim. The part of his sleeves that extended out shone under the sun like iron. In his eyes, there seemed to be a me burning. Anyone who was stared at by those eyes.., it was difficult not to be intimidated by the imposing manner of the muscr man. They lowered their heads.


    Standing beside him was a man who waspletely opposite to him. He had fluffy hair and sleepy eyes. He was wearing a cat t-shirt and a pair of sports shoes with a cat logo. His shorts and backpack were also covered with cat heads, he was holding a box of cat food in one hand, and his entire person was almost imprinted on his forehead.


    No matter how he looked at it, this strange pair did not fit together. He did not know how they got together.


    The strong man with fire in his eyes did not hide his disdain for the cat man. If it was not because he needed the other party to lead the way, he would have long left this guy to work alone. He suppressed the difort in his heart and looked at themunity in front of him, ��Is this the ce?��


    ��That��s right. My Cat Masters told me so. If you are worried, I can find another one and ask around,��the cat man said. After he said that, he looked around, he did not know how he found a stray cat in the green belt outside the neighborhood.


    The Cat Man took out a cat rice bowl from his backpack. Then he opened the box of cat food in his hand and poured it into the bowl. He was afraid that the cat would eat the dry food and even poured some mineral water into the bowl, after doing all this, he called the cats from the green belt over. Generally speaking, stray cats in the neighborhood or outside had a bad impression of humans. They were very afraid of humans. When they saw peopleing, they would run away before they could even see them, let alone take the initiative to run in front of them. There was basically no need to even think about it.


    But for some reason, when the cat man shouted, the stray cat in the Green Belt suddenly stood up and ran all the way to the Cat Man. He began to eat the cat food in the bowl in big mouthfuls, it was not afraid of strangers or alert at all. Even when the cat man reached out to stroke it, it did not avoid it. It even made a satisfied snore.


    The strong man with fire in his eyes seemed a little impatient and urged, ��Is it done yet? Can��t We Feed the catter? Let��s get down to business first. If Seth runs away again, we don��t know where he will hide. That guy clearly has power in the clergy. Why does he only run around like a mouse, picking up the soft persimmon?��


    ��Feeding the cat master is business! Other things should be left forter.��Although the cat man was a little afraid of hispanion��s terrifying fighting strength, the cat could not help but argue with him.


    ��...��


    The man with fire in his eyes waited patiently for another half a minute, but the stray cat was still burying its head in its food. The cat man next to him had an aunt-like smile on his face, and did not have any intention of urging him, the man with the fire in his eyes finally reached the limit of his patience. He was known for his hot temper, and waiting was probably something he was not good at.


    Therefore, he turned to hispanion and said, ��Heh, you can stay here and slowly apany your cat. I��m going in.��


    The Cat Man��s face revealed a look of astonishment. ��Ah?��


    However, the man with the fire in his eyespletely ignored hispanion��s reply. He was only informing hispanion and not seeking his opinion. After saying this, he raised his right hand, a momentter, a hammer flew over from the sky andnded in his palm.


    The moment he held the hammer, his beard and hair were all spread out, and his body emitted an invincible aura.


    An old granny who was walking beside him was shocked when she saw this scene. She almost pushed the pram into the flower bed. After a moment, she patted her chest and said with lingering fear.


    ��Young man, you, are you... filming here? Guan Yunchang?��


    A bitter smile appeared on the Cat Man��s face. He reached out and picked up the stray cat on the ground. He raised it to his face and said gently, ��Grandma, look here.��


    When the old man heard his voice, he turned his head and temporarily averted his eyes from the burly man with mes in his eyes. When her gaze met the stray cat, she was instantly attracted, at this moment, she felt that there was no creature in this world that was more adorable than a cat.


    The gem-like eyes, the cute little pads on the soles of the feet, the slender limbs, and even the dirt and trash on the fur did not look so dirty anymore. Instead, it made the four-legged beast in front of her look a little adorable, inparison, even her precious grandson was now left behind by her, not to mention the strong man who could summon a hammer out of thin air.


    The only thing left in her world was the cat.


    The old man let go of the stroller and walked quickly to the cat man. He stretched out a trembling hand and said, ��Can... can I pet it?��


    ��Of course. Come, hold it like this.��The cat man guided the old man to stroke the cat while whispering to the Brawny Man with fire in his eyes, ��Are you crazy? Do you want to just swagger in like this?��


    ��Or what? Apany you here to stroke the cat?��The man with fire in his eyes sneered.


    ��If you and Seth were fighting here, it would be difficult to not be noticed,��the cat man said, ��Especially that Hammer of yours. The visual effect is too cool. We��re probably going to be on the evening news. This is not in line with our way of doing things, and it��s not allowed by the organizingmittee. We came here to deal with Seth��s vition of the rules, and in the end, you caused even more trouble...��


    ��Are you teaching me how to do things?��The Brawny Man with mes in his eyes interrupted hispanion impatiently, ��When I was waving my hammer to fight against the giant tribe, you weren��t even born yet. Of course, I know what to do. As long as I find Seth, the battle won��tst long. You New Gods may be afraid of him, but in my eyes, his little power isn��t even worth mentioning. I will settle this matter before anyone can react. Then, I will continue to go to Sanlitun��s Bar to drink.��


    ��Just because it was born early doesn��t mean that it will adapt to modern society. To be more precise, it is precisely because it was born too early that it will not be easy to adapt to modern society...��the cat man still wanted to argue, however, when he saw the hammer in the other party��s hand, he very rationally shut his mouth.


    ��Leave the battle to me. You flower vases just need to wait for the news of my triumphant return.��The Man with mes in his eyes waved the hammer in his hand and walked into the residential area, the originally clear sky above his head was suddenly covered with dark clouds.


    The cat man looked at hispanion��s back from behind and a strange expression appeared on his face.

 Chapter 1282 - Hammer And Lightning

    <h4>Chapter 1282: Hammer And Lightning</h4>


    The residents of Huayuan District were all a little dumbfounded. The weather forecast in the morning had said that it would be sunny today and tomorrow, but no one had expected that a dark cloud would appear above their heads at noon.


    Moreover, the dark cloud was neither too big nor too small, and it just happened to cover the entire Huayuan District. The originally clear sky had turned into a dark cloud in just half a minute, and there were even faint shes of lightning, it was as if a rainstorm had arrived.


    Therefore, those who were still at home began to hurriedly pack up the clothes to dry and even closed the doors and windows.


    The security guards of themunity were originally enjoying the cool air. At this time, they also hurriedly stood up and grabbed the parasol that had almost been blown down by the wind. At the same time, they called their colleagues in the on-duty room toe out and help clean up the tables and chairs.


    At this moment, he also saw the burly man with fire in his eyes. There was nothing he could do. The other party��s muscles were too eye-catching, not to mention that he was holding a hammer in his hand.


    ��Water and electricity worker? Which Building? which owner contacted him?��Although the security guard was intimidated by the other party��s imposing manner, he still braced himself and asked. At the same time, he picked up the visitor��s book and said, ��Register it.��


    Unexpectedly, just as he finished saying this, a bolt of lightning suddenly struck down from the sky.


    ��Oh my God!��The security guard was so frightened by the bolt of lightning that he sat down on the ground, realizing that he was still holding a ��Lightning rod��in his hand, he immediately let go of the umbre and threw it to the side.


    But in reality, the lightning bolt had already struck down, but the target was not him, but the surveince camera beside him. The camera was struck by the lightning bolt and burned the electronicponents inside, naturally, it also lost its recording function.


    Then, another security guard finally ran out of the duty room to help hispanion up. When the two of them turned to look at the spot where the Brawny man had been standing, they found that there was no trace of the other party.


    ��Where is he? Why is he gone? It��s really strange.��The security guard who had fallen to the ground touched his forehead and said.


    ��He probably left. Don��t bother about this matter. Hurry up and bring the table and umbre in so that there won��t be another lightning strike.��The other security guard urged.


    ��Right, right, right.��Thinking of the scene just now, the two security guards felt a lingering fear and hurriedly packed up their things.


    At this time, the burly man with mes in his eyes had already entered the residential area.


    The way he entered the residential area was as simple and direct as usual. After using lightning to finish off the camera, he bent his knees slightly and then leaped up from the ground. His body actually crossed the two-meter-high residential area��s guardrail just like that, and he did not fall just like that. Instead, he continued to rise and stepped on the branch of a parasol tree next to the residential area.


    His calf exerted strength once again, and the muscles of his entire body exploded with a tremendous force. The branch, which was as thick as a thigh, was directly broken by his foot and fell to the ground. The next moment, he was already standing on the air conditioner on the twelfth floor.


    Fortunately, there was a strong wind at this time, blowing so hard that all the passers-by could not open their eyes. Otherwise, if someone took out a cell phone to record this shocking scene, the inte would be in an uproar again.


    The Brawny Man with mes in his eyes did not stop. He directly stepped on the air-conditioner and rushed up to the rooftop on the 28th floor.


    Then, he raised the hammer in his hand. The lightning that was swimming in the clouds was like a shark that had smelled blood, one after another, striking toward the hammer! At least dozens of lightning gathered together and interweaved into a terrifying electric. The wildly dancing electric current flowed along the hammer and struck the Brawny Man!


    If it were an ordinary person, they would have probably been turned into ashes by this strike. However, the muscr man did not show any signs of pain on his face. On the contrary, the expression on his face was somewhat enjoyable after being electrocuted, after the electric current passed through his body, not only did it not show any signs of weakening, it even strengthened. Then, it spread out along the soles of his feet, turning into small snakes that swam all the way down.


    The strong man on the rooftop closed his eyes. Two secondster, he opened them again and shouted, ��I Found You!��


    Then, his body disappeared from the rooftop.


    On the fifteenth floor, room 1503 was in a mess. A working man was lying in a pool of blood. His eyes were empty, and so was his chest. His heart was missing, his wife was nailed to the wall by twelve steel bars. The steel bars went through her shoulder des, thighs, and arms. Her blood flowed along the wall, but she did not die immediately.


    This was not because her vitality was stronger than her husband��s. It was because the guy in the kitchen had deliberately left her half-alive so that she could watch him cook her husband��s heart.


    The figure with the head of a jackal was busy in the kitchen as he asked, ��Where��s the ginger? Madam, where did you put the ginger? If you don��t put some, it will taste too fishy. Oh right, there��s also cooking wine. Is It Qian he��s? Not Bad, this brand has zero additives, it��s healthy, it��s best to use it to roast meat.��


    The woman��s eyes revealed a hint of fear, but at that moment, lightning and thunder started to Rumble in the neighborhood.


    ��TSK, TSK, tsk. You still say that I��m attracting attention. This way of making an entrance isn��t low-key, is it?��As the Gnoll spoke, he casually pulled down the shutters of the kitchen window.


    In the end, he had just picked up the kitchen knife and was about to cut onions on the chopping board. Unexpectedly, the next moment, the kitchen window suddenly burst open. ss shards flew everywhere. At the same time, a ck shadow flew toward him!


    The Gnoll��s reaction was not slow either. He grabbed the kitchen knife in his hand and hacked at the thing.


    However, before his kitchen knife could touch the thing, an electric current had already climbed onto his arm, causing all the hair on his body to stand up. His movements also stopped for a moment, then, the ck Shadow smashed into his chest!


    It was a silver iron hammer. The shape was not big, but the kic energy was astonishing!


    The hammerhead broke his sternum, and his entire chest caved in. His body flew out, crashing into a wall and falling into the living room from the kitchen.


    The woman nailed to the wall saw this scene, and her eyes revealed a hint of delight.


    But in the next moment, the Hammerhead climbed up from the ground and reached out to press her mouth. ��Shh, don��t be in a hurry to be happy. The show has just begun. What a pity for my pot of good meat.��


    As soon as he finished speaking, a muscr figurended on the balcony of the living room. He reached out and the hammer on the ground seemed to be summoned. It trembled and was about to fly back into its owner��s hand, however, he did not expect a big hand to grab it first in the next moment.


    ��It is said that not many people can carry this thing. Is It True?��


    Blue veins popped up on the headman��s arm. He used all his strength, and the solid wood floor under his feet was broken by his stomp. However, the hammer was still drawing out from his hand bit by bit.

 Chapter 1283 - Come

    <h4>Chapter 1283: Come</h4>


    The creeper heard the sound of his bones and muscles tearing, but he still did not let go.


    ��If you try to be brave, don��t even think about taking your right hand,��the man with fire in his eyes warned coldly.


    ��It doesn��t matter. I feel that two hands are a little too much anyway. If you want to kill someone, one fist is actually enough,��the creeper said with a grin. As he spoke, the endurance of his arm was about to reach a critical point.


    A crafty look shed across the Baldy��s eyes. He suddenly let go of the leg that he had been stepping on the ground.


    Then, he and the hammer charged towards the burly man with mes in his eyes. At the same time, his left hand had already clenched into a fist and smashed towards the opponent��s chest. He cried out in a strange manner, ��You should taste this fist of mine too!��


    There was no doubt that his punch was a coincidence. Not only did it have his own strength, but it also caught the pulling force of the hammer flying back to the burly man��s palm.


    In the end, the Brawny man who had mes in his eyes did not dodge at all. A hint of contempt shed in his eyes. Just like that, he stuck out his chest to meet the man��s fist.


    The headman only felt that his punch seemed to have hit a concrete wall. No, if it was a concrete wall, it would have been smashed by his punch long ago. However, the body of the guy opposite him only swayed, a cold snort came from his nose.


    ��Have you not eaten your fill?��


    ��Although I don��t like to make excuses, I didn��t have lunch when you came,��said the Gnoll.


    As soon as he finished speaking, the Brawny man opposite him stretched out a hand.


    His palm directly pinched the Gnoll��s head and lifted it up from the ground, as if he was lifting a chick.


    ��Seeing that we��re both Old Gods, I wanted to be polite to you, but your mouth is too annoying. Maybe I should tear it off first.��


    ��Do you need me to remind you, grumpy friend? ording to those ancient sacred covenants, you can��t kill me.��Although his head was about to be deformed, the headless man still had a smile on his face.


    ��Now you remember those oaths. Why did you vite the rules of the organizingmittee and leak the information of all the yers?��


    ��I��m the God of Chaos. It��s my nature to create chaos. I Can��t go against my own nature, just like you can��t go against your own nature.��


    ��You don��t know me at all. How do you know what my nature is?��The Brawny Man with fire in his eyes said coldly.


    ��Please, it��s the Inte age now. No matter what you want to know, you just need to search online,��the leader said. ��Thank you for the invitation. I��m in America. I just got off the ne. My circle is too small.��


    ��What the F * ck are you talking about?��


    ��Haven��t you been on Zhihu before? This is their usual way of answering questions. I��m just trying to blend into the culture of thisnd.��


    The Pyotr paused and continued, ��You��re different from a passer-by like me who is being forgotten. You��re the star of this era. There��s a lot of information about you on the Inte. Thor, the god of Thunder, the son of Odin, the strongest warrior of the Asgardian race, possesses terrifying power. The weapon is Myrtle, a divine artifact forged by the dwarves. By the way, there are many BL novels about you and Loki on the Inte. To be fair, some of them are quite good...��


    At this point, the headman felt a sharp pain in his temple. Thor was clenching his hand on his head, and his skull was creaking.


    ��Don��t tell me you really think that those BULLSH * t vows will save your life from me?��Thor said with a ferocious look, ��Mind your mouth, Seth, before I crush your headpletely.��


    However, when Seth heard that, not only was he not afraid, but his eyes were filled with excitement, ��That��s right. This is what I know about Thor. When you lose your temper, you don��t recognize your own family. You��re like a wild beast locked in a cage. They put chains on your neck to make you tame so that you can be used by them. But in your heart, you still retain the nature of a wild beast.��


    ��You don��t know what you��re talking about.��


    Thor swung his hammer and killed the poor woman nailed to the wall. Her injury was beyond saving, and all Thor could do was to help her get out of it as soon as possible.


    On the other side, Seth, who was in his hands, was still talking nonstop, ��Ask Yourself, are you tired of ying this game? If I remember correctly, there is war in your priesthood, right? Don��t lie to yourself. You Yearn for blood. You must be silently reminiscing the days when you fought against the Frost Giants. You miss the ughter, the fine wine of Asgard, and even the final battle. You wield your divine hammer, and no one can stop you wherever you go. Oh, Thor, the bards have also written countless poems for that battle, praising your heroism.��


    ��Times have changed,��Thor said coldly.


    ��That��s right, times have changed. Ever since the organizingmittee took power, you can only reminisce about the golden era that belonged to you in your dreams. There are no battles of pleasure and freedom, only those stupid popcorn movies andics, and those BL fans who covet your buttocks and chest muscles. You have no respect at all.��


    ��If you want to stir up a conflict between me and the organizingmittee, you��d better save your energy,��Thor said, ��I don��t like my current life, but no matter what era it is, I won��t associate with a silly Dior like you.��


    ��Unfortunately, sometimes things don��t always go as you wish.��


    ��I don��t want to waste my breath with you anymore. Tell me where you hid the phone god, and then obediently follow me back to the organizingmittee to be judged. Kneel on the ground and beg for everyone��s forgiveness while crying. This is the only thing you can do,��Thor said sternly.


    ��If you want to know the whereabouts of the god of cell phones, no problem. As long as you don��t use your hammer, we can fight fair and square. This is too unfair. You have the world-famous artifact in your hand, but I don��t have anything in my hand.��


    ��You are asking for humiliation. I can crush you with a single finger,��Thor said, ��You may have had your own glory, but now you are just a third-rate god that no one knows about. And my fame spread across the mortal world more than a thousand years ago and now. You are no match for me with or without a hammer.��


    ��Words have no basis. You have to try to find out.��Seth shrugged. ��Or are you afraid of My Challenge?��


    ��I��m Thor, Odin��s son. I��m not afraid of anyone,��Thor said, enunciating each word, ��I can ept your challenge, but after this, you have to keep your promise and tell me the whereabouts of the phone God. Otherwise, I swear, you don��t have to go to the organizingmittee anymore. I��ll crush your head right here.��


    ��It��s not worth it to break those ancient promises for me.��


    Seeing Thor let go of his hand, Seth took two steps back and stretched his wrist and neck. He licked his lips and said, ��Come On!��

 Chapter 1284 - He Had Something To Ask Loki

    <h4>Chapter 1284: He Had Something To Ask Loki</h4>


    Thor really had thrown the hammer at his feet as he had promised.


    In order to convince Seth that he had lost, Thor had even dissipated the electric current in his body. Thor was confident that he could beat the Gnoll in front of him to a pulp with his own strength.


    Of course, he knew that Seth was probably plotting something when he suggested to fight him one-on-one. But no matter what tricks the other party was nning, it was meaningless in the face of absolute power.


    Meanwhile, Seth could tell from Thor��s eyes that the other party was nning to tear apart a few more of his ribs.


    ��That��s more like it.��Seth��s eyes were burning with fighting spirit. ��Sure enough, fighting with the Old Gods is the best. Those New Gods have divine power, but they��re all too sissy.��


    ��If word gets out, you��ll stir up a conflict between the new gods and the old gods again, but...��Thor paused, ��Personally, I can��t agree more. It seems that even scum can asionally say a few pleasant words.��


    ��Is that so? Then try my fist again!��Seth roared after he finished speaking, concentrating all his strength on his arm. His right hand instantly expanded more than twice, the veins on it were actually as thick as a finger, and they were densely packed like earthworms.


    Thor��s expression became slightly more solemn when he saw this. No matter what, Seth was one of the nine pir gods in Egyptian mythology, and he still had his own strength. Moreover, he had gone through the test of time just like him, although his divine power was constantly weakening, hisbat techniques were bing more and more proficient.


    Thor was ready to fight, but then his expression froze.


    Seth, who had just finished bragging and was preparing his ultimate move, turned around and fled toward the door. He didn��t even have time to open the security door of the living room before he punched the wall, leaving a big hole, he jumped out of the hole in a panic.


    ? ! ! !


    Thor waspletely shocked by his opponent��s shamelessness.


    Seth, the god of the nine pirs of Egypt, who was known as the Lord of power, did not even have the courage to fight him head-on. Moreover, he had given up on using myrtle, he had actually run away with his tail between his legs like a dog.


    Moreover, did he really think that he could escape just like that?


    Thor was only stunned for half a second before he came to his senses. Since his opponent had already decided to give up on this battle, he naturally did not have to keep his previous promise. Thor picked up Myrtle from the ground, he exerted all his strength in the air and swung. In the next moment, myrtle left his palm and turned into a bolt of lightning, flying out of the hole that Seth had made.


    Due to his speed, myrtle even caused a series of sonic booms while flying! ! ! !


    Then, he hit the target as expected.


    Thor was furious that Seth had gone back on his word. This time, he did not hold back. He believed that even with Seth��s physique, he would lose most of his life if he took this blow. There was a high chance that he would only be left with hisst breath.


    In fact, he wanted to kill this stupid [ bleep ] who had no sense of honor as a warrior with a single hammer. However, due to those ancient and sacred oaths, he could not really kill Seth. Thor had to admit that Seth��s words had indeed hit the nail on the head. The messy rules of the organizingmittee had always made his hands and feet tied. He felt a stifling feeling in his chest that he could not release.


    In the past, when faced with such a situation, he would never waste his breath on the enemy. He would just smash the enemy to death. Back then, when he killed the frost giant, he didn��t show any mercy at all, the awe-inspiring reputation of Asgard��s number one warrior was also built on the heads and blood of the enemy.


    Of course, Thor was only thinking about it in his mind now. He reached out and recalled his hammer. He saw the blood on it, but the amount of blood was a little too much, it was mixed with hair and white brain matter.


    Seth was killed by his hammer?


    It didn��t make sense. Although the other party��s actions were disgraceful, he was still very strong. He was still alive and kicking after taking his hammer with his chest. Logically speaking, he shouldn��t be so weak.


    Thor opened the door of the living room and walked out. He saw a scene in the corridor that stunned him.


    The cat man who had been searching for Seth with him was standing in the corridor. He was still holding his left hand, ready to knock on the door, but the head on his neck was gone.


    At the same time, the wall behind him was covered in blood. It was like a watermelon falling from a thousand meters high into pieces.


    Thor��s eyes widened. He finally knew where the hair and brain matter on his hammer came from. The thing he had hit was not Seth, but hispanion��s head! ! !


    But how could it be so coincidental. The Cat Man hade early andte, but he had to stand outside the door at this time. It was simply bad luck.


    No, it was not bad luck.


    Thor��s temples began to throb wildly. He vaguely smelled a hint of conspiracy. However, analyzing and thinking had never had anything to do with him. He was a warrior, and warriors only needed to believe in muscles, in fact, it wasn��t just him. The Asgardian gods had gotten used to asking Loki about the way to deal with things, or they would look for kwashil, because Kwashil knew everything.


    However, the good times didn��tst long. After kwashil was murdered by the Dwarves and turned into poetry mead, everyone could only rely on Loki��s evil ideas.


    Thor wanted to ask Loki, but thetter hadn��t appeared for a long time, and no one knew where he was fooling around. Moreover, Loki��s position had always been a mystery, and no one knew what was going on in his mind.


    But Thor knew that he was in trouble.


    Not only had he vited those ancient and sacred oaths and killed a god, but a new God had also died at his hands.


    Although he was the cat ve God, Loki had been wondering what the hell was going on when he first saw him. What the hell were modern people thinking about, it wasn��t easy for him to evolve to the top of the biological chain, but now he found himself a master. He never hid his disdain and contempt for hispanion, if it weren��t for the fact that he had to rely on the other party��s stray cat creature as a biological detector, he would have kicked the cat man away long ago.


    However, contempt and contempt were one thing, but killing the other party with his own hands was another.


    Especially since the new and Old Gods hadn��t been on good terms over the past few years. Although there hadn��t been anyrge-scale conflicts, there had been quite a few minor conflicts and frictions.


    As for Thor, as the signature existence of the Old Gods, he had used his hammer to blow up a new God just like that. One could imagine how much of amotion this would cause.

 Chapter 1285 - The Mechanical God’s Counterattack

    <h4>Chapter 1285: The Mechanical God��s Counterattack</h4>


    With his warrior��s intuition, Thor had already sensed that the situation was heading in an unpredictable direction and was rapidly falling.


    However, what he didn��t know was that this was only the beginning.


    Copenhagen International Airport.


    The Valkyries sessfully captured the mechanical god who had just gotten off the ne. After that, they didn��t dy any time and didn��t even leave the airport. They directly bought tickets to return to China, but there were still more than two hours before the next ne took off.


    Thus, they brought the mechanical god to the airport��s first-ss VIP lounge.


    Brunhilda had de and Shijagal look at the mechanical god. Meanwhile, she found aputer and sent the progress of the mission to the organizingmittee via email.


    This matter should have been solved with a text message, but there was no other way. The whereabouts of the mechanical god was unknown. Until thetter was discovered and rescued again, they could only choose other means of contact.


    Brunhilda typed thest character and clicked send. Then, she turned around and smiled at the Mechanical God on the sofa.


    ��Since you know who I am and why we are here, and we know who you are, then the problem bes much simpler.��


    The Mechanical God did not speak. His gaze was sneaking around, taking in all the mechanical creations in the VIP lounge. As long as he was given a minute, no, half a minute.., he would be able to assemble theputer beside Brunhilda, the clock behind her, and the coffee machine on the snack table into a mechanical sword.


    HMM... it seemed that he was still unable to defeat the three women in front of him.


    The Mechanical God sadly realized that in terms of physical strength, he was really not a match for the three valkyries in front of him.


    However, Brunhilda did not look down on him because of this. On the contrary, the Valkyrie appeared very polite because she knew how terrifying the ability of the man in front of her was.


    ��In a while, we��re going to take a ne back. I don��t want the same thing that happened on the previous assault 8-300 to happen again.��


    ��What Thing?��The mechanical god braced himself and pretended to be stupid.


    ��Just say it directly. You Won��t attack the ne you��re on, right?��SJAGER asked. ��If you really fall down, won��t you be finished too? Or are you nning to threaten us with mutual destruction after you get on the ne?��


    Seeing the change in the god of Machinery��s expression, Shiagull knew that he had guessed correctly, ��You Fellow, do you really think so? Then it seems that we have to make some preparations. It��s a pity that we didn��t want to do this.��


    ��What do you want to Do? Kill me?��The god of machinery finally became nervous. As a new god, he was actually quite a shut-in, even though he didn��t usually interact with other gods, but he also knew the conflict between the new God and the old God. In the eyes of the new God, the old God was just a bunch of barbarians who ate raw meat and drank blood.


    They carried the savagery and ignorance of the ancestors. Many people wouldn��t speak properly when they could make a move. Moreover, there was a rumor that they had been snatched away by the new gods because they were dissatisfied with their status, they wanted to unite and kill all the New Gods.


    ��I don��t like the way you look at us. I keep feeling that you��re thinking about something very disrespectful,��said de, ��Perhaps we really should kill you once and for all. You know, we��re very good at this kind of thing.��


    As he spoke, de made a gesture of cutting his neck.


    ��Don��t scare him anymore,��Brunhilda said with a frown. Then, she turned to speak to the mechanical god, ��We are only carrying out the orders of the organizingmittee. We hope that you can cooperate. We won��t hurt you, but just in case, we will knock you out after you board the ne. You just need to sleep for a while. When you open your eyes, the journey will be over.��


    The god of machinery felt that this suggestion was not good at all, but he could not refute it.


    On the side, de and Shiagull had been eyeing him like a tiger, not giving him any chance to take advantage of the situation. As a result, he had been unable to do anything up until now.


    Fortunately, the leader, Brunhilda, had a good attitude towards him.


    ��There��s still some time. Don��t think aboutputers or cell phones. Do you want to read a book or newspaper or something? Or a cup of coffee?��


    ��Then give me a cup of coffee.��The god of machinery could only say so.


    In the eyes of others, the middle-aged man who looked like an engineer in the waiting room looked extremely blissful.


    He was hugging a supermodel on his left, another supermodel was sitting on his right leg, and there was another supermodel who made coffee for him. These three women not only had outstanding looks, but their bodies were also extremely hot, other than being perfect, there were no other words to describe them. Moreover, unlike ordinary supermodels, they also had a heroic temperament.


    Damn it, how many mines did this bastard have in his house. Why did such a beauty throw herself at him.


    The first-ss lounge was originally filled with corporate executives and social elites, but when they saw this scene, they still felt like they were madly eating lemons. Most importantly, the pretentious criminal in the middle still looked like he had nothing to live for.


    Brunhilda was brewing coffee when a sense of danger suddenly arose in her heart.


    She didn��t know where this sense of danger came from. The culprit who caused all this, Seth, had already been confirmed to be not abroad. Moreover, there were other people who were specifically going to deal with him. With that person��s strength, it was almost impossible for him to fail, on her side, she only had to deal with the god of machinery. Now that she had seeded and was being watched by them, she only needed to bring him back safely to the organizingmittee toplete her mission.


    Brunhilda couldn��t think of anything else that could go wrong, but at the next moment, she felt a wave of tiredness welling up in her heart.


    ��Be careful! ! !��Brunhilda��s many years ofbat experience came into y, causing her to immediately squat down.


    However, her twopanions��reactions were slower than hers by half a beat. One of them, de, seemed to find the mechanical god quite interesting and was sitting on the other party��s thigh, preparing to scare this young man again.


    However, he did not expect that the next moment, a bullet from a sniper rifle would directly hit her temple! Her expression became distorted.


    On the other side, Sjaguar was also hit in the arm by a bullet. The other party had chosen arge-caliber sniper rifle, and the bullet broke her arm bone.


    The Mechanical God, who was sitting in the middle, was sshed with blood all over his face. He stared nkly at de��s corpse sliding down his knee, still unable to react to what had happened.


    Dead? ! A God had died right in front of him.., although it was an old god, and although they had threatened him before, the three valkyries were still rather polite to him. They hadn��t hurt him, and had only intended to capture him back to the organizingmittee. In the end, one of them had already died.


    Shiagull imitated Brunhilda��s actions and crouched down. At the same time, he endured the pain and shouted, ��Be careful of their warheads. There��s a powerful curse attached to them. It seems like they��re used to deal with us.��

 Chapter 1286 - Even The Toaster!

    <h4>Chapter 1286 Even The Toaster!</h4>


    The bullets flew over the first-ss lounge and interweaved, ying a symphony together.


    Unfortunately, most of the passengers in the lounge had fallen into a deep sleep, so they couldn��t enjoy this rarely-seen movement, the only people who could still move were Brunhilda and seagull, and only the god of machinery was left.


    Thetter was currently sitting in his seat in a daze, stretching his neck and looking like a wooden chicken.


    After witnessing de being shot in the head and dying, he thought that he was dead for sure, because the other party had already proven how outstanding his marksmanship was. The two valkyries also reacted very quickly and had already bent down to find cover. Thus, right now, he was the most eye-catching person in the rest room.


    The Mechanical God had already realized that it was impossible for him to escape the other party��s second round of attack. He had originally prepared to close his eyes and wait for death, but he didn��t expect that the bullets seemed to have eyes and they all circled around him, they chased after Brunhilda and CAGGULL.


    ��Bastard, you deliberately pretended to be a person, but it turns out that you had a helper lying in ambush!��Caggull said hatefully. She covered her injured arm and hid behind a bookshelf, de��s body was less than five steps away from her. There was still shock and fear on her face, as if she could not believe that she had died here.


    ��I have a helper?��The mechanical god was as surprised as Mr. Li, who had just received a phone call and learned that he had won five million dors.


    As if to answer his question, the gunshots outside became even fiercer. Bullets poured toward Brunhilda and ter��s hiding ce like they were free.


    The bookcase was instantly riddled with holes. It seemed that it was about to copse. SJAGER, who was behind him, did not speak anymore. It was unknown whether he was alive or dead.


    Brunhilda��s situation was slightly better. She hid behind the marble snack table and was temporarily not in any danger. However, one of herpanions had already died, and anotherpanion was also in danger, as the leader of this mission and the strongest of the three, Brunhilda knew that she had to do something


    However, up until now, she still didn��t know who the person who attacked them was, how many people there were, and most importantly, the attack happened too suddenly. They werepletely unprepared before they were attacked. Their target for this mission was the mechanical god. From a battle perspective, it wasn��t difficult. The key topleting the mission was to control the mechanical god before he could react, otherwise, once he came into contact with the mechanical creation, the situation would develop in an unpredictable direction.


    Thus, Brunhilda and the other two didn��t carry any weapons or armor. They only wore their daily attire and tried their best to blend in with the passengers at the airport. In the end, they did sessfully capture the mechanical god, they just didn��t expect that this would be a trap. Brunhilda could tell from the firing frequency that there were at least six gunmen on the opposite side. In other words, she and Shiagull each had three gunmen to take care of them, which fully ensured the continuation of the firepower, this gave her no chance to rush out from behind the snack bar.


    And Brunhilda did not have any weapons that could be used for long-range attacks, so she could only think of another way and said, ��Hey, can you hear me?��


    The Mechanical God was stunned for half a second before she reacted. ��You, you��re calling me?��


    ��Or else, I need your help,��Brunhilda said.


    ��Did I hear wrong? You��re asking me for help? But we�� aren��t we enemies?��The Mechanical God had a look of disbelief.


    ��I��m just doing my job. I just want to bring you back to the organizingmittee. Even if there��s some conflict between us, it can��t reach the level of an enemy, right? Not to mention����


    ��Not to mention what?��


    Brunhilda wasn��t in a hurry to answer the mechanical God��s question. Instead, she said, ��From the looks of it, you don��t seem to know the people who attacked us.��


    ��Although I don��t know them, they didn��t attack me. This means that they don��t have any ill intentions towards me. It��s obvious that they��re here to save me. I feel that I can get to know them.��Although the mechanical God didn��t have that many crooked ideas.., but he wasn��t stupid. He could still tell who was better to him.


    ��Don��t be silly. Can��t you see that the reason they spared your life is to make you take the me?��


    ��Take the me?��


    ��If I and my two sisters die here, who do you think will be the most suspicious?��Brunhilda asked.


    The Mechanical God finally realized the seriousness of the problem. ��But I don��t know them. I just need to tell the organizingmittee the truth.��


    Brunhilda sighed. ��Are you going to go to the organizingmittee and Exin Yourself?��


    The Mechanical God was speechless. He was still a fugitive.


    ��And do you really think that after we die, the people outside will let you walk out and talk nonsense?��Seeing that the Mechanical God was still hesitating, Brunhilda quickly pressed another bargaining chip, ��Breaking the rules and attacking the agent is one thing, but murdering the god and breaking those ancient oaths is another. Moreover, don��t forget that you are the new God, and we are the old God.��


    Thest sentence of the Valkyrie also made the Mechanical God wake up from his dream, but he thought about it and added another condition, ��I can help you, but after that, you have to let me go. You will exin everything that happened here to the organizingmittee, especially your deadpanions.��


    ��Deal,��Brunhilda said without hesitation.


    The god of machinery suddenly stood up from his seat and pounced on the refrigerator on the right. The gunman outside hesitated for a moment, but in the end, he did not shoot him, allowing him to sessfully pounce behind the refrigerator.


    The moment he touched the refrigerator, the god of machinery seemed to have changed into a different person. He no longer looked dull and stiff like before. His eyes were filled with excitement, like a monkey who had found the needle to calm the sea. ��Leave it to me!��He said confidently as he inserted a hand into the refrigerator��s motor. Then, the refrigerator seemed toe to life. All kinds of parts were quickly falling off and reassembling, it was just like the Transformers in cartoons.


    ��Coffee machine!��The Mechanical God suddenly shouted midway.


    When Brunhilda heard this, she pulled down the tablecloth and let the coffee machine on the snack table fall into her hands. Then, she threw the coffee machine to the mechanical


    god.


    ��I want the Toaster too!!!��


    Brunhilda didn��t hesitate. She threw two at the same time. It was a convenient thing.


    ��TV!!!��


    ��I can��t get it.��Brunhilda didn��t move this time and said in a bad mood, ��Don��t Push Your Luck. The TV is more than 30 meters away from me. If I run over, I��ll be a sieve.��


    ��Then forget it. The main thing is that Ick an LCD screen and two speakers. ��The god of machinery scratched the back of his head and said, ��But it��s basically done anyway.��

 Chapter 1287 - Fortress Cannon And Flashlights

    <h4>Chapter 1287 Fortress Cannon And shlights</h4>


    At this moment, the refrigerator in front of the god of machinery had long been beyond recognition.


    It had turned into something simr to a fortress cannon. Two of the refrigerator doors had turned into a guard te in front of the cannon, and the cannon muzzle as thick as a thigh poked out from behind the guard te.


    ��How did you make this thing?��Brunhilda was stunned when she saw the finished product.


    ��I just magnified the power of thepressor


    and����


    ��Forget it, you don��t have to exin. I don��t understand it anyway, ��Brunhilda said. ��The key is how powerful this thing is.��


    ��You��ll know after one shot.��The mechanical god was very simple. Then, he directly raised the muzzle of the cannon. Just then, a new round of bullets had arrived. The Mechanical God fired in the direction of the Bullets, in the end, a terrifying hole appeared in the wall.


    At the same time, ice shards flew in all directions! The entire waiting room seemed to have experienced an earthquake. It shook along with it.


    ��Why does it still have a freezing effect? !��Brunhilda was finally able to boldly stick her head out. She looked at therge hole in the wall and the nearby ice crystals in shock.


    ��Well, after all, it was modified from a refrigerator. I also have a heating bomb made from a toaster here.��The mechanical god paused and said, ��Oh right, do you need any weapons or equipment?��


    ��You can make it?��Brunhilda raised her eyebrows.


    ��Of course, but it��s only a mechanical version. It definitely won��t be as useful as your original weapon.��


    ��If possible, please forge a spear and a shield for me,��the Valkyrie said. This was also the weapon she was mostfortable with, but unfortunately, she didn��t bring it with her this time.


    ��No problem,��the mechanical God agreed immediately. Then, she began to look at the other mechanical equipment in the room.


    Meanwhile, Brunhilda took this opportunity to roll out from behind the snack table. She came to the ce where Shiagull was hiding. Thetter had already fallen into aa. Shiagull had at least six gunshot wounds on his body, fortunately, they were not vital points. With the Valkyrie��s strong physique, she was able to withstand the terrifying kic energy that came with the bullets. However, there was nothing she could do about the special curse on her body.


    Right now, her cheeks were frighteningly hot and her eyes were tightly shut. The blood in the wounds seemed to be unable to stop flowing


    ��Hold on. I��ll bring you back to Asclepius. He��ll definitely be able to heal your wounds, ��Brunhilda said as she tore off her clothes and bandaged Shiagull.


    At the same time, the god of mechanics began to assemble Brunhilda��s weapons ording to their agreement. As for the shield, it was much simpler, as long as the two refrigerator doors in front of the cannon were taken down and used directly by the Valkyrie, it would be


    fine.


    Anyway, after firing another round, there wouldn��t be any shells left on his side. He would just have to lie low and see what other gadgets he could assemble while he was at it.


    Brunhilda quickly took care of SJAGER��S injuries. Of course, she only helped her to stop the bleeding slightly, but whether or not she could endure it, and how long she could endure it, would depend on SJAGER himself.


    Outside the door, after a short period of silence, gunshots rang out again. This time, not only were they attacking Brunhilda and SJAGER, but they also did not let go of the mechanical god, however, the gunshots were a little less frequent than before. It seemed that there were only three gunmen left, and their positions were also very open to avoid being wiped out by others.


    The Mechanical God fired the remaining cannonball and dealt with another gunman. At the same time, it threw a mechanical spear and a refrigerator door shield to Brunhilda.


    Thetter weighed them in her hands. The weight of the shield and spear added up to more than 40 pounds. For ordinary people, just holding them was very ufortable, let alone waving them, however, in Brunhilda��s hands, it seemed to be very flexible.


    Then, the Valkyrie jumped out from behind the bookcase and rushed towards the gate of the departure lounge. She had already torn off the hem of her long dress and no longer affected her running. At this moment, she opened her two long legs and her body was like a cheetah, elegant and full of strength.


    as


    The bullets that came at her from the front were all caught by her shield! Although Sparks flew everywhere, Brunhilda was unharmed. The terrifying kic energy of the bullets only made her body slightly pause. In less than three seconds, she had already rushed to a ce less than five meters in front of the first enemy. The enemy was covered in a mask, so her appearance could not be seen, however, Brunhilda could still see the astonishment in his eyes.


    Faced with an enemy of unknown origin, the Valkyrie did not dare to hold back. She used all her strength and threw out the mechanical spear in her hand!


    The enemy did not seem to expect that Brunhilda would be able tounch an attack from so far away. She did not have time to react and was still holding the sniper rifle in her hand. In the end, she was pierced through by the mechanical spear and nailed to the ground!


    Brunhilda was a little surprised. She did not expect her opponent��s body to be so weak. However, she did not have time to think too much because another gunman had alreadyunched an attack at her. At such a close distance.., brunhilda did not have time to put in 120% of her energy. She relied on her excellent motor nerves to dodge the shot from her left hand.


    And this wasn��t the end. Another fist had already smashed towards her.


    Brunhilda raised her shield again. However, this time, her refrigerator shield let out a whine and was forcefully smashed into a depression. The Valkyrie��s body also took a rare step back.


    This power�� was it Seth? Or was it a god from another clergy who had the power attribute?


    Brunhilda wanted to pick up the mechanical spear that was stuck in the ground, but there was another gunman eyeing her from the side, making her feel a bit awkward.


    At this moment, a dazzling light came from behind Brunhilda, causing both her opponents to close their eyes. The Valkyrie took this opportunity to pull out the mechanical spear, and with a flick of the tip of the spear.., it pierced into the chest of thest gunman.


    Eh?! This is�� a human body?


    When Brunhilda killed the first gunman, she was only a little suspicious. Now that the spear was in her hand, the feedback was even clearer. She could finally confirm.., there were humans among the group that ambushed her.


    This made Brunhilda very surprised. She originally thought that this was just an internal conflict between the gods. Some of them couldn��t sit still anymore. But now, it seemed that the implications were even greater than she had imagined, there were also those cursed bullets that could harm or even kill gods. Brunhilda realized that perhaps something big was about to happen. No, more urately, it was already happening, she needed to immediately send this information back to the organizingmittee.


    ��Thank you!��Even if Brunhilda didn��t turn around, she knew who had helped him just now.


    The Mechanical God finally touched the television that she had been thinking about for a long time and sessfully transformed it into arge sh. Brunhilda had relied on this sh to kill thest gunman, her gaze quickly shifted to the person who had punched her shield, because thetter was likely the mastermind of this attack.

 Chapter 1295

    Chapter 1295 The Situation


    Zhang Heng stayed at his parents��new house for about half a month, but he rejected his father��s proposal to travel around Irnd. When his grandfather��s ne arrived safely, he booked a flight back home the next day.


    ��Leaving so soon?��Mother Zhang was confused. ��The summer vacation should only be half over.��


    ��Yes, but there are still some things to resolve in China,��Zhang Heng said.


    ��Eh... Mysterious, is it rted to rtionships? Do you have a girlfriend? Ask her toe to Irnd to y.��


    ��Maybe next time.��Zhang Heng carried hisptop up to the second floor. He locked his room door and plugged in the untraceable USB drive. Only then did he log on to the yers��forum.


    These two weeks, Zhang Heng had been rtively rxed abroad. Other than lecturing a group of racist youths outside the supermarket in the middle, he had not done anything else. However, things had not been peaceful in China during this period of time


    The yers were doing fine. Although there had been some vicious incidents and the forums had started to panic, the scale was not too big. The three major guilds were still trying to maintain the situation, on the other hand, the organizingmittee seemed to be experiencing some problems.


    Recently, the frequency of supernatural urrences had started to increase. The organizingmittee was also working at full capacity to cover up the incident to avoid attracting the attention of ordinary people. However, as time passed.., the situation did not improve. Instead, it seemed to be worsening.


    At first, there were still some vague rumors, but as a part of the agents were involved, the yers realized that the rtionship between the new God and the old god was bing more tense than ever.


    In the chat room, an ID named ��Don��t want to practice the piano��was introducing the current situation to Zhang Heng.


    The person who leaked the identity of the yer had been found. It was one of the Egyptian pir gods, Seth. He was also the mastermind who had scammed ( death dream ) from the three major guilds. He had also kidnapped the phone God.


    The God of Chaos?


    That��s right. The organizingmittee had sent Thor, the most powerful god in Nordic mythology, to deal with him, but for some reason, Thor had managed to escape in the end, furthermore, a new god that had apanied Thor had died there.


    Seth had killed him?


    Zhang Heng typed. No, if he had really died at Seth��s hands, there wouldn��t have been so much trouble. The person who had killed him was Thor. Although Thor had imed that this was a trap set by Seth, from the looks of the fight at the scene.., thor... had actually already controlled the situation, but for some reason, he had shown mercy to Seth again.


    �� with Thor��s personality, he should be easily provoked.


    �� yes, most people thought so too. But the problem was that when the organizingmittee was still investigating this matter, Thor, in addition to making a mistake, had once again lost his temper, he escaped from the room where he was temporarily imprisoned, and he even injured the guard, who was also a new God. This action alsopletely intensified the situation. The New Gods were almost furious, and they found Odin, they wanted Odin to hand over Thor.


    They didn��t want to practice the piano.


    �� and then?


    �� although the Nordic Gods admitted Thor was in the wrong, they refused to make any promises. This action further aroused the protests of the New Gods, and caused the Nordic gods to shut down the inte for the next ten days, they had the people from the telmunicationspany check it several times, but they were helpless.


    �� well, this is what I didn��t expect.


    �� and then someone killed Odin��s mount. �� Sleipnir came to take revenge on the Norse gods, which made Odin furious.


    �� it sounds like someone is trying to drive a wedge between the new gods and the Old Gods. Is It Seth?


    Logically speaking, Seth should be the biggest suspect. However, after Thor went missing, Seth came alone to the organizingmittee and announced his surrender. He was very cooperative throughout the whole process. In addition, I��m not sure if you��ve heard about what happened at Copenhagen International Airport.


    What happened?


    Zhang Heng��s expression changed.


    A battle took ce there three weeks ago. Two Valkyries died while the organizingmittee was carrying out a secret mission there. Another Valkyrie went missing, it was said that the suspect was the mechanical god of the new God, and arge-caliber weapon made by the mechanical God had also been found at the scene.


    The Mechanical God?


    Zhang Heng��s fingers stopped on the keyboard. He was keenly aware of something. The battle should have happened on the same day that the assault 8-300 that he was riding on had crashed. Considering the mysterious malfunction that the ne had encountered at that time.., all the mechanical parts had stopped working.


    And the so-called god of machinery had appeared at the end of his journey, Denmark��s Copenhagen International Airport. If this was a coincidence, then it would be too much of a coincidence if there was no connection between the two.


    Zhang Heng had been wondering for the past few days whether his identity had beenpletely exposed and made known to all the gods, making him the number one target of the gods, however, from the looks of it, the situation wasn��t as bad as Nara Totipp had said, without a doubt, this mechanical god was probably another god who knew his identity besides Kronos, the bartender, and Nara Totipp.


    If possible, Zhang Heng wanted to find the mechanical god. From the Mechanical God��s mouth, he wanted to know how many other people knew his identity and how the other party had located him. However, two Valkyries had died, another Valkyrie had gone missing. The organizingmittee must have sent arge team to search for the mechanical god.


    Three weeks had passed, but the organizingmittee still had no results. In order to not attract the attention of ordinary people, the traces of the previous battle had probably been erased. It would not be easy for him to find the mechanical god, therefore, Zhang Heng only had a thought before giving up.


    �� you��re currently abroad, right? Then I suggest you continue to stay abroad. After all, there��s still some time before school starts.


    I don��t want to practice my piano and continue typing


    �� even though Seth had already surrendered, the conflict between the new God and the old God was showing signs of bing more and more intense. The tension between the two sides was not formed overnight. After all, there were only so many believers, a little more would mean less faith for the others. It was almost irreconcble. The two events were more like a fuse, igniting the long-suppressed conflict between the old and New Gods, i heard that some of the agents had been forced to take sides and participate in some covert confrontations. These private actions would sooner orter turn into surface confrontations. I don��t think we can remain on our own, after so many rounds of the game, the yers who survived have be a force to be reckoned with. I don��t think either the new God or the old God will ignore us.

 Chapter 1296

    Chapter 1296 Farewell


    Zhang Heng left the Forum Room after ending the exchange with Fan Meinan, but he did not change his ns to return home.


    It would be safer to stay in Irnd, but as he said, he still had unfinished business. Fan Meinan��s illness had not been treated, and there was a ticking time bomb in his body, most importantly, his family was here, and he did not want to bring trouble to them.


    Every day he stayed here, the risk of being found increased. At the same time, the other party would also notice his parents, grandfather, and unborn sister.


    That was why Zhang Heng decided to pass on the most important reason. However, he did not tell Xiao Xia or the other people in the room about it. Even so, the night before he left, there would still be a small problem.


    It was already one o��clock in the morning when Zhang Heng heard the sounding from downstairs.


    The sound was not loud, but it did not escape Zhang Heng��s ears. When he slept, the door was not closed, just in case something happened. Therefore, Zhang Heng got out of bed, he grabbed a knife that he had bought at the supermarket and hid it behind his back. He bent down and quietly walked down the corridor like a civet cat.


    He walked down the stairs to the living room and saw a figure carrying him on his back. He was standing in front of the fridge, rummaging through something.


    ��It��s sote. What are you looking for?��Zhang Heng put away the knife in his hand and asked.


    The figure heard his voice and turned around. It was Father Zhang. He was holding two bottles of beer in his hands, ��The Stars Tonight are pretty good. Let��s go sit in the courtyard. Oh right, bring some mosquito repellent. It��s in the first drawer under the coffee table.��


    Zhang Heng opened the drawer. Sure enough, he found a bottle of mosquito repellent. He sprayed it all over himself before returning to the courtyard and tossing it to his father. He then took a bottle of cold beer from thetter��s hands.


    ��When you were young, I told you stories about the stars, didn��t I?��After applying the mosquito repellent, Zhang Heng found a chair and sat down. He pointed at the starry sky above him, ��Isn��t it amazing? People from 2,000 years ago looked up and saw the same starry sky as we did.��


    ��I remember you telling me many myths about the stars.��Zhang Heng sat down on another chair.


    ��That��s right. If you look back at the early human civilization, you��ll realize that almost every civilization had stories about the stars. At that time, people were filled with curiosity about the stars above their heads. Those celestial bodies tens of millions of kilometers away from us were so mysterious and untouchable. The pictures drawn from their proximity also stimted the imagination of the people under the stars.��Father Zhang opened the beer in his hand and took a sip.


    ��At that time, the environment our ancestors lived in was much more difficult than it is now, and there were too many unexinable things in the world, such as diseases, natural disasters... why the wheat yield on the same piece ofnd was decreasing year by year, and why there were always many retarded children born to nobles. They hoped to find an answer, but the technological level at that time could not give them that answer. This is why the gods were born �� to bring the answer to mankind.��


    ��They are like the starry sky above us, mysterious and untouchable, giving people endless reveries. You have to admit that this is actually quite... romantic. People push problems that they can not solve to the gods. Thunder is because the thunder god is drumming on the clouds. The sun rises and sets because the sun god is cruising in a carriage in the sky. Disease and disaster are the divine punishments that a god has given to humans out of anger. This also tells us that we should always be humble and do more good deeds.


    ��When I first came into contact with the stories in the frescoes and the ancient books, I asked myself, did their prayers and sacrifices finally take effect? Was there really a rainstorm that came in time to save the crops that were about to be killed by the drought? Did the god of War give the blessing of victory to the warriors of their country when their country was in danger? Would the fertility goddess bless the birth of his second child? Then I suddenly realized that none of this really mattered.


    ��People choose to believe in a god because belief can help them find some kind of spiritualfort in this chaotic and difficult world. At least until our civilization has developed to a certain extent, we can not control the weather. Rain may or may note tomorrow. Those who firmly believe that rain wille tomorrow will be happier than those who do not believe that rain wille tomorrow at least for one day. This is the meaning of belief. It can give you some kind of spiritual encouragement so that you can survive the long night better than others.


    ��At that time, it was probably the honeymoon period between mankind and the gods. Together, we fought against the unpredictable nature and established a civilization on thisnd. However, with the development of technology and productivity, the previously unanswerable questions were solved one by one and became no longer mysterious. Even the gods behind them lost the respect of mankind and fell from the altar. As for the remaining gods, their rtionship with mankind gradually changed. They no longer existed to find an answer, but what remained unchanged was that they still carried the desire of mankind.��


    Zhang Heng listened quietly. He opened his own bottle of beer, but he did not say a word.


    ��Of course, with the constant improvement in technology and entertainment, mankind has developed many new desires. For example, in the hot summer, the desire to return to the air-conditioned room. We have already climbed to the moon, so we are also eager to climb to the stars. So, if one day, some new era of gods appear, I won��t be too surprised.��Father Zhang Shrugged.


    ��What if some people are longing for the end of the World?��Zhang Heng, who had been silent the whole time, suddenly asked.


    Father Zhang did not look too surprised when he heard this question. He said as he drank, ��Fear is the most primitive instinct of human beings. It can also provide sufficient stimtion to the brain. In modern society, the dangers we face are actually decreasing. We are far inferior to our ancestors, so the fear that we can feel is also decreasing. Most of the time, we can only get this kind of stimtion through horror novels and movies. We can not do without fear, so doomsday fantasies are actuallymon.��


    ��This kind of desire can not be eliminated, right?��


    ��Unfortunately, yes. But don��t worry, we will find a solution. It��s just that... it will take some time.��Father Zhang finished the beer in his hand, ��Each of us should have faith in ourselves.��

 Chapter 1297

    Chapter 1297 Unexpected Visitors


    From the outside, it didn��t look like a prison cell. It looked more like a hotel executive suite.


    There were four rooms, living room, bedroom, reception room, and bathroom. In the room, there was a TV, refrigerator, air-conditioning, and other appliances. There was a soft bed, 24-hour hot water, there was also a fresh fruit and food supply.


    The people inside could basically do anything they wanted except not go out. In fact, there was a burst of cheerful singinging from the bathroom.


    Seth soaked his body in the bathtub and hummed a tune while squeezing milk and orange-vored body wash on his arms to make bubbles. He seemed to be very satisfied with the treatment he received, he even grinned at the surveince camera above his head as if he was greeting the person on the other end of the surveince camera.


    ��How arrogant!��In the room next door, a woman wearing a suspenders and a ponytail suddenly threw the switch on the table and said angrily.


    ��What��s Wrong?��Beside her, a handsome boy who looked like a trainee and was dressed very fashionably was watching the new issue of creation 102 on hisputer. When he heard her, he took off his headphones.


    ��What does that bastard think he��s doing? Is he participating in a reality show? He has to make an expression for the camera every half an hour. I��m so angry!�� ��After all, he��s the God of Chaos. He must want to make trouble all the time. I feel sorry for him, ��the trainee said.


    ��What��s there to feel sorry for?��


    ��It��s said that more than a thousand years ago, he was considered a big shot. He had many believers and even built many shrines for him. But now, other than a few tourist attractions, the rest have long disappeared. He himself has also gone from a first-tier God to a washed-up clown. Usually, at times like this, he will try his best to hype himself up and attract attention. After all, in this day and age, ck and red are also red. The most terrifying thing is that there is no traffic.��The student spun the basketball at her fingertips.


    ��Don��t mess up your star-making form, okay?��The girl with a ponytail rolled her eyes and opened the bowl of instant noodles in front of her.


    The trainee, however, smiled, ��Nowadays, there��s no difference between being a god and being a star. Everyone lives for the sake of traffic. Why is that old God Thor so powerful? Isn��t it because of the huge box office sales of the Avengers? Otherwise, what��s the difference between him and Seth? Now is no longer the era of those barbarians. If you have time to train your muscles, you might as well run a few more announcements.��


    ��That��s true.��The girl with a ponytail agreed. She took out another box of instant noodles and asked her partner, ��Do You Want One?��


    The trainee frowned and showed a look of disdain. ��I have to ensure that the nutrition is bnced. I can��t eat this kind of junk food.��


    ��Tch, I��m happy to see celebrities eating instant noodles on a show.��


    ��It��s just the effect of the show.��The trainee acted as if he knew everything. ��It doesn��t matter if he smiles in front of the camera or vomits in the back. As long as the image on the screen is OK, it won��t be a problem.��


    The two people chatting in the monitoring room were the guards guarding Seth. Logically speaking, Seth was an old God after all. Although he wasn��t very famous now, in terms ofbat strength, even the ponytailed girl and the trainee wouldn��t be a match for him, however, the organizingmittee obviously wouldn��t arrange for them to send him to his death.


    In fact, Seth had already gone through more than one round of interrogation before he was sent here. Moreover, the organizingmittee had also dealt with his body and sealed his divine power, right now, Seth��s body was only that of an ordinary person. He couldn��t use any supernatural powers. Basically, once the door was locked, he couldn��t go anywhere.


    However, what the ponytailed girl and the trainee did not expect was that while the two of them were chatting, the door to Seth��s room was suddenly kicked open from the outside.


    When they saw the appearance of the person on the screen, the two of them were shocked. They looked at each other. After a moment, the ponytailed girl asked in a trembling voice, ��What should we do?��


    ��Send an email to inform the organizingmittee first!��The trainee said. His expression was uncertain, ��I didn��t expect that there really was something fishy between the two of them. I already said that none of the old gods are good. This time, I want to see how those Scandinavian gods will quibble.��


    At this moment, the person who had barged into the room was none other than Thor. He looked like he was about to fly into a rage, and his eyes seemed like they were about to spew fire. After entering the room, he did not stop and directly plunged into the bathroom.


    Seth wasn��t surprised to see Thor. He just sighed, ��Is the son of Odin so rude? He ran into someone else��s bathroom without even knocking on the door. What, do you think it��s rocky who��s taking a bath here?��


    Before he could finish his words, Thor grabbed him by the neck and dragged him out of the bathroom.


    ��Where is my wife?!��


    Seth��s throat was making noises because Thor had used too much strength. His eyes were almost squeezed out of his eyes.


    Although Thor wanted to hammer this bastard to death right now, he had no choice but to let go of his hand before he found his wife��s whereabouts.


    Seth��s body slid to the floor of the bathroom. He held the bath and coughed dryly, thenughed, ��How Strange is this? Your Wife is missing, but you didn��t hurry to find her but came to me instead. Why didn��t you ask the organizingmittee? I��ve been a prisoner here all this time, and I haven��t done anything.��


    Loki heard him and smashed his hammer into the bathtub behind Seth, shattering it into pieces.


    The sshing cement and porcin pieces left streaks of blood on Seth��s naked body, but thetter��s expression remained unchanged. ��What a pity. I quite like this bathtub.�� Thor had already used this blow to release part of the anger he had suppressed in his heart. He calmed down a little and put away his hammer. He looked up at the surveince camera above him.


    Then, he picked up a set of clothes and threw it on Seth. ��Put it on. You like to y games for me? Well, let��s have a good game. Forget about those annoying rules. It��s just you and


    me.��


    ��You have no idea what you��re doing.��Seth wiped the blood off his face and put away his indifferent look, ��You��ve already killed a new God and escaped from your room. Now You Want to kidnap me from here. Do you really think that the organizingmittee is just a decoration?��


    ��You don��t have to worry about that. When the matter is over, I will naturally apologize to the organizingmittee. You should worry more about yourself. I can guarantee that for the next 24 hours, you will be in Hell until you bring me to my wife.��


    ��Oh, it sounds quite interesting. ��Seth put on his clothes and was once again strangled by Thor. The two figures rushed out of the room and disappeared into the camera, only the trainee and the ponytail girl were left looking at each other.

 Chapter 1291 - Ordinary People

    <h4>Chapter 1291: Ordinary People</h4>


    ��Sigh, it��s been so many years. I still haven��t changed my habit of touching my nose whenever I lie.��Mother Zhang watched father Zhang��s car leave through the road in front of the house.


    ��Do you want me to follow him to see where he��s Going?��Zhang Heng asked. ��My tracking skills are very good. I Won��t be discovered by him.��


    ��There��s no need for that. Men have their secrets.��Mother Zhang took a ss of water from the tap and handed it to Zhang Heng. ��Anyway, as long as it��s not rted to another woman, I��ll just let him be.��


    ��Do you have that much confidence in him?��Zhang Heng took the ss.


    ��No, I just believe in my ability to choose my own people.��Mother Zhang blinked, ��If he��s not here, then so be it. Let��s eat first and help me with the dishes. You look a lot darker. It looks like you��ve been exposed to the sun quite a bit. Your father said that you came by boat. How was it? Did you see any whales on the way?��


    ..


    Just as Zhang Heng and Zhang Heng were having their meal and chatting, father Zhang parked his car by the side of the road.


    His face was no longer as gentle and calm as it used to be. His eyes turned cold as he stared at the billiard hall across from him. No one knew what he was thinking.


    About half a minuteter, he turned off the engine, got out of the car, and turned to the trunk. He opened the tailgate and pulled out the moisture-proof cushion underneath, revealing a locked toolbox. He used the key to open the small toolbox, he took out a SIG Sauer P365. It was a miniature pistol. It was only 147 mm in length and was very portable. Unlike other pistols, it could hold 10 bullets in its magazine, if necessary, it could be upgraded to 12 bullets.


    Father Zhang took out the Sig Sauer P365. He opened the magazine and checked to make sure that it was loaded. Then he put the gun behind his waist and covered it with his clothes before walking to the billiard hall in front of him.


    Although he was trying his best to blend in with the environment, he had to admit that his schrly temperament was hard to hide. It also made him a little out of ce with the billiard hall in front of him.


    Therefore, after a few steps, a bald man with a beautiful tattoo on his arm said, ��Hey, nerd over there, did youe to the wrong ce?��


    However, before father Zhang could say anything, another voice came from behind the Bald Man. ��No, he didn��te to the wrong ce, because I asked him out.��


    The bald man turned around and saw an old man about 60 years old smiling gently at him.


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    ��I suggest you and your little girlfriend continue ying billiards and stop meddling in other people��s business.��


    ��Or what?��The Bald Man clenched his fist.


    The old man shrugged. ��Or I��ll use this billiard stick in my hand to smash your daisies.��


    ��Old Man, are you courting death?��The Brawny Man was furious when he heard that and took a step forward. However, before he could make a move, he felt a sharp pain from somewhere behind him and fell to the ground, none of the people present could clearly see how the pool cue in the old man��s hand disappeared. In fact, there was still a distance of ten meters between him and the Bald Man.


    ��Quickly take your boyfriend to see a doctor. If you��rete, I��m afraid there will be some seque.��The old man turned his head and reminded his little girlfriend, who was standing next to the bald man, with a friendly smile.


    Thetter, however, acted as if he had seen the devil. He hurriedly helped his howling boyfriend up from the ground, pulled out a pool cue with blood on it somewhere behind him, and quickly escaped with the limping bald man.


    ��Did you have fun?��Father Zhang asked.


    ��It was just so-so. Speaking of which, I��m helping you out. Even if you don��t say thank you, there��s no need to put on a sour face, right? Not to mention, it��s in front of an old friend.��


    Father Zhang walked to the billiard table where the old man was, and looked into his eyes, ��You self-proimed gods always use your supernatural powers to do whatever you want, ignoring thews and rules. No matter where you appear, nothing good wille of it.��


    ��That��s a little unfair.��The Old Man took a new club from the shelf at the side, ��You humans have been praying for us to appear. Whenever you encounter any difficulties, when you are in a desperate situation, or even just because you are in a bad mood, you will shout our names and hope for a miracle. You See, you have the desire to break the rules.��


    ��That��s because they don��t understand the good things you have done.��


    ��You might have overestimated your own kind, but it doesn��t matter.��The old man set up the billiard ball. ��I didn��t ask you out today to argue with you about such things.��


    ��Then what did you do it for?��


    The old man smiled. ��y a game with me first. It��s a little itchy. We yed it in Nuuk too. Do you still remember?��


    ��If you have something to say, say it quickly. My wife has prepared dinner. She��s still waiting for me to go back and eat.��Father Zhang frowned.


    ��A married man. He really doesn��t have any freedom.��The old man appeared to be very sympathetic. However, seeing that Father Zhang did not have any intention of ying with him, he did not force him. He took out a bullet casing from his pocket, he ced it on the edge of the table, then leaned over and aimed at the white ball in front of him.


    Father Zhang��s pupils shrank when he saw the shell, but he quickly regained his calm. ��I don��t buy abandoned bullets here.��


    ��Beautiful handicraft, made of pure silver. The bullet��s head is painted with the juice of the crystal orchid, and the bottom of the shell is engraved with Hebrew �� everything dies, but the most creative thing is the inside of the shell. The core is actually filled with the blood of the goddess of curses. Eris is the goddess of curses in Greek mythology, and her curses are very powerful. In addition, there are sixteen runes from different mythological systems, ensuring that this curse can work on almost all creatures of the mythological system. In the end, this beautiful handicraft has be a terrifying weapon that can kill gods.��


    The old man waved the club in his hand, and the white ball flew out and hit the colorful ball in front of him, ��Just two weeks ago, this bullet hit a goddess named de. If it was someone else, I might have to exin who de is. After all, not many people know her name now. But if you study these things, you should know who she is, right?��


    ��Valkyrie, the Valkyrie of Norse mythology, Odin��s maidservant. It is said that they will ride horses and hunt together, heading to the battlefield to search for the souls of the fallen heroes. They will give the selected ones a kiss and bring them back to Valha,��father Zhang said calmly.


    ��Bingo!��! As expected of a professional. It has to be said that many people have underestimated you. When I first met you and your wife, most of my attention was focused on your wife because I have never seen such a pure soul. Inparison, you are much inferior. Although your character and temper are very good, you are just a good ordinary person.��

 Chapter 1292 - What A Father Should Do

    <h4>Chapter 1292: What A Father Should Do</h4>


    ��I am indeed just an ordinary person,��father Zhang said expressionlessly. ��If you are looking for the murderer of de, then you are obviously looking for the wrong person.��


    ��Rx, I am not here to interrogate you.��The old man watched the two colored balls enter the hole, changed directions, and crouched down again, ��And I know that you didn��t do what happened at Copenhagen International Airport because you haven��t left Irnd during this period of time, right?��


    ��Are you spying on me?��Father Zhang��s face darkened. ��We had an agreement when we were separated. You promised not to disturb us anymore.��


    ��I remember that my original words were... If that child wasn��t in danger, I wouldn��t have appeared again.��The old man swung his club again and shot a ck ball into the bag, ��I have kept my promise. I haven��t disturbed you and your wife in the past 18 years. But as I said before, maybe I underestimated you from the beginning. If I had known you better, I probably wouldn��t have made such a promise.��.


    ��You shouldn��t havee back,��father Zhang said in a deep voice.


    ��No, on the contrary. It��s fortunate that I came back. Otherwise, you would have been in big trouble.��The old man put away the club, looked at Father Zhang, and sighed, ��To be honest, I didn��t expect you to walk on such a path. I thought you were one of the few people who really understood us. You Wouldn��t idolize us, nor would you look down on us. You and your wife are like two bystanders. You know our history and where wee from... So why don��t you continue to observe and get yourself involved? No one should know better than you how dangerous it is.��


    ��I have no idea what you��re talking about.��


    ��This bullet... you invented it, didn��t you?��The old man finally gave up on the charade and pointed at the bullet casing on the table, ��I��m sorry, but my men have been keeping an eye on you and your wife for the past four months. Initially, I wanted to know if your attitude toward Zhang Heng had changed. After all, we haven��t seen each other for a long time, and humans are a species that can easily change their minds. In the end, I identally discovered that you were secretlymunicating with a group of people behind your wife��s back.��


    ��You��re very careful. You never call and only send emails, so you don��t leave your voice messages, and you don��t use yourputer, tablet, or cell phone. You Go to the Inte cafe every time, and you often change ces. You even drive an hour to the next city, and you only use a temporary email address with a 24-hour limit to send emails. So my people can��t find out who you��re contacting, and this matter has also aroused my curiosity.��


    ��I��m bisexual and have a same-sex lover, but as a husband, I have to hide this forbidden rtionship,��father Zhang said seriously.


    The old man was amused by him, ��It��s useless even if you��re self-deprecating. Don��t forget who I am. I Can��t change the past, but after you leave the Inte Cafe, you can go back half an hour and sneak a peek. Also, do you want to make a bet?��


    ��What Bet?��


    ��I bet the clip of the gun behind you contains the same kind of bullets,��the old man said leisurely as he ced the billiard cue on the ground, ��It��s a pity. We had such a good conversation before. I thought we would be friends.��


    ��Friends? I Won��t forget that you forced us to enter the city under the ice.��


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    ��And you also saved the world, didn��t you?��? ��You know very well how terrible things would have been if the master of the city under the ice hade out. If I hadn��t organized that scientific expedition, the entire world might have been shrouded in fear by now. After that, you proposed to adopt the child, and I agreed. I even gave him a talisman to help him block the connection with the Master of the city under the ice. I did almost everything I could.��The old man spread his hands.


    ��That��s the problem. Based on my understanding of you, Kronos would never be so kind for no reason.��


    ��So, ten years ago, you began to search the world for people who hated the gods for various reasons, gathering them together. At the same time, you consciously guided them and helped them find a way to fight against the gods with a mortal body. In the end, you created these god-ying bullets for these extremists?��As the old man spoke, he picked up the shell casing by the edge of the table again.


    ��They were not extremists. They only had rtives or friends who died at the hands of the gods. Most of them were not even the targets of those gods. For example, there was a captain who brought his younger brother and son out to sea to fish. In the end, he met Poseidon, who was in a bad mood that day and set off a 40-meter-high wave on the sea. In the end, his son and younger brother died in that shipwreck. For so many years, he had lived in despair and pain because no one believed his words. They only thought that he was hallucinating due to excessive grief. He also thought that he would never be able to take revenge


    ��Then you gave them hope. Hatred is the best driving force. ��I admit that some of us do things very crudely, but these bad habits are also given to us by you humans because you think that our image will be more flesh and blood, more simr to yours, and more conducive to the spread of those stories.��The old man put his palm on the club, ��Drama. Most of us also hate this word. To us, it��s like a curse.


    ��Also, don��t make yourself sound so righteous. Others may not know, but I know very well your true purpose in doing this. It��s not to avenge those extremists. You must have already figured it out in your heart. Sooner orter, Zhang Heng��s true identity will be revealed. When that dayes, it��s not hard to guess how the gods will react. Killing him is the easiest way to solve the problem. You know that this child will one day be the enemy of all the gods, so you��ve been trying to think of a way since ten years ago.


    ��If the gods want to kill him, then kill them all. If I hadn��t read your email, I wouldn��t have believed that an ordinary person who looks easy-going and has a good temper as described by his friends would have such a crazy and arrogant idea.��


    ��I just did what a father should do,��father Zhang said calmly.


    ��Even if this decision will destroy the whole world? ��It��s not just us gods, there are other humans as well. You should understand that allowing Zhang Heng to live means that the master of underice city might be able to escape... interesting, even though there is a part of your blood flowing in his body, he wasn��t born between you and your wife. is it really necessary to do this?��The old man asked curiously.

 Chapter 1293 - Guardian

    <h4>Chapter 1293: Guardian</h4>


    ��When we first met, I actually didn��t like him very much. I even considered whether or not I should use my ice pick to hit him on the head. After all, ording to the situation at that time, this was the most normal option.��


    ��That��s right. So why did you change your mind after that?��The old man took out a bag of Randoms fudge from his pocket, tore open the packaging, grabbed a handful from inside, and threw it into his mouth.


    ��Because my wife has always been a heartless person since she was young. She has been muddle-headed every day and likes to push all her problems to the people around her to solve. It��s not easy at all, but she has a natural instinct. That guy has never missed a single step in all the major events in his life. I always thought that it was some kind of supernatural ability. It was not until we got married that I got the answer to this question.��


    ��What is it?��The old man��s interest was piqued as he asked while chewing on his fudge.


    ��No matter how cruel this world is, the world is filled with evil. She can always find the kindness hidden behind the cruelty and evilness that others have overlooked. Therefore, this world always reciprocates her kindness,��father Zhang said, ��At that time, when we were in the city under the ice, we could see that the child was dying after leaving the tentacle, but we were indifferent. We even faintly hoped that he would die. However, only Xiao Xia wanted the child to live. She first picked up the umbilical cord and inserted it into her body, using her own blood to deliver nutrition to the child, even though I didn��t think that she had fully thought about the risks at that time.


    ��But that��s who she is, and if you live with her long enough, you��ll understand that you don��t have to question her choices, you just have to follow her instincts, so I took her ce and gave my blood to that child, which gave that child my blood and Xia��s blood.


    ��What happened after that proved this point once again. When we were surrounded by those monsters and thought that we would definitely die, it was this child who saved us. Because they were afraid that killing us would also cause this child to die, they stopped and watched us leave the city under the ice. Xiao Xia and I gave him life, but in the end, he also gave us life. It was also at that time that I felt a certain connection between us and him. This was also why we decided not to ask for anything in the future. We only wanted to adopt him,��father Zhang said.


    ��To be honest, when you made this request to me, I was also shocked. I almost thought that you had been influenced by the Master of the city under the ice and became its fanatical believers,��the old man said, ��But after I found out that he unexpectedly possessed a soul, it was indeed not suitable for me to bring him along or hand him over to my group of secret believers. It might be a good choice for you and your wife to adopt him.��


    After a pause, he continued, ��So, you are willing to challenge the gods for him because he once saved you in that city under the ice?��


    Father Zhang did not answer this question. Instead, he asked, ��You have never raised a child, right? Even though you have children, and there are quite a number of them, there are three of them.��


    Chronos raised his eyebrows. ��We are gods. Indeed, we do not have much experience in this aspect.��


    ��You didn��t personally change the diapers of your children, nor did you go online to check which brand of milk powder was good. You searched all the way untilte at night,paring them one by one. You didn��t teach him to speak word by word. When you heard him call out ��daddy��for the first time in a muffled voice, you didn��t feel that kind of joy. You Didn��t rush to take him to the pediatric hospitalte at night when he had a bad stomach. You Didn��t rush to take him to the emergency room for him, filled with anxiety and self-me... and I��ve experienced all of these. Even though we didn��t manage to apany him through his entire childhood, this is something that I��ve always regretted and felt guilty about.��


    Father Zhang and the god of time looked at each other, not taking a single step back, ��Now you tell me, what do you mean he wasn��t born by us, so he��s not my son. Other than swearing at you, what else can I say? I��m only going to say these words once, and I don��t want to repeat them again. You Bullsh * t gods, you can count each and every one of you as one. Whoeveres for my son, step over my body first.��


    After father Zhang finished hisst sentence, he pulled out the P365 from behind him and pointed it at Chronos. However, he noticed that there were no screams from anyone around him. In fact, the entire billiard hall was abnormally quiet, even the sound of the spheres colliding with each other was gone.


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    Father Zhang used the corner of his eye to nce at the two young girls at the table beside him. He realized that their movements were frozen there. They did not move at all, just like two statues.


    Then, he saw that Kronos��expression did not change. He nodded and said, ��I��m relieved to hear that.��


    ��What do you mean?��Father Zhang frowned,


    ��You seem to have misunderstood something. I��m not your enemy. At least in terms of ensuring your son��s safety, I think our goals are the same. The reason I asked you that before was to confirm your position on this matter.��


    Kronos replied, ��Don��t worry, I��ll help you hide the issue of the bullets. I can even pretend that I didn��t notice that you wanted to kill all the gods, including me. However, you have to know that the group you created called the Guardians only have hatred in their eyes. They want to kill all the supernatural creatures and believe that this is the only way to protect humanity. If they know about the rtionship between Zhang Heng and the Master of Underice City, I��m curious, will they treat him the same way they treat us?��


    Father Zhang fell into silence when he heard this. After a moment, he said, ��Imand the Immovable Guardian. Although this organization was indeed founded by me in the beginning and the first batch of members were also recruited by me, I was onlymunicating with them through an anonymous email. However, as it grew stronger over the years, things began to change.


    ��There��s a very powerful guy among the Guardians. It��s basically the same as reorganizing the guardians and turning the Guardians into their own organization. The Guardian��s executive ability and cohesiveness have improved by a few levels, but it has indeed be more and more unfamiliar to me. However, the basic ts of the organization have not changed. This is also the reason why I still gave them the manufacturing method of the god-yer bullet after hesitating.��


    ��TSK, TSK, tsk. You opened Pandora��s box just by giving them this thing. I just got a tip that they seem to be working with Seth to start a war between the old and New Gods, and the odds are that they��ve already seeded. I��m afraid there��s going to be a lot of excitement.��

 Chapter 1294 - Rhythm

    <h4>Chapter 1294: Rhythm</h4>


    ��How��s Grandpa��s Health?��


    After dinner, mother Zhang covered the portion of food left for Father Zhang. Then, she took out an ice-cream from the fridge and copsed on the sofa.


    ��Pretty good, you know him. His lifestyle is healthier than anyone else��s. He walks and exercises every day, nting flowers and nts. He��s still learning at his age,��Zhang Heng said as he pointed at the ice-cream, ��You, on the other hand, aren��t you pregnant? You should eat less cold food, right?��


    ��It��s rare that your father isn��t around, so I ate half of it. I��ll leave the rest to you,��Zhang Heng��s mother said as she quickly opened the popsicle paper in her hand and licked it.


    ��I told my father before that I should bring my grandfather over to stay for a while.��


    ��Ah, no way. Doesn��t that mean that there are two people in this family who are in charge of me?��Zhang Heng��s mother couldn��t help but shudder when she thought of the tragic life that followed.


    ��...��


    ��I��m just kidding. Of course, it would be great if my dad was willing toe, but in this case, you��re the only one left in the country.��Mother Zhang took a bite of the popsicle. ��No one can take care of anything.��


    ��I��m already 20 years old, and I still have Auntie Han.��


    Mother Zhang��s ice-cream suddenly didn��t smell good when she heard this. She stared into Zhang Heng��s eyes and frowned.


    ��What��s Wrong?��


    ��Do you and Han Lu oftenmunicate? I heard from Grandpa that the two of you went to Japan for a vacation together.��


    ��We did go on a vacation, but we onlymunicate three or four times a semester.��


    Mother Zhang��s expression rxed slightly, but she still said, ��No, you should stay away from her in the future. I was careless before, and I thought that woman would be worried about her 20-plus years of sisterhood, but then I remembered that she was never a kind person, and she would definitely get what she wanted. When I was studying abroad, in order to drive me to buy her her favorite cake, she could get up in the middle of the night and run to the balcony naked to blow her cold to win my sympathy. I��ve never seen someone so ruthless to themselves, especially now that she��s gone through the ups and downs of the business world and earned money, she��s probably even more inhumane...��


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    Zhang Heng didn��t know what to say. The woman in front of him usually looked like she was in a daze, but at times, her instincts were surprisingly urate.


    ��Help me tell Han Lu to give up. I Won��t give her the chance to call me mom. Although it feels good to think about it that way, doesn��t that mean that there are three people in this family who are in charge of Me?��Mother Zhang bit down on the popsicle in her hand,


    zhang Heng didn��t want to dwell on this issue any longer, so he changed the topic. ��Are you and my dad used to living here?��


    ��Of course. We��ve traveled the world over the years, and my adaptability and survivability have been pushed to the max. Even if I were to be thrown on a deserted ind, I would still be able to live happily with the monkeys on the ind. It��s just that the takeout and express delivery here are not as convenient as in China.��Zhang Heng��s mother paused, ��Actually, your father and I are thinking of settling down here.��


    ��Settling down? Are you nning to settle down here?��Zhang Heng raised his eyebrows.


    ��Yes, my tutor rmended me to menus university, but it��s not a lecture, it��s an administrative job. It��s said that I��m quite free. Basically, I only have to work a few hours a day. I can freely arrange the rest of the time.��


    ��That sounds good. Congrattions.��


    ��No, it��s not that fast.��Zhang waved her hand, ��The school is still discussing it, but if it��s approved, our next step will be to buy a house near the school. When that timees, your father will also change a job that can apany me... you still have two years to graduate, right? How about it? Are you interested in studying here? ��This way, our family can reunite. Previously, because of work, we left you behind in China, but in the blink of an eye, you��ve grown so big.��


    ��I don��t know. I haven��t thought about the future yet,��Zhang Heng said honestly.


    He didn��t even know who he was, so how could he consider whether he wanted to study abroad in two years.


    ��It��s okay, you can think about it. I��m not forcing you, I��m just saying it. It��s up to you. If you meet a girl you like, it��s good to stay in the country. When I was your age, all I could think about was novels and manga.��Zhang Heng��s mother yawned as she spoke.


    Perhaps due to her pregnancy, she was more lethargic than usual. Especially since she had just finished her meal, it was easier for her to fall asleep due to the elevated blood sugar level. Therefore, Zhang Heng��s mother passed the half-eaten ice cream to Zhang Heng, on the other hand, shey down on her back and rested her head on Zhang Heng��s knee. She closed her eyes.


    ��Do you want me to carry you back to your room to sleep?��Zhang Heng asked.


    ��No, I��m just going to take a nap. It��s fine.��


    ��Okay.��Zhang Heng moved his thigh slightly and changed his position to make Xiao Xia��s pillow morefortable. He thought Xiao Xia would fall asleep like this, but after a while, Xiao Xia spoke again, ��Why aren��t you speaking? I want to Hear Your Voice.��


    ��What do you want to hear?��


    ��Just say something. Say something about the girl you like, The Troubles You had when you were growing up, or simply talk about the singers you��ve chased and the games you��ve yed. If you have any doubts in your heart, you can ask me. No matter what, I��ve been through it before, and I��ve also experienced puberty. HMM, even though I��m not a man... you should wait for your father toe back and ask him about the questions regarding my physiological impulses.��


    ��Really? I��ve been thinking about who I really am recently.��


    ��Are you studying philosophy?��


    ��Sort of. Each of US came to this world with some kind of... mission, right?��


    ��I don��t think there��s such a troublesome thing. Everyone just needs to live happily ording to their own wishes.��


    ��But, what if, I mean what if, one person finds out that their true intentions aren��t a good thing for others?��


    ��Is that what you��re afraid of? Afraid that deep down, you��re actually a bad person? Is that why you don��t dare to face yourselfpletely?��Zhang Heng��s mother turned over, lying on her side, she grumbled. Her voice gradually lowered, and she sounded like she might fall asleep at any moment. ��It��s fine, then ept that you��re a bad person.��


    ��But what if you��re a bad person who��s bad enough to destroy the world?��Zhang Heng pressed on.


    ��If that��s the case, then let the world be destroyed,��Xiao Xia said softly, ��It doesn��t matter. In the history of mankind, there have been several mass extinctions. The murals carved in the cave and the myths of the ancestors recorded these stories. We will eventually get through this. We can build a civilization not because we��re smarter than other species, but because we��re tough enough


    ��But I don��t want to Lose You, Dad, Grandpa, and my unborn sister, and I don��t want to lose my friends


    ��Silly Child, you won��t lose me because no matter what you be in the future, you will still be my son. No one can change that. That��s enough... that��s enough.��Xiao Xia said thest sentence, her voice finally became undetectable, and she fell asleep peacefully.


    Zhang Heng ced his palm on her lower abdomen, feeling the strange rhythm there. He could feel a brand-new life being nurtured there.

 Chapter 1295 - The Situation

    <h4>Chapter 1295: The Situation</h4>


    Zhang Heng stayed at his parents��new house for about half a month, but he rejected his father��s proposal to travel around Irnd. When his grandfather��s ne arrived safely, he booked a flight back home the next day.


    ��Leaving so soon?��Mother Zhang was confused. ��The summer vacation should only be half over.��


    ��Yes, but there are still some things to resolve in China,��Zhang Heng said.


    ��Eh... Mysterious, is it rted to rtionships? Do you have a girlfriend? Ask her toe to Irnd to y.��


    ��Maybe next time.��Zhang Heng carried hisptop up to the second floor. He locked his room door and plugged in the untraceable USB drive. Only then did he log on to the yers��forum.


    These two weeks, Zhang Heng had been rtively rxed abroad. Other than lecturing a group of racist youths outside the supermarket in the middle, he had not done anything else. However, things had not been peaceful in China during this period of time.


    The yers were doing fine. Although there had been some vicious incidents and the forums had started to panic, the scale was not too big. The three major guilds were still trying to maintain the situation, on the other hand, the organizingmittee seemed to be experiencing some problems.


    Recently, the frequency of supernatural urrences had started to increase. The organizingmittee was also working at full capacity to cover up the incident to avoid attracting the attention of ordinary people. However, as time passed.., the situation did not improve. Instead, it seemed to be worsening.


    At first, there were still some vague rumors, but as a part of the agents were involved, the yers realized that the rtionship between the new God and the old god was bing more tense than ever.


    In the chat room, an ID named ��Don��t want to practice the piano��was introducing the current situation to Zhang Heng.


    The person who leaked the identity of the yer had been found. It was one of the Egyptian pir gods, Seth. He was also the mastermind who had scammed [ death dream ] from the three major guilds. He had also kidnapped the phone God.


    The God of Chaos?


    That��s right. The organizingmittee had sent Thor, the most powerful god in Nordic mythology, to deal with him, but for some reason, Thor had managed to escape in the end, furthermore, a new god that had apanied Thor had died there.


    Seth had killed him?


    Updates by vip novel.


    Zhang Heng typed.


    No, if he had really died at Seth��s hands, there wouldn��t have been so much trouble. The person who had killed him was Thor. Although Thor had imed that this was a trap set by Seth, from the looks of the fight at the scene.., thor... had actually already controlled the situation, but for some reason, he had shown mercy to Seth again.


    �� with Thor��s personality, he should be easily provoked.


    �� yes, most people thought so too. But the problem was that when the organizingmittee was still investigating this matter, Thor, in addition to making a mistake, had once again lost his temper, he escaped from the room where he was temporarily imprisoned, and he even injured the guard, who was also a new God. This action alsopletely intensified the situation. The New Gods were almost furious, and they found Odin, they wanted Odin to hand over Thor.


    They didn��t want to practice the piano.


    �� and then?


    �� although the Nordic Gods admitted Thor was in the wrong, they refused to make any promises. This action further aroused the protests of the New Gods, and caused the Nordic gods to shut down the inte for the next ten days, they had the people from the telmunicationspany check it several times, but they were helpless.


    �� well, this is what I didn��t expect.


    �� and then someone killed Odin��s mount. �� Sleipnir came to take revenge on the Norse gods, which made Odin furious.


    �� it sounds like someone is trying to drive a wedge between the new gods and the Old Gods. Is It Seth?


    Logically speaking, Seth should be the biggest suspect. However, after Thor went missing, Seth came alone to the organizingmittee and announced his surrender. He was very cooperative throughout the whole process. In addition, I��m not sure if you��ve heard about what happened at Copenhagen International Airport.


    What happened?


    Zhang Heng��s expression changed.


    A battle took ce there three weeks ago. Two Valkyries died while the organizingmittee was carrying out a secret mission there. Another Valkyrie went missing, it was said that the suspect was the mechanical god of the new God, and arge-caliber weapon made by the mechanical God had also been found at the scene.


    The Mechanical God?


    Zhang Heng��s fingers stopped on the keyboard. He was keenly aware of something. The battle should have happened on the same day that the assault 8-300 that he was riding on had crashed. Considering the mysterious malfunction that the ne had encountered at that time.., all the mechanical parts had stopped working.


    And the so-called god of machinery had appeared at the end of his journey, Denmark��s Copenhagen International Airport. If this was a coincidence, then it would be too much of a coincidence if there was no connection between the two.


    Zhang Heng had been wondering for the past few days whether his identity had beenpletely exposed and made known to all the gods, making him the number one target of the gods, however, from the looks of it, the situation wasn��t as bad as Nara Totipp had said, without a doubt, this mechanical god was probably another god who knew his identity besides Kronos, the bartender, and Nara Totipp.


    If possible, Zhang Heng wanted to find the mechanical god. From the Mechanical God��s mouth, he wanted to know how many other people knew his identity and how the other party had located him. However, two Valkyries had died, another Valkyrie had gone missing. The organizingmittee must have sent arge team to search for the mechanical god.


    Three weeks had passed, but the organizingmittee still had no results. In order to not attract the attention of ordinary people, the traces of the previous battle had probably been erased. It would not be easy for him to find the mechanical god, therefore, Zhang Heng only had a thought before giving up.


    �� you��re currently abroad, right? Then I suggest you continue to stay abroad. After all, there��s still some time before school starts.


    I don��t want to practice my piano and continue typing.


    �� even though Seth had already surrendered, the conflict between the new God and the old God was showing signs of bing more and more intense. The tension between the two sides was not formed overnight. After all, there were only so many believers, a little more would mean less faith for the others. It was almost irreconcble. The two events were more like a fuse, igniting the long-suppressed conflict between the old and New Gods, i heard that some of the agents had been forced to take sides and participate in some covert confrontations. These private actions would sooner orter turn into surface confrontations. I don��t think we can remain on our own, after so many rounds of the game, the yers who survived have be a force to be reckoned with. I don��t think either the new God or the old God will ignore us.

 Chapter 1296 - Farewell

    <h4>Chapter 1296: Farewell</h4>


    Zhang Heng left the Forum Room after ending the exchange with Fan Meinan, but he did not change his ns to return home.


    It would be safer to stay in Irnd, but as he said, he still had unfinished business. Fan Meinan��s illness had not been treated, and there was a ticking time bomb in his body, most importantly, his family was here, and he did not want to bring trouble to them.


    Every day he stayed here, the risk of being found increased. At the same time, the other party would also notice his parents, grandfather, and unborn sister.


    That was why Zhang Heng decided to pass on the most important reason. However, he did not tell Xiao Xia or the other people in the room about it. Even so, the night before he left, there would still be a small problem.


    It was already one o��clock in the morning when Zhang Heng heard the sounding from downstairs.


    The sound was not loud, but it did not escape Zhang Heng��s ears. When he slept, the door was not closed, just in case something happened. Therefore, Zhang Heng got out of bed, he grabbed a knife that he had bought at the supermarket and hid it behind his back. He bent down and quietly walked down the corridor like a civet cat.


    He walked down the stairs to the living room and saw a figure carrying him on his back. He was standing in front of the fridge, rummaging through something.


    ��It��s sote. What are you looking for?��Zhang Heng put away the knife in his hand and asked.


    The figure heard his voice and turned around. It was Father Zhang. He was holding two bottles of beer in his hands, ��The Stars Tonight are pretty good. Let��s go sit in the courtyard. Oh right, bring some mosquito repellent. It��s in the first drawer under the coffee table.��


    Zhang Heng opened the drawer. Sure enough, he found a bottle of mosquito repellent. He sprayed it all over himself before returning to the courtyard and tossing it to his father. He then took a bottle of cold beer from thetter��s hands.


    ��When you were young, I told you stories about the stars, didn��t I?��After applying the mosquito repellent, Zhang Heng found a chair and sat down. He pointed at the starry sky above him, ��Isn��t it amazing? People from 2,000 years ago looked up and saw the same starry sky as we did.��


    ��I remember you telling me many myths about the stars.��Zhang Heng sat down on another chair.


    ��That��s right. If you look back at the early human civilization, you��ll realize that almost every civilization had stories about the stars. At that time, people were filled with curiosity about the stars above their heads. Those celestial bodies tens of millions of kilometers away from us were so mysterious and untouchable. The pictures drawn from their proximity also stimted the imagination of the people under the stars.��Father Zhang opened the beer in his hand and took a sip.


    ��At that time, the environment our ancestors lived in was much more difficult than it is now, and there were too many unexinable things in the world, such as diseases, natural disasters... why the wheat yield on the same piece ofnd was decreasing year by year, and why there were always many retarded children born to nobles. They hoped to find an answer, but the technological level at that time could not give them that answer. This is why the gods were born �� to bring the answer to mankind.��


    Updates by vip novel.


    ��They are like the starry sky above us, mysterious and untouchable, giving people endless reveries. You have to admit that this is actually quite... romantic. People push problems that they can not solve to the gods. Thunder is because the thunder god is drumming on the clouds. The sun rises and sets because the sun god is cruising in a carriage in the sky. Disease and disaster are the divine punishments that a god has given to humans out of anger. This also tells us that we should always be humble and do more good deeds.


    ��When I first came into contact with the stories in the frescoes and the ancient books, I asked myself, did their prayers and sacrifices finally take effect? Was there really a rainstorm that came in time to save the crops that were about to be killed by the drought? Did the god of War give the blessing of victory to the warriors of their country when their country was in danger? Would the fertility goddess bless the birth of his second child? Then I suddenly realized that none of this really mattered.


    ��People choose to believe in a god because belief can help them find some kind of spiritualfort in this chaotic and difficult world. At least until our civilization has developed to a certain extent, we can not control the weather. Rain may or may note tomorrow. Those who firmly believe that rain wille tomorrow will be happier than those who do not believe that rain wille tomorrow at least for one day. This is the meaning of belief. It can give you some kind of spiritual encouragement so that you can survive the long night better than others.


    ��At that time, it was probably the honeymoon period between mankind and the gods. Together, we fought against the unpredictable nature and established a civilization on thisnd. However, with the development of technology and productivity, the previously unanswerable questions were solved one by one and became no longer mysterious. Even the gods behind them lost the respect of mankind and fell from the altar. As for the remaining gods, their rtionship with mankind gradually changed. They no longer existed to find an answer, but what remained unchanged was that they still carried the desire of mankind.��


    Zhang Heng listened quietly. He opened his own bottle of beer, but he did not say a word.


    ��Of course, with the constant improvement in technology and entertainment, mankind has developed many new desires. For example, in the hot summer, the desire to return to the air-conditioned room. We have already climbed to the moon, so we are also eager to climb to the stars. So, if one day, some new era of gods appear, I won��t be too surprised.��Father Zhang Shrugged.


    ��What if some people are longing for the end of the World?��Zhang Heng, who had been silent the whole time, suddenly asked.


    Father Zhang did not look too surprised when he heard this question. He said as he drank, ��Fear is the most primitive instinct of human beings. It can also provide sufficient stimtion to the brain. In modern society, the dangers we face are actually decreasing. We are far inferior to our ancestors, so the fear that we can feel is also decreasing. Most of the time, we can only get this kind of stimtion through horror novels and movies. We can not do without fear, so doomsday fantasies are actuallymon.��


    ��This kind of desire can not be eliminated, right?��


    ��Unfortunately, yes. But don��t worry, we will find a solution. It��s just that... it will take some time.��Father Zhang finished the beer in his hand, ��Each of us should have faith in ourselves.��

 Chapter 1297 - Unexpected Visitors

    <h4>Chapter 1297: Unexpected Visitors</h4>


    From the outside, it didn��t look like a prison cell. It looked more like a hotel executive suite.


    There were four rooms, living room, bedroom, reception room, and bathroom. In the room, there was a TV, refrigerator, air-conditioning, and other appliances. There was a soft bed, 24-hour hot water, there was also a fresh fruit and food supply.


    The people inside could basically do anything they wanted except not go out. In fact, there was a burst of cheerful singinging from the bathroom.


    Seth soaked his body in the bathtub and hummed a tune while squeezing milk and orange-vored body wash on his arms to make bubbles. He seemed to be very satisfied with the treatment he received, he even grinned at the surveince camera above his head as if he was greeting the person on the other end of the surveince camera.


    ��How arrogant!��In the room next door, a woman wearing a suspenders and a ponytail suddenly threw the switch on the table and said angrily.


    ��What��s Wrong?��Beside her, a handsome boy who looked like a trainee and was dressed very fashionably was watching the new issue of creation 102 on hisputer. When he heard her, he took off his headphones.


    ��What does that bastard think he��s doing? Is he participating in a reality show? He has to make an expression for the camera every half an hour. I��m so angry!��


    ��After all, he��s the God of Chaos. He must want to make trouble all the time. I feel sorry for him,��the trainee said.


    ��What��s there to feel sorry for?��


    ��It��s said that more than a thousand years ago, he was considered a big shot. He had many believers and even built many shrines for him. But now, other than a few tourist attractions, the rest have long disappeared. He himself has also gone from a first-tier God to a washed-up clown. Usually, at times like this, he will try his best to hype himself up and attract attention. After all, in this day and age, ck and red are also red. The most terrifying thing is that there is no traffic.��The student spun the basketball at her fingertips.


    ��Don��t mess up your star-making form, okay?��The girl with a ponytail rolled her eyes and opened the bowl of instant noodles in front of her.


    The trainee, however, smiled, ��Nowadays, there��s no difference between being a god and being a star. Everyone lives for the sake of traffic. Why is that old God Thor so powerful? Isn��t it because of the huge box office sales of the Avengers? Otherwise, what��s the difference between him and Seth? Now is no longer the era of those barbarians. If you have time to train your muscles, you might as well run a few more announcements.��


    ��That��s true.��The girl with a ponytail agreed. She took out another box of instant noodles and asked her partner, ��Do You Want One?��


    The trainee frowned and showed a look of disdain. ��I have to ensure that the nutrition is bnced. I can��t eat this kind of junk food.��


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    ��Tch, I��m happy to see celebrities eating instant noodles on a show.��


    ��It��s just the effect of the show.��The trainee acted as if he knew everything. ��It doesn��t matter if he smiles in front of the camera or vomits in the back. As long as the image on the screen is OK, it won��t be a problem.��


    ..


    The two people chatting in the monitoring room were the guards guarding Seth. Logically speaking, Seth was an old God after all. Although he wasn��t very famous now, in terms ofbat strength, even the ponytailed girl and the trainee wouldn��t be a match for him, however, the organizingmittee obviously wouldn��t arrange for them to send him to his death.


    In fact, Seth had already gone through more than one round of interrogation before he was sent here. Moreover, the organizingmittee had also dealt with his body and sealed his divine power, right now, Seth��s body was only that of an ordinary person. He couldn��t use any supernatural powers. Basically, once the door was locked, he couldn��t go anywhere.


    However, what the ponytailed girl and the trainee did not expect was that while the two of them were chatting, the door to Seth��s room was suddenly kicked open from the outside.


    When they saw the appearance of the person on the screen, the two of them were shocked. They looked at each other. After a moment, the ponytailed girl asked in a trembling voice, ��What should we do?��


    ��Send an email to inform the organizingmittee first!��The trainee said. His expression was uncertain, ��I didn��t expect that there really was something fishy between the two of them. I already said that none of the old gods are good. This time, I want to see how those Scandinavian gods will quibble.��


    At this moment, the person who had barged into the room was none other than Thor. He looked like he was about to fly into a rage, and his eyes seemed like they were about to spew fire. After entering the room, he did not stop and directly plunged into the bathroom.


    Seth wasn��t surprised to see Thor. He just sighed, ��Is the son of Odin so rude? He ran into someone else��s bathroom without even knocking on the door. What, do you think it��s rocky who��s taking a bath here?��


    Before he could finish his words, Thor grabbed him by the neck and dragged him out of the bathroom.


    ��Where is my wife? !��


    Seth��s throat was making noises because Thor had used too much strength. His eyes were almost squeezed out of his eyes.


    Although Thor wanted to hammer this bastard to death right now, he had no choice but to let go of his hand before he found his wife��s whereabouts.


    Seth��s body slid to the floor of the bathroom. He held the bath and coughed dryly, thenughed, ��How Strange is this? Your Wife is missing, but you didn��t hurry to find her but came to me instead. Why didn��t you ask the organizingmittee? I��ve been a prisoner here all this time, and I haven��t done anything.��


    Loki heard him and smashed his hammer into the bathtub behind Seth, shattering it into pieces.


    The sshing cement and porcin pieces left streaks of blood on Seth��s naked body, but thetter��s expression remained unchanged. ��What a pity. I quite like this bathtub.��


    Thor had already used this blow to release part of the anger he had suppressed in his heart. He calmed down a little and put away his hammer. He looked up at the surveince camera above him.


    Then, he picked up a set of clothes and threw it on Seth. ��Put it on. You like to y games for me? Well, let��s have a good game. Forget about those annoying rules. It��s just you and me.��


    ��You have no idea what you��re doing.��Seth wiped the blood off his face and put away his indifferent look, ��You��ve already killed a new God and escaped from your room. Now You Want to kidnap me from here. Do you really think that the organizingmittee is just a decoration?��


    ��You don��t have to worry about that. When the matter is over, I will naturally apologize to the organizingmittee. You should worry more about yourself. I can guarantee that for the next 24 hours, you will be in Hell until you bring me to my wife.��


    ��Oh, it sounds quite interesting.��Seth put on his clothes and was once again strangled by Thor. The two figures rushed out of the room and disappeared into the camera, only the trainee and the ponytail girl were left looking at each other.

 Chapter 1298 - The Clouds Of War

    <h4>Chapter 1298: The Clouds Of War</h4>


    Zhang Heng did not choose to fly directly back to the city where his school was located or to transfer to his hometown.


    Even if the ne crash was not enough to kill him now, he did not know how many people knew about his identity, so he tried his best to keep a low profile, in the end, he chose tond at Hongkou Airport, borrowed the identity cards of others, and rented a car to drive back to school.


    He didn��t go to the game station to look for the bartenders, and he didn��t even contact Ma Wei, who was still a tutor. He just went to the storage ce to get his [ hidden scabbard ] and [ gue bone bow ] in exchange for his polo, and then he took advantage of the time freeze, he drove out of the city overnight.


    He drove the car to his and his grandfather��s house. Since his grandfather was already in Irnd, it was now pitch ck. Zhang Heng used the key to open the door and walked into the room.


    Before his grandfather left, he cleaned the house very neatly. The chairs and cups were washed and arranged neatly. There was almost no dust in the house. Zhang Heng walked around the house, but he didn��t see any signs of an intruder, however, he did not let his guard downpletely. He searched the courtyard again.


    The information that was leaked on the Inte listed his address as a school. It even listed the house number of his dormitory in detail. However, there was no information about the house in his hometown. However, Zhang Heng did not feel that he could rest assured just like that, after all, it was already an information society. As long as he was willing to put in the effort, it was not difficult to follow one or a few messages to find another.


    Therefore, even if Zhang Heng did not find any signs of being hacked, he still did not n to stay here.


    He took advantage of the time freeze to catch up on his sleep and put on some makeup to cover up his original appearance. Then, he drove away before the extra 24 hours were up.


    At 00:17, Zhang Heng parked the polo at the entrance of the KTV he was looking for. Then, he walked straight in under the eyes of four burly security guards. He passed the counter in the lobby and ignored the inquiries from the front desk. He walked straight to room 2306.


    Thest time he was here, there was a sexy bunny with a sweet smile standing by the door of the private room. However, this time, it was two burly men who were even bigger than the security guards outside. Their waists were bulging.


    Zhang Heng showed them the serial numbers on his arms. However, they did not move away from him. Instead, they signaled for Zhang Heng to raise his hands.


    Zhang Heng stared into the eyes of one of the burly men, causing thetter to stop in his tracks.


    ��One person,��Zhang Heng said.


    The burly man nodded and allowed hispanion to stand at the door while he continued to walk forward and reached out to touch Zhang Heng��s body.


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    The reason Zhang Heng agreed to the search was because he could see that the burly man didn��t seem to be targeting him, but was just doing his job. And if there was really something wrong with the man, it was because of him.., if there was only one person, he could subdue the man with his superior reflexes.


    The Brawny man quickly finished searching Zhang Heng��s body and nodded at him, ��I��m sorry, we��ve just received news that a game point has been attacked. Fortunately, there aren��t many yers there, so the casualties aren��t too serious. However, the other game points have also strengthened their defenses.��


    ��Do you know who did this?��


    ��The organizingmittee is still investigating.��The burly man left after saying that, obviously not intending to say anything more.


    Zhang Heng did not ask any more questions. He walked into room 2306 and saw the receptionist wiping a double-barreled shotgun. He was still wearing his hawaiian-style beach pants and slippers, however, he was wearing a bulletproof vest over his short-sleeved shirt.


    Because Zhang Heng had put on makeup, he could not recognize him. He held the shotgun and asked, ��Is there anything I can help you with?��


    ��I want to identify two items,��Zhang Heng said.


    ��No problem, I��m happy to help.��Seeing that there was a business visit, the beach pants uncle readily agreed. However, he still did not put down the shotgun in his hand. However, because Zhang Heng was new, he patiently exined, ��Recently, the situation has been a little unstable. We are currently on the eve of war, and unfortunately, my strength is the worst among all the hosts at the game point. At the same time, it seems that my business partners have no interest in protecting me, so I have no choice but to protect myself.��


    When he mentioned business partners, he nced at a group of women dressed in cool and flowery clothes. Zhang Heng had already learned from the beach-pants uncle that this group of KTV princesses was actually a group of subi, however, their rtionship with the beach-pants uncle was indeed rather strange. They were not his subordinates. The two sides were just partners. These subi provided some rxation services to the yers at the beach-pants uncle��s game point to earn points, they also gave the beach-pants uncle a cut as a venue fee, but they would not listen to the beach-pants uncle��s orders.


    As expected, one of them said, ��We��re not your bodyguards, Why Should We Guarantee Your Safety?��


    ��Because... you still want to make money on my turf?��The beach-pants man said carefully.


    ��If you die, we��ll find another game spot to stay. Originally, if it weren��t for you, we wouldn��t havee,��the subus said.


    Her words were so merciless that it broke the man��s heart.


    However, as the two of them were talking, another girl dressed like a stray cat asked, ��Have we met somewhere before?��Her question was directed at Zhang Heng, at the same time, a pair of gem-like eyes stared at Zhang Heng.


    Zhang Heng actually recognized this subus named Jia Jia when he first entered the room. That was because she had given him her phone numberst time, but he had never called her before.


    Jiajia��s words reminded Zhang Heng of something else. Thest time he was here, Jiajia seemed to have noticed the difference in him. She had even offered to borrow his seed, but he had rejected her, seeing that Zhang Heng did not reply, the girl asked again, ��Why does your scent feel familiar to me?��


    ��You must be mistaken. I don��t think we��ve met before,��Zhang Heng said calmly.


    ��That��s a pity. I��d like to get to know you better if you were here any other time,��Jia Jia said. ��But right now, we��re thinking of leaving this ce.��


    ��You��re leaving?��Before Zhang Heng could say anything, the man in the beach pants was shocked. ��Don��t be like that. I��m not dead yet, and you��ve already found a new home? You Can��t be so heartless.��


    ��It��s not like we��re leaving this ce forever. We��re just trying to stay out of the limelight. It��s not like your ce is safe. Of course, if you really die, we won��t being back,��said the Subus who had spoken earlier.

 Chapter 1299 - Rumors

    <h4>Chapter 1299: Rumors</h4>


    The beach-pants man was obviously not satisfied with the subus��response, but he had no choice but to return his attention to the matter at hand, he took two things from Zhang Heng.


    One was the Fishbone bracelet given by Alexia, and the other was the pebble named Old Seal.


    The beach pants uncle looked at the fishbone ne first, ��AH, it��s something from the shamanism. It looks like it��s a talisman made by the Inuit. This thing is quite rare. The main reason is that the shamanism is on the decline and is rtively closed off. It doesn��t spread out much, but the things they make have a unique effect on the soul. This thing should be appraised in a day. If you��re in a hurry and are willing to double your points, you can do it in half a day.��


    After saying that, he picked up the pebble again. This time, he was slightly surprised. ��Old Seal?��


    ��You know this thing too?��Zhang Heng observed the expression on the beach pants uncle��s face.


    ��Of course, I also read novels and y games,��the beach pants uncle asked. ��Are you willing to sell this thing to me? I can offer 100, NO, 200 points.��


    ��I didn��t know that there was a tool recycling service in game points,��Zhang Heng said.


    ��It��s not a service for game points. I bought it myself,��the man in the beach pants said, ��You don��t have to worry about the tools that I lied to you about. All the old seals are F grade tools. Based on the exchange value between you yers, they won��t be worth more than 50 points. If you sell it to me, you��ll earn four times the original price. Moreover, this thing has a single purpose, so it��s not useful under normal circumstances.��


    ��Then why are you willing to spend so much money to buy a useless item from me?��


    ��It��s just... Just in case,��the beach-pants uncle mumbled.


    However, before he could finish his sentence, he heard a voice from the subus. ��I��ll offer 500 points!��


    ��What are you guys trying to do? !��The beach-pants uncle almost jumped out of his seat when he heard that. ��It��s fine if you don��t try to protect me, but you still want to snatch an old seal from me!��


    The person who raised the price was a pure-looking girl who looked like a girl from the neighborhood. Zhang Heng remembered that her name was Bei bei.


    Bei bei tucked her hair behind her ear and looked at the man with a half-smile, ��You still have the cheek toin that we��re not cooperating with you? Did you tell us everything you know? Unfortunately, you��re not the only source of information for us sisters.��


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    ��It��s not that I��m unwilling to share, but isn��t this just some gossip? There��s no chance of sess,��the beach-pants uncle said with a smile. At the same time, he winked at Bebe, signaling for them to take the old seal from Zhang Heng, after that, the two of them slowly discussed who should get it.


    However, Bebepletely ignored his winks. Instead, he said to Zhang Heng.., ��I��m different from the profiteers over there. I Won��t let you suffer any losses. I��ll give you 600 points to sell this to me, okay?�� ��If... you need anything else, I can provide you with a special service.��


    However, to her surprise, the new yer opposite her said, ��I don��tck points, or rather, I don��tck these 600 points. However, if any of you know the origin of this old seal or the creator��s information, I can give this to you for free.��


    The man in beach pants had a strange expression on his face.


    Zhang Heng already knew that he was the vessel chosen by the Master of Underice City. The conflict between the two of them could not be reconciled. There would definitely be a battle in the future, and the old seal was the only thing he could find that could work on the other party, although the effect was not ideal, it at least pointed out a direction for Zhang Heng. If he could find the creator of the old seal, Zhang Heng might be able to get more methods to deal with the master of Underice City from him.


    ��Why, is this request too much?��


    ��No, no matter what, the old seal is actually no secret. Or rather, it��s all a secret. No one knows the exact origin of the old seal. The earliest theory is that it was made by a Kanak native on an ind, but no one can find that ind. It is said that some ordinary people called investigators can also make the old seal, but it is not something that can be easily drawn. Therefore, the number of old seals has always been low.��


    On the other hand, the man in the beach shorts was also a bachelor. He knew that it would be difficult for him to get the old seal from Zhang Heng, so he decided to reveal everything, ��Actually, the old seal��s function is just that. Holding the old seal is more for peace of mind... 200 points is more or less my limit. I can��t afford any more. I��m not as rich as those women.��


    ��Then why do you suddenly want peace of mind?��Zhang Heng asked.


    The beach-pants uncle hesitated for a moment before saying, ��I recently heard a rumor that a troublesome guy ising back. It��s not just me, many people are starting to make preparations.��


    ��A rumor? Where did ite from?��


    ��No one knows where the source is,��the beach-pants uncle said with regret. He wanted to shut his mouth, but then he saw Zhang Heng reach out a palm, ��50 points. I want to know the content of that rumor.��


    ��Deal.��The man in the beach pants gulped, ��The rumor is simple. It says that there is a representative among the yers who has be a vessel for masterlaiya. When the time is right, that existence that feeds on terror and is unable tomunicate will break free from the Cage of the stars and return to the human world, bringing destruction and disaster. This rumor is spreading rapidly among the gods. As for the source of the rumor... some say it��s Apollo. After all, there is a prophecy in his priesthood. Some say it came from Hermes, but others say that the god of sleep, Soponos, was the first to sense danger from his sleep. It feels like... Everyone is just guessing.��


    ��Did the rumors mention the agent��s name?��


    ��Not really,��the man in beach pants replied, ��However, we can��t rule out the possibility that someone might know about it. In short, that guy is in big trouble. Although the organizingmittee has a rule that the gods are not allowed to attack the agent unless they are in a dangerous situation, some people might not be able to resist taking the risk. After all, as long as we kill him, the Master of Laraya won��t be able to return to the human world. If it were me, if that guy were standing in front of me, I wouldn��t be able to resist taking the risk either.��


    ��Thank you for your information.��Zhang Heng keyed in his yer number and 70 points on his tablet. ��I��ll have to trouble you to rush both items.��


    ��No problem.��The old man was in a good mood after seeing therge sum of money in his ount. The regret of not being able to buy the old seal was long forgotten, ��You can pick it up after 6 pm tonight. You can also leave an address. I��ll send it over for you.��

 Chapter 1300 - Reminiscing

    <h4>Chapter 1300: Reminiscing</h4>


    Zhang Heng came out of the KTV and looked at the starfish in his hand.


    It wasn��t even 1 am yet, so he drove the polo to find a hotel as a temporary residence.


    The news he received from the beach pants Uncle Tonight was worth it. It wasn��t a good thing for Zhang Heng to know that his background had begun to spread among the gods, however, it was not too unexpected. Zhang Heng had already thought of this possibility when he was targeted by the mechanical god.


    In fact, the current situation was not the worst for him. After all, his name had not been mentioned in the rumors. In other words, most gods did not know where to start even if they wanted to kill him.


    However, there were exceptions to this. In addition to what Qin did not want to tell him about the phone God being kidnapped, and what rocky said before he died.., zhang Heng could already Guess Who the real mastermind behind the mechanical God��s attack on him was.


    He just didn��t expect Seth to target him as well. For the time being, he wasn��t sure whether Seth wanted to kill him purely for his own safety or whether he was nning to use this matter as a pretext.


    To be honest, Seth��s ability to stir up trouble had exceeded the expectations of many people, including Zhang Heng. After all, the name of the Egyptian pir God sounded great, but this wasn��t 2,000 years ago, in terms of divine power, Seth was not even considered a second-rate god. In addition, his style of doing things had always been very casual. Even though he would often leave a trail of chicken feathers wherever he went, his destructive power was not that great.


    Provoking the enmity between the new God and the old God and causing the rtionship between the two sides to deteriorate to such a degree in just a few weeks was not something that could be done by just one person.


    However, this was not Zhang Heng��s main focus. His priority was to find a way to deal with the Master of the city under the ice. Zhang Heng originally wanted to use the old seal as a breakthrough to find the creator of this small stone, he wanted to see if the other party had any ideas, but ording to the beach pants uncle, the person who made the old seal was most likely his parents.


    In that case, there was no need for Zhang Heng to ask. He believed that if the couple really had a way to solve his problem, they would have done it long ago.


    Zhang Heng knew that this path would not work, so he could only think of another way. After returning to his room, he first sent an email to Ding Si, asking about the status of the points purchase and whether he had found a prop that could cure fan Meinan, then, he opened the webpage and was about to log into the yers��forum when the phone beside his bed suddenly rang.


    Zhang Heng picked up the phone and heard the sound of breathinging from the other end.


    After about five seconds, the other party broke the silence first. It was a female voice with hints. ��Hello, Sir, do you need a massage service?��


    ��No, thank you,��Zhang Heng said before hanging up.


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    Normally, the woman wouldn��t say anything at a time like this because Zhang Heng had rejected her outright. It was obvious that she wasn��t a potential customer. However, this time, the woman on the other end of the line was different. She continued, ��Don��t be so quick to reject. Our massage is free, sir. It��s a rare opportunity. Since you won��t be able to sleep tonight, why don��t you give it a try? I Promise I��ll bring you a joy you��ve never enjoyed before.��


    After she finished herst sentence, there was still no reply from the other end of the phone.


    However, in less than half a second, the door in front of her was opened.


    Zhang Heng looked at Jiajia who was standing outside the door and frowned. ��How did you find this ce?��


    ��Don��t worry, I��m not some Stoica Stalker. It��s just that you happen to live in my territory,��Jiajia said with a smile. She put away the phone in her hand and changed into a new set of clothes, she was no longer wearing the cool suspenders in the KTV. The Cat Ears on her head had also been removed. Now, she was wearing a small jacket and Jean shorts. Together with her short hair, she looked very refreshing.


    ��Your territory?��


    ��Don��t tell me you think we only do business at the game point. People only go there at night. Moreover, the number of yers is limited after all. It��s not enough for US sisters to share. We have no choice but to encircle our own territory outside.��Jiajia paused at this point, ��Are you going to let me stand outside the door? The current anti-vice crackdown is so strict. If someone reports it, we��ll have to go to the police station to have tea.��


    Zhang Heng paused for a moment and eventually moved away.


    ��Thank you.��Jiajia walked into his room.


    ��Why are you looking for me?��Zhang Heng closed the door and asked.


    ��It��s because some people are too heartless. They gave you their phone number, but you haven��t contacted them for so long.��


    Jiajia��s eyes wandered around the room, but she didn��t sit on the two empty chairs. Instead, she sat on the bed.


    ��I don��t understand what you��re talking about,��Zhang Heng said calmly.


    ��There��s no use denying it. Even though your makeup skills are very good, the smell on your body can��t be hidden.��


    ��Smell?��Zhang Heng sniffed at his clothes.


    Jia Jiaughed out loud, ��It��s not that kind of smell anymore. It��s the smell of your soul. However,pared to thest time we met, your smell has changed quite a bit. This is also the reason why I wasn��t able to recognize you immediately at the game point. It seems like you��ve been through a lot recently.��


    Since Jiajia had already said that, Zhang Heng couldn��t deny it. He could only say, ��I��ve been busy with some very important things recently, so I can��t focus on... catching up on old times.��


    Miss Subus blinked. ��Why? Is it because I��m too clingy that you��re tired of me?��


    ��No, it��s not because of that.��Zhang Heng shook his head and walked to the window. He picked up the thermos on the table and prepared to pour Jiajia a ss of water. However, the next moment, he stopped in mid-air, then, his other hand reached for the knife at his waist.


    ��Uh, I want to tell you that our previous agreement is still valid... Even if you don��t use any forceful methods, you can still sleep with me,��Jiajia said as she looked at Zhang Heng��s knife-wielding hand.


    ��Are you still going to lie at this point?��Zhang Heng pressed the knife in his hand against Miss Subus��neck, showing no sign of showing mercy. ��How many people did you bring?��


    ��I didn��t bring anyone. In fact, I snuck out of the game. I��m not a fool. Even though we have a good rtionship, you��re my personal possession. I have no intention of sharing you with anyone.��Jiajia was a little nervous when she was suddenly stopped by the knife, however, her eyes were still wide open. There seemed to be no impurities in her brown pupils.

 Chapter 1301 - Self-incriminating Innocence

    <h4>Chapter 1301: Self-incriminating Innocence</h4>


    <h4><strong>Trantor: </strong>DaoistLUbAbJ </h4>


    Zhang Heng stared into Jiajia��s eyes for a while, but he didn��t see any signs of guilt.


    However, Zhang Heng didn��t let his guard down. He didn��t forget that this girl who looked like she wasn��t even 20 years old and still in her rebellious phase was probably more than 1,000 years old.


    Subi originated from Greek mythology and had been widely spread since the Middle Ages. There were traces of them in the Sumerian civilization as well. In order to ensure their attractiveness to men, no matter how old they were, they always looked young and beautiful.


    Furthermore, after such a long period of time, their lies had already reached an unknown level. If measured by the skills in the game, they were at least LVL 4, and they were specifically designed to deal with men, therefore, even with Zhang Heng��s observational skills, he could not tell whether the subus was lying or not.


    However, he could tell that the ck business car downstairs and the foreignersing out of it were all hostile.


    Zhang Heng said to Jia jia, ��I��ll give you two choices. Either you get killed by me right now, or youe downstairs with me and cooperate with me to prove your innocence.��


    ��Under these circumstances, as long as you��re Not a fool, you��ll choose the second option, right?��Miss Subus asked, ��But how do you want me to prove my innocence? Do you want me to search my body to see if I��m wearing any hiddenmunication equipment?��She didn��t seem to be resisting this kind of behavior, as she spoke, she spread her legs slightly apart.


    Zhang Heng ignored what she said. ording to the original n, he checked her body to confirm that other than a phone, there was indeed nomunication equipment. However, Zhang Heng wasn��t sure if the subus had any other special means ofmunication.


    He looked out the window and saw that three foreigners had already entered the hotel lobby. There was also one foreigner left in the car. So, he said to Jia Jia, who was lying on the bed, ��Get up.��


    This time, Miss Subus did not y any tricks. She stood up obediently from the bed and put on her jacket again. She tidied up her hair and asked curiously, ��Are you in some kind of trouble?��


    ��Why do you say that?��


    ��Have you forgotten? I went to your ce thest time I sent you the appraised prop. Instead of staying at home, you ran out to open a hotel. No matter how you look at it, there must be something wrong,��Jia Jia said. ��Are you worried that your enemies wille knocking on your door?��


    Zhang Heng didn��t answer her question. He only said, ��They should being up soon. Let��s go out first.��


    The two of them left the room and went to the corridor outside. Miss Subus nced at the elevator that was going up and turned to walk toward the safe passage. However, she did not expect to be stopped by Zhang Heng as soon as she took a step forward.


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    Then, Zhang Heng took out a wire and inserted it into the gap of the opposite door. In less than five seconds, he opened the door of the guest room opposite.


    Zhang Heng took a look and saw that the quilt and slippers were neatly arranged inside. It was obvious that no one was living there, so he dragged Jiajia in and closed the door.


    At this time, the elevator arrived at the same floor. Two foreigners came down from the elevator. They were not fast, and it took them quite a while to reach the elevator. They stopped in front of the room Zhang Heng had opened earlier.


    Through the peephole, Zhang Heng saw the two foreigners talking. One of them was holding a phone, and the other was carrying a briefcase. They looked like white-cor workers on a business trip, the man carrying the briefcase raised his head to look in the direction of the surveince camera. Then, his femalepanion nodded at him and made an OK gesture.


    Then, the male foreigner with the briefcase pulled open the briefcase and took out two pairs of gloves. He and hispanion carefully put them on.


    At that moment, Zhang Heng felt a gentle breeze beside his ear. The subus had unknowingly approached him. She leaned on his shoulder and asked in a voice that only the two of them could hear, ��What do they want? It��s the middle of the summer, why are they wearing gloves?��


    ��To avoid leaving fingerprints behind, they��re a bunch of ruthless people. It looks like they��re ready tomit murder.��Zhang Heng paused before turning to Jia Jia. ��It��s your turn.��


    ��What am I supposed to do?��


    ��Nothing. Just Act Like You��re going out. Since you said you don��t know them, they won��t make things difficult for you if you go out.��


    Jia Jia quickly figured out what Zhang Heng was up to. ��You want to see their first reaction when they see me to determine whether they��re my aplices or not?��


    Zhang Heng didn��t deny it.


    ��Heh, you��re really careful.��Miss Subus raised her eyebrows. ��Fine, then I��ll do as you say to prove my innocence.��


    After she said that, she opened the door and walked out.


    It had to be said that Miss Subus��acting skills were really outstanding. Before she left, she deliberately messed up her clothes and hair. Her face had a faint blush. One look and one could tell that she had just worked hard.


    The two foreigners were also startled when they heard the sound of the doorknob turning in the guest room behind them. They hurriedly turned around, but the following scene was not quite what Jiajia had imagined, the two didn��t let out a sigh of relief when they saw her. On the contrary, the male foreigner��s pupils constricted, and he reached his right hand into his briefcase again.


    Jiajia felt a sense of foreboding. When she recalled Zhang Heng��s earlier deduction, she didn��t expect the group to be so fierce that they wouldn��t even spare a passerby like her, at this moment, she couldn��t care less about hiding her strength anymore.


    As a subus, she wasn��t good at fighting, but as an ancient species that had existed for thousands of years, she wasn��tpletely helpless. Jiajia stared into the male foreigner��s eyes, her eyes glowed with a devilish red light.


    However, the male foreigner reacted quickly. He closed his eyes and passed the gun in his hand to his femalepanion. At the same time, he reached into his briefcase again. This time, he took out a pair of sunsses, he only opened his eyes again after putting on the sunsses.


    On the other side, the femalepanion had already raised the pistol in her hand and aimed at Jiajia��s temple. Looking at her aiming posture, it was obvious that she was not a newbie. She was actually more skilled than the male foreigner.


    Miss Subus was caught off guard by the two people��s actions. Her charm only worked on men and could not stop the female foreigner from pulling the trigger, moreover, even if she wanted to control the male foreigner to attack herpanion, she could not do so.


    Fortunately, at the critical moment, a knife flew out from the room behind her and hit the gun. The muzzle of the gun was slightly deflected, and the bullet grazed Jia Jia��s body and hit the wall.

 Chapter 1302 - Go Your Separate Ways

    <h4>Chapter 1302: Go Your Separate Ways</h4>


    When the two foreigners saw Zhang Heng rushing out from Jiajia��s back, their faces were filled with shock.


    They hesitated for a moment, then saw the male foreigner rush towards Zhang Heng. His fists were powerful, and it was obvious that he had been training all this time, and his fist technique was very efficient, with traces of military training, it was not a problem for him to deal with two or three ordinary people.


    Unfortunately, his opponent this time was Zhang Heng. The female foreigner was still aiming her gun at Jia Jia, but she did not expect herpanion to suddenly fall to the ground. This shocked her greatly.


    No one knew herpanion��s background better than her. Miles had served in the military for four years, and his results were excellent. After he retired, he went to the organization training very hard, and he spent most of his time in the gym, in the end, he was defeated in one move.


    To the female foreigner, this was simply unbelievable. However, she quickly thought of something. Her expression changed, and she decisively turned the gun toward Zhang Heng. However, before she could pull the trigger again.., the pistol disappeared from her hand.


    The female foreigner did not try to be brave. She had already realized that the difference inbat power between the two sides was too great. After losing her weapon, she did not want to chase after him. She immediately retreated, but Zhang Heng was clearly one step slower than her, after activating, his speed instantly surpassed hers.


    Zhang Heng used the butt of his gun to hit the back of the female foreigner��s head, stunning her. In less than two seconds, the male and female foreigners were already lying on the ground. Zhang Heng said to Miss Subus, who was still in a daze, ��Drag her into the room.��


    ��AH? Oh... Oh, OH.��Jiajia finally reacted.


    One for each of them, Zhang Heng dragged the two foreigners into the room. As an old monster who had lived for more than a thousand years, Miss Subus was not a fool. She was just having a hard time epting it, when she returned to the room, her emotions had also calmed down, but the expression on her face was still a little surprised.


    ��These people are here for me?��


    ��Yes.��Zhang Heng nodded. ��They killed you as soon as they saw you, and they obviously didn��t take me into consideration. This means that their target is you and not me. Have you made any enemies recently?��


    ��I��m just a subus. Who Can I make enemies with?��Jia Jia shrugged, ��Every customer of mine praises me endlessly. I��ve satisfied their deepest desires. After I��m done, they all want to give me 5-star reviews. Of course, their wives might not think so. I��ve heard that some people have lost interest in their wives after receiving my services, and they even divorced after a short while. But Can you me me? ��They��re the ones who have be too old to hold on to their husbands��hearts.��


    ��All mortals age. No one can remain beautiful forever. This is the meaning of marriage. It provides some kind of certainty in the fickle affairs of the world,��Zhang Heng said after a pause, ��These people are not here to catch an adulterer. They have received strict training and are likely toe from some organization. By the way, do you really have no impression of them at all?��


    ��For example?��


    Updates by vip novel.


    ��For example, when did you identally drain the boss of some organization?��


    ��In the past 200 years, I��ve rarely done something like this.��Miss Subus rolled her eyes. ��Unless they��re avenging their great-great-great-great-great-grandfather.��


    ��Up to you.��Zhang Heng picked up his travel bag again. ��I��m just giving you a reminder. This is your business, not mine. I suggest that from now on, we go our separate ways.��.


    ��Separate ways? But they still have their people down there.��Jiajia was startled.


    ��I know, but they��re here for you.��


    ��Don��t you have any gentlemanly manners at all? To think that we��re old acquaintances. I saw you make your move just now. With your skills, it shouldn��t be too difficult to take down the remaining two people.��


    ��It��s not difficult, but like I said, they might have some organization behind them. I��ve had enough trouble, and I don��t want to get into any more. As for gentlemanly manners, I��ve already saved you once, so there��s no need to thank me.��Zhang Heng picked up his bag again, ��You��re a subus that has lived for more than a thousand years. Even without me, dealing with two ordinary people shouldn��t be a problem, right?��


    ��It��s not polite to keep emphasizing ady��s age. I��m a Subus, not a warrior. When have you ever seen us fight in a fairy tale? All of our skill points are focused on seduction, and it only works on men. Didn��t you see that I couldn��t do anything other than stand there and get shot by that woman just now? Also,��Jia Jia hesitated for a moment, still, she continued, ��That man is no ordinary person. I don��t know if it��s a coincidence or if they��re really prepared. Did you see the sunsses on his face?��


    ��Is there anything wrong with those sunsses? I checked them just now. They��re just ordinary sunsses.��


    ��There��s nothing wrong with the sunsses. The problem is me.��Jiajia sighed. ��Subi need to look into the target��s eyes when they activate the seduction skill. Moreover, there can��t be any obstructions between them. This is a secret that very few people know.��


    ��He just used a pair of sunsses to break through your hidden seduction skill?��


    ��I��m worried that they came prepared.��A rare look of worry appeared on Jiajia��s face, ��How about this, I��ll pay you to be my bodyguard. As long as you help me get rid of them, I��ll pay you... HMM, 500 points.��


    ��Are all subi as rich as you?��Zhang Heng stopped in his tracks.


    ��Not all of them, but most of them aren��t.��


    ��Unfortunately, due to myck of points, these points aren��t of much use to me.��Zhang Heng continued to walk out the door, however, at that moment, his gaze swept across the two foreigners on the floor and paused.


    ��Huh? What��s wrong with them? Why are they sleeping so badly?��Jia Jia followed Zhang Heng��s gaze and saw the saliva dripping from their mouths. In such a short period of time, arge piece of carpet had already been soaked.


    ��I��ve seen this before.��


    Zhang Heng remembered the sales manager sitting next to him on the train home for winter break. He was also like this after he fell asleep. He reached out to push the female foreigner, looked into her eyes, and said to Jia jia, ��Bring a basin of water.��


    At that moment, Miss Subus was still hoping for Zhang Heng to protect her. She couldn��t wait for a certain someone to stay longer. Hearing that, she obediently went to the bathroom to fetch the water. Zhang Heng didn��t show any mercy and directly poured the basin of water on the female foreigner��s face, however, the female foreigner didn��t react at all.


    ��What��s the situation?��Jiajia also noticed the abnormality.


    ��It��s the effect of the B grade item [ dream of death ] ,��Zhang Heng said in a deep voice.

 Chapter 1303 - What Suggestions Do You Have

    <h4>Chapter 1303: What Suggestions Do You Have</h4>


    ��Death dream. I also heard about what happened at the auction. It was a prop of the god of sleep, Sophocles. Later, Loki��s agent cheated it out of the hands of the three major guilds, and then it fell into the hands of Seth. He seemed to have produced many replicas at one point, causing panic among the people.��


    As a subus that had lived for more than a thousand years, Jia Jia was notpletely useless in fights. At least she was well-informed, otherwise, the subi wouldn��t have gathered together to discuss whether or not they should withdraw from the beach pants��game point first.


    Zhang Heng didn��t say anything after hearing her words. He just lowered his head and thought about something.


    ��Did they offend someone?��Miss Subus asked. ��Otherwise, why would they be cursed by Hyperion?��


    ��I don��t think so,��Zhang Heng said, ��This is more like a safety for them, to ensure that when their operation fails and falls into the hands of others, they won��t be interrogated or exposed. It seems like this group of people really doesn��t want anyone to know about their background.��


    ��So Stubborn?��Miss Subus was startled. ��Don��t scare me. What kind of powerful person is targeting me? This doesn��t make sense. I��m just a small fry, and my existence won��t affect anyone. I...��


    As she said this, she seemed to have thought of something, and her voice stopped once more.


    This time, it was Zhang Heng��s turn to ask, ��What is it?��


    ��You��ve noticed the abnormal state of the game point, right? Recently, something... HMM, something bad has happened. You yers should have heard about it.��


    ��I heard that Thor killed a new god, and then a Valkyrie died at Copenhagen International Airport,��Zhang Heng said.


    ��This is the information that you yers can get. The real situation... is much more serious.��Jia Jia��s expression turned serious, ��These two gods are not the only ones who have died. This week, more than ten gods have been killed, and most of them are gods like me, who are not very strong and do notpete with the rest of the world. Among them, there are both new and Old Gods. This is why everyone is worried about their safety.��


    ��What about the organizingmittee? Didn��t they do anything?��


    ��The organizingmittee has been working, but most of their efforts have been focused on suppressing the situation and eliminating the effects. Just trying to avoid the ordinary society noticing the abnormalities has already caused them a lot of trouble. After all, many times, the situation at the scene is really hard to exin scientifically.��.


    ��Thor was actually quite good at that time. He just let a dark cloud cover a small neighborhood, and then he let the Lightning in the dark cloud strike randomly. The two ordinary organizingmittee members who died were also made to look like they died from an ident.��. ��However, what happened in Handan after that was even more exaggerated. More than a hundred people witnessed Helios driving his carriage in the sky. After that, the organizingmittee spent a lot of effort to make them think that they were hallucinating because of the heat stroke.��


    Updates by vip novel.


    Jiajia��s expression was very bad. ��But to be honest, until five minutes ago, I didn��t think that my luck would be so bad that I would be the next target.��


    ��Do you want my advice?��Zhang Heng asked.


    ��What do you suggest?��


    ��Throw away your phone.��


    ��My Phone?��Miss Subus was stunned, but she quickly thought of another name. ��Do you think the people who targeted me have something to do with the missing phone God?��


    ��Yes, if I��m not mistaken, they probably found this ce by locating your phone. This exins why they walked so slowly upstairs, because the location of the phone is not that urate. They know that you are in this building, and they are far away from your sisters. This is a great opportunity for them to make a move, but they can only approach you bit by bit. The reason they chose the room we were originally in was because that room was the only room nearby where there was lighting through the crack in the door.��


    Jia Jia was reminded of something and said, ��When we saw them, the woman was holding a phone in her hand,��Miss Subus said, she quickly took out her new apple from her pocket and threw it out the window.


    After that, she said worriedly, ��But those people already know we��re here.��


    ��It��s been a long time since anyone came up, so they should have already left. Otherwise, they wouldn��t have allowed their twopanions to be killed by the dream of death,��Zhang Heng said as he walked into the room opposite the door, he stood at the window and looked down. As expected, the ck business car that had been parked below had already left.


    ��I thought that they would try to save theirpanions. I didn��t expect them to treat their own people so coldly.��


    No one continued to deal with her. Not only was Miss Subus not happy, the worry on her face became even more serious. This was because this group of people was even more ferocious than she had imagined. Moreover, they were well-disciplined and would immediately retreat if they missed, they didn��t even care about herpanions. If she was targeted by this group of people, she would probably never be able to sleep peacefully again.


    Jiajia couldn��t care less about other things at this time. She gritted her teeth and said, ��You said that youck arge sum of points, so how much is arge sum? As long as you promise to protect my safety, I can think of a way to help you gather the points you want.��


    Zhang Heng shook his head. ��I said that the amount of points I want is toorge. I don��t think you and your sisters will be able toe up with it. Furthermore, I already have a way to solve it.��


    Just as Miss Subus was feeling disappointed, someone added, ��But I can agree to be your bodyguard. I just need to change the reward.��


    ��What kind of reward do you want?��


    ��I��ll decide where to go next. I need you to stay by my side and provide me with the information I need.��


    Zhang Heng changed his mind. Although he didn��t care about Miss Subus��s points, thetter��s other ability was exactly what he needed.


    ��You want me to provide you with information?��Jia Jia��s expression turned strange.


    A subus was indeed a weakling, especially when it came to dealing with people of the same sex. However, no matter what, she was still a supernatural creature, and she had lived for more than a thousand years, she definitely knew more about the gods than the yers. Furthermore, if they weren��t bragging before, they had their own sources of information, and they were very well-informed, at least, they knew more than an ordinary receptionist like the beach pants.


    More importantly, it was precisely because the subus was a noob that Zhang Heng dared to bring her around.


    ��That��s all you want?��Miss Subus didn��t seem to believe her ears.


    ��I don��t want much. Following me isn��t something to be worried about. Like I said, I��m in a lot of trouble too.��


    However,pared to the threat that was right in front of her, Miss Subus clearly did not take Zhang Heng��s warning to heart. She bit her finger and drew a lip-like pattern on her palm. Then, she reached out her hand, ��Deal. We��ll use the Subus��oath as evidence.��

 Chapter 1304 - Isis

    <h4>Chapter 1304: Isis</h4>


    After Zhang Heng and Miss Subus signed the oath, they first contacted the beach pants man at the game point and spent 20 points to ask him to help them deal with the aftermath.


    Although the man and woman hadn��t died yet, based on the instant death characteristic of the dream of death, they should have no chance of surviving. In fact, their time of death was even shorter than Zhang Heng had expected, the process from drooling to losing their breath took less than 20 minutes. This also confirmed Zhang Heng��s previous spection. In order to prevent their identities from being discovered, the group of foreigners,mitted suicide after failing the mission.


    By the time the beach pants uncle drove the refrigerated car to the hotel, the two foreigners had already be corpses.


    Zhang Heng used a rope to pull the corpses down from the stairs. After the man in the beach shorts was done, he waited for a while before going downstairs with Miss Subus to check out. After that, the two of them sat in Zhang Heng��s Polo.


    Miss Subus finally found an opportunity to ask seriously, ��You said you wanted me to provide you with information. What kind of information?��


    ��A friend of mine has a very rare disease. I want to know if there��s a god or a prop that can cure her,��Zhang Heng said. He didn��t immediately ask about the owner of the city under ice, instead, he decided to use fan Meinan��s matter to test his new friend��s abilities.


    ��You��re looking for someone to treat your illness?��Miss Subus asked, ��Oh, I remember now. Not long ago, you posted on the yers��forums, right? You also put up an astronomical reward for points, which caused many yers to pay attention to this kind of news. Unfortunately, your luck isn��t very good.��


    ��Why not?��


    ��Along with the development of human technology, the number of people who went to look for gods instead of going to hospitals after falling ill has decreased. As a result, the strength of the gods with divine titles has been weakening. Moreover, about three months ago, most of them disappeared.��


    ��Disappeared?��


    ��Yes. I heard that a big shot was injured in an ident. They were summoned to help with the treatment. In order to protect that big shot��s safety, the treatment location is kept secret. I��m sorry, even I can��t find out. However, as far as I know, some of them didn��t go.��


    ��Who?��


    ��Isis,��Miss Subus said softly.


    ��One of the nine pirs of Egypt, the eldest daughter of the God of Earth, Gab, and the goddess of the sky, nuote, the goddess of life, magic, marriage, and fertility, Isis?��Zhang Heng quickly found the corresponding information from the mythology books he had read.


    Updates by vip novel.


    ��That��s right, it��s her.��


    ��Do you know where she is?��


    ��It��s not easy to find her current residence, but who asked you to find me to be yourpanion? I happen to know the address of her new home,��Miss Subus said. ��But are you sure you want to beg her?��


    ��Why, is there a problem?��


    ��ISIS is not an easy target. Although many people call her a great mother and a loyal wife, her name originally meant the throne. This Woman��s desire for power and power is engraved in her bones. Besides the titles you mentioned above, she also has a title that is more intelligent than tens of thousands of gods.��


    ��Yes, I��ve heard of the story of her and the father of the gods, god Ra.��


    Isis was Seth��s sister. In the story rted to Seth, she was a pitiful goddess whose husband had been killed by Seth. She tried every means to collect her husband��s body and went through all kinds of hardships to resurrect her husband, after that, she painstakingly raised her son and avoided Seth��s pursuit. Finally, when her son Horus grew up, she sessfully took revenge on Seth and helped her son regain the throne.


    However, in another story, ISIS had always coveted the divine power of the father of the gods, Ra. Although RA had once helped to resurrect her husband, after Isis returned to the divine kingdom from the mortal world.., she immediately began to collect the saliva of Ra and mixed it with soil to create a poisonous snake. She ced it on the path that Ra had to pass on her daily patrol. Ra was attacked by the poisonous snake and was poisoned. She could only turn to ISIS for help.


    Isis used this to force Ra to reveal her real name. After absorbing Ra��s powerful divine power, she became the most powerful and important god in the Egyptian temple. At her peak, her temple spread throughout Egypt, the pharaohs all saw her as their mother. There was a view that the image of the Virgin Mary in the Bible was also influenced by ISIS.


    In general, Isis was a powerful, cunning, patient, loyal, and cold goddess.


    Whether she was loyal or cold depended on whether you were her friend or enemy.


    If possible, Zhang Heng did not want to provoke ISIS. Compared to ISIS, he actually preferred the Greek goddess of healing, IATHOR, or the archangel, Raphael, who was in charge of wisdom, courage, healing, and hope, these two people should be easier to deal with than ISIS.


    However, ording to Miss Subus, he did not have much of a choice at the moment because ISIS was the only one free. However, to be cautious, Zhang Heng asked, ��Where are the props?��


    ��You��ve been offering a bounty for so long, have you received any suitable props?��Miss Subus asked, ��I do know of one. No, two items might have the ability to do so. If you��re willing to wait a little longer, you might be able to receive them from the yers.��


    ��My friend might not be able to wait that long. I don��t want to drag this on any longer. Let��s go find ISIS.��


    Zhang Heng had already made his decision. After returning to China, he had contacted Fan Meinan. Thetter had changed her name and hospital after being found by beta. Her current condition was stable, however, the Doctor wasn��t sure how much time she had left. On the other hand, Zhang Heng didn��t know when his identity would bepletely exposed.


    By then, even if he found ISIS, it would be impossible for him to ask for her help.


    ��Do you know where she lives? Take Me to her,��Zhang Heng said.


    ��No problem. What a coincidence. One of her properties is around here. You can drive there,��Miss Subus said, ��I went there to visit her about a month ago. Although not many people know her name in thisnd, she��s doing quite well. She��s much better than us hard-working people. However, at most, I��ll just help you introduce her. I don��t have the face to ask her to help you. If you want to save your friend, you��ll have to think of a way yourself.��


    ..


    Three and a half hourster, Zhang Heng drove the car to a nearby mountain. There was arge area of forest there, and the air quality was very good. It was known as the natural oxygen bar, and it was one of the popr ces for citizens to visit during the weekend, zhang Heng drove along the newly built mountain road until he reached the mountainside. There was a small road to the left, and after another five minutes on the small road, he would reach his destination.

 Chapter 1306 - The Bronze Statue And The Mural

    <h4>Chapter 1306 The Bronze Statue And The Mural</h4>


    ��Isis, in her arms is her son Horus. ��Miss Subus took some blueberries and tomatoes from the bar counter and sat down on the Chivas sofa, ��This image is quite famous. It can be seen in many museums and ancient books.��


    Zhang Heng nodded and his gaze shifted to the wall behind the bronze statue.


    There was a mural, and the woman on it was probably Isis. However, she had changed her appearance here. She was half-kneeling on the ground with her arms wide open, and behind her were a pair of colorful feathered wings, behind her stood an owl, a vulture, and a bird that looked like a quail.


    Zhang Heng stared at the mural for a while, and he felt the Owl suddenly blink. However, when he looked over again, he saw that the owl had returned to its original posture, it was as if nothing had happened.


    Zhang Heng turned to look at Miss Subus and realized that she was busy dealing with the te of blueberries and small tomatoes. Obviously, she had not noticed what had just happened, so Zhang Heng did not ask her.


    The two of them waited in the lounge for about twenty minutes. The Egyptian woman who had brought them here earlier returned and said to miss subus on the sofa, ��Sir ISIS has finished bathing. Please go to her bedroom.��


    ��Sure.��The subus ced the remaining half of the te of tomatoes aside and pped her hands. She stood up from the sofa and walked out of the room.


    Zhang Heng followed behind her silently. However, the Egyptian woman reached out to stop him. ��Oh, I��m sorry. Sir ISIS only asked for Miss Trista toe over. Please wait here for a moment.��


    ��But I��m the one who really wants to see her,��Zhang Heng said.


    Although the Egyptian woman looked apologetic, she was quite insistent on this matter. She still did not retract her arm.


    ��It��s okay. This is a special time, after all. It��s understandable to be cautious. I��ll go see her first and introduce you to her. After that, I��ll let her discuss the details with you in detail,��the subus assured as she patted her chest.


    Woma


    Zhang Heng didn��t move after hearing that. The Egyptian woman seemed to heave a sigh of relief. She even bowed to Zhang Heng before leaving with the Subus. After that, the door closed in front of Zhang Heng.


    The moment the door closed, Zhang Heng heard an undetectable creak behind him. He turned around and looked around the room before finally stopping at the bronze statue.


    Updates by vip novel.


    A normal person might not be able to see anything, but with Zhang Heng��s observational skills, he realized that the neck of the statue was about three to four degrees away from the east, if he wasn��t mistaken, the squeak came from here.


    Zhang Heng walked up to the statue. Just as he was checking to see if there was any mechanism on the statue, the owl in the mural behind him blinked again.


    The woman in the middle of the mural started to move as well. One of her slender legs poked out from the mural and stepped on the Persian carpet, followed by her calves, abdomen, chest, arms, and wings.


    She walked out of the mural like that.


    No, that might not be urate, because there were still some things left on the mural. For example, the clothes on her body. She walked behind Zhang Heng quietly, like a Persian cat, Zhang Heng, who had his attention on the bronze statue, did not seem to notice what was happening behind him.


    However, just as the winged woman moved to get closer to Zhang Heng, a knife suddenly appeared in front of her throat.


    ��Moving forward is not a wise choice,��Zhang Heng said calmly.


    ��The number one yer really lives up to his reputation,��the winged woman said with interest rather than anger when someone pointed a knife at her throat.


    Zhang Heng turned around after she said that, but he immediately turned his head away after taking a nce at her.


    ��Don��t worry, my husband is not here. Of course, the Master of the underworld should stay in the underworld, ��the winged woman said.


    ��I��ve seen the story of you and your husband, and I thought you two had a good rtionship.��


    ��We do have a good rtionship. You should know that not all women are willing to spend effort to pick up their husband��s body piece by piece, let alone find a way to resurrect him. But the problem is that we��ve been together for too long. If you get married and stay with your partner for more than a thousand years, you will also feel tired,�� said the woman with wings, the wings on her back turned into a bathrobe that draped over her body.


    However, the bathrobe was too loose. Basically, as long as she made any movement, the scene inside could be seen clearly. However, since the other party did not care, Zhang Heng turned his gaze back. ��Isis?��


    ��Really, in the face of God, at least add a honorific or something. ��Isis pped her hands, and the owl in the painting turned to fly away. After a while, it flew back with a hairdryer in its mouth, itnded on Isis��shoulder.


    ��If you��re here, then who is the person trista is going to meet?��Zhang Heng asked.


    ��Not only am I the goddess of life, but I��m also the goddess of magic. Even though I��m not as strong as I used to be, I can still trick a little subus with an illusion.��


    Isis turned on the hairdryer and blew on her wet hair. ��I heard you say to my maid that you want my help?�� ��That��s right, I have a friend who has a rare����


    Zhang Heng was interrupted by Isis. ��I don��t care about your friend. Since you��re here to beg me for help, you should at least show some form of begging.��


    ��What form?��Zhang Heng raised an eyebrow.


    ��Then start by addressing me as Lord Isis.��Isis��s eyes darted around.


    Zhang Heng did not mind the small change in address. Hearing this, he followed the other party��s request respectfully, ��Lord Isis, I have a friend who has contracted a rare disease that can not be cured with modern technology. You are the goddess of life in Egyptian mythology, and you possess powerful magic. Not only did you cure the father of all gods, but you also brought your dismembered husband back from the dead. Therefore, I implore you to help my friend and save her from the threat of death.��


    Isis was nomittal. ��I do have the power to cure disease, but why should I help your friend?��

 Chapter 1307 - A Ball Of Fire

    <h4>Chapter 1307 A Ball Of Fire</h4>


    ��What can I do in exchange for your help?��Zhang Heng asked. ��Nothing you can do will help,��Isis said, ��Unfortunately, you don��t have what I need. ��I don��t know what that Little Subus told you. If it were in Egypt 2,000 years ago, helping you would have been a piece of cake for me. But now, I have to pay a lot for a treatment like this. In addition, it will affect my health club��s ie. Do you know how much my daily ie is now?��.


    ��If it��s money, I can help you make up for it,��Zhang Heng said.


    In any case, the financing for the health tea had already begun. Its nature was simr to the health club of Isis. However, under Han Lu��s control, the ability to attract money was something that even the health club of Isis could not catch up to. Compared to before.., it was nothing more than transferring a portion of the money used to exchange for points directly to ISIS.


    But ISIS shook his head, ��Money is indeed a good thing. In today��s society, no matter what you do, you can��t do without money. Otherwise, I wouldn��t have opened a health club. However, I��ve already said that this isn��t just a matter of money. Treating your friend will consume my divine power. You should have heard about the current situation. The rtionship between the new and Old Gods is unprecedentedly tense. War is on the verge of breaking out. At a time like this, everyone is thinking of ways to improve their own strength. Why would anyone be willing to allocate divine power to save an unrted mortal? Let alone me, if you look for other gods who have the ability to save your friend, they won��t help either. There��s an old saying in China: no matter how good money is, you still have to be alive to spend it, right?��


    ��Just tell me what you want from me. The price reduction is just a waste of our time.��Zhang Heng did not show any signs of panic or disappointment, ��If it��s really as you said, you won��t do anything to stop me, then you don��t have toe to see me, let alone have your maid send trista away.��


    ��Hasn��t anyone told you that people who are too smart will lose a lot of joy in life?��Isis said. She walked around Zhang Heng, and her fingers slid across his chest.


    ��TSK TSK, so you��re the white knight that was killed with this body? Even though your muscles are well-trained, it doesn��t feel as explosive as you think. Do you know what the other gods call you?�� ��What do they call you?��


    ��They call you the god yer. This is the highest evaluation a mortal can get. To Kill a God with a human body and to be one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, this is a miracle of the new era. In addition, there are rumors that Loki��s disappearance has something to do with you. You really are a restless man.��


    ��Loki��s disappearance has nothing to do with me, ��Zhang Heng denied without hesitation. He had been in enough trouble recently, so there was no reason for him to attract the attention of the Nordic gods.


    ��Rx, I��m not here to hold you ountable. I just�� want to see for myself if you��re the person I��m looking for. After all, even I would be troubled if I entrusted you to someone else, ��Isis said.


    ��Who do you want me to help you kill?������Zhang Heng frowned.


    ��You��re so smart, so you should have guessed his name already, right?����Isis retracted her hand and the joking look on her face.


    ��Seth?��Zhang Heng spat out a name. ��You want me to help you kill the God of Chaos, Seth?��


    ��I can��t help it. As a younger brother, I can��t help it. Back then, he killed my husband for the sake of the throne. He cut him into pieces and scattered them all over the ce. Then, he sent people to hunt us down. He wanted to get rid of us, but it really hurt my heart.��


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    ��But didn��t you help your son to kill him after that?��


    ��That��s the problem, ��ISIS said, ��Do you think I really like to hide in the mountains and open health clubs?��? ��I even have to be careful when recruiting believers. I��m afraid that my tracks will be exposed and that guy will find me. Besides, it��s just me. My son Horus, he took back the throne from Seth and became a mortal enemy of Seth. Based on my understanding of Seth, he would never give up the idea of revenge. So, every day he wandered outside, my son and I would be in danger for another day.��.


    ��Not to mention that he��s been very active recently. He��s also changed from his usual style of doing things as he pleases and has learned how to n and set up. He��s been behind the recent conflicts between the new gods and the Old Gods. He lit a huge fire, and now there��s only one question left �� where does he intend to burn this huge fire?��Isis said.


    ��I don��t want to wait passively for the answer to be announced. When the fire really reaches my son and me, it will be toote. Rather than sit here and wait for death, I might as well take the initiative to attack.�� ��You help me kill Seth and remove my greatest threat. Naturally, I will no longer be stingy with my divine power. I will help heal your friend. How about it? This is a fair deal, right?��


    Before Zhang Heng could answer, Isis added, ��Don��t worry, Seth is not as strong as he used to be. In terms of strength, he is at most a second-or third-rate fighter. He is nothingpared to the White Horse Knight that you killed. Since you can kill the White Horse Knight, you should be able to kill him as well. I will not let you go to your death. Otherwise, if your mission fails, the person behind you will also be exposed.��


    However, Zhang Heng did not agree immediately. Instead, he said, ��I heard that Seter has already surrendered to the organizingmittee. Since he is already under the control of the organizingmittee, why do you need to waste your time?��


    ��The information you received is outdated. About two hours ago, Thor rushed into the ce where Seter was imprisoned and rescued him.��


    ��Thor rescued Seth?��Zhang Heng was surprised as well. From what he remembered, the two didn��t seem to have any kind of rtionship.


    ��The organizingmittee couldn��t figure it out either, but ording to the surveince footage and the report from the two New Gods on duty that night, Thor did save Seth. This incident has thoroughly angered the new gods, and they��ve given the old gods an ultimatum. If the old gods are unable to hand over Thor and Seth within three days, then war will be waiting for both sides.��


    ��I��m just a mortal. If the New Gods can��t find Thor and Seth, what makes you think I can?��Zhang Heng asked.


    ��Because you have my help. Don��t forget that I��m Seth��s sister, and the goddess of magic in Egyptian mythology. ��ISIS smiled slyly.

 Chapter 1308 - The Magic Circle

    Chapter 1308: The Magic Circle


    ��Even if I managed to find Seth with your help, ording to the information you just provided, doesn��t Thor still have him?��Zhang Heng asked.


    ��That��s why I��m Looking for you,��Isis said. ��I believe that if it were you, you would be able to find a solution, right?��


    Zhang Heng didn��t answer immediately.


    ISIS blinked, ��I know what you��re thinking. Taking me down is easier than dealing with Seth and Thor at the same time, right? Unfortunately, I asked my maid to send that little subus away, not because I didn��t want her to hear our conversation.��


    ��I��m not that close to her,��Zhang Heng said lightly.


    ��HMM, then are you familiar with Liye��s Master?��Isis said as she ced the hair dryer in her hand on the bar counter and picked up a bunch of grapes.


    As she said this, the meeting room fell into a strange silence.


    A momentter, Zhang Heng looked at Isis��dark blue eyes that were as deep as the ocean and asked in a deep voice, ��What do you know?��


    ��I only know... What I should know,��Isis said, ��You��ve read my stories, so you must have heard what the world said about me. In some of the stories, they described me as a greedy woman who would do anything to obtain power. But you must know that before that, my husband was killed by my brother. I took my son to escape into the wilderness and almost lost my life. It was at that time that I realized the importance of power.��


    ��What do you want to say?��


    ��I want to say...��Isis used two fingers to pinch the grape and put it into her mouth, ��I��m not as greedy as you think. I��m no different from other women. All I want is a sense of security. You helped me kill Seth, so I don��t care what you do. In return, I��ll cure your friend. When this is over, I��ll forget everything that has to do with you. You Don��t have to worry about me asking you for anything else.��


    ��It sounds like you didn��t leave me much of a choice,��Zhang Heng said.


    ��I��m not threatening you. Whether it��s the little subus or your background, it��s just a way for me to protect myself. No matter how glorious my past is, I��m only the boss of a health club with very little godly power left. If you don��t agree with my suggestion, you can just leave this ce. I��ll release Trista, and I��ll keep your secret as well. After all, I��m looking for someone to help me remove the threat, not to create another enemy.��ISIS shrugged.


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    Zhang Heng thought about it for about half a minute before saying, ��Heal my friend first, and then I��ll help you kill Seth.��


    Upon hearing that, a troubled look appeared on Isis��face, ��It��s not that I don��t think you can do it, but the situation on my side is obviously more urgent. Right now, both the old and New Gods are looking for Seth and Thor. I do have a way to locate Seth, but I��m worried that if I��m toote, he��ll fall into the hands of others.��


    ��That��s what I need to consider,��Zhang Heng said. ��As long as you cure my friend, no matter where Seth is, I��ll help you solve this problem.��


    This time, it was Isis��turn to think. Her fingers tapped on the table of the bar, and after a moment, shepromised, ��I need to make a contract with you first to ensure that you canplete my request after Iplete yours. Also, where is your friend now?��


    ��She��s not in this city, but a round trip by ne will take four to five hours,��Zhang Heng said.


    ��The ne is too slow. Use My Magic teleportation circle,��Isis said.


    ..


    Twenty minutester, ISIS changed into her usual clothes and carried a small suitcase to the first floor of the health club. Zhang Heng had already been brought here by ISIS��s Egyptian maid. Other than that, there was also Miss Subus.


    Thetter didn��t seem very satisfied with Zhang Heng��s decision to temporarily ce her in the health club, ��Since you and Isis have left, what��s the point of me staying here alone? Don��t forget that you have the subus oath on you. If I Die, you won��t be happy either.��


    Isis smiled when she heard that, ��Don��t worry, My Health Club has a magic array set up. If enemiese, it will activate automatically. In addition, I��ve also dug a secret passage. If it really doesn��t work, my maid will take you out through the secret passage.��


    Hearing this, Miss Subus reluctantly agreed to Zhang Heng��s arrangement. However, before Isis left, she warned her, ��You��re my honored guest here. In principle, other than a few rooms that I��ve locked with magic, you can go anywhere you want. No one will stop you from doing whatever you want. But let me be clear. I still need to use the image of a master that I��ve worked so hard to create to make money, so it��s best if you don��t make a move on the customers here.��


    The subus looked innocent. ��I won��t try to seduce those Golden Roosters of yours on purpose, but if they beg me to suck them up, I can��t help it.��


    ��Perhaps I should turn you into a frog before I leave,��Isis said lightly.


    ��Fine, I��ll stay in your bedroom, watch TV, and eat some snacks,��the subus said obediently. Then she turned to Zhang Heng, ��You bettere back soon, or else I��ll be the one being punished by the oath. What the hell? Why did I swear to stay by your side?��


    ��Don��t worry, I��ll be back soon. There��s something else I need to ask you.��


    After Zhang Heng finished speaking, Isis pushed open the stone door in front of them and led Zhang Heng inside.


    Underground, aplicated-looking magic circle was drawn with blood-colored paint. ISIS��maid stood beside the Magic Circle, she had already prepared the materials needed to activate the Magic Circle ording to Isis��arrangements.


    ISIS gestured for Zhang Heng to stand with her at the center of the Magic Circle, where the Stargate was carved.


    After the two of them stood still, she nodded at her maid. ��Let��s begin.��


    Thetter poured down the grease in her hand. When the grease fell to the ground, a miraculous scene appeared. It immediately mixed with the blood-like paint and slowly flowed along the marks on the ground, it was as if there was some kind of power pulling them.


    ISIS took off the Anka on her neck and stuck it at her feet. At the same time, she quickly chanted a series of spells. The spell was very long, and ISIS chanted it for almost five minutes, after she finished chanting the fuel and grease, they all burned up and turned into a raging fire in an extremely short time, swallowing the two people in the Magic Circle without hesitation.

 Chapter 1309 - The Healing Ritual

    Chapter 1309: The Healing Ritual


    Zhang Heng instinctively jumped out of the magic circle the moment he was burned by the me. However, at the same time, Isis��voice sounded in his ears. ��Don��t!��


    After a pause, ISIS added, ��This is a magic me. It Won��t harm our bodies. As long as we rx, the teleportation circle will naturally lead us to our destination.��


    Zhang Heng reached out to touch the me in front of him. Sure enough, there were no signs of burns on his skin. In fact, his palm went straight through the me, therefore, Zhang Heng followed Isis��instructions and rxed his mind.


    The next moment, a familiar feeling of dizziness rushed into his head, and Zhang Heng closed his eyes.


    When he opened his eyes again, he found himself standing in a parking lot with ISIS. Isis looked at the hospital building on the left and shook her head. ��It��s been a long time since Ist used it. I Can��t believe I missed it by more than 500 meters.��


    On the other side, Zhang Heng said, ��You designed the teleportation before the game started?��


    ��You discovered it?��? ��That��s right. I was also involved in the development of your game. Not just me, almost all the gods were involved in the development and were responsible for a certain part of it. This is also the reason why this game is so fascinating and incredible. The part about time is the responsibility of Chronos behind you...��Isis seemed to have thought of something, however, he suddenly shut his mouth.


    However, he was already a step toote. Zhang Heng raised his eyebrows and asked, ��You... Know Chronos?��


    ��The famous god of time, the highest god worshipped by the Orpheus Cult, Chronos. Although we are not from the same god system, of course, I have heard of his name. Furthermore, we met once about 600 years ago, but I am not that familiar with him.��


    Zhang Heng did not ask any further questions. He took the suitcase from ISIS and the two of them walked toward the hospital building.


    Fan Meinan had a rare disease that few people in the world had, so there were not many doctors who had the ability to help her control the progression of her disease. In addition, she also needed the appropriate treatment equipment, so her choices were limited, after leaving the previous hospital, she transferred here and changed her name and identity.


    Fan Meinan knew that if someone really knew about her condition, it would be normal for them toe looking for her. But thankfully, Loki had already been killed by Zhang Heng, and technically, she wasn��t a yer. She was just an unregistered resident, loki had thought of a way to bring her into the game, so the yer information that had been leaked this time didn��t include her.


    In fact, after the incident with Jermaine Gad, she felt like she had been forgotten by the world. No one had any designs on her, and other than Zhang Heng, no one else had contacted her, fan Meinan��s main concern was to wait for death every day.


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    Even though it had only been a month since theyst met, her body had be even thinner. She was practically skin and bones. When Zhang Heng saw her, she was sleeping on the bed, her body curled up into a ball, like a stray dog on the roadside, the back of her hand was covered with needle marks. Beside her pillow was a copy of Mickey Albom��s ��Tuesdays��, this book was the author��s recollection of his teacher��sst philosophy lesson every Tuesday for the fourteen weeks before his death.


    ��Is she the friend you wanted me to help you save?��ISIS asked. She and Zhang Heng were standing outside Fan Meinan��s ward, looking through the ss at Fan Meinan.


    ��Yes,��Zhang Heng said.


    ��Do you want to go in and say hello to her first?��


    ��No need. You can just cure her yourself.��


    ��Why? If she knew that you were willing to take the risk to kill Seth to save her, she would be very grateful to you. What is your rtionship, a lover?��Isis asked curiously.


    ��No, like I said, it��s just a normal friend,��Zhang Heng said calmly.


    ��You��re willing to go this far just to be friends? Then I want to know if you still need friends.��Isis seemed to be trying to read Zhang Heng��s eyes, but in the end, she had no choice but to give up.


    ��Aren��t you in a hurry? Why haven��t you done anything yet? The sooner you��re done, the sooner I can help you kill Seth.��


    ��Yes, I can treat her illness. Although it will take some time, I need to prepare for the healing ceremony first. It will take about twenty minutes. Since you don��t intend to go in, you can just stand guard outside the door. Don��t worry, I Won��t wake her up. I should be able to finish the ceremony before dawn. She doesn��t even know what happened, but her body is very weak now. Even if I cure her illness, she still needs to do her own rehabilitation training if she wants to return to a normal person��s physical fitness. I��m not sure how long it will take. I��ve said everything I need to say. If there are no problems, let��s make a contract.��


    After saying that, ISIS opened her suitcase and took out a piece of Kraft paper and a quill. She used the tip of the quill to pierce her skin and suck out some blood. Then, she wrote a few lines on the paper, then, she passed the paper and Quill to Zhang Heng.


    ��After you see that there are no problems, you just need to sign your name on the bottom right corner. By the way, this contract of mine is more effective than the thing that little subus signed with you. If I save your friend, but you fail to kill Seth as promised, your body will rapidly age and die within a month.��


    Zhang Heng didn��t say anything. He took the contract and took a look at it. He imitated ISIS and used a quill pen to absorb some of his blood. After signing the contract, he handed the leather paper and quill pen back to ISIS.


    ��Very good,��Isis said with satisfaction after putting away the paper and pen, ��It seems that we have reached an agreement. I��ll help you save the patient now. Remember, you must guard the door for me during the ceremony. Even the nurses on duty are not allowed in.��


    ��No problem.��


    After receiving the answer, Isis cast a sleeping spell on Fan Meinan to ensure that he wouldn��t wake up. Then, she walked in with her luggage. Through the ss window, Zhang Heng saw Isis Open the luggage, from inside, she took out a lotus scepter and her ankh. She ced the ankh ne around Fan Meinan��s neck, and then she took out an unknown creature��s heart, it was about twice the size of a human heart.


    Isis ced the heart under Fan Meinan��s bed. There was also a bag of grain and a tree branch under the bed... Zhang Heng did not continue reading. He found a chair and sat down, isis spent two hours inside. During that time, there was a strange green light that attracted the nurse behind the desk.


    Zhang Heng had no choice but to let the nurse, who had been on duty for half the night, go to sleep to rx. Two hourster, the door to the ward opened again, and the tired ISIS walked out.


    ��The process is a little moreplicated than I expected, but her body is fine now.��

 Chapter 1310 - Compass And Syringe

    Chapter 1310: Compass And Syringe


    ��You can go in now and give her a full body check to see if all the indicators have returned to normal. In addition, I also cured her rhinitis that she had since she was young. You can treat it as aplimentary service,��Isis said as he threw the heart used for the ritual into the trash bin next to him, the heart was no longer as full as it used to be. It was now shriveled and rotten, as if it had lost all life.


    Zhang Heng thanked her and entered the ward. He came to Fan Meinan��s bedside. Thetter was still in a deep sleep, but her breathing had be much more stable. Her pale face had regained some of its color, a few strands of hair fell from her forehead and stuck to the bridge of her small nose. They rose and fell with every breath she took.


    Zhang Heng took out a stethoscope and listened to her heartbeat. He also took her blood pressure. Finally, he used the syringe from the nurses��station to draw a small tube of blood from fan Meinan��s arm, he nned to find a professional organization to do the test after separating from ISIS.


    After doing all this, he stood up from the bed. After a moment of hesitation, he reached out to help fan meinan tidy up the strands of hair on her forehead. However, in the end, he pulled his hand back.


    The next moment, a voice came from behind him.


    ��Someone said that you��ve lost all your feelings,��the goddess of life and magic said leisurely as she leaned against the door.


    Zhang Heng was nomittal. ��This is a good thing for you. My chances of killing Seth have increased again.��


    ��But I don��t think so.��ISIS pointed at Fan Meinan on the bed, ��You keep saying that she��s just a friend of yours, and it��s rare to see her, but you��re not even willing to touch her. Anyone would think that your heart is a little too cold, but...��


    ISIS paused. ��I know you��re acting so cold because you don��t want to implicate her. You know what��s waiting for you in the future.��


    ��You��re thinking too much.��Zhang Heng remained unmoved and changed the topic, ��You��ve fulfilled the part of the oath that belongs to you. Now, it��s my turn to fulfill this part of mine. The sooner Seth dies, the sooner you can rest in peace.��


    ��That��s right, especially considering how much divine power I��ve just consumed.��Speaking of serious matters, ISIS��s expression turned serious again. She took out apass from her suitcase and handed it to Zhang Heng.


    ��This is the magicpass I created. The core is the magic array at the bottom and a drop of my brother��s blood in the center of the Sapphire. After activating the magic array, this drop of blood will lead you to him. The direction the needle points to is his current hiding ce. When the needle vibrates violently, you have to be extra careful because this means that you��re already within a kilometer of him.��


    After saying that, ISIS showed Zhang Heng how to use thepass, ��By turning the bottom of thepass, the Magic Circle can be activated or closed. Each activation canst for an hour. You can activate the Magic Circle seven times in total. Also, you must remember that when you are within a kilometer of Seth, when you activate the Magic Circle, Seth will also sense your presence.��


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    ��What do you mean?��Zhang Heng frowned.


    ��After all, this is his blood. I can��tpletely block out the connection between him and Seth, and it��s precisely because of this connection that thepass works.��


    ��So when I find Seth, he will also find me?��


    ��That��s right.��


    ��And Thor will also know that I��m nearby?��


    ��That can��t be ruled out.��ISIS blinked, ��We still don��t know what the rtionship between Thor and Seth is, but ording to the surveince footage, even if they hook up now, they won��t suddenly be close friends. Thor seems to be using Seth to do something for him. Unfortunately, a poisonous snake is always a poisonous snake. You should never expect it to be of any help.��


    Zhang Heng took thepass. ��What else do you know that I don��t? Tell me.��


    ��Both the old and New Gods are currently searching for Thor and Seth. The New God is led by the god of Science, Seth. His position in the new God Camp is simr to Odin in Norse mythology or the god of Ra in Egyptian mythology. Strictly speaking, be it the god of the Inte, the god of machinery, the god of mobile phones, or even the god of games, they are all just the children of Seth. He is also the oldest existence among the new gods. My advice to you is to avoid him as much as possible. I know you killed the White Knight, but if you face Seth head-on, you have no chance of winning.


    ��As for the Old Gods, Odin is temporarily the leader. However, whether in the past or the present, his power can not bepared to Thor��s. Therefore, he has sought the help of Zeus, the king of the gods. However, you don��t have to worry too much. Regardless of whether it is Odin or Zeus, their identities are still there. They will not participate in the initial search. Only after the location of Seth and Thor is confirmed will the new gods and the old gods��camp contact them. As long as you move fast enough, you will not meet them. and the Magic Compass I gave you is your advantage.��


    Zhang Heng asked, ��What about the organizingmittee?��


    ��The organizingmittee is controlled by the god of gaming, Gaime. He is also the most powerful god in the world. Even though the god of science, synes, is more powerful than the god of science, there is a natural conflict between science and worship. His absorption and conversion of faith can not bepared to the god of gaming. After all, the number of people who are addicted to science is far less than the number of people who are addicted to gaming. The organizingmittee is a very special organization. The new God and the old God are among them. They operate ording to the rules set by Gaime and everyone else. They are the foundation of the current order in the God realm. If Gaime gives the order, both the new God and the old God will give him face.


    ��But the strange thing is, even though the organizingmittee has been working hard to solve the problem ording to the rules since the incident, Gaime has remained silent. He has not made a sound, nor has he stepped forward to mediate the conflict between the new God and the old God. This is also one of the important reasons why the situation has developed to this point. I don��t know if the organizingmittee will send people or who they will send,��Isis said, spreading his hands.


    ��Actually, quite a few of the old and new gods are hoping that Gaime will intervene. After all, not everyone likes war. However, if war really does break out, I��m afraid that no one will be able to stay out of it. After all, apart from lunatics like Seth, almost everyone has friends and family. Things like hatred will only grow deeper and deeper.��


    ISIS sighed. ��That��s all I know. If there��s any new news in the future, I��ll inform you immediately. By the way, are you really not going to say goodbye to your ordinary friend?��


    ��There��s no need for that. I��ll help you get rid of Seth.��Zhang Heng walked out of the room without looking at Fan Meinan.

 Chapter 1311 - Farewell

    Chapter 1311: Farewell


    When Zhang Heng left the hospital, it was six in the morning. The Sun had just risen.


    After some thought, he found a public phone and called Han Lu. Thetter had already woken up. It was the expansion period of the health tea, and Han Lu was like a machine when she entered her working state, the day was divided into different time periods, and each time period was fully arranged.


    She only needed four hours of sleep to regain her energy, and the time she had saved could be used to do many things. When Zhang Heng called, Han Lu was exercising.


    After receiving the call, she continued to do yoga as she said, ��That��s perfect. I also want to talk to you about thepany��s development, but I can��t get through to your phone. Our brand name is officially called Green Tea. Our main store is in Taigu Li, and we have already opened 20 branches. They��re in Shanghai, and we��re in the process of building a store in Guangzhou. We don��t have to worry about the capital anymore. Everyone is optimistic about this project. The main constraint to the expansion is the staff reserve. Although we��re doing training, it takes a lot of time to train a new person, especially the store manager. So, I��ve decided to directly poach people from happy tea and pleasant tea. We��ll charge them 30% more than the market price. After all, we have plenty of money to burn.��


    Han Lu paused for a moment, but there was no reply, ��... forget it, you don��t care about such things. I��m helping you buy the points. It��s almost 40,000, and the price is lower than we expected. In another three months, no, two months, I��ll be able to help you get the amount you want. In fact, if you��re not in a hurry, with these 200,000 points in hand, we can even try to manipte the market and raise the exchange rate.��


    ��Thank you, Sister Han,��Zhang Heng said. ��But there��s a new change in my situation. The previous problem has been solved, so I don��t need the 200,000 points anymore.��


    On the other end of the line, Han Lu was stunned. ��Solved? So fast. Didn��t you spend any money?��


    ��Yes.��


    ��Then what about Qing cha...��Han Lu hesitated for a moment before asking, ��What are your ns?��


    ��Sister Han, if you and the other investors want to continue, you can continue. But from now on, I have nothing to do with Qing Cha. You Don��t have to buy points through Fu Lou Anymore,��Zhang Heng said, ��Just give me all the points you��ve earned so far. Don��t contact me again in the future.��


    ��So this choice is some kind of test?��Han Lu asked. ��If I choose Qing Cha, Will I Lose You?��


    ��No, my current situation is a littleplicated. This method is the best choice for both of us,��Zhang Heng said, ��If anyone asks about you in the future, just say that the points are the cost of buying the leaf used to make tea from me.��


    Although Han Lu was not a yer, she was, after all, a top investor who had seen all kinds of ups and downs in the business world. From Zhang Heng��sst sentence, she could hear a lot of things, ��Have you been in some kind of trouble recently? Are you worried that you��ll implicate me? But who knows about our rtionship? Could it be that you��re worried about the so-called Fn organization?��


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    .


    Zhang Heng��s silence was equivalent to indirectly admitting Han Lu��s guess.


    ��You told me before that you��ve dealt with them a few times and found that their credit is very good.��


    ��That��s right, their reputation is indeed very good, especially when ites to protecting their customers��privacy. As far as I know, there��s nothing better than them,��Zhang Heng said, ��But no matter who it is, no matter what organization, there��s a limit to how much pressure they can withstand. If the pressure from the outside world exceeds their limits, they won��t have any other choice but to hand over my information. However, I��m not worried about Fu Lou the most,��Zhang Heng said, ��In this world... There are other existences that can not be evaluated throughmon sense. To be honest, I��m no exception to whatever they do.��


    ��And your opponent this time is them?��Han Lu pressed.


    In the past, Zhang Heng had always given her the feeling that he was calm and reliable. Even when he faced so many terrifying monsters on that country indst time, his performance was as calm as ever, however, this time, Han Lu could clearly sense that Zhang Heng did not seem to be confident about what would happen in the future, so she asked, ��At least let me do something for you. can closing Qingcha��s store reduce the pressure on you?��


    ��No, don��t do that. This will instead make people think that we have a rtionship and cause unnecessary trouble,��Zhang Heng said. ��Just follow your n and open Qingcha as usual.��


    Han Lu didn��t insist. She wasn��t one of those female leads in romance dramas who insisted on staying behind to die with the male lead even though she could escape. In the end, perhaps the male lead didn��t have to die.., he died to take care of her. Moreover, Han Lu knew that even if this was a drama, she wasn��t the female lead in it.


    So in the end, she only said softly to the phone, ��Then you take care of yourself. I will keep your shares in Qingcha for you. If you don��t contact me again, I will transfer the shares to your parents three yearster.��


    ��Thank you.��Zhang Heng did not decline. ��That��s all for now. I have other things to do. Goodbye.��


    ��Goodbye.��After Han Lu said that, she heard a beep from the other end of the phone. After a short silence, the soft music from the yoga recital started ying again.


    Han Lu stood rooted to the ground for about a minute. Just as the cleaningdy was worried about her, Han Lu stretched out her hands and closed her legs. Then, she leaned forward, she continued the yoga that she had not finished before.


    It was as if nothing had happened.


    When she looked up again, she was back to her usual strong-willed self, ��Aunt Zheng, breakfast is in ten minutes. After that, I��ll take a shower and ask the driver toe in half an hour. And my assistant, ask her toe with me. Bring the location proposal for the new shop. I want to see it on the way.��


    ��Okay, Miss Han.��Auntie Zheng sighed in relief.


    On the other side, Zhang Heng hung up the phone and left the phone booth. He went to the car rentalpany to rent an AMGA45. He didn��t leave immediately. Instead, he spent 15 minutes making a list of things that he might needter, then, he went to buy the items on it, put them in the trunk, and went to the nearby gas station to fill up the gas tank. After doing all this, he took out thepass that ISIS had given him, he activated the Magic Circle at the bottom.


    The needle first rotated two times counterclockwise before stopping in the southwest direction. Zhang Heng gripped the steering wheel and stepped on the elerator.

 Chapter 1312 - Plan

    Chapter 1312: n


    AMGA45 was speeding down the highway.


    The Magic Compass��s one-hour effective time had long passed, but Zhang Heng didn��t activate it for the second time immediately. Instead, he continued to drive in the direction the needle had pointed at. At the same time, he made a mark on the map, he recorded the position where he was when the first effective time of thepass ended.


    There was nothing he could do. Thepass could only be used seven times in total. If he still couldn��t locate the location of Seth after the seventh time, then the chances ofpleting the mission would be slim, even if it wasn��t zero. Therefore, Zhang Heng decided to continue driving for another four hours before making the second attempt.


    During this time, he hadn��t been idle either. He had been perfecting his n to kill Seth in his mind.


    If Seth had already separated from Thor, and the other new and Old Gods had not found his whereabouts, then that would be the best case scenario for Zhang Heng. A direct confrontation might be enough toplete ISIS��mission, however, if Thor was still with Seth, then a strong attack would be unwise.


    Thor had always been the strongest warrior in the Nordic system. How Strong was he? In Nordic mythology, the Asgardian gods didn��t feel safe at all because Thor had gone to the east alone to deal with the trolls. They were worried that they would be wiped out, so they suggested building a wall to protect themselves, this was also the origin of the famous city-building story.


    From this story alone, even if all the Asgardian gods were added together, they wouldn��t be a match for Thor alone. Of course, Zhang Heng had read so many myths, he knew that there were many illogical and contradictory parts to the story, and it was normal for different stories to have a roller coaster ofbat power.


    But no matter what story the Norse gods told, Thor��sbat power in Asgardian gods was unquestionable. Furthermore, he was now the most famous of the Norse gods, this was also the reason why Odin had asked Zeus to help hold the line for the Old Gods.


    If possible, Zhang Heng didn��t want to face Thor head-on, so the safest way to take out Seth was to attack from afar. However, there was a problem.


    Zhang Heng looked at the items in his hands. [ bone bow of pestilence ] and [ Arrow of Paris ] were officially rmendedbinations. [ arrow of Paris ] could automatically find its weakness after leaving the bow, the existence of [ bone bow of pestilence ] could make up for theck of damage from [ arrow of Paris ] .


    However, [ arrow of Paris ] was only a D-grade item after all. Even with the powerful pestilence effect of [ bone bow of pestilence ] .., the condition for this effect to be effective was that [ arrow of Paris ] could hit the target. With the flying speed of [ arrow of Paris ] , it might be enough to deal with ordinary people, however, against supernatural creatures, especially a powerful god like Thor, this might be a fatal weakness that could not be ignored.


    Another point was that although bows and arrows were long-range weapons, the effective range was also limited. There was no need to consider the projectile, because the characteristics of [ Paris Arrow ] made it difficult toplete the projectile, furthermore, the projectile was easy to dodge, and the best range for the [ bone gue bow ] was only 60 to 70 meters.


    At this distance, Thor��s hammer could only fly over in an instant.


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    Using modern firearms would undoubtedly increase the safe distance, and it would also make it harder to be discovered. However, modern firearms also had the disadvantages of modern firearms, to be honest, Zhang Heng did not know how much damage the bullets could do to the mythical creature. He only used the bullets to shoot at Ny totip. He used a powerful anti-material weapon, and the muzzle diameter of the gun reached an astonishing 25mm, the bullets were also modified from the helicopter��s high explosive dual-purpose ammunition.


    The scene looked good. Ny TOTIP was beaten into a sorry state. However, thetter quickly recovered his body and even had the time to waste on him. As for Seth.., zhang Heng wasn��t sure if he would be able to withstand a headshot from an anti-material weapon.


    It wasn��t like Zhang Heng hadn��t considered using more powerful weapons. For example, mortars and even missiles. However, he still didn��t know where Seth was. If he was in a crowded city, these weapons of mass destruction wouldn��t be able to be used.


    However, Zhang Heng quickly thought of the two foreigners who hade to the hotel to kill the subus. It was obvious that they hadn��te up with this n on the spur of the moment. They were part of a mysterious organization, and they were quite skilled, furthermore, they seemed to have the support of the phone God. If it wasn��t for Zhang Heng, the Subus would probably have died in their hands.


    The weapon they used happened to be a pistol. Thinking of this, Zhang Heng drove the car to a corner near the service area. He opened the trunk, and the gun was put into his luggage, it was an M1911 that was verymon abroad. Zhang Heng had no idea how the gang had brought the gun into China. The muzzle of the gun was equipped with a silencer. It was obvious that they did not want to attract the attention of others.


    In fact, Zhang Heng had roughly examined the gun before, but he could not find anything special from its appearance. However, when he opened the magazine this time, he immediately noticed something different.


    Zhang Heng took out a bullet from the magazine and started to examine it carefully.


    This bullet waspletely different from ordinary bullets. It seemed to be made of pure silver. The bullet��s head was smeared with some unknown liquid, and the bottom of the shell was engraved with Hebrew �� all things must die, zhang Heng then used [ hidden sheath ] to pry open another bullet. He saw theplicated divine patterns engraved on the inside, as well as a drop of dark red liquid simr to blood.


    Zhang Heng had never seen such a bullet before. No, he hadn��t even seen anything that looked like it before. Without a doubt, this was a bullet that had been specially created to deal with supernatural creatures, zhang Heng didn��t know who had designed this bullet, nor did he know if it was purely used to deal with the subus race, or if it could work on all mythological creatures?


    Zhang Heng was more inclined to thetter possibility. The subi were weak in their own right, and they only had one charm skill, and it was only effective against members of the opposite sex, there was no need for them to go through the trouble of inventing a bullet to deal with them. Furthermore, ording to Miss Subi, some of the gods had already been killed before her, if everything went ording to n, they should have been killed by this bullet.


    In addition to theplicated divine patterns engraved on the bullet, it was certain that this bullet had a certain degree of versatility, zhang Heng realized that he might be able to use this bullet to deal with Seth.

 Chapter 1313 - Truck Driver

    Chapter 1313: Truck Driver


    (I��m sorry, the previous chapter was written in a hurry, but I found a bug in it. I��m not satisfied, so I rewrote it. The main point is the previous part. Just Click on the title of the chapter and download it again. I apologize again, but today is the first update.)


    Four hourster, Zhang Heng stopped the Amga45 again. He hadn��t reached the destination yet, but he decided to go to the toilet in the service area. He washed his face with warm water that was already a little hot from the sun, then, he ordered a hot and dry noodle for lunch in the lobby.


    He held the ordinary-looking hot and dry noodle in his hand and found the innermost corner. As he ate the noodles, he spread the map in his hand on the table. On it was the location he had marked when he first measured it, then, Zhang Heng used his phone to open the weather website and looked up the recent weather changes in the vicinity.


    Zhang Heng��s idea was simple. Thor was the god of thunder, and hisbat ability was the strongest during thunderstorms. If he had fought someone on the way to escape, then the local weather would probably change as well. In other words.., he needed to pay special attention to the areas with thunderstorms in the vicinity.


    After a while, Zhang Heng circled a few ces where it had rained. At that moment, a voice in front of him asked, ��Is there anyone here?��


    Zhang Heng raised his head and saw an unusually tall man. His initial estimate was that he was over 1.9 meters tall. He had a square face, thick eyebrows, big eyes, and broad shoulders. He was wearing a t-shirt that had been washed until it was a little white, in his hand was a bowl of master Kang��s beef noodles that had just been watered. He stood out from the crowd.


    Zhang Heng looked at the hall. It was already lunchtime, and this was arge service area with arge flow of people. In a short while, it was already full, so the people who cameter could only discuss sharing a table with the people in front of them.


    Zhang Heng nodded and quietly put away the map on the table.


    ��Thank you.��The tall man ced the bowl of instant noodles in his hand on the seat opposite Zhang Heng. Then, he wolfed down the noodles in the bowl until they sizzled. In less than half a minute.., he finished a big bowl of instant noodles. Then, not satisfied, he ate another four beef pancakes.


    During this time, he passed a pancake to Zhang Heng and said, ��Brother, do you want to try one? This is my wife��s stewed beef. It��s much more fragrant than the ones sold here.��


    ��Thank you, Big Brother. I have enough noodles,��Zhang Heng declined politely.


    The tall man did not try to persuade him further. He finished thest remaining beef pancake and finished the instant noodle soup in his bowl. He burped and saw that Zhang Heng was still eating noodles, so he did not rush to leave, he wiped his mouth and said, ��Brother, where are you going?��


    ��Oh, I��m just going for a stroll. I haven��t confirmed my destination yet. What About You, brother?��Zhang Heng used his chopsticks to pick up the hot dry noodles.


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    ��Free travel,��the tall man said with a sudden realization. ��No Wonder I saw you looking at the map earlier. Brother, you��re in a good mood. I��m on a long-distance trip, so I brought some goods to Henan.��


    As the tall man spoke, he pointed at arge truck outside the window. Judging from its length and height, the truck was indeed carrying a lot of things.


    ��Brother, you��ve worked hard.��


    ��I��m used to it. My whole family depends on me to support them,��the tall man said. Seeing that Zhang Heng was almost done with his noodles, he tactfully stopped chatting and casually said, ��One of my buddies is still in the truck. Brother, I��ll go back first.��


    ��Okay, take care, brother.��


    Zhang Heng watched the tall man walk out of the restaurant in the service area and climb into the truck. He watched the truck drive out of the service area. After a while, he returned to the AMGA45 and started on the road again.


    In fact, Zhang Heng had considered asking Han Lu to help him borrow a private jet. It would be faster, but before that, he had already made up his mind to cut off all contact with the people around him, han Lu was very close to him because of Qingcha��s help in purchasing points. Zhang Heng did not want to give her any more trouble.


    Other than that, even though Zhang Heng knew how to fly a ne, he did not have a pilot��s license. If he wanted to borrow a private jet, he needed to borrow another pilot. Most importantly, he needed to apply for a route from the Air Traffic Control Bureau before the private jet took off, normally, it would take a few days for the flight route to be approved. Even with Han Lu��s help, it did not mean that the ne could fly immediately. Therefore, this idea only shed through Zhang Heng��s mind and was immediately rejected by him.


    In addition to the bow, arrows, and guns that he had on him, Zhang Heng actually did not have a better choice than to drive.


    Fortunately, his journey was rather smooth. Other than a car ident in the middle of the journey and being stuck in traffic for ten minutes, there were no other idents. Therefore, two hourster, he finally arrived at his destination.


    Zhang Heng took out the magicpass again and activated it for the second time. He discovered that the direction the needle was pointing at had changed againpared to thest time. This was not good news for him, this meant that Thor and Seth were indeed on the move.


    In other words, the first time he calcted the location was probably not entirely urate. However, Zhang Heng was already mentally prepared for such a result, so he was not too disappointed, very quickly, he repositioned the location of Seter using the same method as the first time.


    This time, he only traveled 40 kilometers. The advantage was that he still had about half an hour to catch up, but the disadvantage was that the distance was too short, so the error in his calctions might be even greater.


    However,pared to the first time he measured the distance, Zhang Heng should be much closer to Seter and Thor now. Unfortunately, until the time was up, the needle did not move at all.


    Zhang Heng was not in a hurry. In his n, he only needed to ensure that he was getting closer to Seter during the day. In fact, until midnight, he only nned to use up to four positioning times, the rest of the usage would be after the time freeze. At that time, Thor and Seter should remain stationary. If everything went smoothly, he would only need one time to pinpoint their location.


    However, Zhang Heng did not give up on his pursuit during the day. ording to the information provided by ISIS, both the new and Old Gods were currently focused on finding the whereabouts of Seth and Thor, zhang Heng��s opponents this time were a group of gods that could not be predicted withmon sense. He did not think that thepass that ISIS had given him was the only one who could find the target. No one knew what these gods had up their sleeves.


    This was especially true for the new gods. Zhang Heng had suffered a corresponding loss early on. He had been located by the phone God, and the mechanical God had tampered with the ne he was on, in the end, only he and the pregnant woman that he had saved survived on the ne. Therefore, Zhang Heng knew very well that the sooner he found Seth, the higher the possibility of himpleting the mission.

 Chapter 1314 - Old City District

    Chapter 1314: Old City District


    ��Are you sure this is the ce?��


    Thor looked around and asked suspiciously. At this moment, he was dressed like a tourist and was standing on an old tform. In front of him was a potholed cement pir, and above his head was a rusted iron beam, besides them, there were only a few dozen passengers on this tform. It seemed that they were all locals.


    ��That��s right, this is the ce,��Seth, who was also dressed as a tourist, said with certainty. After saying that, he smiled again, ��Big shots like you must also be looking at those first-and second-tier big cities. After all, there are enough IMAX screens there. There are also plenty of rich people who are willing to spend hundreds or thousands of dors to buy a Captain America figurine or your portrait. However, there are still many fourth-and fifth-tier small cities like this ce in this country. They are unknown. The only time that outsiders hear about them is probably when they are involved with some weird news about people��s livelihood.


    ��Although the prices here are lower than those in big cities, the ie level is even lower. The economy is not vibrant, and the young people can��t find suitable jobs. In addition to the high housing prices, many people are forced to leave this ce to work in big cities. ��The poption is always in a state of outflow. The rest are the elderly, so the economic development is even worse.��


    ��Why are you telling me this kind of thing?��Thor said indifferently, ��Let me remind you again. I have already broken seven of your ribs. Tonight, before the sun sets, if you are unable to lead me to my wife, I will break all the remaining bones in your body one by one. Then, I will chop off your head and sew it on the neck of a dog. Anyway, your Jackal��s head is quitepatible with a dog.��


    ��Correction, my head is actually an animal called a Seth Beast, not a jackal. It��s just that many people have made a mistake and are spreading rumors...��


    ��It doesn��t matter, I don��t care about this kind of thing.��Thor rudely interrupted the god of chaos. ��Quickly lead the way.��


    ��I��m happy to serve you.��Seth��s temper was very good, as if he didn��t care about the fact that his ribs had been broken. Upon hearing this, he even made an inviting gesture.


    The two of them walked out of the train station. Seth waved his hand and stopped a taxi. He said to the driver, ��Let��s go to the hard-working road in the Old City.��


    Thor watched from the side coldly. He did not say anything. He just let Seth get into the back seat first and then followed him in. It was clearly a back seat that could amodate three people.., after Thor��s strong body got onto the back seat, it actually seemed a little cramped. The manic aura that he emitted also made the taxi driver��s forehead break out in cold sweat.


    Seth looked at Thor��s right wrist that was tightly gripped by Thor, sighed, and said in Norwegian, ��With my strength, it��s impossible for me to escape from your eyes. Do you have to watch me so closely? People who don��t know would think that we��re gay.��


    Thor sneered, ��You��ve already escaped from my eyes once, and you��ve made me bear such a big me. Do you think I��ll give you a second chance?��


    ��I told you that it was just a regrettable ident. I��m also deeply sorry for the death of that... unknown side character friend of mine. Moreover, after I learned that you were wronged, I immediately ran to the organizingmittee. I didn��t hesitate to turn myself in, just to tell them the truth of the matter and clear your name. But what did I get in return?��


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    Seth threw up his hands, ��I was originally locked up, but you insisted on rushing into my bathroom and snatching me away in front of the organizingmittee while I was still in the shower. This is great, now we are both the target of public criticism. Both the old and New Gods are now looking for our whereabouts. To be honest, I have never encountered such a huge situation even when I was at my peak.��


    ��Who told your people to take my wife away!��Thor��s eyes were wide open, and the veins on his head were bulging. The driver, who was already a little worried, shook his hands, and almost lost his grip on the steering wheel and rear-ended the bus in front of him.


    ��I��ve told you countless times that your wife��s disappearance has nothing to do with me. At that time, I had already moved into the special cell of the organizingmittee, and I also lost my divine power. I was under surveince 24 hours a day. Before you rushed into the bathroom, I was being admired by a chick from all angles.��Seth looked very innocent, ��So it doesn��t make any sense for you to me this on me. Forcing me to find someone within a day is even more difficult. But even so, I still decided to bring you to the most likely ce to try your luck. Don��t you think you should be a little more polite to your new partner?��


    ��I don��t believe your nonsense!��Thor roared. His spittle even flew over the seat and onto the rearview mirror in front of him, ��If you��re innocent, why aren��t you willing to tell us the whereabouts of the god of cell phones until now? Also, what happened at Copenhagen International Airport, and the missing god of machinery is also rted to you. In addition, recently, the tension between the new God and the old God has been getting more and more intense...��


    ��I have to interrupt you here. Recently, the main person who caused the tension between the new God and the Old God isn��t me, but...��although Seth didn��t directly say that name.., his gaze had alreadynded on the main character.


    But before thetter got angry, the god of chaos quickly said, ��Actually, the situation that has developed to this point is not a problem for anyone, but a necessity.��


    ��Here we go again, your chaos theory,��Thor said unremittingly.


    Seth didn��t mind and continued, ��You have to admit that peace has been going on for too long, longer than ever before.��


    ��That��s a good thing. People who haven��t experienced cruel wars will never understand the value of peace,��Thor said.


    ��I��ve experienced wars, so I agree with you. I believe that the gods in the organizingmittee, who are as High and mighty as you, will also agree with you. However, this world isn��t just made up of those high and mighty big shots.��


    ��What are you trying to say?��Thor stared into Seth��s eyes and said mockingly, ��Don��t you know that no one will buy your Bullsh * T Now?��


    ��For those who live in luxury and are high and mighty, order and peace are indeed more precious than gold, but everything has to be viewed from a different perspective. For those who have nothing and are about to starve to death, War and chaos are the only bargaining chips for them to turn the tables, and even their hope of survival,��Seth said.


    ��Nonsense!��Said Thor impatiently. ��Maybe I should rip your head off right now and shut you up!��

 Chapter 1315

    Chapter 1315: Apartment Building


    Just as Thor��s eyes were filled with ferocity and the atmosphere in the taxi was getting more and more tense.


    A trembling voice came from the front row. ��Friends, you��ve reached your destination.��


    When Thor heard this, he shifted his gaze outside the window and saw that the taxi was parked at the side of a somewhat deste-looking street. On both sides of the street were various small storefronts. There was a pancake shop called Deer Horn Lane, there were dor stores, women��s clothing stores, sand county snacks, small clinics, and even a new burence shoe store.


    Behind these small stores was a row of old tube-shaped buildings. The clothes and bedding that were hung in the corridor, as well as the flowers and nts, finally injected some life into this old ce.


    Thor threw a hundred yuan note to the driver and dragged Seth out of the car under the driver��s surprised gaze.


    He grabbed Seth��s neck and directly lifted him up from the ground, ��I��m not here to apany you to discuss the economic revitalization of small cities. Where is my wife? You��d better tell me quickly! Don��t keep me in suspense and y tricks anymore.��


    Seth��s face was full of helplessness. He coughed and tried to squeeze out a sentence from his throat, ��Didn��t anyone... tell you before... When you want someone to answer your questions...


    don��t always strangle that person��s neck?��


    Thor snorted and finally let go.


    Seth returned to the ground, rubbed his neck, and sighed. ��Soon, we��ve arrived at the destination of this trip. We��ll see the real person soon.��


    Thor��s anger lessened slightly when he heard Seth��s words, but a hint of wariness shed in his eyes. He stretched out his hand and was about to summon his precious hammer over.


    But in the next moment, Seth held his hand down, ��No, no, no. Don��t always think about using violence to solve problems. Compared to your strength, there��s no danger here. Let��s talk first.


    It��s not toote to attack if we can��t reach an agreement. After all, Sif is still in his hands.��


    Thor saw Seth pounce on him to stop him from summoning the hammer and almost blew up thetter��s head. However, when he heard Sifs name, he forcefully stopped his fist.


    ��That��s right. Don��t you want peace? Let��s start from here.��


    ��Peace is Bullsh * T. When I find Sif, I��ll kill all the people who kidnapped her.��Thor gritted his teeth and enunciated each word.


    ��1 understand why everyone said that you have a bad temper. Compared to you, I��m as gentle as a sentimental jerk.��Seth tidied up his clothes, ��Forget it. You can do whatever you want in the future. But before that, you must suppress your anger.��


    ��I��m not one of those new gods who are not even 100 or 200 years old. I know what to do when, ��Thor said in a muffled voice.


    ��Is this... Today��s cold joke? If it is, I��ll try my best to cooperate with you andugh a few times.��


    As the two talked, they walked toward a tube-shaped building. When they passed by the pancake stall called Deer Horn Alley, Seth suddenly stopped. ��I��m hungry. Buy a few pancake mats.��


    ��1 told you not to y any more tricks, ��Thor warned.


    ��I��m not ying any tricks. Please, ever since I was kidnapped by you, I haven��t eaten a single bite of rice on the way here. It��s rare that I pass by a pancake stall, so buying a few pancakes won��t waste your time. If you��re really worried that there��s poison in these pancakes, just watch me eat them,��Seth said.


    Hearing this, Thor didn��t stop him in the end. He said to the boss of the pancake stall, ��Take four pancakes. ��


    The boss didn��t say anything. He pointed at the price list on the wall behind him and the QR code on the table. Then he stood up, picked up a stic bag and put it on his hand. He grabbed four pancakes and handed them to Thor.


    Thor stuffed the pancakes into Seth<sup>t </sup>s arms. Then he opened his wallet and took out a ten-dor bill. After hesitating for a while, he took out another ten-dor bill and mmed it on the table.


    ��Give me six more!��


    The boss reached out his hand and silently put away the twenty-yuan note on the table. Then, without saying a word, he picked up another stic bag. However, Thor felt that his actions were too slow, so he directly grabbed six pancakes, he devoured them in a hurry, while Seth also ate three pancakes on the other side.


    However, when he ate the fourth one, it was obvious that his swallowing became a little difficult. Since he had already done this, Thor simply bought two bottles of mineral water from the grocery store and gave one to Seth, he finished the other bottle.


    Then, the two of them finally followed an old woman who came back from selling vegetables into the apartment building. The building was five stories tall and there was no elevator in it. However, this height was nothing to Thor and Seth, the two of them quickly climbed to the top floor and passed through a corridor filled with clothes and bed sheets. They arrived at the end of the room.


    Seth reached out and knocked on the old-fashioned anti-theft door in front of him, However, there was no response from inside. Seeing that Thor was about to call his hammer again, Seth quickly increased the strength of his knocking.


    This time, the people inside finally reacted. However, half a minuteter, a crack was opened on the door.


    A pair of small eyes with a malicious glint behind the door first looked at Thor. They frowned and then looked at Seth. However, they appeared to be a little lost. It was not until Seth untied the thing wrapped around his face that the wolf��s head was revealed, finally, he spoke in an unpleasant voice that sounded like chalk scratching the ckboard, ��It��s you. What are you doing here?��


    ��I��m here to visit my old friends.��


    ��There��s no one here who is your friend,��the person behind the door said while spitting at Seth��s feet.


    Seth smiled and did not argue with the other party. He only said, ��I know what you have done. Before it��s toote, I hope you can rein in your horses.��


    The person behind the door sneered, ��Since you have rejected our invitation, what does what we do have to do with you?��


    ��1 just can��t bear to see you y with fire,��Seth said slowly.


    The person behind the door seemed to have thought of something, and a look of surprise suddenly appeared on his face. Especially when he looked at Thor on the other side, the surprise on his face could not help but be stronger, ��Seth, I remember that you were caught by the organizingmittee, Right?��


    ��To be more precise, it was my conscience that made me turn myself in,��Seth said.


    ��As far as I know, you don��t have a conscience,��the person behind the door said. And when he finished speaking, Thor, who was beside him, could no longer hold it in, ��Why aren��t you opening the door? Can��t you go in first and talk about itter?��


    And the magic is that the people inside after hearing this sentence, actually so obediently opened the door..

 Chapter 1316 - Saving Lives

    <h4>Chapter 1316: Saving Lives</h4>


    When the door opened, Thor finally saw the person behind the door.


    It was a short man who looked to be in his thirties or forties. There was a red birthmark on the left side of his face, and his chin was full of stubble. It could be seen that their owner had not shaved them for at least a week, it was August, and the temperature was still very high. However, the air conditioner was not turned on in the room, and only an electric fan was working hard. When he shook his head, it would make a strange creaking sound.


    The Man with the birthmark on his face was shirtless. He was only wearing a pair of slippers and a pair of big underpants. He looked at Seth and Thor warily. Before he could say anything, Thor had already pushed him aside, then, Thor rushed into the house like a whirlwind and shouted, ��Sif, Sif! Don��t be afraid, I��ming to save you!��


    The Man with the birthmark on his face was shocked and angry at the same time. He screamed, ��What are you doing? !��


    As he said that, he got up from the ground and rushed up to catch Thor who was about to continue to rush into the house. However, his small body and strength were like an ant against an elephantpared to Thor.


    Thor just casually pulled, and with less than 20% of his strength, he flew out again. This time, his back hit the wall, but he couldn��t get up from the ground for a long time. However, he still endured the pain and shouted, ��B * Stard, you can��t go in, you can��t go in! ! ! This is my home!��


    Seth said helplessly, ��Didn��t we agree to negotiate five minutes ago?��


    ��There��s someone in the back room.��Thor didn��t care about that and directly pushed the door of the back room, ��I heard the crying inside.��


    ��I don��t know what SH * t Sif is! That��s my daughter,��the man with the birthmark on his face said.


    ��Do you really think I��ll believe your nonsense about a father locking his daughter in the house and locking the door behind him?��Thor tried twice and found that he couldn��t turn the doorknob, he didn��t turn back to ask the man with the birthmark for the key, but directly kicked the door.


    The wooden door, which did not look very sturdy to begin with, could not withstand Thor��s kick. It simply fell to the ground.


    When Thor saw the scene inside clearly, his entire body was filled with anger. In the middle of the dark and stuffy room, there was an iron cage. However, what was locked in that Iron Cage was not a beast, but a blonde woman, her hands and feet were chained, and she was wrapped in a thick leather cover. Besides her hair, there was only a small hole in her nose where she could breathe.


    It was easy to imagine how ufortable the people inside would be in such an environment. In fact, when Thor knocked the door open, Seth also heard faint cries.


    At this time, Thor would not believe that the person inside was the daughter of the man with the birthmark on his face. He roared, ��Sif, don��t be afraid. I��ll let you out right now.��


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    ��No, don��t let her out!��The Man with the birthmark on his face became even more anxious. However, before he could finish his words, Thor had already reached out and grabbed the two bars of the iron cage. Then, his arms suddenly exerted strength, his strong muscles tensed up and actually bent the two iron bars that were more than three centimeters in diameter.


    Then, Thor broke the iron chain and opened the zipper of the leather case. However, what Thor didn��t expect was that when he let out the crying woman inside, he saw an old and ugly face full of wrinkles, it was as if half of the bark of a dead tree had been burned off.


    While Thor was still in shock, the ugly old woman in front of him suddenly stopped crying. Then, a cunning and cruel look shed in her eyes. In the next moment, her right hand suddenly turned into a sharp knife, it stabbed directly into Thor��s chest!


    This change happened too suddenly. Even if the person who was saved was not Sif Thor, he did not expect that the other party would suddenly do such a vicious thing to his savior! In addition, the distance between the two of them was too close. Tor could not react in time and was stabbed by the knife.


    However, the knife only pierced less than one centimeter into Tor��s chest. It could not go any deeper because one of Tor��s hands had already grabbed the de.


    ��Show Mercy!��The Man with the birthmark on his face saw this scene and his expression changed.


    Unfortunately, it was toote for him to speak. Thor��s other fist had already smashed into the old woman��s body, sending her back into the iron cage, coughing up blood continuously, at the same time, Thor��s eyes turned red. Although the wounds on his body were not fatal, Thor waspletely enraged by this sh.


    Especially when he saw that the old woman in the cage, although her face was pale and one of her arms was broken, still wanted to climb up and attack him. Thor didn��t even think about it and directly stretched out his hand into the air.


    ��Uh, everyone, calm down.��Seth seemed to be trying to act as a peacemaker. He advised from behind, ��Even if there��s any enmity, it��s not toote to fight after we��ve made things clear.��


    Unfortunately, both Thor and the man with the birthmark on his face clearly did not listen to what he said. Thetter had already climbed up from the ground. He widened his eyes and shouted fiercely, ��You B * stards have gone too far. You Dare to Hurt My Daughter? Both of you can forget about leaving this ce alive!��After saying that, the door of the other room suddenly shattered, and a white tiger jumped out from it.


    The White Tiger let out a long roar and headed for Thor��s head.


    ��Perfect Timing!��Thor shouted. Instead of retreating, he advanced and threw another punch. However, when this punch hit the White Tiger��s forehead, it went straight through, and then the entire body of the tiger disappeared, the thing that Thor had hit inside was only a gecko that was less than two inches long.


    However, after such a short dy, the ugly old woman had already climbed to Thor��s leg. She opened her mouth and was about to bite down, but was kicked out by Thor. At this time, the man with the birthmark on his face also pounced forward, he was also smashed to the ground by Thor��s punch.


    In the end, his appearance changed just like that of the White Tiger. He changed from a middle-aged man to an old man with apletely bent back. From his appearance, it was obvious that he was Caucasian.


    Thor raised his foot, ready to crush the Ugly Old Woman��s head first before slowly interrogating the Bent Old Man on the ground.


    But what he didn��t expect was that in the next moment, another figure appeared outside the door. It was actually the old woman they had met when they entered the apartment building.


    But now, she looked even older than the first time they saw her. Half of her facial features had disappeared, and her arrival was like a signal. Soon, a second figure appeared behind her, a third figure... until more and more.

 Chapter 1317 - The Forgotten God

    <h4>Chapter 1317: The Forgotten God</h4>


    Thor looked at the figures outside the door. The people who could arrive in such a short time were either the residents in the apartment building or the small bosses who were doing business downstairs.


    In addition to the old woman who was buying vegetables, Thor also saw the boss of the pancake shop, the cashier he met when he was buying water from the grocery store, and the two elementary school students ying with ants downstairs, the total number of people had already exceeded 60. Considering that it was still working hours, there should still be a portion of people who had not returned. It was possible that this building or even half of the street would be filled with them.


    Seth sighed. ��I told you earlier. Can��t you sit down and have a good talk with them? Don��t be so anxious to punch them. You��re going to get into trouble this time.��


    Thor was unmoved. His cold gaze swept across everyone��s faces.


    ��All of you are gods? Why haven��t I seen any of you before?��


    ��Because we are the forgotten gods,��the owner of the Pancake Shop said. As he said this, the crowd gradually made way for him and let him into the room.


    ��Forgotten Gods?��Thor frowned.


    ��Not everyone has such good luck as you, Thor, son of Odin.��


    ��Do you know who I am?��Thor asked in a deep voice.


    ��It��s very difficult for a famous person like you not to know. After all, you are everywhere in all kinds of literature on TV,��the owner of the Pancake Shop said lightly.


    ��Haven��t I asked Your Name Yet?��


    ��That��s not important. Even if I tell you my name, you won��t know it. In fact, not many people in this world still know my name.��


    ��Well, I don��t care what your name is. If you know what��s good for you, hurry up and hand over Sif.��After Thor said this, Muriel flew in from the window andnded in his hand.


    Thor��s Aura was even stronger after he held the hammer. Although he was alone, he was not at a disadvantage when facing the sixty people. No, it should be said that in terms of aura, the sixty people werepletely suppressed, even if they were all together, they could notpare to Thor who was alone in the enemy camp.


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    Even if they had almost surrounded Thor, the chicken was still the chicken. Even if they surrounded the tiger together, it did not mean that they had the upper hand, some people could not withstand the terrifying power that Thor was exuding and could not help but take a few steps back.


    The contempt in Thor��s eyes was even more intense. Fortunately, the owner of the pancake shop was able to withstand the pressure.


    He did not answer Thor��s question, but continued to speak, ��We have more or less been glorious for a period of time. Of course, we are not as famous as you Norse gods. However, at least in our hometown, there are still many believers. We even have our own temples. However, due to various reasons, we can not escape the decline in the end.��


    ��I didn��te here to listen to your stories,��Thor said impatiently.


    ��Son of Odin, aren��t you curious about what the gods will look like after their fall?��


    ��I know what the gods look like after their fall. I have many friends who have experienced their fall or are experiencing their fall, including myself. I��ve been extremely weak before. It��s not a secret.��Thor sneered.


    ��No, I��m talking about the real... fall of the gods. Not many people still remember your name, the fall of the gods that waspletely forgotten by the world,��said the owner of the pancake shop. ��Just like us now.��


    ��We can only live in such a shabby small building. In order to pay the rent, we have to get up early every day and go to the supermarket to buy temporary special food. We have to carefully collect all the discount information and count every penny we have. We can��t even afford to turn on the air conditioner in such a summer.��


    ��Just like those mortals?��


    ��Oh, if that��s really the case, that would be great. We don��t have ID cards, so we can only forge fake ids. Our original appearances are all foreigners. Fortunately, some of us can use illusion to help us change our appearances. That��s why we can barely settle down. However, we can��t take the high-speed train or the ne. We can��t even find a proper job. We can either work illegally or open our own small shop. We also have to give most of the profits to our partners. We can only stay at the bottom of society forever.


    ��Most of us don��t have any rtives or families we can rely on. Otherwise, why do you think we��re gathered here? Isn��t it because Tu can take care of us?��Another person in the crowd said, ��The city security, the scoundrels in the city, the security guards in the neighborhood, anyone can bully us. And this isn��t the worst part.��


    The man��s tone became even more agitated as he spoke, ��The worst part is that as time passes, our strength is still declining. Not only do we look older and older, but it is also bing more and more difficult to maintain our original bodies. This is the reason why we all look disabled and extremely ugly now. What��s worse is that some of us are starting to have mental problems. The better ones are just forgetting a lot of things from the past and can��t remember their own names. The unlucky ones are like old Zheng��s daughter. She haspletely gone mad and doesn��t know anyone. She will crazily attack anyone who gets close to her. So Old Zheng can only lock her up with iron chains and cages.��


    Thor nced at the old woman who had been kicked to the ground by him. He didn��t know how many of the old woman��s bones had been broken by his kick, but she was still trying to crawl to his side with one hand.


    ��I apologize for my previous recklessness.��Thor��s tone seemed to have softened a little, but it soon became tough again, ��But I came here to find my wife. A bastard told me that you kidnapped her, or at least, you know her whereabouts.��


    Seth, who had been quiet and obedient before, noticed Thor��s unfriendly gaze on him, and he immediately showed an innocent look.


    Fortunately, the next moment, he heard the owner of the pancake shop say, ��We do know her whereabouts.��


    ��Then tell me quickly, where is she?��Thor couldn��t help but be overjoyed.


    ��I can��t tell you,��the owner of the Pancake Shop said without hesitation.


    Thor��s face turned cold again when he heard this. This time, he didn��t say anything, but the miel Neil in his hand trembled slightly, as if it was the precursor of a storm.


    However, the owner of the pancake shop didn��t seem to see the killing intent in Thor��s eyes, ��If you want to know the whereabouts of your wife, you need to help us do one thing first. Don��t worry, this matter isn��t difficult for you at all, and it won��t take up any of your time.��

 Chapter 1318 - Entering The Net

    <h4>Chapter 1318: Entering The Net</h4>


    Thor��s gaze swept across the crowd again. ��What do you want me to do?��


    ��We... want to borrow your hammer.��The pancake shop owner didn��t beat around the bush and said straightforwardly.


    ��Only I can use my hammer, not just any Tom, Dick, or Harry...��Thor suddenly thought of something and his gaze turned cold. ��You want me to kill people for You?��


    ��That��s right.��


    ��Kill Who?��


    Before the owner of the pancake restaurant could open his mouth again, someone had alreadye up with a man on his back. The man��s hands and feet were tied up with nylon ropes and his head was covered by a brown paper bag. He could only barely make out that it was a man, the man was not very old, but he was not too young either. There were a lot of blood stains on his body. He must have experienced a fierce battle. However, that was a long time ago. He was still in aa and had no reaction at all.


    ��Is it him?��Thor frowned.


    ��Yes,��the owner of the pancake shop nodded and said.


    ��What grudge does he have with you? is he not paying for eating your pancakes?��


    ��It��s okay if you take it that way. How about it? Am I right? This matter is very easy for you, and it won��t waste any of your time. As long as you swing your hammer at his head, then you can get what you want.��


    Hearing this, Thor looked at the person on the ground again. He held his hammer and stood in ce, as if thinking about whether this deal was worth it.


    The others in the room looked at Thor with expectant eyes, waiting for his answer. However, they didn��t expect Thor to takerge strides to the man on the ground who had his hands and feet tied, then, he reached out and tore off the brown paper bag on his head.


    When he saw the people below, Thor was stunned. ��I��ve seen this guy before! He��s a new god that has only appeared in thest 200 years. He seems to be... some mechanical god.��


    The owner of the pancake restaurant saw that he couldn��t stop him in time, so he could only admit, ��That��s right. The person we asked you to kill is him.��


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    ��What grudge does he have with you?��Thor asked, but soon he understood, ��He doesn��t have any grudge with you. And since he has fallen into your hands, he has no chance to resist. So you don��t want to kill him at all. You want me to kill him. I understand.��


    Thor��s eyes turned cold as he looked at the owner of the pancake shop, ��Although I��m reckless, I��m not stupid. It��s said that he��s quite important among the new gods, and I��m the signature figure among the old gods. If he dies in my hands, then the new gods and the old gods will have to fight each other even if they want to. But if that��s the case, I have a question to ask. Why are you so painstakingly trying to provoke a war between the new gods and the Old Gods?��


    ��It��s just to survive.��The owner of the pancake restaurant did not hide anything, ��Surviving is our only wish. If we continue to stay in this lifeless town, we will all disappear quietly.��


    ��Forgive me for being blunt. Even if there is a big battle, with your strength, you can��t even protect yourselves. How many of you can really profit from it?��Thor sneered, ��It��s just the wishful thinking of a group of people who are about to die.��


    ��Wishful thinking is better than having no hope at all,��the man with the birthmark on his face urged. ��What are you waiting for, son of Odin? Hurry up and do it.��


    Hearing this, Thor didn��t rush to swing his hammer. ��After saying so much, you still haven��t proven that my wife is indeed in your hands.��


    ��How do you want us to prove it?��? ��Bring her to you? You��re Thor. We��re not your match even if we join forces. If you go back on your word and take her away, we won��t be able to do anything to you. On the contrary, you killed someone first. We Can��t Beat You, so of course we don��t dare to lie to you,��said the owner of the pancake restaurant.


    Thor saw that the other party was not willing to produce any evidence, but he suddenly stared into the eyes of the person with the birthmark on his face, ��When we entered the door, you didn��t recognize me at all, and you didn��t know that I kidnapped Seth from the organizingmittee. Moreover, you also said that you didn��t know any Bullsh * t Sif. You Didn��t know where my wife was at all. From the beginning to the end, you were just trying to trick me into killing people, right? !��


    Thor had already raised the hammer in his hand by the time he finished speaking. His hair and beard were all spread out.


    The Man with the scar on his face, who had been questioned by Thor, was so frightened that he took three steps back and sat down on the ground.


    The crowd was in an uproar. Even the owner of the pancake restaurant had a change in expression.


    It wasn��t just the dying people in the tube-shaped building who heard this. There was also a man and a woman with binocrs and earphones in another building a kilometer away.


    The woman was chewing gum as she clicked her tongue. ��Didn��t that guy say that Thor is the most brainless of all the a-rank gods? I didn��t expect that he would be seen through in the end.��


    The man��s expression was very serious, ��The main reason is that the gods who live in seclusion here are too weak. Even if we gave them the god of machinery half a month in advance, they wouldn��t have made any decent arrangements.��


    ��It��s true. If I didn��t see it with my own eyes, I wouldn��t believe that there are gods who can live in such a miserable state. Some sell pancakes, some sell fake shoes, and they can��t even afford to turn on the air conditioner. It��s simply the shame of the god World.��


    The man heard this and said lightly, ��Boss said that gods are inferior creationspared to humans. They only have powerful divine power, but unfortunately, they don��t have any growth. They are restricted by those legends and stories, just like marites. Their personality, behavior, and logic are all fixed. They can��t even learn any lessons from their mistakes.��


    ��However, you have to admit that some of these guys are ridiculously strong. For example, Thor.��The woman licked her lips, she had already seen a dark cloud enveloping the apartment building and the nearby streets. During this period, thunder rumbled and electric currents appeared faintly. It was as if it was the end of the world. She could not help but lick her lips. ��Is this the power of an A ss?��


    ��Since the fish has already fallen into the, then it��s time for the Hunter to appear.��The man put down the binocrs in his hands, ��Tell the straw hat group to prepare to attack. Simon alone can take down one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, Pestilence. With so many of us, how can we not be able to deal with an A ss?��


    ��Are we finally going to get serious? I��ve been bored to death just dealing with small fish and shrimp these past few days.��The woman immediately became excited upon hearing this, ��This time, we should be able to see how much damage the Godyer bullet can cause to an A rank god. Only with this data will we be able to evaluate our next actions.��


    ��Let��s focus on the present first. We��ll talk about other things afterpleting the mission boss gave us.��

 Chapter 1319 - Gunshots

    <h4>Chapter 1319: Gunshots</h4>


    Thor could already tell that this group of gods, who were almost forgotten by the world, did not know the whereabouts of his wife, and that his famous son of Odin.., the god of thunder and power had almost been deceived by this group of insignificant characters and became a knife in their hands. Thinking of this, Thor could no longer hold back the anger in his heart and immediately raised Mikhail in his hand.


    ck clouds instantly covered the entire street. A few people who saw that the situation was bad wanted to escape, but before they could turn around and run a few steps, they saw several purple lightning bolts as thick as bowls striking down from the sky, they directly struck their bodies.


    Even when they were at their peak, there were probably not many people who could withstand such a terrifying attack, not to mention now. The people who were struck by the Lightning let out a miserable cry and then fell to the ground, there was no more sound.


    The expression of the owner of the pancake shop changed drastically when he saw this. However, he was the leader of this group of people after all. At this moment, he did not retreat and escape like the others. Instead, he braced himself and said, ��If you don��t Stop Now, Don��t me us for not being polite!��


    ��It just so happens that I also want to experience your methods!��Thor sneered and threw out the hammer in his hand.


    As soon as the divine weapon made by the dwarf left Thor��s hand, a bolt of lightning came down from the sky and wrapped it in it. The electric current flowed around the Hammer��s head like a flood dragon! No one could stop it wherever it passed!


    The person who was targeted by the hammer was first struck by the Lightning on it. His whole body was paralyzed and he couldn��t move. Then, he could only watch as Mikhail kept erging in front of his eyes.


    By the time the hammer flew around the crowd and returned to Thor��s hand, it had already turned blood-red. The handle of the hammer was still stained with some unknown brain matter.


    Because the pancake shop owner reacted the fastest, he was lucky enough to dodge the lightning strike. However, the ce where he was standing was the area that Thor had taken care of the most. Other than him, a few people around him had already died.


    The owner of the pancake restaurant knew that he couldn��t wait any longer, so he simply bit his finger and touched the blood on his chest and face, forming a strange witchcraft talisman. Then, he spread his hair, he began to dance.


    Thor smiled contemptuously. ��You Want to curse me with your current Divine Power?��


    After saying that, he didn��t even look at the owner of the pancake shop. Instead, he continued to control lightning and hammer to chase after those guys who had fled in all directions. From the looks of it.., it seemed that he was nning to capture all of these forgotten gods in one fell swoop.


    However, in the next moment, Thor saw Seth, who had been ying the role of a bystander, suddenly let out a blood-curdling scream. Then, he rolled his eyes and fell backward.


    Thor was still thinking about what this bastard was ying at. In the next moment, he felt a sharp pain in his abdomen. He couldn��t help but stop what he was doing. He almost couldn��t catch Muriel who was flying back, sweat dripped down from his forehead.


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    ��Is there a problem with the pancake? !��


    ��Yes,��the owner of the pancake shop admitted generously, ��With my current divine power, a simple curse wouldn��t be able to deal with you. However, after you ate the pancake that I gave you, you were already under my most powerful blood curse. What I��m doing now is just activating it.��


    After a pause, he continued, ��Although you��ve killed many of us, if you��re willing to finish what you couldn��t finish before, I can spare your life and let you continue to look for your wife.��


    When the owner of the pancake restaurant said this, he did not stop his weird dance.


    In a short while, Thor��s stomach had doubled in size as if something was rampaging inside and was about to break through his stomach.


    ��Don��t hesitate anymore. If you wait any longer, I won��t be able to save you,��the owner of the pancake restaurant urged.


    Thor��s temples were throbbing wildly, and the Muriel in his hand was getting heavier and heavier. However, the killing intent in his eyes was getting stronger and stronger. ��You guys don��t know what the consequences are if you anger me, do you?��


    The owner of the pancake restaurant was red at by the pair of eyes, and he actually moved his gaze away unconsciously. He did not know why, but even though he had clearly controlled the situation now, the unease in his heart was growing stronger and stronger, therefore, he could only dance even faster in that strange dance. He even did not hesitate to cut a few more times on his chest and arms.


    In the next moment, he saw Thor, who was previously unable to make any movements due to the pain, raise the hammer in his hand again. At the same time, he raised his head and widened his mouth.


    Under the horrified gaze of the owner of the pancake restaurant, an unimaginably thick bolt of lightning struck down from the sky. It followed Mernier all the way down and enveloped Thor��s body, some of the Lightning actually flowed from Thor��s mouth all the way to his stomach.


    Thor��s stomach was shrinking at a speed visible to the naked eye. However, just as despair appeared in the eyes of the owner of the pancake restaurant, a gunshot was heard by his ear.


    Immediately after, he saw Thor��s body sway, and the huge bolt of lightning also disappeared.


    On a building one kilometer away, the man suddenly put down the binocrs in his hand and frowned, ��Who shot without waiting for my order? !��


    Themunication channel was silent, but no one was willing to take responsibility for this matter.


    Just as the man��s face became more and more gloomy and was about to re up, the femalepanion beside him suddenly said, ��It wasn��t our people who shot.��


    ��Then again...��the man suddenly stopped mid-sentence, because he didn��t need a telescope to see that a bolt of lightning had struck into the building next to them.


    After a moment of silence, the sound of gunshots rang out again, and this time, it was even more intense. The densely packed bullets flew towards Thor, sealing off his front, back, left, and right paths.


    However, Thor was indeed Thor, the strongest God in the Scandinavian god system. Seeing that there was no way to avoid them, an electric appeared in front of him and actually absorbed all the bullets flying towards him.


    However, before Thor could catch his breath, he saw gunshots suddenly erupt from an office building on his left. Just by looking at the firepower, it seemed like there were dozens of gunmen hidden within.


    The man was a little confused. ��Is there any other force besides us that is nning to attack Thor?��


    The femalepanion beside him also looked puzzled, but then she seemed to have thought of something. Her expression changed. ��It��s not some force. He��s here.��


    ��Who?��


    ��The god of guns,��the woman said quickly. ��The new God has been looking for Thor��s whereabouts. It seems that their people have arrived.��

 Chapter 1320 - Free-for-all

    <h4>Chapter 1320: Free-for-all</h4>


    Lightning jumped from floor to floor, rushing towards the guns that were ced at the windows, and passing through the barrel of the guns. However, the strange thing was that there were no shooters behind the guns that were spitting bullets.


    In other words, these guns were fully loaded and firing on their own. It could be said that they were fully automatic.


    Witnessing this scene, the malemander of the mysterious organization on the other building sighed. ��This is probably a one-man army. He clearly only has the strength of a B ss, but he can take on a ss head-on without being at a disadvantage.��


    The eyes of the femalerade beside him lit up. ��It would be great if this fellow could be used by US. With his ability, coupled with the god-ying bullets, there shouldn��t be many gods that can withstand it.��


    ��Don��t think about it. The God of guns is an important character in the new God Camp. He isn��t someone that some random god canpare to. No matter how you look at it, he has no reason to betray his own people,��the malemander said calmly, after a pause, he lectured again, ��Remember, these gods can not be trusted. Even if Seth, who has temporarily formed an alliance with me, puts it bluntly, both of us are only taking what we need. He wants to borrow our power to create chaos among the gods and regain the glory of the past. We also need to act in his name and temporarily hide the existence of the organization. However, our current goal is the same, which is to provoke a war between the new and Old Gods.��


    ��I��m not a fool. Why would I trust the God of Chaos?��The femalemander rolled her eyes, ��But I��m getting more and more curious. Who is behind Seth?��. ��I��ve seen his files and information. ording to my teacher, the personality, temper, and behavior of the gods are basically fixed and rarely changed. Previously, Seth was just messing around and didn��t have any clear goals. But now, although he��s still trying to cause chaos, he��s clearly a lot more methodical. Even when he joined forces with us, he came to us first.��


    ��I��ll leave such trouble to boss. We just need toplete our own tasks.��The malemander waved his hand, ��Tell straw hat group that things have changed. Don��t make a move for the time being. Since the god of firearms has arrived, the other gods shouldn��t be too far away. Chaos is about to arrive. Before that, we have to try to keep a low profile.��


    While the two of them were talking, Thor finally found the real person with the help of the scattered lightning.


    A Guy wearing a id shirt and beach pants ran out from behind a noodle shop in a sorry state. He held two pistols in his hands, a semi-automatic rifle on his back, and two rounds of bullets wrapped around his waist.


    He didn��t even take any aiming action. He didn��t even look in Thor��s direction. He just raised his hand, and bullets poured out from the muzzle of the gun and shot at Thor upstairs.


    Thetter��s action was very simple. He still used the electric fence to block the bullets. However, the next moment, the bullets that flew straight towards Thor suddenly made a turn, bypassing the electric fence in front of Thor, and hit his body from the side.


    However, the bullets did not prate too deep into Thor��s body. Only half of the bullets went into Thor��s muscles, and the other half could not continue.


    On the other side, the expressions of the man and woman watching the battle upstairs changed slightly. Whether it was the bullets that could bend, or Thor��s defensive power, they could not help but marvel at it, this was something that could not be exined by science ormon sense. Only these gods with supernatural powers could do it.


    Of course, because of that magical game, a portion of humans had now grasped such power.


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    The God of firearms had used up all the bullets in the two guns in his hands. Seeing that he still couldn��t do anything to Thor, he simply threw away the two pistols in his hands and prepared to rush into a building on his left, there were even more powerful guns stored there.


    But in the next moment, he seemed to have smelled some danger and forcefully stopped his footsteps. Then, he saw a hammer brush past his head and fly forward.


    Just as the god of guns was happy that he had dodged a disaster, he did not expect that the hammer would directly hit the house in front of him, destroying the door of the house.


    Then, the hammer flew back into Thor��s hand. After thetter held Mikhail, he casually waved his hand and smashed the head of the pancake shop owner into pieces. Then, Thor did not go to the fire escape, he directly stepped on the wall of the corridor and jumped down from the five-story tall tube building.


    He was less than 50 meters away from the god of guns. The God of guns reacted very quickly. He had already taken off the semi-automatic rifle on his back and shot at Thor. However, Thor only raised his upper arm in front of his chest to block his head and chest. He relied on his super strong defense to take this wave of attack head-on.


    Moreover, Thor wasn��t just passively defending. He also seized the opportunity when the god of firearms was changing bullets and once again raised Mikhail in his hand. The dark clouds above his head instantly surged even more ferociously.


    This time, at least 20 bolts of lightning struck at the god of firearms.


    This was Thor��s strongest point. As an old god, hisbat experience was many times richer than the god of firearms, who was a new god. The situation where the two of them were still barely able to fight against each other was finally broken by him, finally, it waspletely broken.


    Thor was furious that the god of firearms hadunched a sneak attack without saying a word, so he didn��t hold back. If he was struck by more than 20 bolts of lightning at the same time, the guy on the opposite side would be half-crippled even if he didn��t die.


    However, what Thor didn��t expect was that in the next moment, another figure jumped down from the building opposite him that had been destroyed. He directly blocked the god of firearms. The person was wearing a baseball cap and holding a charger in his hand. More than 20 bolts of lightning were summoned by Thor, they were all sucked into the seemingly ordinary ck charger without leaving a single bolt behind.


    ��You��rete,��the god of firearms said unhappily.


    ��It��s not toote. Didn��t you not get electrocuted? Don��t worry, with me here, he won��t be able to electrocute you anymore,��the young man wearing the baseball cap said with a chuckle.


    ��God of electricity?��Thor raised his eyebrows.


    ��Thor, the god of Thunder. I��ve heard a lot about you. Speaking of which, we have a bit of fate between us. I��ve long wanted topete with you to see who is better at electrocution,��the young man in the baseball cap said, ��Your electricityes from the sky, but minees from the ground. Now, there are utility poles and transformer boxes everywhere in the city, and my power is almost endless. I hope your dark clouds can hold on, but not too fast.��


    ��ying with electricity with me? When I became the god of Thunder, you weren��t even born yet,��Thor said coldly. ��Don��t say that I��m a bully. You two kids can fight together.��

 Chapter 1321 - Dogs And Golden Horned Deer

    <h4>Chapter 1321: Dogs And Golden Horned Deer</h4>


    With the god of electricity joining in, the situation had indeed changed. At least the god of guns was no longer in such a sorry state.


    When he controlled the guns that were set up nearby to attack Thor, thetter wanted to continue using the electric fence to block the bullets like before. However, this time, the electric fence suddenly disappeared halfway through its formation, the bullets prated Thor��s muscles without any obstruction. Although they didn��t go too deep, Thor looked really miserable on the surface.


    There were dozens of wounds on his body. Although they weren��t fatal, they were still bleeding. However, Thor didn��t say anything. He just looked coldly at the charger in the hand of the god of electricity, then, he actually threw Mikhail into the dark cloud.


    ��What, senior is nning to directly admit defeat after throwing away your weapon?��The god of electricity couldn��t help butugh. However, the expression on his face froze halfway through hisughter.


    In the sky above him, the lightning that was originally swimming around was like sharks that had smelled blood. They all gathered in one ce and finally formed a terrifying lightning ball with a diameter of more than ten meters, and at the center of that lightning ball was Mikhail, who had been thrown out by Thor.


    Because this lightning ball had absorbed all the Lightning in the dark clouds, it actually made the originally rolling dark clouds quiet down. Only the ce where the Lightning Ball was located became more and more dangerous, just looking at it made one��s hair stand on end.


    Seeing this, the god of guns��expression also changed greatly. He said nervously, ��I told you to stop bragging. This is great. Now that you��ve made a mess, you��ll be struck by lightning together with me. Can you block it or not? !��


    The god of electricity raised his head and stared at the electric ball. His expression was uncertain. He did not speak but used his actions to answer hispanion��s question. He slowly raised the charger in his hand, he ced it on top of his head.


    Thor snorted. Then, an extremely thick bolt of lightning shot out from the electric ball and struck the charger in the god of electricity��s hand.


    The indicator light on the charger began to flicker crazily. In just a short while, it went from two bars to full. However, even though it was about to be fully charged, the electric ball still showed no signs of stopping.


    The god of electricity��s face was full of sweat, and the Charger in his hand was also emitting white smoke. It was obvious that he was at the end of his rope.


    However, in the next moment, the god of electricity, who had been forced into a corner, suddenly extended his other hand and inserted it into the box-type transformer at the side. Immediately after, the light bulbs in the shopping malls and residential areas in the city suddenly shone brightly, the brightness almost blinded people��s eyes. At the same time, the battery of the phone that was inserted into the charging seat was also rising rapidly. In just a short ten seconds.., it had actually climbed from less than 10% battery to 100% Battery! Then, sparks flew everywhere, and a few electric cars that were charging with super-charged batteries simply spontaneously ignited. The rice in the electric rice cooker that had just been sttered with a burnt smell.


    Just as the whole city was in chaos, the electric ball in the dark clouds finally shrunk until thest trace of electricity was exhausted. Mikhail fell from the sky and flew back into Thor��s hand.


    Thor looked at the god of electricity, whose face was pale and was gasping for air. Unexpectedly, he didn��t say anything sarcastic. Instead, he snorted, ��You��re not a shameless boastful person.��


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    Hearing that, the god of electricity squeezed out a smile on his face, and his tone rxed a little, ��Senior, you��re not bad either. It��s a pity that we��re on different sides. I still hope that senior can take the overall situation into consideration and go back with us. Didn��t you say before that you were framed by someone? It��s just nice that we can sit down together and exin all the misunderstandings.��


    Thor didn��t say a word when he heard that. He directly raised Mikhail in his hand. Before his wife was found, it was impossible for him to sit down and have a chat with the new God and the old God, however, with his arrogance, he couldn��t be bothered to say this to the two fellows in front of him. In any case, he just needed to kill his way out of this encirclement.


    Just as Thor was about tounch the second wave of attacks, he didn��t expect a group of hunting dogs to suddenly run over from the alley next door. They bypassed him and then surrounded the god of guns and the god of electricity.


    The hounds were unbelievably strong. Each of them was like a calf, baring their teeth and roaring at their targets. Behind them were four golden-horned deer pulling a war chariot, on the war chariot sat a young girl wearing a short skirt and hunting boots. She was full of youth and vitality.


    ��My Hounds told me that there��s a bad smell here. Sure enough, there��s a sneaky guy,��the young girl said.


    Hearing this, the god of guns and the god of electricity��s faces turned ugly. Of course, they knew who the sneaky guy was referring to.


    ��Artemis.��Thor was slightly stunned when he saw the girl, then he bowed to her.


    The Girl on the bus also changed her mocking expression towards the god of guns and the god of electricity, and quickly bowed back. ��Thor, son of Odin, I heard that you��re in trouble, so my father specially asked me toe and help you.��


    ��Thank you for your kind intentions, Sir Zeus, but when I left, I already made it clear to my people that this was only my own matter and had nothing to do with anyone else. I also didn��t want to provoke a conflict between the new and Old Gods because of this,��Thor said.


    When Artemis heard this, she nced at the wounds and blood stains on Thor��s body. However, her expression became solemn, ��Although we don��t belong to the same God race, we are all old people who have experienced more than a thousand years. Many of our old friends from back then are no longer around. My father often said that the rest of us should work hard to unite together. Therefore, your matter is also our matter.��


    What Artemis said was actually the consensus of the Old Gods during this period of time. Therefore, Thor had no way to refute it and could only acquiesce.


    The God of guns on the other side sneered. ��It sounds so nice, but they are just a group of old guys who have been abandoned by the times. They are just struggling with unwillingness in their hearts.��


    ��When the old guys are talking, it��s best for the little guys not to interrupt. My Dog Group is still hungry,��Artemis said leisurely.


    ��Your dog group is simply unable to withstand my volley of arrows. The reason why I didn��t make a move was for Thor��s sake, not because I��m afraid of You,��the god of guns retorted.


    Artemis��gaze turned cold when she heard this. She took out a bow from her car and aimed at the god of electricity.


    ��Then let��spete to see if my arrows are faster or if your bullets are faster.��


    The god of electricity looked baffled. ��Aren��t you going topete with him? Why do you have to involve me?��


    But then he saw Artemis say to Thor beside her, ��I��m here to stall this electricity yer. You finish off that Kid with the gun first, and then we��ll...��


    But she was only halfway through her words when Thor��s expression suddenly changed, and then his figure disappeared from the spot.

 Chapter 1322 - Battle Royale

    <h4>Chapter 1322: Battle Royale</h4>


    Thor ignored the three gods in front of him because he suddenly thought of an important matter. Then, without even bothering to greet Artemis, he stomped on the ground with both feet and jumped up again, he jumped toward the tube-shaped building.


    The God of guns hesitated for a moment. He didn��t know if it was because he respected Thor��s bravery, or because he was afraid that Artemis, who was beside him, would immediately shoot the arrow in her hand at herpanion, in the end, he did not take the opportunity to shoot, allowing Thor to smoothly jump back into the house he was previously in.


    Thor hade back to look for Seth. Thetter had eaten the pancakes given to him by the pancake shop owner, and his own strength was not as good as his. Furthermore, his divine power had been sealed by the organizingmittee, thus, after he fell out with the forgotten gods, the first thing he did was simply fall to the ground.


    After that, Thor was so angry that he was busy killing people that he temporarily forgot about Seth. When he finished killing people, he was ambushed by the god of guns. In addition, the god of electricity and Artemis had arrived one after another, thor had no time to care about Seth��s life.


    However, when his mind cleared up a little, he remembered Seth, who had been left on the ground. It was now proven that the gods who lived in seclusion in this ce did not know the whereabouts of his wife, in other words, he had been deceived by Seth again in this matter.


    Thor was about to settle the score with Seth, but when he returned to the house, he found that both Seth and the machine God that the pancake shop owner had asked him to kill had disappeared without a trace.


    So Thor realized that he had fallen into a trap again, and he was even more certain that his wife��s disappearance had something to do with Seth. Thor didn��t waste any time and immediately jumped onto the roof.


    Fortunately, it had only been five minutes since he had jumped off the building to fight against the god of guns and the god of electricity, and Seth had another person with him. Even if he wanted to escape, he shouldn��t be able to get far.


    The facts once again confirmed Thor��s guess. He stood on the roof and looked down from above. He only nced around once and saw Seth carrying the god of machinery in the alley as he fled in a sorry state. Finally, he rushed into a building.


    Thor immediately rushed towards that building when he saw this.


    The moment his feetnded on the ground, another young man dressed as if he was going to participate in China��s hip-hop festival appeared in front of him. Thor was worried that he would lose track of Seth, but this time, he did not show any mercy and shouted loudly, ��Scram!��Then, he threw out the hammer in his hand.


    The other party��s expression changed when he saw this. He didn��t care about his image and immediately rolled to the right. Thor, however, didn��t want to continue fighting. After forcing the enemy in front of him to retreat, he hurriedly rushed past that guy.


    ..


    On the eighth floor, a man and a woman from a certain mysterious organization were also a little dumbfounded at this moment.


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    The malemander saw that the situation outside had gone beyond their control. More and more people wereing, so he canceled his original attack n and even prepared to retreat first, however, he did not expect Seth to rush in their direction.


    The femalepanion beside him also had a strange expression on her face. ��Did... did you tell him that we are here? What is he trying to do? is he asking for help from us?��


    ��No, this bastard wants to divert the trouble!��The malemander��s face was livid. ��He wants to use us to trap Thor so that he can take the opportunity to escape. I don��t know how he knows our exact location.��


    ��Then what do we do now? Let the straw hat group hide their equipment and pretend to be ordinary people?��


    ��It��s toote.��The malemander saw Thor on the roof of the tube-shaped building and also noticed that Thor was looking in their direction. However, the ss of the building they were in had been specially treated, the people outside could not see what was inside. The malemander only thought for half a second before making a decision, ��We can��t hide it from them. Let��s not gamble on our luck. Let the straw hat group prepare for battle. If the other party really charges in, then we...��


    Before he could finish his words, Thor��s figure had already jumped down from the tube-shaped building. Then, he ran towards the building they were in at an unimaginable speed. He did not slow down or make any turns midway, thor rushed in without hesitation, which made the malemander couldn��t help but swear.


    Fortunately, the straw hat group he was talking about were all experts carefully selected by the organization. Moreover, they had gone through unimaginable cruel training. When they saw this scene, no one felt any fear or wavering, moreover, they hade to deal with Thor in the first ce. Now, they were just continuing the unfinished business.


    It was just that the twomanders upstairs did not want to see things develop to this stage.


    Thor had just rushed into the building when he sensed a strange atmosphere. This was because the first floor of this building, which upied quite arge area and had quite a number of floors, had neither security nor a front desk, there was not even a single person.


    Hence, Thor also raised his vignce. When he rushed to the fourth floor, he finally heard a movement from his left side. Thor, who had always been reckless, was worried that he would step into Seth��s trap this time, he suppressed the urge to rush up immediately and smashed a window. Then, he attracted a bolt of lightning from the outside. However, the bolt of lightning was like a stone that sank into the sea.


    Thor knew that something was wrong, but he didn��t want to wait any longer. He held Mikhail and rushed in. In the end, he bumped into four strange-looking... white objects.


    When Thor focused his eyes again, he realized that they were actually four humans. However, they were all wearing strange, airtight clothes, which looked a bit like the anti-chemical clothing in theboratory. Thor once again attracted a bolt of lightning, it attacked the four people on the opposite side.


    This time, he finally saw clearly that when the lightning struck one of the clothes, it didn��t prate the clothes and hit the person inside.


    A powerful insting suit? Thor raised his eyebrows. He had already realized that the equipment on these guys might be specially designed to deal with him.


    And before he could make any further probing, the other side had already made the first move. They raised their guns and aimed at Thor at the same time.


    Thor, who had experienced the baptism of the god of guns, naturally would not put the four guns in front of him in his eyes. Even the powerful insting suits on those people only surprised him a little, because he was the god of Thunder and power. Even if thunder could not use it, he still had power.


    In fact, when he saw that the four people in front of him were only mortals, most of the vignce in his heart had disappeared. Facing the four gun barrels pointed at him, Thor was ready to take another wave of attacks, then, he used the hammer in his hand to kill the four humans in front of him.

 Chapter 1323 - It Was Getting Late

    <h4>Chapter 1323: It Was Getting Late</h4>


    Sethy in the venttion duct, his ears pressed against the wall. He didn��t move at all, as if his entire body had been petrified. Only after a moment did his face reveal a hint of joy.


    Hearing the soundsing from upstairs, he knew that Thor had already started fighting with those humans.


    To be honest, Seth was quite curious about the oue of this battle. Thor, the most powerful god in the Nordic god system, was fighting against that mysterious human organization. The other party had a weapon that could kill gods, previously, he had already sessfully killed some of the weaker gods. This time, he hade prepared. If he could get rid of Thor, that would naturally be the oue Seth was most happy to see.


    Taking a step back, even if he couldn��t kill Thor, he could at least heavily injure that boorish man. His greatest threat in recent times had been eliminated. Other than that, Seth naturally didn��t have any good intentions towards the humans above him, he obviously knew what those guys were nning. They wanted to hide behind the scenes and incite a war between the new and Old Gods.


    And although Seth was their partner, he didn��t intend to let them be so happy. Watching from the sidelines wasn��t as lively as personallying down. Unfortunately, the current him didn��t have the time to appreciate this masterpiece of his, just as he was about to take advantage of the excitement to escape this ce.


    Seth opened the venttion pipe again. He first threw the unconscious mechanical god down, and then jumped down together with him. However, after running a few steps with the mechanical god on his back, he stopped, through the ss upstairs, Seth saw a young man dressed in a hip-hop style blocking the front door.


    The other party should have been scared by Thor��s hammer when they first met, so he did not run in with Thor. But obviously, he did not want to lose Thor��s trail, so he stood guard at the front door.., he waited for his newpanions to arrive.


    Seeing this, Seth scratched his head, feeling a headache.


    He didn��t want to waste any more time here, because he and Thor were the key figures that both the old and new god camps were looking for. They were in the eye of the storm, and the longer they waited, the more people woulde, it would be more difficult to escape.


    Seth rolled his eyes and saw the hounds that Artemis had brought along on the other side of the street. Most of the hounds were surrounding the god of electricity and the god of guns, helping Artemis to confront them, however, there were also a few hounds scattered nearby, maintaining vignce. One of them was very close to the building where he was now.


    Seth found two hams from a drawer under a desk, opened a window in the bathroom, and threw half of the hams out, about thirty meters away from the Hound.


    With the Hound��s sensitive nose, it immediately smelled the meat, but probably because its owner had ordered it, it did not run to pick up the hams, however, the saliva that came out of its mouth betrayed its true thoughts.


    Seeing this, Seth increased the price again and threw another half of the sausage. This time, it was thrown ten meters in front of the hound.


    This time, the hound finally could not hold it in anymore. Its duty was to be alert of the surrounding area, so running ten meters to eat the ham sausage was not considered going AWOL. It was just that its body was originally strong, that small piece couldn��t even be stuffed between its teeth. After eating a piece, it wanted to eat a second piece, and after eating a second piece, it wanted to eat a third piece... before it knew it, Seth had led it to the front door, it met that young man who was dressed very cheerfully.


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    Thetter didn��t take the dog to heart. Right now, all his attention was on the building, or more urately, on Thor in the building. Although he couldn��t take Thor��s hammer.., he thought that it was not a problem to deal with a dog.


    However, what he did not expect was that instead of finding trouble with the Beast, the Hound found him first. It barked non-stop at the sight of him and revealed its sharp teeth. It took half a step back, then, it elerated and pounced on him.


    The young man sneered at the situation. He reached out and took off the Marshall stereo on his back and pressed the y button.


    The next moment, as the sit down Behumble��s music sounded, the hound��s body suddenly trembled and it actually sat down on the ground. Then, its body uncontrobly swayed along with the music.


    Seth, who was upstairs, saw that the young man��s attention was attracted by the hound, so he did not waste this hard-earned opportunity. He carried the mechanical God and jumped down from the side window, the sound of theirnding waspletely drowned out by the noisy music, so naturally, they did not attract the young man��s attention.


    Seter did not turn back. He spread his legs and ran in the opposite direction of the tube-shaped building! He tried to distance himself from the two opposing gods as soon as possible.


    Unfortunately, the divine power in his body was still sealed. Previously, with Thor by his side, he really could not use any tricks. Fortunately, his body was strong enough. Even if he could not use divine power for the time being.., however, carrying a person on his back, he still ran as fast as he could. In less than ten minutes, he ran two kilometers away.


    Seeing that he was temporarily out of danger, Seth stood in front of a rice shop and took a breath. He was thinking about where he should go next, but in the next moment, he suddenly had a feeling that he was locked on by someone.


    Seth was shocked and didn��t dare to stop. He hurriedly ran into an alley at the side. He specifically chose a narrow and difficult ce to run. This was the old city district. Although the nning in the early years wasn��t bad, as time passed.., it was inevitable that it would be harder and harder to adapt to the development of the city, so there were many ces to build roads and rebuild.


    This gave Seth plenty of ces to cover his tracks. During this time, Seth also had the thought of getting rid of the mechanical god on his back. Previously, he had convinced the mechanical God to kill Zhang Heng, however, he had sold the mechanical god off with a flip of his hand. In reality, the two of them didn��t have much of a rtionship. The reason why Seth wanted to run away with him was purely because he felt that the mechanical god was a raremodity, moreover, the god of machinery was a reputable person in the new God camp. If he was really blocked by someone, he could be used to negotiate terms at the critical moment.


    Therefore, Seth thought about it and decided to continue carrying this burden. The person behind him did not seem to be in a hurry. He just hung on to him from far away. He neither showed himself nor was he shaken off.


    Seth still had the feeling that he was being watched. He ran for a distance and arrived in front of a snack street. At this time, the sun was about to set. Seth looked up at the gradually darkening sky, then, he carried the mechanical god and rushed into the Snack Street.

 Chapter 1324 - Ann

    <h4>Chapter 1324: Ann</h4>


    After running for such a long time, Seth was in a sorry state. He even knocked over a table on the way.


    The two men at the table were about to lose their temper, but when they saw Seth��s strong body, his face covered, and the person on his back, he didn��t look like a good person. Therefore, they suppressed the words that were about toe out of their mouths, after Seth ran far away, they whispered, ��What is he doing, acting like a gangster?��


    After that, he shouted for the boss to pay for another table of food and wine.


    As Seth ran, he kept looking behind him, trying to see who was chasing him. Unfortunately, he didn��t get what he wanted. He even deliberately stopped in front of a stall selling stinky tofu, he pretended to buy fried tofu, but he couldn��t trick the pursuers out.


    Seth had no choice but to continue running, but this time, he stopped again in less than half a minute.


    He narrowed his eyes and looked at the man in front of him.


    He was a square-faced man with an abnormally tall figure. He was not inferior to Seth. He had thick eyebrows, big eyes, and broad shoulders. He was wearing a washed-up t-shirt and squatting in front of a mutton soup restaurant, he was holding a bowl of mutton soup and two pancakes, and he was enjoying them.


    ��It��s You?��Seth looked a little surprised. ��Are you also here to stand up for Thor? I Thought You Anuenaki didn��t have much contact with those Nordic guys.��


    The Man with a square face didn��t answer immediately. Instead, he picked up his chopsticks, scooped up the pancakes and mutton, and then drank the rest of the mutton soup in the bowl.


    When he had finished the bowl of mutton soup, he burped in satisfaction, put down the bowl, and looked at Seth, ��I don��t care about the conflict between the new gods and the Old Gods. Since you recognized me, you should know what I do.��


    Seth suddenly understood, ��An, the king of the gods of Sumeria, the Chief Judge of Heaven and Earth, is in charge of the judgment of the gods. Although you are an old god, you are not entrusted by Odin... you represent the organizingmittee. Did Gaime ask you toe?��


    An did notment. ��Gaime asked me to be in charge of the rewards and punishments of the organizingmittee. Even if he did not say anything, I should havee. This is my responsibility.��


    ��What responsibility?��


    ��You broke the rules of the game set by the organizingmittee. You leaked the identity information of the yers and caused panic among the yers. Then, although you surrendered to the organizingmittee, you escaped from prison together with Thor. Not to mention that you are directly rted to the death of a new God. In addition, you are also responsible for the disappearance of the person on your back, the two Valkyries, and the phone god.��An paused, he asked again, ��Do you have anything to refute?��


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    Seth sighed. ��I was just about to go back to the organizingmittee and turn myself in again. Do you believe me?��


    An looked indifferent when he heard that. He only said, ��It doesn��t matter if I believe you or not. As long as you follow me obediently.��


    Seth��s eyes rolled again when he heard that, but he didn��t say anything after that. He just obediently walked up to an and didn��t haggle. He put the mechanical god on his back on the ground.


    Ann looked at the unconscious Mechanical God at her feet and handed the soup bowl to the owner of the soup shop. Then two men in military uniforms walked out of the cold-skin shop on the left and right. Without Ann saying anything, one on each side.., he set up the mechanical god on the ground.


    ��How are you going to take us back?��Seth asked again.


    ��I��m driving my truck.��An��s expression did not change. ��Trucks are not allowed to enter this street, so I parked my truck on the street next door.��


    ��Where��s Thor?��Seth asked again, ��Don��t tell me that the organizingmittee is also nning to wait and see. To deal with a small character like me who has no one to rely on, it��s up to you, the impartial chief judge, to make an arrest. As for Thor, who has the backing of the Nordic Gods, you just turn a blind eye to it. Come to think of it, he��s the one who caused the bigger mess between the two of us, right?��


    An originally did not want to discuss this matter with Seth, but since Seth questioned the fairness of the organizingmittee, an made an exception and exined a few more sentences. ��Thor��s situation is moreplicated, and the organizingmittee is still discussing...��


    At this point, an decided to make things clear, ��I have already submitted my opinion on Thor��s handling, but GAIME has never approved it. But you can rest assured that the organizingmittee will not ignore this matter. No matter what, he has killed a new god, and so many old gods here have been killed by him. There will definitely be an exnation.��


    ��Hearing you say that makes me feel much better,��Seth said. ��After all, I can��t be the only unlucky one.��


    Ann didn��t say anything else. She turned around and walked in the direction of the car. She didn��t even look at Seth, who was next to her. With his strength, it was almost impossible for Seth to stir up any trouble when he was dealing with Seth, who had lost all his divine power.


    As expected, Seth didn��t do anything else. He only looked behind him after Ann turned around, but he quickly retracted his gaze and followed Ann to his truck.


    Ann opened the truckpartment, and it was actually divided into a fewpartments. One of thepartments was actually a small capsule apartment with a bed, a television, and a small bookshelf, there were a few novels and manga on it. Ann made a gesture of invitation, and Seth obediently entered thepartment.


    Following that, two men in military uniforms threw the mechanical god into another emptypartment. Seth watched as the door of the truck closed in front of his eyes, and was about to take a book from the bookshelf to read, but he realized that this small capsule apartment was equipped with everything except for the lights.


    ��What is this?��


    Seth stared in the dark, feeling a little helpless.


    After a while, the car started to move. Seth, who had nothing to do, could only lie down on the bed and take a nap as the body of the car swayed.


    Seth did not know how long he had been here. When he woke up, he tried to turn on the television in front of him but failed. However, after a while, the van slowly stopped until itpletely stopped moving, the car door was opened again.


    Ann��s voice came from outside. ��Come down and eat something.��


    Seth then noticed that the sky outside waspletely dark. He jumped out of the car and found himself in a rest area on the highway. However, there were not many people in the rest area. It looked deserted. Seth deduced from this.., it should be gettingte. Perhaps it was because he was afraid of Ann��s strength, but he no longer felt like he was being targeted.

 Chapter 1325 - Meet Again

    <h4>Chapter 1325: Meet Again</h4>


    It was a sultry summer night.


    Even the air had be sticky.


    Seth got out of the car. First, he flexed his wrists and ankles. Then, he narrowed his eyes as if he was admiring the scenery in the rest area. However, his gaze secretly swept across the parking lot. Unfortunately, he did not see what he wanted to see, this disappointed him again.


    Seeing that an had already walked ahead, Seth could only follow her obediently.


    Because it was toote, the restaurants in the service area had already closed. However, the convenience store was still open. An and the others bought a few packets of instant noodles, pan-fried rice, and potato chips. Then, they packed four tea eggs at the cashier.


    When they were out of the door, Seth suddenly said, ��I want to go to the toilet.��


    Ann nodded without hesitation. However, after Seth took two steps, Ann��s voice came from behind him, ��Is the person you are waiting for not here yet?��


    Seth was stunned and stopped walking. A momentter, a strange expression appeared on his face.


    ��As the Chief Judge of the world, do you think I haven��t noticed your little tricks?��Ann continued.


    Seth was silent for a moment before he suddenlyughed again.


    ��I really can��t hide anything from you, so you deliberately stopped here in order to kill the person who came to save me?��


    Ann silently agreed with this statement.


    Seth��s tone was very rxed, ��You��re thinking too much. Although I��m one of the nine pir gods of Egypt, I��ve long fallen out with others. My sister and nephew Can��t Wait for me to die as soon as possible. Otherwise, I wouldn��t have been the only one busying myself for so long.��


    However, the more Seth said this, the more Ann was certain that he had hidden allies.


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    However, before he could speak, a gunshot suddenly rang out without warning, as if to confirm Seth��s statement. Immediately after, a ball of blood burst out from Seth��s head, under Ann��s astonished gaze, he fell back and fell to the ground.


    However, the gunshot did not stop there. Instead, it became more intense. The bullets nted downwards, flying towards Seth��s corpse.


    This change caught an off guard. Although he had guessed from Seth��s reaction that there might be someone tailing him, he had not expected that someone would be following him. However, he had not expected that the other party was here to take Seth��s life. Seth had indeed done a lot of terrible things recently, but strictly speaking, it was mainly because he had vited the rules of the organizingmittee, even though everyone had guessed that he had been in contact with the deaths and disappearances of several gods recently, there was no absolute evidence.


    In contrast, Thor��s situation was more serious. It had directly caused the death of a new god, injured a few new gods, and robbed people in front of the organizingmittee.


    As the Chief Judge of the organizingmittee, Ann Naturally wanted to capture Thor. However, it wasn��t as if Ann didn��t know about the current tense situation between the new and Old Gods. This time, the god of science, Odin, and Zeus had all appeared, there were also quite a number of new and Old Gods involved. Even if he represented the organizingmittee, it would be difficult for him to bring Thor back without Gaime personally speaking, so he could only settle for the second best.


    At that time, it wasn��t as if no one had noticed that Seth had run away while the new and Old Gods were busy fighting. However, Seth wasn��t their main target to begin with. Moreover, since Ann had already arrived, everyone was willing to give the organizingmittee some face, they did not chase after him.


    That was why Ann guessed that the person who hade was Seth��s aplice. Seth had not admitted this before, but his vague answer had been luring Ann to this point. That was why Ann had not expected that.., the person behind him was actually here to kill Seth.


    However, his reaction was very quick. Within seconds after the gunshot, he had kicked Seth, who had been shot, back into the convenience store beside him.


    However, he did not Dodge. Instead, he rushed toward the source of the gunshot.


    Even though he was suddenly attacked, Ann��s mind was still clear. As he ran, he said to the two men dressed like soldiers behind him, ��Go, watch Seth!��


    The two of them ran into the convenience store without saying a word, but the gunshot on the other side stopped.


    However, it was useless because Ann had already locked onto the attacker��s location.


    The attacker used a pistol tomit the crime, so he was bound to not be too far away. However, his marksmanship was very good. In such a dark situation, the first shot was actually able to urately hit Seter��s head, and the next few shots were aimed at Seter��s vital points, ann��s first reaction was to think that it was the god of guns who had acted.


    However, when Ann arrived at the ce where the gunshot had sounded, she realized that the attacker had disappeared from her vision again.


    The other party was obviously quite adept at hiding, but Ann was not in a hurry. She only grabbed a nearby stone and crushed it. She threw the powder into the air, and immediately, a row of footprints appeared on the ground, this was one of Ann��s abilities as a judge.


    Looking at the direction of the footprints, it was surprisingly the convenience store where Seth was. Ann raised her eyebrows slightly. He clearly did not expect the attacker to be so bold. He had actually bypassed him and was prepared to attack Seth again. Fortunately, he had always been on guard against this move.


    The two people he left beside Seth were his guards in the divine kingdom, which was equivalent to Odin��s Valkyrie. Of course, the influence of the Sumerian myth was not as strong as that of the Norse myth, his two guards were not as famous as those valkyries, but they were not weak. Most importantly, they could carry out his orders meticulously and were not afraid of death.


    In Ann��s opinion, even if they could not defeat the attacker, it would not be a problem to dy them.


    However, what Ann did not expect was that as soon as he ran back to the convenience store, he saw one of his guards fly out, while the other guard was shot in the thigh and fell to the ground, unable to stand up again.


    An frowned when he saw this scene. These guards were personally trained by him, so he naturally understood them very well. Forget about the one who flew out.., logically speaking, even if he struggled, he would still be able to get up from the ground after being shot in the leg. There was no reason for him to just lie there, and his eyes were actually tightly shut, looking extremely weak and in pain.


    However, an couldn��t be bothered to look at him anymore because he finally saw the attacker. However, to his surprise, the person standing in front of him was not a god, but a mere human.


    However, the man was wearing a gas mask, so his face couldn��t be seen. However, an could still recognize the man from his clothes. At the same time.., zhang Heng also recognized the square-faced man who had just eaten with him at the same table.


    Both of them were surprised because they had not expected to see each other again after that brief encounter a few hours ago. Furthermore, that day hade so quickly.

 Chapter 1326 - The Oldest God

    <h4>Chapter 1326: The Oldest God</h4>


    Seeing that his disguise was no longer effective, Zhang Heng took off the gas mask on his head. By then, he had almost finished shooting the bullets in his gun. He only had one bullet left, so just in case, he put the gun away, he pulled out the [ hidden scabbard ] from his waist.


    Seth had been shot four times, one in the head, one in the chest, and two in one arm and one in the thigh.


    From the looks of it, he was in a sorry state. ck blood was oozing out of his wounds, and hey motionless on the ground. However, Zhang Heng still had no intention of letting him go.


    If possible, Zhang Heng did not want to risk his life. His original n was to finish off Seth with a long shot and then drive away. Unfortunately, the previous wave of attacks.., only the first two shots hit Seth��s Vitals, and by the time an realized what was happening, he had already kicked Seth into the convenience store.


    Even though Zhang Heng had guessed that the Bullets in the gun would be very powerful against the gods, this was his first time using it, so he had no idea how powerful it was.


    Furthermore, Seth had already separated from Thor. Zhang Heng only hesitated for a moment before deciding to chase after him to the convenience store to continue the attack. He knew very well that if he could not finish off Seth even after such a good opportunity.., then it would be even more difficult to kill Seter after that.


    An��s expression changed when he saw Zhang Heng. He asked in a deep voice, ��Do you know who I am?��


    ��You haven��t asked?��


    ��I am an, the main god of the Sumerians and Akkadian, the king of Anunnaki, the judge of Heaven and Earth,��an said slowly. ��I am also the oldest God in existence.��


    ��Sumerian myth? That is indeed quite early.��Zhang Heng searched through his mind and came to a sudden realization.


    An��s words were not boasting. The Two Rivers Basin was the earliest known civilization of mankind. As early as 3500 AD, the Sumerians had established a country and city on thisnd, and they had even invented writing, inparison, the Chinese civilization, which was also very early, was only officially established around 1600 AD. As for the Mayan civilization, it was eventer, about 600 yearster than the Chinese civilization.


    In fact, many religious stories now also originated from Sumerian mythology. For example, the Great Flood and Noah��s Ark in the Bible, as well as the parts of the Tower of Babel, were all processed from the original version of Sumerian mythology, therefore, it was not a problem for Ann to say that she was the oldest God in existence. As for the ancient sacrifices that were carved on the stone walls earlier, they were long gone because there were no words left to pass down to the next generation.


    ��I am also the current presiding judge of the organizingmittee.��Ann slowly gave up herst job, and her expression became serious. ��Do you know what you are doing?��


    ��Killing a person who should have died a long time ago,��Zhang Heng replied.


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    ��He has indeed done a lot of bad things, but no matter what, Seth is one of the nine pir gods of Egypt. Naturally, the gods should be the ones to handle the matters of the gods. This is also one of the responsibilities of the organizingmittee.��


    ��If the organizingmittee had really performed their duties properly, there wouldn��t be a need for me to make a move today,��Zhang Heng said calmly.


    An couldn��t help but fall silent. However, he was, after all, the presiding judge. He quickly came back to his senses and shook his head, ��Since Seth has already fallen into my hands, I will give him the punishment he deserves. No matter what, it��s impossible for a mortal to carry out a lynching.��


    ��Then it looks like we can��te to an agreement today.��Zhang Heng wasn��t surprised by this result. Although the other party was sent by the organizingmittee to capture Seth, it was clear that they wanted a living Seth, not a dead Seth, especially since the organizingmittee wanted to pry the location of the phone God out of Seth.


    An nodded. He had already noticed the abnormality of the pistol in Zhang Heng��s hand. No matter whether it was Seth or his guards, based on their physique, they should not have been so severely injured even if they had been shot.


    Therefore, after settling down, he said to Zhang Heng, ��Show Me the gun in your hand.��


    His expression was natural as he said this, as if this was something that was supposed to happen. In fact, as he said this.., a golden light shed in his eyes as he looked at Zhang Heng.


    Their eyes met. Even with Zhang Heng��s willpower, he couldn��t help but feel the urge to pass the gun in his hand to the other party. It was as if this was the right thing to do.


    However, Zhang Heng��s mental training during this period of time was not in vain. Especially when he silently recited the mantra of Xiao Shan��s flowing heart. When he clearly saw his true heart, he instantly came to his senses.


    An��s eyes shed with a strange light. It was not that he had never seen a person who could resist his own mental attack, but it was indeed beyond his expectations that the other party could escape so quickly.


    However, an didn��t mind. He looked at the knife in Zhang Heng��s hand and said, ��Then let me experience your knife skills.��After saying that, he grabbed the streetmp at the side, he actually pulled the streetmp out from the ground.


    To be honest, Zhang Heng didn��t want to fight the oldest god in front of him. The Sumerian god system��s poprity was average, far less than the Nordic god system. However, an was the main god of the Sumerian god system, so he wouldn��t be easy to deal with.


    Most importantly, even if Zhang Heng won this fight, it would be meaningless. He was only sent by ISIS to kill Seth. He had no intention to tangle with others, nor did he want the organizingmittee to focus on him.


    However, looking at the current situation, Zhang Heng knew that if he could not defeat or force the square-faced man to retreat, he would not be able to finish off Seth.


    Therefore, Zhang Heng could only raise his de. ��Please advise me.��


    An smiled and without further ado, he swung the streetmp at the young man opposite him.


    However, the result was a little different from what he had expected.


    Zhang Heng didn��t retreat or Dodge the lightning bolt. He didn��t do anything else. It was only when themp post was about to hit his head that he finally swung the [ hidden scabbard ] in his hand, however, the next moment, themp post was cut into two!


    The smile on an��s face froze with the strike.


    He did not expect the knife in Zhang Heng��s hand to be so strong that it could even cut through a streetmp. He did not expect the speed of Zhang Heng��s strike to be so fast. When he saw Zhang Heng firing a few shots, he initially thought that Zhang Heng was good at Spearmanship, however, from the looks of it, this young man��s de technique seemed to be even better.


    An realized that he had probably met a powerful enemy tonight, so he did not dare to be careless anymore. He stretched out his hand and summoned his scepter from the truck.

 Chapter 1327 - Desire

    <h4>Chapter 1327: Desire</h4>


    As Ann gripped the scepter, a triple crown appeared above his head.


    The top, middle, and bottomyers of the triple crown were made of different materials. They were iid with gemstones, gold, and silver, making them look majestic. At the same time, a red carpet was under Ann��s feet, it was extending toward Zhang Heng.


    Of course, Zhang Heng wasn��t naive enough to think that the carpet was weing him. He immediately moved again, avoiding the carpet that wasing his way. Then, he charged toward Ann, before the Triple Crown on Ann��s head could fully materialize, he had already shed down with his sword.


    Seeing this, Ann raised the scepter in her hand to wee him. This time, [ hidden scabbard ] was unable to break the weapon in Ann��s hand. As the two weapons shed, a crisp golden sound rang out.


    The scepter in an��s hand was obviously a game item, and its quality should not be low. That was why it was able to block [ hidden scabbard ] .


    However, this was only Zhang Heng��s first attack. Since he had already seized the opportunity to attack, there was no reason for Zhang Heng to give up with just one attack. Just as an was about to raise the scepter to counterattack, he did not expect Zhang Heng��s second attack to arrive, an had no choice but to ce his scepter horizontally in front of his chest to receive the second attack. However, before he could do anything else, Zhang Heng��s third attack came..


    Seeing this, an had no choice but to focus on neutralizing Zhang Heng��s attack.


    Even though he tried to counterattack a few times but failed, his face did not show much anxiety.


    Indeed, with his status and position in the Sumerian god system, it was somewhat beneath him to be suppressed by a human. However, it was not as if Ann had never seen an outstanding mortal before, for example, the man named Gilgamesh.


    Back then, in order to deal with him, the goddess Aruru created a barbarian warrior named n��kidu. However, in the end, Gilgamesh��s skills were superior. Not only did he defeat N��kidu.., what the gods didn��t expect was that after this battle, the two of them actually became friends. Together, they managed the country to flourish.


    After that, Gilgamesh rejected the goddess Ishtar��s proposal and killed the Bull of Heaven that Ann sent to punish him, after n��kidu died, in order to find a way to live forever, he also experienced a soul-stirring legendary adventure.


    Even in the realm of gods, the story of the hero Gilgamesh was widely spread.


    However, Ann had no time to reminisce about a human from more than 4,000 years ago. This was because the opponent in front of him was obviously more difficult to deal with. This did not mean that Zhang Heng��s true strength had surpassed Gilgamesh��s, the main reason was that the Sumerian gods led by Ann were no longer as brave as before.


    However, an now had an advantage that he did not have back then. Although his strength, speed, and reaction had be weaker, hisbat experience had be richer, and he had be more patient as a result.


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    However, what an did not expect was that the young man opposite him was actually as fast as a knife. Moreover, as he increased the speed of his knife, his movements did not reveal any ws as he had initially expected.


    An��s expression changed slightly. Now that he was able to deal with the young man��s attack, he began to feel some pressure. On the other hand, the young man was still able to deal with it with ease. An did not know if it was his imagination.., he felt that as the battle progressed, the young man seemed to havepletely merged with the sword. There was no longer any gap between the two. The edge of the sword actually became more and more intense.


    An did not have time to think about how he was going to receive Zhang Heng��s attack. The next moment, his gaze swept across the scepter in his hand, and he was even more shocked, this was because he realized that the scepter, which symbolized his status and power, had unknowingly be riddled with holes. The ces where the sword had collided with the opponent��s were filled with cracks and cracks!


    An could not help but blurt out, ��What kind of weapon is that in your hand? !��


    ��Hidden scabbard,��Zhang Heng replied, but his attacks did not stop.


    An��s face revealed a look of contemtion, but then it turned into confusion. ��Hidden scabbard, which God��s weapon is this? Why haven��t I heard of this name before?��


    ��Because this saber doesn��t belong to any God. It was only my weapon when it was born.��


    Zhang Heng held the long de in his hand, but this was the first time he felt the desire of the [ hidden scabbard ] . Yes, it was desire. The most pious knife makers in the capital had always believed that each de contained a unique soul.


    When he first encountered the [ hidden scabbard ] , Zhang Heng had felt the ruthlessness hidden in the de, but this was purely a subjective intuition, more like a reflection of the knife maker��s emotions at the time, or perhaps it was the weak aura that had been left behind by the assimtion of the previous owner.


    However, this time, the desire was so strong that Zhang Heng could clearly feel the intention of [ hidden scabbard ] to cut off the scepter in an��s hand. When Zhang Heng came into contact with this thought, he was not shocked but happy.


    He seemed to have thought of something. He did not suppress this sudden desire as the owner. Instead, he listened carefully to the heart of the de in his hand and tried to incorporate this desire into his de technique.


    It was only now that his de technique had reached level 4 that he was able to do this. Using the hidden scabbard��s desire, Zhang Heng��s de technique��s power had also increased by another level.


    An��s previous feeling wasn��t an illusion. At this moment, Zhang Heng had indeed be one with [ hidden scabbard ] . He had even forgotten about Seth, who was still alive, and there was only one thing left in his eyes, and that was to cut off the scepter in an��s hand!


    Therefore, facing this simple attack, an realized that he had no other choice but to continue using the already damaged scepter in his hand to defend himself.


    In the end, the already-exhausted scepter shattered into pieces after several collisions with [ hidden scabbard ] .


    An held the remaining half of the broken scepter in her hand and stood rooted to the ground, her face filled with confusion.


    Zhang Heng, on the other hand, had changed from his previous domineering attitude. He actually sheathed his saber and even bowed to an.


    Zhang Heng could feel the changes in the [ hidden scabbard ] after chopping down the scepter, in fact, when he first felt the strong desire from the [ hidden scabbard ] , he had already thought of the previous appraisal results regarding the [ hidden scabbard ] , at the end, there was a sentence that said, ��The forger left space for the de to level up.��


    In other words, this B-grade game item actually had a chance of leveling up. It was just that Zhang Heng hadn��t been able to find a way to level it up for so long. At first, he had thought that it was to kill some supernatural creatures, but in the following few battles, even after killing Loki, [ hidden scabbard ] still didn��t make any movements. It wasn��t until this time, after chopping off the scepter in Ann��s hand, that [ hidden scabbard ] finally made some changes.

 Chapter 1328 - No Worries

    <h4>Chapter 1328: No Worries</h4>


    Zhang Heng realized that he might have found a way to upgrade [ hidden scabbard ] in this battle, but he didn��t have the time to examine his saber.


    After chopping off an��s scepter, there was finally no one in the service area who could stop him from finishing off Seth. Zhang Heng only wanted to finish this most important task as soon as possible so that he wouldn��t bete.


    Therefore, he ignored an, who was standing there in a daze, and turned around to walk back to the convenience store.


    After witnessing the gunfight and the two subsequent battles that exceededmon sense, the cashier had already fainted on the ground. Zhang Heng ignored him and returned to the front of Seth. Then, he raised the [ hidden scabbard ] in his hand and aimed it at the back of Seth��s heart, he stabbed it in.


    After stabbing the scabbard, Zhang Heng was still worried. He pulled out the [ hidden scabbard ] and prepared to chop off Seth��s head again. However, at that moment, a sense of danger suddenly rose in his heart.


    To be honest, Zhang Heng did not know where the danger came from. After all, an��s two guards were still lying on the ground, and an had just been chopped off by him. At that moment, he was immersed in disbelief and unwillingness. For Zhang Heng.., it was very likely that he would be able topletely understand the situation with just one stab.


    However, the battle instinct that he had gained from so many dungeons still prompted him to stop what he was doing. At the same time, he used his [ hidden scabbard ] to shield his body. Almost at the same time that he finished doing this.., a silver hammer tore through the darkness and flew toward his chest at an unimaginable speed.


    When [ hidden scabbard ] collided with the hammer, Zhang Heng felt as if he had been hit by a high-speed train.


    He subconsciously activated the [ earthly scale -RSB- on his cheAt. at this poiZhanghHengheng had no time to think about the limits of his boHe. he increased his strength by five times, his muscles felt like they were about to tear apart, but he was still unable to take the blow. He was sent flying and knocked down three rows of shelves.


    This sudden scene also brought the dazed an back to reality.


    He looked at the figure walking out of the darkness on the other side of the service area, and his expression changed. ��Thor?��


    The reason why an used a question instead of a statement was that the Thor in front of him was too different from the Thor in his memory.


    The Thor in front of him did not have the slightest bit of the glorious image of invincibility in Norse mythology.


    At this moment, his body was covered with wounds of all sizes, especially the few bullet wounds on his chest. For some unknown reason, blood was still flowing out, and one of his eyes had been directly shot out, there was only a bloody hole left there, but the most shocking thing was that his left hand, under his elbow, hadpletely disappeared.


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    In fact, Thor was also panting heavily after throwing out his Mikhail. When he heard Ann��s voice, he raised his head and looked at her coldly, but did not say anything and continued to walk towards the convenience store.


    However, when he walked to Ann��s side, thetter hesitated for a moment before asking again, ��What happened to your injuries?��


    ��I met a few rats that were hiding in the gutter and sneakily got bitten by them,��Thor said in a hoarse voice, ��Unfortunately, I didn��t manage to kill all of them and one of them escaped.��


    ��Your current situation doesn��t look good. You��d better find someone to treat you first,��Ann advised.


    ��It��s fine.��Thor didn��t seem to care. The anger in his remaining eye was almost overflowing. ��Let me settle the score with my old friend First.��


    However, when he raised his foot and was about to continue walking forward, he didn��t expect a hand to block his way.


    Thor��s gaze turned cold when he saw that hand.


    ��You want to stop me?��


    ��It��s my duty. I Can��t not stop you.��An sighed and said seriously.


    Thor didn��t think much of it. ��You can��t even stop a mortal. What makes you think you can stop me?��


    An didn��t answer. She nced at Thor��s wounds and broken arm again. After a moment, she said, ��In your current situation, I don��t want to fight you. Besides, we��re both Old Gods...��


    Thor interrupted an roughly, ��Even if I only have one hand, you��re still no match for me.��


    An didn��t retort, but she didn��t take back her hand either.


    Thor was also very straightforward. He waved his hand and summoned Myrtle Neil from the convenience store, ��I don��t have time to talk nonsense with you, Old Man. I��m not joking with you. If you don��t want to die here, get out of the way.��


    Ann looked at the hammer in Thor��s hand and asked again, ��How did you leave the other gods who were looking for you behind?��


    ��You��ll find out soon enough.��Thor waved the hammer in his hand and sneered.


    ��What��s the point of doing this? As far as I know, although the son of Odin is a bit reckless, he��s not a fool. You know that your current actions will only make things worse. Isn��t that what the people behind the scenes want?��


    Thor finally fell into silence. After a moment, he said again, ��I Need Seth to bring me to my wife.��


    ��Then you should cooperate with the organizingmittee. You are a member of the organizingmittee, so you should know the power of the organizingmittee. Whether it��s the new God or the old God, we can help you negotiate andmunicate with them so that you can find your wife as soon as possible.��


    ��No.��Thor shook his head. ��I have to do this personally.��


    ��Why?��An asked, confused.


    ��Because... he wants me to do this. He always has a way to get what he wants.��Thor��s expression was a little strange when he said this.


    ��Who wants you to do this?��An asked again, but Thor no longer answered. He only raised the hammer in his hand.


    At this time, the Triple Crown on an��s head had finally materialized. Speaking of which, Zhang Heng was indeed suspected of stealing the chicken in the previous battle. Before the Crown on an��s head had fully formed, he had already ended the battle, at the same time, he stopped in time so that an couldn��t make a move anymore. Now, it was time for an to show her true strength.


    A green light shot out from the first crown of the Triple Crown. In the next moment, Thor felt his remaining arm stiffen as if it had been petrified, however, before an could rejoice, a bolt of lightning struck down from the sky and wrapped around Thor��s arm.


    As the lightning wrapped around his arm, Thor finally regained control of his arm and swung out with Mernier.


    Ann��s scepter had already been shattered by Zhang Heng in the previous battle, but he did not panic in the face of Thor��s hammer. The second crown of the Triple Crown shot out a red light, however, this time, the target of the red light was not Thor, but the carpet under Ann��s feet.

 Chapter 1329 - Confrontation

    <h4>Chapter 1329: Confrontation</h4>


    When the red light shone on the carpet, it immediately raised its head and turned into a soft wall, blocking Ann.


    Thor��s hammer hit the carpet like it hit a thin piece of paper, easily passing through it. However, there was more than oneyer of the soft wall. After Meriel broke through oneyer, he immediately encountered anotheryer, and after breaking through thisyer, there was anotheryer..


    Even though this divine hammer was extraordinary, coupled with Thor��s terrifying divine power, it gradually lost its strength under theyers of barriers. In the end, its speed became slower and slower.


    Thor did not hesitate at all when he saw this. He waved his hand again and called back Meriel, who seemed to have fallen into a quagmire.


    The first exchange between the two ended with Thor��s failure.


    On the other hand, Ann was not at ease either. The expression on her face became more and more serious. She used the carpet under her feet as a wall to block Thor��s attack. She did not hold back at all, however, she did not expect that the hammer would still be less than a step away from her.


    If Thor was not worried that Mikhail would be entangled when he was exhausted again, Ann would have been hit by the hammer. Therefore, Ann did not dare to stand still and wait for Thor��s second attack, the topyer of the triple crown lit up,


    however, an underestimated Thor. Although thetter��s body was covered in wounds of all sizes and he had lost an arm, he was still brave enough to charge forward with myrtle.


    If an had the scepter in his hand, he might have been able to block it. Unfortunately, his scepter had already been cut off by Zhang Heng in the previous battle, so he had no choice but to retreat, at the same time, she hoped that the carpet under her feet would be able to stop Thor.


    Unfortunately, when Myrtle was held in her master��s hand, it was no longer the same as when she had been thrown. Thor was the god of lightning and power, so the divine power in his body was almost endless, myrtle turned into a silver bolt of lightning in his hand, and the carpet that Ann��s hand passed through was reduced to ashes before it could even touch it.


    As a result, Ann could not spare any time to activate the third crown. As Thor stepped forward, the distance between the two of them continued to close, and sweat began to appear on Ann��s forehead.


    In fact, if Thor did not want to expose his whereabouts and was reluctant to activate the Lightning, he might have already lost.


    In just a short night, Ann��s scepter was cut off, and then he was defeated by Thor, who was seriously injured. No matter how good his temper was, he could not help but feel a little embarrassed.


    However, just as Thor was about to seed, he suddenly withdrew Mikhail from his hand and swung it behind him. However, this time, he wasn��t able to send the person behind him flying like before.


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    Immediately after, a de avoided Mikhail��s sharp edge and actually shed towards his waist!


    At this point, Thor, who had been pressing forward ever since he appeared, finally had no choice but to take half a step back to his side.


    An stared at the figure behind Thor, his eyes filled with shock. He didn��t expect the ordinary human who had been sent flying by Thor��s hammer to be able to get back up so quickly. Even though he seemed to be slightly injured.., however, it didn��t seem to affect the battle.


    Thor shifted his gaze from an to Zhang Heng, and then to Seth, who was lying on the floor of the convenience store. When he saw the bullet holes on Seth��s body that were also bleeding, he seemed to have thought of something, and his eyes gradually turned cold.


    Zhang Heng also felt Thor��s hostility toward him. He did not know where the hostility came from. Logically speaking, the rtionship between Thor and Seth did not seem to be so good that they could wear the same pants, even if he was here to kill Seth, there was no reason for Thor to have such strong killing intent toward him.


    However, Zhang Heng did not panic. If Thor had been at his peak, he might have had no choice but to run away if he had missed the first strike. However, after watching the battle between Thor and an.., zhang Heng felt that he had a chance, not to mention that he still had a trump card.


    Because of Zhang Heng��s participation, the three of them were temporarily in a stalemate.


    In terms of strength, even though Thor was heavily injured, he was still the strongest of the three. However, if an and Zhang Heng joined forces, Thor would be at a disadvantage in a one-on-two fight.


    However, after a moment, Thor spoke first. ��Name your price.��


    ��What price?��An asked.


    However, to his surprise, Thor turned to look at Zhang Heng after he said that. Zhang Heng was also a little surprised, but he reacted quickly. An was the chief judge of the organizingmittee, and he was known for his impartiality, since he wanted to bring Seth back to the organizingmittee, there was no turning back. On the other hand, he, whose origin was unknown, had be the only person who could temporarily cooperate with him, therefore, Thor forcefully suppressed his murderous intent toward him.


    An became nervous when he saw this, but then he heard Zhang Heng reply, ��I promised someone else that I would get rid of Sait.��


    Thor frowned when he heard this, but he didn��t say anything else. Instead, he held Mikhail in his hand again. It seemed like he was going to snatch sait away from the two of them. However, just as the atmosphere became more and more tense.., he heard Zhang Heng continue, ��However, that man didn��t promise me when he would kill Seth. I heard you say that you��re looking for Seth because you want to find your wife��s whereabouts from him?��


    ��That��s right,��Thor said warily.


    Zhang Heng nced at the starfish in his hand, ��From now on, I can give you seven minutes to question him and wait for seven minutes before I make my move. However, I can��t guarantee that he��s still alive. After all, he was stabbed by me, and I shot him in the heart and head.��


    ��One of the Egyptian pir gods is not going to die so easily,��Thor said coldly. However, after a moment of hesitation, he realized that this might be the only eptable solution for him at the moment, he nodded at Zhang Heng. ��Deal.��


    After saying that, he turned around and walked into the convenience store without hesitation. He did not even look at an.


    An, who was ignored by the two of them, was speechless. He opened his mouth to say something, but with Zhang Heng��s words, the two of them formed a temporary alliance. Even if he wanted to stop them.., there was nothing he could do.


    An finally turned to Zhang Heng. ��Are you so sure that he��ll keep his promise?��


    ��The name Thor is still trustworthy. Also,��Zhang Heng paused, ��Aren��t you still here? If he doesn��t hand over Seth to me in seven minutes, it��ll just be the three of us facing off again.��


    ��...��


    An wanted to retort, but he was at a loss for words. It could only be said that sometimes it wasn��t a good thing to stand firm. He asked himself if Thor really wanted to take Seth away.., he still had to pinch his nose and join forces with Zhang Heng to stop Thor.

 Chapter 1330 - Promise

    <h4>Chapter 1330: Promise</h4>


    Thor did not use up the seven minutes Zhang Heng had given him. He walked into the convenience store and dragged Seth into the staff locker room behind him.


    When he came out five minutester, his right palm and Mikhail��s were stained with blood.


    Thor took a packet of wet tissues from the shelf and tore it open. As he wiped his hands, he walked back to Zhang Heng and an. He first looked up at an, then said to Zhang Heng, ��He��s yours.��


    Even though an had already guessed the oue, his expression changed slightly when he heard that. He said to Zhang Heng, ��No Matter What Seth did, you have no right to execute a god.��


    ��You��re right, but this isn��t the first time I��ve done something like this,��Zhang Heng said. However, he grabbed the [ hidden scabbard ] by his waist again.


    An saw that he couldn��t convince Zhang Heng, so he turned to Thor. ��Since you��ve gotten what you want, you should return Seth to the organizingmittee.��


    ��Even though I don��t like that kid, he has a good point. The name Thor is still trustworthy,��the god of thunder and power said nonchntly. After a pause, he turned to Zhang Heng, ��I��ll help you keep an eye on this old man. If you want to kill Seth, go ahead. Just a reminder, if you want to kill himpletely, you have to split his body into more than seven parts. Otherwise, he��ll still have a way to revive.��


    Zhang Heng thanked him and walked into the changing room. As the door closed again, an��s face was ashen. He questioned Thor, ��So you��re really going to go through with this?��


    Thor didn��t answer the question. Instead, he said, ��I said that when this matter is over, I��ll take the initiative to apologize to GAIME.��


    ��You have no idea how big of a mess you��ve created, do you?��Ann looked at Thor seriously.


    ��No, on the contrary, I know that the rtionship between the new God and the old God has be tense because of my actions,��Thor said unexpectedly. ��However, I don��t think I should bear the main responsibility for this.��


    ��Then who should be responsible, Seth?��


    ��Of course it��s not Seth. Seth was just an idiot who was used from the beginning to the end. Of course, I��m not qualified to say anything about him because I��m actually the same as him.��Thor shook his head, ��Compared to Seth, you should pay more attention to that kid inside.��


    ��He cut off my scepter. Of course I��ll pay attention to him.��


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    ��No, I��m not talking about his strength.��Thor pointed at the bullet holes on his body, ��You asked me about the injuries on my body before. I told you that I met a group of rats. They were a group of humans with unknown origins. They were well-prepared and well-trained.��


    ��Just because they were well-prepared and well-trained, can they injure you to this extent?��Ann found it hard to believe. After all, Thor was the ceiling ofbat strength among the Nordic Gods, and he was also the signature figure among the old gods, there was no need to doubt his strength, especially since both sides had just exchanged blows. No one knew better than Ann how strong Thor was.


    ��Just because you��re well-prepared, well-trained, of course, isn��t enough. However, they invented a bullet that has a very strong lethality against gods like us. Those weak gods who are hit by the bullet are very likely to die, and even I will be severely restrained.��


    ��There��s actually such a bullet?��An was shocked when he heard this. Then, he thought of Seth from before and the guard who had been shot. He immediately reacted, ��Are you saying that the kid inside and the one who injured you are from the same group?��


    ��I don��t know,��Thor said straightforwardly, ��But I believe that even if he��s not with those rats, he��s at least rted to them. However, I only left one of the people who attacked me alive. After that, hemitted suicide. Moreover, I still have to save my wife, so I don��t have the time to investigate this matter. However, I believe that the organizingmittee will be interested in this news because the disappearance and death of the gods recently might be rted to them.��


    An did not object. His expression became serious. ��If what you said is true, the organizingmittee will definitely investigate.��


    ��Just nice. Now you have a good opportunity in front of you.��Thor pointed his mouth in the direction of the convenience store��s changing room. Under an��s astonished gaze, he spoke, ��I only promised to let him kill Seth. I didn��t say that I would let him leave after that.��


    An was ted when he heard this, but then he seemed to have thought of something that was difficult to say.


    Thor was very straightforward when he saw this. ��I��ll do it as well. Just take it as making up for some of the mistakes I��ve made before. I know that I��ve caused a lot of trouble for the organizingmittee, but I can��t go back with you just like that.��


    An knew that Thor was telling the truth, and he was helpless about this. It was his fault for not being able to defeat Thor. Fortunately, although he had lost Thor and Seth Tonight, he had gained something else.


    However, at this moment, an��s heart skipped a beat. He raised his head and noticed that the clock on the wall of the convenience store was pointing to zero.


    Thor revealed a puzzled look when he saw this. ��Why? Is there a problem?��


    ��There was an area around here where the flow of time wasn��t right,��an said in a low voice. The reason why he was able to notice the problem at the first moment was because he was, after all, the main god of Sumerian mythology, although there was no such thing as time in the priesthood, controlling all living things also included time.


    However, he was, after all, not a real god of time. The limit was that he could sense that there might be a problem with the time in the surrounding area. As for what exactly was wrong, he couldn��t sense it.


    However, at this point, there was no need for him to sense it anymore. Thor immediately rushed into the convenience store��s changing room after he gave the warning, only to see Seth, who was dismembered on the ground, however, there was no trace of the human inside.


    ��He has already left.��Thor��s expression turned ugly.


    After all, the human had left right under his and an��s noses. Furthermore, he didn��t feel anything. He had just been discussing with an how to deal with Zhang Heng outside.


    An, on the other hand, had already calmed down. He looked at the bloody scene in the locker room and seemed to have thought of something, ��He can control time, and he��s so skilled... could he be Kronos��agent?��


    Without another word, Thor jumped onto the roof of the convenience store. He scanned his surroundings to make sure that Zhang Heng was nowhere to be seen. Without saying goodbye to an, he leaped into the darkness.


    Even though he hated the group of humans that had attacked him, he knew that the most important thing now was to find his wife. Therefore, seeing that Zhang Heng had disappeared, he had no intention of going with an to search for her, he had actually left just like that.

 Chapter 1331 - Seth Was Dead

    <h4>Chapter 1331: Seth Was Dead</h4>


    Just as Thor and Ann were searching for Zhang Heng near the convenience store, thetter had already returned thousands of miles away, outside Isis��health club in the mountains.


    It was just past midnight. Zhang Heng parked his car in front of the main door, but he realized that unlike the first time he hade, the health club��s main door was tightly shut, and it was pitch ck inside.


    Zhang Heng carried his luggage out of the car and pressed the doorbell.


    However, after waiting for about five minutes, there was still no response from inside. No one came to open the door, and the maid of Isis, the Egyptian woman, was nowhere to be seen.


    Zhang Heng frowned at the situation. He took out his [ pet wire ] and shook the wire to get it to work. However, when the [ pet wire ] opened the door in front of him.., zhang Heng retracted his hand from pushing the door open.


    Then, he climbed up the drainage pipe to the fourth floor and came to a window on the east side.


    Zhang Heng remembered clearly that this was the reception room where he and Isis had first met.


    Just as hended, a dagger silently stabbed toward his waist in the darkness. At the same time, Zhang Heng heard the sound of a bow. A crossbow arrow shot out from behind him. The target was precisely his back.


    The knife and arrow blocked all his routes of movement. However, even though the situation was critical, Zhang Heng remained calm. He did not have time to pull out the [ hidden scabbard ] from his waist. Instead, he used the scabbard to block the arrow, he pushed away the dagger in front of him and used the force to move his body half a step to the side of his left hand. However, he also dodged the crossbow arrow behind him.


    Zhang Heng immediately pulled out his [ hidden scabbard ] and shed at the attacker��s neck.


    However, the next moment, the lights in the room lit up again.


    The person who had attacked him earlier also retreated three steps back. He looked at Zhang Heng with a faint smile. It was ISIS.


    ��What do you mean?��Zhang Heng also looked into Isis��eyes.


    ��Nothing much. It��s just a misunderstanding.��Isis put away the dagger in her hand as if nothing had happened, ��I asked you to help me kill my brother. Although I believe in your strength, I have to consider the possibility of revenge if you fail. That��s why I made some preparations here. Speaking of which, it��s your fault for not using the main entrance.��


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    ��You relied on a dagger and a crossbow to guard against Seth?��


    ��Of course not. Look at your feet.��Isis ced the dagger on the bar counter and picked up a bottle of wine.


    Zhang Heng lowered his head and saw argeplex pattern. In other words, he was standing on top of a magic array, and this magic array was even bigger than the teleportation magic array in the basement, it almost filled the entire reception room.


    ��Looks like I won this battle after all.��Isis removed the Cork from the wine bottle and smiled smugly.


    However, the next moment, her smile froze on the corner of her mouth. She realized that there was something extra on the Magic Circle that she had carefully prepared. It was a knife mark, it extended from the window all the way to where Zhang Heng was now. The magic patterns were destroyed wherever it passed.


    ��When?��ISIS cried out involuntarily.


    Zhang Heng didn��t answer her question. He just ced the bag on the ground and took out a tule tree box from it. He tossed it to ISIS, ��I helped me save him, and I��ve done what I promised you.��


    Isis didn��t rush to open the box. After taking two sips of wine, she lifted the lid with one finger. Inside was a heart that had been stabbed by a dagger.


    ��Seth is dead. The heart is in the box. If you don��t believe me, you can use your magic to check it.��


    ��There��s no need. He��s my younger brother. We share the same blood, so I can still recognize his heart.��Isis had aplicated look in his eyes, however, after a moment, he closed the box. There was nothing left.


    At that moment, the owl from the mural flew out and grabbed the wooden box with its ws.


    ��Feed it to the dogs. This is what he deserves.��


    After giving her instructions, ISIS pped her hands and turned her gaze back to the man in front of her.


    ��Your efficiency is truly beyond my imagination. We��ve only been apart for less than 24 hours, yet you��ve already killed Seth before the new God and the old God, and even returned to me,��Isis said, ��How incredibly fast.��


    ��I��m just lucky. Since we��ve already fulfilled our agreement, it��s time for me to take my leave.��Zhang Heng��s expression didn��t change. ��Please help me call trista over.��


    ��Oh, that little subus. She��s too disobedient. I had no choice but to use magic to let her sleep. But it��s fine, I��ll get my maid to wake her up now,��Isis said, she gestured at the Vulture on the mural, and the Vulture flew away from the wall.


    However, ISIS didn��t seem to have any intention of leaving the meeting room. Instead, she stared at Zhang Heng and asked curiously, ��What��s your next n?��


    ��What n?��Zhang Heng asked.


    ��You helped your ��ordinary��friend solve her problem, but what about your own? ��How is it? Have you had any nightmares recently? ��Have you dreamed about the owner of that city? The reason you brought that little subus with you is because you want to get information from her and solve your problem, right?��Isis said as she sat on the bar counter, her two smooth legs rested on the edge of the bar counter.


    ��Do you have any advice for me?��


    ��Not really. That guy is a brand new existence to us. His rise is too fast, and with some... Oh, natural reasons, the world knows so little about him, but...��Isis paused, ��The trouble you��ve encountered can be considered to be rted to life, so I, the goddess of life, can give you some advice.��.


    Zhang Heng didn��t say anything. He just waited quietly for the other party to continue.


    ��Strictly speaking, this body of yours belongs to that guy. You and he share the same blood. ��I know you��re very skilled, and you��ve just proven that once again, but unfortunately, no matter how skilled you are, you can��t affect him,��Isis said slowly.


    ��Why?��Zhang Heng thought back to the nightmare from before. He had only been nced at by the figure on the throne, and he couldn��t move at all. In that case, whether it was his knife skills or his marksmanship.., or his other tools and skills, he couldn��t use them at all.

 Chapter 1332 - 40% Confidence

    <h4>Chapter 1332: 40% Confidence</h4>


    ��Because his blood runs in your veins. Don��t get me wrong, we��ve always said that our parents��blood runs in our veins, but your situation is different. You were raised as a vessel, and you were only one step away from beingpletely reced. In other words, you��re a part of his body, just like a hand or a leg.��


    Isis then turned to look at Zhang Heng. Seeing that he didn��t say anything, she continued, ��This is the reason why he can control your body. After all, your hands are controlled by your brain. Of course, I know what you��re trying to say. You still have the blood of that mortal couple in your body, but unfortunately, this part of your blood is too insignificantpared to the blood that has already been reced. If you want to rely on this little bit of blood from your parents to escape control, it��s no different from a Fool��s dream.��


    ��Then what should I do?��Zhang Heng finally asked.


    However, ISIS shrugged. ��I don��t know.��


    Zhang Heng raised his eyebrows. ��What else do you want from me?��


    ��No, I��m not saying this to negotiate with you. You helped me kill my brother, so I don��t have anything else for you to help me with in the short term. It��s just a small suggestion before I leave,��Isis said, ��The birth of your soul is a series of coincidences. Nothing like this has ever happened before, and the opponent you��re going to face is very special. Even though we��re both gods, the difference between us is probably greater than that between a cat and a tiger. So, your previous experience isn��t really that useful,��Isis said with some hesitation.


    ��Why?��Zhang Heng noticed her hesitation.


    ��Actually, since you know the root of the problem, the solution is simple. If you canplete the blood exchange again, you��ll be able to get rid of the part of his blood that belongs to him.��


    ��Then why did you say that you had no solution?��Zhang Heng asked.


    ��Because blood exchange is a very difficult and dangerous thing. It��s not only for the person who has been reced, but also for the person who provided the blood,��Isis said, ��And to be honest with you, there��s no way a mortal can provide such arge amount of blood for you to rece. It��s useless to do it in batches. As long as there��s a drop of his blood in your body, then the new blood will be his.��


    ��So you��re saying that I need toplete the blood exchange with a God?��Zhang Heng asked.


    ��Yes, but no God would be willing to do such a thing. If he does, his blood will be contaminated,��ISIS answered honestly, then, she looked at Zhang Heng��s expression. She seemed to have guessed what he was thinking, so she shook her head, ��I know you killed the White Knight and Seth... But you can��t do it by force. It has to be consensual.��


    Zhang Heng was not too disappointed after hearing Isis��words. He only said lightly, ��I understand.��


    At that moment, the Vulture that had gone to wake up the Subus returned to the mural. At the same time, the Egyptian maid��s voice came from outside the door. ��Miss Trista is already waiting downstairs.��


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    ��We��re done here. We��ll be down soon. Tell her not to touch my things,��Isis rushed out the door and turned to look at Zhang Heng, ��The war between the old and New Gods is a good thing for you. If that��s the case, they won��t have the time to care about you for the time being. However, once they��re done with the matter at hand, or when Laraya��s master wakes up from the bottom of the sea, they��ll realize what the most important thing is. Then, they��ll put aside their differences and join forces to deal with you first. So, forgive me for being blunt, but you don��t have much time left.��


    ��What About You?��Zhang Heng asked. ��Why are you telling me all this? If the master of Laraya wakes up, it won��t be a good thing for you either.��


    ��No one likes a table-flipping person,��ISIS said, holding the bottle. ��But I do like you. I hope you can live a little longer.��


    ..


    Fifteen minutester, ISIS stood by the window and watched Zhang Heng��s polo descend the winding mountain path, leaving her sight.


    Five minutester, she pushed the door open and went to the room next door. It was also a reception room, but it was much smaller and less luxurious. Fortunately, there were a lot of things that should have been there. Other than that.., there was also a magic clock that could show a person��s remaining lifespan.


    At this moment, a figure was standing in front of the clock, looking at the time-telling bird with interest.


    ��What are you looking at?��ISIS asked.


    ��I��m very curious. If I ask your little bird how many years I have left, what will it say?��


    ��Isn��t it said that only time is eternal?��Isis said calmly.


    ��That��s true.��The figure in front of the clock curled his lips, ��But just like the goddess of wisdom, Athena, is not wisdom itself. Although I��m the god of time, I��m ashamed to say that I can��t stop myself from aging.��


    ��Everything has an end. Kronos, we are no exception.��


    ��Yes, but once you have tasted the taste of youth and power, it is difficult to be satisfied with your old body.��Kronos sighed, but then, without needing Isis to persuade him, he perked up again. ��You told him about the blood exchange?��


    ��That��s right, but I said it in such detail, and I know so much about his background. With his prudence and intelligence, he may have begun to doubt the rtionship between us, and the role I yed in it.��


    ��It doesn��t matter.��Kronos didn��t seem to mind, ��So what if he suspects you? Aren��t you telling the truth? And after he verifies your words, he��ll probably have to find a god who can exchange his blood. This is the only way he can go against Master Laraya.��


    ��Aren��t you worried that he��ll find a god who��s really willing to exchange his blood with him?��


    ��That��s impossible,��Kronos said with a smile, ��No God can bear the price of being contaminated by his blood, not even Gaime. That��s why he��ll have toe back to me after he��s exhausted all his efforts and realizes this. After all, I��ve always been his guardian angel.��


    ��Although I designed the blood exchange ritual with you, I still have to warn you again. The risk you face is very high. Even if everything goes ording to your n, the sess rate won��t exceed 40% ,��ISIS said with a serious expression.


    ��40% is enough. I��ve been preparing for almost 20 years. I��m just waiting for this day toe,��Gaime said leisurely.

 Chapter 1333 - The God Of Souls

    <h4>Chapter 1333: The God Of Souls</h4>


    Not long after getting into the car, Miss Subus switched on the car speaker and tuned the radio to the music station. As it turned out, director Zhou��s ��All the way north��was ying.


    As Miss Subus listened, she did not forget toment, ��Xia Shu is such a good seedling. If she really exists, I��ll take her in as my disciple.��


    Zhang Heng didn��t say anything. He drove his polo down the hill and nced at the health club that was gradually disappearing into the darkness.


    ��Oh, you��re not attracted to Isis, are you?��Miss Subus raised her eyebrows, ��Don��t be fooled by her performance. Don��t think that she��s easy to get. In the myths, she��s famous for her loyalty. Although she��s acting a little wild now, as far as I know, she hasn��t really betrayed her husband.��


    ��That��s not what I��m thinking,��Zhang Heng finally said.


    ��That��s right. With me by your side, there��s no reason for you to be thinking about other women,��Miss Subus said with a smile, ��Tell me the type of woman you like, or the person you��ve been thinking about for a long time. I can help you fulfill your long-cherished wish.��


    Initially, she was just teasing a certain someone, but she didn��t expect Zhang Heng to actually start thinking about it.


    ��You can enter other people��s dreams, or you can create a dream for them, right?��


    ��That��s right. There are many such stories in the legends about us,��the subus said with a nod, ��However, don��t think too much of me. Controlling Dreams is the ability of sepnos and his three sons. I can only be responsible for giving you a wet dream.��


    ��That��s enough,��Zhang Heng said.


    It was the subus��turn to be surprised. ��You want me to give you a wet dream? Is there really someone you like but can��t get?��


    ��No, there is someone I don��t want to see in my dream.��


    The subus was even more confused.


    Zhang Heng didn��t exin further and said, ��Don��t take it to heart. Just in case, I hope things don��t develop to that stage.��


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    ��Alright.��Miss Subus did not dwell on the issue anymore. She took off her shoes and ced her bare feet on the dashboard. ��Where are we going next?��


    ��How many gods do you know that have to do with souls?��Zhang Heng asked as he drove.


    ��Gods that have to do with souls?��Miss Subus thought about it, ��Actually, no matter what God system it is, the one with the greatest connection to souls is the god of death. That��s because the soul will only leave the body after death. Whether it��s receiving or judging these souls, it��s all done by the god of death and his subordinates.��


    Miss Subus paused for a moment before continuing, ��In Greek mythology, the job of receiving the souls was done by Hermes. He would bring the souls of the dead through the darkness to the gate of hell guarded by the Cerberus, and then Karon would drive the souls to the other side of the River Styx, which was thend of the flowers of the eternal spring. The three great judges, Ayargus, Minos, and Ladamantes would judge those souls here, and decide whether to send them to the Elysium where happiness was located or to thend of pain, Tartarus. Other than that, there were also some people with the worst diseases who would be sent to the Infernal Hell.


    ��The Egyptians, on the other hand, were much simpler. After death, the soul would be taken away by Anubis. Before entering the Underworld, Anubis would weigh the heart of the deceased with a scale and use the feather of the goddess of truth as a weight. Meanwhile, the god of wisdom, Todt, would record the results. If the heart was lighter than the feather, one would be able to enter the underworld smoothly. Otherwise, the heart and soul would be swallowed by a monster named Amit.


    ��Other than that, the Etruscans believed that their souls would be led into the underworld by a wolf-headed demon, Etak. The Lithuanians believed that Childin would appear in the patient��s room dressed in white and strangle the sick to death. The Brittanyans believed that their god of death would drive a carriage to transport their souls...��


    As expected of a well-informed person, Miss Subus had introduced quite a few names in one go. Even Zhang Heng had never heard of some of them, but they were all different versions of the god of death from different ces.


    Zhang Heng waited for her to finish before taking a deep breath and asking, ��Then, where can I find them?��


    ��Why are you looking for the Grim Reaper?��Miss Subus was stunned. ��Shouldn��t most people avoid them? and usually, they��re the only ones whoe to look for you. They appear when you��re about to die and take your soul away.��


    ��I have some soul issues that I��d like to consult them about.��


    Zhang Heng had heard about him from ISIS, and the other party had also pointed out a way for him. However, Zhang Heng couldn��t possibly ept everything. In fact, Zhang Heng didn��t trust Isis at all, even though the two of them had worked well together previously, ISIS had helped him cure Fan Meinan, and he had killed Seth for ISIS.


    However, Zhang Heng had already noticed the connection between ISIS and Kronos. Isis had let the cat out of the bag earlier, so he didn��t try to hide it before parting ways, therefore, Zhang Heng wasn��t sure if thest thing she told him was Kronos��instructions. He needed to find someone to verify it.


    ��What about Hermes? He��s not a pure god of death. Extraditing souls is just one of his tasks. If I remember correctly, this guy likes to wander around the world.��


    ��You also said that he likes to wander around. It��s the wind, and he��s also the messenger of the gods. No one knows where the wind will blow, but his father Zeus should know where he is,��said the subus, ��Do you want me to take you to Zeus? Although you��re very powerful, to be honest, I don��t think the king of the gods would be willing to meet a mortal like you.��


    ��Unless it��s absolutely necessary, it��s better for us not to meet Zeus,��Zhang Heng added.


    Other than the fact that Zeus was hard toe by, Zhang Heng was also worried that the other party had already found out about his background. He had fought Thor before, so he could feel how powerful a god that was currently ��Popr��was, zeus was no less famous than Thor. If the two sides fell out, Zhang Heng was not sure if he would be able to escape unscathed.


    Especially if the meeting ce was on Mount Olympus, he had to be on guard against the other side swarming over. The danger factor was too high, so Zhang Heng asked, ��Is there anyone else?��


    ��I feel like I��m your Baidu Plus Goode Navigation.��Miss Subus frowned and thought for a while, ��There is indeed someone else, and this guy is the real god of souls. However, in the original myth, this guy was just a little transparent. Logically speaking, after so many years, there shouldn��t be many people who still remember her. However, her luck isn��t bad. With a few sub-worlds and sculptures, her poprity among artists hasn��t declined for a long time, and her man is well-known.��

 Chapter 1334 - Psyche And New News

    <h4>Chapter 1334: Psyche And New News</h4>


    ��Psyche?��


    Zhang Heng quickly thought of a name based on Miss Subus��description.


    In the previous Sherlock Holmes instance, Eileen had taught him some art appreciation knowledge in addition to make-up. The goddess of love and Psyche were representative works of the Italian sculptor Bergon Zuri, in addition, many famous painters had created rted oil paintings based on psyche. There was one in the Louvre.


    In fact, the name Psyche meant soul and spirit. Therefore, Miss Subus deserved to call her the real god of soul. However, Sage��s story did not upy much space in Greek mythology, it was indeed a little transparent.


    Sage was originally a princess. Because of her beauty, her fame spread far and wide. There were countless admirers, and even fewer people worshipped Venus. This made Venus furious, therefore, Venus sent her son Cupid to shoot sage with his Cupid��s arrow, making sage fall in love with an ugly monster.


    However, when her son saw Sage, he was shocked by her beauty and wanted to take sage for his own. He turned into a giant snake and forced the king to marry Sage. In the end, he got what he wanted, he found a remote ce to hide her and only came to spend the night with her. However, she was bewitched by her sister and wanted to kill the snake that had taken her.


    However, when she lit the candle and saw Cupid��s appearance, the two good-looking people looked at each other at that moment. She also fell in love with Cupid. However, Venus found out about it in the end, thus, the drama of a mother-inw fighting her daughter-inw was staged. However, after a series of twists and turns, the two lovers finally got together as they wished. Furthermore, Siji was connected to Mount Olympus and became a member of the gods.


    Zhang Heng went through the story rted to Siji in his mind and then asked the subus beside him, ��Do you know where Siji is?��


    ��I don��t know her that well. We only met once over 600 years ago. However, I have a sister who is quite close to her. I can help you find out where she is.��


    ��Thank you for your help,��Zhang Heng said.


    ��I can��t say that I��m in trouble. Isn��t that what we agreed on earlier? You protect me, and I��ll help you gather the information you need.��The Subus didn��t take any credit and waved her hand.


    However, Miss Subus��phone had already been thrown away by Zhang Heng, so she couldn��t call her sister directly. In addition, Zhang Heng still had two items that he had requested to be appraised, therefore, he directly drove the car back to the game point.


    The ce was still deserted. As the owner of this ce, the beach-pants uncle not only loaded the gun, but he also added a helmet on himself. Miss Subus almost didn��t recognize him, so she was startled, ��What the hell are you doing?��


    ��It��s because you were attacked by that group of unknown people,��the beach-pants uncle said seriously. ��Since they can deal with you, of course they can target me.��


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    ��Okay, what you said makes sense.��Miss Subus couldn��t refute him.


    After that, she ignored the beach-pants uncle and walked to the other corner where her sister was. Without Zhang Heng��s urging, the beach-pants uncle turned around and took out the two appraised items.


    Zhang Heng looked at the stone first.


    [ name: Old Seal ]


    [ rarity: F ]


    [ effect: a magical artifact that contains some kind of ancient mysterious power. It can be used to expel the gods and rulers of the past. However, it is best not to have too much hope in terms of its effects. ]


    Zhang Heng was not surprised by this result. After all, in the previous story, the use and limitations of this stone were already very obvious. Doctor Baker wanted to use this stone to fend off the master of the city under the ice.., even destroying the other party was a pipe dream.


    However, the pebble should be of some use to him. Zhang Heng put the pebble into his pocket and looked at the second item.


    [ name: Hamken��s guardian ]


    [ rarity: D ]


    [ effect: created by a young and talented shaman. can summon hamken for 30 minutes. If it is in the middle of the ocean, Hamken will move toward the Summoner��s location. If it is onnd, Hamken will appear beside the Summoner as a little elf. can be used 3 times ]


    This time, Zhang Heng was a little surprised. Hamken��s protection was a gift from Alicia, who had thanked him for saving her life. She had also told Zhang Heng about the bracelet��s function, summoning Hamken in the ocean was actually quite useless.


    After all, no one knew where a blue whale would normally swim to. The ocean was so vast. Even if Hamken was powered by nuclear power, how far could it swim in 30 minutes? Unless it happened to be nearby, otherwise, the effect would be simr, but thest one was more interesting.


    ording to the literal meaning, if used onnd, it could immediately summon Hamm, who was in elf form.


    Zhang Heng had seen Kunajoo��s guardian before, a pr bear named Gumok. The pr bear could help Kunajoo fall asleep and protect Kunajoo in the dream, even though its power was limited, however, this was exactly what Zhang Heng needed right now.


    After epting the two items, Miss Subus said goodbye to her sisters and returned to Zhang Heng. However, her expression didn��t look too good.


    ��What��s Wrong?��Zhang Heng asked.


    ��They said that about four hours ago, a subus named Jewel was attacked and went missing. Even though she wasn��t part of our small group, everyone was panicking, so they decided to leave the game and find a ce to live for a while.��


    Miss Subus took out her cigarette box and lit it up. ��If we hade a quarter of an hourter, we probably wouldn��t have met them.��


    The beach-pants uncle smiled wryly, ��If it weren��t for the fact that I still have to guard the game point, I would have left as well. I just received news that the new gods and the Old Gods who went to find Thor had a fierce battle. During that battle, Thor injured two new gods who were blocking his way. However, he escaped by himself after that. However, because of his fierce battle, the remaining two gods didn��t even bother with him anymore. In the end, they only stopped after killing two old gods and one new God.��


    ��Was Thor found again?��Zhang Heng interjected.


    ��I don��t know, but I heard that Seth died for some reason.��The man in beach pants could not help but shudder, ��Seth is an Egyptian pir God after all. He died just like that, not to mention a nobody like me.��

 Chapter 1335 - New News

    <h4>Chapter 1335: New News</h4>


    Miss Subus couldn��t help but nce at Zhang Heng when she heard what the owner of the beach shorts had to say.


    It couldn��t be helped. She had just brought a certain someone to look for ISIS when the man who had killed her husband, Seth, died. This was too much of a coincidence, not to mention the fact that ISIS had left with Zhang Heng halfway through, the two obviously had some sort of agreement, but it was ISIS who returned first, and it took a long time before it was Zhang Heng.


    However, Miss Subus thought about the time that Zhang Heng would return, and she felt that it was rather unlikely. Unless this guy knew how to teleport, the speed of his return was too fast. So, in the end, she only opened her mouth, she didn��t say anything.


    Since he had gotten Sage��s address, Zhang Heng didn��t hesitate and immediately booked the nearest flight.


    However, when the two of them arrived at the airport, Miss Subus was shopping for clothes in the waiting room with Zhang Heng��sputer in her hands when her fingers suddenly stopped.


    ��What��s Wrong?��Zhang Heng bought two cups of coffee for Miss Subus and one for himself.


    ��You asked me to keep an eye out for news from the organizingmittee. I just received one,��Miss Subus said as she took the coffee.


    ��Tell me about it.��


    ��Gaime is missing.��Miss Subus sighed.


    ��What?��


    ��GAIME, the god of games, is missing,��Miss Subus repeated, ��Well, actually, Gaime hasn��t shown his face for almost a month, and he hasn��t issued any orders. Previously, everyone was curious as to why he hasn��t intervened in the recent conflict.��


    ��But didn��t the organizingmittee intervene?��


    ��The organizingmittee is operating on its own ording to the rules and regtions he left behind. In fact, Gaime isn��t a person who likes to manage things. After establishing the organizingmittee, he��s basically retired, but... everyone knows that he��s a very otaku person. Even if he doesn��t show his face, everyone knows where he is.��


    Miss Subus took a sip of the coffee in her hand and continued, ��This time, because of Thor��s matter, a serious conflict between the new God and the old God just broke out. Although the arrival of the god of Science, Seth and Odin, didn��t make the situationpletely out of control, this matter was actually a fuse. The grudges between the new God and the old God had umted for so many years, and it was time to end it. So the two of them, as the representatives of the new God and the old God, went to find Gaime.��


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    ��And then?��


    ��Then, Gaime disappeared.��Miss Subus shrugged, ��Not only did he disappear, but when Odin and Saenz arrived at Gaime��s game room, all the game consoles and cards were gone.��


    ��Does that mean that he left on his own? Is there no other way for the Old Gods and the New Gods to contact him?��Zhang Heng asked.


    ��No,��Miss Subus answered straightforwardly. ��He usually stays in that game room. No one expected him to leave there one day, but...��


    After a pause, Miss Subus continued, ��He��s the god of games. The most likely ce to go is still in the game. ��The problem is that there are too many games on the market right now. PC, Mobile, handheld, board games... from 3A games to skin-changing games, no one knows which game Gaime is in. So, as of now, he is indeed missing.��


    ��Doesn��t that mean the only person who can stop the war between the old and New Gods is also gone?��Zhang Heng said.


    ��That��s right.��Miss Subus couldn��t help but me herself for being the number one among the gods, ��You don��t know, but the war between the gods has been going on for thousands of years. At that time, there was still no division between the old and New Gods, but no matter when, there will always be the decline of the gods, and there will always be the rise of the gods. In essence, it is the same. The neers want to rise to the top, and the old are unwilling to be trampled on. It is a matter of decline and prosperity, and even life and death. Even if they don��t want to fight, they have to fight.


    ��Actually, it��s not just the gods. These wars often affect a wide area, and even the believers will be involved. After all, faith is the foundation of the gods. The Crusade��s two eastern expeditions were to directly destroy the foreign gods at the level of believers. However, our subus race still has some self-awareness, and it��s also quite special. Facing the church��s pursuit, we basically just run away or hide. But even so, many of our nsmen still died.


    ��That��s why I don��t know what other people think. It��s just me and my sisters. We��re quite grateful to GAIME. If it weren��t for him establishing a new order and resolving the conflicts between the gods through the game, the all-out war between the old and New Gods would have broken out long ago. No matter what, we��ve been living a peaceful life.


    ��However, his disappearance at this critical moment is equivalent to removing thestyer of insurance before the war begins. If this continues, an all-out war will be inevitable, and the order he personally built will copse. To be honest, I have no idea what he��s thinking right now.��


    Zhang Heng��s expression changed slightly, but he didn��t say anything.


    As for Miss Subus, she was justmenting the current situation. After all, with her strength, she still needed Zhang Heng to protect her. There was nothing she could do about the war between the new God and the old God.


    An hour and a halfter, the two of them took a ne to Saiji��s city.


    However, just as Zhang Heng was about to take a taxi to the address that Miss Subus had given him, he was stopped by thetter. ��Have you ever dealt with a girl before?��


    ��Why?��


    ��We can��t go to visit her empty-handed, right?��


    Zhang Heng raised his eyebrows. ��We didn��t bring any gifts when we went to look for ISIS, did we?��


    ��It��s different,��Miss Subus exined patiently, ��Sahiki and ISIS are two different types of people. Isis was once the queen, but after her husband was killed, she took her children everywhere to hide from her brother. After entering Kingdom of God, she immediately seized the power of Ra and became the most powerful goddess. This kind of woman has a strong heart and is full of ambition. She doesn��t care if you go to her with a gift or not. She cares more about what kind of return you can give her after helping you.


    ��But Sage ispletely different. She was originally a princess, and she was very beautiful. Since she was young, she had been doted on by thousands of people. She lived in the pce for a long time and was ignorant of the affairs of the world. Even after she was captured by Cupid, Cupid had always doted on her. The only trouble she encountered came from Venus, but to be honest, it was nothing much. Moreover, because of that, she sessfully climbed Mount Olympus and became a god. To her, a gift could make things much easier. ��Moreover, it��s different from ISIS��s time. This time, you don��t ask her to do anything troublesome. You just ask her for advice. This kind of thingpletely depends on her mood.��


    ��I��ve learned my lesson,��Zhang Heng said.

 Chapter 1336 - Gifts

    <h4>Chapter 1336: Gifts</h4>


    To Zhang Heng��s surprise, the task of preparing a gift for Siji was unprecedentedly simple.


    He had thought that even if it wasn��t as troublesome as finding the Golden Fleece, it would still take some effort. In the end, all he had to do was pay for it.


    Miss Subus brought him to thergest department store in the city. She bought a pair of shoes, two bags, and three lipsticks. She also bought herself a bottle of perfume. In total, she spent about 50,000 yuan, zhang Heng suspected that this guy was just here to shop.


    ��Don��t be so surprised. Bags and shoes have a universal effect on women, regardless of whether she��s a mortal or a god,��Miss Subus said with a chuckle, ��Furthermore, Sage is a beauty lover. Otherwise, she wouldn��t have taken a fancy to Cupid.��


    ��...��


    Seeing that Zhang Heng didn��t say anything, miss subus continued, ��I don��t know what kind of trouble you��re in, but I can sense that you��re in a hurry. Otherwise, you wouldn��t have hesitated when I suggested preparing the present.��


    ��I��m indeed in some trouble,��Zhang Heng admitted.


    ��Is it from the organizingmittee?��Miss Subus asked. ��Because you seem to be paying special attention to the news from the organizingmittee.��


    ��Yes, but it��s not just the organizingmittee. However, at this stage, it��s possible that the organizingmittee made the first move because I met an earlier and had a small conflict with him,��Zhang Heng said.


    ��An? The main god of Sumerian mythology, the chief judge of the organizingmittee?��Miss Subus frowned, but then she immediately let go, ��Forget it, you don��t have to exin it to me. I��m just a little subus. Other than providing you with all kinds of information as promised, I can��t help you with anything else even if I wanted to. I don��t want to get into too much trouble because of this.��


    ��Don��t worry, if big trouble reallyes knocking on my door, I��ll also break the oath with you in advance,��Zhang Heng said.


    ��It��s not that easy to cancel a subus promise.��Miss Subus sighed. ��Forget it, let��s not raise a g. Let��s go meet Sage first.��


    Zhang Heng nodded.


    The shopping mall was not far from their destination. Zhang Heng took a taxi and arrived at their destination in no time.


    It was an office building located in the prime location of the development zone. The surrounding facilities wereplete. It was a total of 32 floors high, and it was sublet to differentpanies for office space.


    Zhang Heng and Miss Subus were going to the 15th floor of this office building. This was a young intepany called de Dan Ping. It had just been established less than half a year ago, and its main focus was online dating.


    /


    De Dan Ping��s ystyle was a bit like abination of the popr QQ floating bottle and probing. The website��s customers would first answer 12 questions, and then shoot a video to introduce themselves. This video would be ced in the floating bottle, however, unlike the casual floating of the QQ floating bottle, the app created a powerful algorithm that would help you find the right person to exchange bottles with based on your previous answers.


    Zhang Heng also looked at the app��s official website. From the description, it didn��t seem like anything new, but recently, there had been an upsurge in downloads because of the feedback from the first batch of registered users, this app was exceptionally useful. Many people even felt like they had finally met their long-awaited soul mate the moment they opened the bottle. On the first day, they rushed out, and on the second day, they couldn��t help but ask for a marriage certificate together.


    Even those who had been through dozens of failed blind dates, those who had grown older and were scolded by their parents for being unfilial, or those who had stayed pure for forty years just to marry into a rich family and fulfill their dreams of a small age.., even those ountants who had fallen in love with a certain female streamer and had given up all their money and even helped their ownpany give up all their money were all happy to mention their life partners with the help of Dan Dan. It was rather strange that the app wasn��t downloaded.


    Miss Subus scoffed at this. ��What kind of Bullsh * T algorithm is this? It��s obvious that this thing was created by Cupid. It would be a miracle if the sess rate is low. Anyway, as long as you��re hit by his arrow, you and B * Stard will be able to see eye to eye.��


    Zhang Heng did notment on this.


    The elevator soon reached the 16th floor. Originally, the DSD bottle shared this floor with five small start-uppanies. However, after it became popr, it rented the entire floor. Furthermore, the corridor was still under renovation.


    Miss Subus walked past a scaffolding and went to the front desk. She registered a visitor with an administrative girl there. Zhang Heng took this opportunity to take a look at the DSD bottle lobby.


    On the right-hand side of the front desk, arge screen was scrolling through an advertisement for ��unattached bottles��. The female lead of the advertisement was a beautiful girl who looked a little dazed. She was using her phone to take pictures of her own day. Zhang Heng nced at the screen and shifted his gaze to the left. There was an ERABAO. The photo on the screen was also of the girl in the advertisement. There were also some materials ced on the shelves for the visitors to use. The covers were all the same person.


    Obviously, the woman in the advertisement was the spokesperson of thepany. Seeing Zhang Heng sizing up the photo, the other administrative girl who was in charge of organizing the documents also raised her head and said, ��This is president Gu��s new advertisement. President Gu is really too beautiful. With her advertisement, our app��s download rate will definitely go up another level.��


    Zhang Heng could tell that she was sincere when she said that. It wasn��t just her subordinates fawning over their superiors, but a male employee who passed by also nodded in agreement.


    Zhang Heng and Miss Subus looked at each other and knew that this must be the real deal.


    After all, Sage in the story was famous for her beauty that even Venus was jealous of. However, even though the girls in the advertisement were also very beautiful, even more so than most A-list female celebrities, they were not as beautiful as the rumors said, before Sage came to China, she must have made some adjustments to her appearance so that it would not be too shocking.


    At this time, the administrative girl had already put down the phone in her hand and said to Zhang Heng and Miss Subus, ��President Gu is in his office and has already postponed the morning meeting. I��ll take you there.��


    ��Thank you for your hard work,��Zhang Heng said.


    The two followed the administrative girl to an office on the right. The administrative girl knocked on the door. ��President Gu, the guests have arrived.��


    Then, a gentle voice came from inside. ��Okay, invite them in.��


    To be honest, this voice sounded more like a kindergarten teacher than a female white-cor worker in an office building, especially apany executive. After all, it was difficult to control subordinates if they were too gentle.

 Chapter 1337 - Wardrobe

    <h4>Chapter 1337: Wardrobe</h4>


    Sage��s office was very special.


    Other than the three-meter-long CEO desk in the middle, which seemed like something that would appear in an office, it also looked more like a princess-style small apartment. There were 24 wardrobes by the wall, forming a circle, almost the entire office was surrounded. Arge round bed with a curtain was located in the northeast corner of the room. On the right side of Miss Subus, there was a small castle for fans with two Persian cats lying on it.


    Sigi was holding a British Shorthair in her arms. She was stroking the cat with one hand and reading a fashion magazine with the other. She was looking through the new clothes that wereing out next season, however, when she saw Zhang Heng and Miss Subus, she did not show any arrogance. She put down the book in her hands and ced the British Shorthair on the CEO��s desk. Then, she reached out her hand and smiled.


    ��Emilia told me about your arrival. I didn��t expect you to arrive so soon. You must be trista...��saidji shook hands with Miss Subus. Then, she looked at Zhang Heng. ��Er...��


    ��Ma Wei,��Zhang Heng introduced himself.


    ��Hello, Mr. Ma Wei.��Saidji also reached out her hand to Zhang Heng. She didn��t treat him differently just because he was a human.


    After both parties shook hands, they took their seats. Even Miss Subus, who was sitting on Hello Kitty��s couch, could not help but have a strange look in her eyes.


    On the other hand, Zhang Heng, as if he did not feel the girl��s presence, ced the gift in his hand in front of Saeji.


    Saeji seemed a little surprised, but she was still very happy when she saw the things in the bag. Then, she pressed the button on the table, and the doors to the wardrobe in the room slowly opened.


    Even Miss Subus was stunned by the scene before her. She almost thought that she was on the set of some overbearing CEO drama. There was nothing she could do. Hundreds of clothes and all kinds of shoes and bags suddenly appeared before her eyes, the visual impact was definitely extraordinary.


    Even Zhang Heng, who was standing at the side, was temporarily speechless. The two of them watched as Saeji ced the newly received bags into a cab. After that, she didn��t avoid Zhang Heng and Miss Subus and tried on the pair of shoes, she even turned to the two of them and asked, ��How is it? Does it look good?��


    ��Yes.��Miss Subus was sincere in her praise this time. Even though Shaggy hade to China to make it easier for her to move around without causing any trouble, and she didn��t use her stunning beauty from before.., even so, her beauty couldn��t be hidden. She was like an innocent flower, and even when ced in a dark room, there was still a faint fragrance floating around.


    No Wonder Cupid was attracted to her at first nce, and Venus could not help but feel jealous.


    Saiji wore her new shoes and spun around in front of the mirror twice. Then, she returned to her original seat with satisfaction. She pressed the button again, closed the cab door, and picked up the British Shorthair again, ��Thank you for the gift. I like it very much, but you came to see me for business, right?��


    ��That��s right.��Zhang Heng saw that the gift was indeed effective. Sikey seemed to be in a good mood, so he took the opportunity to get down to business, ��You��re the god of Souls, so you should know a lot about souls.��


    ��Oh, that��s right. I��m good at very few things. More than a thousand years have passed, and I haven��t learned much. I only know a little about souls,��Sikey said gently while stroking the British Shorthair.


    ��Then I have a few questions for you, Miss Saiji,��said Zhang Heng.


    ��You��re wee, Mr. Ma. As long as it��s a question that I know, I��ll try my best to answer it.��


    ��First of all, I want to know if one soul can take over another soul��s body?��


    ��Yes, although it��s not impossible, the probability of it happening is very small. In theory, unless the body dies, the soul will not leave the body. I know that there are many time travel novels on the market now, but the body to the soul is not as simple as a container. The two sides are more like a symbiotic rtionship. A soul corresponds to a body. Even if the original soul disappears, it��s almost impossible for other souls to take over this body.��


    Speaking of her field of expertise, Sage��s expression turned serious. She paused for a moment before adding, ��However, as far as I know, there are indeed some gods who can use the method of descending to seize another soul��s body. This is also the origin of the Seance. However, seance... is basically something that can notst for long. After all, the body is not yours, and the original soul is still there. Rather than seizing it, it is better to say that it is better to temporarily control it. There is a high probability that the original soul will return the body after a few words of Oracle. In fact, seance requires the cooperation of the original soul. Usually, the most devout believer will be chosen because if the original soul has the intention to resist, it will be difficult for the Seance to continue.��


    ��What if you consume the original soul during the Seance?��Zhang Heng asked.


    Sage looked at Zhang Heng in confusion before continuing, ��What��s the point of doing that? I don��t mean to offend you, but I used to be a mortal. I know that a mortal��s body is too weak for a god. It��s like a cat entering a matchbox. Even if you can forcefully possess it, it��s meaningless. On the contrary, your soul will be trapped inside it. Furthermore, the descent of a God is one thing, butpletely possessing the body is another. There will be many variables in the process..


    ��For example, if the wrath of the seven deadly sins chooses to take over a mortal��s body, the mortal might not be able to withstand his wrath before he seeds. He might kill the person next to him in a fit of rage and be killed by the police.��


    ��In other words, it is indeed possible to seed.��


    ��That is the theory,��siji nodded.


    Zhang Heng was silent for a moment before asking, ��Actually, I��ve always been curious. After a person dies, their soul will be taken away by the Grim Reaper. What about after the soul dies? Will it disappearpletely?��


    ��You can put it that way, but strictly speaking, the soul will not disappear. It will only return to its purest state. This state is also very difficult for me to exin. For example, if your soul was originally a house, then after you die, your soul will return to the state of reinforced concrete.��


    ��Then can the reinforced concrete still be used to build the original house?��


    ��Impossible,��Sage said firmly, ��Just like how there are no two identical leaves in this world, and there are no two identical souls. Let Me Be Frank. Even if there is something powerful enough to pinch a dead soul back into its original form, it will no longer be your original soul, but apletely unfamiliar thing.��


    ��Understood.��Zhang Heng heard the facial expression does not change, on the contrary, the facial expression of miss subus beside appears to be a little surprised and doubtful, seems to not understand why Zhang Heng would ask such a question.

 Chapter 1338 - Sage’s Answer

    <h4>Chapter 1338: Sage��s Answer</h4>


    Zhang Heng ignored Lady Subus��confused gaze and continued to ask, ��I want to know, if a person is faced with another soul upying their body, is there any way to fight back? ��You��ve said it before, right? If the target of God��s descent must be the most devout believer, because if the original soul has the heart to resist, then God��s descent will be very difficult to carry on.��


    ��That��s right, a god��s descent is easily interrupted, because most of the gods who choose to descend do not want to harm their own representatives in the human world. In itself, they are only borrowing the other��s body for a temporary use. However, if it really is like what you��ve said, one soul devouring another, then the gods will no longer have any scruples.��


    Sage could feel that the topic was moving in an unsettling direction. However, since she had promised Zhang Heng that she would answer all his questions, the god of souls was still doing her best to answer a certain someone��s question, she thought for a moment and continued, ��Under normal circumstances, the souls of mortals are weaker than that of gods. If the gods are really up to no good during the god��s descent, it will be very dangerous for them to invite the gods. However, they won��t necessarily lose. As a yer, you probably know about the game props. Although there weren��t many of them, there were indeed some game props that could help defend against soul attacks.


    ��Other than that, it has a lot to do with your own mental strength. There are many humans whose souls are as tough as a god��s. In those heroic poems, there are many humans who havepleted tasks that a god couldn��t. Thest and most crucial point is still what I said before. Your body is your greatest reliance because it isn��t just a container. There is an inextricable connection between it and your soul. However, an external soul doesn��t have such a connection.��


    Saji��s voice was as gentle as ever, and her words were equallyforting.


    At least, Lady Subus��s expression had calmed down considerably. She could already guess the danger Zhang Heng might be facing from his question.


    However, Zhang Heng��s expression didn��t change at all. This time, after hearing Saji��s answer, Zhang Heng remained silent for an exceptionally long time. Finally, he asked, ��What if the body belongs to the other side?��


    Sage was truly stunned this time. Her mouth was wide open, and she wanted to say something several times, but she didn��t know where to begin. After a while, even with her good temper, she started to get a little angry, ��This question of yours... is it deliberately made up to make things difficult for me? How can a mortal possess the body of a God? If that��s the case, then if the soul of a god descends, no, I should say returns to the body, then there��s no way a mortal can stop it, and there��s no reason to stop it.��


    ��I��m sorry, perhaps I didn��t make myself clear. Strictly speaking, I don��t know who the body belongs to,��Zhang Heng said. ��Do you know about the Blood Exchange?��


    Saiji��s expression changed slightly when she heard those two words. ��Who told you that?��


    ��A friend I just met. Let��s assume that in such a situation, an ordinary person��s blood has been exchanged by a god. If that God wants to possess the body again, then is there any way to stop it?��


    Saji calmed herself down and looked at Zhang Heng with aplicated gaze, ��I don��t know why you��re assuming this, but a blood exchange requires the consent of both sides, and it��s a very dangerous thing. This is the case for both sides because during the blood exchange, the blood of ordinary people will flow into the god��s body and taint the god��s original pure blood. Furthermore, once the blood exchange ispleted, the God��s side will lose a portion of their power


    /


    ��But if that��s the case, wouldn��t it be easier for the gods to take over the mortal body?��


    Sage nodded, ��That��s right. Once the blood exchange ispleted, the mortal body will, in a sense, be a god��s body. Even if it��s not as strong as the god��s original body, it will still inherit a portion of the power that came from the god. If the God wants to take over this body, it will be easier because this body has a connection with his soul.��


    ��Is there a way to cut off the connection?��Zhang Heng asked.


    ��No Way.��


    ��I heard that the tule tree can iste supernatural powers.��


    ��That��s right, but even the tule tree can not iste the connection naturally formed by the blood. Just like how if you put your hand into the Tule Tree��s box, it will still be your hand.��


    ��Then, is it still possible for the original body��s soul to defeat the God��s soul?��


    ��It��s impossible,��said Saiji without hesitation, ��Stop joking. I��ve said before that the biggest advantage of the original soul over the foreign soul is its connection to the body. If there��s no such advantage, how can wepete?��


    ��So, there��s only one way left, and that��s to change the blood, right?��Zhang Heng said calmly. Of the questions he had asked Saiji today, some of them had already been answered by Nara TOTIPP, and the other part had also been answered by ISIS, he was only here to verify Siji��s answer, so Zhang Heng wasn��t too surprised to hear her answer.


    On the other hand, Lady Subus seemed to have thought of something, and she couldn��t help but look at Zhang Heng.


    Siji��s hand that was stroking the cat also stopped in midair, ��Like I said, changing the blood is too dangerous. No God would be willing to do that just to save a mortal, and the sess rate isn��t high. Unless it��s a baby under the age of three, even if everything goes incredibly smoothly, a 30% sess rate is the highest. If it doesn��t seed, the God��s side will be severely injured, and the mortal will die without a doubt.��


    ��But the blood exchange is effective, isn��t it?��Zhang Heng ignored the threat and continued to ask.


    ��Yes.��Even though Saiji was reluctant, she had no choice but to insist.


    ��Thank you, my questions are over,��Zhang Heng suddenly said, but he didn��t press her any further.


    Saiji seemed to heave a sigh of relief when she heard this, and a smile returned to her face. Even though she was the god of souls, she preferred to talk about clothes, shoes, and bags rather than the priesthood she held, or perhaps she could just sit in her office and y with her cat. Especially since the man before her, Ma Wei, was asking questions that she felt were unrealistic.


    In fact, Sage couldn��t think of any God in the world who would be willing to exchange blood with a mortal. This kind of thing only existed in theory, and not many people had practiced it before. Even if she knew the answer, it would be meaningless.


    Even though the previous question-and-answer session had been rather unpleasant, sage still politely invited Zhang Heng and the Subus for lunch out of politeness and courtesy. However, Zhang Heng didn��t decline politely, the next moment, a series of frantic footsteps suddenly came from outside the office.

 Chapter 1339 - Oil Painting

    <h4>Chapter 1339: Oil Painting</h4>


    Zhang Heng heard footsteps outside and knew that Sage probably had something important to attend to. He stood up from the sofa with Miss Subus to bid her farewell. Sage had wanted to persuade her to stay, but.., however, the next moment, there was a knock on the door.


    Sage could only smile apologetically at the two of them and said to the person outside, ��Come in.��


    Before she could finish her sentence, a woman in a Yaksha t-shirt rushed in from outside and whispered something into Saiji��s ear.


    Saiji��s expression changed slightly, and she asked subconsciously, ��Have you told Chairman Qiu?��


    ��Yes, Chairman Qiu has already booked a flight, but it��ll bete at the earliest.��


    Saiji nodded and then said to Zhang Heng and Miss Subus, ��Well, there��s an emergency at thepany, so I won��t be keeping you guys for dinner.��


    ��You��ve already helped me a lot by taking the time to answer my questions. We won��t keep you from your work anymore.��Zhang Heng and Saiji shook hands again before leaving the office together with Miss Subus.


    The two of them walked down the corridor and noticed that many of the people who were originally at their work stations had disappeared. Only a few people were gathered at a spot closest to the right wall. It seemed like they had encountered some technical difficulties, the bespectacled man who was surrounded seemed to be one of thepany��s most skilled technicians.


    Previously, when Zhang Heng and Miss Subus had passed by, everyone had been working hard. He was the only one who had been eating potato chips while watching a drama. If this person who had openly vited the rules wasn��t the boss��s rtive.., then it had to be someone who had the ability to be part of thepany.


    Other people might not know this, but how could Zhang Heng and Miss Subus not know that the boss��rtives wouldn��t work here? Therefore, thetter was the only possibility.


    In reality, Sage and the Inuyasha t-shirt girl, who were following behind him, were also heading for that seat. However, this time, this god was obviously caught in a tough battle, and his brows were furrowed, the people beside him did not even dare to take a deep breath as they were afraid of interrupting his train of thought.


    However, the bespectacled man was a tough character after all. After thinking for a moment, he saw sage appear from the corner of his eye. His entire person seemed to have been buffed and his spirit was greatly boosted as he ended the pre-casting wave, his fingers flew like the wind as lines of code poured out.


    However, just as he finished typing the code confidently and knocked on the Enter Key, theputer in front of him suddenly turned ck. Then, a sentence that had no beginning or end popped up on the screen.


    �� don��t waste your energy. No one in this world can beat me in terms of code.


    The bespectacled man was shocked when he saw this. ��Theputer has been hacked. When? And this guy is too arrogant.��


    /


    As soon as he finished speaking, another oil painting popped up on the screen. At the same time, it was written inrge red words, ��Found you.��


    In fact, it wasn��t just theputer. This painting had popped up on all theputers in thepany that had Inte ess.


    When everyone saw this oil painting and the line of words that had no beginning or end, they were all baffled. They thought that this was a prank by someone. Only Seagel, who was standing beside them, had a drastic change in expression. She was even a little frightened.


    This was because the oil painting was Gerard��s ��Cupid and Sage��. This meant that someone had already seen through her true identity. In other words, the other party knew that she was here!


    Sage herself was only a small transparent figure in Greek mythology. She had never made any enemies with anyone other than Venus. Moreover, the grudge between her and Venus had disappeared along with her marriage to Cupid, after being epted by the gods on Mount Olympus, it had long disappeared. But because of this, she was now even more terrified.


    Because of Cupid, she had always lived her life as a princess. Although she was the manager of this department, she usually bought clothes and tried on lipstick. She did not care about anything else, however, she was aware of the recent series of conflicts between the new and Old Gods. The rtionship between the two sides was getting more and more tense, and the only person who could possibly reconcile the conflict between the two sides, Gaime, had disappeared.


    Seeing that an all-out war was inevitable, it was almost obvious who was targeting her, who had no enemies. This was also the real reason why Sage was so frightened. Especially since her husband, Cupid, wasn��t around, she waspletely flustered.


    Zhang Heng and Miss Subus had already reached the door, but they stopped in their tracks. They also saw the oil painting and the line of words on the screen where the advertisement was originally ying.


    Miss Subus was shocked, and her expression turned serious. ��Is new God really going to start an all-out war, and they��re not even going to let sage off?��


    However, Zhang Heng wasn��t in a hurry to answer this question. He averted his gaze from the painting and asked, ��How strong is Sage?��


    ��Er... she��s weaker than me.��


    ��If that new God really wanted to kill her, he wouldn��t have gone to so much trouble. He even attacked theirpany��s app first, and now he��s making such a deration. Since he knows where she is, he should just send someone to deal with her quietly.��


    ��What do you mean? Are you trying to say that the target of his superfluous actions isn��t her?��Miss Subus suddenly thought of something and widened her eyes, ��Someone is trying to deal with Cupid?��? ��That��s right. Saiji also said that she had already told Cupid to book the earliest flight back. Now that she��s in danger, she��ll definitely urge Cupid further. This means that someone is trying to ambush him Midway.��


    Miss Subus also came to her senses, ��Cupid is an important figure in the old gods��camp. If he��s killed, it��ll be bad news for the Old Gods. I��ll go remind Saiji now. No matter what, we��re all Old Gods. Even if we��re not familiar with each other, we have to help each other at a time like this. But in that case, there shouldn��t be any danger here.��


    Zhang Heng didn��t say anything, but Miss Subus had already turned around to look for sage. She pulled her aside and told Sage about her analysis. Sage was so shocked that she broke out in a cold sweat. When she realized that she was in danger.., it was very likely that when she was attacked by the new God, her first reaction was to contact her husband for protection. However, after hearing Sage��s words, she gritted her teeth and put down her phone. Not only that.., she also sent a message to remind Cupid to pay attention to the dangers on the road.


    On the other side, the subus had already returned to Zhang Heng��s side. She shook her head at him. ��Let��s go. I��ve already done what I can. The rest is beyond our control.��

 Chapter 1340 - Phoenix Butterfly

    <h4>Chapter 1340: Phoenix Butterfly</h4>


    Zhang Heng wasn��t in a hurry to leave.


    ��Actually, there��s another possibility.��


    ��What possibility?��


    ��The oil painting and the attack were done too deliberately. It��s almost as if they were trying to make people think of the new God,��Zhang Heng said.


    ��If it��s not the new God, who else would target sage...��Miss Subus was halfway through her sentence when she realized something, ��The mysterious organization that attacked me earlier? Could it be them again? Does that mean they really want to harm sage?��


    ��There��s a way to find out soon.��Zhang Heng took onest look at the oil painting on the screen. ��Let��s leave this ce first.��


    ��HMM?��Even though she was confused, Miss Subus still followed Zhang Heng out of the door of thepany. They took the elevator downstairs. Zhang Heng started the car and circled the street, they went back to a shopping mall not far from their original location.


    From there, they could see the main and side doors of the office building where Miss Subus was.


    Sitting in the car, the two finally had time to return to the previous question. Zhang Heng asked Miss Subus, ��Do you know why Thor suddenly attacked the organizingmittee��s Prison and rescued Seth?��


    ��I��ve heard a lot of rumors about this...��


    Zhang Heng didn��t ask Miss Subus what the rumors were, but he directly revealed the answer. ��His wife is missing, and Seth seems to know her whereabouts.��


    ��So Thor rescued Seth because he wanted Seth to bring him to his wife? That��s why there was a series of conflicts between the new God and the old God?��


    ��That��s right,��Zhang Heng said, ��I smell a familiar scent from this incident. Cupid and Sifu, like Thor and Sifu, are both powerful husbands, paired with a wife who doesn��t have much of a presence.��


    ��Are you saying that someone is trying to kidnap Sifu to ckmail Cupid?��


    ��Yes, and their n is obviously moreplete this time. From the start, they��ve already nned to draw Cupid��s anger toward the new God. ��This is also the reason why I brought you here to keep an eye on him. ording to you, Fawceji is very timid. She was frightened and realized that the other party already knows where her office is. They definitely want to find a safer ce to wait for their husband to return.��


    Miss Subus��s face didn��t look too good. Zhang Heng��s words reminded her of the danger she had encountered previously, as well as the missing member of her race, ��By the way, what are these guys trying to do? What good does it do them to stir up the enmity between the old God and the new God?��


    Miss Subus was confused by this question, but Zhang Heng remained silent even though he had guessed something.


    At that moment, a figure wearing a cap and a mask walked out from the side door of the office building with his head lowered.


    ��It��s sage. She really came out just like you said.��Miss Subus, who was sitting in the front passenger seat, put the other thoughts to the back of her mind.


    Sage, who had disguised herself, obviously didn��t know that she had been discovered the moment she showed up. She even pretended to be a white-cor worker in the office building and wore a touristpany badge around her neck, after that, she pretended to walk out of the street calmly before reaching out to hail a taxi.


    Seeing Saji get into the taxi, Miss Subus became nervous and asked, ��Aren��t we going to follow her?��


    ��There��s no rush. We��ll be discovered if we follow her too closely.��Zhang Heng didn��t seem to be in a hurry at all.


    ��Given Saji��s alertness, even if we follow her closely, she won��t be able to notice us.��Miss Subus couldn��t understand a certain someone��s caution.


    ��I��m not talking about her.��


    Not long after Zhang Heng finished his sentence, a van from a movingpany suddenly started moving and caught up with the taxi in front. Zhang Heng became calmer when he saw this. He waited until the taxi hadpletely disappeared from his sight. The van also drove for about 400 meters before starting up again. However, it caught up with the van directly.


    With Zhang Heng��s driving skills, it was almost impossible for the van in front to realize that he was being followed. Furthermore, their attention waspletely focused on the taxi in front of them, they were afraid that they would lose him, so they had no idea what was going on behind them.


    Even though sage appeared to be somewhat ignorant, she wasn��t stupid enough to take a taxi home. After all, her office had already been exposed, so it was only natural that her apartment would be in danger, therefore, after Sage left thepany, she went to a park in the western suburbs. Probably because it was quite far from the city, and it was a weekday, there weren��t many people in the park.


    Sage took out a hundred-yuan note from her wallet and handed it to the driver. ��Keep the change.��After saying that, she hurriedly opened the door and got out of the car. After buying the ticket, she walked into the park.


    At first, she just walked quickly, butter, she simply trotted along the rocky ground of the park all the way to the rose garden. At this time, the Roses were in full bloom, it attracted a lot of bees and butterflies to dance around the flowers.


    Sage looked around and saw that there was no one nearby, so she took off her shoes and wanted to walk into the flowers. However, after thinking for a while, she threw her shoes into the trash can beside her. In addition, there were her clothes and her bag, she threw them in as well. After doing all this, she lifted her feet and walked into the flowers.


    After a moment, there was only a ring and two earrings left in the flowers. At the same time, a beautiful butterflynded on a rose. However, before the butterfly could have a good rest.., in the next moment, an insect suddenly fell from above its head and covered it.


    Then, a man put the butterfly that was covered in the into a ss bottle that he had prepared beforehand. When hispanion saw this scene, he couldn��t help butugh, ��What is this, walking into a trap? Although we knew that this mission was simple before we left, we didn��t expect it to be so simple that we didn��t even need to do anything.��


    ��Alright, don��t Be Careless,��the man holding the bottle said with a frown, ��We��ve already lost a lot of people. It��s one thing to deal with Thor��s two teams, but even the one we sent to deal with a subus has gone missing. We still need to be on high alert against these supernatural creatures, or we��ll be the ones to fail next time.��


    His words were quite useful. The other three people gradually put away the smiles on their faces. However, the next moment, they were stunned because they didn��t know when.., a figure blocked the path in front of them.


    Just like the group of people that Zhang Heng had met before, the four people in front of them were all foreigners. There were three Europeans and one Asian. The four of them were surprised to see Zhang Heng. One of them reacted quickly and pretended to be dumb in English, he asked Zhang Heng how to get to the west gate of Zhang Heng Park.


    Zhang Heng ignored the person and only looked at the bottle in their hands. Then, he said calmly, ��Don��t you know that you can��t randomly catch butterflies in the park?��

 Chapter 1341 - Swing The Baton And Surprise Attack

    <h4>Chapter 1341: Swing The Baton And Surprise Attack</h4>


    Seeing that his identity as an international friend was useless, the leading foreigner could only turn his head and whisper to one of hispanions, ��Toby, go and stall him. The rest of you, follow me and leave this ce first. Remember, if you can resolve this peacefully, then do it peacefully. Even if you have to fight, try not to make things too big. Our identities can not be exposed. Unless it��s absolutely necessary, do not attract the attention of the police.��


    ��Okay.��The man named Toby nodded. He walked up to Zhang Heng and used his tall body to block Zhang Heng��s line of sight. Then, he asked in broken Chinese, ��Where is this butterfly?�� ��Where is it? We haven��t seen any warning signs on the way here. Furthermore, this butterfly was captured and brought back for my daughter to raise. It��s her birthday today.��


    As he spoke, the other three retreated tacitly. They wanted to pass through the flowers and arrive at the other road on the right. However, the next moment, one of them turned around, he just happened to see hispanion, who had stayed behind to dy, fall to the ground without saying a word.


    He was shocked and immediately shouted to the person at the front, ��Tom, there��s a situation!��


    The other two also stopped in their tracks. The person who had opened his mouth to warn him had already pulled out a folding knife from his pocket.


    However, he did not expect the person to be even faster. He was only about ten meters away from him a second ago, but in the next second, he had already appeared in front of him, at this time, before he could even fully open the folding knife, he had already been punched in the stomach.


    Zhang Heng ignored the man who had copsed with his stomach in his arms and quickly lunged at the Asian in front of him. However, with hispanion��s warning, he was already prepared. He took out a pair of finger tigers and held them in his hands.


    Unlike in the movies, Finger Tigers were not as shy as they looked. In fact, the ferocious-looking finger tigers were more likely to cause damage to the attacker because the finger bones were a very fragile part, it was possible that the opponent might not have sustained any injuries, but his own finger might have already been fractured.


    The Asian was currently wearing the mostmon four-fingered finger tiger. If worn correctly, it would be more powerful than beating someone up with bare hands, but under normal circumstances, it would not be fatal, this was also to carry out the order given by the foreign leader.


    Furthermore, Zhang Heng could clearly feel that the other party had received professional training the moment they exchanged blows. At the very least, in terms of boxing, he was alreadyparable to some amateur boxers. His punches were swift and full of strength, at the same time, his body was agile like a cheetah.


    In the blink of an eye, the two of them had exchanged several punches. Even though Zhang Heng had the upper hand, he was not able to take down the other party immediately. However, this was enough to shock the two of them, they could not help but think of the legendary Chinese kung fu.


    However, the fight hade out of nowhere. Up until now, the foreigners still did not know why the young man had suddenly attacked them. It could not really be because they could not randomly catch butterflies in the park, right.


    But at this time, there was no point in thinking about these things. The foreigner named Tom was only stunned for a moment, and immediately joined the battle. He first put the ss bottle in his hand to the side, and then his right hand subconsciously touched a bulge at his waist, but after a moment of hesitation.., he moved up again and grabbed a ck swinging rod.


    After taking off the swinging stick, he first shook it up, then swung it down again. After that, he finished swinging the stick, and a section of alloy head came out from the front of the stick.


    Holding the swinging stick, Tom rushed at Zhang Heng.


    He had stood still for half a minute before, and he felt that he had already seen the situation clearly. Although this guy who appeared out of nowhere was very fast and very skilled, he had taken the opportunity to catch the two of them off guard, furthermore, he had managed to suppress his otherpanion. However, since he was unable to end the battle quickly, it meant that the difference in strength between the two sides was not too great.


    If he joined the battle, then the oue of the battle would change ordingly. It was because of this judgment that he had made his choice. However, to his surprise.., just as he put down the ss bottle in his hand and tried to get close to Zhang Heng, the situation before him changed again.


    Zhang Heng did notpete with the opponent in front of him in fist techniques. Instead, he held the folding knife that he had obtained from killing the second foreigner. The Asian man, who had gradually gotten used to this fighting style, only saw a cold glint sh before his eyes, before he could react, all four of his fingers were cut off, and the finger tiger that had been held in his hand fell to the ground.


    As the knifended on Tom��s body, a chill rose in his heart. He realized that he had unknowingly fallen into the opponent��s trap. The opponent had been hiding his strength earlier.., of course, it wasn��t to create a dramatic effect, but to lure him to put down the ss bottle in his hand and approach him at the same time.


    After realizing this, Tom stopped in his tracks. Even though he was the best among the four, he knew that he was no match for Zhang Heng. In the next moment, he threw away the stick in his hand without hesitation, at the same time, he reached for his waist again.


    The risk of this mission was not high, so he was the only one among the four with a gun. If he could pull out the gun before Zhang Heng reached him, he would be able to regain control of the situation.


    However, just as Tom was about to grab the handle of the gun, he felt a sudden pain in his right hand. The folding knife had already stabbed into the back of his hand, and Zhang Heng had also arrived in front of him.


    At this point, Tom was finally able to rx. He knew that he had lost hisst chance to fight back, so he raised his head to look into Zhang Heng��s eyes. Enduring the pain, he asked in fluent Chinese, ��Who are you?�� ��Who are you? Why are you interfering in today��s matter?��


    ��I��m apletely unrted person. Don��t be nervous,��Zhang Heng said. ��I��m just passing by.��


    Tom shook his head. ��Then you should mind your own business. What we��re doing is not a bad thing. On the contrary, if we seed, it will be more beneficial to you, me, and the entire human race.��


    ��Thest person who gave me such a beautiful vision is already dead.��


    ��Of course you can kill me, or even all of us, but that won��t stop what is destined to happen.��


    ��I didn��t intend to stop it.��Zhang Heng walked up to Tom and pulled out the pistol at his waist. He opened the magazine and looked at the bullets inside. ��I only have a few questions for you.��


    ��Save your energy. I Won��t answer anything,��Tom said straightforwardly.


    Zhang Heng nodded. ��Then I have no more questions.��

 Chapter 1342 - Sage’s Decision

    <h4>Chapter 1342: Sage��s Decision</h4>


    When Tom heard this, a look of shock appeared on his face. Especially when he saw Zhang Heng search their bodies and confirm that they only had this long-range weapon on them, he walked straight to the side of the road, picking up the ss bottle, Tom finally could not help but ask, ��How do you n to deal with us?��


    ��I don��t n to deal with you, or else I would have killed you,��Zhang Heng said. ��I told you I��m just an irrelevant passerby.��


    Tom hesitated.


    ��The people here helped me just now, so I can��t let you take her away.��Zhang Heng shook the bottle in his hand. The Phoenix butterfly inside had been lying at the bottom of the bottle, looking very scared, it wasn��t until it returned to Zhang Heng��s hand that it spread its wings and started to fly again. It looked quite excited.


    Seeing this, Zhang Heng opened the cap of the bottle and let the butterfly fly out. However, for some reason, the butterfly didn��t immediately return to human form. Instead, it continued to lie on Zhang Heng��s shoulder in its butterfly form.


    Zhang Heng took a few steps forward, but he stopped after a few steps. Other than the person who had been knocked out by him in the beginning, the other three became nervous when they saw this.


    Tom said nervously, ��What��s wrong? Have you changed your mind again?��


    ��No, I just have a message for your leader. No matter what you want to do, there��s no need to drag someone like sage down with you.��


    Zhang Heng did not turn back after he finished speaking and continued to walk toward the door.


    When he was about 20 meters away, he heard Tom��s voice behind him again. ��This is war. In order to win the final victory, we will do whatever is necessary.��


    Zhang Heng was nomittal, but he had already walked away, leaving Tom and the other two to look at each other in dismay.


    Half an hourter, in the hotel��s executive suite.


    Siji had already put on her clothes and expressed her gratitude to Zhang Heng and Miss Subus. However, her face was red and she wanted to say something, but she hesitated. Zhang Heng guessed what she wanted to say, so he agreed in advance.


    ��We don��t have anything else to do for the time being. We can wait for your husband toe back.��


    ��Really? Thank you so much.��Saiji finally heaved a sigh of relief. She had always been timid, so she had been shocked by the oil painting and what had happened in the park, she was afraid that if Zhang Heng and Miss Subus left, she would be captured by someone else.


    The three of them yed a few rounds ofndlord fighting in the house. After that, Siji and Miss Subus started chatting about the new clothes and foundation while Zhang Heng, who had nothing better to do, went to the bedroom next door.


    For the past two days, he had been running around 24 hours a day, busy solving various problems. Now that he had some time to rx, he took a nap.


    ..


    When Zhang Heng opened his eyes again, it was already dark outside.


    He realized that there was an extra person beside his bed.


    Saiji was wearing a white dress. She sat on the edge of the bed to his left and held his palm. Moonlight shone through the window, enveloping her whole body. She looked like a beautiful oil painting, zhang Heng couldn��t help but take another look. It was only then that he noticed a pair of transparent wings behind Saiji��s back. The moonlight rippled on the wings.


    However, Saiji��s brows were tightly furrowed. She seemed to have encountered a difficult problem, and she looked exhausted. When she realized that Zhang Heng had woken up, she was startled and subconsciously pulled her hand back.


    However, her expression quickly turned serious. ��You have an amulet on you. It was created by a very powerful person to protect your soul. It was ced in your body when you were very young.��


    ��That��s right. Is there a problem?��Zhang Heng realized that Saiji was trying to help him solve the problem with his soul.


    ��It failed,��Sage said.


    ��I know.��


    ��No, I mean it haspletely failed. Just now, even thest trace of its power disappeared,��Sage said. ��This means that your soul is nowpletely unprotected.��


    ��And then?��Zhang Heng��s expression didn��t change much after hearing the news.


    ��And then I could sense that some evil and powerful being had its eyes on you.��At this point, a hint of fear appeared in Sage��s eyes, ��No, it should be said that a part of its soul has been sleeping in your body. Previously, because of the amulet, it couldn��t find any chance, but now that it has woken up, I only exchanged a nce with it, and it almost lost its mind. No one can resist that kind of madness.��


    ��Can you help me repair the amulet?��Zhang Heng asked calmly.


    ��Unfortunately, I can��t.��Sage shook her head and exined, ��It��s not difficult to create a soul amulet, but the problem is that a person can only have one soul amulet in their entire life. Once it��s destroyed, there��s no way to rece it.��


    ��Then it looks like I��ll have to think of another way before I can control my body.��It was clearly a matter of life and death, but Zhang Heng��s tone was unusually calm. ��How much time do I have?��


    ��About a week, but with your mental strength and willpower, you might be able tost two weeks.��Sage sighed, ��Just now, I helped you block a soul attack and used up almost all of my divine power. The attacks that follow will only get fiercer, so there��s nothing I can do to help.��


    Sage��s words also exined why she looked so tired.


    ��It��s okay. I��m already very grateful that you let me have onest good night��s sleep,��Zhang Heng said as he put on his clothes.


    However, Saiji did not leave immediately. Instead, she gritted her teeth and said, ��You asked me about the blood exchange earlier.��


    Zhang Heng��s hands stopped moving.


    ��If it��s possible, that might be your only hope,��Saiji continued. ��Unfortunately, my strength is too weak. I can��t withstand the madness and destruction in your blood. Of course, neither can trista.��


    ��It doesn��t matter. There��s still time. I can find someone else.��


    ��It��s toote. In such a short period of time, it��s very difficult for you to find a god who is willing to exchange blood with you and is strong enough.��Sage seemed to have finally made up her mind, ��My husband, Cupid, should be able to contain your blood. When he returns, I��ll help you beg him. Although this will severely weaken his strength, with his love for me, there��s a high chance that he��ll agree.��


    ��The war between the new gods and the Old Gods has already begun. Won��t this put you in Danger?��


    ��After we help you change your blood, we can temporarily hide like those subus,��said sage. ��As long as we don��t directly participate in the war, with our strength, it shouldn��t be too dangerous for us to protect ourselves.��

 Chapter 1343 - Cupid

    <h4>Chapter 1343: Cupid</h4>


    Seeing Zhang Heng and Saji walk out of the bedroom one after the other, Miss Subus had a strange expression on her face, but she didn��t say anything in the end.


    Saji, on the other hand, quickly exined with a red face, ��I helped him with a mental treatment inside.��


    ��Yes, you told me. He had a nightmare earlier, and we all heard his sleep talk,��Miss Subus said. ��It seems like the treatment was quite effective.��


    ��No, I didn��t help much.��Sage waved her hand.


    ��Well, no matter what, let��s eat first.��Miss Subus took the initiative to change the somewhat awkward topic, ��I��m hungry. Your husband should be arriving soon. We can go to the restaurant and order food first. That way, we can eat when he arrives.��


    Sigi looked at the clock in the room. The time was now 9:12 pm. Previously, she had contacted Cupid. Thetter��s flight would arrive at 8:35 pm. Taking into ount the time of the flight and the arrival from the airport.., indeed, Cupid should be arriving in about 10 to 20 minutes.


    Therefore, the three of them left the room and went to the restaurant on the second floor. They didn��t ask for a private room. Instead, they found a small table in the corner of the hall. Then, Zhang Heng observed the diners in the hall while Miss Subus picked up the menu, she ordered seven dishes in one go. However, other than the longer one, which required the chef to cook first, the rest of the dishes were served after the chef and the others arrived.


    During this time, Sage checked the time several times, but she didn��t see Cupid appear until 9:30.


    Under Zhang Heng��s suggestion, she had already thrown away her phone. She even informed her husband that he had also thrown away his phone. Therefore, in this situation, they couldn��t contact each other, so they could only wait anxiously. Another twenty minutes passed, the dish that took the longest time was served, but none of the three people at the table were in the mood to eat.


    Saiji��s expression became more and more flustered. Another ten minutes passed, and after ruling out the possibility of traffic jams or other emergencies, Saiji finally couldn��t sit still anymore.


    ��I, I want to go to the airport to check if his flight has arrived.��


    Even though she said that, her gaze was fixed on Zhang Heng. Obviously, Seji knew that she was too weak. Even if something happened to her husband, she probably wouldn��t be of much help.


    ��Okay.��Zhang Heng didn��t hesitate. He knew that Seji had helped him block a soul attack from the master of Underice City not long ago, so there was no reason for him not to go with her.


    Then, Zhang Heng turned to Miss Subus. Before he could ask, she sighed. ��I��ll go with you.��


    ��Thank you,��Saji thanked him again.


    Seeing this, Miss Subus felt a little embarrassed. ��Ah, no, I��m doing this for my own safety. It��s safer for me to stay with you guys than to stay by myself.��


    Seeing that they had reached an agreement, the three of them didn��t waste any more time. After paying the bill, they left the untouched dish to the stunned waiter and hurried downstairs.


    When they arrived at the hotel lobby, Zhang Heng noticed a meituan delivery man looking around the room. He was sizing up the people leaving the hotel, and his eyes lit up when he saw sage, however, he pretended not to care.


    It wasn��t until the three of them reached the entrance that he pulled out his phone. Pretending to be taking orders, he swayed his body as he approached the three of them. However, the next moment, his left hand, which was reaching for Sage, was grabbed by the other hand.


    Then, a voice came into his ears. ��Who told you toe?��


    Zhang Heng saw clearly that this Meituan delivery man wasn��t just borrowing clothes. He was really in the business. The color of his skin, his hair that was messed up by the helmet, and the smell of sweat all proved this.


    Meituan bro was obviously shocked as well, but he also understood that his actions just now were indeed suggestive. He could only point at Sage and say, ��Someone gave me 500 Yuan and asked me to bring something to thisdy. His request was a bit strange, and he told me to avoid other people as much as possible.��


    ��Who is it?��


    ��I don��t know,��Meituan Bro said. ��I just went to the designated ce, took the thing, and came over. I didn��t see anyone.��


    Seeing that little brother Meituan wasn��t lying, Zhang Heng knew that he couldn��t get anything out of him, so he let go of his hand and let him leave. Siji had already bent down to pick up the paper ball.


    She unfolded the paper ball and took a look. Her expression changed. ��It��s my husband��s handwriting. He wants me to go to the cafe where we had coffeest week.��


    Zhang Heng also nced at the paper ball. Probably to prevent the errand boy from Peeking, the sentence on the paper was written in Ancient Greek.


    ��Looks like Cupid is indeed in some trouble.��Miss Subus��s expression tensed up. ��Could this be a trap?��


    Sage had already taken a step forward, but when she heard this, she looked at Zhang Heng with a pleading gaze.


    Thetter thought for a moment, ��Let��s go take a look. We don��t have any other clues at the moment. The other side has already made a move against Saiji once, and it didn��t work. There��s no reason for them to make aeback so soon. Besides, if something really happened to Cupid, those people wouldn��t need to deal with Saiji anymore.��


    The three of them arrived at the location on the paper ball twenty minutester.


    The coffee shop was about to close, and there weren��t many people inside. After entering the shop, Sage didn��t dy and immediately walked to the table she had sat atst week.


    There was indeed a figure there, wearing a suit and a pair of shiny leather shoes, lying on the table.


    Sage walked quickly to the person, but she stopped and showed a hint of panic on her face.


    The next moment, she heard a voice from the bar counter. ��I��m here.��


    The person who spoke was a waiter. He had been tidying up the coffee cans on the shelves with his back to Zhang Heng and the others when they entered the room. When he turned around, he realized that Zhang Heng was already sizing him up.


    This was a very handsome man. He had the body of a model and the face of a celebrity. At the same time, he had a frivolous andscivious air about him. He could be considered the killer of all young girls.


    However, Zhang Heng��s gaze only lingered on him for about half a second before it moved down to his lower abdomen. There was an obvious pool of blood there that had already seeped into his work uniform, it was obvious that he had chosen to turn his back to the door to hide his face from the public and to cover the wound.


    When Sage saw this scene, she let out a cry of surprise and turned from joy to sorrow. ��What��s going on? Did you also encounter the attack of those humans?��


    ��Humans?��Cupid was stunned when he heard this. He immediately said, ��What humans? The ones who attacked me were a group of New Gods. I even killed one of them.��

 Chapter 1344 - A Strange Hijacking

    <h4>Chapter 1344: A Strange Hijacking</h4>


    Cupid paid the waiter who was pretending to be him 800 yuan. Then, he was helped to sit down by Sage. After listening to Sage��s story of the whole afternoon, he began to tell his story.


    It turned out that after Cupid received the news that hispany had been invaded, he immediately booked a ne ticket back. Then, he received a message from sage, warning him that someone might attack him on the way, at this sensitive juncture, Cupid naturally wouldn��t be careless. He immediately became vignt and bought all the seats in the first-ss cabin.


    As soon as he got on the ne, he told the stewardess that he needed to rest. He didn��t want to be disturbed by anyone, and he didn��t need any service. As a result, there was no one else by Cupid��s side the entire way, just when he thought that he could ensure his safety by doing so, and the ne was about to reach its destination, a sudden change urred.


    Cupid saw an oval-shaped flying object fly out from behind a cloud through the porthole of the ne. It first traveled with the ne for a short period of time, and then flew up to the top of the ne, it caused some passengers to cry out in surprise.


    It couldn��t be helped. The appearance of this thing was too ssic. The only thing missing was the word ��UFO��carved on its face. Some people even saw two short and ugly little green men in the opposite cockpit. Cupid suddenly had a bad premonition in his heart. He immediately pulled down the sunshade, he was even prepared to change positions.


    However, just as he stood up, a white light suddenly appeared above his head and enveloped him. Cupid could not help but swear. Before he could finish his words, his body disappeared from the cabin.


    When he reappeared, he was already in the cage on the UFO. The two little green men outside the cage each held a spear with a defibritor on the front and stabbed at Cupid��s body.


    However, Cupid��s actions were even faster. In the next moment, a golden longbow appeared in his hand. Before the long spear reached into the cage, he had already shot down the two little green men. However, before he could find a way to break out of the cage.., then, his body was shrouded in white light again.


    This time, he was teleported from the UFO to a warehouse. It was also there that Cupid encountered an ambush specifically targeted at him by the New Gods. Although in the end, Cupid sessfully killed one of them.., however, he was also injured. Seeing that the remaining three had escaped, he was worried that there would be more ambushes, so he did not chase after them.


    Cupid left the warehouse in a hurry. After that, he did not even dare to go directly to the hotel. Instead, he called meituan to run errands and sent a letter to his wife, Sage, asking her toe to this cafe.


    After Cupid finished telling his story, Sage also carefully opened his shirt. When she saw the wound on Cupid��s lower abdomen, she could not help but cry.


    It didn��t seem like any real weapon could do that. The wound was neat and round, about the size of a fist. The internal organs and flesh inside were gone. If Cupid wasn��t a god.., he would have died long ago.


    And he was still able to fight his way out of the siege of the new gods with such a wound. He was indeed strong.


    /


    However, this was also his limit.


    Cupid gestured for Sage to put down his clothes before he spoke, ��The war between the new gods and the Old Gods has already begun. As a member of the Old Gods, I should have gone to help. However, neither of us are like Thor or Ares who enjoy fighting. Furthermore, with the injuries on my body, even if I wanted to fight, I wouldn��t be able to.��


    At this point, he patted sage on the shoulder, ��Don��t worry, I won��t die yet. However, it won��t be easy to cure me. Therefore, I n to find a ce that no one knows about and live in seclusion for a period of time. I will first heal my injuries. When the timees, I will see how far the war has progressed before I make any ns.��


    Sage wiped away the tears on her face and sobbed, ��Alright, I will go home and pack my things now.��


    Cupid shook his head. ��No need, let��s just leave. I��m about to disband thepany as well. I��ve already told little he to inform the personnel about the severance payment.��


    ��Alright, I��ll do as you say.��


    Cupid looked at Zhang Heng again. ��You saved my wife, so I can��t be ungrateful to you. Give me your hand.��


    Hearing that, Zhang Heng extended his left hand. Cupid then used one of his fingers to dip his own blood on Zhang Heng��s wrist to draw two small arrows. After that, he gasped, ��I don��t have anything else to give you, so I��ll give you this pair of arrows. If you meet a girl you like, you can shoot her with a golden arrow. If you meet someone you want to break up with, you can use a lead arrow. Remember, this effect only works on the first person who sees the arrow after the target is hit. Each arrow can be used three times.��


    Zhang Heng had heard a lot about Cupid��s arrow. The Golden Arrow and the lead arrow were the same as the legendary ones.


    After Cupid delivered the arrows, Sage thanked Zhang Heng again for saving her life. Then, the couple asked the waiter at the coffee shop to call a taxi for them. They helped each other out of the door.


    Zhang Heng saw Cupid��s body shrink bit by bit after leaving the house. Eventually, he turned into a three-year-old baby. Sage hugged him in her arms and fell asleep in front of his wife.


    Zhang Heng and the other two��s car disappeared from their sight. They were about to leave, but then they saw Miss Subus, who had been silent the whole time, still sitting in her seat. Thetter looked at him, she changed her cool and indifferent look from before and said with a serious expression.


    ��We need to talk.��


    ��Okay.��Zhang Heng nodded. He stopped walking and sat down at the table again.


    ��I know who you are now.��


    Miss Subus��s first sentence was earth-shattering.


    Zhang Heng��s expression did not change. ��Yes, didn��t you already know my real name and address when we first met?��


    ��That��s not what I��m talking about. Recently, there have been rumors that Liya is about to wake up from his city. Using a yer as a container, he will return tond. and the yer chosen to be the container is you, right?��


    ��Why do you say that?��


    ��The questions you asked Siji before were all rted to how to resist the descent. Not long ago, Siji helped you resist a soul attack. She��s more simple-minded and may not think that much, but I��m not her. I know that this will prove that you asked those questions on your behalf.��


    ��That��s right.��Zhang Heng did not deny it anymore. ��I brought you along because I wanted to find a way to resist the descent.��


    ��Not only that, you brought me along because you want to know how the organizingmittee and the other gods treat you.��


    ��Indeed, this is also part of my consideration,��Zhang Heng admitted.


    Saiji��s expression becameplicated as she looked at Zhang Heng.

 Chapter 1345 - A Pity

    <h4>Chapter 1345: A Pity</h4>


    ��Are you going to tell the organizingmittee about me?��Zhang Heng asked.


    Miss Subus didn��t answer the question. Instead, she asked, ��Have you found a solution?��


    ��Not yet.��


    ��Then how much time do you have left?��


    ��About a week or two. Of course, if you��re willing to help me, I might be able tost a little longer,��Zhang Heng said.


    Miss Subus frowned. ��You asked me before if I could give you a sex dream. Are you trying to use it to block masterraya��s mental attack?��


    ��That��s right.��


    ��To be honest, I don��t think it��ll have much of an effect. The difference in power between us... is simply too great.��


    ��It��s fine. I��m just trying it out anyway.��Zhang Heng remained calm.


    However, Miss Subus looked a little annoyed. She took out her cigarette case and lit one. The waiter at the side seemed to want to remind her that there was no smoking in this ce, but after she nced at him, he pulled back.


    ��Sage said that you only have one option left. Fortunately, a small fry like me isn��t qualified to trade with you. Otherwise, I would have been afraid that you would have tied me up.��Miss Subus took a puff of her cigarette and smiled self-deprecatingly.


    ��Didn��t Sage also say that you can only trade blood if both parties are willing?��


    ��Then, do you have a goal?��To be honest, even miss subus felt ridiculous after asking this question. How could there be a god in this world willing to sacrifice his own power to save an unrted mortal, furthermore, it was at this crucial moment when the new God and the old God were at war. Didn��t you see how strong Thor and Cupid were? Thetter had no choice but to find a ce to live in seclusion.


    Every bit of power was extremely precious at a time like this.


    However, to her surprise, Zhang Heng said, ��I know someone who might be willing to exchange blood with me.��


    ��Who?��


    ��An old friend who has known me since a very young age. He always prided himself as my guardian angel and has been silently protecting me from behind,��Zhang Heng said.


    ��So... Do you want me to help you find Him?��Miss Subus perked up.


    ��There��s no need. He��lle to me when I need him.��


    ��Then we��ll just have to wait for him?��Miss Subus heaved a sigh of relief before asking again, ��He won��t encounter any trouble along the way like Cupid did, right? By the way, the war between the old and New Gods has already begun. It��s not safe anywhere.��


    ��With his strength and intelligence, I don��t think anyone can threaten him,��Zhang Heng said. Then, he looked into Miss Subus��eyes. ��You haven��t answered my question.��


    ��What question?��


    ��Are you going to report me to the organizingmittee?��


    ��If Gaime were still around, I��d most likely do that.��Miss Subus took a deep drag on her cigarette, ��You don��t understand the organizingmittee. Although there are many departments in the organizingmittee, and even many new and Old Gods are working there, the only one who can put them together and work well is GAIME. Don��t look at him as someone who rarely shows up to take care of things. It seems like the organizingmittee can continue to operate without him. However, this is just an illusion. Once the news of his disappearance is known by all the gods, it��s only a matter of time before the organizingmittee splits up. Who knows what big things might happen in the future?��


    Miss Subus sighed, ��I��ll stay with you for the time being. No matter what, it��s safer than being alone with me. But if you really can��t take it anymore, remember to let me know in advance so that I can run away. I don��t want to be the first person to witness the lord of Liya��s return to the light of day. I really can��t enjoy such an honor.��


    ��Don��t worry, I��ve said it before. I Won��t implicate you,��Zhang Heng said calmly.


    ..


    Sex and the city bar.


    In the lounge on the second floor, the bartender was wearing a qipao for the first time today. She wasn��t hiding behind the bar counter, flipping through herics or catching up on her drama. Instead, she was wiping every single ss seriously for the first time ever, after putting away the tools she used to make drinks, she turned back to look at the ce where she had been working for almost a year and threw a key on the bar counter.


    At this moment, the door of the lounge was pushed open from the outside and a figure walked in.


    The bartender did not turn back, but as if she knew who the person was, she said calmly, ��You cameter than I expected.��


    ��But no matter what, I finally made it in time to send you off, didn��t I?��The person said, ��After today, you can be free. From now on, you don��t have to be a receptionist here anymore. To be honest, with your temper, I didn��t think that you could really stay here for such a long time.��


    ��It��s worth it,��the bartender said solemnly, ��I��ve finally gotten what I��ve always dreamed of. This day ising, and it will return to thisnd. At that time, both the new and Old Gods will be shrouded in fear of it.��


    ��That��s right, it sounds very exciting,��the person agreed. ��I can��t wait to see this scene too.��


    However, upon hearing his words, the bartender merely sneered, ��Forget it, Chronos. Do you really think that I will ept all your nonsense? ��I knew that you didn��t have any good intentions from the first day you came to find me. The reason why I didn��t expose your lie is because at least until today, we all want the same thing.��


    ��The Mighty Hydra, the overlord of the deep sea, has also learned those dirty political tricks and started to y coy with others?��Chronos smiled, ��You suddenly don��t trust me. Is it because Ny TOTIP found you and said something bad about me?��


    ��Ny TOTIP dide to find me, but it has nothing to do with her. That guy is as annoying as you. He always thought that he was the smartest person in the room.��


    ��That��s hard to argue with.��Kronos sighed. ��So, does this mean that our cooperation is over?��


    ��That��s right,��Hydra said straightforwardly. ��I was happy to dy it for a few more days if you didn��te to find me, but since Gaime has gone missing, our cooperation has lost itsst reason.��


    ��You��re going to find him?��


    ��Yes, there are only a few days left. I don��t want any more idents to happen. I��ll take him to a safe ce and let him finish reading this book.��Hydra waved the ��Myth of Cthulhu��in his hand.


    ��It��s a pity.��Chronos shook his head.


    ��What��s a pity?��


    ��I thought that after spending so much time with him, you had some feelings for him. In the end, you just watched as his body was taken by the Master oflaiye, and you didn��t forget to push him again.��


    Hydra was silent for a rare moment, and then she spoke again, ��Each of us has a reason to exist. The reason for his existence is to be a vessel for my master, and the reason for my existence is to ensure that this matter can be carried out smoothly. The rest of the matters are based on this.��

 Chapter 1346 - The Rampaging Hydra

    <h4>Chapter 1346: The Rampaging Hydra</h4>


    ��Well said.��Kronos nodded. ��Even we can��t resist theing fate. No, to be more precise, it��s because we are gods that we understand the meaning of fate.��


    ��You still have a lot of nonsense to say,��Hydra said coldly. ��Even if you��re here to fight me, you still have to talk about your daily life. You Don��t feel good at all.��


    Kronos smiled when he heard that, but he was not in a hurry to answer. He first nced at the clock hanging on the wall of the lounge. There were less than three minutes left until midnight, and then he spoke again, ��Interesting. Back then, GAIME invited everyone to create such an unprecedented game to resolve the conflict between the gods. Although most people, including me, did not oppose it, they actually did not think much of it in their hearts. But now, seeing that it was about to close, they actually felt some regret and regret emotionally.��


    ��It doesn��t matter. I can cut off your head and leave it here to reminisce.��


    Kronos shook his head. ��Although I also want to experience your legendary head, your opponent tonight is not me.��He looked at the clock again, ��There��s one more minute and this ce will no longer be protected. Since the wine you left here will be destroyed in the end, why don��t you take a bottle and let this old friend of mine feast on it?��


    Hydra was toozy to answer, so she raised her middle finger.


    Just as the second hand was half a turn away from matching with the hour and minute hands at the top of the dial, all the yers��phones started to vibrate, even Zhang Heng, who had already thrown away his phone, received the notification of a new email.


    Zhang Heng happened to be browsing the yers��forum at the moment, so he opened his email. The sender of the new email was the game organizingmittee.


    Zhang Heng��s mouse paused for half a second on the title ��yer��s personal opening.��Then he clicked on it.


    Dear yer 07958, you have been in the game for more than ten months. You have cleared ten rounds of dungeons and joined the proxy war. Your heroism in the game is unforgettable, we believe that you must have left behind many unforgettable experiences here.


    However, as the saying goes, all good things muste to an end. We regret to inform you that some of the online games will be temporarily closed at this point. After tonight, all yers will no longer be able to enter the game world, the game points in the cities will be closed one after another, and the staff in them can evacuate themselves. Please note that after Midnight Tonight, the game points will no longer be protected by the power of oaths. They will no longer be able to resist and block supernatural forces, the yers that were still inside the game points were requested to leave as soon as possible.


    After Zhang Heng finished reading the email, the starfish in his hand arrived at midnight. At the same time, Chronos and Hydra, who had received the news earlier, also turned to look at the clock in the lounge.


    Hydra retracted her gaze and looked at Chronos. ��Those ancient oaths are no longer valid. So, I��ll only say this once. Anyone who dares to stand in my way tonight, I��ll swallow them whole!��


    Kronos, on the other hand, acted as if he did not see the fierce light in the bartender��s eyes. He could not help butugh, ��I��ve said it before. Your Opponent Tonight Is Not Me. Although you no longer treat me as an ally, I still remember the good times when we worked together before. So, unless it��s absolutely necessary, I won��t attack you.��


    ��This is the first time I��ve heard someone say something so refreshing and refined about being a coward!��Hydra did not want to y any more games with Kronos, so, after saying thisst sentence, she pounced on the man in front of her.


    However, almost at the same time, the iron wall behind Kronos suddenly fell off, revealing a well-equipped armed squad.


    As the leader of the team gave the order, bullets rained down on the bartenders as if they were free.


    Cronos��voice sounded again, mixed with the sound of bullets, and it seemed to be a little intermittent, ��A while ago, I went to Irnd to visit another old friend. He��s not as old as you, but he met me a little earlier.


    ��I liked him from the first moment I saw him, but even I didn��t expect him to do so many big things without making a sound. It can only be said that the human race can never be underestimated, especially a man who has be a father. You can slowly y with his people here. I��ll take my leave first.��


    After saying that, Kronos looked at the broken wine rack and sighed. ��Look, what did I say before? You might as well give me a bottle.��


    At this moment, Hydra no longer had the time to answer, because everywhere she looked was filled with bullets, locking up the space in front, back, left, and right where she could move. Not only that.., those bullets werepletely different from the ones she had encountered before.


    Recently, she had heard simr rumors that another mortal had developed a type of bullet that specifically targeted the gods. Thor had once suffered a loss on this, she did not expect that just a dayter, Hydra had personally experienced the power of this type of bullet.


    Without knowing when, the originally full bar of the sex and the city bar had disappeared. Now, there was only Hydra and the enemy in front of her in the entire bar.


    Although there were not many people on the opposite side, only eleven people, there were actually two heavy machine guns. This was also the reason why Hydra was in a sorry state. One of the heavy machine guns was aimed at Hydra��s head. After a while.., the bullets swarmed over and tore the bartender��s face into pieces. Even half of her head was blown off.


    However, Hydra, who only had half of her head left, waspletely enraged. She no longer dodged the bullets and simply stood where she was. Then, she tore off her own head, and fresh blood sprayed out from her neck, it was as if she was filming an r-rank horror movie.


    And what was even more terrifying was that from the gaping wound, nine more heads poked out. And this time, the nine heads were clearly snake heads. Each snake head had a diameter of more than three meters, and with the addition of the necks.., the rest room was almost filled to the brim. The nine pairs of watermelon-like eyes stared fixedly at the eleven humans in front of them. In their bloody mouths, ck poisonous fog was constantly rolling.


    However, the eleven humans seemed to have expected this to happen. When they saw this terrifying scene, they actually remained unmoved. Only the leader of the team said indifferently, ��Put on your gas masks.��


    Following that, the firepower of the heavy machine guns became even more intense. The bullet casings fell to the ground with a nging sound, as if they were trying to bury the shooter��s feet.

 Chapter 1347 - The Head Of A Snake

    <h4>Chapter 1347: The Head Of A Snake</h4>


    Of course, Hydra did not reveal the head of a snake just to scare people. Instead, she nned to use her huge head as a shield against the iing fatal bullets.


    It was said that out of Hydra��s nine heads, eight would grow back after being cut off, while the golden head in the middle could not be killed at all.


    Therefore, the bartender was prepared to use her head as a consumable. Of course, being reborn did not mean that it would not hurt, in fact, the nine heads added another nine targets to the group of humans in front of them. The pain was nine times more. This time, the armed squad did not even need to aim.., as long as they poured out their bullets, they would be able to urately hit the snake head.


    Previously, Hydra had been somewhat disapproving of the so-called god-ying bullets, but after personally experiencing it this time, she hadpletely stopped looking down on the group of humans in front of her. Based on her temper.., originally, she should have left Chronos behind as well, but this time, for the first time, she ignored the god of time and allowed thetter to leave calmly.


    This was because Hydra knew that it would not be easy to deal with this group of humans. In the blink of an eye, two of her snake heads were smashed by bullets. Hydra did not hesitate, immediately, she controlled her other seven heads and bit off the two heads that were already riddled with holes.


    Two new heads quickly grew out from the broken parts.


    Seeing that all the previous attacks were now in vain, the leader of the armed squad did not show any signs of annoyance or frustration. His mental fortitude was terrifying. He only asked his other teammate beside him with a straight face, ��Is the test result out?��


    Thetter nodded. ��It��s out. Skin hardness a-, single head regeneration time 15 seconds, body recovery a + , hematopoietic ability B + ,prehensive anti-strike ability A.��after saying that, he praised, ��Should I say that it��s worthy of being a famous monster? In terms of anti-strike ability, it��s even better than Thor.��


    ��Hydra has always been a monster famous for its unparalleled vitality,��the captain said calmly, ��Beforeing here, Rox made it very clear in the pre-battle meeting. Alright, let��s Stop the probing and enter the second phase of the battle.��


    ��Roger that.��


    Other than the two gunmen who were still controlling the heavy machine guns to kill Hydra on arge scale, eight of the remaining nine people suddenly changed the muzzle of their guns and stopped attacking freely. Instead, they focused their fire on one of Hydra��s heads, in less than six seconds, the head was blown apart again.


    The only one who did not make a move was the leader of the armed squad. He put the gun in his hand aside and carried a small round torpedo-shaped jar on his back. At this time, Hydra used the same trick again and bit off the head that was being focused on.


    The captain set a 15-second countdown timer on his electronic watch and rushed towards Hydra��s neck that had just lost its head without hesitation. Hydra was furious when it saw this and immediately controlled the remaining eight heads to attack the human in front of it.


    An ordinary person would have been too weak to walk when they saw this scene. After all, if eight huge snake heads were to bite at the same time, no matter how one looked at it, it would be a dead end. However, at this moment, the captain continued to charge forward. He waited for the first snake head to attack before rolling to the right and dodging it at the critical moment.


    /


    However, this was only the beginning. Before anyone could let out a sigh of relief for him, the second snake head fell from the sky. However, at this moment, the firepower support from the other side also arrived. It could be seen that this team had been training together a lot, the two heavy machine gunners had a tacit understanding with each other. The two heavy machine gunners changed their suppressive fire posture from before and used the heavy machine guns in their hands to protect the team leader.


    They allowed thetter to run to about ten meters in front of Hydra. This was also the limit. This time, Hydra simply used three heads to block all of the team leader��s paths.


    Therefore, the team leader did not continue forward. He directly took out a spray gun from the side of the small round can.


    Upon seeing this spray gun, the huge pupils on the snake��s head suddenly shrank!


    Hydra had already guessed what the group of humans in front of him wanted to do. In the next moment, a cluster of mes shot out from the spray gun. The target was the neck where Hydra��s head had just fallen off.


    ording to Greek mythology, Hercules, the son of Zeus and Alcmene, was hated by Hera. Hera forced him toplete 12 impossible missions, one of which was to defeat Hydra.


    In order to deal with the heads that Hydra could not cut off, Heracles thought of a way. With a torch in his hand, every time he cut off a snake��s head, he would burn the wound with the torch so that the snake��s head could not grow, he used this method to cut off eight of Hydra��s heads.


    And the group of humans in front of Hydra now clearly intended to replicate the legendary solution of Heracles. Although the captain did not have Heracles��innate divine strength, he had ten teammates, their guns were all loaded with god-ying bullets that had recently terrified the gods. The captain also held a methrower in his hand. No matter what, it was better than the torch in Hercules��hand.


    A distance of ten meters could not stop the me of the methrower. The neck of Hydra that had lost its head was quickly swallowed by the raging mes. A strange burnt smell even came from the air.


    Although she had controlled the other snake heads to force the captain who was holding the methrower back at the first moment, when fifteen seconds had passed, the broken neck that had been burned by the mes did not grow any new snake heads.


    ��It��s working!��The team members who were shooting while weing the captain looked excited when they saw this, because this meant that the second phase of the battle had finally yed its role. As long as they kept up their efforts and burned another seven heads.., only the golden head in the middle was left to deal with.


    This was also the most troublesome head. Unlike the other eight, this golden head waspletely unkible. Even Hercules had only buried this head and pressed it against a rock.., of course, since this team dared toe here tonight, they had already prepared for such a situation.


    However, the captain frowned when he saw the joy on the faces of the other team members. At the same time, he reminded them, ��The battle has just begun. Don��t be careless.��


    His caution was reasonable. Hydra was one of the most famous monsters in the world. Its strength was unquestionable. Even if they had made a perfect n, this battle would not be easy.


    And his worries were quickly confirmed. After Hydra lost a head, not only was she not afraid of the battle, she became even fiercer. She actually withstood the rain of bullets and wanted to rush out of the house to stop her from leaving the room.., the two heavy machine guns were almost roaring, and the barrel of the guns became hotter and hotter, like two pieces of iron.

 Chapter 1348 - Secret Base

    <h4>Chapter 1348: Secret Base</h4>


    While the bartender was fighting with the eleven uninvited guests in the sex and the city bar.


    On the other side of the city, a group of people were busy looking for the whereabouts of another uninvited guest in a stic mold processing factory.


    ��Why... Is it Hydra?��A woman who looked like a secretary looked at the name on the whiteboard and thought hard.


    This stic mold processing factory had been operating for three years. The business was not particrly prosperous, but it had been making a small profit. However, four months ago.., in the face of an irresistible offer, the boss endured the pain and sold the factory. Then, the new owner kept the appearance of the factory unchanged and only made some secret modifications to the workshop.


    The previous machines and equipment were gone, reced by rows of file cabs and weapon racks. It looked like a secret military base, and this military base did not have any electronic equipment connected to the inte, it was rather simr to the Cold War style of the 1960s and 1970s.


    As soon as the secretary-like woman finished her sentence, another voice interjected, ��It��s so lively now. The Legendary Rox who never showed up... previously, he only gave us technical support through email, but now he suddenly showed up and forcefully pulled three elite squads away from us. TSK TSK, that guy is really cunning.��


    ��This is my fault,��another gentle-looking man in his thirties took the initiative to take the me, ��I was the one who convinced Roger to continue using Rox��s reputation to recruit new members. I also deliberately promoted Rox and made him the Guardian��s spirit totem. I didn��t expect that he would be the one who shot himself in the foot.��


    ��This is not your fault,��the secretary-like woman quickly shook her head and said, ��Everyone knows what happened back then. We thought that Rox was just a simple researcher who didn��t have any desire or ambition for power. Otherwise, we wouldn��t be able to exin why he didn��t try to take control of the Guardian organization even once in such a long time. In addition, he was the founder of the Guardian organization. He has indeed helped us a lot over the years. It was thanks to his research that we were able to produce things like god-ying bullets, allowing ordinary people to grasp the ability to fight against the gods. Even if we don��t publicize such a person, there will definitely be people who are willing to follow him.��


    ��There��s no point in talking about this now. Since he��s here, let��s find him first. If we wait any longer, someone might be dragged away by him again,��said a 23-year-old youth, it was the same person who had spoken earlier. He threw the baseball in his hand at the opposite wall and caught it. He kept repeating this little game, seemingly enjoying it endlessly.


    ��The possibility of that is not high,��the gentle-looking man said again, ��After all, we have been managing the organization for the past few years. We have provided the funds, training, and even weapons. It is precisely because of our existence that the Guardian was able to grow to this point. Everyone in the organization is aware of this. No one can challenge Roger��s authority in the organization. Otherwise, Rox would not have simply pulled away three teams of people.��


    ��That being said, he��s still an unstable factor,��the secretary-like woman said, ��We used to think that he was on the same side as us, but if that��s really the case, there��s no reason for him not to look for us after he showed up. Instead, he directly pulled people out from under our noses. This means that he didn��t pull people out for official business. In that case, we��re back to the original question. Why Hydra?��


    ��Hydra, no matter what myth or legend it is, it is an evil monster.��The young man shrugged. ��Maybe Rox just wants to get rid of the evil for the People First.��


    He did not expect that the woman who looked like a secretary would be shocked and blurted out, ��What did you say?��


    ��Uh... I just guessed.��The young man looked a little embarrassed and did not throw the tennis ball that he caught.


    ��No, say it again,��the woman who looked like a secretary said seriously.


    ��I said that Rox went to find Hydra first just to get rid of the evil for the people.��


    ��No, the first sentence.��


    ��No matter what myth Hydra is in...��


    ��Oh, right.��The woman who looked like a secretary finally caught the sh of inspiration in her mind. ��In the new and popr myth, Hydra is the follower of Master Laraya.��


    ��So?��The young man raised his eyebrows.


    ��Do you still remember the recent rumor among the gods that the master of Laryev will wake up from his slumber and return to this world with a yer as a vessel, bringing destruction, fear, and Endless Madness?��


    ��Oh, are you trying to say that Rox suddenly appeared to stop this?��The young man suddenly realized, ��He wants to kill its follower, Hydra, before the master of Larreya descends. Wait... If that��s the case, why didn��t he tell us directly and let us take action? We should be able toe to an agreement on this issue. There��s no reason for him to pull a few teams to do it alone.��


    ��You��re right. So he must have some ulterior motive to kill Hydra,��the gentle-looking man said at this time, ��Also, Rox knows that we won��t help him on this point. We might even stop him.��


    ��Has there been any news about the yer who was chosen by Lalye��s master as a vessel?��


    While everyone was discussing this matter, a scallop on the table suddenly opened its mouth, and a man��s voice came from inside.


    When they heard this voice, the small meeting room instantly fell silent.


    Then, the secretary-like woman spoke, ��The new God and the old God have entered a state of war. Everyone��s attention is focused on the organizingmittee stopping operations and the game shutting down. For the time being, there��s no time to care about other things. However, I��ve heard some vague rumors that the yer chosen to be the vessel is outstanding and has a very strong willpower. In addition, he has gradually lost all human emotions.��


    The Scallop Shell��s voice was silent for a moment, then it spoke again, ��That yer is in our city, or to be more precise, at least once in our city. Hydra is hiding in that game point for a reason. It��s most likely to protect that container. Didn��t the yer information already leak out? Find out who��s nearby.��


    ��Yes.��The few people in the meeting room replied solemnly.


    ��The purpose of the Guardians is to solve the problems brought by the gods. Logically speaking, our target should only be the gods. However, the situation this time is rather special. If we really let that fellow who is sleeping in the underwater pce of Liye escape, even if it is only for a day, it will be a huge disaster. If killing one person can save the entire world, there is no reason for us not to do this.��


    At this point, the voice in the shell also slowed down a little, ��Everyone��s early work is going well. Although there are some unsatisfactory areas during this period, the basic strategic goals have beenpleted as scheduled. Now that the war between the new and Old Gods is unavoidable, we can also shift the focus of our work and quickly resolve the current problem.��

 Chapter 1349 - Mail

    <h4>Chapter 1349: Mail</h4>


    Miss Subus woke up early for once in her life. She looked at the time and realized that it wasn��t even 7 am yet. She didn��t even bother to change into her pajamas and leaned over the peephole. Seeing that there was no one in the corridor, she opened the door, then, she tiptoed over to Zhang Heng��s room next door and ced her ear against the door to listen carefully.


    Of course, she didn��t hear anything. When she was about to sneak back into her room, she saw Zhang Heng, who had just bought breakfast downstairs.


    Miss Subus looked embarrassed. ��Ah, I dropped my earring... look for it on the floor.��


    ��Did you find it?��Zhang Heng handed one of the breakfasts to Miss Subus.


    Thetter sighed. She knew that her lie wasn��t convincing, so she didn��t insist. ��I didn��t mean to pry into your privacy.��


    ��I know. You want to make sure that the next night is over and that my body still belongs to me. It��s okay, I understand,��Zhang Heng said.


    ��That would be great.��Miss Subus heaved a sigh of relief.


    ��Have your breakfast first.��


    Miss Subus had already stepped into her room, but she stopped in her tracks. ��Where are we going after breakfast?��


    ��Nowhere. Just stay at the hotel. I have something to pack,��Zhang Heng said. ��Of course, if you��re bored, you can go out for a walk. I Won��t restrict your movements.��


    Miss Subus shook her head. ��Forget it. I��m not going to wander around at this juncture. It��ll be troublesome if I run into those guys who kidnapped sage again.��


    ��Actually, it��s very unlikely that those guys will make a move on you again,��Zhang Heng said, ��The things they��ve done previously were basically to intensify the conflict between the New Gods and the Old Gods and to start a war. Now that the war hase, their mission at this stage can be consideredpleted. There��s no reason for them to still focus on you guys.��


    ��What will they do next?��


    ��I don��t know. I��m not one of them,��Zhang Heng said.


    However, after he said that, Miss Subus still didn��t return to her room. Instead, he sighed again.


    ��You��re a good person. When I first met you, you saved that little girl who had nothing to do with you. I knew it. You��re not as cold as you look. A person like you shouldn��t have ended up like this.��


    ��Does a subus have a concept of justice and Evil?��Zhang Heng asked curiously. ��I thought you guys didn��t care about such things.��


    ��I know what you��re trying to say. We... Seduce men and suck their essence to survive. This is our way of making a living. Just like how wolves and lions hunt their prey, can you say that they��re evil? ��And strictly speaking, we are also different from wolves and lions. Wolves and lions only bring death to their prey, and between us and the target, it��s more like an equivalent exchange rtionship. We give the target the pleasure that no one can give them, and in return, they will give us a part of their essence.��


    Miss Subus paused and continued, ��All these years, the church has been ndering us in public opinion, as if meeting our men didn��t end well. I don��t deny that some of us have indeed gone a little overboard. However, under normal circumstances, a wet dream will not cause you to lose more energy than masturbating. Unless you do it continuously every day, there won��t be any health problems.��


    ��I understand.��


    ��Of course we have our own opinions. Otherwise, why do you think I didn��t report you to the organizingmittee?��Miss Subus rolled her eyes. Then, a worried look appeared on her face, ��Are you sure the person you��re talking about... wille looking for you?��


    ��Yes,��Zhang Heng said with certainty. ��He has waited for so many years. There��s no reason for him to give up at thest moment.��


    ��What do you mean he has waited for so many years?��Miss Subus was confused.


    However, Zhang Heng did not exin further. He only said to her, ��Hurry up and eat. The tofu pudding is getting cold.��


    ��I almost forgot what I was going to say after being interrupted by you. In short, if you want to find another way or anyone else, I can apany you. Don��t you still have two weeks left? It��s not like we can��t look for Hermes.��


    ��Thank you,��Zhang Heng said politely. ��If I need anything, I��lle to you.��


    ..


    Miss Subus did not expect Zhang Heng to stay in his room for the whole day. It was not until dinner time that she knocked on the door and saw a certain someone.


    Zhang Heng had probably just taken a shower, and his hair was still wet. It was only then that Miss Subus noticed the unnoticeable tiredness in Zhang Heng��s eyes.


    As the saying goes, staying upte was the most important nightlife for young people in modern times. It would be abnormal if a person in his early twenties did not stay upte. Previously, Zhang Heng had also worked through the night to fulfill his promise to ISIS, however, the subus did not see any tiredness in his eyes.


    On the other hand, Zhang Heng looked a little tired after staying in the hotel for the whole day. Furthermore, the tiredness was not physical, but more like mental. The subus thought of a possibility, for the first time, she did not ask, and Zhang Heng did not exin.


    /


    The two of them tacitly skipped over the matter. After they finished their dinner in the restaurant, they returned to their respective rooms. Zhang Heng received a new email a littleter.


    The new email came from Fu Lou. Since ISIS had already cured fan meinan, Zhang Heng naturally told fourth Ding about closing the reward card. However, he was still holding a considerable amount of points, han Lu had helped him raise the funds in the early stages, so it was useless to keep it in his hands. Furthermore, the value of the points was still declining, so Zhang Heng asked Fu Lou to help him look for suitable items.


    However, Zhang Heng did not expect the organizingmittee to close the game. As the game points closed one after another, the value of the points had fallen to the bottom. It was less than one-tenth of what it used to be, this was because the yers knew very well that unless Gaime came back, the points would not be any different from scrap paper.


    However, when Zhang Heng��s gaze swept across the email from Fu Lou, he was slightly surprised.


    Because Fu Lou had told him in the email that he had actually found a soul-type item for him. He had asked Zhang Heng if he was still interested in buying it. Due to the drop in the value of the points, the buyer no longer epted the payment, he hoped that he could use the item as an exchange.


    At the end of the email, there was a detailed description of the item.

 Chapter 1350 - Immune Crystal

    <h4>Chapter 1350: Immune Crystal</h4>


    [ name: Immune Crystal ]


    [ rarity: D ]


    [ effect: A strange crystal that can grant the wearer immunity to three soul attacks. ]


    Fulou alsomented below.


    Although it was only d-grade, it was a very rare soul-type item. Considering the recent rumors, the value of soul-type items also rose along with the tide. The buyer clearly stated that.., the buyer needed to provide one c-rank item or at least three d-rank items in exchange.


    Zhang Heng found Dasi on the Forum and opened a chat room, pulling thetter in.


    This was the situation. The background of the seller had been investigated. However, ording to the rules of the Chamber of Commerce, I could only reveal what he was willing to reveal. He was a member of one of the three major guilds, however, this sale is his private act. However, he didn��t just find one of our chambers ofmerce. As far as I know, there are at least four other chambers ofmerce that are interested in this item.


    Four typed.


    �� moreover, there aren��t only four buyers behind these four chambers of Commerce. Take Our Fook House for example. If you are also interested, then we have six buyers on our side alone.


    Are so many people interested?


    Soul-rted items had always been rare. Normally, it was fine, but now, things were different. There was a rumor that the owner ofrue was going to return to the human world, the yers had to be prepared, so the price of soul-rted items had been raised. You Asked Me to keep an eye on these items for you, but most of them were bought by the big guilds as soon as they were released.


    Then why hadn��t this item been bought by the big guilds?


    Zhang Heng asked.


    Because the new God and the old God had already started a war, everyone couldn��t care less about this matter for the time being. Many Gods had summoned their own agents. Oh right, you��re also an agent, right, you were once the number one on the list of agents in the war. Did your God not summon you.


    Not yet.


    Then he was lucky. It seemed like he wasn��t involved in the war yet.


    Zhang Heng thought about it and typed again.


    Do you have any physical photos?


    Yes, there are videos too. I��ll send them to you.


    After saying that, Dasi sent a file over. After Zhang Heng unzipped it, there were two videos and 12 photos. He showed the item called [ immune crystal ] from various angles, whether it was a video or a photo, it seemed like there was no problem at all.


    �� our building has contacted several other chambers ofmerce. We��ve gathered together and discussed it. Since there are so many buyers, we might as well hold a small-scale auction. The date is set for tomorrow night, the venue is the vice building��s headquarters. If Mr. Simon is interested, I can help you register your name first.


    �� Don��t use the code name Simon. Just Call Me Mr. G.


    �� no problem. It is our responsibility to keep our clients��secrets. You can also wear a mask to the auction tomorrow night. I will send you a password to verify your identity.


    �� thank you.


    Zhang Heng typed thest line and exited the chat room. Then, he stared at the photo and fell into deep thought.


    Even though he didn��t notice anything wrong during his conversation with d4, the auction still raised a hint of wariness in Zhang Heng��s heart.


    The reason was simple. The timing was just too coincidental. Someone happened to pass him a pillow when he was dozing off. Zhang Heng had to consider the possibility that there was a trap behind this.


    Even though he had yet topletely reveal the fact that he was the master oflaiya, Zhang Heng did not expect this secret to remain hidden forever. After all, the few people who knew his identity.., other than the little subus beside him, whether it was Isis, Ny totip, Kronos, or even the bartender, all of them were filled with uncertainty.


    Each of them had their own ns and goals. Even if they were still happy with each other, it was very likely that they would turn against each other. However, Zhang Heng did not n to give up on this item because of the possible danger.


    This was because he realized that he had underestimated the influence and control that the thing in the city under the ice had on him. Before Saiji left, she had warned him that the amulet in his body hadpletely lost its effect, furthermore, she had helped him block the first wave of mental attacks, so naturally, Zhang Heng had to be extra careful after that.


    Unlike what Miss Subus had imagined, Zhang Heng didn��t go to bedst night. He had set aside an extra 24 hours to rest and rx. However, just like what happened at the hotelst time.., his ability to time-freeze couldn��t stop the soul attack from the other side.


    After meeting sage, Zhang Heng could more or less guess the reason. The blood of that thing flowed through his body, just like how Zhang Heng could control a portion of the other party��s supernatural power, and the thing in Subzero City could also share his power.


    Furthermore, Zhang Heng could feel that as time passed, the thing��s adaptation to time-freeze was getting better and better. Last time, it only allowed him to stay for 30 minutes, but this time, he could almost enter and exit time-freeze freely.


    That��s right, the weariness in Zhang Heng��s eyes was due to the nightmare of time-freeze. This time, he dreamed of ��Myself��being imprisoned in a dark hall, waiting for the day when the Stars returned to their rightful ces, what apanied him was only a long time and endless nightmares.


    Only on certain days could his soul temporarily break out of the cage ande into contact with the souls outside. However, those souls were too weak, like ants, unable to withstand his gaze, they all fell into a state of madness.


    Zhang Heng didn��t know how long it took him to break free from the nightmare. When he opened his eyes, his clothes were already soaked through. He had slept for nine hours, but he didn��t feel any recovery at all, fortunately, Zhang Heng ate something and tried to sleep again. This time, he finally fell asleep normally. Even so, his mental state only recovered about 80% after he woke up.


    This was also the reason why Zhang Heng wanted to get the [ immune crystal ] . Therefore, he didn��t n to miss the auction. However, considering the danger he might face, he had to make preparations in advance.


    Zhang Heng first knocked on the door of Miss Subus��room and told her that he would be leaving for a period of time. Miss Subus wasn��t surprised, because in her impression, Zhang Heng wasn��t a person who would sit around and wait for death, in fact, she wasn��t used to thetter staying in the hotel all day.


    So she asked Zhang Heng what she could do.


    ��It��s simple. You just need to keep an eye on the situation with the gods for me,��Zhang Heng said. ��Let me know if there��s any new developments. Not only that, but also Gaime��s whereabouts.��

 Chapter 1351 - Exploration In Advance

    <h4>Chapter 1351: Exploration In Advance</h4>


    After meeting Miss Subus, Zhang Heng found the ID ��Don��t want to practice the piano��on the forum. He went straight to the point. ��I have something I need your help with.��


    Not wanting to practice the piano, he replied with a ��Okay��without asking anything.


    After that, the two chatted privately in the chat room for about 15 minutes. Zhang Heng booked the nearest flight back to his hometown first. After paying the parking fee, he drove polo out of the parking lot and didn��t rest, he drove all the way to the city where the school was located.


    While he was still in time-stopping mode, Zhang Heng parked his car at the foot of the building��s headquarters.


    Before he left for Greend, he had been here once before. He took out the [ gue bone bow ] as coteral and gave it to the building for appraisal. He knew that most of the employees working in the building were just ordinary people, with normal business, only the top floor was open to yers. They could reach it through the VIP elevator on the right-hand side of the hall.


    If everything went as nned, the small-scale auction would be held here in a dozen hours.


    Zhang Heng did not have the password, so of course, he could not take the VIP elevator, so he first tried the fire escape on the side.


    However, when he reached the top floor, there was an alloy door after he pushed open the door. Furthermore, there was no keyhole or handle on the outside of the door. In other words, it could only be opened from the inside.


    Zhang Heng had considered climbing through the window, but the windows on the top floor were made of bulletproof and tempered doubleyer ss. Of course, if Zhang Heng really wanted to go in, a mere twoyers of ss would not be able to stop him, however, he only wanted to take a look before the auction started and make some preparations. He did not want to be discovered by anyone.


    Otherwise, if he rmed Fu Lou and changed the venue at thest minute, then his actions tonight would be meaningless.


    Zhang Heng Thought for a moment, then turned back to the VIP elevator. When he had entered the elevator, he had noticed that there was not only the top floor on the control panel, but also the button for the lower floor. Zhang Heng tried to press the button for the lower floor, in the end, his luck was not bad,


    after waiting for about half a second, he did not need to enter the password before the elevator started to move down.


    When the elevator opened again, Zhang Heng finally understood why there was such a floor on the elevator.


    There was nothing special about this ce. It was basically just a storage room with a few warehouses. The things that were kept there were all rted to normal businesses. There was nothing hidden, but the most important thing was that there was a passageway here, it led directly to an alley on the side of the office building. The exit was an alloy door that Zhang Heng had seen before that could only be opened from the inside.


    This was probably to deal with the possibility of a sudden attack. It could only be said that the location of the building had been carefully chosen, leaving behind a secret passage to allow the clients and the staff inside to evacuate in case of an emergency.


    Zhang Heng looked around and then threw a Colt M2000 that he had gotten from the group that had dealt with sage into an old-fashioned printer. Judging from the dust on it.., this printer hadn��t been moved in a long time, so it was perfect for hiding things.


    After putting down the gun, Zhang Heng didn��t take the elevator anymore. Instead, he continued down the corridor until he reached the alloy door. Opening the door, he scanned the alley outside. It was already midnight in the real world, there was no one in the alley, only the faint moonlight.


    Zhang Heng focused on observing the nearby strongholds that were suitable for shooting. Then, he took a step forward. After taking a detour, he came to the front door of the building��s headquarters and walked in again, he came to the VIP elevator.


    Zhang Heng did not press the up button. Instead, he reached out and opened the two doors in front of him. At that moment, the elevator was still on the first floor. Zhang Heng climbed up the dark elevator shaft all the way to the top floor. Then, using the same trick, he reached out and opened the door, finally, he sessfully entered the core area of the building.


    Zhang Heng ignored the two heavily locked rooms at the end of the corridor. The building should have stored some valuable items and cash there. Other people might be interested, but Zhang Heng only nced at them and then turned away, his first goal was to find a room suitable for a small-scale auction.


    As the most famous chamber ofmerce among the yers, the headquarters was naturally well-equipped with all kinds of facilities. There were six meeting rooms, of which two were big, two were small, and four were used to receive clients, the other two were for internal use.


    Zhang Heng first eliminated the two meeting rooms for internal use, leaving four for size. The big meeting room could hold about 30 people, while the small meeting room could only hold six people at most. ording to d4, there were already six buyers for the building alone, so it was obvious that he could also rule out the small conference room.


    /


    With that, there were only tworge conference rooms left. In terms of decoration and size, there was not much difference. Moreover, it was still early before the auction, and the building had not started to decorate the venue, so it was difficult to guess which one it would be, other than that, Zhang Heng also noticed an exhibition hall. At this moment, all the exhibits inside had been removed.


    Judging from the size alone, it was bigger than the other two conference rooms. In fact, the requirements for an auction were not that high. As long as there was an auction table in this room.., after that, he could move some stools and use them as an auction room.


    Since that was the case, Zhang Heng did not hesitate. He walked around the three rooms and checked the rooms next door, including the thickness of the walls and whether there was a hidden door. Finally, he went to the bathroom, he wrapped the other M1911 in a stic bag and put it under the toilet cover of the first cubicle.


    Because this cubicle was usually the least used, thest one was his [ hidden scabbard ] .


    Since Zhang Heng had already prepared for the worst, it was likely that he would have to rely on his strongest weapon in a battle.


    Compared to the size of the pistol [ hidden sheath ] , it was slightlyrger, so it was not easy to hide. Zhang Heng ced it on the ceiling of the exhibition hall, the reason why it was ced there was not only because Zhang Heng felt that this room had the highest probability of being chosen as the auction room, but also because this room was between the two meeting rooms.


    No matter where the auction room was ced at the end of the auction, as long as there was a need, he would be able to obtain the knife quickly. Of course, if nothing happened in the end, that would be for the best. There was also no need to worry about not being able to retrieve the knife, as long as Zhang Heng waited for time to stop before sneaking back after the auction was over, it would be fine.


    Other than that, Zhang Heng also considered using a bug or a pinhole camera, but in the end, he gave up. Anything that could release a signal, given the cautiousness of Ford, was very likely to be discovered, zhang Heng did not bet on this probability.

 Chapter 1352 - The Auction Of The Fortune Building

    <h4>Chapter 1352: The Auction Of The Fortune Building</h4>


    After Zhang Heng was done with his preparations, he went down to the first floor and closed the alloy door. At the same time, he raised the elevator back to the first floor to restore everything to its original state. Then, he sat back in his car.


    At this moment, it had been more than 30 hours since hest closed his eyes. In addition, he had also driven for a long time. It was impossible to say that he was not tired at all. However, afterst night��s experience.., zhang Heng didn��t close his eyes either.


    Now, he could understand how Han Lu felt after she fell into the [ dream of Death ] . He also understood why the people in Greend who had nightmares all went crazy in the end, actually, if it was just a nightmare, Zhang Heng would have been able to survive it. After all,pared to ordinary people, he had already lost all his emotions.


    The real problem was that the nightmares had caused him to be unable to recover from his sleep. This was the real problem. The sleep that Zhang Heng had during the time-outst night had left him exhausted after waking up. Of course, after that, he had a good night��s sleep, but he wasn��t affected by the nightmares. For the time being, Zhang Heng had no idea what the pattern of the nightmares was.


    However, the most important thing now was to get the [ immune crystal ] first. To avoid anyplications, Zhang Heng decided to keep his eyes open for the time being. He would sleep after the event was over. After all, he had been carrying it for thirty hours, it wasn��t bad for the next ten hours.


    Zhang Heng drove the Polo to a vending machine and bought a cup of Nestle Coffee. He was going to use the caffeine to boost his spirits, but when he opened the can of coffee, his hand suddenly stopped moving, then, he felt a strong wave of drowsiness. He could no longer hold the can of coffee, and his eyelids sank.


    Zhang Heng knew that the drowsiness came too suddenly and was somewhat againstmon sense, but it was difficult to break free from it. The next moment, he was lying on the steering wheel.


    This time, in his sleep, Zhang Heng saw something else. It was very simr to the thing that appeared in the story of the museum director. It had the head of an octopus, and its body was covered with tentacles, the thing that formed its body did not look like any known substance on Earth.


    It lived in a city filled with tall towers, and at the center of the city was arge hall. When Zhang Heng first saw the hall, he found it familiar. When he looked at it again, he finally realized that.., this was the ce where he had been imprisoned in his previous nightmare.


    However, the ce he had been in at that time was damp and cold, and it was filled with a sense of istion. Now, even though the city was still filled with evil and all sorts of illogical weirdness, it was still full of vitality.


    The monsters in the city lived onnd. They covered their heads during the day and went out at night. They bathed their ugly bodies in the moonlight, and it was clear that they lived a good life, the Civilization that they had built was also worthy of praise. They had even fought with another high-level civilization.


    Under the situation where neither side could do anything to the other, both sides finally shook hands and made peace. They signed a contract and divided their territories. These octopus monsters were immersed in a happy atmosphere, but the good times did notst long, on a night that seemed to be no different than usual, the stars in the sky suddenly changed drastically. Then, the sea surged crazily and engulfed the city in an instant.


    Other than a few octopuses who happened to be away from the city, the rest of the octopuses sank into the sea with the city, never to see the light of day again..


    Zhang Heng woke up from the nightmare. The first thing he felt was his wet thighs. The coffee from before had alreadynded by his feet. Not only did it ssh on his pants, it also sshed on the floor mats. Zhang Heng ignored the tiredness, first, he looked at the starfish in his hand.


    Thankfully, the time freeze had just ended, so it didn��t affect him much. Zhang Heng settled the coffee liquid on his body and drove to a hotel to check in.


    This time, Zhang Heng didn��t expect to be dragged into the dream before he even slept. It seemed like it was impossible for him to reduce the amount of sleep he had to take to slow down the frequency of his soul being attacked, without hesitation, Zhang Heng set an rm andy back down on the bed.


    He wanted to test whether he would be able to continue sleeping likest time if he fell asleep right after the nightmare. In the end, his second sleep was not disturbed at all. It was four in the afternoon when Zhang Heng got out of bed, he sat in front of theputer to reply to a few emails before putting on a new pair of pants. He also shaved the stubble on the corner of his mouth and put on a new disguise in front of the mirror.


    When he left the house, he looked like an aplished financial worker who had been in the industry for six or seven years. Zhang Heng did not drive his polo. Firstly, the car did not match his current disguise, secondly, it was to prevent anyone from using the car to find out his identity.


    After leaving the house, he went to have a simple meal to fill his stomach. Then, he took a taxi to the front door of the building��s headquarters.


    Around 12 pm, Ding Si had already sent him an email confirming the start of the auction. As expected, the venue was set to be here. Zhang Heng carried his backpack and walked up to the VIP elevator, after entering the password that Ding Si had sent him, he put on an Ultraman Mask and went to the top floor.


    There, a female staff member in a Qipao was already waiting for him. When she saw him, she smiled at him and took out a small basket, ��Wee to this auction. To ensure the safety of our customers, please ce your weapon in the small basket in my hand.��


    ��I��m not armed.��Zhang Heng shook his head.


    ��Although I trust you, ording to the rules, can I search you?��


    Zhang Heng gestured for the female staff member to be casual, so the female staff member in the Qipao was not shy at all. She carefully searched every inch of Zhang Heng��s body and then opened Zhang Heng��s backpack, she took out a crown from inside.


    ��This is my offer for tonight,��Zhang Heng said.


    ��We��ll get someone to appraise it and keep it safe for you,��the female employee in the Qipao said respectfully. She used a piece of silk to carefully wrap up the [ white horse��s crown ] , ��Please follow me, there are already a few guests here.��


    ��Oh, can I go to the bathroom first? The raw food I ate earlier was a little spoilt.��


    ��Of course, this way please.��


    The female employee in the Qipao led Zhang Heng to the men��s washroom. Sure enough, Zhang Heng couldn��t wait to go in as well. From the looks of it, he was indeed in a hurry. He picked the cubicle closest to the door and rushed in, on the way, he bumped into a man who also looked like a client of Fu Lou.

 Chapter 1353 - The Price

    <h4>Chapter 1353: The Price</h4>


    The female employee in the Qipao stood outside the men��s toilet, listening to the sound of Flushing and the running water from the faucet.


    After waiting for about half a minute, Zhang Heng walked out of the toilet after washing his hands. The female employee in the Qipao continued to lead the way and walked past the firstrge conference room.


    Zhang Heng��s expression did not change, as if he had no idea where he would be taken.


    ��This is the ce.��The female employee in the Qipao took a few more steps and finally stopped in front of the room that was originally the exhibition hall. At the same time, she gestured for him toe in, ��The auction will begin in about 20 minutes. You can wait here for a while. If there��s anything you need, just tell the staff inside. Fu Lou wishes you a pleasant night.��


    ��Thank you.��Zhang Heng didn��t sense any hostility from the other party, but he didn��t let his guard down. He tidied up his suit and walked into the room.


    Zhang Heng wasn��t the first to arrive. Five buyers had already arrived before him. Three of the five people actually knew each other. They sat together and whispered something, while the other two sat further away from them.


    They did notmunicate much with each other. One of them was resting with his eyes closed, while the other was ying with his phone. Like Zhang Heng, everyone in the room was wearing masks. This way.., zhang Heng could no longer observe their expressions, so he could not judge their attitude toward him.


    In fact, when he entered the room, only two of the five people turned to look at him, but they quickly averted their gazes.


    Zhang Heng, on the other hand, chose a seat on the right-hand side of the third row and sat down. Just as he sat down, another person entered the room. It was the person Zhang Heng had bumped into in the bathroom earlier. He hade out before Zhang Heng, however, he was not in a hurry to enter the auction room. Instead, he smoked a cigarette in the corridor at the side.


    Judging from the other party��s habit of deliberately avoiding others, it was likely that he had been married for a long time. He might even have had a child.


    After entering the room, he didn��t talk to anyone else. Instead, he sat in a row behind Zhang Heng, about two seats away from him. As time passed, more and more guests entered the room.


    Ding Si was right. There were indeed quite a number of interested buyers for the [ immune crystal ] this time. Just the final list of buyers from Fortune Building alone had eight people. Other than that, there were several other chambers ofmerce, although the number of people was not asrge as fortune building��s, it was enough to add up to nearly twenty people.


    Furthermore, due to the special trading method this time around, the seller had also arrived. However, he did not go to the auction room. Instead, he sat in the VIP lounge next door.


    Zhang Heng looked at the time on his hand. There were less than three minutes left until the start of the auction. Most of the people who were supposed toe tonight had already arrived, then, an auctioneer in his fifties with half a head of white hair walked up to the auction stage.


    After a brief wee speech, the auctioneer quickly got down to business. He introduced the only item that was up for auction tonight. Zhang Heng had seen the [ immune crystal ] in the videos and photos before, now, he saw the real thing.


    It was ced in the disy cab. It was about the size of two thumbs and emitted a light purple luster. The biggest difference between it and an ordinary crystal was the strange pattern on the inside. Upon closer inspection, it was actually still slowly flowing.


    After the auctioneer introduced the basic information of the item, he allowed the group of buyers to walk up to the front to take a closer look. However, not many people stood up. Fulou was a veteran chamber ofmerce among the yers, and it had a good reputation. With their endorsement.., it was just a D-rank item. Even if it was a rare soul-type item, it was almost impossible for a fake to appear.


    Therefore, most of the people sat in their seats, waiting for the bidding to begin. Zhang Heng did not move. The seat beside him was already upied. On his left was a man who kept looking at his watch. He looked like he still had a venue to attend to, and on his right was a girl wearing a sailor��s uniform who was chewing bubble gum, from the looks of it, the auction had just started and she was already getting impatient.


    When thest buyer returned to his seat, the auctioneer spoke again, ��Due to some well-known reasons, the auction no longer epts game points as the main payment method, so the usual auction mode is no longer applicable.��


    He paused for a moment. Seeing that no one had any objections, he continued, ��The seller has already given his psychological price in advance. Since everyone is willing to participate in this auction, it is obvious that they have also epted this base price. When you entered the auction, you have already handed over the props used for the exchange to our staff. This will also be considered as your first round of bidding. Now, please take out the ipad under your seats and fill in the name, quality, and function of the props truthfully.


    ��Please take note. Please do not provide any false information. If the bids are epted in the future, we will proceed to the closing stage. If the bids are false, the bids will be cancelled. The next stage of the auction is as follows.��


    Seeing that the people in the auction room had already started to input information on the tablet, the auctioneer continued, ��Your first round of bids will be submitted to the seller. The seller will select the ten most tempting bids, and these ten buyers will enter the next round. However, those who are eliminated do not need to be too depressed. You can continue to raise your bids based on the first bid.


    ��The new bid will also enter the second round ofpetition. After the second round, there will only be five bids left on the list. After the third round, there will be three bids. In the fourth round, there will be one final bid. If there are no bids that can surpass this bid in the next round, then congrattions to this buyer for sessfully bidding for the [ immune crystal ] . Does anyone have any questions?��


    The auctioneer waited for half a minute, but no one spoke. He had wanted to wait a little longer, but the girl in the sailor suit to Zhang Heng��s right had run out of patience, ��Alright, cut the crap. Let��s get started! If you have any questions, ask them after the first round.��


    Hearing this, the auctioneer didn��t wait any longer. He looked at the screen in front of him, ��I have received all 27 bids and have already forwarded them to the seller. Please wait for a moment. In 30 minutes, the results of the first round of bids will be announced. During this period of time, everyone can take a break. There are snacks and fruits on your left and drinks and drinks on your right. ��You can take whatever you want. You can also use your tablet to watch movie variety shows or log on to the yers��forums. I wish everyone a pleasant night.��


    With that, he walked off the stage and went to the staff lounge to rest.

 Chapter 1354 - Interlude

    <h4>Chapter 1354: Interlude</h4>


    During the 30-minute break, Zhang Heng stood up to stretch his body. However, he did not go to the side to get any food or drinks. He just walked around the corridor and returned to his seat, the uncle on his left, who was in a hurry, was the first to rush out to make a phone call as soon as the first round of bidding ended.


    Previously, Zhang Heng could still hear him cursing and swearing in the corridor. It seemed like a project was not going well. Initially, they had agreed that the project would be under the name of somepany, but who would have thought that after winning the bid, the other side would suddenly turn hostile, a project worth hundreds of millions of dors had gone down the drain just like that. Anyone else would have been in hot water.


    On the other hand, the sailor girl on the right was still there. When she saw Zhang Heng sit down, she grabbed a bubble gum from her pocket and handed it to him. She asked, ��Ultraman, do you want some?��


    ��No, thanks.��Zhang Heng waved his hand.


    The girl in the sailor suit did not force him. She tore open the packaging and threw the bubble gum into her mouth. Then, she asked, ��Why did you buy that Crystal?��


    ��The same reason as everyone else.��


    The Girl in the sailor suit pouted and pointed at the group of people in front of the snack table, ��They bought the [ immune crystal ] to prevent the Lord of Liya��s mental attack. After all, those who have yed in a group before know what to do, but...��she changed the topic, ��This time, the situation is different. If that thing escapes, even three rounds of mental immunity won��t save it.��


    ��What About You? Why did youe to this auction?��


    ��The reason I bought this thing is different. I have an enemy whose ability is spirit-based. I came to bid on this thing to deal with her.��


    ��Then I wish you good luck.��Zhang Heng had intended to end the conversation with this sentence, but the sailor girl seemed to be interested in him. After a short pause, she continued to ask, ��Are you confident in your bid?��


    ��How do I put this? This kind of half-ck box bidding depends not only on your own bid, but also on others��bids.��


    ��That��s true. Let me put it another way. Are you confident that your bid will pass the first round?��


    Zhang Heng did not answer. Instead, he asked, ��What About You?��


    ��I can��t pass,��the sailor answered quickly, and she seemed to be very self-aware, ��My three d-rank items are all hard-earned. Basically, they��re the least valuable items. I only used them to exchange for a ticket to the auction. If I can pass the first round, it would be a miracle.��


    ��That would be such a pity.��


    ��No, that��s why I��m Looking for a partner,��the sailor said, ��Let me get this straight. If you have the confidence to make it through the first round, but you don��t have the confidence to make it through thest round, why don��t you try cooperating with me? I��ll add the three d-rank items I brought with me to your bid when necessary. In return, you just have to let me use that item once. I said that I want that item to deal with a sworn enemy, so one use is enough for me. In that case, you only have two uses left.��


    Zhang Heng did not reject the offer immediately. Instead, he said, ��I��ll consider it.��


    ��Considering is not a good answer for me.��The sailor was not satisfied. She chewed on her bubble gum and said, ��Even though I came to you first, it doesn��t mean that I have to work with you.��


    ��In the same way, even if I want to find a partner, I don��t necessarily have to look for you.��


    ��Others won��t be like me, who only need to use it once,��the sailor scoffed. ��Of course you can find another partner, but the price you have to pay is huge.��


    ��It doesn��t matter, I have plenty of money,��Zhang Heng said calmly.


    ��...��


    This time, the sailor choked on her words. From then on, she finally stoppeding to talk to Zhang Heng.


    Thirty minutes passed quickly, and the seller in the next room had selected ten bids that he was satisfied with. Zhang Heng��s [ White Horse��s crown ] was among them.


    ��The second round of bidding begins now. Those who wish to re-bid can re-bid.��The auctioneer returned to the stage.


    Therefore, a few of the buyers re-entered the bids on their ipads and gave the corresponding items to Fu Lou for safekeeping. There were also some who did not make a move, other than those who sessfully passed the first round of bidding, others decided to give up because the price exceeded their expectations.


    After all, although soul props are rare, and is now the most popr props, but [ immunity crystal ] is only D grade quality, the price is too outrageous and there is no need to force.


    In about ten minutes, the buyer hadpleted the second round of bidding, followed by the seller��s selection time. This time, the auctioneer did not leave, however, the man on Zhang Heng��s left who had been hacked earlier went out to make a phone call. The person who had bumped into him earlier stood up and went to pick up some fruits from the snack bar.


    Zhang Heng did not want tomunicate with the others anymore, so he closed his eyes.


    Time passed by slowly. Fifteen minutester, the noisy auction room quieted down again because the second round of bidding was also out, zhang Heng and his [ crown of the white horse ] remained on the list.


    Giving everyone some time to digest the results, the auctioneer stood up from the stage again. ��Next up is the third round of bidding. However, before this round of bidding begins, I have something else to announce.��


    Many of the people who had been prepared to bid frowned when they heard this. They did not know what kind of tricks Fu Lou had up his sleeves and why he was interspersed with other programs at the auction.


    The auctioneer, however, did not seem to notice the confusion on everyone��s faces, ��As a chamber of Commerce, we have always served the yers in a neutral manner. Since its establishment, we have always beenmitted to protecting the safety and privacy of our customers. In our eyes, every customer is equal... we are saying this to tell everyone that what is going to happen next is the personal actions of a few of our employees. This has nothing to do with thepany. Please don��t misunderstand.��


    Just as he finished hisst sentence, while most of the buyers were still in a daze, a few people around Zhang Heng started to move. The man who had been worrying about the project on the phone earlier was the first to make a move, he pulled out a dagger from god-knows-where and stabbed it at Zhang Heng!


    Following closely behind was the man that Zhang Heng had bumped into in the bathroom earlier. Thetter was not close to the man who was holding the dagger, but his movements were faster than hispanion��s. Even though he had made a moveter, he had almost arrived with hispanion!

 Chapter 1355 - Unsheathing

    <h4>Chapter 1355: Unsheathing</h4>


    Zhang Heng was suddenly attacked. In less than half a second, the dagger on his left hand had already reached his chest.


    At the same time, a fist also struck the back of his head. The fist was from the man who had met Zhang Heng in the bathroom. The index finger of his fist was wearing a dark green ring, and this dark green ring was obviously a prop, electric Sparks could be seen dancing on it.


    It was obvious that if someone was hit by this punch, they would not feel good.


    The two of them suddenly activated their weapons, ignoring the rules set by Fu Lou. At such a close distance, most people would not even be able to react in time, not to mention dodging.


    Zhang Heng��s expression was one of shock. Just as the dagger was about to pierce his chest, the person holding the dagger suddenly realized that the tip of his dagger couldn��t move any further!


    That was because his wrist was firmly gripped by Zhang Heng��s hand. And that wasn��t the end. The next moment, he heard his bones groan. His wrist was actually crushed by the other party, his body flew backward uncontrobly, crashing into hispanion��s fist.


    The electric current from the ring went through his skin and into his heart. Then, his vision went ck, and he lost consciousness and fell to the ground.


    Zhang Heng did not take advantage of this rare opportunity to escape. He remained in his seat, ignoring the shocked auctioneer on the stage. Instead, he swept his gaze across the crowd of buyers.


    Finally, his gaze fell on a man wearing a UTHORPE mask. He asked, ��What are you waiting for?��


    Thetter was stunned. He had not expected Zhang Heng to be able to find him. He believed that his acting skills were not bad. When the two men had attacked Zhang Heng earlier, he had even turned his body sideways, he made a gesture as if he wanted to leave the auction room. Furthermore, everyone was wearing masks. He could not figure out how he had been exposed.


    However, since things hade to this, he did not hesitate anymore. He stood up from his seat and bowed slightly to Zhang Heng. ��Sorry to offend you. Today, we would like to invite the number one yer, Mr. Simon, to teach us a lesson.��


    He spoke very politely and even emphasized the word ��teach��. However, the four people who stood up with him looked like they hade with ill intent. Furthermore, looking at the weapons in their hands.., they were not prepared for a spar at all.


    Some of them even held an Indian hand axe in their hands. The Indian hand axe had been hidden under the drinks table at the side. Clearly, the auctioneer��s im that Fu Lou did not know anything about it was just an excuse that he had no choice but to make.


    After all, setting up a trap to ambush a customer had a terrible impact. If Fu Lou wanted to continue, he had to get himself out of this matter.


    Seeing this, Zhang Heng also told the eager sailor beside him, ��Don��t move.��Then, he finally stood up from his seat and looked at the five people in front of him.


    ��I can teach you, but once my knife is unsheathed, I��m afraid none of you will be able to walk out of this room alive.��


    However, before he could finish his words, a sneer was heard. ��You��re putting on a show. You Don��t even have a knife, so how can you unsheathe it?��


    However, halfway through hisughter, it was as if someone had grabbed him by the throat. Hisughter stopped abruptly because he saw Zhang Heng get up and pick up the chair that he had been sitting on and throw it at the ceiling above his head, in the end, not only did he drop two buckles, but along with the two buckles, he also dropped a knife that was stuck in its sheath.


    After seeing the knife, the five people subconsciously turned to look at the auctioneer on the auction stage. For a moment, they even thought that Fu Lou had betrayed them and be a double agent. On the surface, he was helping them set up a trap to deal with Zhang Heng, in reality, they were the prey.


    However, when they saw the auctioneer��s widened eyes and gaping mouth that could fit a fist, they knew that the auctioneer was in the dark.


    With a de in his hand, Zhang Heng didn��t waste any time. He charged straight at the nearest opponent. That person happened to be the one holding the hatchet. Seeing this, he didn��t dare to be careless, even though they had more people, however, the opponent was, after all, the famous Simon. Thinking back to what his captain had told him, he had no choice but to suppress the urge to attack the other party.


    He chose a more stable method of response. Raising the hatchet, he wanted to block Zhang Heng��s attack first.


    From a certain perspective, he had indeed seeded. The hatchet in his hand had indeed blocked Zhang Heng��s [ hidden scabbard ] . However, the [ hidden scabbard ] only paused for a moment before continuing downwards, it had actually cut the axe in his hand in half, followed by his forehead, chin, and chest... his entire body had been split into two by the [ hidden scabbard ] just like the axe.


    Seeing this scene, even though everyone present had richbat experience and strong mental fortitude, they could not help but feel their hearts tremble. Then, a strong chill rose from the bottom of their hearts, even the other four who were about to rush over to help stopped in their tracks.


    However, this gave Zhang Heng a chance to recuperate and raise his de once more.


    That sh just now was not easy for Zhang Heng either. To be able to achieve such a terrifying effect, it was impossible to rely solely on [ hidden scabbard ] , the strongest attribute in the world. He even used the [ worldly scale ] on his body, he had doubled his strength temporarily, and he had used his [ earthly scales ] to break the dagger-wielding assant��s wrist.


    Therefore, he was feeling a little drained, but it had been worth it.


    This was especially so after the attack. Not only had it scared the other four assants and disrupted their n, it had also deterred them from interfering in the rest of the battle.


    This was because the corpse in front of them, which had been split into two, was a cautionary tale.


    Zhang Heng spent half a second to regain hisposure. He did not continue the stalemate with his opponent. Instead, he seized the opportunity when his opponent was distracted and continued to find his next target.


    When the second person saw Zhang Heng��s shing at him, he actually lost the courage to block. After all, the mistakes of his teammates were still in front of him, so the others might not know, however, as a teammate of a small party, he knew that the Indian hand axe was not an ordinary hand axe, but a C-rank game tool. Unfortunately, it did not even have any effect, it was cut in half by a single de.


    In his eyes, Zhang Heng was like a god. At this time, the best choice was to retreat. and his decision could not be said to be wrong. However, with this retreat, he was temporarily safe, he had exposed the other teammates to Zhang Heng��s de, and they had even left the team.

 Chapter 1356 - One Against Many

    <h4>Chapter 1356: One Against Many</h4>


    With Zhang Heng��s battle sense, of course, he wouldn��t let such an opportunity slip by. The [ hidden scabbard ] in his hand suddenly turned in the opposite direction. The next moment, an arm fell off the original owner��s shoulder and flew into the air.


    However, after a short while, the others finally came to their senses. They realized that they were in a life-and-death battle, and one of them��s body was instantly burned into mes, he actually used his own hand to grab Zhang Heng��s knife. It seemed like he wanted to use the high temperature to melt the B grade item.


    The other two threw out the darts in their hands. The man wearing the Uthorpe mask also took a mechanical glove from the auctioneer��s hand and put it on his left hand, then, one of the mechanical fingers fell off the glove and shot toward Zhang Heng.


    In addition, the man who had failed in his sneak attack earlier had also crawled up from the ground. The four of them once again surrounded Zhang Heng.


    Zhang Heng did not sh head-on with the pyromancer. Instead, he chose to avoid the pyromancer��s punch and deal with the other opponents first. This was because he had encountered yers with simr abilities in the leakers��dungeon, the earring man who had fought alongside him had a tool that allowed him to transform into a water giant. During this period, his strength would also increase explosively.


    Fortunately, such powerful transformation skills usually had a time limit. For example, the man with the earring only had 60 seconds to transform into a water giant. Zhang Heng estimated that the Burning Man in front of him would notst too long either, if he could dy until the other party��s transformation ended, that would be the easiest solution.


    Therefore, Zhang Heng set his third target on the man wearing the UTHORPE mask. He saw the mechanical finger that the other party had shot at him. The de of [ hidden sheath ] had urately struck the finger.


    The result was a small explosion. Fortunately, Zhang Heng was still a few steps away from the explosion and was not seriously injured. However, he did not expect the mes from the explosion to bepletely absorbed by the Burning Man beside him, this caused his body to be bigger. He was already at the height of Yao Ming, and the top of his head was about to touch the ceiling.


    As for the dart, for some reason, it was slightly far away. It didn��t hit Zhang Heng at all. Instead, itnded beside his feet. Zhang Heng didn��t stop, and he continued to pounce on the man in the Uthorpe Mask.


    He could already tell that thetter was the leader of tonight��s operation. After taking care of him, the encirclement would be broken. However, what Zhang Heng didn��t expect was that his left foot seemed to be frozen to the ground in the next moment, he couldn��t move anymore.


    The Man with the Lightning Ring also saw an opportunity and rushed forward. Unfortunately, even though Zhang Heng didn��t turn back, it was as if he had eyes on his back. With a swing of his knife, the man with the Lightning Ring couldn��t stop his fist in time, it was as if he had delivered his wrist to the de of Zhang Heng��s knife. Naturally, he would end up with blood sttering everywhere.


    At this moment, Zhang Heng finally realized what the problem was. The dart that he had overlooked earlier was stuck in the shadow behind him, and it was at the position of his left calf, after that, he could no longer move his left leg.


    The man wearing the Uthorpe mask saw this and his eyes lit up with joy. ��Alright, Fire Fist, go stall him! The rest of you, switch to long-range attacks.��With that said, he released six mechanical fingers in one go.


    The man wearing the Uthorpe mask had a simple intention. He didn��t really hope to kill or injure Zhang Heng in this wave of attacks. He only hoped to distract the opponent��s attention so that hispanion could throw out more darts to pin Zhang Heng��s shadow, this was especially true for Zhang Heng��s saber-wielding hand. If that hand couldn��t be used, then the oue of this battle would be clear.


    However, to his surprise, Zhang Heng did not show any signs of panic when faced with the six mechanical fingers that were shooting at him. Immediately after, he saw [ hidden scabbard ] dancing gracefully in the air, the six mechanical fingers were either chopped or sliced into pieces one by one. The entire process was effortless and did not waste much time.


    Even as an opponent, the man wearing the Uthorpe mask had to admit that the opponent��s saber technique was too powerful. It had even exceeded the limits of a human. It made him feel like he was reading a manga, the man wearing the URSOP mask had never seen the legendary Miyamoto Musashi before, but he felt that even if the person standing before him was Miyamoto Musashi, he couldn��t do any better.


    Fortunately, he wasn��t fighting alone tonight. Even though his six mechanical fingers had been cut open, Zhang Heng was unable to stop the Burning Man from absorbing the explosion to increase his strength, however, the smile on the man��s face onlysted for less than a second before it disappeared again.


    This was because he had thought of a problem. As the Burning Man��s body continued to expand, the originally spacious exhibition hall suddenly became a little too big for him. Now, the fire giant had no choice but to lower his head and shrink his neck, otherwise, his head would have burned through the ceiling. This way, even though his strength had increased, his movement speed had slowed down.


    Could it be that the other party had predicted this earlier by detonating his mechanical finger? The Man��s heart sank. The difficulty of this battle had far exceeded their expectations.


    On the other hand, Zhang Heng had somehow cut off the darts on the shadow and regained his freedom. Furthermore, the melting point of the knife in his hand was beyond everyone��s imagination, after taking the fire giant��s punch head-on, not a single red mark was left behind.


    ��Have all of your tricks been used up? Then it��s my turn next.��


    Zhang Heng said calmly to the four people whose faces had already turned ghastly pale.


    Before he could make a move, the man whose wrist had been cut off by [ hidden scabbard ] had followed in the footsteps of hispanion. He wanted to bandage the wound on his wrist, but no matter how hard he tried, the blood could not be stopped. Very quickly, his face turned paler and paler, unable to hold on any longer, he fell backward and fell to the ground.


    Zhang Heng had already bypassed the slightly bloated fire giant and pounced on the man in the Uthorpe mask once more. The darts that were aimed at his shadow were all knocked away by him.


    The Man in the Uthorpe mask knew that he had no way out. He gritted his teeth and rushed forward to meet Zhang Heng��s punch. However, Zhang Heng turned a blind eye to his punch and almost brushed past his body, then, he shed at the opponent who was ying with the darts.


    The Man in the Uthorpe mask tried to stop Zhang Heng, but he realized that there was a knife wound on his lower abdomen. A look of confusion shed across his eyes as he tried to recall the moment when the two had exchanged blows, however, he could not remember when Zhang Heng had shed down.

 Chapter 1357 - Sheathing The Blade

    <h4>Chapter 1357: Sheathing The de</h4>


    The Man in the Uthorpe mask had been stabbed in the abdomen. To the group of people who had ambushed Zhang Heng at the auction, this was undoubtedly bad news. Although from the looks of the wound, his life wouldn��t be in danger for the time being, however, it was obviously impossible for them to make another move.


    Furthermore, as Zhang Heng had expected, the fire giant on the other side also started to jump in mes. This was a sign that the transformation was about to end, the man who had transformed into the fire giant was also filled with resentment. After all, his current form was practically invincible.


    However, during this one minute of invincibility, he didn��t even touch Zhang Heng��s clothes. It was as if he had released an empty space. Furthermore, the scales of victory were gradually shifting to the other side. As time passed.., their current situation was bing more and more dangerous.


    In his haste, the man who had transformed into the fire giant made the worst decision of his life. Taking advantage of thest bit of time before his transformation ended, he pulled back his fist and pounced on Zhang Heng.


    His thought was simple. Since he couldn��t hit him, he would stop. Instead, he would use his huge body and the mes on his body to cover all of Zhang Heng��s movements!


    If he hadn��t been forced into a corner, he wouldn��t have used such an attack. However, the few teammates around him were either dead or injured, and only thest yer who was still able to fight was left. It was difficult for him to pin down Zhang Heng anymore, he was doing this purely as ast resort.


    However, to his surprise, Zhang Heng didn��t Dodge like he usually did. Instead, he stood where he was and looked at him calmly. He even put the [ hidden scabbard ] back into its scabbard.


    The man who had transformed into the fire giant did not have the time to think about the meaning behind Zhang Heng��s actions. The way the man looked at him meant that he had reached the final moment of his ming state, he could revert back to his human form at any moment.


    He had to seize thisst chance.


    The distance between the two of them was rapidly closing. The man who had transformed into the fire giant felt that the mes on his chest were about to reach Zhang Heng��s eyebrows. Only then did thetter start to move!


    If the sh that Zhang Heng had used to cut the man in the Uthorpe Mask��s abdomen was mysterious, then this sh was just and aboveboard!


    Aboveboard fast! Aboveboard strong!


    With the help of the sword drawing technique, the sh even produced a Sonic Boom!


    The air currents were forced apart by the de, and the fire giant��s body was also separated. As the sh passed by, a crack appeared in the air on the Fire Giant��s chest!


    The next moment, everyone heard a scream. It was the time for the me incarnation. The human body that had reverted back to its human form didn��t have the time to reunite and fell to the ground in two pieces.


    Zhang Heng, who had swung the de, was bathed in blood. He looked like a real demon god.


    The remaining man, who was ying with the darts, could no longer withstand the terrifying pressure. He let out a loud cry and, ignoring the man in the Uthorpe mask, threw away thest darts in his hand, he ran away!


    Just as everyone thought that the battle was finally over, a sudden gunshot came from the auction room!


    The girl in the sailor��s uniform who was sitting on Zhang Heng��s right hand was holding an M36. This was a 191mm revolver. The small body of the revolver made it extremely easy to hide and carry.


    Of course, most importantly, everyone believed in the safety inspection of the building. They didn��t expect that someone would be able to bring a hot weapon in without anyone noticing.


    Furthermore, the girl in the sailor suit was very patient. Seeing herpanions fall one by one under Zhang Heng��s knife, she didn��t rush to pull out her gun until the situation was settled, the average person would only make a move when they were at their most rxed.


    However, at that moment, her face was filled with shock. The gunshot had already sounded, but she hadn��t had the time to pull the trigger.


    Then who had fired the gun?


    Unfortunately, she would never know the answer to that question. Because in the middle of her forehead, there was a bullet hole. The body of the girl in the sailor��s uniform slowly slid down from her seat.


    ��I clearly warned you not to move.��Zhang Heng shook his head, put away the gun in his hand, and walked toward the auction stage. The blood on the tip of the [ hidden sheath ] knife dripped behind him as he walked, it made a ticking sound.


    At that moment, the people in the auction room who were still alive could not help but hold their breaths, making the ticking sound exceptionally clear.


    The auctioneer had lost his previousposure. Due to fear, his entire body tensed up, and all the muscles in his body stiffened. It was not until Zhang Heng walked up to him that his knees softened and he knelt down, however, he did not bring up any personal grudges. Instead, he kept repeating the same thing, ��I don��t know anything. I��m just an employee of Fu Lou. It was Fu Lou who asked us to do this. I was also very surprised when I received the order, but this is a matter between the higher-ups. It has nothing to do with me...��


    Zhang Heng waved his hand to interrupt him. ��I��m not here to interrogate you, nor do I care what your higher-ups are up to... I just want to ask you a few questions.��


    ��Actually, I don��t know why I��m suddenly targeting you,��the auctioneer said nervously.


    ��It��s okay, I know why,��Zhang Heng said calmly. After a pause, he asked, ��That��s not what I wanted to ask. is tonight��s auction real?��


    ��Yes, it��s real.��The auctioneer was stunned at first, then he hurriedly nodded, ��Even though tonight was a trap, in order to sessfully lure you out, those people did indeed put in a lot of effort. The video and photos are all real. I was there when the item was appraised. It really can��t be any more real.��


    Zhang Heng saw that the auctioneer didn��t say anything, so he continued to ask, ��No matter what, your building has always broken the rules that you set yourself. There��s no doubt about that, right?��


    ��Yes...��the auctioneer only felt his throat be dry, and he spat out the word with some difficulty.


    ��If you do something wrong, you have to pay the price. Then, is there any problem with me taking the items for tonight��s auction?��


    ��Of course... There��s no problem.��The auctioneer couldn��t think of any other possible answer.


    ��Very good.��Zhang Heng cut open the ss of the tform with his knife. Ignoring the ear-piercing rm, he directly took away the [ immunity crystal ] inside. Then, he ced the knife on the auctioneer��s neck.


    The auctioneer��s expression changed. He thought that Zhang Heng was going to kill him before he left to vent his anger. However, Zhang Heng only said, ��Where is the item that I used to bid for? Lead me to it.��

 Chapter 1358 - Breakout

    <h4>Chapter 1358: Breakout</h4>


    After Zhang Heng obtained the [ Immunity Crystal ] , he had already achieved half of his goal for the night. The remaining half was to safely evacuate from this ce. However, before that, he first asked the auctioneer to bring him to the ce where the props were stored, along the way, he even picked up a few darts.


    As expected, the two of them ran into the guards who came after hearing the news. Zhang Heng held the auctioneer in one hand and the gun in the other. Without any nonsense, he shot one of them with one shot and used six bullets to kill six guards.


    Just as Zhang Heng had said to the auctioneer, he knew very well why the group of people hade for him tonight.


    To be fair, from the perspective of a third party, the group of people who wanted to kill him tonight might be the righteous party. Because if they seeded, the world would no longer be threatened by the Master of the city under the ice, they were like warriors who had set out from the imperial city to y the dragon. They trekked through the mountains and rivers without fear of danger, without fear of death, just to protect their own race. Zhang Heng, on the other hand, was undoubtedly the evil dragon that resided in the valley.


    Perhaps it was a little strange to say this, but Zhang Heng actually did not have much animosity toward this group of people. This was also the reason why he did not care about the dart man who had already lost all will to fight and fled in a hurry, at the same time, he knew that the sailor girl was in cahoots with the people who hade to kill him, but he still tried to persuade them not to move, unfortunately, Zhang Heng did not know whether the sailor girl understood his hint or not.


    In the end, the sailor girl still took out her M36, and Zhang Heng did not hesitate to put a bullet into her head.


    He didn��t like senseless killing. Besides, with his current position, perhaps everyone had a reason to kill him. Just as Ny Totip had once told him, one day in the future, he would be the enemy of the whole world.


    Zhang Heng had experienced more than a dozen dungeons, and he had encountered all kinds of opponents. Only this time, he couldn��t kill all his enemies, but that didn��t stop him from killing those who could directly threaten him.


    After killing six guards, the floor finally quieted down a little. However, Zhang Heng knew that tonight��s battle had only just begun, whether it was the group of people who had ambushed him in the auction room or the guards of Fu Lou, it was impossible for there to be only so many people.


    Therefore, Zhang Heng decided to pack light. He did not care about the other unknown items in the warehouse. He only took back his [ crown of the white horse ] and put it into his backpack, after leaving the room, he found a few magazines from the bodies of the guards. Then, he took the auctioneer to the elevator.


    Zhang Heng used a bullet to scare away the people who still dared to stick their heads out of the corridor. Then, he closed the elevator door and pressed the button for the first floor.


    The elevator began to move down slowly. However, when it reached the first floor and the second floor, it suddenly stopped there!


    Then, it lost all of its power. Even the lights above its head disappeared, and the elevator fell into darkness.


    The auctioneer could already hear his own heart beating wildly. He was worried that Zhang Heng would vent his anger on him. He opened his mouth to exin that this matter had nothing to do with him, but unexpectedly, Zhang Heng spoke first.


    ��Shut up and stand against the wall. Don��t move.��


    The auctioneer immediately did as he was told. Then, he heard the ear-piercing sound of metal scraping against metal. Many thoughts rushed through the auctioneer��s mind, but when he thought of a certain someone��s warning.., in the end, he only continued to stand against the wall as punishment.


    After about a minute, the elevator was once again powered up. However, Zhang Heng��s shadow was no longer in front of the auctioneer��s eyes. In the middle of the elevator, there was arge ck hole.


    The auctioneer carefully approached the hole and quickly looked down. Then, he quickly pressed the help button in the elevator and yelled at the camera above him, ��He��s down there! He��s down there!��


    At this time, Zhang Heng had already found the other gun behind the photocopier. He walked to the alloy door and pushed it open as fast as he could without stopping or probing, as expected, there were two other security guards outside the door.


    They had obviously been notified and had already pulled out their guns. However, first of all, they had not expected Zhang Heng to walk over to their side. Second, they had not expected Zhang Heng to arrive so quickly and open the door so decisively, it was already toote for them to raise their guns and aim again. They were hit by two bullets that flew towards them.


    After taking down the two men, Zhang Heng finally broke out of the building��s headquarters.


    The reason why his journey was so smooth was not because the building��s defense system was toox, but because Zhang Heng had used time freeze to scout ahead of time, otherwise, he would not have left through the secret passageway on the first floor. If he did not know where the door led to, he would not have pushed open the door and left without even trying.


    In fact, after listening to the people in the auction room describe what had happened, the first reaction of the people in the building was that there was a mole inside, warning Zhang Heng of a possible attack, furthermore, they helped Zhang Heng bring the weapon in and hide it. Otherwise, they wouldn��t be able to exin what had happened next.


    This also caused the people in the building to be shocked. Of course, this was a matter for another time. For now, even though the higher-ups might have encountered some problems.., the previous arrangements and security measures were still effective.


    Zhang Heng ran for a few steps before he heard the sound of bulletsing from behind him again.


    This time, the opposite party was holding a sniper rifle. However, Zhang Heng had already observed the possible sniping spots. In a sh, he hid behind the wall and trotted along the wall for some distance, however, there were two other possible sniping spots on the next stretch of the road.


    However, this time, Zhang Heng did not hesitate and rushed out directly.


    The gunshots that should have been heard did not appear. This was because the snipers at the two observation spots had already fallen to the ground unconscious.


    And the sniper who had fired just now had followed in the footsteps of his twopanions.


    Li Bai and rabbit looked at Shen Xixi, who was standing by the window, and said, ��We should go. If the people from Fu Lou can��t contact their sniper, they��ll definitely send someone over to check it out.��


    ��I know. I��ll take another look.��Shen Xixi did not move her feet. Instead, she looked at Zhang Heng, who was about to run out of the alley.


    ��Since boss likes him, we might as well go out and fight alongside him against his enemies.��Li Bai was still as fearless as ever.


    ��No.��Hearing this, Shen Xixi shook her head.


    ��Why?��Rabbit was confused.


    Shen Xixi did not answer the question. She only stared at Zhang Heng��s figure as he rushed out of the alley and ran into a reinforcement security team, however, the six members of the team onlysted for less than half a minute before they were taken out by Zhang Heng one by one.


    Seeing this, Shen Xixi finally retracted her gaze and said to rabbit and Li Bai, ��Let��s go. We��ve already done what we wanted to do tonight. You��re right. Let��s leave before the people from Fu Lou reach here.��

 Chapter 1359 - Escape

    <h4>Chapter 1359: Escape</h4>


    Zhang Heng chose to leave through the secret tunnel on the first floor instead of the main entrance, catching Fowler off guard. In his haste, he could only rely on the sniper who had upied the observation point in advance, there was also a security team closest to him to stop him.


    Unfortunately, for some unknown reason, the sniper only fired one shot, and after that, he stopped. There was no more movement, and the security team that lost the sniper��s support, even though there were more people.., logically speaking, their firepower should have been stronger, but they were no match for Zhang Heng. In less than two minutes, they werepletely defeated.


    The captain of the Special Forces was shot twice and fell to the ground. However, he was wearing a bulletproof vest and held a bulletproof shield in his hand to protect his vital parts. The gunshot wounds on his body were not fatal, however, he could only watch helplessly as Zhang Heng carried his backpack and easily passed through their encirclement.


    After getting rid of the security team that came to stop him, Zhang Heng used his fastest speed to cross the street and run into the mall building next door. He took the elevator to the parking lot on the first floor and drove to an Audi A4 parked there.


    He put on D gear and stepped on the elerator. Apanied by the roar of the engine, the A4 drove to the exit of the parking lot.


    However, just as he passed the automatic toll booth, he saw an SUV that was about to pull over to the front of the toll booth. Judging from the attire of the group of people in the car, they were not from Fu Lou, if everything went ording to n, they should be the same group of people who had ambushed him earlier.


    Zhang Heng did not slow down. Instead, he drove the A4 straight into the back of the SUV before the other party hadpletely stopped. He forcefully pushed the SUV half a body length away.


    Then, the A4 dashed out from the back of the SUV that had been knocked away. The other cars that were on Zhang Heng��s route were all stunned, seeing this, they made way for the madman before them.


    However, the people in the SUV did not give up. Seeing this, they quickly turned around and continued to chase after Zhang Heng.


    However, when they turned around, Zhang Heng had already turned onto the main road.


    Ignoring the red light in front of him, Zhang Heng stepped on the elerator to the bottom and rushed toward the traffic. This scene made the passersby at the intersection scream.


    In particr, a cement mixer truck on Zhang Heng��s left was spewing ck smoke from the 10 o��clock direction. The driver had also noticed the ��Out of control��A4, but with the huge inertia of the cement mixer truck.., it was toote to step on the brakes. The driver��s body waspletely tensed up. His fingers that were holding the steering wheel had turned white. He was even prepared for a collision.


    However, the next moment, the A4 suddenly drew an arc and slipped through the gap between the front of his car and the back of a Mitsubishi van in front. It was like a nimble loach in a stream, after doing this, it was able to turn again and dodge another electric delivery car that was speeding from the side. Then, Zhang Heng pulled the front of the A4 back again, it sped past a red Mazda that had been forced to stop.


    This series of actions not only blinded the eyes of passers-by, but it also sessfully shook off the SUV that was chasing after it.


    The driver of the SUV had always thought that his driving skills were not bad, and he was an amateur racer from a small car club. But now, he had to admit that the person in the A4 was him, at this moment, the car was probably destroyed. Facing the red light and the traffic, he could only obediently stop the car.


    The people in the passenger seat also gasped. They had previously conducted a detailed assessment of Zhang Heng��s strength, and they had even found a yer who had once entered a dungeon with him, therefore, they believed that they had a good understanding of the opponent this time. However, it was only now that they realized that the verbal description was one thing, but the actual situation was another.


    Their current situation was like the national team ying against Barcelona. Clearly, the opponent��s star yer��s abilities and ws could be said to be reasonable, but when they really did match up.., they realized that it was useless to know this information.


    For example, everyone in the car knew that Zhang Heng was a very good driver, but if they hadn��t seen it with their own eyes, they would never have thought that the other party��s driving skills would be this good.


    What was this, a real-life version of the headline D?


    However, after a short pause, the person in the front passenger seat still took out his walkie-talkie, ��The target has reached the west fourth loop. We have temporarily lost him. He is a ck Audi A4. There are traces of impact on the left side of the car. Try to intercept him on the viaduct,��he paused and added, ��Pay attention. The target��s driving skills are very strong.��


    ��Very strong. How Strong?��A somewhat hoarse voice came from the walkie-talkie. ��I would like to see it.��


    ��Don��t be rash. Let��s set up a roadblock in front!��The person in the front passenger seat said anxiously.


    However, the hoarse voice on the other side of the walkie-talkie had already disappeared. It was not until three minutester that the voice sounded again. It was no longer as calm andposed as before.


    ��D * mn, what the Hell Is This? Can a car still be driven like this? ! This F * ckingic can��t even be drawn!��


    The person in the passenger seat sighed when he heard that. This was probably the most helpless thing in the world. You had already guessed the ending, but if you didn��t see it with your own eyes, no one would believe it.


    Before he could say anything, the slightly hoarse voice sounded again, and it even raised the volume of the voice. ��Pay attention, the target escaped from the elevated tform!��


    The owner who could hear that voice was a little angry, but at the same time, he was filled with regret. He knew that it was precisely because of his impulsive action just now that the target might have sensed something and seen through their encirclement in advance, that was why he temporarily drove off the viaduct.


    However, it was useless to regret now. He could only step on the elerator and try his best to bite the tail of the A4. Fortunately, the person in the front passenger seat of the SUV did notin. He only repeated it once more, ��The target��s driving skills are very good. Everyone, stop acting alone. Brother Jun can wait for Xiao Qi to regroup.��


    Although the man named brother Jun gritted his teeth and agreed, he did not slow down. Of course, this time, he was not trying to be brave. Instead, he was acting from the perspective of the team. Even though the encirclement was constantly shrinking.., it covered Zhang Heng and his A4, but the area was not small. If Zhang Heng suddenly stopped running and found a parking lot to hide in, it would be very troublesome for them to search.


    On the other hand, if they could ensure that Zhang Heng was in his field of vision, they could prevent the other party from making such a small move.


    ��Come on, run like a stray dog!��Brother Jun put down the walkie-talkie and roared. At the same time, he stepped on the elerator. ��Let me see where you can run to!��

 Chapter 1360 - Mistakes

    <h4>Chapter 1360: Mistakes</h4>


    The man named brother Jun had failed to intercept Zhang Heng, but Zhang Heng had managed to manipte him. It was impossible for him not to feel aggrieved.


    However, after suffering such a blow, he did not let it go. Instead, a fire rose in his heart! He desperately wanted to do something to make up for the mistake he had made previously.


    Even though the man in the passenger seat of the SUV warned him to wait until Xiao Qi to act together, brother Jun was unwilling to watch Zhang Heng escape from his sight.


    No matter how good the other party��s driving skills were, they could not change the fact that he was the prey!


    As a hunter, brother Jun was temporarily frustrated, but as long as he continued to bite down, he would eventually find the weakness of the target and sessfullyplete the hunt.


    Brother Jun could not find a reason not to chase after him. The worst case scenario was that the other party would slip away from his sight. It was precisely because of this thought that he stepped on the elerator to the bottom.


    Driving the BMW down the elevated road along the ramp, he couldn��t wait to continue his hunt.


    But what he didn��t expect was that the next moment, he saw the a 4 parked at the exit below the ramp, with the body of the car horizontally facing him.


    Then, brother Jun, who was confused, saw the driver��s seat of the A 4 open. Zhang Heng was holding a Vorse S16 and looking at him expressionlessly.


    Brother Jun��s pupils constricted at the sight, and his hair stood on end from fear!


    Only then did he realize that he had made a big mistake.


    The prey in front of him was not just amb waiting to be ughtered. To be more precise, who was the prey tonight and who was the hunter had not been decided yet.


    At this point, brother Jun could only bet that Zhang Heng��s marksmanship was not as good as his driving skills. At the same time, he also started to shoot fiercely, trying to change his position to interfere with Zhang Heng��s shooting.


    However, Zhang Heng��s arm that was holding the gun did not change at all, as if he did not see brother Jun��s struggle. It was not until the BMW was about 60 meters away from him that Zhang Heng pulled the trigger of the Vorse S16, his fingers were as steady as ever.


    A. 222 Remington bullet flew out of the gun barrel and passed through the front windshield of the BMW. Unfortunately, this little obstruction could notpletely reduce its kic energy, so the bullet continued to fly forward, it hit the forehead of the soldier who was still trying to hit the direction!


    The soldier did not seem to believe until his death that he had lost his life so easily.


    He originally thought that even if he was shot, it would only happen after a few shots. He even thought that he would drive through the rain of bullets and finally crash into the Audi opposite, killing the man with the gun in the driver��s seat directly in the car, thus, he turned the tables.


    But now, all the beautiful fantasies disappeared with the bullet.


    Zhang Heng didn��t know who was in his BMW, nor did he know what kind of hero dream brother Jun had in his mind.


    He only used this shot to send a warning to all those who were chasing him!


    �� If you want to kill him, you have to be prepared to be killed. Other than that, this shot was also to block the pursuers behind him.


    After Zhang Heng fired a shot, he put away the Vorse S16, closed the car door, stepped on the elerator, and drove the A4 back on the road.


    Behind him, the BMW that had lost control first crashed into the guardrail of the ramp, then rolled a few times, and finally flipped over and blocked the ramppletely.


    Xiao Qi, who had arrivedter, witnessed this scene with his own eyes. He stepped on the brakes helplessly and told the others what had happened through the walkie-talkie.


    The Man in the front passenger seat of the off-road vehicle could not help but hammer the windshield on the side when he heard this. However, he then said to the walkie-talkie, ��Everyone, pay attention. Not only is the target��s driving skills excellent, his marksmanship is also...��


    However, he suddenly stopped when he said this, because this information was already known to them before they set off. Everyone knew that since this was the case, there was no point in repeating it again. On the contrary.., if they emphasized too much on the strength of the opponent, it would instead make everyone��s hands and feet tied in the following operations.


    Therefore, he could only sigh and say, ��Xiao Qi, wait for me at the ramp entrance. Get in our car. The rest of you, continue your pursuit.��


    However, just as he finished his sentence, another voice came through the walkie-talkie. ��The operation has been canceled.��


    ��What?��The Man in the front passenger seat could not believe it. Zhang Heng might have been running around happily, but it seemed like he had all of them under his control. He had even killed one of them, however, Zhang Heng did not manage to escape their encirclement. On the contrary, the encirclement was still narrowing.


    If this continued, it was only a matter of time before the people on the A4 and A4 were trapped to death.


    However, the voice that came through the walkie-talkie carried an unchallengeable dignity. Furthermore, his subsequent words caused everyone to sigh involuntarily.


    ��Themotion you��ve created is too big. There��s a car chase and a gunfight. Do you think this is Mexico? All the police in the city have been alerted by you. If this continues, have you thought about how you��ll end up? ��I said that I��ll only give you seven minutes. The seven minutes have already passed, and it��s three minutes more. It��s time to stop.��


    The Man in the front passenger seat of the SUV also heard the sirens behind him and said in shame, ��I��m sorry, we were ipetent. We had already made the arrangements, and there were more than one, but he managed to escape.��


    ��That��s not strange. Simon is the number one yer on the leaderboard, and he��s also the vessel of the Lord of Lalea. If he really was easily taken down by you guys, it would have surprised me. Moreover, I heard about what happened on the top floor of the Fortune Building Tonight. The fortune building now suspects that there��s a mole inside, and they brought Simon��s knife and gun in a day in advance to hide them. So, you guys didn��t lose out this time.��


    ��You��re right...��the man in the front passenger seat of the SUV smiled bitterly. They had already arrived at the ramp and picked up Xiao Qi, who had abandoned the car, ��The bait was swallowed by him tonight. The reputation of Fulou, which he had managed for so many years, was also lost. Many people died at his hands, but in the end, he still managed to escape...��


    ��It doesn��t matter. Since he has already shown up, he won��t be able to escape for long.��The voice on the other end of the walkie-talkie was calm but full of confidence, ��It��s just a temporary setback in an operation. It��s not a problem for the overall situation. Withdraw your team ande back. I still have other things for you to do. Leave the follow-up pursuit of Simon to the others.��


    ��Okay.��The person in the front passenger seat did not hesitate this time.


    However, after the call ended, the SUV was exceptionally quiet. The Man in the front passenger seat looked at the BMW that was starting to burn in the distance and sighed again. ��Let��s go.��

 Chapter 1361 - Cornfield

    <h4>Chapter 1361: Cornfield</h4>


    Zhang Heng drove the A4 off the elevated road and drove for a while. When he realized that the pursuers behind him were not following him, he slowed down his car.


    Because the gunshots and the car ident had attracted the attention of the police, Zhang Heng did not drive to the city center. Instead, he continued to drive out of the fourth ring road. As he drove further and further away from the city.., the traffic outside the window also gradually thinned out.


    Zhang Heng did not take the highway. He chose the provincial highway and then went down to the county road. After driving for half an hour, he could already see the ridges by the roadside. There were also rows of two-story buildings. It looked like they had just been built not long ago, and there were faint lights shining from inside, the family was sitting in the living room on the first floor, watching some variety show together.


    Zhang Heng lowered the speed of the car to 20 miles per hour and drove another 30 kilometers. The series of battles that had just taken ce seemed quite lively, but it was actually not too dangerous for Zhang Heng. After all, he had already scouted the site one day in advance, he hid his weapons and had already nned an escape route before he set off. He had even contacted Shen Xixi to help him deal with the sniper.


    Therefore, it was not surprising that he was able to break out of the encirclement. However, when he was temporarily out of danger and his tensed nerves rxed, Zhang Heng had a rare feeling that he did not know where to drive to.


    ording to his original n, after getting rid of the pursuers behind him, he would wait until midnight to stop and return to the city. He would rece the A4 with his own polo and then drive far away from the city.


    However, he had no ns in the middle of this gap.


    Considering that he had to go backter, Zhang Heng decided not to continue driving. After making sure that no one was paying attention, he parked the A4 at the edge of a cornfield. It was about 100 meters away from the main road, furthermore, there was a dry toilet right in front of him, blocking the car and making it difficult for people on the main road to see him.


    Zhang Heng turned off the engine and got out of the car. He looked at the cornstalks in the field and the lights in the distance and was lost in his thoughts. When he turned his head around, he saw a child of about eight or nine years old looking at him from the other end of the road.


    Zhang Heng subconsciously reached into his pocket, but all he found was a magazine and two props. Fortunately, he had already taken off the suit that was stained with blood and left it in the car. Thus, Zhang Heng walked to the front of the A4, he opened the car door and grabbed a shaking-head dog essory that was stuck to the console and tossed it to the child.


    The child caught the shaking-head dog and held it in his hand for a while before waving it in front of his face. Then, he turned around and ran away. Zhang Heng figured that he had gone home, so he leaned against the car door.


    After about ten minutes, Zhang Heng heard footsteps again. He thought that the child had returned, but this time, it was another person who walked up to him.


    It had been more than three months since Zhang Hengst met Chronos. Compared to thest time, Chronos had put on a little weight, but he looked better, furthermore, he was dressed in formal attire tonight.


    ��We meet again. You Don��t look surprised,��Chronos said with a smile. ��I��m sorry I��mte, because I have a date on the other side tonight.��


    ��What date?��Zhang Heng raised his eyebrows.


    ��It��s to say goodbye to an old friend. We��ve known each other for more than ten years, and she��s leaving. So I went to see her off, but I rushed over immediately after.��


    Chronos opened a bag of Skittles and poured it into his mouth. After taking two big bites, he continued with satisfaction, ��I��ve heard about what happened in Greend. I��m sure you can understand why your parents and I haven��t told you about your true identity for so many years. It��s purely because of that fellow��s... unique design. The more you understand it, the more likely it will target you.��


    Kronos paused at this point. Seeing that Zhang Heng didn��t speak, he continued, ��Your parents brought you out of that city under the ice. At the time, I left an amulet in your body to block your connection with that guy, but now it seems that the amulet haspletely lost its effect.��


    ��So this is your n? Giving me an extra 24 hours and letting me participate in this game? You know that the switch between the game and real time will speed up the loss of the amulet in my body. If that��s the case, why did you give me that amulet back then?��Zhang Heng asked.


    ��To give you a chance, and to give myself a chance.��Chronos shook the half-bag of Skittles in his hand. ��Do you want some?��


    Zhang Heng shook his head.


    ��Now you know that I was the one who brought people to bring you out of that city under the ice. But do you know why I Did It?��


    Chronos did not wait for Zhang Heng��s reply and continued on, ��Even though I am the god of time, I can not escape the effects of thews of time. or to be more precise, it is precisely because I am the god of time that I am more aware of the cruelty of time. Like most ancient gods, I am also facing the problem of aging. Compared to more than 1,000 years ago, my strength is much weaker. The number of my followers has been decreasing, so I have to find a way to reverse this decline.��


    Kronos did not hide his ambitions, ��You humans can gain strength through learning and training. You have no idea how much we envy you as gods. Take you for example. I know you are unhappy that I lied to you and allowed you to participate in the game to speed up the loss of your emotions. However, you have indeed gained a lot of growth from this, haven��t you? Look at you now. You have already killed three gods. You can fight against Thor and defeat Ann, and you can also kill your way out of the encirclement. You havee all the way here. A year ago, all of this would have been unimaginable.��


    ��Do you want me to thank you?��


    Kronos waved his hand, ��There��s no need for that. Of course, I��m doing this for you for my own selfish reasons. I never deny this, but I also like the way you humans talk about a win-win situation in management science. Do you know that I��ve been looking for a way to achieve a win-win situation with you all these years?��


    ��And then?��


    ��I found it.��For the first time, Kronos did not swallow the remaining half of the bag of skittles in his hand. Instead, he put it on the top of the car, ��Our God is different from you humans. We were born with great power, but we also lost the possibility of growth. For us, many things have been destined from the moment we were born. Fortunately, I did find a way to challenge fate.��

 Chapter 1362 - Win-win

    <h4>Chapter 1362: Win-win</h4>


    ��So You��vee here to ask me to congratte you?��


    Zhang Heng finally straightened up. He took out the blood-stained suit from the car and tossed it on the ground. Then, he took out a small bottle of gasoline from the trunk and poured it on top.


    ��I��m d that even though you��ve lost your feelings, you haven��t lost your precious sense of humor.��Chronos smiled and paused before continuing, ��I know that you��re a person who does things... You��re a very strategic person. You n Before You Act. You can remain calm no matter what happens. You��re also used to taking the initiative when making deals. You deliberately put on a nonchnt look and force the other party to speak first. That way, you can better bargain. But we��re considered old partners. There��s no need to do this kind of forey anymore.��


    ��Yes, I��m just worried that you might not be able to take it.��


    ��You��re too gentle,��Chronos said with a serious expression, ��You��ve been having Nightmares Lately, haven��t you? Even in the next 24 hours, you won��t be able to get rid of them.��


    ��Do you have any good suggestions for sleeping?��Zhang Heng pulled out his lighter and squatted down to light the gasoline-soaked suit. He watched the mes burn.


    ��You went to look for ISIS, and then you went to look for Saiji. The two of them should have answered your questions already. This makes things much easier,��Chronos said straightforwardly. ��I can swap blood with you.��


    Seeing that Zhang Heng did not respond, Chronos continued, ��Exchanging blood is not a child��s y. If a God swapped his own blood with yours, then your blood would flow into his body. The influence of an ordinary person��s blood might not be big, but the blood that flows in your body is that Guy��s blood. If it��s polluted by his blood, at worst, you��ll lose your strength, at worst... You��ll go insane, just like the fanatics you met in Greend. Therefore, the god who did this will have to pay a high price.��


    Zhang Heng waited patiently for Kronos to finish.


    ��Of course, I didn��t help you change your blood because of my love for you. In fact, I��ve been eyeing you for a long time, or to be more precise, I��ve been eyeing that guy in the city under the ice. When I heard that there were fanatics looking for a container for that guy, I knew my chance hade. This is also why I decided to set up that expedition team to go deep into Greend��s no man��snd 17 years ago.��


    Kronos said slowly, like the most patient docent in the museum.


    ��As I said before, the biggest difference between gods and mortals is that our fate has been written from the beginning. It��s like a satellite moving around a predetermined orbit. Even if we know what will happen in the future, we can��t change it. For example, the gods of Asgard understand that the twilight of the gods wille, but they can��t kill Loki and his three children before that day arrives.


    ��In the same way, you��ve experienced so many dungeons, so you must have seen some declining gods. Those ancient gods, as time passed, fewer and fewer people remembered them, and their strength became weaker and weaker, even worse than a dog.��


    ��Molesby?��


    ��That��s right. The monster that we fought together used to be one of us in the distant past. Although the way it collects and worships is crude and bloody, it��spletely predictable that it will turn into what it is today. Therefore, you might have some questions when you hear this. If that��s the case, why doesn��t it change the way it collects and worships? Look at the new gods today. They collect and worship in all kinds of strange ways, and they have all kinds of clergy. Since he can��t beat me in terms of time, it��s fine to y Douyin.��


    ��It��s not that the ancient gods are unwilling, but that they can��t do it?��Zhang Heng asked.


    ��It seems like you��ve noticed the main point of the story. We can��t change the course of the story,��Chronos said, enunciating each word, ��Just like Odin will eventually die in Fenrir��s mouth, this is the gift of fate to us. Therefore, for the Old Gods, unless we kill the new gods, it will be difficult for us to escape the fate of decline. Other than a lucky person like Thor, we can��t be strong again through our own efforts.


    ��This is also the most fundamental contradiction between the new gods and the Old Gods, the origin of this war,��Chronos said, ��However, there are some of us who are not willing to be manipted by fate. I am one, but I am not the only one. As far as I know, the god of games, Gaime, has also been searching for a way to free the gods from their shackles. I don��t know if Gaime has found it or not, but I have indeed found a way to be stronger through ways other than collecting and worshipping.��


    ��How do I do that?��


    ��Since I can��t change my own orbit, I��ll introduce another one,��Chronos said slowly, ��There��s a very simple reason. Once the two satellites collide, their orbits will naturally change.��


    ��But if the two satellites collide, there��s a very high chance that one or both of them will be destroyed.��


    ��There is such a possibility, but this is a risk I am willing to take. It is not a coincidence that I targeted the owner of the city under the ice. Even among the new gods, he is the most special one


    ��Because he is the so-called new doomsday of the 21st century?��


    ��Because he is the freest existence among us. The description of him has always been vague. His creator has given him a mysterious characteristic that can not be recognized and understood. It has also given him a considerable degree of freedom of movement. If I obtain Thor��s power, then one day, when Thor is also forgotten by others, my power will weaken again. However, it is different. I see endless possibilities in it. If I can obtain his power, not only will it change my fate, I might even be able topletely break free from the shackles of fate and do something that even Gaime could not do.��


    ��What do you need to do to gain his power?��Zhang Heng asked with a frown.


    ��That��s where your helpes in. I��ve already made all the necessary preparations, and there��s only one thing left. The most crucial piece of the puzzle, and that is the blood in your body. Originally, this was something that I couldn��t obtain no matter what, because the blood exchange can only be carried out when both parties are willing. And that guy in underice city is obviously not willing to exchange blood with me, but thankfully, there��s still you. You��re his vessel, and his blood flows through your body, but you��re not under his control.��


    Kronos appeared to be extremely patient, ��The blood mixed with your parents��blood gave birth to you, but for the current you, they have be a burden. The source of your nightmares. give them to me, and you will be free, and I will be able to regain the power I have dreamed of. This is the best choice for both of us.��

 Chapter 1363 - Beef Pancake

    <h4>Chapter 1363: Beef Pancake</h4>


    ��It��s a pity that you didn��t bring it to the live broadcast,��Zhang Heng said as he watched the suit burn to ashes.


    Chronos wasn��t surprised by Zhang Heng��s reply. Instead, he praised him, ��That��s what I like about you the most. You��re always alert and calm, and you never fall into panic. When ordinary people find themselves in a desperate situation, they want to grab hold of everything they can. They don��t even know if it��s really useful to them, but you��re different... Don��t worry, I don��t need you to make a decision right now. There��s still some time, and I can give you another piece of news for free.��


    ��What News?��Zhang Heng asked.


    ��Ann went to visit Isis. When you fought with him, he already guessed your identity.��


    ��And then?��


    ��Isis didn��t betray you. She only said that she was your employer. You helped him kill people, and she helped you save them. But now, Ann probably knows that you��re the vessel of the Lord oflaiya. The organizingmittee will probably find you soon.��


    Zhang Heng didn��t show any signs of panic. He continued to ask calmly, ��Since ISIS didn��t reveal my identity, how could she have told Ann?��


    Chronos didn��t answer the question. Instead, he said, ��Go to the yers��forum and take a look. That girl who doesn��t want to practice piano should be looking for you right now.��


    Zhang Heng had already guessed what was going on. He returned to his car, took out theputer with the SIM card, and logged into the forums. In just a short while, he discovered that he had received more than ten private messages. They were all from Shen Xixi, they were all from Shen Xixi.


    Zhang Heng did not even open those private messages. He only nced at the posts on the forums, and he already knew what Shen Xixi wanted to say to him.


    Because tonight��s forum posts only had one topic, it was about the battle that had taken ce at the headquarters of the building of fortune. However, this time, the focus of everyone��s attention was not on how Zhang Heng had single-handedly fought his way out of the encirclement, those who had fought their way out of the encirclement were all focused on another problem.


    �� Simon was the vessel of the Lord ofraya? ! ! ! ! Is this for real? ! ! ! !


    Spokesperson: survived


    �� No wonder he was so strong. In the first round of the proxy war, he had only yed two games and already surpassed the other yers. He was ranked first on the leaderboard, if he was the vessel of the Lord oflaiye, then everything would make sense.


    Spokesperson: sub-ount 401


    �� the three major guilds were also collecting information on his whereabouts. One effective clue would cost one million RMB. If they could give the exact location, they would be rewarded with ten million RMB... Tsk Tsk, when did the three major guilds be so generous?


    Spokesperson: L, L, Labrador


    �� everyone would do this even if they weren��t paid. After all, if Lord Larue really escaped from his pce, it wouldn��t be as simple as a few people dying.


    Spokesperson: P Map Mad Demon


    ���� damn it, I can actually see Lordrue return to the human world with my own eyes in my lifetime. If I��m not crazy, I should be able to brag about this for the rest of my life.


    Spokesperson: brothers, Please Don��t Mess with me


    �� what is Simon Thinking Right Now? could he have been controlled by that thing? This could also exin why he was able to fight his way out of so many people.


    Someone suddenly asked, and someone quickly replied to him.


    �� probably not, otherwise he wouldn��t havee to snatch that soul prop. But it is said that he doesn��t have much time left. If we can��t get rid of him before his soul is devoured, well, then.., then the lord oflaiya might really use his body as a vessel to return to the world.


    In the end, after a few floors, someone refuted the people above.


    �� get rid of Simon? Do you know how ridiculously strong He is now? There are so many experts in the fulcrum headquarters, but they couldn��t keep him. Everyone asked themselves, if they met Simon, how many people would dare to make a move.


    Even if they don��t dare to make a move, they can still send a message, right? Furthermore, they will be paid.


    ..


    The forums were basically filled with such posts. Most of them were discussing how to find Zhang Heng, after all, no one knew better than these yers who had been bombarded by the Cthulhu culture what kind of terrifying existence was locked up in that city under the ice.


    In fact, ever since the news of that Guy��s possible return to the human world was exposed, most people did not even dare to type those three words. They only used the nickname of the other party, the Lord oflaiya, for fear that they would be targeted in their sleep, in the end, they ended up with a demented end.


    There were even people whoined about why Simon was not willing tomit suicide and sacrifice himself to save the majority of the people.


    Zhang Heng did not continue reading. He simply replied to Shen Xixi and told her that he was out of danger. After telling her that she did not have to worry, he logged out of the yers��forum.


    However, Kronos had already disappeared. Zhang Heng turned to look at the ce where he had stood before. The person standing there was now the little boy he had met before, when the little boy returned, he was holding a beef pancake in his hand. It was unknown whether he had stolen it from the kitchen or not, but after giving it to Zhang Heng, he ran away shyly.


    Zhang Heng took the beef pancake. Coincidentally, he was feeling a little hungry at the moment. He wanted to take a bite, but after some thought, he finally put down his hand and threw the pancake into the cornfield beside him.


    Zhang Heng knew that he would face more danger than all the other dungeons he had been through. As usual, he had no teammates to rely on, this time, the enemy was everywhere. If he did not want to be killed, he had to be on full alert. He could not make any mistakes because he had no room for error.


    Zhang Heng also knew that Kronos didn��te here to make a deal with him, but rather to test his attitude. It was a joke, even though Kronos himself said that he and Zhang Heng were old partners, there was no need to y any tricks, but he was the one who was ying tricks. He must have realized that Zhang Heng wasn��t as desperate as he thought, therefore, he knew that he would not gain anything tonight, so he left quietly.


    This did not mean that Chronos had given up on the deal with Zhang Heng. On the contrary, he was just waiting for a better opportunity. Zhang Heng��s identity had been exposed among the yers, and the gods knew about it, even though the war between the new gods and the Old Gods had begun, Gaime had disappeared not long ago, and the organizingmittee still had a portion of their power to mobilize. In other words, Zhang Heng was indeed in a tight corner.


    What Chronos had been waiting for was the moment when Zhang Heng was truly cornered. At that time, Zhang Heng would have no other choice but to ept his proposal. Chronos believed that this day would not be too long, in reality, Zhang Heng��s nightmare alone did not give him much time.

 Chapter 1364 - Long Journey

    <h4>Chapter 1364: Long Journey</h4>


    Zhang Heng waited until midnight in the cornfield before returning to the city in the A4 that had its headlights knocked out.


    After that, he first found a bank and used two bank cards to withdraw a total of 40,000 yuan in cash from the ATM. Even though the rental cars had already been insured, zhang Heng still ced 20,000 yuan in the trunk as additionalpensation for the head injury.


    Then, he threw away his bank card and credit card and stuffed the remaining 20,000 yuan into his backpack to pay for the rest of the trip. Other than that, Zhang Heng also cleaned up the car of the A4 before he left. After making sure that there were no fingerprints or hair left behind, he returned the A4 to the car rental shop.


    By the time he returned to his hotel, the starfish in his hand had already pointed to three o��clock. There were still 21 hours left before the time freeze ended, and after the previous experience.., zhang Heng was also worried that he would fall asleep while driving, so he didn��t leave immediately. Instead, heid down on his bed while there was still time to test out whether the newly acquired item would work.


    The usage of [ immune crystal ] was as simple as its description. It only needed toe into contact with the skin to take effect. Furthermore, it was small enough that it could be carried around on one��s body during normal times, however, the drawback was that it would take effect when it was attacked by a soul attack. The number of times it could be used was something that could not be controlled by humans.


    Therefore, if you did not want to use up the number of times it could be used, or if it had a specific purpose, it was best to put it somewhere. Zhang Heng had prepared a tule tree box specifically for it.


    However, he had already held the crystal in his hand. Then, Zhang Heng took off his shirt andy down on the bed.


    As he closed his eyes and rxed his mind, sleepiness gradually took over his brain. Zhang Heng could feel himself falling and being pulled into a strange dream, but at that moment.., a warm current suddenly came from the position of the crystal in his palm.


    Then, his body seemed to be lighter, as light as a feather, and his falling momentum was interrupted.


    Then, a gust of wind came from somewhere and lifted his almost weightless body up again. At that moment, Zhang Heng felt that not only had he stopped his falling momentum, but he had also turned from falling to rising.., he started to distance himself from the nightmare that was about to devour him.


    However, the nightmare did not seem to be willing to let him leave just like that. Therefore, from a certain point in time, the power of the descent suddenly increased again. The darkness below was like a monster with its mouth wide open, swallowing everything in its path, it was as if it wanted to suck everything into its stomach.


    In order to resist the sudden suction, the upward wind also became stronger. The two seemed to bepeting with each other, so Zhang Heng, who was a feather, was frozen in mid-air.


    However, the stalemate did notst long. With a faint whizzing sound, the upward wind finally suppressed the downward suction and brought Zhang Heng up, they were temporarily out of the Dark Abyss.


    However, Zhang Heng knew very well that the ��Thing��under his feet had not disappeared. It continued to lurk there, waiting for the sudden upward wind to disappear, waiting for Zhang Heng to fall again, it fell into its mouth again.


    However, its n was ultimately unsessful. Zhang Heng floated for a while more before he saw an open door appear above his head. When he passed through the door, the door slowly closed behind him, itpletely isted the ��Thing��below from him.


    Then, Zhang Heng found himself standing in a white room. The room was empty. Other than a chair, there was no furniture, no windows, no doors, and not even a speck of dust, it was so clean that it was... spotless.


    Zhang Heng looked around and sat down on the only chair. This ce might be empty and boring to others, but to Zhang Heng.., he had many ways to pass the time here..


    Zhang Heng slept for a full ten hours. Not only did he recover his energy and stamina, the exhaustion from before was also gone. After opening his eyes, he went to the bathroom to take a shower and eat something, after that, he brought his luggage to the parking lot and sat in his polo.


    Zhang Heng did not set a destination. He only set a general direction to the southwest and drove for eight hours straight.


    Sometimes it was on the highway, sometimes it was off the highway to the provincial road, County Road, and even the roads of an unknown vige had his tire tracks left behind. It was not until the flow of time in the outside world resumed that Zhang Heng stopped, he filled up a car with gas at a gas station and used the cash to buy some food from the convenience store at the gas station. Then he continued on the road without resting.


    On the road after that, he repeated the two things of driving and filling up the car. He didn��t go to the hotel even when he rested. He justid the back of the car down and narrowed his eyes for a while. Other than that, Zhang Heng also confirmed one thing.


    The nightmares that he was experiencing right now had a pattern to them. Even with the extra 24 hours, they would only appear once a day, and if he could find a way to stop them.., the Nightmares wouldn��t appear again for the rest of the day. For example, when Sage attacked him, and when he used the [ immune crystal ]st night, not only did he finally get a good night��s sleep, he even took a nap on the way, he wasn��t troubled by nightmares either.


    Zhang Heng silently noted this down. After drinking the bottle of mineral water in his hand, he continued to drive forward. Because of the rain, the Nameless Road before him had be muddy, fortunately, Zhang Heng adjusted the height of the Polo��s chassis before he set off. He increased the shock absorption spring, and at the same time, he changed the tires with arger diameter so that they could pass through better.


    Thus, the Polo drove along the winding path towards the mountains.


    ..


    At the same time, on the other side, arge-scale search operation began.


    Although the three major guilds had reached an agreement on this matter, their attitudes were indeed slightly different from each other. Among them, silver wing was the most active, they had clearly stated that they hoped to get rid of this huge threat as soon as they found Simon. On the other hand, the people from the second front were more steady and did not object to getting rid of Simon, however, if there was a chance, they would not refuse to sit down with Simon and look for another solution. As for light arc, who had always been the most unyielding, this time, they unexpectedly expressed that they should first show respect before taking action, if they couldn��te to an agreement, then they would take action.


    But no matter which party it was, their primary goal was to find Zhang Heng first.

 Chapter 1365 - There Was No Way Out

    <h4>Chapter 1365: There Was No Way Out</h4>


    Zhang Heng did not surf the Inte, so he did not know that the three major guilds had already reached an agreement to look for him.


    However, even if he did not surf the inte, he could still guess the attitude of others towards him after his identity was exposed. This was also the reason why he had split up with Fan Meinan, Han Lu, and the others early on, it was also the reason why he had only asked Shen Xixi to help him get rid of the sniper at Fu Lou, but she had stopped him from going any further and continued to help him with other things.


    This was because Zhang Heng knew very well that what awaited him was going to be an escape.


    Since it was an escape, one more person and one less person wouldn��t make much of a difference. On the contrary, it would drag everyone else down with it.


    From the moment he made up his mind, he had already embarked on an extremely dangerous path. This journey would be more arduous than any of his previous ones, even Zhang Heng himself did not know what awaited him at the end of the road, but since he had already made his choice, he would follow this road to the end, even if it was a bottomless abyss.


    ..


    However, Zhang Heng did not know where he was.


    He had followed the muddy path into the mountains four hours ago. After that, he even drove past a cliff and fell into the valley on the other side of the road.


    There was still a section of road in the middle that had been washed away by thendslide two days ago. However, Zhang Heng had used his outstanding driving skills to drive the polo through the ruins of the road bit by bit, it was also at this point that he came across a small vige.


    Zhang Heng did not stop. Amidst the cheers and chases of the small ghosts, he passed through the middle of the vige and continued to drive deeper into the mountains. At this time, the road in front of him could not even be called a road anymore, at most, it was a path made by humans and animals. Zhang Heng drove another two kilometers on this road and met a farmer who had just finished working in the fields and was heading home.


    The farmer put down the head he was carrying on his shoulder and kindly reminded Zhang Heng, ��Little Brother, there��s no more road ahead.��


    ��Thank you, I��m just taking a stroll,��Zhang Heng said politely.


    ��It��s gettingte, it��s time to go home,��the farmer advised. ��Your parents are waiting for you too, don��t let them worry.��


    ��I know,��Zhang Heng said. ��I��ll go back after I��m done with the matters at hand.��


    ��Sigh.��Seeing that he couldn��t stop the farmer, he could only sigh and watch the polo disappear into the night.


    Although it was already night, it didn��t really affect Zhang Heng much. After putting on the [ filter lens ] , the 300 meters in front of him was like daytime to him, however, after driving for about seven kilometers, Zhang Heng finally stopped the car.


    It wasn��t that he didn��t want to drive, but there was really no road in front of him.


    To his left was a cliff, to his right was a dense forest, and in front of him was a stream. Although it was called a stream, it could actually be called a river. Zhang Heng got out of the car and measured the water depth, he knew that his polo would be there no matter what, and if he wasn��t careful, he might even be washed off the cliff.


    Seeing this, Zhang Heng didn��t look dejected. He turned around and walked back to the car. He took out hisptop with a SIM card, but when he opened it, he couldn��t find any inte signal.


    Zhang Heng changed his position and angle a few more times. After confirming that this wasn��t just one ce, he put hisptop away. At that moment, he heard a noiseing from the forest beside him.


    Zhang Heng turned around and looked at the source of the noise. To his surprise, it wasn��t a beast, but an old man lying on the ground, motionless.


    Zhang Heng took out the [ hidden scabbard ] from the trunk and walked toward the old man lying on the ground. After a simple check, he released his grip on the hilt of the knife. The old man looked like a viger from the nearby vige, he looked like he was in his eighties. He had fallen from the mountain and hit his head somewhere along the way. One of his legs was probably fractured as well.


    Zhang Heng helped him reattach his broken leg and fixed it with a wooden board and rope. He also used iodophor to disinfect and bandage the wound caused by the tree branches and stones, however, Zhang Heng had no other choice but to feed him some water and ce him in the back seat of Polo��s car.


    The old man woke up two hourster. When he opened his eyes and saw where he was, he looked a little frightened. He struggled to get up, waving his hands around and pping the ss, but he did not pull the car door handle, finally, Zhang Heng opened the car door and said to him, ��Don��t move, especially that injured leg of yours. Be careful not to be a cripple in the future.��


    The old man seemed to understand his words and finally stopped struggling. So, Zhang Heng brought him a bottle of mineral water and a box of supermarket best friends. ��Have something to eat. I��ll send you home in the morning.��


    The old man did not tear open the box of best friend. Instead, he stuffed it into his arms. Zhang Heng was afraid that the old man would not understand what he was saying, so he even showed him how to tear off the packaging. In the end, the old man nodded and shook his head, fortunately, he opened the bottle of mineral water and gulped it down.


    At this point, Zhang Heng could tell that the old man did not have much contact with the outside world. Then, the old man pointed at his mouth and waved his hand. Zhang Heng immediately realized that the old man was probably a mute.


    However, seeing that the old man might not be able to give his address, Zhang Heng was not in a hurry. ��When I entered the mountain, I passed by a vige. There should be someone there who knows you. Why don��t I Send You There Tomorrow?��


    In the end, the old man waved his hand again. Then, he seemed to want to get out of the car. Seeing this, Zhang Heng also went up to give him a hand and carried him out of the car. The old man pointed at the forest where Zhang Heng found him.


    ��Is your home there?��Zhang Heng turned around and asked.


    The old man nodded this time.


    Zhang Heng was a little surprised. He had thought that the old man hade into the mountain to pick firewood or to dig for wild vegetables, but he had not expected the old man to live here, this ce was more than ten miles away from the previous vige. Moreover, the previous vige was already isted enough that it was quite close to the depths of the mountains.


    From the looks of the children chasing the car, there weren��t many visitors in that ce normally, but at least there was electricity and water. However, there wasn��t even a telephone pole in sight. It was hard to imagine that most of the cities were filled with shopping malls, even with Starbucks and mcdonald��s everywhere, there would still be people living in such a natural environment.


    ��Is there anyone else besides you in this mountain?��Zhang Heng asked curiously.


    The old man nodded again.


    ��How many households are there?��


    The old man shook his head again.


    ��Are you the only one in this ce? How many people are there in your family, Father?��


    Hearing this, the old man stretched out two fingers.

 Chapter 1366 - New Neighbors

    <h4>Chapter 1366: New Neighbors</h4>


    Zhang Heng had nned to wait until dawn to send the old man home, but he didn��t expect the old man to be so anxious. He even ignored his injured leg and insisted on leaving.


    After seeing the old man off, Zhang Heng simply took out his travel bag and locked polo. Then, he carried the old man through the forest and climbed up a steep cliff, in the middle, they jumped over a mountain stream that was about a meter wide. Finally, they arrived at the old man��s home in the middle of the mountain.


    Although it was called a home, it was actually just a cave. Zhang Heng scanned the cave and found that it was about 200 square meters in size. Inside, there were some simple furniture, including a bed and a stool, a stove, a rice tank... there was no water or electricity, not to mention the inte. In fact, the furniture looked like it had been thrown away by others and had been picked up by the owner.


    When he saw the figure on the bed, Zhang Heng understood why the old man was in such a hurry toe back.


    Therey a small child. He was dark and small, like a little monkey. Although it waste, he did not fall asleep. His cheeks were flushed, and he was coughing softly.


    Zhang Heng ced the old man on a recliner at the entrance of the cave. He walked up and touched the child��s forehead, then looked at his throat. Fortunately, it was probably just a fever caused by an inmmation of the tonsils. No wonder the old man did not sleep at night.., he entered the forest, probably to pick herbs, but the sky was too dark, so he didn��t see the path under his feet clearly and fell down.


    It wasn��t difficult to cure the illness. Zhang Heng had some anti-inmmatory drugs in his bag, and he fed the child on the bed a piece of amoxicillin with mineral water. Then, he found a ce of his own and leaned against the wall of the cave, closing his eyes to rest.


    On the other side, the old man saw that the child��s condition was gradually improving, and he was finally relieved. After all, he was an old man, and after a night of torment, he quickly fell asleep after rxing.


    However, the old man usually did not sleep for long. He opened his eyes just after dawn, only to find that the young man who had saved him and treated the little girl was gone.


    However, the old man saw the box of amoxicillin on the wooden table not far away. In addition, there was a walking stick made of small branches beside him. The old man stood up from the chair with the walking stick and walked to the bedside, he first looked at the child, then heard the sounding from outside the cave.


    /


    The old man walked to the cave entrance and saw Zhang Heng on the cliff. Zhang Heng was carrying a heavy ck box on his back as he climbed up the mountain. However, his footsteps were still light and steady, it seemed that he was not affected by the things on his back.


    Zhang Heng also saw the old man standing at the cave entrance. He waved at him as a greeting. Then, he continued to climb up without stopping. However, he did not return to the cave, instead, he stopped at another stone wall not far away. The old man knew that ce was also a cave, but it wasn��t as big as this one, and the terrain was even steeper.


    This was also the reason why he chose to live here in the end.


    However, this wasn��t a problem for Zhang Heng, and it could be seen that this wasn��t his first time climbing into the cave. He even used vines to make adder for easy ess.


    In fact, including the 24 hours of time freeze, this was the seventh time Zhang Heng had entered and exited the cave. The first few times, he had mainly cleaned the cave, and then moved the props, food, and daily necessities he had brought in from the car.


    Zhang Heng did not n to stay here permanently because he did not have much time left. However, he was willing to spend some effort to make his life morefortable under the current conditions, this time, he removed the battery from the polo car and used it to supply the electricity. Next, he would also move the engine and gasoline to this ce.


    However, after putting the battery in his new ce, he returned to therger cave next door to visit the old couple and the child who lived there.


    Both of them looked much better than yesterday. The child��s high fever had already subsided, but the old man��s broken leg would take an unknown amount of time to heal, normally, an adult��s fracture would take two to three months to heal. As for the elderly, it would take even longer.


    Zhang Heng was worried that the two of them would not be able to eat, so he even brought them some instant noodles from the car. However, the old man waved his hand and refused. He ced the egg yolk pie that he had gotten from Zhang Heng Last Night in front of the little girl��s bed, after that, he used his crutches to scoop out a bowl of rice from the rice vat and poured it into the iron pot. He also scooped out threerge bowls of water from the water vat. It seemed like he was preparing to cook the porridge, and he even boiled Zhang Heng��s bowl.


    Seeing this, Zhang Heng did not rush down the mountain anymore. Instead, he stood to the side to help with the firewood burning and finished the porridge in the cave. At that moment, the little girl also got up from her bed, it was only then that Zhang Heng realized that the person he had fed the medicine tost night was actually a girl.


    There was nothing he could do about it. When he was young, the difference between a man and a woman was not that obvious. Furthermore, the little girl looked a little malnourished. She was dark and thin. No matter who came, at first nce, he would think it was a boy.


    Therefore, Zhang Heng left another box of multivitamins. Originally, he had brought this box with him just in case. Since he did not have much use for it, he might as well leave it for those who needed it more.


    After breakfast, Zhang Heng didn��t say much. He didn��t even ask about the rtionship between the old man and the girl, or why they lived in the depths of the mountains. He just continued to move the things that could be used.


    In the end, not only did Zhang Heng put his luggage into the newly found cave, he also removed all the parts that could be used in the car. The rest of the useless parts were thrown into the stream, they were directly washed under the waterfall.


    From that day onwards, the old and young couple, who had been living alone in the mountains, had an additional neighbor.


    However, the new neighbor did not like to go out. Most of the time, he stayed in his cave alone. Only when he was eating would hee to the old man��s and the little girl��s Cave. Even though he had an extra mouth.., however, the dishes were much richer than before. Zhang Hengche brought a lot of snacks and ready-to-eat food that did not require much cooking.


    Other than that, with his survival skills in the wild, he could find a lot of wild vegetables and fruits just by going out for a walk. In total, it was much more than what he ate from the old man and the little girl.


    Therefore, it did not take long for the little girl to fall in love with this young uncle who always brought good food every time he came. However, the expression on this young uncle��s face was very calm no matter what, sometimes it gave her the feeling that it was like a stone.

 Chapter 1367 - Clues And Rewards

    <h4>Chapter 1367: Clues And Rewards</h4>


    Zhang Heng��s appearance was like a pebble that had fallen into a pool of water. It caused a ripple in the little girl��s originally peaceful life.


    Although Zhang Heng spent most of his time in his own cave, other than eating, he would make a trip to the little girl��s Cave whenever he was out, whether it was to cut down trees in the woods or dig up wild vegetables to hunt, he would ask them if they needed anything.


    At first, the little girl was a little shy, so she mostly hid behind the old man. However, she gradually grew bolder. One time, she even quietly followed Zhang Heng. When Zhang Heng saw her, he did not wave his hand to chase her away, instead, he took the initiative to teach her some knowledge about nts.


    From then on, every time Zhang Heng went out, the little girl would follow behind him. Therefore, Zhang Heng also taught her how to make traps to catch rabbits and how to fish with rocks. As for climbing trees, Zhang Heng did not need to teach her, the girl was quite skilled herself. She even took out bird eggs to give to Zhang Heng as a gift.


    Unfortunately, happy times were always short.


    Ten dayster, a convoy drove into the small vige deep in the mountains. From the SUV at the front, a man wearing a bulletproof vest and sunsses got out.


    He waved his hand to drive away the spectating kids. Then, he walked straight into the vigemittee��s door. Ignoring the vige officials who were weing him, he walked straight to a middle-aged man who was about forty years old, he asked, ��Where is he?��


    The middle-aged man, who was the vige secretary of this small vige, immediately said to his deputy, ��Go, get the broadcasting station to call Chao Ying over.��


    However, just as the man took a step forward, he was stopped by a man wearing a bulletproof vest. ��Come back.��Then, he looked at the vige secretary with a half-smile on his face. He looked around the office that was about to be filled with people, ��Do you still remember what I told you before? The target is a very cunning and fierce fugitive who has taken more than 20 lives. You must not alert the enemy before you make your move. In the end, you made such a big wee. Are you afraid that people will not know that we areing?��


    The vige secretary smiled embarrassedly when he heard that.


    /


    ��Forget it. I Don��t me you for the wee, but you must not use the radio. Find someone to lead the way. We will find the person called Chao Ying Ourselves.��


    ��Okay.��The vige secretary wiped the sweat from his forehead and hurriedly agreed.


    Therefore, three minutester, the person who was sent to the radio station also got into the SUV and came to a field at the westernmost part of the vige. A farmer named Wang Chaoying was fertilizing the field, the Man in bulletproof clothing saw the figure of the head of the field from afar. He jumped out of the car and walked to the front of the man without caring about the muddy road.


    ��Ten days ago, were you the one who saw a polo drive into the mountains?��


    ��What kind of broken gong?��Wang Chaoying was a little confused and didn��t know what the man on the other side was talking about.


    The Man in the bulletproof vest wasn��t in a hurry. He took out a photo from his pocket and handed it to Wang chaoying. ��It��s the car in the photo.��


    ��OH.��Wang chaoying wiped his hands on his clothes and took the photo with his calloused palm. He looked at it carefully a few times and finally said in an uncertain tone, ��It should be this one.��


    The Man in the bulletproof vest smiled. He knew why the farmer in front of him was hesitating. It was not because he did not see it clearly at that time, but because he was afraid that he would get into trouble after seeing today��s situation, that was why he subconsciously did not want to say it out loud.


    The Man in the bulletproof vest did not make things difficult for him. He only continued to ask, ��There is only one person in the car, right?��


    ��I think so.��


    Wang chaoying answered while looking at the convoy beside the field with some fear.


    ��Thank you for your cooperation. I have nothing more to ask. I wish you a good harvest this year.��After saying that, the man in the bulletproof vest put away the photo and returned to the car. He said into the walkie-talkie, ��It��s confirmed. He��s here.��


    After saying that, he put down the walkie-talkie and let the person in the back seat take out a heavy,rge suitcase from the trunk and hand it to the vige cadre who hade with him, ��This is the reward for providing clues. Don��t worry, it��s legal ie. You can use it for anything.��


    The vige cadre opened the suitcase and saw the one million cash inside. He felt as if his breathing had be heavier. It was true that some viges were very wealthy, and every household had two or three scooters, but their vige clearly did not belong to such a situation.


    There was even a moment when he did not want to return to the vigemittee. The idea of taking the box of money and running away shed through his mind. However, the box was so heavy that he could not run far even if he wanted to.


    ��Send a car to send him back. After that, we will prepare to enter the mountains.��After the man in bulletproof clothing dealt with the clues, he refastened his seatbelt, ��Tell everyone to get ready for battle. Our opponent this time is not easy to deal with. It is best for everyone to use their strength to deal with the gods.��


    ��Aren��t you exaggerating a little too much?��Seeing the vige official being escorted out of the car, another person in the back row spoke up, ��The threerge guilds have all made their moves. Three of the top ten yers on the yer leaderboard have already made it. No matter how powerful Simon is, there��s no way he can escape likest time, right?��


    However, another person, who had been resting with his eyes closed, suddenly spoke up, ��What did the arc of light say? Do they still want to talk to Simon at this time?��? ��We don��t have much time left, right? If Cthulhu really takes over Simon��s body, then the entire world will be in danger. Did the arc of Light��s group lose their heads? After their guild leader was heavily injured in the siege in February, they suddenly changed their attitude. Are they nning to put down the butcher��s knife, eat vegetarian food, and pray?��


    The man in bulletproof clothing sneered when he heard this. However, he did not exin much and only said.., ��Ignore them. Although we don��t want to admit it, there are indeed many experts in the arc of light. If February��s siege was not heavily injured, it would not be a problem to say that they are the leaders of the three great guilds. We still need their help for this operation. At the very least, our initial goal is to capture Simon first. ��What happens after that is nothing more than a bullet. As long as our hands are fast enough, the arc of Light��s people won��t be able to do anything about it.��


    ��Alright, you��re right.��The two people in the backseat checked the weapons in their hands and also put on bulletproof vests like the person in front of them, one of them was holding the fire qilin, which had once been the most popr weapon in a FPS game.


    The team continued to drive deeper into the mountains in a somber atmosphere. They were clearly the attackers in the battle, but most people were not rxed. There was nothing they could do. The shadow of a famous tree.., simon was too famous among the yers. The battle at the headquarters of the deputy building proved this point once again.


    Therefore, even those who thought that this operation would seed did not think that the following battle would be easy.

 Chapter 1368 - Hunting Dogs

    <h4>Chapter 1368: Hunting Dogs</h4>


    The motorcade passed through the forest. The roar of the engine broke the peace in the mountains and startled the birds along the way.


    The motorcade clearly knew that it would be difficult for them to bepletely stealthy with so many people working together, so they did not try to cover up their movements.


    The motorcade��s drivers were not as good as Zhang Heng. However, with the superior performance of the off-road vehicle and a team of engineers, they managed to cut down trees and pave the way to the ce where Zhang Heng��s polo had arrived.


    The three people in the lead SUV got off and looked at the river in front of them. The man in sunsses said, ��I don��t think his polo can drive through it. This is no longer a problem of driving skills.��


    ��Then where is his car?��A tanned man asked after looking around.


    ��He might have been washed down.��Another man pointed in the direction of the waterfall.


    ��Send someone down to take a look,��the man wearing sunsses said. ��I have a feeling that he should be nearby.��


    Fifteen minutester, the divers who had descended to the waterfall returned and reported that they had indeed seen the wreckage of the car underwater. Hence, the members of the convoy also got out of the car and formed a small team of six, they began to carefully search for traces of human activity in the vicinity.


    This time, the three major guilds had made thorough preparations. There were many experts in the convoy who were good at tracking footprints, and they even brought hunting dogs with them.


    The dog trainer gave the hunting dogs the items that Zhang Heng had found from the school to sniff out before releasing the hunting dogs. The group soon discovered the cave on the cliff wall.


    /


    The man in sunsses led the two groups into the cave that was slightly lower.


    They had been very careful along the way, and it was only after the sniper had aimed at the cave��s entrance that someone poked their head in. In the end, they only saw an old man inside.


    The man in sunsses looked around. After confirming that there was no one else in the cave, he put away the rifle in his hand and swaggered in. At the same time, he said to the old man who was mending his clothes, ��Old Man, have you seen a man who is about my height? Well, he doesn��t have any expression on his face. He looks like someone who is not to be trifled with.��


    The old man raised his head. His expression was a little confused and a little scared, but he still shook his head.


    The man in sunsses burst outughing. He walked to the stone table in the middle of the cave and picked up the bottle of multi-vitamin pills, ��Don��t tell me you bought this thing online. Even the postal service can��t get in this damn ce.��


    The two teams that came in with him also searched the cave. Soon, they found more things from the outside, including, but not limited to, a bag of beef jerky and amoxicillin pills, there was also a nket.


    However, one of them returned to the man wearing sunsses. ��I didn��t find any toiletries. It seems that he doesn��t live here.��


    The man wearing sunsses did not say anything when he heard that. He just walked to the old man, squatted down, and smiled, ��Father, don��t be afraid. We are not bad people. On the contrary, the person who gave you the thing is the real bad guy. He killed a lot of people and his hands were covered in blood. He ran all the way here to escape the punishment of thew. For the safety of you and your family, we hope that you can cooperate with us and bring this dangerous thug to justice as soon as possible.��


    However, the old man still shook his head and pointed at his own mouth.


    ��Are You Mute?��The man in sunsses shifted his gaze to the old man��s injured leg. ��Or are you under his care and don��t want to Betray Your Savior?��


    The man in sunsses knocked on the wooden board that the old man was facing as he spoke, ��How long has it been? Were you injured when you met him?��? ��Don��t be fooled by him. Based on our understanding of him, he��s very cunning. Perhaps he��s the one who did this to your leg. Ha, I know what you��re thinking, but believe me, if he wanted to scheme against someone, most ordinary people would die without knowing how he did it.��.


    ��Don��t you think it��s too much of a coincidence? Your leg was injured, and he just happened to appear and save you. So you brought him to your residence, but you didn��t know that you were inviting a wolf into the house.��


    The old man kept shaking his head.


    The man wearing sunsses finally lost his patience, but at this moment, another person walked into the cave. ��The Hound found another cave. That should be his residence. Do you want to go take a look?��


    ��Of course.��The man wearing sunsses stood up and looked away from the old man. ��There��s nothing to investigate in this ce. Leave a team here to prevent him from sneaking back. The rest of you, follow me.��


    The group followed the cliff wall and soon arrived at another cave. This time, the man in sunsses finally revealed a look of surprise. In fact, he wasn��t the only one.., the other members of the team behind him were also somewhat dumbstruck when they saw the scene in the cave.


    ��Is he... taking apart his own car?��The man with tanned skin asked in surprise.


    ��Why did he move the engine and fuel tank here?��? ��Yes, even the back seat was taken down to make a bed, and the readingmp was also used for lighting. He really didn��t let go of any parts that could be used,��another person added.


    Other than that, they also found some sharpened branches under a stone wall. It seemed that someone nned to make them into arrows, but they didn��t have time to finish them. One set of clothes, one set of toiletries.., there was half a bottle of mineral water that hadn��t been finished. Other than that, there was nothing else in the cave. It was unbelievably clean.


    ��He already knows that we��re here,��said the man in sunsses. He picked up the bottle of mineral water and sniffed it, but found that it actually smelled of peach.


    ��That��s not surprising. After all, we made quite amotion when we came. But if that��s the case, is he nning to hide deeper in the mountain and avoid me?��


    ��It��s fine. As long as he appears in my sight once, he won��t be able to escape again,��the man in sunsses said confidently.


    However, after he finished speaking, he looked at the engine and fuel tank in the cave. He was a little confused. If Zhang Heng was only here to light up the cave, why would he need to go through so much trouble to remove so many things from the car, would he have to go through so much trouble to bring them back?


    However, the search had already begun, so there was no time for him to think about such a problem. The man in sunsses asked someone to bring the hounds in and sniffed the cave��s scent, especially the scent left behind by the clothes, the six hounds soon started Barking and rushed out of the cave one by one.

 Chapter 1369 - Traps

    <h4>Chapter 1369: Traps</h4>


    The little girl had been following Zhang Heng around for the past few days. Even though Zhang Heng was still teaching her a few tricks to survive in the wild, she did not spend the rest of her time collecting food to improve her diet. On the contrary.., from three days ago, Zhang Heng��s attention had been focused on creating traps.


    There were all kinds of traps, from the trees, underground, and in the water. Among them, there were some that were quite lethal. The little girl had seen Zhang Heng put four sharpened wooden stakes under one of the traps with her own eyes, even though Zhang Heng said that the traps were for hunting, the little girl could still sense something unusual.


    She had already realized that something bad was about to happen, but she didn��t ask Zhang Heng. Zhang Heng also didn��t exin. He only told the little girl to remember the location of the traps, this was also why Zhang Heng brought the little girl along. She and her grandfather lived in this deep mountain. Zhang Heng was worried that the traps would hurt them before the battle started.


    That afternoon, Zhang Heng brought the little girl to set up the traps as usual after lunch. It was at this time that he saw the birds that were startled by themotion in the distant forest.


    Zhang Heng frowned and looked at the little girl standing at the side. In fact, his trap setup was nearing its end, and he had decided not to bring the little girl with him this afternoon, this was because he knew that the group of people were looking for him. Previously, he did not even want to contact Shen Xixi and Fan Meinan, so naturally, he did not want to involve the grandparents in this.


    However, from the direction where the birds were startled, the group of people was further away from the two caves than he was. Of course, the group of people did not know where he lived, so they definitely had to search for him. However, it was toote for them to rush back now, they might even be blocked near the cave. Not only would they not be able to use the traps here, but more importantly, they would definitely implicate the grandparents.


    Therefore, Zhang Heng made a prompt decision. He found a rtively hidden hill and told the little girl to stay behind the hill, ��Later, no matter what you hear, don��te out. If I��m not back by nightfall, you can go back to your grandfather. If you meet anyone else on the way, you can answer whatever they ask. As long as you cooperate well, they shouldn��t make things difficult for you and your grandfather.��


    With that, Zhang Heng carried his backpack and left alone. Three days ago, he had already moved all the props and supplies out of his residence and hid them in another ce that was even less easy to find.


    Therefore, he went there first and took the -LSB- infinite building blocks ] and a bagLegosegZhanghHengheng had considered building a more powerful weapon, such as a missileuncher or a howitzer.


    However, such weapons of mass destruction were not suitable for fighting in the mountains, and Zhang Heng had to consider the possibility of idental injury, this was because he was not sure whether the group of people who came to capture him had brought the vigers from nearby viges as guides or even brought the old man from the cave with them. Besides, theserge weapons were all surprisinglyrge and heavy, once the enemy couldn��t be wiped outpletely, it would be difficult to bring them away when they needed to move.


    /


    [ infinite building blocks ] might not be Zhang Heng��s most powerful weapon, but it had always been the most flexible weapon. It could adapt to all kinds ofbat situations, so Zhang Heng didn��t want to use it as a one-time consumable.


    Therefore, Zhang Heng��s first weapon that he had assembled using Lego was still a gun �� the SR-25bat rifle!


    The prototype of this sniper rifle was designed by Eugene Stoner. The semi-automatic rifle SR-25 produced by Knight Armory was originally a civilian product, but it waster picked up by the U.S. Special Operations Forces, it had entered the U.S. Army in 1990 and participated in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. It could be considered a weapon that had been tested in actualbat.


    One of the main reasons Zhang Heng chose this gun was that it was rtively light. The entire gun weighed less than 5 kilograms. Of course, it was not as heavy as the Vorse S16 he had used on the elevated tform, however, the SR-25 could be equipped with 20 rounds of ammunition. For Zhang Heng, who did not have the ammunition to replenish his sniper rifle, every bullet was precious.


    However, the effective range of this gun was only about 600 meters. It might not be enough on t ground, but it was enough to fight in the forest.


    Zhang Heng checked the newly acquired Sr-25 and walked toward the direction of the convoy.


    He had only walked less than 200 meters when he heard the barking of dogs in the distance. There was also the sound of chaotic footsteps behind the hounds.


    Zhang Heng did not want to waste his precious sniper bullets on the hounds, so he took off his shirt and cut it with a knife. Four minutester, the six hounds rushed to the spot where Zhang Heng had been standing. They did not hesitate, they rushed toward a big tree not far away.


    The two hounds in the lead missed their footing and fell into a deep pit. When the search team behind them arrived, they saw the three hounds circling the deep pit anxiously and whining.


    The man wearing sunsses walked to the side of the deep pit and took a look. He saw the tragic scene inside. The two hounds that fell first had their abdomen and neck pierced by the sharp tree stump. They were about to die, although the two hounds behind them stopped in time by the side of the pit, one of them was still knocked down by thepanion behind them. It was not life-threatening. It was just that one of its legs was stabbed, obviously, he could not participate in the subsequent search.


    ��TSK, TSK, tsk. It was a bad start. That guy was indeed not unprepared,��the man wearing sunsses said. ��Lead the remaining three hounds well. Be careful of the traps. We are fighting on their territory.��


    The hounds that had lost half of their original owners were also a reminder to the pursuers, making them a lot more cautious in their next actions. Even so, one dog and two people were still hit by the traps, they were injured by strange traps.


    However, when he saw a yer whose arm had swelled up and be twice as thick, the man wearing sunsses was not angry. Instead, he seemed to have thought of something and praised, ��Amazing!��


    ��What��s Amazing?��The man holding the fire qilin asked.


    ��He knows that we brought hounds.��


    ��And then?��The man holding the fire qilin was still confused. It was not surprising that Simon knew that they brought hounds. After all, the barking of dogs could be heard from a distance.


    The man wearing sunsses patiently exined, ��Then, he yed along. He used the hunting dog��s principle of action to track his scent, and instead, he gradually led us into his trap. This guy is as cunning and difficult to deal with as the rumors say. Moreover, ording to the yers who have entered dungeons with him, not only does he have a lot of tools, but he also has a lot of terrifying skills. He is practically an army of one person in the legends.��

 Chapter 1370 - The Dwarf And The Twins

    <h4>Chapter 1370: The Dwarf And The Twins</h4>


    ��One person can master the skills of an entire team? Is there really someone who can do that?��The man holding the fire qilin was skeptical.


    ��Rumor has it that he is the representative of the god of time, Chronos. He might even have a time and spirit house like the one in ��Dragon Ball��that allows him to train in it,��the man wearing sunsses said with a serious expression.


    ��Isn��t this cheating? !��The man holding the fire kylin instantly felt that the fire kylin in his hand was no longer fragrant.


    ��Don��t be so envious. I also heard that Kronos had no good intentions when he set his eyes on him,��someone on the other side who had not said much suddenly said.


    ��Who said that?��The man wearing sunsses was stunned.


    ��The god of sleep, Shupnos, he told me,��a young man with half-awake eyes said. ��Shupnos said that Kronos went to look for him and asked him for a favor.��


    ��What favor?��


    ��Shupnos didn��t say, but Shupnos seems to have known about Simon��s identity since a long time ago. Anyway, Shupnos didn��t look surprised after Simon was exposed.��


    ��These bastard gods are all not easy to deal with, and none of them are reliable.��The man in sunsses snorted coldly, ��Forget it, don��t bother about those things. This operation is packed with experts, and with sufficient preparations, even if Kronos makes a move, he won��t be able to stop us from killing Simon.��


    As the three of them were talking, a gunshot suddenly came from the forest, and almost at the same time, a member of the search team fell to the ground. However, because he was wearing a bulletproof vest.., this shot did not take his life. It only broke two of his ribs.


    /


    The search team reacted quickly. They immediately crouched down and looked for cover. At the same time, someone reported Zhang Heng��s location and weapon, ��10 o��clock, distance... about 500 meters, using a 7.62 mm bullet.��


    ��Prepare a tactical encirclement,��the man wearing sunsses said decisively, ��Which team is willing to pin down the target?��


    ��Don��t bother, I can do it alone.��Before the others could speak, a short dwarf who was less than 1.4 meters tall said proudly. He was one of the few people in the team who did not wear a bulletproof vest, after saying this, his body gradually faded under the sunlight until itpletely disappeared.


    ��Invisibility? This is really the ability that every man dreams of having,��the man holding the fire qilin sighed.


    The Dwarf, who had used the invisibility ability, was so confident that he was on his way. In his opinion, no matter how powerful Simon was, he would not be able to deal with an enemy that could not be seen at all. His journey was said to be a hindrance, but if he was lucky.., he might even be able to finish off this powerful enemy that was ranked first on the yer leaderboard.


    This way, not only would he be able to make a name for himself among the yers, he would also be able to save the world on his own.


    However, what the search party had been waiting for was not the good news that the dwarf had brought. Instead, it was another gunshot. This time, Zhang Heng directly hit the target in the head. Unfortunately, the yer did not even have the time to show off his ability before he was shot in the head, he was shot in the head.


    Fortunately, the encirclement went smoothly. Ten minutester, when the man in sunsses arrived at Zhang Heng��s previous shooting spot, there was only blood on the ground. No one was seen.


    The man in sunsses was still wondering whose blood it was when he saw the man holding the fire qilin suddenly stumble. He seemed to have tripped over something. On the other side, about two meters away.., another yer was also tripped by the air, and there was a bloodstain on his shoe.


    The man in sunsses sighed. From the distance of two meters, there was no need to save him. The dwarf probably had his head chopped off as soon as he got close to Zhang Heng.


    ��What kind of invisibility ability is this? Is it really that useless?��Someone couldn��t help butin. ��If you don��t have the ability, then don��t try to be so strong.��


    ��It��s not that he��s too weak, it��s just that the opponent is too strong.��The man in sunsses shook his head, ��When he passed by you guys just now, did any of you sense his presence? Furthermore, the invisibility effect did not disappear after his death. Clearly, there��s nothing wrong with his ability.��


    Everyone fell silent when they heard this. However, Zhang Heng did not seem to intend to give them time to mourn for theirrade. Immediately after, another gunshot sounded. However, this time, the person who was shot only swayed a little, surprisingly, he only kneeled on one knee and covered his chest.


    This time, Zhang Heng purposely looked for a yer who was not wearing a bulletproof vest. However, after hitting the target, he could not help but raise his eyebrows.


    The person covered his chest and panted heavily. However, when he moved his palm away, there was no wound or blood on his chest. On his palm, there was a bullet made of yarn.


    The man holding the fire qilin widened his eyes. ��You can do that?��


    ��The magician ranked 21st on the yer leaderboard really lives up to his reputation.��The man wearing sunsses was generous with his praise.


    Even though he had no doubt about the final victory of this operation, he had been led by the nose by Zhang Heng right from the start. He had lost his men, but he had not even seen the shadow of the other party. The dwarf that had been sent to hold him back had long been killed, it was impossible to say that it would not affect the morale of the team.


    Fortunately, there was still the magician. This beautiful move had saved some face for the search party. However, on the other side, Zhang Heng did not have any intention of fighting the magician to the death. He decisively turned his gun around after missing the first shot, after killing another yer who was close to him, he did not continue fighting. He carried his sniper rifle on his back and moved to the next location.


    Therefore, the man in sunsses had no choice but to continue recruiting brave warriors to surround Zhang Heng.


    However, with the dwarf��s experience, the yers became more cautious this time. After about ten seconds, two more people stood out. ��Let��s go.��


    The man in sunsses looked at the two identical twins before him. His eyebrows twitched and a hint of joy appeared on his face. ��It��s great that you two are willing to help, but...��


    ��We have our priorities straight. Even though the arc of light advocates a peaceful solution to this issue, at the very least, we need to make sure that Simon is willing to sit down and talk to us, so let��s go convince him,��said the twin on the left.


    ��We will definitely talk to him,��said the other twin with a smile.


    After that, the two of them walked toward Zhang Heng. They didn��t walk too fast or too slow, but they looked very rxed until a bullet flew out from the forest, it hit the forehead of a twin on the left side, and the twin fell to the ground.

 Chapter 1371 - The Ghost Twins

    <h4>Chapter 1371: The Ghost Twins</h4>


    200 meters away, Zhang Heng shot one of the Twins in the head urately. Just as he was about to turn his gun on the other twin, the ��corpse��of the fallen twin suddenly twitched, after that, he staggered up from the ground. After he stood up, he patted the dust off his body and revealed a smile.


    His face, which had been damaged by the bullet, was recovering at a visible rate. His bones were repaired, his facial muscles were regenerated, and even his skin waspletely repaired. There was no trace of the bullet left behind.


    Zhang Heng frowned when he saw this, but he did not waste any time. He sent another bullet into the chest of another twin, and the same unbelievable scene happened again.


    The body of the dead twiny on the ground for less than two seconds before it miraculously began to move again, and the wound on its chest quickly healed.


    Immortal Body? !


    Zhang Heng had previously encountered a yer with an immortal body in the leakers��dungeon. The other party was the agent of the OATHSOME and Abominable Goddess, Styx. His body had been soaked in the Styx River before, and other than a weakness that only he knew of, his body was invulnerable.


    However, the twins that Zhang Heng had encountered this time were obviously different from the yers that he had encountered before. Zhang Heng had seen with his own eyes that after the bullets hit their bodies.., it did cause corresponding damage to the parts that were hit, but in the next moment, they were able to crawl back up from the ground as if nothing had happened.


    Therefore, this was more like a rapid healing skill.


    However, Zhang Heng was still unsure whether this healing skill came from a certain item or their own ability, whether there was a time limit and the number of times they could use it.


    However, Zhang Heng did not want to waste his precious sniper bullets on probing. He decisively bypassed the two of them and aimed at another yer wearing a bulletproof vest. He pulled the trigger.


    /


    Blood sttered everywhere. The target��s body leaned back and fell weakly to the ground.


    At that moment, Zhang Heng also noticed that the encirclement around him had started to tighten. He did not covet the credit. He decisively put away the SR-25 and continued to move to the next location.


    However, this time, Zhang Heng ran into trouble on the way to the next location. The two twins had relied on their immortal ability to move extremely quickly. At first, they were just casually walking around like they were taking a stroll, but then, their footsteps became faster and faster until they were fully sprinting. They were like two deer, leaping and weaving through the forest.


    At the same time, in order to cooperate with their movements, the man in sunsses also specially took out a small team to suppress Zhang Heng, therefore, this time, Zhang Heng only moved less than 50 meters before the twins caught up to him.


    However, the two did not rush to attack. One of them even bowed to Zhang Heng and said, ��Mr. Simon, I��ve heard a lot about you.��


    Zhang Heng also looked at the Twins in front of him. ��What��s Your Name?��


    ��Light arc, the Ghost Twins,��the other person smiled, ��We don��t mean any harm. Light arc has always insisted on sitting down with Mr. Simon, so we have no intention of fighting Mr. Simon. We just want to ask Mr. Simon to stay here for a while.��


    ��Wait until your people have finished surrounding me?��Zhang Heng raised his eyebrows.


    ��If that��s enough to make you sit down, after all, the survival of the entire human race depends on you now. This is no longer a matter for you alone. We believe that Mr. Simon is not a person who waits for death. You may already have some ns and ideas. We just think that we should have the right to know about this matter, and we might even be able to help you, don��t you think so?��


    ��For the time being, the two of you stepping aside will be of the greatest help to me,��Zhang Heng said calmly.


    The twin brothers looked at each other and one of them said regretfully, ��Looks like we can onlye here today to experience Mr. Simon��s power.��


    Zhang Heng did not waste any more time. Previously, when he was talking to the twin brothers, he had also been observing the surrounding movements. ording to his estimation, in about three minutes, the other side��s encirclement would beplete.


    In other words, he had to solve the problem in front of him within the next three minutes.


    Therefore, without any probing, Zhang Heng pulled out the [ hidden scabbard ] from his waist and shed at one of the twins!


    Even though the twins were ready for battle, the speed of Zhang Heng��s sh was still beyond their imagination. They could barely see a ray of light before one of their arms flew into the sky, blood spurted out of the wound and dyed the ground red.


    However, the next moment, the shocking scene happened again.


    A new section of white bone was extracted from the wound, and soon, the bone was covered by muscles and blood vessels, bing thicker and thicker..


    Zhang Heng had seen the Twins reborn twice before, but this was the first time he was so close to them. In just a few seconds, the broken arm waspletely reconstructed, no known species in the natural world could achieve such a powerful regenerative ability.


    ��Sorry to have embarrassed you,��said the severed arm. However, it was clear that even though it possessed an almost invincible regenerative ability, the pain of losing an arm was real. His forehead was covered in sweat, obviously, the pain from earlier was not light, but no matter what, he did survive the [ hidden scabbard ]��s de.


    And this was the first person Zhang Heng had met who had survived [ hidden scabbard ]��s attack. One had to know that with the de��s tyrannical non-healing properties, being hit by it meant death.


    But not only did the twins survive, they even grew a new arm. Zhang Heng looked at the spot where he had struck earlier, but there wasn��t a single wound left.


    Zhang Heng��s heart skipped a beat. Could it be that the twins��ability wasn��t healing?


    Seeing that his brother was safe and sound, the other man shook his head, ��It��s useless. Your attack won��t have any effect on us. At most, it��ll only cause us pain. Even though I��ve been afraid of pain since I was young, I can hold on for a few minutes until the encirclement isplete.��


    Before he could finish his sentence, an arrow had pierced through his throat. He looked at Zhang Heng, who had suddenly bent his bow, and his face was filled with excitement. It was as if he did not understand why Zhang Heng would switch to using a bow and arrow when he had a gun in his hand, however, he still grabbed the arrow that had pierced through his throat with one hand and pulled it out with great difficulty.


    After he had done all this, his throat quickly returned to its original state like the previous few times.

 Chapter 1372 - Secrets

    <h4>Chapter 1372: Secrets</h4>


    The arrow that Zhang Heng had just shot was no ordinary arrow. It was the [ arrow of Paris ] that was used to look for weaknesses.


    However, this time, the trajectory of the [ arrow of Paris ] in the air did not change at all. It pierced straight into the throat of one of the twins.


    The scene looked a little bloody, but in terms of effect, it was no different from his previous attack. Both were neutralized by the miraculous regeneration ability of the twins, the twins who had been shot by the arrow were now able to open their mouths to speak again, and their spirits were not much different from before. This meant that the gue effect on the [ gue bone bow ] had not taken effect either.


    He weighed the arrow in his hand and asked curiously, ��As the rumors say, you are indeed proficient in all kinds ofbat techniques. Other than archery, marksmanship, and Sabersmanship, do you have any other trump cards?��


    ��I do have hidden cards, but unfortunately, I��m afraid you won��t be able to see them,��Zhang Heng replied. Although the arrow didn��t seed, there was no disappointment on Zhang Heng��s face, he lowered his head to look at the starfish in his hand again.


    From the start of the battle until now, about two minutes had passed. In other words, there was only one minute left for him to break out of the encirclement. From the expressions on the twins��faces, it could be seen that.., they were gradually rxing.


    Zhang Heng had already tried three different methods of attack, but none of them had yielded any results. From the looks of it, there was really nothing he could do to them. As long as they could hold out for another minute, their mission to pin them down would beplete.


    Therefore, when the twins saw Zhang Heng put away his [ hidden scabbard ] and took out two knives from his waist, their eyes did not show much wariness.


    One of them even advised, ��As long as Mr. Simon doesn��t make a move, we will do our best to ensure your safety.��


    ��You should worry about yourself first,��Zhang Heng interrupted the twins and said lightly.


    /


    After saying that, he stabbed the knife in his hand. This time, his target was the twin on his left hand. This time, the twin also moved his body and hurriedly dodged to the back. However,pared to Zhang Heng��s knife.., his movement was a little slow. In the end, he could notpletely dodge the knife and was stabbed in the lower abdomen.


    Before he could cry out in pain, Zhang Heng had already pulled out the knife and used his fastest speed to stab the chest of the other twin. The twin subconsciously raised his hand to protect his chest, however, his expression suddenly changed.


    It was not until Zhang Heng took half a step back that he realized that a small knife had appeared in his lower abdomen. The position of the knife was actually the same as his twin brother��s.


    However, this time, the wounds of the two did not heal as quickly as before. Therefore, Zhang Heng knew that he had guessed correctly.


    ��How is this possible? !��One of the twins knelt on one knee and clutched his lower abdomen. With a shocked expression, he said, ��How did you discover our secret in such a short time?��


    At that moment, his face was no longer as rxed as it had been when the mission was almostpleted. There was only pain and confusion.


    ��Your quick-healing wounds are indeed quite deceiving. At first, I was almost fooled by you,��Zhang Heng said, ��But after I tried it, I realized that your wounds weren��t healing at all. It was more like a mechanism to replicate each other.��


    Zhang Heng didn��t exin to them the functions of [ hidden scabbard ] , [ pestilence bone bow ] , and [ Parris��s arrow ] , but he pointed at their arms, ��Actually, when I first met you, I felt that something was wrong. There are many identical twins in this world, but it��s rare to see twins like you. ��Fortunately, there is something different about the two of you. It��s your right arm. There is a mole on the inner side of your right arm, but your brother or brother doesn��t have it. In the end, when I cut off your arm, the mole on the inner side of your newly grown arm disappeared. It was then that I gradually came to the same conclusion.


    ��Your rapid healing is actually a kind of skill that duplicates each other. Your twin brothers are copies of each other. I don��t know how you do it, but once someone is injured, the injured part can be replicated ording to the other person��s intact body. This exins why the two of you are bing more and more alike.��


    Zhang Heng still hadn��t said a word. This was also the reason why [ hidden scabbard ] , [ gue bone bow ] , and [ Parris Arrow ] didn��t take effect.


    ��Can you even notice such... small details?��The other twin was also stunned.


    However, Zhang Heng didn��t answer his question because the minute was almost up. He told the two of them, ��Don��t move.�� ��Cover your stomachs and stay here quietly. When your people arrive, ask them to send you to the hospital immediately.��


    After saying that, Zhang Heng picked up the [ Arrow of Paris ] that he had just shot out and disappeared from their sight with the Sr-25 in his arms.


    When the man wearing sunsses and his men arrived, they saw the twin brothers leaning against a tree trunk with an awkward expression on their faces.


    However, this time, no one opened their mouths to mock them. Other than the fact that they were still alive, everyone had to give them some face. Most importantly, unlike the Gnomes, the ghost twins were quite famous among the yers, their strength had also been tested.


    Even they were unable to hold Zhang Heng back for even a few minutes. This cast a shadow over the hearts of the yers once again.


    However, the man in sunsses did not say anything. He only ordered his men to help the twin brothers into the car. After a simple treatment, he was taken to the county hospital.


    After sending the two away, the yers initially thought that the man in sunsses would continue to recruit people who could hold Zhang Heng back. However, they did not expect the man in sunsses to take the me this time, ��It��s my fault. Knowing that Simon is the number one yer, we still sent people to his side. This allowed him to seed time and time again. From now on, no one should act alone.��


    ��Then how are we going to surround him?��Someone frowned. ��If there really is guerri warfare in the forest, even if we manage to kill him in the end, the casualties will not be small.��


    ��Don��t worry about that. The engineering team has already made preparations. It should be about time now,��the man in sunsses said. ��Soon, he will have nowhere to run.��


    As if to answer his words, the sound of a propeller turning rang in everyone��s ears. Someone lifted his head when he heard the sound and saw a ck shadowing from the direction of the convoy.


    �� drones. There were many of them. It was estimated that there were more than a hundred of them.

 Chapter 1373 - Waterfalls And Tattoos

    <h4>Chapter 1373: Waterfalls And Tattoos</h4>


    Zhang Heng Bent His bow, and an arrow shot out from his fingertip. It urately hit one of the drones and blew up the camera on the drone.


    However, the drones nearby, like sharks smelling blood, began to rush toward Zhang Heng��s location. For a moment, Zhang Heng��s ears were filled with the sound of propellers turning.


    However, Zhang Heng��s expression did not change. He pulled out another arrow from his quiver and urately hit the second drone. This time, the out-of-control drone collided with another drone that was flying toward him, both of them fell from the sky.


    At this time, Zhang Heng was already on the third arrow... in just half a minute, he had destroyed a total of 12 drones, but the number of drones in the sky did not decrease. They continued to rush toward him, some of the drones immediately raised their altitude after discovering Zhang Heng��s location. After reaching a safe distance, they locked onto Zhang Heng from the sky.


    The purpose of these drones was to track Zhang Heng, and now that they hadpleted their mission perfectly, from this moment on, Zhang Heng��s every move could not escape the eyes of the pursuit team.


    After Zhang Heng finished shooting eleven arrows, he also stopped what he was doing. It was not because he had shown mercy, but because his quiver was almost empty.


    In order to save as much bullets as possible, Zhang Heng chose to use the bow and arrows to deal with the drones. Unfortunately, he did not have many arrows on him. Previously, he had tried to make a batch of arrows, but it was not finished yet, the search party had already arrived. If he was given half a day, he might not be short of arrows anymore.


    However, now, Zhang Heng could only move first. However, this time, the search party had grasped his movement path. Not only did they surround him faster, but there were also gunmen who directly attacked his position.


    Of course, with the distance between Zhang Heng and them, it was difficult for the bullets to hit the target directly. However, the stray bullets did add to Zhang Heng��s movement problems.


    However, this time, the group of people should have learned their lesson from the previous two times and did not send anyone to stop him. Therefore, Zhang Heng finally managed to break out of the encirclement without any danger, however, the danger did not end there. As long as the drone above his head was still there, it was only a matter of time before he waspletely surrounded.


    /


    ..


    The man in sunsses looked at the tablet in his hand. The 10.3-inch screen was divided into six windows. The six windows locked onto a figure that was rapidly shuttling through the forest from six different angles.


    ��Where... are you going?��The Man in sunsses muttered.


    Unlike his excited teammate who was holding the fire qilin beside him, the man in sunsses did not feel that he was already certain of victory after using the drone. From his point of view, the battle had just begun, he didn��t think that Zhang Heng would bepletely helpless against the drone above his head. However, he couldn��t see what Zhang Heng was nning to do at the moment, so he continued tomand the search party to press forward.


    Zhang Heng circled around and eventually reached the waterfall.


    Then, he finally stopped. He picked up arge rock beside the waterfall and hid behind it. Ignoring the drone above his head, he set up the SR-25 again. This time, Zhang Heng didn��t deliberately save his ammunition, he used up all the remaining bullets in the gun clip and killed the seven fastest yers.


    However, at the same time, the man wearing sunsses alsomanded the search party topletely surround Zhang Heng.


    Then, the man wearing sunsses saw Zhang Heng open his backpack and take out a waterproof cloth. He put the things in his backpack on.


    Was he nning to escape from the water?


    The man in sunsses frowned. He split up two teams to aim downstream, but he was more worried about the secret waterway that led to other ces under the waterfall.


    After all, Zhang Heng had arrived at this ce more than ten days before them, so he must have already figured out the surrounding environment. This was also the advantage of Zhang Heng��s battle, however, in the face of absolute power, the man wearing sunsses did not think that a mere geographical advantage would be enough to turn the tide of the battle.


    Right now, the most important thing for him to do was to continue fighting steadily. Therefore, the man wearing sunsses still followed the n and ordered four squads to approach the rock together.


    However, as soon as they moved, the drone overhead transmitted a new image. Zhang Heng, carrying his backpack, jumped directly into the pool under the waterfall.


    The man in sunsses immediately ordered the ten drones to descend above the pool. Through the drone��s camera, he could vaguely see a ck shadow swimming below the pool.


    The man in sunsses heaved a sigh of relief. The pool was deeper than he had imagined, and the deepest part of the pool should be less than five meters. In other words, as long as the drone was above the water.., he could continue to track Zhang Heng��s figure.


    However, the next moment, he saw the originally calm pool suddenly stir up waves and shoot the ten low-flying drones into the water. The non-waterproof cameras onlysted for less than five seconds before they were all destroyed.


    Water-type equipment?


    The man in sunsses felt that he had already guessed Zhang Heng��s trump card, so he looked at the yers around him and asked, ��Do any of you have water-type equipment?��


    The yers looked at each other, and after a while, a few of them began to speak.


    ��I have a water-type item.��


    ��I have a tool that can summon a water snake.��


    ��I have a tool that can control water nts!��


    ��I can turn into a fish.��


    ��...��


    ��Very good. I��ve already sent someone to deliver the diving suit over,��the man in sunsses said, ��However, there aren��t many diving suits. There are only ten of them, so I��ll need your helpter. You Don��t have to defeat him underwater. As long as you can force him out of the water and back ontond, we��ll be able to reach a battle n.��


    Before he could finish his sentence, a yer who had not spoken before silently walked to the side of the pool. He took off his clothes and revealed the tattoo on his back.


    The tattoo depicted a man with a muscr body and a long beard. He wore a crown on his head and held a trident in his hand. Many people had already recognized the person on the tattoo as Poseidon, the sea god of Greek mythology.


    The man wearing sunsses had a change of expression when he saw this. He said that he was themander of the search party, but in reality, he did not know much about his subordinates because theposition of the members of the search party was veryplicated, the search party was made up of threerge guilds and a portion of powerful yers. Other than knowing the information of his own guild members, themander did not know much about the others.


    However, when he saw the Poseidon Tattoo, a name quickly appeared in the man��s mind.

 Chapter 1374 - Trident

    <h4>Chapter 1374: Trident</h4>


    �� Seahorse.


    Those who knew seahorse well knew that he wasn��t the strongest of the bunch. He was only ranked 73rd in the first round of the proxy war, and in terms of fame, he wasn��t even as famous as the ghost twins, who had just been defeated by Zhang Heng.


    However, everyone who heard this name knew that seahorse wasn��t to be trifled with.


    Especially in certain situations.


    Unlike the all-rounder Zhang Heng, seahorses were a very serious yer. He was born into a family of fishermen, and from a very young age, he had followed his father and uncle out to sea to fish, unlike some young people who were forced to board ships to make a living, he really liked this piece of azure blue. If he didn��t soak in the sea every day, he would feel like he wascking something. Compared tond, he felt more at ease in the sea, the smell of the sea breeze mixed with fish was his favorite smell.


    Seahorses were not only good at fishing, but they were also the best at swimming and diving among their peers since they were very young. When he was nine years old, he could hold his breath underwater for more than a minute, when he was fourteen years old, he was identally attacked by a shark while swimming. The Seahorse, who had nowhere to escape, relied on a dagger to swim with the shark for a full fifteen minutes. In the end, he sessfully killed the shark and survived, it also made him a local legend.


    After graduating from university, the Seahorse returned to his hometown and opened a seafood farm. No one knew how he did it. The seafood he raised was always better than that of hispetitors. The Seahorse also made a lot of money from the farm, however, the rich seahorse still went out to sea with his father and uncle to fish. Moreover, he had to soak in the water for at least four hours every day.


    However, things changed one afternoon two years ago. A big foreign customer who had been ordering seafood from him suddenly flew over from far away to visit him. The two of them talked for an entire afternoon. The next day, the Seahorse suddenly sold his well-run breeding farm.


    At the same time, he bought a vi in a rtively remote ce and transformed the top floor into a training room. Then, he hired two trainers at a high sry to help him with his physical training, in addition, he also signed up to participate in shooting and freestyle fighting. However, no matter how tight his daily schedule was, the seahorse would take four hours to go into the water.


    However, during this period of time, he was alone in the water. If anyone saw what he was doing, they would probably be shocked. The Seahorse did note out of the water for even one breath in these four hours, moreover, his underwater figure was even more ghostly than a fish. It was as if he had lived in the water for his entire life.


    /


    The president of the arc of light, February siege, had oncemented on seahorse, ��If you are forced to be his enemy, remember not to fight him in the water!��Although this sentence was simple, the meaning behind it was not simple, those who understood February siege knew that this was basically his highest evaluation of an opponent.


    In other words, Seahorse was invincible in the water!


    As the representative of Poseidon, Seahorse also had some of Poseidon��s abilities. This also made him, who was good at water, even stronger in the water.


    It was rumored that in the early days, February siege had once entered a dungeon together with seahorse. After that, February siege also had the idea of recruiting seahorse. Although many people felt that seahorse was too biased, after all, yers could not choose a dungeon, a versatile yer was always more popr in a team. However, arge guild like arc of light understood the importance of this kind of strategic talent. Besieged city in February even personally called seahorse, unfortunately, Seahorse ultimately chose to join anotherrge guild, the second front.


    However, he had been very low-key ever since. This proxy war was also not very hot, just like his personality. However, no one had expected that he would take the initiative to apply to join the search party this time, even the president of the second front wondered why seahorse suddenly became concerned about the matters onnd. The real reason was only clear to seahorse himself.


    Ever since the appearance of those half-man, half-fish frogs, the sea was no longer the pure sea it used to be. Those dirty and ugly creatures had tarnished the azure blue!


    Seahorse had been busy hunting these monsters all over the world. Unfortunately, he was only one person. Even if he spent 365 days a year out there, the number of monsters he could kill was limited, furthermore, he had to train himself to prepare for the monthly dungeon. Therefore, it would be great if he could kill the leader of those monsters. At the very least, he would have to keep that guy imprisoned in the dead city under the ice.


    However, Seahorse also knew what he was good at. He kept his distance from the previous battle and did not rush forward. It was not until Zhang Heng jumped into the pool that he started to take off his clothes. Then, without waiting for the diving suit to arrive, he jumped into the pool as well.


    This was not because seahorse was overconfident. In his opinion, the power of the so-called diving suit and harpoon gun under the water was also limited. If he could not deal with Zhang Heng, then adding ten more divers would be useless, or perhaps the other strange props wouldn��t be of much use.


    Seahorse himself didn��t bring any props. He just walked naked until he reached the edge of the pool. However, the moment he jumped into the water, the water above the waterfall suddenly stopped and began to boil, a Ray of golden light flew out from the bottom of the water and quickly fell down the waterfall into the pool!


    It was a golden trident. If one looked carefully, they would find that this trident was exactly the same as the one on his back tattoo!


    Moreover, this was not a replica. In fact, it was the artifact in Poseidon��s hand that could shake the seven seas!


    It was rumored that this artifact could set off huge waves, cause tsunamis, and break everything. Although Seahorse was Poseidon��s representative, it was obviously not good enough for Poseidon to give him all of his personal weapons. He had borrowed this weapon from Poseidon before he left.


    Logically speaking, the new and Old Gods were currently at war, and Poseidon also needed his weapon by his side. However, when Seahorse exined his purpose ofing.., poseidon still lent this divine weapon to his representative after dealing with the person he wanted to deal with.


    There was nothing he could do. Although the other gods also wanted to kill the guy who was sleeping in the ancient city oflaiye, no one couldpare to Poseidon in terms of urgency. It was not that he abhorred evil, it was because Cthulhu was a monster of the water attribute, which was a natural conflict with him in terms of his priesthood.


    Even the seahorse could feel that the sea was no longer pure. As the sea god, how could Poseidon not feel it? Therefore, he lent his divine weapon, the trident, without hesitation.


    As soon as the seahorse arrived, he threw the trident into the stream. He was not worried that the weapon would be stolen because no one could steal the weapon in the water, now was the time for him to show off with the Trident.

 Chapter 1375 - Underwater Battle

    <h4>Chapter 1375: Underwater Battle</h4>


    The Golden Trident flew rapidly through the stream towards Seahorse��s open palm. Just as it was about to reach his hand, it was unexpectedly grabbed by another hand in the next moment!


    Seahorse looked at the figure under the waterfall and his expression became serious.


    He knew that it was his opponent this time, Simon, the number one yer on the leaderboard. Other than that, it was also the container of the Lord oflaiya, a dangerous factor that could very well destroy the world.


    The weapon was held in the hand of his opponent before he even started fighting, but seahorse did not show any signs of panic.


    This was because he believed that the Golden Trident was simr to Thor��s myrtle. This trident was also Poseidon��s exclusive weapon. Even if other people had it in their hands, they would not be able to use it. Although seahorse was Poseidon��s agent.., he had inherited a part of Poseidon��s power, but strictly speaking, he was not able to fully unleash the full power of this divine weapon.


    Fortunately, Poseidon had forcibly removed the seal on the weapon before he left, but only he and Poseidon could use the weapon now. Otherwise, Seahorse would not have tossed the weapon into the stream as soon as he arrived.


    In fact, the fact that Zhang Heng could catch the Trident flying through the stream had already surprised seahorse. However, he could also tell that Zhang Heng was not at ease at the moment. The trident had been trying to escape from Zhang Heng��s palm, as a result, Zhang Heng had no choice but to control the surrounding water to fight against the pulling force.


    However, the pulling force was getting stronger and stronger. The golden glow on the Trident was also bing more and more dazzling. At the same time, Zhang Heng could feel that his control over the surrounding water was also decreasing. There was no doubt that this was also the Trident��s trick.


    Seahorse also noticed that the Trident was about to escape from Zhang Heng��s control. He knew very well that when the Trident came into his hands, the battle would truly begin.


    He, Poseidon��s agent, the son of the sea, would be facing off against Cthulhu��s vessel, the number one yer, Simon!


    /


    If this battle happened onnd, Seahorse knew that he had no chance of winning. However, in the water, Seahorse was also confident that no one would be able to defeat him!


    He did not stop there, waiting for the Trident to fly into his hands. Instead, he took the initiative to swim toward Zhang Heng.


    Zhang Heng was already fast enough in the water, but he realized that the man in front of him seemed to be even more agile than he was.


    Compared to Cthulhu, who had his water element added, Poseidon was a true sea god. His control and understanding of water flow was better than Cthulhu��s, and so was his agent.


    On the other hand, even though Zhang Heng managed to grab his opponent��s weapon one step ahead of time, it did not give him any advantage in this battle. In fact, he only wanted to stop the Trident from flying out of his hand, zhang Heng had no choice but to use all his strength, but the pulling force continued to increase.


    At this moment, Zhang Heng realized that this weapon might be the same as Thor��s hammer. It could not be used by anyone other than its owner, and even if he forcefully held it in his hand, it would only bring about side effects.


    However, Zhang Heng did not stop there. Instead, he suddenly pulled out the [ hidden scabbard ] from his waist with his other hand. Then, under Seahorse��s shocked gaze, he directly shed at the trident in his hand.


    In fact, when he held the glittering weapon in his hand, he had already felt the excitement of the [ hidden scabbard ] . It was the same as thest time he fought against Ann, but this time, the excitement was even stronger, he couldn��t wait for Zhang Heng to pull it out immediately.


    The moment the de hit the trident, the golden glow on the Trident suddenly intensified. In the next moment, Zhang Heng felt an unparalleled pulling forceing from the center of his palm, so he let go without hesitation, he watched as the weapon flew into Seahorse��s hand.


    After receiving the trident, seahorse heaved a sigh of relief. However, when he saw the 2mm deep cut on the Trident��s body, a look of shock appeared on his face.


    This trident was the exclusive weapon of Poseidon! Measured by the game��s level, it was a B-grade item, and it was the best B-grade item.


    Forged from an unknown rare material, it was extremely hard. It had apanied Poseidon through many battles, but it had not suffered any damage. In the end, it had been lent to him for less than two days, and it had already been cut into a gash, furthermore, it had already been damaged before the battle had even begun.


    Seahorse seemed to be able to feel the Trident��s grievance and sadness. His gaze shifted to the knife in Zhang Heng��s hand, but he could not tell its origin at all, this weapon, which looked a little like a Tang knife but also a little like a tachi, seemed to have never appeared in any myth before. This was also what seahorse found the most incredible.


    Could a weapon that wasn��t first-rate hurt Poseidon��s trident?


    However, he didn��t have the time to think about it now because the battle had already begun. Fortunately, even though the Trident had been cut open, it still managed to escape from Zhang Heng��s hand and return to his side, furthermore, even though the wound had surprised seahorse, it was only a small wound in terms of depth. It wouldn��t affect the Trident��s usage. However, Seahorse looked at Zhang Heng with a more serious gaze,


    he changed his mind and didn��t swim to Zhang Heng��s side to attack. Instead, he controlled the current to test the waters. In the end, the underwater whirlpool disappeared before it could reach Zhang Heng.


    Seeing this, Seahorse didn��t look disappointed. He knew that Zhang Heng could control the current as well as he could. Previously, even the Trident had to use a lot of effort to break free from Zhang Heng��s hand. Furthermore, it had been hit by a knife, it was not surprising that the whirlpool he had just created had been dissolved.


    The battle had only just begun!


    Seeing that his probing was ineffective, seahorse gripped the golden trident in his hand. The whirlpool just now had been created by him using his water control ability, and the following attack.., seahorse also decided to use the power of the Trident.


    When both of his hands gripped the golden weapon, the surrounding water began to boil again! As if it was boiling, Seahorse had a feeling in his heart that every stream and every drop of water in the pool would listen to hismands. He was the king of the waters.


    Without hesitation, Seahorse swung the trident in his hand. Although there was still about 10 meters between him and Zhang Heng, as he swung it, a terrifying force came from the Trident, it actually split the water flow. Although it was only for a short moment, the huge force was already flying toward Zhang Heng. If he was hit by the force, there was no doubt that he would be beheaded!

 Chapter 1376

    <h4>Chapter 1376: Cross sh</h4>


    As Poseidon��s personal weapon, the Trident could be considered one of the best among all the god-tier weapons in the world. Furthermore, its power was far beyond its destructive power.


    In fact, with the wave of the Sea Horse, not only was the water wave split open, but more importantly, Zhang Heng realized that his control over the surrounding water flow was also decreasing. This was the true strength of the Trident.


    This weapon from the sea god could turn the entire area of water into the owner��s home ground. Zhang Heng tried to create two water shields to block the sea horse��s sh, but the water shield that he created had already shrunk by half before it could even be hit, furthermore, the water on it was still frantically escaping. In the end, the water shield was easily broken. Zhang Heng had no choice but to raise the [ hidden sheath ] in his hand to take the blow head-on.


    The result was that his body was sent flying backward like a torpedo!


    Zhang Heng flew for a full 10 meters. He only stopped when his back was about to hit the stone wall on the side of the pool. However, the next moment, Seahorse��s figure appeared in front of him again.


    Previously, it was only Zhang Heng who used his speed to bully others. However, this time, he finally met an opponent who was faster than him underwater. After brandishing his trident, Seahorse did not appreciate his victory but immediately followed up, his activation waster than Zhang Heng��s, and he was still ten meters away from Zhang Heng. However, when Zhang Heng stopped, he realized that the distance between him and seahorse was less than five meters.


    At the same time, Seahorse waved the trident in his hand again. He waved it twice in a row, forming a cross sh that sealed off Zhang Heng��s movement space, the worst part was that this time, there was no room for Zhang Heng to retreat.


    However, even though he was forced into a corner, there was no panic in Zhang Heng��s eyes.


    Due to the existence of the trident, his control over the flow of water had weakened a lot. Zhang Heng knew that he would not be able to dodge this attack by simply controlling the flow of water. However, he was now forced to the side of the stone wall of the pool, zhang Heng stepped on a protruding point on the stone wall and bent his knees. Then, he stomped hard on the stone wall. Under the effect of [ worldly scale ] , Zhang Heng��s stomp exploded with three times the force, and his whole body shot up.


    In addition to the effect of the surrounding water, he escaped the attack range of the cross sh without any danger.


    Seeing this, Seahorse could not help but praise Zhang Heng in his heart. Zhang Heng��sbat literacy was the strongest among all the yers he had met. Even if he was at a disadvantage, he could remain calm forever. This did not only require a strong mental fortitude, it was also the result of countlessbat experiences honing his keen sense of smell.


    Of course, Seahorse himself wasn��t bad either. Even though he was only the boss of a seafood farm before he joined the game, in the following two years, he had also experienced dozens ofrge and small battles in the dungeon. Other than that.., unlike other yers who had returned to their daily lives, he had been wandering around the world for the past few years, hunting monsters. He was truly a deep-sea hunter.


    The Seahorse��s sense ofbat was also outstanding. Zhang Heng moved, and so did he. He swung his trident again and again, and the small pond was instantly turned upside down.


    The people on the shore had no idea what was happening below. They only saw the calm surface of the water suddenly be turbulent. An unlucky person who was closer to the shore was identally swept into the pond by the huge wave. One second ago, they saw him struggling and trying to swim back to the shore. However, the next second, he was mmed into the water by another huge wave. It was unknown whether he was alive or dead.


    And this was not the end. As the huge waves surged, the yers on the shore even felt the ground under their feet tremble slightly. It was as if someone was hitting the ground with a huge hammer.


    The sunsses man, who was originally waiting for the diving suit to be delivered, had an ugly expression on his face when he saw this scene. He already understood why seahorse wanted to go into the water alone. Indeed, there was no point in having such arge number of people fighting, it might even affect his battle, giving him extra scruples when he made his move.


    Of course, Zhang Heng, on the other hand, also made his scalp tingle. Even though he couldn��t see what was happening underwater, it was clear that the two were still fighting. At that moment, he thought of thements that besieged city had made about seahorse, if he hadn��t seen it with his own eyes, he wouldn��t have believed that there was someone who could fight back and forth underwater with Poseidon��s representative.


    At this point, the sunsses man could only pray that seahorse could finish off Zhang Heng underwater.


    Seahorse didn��t know if he had heard the sunsses man��s prayer, but he was getting more and more intobat mode. In order to force Zhang Heng to take his attack head-on, he moved closer, at the same time, he waved the trident in his hand tirelessly.


    With this godly weapon, he had already gained the upper hand inbat. It was not like Zhang Heng did not have a B-grade item on him, however, whether it was the [ hidden scabbard ] or the [ gue bone bow ] , they were no match for the Trident in Seahorse��s hand underwater. The only thing that came in handy was the -LSB- infinite building blocks ] , and it was not time for it to take effect yet.


    Furthermore, it was difficult for Zhang Heng to free his hands to assemble the Lego in his backpack into the thing he wanted. Therefore, his focus was now on Dodging Seahorse��s attack. Of course, it was not like Zhang Heng had not tried to fight back before, the Seahorse wasn��t too far away from him, but whenever Zhang Heng tried to get close, the seahorse would pull the Trident back to its chest.


    The water around him would immediately gather into a bubble and wrap around him. Zhang Heng tried to use [ hidden sheath ] to cut open the bubble, but the part that was cut open was quickly reced by the surrounding water, at the same time, once Zhang Heng was about a meter away from the seahorse, he would feel a huge pressure on him.


    Under this pressure, Zhang Heng��s movements would be slowed down or even deformed. At this time, Zhang Heng did not have much of a solution against the seahorse. After several unsessful attempts, he could only retreat quickly and widen the distance between them, seeing this, the seahorse immediately turned from defense to offense, not giving Zhang Heng any chance to catch his breath.


    He had already regarded Zhang Heng as the most vicious and cunning sea monster.


    He could not make a sound underwater, but this silent battle was far more dangerous than the previous battle where gunshots were heard onnd. Both sides appeared to be very patient, waiting for the other party to make a mistake while doing their own thing.


    Zhang Heng had to admit that Seahorse was one of the most difficult opponents he had encountered so far. Of course, it was only limited to underwater. In fact, the easiest way to deal with seahorse was to put the battle onnd, although Seahorse had the initiative now, Zhang Heng could still leave the pool. However, the danger onnd would only be greater than in the water. This was the trouble of being surrounded.

 Chapter 1377

    <h4>Chapter 1377: Frozen</h4>


    In the pool below the waterfall, two figures more agile than a fish were entangled together.


    Zhang Heng and seahorse had been fighting underwater for almost ten minutes, but there was still no winner.


    However,pared to ten minutes ago, Zhang Heng��s body had a few more wounds. Most of them were bruises. The only two bleeding spots were from his back hitting the sharp part of the stone wall.


    Of course, Zhang Heng did not pay the price for nothing. Although seahorse was not injured, the trident in his hand had seven more knife marks. About three minutes ago, Zhang Heng suddenly changed his usual behavior and no longer targeted him, instead, he began to attack the Golden Trident.


    Seahorse��s pressure field was effective in a radius of one meter around him, but the majestic trident in his hand was already more than two meters long. In other words, unless he kept it in front of him, as long as he waved it.., the trident would leave his pressure field, which gave Zhang Heng a chance.


    Seahorse did not know what material Zhang Heng��s knife was made of, but it was incredibly hard. Logically speaking, a divine weapon like the Trident should not be so fragile, but the truth was that he was shocked.


    If the first time was an ident, then every time the knife came into contact with the trident, it would leave a cut on the trident. After being shed by Zhang Heng a few times, Seahorse was afraid, so he took the initiative to put some distance between them, he forcefully used the cold weapon as a staff. However, this way, he would be a little tied up in the uing battle.


    Seahorse also thought about whether he should be ruthless and sacrifice the trident to finish off the powerful enemy in front of him. After all, it was not easy for Zhang Heng to destroy this B grade artifact, and he himself was injured in order to hit the Trident, in such a head-on sh, the chance of Zhang Heng falling first was much higher.


    However, Seahorse eventually dismissed this tempting idea. After all, this Trident wasn��t his weapon, but Poseidon��s. It was only lent to him for the time being, seahorse could already imagine Poseidon��s fury when he saw the wounds on the trident, not to mention the fact that the Trident would be destroyed.


    Even though the master ofraya was Poseidon��s archenemy, after this matter was settled, Poseidon still had another life-and-death battle to fight.


    He definitely did not want to lose his weapon at this critical moment, so seahorse had no choice but to pull away from Zhang Heng. However, this way, more than half of the advantage that he had worked so hard to umte would be wasted, fortunately, Seahorse��s patience did not diminish because of this. In this battle, he only had one thought, and that was to get rid of the opponent in front of him!


    Seahorse��s tenacity also won Zhang Heng��s admiration. Although a part of it was due to the trident, to be able to fight until now without a victor, Seahorse himself was the most crucial factor. In terms ofbat experience, Seahorse was only slightly inferior to him. Zhang Heng could tell that this tough man with a hunter��s temperament was also experienced in hundreds of battles like him.


    Unfortunately, only one of the two would make it back to the surface alive.


    However, just as Zhang Heng was about tounch his next attack, he suddenly stopped what he was doing and frowned. Seahorse also stopped what he was doing. As Poseidon��s agent, the son of the sea.., he was naturally very sensitive to the surrounding hydrologic environment.


    He could feel a cold current suddenly appear behind him. At first, Seahorse thought that Zhang Heng was holding back, but when he raised his head, he was suddenly stunned.


    That was because he realized that the water above his head was starting to freeze.


    It was still summer. Even though the temperature in the deep mountains was slightly lower than outside, it was only a few degrees. It was impossible for it to reach the freezing point, however, the scene before his eyes told him that the water surface was indeed freezing.


    In fact, it was not just the water surface. The cold air from behind was spreading to the pool at an rming speed. It seemed like it was going to freeze the entire pool!


    ..


    The man wearing sunsses by the shore also showed a dumbfounded expression. He stared nkly at the youth squatting by the pool.


    The other party was originally from the second echelon. After hearing the news, he came with the group of diving suits. Aftering, he put his right hand into the pool without saying a word.


    Then, all the people standing by theke suddenly shivered. Immediately after, a thinyer of ice condensed on the surface of theke. The thin ice quickly spread in all directions. In less than half a minute, the entire pool was frozen.


    It was only then that someone realized something. The first to rush out was the people from the second front. They shouted at the young man by the pool, ��What the hell are you doing?��


    ��Helping you guys who have no efficiency to end this battle as soon as possible,��the young man said calmly as he took off the beats headphones on his head.


    ��But our people are still down there!��


    ��I know, and I��m very grateful to him. If it wasn��t for him helping to stall Simon, I wouldn��t have been able to freeze this pool.��


    ��Do you know that the one you froze isn��t just Simon, but Seahorse as well? ! I advise you to leave this pool before we make a move on you.��


    The yers on the second front had unfriendly expressions on their faces. Although seahorse usually liked to travel alone, wandering around the world, and didn��t really participate in guild events, he was still a member of the same guild as them.., they could not just watch as theirrades were frozen under the water by this young man who appeared out of nowhere.


    However, the young man remained unmoved. He said unhurriedly, ��How many people died in your previous operation?��


    The people on the second front were stunned.


    The young man continued, ��If we let Simon escape, how many people in the world will die? Sacrificing one person to save the entire world, isn��t that why we are here?��


    The people on the second front were a little speechless, but after a moment of silence, they still forced themselves to say, ��You don��t know about seahorse. He��s invincible underwater. Even if you don��t have to freeze this pool, he can still kill Simon.��


    ��Maybe. I hope he��s really as strong as you say, but ten minutes have passed and he still hasn��te up. This means that he has indeed encountered some trouble in his battle, which means that there��s a possibility of failure. If he dies, what do you n to do? Send ten unlucky people in your ridiculous diving suits down to die?��The youth with the beats headphones around his neck looked around.


    This time, there were even more people who didn��t speak. Even the man in sunsses stopped in his tracks.


    ��You guys have to think carefully. Opportunities don��t always exist. When that seahorse loses, it��ll be toote even if I want to fight,��the young man said leisurely.

 Chapter 1378

    <h4>Chapter 1378: Hallucination</h4>


    The moment the youth with the beats earpiece made his move, the man in sunsses already knew who he was.


    �� the 16th ranked yer on the yer rankings, Extreme Cold Phantom!


    Just like seahorse, Extreme Cold Phantom was a very special yer. He did not belong to the three major guilds. He had joined a small guild called take-out enthusiasts. This guild only had less than 50 members in total, however, his fame among the yers was not small. This was because these 50 members were all agents. Moreover, more than half of them had entered the top 200 in the previous proxy war.


    In other words, this was a small elite yer guild that lived up to its name. The average quality of its members could be said to be the strongest among all the guilds. Take Pr Soul as an example. He only stretched out one hand.., in less than half a minute, the entire opposite side of the pool had been frozen. And that was not all. The iceyer on the surface of the water continued to thicken. Even the waterfall showed signs of being frozen, a portion of the bottom had already be a curtain of water. At the same time, the iceyer was also extending underwater.


    Seahorse and Zhang Heng, who were at the bottom of the pool, noticed the changes above their heads.


    A hint of anger appeared in Seahorse��s eyes. Of course, he knew that the person who sealed theke was up to no good. He had taken advantage of the fact that he was still fighting with Zhang Heng to attack. It was clear that they were nning to seal him under theke as well.


    However, the anger in Seahorse��s eyes only shed for a moment before it was forcefully suppressed by him.


    Zhang Heng noticed that the gaze of the man opposite him had be resolute again.


    Surprisingly, Seahorse did not choose to escape. Yes, even after realizing that the surface of the water had been frozen, and the iceyer was still thickening, he still did not stop his attack on Zhang Heng.


    It was not that seahorse did not care about his own life or death, but as a hunter, his sense of battle told him that the more time passed, the more likely he would be


    He could not act rashly. After such a long battle, he and Zhang Heng had already reached a delicate bnce. At such a time, if one side could not hold it in anymore, then the bnce of the battle would quickly tilt to the other side.


    At that time, not only would his previous efforts be in vain, he might even be killed before he could escape to the water. This was the real reason why seahorse chose to continue the battle.


    However, Zhang Heng had to admit that the opponent before him was a real tough guy. Knowing the right choice was one thing, but doing it was another, after all, not everyone had the courage to continue fighting when their lives were in danger. From a certain perspective, Seahorse��s actions werepletely counter-intuitive.


    Because, to show his respect, Zhang Heng once again gripped his [ hidden scabbard ] tightly and charged at Seahorse. At this point in the battle, it was no longer just a battle ofbat skills and weapons, it was also a battle of Spirit and willpower!


    Both of them knew very well that only by ending the battle in front of them, or at least forcing one of them to make a move to escape, would they be able to leave this pool safely.


    Therefore, this time, both of them did not hold back. Zhang Heng gave up on using the Xiao Shan Ming heart stream de technique that he had been using previously and switched to the more aggressive Zuo Muyan��s main attack. Meanwhile, Seahorse no longer felt sorry for the Trident in his hand, in order to maximize the damage, he even took the initiative to fight Zhang Heng��s [ hidden scabbard ] .


    The intensity of the battle increased again!


    Seahorse could feel that as time passed, the surrounding temperature became lower and lower. Theyer of ice was originally just a thinyer, but after three minutes, it was already close to the top of his head, just by looking up, he could feel a strong sense of oppression.


    The tip of the Trident was already showing signs of freezing, and more importantly, his body was losing heat at an rming rate. His hands and feet were cold, and even his movements were slowing down.


    Seahorse also realized that something was wrong. Compared to him, Zhang Heng seemed to be unaffected by the drop in water temperature.


    His figure was still as agile as before. Originally, Seahorse could still suppress Zhang Heng in terms of speed, but now, he could no longer keep up with Zhang Heng��s pace in the game. Furthermore, it was different from his ashen face, zhang Heng��s expression did not change much. In other words, the other party was indeed not affected by the cold.


    But, how was this possible? !


    Seahorse found it hard to understand. He did not expect to lose in the Battle of wills, but in the end, he lost in adapting to the changes in the environment.


    However, he had already thought about one thing. If this continued, he did not know what would happen to Zhang Heng, but he would definitely die. Therefore, Seahorse did not hesitate anymore and waved the Trident in his hand, he tried his best to push Zhang Heng away. Then, he started to control the flow of the water to allow himself to rise to the bottom of the hugeyer of ice.


    Seahorse waved the trident in a frenzy to destroy theyer of ice. At the same time, he had to turn back to deal with Zhang Heng��s entanglement.


    The trident smashed into theyer of ice, creating many cracks. However, what made seahorse despair was thatpared to the thickness of the ice itself, the cracks that were more than two meters deep were far from enough to break the ice.


    At the same time, Zhang Heng��s attacks became more and more fierce. Every time the trident and [ hidden scabbard ] collided, the Golden Light on the Trident would dim slightly. However, at this moment, Seahorse had no time to protect the divine weapon, he could only pray in his heart that the divine weapon was strong enough to withstand Zhang Heng��s attacks.


    Unfortunately, when he shifted his gaze to the trident, he realized that the divine weapon had unknowingly be riddled with wounds. There were knife marks all over its body, and each one was deeper than thest, especially the part that had just been cut, one of the spikes had almost been cut off.


    Seahorse was stunned, and then his eyes finally turned to fear. He understood that this B grade item that he had borrowed from Poseidon would probably die with him in this pool today.


    As if to confirm his guess, when Zhang Heng��s next sh came, Seahorse subconsciously waved the weapon in his hand to block it. However, he felt the hand holding the trident shake violently, then, he saw a crack in the middle of the trident spread crazily around him.


    In the end, the majestic golden weapon was reduced to pieces in his hand. However, Seahorse did not have time to mourn for this destroyed God, because he felt that his blood was about to turn into ice chips, and breathing became more and more difficult. Because he had lost too much heat, he even had hallucinations. He felt as if he was sitting in the mouth of a volcano.


    Therefore, he subconsciously pressed his body against the iceyer, trying to cool himself down. The result was that after only ten seconds, his body was frozen into the iceyer.

 Chapter 1379

    <h4>Chapter 1379: Killing Simon</h4>


    Zhang Heng had witnessed the death of seahorse with his own eyes. This tough guy who had been fighting with him for more than 15 minutes had died before his eyes in a confused manner.


    Of course, considering Seahorse��s physical condition, his death was not surprising. After seahorse died, Zhang Heng immediately took out a kerosenemp from his backpack.


    [ name: Explorer��smp ]


    [ rarity: C ]


    [ effect: a kerosenemp that will never go out. It is a top-tier equipment that explorers dream of. Not only can it provide you with a source of light, whether you are onnd or underwater, it can also help you control the surrounding temperature. By borrowing the brightness of the explorer��smp, you can adjust the ambient temperature within the range of the light. ]


    This c-rank item was one of the rewards that Zhang Heng had obtained from the Chernobyl dungeon. He did not expect it toe in handy at this time.


    This seemingly ordinary kerosenemp had a rather miraculous effect. Within the range of the light source, it could ensure a constant temperature, previously, Zhang Heng had relied on the heat emitted from themp in his backpack to withstand the cold current above his head. When he took themp out, the surrounding temperature instantly became warmer, the cold from before hadpletely disappeared.


    Following that, Zhang Heng adjusted the kerosenemp and adjusted the temperature of the surrounding water to 40 degrees, which was also the internal temperature of the human body.


    Zhang Heng felt as if he was soaking in a hot bath. The scene before his eyes was also very magical. The terrifying cold was still freezing the pool water, and the iceyer was growing at a speed visible to the naked eye, however, where the [ explorer��smp ] shone, the temperature remained at 40 degrees Celsius, unable to freeze. At the same time, the ice at the edge of the pool was rapidly melting


    ..


    By the pool, even though the yers on the second front still found the youth wearing beats headphones to be an eyesore, they surprisingly did not attack him as they had previously threatened.


    In fact, after extreme cold spirit opened his mouth, most of the yers present fell silent. Even those on the second line couldn��t help but have some strange thoughts.


    It had to be admitted that even though everyone had expected that this battle would be very difficult, losing so many people in such a short period of time was still somewhat beyond their expectations.


    In particr, even an expert like the Ghost Gemini was unable to stop Zhang Heng for even a few minutes. This allowed everyone to feel the terrifyingbat power of the number one yer.


    Although the ranking of the seahorse that entered the water this time was not as high as the Ghost Gemini��s, he was publicly acknowledged as an invincible existence in the water. If even he was unable to deal with Zhang Heng, then what should everyone do next?


    The question that pr soul threw out hit everyone��s heart. Therefore, everyone, including the yers from the second front, began to think that if they could sacrifice seahorse alone, they couldpletely eliminate Zhang Heng, was this deal worth it.


    Actually, many yers had already agreed with pr soul after hearing what he said. However, Seahorse was still a member of the second front, one of the three big guilds. However, as the yers from the second front fell into silence, however, no one stepped forward to stop pr soul from freezing the entire pool.


    When Pr Soul saw this, he smiled and did not say anything else. He simply put on his headphones again. As a result, the yers by the shore saw the cold air spreading at an astonishing speed. Although they could not see the scene below the pool at this moment.., however, just by looking at the gradually solidifying waterfall, one could tell just how terrifying this cold air was.


    Previously, some people thought that the freezing of the pool meant freezing the surface of the water. But now, they understood that the freezing of the pool meant freezing the water below into a lump of ice.


    In just a short while, the thickness of the iceyer was enough for an overloaded truck to move normally on top. However, the extremely cold ghost still did not stop. After a while.., suddenly, everyone felt a tremor under their feet.


    Someone was knocking on the iceyer, trying to escape from below!


    Thinking of Zhang Heng��s terrifyingbat strength, everyone��s nerves immediately tensed up. They raised their weapons one after another. Only Pr Spirit, who was squatting by the pool, remained calm. When he saw someone pointing a gun at him.., he waved his hand. ��Don��t be nervous. The people below won��t be able to get out.��


    Hearing this, everyone heaved a sigh of relief. However, there were a few people on the second front who wanted to say something, but they hesitated. Some of them thought that if they were breaking through the ice, the person who wanted to get out would be seahorse, however, before they could ask the question, they swallowed it back.


    Since they had tacitly allowed pr spirit to make a move, they naturally knew what they should do in the face of this uncertain possibility.


    Fortunately, the shaking that made them nervous did notst for long. The water below the pond regained its calm. This time, it seemed to be permanent.


    Extreme Cold Phantom squatted by the pond for another two minutes before he stood up and pped his hands. ��Alright! The matter has been resolved. Everyone can disperse and go home.��


    The man wearing sunsses frowned slightly when he heard that. ��Are you sure he��s dead?��


    ��Of course,��pr spirit said with certainty, ��I��ve frozen the entire pool. There��s no way for the people below to escape. If you don��t believe me, you can try to cut open the ice and see if you can dig out his body. But don��t say that I didn��t warn you. This is not a small amount of work.��


    The man wearing sunsses breathed a sigh of relief when he heard this, but he still immediately called. ��I need explosives. Arge amount of explosives. It��s enough to blow up a pool. Hurry up.��


    After the man wearing sunsses put down the phone, he didn��t immediately disband the pursuit team like pr spirit had said. Instead, he divided the yers into three teams, each team taking eight hours to take turns to stare at the frozen pool.


    His excessive caution also caused some people toin. After all, there was nothing in this deep mountain. There was no electricity, no signal. Staying here was not a pleasant thing to do, however, most people still agreed with the man in sunsses��decision.


    After all, the person they were going to deal with this time was Simon. Perhaps only when they saw Simon��s corpse would many people believe that Simon had really been killed.


    To the man��s surprise, the Specter didn��t leave either. Instead, it chose to camp with them in the mountains, at first, the man thought that the Specter was worried that something might happen during the ice sting, but he didn��t expect the Specter to be interested in Zhang Heng��s equipment.


    After all, it was no secret that Simon had at least one B-grade item.

 Chapter 1380

    <h4>Chapter 1380: Water Flow Behind An Ice Waterfall </h4>


    The explosives were sent to the campsite before eight o��clock at night. Then, the engineering team dug 29 three-meter-deep ice holes on the ice and filled them with explosives. By the time they were almost done, it was already eleven o��clock.


    The second team had already reced the first team on duty, keeping an eye on the situation at the pond. Meanwhile, the man wearing sunsses was checking the situation of the explosives. In the end, at this moment.., a yer with the code name Parrot found him.


    The man wearing sunsses looked at the little girl behind Parrot and raised his eyebrows. ��Where did you find her?��


    ��Behind a hillside. When I went there, I saw her sleeping there alone,��parrot said, ��But she didn��t want to tell me why she was there. Uh... in fact, she didn��t want to answer any questions at all. However, there were some children��s items in the old man��s Cave. I guess they should be hers.��


    ��The Aborigines of this mountain?��The man in sunsses nodded. He was toozy to trouble a little girl, so he waved his hand and said, ��Give her some food and water. When she��s full, send her back. Simon has been frozen in theke by us. The others are irrelevant.��


    ��Okay,��said parrot.


    However, just as he turned around and was about to leave with the little girl, he heard a cry from the engineering team. Then, he saw a person throw down the drill in his hand and stagger toward him.


    Because the ice beneath his feet was too slippery, he ran too fast and even fell midway. However, he did not even bother to wipe the blood stains on his face. He stood up immediately and continued to run.


    The man wearing sunsses also realized that something might have happened at the pool. His heart sank. Before the engineering team yer could reach him, he took the initiative to ask, ��What��s going on?��


    ��We... We found something. We might need you to take a look.��


    The man in sunsses did not waste any time. He immediately went to the ce where the engineering team had previously worked. The people on the other side had already stopped what they were doing and gathered together.


    Seeing the man in sunssese over, the crowd took the initiative to open a path.


    The man in sunsses also saw the ce they were surrounding. That was thest ice cave, and it was just in front of the frozen waterfall.


    ��What��s Wrong?��


    A man pointed at the frozen waterfall and swallowed his saliva. ��Here, there seems to be water behind.��


    ��So what if there��s water?��The man in sunsses frowned. However, the next second, he thought of something and his expression changed. He quickly walked to the ice waterfall.


    He found that there was a piece of ice on the frozen waterfall that was much thinner than the other parts of the waterfall. The other parts of the iceyer could not see the scene behind it, but this piece of iceyer could vaguely see the water flow behind it.


    The man wearing sunsses had sweat on his forehead. He looked around and then grabbed a hammer from a man��s hand and smashed it on the iceyer.


    In the end, he only used one hammer to break the ice, and the water flowed out. The two people standing closest to him were washed down to the ground. The others barely managed to dodge, but they still looked a little embarrassed, their shoes and pants were wet.


    Seeing this scene, everyone knew what had happened. Before this, the extremely cold ghost had frozen the entire pool, but for some unknown reason, it had not been able to freeze Simon, furthermore, Simon had secretly dug a tunnel under their noses. Using the cover of the ice waterfall, he had directly swam upstream from here.


    But how did he do it? Especially this tunnel. During the excavation, not a single movement was heard. This was simply unbelievable!


    Today, everyone had seen too many unbelievable things from Simon. They had even be somewhat numb. However, the man wearing sunsses could not help but let out a curse and said, ��Wake everyone up and get into battle mode immediately!��


    Soon, even the first batch of people who had already crawled into their sleeping bags were woken up by theirpanions. They could not help butin at first, but when they heard that Simon had escaped from the pool, they immediately woke up, they immediately put on their equipment and picked up their weapons again.


    At this time, Extreme Cold Phantom also put down the tablet in his hand and came to the front of the ice waterfall. His expression was particrly ugly. After all, he was the one who had confidently said that the entire pool was frozen and Simon was dead for sure, however, thetter had already left the pool.


    The people from the second front looked at pr spirit with a hostile gaze. It was because of this guy��s bewitchment that they had given up on the seahorse. In the end, not only did they not manage to get rid of Zhang Heng, they even lost the seahorse, furthermore, the seahorse was probably not far away from getting rid of Zhang Heng.


    However, they knew that this was not the time to talk about this. The man in sunsses had already ordered his men to release the remaining drones, but they did not find any suspicious figures around them.


    Did Simon escape?


    The man in sunsses did not think so, because from theyout of the ce, it was clear that the other party had already realized that they wereing. Since Simon did not choose to escape at that time, he had decided to prepare for the battle ahead of time, there was no reason for him to suddenly run away halfway. Furthermore, the battle between the two parties was aplete defeat for the pursuit team. They had suffered heavy losses, but they didn��t even manage to catch a glimpse of Zhang Heng.


    But since the other party wasn��t here, where would he go?


    The man in sunsses thought for a moment, and then he finally thought of something. ��Send a message to the two teams at the cave. Tell them to gather here as soon as possible.��


    ��Okay.��


    ��No.��The Man in sunsses reversed the order he had just given. ��Don��t let them join us. Tell them to leave immediately. Be careful, don��t bump into Simon.��


    The Man in sunsses then received the news that the two teams at the cave had lost contact with them.


    The other party moved faster than they had imagined. The man in sunsses only thought of the other side, but the battle there had already ended. Where was Simon Now?


    The man in sunsses reced himself in Simon��s position. He should have returned immediately after finishing off the people in the cave. He should have taken advantage of the fact that the majority of the troops here had not discovered that he had escaped andunched a sneak attack in the night, he tried his best to cause as much damage as possible, but Simon did not seem to have done so.


    Of course, it could not be because he was afraid of having too many people. After all, during the day, Simon was not afraid even when he was surrounded. He was still calmly killing his way in and out of the encirclement. The man in sunsses had no idea what Simon was thinking right now, however, he knew that the situation hadpletely changed. They were now the ones in danger. He couldn��t continue to follow Simon��s rhythm.

 Chapter 1381

    <h4>Chapter 1381: Mental Illness</h4>


    After Zhang Heng escaped from the bottom of theke, he made a trip back to the cave and quietly took care of the two squads. At the same time, he also saw the mute old man, however, he soon realized that the little girl did not return after dark as promised.


    Therefore, Zhang Hengforted the mute old man. He first went to his cave to finish processing the half-finished arrows. Then, he collected some ammunition and a rifle from the bodies of the two squads, after that, he returned to the hillside, but the little girl was nowhere to be seen.


    Zhang Heng found a string of strange footprints on the ground. The owner of the footprints came alone, but when he left, there was a string of small footprints beside him.


    Zhang Heng knew that the little girl must have been taken away by the intruder.


    However, Zhang Heng looked at the time in his hand, but he did not rush to rescue her. If nothing went wrong, the girl was taken away by the search party. The group of people had entered the mountain to hunt him down, it was unlikely that they would make things difficult for a little girl. After asking him some questions, they would probably release her.


    On the contrary, if he rushed up in such a hurry, it might make the group think of the rtionship between him and the little girl, adding more trouble to the rescue.


    Therefore, Zhang Heng ultimately decided to wait for a while. He waited for the pursuit team to send the little girl back to the cave before making his move. Then, he looked at the starfish on his wrist. There was less than an hour left until midnight.


    Zhang Heng walked toward the pool again, and soon, he saw the drones in the sky above him again. Since he had already taken out a portion of the drones, the number of drones was significantly reduced. Furthermore, it was night, so his field of vision was much worse than during the day.


    With Zhang Heng��s stealth, he could easily avoid the buzzing drones overhead.


    However, when he returned to the pool, he found that it was exceptionally quiet. Zhang Heng��s gaze swept across the rows of tents, but there was no one outside. After a while.., four people walked out from the tent in the center.


    One of the leaders was a man wearing sunsses. He was holding a little girl in one hand and a red conch in the other.


    He walked out of the tent and patted the conch twice before moving his mouth closer to it.


    The next moment, a voice came into Zhang Heng��s ears. The voice was very close to him, as if someone was lying beside his ear and talking.


    ��Hello, Hello, Hello, can you hear me... Hello, I don��t think I��ve introduced myself before. My code name ismander. I��m from the Silver Wing Guild, and I��m also themander of this capture operation.��


    The man who called himselfmander paused for a moment before continuing, ��Don��t worry, I��m not around you. The reason why my voice can reach your ears is because of something called the sound transmitting conch. And to be precise, this thing doesn��t only transmit to you alone, but to everyone within five kilometers. It only works for three minutes at a time, so I��ll cut to the chase.


    ��I know you��re not happy with our operation this time. I can understand. You��re probably thinking about how to get rid of us, and we also want to have a good fight with the famous Simon. Since that��s the case, why don��t we all be more straightforward? We��ll send three people to fight you three times. You can have my guarantee. If you win all three of these matches, we��ll leave immediately and won��t bother you anymore. And if you lose...��


    Themander chuckled, ��Then there shouldn��t be anything in the future. You can think about it. Oh right, there��s one more thing. Our people found a little girl behind a hill. Did you leave her there? You Don��t have to worry about her. We��ll help you take care of her.��


    As themander spoke, he reached out and touched the little girl��s hair.


    Three minutes had passed by the time he finished hisst sentence.


    ��Do you think he will agree to our duel invitation?��The man holding the fire qilin behind him asked curiously.


    ��It doesn��t matter. He will definitely appear. I don��t know what their rtionship is, but when Simon started the war with us, he was worried that it would affect this little girl. He even deliberately ced her behind the hill that was far away from the battlefield. We used her as bait. It��s impossible for Simon to be indifferent.��


    ��I actually don��t quite understand...��another man with a rosacea nose said, ��Simon is the vessel that ke... well, masterrue used. He knows about this, but he hasn��tmitted suicide yet. This means that he doesn��t care whether he destroys the world or not. If that��s the case, why would he care about a little girl that he��s only known for a week?��


    Since the four of them were waiting for Zhang Heng to show up, they had nothing better to do, so themander patiently exined, ��You guys don��t know him. I��ve been collecting information about him. Of course, because he��s always been alone in the dungeon, it��s not easy for him to find yers who have worked with him. However, he has many teachers, ssmates, neighbors, and so on. As long as he has the heart, he can easily piece together the trajectory of his life.��


    ��What do you see from this?��


    ��Many people think that his way of doing things is very chaotic and unpredictable. For example, his attitude towards the secrw. Sometimes, he would treat thew as nothing, just like the battle at Fuluo. He could kill many people without batting an eye and drive a car on the road. But sometimes, he would seem to respect thew more than anyone else. With his strength, there are many things that shouldn��t be so troublesome.��


    ��Isn��t it chaotic and unpredictable?��


    ��On the surface, it looks like that, but in fact, from my observation, he is a very principled person. It��s just that he doesn��t follow the secrws, but the set of rules that he has set himself. You only need to know that in his rules, the one who wants to destroy the world is the master ofraya. I don��t know if he will pay for the mistakes of others, but this little girl... This little girl is indeed in danger because of him, so he won��t sit idly by.��


    ��Is he willing to save one person but not the entire world?��


    ��That��s about it.��


    ��Crazy.��The man holding the fire qilin concluded, but then he sighed. ��But this crazy person is ridiculously strong. Are you sure that we can kill him after luring him out?��


    ��I��m not sure.��Themander shook his head without thinking, ��But if we fail this time, it proves that we can��t kill him at all. Everyone can also pack up and go home. Of course, if we can still return alive.��

 Chapter 1382

    <h4>Chapter 1382: The Last Chance</h4>


    Zhang Heng heard the man in sunsses and knew that there was a trap waiting for him in the camp. However, his expression did not change.


    He checked the weapons and props in his hands, stood up from behind the tree, and walked toward the four of them.


    However, in the next moment, Zhang Heng��s footsteps suddenly stopped because he felt a familiar feeling. The Breeze disappeared, the leaves stopped moving, and the rustling sound in his ears disappeared, the world fell into a strange silence. In this silence, even the moonlight seemed to have frozen.


    Zhang Heng looked at the starfish on his wrist and realized that there were still twelve minutes until midnight. However, this time, the starfish��s needle had also stopped moving.


    Then, a familiar voice came from his left hand. ��We meet again.��


    As the voice faded, Chronos��slightly chubby figure walked out from the shadows,


    ��Don��t you think that��s a little hypocritical?��Zhang Heng asked calmly.


    Chronos couldn��t help but sigh when he heard that, ��Do you remember the first time we met at that Maid Caf��? I knew you were a smart person the moment I saw you. I��ve always liked working with smart people, but now, I can��t help but Wonder, aren��t you a little too smart?��


    ��Based on my understanding of you, you��ve been nning for so many years, and it��s almost thest moment. You definitely don��t want any idents to happen, so you��ve actually been here these past few days, monitoring my every move. It��s been hard on you. There are a lot of mosquitoes here, but I don��t know if they like drinking the blood of the god of time.��


    ��To be more precise, I spent most of my time here. I left a few times to do other things.��


    ��What Things?��Zhang Heng asked.


    Chronos didn��t answer immediately. Instead, he frowned, ��I don��t understand. You didn��t ept my proposal before. I thought you had a way to deal with Laraya��s master, but in the end, you ran into the mountains alone and went into seclusion. However, you should know that no matter where you run to, Laraya��s master will find you. Right now, you��re haunted by nightmares every night. Based on my observation, even without the people who came to kill you, you should only be able to hold on for another two days at most. It��s time to make a decision.��


    ��How do you know I haven��t made a decision yet?��Zhang Heng asked.


    ��Are you trying to get mad at me?��Chronos sighed, ��Didn��t you go to Saiji just to get Cupid to swap blood with you? Now that you have a better choice, why aren��t you willing to work with me? Compared to Cupid, we��ve known each other for a long time, so we can be considered friends. Have I ever done anything to hurt you before?��


    Zhang Heng seemed to have thought of something when he heard this. He raised his eyebrows and asked, ��You were the one who ambushed and injured Cupid, Right?��


    The expression on Chronos��face became interesting. Zhang Heng initially thought that Chronos would deny it. After all, Zhang Heng didn��t have any evidence on him. It was just a guess, however, Chronos admitted to it in the end.


    ��That��s right. Even though it was a group of New Gods that made the final move, I did n the attack to stop you from exchanging blood with him. I��ve said it before, it��s a win-win situation for both of us to exchange blood. Of course, I have my own selfish motives, but to you, the oue is the same.��


    ��You��re wrong.��Zhang Heng shook his head.


    ��How am I Wrong?��


    ��Previously, when I saved Saiji at the park, she did offer to let her husband Cupid Exchange my blood to repay me. However, I didn��t agree to it after that.��


    ��You didn��t agree.��This time, Kronos was really surprised. ��Why?��


    ��Because I don��t want to put my fate in the hands of others,��Zhang Heng said calmly, ��No matter which God I swap blood with, after that, my body will be a part of his body. In other words, I will still face today��s trouble.��


    ��That��s true, but right now, you have no other choice.��Chronos tried his best to soften his tone, ��You don��t want the world to be destroyed, right? If you really let the Master of Laraya take over your body, that��s not your problem alone. Your mother, father, and unborn sister, don��t you want them to live? ��And your friends, that girl called Fan Meinan. You did so much to finally cure her, but in the end, all of that went down the drain.��


    Chronos looked into Zhang Heng��s eyes with anticipation, ��Swapping blood with me is indeed risky, butpared to the worst-case scenario, sometimes we have to take risks, don��t you think? You��re a rational person, so I believe you can calcte the pros and cons of this.��


    ��Chronos,��Zhang Heng interrupted the old man, but he had already turned his gaze back to the camp. ��I��ve already answered your question before, how do you know that I haven��t made a choice?��


    ��Choice? What Choice?��Chronos��eyes finally darkened.


    Zhang Heng did not reply, but walked straight to themander and the little girl��s group.


    ��Did I really misjudge you? You Can��t be that ignorant and arrogant, right? ��If you let that thing descend into your body, your soul will be crushed instantly. You Won��t stand a chance. Not only will you harm yourself, you��ll also harm everyone,��chronos��voice came from behind Zhang Heng.


    ��Thank you for your advice.��Zhang Heng waved his hand and picked up the little girl from themander��s side. He turned around, but he realized that Chronos was still there.


    ��You��ve Lost Your Last Chance,��Kronos said coldly. ��Don��t tell me you think that only these mortals are here to kill you today.��


    ��Are there any other guests? Who are they? Thor, Zeus, or someone from the new God��s side?��Zhang Heng carried the little girl and walked toward the cave.


    ��It��s not just one god that��sing to kill you tonight. The gods will never allow the master ofraya to escape from that city under the ice. For this, the new God and the old God can even temporarily put aside their differences,��Kronos said, ��They��ve already arrived. Do you think that I paused time just to catch up with you? I��m your only chance to escape. Furthermore, they already know that you have the time-freeze ability that I gave you. They��ve made preparations in advance. It��ll take effect at midnight. You Won��t have another 24 hours tonight.��


    ��Then it looks like I��ll have to rely on myself.��


    After Zhang Heng finished hisst sentence, he ignored the livid Kronos and walked into the darkness without looking back.

 Chapter 1383

    <h4>Chapter 1383: Most Wee</h4>


    Chronos looked at Zhang Heng��s back withplicated emotions shing through his eyes. In the end, he did nothing but disappear from his spot.


    As he left, time resumed its flow.


    A gentle breeze blew past, and the leaves rustled once more. There was also the sound of insects chirping in the summer. The mountain seemed to have returned to its previous state.


    However, Zhang Heng knew that this ce was different from before. Zhang Heng was not too worried about the three major guilds. Even if there were too many people on the other side, he could still protect himself. However, if the gods made a move.., that would be a different matter.


    Even though Zhang Heng had already killed a few gods, and they were all famous people, Zhang Heng knew that there was still a gap in strength between the two sides when it came to truly powerful people, for example, the brief exchange with Thor at the convenience store. Other than that, ording to Chronos, there was more than one God that hade this time.


    Perhaps the only good news for Zhang Heng was that the [ hidden scabbard ] in his hands seemed to be about to level up.


    Because the game point had already closed, Zhang Heng had no ce to authenticate it. However, he could still sense that he had already mastered the method to level up the [ hidden scabbard ] . After severing Ann��s scepter.., after destroying Poseidon��s trident, this B-grade item that he had spent a lot of money on seemed to be on the verge of leveling up.


    However, this kind of upgrade method was a little too expensive.


    Zhang Heng ced the little girl by the side of the road. After the time freeze was lifted, the little girl had regained her mobility. However, she was still a little confused as to why she had suddenly returned to Zhang Heng��s embrace from the sunsses man��s side, that was until Zhang Heng said to her, ��Let��s go and find your grandfather.��


    However, the little girl did not leave immediately after hearing that. Instead, she looked at Zhang Heng with some reluctance.


    Zhang Heng smiled when he saw this. ��Each of us has a different path to take. My path can only be taken by me. You Can��t take it, so let��s stop here. Remember what I taught you.��


    ��Well said.��At that moment, a woman��s voice sounded.


    Zhang Heng clearly heard the voiceing from his right hand, but when he looked over there, he did not see anyone.


    At the same time he turned his head, a ck crow suddenly flew down from the tree behind him. It used its sharp beak to peck at Zhang Heng��s neck. If it were to peck at his neck.., there was a high chance that a bloody hole would appear on Zhang Heng��s neck.


    However, just as the Crow was about to seed, a cold light shed. In the next moment, its head and body were cut in two!


    Zhang Heng stood under the tree with his [ hidden scabbard ] in his hand. A pensive look appeared on his face. ��The goddess of the night, Nix?��


    ��I was one step ahead of the others because I know that one of my husbands must be secretly discussing something with you,��the female voice said. By saying so, she was admitting her identity.


    In Greek mythology, Nix married her brother, the God of darkness and the Netherworld, Erebus. However, in the Orpheus Cult��s sacred words, she was believed to have three-phase bodies. One of her identities was that of Chronos��wife, her status was also equal to Chronos��.


    However, no matter which mythological system it was, Nix was regarded as one of the powerful primitive gods. Of course, she was not as famous as Zeus or Thor, but she was definitely a tough character to deal with.


    Most importantly, the day had passed, and the Earth was shrouded in darkness. It could be said that they had entered Nix��s home ground.


    Zhang Heng had just experienced how powerful Poseidon��s trident was in the water. Facing Nix in the darkness, he naturally wouldn��t let his guard down.


    However, not long after Zhang Heng finished off the Crow, another group of crows swooped down from the sky. There were more than twenty of them, and unlike ordinary crows, they were muchrger, they were twice the size of ordinary crows, and their beaks were even harder, gleaming with a cold light.


    However, their fate was no different from the first crow. In the blink of an eye, their heads were separated from their bodies, and they became the spirits of the dead under [ hidden scabbard ]��s de.


    These crows seemed to be attacking in unison, and their momentum was terrifying. However, there was still a difference in speed between them. It was this subtle difference that ordinary people could not catch that caused them to be chopped off one after another by Zhang Heng. However, Zhang Heng��s movements were too fast. It looked like he had only used one sh to end the battle.


    The Crows��corpses fell to the ground. Not long after, they merged back into the darkness, leaving nothing behind.


    ��Good knife skills,��the female voice praised. ��Let��s try this one more time.��


    As soon as she finished speaking, Zhang Heng heard a rustling sounding from the surrounding bushes. This time, it was a group of rats. They were also very big, and they were close to the rabbits, their bodies were all ck, except for a pair of bloodthirsty red eyes.


    Zhang Heng did not retreat. Instead, he waved the [ hidden scabbard ] in his hand to meet them. He forced his way through the group of rats, but this time, the number of rats around him was a bit exaggerated, it was as if there was no end to them. Very soon, Zhang Heng was surrounded by the group of ck Rats.


    Even though [ hidden scabbard ]��s de was still unbreakable, it was only a matter of time before Zhang Heng was bitten.


    In fact, Zhang Heng��s speed had already slowed down. From his initial speed, he was now practically moving. Especially thest two steps, which took him half a minute toplete, but in the end, he still managed to push the rats to the edge of the stream.


    Following that, Zhang Heng stepped into the stream. Surprisingly, the rats did not seem to be afraid of the water at all. They rushed forward to pounce on him. However, the next moment, the originally calm stream suddenly became turbulent, not only did it sweep away the rats that pounced on him, but the waves that it created also pushed the rats on the shore into the water.


    Not long after, therge group of ck rats was swallowed by the stream.


    On the other hand, Zhang Heng��s position remained calm. The water even separated in front of his sneakers. Even his clothes were not wet.


    ��Is this a gift from the guy who lives in Laraya?��Nix clicked her tongue. ��It is indeed as troublesome as the rumors say.��


    ��Likewise. Your ck Army is not easy to deal with either,��Zhang Heng said.


    ��This is only the beginning. I originally prepared six waves of warm-up attacks for you this time, but now it seems that theter waves are meaningless. As long as you stand by the water��s edge, no matter what animal I summon, you can control the flow of water to block it. Since that��s the case, let��s get straight to the point.��


    ��I��d love to,��Zhang Heng said as he tightened his grip on the [ hidden scabbard ] in his hand.

 Chapter 1384

    <h4>Chapter 1384: The Goddess Of The Night </h4>


    The night was exceptionally dark, as if someone had smeared ink all over the sky.


    Fortunately, there was still moonlight shining through the forest, allowing people to barely see the path beneath them.


    But in the next moment, Zhang Heng suddenly had a change of heart. He raised his head and saw a ck gauze robe slowly falling from the sky.


    At first, it was only the size of an ordinary cloth, but then the muslin cloth suddenly became tens of thousands of timesrger, enveloping the entire mountain. The light from the moon waspletely blocked off from the other side of the ck muslin cloth, as a result, the earth waspletely enveloped by the pitch-ck darkness!


    Zhang Heng did not panic. He opened his backpack and took out [ Explorer��smp ] . However, he soon realized that for some unknown reason, the c-rank item could only illuminate an area of less than half a meter in front of him, the light seemed to be swallowed by something half a meter away.


    At the same time, something whizzed past Zhang Heng��s head. It sounded like a horse carriage. Zhang Heng recalled the description of Ni kesi in Greek mythology. She was riding a ck horse carriage after dark, she was galloping in the sky.


    Unfortunately, with the current visibility, Zhang Heng could not even see Ni Kesi��s shadow.


    This woman was indeed very cunning. Even though she had said that she wanted to fight Zhang Heng, the first thing she did before the battle began was to put herself in an invincible position.


    ��Are you ready? It��s about to start.��


    Ni kesiughed lightly, and then the sound of the carriage suddenly disappeared. Just as Zhang Heng was focused on listening to ni Kesi��s location, the next moment, the sound of horse hooves suddenly came from behind him.


    A distance of half a meter was just a blink of an eye for a galloping Pegasus. Zhang Heng did not even have time to turn around before he was knocked flying by the carriage.


    However, ni kesi, who had seeded, was surprised.


    Because at thest moment, a water film wrapped around Zhang Heng, slowing down the force of the horse��s collision. Zhang Heng looked like he had fallen far, but in reality, he did not suffer much damage. At most, there was a bruise on his back.


    Ni kesi did not follow up. She only looked at the direction where Zhang Heng hadnded and then drove the carriage back into the darkness.


    The collision not only sent Zhang Heng��s body flying, but the explorer��smp in his hand had also slipped out of his hand and fallen into the water. If it had been anyone else, they probably would not have been able to retrieve it, however, Zhang Heng only put his left hand into the water. The next moment, the explorer��smp returned to his hand, but the sound of the ck Horse��s hooves disappeared again.


    At that moment, ni kesi was sitting in the carriage, looking at Zhang Heng from afar. She was also curious as to how the mortal before her would deal with her attack.


    The night was like her home ground. As long as she wanted, she could ride the carriage to and fro without making a sound until she was within half a meter of the [ explorer��smp ]��s light source, only then would the traces be revealed. However, at such a short distance, even with Zhang Heng��s reaction speed, it would be difficult for him to react effectively.


    Even though he still had the current to protect himself, as long as he used it a few more times, his body would not be able to withstand it.


    In the end, after a moment of silence, ni kesi saw Zhang Heng actually turn off the [ Explorer��smp ] in his hand. This time, the only light source in the world disappeared, and Zhang Heng waspletely enveloped in darkness.


    Was he giving up on resisting?


    NI kesi naturally did not stand on ceremony. She immediately rushed toward Zhang Heng with the carriage. This time, she chose to face Zhang Heng head-on. If Zhang Heng was hit by this, then the battle could be dered over.


    The carriage drove until it was two meters in front of Zhang Heng, but there was no reaction from Zhang Heng. It was as if his eyes and ears werepletely covered by darkness.


    However, just as Nix was about to swing the reins toplete the impact, something unexpected happened. Zhang Heng, who had been standing motionlessly, suddenly raised his knife.


    His knife urately hit the front leg of the ck horse pulling the carriage. Then, the ck horse let out a wail. The whole leg was cut off by Zhang Heng, and the momentum of [ hidden scabbard ] did not decrease!


    The moment Zhang Heng swung the de, he had already activated [ worldly scale ] , and it was four times stronger than ever before!


    What puzzled Nix was how Zhang Heng could urately pinpoint her location in the dark. After all, she was the only king in this darkness, and the carriage she was driving was also a B-grade item!


    However, what Nix didn��t know was that it was her B-grade item that had exposed her location.


    Zhang Heng��s attack wasn��t based on sight or hearing, but on [ hidden scabbard ]��s excitement when facing a high-level game item. Rather than saying that it was Zhang Heng��s attack, it would be more urate to say that [ hidden scabbard ] had swung the de itself. Zhang Heng had merely been the person holding the de.


    The result was that [ hidden scabbard ] had cut off two of the horse��s legs in one go, and then the axle of the carriage. Ni kesi had no choice but to jump out of her carriage in a sorry state. Only then did she manage to avoid a tragic traffic ident.


    The evernight goddess was no longer as calm and confident as before. However, this was not the end. The next moment, Zhang Heng turned to look at where she was.


    To be precise, this was not a ��Look.��He had just turned his head in her direction. Ni kesi could see that the focus of Zhang Heng��s gaze was not on her, however, the other party had already rushed over without hesitation.


    Ni kesi could not help but be shocked when she saw this. Her carriage had already been destroyed. At this moment, she could only rely on her own legs to escape. As she ran, she shouted without regard for her dignity, ��How much longer are you going to watch the show? !��


    ��We are not watching the show. It��s just that your ck veil is blocking our view,��a dignified male voice sounded.


    At this moment, Nix did not have time to answer. She tried her best to roll forward, and only then did she dodge the knife light from behind her. However, her movements were still half a beat too slow, and the skin on her back was cut, ck blood dripped onto the ground, and the unusual pain in the wound made the evernight goddess furious.


    Just as she thought she was going to die here, a huge sword blocked Zhang Heng��s next attack.


    The sound of weapons shing could be heard one after another. The owner of the huge sword actually received a series of attacks from Zhang Heng in the pitch-ck darkness.


    It wasn��t until the two of them took a step back that the goddess of the night, Nyx, who had just escaped death, finally pulled back the ck veil from the sky and draped it over her body, panting heavily.


    Zhang Heng finally saw the person who had just received his attack. It was a burly man with a mouth full of golden teeth, a horn hung around his neck, and a giant sword in his hand.

 Chapter 1385 - The Gods Unite

    <h4>Chapter 1385: The Gods Unite</h4>


    Seeing the giant��s appearance, a name immediately appeared in Zhang Heng��s mind.


    Heimdall. In Norse mythology, the guardian of the Rainbow Bridge, the god of dawn.


    And the moment he recognized Heimdall, Zhang Heng also understood how Heimdall had managed to catch his series of torrential attacks in the dark.


    The legendary Heimdall had a pair of eyes that could see 300 miles between night and day. At the same time, his ears were terrifyingly sensitive. He could hear the sound of grass growing, and he guarded the Rainbow Bridge, that was how he was able to detect the presence of the invading enemy at the first possible moment. That was how he was able to blow the horn on his neck, allowing the Asgardian gods to gather to fight.


    At the same time, Heimdall and Loki were sworn enemies. In the final twilight of the gods, the two of them perished together.


    Heimdall saw Zhang Heng, but he didn��t rush to make a move. Instead, he bowed to the other side of the sky. ��It��s a pleasure to fight alongside you.��


    It was a young man wearing armor and holding a spear. He was sitting in a four-wheeled carriage. However, unlike the pure ck carriage of the evernight goddess, his carriage looked even more ferocious, it was filled with power and a sense of conquest.


    He held the reins and nodded, ��Odin and the son of Yanesha, the god of dawn, Heimdall. I have long heard of your name. After settling tonight��s matter, we should have many opportunities to continue working together in the war after that.��


    As soon as he finished speaking, he heard another voice. However, that voice was not as polite as Heimdall��s. It was even a little strange, ��It��s really lively today. A son of Odin and a son of Zeus are actually here. They are even discussing how to beat us up next. I��m already trembling in fear in the corner.��


    ��Do you new gods like to be rats so much? Why are you always hiding your heads and tails? You Don��t even dare to say a harsh word in front of me.��The young man in the carriage was not angry. He onlyughed mockingly.


    ��I can��t help it. I��m used to directing and acting by myself.��A man carrying a camera slowly walked out from the forest opposite Heimdall.


    Judging from his attire, he looked like a cameraman who was here to shoot a film. He was wearing a khaki vest and a pair of hiking shoes.


    However, Heimdall was slightly moved when he saw him. ��Movie God, is it you who came from the new God��s side?��


    ��Why, do you think it��s strange? Three days ago, you found so many people to ambush me, but you didn��t manage to kill me?��The God of movies grinned, ��If you��re willing, you can try again after tonight. If you and Ares join forces, you should be able to challenge me.��


    ��Wait, how can I be absent when there��s such a lively scene?��The one who said this was the god of electricity who had fought Thor previously. He appeared behind the god of movies, the charging device in his hand was fully charged this time. It was obvious that he was nning to go all out.


    However, just as the situation was getting more and more tense, another voice with an Egyptian ent sounded, ��Everyone, we��re not here to fight, right? Even if we really want to fight, we have to get rid of the target first.��


    The person who spoke was a man with the head of a wolf and the body of a human. At first nce, he looked like Seth, who had been killed by Zhang Heng. However, upon closer inspection, one could still see the difference between the two parties. They were different from Seth, the head of the man in front of him was the head of a jackal, and he did not have the chaotic and violent temperament that Seth was born with.


    ��Anubis, you actually came. Why, are you here to avenge your father, Seth?��The movie God asked.


    ��Even though I��m Seth��s son, I��ve long since severed all ties with him. I��ve always been displeased by his actions,��Anubis said calmly, ��Therefore, I��m here purely to solve ourmon problem. Everyone, stop chatting and get back to business.��


    With that, the gods finally ended their short-lived verbal exchange and turned their attention back to Zhang Heng.


    Heimdall was the more polite one, ��There��s no hope for you anymore, Kid. We borrowed a prop from the three goddesses of time sequence to deal with the time freeze power that Chronos gave you. Of course, we know that you��re innocent, but it��s a pity that you were chosen to be that Guy��s vessel. Sometimes, in order to protect justice and the happiness of the majority, we have to make some sacrifices.��


    ��That��s what I hate the most about you old gods. You��re always full of morality and benevolence, but you��re always up to no good,��the movie God sneered. ��Can��t you just say it?��He looked at Zhang Heng and grinned, ��Brother, for the sake of world peace, we need you to die. The only choice you have now is to do it yourself, or we��ll do it ourselves. Personally, I suggest you do it yourself, because if a real fight breaks outter, you might not even be able to keep your body.��


    Zhang Heng also understood that he had reached the most dangerous moment.


    After cutting off the night goddess��carriage, his [ hidden scabbard ] finally received an upgrade. It had changed from a ss B item to a ss. Zhang Heng did not have the time to examine it carefully, but when he held the knife in his hand.., he could sense the presence of supernatural beings around him. This was also why he could chase after the night goddess, Nyx, even when his sight and hearing had not recovered.


    And because of this newly awakened characteristic of the [ hidden scabbard ] , Zhang Heng could sense that the supernatural beings around him were far more than just the six in front of him.


    It was just that the auras of these six were stronger, and when they appeared, the other gods chose to continue hiding in the shadows.


    Other than that, Zhang Heng could sense another powerful presence approaching. Who could it be? Zeus or Odin?


    If it really was one of them, then Zhang Heng waspletely in a desperate situation.


    Heimdall, who had irvoyance and iraudient ears, was the second to sense the presence. He frowned because the presence was unfamiliar to him, but the guards of the Rainbow Bridge didn��t take it to heart, the gods that would being here tonight had amon goal.


    However, the next moment, a cold female voice sounded in his ear. ��Have you asked me if you want to kill him?��


    Then, the stunned Heimdall saw the owner of the voice leap to Zhang Heng��s side without a word. Her body was exceptionallyrge, like a small mountain, under the moonlight, the nine gigantic snake heads stared coldly at the gods before them.


    When he met the bartender again, Zhang Heng finally saw her true form.


    �� the deep sea monster, Hydra.

 Chapter 1386

    <h4>Chapter 1386: Siege!</h4>


    Hydra used six of her nine heads to stare at the six gods before her. Of the remaining three heads, two were on alert. Only thest golden head turned to look at Zhang Heng.


    Hydra looked at Zhang Heng with aplicated gaze. It had been almost three months since thest time the two had met. During this period, both sides had experienced too much, and the bartender had a lot to say, like Kronos, what she wanted to ask the most was why Zhang Heng had made such a choice.


    Even though this was the oue she wanted to see the most, perhaps Hydra herself did not realize that somewhere in the depths of her subconscious, she had also vaguely thought that there would be another direction in the story, even though that direction went against her mission and duty, it did not seem that bad.


    However, in the end, the giant golden snake head only said one sentence.


    ��It��s Time!��


    Zhang Heng nodded and sheathed the newly upgraded [ hidden scabbard ] back into its scabbard. ��I hope that when this is over, I can find you for a special drink.��


    ��I won��t be mixing drinks anymore. After all, no matter how hard I work at A-list, I won��t be able to save up for a down payment.��The Golden Snake Head had already turned back to the front.


    ��What a pity.��


    The conversation between the two of them finally angered the gods present. Although Hydra was strong, none of the gods present were easy to deal with, each of them was only slightly weaker than HYDRA. Furthermore, there were six of them. As long as the six of them joined forces, even two hydras wouldn��t be enough.


    The God of movies, who was carrying the camera, could not bear to listen any longer andughed, ��I thought who wasing. Although you have eight more heads than the others, you don��t look very smart. Don��t tell me you want to kill the six of us by yourself?��


    ��That��s not necessary,��Hydra said calmly. Before she finished speaking, the nine heads suddenly exploded and attacked Anubis together.


    However, Anubis didn��t show any panic when he saw this. This Egyptian death god was extremely clear-headed. He didn��t try to take Hydra��s full-strength attack head-on. Instead, he chose to dodge temporarily, at the same time, he moved closer to the god of dawn, Heimdall, and the goddess of the night, Nyx.


    Anubis��n was very simple. The six people present might not be Hydra��s match, but as long as they could pull one more person, they would have the advantage, not to mention that Heimdall was standing together with the goddess of the night, as long as they joined forces, their group would be the strongest.


    However, his retreat did not matter. It directly opened up the direction that he had originally blocked.


    After that, Zhang Heng seemed to have practiced countless times with Hydra. The moment Hydra attacked, he retreated into the river with tacit understanding. Following a huge wave, Zhang Heng flew over Anubis��head, hended on the other side of the mountain.


    The other five people saw this and their expressions changed. They immediately wanted to chase after him. Among them, Ares was the fastest. His four-wheeled carriage was like a bolt of lightning as it streaked across the sky.


    However, in the next moment, a huge snake head suddenly jumped up and bit the shaft of the carriage. Ares was shocked and furious. He immediately waved the spear in his hand and stabbed at the snake head.


    Hydra did not Dodge and allowed the weapon to pierce through one of his heads. Then, the other snake head bit off the neck of the head without hesitation, not long after, a brand new head grew out from the broken neck.


    And this was not the end. After HYDRA bit onto Ares��carriage, the other snake heads did not stay idle either. They stopped the movie God and the god of Dawn who were trying to chase after them.


    Hydra knew that she was not a match for the six people in front of her. However, with the help of her infinite regeneration head, immortal body, and the courage to not fear death.., at this moment, she had indeed stopped all six of them by herself!


    Ares��face was terrifyingly gloomy. In just a short while, he had already pierced through two snake heads and left a bloody hole the size of a bowl in Hydra��s heart. However, his opponent was still as lively as ever, he was still spewing out poisonous mist from his mouth.


    ��Even if you can stop us, he won��t be able to escape. There are more than six of us here today!��


    ��You Idiots. You Don��t understand the power of my master at all.��A human-like sneer appeared on the golden head, ��However, speaking of which, I have to thank all of you. If it wasn��t for all of you pushing him so hard, he probably wouldn��t have made up his mind so quickly. Don��t worry, you will soon feel fear!��


    ��Nonsense.��


    Even though he said that, Ares and the others felt uneasy for some reason. They had thought that the new God and the old God would temporarily put aside their differences and work together so that there wouldn��t be any mistakes in tonight��s operation, however, at that moment, they couldn��t help but feel anxious.


    However, they really didn��t have a good idea of how to deal with the snake that they couldn��t kill in a short period of time. At this point, they could only hope that the other gods who came tonight...


    ..


    Zhang Heng��s body was carried down from the sky by the huge waves andnded urately on a huge rock beside the water. He heard the sounds of battleing from behind him, but he didn��t turn back.


    He continued to run deeper into the mountains.


    However, he hadn��t even taken ten steps when he saw another figure blocking his path. It was a crippled man. His figure was wrapped in mes and he held a hammer in one hand. He looked like a craftsman.


    The crippled man��s gaze fell on the [ hidden scabbard ] at Zhang Heng��s waist, ��I recognize this knife. It��s the work of another forger and myself. When I reforged it, I used 120% of my energy. Unfortunately, when it was first forged, it still had some ws, or rather, it had a growth rate... but now, it seems that it has been sublimated in your hands.��


    Zhang Heng did not say a word. He simply pulled out his knife.


    The crippled man��s expression turned grave. He raised the hammer in his hand, ��If there��s anyone in this world who can destroy this knife, it��s probably me. It��s just a pity that this perfect piece of art is ruined.��


    However, just as he finished his sentence, he heard the sound of the gun of life. Then, Zhang Heng saw the crippled man stop in his tracks, and a bloody hole appeared between his brows.


    A momentter, the crippled man��s body fell backward andy on the ground motionlessly. On the other side, Zhang Heng quickly locked onto the shooter��s position, but the shooter did not seem to have any hostility toward him, after the shot, he disappeared again.

 Chapter 1387 - An Eye-opener

    <h4>Chapter 1387: An Eye-opener </h4>


    Zhang Heng didn��t know who the shooter was, but the mysterious gunman must have used the god-ying bullets that had attacked Thor and the Subus, because ordinary bullets obviously couldn��t do this kind of damage.


    Zhang Heng had already recognized the person who was blocking his way as Hephaestus, the god of fire and craftsmanship in Greek mythology. Although Hephaestus wasn��t as famous as Zeus in modern times, he wasn��t a nobody, in the end, he was knocked down by a single bullet. The lethality of this bullet was even higher than the first version of the god-yer bullet that he had seen before.


    And that wasn��t the end of it. As Zhang Heng continued to move forward, gunshots rang out one after another, and there was more than one. It was as if an armed squad was following behind him, silently escorting him.


    However, Zhang Heng didn��t understand. He and the mysterious organization didn��t have much interaction. Furthermore, he could already be considered the public enemy of mankind, so why would the other party help him.


    However, the appearance of the squad did open up his escape route. He did not even have to make a move. The supernatural creatures that came at him were all killed by the squad��s guns.


    However, the gunshots also revealed their location. The gods were not fools. They quickly realized that if they wanted to stop Zhang Heng, they had to deal with the squad next to him first.


    Therefore, after 15 minutes, the gunshots suddenly became more concentrated, and the center of the battlefield shifted away from Zhang Heng.


    Zhang Heng hesitated for a moment. He knew that he could save some people, but if he did that, he might also be slowed down by the battle. However, in the end, Zhang Heng still chose to run toward the location of the gunshots.


    However, just as he took a step forward, the next bulletnded less than half a meter in front of him.


    Zhang Heng had no choice but to stop. He knew what the gunman meant. The other party did not want him to interfere in his side of the battle.��Search our n?wno?el.?rg�� Seeing this, Zhang Heng did not dawdle, he decisively used the time that the team had bought for him to continue running forward.


    At the same time, in a cliff less than half a mile away from him, another battle quietly began.


    A woman in a long white dress stood barefoot on the tallest rock. Her long ck hair fell to her waist, and there was a long sword at her waist. She looked very heroic, however, the strange thing was that only her eyes were covered by a cloth.


    The expression on her face was a little difficult to understand. She said to the other woman in front of her, ��Are you sure you want to stop me?��


    ��Teacher, you��ve been working very hard recently. Why Don��t you take a break tonight?��


    ��I chose you as my agent not only because I think highly of yourbat ability and intelligence. Most importantly, you have the same beliefs as me. There are many people in this world who pursue justice, but there are very few who can persevere to the end. This is because sometimes justice will only repay you with pain. Just like now, I know that you have a good rtionship with him, and you even like him in your heart. But this is a hurdle that you must ovee, because only by oveing this hurdle can you truly understand what justice is.��


    Shen Xixi shook her head, ��I once promised him that if he really got lost in the darkness, no matter how far he got lost or what sins hemitted, I would never give up on finding him. Moreover, he didn��t do anything wrong in the first ce. It wasn��t like he was the one who chose to be the vessel of the Lord of Liya.��


    ��I��ve told you long ago that some people are born with sins. You just don��t believe this yet,��the white-clothed woman said, ��From the moment he was targeted by the Lord of Lye, his life was tightly bound to destruction. For him, there were only two choices in the future: either to destroy the world or to destroy himself. Inparison, the evil brought about by thetter oue was smaller.��


    ��Evil is evil, there is no difference in size. Besides, I don��t think he has no way out like you said.��


    ��His hiding in this deep mountain is the best proof. This means that he has given up on saving himself, but he doesn��t have the courage to kill himself. It��s just that your love for him has blinded your eyes.��


    A hint of contempt shed in the woman��s eyes, ��I should have done it when we first met, but I was interrupted halfway by that old man Kronos. Now It��s time to finish the work that I couldn��t finish before.��


    But after she said that, Shen Xixi didn��t give way. She just repeated, ��Teacher has done a lot for this world. It��s time to take a break.��


    ��You really... disappoint me. There��s a limit to your capriciousness.��The woman in White��s voice also turned cold, ��You should know that although I chose you to be my agent, I have always treated you as my student. I asked you to call me teacher. My expectation for you is not only to help me win this game, but also to give you my scale.��


    ��That��s why I��m standing in front of you today. Teacher, that guy has already made his choice. Now it��s my turn.��Shen Xixi bowed slightly and lifted the scale in her hand.


    ��I gave you your ability, and I also gave you my weapon. Do you want to use these to fight against me?��The woman in White was even more mocking.


    ��No, there are still rounds of games. They are the ones that allowed me to truly grow and understand my own heart,��Shen Xixi said. ��Besides, I still have friends.��


    As soon as she finished speaking, rabbit and Li Bai walked down the mountain path not far away. Li Bai, in particr, was still rubbing his hands in anticipation when facing the famous goddess of justice, Justya.


    The woman in White did not seem to be surprised at all. Since she had chosen Shen Xixi as her representative, she naturally knew Shen Xixi��s background very well. Since her student would appear here tonight.., it was naturally impossible for her not to bring Li Bai and rabbit.


    However, the next moment, she heard the footsteps of a third person. The footsteps were somewhat unfamiliar to her. It was someone she had never seen before.


    ��Is your teacher-student interaction session over?��The owner of the footsteps asked. It was also a girl.


    ��If you��re really as smart as he says, you should know that chatting is also a means of stalling.��Shen Xixi��s tone was a little strange. Towards the helper she had found.., there seemed to be a hint of unexinable vignce.


    Fan Meinan smiled. ��I��m just making use of your atmosphere to talk some nonsense. What if your teacher is in the middle of a conversation and insists on giving me a moral education?��


    Fan Meinan wanted to continue speaking, but the woman in white interrupted her. ��Cut the crap. Let me see what you��ve prepared.��


    ��Okay.��Fan Meinan took out a box of sticine. ��Next, I Promise I��ll let you have an eye-opening experience.��

 Chapter 1388 - The Final Destiny

    <h4>Chapter 1388: The Final Destiny</h4>


    Zhang Heng ran and leaped through the mountains like an agile cheetah.


    The gunshots behind him had thinned out and became scattered until... theypletely disappeared. Zhang Heng knew that the people who mighte to help him tonight had already appeared. Therefore, he was the only one left for the rest of the journey.


    Zhang Heng ran for a while more, and he saw a big man in leather armor blocking his way.


    The man was holding a huge battle axe and looked like a Viking. He said in a loud voice, ��I am...��


    However, before he could introduce himself, Zhang Heng��s [ hidden scabbard ] had already chopped down at him. The Viking Man hurriedly waved his axe to meet it. However, just as the two weapons were about to collide.., the de before his eyes changed once more. In a sh, it turned into a stab, stabbing straight at his open chest.


    The Viking Man let out a furious roar. At that moment, he knew that it was toote for him to retract his axe to block, so he simply continued to sh down. He wanted to fight to the death.


    At that moment, he had undoubtedly made the right choice, but the result was not as he had expected. [ hidden scabbard ] stabbed into his chest without hesitation, however, Zhang Heng immediately dodged the iing axe.


    Seeing this, the Viking Man wanted to continue swinging the axe in his hand, but the next moment, he felt a sharp pain in the spot where he had been stabbed.


    The pain was so intense that he could not even hold the weapon in his hand.


    Furthermore, the terrifying pain did not slow down with time. On the contrary, the pain that had only started in his chest started to spread throughout his entire body.


    Zhang Heng pulled out his saber and looked at the Trembling Viking who was half-kneeling on the ground. [ hidden scabbard ] had always had the ability to deal additional damage to mythological creatures, but it was definitely not that powerful, therefore, this should be the result of [ hidden scabbard ] being strengthened once it reached a-rank.


    However, right now, Zhang Heng could not be bothered to admire his own battle results. He could not even be bothered to follow up with another attack. Instead, he leaped past the Viking and continued to run into the darkness ahead.


    This attack of his seemed to have stunned those who were secretly spying on him.


    In the next 15 minutes, Zhang Heng��s escape was unprecedentedly smooth. He didn��t meet any enemies.


    At this time, she had already run into the depths of the mountain. Even the path that had been trodden by those who had entered the mountain to collect firewood had disappeared. Zhang Heng had no choice but to walk through the thickets. He was truly cutting through the thickets and thorns, however, his speed did not slow down much because of this.


    Just as he was about to run out of the small forest, Zhang Heng suddenly saw a light on a nearby hillside. Following that, the second light lit up. The third light.., the fourth light... until the entire hillside lit up.


    Zhang Heng saw no less than 20 figures standing on the hillside with oilmps in their hands. It was as if they were silently waiting for his arrival.


    Zhang Heng finally understood why his journey had been so smooth. The strength of the twenty or so gods in front of him was, of course, far inferior to the six people from before. They were only on par with the Viking who was holding the giant axe, they knew that there was a difference in strength between them and Zhang Heng, so they did not go up to him to give up their lives. Instead, they used this period of time to gather their people together.


    There were Old Gods and New Gods among them, but it was rare for them to remain united at this moment. They believed that with so many people gathered together, Zhang Heng wouldn��t be able to escape tonight.


    However, Zhang Heng only paused for a moment before continuing to run toward the hillside, as if he hadn��t seen so many people on the hillside.


    When he was about to approach the hillside, Zhang Heng suddenly reached out a hand.


    The next moment, the gods on the hill, who were already prepared for battle, felt as if their minds had been struck by something invisible. Then, an inexplicable and terrifying image appeared in their minds.


    Soul st!


    Zhang Heng had used this move before in the alien dungeon, causing the alien creatures that tried to surround him on the roof to lose their minds and fall like dumplings, however, at that time, he had only used this move by ident.


    However, now that he had been baptized by a series of nightmares, not only did it bring his soul one step closer to destruction, it also strengthened his bloodline power.


    No, to be more precise, it was a leap! Zhang Heng��s use of this move now was on apletely different level from the power in the dungeon. Even the gods were affected, and the faces of the gods on the slope were all filled with fear, it was as if they had fallen into an endless nightmare,pletely forgetting about Zhang Heng before them.


    Even the most mentally strong person only woke up three minutester, but Zhang Heng had long disappeared without a trace.


    For a moment, the expressions on the gods��faces became extremely ugly. Tonight, so many people had worked together and prepared so manyyers of encirclement, but in the end, if the target still managed to escape, no one would be able to ept such a result.


    Therefore, after a moment of hesitation, the gods continued to chase after them.


    However, when they all left, Zhang Heng��s figure jumped down from arge tree. He did not continue to escape because he knew very well that the entire mountain was under the surveince of these gods, on the contrary, the ce he was currently at was still rtively safe.


    Therefore, Zhang Heng found two bigger tree holes nearby. He dug a hole next to the tree hole and buried all the props he had with him. Then, he buried them again while he crawled into the tree hole.


    Zhang Heng looked at the time. It was now 00:23 pm. His previous ability to time-freeze didn��t work, just as the evernight goddess had said.


    However, Zhang Heng was not too surprised by this. In reality, he had been waiting for the arrival of the next day, not for Hydra or anyone else.


    ording to the rules, every day would lead to a nightmare. Zhang Heng had already experienced the nightmare from yesterday. Only when a new day arrived would he be able to enter that endless nightmare again.


    However, unlike the previous times, this time, Zhang Heng did not put up any resistance. He simply allowed the endless nightmare to devour him.


    He continued to fall, and no rising air currents brought him away. He continued to fall into the deep darkness, and when he opened his eyes again, he found himself standing in front of the underwater pce.


    Zhang Heng looked at the huge shadow inside, and this time, without hesitation, he took a step forward. At the same time, he opened his arms and embraced his final destiny.

 Chapter 1389 - It Was Him

    <h4>Chapter 1389: It Was Him</h4>


    ��Where is he now? Why haven��t we found any traces of him around here?��


    A woman with brown hair among the gods asked.


    ��Be patient. He can��t use his time-freeze ability anymore. Moreover, we didn��t waste too much time before. He can��t leave this mountain yet.��


    ��Everyone, I suddenly have a bad feeling.��At this moment, another woman��s voice sounded. Although her words were filled with spection and uncertainty.., after hearing this, everyone was stunned.


    This was because the one who spoke was the god of tarot cards among the new gods. Tarot cards were a kind of divination tool. Their origins were quite mysterious. Although they had experienced the baptism of time, they were still able to endure for a long time. Moreover, they were bing more and more popr in modern times, many people were obsessed with them, hoping to find out the direction of their studies and love.


    This was also the reason why the god of Tarot cards could be born. Therefore, her priesthood also naturally had the attribute of prophecy.


    When she opened her mouth, even if it only sounded like a guess, it was enough to arouse everyone��s vignce.


    Therefore, the eyes of the gods focused on a big man. He was wearing a pair of iron boots, a suit of armor, and a broadsword. He looked quite handsome, but he had not said a word before, he was as silent as a stone.


    However, this stone-like man was the main force of this manhunt.


    The reason was simple. He was the god of the forest, Vidal.


    When the evernight goddess was entangled with the Hydra, this mountain was his home ground. Wherever he went, he only needed to ask the local squirrels and rabbits to know if Zhang Heng was here.


    However, even now that they were almost out of the mountain, Vidal did not stop them.


    Seeing that everyone��s eyes were on him, Vidal replied for the first time, ��He��s not here.��Then, he fell into silence again.


    ��We must have missed something,��another god said. ��There��s no reason for him to run so fast.��


    ��I told you we should have split up and searched,��someoneined.


    ��If we split up, none of us would be his match,��another god immediately replied. ��You were the one who gathered everyone back then. If we hadn��t been standing so close, we wouldn��t have fallen into his trap together.��


    ��Alright, there��s no point in talking about this now,��the god of vegetables said. ��The most important thing now is to find the target as soon as possible.��


    ��I said that we must have missed something...��the god who spoke suddenly paused, and then his eyes lit up, ��I know. He had been running in this direction, so he made us think that there was something here. But now that we��ve checked around, there��s nothing here. Could it be that he misled us in the beginning?��


    ��Then, the question is, where do you think he will go in the other three directions?��Someone asked.


    ��If I were him, I wouldn��t choose any direction because no matter which direction he runs, he might run into danger.��The God of Bo Cai��s eyes lit up, ��This is the simplest probability choice. It��s the safest for him to stay where he is.��


    ��Stay where he is?��The God of medicine and the pyramid, Imhotep, asked doubtfully. ��Isn��t staying where he is a dead end for him? Because if we can��t find him anywhere else, he wille back sooner orter.��


    ��I don��t know.��The god of botany shrugged, ��I��m just guessing the most likely choice from his past actions. It��s also very easy to verify my guess. We just need to go back once more. Anyway, we have this... Oh, this little brother who doesn��t like to talk much by our side. As long as we go back there and let him ask the animals there, everything will be clear.��


    The gods didn��t have any objections. Just as they were about to get up and return, the tarot card god suddenly said, ��No, I��m not going back.��


    ��Are you sure?��Medicine and the pyramid��s guardian God, imho, frowned.


    ��That��s right. I want to stay here for a while longer,��the tarot card god said. ��Alone.��


    ��Alright, but it��s best if you don��t stay too long. After all, you��re alone. If you identally bump into him, it��s very likely that you��ll be in danger,��the botany God kindly reminded.


    ��Thank you, I��ll protect myself, and so will all of you.��


    The tarot card god wasn��t particrly skilled inbat, so even if she was missing, it wouldn��t affect the godsbat power. However, considering the tarot card god��s special ability, even though the gods didn��t say it out loud.., they were indeed feeling a little uneasy.


    However, contrary to their expectations, when they returned to the small hill, they didn��t even need the forest god Vidal tomunicate with the animals in the mountain, because Zhang Heng was standing under a big tree, he reached out and gently stroked the tree trunk.


    The gods quickly scanned their surroundings and realized that there was no one else around. Their worried Hearts finally rxed. Although there were a few twists and turns along the way, fortunately, the ending was no different from the beginning.


    After that, they only needed to kill Zhang Heng to ensure the safety of the world.


    However, to his surprise, Zhang Heng still seemed to be immersed in the strange touching of the tree. It was as if he didn��t even see theming back.


    One of the gods felt that this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, so he drew his bow and shot an arrow at Zhang Heng.


    As expected, Zhang Heng did not seem to notice the impending death. It was not until the Golden Arrow flew in front of him and was about to pierce through his neck that Zhang Heng reached out, he easily grabbed the arrow, as if he was reaching out to grab a leaf that was falling from the tree.


    Finally, he averted his gaze from the bark. However, the gods present couldn��t help but gasp at his action. A normal person would only have to turn their eyes to look away, however, Zhang Heng��s eyes seemed to have been fixed in their sockets. He turned his head 180 degrees to look at the person who had shot the arrow.


    The emotion that shed through his eyes was not human at all. He only took a nce, and the god who had shot the arrow suddenly let out a blood-curdling scream. Then, his skin began to melt and fall off, it turned into a bloody meatball, but the meatball was still alive. One could still hear the constant wails of paining from it.


    ��Be careful!��The God of Bo Cai��s cold sweat had soaked his clothes. His legs were trembling because of fear, and his voice was full of despair. ��It��s him, he��s Back!��

 Chapter 1390 - Massacre

    <h4>Chapter 1390: Massacre</h4>


    In reality, there was no need for the god of Bok Choy to speak. The gods already had some sort of guess in their hearts.


    It was just that the result of this guess was too shocking, so much so that they subconsciously did not want to believe it. In reality, this was also one of the self-protection mechanisms of the vast majority of creatures, when they encountered something that they could not ept, they would try their best to find other exnations, even if this exnation sounded exceptionally ridiculous.


    ��Oh no, it seems that the descent of the gods has already begun. We need to stop it immediately. Otherwise, once the descent of the gods ispleted and that guypletely takes over this body, we will all die here tonight,��justice and the goddess of stars, Estr, said.


    Her words also ignited the fighting spirit of the gods. Yes, that��s right. The descent of the gods had just begun, and it was far from over. Right now, they still had a chance to prevent the arrival of the apocalypse.


    The gods on the hillside seemed to have grasped onto a life-saving straw. They tried their best not to look at their unluckypanion who had already turned into a pile of flesh and blood, and once again raised the weapons in their hands.


    Estelia spread the pure white wings on her back. Now that she was bathed in the moonlight, she looked iparably holy and beautiful.


    Three spinning ck dice appeared in the hands of the god of Bok Choy. A pyramid rose behind Imhotep. Vidal, the god of the forest, was one of the few survivors of the legendary twilight of the gods. He did not say a word and silently drew the sword at his waist.


    Whether it was the new God or the old God, they clearly knew that they were in the most dangerous time.


    Although they were afraid of the huge figure in the deep sea, they were after all gods with names. Behind each of them were countless legends of heroes that were praised by the world.


    However, it was a pity that they were destined to be just supporting characters in the y that was being performed on this mountain tonight.


    Zhang Heng looked at the group of gods in front of him, who were ring at him with their eyes wide open. They had already given up everything, but an expression finally appeared on their originally indifferent faces.


    However, that expression was not one of fear or contempt. It was not even a taunt. ��Search our n?wno?el.?rg��It was just a little strange, as if it was difficult to understand what these strange creatures were roaring about, why were their faces filled with despair? It was as if humans couldn��t understand the cries of the whales. It was as if they couldn��t understand why the whales would suddenly race to the beach.


    Zhang Heng didn��t even lift his pinky. The next moment, the body of the guardian of medicine and the pyramid, Imhotep, suddenly expanded like a balloon, imhotep��s expansion speed was astonishing. In just a short while, his body had expanded by five times. Only the god��s powerful body was able to support him from death, but his pain.., was even greater than that of his meltedpanions.


    And in the end, what awaited him was the fate of exploding like a balloon!


    Even the night wind blowing towards him was filled with a thick stench of blood. The few gods behind him could not help but change their expressions when they saw this, and their backs turned cold. However, they knew in their hearts that they had no way out, even though they knew that the road ahead was doomed, they still had no choice but to brace themselves and charge forward.


    Unfortunately, in the face of the absolute difference in strength, courage was far from enough.


    Estelia had personally witnessed herpanions dying one by one, and this was not what made her feel the most despair. What truly defeated this goddess of justice and the stars was that every single one of herpanions had died for nothing, she could not even add a hint of trouble to the enemy in front of her.


    This was not a battle at all, but a one-sided massacre. Thest remaining Estelia knelt on the ground covered in blood with lifeless eyes, as though she had lost all her soul.


    After that, Estrelia seemed to feel that the man��s gaze fell on her body. Her crotch actually got wet, and she was scared to the point of peeing.


    ..


    The evernight goddess, Heimdall, the god of electricity, and the others spent a lot of effort to behead Hydra��s eight heads, and then dug a hole and buried her immortal head, just like in the legends, this was the only way to solve the problem in front of them. However, when they arrived, they only saw justice and the goddess of stars sitting alone in the forest.


    ��Where are the others? Did you kill him?��The God of movies looked around and asked.


    However, justice and the goddess of stars did not say a word, as if they had not heard the question.


    The God of movies originally thought that the other party was unwilling to respond because he was a new god. With his temper, he was about to open his mouth to mock a few more words, but he heard the goddess of Evernight say.., ��Something��s not right. The smell of blood here is a little too strong.��


    The God of movies was stunned when he heard that, ��Smell of blood? Don��t tell me you want to say that everyone else has been killed? This is illogical. Even a rookie screenwriter who just entered the industry would not dare to write this. That fellow is really that powerful. Previously, when he faced us, he did not need to run anymore. He could have directly joined forces with that Hydra and finished us all off.��


    ��You��re right, so there��s only one possibility left.��The Evernight Goddess squatted down in front of Estre, observing the eyes of the goddess of Justice and stars, which had lost their focus.


    However, just as she moved closer to take a closer look, Estre, who had been like a block of wood, suddenly jumped up, shouting at the same time, ��DEAD! All dead! No one can survive. He��s Back! He��s Back! It��s all over.��


    As she spoke, a nervous smile appeared on her face. Then, she broke free from the Evernight Goddess��arm and ran into the depths of the forest, leaving only the six gods who looked at each other in dismay.


    After a moment, the god of electricity said embarrassedly, ��She seems to have suffered a very serious shock. She has some mental problems.��


    However, after he finished speaking, no one answered for a long time.


    Because at this moment, everyone was thinking about what Estre said. Although the words were somewhat incoherent andcked a subject, the meaning conveyed was extremely clear, even the strongest of the six, the god of movies, fell into silence at this moment, as if he did not know how to face the situation at hand.


    In the end, Heimdall spoke first, his expression unprecedentedly solemn. ��We have to tell the others what happened here tonight.��


    ��But we can��t be sure... he really has returned.��Like the gods on the hillside, the Evernight Goddess was still unwilling to ept the worst possibility, ��We only have Estelia��s words as evidence, but Estelia seems to have gone mad.��


    ��So, you want to assume that he hasn��tpleted the god��s descent and we continue to search for that mortal here?��Ares asked.


    The evernight goddess shut her mouth.

 Chapter 1391

    <h4>Chapter 1391: Do You Regret It?</h4>


    ��Look at what you��ve Done!��Justya��s face darkened. She could smell the lingering scent of blood in the air.


    They were quite a distance away, but the smell of blood was still strong. One could imagine how many people had died in the ce where the incident had happened. Justya could tell that these were the blood of God.


    Fan Meinan and Shen Xixi looked at each other, and their eyes darkened. Without a doubt, something had changed on Zhang Heng��s side. However, the two of them were different from Justya, they did not know who the smell of blood belonged to, but judging from the current state of the goddess of justice, the smell of blood should not havee from Zhang Heng.


    However, the two of them were still unhappy because they were close to Zhang Heng. Even though they didn��t know what Zhang Heng��s limit was, as mortals.., it was obvious that it would be difficult for him to withstand thebined attacks of so many gods, let aloneplete the counterattack.


    However, the bloody smell in the air, which was almost frozen, indicated that something had indeed happened, but this wasn��t what fan Meinan and Shen Xixi wanted either.


    The two of them put away their weapons and props. Meanwhile, Justya did not take this opportunity to attack the two of them again. At this point in time, it was obvious that the battle had lost its reason to continue.


    The goddess of Justice��s mind was no longer on this matter. She did not even reprimand Shen Xixi anymore. Instead, she looked at her student��s position with great disappointment, no one knew what kind of emotions shed through her blindfolded eyes. Then, she hurriedly left the path that the two women had made for her.


    A momentter, fan Meinan spoke again, ��Now, what are we going to do?��


    ��I don��t know.��Shen Xixi shook her head.


    Rabbit and Li Bai had always been the main members of Shen Xixi��s team, but they had rarely seen Shen Xixi like this. Her bodynguage was full of frustration, and there was a rare look of confusion on her face, and her previous words of ��I don��t know��were obviously from the bottom of her heart.


    After a pause, Shen Xixi seemed to be asking someone else, but also herself, ��Did we... really do something wrong?��


    Fan Meinan had originally nned to leave, but when he heard this, he stopped in his tracks. ��I thought you had thought through all the possible oues when you came to find me.��


    ��What About You?��Shen Xixi asked. ��I remember you said that you have parents, a younger brother, and an older sister. Don��t you regret what you did tonight?��


    ��I don��t regret it.��Fan Meinan waved her hand without thinking.


    ��Why? Because those people aren��t as important to you as he is?��


    ��No, because I trust him enough. It��s that simple.��Fan Meinan��s body was a little betterpared to when she was in the hospital, but it was still a little weak. However, after the Doctor announced that she had recovered.., she quickly returned to her previous heartless appearance, ��I trust him. I believe that he will not destroy this world, even if it reallyes to thest moment. Moreover, the most important thing is that I believe that he will always have a way to turn defeat into victory, just like how he has done countless times in the past.��


    Shen Xixi was on the more rational side, ��I have also checked before... a lot of information. If the thing in the city under the ice really took over his body, then his soul has beenpletely destroyed. There is no way to recover. In other words... He is already dead. How can a person who is already dead turn the tables?��


    ��So you regret it?��


    ��I��m not afraid of death, but I can��t ept it... because of one decision of mine, the entire world will be destroyed,��Shen Xixi said sadly.


    ��Very well, then do something to stop the world from being destroyed,��Fan Meinan said, ��Do something that Shen Xixi should do. Don��t worry about what that guy thinks, because he will definitely think of your reaction after the incident happened. Maybe he is eager for you to do that.��


    ��What About You?��Shen Xixi asked.


    ��As for me... I can only continue to maintain my stupid and blind optimism,��Fan Meinan said, ��I probably can��t be of much help with tonight��s matter. Next, I n to go out and find a hotel to take a good shower, and then go to bed.��


    Shen Xixi still looked a little down, but she still reached out her hand. ��No matter what, thank you for being willing to help tonight.��


    ��You��re wee. I was nning toe, but I haven��t thought about what to do yet. Since You��vee to invite me, of course I have no reason to refuse.��Fan Meinan smiled, and then she walked down the mountain.


    Shen Xixi watched her figure disappear at the end of the road, and then she turned to look at rabbit and Li Bai, ��You��re my team members and my friends. I��m very grateful that you��re willing to stand with me even at a time like this. I��m Grateful For Your Trust in me, but what I��m about to do next is very dangerous. Whether it��s from the perspective of the captain or my friends, I don��t want you to follow by my side anymore.��


    When Li Bai heard this, he did not think much of it. ��Isn��t it just ke...��


    In the end, he only managed to say one word before the rabbit on one side covered his mouth. The rabbit held his forehead with the other hand, ��Oh my God, have you never thought about anything? That fellow is very likely to have escaped from the bottom of the sea. If you dare to say his name, it will definitely notice you. Even if you want to die, don��t drag us down with you.��


    ��Is it that scary?��Li Bai was still skeptical, ��I bought a book a few days ago and read the stories above. I don��t think it��s scary at all. On the contrary, I feel drowsy. To be honest, this book is too boring.��


    ��You ignorant guy, no matter what book you read, Don��t You Feel Drowsy?��Rabbit rolled its eyes and then said to Shen Xixi seriously, ��I have parents and friends. I don��t want anything to happen to them, both online and offline. So, Sister Xixi, if you want to chase after them, I want to go with you. For No other reason than to protect the people I want to protect.��


    ��Yes, I��m not good with words.��Li Bai also touched the cherry blossoms on his head and said, ��Rabbit said what I wanted to say. No matter what happens, we will be with you.��


    Hearing this, Shen Xixi did not say anything more. She nodded and said, ��Alright, let��s go to the ce where the smell of bloodes from and see if we can find anything.��

 Chapter 1392

    <h4>Chapter 1392: The Figure On The Cliff</h4>


    ��We found her!��A voice came from behind the man in sunsses. ��But the situation is not right. There seems to have been a big battle not far from where we found her.��


    The man in sunsses put down the binocrs in his hand, and his expression was also very serious. ��They made a move.��


    ��They?��


    ��Those gods, they don��t want that thing toe out of that frozen city any more than we do.��


    ��So... do we have an ally now? Since those gods are willing to make their move, does that mean we don��t have to make another move tonight? Simon must be doomed.��


    The yers nearby were shocked when they heard this, and then a sh of joy appeared in their eyes.


    They had already lost a lot of manpower to deal with Zhang Heng Tonight, but in the end, Zhang Heng managed to escape. It wasn��t easy for him to set up a trap, but before he could take effect, the bait was lost again, although they still had the advantage in terms of strength, their morale had dropped a lotpared to when they first entered the mountain.


    No one knew how many more people would have to die to get rid of Simon. If someone was willing to solve this problem, then there was no reason for them not to raise their hands in agreement.


    However, the man wearing sunsses did not look as happy as the other members of the hunting team. Instead, he looked worried.


    ��What��s Wrong?��The man holding the fire qilin who had been with him all this time asked.


    ��I don��t know,��the man wearing sunsses paused for a moment before exining, ��The battle from beforested for a long time. Moreover, I saw a man riding a carriage flying through the air. There were five other people on the carriage. They left in a hurry. It did not look like they had just won a big victory.��


    ��But they still won. Since they could win the first round, they could win the second round.��


    ��Maybe.��The man wearing sunsses took back the binocrs in his hand. Then he looked at the little girl who was brought back by the team. The two of them had just stayed together not long ago, but the man wearing sunsses also knew what had happened. When he came back to his senses, the little girl had mysteriously disappeared.


    The man in sunsses did not have much hope at first. He only sent out two teams to discuss everything. In the end, one of the teams that was searching in the direction of the cave actually brought the little girl back.


    However, the man in sunsses did not know what to do with the little girl. Because the gods had already made their move, logically speaking, there should not be anything for them to do next.


    ��Take her down to take a look,��the man in sunsses said after a moment of hesitation. ��Ask the logistics team to release the remaining drones.��


    ��Alright.��


    Although the man in sunsses didn��t deliberately publicize the news, everyone in the camp soon learned that the gods had already made their move. In fact, the night sky had suddenly turned dark, moreover, themotion caused by the war that followed couldn��t be hidden. Hence, the yers in the valley had already made their guesses. Now, however, their guesses were confirmed.


    As a result, the yers who had been tense all this time gradually rxed. They even began to gather in small groups and joke around, celebrating thepletion of the operation ahead of time, meanwhile, the yers on the second front found a man wearing sunsses.


    ��Do you guys want to continue blowing up the ice in the pond?��The man wearing sunsses asked with a frown.


    ��That��s right. Although Simon is no longer here, Seahorse��s corpse is still inside. After all, he is a member of our guild. When he was still alive, we had already let him down once. We don��t want to let him down again after he dies. At the very least, we have to bring his corpse back,��the representative of the second front said, ��In any case, the ice hole has been dug and the explosives have been bought in. As long as we add a fuse, we can detonate it.��


    The man wearing sunsses could not find any reason to refute. Moreover, strictly speaking, everyone present was responsible for Seahorse��s death, especially him, themander. Although he did not express his position at that time.., however, considering the situation at that time, not saying a word was equivalent to giving up on seahorse.


    Therefore, the man wearing sunsses nodded. The yers from the second front thanked him one after another when they saw this. Then, they began to prepare for the explosion.


    They moved very quickly. Five minutester, a loud sound came from below the pool. The thickyer of ice was sted open. The yers from the second front worked together, using cranes, ropes, and iron hooks, they hooked up an ice block that weighed about 300 kilograms from the bottom of the pool.


    Inside the nearly cylindrical ice block, seahorse was still struggling desperately. It could be seen that at that time, he was extremely eager to return to the surface of the water. However, in the end, he was only frozen in this ice block, there were also some golden fragments that were frozen together. It was hard to believe that they hade from the world-famous trident.


    A yer on the second front who had a good rtionship with seahorse could not help but lower his head when he saw this scene. Then, he clenched the rifle in his hand and suddenly turned around to walk towards a tent.


    However, before he could take two steps, he was stopped by the previous leader. ��Where are you going?��


    ��To find the person who is most responsible for this matter.��


    ��And then?��


    ��And then make him pay the price!��The yer who had a good rtionship with seahorse said angrily.


    ��I know you��re in a bad mood right now, but are you going to kill that kid in front of the other guilds? ��Do you think that guy wearing sunsses will watch this kind of thing happen right under his nose and remain indifferent? Do you think that the other small guilds will allow you to make a move for their own safety? Not to mention, have you thought about the impact your actions will have on Our Guild?��


    ��Then, are we just going to forget about this matter just like that? !��


    ��Of course not.��The leader of the second front looked left and right. However, he admitted that their quarrel just now did not attract the attention of the yers from the nearby guilds. Only then did he beckon to another person and said in a low voice, ��Do you think that I don��t want that Guy to pay the price? However, everything has to be done ording to strategy. We��ll wait until the end of this operation and disband the team before making a move. After that, we��ll make it look like we��re robbing an item. This way, there won��t be anyone obstructing us, and it won��t affect the guild��s reputation...��


    Before he could finish his words, someone suddenly patted him on the shoulder. When he raised his head, he saw that the person who patted him on the shoulder had half his head raised. His expression was very nervous. He had already raised the gun in his hand, and at the same time, his finger was on the trigger.


    The leader followed his gaze and saw a familiar figure on the cliff above the waterfall.


    Simon!

 Chapter 1393

    <h4>Chapter 1393: Who��s Here?</h4>


    The people from the second front obviously didn��t expect that the previously missing Simon would return to this ce.


    In fact, it wasn��t just the people from the second front. The other yers in the camp had also noticed the figure on the cliff. However, they were a little further away, so they couldn��t see the person��s face clearly, it wasn��t until someone shed a shlight at the figure that they recognized the person on the cliff.


    Then, amotion broke out in the camp. Those who were looking for weapons were looking for weapons, while those who were wearing clothes were getting dressed. Themander who had returned to the tent to drink a cup of hot water and rest for a while was also found at the first moment, he put on his sunsses again and walked out quickly. At the same time, he picked up his binocrs.


    ��What��s he doing?��


    The person asked with a strange expression, ��He��s just... standing there the whole time.��


    ��He��s just standing there the whole time?��


    ��Yes, he��s just standing there the whole time. At first, everyone thought that he was going tounch an attack, so they quickly took cover. However, he just stood there and did nothing.��


    ��He��s probably stilling for the little girl. Go and bring the little girl over,��the man in sunsses said as he ced the binocrs in front of his eyes.


    The person on the other side of the camera was indeed Zhang Heng.


    As the target of this operation, the man in sunsses had done a lot of homework before they set off. Of course, he couldn��t be mistaken, but for some reason, when he saw Zhang Heng again,pared to before.., he felt a strange sense of strangeness.


    At the same time, perhaps it was because Zhang Heng had been standing on the cliff for too long and hadn��t moved at all, it made him feel even more uneasy.


    Based on his understanding of the man before him, he knew that the man would never do anything meaningless. The fact that he could not see through the man��s next n only meant that he was not qualified to be themander.


    However, the man in the sunsses did not have time to think. Soon, the little girl was brought back to his side. After a long day, the little girl looked a little tired and was still rubbing her eyes.


    The man in sunsses held the little girl��s hand and couldn��t help but feel nervous.


    Even though there was still some distance between them, he believed that with Zhang Heng��s observational ability, there was no reason why he couldn��t see the little girl beside him. However, to his surprise, Zhang Heng didn��t even look in his direction.


    Instead, his gaze was mostly fixed on the crane, as if the machines that could be seen everywhere on the construction site were more attractive to him.


    Finally, someone in the camp couldn��t hold it in anymore and pulled the trigger.


    At the same time, the man in sunsses, who had been observing Zhang Heng through the binocrs, also noticed something. He noticed that the expression on Zhang Heng��s face had changed a lotpared to before.


    A few hours ago, no matter what happened to Zhang Heng, the expression in his eyes gave people a sense of calmness. He didn��t have much emotion, but now, this Zhang Heng no longer controlled his emotions, however, those emotions were tooplicated for the man in the sunsses to understand.


    Combined with the lingering sense of strangeness, the man in the sunsses finally seemed to have thought of something. A look of fear appeared on his face. He put down the binocrs in his hands and practically screamed at the top of his lungs, ��Don��t, don��t shoot! Everyone, put away your weapons!��


    However, he was a step toote. A bullet had already flown out of the muzzle of the gun and shot toward the figure on the cliff.


    However, just as the bullet was about to hit the target, the figure on the cliff suddenly disappeared again, as if it had never appeared.


    The next moment, the light from the shlight started to move around again. Everyone was trying their best to find where Zhang Heng had run to until the light from the shlightnded behind the yer who had fired earlier, only then did someone let out a cry of surprise.


    Zhang Heng somehow managed to stand in the shadow of the yer. He reached out and patted the yer��s shoulder lightly. Then, the yer��s head fell from his neck, it was like a ripe fruit falling from a branch.


    This scene looked extremely horrifying!


    The other yers around him were so frightened that they turned their guns to aim at Zhang Heng. However, before they could fire, their heads also fell to the ground. This time, the camp fell into a state of panic.


    Previously, their battle with Zhang Heng had been extremely difficult. Many of them had died, but at least they hade and gone. However, this time, facing Zhang Heng, who came and went without a trace and could make people��s heads fall to the ground without anyone knowing.., everyone��s hearts were filled with confusion. They had no idea how to fight back.


    The man in the sunsses felt his hands and feet turn cold. He knew that his worst guess hade true! While the others were still trying to fight back, he, as themander, had abandoned his team and returned to the tent.


    The Man in sunsses picked up the satellite phone beside his sleeping bag and listened to the screamsing from outside the tent, but he suddenly did not know what to say.


    Until the call was connected, his brain was still in a state of shutdown. He paused for another two seconds before speaking to the other end of the phone with a somewhat hoarse voice, ��Do not send any more reinforcements. I repeat, do not send any more reinforcements! He is here!��


    ��Who��s Here?��The female voice on the other end of the line asked.


    However, there was no reply from the other end. The man wearing sunsses saw the tents around him twisting and changing, turning into terrifying and ugly faces. They were approaching him step by step.


    Therefore, the man wearing sunsses also threw down the satellite phone in his hand. He took out the pistol at his waist and fired wildly at the faces around him.


    However, the bullets seemed to have no effect on such a terrifying creature. The man in sunsses had unknowingly emptied his magazine, so he picked up the fruit knife by the bed and started to sh wildly!


    He was not the only one doing simr actions in the camp. In fact, other than a few people who had suffered a mental breakdown, all the yers were working hard. However, if there was a third party present.., they would realize that the enemy they were fighting didn��t even exist.


    Perhaps it was because the swarm of ants had already bored him out of his mind, Zhang Heng didn��t stay any longer. He only nced at the crane before it disappeared.


    Behind the huge chunk of ice that was being dragged out, a pair of small eyes silently watched Zhang Heng leave. She held a small crystal in her hand. There were strange patterns on the crystal, however, the pattern had already dimmed, and a crack had appeared in the center of the crystal.

 Chapter 1394 - Mobilization

    <h4>Chapter 1394: Mobilization</h4>


    A four-wheeled chariot sped through the night sky and finallynded on the tarmac in front of a vi.


    The vi alone upied an area of more than 1,000 square meters. In addition, it had a courtyard filled with all kinds of expensive flowers, a tarmac, a swimming pool, and an underground garage, there was also a private dock not far away.


    A woman in pajamas was drinking red wine in a private bar upstairs. The next moment, she saw her door being pushed open. The moment she saw the person, her face was full of shock and confusion.


    ��Sorry to disturb your rest, Pluto. It��s just that the situation is urgent. We want to borrow your ce for a while. The main reason is that it��s difficult for us to find a bigger and undisturbed ce than yours,��the goddess of the night said.


    The woman named Pluto tightened the hem of her pajamas. Of course, she was not happy to be so rashly intruded, but since things hade to this, she could only force a smile on her face, especially when she saw the few people following behind the evernight goddess, she nodded and said, ��Of course, but I wonder what you want to do by lending me this small ce?��


    ��Gather everyone.��


    ��Gather everyone? Why? Are you guys going to have a party here?��


    ��No, we��re here to discuss how to survive and save the world,��Anubis said.


    ��Save the world? Uh, are you guys filming the Avenger Alliance 5? Then I say that your lineup is really quite good.��


    ��No, we��re serious,��the god of electricity who came inter said.


    ��Oh,��a disgusted expression appeared on Pluto��s face. ��A new God? What, is he your captive?��


    ��No, he is ourpanion,��Ares said. ��We need to unite all the forces that can be united.��


    ��Do what?��Pluto was shocked. Ares had always been the main militant faction of the Old Gods. He had always advocated that this war was inevitable even before the start of the war. Since that was the case, it was better to fight early thante, his attitude towards the new God had always been unyielding. He did not believe that the words panion��would be associated with those fellows of the new God. ��...��


    However, before the others could answer, they heard a long and deep bugle call. There were a total of four bugle calls, two long ones and two short ones. The bugle call was filled with the tension and depression before the war.


    ��Heimdall? He��s here too?��Pluto waspletely dumbfounded. ��He even blew his bugle call on the roof of my building? is he going to call the Nordic gods over?��


    ��It��s not just the Norse gods. Anubis and I will also inform the Greek and Egyptian gods separately,��Ares said with a serious expression.


    ��I have already informed the new gods when I was in the carriage,��the god of electricity added.


    ��Are you nning to call everyone here, but what about the enemy? Wait,��Pluto said as if he had thought of something, ��Didn��t you go to deal with the human named Zhang Heng Tonight? What Happened?��


    ��He��s already dead,��Anubis said.


    ��So, this means that our troubles have disappeared, right?��Pluto swept his gaze across the faces of the people present, but he didn��t see any signs of relief. On the contrary, everyone��s expressions were solemn, this caused Pluto to to be nervous.


    ��We did not kill him.��


    ��Then who did? The other humans?��


    ��No, the Master of Liya haspleted the god��s descent andpletely seized that body. His soul has also been crushed.��


    Pluto was stunned. The wine cup in his hand slipped from between his fingers and fell onto the carpet.


    ��We need to gather the others immediately!��Ares repeated, ��While that fellow has just escaped, if we work together, there is still a chance of victory. He will feed on fear. The longer we drag this out, the stronger his power will be!��


    ��Everyone,��the goddess of the night said in a sorrowful tone, ��The survival of the world will be on our shoulders.��


    ..


    Just as Heimdall and the others began to gather the gods, abat meeting was already underway in the stic mold processing factory 1,000 kilometers away from the vi.


    There were not many people in the meeting. There were less than 20 people. The person in charge of the meeting was a woman who looked like a secretary. She adjusted her sses and spoke calmly.


    ��Let me first introduce the current situation to everyone. The people we sent out yesterday to join the hunting party have all been wiped out. Moreover, I��ve asked the other guilds that went with us. They have also lost contact with their people. The only news from the yers is that themander of silver wing sent it out at 00:49 pm. Everyone can listen to it for yourselves.��


    After the secretary-like woman finished speaking, she pressed the y button of a tape recorder beside her.


    The recording was of a phone call. For some reason, the other person paused for two seconds before saying in a hoarse voice, ��Do not send any more reinforcements. I repeat, do not send any more reinforcements! He��s Here!��


    ��Who��s Here?��The female voice on the other end of the phone asked.


    However, the person on the other end of the line did not speak anymore. What followed was the sound of the satellite phone falling to the ground. There were also dense gunshots and roars. It was as if the person who was making the call was caught in a battle. However, not long after that.., there was another scream.


    After that, the tent finally quieted down. However, there were still some gunshots and shouts outside the tent.


    Everyone in the meeting room listened very seriously. Only after the recording ended did someone ask, ��Where are our people? Have we received any information?��


    Although the secretary-like woman had previously said that this was the only information the yers had received, the people in the meeting room still seemed to have sufficient confidence in their own people.


    The person who looked like a secretary also nodded and said, ��Of course. Our people sent back a, no, to be exact, half a sentence. We have reason to believe that his mental state was very bad when he sent back this sentence, just like the people in those stories. However, our previous scientific training had produced an effect. He endured the mental difort and sent this sentence to us.


    ��I helped you regroup �� the operation failed, ck of subject) to leave Laraya��s prison.


    ��Combined with the previous satellite phone call and the fact that the search team waspletely annihted and suffered a serious mental attack, I��m afraid that the worst has already happened. The monster has already broken free from the shackles of the stars and left the underwater prison.��


    Although the expression on the secretary-like woman��s face did not change much when she said this, her slightly trembling right index finger still betrayed her true feelings, the meeting room was simrly deathly silent.


    The person who asked the question earlier wanted to say something, but opened her mouth but ultimately did not say it. Just as the uneasiness began to spread in the meeting room, the sound of footsteps came from outside the door.

 Chapter 1395 - Roger

    <h4>Chapter 1395: Roger</h4>


    The people in the meeting room could not help but frown when they heard the footsteps.


    The organization they were in was different from the ordinary yer guilds. The hierarchy was more distinct, the rules were stricter, and the structure was more sophisticated. In a sense, it was already close to a military organization.


    The 16 people in this room were equivalent to the top management of the organization. They usually had their own missions and responsibilities, so they rarely gathered together for meetings like this, thus, it could be seen how important this meeting was. The ordinary members of the organization should not be near this area at this time.


    In the end, not only did the footsteps pass outside the meeting room, but they also stopped in front of the door.


    In the next moment, a figure pushed the door open from the outside and entered, as if this was his study.


    Someone in the meeting room was about to say something to stop him, but when he saw the neer, his expression froze. The neer was actually the president of the Light Arc Guild, February siege, who had been assassinated a while ago and was said to be on the verge of death.


    Before yers��information was leaked on arge scale, the true identity of February siege was a secret that ordinary yers had no way of knowing. However, to the members of the Light Arc Guild.., this was especially true for the members of the middle-level and above.


    As the Guild Leader of the Light Arc Guild, February siege had made a few appearances in the guild. There were quite a few people who knew him. At least half of the people in the meeting room knew about February siege, this was because the mysterious organization they had joined had always used light arc as a cover. Moreover, they had also used light arc to recruit new members.


    Of course, this sort of thing had always been done under the table without the knowledge of February siege and his trusted aides. Now that the victim had appeared in front of them, many people��s expressions became a little awkward. They felt as if they had been caught cheating.


    Butpared to this, they were more concerned about why February siege city had suddenly appeared here.


    February siege city��s gaze swept across the people in the conference room, and then he walked to the empty main seat at the back of the conference table. Someone seemed to have thought of something when he saw this, and his face revealed a look of nervousness and surprise.


    Then he saw February siege city sit steadily in that seat, and said to the woman who looked like a secretary, ��Continue.��


    Upon hearing this, thetter bowed respectfully to the siege and said, ��Yes, Mr. Roger.��


    At this moment, thest trace of doubt in the hearts of everyone in the meeting room disappeared. However, many people were still in shock. The most mysterious organization Guardian��s number one character, Roger.., was actually the guild leader of the light arc, February siege!


    However, when they thought about it carefully, this seemed to be a reasonable exnation. How could there be so many outstanding leaders in this world? Among the three big guilds, the light arc was thetest to be established, but its strength was the strongest among the three big guilds, speaking of light arc��s advantages, many people would say that it had an efficient and streamlined management team, an extremely high execution ability for all its members, and an iparable openness and inclusiveness.


    However, everyone present was clear that light arc��s true rise was due to the man sitting on the main seat. Although light arc had been ceding power to the encirclement of February ever since it had stepped onto the right path, it had now half retreated behind the scenes, however, he had single-handedlyid the true foundation of this guild.


    Moreover, from the looks of it, he had not retreated behind the scenes to ck off. Instead, he had shifted more of his attention to the Guardian. Previously, many people in the meeting room had been extremely interested in recruiting the siege of February into the Guardian, this was because the decision-making and leadership skills of the Siege of February would definitely allow the guardian to rise to a higher level. However, this n had never been carried out seriously since it had been proposed.


    This was because no one could more intuitively feel the power of the February siege than the managers within the light arc. Moreover, strictly speaking, the guardian had been poaching the light arc. If the recruitment failed, with the vignce and boldness of the February siege.., it was very likely that a great purge would immediately beunched within the light arc. This price was something that they could not afford.


    However, now, the wonderful picture that they had once imagined had actuallye true. Moreover, it was at this critical juncture of the survival of mankind, the appearance of the siege of February had reduced the tension in the conference room a little. It was as if everyone had found a backbone, because past experience had proved that no matter what difficulties they encountered, the man in front of them had a way to lead everyone through the difficulties.


    However, the man sitting at the main seat, the siege of February himself, did not have the posture of having everything under control. In fact, his appearance meant a lot of things, but he had always been in the position of the decision maker, no one could see his true thoughts from his face.


    After receiving permission, the secretary-like woman continued to speak, ��Our people also have hidden cameras on them. When we find their bodies, if the cameras are not destroyed, we should be able to find out what happened in the camp.��


    February fortress suddenly asked, ��What about the gods? I heard that they sent quite a number of people tonight.��


    ��Yes, someone saw them fighting with someone. The initial guess is that the opponent should be HYDRA. This is not surprising. Hydra is after all, a follower of the Lord of Lye.��


    The secretary-like woman paused for a moment before continuing, ��From the results, they should have won against Hydra. However, from a strategic point of view, Hydra is the real winner. This is because she bought enough time for Simon. This is probably the reason why her master was able toplete the god��s descent. It is said that someone saw Ares leaving in a horse carriage after the incident.��


    ��Combat strength assessment.��February siege remained calm.


    ��I��m sorry, it hasn��t been done yet. We don��t know how strong Simon is now after Lordrue took over his body. However, we can deduce from the fact that Ares and the rest left in a hurry that they should not be a match for Simon now. They don��t even have the courage to resist. This is possible... he is already an S ss. We don��t know much about this field. The information we have is basically nk.��


    ��Then how much damage do you think the god yer bullet can do to him?��


    ��This...��the secretary-like woman hesitated for a moment, ��ording to the research ideas provided by ROX, we have been capturing supernatural creatures that can bring negative effects and extracting their blood to level up the god yer bullet. The effect is quite good. Now, the third generation of the god yer bullet is 60% more powerful than the first generation. Basically, all gods below grade B will not be able to withstand a single bullet. Even an A grade would not feel good if they were shot.


    ��But if it��s an S grade, I don��t know. There��s too little information. As for the fourth generation Godyer bullet, it��s still in development. Originally, I wanted to obtain the most crucial material, Simon��s blood, but I didn��t seed. I don��t think I can count on it in the short term.��

 Chapter 1396 - A Qualified Father

    <h4>Chapter 1396: A Qualified Father</h4>


    The appearance of the siege in February allowed the originally leaderless guardians to find their backbone. Everyone in the meeting room expressed their opinions and quickly decided on the next course of action.


    Looking at the calm figure on the main seat, everyone was not as nervous as they were when they first heard the news. The Guardian organization was like a sophisticated and efficient instrument, operating smoothly once again, everyone knew what they needed to do next, so they immediately took action after the meeting ended.


    However, the secretary-like woman did not leave like the others. When only she and February besieged city were left in the meeting room, she hesitated for a moment before saying, ��I actually have a guess about Rox...��


    ��I know.��February besieged city did not look up. After the meeting ended, he took out his phone and looked at the wechat message his wife sent him an hour ago. ��Rox is Simon��s father.��


    ��AH.��


    ��I actually had my suspicions for a long time. The main reason was that Simon went to Irnd during the holidays. Rox��s recent IP location was also in Irnd. After suspecting him, I found someone to check his resume. Because he was a researcher, he kept changing ces with the project. The ces he went to were not too far away from the IP location of Rox��s past,��February siege said, ��Then I can basically confirm that he��s Rox.��


    ��As expected, nothing can be hidden from you,��the secretary-like woman said with admiration, ��I only found out about Rox and Zhang Heng��s rtionship after Rox stole three elite squads from US and sent me a secret message yesterday.��


    The secretary-like woman asked, ��Do we need to do anything to him?��


    ��Do what?��February siege asked, ��I��ve said a long time ago that Rox is just a researcher. He created the Guardian himself. At that time, he probably had the intention to protect his son, but he had no idea how to run and maintain an organization. Before I took over the Guardian, it was just a ce for a bunch of ipetent people to vent their anger. Rox was neither capable nor willing to control the Guardian.��


    February paused for a moment, ��However, I have to admit that he has a deep understanding of supernatural powers. If it weren��t for him, things like god-ying bullets wouldn��t have appeared so quickly. Of course, over the years, we have provided him with a lot of help in his research. We will help him capture whichever god he wants and provide him with whatever materials he wants.


    ��Previously, I wanted to find him because I valued his research ability and hoped topletely absorb him into the guardian. But now it seems that he is not on the same side as us. He doesn��t care about the fate of humans at all. He is only doing it for his son. He is an extremely selfish person. However, he is a qualified father.��


    February fortress shook his head, ��He won��t help us deal with the Lord of Lalea. Even if he knows that his son is already dead, as long as that body is still his son��s, he won��t do anything.��


    ��What a pity,��the secretary-like woman said regretfully.


    ��It is a pity, but he has already given us all the research ideas for the god-ying bullets. As long as we continue to level up, it will be fine. Humans may not be able to live forever, but they can continue to study and learn. This is our most powerful weapon. When this matter is over, it won��t be long before we can kill those gods,��February fortress said.


    ��I will always follow you until that day arrives,��the secretary-like woman said respectfully.


    However, after she left, only er Yue Wei Cheng was left in the meeting room. He no longer had the posture of having everything under control. Er Yue Wei Cheng sat in the empty room with his brows tightly knitted, his originally straight back seemed to have be a little hunched.


    Then, he picked up his phone on the table and opened the wechat message that his wife had sent him. It was a picture of his daughter sleeping soundly in bed. Er Yuecheng looked at it for another half a minute before he typed a reply.


    �� I have some business to discuss here. I��m going on a business trip for a period of time. I��ll try toe back as soon as possible.


    ..


    Shen Xixi followed the smell of blood all the way. First, she came to the small hill. However, the cruel scene before her eyes made her lose her focus.


    On the trees, on the ground, and on the rocks, everywhere she looked was filled with blood and minced meat. It was as if she had stepped into a ughterhouse. There were no survivors left in the area covered by the red color, even the nts had withered and withered. The abnormality here had even affected the nearby areas.


    On the way here, Shen Xixi and her group had seen animals behaving abnormally more than once. The Rabbits, who were originally afraid of humans, acted as if they did not see them. They spun around on the ground askew as if they were drunk, meanwhile, the two squirrels were fighting crazily. Their skin was bitten until it was a bloody mess. There was also a wild boar that was using its head to ram against the tree trunk in front of it, it was as if it had an irreconcble feud with that tree.


    ��Oh my God!��The rabbit was so scared that its face turned pale. She had experienced many big scenes with Shen Xixi, but none of them had left a deep impression on her like this, previously, she had scoffed at the idea of a new apocalypse, but now, she felt a chill down her spine.


    Before Shen Xixi could say anything, they heard gunshots from afar. The three of them knew that the three major guilds had taken the lead to organize a team to deal with Zhang Heng. In fact, if it wasn��t for Shen Xixi and Zhang Heng��s rtionship.., she would have been invited anyway. If nothing went wrong, the gunshots should havee from the search party.


    The three of them exchanged a look before running toward the source of the gunshots. However, by the time they reached the pool, the gunshots had already thinned out. At first, the three of them thought that they were fighting Zhang Heng, however, when they arrived, they realized that there was no sign of Zhang Heng in the camp. To be more precise, there was no sign of anyone else.


    The yers in the camp were fighting in the air, and each of them looked more terrified than thest. It was as if they were at a critical moment of life and death. Shen Xixi tried to stop a yer who was closer, however, before she could reach him, she saw the man waving the dagger in his hand and stabbing wildly. What shocked the three of them even more was that the man did not hesitate to stab the dagger into his stomach, he cut open his lower abdomen.


    Then, he pulled out his own intestines. When rabbit saw this scene, he could not hold it in any longer. He held onto a rock by the side and vomited wildly.

 Chapter 1397 - Borrowing A Cigarette

    <h4>Chapter 1397: Borrowing A Cigarette</h4>


    Shen Xixi, rabbit, and Li Bai watched as the rest of the people in the camp were killed one by one. Then, the valley regained its peace.


    The moonlight shone on the cliffs, and it was as bright as ever.


    Shen xixi bit her lip. Her expression was very ugly now. Previously, when Fan Meinan asked her if she had considered the consequences of doing this, Shen Xixi thought that she had already thought about it very clearly, however, after seeing such a tragic scene, she realized that her heart was not as firm as she had imagined.


    Moreover, she knew very well that this was only the beginning. More victims would appear in the future. Perhaps the entire world would be pushed to the brink of destruction. If she was given another chance.., shen Xixi did not know if she would make the same choice.


    Just as Shen Xixi was thinking about how to prevent the worst from happening, she heard the sound of footsteps behind her.


    A figure wearing a ck mask walked out from the forest. He had several wounds on his body. It was obvious that he had just experienced a great battle. His footsteps were a little unsteady, and one of his arms could no longer move, he hung limply on one side of his body. He had not taken two steps before he stopped and panted heavily.


    Shen Xixi and the other two became vignt when they saw the situation. They had just seen the miserable state of the yers in the camp. They were worried that the new person who had just appeared was not in his right mind and was extremely aggressive.


    Li Bai did not speak, but he had already made his stance clear with his actions. He blocked his body in front of Shen Xixi and rabbit, and at the same time, he looked at the neer with vignce.


    ��Don��t worry, I mean no harm,��said the man with the hood. As he spoke, he removed the hood from his face, revealing a gentle-looking face.


    Shen xixi heaved a sigh of relief. ��Are you from the tracking team?��


    ��No, I��m the same as you. I��m here to make things difficult for the people chasing Zhang Heng,��the man said with a tired smile, ��Unfortunately, I��m not as lucky as you guys. Most of my men are dead, and I��m pretty badly injured myself. As expected, it��s not appropriate for researchers to get physical.��


    The man then turned to Li Bai. ��Hey, Kid, do you have a cigarette?��


    Li Bai took out a bag of hardgate from his pocket and reluctantly tossed it to the man opposite him. The Man took the cigarette and was stunned. ��Aren��t you yers supposed to be rich? Why are you still smoking this?��


    ��He sent all the money he earned home.��Rabbit rolled his eyes.


    ��Amazing!��The man gave him a thumbs up. Then, he opened the cigarette box and took a cigarette from it and put it in his mouth. Li Bai was quite happy to be praised by others, and he no longer felt sorry for his pack of cigarettes, he even took the initiative to throw a lighter over to light the man��s cigarette.


    Unfortunately, the man only took one puff before he choked and coughed. Then, he opened his mouth to exin, ��Ever since I had a wife, I haven��t smoked for a long time. Little brother, thank you for your cigarette. As someone who has been through this, let me give you a piece of advice. If a man can get marriedter, he should get marriedter.��


    Hearing this, rabbit pursed his lips in dissatisfaction. Shen Xixi also frowned. ��Do You Know Us?��


    ��No, but I know you,��the man said. ��Your name is Shen Xixi, right? I��ve heard about you from him. Unfortunately, although I��ve tried my best to probe, I still don��t know who his favorite girl is.��


    Shen Xixi also seemed to have thought of something and revealed a surprised expression, ��You can��t be Zhang Heng��s father, right? He told me about the father of a researcher, but he seems to have been abroad all this time. Could it be that you��re also a yer? But ording to what I know, there shouldn��t be any foreign yers.��


    ��I��m not a yer, just an ordinary person,��father Zhang said.


    ��With all due respect, an ordinary person wouldn��t appear here with a gun.��Rabbit pointed at Father Zhang��s waist.


    ��Oh, this gun is only for self-defense. In fact, I didn��t use it during the battle just now. It looks like it��s useless now,��father Zhang said as he threw the pistol into the pond beside him.


    ��You��re not a yer? Then why don��t you look surprised by what happened here?��Rabbit widened his eyes.


    ��Not only yers know about the existence of supernatural powers. Eighteen years ago, I personally experienced a supernatural event and even had a son,��father Zhang said.


    ��Wait, are you saying...��


    ��That��s right. To be honest, our first meeting wasn��t pleasant, but fortunately, we got along very well after that.��Father Zhang��s eyes shed with reminiscence, and the corners of his mouth curled up slightly.


    ��I��m sorry,��Shen Xixi lowered her head and said.


    ��There��s nothing to be sorry about. We��ve already done what we can do. The rest... can only be left to fate.��Father Zhang��s mood was much calmer than the three of them had imagined.


    ��Left to fate? Do you think there��s still a chance?��


    Father Zhang had yet to speak when he saw Li Bai suddenly make a silent gesture. Then, Li Bai pointed at a huge ice cube that was about the height of two people on the shore. There was a vague figure in the ice cube, however, Li Bai was not referring to the unlucky person who was sealed in the Ice Cube.


    He exchanged a look with rabbit. Then, the two of them tacitly circled around the ice cube. Li Bai even picked up a rifle on the road, however, after seeing the person behind the Ice Cube, Li Bai immediately put down the weapon in his hand.


    It was a little girl. It seemed that she was a viger who had lived in this mountain before. The four of them did not know why she would appear here, more importantly,pared to the yers who hadpletely lost their minds in the camp, although her mental state was not very good because of the day��s torment, she was clearly not as crazy as the others.


    This was simply a miracle!


    When Li Bai brought her out, she did not resist.


    Shen Xixi saw the little girl��s tightly clenched left hand. She came to the front of thetter, squatted down, and said gently, ��Can you let big sister take a look?��


    The little girl gradually loosened her grip. Shen Xixi saw the piece of crystal in her palm. She had already recognized it as the d-ss Item [ immune crystal ] that had been lost by Fu Lou earlier. However, her heart suddenly felt a sharp pain, at this moment, she finally understood why both fan Meinan and father Zhang had not lost their confidence in Zhang Heng until now.


    Just from the fact that Zhang Heng had not forgotten to give the [ immunity crystal ] to the little girl before him while he was on the run, one could tell that he did not intend to destroy this world, even if the entire world chose to be his enemy.


    Father Zhang seemed to have read Shen Xixi��s mind as well, and he shook his head, ��I don��t know what he intends to do, but I know that he will not surrender to fate so easily. He will fight until the very end, and I have always believed that.��

 Chapter 1398 - Rat Excrement

    <h4>Chapter 1398: Rat Excrement</h4>


    ��Recently, the well-known technology group Fukang has experienced another incident of its employees jumping off a building. This is already the 16th incident of an employee falling off a building in the past month, and it has caused widespread public discussion. Our reporter has specially interviewed the President of Fukang Group, Mr. Guo Zimin, for this.��


    The reporter, who looked pure and innocent like the little sister next door, raised the microphone in front of a middle-aged man who was wearing a suit, had a green water ghost, and exuded the aura of a sessful person.


    ��Nice to meet you, President Guo. May I ask what you think about the recent series of incidents of Fukang jumping off a building?��


    Guo Ziming looked at the microphone in front of him with a pained expression on his face, ��The emergence of such incidents is always a pity and has already attracted the attention of the group. The management of the group has invited social and psychological experts to conduct research on rted issues, hoping to find out the reason as soon as possible so as to reduce the possibility of rted incidents happening.��


    Just when the female reporter thought that President Guo was going to use cliches to deal with this interview, she did not expect Guo Zimin to suddenly change the topic and continue, ��Of course, as the president, I can��t get away with this kind of incident. However, I feel that we can��t look at the problem from a single point of view. There has been a lot of news about suicides recently, and it��s not just our Fukang family. As far as I know, there are also many young people whomit suicide in Japan. By the way, what is the suicide rate in Japan?��


    Of course, the female reporter wouldn��t know about this, so she could only smile awkwardly.


    Meanwhile, Guo Ziming was still speaking with confidence, ��I��ve also consulted the relevant psychological experts. Although we have 16 employees whomitted suicide,pared to the total number of nearly 500,000 employees in thepany, this suicide rate is actually not considered high. The experts told me that it��s below the normal line.��


    The female reporter opened her small mouth in a daze, as if she was deeply shocked by president Guo��s brazen self-righteousness.


    She wanted to say something else, but she saw that the staff members in the same industry were already gesturing to her to end the interview and cut the scene back to the live broadcast room.


    However, in the next moment, something that no one could have imagined suddenly happened.


    A ck shadow jumped down from the roof of the headquarters of the Fukang group behind Guo Ziming. It was as if he had no attachment to the world.


    In the end, it didn��t matter if he wanted to die, but this jumpnded on the head of Guo Ziming, who wasining about social problems. Guo Ziming felt as if his head was suddenly covered by a ck shadow, before he could figure out what had happened, he was hit on the head by a huge force and died on the spot.


    The female reporter who was interviewing at the side was covered in blood. When she saw the two bodies on the ground that had be a bloody mess, she finally couldn��t bear it anymore and let out a scream.


    Fortunately, just as she was about to help the people of the country test the loudest volume of the television speakers, the camera cut back to the live broadcast room ahead of time.��Search our n?wn0?el.?rg�� However, the two anchors who were supposed to save the situation also looked at each other at this time, there was a brief silence.


    Shen Xixi turned off the television. It had been a month and a half since that night in the valley. Just as she had feared, the lord oflaiya had left his cage, the gods and yers who had gone after Zhang Heng were not the only ones to suffer. In fact, the negative impact of the incident had already begun to show.


    The most obvious thing was that the suicide rate had started to rise sharply recently. The majority of the dead were people with high mental acuity, mainly artists and creators, but also ordinary people with autistic personalities, their deaths were varied. Shen Xixi, Rabbit, and the others had collected simr news reports, and there had been more than 200 of them so far.


    Of course, this number might not be too exaggerated in the eyes of the whole country, but it had indeed begun to attract heated public discussion, however, at this moment, whether it was ordinary people or experts and schrs, their focus was on the fast-paced life and the stress of modern people. The experts suggested that everyone should do more exercise and learn to reduce their stress.


    However, it seemed that this suggestion was of no use at the moment. The suicide rate in society continued to rise. At the same time, some mysterious societies began to quietly emerge, they disguised themselves as social clubs or fan clubs, but once someone really joined them, they would soon be instilled with some strange things.


    For example, ��Gloriouspletion��or ��Great Awakening.��However, these mysterious clubs with suspicious appearances did not charge any membership fees. Instead, they would give out some things from time to time, for example, strange statue products or some jewelry that glittered like gold. This caused some people who liked to take advantage of others to sign up.


    The police immediately noticed these strange clubs and organized arge-scale investigation operation in the middle of this month, hoping to strike hard before these clubs failed, they killed them one by one in the cradle.


    However, the operation unexpectedly fell into a mire. These clubs themselves were not difficult to clean up, but the problem was that once one group was killed, another group would soon appear, like a sprouting bamboo shoot after a rain, moreover, after capturing the main brain and backbone of the societies, how to deal with it had be a headache.


    Under the current legal provisions, it was very difficult to give them severe punishments. After all, at this stage, they had not done anything too excessive. They had only absorbed members and distributed small gifts, moreover, what made people even more speechless was that once they were imprisoned, the entire prison would soon be a ce for them to absorb members. It was simply like a rat��s feces. No matter where they were thrown, they could quickly contaminate a pot of porridge.


    Moreover, there was more bad news recently than this. Both the yers and the gods decisively took action when they realized that the situation was heading in an uncontroble direction. They took the initiative to unite together, even the mysterious organization that specialized in assassinating gods chose to temporarily reconcile with the gods at this time. They even offered up the god-ying bullets in their hands.


    The gods were all furious when they saw the god-ying bullets. However, in the end, they maintained their restraint. This was not the right time for internal strife, regardless of whether it was the humans or the gods, both sides had amon enemy, and they needed to work together to deal with it.


    Even if they wanted to settle the score, that would be after they dealt with Zhang Heng. However, the gods, who had the god-ying bullets and the allies of the humans, took the initiative to fight Zhang Heng several times with confidence. In the end, the result was not ideal.


    In the beginning, both sides were still at odds with each other. The gods even managed to suppress Zhang Heng for a time. With Zeus, Odin, and the god of science, Saenz, as the leaders, the gods��strongest force sessfully dealt a heavy blow to Zhang Heng in an ambush, thetter was heavily injured, but in the end, it was all for naught and Zhang Heng managed to escape.


    From then on, Zhang Heng only operated on the sea. After Poseidon, who was in charge of scouting, was killed by Zhang Heng, the godspletely lost track of Zhang Heng. What was worse was that everyone knew that.., as time went on, Zhang Heng would only be more and more difficult to deal with.

 Chapter 1399

    <h4>Chapter 1399: Breaking Down The Door</h4>


    The knocking on the door interrupted Shen Xixi��s recollection. She got up and looked at the door cautiously through the peephole before pulling out the door pin.


    Li Bai walked in from outside. He picked up the bottle of mineral water on the table and gulped down half of it. Then he said, ��We��ve checked it out. That group of people is in the neighborhood across the street.��


    ��How many people are there?��Shen Xixi asked.


    ��This is a small club that has just appeared. There are less than twenty people in total, and most of them were dragged into it in a muddle. They shouldn��t have been affected much. The ones who have been affected more deeply are probably only three or five people.��


    Shen Xixi sighed in relief. ��Thank you for your hard work. Let��s get rid of this trouble. We won��t be leaving today. We��ll rest here for a night before we set off tomorrow.��


    Li Bai seemed to be hesitant to speak.


    However, Shen Xixi was thinking about what she should do next. She did not notice the expression on Li Bai��s face. Then, she took out an earpiece from her pocket and put it on.


    Rabbit��s voice came from the other end of the earpiece. ��Where are you guys now?��


    ��We��re about to set off. We��ll be there in about ten minutes,��Shen Xixi said after looking at the watch on her wrist.


    ��Okay, don��t worry. They��re still setting up the venue. It looks like they��re not here yet. They won��t be able to organize anything in ten minutes.��Rabbit licked its lips and pressed the flush button on the toilet.


    However, after hearing her words, Shen Xixi quickened her pace and left the hotel with Li Bai, carrying a suitcase.


    Then, the two of them found a public toilet by the side of the road and went in with the suitcase. When they came out two minutester, they were already two police officers.


    They had police hats, uniforms,w enforcement recorders, and even police identification cards. In other words, as long as they did not go to the police system to check, it was almost impossible for them to be seen through.


    After changing, Shen Xixi and Li Bai rushed to the targetmunity without stopping. With the police uniforms on them, the security guards did not stop them. They even took the initiative to ask if they needed help.


    Shen Xixi asked him to open the door of building one. Then, they took the elevator to the 11th floor. They did not even need to knock on the door, because the door of room 1104 was wide open.


    There was a strange-looking ornament hanging on the door. For some reason, the security guard felt a chill in his heart when he saw the ornament. He felt ufortable, but it was difficult for him to look away, he was about to take a closer look when the female police officer suddenly stepped forward and blocked his way. At the same time, she pulled the ornament down and put it into a document bag.


    Then, she did not stop and walked straight in.


    There were already seven people in the living room. Five of them were on the sofa, and two of them were standing in front of the window, smoking and talking about something.


    Seeing Shen Xixi and Li Baie in from the outside, everyone in the room, except for Rabbit, who pretended to be attracted to join the club, was stunned.


    Shen Xixi turned on thew enforcement recorder and then took out her police officer badge. ��Police officer, who is the owner of this ce?��


    The people in the room looked at each other, and then a man who was smoking by the window coughed dryly and said, ��This house belongs to Uncle He. He is in the back room. Do you want me to call him?��


    ��No need. I��ll go by myself,��Shen Xixi said. Then, she gave Li Bai a look and asked him to stay here to look after the people in the living room while she continued to walk inside.


    This was a three-bedroom house with a living room. In addition to the living room, there were three other rooms. There was a bathroom and a kitchen. The kitchen could be seen from the living room. There was no one inside. The bathroom was on Shen Xixi��s left, the door was closed, as if someone was using the toilet.


    In the study room, the door was open, but there was no one there either. After that, there were only two rooms, the master bedroom and the second bedroom. Shen Xixi pushed open the door of the second bedroom first and found that it was a children��s room, there was a child about eleven or twelve years old inside. He must have juste home from school and was lying on the table doing his homework.


    Shen Xixi saw the little boy turn his head and tried to force a smile on his face. ��It��s okay, you can continue studying.��With that, he exited the second bedroom, closed the door, and reached out to push the door of the master bedroom next door, but this time, he did not push it open.


    Shen Xixi knocked on the door. After about three seconds, a voice came from inside. ��Wait a minute, the activity still needs to be prepared before it can begin.��


    However, Shen Xixi continued to knock on the door as if she had not heard anything.


    After a few seconds, the master bedroom door was finally opened. However, it was only opened at a very small angle. The person inside stuck his head out and saw Shen Xixi.


    It was a man with a shapely build. He had very deep dark circles under his eyes. It seemed that he had not been sleeping well. When he saw Shen Xixi, a hint of panic shed across his eyes. However, he quickly calmed down, however, the change in his eyes could not escape Shen Xixi��s eyes.


    ��Officer, what��s the matter?��The man asked.


    ��We��ve received a report that someone has formed an illegal association here. Come with us.��


    ��An Illegal Association?��? ��No, no, no. We��re not doing that kind of thing. It��s just a small gathering between friends, and it doesn��t involve any cash or belongings. I bought the drinks and food at the gathering with my own money,��the man hurriedly exined.


    However, the female police officer in front of him was unmoved. She only said two words indifferently, ��Open the door.��


    ��We... now is not a good time,��the man stammered.


    However, in the next moment, Shen Xixi had already kicked the door open. Not only was the door kicked open, but the man behind the door was also pushed aside by the force and fell to the ground.


    He looked a little confused. He probably did not expect to meet such a rough police officer. Under such circumstances, shouldn��t they have warned him first? They would only choose to break down the door after a few times.


    However, the female police officer in front of him directly jumped to thest step. In the room, other than the man lying on the door, there were two other people. One of them seemed to be his wife, the other one, who was slightly older, might be his uncle.


    They were busy creating an extremely strange and abstract mural on the wall. The mural depicted a guy with an octopus head wreaking havoc in the human world. Just like before, Shen Xixi wanted to move her eyes away with just one look, however, in the next moment, she felt her gaze being attracted by something. The thing on the mural seemed toe to life, and tentacles stretched out from the wall!


    Shen Xixi felt a strong sense of dizziness in her head. Her body swayed, and before she could make the next move, she actually fell to the ground, thest image in her mind was the woman among the three opposite her. She frantically pulled out a fruit knife from under the bed.

 Chapter 1400

    <h4>Chapter 1400: Conversation</h4>


    Shen Xixi opened her eyes and found herself lying on a bed in a small clinic. The rabbit was lying next to her bed and had fallen asleep. However, her eyes were red. It was obvious that she had just cried not long ago.


    Meanwhile, Li Bai was reading novels on his phone. When he heard the movement from the hospital bed, he raised his head and saw Shen Xixi trying to prop herself up. He was pleasantly surprised. ��Sister Xixi, you��re awake!��


    Shen xixi nodded slightly and lowered her head to check where she had been stabbed, but she did not find any wounds on her body.


    Li Bai seemed to know what she was thinking and said, ��After you fainted, rabbit and I rushed to the master bedroom immediately. The situation at that time was too dangerous. We saw that crazy woman riding on you, but before she could do anything, rabbit and I subdued her.��


    ��What about the needle in my hand?��


    ��You didn��t wake up, so the Doctor gave you an IV drip.��


    Rabbit was also woken up by the voices of the two people. She rubbed her eyes and saw that Shen Xixi could not help but cry again. Then, she plunged into Shen Xixi��s arms.


    Shen Xixi stroked her hair and said, ��Sorry to make you worry. By the way, that group of people...��


    ��I did as you taught me. I asked the three people in the room to tell me what they had done. Then, I threw them and the video at the entrance of the police station. As for the others, I used the identity of a police officer to educate them. I didn��t allow them to participate in simr activities and clubs. After that, I let them go home.��


    ��Well done,��Shen Xixi praised. Then, she pulled out the needle in her hand and pressed the eye of the needle with her other hand, ��Let��s go. After all, we are impersonating the police. Maybe the police are already looking for us. Don��t stay in this city any longer.��


    ��Where are we going?��


    ��Shenzhen. There have been continuous deaths of employees in the Fukang Group. I suspect that there are simr clubs there,��Shen Xixi said as she put on her sports shoes.


    However, when she stood up, she realized that rabbit and Li Bai had not moved.


    ��Why? Do you have any questions?��Shen Xixi asked.


    Rabbit and Li Bai looked at each other, then finally mustered up the courage to say, ��Sister Xixi, in fact, we have wanted to talk to you for a long time.��


    ��You have something you want to talk to me about? Okay, then let��s go back to the car and talk while we��re on the road.��Shen Xixi did not seem to take rabbit��s request to heart, she had always yed the role of a leader in the team, and the decisions she made, whether it was rabbit or Li Bai, had never been questioned.


    Sometimes when the three of them were together, it did not seem like a yer��s team, but more like an older sister with a younger sister and younger brother.


    However, what she did not expect was that the usually obedient rabbit actually raised an objection for the first time. ��No, we don��t want to talk in the car.��


    Shen Xixi was stunned when she heard that. She turned around and looked at rabbit and Li Bai again. She finally realized that the two of them were serious this time.


    She nodded and said, ��I understand, but this is not a ce to talk. Let��s go out first.��


    ��No problem.��Rabbit and Li Bai were relieved when they saw that Shen Xixi finally agreed.


    Because it was already veryte, most of the cafes and restaurants had already closed. The three of them finally found an inte cafe that was open 24 hours a day and asked for a private room.


    The receptionist also gave them an extra fruit te. When the waiter left the card room, rabbit said again, ��Sister Xixi, Li Bai and I feel that we can��t go on like this.��


    ��What do you mean by going on like this?��


    ��I mean continuing to pursue these things rted to that guy. We know that you��ve been feeling guilty because of your decision that day, but no matter how hard you try to make up for it, you can��t change what happened.��


    ��So, should I just pretend that nothing happened?��Shen Xixi asked.


    ��No, that��s not what I mean. I, I want to say...��for the first time, the rabbit seemed a little nervous when he questioned Shen Xixi, and he stuttered when he was ready to say something.


    ��We want to say that what you��re doing now is useless except for torturing yourself,��Li Bai suddenly continued, ��There��s no end to these clubs. Even the police can��t do anything about it. The three of us have been running back and forth for more than a month. We��ve only killed a dozen of them during the day and at night. Compared to the total number, it��s not even worth mentioning. Besides, you know that these believers can��t stay in the police station for more than a few days. They can even go home swaggeringly after writing a pledge a few hourster.


    ��As for the ordinary people you let go, they may be fine now, but as time goes by, they will eventually be like the people who were caught. With your intelligence, it��s impossible for you to ignore these things. However, up until now, you haven��t even mentioned it. Is it because you can��t solve it?��


    Shen Xixi opened her mouth as if she wanted to say something, but was stopped by Li Bai, ��Let me finish. Sister Xixi, usually you point east and I Never Go West. Didn��t you always wish that I could think more? It��s rare that I��ve thought so much this time.��


    ��Mm, then continue.��


    ��You must think that we don��t want to continue because we can��t see Hope and are afraid of suffering. But that��s not the case. The reason why we really feel that we can��t continue like this is because of you.��


    ��Me?��


    ��That��s right, we all know... the characteristics of the lord oflye. The more things youe into contact with that are rted to him, the greater the pollution on your mind. Using the more popr board game concept from before, it��s that... the faster the value drops.��


    ��San Value,��rabbit added softly.


    ��Yes, si value. We were all there when hended in that small valley that night. We have been tracking the clubs that worship him for more than a month, especially you. As the leader of the team and the brain, you have been collecting and studying relevant information. Your spirit has reached its limit. This is also the reason why you suddenly fainted in your bedroom this afternoon. Tell us honestly, Sister Xixi, have you been having nightmares recently?��


    ��No,��Shen Xixi answered quickly, as if she hadn��t thought about it at all.


    Li Bai stared into Shen Xixi��s eyes, trying to figure out what was going on. However, this was not something he was good at, so he had to give up in the end and continue to persuade her, ��Stop, Sister Xixi, before it��s toote.��


    ��But it��s already toote,��Shen Xixi said. ��You��re right about one thing. If this goes on, everyone will soon be that guy��s follower.��

 Chapter 1401

    <h4>Chapter 1401: Deep Sea Hunters</h4>


    Seeing that the room had fallen into silence again, Shen Xixi suddenly changed the topic. ��But what you said makes sense. It��s too dangerous to continue chasing after them, and it doesn��t make much sense.��


    ��So, are you willing to stop?��Rabbit said happily.


    ��No, I n to join the deep sea hunters and go out to sea with them,��Shen Xixi said.


    The deep sea hunters were not a ss, but a newly established yer organization. Unlike those guilds and Chambers ofmerce, the deep sea hunters were only a temporary organization that did not pursue a long-term existence, in fact, the yers who joined the deep sea hunters could not wait for the deep sea hunters to disband the next day.


    It was founded by the Guardian of the mysterious human organization that had recently emerged. Among them, there were not only yers, but also some professionally trained ordinary people, however, everyone joined the deep sea hunters with the same goal, which was to stop that thing in the city under the ice from destroying the world at all costs.


    This price included the lives of its members. Therefore, in a sense, this organization was a death squad. It represented the unyielding spirit of humanity and the courage to fight to the end, at the same time, it carried humanity��sst hope.


    Shen Xixi had considered joining the deep sea hunters before, but at the time, she didn��t think she had the courage to face the Lord oflaiya, much less make a move, that was because the other party was using Zhang Heng��s body.


    That was why she had chosen to pursue and crack down on the societies that had sprung up like mushrooms after a rain. It wasn��t until Li Bai and rabbit exposed her that Shen Xixi realized that she had only been running away. She had used this seemingly busy and proactive action to numb herself.


    But Tonight, Shen Xixi did not want to run away anymore.


    She said to rabbit and Li Bai, ��You guys can go. I Can��t bring you along when you join the deep sea hunters.��


    Rabbit looked like he was about to cry when he heard that. ��Is it because we don��t listen to you anymore, Sister Xixi?��


    ��No, it��s because we don��t have much time left. Whether it��s the deep sea hunters or the gods��side, we��ve already tried our best previously, but we still can��t do much against that fellow. This is very likely to be thest battle. Gather all our strength, but to be honest, I don��t think our chances of winning are high.��


    ��Since the odds aren��t good, why did sister Xixi join the deep-sea Hunters?��


    ��Because there are some things that someone has to do.��Shen Xixi patted rabbit��s head, ��This is also why I didn��t let you guys follow me. For the rest of the time, go home and spend more time with your parents and family. Cherish every second you spend with them. Don��t wait until you lose them before you start to regret.��


    After saying that, Shen Xixi turned to Li Bai and said, ��I have a mission for you. Can you help me send her home safely?��


    ��I��m not a child,��rabbit said unhappily. ��I��ve been at the forefront of this period of time, okay?��


    ��I know.��Shen Xixi nodded. ��I want you to stay here for a longer period of time.��


    Hearing this, Rabbit��s face turned red, but then it became worried again. ��Are you sure, Sister Xixi? That... you want to fight brother Zhang Heng?��


    ��That��s right. I want to believe in him like Fan Meinan and his father, but I��ve been waiting for more than a month. In this one month, I��ve only seen innocent people die one after another. I��ve seen the worship of that guy spread like a virus in human society. Although I don��t want to admit it, I already have the answer in my heart.


    ��... He is gone. He haspletely disappeared. There is no trace of him left in that body. It is time to face this reality and continue moving forward,��Shen Xixi said with a determined gaze.


    ..


    Shen Xixi, who had already made up her mind, acted quickly. After sending rabbit and Li Bai away, she submitted her application to the deep-sea Hunter.


    Without waiting for a reply, she took a ne to the deep sea hunter��s base in Sanya early the next morning.


    The gray seven-story building in front of her originally belonged to a travel agency. However, when P2P became popr, the owner of the travel agency was jealous of the high profits. He also got a few partners to start a small loan, in the end, unfortunately, the thunderstorm caused the travel agency, which had a good business, to be unable to pay its sry. It had no choice but to dere bankruptcy.


    This office building was then bought by the Guardian. It was originally a secret base of the Guardian, but now it was used by the deep sea hunter, and the address was no longer kept secret.


    Shen Xixi nced at the sea anchor sign on the ss door, then Strode in and went straight to the front desk.


    ��Hello, is there anything I can help you with?��The receptionist at the front desk said with a smile.


    ��I��m here to join the deep sea hunter. I sent the application email yesterday.��Shen Xixi didn��t waste any time and went straight to the point.


    ��Okay, can you tell me your name or code name? I��ll check it for you.��


    ��Shen Xixi.��


    The receptionist had already picked up the phone, but when she heard the name, her hand froze.


    Shen Xixi waited for about five seconds. ��Is there a problem? Didn��t you want to help me check on the Progress?��


    ��Oh, OH.��The receptionist came back to her senses and quickly reported Shen Xixi��s name and purpose of visit. The reply from the other side was also very quick. Not long after, the receptionist put down the phone again, she forced a smile at Shen Xixi. ��I��m sorry, your application was not approved.��


    ��Why?��Shen Xixi frowned and asked.


    ��Well...��the receptionist didn��t know how to answer.


    ��I don��t want to make things difficult for you. Who��s in charge here?��Shen Xixi continued to ask.


    ��It��s usually Frankie, but he hasn��te today.��As soon as the receptionist finished speaking, a man in a flowery shirt with a surfboard walked in excitedly, ��The weather is nice today. I n to go surfing in the afternoon! Cindy, do you want toe with me? Huh...��


    The Man in the flowery shirt also noticed Shen Xixi at this time. The main thing was that Shen Xixi��s looks were too outstanding. He did not see the hint in the receptionist��s eyes and directly opened his mouth to strike up a conversation, ��This beauty, are you here to join the Deep Sea Hunter? Why do you look a little familiar to me?��


    ��That��s right, I��m here to join the deep sea hunter, but for some reason, I was rejected. I��m looking for the person in charge here, Franky.��


    ��What a coincidence, I��m Franky.��The man in the flowery shirt rubbed his nose and his eyes lit up. ��Whoever rejected you, I��ll make the decision for you.��


    After he said that, he finally noticed the awkward expression on the hostess��face.


    ��What? You��re not going to say that I rejected her application, are you? ��I��ve recently rejected an application. Wait a minute, I know who you are. Shen Xixi, you��re Shen Xixi, Zhang Heng��s ssmate and friend. You seem to have a super-friendly rtionship.��

 Chapter 1402

    <h4>Chapter 1402: The Route To Hell</h4>


    ��Since you know who I am, you should know my strength,��Shen Xixi said. ��Why? is the requirement for the deep-sea hunters to recruit new members higher than I thought?��


    ��Well... the requirement for the deep-sea hunters to recruit new members isn��t high. At this time, we can��t be picky anymore,��the man in the flowery shirt said as he handed the surfboard to the receptionist at the front desk, ��Your name is well-known among the yers, and your strength is well-known. Even bing themander of this operation is not a problem, let alone bing a member of the deep sea hunters.��


    ��So, you��re afraid that I��ll steal your position?��


    ��No, I��m not rejecting you because of your strength.��The Man in the flowery shirt smiled, ��Let��s get straight to the point. You and Zhang Heng are too close. Rumor has it that on that night in the valley, you led men to block your teacher, the goddess of justice, Justya, and prevented her from taking part in the siege on Zhang Heng. From a certain perspective, it��s your responsibility that the world has be like this.��


    ��However,��the man in the flowery shirt changed the topic, ��I didn��t bring this up to question you. Otherwise, the deep-sea hunters wouldn��t have stayed away from you for so long. We know that you and your two subordinates have been dealing with those messy clubs recently. I think this is pretty good. Why Don��t you continue?��


    ��Because this kind of thing is meaningless,��shen xixi said calmly.


    ��Oh, did you only realize this yesterday?��? ��I thought you had always known that you were just trying to get busy so that you would feel less guilty. Or perhaps you were using this method to chase after the footprints left by your crush. Some people say that he has no feelings at all. Is That So?��? ��So this is destined to be a one-sided love.��


    ��Can mocking me make the deep-sea hunter seed in saving the World?��Shen Xixi asked.


    ��No, I��m just saying this to let you understand the reason why I refused you to join the deep-sea Hunter.��


    ��What reason?��


    Faced with Shen Xixi who was determined to get to the bottom of it, the man in the flowery shirt sighed, ��Because how do I know that you won��t do what you did in the valley that night after you joined the deep sea hunters? ��Search our n?wn0?el.?rg����I��m sorry. Although I��m willing to believe in you and give you another chance, I have to be responsible for my team members.��


    ��If you had said that from the beginning, I might have been willing to treat you as a man.��Shen Xixi��s expression did not change when she heard that.


    ��Of course you can mock me. Just think of it as me mocking you to pay off my debt. That��s very fair.��The man in the flowery shirt shrugged, ��But after scolding me and venting my anger, you��d better leave this ce obediently. Go home and spend time with your parents and friends, or find a puppy to experience some physical pleasure. In short, let yourst life be more meaningful. If necessary, we can help you book a ne ticket. After all, this ce used to be a travel agency.��


    The man in the flowery shirt made a joke, but it didn��t work. Then, he saw Shen Xixi throw the bag on the ground.


    ��It can��t be that bad. Is there a need to make the scene so ugly?��The Man in the flowery shirt was also dumbfounded. ��Are you going to say that if I don��t take you in, you��ll have to eat and live here?��


    ��You��re a real coward,��Shen Xixi said.


    ��This title is quite unfamiliar to me. Those who are willing to join the deep sea hunters have already put their lives at risk. They are real warriors. Do you think these warriors are willing to ept the leadership of a coward?��The Man in the flowery shirt shook his head and said, ��Okay, I don��t want to argue with you anymore. It looks like I��m bullying you. Cindy, book her the nearest flight and call a taxi to send her to the airport.��


    After saying that, he turned around and prepared to go upstairs.


    However, just as he took a step forward, he heard Shen Xixi��s voice behind him, ��I said that you��re a coward because you keep saying that you don��t intend to pursue the things I did in the valley, but you didn��t ept me to join the deep sea hunter because you wanted to punish me. You Don��t even dare to admit this in front of me.


    ��Oh, for an arrogant man like you, you probably think that all women should be unable to extricate themselves from your charm as soon as they see you. So when you found out that I wasn��t interested in you at all, you felt that your male dignity was deeply offended.��


    The Man in the flowery shirt was so angry that heughed. He was about to say something, but Shen Xixi stopped him before he could, ��Stop talking nonsense about the safety of your men and the sess of the operation. I only have one question for you. What do you think the chances of the humans winning this operation are?��


    ��Less than ten percent.��Speaking of serious matters, the man in the flowery shirt finally became serious. ��We have already missed the best opportunity to kill him. As time passes, he will be stronger and stronger.��


    ��That is the problem. You are already doing something that will lead to your death. One more traitor will not make this journey any worse. On the contrary, if you let me board the ship, I can at least provide some help. You said that the current situation does not allow you to be picky anymore. Even if it is just a small increase in hope, you should grab hold of it, right?��Shen Xixi said.


    ��I have to admit, your eloquence is really good. You were almost able to convince me. Really, it was just a little bit more.��The man in the flowery shirt used his index finger and thumb to make an almost indiscernible distance.


    ��Don��t you want to know who is more attractive between you and him? If you don��t let me on the boat, how can Ipare?��Shen Xixi said calmly.


    ��Ha,��the man in the flowery shirt finallyughed out loud, ��Everyone says that your intelligence is not inferior to the three guild leaders. I finally saw it today... although I know that you��re just using my male pride to get on the ship, I seem to have found a reason to refuse.��


    ��So I can join the Deep Sea Hunter?��Shen Xixi asked.


    ��No,��the man in the flowery shirt said, ��Before that, you have to do a check-up first. But don��t worry, these checks are only to confirm whether you can withstand the long sea voyage and whether you have decided to sacrifice your life to fight against the evil forces and save the world. After all, we will soon go to the sea, and there is a high probability that we will not return. As long as you can pass the physical check-up, you will be one of the deep-sea hunters.��


    ��I��ll pass the test. When do we set off?��Shen Xixi asked.


    ��We��ll set off in two days when all the people and equipment are here,��the man in the flowery shirt said as he continued to walk upstairs. However, when one of his feet was already on the stairs, he turned back and said, ��Oh, right, I almost forgot.��


    ��What?��


    ��Wee to the route to Hell.��

 Chapter 1403 - The Garden Of Eden Project

    <h4>Chapter 1403: The Garden Of Eden Project </h4>


    Two dayster, Shen Xixi stood on the deck and looked at thend in the distance that was gradually disappearing from her sight.


    The Man in the flowery shirt had just finished checking the sailing route and also walked out of the captain��s cabin.


    ��I��ve read your medical report and there are no other problems. Only your mental state seems to be a little tired. Is it because you��ve been too busy recently?��


    ��Yes. My team and I have been driving around for the past month and a half without much rest,��Shen Xixi said as she took a cup of hot coffee from the man in the flowery shirt.


    ��Then you can have a good rest now. The journey will probably be very long,��the man in the flowery shirt said. ��Of course, if you��re bored and want to find some entertainment, you��re wee toe to my room anytime.��


    ��Thank you, but I don��t need any entertainment,��Shen Xixi replied.


    ��Although I already knew that you were using me, it was still unexpected for you to turn hostile so quickly. After getting on the ship, your attitude toward me has visibly cooled down. It��s really sad. No matter how nice you say it, I��ve taken on a lot of pressure to get you on the ship. Not everyone on this ship is as magnanimous as I am and intends to forgive you for what you did in the valley that night.��


    ��It doesn��t matter. I didn��t board the ship to make friends.��Shen Xixi paused and continued, ��If you have time toin, why don��t you tell me your next n? You said you wanted to keep it a secret onnd, but now that we��re at sea, you can at least tell me.��


    ��Of course, you��re also a member of the deep-sea hunters. This request is very reasonable.��The man in the flowery shirt touched his chin, ��I��ve always been suspicious of people, but never use them. Since I��ve decided to let you board the ship, I Won��t look at you through colored sses like the others. What do you want to know?��


    ��How do we find... the target?��


    ��We��re not going to look for him,��the man in the flowery shirt said slowly, ��After Poseidon was killed, the gods have already lost track of him. Although we have all kinds of modern technology, it��s probably for nothing. So we need to change our thinking �� let him find us.��


    ��How?��


    The Man in the flowery shirt smiled mysteriously. ��By using bait.��


    Shen Xixi��s expression changed slightly. The man in the flowery shirt seemed to have guessed what she was thinking andughed involuntarily, ��It��s not you. Although you have a rtionship with Zhang Heng, Zhang Heng is already dead and only has a body left. The one upying that body is the lord ofraya. He won��t have the memories of Zhang Heng before he died. Even if I use you as bait, it��s useless.��


    ��Then what��s the bait?��


    This time, the man in the flowery shirt was in no hurry to answer, ��I can tell you now, but this trip is so boring, and you obviously don��t n to do any entertainment during this period. So, I��ll leave you with a riddle to guess.��


    Hearing this, Shen Xixi didn��t dwell on this question anymore. She continued to ask, ��If... Lord oflaiya really appears, how are we going to deal with him?��


    ��This freighter was modified before it set off. It was loaded with torpedoes and missiles. One main cannon and three secondary cannons were hidden under the deck. When there was no one around, they would rise up.��


    ��Haven��t these thermal weapons been proven to not have much effect on the target before?��Shen Xixi asked.


    ��That��s right. So the key this time is the ammunition. Whether it��s torpedoes, missiles, or primary and secondary cannons, all of them are provided by the Guardians.��


    ��What is this, an extrarge Godyer Bullet?��Shen Xixi frowned.


    ��Yes, as far as I know, the blood of the gods alone weighs a few tons. It is said that the Guardian found the most precious healing tool and bled the gods day and night. After that, he healed them and bled them again, repeating it 24 hours a day. ��Only then did we gather the required materials,��the man in the flowery shirt said with a face that made people��s hearts skip a beat.


    ��But if he appeared on our ship, wouldn��t your weapons be useless?��


    ��Don��t worry, we��ve definitely considered this before. You��ll know when the timees.��


    The Man in the flowery shirt said as he fished out a fishing rod from somewhere. ��Are there any other questions? You Don��t need entertainment. I Need Entertainment.��


    ��Yes, do the gods know about our actions? How are they going to cooperate with us?��


    ��Those guys aren��t reliable at all. Let��s not count on them.��The Man in the flowery shirt shook his head, ��There��s a high probability that the final battle this time will be US humans. There are six more ships like this that set off from different ports. As long as one of our teams can seed, we can save the entire world.��


    ..


    Just as the deep sea hunter��s ship set off from the harbor, on the other side, in Pluto��s mansion, a meeting had reached the most crucial point.


    The battle with the Lord of Liya was not going well, causing the gods to split into two factions. One faction advocated to continue fighting in order to protect the world and to protect their own source of power. However, the new faction.., hade up with a new n.


    ��The Garden of Eden n, are you guys serious?��Ares��face was ashen. He suspected that there was something wrong with his ears.


    ��Admit it, we can��t do anything to him. Odin is heavily injured, Zeus��divine artifact, lightning, has been destroyed, and the spirit of the god of science has been contaminated. We don��t know when we will be able to recover. We have suffered heavy losses in the previous few battles,��the goddess of life, Isis, said in a deep voice.


    ��However, there are still many of us. We still have enough strength to continue fighting. It is far from time to give up,��Ares said angrily, ��Even those puny humans with short lives have the courage to continue fighting. Are We, as gods, inferior to them?��


    ��This is not something that can be solved with courage, Ares,��the tarot card god interjected, ��We also want to continue fighting, but the premise is that this battle is meaningful and not pushing us to the brink of destruction. While there is still time, we should choose a group of human infants that have not been corrupted by their spirit and bring them to a safe ce that they will never find. Teaching them diligently is the only thing we can do.��


    ��Then what about the billions of people outside?��Ares felt that he was about to go crazy.


    ��There is no other way. We can not take the risk. As long as one person��s spirit has been contaminated and brought into the Garden of Eden, he will eventually enter as well. On the contrary, as long as we can guarantee the purity of the Garden of Eden, the humans outside will die out very quickly. This is because that fellow will bring destruction to thend. When the people outside die, he will naturally not be able to continue existing. However, we can still rely on the humans in the Garden of Eden to continue surviving until we return to thisnd.��

 Chapter 1404 - Hope Is Our Greatest Weapon

    <h4>Chapter 1404: Hope Is Our Greatest Weapon </h4>


    ��Your so-called survival is to coop up in that bullshit garden of Eden and live on?��Ares sneered.


    ��That��s right. In the Garden of Eden, we will be unprecedentedly weak and lose most of our strength, but at least we can survive. Given the current situation, this is the most rational choice.��


    Isis��words were also agreed by many of the gods present. Some of them had even begun to study the location of the Garden of Eden. This was because the master ofraya could invade a person��s spirit through dreams, therefore, it was not easy to find a ce that couldpletely iste the outside world.


    Some of the gods who supported ISIS even mocked Ares, who was the leader of the war faction, ��Isn��t the reason why all of you are unwilling to support the Garden of Eden Project because you are unwilling to give up on your own power? In the end, the reason why all of you are stronger than us is because of your poprity. However, once we reach the Garden of Eden, everything will start all over again. Everyone will be standing on the same starting line. Everything that happens after that will depend on your own abilities.��


    Ares was so angry that heughed. ��Ares, don��t forget who saved you from the hands of the New Gods. Without Us, all of you would have been eaten alive by the hungry New Gods.��


    Freya was also a member of the pro-war faction. However, she did not speak much during the meeting. When Ares, who was in a rage, uttered these words, Freya��s heart sank, she knew that Ares had made a fatal mistake.


    As expected, after Ares said those words, many of the neutral factions, who were still wavering, began to lean towards the Garden of Eden n. After all, no one wanted to be a good-for-nothing all the time.


    In the Garden of Eden, they might have had a hard time at first. However, just as ISIS had said, everyone would once again stand on the same starting line. This was a rare opportunity, especially for those gods who were getting weaker and weaker, it was difficult for them not to be tempted.


    Freya saw that things were not going well and decisively requested for a half-hour break. Although this proposal was epted by the host of the meeting, justya, the battle-oriented faction led by Ares understood that.., a split was inevitable.


    ��This kind of meeting is aplete waste of time. Those cowards have long been scared out of their wits. Even if we break the ice, they will not continue fighting.��


    On thewn outside the house, Ares could not help butin when he saw that there were basically his own people around him.


    ��Then, do you have any good ideas?��Freya��s expression was rtively calm, as though she was not surprised by the oue. She only asked, ��Currently, most of the gods are leaning towards supporting the Garden of Eden Project. It is true that we are the only ones left who are unable to contend against that fellow.��


    ��It would be great if GAIME was still around.��Bader suddenly sighed.


    Although GAIME was a new god, he was one of the few people who were both weed by the new gods and respected by the Old Gods. He set the rules of the game and ended the war that hadsted for thousands of years, he established a new order for the divine realm.


    Although there were many people whoined that he was too broad-minded and missed the barbaric and free times of the past, at this critical moment of life and death, the first person that everyone thought of was still gaime.


    However, Gaime had disappeared at this crucial moment. If he had been present at this meeting, the gods would have reached a consensus whether to fight or flee. No, if he had been present.., perhaps there would not have been this meeting at all. This was because GAIME had already taken care of Laryev��s master when he had just descended into Zhang Heng��s body.


    Seeing that time was running out, the pro-war faction could only continue toin, but they could note up with any good reason to convince the others.


    Ares also noticed that Freya seemed to be a little distracted. While the other gods were trying to find a solution, she just silently looked at the other end of thewn.


    On the bench there sat a short, Fat Man in a suit and tie. His hair was neatlybed, and he had an exaggerated moustache, he looked as if he had walked down from an old 19th-century photograph.


    At the moment, he did not participate in the discussions of the warring factions, nor did he mingle with those who wanted to carry out the Garden of Eden Project. He just held a piece of toast that he had just taken from the kitchen and enjoyed the sunlight, he would asionally pinch off some crumbs and feed them to a group of sparrows in front of him.


    However, just as he was about to throw away thest bit of bread in his hands, the sparrows on the ground suddenly spread their wings and flew away.


    The Man with the mustache raised his head and saw a group of gods headed by Ares walking towards him.


    ��Are you guys here to bask in the Sun Too?��


    ��No, we want to know where Gaime is right now,��Ares replied. Even though the other party was a new god, Ares��s attitude was very polite.


    ��It��s not just you guys, I also want to know.��The man with the mustache spread his hands, looking like he could not help.


    In the next moment, Freya stood up. ��Some people said that Gaime fled early because he was afraid of the Lord oflenia.��


    ��That��s an interesting theory.��The Man with the mustache raised his eyebrows and said with interest, ��What do you think?��


    ��I think it��s nonsense. Other than Gaime, no other god is willing to spend so much effort to mediate the conflict between the new and Old Gods. I don��t think such a leader would really abandon us when we need him the most.��


    ��Yeah, when he first suggested to me that he was going to use games to rece war and resolve the disputes between the gods, I was also quite surprised. I thought that a nerd like him would find such things too troublesome. I even mocked him at that time. I told him that war and peace are like two sides of a coin. You Can��t eliminate one side and keep the other side.


    ��The game might be able to bring about peace for the time being, but the conflicts are still umting. The new God and the old God will fight again sooner orter. Of course, I did not expect that this battle would end in such a manner. I have to say that this ending has quite a dark sense of humor.��The man with the mustache smiled.


    ��Did he leave because he was disappointed with us?��Ares said, ��So he wanted to give up on us, just like those guys over there wanted to give up on the humans?��


    ��Based on my understanding of him, he shouldn��t be such a person.��


    ��Stop keeping us in suspense. You have the best rtionship with him. What exactly is Gaime trying to do? Can��t he tell us at this point in time?��Apollo appeared to be the most anxious, ��Every second we dy, the guy in the sea will be stronger. When that timees, even if Gaime is willing to take action, I��m afraid it will be toote.��


    However, the mustached man on the chair only smiled when he heard that. ��No matter what happens, we should have hope, because hope will always be our strongest weapon.��


    However, this clich�� of his was clearly not enough to satisfy the gods in front of him. In the end, seeing that they could not ask any more questions, Ares and the rest could only leave in disappointment.

 Chapter 1405 - Sparring Partner

    <h4>Chapter 1405: Sparring Partner</h4>


    The Man in the flowery shirt did not lie. Life on the sea was indeed boring most of the time.


    After leaving the sea, the cell phone lost its signal, and the whole ship became a closed small world. The time on the ship was infinitely prolonged, and every day seemed to be no different from the previous day. The days were just a meaningless repetition.


    The Man in the flowery shirt initially thought that Shen Xixi was just saying it, but he did not expect that she really did not look for any entertainment. Not to mention knocking on his door, after such a long time, she had not even caught a fish once. Many people on the ship did not like her, but Shen Xixi did not seem to take it to heart.


    She rarelymunicated with others. Every day, she would go to the training room on time for all kinds of training. The Man in the flowery shirt had visited her a few times, but she had to admit that this woman was definitely not a flower vase. She was ruthless enough to herself, whether it was strength training, explosive strength training, or speed training, she trained two to three times more than others. Moreover, she spent several hours in the training room every day to perfect her swordsmanship.


    The swordsmanship teacher on the ship waspletely convinced by her. She had even tortured him to the point that he was traumatized. He had no choice but to take three days off to recuperate and recover his spirit.


    Shen Xixi did not give up on her training. It was just that she had no one to train with. She could only repeatedly swing her sword in front of the mirror and constantly modify her posture. It was obviously a very boring thing, but her expression remained the same, she did not seem to find it boring at all.


    However, just as she finished practicing a set of movements, the door of the training room was pushed open from the outside.


    Shen Xixi was a little surprised. Under normal circumstances, there would be no one in the swordsmanship training room after nine o��clock at night, so she usually came to practice at this time to avoid getting bored with the others.


    The next moment, a set of protective gear was thrown in front of her.


    Then, the guy who had already put on a full set of protective gear and wrapped himself tightly said, ��Let me practice with you.��


    Shen Xixi recognized the voiceing from the man in the flowery shirt under the helmet.


    But she did not pick up the protective gear beside her feet. She just wiped the sweat on her forehead and said, ��I thought I made myself clear before.��


    ��I��m not hitting on you,��the man in the flowery shirt interrupted Shen Xixi, ��I know that my previous frivolous behavior may have left a bad impression on you, but I��m not an animal that only knows how to think with my lower body. Otherwise, I wouldn��t have been on the boat for so long without bothering you.��


    Shen Xixi put away the bamboo sword in her hand and waited for the man in the flowery shirt to continue.


    ��I just like to have some fun from time to time. This is a matter of mutual consent. Even if you are my mother, you can��t interfere with my private life, right?��The man in the flowery shirt shrugged.


    ��Then why didn��t you continue to have fun and instead came to practice with me?��Shen Xixi asked.


    ��Please, do you think I��ve really forgotten the purpose of this voyage? Of course, I also hope to have reliable teammates by my side at the critical moment. Although we barely escaped death this time, it��s always good to increase our chances of survival. Otherwise, why would I ept your application to let you board the ship? Do you really think that I��m jealous of that Dead Guy? Cut the crap and get started!��The Man in the flowery shirt sent out an invitation to battle.


    Shen Xixi did not hesitate anymore. She picked up the armor on the ground and put it on. She held the bamboo sword in her hand again, and her aura changed. ��Please advise me!��


    The man in the flowery shirt felt a huge pressure enveloping him from afar. He finally understood why the sword trainer on the ship had asked for a leave of absence. However, not only was he not afraid, he was even more excited, he licked his lips and said, ��Bring It On!��


    For the next two weeks, the two of them had been sparring with each other.


    The happiest person was none other than the sword trainer on the ship, because he was pleasantly surprised to find that his vacation had been extended and that he had escaped the hell of being a sparring partner. At the same time, he mourned silently for the man in the flowery shirt, because he did not believe that there was really a man in this world who could withstand Shen Xixi��s torture.


    But it turned out that the man in the flowery shirt was also a madman who was ruthless enough to himself.


    Shen Xixi��s impression of the man in the flowery shirt had indeed improved a lot. In a sense, the flirtatious temperament of the man in the flowery shirt was more like a disguise. If you were deceived by his appearance.., if you really looked down on him because of this, it would be exactly what he wanted, and you would have to pay a painful price.


    In the training room, two figures were maintaining high-speed movements. While blocking each other��s attacks, they were also looking for ws in each other��s moves!


    The intensity of the battle had been very high since the beginning. The training clothes had long been drenched in sweat, but the two of them were still fully focused. The sound of the collision of bamboo swords reverberated in the training room.


    Shen Xixi��s eyes never left the man��s shoulder.


    Was she going to attack the left side? No, this was just a feint! The real target should be her throat, but Shen Xixi did not stop her opponent after seeing through his movements. Instead, she made the tip of her sword swing slightly to the left, as if she was prepared to defend the left side, but in reality, she was prepared to quickly stab back at the man��s right wrist after blocking his attack.


    Battles were never a simple contest of speed and strength. At the same time, there was also a contest of spirit.


    The two of them had already engaged in such a contest over a thousand times during this period of time. They had both won and lost, and neither could finish the other off. However, in the next moment, Shen Xixi suddenly cked out, she actually could not avoid the man��s stab at her throat.


    However, the man in the flowery shirt had obviously noticed Shen Xixi��s unusual behavior. At the crucial moment, he stopped his actions and asked with concern, ��Are You Alright?��


    After this period ofpetition, the two of them had long be friends. Of course, this kind of friend was not a rtionship between a man and a woman. They were simply admiring each other and were willing to believe in each other��s strength.


    Although the man in the flowery shirt had released a small bait before he made his move, he did not think that Shen Xixi��s strength would not be able to see through his seductive movements, not to mention that Shen Xixi waspletely unprepared just now, it was as if she had lost her mind.


    ��I��m fine. I��m just a little tired. Let��s call it a day. Can you leave me alone for a while?��Shen Xixi said as she rubbed her forehead.


    ��Okay.��The Man in the flowery shirt did not waste any time. He stood up and said, ��It��s been hard on You recently. You can rest more. Come and find me when you want to practice your sword.��


    ��Thank you.��Shen Xixi forced a smile.


    However, when the man in the flowery shirt left, Shen Xixi could not hold it in anymore. She hugged the trash can in the training room and vomited because she had just looked at the head of the man in the flowery shirt who was wearing a helmet, all she saw was a huge octopus head. In fact, it was not just the man in the flowery shirt. Shen Xixi was alone in the training room. When she saw the ceiling above her head, she felt that the ceiling had changed as well, it was covered with seashells, and something was constantly squirming.


    Shen Xixi knew that there was something wrong with her mind. To be more precise, after a month and a half of tracking and cleaning up the mysterious societies, something was wrong with her mind.


    However, she had held on until now and did not tell anyone.


    Shen Xixi only hoped that this final battle woulde a little earlier, before her mindpletely copsed.

 Chapter 1406 - It Wasn’t Him, It Was Them

    <h4>Chapter 1406: It Wasn��t Him, It Was Them </h4>


    Shen Xixi couldn��t remember how she got back to her room. She took out the bottle of sleeping pills that she had bought before she boarded the ship from her backpack. She opened the bottle cap and found that it was empty.


    After that, she could only wash up briefly andy on the bed.


    After a day of intense training, her body and mind were exhausted, but she still couldn��t fall asleep.


    Shen Xixi did not know why, but the duration of this hallucination was longer than the previous ones. No matter where she looked now, she would see strange scenes that ordinary people could not bear.


    When Shen Xixi tried to close her eyes, her imagination became sharper. Those indescribable things filled her mind, as if they were going to devour her.


    At that moment, Shen Xixi suddenly thought of Zhang Heng. Thetter should have also suffered from this kind of terrifying hallucination, especially during his time in seclusion in the mountain. Shen Xixi didn��t know how Zhang Heng survived, althoughpared to her, Zhang Heng still had the [ immune crystal ] on him.


    However, the [ immune crystal ] was only used three times, and Zhang Heng had onest use left for the little girl he had spent a few weeks with.


    So where had he used his previous two chances?


    Ever since Zhang Heng��s death, Shen Xixi had been avoiding remembering things rted to Zhang Heng. Other than the fact that it was difficult for her to ept Zhang Heng��s death.., there was also a knot in her heart �� that was Zhang Heng��s final choice.


    Sometimes, Shen Xixi felt that she could understand Zhang Heng. After all, he had been forced into a desperate situation that night. Other than a few people, the whole world wished for him to die in that valley, therefore, he naturally had enough reasons to take revenge on the world. This was a very fair thing to do.


    However, Shen Xixi felt that the Zhang Heng she knew was more than that. However, her rationality could not convince her to believe in an illusory thing like Fan Meinan and father Zhang.


    Therefore, she could only keep this matter in the bottom of her heart. Until Tonight, her mind was on the verge of shattering due to those uncontroble hallucinations. However, she could not help but think of many things.


    Those details that should not have been overlooked with her observational skills.


    Shen Xixi realized that there were too many unexinable factors to Zhang Heng��s death that night. In thest two weeks of his life, why did he run into the mountains alone? What did he do during that time? Looking at the trap he had set up in the mountains, it was obvious that he had expected the battle that night. If that was the case, why didn��t he run away earlier?


    Even the viger who had tipped him off earlier, with Zhang Heng��s cautiousness, should not have overlooked this unstable factor.


    Shen Xixi ced herself in Zhang Heng��s shoes, wanting to think and understand Zhang Heng��s state of mind and thoughts at the time. However, right now, she was being tormented by those omnipresent hallucinations, it was difficult for her to fully focus her attention.


    Furthermore, for some unknown reason, the sea was particrly stormy tonight. The deep-sea Hunter��s ship was swaying in the waves. The people inside looked like they were sitting on a pirate ship in an amusement park, even many people who had already fallen asleep were jolted awake from their beds by the storm. The sailors were also nervously waiting for orders at their posts.


    Shen Xixi was already feeling nauseous, so she had no choice but to get up from her bed and look for the trash can.


    However, not long after Shen Xixi finished vomiting, a sudden rm sounded in the cabin.


    From the length of the rm, Shen Xixi could tell that it was an enemy attack!


    The next moment, she shuddered. Could it be Zhang Heng? If that was the case, it could exin why the hallucinations hadsted so long. Was it because the real person was nearby?


    When Shen Xixi thought of this, not only did she not feel fear, she even felt a sense of anticipation.


    She knew her own mental state the best. It was getting worse by the day. If this dragged on, she might die on this vast ocean before she could even see the real person.


    Shen Xixi went to the bed and took out the small scale that Justya had given her. She pushed open the door and walked towards the deck.


    The corridor was very lively now. Almost all the doors of the rooms were open. The yers in the guest room were either putting on their clothes or checking their weapons because the ship was shaking, there were also bits and pieces of things like beer bottles and toilet paper rolling on the floor. The captains of each team were counting the members of each team. Everyone looked very nervous.


    Although they knew that such a day woulde before they boarded the ship, it did not mean that when this day really came, everyone would be unmoved and face it calmly.


    Shen Xixi rarely interacted with other yers. Now that the Great War wasing, no one cared about her. Shen Xixi walked all the way to the deck.


    At this moment, the sky seemed to have been pierced by something. Heavy rain poured down from the entrance of the hole, and the dense raindrops hadpletely joined together. Coupled with the terrifying wind and thunder, even if the people on the deck were only a few meters apart.., they still needed to shout to barelymunicate.


    Shen Xixi supported herself with the battery at the side to stabilize her body. At the same time, she quickly swept her gaze over and found the man in the flowery shirt among the few figures on the port deck.


    Although the ship was constantly shaking in the storm and the huge waves, the figure of the man in the flowery shirt stood there firmly like a rock, unmoving despite the wind and rain. Seeing his figure, the sailors on the deck did not seem to be so afraid anymore.


    The Man in the flowery shirt held his binocrs and looked in a certain direction.


    The next moment, Shen Xixi��s voice came from behind him. ��Is he here?��


    ��It��s not him, it��s them.��The Man in the flowery shirt had a serious expression. He handed the binocrs to Shen Xixi. Shen Xixi took the binocrs and ced them in front of her eyes. She looked in the direction that the man in the flowery shirt had been looking at.


    However, the visibility in the sea was very low now. As far as Shen Xixi��s eyes could see, there were only surging waves. That was until a thick bolt of lightning struck the sea and lit up the night sky.


    With the sh of Light, Shen Xixi saw a group of dense ck shadows in the sea. They were a group of ugly monsters that were half human and half fish-frog. The number of them was unknown. There were at least thousands of them, they were swimming rapidly towards them. For a moment, Shen Xixi thought that she was hallucinating.


    However, the next moment, she heard the man in the flowery shirt say one word, ��Deep diver!��


    His voice was colder than the raindrops that fell on his skin. Then, he ordered the adjutant beside him, ��Prepare to drop the deep-water bombs.��


    ��Should we drop all of them?��


    ��No, use half of them. The other half should be left for the main target.��After a pause, the man in the flowery shirt added, ��If we can survive this wave of attacks.��

 Chapter 1407 - Fierce Battle

    <h4>Chapter 1407: Fierce Battle</h4>


    With a loud bang, the high explosives in the deep-water bombs were detonated!


    The shockwaves and fragments shot out in all directions rapidly, forming several waves that soared into the sky on the surface of the water!


    It must be known that these deep-water bombs were fortified by the guardians and were specially used to deal with supernatural creatures. The monsters that were half-human, half-fish, and half-frog within the range of the explosion were almost all dead on the spot. In a short while.., corpses floated on the surface of the sea.


    However, before the people on the ship could cheer, they saw a new group of ck Shadows joining the team. The number of monsters did not decrease but increased instead!


    The Man in the flowery shirt��s expression became more and more serious. He thought for a moment and had his men throw down two more deep-water bombs. At the same time, he tried to fire a torpedo.


    Unfortunately, other than the depth charges that could be detonated at a fixed time, the heavy torpedoes were easily avoided by the monsters. Moreover,pared to the number of these deep divers, the damage caused by the depth charges was not enough.


    The Man in the flowery shirt had already realized the seriousness of the problem. In order to save ammunition, he did not even authorize the main and secondary cannons to fire. It was not until the monsters swam closer that he finally gave the order to attack.


    The cannonballs and bullets nted downwards. The Dark Shadows in the sea could not help but feel stifled. However, their reactions were also very fast. After dropping dozens of corpses, they disappearedpletely from the surface of the sea.


    The yers were naturally not so nave as to think that they could rely on this round of attacks to chase the monsters away. In fact, when they saw the deep divers disappear, many people��s expressions changed.


    They had already thought of where these monsters had gone to!


    The deep divers moved from the surface of the water to the bottom of the water, avoiding the fierce gunfire. ording to the sonar detector, these monsters were now about 20 meters below the water, and their speed did not slow down, they continued to approach the deep sea hunter��s ship.


    The Man in the flowery shirt had a simple reaction when faced with the menacing enemies. He only said indifferently, ��Get ready for battle!��


    Then, he took the lead and took a submachine gun from the person beside him.


    After hearing the rm, the yers on the ship quickly calmed down after experiencing a short period of chaos.��Please reading on NEWN0V?L.0?G�� They gathered into small teams ording to the previous division and came to the deck under the captain��s lead, among them was the extremely cold ghost who had frozen the pool earlier.


    He walked to the side of the ship and reached out a hand to press on the guardrail. Soon, a thinyer of ice formed on the bottom of the ship.


    The deep divers only emerged from the water after diving to a blind spot that the main and secondary cannons on the ship could not hit. However, when they tried to climb onto the ship, they found it difficult to find any point of force, the parts of their limbs that were removed were abnormally slippery. As a result, the first batch of divers who were the vanguard unit immediately suffered.


    They jumped up high and before long, they slid into the water again. Along with them, there was also a series of bullets!


    The first wave of attacks from the divers had just begun, and they had no choice but to end it hastily. Moreover, they had handed over dozens of corpses. However, the yers on the ship were not very excited. Everyone understood that.., the Battle Tonight had just begun.


    As expected, the divers only remained silent for a while before they came up with a new move.


    Tonight, the sea was stormy and high. There were even huge waves that were dozens of meters high. The divers could actually calcte their trajectories and use the huge waves to throw themselves onto the ship.


    Just a wave that was about the same height as the ship��s railing had sent at least 40 divers onto the ship. However, a few of them had been killed by the yers who had discovered them before they evennded, other than that, there were also some unlucky ones who knocked their heads against the turrets and fainted.


    However, the rest of them finally managed to board the ship, giving theirpanions a good start. Unfortunately, they were too outnumbered. They were quickly taken care of by the nearby yer teams.


    However, their sess also pointed the way for the divers. Following which, more and more half-human and half-fish frogs used the waves to throw themselves onto the ship. The battle became intense.


    Once the battlefield was shifted from the sea to the ship, neither torpedoes nor cannons could be used anymore. The most reliable weapon the yers had was the god-ying bullets.


    Especially now that the god-ying bullets had been upgraded to the third generation, their lethality was astonishing. Even gods below grade B would find it difficult to withstand them, not to mention the divers, who were servant-level supernatural creatures, basically, as long as they were shot, they would lose theirbat power.


    However, the problem was that there were simply too many of these monsters, as if there was no end to them.


    At first, the yers had an absolute advantage, but soon, casualties began to appear. At the same time, the man in the flowery shirt had no choice but to remind the deep sea hunters to be careful with their bullets.


    Although the Guardian had spent a lot of blood this time and provided a considerable number of god-ying bullets, the average number of bullets on each ship was not as many as they had imagined. Moreover, the n this time was to deal with the Lord oflenia, the bullets only yed a restraining role. At the current rate of consumption of the god-ying bullets, it was very likely that they would notst more than 15 minutes.


    When some yers heard the man in the flowery shirt��s warning, they decisively lowered their firing rate and began to pursue shooting uracy. At the same time, they also used other weapons to assist in battle, however, it was not that most yers did not understand the consequences of running out of God yer��s bullets. It was just that at this moment, they had enemies all around them. If they did not shoot desperately, they would die, in this situation, even if they wanted to save bullets, they couldn��t do it.


    Shen Xixi took the sword thrown by the man in the flowery shirt. The sword this time was different from the bamboo sword used in the previous training. It was forged from high-carbon steel. Moreover, the de was opened. As Shen Xixi raised the sword and swung it down.., a deep diver was pierced through by her.


    Following that, Shen Xixi��s gaze quickly swept across the surroundings and moved towards a small team that was in a more urgent situation. Of the six-man team, three people had already died in battle. Among the remaining three people, two of them were injured, they were only struggling to hold on, but their bullets were about to run out.


    Fortunately, Shen Xixi arrived in time and cleanly cut down the five deep divers that surrounded them. Then, she threw the magazine on her body to them. Without waiting for the three of them to thank her.., however, Shen Xixi had already brandished the high-carbon steel sword in her hand once again to meet the next deep diver.


    On the other side, the man in the flowery shirt had also gone crazy from killing. Wherever the two of them passed, no one could stop them! Not a single deep diver could get close to them. Other than them, there were also other yers with special abilities who had unleashed their might one after another. At one point, they had managed to turn the tide of the situation that was leaning towards the deep diver.


    However, as time passed, the number disadvantage of the yers had been magnified. Facing the monsters that were almost impossible to kill in the surroundings, even the strongest person could not help but feel a trace of despair.

 Chapter 1408 - First Requirement

    <h4>Chapter 1408: First Requirement</h4>


    Faced with the two monsters pouncing on her from both sides, Shen Xixi first retreated half a step, leaving enough space for herself. Then, she waved the high-carbon steel sword in her hand, and in the next moment, the heads of the two monsters were cut off, after dealing with the enemy in front of her, Shen Xixi cut off the hind leg of a diver lying on the battery.


    However, when she stabbed at arger diver with barnacles on its body, which looked like a leader, she missed.


    Shen Xixi immediately realized that it was just her hallucination. She wiped the rain off her face, took a breather during the battle, and looked elsewhere.


    At this moment, the battle on the deck was still going on. There were corpses everywhere. The yers had already given up most of the space. The people who were still alive gathered spontaneously in front of the lower deck stairs, they were blocking the onught of those monsters.


    Shen Xixi also saw the man in the flowery shirt. Thetter was still fighting at the forefront. Just like her, his clothes were also soaked through by the heavy rain. The blood on the high-carbon steel sword seemed as if it would never be washed clean.


    There were at least a dozen corpses of deep-diving yers beside him. All of them were killed with one sword strike. Other than that, there were also the corpses of human yers. In order to let a guy who had his neck bitten off suffer less torture.., the Man in the flowery shirt had no choice but to end the pain for him in advance.


    After pulling out his sword, he seemed to have sensed something. He looked back at where Shen Xixi was and smiled at her.


    Even though the situation had reached such a critical stage, the man in the flowery shirt still did not change his previous promiscuous temperament. It was as if there was nothing in this world that could make him feel afraid.


    However, immediately after, Shen Xixi��s expression changed abruptly. She saw that the mast behind the man in the flowery shirt was crawling with divers. They were densely packed, just like bees resting in a beehive.


    Apanied by the roar of thunder, they seemed to have received a signal and jumped down from the mast together. Their target was precisely the man in the flowery shirt!


    In the face of absolute numbers, skill waspletely meaningless!


    The teammates beside the man in the flowery shirt also realized the danger and were desperately shooting, trying to stop these monsters that fell from the sky. However, even if they emptied their magazines in just a few seconds.., there was a limit to the number of monsters that they could kill.


    Seeing that the man in the flowery shirt was already dead, the next moment, the deck suddenly shone with a golden light. Then, the half-man, half-fish, and half-frog monsters were like remote-controlled airnes that had their batteries cut off, they fell straight down from the sky like dumplings.


    Logically speaking, with the speed and agility of the man in the flowery shirt, he should be able to avoid these deep divers who had lost the ability to move. However, the moment the golden light appeared, his head seemed to have been hit by something and he lost consciousness, then, he was unable to dodge in time and was pressed down by a falling deep diver.


    In fact, he was not the only one. The rest of the people on the ship were also affected by the soul attacks, but the degree of the attacks was either light or heavy.


    The person who caused all of this, Shen Xixi, could no longer hold the small scale in her hand and directly knelt on one knee on the ground.


    The Justice Scale��s AOE Skill, evil judgment, had always treated everyone equally, including her as a user. If it had been her before she went to the valley, it would not have been a big problem. But now, she.., the bnce of Justice��s judgment seemed to feel that she hadmitted a grave sin.


    In addition, her mind had been messed up by the sudden hallucination. Now that she had been hit by evil judgment, her entire head seemed to be about to explode.


    In her daze, Shen Xixi only saw a few yers who had recovered the fastest pull the man in the flowery shirt out from under the body of the deep diver. The Man in the flowery shirt��s face was covered in blood, and he was quickly sent to the cabin below, the other yers probably felt that the deck could not take it anymore and supported each other as they retreated.


    In this kind of chaotic situation, no one noticed Shen Xixi kneeling on the other side. Perhaps someone noticed her, but pretended not to see her.


    Shen Xixi wanted to get up by herself and retreat to the cabin with the other yers. However, she had a terrible headache right now and could not even move a finger. In the next moment, a huge wavended on the deck, shen Xixi��s body was also sent flying. Her head hit an unknown ce, and then her vision went ck and shepletely lost consciousness.


    Shen Xixi thought she was dead.


    After all, if she was unconscious at this time, whether it was being targeted by the half-human, half-fish, and half-frog monsters or falling into the sea, there was basically no chance of survival.


    However, when she opened her eyes, she found herself lying on a lifeboat. Not far from her, the deep-sea Hunter��s battleship was sinking bit by bit, leaving only a tilted bow on the surface of the water, and the surface was crawling with divers, as if they were vowing who was the master of this area of the sea.


    Shen Xixi subconsciously reached to her side, trying to find her high-carbon steel sword, but she found nothing.


    A voice came from behind her.


    ��It��s over.��


    Shen Xixi turned her head and saw the figure smoking at the stern of the ship.


    She was no stranger to that person because she had dealt with him many times at the game point before. The bartender��s wine was very strange, and she was famous among the yers. After the battle in the valley.., her other identity was no longer a secret.


    Shen xixi asked the bartender, ��Why did you save me? You should know that I��m the same as the others on that ship. I��m here to kill him.��


    ��Just you guys? Stop Dreaming.��Hydra exhaled and looked at the sunken ship in the distance. She shook her head and said, ��You guys can��t even force me to do anything. A group of deep divers wiped us out, not to mention him.��


    Shen Xixi was silent.


    As if she knew what she was thinking, Hydra continued, ��Don��t count on the others. I know that you came on seven ships this time, but unfortunately, you��re thest one left. Oh, and the gods. I��ve received thetest news. They��ve finally decided to run away.��


    ��Run away? Where? How are they going to survive without humans?��Shen Xixi frowned.


    ��It��s said that a genius among them came up with a n called the Garden of Eden. He nned to choose 900 newborn babies, half male and half female. Before their souls are contaminated, he will bring them to a ce where we can��t find them. They will wait for us to destroy the world and then destroy themselves. When everything is gone, they will return to thisnd.��


    ��What is this, a 21st-century version of Noah��s Ark? are the remaining billions of humans being left behind mercilessly by them?��Shen Xixi found it hard to understand.


    Hydra, on the other hand, appeared very calm. ��Survival is the first need of all living things.��

 Chapter 1409 - The Departed Gods

    <h4>Chapter 1409: The Departed Gods</h4>


    When Apollo raised his head for thest time and looked at the red fireball above his head, he finally could not help but shed tears. Then, he yed the lyre in his hand.


    Melodious and mournful music flowed out from his fingertips. The gods who heard the music stopped what they were doing. The youngest God among them had only been born less than a year ago, the oldest God had lived on thisnd for thousands of years. He had witnessed the prosperity and decline of countless civilizations. He had long be one with thisnd. However, now, he was forced to migrate in order to survive, he had be a rootless leaf.


    Many people��s eyes welled up with tears when they thought of this.


    The group of gods who first proposed the Garden of Eden, led by ISIS, were busy with the final phase of the work. They were selecting babies to be the Tinder and arranging the construction tasks after they arrived in the New World.


    It was not an easy task to build human civilization from scratch. Moreover, there were many gods arriving in the new world, not only the old gods but also the new gods. How to bnce the interests of all parties and reach an oue that everyone was rtively satisfied with was even more difficult.


    At present, after countless intense negotiations and even reaching the point of restarting the war, both sides had finally made some concessions, in less than three months, they had barely reached an initial consensus.


    This was already an incredible speed, because just three months ago, both sides were still in a state of war. In fact, if it wasn��t for the external threat of Cthulhu.., the new and Old Gods who were already at the top would never be able to reach any agreement at the negotiation table.


    In the end, Zeus and the god of science shook hands with each other, signifying that a fragile bnce had finally been reached within the gods.


    And the next step was the collective migration.


    This was arge project that had already begun a month ago. The first to enter was a group of rtively weak gods, as they were most worried about being contaminated by Cthulhu, followed by slightly stronger gods.., until today, only thest group of passengers was left.


    However, just as Apollo and the other gods were reminiscing about theirst moments on this piece ofnd, an uninvited guest that had not appeared before suddenly appeared in front of the gods.


    The god of time, Kronos.


    Compared to three months ago, he looked much older. ��Please reading on NEWN0V?L.0?G��His eyes were filled with anger, and he no longer had the calmness he had before. He strode towards the man in a suit with a tie and an exaggerated moustache.


    Thetter was still standing slightly further away from the other gods. He was leisurely feeding the birds with bread crumbs, as if he did not hear Apollo��s sad music.


    It was not until Chronos stood in front of him.


    ��Long time no see, Chronos,��the man with the moustache greeted. ��I hope you can get rid of that bad habit of eating sweets as soon as possible.��


    Kronos sneered. ��Enjoy yourself. where is gaime? I want to see him.��


    The bearded man sighed. ��Why are you all looking for Gaime? He��s So Big, I don��t care where he goes.��


    ��Your tricks can fool others, but they can��t fool me,��Kronos said coldly. ��I know what Zhang Heng was doing in the mountains for the past two weeks.��


    ��Yes, I heard that you were there as well. In order to ensure that your long-prepared n could be carried out smoothly, you��ve been keeping an eye on him to ensure that nothing unexpected happens. When he��s desperate, he��ll have no choice but to ept your request for a blood transfusion,��the man with the mustache said, ��You��re still as shrewd and calcting as ever, and you��re filled with patience and caution. Unfortunately, you��ve forgotten one thing. Humans are different from us. They��ve always been unpredictable.��


    Kronospletely ignored what the man with the mustache was saying and only repeated, ��I know what he has been doing in the mountains for the past two weeks. He is ying games. He used the game console he got from the proxy war. There is a game called ��endless journey��on it. Gaime is inside. He used that game console to contact the missing gaime, right?��


    Kronos stared at the mustached man��s eyes, as if he was trying to read the answer.


    However, the mustached man only stroked his beard and said, ��I can understand your feelings, Kronos. No matter who it is, they spend eighteen years preparing a dish, but in the end, they still feel angry when they don��t get to eat it...��


    ��Many people think that I��m crazy for daring to have designs on the Master of the city under the ice, but in my opinion, you and Gaime are the real madmen. I admit that I��m coveting his power, but at least I��m not crazy enough to let him out. It��s entirely your and Gaime��s fault that things have developed to this point. Guess what the other gods will think if I tell them about this?��


    In reality, when Chronos suddenly appeared in front of the man with the mustache, many of the gods��attention was drawn to the two of them. However, they were unable to eavesdrop for the time being.


    The Man with the Mustache Shrugged, but as if he hadn��t heard the threat in the god of Time��s words, he said softly, ��Chronos, you need to take a good rest. Don��t let your imagination run wild.��


    However, the god of time remained unmoved, ��I admit that I��ve lost this round. From the moment the lord of Laraya descended into Zhang Heng��s body, I��ve lostpletely. I��ve lostpletely, and there��s no way I can turn the tables. So now, I just need an answer.��


    ��What answer?��


    ��What kind of trick are you ying?��


    ��Why are you so sure that Gaime and I are ying a trick?��The bearded man asked with interest.


    ��Gaime has always hoped that the new God and the old God could get along peacefully, but this time, everyone knows that the war between the two camps is inevitable, and even he can��t mediate. In the end, because of the arrival of the Lord oflenia, the new God and the old God suddenly have amon enemy, and they have no choice but to work together again. The war has just begun, and it ended in a way that no one expected.


    ��The current oue might be difficult for the others, but for you, it just so happens that the price is too high. Moreover, do you really treat the other gods as fools?��


    ��We don��t treat the other gods as fools.��The mustached man shook his head. Finally, he did not avoid the question of the god of time and sighed, ��Chronos, your intelligence is top-notch among both the new and Old Gods. The only regret is that it��s a little too small. This is probably why you still can��t understand gaime.��

 Chapter 1410 - The Area Was Closed For The Time Being

    <h4>Chapter 1410: The Area Was Closed For The Time Being </h4>


    ��I may not know Gaime, but I know Zhang Heng Well,��Chronos said, ��He��s not the kind of person who would be easily manipted by others. Since he rejected my proposal, there��s no reason for him to ept Gaime��s arrangement, let alone kill himself. What kind of bargaining chip did you give him?��


    ��We didn��t give him any bargaining chips,��the man with the mustache said. ��This is his story, and he should be the one writing it. The others in the story, including Gaime and I, are just supporting characters.��


    ��I don��t want to y any more riddles with you,��Chronos shook his head and said, ��I��ll go tell the other gods what you��ve done. This Garden of Eden Project Sounds Full of conspiracies. The people in the past have lost contact, and who knows where they went.��


    The mustached man looked very innocent, ��Isis and the others chose the ce. She picked a tulip and ced it on a mountain that no one could find. She used it as a foundation to create a purend that was enough for us to survive until the end of the world. However, the prerequisite is topletely cut off their connection to the outside world.��


    ��Don��t mention Isis to me. We all know what kind of person that woman is. As long as the price is enough, she can betray anyone.��Chronos sneered.


    The man with the mustache spread his hands and made a gesture that I couldn��t do anything about.


    ��No matter what other people choose, I won��t go to that so-called garden of Eden,��Chronos said resolutely. He was about to say something else, but at that moment.., the music of Apollo, the sun god, suddenly stopped.


    Then, as if someone had pressed the pause button, all the actions of the gods stopped at that moment.


    Everyone��s eyes were focused on the figure who had appeared at the dock.


    In the end, the supreme limited-edition wine ss of the god of luxury goods slid down from her hand and fell to the ground. The sound of the ss shattering was particrly ear-piercing in the deathly silence.


    The God of luxury goods��face instantly turned pale. She opened her mouth and said with a terrified expression, ��No, don��t choose me!��


    However, before she could finish her sentence, her head exploded like the ss wine cup from before. Blood and brain matter covered thewn like a wild oil painting. It was only then that the other gods finally reacted, the group of gods led by Apollo roared as they took out their weapons. The weaker gods had different reactions.


    Some of them wanted to fight, while others wanted to flee in all directions. The scene instantly became chaotic, as if it was a concert with gunmen.


    Kronos no longer had the time to question the bearded man. He immediately paused time, wanting to escape in the world of time freeze. ��Please reading on NEWN0V?L.0?G��However, there were quite a few gods present, using time freeze at this time was already a risky thing to do. However, he had only paused for less than two seconds, and this still world was already showing signs of copsing.


    Technically speaking, powerful gods like Apollo and Ares were notpletely frozen. It was just that the flow of time around them had slowed down. However, what truly frightened Chronos was the direction of the pier.


    ��Zhang Heng��was not bothered by time freeze at all. He waspletely at ease. Only then did Chronos remember that he still had arge portion of his ability on the other party. It was not easy to go back on the agent contract, thus, until now, Kronos hadn��t been able to retrieve that portion of his power.


    It could be said that he had suffered a great loss this time. He had failed to steal the chicken, and instead, he had lost half of his old life.


    In the current situation, Kronos had only stayed in the world of time freeze for less than three seconds before taking the initiative to retreat. He didn��t want to be a target like the god of luxury goods, his wise decision had allowed him to escape sessfully. ��Zhang Heng��was already looking at him.


    However, as the flow of time in the surroundings returned to normal, ��Zhang Heng����s gaze was once again attracted by a goddess who was about to escape into the forest.


    However, this way, Kronos would not be able to escape as he wished.


    Along with Ares, the god of science and the others took the initiative to wee ��Zhang Heng.��Isis and the man with the mustache were also busy gathering other gods to enter the mansion in Pluto.


    There was a door that led directly to the New World. At this point, no one was in the mood to reminisce about their homnd. No one expected the retreat to be so messy. Even their final dignity was trampled under someone��s feet, this was no longer an orderly retreat, but aplete defeat.


    Especially when they saw countless densely packed ck figures emerging from the sea andnding along the coastline. Then, they rushed toward them. Without even needing Isis to urge them, everyone sped up and ran toward the vi, they rushed to push open the door.


    Kronos��expression was very ugly. After all, he had just said that he would not go to the New World no matter what, but at the moment, he had no other way out except to push open the door with the others.


    Seeing that the divers had surrounded the vi, and even the fastest among them had reached thewn outside, Kronos knew that he could not drag this on any longer. He stamped his foot, finally, he entered the door behind Amon.


    The moment he pushed the door open, he was greeted by a dazzling white light. Kronos, who was trying his best to open his eyes wide, could not see the scene behind the door clearly.


    When his eyes adapted to the environment again, he found himself standing in a ce that looked like an airport waiting hall. However, he could not see the runway or the ne outside the window. There was only a fog-like darkness there.


    Standing with him were the gods who had just entered. Everyone��s faces were filled with confusion.


    It was obvious that this ce was far from the new world they had heard about in the tulips. Most of them had not been able to figure out the current situation, and after they had searched around.., they found that Isis, who had entered with them, had also disappeared.


    After all, ISIS was the only person here who could exin to them exactly what had happened. However, everyone present was a god with a name. After a smallmotion.., the gods began to explore this building that looked like an airport terminal on their own, hoping to find some clues.


    However, Kronos did not join them. He just stood at the side and sneered.


    Unlike the other gods who were still in the dark, the god of time was now certain that this so-called New World of Eden was definitely the work of Gaime and the man with the mustache.


    As expected, not long after, someone cried out in surprise. It was Hercules. He punched a pir in the middle of the hall, but the pir soon returned to its original state. At the same time, on the other side.., the tarot card god, who was about to push open the door and walk out, heard a mysterious voice.


    ��Sorry, this area is not open for the time being.��

 Chapter 1411 - Game Compensation

    <h4>Chapter 1411: Game Compensation</h4>


    Four months ago, in the valley.


    In his new home, Zhang Heng tried to start the engine that had been removed from the polo to recharge the battery. Then, he took out a ps4pro from his luggage.


    This ps4pro was the prize he had won in the first round of the proxy war. It was limited to the top 50.


    However, there was nothing special about the machine itself. It was exactly the same as the one avable on the market. The only difference was that there was a pre-installed game called ��Endless Journey��.


    Zhang Heng connected the ps4pro to the battery. The game God, Gaime, had disappeared more than a month ago. However, Zhang Heng still remembered what Gaime had said to him when they first met in the Chernobyl dungeon, it was also thest time they met.


    Gaime had told him that if he wanted to contact him, he could use the ps4pro.


    Without the other party��s PSN ount, there was no doubt that the contact information that Gaime was referring to was hidden in the game called ��Endless Journey.��.


    In fact, recently, Zhang Heng would y this Xianxia game whenever he was free.


    Although the game process was surprisingly long and deserved the name endless journey, Zhang Heng himself had 24 hours more than the average person. After such a long time, he was finally close to clearing the game.


    On the first night he arrived at his new home, Zhang Heng hadpletely cleared the game.


    However, other than the words ��Congrattions on clearing the game,��he received nothing.


    Zhang Heng put down the controller and moved his fingers and waist. After a moment of contemtion, he stood up and ate something. Then, he opened the game again and started ying the second week��s game.


    Zhang Heng had already realized that this was not a single-ending game. Perhaps the ending that he had yed in the first week��s game was not the correct answer.


    Therefore, Zhang Heng deliberately made the opposite choice in the second week��s game. Previously, he had chosen the path of Immortals, but this time, he chose the path of demons.


    Compared to the path of Immortals, the path of demons was much simpler. There were not so manyplicated main storyline quests, and the main storyline was mainly focused onbat. It was fine as long as he hacked all the way to the end. In addition, even though his level was cleared to zero.., however, one piece of equipment from the first week could be inherited. The godly equipment that Zhang Heng had fought hard for half an hour against the boss finally came in handy. Other than that, he had also unlocked more powerful skills and characters.


    Therefore, even though the difficulty of the second week��s time had increased, it was still within an eptable range.


    However, after clearing the demonic path, other than receiving the same congrattory words, Zhang Heng still could not find any clues rted to gaime.


    Zhang Heng was not in a hurry to open the third week��s time. Other than the fact that he was already a little pressed for time, it was also because he began to realize that his previous train of thought in solving the problem might not have been correct.


    At this time, it had been a week since he entered the mountain. His nightmares hadn��t stopped every night, and his mental state was getting worse and worse. Even at the most optimistic estimate, he would only be able to hold on for another ten days.


    Furthermore, Zhang Heng didn��t think that other people and gods would give him so much time, so he knew that he only had one more chance to y.


    If he wanted to continue with his n, he had to find Gaime first.


    Zhang Heng boiled a pot of hot water and made a bowl of instant noodles to fill his stomach. Then, he started the game again.


    In the third week, Zhang Heng did not bother with the main storyline. After he sessfully created the character, he started to wander around the world. Zhang Heng had already realized that the map for the previous two weeks was very special, it wasn��t unlocked along with the storyline. In other words, as long as you were willing, you could reach any corner of the world.


    Of course, there was also the possibility of being instantly sent home by the monsters there.


    However, after the first two weeks of the game, with Zhang Heng��s observation and memory, he could already remember the actions and attacks of most of the monsters, as well as their aggro radius. Therefore, even though he ran around the map, very few of them were sent home.


    After throwing away the constraints of the quest, Zhang Heng walked a considerable distance on the endless journey map this time. Finally, he found what he was looking for in a small fishing vige near the East Sea.


    The Sun was setting, and the afterglow of the setting sun dyed the surface of the sea orange.


    A fisherman wearing a straw cape sat motionlessly on the fishing boat. From the back, it looked quite artistic.


    However, when Zhang Heng controlled his character to circle in front of him, all the artistic conception he had before was destroyed. Then, Zhang Heng realized that he had also entered the game and reced his Level 6 trumpet character.


    ��You��re too much of a fool.��Zhang Heng jumped up from another fishing boat.


    In front of him, Gaime had woven a simple stand and ced the fishing rod on it. From there, he sessfully freed his hands and could hold a GBA.


    This was the second-generation portable game console released by Nintendo in 2001. Although it only had a shelf life of five and a half years, its sales were very impressive, it could be said that it was the birthday present that every boy dreamed of at that time.


    Zhang Heng nced at the screen and realized that Gaime was still ying Pok��mon.


    Gaime saw that Zhang Heng had also paused the game in his hands and said, ��Congrattions on finding me in the third week.��He did not immediately ask Zhang Heng why he hade, nor did he rush to discuss the situation outside, the first question was, ��What do you think of my game?��


    Zhang Heng told the truth, ��The graphics are excellent, the attack is perfect, and the operation is smooth. I haven��t encountered any bugs yet, but the plot is mediocre, and the character creation isn��t that interesting. Even though it��s an open map, the degree of freedom isn��t that great. It��s far from the Dungeon Games I��ve yed before. Logically speaking, if it wasn��t for finding you, I wouldn��t have had the interest to y until the third week.��


    Gaime nodded. ��This is also the situation of us gods.��


    ��What situation?��


    ��We have great power, but we can not escape the path of fate. To put it simply, the degree of freedom is still too low.��Gaime put down the GBA in his hand, ��Inparison, you humans are like new characters in the game. Although the starting point is very low, it is full of growth. Later on, experience and choices will carve you into different shapes.��


    ��I don��t have many choices. Not long after I was born, my life was arranged by different people,��Zhang Heng said calmly.


    ��But you still came here,��Gaime said, ��The main side quests in this world have already been written, but you still found this fishing vige that has nothing to do with any quests. So, tell me, what do you want from me?��


    ��I found a bug for you in the Chernobyl dungeon. You said you wanted topensate me, but I didn��t want anything back then. Now I know what I want.��


    ��What do you want? Let��s be clear, I can��t solve your problem,��GAIME said. ��After all, I��m not omnipotent.��


    ��Don��t worry, what I want is very simple,��Zhang Heng said without hesitation. ��I want to y another round of the game.��

 Chapter 1412 - Round 11 Of The Game

    <h4>Chapter 1412: Round 11 Of The Game</h4>


    ��You want to y another round of the game?��Gaime raised his eyebrows. ��But the proxy war has ended, and the game has been closed by the organizingmittee.��


    ��But you��re the god of the game, so you should have a way to restart it, right?��


    ��That game is the most outstanding work I��ve made so far. No, strictly speaking, it��s not my work alone. It��s the result of the joint efforts of a group of gods. In order to build that almost real game world, everyone has contributed,��Gaime said, finally, he decided not to stand on ceremony anymore. He changed the topic and nodded.


    ��Yes, you��re right. Even so, I can still restart it. However, it will consume a lot of my energy. Normally, it��s fine. I basically just stay at home and y games. It doesn��t matter how much energy I have, but Cthulhu will wake up from its underwater pce and use your body to descend into this world. Although I don��t like to meddle in other people��s business, I can��t watch him destroy the world.��


    ��I won��t let him destroy the world,��Zhang Heng said.


    ��How confident are you?��


    ��40% ,��Zhang Heng said after some thought.


    ��40% isn��t a number that people can trust.��Gaime sighed.


    ��Or you can choose to kill me now. If you seed, you��ll have a 100% chance,��Zhang Heng said calmly.


    Gaime shook his head, ��This goes against the game style that I��ve always advocated. If everyone��s first choice when facing a high-difficulty game is to cheat and take shortcuts, then naturally, they won��t be able to fully enjoy the joy of conquering the game.��


    Zhang Heng was not surprised by this answer. This was one of the reasons why he had made up his mind to look for Gaime. Zhang Heng had long realized that the god of games had always ced more importance on the game process than the game results.


    Therefore, during the three weeks of endless journey, when Zhang Heng decided to give up on the pursuit of a perfect ending, he was able to meet Gaime again in this small fishing vige.


    As expected, the game God before him did not hesitate for long before reaching out a hand. ��Forty percent then. Since you��ve chosen the game route, enjoy the fun of the strategy.��


    ��I will.��Zhang Heng shook hands with Gaime. ��Thank you.��


    ��You��re wee. This is the gamepensation I promised you.��Gaime waved his hand. Then, he paused and asked, ��Have you decided what Dungeon You Want to go to? I can help you with that too.��


    ��No need. I��ve already chosen a dungeon,��Zhang Heng said. ��I only have one request. No matter what era the dungeon is in, I want a workingputer in it.��


    Gaime looked at Zhang Heng after hearing this weird suggestion. Then, without further question, he picked up the GBA in his hand again, ��Your eleventh round of the game will start at 11:55 pm tonight. Be prepared in advance.��


    ..


    After turning off the ps4pro, Zhang Heng looked at the starfish in his hand. There was less than 15 minutes left until 11:55 pm. He stood up to stretch his wrists and ankles.


    Then, he walked to his travel bag and took out a USB sh drive.


    [ name: Edward��s USB sh drive ]


    [ rarity: F ]


    [ function: when plugged into theputer, your IP can never be traced ]


    This USB sh drive was a small gadget that Zhang Heng had obtained from the leakers��dungeon. It was only of F grade. Although its function was still quite useful, it had always been the icing on the cake. Before this, it had not appeared much, however, this time, Zhang Heng put it into his pocket first.


    Following that, Zhang Heng took out some small items that were rtively small and easy to carry. As for the battle-type items that he had always relied on, such as [ Parris��s arrow ] , [ hidden scabbard ] , and [ gue bone bow ] .., zhang Heng didn��t take any of them.


    This was because Zhang Heng knew very well that Kronos must be somewhere nearby, keeping an eye on him. Zhang Heng didn��t want Kronos to know that he had entered this round of the game.


    The next item he took out was the [ immunity crystal ] . This d-grade item had two uses left. Zhang Heng hadn��t used it since he tried it out, so he could save it for tonight, it would help him get through tonight��s nightmare. This way, he wouldn��t be gued by nightmares in the next dungeon, and he would be able to focus on the game.


    Thest thing Zhang Heng took out was a pen.


    This pen was given to him by a bearded man who looked like Conan Doyle in the deduction dungeon. However, after the appraisal, it turned out that it was not a prop.


    However, this time, Zhang Heng chose to carry this pen with him when he entered the dungeon.


    At 11:49, Zhang Heng made all the preparations. Lying on the bed, he fell asleep as usual. Then, the nightmare attacked him, but immediately after, the [ immunity crystal ] in his hand emitted a soft white light, it wrapped around his soul and floated all the way to a white room.


    However, this time, Zhang Heng did not stay in the white room for too long. Soon, the familiar feeling of dizziness came over him.


    [ yer identification verified... ]


    [ verified. Random 11th round of dungeon selection for yer 07958... detected yer��s pen with special keepsake Conan Doyle. Will Link yer to designated dungeon. ]


    [ linkpleted �� the current dungeon is a literary salon. ]


    ��You are a newbie writer who has just made a name for yourself. You have sessfully published your first novel, received a few small awards and the approval of some professional book critics. You have also gained a group of readers who like you. Just when you were feeling smug about your achievements and couldn��t wait to go all out, you received a letter from a mysterious club. The owner of the club invited you to join their salon. At first, you were a little hesitant, but your curiosity soon overcame the uneasiness of the unknown. You decided to join their salon to take a look.��


    [ mission objective: defeat all the opponents and win the Salon Story Club ]


    [ mode: Single yer ]


    [ time flow: 2400](one hour in the real world is equivalent to 100 days in the game. After 500 days, yers will be forced to return to the real world)


    Friendly Reminder: the game will officially start in five seconds. Please be prepared.


    ..


    Zhang Heng knew that he had guessed correctly when he heard the system notification. The pen had yed its role, but the contents of the dungeon still surprised him. Zhang Heng originally thought that he would meet Conan Doyle with a mustache, zhang Heng had already nned to follow him to hone his writing skills. However, when he really heard the dungeon��s description, he realized that this dungeon was even more lively than he had imagined.


    However, it would be even more difficult to clear the dungeon.

 Chapter 1413 - Salon

    <h4>Chapter 1413: Salon</h4>


    Zhang Heng opened his eyes and found himself in a slightly dim alley.


    At the end of the road was a small brick-like building that was tall on both sides. It looked to be quite old. Zhang Heng could only infer from the construction materials and style that this was a post-19th century building.


    He was not in a hurry to enter. Instead, he looked around and saw pedestrians passing by the alley in a hurry, vendors selling cigarettes, and the grocery store across the street. Just as he was about to continue looking.., suddenly, there was the sound of thunder in the sky, signaling that a storm wasing.


    Zhang Heng didn��t stay where he was. Finally, he made his way to the small brick building.


    The building was much quieter than Zhang Heng had imagined. There was only orange lighting through the door, and there wasn��t much noise.


    Zhang Heng knocked on the door.


    A momentter, a middle-aged man who looked like a butler poked his head out of the door. ��How can I help you?��


    ��I��ve received an invitation to join the Salon.��Zhang Heng paused. He looked past the middle-aged man to the living room behind him and realized that it was empty, there were no guests.


    ��Sorry, am I early?��


    ��No.��The middle-aged man smiled. ��The salon has already started, but it��s not here. Can I see your pledge?��


    ��Pledge?��Zhang Heng frowned slightly. On the way here, he had already checked his pockets. Other than the props that he had brought with him, he did not find anything else. However, Zhang Heng quickly thought of something, he took out Conan Doyle��s pen.


    The Butler took the pen, put on his sses, and looked at it carefully. ��Please reading on NEWN0V?L.0?G��Then, he handed it back to Zhang Heng respectfully with both hands. ��Wee to the House of geniuses. Please follow me.��


    Zhang Heng followed the butler-like middle-aged man into the house. Then, the two of them walked through the living room and into the courtyard, the butler-like middle-aged man opened a dark cer that looked like the kind of cer used by the main character in horror movies when the main character was imprisoned. Then, he made a gesture of invitation.


    ��Are you serious?��Zhang Heng raised his eyebrows.


    ��Don��t look at me. Bluffing and dramatizing have always been the authors��favorite.��The butler-like middle-aged man shrugged. ��To be honest, I��ve never really understood this kind of evil taste.��


    Hearing that, Zhang Heng looked at the Big Iron Lock at his feet again. There were some red stains that looked like blood stains on it.


    ��Don��t worry, the paint made from ochre.��


    ��Very impressive,��Zhang Hengmented.


    Without hesitation, he strode in.


    It had to be said that although the atmosphere in front of the cer door was scary, the environment inside was actually not bad. It was slightly damp, but the air was clear. Other than the smell of soil, there was no strange smell.


    For a tunnel, there was nothing more one could ask for.


    The two of them walked for about five minutes before the terrain began to rise again. Then, the middle-aged man, who looked like a butler, stopped in front of an irondder and handed the oilmp in his hand to Zhang Heng for safekeeping, he pushed the cover of the well above his head open.


    At this time, Raindrops had already fallen from the sky. The two of them returned to the street from underground. Just as they climbed out, Zhang Heng saw a carriage by the roadside.


    The middle-aged man, who looked like a butler, took the oilmp back from Zhang Heng��s hand. ��I can only apany you here. Next, Martin will send you to the Salon.��


    ��Martin? Is this a joke from ��The Adventures of a goose��? What about you? I didn��t ask for your name before.��


    ��Kansel.��The middle-aged man, who looked like a butler, smiled and then bowed again. ��I sincerely wish that your thoughts will flow like a fountain every day.��


    ��20,000 miles under the sea, as expected. Thank you.��


    After bidding farewell to consel, Zhang Heng boarded the carriage. When he closed the door, the coachman, Martin, also grabbed the reins in his hands.


    The moment Zhang Heng got on the carriage and smelled the fragrance of Jasmine, he began to feel drowsy. However, this kind of drowsiness was different from inhaling arge amount of anesthetic. Zhang Heng knew that he could wake up at any time, this was more like a pastime that he had prepared because he was worried that his journey would be too boring.


    Therefore, Zhang Heng also rxed his body. He leaned his head against the carriage and took a short nap.


    After an unknown period of time, the carriage stopped again.


    This time, it stopped on awn. Martin opened the door for Zhang Heng. What appeared in front of Zhang Heng was a huge mansion. This mansion was built halfway up the mountain, and it took up an astonishing amount ofnd.


    Zhang Heng only took a quick nce, and all he saw was a garden, a swimming pool, a forest, and even a golf course.


    This time, standing in front of the door to greet him was a female housekeeper, but she was exceptionally short. She was less than four feet tall, petite, and had pointy ears, but she had a pair of big feet, she moved without making a sound.


    A name immediately appeared in Zhang Heng��s mind.


    �� hobbit.


    This was a fantasy race created by the English writer and poet Tolkien in his novel, the Lord of the rings.


    ��It seems that you have recognized my origin, the most expensive guest,��the female hobbit Butler said. ��I just don��t know how to address you.��


    Without waiting for Zhang Heng to speak, she added, ��There��s no need to tell me your real name. Everyone here uses their pen names or the names of the characters in their books.��


    ��Zhang Heng.��


    The female hobbit Butler revealed a surprised expression.


    ��Actually, I��m preparing a novel. This is the name of the protagonist of my new novel,��Zhang Heng said lightly.


    ��Then I��m sure you��ll find a lot of inspiration here,��the female hobbit Butler said as she opened the door behind her.


    This time, before entering the door, Zhang Heng heard a chaotic sounding from inside.


    ��If you ask me, every popr novel is a book. They��re all dog Sh * t! The author of the popr novel is the dog that produces SH * t. the only thing they know how to do is to wag their tails and ingratiate themselves with the public��s terrible aesthetic and abnormal appreciation! ��It��s because of them that the threshold of this industry has been lowered infinitely,��a resounding male voice said.


    ��I don��t agree, Mr. Bastard. The purpose of our writing is not to be enemies with the public. I don��t deny that some of the excellent works of the super-era were seriously underestimated at that time. However, you can��t hate the authors who earn money just because you didn��t earn much money when you were alive,��a strong female voice said.


    ��No Doubt, I��m talking about you, Professor mcgonagall, and you and all that writing just proves it!��

 Chapter 1414 - Argument

    <h4>Chapter 1414: Argument</h4>


    Zhang Heng initially thought that he would be surrounded by people as soon as he entered the room. However, he did not expect that other than the few people who had noticed him, the rest of the people did not react at all and continued to do their own things.


    The argument in the room had reached its climax. Zhang Heng had already recognized a certain fantasy bestselling female writer who had spoken earlier. However, her opponent.., zhang Heng did not know the background of a red-necked man who was giving pointers. He was dressed like a poet or novelist who was active in the 17th or 18th century.


    In addition, a man with a full beard and a slicked-back hair joined the debate. He was also standing opposite the female author, ��I��ve read your novel, Ma��am. Forgive me for being blunt, but I couldn��t bear to read it after only three chapters. I believe that no matter what kind of writing should be based on one��s own life experience, because only reality can move people. Before I wrote moby-dick, I was a seaman on the sea for four years, and I even went out to sea with the whaling ship.


    ��I watched those strong men who made a living on the sea, and watched them how to ovee their fate and how to deal with the storm. From then on, I made up my mind to write a story about them, but...��the man with a full beard lowered his voice, ��The response of this book was average at that time. I guess no matter what era it was, people liked to read those strange and ordinary stories.��


    ��My story also originated from my own life. I just put ayer of magic on it. I believe Mr. Gandalf will agree with me.��The woman turned her eyes to an old man with a slim figure, he was looking for an ally with a head full of white hair.


    As expected, the old man said, ��Fantasy is a kind of literary theme. Behind the absurd story at the beginning, there is also the true feelings of the Creator.��He seemed to have thought of something and sighed, he poured himself another ss of red wine.


    ��But still, the entertainment value is greater than the artistic value,��another voice said. It was a man with a Jewish appearance. He had big eyes, high nose bridge, deep eye sockets, and long thin ears, making him look a little like a vampire, ��I don��t care about the readability of the article, because my work is first and foremost to allow me to explore the value and meaning of life. As for whether other people can read it or not, what does it have to do with me?


    ��My first teacher always told me to tell a story with a beginning and an end, with a time and ce, and clear values, but to be honest, I don��t care about that kind of thing at all. I agree to use cross-dressing and absurd writing techniques reasonably, but this kind of thing is not used to give the general public silver.��


    ��That sounds too arrogant.��The woman frowned.


    ��But geniuses are arrogant to begin with.��The Jewish man spread his hands.


    Just as everyone was in a heated argument, someone finally noticed Zhang Heng, who had just walked in, ��That��s great. There��s a new face here. He should be a neer to the Salon. We should ask him what he thinks.��


    ��Go ahead, I don��t care anyway,��yawned an American man who was curled up on the sofa, puffing and puffing as he hugged a girl who was dressed like a hippie.


    However, other than him, there were still a lot of people waiting for Zhang Heng��s answer.


    Even though he knew that his words would cause a lot of people to scoff at him, Zhang Heng did not hesitate. He had already thought of an answer to this question before entering the dungeon, ��I want to write a book that everyone likes to read and that can quickly be popr.��


    ��Boring!��


    ��This child has gone astray!��


    ��This is too polite. It should be said that he is beyond redemption.��


    ��Another piece of SH * t! Who invited him? The rookies nowadays are too utilitarian.��Some people immediately shook their heads, they looked like they were in pain, as if Zhang Heng had done something heinous.


    However, there were also a few people who found Zhang Heng pleasing to the eye.


    ��Well said.��


    ��I think this young man��s wish is not bad. No one has ever said that poprity is wrong. Don��t forget that even if you guys are stubborn, your works will be popr after you die.��


    ��...��


    Zhang Heng was already mentally prepared for this. If this was a traditional game, this would probably be a lineup selection event. After the lineup was established, the favorability of the people in the same lineup would increase. On the other hand.., the favorability of the opposing yers would drop drastically.


    Of course, there were also yers who wanted to be able to mingle on both sides. When faced with such a situation, they could y tricks and ride down the wall. If they were able to do it well, the favorability of both sides would not drop.


    However, this was not necessary for Zhang Heng because he was not lying. What he said before was his truth.


    ��If you want to talk about the poprity of novels, you cane to me. I��m staying in Room 207,��the fantasy best-selling female writer said enthusiastically. She paused for a moment and then said mysteriously, ��Are you free tomorrow morning? I can introduce you to someone. He is the greatest writer in the history of mankind. Everyone knows him, and his ys are well-known. Until a few hundred yearster, every novel we write has a shadow of his story.��


    Even though professor mcgonagall did not name the person, Zhang Heng already knew who she was referring to.


    William Shakespeare. Although there was always a saying that there was no first or second ce in literature, Shakespeare could indeed be said to be the most influential author.


    If one could listen to Shakespeare personally exin the writing method of the novel, one would definitely benefit greatly, even if Shakespeare wrote those ys based on the market environment at the time and the preferences of the audience, however, the method had something inmon. Furthermore, Shakespeare��s ys had been around for hundreds of years. This was probably the true poprity of Shakespeare.


    Just as Zhang Heng was about to sit down and chat with the fantasy best-selling female author, the messy hall suddenly quieted down.


    Then, everyone��s eyes gradually focused on the firece. The firewood inside had unknowingly started to burn and Crackle.


    Zhang Heng noticed the excitement on the fantasy best-selling author��s face. She sat up straight and said to Zhang Heng, ��It��s here, it��s about to start.��


    ��What��s about to start?��


    ��The monthly salon story gathering.��The fantasy best-selling author blinked. ��The winner will be able to meet the owner of this ce, have dinner with him, and then... get the right to leave.��


    ��Leave this ce?��


    ��Of course. Although this ce is very nice, with food and drink, and we can meet many masters, including the living and the dead, everyone will gather together and talk about it. Well, of course, sometimes we will also argue with each other like we did just now. After all, every author has their own characteristics and perseverance. If it��s so easy to be convinced by others, then there��s no need for us to do this line of work. However, no matter how good a ce is, we will get tired of living in it for a long time.��


    At this point, the female author seemed to have thought of something, ��By the way, How��s your writing? Although it��s hard to have a standard for this kind of thing, the owner of this ce still managed to find a way to give everyone a grade. I��m probably between LV2 and LV3. What About You?��


    Zhang Heng looked at his character interface. His writing skill was still LV0.


    ��Looks like I��ll be here for a while,��Zhang Heng said.

 Chapter 1415 - The Story Club

    <h4>Chapter 1415: The Story Club</h4>


    As the name suggests, the story club was a ce where people gathered to tell stories.


    However, at this moment, this mansion was filled with perhaps the best storytellers in the history of mankind. To stand out from this group of people, winning would not be any easier than mankind��s firstnding on the Moon.


    In fact, even though Zhang Heng��s fantasy best-selling female writer had be the most lucrative writer of the time due to a series of novels, she was already worth around 7 billion pounds in the past 18 years, however, with her level-3 writing skills, even if she wasn��t at the bottom of the list, she would still be at the bottom of the list.


    From the looks of it, it would be impossible for her to leave this ce. However, Zhang Heng noticed that the best-selling fantasy author was looking forward to it after the story started.


    Of course, you could interpret this as the confidence of every author. After all, her works were selling like hot cakes. Even if she didn��t have confidence in herself at first, she was still a writer, now, it was time for them to be nurtured by solid sales data.


    However, when this episode of the story really began, Zhang Heng finally knew where the confidence of the fantasy best-selling female author came from.


    The Hobbit housekeeper walked to the firece and bowed to the writers in the room. ��Wee to this month��s story party. Before the story begins, I would like to introduce a new friend to everyone.��


    The Hobbit housekeeper paused for a moment before turning to look somewhere else. ��Zhang Heng, he��s a rising star in the literary world. His published novels have been well received by readers and critics alike.��


    The apuse was low. Other than the fact that no one had heard of his name, Zhang Heng had already chosen a faction the moment he entered the room. At least half of the people in the room did not like him.


    Fortunately, the female author of the best-selling fantasy novel and the others pped enthusiastically, so the atmosphere at the venue was not cold.


    The female hobbit Butler did not waste any more time, ��At the end ofst month��s story conference, the theme of this issue was announced. I believe everyone has already prepared their own stories. So, who is willing to be the first to share?��


    Zhang Heng also understood. It turned out that every issue would have a theme, which would be announced in advance. Then, the writers would be able to use this as the theme for their stories for the next month.


    The advantage of using this kind of thesis approach topete was that there was a greater chance of a surprise. It didn��t mean that authors with good writing skills would necessarily win, because most authors had their own themes that they were good at, if they happen to encounter a theme that they are not good at, then the strong may also fail.


    On the other hand, like fantasy best-selling female writers, those who have weaker writing skills will have a greater chance of turning the tables when they encounter a suitable theme.


    For example, this eye-opening theme is obviously more inclined to test the author��s imagination, and fantasy best-selling female writers are famous for this, so it is no wonder that she looks eager.


    However, she was not the first to go on stage. Instead, it was a French man who looked a little like Mr. Bean. He wore a jacket and a leather hat on his head, he looked like he had just jumped out of the pilot��s seat and was covered in dust.


    The pilot, who had a bit of mncholy in his eyes, told a strange story in the first person that he encountered on a flight mission.


    His story was not flowery, nor did it have any superb rhetorical skills. It was just in English that even children could understand easily. However, everyone in the room was listening attentively and no one interrupted him.


    In their trance, they even had the illusion that there was a child��s soul living in the body of the adult. Otherwise, how could the story he told be so pure and pure.


    When the pilot left, many people were still immersed in his fairy tale.


    But at this time, a second person also walked up..


    Zhang Heng estimated that there were about 100 writers in the hall on the first floor. If all 100 of them went up to tell the story, then the story would probably take at least half a month to end.


    However, ording to the fantasy best-selling female writer, her story would onlyst for three days at most because not everyone was in a hurry to leave, after all, not everyone had billions of pounds lying in their bank ounts, especially those authors who did not have much money in their era and were not very rich.


    This ce was quitefortable. Other than not being able to leave, no matter if you wanted to drink, eat delicious food, exercise, or do multiyer sports, you could be satisfied with anything you could think of, there were even people who had decided to stay here forever.


    Zhang Heng saw a man in a shirt who exuded a tough aura sitting alone at the side, drinking alone, as if he had no interest in the story.


    The man seemed to have noticed Zhang Heng��s gaze. He exchanged a look with Zhang Heng and raised the ss in his hand.


    When the story ended, the best-selling female author did not win as expected. The final winner was a Frenchman, but he was not the first pilot to go up, thetter lost by one point to his fellow countryman, who won the title of the story with a science fiction story.


    Zhang Heng was not surprised by this. After all, when it came to science fiction, the prolific neenth-century French writer was a monument that could not be bypassed, the theme of the story was tailor-made for him.


    After the twelve-member jury announced the winner, The Hobbit housekeeper came forward again, holding an envelope in her hand.


    As a result, the authors who had just been immersed in the sea of stories were immediately attracted by the small envelope.


    The Hobbit housekeeper did not keep them in suspense. She neatly opened the envelope and said, ��The theme of the next story will be... time.��


    After saying that, she turned the letter over and showed it to everyone.


    For a time, some people were happy, while others were worried. Time could be said to be an eternal proposition in literary works. Many famous writers had created rted works with the theme of time.


    However, the more conventional the theme was, the more difficult it was to write. Because there were too many good works from before, it was not easy to write new ideas. Many people were already racking their brains.


    However, Zhang Heng did not have much of a reaction. The main reason was that with his level 0 writing skills, any theme would have nothing to do with him. Coincidentally, the tough guy who had been drinking alone on the other side stood up, he grabbed the leather jacket that he had just taken off and walked to Zhang Heng. ��Let��s go.��


    ��Where are we going?��


    ��Hunting. I know where the forest has the most prey.��

 Chapter 1416 - A Hunt

    <h4>Chapter 1416: A Hunt</h4>


    The tough man and Zhang Heng were both very efficient. Fifteen minutester, the two of them had entered the forest with their shotguns in their hands.


    When the tough man squatted down to study the footprints of the animals on the ground, Zhang Heng asked, ��Why me? Is it because I chose a popr novel?��


    ��I don��t care about that kind of boring stuff,��the tough man shook his head. ��I chose you because you look different from the nerds inside. You should know how to use a gun, but hunting requires a gun.��


    Zhang Heng found it hard to refute this reason, but after a pause, he said, ��The first pilot should also know how to use a gun, so why not look for him?��


    ��Him? ��I don��t like him, just like I can tell that he doesn��t like me either. To be more precise, he doesn��t like all adults. Besides, don��t look at how warm his story is, he��s actually quite problematic here.��The man pointed at his own head.


    ��Of course, if he hadn��t been gued by depression, he wouldn��t have been able to write words that could heal people��s hearts. Talent can sometimes be a form of torture, especially for people in our line of work. Most people have some mental problems, and I��m no exception. If I stay with him for too long, I��m afraid that I��ll blow my head off with the shotgun in my hand.��


    The tough man pulled his boots out of the mud and continued, ��Besides, you��re a neer here, so I��m guessing you��ll ept my invitation.��


    ��...��


    What the tough man meant was that no one who had stayed in this vi for long would ept his invitation to hunt.


    However, it made sense. How could a madmane out to hunt at night when the sky was already dark? Not to mention, it had just rained heavily today, so the forest was very muddy.


    The two of them walked on a small path, one deep and one shallow, following the trail left by an elk. At this time, Zhang Heng had already confirmed the identity of the tough man.


    This was not difficult to guess, especially for someone like him who had excellent observation skills.


    Ernest Miller Hemingway!


    As an author who lived in the 20th century, Hemingway still left behind many photos. Although he had changed his hairstyle in the vi and shaved his beard, it couldn��t be helped, his personality was still too strong.


    As a person who experienced the first world war, he had many military marks on him. In addition, he had been a war reporter, a boxer, a bullfighter, and was even rumored to have been recruited by the KGB as a spy, unfortunately, he didn��t have any talent in this field, and no valuable information had been leaked.


    In his life, he had survived several disasters, including a ne crash. In a sense, his life was even more legendary than the stories he had written. In the end, this alcoholic.., the man who had experienced multiple wives chose tomit suicide at the age of 62.


    Many of these experiences, Zhang Heng could find evidence on his body, ����such as the scars left by the ne crash, and the impact of military and spy training on him, including the wedding ring on his finger..


    If he couldn��t figure it out, then Zhang Heng and Holmes had been living together at 221 Baker Street for so long.


    Hemingway held onto a string of twigs and looked at the bite marks on them carefully. His eyes showed a rare hint of excitement. Then, he drank the whiskey he carried with him and said in a low voice, ��It��s nearby.��


    However, just as he was about to move forward under the moonlight, he heard Zhang Heng��s voice from behind him. ��I��m here to apany you on a hunt. How are you going to repay me?��


    ��Repay?��Hemingway was stunned. ��What do you mean by repay? We hunted together. Didn��t you enjoy it too?��


    ��I��m here for business, not to apany you on a hunt. And to be honest, I��m not interested in hunting.��


    ��Is it because your skill level is too low and you can��t catch any valuable prey?��


    ��No, it��s the opposite. It��s because my marksmanship is too good. It��s not difficult to shoot anything,��Zhang Heng said lightly.


    Hemingway didn��t say anything, but his eyes had already betrayed what he was thinking.


    Zhang Heng was toozy to waste time with him. He used his actions to prove himself and raised the shotgun in his hand.


    Hemingway looked at the spot he was aiming at, but he couldn��t see anything there. Even though there was moonlight tonight, it was sparse in the forest. The visibility wasn��t good, so Hemingway wanted to take another look, however, the next moment, the sound of gunshots could be heard.


    Then, Hemingway saw something swaying in the grass.


    When the two of them walked up, the American tough guy noticed the elk lying in the grass.


    Having been on the battlefield more than once, he believed that there was nothing in this world that could surprise him. After all, in this world, other than life and death, everything else was a small matter, however, when he saw the scene before him, he could not help but widen his mouth.


    Hemingway himself was also a sharpshooter, but it was precisely because of this that he understood the difficulty of Zhang Heng��s shot.


    Under such visibility, and from such a distance, he ended up killing Zhang Heng with one shot.


    ��This... How did you do it? Could it be that you��re the same as the housekeeper? who wrote the character, the lone sharpshooter? Or the bionic man created by the guy who wrote the Three Laws of Robotics?��


    ��Unfortunately, I��m just a newbie writer who epted the invitation toe to the vi.��


    ��Really? I��ve heard so many stories today, but if you want to say that it was an eye-opener, it��s nothingpared to that shot you just took.��


    As the tough man spoke, he squatted down and carefully observed the muzzle of the gun on the head of the elk. At the same time, he was mumbling something like, ��This is too unbelievable.��.


    ��How about you teach me how to write and I��ll teach you how to hunt?��Seeing that he had sessfully piqued Hemingway��s interest, Zhang Heng put away his shotgun and said straightforwardly.


    However, the tough man shook his head when he heard that. ��I can��t teach you how to write.��After a pause, he added, ��Don��t get me wrong, I��m not discriminating against your fashion-oriented writing style. After all, my own novels are quite popr, but to be honest, I really don��t know why they��re popr. I��m just writing freely ording to my own wishes.��


    ��It��s probably because humans have a lot of emotions inmon,��Zhang Heng said.


    ��You��re right. For example, loneliness. Whether it��s rich or poor, from the princes and nobles to the poor and homeless, this is something that no one in the world can avoid,��Hemingway said, ��I often feel that I��m too f * cking lonely. This is also the reason why I��ve been drinking too much. I once desperately hoped to receive a letter from anyone, just to confirm that I��m not alone in this world. This is also why I don��t want you to be the second me, young man.��

 Chapter 1417

    <h4>Chapter 1417: A nk Piece Of Paper</h4>


    ��You might have misunderstood what I meant,��Zhang Heng said. ��I didn��t ask for advice to be a second person. I just wanted to use these skills to write my own story.��


    Hemingway was surprised. ��From what you said, other than me, you n to ask a lot of people for advice?��


    ��Why? Are there any taboos?��


    ��Not really. In fact, most of the people in this manor hope that their writing style can be epted by their peers, especially the younger generation of writers. Literature itself is passed down from generation to generation. For us, each generation is actually standing on the shoulders of our predecessors, tiptoeing and touching upwards, but...��


    Hemingway changed the topic, ��However, the people who cane to this manor are all authors who have formed their own style. In other words, everyone has found their own path. ��Generally speaking, unless there are any major changes in the process, everyone will follow the same path to the end. This is also why I said that I don��t want to teach you. After all, discussing andmunicating is one thing, learning is another.


    Hemingway paused, ��Furthermore, my personal style is too strong. I��m worried that it will affect your path, not to mention that you��re nning to ask someone else for advice. I can understand how you felt when you first came here. In fact, you��re not the first person to have such a n. After all, it��s rare to have a ce that can gather all the best writers in the world. There might even be people who have a deep influence on you, or even lead you on the path of literature. However, if you��re confused by these things and give up on your own path, it will only be a loss.��


    Hemingway was not a busybody. In fact, if it weren��t for Zhang Heng��s good marksmanship, he would have gone out hunting with him without a second thought. Furthermore, the time they spent together was quite good for his temper, he couldn��t be bothered to say so much to give him advice.


    However, what he didn��t expect was that his advice was only exchanged for a simple sentence from Zhang Heng. ��I haven��t figured out the path that belongs to me yet.��


    ��...��


    Hemingway choked on his words for half a minute before saying, ��Haven��t you already published a novel and achieved good results? ��Even though you do look young, there is no shortage of young geniuses in this industry. No, it should be said that it is precisely because you are young enough that you were invited into this manor, which proves your talent even more.��


    ��Actually, it was aplete ident that I was able toe in,��Zhang Heng said truthfully. ��If the college entrance examination essay doesn��t count, I haven��t written any stories.��


    ��A nk piece of paper.��A strange expression appeared on Hemingway��s face. ��If you��re not lying, Kid, then what happens next will be very interesting.��


    ��How is it interesting?��


    This time, Hemingway did not answer Zhang Heng��s question. Instead, he said, ��From today onwards, you will apany me on Wednesdays and Saturdays to hunt. Teach me how to shoot as urately as you.��


    ��Uh, I��m not sure if I have enough time. And like I said before, I can��t get too much fun out of hunting,��Zhang Heng said.


    ��You have to have enough time, because this is the tuition you have to pay to learn to write with me. And it��s not just me. I��ll bring my friends over to teach you as well. When I was at the party in Paris, most of the people I met were idiots, but there was no denying that there were a few of them who had real talent, and some of them came to this vi. Other than that, I��ve been here for a long time. Even though I don��t really participate in group activities, and I��ve made a few new friends, the rest of the people in the vi will have to depend on you.��


    ��Thank you.��Zhang Heng had only wanted to give it a try, but not only did Hemingway agree to it, he had also gained something from it. Not to mention the author that Hemingway knew at the vi.., if Zhang Heng remembered correctly, Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald was one of his good friends in Paris.


    This man��s life was very miserable. He was trapped in love all his life and died in Los Angeles at the age of 44. However, no one could deny his unparalleled talent. Haruki Murakami especially admired him, ��The Great Gatsby��was mentioned several times in ��Norwegian Wood��as the best novel to read.


    Unlike his good friend Hemingway, whose words were concise and straightforward, Fitzgerald��s novel was elegant. Every sentence was as elegant as a poem, with a profound charm. If one were to learn rhetoric.., there was no better teacher than Fitzgerald.


    ..


    When Zhang Heng returned to the mansion, it was alreadyte at night. The dutiful hobbit housekeeper was still waiting for him at the door with an oilmp in her hand.


    Seeing that he had returned, she handed him a key with the room number printed on it and then led him to the room.


    Zhang Heng inserted the key into the keyhole and opened the door. He found that it was a suite. There was a living room, a bedroom, and a bathroom. Other than that, there was a study room that faced the garden and could be used for writing and reading.


    What surprised Zhang Heng even more was that the interior was decorated and designed in the 21st century style. Other than theputer that he had asked Gaime for, there was also a game console and a projector, the socket on the wall also had electricity.


    As if she knew what he was thinking, The Hobbit housekeeper spoke again, ��Every guest room here is different. The manor has always beenmitted to creating a perfect environment for every writer. If you have any other needs, feel free to let me know. As long as you don��t leave the manor, you can be satisfied.��


    With that, she bowed again and left the room. She even closed the door behind her.


    Zhang Heng didn��t think much of it. He walked straight into the bathroom to wash off the dirt and sweat on his body. He opened the closet, picked out a set of pajamas, turned off the lights, and went to bed.


    The next morning, Zhang Heng first went to the fantasy best-selling female author��s room and had breakfast with thetter. Then, ording to the agreement, the fantasy best-selling female author introduced Zhang Heng to a big shot.


    Shakespeare, as the most well-known author in human history, had always been riddled with too many mysteries.


    The 16th century was too far away from the present, after all. Later generations could only try to reconstruct the author��s legendary life from bits and pieces of history. However, even the most epted version of Shakespeare today.., there were still many people who questioned its authenticity.


    However, in this dungeon, Shakespeare was sitting in front of Zhang Heng. He was eating fruit while watching two girls ying in the water not far away.

 Chapter 1418

    <h4>Chapter 1418: Not Disappointed</h4>


    Shakespeare was very particr about how he ate his fruits.


    Not only did he use a golden fruit te, but he also had a special maid serving him. She fed the grapes into his mouth and used both hands to catch the fruit core that he spat out.


    At first, Zhang Heng thought that it was a maid assigned to Shakespeare by the manor. It was not until the fantasy bestselling author greeted the maid-like woman that Zhang Heng realized that thetter was also the author who had been invited to the manor.


    Shakespeare listened to the fantasy best-selling author introduce Zhang Heng in a respectful tone, but there was no reaction. It wasn��t until a momentter that he suddenly frowned and spat out the grape that had just been fed to his mouth, ��It��s sour.��


    The female author who was serving him at the side saw this and couldn��t help but panic. ��I��ll ask the kitchen to bring two new skewers.��


    ��No need, that��s enough. I��m almost done eating.��


    Shakespeare wiped his mouth elegantly with a napkin as he spoke. He then turned to look at Zhang Heng.


    ��You want to learn how to write from me?��


    ��I thought about it before, but I don��t want to anymore,��Zhang Heng said.


    Shakespeare was a little surprised, as if he didn��t expect that there would still be people in this world who would reject his guidance.


    As soon as Zhang Heng said this, the two female writers on the other side also changed their expressions.


    ��You know who I am, right?��Just to be safe, Shakespeare confirmed again. ��In your era, who was the most famous writer?��


    ��William Shakespeare.��Zhang Heng did not deny it.


    Hearing this, Shakespeare��s stern face softened slightly, ��Then my works, ��The Merchant of Venice,��King Lear,��Macbeth,��and of course, ��Romeo and Juliet,��are still popr, right?��


    ��As far as I know,��Zhang Heng said.


    ��Interesting, then the question arises.��Shakespeare looked at Zhang Heng, ��I heard Professor Mag��s introduction. She said that you want to write a popr novel. Is there anyone in this world more suitable to be your teacher than me?��


    Without waiting for Zhang Heng to answer, Shakespeare continued, ��Not to mention, I��m also one of the 12 judges. Every month, the winner of the story club is selected by me and the other 11 people. You have to know that those who cane to this vi mayck anything, but not talent. In other words...��


    Shakespeare paused, ��Thepetition for the story club will be very intense. Even though there are 12 judges, the final result may only be a small difference after the decimal point. You��re still young, so you probably don��t want to stay here like those old geezers.��


    Zhang Heng could hear the threat in the man��s words.


    However, his expression did not change. He only bowed slightly. ��Goodbye.��


    After saying that, Zhang Heng did not care about Shakespeare��s reaction and turned to leave.


    In fact, thest time he bowed was not because of Shakespeare, who was sitting in front of him, but because of the great literary master who had left an immortal chapter in the history of literature.


    When the fantasy best-selling female author who came with him saw this scene, she was so anxious that she almost jumped out of her seat. As she apologized to Shakespeare, she quickened her pace and tried to catch up with Zhang Heng.


    Even though Zhang Heng looked calm, the female author did not believe that Zhang Heng��s heart would be as calm as his.


    She jogged to Zhang Heng��s side and whispered, ��I know that the real person might disappoint you a little, but it��s not like I��m asking you to live with him. Can��t you pretend topliment him and get some pointers from him? If you��re lucky, you��ll be able to stay by his side for a period of time, and you��ll learn a lot more. Think of it as the tuition fee for writing your new novel.��


    ��I��m not disappointed.��Zhang Heng slowed down a little. He did not have a bad impression of the female author of the best-selling fantasy novel. He knew that the other party was kind enough to introduce him to Shakespeare. After all, thetter��s reputation was too big, in theter generations, almost everyone knew about him. Furthermore, he was one of the twelve judges. There were only benefits and no disadvantages to being able to connect with such a big shot.


    However, Zhang Heng had no interest in serving others.


    To put it bluntly, this manor was so big, and there was nock of talented authors. No matter how good Shakespeare was, he wasn��t irreceable. Furthermore, Zhang Heng felt that Hemingway��s words were very good, there was no need to be scared by the fame of the people here and give up his own path just to chase after the stars.


    In fact, it wasn��t just his own path. His dignity and personality were the same as well. Like the female author beside Shakespeare, Zhang Heng followed his every move closely, he was willing to give his body and soul to be a beside a star. Zhang Heng knew that he couldn��t do it. Furthermore, for the sake of his studies, he was willing to pay some tuition fees, but he wasn��t willing to pay others.


    However, like he said, he wasn��t that disappointed.


    Writing a good novel and being a good person were two different things. Zhang Heng knew this from the very beginning, not to mention that there was still a few hundred years between them, no matter what kind of person Shakespeare was, it didn��t surprise him.


    As for the threat, Zhang Heng didn��t take it to heart.


    He still had a mission failure exemption card with him. Even if he did notplete the main mission, there would be no loss. He came to this dungeon with only one goal, which was to finish the book he was going to write. The rest was not important.


    The fantasy bestselling female writer saw that Zhang Heng was indeed not affected, so she was relieved. However, she still could not help but feel sorry for Zhang Heng.


    On the other hand, Hemingway, who was holding a bottle of wine in his hand during the day, gave Zhang Heng a thumbs up when he saw the scene not far away. This American tough guy was getting more and more convinced of Zhang Heng��s temper toward him, therefore, after Zhang Heng separated from the best-selling author, he dragged a man with long sideburns and ck-rimmed sses to stand in front of Zhang Heng.


    Zhang Heng initially thought that Hemingway was going to introduce Fitzgerald to him, but to his surprise, Hemingway said to hispanion, ��Chemist,e take a look. Are you sure he��s not a bionic man from one of your books?��


    ��Boxer, I think we should get someone to take a good look at the mental illness,��the man with ck-rimmed sses replied. At the same time, he extended a hand to Zhang Heng and said politely, ��Zhang Heng, right? I��ve seen you before at the story party. You can call me the double hundred.��


    How could Zhang Heng not know who the other party was when he heard this name? He was a little surprised. ��Didn��t you go up to tell the story at the eye-opening Story Party?��


    ��If you ask me, he��s probably afraid of Fogg,��Hemingway said sarcastically, taking pleasure in the other party��s misfortune.


    ��Shut up. I��m here to stay for a while longer to learn more about the technology of the future,��the duo retorted.


    ��Then you��re in luck. This kid was born decadester than you. Maybe you two can talk more.��Hemingway took the opportunity to assist Zhang Heng.


    ��You don��t have to tell me.��The duo reported their room number and sent an invitation to Zhang Heng. ��When you have time,e to my room. We can have a good chat.��


    Of course, Zhang Heng wouldn��t refuse. He didn��t expect to receive another Asimov after leaving Jules Verne.

 Chapter 1419

    <h4>Chapter 1419: Room 515</h4>


    Zhang Heng didn��t spend too much time on his own, and he soon blended into life at the vi.


    During the day, he spent most of his time hunting with Hemingway and his group of friends, talking about poetry and literature, or listening to Asimov Ramble on about his newly constructed future world, in terms of science fiction writing, Zhang Heng was definitely not as good as Asimov. However, because he had experienced two future replicas of a leaker and a bodyguard, Zhang Heng��s description of the future also piqued Asimov��s interest.


    Thetter was also nning to pull all the sci-fi writers in the vi together to set up a small club. Zhang Heng, who had been with Asimov recently, was also invited to be the second member of the club.


    In addition, Zhang Heng had identally connected with another strange small group because he had solved a burry in the vi, even though the burry turned out to be the work of that small group.


    Only after Zhang Heng joined the group did he realize that such a case would be staged at least once a week, and it was arranged by a different person.


    That��s right, this group would be the reasoning society.


    The reasoning society was formed by two men and one woman, and it was also in this society that Zhang Heng met Conan Doyle again. However, Conan Doyle had no impression of Zhang Heng at all, it was as if it was the first time he met Zhang Heng. He was very polite, but when he realized that Zhang Heng��s reasoning method was actually the deductive method, Conan Doyle was obviously interested, in the end, he obediently handed in his room number.


    However, Zhang Heng was also sure that this Conan Doyle in front of him was not the same person who gave him the pen in the deductive method copy.


    In fact, over the past few months, Zhang Heng had already gotten a good grasp of the residents and the service staff of the vi, but the owner of the vi had never shown up.


    The bored writers of the inference society were obviously interested in this issue. They had started their research before Zhang Heng, and they hade to a shocking conclusion.


    ��The owner of the vi is among us.��


    Opposite Zhang Heng, a dignified-lookingdy with a sharp gaze and a ne around her neck picked up the coffee on the table and smiled.


    ��Why do you say that?��


    ��Because if you were the owner of the vi and spent so much effort to gather all the outstanding authors in one ce, it would be impossible for you to miss the excitement that will follow. No matter who he is, no matter what his purpose is, he must be observing us from somewhere,��thedy with the ne said in a low voice, at the same time, she took a sip of her coffee.


    As she said this, the atmosphere suddenly turned creepy.


    Well, who asked Zhang Heng to sit in front of the Queen of Detective Stories, Agatha Christie? Her detective stories, such as ��Murder on the Orient Express��, ��Murder on the Nile��, and ��No one survived��, were well-known, ording to statistics, in this world, only the Bible and Shakespeare��s works sold more than her.


    And she was also one of the three leaders of the inference society.


    But this time, the queen of inference was also slightly wrong. In the entire vi, perhaps only Zhang Heng knew the real intention of the owner of the vi to gather all the world��s outstanding authors.


    But even if he told the truth to Agatha Christie, ����the other party probably wouldn��t believe him, and probably would think that he was too conceited.


    However, Zhang Heng did want to meet the owner of this ce again. It might not be now, at least before he left this dungeon. Furthermore, Zhang Heng had to admit that Agatha and the others��deduction was a little off, but it was not without reason.


    Therefore, he asked humbly, ��Then who do you think is the most likely person in the manor?��


    ��You,��Agatha said without hesitation, ��You are the most suspicious because you are thest to arrive, and you live in thest years. No one here has read your novels, and no one knows you. We don��t even know if your identity as a novelist is true or false.��


    ��...��


    ��But,��Agatha changed the subject, ��Now I don��t think you��re like him. I��ve heard about what happened between you and Shakespeare. If you��re really the owner of this ce, there��s no reason that you don��t know what kind of person he is, so you wouldn��t have provoked him in the first ce. Moreover, your clear and bright stance as soon as you came to the vi doesn��t quite fit the identity of the owner of the vi. ��However, we can��t rule out the possibility that you deliberately did these things to distract us when you know you��re the most suspicious. After all, the end of a detective novel often has an unexpected twist.��


    ��Then what about other than me?��


    ��Room 515,��Agatha said after some thought, ��You should have heard about the room on the fifth floor that is closest to the end of the corridor. The tenant inside has never shown his face. The food and water are delivered by the waiters here. It is very mysterious. However, in a detective novel, this kind of character is basically a distraction thrown out by the author to attract the attention of the public. Inparison, I am more willing to suspect you.��


    ��Thank you. If there��s a day when I can��t take it anymore and want to confess, I��ll definitelye to you first.��Zhang Heng expressed his gratitude to Agatha and stood up.


    When he reached the entrance of the Refreshment Room, Agatha��s voice came from behind him


    ��It��s your turn to set up the next deduction game. Your previous case of the mysterious Ripper was quite good. It��s as if you��ve experienced it yourself. I look forward to seeing you perform again.��


    After bidding farewell to Agatha, Zhang Heng epted the invitation of the best-selling fantasy author to attend a popr novel seminar. Initially, Zhang Heng thought that after he had fallen out with Shakespeare, he would not be invited to simr gatherings anymore, however, reality proved that he was overthinking things.


    Other than the female author who had served her at Shakespeare��s side, most of the authors in the manor also admired Shakespeare��s works and acknowledged his status in the literary world. However, they were far from being obedient to his every word, furthermore, his actions were also noticed by the people around him.


    Although those people were not as tough as Zhang Heng appeared, there were still quite a number of people who disliked him. As a result, no one invited Zhang Heng to Shakespeare��s Party, however, there were more people who invited Zhang Heng to a private party between a few of the smaller authors��friends than Shakespeare.


    As a result, Zhang Heng��s writing skills continued to improve as nned. Although it was not as easy to train as other skills, with the help of a group of masters, after three months.., zhang Heng��s writing skills finally broke through to LVL 1. He then wrote two short stories ording to Hemingway��s request and gave them to other authors toment on, including the highlights and problems. Zhang Heng then revised them, this kind of growth was the fastest.

 Chapter 1420

    <h4>Chapter 1420: Stir-fried Beef River</h4>


    In the blink of an eye, Zhang Heng had been staying at the manor for three years. His writing skills had already reached Level 2 a year ago, just like the best-selling female fantasy writers.


    It had to be said that the environment of the manor was perfect for practicing writing. After all, there was only one chance to live with the world��s most outstanding authors.


    Even though these writers had some minor ws, such as Hemingway��s addiction to alcohol, Mark Twain��s venomous tongue, and the fact that they were the best writers in the world.., fitzgerald felt dizzy whenever he saw a woman... but their talents could not be denied, and most importantly, there was nothing else to do in the manor, they were also willing to answer Zhang Heng��s various questions and help him read his newly created article.


    That afternoon, Hemingway was reading a nove that Zhang Heng had just written. After reading it, he put down the manuscript in his hand and frowned.


    ��How is it?��Zhang Heng asked.


    ��The technique is impable. I have nothing more to teach you, but I feel like something is missing from this article.��


    ��Emotion.��Fitzgerald hit the nail on the head.


    ��That��s right.��Hemingway lit a cigar, ��Although there are some schools that emphasize that the narrator should maintain an objective perspective, this doesn��t mean that there are no feelings in their article. They just ce these feelings on the various characters in the book, and let them show the feelings of the author.��


    Hemingway paused at this point, ��Speaking of which, I��ve always felt a little strange. When I first met you, I thought you were the type of person who didn��t show emotions. However, after interacting with you for a long time, I realized that you��ve never been angry or especially happy. Have you always been like this? Your Spirit... rarely fluctuates?��


    ��Not always. I used to have normal feelings. Although they were slightly weaker than ordinary people, because of certain things, my feelings gradually disappeared and became what they are now,��Zhang Heng said.


    ��No offense, but if possible, I am willing to pay to let what happened to you happen to me,��Fitzgerald said gloomily.


    Hemingway did not think much of it. ��Without experiencing these fragile moments, it is impossible to write truly strong words.��After saying that, he turned to look at Zhang Heng, ��Your problem is troublesome. Although you only pursue rapid poprity, it is impossible for any kind of literary work to be devoid of feelings.��


    ��It��s notpletely unsolvable,��Marquez interjected, ��If it��s just the level of poprity of a book, it��s enough to fake some emotion into it. Even though this kid doesn��t have any emotion, if he were to read more than a dozen novels that talk about emotion, he would still be able to imitate cats and Tigers.��


    ��I��m sorry, I might not have made it clear before. My new book does pursue rapid poprity, but there��s another important point. I want the readers to really believe the stories in the books,��Zhang Heng said.


    ��It��s hard to believe a story without a strong emotional foundation,��Fitzgerald said, ��After all, reading for pleasure is one thing, but truly touching the readers is another. You need to put your own emotions into it first, so that it can resonate with your readers.��


    His words also attracted the approval of several writers present.


    However, Hemingway patted Zhang Heng on the shoulder. ��You don��t have to worry. After all, there are so many of us here. If we work together, we can help youe up with a solution.��


    ..


    After returning from Hemingway��s author gathering, Zhang Heng did not return to his room directly.


    Instead, he turned around and went to the kitchen. Ever since his writing skill had leveled up to level 2, Zhang Heng could clearly feel that it was bing increasingly difficult to improve it further, otherwise, the best-selling female author of fantasy novels would not have been unable to reach level 3 even after so long.


    This was no longer just a matter of skill. It involved a writer��s understanding and refinement of his own life, as well as his view of the world around him. Zhang Heng was notcking in experience, or to be more precise, there was no one in this manor who had a richer life experience than him. Even the legendary Hemingway might not be as exciting as a dungeon run by Zhang Heng.


    However, refining and integrating these experiences into his own writing was not something that could be aplished overnight. It still needed a process of umtion.


    Zhang Heng was not in a hurry. After all, including his extra 24 hours, he had only stayed in this dungeon for less than a third of the time. However, before his writing skills reached Level 2, he temporarily put aside some things, he could continue.


    For example, the mysterious room 515.


    It was said that the most mysterious author of the entire manor lived there. No one had ever seen him walk out of his room. Even the windows of the usual room were covered tightly by curtains.


    For this reason, some people could not help but tease that there lived an old vampire who had lived for hundreds of years. The people of the inference society firmly believed that the owner of the manor lived in that room.


    After living in the manor for two years, Zhang Heng was more and more inclined to agree with their point of view.


    The reason was simple. Zhang Heng had already eliminated all the other suspects, whether they were the guests or the service staff.


    It was as if you were doing a multiple choice question. After eliminating all the wrong choices, the remaining one, no matter how bizarre, should be the correct answer.


    However, Zhang Heng had been rejected several times before. Strictly speaking, after he knocked on the door and announced his name, there was no reaction. It was as if no one lived there at all.


    So this time, Zhang Heng decided to use another method. He walked into the kitchen and said to the head chef, ��I��d like to order a dish.��


    ��Of course, the manor will meet all the guests��requirements,��the head chef said respectfully.


    ��I want to eat dry-fried beef river, but the dry-fried beef river I want is more special. I remember that when I was traveling in Guangdong, I once ate a bowl of beef river at a food stall. It��s the best beef river I��ve ever eaten. I want to eat a beef river that tastes the same as the one I had that day.��


    Facing this obviously difficult request, the head chef still appeared polite. ��Okay, can you tell me the name of that food stall?��


    ��No, I��ve already forgotten.��


    Hearing this answer, the head chef��s face finally revealed a troubled expression, but he was still very respectful, ��Okay, we can try to make it, but I��m afraid we��ll have to try it more often. Also, we need you to give us feedback in time.��


    ��No problem,��Zhang Heng said.


    Two hourster, the whole kitchen was drenched in sweat. They surrounded Zhang Heng and watched nervously as he tasted the unknown number of bowls of Milky Way.


    Zhang Heng picked up a stick of milky way powder with his chopsticks and ced a piece of beef into his mouth. He closed his eyes and chewed slowly. After about ten seconds, Zhang Heng put down his chopsticks and nodded. ��This is the taste.��


    Instantly, the entire kitchen erupted in cheers. It was as if the scientists in the research institute had just solved a world problem.

 Chapter 1421

    <h4>Chapter 1421: The Beginning Of The Story </h4>


    After Zhang Heng finished the bowl of NIU he, he thanked the head chef and the rest of the kitchen staff. Then, he stood up and left, heading to the backyard.


    There, Agatha had already put on a set of waiter��s clothes that she had just stolen. She had also prepared a set for Zhang Heng. Seeing that thetter had changed, she pushed a dining cart that she had also stolen from the kitchen, they arrived at the mysterious room 515.


    The two��s n was simple. Since that room was only essible to the delivery staff, they would dress up as the delivery staff.


    Agatha took out her pocket watch and nced at it. After half a month of follow-up research, the reasoning society had confirmed that the delivery time in Room 515 was fixed, and there was still about 15 minutes before the dinner delivery.


    However, there was nothing they could do. If the timing was right, the two of them would definitely meet the real delivery man.


    Therefore, Agatha and Zhang Heng looked at each other and quickly knocked on the door in front of them.


    ��Dear Guest, your dinner has been delivered today,��Agatha imitated the delivery man��s voice and said.


    However, there was no response from the room.


    Agatha could not help but be nervous. She was worried that their simple n had been seen through by the people in the room. Just as she was thinking of what she should say to resolve the problem of time.., unexpectedly, the door in front of her slowly opened a crack.


    Agatha��s eyes shed with surprise when she saw this. However, she was worried that if she acted too hastily, the people behind the door would be suspicious, so she tried hard to suppress the excitement in her heart, she stood outside the door and waited patiently for another minute.


    However, a minuteter, the door that revealed a crack did not open again. There was no one behind it.


    Agatha cleared her throat. ��We��reing in.��


    After saying that, she finally reached out and pushed open the door that no one had been able to open.


    Behind the door was a set of somewhat shabby-looking guest rooms. ording to The Hobbit housekeeper, the guest rooms in the manor would meet the needs of every guest to the greatest extent. For example, Zhang Heng��s room, it had a modern decor and was fully equipped with all kinds of electronic devices. For example, the room of the best-selling fantasy author was even more luxurious than the presidential suite of a five-star hotel.


    However, this room looked rather shabby. The floor was in disrepair, and when one stepped on it, the ceiling and walls above one��s head were covered in mold. The furniture was simple and cheap, surprisingly, the room was clean. It was clear that someone was cleaning it regrly.


    Agatha pushed the dining car into the living room and ced it beside the dining table. Then, she did not leave. Instead, she looked around curiously.


    Judging from the decoration and furniture, it should be the style of the early 20th century. Agatha was quite familiar with it because she lived in the same era. However, the atmosphere in the room was obviously a little gloomy, just like the crime scenes she had written about.


    An ordinary person might not be able to stay for more than a few minutes before they felt depressed. It was no wonder the owner of this room never received any guests.


    However, neither Zhang Heng nor Agatha were ordinary people. From the looks of it, neither of them had any intention of leaving.


    This was a rare opportunity, and she didn��t know when she would be able to enter again.


    Even though she didn��t bump into anyone in the living room, Agatha wasn��t discouraged. She quickly shifted her gaze to the tightly shut door of the study. However, before she could reach it, a voice came from behind her.


    ��What are you trying to do? !��


    It was an old woman with a wrinkled face and a stern expression. Neither Agatha nor Zhang Heng noticed where she hade from.


    She was still holding a broom in her hand, and her face was full of vignce. It was as if she had mistaken Zhang Heng and Agatha for Thieves.


    ��Ah, are you the guest here? We��re here to bring you dinner,��Agatha quickly exined as she pointed to the dining cart at the side.


    The olddy��s grip on the broom loosened slightly. She didn��tment, but she maintained a straight face as she said, ��Just leave the things there and get out of Here!��


    Agatha was at her wit��s end. They had sneaked into the restaurant wearing the service staff��s clothes because they had made a mistake. Now that the guests had chased them out, they had no reason to stay.


    However, just as Agatha was about to leave, she found Zhang Heng Standing Still.


    He looked at the fierce olddy in front of him and said, ��You��re not a guest here.��


    ��Why do you say that?��Agatha was interested.


    ��Because this is obviously a man��s room,��Zhang Heng said, ��When we first entered the room, there were two pairs of shoes on the shoe rack. Judging from the size, they were both male, and most likely, they belonged to the same person. Also, even though this room is rtively clean, there are still cobwebs and dust in the corners and ces that are not easily noticed. Obviously, the cleaners are not careful enough, so the probability of them being male is higher.��


    ��Last but not least,��Zhang Heng said, pointing to the window on his left. ��Can you tell?��


    Agatha studied the window carefully, and a look of contemtion shed across her eyes, ��The upper part of this window is not as bright as the lower part, because the upant is about... well, six feet tall. When cleaning, it can only graze the lower part. This... This madam is less than five feet tall, and if you step on a stool, the ss should be equally bright.��


    ��But,��Agatha frowned again. ��If she is not a guest here, then who is she? How did she get here?��


    ��ording to the rules of the manor, each house can only amodate one guest.��


    ��I am his aunt. We have always lived together. I take care of his daily life. In this world, only I really care about him,��the old woman said.


    ��Is that why he never leaves his room?��


    ��That��s right. The world outside is too dangerous, and people��s hearts are unpredictable. There are traps everywhere. We��re living well here, so there��s no need for us to leave,��the olddy said with a stiff neck.


    ��But do you know that there��s a demon living in his heart?��


    Zhang Heng asked. Unlike Agatha, he already knew who was living in this room the moment he stepped into it, because the feeling was too familiar.


    It was as if he had returned to that gloomy seaside town or that underwater pce, especially now that he had an unprecedented close connection with that existence. Therefore, when he stepped into this room.., the feeling of familiarity was particrly strong.


    Because he knew that this was the origin of everything, the ce where all the stories began.

 Chapter 1422

    <h4>Chapter 1422: Creator</h4>


    ��Devil?��The old woman was stunned when she heard this word. Then, she sneered, ��Aren��t you guys devils who enter other people��s homes without permission and pretend to be service personnel?��


    ��Even so, it��s much more normal than imagining auntie living with you,��Zhang Heng said calmly.


    ��You��re saying that she��s a figment of her imagination?��Agatha was a little surprised, but the queen of deduction quickly came to her senses and said, ��That��s right, this manor only invites the author in, and each person has a room. Since the owner of this room is someone else, then his auntie can��t be here as well. This is the most logical exnation.��


    When Zhang Heng said that, the old woman across from him fell silent, as if someone had pressed the pause button.


    When Agatha finished speaking, her figure gradually faded away until shepletely disappeared.


    However, after she disappeared, the gloomy atmosphere in the room didn��t improve. Instead, it became more intense, so much so that the other authors who lived in the same building also felt it.


    Some authors who were already mentally ill suddenly became depressed because of this atmosphere. Some terrible thoughts shed through their minds uncontrobly, the pilot man from before began to pace around the room. Fitzgerald picked up the love letter he was writing halfway and threw it into the wastepaper basket. Then, he hugged his head in frustration on the bed, even Hemingway, who had always been a tough guy, looked at the shotgun in front of his bed a few times. His expression kept changing.


    Agatha, who was the first to feel it, felt even more strongly. Her face changed. ��How can this be?��


    After a moment of silence, Zhang Heng said, ��I might have guessed wrong before. I thought his aunt was the main culprit for his mental problems because this room is most likely the ce where he lived with his aunt before. Only this can exin why this ce is so dpidated, and at the same time, it has the illusion of his aunt. ����The Hobbit housekeeper once told me that every guest room would satisfy the needs of the guests to the greatest extent, and he chose to transform his guest room into a ce where he had lived before, probably because it would give him a sense of security


    ��You��re right. He has been in the manor for so long, but no one has seen him leave his room. He should be an extremely introverted person. When such a person chooses the style of the guest room, he is most likely to choose the ce where he lived, even if it is very simple and shabby, and he could have chosen a better living environment.��


    Agatha paused. ��Wait, you... seem to know someone who lives here?��


    ��That��s right, he��s the creator,��Zhang Heng said.


    ��Who is the creator of Who?��


    However, Zhang Heng did not answer the question.


    So Agatha asked again, ��What about the Auntie you mentioned before?��


    ��I was wrong. The old aunt we met before showed a strong desire to control. I thought that was the reason for his mental problems, but now it seems that his aunt has been trying to help him and solve his mental illness. The reason why he imagined his aunt here is to help himself to stabilize his mental state. This is also the reason why there hasn��t been any problems in the manor for a long time, until we exposed his fantasy just now.��


    ��Wait, I still don��t understand. Why is his mental illness affecting everyone in the manor?��Agatha asked.


    ��It��s hard to exin in a short amount of time. I have some history with him. Can I have a moment alone with him?��Zhang Heng asked.


    ��Okay.��Agatha could tell that Zhang Heng was very concerned about the guests in the room, so she agreed without hesitation and left.


    After she left, Zhang Heng closed the door and walked toward the study. He could feel the gloomy and depressing atmosphere in the study, and if nothing went wrong, it came from there.


    Zhang Heng didn��t expect that he would find the culprit of all this instead of the owner of Room 515.


    Zhang Heng knew that the person in this room was the creator of the monster in underice city. Since the monster��s blood flowed in his body, in a sense, the other party could be considered his half-creator, therefore, the next meeting was going to be very interesting.


    Zhang Heng ced his right hand on the worn-out brass handle of the study. He took a deep breath and slowly turned his palm.


    The door to the study wasn��t locked, which was normal. The owner of this suite usually kept the door tightly shut, so there was no need to lock the study that was used for work.


    When he pushed the door open, the scene inside the study was clear at a nce.


    This ce was as simple and shabby as the reception room outside, but the collection of books wasn��t small. It was like a small library, with a lot of old newspapers arranged ording to the date and stacked in the corner of the room.


    In the middle of the room was an old table. A tall and thin man was tapping on a ck typewriter on the table with his back to the door.


    The tapping sound of the typewriter was particrly jarring in the quiet room.


    The tall and thin man at the table seemed to have heard the footsteps behind him, but he didn��t turn around. He just said, ��Aunt Annie, you eat first. I��ll go to the living room after I finish writing this.��


    However, the person behind him did not continue to urge him as usual.


    The tall and thin man seemed to have noticed something. He turned his head away from the desk and saw a strange man standing behind him. The man was squatting down and picking up a piece of paper from the ground.


    It was the end of a novel. Zhang Heng noticed the signature at the bottom of the paper �� Howard Philip Lovecroft.


    Then, he quickly scanned the rest of the words on the manuscript and handed it back to the man opposite him.


    The Man took the manuscript and stammered out his thanks. After a moment of hesitation, he asked nervously, ��Who are you, Aunt Annie��s friend?��


    ��No, I��m here to see you,��Zhang Heng said.


    ��See me?��Lovecroft looked surprised, but then he said shyly, ��But, I don��t know you. Usually, Imunicate with my friends through letters. They rarelye to see me.��


    ��Yes, this is our first meeting. Although I have always admired your talent.��


    ��Really? This is the first time someone has said such a thing to me.��Lovecraft was a little excited, and his dull face showed a hint of excitement.

 Chapter 1423 - Mankind’s Oldest Emotion Is Fear

    <h4>Chapter 1423: Mankind��s Oldest Emotion Is Fear </h4>


    Zhang Heng pointed at the half-finished manuscript on the old typewriter.


    ��Is this your new novel?��


    ��No, this is not my novel. In fact, it belongs to a friend of mine. I helped him with some revisions and revisions, and in return, he will pay me some money.��Lovecraft seemed a little ashamed, he added hurriedly, ��Usually, I do these jobs for free. The main thing is that recently, the situation at home has been a little difficult. By the way, you said you��ve read my novels. Is it in the newspapers?��


    ��Actually, they��re almost everywhere,��Zhang Heng said.


    Lovecraft was a little confused.


    But before he could ask, Zhang Heng pulled out a chair from the side and ced it in front of him. ��Let��s talk about the novels you��ve written.��


    ��Ah, sure.��The moment he mentioned his novel, Lovecroft, he changed from his usual stiff and reserved self to one of fanaticism, ��The things I��m writing... originated from the horror stories my grandfather told me. ��They opened a door for me. Before this, I��ve never seen other words that could stir up human emotions so strongly. What��s more interesting is that in most horror stories, the atmosphere before the monsters appear is the most tense. So, from a very young age, I��ve been thinking, what exactly are we afraid of?��


    ��Mankind��s oldest and strongest emotion is fear, and the oldest and strongest fear is the fear of the unknown,��Zhang Heng said.


    ��That��s exactly what I wanted to say!��Lovecraft said excitedly, ��Imagination, imagination is the key to all of this. In my novels, I have always focused on creating an atmosphere that can maximize the imagination, rather than directly describing the things that cause fear. ��This is because no matter how scary the things you describe with words are, they are definitely not as scary as the readers imagine. Other than that, the other trick is to make your story as realistic as possible, so that the readers canbine the novel with their own lives.��


    ��It sounds very effective,��Zhang Heng said.


    ��I also think that this should work, but for some reason, my editor told me that my article doesn��t have many readers,��Lovecraft said awkwardly, ��Actually, I can��t afford to live with my aunt by just relying on the royalties. We��ve already moved a few times. Previously, I didn��t like to use a typewriter because the noise it made made made it difficult for me to concentrate. Moreover, when I��m writing, I��m used to sketching on the manuscript paper. If I use a typewriter, I can��t do this kind of thing.��


    Lovecraft sighed, ��But now, in order to pass more manuscripts, I��m also trying to type on a typewriter. After all, we��ve moved several times. If we move again, I��m afraid we��ll have to go to the slums.��


    ��This will be a good start,��Zhang Heng said.


    ��I hope so.��


    A smile appeared on Lovecraft��s pale face. Then, as if he had thought of something, he opened the drawer of his desk, he took out a half-empty bottle of red wine.


    ��I didn��t expect a guest at home, and I wasn��t prepared for it. This is my grandfather��s red wine. At the time, my family was quite prosperous. I used to live in arge mansion surrounded by servants, but now, all I have is this bottle of wine,��Lovecraft said with a self-deprecating smile.


    ��Why are you and your aunt the only family members? Where are your parents?��Zhang Heng asked.


    ��My father... suffered from some mental illness. He had a mental breakdown at a hotel in Chicago, and he died in a mental hospital. My mother, she lived a little longer, but she also fell ill and died. ��Not long after that, I met my wife in Boston. We lived together for a few years, but eventually, her hat failed, and we divorced. Then, Aunt Annie and I returned to Providence.��


    Suddenly, there was a series of knocks on the door. Then, a strange expression appeared on his face as he muttered to himself, ��Aunt Annie asked me to go to dinner again. That��s weird. She just asked me to go to dinner 15 minutes ago.��


    ��Do you want to go open the door first?��Zhang Heng asked as he took a ss of wine from Croft.


    ��No, Aunt Annie will open the door,��Lovecraft said. ��I just need to focus on my work.��


    Not long after he said that, the sound of the door opening came from outside.


    A dining cart was pushed in. The waiter seemed to have gotten used to the strange situation in the room. He didn��t say a word throughout the whole process. After delivering the food, he immediately pushed the dining cart out of the room and closed the door before he left.


    ��Come and have some with us,��Lovecraft said warmly. ��As long as you don��t mind my food being simple and crude.��


    However, Zhang Heng did not get up.


    He looked at the man in front of him and asked, ��How long have you been suffering from mental illness? Did you inherit it from your father?��


    Lovecraft was startled. A momentter, he revealed a bitter smile, ��How do you know? My father... After his death, I did experience a period of depression. No, to be more precise, during that period of time, my spirit would break down from time to time. I was unable toplete my high school education, and because of that, I was unable to get into the university I wanted to go to. But now, I feel much better. Dr. Green gave me a prescription, and I��ve been taking it.��


    Lovecraft pointed to a small bottle of medicine on the table.


    Zhang Heng opened it to take a look, but it was already empty.


    This was not surprising. Because of Lovecraft��s expression and his living environment, his family was already running out of money. Even his food was running out, and the medicine that the doctor had prescribed earlier had no reason to be affordable.


    At the end of his life, the horror novelist was at the end of his rope. At the same time, he was suffering from mental problems. He couldn��t even tell what was real anymore, what was an illusion was just like the believers in his novels who were influenced by Cthulhu and gradually lost their rationality.


    Zhang Heng suddenly understood how the monster in the city under the middle of ice was born. He looked at the thin and sickly-looking horror novelist in front of him and said, ��There��s no need for dinner. I have something else to do today.��


    Lovecraft��s expression darkened when he heard that. Even though he had been locked in his room, he could tell that deep down, he also yearned for friends, especially friends who would recognize him, even though he had only known Zhang Heng for a short time, when Zhang Heng said that he appreciated his talent, he had already decided to treat this stranger as his friend, therefore, when Zhang Heng rejected his invitation to have dinner with him, he felt extremely disappointed.


    However, before he could say anything, Zhang Heng continued, ��You said that you were helping other authors rewrite their works, and I happen to have some writing problems as well. If it��s not too much trouble, can I continue to visit you in the future?��


    ��Of course,��Lovecraft said happily.

 Chapter 1424 - Outline

    <h4>Chapter 1424: Outline</h4>


    Zhang Heng handed the outline printed from theputer to Hemingway.


    ��Is this the novel you n to write?��After reading the outline, Hemingway handed it to Fitzgerald. After thetter finished reading it, he passed it to the next person, the outline returned to Zhang Heng��s hands.


    Then Zhang Heng asked, ��What do you think?��


    ��A very interesting story,��Agatha said, ��I quite like it, especially thest twist. It��s full of drama. This will be a very popr novel. No matter what era it is, I believe it will be popr with readers. People will break down bookstores for it.��


    ��I don��t n to sell it. I want to put it on the inte for as many people as possible to read for free.��


    ��What is the Inte?��


    ��The inte is like a giant grocery market that everyone in the world can easily reach,��Zhang Heng exined.


    ��It sounds cool, but, uh... it would be even better if writers could earn money from it to support themselves,��Dickens said.


    ��In my era, there are indeed some writers who can support themselves through online writing,��the fantasy bestselling female writer said.


    At this time, fitzgerald also said, ��Your outline is great, but how do you n to solve the rtionship problem?��


    ��We have provided you with several solutions, but it seems that you don��t like them,��Hemingway added, ��Of course, to be fair, these solutions are indeed not perfect. Emotions are like the soul of a story. Without it, your story will never beplete.��


    ��I have already figured out how to get back my feelings.��Zhang Heng paused. ��At least, in the creation of this novel.��


    ��Then you will get a great story,��Fitzgerald said.


    ��A magnificent epic of adventurers.��Asimov also pushed up his sses.


    ��An unprecedented best-selling novel,��the fantasy bestseller sighed.


    ��This is all thanks to your help. If it weren��t for you teaching me how to write and guiding me through the maze, I wouldn��t have been able to do this alone.��Zhang Heng put away the outline and thanked the authors.


    Then, he went to room 515 alone and knocked on the door three times. Then, he inserted a copper key into the lock and twisted it gently.


    He had done this many times, so he was very familiar with it. ����After entering the living room, Zhang Heng didn��t stop. He pushed open the door to the study.


    For the first time ever, Lovecraft didn��t help others rewrite or write on his own. He ced the old typewriter on the bookshelf beside him, on the table, there was a small bottle of red wine and two sses.


    The bottle of wine from Lovecraft��s grandfather had already been drunk by the two of them. This bottle was a gift from Zhang Heng three days ago.


    Lovecraft poured the red wine into the ss, just like when they first met. However, today he was wearing a suit that he had not taken out for a long time, so he looked a little more energetic.


    After Zhang Heng brought the outline to him, Lovecroft put on his sses and started reading eagerly. After a long while, he put down the manuscript paper in his hand. He hadn��t even gone to drink his ss of wine yet.., but at that moment, he felt like he had just finished a bottle of wine and heaved a long sigh of satisfaction.


    ��You don��t mind if I use the settings that you made before to write the story?��Zhang Heng asked, surprised.


    ��Of course not. I really like having writers to help me improve and fill my world. In fact, many of the pen pals that I��ve written to before have used this setting to write a story,��Lovecraft shrugged.


    ��What about the ending? Can you ept the ending?��Zhang Heng asked. ��After all, the ending of the story that I��ve created is different from the ones that you��ve written before.��


    ��Before I met you, I would have felt that this was indeed a little against my usual aesthetic standards. Because the stories I created, no matter how much the main character resists, they will eventually be shrouded in greater despair. And you, on the other hand, were the first person to write a story after that. Even though you borrowed my system, in reality, you were telling a story about a person who was shrouded in despair and knew that he could not escape. How he used all his strength to fight against Fate!��


    Lovecraft seemed to be thinking about how to express himself more urately. After a moment, he continued, ��It��s like... All the hope in my novel is to wee the final despair, while all the despair in your novel is to prepare for the final glimmer of hope. This is indeed different from my writing style, but this doesn��t stop me from liking your story. I don��t know why, but maybe it��s because hope and despair are two sides of the same coin. Just like light and darkness, without either side, the world can not truly be real.��


    ��To be honest,��Lovecraft said as he looked into Zhang Heng��s eyes, ��I feel like your new story has helped me fill in thest hole in my story. For that, I should propose a toast to you,��Lovecraft said as he raised the ss in his hand.


    Zhang Heng also raised his own ss. ��To the fear of the unknown.��


    ��To the unyielding courage of mankind,��Lovecraft said in a low voice as he downed the ss of red wine in his hand.


    Fifteen minutester, Zhang Heng walked out of Room 515 with the outline.


    At this point, he had alreadypleted most of his ns. There was only one thing left, and that was the emotion hecked.


    After Zhang Heng bid farewell to Hemingway, Lovecraft, and the others, he finally found The Hobbit housekeeper.


    ��Is there anything I can help you with?��The Hobbit housekeeper asked politely as she put down the vase in her hand.


    Her racial talent allowed her to be silent no matter where she went or what she did. In fact, she had been in the hall the whole time, but few of the passing writers could find her.


    ��Yes, I want to meet someone,��Zhang Heng said.


    ��Who?��The Hobbit housekeeper asked, ��I will try my best to meet your request, but other than the writers in the manor and the service staff, I can��t help you bring the people outside in.��


    ��But there is one person who can,��Zhang Heng said straightforwardly, not keeping her in suspense, ��I want to see the Butler, kanser, who received me before I came to this manor. He is also one of the attendants. You should be able to help me find him, right?��


    ��You want to see him?��The Hobbit housekeeper was a little surprised.


    ��That��s right,��Zhang Heng said, ��In 20,000 Leagues under the sea, Kanser apanied the main character, Professor Aronas, for the entire journey. Therefore, I guess my rtionship with Kanser should not be limited to the first time we met.��

 Chapter 1425 - The Most Primitive Game

    <h4>Chapter 1425: The Most Primitive Game</h4>


    The expression on the hobbit housekeeper��s face became strange.


    This time, for the first time, she did not agree to Zhang Heng��s request. Instead, she said, ��I will help you deliver the invitation to Butler Kanser. However, I can not guarantee that he will note to see you.��


    However, before she could finish her sentence, she noticed that Zhang Heng��s gaze had changed. He shifted his gaze away from her and focused on a certain spot behind her.


    There, Butler Kanser, who was wearing a tuxedo, was slowly walking over from the other end of thewn. The setting sun had coated his body with ayer of afterglow, making him look somewhat sacred.


    He waved at the female hobbit butler. ��Thank you, Bedonna. Leave this to me.��


    Hearing that, the female hobbit Butler bowed and left. Then, Kanser raised his head and smiled at Zhang Heng. ��We meet again.��


    ��That��s right. It��s been almost a year since we first met,��Zhang Heng said.


    ��The deductive copy is from ��Sherlock Holmes��, one of my favorite novels,��Kanser said, ��Even though I��ve always felt that the guy wasn��t really suitable to be my roommate, it seems like you��re getting along quite well with him.��


    ��You gave me that pen when we first met. Is it because you already knew what would happen to me after that?��Zhang Heng looked directly into Kanser��s eyes.


    ��I��m not the go.��Kanser said, ��I mean, I��m a god, but I��m not an omnipotent existence. I Can��t predict the future, but I can certainlyy some foreshadowing at the beginning of the story. As for whether these foreshadowing can be used, to be honest, I don��t know. So don��t think I��m that powerful. I only know your identity a little earlier than others. On the other hand, I��m curious about you. How Do you n to deal with the current predicament?��


    ��The feelings in the story?��Zhang Heng asked.


    ��That��s right. Since you told Bedonna that you wanted to find me, you must have found a way to solve the problem. Do you have a way to restore your feelings?��


    ��No, but I know where the feelings that I lost are,��Zhang Heng said calmly.


    Kanser��s eyes were initially filled with confusion, but after a moment, he seemed to have thought of something. His lips twitched, and finally, a look of realization appeared on his face.


    ��What are you saying about your past experiences?��


    ��That��s right.��Zhang Heng didn��t try to hide it anymore and directly stated his request, ��I want to see those old friends again. They have the feelings that I left behind in them. I will once again collect these feelings and write them into my story toplete the final creation.��


    ��So that��s it?��Consul revealed a surprised smile, ��So this is your final answer? Do you believe that there will be traces left behind? No, wait, the new story you��re going to write has the same theme. Could it be that you��ve already made up your mind to ept that Guy��s arrival and allow your soul to be destroyed?��


    ��This is part of my n.��Zhang Heng��s expression was as calm as ever, as if he was facing the same problem, it was no different from the problems he had encountered in the different dungeons. They would be solved very quickly.


    ��I��ve asked Isis and Sage, and they both said that the soul can not be restored after it is destroyed.��


    ��They didn��t lie to you,��consul nodded.


    ��But after studying your birth, growth, and decline, I realized that there are no absolute rules for you gods. Just because something is impossible at this stage doesn��t mean that it is impossible. ��As long as the public epts it as much as possible, then new rules will naturally be formed.��


    ��So you wanted to create a new rule through novels to help you fight against the existence of the city under the ice.��Consel nodded, ��I already knew this when you stepped into this instance dungeon, but what I don��t understand is why you have to take the risk to ept the descent. Is it because there isn��t enough time?��


    ��Time is one thing. With this dungeon, I can easily finish writing in it. However, even if I can publish it immediately after exiting the dungeon, I need to leave enough time for the readers to read and spread my novel. Most importantly, if my soul can not bepletely destroyed, then I will forever be a mortal. Reality has proven that mortals can not be influenced by novels, no matter how popr they are.��


    Zhang Heng paused for a moment before continuing, ��Other than that, there are some other creative reasons. I need a dramatic ending.��


    ��I��m sure that when the others read the ending of this novel, they will be amazed by the final twist,��said consul. However, he suddenly changed the topic, ��I roughly understand what you want to do, but your request is a little beyond my ability. I can only create an illusion of the author and their characters in the dungeon that belongs to me. I Can��t pull in the characters from other dungeons that you��ve experienced. Fortunately, I know someone who can do it.��


    ��Gam?��


    ��That��s right, but from what I know, he has already repaid the debt he owed you. Even though I know that guy likes you, he��s a stickler for rules. He can��t break his own rules and offer you any help without any conditions.��


    ��That��s fine, I��ll y a game with him,��Zhang Heng said.


    ��What Game?��Consul was curious.


    ��The oldest and most enduring game in the history of mankind.��


    ��You want him to gamble with you?��Consul frowned. ��I already know your request, but what about your bargaining chip?��


    ��I��m trying to help him solve the problem caused by that guy from Underice City.��


    Consul frowned slightly. Just as he was about to say something, Zhang Heng continued, ��Also, I know what his real purpose in creating this game is. I also know that he has been searching for a way to free the gods from the shackles of fate. I might be able to help him with this matter.��


    ��How can you help?��


    ��There��s an old saying among us humans. Danger is also an opportunity. Gaime is unwilling to use violence, so he can��t really send the gods into his game world. However, if he can��t do it, I can, or more urately, the guy who intends to take over my body can.��


    ��Are you trying to... ?��Consell was truly moved this time. His mouth was wide open.


    ��That��s right. If I��m not wrong, the reason why Gaime suddenly disappeared was because he was disappointed at the restarting of the war between the new and Old Gods. At the same time, he hoped that his departure would allow the gods of the two camps to reunite under the threat of the Master of the ice city. If that��s the case, why not take a step closer?��? ��As long as Gaime appears a littleter, I will be able to make all the gods willingly enter the game world he created to take refuge. The so-called proxy war was originally just his excessive n, wasn��t it? He created that unparalleled game with the real purpose of creating a new home for the gods, so that they can get rid of the shackles of fate, and at the same time, they can live in peace with the humans.��

 Chapter 1426 - Visitors

    <h4>Chapter 1426: Visitors</h4>


    A month ago, Zhang Heng discovered that he had an extra 24 hours in his day.


    The first thing that changed was his watch. It was a starfish automatic III mechanical watch made by Tiansuo, Switzend. It had been given to him by his parents in d on his 18th birthday.


    He had ced an order on Taobao perfunctorily, the seller had delivered the goods, and the address had been filled in by the wrong ss.


    ..


    Zhang Heng ced his finger on the keyboard and typed the first paragraph of the novel. His writing skills had already reached level 3, and he had already finalized the outline, so what happened next waspletely natural.


    Just as he finished writing the story that happened in the cafe, someone suddenly knocked on the door.


    Zhang Heng stood up and walked into the living room. He peeked through the peephole.


    He saw the two figures standing outside the door.


    �� Ed Wilson and Bell Brett.


    In a corner behind the army captain and the Explorer stood a shy, short-haired young man. Unlike the first time they met, this time he wasn��t wearing just a pair of shorts, probably because he was visiting a friend, he was wearing a hoodie.


    Zhang Heng opened the door. ��Wee.��


    ��We received a letter from you asking for our help,��Bell said with a smile, ��We rushed over immediately, but I have to say, this ce is quite mysterious. I just had a cup of coffee, and when I woke up, I was already at the manor��s entrance.��


    ��I was about the same,��ed immediately replied, ��But my experience was even more bizarre. I still remember that I was very sick, and after I used all my strength to leave thest sentence of my life, I lost consciousness. When I woke up again, I found myself lying on the ground, and there was a pit beside me, which looked like my grave. Then, a man stood in front of me and handed me your letter, telling me that he could send me over. Oh, right, he also gave me a set of clothes.��


    The short-breasted man was as silent as ever. He didn��t say a word, but after the army captain finished speaking, he nodded, indicating that his experience was simr to his.


    After the others finished speaking, Bale looked at Zhang Heng again and said straightforwardly, ��Alright, let��s continue reminiscing during dinner. First, tell us what you need us to do for you.��


    ��It��s very simple. I��m writing a novel, and I need you to help me finish it,��Zhang Heng said.


    ��A novel? Does that mean my life chicken soup can finally reach its destination?��The army captain��s eyes lit up when he heard that. He rolled up his sleeves and looked like he was ready to do something big.


    Bell and the others stayed at the manor for about a week. With their help, Zhang Heng finished writing the first unit of his new novel. This unit was based on his experience in a beginner��s dungeon. Of course.., on this basis, Zhang Heng also did some artistic work to make it more popr and convenient to read.


    After Bale, Ed, and the short-breasted man left, the second wave of visitors knocked on Zhang Heng��s door.


    The Tokyo Girl, Ameko, who wore a short skirt and had tiger teeth when she smiled, walked into the living room with the aquatic shop owner, Toya Yosuke, who looked like he deserved a p in the face.


    ��Sorry to bother you, Zhang Sang.��Ameko bowed with a red face and said, ��My father and I won a mysterious travel prize, but we didn��t know you were here until we got on the ne.��


    ��Boy, are you the one who yed all these tricks? I felt that there was something wrong with the grand prize at that time. I want to warn you not to have any strange thoughts about my daughter!��Toya Yoshike noticed that Ameko��s expression was a little strange halfway through his words, he immediately changed his tone. ��But, if you can beat me in a race again, it��s not that I can��t ept it...��


    ��Let��s talk about the race another time. Actually, there��s something I need your help with this time.��Zhang Heng bowed back to Ameko.


    ��What is it? You��ve helped us before. It would be great if we could help you as well.��Toya wanted to put on a show when he heard Zhang Heng��s request, however, AMEKO had already agreed to it.


    ��Actually, I��ve been writing a novel recently, but I��ve encountered some difficulties in the process.��


    ��Really? You know how to write a novel?��Ameko was pleasantly surprised. ��But you said you��ve encountered some difficulties? What kind of difficulties? My father and I don��t know how to write a novel either. We don��t know if we can really help you.��


    ��We can, as long as you can do as I say,��Zhang Heng said.


    ..


    The time flow of 1:2400 made every minute in the real world feel exceptionally long.


    Zhang Heng did not use up all the time in the dungeon.


    He had already finished writing the novel on the 2571st day.


    Around 2460 dayster, he sent away thest wave of visitors. However, he was not alone because one of the visitors from before had chosen to stay.


    It was also with that person��spany that Zhang Heng finished writing the end of the novel.


    When he typed thest word on the keyboard, consul returned to his room.


    ��You��ve finished writing your story?��


    Zhang Heng nodded.


    ��But you know that you can��t take anything from the dungeon with you, right? No matter whether you print the story or write it on paper, you can��t take it out of the dungeon.��


    Zhang Heng didn��t say anything. He only took out the -LEdwardwarUSB usb drive ] from his pocket.


    This F grade item was used to make the user��s IP untraceable when it was inserted into theputer. However, many people had neglected the storage function of the USB drive itself.


    Although its quality was very low and only had an F grade, it was still a genuine game prop.


    And any game prop could be brought out of the dungeon.


    Zhang Heng copied the novel he had just finished writing into the USB sh drive. Eight gigabytes of storage space was already a bit small for today, but fortunately, it was enough to hold a novel.


    ��As expected, the seemingly unsolvable problems are often hidden in those inconspicuous corners,��kanser sighed, ��I have no more questions. I��ll remind you onest time to be careful of Kronos. He hopes to use you to plot against the Master of the city under the ice. If he finds out what you��re doing, he��ll definitely try to stop you.��


    ��It doesn��t matter. I��ve already found my messenger. She��s apletely invisible person. She��s harmless to everyone and has no offensive power. No one will notice her or make things difficult for her, and she��ll help me finish the rest after I die,��Zhang Heng said.


    ��It seems like you��ve already arranged everything.��Kanser nced at the figure by the window. The figure had been standing there quietly like a floormp, not attracting any attention at all, however, Kanser knew that if he showed any hostility toward Zhang Heng, even if it was just a hint, the figure would immediately raise the shotgun at his feet and put a few holes in his head.


    ��Since that��s the case, then I have nothing more to say. I��ll leave the remaining 329 days of this dungeon to the two of you.��Kanser whistled and turned to leave, before he left, he even closed the door behind him.

 Chapter 1427 - Out Of Control

    <h4>Chapter 1427: Out Of Control</h4>


    ... The ughter continued. The panicking gods were like a flock ofmbs waiting to be ughtered, fleeing in all directions under the fangs of wild beasts.


    They wailed and wept, their distorted faces filled with despair and fear!


    Once upon a time, they had once dominated thisnd. Behind every name was a series of brilliant legends. However, in today��s story, they were just supporting characters.


    ��We can��t hold on anymore!��Apollo, who was covered in blood, had already retreated to the front door of the vi.


    Six of the seven strings of his seven-stringed zither had been broken, leaving only thest string. The golden arrows in the quiver on his back had long since been shot empty. However, this was not the most despairing thing. The most despairing thing was that his opponent was actually unharmed!


    Not only Apollo, but the god of electricity, Hades, the god of guns, and the others were also in a sorry state. Perhaps the only thing that made them feel gratified was that they had been able to stop them during this period of time.., the other gods had basically all left safely.


    Hades held the broken staff in his hand and said, ��We have to destroy the tunnel. Otherwise, if he enters the new world, everything will be over.��


    ��Perhaps... we can use explosives to blow up the vi, but I need some time to set up,��the god of chemistry suggested.


    However, before he could finish his sentence, the mustached man standing at the side suddenly said, ��Leave it to me. You are almost at your limit. Hurry up and leave. Don��t make unnecessary sacrifices.��


    When he said this, Apollo and the others heaved a sigh of relief. No one knew their own physical condition better than them. Just as the mustached man had said, they were indeed at the end of their rope, the reason why they were still holding on was entirely due to their pride. No one was embarrassed to be the first to leave.


    Since the mustached man was willing to stay behind to finish the job, they naturally had no reason to hold on any longer. They all ran into the vi and pushed open the door to the New World.


    The Man with the mustache, who had been watching from the side, finally moved this time. He waved his hand and a novel flew from the bookshelf in the vi��s study into his hand, it was a book from ��Star Wars.��.


    The Man with the mustache flipped through the pages and in the next moment, a small green-skinned man with pointy ears that was less than 0.7 meters tall appeared in front of him.


    When his feet touched the grass, he did not pay any attention to the divers around him. Instead, he bowed to the bearded man first.


    ��Go!��The bearded man nodded at him.


    In the next moment, a light sword appeared in the hand of the green-skinned humanoid with pointy ears.


    The force was injected into the Kyber crystal. A ball of sma immediately formed a sword de under the restraint of the maic field!


    The green-skinned, pointy-eared little man easily used this de to cut a diving diver that pounced on him into two halves.


    There were so many books on the bookshelf, and the bearded man had chosen this ��Star Wars��for a reason. As everyone knew, the vast majority of Jedi warriors had a strong will, especially the leader of the Jedi map, Master Yoda, whose spiritual power was particrly strong.


    One had to know that under the current circumstances, there were very few characters who could disy their full potential. Only a dark nemesis like Yoda was able to move freely.


    However, even though he could fight against so many of them at the same time, it was impossible for him to defeat the Master of the city under the ice with his strength. In reality, Yoda only managed to hold on for less than a minute, he was already being targeted by ��Zhang Heng��.


    The next moment, his small body suddenly shook, and a pained expression appeared on his face. Although he was still trying his best to wave the lightsaber in his hand, his movements were clearly slower than before. It didn��t take long for him to reveal a w, he was pounced on by the swarming divers.


    Following the death of Master Yoda, the ��Star Wars��book in the mustached man��s hand also started to burn.


    At that moment, he was surrounded by the lurkers. He stood alone in front of the vi��s entrance. However, his face did not reveal any panic like the other gods before him. Instead, it was filled with emotion.


    ��Are we finally entering the final chapter? You came earlier than expected, but thankfully, the time is almost up.��


    ��Zhang Heng��did not answer or react. He was acting as if he had not met the mustached man in the game not long ago.


    He did not even pay attention to the man with the mustache. Instead, he turned his head mechanically to look for the gods who had fled. In the end, his gazended on a certain direction, that was also the location of the door in the vi.


    It was unknown how his gaze had prated through theyers of reinforced concrete. After confirming the direction, ��Zhang Heng��took another step towards the man with the mustache. It seemed like he was going to get rid of this guy blocking the door first.


    When they saw their master take action, those who were already impatient immediately followed suit and pounced on the man with the mustache.


    In the end, the man with the mustache suddenly took two steps back and opened the door that should have been guarded tightly behind him. At the same time, he made a ��please��gesture, and his body became more and more transparent, finally, he turned into a streak of light and flew into a certain book on the bookshelf.


    ��Zhang Heng��ignored the fly that had escaped halfway and continued to walk forward, as if nothing in the world could stop him.


    He walked into the vi and walked all the way to the door without any obstruction.


    ��Zhang Heng��did not hesitate. He reached out to push open the door, but the next moment, the second hand on the starfish that had already stopped moving suddenly started to rotate again.


    The minute hand and the hour hand started to move. Their speed was faster than a normal watch, and they finally stopped at 23:55.


    This number had a special meaning to Zhang Heng. It was the start of every dungeon run, and it also meant that a new extraordinary experience was about to begin.


    However, ��Zhang Heng��only turned to look at the starfish on his hand. He didn��t feel anything, so he pulled off the watch and tossed it aside, then, he pushed open the door in front of him.


    One step, just one more step, and he would be able to enter the new world,pletely eliminate all the Troubles, and bring destruction to every corner of the world.


    However, in the next moment, his left foot, which was about to step out, suddenly stopped in the air, unable to move.


    ��Zhang Heng��frowned. Ever since he took over this body, he had never encountered such a strange situation. The reason was very simple, because this body was already flowing with his blood, it was a part of him. He entered this body under the name of descending, but in reality, it was more like taking back something that should have belonged to him a long time ago.


    But now, he could clearly feel that he was losing control of his body.

 Chapter 1428 - The New Legend (End)

    <h4>Chapter 1428: The New Legend (End)</h4>


    A powerful and terrifying aura rose into the sky, causing the surrounding space to distort!


    This was the terrifying power of Cthulhu, and this power originated from the fear of the unknown!


    It looked so unstoppable, as if it was despair itself!


    The gods outside the vi had already proved that even if they joined forces, they would not be a match for this power. With this power, ��Zhang Heng��had regained control of his body. However, at the next moment.., the Fishbone bracelet hanging behind the door suddenly trembled.


    Then, from somewhere far away, came a whale��s cry!


    The Whale��s cry was drowned out by an indescribably terrifying aura. It seemed extremely small, but it did not disappear. It was like hope itself.


    ��Zhang Heng����s body was once again pinned to the ground, but this was not something that truly baffled him, what truly baffled him was that he realized that a part of the power in his body had actually flowed to an unknown ce.


    He could clearly feel that in that ce, a brand-new but familiar soul was being born!


    But How was this possible? !


    The human soul that had appeared in this world by ident had beenpletely destroyed by him when he descended into this body, just like a ss that had been restored to its molecr state, logically speaking, it should not have been restored.


    But now, this incredible thing had indeed happened to him.


    Even though he had only taken over this body for a few months, ��Zhang Heng��felt that he had already adapted and familiarized himself with this new body. However, at this moment, he realized that he had no idea where the new soul was located.


    He wanted to make a move, but he was unable to do so. Therefore, he could only continue to release that unmatched power, trying to destroy the new soul directly through the pressure. However, as he continued to increase his power.., ��Zhang Heng��was surprised to find that the power he had lost was also increasing.


    In fact, the power he released was like nutrients, constantly supplying the new soul and helping itplete the whole process of breaking the shell.


    ..


    After 132 days of destruction and darkness, Zhang Heng opened his eyes again.


    However, this was not the world he was familiar with.


    He realized that he was standing on a burning street, just like in the dream. Everything he saw was burning crazily, and the remaining humans wereughing maniacally, killing each other for fun, it was as if they were not in hell, but in heaven.


    On the hill of corpses sat another him, like a ruler of the world, looking down at him from above. There was a rare look of mockery in his eyes, as if he was saying that it was toote.


    Toote?


    Zhang Heng frowned. Did something go wrong with his previous n? Did the little girl who was responsible for sending the USB to Han Lu fail toplete her mission, or did the god of fiction fail to ce all the key items that triggered his rebirth in ce, or did his novel not catch on as quickly as he had expected? Or did something go wrong in some other ce that he had not thought of before.


    Zhang Heng did not have time to think about it because he saw the remaining survivors, the half-human, half-fish-frog-like divers, and the smaller version of Cthulhu��s star minion swarming toward him, just as Zhang Heng was about to turn around to face the enemy, he realized that his body was frozen in ce like he was in a dream.


    Zhang Heng closed his eyes as if he had epted his fate and the world��s fate.


    However, he suddenly said, ��It seems like you really can��t do anything to me. If it��s only an illusion of this degree, why don��t you just admit defeat?��


    As he said this, the corpses and monsters around him had already disappeared.


    Zhang Heng opened his eyes for the second time and realized that he had returned to the underwater pce. He stood face to face with the ck shadow that was asrge as a mountain and faced the terrifying aura.


    At that moment, the world became extremely quiet. It was as if there was only one person and one monster left.


    ��I used to think that you grew up because of the fear of swallowing humans. It wasn��t until I saw you, no, our creator, that I realized what really made you,��Zhang Heng said as he looked straight at the monster in front of him.


    The monster in front of him seemed to have not heard him. It dragged its huge body and walked toward him step by step. Its thick tentacles dragged on the ground and emitted a terrifying sound that reverberated above the pce.


    However, Zhang Heng, who was in front of it, did not run away nor was he prepared to fight.


    ��The life of despair and loneliness is the most terrifying thing in this world. ��However, don��t worry. Unlike the other people in this world who don��t understand you and only want to destroy you, I have no intention of killing you. Moreover, the life of despair and loneliness can not be killed, just like you can never kill mepletely because Hope has always existed. So...��


    Zhang Heng paused and continued, ��Next, I��m afraid we��ll have to share this body and spend quite a bit of time together. Currently, you can use 24 hours for about 23 hours and 50 minutes, and I can use the remaining 10 minutes. Don��t look so sad. On the bright side, at least you won��t be as lonely as before.��


    When the monster heard this, it stopped in its tracks.


    Even though it remained silent, Zhang Heng seemed to know what it was going to say, ��Are you trying to say that 10 minutes isn��t going to change anything? That You��re going to destroy the world while I can��t control my body? ��Unfortunately, since you have my 10 minutes, your original n can��t go on.


    ��In my next 10 minutes, I will take you to a new world. All the characters there are already in position, but the final boss position is still vacant because they can��t find a powerful character, and this final position is tailor-made for us.��


    Zhang Heng seemed to have thought of something as he patted his head and added, ��Oh, by the way, I almost forgot to mention, although on the surface our time allocation is 23 hours and 50 minutes versus 10 minutes, in reality, my day has 48 hours, so strictly speaking, our time ratio is 23 hours and 50 minutes versus 24 hours and 10 minutes.


    ��This is much fairer, and in this case, my day is 10 minutes longer than the average person��s. I don��t have a problem with that. Also, the flow of time in that world will also be slightly different from the real world. I hope you won��t be too surprised when we go inter.��


    ��Alright, that��s all I have to say. There are still a lot of things I need to do. I need to make sure that you can��t escape from that world. I need to help the other guy appease the old and New Gods that were tricked into that world. After that, I need to prepare for the game world to be opened again to wee yers. After all this is done, if there��s still time, I��d like to use the rest of my time to meet some old friends.��


    After saying this, Zhang Heng closed his eyes again. ��Next, let��s write a new legend together.��

 Chapter 1429 - The Troubles Of The Gods (Thanks To Alliance Leader Fang Dalin)

    <h4>Chapter 1429: The Troubles Of The Gods (Thanks To Alliance Leader Fang Dalin)</h4>


    ��I��m sorry, this area hasn��t been opened for the time being.��


    As more and more gods began to explore the area, more and more people received simr notifications.


    This time, it wasn��t just the tarot card god. The other gods��expressions changed as well.


    ��Why is this happening?��


    ��Is it because of Gaime? We��ve already reached this point, yet he still wants to scheme against us?��


    ��What exactly is gaime trying to do? Is he trying to imprison us in this Godforsaken ce Forever?��


    ��Where��s Isis? who was close to her before she came in? We know where she ran off to.��


    ��...��


    The gods were moring, trying their best to figure out what exactly was going on. Unfortunately, there were all sorts of guesses, but only a few useful suggestions.


    At this moment, someone finally noticed the silent Kronos, who had been watching coldly from the side. He said to him, ��God of time, do you have any good suggestions for our current predicament?��


    ��Wait.��


    Kronos opened his mouth and spat out a word.


    ��Wait? Wait for what?��Hercules frowned, ��That fellow from underice city is still behind us. We don��t know if the god of novels will be able to sessfully destroy that door. Let��s hurry up and find Gam or ISIS. At least cut off the passage before we talk about anything else.��


    Hearing this, Cronus snorted coldly. He originally did not want to exin further, but seeing that there were other gods looking over, he understood that if he wanted to leave this ce in the future, he would need the help of others, at the moment, he had to unite all the forces that could be united, so he patiently continued.


    ��Since gaime has already done this and has schemed against all of us, it is impossible for him to bepletely unprepared for the situation outside the door. His rtionship with the god of novels is extraordinary. Whether it is here or outside, there must be some arrangements. Moreover, we are now in his territory. There is no other way except to wait.��


    Hercules��brows rxed slightly. He had to admit that Kronos��words sounded reasonable, but he still couldn��t help but ask.., ��Then how long do we have to wait in this damn ce? A Day, a week, or a month? If gaime doesn��te looking for us, then wouldn��t we have to wait until the seas run dry and the rocks rot?��


    ��Although the situation you mentioned might happen, the probability is very small,��Chronos said, ��Gaime is not a madman like Seth. There is a strong logic behind everything he does. Just by looking at the decorations and decorations of this ce, we can see that this is just an area simr to a transit station. Under normal circumstances, we won��t stay here for long.��


    As if to confirm Kronos��words, not long after he finished speaking, therge screen in the center of the waiting room and all the hanging televisions lit up.


    The gods finally saw that young face again after five months!


    Gaime, the god of games, appeared on the screen with a pair of sleepy eyes. He looked like a primary school student who had just yed games all night but still had to get up early to go to school.


    Although many people were dissatisfied with Gaime��s behavior of trapping them in this waiting hall, Gaime was still the leader of the gods. His prestige from before was still there, especially at this juncture where Cthulhu had escaped from his cage under the sea, he had ughtered his way through the human world, forcing the gods to hide in the new world, terrified like stray dogs.


    At this time, both the new gods and the Old Gods missed the days when Gaime was still alive.


    Some people even saw GAIME��s tears of excitement. However, the god of games looked a little embarrassed. He scratched his head and adjusted the camera in front of him, at the same time, he seemed to be using this time to organize his words. Finally, he said, ��Wee, Wee to the ��station��.��


    ��Station?��Kronos raised his eyebrows. ��So, this ce is really just a transit station. I just wonder, where does the train in your station lead to?��


    ��To the various dungeons of the game world,��the little boy replied quickly as if he could hear Kronos��question.


    The gods were in an uproar when they heard this. The previous game world was built by them after they epted Gaime��s invitation. However, they never knew that.., there was a ce called the station hidden in that game world.


    Of course, Gam had gone missing for four months. With his strength, he could build a new site on his own. However, to connect this new area called the station to the various dungeons.., this involved adjusting the structure of the original structure. It was a very difficult thing. It was basically equivalent to overturning half of the game and redoing it.


    Therefore, there was only one exnation for the current situation, which was that this area called the station had been in GAIME��s n since he started to build the magnificent game world that he had imagined, it was just that he had hidden it away, and no one else knew about it except him.


    It was only until today that this area was put into use and weed the first batch of guests.


    At this time, even god Pan, who did not like to use his brain, reacted. He lowered his head with goat horns, ��Respected god of games, Gaime, why did you leave behind such an area behind us?��


    ��So that the game can enter the third stage,��Gaime answered every question.


    ��The third stage? What third stage? We thought we had already agreed that this game was only prepared for the human yers,��the god of cars said, ��The first stage is convenient for us to choose the agents we like, and the second stage is for those agents to kill each other to end the conflict between us, to abandon those ancient and bloody traditions, and to step into the era of civilization. As for the third stage, what is it?��


    Hearing this, Gaime was silent for a moment, and then he said again.., ��I��m sorry, I��ve hidden some things from everyone before, and I��m sure some of you have already guessed the real purpose of building this game.��


    ��Are you crazy? !��Kronos said with a sullen face. ��You may be the strongest among us, but what right do you have to decide the fate of all of us? To decide where we live?��


    His words also received the approval of a group of gods.


    However, at this moment, Gaime had gradually recovered from his initial shyness. When he heard the questioning of the god of time, he scratched his head again. ��Weren��t you the ones who had no choice but to enter my game world to seek protection?��


    Cronos,��...��


    ��And if you really think about it, isn��t this the trouble you caused? Cronos, it was you who brought that human out of the city under the ice and made him your agent. At the same time, you kept his true identity hidden.��

 Chapter 1430 - The Troubles Of The Gods 2 (Thanks To The Naive And Innocent Ge)

    <h4>Chapter 1430: The Troubles Of The Gods 2 (Thanks To The Naive And Innocent Ge)</h4>


    Chronos was speechless.


    Indeed, when he brought Zhang Heng out of the city under the ice, it was equivalent to helping the world solve an imminent crisis. However, now that the gods had fallen into such a tragic situation.., it was also rted to him.


    Outside the mansion in Pluto, the gods were all mourning for having to leave their homnd. No one was in the mood to settle old scores with him. When they reached the station, everyone was busy figuring out the current situation, so naturally, they couldn��t care less about him, until now, GAIME, who had been missing for five months, showed up again.


    Everyone regained their backbone. Their previously tense nerves rxed a little, and they began to n for their future lives. In addition, Chronos had taken the initiative to lead the conversation here, only then did the gods remember which bastard had tricked them into such a state.


    Thus, everyone��s gaze towards Kronos immediately became unfriendly.


    Kronos knew that he was in the wrong, and he could not refute it. In fact, the reason why he did not want to enter the New World with the other gods was because he did not want to be med for his previous actions, however, he did not have a choice when his life was in danger.


    Kronos knew very well that the reason why no one was looking for trouble with him was because the huge shadow of Cthulhu had always shrouded everyone. Once he got rid of the threat of the monster, he would be punished sooner orter.


    However, Kronos did not expect this day toe so quickly. It was also his fault. He had guessed what Gaime was trying to do and was too angry. He could not hold himself back for a moment, causing trouble toe out of his mouth.


    He knew that what he said next would be meaningless. It would only attract hatred towards himself. Therefore, he wisely chose to shut up and not speak anymore, however, he also believed that he was not the only one who could see what Kronos was trying to do. With him starting it, there would definitely be others who would follow up.


    Kronos��guess was not wrong. Although the gods were very unhappy with what he had done previously, everyone still tried their best to suppress the anger in their hearts and turned their attention back to the current situation.


    Pan again came forward, bowed to gaime on TV, and asked, ��Dear god of games, can you help me? I��m sure you have your reasons for building such a unique functional area.��


    ��Of course,��said Gaime, nodding, ��I am also a god, so I naturally know what the shackles on the god��s neck have been for a long time. Each of us has our own destiny, but this destiny is not chosen by ourselves. It has long been written into those legends and heroic poems. Even for a new God like me, who was not born for too long, our destiny is decided by themon will of most humans. It has something to do with everyone in this world, but it has nothing to do with us. This is the same whether it is the new God or the old God.��


    Gaime sessfully made the gods in the ��Station��fall into silence. Apparently, what he said just now had also hit the bottom of everyone��s heart, but after a moment, Apollo, the Sun God, who looked a little embarrassed, raised his head again and said.


    ��This is a curse that each of us is born with, and it is also the source of our strength. We have nothing toin about. We have lived like this for thousands of years. It is not that no one has tried it before, but the facts have proved that we can not change our fate by ourselves. I thought that this was already our consensus.��


    ��You��re right. In this era, even my old friends, the god of novels, and the god of new media, are unable to directly change their own destinies, let alone others. The only person I know who sessfully changed his own destinies was also the one who made all the arrangements when he was still a human.��


    Gaime admitted, but then he changed the topic, ��But that��s all in the real world. In the game world, we can move freely. This has been proven repeatedly in previous dungeons.��


    ��Are you referring to the dungeons that we created to select agents?��The evernight goddess Nix stepped forward and asked, ��We can indeed influence the direction of the dungeons to a certain extent there. So, what do you mean? Do you want us to live in Your Game Forever? ��But if this goes on, we will be forgotten by the humans sooner orter. For a long time, we have always been symbiotic with the humans. We satisfy their prayers and wishes, and they offer their faith and worship to us. So, although they need us, we can not leave them either.��


    ��Of course, how can a perfect game only have aborigines?��Geim paused for a moment before announcing another piece of news. ��So, I n to open the game world to human yers again.��


    However, his words caused another uproar, and this time, the uproar was even bigger than before.


    ��You n to open the game world to human yers again?��The god of Lego rolled his eyes, ��Wait, maybe I should say something else. Do you n to open up the game world again to those humans who have been corrupted by the spirit of the Master of the city under the ice? ��For what? So that that guy cane in and kill us all?��


    ��Don��t worry, the outside world will not be destroyed,��said Gaimu.


    It would have been fine if he had not said this, but once he had said it, the gods immediately exploded.


    Because to put it bluntly, the reason why everyone was willing to stay here and discuss the possibility of living here with GAM was that the world outside was about to be destroyed, so they had no choice.


    Otherwise, as gods who had lived outside for hundreds or even thousands of years, they naturally didn��t want to give up everything they had on that piece ofnd.


    Meanwhile, GAIME seemed to have expected such a reaction from the gods. He patiently waited for the chaos to subside and the gods to calm down before continuing, ��I said that the outside world will not be destroyed, but the premise is that all of you, including me, will stay here obediently.��


    ��Why?��The God of awakening asked. Although the situation had reached a critical point, he still yawned, looking as if he could fall asleep at any time.


    ��Because I need to borrow your strength to leave it in this game world.��


    This time, the person who answered was not GAIME. When the gods looked towards the voice, the crowd that had finally calmed down began to panic again. No, more urately, it was Panic! Moreover, this panic was growing exponentially.


    Because, they saw a figure that they did not want to see no matter what.

 Chapter 1431 - The Troubles Of The Gods 3 (Thanks To President Raspberry Yogurt)

    <h4>Chapter 1431: The Troubles Of The Gods 3 (Thanks To President Raspberry Yogurt)</h4>


    The gods in the station were once again in an uproar. At the same time, the crowd in a certain area quickly dispersed, revealing an empty space and Zhang Heng standing in it.


    Before this, their attention was almost entirely focused on gaime on television, so no one noticed when Zhang Heng appeared.


    However, when they realized that Zhang Heng had also entered the station, many of them could not help but show expressions of despair.


    A moment ago, they were still unhappy that Gaime had hidden the existence of the station in order to keep them in the game world. However, in the blink of an eye, they realized that even this oue had turned into an extravagant hope.


    It was unknown whether Gaime��s arrangements had gone wrong, or whether the god of fiction was too useless to carry out his arrangements sessfully, resulting in the monster named Cthulhu chasing after them all the way into the game world.


    What made the gods even more terrified was that they realized they had nowhere to run.


    Previously, when the real world outside was about to be destroyed, they could still escape to the new world. However, once the New World Fell, they had no idea where they could escape to.


    However, when they realized this, the reactions of different gods were different. Some wanted to fight Zhang Heng to the death. Even though they knew they were no match for Zhang Heng, dying in battle was better than being killed by others, some of them ced theirst hope on GAIME. Some even knelt on the ground and begged Gaime to help them.


    Other than that, a small group of people had different reactions from the previous two groups. For example, Ares, who was a rtively strong God, had always been active in battle, he had fought with Cthulhu a few times, but during these few battles, Cthulhu had never spoken a single word.


    In the original design, this monster was an existence that could notmunicate. At most, it could onlymunicate through dreams and hallucinations. However, just now, they had clearly heard Zhang Heng speak, and even though his words sounded difficult to understand, the meaning of the difficult to understand was not literal. In fact, Zhang Heng��s words were very clear.


    This was especially true for Chronos. Unlike the other gods, he was most familiar with Zhang Heng. The young man standing before him now gave him a strong sense of familiarity, therefore, the god of time, who had already made up his mind not to say anything, blurted out, ��It��s You? !��


    ��It��s me,��Zhang Heng said. ��Long time no see, Chronos.��


    As he said this, the crowd that was about to lose control finally quieted down. The gods��gaze returned to the figure that they had not dared to look at before.


    ��How is that possible? Your soul should have beenpletely crushed the moment that guy descended!��Chronos eximed.


    This time, even the slowest person realized that Zhang Heng was not the same person as the one who had chased after them outside the mansion in Pluto, even though there was no difference in their appearance, there were even traces of blood on Zhang Heng��s body. It was obvious that he was the one who had led the massacre.


    ��I did die once,��Zhang Heng said. His gaze swept across the gods present. After a pause, he continued, ��But now, I��m back.��


    ��How did you do that?��Chronos was confused, and he asked the questions that were in the minds of the gods present.


    Zhang Heng did not hide anything, ��I wrote a novel, a very popr novel. After my death, it was uploaded to the Inte by a friend of mine. It was about all my experiences. So far, more than nine million people have read the novel. You should understand what this means, and my return is the ending of the novel.��


    ��You gave yourself a resurrection ending in a novel to influence reality?��Chronos was shocked, ��Wait, but a god can not interfere with his own fate, even if it is through indirect means such as novels or movies.��


    ��I am not a god.��


    ��But, humans can not change their own fate through novels. Otherwise, all novelists can live forever,��the code God said as he adjusted his sses.


    ��I��m not a human either,��Zhang Heng said calmly. ��I have the blood of Cthulhu flowing in my body.��


    ��...��


    ��You can do that? !��The Egyptian god Osiris was also shocked, however, he had to admit that Zhang Heng��s situation was probably the most unique in the world. He was originally the vessel chosen by Cthulhu, and he hadpleted the blood exchange early on. If this was to be taken seriously.., previously, he could be considered an ordinary person with Cthulhu��s blood flowing through his body.


    ��So, the monster was killed by you just like that?��Nix��s words also caused the eyes of the surrounding gods to light up. However, she quickly added.., ��That��s not right. Cthulhu can not be eliminated in the original setting. Furthermore, his story has been popr for decades, and it has already been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. It��s not that easy to change. No matter how good your story is, it has only been published for a few months. If you dare to challenge the rules that have already been deeply rooted in your body and mind, the only oue is that your novel loses its authenticity, and you lose your only chance of revival.��


    ��You��re right.��Zhang Heng nodded, ��I didn��t kill him. He��s still in my body. ��In fact, we��ve temporarily stopped fighting. We share the same body. To be more precise, it takes him 23 hours and 50 minutes. I��ll take 10 minutes.��


    However, just as he finished his sentence, the gods, who had heaved a sigh of relief, felt their hearts skip a beat. One of the gods, who was standing close to Zhang Heng, immediately distanced himself from him, the gods looked at him as if they were looking at a time bomb.


    ��Don��t worry, the flow of time at the station is different from the real world.��


    Gaime spoke on the television to calm the tense atmosphere. However, there were still many gods moring to leave, expressing that they didn��t want to stay in the same ce with Zhang Heng for another moment.


    However, before Gaime could say anything, Zhang Heng continued, ��There��s no point in leaving now, because once, I, uh... the other guy in my body returns to the outside world, don��t expect me to rely on my pitiful ten minutes to stop him. When that timees, we��ll all die together.��


    ��What exactly do you want us to do? Just say it,��the god of amusement park said.


    ��Build a special dungeon for me and help me lock up the guy in my body.��Zhang Heng did not keep him in suspense anymore.

 Chapter 1432 - The Troubles Of The Gods 4 (Thanks To Alliance Leader Long Absence)

    <h4>Chapter 1432: The Troubles Of The Gods 4 (Thanks To Alliance Leader Long Absence)</h4>


    ��We are now trapped in this area called the station. Can��t you let us return to the real world and leave you here alone?��A God questioned.


    ��No.��The person who spoke was not even Gaime or Zhang Heng, but Zeus. In the previous battle, he had been the main force against Cthulhu, and his divine weapon, thunder, had been destroyed, therefore, he could be considered the person who understood Cthulhu the best among the gods.


    ��The power of this space isn��t enough to trap that guy. In fact, if my weapon was still here, I could have destroyed this area,��Zeus said with a serious expression.


    ��But even if Gaime couldn��t do it, even if we added in the strongest area we could create, we still wouldn��t be able to trap him, right?��The God of Light, Bader, said.


    ��That��s the theory,��Zhang Heng said. ��Other than the underwater city called La Leye, there��s no other ce in this world that canpletely block his movements.��


    ��Then what��s the point of asking us for help?��A goddess dressed in JK said with an unfriendly expression.


    ��Me and the other guy who lives in my body, when we use our bodies, the other party is in a state of hibernation, which means that they have no sense of the outside world. Previously, Gaime and I discussed a possibility,��Zhang Heng said calmly.


    ��What possibility?��


    ��I want to recreate the outside world one by one in a game dungeon,��Zhang Heng said. ��I heard from Gaime that to be as wless as the previous dungeons, all of you need to work together.��


    ��Wait, are you trying to trick that guy? That dungeon is the real world, right?��The goddess of wisdom, Athena, was also surprised, ��Even if that guy fell for this trick, he wouldn��t be able to trick him for too long, right? After he destroys the world, he��ll realize that his power hasn��t changed. Naturally, he��ll realize that something��s wrong.��


    ��That��s right. That��s when we need the existence of the second world,��Zhang Heng answered quickly, obviously having studied this question for a long time.


    ��Second World?��As expected of the goddess of wisdom, Athena was only stunned for a moment before she realized what was going on. ��You want to put another one on top of the real world?��


    ��We��re not going to put another one on. Just to be on the safe side, it��s better for us to put a few more on top of each other,��Zhang Heng said, ��It��s better to put one on top of the other like a thousandyer cake, but remember to leave a door for me so that I can go in and out when it��s my time.��


    ��You only have ten minutes, what��s there to get in and out of?��The god of amusement park could not help but roll his eyes.


    ��As long as I change the flow of time, ten minutes can still be very long. Besides, who said I only have ten minutes to use?��Zhang Heng shook the starfish in his hand, ��Unfortunately, with this watch, the flow of time in that special dungeon can only be set to 1:1. However, this is also good, so that he won��t be suspicious easily.��


    The gods looked at each other. They all realized that this solution could indeed work.


    However, after a moment of silence, someone spoke up, ��Your n might be able to fool him a few times, but as time goes on, he won��t even be able to confirm whether he��s in the real world anymore. He��ll use brute force to break open the dungeon.��


    ��That��s right, but that��s at least a year away. It��ll take him at least a year to destroy the first two worlds,��Zhang Heng said.


    ��What about after that?��


    ��After that, we��ll have to rely on the yers,��Zhang Heng said, ��This is also the reason why we need to restart the game. This time, the newly released expansion pack will undergo arge number of updates and release the main mission �� The Awakening of Cthulhu. The ultimate goal of the game is no longer to PK between yers, but to find a way to fight Cthulhu together.��


    ��So many of us gods are helpless, what can a mere human do...��Apollo frowned.


    ��The point is not that they have a way, but to make them believe that they have a way,��Zhang Heng emphasized once more, ��This also requires your help. Now that we have the main mission, we are still short of sub-missions, especially those rted to you. Other than that, the number of yers is also not enough. We need to continue expanding. Only when enough people believe in the final oue will that oue happen.��


    ��But that doesn��t mean that it��s against the rules. We Gods can��t use any means to change our fate,��the tarot card god questioned.


    ��We didn��t. We only gave them a main storyline mission. As for the choice, we��ll give it back to the yers.��


    ��Aren��t you worried that they��ll destroy the world in the end? Or that they��ll choose to kill you and Cthulhu Together? Haven��t they already done that once?��Chronos suddenly said.


    ��Of course I��m worried, but a wise man once told me to have faith in humanity. She showed me the kindness of the world, so I n to return that kindness to the world,��Zhang Heng said, ��I believe that if they��re given enough time, they��ll find a better solution. Besides, neither I nor the guy in my body can be killed so easily. As time passes, Cthulhu culture and my novel will be more and more popr. Of course, if one day we be less popr, then your troubles will automatically be resolved.��


    ��...��


    The gods fell silent again, and they began to whisper to each other.


    However, this was not the case for Kronos. Although he was isted by the gods for releasing Cthulhu, as an old god who was good at socializing.., even at a time like this, Kronos still had some allies and friends, but he did not gather like the others around him.


    ��Why? Aren��t you going to consider my proposal?��Zhang Heng asked.


    ��There��s nothing to consider.��Kronos shook his head. ��Do we have any other choice but to do as you say?�� ��To be honest, if I could have predicted what would happen after I brought you out of that city under the ice, I might have killed you then.��


    ��You won��t,��Zhang Heng said calmly, ��Even if someone as conceited as you saw the result in advance, you would have believed that you had a way to change it. Besides, deep down in your heart, you��re a gambler.��


    For the first time, Chronos didn��t get angry when he heard thest sentence. He took out another bag of fudge from his pocket and poured it into his mouth, ��You��ve won this round. You can say whatever you want, but I won��t give up on my final goal.��


    ��I know.��Zhang Heng was quick-witted. He grabbed the remaining Fudge from the old man and threw it into his mouth, ��I look forward to fighting you next time, but if I win the next time, I��m afraid you��ll have to pay a bigger price.��


    ��Then we��ll see.��Kronos snorted.

 Chapter 1433 - Courage 1(Thanks To President Infinityykz)

    <h4>Chapter 1433: Courage 1(Thanks To President Infinityykz)</h4>


    It was said that when Chen Fan��s parents gave him this name, they hoped that he would be as brave as a sail on the sea.


    However, Chen Fan felt that he did not fit the name at all. He felt that he should be called Chen Fan. In the first 16 years of his life, he had always been ordinary. He had been studying all the way from kindergarten to junior high school, he was the most ordinary child in the ss. His grades were neither good nor bad, and his grades were lower than average in the ss.


    He was not one of the most promising students that the teachers praised every day, but he was not so bad that he had to be invited to be a parent every three days. Naturally, he did not degenerate into the kind of person who would fight all day long and talk about brotherhood, he was a delinquent who was considered handsome by many young girls and was able to secrete hormones.


    In addition, he did not have any outstanding sports or talent programs. His appearance was even more ordinary. He felt like a passerby in an anime that was purely used to make up the numbers, moreover, when the artist wanted to ck off or the production team did not have enough funds, he did not even bother to draw his facial features. He directly ced a whiteboard there to fool the audience and even glorified it as the stream of consciousness. (here, I��ll name a few of the original Bangyan Supervisors.)


    Other than that, the most important thing was that Chen fan felt that he had never been brave since he was young, especially after what happened a few days ago.


    After he entered high school, his days were almost the same as before. Although he had changed to a new school and a new batch of ssmates and teachers, he still conscientiously yed the role of a passerby, in order to make himself look more sociable, he tried his best to echo every word of the people around him, even if his heart did not think so.


    He talked about the same sports games as everyone else, pretended to be a fan of a popr team, even if he did not like that team, and talked excitedly about which female character in the movie anime had bigger breasts, listening to the strangeughter of the boys around him, even though he felt that it wasn��t very polite.


    Every time they talked about something simr, he would nervously nce at the short-haired girl across the table, afraid that she would hear his words and be disappointed with him.


    But in fact, Chen Fan himself also knew that the short-haired girl didn��t care about what he said, just like how the female lead in an anime wouldn��t care if the passerby who happened to be in the same frame as him had facial features.


    However, perhaps every little transparent who was bitterly in love with him had a glimmer of hope in his heart. He felt that as long as he did not open his mouth to say those four words and was not explicitly rejected by the other party, then there was still a possibility.., therefore, even if the three paths were broken and the hero was on time, and the entire base was left with only a single crystal, he would still stubbornly refuse to Type GG in the chat bar.


    Sometimes, Chen fan would also feel that he was really stupid for being so neither up nor down. He thought that he might as well make up his mind and take a big gamble and confess tomorrow. Regardless of sess or failure, he would at least be able to get a result, even if he died, he would still die clearly. Moreover, wasn��t there still a one in ten thousand chance of survival?


    However, he had prepared a love letter, rehearsed the words he wanted to say in front of the mirror countless times, and even thought of how to make the other party stay after school. However, he still did not have the courage to take that final step.


    Every time things came to a head, he would tell himself that he would go tomorrow, because for passersby, tomorrow would always be the best time. However, from junior high school to high school, and then when he went to college.., the tomorrow that he had been waiting for would nevere..


    Chen fan felt that he and courage really seemed to be cut off from each other. His parents had given him this name in vain.


    Recently, a novel called ��My day has 48 hours��had be popr in his ss. In order to blend in with the group, Chen Fan had also read it. Initially, he had only opened it with the thought that he could speak the samenguage as everyone else, however, Chen Fan was surprised to find that he did not hate this novel.


    He really liked the strange stories in the novel. He liked the protagonist of the novel, the boy named Zhang Heng. The other party waspletely different from him. He was always calm and filled with courage, no matter how much danger was ahead, even if he was forced into a desperate situation, that courage would not disappear. He was as handsome as a hero.


    Zhang Heng was the kind of person that Chen fan had always hoped to be. He was mature and reliable. He did not even need light or heat, because he could shine by himself!


    There were still ten minutes before the teacher on stage could finish thest ss and announce the end of school. Chen fan was bored to death and used an automatic pencil to draw some messy lines on his notebook, pretending to be taking notes, but in fact, his thoughts had already drifted to three days ago.


    That day, it was their group��s turn to be on duty. Chen fan, the good guy and a passerby, was thest one to leave that day. He even wrote some homework in the empty ssroom for a while. He originally nned to take the bus directly, but when he reached downstairs, he suddenly thought of something and decided to go to the toilet before leaving.


    And that was also the most regretful thing in Chen Fan��s life. If possible, he was willing to pay any price to change that stupid decision.


    That day, Chen Fan had already gone downstairs, so he went to the public toilet next to the yground. It had just been repaired, and it had a grand design. There were two floors in total. The women��s toilet was on, and the men��s toilet was on the ground floor, it was once nicknamed the Little Pot Pce.


    Of course, the girls in the school actually didn��t like this toilet very much. Although it reduced the risk of being peeked at, they still had to climb the stairs every time they went to the toilet. In the eyes of the school��s leaders, they probably thought that young people like them were full of vitality, they probably didn��t care about this little bit of road, but in reality, for young people, staying upte was fine. Climbing the stairs even a few more steps might kill them.


    Chen fan was thinking about the short-haired girl all the way. Thinking about how she had talked to the male ss monitor a few more times today, Chen fan had suspected that there was something going on between the two of them, because the short-haired girl and the male ss monitor talked more than she talked to the other boysbined, but Chen fanforted himself that one of them was the schoolmittee, and the other was the ss monitor. It was normal for them to talk about work matters.


    It was precisely because of his absent-mindedness that he did not notice anything unusual when he passed by the basketball court. There were obviously fewer people ying basketball than usual, and he seemed a little absent-minded. Moreover, one of the basketball racks was empty, one had to know that this was not an easy scene to see in a high school where there was a possibility of fighting over the basketball rack.


    Unfortunately, Chen Fan was not very athletic. He did not usually y basketball. At most, he would run errands to buy water and gas for everyone during the ss match. Therefore, he did not notice the abnormality on the basketball court.


    It was not until he walked to the toilet that he noticed two senior boys standing by the sink. One of them looked fierce and said to him, ��Hey, go somewhere else.��

 Chapter 1434 - Courage 2(Thanks To President Grinding Needle Well Man)

    <h4>Chapter 1434: Courage 2(Thanks To President Grinding Needle Well Man)</h4>


    Chen fan felt a little suffocated when he saw the two people in front of the sink, because the other party did not look like a good person at first nce.


    It was probably those delinquents in school who did not study hard, smoked and drank, and even had dealings with people in society. Chen fan had seen simr guys go to the entrance of a certain ss to block people after ss before, or they would bring their little girlfriend and swagger past in the corridor, looking awe-inspiring.


    Although the vast majority of them would be quickly eliminated by society after the College Entrance Examination and beaten up, at least during the period of high school, they were indeed on the upper level of the pyramid.


    In contrast, Chen Fan, who was a passerby, was undoubtedly the floor tile at the bottom of the pyramid. Therefore, when he heard the other side telling him not to use the toilet here, Chen Fan didn��t question why it was obviously a public toilet, why didn��t they let him in? Instead, he was very smart and prepared to leave obediently.


    However, just as he was about to turn around and leave, he heard an excited voiceing from the toilet.


    ��That ball was a mistake. I didn��t hit your hand at all! The people around can testify.��


    Chen fan��s body trembled because this voice was very familiar to him. It was Wang Ruizhe, his best friend who grew up in the same neighborhood as him. Unlike Chen Fan, Wang Ruizhe had been a little hyperactive since he was young, in addition, he had grown to 1m77 at the age of 16. Although his studies were average, his sports results had always been very good.


    Especially in basketball, he had sharp breakthroughs, three-point uracy, and a tough defense. Every time he appeared on the basketball court, he would immediately attract the attention of many members of the opposite sex. There would also be girls who would bring him water from time to time, in addition, his looks were not bad either. He was like the flowing maple in the manga dunk master.


    Moreover, this flowing maple wasn��t as cold as in the original. He was very warm-hearted and was very popr among the boys in his ss. As for Chen Fan, he had been taken care of by Wang Ruizhe since he was young. Chen fan still remembered that when he was in junior high school.., he was ckmailed by the hooligans nearby. It was Wang Ruizhe who stood up for him.


    Although the two weren��t in the same ss after they entered high school, Wang Ruizhe would ask Chen fan about his recent situation from time to time to see if he had encountered any trouble.


    However, Chen Fan did not expect that he had not encountered any trouble, but Wang Ruizhe had encountered it first.


    Just as Wang Ruizhe��s voice fell from the toilet, another gloomy voice sounded, ��Kid, it��s fine if your actions are not clean, but your mouth is not clean. Didn��t we already ask the people around us just now? Everyone said that they saw your thugs.��


    ��That��s because they��re afraid of you and your... Ugh!��Wang Ruizhe said angrily.


    But this time, before he could finish his words, he seemed to be hit by a punch and let out a painful groan.


    ��F * ck, you��re Still F * cking stubborn. I didn��t like You When I was ying the game. You look like you can��t handle Dior. You look like you need to be taught a lesson!��


    Chen fan heard the sound of punchesing from inside, mixed with Wang Ruizhe��s sporadic resistance. However, it seemed that two fists were no match for four hands. He felt his mind go nk and subconsciously clenched his fists.


    However, he did not stay there for long. Very soon, his body was pushed by someone. The bad boy who told him to go to the toilet elsewhere said again, ��What are you looking at? Do you want to go in and get beaten up too?��


    When Chen Fan heard this, his clenched fists loosened again.


    After countless times, Chen Fan had hoped that he could be braver at that time. It would be fine as long as he was just a little bit braver, even if he did not do anything and just stood there.., it was better to be dragged into the toilet with that vicious-looking bad guy and beaten up by Wang Ruizhe. It was also better than being scared back then.


    Unfortunately, time could not be repeated, and there were no ifs in this world.


    At that time, Chen Fan waspletely surrounded by fear. This was the natural fear of the small herbivores at the bottom of the food chain when facing the top predators.


    On the other side, the expression on Chen Fan��s face was also very pleased when he saw Chen fan retreat, ��Don��t even think about reporting this to the teachers or the school guards. I have already remembered your appearance. If you dare to tell others about this, then from now on, we will beat you up every time we meet you, understand?��


    When Chen fan heard this, thest bit of courage in his heart also disappeared. He only felt that all the muscles in his body had be iparably stiff. Under the effect of his instincts, he only nodded mechanically.


    However, the bad guy opposite him did not seem to be satisfied. ��F * CK, are you mute? I��m F * cking asking you a question.��


    ��I know, I know.��Chen Fan was submissive, and his voice was even smaller than a mosquito.


    ��Speak up!��The bad guy said in dissatisfaction.


    However, right now, Chen Fan��s entire body seemed to be stuck in his neck. He did not dare to make any sound at all, afraid that he would be recognized by Wang Ruizhe in the toilet. Just as the bad feeling umted more and more.., just as he was about to re up, his otherpanion, who seemed to be a little easier to talk to, said, ��Forget it. He should already know how powerful he is. Let him go.��


    After saying that, he looked at Chen Fan. ��What are you still standing there for? Get lost quickly.��


    When Chen fan heard that, he felt as if he had been pardoned. He lowered his head and quickly walked past the basketball court.


    He was muddle-headed the entire way. He had no idea how he got home. He opened his schoolbag and took out his homework book. He wanted to do his homework, but he couldn��t write a single word. The tip of the neutral pen hung on the nk paper, a strong sense of shame welled up in Chen Fan��s heart.


    He had abandoned his best friend just like that!


    The friend who was willing to stand up for him! ! !


    He allowed thetter to be beaten up in that toilet, but he didn��t do anything!


    Chen fan didn��t know if Wang Ruizhe in the toilet recognized his voice, or if there was someone on the basketball court who knew him and would tell Wang Ruizhe about what had happened earlier.


    It was not until then that Chen fan realized that he might very well lose his best friend, and that was not what scared him the most. What scared him the most was that he had to face the cowardice in his heart, he had to admit that he was a person without courage.


    And this was what made Chen fan really sad.


    ..


    Chen fan gripped the automatic pencil in his hand tightly. The bell had already rung, and the teacher on the podium had started to arrange the homework. However, Chen Fan was no longer in the mood to listen to what he was saying.


    He packed his schoolbag and waited for the teacher to announce that school was over before he was the first to rush out of the ssroom. He did not even pretend to casually follow behind the short-haired girl and watch her leave as usual.


    ording to Chen Fan��s habit, he usually went straight home after leaving the school. However, he did not do so this time. He just wandered aimlessly on themercial street near the school until the sky turned dark, it was like a lonely ghost that did not ept a small temple but could not find its own grave.


    In this world, it was not scary to be hated by others. However, if even he despised himself, then he was truly hopeless!


    Chen fan did not know how he came to a blind box machine.


    This kind of thing was very popr now. The merchants first made some attractive gimmicks and then stuffed a bunch of worthless gadgets into their own blind box machine, the probability of consumers actually drawing something valuable was even lower than the probability of those cash-in-hand games in the pig farm drawing SSR.


    Normally, Chen Fan would not pay an IQ tax on this kind of thing, but today, he mysteriously stopped in front of a blind box machine, took out his phone, and scanned the payment code on it.


    Then, a blind box fell from the shelf.

 Chapter 1435 - Courage 3 (Thanks To The Fallen Leader)

    <h4>Chapter 1435: Courage 3 (Thanks To The Fallen Leader)</h4>


    Chen fan was already regretting it when he scanned the code to pay.


    Although his family conditions were not bad, his parents were very strict with his pocket money. Basically, the money given each week was only enough for him to buy stationery and breakfast. Even his favorite novels and games had to be saved for a long time, it was silly to spend the little pocket money he had left on something that he knew was a scam.


    However, he had already done enough foolish things in his sixteen years of life, and he did not need this one.


    Chen fan smiled self-deprecatingly and reached out to take out the blind box that had tricked him once again.


    He was not in a hurry to open it. He first felt the weight of the box in his hand.


    It was very light. Had he really been taught a good lesson?


    Then, Chen Fan shook it by his ear again. In the end, there was not even the sound of objects colliding.


    Could it be... that it was empty?


    Chen fan was dumbfounded. Although he had a bad feeling when he paid, he was still at a loss for what to do. No matter what, it was an item that cost 30 yuan.


    Generally speaking, no matter how bad his luck was, he should still be able to draw a constion prize like a pirated figurine or doll produced in Yiwu. The worst case scenario would be a 9.9-pack headphones.


    What happened to the empty one? Did the merchant forget to put something in it.


    Just as Chen Fan was wondering if there was something wrong with this batch of blind boxes, a couple next to him also scanned the code and received the box that belonged to them.


    When he opened it, it was a 128-gigabyte USB drive.


    ��Your Luck is not bad,��the boy said in surprise.


    He didn��t have much hope for the things in the blind box. The only reason he paid was to make his girlfriend happy, but he didn��t expect that the thing he drew could still be used. Even if it was just a random USB sh drive.., it wasn��t too much of a loss.


    The two threw the box into the trash can at the side, then left with the USB sh drive in satisfaction.


    Chen fan was left standing by the roadside with the empty box in his hand.


    At this time, the streetlights on both sides of the road and the neon signs of the shops had been lit up. The business street was still lively at night, but Chen Fan felt that he did not fit in with this colorful world.


    His phone screen showed three missed calls. They were all from his mother. Usually, he would have already arrived home at this time with his schoolbag.


    His mother often praised him to his colleagues and friends, ��Xiao fan has been very obedient since he was young. He does whatever he is told to do. Every day after school, he woulde home on time. He would definitely not interact with any random people, nor would he fall in love early. He would go to the inte cafe to y games. This child has never worried us much since he was young.��


    After that, the aunts and uncles in the vicinity would also chime in with envious voices. Then, they would sigh and say how mischievous their child was. They did not know where he had gone off to.


    Previously, Chen Fan always felt that no matter what, it was always a good thing to be praised. But now, he only felt that the word ��obedient��was unprecedentedly harsh. He thought of that evening again, the two delinquents in front of the toilet told him to get lost, and he also ��Obediently��got lost after that.


    Another example was now, he had obtained an empty blind box. It was obviously a business mistake. He wanted to call the phone on the machine and question the other party, but when he picked up the phone, he had not even dialed half of the number, he could not help but shrink back.


    He was worried that the merchant on the other end of the phone would confidently say to him, ��That��s right, the blind box we have is empty. Didn��t you see the slogan on it before you bought it? If you sell it, you won��t be able to return it. If you can��t afford it, then don��t y with it.��


    If only, if only there was someone in this world who could lend me some courage!


    Chen fan clenched his fists in despair again.


    His phone vibrated for the fourth time.


    He could feel the anxiety of the person on the other end of the screen. Chen fan was already prepared to be willful for once, but when he thought of his mother working the whole day and still looking for him after work, his heart softened, in the end, he picked up the call.


    So the obedient child version of Chen fan went online again.


    ��Hello... Oh, it��s a littlete for school duty today... I��m already at the bus station, I��m about to catch the bus, mm-hmm... I��ll be back soon.��


    Chen fan hung up the phone and took two deep breaths, trying hard to hide the despair in his heart. He originally wanted to throw away the empty blind box in his hand, but he hesitated when he walked to the dustbin. Even though there was nothing inside the box.., the outer packaging was still quite beautiful. It could be used to make a small storage box, and at the same time, it could remind him how stupid he was.


    So Chen fan stuffed the blind box into his backpack, and then went to the station to take the bus home.


    He pushed the door open. His mother had already prepared dinner, and his father had already gone home from work. He asked him to wash his hands and eat. The family sat at the dining table happily. Chen fan behaved as usual, he did not reveal any unusual emotions.


    His father gave him a piece of ribs, and then asked him about the things in school. He only picked a few things that did not matter, and he did not mention anything about what happened in front of the toilet that evening, it was as if that thing had never happened.


    Unfortunately, even if he could hide it from everyone, he could not hide it from himself.


    When he returned to his room and closed the door, the feeling of powerlessness and regret wrapped around him again. It was as if someone had tied a stone to his ankle and he had sunk into the water, the strong suffocation that came from all directions almost swallowed him uppletely.


    I shouldn��t have left that day!


    I should have told my teacher right away. No, I should have rushed in at that time! Even if I would have been beaten up!


    I am really the worst friend in the world! ! No one is worse than me! ! !


    Who can save me? Give me some courage! ! !


    Chen fan was not in the mood to do his homework. He threw his backpack onto the bed. He did not turn on the lights after that. He just sat in the darkness with his head in his hands.


    The next moment, Chen fan heard the sound of something falling to the ground.


    He turned around and saw the backpack that he had just thrown onto the bed fall to the side. The blind box that he had stuffed inside earlier rolled to his feet.


    The bow tied on it seemed to be inviting him to open it.


    Chen fan then remembered that he had not opened this box since he had gotten it. Although it should be empty, since he had already spent money, he should at least take a look at it, or was he really so weak that he did not even have the courage to do so.


    Chen fan hesitated for a moment and opened the lid of the blind box.


    As expected, the box was indeed empty. The empty walls seemed to beughing at his stupidity. However, when Chen fan flipped over the lid of the blind box, he found that there was actually an envelope inside, it was glued to the inside of the lid.


    On the envelope were written in beautiful small block letters.

 Chapter 1436 - Courage 4 (Thanks To Alliance Leader Lun Yue & Feng)

    <h4>Chapter 1436: Courage 4 (Thanks To Alliance Leader Lun Yue & Feng)</h4>


    Chen fan was stunned when he saw the envelope. Then, a sense of absurdity arose in his heart.


    How was this possible? !


    How could the merchant who bought the box know his name? Was it just a coincidence? But the probability of such a thing was too small. Or was his wechat personal information leaked when he was scanning the code, however, Chen fan carefully looked at the words on the envelope. He was sure that the words were not printed by theputer, but handwritten.


    He could even smell the scent of ink when he got close.


    Chen fan reached out and removed the envelope with his name written on it from the cover of the blind box. This envelope with a strange origin was actually sealed with redcquer. It looked quite formal.


    On thecquer was a picture that looked like a game controller. At the bottom of the picture was the signature of the gamemittee.


    The moment Chen fan saw the signature, his pupils constricted. Then, his hands that were holding the letter could not help but tremble.


    He recalled the novel that he had just read not long ago, and his heart immediately began to beat wildly!


    Could... could it be that the stories in that novel were all true?


    That great game created by the gods was hidden in the city, only open at night in mysterious game points, all kinds of magical props with supernatural powers, and a series of magnificent adventures!


    Chen fan told himself to calm down, because for the first 16 years of his life, he had been a passer-by without facial features.


    Even if there were really heroic stories in this world, it should have nothing to do with him.


    Although he thought so, Chen fan couldn��t wait to open the envelope.


    Dear Mr. Chen Fan:


    Hello! When you opened the envelope, you probably guessed the contents of this letter. Yes, we sincerely invite you to join in an unprecedented great game, you can harvest all the things you can think of and can not imagine, power, growth, friendship, and some interesting gadgets... but you have to be clear in advance, this is not an amusement park ride on a merry-go-round. In addition to the tempting rewards, there are also dangers everywhere.


    To live or to die is the eternal theme of this game.


    And in this world, death is not the scariest thing. Something Scarier than death has quietly revived and spread its tentacles all over the world.


    Please follow your heart and make your choice carefully, because they will affect the fate of the world, not just the world in the game, but also the world you live in in reality.


    Finally, with the new expansion of horror online, we have also made some improvements to the invitation mechanism, and now new yers who join the game, have the right to refuse our invitation, as long as you read this letter within 10 seconds, put down the letter in your hand, it will be considered as giving up the yer qualification, you will lose all the memory after the envelope, and return to your normal life.


    Once again, you are holding a one-way ticket.


    Once you set foot on this path, there is no turning back until the final boss is conquered or the world is destroyed.


    Wish: Happy Game!


    The game organizingmittee


    Chen Fan��s mouth was wide open, and his whole body was shaking as if he had touched a switch!


    The game organizingmittee was really the game organizingmittee! ! !


    So, the main character in the novel, the boy named Zhang Heng, was also real? Although he had felt a sense of reality when he read the book, he had always thought that such a powerful guy would only exist in novels. No, wait, that was not the point now.


    Chen fan thought of something and almost threw the envelope in his hand out.


    Ten seconds. He only had ten seconds to decide if he wanted to step into that mysterious and dangerous world. Even though the story in the novel fascinated him, Chen fan still had a clear understanding of his own capabilities.


    Even someone as strong as Zhang Heng needed 48 hours of hacking to clear one dungeon after another without any danger, and someone like him who didn��t have any skills.., a high school student who was so weak that he couldn��t even stand up to a newbie dungeon.


    Therefore, what he had in his hands wasn��t a ticket to the New World, but an invitation from death.


    Impossible! No matter how I look at it, I can��t live for too long. Even in a team game, with the help of teammates, even the kindest and most patient teammates wouldn��t be willing to carry a useless burden around with them, especially when it came topetitive dungeons, for other yers in the dungeon, he was simply a walking experience bag.


    Chen fan felt that he simply couldn��t do it. After all, he was a passerby who didn��t even dare to provoke the bad guys in school.


    His position in life was that after those heroes fought hard to save the world, he would offer up his knees, kneel on the ground and call God NB, 6666. He was an ordinary viger who had nothing on his body and was willing to offer up his kidney to drink for the hero.


    Therefore, although he was very excited about the adventure, the most rational thing for him to do now was to drop the letter in his hand within ten seconds, forget all of this, and return to his ordinary and ordinary life.


    But Chen Fan did not know why, he just did not let go.


    Was he moved by those skills, or was he dazzled by the variety of game props inside?


    No, at this moment, Chen fan thought of that evening three days ago. He stood in front of the toilet and found his friend beaten up in the toilet, but he could only pretend not to know him, he lowered his head and left in humiliation and unwillingness.


    He was willing to give everything, only hoping to exchange for a different choice at that time.


    But if he was really given another chance to return to that day, could he really make the opposite decision? Or would he be intimidated by the Predators at the top of the food chain and lower his head again.


    Chen fan suddenly understood what he wanted the most.


    Therefore, he gritted his teeth and held onto the letter tightly until ten secondster.


    However, nothing happened.


    Just when Chen Fan was wondering if this was just a prank, his phone vibrated again, indicating that he had received a new text message.


    Chen fan opened the message from an unknown number. The content was very simple, but it made all the blood in his body rush to the top of his head. ��Shu Dao Love Foot Massage Club, Game Point 609,11 o��clock Tonight.��.


    Then, Chen fan put down his phone and saw a row of numbers on his arm. As someone who had read novels, he knew that this row of numbers was his yer number.


    After seeing this row of numbers, Chen Fan finally confirmed that he had indeed be a yer.

 Chapter 1437 - Courage 5 (Thanks To President Hajerwawa)

    <h4>Chapter 1437: Courage 5 (Thanks To President Hajerwawa)</h4>


    Chen fan looked at the rm clock on his bed. There were still three hours until eleven o��clock.


    Then, he took out his phone and used Gao de to navigate to the foot massage club called Shu Dao Qing. He was surprised to find that the ce was actually very close to his neighborhood, only two kilometers away, it was less than twenty minutes��walk.


    This was good news for Chen Fan. After all, this was the ce he would go every month in the future. As a high school student, he did not have any private means of transportation, although he could take the bus, but if it was toote at night, there was a high chance that he would not be able to take the bus. As for taking a taxi... his monthly allowance was only so small, so he had to save it.


    So it was better to walk. Walking was the most environmentally friendly.


    In any case, if he did not have enough money, most of the games would start with the protagonist running around the vige on two legs with only a pair of underpants. Chen fanforted himself this way, however, traffic was not the most difficult problem he was facing at the moment.


    His real problem now was actually �� how to get out of the house.


    As everyone knew, high school students did not fully enjoy their personal freedom, let alone a ��Good��child like Chen fan who had always been obedient and never caused trouble. If he wanted to leave his residence in the middle of the night, there were only two ways, either he sneaked out when his parents were not paying attention, or he had to make up some lie to get his parents��consent.


    Because Chen Fan��s parents both had to go to work, they usually slept very early. However, no matter how early it was, they would not go to bed until eleven o��clock. During this period of time before going to bed, they would basically spend their time in the living room, watching variety shows, and ying with their phones, if they waited for them to wash up and return to the house before going out, it would obviously be toote. Moreover, there was no guarantee that the two of them would be able to fall asleep as soon as they touched the pillow. At that time, as long as Chen fan opened the door slightly louder, they would most likely go out to check.


    It seemed that if they wanted to sneak out, they could only choose the second path. However, Chen Fan himself was the one who knew his own matters the best. He was the kind of person who could not help but blush when he lied. Moreover, he would not be able to control himself from touching his ears and biting his lips, in short, he could show all of his guilty actions. Moreover, he had been holding it in for so long and still could note up with a reliable reason.


    Chen fan hugged his head and felt a wave of despair. was he going to be the first yer in history to be killed by the organizingmittee because he could not reach the game point on time?


    No, no, no, he couldn��t give up just like that. There had to be another way.


    Chen fan took a deep breath. If Zhang Heng was here, what would he do?


    Fine, Zhang Heng had wings, so he could fly out. He couldn��t use this method, but what about other methods?


    Chen fan seemed to have thought of something. Suddenly, his heart skipped a beat. He rushed to his desk, pushed open the window, and looked down. Then, he silently closed the window.


    Chen fan lived in a residential area with 16 floors. Chen Fan��s house was on the 10th floor. Initially, he wanted to see if he could use his climbing skills to climb down from the window like Zhang Heng, but he didn��t have any climbing skills, even if Zhang Heng��s climbing skills were given to him, he wouldn��t dare to climb down just like that, because just one look was enough to make his legs go weak.


    Not to mention, the distance between the windowsill and the windowsill was almost two times his height, and thending spot was pitifully narrow. Chen fan reckoned that if he really climbed down, he would die on the spot if he was lucky, if he wasn��t lucky... he would probably end up paralyzed in a high position and spend the rest of his life in a wheelchair.


    Just as Chen Fan was overwhelmed and at a loss for what to do, he didn��t expect the goddess of fate to favor him for the first time.


    There was a knock on the door.


    Chen fan hurriedly hid the envelope and the blind box under the bed before opening the door. He saw his father and mother standing outside his door, dressed neatly.


    ��I just received a notice that something has happened at the office. I have to go and take care of it,��his father said.


    Chen Fan��s mouth opened wide when he heard that. However, before he could speak, his mother continued to say, ��Your grandmother��s water pipe burst. Although I��ve already asked someone to fix it, she��s alone at home now. I n to go over and take a look. It��ll probably be veryte by the time I get back, so you��ll have to stay at home alone from now on. Do your homework well and go to bed after you��re done. Don��t y with theputer.��


    ��Ah... Oh Oh, okay.��Chen fan was stunned for half a second before he reacted. He tried hard to control the joy on his face and hurriedly agreed.


    He did not expect that the biggest problem that troubled him would be solved so easily.


    This was too much of a coincidence. It just so happened that his father had an emergency at work and his mother was going to his grandmother��s house. This way, when they left, Chen fan could walk out of the door calmly.


    However, before that, Chen fan still had to do some preparatory work. He made the quilt look like someone was lying in it. This way, when his parents came back, if they wanted to take a look, they would not be exposed. Of course.., if he turned on the lights, there would be nowhere to hide. However, he still had school tomorrow, so normally, his parents wouldn��t wake him up for no reason.


    Other than that, Chen fan also made some preparations for the first dungeon he was going to face. ording to the novel��s description, most dungeons couldn��t be entered with anything other than game props, however, Chen fan still brought a small knife and a lighter with him.


    He imitated Zhang Heng and changed into his sportswear and sneakers. He covered half of his face with a hood. Chen fan looked at himself in the mirror and felt that he looked quite like him.


    At ten o��clock, Chen fan turned off the lights in his room and closed the door. He hesitated for a moment but did not lock it. He felt that this action was a little guilty, and it might arouse their suspicion when his parents came back, he felt that he was ying games inside, or doing some small games that boys his age might do.


    Then, he took the keys that belonged to him and left the neighborhood.


    After 10:00 pm, the streets were obviously much quieter. Chen Fan��s ce was in the old city district. The atmosphere of life was strong, but the level of business was average. When it got dark, except for the supermarket.., most of the shops along the street were closed, so there was no nightlife.


    There were not many pedestrians and cars on the street. After taking two steps, Chen fan could not help but regret it.


    Although the hooded sportswear was very handsome and allowed him to y Zhang Heng��s role as the main character, the cold autumn wind still made him feel a chill.


    If I had known earlier, I would have put on a jacket.


    With this thought in mind, Chen fan passed by a barbecue stall and saw a middle-aged man dressed like an office worker drinking beer and eating skewers. The te of grilled squid that had just been served in front of him was still steaming, the golden squid whiskers sizzled with cumin and chili. It was a crime in the middle of the night.


    ��Do you want a bunch?��


    Just as Chen fan swallowed his saliva and was about to look away and continue walking forward, the middle-aged office worker suddenly raised his head and grinned at him.

 Chapter 1438 - Courage 6 (Thanks To Alliance Leader Yin Haoyuan)

    <h4>Chapter 1438: Courage 6 (Thanks To Alliance Leader Yin Haoyuan)</h4>


    Chen fan turned his head and looked around, but he did not see anyone around. Then, he pointed at himself with uncertainty and said, ��Are you... Talking to me?��


    ��Why not?��The middle-aged office worker said, ��I also want to treat my student sister to a big squid, but unfortunately, I didn��t see many along the way.��


    Chen Fan was a little embarrassed. He didn��t expect that he would be targeted and osted by a strange uncle one day. Just as the other party said, he wasn��t a beautiful girl. Logically speaking, there was no reason for him to encounter such a thing,


    from the looks of it, the other party invited him to eat a squid was probably just to make fun of him.


    At this moment, Chen Fan felt that he was really a failure as a person. It was as if even the office worker uncle, who was a social animal, could see through his weakness and bully him when he had nothing to do.


    ��No, there��s no need. I still have things to do.��Chen fan waved his hand. Then, he did not care about what the other party said and lowered his head, preparing to escape from this ce.


    However, the next moment, the middle-aged office worker��s words made his body freeze there.


    ��What��s the rush? Isn��t the game only starting in thirty minutes? It shouldn��t take you more than ten minutes to get to the designated game point from here, right?��The middle-aged office worker said slowly, after saying that, he picked up a skewer of roasted squid from the tray in front of him.


    Chen fan raised his head and looked at the office worker uncle in front of him with a stunned expression. He looked very ordinary, dressed very ordinary, and his behavior was also very ordinary. The only difference was that he had an ordinary look on his face.


    ��Ah, I��m Coming. This ssic ��why would a salted fish passerby like me have a fortuitous encounter like the main character��expression. I really can��t get enough of it.��


    The middle-aged office worker praised and then bit on the squid skewer.


    ��You, you, you... how do you know?��Chen fan looked as if he had seen a ghost.


    ��This is just so-so. Not only do I know where you��re going, I also know that your name is Chen Fan. Your address is 1002, Unit 1, Building 4, Ming Yuan residential area. I know that three days ago, your best friend was beaten up in the toilet, and you were standing outside the toilet at that time, but you could only pretend that you didn��t know a person and ran away,��the middle-aged office worker clicked his tongue, ��I have to say, this behavior is really not loyal enough.��


    Chen Fan��s face flushed red. He did not expect that he would actually be naked in front of the other party. Not only was his name and address exposed, but he was also exposed, moreover, the other party even knew the secret of the person closest to him, who was the most secretive person in his heart.


    Chen fan did not know how the other party did it. Could it be that this ordinary-looking office worker had a mind-reading tool on him?


    ��Stop guessing. I just did some homework in advance. Otherwise, why do you think you can get that blind box?��The middle-aged office worker finished the first string of squid in no time and then picked up the second string.


    ��It��s You? ! You arranged for me to get the yer qualification?��Chen fan was a littlecking in courage, but he was not stupid. He quickly reacted, ��Wait, so my parents suddenly left home because of you?��


    ��How is it? Are you satisfied with my one-stop Service?��


    ��Who are you exactly?��Chen Fan��s heart rate began to soar again. He felt that he had returned to the evening three days ago, when he faced the predator at the top of the food chain, however, the level of the predator this time was probably more than a hundred times higher than the previous few delinquent students.


    The middle-aged office worker did not immediately answer this question. He only pointed at the empty seat on the other side of the table and grinned. ��Can you sit down now?��


    Chen fan knew that he could not avoid this time, so he could only bite the bullet and sit down. Then, the middle-aged office worker pushed the tray filled with squid in front of him again, ��You don��t have to be polite with me. Eat more. Please fill your stomach, because you still have a round of dungeons to clear.��


    Chen fan picked up a bunch of squid tentacles from the tray in a daze. However, the grilled squid, which had initially made him drool, could no longer taste anything in his mouth. Chen fan only managed to chew a few mouthfuls, after swallowing it, he asked, ��Who exactly are you? Are you the god of the organizingmittee? But aren��t those gods in the game world now?��


    ��Indeed. Those idiots from the organizingmittee were tricked into the game by Gaime and Zhang Heng, so it seems that none of the newly invited yers are agents, but...��the middle-aged office worker blinked at Chen Fan, chen fan didn��t know if it was just his imagination, but with this blink of an eye, that pair of eyes that were originally very ordinary suddenly became filled with cunning.


    ��But I have to say, you��ve really hit the jackpot, my friend,��the middle-aged office worker said as he poured a ss of beer for Chen fan enthusiastically, ��Not all gods are that stupid, and Zhang Heng isn��t the only one who knows how to y the game of Resurrection.��


    At that moment, Chen Fan��s mind was spinning rapidly. There were many gods who had died in ��My day has 18 hours.��Especially after the appearance of Cthulhu, the Bento was distributed everywhere like it was free. But to say who died was the most suspicious.., there was only one person, especially with that Guy��s criminal record..


    Chen fan sucked in a breath of cold air and stared nkly at the ordinary office worker uncle opposite him. ��Rocky, you��re the god of pranks and lies, Rocky! ! ! You��re not dead after all!��


    When he read the chapter on Rocky��s death, Chen Fan had been a little confused. Rocky was a first-ss God who was as famous as Thor, so the items he dropped after he died were too shabby. [ leaves full of vitality (fake)] and [ name: Pet Wire ] were two items, one F ss and one D ss. They werepletely unworthy of his status.


    In addition, during the battle in the valley at the end, Shen Xixi and Fan Meinan had joined forces to stop the goddess of Justice, Justya. There was also a hint that fan Meinan��s ability that he had gotten from Loki seemed to be usable again, chen fan was wondering if the author was so high that he had forgotten all the previous stories.


    ��Although you don��t have much courage, you��re not stupid.��Loki, who had transformed into a middle-aged office worker, snapped his fingers. ��Very good. I ept everything here, but I don��t ept idiots.��


    However, Chen Fan felt that his brain was a littlecking again. It was precisely because he knew the identity of the person opposite him that Chen fan felt even more magical.


    The great rocky actually came all the way here to look for a small fry like him who didn��t have any advantages. Moreover, he even used some unknown method to help him obtain a yer invitation card, allowing him to step into that magical world, apart from that, the god of lies and pranks seemed to be nning to take him in as an agent.


    But, why?


    Chen fan only felt that he and rocky, who was opposite him, must have one of their heads broken.

 Chapter 1439 - Courage 7 (Thanks To President Pouring A Cappuccino For Auntie)

    <h4>Chapter 1439: Courage 7 (Thanks To President Pouring A Cappino For Auntie)</h4>


    10:53 pm.


    A figure in sportswear and a hood appeared breathlessly in front of the entrance of the Shu Road Love Pedicure Club.


    Chen fan rubbed his sore knees. First, he looked up at the signboard of the pedicure club to make sure that he had note to the wrong ce. Then, he looked at the time on his phone. Only then did he let out a sigh of relief and walked in.


    Although Chen fan tried his best to put on a straight face and try to look more mature and knowledgeable, the truth was that he had only done a few pedicures with his parents, and they had all been to the kind of regr chain stores, basically, every time he stayed, he would feel pain.


    And the Shu road pedicure club was obviously different from the ones he had gone to before.


    As soon as he entered the door, Chen Fan was a little ufortable with the dim lighting. Then, the two beautiful women in Cheongsam standing behind the front desk made Chen Fan��s face Blush again, then, he didn��t even know where to put his hands.


    Although he knew that this was a game point, in order to ensure the anonymity of the yers, all the game points in the novel were basically hidden in various ces that were normally open for business.


    Thinking of this, Chen Fan��s actions couldn��t help but be even more unnatural. He didn��t know if the two beautiful waitresses across from him had noticed anything, so he heard one of them ask with a smile.


    ��Sir, are you here for a pedicure?��


    ��En, ah no...��Chen fan subconsciously agreed. However, halfway through, he felt that something wasn��t right, so he hurriedly waved his hand and said, ��I, I��m here to...��


    Chen fan suddenly got stuck at this point. He remembered that in novels, in order to be safe, yers had to hide their identities, especially in front of ordinary people. It was impossible for him to tell the hostess in front of him that he was here to y the game, however, it didn��t seem appropriate to make up other excuses.


    After all, what other purpose could there be ining to the pedicure club besides having a pedicure?


    However, the pretty waitress opposite him was hesitant to speak. Instead, she revealed a meaningful smile. After that, she didn��t ask any more questions and just made a gesture of invitation. ��Guest, please follow me.��


    Chen fan followed her in a daze. However, after taking a few steps, he suddenly woke up. Wait, did the opposite party misunderstand something? But then again, if they did note to the pedicure club for a pedicure, what else could they be here for?


    Thinking of this, Chen Fan��s heart started to beat faster. His mouth was dry. He wanted to exin, but he did not know what to say. As he struggled, he arrived at the second floor.


    The hostess pointed to a room at the end. ��That��s it.��


    Chen fan could only nod in agreement. He decided to wait for the hostess to leave before he fumbled around. When he came up, he noticed that there were no cameras, so it was more convenient for him to move, however, there was not much time left until eleven o��clock. It would be funny if he could not find the game point within the agreed time after arriving at his destination.


    However, the waitress did not leave after she finished speaking. Instead, she looked at Chen fan again and asked, ��Did you forget something?��


    ��AH.��Chen fan was stunned for a moment before he said weakly, ��Do you have to pay in advance here?��


    The waitress seemed to be amused by his words as well. ��Are you really here for kidney maintenance, little brother?��


    In fact, Chen fan immediately reacted after he said that. He awkwardly rolled up the sleeves of his sportswear, revealing the yer number on his arm.


    The hostess took a look, then leaned over to his ear and breathed out, ��No problem. Wee to the New World. I wish you all the best in the next game. If you sessfully clear the novice dungeon, I can consider giving you some extra rewards.��


    Chen fan had only lived for 16 years. As a passerby, he had never seen such a thing before. His ears were red all the way to his neck, and he almost turned into a white-hot prawn on the spot.


    It didn��t make sense. Those subi should have followed the other gods to the game world, but if it wasn��t for the subi, could human women really be this seductive?


    Chen fan had no choice but to recall the short-haired girl��s every frown and smile in his mind over and over again. Only then did he calm down, he felt that he was like a husband who cheated on his wife who had painstakingly raised a child, even though this wife might not even remember his name.


    Chen fan took a deep breath and walked to the room at the end.


    ��Wee!��When he pushed the door open, a wave of heat hit him. Then, an uncle wearing beach pants greeted him warmly, ��Are you the new yer this time? You Don��t seem to be doing well at all. You haven��t been training well, have you?��


    In the end, Chen fan just looked at him foolishly and couldn��t say a word.


    Chen fan felt that this day was already magical enough. First, he found out that the story in the novel was actually true. He also obtained the qualification to be a yer and was lucky enough to be able to enter this mysterious and colorful world, then, he was inexplicably taken in by the famous god of lies and pranks, Loki, and invited him to be his agent. However, he still did not know whether it was a blessing or a curse.


    And when he reached the game point, he actually met another celebrity! Although it was the first time they met, this outfit and appearance were really too ssic.


    The beach pants uncle seemed to have long been ustomed to the expression on his face. He patted Chen Fan��s shoulder and said, ��That��s right, I��m the person you think I am. Honestly, ever since that novel became popr, I��ve be famous for no reason. Ah, that Zhang Heng, he didn��t give me much of a positive description. Actually, those subi still respect me as a partner. Don��t look at how they always contradict me, but we just love and kill each other every day.��


    ��Yes, yes, yes.��Chen fan nodded his head like a chick pecking on rice, appearing to agree with him.


    However, as the saying goes, only the same kind of people understand their own kind the best. As a coward, Chen fan could obviously see the same coward beach pants uncle at a nce.


    ��There��s no need to think about autographs and group photos. If everyone had such requests, how would I be able to handle it?��The beach pants uncle waved his hand and rejected Chen Fan��s request with a serious expression, ��If you really worship me and earn points, you can just spend a little more here.��


    ��Definitely, Definitely.��Chen fan continued to peck at the grains.


    The man in beach pants raised his head and looked at the clock on the wall, ��Since you��ve read the novel, then you should understand the rules. There��s no need for me to say any more nonsense. It��s gettingte. Hurry up and enter the game. After the first round of the novice dungeon, you can freely choose the time after that. If you have any more questions, you can ask me when youe back. Come on, let��s work hard for game 609! Even though I don��t care about that kind of thing. Ha Ha Ha.��

 Chapter 1440 - Courage 8 (Thanks To Leader Lebronkings)

    <h4>Chapter 1440: Courage 8 (Thanks To Leader Lebronkings)</h4>


    Chen fany in the booth and ced the rm clock on his chest as described in the novel, waiting for the game to start.


    While he was waiting, he couldn��t help but start to let his imagination run wild again.


    Although he appeared to be more decisive than ever when he made the decision, when the time came and he was about to enter the game, he started to act cowardly as usual.


    Even though he really wanted to be brave and get rid of the background of his life, he even fantasized that he could learn a lot of skills like Zhang Heng. With a bunch of magical items in his hands, he could finally be reborn, he sessfully rode his white horse to his goddess and used his most affectionate confession to sessfully move her and bring her home. The group of passersby who were the same as him could only cry out in envy and blessing.


    However, when his hot head gradually calmed down, Chen fan could not help but feel nervous again.


    Although he had great courage and marrying a short-haired girl was his lifelong dream, it would not be worth it if he lost his life, especially since he did not look like he would be able to live to the end, even though he had already gotten the golden finger that rocky had given him.


    But the river crab was a river crab. Even if it was equipped with a six-grid godly equipment, it could not be a hero. At most, it would be a river crab with a six-grid godly equipment.


    Some things were written in DNA and could not be easily changed.


    Chen fan thought of the words that the beach pants uncle had just said to him. On the surface, it sounded very warm, but he gradually came back to his senses, he suspected that the other party had skipped the rookie��s routine exnation and only allowed him to ask any questions when he returned. It was simply to ck off.


    The beach pants uncle had clearly seen through his nature as a passerby and did not think that he would be able to survive the rookie dungeon, so he did not even introduce him and sessfully saved his own saliva.


    Should he say that he was indeed worthy of being a member of the same species.


    Sure enough, the person who knew the most about cowards in this world was still a cowards.


    However, even river crabs had survival instincts. Chen Fan silently clenched his fists. Even if he was going to lose, he had to at least survive the beginner dungeon. Otherwise, wouldn��t it make a guy like the beach pants Uncle Snicker, he was proud of his sess in fishing.


    Perhaps in the future, when he was courting girls, he would use this kind of thing to brag and make his femalepanion happy like a joke. With the bad character of the guy in the novel, this kind of thing would definitely happen.


    Other than that, Chen fan also thought of his parents. He thought of how sad they were when they returned home and found out that their only son had died. Chen fan wanted to continue thinking, but the next moment, the rm on his chest rang, a sense of dizziness assaulted him.


    [ yer identification verified... ]


    [ verified. Randomly selecting a new yer dungeon for yer number 30029... ]


    [ extractionplete �� the current dungeon is surrounded by enemies. ]


    ��The king has left his throne for some time. His enemies are beginning to stir. They areing from all directions again, trying topletely destroy everything he has built and left behind. Can this vast sea still amodate a group of people who are chasing freedom? ��No one knows the answer, but danger is indeed approaching.��


    [ mission objective: survive for 60 days ]


    [ mode: single ]


    [ time flow rate: 480](one hour in the real world is equivalent to 20 days in this game. After 60 days, yers will be forced to return to the real world)


    Friendly Reminder, the game will officially start in five seconds, please get ready.


    ..


    Chen fan hurriedly listened to the background introduction of the beginner��s dungeon. Then, before he had time to think and analyze the information points used, he was immediately stunned by the next mission mode.


    Although Zhang Heng in ��My Day has 48 hours��had a single row as soon as he entered the beginner��s dungeon, the bookter exined that it was only because he was special, normally, yers would y the game as a team. At first, the teammates were randomly assigned, but after the first dungeon, the yers could continue to y with the teammates they met for the first time, they could also look for new teammates to form other teams.


    Because everyone didn��t have 48 hours in a day, they could use the long quest time to make up for the shorings of the single-yer game. yers with different skills could also make up for their shorings by forming teams.


    Moreover, Chen Fan had a clear understanding of his own position. His only chance to clear the dungeon was to find a do and cling tightly to his thick legs, turning into a leg essory, the current single-yer mode was undoubtedly bad news for him. This meant that he could only rely on his own strength to y the game. In other words, it was a dead end.


    Why did this happen? ! I��m not the main character.., i��m just a passerby. Why did you suddenly give me the treatment of a main character at such a time? You have to know that I��ve never enjoyed the benefits of a main character since I was young. Now, I have to face the game difficulty unique to the main character.., isn��t this too unfair? !


    Unfortunately, the system could not hear Chen Fan��s wail and protest.


    After five seconds, Chen Fan arrived in the game world.


    He appeared in a cramped wooden house. Judging from the stench and the shaking floor, more urately, he should be in the cabin of a ship.


    Everything in front of him seemed particrly real. Chen fan couldn��t understand that he was in a game. Although he was mentally prepared and had read the novel, he had personally experienced all of this.., he could not help but be amazed.


    The god of games, Gaime, was indeed the leader of the gods, and these dungeons were indeed built with the power of all the gods, other than disbelief, Chen fan could not find any other suitable words to describe his current feelings.


    However, before he could take a closer look around, he saw a burly and fierce-looking ck man walking towards him. At the same time, he shouted in strange English, ��There��s another one here!��


    As he spoke, he reached out and grabbed Chen Fan��s arm. He dragged Chen fan out of the cabin and all the way to the deck, then, he threw him into a crowd of people who looked like passengers and sailors.


    Chen fan felt that this plot seemed a little familiar. Could it be that, like Zhang Heng in the original novel, he was robbed by the ck-bearded Edward teach at the beginning? Then, what he needed to do next was to find a way to prove his usefulness and try to blend in with the pirates. However, he wasn��t sure if Nassau had been conquered by Great Britain.


    As if to prove his point, the noisy pirates suddenly quieted down. The crowd parted to make way for one person.


    That person put the bloody saber back to his waist as if nothing had happened. He first took the celebratory rum from a pirate and gulped down two mouthfuls. Then he asked, ��Did anyone take the initiative to join us, Dufresne?��


    ��There are only two. I��ve already sent someone to bring them to Billy. After all, the Navy has been attacking US relentlessly. Even if they don��t want to be exploited again, it��s not the right time to choose to be a pirate,��the quartermaster said seriously.


    ��Heh, two then. We want warriors who can truly fight. It��s useless to recruit cowards and cowards,��the person said, however, halfway through her words, she saw a young man among the captives looking at her with a dull expression.


    ��What are you looking at? Haven��t you seen a woman as a Captain?��The woman wiped the blood off her face and grinned. Her long red hair was like a burning me under the setting sun.

 Chapter 1441 - Courage 9 (Thanks To President TIMUSW)

    <h4>Chapter 1441: Courage 9 (Thanks To President TIMUSW)</h4>


    Annie! It��s Annie! ! ! !


    When he was reading the novel, although Simon was the most popr character in thements section, Chen Fan��s favorite female character was Annie.


    The reason was very simple, because the red-haired girl had what he yearned for the most �� courage!


    It was believed that any reader who had read the novel would find it hard to forget this handsome and carefree girl who courageously pursued freedom.


    Of course, the current Annie could no longer be called a girl.


    Chen fan finally realized that the king mentioned in the background introduction should be Zhang Heng. After all, when Zhang Heng left the dungeon, he had already be the Master of the Seven Seas and had defeated the British navy several times, his name had long been known by everyone. Therefore, the time Chen Fan had experienced the dungeon was probably after Zhang Heng had left the ck Sail chapter.


    Even though Annie was only in her teens when Zhang Heng first met her, the time span of the cksail dungeon was very long. It had been more than ten years, and Annie was at least twenty-seven or twenty-eight years old now.


    However, Chen Fan was still very excited to see his favorite female character. He immediately blurted out, ��I want to join, I want to join!��


    It wasn��t that he hadn��t heard what Dufresne had said before. Now wasn��t the right time to be a pirate, but the problem was that the pirate gang that Zhang Heng had established all those years ago was standing right in front of him! Other than the red-haired pirate Annie, there was also the Quartermaster Dufresne, Billy, Harry, and other famous characters. Chen fan didn��t think that he would be able to be so close to them one day.


    If he missed this opportunity, he did not know when the next time woulde.


    Annie heard his words and raised her eyebrows. ��You want to join?��


    ��Yes, yes.��Chen fan hurriedly nodded. In the end, he saw that the red-haired captain did not immediately agree. Instead, she used her gaze to sweep him from head to toe. Chen Fan��s face suddenly turned red again, he knew his own affairs well. Due to hisck of training, his body could not be considered strong among ordinary people, let alone among a group of veteran pirates.


    He was simply like a chicken standing out from a crane.


    Sure enough, he heard the quartermaster, Dufresne, say, ��What can you do?��


    ��I can...��Chen Fan was speechless. Strictly speaking, a 21st century high school student was quite versatile in the 18th century. However, if his position was limited to a pirate ship, there were very few things he could do, he definitely could not do battle, not to mention nautical mapping, and he did not have any culinary skills..


    However, Chen fan thought about it and really found a job that he could do. ��I, I can do ounting!��


    ��ounting?��Dufresne��s expression eased a little. Indeed, an ountant was essential to all pirate ships. The spoils of war that were obtained after each raid needed to be counted, the use of public funds on the ship also needed to be recorded by someone.


    ��But we don��t need bookkeepers anymore. Old Barry did quite well. He even took in an apprentice named Benny. If anything happens to Old Barry, Benny can take over. Besides bookkeeping, when there��s real trouble, they can also take up weapons and join the battle.��The quartermaster��s next words were like a basin of cold water, chen fan felt a chill run down his spine.


    ��I��m sorry, Kid. I��m afraid there��s no ce for you on our ship.��


    Chen fan stood rooted to the ground as he watched the pirates move the valuable goods, bacon, biscuits, and alcohol onto their pirate ship, leaving only about twenty days of water and food for the people on the ship.


    ��This is the rule set by the pirate king. You��re on a trade route, so there are still many shipsing and going. As long as your luck isn��t too bad, these goods are enough for you to wait for rescue. So, thank him for his mercy,��the red-haired female pirate said, she was about to bring her men back to her ship.


    But at this moment, an anxious voice came from behind her, ��Wait!��


    The person who spoke was none other than Chen Fan, who had volunteered to join the pirate gang. Chen fan ignored the strange gazes of the people around him. Those people seemed to be relieved after hearing that the red-haired pirate had left food and water for them, they were not as nervous as when they had just been captured. There was even a hint of joy in the eyes of many people, as if they were happy that they could escape from the jaws of the tiger.


    However, Chen Fan was not as optimistic as they were. As a senior coward, he did not want to gamble his life on the vast sea, even though ording to Annie, this was the main trade route, the chances of other ships passing by were quite high, but what if they were unlucky and did not encounter them in twenty days?


    When Chen fan heard the name of this dungeon, he could not help but feel a chill. He did not believe that the system would allow him toplete the mission so easily. Moreover, if he really followed this merchant ship back to London safely.., then he would be in big trouble.


    When he applied to join Annie��s pirate gang previously, he was watched by many pairs of eyes. These merchants and sailors had suffered heavy losses this time. They might not be able to do anything to Annie and the others who were far away, however, it was not a problem to vent his anger on a helpless easterner like him. He might even be considered as a pirate partner when he returned and be exposed. Moreover, Ennd��s attitude towards pirates was especially strict now, what awaited him after that was probably hanging.


    In order to avoid such a tragedy, Chen fan had to blend in with the group of pirates in front of him no matter what.


    Annie stopped in her tracks and turned around to look at Chen Fan. Although she did not leave, the expression in her eyes was very clear. If Chen Fan did not really have something urgent to stop her.., then she did not mind teaching him a lesson.


    Chen fan could not help but shiver when the red-haired female pirate red at him. It was only then that he realized that other than the bonus from the fan filter, the person standing in front of him was a female pirate leader whose hands were covered in blood, the life of a female pirate leader who came out of a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood might not mean anything to her.


    But at this time, Chen Fan had no way out. He could only bite the bullet and say, ��I... I can actually still fight.��


    As soon as he said this, the group of pirates opposite him burst intoughter. The main reason was that Chen Fan��s small body and his words were too powerful, instantly heating up the atmosphere.


    ��You can fight? I bet even my grandmother can fight better than you!��


    ��Is this guy drunk? Do you want me to help him sober up?��Some pirates were already rubbing their fists.


    Chen fan was so scared that he couldn��t help but tremble. He used almost all of his strength to force himself not to retreat. Then, he clenched his teeth and said in a trembling voice, ��Give... Give me a knife, I can prove it.��

 Chapter 1442 - Courage 10 (Thanks To President Star)

    <h4>Chapter 1442: Courage 10 (Thanks To President Star)</h4>


    Chen fan had never touched a kitchen knife in his life, let alone a military knife. The only knife he had used was probably a pen-and-drill knife.


    But of course, he didn��t ask for a knife to make a living on the spot.


    In fact, the reason Chen fan dared to say that was because of the golden finger that rocky had given him.


    At the Barbeque stall, the middle-aged office worker dragged his chin as he sized up the seemingly reserved and nervous youth in front of him. ��Aiya, what a headache. What kind of ability should I give you?��


    Chen fan didn��t like Rocky��s gaze, because that gaze was very familiar to him, as if a predator was staring at his fat prey, ��Isn��t your agent��s ability that magical sticine? No, no, I haven��t agreed to be your agent yet.��


    Chen fan instinctively sensed that Loki didn��t have any good intentions in asking him to be his agent. Well, this kind of thing could be guessed even with his toes. After all, the person sitting in front of him wasn��t anyone else, but the famous god of lies and pranks, it would be strange if Loki didn��t cause trouble.


    But the god of lies and pranks didn��t seem to have any consciousness at all. After hearing Chen Fan��s question, he only looked at the youth opposite him with a faint smile.


    Under his gaze, Chen Fan soon became more and more guilty.


    One had to know that he was a salted fish passerby who did not even dare to resist the bad campus, not to mention that the person sitting in front of him was the Norse mythological evil god. Moreover, Chen Fan was not stupid.., after he blurted out that sentence, he knew that he had made a fool of himself again.


    He did not have any say in the matter of the agent, not only because of the disparity in strength between the two sides, but most importantly, becausepared to what Loki needed of him, he was the person who needed Loki more.


    For a passerby like him, if he didn��t have a golden finger at the beginning, he would most likely be weed to open the door and kneel. The only advantage was that he could be reincarnated at the speed of light. Chen fan thought in despair that rocky might have seen through this from the beginning, so he came to him as the agent.


    Because rocky knew that even if Chen fan realized that he was holding a sugar-coated poison in his hand, he had no choice but to swallow it.


    ��TSK, TSK, not bad. It seems that you have a clear understanding of your situation,��Loki said with a smile, ��Don��t worry. Even if it��s to make the game more interesting, I��ll think of a way to let you live longer. and the ability I can give my agent is not only the disguise sticine. In fact, it��s only the most basic ability, and it needs to be exercised before it can be used. Since you��re someone I personally came to find, of course I can��t fool you with that beginner-level stuff.��


    Rocky took another sip of beer as he spoke, ��There��s less than 20 minutes left before your first dungeon opens. I have to give you an ability that you can use immediately. Let me think about it. What do I have in stock? HMM... I have it. There��s nothing more suitable for you than this ability. Stretch out your hand.��


    Chen fan hesitated for a moment, but in the end, he obediently stretched out his hand.


    Loki grabbed a skewer of roasted squid next to him and roughly stuffed it into Chen Fan��s hand. At the same time, he shouted, ��Grab it well!��


    Chen fan seriously suspected that the god of lies and pranks was just making fun of him on a daily basis. After all, he had never heard of any god who used the roasted squid on a street stall to bestow supernatural powers on their surrogates, the squid was especially sticky and greasy, and it felt very ufortable to the touch.


    However, the long-time obedient education was once again effective. Even though Chen fan felt like a fool holding the squid, he still did not let go.


    Then, to his horror, he found that the string of squid actually melted into his palm bit by bit. Seeing this scene, Chen fan almost screamed out of fear. He subconsciously wanted to throw away the roasted squid in his hand, but to his horror, he discovered that the thing seemed to have stuck firmly to his hand.


    Then, he actually increased the speed of the fusion until all of it went into Chen Fan��s palm.


    ��The ability I gave you is called �� Fox pretends to be a tiger! After you activate Fox pretends to be a tiger, you can randomly copy a skill from any target character. The effective time of the skillsts for an hour. After an hour, whether you still need it or not, it will automatically disappear. and Fox pretends to be a tiger can be activated once every three natural days. How about it? Isn��t this a heaven-defying move?��


    Rocky said triumphantly,pletely ignoring the fact that Chen fan was immersed in the sorrow of fusing with the roasted squid.


    Chen fan could no longer remember how he had just recovered from that nightmarish scene, but now he had to admit that the golden finger given to him by the god of lies and pranks was indeed very useful.


    It did not require any preparation, nor did it require any practice. It could be used directly. It was as if it was tailor-made for a rookie like him who had no strength.


    Chen fan originally wanted to use the power of the tiger against a gunner pirate because he had read the original book. He knew that outstanding gunners were a hotmodity no matter which pirate ship they were on. No one wouldin about having too many of them, moreover, gunners didn��t need to engage in closebat with others during a battle. They only needed to control the turrets to fire.


    However, Chen fan hesitated before making his move. The randomness of using the power of the tiger was very strong. He could copy a skill from the target, but he couldn��t specify which skill, in other words, if he didn��t copy the cannoneer skill from the cannoneer, then it would be a melee skill. After all, the cannoneers on the pirate ship could basically join hand-to-handbat at critical moments, but theirbat power was definitely not as strong as those in the assault team.


    Then, it was possible that he still couldn��t be epted, so in the end, Chen fan gritted his teeth and simply targeted the red-haired pirate.


    He didn��t know if any God had heard his messy prayers. Anyway, after the Fox��s Bluff came into effect, Chen fan saw an LV3 de skill on his character interface!


    This was also why he suddenly had the courage to ask Annie for a de.


    Chen fan knew that this was hisst chance to join the pirate gang.


    Annie ignored the jeers and curses from the surrounding pirates. She said to the quartermaster at the side, ��Give him a knife.��


    However, before she could finish her sentence, another pirate said, ��You won��t be able to tell by just letting him swing his knife. Why don��t I be his opponent?��


    After saying that, he looked at Chen Fan with a provocative gaze. Chen fan was extremely afraid now. In his first high school, the most ferocious person he coulde into contact with was the dean of the academic affairs office. How could he have the chance to meet a ruthless person who had really killed people.


    However, when he subconsciously held the British military knife that Dufresne threw over, an indescribable feeling suddenly welled up in his heart. That feeling.., it was as if that knife had been waiting for him for a long time.

 Chapter 1443 - Courage 11 (Thanks To Alliance Leader Riye)

    <h4>Chapter 1443: Courage 11 (Thanks To Alliance Leader Riye)</h4>


    Chen fan held his saber and tried to wave it twice, but just then, a big wave hit him.


    As people who lived on the sea all year round, the pirates were used to this kind of wind and waves. They stood straight and did not move.


    On the other hand, Chen fan stumbled and almost fell to the ground.


    The pirates burst intoughter again. Life on the sea was boring, and there was no gambling on the ship, so there was not much fun to be had. This time, even some pirates who were not here were attracted by theughter, the number of people increased. In the end, besides the pirates who had jobs and could not leave their posts, almost everyone who coulde came.


    The people waved their fists to cheer for the pirate who had volunteered to participate in the battle. ��Toby, kill him! Let him know what a real man is!��


    ��You��d better end the battle within three moves!��


    ��Look at this poor kid. He can��t even stand properly. It Can��t be his first time taking a boat out to sea, right?��


    Chen fan listened to the abuse andughter that filled the air around him and subconsciously shrunk his head. The thought of retreating arose in his mind again. He only saw that the guy opposite him was almost twice his size, furthermore, it was obvious that he had been in battle for a long time. There was no way he could win this battle no matter what.


    Chen fan knew that his old habit was back. He couldn��t help but cower at the critical moment, even though his knife skill had already reached level 3, if Chen fan remembered correctly, the knife skill that Zhang Heng used when he left cksail dungeon was also level 3.


    Although there was a gap between level 3 and level 3, especially when he had learned it himself and obtained it directly by cheating, the real power was definitely different. However, the opponent in front of him was not Zhang Heng, he was just a random pirate.


    Chen fan did not have any impression of the name Toby in the original novel. He did not know whether it was because he joinedter or because he had always been in the pirate gang, but he did not have much of a role.


    In short, his position in the original novel was about the same as Chen Fan��s. It was fair for a random person to fight a random person.


    However, Chen Fan had a golden finger in his hand. If he did not dare to fight in this battle, then he might as well jump into the sea.


    Therefore, although he was afraid, Chen Fan still put on a stance. With the LVL 3 de skill��s bonus, he looked decent. Annie narrowed her eyes when she saw his stance.


    However, Toby didn��t care at all. He even put his knife back into his waist, indicating that he wanted to y with Chen fan empty-handed.


    However, just as he made this move, Annie said, ��Be careful, he��s not as weak as you think.��


    Although Toby was a little unconvinced, he had no choice but to stop his yful behavior after the captain spoke. He pulled out the saber on his waist once again and gestured twice at the air. After that, he no longer dragged his feet, he charged at Chen Fan.


    Chen fan immediately became nervous when he saw this. His entire mind went nk. The strategy he had thought of to face the enemy was nowpletely thrown to the back of his mind. All that was left in his eyes was Toby, who was charging at him like a bull.


    Previously, when he was reading a novel, powerful experts had a very powerful aura. They could suppress their opponents before they made a move. Chen fan did not expect that an unremarkable little character like Toby could give him a simr feeling, could it be that he was really too weak?


    For a moment, Chen fan felt that he was going to be finished. The surrounding pirates also had the same thought because Chen fan looked like he was scared silly and had been standing there motionlessly.


    However, the cheers suddenly stopped in the next moment. It was as if someone had suddenly grabbed the necks of the pirates. All of them widened their eyes and could not believe what they had seen.


    Chen fan was still standing there, shivering non-stop. No matter how one looked at it, he looked like he was going to die.


    However, the one who was really going to die was Toby. Thetter was hugging his stomach and lying at Chen Fan��s feet with a pained expression.


    The battle ended as quickly as everyone expected, but the result was out of everyone��s expectations.


    A few pirates who were on good terms with Toby were shocked when they saw this. Then, they drew their weapons and were about to rush over and Chop Chen Fan to the ground to avenge their friends.


    However, before they could move, Annie stopped them. ��Toby is fine. He was just hit in the stomach by the back of the knife. Moreover, we have to follow the rules of the duel.��


    The Pirates finally quieted down. Then, Annie looked at Chen Fan. ��Good knife skills. I actually made a mistake before.��


    ��...��


    Chen fan didn��t say anything. It wasn��t that he was pretending to be cool, but he didn��t know what to say at all. Because he was really scared silly just now. That knife skill was purely an instinctive reaction of his body after equipping the level 3 knife skill.


    ��And it looks like your de skill is actually on the same path as mine. Perhaps we can exchange pointers in the future when we have the chance.��The red-haired female pirate��s eyes lit up, and she felt that her hand was a little itchy.


    Chen fan was shocked. His de skill was originally stolen from Annie by using the power of the Fox and the tiger. He had only used one move and the main character had already discovered the clues. If he really fought with Annie, he would definitely be exposed, moreover, the power of the Fox to fake the tiger could only be activated once every three days. Each time, it only had an hour��s effective time.


    Chen fan also could not guarantee that he would be able to draw a knife skill skill the next time.


    But no matter what happened in the future, at least he had passed this hurdle.


    Taking advantage of the fact that the pirates were all present, Annie directly voted to admit Chen Fan and the other two neers into the team. In the end, what Chen Fan did not expect was that Toby was the first person to vote in favor.


    Although this guy looked like a barbarian and had just lost to Chen fan, he was unexpectedly reasonable. Moreover, he was clear about his grudges. He felt that Chen Fan had shown mercy by only hitting him in the stomach with the back of his knife, therefore, he returned the favor now.


    With him as the starting point, the other pirates no longer had any objections to epting Chen Fan. In the end, Chen Fan sessfully got on the pirate ship and got to see those familiar names as he wished, the only thing that made him feel regretful was that he wasn��t able to see the legendary cold crow.


    It was said that half a month ago, that ship had fought with four Navy warships. In the end, not only did it sessfully escape, but it also sank a navy warship and sent one back to the dock to be repaired, however, as the price, the Cold Crow was also damaged to a certain extent. At this moment, it was being repaired in the Pirates��secret base.


    ��I once met a man who had the same skin color as you at the pirate port.��


    After the vote, Annie did not immediately leave to return to her captain��s cabin. Instead, she said to Chen Fan, who had just boarded the ship, ��He told me that he was just a passerby, but he did appear here with... a certain purpose. What about you? Why do you want toe to my ship so desperately?��


    ��I. . .��Chen fan opened his mouth. He wanted to say that it was because he wanted to live for sixty days, but he swallowed his words. He realized that this was a good opportunity, so he changed his words, ��I have heard of your reputation and know that you are a fearless person, but I am the opposite. I am a very timid person. I, I want to learn how to be brave from you.��


    After saying this, he looked at the red-haired pirate with some apprehension and some anticipation.


    However, Annie shook her head when she heard this, ��If you want to learn how to be brave, then you havee to the wrong ce. You may be able to teach your knife skills and gunner skills, but you can not teach something like bravery. I know what you are thinking. Some people think that pirates are very brave because they are fearless of death. They chase their prey on the vast sea, fight against the wind and waves, and even dare to fight against the Navy.��


    ��Isn��t it brave to be fearless of Death?��Chen fan was puzzled.


    ��Of course not,��Annie said calmly, ��Most people are just idiots. They look down on their own lives and the lives of others. This has nothing to do with courage. At most, it can only be considered reckless.��


    ��Ah, then... then what is courage?��Chen fan was at a loss.


    ��True couragees from fear.��The red-haired female pirate looked into the young man��s eyes. ��Have you ever thought about what you��re afraid of?��


    ��I. . . AM afraid of too many things,��Chen Fan said sheepishly.


    ��No, I��m talking about what you��re truly afraid of.��


    ��Uh... all those guys that I can��t Beat?��Chen fan thought about it and clenched his fists. ��If I were as powerful as Zhang Heng and you, I wouldn��t be afraid of anything anymore.��


    ��Of course, strength is important, but it��s not the source of courage. No matter how much you train, there will always be someone stronger than you in this world. What are you going to do when you meet them? Kneel down and beg for mercy with tears in Your Eyes?��


    ��It��s better than me kneeling down and begging for mercy with tears in my eyes whenever I meet some random passerby,��Chen Fan said dejectedly as he recalled his embarrassing performance in front of the toilet three days ago, ��I��m really afraid of being beaten and hurt.��


    ��No one isn��t afraid of pain, but there are things worse than pain in this world,��Annie said.


    Chen Fan��s heart skipped a beat. He thought of his own regrets and frustrations these days. They were almost everywhere, filling up all the gaps in his life like a tide, almost swallowing him up, if it weren��t for this matter, he might not have epted the invitation and risked his life to participate in this dangerous game.


    Moreover, he knew that Loki had dug a hole for him, yet he still jumped in. Even if he had the golden finger, who knew how many rounds he could survive. Chen fan didn��t think that he, a passerby, would be so lucky all the time, every time, he would get the skill he wanted to draw.


    The red-haired pirate��s eyes seemed to be able to see through his thoughts. She spoke slowly, ��See, this is the price of retreating. Remember your mood at that time. The next time you want to retreat, remember it. See which is more painful, the enemy��s fist, or the precious things that you will lose if you retreat.��

 Chapter 1444 - A Hunting Party (Thanks President Cz）

    <h4>Chapter 1444: A Hunting Party (Thanks President Cz��</h4>


    During the time he spent in the literary salon, Zhang Heng would apany Hemingway to hunt every week, but as he said, it was hard for him to have any fun.


    Apart from the fact that he could no longer feel too much emotion, it was also because of the fact that it was almost no challenge for him.


    It was like taking on a mission to collect [ freshly ripened wild fruit ] or [ worn-out armor ] . The process ofpleting the mission itself was just a mechanical repetition, if it wasn��t for the final mission reward, no yer would have done it.


    However, the hunt this time was different. Zhang Heng felt the pressure and challenge.


    He got up early in the morning, put on his clothes, grabbed his shotgun and bullets, and walked out of the house.


    Zhang Heng went to the dining room for breakfast. The Sun had just risen, but Hemingway and the others had already been waiting for him on thewn outside the house for quite some time, even the fantasy best-selling female writers, who were usually not interested in hunting, hade. There were almost thirty of them.


    No matter what era this group of people was in, they would probably cause a bloodbath in the literary world. Standing on the street, the readers who came to ask for autographs would probably line up from downtown to the suburbs. However, this time, they were not the main characters, they were just the audience, and they were currently discussing the uing hunt.


    ��Who do you think will win, Gardner?��Agatha asked a slightly chubby man next to her who was wearing a cowboy hat and sses.


    ��We��ve all seen Zhang Heng��s marksmanship, and it can be said that he has hit every target. There is no prey that can escape from his gun, so... I choose that girl,��Gardner, who was also a member of the inference society, said after some thought, ��Since she��s Zhang Heng��s shooting teacher, her marksmanship must be even better.��


    He had thought that Agatha would agree with him, but the queen of inference shook her head. ��I think the opposite is true. I think Zhang Heng can win.��


    ��Why?��Gardner��s interest was piqued. ��Is it because we��ve never seen that girl shoot before, so you don��t believe that her marksmanship is better than Zhang Heng��s?��


    ��It��s not because of that. In fact, I believe that her marksmanship is also very good. However, thispetition is not just apetition of marksmanship. Physical strength and strategy are also very important. We all know Zhang Heng��s mind. Other than that, the girl��s biggest weakness lies in her physical strength. I can tell that she has received some military training. Her speed, strength and endurance are far superior to ordinary people. However, her opponent is also not an ordinary person, and there is a natural gap in physical fitness between men and women.��


    Agatha said her reasoning and observation, but Conan Doyle smiled. ��I also think that girl can win.��


    ��What did you see that we didn��t see?��Gardner was almost convinced by Agatha, but after hearing Conan Doyle��s words, he asked again.


    ��It��s very simple. Because she is a hunter, isn��t it normal for her to win in this kind of hunting game?��Conan Doyle said slowly.


    ��...��


    The rules of this huntingpetition were very simple. The manor prepared three colorful ribbons, ten red ribbons, and twenty ck ribbons. Two days in advance, they used the tranquilizer gun to capture 33 wild animals in the forest, they tied the ribbons to their bodies and then released these wild animals into the forest.


    When the hunt began, they could get 20 points for obtaining one colorful ribbons, five points for obtaining one red ribbons, and only two points for obtaining one ck ribbons, the winner would be the person who earned the most points at the end of the hunt.


    However, only two people took part in the final round of the hunt. The others knew that it would be a waste if they took part, so they gave the stage to the main character, even Hemingway, who was the most addicted to hunting, did not sign up this time.


    The Hobbit housekeeper walked up to Zhang Heng. ��She has already drawn lots to enter the forest from point A, so you can only take point B.��


    Zhang Heng nodded. ��Okay.��


    ��The carriage will send you there. The fireworks are the signal for the beginning. You can enter the forest when you see the fireworks. When the sun sets, the hunt will be over. When youe out of the forest, there will be a carriage to pull you back to the manor. We will calcte the color and number of ribbons you��ve received, calcte the points, and decide the final winner.��


    ��It won��t take that long.��Zhang Heng checked the shotgun in his hand onest time without raising his head.


    ��What?��


    ��I��m saying that we won��t wait until the sun sets. It��s a total of 150 points, which means that as long as someone gets 75 points, the game will automatically end.��


    ��That��s the theory,��The Hobbit housekeeper couldn��t refute.


    ��Then let��s get started. I still want toe back for lunch,��Zhang Heng said.


    ..


    Fifteen minutester, the carriage stopped at a spot in front of the forest where the capital B was marked with red paint. Zhang Heng got off the carriage and waited for another five minutes before he saw the fireworks that rose into the sky behind him.


    And this also meant that the Hunt had officially begun!


    Then, the coachman saw Zhang Heng��s figure disappear from where he stood. Like a cheetah, he dashed into the forest in front of him.


    Zhang Heng��s luck today was not bad. He had only run less than 200 meters before he met a wild boar.


    This was still the edge of the forest. Normally, wild animals rarely came to this ce. Furthermore, there was a red ribbon wrapped around the back leg of the wild boar. Zhang Heng stopped in his tracks and skillfully aimed his gun, then, he pulled the trigger.


    The level 3 shooting skill made the battle without suspense.


    As the bullet shot out of the gun, the unlucky boar fell to the ground!


    On Zhang Heng��s side, he received 5 points. He removed the ribbon from the boar��s hind legs. Because he was worried that it would waste time, he did not do too much to deal with the carcass of his prey and continued walking forward.


    Previously, when he was hunting with Hemingway, Zhang Heng only needed to paddle around to get some good results. However, this time, he had to put in 120% of his energy because he knew very well that.., if he rxed, he would definitely be the one to lose.


    Although Zhang Heng did not really care about the so-called winning or losing of the hunting game, he just remembered that he had not had much fun with the girl, so he wanted to give it his all, he wanted the girl to have some fun, even though it might seem strange to others.


    However, both Zhang Heng and Simon didn��t really care about what others thought.

 Chapter 1445 - A Hunting Party 2 (Thanks To President Qian Huan)

    <h4>Chapter 1445: A Hunting Party 2 (Thanks To President Qian Huan) </h4>


    The wind blew through the leaves, making a rustling sound.


    An elk pricked up its ears vigntly, but it didn��t hear anything other than the sound of the leaves. Then it tried hard to move its nose twice, but again, it didn��t smell anything. Only then did it calm down again, the elk lowered its head again, ready to continue eating the grass.


    But just as it lowered its head, the sound of gunfire suddenly rang out! Then, the poor elk died before it could figure out what had happened.


    Zhang Heng walked up, half-squatted on the ground, and untied the ck ribbon on the Elk��s antlers.


    Fortunately, he had encountered a rabbit with a red ribbon and an elk with a ck ribbon.


    Zhang Heng did not choose to shoot immediately because no matter who he shot at, the other party would run away when they heard the gunshot. Therefore, Zhang Heng decided to take a risk. He took out the dagger on his waist and used his assassin��s stealth ability, he moved to the side of the rabbit.


    The reason why he chose the rabbit first was very simple. It had higher points than the elk. If Zhang Heng��s n failed, he could change the gun midway even if he failed to kill the rabbit with the dagger, at least he could get these 5 points.


    However, the result was much smoother than Zhang Heng had expected. He chose to approach from the downwind. The Wild Rabbit did not realize that danger had arrived and was still digging the hole in peace. However, the next moment, a sh of light appeared, the wild rabbit did not even feel the pain before it moved its head.


    It was probably at that moment that the elk on the other side seemed to have noticed something and raised its head.


    However, it looked around, but it could not see Zhang Heng. In the end, it fell under the hunting rifle and followed in the footsteps of the hare.


    After removing the ribbons on the elk��s antlers, Zhang Heng counted his harvest. It had only been half an hour since the start of the hunting game, and he already had two red ribbons and three ck ribbons in his hands, he had umted a total of 16 points, and his efficiency was astonishing.


    However, Zhang Heng was notcent. He knew that as long as Simon��s Luck was not too bad, his harvest should be about the same as his, or perhaps even more than his.


    Therefore, Zhang Heng did not stop to rest. He continued to head deeper into the forest. He decided to follow the stream in the forest, because the area close to the water source was usually the area where animals loved to move, the probability of running into prey was also higher in this area.


    Although the area of the forest was not too big, the number of the 33 prey was much smaller. Moreover, the wild animals were not stationary targets. They would run around and dig holes, they would hide in unknown ces. Some unlucky ones would even be eaten by other wild animals.


    After all, it had been ten hours since they had been released into the forest. No one knew what had happened to them during those ten hours.


    Therefore, in the next twenty minutes, even though Zhang Heng had encountered a lot of animals, there was not a single one wearing a scarf.


    However, Zhang Heng was not in a hurry. He was still very calm. He continued to move forward ording to the n until he met his opponent by the stream.


    It seemed that Simon had chosen the same strategy as him. Furthermore, the distance between point A and point B was not too far, so the two of them met each other an hour after the start of thepetition.


    Zhang Heng and Simon did not cross the river. Even though the stream had just reached their ankles, the two of them did not forget that they were still in the middle of a hunt. Furthermore, they were each other��s opponents. If they were to gather together, what would happen if they managed to catch their prey?


    Therefore, Simon only nodded at Zhang Heng as a form of greeting. Zhang Heng waved the shotgun in his hand and asked in his newly learned Finnish, ��How��s The Harvest?��


    ��One red ribbon, two ck ribbons, and one... colorful ribbon,��Simon said. She did not ask about Zhang Heng��s harvest because thetter had tied all the scarves on his left arm.


    ��Colored ribbon, looks like you��re really lucky.��


    ��If I find another colored ribbon, you��ll most likely lose,��Simon reminded.


    Zhang Heng had already thought of this. After all, there were only three colored ribbons, but each one was worth 20 points. As long as he got two of them, he wouldn��t be far from victory, this was because with their hunting and shooting abilities, the difference in the final number of prey wouldn��t be too big. The 20 points from the colorful ribbons would be difficult to make up for.


    However, Zhang Heng still said, ��Don��t be too happy yet. Thepetition has just begun.��


    ��Okay.��Perhaps it was a habit he had formed previously, but even though he no longer had anguage barrier, Simon still kept his words to himself.


    The two of them exchanged a few words by the water��s edge before splitting up to search for their prey.


    After a while, Zhang Heng��s keen observation skills came into y again. He found an owl wearing a silk scarf from the tree hole.


    To be fair, when the servants were selecting their prey, neither Zhang Heng nor Simon were present, so Zhang Heng did not expect them to choose a bird, fortunately, owls usually slept in the tree holes during the day. Otherwise, if they were like other birds, Zhang Heng wouldn��t know if he could find the ribbon.


    This time, Zhang Heng didn��t even kill the owl. Instead, he grabbed it and removed the colorful ribbon from its ws. This way, he earned 20 points, he stood in front of the same starting line as Simon.


    However, Zhang Heng didn��t continue moving forward. Instead, he raised his gun and killed a pheasant that didn��t have a ribbon on its body. He had just finished his breakfast, therefore, this shot wasn��t to give him more food. However, after Zhang Heng killed the pheasant, he did use a knife to cut open its stomach.


    Then, he found a straw rope and tied the pheasant��s feet to the tree branch. After that, Zhang Heng continued forward.


    Zhang Heng had already realized that relying solely on his legs to move around to find prey was too much of a stroke of luck. If he had been in the same situation as before, it was possible that he wouldn��t even encounter a single prey for half an hour, therefore, he decided to make two preparations. He spent some time here to create a simple bait to see if he could lure the nearby carnivores into taking the bait.


    He continued to explore the surrounding area. However, just as Zhang Heng finished setting up the trap, he heard the sound of gunfireing from afar. It was likely that Simon had made another harvest, so Zhang Heng also quickened his pace.


    The silver stream passed through the forest, shimmering under the sunlight. Two of the best hunters were also engaged in a battle between the two sides of the stream.

 Chapter 1446 - A Secret 1

    <h4>Chapter 1446: A Secret 1 </h4>


    Chi Jia noticed that Bai Qing seemed to have returned to normal recently. She no longer sat in her seat in a daze from time to time.


    Of course, probably because of her mother��s disappearance, the innocent smile on her face had disappeared. She seemed to have be more mature and more intelligent. This led to more boys confessing to her, it wasn��t just the students from the same ss, there were also those from the other sses.


    However, they were all rejected by Bai Qing on the grounds that she was focused on her studies.


    Chi Jia heaved a sigh of relief. No matter what, Bai Qing seemed to have walked out of the shadow of that Brat.


    It was strange to say that although Zhang Heng wasn��t invisible in the ss, he wasn��t considered an influential figure either. His studies were good and his results in sports were above average. It was said that both his parents and grandfather were intellectuals, therefore, he had an aura about him, but other than that, he didn��t seem to have any other special skills. He was polite to everyone, but he kept his distance from them.


    Some girls in the ss would fall in love with a guy like him, but logically speaking, they shouldn��t be able to move Bai Qing. Furthermore, the two of them didn��t have much interaction before. It wasn��t until they became deskmates that they gradually became friends, however, that was the end of it.


    Chi Jia couldn��t understand how the rtionship between the two of them quickly heated up. By the time she realized what was going on, she realized that her best friend had already fallen in love with Zhang Heng.


    Unfortunately, the good times didn��tst long. Soon after, Bai Qing��s family underwent a terrifying change. The news said that her father had killed her mother, and Bai Qing had taken a leave of absence from school for a period of time, chi Jia also didn��t know how Bai Qing managed to survive that period of time. Fortunately, Bai Qing��s father was acquitted and her mother went missing instead of dying.


    However, Zhang Heng waster arrested by the police on charges of illegal possession of firearms and ammunition, driving without a license, running into people in the street, and suspected homicide.


    Chi Jia felt that life had never been so absurd. Zhang Heng was a high school student, and he usually looked gentle and refined. How could he be rted to these seemingly horrifying charges, what surprised everyone even more was that the police hadn��t been able to catch Zhang Heng until now.


    No, that��s not right. Perhaps there was one person who wasn��t surprised by this, and that was Bai Qing. She had told Chi Jia that Zhang Heng��s real identity was actually a superhero, and that he had left quietly after saving the world.


    Chi Jia agreed with him, but she only felt a pang of heartache in her heart. She felt that the recent events that had happened to Bai Qing had been too much, and the girl��s spirit couldn��t take it anymore, she had no choice but to use this lie to numb herself.


    Chi Jia��s mouth was usually vicious, but underneath her careless appearance, she actually had a sensitive and thin heart. So she didn��t refute, and instead, she followed Bai Qing��s words to help her cover up this beautiful lie.


    However, after Zhang Heng was arrested, Bai Qing was indeed depressed for a period of time. It wasn��t until three monthster that she recovered.


    Chi Jia was also a little confused about this. She didn��t know how Bai Qing was able to resolve the knot in her heart, but no matter what, it was still a good thing.


    In order to celebrate her best friend��s recovery from the Haze, Chi Jia even invited Bai Qing to karaoke together. However, Bai Qing kept saying that she couldn��t find the time until winter vacation arrived. Bai Qing couldn��t find any other excuses, she had no choice but to give up her life in the library and her house under Chi Jia��s pressure.


    The two of them arranged to meet at the mall. They nned to go shopping for a while. After lunch, they would gather enough energy to sing. Bai Qing arrived two minutes earlier than Chi Jia. She was wearing a thick down jacket and a red knit hat, she wrapped both of her ears in it.


    However, after entering the heated mall, the howling cold wind outside could no longer make threatening gestures. Bai Qing took off the hat on her head and shook off the snowkes on it. Then, she was slightly startled.


    That was because she saw the KFC on the right. Then, she recalled her first date with someone here.


    It was not urate to say that it was a date. Originally, it was just that person who wanted to borrow her homework. The two of them arranged to meet here. Later, in order to thank her, that person invited her here for a meal, but then Bai Qing realized that the guy who had said he was going to treat her might not have enough money on him.


    She thought it was funny, but she took the opportunity to pay for the meal while the guy was out on the phone. In order to avoid embarrassing someone, she pretended not to know what the guy was doing out, then the two ate fast food and chatted to pass the time.


    It was at this time that Bai Qing realized that she was unexpectedly happy chatting with this guy who usually seemed to be quiet and unsociable.


    ��What��s wrong? Didn��t you eat breakfast? It��s only ten o��clock. Are you hungry so early?��


    Chi Jia��s voice pulled Bai Qing back from her memories.


    ��Oh, no, I just want to eat somewhere in the afternoon.��


    ��Don��t worry about such things. I��ll make sure you��re well-organized today.��Chi Jia patted her chest and promised.


    ��Really? Okay.��Bai Qing looked away from the KFC and replied with a smile.


    Then, the two of them went shopping as nned. At noon, they ate Korean hotpot together and then sang.


    Chi Jia was a celebrity chaser. She had chased countless idol singers and knew their works like the back of her hand. However, she herself was tone deaf, perhaps this was in line with the saying that the more shecked, the more she liked it. While Chi Jia Ba was typing crazily into the microphone, Bai Qing pushed open the door of the private room and was about to go to the toilet.


    However, just as he turned the corner, he identally bumped into an acquaintance.


    Bai Qing recognized the person leaning against the wall and ying with his phone. He was Qin Zhen, a friend who had grown up with Zhang Heng. Bai Qing had seen Qin Zhen when they went to a concert together.


    Qin Zhen heard footsteps and raised his head. When he saw it was Bai Qing, an awkward expression appeared on his face. The two of them could only be said to know each other, but not to the extent of being friends. The only connection between them was Zhang Heng.


    And this was a name that made both of them feelplicated. When they saw each other, they could not help but think of that person.


    The air around them froze slightly.


    In the end, it was Qin Zhen who broke the silence first. ��Um... how have you been recently?��


    ��Pretty good,��Bai Qing said. ��How About You?��


    Before Qin Zhen could answer, a tall girl with fair skin walked out from the bathroom at the side. As she wiped her hands, sheined to Qin Zhen, ��The hand sanitizer is used up, and no one added it. Let��s go back and continue singing...��


    Her voice suddenly stopped because she saw Bai Qing in front of her. A hint of vignce appeared on her face. ��Your Friend?��


    ��Yes, sort of.��Qin Zhen nodded. Bai Qing noticed that the tall girl��s hand was reaching for Qin Zhen��s waist, as if she was secretly exerting force. Thetter��s expression changed slightly. ��Ah, I still have something to do...��


    ��I know. We��ll talkter.��Bai Qing smiled at the tall girl and walked into the washroom at the side.

 Chapter 1447 - A Secret 2(Thanks To Alliance Leader Wang Xiaonan)

    <h4>Chapter 1447: A Secret 2(Thanks To Alliance Leader Wang Xiaonan)</h4>


    Bai Qing and Chi Jia howled in the private room for almost three hours until their throats were hoarse. Then, they let go of the microphone and copsed on the sofa.


    Chi Jia drank a mouthful of fruit juice and looked at the ceiling above her head. She sighed in satisfaction. ��It feels like... It��s been a long time since I��ve been this crazy.��


    ��Haven��t you always been this crazy?��


    ��It��s not the same. At that time, I had you apanying me to go crazy,��Chi Jia said. ��I wonder if those guys who like you will still write love letters to you when they see you stealing meat from me in private.��


    ��It doesn��t matter. I wasn��t interested in those things at first.��Bai Qing shook his head.


    ��Is it because you��re still thinking about him?��Chi Jia hesitated for a moment, but she still asked this question.


    Bai Qing smiled and didn��t answer. He just picked up the mineral water bottle in front of him, twisted it open, and took a sip.


    The prelude of the next song, ��Suddenly thinking of you,��was yed. Bai Qing put down the ss of water. ��About two weeks ago, I had a dream.��


    ��What Dream?��Chi Jia was intrigued.


    ��At that time, I was studying in the library, and a little boy appeared in front of me. He asked me if I could help him get a book, because he was... not tall enough to reach the sixth shelf.��


    ��You promised him?��


    ��It was a piece of cake. I couldn��t find a reason to refuse. Then, I apanied him to the bookshelf of the book. When I looked up, I saw the book he asked me to help him get �� Alice in Wondend.��


    ��Ah, that fairy tale.��


    ��That��s right. It��s the fairy tale about the little girl, Alice, chasing after a talking rabbit with a pocket watch. She went into the rabbit hole and started a wonderful adventure. I stood on Tiptoe and was about to help him get the book when he suddenly asked me, ��Do you want to see him again?��?


    ��I was stunned for a moment. I asked him who he was. In the end, he asked me who the person you wanted to see the most was. I told him it was my mother. He was silent for a moment and then asked me who the second person I wanted to see was.��


    Chi Jia frowned when she heard this. ��This brat, where did he hear about what happened at your house? Did hee here to y a prank?��


    ��At first, I thought so too. Butter, he asked me about how that person helped me solve my family��s problems and saved my life more than once. Now that he��s also in trouble, am I willing to lend him a hand?��? ��Of course, I agreed without any hesitation. So, the little boy told me that it was good and asked me to go to the borrowing desk to check out this book, Alice in Wondend.��


    ��You... did you believe his words so easily?��Chi Jia��s eyes widened.


    ��I didn��t, but it wasn��t difficult for me to check out this book, just like how I helped the child with the book. It was just a convenient thing. So, I went to the borrowing desk to check out the book and took it home. I put it by my pillow and read half of it before I went to bed.


    ��Then, you dreamed of him when you slept at night?��Chi Jia looked at Bai Qing with a strong motherly love in her eyes. She wanted nothing more than to immediately hold this poor child in her arms.


    ��I��ve never had such a realistic dream before. Everything was no different from reality. I sat in a horse carriage and came to a strange manor. I saw him again there. He asked me to help him finish writing a novel. No, to be exact, it was only a part of the novel, a part rted to me. I was very happy because I could finally help him. After that, I stayed there and spent more than a month with him.��


    Bai Qing tried to recall, ��By the way, there are some other guests at the manor. Most of them are famous writers. They used to live in different eras, but now they��re all living there together. I even met JK Rowling and asked her for an autograph. She��s a nice person, not as serious as she looks on the surface. Of course, it could also be for Zhang Heng��s sake...��


    Chi Jia felt that her tears were about to fall. She held Bai Qing��s hand and said, ��Qing Qing, you... you still have so many things hidden in your heart. Why didn��t you tell me earlier?��


    ��Because it wasn��t something very important,��Bai Qing said with a smile, ��In my dream, I asked him if we would meet again. He said yes. He woulde back to look for me after he dealt with the matters outside. I feel that he wasn��t just brushing me off.��


    ��This... how can the promise in the dream be taken seriously?��Chi Jia shook her head repeatedly when she heard this. ��It seems that singing karaoke is unable to soothe the trauma in your heart. Then, I can only use my ultimate move.��


    ��What Ultimate Move?��


    Bai Qing looked at Chi Jia, who had a serious expression.


    ��Follow me to chase after a Star!��! In this world, only chasing after a star can bring true happiness. Acknowledge a star, let him be your light and heat, be your one and only, help him grow into an emperor superstar step by step. Then, you can also obtain an iparable sense of satisfaction!��


    ��No,��Bai Qing simply refused. ��It sounds silly to forcefully entrust your feelings to another person.��


    ��But aren��t you like this?��Chi Jia asked back.


    ��I��m not. I��ve always put my studies first. Can��t you see that I��m studying hard now?��


    ��How dare you, witch!��Chi Jia shouted loudly and rode on Bai Qing��s body.


    Bai Qing didn��t want to be outdone. He immediately grabbed Chi Jia��s chest with both hands. Then, the two women started to fight, and Chi Jia threw all the words she wanted to say to the back of her mind.


    This was the best thing about being young. No matter what troubles and grievances you had, they would be washed away by time. Even if you were the person you loved deeply, it would be difficult for you to remember his original appearance after so many years.


    ..


    Because Bai Qing and Chi Jia lived quite far away from each other, they said goodbye to each other after leaving the KTV and went to take their respective buses home.


    Bai Qing had already put on her knitted hat again and followed the crowd to swipe her card to get on the bus. It was almost time to get off work, and there were quite a number of passengers on the bus, bai Qing tried her best to get back while the driver shouted, ��Stand back and let the people behind get on the bus.��.


    Finally, she found a ce to stand near the middle of the bus. Bai Qing grabbed the handrail, and as the bus started again, her body swayed backward, she gently rubbed her shoulder with a young man wearing a mask and a delivery suit.


    Then, a voice came into Bai Qing��s ears, ��After three stops, get off the bus at Jiefang Road and go to Jiayi Gaming City.��

 Chapter 1448 - A Secret 3 (Thanks To Alliance Leader Wang Xiaonan)

    <h4>Chapter 1448: A Secret 3 (Thanks To Alliance Leader Wang Xiaonan)</h4>


    When Bai Qing heard this familiar voice, a surprised and happy expression appeared on her face.


    But soon, she heard the voice continue, ��Just listen to me. There��s no need to reply, and don��t look at where I am. If you understand, blink your eyes.��


    Bai Qing quickly blinked her eyes.


    ��Very good. The office worker who was ying with his phone three meters away from you at four o��clock, and the university girl who was listening to music with her earphones next to him, they are all inclothes police officers.��


    Bai Qing first blinked, then quickly blinked twice.


    ��You don��t have to worry. They areing for me. After all, I��m still carrying a murder case on me. If they can��t find any trace of me, they will definitely monitor the people closest to me. My grandfather and you are their main targets. That��s why I let you go to Jiayi Gaming City. There are many people there, so you can get rid of them without leaving any trace. At the same time, I have a way to not arouse their vignce.��


    Bai Qing didn��t blink this time. After thinking for a while, he whispered, ��A bug.��


    ��Oh, I��ve already checked. You Don��t have that kind of thing on you. Maybe they secretly installed it before. After all, I��m carrying a big case, but it��s been more than half a year, and they can��t maintain that level of surveince. In fact, usually when you go to school and go home, there aren��t many people following you. It��s only when you go out like this that the police send people to try your luck.��


    Bai Qing blinked her eyes again but did not ask any more questions.


    On the other side, the courier wearing a mask also stopped talking. It was as if the two of them did not know each other at all and met strangers on the bus by chance.


    Bai Qing tried her best not to show too many expressions on her face. She was worried that the inclothes at the side would notice something, but her hand that was holding the handrail tightly betrayed her current mood swings.


    Bai Qing��s mind was also a little dizzy now. She did not expect the promise given to her by the person in her dream to be fulfilled so quickly. The thought of someone standing next to her now.., she wished that the bus would never stop, but on the other side, she had a lot of things to say to that person, so she hoped that the next three stops would be over quickly so that she could rush to Jiayi Gaming City as soon as possible.


    Just like that, Bai Qing heard the bus stop announcement in her conflicted mood.


    ��Dear passengers, we have arrived at Jiefang Road. Please alight from the back door. Please swipe your card when alighting.��


    Bai Qing collected her thoughts and no longer let her imagination run wild. Then, under the surprised gazes of the two inclothes, she moved to the back door. Because there was arge shopping mall nearby, there were quite a number of passengers at this stop.


    Seeing Bai Qing��s figure disappear at the back door, the two inclothes exchanged a look and quickly stood up to chase after her. They maintained a distance that was neither too far nor too close to Bai Qing, just hanging behind her, they followed her into the shopping mall.


    Then, the two saw that Bai Qing did not stop, turning a blind eye to the surrounding clothing stores and milk tea shops. She walked straight to Jiayi Gaming City on the fourth floor, walked through the door, and exchanged about ten Yuan of game coins at the front desk, then, he grabbed the ten game coins and squeezed into the crowd.


    The two inclothes hurriedly followed him and exchanged some game coins at the front desk.


    However, when they squeezed into the crowd, they found that Bai Qing had disappeared. There were quite a number of young people in the gaming city, but the lights were dim, so it was difficult to recognize them. In addition, there were hundreds of gaming consoles making a loud noise, it made it difficult to talk.


    The woman in in clothes pointed in a direction and motioned for the two of them to separate to look for him. The man in in clothes did not object to this. At this moment, the two of them were not in a hurry. After all, although the game city was very big, there were only two entrances and exits, as long as they kept an eye on the two entrances and exits, they could still find him after a little bit of searching.


    Furthermore, they hadn��t forgotten that they were still pretending to be passers-by. They had already confirmed from the surveince that Bai Qing didn��t have any anti-detection awareness, but they couldn��t overdo it. They still had to cover their tracks, therefore, they pretended to watch the others y the game while slowly moving forward.


    On the other side, not long after Bai Qing entered the arcade, he was pulled over to the racing game. At this time, Zhang Heng had already taken off the courier��s clothes, removed his mask, and disguised himself as a young socialite, with a head full of yellow hair and a tattoo on his arm, he passed a silver wig to Bai Qing and had her wear it. Then, he took off his jacket and draped it over Bai Qing��s body, he wrapped his arm around Bai Qing��s shoulder and brushed past her in in clothes.


    However, Zhang Heng was not in a hurry to take Bai Qing out of the arcade. Instead, he led her to a camera and kissed her passionately for a minute before leaving with the blushing Bai Qing.


    After leaving the room, Zhang Heng immediately apologized to the girl, ��I��m sorry, I did that just now so that they wouldn��t suspect you. I disguised myself as a hooligan who often hangs around here. His personal life is usually very messy, and he likes to find female high school students as his girlfriend. This way, you��ll have a reason toe to the game city. Also, after they find out that you have a new boyfriend, the police will probably stop spying on you.��


    Bai Qing lowered her head and hummed softly. However, she did not seem to mind Zhang Heng��s exnation.


    Zhang Heng looked at his watch. ��I can probably stay here for another two hours. Do you have anything you want to y with?��


    ��Two hours.��Bai Qing thought for a moment. ��Then let��s go watch a movie. Didn��t you say that you wanted to pretend to be a couple with me? Then let��s do something that couples do.��


    ��Sure.��Zhang Heng nodded. The two of them didn��t leave the mall, so they took the elevator to the fifth floor.


    Then, the two of them picked a movie that was about to start in five minutes. They quickly checked in and sat in the corner of thest row.


    Zhang Heng apologized to Bai Qing again. ��I��m sorry. I still have some work to do over there, so I don��t have much time to stay here this time. Next time, next time Ie again, try to stay for two more days.��


    ��Next time? Does that mean you��lle again?��


    ��Yes, if you don��t mind. After all, even I need to rest.��Although Zhang Heng spent most of his 24 hours and 10 minutes every day thinking about how to keep Cthulhu in his cage, he still had a lot of time left, asionally, he would contact the yers and issue missions.


    However, other than that, there was still some time left. Most of it was his own 24 hours. As a reward for continuing to seal Cthulhu, Zhang Heng had obtained the privilege of entering and leaving the dungeon freely from the game God, Gaime, now, he only needed to think and he could go to the designated Dungeon World through the train station..


    Bai Qing did not say anything else. As the lights in the theater dimmed, the Dragon logo appeared. His lips and lips met again, but this time, it was Bai Qing who took the initiative.

 Chapter 1449End - Traveler’s Cheese (Thanks To Alliance leader Wang Xiaonan)

    <h4>Chapter 1449: Traveler��s Cheese (Thanks To Alliance leader Wang Xiaonan) </h4>


    ��Boss, one cup of Lonely Immortal Herb and one cup of death milk tea.��


    A male student who looked like a college student walked to the entrance of the milk tea shop under the urging of hispanions. He looked up and nced at the menu on the wall, then summoned up his courage and said to the female manager inside.


    The female manager, who was smoking, nced at him from the corner of her eyes and slowly blew out a smoke ring. ��You can��t have both loneliness and death.��


    ��AH? Then... Ah, what should I do?��Although he already knew that the owner of this ce was very strange, the male college student was still surprised that he refused the customer��s order without hesitation. He stood there in a daze.


    ��As for you, drink the mineral water,��the female store manager said as she opened the freezer at the side. She took out a bottle of farmer��s spring from it and handed it over.


    The male college student took the bottle of mineral water in a daze.


    ��Four yuan. Alipay will scan the code on wechat,��the female store manager said as she sat back down.


    ��AH,��the male college student seemed to have woken up from a dream. ��So expensive. Isn��t the farmer��s Spring Supermarket Only One Yuan?��


    ��That��s right, but this is a milk tea shop.��The female store manager pointed at the sign above her head.


    Probably intimidated by the female store manager��s imposing manner, the male college student finally paid the money in a daze. He carried a bottle of mineral water and walked back to hispanions, causing a burst ofughter from the group of people.


    This was originally a truth or dare. They all knew that the owner of this milk tea shop was very strange. In fact, other than the opening day, there were also some fierce warriors who went for discounts, when everyone fully felt the willfulness of thedy boss, the ce immediately became deserted.


    Until now, the only use was probably to be regarded by the nearby students and young people as the perfect ce for a dare or a prank. However, after the group of college students finishedughing.., they were surprised to find that there was another fearless guy who walked into the milk tea shop.


    Moreover, it was a girl who was outstanding in both looks and temperament. When she walked down the street, the neon signs of the shops around her seemed to have dimmed.


    ��Give me anything.��The girl directly sat on a high stool after entering the shop.


    The female store manager narrowed her eyes. ��If I knew you were so persistent, I wouldn��t have saved you on ount of him when we were at sea.��


    ��If you hadn��t saved me, I would have done it by now,��the girl said in a respectful tone that was not as respectful.


    The female store manager narrowed her eyes more and more. At the same time, the atmosphere in the milk tea shop became more and more tense. Even the passers-by seemed to have sensed something and quickened their pace when they passed by the shop.


    However, the next moment, the female store manager suddenly opened her mouth again, ��Unrequited love��s Oolong.��


    ��What?��


    ��Didn��t you say that you would have a cup of whatever you want? I��ve thought about it. I��ll give you a cup of unrequited love��s oolong because the person you like is no longer in this world,��the female store manager said sarcastically.


    The girl shook her head and didn��t argue with the woman opposite her on this issue. She just asked, ��Why don��t you continue to be your bartender?��


    ��Because I told a person that I would never be a bartender again, and I always keep my promises,��the female store manager said proudly. She threw away a cup of Oolong tea with hot water and then cut two lemons, she squeezed the lemon juice into the tea desperately. ��Since you didn��te to me for a fight, did you reallye all the way here to take care of my business?��


    ��As far as I know, most of the gods have already left this world and entered the game. You are one of the few people who didn��t leave, so I��m here to pass on a message to you.��


    ��What message?��


    ��The Guardians suffered heavy losses before, but they have recentlypleted their reorganization. However, their goal is no longer to prevent the destruction of the world, but to find and hunt down the supernatural creatures that are still alive in the human world.��The girl paused, ��And after the first round of voting, I was elected as the Vice President.��


    ��Then, are you nning to use my head to increase your prestige in the new organization?��The female store manager raised her eyebrows.


    ��No, it��s the exact opposite. I��m here to inform you to be careful. It��s best if you can close the milk tea shop and stay out of the limelight. You saved me. Even though you and those monsters killed my friends, I don��t want to attack you unless it��s absolutely necessary. I hope that you can abide by thews and rules of the human world in the future...��


    However, before the girl could finish, the female store manager cut her off and revealed a sinister smile, ��You want toy your hands on me? Go ahead and do it. However, it��s best if you bring more people. Otherwise, I��m afraid it won��t be enough for me to warm up.��


    ��I know you have an immortal body, but sometimes death isn��t the scariest thing. In fact, your current abilities and powers have already been thoroughly investigated by the Guardian. In fact, it can even create urate numerical tables. He... we might not be able to kill you, but we won��t be unable to do anything to you anymore.��


    The girl said sincerely, ��So, please don��t do anything evil in the future, especially since your identity is very sensitive and you��re a follower of that thing. Zhang Heng spent so much effort to re-imprison that thing. I Won��t let you let it out again no matter what.��


    The mocking expression on the female store manager��s face became even more intense. However, before she could say anything, she heard another voice say, ��Give me a cup of Traveler��s cheese.��


    For some unknown reason, the previously deserted milk tea shop was suddenly visited by customers one after another tonight.


    The female manager turned her head around. When she saw the person, her expression became a little strange. ��Why is it you?��


    ��Why can��t It Be Me?��The person asked with a chuckle.


    It was also a girl. Her figure was slightly skinnier than the girl sitting on the high stool. She wore a pair of jeans with holes and a baseball cap.


    She put a small snake with nine heads made of sticine on the dining table. Then, she greeted the girl sitting on the stool and sat beside her.


    ��There��s no more traveler��s cheese. I��ll give you a cup of unrequited love,��the female store manager sneered.


    ��But I don��t like lemons.��The girl took off the baseball cap on her head, revealing her exceptionally bright eyes. ��I��m leaving soon. Traveler��s cheese suits me better.��


    ��Leaving? Where Are We Going?��


    ��To find a guy.��


    ��Do you know where he is?��


    ��I don��t know, but I��m going dungeon by dungeon. I��ll find him one day.��The Girl in the baseball cap had a bright smile on her face.


    Surprisingly, the female store manager didn��t mock him this time. After a moment of silence, she said, ��Wait a moment.��


    On the other side, the expression of the girl on the high stool changed. She opened her mouth to say something, but in the end, she did not say it.


    After a moment, the female store manager ced two cups of different colors in front of the two girls, which looked very suspicious. ��Here��s your drinks. I hope you don��t regret your choice.��


    The Girl in the baseball cap was the first to pick up the cup in front of her, which was filled with the fragrance of cheese. ��I never regret my choice.��


    The girl sitting on the high stool sighed. ��Sometimes I really envy you. You canpletely ignore everything else...��


    ��No, you and I are actually the same kind of people. We only care about the things that are most important to us,��the girl in the baseball cap said.


    ��Although I��m a little unwilling, I have to admit that what you said is right.��The girl on the high stool also picked up the cup in front of her that smelled like citric acid. ��Then I wish you a smooth journey.��


    ��I also wish you a smooth journey.��The Girl in the baseball hat tasted the drink in her hand. Although the bottom of the tea in the first sip was slightly bitter, she soon drank the sweet smell of cheese, other than that, there seemed to be some kind of fruit mixed in it, but in the end, the refreshing feeling prevailed.


    The Girl in the baseball hat finally understood why this cup of drink was called Traveler��s cheese. She looked at the female store manager, only to find that thetter had already sat back down at the buffet table. With a cigarette in her mouth, she looked at the moon above her head and seemed to have thought of something.


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